Podcasts about Marion Barry

Angela Rye is joined by leaders and members of the Black community in Washington D.C. to discuss Trump’s takeover of the D.C. police, the deployment of the national guard, and his threats toward Black youths. Cora Masters is a political scientist and the forever first lady of D.C, where she logged decades of service, including as leader of the Recreation Wish List Committee. She is the widow of the former D.C. mayor Marion Barry. Tony Lewis Jr. is a D.C. community activist and author of Slugg: A Boy's Life In The Age of Mass Incarceration. Dionne Bussey-Reeder is the CEO of the non-profit Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative based in D.C. Welcome home y’all! —--------- We want to hear from you! Send us a video @nativelandpod and we may feature you on the podcast. Instagram X/Twitter Facebook NativeLandPod.com Watch full episodes of Native Land Pod here on YouTube. Native Land Pod is brought to you by Reasoned Choice Media.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode: The Washington DC Council faces an unprecedented situation as Ward 8 holds a special election on July 15th following the expulsion of Trayon White, the first council member ever removed from office in the district's history. White, who was charged with federal bribery in August after allegedly being caught on video accepting cash envelopes in exchange for steering city contracts, won reelection with roughly ¾'s of the vote in November 2024 before being unanimously expelled by his colleagues. Now running to reclaim his seat against three challengers—advisory neighborhood commissioner Salima Dofo, former mayoral aide Sheila Bunn, and attorney Mike Austin, to name a few—White's potential return creates a complex political dilemma for the council. The situation is further complicated by President Trump's recent threats to take over DC's government and the symbolic significance of Ward 8 as the political base of former mayor Marion Barry. Council members must weigh whether to expel White again if he wins, risking backlash from Ward 8 voters who have twice supported him, while considering the broader implications for federal interference and the district's reputation as White's federal trial looms in January 2026.Catch up on the race: https://news.ballotpedia.org/2025/06/27/seven-candidates-are-running-in-a-special-election-for-ward-8-of-the-washington-d-c-city-council/ Follow our guest's reporting: https://wamu.org/person/alex-koma/ Complete a brief 5 minute survey to review the show and share some feedback: https://forms.gle/zPxYSog5civyvEKX6 Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates Stream "On the Ballot" on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have questions, comments, or love for BP, feel free to reach out at ontheballot@ballotpedia.org or on X (formerly Twitter) @Ballotpedia.*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.

Chuck Todd begins by reacting to the senate passing Trump's signature piece of legislation: “The Big Beautiful Bill.” He reviews the excuses and rationales given by the senators who had expressed issues with the bill but still voted for it, and explains why the fear of Donald Trump's wrath is enough to get lawmakers to fall in line and explains why the bill's passage is emblematic of the broken state of Congress.Then, Chuck is joined by political scientist and Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer to dissect the most pressing geopolitical challenges facing the world today. The discussion begins with analysis of recent Iranian strikes and the Middle East conflict, exploring whether Iran has been exposed as a "paper tiger" and examining the complex dynamics between Trump, Netanyahu, and regional powers like Saudi Arabia. Bremmer offers insights into Iran's domestic vulnerabilities—noting the regime's mere 20% public support—while assessing the likelihood of nuclear developments and potential exit strategies from current conflicts.The conversation expands to cover Trump's relationship with NATO allies, the slowly deteriorating situation in Ukraine, and Putin's potential next moves, including the concerning possibility of nuclear escalation if his regime faces existential threats. Bremmer and Todd also tackle the rise of populist movements globally, the erosion of democratic guardrails in America, and the fundamental shift toward reactionary politics that may define a generation. Throughout, Bremmer provides his characteristic blend of realpolitik analysis and concern for democratic institutions, culminating in a sobering assessment of how America's political system now rewards winners over leaders and creates conditions where "socialists can't beat capitalists, but they can beat kleptocrats."Finally, he answers listeners' questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment regarding the potential for erosion of Trump's support, election denialism and a fun alternate history theory where legendary Bears coach Mike Ditka beat Barack Obama for state office in Illinois.Timeline:(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)00:00 Introduction00:15 90 days from Liberation Day and “90 deals in 90 days”, there are two deals01:30 Trump will back off on tariffs again to avoid economic damage02:30 The Big Beautiful Bill passes the Senate04:15 Josh Hawley votes for bill despite promises not to cut health care06:00 Lisa Murkowski cites tax break expiration for her yes vote08:15 Murkowski has always been Alaska first over America first09:30 Republicans fall in line out of fear of Trump11:00 Congress is broken 13:00 Bipartisanship is dead in the 21st century14:30 Both parties have weaponized partisanship16:15 How do we fix the broken congress?17:30 The public needs to understand WHY congress is broken19:00 Independents could force congress to function better21:00 Bill was rushed due to Trump's impatience22:30 We're in the kleptocracy stage, headed toward authoritarianism24:00 Dysfunction in congress has created a more powerful presidency26:00 Ian Bremmer joins the Chuck ToddCast! 28:00 Media cycle has already moved on from the Iran strike 29:15 The strike wasn't meant to be a war 30:15 Steve Bannon's theory that we're on the brink of WW3 31:45 Trump wanted a negotiated settlement with Iran 33:00 Netanyahu was always going to force the US's hand 34:30 Trump is capable of telling Bibi "no" 36:15 Would Trump support a two state solution? 38:30 Iran has no friends on the global stage willing to support them 40:15 After investigators access Gaza, Israel will lose support 41:45 Saudis will demand a two state solution 43:15 Did we expose Iran as a "paper tiger"? 45:30 The Iranian regime only has 20% support from the public 46:30 Iran's strong enough to put down an uprising 47:30 The U.S. won't put boots on the ground in Iran 49:00 What is Iran's exit strategy from this conflict? 52:00 Iran is likely 3 years away from a bomb 53:15 Iran may be a theocracy, but doesn't act irrationally 54:45 The state of Iraq's leadership? 56:15 Is there global investment in Iraq? 57:15 Status of Trump + NATO? 59:30 Europe underinvested in defense for decades 1:01:15 Pushing Europe to spend more on defense is one of Trump's best achievements 1:02:00 Status of Russia/Ukraine war? 1:03:00 Ukraine is losing slowly 1:04:15 Chances Putin would attack one of the Baltic states? 1:06:15 Putin could use a nuke if he felt his regime was at risk 1:08:15 The rise of left wing populism 1:10:00 American elections will be free and fair, but public won't think so 1:12:00 Guardrails on the executive branch have been weakened 1:13:15 Are we stuck with reactionary politics for a generation? 1:14:45 Trump didn't attend funeral for assassinated Minnesota lawmakers 1:15:45 The U.S. doesn't create leaders, it creates winners 1:18:30 The lack of bipartisanship creates bad legislation 1:19:45 The Big Beautiful Bill will create more Mamdanis 1:20:45 Socialists can't beat capitalists, but they can beat kleptocrats1:23:30 Thoughts on conversation with Ian Bremmer 1:24:00 Mamdani beat Cuomo by double digits in final tally 1:25:30 There will be a fight for the soul of the Democratic party 1:26:15 Ask Chuck 1:26:30 Could Trump's support erode like Marion Barry's? 1:30:30 Election denialism now coming from both sides regularly? 1:36:30 How different would things look if Mike Ditka had beat Obama in Illinois?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comDavid is a historian, a journalist, and an old friend. He was managing editor and acting editor of The New Republic, a history columnist in the early days of Slate, and a contributing editor to Politico Magazine. He's currently a professor of History and of Journalism & Media Studies at Rutgers. The author of many books, including Republic of Spin and Nixon's Shadow, his new one is John Lewis: A Life.For two clips of our convo — on Lewis defending MLK from a sucker-punch by a white thug, and Lewis getting into an ugly political race against a friend — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: David and me in the old TNR days; Rick Hertzberg; Freud's theories on homosexuality; conversion therapy and Bill Kristol's conference on it; how David's new book isn't a hagiography; Lewis' poor upbringing in rural Alabama; his boyhood obsession with books and religion; preaching to chickens; inspired by a radio sermon by MLK; experiencing Jim Crow up-close; respectability politics; the CRA of 1964; Lewis as head of SNCC; getting to know JFK, RFK, and LBJ at a young age; non-violence as a core value; the voting rights campaign in Selma; the violent clash with cops at the bridge; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the Black Power movement; BLM and George Floyd; Lewis' wife giving him the confidence to run for office; Marion Barry; Julian Bond and his cocaine habit; colorism; how Lewis was “shockingly early” to support gay rights; his bond with Bayard Rustin; staying vigilant on voting rights in the 1990s; their evolving nature in the 21st Century; his campaign for the African-American History Museum; skepticism toward the Congressional Black Caucus; the flawed documentary Good Trouble; AOC and Ayanna Pressley; Lewis the Big Tent Democrat; switching his ‘08 support from Hillary to Barack; his viral moments of dancing and crowd-surfing; and keeping his integrity over a long career in politics.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Christine Rosen on humanness in a digital world, Brianna Wu on trans lives and politics, Mary Matalin on anything but politics, Nick Denton, Adam Kirsch on his book On Settler Colonialism, and John Gray on the state of liberal democracy. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Topics 1: Las Vegas Sergeant indicted for fake charges 2: Memphis man in custody after choking K9 and bitting officer 3: Snoop celebrates birthday at wife's strip club 4: Paul George wants reporters out of locker rooms, caught reporter looking at penises 5: Controversial dessert named ‘Marion Barry knots' 6: Sunkee Angel (Aunt T Jackie) Upfront Country Remix

Children's National is out with a new app to help with concussions. Lawyers for Marion Barry and threating to sue &pizza. Thanksgiving Dinner deal from Target.   Make sure to also keep up to date with ALL our podcasts we do below that have new episodes every week:The Thought ShowerLet's Get WeirdCrisis on Infinite Podcasts

We're talking about the new Capital One Arena plans for downtown with the Washington Post's Michael Brice-Saddler, the controversy over a Marion Barry-themed snack, and the new NatGeo Museum of Exploration. Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter Hey DC. You can also become a member, with ad-free listening, for as little as $8 a month.  Learn more about the sponsors of this October 25th episode: Urban Pace Paulson & Nace Make All Votes Count Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A high school principal was caught on video holding up a beer bong for some students at a party...and a pizza place had to remove their tribute to crackhead mayor Marion Barry!

In the 7 AM Hour: Larry O'Connor and Patrice Onwuka discussed: DAY 2 of DNC: The Obamas make their case: Former President Barack Obama said “America is ready for a better story” as he made a forceful case Tuesday night for Kamala Harris as president while slamming her opponent Donald Trump. He followed former first lady Michelle Obama, who declared that “hope is making a comeback.” WMAL GUEST: 7:35 AM - INTERVIEW - CHUCK THIES - (theese) - DC political analyst on the latest Trayon White scandal Trayon White, D.C. councilmember, hit with federal bribery charge D.C. Council to investigate White amid bribery allegations, consider expulsion  In Ward 8, Trayon White's arrest fuels disappointment and suspicion  Trayon White, a Marion Barry protege, faces his own moment of reckoning  Trayon White is no Marion Barry. He's out of step with D.C. Jennifer Lopez files for divorce from Ben Affleck Where to find more about WMAL's morning show:  Follow the Show Podcasts on Apple podcasts, Audible and Spotify. Follow WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" on X: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor,  @Jgunlock, @patricepinkfile, and @heatherhunterdc.  Facebook: WMALDC and Larry O'Connor Instagram: WMALDC Show Website: https://www.wmal.com/oconnor-company/ How to listen live weekdays from 5 to 9 AM: https://www.wmal.com/listenlive/ Episode: Wednesday, August 21, 2024 / 7 AM Hour  O'Connor and Company is proudly presented by Veritas AcademySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

WMAL GUEST: 7:35 AM - INTERVIEW - CHUCK THIES - (theese) - DC political analyst on the latest Trayon White scandal Trayon White, D.C. councilmember, hit with federal bribery charge D.C. Council to investigate White amid bribery allegations, consider expulsion  In Ward 8, Trayon White's arrest fuels disappointment and suspicion  Trayon White, a Marion Barry protege, faces his own moment of reckoning  Trayon White is no Marion Barry. He's out of step with D.C. Where to find more about WMAL's morning show:  Follow the Show Podcasts on Apple podcasts, Audible and Spotify. Follow WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" on X: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor,  @Jgunlock, @patricepinkfile, and @heatherhunterdc.  Facebook: WMALDC and Larry O'Connor Instagram: WMALDC Show Website: https://www.wmal.com/oconnor-company/ How to listen live weekdays from 5 to 9 AM: https://www.wmal.com/listenlive/ Episode: Wednesday, August 21, 2024 / 7 AM Hour  O'Connor and Company is proudly presented by Veritas AcademySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guest Preacher Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika: An examination of what the soul of America might feel like in 2050 given projections that "minorities" will then be the" majority." How will we culturally and spiritually respond to this new multi-cultural democracy populated by people of color and progressive Anglos?  "BABA" DR. MTANGULIZI SANYIKA is a recognized scholar-activist with over 60 years of experience as an activist, planner, professor and researcher. He has been active in many of the major social movements of the 20th century including the Civil Rights, Peace, Ecology, Black consciousness, Black conventions, Pan african, Million Man March and New Independent Politics         During the latter half of the 20th century, he was the National leader of the racial justice movement in the Unitarian- Universalist Church (BUUC and BAC) and led the Exodus(exit) from the church of 1599 Black members over funding disputes and irreconcilable cultural/racial/spiritual differences.  He went on to develop the first modern day concept of "Black Humanism," and assisted in founding the first Black Humanist Fellowship (BHF) in the country. He has taught at 12 universities, such as Harvard, MIT CAL, Dillard, TSU, Starr-King and O.U.T. in Africa.  His disciplines have ranged from Political Science, African World Studies, Urban Planning, Community Development, Participatory/Sustainable Economics to Social Theology. His students included public intellectuals Dr. Cornell West, Theologian Dr. Dwight Hopkins, Atty. Lani Guinier.  Dr. Sanyika has authored 70 articles, studies, commentaries, manuals and critiques, and has authored 4 book chapters. Additionally, Baba has worked with almost all of the major leaders of the Black freedom movement including Dr. King, John Lewis, Marion Barry, Stokeley Carmichael, Shirley Chisholm, Dick Gregory, Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson, Susan Taylor, Amiri Baraka, Barbara Lee and Mayor Richard Hatcher, and many others, He has traveled to all regions of the world (i.e. Africa/Asia/Europe/Caribbean/So Pacific/Central America) and is a frequent speaker or consultant at conferences and events.  His special interest is transmitting his lessons and learnings from his last 8 decades to future leaders and generations in preparation for the multi-cultural democracy of the future..

Civil Rights activist Willie Mukassa Ricks marched with Dr. MLK Jr. and Kwame Ture and was instrumental in the formation of SNCC with John Lewis and Marion Barry. Before Willie Ricks, NY activist Charles Barron will discuss his new activist group Operation Power. Before Charles, Temple University professor Nah Dove will talk about African Heritage Month. Washington, DC activist Dyrell Muhammad will also update us on his crusade to curb the violence in the Districts' public schools. Black History Month: Best In Black Text "DCnews" to 52140 For Local & Exclusive News Sent Directly To You! The Big Show starts on WOLB at 1010 AM, wolbbaltimore.com, WOL 95.9 FM & 1450 AM & woldcnews.com at 6 am ET., 5 am CT., 3 am PT., and 11 am BST. Call-In # 800 450 7876 to participate, & listen liveSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This day, January 19th, 1990, at the end of a joint sting operation by FBI agents and District of Columbia Police, DC Mayor Marion Barry is arrested and charged with drug possession for the use of crack cocaine. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the video of the incident went viral, led to an onslaught of scandal and punchlines about Barry — but never fully eroded DC resident's support for their beloved mayor. Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch! Find out more at thisdaypod.com This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Welcome back to GreyCast! In today's episode, we have a special guest joining us, the renowned entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and political activist, Don Peebles. We dive into a fascinating conversation with Don about his incredible real estate journey and groundbreaking achievements in the industry. From his transformative projects in major cities across the country to his advocacy for diversity and inclusion, Don has truly made his mark. Join us as we explore his inspiring story, the challenges he's faced, and his vision for a more equitable future in real estate.TakeawaysBreaking Barriers in NYC Real EstateInfluence of Diverse MentorsTackling Capital Access for Black EntrepreneursExploring Don Peebles' Multifaceted CareerMarion Barry's Minority Contracting LegacyFrom Political Passion to Real Estate PioneerLaunching a Fund for Office Buildings and Access to CapitalQuotes"Real estate is not just about buildings and developments, it's about transforming communities and creating economic opportunities for all." - Don Peebles"We need to shift the conversation around diversity from philanthropy to economic opportunity. It's not just the right thing to do, it's also a smart business move." - Don PeeblesFeatured in this EpisodeDon PeeblesChairman & CEO of The Peebles CompanyLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-peebles-0767769/Chapters00:00 - Introduction05:31 - Shaping Don Peebles' Path to Entrepreneurship08:48 - Marion Barry's Campaign: A Youthful Bet on Radical Change11:30 - Thriving in the Real Estate Market During the 1980s34:51 - Mayoral Visions: Atlanta & DC Entrepreneurship39:10 - Beyond Basketball to Real Estate Ventures49:45 - Scaling Success in Real Estate57:29 - Real Estate Essentials: Supply and Demand01:04:20 - Guided by Values: Family, Mentors, & Business01:12:20 - Equity in Capital for Black Entrepreneurs01:20:01 - OutroProduced by Heartcast Mediawww.heartcastmedia.com

Our guest is Shahan Mufti's, who's new book, American Caliph, recounts an event that's been lost to history-- the March 9th, 1977 Hanafi Muslim siege in Washington, D.C. That day, three buildings in Washington, D.C. were seized by 12 Hanafi Movement gunmen and were held for two days. The group took 149 hostages, killed a young radio reporter named Maurice Williams, and shot then-councilman and future Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry. Mr. Mufti describes the background of the group's leader, Hamas Abdul Khaalis, the blood feud between him and the Nation of Islam, a movie about the prophet Muhammed that fueled the hostage-taking, and the tense negotiations that ultimately ended the siege. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest is Shahan Mufti's, who's new book, American Caliph, recounts an event that's been lost to history-- the March 9th, 1977 Hanafi Muslim siege in Washington, D.C. That day, three buildings in Washington, D.C. were seized by 12 Hanafi Movement gunmen and were held for two days. The group took 149 hostages, killed a young radio reporter named Maurice Williams, and shot then-councilman and future Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry. Mr. Mufti describes the background of the group's leader, Hamas Abdul Khaalis, the blood feud between him and the Nation of Islam, a movie about the prophet Muhammed that fueled the hostage-taking, and the tense negotiations that ultimately ended the siege. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest is Shahan Mufti's, who's new book, American Caliph, recounts an event that's been lost to history-- the March 9th, 1977 Hanafi Muslim siege in Washington, D.C. That day, three buildings in Washington, D.C. were seized by 12 Hanafi Movement gunmen and were held for two days. The group took 149 hostages, killed a young radio reporter named Maurice Williams, and shot then-councilman and future Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry. Mr. Mufti describes the background of the group's leader, Hamas Abdul Khaalis, the blood feud between him and the Nation of Islam, a movie about the prophet Muhammed that fueled the hostage-taking, and the tense negotiations that ultimately ended the siege. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Came thru to talk about comedy and his upcoming biopic playing as Marion Barry

BANG! @southernvangard #radio Ep365! Summer is here in the A and your guys Doe and Meeks are very happy. Crack open the Hamm's and let's get busy! We have TWO WORLD EXCLUSIVES this week, Vangardians: First up - NAPOLEON DA LEGEND, J SCIENIDE and our own DJ JON DOE with “LUXURIOUS APARTHEID”, which drops this Friday 6/9. This is the first single from their upcoming album “GOAT VS. SHEEP.” Right behind it is the 2nd single from the SPEAKER BULLIES (SUPASTITION X PRAISE) upcoming album. This cut features the incomparable SKYZOO, and drops 6/16. Cop both of these heat rocks when they drop. Other than that, it's that uncut raw ish, it's that Smithsonian Grade ish, it's that Memphis meets Glasgow ish and it's that YOU WAAAAALCOME!!!!! #SmithsonianGrade #WeAreTheGard // southernvangard.com // @southernvangard on all platforms #undergroundhiphop #boombap #DJ #mixshow #interview #podcast #ATL #WORLDWIDE #RIPCOMBATJACK ----- Recorded live June 4, 2023 @ Dirty Blanket Studios, Marietta, GA southernvangard.com @southernvangard on all platforms #SmithsonianGrade #WeAreTheGard twitter/IG: @southernvangard @jondoeatl @cappuccinomeeks ----- "Round N Round" - Talk Break Inst. - Es-K & Type.Raw "Summer School" - DOECINO (DJ Jon Doe & Cappucino Meeks) "Luxurious Apartheid" - Napoleon Da Legend X J Scienide ft. DJ Jon Doe ** WORLD EXCLUSIVE ** "Godspeed" - Speaker Bullies (Supastition X Praise) ft. Skyzoo ** WORLD EXCLUSIVE ** "Fruit" - Dex (prod. Praise) "I'm Coolin'" - Spoda x VStheBest215 "Nice Weather" - Termanology Talk Break Inst. - "About Me" - Es-K & Type.Raw "Sitting Duck" - J Scienide ft. Damu The Fudgemunk "We Can Do That" - Verbz, Nelson Dialect & Mr Slipz "Big Foot" - Squeegie O "Marion Barry" - The Architect ft. Mickey Diamond & Cochise MC "C-H-O-P" - Tone Chop & Frost Gamble "Window Pain" - Termanology ft. Reks "Midnight Express" - Maze Overlay & Sadhugold ft. Snotty Talk Break Inst. - "M.V.P." - Es-K & Type.Raw "DOECINO" - DOECINO (DJ Jon Doe & Cappucino Meeks) "Preemo On Drugs" - Al-Doe & Spanish Ran "Casket Suit" - Bub Styles x Retrospec ft. $auce Heist & Dot Demo "Gadzooks! (Em Eff Yoom)" - Eff Yoo x Level 13 "Stockholm Syndrome" - Lord Juco & Finn ft. Ty Da Dale "Methadone" - Rufus Sims "Summers Eden" - Let The Dirt Say Amen, Sean Born, Damo Hicks "Change My Mind" - Domo Genesis & Graymatter Talk Break Inst. - "Nobody Better" - Es-K & Type.Raw ** TWITCH ONLY SET ** "Tha Realness" - Group Home (prod. DJ Premier) "Brownsville" - M.O.P. (prod. DJ Premier) "The Game" - Pete Rock ft. Raekwon, Prodigy, Ghostface Killah

We examine the alleged relationship between drugs lords and some Nigerian power players …….did we say alleged? Well just in case we didn't, allegedly. This week is a rerun of one of out most played episodes on The Dirty Lie Podcast; it has politics, drugs, and corruption. Did a Nigerian lawmaker's (alleged) criminal empire inspire Netflix's first blockbuster, Orange is the New Black?  Were Nigerian lawmakers caught with their pants down on an official trip to the United States? And which Nigerian woman inspired the US Drug Enforcement Agency to work with multiple countries in a bid to bring down her heroin empire?    This Weeks figures: Senator Buruji Kashamu, James F. Entwistle, Marion Barry. 

It's official: the city is moving ahead with changing the name of Good Hope Road in Southeast to Marion Barry Avenue SE, to honor D.C.'s Mayor for Life. But is this a good idea? Performative nonsense? Both? Cohosts Bridget Todd and Michael Schaffer spent some time breaking it down.  Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter. We're also on Twitter! Follow us at @citycast_dc. And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 2026422654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Historia Obscura: how a once well-respected civil rights leader experienced one of the greatest falls from grace in American political history. Special thanks to Patreon subscribers Barbara, Lisa Chase, and Tom! Subscribe to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historiaobscura! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/historiaobscura/message

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) starts her third term this week -- the only person since the late Marion Barry to be elected District mayor for three consecutive terms. One of her priorities: bringing 15,000 new residents to downtown D.C. in the next five years. Kojo and Tom talk with Bowser about her economic vision for the city. Plus, we talk about the future of the D.C. Housing Authority, which operates the city's public housing. And we ask how Bowser will approach public safety in 2023, the new deputy mayor for public safety, and what concerns she has about the revised D.C. Criminal Code.

2022 is finally coming to a close. But before we launch into the new year, let's reflect on the year that was. In Maryland, a historic election landed Wes Moore (D) in the governor's mansion. And for the county councils in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, the elections led to shakeups in leadership. Over in Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is wrapping up his first year in office, which wasn't without controversy. His administration introduced a set of school policies that would restrict the rights of transgender students. We'll also talk about his recent budget, which includes tax cuts, revamping Virginia's mental health system, and hiring more teachers, nurses, and law enforcement. Even though he wasn't on the ballot, Youngkin spent time campaigning for Republican candidates elsewhere in the U.S -- candidates who were largely unsuccessful. And the "red wave" didn't materialize in the commonwealth, as Democrats held on to two of the three competitive seats. The D.C. Council will look a little different next year, following the departure of longtime Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh (D) and At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman (I), who was defeated by her colleague Kenyan McDuffie (D). And D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) held onto her seat, the first District mayor to win three consecutive terms since Marion Barry. Kojo and Tom talk with a panel of journalists about the big political stories of the past year in our region, and what they'll be watching for in 2023.

Our guest is Shahan Mufti's, who's new book, American Caliph, recounts an event that's been lost to history-- the March 9th, 1977 Hanafi Muslim siege in Washington, D.C. That day, three buildings in Washington, D.C. were seized by 12 Hanafi Movement gunmen and were held for two days. The group took 149 hostages, killed a young radio reporter named Maurice Williams, and shot then-councilman and future Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry. Mr. Mufti describes the background of the group's leader, Hamas Abdul Khaalis, the blood feud between him and the Nation of Islam, a movie about the prophet Muhammed that fueled the hostage-taking, and the tense negotiations that ultimately ended the siege. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's a plan to rename Good Hope Road after Marion Barry. Is this a good idea? Performative nonsense? Both? Cohosts Bridget Todd and Michael Schaffer spent some time breaking it down.  Subscribe to our morning newsletter for more news and events (like the public hearing about Marion Barry Ave., happening on Tuesday). Those who wish to testify must register at http://www.ChairmanMendelson.com/testify by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 9, 2022. We're also on Twitter! Follow us at @citycast_dc. And we'd love to feature you on the show! Share your DC-related thoughts, hopes, and frustrations with us in a voicemail by calling 2026422654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Home Rule Act" was passed by Congress in favor of the District of Columbia, composed by election of 1 Mayor and 13 Councilmembers, the majority of mayors have been men, and only 2 women, the first was Sharon Pratt in 1991, and the second Muriel Bowser the current mayor who has been the first woman to be re-elected, and she won her second re-election in the 2022 midterm general election, with more than 74.%, according to the current results of the DC board of election, this It had happened only once in the city with Marion Barry in 1986, who has been the only one to serve 4 terms in the so-called "CHOCOLATE CITY", where all the mayors have been black people. Mayor Bowser has empathy for DC residents because she has worked hard for good progress in the city and she is a worthy representative of women, especially black women in United States politics. I feel very proud of her. (60-second story) “HOME RULE ACT” The Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of local government established by the “District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973”, enacted by CONGRESS, and ratified by District voters. The Council is composed of a chairman elected at large and twelve Members–four of whom are elected at large, and one from each of the district's eight wards. A Member is elected to serve a four-year term. Finally, in 1973, the Home Rule Act passed in Congress, and District residents approved it in a special referendum the next year. In a historic leap for greater self-determination, District citizens elected a Mayor and Council in the fall of 1974. Voters also approved the election of Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners who represent every 2,000 residents to advise the Council on neighborhood concerns. Citizens embraced the new Home Rule government as more representative of the local citizenry and more responsive to their needs. The powers and duties of the Council are comparable to those held by the state, county, and city legislatures, including the authority to adopt laws and to approve the District's annual budget submitted by the Mayor. As the legislature, the Council is a co-equal branch of government and is part of a system of checks and balances similar to any other state government. When the Office of Mayor is vacant, the Chairman of the Council becomes the Acting Mayor. (1) Source: 1 https://dccouncil.gov/dc-home-rule/

In March 1977, a group of Hanafi Muslim gunmen took 149 people hostage in Washington, D.C. Marion Barry was shot. A Howard journalist was killed. But today, almost no one remembers the siege. With a big new book that drops today and has already drawn rave reviews, author Shahan Mufti is out to change that. You can find Mufti's book, American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, DC here. Want some more DC news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter. Also, follow us at @citycast_dc. And we're collecting New Year's resolutions for D.C.! How would you like to see the city change and improve? Leave us a voicemail by calling 202-642-2654. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

   Days before they will call the first regular season NFL game on Amazon Prime, Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit joined the pod this week to discuss their plan for calling games on the streaming service and how they've approached their partnership. The two also discuss the free agent frenzy that hit NFL announcers in the off season; Michaels talks about how he will decide when to hang up his announcer's microphone; and Herbstreit offers his two cents on Big Ten expansion. Other topics: Michaels' disdain for vegetables and Herbstreit's travel schedule to Boone, N.C.    Marchand and Ourand also discuss ESPN's future, what to expect from Amazon's first game and a review of Week 1 on television. The two also make their weekly picks about Who's Up, Who's Down and Call of the Week.    Mentioned this week: Ian Eagle, Chris Russo, Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Chris Finnegan, Pat McAfee, Brad Marchand, Jimmy Pitaro, Bob Chapek, Urban Meyer, Jac Collinsworth, Maria Taylor, Mike Tirico, Tim of Shelbyville, Tenn., Rick Mace, Jonathan Tannenwald, Brian Roberts, Charlie Ergen, Rob Thun, Brian Rolapp, Hans Schroeder, Michael Nathanson, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Robert Seidman, Marion Barry, Steve Levy, Louis Riddick, Dan Orlovsky, Darren Rovell, Joel McHale, Shannon Sharpe, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Chris LaPlaca, Jay Marine, Marie Donoghue, Fred Gaudelli, Jared Stacy, Tripp Mickle, Jeff Bezos, Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Justin Reid, Eric Reid, Cris Collinsworth, Marty Brennaman, Wayne Lucas, Mario Cristobal, Jimbo Fisher, Mack Brown, Michael Smith, Bob Kraft, Michele Tafoya, Jay Michaels, Lila Roginsky, Dr. Spock, Michael Kay, Ian Eagle, Jo Ann Ross, Acie Wyatt, Chris Mason   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did a Nigerian lawmaker's (alleged) criminal empire inspire Netflix's first blockbuster, Orange is the New Black?  Were Nigerian lawmakers caught with their pants down on an official trip to the United States? And which Nigerian woman inspired the US Drug Enforcement Agency to work with multiple countries in a bid to bring down their heroin empire?  This week on The Dirty Lie Podcast; politics, drugs, and corruption. We examine the alleged relationship between drugs lords and some Nigerian power players …….did we say alleged? Well just in case we didn't, allegedly.   This Weeks figures: Senator Buruji Kashamu, James F. Entwistle, Marion Barry.   

In episode twelve of COVID and Chemo, we're rooting for one DC Mayor Marion Barry (1936-2014), who once said iconically and non-ironically “I be winning.” Four terms as DC mayor, one shooting, a crack cocaine incident, one infamous set up, and countless comebacks later, this man STAY winning. Younguns take note. #ibewinning

www.patreon.com/accidentaldads for bonus content and to support the show AND The Save The Music Foundation!   Top police stings   A sting operation is a deceitful operation used by law enforcement to apprehend criminals in the act of trying to commit a crime. In order to obtain proof of a suspect's misconduct, a typical sting involves an undercover law enforcement officer, investigator, or cooperative member of the public acting as a criminal partner or prospective victim and cooperating with a suspect's activities. Journalists for the mass media occasionally use sting operations to film and disseminate footage of illegal conduct.   Sting procedures are prevalent in many nations, including the United States, but are prohibited in others, like Sweden and France. Certain sting operations are prohibited, such as those carried out in the Philippines where it is against the law for police enforcement to act as drug traffickers in order to catch purchasers of illegal substances.   Examples   Offering free sports or airline tickets to lure fugitives out of hiding. Deploying a bait car (also called a honey trap) to catch a car thief Setting up a seemingly vulnerable honeypot computer to lure and gain information about hackers Arranging for someone under the legal drinking age to ask an adult to buy an alcoholic beverage or tobacco products for them Passing off weapons or explosives (whether fake or real), to a would-be terrorist Posing as: someone who is seeking illegal drugs, contraband, or child pornography, to catch a supplier (or as a supplier to catch a customer) a child in a chat room to identify a potential online child predator a potential customer of illegal prostitution, or as a prostitute to catch a would-be customer a hitman to catch customers and solicitors of murder-for-hire; or as a customer to catch a hitman a spectator of an illegal dogfighting ring a documentary film crew to lure a pirate to the country where a crime was committed.   Whether sting operations constitute entrapment raises ethical questions. Law enforcement might have to be careful not to incite someone who wouldn't have otherwise committed a crime to do so. Additionally, while conducting such operations, the police frequently commit the same crimes, like purchasing or selling narcotics, enticing prostitutes, etc. The defendant may raise the entrapment defense in common law jurisdictions.   Contrary to common belief, however, laws against entrapment do not forbid undercover police personnel from pretending to be criminals or deny that they are police officers. Entrapment is normally only a defense when suspects are coerced into confessing to a crime they probably would not have otherwise committed. However, the legal meaning of this coercion differs widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Entrapment might be used as a defense, for instance, if undercover agents forced a possible suspect to manufacture illicit narcotics in order to sell them. Entrapment has often not taken place if a suspect is already producing narcotics and authorities pretend as purchasers to apprehend them.   Operation Entebbe The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commandos successfully carried out Operation Entebbe or Operation Thunderbolt, a counterterrorism hostage-rescue mission, at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976. A week earlier, on June 27, two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations (PFLP-EO) (who had previously split from the PFLP of George Habash) and two members of the German Revolutionary Cells hijacked an Air France Airbus A300 jet airliner carrying 248 passengers. The declared goal of the hijackers was to trade the hostages for the release of 13 detainees in four other countries and the release of 40 Palestinian terrorists and related prisoners who were detained in Israel. The flight, which had left Tel Aviv for Paris, was rerouted after a stopover in Athens through Benghazi to Entebbe, the country of Uganda's principal airport. The ruler Idi Amin, who had been made aware of the hijacking from the start[10], encouraged the hijackers and personally greeted them. The hijackers confined all Israelis and a few non-Israeli Jews into a separate room after transferring all captives from the plane to a deserted airport facility.  148 captives who were not Israelis were freed and taken to Paris over the course of the next two days. Ninety-four passengers—mostly Israelis—and the 12-person Air France crew were held captive and threatened with execution.  Based on information from the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, the IDF took action. If the demands for the release of the prisoners were not granted, the hijackers threatened to murder the hostages. The preparation of the rescue effort was prompted by this threat. These strategies included getting ready for armed opposition from the Uganda Army. It was a nighttime operation. For the rescue mission, Israeli transport planes flew 100 commandos to Uganda over a distance of 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles). The operation took 90 minutes to complete after a week of planning. Out of the 106 captives still held, 102 were freed, and three were murdered. In a hospital, the second captive was later slain. Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, the unit leader, was one of the five injured Israeli commandos. Netanyahu was Benjamin Netanyahu's elder sibling and the future Israeli prime minister. Eleven Soviet-built MiG-17s and MiG-21s of the Ugandan air force were destroyed, and all five hijackers and forty-five Ugandan troops were killed. Idi Amin gave the command to attack and kill Kenyans living in Uganda after the operation because Kenyan sources supported Israel. 245 Kenyans in Uganda were killed as a consequence, and 3,000 left the nation. In honor of Yonatan Netanyahu, the commander of the force, Operation Entebbe, which had the military codename Operation Thunderbolt, is occasionally referred to retroactively as Operation Jonathan.   Operation Valkyrie Senior Nazi military officers and Adolf Hitler convened in the Wolf's Lair in Rastenburg, Eastern Prussia, on July 20, 1944. Hitler's body was discovered scattered across the table as the Nazi military chiefs sat down to plan troop deployments on the Eastern Front when an explosion burst through the steamy meeting room. With the Führer's death, the Nazi threat to Europe could have been lifted. or so it seems at first.   Claus von Stauffenberg and his accomplices believed they had turned the course of World War II and maybe saved thousands of extra lives for a brief period of time in history. The July Plot, also known as Operation Valkyrie, was the most famous attempt to have Hitler killed, although it was ultimately unsuccessful for a variety of reasons, some of which are still unknown to this day. The July Plot Is Hatched Many Germans, including some of the country's top military figures, had begun to lose faith in Germany's ability to win the war by the summer of 1944. Hitler was widely held responsible for ruining Germany. The Wolfsschanze was one of Hitler's military headquarters. A number of prominent politicians and senior military figures devised a plan to murder the Führer by detonating a bomb at a conference there in order to spark political unification and a coup. Operation Valkyrie was the name of the strategy. The plan was that after Hitler's death, the military would assert that the murder was the result of a Nazi Party coup attempt, and the Reserve Army would take significant buildings in Berlin and detain senior Nazi figures. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler would become Germany's new chancellor, and Ludwig Beck would become its first president. The new administration wanted to negotiate a peaceful conclusion to the war, ideally with benefits for Germany. The main conspirators' motives varied, according to Philipp Freiherr Von Boeselager, one of the last remaining participants in the July Plot. Many of them only saw it as a means of avoiding military defeat, while others hoped to at least partially restore some of the nation's morals. They chose Claus von Stauffenberg, a young colonel in the German army, to carry out the assassination. Despite not being a member of the Nazi party in the traditional sense, Stauffenberg was a devoted German patriot. In the end, he came to think that if Germany was to be saved, it was his patriotic duty to expel Adolf Hitler. Hitler, though, had experienced assassination attempts before. Assassination attempts against Hitler had been more frequent since his spectacular ascent to the top of Germany's political scene in the late 1930s. Hitler, who was becoming more and more paranoid, frequently altered his plans without warning and at the last minute. What Went Wrong Stauffenberg entered the bunker at Wolfsschanze on July 20, 1944. The conference was planned to take place in a concrete, windowless subterranean bunker that was closed off by a large steel door. By making sure it happened within one of these facilities, the detonation would be confined and anyone nearby the explosive device would die quickly from the shrapnel. The conference was moved to an above-ground wooden bunker with better air circulation on July 20 due to the oppressively hot weather, according to Pierre Galante's Operation Valkyrie: The German Generals' Plot Against Hitler. Numerous windows, a wooden table, and other beautiful furniture were all present in the area, which meant that the potential explosion would be much diminished since the energy of the blast would be absorbed and diffused. Stauffenberg was aware that this was the case, but he nonetheless proceeded, assuming that two explosives would be sufficient to destroy the room and kill everyone within. Stauffenberg excused himself when he arrived, saying that he needed to change his clothing, and went to a private room. The two explosives needed to be armed and primed. However, he only had time to arm one of the two devices due to an unexpected phone call and a quick knock at his door. Thus, the possibility of a greater blast was cut in half. Stauffenberg realized that in order to cause any kind of harm, the explosive device needed to be placed as near to Hitler as possible. He was able to get a seat as near to Hitler as possible with only one other person between them by claiming that his hearing was impaired due to his wounds. Placing the bag as near to Hitler as possible, Stauffenberg then left the room pretending to take a personal call. The briefcase was accidentally shifted to the opposite side of a large wooden leg that was supporting the meeting room table as another official was taking a seat. The Aftermath Panic broke out after the device exploded at precisely 12:42 pm. Twenty individuals were hurt, including three cops who subsequently died from their injuries, and a stenographer was instantaneously murdered. Stauffenberg and his assistant Werner von Haeften leapt into a staff car and bluffed their way past three different military checkpoints to flee the mayhem at the Wolfsschanze complex because they believed that Hitler was indeed dead. Hitler, however, along with everyone else who was protected by the large wooden table leg, only suffered a few minor cuts and an eardrum perforation. He had fully torn-up pants, and the Nazi leadership would subsequently utilize pictures of them in a propaganda effort. Ian Kershaw, a historian, claims that during the explosion, contradictory news concerning Hitler's fate came. In spite of the disarray, the Reserve Army started detaining senior Nazi officials in Berlin. The entire scheme, however, was eventually thwarted by delays, unclear communication, and the announcement that Hitler was still alive. The conspirators were all given the death penalty in a hastily called court martial the same evening by General Friedrich Fromm. In the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, a makeshift firing squad murdered Stauffenberg, von Haeften, Olbricht, and another officer, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, while Ludwig Beck committed himself. At Berlin's Plötzensee jail, Berthold Stauffenberg was gently strangled while the incident was being recorded for Hitler to see. Hitler's life was ultimately saved that day by a number of interrelated reasons, but the conspirators were right that Germany was headed for disaster. Less than a year later, the Nazi leader and his closest advisers committed suicide. Operation Iceman Ever wonder what its like working undercover with an alleged murderer? Well, let's just say it's not hard to get a stuffy nose around this case… In fact, serial killer Richard Kuklinski's preferred method of murder involved using a nasal spray bottle to spritz cyanide into the faces of his victims. As a result, undercover agent Dominick Polifrone was never more on guard than during the 18 months he spent building a case against the so-called Iceman. “No matter where I went with him, I wore this leather jacket with a pocket sewn inside containing a small-caliber weapon,” recalls Polifrone, who gained his target's confidence and taped dozens of their conversations. “I knew that I was somewhere on his hit list. If he'd pulled out that nasal spray, I'd have to protect myself.” The streetwise New Jersey officer acquired enough proof before Kuklinski had suspicions, preventing that situation from occurring. Finally, the enormous 6-foot-4 gangland killer was apprehended thanks to his evidence. “I've met hundreds of bad guys, but Kuklinski was a totally different type of individual,” he tells The Post. “He was coldhearted — ice-cold like the devil. He had no remorse about anything.”  Kuklinski was captured by Polifrone in a combined operation between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and the office of the New Jersey attorney general. The criminal, who was a leading suspect in the murder of a mobster whose body was found two years after his disappearance, was posing as a respectable businessman residing in suburban Dumont, New Jersey. The reason the medical examiners discovered ice in the muscle tissue was because Kuklinski, who earned his notoriety for frequently freezing the bodies of his victims and then defrosting them, erred that time. Police made an indirect connection between the deceased man and Kuklinski, who was charged with a number of previous homicides.  “We had to get something nobody knew,” recalls Polifrone. The sting only appears briefly on screen in the film. In order to gain Kuklinski's trust, Polifrone, a resident of Hackensack, New Jersey, pretended to be a "bad person" for a whole year and a half. They met in parks and rest areas along highways and discussed the horrific killings Kuklinski had carried out, including a Mafia hit in Detroit for which he was paid $65,000. Additionally, there were "statement killings." To put a dead canary in the mouth of a victim as a warning to other victims, one mafia leader paid him extra. Another occasion, Kuklinski made light of the fact that he saw a gang member consume an entire cheeseburger laced with cyanide before passing away while joking with Polifrone. Recalls the cop: “He told me that cyanide normally works real quick and easy, but that ‘this guy has the constitution of a God damn ox, and is just eating and eating.  “He said he almost ate the whole burger and then, bam, he's down!” Polifrone knew exactly how to play his role. “I laughed, of course,” he shrugs. “That's what bad guys do.”  Paradoxically, Kuklinski was a committed family man. He led a Jekyll-and-Hyde existence.  “He never socialized, gambled or messed around with other women,” adds Polifrone. “He lived for his wife and kids.” One minute he'd be repairing his daughters' toys, the next, dismembering a body with a chain saw and stuffing it into an oil drum. “He would come home and completely shut off this murderous component and seek security and love from his family,” says “Iceman” director Vromen. “He fulfilled the need to provide for them by killing.” Polifrone finally nailed Kuklinski after tricking him into buying what he thought was pure cyanide. A team of feds and ATF officers arrested him in December 1986. Twenty-eight years later, he reflects on the man who died, apparently of natural causes, in Trenton Prison in 2006 at age 70. Eyebrows were raised because he was due to appear as a witness at the trial of a Gambino family underboss. “I hope he died a slow death because of what he did to families and individuals,” concludes Polifrone. “He had no mercy. And if it was foul play, that's OK with me.” So let's talk about some controversial sting operations you may or may not have heard of.   ACORN Sting   Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is known as ACORN. ACORN was a group of neighborhood-based organizations in the US that supported low- and middle-income families. They also offered details on affordable housing and voter registration. James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, two young conservative activists, published recordings that had been edited with care in 2009. The two pretended to be a pimp and a prostitute before using a hidden camera to get unflattering answers from ACORN workers that seemed to give them advice on how to hide their prostitution business and avoid paying taxes.The plea for assistance in obtaining funding for a brothel didn't appear to deter the ACORN employees either. This sparked a national debate and led to a reduction in financing from public and private sources. ACORN declared on March 22, 2010, that it was disbanding and shutting all of its connected state chapters as a result of declining funding. Interesting fact: On January 25, 2010, James O'Keefe and three other people were detained on felony charges for allegedly tampering with the phones at Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans. O'Keefe stated that he was looking into claims that Landrieu's staff had dismissed constituent phone calls over the health care issue. O'Keefe recorded the action as they pretended to be telephone repairmen.In the end, they were accused with breaking into a government building under false pretenses, a misdemeanor. Following his admission of guilt, O'Keefe received a three-year probationary period, 100 hours of community service, and a $1,500 fine.   Operation West End The largest undercover news story in Indian journalism has been described like this. In order to expose the alleged culture of bribery inside the Indian Ministry of Defense, a well-known newspaper from India by the name of Tehelka—which translates as "sensation" in Hindi—started its first significant undercover operation, "Operation West End" in 2001. Two reporters from the publication pretended to be London-based armaments dealers from a fake firm. In the undercover film, numerous politicians and defense officials are shown discussing and accepting bribes in exchange for assisting them in obtaining government contracts, including Bangaru Laxman, secretary of the ruling BJP party. Laxman and Military Minister George Fernandes (shown above) resigned following the release of the tapes, and a number of other defense ministry employees were placed on administrative leave.   Interesting Fact: Instead of initially acting on the evidence from the sting operation, the Indian government accused the newspaper of fabricating the allegations. The main financial backers of Tehelka were made targets of investigations, and the newspaper company was almost ruined. In 2003, Tehelka was re-launched as a weekly newspaper, and was funded by faithful subscribers and other well-wishers. In 2007, Tehelka shifted to a regular magazine format.   Senator Larry Craig On June 11, 2007, an undercover police officer conducting a sting operation targeting males cruising for sex at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport detained Idaho Senator Larry Craig. Sgt. Dave Karsnia, the arresting officer, claimed that just after noon, the suspect entered a restroom and shut the door. Craig then moved into the stall next to him and propped his suitcase up against the stall door's front. By obscuring the front view, this is frequently done in an effort to hide sexual activity. Several minutes later, the officer claimed to have noticed Craig looking into his stall through a gap, tapping his right foot repeatedly, then moving it till it brushed Karsnia's. Craig then passed his hand under the stall divider into Karsnia's stall with his palm up and guided it along the divider toward the front of the stall three times. Karsnia then waved his badge back, to which the senator responded, “No!” The senator pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a fine, but changed his mind after word of his arrest later became public. Craig claimed he just had a “wide stance”, and he only pleaded guilty to avoid a spectacle.An appeals court rejected his request to change his mind about entering a guilty plea. Craig completed his time in the Senate but was unable to have his case dismissed by the Senate Ethics Committee. Craig departed office on January 3, 2009, having not to run for reelection in 2008. Fascinating Fact: Soon after Craig was arrested, the men's room started to resemble a tourist destination, with people coming to seek directions and take photographs. Even restroom tissue may be purchased on eBay. Listen to the conversation between Senator Craig and Sgt. Karsnia immediately following the arrest here.   7 Sarah Ferguson was victimized by Mazher Mahmood, a reporter for the tabloid daily "News of the World," in May 2010. In order to set up a meeting with Ferguson, Mahmood pretended to be a wealthy international businessman. The Duchess, who was discreetly recorded throughout the encounter, offered to connect the "tycoon" with Prince Andrew's influential inner circle. "500,000 pounds when you can, to me, open doors," Sarah Ferguson is heard saying on the video. She may also be seen removing a briefcase that is holding $40,000 in cash. After the event was reported, Ferguson's spokesman claimed she was both "devastated" and "regretful." She said that she had been drinking before asking for the money and was "in the gutter at that point" in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Mazher Mahmood, the guy who pretended to be the tycoon, is referred to as the "Fake Sheikh" and has conned several famous people. No one is certain if that is his true name or what his real history is since he likes to make things as mysterious as possible. The journalist denies ever allowing his face to appear in any of his pieces and claims to have received several death threats. He also avoids public appearances.   Bait Cars The Minneapolis Police Department employed the first bait cars in the 1990s. The largest bait car fleet in North America is now situated in Surrey, British Columbia, which is widely regarded as the continent's "auto theft capital." The cars are carefully modified, equipped with GPS tracking equipment, audio/video surveillance, and an engine-disabling remote control. It has helped to lower car theft by 47% when it was introduced in Surrey, British Columbia, in 2004. In one of the more contentious bait vehicle stings, a lady was murdered nearly instantaneously after a robber driving a bait car drove into her in Dallas, Texas, in 2008. To resolve the litigation, $245,000 was given to the victim's family. Fact: The key to determining whether police are utilizing a bait car improperly and would result in entrapment is if they left it in a way that would tempt someone who would not ordinarily commit a crime. Here, you can view one of the more eye-catching (to put it mildly) bait vehicle stings. Many others will undoubtedly have the same thoughts as I had. “Where the heck was the kill switch?”   Marion Barry A well-known politician and former mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry. Police were going to conduct an undercover narcotics transaction with former Virgin Islands official Charles Lewis on December 22, 1988, but they were turned back when they discovered Mayor Marion Barry was in Lewis's hotel room. This prompted a grand jury inquiry into potential mayor meddling in the narcotics probe. Barry testified for three hours in front of the grand jury before telling reporters he had done nothing wrong. Then, on January 18, 1990, Barry was arrested in a Washington, D.C. hotel after using crack cocaine in a room with his former girlfriend, who had turned informant for the FBI. This was the result of a sting operation put up by the FBI and D.C. Police. Barry said the now-famous phrase, "Bitch set me up," which has come to be linked with him. Following his arrest and subsequent trial, Barry made the decision not to run for mayor again. He was charged with 14 charges by a grand jury, including suspected grand jury perjury. The mayor could have spent 26 years in prison if found guilty on all 14 counts. Barry was only given a six-month prison term after the jury found him guilty of using cocaine. Barry campaigned for municipal council after being let out of prison. He garnered 70% of the vote due to his widespread popularity and the perception held by many that Marion Barry was the target of a political witch hunt by the government. Then, in 1995, Barry won a fourth term as mayor of Washington, D.C. Barry is currently back in his position on the D.C. city council. Regardless of your opinion on Marion Barry, you have to respect his perseverance and drive to help the people of Washington, D.C. The aforementioned occurrence is only a small portion of his remarkable life. A documentary titled "The Nine Lives of Marion Barry" was produced by HBO.    Joran Van der Sloot Dutch national Joran Van der Sloot is a key suspect in the case of Natalee Holloway, who vanished on May 30, 2005, while traveling to Aruba to celebrate her high school graduation. On March 29, 2010, Van der Sloot got in touch with Beth Twitty Holloway's mother's attorney John Q. Kelly, reviving the case. Van der Sloot promised to provide details about Holloway's demise and the whereabouts of her remains in exchange for a total of $250,000 with a $25,000 down payment. After Kelly and Twitty made contact with Alabama law enforcement, the FBI launched a sting operation. On May 10, Van der Sloot accepted a wire transfer of $15,000 to his Dutch bank account along with an additional cash payment of $10,000. He drove Kelly to the location of Holloway's remains in exchange for the cash. He indicated a home, saying that his father had assisted in burying the body in the foundation. The home had not yet been constructed when Holloway vanished, therefore this turned out to be untrue. Later, Van der Sloot informed Kelly through email that the entire incident was a fraud. At this point, police might have detained Van der Sloot for wire fraud and extortion, but they chose to wait while they worked to establish a case of murder against him. Van der Sloot was not only let free, he was also given permission to depart Aruba and travel to Bogotá, Colombia, and then Lima, Peru, with the money he had made from the operation. He met Stephany Flores Ramirez, a 21-year-old University of Lima business student, in a casino hotel in the city. Ramirez and Van der Sloot are seen entering a hotel room together on security footage, but only Van der Sloot is seen exiting. On June 2, Ramirez was discovered dead in the hotel room that Van der Sloot had booked, her neck broken and she had been battered to death. On May 30, 2010, precisely five years after Natalee Holloway vanished, Ramirez passed away. A person arrested Van der Sloot He admitted to the murder on June 3 and June 7. Fascinating fact: Van der Sloot is presently detained at Peru's Miguel Castro jail, where murder charges have been brought. He apparently now claims that if he is permitted to move to a jail in Aruba, he would tell the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway's remains.   Perverted Justice Stings Perverted-Justice is a group that uses volunteers to masquerade as juveniles online, often between the ages of 10-15, and wait for an adult to message or email the decoy back. If the topic becomes sexual, they won't actively reject it or support it. Then, in order to set up a meeting, they will attempt to identify the males by acquiring their phone numbers and other information. The group then provides law enforcement with the information. Additionally, Perverted-Justice has worked with the American reality show "To Catch a Predator." In Murphy, Texas, one of the more contentious instances took place in 2006. Louis Conradt (seen above), a district attorney in Texas, pretended to be a 19-year-old college student and had sexually explicit internet conversations with a person he thought was a 13-year-old kid. They hired an actress to portray the youngster on the phone when Conradt demanded images of the boy's genitalia. Conradt stopped returning phone calls and instant messages, so police and the reality program decided to conduct a search warrant operation at his residence. A gunshot was heard as the police entered the scene to make an arrest. Conradt was inside with a self-inflicted wound when they arrived, and he eventually passed away at a hospital. 23 people were taken into custody for online solicitation of minors as a consequence of the sting operation in Murphy, Texas. Due to inadequate evidence, none of the 23 instances were prosecuted as of June 2007. Conradt's family launched a $105 million lawsuit against Dateline's To Catch a Predator series. The dispute was ultimately resolved outside of court. All next episodes' development was halted by the network in 2008. Rachel Hoffman On February 22, 2007, a traffic stop in Tallahassee, Florida, resulted in Rachel Hoffman being found in possession of 25 grams of marijuana. Then, on April 17, 2008, police searched her flat and found 4 ecstasy tablets and 151.7 grams of marijuana. Police allegedly threatened to put her in jail unless she worked as an undercover informant for them, according to her account. She was then dispatched untrained to an undercover gathering to purchase a weapon and a significant quantity of narcotics from two alleged drug traffickers. The suspects relocated the drug purchase while she was there. When she departed the buy place in the car with the two suspects, the police officers who were keeping an eye on the sting lost sight of her. The identical gun she was intended to purchase was used to kill her by the two suspects while they were in motion. Two days later, her corpse was discovered close to Perry, Florida. One of the murder suspects was convicted of first-degree murder and given a life sentence without the possibility of parole on December 17, 2009, which would have been Rachel Hoffman's 25th birthday. Trial for the second murder suspect is set for October 2010. Interesting Fact: On May 7, 2009, a law called “Rachel's Law” was passed by the Florida State Senate. Rachel's Law requires law enforcement agencies to (a) provide special training for officers who recruit confidential informants, (b) instruct informants that reduced sentences may not be provided in exchange for their work, and (c) permit informants to request a lawyer if they want one.    Mr. Big The Royal Canadian Mounted Police created Mr. Big, sometimes known as "the Canadian method," in the early 1990s in response to unsolved killings. It is employed in Canada and Australia, but many other nations, like the United States and England, view it as entrapment. The technique works something like this: An undercover police unit poses as members of a fictitious gang, into which the suspect is inducted. The suspect is invited to participate in a series of criminal activities (all faked by the police). In addition, the “gang members” build a personal relationship with the suspect, by drinking together and other social activities. After some time, the gang boss, Mr. Big, is presented to him. The police have a fresh interest in the first crime, and the suspect is instructed to provide the gang with further information. They clarify that Mr. Big might be able to affect the course of the police investigation, but only if he confesses to the full extent of the crime. He is also warned that if he conceals any other previous offenses, the gang could decide against working with him in the future since he would be a burden. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are shown in the picture above carrying the hats of the four officers who were killed in Edmonton, Canada, in 2005 at a memorial service. Two of the men serving prison sentences for the murders made confessions to Mr. Big operatives.Interesting Fact: In British Columbia, the technique has been used over 180 times, and, in 80% of the cases, it resulted in either a confession or the elimination of the suspect from suspicion. However, cases of false confessions and wrongful convictions have recently come to the public's attention, and many are starting to question the controversial technique. In 2007, a documentary was made, called Mr. Big, that was very critical of the procedure.   You can't talk about undercover operations without talking about the mob. Here are five badasses who infiltrated the mob.   In law enforcement, working as an undercover officer carries the high risk of discovery by criminal suspects, leading to violence, torture and death. But the rewards can be huge, with wire recordings and eyewitness testimony that can result in arrests and convictions. A trained officer knows how to strategize, win the confidence of their targets and get them to reveal what's needed to build a case to take to trial. It requires an unusual kind of person, able to work under stress, stay focused, pull off the character he or she is playing and be prepared to tell many lies. What follows here is a list of five remarkable individuals whose undercover operations, despite real dangers, resulted in the convictions of leaders and associates of organized crime, over almost a century. This list leaves out many other famous undercover officers, whom we would like to recognize in the future. Perhaps because of the gravity of the investigations, and the financial resources required, all of these undercover officers worked for agencies of the U.S. government. MICHAEL MALONE Mike Malone worked undercover for the Treasury Department's Intelligence Unit. In the late 1920s, he infiltrated Al Capone's Chicago Outfit and helped convict the crime boss of tax evasion. Michael Malone had all the makings of an undercover agent who would successfully infiltrate Al Capone's Chicago gang for nearly two years. Malone, whose parents came over from Ireland, grew up in New Jersey and meshed well with its European immigrants, eventually learning to speak Gaelic, Italian, Yiddish and Greek. With his “black Irish” dark hair and skin, he resembled someone from southern Europe. After finessing his way into Capone's inner circle in 1929, Malone proved invaluable to his superiors in the Treasury Department pursuing a tax evasion case against the Chicago crime boss. Despite the danger, Malone kept an iron will. Blowing his cover would have proved fatal. But given his skills, it didn't happen. While Malone kept up the charade, he delivered information that proved incriminating not only for Capone, but for his top enforcer, Frank Nitti (aka Nitto). Malone remained disguised within Capone's bootlegging band even for a time after the feds filed tax charges against Capone, Nitti and Capone's brother, Ralph, in 1931. When Capone's jury trial commenced, and the Treasury Department removed Malone from his undercover job, the agent gained a bit of respect from the embarrassed gang chief himself. In the Chicago courthouse, Malone happened to enter an elevator where Capone stood with his defense lawyers. “The only thing that fooled me was your looks,” Capone is said as to have remarked to Malone. “You look like a Wop. You took your chances, and I took mine. I lost.” From 1929 to 1931, Malone fed intelligence about Capone that would culminate in the historic conviction of the nation's most notorious Mob boss. His fascinating story began after his service in World War I. With law enforcement his career goal, Malone joined the Treasury Department's Intelligence Unit later known as the “T-Men.” Early on, in the 1920s, Malone appreciated how donning disguises brought him closer to the suspects. He posed in everyman roles such as garbage man and shoe shiner. Elmer Irey, chief of the Intelligence Unit, had worked with undercover agent Malone on Prohibition cases. Once, Irey enlisted Malone to smash a West Coast version of “Rum Row,” rumrunners selling contraband Canadian liquor from ships off the coast of San Francisco. Malone posed as gangster from Chicago in hiding, with money to invest in illegal booze. He devised a nighttime sting operation. Agents posing as bootleggers drove speedboats out to the booze-laden mother ship and, after money changed hands, Malone fired off a flare, signaling the U.S. Coast Guard, which boarded the mother ship and arrested the astonished bootleggers. President Herbert Hoover entered office in March 1929, a few weeks following the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, where seven men associated with Capone's bitter rival in bootlegging, George “Bugs” Moran, died in gunfire. Hoover conferred with Irey and urged him to compile a team of special agents to “get Capone” on tax charges. Meanwhile, another team of Prohibition Unit agents in Chicago, headed by Eliot Ness, would attack Capone on violations of federal liquor laws under the Volstead Act. Irey appointed Special Agent Frank Wilson, Malone and several others to the get Capone team. Meanwhile, a group of wealthy business executives in Chicago, called the Secret Six, donated large sums of money for expenses to assist the feds in getting Capone. Malone used their largess to purchase some expensive clothing to look the part of a well-heeled hoodlum that Capone would envy. Malone set about infiltrating Capone's underworld at its core – the Lexington Hotel, where the boss and his men lived. Wearing a fancy suit, purple shirt and white hat, Malone sat in the lobby, reading newspapers for days on end. He spoke in an Italian accent, introduced himself as “Mike Lepito,” met Capone men playing craps and played the part of a mobster. He mailed letters to friends in Philadelphia, who wrote back. Capone's guys broke into his room, noted his pricey checkered suits and silk underwear. They opened his mail from Philadelphia, read the letters written, impressively, in underworld lingo they understood. They informed Capone. Finally, Capone sent a cohort down to the lobby to ask “Lepito” about his business in town. “Keeping quiet,” Malone replied in his Italian inflection. In the coming days, over drinks, Malone told the guy he was on the lam for burglary in Philadelphia. That got Malone invitations to play poker and trade gossip with the gang, then dinner at their hangout, the New Florence, and then to attend the birthday party Capone planned for Frank Nitti at the Lexington. Malone met Capone at Nitti's party. The secret agent's new acquaintances included big-shot hoods Nitti, “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn, Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik, Paul “The Waiter” Ricca, Murray “The Camel” Humphreys and Sam “Golf Bag” Hunt. Malone was in. He discreetly phoned Wilson about what he'd overheard within the gang. Wilson and his aides traced signatures on bank checks while pursuing tax evasion cases against Nitti and Guzik. A federal court in Chicago convicted Guzik, who got a five-year sentence. But Nitti skipped town. Malone, assigned to find him, followed Nitti's wife to an apartment building in Berwyn, Illinois. There, the cops nabbed Nitti, later sentenced to 18 months in prison for tax evasion. Then the police pinched Al himself following his 1931 indictment on tax charges. “Mike Lepito” was there at the Lexington when Al Capone arrived back, triumphant about his release on $50,000 bail. Malone listened and reported to Wilson about Capone's scheme to bribe and fix the jury in his favor. The feds moved quickly and a judge created a new list of jurors. Malone then reported Capone's plot to hire five gunman from New York to kill four federal officials in Chicago – including Wilson. With safety measures in place, Capone ordered the gunmen to leave town. Capone's trial, after a judge refused to plea bargain with the Mob boss, started in October 1931. Four days afterward, Malone finally gave up the act. The news spread fast to Capone and his men. Malone had heard that Phil D'Andrea, Capone's bodyguard, planned to bring a concealed gun into the courthouse. Malone and another agent frisked and disarmed D'Andrea, and had him arrested. A jury Capone could not fix found the boss guilty on 22 criminal counts. The judge gave him 11 years in the federal pen and a $50,000 fine, plus court costs. Months later, in early 1932, the Intelligence Unit had Malone, Irey, Wilson and Special Agent A. P. Madden probe the kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's son. The team's persistence paid off within two years, with the capture (and conviction) of suspect Bruno Hauptman, who still had some of the marked currency the agents convinced Lindbergh to use as ransom money. Malone had other notable cases. In 1933, Irey assigned him to find fugitive New York gangster Waxey Gordon, wanted for tax evasion. Malone located Gordon in a remote cottage in the Catskill Mountains. Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey took the case, and the court put Waxey away for 10 years. A year later, Malone infiltrated Louisiana Governor Huey “Kingfish” Long's crooked crew. After Long's assassination, the IRS won a tax fraud conviction against Malone's target, Long's close aide, Seymour Weiss. In his last undercover operation before his death, the Intelligence Unit gave Malone a large amount of cash and a Cadillac to use in Miami Beach, disguised as a rich syndicate man. He found and reported what the agency wanted – details of a coast-to-coast illegal abortion ring. After Malone's death in 1960, Wilson described him to a news reporter as “the best undercover agent we ever had.” JOSEPH PISTONE Joe Pistone is one of the FBI's most celebrated undercover agents. Using the name Donnie Brasco, he infiltrated the New York Mafia and helped produce 200 indictments. Courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In New York City during the mid-1970s, the FBI investigated a rash of truck hijackings happening each day. The agency assigned agent Joseph “Joe” Pistone to go undercover for six months to find out where the Mob-connected thieves took the stolen cargo. His adopted name was “Donnie Brasco.” He was so effective as a wiseguy that the FBI let him keep it up. No one knew how far the investigation would lead, or what it would mean for Pistone, who started as an agent in 1969. His experience would eventually prompt the mobsters in New York to put out a $500,000 contract for his murder, but it never happened. In the end, the evidence and trial testimony he provided in the 1980s produced 200 indictments of Mob associates and more than 100 convictions. His work decimated the Bonannos, one of New York's five major crime families. Pistone's journey while undercover, impersonating a mobbed-up jewel thief, would last an incredible five years, from 1976 to 1981, during which he penetrated the upper levels of the Bonnano organization. No FBI agent had made it inside the Mob like that. The agency beforehand had to rely on informants. Pistone took a class to learn about jewelry to make his affectation believable. In Brooklyn and Manhattan, he roamed bars and restaurants frequented by Mob types. He communicated using the street smarts he absorbed growing up as a working-class Italian-American kid in Paterson, New Jersey, where he went to Italian social clubs and encountered local hoods. Years in, he had the Bonanno circle so convinced that it moved to have him a “made” man shortly before the FBI ended his assignment. At first he befriended low-level mobsters. He wore a wire to record conversations, and committed to memory names and license plates since taking notes would obviously raise red flags. By 1976, he'd won the trust of important Bonnano members, notably family soldier Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero, said to have killed 26 people, and capo Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano. Ruggerio recommended him so that he could join the clan. Pistone's Mob activities centered in New York and Florida, taking him away from his wife and young daughters for extended times. Pistone even had to vacation with his demanding cohorts. He moved his family members out of state for their protection. As “Donnie Brasco,” Pistone helped Ruggerio transfer stolen goods and sell guns. He engaged in loansharking, extortion and illegal gambling. Once, while pretending to be an expert in burglar alarms, angry Mob associates intent on committing burglaries demanded he reveal the name of a mobster who would vouch for him. The FBI used an informant to quell their suspicions. In the 1997 film Donnie Brasco, undercover agent Joe Pistone is played by Johnny Depp, left. Al Pacino, right, plays Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero. In 1981, the situation intensified again when the crime family commanded him to kill an adversary. The FBI pulled him out of the sting. It was time to start making cases, and for him to testify in open court as himself. Starting in 1982, Pistone's testimony over the next several years in racketeering cases sent more than 100 mobsters to long prison terms. Prosecutors considered him crucial to convicting 21 defendants in the “Pizza Connection” case of pizzerias used to traffic in heroin and launder money for the Sicilian Mafia. Pistone went into hiding and later retired from the FBI, unscathed, in 1986. In the 1990s, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, former underboss for the Gambino family who turned FBI informant, said the embarrassment from the “Brasco” case drove bosses in New York's crime families to suspend the Bonanno group from its board of directors. But Pistone couldn't stay retired. In 1992, at age 53, he requested reinstatement with the FBI, which agreed only if he would enter the agency's strict training class, lasting 16 weeks at its base in Quantico, Virginia. Pistone endured the rigorous course alongside recruits in their 20s. He passed and the FBI rehired him, at least until the mandatory retirement age of 57. Pistone's 1988 book on his undercover experiences, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, was a bestseller. Based on the book, actor Johnny Depp portrayed Pistone in the 1997 feature film Donnie Brasco, with Al Pacino as Ruggerio. JACK GARCIA Jack Garcia was an FBI undercover agent of Cuban descent who convinced members of the Italian-American Mafia that he was Italian. He took part in more than 100 undercover investigations over a 26-year career. Before he succeeded in infiltrating New York's Gambino crime family, FBI agent Joaquin “Jack” Garcia had to go school. That is, the FBI's “mob school,” where he received an education in how to hit the ground running with veteran mobsters. His teacher was special agent Nat Parisi. First off, Parisi said, do not carry a wallet – wiseguys carry wads of currency, often bound by the kind of rubber band grocery stores use to keep broccoli together. Also, correctly pronouncing Italian food matters – as Tony Soprano might say, those long pasta shells are not “manicotti,” but “manicote.” Another valuable lesson he learned is that his Mob brethren loved compliments – his favorite one: “Where did you get those nice threads? You look like a million dollars.” In his 26-year career as an FBI agent, Garcia took part in more than 100 undercover investigations, from Miami to New York, Atlantic City and Los Angeles, targeting mobsters, drug traffickers and corrupt politicians and cops. He participated in the highest number of undercover cases in FBI history. In many of his capers, he impersonated a mobster, using the name “Jack Falcone” (in honor of the Italian judge Giovanni Falcone, killed by the Sicilian Mafia in the 1990s). As a backstory, he told his Mob marks about having a Sicilian pedigree (actually he's a native of Havana and grew up in the Bronx) with an expertise in stealing and fencing stolen goods, with jewelry as his specialty. Sometimes, he had to run several undercover roles at once. He took advantage of his fluency in Spanish and Italian, being careful not to mix things up when the phone rang. In the early 2000s, the FBI chose Garcia for what would be the most fruitful infiltration of an organized crime family since Joe Pistone's in the 1970s. While undercover as “Jack Falcone” with the Gambino's family's chapter in Westchester County, New York, for two years, he flashed cash, Rolex watches, diamond rings, flat-screen TVs and other supposed stolen property (items seized in other FBI cases). Much of the cash he held went to pay for expensive dinners – mobsters, he said, are notoriously cheap when the check comes. He gained 80 pounds over the two years. One mobster in particular who liked his money and goods, and would become his almost daily companion, was Gambino capo Gregory DePalma. An “old school” hood who in 2003 finished serving 70 months for racketeering, DePalma right away threatened violence and extorted owners of Westchester-area construction firms, strip joints, restaurants and other businesses. Garcia said he witnessed DePalma commit a crime almost every day. The FBI had Garcia pose as a wiseguy seeking to invest in a topless bar in the Bronx. Garcia's inquiries led him to meet DePalma in 2003. By providing stolen property for DePalma to sell for cash, Garcia convinced him that “Jack Falcone” was an experienced jewelry thief and fencer from Miami. When Garcia hung out with DePalma over the two-year period, he wore a body wire, and the FBI planted bugging devices at DePalma's hangouts. Garcia gave DePalma a cell phone that the talkative mob capo used prodigiously, not knowing the FBI had bugged it. The operation yielded 5,000 hours of recorded conversations used to implicate DePalma and other Gambino men in racketeering. In 2005, DePalma planned to honor “Falcone” by rendering him “made” within the Gambino family. In a recorded conversation, Garcia as “Falcone” replied to DePalma, “I'm honored for that,” he said, in the tape later used in court. “I will never let you down either.” But it wasn't to be. After Garcia witnessed a Gambino soldier beat another member with a crystal candlestick, the FBI shut down the undercover operation. (Garcia and Pistone are the only law enforcement officers ever nominated to be “made.”) Garcia's efforts inside the Gambino crew paid off big time. The evidence he delivered for the FBI resulted in the arrest of 32 Gambino members and associates, including DePalma, Gambino boss Arnold “Zeke” Squitieri and underboss Anthony “The Genius” Megale. DePalma went to trial in 2006. Garcia, who retired from the FBI two months before the trial started, agreed to testify in federal court in Manhattan. The jury found DePalma guilty on 27 counts, and the judge gave the 74-year-old a 12-year prison term. Like Pistone, Garcia's undercover career is chronicled in a memoir, Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family. KIKI CAMARENA Kiki Camarena was an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Mexico. After contributing information that led to major drug busts, he was tortured and murdered by drug cartel bosses in 1985. Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, the late Drug Enforcement Administration agent assigned to investigate drug trafficking in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the 1980s, is famous as one of the most heroic DEA agents ever. But he is more well-known in death than in life. His torture-murder in Mexico in 1985 took place at the hands of drug cartel bosses with the complicity of high-level Mexican government officials, law enforcement and, allegedly, the CIA. At the time, the Reagan administration was secretly training and supplying Central American guerilla fighters, known as the “Contras,” against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The U.S. government allegedly granted the cartel bosses free rein to traffic drugs – to the point of using CIA-recruited American pilots to fly cocaine into the United States to sell for cash so the cartel could make donations to buy more weaponry for the Contras. Camarena, born in Mexicali, Mexico, in 1947, moved with his impoverished family to Calexico, California. He served as a firefighter in Calexico, and with a strong desire for police work, joined the Imperial County Sheriff's Department, moving up to its narcotics task force. The experience led to his career in the DEA starting in 1975. Assigned to the DEA office in the “narco paradise” of Guadalajara in 1980, Camarena was a convincing undercover officer with his appearance and ability to speak Spanish and barrio “street” language to fit in with the drug underworld. His target was the powerful Guadalajara drug cartel (which later evolved into the Sinaloa cartel). In the early 1980s, in what he called “Operation Padrino,” Camarena arranged for U.S. agents to seize international bank accounts held by wealthy cartel drug lords. He developed evidence of major marijuana plantations in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, based on informants and overflights in a plane flown by his DEA pilot, Alfredo Zavala Avelar. In November 1984, from his background work, Mexican federal police and the DEA raided enormous pot-growing operations on a ranch in Zacatecas that employed thousands of field hands. The task force confiscated 20 tons of marijuana, burned the crop and made 177 arrests. The bust cost cartel figure Rafael Caro Quintero about $50 million. Caro Quintero believed his operation had the protection of the Mexican army, and the CIA, since he owned a farm used to train the U.S.-backed Contras. He vowed revenge against Camarena. Meanwhile, a DEA force organized by Camarena seized a large cache of cocaine shipped by cartel boss Miguel Felix Gallardo's operation to New Mexico and Texas. Gallardo also believed he had CIA and Mexican official protection. During the fall of 1984, Quintero held meetings with top cartel traffickers Gallardo, Ernesto “Don Neto” Fonseco Carrillo and Ruben Zuno Arce. Also present, thanks to rampant corruption bought by the Guadalajara cartel, were Mexico's minister of domestic affairs and DFA chief Manuel Bartlett Diaz, plus Mexico's defense minister, the head of Mexico's Interpol office and the governor of the state of Jalisco. The agenda was to kidnap Camarena and get him to reveal his informants and other information. Zuno Arce gave the order. Fonseca only intended to scare and release him, but Quintero wanted to kill the DEA man. On February 7, 1985, Quintero and Gallardo directed their henchmen to kidnap Camarena off a street in Guadalajara. As the agent walked from the U.S. consulate to meet his wife for lunch, they forced him at gunpoint into a car and drove him to a residence used for cartel rendezvous. They bound and blindfolded him, turned on a tape recorder and questioned him, during which he was severely beaten and tortured. The lead interrogator was the crooked head of the secret police in Guadalajara, Sergio Espino Verdin. The cartel men wanted to know what Camarena knew about them, their dealings with Mexican officials and the CIA's involvement in drug trafficking. The gangsters also brought in and beat up Zavala, Camarena's pilot. Both men died about two days later, angering Fonseco, who told Quintero not to kill Camarena. Camarena's wife reported him missing and Washington launched what would be the largest manhunt in the history of the DEA. The cartel had the two men's bodies buried, then dug up and relocated to a farm in another state, where Mexican police found them in early March. During his funeral a week later, Camarena's family interred his ashes in Calexico. His slaying triggered an international incident. U.S. officials ordered all cars from Mexico at the border searched, effectively closing it. The investigation revealed the CIA connection, leading to bitter clashes between CIA and DEA agents. A federal court in Los Angeles charged 22 defendants in the murders of Camarena and Zavala. Under pressure, Mexican authorities acted, arresting 13 men. Mexican courts convicted Fonseco, Quintero and Espino, and sentenced each to 40 years, although Quintero won early release on a technicality in 2013. U.S. officials are still seeking Quintero to face federal charges. Mexican police arrested Gallardo in 1989, and he received 40 years. A court in Los Angeles found Zuno Arce guilty in the murders in 1990, sentenced him to two life terms in prison, where he died in 2012. In Camarena's honor, in 1985 the National Family Partnership started the National Red Ribbon Campaign, a volunteer anti-drug use and education effort that urges youths to recite a pledge to refrain from drugs, and celebrates “Red Ribbon Week” on drug awareness each October. Camarena's is featured as a character, played by actor Michael Pena, in a chapter of the Netflix series Narcos: Mexico, about on his actions with the DEA. JAY DOBYNS Jay Dobyns went undercover with the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang for 20 months in Arizona on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. His work led to 16 arrests. For Jay Dobyns, fitting in with the infamous biker gang the Hells Angels for almost two years meant adhering to his undercover alter ego, Jay “Bird” Davis, to the point of obsession. To maintain his cover, he had to divert his mind away from his wife and kids. And it all would be worth it – at least that's what he thought at the time. Dobyns had hit on his best clandestine ruse yet while in Arizona in 2001, after 15 years of service as an undercover special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. While working undercover cases in the late 1980s for the ATF, he'd been injured twice – from a gunshot wound to the back from a suspect in Tucson and when gunrunners hit him with a car during an attempted getaway in Chicago. He took part in investigations of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Other undercover roles of his ended in the arrests of a Mexican drug boss and members of the Aryan Brotherhood gang. Altogether, he served in more than 500 undercover operations disguised as a hitman and Mob debt collector. He infiltrated organized crime groups and gangs engaged in drug and arms smuggling. In 2001, to gather intelligence as “Davis” for the ATF in northern Arizona, Dobyns worked in the Bullhead City area, posing as a gun seller and an enforcer for a nonexistent collections agency. But his operation was interrupted in 2002 with the now-famous riot and shootout among members of the Angels and a competing biker gang, the Mongols, at the Harrah's casino in nearby Laughlin, Nevada, during the annual River Run motorcycle rally. Two Angels and one Mongol died and dozens of people were injured. The ATF brass soon redirected him to penetrate the dangerous Hells Angels club. Dobyns certainly had the physical part down with his beard and six-foot, one-inch frame he used as an all-conference football player for the University of Arizona. Later, an Angels member would apply tattoos covering his upper arms. Dobyns teamed with another ATF agent, two other undercover officers and a pair of paid informants. The idea was to create a fake biker gang with the aid of one of the informants who once served in a motorcycle gang based in Tijuana, Mexico. The gangster informant and Dobyns would run the gang, called the Solo Angeles, promote it as a pro-Hells Angels crew and request to join the Angels as a “nomad” chapter. The ATF named the setup “Operation Black Biscuit.” As a convincer, Dobyns and his fellow agent feigned an execution of a Mongol member, tying up an agent, placing cow's brains and bloody Mongol clothing on him and taking a photo. Based on the picture, the Angels took the bait and let them hang out and ride with them. They trusted him so much they offered to make him a member of the Angels' Skull Valley Chapter. He was the first law enforcement officer to infiltrate the Angels. His undercover penetration of the Angels lasted more than 20 months, one of the longest ever for the ATF. His work ended with 16 arrests from the Angels gang. But the criminal case, amid problems between the ATF and Justice Department lawyers, fell through in federal court. Federal prosecutors blamed the ATF, saying the agency did not reveal evidence from informants. In 2006, the feds dropped racketeering enterprise charges – the most serious — against all but four of 42 Angels charged in the Laughlin riot. Dobyns' battle with his own employer, the ATF, soon began. He filed suit in federal court against the agency alleging it did not protect him while he was on duty. He won a $373,000 settlement in 2007. The next year, Dobyns's wife and two kids barely escaped after someone firebombed the family home in Tucson. The ATF investigated Dobyns himself as a suspect in the arson. Investigators cleared him. In 2014, the year he retired after 27 years with the ATF, he filed another suit, for $17.2 million, saying the ATF failed to safeguard his family amid death threats. A judge awarded him $173,000. During an appeal, the judge voided the monetary judgment, but recommended discipline for ATF personnel and barred seven Justice Department attorneys from the case. He ordered a special master to investigate government actions in the case, and possible misconduct by the feds in the arson investigation. But the judge died of cancer. The special master in a report said that the first case was fair enough and required no further probe into the federal government. A new judge accepted the recommendation. Dobyns has authored two books, one on his undercover experiences, another on his travails with the ATF. These days, he delivers lectures on his life to audiences at universities and law enforcement associations nationwide. And now some of our infamous quick hitters:   Donald Duck decoy   Police in Fort Lee, New Jersey used a Donald Duck costume as a decoy to catch drivers who failed to yield to pedestrians. Drivers who didn't stop for the cartoon duck were ticketed. One woman, Karen Haigh, fought her $230 ticket.   "They told me that I was getting a ticket for not stopping for a duck," she told Eyewitness News. "But it scared me. I'm a woman. This huge duck scared me."  Coco the Clown   These old clips from the show COPS show a strange undercover police sting, and proves the adage that clowns are usually scary or just creepy. One cop dressed up as Coco the Clown, an outfit that kind of resembles John Wayne Gacy, to catch women working as sex workers. Spoiler: he pretty much sprays all of them with silly string and the whole thing is sad to watch. Amish woman   At least one cop from the Pulaski Township Police Department in Pennsylvania dressed up as an Amish woman in an attempt to catch a sexual predator. Sgt. Chad Adams of the Pulaski Township Police Department wandered the streets for two months in 2014 after police were tipped off that a predator was masturbating in front of children, according to the Associated Press. He posted on the department's Facebook page, “Hey friends, sometimes being a police officer means going undercover and doing what you have to do to catch the bad guy. Now that our investigation is complete I'll share with you this photo! Back in January we had an individual preying on Amish children walking home from school. The male individual was pulling up to the children and getting out of his car and masturbating in front of them. Although we did not apprehend the individual we believe he was caught in another county. I wanted to share with you that we will use all means available to try and protect our children. That includes dressing up as an Amish woman to attempt to apprehend a pervert! Thanks goes out to the Neshannock police and New Wilmington police in assistance with the investigation! Sincerely, Sergeant Chad Adams.”   Sadly, the sting didn't work, but police believe it is because the culprit moved into another county.   DVD Prize sting   Police in Phoenix, Arizona set up a sting to catch people with outstanding warrants, mostly DUIs, in 2002. The people were told they won a DVD player. People thought they were showing up to pick up their prize. Instead, they walked right into their own arrest. Watch as these suspects went from excited to shocked to sad. Panhandling trick   In 2015, undercover cops in California posed as panhandlers to ticket distracted drivers. They stood on the side of the road, posed as panhandlers and holding signs that identified them as police officers. The pieces of cardboard they were holding also stated that they were looking for seatbelt and cellphone violations. For those drivers who weren't paying attention

What can it mean when a man knows the exact date and time he's going to die?  And what does THAT mean to the people he hires to save him? Cast List Rena - Julie Hoverson Matilda - Kate Waterous Fred Quarry - Carl Cubbedge "Bud" - Anthony D.P. Mann (Horror Etc. Podcast) Infernique - Julia Belyea Ma - Angela Kirby Music by:  Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com) Editing and Sound:   Julie Hoverson Cover Design:  Brett Coulstock "What kind of a place is it? Why it's a bar parking lot, can't you tell?" ************************************************ FORCE MAJEURE Cast: [Opening credits - Olivia] Rena Matilda Fred Quarry, fat male comedian Beelzebud Infernique Ma OLIVIA     Did you have any trouble finding it?  What do you mean, what kind of a place is it?  Why, it's a parking lot of a low life honky tonk, can't you tell?  MUSIC SOUND     DISTANT TRAFFIC, MUFFLED VERY LOUD MUSIC SOUND    DOOR SLAMS OPEN, MUSIC GETS LOUDER, SOUND OF A FIGHT SOUND    DOOR SLAMS, FOOTSTEPS SET OUT ACROSS PARKING LOT SOUND    DOOR QUICKLY OPENS AND SHUTS, SECOND PAIR OF FEET SCUTTLE AFTER FIRST QUARRY    [coming on]  Come on!  I'm sorry about that!  I really needed to know if you're as good as you're hyped up to be. RENA    [Snort]  QUARRY     I - I need some help here!  there's no place else I can turn.  RENA    [low uninflected growl] Bite me. SOUND    DOOT_DOOT OF CAR DOOR REMOTE SOUND    QUARRY'S FEET STOP QUARRY    I - I'm about to be murdered. SOUND    RENA'S FOOTSTEPS HESITATE JUST A SECOND, THEN CONTINUE. SOUND    CAR DOOR YANKED OPEN SOUND    QUARRY'S FEET NERVOUSLY DASH FORWARD QUARRY    No one will take me seriously - my agent, my wife.  Certainly not the police. RENA    [quiet] Big surprise. SOUND     THE CAR SQUEAKS AS SHE CLIMBS IN. QUARRY    [beginning to squeal] I'm desperate here!  Can't you just listen?  SOUND    DOOR SLAMS QUARRY    [squeaks as the door almost catches him] SOUND    RUSTLE OF PAPER QUARRY    I've got money!  If this isn't enough, I'll write you a bigger one!  Whatever you want! SOUND    CHECK SLAPPED FLAT AGAINST THE WINDOW SOUND    INSIDE THE CAR, NO NIGHT NOISES.  QUARRY'S VOICE IS VERY MUTED QUARRY    Anything! RENA    [sighs] SOUND    BUTTON PUSHED, WINDOW COMES DOWN, PAPER SNATCHED RENA    Get in. SOUND    THE DOOR LOCKS CLICK. MUSIC    JAZZ, UP AND THEN UNDER AS IT PLAYS ON THE CAR STEREO. SOUND    STARTS DRIVING AS THEY TALK RENA    What if this guy that's got you wee-ing yourself gets you while I'm out looking for him? QUARRY    He's...he's not gonna kill me 'til Saturday. RENA    He sent an itinerary? QUARRY    [very evasive]  It was all in the note. RENA    [skeptical]  But you believe him? QUARRY    Where are we going? RENA    We're just going.  [beat]  Why's he after you? QUARRY    Why?  I mean why does anyone do something wacko?  He probably just wants to be famous. RENA    And killing you would make him famous. QUARRY    [duh] Well, yeah. RENA    Why? QUARRY    Don't you - you don't... know who I am?  I'm Fred Quarry!  I told you that back in the bar. RENA    I was a little busy fighting off your thug.  QUARRY    The Fred Quarry - you know, with the sitcom, and the late night talk show? RENA    I don't watch much. QUARRY    I was on the cover of T.V. Guide twice last year - don'tcha shop at supermarkets? RENA    [still flat] Oh, THAT Fred Quarry. QUARRY    That's what I've been saying.  I'm famous.  Even you must have heard someone say- [catchphrase>] "No!  Reeeeally?" RENA    No.  Really. MUSIC SOUND    COMPUTER NOISES [MAT] CLEANING A GUN [RENA] MATILDA    You buy it? RENA    He's hiding something.  MATILDA    Most people are. RENA    Not me. MATILDA    But you're a robot. [beat]  Oh, come on. RENA    It wasn't funny when when we were kids, and it's not funny now. MATILDA    [sigh] Fine.  What now? RENA    You find anything on Quarry? MATILDA    He's actually pretty clean, for a hollywood bigshot.  Meteoric rise to fame, starring roles, gonna be roasted on comedy central. RENA    If this guy doesn't roast him first. SOUND    SLAPS THE SLIDE BACK INTO THE GUN MUSIC AMB    CAFE QUARRY    Nothing? RENA    Nothing. Your guy's in the wind. Invisible. QUARRY    [dreadful revelation] Of course... RENA    What? QUARRY    He... well... [gasp, then panicking] Oh crap!  Oh CRAP! SOUND    TRYING TO SQUEEZE OUT OF THE BOOTH AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE SOUND    DOOR OPENS, BELL JINGLES RENA    What's up? QUARRY    He said not until Saturday!!! RENA    [calm and dangerous] He won't do anything here. QUARRY    You don't know that!  Shit shit SHIT shit shit. RENA    I won't let anything happen - we have an agreement-- QUARRY    [squeals] SOUND    HE FALLS OUT ONTO THE FLOOR SOUND    FEET WALK UP AND STOP RENA    Are you supposed to be someone famous too?  Or just a goomba hit man? BUD    [affable] What could my pal here be telling you?  He's a little sensitive, ya know?  A little... over-imaginative.  All good entertainers are.  [dangerous] Arentcha? QUARRY    [mumbled] Go away. BUD    [tsks]  You're just undignified on the floor like that. SOUND    CHAIR PULLS UP, BUD SITS BUD    Want a hand? QUARRY    [squeal] SOUND    TRYING TO SCUTTLE AWAY RENA    What are your plans? BUD    Plans?  Just breakfast here with friends. SOUND    MENU FLAPS BUD    [pretending to read] What's good here? RENA    For Fred. BUD    Him?  They gotta low-cal menu?  RENA    I mean-- BUD    [exasperated sigh] Look sweetheart, drop this.  Whatever Fred here's told you, it ain't like that at all.  [serious] This ain't a game you can win. QUARRY    [whining]  You said Saturday.  You shouldn't be here. RENA    What is it, then? BUD    [chuckles]  Ask your boy about his contract. QUARRY    [high whine] MUSIC MATILDA    And then he just left? RENA    Yup.  But he dropped this. SOUND    SLAP OF PLASTIC CARD ON TABLE MATILDA    Oh, please - how transparent.  Either he's an idiot or he's setting up a meet. RENA    Too early to tell. MATILDA    [musing] But he didn't deny anything.  Hmm.  Did I get everything on the description? SOUND    COMPUTER KEYS MATILDA    [reading]  5'6, narrow face, dark hair - slightly receding, crooked teeth, wiry, but looks tough? RENA    Yup. MATILDA    Looks something like this? RENA    [leans in]  Yeah.  Not the guy, but that same kind of look. MATILDA    Great.  So we're hunting Steve Buscemi in a pale green leisure suit. MUSIC SOUND    HOTEL KEY CARD, DOOR OPENS SURREPTITIOUSLY SOUND    QUIET FOOTSTEPS SOUND    LIGHT SWITCH BUD    Hiya. RENA    [disgusted noise, then resigned]  My sister says-- BUD    [chuckles] Yeah?  Well, I ain't an idiot.  C'mon in. RENA    [disturbed, suspicious] Yeah. SOUND    DOOR SHUTS BUD    You wanna drink?  The mini-bar ain't world class, but... it's on me. RENA    I wouldn't drink anything "on you." BUD    [ouch noise] Brass tacks, then.  You want to know why you should drop whiny boy's case?  Try this. SOUND    FLIPS OUT BUSINESS CARD RENA    "Beelzebud - Recruitment - F-M-C"? SOUND    FLASH FLAME RENA    [gasps, blows on fingers] Beelze-what?  BUD    Just call me Bud.  I hate being mistaken for that other guy.  It's not like I'm Joe Estevez.  [beat]  Frank Stallone? RENA    [she's not getting the joke] Nice card.  Flashpaper? BUD    [disgusted sigh]  All right-- [voice begins to change]  How plain do I have to make this?  Tell your sister [raises his voice] or is she listening right now? RENA    [gasp] MATILDA    [filter, quiet] What the--? BUD    [still raised] Get on the internet and look up demons.  [voice very demonic]  There's a particularly good Web site at www dot legion dot H-E-L, but I'm not sure you can access it.  [coming back to normal] It ain't exactly ... user friendly.  And god knows it ain't Vista compatible. RENA    [flat, unbelieving] You're a demon? BUD    [sigh] Whaddaya want, horns?  That's such a drag - always having to fix my hair again once I get done showing off.  RENA    Yeah, that's a lot of grease to reapply. BUD    [long intake of breath, then sucks his teeth]  I like you.  You don't scare.  [beat] You guess my interest in Freddy boy yet?  How bout you phone a friend - eh, sis? MATILDA    [filter, getting it] A contract. RENA    A contract...? BUD    Bingo.  I held up my end, and now he wants to welsh.  So who's really in the wrong?  'Sides, there's nothing you can do - I get his life.  One way or another, Quarry's gonna die.  He might slip in the shower, choke on a herringbone, or have a turtle drop out of the freakin' sky on his head - but he will die.  I don't even gotta be there. MUSIC SOUND    POUNDING ON A DOOR QUARRY    [squeak] SOUND    CHAIN LOCK OFF, STARTS TO OPEN DOOR, BUT IT SLAMS OPEN ON HIM QUARRY    [Starts to scream, is muffled] SOUND    DOOR SLAMS SOUND    BODY UP AGAINST WALL RENA    I believe this is yours. SOUND    BUNCH OF PAPER FLIPPED OUT ALL OVER FLOOR QUARRY    [squinched up] You said you don't give refunds. RENA    I'm making an exception.  You're lucky I don't feel like breaking my "I don't beat the crap out of my employers" rule, too. SOUND    CRUMPLING MONEY QUARRY    [crying piteously] Look at me - oodles of money, married to a supermodel, top of the world - and it's all ashes. RENA    You made your own bed. QUARRY    [getting a bit tough]  So I don't wanna die - is that so wrong? RENA    Everyone dies. QUARRY    But me - I'm gonna die day after tomorrow!!!  And you won't even help!  RENA    Does the word "demon" ring a bell? QUARRY    Wouldya have believed me?  I don't think so. RENA    [mocking his catchphrase] No.  Reeeeally? MUSIC SOUND    DRIVING IN A CAR MATILDA    [on filter]  Too bad.  He is Fred Quarry. RENA    I still don't care.  He's a weasely little shmuck. MATILDA    Too bad you didn't keep the check - once he's dead, that signature'll be worth big bucks. RENA    Oh, please. MATILDA    I have the soul of a collector. RENA    And the taste of a crazy cat lady. MATILDA    [huffy] I have never tasted a crazy cat lady in my life. RENA    [snort, almost a chuckle] MUSIC SOUND    SNORING [rena] SOUND    PHONE RINGS SOUND    FUMBLING FOR PHONE, PICKS UP RENA    [barely awake] What? BUD    [filter] Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, eh? RENA    Yup.  Thanks for calling. SOUND    STARTS TO FUMBLE PHONE BACK BUD    [filter, getting smaller] Wait-wait-wait!  Should I call back after you have some coffee?  Lithium? RENA    [sigh]  Speak. BUD    [filter] This ain't exactly something I wanna discuss over the phone. RENA    Where? MUSIC SOUND    PARK AMB SOUND    FEET ON GRAVEL RENA    So? BUD    Your sister on the line?  RENA    Yeah.  BUD    Where? RENA    Where what?   She's at our office. BUD    She always is, isn't she?  She don't get out much.  I mean where's the mike? RENA    Does it matter? BUD    I don't like being bugged. RENA    I can always leave. BUD    No, no.  Well, if she's gonna be part of this deeply personal conversation - introduce us, wouldja? RENA    Matilda.  Bud.  Happy? BUD    Thrilled.  And you? RENA    I'm thrilled too. BUD    Your name.  You know mine. RENA    I've already forgotten it. BUD    Bud. RENA    Rena.   You're lucky I'm not charging by the minute. BUD    Fine.  I gotta trade for ya - I leave your boy sucking air, and you do something for me. RENA    He's not my boy.  BUD    Well.... see if you can get back on the payroll, and take him for as much as you can get.  [sigh] I wouldn't even consider any of this but you don't strike me like someone who's gonna laugh me out. MATILDA    [filter, quiet]  Wow, finally your lack of a sense of humor actually comes in handy. BUD    [uncomfortable] See, I ain't had a date in a really long time-- RENA    Not interested. SOUND    STARTS TO WALK AWAY.  MATILDA    [filter, quiet]  I might be.  I loved Fargo. BUD    [demonic voice] LISTEN. SOUND    FEET STOP BUD    No offense to you, sweet cheeks, but dating a human is like having a freaking hamster for a pet.  Cute and cuddly, but the relationship has the lifespan of about a week.  [lighter]  Besides that wheel just gets on your freakin' nerves.  [laughs] RENA     That "funny". How's that working for you? BUD    I'm an acquired taste.  So... [long breath] I spotted another demon.  A real looker.  Last night at a club.  Dark hair, sleek body...  RENA    Do I look like a yenta? BUD    [urgent] Find out who she is and get me a date. RENA    A... date? BUD    Yeah, a date - I don't mean you gotta guarantee "va-va-voom" or nothing, just get her to go out with me.  If I can't take it from there, well... that's my problem. RENA    And Quarry goes free. BUD    Well... Instead of death, I can settle for total ruination.  People come back from worse every day.  Look at Rob Lowe.  Marion Barry? MATILDA    I'll call Fred! MUSIC SOUND    OUTSIDE, APPROACHING A NIGHTCLUB RENA    [musing] Goblin and the Trolls - Delightful.  Bad sixties rehash or cheez metal? MATILDA    Give me a second. RENA    It was rhetorical. MATILDA    Cheez. RENA    What? MATILDA    The band.  They sound like Gwar without the bodily fluids. RENA    Woo.  This better work.  How do I turn it on? SOUND    BOX OPENS; CHIMEY HUM, MUTED - GETS LOUDER AS SHE GOES THROUGH THE DOOR.  MUSIC IS PLAYING MATILDA    Dunno - Bud just said that crystal would lead you to--  Oh, jeez. RENA    What? SOUND    CHIMEY THING GETS LOUDER. MATILDA    Feedback.  Call when you turn it off. SOUND    MATILDA OUT RENA    Oh, goody. MUSIC MUSIC MUTES WITH THE SHUTTING OF A DOOR SOUND    SINK RUNS, THEN STOPS. SOUND    LIPSTICK OPENS. SOUND    PAPER TOWELS RENA    [very uncomfortable] Hi. INFERNIQUE    It's not your color. RENA    No, I-- INFERNIQUE    Weren't you asking to borrow my lipstick? RENA    No, I-- INFERNIQUE    Then... [smacks lips] No, I'm not into chicks. RENA    No!  I-- INFERNIQUE    [sigh] What, then? RENA    [fumbling, flustered]  This is going to sound... well, like something out of junior high school. INFERNIQUE    Dissection? RENA    I have a sort of a ...friend who wants me to tell you that he thinks you're ... attractive - and he wants me to - he wants to ... ask you out. INFERNIQUE    And he's what ... shy? RENA    No, he's one of - your kind.  He saw you here last night-- INFERNIQUE    That iguana in the leisure suit?  I don't think so. SOUND    BUSINESS CARD SLAPPED ONTO COUNTER RENA    Just in case, here's my-- SOUND    BODY SLAMMED UP AGAINST WALL RENA     [gasp] INFERNIQUE    [suddenly intense] Don't try to set me up, bait.  I happen to be honest.  If you're some kind of half-ass demon-hunter, you can bite me, [demonic whisper] and I don't mean in the nice way.  SOUND    MUSIC STARTS SOUND    BODY SLAMMED BACK INTO WALL INFERNIQUE    Gotta go, sweetheart - my boys are on. MUSIC SOUND    CAR DOOR SLAMS SHUT, SMACK TO STEERING WHEEL RENA    I hate bitches.  SOUND    PUNCHING BUTTONS ON A CELLPHONE RENA    Especially DEMON bitches. BUD    I take it the date's off? SOUND    PHONE FALLS TO FLOOR, STILL RINGING RENA    [completely surprised]  What the crap?  How'd you get into my-- BUD    "Demon"? RENA    Right.  That.  MATILDA    [filter] What's up?  Hang up your phone. RENA    It's on the floor.  Yes, she wouldn't go for it.  BUD    Figures.  Classy deme like that.  [sigh]  It was worth a try.  I owe you something. RENA    No thanks. BUD    Nonsense.  I always pay up.  How about a new car or something? RENA    Answer some questions. BUD    If I can - some things man ain't meant to know. RENA    This demon bitch said she's "honest"?  BUD    So? RENA    The way she said it, it seems like it meant something ... more. BUD    [trying to decide] Hmm.  Yeah, you can know that.  Ok, I think your basic problem here is that you're thinking demons are the enemies of god, right? RENA    Go on. BUD    See, what you're forgetting is that in a big business, the janitors work for the same boss as the executives.  Get me? MATILDA    [filter] Interesting. RENA    No. BUD    God made folks able to choose right from wrong.  He wants 'em to choose, right, sure, but if wrong ain't enticing, it ain't a fair test.  MATILDA    [filter] Makes sense. BUD     So, you get a bunch of mooks like me running around tempting people.  If they're good clean folks who would rather do the right thing, then they just don't take us up on it.  Otherwise... MATILDA    [filter] Sort of like if chocolate tasted like celery, we'd all be a size 8. RENA    Matilda says-- BUD    Skip the replay - I can hear her. RENA    So, "Honest"? BUD    Right, um.  We have rules.  We don't lie to make a deal - we omit everything under the sun, but can't tell an actual untruth.  We can only offer stuff, in return for... stuff.  We can't threaten folks - you know, say something like "if you don't sign, we'll kill your dog", y'know?  [joking] And it's murder if you pull out the red-hot pokers. MATILDA    [filter] So why hasn't he - sorry, why haven't you - tried to tempt us? BUD    You're not my type.  Uh, no offense - my department is fat male comedians.  You may have seen some of my work. MATILDA    [filter] Really?  Like John Belushi?  John Candy?  [ghoulish] Fatty Arbuckle?  BUD    Far be it from me to name names, but let's just say how else would Tommy Boy and Black Sheep both get made? MATILDA    [filter] Wow.  So what do you... do? BUD    Actually, not much.  I mean, the way I roll is I don't make talentless gobs into stars - much easier to scout the ones who actually have what it takes but no luck, catch 'em at a low point, and scoop them and their haagen dasz up like sand on the beach.  Do a little work - pretty much like any other agent - and reap the rewards. RENA    You're a shit. BUD    Pretty much like any other agent.  RENA    Your percentage is a little high. BUD    Look, babe.  It's my job.  It may be a crap job, but I'm good at it.  Always in the black.  And you don't want to run over on these kinds of projects - the accounting department - whew!  I mean, you wanna see bureacracy, go to hell. MATILDA    [filter]  But you could - decide not to kill Quarry? BUD    Well, it seems like a wash now, but yeah - I gotta little discretion.  Won't be a gold star on my record, but I stay ahead enough - basically he'd be a small loss, like losing money for a tax writeoff.  MUSIC SOUND    RUSTLE OF PAPER, EATING NOISES SOUND    TV, COMPUTER, PLAYS IN BG MATILDA    [around food]  Hold on, um, here-- SOUND    REMOTE CLICKS, T.V. SOUND UP QUARRY    [on T.V.]  No, Reeeally? SOUND    [on T.V.]  MUSIC CUTS TO COMMERCIAL, SOUND DOWN RENA    He's still an idiot. MATILDA    You don't feel sorry for him?  At all? RENA    Right.  Next I can feel sorry for the chain smoker who's going through cancer and the gangbanger who gets caught in a drive by.  Let's just help everyone. MATILDA    [tsks] SOUND    KNOCKING AT THE DOOR RENA    Got it. SOUND    CREAK OF CHAIR, FOOTSTEPS, LITTLE METAL PEEPHOLE DOOR RENA    What? QUARRY    [outside] Can we talk? RENA    [disgusted sigh, calls over her shoulder]  Incoming! SOUND    SEVERAL LOCKS UNLOCK, DOOR OPENS QUARRY    [coming in] I brought someone to talk to you.  Maybe it'll help. MA    [old and feeble] Hi. RENA    I thought she was a supermodel. QUARRY    Huh?  MA    You're thinking of Divana, his wife.  I'm his mother. MATILDA    Is that--?  [laughs]  No, Reeeally? QUARRY    [disconcerted] Uh, who's that? RENA    My sister.  She's a big fan. MA    [quiet] Oh. QUARRY    You stay here, ma, and talk to this nice lady, I'll go sign an autograph or something. MA    Um. [quietly] So, you're a friend of Fred's? RENA    No.  MA    Oh, uh - Fred's such a nice boy.  He paid off my mortgage. RENA    Good for you. MA    And he even bought me a new hip.   You should really help with whatever-- MATILDA    [from off] Oh my god!  Is that Mamma Farnaby?  Bring her on over! MA    [losing the cutesy old lady]  Oh, Crap. SOUND    FOOTSTEPS, KICKING A BAG ASIDE RENA    You know her? QUARRY    [mumbled]  She's my... mom. MATILDA    She plays his mother on the show. MA    I tried. MATILDA    Come on over, I gotta get your autograph too! MUSIC SOUND    CAR DOOR CLOSES, KEYS INTO IGNITION RENA    [talking to Mat] Yes, I got them.  Um-hmm, The frosted kind, not the glazed-- INFERNIQUE    [pointed sigh] RENA    Oh, I should have mentioned the black-eyed bitch in the back seat.  Why are you here? INFERNIQUE    To make a deal. RENA    How'd you find me? INFERIQUE    You left me your card. RENA    Funny how that connects up to catching me in the car at the grocery store. INFERNIQUE    I'm here to make a deal.  A one time offer. RENA    Deal? INFERNIQUE    I will go to [disgusted] karaoke, or miniature golf, or whatever appeals to your... [slur] friend.  But you have to do something for me. RENA    I'm listening? INFERNIQUE    I've run a bit over budget for my "current project".  You do understand what I'm talking about? RENA    I've got the basics.  Hell.  Bureaucracy.  Budgets. INFERNIQUE    Good.  My current client is the "singer" for that ...band.  RENA    I'm sorry. INFERNIQUE    And I need someone to kill him. RENA    [beat, but still even] Isn't that... cheating?  INFERNIQUE    Don't ask.  Don't tell.  MUSIC SOUND    LOCKS UNLOCK, DOOR OPENS, FOOTSTEPS [laughter] SOUND    TV PAUSES RENA    [coming in] They only had a dozen-- oh. MATILDA    [off] There won't be enough to go around. QUARRY    [off] What'dja bring? MA    [off] I'm off grains anyway. SOUND    FEET RENA    I take it you weren't on the cans the whole time I was gone? MATILDA    [sharp]  What?  You said you got the frosted ones, then hung up. RENA    Shit.  Get your ears on.  I'll step outside. QUARRY    [eager] We could - you know - leave. MA    I do have a rolfing session at 5. MATILDA    Oh, all right.  Come back sometime, ya hear? SOUND    FOOTSTEPS MATILDA    [calling]  Bye!  Thanx again for hanging out! MA    Bye, dear. MATILDA    Give me one, willya? RENA    [beat] She means you. QUARRY    Right. [deep breath, then in character] No, Reeeaally? MATILDA     [laughs delightedly]  Yay! SOUND    DOOR SHUTS, BUT PEEPHOLE DOOR OPENS RENA    [talking loudly]  It was that demon chick.  MATILDA    [both quiet and on filter] You don't have to yell. RENA    She said if I killed her "client", she would get Bud to let Quarrie off. MATILDA    You shouldn't-- RENA    Yeah, that singer with the band.  I just don't think I can do that.  Even for ten times the money.  I'm just... not a killer. MATILDA    [quiet]  But you are a conniving bitch. RENA    I guess I can think about it, but your pal's time is nearly up.  [overly dramatic sigh]  MATILDA    How will you get him there? RENA    I suppose it can't hurt to go and see the band tonight.  See what the vic's like. MATILDA    [chuckles evilly]  I suppose it can't. SOUND    A MOMENT, THEN LITTLE METAL DOOR SHUTS RENA    Did he give you a new check? MUSIC AMB    BACK ALLEY INFERNIQUE    Goblin's not dead yet. RENA    [gasp, slightly irritated] You really need to stop doing that. INFERNIQUE    It's part of my charm.  Ask your little "friend." RENA    You said that as long as Goblin's dead by midnight, you'll-- INFERNIQUE    Must I say it again?  "go out with that... fellow." RENA    Bud. INFERNIQUE    [as if it's offal]  Bud. RENA    Right.  Thanks. INFERNIQUE    See you later.  [slowly sounding demonic] Don't jerk me around.  You wouldn't like to see me angry.  RENA    [unruffled]  Yeah.  Betcha get ugly.  I'll be inside. SOUND    STEPS, DOOR OPENS BUD    Was that wise? RENA    Promising a dead goblin? BUD    Uh, no - pissing her off.  [avid] Not that she ain't seriously hot when she lets the red out, but-- RENA    It's fine.  And you'll be in the black. MATILDA    [on radio]  Though I'll bet he'd rather be "in the red" ... at least if she's steamy enough... BUD    Hah!  You gotta dirty mind, babe. RENA    Darn.  And all I got was looks. SOUND    3 GUN SHOTS BUD    What the--? RENA    Hold on.  [waits a second] BUD    [whispered] I don't hear nothing. RENA    Ok.  He's coming. BUD    What? RENA    Had to make sure there weren't any more. BUD    What--? SOUND    DOOR SLAMS OPEN QUARRY    [under his breath] Omigod! Omigod! Omigod! RENA    Over here. QUARRY    What? BUD    [realizing]  Oh?  Oh!  That's beautiful! QUARRY    I gotta get out of here! RENA    No. QUARRY    What? RENA    Do you have your story? QUARRY    Story? RENA    Play the crazy card. QUARRY    Crazy - Look, ask him-- no, I'll ask him-- [yelling off]  Am I out?  I mean, are we square? BUD    [smug] We'll know in just a sec, won't we? RENA    Fred, focus.  Crazy talk. QUARRY    Why? RENA    You're gonna get caught. QUARRY    No!  I mean - why? BUD    She's right.  About a surprising lot of things, Freddy babe.  You can't walk away free and clear, but-- INFERNIQUE    He's dead.  [mock sympathy] Before you could even get in there.  Too bad about that. QUARRY    [long squeal] Noooo! BUD    Ah, crap. RENA    [calm] I never said I was going to kill him. INFERNIQUE    You-- RENA    I specified "as long as he's dead by midnight--" and you agreed. MATILDA    [on radio]  You want a playback on that?  For your records, maybe? INDERNIQUE    Blast you! BUD    You can blast me, babe.  But... you know you gotta come through.  For her. INFERNIQUE    [long hissing breath as she decides]  Fine!  But you may just rue this day later. BUD    Freddy there will. QUARRY    I'm just tickled there is a later. BUD    Oh, yeah.  You're clear.  [to Inf]  Shall we?  I know this cute little place where they make the best lobster calzone.  Mwa! [to Fred] Make sure your check doesn't bounce.  Those chicks'll fuck you up. RENA    Yup. QUARRY    Cash it quick. RENA    Now for the crazy talk. MUSIC TV NEWS    --Remanded for psychiatric evaluation after he broke down on the stand and claimed that the devil demanded he kill or be killed. MATILDA    Tsk.  They should be nicer to that poor boy. RENA    Why? MATILDA    The rest of the news is all politicians and disasters.  RENA    So? MATILDA    He's a rarity. RENA    A celebrity criminal? MATILDA    Someone actually telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. RENA    [almost a chuckle] CLOSER

Ben and comedian Mehul Patel (@mehulpatelnyc) look back at the roller coaster life and career of the "Mayor for Life" of Washington DC, Marion Barry. Check out Mehul's show on April 27th at the Paradise Club in the Edition Hotel!

Red Grant talks running for mayor of DC, comedy roots, Marion Barry and MORE

On this episode, Jay showed luv to his city for naming a day after Marion Barry, the WNBA bamming out again, along with the sneaks of the week, & of course the much anticipated Pound 4 Pound segment along with the Righteously Ratchet segment to bring it home. Anyway, tap in with the pod by following everything j.o.t. on the link, below. Like.Share.Subscribe.   ► www.podpage.com/jumpin_out_there/

On this episode, Jay showed luv to his city for naming a day after Marion Barry, the WNBA bamming out again, along with the sneaks of the week, & of course the much anticipated Pound 4 Pound segment along with the Righteously Ratchet segment to bring it home. Anyway, tap in with the pod by following everything j.o.t. on the link, below. Like.Share.Subscribe. ► https://www.podpage.com/jumpin_out_there/

On this episode, Jay showed luv to his city for naming a day after Marion Barry, the WNBA bamming out again, along with the sneaks of the week, & of course the much anticipated Pound 4 Pound segment along with the Righteously Ratchet segment to bring it home. Anyway, tap in with the pod by following everything j.o.t. on the link, below.Like.Share.Subscribe. ► www.podpage.com/jumpin_out_there/

In just over two months, there will be an equal amount of time between light and dark as the world approaches equinox. Until then, there’s enough time to spend this winter gathering up enough information to see us through the summer. But in all likelihood, the warmer times will be just as busy. It’s January 19, 2022 and this is Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. (Apologies that this one was sent twice - there was an error in the first one that I could not edit and somehow had to publish a second time!)On today’s program: City Council selects an interim city manager from three candidates picked by a consultant Albemarle is looking for people to join various boards and commissions, including a vacancy on the Architectural Review BoardThe Albemarle Economic Development Authority discusses an outstanding loan to the Lewis and Clark Exploratory CenterA brief update from the Virginia General AssemblyFirst shout-out goes to Camp AlbemarleToday’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study of ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting http://campalbemarleva.org/donate. Council picks former D.C. administrator to run the city A former city administrator from Washington D.C. will serve as Charlottesville’s latest interim city manager. Here’s City Councilor Michael Payne reading from the resolution. “Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Charlottesville that the Robert Bobb Group having previously having been awarded a contract to provide interim city manager services has offered Mr. Michael C. Rogers as its key personnel to be assigned by the firm to perform the duties of City Manager,”  Payne said. Rogers served as D.C.’s administrator in the mid 1990’s at the same time Marion Barry was serving in his last term as Mayor. He resigned in 1997, according to coverage in the Washington Post at that time. Rogers was introduced by Robert Bobb of the Robert Bobb Group. “Michael Rogers has a doctorate, has a J.D. degree, a master’s in public policy, and has over 30 years of experience in municipal government and in the private sector,” Bobb said. “He has served as the city administrator of the District of Columbia and as a director of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government, the regional planning agency.”Rogers held that position for four and a half years and was commended in a resolution from January 2003. From April 2018 to July 2019, Rogers served as the chief operating officer and chief financial officer in Petersburg. He resigned from the position according to this story from WTVR and this one from NBC12. He’s also served as chief procurement officer for the City of New York. Rogers thanked Council for selecting him. “I am excited about this opportunity,” Rogers said. “I can tell you what I know about Charlottesville. Early in my career, I met a man named Cole Hendrix who was your long-term city manager. I kind of grew up with him in my career. I can still remember the excitement and joy in his voice when he talked about his city of Charlottesville.”Hendrix served in the position from 1971 to 1996. Rogers said he has been here a couple of times, and has a lot to learn. “I look forward to coming to town, hitting the ground running, working with you, listening to you, understanding the issues that are immediately before you so that we can work on constructive solutions for addressing problems and issues for the citizens of the citizens and residents of the city of Charlottesville,” Rogers said. Rogers begins work on January 31. Storm clean-up updateBefore then, Deputy City Manager Ashley Marshall and Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders are in charge of day-to-day affairs. Sanders gave Council an update on the city’s response to recent winter storms.“It has been a trying time I must say in Public Works in that we’ve had these two storms back to back with very little time in between, “ Sanders said “That has provided less opportunity for us to make really sure everything is working as we need it work because we haven’t had downtime.” Sanders said a third of the public works operations team were not able to work due to COVID. “And in that, of course that may lead to some things not necessarily getting addressed the way we have been accustomed to addressing in the past so we do apologize for any issues that might have come up over the course of the past day and a half,” Sanders said. Sanders said work is now underway to prepare for the next round of winter weather. Openings available on Albemarle government panelsThe Albemarle Architectural Review Board met yesterday with four members. Fred Missel stepped down from that body when he was appointed to the Albemarle Planning Commission. The group selected Chris Henningsen to serve as its chair and Frank Hancock as the vice chair. Would you like to be the fifth member? Go ahead and apply. Or check out all of the vacancies on boards and commissions and throw your hat in the ring for one of those! Two vacancies on the 5th and Avon Community Advisory CommitteeOne opening on the Acquisitions of Conservation Easements CommitteeFour slots on the Charlottesville-Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive CommitteeSeveral vacancies on the Crozet Community Advisory CommitteeTwo terms of existing members of the Economic Development Authority Board of Commissioners are ending soon Three vacancies on the Natural Heritage CommitteeThree openings on the Pantops Community Advisory CommitteeOne slot on the Places-29 Hydraulic Community Advisory CommitteeFive immediate vacancies on the Places29-North Community Advisory CommitteeOne definite appointment and five four terms are pending on the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee Second subscriber-supporter public service announcement goes to Shift/EnterDo you or someone you know want to find a job in the tech community? On this upcoming Saturday, there will be another Shift/Enter workshop in which participants can go through directed sessions with knowledgeable volunteers on resume feedback, interview advice, and perspectives on the tech landscape. For an $8 ticket, you'll have three different interview sessions with people to have a career conversation, to review your resume, or to have a mock interview. To learn more and to sign up, visit shiftenter.org. Albemarle EDA briefed on 2022 plans, Lewis and Clark Loan There will be no change in leadership on Albemarle’s Economic Development Authority. Donald Long will remain the chair, George Ray will stay the vice chair, and David Shreve gets to keep being treasurer. The group met virtually yesterday and heard from Economic Development Director Roger Johnson about what his office will be up to this year. In the first part of the year, COVID remains a threat to business as usual and Johnson said help will be available from economic development. “We would expect there would continue to be COVID prophylactics, particularly when you think about some of the things that we have done historically,”  Johnson said. “It includes things like the LIFT grant, microloan programs, Safe Places and Safe Spaces.”Previous funding has come through the federal CARES Act of 2020. To see how that money’s been used to date, visit enablealbemarle.org. Johnson said this year the EDA’s Board of Commissioners will review a new grant program in Albemarle to encourage the reuse of historic buildings. He also said the EDA may be looking to purchase land. “There are many ways that the Economic Development Authority can promote economic development through land ownership so we may be coming back to this particular board to talk about ways in land ownership or site control which may advance the county’s mission to accomplish a sustainable economy,” Johnson said. The EDA was also given an update on an outstanding loan granted to the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center. Nine years ago, the nonprofit borrowed $260,000 from the economic development authorities of both Albemarle and Charlottesville to cover the unanticipated cost of drilling rock as the center was being at Darden-Towe Park. Richard DeLoria is a senior assistant county attorney. “The loan originated in 2013 and there have been two amendments to the loan and the second one extends the performance date to June 30, 2018,” Deloria said. To date, the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center has not made a payment and has been seeking to forgive the loan. City Council voted in November 2015 to do so, but only if Albemarle followed suit. The Board of Supervisors opted to not grant forgiveness two years later and the matter remains unresolved. “The primary purpose is to make you aware that this authority needs to take action between now and June 30, 2023 or lose legal standing,” Johnson said. Donald Long said a decision on forgiveness is not up to the EDA.“The Board of Supervisors provided the money to us to turn around and make the loan so ultimately it is the Board of Supervisors’ decision about whether they want to forgive it,” Long said. “We obviously may have the legal authority if we chose to do that but I think the Board appropriated the money for that purpose so my view is that our obligation is to continue to collect or take reasonable efforts to do it unless we’re given direction by the Board of Supervisors to forgive it.”Long suggested convening a group to work with the Center to work out a payment arrangement. “We need to take some steps to figure out what’s going on and try to at least come up with a plan to move forward,” Long said. The Center has been paying the interest on the loan. Johnson said he would reach out to the Center. General Assembly updateSeveral more bills in the Virginia Senate have ended their journey in the 2022 General Assembly through dismissals by various committees. But that’s never the complete story. Or is it? This process moves so fast and it is hard to keep track of it all. Yet, I shall endeavor. This update is as of 8 a.m. this morning. A bill from Senator Chap Petersen (D-34) to institute a $20,000 cap on individual contributions to candidates in Virginia was passed on indefinitely in the Privileges and Elections committee. (SB44)Senator Joe Morrissey (D-16) had a cap of $25,000, and that bill was also passed on indefinitely (SB111)Two bills failed that would have required voters to present photo identification. A bill (SB118) from Senator Amanda Chase (R-11) was incorporated into another bill by Senator Mark Obenshain (R-26) which was also passed on by indefinitely on a unanimous committee vote. (SB127) Another bill from Senator Mark Peake would have required registrars to verify each voter by name, date of birth, and social security number was passed on a 9 to 6 vote in the Privileges and Elections Committee. (SB162)Another bill from Peake would have ended a provision allowing people to vote on their day of registration. This was also defeated on a 9 to 6 vote. (SB167)Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here!On today’s program: City Council selects an interim city manager from three candidates picked by a consultant Albemarle is looking for people to join various boards and commissions, including a vacancy on the Architectural Review BoardThe Albemarle Economic Development Authority discusses an outstanding loan to the Lewis and Clark Exploratory CenterA brief update from the Virginia General AssemblyFirst shout-out goes to Camp AlbemarleToday’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study of ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting http://campalbemarleva.org/donate. Council picks former D.C. administrator to run the city A former city administrator from Washington D.C. will serve as Charlottesville’s latest interim city manager. Here’s City Councilor Michael Payne reading from the resolution. “Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Charlottesville that the Robert Bobb Group having previously having been awarded a contract to provide interim city manager services has offered Mr. Michael C. Rogers as its key personnel to be assigned by the firm to perform the duties of City Manager,”  Payne said. Rogers served as D.C.’s administrator in the mid 1990’s at the same time Marion Barry was serving in his last term as Mayor. He resigned in 1997, according to coverage in the Washington Post at that time. Rogers was introduced by Robert Bobb of the Robert Bobb Group. “Michael Rogers has a doctorate, has a J.D. degree, a master’s in public policy, and has over 30 years of experience in municipal government and in the private sector,” Bobb said. “He has served as the city administrator of the District of Columbia and as a director of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government, the regional planning agency.”Rogers held that position for four and a half years and was commended in a resolution from January 2003. From April 2018 to July 2019, Rogers served as the chief operating officer and chief financial officer in Petersburg. He resigned from the position according to this story from WTVR and this one from NBC12. He’s also served as chief procurement officer for the City of New York. Rogers thanked Council for selecting him. “I am excited about this opportunity,” Rogers said. “I can tell you what I know about Charlottesville. Early in my career, I met a man named Cole Hendrix who was your long-term city manager. I kind of grew up with him in my career. I can still remember the excitement and joy in his voice when he talked about his city of Charlottesville.”Hendrix served in the position from 1971 to 1996. Rogers said he has been here a couple of times, and has a lot to learn. “I look forward to coming to town, hitting the ground running, working with you, listening to you, understanding the issues that are immediately before you so that we can work on constructive solutions for addressing problems and issues for the citizens of the citizens and residents of the city of Charlottesville,” Rogers said. Rogers begins work on January 31. Storm clean-up updateBefore then, Deputy City Manager Ashley Marshall and Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders are in charge of day-to-day affairs. Sanders gave Council an update on the city’s response to recent winter storms.“It has been a trying time I must say in Public Works in that we’ve had these two storms back to back with very little time in between, “ Sanders said “That has provided less opportunity for us to make really sure everything is working as we need it work because we haven’t had downtime.” Sanders said a third of the public works operations team were not able to work due to COVID. “And in that, of course that may lead to some things not necessarily getting addressed the way we have been accustomed to addressing in the past so we do apologize for any issues that might have come up over the course of the past day and a half,” Sanders said. Sanders said work is now underway to prepare for the next round of winter weather. Openings available on Albemarle government panelsThe Albemarle Architectural Review Board met yesterday with four members. Fred Missel stepped down from that body when he was appointed to the Albemarle Planning Commission. The group selected Chris Henningsen to serve as its chair and Frank Hancock as the vice chair. Would you like to be the fifth member? Go ahead and apply. Or check out all of the vacancies on boards and commissions and throw your hat in the ring for one of those! Two vacancies on the 5th and Avon Community Advisory CommitteeOne opening on the Acquisitions of Conservation Easements CommitteeFour slots on the Charlottesville-Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive CommitteeSeveral vacancies on the Crozet Community Advisory CommitteeTwo terms of existing members of the Economic Development Authority Board of Commissioners are ending soon Three vacancies on the Natural Heritage CommitteeThree openings on the Pantops Community Advisory CommitteeOne slot on the Places-29 Hydraulic Community Advisory CommitteeFive immediate vacancies on the Places29-North Community Advisory CommitteeOne definite appointment and five four terms are pending on the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee Second subscriber-supporter public service announcement goes to Shift/EnterDo you or someone you know want to find a job in the tech community? On this upcoming Saturday, there will be another Shift/Enter workshop in which participants can go through directed sessions with knowledgeable volunteers on resume feedback, interview advice, and perspectives on the tech landscape. For an $8 ticket, you'll have three different interview sessions with people to have a career conversation, to review your resume, or to have a mock interview. To learn more and to sign up, visit shiftenter.org. Albemarle EDA briefed on 2022 plans, Lewis and Clark Loan There will be no change in leadership on Albemarle’s Economic Development Authority. Donald Long will remain the chair, George Ray will stay the vice chair, and David Shreve gets to keep being treasurer. The group met virtually yesterday and heard from Economic Development Director Roger Johnson about what his office will be up to this year. In the first part of the year, COVID remains a threat to business as usual and Johnson said help will be available from economic development. “We would expect there would continue to be COVID prophylactics, particularly when you think about some of the things that we have done historically,”  Johnson said. “It includes things like the LIFT grant, microloan programs, Safe Places and Safe Spaces.”Previous funding has come through the federal CARES Act of 2020. To see how that money’s been used to date, visit enablealbemarle.org. Johnson said this year the EDA’s Board of Commissioners will review a new grant program in Albemarle to encourage the reuse of historic buildings. He also said the EDA may be looking to purchase land. “There are many ways that the Economic Development Authority can promote economic development through land ownership so we may be coming back to this particular board to talk about ways in land ownership or site control which may advance the county’s mission to accomplish a sustainable economy,” Johnson said. The EDA was also given an update on an outstanding loan granted to the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center. Nine years ago, the nonprofit borrowed $260,000 from the economic development authorities of both Albemarle and Charlottesville to cover the unanticipated cost of drilling rock as the center was being at Darden-Towe Park. Richard DeLoria is a senior assistant county attorney. “The loan originated in 2013 and there have been two amendments to the loan and the second one extends the performance date to June 30, 2018,” Deloria said. To date, the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center has not made a payment and has been seeking to forgive the loan. City Council voted in November 2015 to do so, but only if Albemarle followed suit. The Board of Supervisors opted to not grant forgiveness two years later and the matter remains unresolved. “The primary purpose is to make you aware that this authority needs to take action between now and June 30, 2023 or lose legal standing,” Johnson said. Donald Long said a decision on forgiveness is not up to the EDA.“The Board of Supervisors provided the money to us to turn around and make the loan so ultimately it is the Board of Supervisors’ decision about whether they want to forgive it,” Long said. “We obviously may have the legal authority if we chose to do that but I think the Board appropriated the money for that purpose so my view is that our obligation is to continue to collect or take reasonable efforts to do it unless we’re given direction by the Board of Supervisors to forgive it.”Long suggested convening a group to work with the Center to work out a payment arrangement. “We need to take some steps to figure out what’s going on and try to at least come up with a plan to move forward,” Long said. The Center has been paying the interest on the loan. Johnson said he would reach out to the Center. General Assembly updateSeveral more bills in the Virginia Senate have ended their journey in the 2022 General Assembly through dismissals by various committees. But that’s never the complete story. Or is it? This process moves so fast and it is hard to keep track of it all. Yet, I shall endeavor. This update is as of 8 a.m. this morning. A bill from Senator Chap Petersen (D-34) to institute a $20,000 cap on individual contributions to candidates in Virginia was passed on indefinitely in the Privileges and Elections committee. (SB44)Senator Joe Morrissey (D-16) had a cap of $25,000, and that bill was also passed on indefinitely (SB111)Two bills failed that would have required voters to present photo identification. A bill (SB118) from Senator Amanda Chase (R-11) was incorporated into another bill by Senator Mark Obenshain (R-26) which was also passed on by indefinitely on a unanimous committee vote. (SB127) Another bill from Senator Mark Peake would have required registrars to verify each voter by name, date of birth, and social security number was passed on a 9 to 6 vote in the Privileges and Elections Committee. (SB162)Another bill from Peake would have ended a provision allowing people to vote on their day of registration. This was also defeated on a 9 to 6 vote. (SB167)Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

BlaZae speaks with comedian Joe O'day on the phone about a wild incident that happened on Christmas Eve. Follow Joe on Twitter @Joeydanger5Follow BlaZae on Social Media!https://www.instagram.com/occultcomic33/https://www.facebook.com/blazeybeyhttps://www.facebook.com/thelefthandp...https://twitter.com/blazaebeySend us an email at lefthandperspective1@gmail.comSupport the show (https://cash.app/$lefthandperspective)

In this episode we explore the stoner tangent. With help from some of our dear friends and family we discuss topics popcorn style. Lets see what sticks. **Disclaimers** The opinions and views expressed in this podcast are solely those of our own. The research done for this episode was done with utmost care and respect. If you found we have misrepresented, misinterpreted, or flat out got it wrong please reach out to us and respectfully share your story or provide your sources. Thank you. This episode contains discussions of violence and substance use. Listener discretion is advised. Marijuana is not legal in all states. Please check your state's laws before engaging in recreational use. Please do not smoke and drive. Smoke responsibly. Marijuana should be done with consent. Please respect others' decisions not to engage in recreational marijuana use. Mature audiences advised. Resources for Episode: Insomnia Cookies https://insomniacookies.com/ Maraschino Cherries - https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/maraschino_cherries/#.YZLo0GBKiUk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry vs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marionberry  Huckleberry is the state fruit of Idaho but it is very popular in states all along the Rockies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huckleberry Producers: Sarah Etherton and Kiki Rau Research & Scripting: Kiki Rau Editing: Sarah Etherton Logo Art: Ali McQueen -  instagram.com/taller_mcqueen Season Album Art: Heather Lisonbee -  instagram.com/featherbee_art Intro-music Merry Bay by Ghostrifter Official https://soundcloud.com/ghostrifter-official Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Sound effects from freesound.org: Bong Rip by somthingwild https://freesound.org/s/180227/ Dark loops pack 202  by josefpres https://freesound.org/s/569977/ Contact us at: instagram.com/tokelore.podcast tokelorepod@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tokelore/message

Tim is originally from Florida and has resided in New Hampshire for over 20 years. He has been married to his wife, Karen, for 25 years, and Tim also has two beautiful children, a dog, and a cat. Before moving to New Hampshire, Tim spent six years in the US Navy. He served as a Deep Sea Diver and was stationed in Pearl Harbor, HI., and San Diego, CA. After leaving the Navy to pursue law enforcement, Tim moved to New Hampshire and started his education. He attended the http://www.nhti.edu/ (New Hampshire Technical Institute) and ultimately obtained his Associate's Degree in Criminal Justice. Tim later obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice Administration from the http://www.phoenix.edu/ (University of Phoenix). Tim also holds a Master's in Business Administration. Tim became a New Hampshire certified police officer in 1996 (110th Academy) as a member of the Litchfield Police Department. He worked there as a Patrol Officer for two years before moving to the Londonderry Police Department. Tim spent the remainder of his career with the http://londonderrynh.org/Pages/LondonderryNH_Police/Index (Londonderry Police Department). In total, Tim has 20 years of law enforcement experience. He retired on May 31, 2016. Over Tim's career, he served as Patrol Officer, School Resource Officer, SWAT Operator and Sniper, Detective, Patrol Sergeant, Detective Sergeant, and ultimately as a Lieutenant. Tim has an extensive amount of experience with testing new candidates for police officer positions, as well as with conducting background investigations. As a supervisor, Tim has become well versed with the minutia of testing, interviewing, evaluating, and investigating prospective police candidates. In addition, he has assisted many other New Hampshire police agencies with their hiring and promotional processes. Tim served as a supervisor for 11 years. He attended several law enforcement leadership courses, including the Massachusetts Leadership Institute and the FBI LEEDA Command Leadership Course. Tim authored the curricula for the first-line supervisor leadership development class, the report writing class and co-authored the advanced leadership course. Tim has an extensive history with teaching, both with his prior agency and with his company. https://www.gs-pcc.com/about-us/ (https://www.gs-pcc.com/about-us/) The Police and The People Podcast https://www.gs-pcc.com/the-police-and-the-people-podcast/ (https://www.gs-pcc.com/the-police-and-the-people-podcast/) Transcript https://www.mediafire.com/file/h3tw4kcyffiphhf/Tim_Jones.docx/file (Here) https://www.cato.org/survey-reports/policing-america-understanding-public-attitudes-toward-police-results-national (CATO Study here---> LINK) CG 8225: The People and the Police Here is a link---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlTRDq-CsZo (Here) Case Study https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlTRDq-CsZo Creator(s): Office of Economic Opportunity. Office of Public Affairs. 1964-1981 (Most Recent) Series: Motion Picture Films From the "Police" Program Series, ca. 1971 - ca. 1971 Record Group 381: Records of the Community Services Administration, 1963 - 1981 Production Date: 1971 General Note(s): Credits: Id/Dir. Robert Pierce. Contributor: Producer, Office of Economic Opportunity. Made by Guggenheim Productions. Scope and Content: Documentary: Documents the early, turbulent years of OEO'S experiment in police-community relations in Washington, DC R.1: Police and citizens express their attitudes toward each other. A citizens committee is appointed by the D.C. government, but dissension ensues over control of the program. Project director, Robert Shallow addresses the group; community leader Marion Barry urges citizen control, A pilot precinct is finally selected. R. 2: Police engage in training sessions, and community leaders struggle to replace the committee with elected representatives. A citizens' board is elected and the white project leader is...

In this Impromptu Episode We discuss Nick's stance as a trump supporter, Should Barack Obama have been more like Marion Barry, Dave Chappelle's Battle with Viacom and Is Africa's perceived poverty a plan created by the White Elite. The NICK and MAL show explores current events, sports, entertainment, growing pains, and personal topics…the only way two best friends could. In this fast paced, captivating, and hilarious podcast. Meet your two new favorite hosts…Nick a trinidadian born, country spirited mofo, and Malcolm a laid back, goal oriented, mofo. Tune in weekly for new content!!! Are you busy? And only want to watch clips from our podcast episodes? Then click the link below

The civil rights movement is reshaping D.C.'s push for representation and local control. Will local leaders like Walter Fauntroy and Marion Barry be able to get the city on solid ground? This is the third episode of 51st, from WAMU's What's With Washington. To support the show, visit wamu.org/supportwhatswith.

Episode #19 Megan Barry isn't as bad as Marion Barry. In fact, Christal doesn't even believe she should be punished as we've all been taught that security details are the equivalent of a knight in shining armor (cue the Bodyguard soundtrack). No one is hiring an IG model to be a nanny for their kids. Kevin says it would be too much trouble with the Mrs. B-Honest doesn't want his kids getting thot morals. Christal believes no man can resist T&A consistently or consecutively. B-Honest challenges the notion that any woman could be worth 10 million for the night and Kevin believes size matters. Christal admits she can be bought for much less than 10 million but she isn't giving up her body count.

Today's show will highlight two young, beautiful and extremely talented ladies who are spreading empowerment, positivity and most importantly the gospel through their music. They are the creators of this shows theme song "G.O.E.," God Over Everything.  Not yet old enough to vote these two have been spreading their message through music since they were toddlers.  Their passion for their ministry has given them the platform to perform for Mayors Vincent Gray and Marion Barry, as well as Eleanor Holmes Norton. Wth numerous notable performances under their belt, they also have the drive to perform overseas. We look forward to hearing more about their beginnings in ministry, testimonies, what their working on now and their plans for the future. WCS WEEKLY BROADCASTS: “His Abounding Grace”(Tuesdays @ 7 pm) ”Challenged To Change”(Wednesdays @7pm) "Declaring The Finished Work" (Thursdays @ 12 Noon) "Friday Night Joy" (Fridays @ 7pm) "Bread of Life” (Sundays @ 7 pm) MONTHLY BROADCASTS: “LifeLine (1st Mondays @ 7pm) “Adoration” (3rd Mondays @7pm) “Bold And Beautiful” (2nd Saturdays @ 10:00am) “The Alabaster Box”( 4th Saturdays@ 7:00pm) WEEKLY PRAYER:  “Mid-Day Glory Prayer” (Wednesdays @ 1:00 pm) Dial-in#:(641) 715-3580 Access Code:732-499 (All Times Are Eastern Standard)

Today's Best Of features crows! Silver alerts! Marion Barry and more!

Marion Barry stops by for a visit today! Plus... Saint Nick has a little problem, Mike is a hip dad and Date Lab 2015.

Rod and Karen are joined by Romane Walters to discuss getting his laptop stole, Bill Cosby, Marion Barry dead, Kim K, Oreo biscuits come to churches, super cookies, prank it forward, #pointergate, stop and frisk PTSD, child porn tag team, jail sex, cliff pusher, cop exposes penis and sword ratchetness. Twitter: @rodimusprime @SayDatAgain @TBGWT @ThatBlack1 Email: theblackguywhotips@gmail.com Blog: www.theblackguywhotips.com Voice Mail: 704-557-0186

Slate political reporter David Weigel speaks with former D.C. mayor and current council-member Marion Barry about his new book, Mayor for Life. Barry discusses contemporary racism, the decriminalization of marijuana, and his own exploitation by "white reporters." Part of a #Pressing Series presented by GE.