Campaign Finance Reform

At PrawfsBlawg, an interesting discussion of campaign finance reform. The legal cases are obviously far above me, but it's interesting to see mention of the many cases upon which Citizens United drew legal precedents.

Primary season

It's primary season in Indiana.  And I just got a call from one candidate's campaign that a vote for a particular candidate would result in the Democrat winning the district.

This is the most solidly Republican district in the state.  The caller was blatantly lying.

I regret hanging up before learning which candidate was sponsoring the call.

More problems at UNC

A rather serious case of education fraud at UNC, tied to the previous football program scandal.

An internal investigation into UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of African and Afro-American Studies has found evidence of academic fraud involving more than 50 classes that range from no-show professors to unauthorized grade changes for students.

One of the no-show classes is the Swahili course taken by former football player Michael McAdoo that prompted NCAA findings of impermissible tutoring, and drew more controversy when the final paper he submitted was found to have been heavily plagiarized.

The investigation found many of the suspect classes were taught in the summer by former department chairman Julius Nyang’oro, who resigned from that post in September. The university now says Nyang’oro, 57, who was the department’s first-ever chairman, is retiring July 1.

Either major college athletic programs need closer internal and external review, or there needs to be a conscious decision to split athletics into two groups. A minor league program, with education focused on life skills, for those looking to practice for future play, and college scholarships, guaranteed for five years (i.e. not cancelled for injury, only for bad behavior), for those who are capable of both athletic and academic endeavors.