Government scientists convicted of fraud conduct essential drug and biologics research because the notoriously derelict federal agency responsible for protecting public health and safety doesn’t bother removing them.

To avoid compromising the safety of crucial clinical trials that determine the approval of drugs and medical devices, federal law bans any research to be administered by individuals who have been convicted of fraud. Because they risk altering the integrity of important data, it’s the responsibility of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to banish them from all taxpayer-funded trials.

Instead, the FDA regularly fails to debar individuals who have been convicted of felonies related to the development, approval or regulation of a drug or biologic. The agency takes anywhere from a year to more than a decade to ban criminals from conducting drug trials, according to a lengthy congressional report published this week.

Congressional investigators considered dozens of cases and found that the FDA took an unacceptable amount of time to disqualify researchers who had previously falsified data. In most instances, the scientists continued working on other important trials that determined whether an investigational product is safe for the U.S. market. 

In one case, the FDA took years to ban a study coordinator involved in one of the nation’s largest cases of drug-trial fraud. The woman operated a southern California institute that conducted nearly 200 studies for practically every big pharmaceutical in the world and routinely falsified data. She eventually pleaded guilty to fraud but the FDA didn’t take action for half a decade. 

This sort of negligence is nothing new at the FDA, which perpetually fails to enforce federal laws that could negatively impact the profits of the wealthy pharmaceuticals that pay the agency hundreds of millions of dollars in “fees.” In fact, a separate congressional investigation determined that the FDA allows firms that annually pay it more than $400 million in fees to compromise public safety.

Earlier this month a group of scientists chastised the agency for delaying a negative report on a common household chemical deemed unsafe in hundreds of studies and banned in several states. To appease the chemical’s manufacturer, the scientists say, the FDA has disregarded the reputable research and will spend $7 million to further study the chemical which is used to make clear plastic.

A multitude of criminal activity—including prostitution and public drunkenness—is perpetually ignored by police in a southern California border city because the violators are illegal aliens and the department refuses to deal with immigration enforcement.

For years hundreds of illegal immigrants have lived in shanty town encampments on a stretch of publicly owned canyon in northeastern San Diego not far from the Mexican border. They stay mostly in tents, use the bushes as their bathroom and steal water from the city’s irrigation lines. The migrants also create fire hazards with illegal campfires, propane-fueled lights and candles and have destroyed the once-lush and scenic mountain terrain with empty alcohol containers, cigarette butts and other trash.

Prostitution is also rampant, according to area residents and various news reports, that have discovered makeshift “sex dens” inside trees, complete with used and unused condoms, lubricant and beds. There is also underage sex-trafficking that has long been ignored by local authorities because it involves illegal aliens. Area immigration advocates still help the law breakers, visiting the canyon camps regularly to deliver food and water. 

San Diego Police has known for years that the intruders live on the canyon, which is located in an area known as Rancho Penasquitos. The city and county actually run a public park in the area, which ironically, has regulations that are repeatedly violated by the illegal aliens. They include a ban on glass containers, littering and overnight camping. All are strictly prohibited, according to city and county officials, though the rules evidently don’t apply to illegal immigrants. 

Enraged area residents want police to at the very least enforce local laws and punish those who break them, regardless of immigration status. Many have encountered the disgusting shanty town filth during hikes with their children in the once-breathtaking canyon they assure has been ruined by invaders.  

Like many local law enforcement agencies nationwide, the San Diego Police Department has a don’t-ask-don’t-tell immigration policy that forbids officers from inquiring about a suspect’s status. In this case however, it certainly appears as though police is taking it a step further than most to protect illegal aliens.

A department captain actually justifies the migrant camps, pointing out that the region’s lack of low-income housing leaves the canyon dwellers no choice. Residents counter that many of the migrants make up to $100 a day tax free and can afford to rent a small place. But the sympathetic police captain, Miguel Rosario, explains that if the migrants “are not legal, they lack the proper documentation to secure an apartment.” 

So there you have it—a high-ranking law enforcement official in a major U.S. city defending criminals as if they were the victims. 

The presidential cabinet member once responsible for securing the nation’s safety has requested leniency for a drug-abusing acquaintance that savagely beat a toddler and fractured her skull, causing permanent neurological damage. 

Bush Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge actually wrote the sentencing judge a letter seeking compassion for the 21-year-old monster (Matthew Lazenby) who brutally attacked his girlfriend’s daughter in a drunken rage. Lazenby, a drug abuser determined by psychologists to have intense anger issues, admitted striking the 23-month-old girl in the head and shaking her so intensely that he fractured her skull. The injuries left the child developmentally disabled in speech and motor skills.

Ridge, a former congressman and Pennsylvania governor, has known the Lazenby family for more than a decade and insists the beating was a horrible deviation from Lazenby’s normal conduct, behavior and temperament. Ridge and the Lazenby’s are neighbors in the upscale Pennsylvania community of Millcreek Township and the former Homeland Security chief is just trying to help an old friend. 

In his letter to Erie County Judge Shad Connelly, Ridge says that, as reprehensible as Lazenby’s actions were, they were clearly not a reflection of a general pattern of violent or abusive behavior. He notes that Lazenby is a “loving and nurturing father” to his own 2 ½-year-old daughter (not the one he ferociously beat) and is “still welcomed in our home.” 

The judge evidently didn’t give much credence to the former Homeland Security Secretary’s plea and sentenced Lazenby to eight years in state prison, pointing out that his victim was one of most helpless and vulnerable members of the community. 

Ridge, once a prosecutor in Erie County, currently operates a lucrative security consulting firm in Washington D.C. In a tell-all book he claims that the Bush Administration pressured him to raise security threat level assessments for political reasons. He subsequently recanted the accusations, assuring that he was “never pressured.”

San Francisco has taken its acclaimed illegal immigrant sanctuary status a huge step further by passing legislation that forces police and probation officers to violate federal law in order to protect undocumented youth criminals. 

The measure, overwhelmingly approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors this week, requires that underage illegal aliens arrested and charged with felonies actually be convicted before police could turn them over to federal immigration authorities for deportation. 

The convoluted story of how the law came to be features a politically motivated mayor’s desperate efforts to appear tough on illegal immigrant crime as he seeks statewide office. For years San Francisco has offered illegal immigrants sanctuary, forbidding city employees—including law enforcement officers—from reporting undocumented residents to the feds. The city even offers illegal immigrants official municipal identification cards so that they can enjoy public services and integrate into the community.

Among the most protected are violent youths convicted of serious crimes, many of them repeat offenders. Over the years San Francisco has spent millions of taxpayer dollars to shield them from deportation by housing them in unsecured group homes. The outrageous policy came under fire last year when two illegal aliens who had been convicted of felonies as youths committed heinous crimes as adults. 

First a gangbanger (Edwin Ramos) from El Salvador brutally murdered a father and his two sons as they drove home from a family picnic. As a youth Ramos had been convicted of two felonies (a gang-related assault on a bus passenger and the attempted robbery of a pregnant woman). In an unrelated incident, a Mexican gang member convicted of several felonies as a teenager “gutted” a man like a “pig,” according to police. 

The atrocities received worldwide media attention and inspired San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to pretend he’s tough on crime because he wants to be California’s next governor. Newsom, an ardent defender of his city’s sanctuary policies, issued an order directing local authorities to turn youth offenders over to federal officials as soon as they’re booked on felony charges. No conviction necessary.

The order incensed the Board of Supervisors who struck back with this week’s veto-proof law to protect young illegal alien thugs. The measure was authored by a county supervisor (David Campos) who proudly boasts that he arrived in the U.S. as an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. Campos has already threatened to take action against the mayor if he doesn’t abide by the new law. 

Gavin is standing his ground, claiming that the bill isn't worth the paper it's written on. The city attorney had previously issued an advisory saying that the legislation cannot be enforced since federal law prohibits the city from taking any adverse action against a city official or employee who reports a juvenile to federal immigration authorities. 

Judicial Watch has sued San Francisco, on behalf of a local taxpayer, over its sanctuary policies and has thoroughly investigated the Ramos triple murder case, obtaining public records relating to his arrest and lengthy criminal history. 

In major blow to Illinois’ ousted crooked governor, a top aide has reached a deal with federal prosecutors by pleading guilty to wire fraud in exchange for cooperation against his former boss whose upcoming corruption trial promises to be compelling.  

Rod Blagojevich’s former chief-of-staff and law school buddy (Alonzo Monk) has opted to save his own tail rather than go down with his longtime friend for operating a massive bribery scheme that sold the influence of the governor’s office, lucrative state jobs and contracts to the highest bidder. Blagojevich even tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated when Barack Obama got elected president and has been charged with a sleuth of crimes in a massive federal indictment.

Monk, a key player in the various illegal operations, has offered federal prosecutors crucial information, testimony and evidence that could ultimately put Blagojevich behind bars for decades. In his deal, Monk admitted that he schemed to shake down a racetrack owner for a $100,000 in exchange for the Blagojevich’s approval of a bill to help subsidize tracks. He also admitted using the influence of the governor’s office to extort state businesses for cash. 

The one-time gubernatorial aide and esteemed Illinois lobbyist will only serve 24 months in prison. Blagojevich, on the other hand, won’t get off so easy and faces a barrage of felonies that culminate a three-year investigation into his shady administration. Court-authorized wiretaps actually captured the disgraced governor trying to sell or trade Obama’s Senate seat for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife. 

In the recordings, Blagojevich is heard trying to; obtain a substantial salary for himself at either a non-profit or an organization affiliated with labor unions; place his wife on paid corporate boards where she could make $150,000 a year; obtain campaign donations as well as cash up front and a cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself. Calling the breadth of corruption staggering, prosecutors said the governor put a “for sale” sign on the naming of a United States senator. 

The Justice Department has overruled a North Carolina city’s law to hold nonpartisan local elections claiming that black voters are denied equal rights without the Democratic Party even though many of the state’s municipalities have successfully implemented the system for years.

Citizens in Kinston, where two-thirds of the population and the majority of registered voters are black, overwhelmingly passed a measure last year to eliminate the party affiliation of candidates for mayor and city council as have most local governments throughout North Carolina.  

A Kinston newspaper editorial notes that most of the state’s cities have abandoned partisan elections because it makes it easier for unaffiliated candidates to get on the ballot, includes all voters in primaries and produces better government by breaking down the party lines that divide Democrats and Republicans at the state and federal levels. Besides, local issues such as public safety, streets and sanitation aren’t partisan concerns. 

That certainly indicates that the Obama Administration’s interference in this case is politically motivated. After all, 65% of the registered voters in Kinston are black and the measure to eliminate partisan elections passed by a margin of 2-to-1 and was widely supported among both white and black voters in the town of about 23,000 residents.

Yet, in a letter to Kinston officials, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice claims that “removing the partisan cue in municipal elections will, in all likelihood, eliminate the single factor that allows black candidates to be elected to office.“ It goes on to point out that "without party loyalty available to counter-balance the consistent trend of racial bloc voting, blacks will face greater difficulty winning general elections." 

Ridiculing the feds’ assertion that nonpartisan elections are prejudicial against black voters, a local newspaper columnist asks why in the world does a group that accounts for nearly two-thirds of the electorate deserve this extraordinary federal protection. 

Of interesting note is that the Justice Department official who authored the Kinston letter (Loretta King) is the same person who killed the infamous New Black Panther Party case. Federal prosecutors had filed a civil complaint in Philadelphia because thug-like members of the radical black revolutionary group—clad in military attire—intimidated voters with racial insults, profanity and weapons in front of precincts during the presidential election. 

A judge actually ordered default judgments against the offenders, who ignored the government’s charges and refused to appear in court, yet King, who at the time was Obama’s acting assistant Attorney General for the civil rights division, reversed course and dismissed the case without explaining why.  

The popular elected official who operates the prison system in one of the nation’s largest counties is being sued for unconstitutionally restricting the rights of inmates to have abortions. 

Well known nationally for conducting effective immigration raids that have cleaned up the Phoenix metropolitan area, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio illegally obstructs inmates’ access to abortion care, according to a 22-page lawsuit filed on behalf of a prisoner in Arizona Superior Court. In doing so the sheriff violates protection against cruel and unusual punishment guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s right to access reproductive healthcare.

The complaint alleges that a transportation and security fee charged to prisoners who want to terminate a pregnancy is designed to obstruct access to abortion care and creates unnecessary delay. It’s simply the latest tactic in the sheriff’s long history of creating obstacles that delay inmates seeking abortion care, the complaint goes on to say, often pushing women further into their pregnancies.

The county charges all inmates who opt to have elective medical procedures, such as abortions, $300 to $600 for transportation and mandatory deputy escorts. Otherwise, the sheriff says, taxpayers would unfairly absorb the cost. Arpaio first got sued over abortion in 2004 when he forced an inmate to get a court order before providing transportation to an abortion clinic. 

This week’s lawsuit, filed by a notoriously liberal civil rights group, asks the court to enforce a rule that gives prisoners “timely, safe and legal abortion care” and prohibits the sheriff from charging for transportation and security. The complaint points out that, although abortion is a safe procedure, each week of delay presents an increased risk of complications such as perforation of the uterus, hemorrhaging and even death.

The chairman of a key congressional immigration task force has offered a sneak preview of the “compassionate” and “comprehensive” legislation he’s crafting to legalize the nation’s estimated 12 million undocumented aliens.

The measure will be introduced in the House of Representatives in the next few months and includes a citizenship pathway for undocumented immigrants, strict rules for humane treatment of illegal aliens in U.S. prisons and a plan to adjust (increase) foreign visa quotas for American employers. 

Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force, proudly announced his bill’s highlights at a recent Capitol Hill rally attended by thousands of immigration advocates. Committed to highlighting the vital contributions that Latino immigrants make to communities and the economy, the task force claims that the only practical and humane solution to the nation’s illegal immigration crisis is to give individuals a chance to come out of the shadows. 

That means passing a law that recognizes the vast contributions of immigrants in this country by giving them an opportunity to earn U.S. citizenship, Gutierrez announced at the rally. This, in turn, will honor the American Dream, assures the eight-term Democrat who frequently boasts about being the Midwest’s first Latino elected to Congress. 

The soon-to-be-introduced Gutierrez bill will also protect the labor rights of illegal immigrant workers who are exploited, allow families to remain together in the U.S. even when several members are in the country illegally and include guidelines for “humane interior enforcement” that creates policies that respect the tenets of community policing. 

Additionally, it will include a controversial and previously defeated measure that grants illegal aliens discounted tuition at public colleges and universities nationwide. In the absence of a federal law, states currently determine whether or not to give illegal immigrants the coveted taxpayer-funded perk but the proposed immigration overhaul will assure all undocumented students get it. 

Currently ten states—including California, New York and Texas—offer illegal immigrants discounted college tuition at public institutions of higher education and Gutierrez believes denying the benefit unjustly punishes innocent immigrant children that instead should be fully integrated into society as the “Americans they truly are.”