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Congressional Republicans raised new concerns this week about the Obama administration's firing of Gerald Walpin, who served as inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service. GOP lawmakers said White House visitors logs contradict statements made by the former chairman of CNCS, the agency that oversees AmeriCorps.

White House officials who fired whistleblower Gerald Walpin last week have sparked a series of investigations that pose both political and policy threats to the Obama administration. Describing the probe into the dismissal of the AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin, one Capitol Hill source on Thursday compared Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s demand for facts in the case to a row of dominoes ready to tip over. Grassley is asking questions, a team of Senate investigators is poring over documents in the case, and where the investigation proceeds now “depends on what dominoes fall next,” explained the source, who spoke on...

PETITION Senate and House to Investigate the firing of Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Sign the Petition at:gopetition.com/online/28746.html Americorp Inspector General Gerald Walpin was fired by President Obama after Walpin, through an investigation by his office, alleged that Americorp funds had been wrongfully spent by a friend and supporter of the President. The firing of Inspector General Walpin appears to be a clear violation of the 2008 Inspectors General Reform Act which President Obama supported while he was a Senator. The Act requires the President to give 30 days notice and an explanation of cause prior to firing an Inspector General....

A top White House lawyer called the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin an act of "political courage," according to House Republican aides who were in a meeting with the lawyer Wednesday. Norman Eisen, who is the White House Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, met with staffers for Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday. Eisen, along with another White House staffer who accompanied him, "wanted to talk broadly about inspectors general," says a GOP aide familiar with what went on at the meeting....

Inspector Generals in this government are for one job, to work independently to ensure that the taxpayer is protected from government corruption and abuse. Not in Obama's government it seems. Three IG's have been fired in the last week and some pushback has started. First in this list is Gerald Walpin. He reported to Congress about the settlement of 400 grand paid by Obama cohort Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, St. HOPE academy (a pet of Johnson) and former executive director Dana Gonzalez. He reported that Johnson was not being required to repay all the money he misused AND he would...

The White House said Wednesday that President Obama had dismissed a government agency’s internal watchdog because he was incompetent and had behaved bizarrely, disputing accusations that he was fired because he had uncovered embarrassing problems in the AmeriCorps program

In an email and fax sent late Friday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, demanded that Alan D. Solomont, the chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, provide "any and all records, email, memoranda, documents, communications, or other information, whether in draft or final form" related to President Obama's firing of CNCS Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Walpin had investigated Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's community service organization, St. HOPE Academy, which confessed to misusing AmeriCORPS grants. In April of this year, St. HOPE Academy agreed to pay a $423,836.50 settlement -- $72,836.50 of which would be paid personally by Mayor Johnson....

The White House's decision to fire AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin came amid politically-charged tensions inside the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that runs AmeriCorps. Top executives at the Corporation, Walpin explained in an hour-long interview Saturday, were unhappy with his investigation into the misuse of AmeriCorps funds by Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California and a prominent supporter of President Obama. Walpin's investigation also sparked conflict with the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento amid fears that the probe -- which could have resulted in Johnson being barred from ever...

WASHINGTON – An inspector general fired by President Barack Obama says he acted "with the highest integrity" in investigating AmeriCorps and other government-funded national service programs. Gerald Walpin's job was to review grants awarded by AmeriCorps and its parent agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service. He told The Associated Press he has no doubt he acted properly in investigating Sacramento mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson. Obama told Congress on Thursday he had lost confidence in Walpin. As a result of Walpin's investigation, Johnson and the nonprofit St. HOPE Academy that he headed were ordered to repay...

The eighth-grade boy held out his wrists for teacher Carlos Polanco to see. He had just explained to Polanco and his history classmates at Virgil Middle School in Central Los Angeles why he had been absent: He had been in the hospital after a failed attempt at suicide. Polanco looked at the cuts and said they "were weak," according to witness accounts in documents filed with the state. "Carve deeper next time," he was said to have told the boy. "Look," Polanco allegedly said, "you can't even kill yourself." The boy's classmates joined in, with one advising how to cut...

I always thought coaches got fired for losing. On the same day he sent an email refusing to apologize for his team's success, a Texas high school girls' basketball coach was terminated. The coach, Micah Grimes, of Dallas' Covenant School, had come under fire for winning a game 100-0, making national news.

t’s been over 12 hours now since Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, has been named as GOP choice of Veep. Already, a desperate Obama camp of supporters are in search of talking points… other than the obviously poor choice of “inexperience”… or a scandal to take back what they perceive as the DNC ticket superiority. Knowing the Palin-Monegan-Wooten investigation of abuse of power was their prime target, I’ve been spending time this AM researching the chain of events in hopes of beating the media to the political and biased distortions creating a new, and false “truth. I took into consideration that...

DEARBORN, Mich. --A longtime high school wrestling coach has lost his job amid concerns a former assistant coach tried to convert Muslim students to Christianity. The Detroit News reports 35-year coach Jerry Marszalek's contract with Fordson High School in Dearborn, Mich., was not renewed. The decision was supported by 200 to 300 parents, who packed a Board of Education meeting Tuesday to support the principal's decision.

(IsraelNN.com) Ongoing military tension between Syria and Israel took the form of Syrian attacks against one or more Israeli planes over northern Syria last night. So reports Syria, confirming an event that was earlier recorded by international satellites. Syria says the Israeli aircraft were attacking Syrian targets, and that the planes retreated in face of the Syrian defenses. Syria warns that it reserves the right to retaliate at its discretion. Israel says it knows nothing of any such incident, but is looking into the matter. Fight Against Terrorism PA sources reported that three Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed...

University Expected to Fire Controversial Professor Today By Susan Jones CNSNews.com Senior Editor July 24, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - Ward Churchill's own lawyer expects the tenured University of Colorado professor to be fired on Tuesday. "Ward Churchill will be fired, and Wednesday, I'll be filing a lawsuit" over free-speech rights," the Denver Post quoted attorney David Lane as saying. The university's governing board plans to hold a closed session on the Boulder campus today, and a decision on Churchill is expected in the middle of the afternoon. According to the Denver Post, Churchill's supporters are planning to show their support at...

ROY, Utah - A man fired six shots at a backyard intruder who was trying to light a barbecue grill, police said. "Way odd," Police Chief Greg Whinham said. Michael Wilder, 66, was charged with attempted homicide after chasing Kory Scott and shooting at him. "Nobody should wake up and find someone in their backyard doing anything, but the law's very specific that you can't use deadly force in that situation," Whinham said. Scott was not injured in the July 11 incident. He twice tried to run away when Wilder confronted him, according to court documents. "Stop or I'll shoot,"...

<p>Time Warner had to get rid of HBO boss Chris Albrecht last night for beating up his girlfriend early Sunday morning - because the media giant had already shown extraordinary leniency to him 16 years ago, insiders say.</p> <p>Sources said Albrecht resigned after Time Warner president Jeff Bewkes, the heir apparent to chairman Richard Parsons, told his longtime friend he had to resign or he'd be fired.</p>

It all sounds as current as tomorrow’s headlines: a U.S. attorney is fired, he goes public to defend his reputation, the President knows more about the forced exit of the lawman than previously claimed, and the Justice Department as well as the White House are soon under fire from the media and Capitol Hill. The year was 1978 and the U.S. attorney forced out of his job was David Marston. Appointed by President Ford as the top federal lawman In Philadelphia, Marston had racked up convictions of political leaders of both parties in Pennsylvania. After a year under Jimmy Carter,...

In moves designed to, yet again, work towards placing members of the Bush Administration (specifically the Left’s favorite whipping boy — political aide Karl Rove) in jeopardy, Democrats and their supplicant RINOs have launched their latest of an increasing number of investigations into anything and everything that is “Bush and Republican”. This time it is a Democrat attack against the firing of a number of US Attorneys in an attempt to have Attorney General Alberto Gonzales fired and top Bush officials grilled by a Democrat-run investigatory committee. This seems eerily reminiscent of the old USSR politburo. First, allow me to...

In moves designed to, yet again, work towards placing members of the Bush Administration (specifically the Left’s favorite whipping boy—political aide Karl Rove) in jeopardy, Democrats and their supplicant RINOs have launched their latest of an increasing number of investigations into anything and everything that is “Bush and Republican”. This time it is a Democrat attack against the firing of a number of US Attorneys in an attempt to have Attorney General Alberto Gonzales fired and top Bush officials grilled by a Democrat-run investigatory committee. This seems eerily reminiscent of the old USSR politburo. First, allow me to place something...

Was San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam fired because her bribery investigation of Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham led straight to the powerful Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Jerry Lewis of Redlands? This crucial question was the subject of pure speculation until the release this week of some 150 pages of e-mails between the Justice Department and the White House. The documents, turned over to the House Judiciary Committee, contain the first solid evidence that Lam's public corruption probe may have been a factor in her dismissal. On May 11, 2006, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' senior deputy, Kyle...

THE LATEST they-do-it-too excuse for the undeniably botched and increasingly suspicious firings of U.S. attorneys involves the 1993 episode in which President Clinton's new attorney general, Janet Reno, unceremoniously dismissed the first Bush administration's holdover U.S. attorneys. By comparison with the Reno massacre, we are told, the Bush administration's canning of eight U.S. attorneys was positively restrained; if you suspect political motives in the current controversy, so the argument goes, consider that when he was ousted by Reno, the U.S. attorney in the District, Jay Stephens, was just weeks away from deciding whether to indict House Ways and Means Chairman...

WASHINGTON - The recent firing of eight U.S. attorneys has raised questions about how they are appointed and the circumstances under which they may be dismissed. Here are some questions and answers: Q: What do U.S. attorneys do and how many are there? A: U.S. attorneys are the federal government's equivalent of local district attorneys. They are charged with prosecuting federal crimes in the judicial district in which they serve. There are 93 U.S. attorneys, one for each U.S. district court (except that Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands share a federal prosecutor). Q: Who gets these positions? A: The...

THREE Indonesian Christians who were on death row for inciting violence against Muslims in 2000 were executed by firing squad, their lawyer said. "They have been executed....," lawyer Roy Rening said. Mr Rening said he was informed of the executions by the prosecutors office in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province.... < snip > Mr Rening added that he refused to be present at the deaths to protest a rejection by the state of their last demands, including that their bodies be laid in wake at Palu's main Catholic church. < snip > The trio were initially scheduled to...

Lt. Col. Yashal Midhat Mohammed, the Iraqi Army's K1 executive officer, inspects each firing line. Lt. Col. Mohammed is in charge of the Iraqi Army's K1 training facility near Kirkuk, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Cassandra Groce Iraqi Army Runs Successful Firing Range Iraqi Army soldiers receive personal weapons firing instruction. By Spc. Cassandra Groce133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment KIRKUK, Iraq, June 12, 2006 — The weapons range is an important part of any soldier’s basic training. The Iraqi Army is no exception. "The Iraqis had a good command of the range. Each Iraqi Army officer is expected...

Ronald Michalowicz, a fire inspector for the village of Bedford Park, was given a 27 percent chance to live as he battled a rare form of tongue cancer. The community rallied around him, raising about $25,000 to help. He fought the cancer into remission. But the village where he had worked for 28 years fired him for taking the contributions, in alleged violation of the Illinois Gift Ban Act and village code prohibiting employees from soliciting gifts that could affect their decision-making. On Friday, Michalowicz sued Bedford Park, its mayor and village board in federal court for allegedly violating his...

Getting fired for incompetence from the University of California system is apparently harder than it looks. How else to explain how UC President Robert Dynes kept his job? But if the UC Board of Regents wishes to stick with the current administration, the board had better explain how it plans to forestall further UC compensation abuses. The regents on Thursday supported Dynes despite his presiding over hundreds of secret executive pay deals totaling tens of millions of dollars. Over the past five years, three under Dynes' watch, the president's office approved more than 700 "separation agreements" -- a euphemism for...

A San Francisco radio talk show team was fired over the weekend after offering on air a reward to have Penn Jillette killed for making inflammatory comments about Mother Teresa. CBS affiliate KIFR-FM 106.9 fired host John London, his producer Dennis Cruz and sports reporter Chris Townsend for comments during a two-hour rant April 4, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. appeals body ruled that the only employee to be fired over the Iraq oil-for-food scandal did not violate staff rules and should be reinstated with a public apology from Secretary-General Kofi Annan, according to documents disclosed Thursday. The Joint Disciplinary Committee concluded that Joseph Stephanides was fired mostly because of the public scrutiny from an investigation that found the $64 billion program was poorly managed and corrupt. The ruling, obtained by The Associated Press, said the three-judge panel "sympathized with the applicant's argument that he was being made the 'sacrificial lamb' in this matter so...

Democrats demanded yesterday that President Bush fire Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and that the White House fully account for Vice President Cheney's role in the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame, as Republicans acted to limit the political damage from Friday's indictment of Cheney's chief of staff. Using the forum of the Sunday television talk shows, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and other Democrats sought to portray the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Friday as part of a broader pattern of unethical -- if not illegal -- conduct by the administration. Republicans, while not...

NEW YORK The firing of a Miami Herald columnist for secretly taping a phone conversation with a county commissioner minutes before the public official's suicide in the newspaper's lobby has raised questions about whether his actions constitute a fireable offense. Although Florida law prohibits the taping of anyone's phone conversation without their consent, legal experts differ over how that might apply to a reporter. Herald staffers, meanwhile, have expressed concern that the columnist, Jim DeFede, might have been fired too quickly by editors who were responding under duress from the suicide. Strictly interpreted, the law seems to indicate that DeFede...

Remember that much-publicized Jayson Blair case at the New York Times, in which a coddled reporter was found to have been making up facts for his newspaper stories? Jayson Blair's actions were greatly deplored and led to his firing and the resignation of his editor. Now, the Sacramento Bee in my hometown, finds that it has had on its staff a columnist whose journalistic inventions over her twelve years of employment may dwarf those of Jayson Blair. The liberal Sacramento Bee reported on Sunday, June 26, that its investigation of columnist Diana Griego Erwin's politically correct, three-times-a-week, human-interest columns reveal...

The New York Times is not always the most collegial place to work, but this story sets a new standard -- if the allegations are true, which remains in dispute. The Times has fired Susan Sachs, its former Baghdad bureau chief. According to Times sources who insisted on anonymity because personnel matters are involved, the paper's management accused Sachs of writing to the wives of two other Times foreign correspondents, to say that their husbands were having affairs. Sachs denied to management that she had written the letters, but she was accused of not telling the truth based on electronic...

Utah's controversial firing squad may be doomed. "Essentially, we're going to discuss the repeal of the firing squad" during a meeting today of the state Sentencing Commission, says executive director Ron Gordon. Gordon has conducted a study that examines different methods of execution and the question of who decides on which method to employ — the Legislature or the condemned person.Lt. Jeff Meyers points to restraints used on prisoners in the firing-squad chair at the Utah State Prison. A new Deseret Morning News-KSL poll found that while 45 percent of Utahns still favor the firing squad, 51 percent believe it...

NEW YORK — A federal appeals court has ruled that New York City was justified in dismissing a high school teacher who was found to be a member of the North American Man/Boy Love Association. The former teacher, Peter Melzer, had the constitutional freedom-of-association right to be a member of the organization, but his membership caused sufficient disruption to the school to warrant the firing, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found. Melzer, who had been a science teacher at the Bronx High School of Science for more than 25 years, was dismissed in 2000 by the Board of...

<p>CLINTON — Tony Stallings was a rising star at the Clinton Police Department, last year's officer of the year and highly praised for his keen police work.</p> <p>But his career came to an abrupt end Thursday when Police Chief Don Byington announced Stallings had been fired for staging his own shooting last weekend.</p>

RICHMOND, Va. -- A federal appeals court Friday upheld a South Carolina dairy's firing of a mechanic who displayed Confederate flag stickers on his toolbox. Matthew Dixon claimed that Coburg Dairy Inc. in Charleston violated his First Amendment rights and state employment laws when it fired him in 2000 for refusing to remove the stickers after a black co-worker complained. The dairy said the stickers violated its policy against harassment. "Dixon, however, chose to display the Confederate flag on the tool box he used at his workplace," Judge Roger Gregory wrote. "For Dixon to prevail, this court would be required...

Terry Hughes may not be Rush Limbaugh, but the undaunted local radio personality with conservative views is back in the news and behind the microphone again, just eight miles from his old job. Hughes, who uses the pseudonym Thayrone X, has joined the Kool 107 station (WQKL-FM, 107.1) in Ann Arbor, a Clear Channel outlet. He will host a new show 7-11 p.m. Sundays, beginning this weekend. Hughes was fired April 2 by WEMU-FM (89.1 FM) in Ypsilanti for his refusal to read the National Public Radio news briefs during his show, "Bone Conduction Music Show." Hughes contended he was...

Next in the firing line? Alexander Chancellor Saturday May 24, 2003 The Guardian There has been a lot of soul-searching in Saudi Arabia, as well there might be. The country's press was full of it after the massacre in Riyadh last week. Had it brought the tragedy on itself? Was it deluded to blame foreigners for it? And why were so many terrorists Saudi citizens? There was a strong temptation to blame the atrocity on foreigners. This was how one columnist put it in the Saudi newspaper Al-Jazirah: "Oh, foreign cave-dwellers, depart our country and go to hell! You have...

Kilpatrick faces firestorm of criticism over police dismissal By LIZ AUSTIN The Associated Press 5/15/03 12:01 AM DETROIT (AP) -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a former college football player and member of a local political dynasty, is no stranger to challenges. Complaints about his large security detail and his decision to give city jobs to friends and relatives have plagued the mayor since early in his 16-month tenure. Now Kilpatrick, 32, is facing criticism over his dismissal of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown, who oversaw the department's internal affairs decision. Brown claims he was fired on Friday because he had begun...

<p>A Marine from the South Bay on Friday sued online auctioneer eBay, claiming he was fired earlier this year because he had to leave his job when he was called up for active duty during preparations for war in Iraq.</p>

Terror rakes Valley while Delhi, Islamabad talk peace Seven security personnel, including an Army major, and a block President of the ruling People's Democratic Party, were among 15 people killed and 40 injured on Friday as militants stepped up their attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said. The escalated violence saw the first suicide attack of the year in the state which made a vain attempt to target a sector headquarters of BSF, ambush on an Army patrol and a blast inside a court in Baramulla district of north Kashmir which witnessed the maximum number of militancy-related incidents on...

Tony Blair is ready to sack Cabiet rebels Robin Cook and Claire Short within the next 48 hours if they do not fall into line on Iraq.The Prime Minister met with all available Cabinet members individually yesterday to demand that they pledge their loyalty to him and express their support for military action.He is determined to deny his outspoken critics-and any other wavering ministers-theopportunity to resign at a time of their own choosing to maximize their impact. Leader of the House Mr. Cook was in Belgrade for the funeral of assassinated Serbian Prime MInister Zoran Djindjic yesterday- and many colleagues...

By Matt Frazier Star-Telegram Staff Writer ARLINGTON - Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, filed a bill today to make it possible for school districts to fire teachers at the end of their contract without going through an extensive and expensive appeals process. Grusendorf, the House public education committee chairman, said the legislation could save Texas schools districts millions of dollars each year while improving teacher quality. "It's time to put common sense back in our education labor laws," Grusendorf said. State's teacher organizations say they are against any bill that weakens the safeguards and rights to due process that teachers now enjoy....

<p>Last Wednesday, Michele Curay-Cramer's name was on a list of more than 600 names in a newspaper advertisement in support of abortion rights.</p> <p>Today, she is out of a job.</p> <p>Curay-Cramer, a teacher at Ursuline Academy, an independent Catholic school for girls in Wilmington, was fired Monday by the school after school officials saw her name on a list compiled by the Coalition for Choice, an abortion-rights advocacy group that commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision last week, according to a school spokesman. The advertisement appeared in The News Journal, as did a list of anti-abortion advocates compiled by Delawareans for Life.</p>

EF Home | New | Columns | PS Reports | Education Reporter | Online Store | Donate | Eagle Info | Alerts | State Affiliates | Links | ScoreBoard | Radio Programs | Collegians | Teens | Court Watch | University | Quick Topics   SEARCH by: Phyllis Schlafly Teach a child phonics! Was Firing Employees The Issue In Homeland Security? Nov. 27, 2002 The Daschle Democrats (bowing to pressure from their union constituency) resisted passing the Homeland Security bill prior to the election because President George W. Bush demanded wide authority to fire or transfer employees in the new...

Story Url: http://news.lycos.com/news/story.asp?section=LycosScience&storyId=52927Peacekeeping the Missiles This story is Newsmine™ enabled. [Turn off in-story linking]   Monday, June 03, 2002 8:47 a.m. EDT Newsmine Data •  Marshall Islands •  Cheyenne •  Vandenberg VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - An unarmed 70-foot Peacekeeper missile was launched early Monday in a routine test of the country's intercontinental ballistic missile system, the Air Force said. The 198,000-pound missile lifted off from the central California coast at 1:01 a.m. and sent nine unarmed re-entry vehicles toward a target 4,800 miles away on the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands  . The missile...