February 25, 2019

Unlicensed Moreno Valley insurance agent charged with stealing $174,000

A Moreno Valley woman has been charged with stealing $174,000 from port truck drivers and charter bus operators who gave her cash after she told them it would speed up getting the policies they needed to work, the state insurance commissioner’s office said.

Instead, unlicensed insurance agent Connie Free, 34, used the payments “for her own use,” a news release from the agency said. The money never reached the insurance companies.

The scheme included issuing some victims fraudulent certificates of insurance and insurance identification cards, the agency said.

-snip-

Free, whom court records say also uses the name Connie Loot, was free after posting bond on bail set at $198,552.27, the docket shows. She was arrested on Jan. 10. Court records on Sunday did not give the name of an attorney for her.

Read more: https://www.sbsun.com/2019/02/24/unlicensed-moreno-valley-insurance-agent-charged-with-stealing-174000/

Notable because of her name and her alias.

February 25, 2019

Former Berkeley Co. school board CFO Brantley Thomas sentenced to 63 months; owes $1.2M restitution

Brantley Thomas, the man accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Berkeley County School District as its chief financial officer, was sentenced to 63 months in federal court today.

Thomas is facing both state and federal charges that include forgery, embezzlement, money laundering and public corruption.

The federal indictment alleges the 62-year-old used some $450 thousand, he took from the district to pay for things like travel and memberships to exclusive, private clubs.

While he was employed with the BCSD, Thomas was responsible for paying millions of dollars to vendors who provided services for the school district. Prosecutors determined the bulk of his scheme played out when he would intentionally overpay some vendors.

Read more: https://www.berkeleyind.com/news/former-berkeley-county-school-board-official-brantley-thomas-sentenced-to/article_a4822556-3533-11e9-8cac-a77bc8365adc.html

Mr. Thomas was ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution. Addition state charges are pending.

February 25, 2019

Are Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders headed for a collision?

by Dan Balz, The Washington Post


MANCHESTER, N.H. - Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., got a rousing reception from a ballroom filled with Democratic activists here Friday night, with multiple standing ovations and a lengthy photo line afterward. In a week when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., joined the presidential race with a bang, it was the kind of reaction that pointed to the competition to come, here and elsewhere.

With the Democratic field already large and growing, handicapping the contest for the party's 2020 nomination remains a fool's errand. Most activists are eager to look but not yet ready to buy. But even at this early stage, it seems inevitable that Warren and Sanders will find themselves in direct competition as the campaign unfolds.

The two senators are fierce critics of what they call a rigged system, which they argue has hurt working and middle-class Americans. Both are scourges of big banks, big corporations and the billionaire class of political donors and influencers. As a result, they are seen - accurately or not - as having overlapping populist messages and therefore potentially overlapping constituencies.

They share something else in common likely to bring them into conflict. As next-door neighbors to the state with the nation's first presidential primary, they enjoy what historically has been a built-in advantage in New Hampshire. That means heightened expectations and the pressure to perform well here. Asked by reporters if she would win the primary here next year, Warren replied, "I'm sure going to try." She hasn't much choice.

Read more: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Are-Elizabeth-Warren-and-Bernie-Sanders-headed-13639497.php

February 25, 2019

Judge rules men-only military draft unconstitutional in court win for San Diego men's group

A federal judge has ruled that a men-only draft is unconstitutional, but he stopped short of ordering the Selective Service System to register women for military service.

The Houston judge sided with a San Diego men’s advocacy group that challenged the government’s practice of having only men sign up for the draft, citing sex discrimination in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection clause.

“This case balances on the tension between the constitutionally enshrined power of Congress to raise armies and the constitutional mandate that no person be denied the equal protection of the law,” wrote U.S. District Judge Gray Miller of the Southern District of Texas.

The lawsuit was filed in 2013 against the Selective Service System by Texas resident James Lesmeister, who later added San Diego resident Anthony Davis and the San Diego-based National Coalition for Men as additional plaintiffs.

Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/sd-me-military-draft-women-lawsuit-20190223-story.html

February 25, 2019

Tea Party supporter allegedly assaulted during protest outside 'Build the Wall' dinner

A man was placed under citizen’s arrest and issued a citation by the Sacramento Police Department for battery Saturday night amid a protest against a California Tea Party Caucus event downtown.

The caucus held a “Build the Wall Dinner” at Claim Jumper restaurant while the state GOP’s annual convention was underway, prompting nearby protests.

Around 7:39 p.m., a group of “anti-wall protesters” were on the 900 block of 11th Street when a “Republican party supporter” was allegedly assaulted, Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Vance Chandler said.

A video given to The Bee by John Berry, one of the attendees, shows about 15 protesters outside the restaurant shouting.

Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article226709009.html

February 25, 2019

An error-free state payroll? It'll be at least four more years, controller says

Before she leaves office in four years, State Controller Betty Yee wants to make progress on an elusive task in California state government: overhauling the state’s outdated and dysfunctional payroll system.

“It’s a priority of my second term,” Yee said in an interview. “I want the damn thing started.”

Five of the state’s 21 bargaining units have contracts expiring in July. Any pay or benefit changes that come with new contracts will once again test the error-prone system, instituted in the Vietnam War era when the state had 40 percent fewer employees and wasn’t engaged in collective bargaining.

Two years ago, the International Union of Operating Engineers filed a grievance with the state when its members hadn’t seen a pay increase won in contract negotiations three months earlier. State employees commonly experience trouble getting paid on time.

Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article226651969.html

February 25, 2019

This board used to collect billions in California taxes. Voters might get to kill it.

A California tax agency that used to collect tens of billions of dollars a year could be snuffed out for good if the Legislature moves forward with a pair of bills that would kill what’s left of the Board of Equalization.

Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, D-Sherman Oaks, wrote the bills that would finish an effort the Legislature began two years ago when it stripped the Board of Equalization of almost all of its power, budget and staff.

Back then, the Board of Equalization had more than 4,200 employees and handled about $60 billion a year in taxes and fees. It was the only elected board in the country that both set tax collection policies and weighed appeals from taxpayers. Its core duties were written into the state constitution.

Its once-expansive authority now mostly rests in two separate departments, neither of which is governed by elected politicians. The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration collects dozens of taxes and fees, while the Office of Tax Appeals weighs complaints.

Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article226663084.html

February 25, 2019

Investment Seminar Con Artist Gets Prison for Ponzi Scheme

A businessman who portrayed himself as a real estate expert and taught investment seminars in Southern California has until noon on May 13 to surrender his freedom following a conviction for running a Ponzi scheme that duped victims out of $3 million.

Onetime Orange County Sheriff’s Department reserve deputy, Shawn Watkins used his The Equity Growth Group and Investors Workshop Inc. to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering from at least 2010 to 2013, according to federal prosecutors.

Watkins and co-conspirator Angel Bronsgeest of Lake Forest promised investors they would make legitimate profit-producing real estate deals but instead diverted victims’ money for their own use and maintained the mirage by partially repaying older investments with newer incoming funds.

Prosecutors say the scam robbed life savings from numerous individuals.

“You gave monthly speeches on how easy it was to not only make money but at the same time uplift the lives and living conditions of renters so they could become homeowners themselves one day,” one angry victim told U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney about his experience with Watkins. “You were regarded highly by your peers in real estate, giving many examples of your success and problems you overcame. You made sure we knew you had been a policeman, which gave you an air of respect and trustworthiness we are supposed to have for law officers. . . . You have taught me not to take people and situations at face value, no matter how good the snake oil looks.”

Read more: https://ocweekly.com/investment-seminar-ponzi-scheme/

February 25, 2019

Feds Foil Boatload of Asian Immigrants from Entering U.S. on Orange County Beach

Fourteen foreign nationals, mostly Asian, made it about 80 nautical miles from Mexico into the U.S. on Jan. 28 before landing their boat on an Orange County beach inside the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, running across Pacific Coast Highway and attempting to hide near Huntington Harbor.

After the military base’s security witnessed the breach and notified the Huntington Beach Police Department and its counterpart in Seal Beach, officers found and arrested 11 Asian males, an Asian female and two Latinos—none of whom had government permission to enter this country.

Local officials turned the immigrants over to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, who transported them to the San Clemente Border Patrol Station for processing.

Inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, a federal agent with the California Border Enforcement Security Task Force (“LA-BEST”) filed paperwork against three of the people apprehended: Julio Cesar Murillo-Arce (conspiring to bring “illegal aliens” to the U.S.; Jinglong Lin (illegal re-entry in the U.S. after having been deported in the past); and Diego Heriberto Hernandez-Ramirez (who is facing the same charge as Lin).

Read more: https://ocweekly.com/asian-immigrants-boat-smuggling/

Interesting comment at link:

February 25, 2019

Lawsuit: Portland boss harassed employee after she had 'menstruation accident' at work

A Portland woman is suing her former employer, claiming the CEO of the company harassed her after she had a “menstruation accident” at the office.

Lydia Groenendyk rushed home to change clothes, told the CEO of Trailhead Marketing in Northeast Portland why she was absent and then immediately was bombarded with inappropriate comments, according to her lawsuit and Portland attorney Michael Fuller. The suit claims that the CEO also told Groenendyk’s co-workers about her accident, which happened Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed Saturday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

The suit currently seeks $1 but says Groenendyk intends to seek punitive damages at a later date.

Read more: https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/02/lawsuit-portland-boss-harassed-employee-after-she-had-menstruation-accident-on-the-job.html