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Saturday, June 12, 2004
As I Say, Not As I Do...
I probably would let this go without much thought if it was any other fringe presidential candidate, but...
Since October, Ralph Nader has run his campaign for president out of the same downtown Washington offices that through April housed a public charity he created -- an overlap that campaign finance specialists said could run afoul of federal laws.
Tax law explicitly forbids public charities from aiding political campaigns. Violations can result in a charity losing its tax-exempt status. In addition, campaign law requires candidates to account for all contributions -- including shared office space and resources, down to the use of copying machines, receptionists and telephones.
Records show many links between Nader's campaign and the charity Citizen Works. For example, the charity's listed president, Theresa Amato, is also Nader's campaign manager. The campaign said in an e-mail to The Washington Post that Amato resigned from the charity in 2003. But in the charity's most recent corporate filing with the District, in January, Amato listed herself as the charity's president and registered agent.
Nader has declared that there is no problem, and that it is all strictly legal. Ergo, there is no problem. So what if it just looks bad, and gives an impression of unethical, sleazy, questionble practices. All that matters is the strict letter of the law. At least when it concerns what Nader does.
We all know Ralph Nader would cut Bush or Kerry the same slack if their campaigns did something legal, but didn't appear kosher. I'm sure he would give others the same presumption that it was all ethical and legal.
Naturally, a guy like Ralph who trumpets transparency and accountability in others will be equally forthcoming with information.
He refused to provide documents accounting for the campaign's use of office space and resources while it was co-located with Citizen Works. "If that's released to you, I'll have to release them to everyone," he said. "All of this is a matter between the campaign and the FEC. I'm not going to start saying we'll give The Post this, and then we'll have to give the L.A. Times that."
So much for the public's right to know.
Cats and Dogs Sleeping Together
One of those moments that has to make everyone uncomfortable, I'm agreeing with the Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial Board (PDEB)on something. Jerry rips the PDEB for their quick hit take on a recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case, Gillett-Netting v. Barnhart. The Court of Appeals found that children conceived 10 months after a man died (via artificial insemination with his frozen sperm) by his widow were eligible for Social Security insurance benefits as surviving offspring. Jerry's argument is that if the guy had died while having sex but before actual fertilzation in the womb SSI benefits would be extended, but not in this case. As offspring of the father, they should get the SSI.
The problem is that it is not that clear.What if the sperm had been inseminated into the woman 5 years after his death? 10 Years? How comfortable would you be with giving SSI survivor benefits then? This is not an inheritance or such. This is a government program. No matter how you want to characterize Social Security taxes, they are not some pension fund guaranteed to pay out to family members. It is part of the social safety net in the US.
To be sure, the widow who brought the action had a sympathetic story.
In December 1994, Netting was diagnosed with cancer. At the time, he and his wife, Gillett-Netting, were trying to have a baby together, but Gillett-Netting suffered from fertility problems that had caused her to miscarry twice. Because doctors advised Netting that chemotherapy might render him sterile, he delayed the start of his treatment for several days so that he could deposit his semen at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, where it was frozen and stored for later use by his wife. Netting quickly lost his battle with cancer. He died on February 4, 1995, before his wife was able to conceive.
And the Court of Appeals all but begged Congress to deal with this and future problems.
Developing reproductive technology has outpaced federal and state laws, which currently do not address directly the legal issues created by posthumous conception. Neither the Social Security Act nor the Arizona family law that is relevant to determining whether Juliet and Piers have a right to child’s insurance benefits makes clear the rights of children conceived posthumously.
I may feel rather squeamish about choosing to conceive a kid from the sperm of a dead man, but hey, it's her call. I just don't think that taxes should or have to be paid on behalf of the offspring as "survivors" of the dead man.
Friday, June 11, 2004
At Least I'm Not Dead
 Your comic relief saved you. You were probably
the hero's best friend and messed up a lot, but
helped him in some major way, believing in
yourself, near the end. As the sympathetic
character, you live.
How fast would you die in a cheesy zombie flick? brought to you by Quizilla
Something In the Weather?
Not a good week to be a basketball coach in Ohio. You can add University of Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins to the list. He was arrested on Tuesday night and charged with DUI. He was pulled over after not weaving out of his lane and then not moving his car for at least 10 seconds after a traffic light turned green. According to reports there was vomit on the inside driver door, a strong smell of alcohol. He apparently stopped "for a couple of beers" following a visit with some potential recruits.
Huggins had slurred speech and red, watery eyes, the report said. Officers said he "staggered" out of the car and couldn't keep his balance during the sobriety test.
Asked to recite the alphabet from the letter "E" through "P," Huggins said, "E, F, G, H, I, K, L, N, Z," according to the police report. Asked to count backward from 67 to 54, he counted from 62 to 52, the report said.
Officers tried to give a breath analyzer test, but Huggins couldn't complete it, the report said.
This is Huggins first offense. He had a news conference this evening. Flanked by his wife and two daughters -- your standard damage control approach, get out there with your family firmly behind you to garner sympathy ( and he needs all he can get) -- he apologized for his actions. He apparently has no plans to resign. The University of Cincinnati has its press conference tomorrow morning. I don't see this as a fireable offense, but one that will cost him in a fine and/or suspension. Apparently there are some negotiations between Huggins and the school over the appropriate discipline.
Disclosure: the wife is a Cinci grad, and like most Cinci alum she has affection for "Huggy Bear." When I informed her of Huggins arrest, she just dropped her head and before asking, "Did he pull a 'Do you know who I am,' when they pulled him over?"
Not exactly.
When officers pulled Huggins' car over at 11:35 p.m. Tuesday night, he said, "Don't do this to me," but was cooperative, according to the report by Sgt. Jeff Bronson and two other officers.
My friend and fellow blogger at Pitt Sports Blather has wondered why she actually likes "Thuggins." Short answer is because he wins. I mean there are plenty of older Pitt alum that speak fondly of Jackie Sherrill. Why were so many Indiana University fans so upset when Bob Knight finally got canned for being a complete and utter a-hole. He won for them. Winning covers most warts.
Friday Feature
 Guess I shouldn't be that bitter about the rain. What? We went almost a week in Cleveland without rain. 
 A wet, rainy day. No playing outside today. Earlier in the week, Angie spent a lot of time in her sandbox. I spent most of the time explaining to her that the sand stays in the box.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Just How Deep?
As I said, the $6,000 O'Brien paid to a recruit was enough to warrant his firing -- no matter how clean O'Brien's past was (any shock Dick Vitale thinks otherwise). Paying money to a recruit is a clear, major violation. It is a bright line that was crossed. Now, though, it looks like it was just the tip, and it may take down another school and coach.
The lawsuit also names former assistant Paul Biancardi as a major player in the Savovic violations of extra benefits. Biancardi led Wright State to a 14-14 record (10-6 in the Horizon League) in his first season at the school in 2003-04 and denies Salyers' charges of any wrongdoing.
Proving Salyers' case will be the hardest part for the NCAA, according to a source. But if Biancardi did commit violations, even while he was at Ohio State, then he could be subject to NCAA penalties. And the NCAA would likely expect Wright State to take action against its head coach for past violations.
As I recall, Wright State had gotten its choice down to Biancardi and then Pitt assistant coach Jamie Dixon. Think Wright State would like to reconsider. Though, to be fair, I think Dixon actually withdrew from consideration for the job.
This lawsuit that started getting all of this out there has everything that a good college sports scandal needs. Money, someone else doing the homework and sex.
A lawsuit that led to the firing of Ohio State basketball coach Jim O'Brien alleges that O'Brien and an assistant knew that player Boban Savovic received regular payments and classroom help, in defiance of NCAA rules.
Kathleen Salyers, who said she housed and fed the player for two years, testified in a deposition in April that she spent thousands of dollars on phone bills, car insurance and spending money for Savovic, who was on the 1998-99 team that O'Brien led to the Final Four. She said she often put the money in Savovic's medicine cabinet.
She said Ohio State assistant coach Paul Biancardi regularly contacted her about Savovic and often told her he was calling at O'Brien's instruction.
"He (Biancardi) called and told me when taxes were due, when Boban was flunking a class, to go and talk to the professor and have his grade changed," Salyers said. "There were many, many calls from Paul Biancardi requesting that I pay something for Boban."
...
In the deposition, Salyers said she did not receive $1,000 per month plus expenses she had been promised by Dan and Kim Roslovic, Savovic's sponsors. Salyers sued the Ohio State boosters, seeking $510,000 in expenses and damages.
She also acknowledged that her attorney asked O'Brien for money to keep her story from becoming public.
...
Salyers, who was the Roslovics' baby sitter, said she agreed to take in Savovic after receiving a call from Dan Roslovic, who said he was calling from Biancardi's basketball office.
According to the lawsuit, the Roslovics said Savovic could no longer stay with them because of NCAA rules. Salyers said Biancardi told her she should lie and tell people that Savovic was living in her house because he was a friend of her son's and they played basketball together.
Salyers said she did most of Savovic's homework for three years because he had difficulty with the English language.
...
Her deposition also alleged:
that Savovic and a booster had a sexual relationship.
that Savovic amassed a bill of more than $10,000 on a long-distance telephone card that belonged to the father of New York player agent Mark Cornstein. NCAA rules bar any contact between agents and eligible players.
that Cornstein had access to Ohio State players and she had seen him in the Buckeyes' locker room after games.
The booster was Kim Roslovic, and she admitted to the affair. She and her husband have since divorced
The last bit about the agent influence could be the big thing that gets OSU on the wrong side of the NCAA.
Four former OSU players are current clients of Pinnacle Management Corp., whose founder and president, Marc Cornstein, was instrumental in helping O'Brien's staff land Yugoslavian recruits.
...
Simmy is a nickname for Spomenko Pajovic, a New York-based Yugoslavian agent who helped Savovic come to the United States to play high school basketball in New Jersey for one season prior to attending OSU.
Pajovic and Cornstein worked with Biancardi, now the head coach at Wright State, to bring Savovic, Radojevic and Cobe Ocokoljic to the Buckeyes, according to former Ohio State assistant coach Dave Spiller.
"He gave us access to knowing who some of the better European kids were," Spiller said of Cornstein. "We were trying to establish some resources that would identify for us who the better kids were so we could get an edge in recruiting. [Cornstein] certainly attended some of our games, but he didn't have any special privileges."
Salyers' deposition disputes that, saying she saw Cornstein and Pajovic enter the OSU locker room with other program insiders immediately after games.
"They wanted to get ahold of Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd, and I believe there was another one," Salyers said in her deposition, later identifying the third player as Ken Johnson.
Pinnacle Management's Web site lists Penn, Savovic, Ocokoljic and Velimir Radinovic, this past season's OSU team captain, as current clients.
Cornstein did not return multiple telephone messages Wednesday, nor did O'Brien's attorney, James Zeszutek.
Thirty of the 32 basketball players Cornstein lists as clients on his Web site are of Slavic descent, with Penn one of the exceptions.
Pinnacle's site is here. Surprise, no mention of what is happening at OSU on their site. Hey, they represent Darko Milicic (the guy taken after LeBron, but before Carmello).
There are some questions as to the truthfulness of all that the the lady who is making all of these claims, but there is more than enough smoke that suggests that this will be getting worse. Really worse.
This will make it more difficult for OSU to land any "name" coach for the job. The possibility of sanctions hanging over the program and being the one to restore OSU Basketball's reputation and win is a lot to ask without a boatload of money and one hell of a lengthy contract. Even with that, some coaches aren't going to be interested.
Hey, Nolan Richardson's out there.
Now It Gets Interesting
I saw this story yesterday, but didn't think much of it. Some Meth lab in the city of Ashtabula (a small city in very rural Ashtabula County) some 60 miles northeast of Cleveland, got busted after operating there for some 10 years (according to the neighbors).
Today, the story got more interesting. Apparently the bust came after the lab blew up, and a fire in the house -- not that anyone in the house called the police or fire department. This got enough attention that a search warrant was issued and they found 4 people in the house. The main culprit (ring leader) was found on the floor with severe burns on his hands and feet. He was arraigned today and this is the juicy part.
Kevin M. Camplese was lying on a gurney with an IV in his arm, flanked by two paramedics, as he was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Ashtabula Municipal Court on several felony drug charges.
...
Magistrate Jon T. Field presided over Camplese's arraignment because the defendant is Judge Albert Camplese's first cousin.
He also is brother of Ashtabula Police Department dispatcher Dodie Mattson, and brother-in-law of Police Chief Ray Mattson.
Hmmm. Might help to explain why the lab was able to operate in one place for almost 10 years. There might be some shake-ups in Ashtabula after this. Or at least you'd like to think so.
Eastlake Update
The city is still broke.
As the news started breaking almost a month ago, about how bad Eastlake's finances were; it also came out that the former mayor and 2 other public officials, who bailed out before the news broke, were set to collect huge lump sums from the city for unused sick and vacation days.
The cynic in me assumed that the "outrage" over the payments would be the extent of any action taken, and nothing more would occur. So I have to give Eastlake City Council credit for this.
Council has created a new category of employees titled "public officials," which will include the mayor and council.
...
* Sick and vacation time - Full-time city employees can accumulate unused sick and vacation time from year to year. The mayor can no longer do this.
Council has granted the mayor six weeks of vacation time a year and no set number of sick days. If sick days are taken, the mayor will be paid for them. If vacation time is not taken within the year, the mayor will lose it. Council members have never been eligible for sick or vacation time.
* Longevity - Full-time city employees who have worked for the city at least five years receive yearly longevity payments, which cap off at $2,500 for those who have been there 25 years. The mayor and council previously have been eligible for this, but no longer will be.
* Compensatory time - Mayors have traditionally been permitted to take compensatory time in which they can take time off for extra hours put in. The mayor will no longer be able to do this. Council members have never been eligible for comp time.
It's not all that huge since most other city employees (including the positions held by the other two former city workers who collected over $100K combined) still have the perks. Still, it's a little more than I expected them to do.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Creepy
Sounds like this guy believed the letters in "Penth0u$e Forum" were real.
An 13-year-veteran of the Fairlawn Police Department was terminated Tuesday after an investigation of traffic stops involving women were discovered to be of a sexual nature.
...
The woman said she was allegedly stopped for speeding, but submitted to a field sobriety test for drunken driving. She said she was handcuffed and put in the rear seat of a cruiser and asked three times what would she be willing to do to get out of the ticket, Roth said.
There was at least one other incident documented where the police officer tried get sexual favors for ticket avoidance. The article has a grainy video still picture of the cop, at least explaining why he may have needed to go this route to get some. Fairlawn, Ohio is a fairly wealthy little suburban area in Summit County west of Akron (and about a 40 minute drive to downtown Cleveland), with a population under 8000.
The officer, of course, is denying all charges and appealing his termination.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
No Excuses
The late afternoon news in the State of Ohio is the firing of Jim O'Brien as head basketball coach at de Ohio State University. While recruiting a player from Serbia and Montenegro in 1998, O'Brien gave him $6000 to assist the player's family that was in financial crisis.
In a statement released through his attorney, O'Brien did not dispute that he helped potential recruit Aleksandar Radojevic.
"I am advised that my firing is because I was asked to and tried to give assistance to a young man's family who was in dire financial straits," said O'Brien, who was 133-88 in seven seasons as Ohio State's coach. "The assistance in no way influenced the young man in his decision to attend OSU and, indeed, the young man did not enroll at OSU."
And the reason the "young man" did not enroll at OSU was because the NCAA had ruled Radojevic was ineligible for college ball because he had previously taken $13,000 from a professional European team. Not because he had chosen to attend another school. Let's not pretend that O'Brien wasn't counting on the generosity acting as an incentive to get him to Columbus.
This is surprising on a few levels.
I think O'Brien is a good college coach. He has done a good job at a school where football rules, college basketball in Ohio is dominated by Cinci, and there are even good mid-major programs in Ohio able to compete for recruits (Kent State, Toledo, Bowling Green, Miami of Ohio).
I can't believe he gave the money directly to the player. How dumb is that? Even dim head coaches have an intermediary or assistant coach do it, so they can take the fall. Plausible deniability is essential.
When the news started breaking, I thought the school was overcompensating for the actions of the football team over the last year. Now I have to agree that OSU did the right thing in firing O'Brien. Whatever the reasons -- even if it was for pure motives -- O'Brien knowingly broke a very clear rule. There was no grey to this. No money is ever given to a player for any reason by a coach. No matter the excuse, it is a clear and major NCAA rule violation.
I would analogize it to an attorney who touches client funds for personal reasons. The minute an attorney does it -- no matter the reason/circumstance/situation -- he or she is to be disbarred for life. No exceptions. Something that law school ethics classes drilled relentlessly. Every lawyer knows it, and can't claim ignorance. Giving money to a recruit, potential recruit or player is the same.
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