North Country Gazette

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

All Rights Reserved

You’ve heard of Harry Houdini, the master magician who could escape from anything?

How about Mafia mob boss John Gotti who was known as the Teflon Don because the majority of attempts to convict him resulted in either a hung jury or an acquittal thus no criminal charges would “stick” to him. (Read more…)

MOREAU—A Moreau homeowner got an unpleasant surprise Monday night. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

All Rights Reserved

The Congressman claims that he’s an advocate for the elderly.

In actuality, he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a hypocrite of the worst degree. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam, Publisher

North Country Gazette

In an announcement which surprised the entertainment world this week, Oprah Winfrey told her audience that she was ending her show in September, 2011, at the end of her 25^th season.

(Read more…)

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—The office of state attorney Bernie McCabe has issued yet another finding of justifiable homicide, this time in the Oct. 29 shooting death of Kentin Brooks. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—Why is Bernie McCabe still the state attorney in the Florida counties of Pinellas and Pasco? (Read more…)

TALLAHASSEE, FLA—The former supervisor of the drunk driving division of the Sixth Circuit State Attorney’s office of Bernie McCabe has been publicly reprimanded by the Florida Supreme Court and placed on probation in practicing law and a former judge on the Second District Court of Appeals who had a role in the Terri Schiavo case has been disbarred for five years for using fraudulent means to obtain a mortgage on a home in Hawaii for his stripper friend. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CLEARWATER, FLA—Do you and your friends ever get together to reminisce, talk about old times and acquaintances?

Do you discuss current events like the health care reform bill, aka HR3200 or the Health Choices Act and the issue of governmental involvement in health care and end of life issues, the right to life or the right to die? (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA–In his infamous Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln orated “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom….and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth”. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

TALLAHASSEE, FLA—For years as Florida’s Attorney General, the man who flunked the bar examination twice, shut down any and all investigations involving Terri Schindler Schiavo despite evidence of abuse and other wrongdoing and potential corruption in the matter. (Read more…)

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—Paul Skipper, his son, Lance; and up to three others committed perjury, tampered with evidence and obstructed justice in the death of 20-year-old Joey Turner on July 4, 2004, in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, several hundred feet off St. Pete Beach.

EXCLUSIVE

A NORTH COUNTRY GAZETTE INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—-There are lies, damned lies and then there’s perjury—Pinellas perjury.

The clock is ticking.

Sept. 27 isn’t that far away. (Read more…)

EXCLUSIVE

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA–Q:  Do you know who killed Shawn McMillen?

A:  I refuse to answer, Fifth Amendment. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—How can a law enforcement agency investigate a crime more than a year before it’s committed? (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

It’s happened again.

Another miscarriage of justice in Pinellas County. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—A young adult is headed to jail for vehicular homicide after he lost control of his father’s sports car on Sept. 26, 2007, and plowed into a man riding a moped in Tampa. (Read more…)

EXCLUSIVE

AN NCG INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

© By June Maxam

Teams of criminal scene investigators are depicted on CSI: New York and CSI: Miami.

And then there’s CSI: Pinellas except they don’t have their own TV show. (Read more…)

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—When 26-year-old Shawn McMillan died of a gunshot to the head in September 2001, former Tarpon Springs Police Sgt. Allen MacKenzie failed to gather and preserve crucial evidence in the case. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

CAPE MAY, NJ—The Cape May prosecutors office may want to consider finding themselves a new “expert” witness, one who doesn’t have serious credibility issues. (Read more…)

ALBANY— York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker has announced the release of the Farmers’ Markets Grant Program Request for Proposals (RFP). This grant program provides up to $25,000 in matching funds for the construction, reconstruction, improvement, expansion, or rehabilitation of farmers’ markets in New York State. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

PINELLAS COUNTY—Pinellas County is not without precedent for controversies surrounding autopsies and smack in the middle of the case which precipitated the removal of former Pinellas County Medical Examiner Joan Wood and the appointment of current medical examiner Jon Thogmartin is none other than Bernie McCabe, chairman of the search committee and who appointed an interim medical examiner to serve for the period between the time Wood resigned and Thogmartin assumed the office. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

An In-Depth NCG Investigative Report

© By June Maxam

You’ve heard of the Blue Code of Silence?

Just how far will a police officer go to protect another law enforcement officer, even if the other officer is not a patrol officer or detective but rather just a corrections officer?

Would they go so far as to cover-up a homicide? (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

What a difference between the laws in Florida and those in New York State, or maybe the difference is the prosecuting attorneys and police in the two states and how they enforce the laws. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

LARGO—The prosecution and conviction this week of a Pinellas County man for boating while intoxicated, causing the death of a passenger, continues to highlight the troubling pattern which exists in Pinellas County in vessel and alcohol related deaths and the disparity in the handling of such cases by the state attorney’s office of Bernie McCabe. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—Shouldn’t Jack Helinger, defense attorney for the man who killed Heather Whalley in St. Pete Beach last year, have disclosed the fact that he was also the personal attorney for the county medical examiner who conducted the toxicology tests that claimed Helinger’s client wasn’t impaired at the time of the accident? (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—The operator of the boat was only 19.

In Florida, like most states, the legal drinking age is 21. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

When the chief deputy director of the internal audit division of clerk of Pinellas County Circuit court tried to open the guardianship process in Pinellas County, Florida, to public review and address guardianship reform, he told Florida legislators he was being “stonewalled” in his attempts. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—A year after the untimely and tragic death of Heather Whalley, double standards are still an issue in Pinellas County, Florida. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

The sun shines in Florida in more ways than one.

Florida has led the way in letting the sun shine in on government.  Florida’s freedom of information laws are some of the strongest in the country, providing for public access to government meetings and records. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

The North Country Gazette and its publisher have been detrimentally affected by the economic downturn like everyone else and can no longer justify the hours and labor needed in the absence of advertising and subscriber support to produce a daily online news publication. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

The North Country Gazette and its publisher have been detrimentally affected by the economic downturn like everyone else and can no longer justify the hours and labor needed in the absence of advertising and subscriber support to produce a daily online news publication. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

Steven T. Rondos, the Brooklyn attorney accused of raiding guardianship accounts of $4 million, didn’t file the required guardianship reports for 2004, 2005 and 2006, a court appointed examiner says. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate has confirmed two of President Obama’s controversial nominations to the U.S. Justice Department, one who helped to represent America’s most infamous wife killer, Michael Schiavo in the euthanasia of his wife Terri Schiavo, and the other who has represented pornography clients. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

The cyberbullying, flaming days of Michael Schiavo and his birds of a feather who have been flying anonymously on the Terri Schiavo forum at Topix may be about over—at least the anonymous part. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—Subpoenas apparently mean something in the state of Alaska. 

It’s already been proven that they don’t in Florida where certain individuals in Pinellas County, namely Judge George Greer and Michael Schiavo, have yet to be held accountable for the barbaric and inhumane death of a disabled woman although it’s still unknown why these individuals can act above the law—especially in the case of human life. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA–Pinellas Sheriff Jim Coats says he’s making changes in the organization and budget of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in order to serve citizens as efficiently as possible given the present and future budget challenges. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

Time and time again, it’s been shown that Pinellas County, Florida where the state attorney is Bernie McCabe is the place to murder or seriously incapacitate someone and get away with it. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

Part I

© By June Maxam

Families across the nation are struggling to make ends meet, many going without necessities, making sacrifices while trying to pay their rent, trying to put food on the table and trying to stay warm.

Many are out of work or scared they soon will be.

And then there’s Michael Schiavo, with his pudgy hands in the taxpayers’ pockets, engaged in cyber-slacking. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

Why is Aaron Rimar being allowed to get away with murder?

Why are Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist, Pinellas County State Attorney Bernie McCabe and Chief David Romine of the St. Pete Beach Police Department apparently acting together to try and cover up where St. Pete Beach resident Aaron Rimar got the four illicit prescription drugs detected in his bloodstream the day he killed Heather Whalley? (Read more…)

TAMPA—Although Florida state law calls for a mandatory 10 days in jail if someone is arrested twice for driving under the influence (DUI) within five years, former Pinellas-Pasco Counties prosecutor Lydia Dempsey Wardell has walked. (Read more…)

COHOES—A Cohoes auto mechanic who said he couldn’t find work because of a job-related injury has been arrested in a case of workers’ compensation fraud after he allegedly was found working at an auto repair shop. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist has proven he’s no friend of the disabled. he state of Florida fails to protect its disabled and vulnerable as it did Terri Schiavo.

Now Crist has essentially said that a human life in Florida is worth little more than $500 and a slap on the wrist. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

He’s been labeled as “just another death-peddler Obama has added to his list of nominees” and has earned the nickname among pro-lifers as “Piranha Perrelli” for his work on the Terri Schiavo case. (Read more…)

EXCLUSIVE

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

ST. PETE BEACH, FLA. —Seth Whalley, the grief-stricken husband of the late Heather Whalley who was mowed down and killed by an errant driver last April in St. Pete Beach,  is making an impassioned plea to Gov. Charlie Crist to “address the alleged corruption that has hindered justice” in the case. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

Judges are supposed to be fair, impartial and temperate—and appointed legally.

And then you have Palm Beach Judge Jorge Labarga, first appointed to the Fourth District Court of Appeals in mid-December by Gov. Charlie Crist and quickly elevated Friday to the Florida Supreme Court amidst questions of constitutionality. (Read more…)

© By June Maxam

ST. PETE BEACH, FLA—In a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist seeking a review of the November decision by the Pinellas state attorney’s office of Bernie McCabe not to file any criminal charges against St. Pete Beach resident Aaron Rimar in the death of Heather Whalley, St. Pete Beach Mayor Michael Finnerty says that it’s his belief that “justice has not been served. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

Equal justice for all.

What a wonderful concept.

Unfortunately, it’s only in principle and theory, not in practice. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, Martin Luther King said.  “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”.

Investigative journalism, such as that undertaken by the award winning online news publication, The North Country Gazette, has been defined as reporting, through one’s own initiative and work product, matters of importance.  (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

ALBANY—A Hoosick Falls man is in Rensselaer County Jail, charged with drunk driving after State Police said he rammed into their patrol car that was conducting a traffic stop in Colonie and then fled the scene. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—It’s politics as usual in Pinellas County.

A month to the day after Bernie McCabe and the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office refused to prosecute the man responsible for the April death of a pedestrian in St. Pete Beach, Gov. Charlie Crist has appointed the killer’s attorney to a judgeship. (Read more…)

© By June Maxam

ST. PETE BEACH, FLA—Minutes before a St. Pete Beach man lost control of his van on April 10, jumped a curb and plowed into a vacationing couple walking on a sidewalk, witnesses tell The North Country Gazette that he was speeding and talking on a cell phone. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

Seth Whalley should be outraged.

The people of Pinellas County should be outraged.

The people of Florida should be outraged.

Aaron Rimar needs to he held accountable for the death of Heather Whalley—-and so does Bernie McCabe.  (Read more…)

EXCLUSIVE

By June Maxam

ST. PETE BEACH, FLA—Aaron Rimar, the St. Pete Beach man who mowed down a North Carolina couple with his van in April as they walked along a sidewalk, resulting in the death of 33-year-old Heather Whalley, has finally been charged. (Read more…)

By June Maxam

ST. PETE BEACH, FLA—David Romine, police chief of St. Pete Beach has once again informed Michael Bonfield, St. Pete Beach city manager, that the Pinellas-Pasco state attorney’s office of Bernie McCabe has declined to charge Aaron Rimar with impaired driving due to drugs. (Read more…)

By June Maxam

ST.PETE BEACH, FLA—The mayor of St. Pete Beach says he will be filing a formal request with the office of Florida Governor Charlie Crist to appoint a special state attorney to investigate the April death of North Carolina resident Heather Whalley and serious injuries incurred by her husband, Seth. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

TAMPA, FLA—Crossing a county line can make all the difference sometimes in a court system and prosecutor’s office—like between Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties.

And, as the saying goes, it’s not what you know, but who you know and sometimes the saying “money talks, people walk” seems to apply in criminal matters. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—It’s been over six months since Aaron Rimar, operating a motor vehicle under the influence of four controlled substances, jumped a curb with his van and struck a couple walking on a sidewalk in St. Pete Beach, throwing them 44 feet, resulting in the death of Heather Whalley and serious injuries to her husband, Seth. (Read more…)

By June Maxam

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA—The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has concluded that a “complete and thorough investigation was conducted” of the June shooting death of 17-year-old Javon Dawson by a St. Petersburg police officer and “no additional action is necessary”.

In August, the Pinellas/Pasco state attorney’s office of Bernie McCabe had concluded that the death of Dawson was the result of being shot by Officer Terrance Nemeth and that the shooting was justifiable homicide. (Read more…)

COLONIE—A 78-year-old woman was issued several traffic citations Monday after she drove her car onto the shoulder of the highway and struck two pedestrians from the rear. (Read more…)

© By June Maxam

ST. PETE BEACH, FL—Controversy is no stranger to St. Pete Beach.

The city is a barrier island community at the east central edge of the Gulf of Mexico, located just off the Pinellas County mainland with a permanent population of about 10,032. The city is also a popular winter residence and a significant tourist destination. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

ST. PETE BEACH, FLA—Will the mayor of St. Pete Beach ask Florida Governor Charlie Crist to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the fatal crash of April 10 in which the mother of three was fatally injured as she and her husband walked on a sidewalk along Blind Pass Road? (Read more…)

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—April 10 was a bright, sunny day in St. Pete Beach, the roads were clear and dry.

Heather Whalley, 33, her husband Seth and their three children, two girls aged 3 and 12, and a 9-year-old boy, were in town from North Carolina, visiting her mother. (Read more…)

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—State attorney Bernie McCabe is unquestionably one of the most controversial people in Pinellas County.

The controversy has only heightened with yet another determination of justifiable homicide issued by him in the case of Javon Dawson, a black teen shot in the back by St. Petersburg police officer Terrence Nemeth during a June graduation party. (Read more…)

PINELLAS COUNTY—Five months after a passenger in a boat under his command was killed, an Oldsmar man has been arrested for vessel homicide and a violation of inland navigational rules. (Read more…)

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—Are you certifiably nuts if you dare to publicly criticize Pinellas state attorney Bernie McCabe? 

Has the First Amendment been totally suspended in Pinellas County? (Read more…)

© By June Maxam

It’s just another day in Pinellas County, a place that Scientologists call home and where Bernie McCabe is the state attorney.

Four drugs, one death, one serious injury, no impairment, no criminal charges. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—It’s been four months since the 1997 Chevrolet van jumped a curb in St. Pete Beach and plowed into a couple walking on the sidewalk.

The couple, parents of three children, was hit from behind and thrown to the concrete. The woman died. The husband is still recovering. (Read more…)

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—When the Florida Legislature passed its domestic violence law in 1984, it soon became a powerful tool to protect the victims of domestic abuse from verbal and physical abuse and in some cases, even death. (Read more…)

EXCLUSIVE

COMMENTARY

© By June Maxam

It must be one of the best kept secrets in Pinellas County—-something that people in the criminal justice system know and just don’t want to talk about.

But then that’s usually what happens in a cover up—a planned effort to prevent something from becoming public—to conceal, hide, whitewash, hush up. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

HERNANDO COUNTY, FLA—It appears that police agencies practice two sets of laws in the State of Florida when it comes to operating a vehicle or vessel under the influence of alcohol, particularly if a police officer or a person of influence is the one doing the operating. (Read more…)

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—He’d never investigated a drowning. In fact, he’d never investigated a homicide case. But yet Vincent Marsilia of the St. Pete Beach Police Department was the lead investigator in the suspicious death of 20-year-old Joey Turner which occurred July 4, 2004 in a “boating accident” in Pinellas County. (Read more…)

CLEARWATER, FLA–“I’m Lovin’ It” isn’t the slogan of many Pinellas County taxpayers.

Cries of selective enforcement and pilfering of tax dollars are being shouted about the prosecution of “French Fry Grandma” Jean Merola, 76, amid questions of why she wasn’t simply issued a stern warning and sent home.

(Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

People in Pinellas County are getting fed up with Bernie McCabe and are starting to demand that action be taken.

More and more, people are questioning the alliance between McCabe and the medical examiner for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Jon Thogmartin. (Read more…)

TAMPA—For the second time in less than four years, an assistant state attorney in the Pinellas/Pasco state attorney’s Clearwater office of Bernie McCabe has been charged with driving under the influence. (Read more…)

© By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—Each Fourth of July, millions of Americans celebrate their independence from Britain in 1776 and the birth of democracy with barbecues, picnics, family gatherings and fireworks.

But July 4 is no time for celebration for Colleen Turner and her family.  The Fourth of July hasn’t been the same for the Turner family since 2004. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

PINELLAS COUNTY—Charles Faybik is lucky to be alive.

He almost wasn’t due to the actions of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office who sent six deputies to the 75-year-old man’s house because they thought he might be suicidal. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

Apparently Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger, the Florida Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist need an introduction to the U.S. Constitution. 

 Dillinger claims that state budget cuts will force him to refuse representation to thousands of indigent people who have been arrested for crimes of a misdemeanor level which means as many as 400 defendants a month who cannot afford a private attorney would be forced to answer the charges without assistance of counsel. (Read more…)

CLEARWATER—The Clearwater police officer who arrested a 75-year-old widowed grandmother at the local McDonald’s in January while she was waiting for her unsalted French Fries has resigned for lying about his behavior while responding to a child custody call in March. (Read more…)

By June Maxam

© The North Country Gazette

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—BUI manslaughter is a felony. Manslaughter is the legal term for the killing of a human in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder.

Spring break in Florida and Daytona Beach, Miami Beach, Key West and other beaches including those in Pinellas County is synonymous with party time fueled by beer, liquor and drugs. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY 

The North Country Gazette is now in its third year online of serving New York State and beyond daily with news, commentary and investigative reports and so far, we have been able to offer this to you at no cost, supported by our affiliate advertising, subscriptions to the NCG Daily Digest, Gazette services such as investigative reports, press releases and ghostwriting as well as donations. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

PINELLAS COUNTY—Over the past several weeks, The North Country Gazette has been taking a look at the operations of the office of Pinellas-Pasco state attorney Bernie McCabe. There is evidence that McCabe may have  intentionally blocked investigations into public corruption in Pinellas County. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY 

By June Maxam

© North Country Gazette

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—Pinellas-Pasco state attorney Bernie McCabe holds a grudge and acts childishly and vindictively if he doesn’t get his own way, utilizing his position to get even with state employees in personal disputes.

Just ask Moses Jordan. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—A year ago this week, 34-year-old Daniel Bradley Young died after seven Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies attempted to take him into custody—-by tasering him. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—Between June 2001 and June 2007, nationwide there were at least 245 cases of deaths of subjects soon after having been shocked using Tasers. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—Apparently state attorney Bernie McCabe thinks he knows more about medicine and forensics than Jon Thogmartin, Pinellas County medical examiner. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

How can you have reform in the judiciary when the incumbent protection plan prevails? How can you have reform if you have no choice and the democratic process has been suspended at the polls? (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—Last week in Meriden, Conn., two people accused of depriving a 23-month old toddler of fluids for at least a week as a punishment for bed wetting were charged with manslaughter, cruelty to persons and a risk of injury to a minor after the child’s death was ruled a homicide. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

TALLAHASSEE, FLA—Back off!

That’s the message sent to the Florida Supreme Court by the attorneys for the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission after 1st District Court of Appeal Judge Michael E. Allen filed a quo warranto action with the state’s highest court, trying to block the judicial panel from proceeding with disciplinary action against him. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

PINELLAS COUNTY—The stench of Florida’s criminal justice system has reached pandemic proportions, especially in Pinellas County, the state attorney’s office of Bernie McCabe and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. (Read more…)

NCG Investigative Reports Available

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, Martin Luther King said. “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”.

Investigative journalism, such as that undertaken by the award winning online news publication, The North Country Gazette, has been defined as reporting, through one’s own initiative and work product, matters of importance.

Investigative journalism, sometimes known as adversarial journalism, is a type of reporting in which reporters undertake an intense review of a subject or injustice, sometimes health related, sometimes involving crime or political and public corruption or some other scandal. It is a check on wrongdoing, a vital part of democracy. It sometimes inflames the masses when it exposes wrongdoing and injustices and often time helps to effect positive changes.

Traditional American media, for various reasons, often fail to undertake investigative reporting for fear of angering advertisers or those public officials that should be targeted in an exposé. Members of the media who dare to undertake investigative journalism risk losing essential news sources critical to competing with other media and worse, risk losing advertisers who don’t want their ad to appear alongside a news article critical of government or a business for fear it will appear as though they have sponsored the exposé. They don’t want to be part of any controversy lest it might anger potential customers.

As newspapers throughout the U.S. struggle with declining circulation and ad revenues, in an effort to cut costs and maintain profits, investigative journalism has taken a hard hit which results in allowing government, private enterprise and particularly the justice system to become less and less transparent, less subject to public scrutiny and oversight.

Author Hugo de Burgh defines an investigative journalist as “a man or woman whose profession it is to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it in whatever media may be available. The act of doing this generally is called investigative journalism and is distinct from apparently similar work done by police, lawyers, auditors and regulatory bodies in that it is not limited as to target, not legally founded and closely connected to publicity”.

Regardless of what the label is-advocacy reporting, public service journalism or just plain “muckraking”, the in-depth reporting style such as that exercised by The North Country Gazette is much more time consuming than traditional journalism and it usually shines the light on a topic that some people or group would rather be kept secret. The fact finding of investigative journalism challenges authority, it exposes abuses of power at all levels, not just in government and brings the issues to average citizens, the taxpayers.

Do you have evidence of judicial corruption, police or prosecutorial misconduct that other media refuses to report or investigate? Do you feel that you or a family member has been unjustly convicted? Do you have a case involving First Amendment rights? Would you like your story published?

The mainstream media is increasingly refusing to print stories that reveal wrongdoing of public officials and the media is helping officials cover up the truth, failing to report important stories because they might step on someone’s toes who will stop their advertising support and pull the plug on access to needed information.

All too many times the mainstream media is bought off and afraid to report the truth because of the controversy it may cause and the loss of advertisers. Those who are involved in controversial stories may never see their story and the truth printed in the mainstream media because the truth challenges those in power. If the police chief or sheriff get mad at a reporter and their newspaper because they reported the malfeasance in his or her department, he or she may cut you off from all future news releases, not giving you the information that you need to compete, that your competitors receive because they don’t report events and incidents public officials want to keep suppressed.

There are consequences for members of the news media who dare to undertake investigative reports such as false arrests, attempts by public officials and other to discredit the reporter and publication, loss of personal and professional reputation, financial consequences and retaliation against the reporter’s family members and associates.

Investigative and independent journalism requires fact-finding, scrutiny of details and often times a review of public records. The in-depth reports require extensive time, resources and expenses.

The North Country Gazette specializes in independent, investigative journalism, bringing you such stories as the Michael Niesen case, an alleged cover up of a police killing of an 18-year-old in Florida; the Elsebeth Baumgartner free speech case in Ohio, an attorney disbarred and imprisoned for eight years for having the audacity for criticizing a judge; the Mark Adams case in Florida, another attorney disbarred for tangling with a politically connected law firm and a judge who allegedly lied under oath.

NCG has written nearly 600 articles regarding the Terri Schiavo case, a woman disabled in the prime of her life in a possible domestic violence situation who died as the result of judicial homicide, a decision made by a hugely conflicted husband in name only.

Most recently, NCG has written numerous articles on the suspicious drowning death of Joey Turner near St. Pete Beach, Fla., and the death of Jimmy Spicer of Palm Harbor, Fla., both victims of the sons of prominent, influential and politically connected fathers who were never criminally charged.

And then there’s the case of Aaron Rimar, the son of another wealthy Florida businessman in the Sixth Judicial Circuit where Bernie McCabe is the state attorney. Rimar, under the influence of four controlled substances for which he did not have a legal prescription, lost control of his vehicle and mowed down a young couple as they walked on a sidewalk, killing Heather Whalley and seriously injuring her husband. Once again, which seems to have become the norm in Pinellas County, no criminal charges were lodged.

June Maxam, editor/publisher of The North Country Gazette and the coordinator of the NYS Oaths Project, conducted a statewide survey of judges in New York in 2003 and 2004 and learned that over 90% of the individuals claiming judicial office had never taken and filed their oaths of office and bonds as required by law.

The North Country Gazette, the NYS Oaths Project and Maxam were successful in forcing the state Legislature, Office of Court Administration and Association of Towns to admit that judges and justices across the state were in gross non-compliance of the law, prompting the Legislature to address the issue with new legislation to try and stave off a rash of litigation of challenges to decisions made by black robed imposters.

Maxam and NCG have published in-depth articles such as the California Oaths Project and child support services as well as the results of the NYS Oaths Project and its impact on the judicial system.

June Maxam has been a journalist, freelance writer and columnist for over 40 years, becoming a professional, published writer while still in high school. She founded The North Country Gazette in 1981 which operated as a weekly newspaper until 1994 and continues online today. She has an impressive list of magazine credits, is a former 12-year employee of a daily newspaper and has been a columnist for several other weekly newspapers. She is also the former co-publisher and editor of another online publication, The Empire Journal,

Maxam is the recipient of a media award from the New York State Bar Association for her in-depth coverage of town and village courts. She is the author of the book, “Complete Guide to Snowmobiling” and an ebook, “Tangled Web: The Terri Schiavo Case” which is available at her website, www.northcountrygazette.org Maxam is also the author of “Oath of Office Explained”, also available at her website.

Maxam holds Associate of Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in public affairs with a concentration in criminal justice and constitutional law from SUNY, Empire State College.

If you would like an experienced investigative journalist with legal knowledge to investigate and report your case or issue for a modest fee to help defray expenses, contact The North Country Gazette at news@northcountrygazette.org Only serious inquires are invited.

Fees and expenses will be determined on a per story basis depending on the subject matter and complexity of the case. Once published, the story will be circulated on the Internet through multiple search engines.

CLEARWATER—A Clearwater grandma is still not lovin’ it.

As often happens when a citizen files a complaint of misconduct against a police officer, the complaint has been marked unfounded by the officer’s superiors and the complainant found to be at fault. (Read more…)

The Florida Medical Examiners Commission met Saturday to fill the vacancy in Judicial District 14 in the Panhandle caused by their June removal of Charles Siebert due to honesty and integrity issues. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

If Michael Schiavo was disciplined for committing adultery or misconduct in relation to his job as a clinical nurse supervisor in the inmate division of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department, would the public know? (Read more…)

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—A Pinellas County woman has been arrested on charges that she neglected at least two elderly adults under her care. (Read more…)

ORLANDO, FLA—For seven long minutes, his brain was deprived of oxygen.

His MRI showed no brain cell activity.  A doctor told his wife that he was in a persistent vegetative state and advised her to pull the plug on her husband’s life support. (Read more…)

By June Maxam

© The North Country Gazette

TAMPA—Five days after an investigation was opened into allegations that the assistant special agent in charge of the Tampa office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has violated department policy, the special agent in charge of the Tampa office resigned.

Mere coincidence? Highly unlikely. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

It’s time.

To set your clocks back, you ask?

No, for retired visiting judge Richard Markus to permanently hang up his black dress in northern Ohio.

(Read more…)

EXCLUSIVE

© The North Country Gazette

All Rights Reserved

By June Maxam

Flirtations, retaliation and credibility.And yet ANOTHER woman.These issues continue to surround Michael Schiavo, the notorious Florida husband who caused the expenditure of more than a million dollars in legal fees, including depleting his disabled wife’s trust fund,  to achieve her judicial homicide in 2005, 15 years after her mysterious collapse which resulted in incapacitating brain injury. (Read more…)

TALLAHASSEE—The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has announced that the State was recently selected to represent the state of Florida in the National Governors Association’s (NGA) Center for Best Practices Improving Forensic DNA Policy Project. (Read more…)

PINELLAS COUNTY—Is state attorney Bernie McCabe busy covering up for Michael Schiavo again? Does McCabe believe that he’s exempt from Florida’s Public Records Law?

Schiavo, the estranged husband who sought a court order to kill his wife after his attempts to withhold medical treatment failed, ultimately succeeding in causing her death in March 2005, is now a registered nurse/clinical supervisor at the Pinellas County Jail. (Read more…)

EXCLUSIVE

© The North Country Gazette

All Rights Reserved

By June Maxam

As Terri Schindler Schiavo lay dying in a Pinellas Park hospice, her husband was nearby, repeatedly on the phone with another woman.

Except it wasn’t Jodi Centonze, his mistress and mother of his two illegitimate children who he had lived with for over a decade.

It was Diane Cross, a nurse and co-worker at the Pinellas County Jail. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

The hierarchy at the St. Petersburg Times calls itself a quality news outlet.

That’s not an opinion widely shared, especially when it comes to coverage of the Terri Schiavo case

Selective reporting, biased reporting, slanted towards Michael Schiavo, the St. Pete Slimes are descriptors most often heard by its detractors. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

A federal bankruptcy judge has ruled that OJ did it.

Engaged in a fraud that is.

On Friday, Judge A. Jay Cristol ruled that a now bankrupt company in Miami, Lorraine Brooke Associates, owned by Simpson’s four children, was a shell company to hide profits from OJ Simpson’s book, “If I Did I It”, a supposedly fictional account of how OJ would have carried out the June 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend, Goldman, IF he had been the one responsible for the crime. (Read more…)

COMMENTARY

By June Maxam

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA—Florida honors judges who advocate killing the disabled, elderly and vulnerable.

The alma mater of Michael Schiavo, the estranged husband who battled in the courts for years in order to secure a court order to kill his wife, is honoring retired Circuit Court Judge Susan F. Schaeffer, the judge who assigned Probate Court Judge George W. Greer to be the executioner in the Terri Schiavo case. (Read more…)

BAY COUNTY, FL—-Saying that they had concerns with the honesty of medical examiner Dr. Charles Siebert, the Florida Medical Examiners Commission voted Wednesday to remove Siebert from his post in Bay County and five other Panhandle counties.

The removal vote came a month after the commission had voted not to recommend that Siebert’s appointment be renewed by Governor Charlie Crist when it expires on June 30. (Read more…)

TAMPA—He gave up his position as Pinellas County sheriff to become Florida’s State Representative for District 54.

Then he gave up that position after serving only a two year term for a failed run for Florida Attorney General, withdrawing in midstream due to lack of funding.  Along the way, he threw his hat in the ring to become commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement but Gov. Jeb Bush didn’t feel so inclined. (Read more…)

COMING SOON

The stench of Florida’s criminal justice system has reached pandemic proportions and over the next few weeks, The North Country Gazette will undertake an investigative report of the Pinellas County state attorney’s office and Bernie McCabe.There are an increasing number of suspicious deaths in Pinellas County. Alleged suspects and defendants are being shot or tasered or beaten to death by police.Time after time, the office of Pinellas County state attorney Bernie McCabe rules the case closed by a finding a justifiable homicide, finding that the police were justified in the killing of a man, often with a bullet in the back or sometimes ruling the death a suicide, even when the bullet that kills the man is from a police officer’s gun. (Read more…)

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLA—For the second time this week, a suspect has died as officers of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department tried to take him into custody.

Pinellas County Sheriff’s detectives are investigating a deputy-involved shooting near Indian Rocks Beach.  A sheriff’s spokesperson said the incident began shortly before 8:30 p.m. on Monday, May 7, when Sgt. Cynthia Gibson, 45, who is assigned to the Patrol Operations Bureau, was searching for a handgun that had possibly been thrown from a moving vehicle that was involved in an earlier and unrelated armed abduction case.  (Read more…)

PINELLAS COUNTY—A man who police said they found wandering in people’s yards early Saturday morning has died after officers from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office tasered him. About 2:15 a.m., deputies responded to citizen calls regarding a male subject walking back and forth across Park Blvd., speaking incoherently, shedding his clothing and collecting and carrying objects from citizens’ yards which were located across the street from his residence.  (Read more…)