The Sidebar

If the fee for completing my request exceeds US$5, please obtain my written approval prior to completing this request.

The CDC is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. From the HHS website:

 

So imagine my surprise when, in response to the next FOIA request I sent to the CDC - three years later on April 25, 2020 - I received a reply from one of the agency's FOIA officer that my request was denied. 

Why? 

The agency claimed I owed an outstanding processing fee of $138 for my 2017 FOIA request. 

This was the first I'd heard of it. I'd never received any letter or invoice, but after some back and forth with the FOIA officer, I learned that the fee had been assessed in a July 31, 2017 letter to me from CDC FOIA Officer Roger Andoh. 

Here's the paragraph:

By the time I received the 2020 denial letter, Mr. Andoh had been promoted to the CDC's FOIA Director. 

Shortly after receiving the denial, I placed a call to Mr. Andoh during which I politely explained that he'd probably made a clerical error and overlooked the $5 cap instruction in my 2017 request. 

He agreed to review the situation and, after we hung up, I sent him a copy of my FOIA request with this highlighted paragraph:

Since it was an open and shut case, I assumed Mr. Andoh would say "oops," cancel the wrongly-assessed fee, and process the request that was rejected because of the wrongly-assessed fee. 

Instead, here's his May 11, 2020 reply, slightly edited for clarity:

(I've reviewed your casefile) and all relevant material and regret to inform you that I am unwilling to waive the fee charged to you. The letter you received (attached) informed you of the assessed charge. You claim you didn't receive the invoice, and I take you at your word, but the letter did inform you of the fee. Additionally, you failed to dispute the fees at that time, which you clearly could have done within 90 days of the date of the letter. In accordance, with HHS FOIA regulation, if a requester has failed to pay past fees, we are required to request payment before we begin processing a new request. Therefore, I have no choice but to deny your request to waive the past fee owed.

First, note the Alice Through the Looking Glass logic. 

Mr. Andoh claims, "I take you at your word." In other words, he accepts that I didn't receive his July 31, 2017 letter with the fee notification.

But then he holds me to the terms of that letter to which he had agreed that I hadn't receive. 

More to the point, he didn't address the root of the matter: the $5 cap in my records request.

Last month I circled back to the situation and filed two investigation requests. 

One was with the FOIA Ombudsman at the Office of Government Information Services asking for a determination if the processing of my request was in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. (Coincidentally, Mr. Andoh currently serves on that group's advisory committee.) 

That office is reviewing my request. I'll publish the results as available.

My other request went to Mr. Andoh's boss, CDC Chief Operating Officer Robin Bailey Jr., in the form of an employee review. That is, I wanted to know if Mr. Andoh's handling of the matter was in compliance with CDC employee guidelines and the Freedom of Information Act.

Also from my request: 

Since Mr. Andoh mishandled a case as simple and straightforward as mine, I'm concerned that I may not be the only example. With that in mind, I'd urge you to review his caseload in recent years to determine if other FOIA requests are being improperly processed.

I courtesy copied Vesna Kurspahic who works as a liason to the CDC in the office of my congressional representative, Carolyn Bourdeaux. If I got the bum's rush, I could request a helping hand there.

Yesterday afternoon I received this email:

Subject: request for employee review
Sent: Mon, Nov 8, 2021 at 5:37 PM
From: Bailey, Robin (CDC/OCOO/OD) <spu8@cdc.gov>
To: Peter Heimlich <peter.heimlich@gmail.com>
Cc: "vesna.kurspahic@mail.house.gov" <vesna.kurspahic@mail.house.gov>

Mr. Heimlich,

After careful review, I am waiving the assessment of your 2017 FOIA request. I have made Mr. Andoh aware of my decision. Thank you for your patience.

Robin

Robin D. Bailey, Jr.
Chief Operating Officer
Office of the Chief Operating Officer|Office of the Director (OCOO/OD)
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Here's my reply:

Subject: request for employee review

From: Peter Heimlich <peter.heimlich@gmail.com>

Sent: Mon, Nov 8, 2021 at 6:09 PM

To: "Bailey, Robin (CDC/OCOO/OD)" <spu8@cdc.gov>

Cc: vesna.kurspahic@mail.house.gov

Robin Bailey, MA

Chief Operating Officer

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

1600 Clifton Rd NE

Atlanta, GA 30329

Dear Mr. Bailey,

Thank you for this.

While I appreciate you waiving the wrongly-imposed fee, I requested an employee review of whether or not Mr. Andoh's handling of the matter was conducted according to FOIA and CDC employee guidelines. 

In my opinion, among other issues it needs to be determined if Mr. Andoh's mishandling of my FOIA request was an isolated case or if he has mishandled other FOIA requests.

Do you intend to conduct such a review? If not, to which departments may I file my request?

Further, since you've waived the wrongly-imposed fee, would you please instruct the CDC's FOIA department to process my April 25, 2020 records request which was refused due to the wrongly-imposed fee?

Thank you for your continued time/attention and I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Heimlich

REDACTED

Peachtree Corners, GA 30096 USA

ph: (678)322-7984

e-mail: peter.heimlich@gmail.com

website: http://medfraud.info

blog: http://the-sidebar.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/medfraud_pmh

bio: http://tinyurl.com/ych7o7dr

I'll update this post with any developments. 

Click here for a pdf of all relevant correspondence and supporting documents.

Thomas Frieden MD MPH (source)

Today former IL congressional candidate Tim Bagwell PhD (who now lives in St. Louis) and I asked our congressmen, Reps. Lacy Clay (D-MO) and Rob Woodall (R-GA), to help us get answers regarding an institutional cover-up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that involves CDC Director Thomas Frieden MD MPH.

Our thoroughly-documented letter requested that Reps. Clay and Woodall ask Dr. Frieden to account for millions of tax dollars the agency awarded to the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF).

As Sidebar readers know, SALF was a politically-connected Chicago nonprofit that's been the subject of dozens of media exposes and is reportedly under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General for the "possible $9 million misappropriation" of federal and state tax dollars.

Our letter also asked why CDC executive Douglas R. Browne was permitted to moonlight as SALF's corporate treasurer while the agency was funneling millions to the group.


Here's the big question we asked Reps. Clay and Woodall:

Would you please ask Dr. Frieden to provide you with a thorough accounting of how the $3,335,578 awarded to SALF was spent? That should present no difficulty for him since SALF's corporate treasurer Douglas Browne, still a CDC employee, should be able to provide him with the records.

Click here to download a copy of our letter.

Two and a half years ago, the office of Health and Human Services Inspector General Dan Levinson instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate what happened to millions of tax dollars the agency awarded to a tainted Chicago nonprofit and the role of a career CDC employee who moonlighted as the group's Corporate Treasurer.

As Sidebar readers know, the nonprofit was the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a politically-connected, high-profile, now-defunct FEMA member organization that since November 2006 has been the subject of dozens of exposes and reportedly is under investigation by the Illinois Attorney General for the possible misappropriation of $9 million in federal and state funds.

And the Dubuque Telegraph Herald recently reported that in June 2007, SALF was anticipating $10 million in funding sponsored by a former U.S. Senator named Barack Obama. 

So what kind of investigation did the CDC conduct?

The agency ignored my questions, but thanks to my congressman Rob Woodall, the public may get an answer to that question.

Per an October 11, 2010 article in The Hill, Levinson was asked to investigate $3.3 million the CDC handed SALF -- click here for the breakdown -- and "the relationship between the nonprofit and CDC Deputy Director Douglas Browne, who served as the nonprofit's corporate treasurer from 2004 to 2009."

Via the minutes of the January 26, 2007 meeting of SALF's corporate board -- note that the meeting took place after ABC7 Chicago had aired three scorching I-Team exposes of SALF:

 

"Mullins" is Rita Mullins, former mayor of Palatine, IL and SALF's second-in-command. "Spizzirri" is SALF founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri, reportedly now living in a trailer park near Carlsbad, CA. (Click here for a bunch of photos of the two SALF gals hanging out with prominent public officials.)

In a November 8, 2010 letter, Levinson's office punted the SALF mess "to CDC for further review, and appropriate administrative action as this matter appears to be more appropriately addressed through CDC's administrative review process."

A couple of years later, I tried to find out what kind of "administrative review" the CDC had conducted.

Sherri A. Berger MPHS (via her CDC bio)

In a June 5, 2012 one-paragraph letter, here's what CDC Chief Operating Officer Sherri A. Berger wrote me:

At this time, the agency has completed its review of this matter and intends no further action.

I wrote back and asked for specifics, but never received a reply.


In recent years, my congressman Rob Woodall (GA-7th District) has helped me to obtain related information from CDC director Thomas Frieden MD, who, like Ms. Berger, has expressed zero interest in what happened to the millions of tax dollars his agency awarded to SALF and Browne's role as the group's treasurer -- click here and here.

So last month I asked legislative aide Chase Murray in Rep. Woodall's office if the congressman would ask Ms. Berger to provide details about the alleged investigation.

Here's the result, including copies of the correspondence discussed above -- click here to download a pdf.

So will the CDC give straight answers to a member of Congress? To find out, keep reading The Sidebar.

Video clip from 1/19/05 presentation to US Conference of Mayors in which Save-A-Life Foundation founder/president Carol Spizzirri introduces, then lip-kisses and embraces my 85-year-old father (with whom she had a personal relationship). SALF is now reportedly under investigation by the IL Attorney General. According to a January letter from IL State Senator Tim Bivins, Spizzirri celebrated Xmas 2011 at Mullins's home in Palatine. 

From Save-A-Life Foundation in limbo, an October 11, 2009 Chicago Tribune article by staff reporter Lisa Black:

(Carol) Spizzirri launched a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching children emergency response techniques, raising at least $8.6 million in federal and state grants for her Save-A-Life Foundation...(Spizzirri) estimates 2 million children took the classes, many of them from the Chicago Public Schools.

If that's accurate - according to a number of records, including an official statement I received from Carol Spizzirri - a generation of Chicago students were taught to perform the Heimlich maneuver on drowning victims, an unapproved treatment that preeminent medical and water safety organizations had already determined was ineffective and potentially lethal since it wastes time and may cause vomiting leading to aspiration.

The millions of public dollars that funded SALF came from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Guard, and numerous Illinois state agencies.

The following is from last year's Washington Post. In parentheses, I've added dates with links to the supporting documents.

(The Heimlich maneuver has) been utterly discredited as a way of rescuing a person who is drowning, and can actually do serious harm to someone who has just been pulled from the water, numerous experts say.

...The list of experts who reject the Heimlich maneuver (to revive drowning victims) is lengthy: The American Red Cross (2000); the United States Lifesaving Association (1996); the American Heart Association (2000); the Institute of Medicine (1995); the International Life Saving Federation (1998).

...Dr. James Orlowski said he has documented nearly 40 cases where rescuers performing the Heimlich maneuver have caused complications for the victim. Orlowski is chief of pediatrics and pediatric intensive care at University Community Hospital in Tampa.

Via a Cleveland Scene cover story by reporter Thomas Francis that references the IOM's 1995 benchmark report rejecting the use of the Heimlich maneuver to revive drowning victims:

"The Institute of Medicine is the crown jewel of medical intelligentsia in the United States," says (drowning expert and retired Coast Guard Admiral Alan) Steinman. "They looked at this issue and said, 'Bad idea.'"

Former SALF medical director Stanley Zydlo MD at a 2009 book signing (source)

Five years later, SALF's medical director ignored the IOM report and the other organizations.

From Water Rescue Sequence: The Controversial Role of the Heimlich Maneuver (in drowning rescue) the year 2000 article by Pamela Mills-Senn which was the Rosetta Stone for much of my later research:


Since there are no published studies supporting the use of the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue, it's unclear what "documented literature" Dr. Zydlo researched.

His time might have been better spent researching SALF's founder/president. 


From Where Did the Save-A-Life Money Go? by Don Bauder in the November 17, 2010 San Diego Reader:

(Carol) Spizzirri was a darling of politicians and bureaucrats, although it was a matter of record that she had been convicted twice for shoplifting. Save-A-Life began raking in money from government grants.

...(Spizzirri) had told (ABC I-Team reporter Chuck Goudie) that she was a registered nurse. But the station reported that the institution from which she had claimed to receive her nursing degree had never given her one. A hospital in which she had claimed to be a transplant nurse said she had been a patient care assistant, which is akin to a candy striper....

...On May 18, 1992 - four months before the fatal accident - Christina filed for an order of protection against her mother...The complaint stated that Spizzirri had struck Christina “on several occasions and threatened her on many occasions.

Per the May 30, 2000 Los Angeles Times, Ellis & Associates, the lifeguard training company discussed in Mills-Senn's article, dumped the Heimlich-for-drowning protocol shortly after her article appeared.

But SALF continued to teach and promote the treatment.

Here's a May 3, 2001 workshop held at the Illinois PTA's annual convention:


A year later, my father told reporter Angela D. Sykora of the Grayslake Review (IL):

SALF executives Rita Mullins (in the red turtleneck) and Carol Spizzirri (seated) with Mike "Heckuva job, Brownie" Brown at January 23, 2003 signing ceremony when SALF became a FEMA member organization, US Conference of Mayors annual meeting, Washington, DC. Six years later, as first reported by The Sidebar, FEMA kicked SALF out.

Astoundingly, in January 2003 SALF became a member organization of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

My father marked the occasion with a joint letter to FEMA chief Mike Brown and Carol Spizzirri (page down) that included:


In other words, FEMA was fully aware that SALF's training program was putting the public at risk as the agency provided SALF access "to train and educate children and families in basic first aid through the Citizen Corps network of state and local councils."  

Two years later, from SALF's annual "Bridge the Gap" convention in 2005:


Here comes the clincher.

When I started researching my father's career in 2002, I already knew he hadn't held a hospital job since he was fired for misconduct in 1976 by Cincinnati's Jewish Hospital.

But I quickly learned that for decades he's been persona non grata in the medical profession.

Besides his crackpot claims that the Heimlich maneuver can revive drowning victims, stop asthma attacks, and cure cystic fibrosis, the Heimlich Institute conducted a series of notorious offshore experiments in which US and foreign nationals suffering with cancer, Lyme Disease, and AIDS were infected with malaria. (For more details, watch Brian Ross's ABC 20/20 report, Is Dr. Heimlich really a savior?)

My father and SALF's second-in-command, former Palatine, IL mayor Rita Mullins

Sure he has a famous name, but what legitimate organization would want him as a medical adviser?

And what reputable first aid training group would teach the public to perform the Heimlich maneuver on drowning victims, as reported by Pamela Mills-Senn?

I wanted to find out for myself so in early 2004, using a pseudonym, I e-mailed SALF and asked for a position statement.

In a chirpy, solicitous February 8, 2004 e-mail, Carol Spizzirri sent me the following. (Page down to view the entire letter which, incidentally, is littered with grammatical errors.)


Were the CDC, the National Guard, and the Illinois government agencies aware that they were providing millions of dollars to an organization that was teaching and promoting an unapproved, long-discredited medical treatment that might seriously injure or kill people?

Did any of these agencies ever review SALF's training protocols? Did any of them ask the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, or independent medical experts to evaluate SALF's program?

What about the prominent public officials from Illinois like Arne Duncan, Senator Dick Durbin, Congressman John Shimkus, Paul Vallas, Gery Chico, and others who promoted and/or helped fund SALF? Were they even aware what SALF was teaching to students in their state?

In days to come, I'll try to get answers to those questions and will report the results here.


8/20/12 UPDATE: I just sent letters of concern re: SALF's faulty, dangerous training to the Illinois Attorney General's Charitable Trust Bureau (which reportedly has been investigating SALF since mid-2010), and to Chicago Public Schools Inspector General James M. Sullivan with whom I filed an investigation request on January 5, 2011. Click the links to view my letters on Scribd.com.






This item has been slightly revised.

For more about the letters exchanged by the office of my congressman Rob Woodall and CDC Director Thomas Frieden, see my item yesterday. Also see my related item, IL Attorney General's letter inadvertently provides a blueprint for nonprofits on how to rip off taxpayers. 

The documents referenced in the letter are included in the embedded Scribd window below.

May 30, 2012

Brent D. Stratton
Chief Deputy Attorney General
Office of the Illinois Attorney General
100 W. Randolph Street, 12th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60601

Dear Mr. Stratton:

Please click the following link to download a 24-page pdf file which includes all the documents referenced below: http://db.tt/Yqz5C7uv

In your March 2, 2012 letter to Illinois Sen. Tim Bivins regarding your office's ongoing investigation of the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), you stated (emphasis added):

(SALF) was registered as an Illinois charitable organization with this Office from 1994 through 2009, during which period it filed complete annual reports accompanied by audits when required by law. In September 2009, SALF filed articles of dissolution with the Secretary of State. It then filed a final report with this Office in April 2010.

According to instructions on your agency's website for filing an AG990-IL, the annual report form to be filed by charitable organizations registered with the Illinois Attorney General's office:

SIGNATURES: The Form AG 990-IL must be signed by two different officers (president or other authorized officer and the chief fiscal officer) or by two trustees.

As chief fiscal officer/trustee, Douglas R. Browne's name and purported signatures appear on six AG990-IL reports submitted by SALF for the period January 1, 2003 through June 30, 2009.

As you're aware, during those six and a half years, millions of Illinois tax dollars were awarded to SALF, including a $25,000 grant from your office.

A May 9, 2012 letter from Congressman Rob Woodall's office to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attempted to verify whether Mr. Browne, a CDC employee, signed the six reports. From a May 21, 2012 reply from CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden:

Mr. Browne reviewed the documents and verified that they look familiar to him, and that the signature on page six of the documents, dated December 30, 2005, appears to be his writing. Mr. Browne cannot confirm with certainty that he signed the other pages, because he's unable to verify the signatures.

Therefore, until Mr. Browne positively confirms that he signed all six reports, presumably your agency must consider them to be incomplete.

This is to request that your agency attempt to verify whether or not Mr. Browne signed the six reports. In the event that your agency chooses to do so, you'll recall that in a January 18, 2012 letter to Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Sen. Bivins provided her with a Doraville, GA address for Mr. Browne.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Heimlich
(street address redacted)
Duluth, GA 30096

ph: (208)474-7283
website: Medfraud
blog: The Sidebar

cc:

The Hon. Rob Woodall, US House of Representatives % Chase Murray
Thomas R. Frieden MD, MPH, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Hon. Tim Bivins, IL House of Representatives
Lisa Madigan, IL Attorney General
Jack Lavin, Chief of Staff, Office of IL Governor Pat Quinn

May 29, 2012

Thomas R. Frieden M.D., M.P.H.
Director Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
Dear Dr. Frieden:

I'm responding to a letter you sent last week to my Congressman, Rob Woodall (GA, 7th District).

Your letter was in reply to a May 9, 2012 inquiry sent on my behalf by Rep. Woodall's office to CDC Chief Operating Officer Sheri Berger. That inquiry asked Ms. Berger to verify whether or not CDC employee Douglas R. Browne signed six sworn AG990-IL financial reports filed with the Illinois Attorney General's Charitable Trust Bureau by the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF), a Chicago-area nonprofit.



I asked Congressman Woodall's office to help me obtain the information because there are serious legal matters regarding the reports that I wish to bring to the attention of federal and Illinois state officials.

In your May 21, 2012 reply, you wrote to Congressman Woodall:

Mr. Browne reviewed the documents and verified that they look familiar to him, and that the signature on page six of the documents, dated December 30, 2005, appears to be his writing. Mr. Browne cannot confirm with certainty that he signed the other pages, because he's unable to verify the signatures.

All due respect, I believe a more definitive response is required.

As you may be aware, in recent years SALF has been the subject of scores of critical media reports. For example, from a November 2006 ABC7 Chicago expose:

One of Illinois' highest profile charities teaches the Heimlich maneuver to children while maneuvering the truth to get money from government and big business.

It's called the Save-A-Life Foundation and is known across Illinois as an organization that teaches schoolchildren how to respond in emergencies. For the past few years, Save-A-Life has received millions of dollars in government funds and corporate donations. An ABC7 I-Team investigation has uncovered a series of misleading claims and deceptive credentials that raise doubts about Save-A-Life's integrity, funding and training.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, $3,335,578 of those funds were awarded to SALF by your agency.

In a November 10, 2010 reply to a complaint of misconduct filed with the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, that office responded:

In your letter, you allege potential misconduct on the part of Douglas Browne, an employee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Specifically you state that CDC may have improperly approved Browne's outside activities with the Save-A-Life-Foundation, and that Browne may have exceeded the scope of the approval which he received from CDC management.

...HHS/OIG/OI/SIB has referred this matter to CDC for further review, and appropriate administrative action as this matter appears to be more appropriately addressed through CDC's administrative review process.

According to a numerous records (embedded below this paragraph), Mr. Browne served on SALF's Executive Board as the organization's Treasurer. According to the six AG990-IL reports, he appears to have started the job on January 1, 2003 although tax returns filed by SALF with the Internal Revenue Service indicate he started on January 1, 2004. According to the minutes of a January 26, 2007 meeting of SALF's board, he was voted a $40,000 salary and retirement plan. Apparently his job ended on September 17, 2009 when, after a vote by the corporation's directors - presumably including Mr. Browne - SALF filed Articles of Dissolution with the Illinois Secretary of State.



Regarding Mr. Browne's memory lapse about whether or not he signed the six AG990-IL reports, your letter didn't indicate if you asked him to produce copies. Since he was the organization's Treasurer, he presumably retained those. If not, he can certainly request unredacted copies from the Illinois Attorney General's office, from other former SALF executives, and from the Certified Public Accountants who co-signed the six reports.

Undoubtedly you share my interest in bringing any potential legal concerns to the attention of governmental oversight agencies. Therefore, would you please ask Mr. Browne to provide you with definite answers as to which if any of the six reports he signed and that you provide me with that information?

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to your reply so that I may know how to proceed.

Peter M. Heimlich
(street address redacted)
Duluth, GA 30096

ph: (208)474-7283
e-mail: pmh@medfraud.info
website: Medfraud
blog: The Sidebar

cc:

The Hon. Rob Woodall, US House of Representatives % Chase Murray
Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services
Sherri Berger, Chief Operating Officer, CDC
The Hon. Tim Bivins, IL State Legislature
Brent Stratton, Chief Deputy IL Attorney General


my 5/29/12 inquiry to CDC Director Thomas Frieden re: whether CDC employee Douglas R. Browne signed six swo...

SALF executives Rita Mullins (straw hat) & Carol Spizzirri (black pants suit) and US Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (turquoise shirt), Punjabi Sports Festival, Chicago, July 15, 2007 (source)

From Possible Charity Scam by Sophia Beausoleil, WCIA News, Champaign, IL:

According to the Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office, the Save a Life Foundation (SALF) closed it's doors Sept., 2009.  Whenever a non-profit shuts down, the state does an investigation, but over the summer the state received complaints and documents questioning the organizations handling of finances. A representative for the Attorney General's office said they are looking into the organizations charitable contributions and assets.

Here's more for the Attorney General to look into, a letter I e-mailed today (slightly revised for clarity).

(Dr.) Amler graduated from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, moved to New Orleans for a residency in pediatrics and eventually landed at U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

...When she and her husband worked for federal health agencies, they had ties to the Save A Life Foundation, a charity in Illinois that taught first-aid skills to children. The foundation, which received millions in federal grant money, was discredited after a 2006 television news investigation revealed that its founder, Carol Spizzirri, lied about being a registered nurse, the circumstances of her daughter’s fatal car crash (the reason the foundation was created) and the number of children it had trained.

Amler said the CDC assigned her to advise the group on how to measure whether its teaching was effective. After she found out in 2008 that she was listed on SALF’s website as a board member, she called the organization to take off her name.

“I had nothing to do with their board,” she said.

“I think if there’s probable cause for wrongdoing, especially if it involves public money, there ought to be an investigation, sure,” Chico said.

Rep. Rob Woodall (holding copies of SALF documents I handed to him), Town Hall, Suwanee, GA, 11/5/11

A freshman Republican congressman from Georgia is asking questions about a developing Illinois scandal that involves two of the biggest players in the national Democratic party.

Sidebar regulars know that the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF) was a high-flying nonprofit that, according to the Chicago Tribune, was awarded nearly $9 million in federal and state funds to provide first aid training classes to millions of students.

Among other problems, records of any training classes are hard to come by.

IL State Sen. Tim Bivins

Last week an Illinois daily reported that State Senator Tim Bivins (R-Dixon) and State Board of Education chairman Gery Chico want "investigations and audits of (SALF)":

“Where’s our money going?” Bivins said. “Where’s our tax dollars going? Where did it go?... As taxpayers, we have a right to know where the money’s going.”

...Chico agreed.

"I think if there’s probable cause for wrongdoing, especially if it involves public money, there ought to be an investigation, sure,” Chico said.

That prospect doesn't seem to appeal to this pair of officials who helped SALF obtain big bucks: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin. Click their names and you'll see what I mean.

Back in the day, both spared no praise or support for the organization and its founder/president, Carol J. Spizzirri. Duncan called her "one of my heroes." Durbin told a CNN reporter, "I would do everything I could to help her."

Spizzirri, reportedly a twice-convicted shoplifter whose teenage daughter filed a protective order against her mother, is also prone to exaggeration. For instance, per this eye-popping 2006 I-Team report by ABC Chicago, she claimed nonexistent medical credentials, a bogus college degree, and even fabricated stories about her own child's death to gin up funds for her organization.


After dozens more media exposes, you'd think the elected officials who handed SALF millions of public dollars might want to assure taxpayers that their money didn't go down the you-know-where.

Think again. Despite his calls for oversight, Bivins wrote me, "There is little or no interest in pursuing an investigation of SALF in Illinois."

Such incuriousity may be attributable to SALF's connections to scores of public officials up and down the Prairie State's political food chain.

Click here for pages of photos of some of those worthies posing with SALF founder/president Carol Spizzirri and her second-in-command, Rita Mullins, former 20-year mayor of Palatine, IL.

Here are the gal pals of SALF enjoying themselves at a wedding shower last year for Spizzirri's daughter, Ciprina. Since then, Mama Spizzirri has reportedly relocated from Grayslake, IL, to a mobile home park in San Marcos, California.

SALF's Carol J. Spizzirri & Rita Mullins

As Sen. Bivins wrote me, "It's going to take someone from outside Illinois to expose the SALF scandal."

That someone may turn out to be my congressman, Rob Woodall, (R-GA, 7th District).

This week, Rep. Woodall wrote me that since July he's been asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about $3.33 million that agency awarded to SALF.

According to sworn grant applications and financial reports SALF submitted to the CDC (which I obtained via FOIA), a good chunk of that dough was supposed to be used by SALF to provide first aid training classes for many thousands of students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and other districts.

During most of those years, Arne Duncan was in charge of CPS and had a close relationship with Spizzirri and her operation. He even appeared as a cartoon character on SALF's website:



Here's one problem. In response to a federal court subpoena and public records requests, CPS can't locate any training records.

So where'd the CDC money go?

In addition to Duncan, one person who should know the answer to that question is Douglas Browne who, according to an October article in The Hill, "served as (SALF's) corporate treasurer from 2004 to 2009."

Per The Hill, during those same years Browne was also - can you say conflict of interest? - a Deputy Director at the CDC. From SALF's 2006-07 Annual Report:


Via The Hill:

(Congressional candidate Tim)Bagwell sent an 8-page letter to Health and Human Services Inspector General Daniel Levinson on Monday requesting that the office "review and determine" whether $3.3 million awarded to the Save-A-Life Foundation were "properly administered."

...Bagwell also wants the inspector general to review the relationship between the nonprofit and CDC Deputy Director Douglas Browne, who served as the nonprofit's corporate treasurer from 2004 to 2009.

That resulted in this:



At the beginning of the summer, I spent a frustrating month trying to get answers from the CDC about the status of the IG's request "for further review and appropriate administrative action" about Browne's role.

CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, MD MPH

After being sandbagged by three CDC departments, including the office of Director Tom Frieden, I wrote congressman Woodall and requested his assistance.

Last Saturday Rep. Woodall hosted a local Town Hall meeting at which I took the opportunity to reiterate my concerns. A few days later, he sent me this. (To download a copy, click here.)



Per the congressman's letter, there's more to come, so keep reading The Sidebar for updates.

Rep. Rob Woodall

In the meantime, I encourage readers to write your own congressional representative, share a link to this item, and request that s/he send a letter of support to Rep. Woodall for his willingness to take a closer look at this rat's nest.

If you do, feel free to e-mail copies to me.