By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Arthur Balizan, an inspector in the FBI’s Inspection Division, has been named special agent in charge of the Portland, Or., Division.

Balizan replaces David Ian Miller, who will retire at the end of the month, the FBI said.

Balizan started his career in the FBI in the early 1980s in the San Francisco Division and went on to the San Juan office in 1983 to work on “terrorism matters”, the FBI said.

He bounced around to the Albuquerque Division and then became a supervisory special agent assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia as the assistant project director for the U.S. Department of Justice International Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance Program, the FBI said.

He later took on other duties in Colombia. After returning to the states, taking on various jobs, he became assistant special agent in charge of the Sacramento office.

In 2006, he served as one of eight inspectors at FBI headquarters.

Before coming to the FBI, he worked as a police officer in northern California, the FBI said. He has three adult children.

John Gotti Jr./trutv.com

CBS’s 60 Minutes knows Mobsters make good tv whether they’re real people or fictional characters like Tony Soprano.  In this case, it was worth a shot.

By Gangland News

John Gotti died in prison seven years ago yesterday. His son Junior, who has been behind bars for 10 months now, no longer has any clout with the Gambino crime family. But the mob prince is still a big ticket item when it comes to 60 Minutes, the godfather of television news shows.

Recently, 60 Minutes, which has interviewed numerous jailed mobsters in its 40-plus years, and which aired a talk with rogue cop Stephen Caracappa before his trial, reached out to the former Junior Don. Lo and behold, sources say, he agreed to an on-camera, one-on-one interview.

The first Sunday after Labor Day was the perfect time – for both 60 Minutes and Junior – to take viewers inside the Metropolitan Detention Center to see and hear Gotti talk about his plight, his relationship with his father, and with the entire Gotti family, including his sister Victoria, the author and onetime reality TV star.

That Sunday is the traditional start of the fall season for the award-winning news magazine. And Junior’s fourth federal racketeering trial in four years begins the following day, September 14.

For Full Story

Monday’s UPDATE

Paul Fishman, an ex-federal prosecutors has unquestionably been a formidable opponent for the government as a defense attorney. Now the government is bring him back on its side. Couldn’t hurt.

Paul Fishman

Yet after prosecutors spent four years working the case, it ended with a whimper. Charges were dropped against two of the men, including one represented by Paul J. Fishman, an ex-federal prosecutor with a reputation as one of New Jersey’s most erudite and aggressive attorneys.

“Paul was certainly a very, very important part of that defense team,” said Robert Fettweis, an attorney who worked alongside Fishman on the Lucent case. “He is a very smart lawyer.”

After 12 years as a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, Fishman is poised to become a prosecutor again. President Obama nominated him June 4 to become U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, and the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on his confirmation within weeks.

For Full Story

The Justice Department is stepping up to address problems of a forgotten segment of  America.  This is something long overdue.

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Justice Department leaders, responding to pleas from lawmakers and community groups, are training their attention on efforts to reduce crime and substance abuse on land controlled by the nation’s roughly 560 Native American tribes.

Federal law enforcement officials investigate and prosecute the bulk of serious criminal activity in Indian territory. But workers responsible for policing crime on reservations, where domestic violence and drug-fueled offenses have been on the rise, are overwhelmed and “grossly underfunded,” according to a memo submitted by the National Congress of American Indians as part of the presidential transition effort.

Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, the department’s third in command, will appear at a conference hosted by the National Congress of American Indians in Niagara Falls, N.Y., today to address the issues and promise more grant money for youth mentoring, victim assistance and crime prevention.

For Full Story

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• D.C. Fed Judge Sentences Man to Write Book (WSJ Blogs)
• U.S. Senators Ask For Probe into Fed Raid Involving Ancient Artifacts (AP)
• Fla. Metrorail Security Guard Shot Dead (Miami Herald)
• Miami Mayor Appointed to Homeland Security Council (Miami Herald)
• Feds Try to Block Info Release in Case Involving Anti-Castro-CIA Associate (AP)
• 14 Cuban Immigrants Sent Back to Cuba (Miami Herald)