Air America: Stealing From Poor Kids?!

[Gawain of Orkeny]

AIR AMERICA: STEALING FROM POOR KIDS?!
By Michelle Malkin · July 27, 2005 12:12 AM

*scroll down for updates*

Air America is being investigated in New York for diverting federal/local funds--possibly "hundreds of thousands of dollars"--meant for inner-city kids and senior into the station's coffers.

Um, why isn't the New York Times, which has spilled tons of adulatory ink on the liberal radio network, covering this scandal on its front page?

Radio blogger Brian Maloney has the lowdown. Read the whole thing. He sniffed out the story when he spotted this tidbit buried in the NY Daily News about Air America being targeted in a NYC Department of Investigation probe of kids' and seniors' programs being ripped off in the Bronx:

A Bronx congressman yesterday praised the smooth takeover of dozens of programs serving thousands of youngsters and seniors across the borough after the city yanked funding from two sponsoring agencies that have come under a cloud.

The nonprofit Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and its affiliate Pathways for Youth found their city contracts, running into the millions of dollars, abruptly ended last month by the city Department of Investigation...

In its initial announcement, the DOI said it was probing allegations that program officials "approved significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies."

According to published reports, the allegations involve Charles Rosen, the founder of Gloria Wise who has stepped down as executive director, investing city contract funds in Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network.

Evan Cohen, Air America's former chairman, had served as Gloria Wise's director of development.

A local community paper, The Bronx News, covers the Air America troubles ignored by the national press:

The Bronx News has learned, through informed sources, that the diversion of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in Co-op City to the liberal Air America Radio is at the center of the city’s probe of corruption at the local club.

The money, which was reportedly paid to Air America as a loan, was supposed to be paid back with interest, two unidentified informed sources told the News. One source added that Air America officials, led by an official of the Gloria Wise Club, agreed to help the local club by publicizing its activities.

To date, no indictments have been handed down in the New York City Department of Investigation’s ongoing probe of the Gloria Wise Club’s reported transfer of funds to Air America...

...The city’s DOI is pursuing the probe because the Gloria Wise Club depends heavily on city funding for its operations. These funds are subject to extensive audits, as are funds received through the state and federal governments.
The Co-op City-based club, which Rosen has built into an empire in the Co-op City community, reportedly has 19 contracts and at least one grant with the city, worth a total of $9.7 million.

Over the last year, Rep. Joseph Crowley has secured two major federal grants for the Gloria Wise Club, one for a day-care program for Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers and the other for the community’s NORC program for senior citizens. The grant for the program for Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers was for $250,000, while the grant for the NORC program was for $99,410.

In 2003, Crowley secured a $218,500 grant for a mentoring program that the Gloria Wise Club runs.

Cohen, who is reportedly at the center of the Gloria Wise probe, is a Guam-based investors who was reportedly a key principal in the start-up of Air America...

Will Air America's self-proclaimed champions of the poor and downtrodden--Franken? Garafolo? Springer?--touch this story with a ten-foot pole? Will Randi Rhodes trot out her gunshot sound effects to blame the messenger? Or will the gabbers continue maintaining their radio silence?

Like they say: Stay tuned...

***

Just FYI, I've uploaded Charles Rosen's campaign contribution history via Political Money Line: Download file. Cohen contributed $2,000 to the Kerry campaign in 2003.

Money talks, even if Air America won't.

***
Update: More on the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club's funding sources...

Proven fundraising abilities promise an even more active future for the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. The generous support of benefactors including the Charles Hayden Foundation, Con Edison, the Butler Foundation, Metropolitan Life, Pinkerton Foundation, Calder Foundation, and New York Community Trust has helped the club continue to grow in recent years. Most recently, the $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will allow the club to begin a multi-year mentoring program for more than 200 youth by the start of 2003.

As mentioned above, the NYC Department of Investigations is also apparently looking into diversion of funds from the Pathways for Youth Boys & Girls Club, an affiliate of the Gloria Wise club. According to this site, Pathways has requested $206,872 under its No Child Left Behind Act 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program grant award. The US Department of Education better be examining that request very carefully.

Brian Maloney points to this June 28 NY Daily News story (which omits reference to Air America, but mentions Charles Rosen):

Local city, state and federal legislators involved in funding the programs met Sunday at the offices of Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley to discuss the situation, said Assemblyman Michael Benedetto (D-East Bronx).

He said it was his understanding that the city has brought in other nonprofit agencies, such as the Police Athletic League, to take over the various programs run by the two suspect groups, which have received $9.7 million in 19 contracts and one outright grant.

Benedetto said that workers at Gloria Wise have already been notified their last official day of work will be Thursday.

Besides the city Education Department and the Youth and Community Development Department, the DOI release stated that the Department for the Aging is terminating its contracts with Gloria Wise, and the city Housing Authority is terminating a grant agreement with Pathways for Youth. The Department for the Aging, according to a source, has contracted with the Jewish Association for the Aged to take over the senior center programs, starting July 5.

Calls yesterday to Charles Rosen, executive director of the organization, were not returned as of deadline.

Ed Morrissey observes this morning:

Evan Cohen appears to have sold Gloria Wise a bill of goods in its investment in Air America. First, given AA's performance, anyone putting that kind of money into it and expecting to even see the principal ever again has to be out of their minds. Second, the grant money involved was earmarked for Alzheimer's patients, senior citizens, and a mentoring program. Even if AA sounded like a brilliant investment, earmarked grant money has to go to the specific programs it intends to fund, not a flyer on some hot stock tip.

Evan Cohen's involvement on the board of Gloria Wise and his position at AA makes this decision a massive conflict of interest. Cohen had struggled to maintain his position with the netlet after it became clear that the enterprise had not captured much audience even in the more liberal areas it served. Advertising revenues remained very weak and the corporation barely eked out an existence on donations, making it a poor (and badly-behaved) cousin to NPR. If Cohen used his position on the board at Gloria Wise to misdirect government funds, then AA needs to cough up the money immediately, and any ties Cohen has to other non-profits should be thoroughly investigated.

Has Air America paid back the loan, or even made preliminary payments? We don't know; AA hasn't issued a statement, and more curiously, the national media hasn't asked them.

Update II: A caller to KVI-AM's Kirby Wilbur show in Seattle points to this interesting arrangement between Air America and the Gloria Wise Community Center:

Camp Air America , a summer camp for kids from the Bronx.

The Gloria Wise website plugs AA's show, Morning Sedition here.

Latest updates:

Air Enron: Al Franken speaks

Air Deadbeat: The saga continues
The Air America loophole
Air America is scrambling
Air America: Don't blame us
Air America: Stealing from poor kids?!
TrackBack <64>

Pityful. I remember when this first got started all you liberals thought Air America was going to be so great. No one listens to their crap.

[Franconicus]

Gawain, please tell an ignorant European liberal what Air America is! Then I can think they are great too

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Gawain, please tell an ignorant European liberal what Air America is! Then I can think they are great too

Its a radio network. The liberals here said that conservatives have taken over talk radio and that they werent getting their fair share so they started thier own liberal network. Its an utter failure.

Air America



66 stations hehe Rush has over 600 alone. Also they pay to have their programing put on the air where as all the conservative shows get paid to put theirs on the air.

[PanzerJaeger]

No one listens to their crap.

Isnt that the truth! What American wants to sit around and listen to a bunch of gloom and doom left wing nuts talk about how bad America is... what a brilliant market strategy.

Air America Radio is stuck in the ratings cellar
BY BETH GILLIN
Knight Ridder News Service

On March 31, 2004, Air America Radio, promoted as the liberal antidote to conservative-dominated talk radio, was launched with great
fanfare.

Since then, it has generated headlines while losing some stations and picking up others. In April, it fired head writer Lizz Winstead,
co-creator of Comedy Central's "Daily Show," who is suing for back pay. TV's Jerry Springer, who is mulling a run for governor of Ohio, is
now in her slot.

Now that it's possible to compare ratings for this spring to last year's start-up, it's clear the network has yet to climb out of the cellar.
Air America's overall ratings, which rose initially after all the free publicity, faded before the November election and haven't recovered.
Still, it isn't yet time to call the coroner. "Air America is going to take a long time to grow ratings," said Michael Harrison, editor and
publisher of the trade publication Talkers magazine. "People unfamiliar with our industry think ratings are like box-office receipts. But they're
not. Radio ratings are slow to build.

"The network got an initial bump from the enormous amount of free press it got. There was a curiosity factor. Now, it is settling in."

Air America's programming is carried in part or in whole on 67 stations. Most are in smaller markets, such as Albuquerque, N.M., and
Albany, N.Y. (Locally, it airs on KTNF-AM, 950.) The flagship show, hosted by author, former "Saturday Night Live" writer/comic and
Minnesota native Al Franken, airs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays.
Franken originally named his show "The O'Franken Factor" (now "The Al Franken Show") to tweak his archrival, populist pundit Bill O'Reilly,
whose TV show "The O'Reilly Factor" on the Fox News Channel outdraws all other cable talk shows and whose "The Radio Factor" draws more than 3 million listeners nationally.

Measured season-to-season — the most accurate way to assess audience preferences, because listening patterns vary throughout the year — Air America has lost audience in major markets, including New York and Boston, since April, May and June of 2004.

Franken, best-selling author of such anti-conservative tomes as "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot," chose to go head-to-head with gabber Limbaugh in many markets. This, it turns out, was not such a good idea.

Limbaugh, still the giant among talkers, with 14.75 million listeners on 600 stations, has squashed Franken, whose ratings have dropped 50 percent in Boston since spring 2004; he is down 14 percent in New York. Ratings for many conservative talk shows have dropped as well, editor Harrison said. "It's what happens after an election."

But while more seasoned hosts shift the focus to other topics while awaiting the next election cycle, critics complain that Franken is still
obsessed with bashing President Bush. In contrast to Limbaugh, who mocks his own pomposity, Franken comes across as angry and not
funny, critics say.

"Is Al Franken going to be the hottest thing in radio? I don't think so," Harrison said. "But it's too soon to say he's finished. A lot depends on
how dedicated he is to the show.

"And I get the feeling he's not dedicated to radio broadcasting. He's dedicated to politics and his own celebrity. I think he'll drop out to run
for office."

Or, perhaps, he will stay on the air while running for the U.S. Senate in 2008 from Minnesota. Air America signed Franken to a multiyear
contract in November, the network's Jon Sinton said.

Franken has been floating trial balloons about a possible Senate run, and he and his wife have bought a home here. In January, the network
will move "The Al Franken Show" from New York to Minnesota, an Air America spokeswoman said last week.

[Franconicus]

I cannot get it in Germany can I. When I was a boy I used to listen to AFN. Not very liberal, I guess. It is the only American radio station I know.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

I cannot get it in Germany can I.

For your own sake lets hope not .

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

those bastards took over two stations I loved: they used to play big band music and hillbilly sounding 50s rock n roll but now it's Air [] America. It was a big shock turning on one of my favourite stations only to hear that.

[Sjakihata]

Do people actually listen (and care for) radios now a day? weird...

[PanzerJaeger]

While driving.. I listen to Rush at work too.

[Byzantine Prince]

While driving.. I listen to Rush at work too.

Now if only every kid in America listened to Rush while they worked the indoctrination would be on it's way.

Screw objectivity, right?

[PanzerJaeger]

Have you ever listened to Rush?

[Xiahou]

Its a radio network. The liberals here said that conservatives have taken over talk radio and that they werent getting their fair share so they started thier own liberal network. Its an utter failure.

Apparently the liberals can't keep a radio network on the air without federal funding.

[Proletariat]

I listen to NPR.

[Crazed Rabbit]

What's that?! Did I detect the slightest disturbance of noise that suggest we are not all conforming?!?! We have a traitor in our midst!! Set all units to destroy! Resistance is futile!



I don't listen to NPR, but because I find it to be extremely boring. They seem to go out of there way to find the most boring, unnewsworthy subjects to drone on about, like people who write music for car ads or have a had a person commit suicide in their house and are now writting poems about it.

Crazed Rabbit

[Xiahou]

What's that?! Did I detect the slightest disturbance of noise that suggest we are not all conforming?!?! We have a traitor in our midst!! Set all units to destroy! Resistance is futile!

Yeah, I've been wondering about her ever since she tore down her Karl Rove poster.

I've listened to NPR before, but I agree- it can be pretty mind numbing. I've also listened to Air America, which is just pathetic.

[master of the puppets]

i don't expect anyone would be surprised by this (damn liberals).

[master of the puppets]

Gawain, please tell an ignorant European liberal what Air America is! Then I can think they are great too

YOUR LIBERAL?! say it aint so, how can you be in TOTALWAR.org if you abhor to war and death and blood. i am evil and i usually laugh when i see blood (creepy?).

[Sjakihata]

look, some people can draw distinctions between gaming and reality...

[Samurai Waki]

I hate Rush with a passion. He's the most hypocritical. fat, pill popping, pos personality in America. He talks a tough, but his positions on politics are arrogant and far fetched, he's the kind of guy thats going to push the United States of America into the formerly United States States of America. and I'm not even Liberal and I can't stand him! I don't listen to the radio to hear people talk thats just stupid...IF I ever listen to the radio its to listen to some type of music I don't have in my collection.

[Azi Tohak]

What's that?! Did I detect the slightest disturbance of noise that suggest we are not all conforming?!?! We have a traitor in our midst!! Set all units to destroy! Resistance is futile!



I don't listen to NPR, but because I find it to be extremely boring. They seem to go out of there way to find the most boring, unnewsworthy subjects to drone on about, like people who write music for car ads or have a had a person commit suicide in their house and are now writting poems about it.

Crazed Rabbit

I love it Crazed Rabbit. What a perfect description.

Azi

[Don Corleone]

I listen to NPR too, Prole. So does Pindar, for that matter.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Some people just cant help showing their ignorance.

I hate Rush with a passion. He's the most hypocritical.

Ok thats a matter of opinion so ill give you that.

fat

Jave you seen Rush in the last 5 or 10 years. Hes slim and trim.

pill popping

He hasnt popped pills in years. Besides he got addicted because he had ailments and was presribed these drugs. Hes not the only person this has ever happened to. These drugs are very addictting. He admitted it and didnt try to act like a victim but said he was wrong.

pos personality in America

Whats a pos personality?

but his positions on politics are arrogant and far fetched,

Yoou think so? Or is it that they just dont go along with yours. Rush for the last 20 years has been the leader of the succesful conservative movemnet in the US. Thats why you and all liberals cant stand the man . Because he is THE MAN. Anytime something goes wrong for the Dems they Balme Rush. Even Clinton balmed Rush for many of his problems. Face it Rush Limbaugh is the most influential media person in the world today. Like it or not.

[bmolsson]

Hmm.. So it seems like US do pretty good without UN after all.....

[Devastatin Dave]

Air America reminds me of my liberal neighbors... They preach and preach about the plight of the poor, just as long as the poor don't live next to them and the poor (morethe urban elements) continue to vote for "promised" handouts instead of trying to actually get themselves out of their situation (read my sig written by Goofball). Limosine liberals, gotta love em!!!

[Proletariat]

I listen to NPR too, Prole. So does Pindar, for that matter.

Gratze. It's not always fair, but I prefer in-depth news, or at least an attempt at it, to two minutes of news an hour diluted with 58 minutes of crap I've already heard over and over.

[Reverend Joe]

I don't believe it. I don't [by gummies] believe it. This has to be the most stupid, idiotic [stuff] I have ever heard. "Air America steals from children"? The facists are stooping to a new low.

And yes, I know I have just alienated a lot of people here- but I can't help it; I'm a socialist. A socialist who is against tobacco legislation (I smoke joints, so why should I complain about your ciggarette?) and for the death penalty (kill someone and we'll kill you back), but a socialist nonetheless.

Okay... rant over.

Edited again for content. Sorry, I have anger issues.

Edited again for forum rules violation issues - Kukri

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Rush Limbaugh says....

Quote:
"There is only one way to get rid of nuclear weapons... use them"

And your point?

I don't believe it. I don't [] believe it. This has to be the most stupid, idiotic stuff I have ever heard. "Air America steals from children"? The facists are stooping to a new low.

Have you read the artilce? They did more than just that. I take it you dont believe it.

[Devastatin Dave]

I don't believe it. I don't believe it. This has to be the most stupid, idiotic I have ever heard. "Air America steals from children"? The facists are stooping to a new low.

And yes, I know I have just alienated a lot of people here- but I can't help it; I'm a socialist. A socialist who is against tobacco legislation (I smoke joints, so why should I complain about your ciggarette?) and for the death penalty (kill someone and we'll kill you back), but a socialist nonetheless.

Okay... rant over.

Welcome to the Backroom!!! BTW, see that warning label under my name, I got those from using the sort of language you just used in your post. Your new, so I thought I'd give you a heads up. Love the name BTW!!

Anyhoo, you might want to edit out the dirty words. Maybe you might want to consider to go to your nearest little coffee shop and chill a bit or whatever you young socialists are into these days. Maybe go iron the Che t-shirt or something with your capitalist hard earned (or possibly government issued) cash. It'll be alright.

point of admin concern: if you quote a bad post, YOUR post is also a bad post; take care-Kukri

[Devastatin Dave]

"When a gay person turns his back on you, it is anything but an insult; it's an invitation"


Oh man, I'm going to use that one. Its better than my usual "If someone farts, do gays get arroused?"... Thanks!!!

[Reverend Joe]

Devastatin Dave- thanks for the warning. Oh, and for the record, my T-shirt is not a Che shirt; It's a Trotsky shirt. I'm old-school.