Private Listing For Durham's Geist Mansion

WISH-TV reports on  a confidential real estate listing on MIBOR for Tim Durham's Geist mansion with an asking price of $5.5 million. The listing cannot be accessed on MIBOR's website unless you know the confidential listing number assigned to it according to WISH-TV. Durham's Fair Finance Company is being liquidated in an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding in Ohio initiated by investors who claim Durham defrauded them when he ran the finance company like a Ponzi scheme. Durham is alleged to have diverted close to $200 million from the company to other businesses he owned. Fair Finance closed after FBI agents raided Durham's business offices in Ohio and Indianapolis last November. No criminal charges have been brought against him or his business partners to date.

Although the U.S. Attorney's Office in Indianapolis initially filed a forfeiture action against Durham-owned properties, including his Geist mansion, it withdrew that action within days. Acting U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison claimed he had assurances Durham's assets would not be diverted or sold. Nonetheless, this blog and other media sources have documented a number of asset sales that appear to have occurred, including assets of Durham's business partner, James Cochran. The bankruptcy trustee has told Fair Finance investors in Ohio, many of whom are Amish, that it is unlikely he will be able to recover any of their money. Durham owes close to $50,000 in unpaid property taxes on the home. Neighbors claimed they saw moving trucks outside the home this winter hauling away personal belongings from the home, which contained very valuable artwork. Durham also had an extensive collection of pricey collector cars worth several million dollars. WISH-TV was unable to obtain a comment from the bankruptcy trustee about Durham's private efforts to sell his home. Recent bankrutpcy filings by the trustee have made no reference to the Geist home or its potential sale.

UPDATE: The IBJ's Greg Andrews is reporting that Durham will be required to turn over any proceeds from the sale of the home and other personal possessions, such as artwork, to the bankruptcy trustee for Fair Finance.

Have American Jews Awakened To The Real Barack Obama?

Anyone who has done an in-depth analysis of Barack Obama's family background and his political associations prior to becoming president could not have helped but come to the conclusion that the man is virulently anti-Israel, if not an anti-Semite. Nonetheless, American Jews favored Obama overwhelmingly in the 2008 presidential race. It now looks like Jewish Americans may be having second thoughts about Obama. Recent polls show his support among Jewish voters has dropped precipitously with only about 42% now saying they would vote to re-elect him. Liberal Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz is among that growing crowd. He shared his concerns with the American Thinker's Richard Baehr as the 2008 Obama supporter announced in another unlikely move his support for a Republican candidate for Congress in the Chicago area, Joel Pollack, who is a former law student of Dershowitz. Baehr writes:

Dershowitz was a supporter of Barack Obama in 2008, but he made clear in his remarks that Obama's policies with regard to Israel, and to the projection of American power abroad, were worrying him. He attacked the President's attachment to international organizations that are virulently anti-Israel, and often anti-Semitic. He cautioned that there was no substitute in the West for American leadership, and argued that America should stand with Israel, as it has for decades.


Dershowitz's biggest concern about Obama centered on Iran's nuclear program, and his fear that the US would stand aside, and allow Iran to become a nuclear power. He argued that a containment strategy designed to deter Iran after it became a nuclear power, would not work -- that a regime such as Iran's was fundamentally different from those the United States confronted in the Cold War, opponents who behaved rationally, and wanted to avoid a nuclear war.

Dershowitz said the Iran issue was the single most important issue for which Obama will be judged. If Iran succeeded in becoming a nuclear power, then Obama would be a colossal failure, regardless of any other achievements. Dershowitz hinted that in the future, he would be more open to supporting Republicans, particularly in races, where the Democratic nominees were so far out in left field that they were unable to understand or appreciate any of the strategic realities he had discussed.

This past week also came news of a shocking claim by Egypt's foreign minister that Obama assured him in a recent one-on-one meeting that he is a Muslim.  "According to journalist Avi Lipkin, [Ahmed Aboul] Gheit appeared on Nile TV's "Round Table Show" in January, on which he said that 'he had had a one-on-one meeting with Obama who swore to him that he was a Moslem, the son of a Moslem father and step-son of Moslem step-father, that his half-brothers in Kenya were Moslems, and that he was loyal to the Moslem agenda,'" writes Pamela Geller at the American Thinker. Gheit claimed Obama told him he would show the Muslim world what he would do to Israel once he dealt with more pressing domestic issues like health care reform. This shocking claim has gone completely unreported in America's mainstream media. Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama and his campaign supporters attacked anyone who suggested he was a Muslim as a bigot and assured people he was Christian. The church Obama attended in Chicago for many years led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, however, is not like most Christian churches. Wright promoted black theology over basic Christian theology and preached very anti-American views in his sermons. Wright is also a close friend of the Rev. Louis Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam, who lives in Obama's southside neighborhood.

Supporters of Israel have been particularly alarmed by Obama's implicit support of the lynch mob-like attack on Israel following its efforts to protect the security of its country when a Gaza aide flotilla approached its shores and its soldiers defended themselves from attackers swinging knives and firing guns at them in the aide boat. Anti-Israeli supporters of the Palestinians used the provocation by those claiming to offer peaceful assistance to Palestinians in Gaza to turn public opinion against Israel. Obama backs a U.N. investigation of the Israeli's actions. "Barack Hussein Obama is now playing the biggest role in the mob psychology of the Middle East, writes James Lewis. "Why? Because he is the authority figure who has given the signal that it's okay to attack Israel. That is why Islamist Turkey, Lebanon, and Iran just announced that they are sending new flotillas to challenge Israel's small coastal navy."

I've said it many times and I will say it again. Barack Hussein Obama is the greatest impostor in American political history. The American voters who put this man in office have no idea who he really is or the people behind his meteoric rise to power. Any biographer looking for insight into who the man is runs into roadblock after roadblock. His autobiographies have been shown to be full of fiction with the second one a likely candidate for being ghost-written by his terrorist pal, Bill Ayers. He has barred access to any of his school records from kindergarten straight through Harvard Law School. It seems doubtful that he registered for the Selective Service System when he was 18. Did he attend schools in the U.S. as an Indonesian citizen or a U.S. citizen? We know Indonesian school records under his adopted name, Barry Soetoro, showed him to be an Indonesian citizen prior to those records being slammed shut from public access. He has reportedly used a social security number issued to a person residing in the state of Connecticut. And now a former Hawaii election's official claims it was common knowledge among people working for the government in Hawaii that no record exists proving Obama's birth in that state. If someone would have told me two years ago that someone of such great mystery could become president, I would have told them they were crazy.

Prosecutor Candidates Competing To Be The Most Ethical

Here's a change. Past prosecutor's races have basically been an opportunity for the sale of justice to the highest bidder. This year, in the wake of Carl Brizzi's multitude of ethical problems, both the Republican and Democratic candidate are promising to operate their offices more ethically, and they are demonstrating that through the way they raise money for their campaigns this year.

Democrat Terry Curry has announced he will accept a contribution from anyone but will report within 48 hours any contribution he receives that is greater than $999.99. He will report monthly on all campaign contributions he receives. His self-imposed limit, however, does not prevent him from raising money from criminal defense attorneys or attorneys that are contracted by the prosecutor's office. Republican Mark Massa has pledged to return any contributions he receives from criminal defense attorneys, as well as attorneys under contract with the prosecutor's office. Massa is also pledging to post all contributions his campaign receives online within 48 hours.

[UPDATE: I notice from a press release put out by Curry's campaign that he is trying to tie Massa to Brizzi as much as possible. He notes that Scott Newman, Brizzi's campaign chairman served as Brizzi's mentor, and that Newman serves as legal counsel for John Bales, whose real estate deals with the state of Indiana involving Brizzi are being scrutinized by the FBI.]

This is a refreshing change. It would be nice if the candidates for mayor imposed similar rules on their own fundraising. Although Ballard promised a series of tough, ethics reforms as a candidate in 2007, he quickly forgot those promises and has basically been auctioning off city government from the day he took office. City contractors are being shaken down for huge contributions, sometimes within weeks of the awarding of multi-million dollar contracts, filling Ballard's campaign coffers with close to $2 million in contributions. Ballard offered contractors the opportunity to dine privately with him and his wife at St. Elmo's for $5,000 a pop. Ballard sometimes gives the appearance that he is using city resources for campaign purposes, which has been pretty standard fare in this town for decades, but because the U.S. attorney's office has been run by a bunch of political hacks for decades in this town, it continues to go on with impunity.

The leading Democratic candidate for mayor, Melina Kennedy, is unlikely to impose any such restrictions on her fundraising abilities. She is an attorney for Baker & Daniels, a law firm that raises big bucks for candidates of all political stripes and performs millions of dollars worth of legal work for the city. Former Mayor Bart Peterson, for whom Kennedy worked as a deputy mayor, helped bankroll her campaign for prosecutor four years ago as an insurance policy to prevent any serious investigation of corruption in his administration. She also took large contributions from the Simons after she helped square away the deal that tore down a city park so the Simons could build a new corporate headquarters across the street from the Capitol with $25 million in public funds and free parking for all of their employees in a city-owned garage. She also took large contributions from real estate developers who made off like bandits with millions in city-supported money during the Peterson administration for their private real estate developments.

Cincy Commissioner And Ballard Should Be Best Friends

You have to read this story to believe it. A Republican Commissioner in Cincinnati has suggested cutting funding to the hospital that serves the city's indigent patients in order to find enough money to pay for its costly new stadiums. The Enquirer reports on Hamilton County Greg Hartmann's plan:

Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann’s plan for plugging a shortfall in the cash needed to pay for the Cincinnati sports stadiums: cut health care to the needy.


The Republican commissioner’s plan, provided to the Enquirer Friday, drew immediate criticism from University Hospital and at least one other commissioner.


But Hartmann argues his is the only fix that won’t raise taxes.

He proposed Friday erasing a portion of the county’s property tax rollback beginning in 2012. In exchange, beginning that year he wants to reduce the indigent health care levy by 45 percent - cutting $22 million the levy funnels to University Hospital every year.

The plan raises $6 million a year needed to pay for the stadiums while being tax neutral for homeowners, he said. Commercial property owners – who now pay the indigent care levy but don’t enjoy the rollback - will see a drop in the taxes . . .

Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, a Democrat, denounced the proposal, calling it “cold-hearted” and “barbaric" . . .

Hartmann is sympathetic to the hospital’s plight, but points out the stadium fund is an obligation that must be paid, while helping pay for indigent care is a “non-essential” expense.

Cincinnati raised sales taxes to fund two new stadiums for the Reds and Bengals, but the revenues are falling short as a result of the recession. Like the CIB, the stadium authority has been borrowing from Peter to pay Paul to plug the hole temporarily, but the budget deficits are expected to grow to $26 million by 2013 according to the Enquirer. The Bengal franchise has been estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth about $716 million. Mike Brown inherited it from his father, Paul Brown. The Reds are owned by a group of investors led by Cincinnati businessman Robert Castellini. The Reds are worth about $337 million according to Forbes. There's nothing quite like welfare for the rich.

GOP Writes Off GLBT Vote In Marion County

Marion County Republicans have apparently made a strategic decision to write off the GLBT vote entirely in Marion County. Close to 50,000 people gathered downtown for this past weekend's Pride parade and festival. A record number of Democratic candidates and officeholders participated in the event, including U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, State Rep. Mary Ann Sullivan, Marion Co. Clerk Beth White, Marion Co. Auditor Billie Breaux, mayoral candidate Melina Kennedy, prosecutor candidate Terry Curry, sheriff candidate John Layton, mayoral candidate Ron Gibson and several city-county councilors. In addition, the Stonewall Democrats had a booth at the event to promote their candidates.

On the Republican side, not a single officeholder or candidate attended. Mayor Greg Ballard was out of town on another junket as usual. The Log Cabin Republicans folded and had no booth at the event as it has had in recent years. Even the Libertarian candidates had a few candidates and a booth at the event. While that news may be music to the ears of people like Micah Clark, Eric Miller and Curt Smith, it does not bode well for the Marion Co. GOP. Democrats have a lock on the black vote, which represents about 30% of the vote in Marion County, and the small  but increasing Hispanic vote tends to favor Democrats over Republicans by a significant margin. That means Republicans have to perform unusually well among white voters, who are shrinking as a percentage of the vote, to have a fighting chance to win elections in Marion Co. I got a good laugh this morning reading Marion Co. Republican Chairman Tom John's token black friend's comments on his blog about how there was a rift between the Democratic Party and Stonewall Democrats because party leadership had supposedly steered its candidates away from last weekend's event. Really, Abdul, is that the best you can do to earn your keep?

Some observers believe State Sen. James Merritt will lose a seat long held by Republicans to Sheriff Frank Anderson this fall, continuing the shrinking size of the Republican delegation in the legislature. Candidate Ballard won the 2007 mayoral election because he beat Peterson by a significant margin among white voters and won support among GLBT voters, including the endorsement of The Word, Indy's gay newspaper. With Mayor Ballard's decision to alienate the grassroots voters and disaffected GLBT voters who put him in office by breaking most of his campaign promises, Democrats will win back some of those white voters and GLBT voters and likely regain control of the mayor's office and the city council next year. It's difficult to estimate what the GLBT vote represents as a percentage of voters in the county, but it's safe to assume the number is somewhere between 5% and 10%.

Star Says It's OK For CIB To Let Clock Run Down On Pacers Negotiations

You can't help but wonder if the Star's most liberal editorial writer, Dan Carpenter, hasn't suffered several concussions by this point from banging his head against the wall as Dennis Ryerson continues his quest to ensure the billionaire Simons get some form of additional public aid for their Pacers franchise. Today's editorial reads, in part:

It's OK for the city's Capital Improvement Board to let the game clock run down in its negotiations with the Indiana Pacers over who will pay for and control operations of Conseco Fieldhouse. Although the Pacers have set June 30 as a deadline for reaching an agreement, it's more important that the city strike the best deal possible for taxpayers rather than to adhere to an arbitrary timetable . . .

The team wants the city to assume responsibility for the operating costs of the arena, which are estimated between $15 million and $18 million a year. The city, in return for paying at least a portion of those costs, wants to take over operational control of the fieldhouse. The CIB's stance on the issue is perfectly reasonable.

In addition to running the facility, the city also should insist on receiving most, it not all, non-game day revenue. The Pacers currently rake in that money, but it would be much harder to justify such an arrangement if the team no longer has the responsibility and expense of operating the fieldhouse . . .

Again, the CIB needs to continue to work in good faith with the Pacers to forge a deal that both sides can live with. However, the shot clock has been turned off for the end of this one.

No, the CIB is under absolutely no obligation to work out any deal with the Pacers. A deal is a deal, right? That's what we're always told by these wealthy sports team owners when the deal previously worked out works to their advantage, or so said Jim Irsay when the CIB came up $20 million short on revenues to operate Lucas Oil Stadium. But when the deal they hammered out and inked isn't going their way, they start playing hardball and making extortionist-like threats if they aren't given what they demand. And on that point, the public still has no idea whether the Pacers are losing any money on their franchise. David Stern, Commissioner of the NBA, claims teams collectively lost $400 million last year, but none of them are required to release audited financial statements to back up their claims. It's funny that we require more proof of a person's need to become eligible to receive welfare than we require of these billionaire sports team owners when they ask for tens of millions more annually in public assistance.

Hey, Dennis, how about a disclosure every time you write one of these useless editorials about your newspaper's conflict of interest when it comes to Conseco Fieldhouse. Is that why you won't allow your reporters to write about the conflict of interest the CIB's chief negotiator has in these discussions?

Meanwhile, the City of Indianapolis' Controller David Reynolds finally acknowledges that the City's income tax revenues will decline between $30 to $40 million in the coming year, leaving a huge whole in the City's budget. And Mayor Ballard wants to go on a several hundred million dollar spending binge on street and sidewalk improvements ahead of next year's election using borrowed funds that you will be paying off for decades to come.

U.S. Customs Fails Again

Despite a warrant for his arrest, Ali Mohammad was able to slip back into the country without detection from Yemen after he departed recently before federal and local law enforcement could arrest him on food stamp fraud, counterfeiting and money laundering charges. Last week, law enforcement officials raided a number of gas stations/convenience stores operated by foreign nationals from the Middle East. The Marion Co. Prosecutor's Office tells WRTV that Mohammad returned to the U.S. over the weekend from Yemen and slipped by customs officials at Chicago's O'Hare Airport despite his outstanding arrest warrant. He was later arrested in Indianapolis. Khalid Saleem, Saleh Yafae and Mohammad Khan were arrested last week on similar charges and were free on bond. Mohammad has been released on a $7,500 bond according to WRTV and had to surrender his passport. His travel is limited to a seven-county area.

UPDATE: WRTV's Jack Rinehart is also reporting this evening that law enforcement seized close to a half million in cash from the businesses that were raided last week. Mohammad appeared in court today with Jim Voyles, Indy's most expensive, high profile criminal defense attorney. Business must have really been good for these Middle Easterners in Indy. Let's hope the proceeds weren't being used to fund terrorist attacks on Americans as investigators fear may have been the case.

Brian Williams Drops Bid For Indy Mayor

The pressure on Brian Williams by the Marion Co. Democrat Party to drop his bid for Indianapolis mayor must have been more than he could take. He announced today he was dropping out "because of business demands and family concerns." I suspect he received plenty of not-so-veiled threats to drop out of the race if he knew what was good for him. That leaves Melina Kennedy, a former deputy mayor to Bart Peterson and unsuccessful prosecutor candidate from 2008, as the only other major Democratic contender. Former CCC Ron Gibson and CCC Jose Evans are running, but neither of their candidacies are taken seriously.

The powers that be like to fix the Indy mayor's race every four years so voters really don't have much of a choice. I know one thing for sure. I will never vote for Greg Ballard for re-election. I will do everything I can to drive him from office. He broke every major campaign promise he made in the 2007 election, turned his back on the people who were responsible for his election and ushered in a very corrupt administration. He will become the first Republican mayoral candidate I have not supported since I moved to Indianapolis in 1990. I know many other Republicans who also plan to vote for anyone but Ballard. It's too bad that the likely choice next year will be between Ballard and Kennedy. The same people who pull all of the strings in this town will still be doing so regardless of which of these lousy choices win.

Dr. Pain's Medical License In Trouble Again

Dr. Greg Chernoff, an Indianapolis plastic surgeon best known for writing scipts to Colts owner Jim Irsay to feed his addiction to painkillers, is in trouble again. Attorney General Greg Zoeller's office is accusing Chernoff of omitting certain information on his application to renew his medical license last year--namely that his medical license was placed on probation by the state of California in January of last year, and that he got a DUI in April, 2008. WRTV reports:

Officials said both pieces of information should have been disclosed on the form as requested.


"Basically, he committed fraud with respect with the renewal, and that's the problem here," said Deputy Attorney General Abby Kuzma.

In a prepared statement, Chernoff explained that he left the renewal to someone else to complete.

"Like most physicians, I asked my office staff to assist with paperwork that is involved in the license renewal," he said. "There was no intention to mislead anyone; this was a matter of a clerical error."

The story notes Chernoff's Indiana license was placed on probation in 2008 after he wrote painkiller prescriptions unnecessarily for Jim Irsay and talked about his treatment to others. Chernoff skated on any criminal charges after making large contributions to the campaign of Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, which as we've learned is tantamount to receiving a get out of jail free card. Chernoff wasn't the only medical provider in town writing scripts for Irsay, who had to be treated for several overdoses. The investigation got swept under the rug after our "civic leaders" decided it might jeopardize Irsay's ownership of the Colts if it got too fully investigated. Ironically, the reporter who broke the story at WTHR, Roger Harvey, now works for Bose Public Affairs Group, which lobbies for the Colts.