Free Republic

In USC’s lecture halls, labs and executive offices, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito was a towering figure. The dean of the Keck School of Medicine was a renowned eye surgeon whose skill in the operating room was matched by a gift for attracting money and talent to the university. There was another side to the Harvard-educated physician. During his tenure as dean, Puliafito kept company with a circle of criminals and drug users who said he used methamphetamine and other drugs with them, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. Puliafito, 66, and these much younger acquaintances captured their exploits in photos...

When is a White House event for 500 people considered “private?” They won’t say. Nor would they say, in advance, that hundreds of guests were expected on Saturday night for a soiree and serenade from Prince, as guests of the President and First Lady. All White House spokesman Josh Earnest would say about the Saturday event was that the First Family paid for it (though he wouldn’t elaborate on how much it cost, or whether things like security were also covered).

GOSH, what a surprise: A committee of their fellow senators has decided that Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad did nothing unethical when they took out loans from Countrywide Financial on the kind of favorable terms not available to mere mortals without their financial or political standing -- or a personal connection to the head of Countrywide. The very Select Committee on Ethics did recognize that the whole deal looked bad, and gave its colleagues a gentle pat on the wrist for creating "the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator." But in the...

Black is back. According to a report in the New York Times, embattled Schools Chancellor-nominee Cathie Black will indeed be able to take her place in charge the city's public school system -- with a catch. A deal has been reached between the Bloomberg administration and the State Education Commissioner David Steiner to appoint a "Chief Academic Officer" to serve as Black's right hand, The Times reported. That brand new position would be filled by Shael Polakow-Suransky, a life-long educator who is currently the Deputy Chancellor for Performance and Accountability, according to a letter from Bloomberg to Steiner obtained by...

/begin my translation N. Korea: Kim Jong-il Was Shot At By Jang's Son It is alleged that, last November, during a shooting incident by a son of Jang Sung-taek, who is Kim Jong-il's brother-in-law, Kim knocked unconscious. A source who used to be in N. Korean intelligence said on Feb. 14 that this story is making a round among high-level N. Korean security officials. According to this intelligence, between the night of Nov. 28 and the early morning of Nov. 29, there was a family gathering including Kim Jong-il, his second son Kim Jong-chol, Jang Sung-taek's son(Jang is Kim's brother-in-law),...