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Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club Beacon 113 of Bronx, New York, kicked off their inaugural Jr. NBA/Jr.WNBA basketball season
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Hugh Hewitt asks the question in Down the Bolt Holes.

Using the information from the 2002 990 for the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, Radioblogger has been dialing for directors this afternoon, and has reached a couple, both of whom declined to appear on the program. One told us that all calls were being directed towards the Rubenstein Public Relations Firm. Hmmm. I wonder who’s paying for that? We were also told that bloggers are calling and calling. Heh.

Flap wonders what the Directors of Gloria Wise knew and when they knew it?

Someone including the Congress at hearings should ask them directly.

Here is a clickable thumbnail image of the graphic of the Directors below:

The transcript of Hugh’s interview with Michelle Malkin on the affair should be up at Radioblogger tonight.

Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: Air America, Al Franken, New York City, Evan Cohen, theft

The New York Sun has Franken Unaware Of Ex-Colleague’s Alleged Loans.

The comedian Al Franken, Air America Radio’s most prominent host, said yesterday that he did not know whether the hundreds of thousands of dollars apparently lent to the radio network by a Bronx social-service organization had indeed been relayed to Air America by Evan Montvel Cohen. Mr. Cohen simultaneously served as director of the liberal network and development director of the nonprofit Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club.

Mr. Franken said he has learned details of the story only in the last week. He said Piquant LLC, current owner and operator of the radio network, found a record of the transfers while conducting a “forensic” investigation into the finances of the previous owner, Progress Media, which was run by Mr. Cohen. That internal probe was conducted before the city agency became involved, Mr. Franken said. Efforts by The New York Sun to reach Mr. Cohen for comment in recent days have been unsuccessful.

A Piquant spokesman said yesterday that Gloria Wise would be compensated regardless of the amount of money it transferred. Mr. Franken said he did not know if money from Gloria Wise had been absorbed by the network and used to finance its operations. He said Piquant’s payments to Gloria Wise were scheduled to begin this month but were prevented from going through while the city investigation continued.

Right and it seems that Al Franken is good at passing the buck. This from the Department of Investigation.

A spokesman for the Department of Investigation, Keith Schwam, said that if Air America discovered the transfers before the city probe began, “They neglected to tell anyone at DOI or in the city about it.”

Ok, so Franken wants to blame Cohen, whose wherabouts are unknown, and complained of brain cancer. This isn’t a radio enterprise but a ship of FOOLS.

Mr. Franken said that around the time of Air America’s launch in March 2004, Mr. Cohen said the radio network could survive for three years without making a profit.” It turned out to be three weeks,” Mr. Franken said. “We were all shocked.” Mr. Franken said his most “charitable” interpretation of the Gloria Wise transfers to Air America was that Mr. Cohen had a “dream and tried to keep it going.”

Members of the Gloria Wise executive committee described to the Sun transfers from the club to Mr. Cohen and to Air America that totaled $875,000. They said Sunday that one reason Mr. Cohen cited when asking for personal loans was that he needed money for chemotherapy because he suffered from brain cancer.

Mr. Franken said he did not know whether his former colleague had the disease, but he recalled that Mr. Cohen, a native of Guam who is 39, referred repeatedly to it. For example, Mr. Franken said, he’d complain to Mr. Cohen that studio equipment wasn’t working, “and he’d say, ‘You know, I have brain cancer.’”

“Brain cancer,” Mr. Franken said, “seemed to be his answer to everything.” Mr. Franken said he didn’t know Mr. Cohen’s current whereabouts.

Franken would be probably better off if he saves his comments for the New York and federal investigations which are proceeding.

Next, undoubtedly the ACLU will come to Air America’s rescue and they will all plead the 5th.

Or……blame it on the missing guy with brain cancer.

Michelle Malkin has AIR ENRON: AL FRANKEN SPEAKS.

So: by Franken’s own admission, Air America’s current owners have known for months that their network received a large cash infusion from Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, a non-profit organization funded primarily by government grants. Presumably, they also knew that Gloria Wise’s director of development at the time the money was transferred was also Air America’s chairman at the time–a glaring conflict of interest. According to Franken, the owners still don’t know whether that cash was ultimately placed in Air America’s coffers or diverted somewhere else. (Franken seems to be hinting that the money was embezzled by Cohen.) Yet even as the radio network’s hosts railed on about Enron, it didn’t occur to any of Air America’s accountants, managers, or investors to mention the sketchy Gloria Wise transaction to law enforcement officials until after the city launched its investigation.

Despite the near-total MSM blackout, this story just keeps getting more and more interesting

Gerard Van der Leun calls its Air Scamerica.

N.Z. Bear has coverage

Captain Ed at Captain’s Quarters notes that Franken’s statement seems to differ from the first statement issued by Air America last week.

Silflay Hraka has “Non-Scandals” and Comparative Advantage in Politics

Technorati Tags: Air America, Al Franken, New York City, Evan Cohen, theft

Air district says bovines on the region’s booming dairy farms are the biggest single source of smog-forming gases. The industry takes issue.

The Los Angeles Times has In San Joaquin Valley, Cows Pass Cars as Polluters.

California’s San Joaquin Valley for some time has had the dirtiest air in the country. Monday, officials said gases from ruminating dairy cows, not exhaust from cars, are the region’s biggest single source of a chief smog-forming pollutant.

Every year, the average dairy cow produces 19.3 pounds of gases, called volatile organic compounds, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District said. Those gases react with other pollutants to form ground-level ozone, or smog.

With 2.5 million dairy cows — roughly one of every five in the country — emissions of almost 20 pounds per cow mean that cattle in the San Joaquin Valley produce more organic compounds than are generated by either cars or trucks or pesticides, the air district said. The finding will serve as the basis for strict air-quality regulations on the region’s booming dairy industry.

But, wait….. does California now want to regulate the California Dairy Industry into RUINATION?

The dairy industry will be forced to invest millions of dollars in expensive pollution-control technology in feedlots and waste lagoons, and may even have to consider altering animals’ diets to meet the region’s planned air-quality regulations. Not surprisingly, industry officials challenged the estimate as scientifically unsound.

“Science is supposed to guide this regulation, not fairy dust,” said Michael Marsh, chief executive officer of Western United Dairymen, a lobbying group that said it was considering a lawsuit to block regulations based on the new finding. “It’s impossible to capture emissions that scientists can’t even detect.”

SKEPTIC: Frank Mitloehner on the UC Davis campus. “If you closed all the dairies in California tomorrow, you would not see much of an impact on ozone formation,” he said.

Good Grief, it sounds like another protracted battle in the courts.

Cow burps and farts – the bureaucratic regulators and big government folks never cease to amaze me.

Tecnorati Tags: California Dairy Industry, cows, San Joacquin Valley

Local Liberty has The Origins of Smog: Cows vs. Cars.

They ridiculed Reagan for saying trees cause pollution (the Smoky Mountains). But now the highly respected LA Times comes forth with a report on the pollution caused by cow flattulence (Miguel Bustillo).

The consequences: “The San Joaquin Valley, Houston and Los Angeles have the three worst air-pollution problems in America.” This is an old story, but now we have the science and the prestigious imprimatur of the LA Times to confirm ancient anecdotes. Of course the regulators are closing in: “Officials said they may also require dairies to alter the food cows eat in order to reduce flatulence. New dairies will be required to use the best available equipment to curtail emissions. Existing dairies will face less-restrictive requirements, but will also be forced to make changes to reduce cow gases.”

The search for a bovine Beano will draw the attention of America’s best agricultural scientists. Maybe the Governor will support a bond measure to subsidize such research, as he did, to draw this gassy discussion to a somber close, for stem cells.

Steve Hayward on this at The Corner.

Exactly!

And the Indepundit has Bovine Flatulence.