The terrace at St. Regis Deer Valley, the ?Ritz-Carlton of ski resorts.?
By Justin Elliott, ProPublica, April 30, 2013
In January, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, ascended to the powerful chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee. Six weeks later, campaign finance filings and interviews show, Hensarling was joined by representatives of the banking industry for a ski vacation fundraiser at a posh Park City, Utah, resort.
The congressman's political action committee held the fundraiser at the St. Regis Deer Valley, the "Ritz-Carlton of ski resorts" known?for its "white-glove service" and for its restaurant by superstar chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
There's no evidence the fundraiser broke any campaign finance rules. But a ski getaway with Hensarling, whose committee oversees both Wall Street and its regulators, is an invaluable opportunity for industry lobbyists.
Among those attending the weekend getaway was an official from the American Securitization Forum, a Wall Street industry group, a spokesman confirmed. It gave $2,500 in February to Hensarling's political action committee, the Jobs, Economy, and Budget (JEB) Fund.
Len Wolfson, a lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, which gave the JEB Fund $5,000 that month, posted a picture?on Instagram from the weekend of the fundraiser of the funicular at the St. Regis. (It was labeled, "Putting the #fun in #funicular. #stregis #deervalley #utah.") Wolfson did not respond to requests for comment. (UPDATE 1 p.m. Wolfson has now set his account to private.)?
Visa, which gave the JEB Fund $5,000, also sent an official. A Visa spokesman told ProPublica that in attendance were not just finance companies, but also big retailers and others.
Hensarling, a prot?g? of former Texas senator and famed deregulator Phil Gramm, has a mixed record regarding Wall Street. While he has been critical?of "too big to fail" banks and voted against the 2008 bailout, Hensarling recently said he opposed downsizing big banks, according to?Bloomberg. That stance matters now more than ever as a bipartisan duo in the Senate, David Vitter, R-La., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced a bill last week?seeking to constrain the too-big-to-fail institutions. While the bill is considered a longshot, it has provoked intense opposition?from the industry. ?
Meanwhile, Hensarling recently barred?the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from appearing before the House Financial Services Committee, citing a legal cloud over recess appointments made by President Obama.
Whatever his stance on the industry, Hensarling has been more than happy to court Wall Street's money.
Donors working in various financial industries are Hensarling's biggest supporters, giving him over $1 million?in the last election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The congressman's office did not respond to requests for comment.
Others donating to Hensarling's JEB Fund around the time of the Utah ski weekend: Capital One; Credit Suisse; PricewaterhouseCoopers; MasterCard; UBS; US Bank; the National Association of Federal Credit Unions; Koch Industries, which is involved in?sundry financial trading; the National Pawnbrokers Association; and payday lenders Cash America International and CheckSmart Financial. All either declined to comment or did not respond to requests. ?
A spokeswoman for one large bank that donated $5,000, Alabama-based Regions Financial, told ProPublica the company doesn't discuss events employees attend for "a number of reasons, including security."
Also donating $5,000 to Hensarling's political committee around the time of the ski weekend was Steve Clark, a lobbyist?for?JP Morgan and the industry group the Financial Services Roundtable. (In 2011, a memo written by Clark and his partners for the American Bankers Association proposed an $850,000 public-relations strategy to undermine Occupy Wall Street. It leaked to MSNBC; the plan had apparently never been executed.)
Clark didn't respond to requests for comment.
The ski weekend was a large, apparently family-friendly affair. A Utah entertainment booker told ProPublica she had hired two caricature artists for a Feb. 23 event at the St. Regis for a group of 100, including 20 children. Hensarling's JEB Fund, paid the bill. The fund also reported spending about $1,000 on "gifts and mementos" at Deer Valley as well as charges at the upscale restaurant Talisker on Main.
Campaigns and political action committees of a few other GOP congressmen also show charges totaling more than $50,000 at the St. Regis around that time: House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas; House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan; and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon. None responded to requests for comment.
This is at least the second consecutive year that Hensarling has attended a fundraiser at Deer Valley. During the same February congressional recess last year, the National Republican Congressional Committee hosted?a "Park City Ski Weekend" for Hensarling along with Sessions and Walden. Hensarling's JEB Fund also reported?about $60,000 paid to the St. Regis Deer Valley in the last election cycle. (The NRCC said it did not sponsor this year's event.)
The Texan congressman has long had a taste for mixing skiing and politics. On the same February weekend in 2009, for example, Hensarling's political action committee invited?donors "to the second annual ?JEB Fund Takes Jackson'" ski weekend for a minimum contribution of $2,500. The setting was the Snake River Lodge and Spa?in Jackson, Wyoming, which boasted "wintertime activities fun for the entire family" including dog sledding tours and sleigh rides, according to the invitation.?
Reporting contributed by Al Shaw.
For more on politics and lobbying, read Jesse Eisinger's take on the 'Animal Farm' of Washington's revolving door politics or Justin Elliott's last piece on Lockheed's lock on a key Senate job.
Source: http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/propublica/house-finance-chair-goes-ski-vacation-w
Harbaugh brothers ray lewis alicia keys randy moss randy moss superbowl commercials OJ Brigance
It’s been too long since we’ve had a “gate.” Remember Antennagate? Those were good times. We even got Steve Jobs to?acknowledge?that one. But Pathgate, part 2, the sequel? Sorry, but no one cares. But wait! What’s that, you say? Path has 10 million users now, so these new allegations of address book spamming are a REALLY. BIG. DEAL. 10 million people care! No. No, they don’t. Path doesn’t have 10 million active users, it has 10 million registered users. That’s a big difference. We don’t know how many active users Path has, because this is a metric mobile app markers don’t like to share. But according to AppData, Path is estimated to have around a million monthly actives. This figure is determined by those who have connected with Facebook via the application, so it’s a rough way to gain insight into usage since a) not all of an app’s users connect via Facebook, and b) its data has become slightly more obscured these days following some erroneous misinterpretations?about Facebook-owned Instagram’s user count. The point is that the number of people who use Path, and who would get legitimately upset about any sort of bad behavior on its part, is still relatively low. It’s not like Facebook screwed up here – it’s Path, for god’s sakes. Path. A bespoke messaging app for you and 150 of your closest friends. (Just kidding about that “bespoke” part. You should read more Vanity Fair.) In case you’re totally lost, here’s the background: some guy installed Path and invited friends to use the app with him. The app did just that, and the guy got mad. No seriously, that’s the story. Path’s only mistake in the matter – if you can even call it that – is that it defaults its “invite friends” section to an opt-out experience, as opposed to an opt-in one. If you move too quickly through the “invite friends” screen, then you might miss this step, which is exactly what happened to this poor gentleman. His gaffe ended up ringing his family members’ landlines in some cases, as that’s the number he had on file. (And landlines in the UK, where this user resides, can receive text messages. Landlines!) I get that it’s very?embarrassing to have misinterpreted the “invite friends” screen’s text to assume that it means, “oh, we’ll quietly tap your friends on the shoulder next time we see them
