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Ministers try to shake down new commuter-rail operator
By adamg on Wed, 04/09/2014 - 8:29am
Adrian Walker has the bizarre story of the $105,000 invoice Eugene Rivers handed an executive at the company the state recently hired to run commuter rail. Bruce Wall allows as how his name is on the invoice even though he says he thought the idea of billing the company for services not rendered a bit odd.
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Comments
Wow
Interesting diversity strategy!
Usless Martha strikes again....
If we had an Attorney General the Rev would be in jail. All we have is MIA Martha
Really?
In jail for what crime? Is there anything illegal about trying to invoice someone for some random thing? They're perfectly free to toss the invoice in the trash.
My understanding of the law
My understanding of the law is that preparing an invoice and attempting to bill someone on that invoice for services that you know were never rendered or requested is considered fraud.
Also, if there was any suggestion that failure to pay on such invoice would result in any sort of troubles or difficulties for the company, that would be textbook extortion.
Both are highly illegal and there are a substantial number of people sitting in prisons for convictions on both.
That invoice was
from Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssuuuuuuuusss!
Bribes common in that community?
Look no further than convicted bribe takers Dianne Wilkerson and Chuck Turner to see how this latest payoff demand is all too common in that neighborhood, this time using the diversity/race card. These people consider themselves community leaders? I think the feds made at least one of the bribe busts, not MIA Martha.
"in THAT neighbothood"
Only happens in the Boston metropolitan area in THAT neighborhood.
Nice dogwhistle you got there, buddy.
Those people
Yes, this would never happen in Arlington ... oh ... wait ... blocking developments and threatening to sue unless you get goodies isn't the same thing! It is only bad when THOSE people do it.
Got an example?
Do you mean the bike path crossing signal Alta had to put in? Or the open space easement put upon Arlington-360 by "moonbats"/hippies in the Arlington Land Trust? The latter one was a gift to developers as most of the land was unbuildable and the Town lost about $75,000/year in property taxes.
That stuff has already been
That stuff has already been fine tuned to an art by someone already ! On another note,
http://nypost.com/2014/04/08/north-korean-official-executed-by-flamethro...
Actually, it was super-voter
Actually, it was super-voter Rev. Eugene Rivers who did the blatant shake-down according to the Walker column. Rev. Wall was the one dumb enough to put his name on the "invoice." Both should be getting calls from the AGs office.
I think Rev. Wall only feels
I think Rev. Wall only feels it was "stupid" because the invoice didn't work. I love how "diversity" could be addressed, in their view, by writing a big ol' check. I wonder who would benefit from that payment. DRM? Or the Revs. Wall and Rivers.
This activity is pretty slimy. The DRM community should stand up and condemn this behavior. The AG should investigate.
Please re-read the story, Adam
Wall's signature was on the "invoice", but Eugene Rivers is the minister who handed it to the Keolis exec.
Even better, um, worse
Fixed.
What a disgrace.
This is the kind of crap that actually hurts the people that this so-called advisory group is allegedly attempting to help. In addition, it is also the kind of crap that makes people not want to do business around here.
These folks seem to have managed to create that most-difficult outcome - a lose-lose for everyone (except Walker, who deserves credit for following up on and writing about it). What a disgrace.
Rivers and Wall, making a
Rivers and Wall, making a difference in the community every day! WWJD?
WWJD? Who cares? We've got
WWJD? Who cares? We've got ourselves a big check to cash!
Not peculiar to these ministers
It sounds like they have been talking to the whackjobs Carolyn Rosen and William Wood in Medford who have been trying to stall the green line extension, proposing tunneling it to Davis, etc. Complete idiots, always talking about "friends" and "making trouble", even though they live NOWHERE NEAR any of it! http://medford.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/medford-residen...
Le Sigh. Makes one want to get rid of the SLAPP laws so NIMBY idiots could be sued for spurious delays.
Also, cities and towns pull this shit all the time - witness Mayor for life McGlynn trying to get money out of a federal contract for 93Fast14 because "it caused delays" or some stupid shit. Check payable to McGlynn's discretionary fund, of course.
Unrelated to GLX
The whack job is you trying to link year+ old GLX opposition lawsuit to a pay off demand to a minority community. You just seem to want to put down GLX opponents. Are you with the Conservation Law Foundation that is costing taxpayers $1.5 Billion for the GLX and another $1 Billion to electric customers for their Salem power plant lawsuit? Those are the lawsuits that need squashing.
I know! How dare he cast
I know! How dare he cast aspersions on the noble opponents of the GLX. They're just trying to keep "those people" out of their neighborhood, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
"Those people" ....
... are the ones that live in "that neighborhood".
Those people would be yuppies and hipsters
Bringing in rail service attracts people who have more money and don't like taking buses. This drives up rents and forces out the lower income people that transportation equity supposedly helps. All it does is help price them out and have to find new places to live. MAPC wrote a report on it. Same thing happened around Porter and Davis Squares after the Red Line went through.
This is why despite all these
This is why despite all these advocacy/community organizing groups the "downtrodden" always stay that way. The leadership has a vested financial interest in keeping things broken to skim off the top.
These two are
has been's. There are many young educated and successful people like John Barros, Tito Jackson and Sonja Diaz that are the true leaders in the minority community. The faker shaker Reverends days are over.
The "minority community"
is the majority.
That fact
will not help the Rev's in their scheme. They may need to adjust their $105,000 down to $51K.
Probably more correct to say...
... there is no longer any one majority community -- just a collection of various different minority ones in Boston.
BPS leadership
Don't forget this clown has been a BPS leader for years while simultaneously bankrupting his church. Maybe Mr Rivers should focus on doing one thing badly at a time. Or should we just look past all these issues because he does such a great job keeping kids over in Roxbury from shooting each other? No wait, he's no good at that either...
Different minister
I think you're thinking of Gregory Groover.
Whoops
What's that song again, I guess everyone's a little bit racist?
I had the wrong hack minister. Rivers still sucks.
The guy is
obviously inept, however if you were to kick him off the board he would scream racism.
These two
ass wipes make Bill O'Reilly's and Howie Carcinoma's dog whistles work much better.
It wasn't the main point of
It wasn't the main point of the article but why does keolis need to have at least 15% of their contracts with minority or women owned businesses? Shouldn't they be picking the best available ones regardless of said company's "diversity?" Maybe when this nonsensical left wing over corrective way of thinking goes away around here (never) we can see some legitimate progress based on merit, not skin or gender.
In my experience, some of the
In my experience, some of the best contractors are also minority and women-owned businesses. Why? These guys are no dopes. They have their wives own the company.
You know how family businesses work, right?
It really doesn't matter if the husband or the wife owns it. Usually the wife is at least doing the books and bookings as it is, if not the actual trade work involved.
That's part of the business, too.
I get that, but if the idea
I get that, but if the idea is to encourage women to work in trades that are typically male dominated, then this isn't really following the spirit of the law.
All these Black ministers who
All these Black ministers who start "awareness groups" are giving real Black people a bad name. And we wonder why white people don't take black people seriously.
Um....
Some of the black people don't take them seriously either.
Well sheeeeeeeeeeeeee-it!
This is why I always go back to The Wire. They write it like it happens, sadly.
Steam Control
Re-read Tom Wolfe's "Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers". The grift stays the same, it's only the players who change.
Wow... just wow...
Who are these yahoos? It's making "DRM" look like a really bad circus....
Divine Wrath
Google Divine Wrath an article from Boston Magazine and see the preachers handshake with cops who cover up a beating all in the name of the lord
The difference between MBCR
The difference between MBCR and Keolis is that Keolis Attorney Michael McCormick is politically aware enough to recognize a shakedown. The group at MBCR just would have written the check.
I'm still trying to figure out if this is funny....or sad
This is why the news can be so entertaining. I mean, you just can't make this stuff up.