REVEALED: Harvard cleared Claudine Gay of plagiarism WITHOUT proper investigation - as furious colleagues blast Ivy League school's 'irregular' and 'opaque' probe into under-siege president
It now emerges that an inquiry into plagiarism was not launched until November 2: academics at Harvard have said they disapprove with the university's actions
Louisiana's outgoing anti-prison Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards pardons 56 inmates - including 40 MURDERERS - after shortening sentences and increasing paroles in a bid to lose the state's position as the country's biggest jailer
John Bel Edwards, 57, was sworn in as governor of Louisiana in January 2016: the only Democratic governor in the South, he steps down, term limited, in January
Edwards has tried to end Louisiana's status as the biggest jailer per capita in the United States - almost double the national average
He has pardoned 56 inmates statewide between October and December, including 40 convicted murderers
Former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke, one of the most powerful and longest-serving politicians in the Windy City, was found guilty Thursday of racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion after a six-week-long federal corruption trial.
The 79-year-old Democrat was convicted on 13 of the 14 charges leveled against him in a 2019 federal indictment accusing the veteran Chicago City Council member of using his position to steer business from private developers to his law firm.
Prosecutors also alleged that Burke threatened to block a measure raising admission fees at Chicago’s famed Field Museum over its failure to grant an internship to the daughter of a former alderman, whom he had recommended.
Burke’s shakedown scheme targeted the developer working on a $600 million renovation of Chicago’s Old Post Office, a Burger King in the former alderman’s 14th Ward and Midwest liquor store chain Binny’s Beverage Depot.
Burke, 79, faces a maximum of 110 years in prison. APThe former Chicago alderman was found guilty of 13 of the 14 corruption charges brought against him by federal prosecutors. AP
“Did we land the, uh, tuna?” Burke told former Alderman Danny Solis, who wore a wire for two years as federal authorities investigated the case, in an apparent reference to his desire to land the Old Post Office developer as a client for his law firm specializing in property tax appeals.
In another recording played for the jury, Burke told Solis that the developers could “go f–k themselves” if they thought they would get favorable treatment from him without their business.
The disgraced city official also repeatedly played up that he could help the developer – 601W Companies LLC of New York – in a dispute with Amtrak because of his close ties with a board member for the rail operator.
“We made his daughter a judge here in Cook County. And one of their other daughters is a friend of my daughter … You’ll find out Chicago is a very small town,” Burke said in one recording.
“Jews are Jews, and they’ll deal with Jews to the exclusion of everybody else … unless there’s a reason for them to use a Christian,” Burke also told his colleague, referring to the lead developer of the Old Post Office renovation project, who is Jewish. Burke is Roman Catholic.
Burke was also accused of shutting down remodeling work at a Burger King owned by Zohaib Dhanani after the fast-food franchise operator didn’t respond to Burke’s request to employ his law firm.
“It seems like the two were being linked together … the property taxes and the permits,” Dhanani told jurors.
“Maybe since I had not responded about the property tax business, maybe that’s why it would have been shut down,” Dhanani testified. “I didn’t see any other reason why it would be shut down.”
Peter Andrews, a political aide to Burke, and developer Charles Cui were on trial alongside the former alderman, who resigned in May.
Cui was found guilty on bribery charges after he hired Burke’s law firm in an effort to get the ex-alderman’s help resolving a pole sign dispute with the city related to his Binny’s Beverage Depot property. Burke had the city’s buildings commissioner look into Cui’s sign issue the same day his firm signed Cui up as a client.
Burke faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in federal prison.
He left the courthouse with his wife, retired Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Burke, without speaking to reporters.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has announced that it has appointed Pierre Krahenbuhl, who was dismissed from the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) amid controversy, to be its new director-general.
The UNRWA has been a source of controversy itself in recent years, particularly since the Hamas terror attacks of October 7th rocked the nation of Israel. The UNRWA has been accused in recent years of distributing materials that glorify terrorism, and the organization's relationship with terror group Hamas came under additional scrutiny recently when UNRWA tweeted that Hamas had misappropriated aid materials intended for Palestinian refugees, only to later retract the tweet without adequate explanation.
Krahenbuhl's tenure at the head of UNRWA was particularly turbulent. Krahenbuhl was effectively forced out in 2019 amid an internal investigation that accused him of ethical lapses and mismanagement - accusations that Krahenbuhl strongly denied. The internal investigation largely concluded that Krahenbuhl was innocent of the charges against him.
Krahenbuhl has a lengthy history of working in high level positions with the ICRC, which has itself come under increased scrutiny for its alleged willingness to turn a blind eye to the murderous activity of terror groups, including Hamas. ICRC now faces a lawsuit in Israeli court which accuses the aid organization of refusing to provide aid in a proper fashion to the hostages which are currently being held by Hamas in violation of international law. A spokesman for ICRC responded to the lawsuit by saying that the Red Cross has "been meeting with Hamas at all levels and undertaking humanitarian diplomacy efforts to gain access to people being held, to be able to visit them and bring the necessary items, like medicines."
According to a report from Jewish Insider, the University of Minnesota is considering a radical professor who was seen chanting "Globalize the Intifada" during an on-campus rally for a position as Associate Dean of the university's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office.
Ford said on Thursday that half of all 1,550 Ford dealers chose to sell electric vehicles in 2024 - down from two-thirdsthat said this time last year that they would opt in to sell EVs for 2023.
The Houthi war on commercial shipping in the Red Sea just escalated in a big way, at least in the minds of national security officials. Western intelligence sources have issued new statements alleging that Iranian intelligence is directly assisting Yemen's Houthi forces with targeting information, after more than two months of war in Gaza has seen some one hundred or so drones and missiles threaten both US warships and container vessels in regional waters.
"Iran’s paramilitary forces are providing real-time intelligence to Yemen’s Houthis that the rebels are using to direct drones and missiles to target ships passing through the Red Sea, Western and regional security officials said," a Friday report in The Wall Street Journal says. This is reportedly via one or more Iranian spy ships which patrol the same waters.
The trial of the pro-democracy activist and former media tycoon is being watched by many as a test of political freedom and judicial independence in Hong Kong.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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