City Council member Larry Seabrook has been indicted in the continuing probe into the slush fund scandal.

The 13-count indictment charges Seabrook with soliciting and accepting bribes, extortion, money laundering, and funneling tax money into phony nonprofits that existed only to benefit him and some of his relatives. In addition, there are a number of unnamed "Seabrook associates" who allegedly helped carry out his schemes.

This was not a surprise; it was pretty well known that Seabrook was under intense scrutiny throughout the past couple of years, and that an indictment would probably be handed down early this year. What remains to be seen is how many (if any) of the charges will stick.

Meanwhile, there is little chance that the City Council will take action against Seabrook unless he is convicted. That is not only standard practice, but also proper; a person is supposed to be presumed innocent, and no matter how serious the charges Seabrook deserves that same presumption.

Seems like the Republican National Committee is disguising a fundraising letter as a Census form! I got this email from Congressman Loebsack of Iowa:

I was very disappointed when I heard from concerned citizens in the 2nd District that Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, has sent a fundraising appeal into our district that looks like an official Census document. This fundraising letter even calls itself a 'Census survey' and asks people to pay for the cost of processing the census form.

The Census is vital for our communities because an accurate count helps ensure that Iowans get adequate funding for schools, roads, and hospitals. It is also critical for flood recovery, and helping our disaster stricken neighbors.

Please look for your official Census in the mail over the next few months. It will not ask for party affiliation or for money.

That the RNC would target our district shows just how determined they are to take back the House. Please stay vigilant and please be in contact if you see any further attempts to mislead our community: info_at_loebsackforcongress.org.  read more »

The way mainstream media operates, you will usually find that after the “big” story dies down -and after the flaming headlines have simmered- there is little follow up to the initial newsworthy event. So lately, you will hardly find coverage from the aftermath of the latest cataclysm to affect the Caribbean nation of Haiti. And yet for the millions of Haitians affected by the disastrous earthquake 12thJanuary, 2010, life must go on. And life for most Haitians continue to be challenging -even more so than it was before the earthquake hit. For Caribbean-Americans like me, it is really nice to see that many members of the New York city council are still finding ways to help the Haitian community at large.  read more »

Lately there has been some controversy swirling around the decisions of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein, relative to proposed school closings all over the city. If memory serves me right some players in this brouhaha have even gone to court to stop some (or all) of the proposed closings. I am told that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) has opposed some (if not all) of these closings -at least in principle. But then the teachers union is usually an adversary of the chancellor’s office in an almost perfunctory manner, so this isn’t surprising. Now, let me preface this column by stating this: there are surely schools which should be closed -given years upon years of delivering poor quality education to its students; so I am not one trying to look over the shoulders of Department of Education (DOE) officials on the ground. Let’s be clear about that from Jump Street.  read more »

I missed this earlier. One more blow against the Wall Street and Corruption candidate Harold Ford, jr: