Thursday, April 9, 2015

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 9, 2015


I know, I know... too much time on FaceBook... not enough time blogging...


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4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-manager-put-on-leave-after-alleged-assault-at-headquarters/2015/04/08/cb31c412-ddf9-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html

The Secret Service has put a senior supervisor on leave and suspended his security clearance after a female employee accused him of assaulting her after-hours at agency headquarters last week, the agency said Wednesday.

The D.C. police’s sex-crimes unit and a government inspector general are investigating the female agent’s allegation that Xavier Morales, a manager in the security clearance division, made unwanted sexual advances and grabbed her on the night of March 31 after they returned to the office from a party at a downtown restaurant, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the probe.

* WERE THEY DRUNK? HAD THEY BEEN DRINKING? AND IF SO... IS IT COMMON PRACTICE TO ALLOW DRUNKEN PERSONNEL ACCESS TO WHAT AMOUNT TO "SECURED PREMISES?"

The woman told police and agency investigators that Morales, her boss, told her during the party at Capitol City Brewing Company...

* I'M GONNA "GUESS" THAT DRINKING WAS INVOLVED...

...that he was in love with her and would like to have sex with her, according to two people briefed on her statements. In the office later, she alleged, Morales tried to kiss her and grabbed her arms when she resisted, according to the two people briefed on her complaint. The woman alleged that the two scuffled until Morales relented.

* SO... WHY DID SHE ACCOMPANY HIM TO THE OFFICE WHEN THEY WERE BOTH OFF-DUTY AND... er... PROBABLY DRUNK? (AND AFTER WHAT HE HAD TOLD HER AT THE PARTY...???)

* WHY ARE BOTH OF THESE CLOWNS NOT BEING SUSPENDED? (DOES THIS WOMAN STILL RETAIN HER BADGE AND GUN...?!?!)

Through an agency spokesman, Morales declined to comment, and he did not respond to requests for comment left on his personal phone.

Late last week, the Secret Service took the unusual step of placing Morales on indefinite administrative leave and adding his name to an internal “do not admit” list...

* PERHAPS A "NO DRUNKIN' HORNY PEOPLE" LIST SHOULD BE CREATED IN LINE WITH THE EXISTING "DO NOT ADMIT" LIST...

...prohibiting entry to the office, a Secret Service official said. The Secret Service also took away his gun and badge after agency investigators launched a preliminary review of the complaint and conducted “subsequent corroborative interviews” Thursday afternoon, said agency spokesman Brian Leary.

* AGAIN... WHAT OF THE WOMAN... THE WOMAN WHO SEEMS TO HAVE ACCOMPANIED HIM BACK TO THE OFFICE FOR SOME "STRANGE" REASON?

“The Secret Service is an agency that demands that our employees conduct themselves with the highest level of integrity."

* NO IT'S NOT! WE ALL KNOW THIS! (WHO DOES THIS CLOWN THINK HE'S FOOLING...?!?!)

"These allegations as reported are very disturbing,” Director Joseph P. Clancy said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Any threats or violence that endangers our employees in the workplace is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

* BY THE WAY... WHAT ARE SECRET SERVICE REGULATIONS WITH REGARD TO DRINKING WHILE ARMED?

* TO BE CONTINUED...

April 9, 2015 at 4:57 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

The inquiry marks the second time in a month that the Secret Service has dealt with alleged staff misconduct after a work-related social event. The Obama administration is looking into a March 4 incident in which two senior agents, returning from a retirement party at a downtown bar, drove an agency car into an active White House bomb threat investigation.

* OH... IT'S A LOT MORE THAN THAT! OFFICERS ON THE SCENE - THE PROPER AUTHORITIES ON THE SCENE - WERE ORDERED NOT TO ADMINISTER SOBRIETY CHECKS TO THOSE "SENIOR AGENTS" AND NOT TO DETAIN THEM.

Morales, 48, was among the first group of officials Clancy promoted when he took over as acting director in October after a string of missteps that prompted lawmakers and administration officials to demand fresh leadership and internal reforms.

(*GUFFAW*)

The March 31 party was held to celebrate Morales’s new assignment as head of the Secret Service’s field office in Louisville — a post that is considered an agency steppingstone. He had been scheduled to report for duty there this week.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

The female agent first raised her complaint Thursday with officials in the Secret Service’s internal investigations division.

* RAISED THE COMPLAINT A*F*T*E*R THE SUPPOSED FACT...??? (DID SHE HAVE SEX - EVEN IF "JUST CLINTON SEX" - WITH MORALES WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING...???)

Clancy was briefed on the allegations later that day, Leary said. Because Morales is a senior supervisor with a GS-15 rank, Clancy asked his investigators to immediately refer the matter to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general that day. The criminal nature of the allegations prompted the inspector general’s office to contact D.C. police, according to two people familiar with the police and IG investigations.

D.C. police detectives then interviewed the female agent and the manager on duty that night at Capitol City Brewing Company, according to law enforcement officials with knowledge of the probe. The restaurant manager, who asked not to be identified, told The Post that he had been interviewed by police, but he declined to discuss details.

Police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump declined to comment.

The security clearance division Morales helped oversee is responsible for determining when agents, through misconduct or other action, have jeopardized their security clearances and should lose their jobs. It also helps vet Secret Service job applicants for potential security issues.

* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP! WELCOME TO THE AGE OF OBAMA...!!!

Last year, Morales was president of the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association, a national law enforcement group that has had several prominent Secret Service agents as leading members.

Morales is married to a longtime special agent who was recently promoted to be a deputy assistant director over government affairs in the agency’s headquarters.

(*HEADACHE*)

April 9, 2015 at 4:58 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-administration-signals-fight-over-subpoenas-of-secret-service-staff/2015/04/01/16bdad2c-d81b-11e4-b3f2-607bd612aeac_story.html

* OH... AND IN LINE WITH TODAY'S FIRST NEWSBITE... HERE'S ANOTHER SECRET SERVICE STORY - FROM APRIL 2:

The Republican chairman of a House oversight committee issued subpoenas late Tuesday demanding testimony from two Secret Service employees about a White House "incident" last month in which two agents are being investigated for allegedly disrupting an active bomb investigation.

* WHILE DRUNK... (OR AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT'S SUSPECTED...)

The move by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who accused the administration of withholding information from congressional investigators, set up a confrontation with the Obama administration as top officials signaled they would resist the subpoenas.

The ["incident"] occurred after 10 p.m., when the agents were returning to the White House from a work party at a nearby bar.

* LOTS OF "WORK" PARTIES AT BARS IN WASHINGTON D.C., HUH?

Lawmakers are trying to investigate allegations that Secret Service officers on duty wanted to conduct sobriety tests on the agents but were ordered to let them go.

* BY THE WAY... WOULDN'T YOU THINK SOME ENTERPRISING REPORTERS... SAY FROM THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA... WOULD INVESTIGATE THEMSELVES... INTERVIEW BARTENDERS AND OTHERS... INTERVIEW OTHER WHITE HOUSE PERSONNEL WHO WERE ON THE SCENE THAT NIGHT...

(*SMIRK*)

Chaffetz did not say which Secret Service employees were named in the subpoenas.

* THE PRESS SHOULD!

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), who has joined Chaffetz in recent weeks in questioning Secret Service officials, did not sign off on the subpoenas.

* CUMMINGS IS A PURE PARTISAN.

In a letter released late Tuesday, Chaffetz said that Clancy initially said he was willing to let senior supervisors on duty on the night of March 4 be interviewed by the committee. But, Chaffetz wrote, DHS set new conditions that “information remain secret and be kept from Congress and the American people.”

* AGAIN... FOLKS... THIS IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IN ACTION... AND THE DEMOCRATS ARE SUPPORTING HIM!

April 9, 2015 at 5:08 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-broadband-fees-20150409-story.html#page=1

Recently adopted net neutrality regulations soon could make your monthly Internet bill more complicated — and potentially more expensive.

Every month, consumers pay a small fee on their phone bills for a federal program that uses the money — a total of $8.8 billion raised nationwide last year — to provide affordable access to telecommunications services in rural areas, underserved inner cities and schools.

Now the fee could start appearing on broadband bills too, in a major expansion of the nearly two-decade-old Universal Service Fund program.

For phone service, telecom firms pass the fees directly to their customers, with the average household paying about $3 a month. In approving the tough rules for online traffic in February, the Federal Communications Commission put broadband in the same regulatory category - opening the door for the charges.

"The federal government is sure to tap this new revenue stream soon to spend more of consumers' hard-earned dollars," warned Ajit Pai, a Republican on the FCC. "So when it comes to broadband, read my lips: More new taxes are coming. It's just a matter of when."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, argued that even if broadband firms are required to contribute, there are no plans to increase the annual size of the fund. That means the cost simply would be spread among more customers, and in many cases a new broadband fee would be offset by a lower fee on a consumer's phone bill.

"I think it is incorrect ... to say anything in what we have done will lead to an increase in [USF] fee contributions," Wheeler told House lawmakers at a recent hearing.

"You would have a reduction in one area that may be accompanied by an increase in another that should end up washing out because the gross number is the same," he said. So, for instance, under his view, a customer with both phone and Internet service from the same carrier might still pay about $3 a month, but it could be split between the two services instead of allocated all to phone service.

But when pressed on the issue at a House hearing last month, Wheeler would not guarantee that consumers will not end up contributing more to the fund.

Critics pointed out that his reckoning assumes that the total amount of the fund wouldn't be increased by the agency. The FCC sets the size of the fund, and the size has been increasing almost every year as the focus has shifted from providing phone service to providing Internet access to those without it. The fund has grown about 47% since 2004.

April 9, 2015 at 11:38 PM

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