Spring Break
Photo: J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press
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President Barack Obama nominated a Johns Hopkins graduate to the Treasury Department today. The Obama administration has been criticized for not fully staffing the Treasury Department despite the economic crisis. This morning he announced three people for appoints in the department in an effort to remedy that problem. However, seventeen deputy Treasury Secretary and two undersecretary positions remain empty.
Kim Wallace, who earned his M.S. in business from Johns Hopkins, joins Treasury as the assistant secretary of Treasury, legislative affairs. He is currently the cournselor to the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, who earned a degree from SAIS.
Wallace joins other Johns Hopkins graduates in the Obama Administration: Shin Inouye, director of specialty media for the White House; Phil Gordon, assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs at the State Department; and Evan Ryan, assistant to the vice president for intergovernmental affairs and public liaison.
-Michael Szeto
blogs.jhunewsletter.com
The White House’s statement after the jump.
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Photo: Charles Dharapak / Associated Press
The White House announced several key appointments to the U.S. Department of State including SAIS alumnus Phil Gordon and SAIS deputy director and director of research at the Center for Transatlantic Relations Esther Brimmer. The statement from the White House is below.
-Michael Szeto
blogs.jhunewsletter.com
Photo: Steve Ruark/Associated Press
The Walters Art Museum announced a series of cutbacks and layoffs Wednesday.
I reported in December that museums like the Walters Art Museum would soon assess their financial situation in light of the economic crisis. This morning, the Walters announced that it had eliminated sixteen positions, seven of which had been incumbent employees. The museum took several other steps to avoid financial ruin including salary freezes, furloughs, reduced museum hours, and the cancellation of a major exhibition that was planned in conjunction with Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Getty in Los Angeles.
Gary Vikan, director of the Walters, told me in an interview in November that he anticipated making such cuts given the overall state of the economy. “Hiring freezes [and] salary freezes are typical. We haven’t done that, yet, but I expect that will be part of the menu,” said Vikan in November.
Now it is a reality.
“Despite the challenging financial storm we are currently weathering, we foresee a bright and healthy future for the Walters, but we can only get there by making some tough decisions,” said Vikan in a statement this morning.
Even with these cut backs, the Walters will maintain free admission. “We remain fully committed to maintaining the free access to our permanent collections,” he said.
The Walters endowment has taken a beating, losing 27 percent of its value. This coupled with significant funding cuts from the city, county, and state.
The Walters is not the only museum in Baltimore to lay off employees. Last week, the Maryland Historical Society fired at least one employee.
––Michael Szeto
blogs.jhunewsletter.com
michael.szeto [at] jhu.edu
James McGill, the senior vice president for finance and administration for Johns Hopkins University, is listed as the fifth highest paid university chief financial officer in the country according to a report in the Chronicle for Higher Education. The report analyzed the largest salaries of university employees under the president from 2006 to 2007. During that time, the university paid McGill $610,340. McGill reports directly to outgoing university President Bill Brody. According a university web page, McGill oversees: budgets and financial planning and analysis, controller, facilities management , human resources, internal audits, purchasing, real estate, campus safety and security, and the treasurer. There were several instances of deferred compensation for CFOs on the list.
Former Hopkins provost Steven Knapp, who left to become president of George Washington University in August 2007, earned $571,777 for his work at Johns Hopkins. He ranked sixth in the “chief academic officers” category. Ron Daniels, the incoming Johns Hopkins president, received $604,637 at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Chornicle’s list on top ten highest paid CFOs and academic officers can be found after the jump.
–Michael Szeto
blogs.jhunewsletter.com
michael.szeto [at] jhu.edu
Photo: Bill Feig / Associated Press
Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana chats with staff members while working on the Republican Party response to President Obama’s speech.
From Baton Rouge, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana delivered the Republican response to the President’s address to Congress.
Full text after the jump.
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Photo: Evan Vucci/Associated Press
President Barack Obama addressing a joint session of Congress. Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are behind the president.
President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. His prepared remarks, provided by the White House, are after the jump.
–blogs.jhunewsletter.com
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Photo: Ron Edmonds / Associated Press
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, where most of the Executive Office of the Presidency staff work.
The White House announced that Shin Inouye will be the director of specialty media. Inouye graduated from Hopkins with departmental honors in political science. He most recently served as a spokesman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee and has worked on communications for the ACLU, Representative Jerrold Nadler, and Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
This was part of a larger announcement of additional White House communications staff. Inouye joins other Hopkins alumni in the White House including: Tim Geithner (SAIS), Treasury Secretary; and Evan Ryan (SAIS), Assistant to the Vice President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison.
–Michael Szeto
Monday, February 23, 2009
The White House’s statement on Inouye after the jump.
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Photo: Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press conference on Wednesday.
Today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (Johns Hopkins B.S. 1964) re-election campaign started despite any acknowledgment from the candidate. In an email to the mayor’s supporters, campaign manager Bradley Tusk wrote, “Today, you can get involved directly in your neighborhood and help Mike continue to make New York City a great place to live.”
Bloomberg, however, is reluctant to answer questions about his campaign in press conferences. This despite building a campaign staff–including Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton’s former campaign communications director, and Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for John McCain’s presidential campaign.
Asked by Azi Paybarah of the New York Observer about his campaign plans, Bloomberg replied, “This is not a campaign, and when we start a campaign, I will campaign and when I meet with anybody, I’ll have a private conversation with them and that’s what we’re going to do.”
While the candidate may deny campaigning, Bloomberg’s campaign team began running a series of online ads that tout the Mayor’s record, according to the New York Daily News.
Tusk’s email sends supporters to a redeveloped website and asks them to volunteer for the campaign. Unlike most politicians’ websites, Bloomberg’s site lacks a plea for contributions. The billionaire candidate has chosen to privately finance his campaign. Bloomberg spent $74 million in each of his previous two mayoral campaigns.
Bloomberg was originally not allowed to run for re-election because of a city term limit law. However, he won a bitterly fought city council vote that amended the law. His opponents include Representative Anthony Weiner and New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson.
–Michael Szeto
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
michael.szeto [at] jhu.edu
Full email after the jump:
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Photo Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/ Associated Press
Michael Steele (Johns Hopkins B.A. ‘81) seizes the gavel as the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee.
WASHINGTON—For the first time, African-Americans are the faces of the two political parties in the United States, as Michael Steele was elected the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee today. The former lieutenant governor of Maryland succeeds Representative Mike Duncan who failed to be reelected.
“This is awesome,” Steele said as accepted his party’s chairmanship.
Steele beat out four other candidates, departing RNC chair Duncan, South Carolina Republican chair Katon Dawson, Michigan Republican chair Saul Anuzis, and former Ohio secretary of state Kenneth Blackwell.
After losing control of congress in 2006 and the presidency in 2008, Republicans eagerly sought to remake their image. Republicans embraced their own version of change with Michael Steele.
“The winds of change are blowing at the RNC,” said Duncan as he withdrew his candidacy from the chairman’s race. “This is an organization that is in good shape,” he added.
The RNC’s winter meeting preceded a series of scandals involving its members. Chip Saltsman, a former campaign manager for Mike Huckabee, withdrew his name from consideration on Thursday before the voting session after it became known that he had distributed a holiday CD with racially insensitive songs like “Barack the Magic Negro” and “The Star Spanglish Banner.”
In addition, Katon Dawson resigned his membership at an all-white country club in South Carolina as he began to run for the chairmanship. The country club, Forest Lake Club, has a whites-only restriction.
The outcome of the chairman’s race was unknown coming into the race. Hotline of the National Journal reported that Duncan had the slight lead but still gave a chance to the other candidates.
It took Steele six ballots over many hours to become the next RNC chairman. However, he was consistently seen as the most likely candidate. After every ballot, Steele received an increasing number of votes unlike his opponents who lost votes as time passed and candidates dropped out.
Voting began in the morning and lasted until late afternoon with six ballots cast by the 168 RNC members. Hunter had the slight lead in the first ballot with 52 votes and Steele followed closely at 46. Duncan, Blackwell, and Anuzis pulled out after receiving insufficient votes as the day progressed, leaving the sixth ballot between Steele and Dawson. Steele received 91 and Dawson 77. 85 votes, a majority, were needed.
Steele, 50, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins in 1981. He was lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003-2007 and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2006.
The newly elected chairman wants to focus on rebuilding the Republican’s image in order to reach out to groups previously neglected under previous chairmen.
“We’ve got an image problem,” said Steele at a press conference after the meeting. The new chairman plans to redefine the image of the party that he says has been defined by Democrats and the media.
“It’s time for something completely different and we are going to bring it to them,” he said. “This is a new moment for our party.”
Steele is now the primary face of the Republican party and must not only help Republicans win across the country but also push back against Congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama.
When asked what message he had for President Obama who campaigned against him in 2006, Steele said, “It’s going to be an honor to spar with him, and I would follow that up with ‘How do you like me now?’”
Steele and Republican leaders made no effort to signal a change in policy or ideological tilt. Instead, Steele and other Republican leaders emphasized spreading their current principles to “every corner of the country”
In trying to counter the Democrat’s 50-state strategy, Steele plans to rely on state parties and grassroots efforts.
“Get ready to work,” he told Republicans up and down the hierarchy. “We have a party to build.”
–Michael Szeto
Friday, January 30, 2009
Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press
Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi joins other Senate Republicans in opposition to President Barack Obama’s financial stimulus package as he displays a newspaper advocacy ad during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington.
Steve Hanke, Professor of Applied Economics and Co-Director of the Institute for Applied Economics and the Study of Business Enterprise at Johns Hopkins, signed a public letter to President Barack Obama expressing his opposition to Congress $825 billion economic stimulus package. The Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, sponsored the letter.
He was joined by economists from universities and think tanks across the country who believe that increased governmental spending does not help stimulate the economy. The public letter asks the president and Congress to “remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production.” The full-page ad appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post on Thursday, January 29.
Professor Hanke often writes opinion pieces for the Wall Street Journal on taxes and economic issues. Hanke is also a senior fellow at Cato.
The ad has been used by Republican Senators as support for their opposition to the big spending bill. At a news conference Thursday, Republican U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi held up the ad for members the press to show academic economists’ disapproval of the stimulus package.
–Michael Szeto
Friday, January 30, 2009
The text of the ad, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
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