Mikel D. Jones, a longtime Palm Beach County aide to U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, was found guilty today by a federal jury of scheming to defraud a New York venture capital fund that helped finance Jones’ private law firm.

Jones, 55, who lives in Boynton Beach, received a $78,578 salary in 2010 as a top local aide to Hastings while also running a personal injury law firm in Philadelphia.

Jones was convicted of conspiracy, money laundering, 14 counts of wire fraud and 14 counts of mail fraud. His wife, Dona Nichols Jones, 54, was convicted of conspiracy, money laundering, and 14 counts of wire fraud.

Mikel Jones was acquitted of several similar charges involving money his law firm obtained from the city of Philadelphia. His wife was not charged in those counts. Jones’ law firm received a $150,000 loan from the city and a “multimillion-dollar line of credit” from the private New York fund, according to the FBI.

Sentencing has been set for Feb. 7.

Jones attorney David Garvin said this afternoon that “I’m sure that he’s going to appeal because in my opinion there was a lack of evidence that he did anything wrong.”

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While not going to the lengths of U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and comparing domestic political opponents to terrorists, the two Democrats in Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation — U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch of Boca Raton and Alcee Hastings of Miramar — likened Republicans and tea partyers to hostage-takers in the recent debt-ceiling showdown.

Democratic congressional hopefuls Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy, vying for the right to challenge U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, both used the H-word to describe Republican tactics in interviews about the debt deal this week.

As the conservative Daily Caller enumerates (with more than a dozen examples from the last few days), the hostage metaphor has become the new talking point for liberal commentators from Al Sharpton to Chris Matthews.

And with debt debate dudgeon depleted, Democrats are now using the hostage-taking charge to slam Republicans over Federal Aviation Administration funding.

U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, today urged U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to intervene in a long-running dispute between the Kravis Center and a stagehands union.

The union and the West Palm Beach performing arts venue have been at odds since 2000, when center officials broke off contract talks and stopped using union stagehands. A federal appeals court in 2008 upheld two lower court rulings that the center had engaged in unfair labor practices and ordered it to return to the bargaining table. Talks broke down in January.

“As this conflict dates back over a decade, we therefore request that you please take a stand to compel the Kravis Center to change their course of conduct once and for all,” Hastings and Deutch say in a letter to Solis.

Kravis Center officials didn’t immediately respond.

Union members have not gone on strike, but have conducted “informational pickets” outside the Kravis Center from time to time. During last year’s U.S. Senate campaign, former Gov. Charlie Crist and Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek refused to cross the picket line.

Former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, who’s now a Democratic congressional candidate, and liberal comedian Bill Maher are among those who have crossed the informational pickets.

A congressional ethics office is looking into the sexual harassment allegations that were leveled against U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, in a March lawsuit, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Hastings has vehemently denied the claims by Winsome Packer, a staffer on the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Hastings is a member of the commission and a former chairman. Packer is being represented by attorneys from the conservative group Judicial Watch.

The Wall Street Journal report says the independent Office of Congressional Ethics has launched a “preliminary” investigation of the allegations. The office has 90 days to recommend whether the House Ethics Committee should look into the matter.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, has sent a $1,000 refund to a woman who contributed to his campaign in 2009 and filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him last month.

In a March 30 letter accompanying the refund to Winsome Packer, Hastings points to House ethics rules prohibiting contributions from an employee “to one’s employing member.” Hastings says in the letter he wasn’t aware of the prohibition when he accepted the contribution.

Packer did not request the refund, a Hastings spokeswoman said.

Packer is a policy adviser on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Hastings was chairman of the panel, also known as the Helsinki Commission, from 2007 to 2009 and co-chairman from 2009 until January. He remains a commission member.

Packer, represented by attorneys from the conservative group Judicial Watch, filed a lawsuit last month claiming Hastings subjected her to “unwelcome sexual advances,” crude comments and unwanted hugging over a two-year period and retaliated against her when she complained.

Hastings has denied Packer’s claims, calling them “ludicrous allegations.” He has suggested Packer is trying to promote a self-published novel called A Personal Agenda that deals with sexual harassment and other issues on Capitol Hill.

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U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, says it’s “more than likely” he’ll vote against the budget deal cobbled together late Friday night by President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

“Obama and Harry Reid ought to be ashamed of themselves and John Boehner ought to be doubly ashamed,” Hastings said today of the agreement to cut about $39 billion over the next six months. Details are still being worked out, but Hastings said it’s already apparent that “you’re getting ready to hurt poor people. I can tell you that without knowing where the cuts are coming from.”

Hastings in early March criticized Obama for being “slow out of the box” in budget talks. He reiterated that criticism today.

“I thought Obama should have been in much earlier. Quite frankly I think Obama is (concerned) about his 2012 election and couldn’t care less,” Hastings said.

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Thursday’s U.S. House vote for a one-week stopgap funding measure was actually a vote on a defense authorization bill that would provide funding for the military for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

The largely partisan vote and the current fight over tonight’s looming government shutdown are merely previews of bigger budget battles to come.

U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, had pledged he wouldn’t vote for any more stopgap bills, but unhappily voted for Thursday’s measure. He blamed Democrats for the situation reaching its current point, but he released a statement that also ripped the Republican House leadership for making military pay a “bargaining chip” in the budget debate.

“The House majority has now placed the funding for the Department of Defense and the funding for the troops down as a bargaining chip…I am disgusted at the perception that the leaders in my own party who did not move a defense bill earlier and are now using the men and women in uniform, the individuals who are defending our freedom, as a way to pass yet another continuing resolution,” said West, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.

He added: “my Yes vote today was for my brothers and sisters in uniform. My no sentiment reflects a disappointment in my own leadership.”

Read other statements from other members of Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation after the jump…

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U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, says President Obama has failed to offer a clear rationale for bombing Libya this month. Hastings, who hadn’t weighed in on the military action there until tonight, issued a statement calling it “troubling” that Obama had not offered a “clear strategy” for the U.S. mission there.

Read Hastings’ entire statement after the jump….

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State economists are hashing out their new estimate of how much less money lawmakers have to spend this year.

Their last general revenue estimate projected the state would collect about $3.6 billion less this year in taxes and fees than last. But this morning’s estimates range from an additional $332.4 million drop – bringing the deficit to $3.9 billion – to a gain of $47.4 million that would decrease the spending gap to closer to $3.5 billion.

The three groups of economists representing the legislature’s Bureau of Economic and Demographic Research, Gov. Rick Scott and the Department of Revenue will crunch numbers throughout the day.

EDR’s initial $332.4 million in additional lost income is the highest. Scott’s office projects an extra $109.7 million drop. And the department’s was the rosiest – a gain of $47.4 million.

The average of the three – $131.6 million – would bump up the deficit to $3.75 billion.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, who was accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit this month by a former Helsinki Commission staffer, has responded in the black-oriented Westside Gazette with an article in which he calls plaintiff Winsome Packer’s claims “completely false.”

As he hinted earlier, Hastings notes in the Gazette that Packer wrote a self-published novel called A Personal Agenda that deals with sexual harassment and other issues on Capitol Hill. Hastings says that Packer, in a Jamaican TV interview, said that “her book requires a lot of marketing to have success and that she is working very hard to promote her book and that a sequel is coming.”

Hastings also says that Judicial Watch, the conservative group representing Packer in her lawsuit, has taken aim at Hastings on other occasions and “has a strange fixation with me.”

With significant defections in majority Republican ranks, the U.S. House today approved a three-week spending bill that, if also approved by the Senate, will avert a partial shutdown of the federal government looming Friday.

Most Republicans in the GOP-led House were supportive of the measure, which cuts $6 billion in spending on top of the $4 billion cut in the last stopgap spending bill. But there were 54 “No” votes in the Republican caucus, including U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, and other conservatives who are critical of the piecemeal approach. The GOP defections mean Speaker John Boehner needed Democratic support — which he got this time — to pass the continuing resolution.

The final vote was 271-to-158, with the unlikely duo of U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, voting yes while conservative West joined liberal U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, in voting no.

Read what local members had to say about the vote after the jump….

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Freshman U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, has opened a “leadership PAC” allowing him to raise money outside his regular congressional campaign and dispense contributions to favored candidates and otherwise boost his already considerable national profile.

The PACs are often used by aspiring House leaders to curry favor with colleagues (House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., used his PAC to contribute about $4.5 million to GOP House candidates over the last four elections) and by those with larger national political ambitions (then-Sen. Barack Obama’s Hope PAC spent more than $3.7 million in the 2006 election cycle as he laid the groundwork for a White House run).

Many members of Congress — including the three other members of Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation — have set up leadership PACs.

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After international policy specialist Winsome Packer filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, the congressman accused Packer and others of having “personal agendas” — italicizing the phrase for emphasis in a release sent out by his office.

Packer wrote a self-published novel called A Personal Agenda about Capitol Hill wheelings and dealings and tensions between black Americans and black immigrants. Packer is described in a news release promoting the book as a native of Jamaica and her book is said to “provoke its readers by examining racial tensions, corruption and sexual harassment in Congress, as well as the impact of immigration to the U.S. and other nations.”

Here’s the Amazon.com description of Packer’s novel.

Here’s Packer’s biography from the U.S. Helsinki Commission website.

And here’s a copy of the lawsuit Packer filed today in U.S. District Court.

The conservative group Judicial Watch has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, on behalf of a woman who claims Hastings subjected her to unwelcome advances, crude comments and unwanted hugging while she worked as a staffer on an international commission Hastings chaired.

Hastings released a statement late this afternoon denying the allegations.

“I have never sexually harassed anyone. In fact, I am insulted that these ludicrous allegations are being made against me. When all the facts are known in this case, the prevailing sentiment will be, ‘How bizarre!’

“I will win this lawsuit. That is a certainty. In a race with a lie, the truth always wins. And when the truth comes to light and the personal agendas of my accusers are exposed, I will be vindicated.”

Click here to read a copy of the lawsuit.

The plaintiff, WInsome Packer, works for the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which Hastings chaired from 2007 to 2009. The suit also names the commission and its former staff director as defendants, saying they knew about Hastings’ alleged behavior, failed to intervene, and participated in retaliating against Packer after she complained.

U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, whose January town hall meetings in Deerfield Beach and Boynton Beach were standing-room-only affairs, is hosting another constituent confab tonight in Pompano Beach. The 7 p.m. event at the E. Pat Larkins Community Center is just outside West’s congressional District 22 in the 23rd District, which is represented by U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar.

West spokeswoman Angela Sachitano says it’s tough to find affordable, accessible sites that can handle hundreds of people.

“There are only a few sites that meet all of these requirements, especially when we are planning them at a rate of twice a month,” Sachitano says. “The venue for this month is less than ½ mile outside the district. A mere few blocks I don’t believe is going to deter people from coming out and learning about all of the issues in Congress that directly affect their personal lives.”

On Tuesday, West will host a town hall for Palm Beach County constituents at 7 p.m. in Jupiter at 5353 Parkside Drive in the Lifelong Learning Society Auditorium at Florida Atlantic University’s north campus. That site is within District 22.

Federal candidates filed reports Monday showing their campaign bank account balances as of Dec. 31.

After raising and spending more than $6.5 million on his 2010 race to unseat Democrat Ron Klein, new U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, begins the 2012 cycle with only $52,459 in cash on hand. Should Klein attempt a comeback, he’ll begin with a mere $41,390 in the bank.

After a fairly easy glide to reelection in 2010, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, begins the 2012 cycle as the Palm Beach County delegation’s money leader with $432,474 in cash on hand.

U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, reported $128,766 in cash on hand.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, reported $161,204 in cash on hand.

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley still has more than $1.2 million in his campaign account. And former Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler’s campaign still has $320,673.

U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, plan to sit with each other at Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech in Washington, their offices confirmed this afternoon.

In the aftermath of the Jan. 8 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., several lawmakers have discussed making a bipartisan show of unity and civility by sitting alongside one another without the traditional partisan separation when President Obama delivers his speech to a joint session of Congress.

Florida’s two Senators — Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio — have already announced plans to sit next to each other.

The Deutch-Rooney pairing is contingent on their ability to find each other Tuesday night and then locate a pair of seats together. The House chamber can be “kind of a madhouse” before a presidential address, Rooney said.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, called the civility effort “nice,” but said he’s “planning to sit wherever I can sit.”

U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, said he’ll honor tradition by sitting on the Republican side of the chamber.

Members of Palm Beach County’s congressional delegation are reacting to today’s shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.

Giffords was doing the kind of thing members of Congress in South Florida and across the country routinely do — conducting a “Congress On Your Corner” event with constituents at a shopping center in her district — when a gunman opened fire, critically wounding her and killing a federal judge and at least four other people.

Click here for a story on local reactions.

Read after the the jump for complete statements by local members of Congress and both Florida Senators….

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U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, has joined some other House liberals in signing a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposing President Obama’s agreement to extend all the expiring Bush tax cuts for two years.

Hastings and most Dems — including Obama, until recently — favored making most of the current income tax rates permanent but raising rates on those making more than $250,000 a year.

The deal with GOP leaders calls for the two-year extension of all the expiring tax cuts (setting up another showdown during the 2012 presidential election) and a 13-month extension of expiring unemployment benefits. There’s also a one-year reduction of payroll taxes and the continuation of some other middle class tax breaks that were set to expire.

Hastings signed a letter decrying the “tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires” as “fiscally irresponsible” and “grossly unfair.” Noting Obama’s original opposition to keeping the upper-income tax breaks, the letter concludes: “He should not back down. Nor should we.”

Read the letter after the jump…

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Republicans blasted U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, for voting the Democratic line 98 percent of the time, including his support for the landmark health care and stimulus bills. A billboard depicted Klein as a marionette controlled by liberal Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Klein, who was defeated by Republican Allen West on Nov. 2, was one of 20 Democrats who bucked the party today and voted against a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts only for those making $250,000 a year or less.

The bill passed by a 234-to-188 margin. Click here to see the roll call.

Republicans favor a permanent extension of all the tax cuts. Klein during the campaign favored a one-year extension of all the tax cuts, and reiterated that position today.

“The middle class is the heart and soul of America, and I strongly support middle class tax cuts,” Klein said in a statement released by his office. “However, I couldn’t vote for today’s proposal because it just didn’t go far enough. I have said consistently over the last few months that I believe all tax cuts should be extended for one year while our economy recovers and we work out a stable, long-term tax structure that allows American families and business to reasonably plan ahead.”

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