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Blog and Media Roundup - Monday, April 4, 2011; News Roundup
Topic Started: Apr 4 2011, 03:32 AM (1,129 Views)
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http://triangle.johnlocke.org/blog/?p=11001

Right Angles
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Durham’s Spin Machine Revs Up Over Judge’s Lacrosse Ruling
Posted April 4th, 2011 at 6:07 AM by Donna Martinez

The ramifications of the outrageous Duke lacrosse case continue to mount. The latest is a ruling from a federal judge that allows 38 unindicted players, and the three falsely accused players, to proceed with many claims against Duke University and the City of Durham. Some claims were thrown out by the judge. I encourage you to read the entire story in the Duke Chronicle.

Two of the three suits were brought against Duke and the City of Durham as well as individuals for their roles in the 2006 lacrosse case, in which exotic dancer Crystal Mangum falsely accused three Duke men’s lacrosse players of rape. Mangum is not named as a defendant in the cases. The individuals bringing these suits were never charged with any crimes.

“We are heartened by the judge’s carefully considered decision permitting the lacrosse players’ primary claims to move forward,” attorney Charles Cooper, who represents 38 of the unindicted players, said in a statement. “We will immediately begin taking extensive discovery and preparing the case for trial.”

Robert Ekstrand, an attorney for three other unindicted players, did not respond to requests for comment.

The third suit, brought by the three players who were wrongly charged with rape and other crimes, is directed at the City of Durham and related individuals. The players—David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann—were ultimately declared innocent and Mike Nifong, the district attorney who bungled the case, was disbarred and jailed for a day. The three have already settled with the University, so Duke is not a defendant in their suit.



And now, check out the Durham spin machine: (emphasis is mine)

Beverly Thompson, Durham’s public affairs director, said in a statement that the city is hopeful the cases will ultimately be decided in its favor.

“The city is gratified that the court has dismissed many of the plaintiffs’ claims and has narrowed the issues raised in these cases,” she wrote. “We believe the court correctly dismissed the punitive damages claims against the city and are pleased and encouraged by that favorable determination.”

The City is “hopeful” and “gratified” about the ruling? Yeah, right. The City should be really, really concerned and embarrassed.
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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
“An administrator who is a lawyer, who discusses pending criminal charges with her students, who affirmatively cuts them off from other advice by telling them not to seek legal advice and not to tell their parents, and who then directs them to the institution’s attorney in an effort to protect the institution at the students’ expense, could plausibly be liable for constructive fraud under state law,” the judge wrote regarding Wasiolek’s alleged actions.



Can her law license be revoked if she is found guilty of 'constructive fraud'?
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kbp

abb
Apr 4 2011, 03:56 AM
4:50 AM
April 4, 2011
Fact Checker

snip

The "so dumb case" -- as it became known -- dragged on and on. But on the eve of discovery -- that is, just hours before Burness was being forced to face questions in a sworn pre-trial deposition and to deliver documents that had been demanded -- Duke put serious money -- and more in the form of certain concessions -- on the table and Pressler settled.

snip

As another of the great litigators representing plaintiffs, Richard Emery, said, the plaintiffs scored "a ringing victory." (Full disclosure: Emery has represented Fact Checker and is a friend.)

To mention that one was represented by Emery opens the door for people to narrow down WHO they think "Fact Checker" may be. Not the smartest move if one wishes to keep their identity concealed. Maybe some know of that identity and I'm just not up on it.

Addressing the Pressler settlement, I had forgotten about that!

This hoax has to have created over $40 million in costs to date ...and the lawsuits are just getting started!

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http://thehayride.com/2011/04/having-trouble-posting-this-morning/

Having Trouble Posting This Morning…
Posted by: MacAoidh on Monday, April 4, 2011, 10:57
Tagged with: Sports

…as I’m still in shock over the idea that LSU may have agreed, as reports out of Los Angeles suggest, to pay its new women’s basketball coach $900,000 a year.

$900,000 for a women’s basketball coach is nosebleed-inducing.

LSU has built a tradition of being very, very good in women’s basketball, and the slide in the program’s fortunes over the past couple of years as Van Chancellor largely retired on active duty was disconcerting. I think it’s important for LSU to be good in women’s basketball, and clearly Chancellor was neither accomplishing that objective nor earning the generous $600,000 in salary the school was paying him.

And when you go from five straight years in the Final Four to not even making the NCAA Tournament, the expectation is that you’re going to try to make a big-name hire to put the program back in the spotlight. I get that.

And I’m happy with the choice of Nikki Caldwell as LSU’s coach. Caldwell has an outstanding background. She was a terrific player at Tennessee, leveraged her charisma and telegenic presentation into a couple of TV gigs, then got into coaching and quickly became a big-time asset as an assistant coach at Virginia and Tennessee before getting the job at UCLA. And in three years she quickly brought that program up – from 19-12 her first year to 25-9 her second to 28-5 this year.

What’s more, I think the fans will like her. A little taste from a YouTube search…

But 900K?

900K for a sport that lost well over a million dollars last year when the old coach was making 600K? 900K for a sport that had trouble half-filling the arena when it was going to the Final Four five years in a row?

Yikes.

The argument is being made that since the LSU athletic department kicks $8.6 million or so a year to the academic side of the university, from an athletic standpoint the cash you don’t spend on coaches gets “wasted.”

I’ll try to put aside the fact that LSU, despite what some think, is actually a university with an athletic department and not the other way around. I’ll try not to blow a gasket at the idea that using non-taxpayer funds to support Louisiana’s flagship university is somehow not a good thing. That’s another subject altogether, and it includes all the typical discussions of how much funding LSU gets or should get from the state and whether we’re doing a good job prioritizing where our higher ed money is spent and so on. I don’t have that discussion in me this morning, because like I said above I’m in shock.

What I will say is that Joe Alleva, the athletic director, is entrusted with the athletic budget. And making that $8.6 million profit is pretty important, because the LSU community at large has determined the school needs it.

What this looks like is that the $8.6 million is now $8.3 million. There’s a real question whether, regardless of how well Caldwell does at LSU, whether attendance and revenue are elastic enough to cover the cost.

There’s also a question whether Alleva – if in fact the rumors are true and LSU is in fact paying Caldwell $900,000 a year – didn’t just blow several hundred thousand dollars he didn’t have to blow on this hire.

Caldwell was working on a five-year, $1.5 million contract at UCLA. That’s $300,000 per year. LSU just tripled her salary if the reports are true. Sure, she was going to get a raise after going 28-5 this season. Was UCLA going to triple her salary? I’d be drop-dead shocked at that idea. Rick Neuheisel, the football coach there, only makes a reported $1.25 million.

I’ve never been one in favor of scrimping on paying coaches. Winning big in a sport where you’re on TV all the time is great PR that a college can’t buy. I’ve complained in the past that Les Miles hasn’t given LSU value for his gargantuan salary as the football coach, though I think he remedied that last year by going 11-2, but my criticism was based on the product on the field and how the salary and results compared to other coaches. But if you can deliver championships, then you’ll have my support for whatever salary they can come up with for you.

But Caldwell hasn’t won a championship at LSU yet. And Alleva just tripled her salary to coach a program that loses over a million dollars a year. That means if she brings the program back to prominence she’s going to expect a raise, and she’ll be making four or five times what she was making at UCLA. She might even be making more than the $1.2 million a year Trent Johnson makes to coach the men’s team – though if Johnson doesn’t deliver a lot better product than he’s delivered the last two years my complaint will be that he’s drawing a salary at all, not that the women’s coach outearns him.

The whole thing is pretty shocking. Nosebleed-inducing, in fact. Scuse me while I go for the Kleenex.
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Payback
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A year or two ago LSU was in danger of losing its honorable university press. Makes you think about values.
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Bill Anderson
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Hey, Caldwell is nice-looking and she played for Tennessee. She deserves every penny!

:bill:
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Baldo
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Bill Anderson
Apr 4 2011, 10:11 PM
Hey, Caldwell is nice-looking and she played for Tennessee. She deserves every penny!

:bill:
She did a great job at UCLA. $900,000 a year is a lot of money, but LSU just got the hottest young women's basketball coach. (Excuse the double entendre)



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abb
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We taxpayers here in Louisiana are in the middle of a big firefight over a $1.5 billion state budget shortfall. For a year and more, the higher education lobby has been caterwauling about how they mustn't loose a dime of money for anything, because "It's for our kids!"

I'm all for winning college teams, but Louisiana taxpayers subsidize college athletics to the tune of about $40 million/year.

It is a matter of priorities.
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