All posts tagged "Sherd Brown"

CHICAGO — As a little girl in the 1980s, Khalalisa Norris aspired to become a letter carrier. She’d sit on her front porch in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood and wait for her local mailman, and eventual mail lady, each day.

In her 20s, Norris realized her dream, and ever since, she’s delivered mail on Chicago’s West Side.

But that dream became a nightmare....

For 12 years, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) has pushed for a ban on congressional stock trading, calling the practice “corrupt,” “unacceptable” and “wrong.”

The first time he and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) presented an amendment in 2012 that would prohibit members of Congress from playing the stock market, they only got 26 votes in support.

Now, Merkley is confident an amended version of the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act has enough bipartisan support that it will come out of a markup meeting with the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday with the votes necessary to present the amendment for a vote....

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) pleaded not guilty to bribery in New York today after allegedly pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and a sleek Mercedes-Benz.

At a press conference this week, the senator refused to resign and explained that the close-to-$500,000 in cash stuffed in his clothes was his rainy day fund, legally withdrawn from his bank — although he didn’t elaborate on where the upward of $100,000 in gold came from, let alone the black Benz.

So, are piles of cash and gold just a normal part of life in the secretive club that is the United States Senate?...