Quicken Gilbert

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ohio erie canal connected Us to guld of miss to europe; rail hub</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">now 1220 4 centabilioaires</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fresh aire weds 12/20  chuck collins Inst for Pol studies</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. While millions of Americans have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, the combined wealth of just 10 billionaires has increased by more than $127 billion since the beginning of the pandemic. Those billionaires include the principal owners of Amazon, Instacart, Walmart and Tyson Foods. My guest, Chuck Collins, has been writing about that and how the pandemic has increased income inequality in the U.S. Economic inequality has been his subject since he was 26 and gave away his inheritance. Collins is the great-grandson of Oscar Mayer, the founder of the meatpacking company famous for its hot dogs, the Oscar Mayer wiener, and the Wienermobile.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Collins is the director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits inequality.org. His books include "Born On Third Base: A One Percenter Makes The Case For Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, And Committing To The Common Good" and the forthcoming "The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions To Hide Trillions." That book is scheduled for publication in March. Chuck Collins, welcome to FRESH AIR. It's a pleasure to have you on our show.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CHUCK COLLINS: Thanks for having me.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GROSS: Who are the billionaires who made the most money since the start of the pandemic?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">COLLINS: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Well, there's an overall trend. You know, 657 billionaires have seen their combined wealth go up a trillion since mid-March. But there's a couple that have just seen their wealth surge. Elon Musk seen his wealth go up almost 500%, 120 billion. Jeff Bezos has seen his wealth go up about 74 billion, an increase of 65%. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">And there's a guy, Dan Gilbert, who's the Quicken Loans founder, CEO, his wealth has gone up 600% - almost 38 billion. So it's a surge of wealth for some. You know, some have ridden the stock market. But others have just seen - they've kind of delinked from the amount of wealth they had before.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GROSS: So is the numbers that you're giving us, is that linked to the stock market? - because the stock market fluctuates so much. It can go up, you know, hundreds of points or go down hundreds of points.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">COLLINS: Yeah. The stock market has been steadily going up as well. But some of these billionaires have just seen their wealth surge, you know, in the double digits or much higher than the market itself. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I mean, four billionaires - Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg - now have a net worth of about 550 billion combined. And the whole group of U.S. billionaires now has a combined wealth of 4 trillion, which is double the wealth of the bottom half of all U.S. households, you know, in the United States. So they are <b>seeing their fortunes accelerate </b>during the pandemic....</span></font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://marker.medium.com/welcome-to-the-hunger-games-economy-7e44665d88e1">https://marker.medium.com/welcome-to-the-hunger-games-economy-7e44665d88e1</a></font></div><div><div class="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 id="c12d" class="ga gb gc gd b ge gf gg gh gi gj gk gl gm gn go gp gq gr gs gt gu gv gw gx gy gz" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.6em 0px -0.27em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 56px; letter-spacing: -0.011em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Welcome to the Hunger Games Economy</font></h1></div><h2 id="ea4d" class="ha gb gc ba b hb hc hd he hf hg hh hi hj hk hl hm hn ho hp hq dw" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.92em 0px -0.42em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">An exclusive excerpt from Scott Galloway’s new book, ‘<span class="hr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: inherit;">Post Corona’</span></font></h2></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/billionaire-wealth-has-surged-by-nearly-1-trillion-during-7-months-of-and-economic-collapse/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/billionaire-wealth-has-surged-by-nearly-1-trillion-during-7-months-of-and-economic-collapse/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">jake j</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_0_1_0" class="post-partial articlesplash-custom" style="margin-bottom: 40px; position: relative; overflow: hidden !important;"><div class="post-splash-custom clearfix" data-attr-layout_copylink="inactive" data-attr-show_around_the_web="true" data-attr-all_element_order="headline,photo_caption,photo_credit,author,date,post_shares,body,primary_tag,subheadline,section,tags,page_views,badges,badges_sponsored,snark_line,like_button,source_link,collection_button,community_comments,follow_button,main_author,community_name,all_sections,date_modified,custom_field_covid_guidelines,custom_field_covid_ann_location_name,custom_field_covid_ann_location_url,custom_field_covid_ann_location_address_more,custom_field_covid_tested_info_url,custom_field_covid_ann_location_address,custom_field_covid_prevention_info_url,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_url,custom_field_covid_expires,custom_field_hide_iterable_takeover,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_service_type_url,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_name,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_audience_name,custom_field_covid_travel_bans,custom_field_covid_government_benefits_provider_name,custom_field_covid_desease_statistics_url,custom_field_covid_covid_updates_guidelines,custom_field_covid_transport_closures" data-attr-layout_all_date_format="%B %d, %Y" data-attr-layout_whatsapp="active" data-attr-layout_separator="inactive" data-attr-layout_slack="inactive" data-attr-layout_date="bottom" data-attr-layout_flipboard="active" data-attr-show_more_button_text="Read More" data-attr-layout_photo_credit="over" data-attr-layout_linkedin="inactive" data-attr-layout_post_shares="bottom" data-attr-layout_pinterest="inactive" data-attr-layout_author="bottom" data-attr-show_full_post_body="true" data-attr-layout_photo_caption="over" data-attr-layout_reddit="inactive" data-attr-layout_body="bottom" data-attr-id="sPost_0_0_5_0_7_3_1_0_0_0_1_0" data-attr-all_share_buttons="Flipboard,Facebook,Twitter,Email,Linkedin,SMS,Separator,Slack,GooglePlus,Pinterest,Whatsapp,Reddit,CopyLink,Tumblr" data-attr-layout_headline="top" data-attr-format="splash-custom" data-attr-layout_tumblr="inactive" data-attr-layout_sms="active" data-attr-layout_all_image_crop="16x9" data-attr-layout_googleplus="inactive" data-attr-layout_quality="7" data-attr-header_template="jinja/post/custom-css.html" style="position: relative;"><article elid="2648424617" data-is-frozen="false" class="clearfix image-article sm-mb-1 quality-MD post-2648424617"><div class="row px10" style="margin-bottom: -40px; margin-left: -10px; margin-right: -10px; overflow: hidden;"><div id="col-center" class="col sm-mb-1" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 40px; float: left; box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; width: 838.693px;"><div class="widgetbody clearfix sm-mt-1" style="margin-bottom: 10px;"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2648424617" style="margin: auto; width: 654.943px; line-height: 31px;"><div class="body-description"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Over just the past seven months—as millions lost their jobs and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/28/we-need-medicare-all-tens-millions-more-expected-lose-employer-based-insurance-2021" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">health insurance</a>, tens of thousands of small businesses shuttered permanently, and more than 200,000 Americans were killed by the coronavirus—U.S. billionaires saw their combined net worth surge by more than $930 billion, bringing the collective wealth of just 644 people to a staggering $3.88 trillion.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That's according to an <a href="https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/since-pandemic-began-u-s-billionaires-net-worths-jump-931-billion-nearly-one-third-working-families-suffer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">analysis</a> released Tuesday morning by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), progressive organizations that have been tracking the explosion of billionaire wealth since the start of coronavirus lockdowns in mid-March. (See the groups' compilation of billionaire wealth data <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GcxHDqshl4b57ZgZd8OZ9O1d-BhyqTLcWo_emqVYvP0/edit#gid=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">here</a>.)</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The new analysis shows that the <b>collective wealth of America's billionaires grew by $931 billion—or nearly 33%</b>—between March 18 and October 13, a period that <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/07/trump-kills-covid-19-relief-talks-census-data-shows-millions-americans-expecting" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">also saw</a> unprecedented job loss, a nationwide surge in hunger, and a sharp increase in housing insecurity.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The groups noted that the jump in billionaire wealth over the past seven months exceeds the size of both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/03/gop-under-fire-offering-emaciated-covid-relief-plan-record-layoffs-continue-and-mass" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">so-called "skinny" Covid-19 relief bill</a> and the estimated two-year budget gaps of all state and local governments, which have been forced to lay off <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/06/16/how-covid-19-is-driving-big-job-losses-in-state-and-local-government" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">more than a million</a> public-sector workers due to revenue shortfalls caused by the coronavirus crisis.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"Sadly, the Gilded Age is here again,</b>" ATF executive director Frank Clemente said in a <a href="https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/since-pandemic-began-u-s-billionaires-net-worths-jump-931-billion-nearly-one-third-working-families-suffer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">statement</a>. "We have extraordinary gains in wealth by a small sliver of the population while millions suffer, this time from the ravages of the pandemic, much of which could have been avoided."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"In the short-term we need a robust pandemic relief package that meets the urgency of the moment, not Senator McConnell's skinny bill that offers political cover," Clemente continued. "In the long-term we need major reform that taxes the extraordinary wealth of the billionaires and millionaires and uses that wealth to create an economy that works for all of us."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[twt</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The total wealth of all U.S. billionaires today ($3.88 trillion) is nearly DOUBLE the $2.1 trillion in total wealth held by the bottom half of the population.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Billionaires' $931 billion gain far exceeds the $300 billion in new pandemic relief proposed by McConnell in September.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Americans For Tax Fairness</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@4TaxFairness</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">How have working families fared?</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">??Nearly 8.2 million fell ill</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">??Nearly 62 million lost work</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">??98,000 businesses have permanently closed</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">??12 million lost employer-sponsored health insurance</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">??22 million reported not having enough food</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">??1/6 renters reported being behind on rent]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the new analysis shows that a handful of billionaires "have seen a particularly astonishing increase in wealth" over the past seven months:</font></p><ul class="ee-ul" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Jeff Bezos' </b>wealth grew from<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> $113 billion on March 18 to $203 billion on October 13, an increase of 80%. Adding in his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott's wealth of $65.7 billion on that day and the two had a combined wealth of more than a<b>quarter of a trillion dollars thanks to their Amazon stock.</b></span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li>Mark<b> Zuckerberg's wealth grew from $54.7 billion on March 18 to $101 billion</b> on October 13, an <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">increase of 85%, fueled by his Facebook stock.</span></li><li>Elon Musk's wealth grew from $24.6 billion on March 18 to $92.8 billion on October 13, an<b> increase of 277%, boosted by his Tesla stock.</b></li><li><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans, saw his wealth rocket by 656%, to $49.2 billion from $6.5 billion seven months earlier.</span></li></ul><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"<b>With Mitch McConnell's Senate paralyzed with inaction, U.S. society is kicking into inequality overdrive, with wealth surging up to U.S. billionaires,</b>" said Chuck Collins, director of IPS' Program on Inequality. "The juxtaposition between surging billionaire wealth and the imploding livelihoods of ordinary Americans is grotesque and unseemly."</font></p></div></div></div></div></div></article></div></div></div></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive">https://prospect.org/mapping-corruption-interactive</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">...</font></p><h1 style="text-align: left; padding: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 1; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Housing and Urban Development Department</font></h1><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QUICK AND DIRTY</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HUD Secretary Ben Carson had no experience in government and questioned his own fitness for a Cabinet appointment.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After his confirmation, he gave top jobs and rapid pay raises to a roster of friends and associates.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ignoring a $5,000 limit on office expenditures, Carson ordered a $31,000 dining set. When word got out, he canceled the order and seemed to blame his wife for the idea. In a whistleblower complaint, a career HUD official, Helen Foster, said she was told to “find money” for the purchase and then demoted for raising objections.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carson has called for drastic cuts to his own department, outside of the decorating budget. An anti-government ideologue, he says he puts his faith in private-sector remedies such as the administration’s <b>Opportunity Zone program, which relies on tax incentives to spur development in low-income communities</b>.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under Carson’s oversight, that program has been tweaked again and again to produce greater benefits for billionaires and Trump friends and supporters.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carson’s son and daughter-in-law have HUD-related business activities. Carson has created opportunities for them to participate in official events and use their family ties to try to make deals for themselves.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li><li style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ben Carson Jr. runs a Maryland-based construction firm and a private equity fund. His wife Merlynn is a management consultant. In 2017, Carson Jr. organized a “listening tour” in Baltimore for his father.<b style=""> One of the people invited to participate was Seema Verma,</b> the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Although she did not attend, Merlynn Carson subsequently obtained a half-million-dollar consulting contract from Verma’s agency.</font></li></ul><h2 style="padding: 0px; margin: 2em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 1.2; text-transform: uppercase; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SELF-AND-CRONY-ENRICHMENT</font></h2><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deputy Chief of Staff Alfonso Costa Jr. is the son of a man described by the secretary as “my very best friend.” Carson and Al Costa Sr., a dentist turned commercial real-estate investor, were partners in a lucrative deal involving an office building in Pittsburgh—a property that has netted Carson as much as $2 million a year. Carson has been a frequent guest at Costa’s villa in Tuscany, which rents for upwards of $20,000 a month. In 2017, Costa Sr. was convicted of health care fraud after billing insurance companies for $44,000 in fictitious dental work. He escaped a prison sentence thanks partly to a supportive letter from Carson.</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></li><li style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The Opportunity Zone program, entrusted to Carson’s leadership, has become a boondoggle for billionaires and Trump associates. In Baltimore, Under Armour founder Kevin Plank (another recipient of an invitation to the secretary’s listening tour) won an Opportunity Zone designation for a project located in an area initially rejected as too wealthy. In Florida, the beneficiaries include a Republican donor developing a luxury housing project and superyacht marina near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.<b> In Detroit, Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert has several Opportunity Zone projects in the works after extensive lobbying....</b></font></li></ul><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><div><g-card class="nChh6e DyOREb" data-hveid="68" style="display: block; border: 1px solid rgb(218, 220, 224); border-radius: 8px; overflow: hidden; margin-bottom: 16px; width: 632px; margin-left: -16px; margin-right: -16px;"><div class="dbsr" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxPQBCEYoATAD"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><div class="yr3B8d KWQBje" style="padding: 16px; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; flex-direction: row-reverse;"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><div class="hI5pFf" style="flex-grow: 1; width: 0px;"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><div class="JheGif nDgy9d" aria-level="2" role="heading" style="display: -webkit-box; overflow: hidden; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; line-height: 1.33333em; -webkit-line-clamp: 2;"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nba-basketball-owners-cartesian-coordinate-plane/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCEcwAw" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Mother Jones Guide to Evil NBA Owners</font></a></div><div class="yJHHTd" style="padding-top: 4px;"><div class="Y3v8qd" style="line-height: 1.42857em; max-height: 4.28571em; overflow: hidden; -webkit-line-clamp: 3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">But Pagliuca's politics lean left: He's a big Democratic donor, and in 2009 ... Cleveland Cavaliers: Not only is Dan Gilbert the nation's most ... an era when Republicans still courted labor, he urged the GOP to ignore union members. ... $1 million to the Mitt Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future after a brief ...</font></div><div class="wxp1Sb" style="padding-top: 4px;"><span class="YCV9ed isfR2" style=""><span class="WG9SHc" style="line-height: 14px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Oct 29, 2014</font></span></span></div></div></div></div><div /></div><div><g-card class="nChh6e DyOREb" data-hveid="76" style="display: block; border: 1px solid rgb(218, 220, 224); border-radius: 8px; overflow: hidden; margin-bottom: 16px; width: 632px; margin-left: -16px; margin-right: -16px;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="dbsr" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxPQBCE4oATAE" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2012/08/03/forbes-billionaires-love-aspen/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCE8wBA" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.denverpost.com/2012/08/03/forbes-billionaires-love-aspen/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCE8wBA" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;" /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></g-card></div><p><a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2012/08/03/forbes-billionaires-love-aspen/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCE8wBA" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.denverpost.com/2012/08/03/forbes-billionaires-love-aspen/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCE8wBA" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></a></p><p><a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2012/08/03/forbes-billionaires-love-aspen/" data-ved="0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCE8wBA" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.denverpost.com/2012/08/03/forbes-billionaires-love-aspen/&ved=0ahUKEwiw5-GdlMbsAhVWbs0KHYWoATYQxfQBCE8wBA" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); display: block;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /></a><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/ridiculousness-gun-nuts-who-are-arms-because-gop-convention-bans-their-arms">http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/ridiculousness-gun-nuts-who-are-arms-because-gop-convention-bans-their-arms</a> gop convention quicken arena cleaveland</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin: 5px 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Cavs majority owner Dan Gilbert</b> and his wife, Jennifer, came in second of the lot in 2016. They shelled out $2.1 million that cycle, with just over half of that landing in the coffers of a super PAC backing GOP candidate <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00037008" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Chris Christie</a>, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00573055&cycle=2016" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">America Leads</a> ($1.3 million.) Another $350,000 went to a super PAC behind Republican John Kasich, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000068085" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">New Day for America</a>. In the general election, Gilbert veered left, donating $150,000 to Clinton’s joint fundraising committee, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/jfc/summary.php?id=C00586537&cycle=2016" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Hillary Victory Fund</a>.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 5px 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cavs minority owner Gordon Gund and his wife Llura claimed the number three spot among NBA owner-donors. Of their $1.4 million in campaign contributions in 2016, $750,000 went to super PACs affiliated with Kasich. But the Gunds went for Clinton in the general election, giving $30,000 to her joint fundraising committee.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 5px 0px; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contributions to Trump’s election effort came from just three team owner pairs: <b>Peter and Julianna Holt </b>of the San Antonio Spurs, James Dolan of the New York Knicks, and DeVos. Holt was the biggest Trump booster; he and his wife donated just under $500,000 to Trump’s joint fundraising committee, of which Trump received $5,400; the rest went to GOP party committees. Not far behind was Dolan, who gave $300,000, $2,700 going into Trump’s coffers.</font></p></g-card></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">158 fams</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">750K$ superpac 2016</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sports teams as proxy for ?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">- CLEVELAND -- It promises to be a grand old party, an exclusive soiree' using at least $65 million of tax money to help the Republicans celebrate their choice for president.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is like having the Grammy's four nights in a row," said Joe Roman, president of the Greater Cleveland Partnership.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Local planners of the Republican National Convention are doubling down with your tax money, gambling that Cleveland's lucrative investment will pay dividends for decades to come.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Economics experts urge caution.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"If I were Cleveland, I would certainly welcome the convention. But let's not promise something that's nothing close to what's actually going to be delivered," said Victor Matheson, a Holy Cross College economics professor who has studied the financial impacts of past political conventions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the state have all contributed millions of tax dollars to the RNC organizers. How it will be spent, is not all together clear.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cash-strapped Cleveland and the county each contributed $2.5 million. The state, through the JobsOhio program, delivered another $10 million.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cleveland has also spent millions renovating parts of downtown, and investing in development projects, while preparing to put on a fresh face for the national close-up.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JobsOhio is the state's economic development arm created by Gov. John Kasich. The office, which labels itself as a private, non-profit corporation, has been criticized for its perceived lack of transparency regarding how it invests millions of tax dollars for business development.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"JobsOhio was supposed to create good paying permanent jobs,” said Sandy Theis of Progress Ohio. “It wasn't supposed to waste our tax money throwing a party."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A JobsOhio spokesman defended the agency's support of the RNC saying "its investment in this convention will further JobsOhio's economic development mission by promoting the great assets and strengths of Cleveland the the state of Ohio."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The greatest chunk of public money – a $50 million federal grant - will go for security at and around the RNC.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Marc Allan Feldman, a Cleveland Clinic doctor and the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, said tax dollars should not be used frivolously.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I think that everyone has a right to party, but we shouldn't be asking the taxpayers to pay for it," he said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The security tab will be used to fortify downtown Cleveland, especially around the Quicken Loans Arena where the main convention events will unfold July 18-21.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cleveland is already spending down the security grant money. From past conventions in places like St. Paul, Minn. and Tampa, Fla., cameras, fencing and concrete barriers were installed to corral the public - specifically protesters.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More security dollars will go toward paying as many as 5,000 police officers from Cleveland and surrounding cities and states. Money will also be used to purchase body armor, helmets, shields and vehicles.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, Cleveland police are concerned that officers will not be properly trained and equipped before the thousands of visitors - and thousands more protesters - arrive.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You'd be idiotic not to have bad vibes," said Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland police union.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An estimated $49 million more in private donations are expected to be heaped on the RNC. However, because of the presence of Donald Trump, the GOP’s presumptive nominee, some corporations such as Walmart and Coca-Cola are hesitating to match their donations of previous conventions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RNC planners, however, say they will achieve their fund-raising goals. They say it’s imperative that the city is properly prepared.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It makes sure that the way we look to the rest of the world is in the best manner possible," Roman said.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The RNC is expected to be a boost to Cleveland – some $200 million in direct economic benefits by some accounts. Others, however, worry that those figures are overstated and political unrest may trump any gains.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, Cleveland is using security grant money - $1.5 million – to purchase $10 million of insurance in the event the city is sued for things such as police misconduct.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />“This could end up really backfiring for Cleveland," said Craig Holman, a government lobbyist for Washington-based Public Citizen.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Matheson, who studied 18 political conventions over three decades said he found no impact on personal income or local employment in the host cities.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He said boosters routinely inflate the economic contributions.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />"Take whatever the boosters are telling you, move the decimal point one place to the left and that's a pretty good estimate of what you're going to get," he said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Regardless of the math, nearly all agree the national exposure will give Cleveland a chance to make a splash and produce results that go beyond a four day convention.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The biggest benefit of having this convention in Cleveland is what it does for us one year, three years, eight years down the road,” said </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">David Gilbert, CEO and president of the RNC Cleveland host committee.</span></font></b></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gilbert quicken cavaliers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/04/06/michigan-super-pac-donors-spend-failed-gop-bids/82733670/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">christie</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2015/08/28/super-pacs/71290018/" style="text-decoration: none;">contributed $1.25 million </a>to a super PAC supporting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s failed candidacy.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hedging his bets, Gilbert also donated $100,000 to New Day for America, the super PAC supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is still campaigning for president but trails far behind Trump and Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in the nominating <a href="http://content-static.detroitnews.com/pages/AP/2016/delegate-tracker-2016.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">delegate count</a>. The biggest giver to New Day was Peter Karmanos, co-founder of the Detroit-based Compuware Corp. and chairman of Mad Dog Technology in Birmingham, who chipped in $500,000.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2015/07/02/detroits-downtown-savior-dan-gilbert-charged-with-responsibility-for-foreclosures-and-blight/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">July 1, 2015; <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/special-reports/2015/07/01/quicken-loans-blight-dilemma/29537285/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Detroit News</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dan Gilbert, the owner of Quicken Loans, has been lauded far and wide for investing in downtown Detroit and leading a revitalization undoing the city’s devastating blight.  According to the <em>Detroit News</em><b>, Gilbert’s mortgage lending company may have been a significant contributor to blight by ranking fifth among all residential mortgage lenders in terms of the number of mortgages in Detroit that resulted in foreclosures</b> during the past decade.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Detroit’s foreclosure problem is visible and massive.  The article in the <em>Detroit News</em> says that that </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">one of three homes in Detroit have been foreclosed in the city over ten years, equivalent to the entire housing stock of Buffalo, and </span><a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/special-reports/2015/06/03/detroit-foreclosures-risky-mortgages-cost-taxpayers/27236605/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">costing the city $500 million,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> a figure </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The News</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> came up with as a combination of the cost of demolition ($195 million) and lost tax payments ($300 million)</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><em>Detroit News</em> reporters Christine MacDonald and Joel Kurth note that half of Detroit’s foreclosed properties ended up as blighted.  Gilbert ended up co-chairing a task force of the Obama Administration that recommended 40,000 structures needed to be demolished.  </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The implication is that the lending and foreclosure practices of Gilbert’s Quicken Loans were a major contributor to the City’s blight, without Gilbert’s acknowledgement that his company was a contributor to the problem.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They cite neighborhood leaders and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan that Quicken was a significant contributor to Detroit’s blight.  Brooke Tucker, an <b>ACLU</b> of Michigan attorney, said there is "no question" Quicken's large number of foreclosures over the past decade contributed to Detroit blight though other financial institutions were worse, and added “I wish banks would spend more funds like Dan Gilbert to try to fix the mess, but they do have a responsibility for the mess. This is a bank-driven, mortgage-driven problem.”  <em>The News</em> reported that just short of one-fourth of Quicken mortgages in Detroit could be considered “subprime.”  Gilbert challenges the <em>News </em>characterization of Quicken loans as subprime as erroneous. Guy D. Cecala, CEO and publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, told The News that "Quicken would argue their track record was better than anyone in the industry, but of course the bar isn't that high in the mortgage industry.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bernard Parker, an east side activist and former Wayne County commissioner, said that Quicken was more aggressive than other companies in selling mortgages before the national economic meltdown</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. "Quicken, along with other banks that gave these loans, have some responsibility to rebuild neighborhoods," said Parker, who now runs the Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology charter school. "No one thinks Dan Gilbert is a friend or champion of the neighborhoods" around his east side neighborhood, he added.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MacDonald and Kurth name four other firms with more foreclosures in Detroit than Quicken.  </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Argent Mortgage/Ameriquest Mortgage, Washington Mutual, New Century Mortgage, and Countrywide</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> all beat Quicken in foreclosures, but all four went out of business during the mortgage meltdown, while Quicken survived and seems to have thrived.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gilbert, you might say, is unhappy with the <em>Detroit News</em> report, contending that his company’s lending policies cannot be authoritatively linked to the city’s widespread blight:  "It's very hard to make any causation between these loans and the fact that (homeowners) walked away or could not afford the payments and some eventually became blighted," Gilbert told <em>The News</em>.   Gilbert doesn’t seem to take criticisms or investigation with equanimity.  Earlier this spring, the federal government sued Quicken alleging that the company had approved lots of mortgages between 2007 and 2011, though with no specific mention of Detroit,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> that didn’t meet federal standards, but Gilbert responded that the feds were on a “witch hunt” and filed a pre-emptive suit against the U.S. Department of Justice.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Distinctively, Gilbert said that it wasn’t his company’s mortgage loans or perhaps even other mortgage foreclosures that were responsible for the blight.  "</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I'm sure some lenders contributed to part of it," Gilbert said. "But No. 1, I'd have to say, is property taxes</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. … That was like throwing gas on a fire."</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On a conservative radio talk show,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/12626/dan_gilbert_quicken_loans_foreclosures_and_battling_blight#.VZR6S_lViko" style="text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gilbert called MacDonald and Kurth “irresponsible” and “unprofessional”</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> .  Although MacDonald is an adult, Gilbert said that </span><a href="http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/archives/2015/07/01/gilbert-lashes-out-over-detroit-news-report-someone-needs-to-hold-these-muckraker-people-accountable" style="text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">she had seemed to be a “pretty smart girl”</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.  It’s not as bad as having called LeBron James “narcissistic,” “callous”, “cowardly,” “heartless,” and worse when James left Gilbert’s Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010, but it is, by now, quite clear that Gilbert doesn’t appreciate being crossed in the press or in sports.  The investigative press has gotten on his last nerve. Gilbert  clearly took aim at journalism in his radio show comments, saying</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> "Someone needs to hold these muckracker [sic] people accountable."</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gilbert and Quicken have their supporters in this dynamic.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">  Steve Bancroft, the former Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit who served as executive director of the Detroit Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Response from 2008 until 2011, told <em>The News</em>, “Quicken is probably more responsible than most.”  </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">However, like the other banks, Quicken, according to Bancroft, said, “We’re sorry this happened to the city, but we didn’t do any bad loans.”</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Does the Quicken foreclosure controversy have any meaning for nonprofits and foundations concerned about the revitalization of Detroit?  A few obvious implications could be these:</font></p><ul style="margin: 0px 0px 24px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px;"><li style="margin-bottom: 12px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gilbert has been hailed as something of a savior of downtown Detroit, buying up enough downtown office properties that some call it now “Gilberttown.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> It shouldn’t be surprising that the philanthropic (and non-philanthropic) saviors of troubled communities may not have totally clean hands regarding community problems.  Quicken may not have been the worst of the mortgage lenders, but it was part of the mix in Detroit.  Gilbert’s idea that high property taxes rather than mortgage foreclosures led to blight in the late 2000s runs counter to the nation’s experience of the mortgage meltdown.   Detroit—and everyplace similar—should be careful when they turn over some of the thinking about aspects of their problems, such as Gilbert’s role in leading the blight task force, to players who might have had a role in creating or sustaining the problems.</span></font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cities such as Baltimore and Memphis sued banks over the decrepit conditions of their foreclose properties, but that didn’t happen in Detroit. Efforts to hold banks and mortgage companies accountable for the conditions of properties really didn’t happen. According to Steve Tobocman, the former co-director of the Michigan Foreclosure Task Force and former member of the Michigan House of Representatives, "There's an ironclad correlation between subprime lending and abandoned, blighted and in-need-of-demolition houses in Detroit…We had an opportunity to move forward on some of those homes and abuses, and we didn't take that opportunity."  Although Detroit unlike almost all other cities had a foundation-funded foreclosure prevention office, the city didn’t or couldn’t generate the muster to go after the banks in court to mitigate some of the blight that their foreclosures, regardless of Gilbert’s contentions about property taxes, may have contributed to.  Activists long pressured the city to go after the banks on foreclosures, and there was word that the city’s former corporation counsel and a deputy mayor drafted a plan to sue predatory lenders, but<a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/special-reports/2015/06/25/detroit-backed-off-suing-lenders/29289237/" style="text-decoration: none;">former mayor Dave Bing said that he was never presented with a proposal</a>, though Bing also noted that his focus was on making payroll and paying city expenses rather than pursuing risky court litigation.  However, Bancroft, at the foundation-funded foreclosure office, which reported to the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, said that the city didn’t want to risk alienating potential investors.  "If you act precipitously and go at them hard, you'll never see another mortgage in the city," Bancroft said. It would appear that the kid glove treatment of the mortgage foreclosing lenders didn’t quite work.</font></li><li style="margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The mortgage foreclosure problem was worse in Detroit than in much of the rest of the country. More than two-thirds of mortgages in Detroit, according to <em>The News</em>, were subprime, compared to a little over one-fourth statewide and a little less than one-fourth nationwide.  <a href="http://www.kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/reports/2008/10_2008_StucturalRacismandSubprimeRickCohen.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;">A 2008 report written by this author for the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University</a>  documented the “persistent, disparate racial impacts of the subprime lending crisis.”  The subprime lending and subsequent foreclosures that swamped Detroit are hard to ignore for their racial implications.  The revitalization of Detroit isn’t just a matter of bailing out public pensions and “saving” the Detroit Institute of Arts as the foundation community has done through the “Grand Bargain” or regionalizing the management of Detroit’s water and sewer authority, but recognizing and dealing with the racial roots of the city’s problems and the reparations of sorts that the institutional perpetrators, through their omissions or co-missions, should be making.</font></li></ul><p style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the words of MacDonald and Kurth, <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/special-reports/2015/06/25/foreclosures-tear-apart-detroit-street/29289533/" style="text-decoration: none;">“(F)oreclosure is a bomb with multiple detonations</a>. The first comes when homes are abandoned. Then they are neglected, stripped of metals, left open for squatters and drug dealers. When nothing is left, they often burn.” In Detroit, once attractive neighborhoods are full of abandoned, devastated homes, awaiting the bulldozer as recommended by Gilbert’s blight task force, rather than rehabbers who might have saved the properties hadn’t it been for the city’s—and the nation’s—mortgage foreclosure crisis.  It is easy to see that compared with the likes of Countrywide, Gilbert’s Quicken Loans would have been hard-pressed to be at the top of the worst lenders in Detroit.  Nonetheless, despite his slurs against the two “muckrakers” at <em>The News</em>, Gilbert might benefit from some greater sense of contrition and Detroit might benefit from being a little more wary of corporate saviors.—Rick Cohen</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sports ilus?!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.625rem 0px; padding: 0rem 0px; line-height: 26px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Quicken Loans, the mortgage lending business founded by Cleveland <a href="http://www.si.com/nba/team/cleveland-cavaliers" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 900; outline: 0px;">Cavaliers</a>owner Dan Gilbert, has been sued by the United States Department of Justice, the DOJ <a href="http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-files-lawsuit-alleging-quicken-loans-improperly-originated-and-underwrote" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 900; outline: 0px;">announced Thursday</a>. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.625rem 0px; padding: 0rem 0px; line-height: 26px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The DOJ accuses Quicken of "improperly originating and underwriting mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration" from September 2007 to December 2011. The company also encouraged employees to disregard FHA rules, the DOJ alleges. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.625rem 0px; padding: 0rem 0px; line-height: 26px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) "has already paid millions of dollars of insurance claims on loans improperly underwritten by Quicken," the DOJ said. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.625rem 0px; padding: 0rem 0px; line-height: 26px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If a home was appraised at a value too low to be approved for a loan, Quicken would request an inflated value from the appraiser without justification for the increase, according to the DOJ. </font></p><p data-spx-slot="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.625rem 0px; padding: 0rem 0px; line-height: 26px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Quicken <a href="http://www.quickenloans.com/press-room/2015/04/17/quicken-loans-the-nations-largest-fha-lender-sues-united-states-department-of-justice-and-department-of-housing-and-urban-development/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 900; outline: 0px;">sued the DOJ and HUD last week</a> "after the DOJ demanded Quicken Loans make public admissions that were blatantly false, as well as pay an inexplicable penalty or face legal action."...</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div></div></div>