Archive for 2020

THEY TOLD ME IT WAS JUST A PURGE OF CONFEDERATE GENERALS: UNH Law School Faculty Votes To Drop Franklin Pierce Name. “Not all faculty are in agreement. Dean Megan Carpenter says that of 25 full-time law school faculty, twelve supported the resolution, six voted against it, one abstained, and six didn’t vote.”

OUCH: Boeing’s Spaceship Still Really, Really Sucks.

In an announcement, NASA outlined a whopping 80 recommendations for Boeing to fix its astronaut shuttle. It’s the final assessment of the agency’s investigation that followed a botched December test flight that almost ended in disaster.

The news comes after Boeing was found in February to have failed to conduct an “end-to-end” test of its Starliner spacecraft prior to the December test flight. At the time, Boeing was under the belief that it would have been “more logical to break the mission phases into chunks and do a lot of testing in those smaller chunks,” according to Starliner program manager John Mulholland.

The recommendations released this week include overhauls to the communications hardware, several updates to the spacecraft’s software, and changes to safety reporting structures.

That’s a lot to fix before the Starliner’s next test launch this fall.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Related: What Boeing is doing instead of building spaceships and aircraft that work.

ROSS IZARD: Kids won big in school choice ruling. “Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a landmark ruling invalidating the use of state constitutional “Blaine Amendments” to bar faith-based schools from participating in K-12 scholarship programs. That ruling removes the largest legal impediment to private school choice in three dozen states and throws open the doors of opportunity for millions of students nationwide.”

Read the whole thing, which focuses on a yearslong legal battle over schooling here in Colorado.

Parents, I’d add, seem more than ready to take advantage of the new opportunities.

IT WOULD COST A LOT MORE THAN THAT TO GET RID OF ME: University Paid $504,000 to Get Rid of Professor. This is longtime UNC-Wilmington gadfly Mike Adams:

Sartarelli, in a note to the campus, said he had three choices. “1) Have him continue as a faculty member and accept the ongoing disruption to our educational mission, the hurt and anger in the UNCW community, and the damage to the institution. 2) Attempt to terminate him, and face drawn out, very costly litigation, that we might not win, which was the case when Dr. Adams sued UNCW and won a First Amendment retaliation lawsuit in 2014. That legal process lasted 7 years and cost the university roughly $700,000, $615,000 of which was for Dr. Adams’ attorneys’ fees. Losing a similar lawsuit today could cost even more. 3) Negotiate a settlement when, as part of a conversation with me about his conduct and future at UNCW, I learned Dr. Adams was interested in retiring. This approach allows us to resolve the situation quickly, with certainty, and in the most fiscally responsible way. This is the best option for our university and our community.”

The news story I read when it happened made me suspect that they bought him out. If I were him, I’d now hire a forensic accountant and start filing FOIA requests regarding the university’s finances. This buyout doesn’t look big enough to have included a non-disparagement clause . . .

OPEN THREAD: Same as it ever was.

SUE ME, SUE YOU BLUES: The Band Lady A (The Artists Formerly Known as Lady Antebellum) Files Lawsuit Against Singer Anita ‘Lady A’ White. “‘Today we are sad to share that our sincere hope to join together with Anita White in unity and common purpose has ended,’ the group said in a statement. ‘She and her team have demanded a $10 million payment, so reluctantly we have come to the conclusion that we need to ask a court to affirm our right to continue to use the name Lady A, a trademark we have held for many years.’”

UNEXPECTEDLY: 400% surge in NY police retirement applications this week.