Nevadans may remember when Judge Elizabeth Halverson was found guilty of gross misconduct and removed from the bench by the Nevada Discipline Commission?
You can read the sequel in the Las Vegas Review Journal:
Halverson’s husband recently tried to beat her to death with a frying pan and has plead out his case to the tune of 3 to 10 years in jail.
Quite a pair, these two.
What He Said (whole post here):
I haven’t much liked McCain’s campaign in 2008.
But our job as voters is not to act as campaign reviewers, handing out three stars for a good performance and booing a bad one.
Our job is to act as citizens and to discern as best we can the quality of the candidates and their philosophies of government.
A bad performance by a candidate makes the citizens’ job more difficult – but no less imperative.
On the subject of lining one’s own pockets under the pretense of helping needy kids:
The Las Vegas Sun reports that Willa Chaney, a candidate for the State Board of Education, owes the Nevada Education Department more than half a million bucks for funds she misused while running a program to provide aid to needy students.
The NV Education Dept. sued Willia Chaney’s company and in August a District Court judge ordered Chaney to pay back the money. The Sun reports:
“From 1993 to 1999 Chaney operated a federally funded program to provide meals to poor children during summer vacations and other school breaks. The state shut down the Smart Start Summer Food Service Program in 1999 after the inspector general identified $1.01 million in questionable expenses.”
Apparently investigators found that Smart Start was serving far fewer children than it claimed in its reports of meals delivered to 13 apartment buildings in Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. Also among the investigator’s audit findings (quoted from the Sun):
• More than $250,000 in salaries was paid to 15 Smart Start employees, “even though they apparently did little or no work” and no time cards were maintained. Chaney’s husband, James, served as the program’s director and her son and daughter were on the payroll.
• Federal money was used to purchase five vehicles. The titles were in the Chaneys’ names rather than in the name of the Smart Start program.
• The program’s costs included $2,000 a month paid to Chaney’s day-care center, Smart Start Daycare, for use of its kitchen and parking spaces. Investigators determined the food program’s facility had ample parking, and the child-care center was paying $1 a year to lease its entire location.
Chaney is running for the District 3 seat on the State Board of Education, which sets policy for the Nevada Education Department and the state’s school districts. She denies any wrongdoing.
© 2012 Elizabeth Crum. All Rights Reserved.