Renzi Indicted

There’s a special place in hell for lawmakers who gamble away the rights of their constituencies without ever bothering to visit that particular area in their jurisdiction. The land swap that has finally put Rick Renzi (AZ-01) under indictment involves an area near my ancestral hometown that has never seen their so-called Congressional Representative engage them directly on the theft of land he has proposed. No wonder – it’s all been used as a rouse to fill his wallet with kickbacks.

Renzi is charged with using the power of his office, and in particular his spot on the House Natural Resources Committee, to push through a land sale that he personally benefited from in 2005. Renzi also is accused of funneling more than $100,000 from a longtime business associate into his 2002 campaign for Congress. Renzi was elected to the district that takes in most of northern Arizona, as well as parts of eastern Pinal County.

Other charges in the indictment allege Renzi conspired to embezzle money from a Virginia insurance company he owed by misappropriating more than $400,000 in premiums. He used most of that money to help finance his 2002 campaign, according to the charges.

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More local coverage:

• Arizona Republic
• Associated Press via Arizona Daily Star with images of the indictment and announcement
• KTAR.com

 

Renzi Steps Down From Additional Committees

Good. Although I’m alittle befuddled as to why he didn’t do so in the first place. Why drag out the headlines over a multiple-day media cycle?

Not that I’m complaining, just surprised

An Arizona congressman temporarily stepped down from two more House committees on Tuesday, less than a week after the FBI raided his wife’s insurance business.

Rep. Rick Renzi (news, bio, voting record) announced in a statement Tuesday that he was taking a leave of absence from the House Financial Services Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee. He stepped down from the House Intelligence Committee last week.

The Arizona Republican said he had been “the subject of leaked stories, conjecture and false attacks” about a 2005 land exchange that is now being investigated by the U.S. attorney for Arizona.

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The Copper Belt in the News

I’ll update this post later, but wanted to drop a couple of news blurbs focusing on the Copper Belt here in Arizona – a region close to my heart since the family roots run deeply there.

First, the screwing that was attempted by GOPer Rick Renzi (AZ-01) to an area that he never visits, even though he supposedly represents them on the Hill.

SUPERIOR, Ariz. — As they dig for nickel, copper and other commodities in the far corners of the earth, the world’s largest mining companies, Rio Tinto PLC and BHP Billiton Ltd., are used to solving geological problems. Here, though, the problems they encountered were political.

North America’s largest copper lode is believed to be buried more than a mile beneath Apache Leap, the stark red cliffs that loom above this storied Old West town about an hour east of Phoenix. Resolution Copper Co., a joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, wants to mine it. But first it needs Congress to approve a federal land exchange, under which Resolution would swap 5,000 acres of private land for 3,000 acres of public land near its planned mine.

In exchange for supporting the bill, the local congressman, Rick Renzi, a Republican, insisted on something in return: He wanted Resolution to buy, as part of the land swap, a 480-acre alfalfa field near his hometown of Sierra Vista, according to documents and people involved in the deal.

Wall Street Journal, via AZNetroots

And this, from the AssPress (yes! skippy coined that phrase too!)

Faded copper boomtowns in the Pinal Mountains, 85 miles east of Phoenix, are about to boom again.

Soaring copper prices have companies scrambling to open new mines in the mineral-rich Globe-Miami Mining District or restart older operations that were closed when metals prices plunged a decade ago. But the historic Gila County mining towns of Globe and Miami are not prepared to handle the renewed mining activity in the area and the up to 1,000 new jobs it is expected to bring.

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