corruption

2013-04-04: The Philadelphia Inquirer's Paul Nussbaum reports this morning that there's a major federal investigation of crimes allegedly committed in the name of "economic development" involving the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) the bistate agency that operates the four major toll bridges linking Philadelphia with the south Jersey suburbs on the east bank of the Delaware River.

Mark Compton CEO of the Pennsylvania Turnpike says his Office of Compliance has been directed to launch a "thorough review" of every professional-services contract that was cited in the Attorney General’s presentment and "those contracts awarded during the timeframe of the OAG's (Office of the Attorney General's) investigation that currently remain active."

He is also contacting all service providers to the Turnpike and sending them copies of the reformed procurement policy of April 2012.

2013-03-13: The state attorney general Kathleen Kane has filed criminal charges against five former officers of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, two vendors and a former leading Democrat state senator in so-called pay-to-play corruption. This follows nearly four years of a grand jury and police investigations. The attorney general said that a "pay-to-play culture permeated" the turnpike.
Charged are:

The 33rd Pennsylvania Investigating Grand Jury (33GJ) gained fame by busting Jerry Sandusky a well-known university football coach on scores of child molestation charges, plus others who covered for the queer creep. 33GJ is also striking fear into guys at the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

It must be last year when the press people at the PANYNJ told us we had to file a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request for simple information about this authority's new toll system procurement - a close to $100 million project. We'd asked for the $-number of the four competing bids and the scoring of each bid by the various criteria used to evaluate them.

The choice of contractor was amazing. Even people who worked there were amazed they got the job!

After an 18 month investigation the New Jersey state controller Matthew Boxer reports that the bistate operator of four toll bridges and a rail transit line in the Philadelphia area is riddled with corruption and mismanagement. In a press release Boxer says: "In nearly every area we looked at, we found people who treated the DRPA like a personal ATM (bank cash dispenser), from DRPA commissioners to private vendors to community organizations.

Who is least corruptible - appointees of elected officials, or elected officials themselves? That's the issue being discussed in Florida in the context of a tussle at the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA).

A test of the new Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, his secretary of transportation Barry Schoch and new executives at the Pennsylvania Turnpike will be the little hamlet of Breezewood PA in Bedford County PA.  Are they serious about the convenience of motorists and reform of the Turnpike, or will they perpetuate one of its most blatantly corrupt political rackets?

One of the old giants of American physics Harold (Hal) Lewis, professor at Princeton, Berkeley, Bell Labs, and Uni Cal Santa Barbara has finally resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) after protracted efforts to get them to appoint a panel to reconsider alarmist pronouncements on global warming. He says the premier professional associations of American physicists has been corrupted by government grants and zealotry.

The Illinois Tollway is due to get a permanent Inspector-General to investigate wrongdoing at the state toll authority. The law signed lasts week by Governor Quinn follows allegations by the Feds that ex-Governor Blagojevich used his influence at the Tollway to extort money from contractors.

Ironically the Tollway IG will be appointed by the Governor, who gets to appoint the Tollway board.  The IG will be appointed for a 5 year term.