The Isthmus, an alternative weekly in Madison, is doing what newspapers are supposed to do.
MCM <http://rawstory.com/08/blog/2009/04/30/gop-it-gurus-sisters-question-events-surrounding-his-death/>GOP IT guru's sisters question events surrounding his death <http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=%3Curl%3E>Share on Facebook BY <http://rawstory.com/08/blog/author/stephencwebster/>STEPHEN C. WEBSTER Published: April 30, 2009 Updated 3 hours ago <http://rawstory.com/08/blog/2009/04/30/gop-it-gurus-sisters-question-events-surrounding-his-death/%23tab=home&url=home.php>Raw Story ยป GOP IT guru's sisters question events surrounding his death The sisters of Michael Connell, a GOP IT consultant and former associate of Karl Rove who died in a plane crash last December, are now questioning the circumstances surrounding his death. "Shannon Connell of Madison says her brother Michael rarely talked about work," <http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=25758>a local Wisconsin paper reported Thursday. "She knew he ran an Ohio company called New Media Communications that set up websites for Republicans including former President George H.W. Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But it wasn't until after he died last December, when the small plane he was piloting crashed, that she learned via the Internet of his tie to a voter fraud case and to allegations that presidential adviser Karl Rove had made threats against him. "'At first, it was really hard for me to believe Mike was dead because somebody wanted him dead," the paper quoted Shannon as saying. "But as time goes on, it's hard for me not to believe there was something deliberate about it." "A native of Illinois, Shannon moved to Madison in 2002," the paper adds, "the same year as her sister, Mary Jo Walker. Walker, a former Dane County Humane Society employee, has similar concerns about their brother's death: 'It doesn't seem right to me at all.'" Although there has been speculation in the media about the possibility of sabotage in Connell's death, Raw Story reported in January that <http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Foul_play_not_suspected_in_GOP_0113.html>authorities do not suspect foul play. The official investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has not yet determined the cause of the crash; their final report is required to be produced within a year. <http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/Republican_IT_consultant_subpoenaed_in_case_0929.html>Michael Connell was served with a subpoena in Ohio on Sept. 22 in a case alleging that vote-tampering during the 2004 presidential election resulted in civil rights violations. Connell, president of GovTech Solutions and New Media Communications, is a website designer and IT professional who created a website for Ohio's secretary of state that presented the results of the 2004 election in real time as they were tabulated. At the time, Ohio's Secretary of State, Kenneth J. Blackwell, was also chairman of Bush-Cheney's 2004 reelection effort in Ohio. The 45-year-old Republican operative was killed when his single-passenger plane crashed into a home in a suburb of Akron, Ohio after reportedly <http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/Killed_GOP_pilot_suspected_plane_had_1222.html>being warned of sabotage. Connell's ten year-old, seven-passenger, single engine Piper Saratoga II crashed into an empty house on Charolais Street in Lake Township, Ohio. The plane's right wing clipped a flagpole in the front yard before it broke up, set fire to the garage, and tumbled some 50-60 feet along the ground toward the back yard of a neighboring home. Connell was thrown from the burning plane and killed instantaneously by massive blunt force trauma, according to the Stark County coroner's report. Although the body was not burned, fingerprints were required to confirm identity, according to Captain Lorin Geisner of the Greentown Fire Department. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to newsfromunderground-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
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