One Year and Still in the Dog House

One year has gone by (quickly), since the Dogs of Blog have trotted out and it certainly has been quite a year. When several of us wired bassets formed together, we had no idea what we were getting into, nor what an exciting and tumultuous year it would be.



Here are some of the highlights of the year that we have covered:

• The continuation of the Jon Andrew White Case


• The continuation of the Duke Lacrosse Hoax


• The arrest up of Frank Lombard


• The assault on free speech against Tim Lantham


• The spying on students in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania


• The arrest of Crystal Mangum


• The downfall of ACORN


• The appointment and subsequent depravity of Roland Burris


• The Witchhunts at Southern Illinois-Carbondale


• And the Major "Cloutgate" scandal that took down the most powerful criminals at the University of ILL

Those are just a few. Since then, we have commented on notable blogs such as Durham in Wonderland, the Volokh Conspiracy, IlliniPundit, and others. We have had more comments from readers than we expected, surprisingly the majority of them positive, including one (presumably) from as far as North Carolina.

For all our work accomplished, we have much more to do. This will be a busy week. Yet, we do wish to take out time to those who have supported us thus far.

Best wishes from your cyber canines.

Posted by Alpha Hound

Update on White Case

The Bloomington Pantagraph reported via FIOA requests that the Jon A. White fallout has cost Urbana $2.6 million dollars. The district is trying to recoup money from Dist 5, where they knowingly hired White from. The district's insurer has paid roughly $90k, and has authorized amounts of $1.6 in tort bonds. Still, do not be surprised if Urbana looks for tax increases to cover the cost.

Posted by Hound No. 4

We have updated on a RABIES Alert we posted earlier. The lawsuit of Blake J. Robbins v. Lower Merion School District over allegations that the Harriton High school was using cameras and laptops to spy on students at home continues. Originally, the school claimed that the camera and tracking systems on the laptops are used as a method to detect lost or stolen laptops. As the media scrutiny and time passes on, the school’s position has continued to grow more erratic and incredulous-almost as much as Heidi Hurd’s ever-changing testimony during the admission scandal.

At first the school had no comment, and a sizable time after claimed it [the tracking system and camera] was just for locating stolen laptops.

The plaintiffs have said that the school used video capture to punish the suing student for drug use (later to be revealed as Mike and Ike candy). The administrator has now been named as vice principal Lindy Matsko. The suit specifically names her and alleges she told Blake on Nov. 11 that the school thought he was “engaged in improper behavior in his home.” She allegedly cited as evidence a photograph “embedded” in his school-issued laptop.

Also, it appears that the school new of parental concern over two years ago.

The school’s response is a classic educationalist response: attack the student.

The school , rather than address the charges, has gone on an ad hominem spree, ranging from accusing the student for having a personal grudge against the administrator in question, to accusing the family filing suit for using the lawsuit as a means of extorting money from the district to pay off debts. [N.B.: The school did not level this accusation. It has merely repeated the suggestion put forth here. The source in itself is highly questionable-including burying at the article's bottom that Mr. Robbins' current lawsuit is not about debt, but an attempt to recoup withheld commissions.]

The family’s attorney has since denied this (who, in fact, himself has indeed taken the Robbins to court for delinquent debt. and has said that the payment of the laptop use was never a previous issue. Also, the family has moved to turn the suit to class action status.

Joining the family are free speech and civil rights groups, inclding th ACLU, the SPLC, and others.

The FBI is also currently involved in the investigation of the school for possible privacy violations.

We will continue to monitor this very alarming case.

Posted by Hound No. 4

Update

As of this point, the DI made no mention of Laura Frerichs' salary in this catalog that we could find. Nor did it print the reason for Ghosh's removal as Dean of the College of Business.

Posted by No. 9

[Update 3/29/2010 by user: Alpha Hound]

Per the Alpha Hound's request, this post rectifies the above posting. The DI's expose did indeed post Frerichs' salary. It was under UIUC Research Park, not under administration as we thought it should be, Her posted salary is $121,500. We apologize for the oversight and the incorrect implication.

Posted by No. 9

Porking over the Names

The DI included in its Tuesday publication (and updated on Wednesday for corrections) a copy of the salaries of almost every University Employee from Maintenance to the president. The DI's commitment to transparency and honesty is hardly anything to crow about, but in this case they did manage to come through. This revelation to the public has made some unhappy, as this poll suggests. Seems the faculty are none-too-pleased that their usual TASSer sycophants ousted them in this manner.

The analysis required for this information cannot be inserted in just one post here. As I type, No. 5, No. 6 No. 7 and No. 9 are pouring over the long list of names and searching for patterns for related stories. We look forward to posting more once that task has been completed.

Posted by Alpha Hound

Duke under Watch

Last week we noticed an interesting little tidbit coming from Wonderland: although buried (intentional?) in the bottom of the Chronicle story, Duke has been put on monitoring status by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

From the Story:

it [Duke] has not “demonstrated that its institutional effectiveness, with regard to student learning outcomes, have occurred broadly in undergraduate and graduate programs [emphasis added],” according to a letter written to Duke by SACS.

Though the accreditation process has been approved already, those of with noses keener than others can sniff between the lines.

While not directly, the Lacrosse Hoax is still having a subliminal effect on Duke. The revelation during the case that many of the involved faculty had little or no claim to academic prominence (of meaning, that is. Just because, for example, Michael Hardt consorts with criminals such as Antonio Negri, or Eduardo Bonna-Silva becomes well known for MEChA-nized hate speech, does not vault them into the annals of legitimate academics). This scrutiny on major institutions demonstrates a far more reaching concern on what qualifies as legitimate research, a mantra originally limited to observers of the case and education reform groups,

Interesting.

Posted by Hound No. 2

From Russia with Laptops

RABIES Alert! A school over in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania now faces lawsuits over allegations that the school was using cameras and laptops to spy on students at home. Though the school claims that the camera and tracking systems on the laptops are used as a method to detect lost or stolen laptops, the claim falls short for a couple of reasons.

1) If the school is loaning out laptops to students to use, it surly has some sort of sign-out procedure that keeps track of which computer is in the hands of which student, and would thus negate any need for the spy system. If the school however, is foolish enough not to use this method, it really has itself to blame, and should implement it immediately.

2)The school did not release this explanation well until after twenty-four hours after the story broke national news (we can assume that the suit was filed well even before this, though his is yet to be verified). If the school’s explanation were truly as benign as it claimed, surely it could have said so from the start. The time lapse points to a PR scramble, like the Thomas Paine Elementary cover-up , to come up with some plausible explanation now that they have been caught.

Of further interest to us is the name and type of class that would be using the laptops, and the teacher involved. What is their union status and affiliation? We shall be watching.

Posted by Hound No. 4