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TexasTowelie's JournalGovernor signs $7 billion budget plan
SANTA FE — After years of budget austerity, New Mexico is tapping an oil drilling boom to fuel a massive spending increase.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law Thursday a $7 billion budget plan that will boost state spending levels to an all-time high – with most of the additional funding going to public schools – and give the largest pay raises to state workers in more than a decade.
It will also provide a big cash infusion for the state’s aging road system and allow for long-vacant jobs across state government to be filled.
“Our budget is thoroughly responsible and yet bold in ways that will significantly boost New Mexico families,” Lujan Grisham said Thursday. “As we begin the essential work of rebuilding our economy, education system and government, this budget provides a solid foundation, with healthy reserves, well-earned raises for diligent workers and sizable investments in our children, families and their quality of life.”
Read more: https://www.abqjournal.com/1299718/gov-lujan-grisham-signs-7-billion-budget-tax-package-into-law.html
'I'm agnostic': Pelosi questions whether Medicare-for-all can deliver benefits of Obamacare
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioned whether a health-care proposal embraced by several Democratic presidential candidates would be too expensive and fail to provide the same coverage as the Affordable Care Act.
Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Thursday that she would rather build on the 2010 law and is yet to be convinced the Medicare-for-all proposal pushed by many liberals would achieve its purported goals.
“I’m agnostic. Show me how you think you can get there,” Pelosi said in an interview with The Washington Post. “We all share the value of health care for all Americans — quality, affordable health care for all Americans. What is the path to that? I think it’s the Affordable Care Act, and if that leads to Medicare-for-all, that may be the path.”
She also suggested that Medicare-for-all had become more of a buzzword among political activists in the run-up to the 2020 campaign, a loosely defined concept that few people understood in concrete terms.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/im-agnostic-pelosi-questions-whether-medicare-for-all-can-deliver-benefits-of-obamacare/2019/04/04/fe2942c0-56ed-11e9-aa83-504f086bf5d6_story.html
Baltimore-Washington Parkway Repairs Expedited After Pressure From State Leaders
LANHAM — Responding to deteriorating road conditions on the Baltimore/Washington Parkway, the National Park Service (NPS) announced on March 27 it will use emergency contracting authority to begin repairing the damaged highway.
NPS will begin a new phase of enhanced repairs to fix the road conditions on the parkway on March 29, said an NPS news release. Originally set to take place in the fall, the larger repavement project on the parkway will now begin in mid-April after a push from state leaders.
“The current state of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway is unacceptable – it’s a hazard for drivers and has led to serious congestion and traffic issues,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).
“That’s why I wrote to the National Park Service stressing the urgent need to make these repairs immediately. I appreciate their efforts to work with us and prioritize this issue. This decision will ensure that repair work will begin right away so that Maryland residents can return to a safe, reliable commute.”
Read more: https://pgs.thesentinel.com/2019/04/03/baltimore-washington-parkway-repairs-expedited-after-pressure-from-state-leaders/
Maryland House of Delegates votes to increase school funding by $700M over two years
Maryland delegates voted Thursday to approve a two-year plan to send more than $700 million in extra funding to the state’s public schools.
The House of Delegates voted 112-22 in favor of the bill, called the “Blueprint for Maryland’s Future,” which already passed the Senate by a vote of 43-1.
“It’s a tremendous, tremendous first step,” said Del. Maggie McIntosh, a Baltimore Democrat who sits on the so-called Kirwan Commission, which is studying how best to improve Maryland’s schools. “The goal of Kirwan is for us to have the best educational system in the country and for us to close the achievement gap.”
McIntosh said $52 million in the first year of funding from the bill will go to Baltimore public schools.
Read more: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-kirwan-house-vote-20190404-story.html
Trial in Capital Gazette mass shooting pushed back to November
A county judge has set a November trial date for the man charged with killing five members of the Capital Gazette staff last year, one of two decisions Thursday morning that gave his attorneys more time to consider an insanity defense.
Circuit Court Judge Michael Wachs scheduled the trial to begin Nov. 4. It is expected to continue through Nov. 15. It is the second time the trial date has been moved.
His ruling followed Circuit Court Judge Laura Ripken’s decision to give defense attorneys until April 29 to consider a plea of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity.
Police say a gunman killed Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, Rebecca Smith, Wendi Winters and John McNamara. Six other staff members in the newsroom June 28 survived the attack.
Read more: https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/for_the_record/ac-cn-defense-more-time-ramos-plea-20190403-story.html
University of Maryland Medical System Bills Advance; More Bad News Is Coming, Leaders Agree
The Maryland legislature continues to put the finishing touches on a measure that would restore public confidence in the University of Maryland Medical System by instituting new disclosure requirements for board members, cracking down on board conflicts of interest and restocking the board with new members.
The state Senate voted unanimously Thursday to adopt its version of the bill, with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) praising Sen. Jill P. Carter (D-Baltimore). It was Carter who introduced legislation early in the session to tackle “self-dealing” by UMMS board members.
That bill prompted a Baltimore Sun investigation that ultimately led Mayor Catherine E. Pugh, a longtime UMMS board member, to take an “indefinite leave of absence” from her post following allegations the system purchased more than 100,000 copies of her self-published children’s book, netting her more than half a million dollars, money she did not disclose.
The system’s long-serving CEO was forced to take a leave of absence after the “Healthy Holly” scandal broke. And several UMMS board members — including Pugh — either quit the panel or took a leave of absence.
Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2019/04/04/umms-bills-advance-more-bad-news-is-coming-leaders-agree/
Hogan Vetoes Oyster Sanctuary Bill
Just hours before it was due to go into effect, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) vetoed a bill on Thursday night that would have established five permanent oyster sanctuaries in Chesapeake Bay tributaries. The bill, among other things, would have barred oyster harvesting in the five waterways.
Environmentalists and the bill’s sponsors – House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Chair Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George’s) said the legislation represented the best hope for restoring the Bay’s dwindling oyster population.
But in his veto message, Hogan said the measure “is bad for our watermen” and asserted that it “disrupts a fair process that was working well, and ignores good science and citizen consensus on how to best enhance the oyster population.”
In a statement, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Maryland executive director, Alison Prost, called Hogan’s veto “extremely shortsighted.”
Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/blog/hogan-vetoes-oyster-sanctuary-bill/
South Carolina Woman Admits To Embezzling From Her Employer More Than $2.4 Million Worth Of Computer
South Carolina Woman Admits To Embezzling From Her Employer More Than $2.4 Million Worth Of Computer EquipmentCHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jolynn Denise McHone, 44, of Fort Mill, South Carolina, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David C. Keesler today and pleaded guilty to wire fraud, for embezzling from her employer more than $2.4 million worth of computer equipment, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western district of North Carolina.
Special Agent in Charge John A. Strong, of the FBI Charlotte Field Office, joins U.S. Attorney Murray in making today’s announcement.
According to the filed criminal bill of information and plea documents, from 2006 to 2017, McHone was employed by a Florida-based company as an information technology (IT) procurement manager. In that capacity, McHone was responsible for negotiating IT equipment purchases and lease agreements with the company’s IT vendors, managing IT equipment and purchases for the company and its subsidiaries throughout the United States, including North Carolina, and managing the company’s IT operating budget. McHone admitted in court today that from 2012 to 2017, she engaged in a scheme to defraud her employer by ordering new IT equipment using company funds, and then selling the IT equipment for her own financial gain.
According to court documents, McHone executed the scheme by placing orders for IT equipment to be delivered to a company subsidiary located in Concord, North Carolina, for supposedly legitimate company business. McHone intercepted the deliveries of the equipment, then met a co-conspirator in Charlotte, North Carolina, to whom she sold the equipment for cash, often for as little as 60 percent of the retail value of the equipment. During the relevant time period, McHone admitted that she engaged in dozens of fraudulent IT equipment purchase or lease transactions. Through this scheme, McHone obtained hundreds of fraudulently-acquired pieces of equipment, and caused losses of more than $2.4 million to the company.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc/pr/south-carolina-woman-admits-embezzling-her-employer-more-24-million-worth-computer
Former CEO of Tennessee Pain Management Company Convicted for Role in Approximate $4M Medicare
Former CEO of Tennessee Pain Management Company Convicted for Role in Approximate $4 Million Medicare Kickback SchemeA federal jury sitting in Nashville, Tennessee found the former CEO of a Tennessee pain management company guilty today for his role in an illegal kickback scheme involving approximately $4 million in tainted durable medical equipment (DME) claims to Medicare.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Don Cochran of the Middle District of Tennessee, Special Agent in Charge Derrick Jackson of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Atlanta region, Special Agent in Charge John F. Khin of the Department of Defense, Defense Criminal Investigative Service's (DCIS) Southeast Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line of the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) Charlotte Field Office – Nashville Division and Director David Rausch of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation made the announcement.
After a seven-day trial, John Davis, 41, of Franklin, Tennessee, the former CEO of Comprehensive Pain Specialists (CPS) of Gallatin, Tennessee, was convicted of all counts including, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, and seven counts of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute. Sentencing has been scheduled for later this year before U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell Jr. of the Middle District of Tennessee, who presided over the trial.
According to evidence presented at trial, Davis abused his position as CEO of CPS to arrange for referrals of Medicare DME orders to his co-conspirator Brenda Montgomery and her company, CCC Medical, located in Camden, Tennessee. Evidence showed that Davis operated a shell company called ProMed Solutions (ProMed), which he had registered in the name of his wife. Despite having no involvement with ProMed and performing no work, Davis’ wife and ProMed received over $770,000 in illegal kickbacks. Together, Davis and Montgomery pocketed over $2.4 million dollars in improper reimbursement from Medicare. Davis used company funds from CPS to pay bonuses to CPS providers who ordered DME for Medicare beneficiaries and referred those orders to CCC Medical. Davis would receive 60 percent of the Medicare profit from those referrals, while the company he ran footed the bill.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-ceo-tennessee-pain-management-company-convicted-role-approximate-4-million-medicare
Staten Island Man Sentenced to 36 Months' Imprisonment for $2.5M Real Estate Investment Scheme
Staten Island Man Sentenced to 36 Months’ Imprisonment for $2.5 Million Real Estate Investment Scheme Targeting Elderly VictimsEarlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Yevgeniy Braziler was sentenced by United States District Judge Ann M. Donnelly to 36 months’ imprisonment for his role in a scheme targeting investors, including numerous elderly victims, by selling them partnerships in fraudulent real estate companies. The amount of restitution will be determined by the Court at a later date.
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Philip R. Bartlett, Inspector-in-Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service, New York Division (USPIS), announced the sentence.
“Braziler has now been held accountable for fleecing the victims of his fraudulent scheme, many of whom were elderly when they were targeted, and nearly half of whom are now deceased,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue. “The Department of Justice and this Office are committed to protecting investors, especially the most vulnerable, from predators like the defendant.”
“The day of reckoning has finally arrived for Mr. Braziler who lacked the moral compass to do the right thing for his investment clients,” stated USPIS Inspector-in-Charge Bartlett. “In many of these cases, he stole from seniors who worked their entire lives saving for a brighter future. Mr. Braziler will have plenty of time in prison to consider the impact his crimes have had on the victims in this case.”
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/staten-island-man-sentenced-36-months-imprisonment-25-million-real-estate-investment
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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