Hardin

APPF Backs Out Of Hardin Jail Deal

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2009, 6:01PM

American Police Force logo

The end has come...

Controversial private security contractor American Private Police Fore has officially backed out of a deal with Hardin, Montana, to run a local prison, APPF spokeswoman Beck Shay announced this afternoon. (Watch Shay's press conference here.)

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Gale Norton

Gale Norton Subpoenaed By Grand Jury: Report

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2009, 5:32PM

Fmr. US Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton

Gale Norton is being investigated by a federal grand jury for allegedly talking to Shell about a job, while she was Interior Secretary in 2006, reports National Journal. Both Norton and Shell are said to have received subpoenas.

The existence of the federal investigation was first reported last month by the Los Angeles Times. In a nutshell, the Feds have been looking at an episode in which Norton's Interior Department awarded three oil shale leases on federal land in Colorado -- potentially worth hundreds of billions -- to a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. Two months later, Norton resigned, saying she had no job lined up. But later that year, she was hired by Shell as in-house counsel.

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Barack Obama

"Slimy Thug For Hire" Behind Horton Ad Back With Impeach Obama Campaign

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2009, 4:18PM

Conservative activist Floyd Brown

It was only a matter of time...

The far right has already called Obama a socialist, a communist, and a fascist, among other names, and has compared him to Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin. So it should come as no surprise that the organized Impeach Obama movement is now underway -- with a longtime conservative flamethrower at the helm.

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Charles Rangel

Charlie Rangel's Seven Deadly Sins

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2009, 1:27PM

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

The House Ethics committee announced yesterday that it will expand its long-running probe into Charlie Rangel's financial affairs -- and Republican-led efforts are heating up once again to oust the beleaguered New York congressman from his post as chairman of the House Ways and Means committee.

We round up and rank the allegations against Rangel, from venal down to moronic.

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Joe Arpaio

DiGenova -- Clad In Cowboy Boots -- And Toensing Give AZ Presser, Then Meet With Arpaio

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2009, 10:05AM

Republican lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing

We've gotten more detail on that press conference that Washington GOP lawyers Joesph diGenova and Victoria Toensing held in Phoenix yesterday, to talk about their hiring as special prosecutors probing Don Stapley, a Maricopa County official whose high-profile arrest by deputies of Sheriff Joe Arpaio caused a stir recently.

In an apparent effort to blend in, reports the Phoenix New Times, diGenova wore cowboy boots. But aside from that, the limelight-seeking power couple apparently didn't reveal too much.

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Joe Arpaio

Lights, Camera, Action: DC Power Couple Jet Into Arizona For Stapley Presser

Zachary Roth | October 8, 2009, 6:12PM

Republican lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing

Well, that didn't take long...

Just three days after the news was announced that they've been hired to probe campaign finance allegations against a heretofore obscure Arizona county supervisor, Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing went before the cameras in Maricopa County.

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Jenny Beth Martin

Top Tea Partier, Husband, Owed IRS Half A Million Dollars

Zachary Roth | October 8, 2009, 2:36PM

Jenny Beth Martin

A top activist with the anti-tax Tea Party movement has had a personal brush with federal tax collectors. Jenny Beth Martin, a co-founder and national co-ordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, owed, with her husband, over half a million dollars to the IRS when the pair filed for bankruptcy last year, according to filings examined by TPMmuckraker.

The couple's bankruptcy filing, made in August 2008 to the US Bankruptcy Court for Georgia's Northern District, stated that Martin and her husband Lee Martin, of Woodstock, Georgia, owed the IRS $510,000, after making a payment of $16,640 that June. The couple also owed just over $71,000 to Ford Motor Credit, the automaker's financing arm.

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Death Penalty

Lawyers Group Urged Perry To Keep Ousted Chair Of Panel Probing Death Penalty Case

Zachary Roth | October 8, 2009, 12:22PM

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

Remember that move by Texas governor Rick Perry to not to reappoint the chair of a panel looking into a flawed arson investigation that may have led to the execution of an innocent man? Well it's looking dodgier than ever.

Last week, Perry announced he would not reappoint Chair Sam Bassett and two other members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which is looking into the probe that led to the execution of Cameron Willingham -- despite strong evidence that he may have been innocent. The panel members terms had expired.

Perry himself, as governor, had signed off on the 2004 execution, leading critics to charge that the decision on Bassett -- who had appeared to push for an aggressive inquiry into missteps in the original probe -- was an attempt by the governor to short-circuit an effort that could have been politically damaging as he faces a tough re-election campaign.

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Apple

Chamber To Apple: It's Not Me, It's You

Zachary Roth | October 8, 2009, 9:56AM

The Chamber of Commerce has fired back, bitchily, to Apple's recent decision to leave the organization over its opposition to serious efforts to fight climate change.

On Tuesday, Chamber CEO Tom Donohue sent a letter to his counterpart at Apple, Steve Jobs, saying:

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Joe Arpaio

'America's Toughest Sheriff' Teams With Beltway GOP Power Couple In 'Inquisition' Of Arizona Official

Zachary Roth | October 7, 2009, 3:41PM

Republican lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing

Notorious anti-immigrant sheriff Joe Arpaio is working with a husband-and-wife GOP lawyer team that was one of Bill Clinton's biggest tormentors during the 90s, to go after a local Arizona official. But critics are calling the effort a politically motivated fishing expedition. And the defense lawyer on the case knows something about politicized justice: he was one of the US attorneys improperly fired by Alberto Gonzales.

Here's the back-story. It's got a few twists and turns. But stay with us -- it's worth it:

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Hardin

Hardin To Create Own Police Force -- But Pledges Not To Hire APPF

Zachary Roth | October 7, 2009, 10:02AM

American Police Force logo

We told you this week the contract between Hardin, Montana and American Private Police Force gave the shady security contractor the chance to take over the town's policing needs, in addition to running Hardin's prison. It appears to have been this potential law enforcement responsibility that led APPF to roll into town late last month in three Mercedes SUVs bearing the words "City of Hardin Police Department," setting off a panic that soon spread far beyond Hardin.

Now that the APPF deal seems to have been on hold, you'd think local officials might now be wary of doing anything that might re-open the police force issue. But yesterday, Big Horn County commissioners nonetheless went ahead and voted to allow the city to create its own police department - though only after making assurances that APPF won't get the job.

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John Ensign

Ensign: I Followed Ethics Laws When I Helped Clients Of Mistress's Husband

Zachary Roth | October 6, 2009, 3:18PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

The John Ensign story is back on the front-burner, thanks to last week's New York Times report that the philandering Nevada senator actively helped Doug Hampton, the husband of his former mistress, get set up as a lobbyist, then acted to benefit Hampton's new clients.

Today brought several new developments:

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Al Peterson

Did Hardin Official Benefit Personally From APPF Deal?

Zachary Roth | October 6, 2009, 1:38PM

Fmr. TRA Director Greg Smith

How did American Private Police Force convince the town of Hardin to put it in charge of a 464-bed prison, despite having essentially no proven track record with such projects? The complete answer isn't yet clear. But could the mysterious private contractor have dangled a job for the wife of a top city official to seal the deal?

Let's lay out the evidence...

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Hardin

Hardin Official To APPF: Tell Us "Where The Money Is Coming From"

Zachary Roth | October 6, 2009, 12:01PM

Al Peterson

A Hardin, Montana official who has been the public face of the town's controversial prison contract with American Private Police Force (APPF) is now expressing serious concerns about the deal.

Yesterday, Al Peterson of the Two Rivers Authority (TRA), the city's economic development agency, sent an email to Michael Hilton of APPF and to the TRA's board members, declaring:

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Michael Duvall

California AG Won't Probe Duvall's Sex Bragging

Zachary Roth | October 6, 2009, 9:51AM

Fmr. State Rep. Michael Duvall (R-CA)

Finally, some good news for California sex braggart "Hot Mike" Duvall...

Attorney General Jerry Brown says he won't investigate Duvall's claim, captured on a hot mike, to be having an affair with a woman identified as a lobbyist for an energy company. Until he resigned in the wake of the scandal, Duvall, a Republican, had been vice chair of the state legislative committee that oversees energy issues.

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Al Gore

Apple Is Latest To Quit Chamber Over Climate Change

Zachary Roth | October 5, 2009, 6:01PM

The exodus continues...

Apple has become the latest big-name company to defect from the Chamber of Commerce, thanks to the group's uncompromising opposition to serious efforts to stop global warming.

In a letter to the Chamber released today, Apple CEO Catherine Novelli wrote that her company "strongly object[s] to the Chamber's recent comments opposing the EPA's effort to limit greenhouse gases."

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American Police Force

APF Deal Let Shady Firm Provide Law Enforcement For Hardin

Zachary Roth | October 5, 2009, 4:57PM

The news that a mysterious private security contractor has been hired to take control of a prison in the tiny Montana town of Hardin has set off some outlandish conspiracy theories -- like the notion that the deal represents the first wave of President Obama's plan to "have all major cities locked down" by the end of October.

But one related concern -- that the contractor, now calling itself the American Private Police Force, could take over law enforcement duties for Hardin -- turns out not to be far-fetched at all. Indeed, the agreement that APPF -- at the time known simply as American Police Force (APF) -- signed with city's economic development arm, the Two Rivers Authority (TRA), specifically provides for that possibility.

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David McKalip

Top Health-Care Reform Foe: Racist Emailer Is "Rock Solid Patriot"

Zachary Roth | October 5, 2009, 2:04PM

Greg Scandlen, Heartland Institute

A top conservative health-care reform foe is going to bat for David McKalip, the Florida neurosurgeon and anti-reform activist who this summer was caught by TPMmuckraker sending a racist email that showed President Obama as a witch doctor.

In an email to fellow activists, obtained by TPMmuckraker, Greg Scandlen, the founder and director of Consumers for Health Care Choices, and a senior fellow at the conservative Heartland Institute, called McKalip "one of the best men I know" and "a rock solid patriot." Scandlen also revealed that he himself had urged McKalip to rejoin the fight against reform, after McKalip had temporarily taken a lower profile in the movement in response to widespread outrage over the witch-doctor email.

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Barack Obama

Florida Doc Who Sent Obama Witch-Doctor Email Still Helping Lead Anti-Reform Fight

Zachary Roth | October 5, 2009, 12:21PM

Dr. David McKalip

Florida neurosurgeon David McKalip is back in the thick of the fight to stop health-care reform -- just over two months after pledging to withdraw from the public debate on the issue in the wake of a furor set off when TPMmuckraker published a racist email he sent showing President Obama as a witch doctor.

Over the weekend, McKalip emailed a fellow activist, reporting that he had been at a conservative medical association meeting, with leaders of the anti-reform movement, including GOP congressmen Tom Price and Paul Broun, anti-reform writer and activist Betsy McCaughey, and Tea Party coordinator Amy Kremer. Conservative doctors and their allies have been organizing in recent days in response to the White House's event this morning featuring pro-reform doctors.

McKalip's email was then forwarded on to a Tea Party Patriots email list.

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John Ensign

Ensign: I'll Cooperate With Ethics Probe Into Help For Mistress's Husband

Zachary Roth | October 5, 2009, 11:18AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Disgraced Nevada senator John Ensign won't fight the ethics investigation into his dealings with a former staffer, in the aftermath of an affair between Ensign and the staffer's wife.

"Sen. Ensign will cooperate with any official inquiry," a spokeswoman for the senator told TPMmuckraker via email.

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Michael Duvall

FBI Probing "Hot Mike" Duvall's Sex Boasting

Zachary Roth | October 5, 2009, 9:59AM

Fmr. State Rep. Michael Duvall (R-CA)

"Hot Mike" Duvall's lascivious braggadocio wasn't just of interest to millions of blog readers. It also attracted the attention of the Feds.

The FBI is investigating the former California state lawmaker's now-legendary claim that he was having an affair with a woman later identified as a lobbyist for an energy company. "We did make contact with the two aides," a bureau spokesman confirmed to the Los Angeles Times.

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