Wheeling Jesuit: six-year conspiracy to misuse millions?

AP’s Wheeling Jesuit and Davitt McAteer story by Vicki Smith in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — One of the world’s foremost experts on mine safety — from gold mines in Chile to the coal mines of southern West Virginia — stands accused by a NASA fraud investigator of conspiring with the Catholic college where he now works to use millions of federal grant dollars for personal gain and the school’s benefit.

It’s in a sworn affidavit by a NASA Inspector General agent “used to obtain search warrants.”

The sworn affidavit by an agent who works out of the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Md., said those expenses range from McAteer’s salary — which surged from $130,300 in 2006 to $230,659 by 2008 — to cellphones, computers, technical support and salaries for other staff, including a secretary in McAteer’s Shepherdstown [WV] private law office.

McAteer’s reports on mine disasters at the governor’s request have been scrutinized.

The reports he authored are now among the evidence that federal investigators are studying. Among the search warrant requests were “any and all documents” relating to work done on those three reports, including financial documents, travel expense, time cards and interview notes.

There were five NASA grants, regarding which:

[T]he agent found the duties and salaries of individuals “did not, in any way, benefit the substantive work being done on the federal award projects.”

“The motive for (McAteer’s) actions is evidenced by the substantial sum of money (Wheeling Jesuit) improperly received,” the agent concluded.

Wheeling Jesuit in jeopardy:

The university may have been complicit in five possible federal crimes: theft of federal funds; major fraud; conspiracy; false claims; and wire fraud, the document said.

There were warnings:

At least twice, the affidavit said, witnesses interviewed for the investigation warned both McAteer and the school that they were breaking the law. A consulting firm hired in 2008 also made similar warnings, the document said.

“We will slowly work on making this right, but we can’t afford to do it at this time,” McAteer is said to have told top university officials in response to the consulting firm’s conclusion, according to the affidavit.

The officials concurred:

Documents the agent obtained indicate the school’s board of directors deliberately circumvented federal spending rules “for the purpose of sustaining . . . its general, non-federal program educational areas.”

The money flowed:

Between fiscal years 2000 and 2009, NASA gave Wheeling Jesuit more than $116 million, more than $65 million of that after McAteer took over the school’s Sponsored Programs Office in 2005.

A whistle-blower claimed she suffered retaliation:

A finance manager in that office told the investigator that McAteer created the Combined Cost Management Service Center when he took over. Merging the billing of the two centers allowed him “to control and consolidate all the expenses, regardless of whether such expenses were related to the federal awards.”

This points to Catherine Smith, who sued the university in January 2010 saying she lost her job “after questioning [as finance manager for the school’s sponsored programs] the way the school billed administrative expenses for government grants,” as reported by the Charleston State-Journal in a story posted Jan. 14, 2010 and reposted as “updated” Feb. 27, 2012.

Surprise: Catholic libs vs. Paul Ryan

Assorted Jesuits, Jesuit university teachers, and other liberal Catholics DO NOT LIKE Rep. Paul Ryan’s citing Catholic teaching in support of his budget.

Among his sins surely would be his embracing the long-ignored principle of subsidiarity, which says big organizations or governmental entities should butt out of matters better handled by smaller ones.

In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, neither the state nor any larger society should substitute itself for the initiative and responsibility of individuals and intermediary bodies.

No surprise here: A Jesuit history prof at a large Jesuit university told me 20 years ago that the principle no longer had currency. If it did, one might add, big government would not be considered the cure-all it is treated as today.

It was Dorothy Day, I believe, who referred ironically to “holy mother the state.” It’s a good phrase for today’s feckless reverence for big government — feckless in that it blissfully ignores the dangers of incipient statism, not to mention the perils of insolvency.

Schism healed: Pius X Catholics on way back to church

Very hot news in Catholic circles: the Society of St. Pius X, broken away from the Vatican since the 2^nd Vatican Council, is “on the verge” of reconciliation with the church.

It’s remotely comparable to the resolution and dissolution of The Great Schism of the 14^th century, the three-pope period when disarray was the order of the day.

Benedict XVI is making it happen. Standing objections by the SPX people to Vatican 2’s “rupture” or disruptive aspects will remain.

Trust me, folks, it’s like The Episcopal Church U.S.A. making room for Evangelical Christians. Somewhat like? Am working on that.

In Oak Park it means that the Pius X Latin mass church at Ridgeland and Washington, kitty-corner from Julian Middle School, is no longer out of bounds for venturesome Catholics.

More to come. more more more

Not for attribution

* On Green Line: At Madison and Waa-waa-waa-Wabash, baby crying wickedly. Oh for a nursing mother (who can quiet a kid in seconds). Nothing doing, bottles visible on stroller top from other end of car. Young mother and wailing child debark at Clark. Man in hoodie to someone across aisle, commiserating: “I feel sorry for that young girl.”

* Day two, Green Line: At Adams and Wabash, packed car furiously loud, as if a bevy of raucous school girls were hooting and hollering with tales of their social life, talking over each other. A few stops later, the crowd thinned, it’s clear there are only two women making all the racket, chatting.

A few stops later, at Ashland, one got off. As the two said goodbye, the boy sitting next to the one remaining took his opportunity, leaping over the seat in front of them, and began running up and…

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Wheeling Jesuit and its vice president investigated by feds

Wheeling Jesuit University's Seal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Holy mackerel! The guy who stood in for the peremptorily fired Jesuit president of Wheeling Jesuit U. in W. Va. in 2009, very big man on campus whose regular job there was to run or oversee federally funded programs involving millions of tax dollars, is being investigated by the federal government.

A federal investigation into J. Davitt McAteer and Wheeling Jesuit University appears to center on how the university handled federal funds between 2005 and 2011 — with an emphasis on how it billed expenses under grant programs or cooperative agreements, court documents indicate.

Documents by those seeking to unseal the warrants

show that NASA, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General and other agencies seized documents from McAteer’s offices in Wheeling and Shepherdstown on Feb. 16. McAteer, an attorney and former head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, runs WJU’s Office of Sponsored Programs.

Investigators seized, copied and then returned records of expenses billed to federal programs and other records indicating how Wheeling Jesuit handled certain kinds of expenses through its Combined Cost Management Service Center.

Others are to be grilled and perhaps targeted:

The motions also say investigators are looking at current and former employees of Wheeling Jesuit, and some are expected to appear before a grand jury.

“We continue to cooperate with federal investigators,” WJU spokeswoman Michelle Rejonis said. “As information becomes available to us, we will gather information and work from there.”

The argument to unseal the warrants pits government wanting to marshal all relevant data before showing its hand (so far getting its way) vs. McAteer et al. protesting secrecy and its deleterious effects on his and the university’s reputation and ongoing performance by the funded university operations.

The fired Jesuit, Rev. Julio Giulietti, had finished two years at the Wheeling Jesuit helm. His firing was followed by widespread alumni protests and coverage in two national publications , all of which was reported and discussed in this blog. A search in this blog can uncover these reports and discussions. Giulietti went on to work in Viet Nam as representative of Loyola University-Chicago in developing programs of nurse and physician education.

Barack alias Barry and the Mrs.: law prof not

A take on the Obamas as lawyers that qualifies as a take-down.

1. He got the U Chi lecturer’s job after a call to the law school from the trustees, he

having been turned down as adjunct.

2. She “voluntarily surrendered” her license, as Bill Clinton surrendered his after he was convicted of making false statement in the Lewinsky case. Point: “Voluntarily” is not the surrendering one’s idea.

(H/T Nancy J. Thorner)

Voter i-d or not voter i-d? You decide

Can you do something faster than furious? Doesn’t matter.

What made Mike Wallace tick

In this 1995 article, a 1987 TV show is recalled, where Mike Wallace professed to be a “reporter” and nothing else. Nada. Discussion was about saving U.S. troops vs. getting the story. Wallace was for getting the story. Newscaster Peter Jennings had just said he’d save the troops, even at the cost of his own life.

Ogletree [the moderator] turned for reaction to Mike Wallace, who immediately replied. “I think some other reporters would have a different reaction,” he said, obviously referring to himself. “They would regard it simply as another story they were there to cover.” A moment later Wallace said, “I am astonished, really.” He turned toward Jennings and began to lecture him: “You’re a reporter. Granted you’re an American” (at least for purposes of the fictional example; Jennings has actually retained Canadian citizenship). “I’m a little bit at a loss to understand why, because you’re an American, you would not have covered that story.” Ogletree pushed Wallace. Didn’t Jennings have some higher duty to do something other than just roll film as soldiers from his own country were being shot?

“No,” Wallace said flatly and immediately. “You don’t have a higher duty. No. No. You’re a reporter!”

A truncated view, to be sure, but widely embraced, we fear, by the reportorial community. Wallace was bespeaking journalistic objectivity, a good thing, a dying attitude, but sans examination, sans morality. Unabashedly, and on air he turned Jennings around, making them both the object of scorn of soldiers also on the panel. And of many, we presume, who were not.

(Hat tip Instapundit)

Nancy J. Thorner

It was on March 31 that Vice President Joe Biden had the following exchange with a Davenport, Iowa TV station in a series of questions regarding H-1 visas taking American jobs:

Question: Are too many H1B visas given out each year? Are too many highly skilled jobs going to people outside the U.S.?

Biden’s answer: No H1b visa can be granted to an employee to come to a company unless they can prove there is no American to fill the job. What we have had is a real vacuum in the number of computer engineers and high tech personnel to work In particularly Silicon Valley. That where most of those H1b visas are going. That why we have made it so attractive, and I don’t understand why Republicans have opposed it.

Either Vice President Biden has no clue of what he is talking about, or he is simply being untruthful…

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Lucubrations and observations.

Not for attribution

* Saturday in the park with Jim: Man with bent back passes bench, we exchange good mornings. Little dog runs about, mistress tagging along, leash in hand. Across the grass 50 yards away, three knights of the road (homeless to our unimaginative age) gather on a long bench, catching the self-same freshness of April-morning air as I, who have a home and limit my road-riding to the “L.”

A yellow-sweatered blond, legs jeans-covered, with moderately shaggy medium-sized dog — an older fellow — walking calmly along with her, unlike those little guys that run and run. Like one who chases the floppy cloth frisbie thrown by his blue-jacketed mistress, leaps, catches in air, wheels about, returns, and does it again, though not always with like results.

Two days ago, for instance, he did not return after catching cloth frisbie, but dropped it a few feet away, then looked about briefly for a…

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