2011 May 12 - Headline News

Editor's note: This is the first of a two part series on George Soros and the media.

When liberal investor George Soros gave $1.8 million to National Public Radio , it became part of the firestorm of controversy that jeopardized NPR’s federal funding. But that gift only hints at the widespread influence the controversial billionaire has on the mainstream media. Soros, who spent $27 million trying to defeat President Bush in 2004, has ties to more than 30 mainstream news outlets – including The New York Times, Washington Post, the Associated Press, NBC and ABC.

Prominent journalists like ABC’s Christiane Amanpour and former Washington Post editor and now Vice President Len Downie serve on boards of operations that take Soros cash. This despite the Society of Professional Journalists' ethical code stating: “avoid all conflicts real or perceived.”

This information is part of an upcoming report by the Media Research Centers Business & Media Institute which has been looking into George Soros and his influence on the media.

The investigative reporting start-up ProPublica is a prime example. ProPublica, which recently won its second Pulitzer Prize, initially was given millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation to “strengthen the progressive infrastructure” – “progressive” being the code word for very liberal. In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of $125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations. In case you wonder where that money comes from, the OSF website is www.soros.org. It is a network of more than 30 international foundations, mostly funded by Soros, who has contributed more than $8 billion to those efforts.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/05/11/dont-hear-george-soros-ties-30-major-news-organizations/#ixzz1MDK8jNT2

Jack Davis, the faux Tea Party candidate and spoiler in NY-26 may have just spoiled Democrats' hopes of snatching the seat in a three-way race.

Davis refused to participate in debates, and when confronted by someone from the Republican Party questioning why, Davis unloaded:


Jack Davis Assault 5 11 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEALbyJDYZY

The Davis campaign, including former Republican candidate David Bellavia, who is backing Davis after Bellavia was passed over for the nomination, are claiming Davis was harassed and provoked.

http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2011/05/jack-davis-ny-26-candidate-smacks.html

Sidwell Friends Sued for $10 Million by Cuckolded Dad

Lawsuit claims "severe emotional distress" caused by alleged affair between a staff psychologist and the married mother of a student he was treating.

By Sommer Mathis

The father of a 5-year-old Sidwell Friends School student has filed a $10 million suit against the school for allegedly allowing its staff psychologist to carry on an affair with his wife.

In court filings, Arthur Newmyer claims he and his daughter suffered "severe emotional distress" when then-school psychologist James Huntington carried on a lengthy affair with his wife, Tara Newmyer. Huntington was treating Newmyer's daughter at the time, and the suit alleges that the girl was routinely present when he and Tara Newmyer would meet to spend time together.

Arthur Newmyer is accusing Sidwell of being aware of the affair and doing "nothing to stop it." The lawsuit, posted below (warning, it contains extremely graphic language), is based mostly on a large volume of e-mails Huntington sent Tara Newmyer from his Sidwell e-mail address over the course of their affair. In one of the more outlandish examples, Huntington appears to joke about contemplating mentioning his sexual desire for Tara Newmyer while in a private professional session with her young daughter.

One other potentially salacious tidbit to come out of the suit, as the Examiner points out: Huntington, who has since been dismissed from the school, taught sexual education to sixth-graders in 2009-2010, the same year that President Obama's daughter Malia was in the sixth-grade at Sidwell.

[continued]
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/people/capitalcomment/19428.html

The invitation of rapper Common to the White House this week is drawing the ire of the union representing New Jersey state police.

While even casual hip-hop fans wouldn't characterize him as a controversial rapper, Common found himself under the microscope after First Lady Michelle Obama invited him to the White House for an arts event. In question: the lyrics to "A Song for Assata," about convicted cop-killer and former Black Panther Assata Shakur.

The White House said Wednesday it stood by the decision to invite Common. Press Secretary Jay Carney said the conservative backlash distorts what Common stands for, and added that the president appreciates Common's work with children in Chicago.

FOX News and Sarah Palin condemned the decision after the Daily Caller published some of Common's lyrics, including some that criticize former President George W. Bush.

For New Jersey police, the outrage centers on "A Song for Assata" lyrics like "Your power and pride is beautiful. May God bless your soul."

[more.....]
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NJ-State-Police-Outraged-Over-Rapper-Invited-to-White-House-121596869.html

A Detroit nonprofit that received a no-bid, $1.2-million contract from the city to provide services to low-income people misspent $200,000 on furniture that ended up in city offices, the Free Press has learned.

The Human Services Department issued the contract last year to Clark & Associates exclusively to pay its employees to assist with the city's food and clothing assistance programs.

But records obtained by the Free Press show the nonprofit spent $210,344 of the contract on furniture that is now at the Human Services Department's office at 5031 Grandy.

By using a service contract to buy furniture, the department violated a city ordinance that requires City Council approval for purchases of more than $25,000, said Greg Murray, vice president and administrative representative for the Senior Accountants, Analysts and Appraisers Association, which represents some of the Human Services employees.

"A department that gave a no-bid contract to a company gets more than $200,000 in furniture?... There's something wrong," said Murray, who made the council aware of the contract and purchase.

[continued....]
http://www.freep.com/article/20110512/NEWS01/105120535/Money-help-poor-people-buys-furniture-Detroit-department?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

May 11, 2011
Obama still running neck and neck with unnamed Republican candidate
by Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ -- Given a choice between Barack Obama and an unnamed Republican, 43% of registered voters say they are more likely to vote for Obama and 40% are more likely to vote for the Republican. This is essentially unchanged from April and February, when voters' preferences were evenly split.

The May 5-8 Gallup poll, conducted after the death of Osama bin Laden, did not pick up the same rally effect in support for Obama's re-election as Gallup Daily tracking has found in the president's job approval rating.

The two-percentage-point increase in support for Obama's re-election over the past month, from 41% in the April 20-22 poll to 43% today, is not statistically significant. But the seven-point rise in Obama's overall job approval rating across the same two polls, from 47% to 54%, is.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/147500/Obama-Approval-Bump-Hasnt-Transferred-2012-Prospects.aspx

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 91% report they are spending more money on groceries than they were one year ago. Only five percent (5%) say they are not paying more for groceries now.

The number paying more is up from 87% in April and is the highest level measured in more than two years. Just over a year ago, 75% felt that way.

Eighty percent (80%) of Americans believe they will be spending even more on groceries in a year's time, up three points from the previous survey and also the highest result found since April 2009. Only three percent (3%) believe they will be spending less money on groceries one year from now. Thirteen percent (13%) expect to be paying about the same amount.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/general_business/may_2011/americans_spending_more_on_groceries_than_ever_before

Rather than face his newly revealed checkered past, a top official from the Obama-backed black chamber of commerce has apparently fled town.

Brandon Trainer, formerly the treasurer for the U.S. Black Chamber, Inc. - the Obama-backed rival upstart to Harry Alford’s National Black Chamber of Commerce - failed to appear in court Wednesday morning and cannot be found by colleagues in Raleigh, North Carolina, according Kim Burke, a leader of the regional black chamber of commerce there.

A private investigator hired to track down Trainer found the furniture in his house had already been removed, Burke said. Trainer faces criminal charges in Missouri for allegedly defrauding a Hurricane Katrina victim out of $1,500. He also lied about graduating from Harvard, which he never even attended as an undergraduate.

Burke said the regional black chamber is scrambling to pick up the pieces left in Trainer’s wake. “Right now everyone is getting hit by the shock and awe of it,” she said. “We still don’t know where the money is.”

Burke blames the U.S. Black Chamber for allowing Trainer to associate with it, which she relied on in trusting him. Officials at the group did not return a phone call.

As reported by The Daily Caller, President Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, has backed the U.S. Black Chamber, bringing its president, Ron Busby, to the White House for bill signings and important speeches, and his staff even helping coin the new organization’s motto, “the national voice of the black business community.”

The catch is: there is already an organization in D.C. called the National Black Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1992 and headed by Alford.

Alford launched a self-described “war” on Obama over the slight, blasting him in an interview with TheDC and calling him a “Marxist” on the radio.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/12/top-official-from-obama-backed-group-jumps-bail-again-disappears/#ixzz1M81Rse3r

This DAY in History:

May 12, 1932:
Body of Lindbergh baby found

The body of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found on this day in 1932, more than two months after he was kidnapped from his family’s Hopewell, New Jersey, mansion.

Lindbergh, who became the first worldwide celebrity five years earlier when he flew The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic, and his wife Anne discovered a ransom note in their 20-month-old child's empty room on March 1. The kidnapper had used a ladder to climb up to the open second-floor window and had left muddy footprints in the room. The ransom note demanded $50,000 in barely literate English.

The crime captured the attention of the entire nation. The Lindbergh family was inundated by offers of assistance and false clues. Even Al Capone offered his help from prison, though it of course was conditioned on his release. For three days, investigators had found nothing and there was no further word from the kidnappers. Then, a new letter showed up, this time demanding $70,000.

It wasn't until April 2 that the kidnappers gave instructions for dropping off the money. When the money was finally delivered, the kidnappers indicated that little baby Charles was on a boat called Nelly off the coast of Massachusetts. However, after an exhaustive search of every port, there was no sign of either the boat or the child.

On May 12, a renewed search of the area near the Lindbergh mansion turned up the baby's body. He had been killed the night of the kidnapping and was found less than a mile from the home. The heartbroken Lindberghs ended up donating the home to charity and moved away.

The kidnapping looked like it would go unsolved until September 1934, when a marked bill from the ransom turned up. Suspicious of the driver who had given it to him, the gas station attendant who had accepted the bill wrote down his license plate number. It was tracked back to a German immigrant, Bruno Hauptmann. When his home was searched, detectives found $13,000 of Lindbergh ransom money.

Hauptmann claimed that a friend had given him the money to hold and that he had no connection to the crime. The resulting trial again was a national sensation. Famous writers Damon Runyan and Walter Winchell covered the trial. The prosecution's case was not particularly strong. The main evidence, apart from the money, was testimony from handwriting experts that the ransom note had been written by Hauptmann and his connection with the type of wood that was used to make the ladder.

Still, the evidence and intense public pressure was enough to convict Hauptmann. In April 1935 he was executed in the electric chair.

Kidnapping was made a federal crime in the aftermath of this high-profile crime.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/body-of-lindbergh-baby-found