February 23, 2018

Lobbyist connected to GIF scandal indicted in Missouri

Rusty Cranford of Rogers, the lobbyist enmeshed but previously not charged in the ongoing probe of kickbacks to legislators from state General Improvement Fund money, was indicted today in Missouri in a million-dollar bribery scheme.

A news release from the Western District of Missouri":

– Timothy A. Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a former executive of a Springfield charity, who was also an Arkansas lobbyist has been indicted by a federal grand jury for his role in a nearly $1 million bribery conspiracy involving a Springfield, Mo., health care organization.

Milton Russell Cranford, also known as “Rusty,” 56, of Rogers, Arkansas, was charged in a nine-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Springfield, Mo., on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018. That indictment was unsealed and made public today upon Cranford’s arrest. An initial court appearance is scheduled tomorrow in the U.S. District Court in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Cranford was both a lobbyist and an employee of Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc. (formerly known as Alternative Opportunities, Inc.), a nonprofit corporation headquartered in Springfield. Cranford served as an executive for the charity’s operations in the state of Arkansas. Cranford also operated two lobbying firms, The Cranford Coalition and The Capital Hill Coalition.

The indictment alleges that Cranford and co-conspirator Eddie Wayne Cooper, 51, of Melbourne, Arkansas, received $264,000 in secret kickback payments from co-conspirator Donald Andrew Jones, also known as “D.A.” Jones, of Willingboro, New Jersey, who was paid nearly $1 million by the charity in a bribery scheme that lasted almost six years, from February 2011 until January 2017.

Cooper, a former state representative in Arkansas from 2006 through January 2011, worked for The Cranford Coalition as a lobbyist and held a full-time position as regional director for Preferred Family Healthcare. Jones was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based political operative who owned and operated the firm, D.A. Jones & Associates, which purported to provide political and advocacy services, including consulting, analysis, and public relations. Neither Cooper nor Jones are charged in the indictment with Cranford; they each have pleaded guilty in separate cases.

Cranford allegedly recommended to the charity’s chief financial officer, chief operating officer and chief executive officer to enter into a contractual arrangement with Jones for lobbying and advocacy services. Cranford influenced the charity in its award of the contract, the indictment says, then demanded payments to himself and Cooper of a portion of the funds Jones obtained from the charity in exchange for Cranford’s influence on Jones’s behalf.

According to the indictment, the charity paid Jones a total of $973,807 to provide advocacy services for the charity, including direct contact with legislators, legislators’ offices, and government officials, in order to influence elected and appointed public officials to the financial benefit of the charity, including attempting to steer grants and other sources of funding to the charity. Jones allegedly paid a total of $264,000 to Cranford and Cooper. Most of the funds were paid to Cranford or one of his firms, the indictment says.

In addition to the conspiracy, the indictment charges Cranford with eight counts of receiving a bribe by an agent of an organization that receives federal funds.

Cranford also figures in a federal probe in the Western District of Arkansas (whose agents worked in Missouri, too) where former Republican Sen. Jon Woods is awaiting trial on charges that he and other drew kickbacks from funneling taxpayer money to Ecclesia College, a church in Springdale. Former Republican Rep. Micah Neal has pleaded guilty. Cranford had previously been identified as a participant in financial machinations involving that scheme.

The Missouri case concerns the activities of a company organized as a nonprofit — and thus limited on political expenditures — that received almost $1 billion in Medicaid-paid sevices in four states including Arkansas.

Read more: https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2018/02/21/lobbyist-connected-to-gif-scandals-arrested

February 23, 2018

Special legislative session could make Arkansas first to regulate pharmacy benefit managers

On Monday afternoon, Governor Hutchinson said he would call a special session of the Arkansas legislature to address low reimbursement rates provided to pharmacies by middleman companies called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. The special session will begin after the ongoing fiscal session — during which the General Assembly typically handles budgetary matters only — though the governor declined to give an exact date.

“Our local pharmacists … are an integral and critical part of our health care system in Arkansas,” Hutchinson said. “We’re a rural state. Independent local pharmacists are very important. … If they go out of business, that’s a problem for our state.”

Insurance carriers hire PBMs to negotiate better prices on pharmaceuticals with drug manufacturers. PBMs also handle pharmacy claims; when a patient with insurance fills a prescription at a pharmacy, the PBM reimburses the pharmacy for the drug in question on the insurer’s behalf. But Arkansas pharmacists say those reimbursement rates have recently dropped so low that they are losing money on many prescriptions, forcing them to lay off employees and, in some cases, go out of business.

The controversy is focused on CVS Caremark, the PBM used by the state’s largest insurance carrier, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. In January, Blue Cross and CVS Caremark made changes that sent pharmacists’ losses skyrocketing, according to Scott Pace, CEO of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association.

Read more: https://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/special-legislative-session-could-make-arkansas-first-to-regulate-pharmacy-benefit-managers/Content?oid=14827000

February 23, 2018

Panel vote advances proposal on tuition

The Legislature's Joint Budget Committee voted Thursday to advance a proposal that would allow taxpayers with 529 college savings plans to use withdrawals for tuition at a public, private or religious elementary or secondary school.

After 20 minutes of debate, the committee voted 34-8 to add an amendment proposed by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, to House Bill 1222, which is the state treasurer's appropriation bill for fiscal 2019 that starts July 1. The committee's Special Language Subcommittee recommended the amendment Wednesday.

The action came after state Department of Finance and Administration Director Larry Walther told lawmakers, "I think philosophically the governor is in support of a bill like this," when asked about Gov. Asa Hutchinson's position on Rapert's proposed amendment.

"Our concern is the budget doesn't have the $2 million that Sen. Rapert discussed or the $5 million that [assistant state revenue commissioner Paul] Gehring has mentioned, so we don't have it in the budget for [fiscal] 2019," Walther said, referring to how much the proposal is projected to reduce state tax revenue each year.

Read more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/feb/23/panel-vote-advances-proposal-on-tuition/?f=news-politics

February 23, 2018

21 people arrested in Little Rock gangs dragnet

Officials say 21 people were arrested on federal charges Thursday morning in a wide-ranging takedown operation, part of a larger effort to target gangs and violent criminals in Arkansas' capital city.

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Cody Hiland, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, reported that authorities that morning arrested 21 of the 49 defendants listed in two complaints and 13 federal indictments.

"Today's operation is a victory over gun, gang and drug violence," Hiland said. "But I want to make it clear, this is just a start of what the combined resources of these law enforcement agencies can do."

The federal office in Little Rock also reported seizing drugs, firearms and vehicles in the Thursday operation, which Hiland said involved more than 250 agents and officers from agencies across the state. According to the release, authorities seized 21 illegally possessed guns, 9.6 pounds of cocaine, 293 Ecstasy pills and 7.2 ounces of crack cocaine, among other drugs. The office also said agents seized four cars, one motorcycle and about $50,000 "in drug proceeds."

Read more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/feb/23/21-people-arrested-in-lr-gangs-dragnet-/

February 23, 2018

Regulators demand Louisiana utility customers get back improperly collected taxes

BATON ROUGE -- Federal taxes for utilities dropped by 14 percent Jan. 1, but the privately owned companies continue to collect at the old 35 percent rate from more than 2 million Louisiana customers.

All five elected regulators on the sharply partisan Public Service Commission reacted Wednesday with rare unanimity in demanding that the utilities to return the tax over-collections post-haste.

“Right now they are charging people for taxes they know they’re not going to have to pay and their ratepayers, right now, are paying bills that are very high because of the weather,” Commissioner Lambert Boissiere III, D-New Orleans, said after the panel’s monthly meeting. “Those benefits should go to the public immediately.”

Republican Commissioner Mike Francis, of Crowley, agreed: “We need the money in the pockets of the people.”

Read more: http://www.houmatoday.com/news/20180222/regulators-demand-la-utility-customers-get-back-improperly-collected-taxes

February 23, 2018

Parents of student who died in fraternity hazing incident slam LSU's reform plan

BATON ROUGE -- Responding to the death of a fraternity pledge last fall, LSU unveiled its highly anticipated corrective action plan on Wednesday -- a list of 28 proposed changes that officials say are meant to tamp down on binge drinking and stop hazing as fraternities and sororities recruit new members.

The plan calls for banning hard alcohol at fraternity parties, requiring supervision at pledge activities, engaging with alumni to create more chapter oversight, and creating a transparency website where disciplinary sanctions for Greek organizations are publicized.

But the parents of Max Gruver, the LSU student whose death prompted the look at Greek Life on campus, said LSU’s proposal is an empty gesture.

“The report epitomizes what happens when task forces like these are comprised of members with vested interests in perpetuating the current, failed Greek Life system,” Rae Ann and Stephen Gruver said in a statement. “The end result here is a report consisting of a lot of words aimed at crafting only the appearance of reform. In reality, it proffers no real meaningful changes to Greek Life that would have prevented the death of our son, any other injuries, or sexual assaults that have plagued LSU’s fraternities.”

Read more: http://www.houmatoday.com/news/20180222/parents-of-student-who-died-in-fraternity-hazing-incident-slam-lsus-reform-plan

February 23, 2018

Alexandria-area student accused of threatening schools, arrested on terrorizing charges

A 15-year-old student in Rapides Parish is accused of sending emails threatening local schools and was arrested Thursday afternoon by the Sheriff's Office.

The student has been charged with five counts of terrorizing and one count of obstruction of justice, according to law enforcement officials, who did not identify the student or or say what school the student attended.

The student is believed to be responsible for emails threatening Alexandria Senior High School, Bolton High School and Northwood High School, according to authorities. The potential threat and Florida school shooting that killed 17 people prompted heightened security across the district this week.

Detectives from the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office, Alexandria Police Department and FBI investigated and say more charges are possible.

Read more: https://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/local/2018/02/22/local-student-accused-threatening-schools-arrested-terrorizing-charges/365044002/

February 23, 2018

Bourbon Street strip club illegally expanded into bar next door

Owners of the Bourbon Street strip club Scores cut a hole into a wall that allowed dancers to take customers into the third floor of a neighboring bar where they performed in private rooms. The neighboring bar, Beerfest, is not licensed as an adult entertainment venue and its license was suspended for 60 days Tuesday (Feb. 20). The business was also fined $3,500 as a result of the illegal strip club expansion and other violations.

Beerfest's suspension came after a nearly four-hour hearing at the New Orleans Alcoholic Beverage Control Board that included extensive testimony about a slew of violations that could threaten to ensnare Scores. The strip club is already on probation after its liquor license was suspended during a series of state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control raids last month in which authorities documented prostitution in the club.

Beerfest and Scores are controlled by a family that also ran two strip clubs, Temptations and Lipstixx, that shut down after the January raids. The Olano family is also facing an eviction proceeding brought by Beerfest's landlord and violations at Scores that are scheduled for another city Alcoholic Beverage Control Board hearing next month.

A fourth Olano-owned strip club, Stilettos, is also on probation following the raids. That club was not the subject of the proceedings Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/02/beerfest_suspension_scores_abo.html

February 23, 2018

Illinois governor drinks chocolate milk to demonstrate his commitment to diversity

CHICAGO -- In an awkward onstage appearance this week, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner drank a glass of chocolate milk to demonstrate his belief in diversity.

"It's really, really good," Rauner said after taking a sip of the sugary drink. "Diversity!"

The clunky corporate metaphor was the brainchild of Hyatt Hotels diversity and inclusion executive Tyronne Stoudemire, who appeared alongside Rauner on Wednesday at the downtown Chicago Thompson Center to discuss workplace diversity at a Black History Month event.

Enlisting Rauner as his lanky magician's assistant, Stoudemire, who is black, poured a glass of milk to represent the white men who lead most organizations (including, um, the state of Illinois).

Read more: http://www.nola.com/national_politics/2018/02/illinois_governor_drinks_choco.html

It could be that I'm lactose intolerant, but this article makes me want to crap both literally and figuratively.

February 23, 2018

Florida inmate lets out scream, yells 'murderers!' as he's executed for 1993 rape and slaying

STARKE, Fla. (AP) -- A Florida inmate convicted of raping and killing a college student decades ago screamed and yelled "murderers!" three times, thrashing on a gurney as he was being put to death Thursday.

The governor's office said Eric Scott Branch, 47, was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. Thursday after receiving a lethal injection at Florida State Prison. Branch was convicted of the 1993 rape and fatal beating of University of West Florida student Susan Morris, 21, whose naked body was found buried in a shallow grave near a nature trail.

Just as officials were administering the lethal drugs that included a powerful sedative, Branch let out a loud, blood-curdling scream, thrashed about on his gurney and then yelled "murderers! murderers! murderers" before falling silent with a guttural groan.

Moments earlier, he had addressed the corrections officers in the room with him by saying that, instead of them carrying out the death sentence, it should have been Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi, both Republicans.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2018/02/fla_inmate_lets_out_scream_yel.html