May 3, 2014

Dan Quayle ruins World Airways and loots it.

Private equity firm Cerberus Business Finance, LLC, is looting a bankrupt airline that for 66 years ferried troops and equipment to war zones in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Cerberus' greed has tragic consequences for pilots and flight attendants now without a job, a paycheck or health insurance.

Cerberus took control of the bankrupt airline, World Airways, and retroactively cancelled the pilots' health insurance coverage without telling them. A pilot who'd been with World for 25 years went into a coma thinking he was covered. When he came out of the coma, he found Cerberus had cancelled his health insurance -- and he owed $2 million for his medical care.

As president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, I have seen private equity firms plunder company after company, taking rich fees for themselves and cutting costs until there's nothing left to cut. Time and again I've seen their reckless behavior drive companies to declare bankruptcy. When the dust settles, you can count on Wall Street contracts being honored. And you can be pretty sure contracts with workers will be abrogated.

That's pretty much what's happening with World Airways, a passenger and cargo carrier that sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2013. The airline shut down on March 27, 2014 because it had no money. All employees were fired that day.

World Airways was a profitable company until another private equity firm, MatlinPatterson, came along and loaded it with debt. They collected handsome fees and interest until Cerberus -- run by former Vice President Dan Quayle and former Treasury Secretary John Snow -- threw the airline in the trash along with its employees. Many of the flight attendants and pilots had served their country and company since the Vietnam War.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-p-hoffa/cerberus-loots-bankrupt-a_b_5225964.html

May 3, 2014

Dallas judge who asked victim if she cried during rape has recused herself from case

First some background provided in a great Dkos post:

1. A 14-year old girl is raped by 18-year old self-confessed rapist.
2. Judge gives rapist only 45-day jail sentence after facing 20 years.
3. Judge defers rapist's 5-year probation - no need for him to get any help.
4. Judge orders rapist to do community service at rape crisis center.
5. Judge asks victim during trial, several times, if she cried during the rape.
6. Judge tells press, "She's not the victim she claims to be." - not a virgin.
Now go back to #1 where it says, 'girl is raped'.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/03/1296542/-Dallas-Judge-Asks-Victim-If-She-Cried-During-Rape-5-More-Actions-That-Make-This-Judge-Unfit


Now the recusal:

State District Judge Jeanine Howard has recused herself from the case of a rapist she sentenced to five years probation.

Howard’s decision came Friday in reaction to the fallout from last week’s sentence for 20-year-old Sir Young, who admitted to raping a 14-year-old girl at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where both were students. Young was 18 at the time of the 2011 assault.

n addition to the sentence, Young does not have to stay away from children, attend sex offender treatment, undergo sex offender evaluation or refrain from watching pornography.

Howard told The Dallas Morning News that she gave Young his light sentence in part because his victim wasn’t a virgin and “wasn’t the victim she claimed to be.” She declined to comment Friday beyond the statements she made Thursday night.

After Howard’s recusal, the case is now assigned to state District Judge Carter Thompson.


http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2014/05/dallas-judge-recuses-herself-from-case-of-admitted-rapist-sentenced-to-probation.html/

May 3, 2014

Covered CA: This is what happens when you don't have the GOP or Tea Party standing in the way.

For example, the state and advocates focused on successfully growing California's Medicaid program, a decision that's been somewhat overlooked in recent months with all of the attention on the exchange. More than 600,000 state residents got coverage through California's early expansion of Medi-Cal, the Low-Income Health Plan. And "we spent literally tens of millions of dollars [reaching out] to the lowest-income people," says Daniel Zingale of the California Endowment.

The state and community groups also planned to pour more than $200 million dollars into exchange-related awareness and outreach, and while some of the marketing materials were panned as being too dry and earnest -- Covered California made a commitment to stay away from "funny" advertisements -- the final numbers speak for themselves, several state officials told California Healthline.

Even when the exchange's website crashed under demand in early October, California was able to weather its early difficulties and bounce back -- a pattern of flexibility that generally persisted throughout the enrollment period.

Meanwhile, the other purported pace cars couldn't keep up, largely because of technical failures. Maryland's website stalled out. Oregon's never got out of the gate. Even vaunted Massachusetts had problems with its exchange's engine.

California's aggressive pursuit of Obamacare implementation allowed the state to maximize year one of coverage expansion, experts say. For example, when Covered California released its latest enrollment update last Thursday, the sheer totals were striking. As of April 15:

1.4 million people had signed up for private plans through the exchange -- about twice as many as expected;
1.9 million people had enrolled in Medi-Cal, with 1.1 million coming through the exchange and 600,000-plus coming through the Low Income Health Plan; and
1.3 million Latinos had obtained coverage through the exchange or Medi-Cal.


http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2014/April/28/California-Healthline-Exchange-leads-victories.aspx

May 2, 2014

General Motors recall could haunt Congressional candidate Debbie Dingell

Not all top officials from that time may find it so easy to stay out of the GM recall story as it unfolds, however. Debbie Dingell was GM’s Executive Director of External Affairs and Constituent Relations in 2005, overseeing the company’s marketing strategies, community relations and its relationships with labor, suppliers, dealers, business organizations and constituency groups. She too retired from GM in 2009. But after her husband John Dingell, the long-serving Congressman from Michigan’s 15th district, announced his retirement in February this year, she announced she would run for his seat.

Debbie Dingell declined to answer questions about the 2005 coverage of the ignition shutoff problem. However, she said through a spokeswoman that she knew nothing about the troubles besetting the Cobalts and other small cars when she worked for GM. “Her responsibilities were not related to the engineering and design segment of the business and she was not part of the management group related to or responsible for recall decisions,” says Liz Boyd, Dingell’s spokeswoman. Boyd says Dingell was not aware of the articles in the Times or the Plain Dealer and was not aware of the instructions sent to dealers and service managers regarding the ignition cut-off problem.

GM has named a former federal prosecutor to investigate what the company knew about the problem as it unfolded. Company spokesman Greg Martin said of the 2005 Times story, “It was printed in the paper and we’ll have further information as it becomes available.”


http://time.com/70932/general-motors-recall-debbie-dingell/

May 2, 2014

Indicted Ex-Gov. Bob McDonnell Gets A Teaching Gig At Liberty University

Liberty University announced this week that it had recently named a new distinguished visiting professor in government: former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

“I am privileged to have the opportunity to teach the outstanding young people at Liberty University who will be future leaders for the state and nation," McDonnell said in a statement issued by the university. "Liberty’s international reach, dynamic growth, and focus on excellence make it a force in higher education."

A press release put out by the university made no mention of the multiple crimes federal prosecutors have accused McDonnell of committing. Earlier this year, McDonnell and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, were indicted in federal court in connection to the tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans they accepted from a wealthy Virginia businessman. They have pleaded not guilty and said repeatedly that their actions were not illegal. Instead, Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. said in a statement that McDonnell "will add another dimension to the educational experience of Liberty students by teaching leadership."

"He achieved great success as governor in making Virginia one of the nation’s most business-friendly and fiscally sound states while getting people to work together for the common good," Falwell said. "These experiences uniquely qualify him to teach our students about every aspect of serving in public office.”


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bob-mcdonnell-joins-liberty-university