Votes are counted by staff at the Maricopa County Elections Department office in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 5, 2020. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images) US News
Legislators in Arizona and officials in the state’s largest county clashed anew this week over election audit subpoenas, with county officials refusing to hand over routers and claiming they do not have passwords to access administrative control functions of election machines.
Arizona’s Senate told Maricopa County on Friday that it would issue subpoenas for live testimony from the county’s Board of Supervisors unless it received the materials that are being withheld.
“We’ve been asked to relay that the Senate views the County’s explanations on the router and passwords issues as inadequate and potentially incorrect,” a lawyer for the Senate said in an email to county officials.
The Arizona Senate subpoenaed a slew of election materials, such as ballots, following the 2020 election. Lawmakers also issued subpoenas for election machines, passwords, and other technology.
Maricopa County alleged in a lawsuit that the request for materials was overly broad and threatened voter privacy. A judge, though, ruled that they were “the equivalent of a Court order.” But the county said this week it is not turning over routers or router images, claiming that doing so poses a significant security risk to law enforcement.
The county has also informed the Senate’s audit liaison, former Republican Secretary of State Ken Bennett, that it does not have passwords to access administrative functions on Dominion Voting Systems machines that were used to scan ballots during the election.
“They’ve told us that they don’t have that second password, or that they’ve given us all the passwords they have. They’ve also told us that they now can’t, as they promised a couple weeks ago, provide our subcontractors with the virtual access to the routers and hubs and other things at the Maricopa County tabulation and election center, as was part of the subpoenas,” Bennett told One America News at the site of the audit in Phoenix.
John Brakey, a Democrat who is serving as an assistant to Bennett, told the broadcaster that he was “blown away” by the password development.
“It’s like leasing a car and they refuse to give you the keys. They’re supposed to be running the election. You know what’s wrong? Sometimes these vendors have too much power, and we’re voting on secret software, and that’s why this recount down here is very important,” he added.
Jack Sellers, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County board, said Friday that he is angered by allegations of corruption and would not address every allegation, but would speak to the password issue.
“The specific password and security tokens Ken Bennett referenced this week provide access to proprietary firmware and source code. Elections administrators do not need to access this information to hold an election, and we do not have it in our custody,” he said in a statement.
Contractors working for Florida-based company, Cyber Ninjas, which was hired by the Arizona Senate, audit ballots at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz., on May 6, 2021. (Matt York/AP Photo/Pool)
The county board called an emergency meeting later on Friday. The board was going to consider legal advice and litigation regarding its non-compliance with the Senate subpoenas.
In a response to the Senate’s lawyer, Allister Adel, Maricopa County’s attorney, said that the county has “already produced every password and security key for the tabulators that is [sic] within the County’s possession.”
“It does not have any others,” Adel added. The county is working to figure out if there is “a safe manner” to get the Senate information from the routers without risking non-election data.
Dominion, whose machines are used in about half of U.S. states, did not respond to a request for comment. The company has said it supports forensic audits by federally-accredited laboratories and that Cyber Ninjas, which is leading the Arizona audit, is not verified.
Both Dominion and Sellers noted that Maricopa County contracted its own audits, one for machines and another for ballots.
But Brakey, the assistant Senate liaison, has called the description of those audits misleading. The ballot batches were picked beforehand and auditors only analyzed a small percentage of the ballots cast in the election, he said, while the machine testing could only determine whether the technology was working well at the time of the review.
“They claim that’s an audit. I call it fatally flawed,” he told One America News.
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone, meanwhile, joined other county officials in decrying the Senate’s attempt to obtain the routers.
“Its most recent demands jeopardize the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” he said in a statement.
“We are talking about confidential, sensitive, and highly-classified law enforcement data and equipment that will be permanently compromised. The current course is mind-numbingly reckless and irresponsible. I look forward to briefing them on the horrendous consequences of this demand and the breadth of its negative impact on the public safety in this County.”
That’s what I initially thought while shaking off a night’s sleep and waking up to the national news. You know, the REAL NEWS by One America News Network? (Channel 347 on DirecTv) – not that MSM (Main Stream Media) FAKE NEWS which only produces and distributes the DNC’s leftist propaganda and outrageous made up narratives boasting distorted information as fact but all the while refusing to acknowledge the horrendous amount of election fraud and ballot manipulation that had transpired in the 2020 election. And the result? The embarrassingly foolish appointment of a demented has been sellout crook politician and a far left “window dressing” opportunistic traitor to the American ideals of truth, honor and justice – all just to blur the continuing attempt to explain away the obvious truth: it is not a matter of systemic racism that is tearing this country apart, but rather, systemic political corruption of the DNC and its “off the track supporters” both within and outside government. (Similar to “it’s not a gun problem, but an idiot problem”) EASY TO BE CONFUSED Nah, the report was actually about election fraud and how the DNC wrongfully took the White House through a rigged election – yet the methods were strangely similar as to how a subsidized groundwater substitution program was wrongfully established to circumvent 40 plus years of very clear STATE WATER LICENSE RESTRICTIONS on where Merced River water could be transported and consumed. There was no legitimate misunderstanding of the applicable law. Just plain intentional violation of law because it NOT ONLY could be done – but, it COULD BE DONE WITH IMPUNITY while the innocent suffered needlessly.
ISN’T THE CONTINUING COVERUP FAR WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL VIOLATIONS OF PROVIDING MERCED RIVER WATER OUTSIDE THE MERCED IRRIGATION DISTRICT PLACE OF USE UNDER THE WATER LICENSE?
Although intentional violation of law is certainly a bad thing for elected and appointed local government officials to orchestrate and perpetuate for decades (and they should eventually be held responsible/accountable even if only documented in some form of a “LIABILITY FREE STATEMENT”) the COVERUP (once again) appears to be every bit as bad – and likely much worse – because it only continues to blur the distinction between RIGHT and WRONG, FAIR and UNFAIR, ETHICAL and UNETHICAL, LOGICAL and ILLOGICAL, LEGAL vs ILLEGAL, etc, while simultaneously increasing the detrimental consequences for thousands of honest legal American citizen property owners who have been financially victimized by such activity since the formation of this CALIFORNIA SPECIAL DISTRICT FRAUD CALLED: LAKE DON PEDRO CSD.
RED FLAG ATTACKS, DNC propaganda, MSM denying the truth and perpetrating the concept that outrageous election fraud is only “A BIG TRUMP LIE”, cancel culture, the de platforming of truthful voices, purging of conservative expression…..COVID-19 excuses for the convenient suppression of freedom……all of it……just BULLSHIT to distract legal American citizens from what is happening to OUR AMERICA…AND WHAT PLAYERS ARE RESPONSIBLE.
SO?
Yeah, guess I am just an old broken record with the needle stuck in a groove only repeating the same material over and over and over again. BUT IT IS AN IMPORTANT REPEAT FOR EVERYONE as I believe such intentional law violations and continued deceptions by government entities and officials also have a DIRECT INFLUENCE ON A PERSON’S PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH AND ENJOYMENT OF LIFE, LIBERTY and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. Think about it. Continuous and increasing stressors combined with the frustration that obvious cheats and liars continue to prosper and evade accountability while the victims of such activity only pay more and more to only receive less and less. Less of everything – including the enjoyment of life itself! THIS IS SO WRONG – TO EVERYONE INVOLVED.
The lies and deceptions by the Tuolumne and Mariposa County LAFCOs which formed the LDPCSD (to apparently exploit water license 11395 for their own purposes of rural development with the escalating financial costs surreptitiously slipped to the subdivision property owners for perpetuity), have charted a decades long course of district dysfunction and community turmoil all because they violated their oaths of office and refused to obey clear state law. Oh well, that’s life yeah?
My best to you and yours (because you sure aren’t going to get it from government entities that conceal their own public annexation records or post on the internet patently incorrect information while trying to score further government grants for continued misappropriation to the same third party special interests that started this nightmare 50 years ago. Lew
Have more OUTSIDE MID PLACE OF USE LAFCO ANNEXATIONS been provided water service since the LAKE DON PEDRO CSD was admonished by the State Water Board for continuing to violate the water service restrictions contained in the MERCED IRRIGATION DISTRICT’s water license 11395 by providing river water outside the subdivision? How would the legally entitled MERCED RIVER WATER USING “mandatory customers” of the LDPCSD even know if this were happening without the continued publication of the OUTSIDE MERCED IRRIGATION DISTRICT POU water report in the monthly agenda packet? (Add more LAFCO ANNEXATIONS for water service then develop more expensive groundwater wells, then add more LAFCO ANNEXATIONS…..and develop more expensive groundwater wells…..FOLKS EVEN A CHILD COULD UNDERSTAND SUCH METHOD OF OPERATION IS UNSUSTAINABLE IN A DROUGHT PRONE REGION WHERE GROUNDWATER WELLS FOR SUSTAINED DEVELOPMENT ARE UNRELIABLE!
THE OUTSIDE MIDPOU REPORT – prior to SNEAKY PETE KAMPA’s UNETHICAL RETURN AND ABOLISHMENT OF THAT REPORT WHICH LEGAL CUSTOMERS COULD USE TO MONITOR THE DISTRICT’S EXPANSION OF OUTSIDE POU SERVICES, documented all the properties outside the subdivision and golf course that were receiving water that had to be produced from groundwater sources in order NOT TO VIOLATE THE WATER LICENSE. (Please recall that the State of California water officials eventually discovered (after multiple attempts to prematurely end the investigation and hide the known results) that there were EVEN MORE PROPERTIES INVOLVED than the LDPCSD had been reporting for many years! In other words, the BIG CHEAT was EVEN BIGGER THAN WHAT WAS KNOWN FOR DECADES!
SO? HAVE MORE OF THESE LAFCO ANNEXATIONS BEEN PROVIDED WATER SERVICE QUIETLY?
I’ll ask again……HAVE MORE OPOU LAFCO ANNEXATIONS BEEN ADDED TO THE OUTSIDE PLACE OF USE INVENTORY OF SPECIAL BENEFIT WATER SERVICES SINCE THE ADDITIONAL STATE VIOLATIONS WERE MADE PUBLIC?
Have more of these LAFCO ANNEXATIONS been quietly provided water service which obviously only increases the groundwater demand for a SPECIAL BENEFIT WATER SERVICE – thus requiring even more 1/2 million dollar groundwater wells with the added operational expenses in production, monitoring, testing, treating and reporting to the State Water Board?
How would ANYONE KNOW without that report?
Yet “THEY” want to raise our already over priced water service (due to the substantial cost increases in supplying this subsidized special benefit)?
WHY NO SPECIAL BENEFIT WATER SERVICE ZONE JUST FOR THESE LAFCO ANNEXATIONS?
Why after over 40 years of this “hide and seek” deceptive water service management hasn’t a SPECIAL BENEFIT ZONE been established to provide services to these LAFCO ANNEXATIONS which cannot by law receive MERCED RIVER WATER ONLY? DUH! Why isn’t there an OUTSIDE MID POU SPECIAL BENEFIT ZONE where all these LAFCO ANNEXATIONS that need water for development can simply pool their resources (share the costs) and provide that more expensive water required for their OUTSIDE POU DEVELOPMENTS?
Seems to me if these folks (outside the legal service area) who want water service for their developments (like the entitled “MANDATORY CUSTOMERS OF THE RESIDENTIAL SUBDIVISION who can legally receive Merced River water) – they should be organizing to form their own special benefit zone where they fund the endeavor and could therefore exclusively determine who would or would not be provided that special benefit since it would be THEIR RESOURCES FUNDING THE BENEFIT!
WITH SKIN IN THE GAME LAFCO ANNEXED PROPERTY OWNERS MIGHT BE MORE FRUGAL WITH WATER
THEY WOULD THEN ACTUALLY HAVE SKIN IN THE GAME WITH THEIR OWN MONEY! Why should the subdivision residents who do not need that more expensive groundwater blended concoction for water service pay for all those added costs?
They would then have actual SKIN IN THE GAME (instead of a subsidized special benefit water service paid for by the thousands of residential subdivision owners who do not require such a special benefit). since it would be their own combined resources providing the service.
Who would like to bet money, marbles or chalk if such a SPECIAL BENEFIT ZONE OF SERVICE were established – those involved property owners would also be very concerned and careful about providing services in excess of what they could afford to produce and deliver? Seriously – it’s easy to demand more and pay more WITH SOMEONE ELSE’S MONEY!
In other words, let the LAFOC ANNEXATION PROPERTY OWNERS control and manage their own LAFCO ANNEXATION volume of water service? They want a new residential subdivision? Let them drill the 1/2 million dollar wells to provide the water. And then the replacement well when the original fails. Let them explain to others wanting water why it is cost prohibitive.
Some might say such a SPECIAL BENEFIT ZONE might not work for one reason or another – but why? Because LAFCO ANNEXATION PROPERTY OWNERS don’t want to pay their fair share for what they consume!
So is it better to continue this absolute sham of legitimacy while ACTIVELY CONCEALING PERTINENT FACTS FROM NOT ONLY THE CUSTOMERS PAYING THE BILLS, but from the governmental entities providing the grant money for the groundwater wells being used for other political purposes? (Covering up LAFCOs INTENTIONAL VIOLATION OF STATE WATER LAW FOR DECADES?
) Is that why the LDPCSD continues to provide INCORRECT SERVICE BOUNDARY INFORMATION ON ITS WEBSITE TO OTHER GOVERNMENT ENTITIES IN ORDER TO GATHER MORE GRANT FUNDS THAT ARE ONLY DELAYING THE INEVITABLE COLLAPSE OF THIS ENORMOUS FOOTHILL WATER EMPIRE SCAM PAID FOR BY THE MR WECS of the subdivision?
MERCED RIVER WATER ENTITLED CUSTOMERS = MR WECs!
My best to you and yours, Lew
PS: Notice the similar pattern at the uncontrolled southern border which is only going to cost all legal citizens of this country billions more in added costs with escalating and expanding social difficulties? So sad, for all involved. Later
Only thing I can figure is to again scam some federal or state grant money by once again completely misrepresenting the facts of the situation. The LDPCSD needs more groundwater wells in order to circumvent the Merced RIver water restrictions in the Merced Irrigation District water license 11395. Check out the LDPCSD’s website. It states the POU map was a production by Mariposa County – WRONG! The Planning Department Head and LAFCO Executive Officer told me years ago that map was not produced by Mariposa County or its LAFCO. It was produced by the LDPCSD and provided to LAFCO. If LAFCO is the only government entity which can change a special district boundary, why was the county of Mariposa and its LAFCO just accepting whatever nonsense the LDPCSD could plot when they were fabricating PLACE OF USE MAPS FOR MERCED RIVER WATER like ballots in the 2020 presidential election?
Seriously, this is extremely corrupt business going on here – applying for government grants with intentionally presented FALSE AND INCORRECT INFORMATION REGARDING THE SERVICE AREA AND ACTUAL PLACE OF USE FOR MERCED RIVER WATER — ESPECIALLY WHEN ONLY RECENTLY REVEALED IN A CALIFORNIA STATE WATER BOARD INVESTIGATION WHICH REPEATEDLY ATTEMPTED TO CLOSE THE INVESTIGATION WITH FURTHER FALSE INFORMATION FROM THE FORMER GM/TREASURER PETER KAMPA WHO HAS SERVED ABOUT 20 YEARS WITH THE CALIFORNIA SPECIAL DISTRICT ASSOCIATION! CSDA WHICH IS ASSISTING WITH ADVERTISING FALSE LDPCSD MAP INFORMATION TO THE INTERNET WORLD! Outrageous.
Also notice some of the links to important map information do not work! Gosh, could it be because they present conflicting information with the ongoing scam of misrepresenting district boundary facts to State and Federal entities in order to obtain more grant money in order to develop more 1/2 million dollar groundwater wells needed to provide subsidized groundwater substitution for all those LAFCO ANNEXATIONS outside the water entitled subdivision that Pete KAMPA wrongfully setup over 20 years ago when lying and cheating here at the LDPCSD the first time during 1994-1997? See? It never ends because “THEY” refuse to admit they got caught in a gigantic water empire scam to be quietly funded by the already victimized property owners of the residential subdivision.
Still say those who receive a special benefit of more expensive water service should pay for every bit of the added costs for that special water service – or annex into the residential subdivision and be subject to another layer of government regulation through a PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION, violation committees, CC&RS, annual assessments, a governing board of directors…..blah blah blah.
Subdivision property owners have been paying for that water since the beginning of this LAFCO – LAND DEVELOPER SCAM.
THEY DIDN”T WANT SUBDIVISION PROPERTY WITH OUR WATER
ONLY OUR SUBDIVISION WATER ON THEIR PRIVATE PROPERTY!
This is insane, yet it goes on and on and on with ABSOLUTELY NO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR INTENTIONAL CRIMINAL ACTIVITY. Welcome to the absence of law and order…..but their time is coming. Just keep holding on – these cheats and liars will eventually be recognized and dealt with for exactly what they are – cheats and liars pretending to be public servants working for the good of all citizens. What a bunch of frigg’n frauds. later!
A group of illegal immigrants wait for Border Patrol after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in La Joya, Texas, on April 10, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Immigration & Border Security
A coalition of Republican senators who recently visited the southern border is urging President Joe Biden to take swift action and reverse his policy decisions that they say has caused the significant surge in illegal immigration in recent months.
The ten senators penned a letter to the White House detailing a harrowing account of their observations during a tour of the border and immigration facilities in late March. The senators said they witnessed first-hand human traffickers in action and recounted a distressing case of child sexual assault of a girl who was trafficked into the United States.
“Our delegation’s tour of the border was eye-opening. We knew it was a crisis before we arrived, because we had seen the statistics. But witnessing it was different,” the senators wrote in their letter.
“From the coyotes heckling border agents on the ground, to the health and humanitarian hazards of the Anzalduas processing area, to the terrified and confused children in the unsanitary and crowded conditions of the Donna facility, to the struggle of local border communities near the Pharr bridge, what we saw convinced us that this is more than a crisis. It is a tragedy,” the group said.
The senators who signed the letter include Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), John Thune (R-S.D.), John Barasso (R-Wyo.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.).
The senators described appalling conditions and “cages” that children were kept in at the Donna Processing facility, and lamented the lack of COVID-19 measures implemented on the ground due to the sheer volume of unaccompanied children crossing illegally into the country.
“We saw a line of children who, having just been crammed into the crowded cages, were now testing positive for COVID-19,” they wrote. “Border Patrol agents were doing their absolute best to care for these children, but these officials are not social workers they are trained to protect our border. The conditions were, simply put and without exaggeration, inhumane.”
Among those who crossed illegally into the United States last month were over 18,800 unaccompanied minors, which is double the number of minors who illegally arrived in the United States in February at over 9,300 encounters. This is compared to 5,585 unaccompanied minors in January, and 4,993 unaccompanied minors in December 2020.
Meanwhile, the Health and Human Services (HHS) said earlier this month that about 20,000 children, mostly from Central America, are being housed in temporary facilities operated by the department, while around 2,500 more are still in CBP custody.
The average cost to care for a child in a permanent facility is $290 per day, HHS officials told The Epoch Times, via email. That cost jumps to approximately $775 per day for children in temporary emergency facilities “due to the need to develop facilities quickly and hire significant staff over a short period of time.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged last week that the administration had not anticipated the influx of illegal border crossings following its policy changes but continued to downplay the severity of the situation by insisting that the situation at the border was not a “crisis.” Her comments came after Biden, in a rare admission, used the word “crisis” to refer to the surge of unaccompanied minors at the border.
The senators reminded Biden in their letter that the Rio Grande Valley sector chief and his team had previously warned Biden’s transition team about such potential consequences of his announced immigration policies and that the warning was not heeded.
“They warned that these policies would create exactly the crisis we are now witnessing. They told your team that your policies would result in a surge of illegal immigration bound to overwhelm CBP’s limited resources. And that is exactly what has happened,” the senators wrote.
Republican lawmakers have long argued that the burgeoning crisis is a result of Biden’s move to overturn several Trump-era immigration policies that helped curbed the flow of illegal border crossings. This includes his predecessor’s cornerstone Migrant Protection Protocol, which effectively ended the problematic “catch and release” policy, significantly stemming the surge of illegal immigrants that were seen at the southern border in 2019.
In a return to the Obama-era policies that facilitate “catch-and-release,” the Biden administration is again releasing unaccompanied minors into the country. The lawmakers argue that Biden’s act has been interpreted as a signal to prospective migrants to travel to the United States.
The Biden administration, on the other hand, has sought to shift the blame on former President Donald Trump’s administration, with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas saying that the previous government had “dismantled the orderly, humane, and efficient way of allowing children to make their claims under United States law in their own country.”
The senators also raised concerns about issues resulting from the surge, including a significant increase of contraband and drugs smuggled across the border due to the lack of resources to prevent smuggling operations by drug cartels and other criminals.
Citing statistics from CBP, the senators said the the Laredo Field Office reported that fentanyl seizures rose by 2,067 percent, cocaine seizures increased by 187 percent, weapons seizures are up 131 percent, and currency seizures increased by 64 percent.
“This confirms accounts that drug cartels and other smuggling operations are taking advantage of the disarray at the border to smuggle more drugs and weapons,” they wrote.
They are asking Biden to acknowledge the “crisis” at the border and “begin a dramatic change of course to humanely secure our southern border.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered remarks on the Senate floor regarding infrastructure.
McConnell was Tuesdays’ KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. Here are his words:
“Early on, a major theme of the Biden Administration has been false advertising.
We have the so-called ‘COVID relief bill’ that broke a long bipartisan streak on pandemic response and only spent 1% of the money on vaccinations.
We have the reintroduction of a sprawling election takeover bill that Democrats wrote years ago under the guise that it’s a common-sense voting rights bill.
We have a President who ran on protecting norms flirting with proposals to hot-wire the Senate’s rules and pack the Supreme Court.
And then we have the latest example, where even one Ivy League expert says Democrats’ spin ‘does a bit of violence to the English language.’
They’ve assembled a patchwork of left-wing social engineering programs and want to label it ‘infrastructure.’
Now, as I’ve pointed out before, the first notable thing about the Biden Administration’s plan is what it doesn’t focus on.
Less than 6% of this alleged “infrastructure” bill would invest in roads and bridges. The total amount of funding it would direct to roads, bridges, ports, waterways, and airports combined adds up to less than what it would spend just on electric cars.
The far left sees a strong family resemblance between these proposals and their socialist ‘Green New Deal.’
Yesterday the House and Senate authors of that manifesto reintroduced it, while noting, and boasting, that the DNA of the Green New Deal is all over President Biden’s legislative proposals.
No wonder the White House’s document rolling out the President’s bill mentioned the words ‘climate’ and ‘union’ more often than ‘roads’ and ‘bridges’.
It would pick winners and losers in automotive manufacturing.
It would force-feed the electrical grid some of the least reliable forms of energy.
It would hector school cafeterias to stop using paper plates and force new standards and mandates on family homes.
And the relative pittance this proposal does allocate to actual infrastructure would have to creep through a tangled environmental review process. Without serious permitting reform, it won’t be build back better; it’ll be build back never.
But at least some of those bad ideas have a tangential relationship to the actual concept of infrastructure. Not so for some other statements we’ve heard from actual Democrats in recent days:
“Climate action is infrastructure”… “Police accountability is infrastructure”… “Caregiving is infrastructure”… “Supreme Court expansion is infrastructure” !
Now, unsurprisingly, this liberal omnibus is not exactly an efficient engine for driving our economy.
The White House’s inflated claims of expected job creation have been fact-checked and received ‘Pinocchios’ from the Washington Post.
Even under the rosiest scholarly assumptions, the White House’s own favored estimates, taxpayers would pay more than $800,000 for each job this plan might create.
I know a lot of small business owners who could create more than one job if we handed them $800,000.
And then there are the tax hikes. This proposal is a Trojan horse to roll back the historic 2017 tax reform plan that helped spur big-time wage growth and the best job market in a generation before COVID-19.
So the Administration’s proposal bears little resemblance to the bipartisan infrastructure bill Americans need and deserve. It just reads like customer service for the radical fringe.”
The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
OBVIOUS ANSWER? LEGAL MANAGEMENT PER STATE WATER LICENSE WAS COMPLETELY IGNORED FOR DECADES
Why hasn’t the 1993 McClure Point Deep Water project ever been seriously pursued as the logical way to protect our primary source of water sustainability that is stored in Lake McClure per water license 11395?
Because Tuolumne and Mariposa County LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commissions) ANNEXATIONS into the Lake Don Pedro CSD are PROHIBITED from consuming Merced River water which was intended for the LDP residential subdivision and golf course area only. Since securing sustainable river water didn’t help that extreme minority of property owners outside the WATER ENTITLED SUBDIVISION, why pursue something that only makes sense for the entitled customers?
THEN WHY WAS THE LDPCSD REALLY FORMED IF CLEAR REGULATIONS WERE NOT FOLLOWED?
Was it because land developers, county officials (and their respective LAFCOs exercising STATE AUTHORITY) and others, all worked together on a devious plan to exploit Water License 11395 and provide water services throughout the rural foothill areas of both counties while simultaneously forcing the unaware property owners of the Lake Don Pedro residential subdivision (formerly Sierra Highlands Water Company) to pay for the whole water service expansion scam under the misleading name of a COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT?
So, beginning over 40 years ago, instead of protecting the ENTITLED WATER RIGHTS OF THE PROPERTY OWNERS IN THE SUBDIVISION (for which the surface water treatment plant was designed and intended to serve) local leaders decided to deliver water anywhere they wanted regardless of prohibitions. Then when busted for selling Merced River water outside the legal PLACE OF USE, they embarked upon the extremely expensive plan to develop unreliable groundwater wells to provide water outside the POU which would be subsidized (paid for) by the water entitled subdivision customers who didn’t need groundwater wells for their service.
WHY DID THE ORIGINAL DEVELOPER BOISE CASCADE ABANDON THEIR 13 GROUNDWATER WELLS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO SUPPLY THIS “OUTSIDE MIDPOU WATER SERVICE”?
BECAUSE THEY WERE UNRELIABLE OR PRODUCED POOR QUALITY WATER – THE ORIGINAL DEVELOPER KNEW GROUNDWATER SUBSTITUTION WAS A LOSER PLAN!
Why was this special benefit blended water service intended for properties in areas the LDPCSD HAD NO LEGAL DUTY or MORAL OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE SERVICE SUDDENLY A FINANCIAL BURDEN and RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ENTITLED SUBDIVISION PROPERTY OWNERS?
BECAUSE LDP PROPERTY OWNERS WERE DESIGNATED FROM THE BEGINNING AS THE “DEEP POCKET” BECAUSE THERE WERE THOUSANDS OF THEM TO SPREAD THE COSTS ACROSS. GREAT SUMS OF MONEY COULD BE OBTAINED BY INCREASING COSTS TO ALL CUSTOMERS A LITTLE BIT MORE.
(Rather like the “weighted race” ballot manipulation that facilitated the APPOINTMENT of a FRAUD OF A US PRESIDENT IN 2020! Steal a little bit from everyone to make up the required cheat necessary to win!)
YUP, SAME DECEPTIONS WE CURRENTLY SEE ON THE NATIONAL LEVELREGARDING ELECTIONS
Just another example of wealth redistribution by those government officials who refuse to obey the law and chose to do what was best for their “party” and/or “group of associates” and their best interests – to hell with the legal American citizen and voter. In this CSD case the “wealth” is a redistribution of water rights in a drought prone area to those property owners specifically not entitled to Merced River water under WL 11395 (which was the district’s ONLY WATER SOURCE WHEN MOST OF THESE ANNEXATIONS WERE PROPOSED and APPROVED BY TWO COUNTY LAFCOs!)
Sure I’d be mad as hell too if I purchased land from a seller who told me water was available from the district – or would be quite soon. Sure that’s absolutely wrong but that is a problem between the seller and the buyer – not the victimized LDP SUBDIVISION PROPERTY OWNERS WHO HAVE BEEN DEFRAUDED FOR DECADES!
PAY FOR WHAT YOU USE! Those who require and receive a “special benefit water service” should pay ALL COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THAT SPECIAL WATER SERVICE BENEFIT. This is not not rocket science.
FIRST LDPCSD GROUNDWATER WELL WAS DEVELOPED AFTER A WATER AUDIT OF THE LICENSE HOLDER MID
Remember, the LDPCSD’s FIRST GROUNDWATER WELL wasn’t developed until 1993 – when the district was advised by the Merced Irrigation District that NO MORE MERCED WATER OUTSIDE THE PLACE OF USE AND ALL THAT LEAVES MUST BE REPLACED WITH AN ALTERNATE SOURCE……AND THAT WAS AN EXPENSIVE GROUNDWATER PLAN!
(Hummmm, the LDPCSD’s first groundwater well was developed right around the same time COMMERCIAL CATTLE RANCHER, and long time LDPCSD DIRECTOR EMERY ROSS, started providing treated water to his cattle with a water meter belonging to another rancher, while mandatory LDPCSD customers of the subdivision paid all additional costs associated with that special benefit blended water service for OUTSIDE MIDPOU LAFCO ANNEXED properties. Sounds like a special financial interest in LDPCSD operations doesn’t it?) Good grief.
THEY CAN DRILL IF THEY WANT but it is very expensive so…..THEY DON’T DRILL
Being outside the subdivision those property owners can drill their own water wells if they want whereas the property owners in the subdivision (due to the CC&Rs and how the district was set up) must receive water service through the LDPCSD – essentially built in customers and a “deep financial pocket” to be picked anytime more money is needed – even if for outside third party interests.
SPECIAL BENEFIT WATER SERVICE WITHOUT THE EXTRA REGULATIONS OF ANOTHER LAYER OF GOVERNMENT?
Seven other residential subdivisions were once planned to be the beneficiaries of this SPECIAL BENEFIT SUBSIDIZED water service for LAFCO ANNEXATIONS which DO NOT have the added layer of government in the form of a PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION with far more restrictive regulations on land use than what other properties in the county obey. No violation committees, board director elections, CC&Rs (covenants, codes and restrictions), yearly assessments, monetary fines, lawsuits against owners, blah blah blah….., etc.
DIDN’T WANT OUR SUBDIVISION LAND WITH WATER, ONLY OUR SUBDIVISION WATER ON THEIR PRIVATE LAND!
Want an even playing field in this continuing water service nightmare brought about by dishonest representatives and politicians of the past and present? How about this? If these other annexed properties want SUBDIVISION WATER SO BAD – make them part of the subdivision with the more restrictive regulations every LDP owner is subject to obeying. Ohhhhh….I see, “they” don’t want a subdivision property or the extra regulations WE MUST FOLLOW – just our subdivision water on their private land which is primarily paid for by the far majority of subdivision property owners. That doesn’t sound like a fair deal does it?
ALL SEEMS STRANGELY FAMILIAR
Anyone else notice the similarities with the 2020 presidential election and how the current administration is more concerned with “open borders” and redistribution of wealth to residents of other countries than protecting the vested interests of all the legal American citizens?
How could LAFCOs violate their own clear regulations and operating procedures in pursuing such annexations and instituting an unethical subsidized special benefit groundwater substitution plan (to circumvent state water restrictions for their annexations and proposed developments) OUTSIDE THE water license PLACE OF USE to the extreme detriment of the entitled water users in the subdivision?
Same way in which a fraudulent election can place a compromised and demented career sellout politician and his misguided leftist supporters in the White House to weaken America as much as they possibly can. Will there be anything left of America to save after Joe Demento and his Gang of Leftists?
Will there be enough water for service to all the subdivision property lots as the documents state there WILL BE? THE DISTRICT IS LEGALLY REQUIRED TO PROVIDE WATER SERVICE TO ANY ENTITLED SUBDIVISION LOT ANYTIME UPON DEMAND SERVICE…..ahhhhhh, but there’s the kicker……will there be enough “entitled water” if outside place of use special benefit subsidized water service continues for LAFCO ANNEXATIONS THAT NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN APPROVED IN THE FIRST PLACE IF EXISTING REGULATIONS WERE FOLLOWED?
THEY CHEAT WITHOUT CONSCIENCE (OR REMORSE WHEN CAUGHT) AS OTHERS ALWAYS PAY THE BILL!
Yup, the LDPCSD, LAFCOS, local regulating departments in the county – even certain state water agencies and unethical regulating officials, and many more unethical cheats, all seem to work quite well together in expanding this subsidized special benefit water scam which simultaneously defrauds the entitled water users of the LDP subdivision who have been paying more for their water service than they were promised for decades. No biggie. The perpetrators of the fraud simply conceal the evidence of their betrayal and eventually all those who know the truthful facts give up, move away or die and then it’s right back to the blatant violation of law with impunity and the special interest management until an opposing “party” can obtain the authority to once again enforce existing law that has been so egregiously violated for over 40 years.
A “special” CALIFORNIA SPECIAL DISTRICT
After all, the whole point of a CALIFORNIA SPECIAL DISTRICT is to provide a 1) limited service, 2) to a particular group of people 3) in a designated area 4) for only the cost necessary in providing that service.
Why have all the elements of a special district been violated here at the LDPCSD?
Same old reasons as every where else. Greed, money, unrestrained power etc. The ability to violate law with impunity while the taxpayer pays more and more for less and less but is told it is progress intended to benefit everyone.
Same reason that as American citizens we have all likely not had a fair election under such Democrat rule for many years. They cheat and violate law to achieve goals while passing the increasing expenses to already victimized taxpayers. Same old lies about how their programs assist all citizens equally.
Absolute bullshit. And it’s time for it to STOP!
Wake to the reality of betrayal, the actual perpetrators, beneficiaries and why such injustice continues.
OVER FOUR DECADES OF DECEIT AND BETRAYAL by the same type of folks who have intentionally destroyed your voting rights as they continue to reconfigure OUR USA into some godless anarchy – or worse. Yup, may God have mercy on their misguided pitiful souls because I probably wouldn’t piss on their heads if they were on fire considering what they have already done.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy apologized on Feb. 24 for the mail delays that Americans across the nation have seen dating back to last year, while defending changes that were made to the U.S. Postal Service under his watch.
DeJoy told the House Oversight and Reform Committee in Washington that the service “fell far short of meeting our service targets” during the holiday season.
“Too many Americans were left waiting for weeks for important deliveries of mail and packages. This is unacceptable, and I apologize to those customers who felt the impact of our delays,” he said, adding that officials would “strive to do better in our service to the American people and we will do better.”
Americans saw delays of days or even weeks throughout the Christmas season, as the country saw what officials described as “a historic record of holiday volume.” Struggles with staffing due to COVID-19 were a contributing factor.
Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) blamed the delays on changes DeJoy made to the service after taking the top post.
DeJoy said his focus has been on making the service financially sustainable since Congress has repeatedly been forced to infuse billions in funding to the beleaguered independent agency, which falls under the Executive Branch of the government.
“While our performance during the election was tremendous, the service performance issues that we otherwise experienced during much of the year demonstrate why we must make fundamental changes to provide our customers with the service they expect and deserve,” he said, calling the status quo unacceptable and requesting Congress intervene to help assist with reform.
The changes ordered by DeJoy, including reducing hours, were rolled back in October 2020 in the settlement of a lawsuit.
Ron Bloom, a Democratic member of the post office’s Board of Governors, told lawmakers that changes are needed to “address the systemic issues plaguing” the current model of the service, noting that it isn’t self-subsistent. The service is projected to lose $160 billion over the next 10 years if nothing changes.
Maloney circulated draft legislation last week that she said would address some of the most important factors driving up costs of the service, since it’s facing “a dire financial situation.”
A United States Postal Service mail carrier delivers mail in El Paso, Texas, on April 30, 2020. (Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images)
DeJoy, a donor to former President Donald Trump, was selected by the Postal Service’s board.
Asked how long he plans to stay as postmaster general, DeJoy told lawmakers, “A long time.”
“Get used to me,” he said.
But President Joe Biden on Feb. 24 announced three nominations to the board: former Deputy Postmaster General Ron Stroman, Amber McReynolds of the nonprofit National Vote at Home Institute, and Anton Hajjar, former general counsel for the American Postal Workers Union.
Democrats praised the nominations, including Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), who had called on Biden to fire every member of the board.
“I am gratified that we have a President in office who gets what is at stake in saving our Post Office and is acting with urgency. This is an impressive group of diverse nominees selected by President Biden who will be well-suited to the work of saving our Post Office,” he said in a statement.
The board currently comprises six Trump appointees, four of whom are Republicans. Three seats are vacant.
If Biden’s nominations are approved, the board would have a Democrat majority, enabling the removal of DeJoy.
Senate Judiciary Committee members Sen. Marcia Blackburn (R-TN), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) hold a news conference to voice their opposition to adding justices to the U.S. Supreme Court outside the court’s building in Washington, on April 22, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Republicans
Leading Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday held a press conference expressing their opposition to the Democrat proposal to expand the Supreme Court from 9 to 13 seats.
The three senators compared the Democrat-led effort as a push to “rig” the Supreme Court that would ultimately “destroy judicial independence.”
“Packing the court and tearing down the institutions that protect our rights is fundamentally wrong,” said Cruz at a press conference in front of the Supreme Court. “They’re [Democrats] trying to rig the game … fix the system.”
The Judiciary Act of 2021, which was put forward last week, would add four seats to the nation’s top court, effectively flipping the balance from six to three in favor of conservative-appointed justices, to seven to six in the opposite direction.
Lobbying efforts by liberal activists to “pack the court” have ramped up in recent months following their unsuccessful attempt last year to stop then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced the bill with Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), and Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.).
Nadler sought to justify the proposal by saying that 13 seats would match the 13 circuit courts.
Speaking Thursday, Graham suggested that Democrats are pushing for the expansion of the Supreme Court “to make the court liberal so that when they fell at the ballot box, they can get the Supreme Court to enact their agenda.”
“That’s been a liberal dream for decades, and they’re willing to destroy the rule of law as we know it to achieve their goal. They are willing to change the makeup of the United States Senate to achieve their goal,” he said.
He added, “We’re not going to allow the most radical liberal movement in modern American history to destroy the rule of law for partisan purposes.”
The Republican senator noted that when his party was in the “same position” under former President Donald Trump, they didn’t get rid of the filibuster.
“We had a Republican Senate, a Republican president, and a Republican House. We didn’t do this. We could have,” Graham said.
“We were under pressure. President Trump argued every day about changing the filibuster rule so we could get the things that we wanted through and many of us said no,” Graham added.
It comes as several groups of Republican lawmakers have launched countermeasures in an effort to keep the number of seats on the bench to nine.
On Thursday, 20 Republican state attorneys general sent a letter (pdf) to President Joe Biden and congressional leaders, urging them not to expand the Supreme Court. They called the effort “a naked political power grab.”
A number of Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have yet to completely back the bill.
“I have no plans to bring it to the floor,” Pelosi told reporters in Washington. Instead, she said she supports President Joe Biden’s commission to study possible reforms to the court.
Earlier this month, Biden signed an executive order to form a commission to study possible reforms to the court, including proposals to expand it. He presented the idea of a commission as an alternative to “court-packing” efforts.
Arizona elections officials continue to count ballots inside the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix on Nov. 6, 2020. (Matt York/AP Photo) Election Integrity
The Arizona Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, is ready to start a major audit of 2.1 million ballots for the 2020 presidential election. The recount will be done by hand this time.
The state Senate said in March they would be conducting a “broad and detailed” audit, adding that they will test voting machines, scan ballots, look for IT breaches, and perform a hand count.
The state-issued subpoenas needed in order to execute the audit have been pending since mid-December and were ruled as valid (pdf) on Feb. 25.
Since then, lawmakers have been working on the specifics for the audit. Karen Fann, the Arizona Senate president, told Just the News that the audit process will commence during the next week.
Fann said the state’s Republicans have faced “sabotage” by Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors and that the process has been hindered.
“The Maricopa BOS has refused to allow us to perform the audit at their facilities,” Fann said, “and has gone so far as to refusing to even answer simple questions such as ‘how are the ballots sequestered?’”
“It’s taken the Senate two and a half months to win in court to uphold our right to issue subpoenas for election materials and another 6 weeks of researching to select the audit team to perform the full forensic audit.”
She said previously that their intention was “never about overturning the election, it was about the integrity of the Arizona election system.”
Fann signed a contract earlier this week to rent the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix for about a month starting April 19, reported azcentral. She previously said that she wanted to use spaces in the county but that they declined.
She explained that there will be physical and live streaming security in the more than 20,000 square foot facility.
“The audit teams are assembling and transporting the equipment and personnel to Arizona with an expected start date of April 22nd,” she added.
Fann noted that the Arizona State Senate and auditors do not have a particular expectation of the findings.
“We are performing the full forensic audit to either dispel our voter’s concerns or, if a problem is uncovered, we must fix the problems before the next election,” she said.
“We have never accused anyone of fraud or misconduct, whether it be the hardware, software or actions of personnel,” Fann added.
“We hope there is no intentional illegal tampering but, if found, we will turn the information over to the state and federal attorney generals for their further legal action and we will proceed to make the appropriate corrections.”
A report is expected to be released in about two months, according to a statement from the state Senate.
The independent audit will be conducted by four out-of-state companies; Wake Technology Services, CyFIR, Digital Discovery, and Cyber Ninjas. Florida-based cybersecurity company Cyber Ninjas will be leading the audit, the Senate said, adding that they focus on computer application security for financial services and government clients.
According to Just the News, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers told Fann in an email that the upcoming audit “is not a joint effort between the County and the Senate Republican Caucus.”
“Maricopa County will not communicate with your vendors or interpret Arizona law for them,” Sellers added.
He also said that because of the unsettled legal ramifications of the documents, Maricopa “cannot be involved in supporting your audit as to do so may expose it to liability for which it has no similar legal protection.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for comment.
