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U.Va.: Cuccinelli’s demand for ex-professor’s papers ‘improper’By: David Sherfinski Examiner Staff Writer 10/21/10 12:30 PM EDT The University of Virginia has asked the Albemarle County Circuit Court to set aside a new petition from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli seeking documents related to climate-change research by former U.Va. professor Michael Mann. The court in August had denied a similar request from Cuccinelli, who claims Mann work on climate change constituted a fraud because it was based on dubious research. Cuccinelli, who disputes the theory that humans are causing global warming, rewrote his request to overcome the previous objections raised by the...

A judge on Monday thwarted Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's bid to investigate whether a former University of Virginia professor fraudulently obtained public research money by cooking up climate change data. Cuccinelli, a global warming cynic, sought documents relating to the research of climate scientist Michael Mann, who was behind the so-called "hockey stick" graph in last year's "Climategate scandal." But Albemarle County Circuit Court Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. said Cuccinelli provided no "objective basis" that Mann defrauded taxpayers. "It is not clear what [Mann] did that was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the commonwealth of...

A little whitewash and Pennsylvania's taxpayer's connection to Climategate has disappeared. At least that's what the Penn State University administrators are hoping. Penn State, which uses state appropriations for about 10 percent of its $2.5 billion budget, cleared Dr. Michael Mann of any scientific misconduct relating to the scandal. Mann heads the university's Earth System Science Center. (SNIP) The reasons it cited for coming to this conclusion were -- what you are about to read is not a joke remember -- "This level of success in proposing research, and obtaining funding to conduct it, clearly places Mann among the most...

*snip* ...not only did British investigators clear the East Anglia scientist at the center of it all, Phil Jones, of scientific impropriety and dishonesty in April, an investigation at Penn State cleared PSU climatologist Michael Mann of “falsifying or suppressing data, intending to delete or conceal e-mails and information, and misusing privileged or confidential information” in February. In perhaps the biggest backpedaling, The Sunday Times of London, which led the media pack in charging that IPCC reports were full of egregious (and probably intentional) errors, retracted its central claim—namely, that the IPCC statement that up to 40 percent of the Amazonian rainforest could be...

The University of Virginia filed a court challenge today seeking to block Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's investigation of climate scientist Michael Mann. The university filed a petition in Albemarle County Circuit Court as the first step in a legal process to set aside Cuccinelli's civil subpoena seeking documents relating to global-warming research by Mann, who left U.Va. in 2005 and now works at Pennsylvania State University. President John T. Casteen III said the university intends to protect academic freedom. The issuance of Civil Investigative Demands, or CIDs, "has sent a chill through the commonwealth's colleges and universities -- a...

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is invoking a state anti-fraud law to demand the University of Virginia turn over years worth of documents related to climate scientist Michael Mann, targeting about $500,000 in grants that funded Mann's studies. Cuccinelli, a Republican who is separately suing the federal government over regulation of carbon emissions, issued the school a civil subpoena late last month probing "possible violations" of the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act by the former U.Va. professor. Mann, now a professor at Penn State, is famous for creating the controversial "hockey stick" graph charting a spike in global temperatures....

Mann-made Climate Changes Bethany Stotts, May 5, 2010 Penn State University professor and climatologist Michael Mann recently threatened to sue a group for its video satire of his climate science entitled “Hide the Decline.” “Michael Mann thinks he’s so smart/totally inventing the hockey stick chart/ignoring the snow and the cold and a downward line/Hide the decline….” states the video. The video, created by Minnesotans for Global Warming (M4GW) refers to an email from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit director, Phil Jones to Prof. Michael Mann and two other scientists. “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding...

Cuccinelli tells U.Va. to hand over documents on climate changeThe Washington Post Published: May 4, 2010 Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is demanding that the University of Virginia turn over a broad range of documents from a former professor to determine whether he defrauded taxpayers as he sought grants for global-warming research. The civil investigative demand asks for all data and materials presented by former professor Michael Mann when he applied for five research grants from the university. It also gives the school until May 27 to produce all correspondence or e-mails between Mann and 39 other scientists since 1999. The...

A legal battle is heating up faster than the planet for embattled climatologist Michael Mann. First word emerged that the inspector general for the National Science Foundation would look into the Penn State panel reviewing the climate scientist, who is currently director of the school's Earth System Science Center. Now the attorney general for his old employer the University of Virginia is planning an investigation, too.

This blog’s hero of the week is Ken Cuccinelli. He’s the new Attorney General of Virginia and he’s about to launch quite possibly the most delicious and worthwhile law suit in the entire history of litigation: one that could result in Michael Mann – arch-climate-fear-promoter, comedy You Tube Star, creator of the infamous, twice-discredited Hockey Stick – being fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for alleged misuse of state grant funding. (Hat tip: Watts Up With That) Though Mann now works at Penn State University – an institution which appears to share UEA’s principled belief that the best response to...

If you try to sweep your problems under the rug, they'll go away, right? Michael Mann, a Penn State professor and a central figure in the Climategate scandal and best known for his "hockey stick graph" hopes so. On Fox News Channel's April 28 broadcast of "Your World with Neil Cavuto," Elmer Beauregard of Minnesotans for Global Warming appeared to explain the reasoning behind a video that drew the ire Mann. The video mocked the Penn State professor's alleged attempt to cover up data from tree rings that would indicate there was no global warming. "Well, I don't know if...

In case you missed it, expressing dissent about an issue that has become more and more politicized could warrant a lawsuit - even if it's just satire. Michael Mann, a Penn State professor and a central figure in the Climategate scandal, but is best known for his "hockey stick graph" doesn't like being criticized. He has threatened to sue the creators of a video that has gone viral on YouTube mocking him. The creators of the video are a group called Minnesotans for Global Warming. The possibility of a suit was the topic on Fox News April 27 "America Live,"...

The Penn State climate professor who has silently endured investigations, hostile questioning, legislative probes and attacks by colleagues has finally spoken out. He says he'll sue the makers of a satirical video that's a hit on You Tube. Their response: Bring it on. Michael Mann, one of the central figures in the recent climate-data scandal, is best known for his "hockey stick graph," which was the key visual aid in explaining how the world is warming at an alarming rate and in connecting the rise to the increase in use of carbon fuels in this century. E-mails stolen from a...

Somebody just can’t handle satire.PRESS RELEASE Wednesday, April 21st 2010 CONTACT Jeff Davis No Cap and Trade Coalition 612-605-3303 Ext. 702Jeff.davis@mnmajority.orgVideo Spoofing Michael Mann Removed by YouTube – Bogus Reason Given St. Paul — At a Washington DC press conference yesterday, the No Cap and Trade Coalition announced a new video spoofing prominent ‘climategate’ scientist, Dr. Michael Mann and his infamous ‘hockey stick chart’ showing rapidly increasing global temperatures in recent decades. The video was posted on YouTube until Wednesday afternoon, when the Google-owned video site removed the video, citing non-existent copyright claims by Jib Jab as the reason....

It’s all about audacity.Michael Mann’s contribution to modern science may one day be remembered as the guy who made it statistically possible to get  a thousand year temperature graph using any local telephone directory as a data source. (Who needs tree-rings?) If you were a guy who’d been caught producing scientific work so inept that people could pour in random data and get the same “curve”, then you might take a satirical video on the chin (or crawl into a hole). But if you’re Michael Mann, and you also used the wrong proxy, you hid your data, used graphs upside...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJeff DavisNo Cap and Trade CoalitionWashington, DC — Penn State University’s Michael Mann, one of the central figures in the Climategate scandal, has threatened legal action against Minnesotans for Global Warming (M4GW) over the group’s popular satirical YouTube video “Hide the Decline.” The No Cap-and-Trade Coalition, a group that includes M4GW, responded today at an event at the National Press Club, releasing Mann’s threatening letter and an updated version of the “Hide the Decline” video.“We understand why Michael Mann is eager to silence public discussion of the hockey stick scandal,” said Jeff Davis of No Cap-and-Trade, “but truth...

Climate Fraud: A senator wants an investigation of the false climate testimony before Congress and wants Al Gore to reappear. The illegalities may involve more than just lying to Congress. At a hearing Tuesday by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the Environmental Protection Agency's budget, ranking Republican James Inhofe told EPA head Lisa Jackson that man-induced climate change was a "hoax" concocted by ideologically motivated researchers who "cooked the science." More than that, Inhofe, in releasing a GOP report questioning the science used to support cap-and-trade legislation, hinted that such activities may be part of a vast...

"...The world of mining is one in which everyone is constantly aware of how engineering results can be tampered with or misrepresented to rip off investors. And in 2003, when McIntyre first saw the hockey stick graph, it reminded him uncomfortably of some stock promoter’s over-optimistic revenue projection. McIntyre asked lead “hockey stick” author Michael Mann for the underlying data and was startled when Mann had trouble remembering where he had posted the files to the Internet. “That was when the penny dropped for me,” McIntyre says. “I had the sense that Mann was pulling together the data for the...

Students, residents and community leaders will join together on Friday, February 12, to demand a fair and independent investigation of Michael Mann and Climategate. The University has a conflict of interest, and should not conduct an internal investigation without external oversight. The Rally for Academic Integrity will take place in front of the Hetzel Union Building (HUB) on Penn State’s University Park Campus (Pollock Road entrance) at 12:00. This Rally for Academic Integrity is jointly sponsored by PSU Young Americans for Freedom and The 9-12 Project of Central PA.

Eroding confidence in climate science punctuated by a pair of blizzards has global warming skeptics across the United States calling for a sharp rollback to years of political and industrial efforts to curb greenhouse emissions thought to contribute to global warming. Climate scientists are on the defensive, and they're not backing down. > "People who are opposed to solving the carbon-climate problem have lost the scientific debate," said Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology. "Therefore, they have had to move from discussion of the facts to character assassination, innuendo, and the politics of the personal attack."...