# data[].attributes.body
Having or showing a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.

Example : Showing dislike or hate to a another person because they are from another country is racism

https://nobullying.com/xenophobia/

# data[].attributes.body
A general vote by the electorate on a single political question that has been referred to them for a direct decision. (voters get to choose yes or no to a question like spending money on a new school)

Example : Having citizens vote for town curfew law

http://www.curfewclass.com/states/South%20Carolina%20Curfew%20Laws.html

# data[].attributes.body
the improvement or fixing of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc.

Example : Martin Luther King improved the society for the African american People

# data[].attributes.headline
Reform- the improvement or fixing of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc.

# data[].attributes.subject
Reform- the improvement or fixing of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc.

# data[].attributes.headline
Recall- A procedure that allows citizens to remove and replace a public official before the end of a term of office

# data[].attributes.subject
Recall- A procedure that allows citizens to remove and replace a public official before the end of a term of office

# data[].attributes.body
A procedure that allows citizens to remove and replace a public official before the end of a term of office

Example : A recall of the 2015 election occurred in California and Colorado

s://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_recall_election

# data[].attributes.body
To search for and expose real or alleged corruption, scandal, or the like, especially in politics.

Example : The Muckrakers started a lot of problems in the society , like the editors of magazines

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Muckrakers of the Progressive Era: Definition and Influence - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Muckrakers were investigative journalists during the Progressive Era who reported sensational news articles that exposed scandalous social,…

# data[].attributes.body
An organized association of workers formed to protect and further their rights and interests; a labor union.
Example :
Today in the world a lot of people are having protest about their rights in society

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/issues-labor-unions-2684.html

# data[].attributes.body
A political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group, commands the support of a group of supporters and businesses (usually campaign workers), who receive rewards for their efforts. The machine's power is based on the ability of the workers to get out the vote for their candidates on election day. In many cases illegal actions are taken to control the government for the benefit of that group.

Example : The Tammany Hall machine was seldom dominated by one "boss.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
High School American History and Economics help. Supreme Court case summaries.

# data[].attributes.body
Conditions relating to public health, especially the provision of clean drinking water, adequate sewage disposal and garbage disposal.

Example : The water in is very dirty and very UN-sanitation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Above the Legal Limit
The state's limit for chromium 6 in drinking water is 10 parts per billion. A part per billion is about a drop of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The report also found the vast majority of samples from water districts serving roughly 8.5 million Californians across the state had hexavalent chromium at levels below the legal limit, but above the public health goal set by state scientists.

The report is from the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog agency based in Washington, D.C. The non-profit analyzed data the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency collected from water utilities across the country between 2013 and 2015. An interactive map developed from the data shows chromium 6 levels in California and throughout the U.S.

"It was eye opening," says Bill Walker, co-author of the Environmental Working Group report.

"We're not trying to say the chromium 6 situation is as bad as the Flint situation but we're saying if you start to look at it more closely you can find some really disturbing things."

The chemical occurs naturally in the environment from the erosion of natural chromium deposits but it's also manufactured and used in stainless steel production, metal finishing, chrome plating, leather tanning, and to prevent corrosion in electrical plant cooling towers, as was the case in Hinkley.

Outside of the workplace, the main way people might be exposed to chromium 6 is through drinking water.

And although the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulates chromium 6 in work environments, the EPA doesn't regulate chromium 6 in drinking water. In fact, California is the only state that does.

And California has two standards: a legally enforceable limit on chromium 6 in drinking water, and a much lower public health goal.

'Does the state want us to drink distilled water? Cause that's basically what they're trying to get us to do, it's absurd.' Ken Moore, Kerman City's Public Works Director

Toxicologists at the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment set the public health goal for chromium intake at .02 parts per billion. A part per billion is about a drop of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

A public health goal must represent a negligible health risk. State scientists said at .02 ppb, the risk of developing cancer for people who drink the water daily for 70 years is no more than a one-in-a-million.

State law requires the legal limit be set "as close as is technically and economically feasible" to the public health goal.

When the California Department of Public Health set a legally enforceable level in 2014, it took into account factors such as how costly it would be for water districts to monitor and clean up the chemical. Public health officials set the legally enforceable level 500 times higher than the public health goal, at 10 parts per billion. It was the first drinking water standard for chromium 6 in the nation.

The state's legal limit represents a cancer risk of 500 people per-one-million, for people who drink the water daily for 70 years.

State officials found that getting chromium 6 levels below 10 ppb added significantly to the cost of compliance. To set the legal limit only half as high, at 5 ppb, would have tripled the cost. To reach 1 ppb, the cost would have been 11 times higher.

In the EWG report, Los Banos water samples registered the highest level of chromium 6, at 31.5 ppb, followed by Kerman City at 19.2 ppb and Patterson City at 18 ppb.

The cities that tested above the state's legal limit run from Sacramento to Los Angeles through California's Central Valley.

Among the water districts that tested below the legal limit, but above the public health goal are Hollister, L.A. County Waterworks Districts and Vacaville.

Residents concerned about elevated levels should "contact their water system to see exactly what is going on and what the treatment is," says state water board public information officer Andrew DiLuccia.

Since January 2015, public water systems in California have been required to test for chromium 6 in drinking water. If the contamination is above the legal limit, the district must test its water supplies four times a year. If the average of four consecutive tests exceeds the legal limit, the supplier is in violation.

However, since water filtration and well construction is expensive and time-consuming, Senate Bill 385 gives water districts until 2020 to get their chromium 6 levels below the legal limit.

But one city manager says California's relatively new 10 ppb rule is too stringent.

"Does the state want us to drink distilled water?" asks Ken Moore, Kerman City's Public Works Director. "Cause that's basically what they're trying to get us to do, it's absurd."

Results from the EWG report show Kerman's average chromium 6 level at 19.2 ppb, nearly double the legal limit.

Moore says the cleaning costs would be millions of dollars and would raise residents' water bills from $35 a month to $150 just to pay for filtering, disposal, and operational overhead associated with removing the chemical.

"It's something we can't afford," he says. "The people of this community can't afford to pay for it."

Other districts like the Indio Water Authority and Soquel Creek have been able to pay for removal and are now supplying water to their customers that tests below the legal limit for chromium 6.

Last Thursday, Willows, a small town between Redding and Sacramento, held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the successful installation of an ion exchange filtration system. The state-funded water purifier removes chromium 6 from its wells.

Kerman has also received state funding under Proposition 1. But Moore says the $3.5 million won't cover all the costs to test, install and maintain six new groundwater wells in the city.

For individuals who want to remove chromium 6 from their tap, there are several types of water filters that will do it, including reverse osmosis filters that are available at many hardware stores. The EWG also has an online guide.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Drinking Water of Some Californians Exceeds Limit for 'Erin Brockovich' Chemical

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Above the Legal Limit The state's limit for chromium 6 in drinking water is 10 parts per billion. A part per billion is about a drop of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

# data[].attributes.body
A run-down and often overcrowded apartment house, especially in a poor section of a large city.

Example :
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire building was a crowed building but not apartment. It was in a large city and really crowed with to many people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 145 workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable-most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building. The tragedy brought widespread attention to the dangerous sweatshop conditions of factories, and led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of workers.

The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, was located in the top three floors of the Asch Building, on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, in Manhattan. It was a true sweatshop, employing young immigrant women who worked in a cramped space at lines of sewing machines. Nearly all the workers were teenaged girls who did not speak English, working 12 hours a day, every day. In 1911, there were four elevators with access to the factory floors, but only one was fully operational and the workers had to file down a long, narrow corridor in order to reach it. There were two stairways down to the street, but one was locked from the outside to prevent stealing and the other only opened inward. The fire escape was so narrow that it would have taken hours for all the workers to use it, even in the best of circumstances.

The danger of fire in factories like the Triangle Shirtwaist was well-known, but high levels of corruption in both the garment industry and city government generally ensured that no useful precautions were taken to prevent fires. Blanck and Harris already had a suspicious history of factory fires. The Triangle factory was twice scorched in 1902, while their Diamond Waist Company factory burned twice, in 1907 and in 1910. It seems that Blanck and Harris deliberately torched their workplaces before business hours in order to collect on the large fire-insurance policies they purchased, a not uncommon practice in the early 20th century. While this was not the cause of the 1911 fire, it contributed to the tragedy, as Blanck and Harris refused to install sprinkler systems and take other safety measures in case they needed to burn down their shops again.

Added to this delinquency were Blanck and Harris' notorious anti-worker policies. Their employees were paid a mere $15 a week, despite working 12 hours a day, every day. When the International Ladies Garment Workers Union led a strike in 1909 demanding higher pay and shorter and more predictable hours, Blanck and Harris' company was one of the few manufacturers who resisted, hiring police as thugs to imprison the striking women, and paying off politicians to look the other way.

On March 25, a Saturday afternoon, there were 600 workers at the factory when a fire began in a rag bin. The manager attempted to use the fire hose to extinguish it, but was unsuccessful, as the hose was rotted and its valve was rusted shut. As the fire grew, panic ensued. The young workers tried to exit the building by the elevator but it could hold only 12 people and the operator was able to make just four trips back and forth before it broke down amid the heat and flames. In a desperate attempt to escape the fire, the girls left behind waiting for the elevator plunged down the shaft to their deaths. The girls who fled via the stairwells also met awful demises-when they found a locked door at the bottom of the stairs, many were burned alive.

Those workers who were on floors above the fire, including the owners, escaped to the roof and then to adjoining buildings. As firefighters arrived, they witnessed a horrible scene. The girls who did not make it to the stairwells or the elevator were trapped by the fire inside the factory and began to jump from the windows to escape it. The bodies of the jumpers fell on the fire hoses, making it difficult to begin fighting the fire. Also, the firefighters ladders reached only seven floors high and the fire was on the eighth floor. In one case, a life net was unfurled to catch jumpers, but three girls jumped at the same time, ripping the net. The nets turned out to be mostly ineffectual.

Within 18 minutes, it was all over. Forty-nine workers had burned to death or been suffocated by smoke, 36 were dead in the elevator shaft and 58 died from jumping to the sidewalks. With two more dying later from their injuries, a total of 145 people were killed by the fire. The workers union set up a march on April 5 on New York's Fifth Avenue to protest the conditions that had led to the fire; it was attended by 80,000 people.

Despite a good deal of evidence that the owners and management had been horribly negligent in the fire, a grand jury failed to indict them on manslaughter charges. Still, the massacre for which they were responsible did finally compel the city to enact reform. In addition to the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law passed that October, the New York Democratic set took up the cause of the worker and became known as a reform party. Both were crucial in preventing similar disasters in the future.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 145 workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable-most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building.

# data[].attributes.body
Becoming more like a city. When populations of people grow, the population of a place may spill over from city to nearby areas. Maybe tall apartment buildings spring up on what had been the outskirts of town, bringing more people there to live and work.

Example : In china, there used to be a law called the one child policy. So many people were reproducing they were limited in space. Soon after they changed the law in 2013, but this is how bad the Urbanization was.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
China's decision to lift its one-child policy next year is expected to diversify the country's aging, increasingly male population. But the degree to which the policy has affected the country of more than 1.3 billion people is hard to imagine. Here are five charts and maps that help illustrate it.

The nearly 40-year-old restriction on having multiple children isn't the only time the Chinese government stepped into family planning. Shortly after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mao Zedong encouraged the population to multiply and create manpower. There was no official policy, but government propaganda condemned contraceptives and even banned the import of some. As a result, the population of China doubled over the next few years.

The success was short lived. China's food supply was strained and the government reversed the campaign against contraceptives. From 1959 to 1961, the Great Chinese Famine killed an estimated 15 to 30 million people.

In 1979, the government introduced the one-child policy, under which most couples are allowed to have only one child or else face the possibility of fines, sterilizations, and abortions. Looking at just a half century of data on China, we can see peaks and valleys in the birthrate reflecting pro-reproduction attitudes, famine, and the one-child policy.

In 2013, a relaxation of policy allowed over 12 million couples to apply to have a second child. Only about 12 percent of eligible couples applied. When the one-child policy ends in 2016, most couples will be restricted to two children. But that may not address all of the issues. After decades of the one-child policy, coupled with new economic and social pressures to succeed, many couples have decided to stop with one child, or to not have any at all. So with a national birth rate well below replacement level of 2.1 and some urban birth rates under 1, China faces a new challenge. How do they provide for an older population while also encouraging younger residents to have more children?

In a study conducted before the announcement of the end of the one-child policy, projections from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicted that the number of Chinese citizens over the age of 65 will soar to 219 million in 2030 and grow to make up a quarter of China's entire population by 2050. This means a significant portion of residents will age out of the labor force

Officials hoping that a relaxed population control policy will resolve the pending labor deficit may be disappointed at what initially appears to be a lack of interest. Overall, China's one-child policy may have worked too well and its reversal may have come too late, according to demographers and economists. Even if the birth rate jumped to 2 children per woman in 2016, it will be well into the 2030s or even the 2040s before the children born of this policy change even enter the workforce.

It's Happening (Almost) Everywhere

China is not alone in this dilemma. Low birth rates are also a product of personal choice, and the UN predicts we'll see a considerably older world population by 2100. Countries including the U.S., Canada, Chile, Brazil, Russia, and Australia will likely reach a point where a quarter or more of their populations are above the age of 65, not working, and depending on a pension. On the other hand, most African countries, many former Soviet states, and large portions of Asia will remain young. But the younger populations of these countries won't stop populous aging countries from reshaping the global population to the point that almost a fourth of all people on Earth will be over 65 by 2100.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
See How the One-Child Policy Changed China

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
China's decision to lift its one-child policy next year is expected to diversify the country's aging, increasingly male population. But the degree to which the policy has affected the country of more than 1.3 billion people is hard to imagine. Here are five charts and maps that help illustrate it.

# data[].attributes.body
The right of citizens, outside the legislature (lawmakers), to introduce ideas for legislation (laws).

Example :
People outside of the government wanted to make or pass the law about no smoking in the car with children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In February 2018, a post on the photo sharing web site LoveThisPic.com conveyed an announcement that smoking in cars when children are present is illegal thanks to a law that became effective on 30 January 2018:

#1 No More Smoking In Cars With Children

The law, that becomes effective on January 30, 2018 is to protect children from secondhand smoking. Violations would result in a fine of up to $100.

#2 Thousands Of Chemicals

According to the Department of Health, when a child breathes in secondhand smoke, they breathe in thousands of chemicals, just like the smoker does. This puts them at risk of serious conditions including cancer, bronchitis, and pneumonia. And it can worsen asthma.

#3 All Private Vehicles

The law applies to any private vehicle that is enclosed wholly or partly by a roof. It still applies if people have the windows or sunroof open, have the air-conditioning on, or if they sit in a parked car with the door open.

Insofar as it gives the impression that there exists a nationwide ban on smoking in cars with children, the post is wholly incorrect. Some state and local governments have instituted such a ban, but no such statute exists in federal law.

Shifting to the state and local level, we were unable to find any announcements of smoking bans in vehicles with minor passengers going into effect on 30 January 2018. However, we did find that a legislative bill passed in the Alabama House of Representatives on that date would, if it becomes law, institute such a ban in that state. Much of the content in the LoveThisPic.com post was taken from a Yahoo! article reporting on the passage of the bill and exploring the larger issue of smoking prohibitions.

To be clear, the proposed Alabama ban did not go into effect on 30 January 2018, and won't go into effect until and unless the bill becomes law.

Another false report of a ban on smoking in cars with minors present appeared in May 2016 on the web site Now8News:

Starting October 1, 2016, it will be illegal to smoke in a car or other vehicles, with anyone under the age of 18. The law is changing to protect children and young people from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Both the driver and the smoker in the car could be fined as much as $80. This law applies to every driver, including those age 17 and those with a driving permit.

There was a whole lot wrong with this article; namely that it originated with Now8News, a fake news site that masquerades as a local television news site while publishing fabricated clickbait stories; that the article text makes no mention of where the referenced smoking ban is supposed to take place; and that the article is simply a republication of a previous hoax with the year updated from 2015 to 2016. The basis of the original Now8News article was a report of a vehicle smoking ban enacted in England and Wales in 2015.

Cason, Mike. "House Passes Bill to Ban Smoking in Cars with Minors."
AL.com. 30 January 2018.

Weiss, Sabrina Rojas. "Should We Just Go Ahead and Ban Smoking Everywhere?"
Yahoo! 1 February 2018.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
FACT CHECK: Is Smoking in Cars with Children Illegal as of January 30, 2018?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In February 2018, a post on the photo sharing web site LoveThisPic.com conveyed an announcement that smoking in cars when children are present is illegal thanks to a law that became effective on 30 January 2018: #1 No More Smoking In Cars With Children The law, that becomes effective on January 30, 2018 is to protect children from secondhand smoking.

# data[].attributes.body
The process by which an economy is transformed from primarily agricultural (farming) to one based on the manufacturing of goods (machines and factorie). Individual manual labor is often replaced by mechanized mass production, and craftsmen are replaced by assembly lines.

Example : Industrialization is a big part of our country today, we are starting to use machines more then people. Causing people to loose there jobs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Vatican City - The current economic model that places profit over the common good of all human beings must change in order to confront the challenges the world is facing today, a Vatican official said.

The world must heed Pope Francis' warning of the dangers of "an economy of exclusion and inequality," Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told participants at a conference studying the pope's views on the economy.

"We need a new social economy to meet the challenges of the present day, one in which the human being is firmly at the center, where all are included in economic social life, and where creation is cherished and protected," Turkson said.

The Sept. 13 event, titled "The Economy according to Pope Francis," was sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the embassies of Germany, the Netherlands and Austria to the Holy See.

In his speech, Turkson highlighted the pope's warnings on the "liquid economy," or an economy judged by the ease with which assets can be converted into cash, and therefore focusing more on finance than on labor and the production of goods.

This type of economy, he said, is one that "refuses to put the human being at the center of economic life."

"For Pope Francis, a liquid economy goes hand-in-hand with a throwaway culture. This is the ultimate economy of exclusion," Turkson said.

The pope's call for the world to move from a liquid economy to a social economy, one that "invests in persons by creating jobs and providing training," is a solution that shifts the priority "from economic growth and financial health to human flourishing and the ability to live well," he said.

To achieve this, the cardinal continued, the principles of solidarity, subsidiarity and the common good highlighted in Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment, " Laudato Si'," can be applied to the modern market economy.

Also citing Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation, "The Joy of the Gospel," Turkson explained that solidarity can lead to the "creation of a new mindset" that places "priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few."

These principles, he added, also can be applied to global problems "that do not respect national boundaries" and therefore call for a unified response.

"Climate change is an obvious example," he said. "The same is true for other environmental problems, including the loss of biodiversity, the strain on water supplies, and pollution of the air, the soil, the water."

Global issues such as unemployment, inequality and environmental degradation can be remedied by moving toward a social market economy, Turkson said. However, global and business leaders also must come to terms with the causes of such problems.

While technological advances have improved efficiency, he said, they also have created problems with employment, which is "an essential source of human dignity."

"More and more people are being discarded as machines take up their tasks. And as technology gets more and more advanced, what will a 'robot economy' mean for workers?" the cardinal asked.

In order to serve the common good, Turkson said, businesses must "put the creation of employment ahead of a fixation of profits."

Government policies that provide tax cuts to the wealthy while "fraying social safety nets and weakening unions," he said, also have contributed to a growing inequality that has given the wealthy "too much influence over policy."

Societies that become too unequal, he added, "lose a sense of shared purpose necessary for deliberating on the common good."

A new social economy, he said, must be respectful of nature instead of relying on "old-school industrialization," making the world dependent on oil, coal and gas.

Extreme pollution, climate change and the destruction of vital ecosystems caused by such industrialization will continue to push people into extreme poverty "if we fail to act," he said.

Everyone must "play their part" in ensuring an economy that is sustainable, equal and respectful of human dignity, he said. "Let's not fall into the trap of assuming that the state alone is responsible for the common good while 'the business of business is business.'"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Economic focus must shift from profit to people, cardinal says

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Vatican City - The current economic model that places profit over the common good of all human beings must change in order to confront the challenges the world is facing today, a Vatican official said.

# data[].attributes.body
Coming to live permanently in a foreign country.

Example: The Donald Trump election is mainly focusing around immigration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The undocumented immigrant population isn't growing, despite Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's insinuation that unauthorized immigration is out of control and getting worse.

"The government has no idea," he said last year. "We have lost control of our country. We have lost control of our borders. The government has no idea how many illegals are here."

That's not true: The undocumented population has remained stable since 2009, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. The report, based on government data, gives a more complete picture of the current state of unauthorized immigration ― and the people Trump hopes to drive out.

Pew estimates that there were 11.1 million undocumented immigrants as of 2014, down from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007. The number of Mexican undocumented immigrants decreased to an estimated 5.8 million people in 2014.

That's not to say that unauthorized immigration and illegal border-crossings are no longer a problem. The number of undocumented immigrants from Central America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa grew from 2009 to 2014, according to Pew estimates. Some of that growth can be attributed to individuals overstaying their visas; an estimated 500,000 undocumented immigrants from India lived in the U.S. in 2014, up by 130,000 from 2009, according to Pew.

Border officials apprehended more Central Americans than Mexicans in the 2014 fiscal year for the first time since the government began keeping records in 1992, thanks in part to a surge in families and unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S. to ask for asylum or other relief. That reversal didn't continue into the next year, however ― border agents apprehended more Mexicans than non-Mexicans in the 2015 fiscal year .

Overall, though, more Mexican nationals are leaving the United States than coming to the country, according to a previous Pew Research Center report.

Most Mexican undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have deep roots here ― as of 2014, 78 percent of them had been in the country for 10 or more years, the new Pew Research Center paper reported. That's also true for 66 percent of the undocumented population as a whole.

If Congress enacts immigration reform that allows some undocumented immigrants to stay ― something Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton says she supports ― those who have been living in the U.S. for longer periods would be most likely to get relief.

Trump has indicated that even undocumented immigrants with longstanding ties to the U.S. would be forced out if he becomes president ― if not by mass deportation, then by policies that would make it more difficult for them to stay.

But Trump's unlikely to believe estimates on the undocumented immigrant population anyway. He has repeatedly claimed that the size of the undocumented population is unknown, even though multiple sources have estimated it's around 11 million people.

"Honestly, we've been hearing that number for years. It's always 11 million. Our government has no idea. It could be 3 million. It could be 30 million," Trump said earlier this month. "They have no idea what the number is. Frankly, our government has no idea what they're doing on many, many fronts, folks."

BEFORE YOU GO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This Is How Many Undocumented Immigrants Trump Wants To Kick Out

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The undocumented immigrant population isn't growing, despite Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's insinuation that unauthorized immigration is out of control and getting worse. "The government has no idea," he said last year. "We have lost control of our country. We have lost control of our borders.

# data[].attributes.body
Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery (giving money for favors).

Example: The government might give money to other country for a favor they need done , but can not do.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Image

Joseph Percoco, left, with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York in 2013. Mr. Percoco, who is now facing corruption charges, was Mr. Cuomo's all-purpose body man and political enforcer. Credit Credit Mike Groll/Associated Press

Federal corruption charges were announced on Thursday against two former close aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a senior state official and six other people, in a blow to the governor's innermost circle and a repudiation of the way his prized upstate economic development programs were managed.

The charges against the former aides, Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, and the state official, Alain Kaloyeros, were the culmination of a long-running federal investigation into the Cuomo administration's efforts to lure jobs and businesses to upstate New York's limping economy by furnishing billions of dollars in state funds to developers from Buffalo to Albany.

In doing so, says a 79-page criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, Mr. Percoco and Mr. Howe sought to enrich themselves through bribes, using their positions to help particular companies receive "hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts and other official state benefits."

The charges mark the second major inquiry of the Cuomo administration by the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan; eight months ago, after investigating Mr. Cuomo's handling of an anticorruption panel that he had created and abruptly shut down, Mr. Bharara said there was "insufficient evidence to prove a federal crime."

At a news conference at which he announced the charges, Mr. Bharara was asked if he would essentially give Mr. Cuomo a "clean bill of health" again.

"There are no allegations of any wrongdoing or misconduct by the governor, anywhere in this complaint," Mr. Bharara replied. "That's all I'm going to say."

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced corruption charges against nine men, including Todd Howe and another former close aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Published On Credit Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times

If the charges did not hit Mr. Cuomo directly, they did hit him in a peripheral and personal manner: Mr. Percoco and Mr. Howe were both loyalists of Mr. Cuomo and his father, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, for whom they had also worked. Andrew Cuomo once referred to Mr. Percoco as "my father's third son, who I sometimes think he loved the most."

Mr. Cuomo had also spoken highly of Dr. Kaloyeros, depicting him as a visionary in the field of nanotechnology, which Mr. Cuomo has heralded as a potential boon for the state economy.

Mr. Bharara's office and F.B.I. agents in Buffalo had been examining whether state officials awarded lucrative projects to a few favored developers who had donated to the political campaigns of Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat. One major area of interest was the administration's plan to inject $1 billion in state funds into Buffalo-area factories, research facilities and other projects, known together as the Buffalo Billion.

The resulting investigation yielded a rich narrative of three trusted counselors to Mr. Cuomo conspiring to help the favored contractors, rigging bids and doling out other favorable treatment. The complaint also portrayed the defendants as trying to conceal the schemes, sometimes in unusual ways.

In emails and other correspondence, Mr. Percoco and Mr. Howe referred to bribe money as "ziti," a term used in "The Sopranos," the complaint says. Mr. Percoco, Mr. Howe and others also called one another "Herb" as a term of endearment, while discussing the arrangement.

Mr. Bharara said at a news conference on Thursday that he hoped the case would go to trial "so that all New Yorkers can see, in gory detail, what their state government has been up to."

Mr. Percoco, who had served as Mr. Cuomo's executive deputy secretary, is accused of soliciting and taking more than $315,000 in bribes from 2012 to 2016 from two companies: Competitive Power Ventures, an energy company that was seeking state approval to build a power plant in the Hudson Valley, and COR Development, a major developer in the Syracuse area that ended up with several large state-funded economic development projects.

The bribes were arranged by Mr. Howe, who counted both companies among his clients, the complaint said. Mr. Howe is cooperating with the investigation, prosecutors said, and pleaded guilty this week to extortion, wire fraud and related conspiracy charges. His lawyer, Richard J. Morvillo, would say only that his client "has accepted responsibility for his actions and will testify truthfully if called upon."

In one instance cited in the complaint, prosecutors say Mr. Howe sent an email to Dr. Kaloyeros saying he had "vitals for Buffalo and Syracuse friends." He was working with a prominent corporate donor, LPCiminelli, a builder based in Buffalo, to create a request for proposals that effectively made LPCiminelli the only eligible bidder.

Neither the energy company nor the developers in Buffalo and Syracuse are named in the complaint, but several defendants charged are among the companies' top officials.

They include Peter Galbraith Kelly Jr., who oversaw lobbying and public relations for Competitive Power Ventures, which is based in Maryland and Massachusetts; Steven Aiello, the president of COR Development; and Joseph Gerardi, another executive at COR. The complaint also charges Louis Ciminelli, the founder of LPCiminelli; and Michael Laipple and Kevin Schuler, two other LPCiminelli executives.

Mr. Kelly is accused of offering and paying Mr. Percoco more than $287,000 in bribes in exchange for Mr. Percoco's help. The payments were made to Lisa Toscano-Percoco, Mr. Percoco's wife, who was ostensibly employed as a consultant to Competitive Power Ventures's educational outreach arm starting in 2012.

Image

Todd R. Howe in 2009. Credit Will Waldron/Times Union, via Associated Press

Competitive Power Ventures wanted Mr. Percoco's help obtaining a state contract worth approximately $100 million to finance its power plant in the Hudson Valley, as well as millions of dollars in energy credits for a power plant it was building in New Jersey.

The COR executives, Mr. Aiello and Mr. Gerardi, were accused of giving Mr. Percoco about $35,000 in bribes to use his position in the governor's office to promote the company's economic development projects.

According to the complaint, they sought Mr. Percoco's help in reversing a decision by the state's economic development agency that would have forced COR - Mr. Cuomo's largest donor in central New York - to make an expensive labor peace agreement; pushing the state to release payments that it owed to COR; and getting a $5,000 raise for Mr. Aiello's son, who worked for Mr. Percoco at the governor's office.

The charges in the complaint included bribery, extortion under color of official right, and wire fraud and honest services fraud conspiracies.

The defendants appeared in federal courts in Manhattan, Syracuse and Buffalo on Thursday and were ordered released on bond. The expected charges against Mr. Percoco were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Percoco's lawyer, Barry A. Bohrer, characterized the prosecution as "an overreach of classic proportions," adding that a Supreme Court decision in June that overturned the corruption conviction of former Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia established that his client's conduct was lawful.

Image

Joseph Percoco in 2016. Credit Louis Lanzano for The New York Times

"Mr. Percoco performed services honestly and within the bounds of the law at all times," Mr. Bohrer said.

A lawyer for Mr. Aiello and Mr. Gerardi declined to comment. Mr. Kelly's lawyer, Daniel M. Gitner, said his client was innocent and "will be exonerated." LPCiminelli, citing its three executives named in the complaint, said it was "confident that all company officials acted appropriately and legally" and would be vindicated.

Virtually all the state-funded projects were shaped under the umbrella of the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute and its subsidiaries. The institute is headed by Dr. Kaloyeros, a physicist who has become something of an economic development guru in Albany.

Dr. Kaloyeros had been given free rein by Mr. Cuomo to conceive of high-tech economic development projects that could create jobs across the state.

Michael C. Miller, a lawyer for Dr. Kaloyeros, said his client was innocent and "looks forward to being exonerated."

Dr. Kaloyeros also was hit with separate charges on Thursday filed by the New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman. Dr. Kaloyeros and Joseph Nicolla of Columbia Development, an Albany-area firm, were accused of colluding to make sure Columbia was awarded contracts to build multiple SUNY Polytechnic projects.

Mr. Cuomo said Dr. Kaloyeros had been suspended without pay.

When news of the investigation into the governor's former aides broke in April, his office quickly cut ties to both men and ordered its own internal investigation. The results of that inquiry have not been released.

Mr. Cuomo said in a statement on Thursday that if the allegations were true, he would be "saddened and profoundly disappointed."

"I hold my administration to the highest level of integrity. I have zero tolerance for abuse of the public trust from anyone," he said. "If anything, a friend should be held to an even higher standard."

Jesse McKinley contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Former Cuomo Aides Took Bribes to Steer State Grants, U.S. Says. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ex-Cuomo Aides Charged in Federal Corruption Inquiry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Federal corruption charges were announced on Thursday against two former close aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a senior state official and six other people, in a blow to the governor's innermost circle and a repudiation of the way his prized upstate economic development programs were managed.