ABC accused of playing dirty in bid to win network news war

Industry insiders are accusing ABC of dirty tricks in the war for network news dominance, Page Six has learned. In 2015 — when their evening news broadcasts were locked in a tight battle for the top spot — NBC got caught double-dipping to boost ratings by re-airing the “Nightly News” at 2 a.m. and then adding the viewers for both broadcasts together. Now, with the two networks’ numbers once again locked in close combat, ratings wonks have noticed that ABC has — without fanfare — begun airing David Muir’s “World News Tonight” in LA at 3:30 p.m. (that is, when it airs live at 6:30 p.m. on the East Coast), then also airing the normal taped version at 6:30 p.m. LA time. ABC touted a major victory Tuesday, when new Nielsen numbers showed that Muir has grabbed the most overall viewers for a second year in a row.

But insiders believe that by quietly adding a second broadcast in LA — the second-largest TV market in the country — back in July, the network has goosed those figures. Since it started the early broadcasts in July, ABC has netted an average of about 125,000 extra viewers a night, at a time when ABC is winning the war by about 85,000 viewers a night. An industry insider told us, “The bottom line is, ‘World News Tonight’s’ numbers belong in Disney’s Land of Make Believe.”

An ABC spokesperson told us, “We are thrilled LA asked to air our newscast live at 3:30 in the afternoon. This is not about ratings, we would win handily without it. This is about the hunger for news in this moment and the strength of our newscast.” Meanwhile, an ABC insider told us, “We’re talking about a 30,000-viewer difference over the course of an entire season. World News Tonight won by nearly a half million viewers.” The network insider sniped, “The real story is that both Lester Holt’s ‘NBC Nightly News’ and Jeff Glor’s ‘CBS Evening News’ just scored their lowest season numbers since Nielsen started keeping records in 1991, while Muir’s ‘World News Tonight’ is the only newscast growing in all major demos.” They said this situation isn’t “remotely close” to NBC’s 2015 double-dip, because NBC was “secretly airing their newscast in dozens of markets in the middle of the night to boost their ratings.”

https://pagesix.com/2018/09/25/abc-accused-of-playing-dirty-in-bid-to-win-network-news-war/

Border Patrol launches Operation Blazing Sands in California desert

Just east of border fence construction that has been visited by both the vice president and the homeland security secretary, Border Patrol launched Operation Blazing Sands last month to deter illegal border crossings and thwart human smuggling attempts. Border Patrol noticed an uptick in smuggling organization activity along a stretch of border in the southeastern-most part of the California desert, according to agent Justin Castrejon. Agents responded in mid-August with Operation Blazing Sands, a collaboration between Border Patrol’s El Centro and Yuma sectors. “This operation leverages the strengths of El Centro Sector and Yuma Sector to better target transnational criminal organizations,” said Gloria Chavez, chief of the El Centro Sector, after the operation launched.

Agents apprehended 2,427 people illegally crossing that part of the border from October 2017 through July 2018, before the operation began, according to data from the sector. That’s about eight people per day and just over 10 percent of the 23,452 people caught in the entire El Centro Sector during that period. The sector splits its 70 miles of border among three Border Patrol stations. The 20-mile area where Operation Blazing Sands is focused, known to agents there as the “east desert,” makes up close to 29 percent of that border and is patrolled by agents from the Calexico station.

Calexico station is the fifth busiest along the southwest border, Castrejon said. About 10 miles outside of the town of Calexico, the landscape turns from farmland to short brush and small mounds of sand. The All American canal runs between Interstate 8 and the border, and the canal’s steep sides and strong currents sometimes trap border crossers who are often already exhausted from their journey through the desert in Mexico. For many trying to sneak across the border in the El Centro Sector, their goal is Interstate 8, Castrejon explained. If they can make it to a car that’s supposed to pick them up there, they can disappear into traffic before they are detected.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-blazing-sands-20180924-story.html#

Chinese Agent Living In Chicago Arrested For Spying On US: Feds

Accusers say he was a Chinese spy tasked with gaining intelligence on potential recruits for a Chinese intelligence service.

CHICAGO, IL — A Chinese national has been arrested on suspicion of spying on the United States for China, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's office. Ji Chaoqun, 27, was living in Chicago while working as an agent for a Chinese intelligence agencies, the government says. Ji "worked at the direction of a high-level intelligence officer in the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security," the press release said. Accusers say his mission was to obtain biographical information on eight people for potential recruitment by the Chinese intelligence agency. Some of the individuals targeted for recruitment were Chinese nationals working in highly competitive STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — fields in the U.S., including some U.S. defense contractors. Ji is charged with one count of "knowingly acting in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General," the release says. Ji arrived in the United States in 2013 on an F1 Visa to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Agencies involved in making this accusation and arrest include the U.S. Attorney's Office, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, with the U.S. Army's 902nd Military Intelligence Group having "provided valuable assistance."In 2016, Ji was allowed to join the U.S. Army Reserves under a program which authorizes enlistment by legal aliens who have a knowledge of topics vital to the national interest. He joined as a specialist. He is alleged to have specifically declined having had contact with a foreign government in the past seven years. Ji went to court 4 p.m. Tuesday. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

https://patch.com/illinois/chicago/chinese-spy-arrested-chicago-u-s-justice-department

Ex-Bankrate CFO Sentenced To 10 Years, $21 Million In Restitution For Accounting Fraud

The former chief financial officer of Bankrate Inc. was sentenced to 10 years in prison for accounting and securities fraud that cost shareholders $25 million in losses, the US Justice Department announced Tuesday. 53-year-old Edward DiMaria was also ordered to pay $21.2 million in restitution to Bankrate's shareholders. DiMaria pleaded guilty in late June to one count of conspiracy to make false statements to the company's accountants, falsifying a public company's books, records and accounts, and securities fraud; as well as one count of making materially false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). DiMaria orchestrated a scheme to artificially inflate Bankrate's earnings through a so-called "cookie jar" or "cushion" accounting "whereby millions of dollars in unsupported expense accruals were purposefully left on Bankrate’s books and then selectively reversed in later quarters to boost earnings," according to the DOJ. Additionally, DiMaria admitted to conspiring with other Bankrate employees to misrepresent certain expenses as "deal costs" in order to artificially inflate earnings. Bankrate's former VP of finance, Hyunjin Lerner, previously pleaded guilty for his part in the scheme, and is currently serving out a five year prison term handed down earlier this year.

"While serving as Bankrate’s CFO, Edward DiMaria blatantly manipulated the company’s publicly reported financial statements by repeatedly lying and directing others to lie to auditors, regulators, and shareholders," said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. "The significant sentence handed down today underscores the serious nature of corporate fraud and the damage it causes to shareholders and to the public’s trust in our financial markets. The sentence also demonstrates the Department’s commitment to prosecuting corporate misconduct to the fullest extent of the law." Not too big to jail!

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-25/ex-bankrate-cfo-sentenced-10-years-21-million-restitution-accounting-fraud

>>3187214

Interesting how much of this developed during the Obama years, wonder how much influence Feinstein had on this…