The Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Alleging Disability-Based Discrimination by Owners and Developers of 82 Apartment Complexes in 13 States

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio today announced the filing of a lawsuit against Ohio-based Miller-Valentine Operations Inc. and affiliated companies, owners, developers and builders of 82 multifamily housing complexes located in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants failed to design and construct housing units and related facilities to make them accessible to persons with disabilities in compliance with the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The 82 complexes contain more than 3,000 units that are required by the FHA to have accessible features, and most contain public spaces that are required to comply with the ADA.

According to the government’s complaint, the defendants built many of the complexes with the assistance of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits or with the financial assistance of other federal government programs.

“For over two decades federal laws have required multifamily housing complexes to be built with accessible features,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband. “The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the rights of persons with disabilities to equal access to housing opportunities, including accessible dwellings and related facilities.”

“We’re in the business of enforcing federal civil rights laws to their fullest extent,” said U.S. Attorney Glassman. “It doesn’t matter to us whether the defendant is an individual in a single neighborhood or, as here, a company operating in many states. The complaint that the United States filed today alleges not only that Miller-Valentine designed and built multi-family housing complexes that are not accessible to people with disabilities, but also that Miller-Valentine took public money to build those complexes and yet still built them such that some citizens wouldn’t be able to live there.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-files-lawsuit-alleging-disability-based-discrimination-owners-and

Superseding Indictment Adds Developer/Entrepreneur to Racketeering Conspiracy

A federal grand jury has returned a 47-count superseding indictment against suspended Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Charles Maddox, 51, Tallahassee political consultant Janice Paige Carter-Smith, 54, and John Thomas Burnette, 42, all of Tallahassee, Florida.

In December 2018, a federal grand jury charged Maddox and Carter-Smith in a 44-count indictment for conspiring to operate a racketeering enterprise that engaged in acts of bank fraud, extortion, honest-services fraud and bribery. That indictment also charged Maddox and Carter-Smith with substantive counts of bank fraud, false statements to financial institutions, extortion, honest-services fraud, use of interstate facilities to facilitate bribery, false statements to federal officers, conspiracy to interfere with the lawful function of the IRS and filing false tax returns. The superseding indictment adds Burnette as a defendant and charges him with participating in the racketeering conspiracy and extortion, honest services mail fraud, the use of facilities in interstate commerce to facilitate bribery and making false statements to federal officers.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/superseding-indictment-adds-developerentrepreneur-racketeering-conspiracy

Rep. Adam Schiff introduces constitutional amendment to end Citizens United ruling

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has introduced a proposal for a constitutional amendment that would effectively render the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission moot.

“The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United overturned decades of legal precedent and has enabled billions in dark money to pour into our elections,” Schiff said in a press release. “Amending the Constitution is an extraordinary step, but it is the only way to safeguard our democratic process against the threat of unrestrained and anonymous spending by wealthy individuals and corporations. This amendment will restore power to everyday citizens.”

https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1126146311068295170

https://www.conservativereview.com/news/rep-adam-schiff-introduces-constitutional-amendment-end-citizens-united-ruling/

>>6455925

I really hope they hang this guy up by his balls in a public place for all to see. Fucking scum of the earth.

(sorry)

Leader of Nine Trey Gangsters Sentenced to Life in Prison

A Norfolk, Virginia, man was sentenced today to three consecutive life terms plus an additional 40 years in prison for his leadership role in a racketeering conspiracy, multiple murders, multiple attempted murders and various drug and gun crimes, all as part of his leadership of the Nine Trey Gangsters Bloods gang.

According to evidence introduced at trial, Antonio Simmons, aka Murdock, 41, was a high-ranking leader of a group of Portsmouth and Norfolk-based members of the Nine Trey Gangsters, a Bloods gang affiliated with the United Blood Nation. Simmons and five other members and associates of the gang were charged for their roles in a spate of extreme violence in December 2015 that ended with five people dead and four others shot during seven separate shootings that crossed nearly every city in South Hampton Roads. Simmons was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-nine-trey-gangsters-sentenced-life-prison