As part of a legal settlement, ACORN has agreed to get out of the state of Ohio — for good:
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now will permanently surrender its Ohio business license by June 1 as part of a legal settlement with the conservative Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, both sides said yesterday.
ACORN was active in Ohio in the 2006 and 2008 elections, working to register thousands of low-income people to vote and get them to the polls. The group’s efforts were marred by irregularities, including one case in which ACORN workers allegedly induced a Cleveland man to register to vote 72 times, offering cigarettes as an incentive.
The Buckeye Institute’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law teamed with two Warren County residents to sue ACORN in Warren County Common Pleas Court just before the 2008 election. The residents alleged that their rights were abridged by thousands of fraudulent voter registrations, each representing “a potential illegal vote that has the capacity to dilute (legitimate) votes.”
The case was moved to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
Yesterday’s settlement is mostly confidential, said Maurice A. Thompson, the conservative group’s attorney.
“They will surrender their business license by June 1 and cease to operate in Ohio and cease to support or enable other groups to do what they do,” Thompson said.
It’s possible that ACORN is so beleagured it simply doesn’t have the money to fight back. Still, though the article doesn’t mention it, this was a RICO lawsuit and the charges against the group were detailed and damning. For more on the Buckeye Institute’s lawsuit, see here.
To-may-toe, To-mah-toe
“I may be guilty of extortion, but I never took a bribe.”
–Former Detroit city council member and wife of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., Monica Conyers on the injustice of being sentenced to three years in prison.
Don’t ask, don’t tell
“That story about him in the shower with Congressman Massa sure sounds like the Rahm I know.”
–Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich claims White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel assaulted scandal-ridden Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., in the shower over his health care vote.
Can we throw lawmakers over our shoulder?
No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises.”
–From a bill recently introduced into the New York state legislature to ban the use of salt in restaurants.
But spotted owl is tasty
“Someone should not be able to walk into a restaurant and order a plate of an endangered species.”
–U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr., on charges that a California sushi chef was illegally serving whale in hi
