The more I look into Norm Coleman’s connections with the Save A Life Foundation (SALF), the more curious I get. Last week, Scott Wente in the Detroit Lakes Tribune had an interesting commentary:
Take the example of a recent news tip about little-known legislation authored two years ago by U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. The Minnesota Republican wanted to spend $40 million to help teach children basic first aid.
…
An emergency training organization with a controversial leader claimed it sought the legislation, had Coleman’s support and expected to reap funding from the program. That organization, Save A Life Foundation, operates out of Illinois and while it administers training in a number of states, has little affiliation with Minnesota.
Additionally, there was no detailed explanation for why the Coleman-backed program deemed important enough to pass Congress never got off the ground. And, perhaps most interesting to taxpayers, it was not clear whether Coleman or federal officials worked to prevent Save A Life from getting public money once it became embroiled in controversy months later.
It’s bizarre because Save A Life’s head, Carol Spizzirri, is a liar about her bio:
Spizzirri says she got her nursing degree in Wisconsin. Currently, Save-A-Life’s website and her bio claim, not only that she is an RN, but that she specializes in kidney transplants. The I-Team asked if that is true.
“Not at this time,” Spizzirri said. “I no longer have. I haven’t registered in a number of years.”
According to state officials, the now-defunct Wisconsin college where Spizzirri claims to have received a nursing degree never awarded her a degree of any kind, and government records show she has never been registered as a nurse in either Wisconsin, as she told the I-Team she was, or in Illinois.
There’s a lot more after the jump…
She’s also a liar about the pricing of what Save A Life does:
The president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, a watchdog organization of medical professionals, says that federal and state funding agencies have been defrauded by Spizzirri’s claims that she has a nursing degree and license.
“It’s free to the children. We bring this course to schools for free,” Spizzirri said.
But it wasn’t free to the Chicago Public Schools, where officials say Save-A-Life charged them $50,000 the past two years.
Schools CEO Arnie Duncan says it seems unlikely that Carol Spizzirri’s organization could have taught the number of students they claim, and it’s not free to the taxpayers, who give Save-A-Life more than $1 million a year through the Homeland Security department, Centers For Disease Control and the State of Illinois.
“If you have an organization that has mostly volunteers, where’s the million dollars going?” said Baratz. “It doesn’t take a million dollars to print a pamphlet.”
She’s also a liar about her motivation for the organization:
“My daughter was coming home from work on Labor Day of ‘92. She was struck by a hit-and-run, and her arm had been severely injured, and she bled to death before EMS arrived,” said Spizzirri.
But even that isn’t true, according to police and hospital reports and an inquest by the Lake County coroner. The official record states that 18-year-old Christina Spizzirri was legally drunk at the time of the accident; and that after hosting a drinking party while her mother was vacationing in Florida, the teenager got behind the wheel and flipped her own car.
Police records show there was no hit-and-run, and even though the local police didn’t know emergency first aid, the teenager did not die at the scene as Carol Spizzirri contends. Medical records state that Christina died 30 minutes after arriving at the hospital.
I-Team: “It was not a hit and run, was it?”
Spizzirri: “Yes, it was. Oh, my gosh. I got proof of that, absolutely … I’m done, the interview’s over.”
On the television version of the interview, she literally took off her microphone and left the room.
Why was Norm Coleman working to get this organization $40 Million? I’m not sure, but Carol Spizzirri is tight with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a group that is very tight with Norm Coleman.
The bill Coleman introduced was called the Community Response System Initiative (CRSI) Act of 2006, which contained authorization for ”$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2007 through 2010 to carry out [the] Act.”
An annual report seems to confirm that the money was dedicated to SALF:
Earlier this year, the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted the Community Response Systems Initiative (CRSI) Resolution, named in honor of Christina Spizzirri, committing their support to SALF as a foundation for emergency preparing their communities. Thereafter U.S. Senator Norm Coleman (MN), sponsored the “CRSI ACT” to assist in this initiative.
Scott Wente’s commentary raises a few questions:
— Did Coleman author the legislation with the foundation in mind?
I would say most certainly so.
— Since lawmakers like to talk about how they help their constituents, did Coleman believe Minnesota children could benefit from the legislation?
I would strongly doubt that, although embattled Burnsville mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz is part of the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and has met with Spizzirri. That’s about it, though.
— Did Coleman or federal officials make sure Save A Life did not get federal funds after news reports suggested the group’s leadership had made false claims? Certainly that itself would be newsworthy, particularly given the public’s interest in congressional spending.
Norm Coleman doing oversight? Ha ha ha. In fact, the Save A Life Foundation website still has a ”Affiliate of Citizen Corps” logo at the top, implying they have good standing with the Department of Homeland Security.
The good news is that Coleman’s Act died before reaching committee. But why was he trying to get a $40 Million earmark for a shady Illinois non-profit in the first place?
PrintThisRelated Posts: Again With the Horse Race, or: Agre Met With Trippi, Coleman’s Approval Drops To New Lows, Fmr Sen. Alan Simpson, Possibly My Favorite Republican, Scandal Downstream: Fischbach’s Pay to Play Scheme, Franken Doubles Coleman’s Turnout in Owatonna,
Wow, Elizabeth Kautz (Mayor of Burnsville for about the next 20 minutes and the next grand poo-bah of the US Conference of Mayors) is also in that picture. Now that Burnsville is turning bluer, this could be yet another nail in Mayor Kautz’s coffin.
>The bill Coleman introduced was called the Community Response System >Initiative (CRSI) Act of 2006
Coleman introduced the $40 million CRSI Act on June 16, 2006. Here’s a funny coincidence from the previous week:
http://www.usmayors.org/74thAnnualMeeting/resolutions/74thProposedResolutions.pdf
PROPOSED RESOLUTIONS, 74TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF MAYORS, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - JUNE 2–6, 2006
Resolution No.17 (page 36)
COMMUNITY RESPONSE SYSTEM INITIATIVE
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The United States Conference of Mayors urges Mayors to form a Community Response System Initiative or “CRSI” Committee;
Submitted By:
The Honorable Rita L. Mullins, Mayor of Palatine
The Honorable Marty Blum, Mayor of Santa Barbara
The Honorable Manuel A. Diaz, Mayor of Miami
The Honorable Ross Ferraro, Mayor of Carol Stream
The Honorable Patrick Henry Hays, Mayor of North Little Rock
THE HONORABLE ELIZABETH B. KAUTZ, MAYOR OF BURNSVILLE
The Honorable Irma L. Anderson, Mayor of Richmond, CA
The Honorable Donald L. Plusquellic, Mayor of Akron
###
Here’s another funny coincidence. This page on the Save A Life Foundation’s website calls it *their* resolution. The page also feature photos of John McCain and FEMA chief David Paulison with Save A Life president Carol Spizzirri.
“SALF’s Resolution Passes at US Conference of Mayors Meeting in Las Vegas
Community Response Committees to be Created in Cities Nationwide, June 08, 2006”: http://www.salf.org/media/news/2006_06/2006_06_08.html
Aaron Landry: ‘In fact, the Save A Life Foundation website still has a “Affiliate of Citizen Corps” logo at the top, implying they have good standing with the Department of Homeland Security.’
According to this 9/30/08 Daily Koz diary by The Big E, the Save A Life Foundation was invited to the White House last month and to receive praise from President Bush: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/30/234447/789/110/616210
Hey Aaron, the guest list must be public information. Would you find out if the fake nurse attended and share the results here?
Way to go, Homeland Security! Way to go, Norm! Way to go, Mayor Kautz!
Kautz is Republican — in a sense. She is very fiscally conservative and maintains funds in bread and butter, brick and mortar. Which is why Bville’s infrastructure is pristine. However she is very eager to fund initiatives outside the realm of conservatism. Youth (teen center, programs, etc) and health prevention for example are generally Democratic causes that are now what Burnsville is well known for. She is also big on redevelopment. Bville is still expanding its medical campuses, building office towers, a performing arts center, and 5-10 year downtown urban redevelopment project — all very expensive endeavors to the city too. Yet the city still rates the lowest in property taxes and the city budget needs no slash and burn. Obviously something works with her style. Can we blame her for so many re-elections?
copy of what I sent to palatine and inverness,
I would like action taken on the following;
Not limited to; corruption, obstruction, perjury, aiding and abetting, accessory, conspiracy.
That involves Jim Tatooles and possibly his brother (John Tatooles) and the Inverness village board.
That involves, but not limited to; Judge Scotillo, defense lawyers 1 - 4, assistant states attorney Chandra, Andre. Palatine police officer Wenrich, Hunter, rookie on duty at the time of case number 04-c3-30337, and Baker, lets not forget Baker, shift commander, police chief, Palatine Mayor, and Village Board, 1 retired supreme court justice, and appellate judges jj, o’malley, tully, pj, mcnulty.
Just about every other person I came across is protecting Wenrich, the list is longer than you can shake a fist at, I know who they are. I Can go much further. See blogs.
http://jamestatooles.blogspot.com/
http://judgescotillo.blogspot.com/
http://mikemarss.blogspot.com/
http://palatine-dirt.blogspot.com/
The only thing I wanted was the truth told especially, in a court of law, No body I contacted seems interested or seems to care. I care about the truth.
I would suggest some one let scotillo know about this blog with his name on it (if he has not seen it already). He might be a little up set, at me….the only guy that did not lie to his face, in his court or the only guy that has balls to stand up for what his court room is suppose to represent and lacking there of.