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Inez Tenenbaum, early Obama supporter, to head consumer safety commission
Returning a political favor, President Barack Obama has nominated Inez Moore Tenenbaum to be the new chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Tenenbaum, the former state superintendent of education in South Carolina, was an early backer of Obama’s presidential race and helped him win the crucial South Carolina presidential primary.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)If confirmed by the Senate, Tenenbaum, a lawyer, will take over an agency that has been faulted for not protecting the public from unsafe toys and other products. She would replace Nancy A. Nord, a George W. Bush nominee.
Tenenbaum, 58, served two elected terms as South Carolina’s education chief from 1999 to 2007. Test scores rose while she was in office, and she brought full-day kindergarten to the state.
In 2004, she ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, losing to Republican Jim DeMint.
In April 2007, Tenenbaum endorsed Obama for president. At the time, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York was the favorite to win the Democratic nomination.
During the Democratic primary, Tenenbaum served as the steering committee co-chair of Obama’s campaign in South Carolina, where the primary proved critical.
Obama won easily, gaining his second primary victory. He also regained the momentum he established by winning in Iowa but had lost by losing in New Hampshire.
On primary night in South Carolina, Obama’s gratitude toward Tenenbaum was obvious, wrote columnist Howard Fineman in Newsweek.
“When he climbed down off the stage … the first person he embraced (after his wife, Michelle) was Tenenbaum,” Fineman wrote in December.
Fineman went on to predict correctly that, even though Obama had a debt to Tenenbaum, he wouldn’t name her U.S. secretary of education, despite her background in the field.
That proved to be the case, the post going to Arne Duncan, the CEO of Chicago public schools, as Fineman wrote it might.
In announcing the nomination of Tenenbaum, the White House stressed that the Consumer Product Safety Commission will have a high priority in the Obama administration.
“We must do more to protect the American public – especially our nation’s children — from being harmed by unsafe products,” Obama said in a statement.
The president has increased the number of commissioners from three to five and he hopes to double the commission’s budget.
Obama has also nominated Robert S. Adler, a lawyer and former adviser to the commission, to serve as a commissioner.
Adler, who is now a professor at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, served on the Obama’s presidential transition team.
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This post is tagged with: Consumer Product Safety Commission, Inez Moore Tenenbaum, Politics, Robert S. Adler, South CarolinaRead related stories: Politics · Recent Stories
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Judge rejects hardship plea from ex-Detroit mayorMay 8, 2009 at 6:36pm
Convicted felon and former Detroit mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick today lost a hardship bid to reduce $6,000 in monthly restitution payments to the city for his crimes.
Muckety Mover Health Insurance Industry Acknowledges Discrimination
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Inez Tenenbaum Early Obama Supporter to Head Consumer Safety Commission
This post was archived from createpositivechange.org/. View the original on the Wayback Machine.
Court-appointed trustee goes after Madoff family’s wealth
It looks like court-appointed Madoff trustee Irving Picard is going after the whole shebang: Not just Bernard Madoff’s Manhattan penthouse and home in the Hamptons, but also a good chunk of the wealth accumulated by his wife, brother and sons.
In his latest filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, Picard argues that the convicted swindler used his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS), “as his personal piggy bank” to support “a lavish lifestyle” for himself and his wife, as well as for his brother and other members of his family.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)“Madoff used BLMIS to siphon funds which were, in reality, other people’s money, for his personal use and the benefit of his inner circle,” Picard says in the filing submitted Tuesday evening. “Plain and simple, he stole it.”
Picard, who is charged with returning as much money as possible to burned investors, contends that Madoff used money stolen from investors, for instance, to buy country club memberships for himself, his wife and one of his sons.
He also loaned $9 million to his brother, the firm’s chief compliance officer, in 2007, from one of the firm’s accounts, according to the papers. Picard said there is no evidence the loan was ever repaid. Peter Madoff’s wife, Marion, was also listed on the firm’s payroll with a salary of $163,500 in 2008, although there is no indication she did any work.
The firm also gave money to ventures begun by Madoff family members, including $1.7 million to Madoff Energy Holdings LLC, owned by Madoff’s sons Andrew and Mark, and his niece, Shana Madoff, the filing said.
The firm paid out $4.5 million to support Ruth Madoff’s real-estate-related investments through various entities under the name “Sterling,” with no benefit to Madoff’s firm or his customers, according to the papers.
Madoff placed his boat captain, his maid and his house-sitter in Florida on the firm’s payroll, and used the firm to provided corporate credit cards to his son’s wife and brother’s wife, even though they didn’t work for him, according to the filing.
More than $11.5 million was used to buy two yachts for the Madoff family, the filing said. Another $4.4 million appears to have been used by Andrew Madoff last October to purchase an Upper East Side apartment, while $6.5 million was loaned to Mark Madoff and his wife, Stephanie, last spring to purchase property on Nantucket, again with no evidence that any money was repaid.
Bernard Madoff, 71, was arrested Dec. 11 and pleaded guilty March 12 to running a $65-billion Ponzi scheme in which early investors were paid with the money of new clients. He is in jail, awaiting sentencing, and faces as much as 150 years in prison for various counts of securities fraud and other crimes.
Picard made the allegations in connection with his attempt to consolidate the bankruptcy proceedings of Madoff’s companies with those filed against Madoff by a group of investors.
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This post is tagged with: Andrew Madoff, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, Bernard Madoff, Irving Picard, Madoff, Madoff Energy Holdings LLC, Mark Madoff, Peter Madoff, Recent Stories, Ruth Madoff, Shana MadoffRead related stories: Madoff · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Judge rejects hardship plea from ex-Detroit mayorMay 8, 2009 at 6:36pm
Convicted felon and former Detroit mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick today lost a hardship bid to reduce $6,000 in monthly restitution payments to the city for his crimes.
Do ties between Apple, Google pose antitrust issues?
The Federal Trade Commission is looking into the relationships between technology stars Apple and Google to see if they might violate antitrust laws.
The boards of Apple and Google share two directors – Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, and Arthur Levinson, former chief executive of Genentech. Former Vice President Al Gore, who is a director for Apple, is also a senior adviser for Google.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 prohibits a person’s presence on the board of two rival companies when it would reduce competition between them.

Eric E. SchmidtBut the FTC’s interest in the matter is unlikely to amount to much unless the agency uncovers substantial market impact, according to Information Week. While the two companies have been allies in certain areas, they compete increasingly in the cellphone and operating systems markets.
Schmidt joined Apple’s board about five months before it unveiled the iPhone, in 2006. Google announced its plans for Android, its mobile phone operating system, nearly a year later; Schmidt now recuses himself when Apple’s board discusses mobile phones.
The members of the company’s boards are interrelated in other endeavors as well. For instance, Google director L. John Doer is a partner in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture capital group that invests in green technology and innovation. Other partners are Apple director Gore, former Apple EVP E. Floyd Kvamme and former Apple senior counsel Randy Komisar.
And Google is an investor in the venture capital group.
The antitrust inquiry suggests that despite the company’s closeness to the Obama administration, Google will not escape scrutiny from regulators. Another antitrust examination involving Google’s plan to digitalize books is also underway.
Christine A. Varney, who was recently confirmed as the head of the antitrust division of the Justice Department, has singled out Google as a probable source of future antitrust concerns because of its near monopoly on Internet search and advertising.
On the other hand, antitrust experts told the New York Times that the provision against “interlocking directorates” is rarely enforced.
Schmidt has been an outspoken supporter of Obama. As we have reported before, Schmidt not only backed Obama, but he joined him on the campaign trail, while his employees were among Obama’s most generous contributors.
After the campaign, Schmidt served on the Obama-Biden transition team, advising on issues involving technology.
Schmidt was also recently appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology – along with E. Floyd Kvamme, Apple’s EVP and Craig J. Mundie, chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft.
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Related stories on Muckety- Does anti-trust nominee Varney have Google in her sights? – February 20, 2009
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This post is tagged with: Al Gore, Apple Inc., Business, Christine Varney, E. Floyd Kvamme, Eric Schmidt. Arthur Levinson, Federal Trade Commission, Google Inc., Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, L. John Doer, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technolo, Randy KomisarRead related stories: Business · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Judge rejects hardship plea from ex-Detroit mayorMay 8, 2009 at 6:36pm
Convicted felon and former Detroit mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick today lost a hardship bid to reduce $6,000 in monthly restitution payments to the city for his crimes.
Muck Tracker Sen Specter Loses Seniority As Democrat
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Muck Tracker Madoffs Secretary Believes He is Protecting Co Conspirators
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Do Ties Between Apple Google Pose Antitrust Issues
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Court Appointed Trustee Goes After Wealth of Bernard Madoffs Family
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1 Comments
#1. Tony Smith 05.07.2009
Quoting…
“We must do more to protect the American public – especially our nation’s children — from being harmed by unsafe products,” Obama said in a statement.
It is interesting to see that in a time of economic crisis, we keep focusing on “expansion” of government priorities and focus. Every appointment is stressed as how “critical” it is and how much attention it will garner from the new presidency. As is relevant by the foreclosure crisis, there simply isn’t enough money to go around expanding everything…
Tony S.
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