O hai Charlie

Breaking news if you’re into this kind of thing:

New York’s 27th congressional district will likely find earmarks a lot harder to come by soon, as a House investigative committee has found that longtime congressman and lord of Harlem Charles Rangel “violated a range of ethics rules.”

The eighteen-month-long investigation was investigating whether the former Ways and Means chairman “improperly rented four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem at a price well below market value” and “improperly used his office to provide legislative favors for an oil-drilling company that pledged a $1 million donation for an academic center named for Mr. Rangel and improperly failed to report taxable income received from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.”

And if precedent’s any guide, Rangel won’t have a happy ending: the last congressman to face equivalent violations was expelled from the House. On the sort-of-bright-side, Rangel still looks better than his predecessor, Adam Clayton Powell, who not only had his own corruption scandal, but was also a homophobe. A step up!

Image via toyrific.co.uk

Stop panicking about lil’ piggy flu.  We’ve found a way to make it politically incorrect.

The only reason we have a potential pandemic is all those corrupt doctors.  Free Viagra be damned, we want our vaccine!

The 2013′s are signing away their souls (on Facebook).  Columbia has the fewest downsides—compared to Cornell.

Hopefully they’ll face better economic times.  One Columbia graduate has found fame in, erm, illicit affairs.

For the rest of us, Yankees’ seats are becoming more affordable (if you were paying thousands of dollars to begin with).

Leave all of that behind.  If you’re stuck at home because the big, bad economy took your job, rest assured that it’s the best for your GPA.

Whatever you may think of Columbia Student Councils, at least they’re reasonably clean. In comparison to NYU, almost anything would be–the College of Arts and Sciences is currently in the midst of a special election after the news broke that outgoing president Meredith Dolgin (whom Gawker called a “pompous ass”), having installed herself as head of a three-member election committee, fixed the race in favor of one candidate. Dolgin has also been accused of embezzling funds, including $2,200 for her grandmother to speak at the school. The Washington Square News gleefully reports on the scandal. 

In a nutshell: Associate Dean of Financial Affairs David Charlow, who deals with financial aid, is in the doghouse for having invested heavily in Student Loan XPress, which Columbia recommends to students for their loans. Here’s MSNBC coverage, and more from 1010 Wins. On campus, CTV got the story first, and Spec was hot on its heels (leaving Bwog pathetically in the dust).

Having garnered seven big-name endorsements, including that of the Columbia Political Union, Michelle Diamond ’08 is widely considered the frontrunner in the upcoming CCSC elections. However, it is just those endorsements that have placed her and her party, One Columbia, under fire for accusations of wrongdoing.

Rebel CC Presidential candidate Tracy Chung ’08 filed three rules violations against Diamond at midnight on Monday. The primary violation, which was provided to Bwog, alleges that SGB treasurer Jonathan Siegel (also the CC 2008 class treasurer) and SGB representative Jessie Leiken had approached Diamond with an “endorsement deal” early in the campaign.

In a previously unpublished Bwog interview that took place in February, Siegel discussed past funding difficulties: “In the past, the relations between the SGB [which provides funding for groups such as the College Democrats and the Columbia Political Union] and the Council haven’t been very good.”

The Student Council cut the SGB budget at the end of 2002-2003 school year and had continued to cut $20,000 each subsequent year, forcing the SGB into debt. Last May, the SGB told Seth Flaxman’s administration that $140,000 was the smallest number they could survive on. According to Siegel, the group was given $139,000. Sunday night, he said, “SGB groups are independent and wouldn’t take their marching orders from us.” But, he added, “SGB groups do care about how SGB is funded.” Read more…