NewsIndiaTimes - page 6

By Ela Dutt
D
emocratic presidential
nominee Hillary Clinton
has inducted one of her
close associates, in the White
House when she was First Lady,
to be on her four-member tran-
sition team were she to win the
election Nov. 8. Republican
nominee Donald Trump is
involved in the same exercise.
In fact, both teams are housed
in the same building a block
away from the White House, the
Washington Post reported.
Neera Tanden, head of the
Washington, D.C. - based think
tank, Center for American
Progress, and three others, for-
mer national security adviser
Tom Donilon, former Michigan
Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and
director of Harvard University’s
Institute of Politics Maggie
Williams, were named by
Secretary Clinton Aug. 16.
Former Interior Secretary Ken
Salazar is the chair of the team
which has the critical job of
building a government -in-
waiting during the 73 days
between the Nov. 8 election and
the presidential inauguration.
Among other massive tasks
before it, the transition team
has to find candidates for some
4,000 political appointments,
and draft a budget for the $4
trillion federal government, the
Post noted.
“These individuals, who
bring a deep level of experience
in the work of presidential tran-
sitions, will help us build a
team that is ready to govern
after the general election,” said
John D. Podesta, Clinton’s cam-
paign chairman, who doubles
as president of the transition
team. Podesta is Tanden’s men-
tor and founder of the Center
for American Progress. Tanden
did not respond to requests for
comment on her new position.
Tanden’s visibility in the
Clinton campaign has been ris-
ing, specifically her nationwide
involvement in turning out the
vote during the primaries. She
also connected more closely
with Indian-Americans as the
community geared up for a
more visible role in swing states
and formed several ‘Indian-
Americans for Hillary’ organiza-
tions.
Congratulations poured in
for Tanden on Facebook, from
Indian-Americans and others.
“The ship of state is in good
hands,” said former federal
prosecutor Subodh Chandra,
who also served as Director of
Law of the City of Cleveland.
“Mazel to an amazing woman
and leader, Neera Tanden!
Always proud to say I knew you
when Neera!” said Jamie
Schwartz Kinder.
A graduate of University of
California, Los Angeles with a
law degree fromYale University,
Tanden previously served as
senior advisor for health reform
at the Department of Health
and Human Services, working
on President Barack Obama’s
health reform team in the White
House. Prior to that, she was
the director of domestic policy
for the Obama-Biden presiden-
tial campaign. Tanden had also
served as policy director for the
Hillary Clinton presidential
campaign.
Tanden was legislative direc-
tor for former Sen. Hillary
Clinton. In 2000, she was
Hillary Clinton’s deputy cam-
paign manager and issues
director for her Senate cam-
paign in New York. She also
served as associate director for
domestic policy in the Clinton
White House and senior policy
advisor to then First Lady
Hillary Clinton.
–NEWYORK
U.S. federal judge sen-
tenced Babulal Bob
Bera, the 83-year-old
father of the only Indian
-American
Congressman, Amerish Ami
Bera, Aug. 18 to a year and a day
in prison for fraudulently fund-
ing his son’s election campaigns.
Babulal Bera had earlier
admitted before federal Judge
Troy L. Nunley in Sacramento,
California, that he had illegally
contributed $268,726 to the elec-
tion campaigns in 2009 and 2011
through fraud.
Before he was sentenced,
Babulal Bera asked the court to
consider an option for him to
stay with his 82-year-old wife,
CBS Sacramento reported.
“I know I cannot survive with-
out her and she will not survive
without me,” he told the judge.
“The defendant’s efforts were
calculated. This is more than just
a naive person who doesn’t know
how elections work,” Nunley
said as he imposed the sentence
on Babulal Bera, a retired chemi-
cal engineer, The Los Angeles
Times reported.
The judge set aside the rec-
ommendation of a probation
officer not to give Babulal Bera a
prison sentence because of his
age and health but only fine him
$30,200, The Sacramento Bee
reported.
Probation officials suggest
punishments after studying the
background of the convicted
persons and their circumstances.
Federal prosecutors demand-
ed some prison time for him cit-
ing “the serious nature of the
crime”.
The judge also fined him
$100,000 and ordered three years
of restrictions after his release.
Usually the actual time served
is reduced for good behavior in
prison and the Sacramento Bee
said he “will likely serve 10
months”.
The maximum amount any-
one could contribute to a candi-
date was $2,400 in 2009 and
$2,500 in 2011.
To overcome these limits on
his personal contributions to his
son’s election campaign, Babulal
Bera had 90 people send in the
$268,726 in small contributions
in their own names and then
reimbursed them for the
amounts they gave.
Federal prosecutors have not
identified those who participat-
ed in the scheme or prosecuted
anyone.
Babulal Bera’s admission of
guilt or guilty plea - avoided a
lengthy trial while his son faces a
tough battle to retain his seat in
the House of Representatives. He
will start his prison sentence ten
days after the November 8 elec-
tions.
The prosecutors has cleared
Ami Bera of involvement in is
father’s funding fraud. He had
earlier said that he would have
stopped his father from carrying
out the scheme had he heard
about it.
“My father’s accepted what he
did was wrong, he’s taken
responsibility, and I love him
more than words can express,”
Ami Bera said after his father’s
sentencing according to CBS
Sacramento.
“I’m absolutely devastated
and heartbroken for how today’s
decision will impact our entire
family.”
Democrat Ami Bera, a 51-
year-old doctor who converted
to the Universalist Unitarian
Church, was re-elected in 2014
with a slender margin of just
1,455 votes from a constituency
that covers parts of California’s
state capital, Sacramento.
In this year’s selection he
faces a tough battle against the
influential local Republican
Sheriff Scott Jones, who is turn-
ing the Babulal Bera’s conviction
into an election issue, the
Sacramento Bee reported.
“Jones, who has repeatedly
suggested his rival knew about
the illegal fundraising from the
beginning and let his father take
the fall, this week proposed a set
of campaign finance changes to
‘root corruption out of politics
and expose conflicts,’” the daily
said.
– IANS
News India Times
August 26, 2016
6
Rep. Bera’s Father Gets One Year Prison Sentence Over Election Fraud
U.S. Affairs
A
By Arul Louis
– NEWYORK
U
S Air Force Secretary
Deborah Lee James
has praised the Indian
Air Force (IAF) for the “mag-
nificent execution” of
‘Operation Sankat Mochan’
which evacuated Indian civil-
ians trapped in South Sudan
last month.
James, who is scheduled to
visit India, told reporters here
onWednesday that she was
“looking forward to congratu-
lating the IAF chief in particu-
lar on what I think is a magnif-
icent execution of the C-17
operation where you were
able to evacuate Indian citi-
zens from South Sudan. Well
done on that.”
Operation Sankat Mochan,
which brought back 156 civil-
ians from South Sudan capital
Juba, used C-17 Globemaster
aircraft purchased from the
US.
During her New Delhi visit,
she is slated to meet Air Chief
Marshal Arup Raha, the Chief
of Air Staff and Chairman of
Chiefs of Staff Committee.
She described the IAF as “a
very effective fighting unit”
and recalled its participation
in Red Flag exercises with the
US Air Force. During the exer-
cise, she said, “we get together
with coalition partners and we
train together and interoper-
ate together and we go up
sometimes against simulated
threats so that we test our-
selves on a high-end, very
challenging, difficult environ-
ment.”
Most recently the IAF took
part in a four-week Red Flag
exercise in Alaska that con-
cluded in May.
India deployed Sukhoi 30-
MK and Jaguars fighter jets
and IL-78 mid-air refuelling
planes.
– IANS
U.S. Praises IAF For South Sudan Evacuation
– that’s all you need to know
Clinton Appoints Close Confidante To Important Transition Team
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