City Councilman Joe Cimperman: “Why can’t Cleveland be that welcoming place.”
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Lead poisoning, women’s reproductive health issues and the hardships of immigrant refugees top the priorities of Cleveland City Council’s Health and Human Services Committee this legislative session.
In an interview Wednesday, city councilman Joe Cimperman said that the committee he chairs is “both perspirational and aspirational,” and while it must oversee the function of the city’s Health Department, it must also set the agenda to meet the needs of Cleveland’s changing social landscape.
This year, Cimperman said, that means anticipating a flood of refugees from Iraq, Syria and other war-torn countries, helping them settle in their new environment and connecting them with healthcare and social services.
“In the next 24 months, we are going to feel the effects of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq for sure,” Cimperman said. “I’m sad that they’re forced to flee their countries, but why can’t Cleveland be that welcoming place?”
Cimperman said the city will hold a Refugee Summit and luncheon on Oct. 30 in the City Hall Rotunda, where city leaders will explore ways to attract and accommodate an immigrant population.
Readers in the Cleveland area should plan to attend the “Refugee Summit.”
There are three preferred communities in Ohio—Cleveland, Columbus and Akron. To see who is running the refugee program for the federal government in Cleveland go here.
See all of our posts on Syrian refugees by clicking here.
This is one more in my long list of immigrant-run convenience store food stamp fraud stories. For new readers, following these scams is a side interest of mine and since no one (that I know of) is writing a blog dedicated to stories about immigrants scamming the US taxpayer (there are many more such frauds and ‘medicare/medicaid’ fraud is on the rise), I’ll keep posting some here.
EBT Nation! Our standard graphic when we can’t find a photo of the perps. If anyone sees a mugshot of Mohammad D. Mohammad send it my way! Thanks!
I don’t even post all of the cases that arrive in my alerts. I try to focus on stories that have an extra-added angle beyond the usual EBT card trafficking. This one has a high “Mohammad coefficient” in addition to the allegedly brazen scam these guys were running.
There are many reports of this indictment, but some don’t tell the larger story. This Patch report does.
First be sure to re-visit my post of a couple of weeks agoabout how David Lubell and ‘Welcoming America’ has just kicked-off its Cleveland campaign to convince residents that diversity is beautiful and they need to embrace more of it! Entrepreneurial immigrants will save the city from economic ruin, they say.
Here is the Patch story on the $780,000 rip-off of the taxpayer (as is the usual case, no mention of the immigration status or how these perps got into the US in the first place):
Three men — including a store owner from Strongsville (a Cleveland suburb)— were indicted Wednesday for an alleged decade-long conspiracy to defraud the food stamp and Women, Infants and Children programs out of more than $780,000by trading the vouchers for cash and restricted items like beer and cigarettes, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Ahmad (“Tony”) Damra, 31, of Macedonia, his brother, Mahmoud (“Moe”) Damrah, 26, of Cleveland, and Mohammad D. Mohammad, 41, of Strongsville, were each indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud, three counts of food stamp fraud and unlawful redemption of food stamps, and one count of WIC fraud.
The incidents allegedly took place at Mohammad’s store in Cleveland.
Used Mamma to get food stamp license! Prior conviction for “aggravated arson” went unnoticed by officials until now? (Left out of the story in many of the reports).
The indictment charges that between 2002 and 2011, the three men and others defrauded the WIC and food stamp program out of more than $780,000 at the East 143rd Food Market, l3249 East 143rd Street in Cleveland, which is owned, operated and managed by Mohammad.
Mohammad obtained a food stamp license in 1997, which, except for a two-year period beginning in September 1998, remained in effect through 2004, according to the indictment.
In 2005, he obtained a food stamp license for the market using the business Rashiqa, Inc., which listed Mohammad’s mother as president. He used his mother’s name because he had a prior conviction for aggravated arson, which precluded him from getting the license himself, the document said.
Also in 2005, Mohammad obtained a WIC program authorization under Rashiqa, Inc.
[….]
The investigation revealed that the defendants used their business to exchange customer food stamps and WIC coupons for cash and other unauthorized items, including beer and cigarettes.
The men also purchased customer food stamp cards and used them at other grocery locations to purchase inventory for the market and for their own personal use, the indictment says.
Here is another version of this latest bust in Cleveland, at the Plain Dealer, where the reporter summarized the case, just two weeks ago of the bust involving brothers Saed “Sam” Wahdan, 41, and Maher “Mario” Wahdan, 42, and Nidal Jaber, 45, but doesn’t mention that they scammed you of $2 million!
Readers, I’ve been following these busts for over five years and have never seen any mainstream news outlet attempt to get to the root of how all of these immigrant ‘entrepreneurs’ got into the country, bought stores and knew how to set up these scams. Too politically incorrect I assume to make any connections?
If there are any real investigative reporters out there—click here for dozens and dozens of similar stories (I’ve done much of your research already!).
Negri, formerly the manager of the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville is credited with changing Nashville from the Bible-belt mecca of Country Music into a community that welcomes Muslim diversity and low-skilled immigrant laborers (needed in the hotel industry!). It amazes me how the media builds a myth around the politically-correct concept that everything is sweetness and light when a city becomes as diverse as Nashville.
Tom Negri, the man behind the growing Muslim population of Nashville. Photo Nashville Scene.
Here is a glowing tributeto Negri’s role in bringing Somalis, Kurds and others to Nashville. But, here is one thing that isn’t mentioned in the tribute—Negri is opposed to free speech. In 2009 I was registered to attend a conference about political Islam at the Loews Vanderbilt hotel and just days before the conference, then hotel manager Negri broke the contract with organizers.
He apparently couldn’t abide the idea that people might meet in his hotel with a point of view different from his. Or, did he bow to pressure from the increasingly powerful Islamists in Nashville? The conference went on in a pleasant welcoming hotel elsewhere in the city.
Check out our Nashville category (click here) for 52(!) previous posts on Nashville troubles and tensions with its immigrant population.
As we told you just last month, Negri is on the board of the propaganda outfit—Welcoming America.
Tonight ‘Welcoming America’ plans to begin changing Cleveland—bring in the immigrants to save the city!
“They’ve been great for our community,” said Tom Negri, a Nashville business leader. “It just took a while for people to realize that.”
The group that helped convince middle Tennessee that new Americans represented progress is about to embrace a new challenge. Welcoming America is bringing its message to Cleveland, a city that has not witnessed an immigrant stream in 50 years.
Its top executives will be in town this week to join discussions and strategy sessions designed to foster a “welcome world” attitude on Ohio’s north coast.
‘Welcome to Shelbyville’—that damn film again!
David Lubell, the founder and executive director of Welcoming America, will address an audience Tuesday night at MetroHealth Medical Center and join a panel discussion that follows the screening of “Welcome to Shelbyville,” a documentary about cultural change in a small Tennessee town.
For new readers, we have traced the development of that propaganda film—‘Welcome to Shelbyville’—from the arrival of the Leftwing-funded filming team in Somali-disrupted Shelbyville, TN five years ago. This is what I said, here, in 2008:
Shelbyville BeWare BeCause, they are using your town! They will gloss over the tensions and problems of the Tyson’s African employees and then show what great work the TIRRC and the Somali Community Center are doing to bring you all together in harmonious unity. This is a politically motivated campaign. Your film, your town, will then be used to shame other towns into silence.
Here is our archive of dozens of posts in which that propaganda film is mentioned. If you read nothing else, be sure to read this poston the truth about the film. My prediction of 2008, that the film would be used to “shame” communities has turned out to be accurate!
Back to Cleveland and community organizers ‘Welcoming America’ getting ready to target Cleveland tonight:
Training sessions on Wednesday could mark the first step toward Cleveland or Cuyahoga County or both joining the growing roster of “welcoming communities.”These are cities and counties that welcome immigrants with official proclamations and then work to assimilate them, making it more likely that immigrants will come to stay.
“It takes time for different sectors of the community to come around to this,” said Lubell, a Philadelphia native recognized nationally as a leader in immigrant welcome efforts. “We’re not in a rush. We want to meet the community where it is and help get them to a new place of greater prosperity.”
Cleveland readers must go out to this event tonight!
Representatives of ethnic communities have been invited to Tuesday’s reception, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in MetroHealth’s Rammelkamp Atrium and is open to the public.
