Retiring as a public employee? You’ll usually get a better deal, and earlier, if disability is the reason. The Long Island Railroad (LIRR) in metropolitan New York has had extraordinarily high disability retirement rates–in some years over 90%–among employees who worked in an alternative universe where relatively low-intensity jobs occupationally incapacitated just about everybody. Not surprisingly, retirement-enabling diagnoses were easy to get from doctors like Peter Ajemian, whose fraudulent work-ups just earned him forced retirement to federal prison.
Monthly Archives: May 2013
Charity Begins at Home
The politician/non-profit nexus–again. Theft, alleges the federal prosecutor; sloppy bookkeeping regarding pay well-deserved, says the defense attorney. Whatever! Cases, alleged and proven, of politicians pillaging non-profits just keep on coming.
Law-Abiding Murderers
The New Orleans homicide rate leads the country, but the city does much better, relative to its big city peers, with other felony crimes. Some think this doesn’t compute.
The Art of Double-Dipping
So, how do you grab a respite from the 24 hour firefighter shift you’re getting paid for? 1) Throw a buddy a few bucks to cover for you for several hours; 2) Spend those hours at another job. Thirteen indicted Cleveland firefighters, prosecutors allege, had this down to a science
Seedy Symbiosis: Pols & Non-Profits
Now it’s official: The New York Times has taken note of how often the resources of non-profits end up in the pockets of local politicians. Maybe the Times reporters have been reading this blog.
PA Capitol Charged by SEC
We’ve been following Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s flirtation with bankruptcy and state takeover thanks to a high-priced municipal incinerator that once promised a bonanza of fees from trash carted in from beyond the city limits. But few customers came and the incinerator’s exotic financing boomeranged in the fiscal crisis. The SEC now contends that things were dire earlier, but Harrisburg found ways not to let on.
Prince of the City
In New York City back in the day, calling someone a “Prince” meant the opposite, way opposite. So here is State Senator John Sampson, a “prince.”
Imagination in Sentencing!
Pennsylvania government more often makes headlines for innovative corruption than for innovative responses thereto. So let’s give justice, in the person of Judge Lester Nauhaus, its due. This blog has been following the saga of now-convicted Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, whose sentence from Judge Nauhaus sends a message other judges can’t miss.