Four men who allegedly attempted to tamper with telephones in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor charges of entering federal property under false pretenses, The Associated Press reported.
The four were arrested Jan. 25 after they pretended to be telephone technicians in order to gain access to the telephone system in the Senators office.
Conservative filmmaker James OKeefe was sentenced to three years of probation, a $1,500 fine and 100 hours of community service.
The three other men Stan Dai, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan were each sentenced to two years of probation, a $1,500 fine and 75 hours of community service.
OKeefe is best known for dressing as a pimp and filming officials of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now giving him and a young woman dressed as a prostitute advice on how to avoid taxes for an underage prostitution ring.

See the full article from “Roll Call (subscription)”

Andrew Breitbart’s Teabugger Busted, Prompting Nuclear Breitbart Media Response
Screamy shoutcreature Andrew Breitbart openly championed James O’Keefe, the proto-Young Republican who was involved in entrapping community organizing organization ACORN in a prostitution “sting,” who was then involved with wiretapping Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s office, which he was found guilty of doing in court today. Via Daily Intel, what was The Breitbart Squad’s response? Get shouty, and call everyone else out.
If this doesn’t make sense to you, there’s a reason: Because it’s insane. Time and time again, Breitbart cheered on the efforts and work of O’Keefe, even when he got arrested, noting of the capital-M Mainstream Media:
I’m sure they would like to believe O’Keefe is stupid enough to try to “wiretap” a sitting U.S. senator in broad daylight during office hours, while recording the entire sequence of events on his cell phone camera. And they’d like you to believe it, too.

See the full article from “Village Voice (blog)”

SEEKING SHELTER FROM THIS STORM: In Miami, Greg Cote writes under the header, “NFL Goes Insane With Super Bowl In New Jersey.” Cote: “The league should be arrested for prostitution, because, in effect, the NFL has broken its own rules on mild-climate Super Bowls to reward the Jets and Giants for building a $1.6 billion stadium.” He adds, ”You’re going to play a Super Bowl in the bitter cold with a probability of snow by choice!? … Why play the biggest of all games in fair weather? Makes too much sense” (MIAMI HERALD, 5/26). SPORTINGNEWS.com’s Mike Florio wrote there is a “fine line between being edgy and going loco,” and yesterday’s decision “makes us wonder whether plenty of people have lost their marbles.” The Super Bowl is the “single greatest day on the American sports calendar,” and it “needs to be protected from circumstances that can make the experience something other than super” (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 5/25). In Austin, Cedric Golden writes the “most important game in professional sports …

See the full article from “SportsBusiness Daily (subscription)”

Basel and an associate, wearing hard hats and tool belts, in January posed as telephone repairmen following up on reports of problems with the phone system in Landrieu’s office, authorities said. Although a staffer said there were no problems with the phones, Basel asked for permission to test the system.
“Basel then walked behind a staff member’s desk, lifted the handset from the cradle, questioned whether there was a dial tone, and handled the receiver,” according to statement by the U.S. attorney’s office in Louisiana released Wednesday.
“Their purpose was to orchestrate a conversation about phone calls to the senator’s staff and capture the resulting conversation on video,” the prosecutors said.
Also pleading guilty were Robert Flanagan, 24, and Stan Dai, 25, who received sentences identical to Basel’s, and James O’Keefe, 25. O’Keefe was sentenced to an additional year of probation and more hours of community service than the others. He first gained notoriety as a videographer who wore a pimp costume in a video that embarrassed the community activist group ACORN.

See the full article from “Minneapolis Star Tribune”

O’Keefe is the same conservative activist who dressed as a pimp last summer and visited the offices of ACORN, which bills itself as an advocacy group for low- and middle-income families, to solicit advice on setting up a brothel, among other scenarios, law enforcement officials confirmed.

See the full article from “CNN”

In the New Jersey Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk post “James O’Keefe, three others plead guilty in New Orleans senator phone prank” of May 26th, 2010, the writer says that James O’Keefe and three other conservative activists attempted to “wiretap” the offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu:
O’Keefe, known for his stunt with ACORN while posing as a pimp, was involved in a scheme where two activists posed as telephone repairmen as they entered the office, attempting to wiretap it.
O’Keefe and company pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of entering federal property under false pretenses.  There were never any allegations of a wiretap plot in the FBI affidavit and a law enforcement official conceded months ago that the four men were not attempting to wiretap or intercept calls.  Despite all that, the reporter from the Star-Ledger makes a definitive and erroneous claim that the activists attempted to wiretap Landrieu’s phones.  What’s more, legal representation for the accused went on record in January, almost immediately after the arrest, stating there were no intentions to tap phones in the Senator’s office.

See the full article from “Big Journalism (blog)”

Breaking News, Politics, Top Stories »
James O’Keefe remains defiant despite pleading guilty in failed Mary Landrieu office caper
May 26, 2010, 6:13PM
Bill Haber/The Associated PressJames O’Keefe makes a statement outside the Hale Boggs federal building in New Orleans on Wednesday after entering a misdemeanor guilty plea in connection to a caper he and three other men tried to pull at Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in that building.
Conservative activist James O’Keefe, who grabbed headlines after portraying a pimp in a video that embarrassed the ACORN community organizing group, got a slap on the wrist by a federal judge Wednesday for his latest stunt: entering U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office in disguise.
Despite his guilty plea and those of his three cohorts, O’Keefe remained defiant outside the Hale Boggs federal courthouse, telling reporters to stay tuned for his next political expose.

See the full article from “NOLA.com”

Even with Milwaukee and Appleton within range, hotel space would be an issue. So would a lack of practice facilities. The limited airport traffic could be a problem as well. Super Bowls also are events and there could be a shortage of venues to host the multitude of seminars and parties that accompany the game itself. Not to mention, the average temperature in Green Bay in February is around 20 degrees. And it snows. A lot.
The temperature is a moot point, since it’s likely going to be that cold in New Jersey in February 2014, but the city’s infrastructure, as well as that of the surrounding area, would be severely tested by an event like the Super Bowl.
And that’s to say nothing of the fringe activities that take place during Super Bowl weekend. I’m going to pretend we’re all intelligent adults here and go ahead and mention the three things other Super Bowl cities, like New York, have copious supplies of and are always in high demand — prostitutes, strip clubs and drugs.

See the full article from “Total Packers (blog)”

TERRYTOWN, La. — Authorities say a man wanted on charges of possessing child pornography and placing his wife in a brothel has been captured in Louisiana after fleeing the Pensacola, Fla., area in an ice cream truck later found abandoned in Mobile, Ala.
U.S. marshals arrested Martin Lyle Christianson without incident at a home on the 500 block of Delmar Street in Terrytown about 6:30 a.m., according to a U.S. Marshals news release. It is unknown how the people at the home are connected to Christianson.
The 58-year-old man faces a total bond of $1 million for the 20 counts of child porn possession, including images of child molestation, the release said. He was booked at the Jefferson Parish Corrections Center awaiting extradition to Escambia County, Fla.

The man was also wanted on a 4-year-old California warrant from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, which charged him with placing his wife in a brothel.

See the full article from “al.com (blog)”

A Florida man was taken into custody Saturday in Louisiana on suspicion of possessing child pornography. The 58-year-old man is also wanted in Orange County on a four-year-old warrant for putting his wife in a brothel.

See the full article from “OCRegister”