Category: Courts and law
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Tobacco Commission Needs Huge Makeover
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka One more glaring example of mass corruption in Virginia is the grandly named Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission formed 14 years ago to dole out Virginia’s share of a $206 billion settlement among 45 other states with cigarette makers. I’ve been writing for years about how millions of dollars are…
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Richmond’s Tech Star in Kickback Scheme?
By Peter Galuszka Critics of the American healthcare system have long cited hidden charges as one reason why costs are so high and why reform is needed. So, it is disturbing to read a report on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal that Health Diagnostic Laboratory, arguably the most successful of the biotechnology…
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Whatever Happened to Ken Cuccinelli?
By Peter Galuszka During the grueling, nearly-six-week-long trial of former Gov. Robert F. and Maureen McDonnell that ended Thursday, one prominent political figure seemed oddly absent – former Atty. Gen. Kenneth Cuccinelli. The firebrand conservative who lost last year’s gubernatorial contest to Democrat Terry McAuliffe was a significant player in the McDonnell scandal. He took…
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The Day The Guilty Verdicts Came In
By Peter Galuszka Day Three of waiting. The jokes in the tiny seventh floor media room of the U.S. District Court Building have grown stale. We’d discuss what the jury ate for lunch (Padows? Jimmie Johns?) which we could see as the trolley rolled through the security doors. We were amusing ourselves by reading a…
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Guilty!
So, the jury has convicted Bob McDonnell of 11 of 13 counts and Maureen of nine. I’m stunned. The prosecution presented no evidence of quid pro quo, and evidence of a conspiracy struck me as weak and circumstantial. But I didn’t attend the trial, I didn’t hear the full testimony, and I didn’t get to appraise the…
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Why There Will be No Ethics Reform
By Peter Galuszka As the McDonnell corruption trial moves towards its end, the predictable stories are decrying – once again – Virginia’s absurdly lax ethics laws and why they must be toughened. There’s the usual observation that the five-week extravaganza of a trial that is drawing international attention will put the state on an entirely…
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Bringing out the Knives
by James A. Bacon There is a rising tide in the op-ed pages, TV commentary and blog commentary that former Governor Bob McDonnell is a brutish, swinish cad for portraying his wife Maureen as the heavy in the corruption trial. You’ve got to love liberals. They’re so very compassionate… until they’re talking about their wounded enemies.…
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Maureen McDonnell and Sexism
By Peter Galuszka Sitting for hours listening to former Gov. Robert F. McDonnell testify in his federal corruption trial makes one wonder exactly what his values are, especially as they relate to women. His entire legal strategy is to “Throw Maureen Under the Bus” – namely his lawyers and those of his co-defendant wife Maureen…
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McDonnell on the Stand
Former Governor Bob McDonnell took the stand yesterday, defending his conduct in connection with Jonnie Williams Sr. and Star Scientific in precisely the way one would expect: Other than providing access to government, something that every governor does, he said, he did Williams no favors. As the Times-Dispatch summarized his testimony, “He never used discretionary funds at…
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Mo Maureen and Po’ Maureen
by James A. Bacon More interesting testimony from the McDonnell trial yesterday. In the balance, the defense bolstered its case. But it was not entirely convincing. The other Maureen. Mo McDonnell, Bob McDonnell’s little sister, was a successful business executive who had worked for IBM, Regent University and Amerigroup, culminating with a salary of $540,000…
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Throwing Maureen under the Bus
by James A. Bacon The full dimensions of the McDonnell family tragedy came into clearer focus yesterday as attorneys representing Maureen and Bob McDonnell launched the defense phase of the corruption trial… by throwing Maureen under the bus. Defense witness Janet Kelly, Secretary of the Commonwealth in the McDonnell administration, described as “diva-ish” and so difficult with…
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The Prosecution Closes on a Weak Note
by James A. Bacon The U.S. Justice Department closed its case in the McDonnell trial on a weak note Thursday as cross examination of FBI Agent David Hulser confounded the narrative prosecutors were trying to establish of a financially desperate first family. Previous testimony had revealed the seemingly damning fact that Maureen and Bob McDonnell had accumulated…
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Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt
OMG! Maureen and Bob McDonnell owed $75,000 on seven credit cards when Bob took office as governor in 2010. Their credit card debt peaked at $90,000 later that year. The first family managed to pay down its debt to around $31,000 the next year, apparently after Maureen inherited some money, according to the Times-Dispatch. Think about…
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Sands Shift under McDonnell Defense
by James A. Bacon The McDonnell trial resumed yesterday as the prosecution brought in more witnesses to dot i’s and cross t’s on its case that Maureen and Bob McDonnell conspired to grant official favors to Star Scientific President Jonnie Williams Sr. in exchange for more than $150,000 in loans and gifts. There were no…
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State Workers: GiftGate’s Unsung Heroes
By Peter Galuszka The McDonnell corruption trial, now going into its third week, is an enormously sad and tawdry affair bringing shame on the defendants and the prosecution’s key witness, businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. Yet there are heroes — state employees. A number of them have testified over the past week that they sensed…