White House Watch – Dan Froomkin's Blog on washingtonpost.com, Froomkin Watch:
I'm scheduled to be on NPR's Talk of the Nation today between 3 and 4 p.m. ET. We'll be talking about press coverage of the Obama White House. Call in — (800) 989-8255 — and say hi.
Thanks to SG, a link to Nine Proofs Google is G*d.
The frightening thing is — this is far from nuttiest thing I've been emailed today. And that other one was sent in all seriousness…
Alison Frankel writes in the Am Law Litigation Daily, Are Whistle-Blowers Lurking Under the Federal TARP?:
There were few regulations in place when the Treasury Department handed out the first $350 billion. Can the recipients be accused of making false claims when they hardly had to document their claims at all?
Yes, according to a new Fried Frank client alert. The three-page analysis by D.C. partners John Boese and James McCullough points to a letter that TARP special inspector Neil Barofsky recently sent to Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, outlining certifications and documentation that TARP intends to require of all those institutions that received funding. “False certifications,” the Fried Frank alert warns, “have been the basis for FCA claims when they were material to the government's decision to release funds or not to seek return of funds.”
Boese told us that the new paperwork requirements will impose post hoc rules for recipients, heightening their exposure. “Qui tam claims are almost a certainty,” Boese said. “Whether there's liability, that's a different question.”
Fried Frank's client memo also notes that the Treasury Department's interim conflict-of-interest and disclosure rules for contractors and financial agents may mean new False Claims Act exposure for businesses that provide TARP-related services, which are required to report any potential violations to the government.
It might be nice to see some of the hogs at the trough get…well trimmed at least.
According to dynastree.com,
[T]he surname Froomkin the 391176. most frequent name in the US.
That is all.
This Cobert Report item, Nailed 'Em – Amtrak Photographer had me in stitches.
Except like so much humor in this area it's not so funny when you think about it.
My colleague Tony Alfieri is quoted in Wanted: law school deans. Lots of them as saying, sensibly, that being an “austerity Dean” doesn't sound like much fun.
Tony Alfieri, head of the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law and a tenured professor there, agrees. Alfieri has had feelers for deanships but is ambivalent about the prospect of being “an austerity dean.”
“Many more contemporary deans are trying to strike a more appropriate work/life balance and are taking active roles in raising their children,” he said. “Plus they have serious commitments to their own scholarship, to their writing and, for many, to existing public service commitments. Add to that the fact that these are turbulent times. An austerity deanship poses uncommon and especially high challenges. And it's doubly vexing for women.”
Which I suppose might be one more reason our job might sound attractive…
(But why is it “doubly vexing” for women? Is the idea that men don't raise children or don't do public interest work?)
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