Ray Nagin Indicted

NY TIMES
C. Ray Nagin, the former mayor of New Olreans who fulminated against the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina but became for many a symbol of the shortcomings of government himself, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on 21 counts including conspiracy, bribery and money laundering. The indictment detailed a wide-ranging scheme of kickbacks and pay-for-play of a kind not entirely unfamiliar in Louisiana history. Contractors and vendors looking for work with the city would provide the mayor with vacations, big checks and even free granite for his family business. In exchange, they would be awarded lucrative contracts with the city, assistance in defusing community opposition to their projects and even forgiveness of tax penalties. While federal prosecutors have convicted a Louisiana governor, a congressman, a city councilman and members of the school board in the past 15 years alone, this is the first time in New Orleans history that a mayor has been indicted on corruption charges.
     Mr. Nagin’s lawyer, Robert Jenkins, did not return a call seeking comment. However, he called a local radio talk show in the afternoon, and in response to a question from the host, John McConnell, known as Spud, suggested that the indictment had come as a surprise amid continuing plea negotiations.
     “Well, we were surprised that the indictment came today because we were still talking with the government and in fact we had talked about meeting next week as well,” he said.
     But it came as no surprise here in the city, where people had been expecting an indictment for months. Aside from someone identified only as “Businessman A,” the other figures accused of taking part in the conspiracy have either been convicted or pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges in the past three years.
     While Mr. Nagin, 56, had not been officially named as a target of a federal grand jury, the pretense that Public Official A, who showed up in another plea, could be anyone but the mayor had long since been abandoned on local news reports and in conversations around town.
     Mr. Nagin came into office in 2002 as an outsider, a reformer out to clean City Hall, a business executive who disdained the old machine politics and was spouting new ideas. It did not take long for him to develop a reputation as a man whose thoughts far outpaced his actions, with ambitious proposals often going nowhere. READ FULL ARTICLE

Larry Trotter Photo

THE GRIO
Chicago Bishop Larry Trotter has been under fire recently for a photo posted on his Instagram account that shows himself in the bathtub with his four-year-old granddaughter, both smiling and appearing to be shirtless. The young girl’s mother, Javon Trotter, in response to the public’s critical outpour, spoke to theGrio in an exclusive phone interview and says she is supporting her father through this difficult time.
     “I’m upset, I’m hurt I can’t believe that people would re-post the picture of my innocent baby and say bad things about my father who loves my baby and all kids,” she says. “He would never do anything to harm them. It’s hurtful for my whole family.”      Ms. Trotter wanted to clarify that her father was bathing in their large whirlpool Jacuzzi in their bathroom when the granddaughter walked in and asked her mother if she could go into the tub with him. After the girl asked to join her grandfather, both Trotter and his granddaughter put on swim trunks before getting into the water. Javon also adds that her daughter was only in the water for about three to five minutes, and she was present during the entire situation.
     In an interview about the photo, the Bishop said "I'm not ashamed of what I did. I am ashamed and hurt that it is going out all over the world and people have called me everything from a child molestor (sic) to a pedophile to a narsty (sic) old man and how I should get out of the ministry –- the vulgarity has been terrible."

Editor's Note: there's nothing wrong with the photo Bishop Trotter took with his granddaughter, but it comes off mighty creepy as one cannot help but presume this familial splashing was neither unusual nor uncommon. How often it occurred, how often it was supervised, are questions the otherwise reasonably innocent photo provoke. I don't believe Trotter or his grand-daughter were wearing "trunks," that seems like an unnecessary fabrication likely intended to help the bishop but rings untrue and thus casts a pall over his defense of the activity. It's not unusual or deviant for families with toddlers to bathe together, so this all seems like a whole lot of nothing made worse by attempts to clean up the story: the bishop got out of the tub and put on a bathing suit for the two minutes the child was in there with him. Please. The bishop (or whomever posted the family photo) used extremely poor judgment in making the image public. I am not shy about blasting pastors and "Mega-Bishops" for flagrantly un-Christlike things, but, seriously, this is, at best, another example of Trotter meaning well but getting the optics terribly wrong, as he did when he mock-crucified what appears to be the same little girl in a demonstration against Chicago's ongoing teacher's strike.   READ FULL ARTICLE