Any organization granted a tax exemption for “social welfare” activity under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code can collect unlimited and undisclosed contributions but if the group is spending most of its money on political activity, then it loses its status and has to report how much it got and from whom, according to tax experts.

Last Friday, the FBI revealed that the IRS was focusing on conservative groups for further review of their tax-exempt status. News reports first said the targeting was done by IRS agents in the Cincinnati office trying to cope with a flood of applications for 501(c)(4) exemptions. It turned out that on June 29, 2011, Lois Lerner, head of the IRS division overseeing tax-exempt groups, had learned of the targeting and insisted that the search be broadened to all political and lobbying groups, but, according to the New York Times, the IRS branch employees kept it narrow.

The revelation provoked Obama to say at a press conference last Friday, “If you’ve got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and nonpartisan way, then that is outrageous. It is contrary to our traditions.” He said that “people have to be held accountable, and it’s got to be fixed.”

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the FBI is “coordinating with the Justice Department to see if any laws were broken in connection with those matters related to the IRS.”

On Monday, two Senate committees, both run by Democrats, announced they’d hold investigations while House committees run by Republicans have vowed to do the same.

“The IRS’s actions are disgraceful, and [it] attacks the very heart of our democracy,” Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) said in a statement. “It warrants a full congressional and criminal investigation.”

Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) echoed his outrage. “I’m deeply disturbed by reports that the IRS targeted certain groups,” he said in a statement. “I’m eager to review the Inspector General’s report later this week. If some at the IRS took actions that were politically motivated, they must be held accountable, along with those at the highest levels of the agency. We must make sure that the IRS maintains its integrity as an impartial agency.”

In the 2012 election, Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) was in the crosshairs of millions of dollars spent in negative advertising by Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt group. The advertising never mentioned Bishop’s Republican opponent, Randy Altschuler, but painted the five-term LI  congressman as a scoundrel embodying “everything that’s wrong with Washington.”

Rather than comment on what it felt like to be outspent by a 501(c)(4), Bishop expressed his concern about the IRS’ apparently politically motivated audits.

“I am deeply troubled by reports that some IRS employees applied undue scrutiny to certain groups seeking  tax-exempt status,” said Bishop in a statement. “The enforcement authority of the IRS was designed to operate independently of this kind of political pressure. I expect the report to be issued this week by Treasury Department’s Inspector General will be the basis for immediate action and strong, comprehensive measures to ensure fairness and impartiality at the IRS.”

John Gomez, who ran against Israel in 2010 on the Republican and Conservative lines, had the full support of Long Island’s Tea Party, he said. But he had an uphill battle trying to level the playing field financially.

“Steve Israel was sitting on $4 million—I had $50,000,” Gomez recalled. By the election, he said he’d raised about half a million dollars and had to respond to letters from the Federal Election Commission charging him with campaign fund-raising violations that he later overturned in court. He likens what he went through with the FEC to what Tea Party groups faced with the IRS audits.

“Strategically, it’s a way to slow these organizations down,” Gomez says. “You can’t spend time organizing and disseminating information because this is really what your purpose is: to make people aware that the government is out of control.”

Steve Flanagan, director of the Conservative Society for Action, one of the first Tea Party groups founded on LI more than four years ago, shared Gomez’s concern. “If any of these allegations are true, we’re talking about a serious abuse of power here,” he said.

Before the news broke about the IRS audits, the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, based in Washington, DC, sent out an urgent fund-raising request to its supporters past and present. One recipient was an 89-year-old woman who provided this reporter with her mailing. Among its calls to “provide critical financial and tactical support to principled conservative candidates at every level,” it said: “We can’t stand by and allow Obama, the Democrats and so-called ‘moderate’ Republicans to transform the United States into a weak, dependent, second-rate nation.”

From the wording above, it’s hard to say that this group is engaged in purely “social welfare.” But that’s what the tax-exempt battle apparently is about.

From a historical perspective, the White House has used the IRS to political ends for decades, starting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who employed it against Sen. Huey Long (D-La.) and Rep. Hamilton Fish, a New York congressman. During the Eisenhower administration, the IRS gave the FBI the tax returns of key members of the American Communist Party.

President Richard Nixon had the IRS audit muck-raking reporters who were critical of him, such as Newsday’s Bob Greene. And President Ronald Reagan used the IRS to challenge the tax-exempt status of the non-profit Mother Jones magazine, forcing one of the leading left-wing publications in the country to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend itself. It won.

John Sampson

The New York State Senate’s former top Democrat is the latest legislative leader whose mug shot appears in the rogues’ gallery of disgraced lawmakers busted for political corruption in the state capitol.

Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), an ex-ethics committee chairman, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of embezzlement, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators.

“We share what may well be the concern of many New Yorkers that incumbent and defendant cannot be accepted as interchangeable,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos said. “Elected officials are referred to as public servants and that should not be confused with self-serving.”

Prosecutors alleged that the 47-year-old—who led the state Senate’s Democratic minority from June 2009 to December 2012—stole $440,000 in escrow funds from foreclosure sales he was involved in as an attorney between 2008 and his election in 1997. He allegedly used some of the money to fund a failed bid for Brooklyn district attorney in 2005.

Later, when Sampson learned one of his associates was charged with mortgage fraud, authorities said the senator contacted an employee in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York to find out if he was also under investigation and who the witnesses were.

Sampson allegedly told the associate that if he found out who the witnesses were, he would arrange to “take them out,” according to the FBI, which tapped the senator’s cell phone to make its case. The senator then lied to FBI agents who questioned him about the allegations, authorities said.

The news broke less than a week after Assemb. William Boyland (D-Brooklyn) was indicted on new charges of allegedly stealing money from a nonprofit to pay for self-promotional materials.

It also comes after Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) and Assemb. Eric Stevenson (D-Bronx) were each charged with separate bribery scandals days apart last month.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed legislation after those two arrests aimed at cleaning up the longstanding public corruption problem in the Albany statehouse.

Kathleen Rice points to a board of mug shots at a news conference in her Mineola office Thursday, April 18, 2013.

Nassau County authorities say they made their biggest gang bust ever by rounding up 14 leading members of a Roosevelt-based Crips set for alleged attempted murders, assaults, robberies, gun and drug dealing.

Members of the Rollin’ 60s have been accused of selling illegal handguns they smuggled out of state, shooting someone they believed was a witness to those sales, committing a drive-by shooting and dealing heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Also nabbed were four associates of the gang, which authorities described as “ultra-violent.”

“They were a little too cute in how they were advertising,” District Attorney Kathleen Rice told reporters at a news conference after showing a rap video posted on YouTube in which some of the suspects posed with guns, drugs and cash. She said rooting out the leadership all at once will make it harder for the gang to regroup.

The months-long joint investigation with the district attorney’s investigators, Nassau police and the FBI led to the arrest of the set’s leader, 27-year-old Raphael “Gusto” Osborne, who authorities said dealt guns out of a house he shared with fellow gang leader Derick “D-Nice” Hernandez, 21.

The FBI Long Island Gang Task Force—which Suffolk police quit last year—has estimated there are up to 5,000 gang members living among LI’s more than 3 million residents. Most are members of the Bloods, Crips and MS-13, all of which have chapters nationwide.

The Rollin’ 60s have been operating in Roosevelt since about 2001, but authorities kicked their probe into high gear when a member, Michael Benitez, shot and wounded a Hempstead village police officer in December 2011.

Investigators alleged they documented three instances in which suspects bought guns in southern states and sold them illegally last May. In October, Hernandez allegedly shot someone he believed witnessed the sales. Fellow gang members later tried to lure the victim out of hiding, authorities said.

Hernandez and another suspect allegedly shot and wounded a man and a bystander in August, too. Members of the gang also shot a victim outside of a party following an argument in October.

The suspects are believed to be involved in a drive-by shooting last month and a beating and robbery last week as well.

“Gang and gun violence is not going to be tolerated in Nassau County,” Police Commissioner Thomas Dale said. “Period, case closed, the end.”

President Barack Obama gave his first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013.

Federal authorities are investigating letters sent to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) that contained a suspicious substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin, a lethal biological warfare agent.

The U.S. Secret Service immediately quarantined the letter to Obama that was received at a mail screening facility offsite from the White House, the front of which was cordoned off by yellow tape Tuesday, officials said. Lab test results will take 24-48 hours to confirm if the substance is Ricin.

“The investigation into these letters remains ongoing, and more letters may still be received,” the FBI said in a statement that did not indicate if there was a written message in the envelope. “There is no indication of a connection to the attack in Boston.”

The mail case broke a day after the Boston Marathon bombings that left three dead and nearly 200 wounded. The FBI has said at least one of the two bombs was built out of a pressure cooker filled with projectiles.

The apparent Ricin mailings are similar to letters containing Anthrax that were mailed to two U.S. Senators and several New York City-based news outlets for weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Five people died and 17 were hospitalized for exposure and the FBI’s suspect killed himself.

U.S. Capitol Police, which responded with its HAZMAT crew, described the powder in the latest case as a “white granular substance.”

Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, referred most questions about the case to the FBI and said Obama is scheduled to travel Thursday to Boston, where he will speak at an interfaith service.

“Any time a suspicious powder is located in a mail facility, it is tested,” Carney told reporters Wednesday.

Operations at the White House and the Capitol Complex have not been affected as a result of the investigation, authorities said, but other cases of suspicious packages have been reported Wednesday.

“On the House side, at least, it’s business as usual,” Samantha Slater, spokeswoman for Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills), told the Press. “What they’ve found so far is on the Senate side.”

She added that she noticed the garbage cans were dismantled Wednesday outside the U.S. Capitol Building.

First responders treat victims of the Boston Marathon bombing Monday, April 15, 2013 (Aaron Tang)

The Boston Marathon bombing casualty count rose to nearly 200 a day after the smoke cleared and the investigation got into full swing Tuesday, although more questions than answers remain so far.

Authorities said 176 survivors are being treated for various injuries—many partial leg amputations—with 17 in critical condition and three dead, including an 8-year-old boy. But, aside from asking for the public’s patience, continuing to refute false rumors and asking for more tips, investigators shared few new details of the probe.

“This will be a worldwide investigation,” Rick DesLauriers, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Boston field office, told reporters. “We will go to where the evidence or the leads take us. We will go to the ends of the Earth to identify the subject or subjects responsible for this despicable crime and we will do everything we can to bring them to justice.”

President Barack Obama officially termed the twin bombings an act of terrorism, calling it heinous, cowardly and evil. The Associated Press reported that the bombs were made of pressure cookers filled with ball bearings.

Long Island on High Alert after Boston Marathon Bombing

The crime scene was reduced to a 12-block area surrounding Copley Square from a 15-block area and will shrink as evidence is processed. But street closures around the Bolyston Street finish line where the explosions occurred 50 yards apart 3 p.m. Monday are expected to continue for several days.

“We are in the process of securing and processing the most complex crime scene that we’ve dealt with in the history of the department,” Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said. “We are working very closely with all of our partners.”

Investigators said there were no undetonated explosive devices found as they tried to address rumors that up to seven bombs were found aside from the two that went off. They also reiterated that they have no suspect in custody, despite widespread reports saying otherwise.

Davis added that investigators are sifting through the scores of video and still camera images from the scene while prioritizing those taken shortly before and after the blasts.

“This is probably one of the most well-photographed areas in the country yesterday,” Davis said, noting the logistical issues of sorting photos from a larger-than-usual amount of cameras aimed at the crime scene during the nation’s longest-running marathon.

DesLauriers said there were no known specific threats against the marathon before the explosions and he knew of no threats after the fact, either. Beyond that, all anyone could do was offer speculation.

“Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror,” Obama said in a brief national address Tuesday. “What we don’t yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual.”

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

First responders on the scene at The Boston Marathon finish line following a pair of explosions Monday, April 15, 2013 (Courtesy of CBS).

Long Island is on high alert after twin bombings Monday at the Boston Marathon left at least three dead—reportedly including an 8-year-old boy—and more than 100 wounded.

New York State, city, Nassau and Suffolk county authorities said they are taking extra precautions while federal investigators work with Boston police on the investigation, which is still in its early stages. A number of Long Islanders were among the runners and spectators swept up in the ensuing chaos.

“We will be holding a security meeting this Wednesday with subsequent security briefings in the weeks leading up to our Long Island Marathon,” Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said of the May 3-5 races—just two weeks away. He said Nassau police “is in constant contact with the FBI and the [NYPD].”

Suffolk County Police Deputy Chief Kevin Fallon, that department’s chief spokesman, said officers are focusing on Long Island Rail Road stations, malls and sports arenas with backup from bomb-sniffing dogs.

“Patrols will include having officers exiting their vehicles and walking through the transportation facilities,” he said. “Police have no reason to believe that a similar incident will occur in Suffolk…but the department is taking precautionary measures.”

The two closely timed bombs went off about 50 yards from each other at the Boylston Street finish line shortly before 3 p.m. Police said they later found at least one undetonated explosive devise nearby and that a report of a third explosion at nearby JFK Library preliminarily appears to be an unrelated fire. The FBI has taken over the probe.

Rick DesLauriers, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Boston field office, said authorities are treating the case as a “potential terrorist investigation.” Boston police said that despite widespread news reports to the contrary, there is no suspect in custody.

Sal Nastasi, a 33-year-old Massapequa Park man who finished the 26.2-mile race in two hours and 35 minutes, was cheering on a friend at the 24-mile mark when he got word he narrowly avoided the carnage himself.

“The course cleared out and people were trying to figure out just what was going on,” Nastasi told CBS Sports Radio. “People were pretty frantic.”

Anthony Abbruscato, a 22-year-old North Babylon man who was also cheering on friends who were running the race when the bombs went off, said he was stunned by the attacks.

“There was a moment where time seemed to stand still as all of us tried to digest what was happening,” he said. “After the gravity of the situation set in, everyone began to panic and flee from the area. Phone lines were either down or busy, and everyone just felt helpless as they tried to contact friends and loved ones at the event.”

The case is a reminder that the public and law enforcement needs to remain vigilant, according to Vincent Henry, director of the Homeland Security Management Institute at Long Island University.

“From what we’ve seen it appears to have been an anti-personnel device,” he said. “Something that was designed to harm people and not buildings.”

Jeffrey Grossmann, a St. John’s University criminal justice professor in the Homeland and Corporate Security Program, said that the fact that countless cameras were aimed at the finish line could help solve the case.

“Anyone with recordings and videotapes of surveillance videos of anything that happened should contact authorities,” he said. “It may play a key role in finding out what happened.”

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterintelligence & Terrorism, said the attackers will be brought to justice.

“Americans will not be deterred by terrorism,” he said. “We will hunt down and bring to justice the cowards responsible for today’s attack.”

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis echoed the sentiment.

“This cowardly act will not be taken in stride,” he told reporters in a Tuesday night news conference. “We will turn every rock over to find the person responsible.”

President Barack Obama addressed the nation in a brief televised statement.

“We still do not know who did this or why,” he said. “And people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts.  But make no mistake—we will get to the bottom of this. And we will find out who did this; we’ll find out why they did this. Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice.”

State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens)

Mothers, don’t let your children grow up to be New York State lawmakers.

The un-shocking news Tuesday that State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) was arrested on bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy charges makes him the 14th state lawmaker and the third State Senate leader facing the wrong side of the law in the past five years.

“Elected officials are called public servants because they are supposed to serve the people,” FBI Assistant Director George Venizelos said after the arrest. “Public service is not supposed to be a shortcut to self-enrichment… At the very least, public officials should obey the law.”

Federal prosecutors accused Smith, a key Democratic member of the State Senate’s new bipartisan leadership, of using intermediaries—a cooperating witness and an FBI investigator posing as a political operative—to bribe Republican Party leaders into letting him run for New York City mayor on the GOP line. Also rounded up were Republican chairmen in Queens and the Bronx, as well as a city councilman, plus the Spring Valley mayor and his deputy—a scandal that rocked both the city and Albany.

“You pull this off,” Smith allegedly told the undercover agent last year, “you can have the house … I’ll be the tenant.” He is now denying the accusations.

Smith, the State Senate president during the Democrats’ 2008-2010 majority, was stripped Tuesday of his chairmanship of the Independent Democratic Conference—five Democratic senators that split from the rest—that joined with Republicans this winter to form a rare leadership coalition.

“The allegations outlined today involving Malcolm Smith are extremely troubling,” Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the chamber’s co-leader, said in a statement. “I concur with the swift decision made by Independent Democratic Leader Jeff Klein to strip him of his committee assignments and his conference leadership position.”

Skelos, who was the majority leader until the Republicans lost control of the State Senate in the November elections, succeeded Pedro Espada Jr., a former Democratic senate majority leader from the Bronx and ex-GOP senate majority leader Joe Bruno from upstate—both of whom were also charged federally.

Espada is awaiting sentencing after pleaded guilty to tax fraud in October and being convicted last May of stealing from a Bronx nonprofit he ran. Bruno is facing retrial after appealing his wire fraud conviction.

Shirley Huntley, a former Democratic state senator from Queens, pleaded guilty in Nassau County court two months ago to charges related to covering up her theft of taxpayer money from a nonprofit. She faces up to two years in prison when she’s sentenced Thursday in a related case.

Hiram Monserrate, a disgraced Democratic state senator from Queens, was sentenced in December to two years in prison for misusing $100,000 in taxpayer funds for his campaign. He had joined with Espada in a 2009 Senate coup and was expelled from the senate in 2010 after being convicted of assaulting his girlfriend.

Carl Kruger, an ex-Democratic state senator from Brooklyn, was also sentenced last year to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to taking $1 million in bribes from health care officials and a lobbyist.

Last summer saw retired Republican state senator Nicholas Spano of Yonkers, who was unseated seven years ago, be sentenced to more than a year in prison for tax evasion.

A year prior, State Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) was convicted of misdemeanor criminal mischief for attacking a New York Post photographer. He was re-elected in November, but was stripped of his then-title of majority whip.

Disgraced Democratic State Comptroller Alan Hevesi was also sentenced to 1-4 years in prison in 2011 for a pay-to-play scheme involving the state pension fund. He had resigned in 2006 after being caught using state employees to care for his sick wife. He was released from prison in December after serving 20 months.

In 2010, Efrain Gonzalez, another former Democratic state senator from the Bronx, was sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing more than $700,000 from two charities.

And in 2009 in the lower chamber, Assemb. Brian McLaughlin, another Democrat from Queens, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after the former labor leader had pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.

Perhaps the biggest corruption scandal in recent memory came five years ago when then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer abruptly resigned after investigators found he was paying prostitutes for sex. He was never charged.

More recently, Assemb. Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn) has refused calls to resign last year after former female staffers made sexual harassment accusations that resulted in Lopez being stripped of his title of Brooklyn Democratic chairman.

Although the Smith case doesn’t directly affect Long Island, it does hit close to home—his senate district abuts the Nassau-Queens line, as does the city council district of his alleged accomplice, Daniel Halloran. The councilman’s quotes allegedly caught on tape epitomized New York’s crime wave of political corruption.

“That’s politics, it’s all about how much,” Halloran told the undercover agent while discussing his need to raise money for his congressional campaign, according to the FBI. “Not whether or will, it’s about how much, and that’s our politicians in New York, they’re all like that….And they get like that because of the drive that the money does for everything else. You can’t do anything without the fucking money.”

Nassau County police said 19-year-old Gagandeep Singh was driving a BMW when he stopped Honda with four people inside at the 7-Eleven on Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow at about 4 a.m.

Singh allegedly asked the 21-year-old woman driving the car to get out, showed her a fake FBI identification card and asked her to open the trunk so he could search it, police said.

When police officers arrived, they found Singh had two New York State drivers’ licenses bearing his name with two different dates of birth along with the fake FBI ID card, police said.

Singh was charged with criminal impersonation, criminal possession of a forged instrument, driving while intoxicated and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

He will be arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Hempstead.

A drone came within 200 feet of a jetliner over Nassau on Monday.

A small drone nearly collided with a jetliner over southwestern Nassau County while the jet was approaching JFK airport on Monday afternoon, according to federal agencies investigating the incident.

The pilot of Alitalia Flight No. 608 from Rome was on approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport on the Queens-Nassau border when he spotted the unmanned, remote-controlled aircraft at about 1:15 p.m. Monday, according to the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The FBI is asking anyone with information about the unmanned aircraft or the operator to contact us,” said John Giacalone, the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge of the New York Counterterrorism Division. “Our paramount concern is the safety of aircraft passengers and crew.”

The flight was making its final approach to JFK runway 31R when the unmanned aircraft came within 200 feet of the Alitalia plane at an altitude of about 1,750 feet. The drone was described as black and three-feet wide with four propellers.

Several news outlets reported that the incident occurred west of JFK, over Brooklyn, but an FAA spokesperson confirmed reports that the near collision occurred roughly three miles southeast of JFK, which includes an area anywhere from Atlantic Beach to somewhere in the Five Towns.

A Nassau County police spokeswoman said there were no other reports of drone sightings Monday.

“The pilot did not take evasive action,” the FAA said in a statement. “The flight landed safely.”

The incident comes amid renewed controversy over the Obama administration’s use of predator drones to kill terrorists overseas, including American citizens such as Westbury-native Samir Khan, the al-Qaeda propagandist killed in U.S. airstrikes alongside militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011.

But, the drone reportedly spotted over LI appears to be smaller than the military aircraft used in such attacks.

The FBI asks anyone with information that can identify and locate the aircraft and its operator to call investigators at 212-384-1000. Tipsters may remain anonymous.

Investigators said Angel Rivas, 33, fessed up to the crime after he was interviewed a second time on Jan. 4 when Suffolk County police responded to a disturbance at a convenience store in Shirley, authorities said.

Rivas approached a Suffolk police officer and “stated…that he had shined the laser beam at the aircraft,” on Aug. 21, 2012, according to the criminal complaint.

Investigators said Rivas voluntarily waived his Miranda rights and stated that he used a laser pointer to direct a laser beam at an airplane and Suffolk County police helicopter flying overhead, according to the complaint.

During the initial investigation, a Suffolk police aviation unit was able to confirm that the laser beam came from Rivas’ home on William Floyd Parkway, but Rivas denied any wrongdoing at the time, authorities said.

“Rivas allegedly endangered the lives of passengers and crew of not one but two aircraft, and potentially, people on the ground,” said George Venizelos, assistant director-in-charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office. “Pointing a laser at an aircraft is not a prank, it is a federal crime with penalties befitting its seriousness.”

Rivas is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.