Scott was previously arrested for a DWI in 2004 when he was an assistant at Virginia Military Institute, an incident UR was aware of when they hired him in December 2009, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He is being replaced by the offensive coordinator in the interim.
This is an untimely end to Scott's career and 6-5 season with the Spiders, which started as an assistant in 2004 as Coach Dave Clawson was turning UR into a perennial playoff contender and laid the foundation for the 2008 Football Championship Subdivision championship with Coach Mike London.
It is unfortunate that unlike his predecessors who went on to coach at the bowl level – Clawson at Bowling Green and London at Virginia – Scott's single-season tenure at UR went in the opposite direction.
"Climategate" started in November 2009 when global-warming skeptics seized on hacked emails from a British university between scientists that they say proved global warming was a hoax concocted with bogus research. Cooch's ire was directly at then-UVa professor and "Climategate" figure Michael Mann, citing a taxpayer fraud law to investigate him for falsifying research with academic grants. On April 23 of last year, Cooch demanded that UVa turn over six years worth of files and correspondence, and that $485,000 in research grants be returned. It has been tied up in the courts ever since.
Cooch fully embraced the "Climategate" label in a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial in February last year, accusing the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of "deception" and "unreliable" findings. "These materials suggest that a small group of academics who have received large grants and who are professionally invested in climate change aggressively manipulated the peer-review process to prevent the publication of contrary views," he wrote.
Mann, who has said he has received violent threats for his work, responded to critics saying that although there are some "minor" errors in his research, the overall consensus that global warming is at least partly man-made and has an impact on climate is solid. Well, Mann, now at Penn State, has been vindicated – again.
An independent report in Britain last July found that the scientists and their research were trustworthy. The Commerce Department this February concluded that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had not manipulated data. A panel at Penn State found last February that Mann individually did not falsify, suppress, or misuse data or information in his research. Additionally, just last week PolitiFact rounded up information on climate-change agencies and scientists, and argued that there is a broad consensus over the sources of climate change.
Now, on Tuesday, the Office of Inspector General for the federal National Science Foundation released a report that found no wrongdoing with Mann's research. "The research in question was originally completed over 10 years ago. Although the Subject's data is still available and still the focus of significant critical examination, no direct evidence has been presented that indicates the Subject fabricated the raw data he used for his research or falsified his results." Although debate over statistical procedures is appropriate, the NSF said, "Such scientific debate is ongoing but does not, in itself, constitute evidence of research misconduct."
One of the hacked emails portrayed climate-change skeptics as Gilligan's Island castaways marooned on a floating ice cap. That is completely unfair, and those scientists should apologize to Bob Denver's family – Gilligan has more intelligence and integrity than people like Cooch ever will.
But our winner is U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. The epicenter of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the East Coast on Tuesday was in Louisa County, part of Cantor's 7th District.
Total damage caused by the quake is estimated at up to $300 million, and less than a third is insured. Locally, an elementary school may have to be condemned, and several businesses, homes, and older buildings were damaged. The Washington Monument and National Cathedral were also damaged.
But Cantor reassured his constituents and those affected by the quake by saying in Culpeper on Wednesday, “All of us know that the federal government is busy spending money it doesn’t have.” Wait, what?
Sure enough, Cantor told reporters that any federal relief would have to be offset by budget cuts elsewhere, although he wasn’t sure where. “When there's a disaster there's an appropriate federal role and we will find the monies. But we’ve had discussions about these things before and those monies will be offset with appropriate savings or cost-cutting elsewhere in order to meet the priority of the federal government's role in a situation like this.”
Because natural disasters can be scheduled and canceled like committee meetings, naturally.
Cantor tweeted last week, “It is critical that in the days and months ahead, we do our best to minimize unnecessary uncertainty, so America's economy can grow.” But “unnecessary uncertainty” when it comes to disaster relief? Not on Cantor’s watch.
Cantor tweeted last week, “It is critical that in the days and months ahead, we do our best to minimize unnecessary uncertainty, so America's economy can grow.” But “unnecessary uncertainty” when it comes to disaster relief? Not on Cantor’s watch.
Cantor said the same thing in May after a tornado killed 160 in Joplin, Missouri. He was rebuked by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican whose state has endured Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill in recent years. “I think disaster relief is not predictable. Emergencies caused by tornadoes, hurricanes are not predictable. ...,” he told reporters in June. “And if [Congress] didn't have a place to offset it, they should still go in and do it.”
Meanwhile, Hurricane Irene is headed toward the Tidewater region, and that damage would be considerably worse. Gov. Bob McDonnell has already declared a state of emergency, but Cantor’s still standing firm on the offset cuts. Cantor’s spokesperson told TPMDC on Thursday, “We aren't going to speculate on damage before it happens, period. But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts.” Well, his office did say “ought to be.” But where will these cuts come from? Will it be from programs like home-heating aid for the poor, Pell Grants for college students, or flood insurance for flood-plain residents?
This is the same man who in March, after the Japan earthquake and tsunami, defended a Republican proposal to cut $450 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The U.S. Geological Survey was also on the chopping block, according to the Richmond Examiner. "We've all got to do more with less here," Cantor said. Both agencies monitor earthquakes and seismic activity.
Cantor played a central role in exacerbating the debt-ceiling crisis that led to a downgrade in U.S. credit by towing the tea-party line (for his Wall Street donors, not for the tea party itself) on deep cuts to even entitlements but with no new revenue, the latter being a source of consternation for Standard & Poor in its decision to downgrade. Now Congress has a record-low approval rating of 13%. The quake may have damaged monuments in Washington, but Cantor is largely responsible for damage done to Congress.
That's Majority Leader – "leader" being just an ironic nickname – Eric Cantor, today's Worst Virginian in the World!
