politicians – CalWatchdog.com

How will the Cyprus crisis impact the U.S.?

CalWatchdog Staff — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:20:20 +0000

March 28, 2013

By Katy Grimes

Is America headed for a Cyprus-like crash?

These are the headline stories today from the Drudge Report:

'THEY HAVE STOLEN OUR MONEY'... Cyprus banks reopen, with strict restrictions... €300 daily withdrawal limit... No money allowed to leave country... Russia to ban cash transactions over $10,000... Security tight as tension runs high... Stock exchange still closed... FABER: Not Even Gold Will Save You From What is Coming... Bitcoins explode...

Will American bank accounts and retirement accounts be next?

When we put our money in the bank, we are technically lending the bank money. Could this happen in the U.S.?

I don’t know. I’m not a finance expert.

The Atlantic has a very interesting story about banks and their risky investing. “Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as “black boxes” that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could again take down the economy. A close investigation of a supposedly conservative bank’s financial records uncovers the reason for these fears—and points the way toward urgent reforms,” the Atlantic explained.

“A disturbing number of former bankers have recently declared that the banking industry is broken (this newfound clarity typically follows their passage from financial titan to rich retiree),” the Atlantic found. Herbert Allison, the ex-president of Merrill Lynch and former head of the Obama administration’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, wrote a scathing e-book about the failures of the large banks, stopping just short of labeling them all vampire squids.”

Here is the Atlantic story: Whats’ inside America’s banks?

Leave your comments and thoughts about this.

Sacramento growth plan: more low-income housing

CalWatchdog Staff — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:42:59 +0000

March 19, 2013

By Katy Grimes

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. But not in downtown Sacramento. There isn’t anyplace to shop in Sacramento’s downtown any more, other than the one remaining Macy’s in the wilting Downtown Plaza shopping mall. But even that store is on the chopping block, should Mayor Kevin Johnson’s vision of a “world-class city” with a downtown arena, actually come to fruition.

But now, there is yet another new plan to “save” downtown and the K Street Mall.

The historic K Street Mall

K Street, along with J Street, was Sacramento’s original main street, chosen because it was the most direct route to Sutter’s Fort from the river.

During the gold rush, K Street became the main business street. Dry goods stores and hotels appeared along K Street to sell goods to new arrivals and miners. Many of Sacramento’s first fortunes were made selling goods to the miners, not out in the gold fields, according to the Sacramento County Historical Society.

“In its heyday, K Street was also the home of numerous drugstores, tailor shops, tobacco shops, book- stores, restaurants and professional offices,” SCHS said. “Conveniently located at the center of town, thousands of people could walk to K Street from their neighborhood or ride the streetcars from Oak Park, Colonial Heights, East Sacramento, Curtis Park, Land Park or even across the rivers from North Sacramento or West Sacramento. As automobiles grew popular, K Street faced trouble from busy traffic and limited parking.”

Now, thousands of people come into Sacramento daily to work for county, city, state and federal government agencies. And then they go home at the end of the day, leaving downtown.

Downtown slums

The City of Sacramento is the largest slumlord in the downtown area. Thanks to years of redevelopment botches, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency scooped up building after building along K Street, consigning the structures and streets to eventual blight. The city has chased away more business than it has saved, through greed and ineptitude.

Plan number 437…

“The Sacramento City Council earlier this week approved a key piece of funding for a residential complex on the block,” the Sacramento Bee reported. “A new, five-story building with 122 apartments would rise behind the row of historic storefronts, which would hold a live music venue, boutiques and rooftop terraces with views of the Capitol and downtown skyline. Another 15 housing units built over the existing storefronts would face K Street. It would be the first significant infusion of housing on K Street.”

But in true idiotic Sacramento fashion, 60 percent of the apartments will be low-income housing. “People living downtown is what brings the area vibrancy,” City Councilman Steve Hansen said in the Bee story. “When you live in a place, you’re less likely to tolerate the trash not being picked up or other issues. It’s a place that people want to take ownership of.”

Au contraire Mr. Councilman. The best way to kill retail is to surround it with low income residential housing. While Sacramento has claimed for years it wants to create a local market with more residential units in downtown, the low-income component kills this concept. People spend money where they live. But if all of the residents are low income and have no money, what’s the real goal?

People living downtown on government assistance or in public flop houses are not spending money at the restaurants, or shopping. And the “mixed-use” apartment projects the city has been pushing for several years located over bars and restaurants have been a total failure.

And that is because the city should not be in the development business.

“The city has been working for decades to redevelop this bleak stretch of downtown’s historic shopping thoroughfare,” the Bee said. “But the plans today are farther along, and more specific, than they have been before.”

Promises, promises. The question really is, which developer will reap the benefits from rebuilding along K Street, in business and in bed with the city?

The answer is: “D&S Development and CFY Development were granted control of the properties nearly three years ago by the city, which had spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring them,” the Bee reported. “After wrangling with multiple financing plans and the persistent economic downturn, the development team devised a workable project.”

The City Council’s social and political policies to artificially mandate subsidized housing and discourage market rate housing has actually made housing in the central city much more expensive than it should be, and completely unrealistic for buyers. Sacramento’s neighbors, Placer County, El Dorado County and West Sacramento are doing so well compared to floundering Sacramento because these jurisdictions don’t have to finance 80 percent of a development project just to get something started.

Sacramento’s downtown has matured substantially in the past two decades with restaurants and entertainment on nearly every block. However, the blighted K Street has floundered under every mayor, as has any riverfront development.

About Sacramento

With 450,000 residents in the city of Sacramento, and 1.7 million residents in Sacramento County, Sacramento is a good-sized city, but not a metropolis. The obsession by city officials to turn Sacramento into a world-class city is now costing taxpayers greatly. But who really wants Sacramento to become a sizable, “big” city — politicians or residents?

Seattle has a municipal population of 602,000 and a metropolitan area population of 3.3 million, which makes it the 25th most populous city in the United States. Phoenix has 1.5 million residents, and the Phoenix metropolitan area is the 12th largest metro area by population in the United States with 4.2 million residents.

Rarely do I hear a Sacramento resident state a desire for Sacramento to become bigger and more populated. It’s always a politician expressing interest in making Sacramento bigger. And almost always, it’s from a politician with grand aspirations for higher office, using Sacramento as a starting-off point.

Sacramento has had its share of big industry but mostly thrives on small businesses, entrepreneurs and government employees. With more than 100 neighborhood associations in Sacramento, each of our neighborhoods has more of a town feeling. And in truth, our City Council representation reflects more of a town council.

World-class

The best definition I have found of a “world-class city” comes from Seattle journalist Bill Virgin,who tracks business and economic trends. “World-class business cities are those where strategic and tactical decisions are made on everything from new plant investment to developing new markets and products,” Virgin explained. “They’re the cities others watch and react to. World-class business cities are not guaranteed exclusivity in producing the next wave of influential products, technologies and companies – but they’re a more likely incubator for them. And those products, technologies and companies are where new jobs come from.”

Sacramento is not strategically, tactically or decisively developing new markets or products, or putting in new plants for any industry.

In fact, Sacramento is doing the opposite. World-class cities are not driven by how many restaurants you have downtown or how big your sports arena is. The big cities with the Fortune 500 businesses and companies are business friendly and defined as “world class.”

But, Sacramento’s downtown already has an unusually large low-income apartment component, as well as adult group homes. There are panhandlers, drunks and druggies, nuts and mentally-ill, louts, hustlers, career loiterers, and teenage moms all over downtown, just hanging out on the streets. Most live downtown in government subsidized apartments and others use their government subsidized light rail pass to get downtown.

Last week I was followed to my car by one of these crazies. The week before I was followed to the Capitol by another nut. This happens to me frequently. My office is located next door to a scuzzy bar and subsidized housing apartment.

Perhaps Councilman Hansen can explain how more 60 percent subsidized housing will be good for Sacramento, or how this fits anyone’s view of “world-class.”

(photos from Sacramento Press and Hi-Lo blog, because the link to the Sacramento Public Library for historic photos no longer works)

New life breathed into Sacramento vanity project

CalWatchdog Staff — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:06:27 +0000

March 1, 2013

By Katy Grimes

The NBA cheerleaders at the Sacramento Bee are giddy with excitement today. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson announced during his State of the City address Thursday that the Sacramento Kings are here to stay, and will get a new downtown arena.

“The Mayor announced that 24 Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov has agreed to make a bid to buy the Sacramento Kings to keep them from moving this year to Seattle,” the Bee reported. Johnson also announced “grocery billionaire Ron Burkle and the owners of the Downtown Plaza have agreed to team with the city to build a downtown arena.”

The plan all along has to build an arena downtown despite public outrage. The other part of the plan has always been for the Mayor and his people to figure out a way for the arena to be publicly financed. That they can’t sell it to Sacramento voters seems to be of little concern to them.

The Bee reported:

In a statement issued just after the mayor’s speech, Todd Chapman, head of JMA Ventures, the company that recently bought the Downtown Plaza shopping mall, said he is thrilled that Johnson, Mastrov and Burkle have put together a bid for the team, and said his company is excited to participate. But he stopped short of saying his company had fully signed on yet.

“We are excited to continue our discussions with the Mayor, City Manager, Mark Mastrov and Ron Burkle about how Sacramento Downtown Plaza can be a new home for the Kings’ organization,” Chapman said. “Our goal has always been to create a dynamic center for the city in the heart of Sacramento, and an arena for the Kings at Sacramento Downtown Plaza would certainly be a fantastic addition.”

The mayoral announcements should trigger several weeks of intense lobbying by both Sacramento and Seattle, culminating in an NBA vote on April 18 on whether to ratify the deal the Maloof family has struck with Seattle.

Could this just be more wishful thinking by the Mayor who thinks that Sacramento is nothing without a professional sports team?

What’s really going on?

“Despite the failure of numerous efforts in Sacramento to build sports facilities with public money, the-arena project-which-wouldn’t-die keeps getting life breathed back into it by Mayor Kevin Johnson, with the assistance of Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento,” I wrote recently.

“Sacramento’s previous arena deals have been totally discredited by the Sacramento Grand Jury after voters refused to pass Measures Q and R, which would have approved a quarter cent sales tax increase and directed the revenues to fund a new sports and entertainment facility.”

“In an effort to obtain public financing, Sacramento City and County of Sacramento officials agreed to put the matter on the November 7, 2006, ballot as Measures Q & R” the Grand Jury wrote. “The ballot measures as written were a blatant attempt to avoid the provisions of Proposition 218 in that Measure R was listed as a general tax (requiring a majority vote) and Measure Q was for distribution of the monies from the tax. Combined, they would have represented a special tax requiring a two-thirds vote.”

Titled, “The Kings and City and County of Sacramento: Betrayal in the Kingdom?” the Grand Jury investigated the arena issue because they wanted to find out “if the City and County of Sacramento deceived their citizens regarding their dealings with the Kings.”

“Sports proponents continue to promote the ideology that Sacramento can transform to a ‘world class city,’ by building an arena and keeping the Kings,” the Grand Jury wrote. I’ve been critical of the level of world class city desperation by Sacramento officials and elected politicians for many years.

World class cities are not created with sports teams, and Sacramento is no different.

The Sacramento Kings have not sold out their games for many years. The demand is not there.

The City Council continues to fiddle while Sacramento burns

In a 2009 op ed for the Sacramento Bee, I wrote that the best definition I have found of a world-class city comes from Seattle journalist Bill Virgin, who tracks business and economic trends. He writes, “World-class business cities are those where strategic and tactical decisions are made on everything from new plant investment to developing new markets and products. They’re the cities others watch and react to. World-class business cities are not guaranteed exclusivity in producing the next wave of influential products, technologies and companies – but they’re a more likely incubator for them. And those products, technologies and companies are where new jobs come from.”

Sacramento is not strategically, tactically or decisively developing new markets or products, or putting in new plants for any industry. In fact, businesses are fleeing the city and the state. Politicians instead are obsessively focused on vanity projects, to the detriment of the other crucial segments of the economy.

I wish Mayor Johnson would put the same level of effort into improving Sacramento’s economy and attracting new business, as he invests in the Kings.

What most politicians really are

CalWatchdog Staff — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 03:19:39 +0000

Jan. 23, 2013

By John Seiler

Most politicians think they’re hot stuff. They have aides toadying to them 24/7. This is as true of a U.S. Senator as of a city council member.

But let Col. Kurtz tell a politician who he really is:

Judicial Watch “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2012

CalWatchdog Staff — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:40:43 +0000

Jan. 3, 2013

By Katy Grimes

It’s always interesting to see which politicians make the Judicial Watch Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians list for the previous year. More interesting to note is that not only are these people elected to public office to serve, no one ever gets fired for the corruption.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, released its 2012 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

Dishonorable Mentions for 2012 include:

A few special Judicial Watch notes on some of the “corrupt:”

Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Florida: In July 2012, the House Ethics Committee, after a haphazard investigation, reported that Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) had omitted information on his financial disclosure forms over four years. In his disclosure statements for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, Buchanan failed to report all of his positions or ownership interests in six entities and income received from the entities. And Buchanan wasn’t done there. In a separate matter, the committee continues to investigate findings of the Office of Congressional Ethics, Congress’s independent ethics review board, that there is “substantial reason to believe that Representative Buchanan attempted to influence the testimony of a witness in a proceeding before the FEC [Federal Election Commission].”

“Mr. Solyndra,” Secretary of Energy Steven Chu:

“The final decisions on Solyndra were mine,” said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, over his decision to pour $528 million tax dollars into a failing green energy boondoggle that went belly-up in 2011 is indefensible and corrupt, especially in light of the fact that Solyndra’s key investor (Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser) also happens to be a major Obama campaign donor.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ:

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) joins the Judicial Watch’s list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians for 2012” in what might be considered a sort of “Lifetime Achievement Award.”

As far back as 2007, Sen. Menendez was investigated by a federal grand jury for illegally steering lobbying business to his former chief of staff Kay LiCausi, with whom he was also romantically linked. In just a few years, her firm reported $1.3 million in business with nearly $300,000 coming from a New Jersey medical center that was later awarded government funding thanks to a push from her former boss and lover.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-IL:

On November 21, 2012, Rep. Jesse Jackson resigned from Congress in disgrace, acknowledging in his statement that he had made his “share of mistakes.” This may well be the understatement of year. Jackson has been under federal investigation for alleged campaign finance improprieties, including reportedly using donor dollars to remodel his home and purchase personal gifts, a potential criminal violation. Add to that the fact that Jackson was one of the major figures implicated in the massive scandal involving jailed former Illinois Governor Rod “Blago” Blagojevich, who was brought to justice in 2011 for a number of crimes, including his efforts to “sell” President Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. The evidence strongly suggests Jackson was one of those bidders.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-NV:

A July 30, 2012, headline in the Las Vegas Review-Journal alerted Nevadans to Sen. Harry Reid’s latest influence-peddling scandal – this one involving ENN Energy Group, a Chinese “green energy” client of the Nevada law firm of which Reid’s son, Rory, is a principal.

As Reuter’s reported on August 31, 2012, “Reid has been one of the project’s most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on behalf of the project in Nevada. His son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission.”

Rep. David Rivera, R-FL:

On October 24, 2012, the Florida ethics commission found “probable cause” that Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) had committed 11 violations of state ethics laws during his time in the Florida legislature. This comes amidst reports that Rivera remains under federal investigation over his personal and campaign finances. And, in a separate matter, the congressman is under investigation by the FBI for secretly funding the campaign of Justin Lamar Sternad, a candidate running against Joe Garcia in the Democratic primary earlier this year. Garcia defeated Rivera in the November election.

and a dishonorable mention goes to…

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA:

In early December, Democrats chose the scandal-plagued Rep. Maxine Waters to be the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee despite her many transgressions over the years. The influential congresswoman has helped family members make more than $1 million through business ventures with companies and causes that she has helped, according to her hometown newspaper.

Read the entire list at Judicial Watch