JANET NAPOLITANO STRAYS FROM THE SCRIPT: “University of California officials on Wednesday sought to clarify recent comments by President Janet Napolitano that some critics of for-profit colleges interpreted as urging her former Obama administration colleagues to back off their regulatory proposal aimed at cracking down on the industry. . . . Napolitano’s letter left some advocates for tighter rules on for-profit colleges concerned that the leader of one of the country’s largest public university systems was lobbying the Obama administration to abandon its current plan to publish final ‘gainful employment’ rules by this fall.”

Perhaps Napolitano thinks that such rules, once in place, will inevitably be applied to “non-profit” schools too, with catastrophic results.

CHANGE SAME: Obama’s revamp of anti-terror policies stalls. “A year after President Obama announced a major new counterterrorism strategy to take the country beyond the threats that flowed directly from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, much of the agenda he outlined remains unfinished or not even begun.”

NEW ACADEMIC SLOGAN: RESPECT MY AUTHORITY! Seizing a Sculpture.

At British Columbia’s Capilano University, the administration seized a sculpture caricaturing the university president on the grounds that it constituted “harassment” of President Kris Bulcroft.

The new trend seems to be characterizing every sort of criticism as “threats” or “harassment.”

ALSO, ALL THE OTHERS: Dana Milbank: Obama Is President Passive Over The Veterans Administration Scandal.

Related: In Obama’s White House, The Buck Stops Nowhere.

Also: Obama’s Indecision Points.

Plus: The Victim Presidency. “He’s been described as acting like a bystander to his own presidency, but it’s more like he’s a victim of it, as though the presidency were this terrible thing that just happened to him one day that he’s now courageously dealing with. . . . Every time he has some spectacular screw-up, which seems to be about once a quarter, he pronounces himself outraged, as though he had not failed us but had been failed himself. So Barack Obama has sworn that he will not tolerate the incompetence of the Obama administration. I’d like to think that that means he is going to resign, but I don’t think that’s what he meant.”

KC JOHNSON: Here Come the Lawsuits over Sex Hearings: Accused Males Take on Columbia and Drew. “As colleges adopt a de facto presumption of guilt in undertaking investigations for which they are in no way competent, they will be hit with more and more of these kinds of lawsuits. And it’s fair to say that the presidents and administrators of these institutions are bringing it on themselves.”

EUGENE VOLOKH: Arrestee alleges government misconduct; federal magistrate orders arrestee to apologize and recant, as a condition of bail. “This seems to me clearly unconstitutional: It’s an order compelling speech, on threat of imprisonment, which would itself normally be a First Amendment violation; but on top of that, it was issued without a trial, and thus without any final factual findings supporting its validity.”

What is the name of this speech-squelching magistrate?

Related: Bold witness to alleged abuse by federal agents comes forward.

“He said, ’I don’t need to show you a F—–g warrant.’”

Branson said, “I need to see a warrant, based on the fourth amendment…”

“The agent answered ‘Oh you’re a F—–g lawyer now. We can do this the easy way or the hard way and put his finger on the trigger of his M16. That’s when I just backed up,” Branson said.

According to Branson the alleged assault to Lipsen happened in plain view, on the sidewalk in front of a residence.

“It happened outside on the sidewalk, ” stated Branson, “She wasn’t even on the property. She was standing on the sidewalk.”

Branson’s account matches reported accounts by the Lipsens and Tom Cochran. He recounts how Lipsen’s sister Arielle started asking questions. Then, things got ugly.

They were ugly from the beginning. I’d like to know the names of these agents, too.

More:

“The same guy who cussed me out comes walking up. He’s about my size in full tactical gear with an M16 strapped to his chest, with what looked like four extra clips. He comes walking up real aggressive and she starts to back off. He says, ‘You need to shut up.’

“She says, ‘What are you going to do, shoot me?’

“At that point the officer grabbed her by the neck. She flinched and said, ‘get your hands off me.’ The officer then said ‘that’s resisting.’

“He threw her to the ground.

“As she tried to get up, he grabbed her and threw her down again and her foot hit him. It wasn’t a kick. It is what happens when you get your legs kicked out from underneath you and get thrown to the ground.

“The officer said, ‘You just assaulted a police officer’ and then started choking her (with the butt of the gun). I saw it. I was standing right in front of the Purple Zone.”

I’m sure the Civil Rights Division will be right on this. But you know, as we see story after story like this, people are going to begin to doubt whether law enforcement is deserving of respect and support.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: White House Pressures Legislators Into Gutting NSA-Taming USA Freedom Act.

I’M SURE THE SEC WILL BE RIGHT ON THIS: GM Sure Recalled A Lot Of Cars Right After The Feds Sold Their Shares. “Even though the company had data demonstrating a faulty ignition switch for years, it didn’t initiate a full investigation or recall until February of 2014, two months after the government sold its stake in the company. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) didn’t initiate a full investigation of the issue until later that month, even though the U.S. government had owned the company for 5 years. The Justice Dept. also showed up late to the party, confirming that same month that it had initiated a criminal probe into the matter. . . . Instead of investigating fatally flawed GM components while the U.S. government was the company’s largest single owner, the NHTSA was busy harassing Toyota — one of GM’s top competitors — for an alleged malfunction.”

ELIANA JOHNSON: Mudslinging In Mississippi.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Cronyism blamed for half of Univ. of Texas law school grads’ inability to pass the bar.

A mushrooming scandal at the University of Texas has exposed rampant favoritism in the admissions process of its nationally-respected School of Law.

According to Watchdog.org, Democratic and Republican elected officials stand accused of calling in favors and using their clout to obtain admission to the law school for less-than-qualified but well-connected applicants.

The prestigious program boasts a meager 59 percent of recent graduates who were able to pass the Texas bar exam. Those numbers rank UT “dead last among Texas’ nine law schools despite it being by far the most highly regarded school of the nine,” wrote Erik Telford at FoxNews.com.

“Every law school — even Harvard and Yale — turns out the occasional disappointing alum who cannot pass the bar,” said Telford. “In Texas, however, a disturbing number of these failed graduates are directly connected to the politicians who oversee the university’s source of funding.”

Telford singled out State Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D) and State House Speaker Joe Straus (R) as particularly egregious offenders. A series of Zaffirini emails showed that the state Senator was more than willing to pull strings in applicants’ favor. Another six recent graduates who failed the bar exam twice each have connections to Straus’ office.

Give a politician power, and they figure out a way to turn it into corruption.

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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Do the Math: How Opportunity Costs Multiply Tuition. “The average full-time college student misses out on a little over $9,000 in earnings for each year they spend in school. That rises to $15,500 for the 25% of students who don’t work at all. And that qualifier—’for each year’—matters more than you might think, as nearly 60% of students take six years or more to graduate. This means that the diligent students who both work and graduate in four years still miss out on over $36,000, and the ones that take their time and don’t work at all can forego over $93,000 in income. And when you combine this with student loan debt, even those who manage to find a substantially better job will be playing “catch up” for a while.”

THIS IS A GOOD THING: FBI To Start Recording Interrogations.

Of course, I think the interrogated have a due process right to make their own recordings, too.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Federal ‘Biosurveillance’ Plan Seeking Direct Access to Americans’ Private Medical Records.

JAMES O’KEEFE PUNKS HOLLYWOOD GREENS. “O’Keefe’s crew pose as a Middle Eastern potentate named ‘Muhammad’ and his American ad executive. They approach the Tickells with an offer of $9 million to finance an anti-fracking film. ‘Muhammad’s’ motives are clearly expressed: he wants to keep the U.S. dependent on Middle Eastern oil, and to that end he wants to stamp out fracking. The Tickells have no problem with this at all. . . . Naturally, the punked parties have responded with howls of outrage. What should the unbiased observer make of it? You could adopt the Tickells’ attitude and say, as long as they are going to make an anti-fracking film, what difference does it make where the money comes from? But most people won’t see it that way. The alacrity with which the filmmakers sign on with ‘Muhammad’s’ goal of preventing America from becoming more energy independent is discomfiting.”

Discomfiting, but not in the least surprising.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Expanded DNA alphabet provides more options for nanotechnology.

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SARAH HOYT: Nebulizing The Patriarchy. “So what’s wrong with men in positions of power? Oh, right. They have penises. Which don’t monologue. (Thank heavens.) . . . It’s very easy, btw, to kick white patriarchy in the balls. Now, try to do that to the tan patriarchy of the Middle East — which is real patriarchy — and you might find yourself stoned to death. And we don’t mean with pot.”

VIDEO: Michelle Fields Quizzes Environmentalists – Is Global Warming or Global Cooling the Problem?

THE MOST TRANSFORMATIVE INVENTION since the iPad.

THIS IS NO SURPRISE: “According to a 2002 study, young women are much more open talking about sex than men are. Eva Lefkowitz from Penn State University conducted the study over three months, observing 124 women and 81 men between the ages of 18 to 25 and focused on their conversations with their same-sex friends. She found that the female subjects chatted about all matters of sex — including masturbation — much more frequently than men.”

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Obama Sends U.S. Forces Into Chad.

WHEN SETTLED SCIENCE TURNS OUT TO BE UNSETTLED: A Victory Lap for a Heretical Neurologist.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: U.S. utility’s control system was hacked, says Homeland Security.

A NOT ENTIRELY PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT for more government surveillance.