political story

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) is known mostly for his Hall of Fame career in Major League Baseball. Bunning spent 17 seasons as a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies, even throwing a perfect game in 1964. The man who, when he retired from baseball in 1971, had the second highest strikeout total in Major League history, however, has struck out in regard to the non-profit organization that bears his name.
Bunning, who doubles as an employee of the Jim Bunning Foundation, drew a $20,000 salary from the foundation in 2008 according to documents filed as part of a United States Senate financial disclosure report. The salary paid to Bunning is the only source of outside income listed for the senator in the documents.
To contrast, the foundation gives an average of $13,600 a year to charities according to a story in the Lexington Herald-Leader. So essentially, Jim Bunning gets more money from the Jim Bunning Foundation than the charities the foundation contributes to.
The foundation makes its money through autograph sessions attended by Bunning. According to the disclosure documents, Bunning appeared at two signings, one in New York City and the other at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Those two appearances, plus money from the HOF licensing program, earned $16,091.79 for the foundation in 2008. Due to legislative ethics restrictions, Bunning cannot accept money for his autograph, however it can be donated to a charity, Bunning’s charity in this case.
So it would appear Bunning has found a loophole in the ethics rule. He can’t make money directly off his autograph sessions, but he can give the money to his charity organization that pays him a salary from the money it gets – you guessed it – from Bunning’s autograph sessions. One potential conflict of interest in all of this is that the IRS has not questioned the foundation’s actions while Bunning, coincidentally, oversees the IRS as a member of the Senate Finance Committee.
That, however, is not the only potential conflict of interest for the foundation. Bunning’s wife, Mary is one of the three foundation board members. The other two, also have close ties to the senator.
Bob Sumerel is a close friend and campaign contributor of Bunning’s, according to the Herald-Leader story. Richard Robinson is a former congressional aid of Bunning’s and is now a Washington lobbyist whose clients, also according to the Herald-Leader story, have received budget earmarks from Bunning.
There have been no inquiries into the foundation potential ethics violations by the IRS or the Senate Ethics committee to date.

prop 2

To: Burnis Morris
From: Tom Bragg

RE: Story Outline: Follow up on Sen. Jim Bunning story from Lexington Herald-Leader

Subject: Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ken.) has been taking a salary from his non-profit, the Jim Bunning Foundation. The Lexington Herald-Leader ran a story in December 2008 about this, highlighting that not only was the non-profit’s largest payout going to Bunning, but the three-person board in charge of the foundation was made up of Bunning’s wife, an old friend and a former aide of his.

Need: Since the story ran late last year, there have been new financial filings made by the senator. It would be good to see if the story created any pressure on Bunning or the foundation to stop what they were doing. Citizens should also be informed about the ethical questions the foundation causes, and the possibility of the need for widespread reform.

Methods: The foundation, according to a source in the H-L story, “blurs a number of Senate ethics and Internal Revenue Service rules regarding outside income for members of Congress, legitimate uses for tax-exempt charities and whether Bunning — as a paid employee — improperly dominates the foundation's board.” Analyzing just where the foundation is according to these rules would be interesting for readers.

Sources: I will investigate the Senate and IRS rules for any possible violations by Bunning or the foundation. I will also hopefully interview

Are gas prices affecting college sports?

Conference USA is in a unique position. It’s footprint spans from Huntington, W.Va., in the north to Orlando in the south from Greenville, N.C., in the east to El Paso, Texas in the west.

With that much area under C-USA’s belt, the member schools are faced with the dilemma of paying for its teams to travel, literally, all over the country. Gas prices have been a hindrance to most, if not all, colleges travel expenses, but the sheer distance the teams have to travel sets C-USA apart.

The Dallas Morning News recently ran a story on C-USA’s financial concerns, highlighting some of the steps the Irvin, Texas based conference has taken or plans to take in order to curtail some of the expenses. According to the article, some C-USA schools have done things such as freeze hiring in athletic departments. Another move made by C-USA was to cut the number of players that travel to away football games from 70 to 66.

C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky told the DMN that the cuts C-USA would have to make would be some of the most significant in college sports to date.

“Our universities are challenged; they have to work harder to stay competitive,” Banowsky told the DMN. “If you really compare how well some of them do, it’s remarkable.”

The Ultimate Sports Insider blog details some of the steps C-USA is taking to cut costs. These steps include combining the men and women’s basketball tournaments in the same city (Tulsa, Okla., in 2010), having divisional play in basketball and reducing the number of teams that qualify for the conference’s post-season tournaments (men and women’s soccer, baseball, softball and volleyball). One drastic measure mentioned in the blog is the possibility of eliminating the volleyball tournament.

Michael Cross is the owner of the Ultimate Sports Insider blog and is the Executive Associate Director of Athletics at Princeton University. Cross said the current economy has many universities, including those in the Ivy League, having budgetary concerns in athletics.

“There are different things at play. Declining ticket sales, declining donor participation, declining sponsorship revenue – all those things are down largely because of the economy.” Cross said. “As a result people are trying to figure out how they can fund the things they had previously funded. The Ivy League is not immune to that.”

Cross said he thinks the gas prices have some impact, but are not the main cause of the problems.

“Fuel prices are higher, so that is going to increase the cost somewhat,” Cross said. “I think the reduction of travel squads is more a reflection of fewer airplane seats, fewer meals and fewer hotel rooms as opposed to fuel costs.”

Conference-wide budget cuts aside; the question of what Marshall is doing still remains.

David Steele is Marshall’s Associate Director of Athletics for Administration and Business. Steele said scheduling plays a big role in Marshall’s athletic budget concerns.

“Non-conference scheduling is something we are definitely looking at,” Steele said. “It’s our philosophy to schedule as many non-conference games with regional competition when that’s feasible.”

That philosophy is reflected in Marshall’s football schedule for the 2009 season. Marshall will play at West Virginia and Virginia Tech. Both trips will be made by bus, reducing the number of games the team has to travel to by airplane. Marshall has also recently played a series of games against the University of Cincinnati and has a deal in place to being playing Ohio University from nearby Athens, Ohio (approximately 80 miles from Huntington according to Google Maps) in 2010.

“In cases where we might have flown in the past we’re looking at it to see if it’s possible to bus,” Steele said. “This is something that everybody is doing nationally, and we are no different.”

According to a June 1 article in the Orlando Sentinel, another C-USA school, the University of Central Florida, is looking at the possibility of playing more games against in-state competition. UCF is in a unique position to be able to do that with the sheer number of NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision teams that call the state of Florida home (7). Other C-USA schools like Marshall (two FBS schools in West Virginia) or Southern Miss (three FBS schools in Mississippi) do not have that option.

Steele said he does not think C-USA is at a competitive disadvantage compared to the larger conferences, the Southeastern Conference and the Big XII specifically, even though the universities in those conferences have much larger athletic budgets and make more money from television revenue and the Bowl Championship Series than schools in C-USA and the Mountain West Conference.

“Regardless of the size (of the conference), we are all facing challenges,” Steele said. “We all want to fund the programs at a level that will keep us competitive. The larger schools from the BCS conferences might have more room to make adjustments, but every conference is unique in its own right. We are all facing challenges and looking at different ways to operate.”

Numerous attempts to find out Marshall’s athletic budget too see exactly what the university was/is spending on athletic travel failed.

The issue of moving entire teams across the country and paying for it, not just gas prices specifically, is what has colleges concerned.

Public Affairs classwork

Case Study No. 1-

There are several issues in this study. Should a reporter sacrifice a good working relationship with sources in order to get a story? Is it fair to run a story about a candidate that could swing the election? Should a reporter rely on anonymous sources rather than waiting for legal documentation in order to get the story in a timely fashion?

Cast Study No. 2-

The issues: A newspaper ran a story using a public document as a source and did not reveal the document as a source. Is that ethical? I think if the document is public record, then anybody, reporter or not, has access to it and it's fine to withhold the source. Also, the issue of when to confront a person at the heart of the matter is brought up. Do you go straight to them, even if you don't have ALL of the information you might need or do you wait and make sure you get it all straight. If you go straight to the person, it's possible the reporter would not have all the information or have something wrong. On the other hand if the reporter waits, they could miss out on the story.


Investigative article-

In Wednesday's Charleston Gazette, there is a story about a bill that would reduce the number of votes needed for Charleston and Kanawha County would need to form a metro government. According to the story, the bill (expected to be signed by Gov. Machin on Wednesday) "lowers the threshold for passing metro measures from the 55 percent in effect elsewhere in the state."

Originally, the constitutionality of the bill was questioned, but lawyers for the state Senate's Government Organization Committee "scrutinized" the bill to avoid issues with it being unconstitutional.

A similar issue occurred in Fairmont, W.Va., two years ago and never made it to a vote because the city and local governments could not get on the same page.

The reporter, Jim Balow, never gives the readers the adjust amount of voters the metro government would need to be put in place. This leads me to believe that while his story is on the bill that would reduce that number, he hasn't actually read the thing.

There are no graphics or photos with this story.

The public should be interested in this story. A metro government would play a part in almost every Kanawha County residents lives.

Obviously since the story was published today (Wednesday), there is not a follow up...yet. People are going to want to know what the new number of voters needed will be. With Manchin signing the bill this morning, I think it is safe to expect a follow up in Thursday's Gazette.

The headlines are not overwritten and do not use harsh words. "Metro bill likely to survive legal test, panel told" is to the point.

Balow spoke to members of the Charleston City Council, lawyers from the Senate group and to people involved in Fairmont's attempt to move to a metro government. This is a project idea, not a breaking story or information from a tipster. The metro idea has been circulating Charleston and Kanawha County for most of 2009, so this isn't something being spring on the people.

so I don't lose the link....

...and because it's informative

Interesting read from Mike Cross at Princeton.

Spoke to him earlier today, nice guy. Very pleasant and helpful.

Huntington Urban Renewal Authority meeting 6/15

The Huntington Urban Renewal Authority had several important issues on its agenda at its meeting Monday in the Huntington City Council Chambers, although there were some things that stuck out as odd.

Most notably, there was an election for new officers. Some of the wording used when electing and nominating the new officers was confusing. The commissioners had no problem going back and tidying up minor mistakes or inaccuracies after the fact, so it would be unlikely the election results will be voided. The actual title is "president", but several of the members used both that term and "chairperson".

The new officers are: President Nate Randolph, Vice President Brandi Jacobs-Jones, Secretary Diane Munfson and Treasurer Herb Stanley. Dr. Philip Carter, the previous president, was nominated for several of the open offices but respectfully declined all nominations. The officers serve a one-year term (all commissioners are nominated for five-year terms, according the HURA Web site).

There was also an issue with a large sum of money being "a figment on paper". Apparently there was $500,000 in an account that HURA thought could possibly be available to the Authority, but according to Mufson the money was an "insurance value" and is not available to HURA.

The most hotly debated topic at the meeting was that of the Land Bank Authority. HURA and the Huntington Municiple Development Authority are both vying to be in charge of the local Land Bank Authority, which is a group that oversees properties that have tax liens on them and are turned over to the city government for development. The HURA members (minus Jacobs-Jones, who also serves as the chairperson of HMDA and abstained from the votes to avoid a conflict of interests) passed a motion to be in charge of the Land Bank Authority. The motion was non-binding and is (simply stated) HURA proclaiming that it would be the better organization to oversee things.

Commissioner Carter introduced a motion to host a study on land banks in Huntington to help HURA better understand what exactly it will need to do and some of the struggles the committee could face. HURA's logic was that since it dealt more with residential development as opposed to HMDA dealing with mostly commercial property. It is up to the city which group will be in charge and will be voted on at a later date.

There was also a motion to move HURA's checking and savings accounts from Chase to a local bank. According to Mufson, Chase was assessing charges to the accounts for lack of activity. All present members agreed that banking locally was a wise move. First Sentry Bank was mentioned as a potential place to move, but Jacobs-Jones moved that the commissioners take a closer look at what the different banks had to offer HURA before they make a decision.

HURA agenda for Monday's meeting

Agenda found at Reporting the Affairs of the Public.

Agenda for the HURA meeting on June 15
1. Call to order
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Roll Call
4. Approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of the board on May 18, 2009
5. Approval of May 2009 Voucher Schedule
6. Election of Officers
Charles Holley, Director of Development & Planning to update Board on Artisan Avenue Redevelopment Project.
8. New Business
9. Unfinished Business
a. Federal Reserve Account
b. Local Checking/Savings account
c. July Meeting
10. Adjournment

This all seems vague, but take note of No. 6 on the list. There has been some turnover in city government, so it will be interesting to see if that is reflected in the HURA elections. The meeting is Monday at 1:30 p.m. and will be in the Mayor's conference room at Huntington City Hall.

One more update before bed

Trolling around the local newspapers I found a few tid bits on the search.

Snyder optimistic about athletic department - Messer's notebook highlighting Big Green event in Hurricane. Scroll down to the last section for Snyder's thoughts.

Finances discussed at Big Green event - Interesting piece on where Marshall stands compared to other C-USA institutions. Also interesting because, according to a little bird, the reporter wasn't there. Stay classy, HD.

Op Ed

Barack Obama went to the well one more time, and it worked, again.

Obama drew on his heritage and early years to help relate to his international audience. The speech served as a starting point for fixing American relationships with the Islamic world on multiple issues, including democracy, women’s rights and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

An Al-Jazerra story said Obama’s speech, helped undo the harm caused by the Bush Administration.

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said it helped undo "the harm done by the Bush administration".
"If Bush had to demonise many Muslims in order to launch the wars he did in the Islamic world, then Obama humanises the Islamic world in order to engage," Bishara said.
However, Bishara said, Obama was not forthcoming enough on a number of issues on US involvement in the Middle East, such as Israel's nuclear arsenal.

Speaking of the Bush regime, the American war in Afghanistan was another hot-button issue addressed by President Obama. He stated that the United States does not want military bases in the Asian country and wants to get the troops out of there, but Obama made sure to not let anyone forget why Americans are in Afghanistan.

“Let us be clear: al-Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody.
They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with."

While I think it is important to not forget how we all felt on the day the United States was attacked, the search for Osama Bin-Laden has been going on for nearly a decade and has turned up zilch. It feels almost as if karma is at play, considering how the US armed and trained the poor people in Afghanistan in the 1980’s to fight the Russians, and now they are using our weapons and know-how against our troops (thanks a lot, Charlie Wilson). Obama knows it is time to get out of there, but it has to be handled the right way.

The elephant in the room any time Obama speaks is Iran, and the Cairo speech was no different. Obama’s comments on Iran were a breath of fresh air compared to the fire-and-brimstone approach taken by past leaders of state when dealing with Iran (thanks in no-small part to Jimmy Carter’s speech in the 1970’s) and the hostage crisis that ensued).

I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation - including Iran - should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the Treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I am hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal.

This statement drew criticism from American conservatives, but those same conservatives seem hell-bent on negotiating with force rather than peaceful methods. Obama makes an excellent point. Why must any nation possess nuclear weapons? If a country can safely operate with nuclear power and not abuse its power to create weapons of mass destruction, then what right does America have to tell that country how to operate?

Granted, Iran is potentially dangerous, but much like in America last fall the young people are going to play a large part in Iran’s elections (which are going on at the moment I am writing this.) A regime change has helped the United States work toward changing its ways, perhaps that is what Iran needs.

It’s hard to judge the effectiveness of a speech like the one Obama gave so shortly after its delivery. Obama certainly had some good ideas and said the right things to start mending America’s relationship with the Islamic world, but history will be the final indicator as to if this was a building block or a catalyst for something different.

Interesting news from Houston

The University of Houston has hired a new Director of Athletics.

Mack Rhoades named had popped up as a possible candidate for the Marshall job (at least, the internet rumor mills had mentioned him), but I think it's safe to take his name off the list. The fact that the Coogs are in Conference USA with the Herd shows what is possible for a school in a position similar to Marshall's. Houston's last AD stepped down in May, Rhoades was introduced today. The Marshall powers that be should take note.

Op-Ed on the Obama speech coming soon.

Notes on presidential speeches

The thing that stands out when comparing President Obama’s speech in Cairo and speeches made by other American presidents is the reaction was split depending on what the point of view was.

In the United States, Obama’ speech was well received. The same goes for Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” speech. Both speeches were intended to make a statement to an “enemy”, but Obama’s was more of a reconciliation attempt than Reagan’s.

In 1987, the Soviet Union was starting to crumble and it was easy to make demands of the Russians while they were restructuring their economy. Regan telling Gorbachev to tear down the wall made no difference at the time. Only after two years had passed and the wall came down did Regan’s speech become elevated to an almost mythic status. Personally, I think with the way things were, Regan’s speech was made in to something much bigger than it actually was because American’s were (are?) totally in love with Reagan and jumped at the opportunity to thumb their noses at the Communists and say, “We told you so.”

Abroad, the Regan speech was dismissed or criticized. Understandably, the international media did not think much of what Regan had to say.
The Obama speech was seen from several different points of view. Israelis were not enthused about what Obama had to say, and Palestinians had some good things to say. As usual with these two groups, any attempt to say ANYTHING about either group sets off a huge debate about the Americans not treating them fairly.

The test of time will be the true indicator of how good or bad this speech was.

Proposal No. 1

To: Burnis Morris
From: Tom Bragg

RE: Story outline: Gas prices impacting travel for high school sports

Subject: Rising gas prices limiting travel for some high school sports teams.

Scope: I will research to see how much of an impact the rising price of gas has had on travel for high school athletic teams in Kanawha County, W.Va. West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the country, so the price to travel from (for example) Charleston to Wheeling by car or bus going up is going to severely limit the number of teams, fans and parents able to make that trip. I want to find out if there is any difference between the different school's in Kanawha County budget for athletics. If there is a difference, do the schools with deeper pockets that are able to play a broader range of teams fare better on the athletic fields than the teams that can not travel as far?

Need: To find out if the schools being treated fairly by the Kanawha County Board of Education. It has never been much of a secret that some schools are in the "have" category and others are in the "have not" category in Kanwaha County, but is the price of gas playing any part in a teams ability to compete?

Methods: This story can be put together by researching how much money is put aside in the athletic budgets for gas and travel. I can find this by contacting (or actually going to) the Kanawha County Board of Education and by speaking with officials from the different high schools (including principals, athletic directors and coaches).

Sources: I will compare weigh the difference between the schools that have more money for travel versus how well they do on the field. I will try to draw a correlation between winning (and competing for) state championships and being able to travel more than other teams in the same sport. Coaches and Athletic Directors will be able to weigh the pros and cons of expensive and long travel against how successful their programs are.

Presentation: This would be a single story with the possibility of a sidebar on college sports and gas prices impacting how they travel. The story would be an overview of my findings.

Follow-up: This could be something followed up each semester. As the gas prices rise and fall things will change for better and worse.

An introduction

First and foremost, I want this space to be a resource for anyone interested in Marshall University's search for a new Athletic Director. As hard as it may be, I will put MY opinion to the side and present the different facts and perspectives on the issue.

In addition to that, there will be things posted here not relating to the AD search from time to time. This blog is part of a new method of teaching the Reporting Public Affairs class at Marshall and will be used to post things related to that class as needed.

Feel free to comment. I feel like this is going to be a VERY informative exercise.


Here is a list of links relating to both Bob Marcum retiring and the search for his replacement from several sources in the Huntington and Charleston markets:

Doug Smock - Charleston Gazette

The Associated Press

Jack Bogazczyk, Sports Editor - Charleston Daily Mail

Anthony Hanshew - The Herald Dispatch

Staff report, The Herald Dispatch

Eastman & Beaudine (the firm hired to help with the search)

This obviously isn't everything that has been said on the issue, but it is a good starting point.

I'm curious about naming an interim AD. Will it be anybody on the private firm's list? Is there going to be a difference of opinion among the Marshall contingent and the group from Eastman & Beaudine? This will all play out in the coming weeks.