2008-06-24T03:02:59Z opencongress.org tag:opencongress.org,2007:/person/comments/400429 2008-06-24T03:02:59Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-24:/comment/27855 Anonymous This is what happens Rep. Weller when the Government cuts off people's unemployment and when the economy is weak and there are no good paying jobs. Is Illinois next? L.A. seeing more people living out of their cars By CHRISTINA HOAG, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 23, 2:48 PM ET LOS ANGELES - Having lost her job and her three-bedroom house, Darlene Knoll has joined the legions of downwardly mobile who are four wheels away from homelessness. ADVERTISEMENT She is living out of her shabby 1978 RV, and every night she has to look for a place to park where she won't get hassled by the cops or insulted by residents. "I'm not a piece of trash," the former home health-care aide said as she stroked one of five dogs in her cramped quarters parked in the waterfront community of Marina del Rey. Amid the foreclosure crisis and the shaky economy, some California cities are seeing an increase in the number of people living out of their cars, vans or RVs. Acting on complaints from homeowners, the Los Angeles City Council got tough earlier this year by forbidding nearly all overnight parking in residential neighborhoods such as South Brentwood. But some people are just crowding into other parts of the city, including the seaside community of Venice, where dozens of rusty, dilapidated campers can be seen lined up outside neat single-family homes. The stench of urine emanates from a few of the vehicles, and some residents say they have seen human waste left behind. "They're nasty and gnarly," said Venice resident Jeff Scharlin. "We've heard about drug dealing and prostitution in them. I've never seen it, but visually they're a blight and they take up parking space." In Los Angeles, as in many other cities, it is illegal to live in vehicles on public streets. But the law is not easy to enforce. Police have to enter a vehicle to find signs that people are living there, such as cooking or sleeping, and occupants often refuse to answer when cops knock. An easier way is to restrict overnight parking. In L.A., a first offense carries a $50 fine, and subsequent violations can cost as much as $100. Parking-enforcement officers often give vehicle owners a warning and tell them to move on before issuing a ticket, and that usually solves the problem, said Alan Willis, a city transportation engineer. But other cities in the area are not as lenient. "I had my motor home towed in Culver City. It cost me $500 to get it out," said Desiri Hawkins, who lives in a small RV in Venice. "I got ticketed in Santa Monica and had to go to court." Tourist states with temperate climates, such as California and Florida, have long been magnets for the homeless. Los Angeles is the nation's homelessness capital, with an estimated 73,000 people on the streets. A survey of 3,230 homeless people last year in Los Angeles County found nearly 7 percent living in vehicles, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. "It's trending toward an increase," said Michael Stoop, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. "People would rather live in a vehicle than wind up in a shelter, and you can't stay on a friend's couch forever." People living out of their cars or campers tend to be more well-off than the homeless on the street. They usually have jobs or disability checks that enable them to maintain an old camper but do not allow them to afford rent. "For more working-class and lower-middle-class people, the car is the first stop of being homeless, and sometimes it turns out to be a long stop," said Gary Blasi, a University of California, Los Angeles, law professor and activist on homeless issues. Some Venice residents are clamoring for overnight parking restrictions. But parking limits in oceanfront neighborhoods are problematic because the California Coastal Commission requires communities to accommodate surfers, fishermen and other early-morning beachgoers. "The complaints are getting louder and louder," said Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl. For years, some cities such as Santa Barbara, Calif., and Eugene, Ore., have accommodated people who live out of their vehicles. Activists in Venice are looking at some of those ideas. Santa Barbara, for example, allows vehicles to stay from 7 p.m to 7 a.m. in church and city parking lots. Knoll said she can barely afford to drive around with the rising price of gasoline eating away at the $950 monthly disability check she receives because of mental illness. She said she is also sick of police waking her up in the wee hours by pounding on her vehicle with their nightsticks, and she is tired of fighting with residents who call her "lowlife scum" and hurl other insults. "We need somewhere we can have a safe haven, where we won't be harassed," Knoll said as the wind from a passing car rocked her RV. "I never thought I'd be living like this, but I'm stuck. This is it for me." 2008-06-21T18:07:18Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-21:/comment/27446 Anonymous Weller is a jack-ass. We all had him pegged from day 1. He is a heart-less, ignorant SOB not to mention breaking the law with his extra-curricular activities. 2008-06-20T11:57:56Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-20:/comment/27139 Anonymous Hey Weller we in Michigan now at 8.5 unemployment Thank You for your ignorance and selfishness. You are a real piece of work are you not. Your State will surely be embarassed to think you have such an important job. Is your head title....screw ball? 2008-06-19T19:34:01Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-19:/comment/26815 Anonymous Hope you get a Target bill for ue extensions going soon. Have you seen the unemployment numbers for Illinois? 6.4%. That means the rate was going up a lot as you argued against HR5749. And now we get a whopping 13 weeks? Great job. Get some jobs in Illinois instead of fighting unemployment Weller. 2008-06-18T21:11:53Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-18:/comment/26363 Anonymous You signing the war bill now Jerry? Or are you going to keep trying to screw the working people of Illinois? 2008-06-17T21:37:37Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/26118 Anonymous Congressman Weller, Please live with the Senate compromise of reinstating the 20 week rule and forget your target provision in the unemployment extensions bill. Illinois really needs it. And with all the bad weather you know our state will get a lot worse as lot of more jobs have been lost. Stand up for the people in Illinois who are not lazy but are just having some really bad luck and need this bill to help keep their families together and are praying for better times ahead. 2008-06-17T20:35:25Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/26107 Anonymous weller is getting hammered on the hr5749 log 2008-06-17T13:49:30Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/25959 IllinoisCS Illinois Congressman Jerry Weller,Refco and the collapse of Guatemala's Bancafe Bank http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/348288.shtml 2008-06-17T13:37:03Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/25954 IllinoisCS Something really interesting I cam across that tells the full story: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jerry_Weller Here is some excerpts that everyone will be interested in knowing: Marriage to a Guatemalan legislator On November 20, 2004, Weller married Zury Ríos Montt in Guatemala. They were married in the home of ex-dictator and president Efrain Rios Montt, the father of Zury. Causing confusion about her name are previous married names: Jeovanny Chávez, Garci'a Bravatti and Lopez Villatoro; (or mother's name Rios Sosa) but on her official website as a Congressman of Guatemala she advertises herself under her father's name, Rios Montt. An FRG party leader, she has said that she works on behalf of woman's health issues. She is also a supporter of CAFTA. She served as Chair of the Latin American Interparlimentary Group which some have claimed to be a conflict of interest for her. Jerry Weller sits on the House International Relations Committee, Western Hemispere, which many say is a conflict of interest for him as well. Jerry Weller has long been known for his advocacy of free trade. Possible failure to report land ownership In November 2006, the Chicago Reader reported that Weller owned several properties in Guatemala that he had not listed on financial disclosure forms. He had listed three other properties in the country, but local Guatemalan records show that Gerald Craig Weber - the name on the forms for the land Weller admits to owning - also owns or owned three more parcels in the area. As there is nothing illegal in him owning the land in itself, it is unclear why Weller would declare some of his Guatemalan holdings but not others.[1] The Chicago Sun-Times reported[2] that Weller will announce his retirement from Congress on September 21, 2007, following on the heels of a Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington report that "labeled Weller one of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress, accusing him of improperly disclosing land deals in Nicaragua." ____________________________________________________ http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/30138 CREW releases "Beyond DeLay: The 22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and two to watch)" Submitted by crew on 18 September 2007 - 9:20am. Beyond DeLay Today, CREW released its third annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress entitled Beyond DeLay: The 22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and two to watch). This encyclopedic report on corruption in the 110th Congress documents the egregious, unethical and possibly illegal activities of the most tainted members of Congress. CREW has compiled the members’ transgressions and analyzed them in light of federal laws and congressional rules. CREW also has re-launched the report’s tandem website, www.beyonddelay.org. The site offers short summaries of each member’s transgressions as well as the full-length profiles and all accompanying exhibits. Over the next couple weeks, Citizens Blogging will profile the members who made the list, although many will continue to show up in our daily posts because they are making news. The 22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress are: Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA) Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-LA) Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-CA) Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV) Rep. Timothy F. Murphy (R-PA) Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) Rep. David Scott (D-GA) Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL) Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-NM) Rep. Don Young (R-AK) The two to watch are: Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-ID) Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) __________________________________________________________ Weller Corruption Profile http://www.beyonddelay.org/node/336 Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL) UPDATE: Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL) announced on September 21, 2007, just 3 days after being named in CREW’s Beyond DeLay report, that he would retire at the end of his term in January 2009. ==================================================== Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL) is a seventh-term member of Congress, representing the 11th district of Illinois. He serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and until 2006, served on the House International Relations Committee. Rep. Weller’s ethics issues stem from his repeated failure to report assets he bought and sold in Nicaragua, the misuse of his position to sell foreign property, his acceptance of campaign contributions from Puerto Rican interests in apparent exchange for supporting legislation that benefitted Puerto Rico, and his acceptance of campaign contributions in return for assisting a telecommunications executive in a dispute with a foreign government. In addition, there is a question as to whether Rep. Weller qualifies for a waiver allowing him to exclude his wife’s assets and liabilities from his financial disclosure forms. Nicaraguan Land Holdings In 2002, Rep. Weller bought the first of numerous lots of ocean-view property in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. According to Rep. Weller’s 2002 financial disclosure form, the lot was worth between $50,000 and $100,000. Property records in Nicaragua, however, show that Rep. Weller paid only about $4,333 for the land. The Chicago Tribune has reported that buyers of property on Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast frequently reported artificially low purchase prices “to lessen the bite of local taxes.” Within a year of this purchase Rep. Weller was seated on the House International Relations Committee and Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, which focused on Latin America. From 2002 through 2005, Rep. Weller purchased and sold at least eight different pieces of land in Nicaragua, although he disclosed only one purchase and one sale on his financial disclosure forms. Rep. Weller’s failure to disclose the purchase and sale of several pieces of property in Nicaragua during the past five years is a violation of the Ethics in Government Act and House rules. In addition, the discrepancies between the value Rep. Weller assigned to those Nicaraguan properties that he did report and the value of the properties listed in the bills of sale and other Nicaraguan property records suggest that Rep. Weller may not have truthfully reported the properties’ value on his financial disclosure forms in violation of federal law. Support for Puerto Rican Interests Despite the fact that Rep. Weller represents a rural district in Illinois, he has been a strong advocate for Puerto Rico and has used his position on the Ways and Means Committee to push for Puerto Rican interests. On May 4, 2005, Rep. Weller received $16,000 from 17 individuals with various interests in Puerto Rico. The following day, a bill backed by Puerto Rico’s business interests as well as Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuno and subsequently co-sponsored by Rep. Weller was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee. If, Rep. Weller accepted campaign donations from individuals and entities with interests in Puerto Rico in direct exchange for providing legislative assistance to Puerto Rico, he may have violated the bribery statute. Assistance for Telecommunications Executive Rep. Weller used his congressional influence to assist telecommunications executive Jeffrey Prosser when the government of Belize seized Mr. Prosser’s business assets. In response, Rep. Weller hand-delivered a letter to government officials in Belize suggesting that the government’s decision to seize Mr. Prosser’s business assets might hurt future investments in that country. During that same year, Rep. Weller received campaign contributions totaling $4,200 from Mr. Prosser and his wife. If a link is established between the campaign donations Rep. Weller received from Mr. and Mrs. Prosser and Rep. Weller’s intervention with the government of Belize, Rep. Weller may have accepted bribes or illegal gratuities. In addition, Rep. Weller’s apparent acceptance of campaign contributions in return for legislative favors does not reflect creditably on the House. 2008-06-17T13:33:01Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/25952 Anonymous Jerry Weller has not had a good reputation in Illinois for a long time. That is why he is not running again and why he openly argued against HR5749. He is done politically and the Republicans hung him out to dry on this vote. 2008-06-17T13:22:32Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/25949 Anonymous Here is the real story about this sheister: http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/wellerbeach/ 2008-06-17T13:20:04Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/25948 Anonymous What a crook! He needs to resign quickly! 2008-06-17T13:19:18Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/25947 Anonymous Wellers new address: Statesville prison in Joliet, IL Center Maximum Security Prison Route 53 P.O. Box 112 Joliet, IL 60434 2008-06-17T13:18:02Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/25946 Anonymous Is Jerry Weller's Beach an Ethics Breach? Jerry Weller Jerry Weller AP Photo The Republican from Illinois, one of the most powerful men in Congress when it comes to Latin America, appears to have unreported assets in Nicaragua. By Frank Smyth October 25, 2006 [Ed. note: The author has posted the documents mentioned in this story here. JERRY WELLER, THE 11th District representative who’s up for reelection in November, has some explaining to do. As I wrote in an August 25 cover story, “The Congressman and the Dictator’s Daughter,” he’s already raised questions about whether he has a conflict of interest because he’s refused to step down from the House of Representative’s influential Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere even though he’s married to Zury Rios Sosa, a third-term legislator in Guatemala. Since then I’ve discovered that the congressman, a Republican whose district encompasses parts of the south suburbs, hasn’t revealed the value of any of the wedding gifts he and Sosa received when they were married two years ago in Guatemala. Such gifts are supposed to be listed on the publicly available financial disclosure forms congressmen file every year, but the House ethics committee routinely grants waivers, and Weller got one. Still, his request raises questions, because Sosa is the daughter of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt and the second most powerful person in the party he heads, so lots of people may have wanted to give the couple something very nice. More troubling, I’ve also learned that Weller owns several pieces of property in Nicaragua, some of which he’s disclosed to Congress as required by its rules—and some of which he apparently hasn’t. Weller seems to have bought his first Nicaraguan lot four years ago, somewhere in the coastal township of San Juan del Sur, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Managua. Then a fifth-term congressman, he went to Nicaragua in January 2002 with other members of the House Ways and Means Committee to attend a presidential inauguration, and he seems to have bought the property sometime afterward. At the time land was still relatively cheap—Nicaragua’s the poorest nation in the hemisphere after Haiti. But cruise ships were already docking nearby, and investors had started buying up beachfront property. It’s not clear how much Weller paid for the undeveloped lot, but on his financial disclosure form, which congressmen are required to file by the Ethics in Government Act, he listed it in the assets section and checked the box indicating that it was worth $50,000 to $100,000. Jerry Weller and Zury Rios Sosa 2008-06-16T14:37:46Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-16:/comment/25795 Anonymous Weller is a crook , he has big bank accounts in Gautamala 2008-06-16T07:57:38Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-16:/comment/25712 Anonymous I agree with your 20 weeks, but over 5% Target bill, I do not agree. I worked and pay into unemployment benefits for over 30 years and have never been unemployed until 2007. Being a single person, I exhausted my benefits in March and can not find a job. I am sinking more and more each day. Under your Target bill I would not qualified for an extension my state has an unemployment rate at 5% IS THIS FAIR........ WE HAVE FRIENDS AND FAMILIES THE WORD IS SPREADING FAST DEMOCRATS ALL THE WAY. 2008-06-16T01:29:03Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-16:/comment/25703 Anonymous how did you get here? 2008-06-16T00:01:00Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-16:/comment/25674 Anonymous REJECT REPUBLICANS 11/4/08 VOTE OUT THE GOP 2008-06-15T23:59:53Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-15:/comment/25672 Anonymous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80_1ap6tPh4 2008-06-15T21:18:44Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-15:/comment/25646 Anonymous Middle class America wake up! A vote for a Republican is a vote for your own demise. Is war moral or do the Republicans just use religion to sell out the well meaning and good folks of America? Remember in November!!!!!!