It was another crazy week of news and politics in higher education....
Some links from around the web for your Friday evening reading. "I didn't do it for attention for myself. I did it for attention for the troops"...
[The ads] claimed that supporters of conservative McDaniel had connections to the Ku Klux Klan and that McDaniel had a 'racist agenda.' They also warned that black Democrats 'could lose food stamps, housing assistance, student loans, early breakfast and lunch programs and disaster assistance' if he were to become the Republican U.S. Senate nominee. 'Vote against the tea party. Vote Thad Cochran,' one ad said. 'If the tea party, with their racist ideas, win, we will be sent back to the '50s and '60s.'
More than 52,000 children have entered the country illegally in recent months, many of them coming into the U.S. through South Texas. Former Zapata County Sheriff Gonzales, who now works as a consult with law enforcement agencies along the Texas border, says space is running out to house the children and adults that are coming across.As feared, the flood of Central American children and adults has begun to spread disease into the U.S. Border patrol agents are reportedly getting sickened from the refugees. Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says the unaccompanied child was recently hospitalized after being diagnosed with swine flu, or H1N1. Wolfe says officials believe this is an isolated incident but are closely monitoring all children at Lackland and other similar shelters the agency is operating around the country. “That tells you that when you’ve got kids coming in from some of these countries where they don’t have great health systems, we gotta watch out,” says Cuellar. “I’ve talked to border patrol down in McAllen. They’ve seen TB; they’ve seen chicken pox; they’ve seen scabies. And according to Border Patrol, 4 or 5 of their agents have tested positive for those diseases.”
Florida’s just-signed “warning shot” law unlikely to help Marissa Alexander
I neglected, however, to point out one particular facet of Florida's new law that could potentially--not reasonably, but potentially--provide some benefit to Alexander. So, I'll cover that here. Before I do, however, the enormous volume of misinformation that continues to be promulgated about this case obliges me to first point out all the ways the "warning shot" bill does not help Alexander.
Implicated in video taping of Thad Cochran's wife, but his alleged role and the legal theory never were clear....
The embattled head of the Internal Revenue Service blames faulty technology for what he called serious problems under investigation by Congress, the Justice Department and the Treasury inspector general. John Koskinen told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday that he apologized to anyone who had their application for tax-exempt status held up by IRS targeting of political labels. "The improper criteria used to highlight organizations for investigation just by their name was a mistake," Koskinen said. "I apologize to anybody who ever had their applications held up needlessly. Everybody needs to be confident that the IRS is going to treat them fairly no matter who they are. Republicans, Democrats, whatever organization they belong to. So it's a serious matter." However, he maintained that evidence uncovered so far by six investigations found no involvement by the White House, as alleged by some Republicans:Koskinen has been under fire in recent days, after congressional hearings on Monday and last Friday, both of which were filled with some quite contentious exchanges. When asked by Blitzer whether someone should be blamed for the “antiquated, awful system” that was the cause of emails lost in Lerner’s hard drive crash having been unrecoverable, Koskinen shifted away from the controversy at hand and focused instead on moving forward. “Well, I think somebody, the IG, is investigating all of the issues about the hard drive crash.” Koskinen went on to explain, “My approach when I parachute into these things is to try to fix the problems rather than try to figure out who to blame, and sometime ago I asked for us to review exactly how the email system runs and whether we couldn’t convert to a more searchable, more retainable email system. I’ve also said we need to respond to the concerns of the archivist, who came out with a very interesting suggestion recently that for agencies struggling, moving forward into an electronic system, they should take the senior people and make sure all of those records and emails are preserved. I should emphasize that all emails are not official records, so if an email is lost, it doesn’t mean we’ve lost an official record.”
(Reader Poll)...
While Abu Aysha's mother described her son as a devoted family man, she also told the Times that "if her son did take part in the kidnapping, she was proud of him and hoped he would continue to evade capture."
Abdullah Kawasme, an uncle of the latter, was killed in a fight with Israeli security forces in 2003.
The IDF blog tells more of the ties both suspects had to Hamas:
Sales of Hillary Clinton's book have dropped dramatically in second week...
Randall Crocker, the lawyer for special prosecutor Francis Schmitz, noted the investigation has been halted, saying, "At the time the investigation was halted, Governor Walker was not a target of the investigation. At no time has he been served with a subpoena." Crocker issued the statement a week after a court document Schmitz wrote late last year and made public late last week identified Walker as being part of an alleged "criminal scheme" to coordinate with outside groups and violate campaign finance laws. Crocker said no conclusions have been made about whether there is enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime. "Contained in these documents is a reference to the request for production of documents that relates to an alleged criminal scheme. Gov. Walker's name was included in this reference," Crocker said. "While these documents outlined the prosecutor's legal theory, they did not establish the existence of a crime; rather, they were arguments in support of further investigation to determine if criminal charges against any person or entity are warranted." Crocker added, "Mr. Schmitz has made no conclusions as to whether there is sufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime."With impeccable timing, Democratic challenger Mary Burke just released a TV ad focusing on the accusations of "criminal scheme" from which prosecutors have just walked away:
Bloomberg's soda ban is out. What's DeBlasio's next move?...
Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source. To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, click here. Branco’s page is Cartoonist A.F.Branco...
The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that President Obama's recess appointments to the NLRB are invalid....
First Amendment upheld against Massachusetts law involving abortion clinic protests...
