Two Democrat incumbent members of the U.S. House are running against each other in a primary for Illinois’ 6th Congressional district, leaving an opening for a possible Republican pickup in November.
Representatives Sean Casten and Marie Newman are set to face off in the June 28 Democrat primary.
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U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford entered a not-guilty plea for a silent Detroit City Councilman André L. Spivey in U.S. District Court in Detroit Tuesday to accepting over $35,000 in exchange for council votes.
Spivey was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Stafford reportedly agreed to the release under the conditions that Spivey to give up his enhanced driver’s license, his passport and his expired concealed-carry permit.
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by Chuck Ross A former FBI official accepted gifts from the media and leaked sealed court information to reporters, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog found. According to a summary of a DOJ inspector general’s report released on Wednesday, the former official, who served as a deputy assistant director, accepted a $225 ticket from a reporter to a media-sponsored event. The official, who is not identified, also allegedly provided law enforcement sensitive information to reporters on “multiple” occasions without authorization of the bureau. The official “had dozens of official contacts with the media” in violation of FBI policy, the report alleges. The inspector general also found that the former official may have been in contempt of court by allegedly disclosing the existence of information that was under a court seal. The Justice Department declined prosecution of the official. The investigation is cited in a June 2018 inspector general’s report on the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general (IG), said in the previous report that investigators found that “dozens” of FBI employees had contacts with the press. “The large number of FBI employees who were in contact with journalists during…
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by Masood Farivar In Algeria, it was banned from bidding for public contracts after one of its executives was convicted of bribery. In Zambia, it was probed over allegations of bribery involving a multi-million-dollar contract to build cell towers in rural areas. In the Solomon Islands, it was accused of offering millions of dollars to the ruling party in exchange for an undersea fiber optic cable contract. In all three cases – and half a dozen others in recent years – the alleged perpetrator was Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecom behemoth facing scrutiny from Western nations over allegations of intellectual property theft and espionage. Saying it poses a national security threat, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand have banned the company from building new, state of the art 5G telecom networks. Other Western countries are debating over a similar ban. Security concerns about Huawei and other Chinese telecom equipment providers are mounting after U.S. prosecutors last month charged the company founded by a former People’s Liberation Army officer with violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, purloining trade secrets from T-Mobile and encouraging its employees to steal intellectual property. The focus on national security concerns about Huawei has eclipsed a little reported…
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