Contractors

Until I bought my first and only house six years ago, it never occurred to me that I might take on a kitchen remodel. I was an apartment dweller, with apartment dweller logic. Kitchens came with a place. The way to transform a kitchen into my kitchen was to put my cast-iron pots on the stove and my scales on the counter and to hang up the French dish towel rack with labels above the hook for what each towel may touch: hands, glasses, plates, cutlery. Presto. Home.

The Metrolink commuter rail service plans to increase fares as early as July to help reduce a $13-million budget deficit largely caused by rising fuel and labor costs, railroad officials said Thursday. If approved, the proposed increase of 5% to 9% will cover only part of the shortfall, making it necessary for Metrolink to seek additional subsidies from the five county transportation agencies that help fund the railroad. "The current economic climate, including soaring fuel prices, requires tough decisions by transportation leaders to fund operations at a level that will continue to meet the region's transportation needs," said John Fenton, Metrolink's chief executive officer.

WASHINGTON - It was a simple scam: Coleen Newton-White, a government contractor, and her husband would take General Services Administration credit cards from the motor pool at Ft. Monroe, Va., and use them to sell fuel at a discount to cash customers who pulled up to service stations five at a time. Between 2008 and 2010, the scheme netted the couple almost $300,000, according to court records. Although the gas scheme is a world away from the nearly $823,000 spent on a lavish Las Vegas-area conference put on by GSA official Jeff Neely - including a mind reader, sushi and in-room parties - it is an example of the fraud that the procurement and property management agency faces regularly.

WASHINGTON — Anxiety about the effect of a ban on political spending by federal contractors is prompting new caution by a company connected to such donations and a "super PAC" that accepted them. Restore Our Future — a super PAC that has spent more than $42 million on behalf of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney — had previously solicited money from federal contractors. Now it is warning the contractors to get legal advice before giving. Meanwhile, Oxbow Carbon, a major coal and petroleum supplier that gave Restore Our Future $750,000 last year, now says its contracts to sell fuel to the federal government are through a sister company that is a separate legal entity — an arrangement that allows it to skirt the prohibition on federal contractors making political expenditures.

The city is considering a penalty on contractors, developers or other parties who get permits to close streets or traffic lanes for construction but fail to finish the work on time. The penalty of $800 a lane per day won tentative approval from the City Council last week and will be considered for final passage Feb. 5. The city's Transportation Commission asked that the council approve the fee as an incentive to get work finished on time.

The Justice Department prosecutor appointed this week to examine the CIA's interrogation program will revisit long-dormant abuse cases involving the agency's civilian contractors, bringing new attention to a little-known but controversial element of the Bush administration's war on terrorism. Civilian contractors used by the CIA at secret overseas facilities were accused of detainee abuses and deaths in a series of cases in the years following the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but only one was ever prosecuted.

WASHINGTON — Anxiety about the effect of a ban on political spending by federal contractors is prompting new caution by a company connected to such donations and a "super PAC" that accepted them. Restore Our Future — a super PAC that has spent more than $42 million on behalf of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney — had previously solicited money from federal contractors. Now it is warning the contractors to get legal advice before giving. Meanwhile, Oxbow Carbon, a major coal and petroleum supplier that gave Restore Our Future $750,000 last year, now says its contracts to sell fuel to the federal government are through a sister company that is a separate legal entity — an arrangement that allows it to skirt the prohibition on federal contractors making political expenditures.

Community college has helped Art and Michelle Gastelum get ahead. Way ahead. The father and daughter own two of the companies that have profited from close relationships with the trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District, connections built on campaign money, a Times analysis found. Companies working on the district's construction program account for 44% of the $4.6 million contributed to trustees' election efforts or to campaigns to pass construction bond measures since 2001.

Five U.S. security contractors arrested in Baghdad have been cleared in the killing of a fellow American contractor, but two of them face drug-related charges, the Iraqi government said Thursday. Three of the U.S. contractors, and an Iraqi colleague arrested with them, will be released on bail and will still face charges of carrying unauthorized weapons and fake documents, government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said.

Lawmakers on Thursday sharply criticized a federal program that relies on private insurance companies to provide medical care and benefits to civilians injured while working in support of the U.S. military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan. Members of a House subcommittee charged that the insurance firms had exploited the taxpayer-supported program to reap enormous profits while shortchanging workers. "We've got to straighten out this mess and we're going to do that," said Rep. Elijah E.

WASHINGTON - It was a simple scam: Coleen Newton-White, a government contractor, and her husband would take General Services Administration credit cards from the motor pool at Ft. Monroe, Va., and use them to sell fuel at a discount to cash customers who pulled up to service stations five at a time. Between 2008 and 2010, the scheme netted the couple almost $300,000, according to court records. Although the gas scheme is a world away from the nearly $823,000 spent on a lavish Las Vegas-area conference put on by GSA official Jeff Neely - including a mind reader, sushi and in-room parties - it is an example of the fraud that the procurement and property management agency faces regularly.

The Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that it has reached a settlement with a Pasadena firm, Gateway Science & Engineering, over alleged billing improprieties. The company will continue to supervise the $450-million building program at Los Angeles Mission College. The district had alleged that Gateway approved payments to the construction company FTR International for work it had not performed at a 90,000-square-foot fitness center on the campus The project was plagued by delays and allegations of faulty workmanship, which were detailed in a Times series last year on the community college district's $6-billion campus reconstruction program.

WASHINGTON-- Rejecting pressure from gay rights activists, President Obama has decided not issue an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating on the basis on sexual orientation, his spokesman said Thursday. Obama “is committed to securing equal rights” for gays and lesbians, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. But he added that for now the president would pursue a slower path on the issue. Carney said Obama would continue to push for passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would provide broader protection.

A fugitive in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum corruption case said he was in "the jungles of Brazil" and will not return to face trial in an alleged kickback scheme because he shouldn't have been charged. "Let 'em come over here and get me," Tony Estrada, a former Coliseum janitorial contractor who portrays himself as a whistle-blower done wrong, told The Times in a telephone interview. Estrada, who has been charged with embezzlement and conspiracy, said Monday he came forward more than a year ago with canceled checks and other evidence that showed he was making secret payments to the stadium's then-general manager, Patrick Lynch.

Four Navy civilian employees and three defense contractors have pleaded guilty to corruption charges related to a cash-for-contracts scheme at the Naval Air Station in Coronado, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego said. The Navy workers accepted more than $1 million in cash and gifts, including flat-screen TVs, luxury massage chairs, bicycles costing thousands of dollars and home remodeling services, prosecutors said. Contractors submitted to the Pentagon fraudulent invoices to cover the costs of the items.

One of six men indicted last week in the corruption scandal engulfing the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum remains at large and has given no sign that he plans to surrender to face charges of embezzlement and conspiracy, prosecutors said Monday. Tony Estrada, a longtime janitorial contractor at the historic stadium, is accused of making $385,000 in illegal payments to former Coliseum General Manager Patrick Lynch, who was also charged in the indictment. Most of the money was deposited in a Miami bank account.

Los Angeles County officials are cracking down on potential county contractors with overdue property tax bills. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a law to require those applying to become county contractors to certify that they don't owe property taxes. Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina were not at the meeting and did not vote on the proposal. The new requirement comes at a time of countywide belt-tightening.

Reporting from Fresno A shout-out from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last Thursday for somebody to give Fresno hero Victor Perez a job led to something perhaps even better: a full scholarship to contractors school. "All my uncles are in construction. I'll get this license, then maybe we can put ourselves to work," said Perez, an unemployed construction worker who last week chased down an alleged kidnapper and rescued an 8-year-old girl. The story caught the nation's attention and thrust Perez and his cousin Flor Urias, who had spotted the alleged kidnapper's truck, into the media spotlight.

A longstanding ban on political spending by federal contractors has not stopped some from giving money to a “super PAC” backing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as The Times reported Monday , despite questions about the legality of such donations. Other federal contractors have found an easy way around the ban to support their favorite candidates. Election law attorneys said that the Federal Election Commission has historically viewed companies and their subsidiaries as separate corporations, allowing the parent company of a federal contractor to donate to a super PAC. “The FEC differentiates subsidiaries from parent corporations, so even if the FEC were to confirm that the government contract ban on expenditures applies to independent expenditures and to super PACs, there are other ways to get around such a ban,” said attorney Jan Baran, who heads the election law group at the firm Wiley Rein.

A longstanding ban on political spending by federalcontractors has not stopped some from giving money to a “super PAC” backing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as The Times reported Monday , despite questions about the legality of such donations. Other federal contractors have found an easy way around the ban to support their favorite candidates. Election law attorneys said that the Federal Election Commission has historically viewed companies and their subsidiaries as separate corporations, allowing the parent company of a federal contractor to donate to a super PAC. “The FEC differentiates subsidiaries from parent corporations, so even if the FEC were to confirm that the government contract ban on expenditures applies to independent expenditures and to super PACs, there are other ways to get around such a ban,” said attorney Jan Baran, who heads the election law group at the firm Wiley Rein.