Free Republic

This is not how she imagined her visit to Israel. Prof. Donna Shalala, who served as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services for eight years under Clinton and is currently the president of the University of Miami, was held for two-and-a-half hours at Ben Gurion Airport during which she underwent a humiliating security debriefing because of her Arab last name – all this despite the fact that her hosts notified the airport ahead of time that she is a VIP. The fact that Shalala arrived in Israel as part of an official delegation of the heads of universities...

The Countrywide sixBy John Bender web posted June 16, 2008The news that former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson was one of the sleaze bags who enriched themselves with sweat heart deals on mortgages from Countrywide Financial makes it a bipartisan scandal and eliminates the slim possibility that any of them will be brought to justice.  The ruling political class doesn't like to bring its members to justice. But if one political party can gain political advantage by going after a few members of the political class who happen to be in the other party, they will grab...

When it comes to charging abuse in markets like the mortgage business, American politicians, right up the ladder, should zip their lips. They're not ones to talk. That's becoming ever more painfully clear with reports like the one Thursday from Condé Nast Portfolio suggesting that several key pols got favored treatment on their personal mortgages. The lucky winners included folks like Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), plus several former Cabinet secretaries: ex-Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson; ex-Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala (who is to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday) and ex-UN Ambassador and...

WASHINGTON - Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said Saturday he is donating $10,500 to charity and refinancing his loan on an apartment building after reviewing documents showing he received special treatment from Countrywide Financial Corp. Conrad said it appears that Countrywide waived 1 point on his mortgage for a Bethany Beach, Del., vacation home. He said he would donate the equivalent amount of money to Habitat for Humanity. "Although I did not ask for or know that I was receiving a discount, and even though I was offered a competitive loan from another lender, I do not want to...

You're not going to believe this about Countrywide : "Senators Christopher Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut and chairman of the Banking Committee, and Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota, chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the Finance Committee, refinanced properties through Countrywide’s “V.I.P.” program in 2003 and 2004, according to company documents and emails and a former employee familiar with the loans. Other participants in the V.I.P. program included former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke....

According to a White House press release President Bush has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a woman who did her best to stamp out freedom of speech while chancellor of the University of Wisconsin. Of all the educators in the country to choose from, the choice of Donna Shalala to receive our nation's highest civilian award is beyond puzzling; it is obscene.

In one of the largest executive-pay givebacks in history, former UnitedHealth Group Inc. Chief Executive William McGuire has agreed to forfeit about $620 million in stock-option gains and retirement pay to settle civil and federal-government claims related to stock-option backdating. The settlement comes a year after the options-backdating scandal led to Dr. McGuire's ouster from the Minnetonka, Minn., company, one of the largest U.S. health insurers. -snip- In the scandal, dozens of companies pretended that options were granted at an earlier date than they actually were. They picked dates when the stock price was at a low point, allowing executives...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration must examine all military and veterans' hospitals to see where the system has failed, one of the leaders of the presidential commission to investigate the problems said Sunday. Donna Shalala, health secretary under President Clinton, said the commission will look at the system from the time "someone is hurt in Iraq and Afghanistan, all the way through, and to see not simply where the glitches are, but where the whole government has broken down." President Bush last week announced he had ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at military and veterans' hospitals, which have been...

Welcome to Sanity Island, where only adults are allowed. President Bush Named Bob Dole And Donna Shalala To Serve On The President's Commission On Care For America's Returning Wounded Warriors and he met with them in the Oval Office today. He Signed An Executive Order Creating A Bipartisan Presidential Commission To Conduct A Comprehensive Review Of The Services America Is Providing Our Returning Wounded Warriors. In total, the President will announce nine members to serve on the Commission – including the two co-chairs. The President Also Directed U.S. Department Of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Jim Nicholson To Establish An Interagency...

... While providing a progress report in the War on Terror, Bush also named a decorated war veteran and former Clinton cabinet member as leaders of a commission to investigate soldiers' treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Bush said former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole and former Heath and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, now president at the University of Miami, will co-chair the commission. The panel will review conditions at the Army's flagship hospital after the recent uncovering of poor treatment of soldiers there. It will also look at broader treatment throughout military hospitals.......

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Shaking her fist for emphasis, Miami president Donna Shalala said Tuesday that sanctions levied against 13 players for their role in a sideline-clearing brawl were fair, justified and strong enough to satisfy the university. All that, though, came with one big caveat: Miami athletes simply can never fight again, she said. "This university will be firm and punish people who do bad things," Shalala said. "But we will not throw any student under the bus for instant restoration of our image or our reputation. I will not hang them in a public square. I will not...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- The University of Miami extended the suspension of one player and said further disciplinary measures will be taken in the wake of a sideline-clearing brawl with Florida International.

Larry Coker? Fired. Lamar Thomas? Fired. The bench-clearing brawl resulted in 31 suspensions between the two schools. Anthony Reddick and Brandon Meriweather? Dismissed. The other 11 University of Miami players and 18 Florida International University players who took part in Saturday night's horrifying football gang warfare? Suspended for the remainder of the season. Miami's 35-0 "victory" against FIU? Nullified. Wiped off the books. Something has to change at Miami, beginning with the punishment. Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford meant well when he initially issued a one-game suspension for all 13 UM players involved in this disaster area, but the...

In the leak scandal that led to five indictments for a top-level White House official, reports this week cite that former US Central Intelligence Agency employee Valerie Plame was allegedly following Iran's nuclear activities before her identity was revealed. Democrat Party Senator Frank Lautenberg, in a letter to CIA Director Porter Goss, asked for an evaluation of the harm outing Plame has caused. In the letter, the Senator reminds Director Goss of recent news stories which report that before Plame was outed, she participated in intelligence works on the Iranian nuclear dossier, and her subsequent outing gravely jeopardized the US’...

Pedro Vale Luis Jael Pedro Vale is a landscaper and gardener employed by the contractor UNNICO on the campus of the University of Miami.  His job is unique because he takes care of University President Donna Shalala's residence.  Vale has worked full-time at Shalala's house for more than two years, makes $8.59 an hour and has no benefits.  He's forced to work a second job to make ends meet.  He cuts the grass, plants and cares for flowers and trees, and other tasks. Vale is not tending to Shalala's flowers today, however.  Today he is on strike. "We need a...

CORAL GABLES -- For four years, Zoila Mursuli toiled in the shadows, scrubbing toilets, sweeping floors and emptying trash on the graveyard shift at the University of Miami. Her job came with no health benefits and paid just $6.70 an hour, which ranks among the lowest wages for university janitors in the nation. Then last week, she was fired after talking to the Orlando Sentinel about her efforts to organize a strike among her fellow UM maintenance workers. Late Tuesday, her efforts paid off: Her night-shift co-workers walked off their jobs in an escalating strike about alleged unfair labor practices....

Shalala, Thompson To Open Panetta Lecture Series First Lecture To Address Baby Boomers, Retirement POSTED: 10:23 am PST March 8, 2005 MONTEREY, Calif. -- Two former secretaries of health and human services -- Donna Shalala and Tommy Thompson -- will open the 8th Annual Leon Panetta Lecture Series, titled "Defining Issues of the 21st Century." The first lecture is schedule for March 28 and will address baby boomers and retirement. Other guest this season include CNN's Judy Woodruff and former White House National Security Advisor Sandy Berger. Each lecture begins at 7 p.m. at the Steinbeck Forum at the Monterey...

The University of Miami School of Medicine launched a bold new era today with the announcement of a historic $100 million gift from the family of the late Leonard Miller, a longtime South Florida businessman and philanthropist. In recognition of the biggest gift ever to the University of Miami, the School of Medicine will be renamed the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. UM President Donna E. Shalala (left) with Susan Miller just after the announcement of the $100 million gift and the renaming of the School of Medicine.

(GOT BALL ROLLING: Pressure by UM President Donna Shalala pushed The Miami Touchdown Club to change its no-women membership rules at a meeting Monday night. Shalala made her move after Coral Gables lawyer Natalie Lemos wrote her a letter about the club's no-female membership policy. CHARLES TRAINOR JR./HERALD STAFF) Goal crossed: Men's club to accept women The Miami Touchdown Club raises money for charitable projects and college scholarships. And now women can join in the effort. Score one for women. For the first time in its 45-year history, the all-male Miami Touchdown Club will be accepting the opposite sex...