8.3% ?

Friday, February 3, 2012 – 09:00 a.m.

Hooray! The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.3% in January, with the economy adding 243,000 jobs.

But it took a lot of gaming of the numbers to get there.

For each of the past several months the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been shrinking the active workforce.

In essence the real unemployment rate hasn’t really improved.

The labor force participation rate fell to a 30-year low of 63.7%.

The January rate is a nice campaign sound bite for President Barack Obama, but nothing more.

Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, second from left, earned a aisle seat to greet President Barack Obama before the State of the Union speech./AP

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
Published: 29 January 2012 06:51 PM

They don’t call him “Working Joe” for nothing.

For at least the fourth consecutive year, U.S. Rep. Joe Baca outmaneuvered a host of his Democratic colleagues and worked himself into a coveted center aisle seat at last week’s State of the Union address. Baca, who was already in position several hours before the speech, again nabbed a primo spot and fought through the scrum of lawmakers to greet President Barack Obama on his way to the podium.

In years past, Baca has used the exchange to invite Obama to a round of golf or to shoot some hoops. But this year, the Rialto Democrat extended a book for the president to sign, which he did without hesitation.

The book: “All Labor Has Dignity,” from historian Michael K. Honey.

It’s a compilation of speeches given by Martin Luther King Jr. on the subject of economic justice and labor rights, presented as a reminder that the civil rights hero fought for economic rights for all people.

As it turned out, economic equality was the central thrust of Obama’s speech, in which he called upon the wealthy to pay a greater share of taxes. And just as King decried federal spending on the war in Vietnam while American cities struggled with blight and decay, Obama proposed putting half of the savings from ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan toward rebuilding the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges.

“It parallels the book,” Baca said, arguing that King’s words resonate more than ever amid the current economic turmoil.

Emotional honor

A day after emerging to rousing cheers at Tuesday’s speech, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., formally resigned her seat in Congress to continue her recovery from the wounds she suffered after being shot last year.

The occasion drew more than a few tears from those on both sides of the aisle, who honored her service on the House floor. Ahead of the ceremony, Giffords asked a handful of lawmakers to be at her side.

Among them was Inland Rep. Mary Bono Mack, who developed a friendship with Giffords over the years, though they hail from opposing parties.

To read entire story, click here.

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 – 6:57 am

Jon Fleischman, the conservative blogger, was brooding the other day on Facebook, underwhelmed by the presidential candidates he has left to choose from.

It’s “pretty alarming to me,” the former executive director of the California Republican Party wrote, “how dispassionate, or non-interested I am in this new battle for the Republican nomination between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.”

For like-minded Republicans – a cheerless majority of the party in California, according to a recent poll – a virtual therapy session ensued.

One friend recommended a prescription for Xanax, another a vote for Ron Paul.

Joe Ludlow, who helps run a political action committee in Southern California, said to treat the election like exercise.

“It’s not fun for me, I may not like it, it may be painful,” Ludlow wrote. “However, failure means a miserable life 20 and 40 years from now. … Four more years of Obama is death.”

As in any election, determined and enthusiastic volunteers are still working hard for their choices. Paul, in particular, has a fervent base of support.

But Ludlow, whose preferred candidate is Romney, is among those who aren’t exactly inspired as hope fades for any alternative to the current field.

Of California’s likely Republican voters, 52 percent say they are unsatisfied with their presidential choices, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released last week. Fleischman, who supported Rick Perry before the Texas governor quit the race, thinks the number is even higher.

“Loyal Republicans,” he said, “are not likely to share with a pollster that they are unhappy with their choices.”

There are any number of reasons for Republicans to be unhappy with Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, or Gingrich, the former House speaker. Fleischman calls them “the plutocrat” and “the genius.” He wishes for a Mitch Daniels or Jeb Bush.

Other Republicans blame the party’s sore feelings not on any one candidate, but on the prickliness of the campaign.

“When they start fighting over who hates illegal immigrants more, and beating each other up for capitalism and Bain Corp., just the general negativity, it’s going to turn off Republican voters,” said Matt David, who was former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s campaign manager before Huntsman dropped out.

The longer it continues, David said, the more it will help Democrats in President Barack Obama’s re-election bid.

Even the most dour Republicans don’t want that.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Fleischman said. “Either Gingrich or Romney would be a better solution.”

To read entire story, click here.

George Skelton

Gingrich bristled at Romney’s L-word tag, but it’s all semantics.
By George Skelton Capitol Journal
January 30, 2012

From Sacramento

Without picking a side in the entertaining Republican presidential contest, let us stipulate that Mitt Romney was smack on target when he called Newt Gingrich an influence peddler.

A lobbyist? No, not in a legal sense. But did he lobby? Yes, in the common usage of the word.

An influence peddler? That pretty much covers it.

Many Sacramento lobbyists and their cousin “consultants” got a chuckle out of the fiery Romney-Gingrich exchange in the Jan. 23 Florida debate.

There was Romney, pulling out the old pejorative “lobbyist,” and the former House speaker resisting it as if he were being called a con man or a pimp.

“Even Romney was putting lobbyists in a bad light,” notes longtime Sacramento highway construction lobbyist Dave Ackerman, who began his career working for Republican politicians.

“Obama hasn’t said anything about lobbyists yet,” he adds tongue-in-cheek, referring to the irony of his livelihood being picked on by a fellow Republican. “I guess we’re just fun to take shots at. It’s a free shot and no one’s going to defend us.”

Ackerman has a little sign in his office that reads: “Don’t tell my mother I’m a lobbyist. She thinks I play the piano in a whorehouse.”

There are hundreds — maybe thousands, no one keeps count — of Gingrich-type non-lobbyist consultants in Sacramento. Many, like Gingrich, have learned the legislating ropes, developed relationships and earned redeemable chits in the legislative or executive branches.

They have influence and peddle it to special interests of all kinds.

It’s the American way. We all have a right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances. You can look it up in the 1st Amendment.

Of course, some have more money to spend on exercising this right than most. They hire influence. And many arrange to nourish the politicians with campaign contributions, what the late Assembly Speaker Jesse “Big Daddy” Unruh famously called “the mother’s milk of politics.”

There are roughly 1,200 lobbyists registered and regulated today in Sacramento. And there are the countless consultants. They all have the same basic mission: to influence public policy.

In the Florida debate, Romney brought up Gingrich’s work for Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage guarantor, a GOP villain in the housing meltdown. Gingrich’s consulting firm was paid $1.6 million by Freddie — not to lobby, he has insisted, but to provide perspective as “a historian.”

“They don’t pay people $25,000 a month for six years as historians,” Romney said.

The former Massachusetts governor also mentioned Gingrich’s work for healthcare companies. And he articulated common sense:

“If you’re getting paid by health companies … that could benefit from a piece of legislation, and you then meet with Republican congressmen and encourage them to support that legislation, you can call it whatever you’d like. I call it influence-peddling.”

Romney added that “it is not right.” But I wouldn’t go that far. It’s legal, far as we know.

To read entire story, click here.

Details of the president’s annual speech to Congress came under harsh fire from members of the Inland region’s Republican delegation./AP

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 24 January 2012 09:18 PM

WASHINGTON — The central initiatives laid out in President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night seem tailored to address Inland Southern California’s largest problems: unemployment and the home foreclosure crisis.

Yet the details of his plan raised concerns from some area officials and came under harsh fire from members of the region’s predominantly Republican congressional delegation, signaling a contentious election year in Washington and a tough road ahead for the president’s agenda.

Rep. Ken Calvert described the speech as overtly political — more focused on his re-election campaign and bashing Republicans than policy measures that have a chance of passing the divided Congress.

“The guy can’t run on his record, so he’s got to run against us,” Calvert, R-Corona, said after the speech.

The region’s sole Democratic House member, Rep. Joe Baca, disputed the notion that the address was designed as a campaign speech, and lauded Obama for tackling issues that hit close to home for Inland residents.

“This is not about politics,” said Baca, D-Rialto. “It’s about what’s right for our country.”

The adversarial tone in the U.S. Capitol stood in stark contrast to last year’s address, which closely followed the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and was colored by calls for decorum and bipartisanship.

“It sure felt like there was a lot less enthusiasm,” said Rep. Mary Bono Mack, who was among several lawmakers who sat with members of the opposing party this year.

JOBS, HOUSING, ENERGY

Obama’s proposals to boost the nation’s workforce come as the Inland area struggles with a 12.2 percent unemployment rate, nearly four points higher than the national average.

But his plan to give tax incentives to firms that bring overseas jobs to the U.S., and use disincentives such as a new global minimum tax for multinational companies, to discourage outsourcing, is the wrong tactic, said Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs.

Bono Mack, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Commerce and Trade, said incentives for companies who in-source workers would ignore “home-grown” firms that never outsourced in the first place.

Obama, she said, “clearly doesn’t understand job creation and what it will take to bring the manufacturing industry back.”

To read entire story, click here.

San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry

BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com

Published: 23 January 2012 08:14 PM

San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry will return to normal voting at today’s board meeting even as he sparred with federal officials over the exact nature of his eight-month suspension.

Due to criminal charges he faced last year, Derry had not taken part in votes involving federal funds.

That suspension from voting on federal government contracts ended Thursday, according to a letter from the Federal Highway Administration dated Jan. 13. The letter goes on to rebuke Derry over his guilty plea to a misdemeanor in July and states that an eight-month debarment — during which he was disqualified from voting on government contracts — was imposed as a result.

Derry and his attorney took issue with the letter and accused federal officials of not following their own procedures. They said they had threatened to sue the agency over the lengthy period it was taking in clearing him for voting.

“Basically, this letter was to cover their tails for not doing their jobs for the last four months,” Derry said. “Incompetence bordering on malfeasance.”

Derry began recusing himself from votes involving federal funds shortly after the state attorney general charged him last April with two felonies and a misdemeanor over a campaign contribution.

The charges against Derry stemmed from a $5,000 campaign contribution in May 2007 that prosecutors said Derry attempted to launder through a committee controlled by former county Assessor Bill Postmus, who pleaded guilty to criminal charges last year in a separate case.

Federal transportation and community development money can be withheld from agencies when members of their governing boards are accused of money laundering, bribery and other corruption-related charges. The Board of Supervisors, along with other agencies that Derry serves on, deal with large amounts of federal dollars, raising concerns that the money could be jeopardized.

A little over two months after the charges were filed, Derry accepted a plea deal in which the two felonies were dismissed and he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor. But getting himself cleared to vote ended up taking much longer.

Derry’s attorney, George Newhouse, said federal officials placed Derry on suspension pending the outcome of the criminal case but after that was resolved in July they had no cause to prevent him from voting. Derry did so voluntarily out of concern for his constituents, Newhouse said.

To read entire story, click here.

Derry

Saturday, January 21, 2012 – 06:15 p.m.

The highway funding arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation has cleared San Bernardino County Third District Supervisor Neil Derry to resume voting on federally-funded expenditures in his duties as an elected official.

The Federal Highway Administration gave Derry the green light effective Friday.

Derry lost his voting authority last year after he was charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor for failing to properly report a single $5,000 campaign contribution.

The charges arose when Derry fell prey to San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos, who pushed a politically-motivated investigation of Derry to the state Attorney General’s office with a request that Derry be charged.

Former Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Ramos friend, Gary Schons agreed.

A move designed to hurt Derry’s reelection bid and assist Ramos’ friend and political ally James Ramos.

Ramos, a life-long democrat and chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, is trying to unseat Derry in June.

However, a San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge saw through the sham and forced the dismissal of both felonies and refused to strip Derry of his right to hold office and seek reelection.

Confidential sources say Ramos’ own campaign polling shows the legal blow leveled against Derry has had little effect on his positive name identification with voters.

The fed move officially closes the door on the matter.

Thursday, January 19, 2012 – 07:15 a.m.

The latest results from the circus known as the Iowa Caucuses now has former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum over Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by 34 votes.

Even more ridiculous is apparently some counties have lost the actual ballots and tally sheets for certain precincts and therefore those votes won’t be certified.

Meaning those numbers won’t count in the final results.

Regardless, the new development is too late for Santorum to receive any benefit.

Thursday, January 19, 2012 – 06:35 a.m.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has dropped out of the race for the republican nomination for President of the United States.

Perry is expected to throw his tepid support behind former Speaker of the  House Newt Gingrich.

Expect Rick Santorum to bow out after Saturday’s South Carolina Primary.

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
January 17, 2012 | 6:18 pm

The citizens commission that drew California’s new political maps won an important nod Tuesday from the Department of Justice, which signed off on the new congressional, legislative and Board of Equalization districts for four Northern California counties.

The counties—Kings, Merced, Monterey and Yuba—were under scrutiny because of concerns about past possible violations of the federal Voting Rights Act. The maps required approval, or “pre-clearance” in government jargon, from the federal agency.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Thomas E. Perez delivered the news to the California Citizens Redistricting Commission’s attorney and to California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris in a two-paragraph letter. “The Attorney General does not interpose any objection to the” new maps, Perez wrote.

Stan Forbes, chairman of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, said in a statement that the group was “pleased that the Department of Justice has found [the commission] complied with the Voting Rights Act in drawing the districts” for the four counties.

To read entire story, click here.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 – 06:00 p.m.

So much for that plea deal way back when!

Anthony Orlando Sanchez, 36, plead not guilty to extortion and bribery charges this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Riverside.

He will be held without bail due to the fact he fled the country for Honduras several months ago.

Sanchez, who is charged in an alleged corruption scheme involving former Upland Mayor John “J.P.” Pomierski, returned to the United States on Sunday and was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals.

A trial date of March 13 has been set.

Published: Tuesday, 17 Jan 2012 | 1:05 PM ET
By: AP

The largest banks must show how they would break up their assets if they were in danger of failing, under a rule approved Tuesday.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp voted to require banks with $50 billion or more in assets to submit so-called living wills. Seven banks with more than $250 billion in assets will have to show their plans by July. The other 30 affected by the rule have until 2013.

The FDIC also proposed a separate rule that would require banks with more than $10 billion in assets to conduct annual stress tests.

The tests show how each bank is positioned to handle worsening economic conditions, such as increasing unemployment and falling home prices. The regulator put the rule out for public comment and is expected to finalize it by July. It will affect roughly 190 banks.

Both rules were mandated under the 2010 financial overhaul.

By requiring banks to have living wills, the government is trying to reduce the need for another Wall Street bailout like the one that took place during the 2008 financial crisis. The 37 banks
affected by the rule hold roughly $4.1 trillion in insured deposits, or about 61 percent of U.S. insured deposits as of Sept. 30, 2011.

The largest include JPMorgan Chase [JPM  34.91    -1.01  (-2.81%)   ], Bank of America [BAC  6.48    -0.13  (-1.97%)   ], Citibank [C  28.215    -2.525  (-8.21%)   ], Wells Fargo [WFC  29.825    0.215  (+0.73%)   ], U.S. Bank, PNC [PNC  61.24    -0.49  (-0.79%)   ] and Bank of New York Mellon [BK  21.27    -0.18  (-0.84%)   ].

To read entire story, click here.

Former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman endorsed Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney Monday morning.

Monday, January 16, 2012 – 09:45 a.m.

GOP Presidential candidate and former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman officially pulled the plug on his foundering campaign Monday morning.

A campaign that never really left the ground.

Huntsman in his withdrawal announcement endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Expect Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Texas Governor Rick Perry to bail from the race in the next ten days.

Sunday, January 5, 2012 – 11:30 p.m.

A federal fugitive tied to the corruption case involving former Upland Mayor John “J.P.” Pomierski was taken into custody Sunday afternoon.

Anthony Orlando Sanchez was arrested by the United States Marshals Service at Los Angeles International Airport upon his re-entry into the U.S.

Sanchez, 36, fled the country after agreeing to a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice over his involvement in an alleged bribery scheme involving Pomierski.

The deal would have left Sanchez a convicted felon and required the revocation of his California real estate brokers license.

Sanchez is being held without bail at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Central Detention Center in San Bernardino.

Mitt Romney is the man to beat – but any of his rivals to emerge as a serious challenger will have a tough time playing catch-up to the front-runner’s national campaign operation. (Andy Jacobsohn, MCT / January 15, 2012)

By Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times
January 14, 2012, 7:55 p.m.

Reporting from Greenville, S.C.‬— Five Republicans are fighting mightily to deny Mitt Romney a quick coronation as the party’s presidential nominee. But if one of them emerges as his top challenger, a monumental task lies ahead: building a national campaign operation on the fly.‬

‪For Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich or any other successful insurgent, the state-by-state scramble for delegates would require quick hiring of staffers scattered across the country — first and foremost in Florida, where Romney could essentially lock up the nomination in the Jan. 31 primary.‬

‪Offices must be rented, cellphones purchased. Endorsements must be lined up and scores of surrogates deployed. A deluge of media inquiries will gush in not just from the national media, but also from far-flung local news outlets, many of them in strategically vital regions that cannot be ignored.‬

‪Simultaneous challenges abound: new TV ads to be produced and tested with focus groups, polls to be taken, brochures to be printed, and databases to be culled to target voters susceptible to persuasion through phone calls and mail.‬

‪Seasoned advance staff must navigate the candidate through multiple events a day in diverse and unfamiliar towns. Trivial missteps can escalate instantly into YouTube nightmares.‬

‪Not least, operatives steeped in arcane state election rules must run petition drives to get the candidate’s name on ballots for primaries weeks or months away, a chore neglected early on — to their detriment — by Santorum, Gingrich and Rick Perry.‬

‪All the while, any Republican who manages to become Romney’s chief opponent will have to keep raising money at a breakneck pace and maintain a vigorous schedule of events — and compete against a front-runner whose national infrastructure is set firmly in place.‬

‪”It’s very difficult to put the wings on while the plane is flying,” said Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain’s campaign in 2008. “It becomes a very, very complicated operation — very, very quickly.”‬

‪To varying degrees, Santorum, Gingrich, Perry, Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman Jr. are well behind Romney in building support structures robust enough to sustain the sort of prolonged battle that entangled Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in 2008.‬

‪Besides his financial edge, Romney has spent the last four years methodically expanding the organization that he built for the 2008 race that he lost to McCain.‬

‪With electability a top concern for many Republican primary voters, the former Massachusetts governor has turned the reach of his state operations into a selling point, particularly in Florida and other swing states.‬

‪”The time and effort that we have invested in building these organizations will help when Gov. Romney becomes the nominee and needs to compete against President Obama’s formidable political machine,” Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said.‬

‪For now, the would-be insurgents are focused on achieving a breakthrough in South Carolina’s relatively cheap and small-scale primary next Saturday.‬

‪To read entire story, click here.

Monday, January 9, 2012

When the dust settles in New Hampshire, the 2012 Republican nomination for president will be written in granite and the name will be Willard Mitt Romney, according to the Calbuzz Advisory Board of Leading Authorities on Practically Everything, the greatest assemblage of political minds since Thorstein Veblen dined alone.

Despite New Hampshire’s reputation for sticking conventional wisdom (and the results of the Iowa caucuses) in the eye, pols from the Northeast have a habit of doing well in New Hampshire, from Henry Cabot Lodge and John F. Kennedy, to Ed Muskie, George H.W. Bush, Michael Dukakis, Paul Tsongas and John Kerry.

Of course, as you can see, they don’t always pick the nominee or the next president. And while Romney took some flack over the weekend in back-to-back debates and while he continues to argue that Barack Obama wants to turn America into a European-style social democracy [insert groan here], he smartly avoided the biggest trap set for him in Manchester:

Despite repeated goading from Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, he did not lunge further to the right than he’s already gone, thereby leaving open the possibility of further waffling back toward the middle in the general election.

We agree with the Republican member of the Calbuzz Consultanate who said:

Holding steady, Mitt will graciously bounce them all. Santorum won’t break 20, but even if he does, who cares (besides a hyperventilating media)? He won’t be the nominee, unless the party decides to hang itself in the garage. Newt is reaffirming that he’s the uncle who turns nasty after a couple drinks at the family BBQ. Time to call a cab and send him home.

As for the hyperventilating media – we kept wondering where they were when we watched the ABC debate with George Stephanopoulos and Dianne Sawyer, whose feckless, dishpan questions and attention to Crankypants Ron Paul were infuriating. At least NBC’s David Gregory got the candidates to mix it up and challenge one another.

What was clear, as it has been in almost every other debate, is that Romney is the only candidate in the GOP field with the bearing and chops to be a major party candidate. Which is exactly why every member of the Calbuzz Consultanate who we called on this week, picked Romney to 1) win New Hampshire and 2) capture the GOP nomination.

Whether their precise percentages will prove on the mark, we won’t know until Tuesday night, but here’s their collective pick: Romney 40%; Paul 19%; Santorum 16%; Huntsman 14%; Gingrich 9%, Perry 2%.

In fairness, some of them commented before the debates and Jon Hunstman’s effective take-down of Romney, when he said the front-runner’s critique of Huntsman’s service as President Obama’s ambassador to China is the kind of divisiveness that’s wrong with America.

But we really don’t see what’s going to stop Romney from wrapping up the nomination sooner rather than later (although we’d love to see it drag on until California Republicans could have a crack at the field). Even the anti-Romney “documentary” about to air in South Carolina is unlikely to take him out (see below).

One of our Republican panelists offered a sliver of hope to the Anyone But Mitt (ABM) crowd:

New Hampshire could change that dynamic only if Santorum blows away Gingrich and runs a strong second, creating a national conservative leadership consensus to pressure Gingrich and Perry to drop out. But the erosion of the blue collar manufacturing base since the days of Pat Buchanan [the NH ’96 GOP winner]and some Santorum stumbles make that improbable.

Here are the comments of our Calbuzz panel:

Republicans

– The Romney campaign has been virtually flawless so far (along with its related Super PAC, which disemboweled Gingrich in Iowa). The dynamics favor a Romney sweep of the early primaries, unless there is some incredible rallying behind Santorum before South Carolina. Gingrich is too proud to quit and his Super PAC is doing a big anti-Bain Capital buy in South Carolina. Perry has $4 million and is taking one last shot in South Carolina, just as Fred Thompson did in 2008, enabling John McCain to carry that state over Mitt Romney. So there will be a three-way split of the non-Romney, non-Paul vote in South Carolina.

– Santorum’s Big Mo from Iowa looks like it’s met the New Hampshire political meat grinder. Those flinty New Englanders are once again flipping the bird to the Midwestern Bible thumpers. Huntsman may come in third and Santorum in fourth. California Reeps should be relieved because God help us if Santorum is the nominee.

– Romney will win NH but it will be hard to meet the astronomical expectations. The bright lights now shining on Santorum will cause him to wilt. Remember, this is a guy that lost his own re-election campaign by 20 points. South Carolina will see the largest food fight since Belushi started one at Faber College. What does this mean? While it might not be pretty, Romney will emerge as the adult, the leader and will move strongly toward the nomination.

– The GOP nomination contest is OVER . . . Momentum carries the day in SC for Romney and then Florida and by Feb 1 “It’s a wrap.” So much for the easy part. Romney has a major challenge on his hands on how he fills from February until the convention — when the president has all the arrows in his quiver.

– Romney is on his way to crushing win in NH. No sign of weakness or erosion. Huntsman might get second. Caveat — debates in next several hours could matter. Onto South Carolina where Mitt wins and effectively secures the nomination. For all the hand-wringing about how weak a frontrunner he is, he’s about to wrap up the nomination with ease. The press narrative will be that the rest of the field was weak, which is very true. But no one else manned up. Chicago will be very bummed this ended so quickly.

– [Will Mitt come away with a crushing victory? ] No the spin will be that he should have won by more. [Will Santorum break into the 20s?] Yes [Does it matter?] Yes. [Is there anything positive in Newt's new role as "truth teller" about Romney?] Yes — positive for everyone other than Romney.

Democrats

– Despite the Suffolk tracking polls showing Ron Paul hanging in second place, Huntsman’s debate performance today and his organization in the state should squeeze him into second place, but he won’t break 20%. Romney will break 40%. Everyone else in high single or low double digits. Santorum has lost his mo since Friday and Newt, per usual, continues his murder suicide mission.

To read entire story, click here.

Health & Welfare | Daily Report | Decoding Prime

January 9, 2012 | Lance Williams

FBI agents interviewed a former Shasta County hospital patient Friday amid indications of a widening federal inquiry into Medicare billing practices at the Prime Healthcare Services hospital chain.

Darlene Courtois, 64, who was featured in a California Watch report last month about unusual Medicare billings at a Prime hospital in Redding, spent more than an hour with three federal agents, said her daughter, Julie Schmitz.

Schmitz said the agents asked questions about a 2010 hospital stay after which Prime had billed Medicare for treating Courtois for kwashiorkor, a dangerous form of malnutrition that afflicts children during African famines.

The agents also asked questions about an incident last month in which the hospital allegedly publicized Courtois’ medical records – without her permission – in an effort to refute the California Watch story, Schmitz said in a telephone interview.
Become a Source

Medicare pays hefty bonuses to hospitals for treating complicated medical cases, and a diagnosis of kwashiorkor can boost a hospital’s payout by more than $6,000 per patient, records show.

As California Watch has reported, in the past two years, Prime’s Shasta Regional Medical Center has billed Medicare for more than 1,000 kwashiorkor cases – 70 times the statewide rate.

Among them was Courtois, a retired teacher’s aide who lives in rural Shingletown, west of Mount Lassen.

Courtois told the agents that she was hospitalized in 2010 for kidney failure, not kwashiorkor, her daughter said. She told the agents she received no treatment for kwashiorkor or any other kind of malnutrition during her 2010 hospitalization, by the daughter’s account.

Schmitz said her mother disputed the hospital’s account that she had received diet counseling to treat her for a condition called protein malnutrition.

“No. They didn’t. Nobody has,” said Schmitz, who monitors her mother’s care and who participated in the FBI interview.

In an e-mail in response to a request for comment, a hospital spokesman wrote, “Shasta Regional Medical Center believes it has followed all state and federal laws and regulations. In abundance of caution, Shasta Regional has already notified all the proper agencies.”

In the past 18 months, three California congressmen have asked Medicare to investigate Prime for a suspected form of Medicare fraud called upcoding, in which a provider files false claims via computerized billing codes to reap enhanced reimbursement.

To read entire story, click here.

Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, center, Rick Santorum, left, and Ron Paul pause during a break in Sunday’s debate in New Hampshire. Sharper attacks on Romney reflected divisions within the party. (Alex Wong, Getty Images / January 8, 2012)

By Paul West, Washington Bureau
January 8, 2012, 6:26 p.m.

Reporting from Concord, N.H.— A fusillade of attacks on front-runner Mitt Romney presages what is likely to be at least a month of internal warfare among Republicans as the presidential candidates head for the South, the heart of the GOP’s restive base.

The campaign’s longtime dynamic shifted forcefully Sunday, as several trailing candidates tried to take down Romney before he more firmly grasps the Republican presidential nomination. He’s a heavy favorite in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, but immediately ahead is South Carolina, where his foes are already on the ground and beaming new, more corrosive charges over the airwaves.

Some of what is powering the increasing acrimony among the candidates is personal disdain. But it also reflects profound differences between sectors of the Republican Party.

“This is a more doctrinaire Republican base than we had seen in the last 25 years,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the independent Pew Research Center. “It is much more hard-core than in the past.”

In particular, he said, highly energized elements on the GOP right “are looking for a rebellious kind of candidate,” as reflected in polls and initial voting results that show a majority of Republicans unwilling to fall in line behind button-down Romney.

Those schisms were on display in a “Meet the Press” debate Sunday that featured the sharpest, most sustained anti-Romney assault of the Republican contest. His opponents, behind in the polls and increasingly desperate to gain ground, portrayed the former Massachusetts governor as a shape-shifting opportunist and a closet moderate out of step with most of the party’s primary voters.

“Can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney?” Newt Gingrich retorted after Romney had argued that, unlike others on the Concord, N.H., debate stage, he wasn’t a career politician.

“You’ve been running consistently for years and years and years,” the former House speaker said, reminding Romney of his unsuccessful runs for U.S. Senate in 1994 and the presidency in 2008. “So this idea that suddenly citizenship showed up in your mind — just level with the American people.”

Terming Romney a “timid Massachusetts moderate,” Gingrich predicted that he would have “a very hard time” defeating President Obama as the Republican nominee.

The pummeling in the NBC debate, the second of two network encounters over the weekend, came as Romney proudly boasted that he had run for governor to make a difference, and, having done so, didn’t feel compelled to seek a second term.

“I didn’t go there to begin a political career, running time and time again,” he said. “Run again? That would be about me.”

Like Gingrich, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania added to the onslaught on Romney. Santorum said that while he was winning election in 1994, Romney “ran from Ronald Reagan” and “said he was going to be to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights, on abortion, a whole host of other issues” in his unsuccessful attempt to unseat the liberal Massachusetts Democrat.

The sometimes-personal exchanges underscored the insoluble strains of Republicanism warring this year — including supporters of the tea party movement and those with extremely conservative views across the board, and the libertarians drawn to Ron Paul’s eclectic mix of tightfisted fiscal conservatism, largely liberal social views and isolationist foreign policy.

The first Southern primary, on Jan. 21 in South Carolina, is fast shaping up as a pivotal contest. Social conservatives are a dominant force there, and Romney’s efforts to win them over could be complicated by an exchange in Sunday’s debate. Asked by a panelist when he had last spoken out for increasing gay rights, Romney replied, “Right now.”

To read entire story, click here.

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/07/2012 02:42:29 PM PST

Victorville City Manager Doug Robertson said the city’s November default on bond payments totaling $10.6 million has not prompted an inquiry from a federal agency that has been investigating the city’s bond debt for the last two years.

In an e-mail, Robertson said investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not made any inquiries about the defaults thus far, but he is expecting they will.

“We don’t believe we’ve done anything wrong so our biggest concern is the timely completion of their inquiry so we can move on,” Robertson said.

The city received a notice from the Bank of New York Mellon, dated Dec. 16, indicating it had failed to pay a total of $535,000 in principal payments that were due on Dec. 1. The bank, which holds the city’s reserve funds in trust, said reserve funds could not be used to make payments on the principal.

The city was, however, able to use the reserve funds to cover interest on the bonds totaling $1.3 million.

According to the notice, the bank could demand that the principal of all issued bonds and accrued interest be paid immediately.

In 2010, the SEC launched an investigation into the city’s bond debt and how it spent the money, and the investigation has now entered its third year.

On Dec. 1, debt service payments for seven bonds the Southern California Logistics Airport Authority, or SCLAA, took out came due. The SCLAA, of which Robertson serves as executive director, is the redevelopment agency that secures funding and oversees development of the 2,500-acre airport, formerly the George Air Force Base, which the city envisions as its future economic engine that will drive growth.

The bonds taken out by the SCLAA are secured by redevelopment tax increments, not city funds, and the state’s efforts to dissolve redevelopment agencies has thwarted Victorville’s ability to use its redevelopment funds to help pay its bond debt, according to a letter Robertson sent to bondholders dated Nov. 21.

Robertson believes the SCLAA will be able to make the payment once Victor Valley Economic Development Authority (VVEDA) property tax distributions are made, which typically occur in April.

Even under legislation eliminating redevelopment agencies, VVEDA will be entitled to receive property tax distributions for purposes of making debt service payments, Robertson said.

To read entire story, click here.

Josh Dulaney, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/05/2012 05:29:17 PM PST

An administrative law judge from the U.S. Department of Labor has ruled in favor of a San Bernardino man who says he was wrongfully fired from an aircraft maintenance company that he worked for at San Bernardino International Airport.

Michael Harding, 72, is owed back pay and reimbursement of lost medical benefits, dating back to his being fired in 2007 from Southern California Precision Aircraft Inc., a company whose assets were later purchased by Norton Aircraft Maintenance Services, according to Russell D. Pulver, the administrative law judge.

The published order, issued on Dec. 19, did not state the amount owed to Harding, but Harding says he was earning about $52,000 a year.

Pulver ruled that Harding should be rehired, finding that he was fired because he filed complaints to the Federal Aviation Administration and his supervisors regarding numerous safety violations related to aircraft being worked on at the airport.

He also found no evidence for the company’s claims that Harding was fired for poor job performance.

“…the secondhand versions of the reason for termination pale in comparison to the facts offered by (Harding) in his very credible testimony,” Pulver wrote in his decision.

Harding worked as a senior audit inspector. He testified that throughout his time with the company, he witnessed many safety issues and addressed them with management.

Pulver ruled that Harding’s actions were protected under the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century.

A provision under the law prohibits an air carrier, or contractor or subcontractor of an air carrier from firing or discriminating against an employee because the employee provided his supervisors or the federal government information related to violations or alleged violations of air carrier safety.

Pulver ordered that Harding be paid by Norton Aircraft Maintenance Services, which in 2008 took over the same type of repair work that Southern California Precision Aircraft Inc. had done.

According to Pulver’s ruling, Norton Aircraft Maintenance Services also assumed the liabilities of Southern California Precision Aircraft Inc., including the payment of any back wages owed to employees.

Norton Aircraft Maintenance Services was listed among 16 companies in an FBI warrant served at the airport in September.

To read entire story, click here.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012 – 11:00 a.m.

Here’s the latest from last nights Iowa contest.

U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) is out after garnering just 5% of the caucus voting.

Governor Rick Perry (R-Texas), after saying last night he would re-evaluate his campaign, is now looking ahead to the South Carolina primary later this month.

Former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman is on life support. Expect Huntsman to fold tent after next weeks New Hampshire contest.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich with temper in tow seems ready to tee-off on Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in South Carolina.

U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), with war-chest in tow, is actively campaigning in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

As always the info is subject to change by the moment.

Wes Woods II and Sandra Emerson, Staff writers
Created: 01/04/2012 09:44:49 AM PST

UPLAND – Medical marijuana collective G3 Holistics Inc. remains open for business.

The collective at Suite F4 at 1710 W. Foothill Blvd. reopened at Friday afternoon, said Aaron Sandusky, president of G3 Holistics, and is keeping regular hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

“The neighborhood has been very supportive,” Sandusky said on Tuesday. “Even those who don’t use (the medical pot) give us words of encouragement.”

It is Sandusky’s interpretation that he is able to reopen because he had filed a stay against an injunction obtained by Upland and is appealing the city’s prohibitions of medical marijuana dispensaries.

Upland Police Chief Jeff Mendenhall referred a reporter on Tuesday to City Hall for a comment.

“The city is working with the city attorney to identify the city’s options,” said Stephanie Mendenhall, the administrative services director on Tuesday.

G3 Collective opened in Upland in 2009 and closed in August 2010 after the city filed an injunction in West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga.

During the closure, G3 opened another facility in Moreno Valley at 12276 Perris Blvd., Suite B. The landlord was the same as the Upland facility.

In 2011, G3 opened a facility at 1231 E. Washington St., Suite D in Colton.

Sandusky filed a stay against the Upland injunction and is appealing the city’s prohibitions of medical marijuana dispensaries.

A Drug Enforcement Administration raid in November closed G3. A warrant said between January and August, the total deposits to G3 accounts were more than $3.3 million while total debits were more than $3.2 million.

To read entire story, click here.

Romney

By Michael A. Memoli and Paul West
January 3, 2012, 11:37 p.m.

Reporting from Manchester and Des Moines— In the closest finish in the history of the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum wound up in a virtual dead heat in the first battle for the Republican presidential nomination, with Romney emerging as the apparent winner by a margin of just eight votes.

When results from the last of the state’s 1,774 precincts were tallied Wednesday morning, Romney had 30,015 votes to Santorum’s 30,007.

Combined, the two accounted for half of the more than 120,000 votes cast at the statewide gatherings of party activists. An apparent glitch in reporting of local results held up announcement of the final result.

“We don’t know what the final vote tally is going to be, but congratulations to Rick Santorum. This has been a great victory for him and his effort,” Romney said earlier as he addressed supporters in Des Moines.

“Thank you so much, Iowa,” Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, told jubilant supporters in a Des Moines suburb.

According to past results provided by the Des Moines Register, the closest previous GOP caucus result came in 1980, when George H.W. Bush edged Ronald Reagan 31.6% to 29.5%.

In 1996, Bob Dole won by 3 percentage points over Pat Buchanan.

Despite the close result, there is no official provision for a recount because no delegates are at stake. The Republican vote was essentially a popularity contest among those who attended, and at some caucus sites there are no paper records of the vote.

To read entire story, click here.

By Keith Jenkins and Anchalee Worrachate – Jan 3, 2012 2:22 AM PT

Governments of the world’s leading economies have more than $7.6 trillion of debt maturing this year, with most facing a rise in borrowing costs.

Led by Japan’s $3 trillion and the U.S.’s $2.8 trillion, the amount coming due for the Group of Seven nations and Brazil, Russia, India and China is up from $7.4 trillion at this time last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Ten-year bond yields will be higher by year-end for at least seven of the countries, forecasts show.

Investors may demand higher compensation to lend to countries that struggle to finance increasing debt burdens as the global economy slows, surveys show. The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for growth this year to 4 percent from a prior estimate of 4.5 percent as Europe’s debt crisis spreads, the U.S. struggles to reduce a budget deficit exceeding $1 trillion and China’s property market cools.

“The weight of supply may be a concern,” Stuart Thomson, a money manager in Glasgow at Ignis Asset Management Ltd., which oversees $121 billion, said in a Dec. 28 telephone interview. “Rather than the start of the year being the problem, it’s the middle part of the year that becomes the problem. That’s when we see the slowdown in the global economy having its biggest impact.”

Competition for Buyers

The amount needing to be refinanced rises to more than $8 trillion when interest payments are included. Coming after a year in which Standard & Poor’s cut the U.S.’s rating to AA+ from AAA and put 15 European nations on notice for possible downgrades, the competition to find buyers is heating up.

“It is a big number and obviously because many governments are still in a deficit situation the debt continues to accumulate and that’s one of the biggest problems,” Elwin de Groot, an economist at Rabobank Nederland in Utrecht, Netherlands, part of the world’s biggest agricultural lender, said in an interview on Dec. 27.

While most of the world’s biggest debtors had little trouble financing their debt load in 2011, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Sovereign Broad Market Plus Index gaining 6.1 percent, the most since 2008, that may change.

Italy auctioned 7 billion euros ($9.1 billion) of debt on Dec. 29, less than the 8.5 billion euros targeted. With an economy sinking into its fourth recession since 2001, Prime Minister Mario Monti’s government must refinance about $428 billion of securities coming due this year, the third-most, with another $70 billion in interest payments, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Rising Costs

Borrowing costs for G-7 nations will rise as much as 39 percent from 2011, based on forecasts of 10-year government bond yields by economists and strategists surveyed by Bloomberg in separate surveys. China’s 10-year yields may remain little changed, while India’s are projected to fall to 8.02 percent from about 8.39 percent. The survey doesn’t include estimates for Russia and Brazil.

After Italy, France has the most amount of debt coming due, at $367 billion, followed by Germany at $285 billion. Canada has $221 billion, while Brazil has $169 billion, the U.K. has $165 billion, China (PRCH) has $121 billion and India $57 billion. Russia has the least maturing, or $13 billion.

Rising borrowing costs forced Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailouts from the European Union and IMF. Italy’s 10- year yields exceeded 7 percent last month, a level that preceded the request for aid from those three nations.

Bad Combination

“The buyer base for peripheral Europe has obviously shrunk at the same time that the supply coming to the market is increasing, which is not a good combination,” said Michael Riddell, a London-based fund manager at M&G Investments, which oversees about $323 billion.

The two biggest debtors, Japan and the U.S., have shown little trouble attracting demand.

Japan benefits by having a surplus in its current account, which is the broadest measure of trade and means that the nation doesn’t need to rely on foreign investors to finance its budget deficits. The U.S. benefits from the dollar’s role as the world’s primary reserve currency.

To read entire story, click here.

Sandra Emerson, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Created: 12/30/2011 12:17:57 PM PST

UPLAND – The city experienced a number of controversies in 2011 and will continue to deal with some of the legal ramifications in 2012.

Former Mayor John Pomierski’s federal trial is set for April, which may occur during the city election when the mayor’s seat and a council seat is up for re-election.

“Well I hope all those things all come to pass and are resolved,” said Councilman Ken Willis, who will be retiring from the council in November. “I think that if there’s a trial going on in the course of the election all the scabs will be scraped open and painful for a lot of people.”

Pomierski was indicted on federal corruption charges in March.

His co-defendant, Upland contractor John Hennes, has pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement.

The city will be addressing existing litigation involving Pomierski as well as a potential lawsuit.

Pomierski’s civil attorney, Robert Schauer, filed a claim with the city last week demanding they defend him in a lawsuit filed by the owners of the former Chronic Cantina restaurant and bar.

Schauer said he will sue if the city does not agree to provide his legal defense.

The restaurant owners are suing the city for million of dollars in damages, accusing Pomierski and Hennes of extorting money from them. The owners allegedly paid the men $15,000, but when they did not pay an additional $25,000, the city revoked their conditional use permit.

The City Council revoked the permit in April 2009 due to an alleged increase in crime.

To read entire story, click here.

Rep. Ron Paul greets supporters in Dubuque, Iowa, last week. Paul has surged past his rivals to take the lead in the state.

Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Tuesday, December 27, 2011

GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul is barreling into Iowa and New Hampshire with surprising strength as the first 2012 presidential contests approach – a position that comes, in part, from the unconventional ground games and fundraising strategies being waged by impassioned supporters like Alex Beltramo.

Beltramo, 44, a San Francisco game developer, recently unveiled his plan to raise money for the Texas congressman by donating $5 to the Paul campaign for every player who slays a dragon – no kidding – in his online game called “Dungeoneers.”

So far, 1,000 supporters have done the deed, and Beltramo said he hopes to raise as much as $25,000 with fellow dragon-slaying Paul fans.

“For a long time, the media perception was that (Ron Paul) was extreme or kooky, and they didn’t want to talk about him,” said Beltramo, a longtime independent voter who is changing his registration to Republican to cast his ballot for Paul in California’s June primary.

“I really like that he understands the economy and, in terms of foreign policy, he is the only one who is not wearing blinders regarding the costs of the military,” Beltramo said. “Newt Gingrich calls himself a historian, but Ron Paul is the only one who learns from history.”

Surging at the right time

With just days until Iowans hit their Jan. 3 caucuses and New Hampshire holds its primary Jan. 10, the efforts by grassroots supporters like Beltramo are forcing pundits to recalculate the political landscape. Paul has surged to the front of the GOP pack in Iowa and has advanced against Romney’s lead in New Hampshire.

“What are Republican primary voters looking for? Consistency,” said Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin of San Francisco, as he surveys the field of GOP front-runners that has shifted from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to Rep. Michele Bachmann to Texas Gov. Rick Perry to business mogul Herman Cain and lately to former House Speaker Gingrich.

Now it is Paul’s turn at the top – a position that Tulchin said isn’t so surprising, especially with his appeal to the growing ranks of independent or decline-to-state voters.

Paul’s loyal followers – many of them young and independent-minded like Beltramo – are drawn to their candidate as the rare politician who can be counted on to give unvarnished, even potentially unpopular, answers to questions, Tulchin says.

Appeal to independents

Libertarian-leaning voters particularly celebrate that Paul “speaks truth to power,” appears to stand against big government and government spending, and is outspoken in opposition to foreign wars and interventions, he said.

Tulchin’s latest poll shows that independent voters in California are generally “younger, they’re college educated … and there’s less adherence and allegiance to mainstream institutions and parties.”

That’s why Paul appears to be resonating with them, Tulchin said.

To read entire story, click here.

Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are pictured in Iowa in this composite. | AP Photos

By JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEXANDER BURNS | 12/27/11 4:29 AM EST

No matter who wins, Iowa will reshape the Republican presidential race one week from today — and almost certainly in ways that don’t adhere to any semblance of a traditional political script.

All the candidates dream finishing at the top of the pack, but where the losers place and whether they drop out or valiantly trudge ahead could be as significant as who comes in first.

The most recent example from political history: the narrowest of margins separated Fred Thompson and John McCain in the 2008 caucuses, but because Thompson barely claimed third he found a rationale to go forward, skip New Hampshire and make a final stand in South Carolina. That mattered — Thompson’s staying in the race resulted in a split conservative vote in South Carolina which snuffed out Mike Huckabee’s chances at the nomination and enabled McCain to score a critical win and boost before Florida.

In other words: The post-Iowa decision of a candidate who is otherwise politically dead can not only be relevant but even determinative.

And in this primary, where the unforeseen has been the norm, most every candidate has a chance to be an influential supporting actor if not the glamorous lead.

Ron Paul

If there’s an odds-on favorite to win Iowa at the moment, it’s the libertarian Texas congressman with a pair of assets unique in the field: His Iowa supporters are passionate and they are organized.

As it happens, Paul is also probably the candidate whose political fortunes are least dependent on the outcome in Iowa. Because he occupies a totally distinct space in the 2012 field, Paul can count on votes — and, just as important, donations — all the way through the California primary in June.

What Iowa could give Paul, however, is a shot at making the race closer in New Hampshire and subsequent caucus states — such as Nevada — where his campaign has already begun to organize. Internal Paul campaign polling already has him in the low 20 percent range in New Hampshire. The bigger Paul’s margin of victory in Iowa, the better the odds that he can rack up real delegates and embarrass Romney or another national front-runner as the race proceeds.

“A strong Iowa finish, combined with our organization and our support up there — I think we’re positioned to do very well in New Hampshire,” said Paul campaign chief Jesse Benton.

A Paul win in Iowa could also be a gift to Romney’s other would-be conservative challengers. To the chagrin of Paul’s supporters, a runner-up such as Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum could try to effectively nullify a victory by the 76-year-old congressman and argue that they can’t be counted out until they lose to a traditional Republican opponent.

Mitt Romney

The state that did so much to dash Romney’s 2008 White House hopes could go a long way to ensuring he’s the GOP nominee next year. If Romney captures the caucuses and then scores a win in New Hampshire, where he enjoys a double-digit lead, he’ll have done something that no other Republican hopeful has done in modern history and almost certainly be on his way to Tampa as the GOP standard-bearer.

If Romney does lose Iowa again, he’d prefer it be to Paul rather than Gingrich or one of his more traditional Republican rivals. Paul’s success in the caucuses and beyond would be an irritant to Romney’s nomination hopes but not an actual threat. Such has been made clear by Romney advisers who openly muse about the well-organized congressman’s strong Iowa prospects.

To read entire story, click here.

December 23, 2011 1:41 PM
Brooke Edwards Staggs, City Editor

VICTORVILLE • A federal appeals office upheld the termination of Victorville’s EB-5 visa investor center, leaving the city with no option but to pursue a pricey lawsuit or say goodbye to millions in funding they’d hoped to borrow through the program.

City officials got the news Thursday afternoon, with plans to discuss next steps during the Jan. 17 city council meeting.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved Victorville’s Regional Center in 2009, allowing foreign nationals to supply at-risk loans to the city so long as that money helped create 10 local jobs. Investors would then be granted U.S. visas and the loans would have to be paid back five years later with interest.

Nineteen people gave Victorville $500,000 each under the program, and the city intended to use that money to pay back restricted funds borrowed from its water department to build the struggling wastewater plant at Southern California Logistics Airport.

Then, in a precedent-setting move, USCIS terminated Victorville’s program in October 2010 due to “material factual discrepancies” in related financial reports.

Victorville sent USCIS additional information and appealed to that office to overturn the decision, but was turned down in May. The city then filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C. District Court against USCIS, the Department of Homeland Security and several top officials with those agencies, but agreed to pause that civil case as it waited on word from USCIS’s Administrative Appeals Office.

In a letter dated Dec. 21, the AAO affirmed the decision to terminate Victorville’s program.

The appeals office pointed out several fatal flaws in the EB-5 center here, including apparent contradictions between information provided by Councilman Mike Rothschild and the city’s attorneys, conflicts in the timeline of when the city loaned funds versus when it told USCIS they were needed and more.

To read entire story, click here.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) have qualified for the Virginia primary ballot.

Posted at 03:40 AM ET, 12/24/2011

By Anita Kumar

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, state GOP officials said Friday evening and early Saturday.

The Republican Party of Virginia announced early Saturday that Gingrich and Perry failed to submit 10,000 signatures of registered voters required to get their names on the ballot for the March 6 primary.

“After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10k signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary,” the party announced on Twitter.

The rejection is a significant setback for the Gingrich campaign since he is leading the polls in Virginia among likely Republican voters and is seen as a strong contender for the nomination.

Perry’s campaign told state election officials it had submitted 11,911 signatures, and Gingrich’s campaign said it submitted 11,050 signatures. State party officials spent Friday night validating the signatures.

Earlier Friday, the Republican Party of Virginia certified former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) to appear on the ballot.

The four candidates turned in thousands of signatures by the 5 p.m. deadline Thursday.

Jerry Kilgore, former attorney general and chairman of Perry’s campaign in Virginia, said he was disappointed, but that qualifying for the Virginia ballot is a “daunting task.”

“Hopefully, he will do better in other states,’’ he said. “He can focus on other states.”

To read entire story, click here.

By Phil Kuntz and Bob Ivry – Dec 22, 2011 9:01 PM PT

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) — Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, talks about Bloomberg News’ response to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s letter to four senior lawmakers yesterday that said recent news articles about the central bank’s emergency lending programs contained “egregious errors.” Winkler speaks with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance Midday.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Bloomberg News today released spreadsheets showing daily borrowing totals for 407 banks and companies that tapped Federal Reserve emergency programs during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. It’s the first time such data have been publicly available in this form

To download a zip file of the spreadsheets, go to http://bit.ly/Bloomberg-Fed-Data. For an explanation of the files, see the one labeled “1a Fed Data Roadmap.”

The day-by-day, bank-by-bank numbers, culled from about 50,000 transactions the U.S. central bank made through seven facilities, formed the basis of a series of Bloomberg News articles this year about the largest financial bailout in history.

“Scholars can now examine the data and continue the analysis of the Fed’s crisis management,” said Allan H. Meltzer, a professor of political economy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the author of three books on the history of the U.S. central bank.

The data reflect lending from the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, the Term Auction Facility, the Term Securities Lending Facility, the discount window and single-tranche open market operations, or ST OMO.

Bloomberg News obtained information about the discount window and ST OMO through the Freedom of Information Act. While the Fed initially rejected a request for discount-window information, Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, filed a federal lawsuit to force disclosure and won in the lower courts. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to intervene in the case, and the Fed released more than 29,000 pages of transaction data.

Additional Data

The Fed later supplied additional data to fill in gaps in its initial response. Bloomberg News is updating an interactive graphic it first published in August to add the new information.

Congress required the Fed to post data to its website in December 2010 on six broad-based programs, its assistance to Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc. (AIG) and more general information on its mortgage-backed securities purchases and so-called foreign-currency liquidity swaps. Those data were presented in spreadsheets that made it difficult to gauge how much individual banks were borrowing from the various programs on any given day.

Some reported totals from media outlets and government studies varied widely. In connection with today’s release, here’s a by-the-numbers explanation of the variations:

$1.2 trillion — The Fed’s actual lending to banks and financial companies at its single-day peak, Dec. 5, 2008, through the seven programs Bloomberg News studied in depth.

Emergency measures that targeted specific companies — Bear Stearns, AIG, Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. — were excluded from Bloomberg’s analysis because they were previously disclosed. Loans to these companies from the other seven programs were included.

Bloomberg excluded foreign-currency liquidity swaps because names of commercial banks that borrowed under the program haven’t been disclosed to the public.

$1.5 trillion — The Fed’s own number to represent its peak lending. This amount included the foreign-currency liquidity swaps, according to the Fed website. Under the swap lines, the Fed lends dollars to foreign central banks, which in turn lend the money to local banks. Only the names of central banks involved in the transactions have been made public.

The Fed’s tally of peak lending differed from Bloomberg’s in other ways, too. It included the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, which Bloomberg excluded. That program’s borrowers were investors rather than banks. Also, the Fed didn’t include ST OMO. Bloomberg did, based on a March 7, 2008, news release in which Fed officials said they would use the program “to address heightened liquidity pressures in term funding markets.”

$7.77 trillion — The amount the Fed pledged to rescue the financial industry, according to Bloomberg research that examined announced, implied or actual upper limits on lending and guarantees. This number, which represents potential commitments, not money out the door, was first published in March 2009, when it peaked.

“One of the keys to understanding why we’ve avoided another Great Depression, so far, is to see how bold the Fed was in 2008 and 2009,” said Niall Ferguson, a Harvard University history professor. “That boldness consisted of a range of contingency commitments that backstopped the banking system. Just because they weren’t used doesn’t mean they weren’t important.”

After Bloomberg included the $7.77 trillion figure in a Nov. 28, 2011, story, some media outlets mischaracterized it as the Fed’s actual lending. The Fed, in a Dec. 6 memo accompanying a letter Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke wrote to lawmakers, called those mischaracterizations “wildly inaccurate.”

$6.8 trillion — The potential amount the Fed might have lent if “all eligible program applicants request assistance at once to the maximum permitted under the program guidelines,” according to a July 21, 2009, report by the Treasury Department’s Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

In that report, the officials monitoring the Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout fund attempted to determine the Fed’s “total potential support” related to the financial crisis.

Most of the difference between the TARP watchdog’s tally and Bloomberg’s involves one program, TALF. The inspector general attributed its $900 billion capacity to the Treasury, which was guaranteeing some of its lending. Bloomberg grouped TALF with the Fed, which created the program.

$16 trillion — The “total transaction amounts” for Fed lending included in a July 21, 2011, study by the Government Accountability Office, a non-partisan investigative agency that reports to Congress. The Fed’s Dec. 6 memo said it was inaccurate to describe that amount as the total of its lending and guarantees, as some websites did.

To read entire story, click here.