Florida woman guilty of Alabama credit card skimming
A Florida woman was found guilty of helping to orchestrate a multi-state scheme to use skimming devices on gas pumps to steal credit and debit card numbers, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Tuesday. Eunises Llorca-Menses, 30, of Naples, Fla. was found guilty by a federal jury Friday on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in January. She faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. “This conviction should send a strong message to debit card skimmers seeking to target unsuspecting Alabamians: you will be caught and brought to justice,” Marshall said in a statement. On February 15, 2017, Llorca Menses and her co-defendant Reiner Perez-Rives were charged. Perez-Rives pled guilty in July to conspiracy and identity theft charges. As part of the scheme, Llorca-Menses and Perez-Rives, would rent vehicles and travel between Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia. During their travels, they would visit several gas stations and install a skimming device inside gas pumps. Through the skimming device, they collected gas station customers’ credit/debit card information and used that information to activate or reactivate credit, debit, or gift cards, and make unauthorized ATM cash withdrawals at gas stations and purchases at several places around the Southeast. Law enforcement officials uncovered the elaborate scheme following multiple reports from victims concerning the unauthorized use of their debit cards. Working with financial institutions, the Ozark Police Department, along with state and federal partners, discovered that many of the victims had used their cards at the same gas station in Ozark, Ala. At this station, they found a skimming device with Bluetooth capability installed on a gas pump. The Bluetooth technology allowed the defendants to collect a gas customer’s credit/debit information while sitting up to thirty-feet away from the gas pump. At the time of their arrest on December 21, 2016, Llorca-Meneses and Peres-Rives were found to be in possession of thirty-nine credit/debit cards that had been re-encoded with stolen credit/debit card numbers, along with an additional 317 gift cards. A Wal-Mart gift card that contained the stolen account information from a victim’s Capital One credit card and a key used to gain access to the inside of a gas pump was found in Llorca-Meneses’ purse. Law enforcement also found a homemade device with connectors that matched the connections on the skimming device found in the gas pump in Ozark in their luggage. “It is incredibly difficult for the average person to determine if a gas pump has a skimmer,” stated Acting U.S for the Middle District of Alabama A. Clark Morris. “This is because many are placed inside the gas pump with no visible evidence of tampering. While the crooks may be getting smarter, law enforcement continues to work hard to stay a step ahead. This conviction shows that our office will continue to work with our partners to identify criminals that seek to victimize our citizens.” To avoid becoming a victim of this type of fraud, customers should pay inside the store or use pumps that are visible to store employees and video surveillance cameras. Criminals commonly target pumps that allow them to install skimming devices undetected. This case was a joint investigation involving the Ozark Police Department, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, the United States Secret Service, and the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Denise O. Simpson and Assistant United States Attorney Steven Lee prosecuted this case.
Luther Strange remains untethered on DACA in constituent email, quickly clarifies position
In a Monday email response to a constituent, Sen. Luther Strange seemingly avoided taking a hard-lined position on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, more commonly referred to as DACA, when asked about it by a constituent. Jack Kemp of Fosters, Ala. posted Strange’s email response on his Facebook page Tuesday, concerned that the Senator supports the Dream Act as he did not outright refute it in the email. In the constituent letter, Strange explained what both the Dream Act and DACA program were, saying he does not serve on the committee of jurisdiction over either issue, and thus avoided clearly defining his own position on the issues. “Currently, this bill is in the Senate Judiciary committee,” wrote Strange. “I do not serve on that committee, but if this bill comes to the Senate floor for debate and a vote, I will keep your views in mind.” When Alabama Today asked Strange for Senate campaign to clarify Strange’s position, they were quick to respond. “Luther Strange stands with Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions by believing the first thing our country needs to do is enforce our laws before any discussion on policy,” said campaign spokesperson Cameron Foster. “He is 100 percent opposed to amnesty for illegal immigrants. Unlike his opponent Roy Moore, Luther Strange stands with President Trump on building the wall on the Mexican border.” Foster’s response echoes Strange’s own words last week. Following news from former Alabama U.S. Senator and current U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions of the “orderly wind down” of President Barack Obama‘s DACA program, Strange appeared on Fox News’ Happening Now with Harris Faulkner Tuesday afternoon to discuss his first take on the situation and issued the following statement. “Since my tenure as Attorney General, I have been fighting, and winning, against Obama-era experiments with illegal amnesty. Today, the Trump administration rightly affirmed that Congress must lead the way in securing our borders and ending the crisis of illegal immigration,” said Strange. “We actually sued successfully to stop the Obama administration program to allow adults to stay here illegally (DAPA). I think this program is the same category – I think it’s unconstitutional… The President makes the best point – Congress should address this issue.”
Senate GOP looking for budget deal to open way to tax redo
Pushing toward the Republicans’ prime goal of tax legislation, the GOP Senate leader and members of the Budget Committee are scrambling to come up with a budget deal to clear the way for the first tax overhaul in three decades. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP members of the Budget Committee are meeting Tuesday with two top Trump administration officials to plot breaking the budget stalemate. Lack of a budget plan for the 2018 fiscal year starting Oct. 1 is a roadblock to the must-do legislation overhauling the tax system that Republicans and President Donald Trump have made their highest priority. Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are meeting with McConnell and budget panel members. Underscoring the president’s desire for tax legislation, Trump was hosting a bipartisan group of senators for dinner at the White House on Tuesday, including a trio of moderate Democrats from states Trump won last November and whose votes he’d like to have on a tax bill. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana are to be joined at dinner by Republican Sens. John Thune of North Dakota, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Orrin Hatch of Utah, the White House said. Manchin, Heitkamp and Donnelly are the only Democratic senators who did not sign a letter addressed to Republican leaders and Trump that said the Democratic caucus would not support a tax overhaul that cuts taxes for the “top 1 percent” or adds to the government’s $20 trillion debt. Heitkamp traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One to an event in her home state last week where he spoke broadly about the tax plan. Trump pitched the senator on the overhaul, calling her a “good woman.” Heitkamp said after the event that she needs to see the details first. Under Washington’s complicated ways, passing a congressional budget blueprint is the only way to set in motion a special process for rewriting the tax code. If Congress can pass a budget, Republicans controlling the Senate don’t need to worry about a Democratic filibuster blocking any tax bill. House action has been held up by a battle between moderates and conservatives over whether to pair spending cuts with the filibuster-proof tax measure. Senate action has been on hold while the House struggles. An impasse could doom the tax overhaul effort. On the budget panel, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., is hoping to limit the deficit cost of the tax effort, while Toomey is on the other end of the spectrum favoring more robust deficit-financed tax cuts. GOP leaders have asked them to try to craft an agreement among the 12 budget panel Republicans. Any Republican defection on the budget plan would deadlock the narrowly divided committee. “I’m a fiscal hawk, OK? I believe in pro-growth tax reform and I believe that’s a mechanism toward lowering deficits,” Corker said Monday. “But I’m also someone who wants to be realistic about all of this, and not let this just be party time that takes us no place but massive deficits down the road.” Revamping the nation’s tax system and providing relief for the middle class is a Republican mission following the collapse of efforts to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law. Trump has made it a pillar of his push for economic growth. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Donald Trump’s voter commission meets amid concerns about mission
A commission created by President Donald Trump to investigate his allegations of voter fraud is scheduled to meet in New Hampshire. The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity has spurred controversy since it was established in May. Critics say the Republican president is using the commission to support his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud that cost him the popular vote during the 2016 election. There have been isolated cases of voter fraud in the U.S. But there’s no evidence of it being a widespread problem, as Trump suggests. The New Hampshire chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP say they plan to call for the commission’s dismantling. Tuesday’s meeting is the commission’s second but its first outside Washington, D.C. The vice chairman of the commission is Republican Kris Kobach, who’s Kansas’ secretary of state. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Students, parents and school board member speak out against Randall Woodfin
A lot has been said about experience in the race for Birmingham Mayor. In two new videos, students and a member of the Birmingham school board shine a light on their personal experiences with Randall Woodfin speaking about his time and actions serving as President of the Birmingham school board. While the hard facts speak for themselves, information like the Alabama State Board of Education noting the number for failing schools tripled while he was President and three different superintendents were hired and fired over the same period, these post go beyond facts and figures though and point to the personal side of Woodfin’s tenure. It all started last Monday when a voter posted on Facebook asking if anyone on the Birmingham Board of Education would share how Woodfin, also BOE member, got “along with them.” Fellow school board member Cheri Gardner was quick to respond. “I have worked with him for the last three and half years as a board member. I have known him for many more. I have always held him in high regard. It was only after l started to work with him as a board member did l truly meet the real person,” Gardner wrote in a Facebook comment. “What I learned is that he lies effortlessly. He is manipulative. Likes to [point] his finger in folks faces. Has tantrums when he doesn’t get his way. He has even challenged me into a physical fight. I will only speak for myself but hopefully others will see this and are willing to share their experiences.” The following day, Carlos Chaverst Jr., a local activist and Political Strategist at Touch Communications, sat down with Gardner for a Facebook live video to dive deeper into her accusations against Woodfin, probing her on the timing of her post and asking whether or not incumbent mayor William Bell paid her to write it Gardner explained she only said what she did, when she did because someone had stopped and asked the question. “If the post had not been there and no one ever asked me, I would not have said anything because I really didn’t want to get into the mayor’s race,” said Gardner. As to whether or not Bell paid her to write anything, “absolutely not. I have never been paid by any political candidate to do anything.” Then on Sept. 10, two Ramsay High school alums, Robyn Gulley, a sophomore are Birmingham Southern College and Joshua, a current UAB student, also took to Facebook to recount their personal experiences with Woodfin. They spoke of a time in 2014, when their high school principal Dr. Evelyn Nettles was placed on administrative leave for unknown reasons. The two go on to explain the timing was questionable as students were about to start AP tests and final exams and students needed to focus on performing well. When Woodfin, the president of the school board at the time, came to visit the school and put students at ease, Gulley claims he did the opposite. “Throughout the time he was talking to us I never felt a sense of genuineness and if it kind of hurt us in the end, it didn’t matter,” she said. Nettles herself took to the comments section to speak out against Woodfin. Good. Randall did nothing but try to sell out kids,” commented Nettles. In a second video, both students voiced their outright support for Bell. “Vote William A. Bell October 3, 2017,” the students said in unison. The comment sections to the videos, posted together on Facebook, reveal parents who share similar frustrations with Woodfin and his actions on the board: Rather than address the videos or comments on his actions, Woodfin instead blamed the Bell campaign. Woodfin faces Bell again at the polls Oct. 3.
