Syrian Opposition Leader Has Ties To Indiana

Ghassan Hitto, Photo: Ma Yan/Xinhua /Landov

Syria's exiled opposition forces have chosen a naturalized U.S. citizen from Texas with  ties to Indiana as its leader. Ghassan Hitto is a 50-year old Syrian native born in Damascus who later immigrated to the United States where he earned a math and science degree from IUPUI in 1989 and an MBA degree from Indiana Wesleyan University in 1994. Hitto worked in Wayne, Texas for Inovar, an electronics firm, for the past 11 years before he departed the U.S. last year destined for Turkey to join the Syrian opposition forces where the CIA has been covertly aiding the opposition's efforts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Hitto and his wife, Suzanne, have four children who were all born in the United States according to the New York Times. Hitto, not surprisingly, was the choice of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamic group that seems to have a lot of credibility with the Obama administration for some very strange reason. Brotherhood leaders claim they seek a new civil government but many rightfully fear the same thing will happen in Syria as occurred when an American citizen, Mohamed Morsi, became Egypt's new president with the support of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama administration. Civil rights in Egypt have been thrown back into the stone age in a very short period of time as the Morsi government has moved to impose religious law in place of civil laws with horrifying consequences to the country's women, Coptic Christians and other minority groups.

Illinois Lottery Fines G-Tech Firm $20 Million For Falling Short On Sales

G-Tech Hired The Indiana Gaming Commission's General Counsel Last Month After Winning 15-Year Contract To Operate Hoosier Lottery
A private gaming company controlled by the same company to which the Hoosier Lottery awarded a privatization deal last year has been fined $20 million by the Illinois Lottery for falling short nearly $100 million on what it had promised it would deliver the Illinois Lottery in sales. Northstar, a partnership between G-Tech and Scientific Games, had promised Illinois lottery officials it would achieve sales of $851 million during its first full year of operation. Instead, sales came in $94 million short at $757 million. Under Northstar's contract with the Illinois Lottery, it can be fined each year it fails to reach sales goals promised by the private operator the Chicago Tribune reports. Illinois officials had asked a mediator to assess $25 million in fines against Northstar.

Marion County Prosecutor Claims Mass Transit Boondoggle Will Have Public Safety Advantages

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry wants to reduce the number of crimes committed in Marion County that his office has to prosecute. He says that part of the solution is a multi-billion dollar metropolitan mass transit boondoggle that will make it more convenient for would-be lawbreakers to commute to suburban neighborhoods. “Safe, affordable transportation is part of a strategic infrastructure that naturally combats crime through visibility, activity and community engagement," Curry said. Say what?

It would be quite incredible if the suburban counties are actually dumb enough to go along with hiking their income taxes to provide cheap transportation for Indianapolis' criminals to travel out to their neighborhoods and export our skyrocketing crime rate along with it. That may sound harsh, but it's frankly an insult to our intelligence for Curry  to claim people won't commit crimes if they have a mass transit system that allows them to travel out into the suburbs. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. This is the same prosecutor who took a payoff for the benefit of his office from a business charged with a serious crime in consideration for dropping the serious felony charges against the business.

You know there's something wrong with this picture when the federal government is throwing millions of dollars at the proponents to spend on a PR campaign push backing this mass transit proposal. This is why you see otherwise legitimate investigative reporters like Fox 59's Russ McQuaid being prostituted out to deliver news stories that are nothing more than press releases masquerading as legitimate news reporting pimping for this ill-conceived mass transit plan. IndyGo has had decades to figure out how to fund an efficient mass transit system in the most densely populated areas of Indianapolis and has failed miserably. Now we're suppose to trust an unelected, unaccountable mass transit authority with authority to spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars annually to manage an even bigger mass transit system.

UPDATE: I'm adding an opinion piece written by former Carmel City Councilman John Accetturo penned, which more accruately reflects what a real Republican should be thinking on this issue, not the views expressed by fake Republicans like Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and Carmel Mayor James Brainard, who are drunk on taxing and spending their residents into oblivion.

House Bill 1011 which is referred to as the Mass Transit bill recently passed the House and is pending action in the State Senate.  Three of the seven sponsors of the bill in the House are Jerry Torr(R) Carmel, Steve Braun(R) Carmel/Zionsville and Todd Huston(R) Fishers. Four democrats and another republican are also sponsors. The mere combination of the sponsors might bring on a buyer beware reaction even to an opened minded person.

The bill authorizes a metropolitan transit district to(1) construct or acquire any public transportation facility;(2) provide public transportation service by operating public transportation facilities; and (3) issue bonds and incur indebtedness. It provides that if a county approves the local public question, there will be an additional county economic development income tax (CEDIT) rate of up to .3% to fund the metropolitan transit district.  For residents of Hamilton County that will be a 30% increase in our county tax on all income including retirement.

That is great information but what does that mean to us as residents of Hamilton County? Reading into the details of the bill, I discovered that a metropolitan transit district board would be created with as many 14 appointed members that can tax and determine what kind of transportation system they would spend our tax money on.  Seats on board include a union representative from the transportation union of the employees of the district.  Appointments to the board would be made by mayors, the governor, county commissioners, a union etc. I just do not see how the interest of Hamilton County will be protected on a board as stated in the bill. Additionally, this will be another board created by government which will spend taxpayer money without being responsible to the taxpayers like elected officials are.  It makes you wonder why politicians continue to create more taxing boards not only in our county and state, but also across the country.  

Undoubtedly, we need better mass transportation in the metropolitan area. However, voting to institute a tax without knowing what you are going to get and what the cost will be makes little sense. House Bill 1011 wants us to vote ourselves a tax and let a 14 person board decide our fate. In others words - Hamilton County residents, just give us the money and we will take care of you.

There are a few specifics in the bill but there are no concrete details on what kind of transportation system might be built or how much it will cost. Media coverage mentions what the system might or should be to include light rail, buses, or whatever. The bill itself does not identify specifics of the proposed mass transportation system or the cost. However, it does allow the Board to pass a county economic development income tax of .3% if the referendum is passed by our county. The vote on this question would take place in 2014 for Hamilton and Marion County if the bill passes the Senate and is signed into law.

Pence Plans Major Jobs Announcement Today

Gov. Mike Pence is planning a major jobs announcement in Indianapolis with officials of an unnamed Fortune 500 company this afternoon. According to a statement released by the governor's office, the announcement regards "more than 1,000 new jobs for Hoosiers."

UPDATE: Make that Carmel, not Indianapolis, as the location of today's economic development announcement. The IBJ reports that consumer insurance giant Geico is leasing office space at 101 W. 103rd Street formally occupied by Thomson Consumer Electronics that will home to more than 1,000 new employees of the company. Geico is owned by Berkshire-Hathaway.

Driver Flees Accident After Causing Major Power Disruption Downtown

Fox59 News Photo

There were two separate power outages in Indianapolis last night. The first outage happened on the city's east side and affected about 10,000 IPL customers. The second power outage affected about 1,500 IPL customers in my downtown neighborhood and happened around midnight after an apparent drunk driver traveling about 90 miles per hour the wrong way down Michigan Street, hit the curb and went airborne, cut an electrical pole in two and wound up wrapped around a tree at the intersection of East and Michigan Streets near me. It's very unusual for the power to go out in my neighborhood so I had to venture outside to see what was happening. When I saw the car pictured in the photo posted on Fox59 News' website wrapped around a tree, a street light flattened, an electrical pole cut in two and the power lines laying in the street at the intersection, I couldn't believe anyone got out alive. Witnesses told police the driver somehow managed to free himself from the car and walk away before the police could arrive. According to Fox59 News, police are still looking for the driver. IPL tried to bring the power back on to part of our neighborhood about 1:00 a.m. this morning when there was a big flash in the sky after a nearby power substation blew. I woke up about 4:00 a.m. and found all my lights and TV running. I'm not sure what time the power was restored.

Charlie White Files Motion For Post-Conviction Relief Citing Multliple Errors And Ineffective Counsel

Former Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White has filed his long-awaited petition for post-conviction relief with Hamilton Superior Court Judge Steven Nation, who presided over his trial last year where a jury found White guilty of six of seven felony counts brought against him by a special prosecutor. The charges all stemmed from allegations that White cast a vote in one election at the home of his ex-wife instead of a condominium he had recently purchased and where he intended to live with his then-fiance' following their marriage. White's petition cites multiple errors of law committed by the trial court and ineffective counsel by his defense attorney, former Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, as reasons his convictions should be overturned. White's petition also hits the special prosecutor for violating his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment for prosecuting him as a "class of one," citing numerous other public officials and individuals similarly-situated, including the special prosecutor in his case, Dan Sigler, who were not criminally prosecuted for committing the same alleged offense.

Heroin Industry Still Booming In Afghanistan

This should raise some concerns about our government's role in Afghanistan, but it probably won't. You may recall that American intelligence blamed Afghanistan's heroin industry as a source of funding for terrorists prior to the launching of our military's invasion of the country nearly a dozen years ago. The head of Russia's Federal Drug Control Service says its officials seized over 20 tons of heroin in an operation it carried out in Afghanistan's eastern province.

Almost 21 tons of heroin have been seized in an operation in eastern Afghanistan , the head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) said on Tuesday.

“An operation was carried out yesterday in the province of Nangarhar, during which several drug production labs were destroyed and almost 21 tons of heroin seized,” FSKN head Viktor Ivanov said.

He said FSKN officers had taken part in the “unique operation.”

“Twenty-one tons is, in essence, the annual volume of drugs brought into Russia,” Ivanov said.

The Pajhwok Afghan News agency said five heroin producing laboratories were destroyed by security forces during an operation in the Sherzad district of eastern Nangarhar province on Monday. Several people were arrested, the agency said, citing officials.

Some 30,000 Russians die from heroin abuse every year, according to official statistics, accounting for around one-third of all heroin-related deaths worldwide. NGOs estimate that there are up to three million heroin addicts in the country.

The vast majority of the heroin consumed in Russia is from Afghanistan. The United Nations says some 20 percent of the almost 400 tons of heroin produced annually in the war-ravaged state travel through Central Asia before reaching the Russian market.

Who benefits from Afghanistan's heroin industry now? Will any member of Congress dare to ask as we continue to dump billions and billions of dollars in military expenditures in this never-ending rat hole?

WTHR Report Finds Many Health & Hospital Corporation Nursing Homes Below Average

During the debate over construction of a $750 million county hospital by the Marion Co. Health & Hospital Corporation, I devoted a great deal of time explaining just how it was that HHC said it could build a new hospital without raising taxes. Several years ago, HHC began acquiring nursing homes all over the state of Indiana in partnership with American Senior Communities. Under a loophole in the federal law, nursing homes operated by a county hospital which serves a disproportionate share of indigent patients is permitted to receive reimbursement rates from Medicaid that are 50% higher than other nursing homes providing the exact same services.

The nursing homes acquired by HHC but operated by American Senior Communities, a for-profit corporation, are making moneys hands over fists compared to other nursing homes. WTHR's Sandra Chapman finds that HHC's 59 nursing homes are generating a whopping $545 million in operating revenue a year now. That's up from only $6 million HHC was earning from its nursing home operations in 2007. At the same time, other nursing homes are struggling to make ends meet on the ever-tightening funds made available by the government to provide long-term care for persons who lack insurance or the financial means to pay for care from their own funds. The bad news in this story is that the quality of care at HHC-owned nursing homes fares worse on average than nursing homes that are paid much less by the government to care for their residents.

Chapman learned that 32 of HHC's 59 nursing homes "ranked below average or much below average, meaning they are performing poorly" according to data compiled by the state's Department of Heath. Chapman's report indicates that staffing is a problem at many of the HHC-owned nursing homes. Just recently a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against HHC and ASC after a resident at one of its nursing homes in Fort Wayne died after being assaulted by another patient. According to the lawsuit, the nursing home officials misled the deceased resident's family about the cause of her death. Nursing home officials told them she had a stroke and fell in a dining room when no staff was present. In fact, an assault by another resident left her with a severe head injury that ultimately took her life.

HHC tells Chapman that it takes the quality of care at its nursing homes seriously. "We take that very seriously. These are our nursing homes," HHC's Sheila Guenin told 13 Investigates. "Yes, we provide our facilities with a generous operating budget. That's one of the things I look at with our managing company," Guenin said. "We provide for our facilities to be well staffed," she added. Notice that when a story deals with bad news, HHC's CEO Matt Gutwein is nowhere to be found. He only steps in front of the cameras when he's talking about something that makes the HHC look good. Guenin tells Chapman that HHC is no longer acquiring new nursing homes. "They've got work to do on the ones they already own and that includes monitoring, training and making sure corrective action plans are followed," Chapman said.

I don't know how the federal government can continue to allow this racket to continue in light of the serious financial problems it's facing and its need to control spending on government entitlement programs. It has never made any sense to me that a county hospital should be paid a higher reimbursement rate to run a nursing home than somebody else providing the identical services. The Bush administration agreed and attempted to close the loophole after a GAO report drew attention to how much it was costing the federal government. Not surprisingly, Congress stepped in and gave its blessing to the practice. With the implementation of Obamacare, one has to wonder how much longer this will be allowed to continue. County hospitals like HHC claim they need a higher reimbursement rate because so many of their patients are uninsured. If Obamacare works, there should be considerably fewer uninsured patients coming through the door of the hospital.

WTHR provides a link to a document that shows how each of HHC's nursing homes rank, which you can view by clicking here.

Obama To Expand Ability Of Spy Agencies To Snoop Into Americans' Personal Finances

Before you feel sorry for First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden or FBI Director Robert Muehler because their financial credit reports were illegally accessed and leaked to the public, take a look at the additional power President Obama plans to give to our nation's spy agencies to look into your personal finances. According to Reuters, the Obama administration is drawing up plans that will allow the CIA and the NSA full access to a massive government database that contains financial data on every American citizen and other persons who bank in the United States.

Financial institutions that operate in the United States are required by law to file reports of "suspicious customer activity," such as large money transfers or unusually structured bank accounts, to Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation already has full access to the database. However, intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, currently have to make case-by-case requests for information to FinCEN.

The Treasury plan would give spy agencies the ability to analyze more raw financial data than they have ever had before, helping them look for patterns that could reveal attack plots or criminal schemes.

The planning document, dated March 4, shows that the proposal is still in its early stages of development, and it is not known when implementation might begin.

Financial institutions file more than 15 million "suspicious activity reports" every year, according to Treasury. Banks, for instance, are required to report all personal cash transactions exceeding $10,000, as well as suspected incidents of money laundering, loan fraud, computer hacking or counterfeiting.

"For these reports to be of value in detecting money laundering, they must be accessible to law enforcement, counter-terrorism agencies, financial regulators, and the intelligence community," said the Treasury planning document . . .

Some privacy watchdogs expressed concern about the plan when Reuters outlined it to them.

A move like the FinCEN proposal "raises concerns as to whether people could find their information in a file as a potential terrorist suspect without having the appropriate predicate for that and find themselves potentially falsely accused," said Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior counsel for the Rule of Law Program at the Constitution Project, a non-profit watchdog group.

Despite these concerns, legal experts emphasize that this sharing of data is permissible under U.S. law. Specifically, banks' suspicious activity reporting requirements are dictated by a combination of the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act, which offer some privacy safeguards.

National security experts also maintain that a robust system for sharing criminal, financial and intelligence data among agencies will improve their ability to identify those who plan attacks on the United States . . .

How much longer will the Left continue to make excuses for the decimation of our fundamantal rights by this dictator? He has no respect for the basic fundamental rights all citizens are supposed to be guaranteed under our U.S. Constitution. What people must understand is that the CIA and the NSA employ some of the most evil people in the world. These agencies are at war with the American people. They aren't carrying on activities to protect our national security interests; they are engaged in a full out effort to collapse the U.S. economy and serve us up to their true masters--the New World Order. How many more innocent people must be killed and harmed through the false flag events staged by these undemocratic instrumentalities that operate without any transparency or any regard for the rights guaranteed our people in furtherance of their dark motives?