VS.
Posted on 05/19/2009 2:59:31 PM PDT by abb
The chancellor and provost at N.C. State have been ordered to appear before a federal grand jury meeting in Raleigh this week, according to federal records released Tuesday afternoon.
Chancellor James Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielsen were asked to bring documents related to the hiring, promotion and salary of former first lady Mary Easley.
The subpoenas follow reports in The News & Observer about the circumstances surrounding Easley's hiring at N.C. State in 2005 and the expansion of her duties last year, which raised her pay to $170,000.
Mary Easley has come under pressure to resign her position from Oblinger and UNC system president Erskine Bowles, but so far has not done so or spoken publicly. She has a five-year contract worth $850,000 for the job, which includes directing a speakers series and forming a public safety leadership center.
Controversy has erupted amid disclosures over the past 10 days in The N&O about the creation of the position for Easley in 2005. Reporting has shown that Easley was first hired in May 2005 by Nielsen, then the interim provost about the be replaced. Nielsen received a resume from Easley, created a position in the provost's office, waived a job search and hired her.
For months, officials have said Nielsen acted alone. But McQueen Campbell — former chairman of the N.C. State Board of Trustees and a longtime friend of Mary and former Gov. Mike Easley - — told Bowles last week that he played a role in the hiring. Easley, a Democrat, left office in January after two terms.
Campbell resigned his position Friday at Bowles' request.
Campbell, a real-estate broker, businessman and private pilot, flew the governor often while Mike Easley was a candidate and at other times. Campbell also got help from the Easley administration about the time the first lady's job was created.
The state permits for a real-estate deal Campbell was involved in came through in what Campbell said was nearly half the normal time; he credited political contacts he would not reveal. And the Division of Motor Vehicles set aside two investigations involving a vehicle inspection station Campbell owned.
Federal grand juries meet in secret, and their records are not public records in the federal system. But when they are served on state agencies or officials, they become public records. The subpoenas were released Tuesday at the request of The N&O.
Oblinger and Nielsen were directed to report to the U.S. Attorney's office in Raleigh at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
acurliss@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4840
Of interest to our group.
Could investigation of the job of $350,000 held by Michelle O when Barak was in the state senate be far behind?
If there was a US Attorney besides Fitzgerald, I would say yes.
Exactly what did Michelle do that was no longer required when she left the position?
It's obvious that another inquiry NEEDS to be done!
Somone investigate Michelle’s job in Chicago? Right!!!!
Perchance to dream of equal justice for all. But, alas, I think not.
“Could investigation of the job of $350,000 held by Michelle O when Barak was in the state senate be far behind?”
Don’t hold your breath. Even though she’s being paid only half of what Michelle snagged, the former NC first lady is being asked to resign her position.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1533205.html
This is the sort of action that can occur when there’s a watchdog press and Republican opposition with some cojones. Even though it has been dominated by Dems at the state level for many years and has had its own share of petty corruption, NC is WAY cleaner than Illinois ever will be. That said, there is already a movement afoot to replace the Bush-appointed federal prosecutor who initiated this investigation, a movement led by none other than NC’s newly elected Sen. Kay Hagan, who toppled Liddy Dole last fall. This might get interesting...
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/story/1532766.html
VS.
Correction acknowledged!
If Sleasely were a black democrat he’d already have been appointed to a Federal position and there would be no investigation.
After living the Duke Lacrosse Frame for three years, I will have to question that assessment. I don't think what we saw with the attempted lynching of three innocent men could have happened anywhere else in the U. S. The legal/political setup in North Carolina is as inbred as I've ever seen.
I'm from Louisiana and I KNOW what corruption looks like.
Au contraire mi amigo ( a little frog mex language there) Tarheels are at the University at Chapel Hill, the deep blue Zone off I 40/15/501.
NC State is in Raleigh and is mostly for engineering, agriculture and textiles. State is a Land Grant Colege.
State is home of the Wolfpack.
In 1964 as a graduating senior, I was involved in the fight to prevent the takeover by the scoundrels in Chapel Hill who wanted to rename it the University of North Carolina at Raleigh. I actually graduated from NC State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh. Our was the only such class. The name reverted to NC State University the following year.
Typically the legislature has more Carolina grads than State grads and thus the fight. State did however prevail
We are saddened that the silky pony is a State Alumnus.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/05/michelle_obamas_early_alienati.html
WASHINGTON — First lady Michelle Obama for the second time has talked about how alienated she was from the University of Chicago when she was growing up on the South Side.
Mrs. Obama commented about her relationship with the U. of C. in a commencement address she delivered Saturday at the University of California, Merced — echoing remarks she made to children in March at a school here.
The context: Many of the UC Merced graduates were the first in their families to earn college degrees, and Mrs. Obama said, “By using what you have learned here, you can shorten the path perhaps for kids who may not see a path at all.
“I was once one of those kids. Most of you were once one of those kids,” and then told the students how she grew up just a few miles from the University of Chicago.
“Yet that university never played a meaningful role in my academic development. The institution made no effort to reach out to me — a bright and promising student in their midst — and I had no reason to believe there was a place for me there.
“Therefore, when it came time for me to apply to college, I never ... considered the university in my own backyard as a viable option.”
She went on to earn degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law.
Ironically, the U. of C. would become a focal point of her life: She was a high-level administrator at the school and medical center; President Obama taught at the law school for many years; their daughters attended the Lab School; their close friends are on U of C boards and were major presidential campaign fund-raisers and many members of the Obama White House have ties to the institution anchoring Hyde Park.
See post 9 above.
Ping me when one of these corrupt Democrat scumbags goes to real jail.
Can anyone tell me the governor’s political party? It wasn’t in the article, for some reason. I can’t imagine why. It must be important.
http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/5177258/
While the FBI has directed the Highway Patrol to collect the travel records by Wednesday for the grand jury, the patrol said recently it didn’t have records for the Easley family’s travels for all of 2005, the first year of his second term.
The patrol is investigating what happened but Republican leaders at the General Assembly asked Tuesday for an independent investigator to look into the missing records because the patrol may be subject to conflict of interest.
The GOP leaders also noted that Crime Control and Public Safety Secretary Reuben Young, who oversees the patrol, used to be Gov. Mike Easley’s chief legal counsel.
“Have they been taken by someone? Have they been destroyed by someone or is it just a matter of sloppy record keeping,” said Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. “We don’t know the answers to those questions.”
Larry Mondelo (aka Robert Gibbs) is a grad of NC State. He was goalkeeper for the soccer team 90-92. His mother, Nancy is work at Duke (acquisitions director ). (wikipedia)
A bit of clarification—Robert Gibbs, A/K/A Gibberish, is useless.
NC Ping!
“After living the Duke Lacrosse Frame for three years, I will have to question that assessment.”
I take your point, but Mike Nifong was a rogue DA whose corrupt actions were taken to improve his chances of being elected by local constituents. He admittedly was appointed by Gov. Mike Easley, but to his credit, Easley never defended Nifong’s actions. On the contrary, he stated publicly that he would have fired Nifong if he had the authority to do so. Likewise, to its credit, the NC state bar did unanimously vote to take away Nifong’s law license.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Nifong
None of the foregoing is to argue that NC politics is as clean as the driven snow, but I stand by my statement that it’s way cleaner than Illinois: it’s all a relative thing.
‘cepting all of NC is “The Tarheel State”
“The institution made no effort to reach out to me — a bright and promising student in their midst — and I had no reason to believe there was a place for me there.”
What an absurd sense of entitlement. “Bright and promising” students are a dime a dozen. So top-tier universities have a special obligation to solicit such students in their backyards? On the contrary, such universities have far more than enough qualified applicants—ESPECIALLY local applicants—so their challenge always has been finding a geographic diversity of talented and motivated students to offset the “excess” applicants who live locally. They select among the students mature enough to apply for admission: by definition this will exclude those expecting to receive an engraved invitation to apply.
Understood, but he was referring to the school...see above, he thanked me for the correction.
I think that is part of the plan, promise "transparency," and then appoint a press secretary who is incapable of providing any meaningful information.
The Mary Easley affair is much more than merely an N.C. State affair, and more than a UNC System thing, but of concern to all NC taxpayers, or for that matter anyone with a shred of decency. As Bob Dole once asked: "Where's the outrage?"
Let me see if I have this about right.
The Provost of NCSU, Larry Nielsen, resigned. Then UNC System President Erskine Bowles sought and received the resignation of NCSU's Board Chairman, McQueen Campbell.
So, two folks got thrown under the bus before any action was taken against Mrs. Easley. Only after those two resignations, NCSU Chancellor James Oblinger called for Mrs. Easley's resignation, and was backed by Bowles. Oddly, Oblinger publically called for Mrs. Easley's resignation, but refused to comment on whether he had asked her for her resignation privately, citing personnel policy. And more than 48 hours after the public urging of her resignation, it was not yet forthcoming.
What's the holdup? Surely Mrs. Easley isn't holding out for a contract buyout, is she? Does she, or the ex-Gov, have any negotiating leverage under the circumstances?
And, oh, by the way, why no discussion of resignation for two others who were clearly complicit in the hiring of Mrs. Easley for a do-nothing $170,000 annual taxpayer-funded, um, "job"? I speak, of course, of Dr. Oblinger and Mr. Bowles.
I don't understand why people are failing to connect the dots here.
Some people are concerned about keeping politics and religion separate; I am much more concerned with keeping politics and my alma mater separate. Of course, I'm dreaming; all you have to do to land a prize job at UNC (the System or the Chapel Hill campus) is to be a Democratic politician, or be married to one. Heck, you don't even have to be a successful Democratic politician; just ask serial losers D.G. Martin, John Edwards, and, yes, Erskine Bowles, twice rejected by the People before being tapped by "the University of the People," as they like to call themselves.
Democrats help Democrats, especially when they have access to the taxpayers' money. Mrs. Easley's 5-year contract at $170K per is a breathtakingly naked example of corruption. And that corruption goes right to the top. Erskine Bowles should tender his resignation immediately.
“NCSU’s Board Chairman, McQueen Campbell.”
McQueen was a player in the Cannonsgate subdivision down in Carteret Co. This is where Gov. Sleasely bought a lot below market price from someone and then later appointed that person to the state wildlife commission.
The subdivision is mired in a class action lawsuit from developer shenanigans involving lot flipping. Sleaselsy’s lot is worth significantly less than what he paid for it 3 years ago.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1530742.html
I attended Duke for 9 years and was a faculty member at NCSU for 14 years so I know well the difference.
My point is that this is not an NCSU problem exclusively. I guarantee you that the folks at NCSU did not just spontaneously decide to hire Mary Easley. They were leaned on by somebody outside the university to make that hire. This is more a problem of “Tar Heel” state government than “Wolfpack” university governance.
This is not unusual. After John Edwards lost his VP bid in 2004, UNC just “spontaneously” decided to create a center for him to lead.
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb05/edwards020405.html
That deal was probably crooked as well and should have been similarly investigated.
The local leftist Democrat rag, aka the Raleigh News and Observer, will investigate Dem corruption only after a politician has lost his/her viability for some other reason. In the case of Easley, they waited until AFTER the election to start doing any decent investigating. That’s even though Easley was not running.
My post above said the same what you said before I read yours. I agree.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1535551.html
McRae resigns from DOT board
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1535316.html
Hagan: Holding should stay
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