Penn State Legal Expenses 2007-2008

When I discovered the Stairs Reports a few years ago, the first thing that came to my mind was that I could get an upper bound on the amount Penn State spent on legal settlements by subtracting the amount paid to McQuaide-Blasko, the University's General Counsel, from total legal expenses. How tight those bounds are is anybody's guess. But with the release of Penn State's 2007-2008 Financial Report by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, we see explicitly what lawsuits cost the University that fiscal year.

Here a table of Penn State legal expenses derived from the Financial Report.

Penn State Legal Expenses 2007-2008

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Law Research legal expenses fisca Penn State

Most of payments are to law firms, but a few non-law firm payments stand out. There is the payment of $400,000 to John R. Hancock which is almost certainly part or all of a settlement to a 2005 Federal Civil Rights/Employment lawsuit which he filed against the University.

Another payment which got my attention is the $281,000 payment to Rad Technology LLC. I haven't found any information on a lawsuit that this company may have filed, but I haven't tried that hard. It's fair bet that this is a settlement to a lawsuit and it is also a fair bet that the $44,915 paid to McQuaide-Blasko by the Office of Physical Plant was for defending that suit.

Anyway, I will leave it to my readers to dig a little deeper on Rad Technology, PSRP Developers, Randy Tice, and the others that have received payments which may be the result of lawsuits. You can leave what you find in comments or you can email me your findings.

Have fun.

Technorati Tags: Pen State, legal expenses, lawsuits

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Fun Facts

Here are a few fun facts gleaned from Penn State's 2007-2008 financial report:

• The amount Intercollegiate Athletics spent on portable toilets:$164,778 (Vol. III pg. 656);
• The amount Information Technology Services spent on Angel course management software:$35,954 (Vol III pg. 317);
• The amount that General & Academic Administration, i.e. Old Main, spent on movies:$2,596 (Vol. III pg. 636).

I'm not sure what the movie thing is about, but maybe since Graham publishes his movie reviews each year on the Penn State propaganda portal, he's able to get Penn State pay his rental fees.

Technorati Tags: Penn State financial disclosure, Penn State, humor

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If You Feed the Watchdog, Will It Keep Quiet?

Every year since 1996 the Pennsylvania General Assembly has issued financial reports on the state-related universities called Stairs Reports (Take a look over to your right). For even longer, the General Assembly has also issued reports on credit hours, teaching loads, etc... for both the state-owned and state-related universities. These are called Snyder Reports. This year, for the first time,  the Pennsylvania Department of Education has posted  on their Web site, without any fanfare, the raw data submitted by the state-related universities to the General Assembly which form the basis of these reports.

As you might imagine there is substantially more information in the raw data. For example, one important difference is that the  the raw data  lists the names of all entities which have received  contracts for goods and service in excess of $1000, while the Stairs Reports only provides the names of those that have received contracts in excess of $750,000.The raw data, unlike the Stairs Reports,  also has the budget category for the contract.

This raw data is a potential goldmine.

As a test, I decided to look at how much money the Centre Daily Times was paid by Penn State in 2007-2008. The results are shown in the embedded table.
Payment to Centre Daily Times by Penn State 2007-2008

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other Research stairs report centre daily times

The total amount, $346,627, is a very large amount, but its not large enough to make the cutoff for inclusion in the Stairs Report. Its size does raise the question of whether, or to what extent, these payment have compromised the Centre Daily Times role as a watchdog over Penn State. This question is particularly of interest now that the CDT is experiencing financial difficulties.


Technorati Tags: Penn State, Centre Daily Times, Penn State financial disclosure, conflict of interest

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Well That Explains That

As I noted the other day, the Penn State Propaganda Portal put up an oblique belated defense of the University's Electro-Optics Center against charges of corruption. Or at least I thought it was an oblique belated defense.

The story of a lobbying scandal at the Center was broke by Politico in mid March of this year. A second story on the scandal came a few days latter in the Washington Post. It wasn't until May 18^th that the Propaganda Portal got around to its defense of the Center. The Propaganda Portal didn't even mention the lobbying scandal. It simply touted the Center's job creation and impact on the economy. It turns out that this bit of propaganda wasn't in response to these earilier stories, rather it was a response to a May 17^th Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story which contained critisism of the Center as an engine of job creation.

While the Electro Optics Center performs ground-breaking work in lasers, optics and crystals for defense applications, critics said it also has become too entangled with congressional appropriations and developed close ties with lobbyists from a defunct firm that is at the center of a federal corruption probe. They complain, too, that the center has not created economic growth that will outlive its prime sponsor, Mr. Murtha.

The center -- commonly known as EOC -- began as an offshoot of Penn State's defense-oriented Applied Research Laboratory but branched out into a semiautonomous operation with a budget in the tens of millions.
Almost all of its funding has come with the support of Mr. Murtha, whose district includes portions of Armstrong County and whose post as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee allows him to target defense funds to projects in his district.

None of the interviews conducted and documents examined by the Post-Gazette suggest illegality on Mr. Murtha's part. Rather, they raise questions about whether the center, touted as an economic engine for Western Pennsylvania, is growing businesses that would remain in the district after Mr. Murtha, who is 76, disappears from the political scene.

[...]

Ray Hettche, former head of the Applied Research Lab, said his original concept when spinning off EOC more than a decade ago was a clearinghouse that would solicit proposed technical projects from the U.S. Navy and bid them out to a pre-determined pool of contractors. Mr. Hettche, now retired, said he felt himself forced out from any role with EOC after meeting resistance from private industry partners who wanted to expand from his original vision.

"They sort of corrupted the whole system," said Mr. Hettche. "People started to use it as an earmark mechanism."

He said he warned university officials about the problem but was brushed aside. Eva Pell, senior vice president for research at Penn State, who has oversight on EOC, said she was aware of Mr. Hettche's concerns about the center.

"Let me just say to you that the lab has matured a lot since Ray Hettche retired. Around the time Ray Hettche retired I'd say it was probably going through some growing pains," Ms. Pell said.

Go read the whole story. It doesn't paint a pretty picture.

By the way, neither the Collegian nor the CDT has mentioned any thing at all about this scandal.

Technorati Tags: Penn State Electro-Optics Center, propaganda, Rep. John Murtha, Penn State, earmarks, scandal, economic impact

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Your EFCA Update

Brian Buetler reports on the latest in the fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), the chief sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, has a warning for Democratic foes of his flagship legislation: Work with me in earnest on a compromise, or I'll put the bill on the Senate floor and you can vote your conscience.

That may not sound like a grave threat, but it may well be. Two of the bills main skeptics--Sens. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)--face re-election next year, and both, for different reasons, may ultimately need union support to prevail.

Technorati Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), Sen Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

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Seth Williams Wins Dem Primary for Philly DA

Seth William, former Penn State student activist, has won the Democratic primary for Philadelphia District Attorney.

In a decisive victory that his supporters heralded as "historic," R. Seth Williams won the Democratic primary for Philadelphia District Attorney last night taking more than 41 percent of the votes in five-man field.

Congratulations Seth and good luck come November.

Technorati Tags: Seth Williams, Philadelphia District Attorney race

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Old Main Give's Itself an A

In March, the Washington Post and Politico each had a story about an emerging lobbying scandal surrounding the Penn State Electro-Optic Center.  Old Main hasn't had anything to say about the scandal, but today it mounts an indirect defense of the Center in a long laudatory piece published by the Penn State Propaganda Portal (PSPP).

When Penn State opened the Electro-Optics Center (EOC) in 1999, the University's vision was to create an entity that would foster economic development in the state and to provide research and development in areas critical to the nation's defense.

Well, how's it done in achieving those goals? It should surprise no one that Old Main has declared the Center a  success.

Ten years later, the center has proven to be successful in meeting both of those goals and has helped in the development of some of the most sophisticated technology in use today.

It's easy to get A's when you get to grade yourself.

Technorati Tags: Penn State Electro-Optics Center, propaganda, Rep. John Murtha, Penn State, earmarks, scandal

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The Pelosi Sideshow

The Pelosi briefing story is nothing more than a side show.

Was she briefed on September 4, 2002 that water boarding and other torture techniques had already been employed? Pelosi has always contented that she hasn't. For example on February 25th of this year, in an interview with Rachel Maddow, Pelosi said,

PELOSI: They did not brief us that these enhanced interrogations were taking place. They were talking about an array of interrogations that they might have at their disposal. … We were never told they were being used. … The inference to be drawn from what they told us was that these are things that we think could be legal. … But they never told us that they were being used.

Here is what she had to say at her press conference the other day.

The CIA briefed me only once on some enhanced interrogation techniques, in September 2002, in my capacity as Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee.

I was informed then that Department of Justice opinions had concluded that the use of enhanced interrogation techniques was legal. The only mention of waterboarding at that briefing was that it was not being employed.

Those conducting the briefing promised to inform the appropriate Members of Congress if that technique were to be used in the future.

[...]

We also now know that techniques, including waterboarding, had already been employed, and that those briefing me in September 2002 gave me inaccurate and incomplete information.

Here is the extent of what that report notes

Briefing on EITs [Enhance Interrogation Techniques] including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed.

It does appear to contradict her claim that she wasn't told that EITs were already used, but there is plenty of reasons to doubt the CIA report.

Let's consider what Porter Goss, the Chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence in 2002, wrote last month about congressional knowledge of EITs.

...In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA's "High Value Terrorist Program," including the development of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and what those techniques were. This was not a one-time briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers.


Today, I am slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as "waterboarding" were never mentioned. It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience. [KSM was captured in the Spring of 2003 and is not relevant to the current discussion.]

Goss was present at the September 4, 2002 briefing. He does not claim that he, or anyone else, was briefed on the fact that EITs had already been used. In fact, what he has written is fully consistent with Pelosi's assertion that the briefing was about techniques which could be used.

Did the CIA report intentionally mislead? That is hard to say. However, we have evidence that the CIA was at best sloppy in preparing this report.

The former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham, says that the Central Intelligence Agency told him that they had briefed him on the Bush administration’s torture techniques on two dates he was never briefed.

What’s more, the now-retired Florida senator told a New York radio host Thursday that the CIA admitted that they’d gotten the dates wrong.

Graham is known as a meticulous recorder keeper. He has also backed up Pelosi on the the waterboarding claim.

There is evidence that torture apologists long ago decided on the the Nancy knew too defense. Here the lede from a 2007 Washington Post story on torture.

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

The story paints a picture of Democrats cheering on torture. The first clue that something is wrong comes in the above paragraph. The CIA report does not record any meeting in September of 2002 at which four members of Congress were present and no one has suggested the report is wrong on this count.

As I've said this is a sideshow. Where is the center ring? David Waldman pionts us in the right direction.

Yes, let's have a full investigation, as Pelosi herself wants. But let's be sure that it focuses on that center ring.

Technorati Tags: Nancy Pelosi, torture briefings, Porter Goss, CIA

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9/11 Has Changed Everything...

...and not for the better. Go have a read.

Technorati Tags: 9/11, civil liberties, abuse of power

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Blue and White Turns....

.....Black and White and Dead All Over. Margret Soltan, aka UD, takes a look at Penn State's very own Tim Curley's  not so surprising  view that all is fine and dandy with college sports and she sees Happy Valley's number one export,  propaganda.  Go have a read.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Tim Curley, university sports, propaganda

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A Dry T-Shirt Contest

Many of my readers are young, progressive, artistic and competitive. This is for them.

Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, announces our 2009 Dry T-Shirt Contest, your chance to show off your creative talents, advance the progressive cause, and win awesome prizes! Between now and June 7, we will accept submissions for t-shirt designs from young people across America based on the theme “What is Progress?” A celebrity panel of judges (see below) will review entries, and will choose one grand prize winner and two runners-up. The grand prize winner will:

• Receive an $800 cash prize
• Have their winning t-shirt design featured in an upcoming issue of Utne Reader
• Have their t-shirt printed and distributed free to all 1,000 students attending the 2009 Campus Progress National Student Conference in Washington, DC

The two runners-up will each receive a cash prize of $100, and have their t-shirts featured on our website. Campus Progress also will use these designs over the next year on our website and in our print materials.

In the next few weeks, we will begin posting some of the best entries on our website, so check back soon!

Technorati Tags: public service announcement, dry t-shirt contest

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Who Took a Peek at the Mifflin Streak?

There were no arrests this year at Penn State's annual Mifflin Streak. In fact, Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims attended the event and had this to say

"I'm not streaking," Sims said with a laugh. "It's a nice way for students to blow off steam before finals."

[...]

Sims called the tradition "harmless" and said he wanted to see "firsthand what all the fuss is about."

"There are more troublesome events than this," Sims said. "I've been a college student before, so this isn't necessarily weird. This is the way college students act sometimes."

It looks like the University has begun to take a more healthy approach to this annual event.

I was particularly taken by the thoughts of this participant in the Streak.

Maria Malizia said she felt "so much adrenaline" when she streaked down the road twice and said she felt obligated to participate because she lives in Mifflin Hall.

"I led the group of boys. It was really liberating," Malazia (freshman-Italian) shouted to her friends, jumping up and down. "All I was thinking was, 'Why is everybody taking pictures of me?' I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I have to run through before the po-po see me."

What drew my attention to her musings was not their profundity, rather it was her name. Her dad, local lawyer and businessman Sam Malizia, is running for a position on the Penn State Board of Trustees this year.

Yes times are changing.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Mifflin Streak

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EFCA: Feinstein and Specter Work on a Compromise

It looks like Snarlin' Arlen's own employment future has lead him to reconsider his recent opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. He and Senator Diane Feinstein are working on a compromise bill which would  replace card check with a secret absentee-ballot-like provision. On first blush, it sounds promising.

Technorati Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, Senator Arlen Spector, Senator Diane Feinstein

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Hey Tina, How About a Profile of This Guy

Here's a Penn State alum that you won't see profiled in the Penn Stater blog anytime soon.
(h/t University Diaries)

Technorati Tags: Penn State, alumus, NASA, fraud

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A Fallen Angel?

Hey kids, keep an eye on this story; it may impact you in the near future. Blackboard has bought Angel and there is some trepidation, to say the least, amongst the users of the latter.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Angel, Blackboard

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EFCA: In Order To Form a More Perfect... Ah, Any Union

This video does a great job of explaining what it takes to form a union under the current law and the ways in which the  law is now  stacked against workers.

(h/T Matt Yglesais)

Technorati Tags: Employee Free Choice Act

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I'm Still....

...alive. I've been rather busy the last few weeks and haven't updated the blog much. I hope to turn that around next week. Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: housekeeping note

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