“It wasn’t my money. I didn’t earn it. I’m the one that has to lay down every day and deal with myself. If I’d done anything different than what I did, I don’t know if I could handle that.”

Posted on November 20, 2010 by mmjdiary

Dave Tally, a homeless man in Tempe, AZ, who returned a backpack that had in it both a laptop and $3,300 in cash.  Mr. Tally found the backpack left behind at a light-rail station Continue reading →

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“Cam Newton of Auburn may have taken money from recruiters. But how much money has he made for Auburn?”

Posted on November 14, 2010 by mmjdiary

Ken Nelson, writing for the New York Times, November 14, 2010, p. Wk. 2, may have missed the issue.  Net gain is but one part of ethical analysis.  Also, the term “amateur” used to be different from “pro.”

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HP’s Board Is Vindicated

Posted on November 11, 2010 by mmjdiary

In August, Joe Nocera of the New York Times tossed out quite a few negative assessments of the HP board’s firing/resignation of former CEO, Mark Hurd, to wit:

When pressed, H.P. said that Mr. Hurd had fudged some expense reports. (It also said that his relationship with the woman, a small-time H.P. contractor, was a conflict, even if no sex was involved.)

H.P. says its board should be applauded for not letting Mr. Hurd off the hook. But this is just after-the-fact spin. In fact, the directors should be called out for acting like the cowards they are. Mr. Hurd’s supposed peccadilloes were a smoke screen for the real reason they got rid of an executive they didn’t trust and employees didn’t like.

 So instead, it ginned up a tabloid-ready scandal that only serves to bring shame, once again, on the H.P. board.

 

However, a Wall Street Journal investigation brought out information that would have backed any board into the “he has to go” corner.  A November 6, 2010 article in the Journal (“Accuser Said Hurd Leaked an H-P Deal,” (Robert A. Guth, Ben Worthen, and Justin Sheck) reveals the following:

  • Jodie Fisher, the vendor who came calling at H-P headquarters with attorney Gloria Allred, alleged that Mr. Hurd disclosed that H-P planned to buy EDS;
  • Mr. Hurd told investigators for the company that he did not know Ms. Fisher acted in adult movies, but said investigators found that Mr. Hurd had visited Web sites that featured Ms. Fisher’s pornographic scenes: “erotic4u.com” was one the gumshoes found on his computer.;
  • Mr. Hurd’s expense claims listed his dinner guest as his security guard, Denis Lynch, Continue reading →
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What would the world look like if we had no traffic signals?

Posted on November 11, 2010 by mmjdiary

Look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9mzfN5i7ds

However, we would all have to wait our turn and be considerate of others, something the Brits seem to have within them.  Ever try to merge onto a freeway here in the U.S.?

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Yet another guilty plea in the New York pension fund case

Posted on November 11, 2010 by mmjdiary

Hank Morris, who served as a political adviser to Alan G. Hevesi, the former New York state comptroller, entered a guilty plea to a single felony charge for his role in the scheme to funnel pension fund management to firms that used Mr. Morris and others as paid intermediaries.  Mr. Morris then rewarded folks in the comptroller’s office for directing the pension funds to his clients.  Mr. Hevesi has also entered a guilty plea and is cooperating in the Andrew Cuomo investigation.  Mr. Cuomo will be moving along to the governor’s office soon, but he is still working to finish up the case.  Some loose ends include the fate of Steven L. Rattner, the former car czar of the Obama administration, who rejected a settlement offer from Mr. Cuomo.  Mr. Rattner’s firm, Quadrangle Group, has admitted that it paid Mr. Morris $1.1 million as it tried for a piece of the pension fund. Quadrangle has settled up with both Mr. Cuomo and the SEC.

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University of Central Florida Prof Does the Right Thing: Enforces the Rules

Posted on November 11, 2010 by mmjdiary

Professor Richard Quinn was suspicious when the results on his mid-term exam were a full one to one-and-one-half grade levels higher than usual.  The good professor ran some stats and realized that something had gone awry.  An anonymous tip was the clincher:  Two-thirds of his 600 students had a copy of his exam in advance. 

Professor Quinn is requiring all students to retake the exam. He will know from those results which students were the outliers from the first exam.  He also imposed a midnight deadline for the cheating students to come forward, ‘fess up, and take an ethics class or face expulsion.  As of the day of the deadline, about 75% had tromped forward with an admission.

Professor Quinn was shocked, dismayed, disillusioned, and hurt, and understandably so.  The Barometer, however, knows the data – that one-third cheated is relatively small.  Still,  an ABC interview with a Central Florida student will leave your mouth agape for its sheer amorality.  Continue reading →

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“This is college. Everyone cheats. Everyone cheats in life in general. I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone in this testing lab who hasn’t cheated on an exam. They’re making a witch-hunt out of absolutely nothing, as if it were going to teach us some kind of moral lesson.”

Posted on November 11, 2010 by mmjdiary

University of Central Florida student Konstantin Ravvin on Professor Richard Quinn holding 200 of his 600 students accountable for cheating on their mid-term exam.

Posted in Classic Quotes | 1 Comment

“They do give us bags of money — yes, yes, it is done.” Afghan president Hamid Karzai confirming that Iran sends regular cash payments to his chief of staff. Transparency International ranked Afghanistan as the second most corrupt country in the world for 2009. The number one slot is within reach for 2010.

Posted on November 5, 2010 by mmjdiary
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Jamie Gorelick Surfaces

Posted on November 5, 2010 by mmjdiary

Jamie Gorelick, she of former Fannie Mae and its former board, has a new line of work.  She is representing Steven Rattner, he of former car czaring, who oversaw the auto industry bailout.  Rattner needs Gorelick because of the SEC and Cuomo investigation of his role in the New York pay-to-play public pension fund. The allegations are that Mr. Rattner offered to help the brother of a pension-fund official’s brother get a low-budget movie into distribution.  The alleged quid for the quo was that Mr. Rattner and his investment firm would get a chunk of that $125-billion New York public-pension plan.  It’s a sophisticated life, that of these highfalutin financiers.  They perform complex and technical tasks such as distributing the “D” films of ne’er-do-well brothers of public officials.  The issue that has Mr. Cuomo agitated is his additional allegation that Mr. Rattner failed to turn over e-mails that were requested by Cuomo’s office in 2008.  The e-mails surfaced in 2009. Ms. Gorelick assures us there is no problem and that any allegations of untoward conduct on the part of her client are “utterly baseless.”  Then again, Ms. Gorelick did not see that she had a conflict of interest in securing a favorable-rate mortgage from Countrywide Mortgage, a company that needed to unload its subprime mortgages.  Funny how there are these folks who tiptoe back and forth between private sector wealth and government positions.  Ironic that they become intertwined.  A shame that we can’t seem to get a straight answer on their dealings, relationships, and quids and quos.

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The Attack of the Foreign Goose on JCPenney Soil

Posted on November 5, 2010 by mmjdiary

On March 31, 2006, Betty Walker, her daughter, and her granddaughter were walking to the Penney store via the sidewalk around the Penney building at the Greenwood Park Mall when a Canada goose attacked Mrs. Walker. The goose landed on her head, forcing her into a brick wall and then onto the sidewalk, a sidewalk owned by JCPenney.  The attack continued until passersby assisted Mrs. Walker. Mrs. Walker filed suit against JCPenney, the mall, and IPC, the mall’s security company for their failure to protect her from rogue foreign geese.  The mall and IPC moved for summary judgment, and the court granted summary judgment to the two parties.  JCPenney appealed.

The court held that the agreement between JCPenney and the mall provided that the mall had no duty for maintenance or security on property areas owned by tenants.  The sidewalk on which Mrs. Walker was attacked was not mall property but that of JCPenney.  Therefore, the mall and IPC were not responsible for customers in that area.  The summary judgment was upheld and JCPenney was left to go forward with the suit with the main question being whether the owner of commercial property has a duty to protect its patrons from injury resulting from the activities of a third party (goose).  The issues of duty and forseeability were left for trial.  Relevant questions for the case:

  1.  Had other customers been attacked?
  2. Was JCPenney aware of the goose risk?
  3. Should JCPenney have been aware of the goose risk?
  4. Should JCPenney have provided customer security in the area where the goose attacked?
  5. What are the public policy implications of holding a landowner liable for the activities of the natural fauna on the property?

These are the types of cases that provide us with great law class discussions as well as issues of probability:  What are the chances that a goose would attack a customer?  What are the chances that a goose would attack a customer in an area where the mall and its security company would not have jurisdiction?  Astronomical odds do make for great legal cases.

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SAP vs Oracle: A Soap Opera

Posted on November 4, 2010 by mmjdiary

Cast of Characters:

Oracle Corp.                           Software company

SAP AG                                     Oracle competitor                 

Larry Ellison                          CEO of Oracle

Leo Apotheker                      former CEO of SAP and current CEO of Hewlett-Packard

Mark Hurd                              former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and now co-president of Oracle, hired by Ellison

TomorrowNow                     former unit of SAP AG (now closed) that tapped into Oracle’s

                                                    website and took software and documents

SAP does not deny that TomorrowNow took the docs and software, but SAP and Oracle are now in a copyright infringement trial limited to the issue of damages.  Oracle wants  $2 billion in damages and SAP says that damage is more like $40 million. SAP has already agreed to pay Oracle $120 million to pay Oracle’s legal fees in exchange for Oracle’s agreement to drop its punitive damage claims for the infringement. 

An e-mail from Mr. Apotheker from March 2005 reads, “We need to inflict some pain on Oracle.” Uh-oh, that’s the stuff of damages. 

 FOR MORE INFORMATION

 Cari Tuna and Jeanette Borzo, “Oracle Hits SAP as Trial Opens,” Wall Street Journal, November 3, 2010, p. B3.

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Rebates for Rollbars

Posted on November 4, 2010 by mmjdiary

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been able to reduce the number of tractor fatalities (the leading cause of death in the agricultural industry) from 127 in 1994 to 62 in 2007 through education programs as well as its “Rebates for Rollbars” program.  Farmers who have rollbar modifications placed on their tractors can recover 70% of the cost of that equipment.  There is also a tollfree hotline to explain the “Rebates for Rollbars.”  Insurance companies are funding the rebates for these aftermarket rollbars. 

Rollbars were required on tractors beginning in 1985, but about one-half of the tractors still in use were manufactured prior to 1985.  The interesting legal question is whether the companies have warned the owners of these tractors and whether they have offered a similar fix.  Perhaps it is a matter of getting the word out?  Perhaps it is a matter of no records to show owners?  Perhaps, but it remains very much a product liability issue.  And is the aftermarket rollbar a modification that changes the design of the tractor and results in a break in the product liability chain?  All interesting questions, but the bottom line for tractor manufacturers is, “Get the tractors in and fix them.”

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The Doc, the Hedge Fund, and Insider Trading

Posted on November 4, 2010 by mmjdiary

Dr. Yves Benhamou was a paid adviser to Human Genome Science (HGSI), the developer of the hepatitis C drug, Albuferon.  However, the good doc from France was also a paid adviser to six hedge funds.  There’s a French recipe for mischief. According to the Feds’ charges, along about November 2007, Dr. B passed some valuable, albeit nonpublic,  information about poor clinical trial (one death had resulted) results for Albuferon, along to FrontPoint Partners (one of the aforesaid six hedge funds).  FrontPoint then unloaded its HGSI shares before negative information about the Albuferon results was disclosed publicly.  An “unnamed co-conspirator”  at FrontPoint then unloaded a large chunk of HGSI shares during the period from November 2007 through January 2008, saving an estimated $30 million in losses.  On January 23, 2008, HGSI announced the poor clinical results and its plans for the trials going forward.  HGSI shares then fell 44% to $5.62, and FrontPoint went back into the market to buy. Continue reading →

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Surveillance on the FBI Surveillance Exams

Posted on September 28, 2010 by mmjdiary

The Barometer always experiences a little bit of push-back when folks view the latest stats on cheating by our high school and college students.  There is a dismissiveness, to wit, “They are not cheating more; they are just more honest about it!”  or “Don’t you think it’s the internet?  We just find out about these things more?” “It was more of a disgrace back then so we didn’t talk about it!”  “Every generation thinks the next generation is worse!”  No, none of the above.  You know you have crossed into new data territory when the Inspector General for the Justice Department concludes that FBI agents and some supervisors were cheating on their surveillance tests.  It seems some supervisors Continue reading →

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