3 Qposts containing 'overtime'.

Nancy Pelosi’s Relative Snags Sweetheart Conflict Of Interest Waiver From Feds

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in January 2022 approved an ethics waiver for the wife of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s nephew allowing for a potential financial conflict of interest to go unresolved, according to documents obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Laurence Pelosi, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s nephew, had a stake in a joint real estate venture with Goldman Sachs called Restore Utah, which benefits from HUD’s Section 8 housing vouchers, while his wife, Alexis Pelosi, was employed at the agency, according to a copy of the waiver approval released by watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust.

While it would usually violate federal ethics rules for a beneficiary of HUD funds to have a spouse employed at the department, HUD found an exemption that allowed Laurence to retain his stake in the real estate project. Requiring him to divest, or his project to forgo HUD funds, would allegedly result in “undue hardship” for Alexis and her husband.

Part of HUD’s reasoning was that Restore Utah was Laurence Pelosi’s “primary profession,” however, Alexis Pelosi’s financial disclosures indicate that he had four other income streams around the time the conflict of interest waiver was approved. Laurence Pelosi collected salaries from two different law firms and consulting fees from two other law firms in 2022.

Laurence Pelosi’s stake in Restore Utah, according to his wife’s disclosures, was worth between $2 million and $10 million as of July 2022. Between 5% and 10% of Restore Utah tenants have historically used Section 8 vouchers, according to HUD’s response to Alexis Pelosi’s waiver request.

Nancy, Laurence and Alexis Pelosi did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

“It’s good to be Beltway royalty,” PPT director Michael Chamberlain told the DNCF. “Ethics officials certainly seemed to go out of their way to find a justification for her. Waivers should be rare and limited to unique circumstances for uniquely qualified individuals. As we’ve seen, the Biden-Harris administration appears to have a different philosophy, consistently appointing conflicted individuals to powerful posts and then using waivers to magically make those conflicts disappear.”

The Biden-Harris administration granted over dozens ethics waivers for bureaucrats, according to a running tracker maintained by PPT.

Alexis Pelosi did not list her husband’s employment at Crow Holdings, a real estate firm he joined in 2019 and is currently a senior managing director at, on her financial disclosures.

Laurence Pelosi was named the co-lead of Crow Holdings Renewables in June 2023, after his wife became a senior climate advisor at HUD.

“What a tremendous stroke of luck for Laurence to have nailed down the senior manager for renewables gig for a real estate firm when, coincidentally, his wife was a senior climate advisor at HUD in the Biden-Harris administration, which brags of doling out hundreds of billions of dollars for renewables,” Chamberlain told the DCNF.

Alexis Pelosi also attended a dinner hosted by Enterprise Community Partners in D.C. on the dime of Crow Holdings, receiving another ethics waiver to allow her husband’s company to pay the $300 tab because she was attending in her personal capacity, not as a representative of HUD, according to documents obtained by the DCNF. In her waiver request, however, she did not mention that she had met with one Enterprise Community Partners senior director for a Zoom call less than two weeks before applying for the waiver.

“It certainly makes one wonder whether HUD would have gone to such lengths to accommodate an official whose family name was not ‘Pelosi,’” Chamberlain said in a press release obtained by the DCNF. “However, it is in keeping with the Biden-Harris administration’s practice of appointing highly conflicted individuals to powerful positions, then simply brushing away the conflicts with waivers. Little wonder that, despite their claims to be the most ethical administration in history, the public’s trust in the federal government continues to nosedive.”

HUD did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/09/10/nancy-pelosi-relative-snags-sweetheart-conflict-interest-waiver/

That chick who works at the office.

A University of New Mexico course to teach students “queerness” as “a question of filmic structure,” and will have students read about “lesbian vampires”

The fall semester course, “Queer Cinema: Form and Fantasy,” is taught by UNM’s Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program. The course syllabus, which Campus Reform obtained through a public records request, asks: “Queerness is generally understood in terms of inclusion and visibility, but can we read queerness as a question of filmic structure?”

The syllabus description continues: “By rigorously re-working cinematic conventions through genre-confusion, non-narrativity, abstraction, discontinuity editing, and the foregrounding of the filmic apparatus, filmmakers have explored parallels to queer theory’s commitments to desire, dis/identification, non/normativity, deconstruction, and anti/sociality.”

Those who complete the course will allegedly be able to “[d]emonstrate the importance of gender, race, ethnicity, and class in the formation of sexual identities and representations,” [i]dentify forms of collective and individual resistance to the governance of sexuality,” and “[r]elate the course concepts to their personal experience.”

On Sept. 10, students discussed how the work of filmmaker Cheryl Dunye deals with “the historical erasure of black lesbian subjectivity.”

By Oct. 1, students will be expected to read Ellis Hanson’s essay, “Lesbians Who Bite,” which discusses “lesbian vampires.”

“I am struck by a certain covert attraction to the vampire myth, a certain identification with the creatures of the night, among even the most canonical of feminist theorists. I too have regarded the lesbian vampire with a degree of distrust,” Hanson writes.

On Oct. 29, students will discuss “How have women filmmakers explored female pleasures and lesbianism[?].”

The course syllabus also informs students that certain class materials demand matureness: “Be aware that queer cinema often engages aesthetic, social, sexual, and political topics that will require maturity and sophistication.”

Eva Hayward, the listed faculty member for the course, is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona who also teaches at UNM. Hayward has “developed courses on Feminist Animal Studies, Ecofeminism, and Sexuality & Aesthetics” at the University of Arizona.

Hayward’s newest book, “SymbioSeas,” examines “underwater representations of marine organisms to think about the interplay of art and science, sex and species, mediation and sensation.”

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is also offering courses related to the performing arts and LGBT issues, including “Gender, Sexuality, and Performance: Madison Trans and Queer Performance Activism,” and “Queer & Trans Cinema.”

Campus Reform has contacted Eva Hayward and the University of New Mexico for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.

https://www.campusreform.org/article/lesbian-vampires-u-new-mexico-course-looks-queer-cinema-exclusive/26333

Michigan Secretary Of State Refuses To Tell Congress Whether Dead People Are On Voter Rolls

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson refused to say whether dead people are on the voter rolls in a congressional hearing.

In a hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., asked Democrat Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson if there are dead people on the state’s voter rolls, and she would not answer yes or no.

“Why the hell are deceased people still on your voter rolls?” Murphy asked. “Do you have deceased people on your voter rolls, yes or no?”

“We do everything we can, and just like every other state, to remove — ” Benson said.

“Should a deceased person be on your voter roll?” Murphy insisted.

“No, and that’s why we remove them once we receive information,” Benson replied.

Murphy was one of several legislators who questioned secretaries of state on election integrity during a Committee on House Administration hearing Wednesday morning. His questions to Benson about dead people registered to vote in Michigan brought incomplete, indirect answers.

He brought up a lawsuit by the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which alleged that as of 2021, there were close to 26,000 dead voters on Michigan’s voter rolls. The group claimed Benson did not contest that the dead voters were registered and said she was not taking adequate steps to remove them.

“Why does it take a lawsuit by the Public Interest Legal Foundation to sue you to get those people off the voter rolls?” Murphy asked Benson.

“That lawsuit was dismissed,” Benson replied.

A district judge ruled Benson was performing ongoing list maintenance and tossed out the case, as The Federalist previously reported. But PILF appealed the case to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the court never fully determined Benson was making a “reasonable effort” to remove dead voters from the rolls.

‘Bidenbucks’

Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., also asked Benson about Michigan’s work with President Joe Biden’s Small Business Administration to “get out the vote” as part of the federal “Bidenbucks” program, which targets left-leaning groups like college students and American Indians, as The Federalist previously reported.

Biden signed his “Executive Order On Promoting Access To Voting” in 2021, making federal agencies work with so-called “approved, nonpartisan third-party organizations” to register voters.

This federal program has taken the name “Bidenbucks” — perhaps now “KamalaCash” — for its resemblance to the “Zuckbucks” program of 2020, which funneled millions from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to private officials through leftist groups, boosting Democrat turnout.

Benson has signed a memorandum of agreement with Biden’s SBA to register voters. She confirmed during the hearing that Michigan was the only state in which this type of agreement took place. Each federal agency, including the SBA, was required to assemble and execute a “strategic plan” under the “Bidenbucks” order.

“The Small Business Administration entered into an MOU with the state of Michigan, and they’re doing that under the direction and under the strategy of a strategic plan,” Steil said.

He asked Benson if she had seen the plan.

“I’ve seen the MOU between the SBA and our office,” Benson replied.

“Did you see the Small Business Administration strategic plan?” Steil insisted, as Benson interrupted, “We did one thing.”

“Just, did you see the strategic plan? Have you reviewed it? Have you read it? Did you provide input into it?” Steil insisted. Benson denied providing input.

“We provided under the boundaries of the MOU a URL to the SBA, so that they could register voters through their website,” Benson said.

“Just, have you seen the Small Business Administration strategic plan?” Steil repeated.

Benson finally denied this: “I said no.” Steil asked her to confirm the answer, and she retorted that he was “barraging” her with questions.

Steil said Congress has been seeking federal agencies’ strategic plans regarding the “Bidenbucks” order, but agencies have been stonewalling legislators.

“These agencies are using our taxpayer dollars to put forward a partisan get-out-the-vote effort, and they won’t provide the strategic plan,” Steil said. “This administration, the Biden administration, continues to hide their strategic plan from every taxpayer in this country, and I think that does not encourage people to have more confidence in their elections.”

Murphy also asked Benson about her office’s work with Biden’s Department of Veteran Affairs.

“You’re aware that the VA by executive order is enrolling people, correct, in your state?” Murphy asked. Benson confirmed this.

The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project published documents yesterday showing Michigan’s executive branch is working with the VA to register voters in Saginaw County and Detroit, which is Wayne County. Biden won both counties in 2020.

Murphy said the VA’s Michigan voter outreach programs are targeting Democrat districts, which Benson denied: “It’s a website, so it is available to everybody.” The state offers online voter registration, which requires affirmation but not proof of citizenship.

“This is where the angst and the anger comes from, because this administration has said, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re doing transparent things,’ but we’re not doing transparent things,” Murphy said. “It is absolutely for Democrats. It is absolutely to try to change elections.”

Denying Voter ID

Steil asked New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, if she thought requiring voter identification could boost public confidence in elections.

“Would photo ID increase Americans’ confidence in their elections, yes or no?” Steil asked.

“Mr. Ranking Member, I don’t believe so,” Toulouse Oliver replied.

“You don’t believe that having an individual show their photo ID, saying they are who they say they are, increases confidence in our elections?” Steil asked.

“Mr. Chairman, you asked me a yes or no question. I don’t think that’s a magic bullet,” Toulouse Oliver said.

“I’m not asking if it’s a magic bullet,” Steil replied, before asking Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, the same question.

“100 percent, Mr. Chairman, and it’s vastly popular among both Republicans and Democrats,” LaRose said.

Murphy asked Toulouse Oliver why she would not embrace voter ID.

“We do have voter ID in New Mexico; we just have a variety of different ways that voters can confirm their identity,” she replied.

But according to her own office’s website, “You do not have to present identification to vote in a statewide election.” One must only show ID when registering to vote for the first time, and acceptable forms include a utility bill, paycheck, or student ID.

“It’s B.S. to think it is suppressing the vote. B.S. B.S. And the only other reason that people would want that is so that people could vote who are not eligible to vote,” Murphy said. “This is where the angst comes from. It comes from lack of transparency. It comes from smugness. It comes from the fact this administration is doing everything it can to push one particular narrative into a one-party state.”

https://thefederalist.com/2024/09/11/michigan-secretary-of-state-refuses-to-tell-congress-whether-dead-people-are-on-voter-rolls/