Geragosian and Ward named new state auditors

Pharmaceutical Industry Fraud
The corporate defrauding of Taxpayers (eg. Medicaid and Medicare) and Prescription Drugs with skyrocketing prices was the subject of a report by Public Citizen's Dr. Sidney Wolfe and his associates (see citizen.org). Dr. Wolfe's team compiled a total of 165 federal and state settlements since 1991 totaling $19.8 billion in penalties. A key finding is that the drug industry's penalties under the Federal False Claims Act exceed even those assessed against the overcharging defense industry for f...

Governor-elect Chafee sets ground rules for his Cabinet at day-long retreat at URI
Among those at the orientation are, from left, Christopher F. Koller, health Insurance Commissioner; A.T. Wall, corrections director; Craig S. Stenning, director of the Behavioral Health Care, Development Disabilities, and Hospitals; Col. Brendan Doherty, State Police superintendent; and David R. Gifford, Health Department director. WEST GREENWICH — They met in a secluded spot surrounded by woods and farmland, gathering for an all-day event that would feature a dozen presentations on topic...

Public safety overhaul looms for next mayor
When Chicago police release crime statistics for 2010 after the end of the year, violence is expected to be down across the city -- even in the face of a major hiring slowdown of rank-and-file officers. The decline might suggest Public Safety won't be one of the major Headaches facing Mayor Richard Daley's successor, but the reality is more complicated. While murders and shootings have fallen across the city, gun violence still clings mercilessly to some neighborhoods and in the process raises...

Lifers gain parole at faster rate
The rate at which the state Parole board doled out “get out of jail free” passes to lifers skyrocketed by 50 percent last year — a shocking spike that enraged State Legislators who proposed tough new laws after the tragic shooting death of a Woburn cop. Gov. Deval Patrick’s seven-member Parole board sprang 35 out of 88 convicts serving life sentences in 2009, or 40 percent, a Herald review found. By comparison, the board paroled just 29 out of 108 lifers, or 27 percent, ...

Lifers gain parole at faster rate
The rate at which the state Parole board doled out “get out of jail free” passes to lifers skyrocketed by 50 percent last year — a shocking spike that enraged State Legislators who proposed tough new laws after the tragic shooting death of a Woburn cop. Gov. Deval Patrick’s seven-member Parole board sprang 35 out of 88 convicts serving life sentences in 2009, or 40 percent, a Herald review found. By comparison, the board paroled just 29 out of 108 lifers, or 27 percent, ...

North Dakota Legislators Support Changing State Pensions To Defined-Contribution Plans
Like every other state in the union, North Dakota’s Pension funds are in big trouble. The oil boom, and the resulting economic resiliency the state has enjoyed, hasn’t protected the Pension funds though North Dakota is in a better position to fix the problem then most. And the fix is obvious: State workers need to be on a defined-contribution plan instead of a defined-benefit plan which is what they have now. Defined-benefit plans, which is the model used for most public worker pensi...

Rendell gives Corbett voluminous info on Pa.
HARRISBURG - Gov. Rendell has presented his successor with the equivalent of a State Government playbook, including details on the workings of dozens of agencies and even a lengthy cautionary note on the fiscal crisis ahead. In thousands of pages meant to smooth the transition for Republican Gov.-elect Tom Corbett, who takes office next month, Rendell administration officials prepared extensive files on 25 state agencies under the control of the chief executive. The documents paint a bleak finan...

Cuomo shifts State of the State site to signal new era
The Assembly chamber won?t be the focus of attention for the State of the State next week, but it was Wednesday as state Supreme Court Presiding Justice Anthony V. Cardona, left, swears in Assemblyman Ron Canestrari of Cohoes and other top Democrats. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) ALBANY -- In 1923, Gov. Alfred E. Smith, a former actor known for his booming Irish tenor, announced that rather than writing his annual address to the Legislature, he would deliver it in person to colleagues in the Ass...

Cuomo's State of State gets a new room
ALBANY -- In a break from tradition, Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo will deliver his State of the State address in the Empire State Plaza Convention Center instead of the Assembly Chamber. "This innovation has two points," Cuomo said on WGDJ Talk 1300 AM. "Let's invite the people of the state -- because this about reconnecting with the people of the state, building trust and building a relationship -- and let's introduce a more productive partnership with the Legislature." Roughly 1,000 tickets for th...

State Of The State Venue Change
Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo will not deliver his State of the State address in the Assembly chamber, as has been the custom for the past several decades. In a joint press statement, the Cuomo administration and the Speaker of the Assembly announced that he will instead speak from the Empire State Plaza’s Convention Center. Obviously, there has been much talk about the political fight that Cuomo and Silver are likely to have over Budget cuts, and Controversial fiscal policies like a proper...

Cuomo moves State of the State from Capitol
In a break from tradition, Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo will deliver his State of the State address in the Empire State Plaza Convention Center instead of the Assembly Chamber. “This innovation has two points,” Cuomo said on WGDJ Talk 1300 AM. “Let’s invite the people of the state, because this about reconnecting with the people of the state, building trust and building a relationship, and let’s introduce a more productive partnership with the legislature.” Roughly 1,000 tic

Cuomo Moves State of State To Larger Venue
Incoming Gov. Andrew Cuomo will hold his first State of the State address in the Empire State Plaza Convention Center, a larger venue than the traditional Assembly chambers. Cuomo said holding the Jan. 5 address in the convention center will allow “regular” state citizens to attend and participate. General admission tickets will be provided through a lottery, but details were not yet available. It is also unclear how many seats will be available to the public. The Speech will also ...

Malloy To Show Fairfield Co. Some Love As Gov.
HARTFORD, CT (WCBS 880) -  When Dan Malloy was elected Governor of Connecticut, there was an enthusiastic show of thumbs up from members of the business community in Fairfield County. The region has long been known as the lost stepchild. It’s seen more as a part of New York than Connecticut. Malloy says this will change when he takes office. “People in Fairfield County need to understand that there is a Governor who is fully cognizant of the problems of Fairfield County,...

Malia Cohen among new San Francisco supervisors
Malia Cohen was on a City Hall field trip in third grade when Dianne Feinstein, who was mayor of San Francisco at the time, invited the class into her office. The young Student was hooked. "It wasn't just the grandeur of the rotunda that really left an impression on me. It was also Mayor Feinstein, who talked about working in public service," said Cohen, now 32. "I knew I wanted to work at City Hall." On Jan. 8, Cohen will be sworn in as a member of the Board of Supervisors, one of four newcom...

Long-term fixes needed
More great blogging from Ezra Klein, in this case two excellent items about the stimulus package. I think the real policy takeaway here, and in general from the events of 2007-2010, is that the anti-recession regime built after the New Deal could stand to use some tweaking. Some of the automatic stablizers either don't work as well as they did thirty or more years ago or aren't really as important any more. For a whole set of reasons, immediate direct employment is harder for the government to...

Whistleblower Protections Halted by Tyranny of One
Given the current Debt and Deficit, it was a huge blow to our economy to see S. 372 die in the Senate. Countless studies indicate that Whistleblowers are the number one safeguard of Taxpayer Dollars. Each year, whistleblower Lawsuits under the False Claims Act save Taxpayers nearly one billion dollars. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study of corporations globally found that employee disclosures were responsible for detection of more Fraud than auditors, internal compliance officers, wand law ...

BEST OF THE WEB: The Western World's Murder of Logic and Reason
© vaticproject.blogspot.com Dog Poet Transmitting....... Does anyone still not know that 9/11 was done by Mossad and the CIA, along with various parties in certain government agencies and sundry? Most of us are not Hackers and we don't deal with secret cables leaked by Whistleblowers 'or' deliberately leaked after being sanitized in order to give the appearance of veracity. You would think that someone who is involved in intelligence information would have the intelligence and informatio...

Sad Lindsey Graham Completely Ignored By 2012 Candidates
Though the 2012 Presidential Campaign is not officially underway, it has been going on behind the scenes for approximately 40 years or so by now, because this sort of thing takes a lot of preparation. These days, Potential Candidates are calling senators and influential members of Congress from Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina as part of the long courtship to get their Endorsements, which are rather pointless to the voters but for some reason indicate a candidate’s health to the med...

Getting Below the Surface
We of course know that the November 2, 2010, Elections were historical on many different levels. The Republican gains of 63 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate dwarf the Republican Revolution of 1994 and double the historical average gains in the Senate for a party out of power. These gains were made despite a cash-strapped Republican National Committee (RNC), strategic decisions by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) to spend $8 million in the long-shot California Senate race...

Virginia's governor looks over his first year, calls it 'fair'
RICHMOND Gov. Bob McDonnell was all smiles on a breezy day in late March as he stood outside the State Capitol to discuss the prospect of drilling off Virginia's coast. At the time, the venture was seen as the payoff for his dogged pursuit of federal clearance for offshore energy exploration as a way to create new jobs, Tax Revenue and money for roads. But the excitement gave way to disappointment after the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico prompted the Obama Administration to reverse its decis...

Schwarzenegger's legacy: Green laws and red ink
A month before the historic recall that drove Gov. Gray Davis from office in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in a TV commercial making a promise to California voters. "Here's my plan," he said. "Audit everything, open the books, and then we end the crazy Deficit spending. If you're happy with the way things are, keep your current leaders. If you want to change this state, then join me." Voters joined in droves, but Schwarzenegger's promises echo distantly as he prepares to leave office seve...

GOP presidential hopefuls paying attention to Nevada
Nevada was a political afterthought for Republicans in the 2008 Presidential Election. Caucus votes were nonbinding, meaning delegates could change their minds about whom to support, so Candidates focused on other more influential states rather than risk wasting time and money in Nevada. But that strategy seems to be changing, with the state GOP deciding to make caucus votes binding. Now that Nevada can boast real political juice, Republicans toying with the idea of presidential bids are scoping...

Rewards of Insomnia Open Thread
So it is 0-dark hundred the night before this one, and I wake up and I can’t resume unconsciousness, so I sneak to the spare room and grab my infallible insomnia cure, a volume of the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and I open it at random and start reading. An entry or two into my session, I come across a biographical entry for a long-obscured figure in French financial history, Étienne de Silhouette, who in 1759 had a very brief (eight months) and unpopular (at least ...

Nick Clegg to front plans for elected Lords
The cabinet is expected to agree that 80% of the House of Lords should be elected, in a move Nick Clegg will depict as the most far-reaching changes to the upper house since 1911. Photograph: Leon Neal/AP Nick Clegg will next year outline plans for the most far-reaching changes to the House of Lords since landmark reforms 100 years ago by a Liberal government ended the upper house's ability to block Britain's annual Budget. In a move to shore up the position of the beleaguered Liberal Democr...

Why We Won't Get Along
In the wake of the most productive lame-duck congressional session in years—the crux of which was a grand bargain between Mitch McConnell and Barack Obama, who until recently seemed as if they could cooperate on absolutely nothing—devotees of Bipartisanship have renewed their flagging hopes. These seem to include the president himself, who commented: “If there’s any lesson to draw from these past few weeks, it’s that we’re not doomedto endlessgridlock.”...