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Judge Quashes Subpoena of UVA Research Records
esocid writes "An Albemarle County Circuit Court judge has set aside a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to the University of Virginia seeking documents related to the work of climate scientist and former university professor Michael Mann. Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. ruled that Cuccinelli can investigate whether fraud has occurred in university grants, as the attorney general had contended, but ruled that Cuccinelli's subpoena failed to state a 'reason to believe' that Mann had committed fraud. He also set aside the subpoena without prejudice, meaning Cuccinelli can rewrite it to better explain why he wants to investigate, but seemed skeptical about the underlying claim of fraud. The ruling is a major blow for Cuccinelli, a global warming skeptic who had maintained he was investigating whether Mann committed fraud in seeking government money for research that showed the earth has experienced a rapid, recent warming. Mann, now at Penn State University, worked at U-Va. until 2005. 'The Court has read with care those pages and understands the controversy regarding Dr. Mann's work on the issue of global warming. However, it is not clear what he did was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia,' Peatross wrote. The ruling also limited Cuccinelli to asking about only one of the five grants issued, which was the only one using state funds."
A) The cat's already out of the bag, so it's sort of silly to think this is an effort to silence Mr. Mann.
B) It is interesting (and very bigoted of you) to assume anyone who is a AGW skptic is anti-science and pro-intelligent design. You should be on TV. That leap in logic would get you over the Grand Canyon.
So transpanency rules except when it has to deal with global warming. Wikileaks is to be honored, yet research records concerning global warming should be protected from the public eye at all costs. Makes perfect sense. I can't stand right wingers, but the blatant liberal agenda is just as nausiating.
Its nice to see mods that don't mod based on political bias. [/sarcasm]
+1 insightful for someone that didn't even read the summary? Really?
The -1 to me obviously makes his opinion more valid as well. Mhmmm.
people outside of broad academia try to jump in and play politics with the conduct of research ...Openness is great in principle, but...Openness is great in principle
What exactly are Al Gore's scientific credentials? He has a journalism degree, childhood was basically no different than a trust-fund baby and according to Wikipedia he did poorly in science and math classes at Harvard. Except for his stance on AGW, he would be ridiculed beyond belief on Slashdot because if this resumé.
In almost all other disciplines, Slashdotters tend to prefer the experts to be experts in a field. But for climate research, experts can be anyone involved in any field at all, regardless of how little that field actually contributes to meteorology and climate otherwise.
As you are well aware, Mann has been repeatedly investigated by political hacks and repeatedly cleared
Really? I was under the impression that his work has recently been falsified, in the scientific meaning of the word, by expert statisticians. It's doubtful that he didn't know his work didn't hold up to scrutiny these last few years (since M&M at least) and thus there's plenty of reason to believe he's been accepting grant money under false premises.
http://www.e-publications.org/ims/submission/index.php/AOAS/user/submissionFile/6695?confirm=63ebfddf
it's in my head