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The Afro-American, June 25, 2016 - July 1 2016
June 25, 2016 - June 25, 2016, The Afro-American
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U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah Convicted in Case that Entangled Son, Wife By Maryclaire Dale The Associated Press In his heyday, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah flew with the president on Air Force One, doled out millions in science and education grants from his perch on the House Appropriations Committee and graced galas back home in Philadelphia on the arm of his elegant TV anchor wife. But on June 21, Fattah’s 30-year political career appeared to crater after a federal jury convicted him of laundering federal grants and nonprofit funds to repay an illegal $1 million campaign loan and help family and friends. Fattah’s namesake son is already serving a fiveyear term in an overlapping bank fraud case that largely stemmed from the son’s excessive lifestyle. Chaka “Chip” Fattah Jr., a college dropout, lived in a Ritz Carlton condominium while holding himself out as a highend concierge. The father’s Achilles heel was not the luxe life so much as a losing game of political chess. Fattah decided in 2007 to return home and run for mayor, and he was the early
favorite as the city’s longtime Democratic congressman. But his campaign hit a snag amid new campaign finance limits. The jury found June 21 that Fattah took the $1 million loan from former Sallie Mae chairman Albert Lord but nonetheless came in fourth in the primary. Fattah then found himself scrambling when Lord called in the debt. He used federal grant money to repay some of the money, routing it through a campaign consultant, the jury found. Two of Fattah’s political consultants, Gregory Naylor and Thomas Lindenfeld, pleaded guilty and testified against their former client. Fattah’s lawyers pinned the scheme on them. “Well, it’s a tough day, but I do want to thank the jurors for their service,” Fattah, 59, said as he left the courtroom. He planned to discuss his options with lawyers but would not say if he would resign. Fattah, raised by community activists in West Philadelphia, has been in Congress since 1995 after a decade in the Pennsylvania statehouse. He lost his April primary bid for a 12th term.
His current term ends Jan. 2, two months after his Oct. 4 sentencing. U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger pledged June 21 to seek jail time but did not say how much. House rules call for a convicted lawmaker to refrain from voting if they face more than two years in prison. The lead racketeering count alone carries a potential 20-year maximum, although the guideline range could be far lower. Fattah had little reaction to the verdict in court, except for the bemused smile he frequently sports. Four co-defendants, including former staff members who worked on his campaign or an educational nonprofit he started, were convicted of at least some counts. Their lawyers declined to comment afterward. Lawyers for the congressman acknowledged that he might have been in financial trouble after the costly mayor’s race, but they said any help from friends amounted to gifts, not bribes. Many of them came from friend Herbert Vederman, who helped support Fattah’s South African nanny and paid $18,000 for Fattah’s
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Rep. Chaka Fattah, a veteran Pennsylvania congressman, was convicted in a racketeering case that largely centered on various efforts to repay an illegal $1 million campaign loan related to his unsuccessful 2007 mayoral bid. wife’s Porsche so the couple could put money down on a Poconos vacation home. The car never left their garage. Vederman then pressed Fattah to help him land an ambassadorship. “The nanny, the Porsche and the Poconos, they weren’t part of a bribery scheme,”
Fattah lawyer Samuel Silver said in closing arguments. “Those were all overreaches by the prosecution.” Fattah’s wife, Renee Chenault-Fattah, was never charged with wrongdoing and insisted the sale was legitimate. A longtime fixture in the Philadelphia news
market, she left her job in February. At least one political star agreed that the government had overplayed its hand in the case. Former Gov. Ed Rendell — a Democrat who testified for Vederman, his deputy when Rendell was mayor of Philadelphia — later said that prosecutors don’t understand how politics work. “They think everything is done for ulterior motives. They’re very cynical,” Rendell said. “We’re not all bad. We’re not all evil.” The jury nonetheless convicted Vederman, who now lives in Palm Beach, Florida, of bribery and racketeering. The other convicted co-defendants are Bonnie Bowser, of Philadelphia, who ran his district office; Karen Nicholas, of Williamstown, New Jersey, who ran the education nonprofit Fattah started; and Robert Brand, of Philadelphia, a businessman married to a former Fattah staffer. Fattah stepped down as the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice and science when he was indicted last year.
My Brother’s Keeper Looks to Live on After Obama By James Wright Special to the AFRO jwright@afro.com President Obama has seven months left in office. One of the leaders of one of his key initiatives is hard at work ensuring the president’s legacy will continue after he leaves the White House. Obama founded “My Brother’s Keeper” in February 2014 to focus the federal government and the private and non-profit sectors on improving the lives of Black boys and young men. James Cole, the general counsel and deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, said the initiative has expanded its mandate over its two years of existence. In January Cole began overseeing the My Brother’s Keeper program. “We have had an exciting two years,” Cole told the AFRO June 14 during School without Walls graduation ceremony at the Lerner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “We are working hard to address opportunity gaps for young males of color and we have reached into such programs as English as a Second Language and those who have been diagnosed with disabilities.” “We are working hard to see that young men of color reach their full potential,” he continued.
My Brother’s Keeper has programs in nearly 250 communities in all of the states and the District of Columbia. The initiative has more than $600 million in private sector and philanthropic grants and in-kind resources, and $1 billion in low-interest financing, according to the report, “My Brother’s Keeper 2016 Progress Report: Two Years of Expanding Opportunity and Creating Pathways to Success.” The report said more than 80 percent of the initiatives the task force sent to Obama two years ago have gone into effect or are on track. One of the activities relates to opportunities in the summer. Cole said that boys of color that are eligible for free and reduced lunch can participate in a variety of programs to strengthen their academic and social skills. “These are the students that need the most help so we are setting them up with mentors,” he said. “We noticed that when young people go on summer vacation, they tend to lose some of what they learned so we have programs and mentors that can keep them academically engaged.” The District has a program where mentors work with their protégés on improving their
reading skills. That effort is part of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) Emerging Males of Color program that was kicked off in January 2015. Bowser’s EMOC is an example of what Cole is talking about when discussing state-level components of the initiative. “These problems need to be dealt with on the ground, in the communities,” he said. “We are dealing with the mayors in every state and where the programs are utilized, we have seen gains. When the president leaves office, this is how the work will continue.” Cole said that corporations and nonprofits are continuing their financial support and “that will go beyond this administration.” He could not say whether the next president will continue the program at the federal level. My Brother’s Keeper is a program that Cole could personally relate to. In his address to the students at the D.C. school, he talked about his tough early life on the south side of Chicago with a mother who died of a heart attack and a father who had Alzheimer’s. “I was the oldest child, so I became responsible
for the family,” Cole said. “Just a few weeks after my mom passed, I was robbed at gunpoint. At times, we lived on food stamps and worried when they’d next turn the lights off.” Cole credited an English teacher for inspiring him to greatness. Cole went on to graduate from the University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign and the University Of Chicago School of Law. After graduating from law school, he clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Stephanie K. Seymour for the Tenth Circuit and in 1996. He went to work for the New York law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz where he became a partner in 2004. He left the firm in 2011 to become deputy general counsel to the U.S. Department of Transportation and in December 2014, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to his present position. Leonard Haynes is a retired senior executive with the Department of Education and thinks highly of the work Cole has done for the initiative. “James has been at the department for two years and I know he is committed to increasing more and better educational opportunities for young people,” Haynes said. “As the general counsel, he has his eye on the disadvantaged and it is good to have a person with that type of commitment in that position.”
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paid for his medical degree and in return, he would give four years of service to the Navy upon graduation. It seemed like a good deal at the time. But, by the time he had earned his doctoral degree in medicine from Indiana University School of Medicine—his father’s alma mater—Robinson was having second thoughts about the arrangement. “I was having a hard time because I didn’t think I was needed in the Navy because the war was over (Vietnam War ended in 1975). I even thought about paying back the [scholarship] money,” Robinson recalled. “So I approached my superiors and we had a conversation in which I was frank and they were very earnest,” he added with a hearty chuckle. And, in 1977, Robinson was officially commissioned into the Navy. Robinson’s first assignment was as a general medical officer in a Navy clinic in Puerto Rico. He then reported to the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., in 1978 to complete a residency in general surgery. His subsequent duty assignments included: staff surgeon, U.S. Naval Hospital, Yokosuka, Japan, and ship’s surgeon, USS Midway (CV 41). The experiences began to change his view of a military career. “I eventually recognized there was no better place to practice than in the military,” he said. “Wherever we went you had a ready-made practice with people to take care of. Everyone recognizes the military’s war efforts, but the military also provides humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.” In addition, because of the opportunities to travel and see and experience other environments and cultures, Dr. Robinson said his worldview was “stretched” beyond the cultural, social and political activities of Kentucky, where he was born, and
Indiana, where he went to school. “The military gave me an expanded worldview with upto-date medical techniques so I felt I was in the best of both worlds,” he said. Robinson’s illustrious 35-year career in the Navy culminated with his being named as the 36th surgeon general of the branch, earning several awards along the way, including: two Distinguished Service Medals, two Legion of Merit
“I tell my staff, ‘You always say yes to a veteran. Let me say no.’ I want to ensure our veterans feel safe and they are surrounded by men and women who are dedicated to giving them the care they deserve.” –Adam Robinson awards, two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, three Meritorious Service Medals, and various other service and campaign awards. “My achievements showed many men and women of color within the Armed Services that they can reach the same goals and positions,” he said. “There were many in the Navy who wrote me and told me that I was their impetus and showed them a way ahead too.”
Since retiring from the Navy, Dr. Robinson continues to attend to the medical needs of the military community. In August 2015, he was named director of the Veteran Affairs Maryland Health Care System, which comprises the Baltimore and Perry Point VA Medical Centers, the Loch Raven VA Community Living & Rehabilitation Center and five community-based outpatient clinics across Maryland. “One of the first things that struck me is that the patients here are the same sailors, shipmates and Marines that I served with in the Navy,” he said. “To see the men and women I started off with are the people I get to take care of is an honor.” Since assuming the helm of the VA system in Maryland last August, Robinson said he has focused on the training and development of his staff. The VA administrator has also emphasized the need for stellar patient service. Robinson said, “I tell my staff, ‘You always say yes to a veteran. Let me say no.’ I want to ensure our veterans feel safe and they are surrounded by men and women who are dedicated to giving them the care they deserve.” VA health care is challenging, giving the plethora of concerns vets and their families present with—including military-specific concerns such as Agent Orange exposure for Vietnam War vets, Gulf War Syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder. An aging veteran population means they also have to address age-specific ailments. And, women veterans are now the fastest-growing population of patients, which has forced the administration to become less “man-centric” as it was in the past, and to become more welcoming to women, Robinson said. “There are a multitude of issues we have to address on a daily basis,” the physician said, “but the key is we have to take care of the whole patient.”