chiquita

Earlier this week I reported that Cincinnati is losing one of its longtime companies, Chiquita, to Charlotte NC. Charlotte ended up offering Chiquita $22 million in incentives and Ohio's governor, John Kasich, said that we couldn't offer them any more than the $6 million already offered. Now we know why:

Ohio has offered Sears incentives worth $400 million, as the company pits Illinois against other states vying to land its operations, according to the office of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. The package is “basically about four times” what Illinois has been looking to offer, said Brooke Anderson, the governor’s press secretary.

Quinn, a Democrat, told an Illinois radio station that Ohio was aggressively courting Sears. Texas is the other state that reportedly has made the retailer’s short list.

Anderson said the $400 million figure came from Sears executives testifying in a recent committee meeting in the Illinois House.

This is becoming a serious issue in America. We have states on the verge of bankruptcy and companies are extorting money from them to stay there. How long will it take Ohio to make up $400 million dollars if Sears decides to move here? How much will the people have to suffer to get the company here?

I don't care how you look at it, this is blackmail plain and simple. Companies are sitting on records amount of cash and try to extort more from you and me. It has to stop!

I posted earlier this week about Cincinnati billionaire Carl Lindner and his deep pockets for the GOP. As you recall, Lindner was the CEO of Chiquita during the time they were supporting terrorist organizations in South America. In that post I directed the readers to Newsmeat to check out Carl's past donations. I also noted that his name was spelled as Linder and Lindner. I wasn't sure about the reason for this, and thought it may have just been a typo. Well thanks to a reader of IntoxiNation, we find out it may very well not be a typo, but rather an attempt to bypass the caps on donations. City Beat, a Cincinnati publication, has the details on their blog:

Lindner, his wife, sons and other family members are well known as big-money political campaign contributors, mostly to conservative Republican candidates and causes including President Bush. A review of documents filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), however, show that the family also gives money to candidates under the similar name of “Linder.”

The pattern of listing campaign contributions without the second “n” in the family’s name isn’t limited to one or two reports, and appears to be a pattern going back several years.

According to documents filed with the FEC, it’s not just one “Linder” error, and it’s not just Carl Jr.’s last name being misspelled repeatedly; the same error shows up with a variety of other Lindner family members, including his wife, Edyth, and his son, Carl III.