White House officials have long maintained that they barely knew Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Washington, D.C., lobbyist convicted of influence-peddling. But a congressional report has detailed almost 500 lobbyist contacts by Abramoff and associates with the White House over a three-year period, including 10 visits with key presidential adviser Karl Rove.
Last week, a top Rove aide, Susan Ralston, resigned amid reports of her numerous contacts with Abramoff, who arranged pricey sports tickets, concerts and other favors for her.
Did Abramoff’s White House schmoozing produce favorable results for his clients? Apparently not, in most cases. Still, Abramoff undeniably had access and was hardly a stranger. Expect more questions about just how familiar he was with the Bush inner circle.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Kansas State Department of Education recently gave out federal grants of $1,995 each to at least 16 individuals to provide technical assistance to groups wanting to start charter schools. And though the department says that each grant recipient was qualified, the awards appear fishy.
As our editorial today notes, four of the grants went to charter school advocate Betty Horton and her husband in Topeka, and to her sister and brother-in-law, who have a Georgia mailing address. Most of the other grants went to associates of Horton, including several who live in Kansas City, Mo.
State Board of Education member Sue Gamble asked Education Commissioner Bob Corkins last month for copies of the applications but has yet to receive them. She planned to press him on the matter at today’s state board meeting in Arkansas City.
Gamble doesn’t have any confidence in the credibility of the grant recipients. She said it appears as if anyone could have walked off the street and said, “I like charter schools,” and gotten a check.
“This smells to high heaven,” she said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
One television commercial for Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, recounts how he disagreed with President Bush earlier this year on the Dubai port deal. It would seem that the purpose of the commercial is either to distance Tiahrt a bit from a struggling president or to counter criticism that he is a GOP soldier who does whatever the president orders.
If it’s the former, Bush must really be radioactive if a long-term congressman from a red state who is facing a little-known opponent feels the need to separate himself from Bush. If it’s the latter, is the Dubai deal — which was nearly universally condemned in this country — the biggest disagreement Tiahrt can come up with?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
One of the favorite debates on Opinion Line is whether the Bush administration has somehow pushed gas prices lower to boost the president’s popularity.
This analysis by the Washington Post doesn’t rule out the influence of politics on petroleum markets, but also shows that the issue is a bit more complex than a desperate George W. Bush issuing a secret edict for $2 gas:
“Generally, oil experts, executives and traders cite other explanations for the recent steep fall in prices, including the easing of anxieties about possible armed conflict with Iran, the flight of financial speculators, ample oil inventories and softening U.S. demand.”
The Post piece probably won’t quash any of the myriad conspiracy theories, but it’s an instructive look at how the markets really work.
Posted by Dave Knadler
If you are convinced the folks in IT enjoy reading your e-mail, they will soon have even more to keep them entertained. Your company may be getting new software to capture every screen you ever pulled up — and it’s perfectly legal. Thanks to executives who brought down companies like Enron and WorldCom, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was created requiring every publicly traded company to maintain electronic records of all information passing through a company system.
British computer company Chronicle Solutions has created software designed for businesses that will capture every e-mail (including your personal Yahoo account), all instant messages, Web pages viewed, and voice-over IP phone calls. It’s a sort of TiVo, or digital video recorder, for the business world.
Any information obtained through your company’s modem is downloaded and saved, able to be pulled up by request for years to come. Companies are required to store it on tape or another server for future access.
So beware of system breaches. If the backup tape is misplaced, you may find your presumed private conversation with your Friday night poker buddy a top-rated hit on the Internet.
Posted by Angie Holladay
The move away from a liberal arts college education is taking its toll on American students. This could mean a future generation with poor knowledge of the basics of government and citizenship.
A University of Connecticut study polling 14,000 college freshmen and seniors at 50 universities on American history and government and world economy showed failing results. The multiple choice test gauged knowledge alone, and the differences in knowledge acquired between students entering and leaving college.
Stanford University freshmen scored an average of 62.2 percent and seniors scored 63.1 percent, signaling no change in knowledge acquisition during college years. Conversely, at Rhodes College in Memphis, the difference went from 50.6 percent for freshmen to 62.2 percent for seniors — likely because students take an average of 4.2 courses in history and political science.
Posted by Angie Holladay
The recent effort by city officials to crack down on Old Cowtown Museum’s animal code violations is — let’s agree — bizarre. I mean, owning a swaybacked horse is a crime? And smoke alarms are required in chicken coops?
What next? Air conditioning? Cable?
It got stranger when Rooster Cogburn flew the coop and reportedly started hiding at an undisclosed location. The mystery is as yet unsolved.
Any leads out there?
In my column Friday, I took a satirical look at how Sgt. Joe Friday of “Dragnet” fame might enforce Wichita’s animal code and solve the case.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
