The principal at Tunstall High School believes an outbreak of chickenpox is under control. 25 students have the disease. The Health Department spent the start of this week giving vaccinations to more than 100 students at both Tunstall High School and Tunstall Middle School. The schools are beside one another. There are only ten days left in the school year and nurses will monitor the chicken pox outbreak until then. Last week nearly two dozen students reported the sickness within three days, the highest number of cases at one time at Tunstall.
Biohazard name:
Chickenpox
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Humans passing drug resistance to animals in protected Africa
by Staff Writers Blacksburg VA (SPX) Apr 26, 2013
This shows Virginia Tech researcher Kathleen Alexander (left) and Risa Pesapane of Portsmouth, Va., a former master’s student studying wildlife science in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, working at the study site in Botswana. Researchers have discovered that humans are passing antibiotic resistance to wildlife, especially in protected areas where numbers of humans are limited. In the case of banded mongoose, multidrug resistance among study social groups was higher in the protected area than in troops living in village areas. The study also reveals that humans and mongoose appear to be readily exchanging fecal microorganisms, increasing the potential for disease transmission. Credit: Virginia Tech.
A team of Virginia Tech researchers has discovered that humans are passing antibiotic resistance to wildlife, especially in protected areas where numbers of humans are limited.
In the case of banded mongoose in a Botswana study, multidrug resistance among study social groups, or troops, was higher in the protected area than in troops living in village areas.
The study also reveals that humans and mongoose appear to be readily exchanging fecal microorganisms, increasing the potential for disease transmission.
“The research identifies the coupled nature of humans, animals, and the natural environment across landscapes, even those designated as protected,” said Kathleen Alexander, an associate professor of wildlife in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.
“With few new antibiotics on the horizon, wide-scale antibiotic resistance in wildlife across the environment presents a critical threat to human and animal health. As humans and animals exchange microorganisms, the threat of emerging disease also increases.”
The National Science Foundation-funded research project investigating how pathogens might move between humans and animals was published April 24, 2013 by EcoHealth.
“Tracking Pathogen Transmission at the Human-Wildlife Interface: Banded Mongoose and Escherichia coli” is co-authored by Risa Pesapane of Portsmouth, Va., then a wildlife sciences master’s student at Virginia Tech; microbiologist Monica Ponder, an assistant professor of food science and technology in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and Alexander, who is the corresponding author.
Alexander and Ponder are both affiliated with Virginia Tech’s Fralin Life Science Institute.
Alexander, a veterinarian and researcher with the nonprofit Center for African Resources: Animals, Communities, and Land Use (CARACAL), has been conducting a long-term ecological study of banded mongoose in the region.
The researchers collected fecal samples from three troops of banded mongoose living in Botswana’s Chobe National Park and three troops living in villages outside the park.
“Banded mongoose forage in garbage resources and search for insects in fecal waste, including human sources found in the environment,” said Alexander. “Mongoose contact with other wildlife and humans, and broad occurrence across the landscape, makes this species an ideal candidate for evaluating microbial exchange and the potential for pathogens to be transmitted and emerge at the human-wildlife interface.”
With the exception of one mongoose troop, all study animals had some level of their range overlap with human populations. Two of the study troops had home ranges that included ecotourism facilities in the protected area, with some contact with humans and development “but at a much lower level than in the village troops,” the article reported.
Fecal samples were collected from these mongoose troops living in a protected area and in surrounding villages. Human feces were collected from sewage treatment facilities, environmental spills, and bush latrines or sites of open-air defecation within mongoose home ranges.
The team used Escherichia coli (E. coli), which is commonly found in the gut of humans and animals, as a model microorganism to investigate the potential for microorganisms to move between humans and wildlife. They evaluated the degree of antibiotic resistance considered an important signature of bacteria that arise from human sources.
The researchers also extracted data from the local hospital to assess antibiotic resistance among patients and identify resistance patterns in the region. Like many places in Africa, antibiotics are widely available and there are few controls on the dispensing of such drugs.
Posted: 8:55 PM
Last Updated: 3 hours and 9 minutes ago
By: Mike Masco
Baltimore, MD – A brilliant meteor moved across the Maryland sky Friday evening. Reports across the state confirmed a small meteor burning up as it entered our atmosphere. People from Virginia to New England saw this ball of light.
Kim Fox shot this video from a surveillance camera in Thurmont, MD earlier this evening.
What is a meteor?
Meteors are most often seen as a very brief streak of light in the night sky. They typically occur and disappear so quickly that you wonder if you actually saw them. These streaks of light are commonly called “shooting stars” or “falling stars”. Although they are most often seen at night, especially bright meteors can be seen during daylight. The photo at right shows a meteor in the sky over Quebec, Canada on an early November morning.
The bright streak of light spotted over the region Friday evening was in fact a meteor, StormTeam 4 Meteorologist Doug Kammerer has confirmed.
Multiple reports began coming in around 8 p.m. People spotted the streak of light in both Maryland and Virginia — and as far north as New York and Maine. Many said it appeared to be blue or green.
The meteor was traveling about 10 miles per second, much faster than even a speeding bullet, Kammerer said.
While meteors are not rare and come through the Earth’s atmosphere every day, this meteor was larger than usual, which is what made it much easier to see, Kammerer said. That’s why it had such a dramatic light.
About 50 people contacted the American Meteor Society on Thursday with reports of a “green fireball” lighting up the sky. Sightings were reported in Ventura, Anaheim, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, Paso Robles, San Francisco and Santa Barbara, according to the group’s website.
Photographer Susan Lary of the Southern California Weather Authority captured the so-called fireball and provided the image to NBC News.
“I saw a light and looked directly at the meteor as it came down in the ocean off Corona Del Mar. Bits came off, and it was bright white,” Laguna Hills resident Patric Barry wrote in an email to NBC4.
Barry spotted the object out of his living room window about 10:35 p.m.
The sightings come days after Bay Area residents were treated to a light show of their own when a fireball was seen streaking across the sky.
Another fireball sighting was reported this month in Florida, but the most spectacular celestial event occurred when a meteor soared over Russia before the rock slammed into Earth’s surface, sending shockwaves across a widespread area.
East Coast residents were buzzing on social media sites and elsewhere Friday night after a brief but bright flash of light streaked across the sky in what experts say was almost certainly a meteor coming down.
Some Twitter users reported that the meteor crashed somewhere near the Delaware-Maryland border.
And a car dealer north of Seaford released a video image said to show the bright object in the sky.
Terry Lake of Rehoboth Beach reported on Facebook, “We saw it as we were heading east on Rt 9 toward Lewes. It was traveling north of us and appeared to burn out right before we reached the light at Dairy Farm Rd. Wow.”
The Delmar Weather page on Facebook had numerous other reports of sightings.
Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environmental Office said the flash appears to be “a single meteor event.” He said it “looks to be a fireball that moved roughly toward the southeast, going on visual reports.”
“Judging from the brightness, we’re dealing with something as bright as the full moon,” Cooke said. “The thing is probably a yard across. We basically have (had) a boulder enter the atmosphere over the northeast.”
He noted that the meteor was widely seen, about 400 reports on the website of the American Meteor Society alone.
“If you have something this bright carry over that heavily populated area, a lot of people are going to see it,” he said. “It occurred around 8 tonight, there were a lot of people out, and you’ve got all those big cities out there.”
Matt Moore, a news editor with The Associated Press, said he was standing in line for a concert in downtown Philadelphia around dusk when he saw “a brilliant flash moving across the sky at a very brisk pace… and utterly silent.”
“It was clearly high up in the atmosphere,” he said. “But from the way it appeared, it looked like a plane preparing to land at the airport.”
Virginia Department of Forestry crews and Scott County volunteer firefighters spent several hours Saturday battling a wildfire that burned more than a dozen acres of forest just north of Gate City. VDOF officials said the blaze, which began just before 3 p.m. approximately four miles north of Gate City, claimed a total of 15 acres of mostly wooded land. Crews with the VDOF, the Gate City Volunteer Fire Department and Duffield Volunteer Fire Department worked until 7 p.m. to bring the fire under control, forestry officials said. The cause of the blaze was not immediately determined and is still under investigation. The fire reportedly began in a field off Harness Lane before spreading to the nearby forest. A forestry official said measures had to be taken to protect several nearby homes and farm structures. The official noted that burning is currently prohibited in Virginia prior to 4 p.m. because of dry conditions that are normally seen this time of year. The 4 p.m. burn ban began Feb. 15 and remains in effect through April 30.
GATE CITY — Virginia Department of Forestry crews and Scott County volunteer firefighters spent several hours Saturday battling a wildfire that burned more than a dozen acres of forest just north of Gate City.
VDOF officials said the blaze, which began just before 3 p.m. approximately four miles north of Gate City, claimed a total of 15 acres of mostly wooded land.
Crews with the VDOF, the Gate City Volunteer Fire Department and Duffield Volunteer Fire Department worked until 7 p.m. to bring the fire under control, forestry officials said.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately determined and is still under investigation.
The fire reportedly began in a field off Harness Lane before spreading to the nearby forest. A forestry official said measures had to be taken to protect several nearby homes and farm structures.
The official noted that burning is currently prohibited in Virginia prior to 4 p.m. because of dry conditions that are normally seen this time of year.
The 4 p.m. burn ban began Feb. 15 and remains in effect through April 30.
State lawmakers in Maine have taken the initial steps towards limiting the use of drones by both state and local law enforcement, joining the many other states around the country also looking to regulate drone use.
The legislation in Maine, which is waiting on a vote in the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, seems similar to that being considered in other states in that it “would limit the ability of state and local police to use drones and require a warrant before the unmanned vehicles are deployed in an investigation” according to the Portland Press Herald.
Unsurprisingly, the legislation has come up against resistance from law enforcement along with Maine’s Attorney General Janet Mills.
Mills claims that the bill is too broad and the Maine Department of Public Safety says that drones could come in handy for search and rescue operations. Much of the legislation around the country has a clause allowing for exemptions for emergency use.
The Maine Department of Public Safety already purchased a drone which, according to the deputy chief, was for the sake of “curiosity,” according to the Herald.
The bill is sponsored by Democratic state Senator John Patrick and is part of a larger effort by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to regulate the domestic drone use.
Bills that would limit the use of domestic drones in Virginia and Montana took an important step forward this week.
On Tuesday, the Montana Senate overwhelmingly passed anti-drone legislation.
Sen. Robyn Driscoll (D-Billings) introduced SB 150 last month. The bill would prohibit any state or local agency in Montana from owning an “unmanned aerial vehicle containing an antipersonnel device.” It would also make any evidence gathered by a drone inadmissible in a criminal proceeding. The legislation contains some teeth, opening the door for any victim of a drone to seek punitive and compensatory damages.
SB 150 passed the Senate by a 32-17 margin.
The bill will now move on for consideration in the House. It has not been assign to a committee at this time.
“Americans are tired of having their privacy violated by government functionaries, and its good to see states stepping in to say no. Here we have bills in two states, one sponsored by a Democrat, the other by a Republican, both garnering broad bipartisan support,” Maharrey said. “This is not a partisan issue. This is an American issue. We value our liberties and our right to just be left alone. I don’t think anybody is comfortable with the idea of drones hovering over our homes, especially when we see the potential for remote controlled execution. We already have a president claiming the authority to off Americans on a whim with the click of a button. Now is the time to nip this drone thing in the bud.”
On Monday, the Virginia House overwhelmingly passed HB2012, it’s own anti-drone bill. It would place a two-year moratorium on the use of unmanned aircraft by any state or local law enforcement agency in the Old Dominion State. The bill, sponsored by Delegate Benjamin Cline (R-Amherst), passed 83-16.
As introduced, the legislation only limited the use of drones until 2014. The version passed would prohibit their use, with a few exceptions, until July 2015.
HB2012 incorporated a stronger anti-drone measure. HB1616 would have permanently banned any state or local law enforcement agency from procuring “a public unmanned aircraft system (drone aircraft) without the approval of the General Assembly or the local governing body, respectively,” and would have required a warrant for their use.
This handsome longhaired gentle giant was a stray! He showed signs of neglect and was severely matted when my husband rescued him near our Town Highway Department. We surrendered him to our local shelter only to return and adopt him and give him the love and forever home he deserved! Turns out, he has given us so much more in return!
Kris & Al Jablonski
Cheektowaga, NY
ArchieWe had gone to a “meet and greet” to meet another dog, but returned with this furry little imp, a charming, smart, and lively combination of joy and mischief who was hard to resist. When the rescue group found him, he was just a puppy, miserable, hungry, and covered with mange. As if that weren’t enough, he had been born missing a bone in his right leg – the Vet’s advice was to let Mother Nature compensate for it, which she has done. A completely recovered and well fed Archie chases, rolls, and romps with dogs of all sizes as though he weighed a hundred pounds and loves every minute of it. He can be stubborn, bull-headed, and an incorrigible scamp, but he’s so happy and such a charmer, that when we should be upset with him, we end up laughing. He and Lucy, our other rescue dog, are like brother and sister and having them in our lives is a real joy.Joe Haggard
Austin, TX
Save a Senior Dog Like MiltonAs one owned by eight rescued animals, I subscribe to many sites on Facebook that cover the plight of “unwanted” pets. Just before Christmas I saw a bedraggled, blind, 10 year old Pomeranian that had been turned in at a shelter about 1.5 hours away.Who would take in such a dog? It worried me the entire weekend so first thing on Monday I called and asked them to make sure that they held him until we could get there to meet him.
He growled and snapped when the staff picked him up. He was dirty, underweight, had bad teeth, arthritic hips, damaged ears and a skin condition. He has cataracts. My husband is ill, so sat in a chair while I sat on the floor to get acquainted. Then I picked him up so that my husband could hold him – no snapping, no growling. He knew he had found a home.
After a few vet visits and some heavy duty grooming Milton (named after the blind English poet) has put on some needed weight and adjusted to his surroundings. We have a large yard with no obstructions and he loves to wander without fear of bumping into anything. He ignores the cats and is not intimidated by our three large dogs.
We love this little senior and hope that the love will keep him around a long time.
Margaret Eaton
Cadiz, KY
Margaret Eaton
Cadiz, KY
Meanie PieSomething small and fast moved behind my car. “Kitty,” I said, and it poked its head out. It was a guinea pig! From two sides, the neighborhood cats converged.I stamped my foot – and all three of them took off. I followed the guinea from yard to yard, corner to corner, across the street and back. The two cats moved in again. “Fssst.” I said to them, and again all three animals fled. The guinea ran into my garden. I moved close, talking softly. I put my hand out, and she crawled into it.
I don’t know what made me go outside that night, but I’m glad I did. Bad tempered as she can be, kicking and bucking like a tiny steer, bludgeoning my hands with her back legs and head, she is sometimes sweet and loving, coming to the door of her cage and nudging my nose with her own.
Tracey Hessler
Orlando, FL
Cyrus saved by FacebookI was cruising facebook 3 yrs ago and saw (then named Timber), shelter’s picture and it melted my heart. I inquired about him and and the next morning when I woke up there was a contact phone # for Sandy. I called her quickly hoping that the time zone difference was not gonna get her mad at me. She told me to call back in a half hour. When I did call her back i asked why? She said she had to make sure that Timber was still available as he was on the euthanasia list for that morning. Luckily I was in time. We set things in motion and a week later my Joplin Missouri dog was a proud Canadian crossing the Detroit border into Canada. Thanks to 3 kind hearted people who with the help of Facebook offered to help drive Cyrus (his new name for a new life) to me. Cyrus is a joy and has fit into my pack well. Adopting is always so rewarding.Julia Mccron
Guelph, ON, Canada
A Giant Gentle LoveOur pack had dwindled by 1 in November and it was the beginning of March. The ASPCA was a mile or so down the street from my office and I had not felt the urge to look in quite a few months. This Thursday lunchtime proved differently.As usual I went in looking for large dogs. I almost left but decided to look in the puppy room. Off to the side was a large room with this one huge dog – a great dane mix. I walked her and sat in the garden area where she practically crawled completely into my lap. She was ancient and had been sick. She had been a stray brought in with multiple issues. After about 20 minutes, I took her back in. I went home that night saying nothing to my husband. Friday I went again on lunch only to find her sick in with the vet. Over the weekend I discussed her with my husband. Monday, I went back. She was still in with the vet. I left word with the desk to call me when she was available. Tuesday they called. I went in on lunch again. Wednesday, St. Patrick’s Day, my husband, 65+ years, met me there. The shelter had a “special” on seniors taking seniors for free. My husband noticed her hips were bad and how emaciated she was. Neither one of us could stand her being left there. We adopted her right then and took her home naming her Melly.
Our cat watched her for less than 2 weeks before he decided Melly was ok. We had dear Melly for a mere 9 months before she had to leave us to cross the Rainbow Bridge. Time well spent!
The leader of Navy SEAL Team Four, one of the most senior commanders in the elite world of special operations, has died after apparently committing suicide in Afghanistan, it was reported today.
Commander John W Price, 42, was found dead in his quarters with a gunshot wound on Saturday – just three days before Christmas.
Cmdr Price was based in Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia, near Norfolk and had been in the military for more than 23 years.
He leaves behind a wife, Stephanie and a nine-year-old daughter Jillian, who both live in Virginia Beach.
The commander is originally from Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
He commanded six platoons, two-dozen SEAL commandos and numerous support staff, deployed in Uruzgan Province, where they were conducting counter-terrorism missions and training police in remote parts of the country.
SEAL Team Four is one of nine teams of special operations troops. The most famous of the combat groups is the classified SEAL Team Six, which conducted the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
A U.S. military official said the death ‘appears to be the result of suicide.’ The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the death is still being investigated.
‘The Naval Special Warfare family is deeply saddened by the loss of our teammate,’ said Captain Robert Smith, commander of Naval Special Warfare Group Two, which manages all Virginia-based Navy SEAL teams.
‘We extend our condolences, thoughts and prayers to the family, friends, and NSW community during this time of grieving.
‘As we mourn the loss and honor the memory of our fallen teammate, those he served with will continue to carry out the mission.’
Elite: Navy SEALs are among the U.S. military’s most highly-trained and deadly commandos
State of Virginia, [Pine Mountain, Dickenson County]
….
Forest / Wild Fire in USA on Wednesday, 05 December, 2012 at 04:13 (04:13 AM) UTC.
Description
A forest fire burning more than 500 acres in Dickenson County continued to blaze Tuesday. The fire on Pine Mountain, which began Saturday, had reached 550 acres Tuesday afternoon, said Jorge Hersel, district ranger for the Clinch Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service. He said 120 firefighters fought the blaze Tuesday. Some are from the Virginia Department of Forestry, as there are tracts of private land ablaze within the National Forest acreage, he said. “Now our first priority is to protect the 18 structures beside the fire,” he said. “We feel we’re in good shape and can protect those houses.” Firefighters worked to set up a containment line, using bulldozers and existing trails in the forest, which in total will permit some 880 acres to burn, Hersel said. A brush fire in Buchanan County burned five acres after a house fire escaped into the woods, said Bill Miller, an assistant regional forester for the Virginia Department of Forestry. He said the department has extended its burn season to Dec. 10, which means all employees stay on high alert. That’s because it has been unseasonably dry, warm and windy this time of year, making conditions ripe for fire, he said. “We encourage people not to burn because it’s really dry,” Miller said.
A Virginia official is busted for tossing voter forms. Turns out he works for the national party, too.
A man originally reported to have been working for the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested by the Rockingham County, Va., Sheriff’s Office on Thursday and charged with attempting to destroy voter registration forms by tossing them into a dumpster behind a shopping center in Harrisonburg, Va.
“Prosecutors charged him with four counts of destruction of voter registration applications, eight counts of failing to disclose voter registration applications and one count of obstruction of justice,” according to a report late Thursday afternoon from TPM’s Ryan Reilly . More charges could be forthcoming, according to officials.
But there is more to the story, as evidence emerges to document that it ties into a still-expanding nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal that the BRAD BLOG first began reporting in late September , after we’d learned that the Republican Party of Florida had turned in more than 100 allegedly fraudulent and otherwise suspect voter registration forms in Palm Beach County. The story has continued to widen ever since, to a dozen Florida counties and several other states, now including Virginia, and even to the upper-echelons of the Republican Party itself.
The man arrested today was 23-year-old Colin Small of Phoenixville, Pa. As it turns out, he does not only work for the Virginia Republican Party. According to an online profile, he appears to be working for the Republican National Committee and, prior to that, served as an Intern for Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He was first hired, says Tanfani, by Strategic Allied Consulting, the firm owned by the disgraced GOP operative and paid Mitt Romney political consultant Nathan Sproul. Even before this year’s registration fraud scandal, which began with Strategic in Florida, Sproul’s companies have long been accused of, though never charged with, destroying Democratic voter registrations in election after election and state after state, going back to at least 2004. Despite that, Sproul was hired by the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2004, by the McCain/Palin Campaign in 2008, and by Romney during the Republican Primary cycle.
Sproul’s company, Strategic Allied Consulting, was hired by the RNC in August for more than $3 million, reportedly as its sole voter registration company this cycle. His company was said to have been fired by the RNC and five different battleground state Republican parties several weeks ago, after fraudulent voter registrations began to emerge across Florida. Some of those questionable applications included address changes for existing voters, such that Florida election officials told the BRAD BLOG they worry voters could find themselves disenfranchised come Election Day. In Florida, as in many states, provisional ballots cast at precincts other than where voters are officially registered will not be counted. So changing the addresses on voter registrations without voters’ knowledge is a serious crime with potentially very serious consequences.
Reilly’s report at TPM says that Small “worked for PinPoint, a company hired to register voters on behalf of the Republican Party of Virginia.” In fact, PinPoint Staffing placed ads to hire workers for Strategic Allied Consulting in FL, VA and a number of other states, though t he BRAD BLOG has learned that the company removed many of those ads once the scandal began to break in Florida. They have since modified some of their newer ads to hide their ties to the Republican Party.
In response to queries we sent to Sproul late Thursday, his crisis spokesperson, David Leibowitz, attempted to distance his client from the arrest of the Republican Party worker in Virginia, claiming that “the only connection between Sproul and Pinpoint is that Nathan has, on occasion, used Pinpoint to hire some workers.”
It was PinPoint Staffing, in fact, which reportedly hired the man Strategic blamed for the fraudulent registration forms turned in originally in Palm Beach. But while PinPoint continues to seek workers for GOP-related efforts around the country, and as Sproul’s operations continue in “as many as 30 states”, it is the Republican National Committee’s response to the entire affair, including to the arrest today, that may be the most troubling…
The RNC ‘firing’ deception
Colin Small, according to his LinkedIn profile, as captured by the NotLarrySaboto blog (which was the first to highlight the initial report of a man with PA license plates tossing a bag of Virginia Voter Registration Forms into a Harrisonburg dumpster), wasn’t only working for the state GOP or for Strategic Allied Consulting or for PinPoint. He was working as a “Grassroots Field Director at the Republican National Committee,” according to LinkedIn.
[Update: NBC News is reporting this morning that RNC Communications Director denies Small was "directly employed by the RNC" and that he will be "told to take down that." Small is currently in jail and unable to respond to clear up the question, however. ]
Last month, several days after fraudulent voter registration forms collected by Strategic Allied Consulting and turned in by the Florida GOP began to be discovered by County election officials in Florida, the RNC claimed to have fired Strategic .
Sean Spicer, the RNC’s Communications Director, boasted that the party took “swift and bold action” after learning of the fraud, claiming they have “zero tolerance” for it or for those who commit it. However, as we summarized in our very first report on this scandal , Sproul’s companies have a long history of workers being paid per Republican registration form and for being accused of destroying Democratic ones.
Despite that, they were hired once again this year by the RNC who, Sproul says, asked them to create the new company in June without his name on it to avoid it being tied to him. Not very bold or zero tolerancy of them. Though Spicer said he had no knowledge of that arrangement, Sproul told the BRAD BLOG he stands by his assertion.
Beyond that, last Thursday we reported that Sproul’s firms, including what appeared to be a “clone” operation of Strategic Allied Consulting, calling itself Issue Advocacy Partners, were still found working for Republicans and right-wing ballot initiatives in at least 10 states. Subsequently, on Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that, in fact, Sproul was still “hiring workers for a voter canvassing operation this fall in as many as 30 states.”
On Thursday, following Small’s arrest, Sproul’s spokesman Leibowitz hedged that number by telling us via email: “What we said on the record to various media outlets is that his companies are working in ‘as many as 30 states.’ That could mean 1 state. Or 2. Or 30. You get the idea, I’m sure.”
We do. The idea is Sproul does not want to come clean about his ongoing operations and who it is that he continues to work for, preferring instead to live up to the “shady” adjective that’s often applied to him in the media. Despite our follow-up request, Leibowitz did not identify the exact number of states that Sproul was still working in, or who was paying him to do so.
Strategic was said to have been hired by state Republican Parties, at the request of the RNC, for voter registration drives in five states (Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Nevada and Colorado) and for “Get Out the Vote” campaigns in Ohio and Wisconsin. When both RNC and state GOP officials claimed to have fired them, it seems they didn’t really mean it.
In Tanfani’s report at LA Times late Thursday, Spicer confirms that, really, it may have only been Sproul who the party claimed to be “boldly” cutting ties with. The operations Sproul created for the Party beginning in August, the ones that led to fraudulent voter registrations in Florida and destroyed applications reported in Colorado and Nevada as well, are still in place.
“After Sproul was dumped,” Tanfani reports, “the registration operation that he assembled continued working under the supervision of party officials, Spicer said. He said the workers will continue to do get-out-the-vote work until the election.”
The firing of Sproul and Strategic Allied Consulting was a deception.
Despite Spicer’s attempt to downplay the VA incident on Thursday — “He made a mistake and he’s being charged with it, which we fully support” — as he similarly did for the FL incidents previously, it’s become clear that the RNC’s deceptive and often illegal registration and canvass operations are toxic, widespread, and very high-reaching.
Ironically, or perhaps not at this point, Romney, who hired Sproul late last year as a “political consultant” for some $71,000, appears to have committed both voter registration fraud and voter fraud himself in Massachusetts, when he voted in the January 2010 U.S. Senate Special Election between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley. While he owned houses in both California and New Hampshire at the time, he did not own a Massachusetts home until July of that year. Instead, he used the basement of his son’s Belmont, Mass., home as his own registration address in apparent contravention of Massachusetts state residency laws. [ See our still-growing list of other very high-profile GOPers recently involved in apparent election fraud crimes .]
Trashed registration forms in Virginia
According to FEC filings obtained by CBS 6 in Richmond last month, the Virginia Republican Party reportedly paid some $500,000 to Strategic for registration work before the state GOP claimed to have fired them, several days after the fraudulent forms collected by Strategic and submitted to county Supervisors of Elections by the Florida GOP began to surface in the Sunshine State. As we now know, only Sproul was fired. The voter registration operation itself continued.
Small, the man arrested on Thursday and charged with eight felony counts and five misdemeanors after allegedly having been found to have tossed at least eight registration forms into a dumpster in Harrisonburg, Va. (Rockingham County), was reportedly working for an operation named PinPoint on behalf of the Virginia GOP, according to Reilly at TPM.
In an earlier report on the matter at TPM , before Small’s arrest later in the day, Reilly noted that “Virginia does not register voters by political party, so it would be difficult for someone to discard forms from their political opponents.”
Not really.
Reilly’s assessment does not take into account the very specific and purposely deceptive process used by Sproul’s companies — and, as suggested by evidence we’ve collected, perhaps other Republican-based voter registration outfits across the country — to identify and register only Republicans to vote, while attempting to filter out Democratic-leaning voters.
Elite: Navy SEALs are among the U.S. military’s most highly-trained and deadly commandos
