I am surprise that the NYers are not researching your own press.............I found this with little effort
More friends of mr Ahmad?
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Stop the slush!
The Post calls for a ban on ‘member items’ steered by lawmakers into the pockets of family and friends
Last Updated: 4:37 AM, July 17, 2011
Posted: July 17, 2011
They’re out of control.
Member items, earmarks, discretionary funds — by whatever name they’re called, they’re the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer cash that New York lawmakers steer to ostensible community projects but that serve as slush funds for the pols, their families and friends.
And if anything is ever to be done about it, some strong new laws are needed.
Here’s how it works: Legislative leaders dole out cash to their members in return for loyalty, support and votes. The members, in turn, toss the cash around in their districts to buy political backing. That’s corrupt enough.
But lawmakers increasingly steer the money to “nonprofit” groups that they, their relatives and/or their friends control. That makes the whole practice — both in Albany and at City Hall — just another way for pols to line their own pockets and those of friends and family.
Consider some examples of the past few years, many exposed by The Post:
* Rep. Gregory Meeks and state Senate ex-President Malcolm Smith, both Queens Democrats, helped found the New Direction Local Development Corp. The group got $56,500 in taxpayer money from 2001 to 2006 and also raised more than $41,000, ostensibly for Hurricane Katrina victims — though it recorded spending only $1,392 on actual Katrina aid.
Status: The group is out of business and under investigation by the US Attorney’s Office.
* Assemblywoman Vivian Cook (D-Queens) founded the Rockaway Boulevard Local Development Corp. RBLDC got $2.5 million from the Port Authority to improve a stretch of Rockaway Boulevard. It spent $560,500 to buy a still-vacant parcel of land and $255,625 on street sweeping.
Status: RBLDC is shut down and under investigation by the PA inspector general and the US Attorney’s Office.
* State Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Queens) founded The Parent Workshop, to which she steered $30,000. And between 1996 and 2008, she and Cook funneled another $400,000 to another nonprofit, The Parent Information Network, which is run by Huntley’s daughter.
Status: Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is probing both groups.
* Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens) helped found the Community Care Development Project in Queens, which got more than $1.9 million in city and state money, including $481,500 in member items from Clark. Most of that money went to staff salaries to provide many of the same services offered by her district office.
Status: This project is still operating.
* City Councilman Larry Seabrook (D-Bronx) and his friends and family controlled a number of groups, including the Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corp., the Bronx African-American Chamber of Commerce, the African-American Bronx Unity Day Parade, the New York African-American Legal & Civic Hall of Fame, the Mercy Foundation of NY and the Leon Eastmond Educational Excellence Program. Between 2002 and 2009, Seabrook sent $1.2 million in city money to these groups. Nearly half went to salaries for his girlfriend and relatives.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/o...kTSzeO#ixzz1TCe3Cp00
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