Posted on 06/03/2007 7:08:06 AM PDT by Tinian
To Marian Mazurkiewicz, the life he had in central Missouri was “like heaven.”
Three years from retirement as a researcher and professor at the University of Missouri-Rolla, Mazurkiewicz had a house on 30 acres, where he hunted turkey and deer.
“I had the house I wanted to live in for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to leave.”
But in the late 1990s, Mazurkiewicz was lured to Northeastern Pennsylvania by Cornerstone Technologies LLC, which wanted to develop his ideas for using water jets to reduce materials, including coal, into fine particles. Mazurkiewicz’s technology, combined with the region’s anthracite reserves, had the potential for scientific breakthroughs in producing strong, lightweight materials and new fuels.
“I thought it was a brilliant idea. I thought, ‘I can establish another heaven.’”
But by 2003, Cornerstone had imploded after a split between company founders Peter A. Kanjorski and Bruce Conrad and political controversy over federal contracts the company secured with the help of Kanjorski’s uncle, U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski. It closed its Plains Township facility, laying off its 20-member workforce.
Mazurkiewicz is still owed $600,000 under his employment contract with Cornerstone, which controls the patent for the reduction process he developed.
(Excerpt) Read more at citizensvoice.com ...
Schobert subsequently suggested "' ... ... I screwing myself out of millions of dollars that Mr. Kanjorski could earmark or whatever?’”
Is there any doubt that this government has become so venal beyond their wildest dreams, with their hands in all our pockets?
But some say the company’s leadership — a quartet of Kanjorski’s nephews for the most part — was ill-suited and ill-prepared for the rigors of scientific research.
“It was just like the Three Stooges meet anthracite,” said Penn State fuel sciences professor Harold Schobert, who worked on a federal contract with the firm. “These guys didn’t know how to order chemicals. They didn’t understand even the most fundamental aspects of how to conduct experiments.
“The Kanjorskis probably should have got someone pretty sharp on the technical side to run that and faded into the background … They didn’t find a technical guy they were willing to trust.
I dunno...For some reason I just doubt that the congresscritter’s kin took a loss on this. Plus, the company still has the prof’s patent. Plus, the prof aint got his “heaven” no more. Plus, the prof is now gonna hafta wait to get that pension he was only three years away from.
Oh, I agree with all you say.
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