Ex-FEMA official to plead guilty in Gallup case

By Michael IsikoffNBC News

A former top official of the Federal Emergency Management? Agency will plead guilty to a? felony conflict of interest charge for helping arrange millions of dollars in contracts to the Gallup Organization at the same time he was negotiating a $175,000 job with the polling firm.

A nine-page ?criminal information? document filed by federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., this week charges that Timothy Cannon, 64, who served as the director of FEMA?s ?human capital division? between 2007 and 2009, ?knowingly and willfully? participated in the award of contracts to Gallup while he was arranging to accept employment? with the firm.

Lawyers familiar with the matter?say the new case against Cannon is?noteworthy because it provides an unusual window into the world of federal contracts ? complete with explicit email exchanges among Cannon and Gallup executives, including the firm?s chief executive officer, James Clifton.?

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?Ah, yes, I got another 500k put on the contract. Cool huh?? Cannon emailed one unidentified?Gallup employee on Jan. 6, 2009, just six days before a job interview with the firm in which he?discussed salary terms, according to the criminal complaint.

?Tim has had a distinguished career in the military and as a federal employee,? his lawyer, David Schertler, said Thursday. ?To get this matter behind him, he?s agreed to plead guilty to one felony count.? He added that his client ?has accepted responsibility for his conduct.?

The filing by prosecutors is the latest development in a widening federal probe into Gallup?perhaps the world?s most venerable and best known polling firm --? prompted by a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Michael Lindley, who previously served as its director of client services. The Justice Department last summer joined the lawsuit, accusing Gallup of bilking the government ?? including routinely inflating bills by? tens of millions of dollars for polling for FEMA, the U.S. Mint and the U.S. Passport Agency.

Gallup said in a statement at the time that the charges in the Justice Department civil suit were based ?on the false allegations of a former disgruntled employee.??

The criminal complaint against Cannon does not identify Gallup by name, referring only to a ?Company A.? But three legal sources familiar with the case, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said that the company in question is Gallup and that the CEO quoted in the emails is the polling firm?s top executive, Clifton. In addition, the same conduct outlined in the criminal information has already been publicly?described in the amended Justice Department civil suit that identifies both Gallup and Clifton by name.?

Asked about the charges, Gallup emailed a statement from William E. Kruse, its vice president for law, stating:? ?Today?s filing was not against Gallup, but rather DOJ?s allegations against a former FEMA employee. As such, there is nothing Gallup can comment on in regards to this development.?

The complaint alleges that Cannon first had discussions with Gallup officials in 2007 about the firm providing services for a FEMA project called the ?BEST Workforce Initiative.? The following summer, Gallup, was awarded the contract ? originally valued at about $6 million over five years --? to poll FEMA employees and provide training to FEMA managers.

By then, Cannon had already had multiple discussions with Gallup about a job and his interest had come to the attention of Clifton, the firm?s CEO.

?If (Cannon)? gets us a big deal at FEMA? i (sic) think we should hire him ? because he will be a ?client? hire ? which might be good,? the Gallup CEO wrote in an April 25, 2008 email. Later in the same email chain, Clifton asked, ?Is the ink dry yet on our deal with fema (sic)??

Then, on or about Nov. 18, 2008, another Gallup employee wrote in an email to Clifton: ?I talked to Tim today. He asked for a job.?

Clifton? replied: ?What about ethics? are we okay with all of that ? he is a significant client ? am sure you know rules ?? gee he seems like a winner to me ? I don?t think these guys are as expensive as one might think ? and he has a military background.? (Cannon served for 15 years in the U.S. Army, retiring in in 2001 as a colonel, according to Schertler, his lawyer.)

The criminal complaint charges that,?during a two week period between Jan. 21 and Feb. 3, 2009, Cannon signed five separate forms expanding Gallup?s work with FEMA and giving the firm an additional $1.6 million in business. Gallup then sent Cannon a letter?dated Feb. 5 offering him a post as "partner" in its government division. ?I am very excited about joining (Gallup) and I look forward to working?with you,? he wrote in an email to the firm that same day.

But? the job offer quickly ran into problems. Cannon?retired from FEMA on Feb. 27, 2009, after signing a form on which he checked the ?none? box in response to a question asking if he had any agreement for future employment, according to the complaint.? That same day, he asked Gallup to provide him with a new job offer letter dated Feb. 27 ? to replace the one he had already received on Feb. 5. Gallup responded by sending him a new letter dated March 2, 2009, it said.

At that point, Gallup executives started to have concerns: In one email exchange detailed in the complaint, a Gallup employee stated he was ?getting more red flags about Tim Cannon? and there was speculation among his co-workers at FEMA ?that this is improper. They are pretty mad.? This may get in the way of future business with FEMA.??

On March 26, 2009, Gallup withdrew the job offer, according to the complaint. In September, CEO Clifton forwarded an email about?Cannon to company employees stating: ?This is a guy that was our sponsor at FEMA. When he was applying we broke some of the rules of the US Gov on the ?how? we do it ... so we had to let him go.??

Michael Isikoff is NBC News' national investigative correspondent.

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Source: http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/03/16333287-ex-fema-official-to-plead-guilty-to-steering-contracts-to-gallup-during-job-hunt?lite

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How deadly skin cancer spreads into other parts of the body ...

After recently announcing success in eliminating melanoma metastasis in laboratory experiments, scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have made another important discovery in understanding the process by which the gene mda-9/syntenin contributes to metastasis in melanoma (the spread of skin cancer) and possibly a variety of other cancers. MDA-9/Syntenin and IGFBP-2 Promote Angiogenesis in Human Melanoma

Published in the journal?Cancer Research, the study demonstrated that mda-9/syntenin is a key regulator of angiogenesis, the process responsible for the formation of new blood vessels in tumors. Mda-9/syntenin was originally cloned in the laboratory of the study?s lead author Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., Thelma Newmeyer Corman Endowed Chair in Cancer Research and program co-leader of Cancer Molecular Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, chairman of VCU?s Department of Human and Molecular Genetics and director of the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine.

?Our research brings us one step closer to understanding precisely how metastatic melanoma, a highly aggressive and therapy-resistant cancer, spreads throughout the body,? says Fisher. ?Additionally, analysis of the human genome has indicated that mda-9/syntenin is elevated in the majority of cancers, which means novel drugs that target this gene could potentially be applicable to a broad spectrum of other deadly cancers.?

Fisher?s team discovered that mda-9/syntenin regulates the expression of several proteins responsible for promoting angiogenesis, including insulin growth factor binding protein-2 (IGFBP-2) and interleukin-8 (IL-8). The study is the first to provide proof of the pro-angiogenic functions of IGFBP-2 in human melanoma.

In in vivo and in vitro experiments, the scientists confirmed that mda-9/syntenin binds with the extracellular matrix (ECM) to start a series of biological processes that eventually cause endothelial cells to secrete IGFBP-2. The ECM is the substance that cells secrete and in which they are embedded. Endothelial cells are the cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels throughout the entire circulatory system. The secretion of IGFBP-2, in turn, caused the endothelial cells to produce and secrete vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), a protein that mediates the development of and formation of new blood vessels.

The researchers also noted that IGFBP-2 could potentially serve as a novel biomarker to monitor for disease progression in melanoma patients.

?This is a major breakthrough in understanding angiogenesis and its impact in melanoma metastasis,? says Fisher. ?We are now focusing on developing novel small molecules that specifically target mda-9/syntenin and IGFBP-2, which could be used as drugs to treat melanoma and potentially many other cancers.?

Source: http://floridabiotechnews.com/biotechnology/how-deadly-skin-cancer-spreads-into-other-parts-of-the-body/11660/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-deadly-skin-cancer-spreads-into-other-parts-of-the-body

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Risk genes for Alzheimer's and mental illness linked to brain changes at birth

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Some brain changes that are found in adults with common gene variants linked to disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and autism can also be seen in the brain scans of newborns.

"These results suggest that prenatal brain development may be a very important influence on psychiatric risk later in life," said Rebecca C. Knickmeyer, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychiatry in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. The study was published by the journal Cerebral Cortex on Jan. 3, 2013.

The study included 272 infants who received MRI scans at UNC Hospitals shortly after birth. The DNA of each was tested for 10 common variations in 7 genes that have been linked to brain structure in adults. These genes have also been implicated in conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety disorders and depression.

For some polymorphisms ? such as a variation in the APOE gene which is associated with Alzheimer's disease ? the brain changes in infants looked very similar to brain changes found in adults with the same variants, Knickmeyer said. "This could stimulate an exciting new line of research focused on preventing onset of illness through very early intervention in at-risk individuals."

But this was not true for every polymorphism included in the study, said John H. Gilmore, MD, senior author of the study and Thad & Alice Eure Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair for Research and Scientific Affairs in the UNC Department of Psychiatry.

For example, the study included two variants in the DISC1 gene. For one of these variants, known as rs821616, the infant brains looked very similar to the brains of adults with this variant. But there was no such similarity between infant brains and adult brains for the other variant, rs6675281.

"This suggests that the brain changes associated with this gene variant aren't present at birth but develop later in life, perhaps during puberty," Gilmore said.

"It's fascinating that different variants in the same gene have such unique effects in terms of when they affect brain development," said Knickmeyer.

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University of North Carolina Health Care: http://www.med.unc.edu

Thanks to University of North Carolina Health Care for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126117/Risk_genes_for_Alzheimer_s_and_mental_illness_linked_to_brain_changes_at_birth

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Indigenous leader assassinated at family New Year party ...

An indigenous leader has been murdered during a party at his home in central Colombia shortly after midnight on January 1, a local indigenous organization said Tuesday.

Reinaldo Domico?was killed as he changed the music on the stereo at a New Years party he was giving for family and friends.?According to his wife the assassin entered the house at the back, went straight up to Domico and shot him four times in the head, neck and back.

The assassin, who is described as "non-indigenous" and dressed in a hood and black clothes, escaped on a motorbike, according to the communique from the Indigenous Organization of Antioquia (OIA).

Reinaldo Domico was a leader of Embera indigenous communities in the area of Dabeiba and had also acted as advisor to other indigenous groups around Colombia.

The OIA reports that Domico had received a threat by telephone warning him to "be careful'?during elections in 2011. The caller claimed to be from the "Gaitanistas", a neo-paramilitary group also known as the "Urabe?os."

Indigenous leaders are frequent victims of Colombia's armed conflict, often caught between groups fighting over land that indigenous communities have traditionally occupied.

Source: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/27558-indigenous-leader-assassinated-at-family-new-year-party.html

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Putin grants Depardieu Russian citizenship

MOSCOW (AP) ? Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has been sparring with his native country over taxes, has been granted Russian citizenship.

A brief announcement on the Kremlin website said President Vladimir Putin signed the citizenship grant on Thursday.

Depardieu is angered by French President Francois Hollande's attempt to raise taxes on the mega-rich to 75 percent. Russia has a flat income tax of 13 percent.

A representative for Depardieu declined to say whether he had accepted the offer and refused all comment.

Depardieu has made more than 150 films, among them the 1991 comedy "Green Card" about a man who enters into a marriage of convenience in order to get U.S. residency.

Depardieu said in an open letter published in mid-December that he would turn over his passport and French social security card.

Hollande wants to tax incomes of the ultra-rich at 75 percent to reduce the debt and deficit, and Depardieu's subsequent decision to move to tax-friendly Belgium was slammed by Hollande's government.

"I'm a true European, a citizen of the world," Depardieu wrote in the letter.

The tax on millionaires was struck down by France's highest court Dec. 29, but the government has promised to resubmit the law in a slightly different form soon.

Depardieu was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1990 film by the same name.

He's well known in Russia, where he appears in an ad for Sovietsky Bank's credit card and is prominently featured on the bank's home page.

France's Civil Code says one must have another nationality in order to give up French citizenship because it is forbidden to be stateless. Thursday's decision by the Kremlin appears to fulfill that requirement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-grants-depardieu-russian-citizenship-092220569.html

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Video: President Obama Delivers a Statement on Fiscal Cliff Deal (Little green footballs)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/274299869?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Congress Extends Mortgage Debt Relief Act! | CDPE Blog

On January 1, 2013, as part of the so-called fiscal cliff negotiations, Congress passed an extension of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act. This extension of this act, which has saved homeowners more than $1 billion dollars in taxes, is great news for struggling homeowners nationwide, and for the agents that represent them.

The extension is now only awaiting President Obama?s signature.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act was originally passed in 2007 to aid the millions of homeowners who suddenly found themselves in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure following the housing market crash.

Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, debt forgiven in a short sale, foreclosure, or loan modification, is exempt from federal taxes on primary residences. For homeowners facing foreclosure, this exemption saves them from paying thousands, or even tens of thousands, in taxes on top of losing their homes.

Now for another year, homeowners can take advantage of this exemption and avoid foreclosure without the fear of an impossible tax liability.

And with banks recognizing the significance of short sales as an effective loss mitigation tool, they?re ramping up for business. Short sales will be the key loss mitigation tool used by mortgage servicers in 2013.

For more on the state of the short sale market in 2013, join CDPE designation author Alex Charfen on Wednesday, January 16 as he interviews Bank of America?s Stephanie Lowe, Senior Vice President of Short Sale Production, about what the bank believes agents should expect in 2013!

Let the world know about this now!

Source: http://www.cdpe.com/blog/congress-extends-mortgage-debt-relief-act/

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