Tag: Corruption

Attorney General Bill Schuette on Friday announced felony charges against 11 individuals from across Michigan for allegedly abusing the Medicaid-funded Independent Living Services Program (Home Help Services Program). In many cases the defendants, who were often family members of the Medicaid beneficiaries, allegedly received checks for services rendered to the beneficiaries after they died.

Schuette filed criminal charges against Ollie Brent, 59, of Pontiac; Marilyn Davis, 45, of Harper Woods; Janet Dixon, 59, of Grosse Pointe Woods; Anna Goree, 35, of Detroit; Theresa Hines, 40, of Marcellus; Kristina Jurek, 44, of Macomb; Selandra Jo Mitchell, 46, of Detroit; Marilyn Oakes, 57, of Muskegon;  Patricia Ann Tompkins, 65, of Roseville; Sherita Ware, 38, of Detroit; and Carla Williams, 44, of Pontiac.  All 11 defendants improperly received Medicaid funds intended to pay for home help services for Medicaid beneficiaries. In total, the 11 defendants defrauded the Medicaid program out of more than $60,000. Schuette says

 "Vulnerable adults across Michigan depend on Medicaid personal care services, but scammers who abuse the program threaten its integrity. The message is clear: we will not tolerate any form of health care fraud at the expense of patients and taxpayers."

Welcome to Detroit from A Wild Kristen Appeared on Vimeo.

As noted from WXYZ.

One of the team members tells 7 Action News that their professor even shed a tear while watching the ad.

Some of the ideas are familiar, but limited in ways typically embraced by establishment Republicans.

Rand Paul's visit to Detroit was precipitated by a conference call being reported by the Detroit News. In it, Senator Paul speaks of enterprise zones, with taxes so low as to "bail yourselves out". Adding to this an loosened visa incentive for a flow of foreign "entrepreneurs" into the city.

Paul, widely considered a 2016 potential presidential candidate, said he will introduce legislation Monday to create "economic freedom zones" by dramatically lowering taxes in depressed areas and loosen visa rules to encourage foreign entrepreneurs to immigrate to the city.

"We hope to create taxes so low you essentially are able to bail yourselves out," Paul said Thursday in a conference call outlining his plan.

I wonder how that would work?

Maybe something like this?

"Mr Chen, you are welcome to stay, invest, develop, and work in our country. However, you are limited to this particular region. If for some reason you are not satisfied there, I guess you are out of luck."

"Welcome to the Hotel Detroit. Love it, or get the hell out of our country.."

Which of course begs the question of what happens to those who emigrate, and decide to move somewhere a little safer than Baghdad of Michigan? When "loosening visa requirements," it seems that a genie let out is a little hard to stuff back in the lamp. Its hard to imagine 'restrictive' movement placed on those who simply seek a better life, and upon finding out that Detroit is no better than the hole they left, it is highly likely that they will indeed "seek" such a place.

And it seems we have heard those words about foreigners feeling welcomed before.

In certain pockets, there is limited investment which he feels represents a turning point. His optimism is clearly tempered by what leadership might or might not do however.

"The more city government gets cleaned up, and gets better organized, thats going to naturally help my business. Cause it changes the perception people have of the city, through city government."

Whole Foods cannot anchor the ghost ship of Detroit by itself.

Former Detroit Mayor and trendsetter Kwame Kilpatrick got what he earned (again) yesterday with a 28 year sentence for being a good Democrat.

In other news, a pay for play [victim] complains:

"Construction company Walbridge wants as much as $5 million in restitution that prosecutors want awarded to Detroit because company officials argue the firm was victimized by Kilpatrick's criminal scheme."

Its even asked:

"Legal expert Peter Henning has said the companies involved in the conspiracy were going to be needed by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office to help prosecute the case and that it's "hard to distinguish" whether the payer of a bribe is also culpable of a crime.

If this is a true and factual account, (there is no reason to suspect it is not) then there had best be some heads mounted on the Attorney General's trophy room wall before long. Scotty Boman, former US Senate candidate and current candidate for Detroit City Clerk underwent an assault on his person July 30, and his rights were violated by those who pledge to serve.  According to the Michigan Libertarian website:

Campaigning has become dangerous for Detroit City Clerk candidate Scotty Boman. According to Boman, a member of the WCCCD campus police attempted to intimidate him while he was taking pictures of his opponent's (Janice Winfrey) signage at the early voting location at the Northwest Campus of WCCCD on Tuesday July 30th. After he moved to where volunteers for other candidates were handing out literature, he was assaulted by the officer, then thrown to the ground by additional officers as he attempted to hand campaign literature to a passers-by. Boman said he was then held prisoner until a campaign forum, that the officers knew he was scheduled to attend, was nearly over.

"As soon as I took out my camera and pointed it at Janice Winfrey's banner (which was draped over the voting location's entrance) this one officer stormed out of the polling place and shouted, `What do you think your doing!' I responded that I was taking a picture of the banner." Boman went on to say, "I then went to take a picture of another nearby sign that read `Vote here Janice Winfrey City Clerk.' At this point a poll-worker, came out to where I was taking the picture. I started recording video of our conversation regarding Winfrey's signage when the Officer who previously shouted at me came out and told me to put away the camera. I asked if my photography was illegal, and which law it violated. I emphatically stated that I would follow her instructions immediately if she asserted I was breaking the law, but she could not cite any."

After he was detained in a closet by police.  

Trespassing?  On publicly owned property?

The bizarro side of the world is wondering what you might be up to, but we have less tolerance for the games.  Don't play on their turf, because at some point you will realize all the friends you brought with you are gone. A realization of the truth will make short work of this:

"Consistency and the state constitution demand that Attorney General Bill Schuette fight to protect the pensions of Detroit retirees from being downsized in bankruptcy court. It's Schuette's job to defend state laws, and he can't pick and choose which ones he fights to protect.

Schuette filed Monday to intervene in the bankruptcy proceedings on behalf of pensioners.

The move puts him at odds with Gov. Rick Snyder, who supports Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's position that retirees will have to sacrifice along with other creditors to resolve Detroit's $18 billion debt."

The Michigan Constitution has many things that need to be enforced, but Article 9 Section 24 cannot be used in this case. The average Joe can tell you that Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the US constitution says so.

"Both state legislation and state courts tended to use debtor-creditor laws to redistribute money from out-of-state and urban creditors to rural agricultural interests. Under the Articles of Confederation, the states alone governed debtor-creditor relations, and that led to diverse and contradictory state laws. It was unclear, for instance, whether a state law that purported to discharge a debtor of a debt prohibited the creditor from trying to collect the debt in another state. "

The constitution of the US is primary. Federal bankruptcy law which is derived from specific mandates it is absolute under this example.