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August 05, 2005
Air America's Excuses Shot Down
Anyone following the current Air America scandal will be interested to know that, as reported in the New York Post, the left-wing radio network's hesitation to repay the $875,000 it "borrowed" from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx is unrelated to New York City's probe into the loan, according to city investigators.
So much for Air Anti-America's excuse for not coughing up the money. "We're waiting for directions from the investigators on how to proceed," Air America spokeswoman Jamie Horn had claimed — to which NYC's Department of Investigation spokesman Keith Schwam responded, "DOI has done nothing and given no instruction preventing payment of money owed to Gloria Wise. Any statements to the contrary are inaccurate."
The Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club was an uplifting success story. As reported in the Post, executive director Charles Rosen built up the club "from a small organization to a $10 million-a-year social-services operation" that ran a wide array of programs serving up to 20,000 kids and senior citizens.
But the money flowing through his hands began to stick to Rosen's fingers. In 2002 (the latest year for which records are available), he was paid $229,686, after raking in an extra $79,960 from one of the club's affiliates.
Things got really sleazy when Evan Montvel Cohen, one of the founders of Air America, received the inexplicable $875,000 in loans from Gloria Wise. He was working for Gloria Wise as a development director at the time.
Despite his rather overenthusiastic efforts, Cohen's fundraising output fell short of Air America's ambitious goals, and he was sacked a month after the network launched in March 2004.
The corruption scandal has crippled the nonprofit Gloria Wise, which has lost millions of dollars in contracts from the city.
So, the impoverished minority children and senior citizens of the Bronx were sacrificed to funnel money into the pockets of lily-white elitists. Sounds like a good opportunity for Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson to start bellowing into a bullhorn, doesn't it? No it doesn't — not when the lily-white elitists happen to be fellow limousine liberals like the folks at Air America. As Michelle Malkin observes, "Race hustlers care about only one color: green."
Posted by Van Helsing at August 5, 2005 06:41 AM
Comments
GREAT BLOG! I blogmarked it and will return.
Posted by: James at August 5, 2005 04:43 PM
I spent quite a few years analyzing federal procedures for use and distribution of grant funds. It's dead certain that if money from federal grants, whether transfered through state or city agencies or directly, were involved in this scandal that it would be a gross violation of federal law and all federal policies for the administration, management and use of federal funds.
I can imagine an army of auditors is probably busy on this case, yet without some heat from the "mainstream" media, we're unlikely to hear about their conclusions anytime soon.
Posted by: Mike on Hilton Head Island at August 5, 2005 11:37 PM