California

DMV Worker Sends Transgender Woman Hate Mail, Warns Her Of Hell

Rachel Slajda | December 10, 2010, 4:51PM

When San Francisco resident Amber Yust went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to change the sex designation on her license from "M" to "F," she didn't have any problems. It wasn't until a few days later that she says she got a letter from the DMV clerk who handled her forms -- a letter warning her that she'd be damned to hell.

Homosexuality, he wrote, is "an abomination that leads to hell," according to the San Francisco Chronicle, apparently violating privacy laws. She also received a DVD from a church which promised damnation for those "possessed by demons."

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New York

A Grand Jury Begins Investigating Potential 2009 Voter Fraud

Rachel Slajda | December 10, 2010, 1:43PM

Troy, New York.

A grand jury in Troy, N.Y., is investigating allegations that city officials blatantly colluded to commit voter fraud by forging ballots in the 2009 Working Families Party primary for local and county elections.

The grand jury has subpoenaed some 14 witnesses, according to local news reports. The witnesses, who testified this week, included residents whose names were used on absentee ballots in the primary but who say they never requested an absentee ballot nor voted.

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Muslims

Two Men Charged With Hate Crimes For Allegedly Assaulting Imam

Rachel Slajda | December 10, 2010, 8:37AM

Two men have been charged with assault and robbery as a hate crime after attacking a Muslim religious leader on a New York City subway platform.

According to prosecutors, the two men, Albert Melendez, 30, and Eddie Crespo, 28, spotted the unidentified imam on the A train in Manhattan at about 3 a.m. Wednesday morning.

"What are you, a camel jockey? I don't like Muslims," Melendez said, according to the criminal complaint.

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Tom Hackbarth

No Charges For Minn. Pol Found With Gun Outside Planned Parenthood

Rachel Slajda | December 10, 2010, 8:34AM

Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R-MN)

The St. Paul, Minn. city attorney will not press charges against Tom Hackbarth, a Republican state representative who was handcuffed by police last month after they found him lurking outside a Planned Parenthood with a gun strapped to his hip.

Hackbarth had told police that he didn't even know he was in the parking lot of a Planned Parenthood. Instead, he said, he was looking for a woman he had been on a few dates with who lived in the area and who, he said, had blown him off on a date that night.

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Contractors

State Dept: No One Touched 'Dancing Boy' At DynCorp Party

Rachel Slajda | December 9, 2010, 3:48PM

A still from Frontline's documentary on dancing boys.

Of the Wikileaks cache of diplomatic cables, one of the most potentially salacious is about the entertainment at a party thrown by DynCorp, a U.S. contractor training Afghan police, in April 2009. A 17-year-old boy was hired to dance.

In Afghanistan, hiring "dancing boys" is a long-held practice in which Afghan men hire young men and boys to dress like girls and dance at weddings and other parties. They don't hire girls, because in Afghan society men and women don't mix socially.

The dancing is one thing. But there are other practices associated with the dancing boys. As detailed in a Frontline documentary earlier this year, the boys are sometimes brought to hotels after the parties and prostituted. In some cases, their families sell them to warlords and other prominent Afghanis.

The implication in some of the stories being published now, thanks to the cable just released by Wikileaks, is that the boy hired by DynCorp was likely abused. The cable recounts a meeting in which the then interior minister of Afghanistan begs U.S. diplomats for help keeping the story out of the press, worried, he said, that lives would be in danger.

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House Ethics Committee

Waters Won't Push For Vote On Ethics Committee Investigation

Rachel Slajda | December 9, 2010, 2:00PM

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) announced on the House floor today that she will not push for a vote on her proposal to create a bipartisan task force to investigate the House ethics committee.

"Upon the advice of my colleagues whom I trust and admire, I am not pushing for a vote on this resolution today," she said this afternoon, according to her prepared remarks. "In doing so, however, I am requesting that the Committee set the record straight, on its own accord, in a bipartisan manner, with a joint statement signed by the Chair and Ranking Member, ... [the] circumstances of the events that led to the discipline of the two attorneys leading the case against me."

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Defense Department

The Army Wants To Put Smartphones On The Battlefield

Rachel Slajda | December 9, 2010, 8:51AM

A promo photo from the Army's app contest

Smartphones may soon be as ubiquitous in Army units stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan as they are on the streets of New York, as the Army works on a program to bring smartphones to soldiers on the ground.

The Army believes that smartphones -- and certain apps developed by and for the Army -- could be a great boon to soldiers on the ground. And the service sees it as inevitable.

"Taking smart-phone technology and bringing them to the battlefield is probably -- I shouldn't say this -- but it is something that we need to do," said Tony Fuiza, a researcher on the program, on a recent call with military bloggers.

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Pigford settlement

Obama Signs Settlements For Black Farmers, American Indians

Rachel Slajda | December 8, 2010, 6:05PM

President Barack Obama

President Obama this afternoon signed a law funding two major legal settlements for black farmers and American Indians who were discriminated against by the federal government.

The Pigford II settlement, worth $1.25 billion, will pay claims made by black farmers that they were discriminated against by the Department of Agriculture in the 1980s and 1990s, when the department denied them loans and other assistance. The Cobell settlement, worth $3.4 billion, is for American Indians whose land trusts and oil and gas rights were mismanaged by the federal government, which withheld royalties.

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Wikileaks

Wikileaks' Processing Co. Says It Will Sue Visa For Stopping Payments

Rachel Slajda | December 8, 2010, 4:52PM

Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange

DataCell, the Icelandic company that processes payments to Wikileaks, says it will sue Visa for cutting off payments to the organization.

"DataCell, who facilitates those payments towards WikiLeaks, has decided to take up immediate legal action to make donations possible again," the company's chief executive Andreas Fink said in a statement.

"Visa is hurting WikiLeaks and DataCell in high figures," he said. "Visa users have explicitly expressed their will to send their donations to Wikileaks and Visa is not fulfilling this wish."

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Tan Nguyen

Former House Candidate Convicted Of Lying In Voter Suppression Probe

Rachel Slajda | December 8, 2010, 10:47AM

Tan Nguyen puts up a sign during the 2006 campaign.

Former House candidate Tan Nguyen (R) was convicted yesterday of lying to investigators during a voter suppression probe surrounding an intimidating letter sent to Spanish-speaking voters.

Nguyen, a Republican who challenged Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) in 2006, was convicted of obstruction of justice.

According to prosecutors, Nguyen lied to investigators about his involvement with a mailing, written in Spanish and sent to 14,000 households, that warned that "emigrados" could go to jail for voting. The mailing was written on letterhead similar to that of an anti-immigration group in California.

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Wikileaks

NYT: DOJ Isn't Investigating Us

Rachel Slajda | December 8, 2010, 9:09AM

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Although anti-Wikileaks crusader Sen. Joe Lieberman said yesterday that the New York Times' publishing of the leaked cables "bears a very intensive inquiry by the Justice Department," the Times says no such inquiry is, to their knowledge, taking place.

"The New York Times has not been contacted by anyone in law enforcement," a spokeswoman tells TPM.

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Wikileaks

Lieberman: NYT May Have Committed Crime By Publishing Wikileaks Cables (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | December 7, 2010, 1:29PM

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who has become one of the most vocal critics of Wikileaks, said today that while Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is definitely guilty of crimes, the New York Times may also have broken the law by posting some of those diplomatic cables.

"To me, the New York Times has committed at least an act of bad citizenship," Lieberman said on Fox News today. "Whether they've committed a crime, I think that bears very intensive inquiry by the Justice Department."

Lieberman acknowledged that the idea is "sensitive" because "it gets into the First Amendment."

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Lobbyists

The Surprise Consequences Of Lobbying: Colorado Bans Low-Alcohol Beer In Bars

Rachel Slajda | December 7, 2010, 12:06PM

In January, Colorado will begin enforcing a law that forbids bars, restaurants and liquor stores from selling low-alcohol beer -- usually low-calorie beer like Michelob Ultra, Heineken Light and others. Even Guinness may qualify as low-alcohol and be booted from Irish pubs. How did this happen?

In Colorado, convenience and grocery stores can only sell low-alcohol beer. Bars, restaurants and liquor stores can sell full-strength beer, plus wine and liquor. It's a two-tier system that was designed in order to keep full-strength beer away from fake-ID-toting minors who frequent convenience stores.

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Wikileaks

MasterCard And Visa To Stop Processing Wikileaks Donations

Rachel Slajda | December 7, 2010, 10:34AM

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

Mastercard and Visa have announced they will stop processing payments to Wikileaks, following similar moves by Amazon.com, PayPal and other businesses who are cutting ties to the organization.

Mastercard Worldwide "is taking action to ensure that WikiLeaks can no longer accept MasterCard-branded products," a spokesman told CNET late yesterday.

"MasterCard rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal," the spokesman said.

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Gay Marriage

Prop 8 Arguments Hinge On Whether Anti-Marriage Groups Have Right To Appeal

Rachel Slajda | December 7, 2010, 8:48AM

A three-judge panel heard oral arguments yesterday in the legal challenge against Proposition 8, the ballot measure that made same-sex marriage illegal in California. The arguments, made before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, hinged on two things: First, whether the same-sex marriage opponents who filed the appeal actually have the standing to do so; and second, whether the ban is constitutional.

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Wikileaks

Columbia U To Students: Never Mind, It's Cool If You Look At Wikileaks

Rachel Slajda | December 6, 2010, 1:32PM

Australian journalist Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks.org

As TPM reported on Friday, Columbia University's School of Public and International Affairs sent an email to its students warning them not to link to or comment on the Wikileaks cables if they plan on trying to get a job at the State Department after graduation.

The email was sent by the office of career services and, not surprisingly, caused a stir. Now Threat Level reports that the school has sent a second email to students reassuring them that Columbia fully supports the freedom of expression.

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Charles Rangel

Report: FEC Investigating Rangel For Legal Fees

Rachel Slajda | December 6, 2010, 11:42AM

Rep. Charlie Rangel

Trouble isn't over yet for Rep. Charlie Rangel.

The New York Post reports that the Federal Elections Commission is investigating a complaint made against Rangel, alleging that he illegally used PAC funds to pay lawyers defending him in a House ethics investigation.

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Wikileaks

Assange Routing Donations Through Swiss Mail After Cut Off By PayPal

Rachel Slajda | December 6, 2010, 10:40AM

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is reportedly soliciting donations through the Swiss postal service after PayPal closed his account.

According to the Associated Press, Assange is also using "a Swiss-Icelandic credit card processing center and other accounts in Iceland and Germany." Iceland is a Wikileaks-friendly country, where politicians have proposed making the country a "journalism haven" for outlets like Wikileaks.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

McConnell: McCain Is Right On DADT (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | December 6, 2010, 9:26AM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will follow Sen. John McCain's lead on Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal, he said this weekend on "Meet The Press."

McCain, the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, spent much of last week's repeal hearings railing against a Pentagon report that the policy can be repealed with minimal damage.

McCain has vowed to block the bill from coming to the floor until more hearings are held.

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