Indictments Imminent, Say Lawmakers
If you don’t have ties to South Carolina State University,
you may not know what’s going on down there right now — or just how
serious the situation at the state-funded historically black university
has recently become. In that case, here’s a primer — because if what
some state legislators are suggesting is an indication, the story’s only
going to get hotter.
Back in December, the university hired former SLED chief Reggie Lloyd to
conduct an internal investigation into undisclosed legal issues at the
school. At the time, Orangeburg’s Times and Democrat reported that a
“highly placed university source who requested anonymity” had suggested
the troubles involved several members of the school’s board of trustees
and a possible conflict of interest. The source also suggested that “an
unidentified law agency” had requested records dating back to 2006.
Flash forward to Feb. 10, when university President George Cooper fired
eight administrators at once, including the school’s general counsel and
chief of staff, the chief of police, the interim vice president of
finance, the vice president for student affairs, the associate
vice president for student affairs, the director of student life and
leadership, the director of student services and the director of
intramural sports — all with very little in the way of explanation
beyond a vague statement about a need for personnel changes in light of
the ongoing investigation.
Less than a month later, after a vote of no confidence by the Faculty
Senate, Cooper himself resigned — though not before securing a $268,000
severance package from the university’s Advancement Foundation. Board
chairman Jonathan Pinson also stepped down from his chairmanship in
February, reportedly to spend more time working on business concerns. He
remains on the board.
Meanwhile, Lloyd has yet to release any findings, though as of March 14
he had billed the school in the neighborhood of $25,000 for his
services, according to the Times and Democrat, which filed a Freedom of
Information Request for that information.
Since then, things have continued to devolve, prompting state lawmakers
to draft a flurry of bills that could dramatically reshape the SCSU
board of trustees. One bill, put forth by Democratic Sen. John Matthews
Jr. of Orangeburg, calls for the removal of particular seats on the
board — specifically those held by members Pinson,
Maurice Washington, Walter Tobin and Lancelot Wright.
A second bill, proposed by Democratic Rep. Jerry Govan Jr. of
Orangeburg, would take a purposely broader approach by essentially
wiping out the entire board, then making each member reapply and be
re-vetted before regaining a board position.
Govan says his bill, which would decrease the number of board seats from
13 to nine based on recent district reapportionment, is designed to
avoid unwarranted political interference that could adversely affect the
school’s accreditation process.
He also calls his bill the “fairest way possible” to address concerns about corruption
without singling out particular individuals.
A third bill, drafted by Sen. Robert Ford, also calls for the termination of the entire board.
Following a tense campus hearing on April 12, designed to give concerned stakeholders a voice in the ongoing discussion, Free
Times spoke with Govan and two of his bill’s co-sponsors, House
Minority Leader Harry Ott and Rep. Joe Neal, about the proposed
legislation, the persistent rumors swirling about a federal
investigation and the increasing sense of urgency.
“Folks aren’t going to put their heads in the sand,” Govan said, citing the passion of students,
faculty and alumni present for the hearing. “They want the issue of
corruption addressed. They want the bad apples off the board. I’m not
saying [the vetting process] is a perfect process, but we have to trust
the process that’s in place, ensuring that those people go back through
that.”
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Andrew Young, the former campaign staff member who once claimed paternity of a child that former Senator
John Edwards
had fathered during an extramarital affair and sought to conceal, is
scheduled to be on the stand for a second day on Tuesday as the
prosecution’s star witness in Mr. Edwards’s federal corruption trial.
Study says it reduces levels of blood sugar and bad cholesterol, raises good cholesterol levels
Dark chocolate may lower your risk of heart disease by lowering levels of blood glucose and
bad cholesterol while boosting levels of good cholesterol, a small new study suggests.
Chocolate contains compounds called flavanols, which have
antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Previous research has
shown a link between flavanol intake and risk for cardiovascular
disease.
In this
study,
San Diego State University researchers assigned 31 people to consume 50
grams per day of either dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa) or white
chocolate (0 percent cocoa). Dark chocolate was used because it has
higher flavanol levels than milk chocolate.
The participants' blood pressure, forearm skin blood flow, circulating lipid (fat) profiles and
blood glucose levels were recorded before and after they consumed the chocolate for 15 days.
The
tests revealed that those who ate dark chocolate had lower levels of
blood glucose and "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and
higher levels of "good" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol than
those who ate white chocolate.
Money manager B.
Robert Williamson Jr., the nephew of Wall Street investment guru Julian
Robertson, was found dead on Sunday in North Carolina, in water
surrounding an island.
Williamson, who was 55, was
managing director and portfolio manager of hedged U.S. equities strategy
at Chilton Investment Co in Stanford, Connecticut. He joined the firm
in January 2011.
He was staying with family members at a house on Figure Eight Island, a gated development on a barrier island near Wilmington.
New case of mad cow disease in California
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first new case of mad cow disease in the U.S.
since 2006 has been discovered in a dairy cow in California, but health
authorities said Tuesday the animal never was a threat to the nation's
food supply.
The infected cow, the fourth ever discovered in the
U.S., was found as part of an Agriculture Department surveillance
program that tests about 40,000 cows a year for the fatal brain disease.
No meat from the cow was bound for the food supply, said John Clifford, the department's chief veterinary officer.
"There
is really no cause for alarm here with regard to this animal," Clifford
told reporters at a hastily convened press conference.
Mad cow
disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is fatal to cows and
can cause a fatal human brain disease in people who eat tainted beef.
The World Health Organization has said that tests show that humans
cannot be infected by drinking milk from BSE-infected animals.
An Egyptian court on Tuesday upheld a conviction
against one of the Arab world's most famous comedians, sentencing him to
jail for offending Islam in some of his most popular films.
The
case against Adel Imam and others like it have raised concerns among
some Egyptians that ultraconservative Muslims who made gains in recent
elections after
Hosni Mubarak's
ouster last year are trying to foist their religious views on the
entire country. Critics say the trend threatens to curb Egypt's vibrant
film industry and freedom of speech.
Imam was
sentenced to three months in jail and fined around $170 for insulting
Islam in roles he played in movies such as "The Terrorist", in which he
acted the role of a wanted terrorist who found refuge with a middle
class, moderate family, and the film "Terrorism and Kabab. "
The
actor was also found guilty for his 2007 role in "Morgan Ahmed Morgan,"
in which Imam played a corrupt businessman who tries to buy a
university diploma. The film included a scene parodying bearded Muslim
men wearing traditional Islamic clothing.
Experts say the real-estate marketing tool rarely helps sell homes -- but often trips up buyers.
Although the health of the world's infants and children has improved
significantly in the past 50 years, that same success has not been
achieved for adolescents and young adults, say reports out today.
According to a
UNICEF report, 1.4
million adolescents (ages 10-19) die each year from traffic injuries, complications of childbirth, suicide, violence,
AIDS and other health-related causes.
And a synthesis of international data for the medical journal The Lancet
finds injuries are the leading cause of death (40%) among 1.8 billion
young people ages 10-24. About 10% of deaths in the general population
are from injuries, researchers say.
"We've done a terrific job in both developing countries and the
U.S.
at reducing infant and under-age-5 mortality and improving all kinds of
things like prematurity, safe deliveries and immunizations, but we
haven't seen those same declines with older teens and young adults,"
says adolescent medicine specialist John Santelli of Columbia
University in
New York.
The
reason: "Young adults and older teens die from very different
conditions" than do children. "We haven't done enough thinking about
the health behaviors that emerge during adolescence," says Santelli, who
will help chair a symposium on the subject in New York this week
focused on The Lancet articles.
