Three Way News
Your Source. For everything. Really.
Contributors
- Hammer
- Jambo
- Libby Mae
Current Poll
Recurring features
Hammer's Favorites
- Dobson v. Sponge-Bob
- Calvin, the nest egg
- Pat's predictions
- Bachmann spins Cupertino
- 205 atheists assume the bench
- Fox spins Oil for Food
- Fact check: highest taxed state
- Gen. Myers v. Reality
- Janice Rogers Brown
- Killing Field
- Kline hates Big Bird
- Vote Luca Brasi!
- Cornyn's Stalinist Supreme Court
- Rumsfeld's hidden metrics
Jambo's Favories
- Dolphin research updates
- We all shine on
- If you have to write...
- Columnist NY Times should have
- Truth about taxes
- Fourth of July
- Movie objects
- Lost in supermarket
- Dysfunctional Farmer Labor party
- Punks you hated
- Some preacher from east
- Winning issues
Monday, September 12, 2005
Franken waives salary to help underprivileged children
I suspect that this news report has not rocked the Franken '08 campaign.
Al Franken, the comedian, author, radio host and possible future Minnesota politician, signed a document in November that listed $875,000 in interest-free loans that a New York Boys & Girls Club made to his radio network, Air America.
Franken said Thursday that he was unaware of the loans at the time.
The loans and the Boys & Girls Club are under investigation by city and state agencies in New York. Neither Franken nor Air America are targets of the investigations.
Air America said Thursday that it had put funds into an escrow account sufficient to repay the loans if the New York Department of Investigation, which is reviewing the club's finances, completes its work and authorizes payment.
Near as I can tell, Evan Cohen borrowed $875,000 from a Boys & Girls club and invested it in Air America. Cohen systematically deceived Franken and other Air America investors about the actual state of his finances, which almost led to the collapse of the network. Cohen was forced out. The new investors bought out Cohen.
New York authorities are investigating the transaction. Presumably, Cohen doesn't have the funds to repay the money he took. Investigators will look at the transaction to determine whether Air America should be responsible for Cohen's debt.
Franken is primarily involved because he is the network's biggest name. He has denied knowledge of Cohen's actions, but was a party to the buy out of Cohen's interest. Franken's involvement was limited to waiving his right to claim back pay from Cohen.
One headline, then, would be "Franken waives salary so Boys & Girls Club can be repaid". That is, of course, not how bloggers view the issue. DFL Governor at Lefty Liberal 3.0 suspects an FCC investigation is in the works. I doubt that. Republican Minnesota (who claims to both be "So partisan, it's shameless" and "conservative with class", which seems like a contradiction to me) focuses on what Franken knew and when he knew it. Rambix complains that the Strib waited too long before reporting the story.
