Associated Press: Accountability Group Unhappy with UNC Response
Late last week, GAP publicly released its letter to the Chancellor of the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), raising serious concerns about school officials’ treatment and smearing of whistleblower Mary Willingham, who recently exposed that an estimated 8-10% of UNC-CH revenue-sport student athletes from 2004-12 read below a third-grade level. The saga continues, as the piece linked to above details UNC-CH’s response to GAP (only after media reports were published), which left the concerns raised by GAP President Louis Clark “overwhelmingly unaddressed.”
The Winston-Salem Journal chimed in with a masthead editorial yesterday which stated that “[UNC-CH] Chancellor Carol Folt must give serious consideration to a letter sent to her earlier this month by the respected Washington, D.C.-based [GAP],” and that “Folt must heed the GAP letter and direct her minions to fix the problems the whistleblower has courageously brought to their attention.” GAP’s concerns have also been publicized on campus with this article in the campus newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel.
Finally, Willingham appeared on the ESPN investigative program Outside the Lines yesterday, and the entire episode was dedicated to the UNC-CH scandal. Willingham raised her concerns, which were buttressed by a former UNC-CH football player.
New York Times: Obama to Call for End to N.S.A.’s Bulk Data Collection
According to media reports, President Obama is preparing a legislative change to the NSA’s bulk phone collection that would “end its systematic collection of data about Americans’ calling habits. The bulk records would stay in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would. And the N.S.A. could obtain specific records only with permission from a judge, using a new kind of court order.” The proposal would also reportedly make changes to the FISA Court’s oversight of NSA programs.
In related news, at an event at the National Press Club yesterday, an “alliance of pro-whistleblower activists” announced they will deliver petitions with over 100,000 signatures to federal agencies calling for NSA whistleblower/GAP client Edward Snowden’s passport to be reinstated.
Key Quote: As part of the proposal, the administration has decided to ask the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to renew the program as it exists for at least one more 90-day cycle, senior administration officials said. But under the plan the administration has developed and now advocates, the officials said, it would later undergo major changes.
The new type of surveillance court orders envisioned by the administration would require phone companies to swiftly provide records in a technologically compatible data format, including making available, on a continuing basis, data about any new calls placed or received after the order is received, the officials said.
They would also allow the government to swiftly seek related records for callers up to two phone calls, or “hops,” removed from the number that has come under suspicion, even if those callers are customers of other companies.
Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.