After Trustee Benjamin Hodge brought sunshine to the ongoing corruption at Johnson County Community College under President Terry Calaway — most recently, with regard to questions surrounding how truly competitive the “competitive bid” for legal services is — Calaway and elected Board Chair Shirley Brown-VanArsdale ran for cover Monday and cancelled tonight’s scheduled meeting.

JCCC has not once in 40 years performed a competitive bidding process for its main lawyer.  Elected leaders VanArsdale and Lynn Mitchelson had pledged to bid out this contract, but it quickly became apparent that the two had no interest in putting first the interests of the public. (more…)

Computer World:

Computerworld - With the first flu pandemic in 41 years officially declared today by The World Health Organization (WHO), companies are again being urged to make sure that business continuity plans are in place and they’re prepared for the outbreak.

As the number of H1N1 influenza cases neared 30,000 worldwide, the WHO raised the pandemic warning level from phase five to six – its highest alert.

That prompted Gartner Inc. ot tell its clients to review their procedures for dealing with a pandemic, such as identifying critical-skill employees and their replacements — and emphasizing good hygiene. Otherwise, it said, companies should stay the course.

by Pete Lucas, a contributing author:

Kansascity.com reports that a 42 year old Kansas City, Kansas man has been convicted of 3 counts of child molestation and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences.

Vernie Burns, the molester, was a repeat offender. He was convicted of molesting an 8 year old child in Missouri before these new charges appeared. In his latest case, he was convicted of molesting an additional 3 children. (more…)

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During the course of his 19 years on the Supreme Court, Justice Souter has been accused of transforming from a moderate “conservative” to a reliable “liberal” vote. Insofar as his views on discriminatory taxes go, there has been a shift. A justice who was once eager to question states’ protectionist use of their taxing authority (to the detriment of the national market) has become over time a justice willing to twist the precedents to uphold such laws.

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Google’s Ad Preference Manager, with its persistent opt-out plug-in, offers precisely the kind of robust opt-out that privacy advocates have always demanded. Google deserves a rousing “Amen!” from privacy advocates. Google’s new “Interest Based Advertising” program represents the company’s first foray into what is generally called “Online Behavioral Advertising.”