38 STUDIOS CORRUPTION

From Today's Jim Baron article in THE CALL.  Interesting news that Fox's friend was on the take for $300,000.00 in this deal.  Wonder what else the FBI has?

"The 38 Studios mess just seems to get deeper and deeper the far-ther we wade into it.It is nearly four years now since the General Assembly approved a$125 million loan guarantee pro-gram to be overseen by the then-Economic Development Corp.(EDC), $75 million of which ended up going to former Red Sox hurler Curt Schilling later that year. And it is about two years since the whole thing started going south. Now we find out (tip of the hat to Channel 12’s Tim White) that attorney Michael Corso, a close friend of then-Speaker Gordon Fox, got a whopping contract(300,000 simoleons) for “interac-tions with government agenciesand various public officials,”which is an excellent working def-inition for the word “lobbyist.”Corso, however, did not register asa lobbyist, nor did anyone elsefrom 38 Studios, all the better tokeep the backroom dealing under the public’s radar.Last year the House leadership,with Fox at the helm, greased theskids for taxpayers to make goodon the more than $100 million indebt from the loan guarantee bystacking a House OversightCommittee hearing with “experts”from the financial community whosaid yes, RI has to pay the bond-holders. Now Gov. LincolnChafee, who was dead set againstthe deal but now says the debtmust be paid, has released a studyhis administration commissionedthat – Surprise! – says he is right.They say a foolish consistencyis the hobgoblin of little minds, soI feel vindicated in going back andforth on the complex and difficultissue of whether to pay the bonds.There is a lot better use that theapproximately $12.5 million a budget year can be put to thanreimbursing Wall Street fat cats for a bad business deal. But we gaveour word. Our elected officials, onour behalf and in our name, creat-ed the loan guarantee program andthey authorized the EDC to decidehow the money would be doledout. Now do you understand why itis important to take seriously your responsibility to elect state repre-sentatives and senators? Why itwould be worth your while to talk to the candidates when they comedoor-to-door and read the newspa- per so you know who they are andwhat they stand for?We picked them, they made the decision for us, so, despite all the good reasons not to, we should make good on our word and pay the bonds.