OU is not always aware of sex-offender attendees

By Julia Fair, Athens NEWS Contributor

While the university seldom if ever knowingly admits a sex offender, it likely wouldn’t learn about the offender if the crime occurred when he or she was a juvenile

This past academic year, a registered sex offender became a Bobcat.

Ohio University was unaware while the Athens County Sheriff’s Office built a file of information on the young man.

As required by federal law, the student registered all of his personal information with the Sheriff’s Office. That included his full name, gender, any tattoos, home address, volunteer and school addresses, among other information.

The law enforcement agency didn’t notify the community that the offender had enrolled at OU, though they could have.

In the past, student applicants who have committed sex-related crimes that might have caused them to be a registered sex offender have been barred from attending OU, according to records from OU’s Legal Affairs office.

Between 2010 and 2017, 31 individuals with sex-related criminal pasts were denied attendance on the Athens campus after university officials became aware of their histories.

In 19 of those cases, the sex crimes involved minors.

OU has a Post-Incarcerated Review Committee consisting of representatives from Legal Affairs, Undergraduate Admissions, Student Affairs and the Ohio University Police Department. Those representatives review the files of every student felon who applies to OU, including those convicted of sex-related crimes.

“To be a registered sex offender, a person would almost certainly have been convicted of a felony, which would trigger the review process,” then OU spokesperson Katie Quaranta said in an email from September 2015. “While we consider each case individually, we consider sex offenders very carefully and usually impose significant restrictions, if they are allowed to apply at all.”

Quaranta has since left employment with the university.

Individuals from the committee were unavailable for an interview, Dan Pittman, OU’s media relations manager, said on March 23, 2017.

“If an applicant for admission to the university discloses a prior conviction with ‘sex offender’ status, it is highly unlikely… that the Post-Conviction Committee would approve admission to an on-campus program,” John Biancamano, OU’s general counsel, said in an email in March 2016.

If they are juveniles when they commit the crime, though, those records are not available to the community even after they reach 18.

Usually, when an individual follows a court-mandated sex-offender registration, his or her information is available on the local Sheriff’s Office website. Community members can type their own address in, select a radius of one to five miles from that address, and see how many sex offenders live within that area.

Under Ohio law, a juvenile sex offender (meaning he or she was a juvenile at the time of the crime) would not show up in that public search.

Instead, only the officials in the Sheriff’s Office know about the student sex offender’s registration. Then they decide when and if the university is notified, according to federal SORNA implementation documents.

It’s happened before and can happen again

Above the bars and small businesses, and students scurrying to class on Court Street, an OU student sex offender (a different one from the juvenile offender mentioned at the beginning of this article) rented an apartment and attended classes in 2013.

That student was a juvenile when he committed the sex crime, classifying him as a juvenile sex offender. According to Ohio law, juvenile sex offenders are not published to the Sex Offender Registration Network for community notification. That system holds information about more than 80 sex offenders who live in Athens County.

The student’s Court Street address would not have shown up on one of the aforementioned online searches.

“When you’re convicted as a juvenile, your information never becomes public,” explained Brynne Morris, Sex Offender Registration Network Administrator (SORNA) at the Athens County Sheriff’s Office. “So you may still be required to register but your information is not going to be posted.”

It’s not clear if that juvenile offender’s sex-crime past was reviewed by OU. The records obtained from the office of Legal Affairs dated back to 2010. If the student who lived on Court Street graduated on a four-year track, he would have applied to the university in 2008 or 2009.

Back then, the Sheriff’s Office apparently was still unaware of that student’s Court Street residence, which being located within 1,000 feet of the Athens Middle School would have violated a residential restriction on sex offenders in Ohio.

“He basically moved in there without us knowing and then once we found out, he was charged,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Aaron Maynard, who oversees sex-offender registration for Athens County.

That student sex offender was charged in connection with violating the 1,000-foot limit. All sex offenders are restricted from living that close to a school.

He was set to graduate four months later, but the civil process to remove him from the residence would have taken more time than that, Maynard said.

The student moved out shortly after graduating from OU, following an agreement between his attorney and the Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office, however, didn’t relay that information to university officials sitting in their offices less than a mile away.

 

The offender attending class this year

 

In August 2016, the most recent juvenile sex offender registered with the Sheriff’s Office, listing OU as his school address.

The Post-Incarcerated Review Committee did not review this student’s application materials, records show.

The committee did evaluate, however, seven other individuals who committed sex-related crimes before beginning the process of applying to OU to start in August 2016.

Only one was “approved” or allowed to continue the application process after he was found guilty of disseminating material harmful to juveniles in 1997. That adult offender is not a registered sex offender, Pittman said.

Six were denied access to apply.

Those individuals’ crimes include corruption of a minor, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, endangering welfare of a child, possession of child pornography, lewd acts with a minor, illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material or performance and rape.

The specific crime the student sex offender who came to campus last August committed remains unknown.

In 2013 and last August, 2016, the Athens County Sheriff’s Office was the only entity that knew the student sex offenders who had committed their crimes while juveniles were on campus. OU apparently did not know about them.

There is no legal requirement for the Sheriff’s Office to notify OU, however, despite federal guidelines advising that it’s a good idea.

Registering at the sheriff’s office

Sex offenders are required to register with the Sheriff’s Office, and although not required by law, the Sheriff’s Office would notify the university if an adult student had registered, then-OU spokesperson Quaranta said in September 2015.

The Athens Sheriff’s Office follows a different protocol for juvenile sex offenders, however.

“We legally can’t call them and say, ‘Hey, this person is taking classes here,’ because we can’t give them that person’s name,” said Lt. Maynard, who also handles sex offenders in Athens County for the Sheriff’s Office, said. “We legally can’t do that.”

The ACSO approach is different from federal guidelines, however.

SORNA Implementation documents suggest that “responsible law-enforcement agencies” develop a policy to notify institutes of higher education when a juvenile sex offender attends a school within the jurisdiction.

The guidelines say the purpose is to provide further guidance to jurisdictions on a variety of topics when implementing SORNA.

The Athens County Sheriff’s Office did not follow those guidelines in August 2016.

When the federal guidelines were shown to Lt. Maynard, he said his office works based on local and state guidelines.

“I can’t speak on a document that does not mention the Ohio Revised Code,” Maynard said.

The Sheriff’s Office decides what kind of notification the community receives about individual sex offenders, including juvenile offenders, based on the ruling of the judge who oversaw the initial sentencing of the sex offender, Maynard said, which is based on the severity of the crime.

“If the Ohio Attorney General gave us updates that would advise us to do something different, we would certainly do that,” he said.

 

Other schools

 

Few institutes of higher education in Ohio go beyond SORNA’s suggested practices.

At Ohio University, the only notification measure appears on the OU Police Department website. From there, students can follow a link to the Athens County Sheriff’s Office website where they can access the Sex Offender Registration Network, showing registered sex offenders within a one- to five-mile radius of an address. However, since OU rarely if ever knowingly admits a sex offender to campus, a policy on notification would appear to be unnecessary.

An extensive review of university policies from the 35 public institutes of higher education in Ohio show only five with policies about notifying the campus community of any sex offenders who may be on campus.

The five include Belmont College, Central State University, Hocking College, Lorain Community College and Washington State Community College.

Those policies stem from the federal Campus Sex Crime Prevention Act that went into effect in 2002. That law was intended to guarantee that, when a convicted sex offender enrolls or begins employment at a college or university, members of the campus community will have the information they need to protect themselves, according to Central State’s policies website.

Central State students in Wilberforce, Ohio, near Dayton, rely on the Greene County sheriff’s office to notify campus officials when a sex offender lists Central State as his or her school address so the appropriate notification can be made.

The federal Campus Sex Crime Prevention Act was part of the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Registration Act, a federal law which was repealed when the Sex Offender Registration Notification Act went into effect in 2009.

“Most colleges will still (keep a list) even if it’s not technically a federal standard because it’s just good practice,” said Lori McPherson, a senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Belmont College officials never thought of dismantling the list once the CSPA was repealed, said R.J. Konkoleski, vice president of advancement and marketing for the school.

“It’s not something we saw a reason to stop, but it’s not something that we necessarily feel obligated by law or otherwise to do,” he said. “It’s been our practice since we had that childcare.”

With Belmont College’s status as a two-year technical school in St. Clairsville, Belmont County, there used to be up to 40 children enrolled at a childcare facility in the same building where a college course was scheduled, Konkoleski said.

“I think the fact that we have that list is a carryover from those times,” he said.

The majority of the schools that keep the lists are classified as community colleges while Central State University in the Dayton area is the only university that keeps a list of student sex offenders.

The local Greene County sheriff would notify the university president or the university police of the registered sex offender on campus, said Laurel L. Wilson, general counsel of Central State. The university would then take steps to notify students, faculty and staff.

“The action is taken to provide protection to the students and staff,” Wilson said in an email.

Hocking College gave similar reasons justifying its student sex-offender reporting policies, citing safety and awareness as its main concern.

“As a professional police department, we advise our community to be aware,” said a Hocking College representative who declined to be identified. “Likewise, we practice this.”

Hocking College’s policy states that students who are required by law to register as a sex offender also must report their status with the college. The Hocking College Police Department then maintains the list of student and employee sex offenders on campus.

Not all colleges or universities have extensive policies about student sex offenders.

“What the policy looks like is going to vary from campus to campus,” McPherson said. “There’s not a set policy or set federal law that governs what colleges have to do.”

The colleges get to set their own standards, McPherson said.

“Even if there’s not a federal standard, even if there’s no best practice or base line, you can still push your campus folks to do more,” McPherson said.

Isolated without OUSAP

Julia Fair | Staff Writer

Editor’s Note: Conner Dalton came to The Post earlier in the semester after the police report describing her assault, in which her name was redacted, was published. At that time, she was seeking assistance from OUSAP and was interested in writing a column describing her experience in The Post. After she was quoted in a Postarticle about a sit-in protesting the lack of a program coordinator for OUSAP at Cutler Hall, The Postcontacted her for this article.

Conner Dalton was supposed to be buying books and looking for her classes when she came to Ohio University this year.

Instead, she was looking for the Ohio University Police Department and the Ohio University Survivor Advocacy program — both resources available to her following her sexual assault during the first week of classes.

Conner Dalton, a freshman at Ohio University, was using OUSAP for its services, but is now left to go through the University investigation without guidance. ARIELLE BERGER | DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

“Every single person I talked to, it felt like I was screaming into the air,” Dalton, an undecided freshman, said. “No one was listening, but SAP did.”

Things changed when OUSAP’s program coordinator, Delaney Anderson, left for another job at the beginning of October. Dalton said Anderson called her two weeks before she left her position to let her know.

The program is still there — Alicia Chavira-Prado, special assistant to the vice provost for diversity and inclusion, is in charge of OUSAP’s administrative leadership and survivors are being referred to Counseling and Psychological Services for help — but services have fundamentally shifted, at least for the time being.

“I was really affected when (Anderson) left, now I’m just kind of on my own now,” Dalton said.

Counselors at CPS and employees at Campus Care are not mandated reporters, meaning they are not required by the university to disclose a survivor’s case to the administration or law enforcement. In a case where a survivor does not want to pursue a criminal or university investigation, a non-mandated reporter is who they’d likely turn to for emotional help.

Navigating the system

In Dalton’s case, she sought help from her resident assistant following the assault, she said. The RA was obliged by the university to report criminal activity such as sexual assault, otherwise known as a “mandatory reporter.” Dalton said she was thrust into a university investigation while she was “just trying to settle” herself into school.

That’s when Anderson came in.

“Delaney and I had established a really good relationship,” Dalton said. “She was the first one I went to after I was assaulted. I really liked her.”

When Anderson left OUSAP, Dalton said she sought services at the university’s CPS, but was told the sexual assault and rape support group at CPS was full, and they “could try” to get her in next semester.

Dalton said she sat in the CPS lobby for two hours waiting for an appointment but eventually had to leave for class. When she went up to the desk to tell a receptionist she wanted to cancel the appointment, she said she received an uninterested answer of “OK.”

Patty Stokes, assistant professor of women’s and gender studies, said sending those who would normally go to OUSAP to CPS isn’t the solution, adding that CPS employees are already overworked.

“(The ability) to talk to confidential, trained people their own age … they’re advocates there to listen,” Stokes said.

Students are looking for centralized services, someone to help them navigate the system, which “nobody else does,” Stokes said.

Now, Dalton is left alone in her ongoing university investigation. Previously, Anderson went to all of Dalton’s university meetings. Having someone there that she knew made it easier, she said.

She went to the police by herself, saying that it was one of the most “traumatic” things to happen to her since the assault.

Dalton said during a meeting at OUPD, officers had her text her attacker for two and a half hours to see how her attacker recounted the assault.

Advocates in law enforcement

Even if a police department was the last place a survivor of sexual assault wanted to be, it could be one of the few places where a survivor could find a non-mandated reporter.

For the Athens Police Department, that non-mandated reporter is Molly Burchfield. She helps survivors navigate the criminal process and sees about 30 to 40 cases of sexual assault each year.

“They can just talk to me and I would not be bound,” Burchfield said. “Anybody can come in and see me and not have it go into the (police) database.”

Despite their detachment from the university, APD and Burchfield worked with OUSAP — contacting the group when cases involved OU students or for education opportunities for OUSAP employees, such as presentations by Burchfield on the criminal procedures for sexual assault cases.

“We have partnered with (OUSAP) on training,” APD Chief Tom Pyle said. “They’ve had peer advocates on cases that we’ve handled criminally.”

Pyle said APD and OUSAP were developing a working relationship, pointing to an increase in meetings his department has had with OUSAP than in years past.

Advocacy as it stands

University officials have said OUSAP is not going away, and that typical services are set to resume.

Although the job has not been posted for replacing Anderson’s position, Shari Clarke, vice provost for diversity and inclusion, said in a statement that OUSAP was “granted an emergency waiver by Ohio University Human Resources” to expedite the hiring process, ultimately bypassing OU’s typical position posting requirements so OUSAP could “begin focusing on potential candidate leads.”

Still, Clarke said they have not been able to identify a candidate “who both holds the required licensure and is willing to accept an interim position.” She said the university is now in the process of posting the position.

“The feedback we have received during this time is incredibly valuable in identifying areas in which we need to focus on reinforcing the program and its structure,” Clarke said

For Dalton, her sexual assault and relationship with OUSAP has been more than an “individual experience.” This semester alone, 14 incidents of sex-related crimes have been reported to OUPD.

“It’s an institutional flaw and an institutional oppression of how there’s a huge issue of violence against women on this campus,” Dalton said.

@Fair3Julia

Jf311013@ohio.edu

Ohio University sees an increase in sex-crime reports this year

Julia Fair | Staff Writer

JOSHUA LIM | FILE

This time in 2014, the Ohio University Police Department received six sex-related crime reports. This year, it’s received almost quadruple the amount.

So far, OUPD has received 23 reports of sex-related crime in 2015 that vary from alleged public indecency charges to alleged rapes.

Although that number may seem high, OUPD’s Lt. Tim Ryan said sex-related crimes may not be on the rise. He added that the high number of reports may just be part of increased reporting among survivors.

“I’d like to think it has something to do with maybe messaging and outreach, but it’s really hard to say,” Ryan said.

Ryan added that there is a countrywide effort to make the reporting process “an approachable one.”

In the past, Ohio University’s Survivor Advocacy Program worked very well with OUPD, Ryan said. Additionally, the Athens Police Department and the Athens County Sheriff’s Office each keep a survivor advocate on staff. Those advocates can be accessed by asking the department to talk to an advocate.

Delaney Anderson, the former program coordinator for OUSAP, left her position in October, leaving OUSAP without a licensed and credentialed program coordinator. The university is looking to reevaluate the position, and for now people are asked to reach out to Counseling and Psychological Services and Campus Care for confidential support, according to a previous Post report.

“I hope victims are seeing the support that’s out there and making the decision to report because of that,” Ryan said.

In the past six years, reports of sex-related crimes have fluctuated, with the last peak taking place in 2010 with 23 reports total.

Chance Brinkman-Sull

Though OUPD has seen an increase in reports of sex-related crimes, the city of Athens has not, APD Chief Tom Pyle said.

“There’s two different environments we’re dealing with,” Pyle said. “You have the campus environment, and you have the off-campus environment.”

Even though the statistics for each location vary, Ryan said numbers don’t always accurately portray what’s really going on.

“Statistics are really hard for a police department to get our head around because it’s hard to tell if you’re actually deterring crime or not,” Ryan said, adding that it’s hard to say why incident rates are higher or lower from year to year.

Ryan said OUPD Chief Andrew Powers has conversations with other college police departments, and other campuses have also seen an increase in reports.

When someone approaches OUPD about reporting a sex-related crime, the department takes him or her through the steps before proceeding to an investigation.

“We start by explaining the process so that person knows what they’re about to get into if they choose to,” Ryan said.

Court processes, evidence collection and general investigation procedures for sexual assaults are discussed, Ryan said.

“Sometimes victims choose to go that road and pursue the criminal prosecution,” Ryan said. “Sometimes they do not.”

In Powers’ recent email to university students, it was outlined that most of the sex-related crimes on campus this year started with consent, but it was revoked later in the encounter.

“When consent is revoked, you are committing a crime, and people need to know that,” Ryan said.

Some students on campus think the increase in conversations surrounding sex-related crimes may have helped students feel more comfortable reporting.

“I definitely think it’s been a really talked-about conversation this semester compared to last year,” Sasha Gough, a member of F–kRapeCulture, said.

Gough, a sophomore studying creative writing, said events like the video created by the university shown before The Hunting Ground, a documentary showing the mismanagement of sexual assault cases on college campuses, and discussions with professors in class are contributing to students’ education on the topic.

“It’s slowly becoming more of a topic people are learning more about than years previous,” Gough said.

In her social deviance class, Gough said her class discussed the topic of rape.

Patty Stokes, an OU professor and the adviser for Body Consent, the sister group to F–kRapeCulture, talks about sexual assault in her classes as well, Gough said.

“Students are bringing it up more often, so teachers and professors have to talk about it a little bit more,” Gough said.

Although discussions throughout campus are evolving, Gough added that the uncertainty surrounding Ohio University’s Survivor Advocacy Program is worrisome to students.

“SAP was the opposite choice. If you were to go to a professor, you’d have to report,” Gough said. “You could go to SAP and not have to report and still get all these different needs met.”

OUSAP provided someone to go to the hospital with you, among other resources, Gough said.

“SAP is kind of on the rocks,” Gough said. “It shows a lot how the university is prioritizing. It’s more about reporting than what the students might find comfortable.”

@Fair3Julia

jf311013@ohio.edu

Students proceed with caution when signing leases in Athens, Ohio

Julia Fair | Staff Writer

Soon to be upperclassmen likely have one thing on their mind — renting their first apartment or house, even though it’s only the middle of Fall Semester.

When students sign a lease, it legally binds them to everything that’s written out in the document, but some tenants might not realize some of the items they’re agreeing to with their signature.

Some rental companies in Athens, such as University Rentals, offer leases that hold up to 42 additional charges for anything from replacing a light bulb to fumigating the house for fleas. Discounted rents are often offered to students, as well as contingencies if pets are allowed on the premises or not.

Staff Attorney Kimberlee Francis for the Center for Student Legal Services said her office wants to make sure that its clients know what they are getting into when they sign a lease.

“Leases are almost like purchasing a house in Athens. … Our clients need to be very careful if there are things that seem suspicious or double sided,” Francis said.

Eric O’Connor, a junior studying marketing, said his experience renting this academic year with University Off Campus Housing has posed some problems.

“The maintenance workers aren’t very timely,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor said he called the maintenance worker the second day of school to fix his door and cable, adding that the worker has only been to his house on Mill Street once. He would give his rental experience so far a five out of 10, he said.

“Make sure everyone is on the same page with rent and what everyone owes,” O’Connor said, adding that new renters should look at reviews for each housing agency before making a decision on where to rent.

Francis said it’s also important for students to contact the Athens City Code Enforcement Office and request a copy of the yearly report on the house they’re interested in renting.

“Landlord obligations are to comply with the ethical building housing health codes,” Francis said.

She added that these obligations include maintaining good and safe working order and condition for all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air conditioner fixtures and appliances.

Francis said when a lease is written in a way that shifts these responsibilities to students, her staff argues the lease is void because the provision goes against what the Ohio Revised Code says.

“Why we say to look at a lease when things start shifting is you want to know who you’re entering in this business transaction with,” Francis said.

Francis said she often sees students misunderstanding what signing a joint and several lease means. Students who sign this type of lease are agreeing to all be liable for the entire house, even if one tenant fails to complete his or her duties like paying rent, she said.

“A number of tenants sign, not fully appreciating that if one of the tenants fails to move in or fails to pay, they’re going to be liable for that portion,” Francis said.

Francis said she asks clients to sign co-tenant agreements, which allow all tenants signing to distinguish who’s responsible for what.

“This only provides protection between tenant and tenant, it doesn’t change a lease. Your lease is with your landlord,” Francis said.

Francis said another problem she comes across is discounted rent incentives. One rental company that offers discounted rent is University Rentals.

“What’s scary about discounted and regular basic rent is there could be a difference for up to $5,000,” Francis said. “If you don’t pay by a certain date … the landlord can revoke the discounted rate.”

According to a University Rentals sample lease from its website, if the tenants fail to pay the discounted rent on the day that it’s due, the landlord sends a written notice that the tenants no longer qualify for the discounted rent. Instead, the tenants must pay the balance owed for the basic rent obligation.

When The Post reached out for an interview with University Rentals, the company denied the request.

Francis will also explain to student renters that if their lease mentions shifting responsibilities to the tenants that the landlord is usually in charge of.

With lease-signing season in full swing, students should make sure they know the details of their contract.

“There are certain things landlords are suppose to do such as maintain the plumbing,” Francis said. “Clients shouldn’t be maintaining the plumbing. They should keep it in working condition, they shouldn’t be shoving stuff down the sink.”

Some leases Francis reviews states how much tenants will be charged for cleaning services if the landlord deems it’s needed. Cleaning services range from stove cleaning to deep cleaning carpets.

“The client needs to be aware of those things when they sign,” Francis said.

Debbie Allen, an administrative assistant at L’Heureux Properties — which rents to about 275 students a year — said the company charges students for normal damages, not wear and tear.

“Damages would include pouring grease down a kitchen sink, popping a hole in the side of a refrigerator to turn it into a kegerator,” Allen said.

Allen said hair clogging a drain or accidental window breaks are not held liable against the tenants.

L’Heureux Properties requires its tenants to fill out a check-in sheet within 48 hours after move-in that lists all damages the maintenance crew needs to fix. Allen said sometimes she’ll receive nearly all of the check-in sheets, but then one tenant will turn the sheet in late.

“You have somebody who turned in their check-in form and suddenly we’ve got a cracked window. … We’ll repair it but it may come out of their deposit,” Allen said.

L’Heureux’s sample lease also states that if the house needs to be painted, tenants pay a $40 an hour charge.

Allen said there have been a few cases in the past 15 years where that has been applied.

“The only time we’re going to charge a tenant for painting is if they’ve defaced something,” Allen said.

One year, L’Heureux had an apartment with a giant painted martini glass on the living room wall. Allen said the next tenants hated it, so it had to be covered up, and the fees came out of the previous tenant’s deposit.

“We had a very creative soul who used a broad paintbrush dipped in red paint, loaded it, and then went around the top of the wall so it looked like blood dripping down, so we had to cover that,” Allen said.

@Fair3Julia

jf311013@ohio.edu

Secret Service spent $137K on golf carts to protect Trump at New Jersey, Florida clubs

By Julia Fair, USA Today

WASHINGTON – The Secret Service has spent at least $137,505 to rent golf carts to protect President Trump this year at his private clubs in New Jersey and Florida.

According to federal purchase orders flagged by the progressive PAC American Bridge and reviewed by USA TODAY, the agency paid $61,960 in a Sept. 29 contract to rent golf carts at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida.

That’s the biggest purchase order for golf carts so far. It comes in a contract that will extend through May 28, 2018. The agency signed contracts for golf carts at Trump’s clubs as early as February, but they never exceeded about $18,000 – and only lasted for one month at a time.

In August, USA TODAY first reported that the Secret Service can no longer pay the overtime for hundreds of agents it needs to carry out an expanded protective mission – in large part due to the sheer size of Trump’s family and efforts necessary to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast. Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles said more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.

https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-14/html/container.html

More: Exclusive: Secret Service depletes funds to pay agents because of Trump’s frequent travel, large family

More: How Trump could ease the burden he’s putting on the Secret Service

More: Donald Trump Jr. gives up Secret Service protection

While Congress has been working on a fix to raise the caps for the agents, critics have said Trump could ease the financial burden on the agency by reducing his travel and staying at the White House more often.

“There’s a question about how fast Trump is racking up bills that the taxpayers have to pay, which are largely trips to his hotels and his golf courses,” said Harrell Kirstein, American Bridge communications director.

Under the law, Trump cannot provide or pay for any equipment or services the Secret Service needs to protect him. The rule is intended to stave off any potential conflicts of interests for the agency.

The Secret Service has signed several more golf-related contracts. On Oct. 1, the agency paid $15,600 to install and remove ballistic glass for Trump to watch the Presidents Cup golf competition in Jersey City, N.J.

“President Trump isn’t working and taxpayers are being forced to pick up the tab,” Kirstein said. “Instead of wasting so much time and money on his vacation, he should do his job and address with the multitude of crises facing the country that are piling up on his watch.”

The service’s luxury portable restroom spending for the clubs has also increased since August.

A recent switch in restroom providers also appears to have cost the agency extra. The agency signed a contract with Sanitary Solutions Inc. for $5,365 on Sept. 21. The previous contract with Imperial Restrooms was $3,300 from Aug. 21.

The total the agency has spent on portable bathrooms, a mobile office and ballistic glass at Trump’s New Jersey golf course rings in at $53,316.

How Donald Trump’s Columbus Day proclamation compares to previous presidents

By Julia Fair, USA Today

President Trump, in his proclamation declaring Monday as Columbus Day, did not include any mention of Native Americans.

The federal holiday honoring the famous Italian explorer Christopher Columbus has become increasingly controversial. Native American groups view it as a celebration of the man responsible for the genocide of indigenous people. Some states are even abandoning Columbus Day and replacing it with Indigenous People Day, also known by some as Native Americans Day.

More: Columbus, your ship may have sailed: Indigenous Peoples Day picks up steam

More: As Confederate statues come down, what about Columbus?

Trump’s omission of Native Americans appears to track the way former Republican President George W. Bush wrote his proclamations. The two other former presidents in recent history, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, included details about the Native Americans’ history in their proclamations.

Bill Clinton

Former President Clinton, a Democrat, noted Columbus’s journey is historically significant – but in more than one way.

“The encounters between Columbus and other European explorers and the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere also underscore what can happen when cultures clash and when we are unable to understand and respect people who are different from us,” he wrote in his last Proclamation for the controversial holiday, in the year 2000.

George W. Bush

For most of his time in office, Bush mainly addressed how Columbus’s journey sparked the “close ties” between the U.S. and Italy and how the countries continued to work together.

In 2001, in his first Columbus Day proclamation, the Republican president writes how the explorer’s historic journey connected the continents separated by geographic, religious and cultural barriers. He did not mention specifically the Native Americans who resided on the land.

Barack Obama

In his first year in office, 2009, then-president Barack Obama notes how Columbus’s journey revealed new land for European nations. Yet Obama, a Democrat, also noted how the European immigrants joined the “thriving indigenous communities who suffered great hardships as a result of the changes to the land they inhabited,” which was the first specific mention of the Native Americans in the proclamation in eight years.

In his 2016 proclamation, Obama got much more specific about the plight of Native Americans. Obama urged Americans to “acknowledge the pain and suffering reflected in the stories of Native Americans who had long resided” before Europeans crossed the Atlantic Ocean to search for a new life.

Donald Trump

Echoing former President George W. Bush’s Columbus Day proclamations, Trump did not mention Native Americans and instead focused on the U.S. relationship with Italy.

“There can be no doubt that American culture, business, and civic life would all be much less vibrant in the absence of the Italian American community,” Trump wrote.  “We also take this opportunity to reaffirm our close ties to Columbus’s country of birth, Italy.  Italy is a strong ally and a valued partner in promoting peace and promoting prosperity around the world.”

Read Trump’s full proclamation:

“Five hundred and twenty-five years ago, Christopher Columbus completed an ambitious and daring voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.  The voyage was a remarkable and then-unparalleled feat that helped launch the age of exploration and discovery.  The permanent arrival of Europeans to the Americas was a transformative event that undeniably and fundamentally changed the course of human history and set the stage for the development of our great Nation.  Therefore, on Columbus Day, we honor the skilled navigator and man of faith, whose courageous feat brought together continents and has inspired countless others to pursue their dreams and convictions — even in the face of extreme doubt and tremendous adversity.

More than five centuries after his initial voyage, we remember the ‘Admiral of the Ocean Sea’ for building the critical first link in the strong and enduring bond between the United States and Europe.  While Isabella I and Ferdinand II of Spain sponsored his historic voyage, Columbus was a native of the City of Genoa, in present day Italy, and represents the rich history of important Italian American contributions to our great Nation.  There can be no doubt that American culture, business, and civic life would all be much less vibrant in the absence of the Italian American community.  We also take this opportunity to reaffirm our close ties to Columbus’s country of birth, Italy.  Italy is a strong ally and a valued partner in promoting peace and promoting prosperity around the world.

In commemoration of Christopher Columbus’s historic voyage, the Congress, by joint resolution of April 30, 1934, and modified in 1968 (36 U.S.C. 107), as amended, has requested the President proclaim the second Monday of October of each year as ‘Columbus Day.’

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 9, 2017, as Columbus Day.  I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.  I also direct that the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the appointed day in honor of our diverse history and all who have contributed to shaping this Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.”

D.C. bookshop launches ‘bookstore diplomacy’ with Mexico City sister store

By Julia Fair, USA Today

WASHINGTON — As President Trump fuels tension with Mexico with his plan to construct a wall across the shared border, a cluttered used bookstore on Capitol Hill has taken diplomacy into its own hands.

Capitol Hill Books has signed a Memorandum of Understanding creating a sister store relationship with Libería A Través del Espejo (Through the Looking Glass) in Mexico City. The agreement is mostly symbolic, store employees said, but is part of a broader effort to create friendships with Mexico residents in the era of Trump.

Dan Cullen, media relations manager for the American Booksellers Association, said he knows of no other agreements like this between bookstores across international borders.

“When small bookstores and citizens like this engage in small acts of citizen diplomacy, it makes a big difference to break (barriers) down,” said Katie Levey, senior director of communications for PYXERA Global, the parent organization for the Center for Citizen Diplomacy.

Citizen diplomacy between the bookstores can create momentum for other outreach, Levey said, adding that bookstores are “mini meccas of knowledge” that often hold deeper understandings of a variety of cultures.

“It’s part of a bigger trend of people reaching across boundaries and borders to understand what other cultures look like,” she said.

Kyle Burk, an employee of Capitol Hill Books, poses with Selva Hernadez, owner of La Liberia A Traves Del Espejo, moments after signing the Memorandum of Understanding between the bookstores (Photo: Courtesy Capitol Hill Books)

Countries have been exchanging historical pieces and art for years, said Deirdre White, CEO of PYXERA Global, the parent company of the Center for Citizen Diplomacy.

When countries engage in exchanges and friendship agreements, benefits follow, White explained.

“It’s getting people to think about … the value of cross-border cooperation and hopefully getting a taste of that and thinking of other ways they might apply that,” she said.

The stores plan to exchange Spanish and English books as the first act of diplomacy and hope the friendship develops into the stores becoming greeting points for travelers from the other country.

More: The Wall: Explore 2,000 miles between U.S., Mexico

Jim Toole, 80, the owner of Capitol Hill Books, said it’s fitting the Mexico bookstore is named after an English story, further promoting the solidarity that comes with a shared love of literacy.

“We’re going around, over and through (the wall),” Toole said. “We’re going through that wall from an intellectual and not a physical standpoint. The physical standpoint is the books.”

“With all of the nonsensible talk, and the kind of silly talk, about building a wall between two countries … it seemed like a really good time to respond to that in a small way,” said Kyle Burk, the social media manager for Capitol Hill Books.

Burk is also a contract employee for the Embassy of Mexico in D.C., where he writes and translates for the communications team.

Toole, who served as a two-star-rear admiral with the Navy during the Vietnam War, took ownership of the bookstore about seven blocks east of the U.S. Capitol in 1994 and filled every corner of the building with a clutter of used books and snarky book descriptions. Customers browse mystery books upstairs in the room where the former owner, an ex-priest, died of a heart attack, and on the lower level they find a bathroom stuffed with foreign language books.

“Since this country’s foreign language (use) is in the toilet, I took my toilet room and made it my foreign language room,” Toole said with a laugh.

More seriously, Toole explained he hopes the memorandum will stimulate an influx of foreign language books from Mexico to the shop and bring in more Spanish-speaking residents from the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

“Our mission is to try and overcome some of the bad things that are being said with any relationship with Mexico and instill an increased concern for literacy,” Toole said.

During a press briefing Monday, Trump reiterated his concerns about Mexico, saying drugs are pouring in over the border.

“We need a wall in this country,” Trump said. “You know it, I know it, everybody knows it.”

Matt Wixon, 40, a former employee of Capitol Hill Books who remains close with Toole and other employees, said the deal with the Mexican bookshop is their way of building a bridge between the stores, allowing them to extend aid to each other across the border.

“This action, little gesture, isn’t going to change foreign policy, but I think it’s just our small way of saying life is better when you lead with your empathy,” Wixon said.

The Paul Manafort indictment: His personal expenses, by the numbers

By Julia Fair, USA Today

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s ex-campaign manager, wired $12 million — income that he did not pay taxes on — to vendors for personal purchases between 2008 and 2014, according to charges unveiled Monday as part of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The money was spent on antique rugs, real estate, clothing, expensive cars and home improvements. Here’s a look at some of those purchases:

Clothing

Between 2008 and 2012, Manafort spent $520,000 at a clothing store in Beverly Hills.

He also spent more than $840,000 at a clothing store in New York between 2008 and 2014.

Luxury cars

Manafort made four payments for several Range Rovers totaling $226,455 between 2008 and 2012.

Manafort acquired a Mercedes Benz for $62,750 in 2012.

Antiques and art

Manafort spent $934,350 at an antique rug store in Alexandria, Va., between 2008 and 2010.

He spent $623,910 at an antique dealer in New York between 2010 and 2013. He made purchases totaling $31,900 at a Florida art gallery in 2011 and 2013.

Friday’s opening of Museum of the Bible, created by owner of Hobby Lobby, comes with some controversy

By Julia Fair 

WASHINGTON — Throughout history, the Bible has been the subject of controversy.

Perhaps it’s appropriate then that some controversy has accompanied the planning stages for the $500 million Museum of the Bible set to open Friday in the nation’s capital.

Hobby Lobby, whose president Steve Green is chairman of the museum board, paid a $3 million fine in July for illegally smuggling Iraqi biblical artifacts.

Thousands of tablets and bricks written in cuneiform, one of the earliest systems of writing, were among the 5,000 artifacts forfeited after prosecutors said they were shipped without proper documentation.

More: In the Capitol’s shadow, massive Museum of the Bible readies for opening

Still, about 1,000 biblical artifacts are displayed on six floors of the the 430,000-square-foot museum, which aims to educate visitors on the history and impact of the Bible, Green said.

“Our mission is to invite and get people to engage with the Bible,” said Steven Bickley, the vice president of marketing finance for the museum.

He emphasized the museum takes a non-sectarian approach, not involving a specific religious sect or political group, because organizers want every visitor to feel comfortable and learn something about the Bible.

Green said he even wants atheists to feel welcome at the museum.

Admission to the museum is free but donations are encouraged, Green said.

The exterior of the newly built Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. (Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo, EPA-EFE)

The desire to educate is reflected in the museum’s proximity — just blocks away — from the Capitol and Supreme Court, where Green has sought to defend his religious beliefs.

“I think (the Bible is) foundational to our government,” Green said during preview of the museum this week. “There are many principles this nation was built on that many people today may not even understand that connection. Like religious freedom.”

In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in a case involving Hobby Lobby that requiring family-owned corporations to pay for insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act violated a federal law protecting religious freedom.

“Our freedoms, our economic system, our political system, many of those were built and influenced from the Bible and many people may not know that and we want people to understand that,” Green said.

Green said he wanted to tell the story of the Bible in an engaging and creative way, pointing to the many interactive and high tech areas of the museum.

The museum features a 30-minute, walk-through experience of the Old Testament on the third floor. The narrative expedition takes groups of 30 people through the exhibit brought to life with special effects using lights and holograph-like images.

Cary Summers, president of the Museum of the Bible, walks through an exhibit at the museum on Oct. 30, 2017. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)

Visitors can also sit in a small theater seating about 100 people where the New Testament is condensed into a 12-minute film on a 180-degree screen.

On the second floor, visitors learn how the Bible has been part of past and present cultural developments.

Issac Newton is one of the scientists whose story is on display. “For Newton, to understand more was to understand God,” his informational plaque reads.

Galileo Galilei is featured as well. He was condemned by the church for his discovery in the 1600s that the earth rotates around the sun. The Vatican acknowledged his findings were right in a statement in 1992.

More modern influences that the Bible has had are on display as well.

Biblical references in fashion have appeared in clothing for centuries. An example in the museum is a dress with the face of Mary, the mother of Jesus, on the fabric.

On the same floor, visitors can enter a dome-like egg where music inspired by the Bible plays. Some of the music includes tracks from the bands The Offspring, Good Charlotte and more.

“This is the first, as we know, world class museum to the Bible in history,” said Dr. Tony Zeiss, executive director of the museum. “That’s a pretty amazing feat and it happened right here in our capital.”

Paul Manafort, Rick Gates case: Robert Mueller obtained 15 search warrants and more than 400,000 documents

By Julia Fair 

WASHINGTON – Special counsel Robert Mueller issued 15 search and seizure warrants and gathered more than hundreds of thousands of documents in the course of investigating President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business and campaign aide Rick Gates, according to new court filings.

In a status report on the case released by Mueller’s team on Friday, federal prosecutors said the government obtained more than 400,000 documents, including financial records, email communications, and corporate records. The prosecutor’s team also possesses imaged copies of 36 electronic devices such as laptops and phones.

The government prioritized foreign bank account records from Cyprus, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in its search. More than 116,000 domestic financial records are considered “particularly relevant,” according to court documents.

Separately, the government identified 2,000 other “hot” documents that could contain crucial information for the case. Those include the defendants’ statements to law enforcement and copies of the search warrants.

Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty Oct. 30 to charges of money laundering and conspiracy in the course of Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

Mueller charged that both men secretly worked on behalf of pro-Russian factions in Ukraine, then laundered millions of dollars in profits through foreign bank accounts – and sought to cover up their work even while they held senior roles in Trump’s campaign.

Manafort and Gates have been largely confined to house arrest with GPS monitoring since the indictments were revealed.

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OU faculty are primarily registered as Democrats, ‘Post’ analysis finds

Julia Fair

Kaitlin Coward

Although Ohio University students remain politically divided, the majority of faculty members registered to vote in Athens County are registered as Democrats.

More than 75 percent of Ohio University faculty members are registered as Democrats, according to a data analysis done by The Post of voter registration records paired with public records provided by the Office of Legal Affairs. About a quarter of faculty members are registered as Republicans, and one faculty member is registered as an Independent.

The voter registration data only included faculty who voted in the March 2016 Ohio primary election. A total of 675 faculty of the university’s 1,795 facultyregistered to vote in the primaries.

OU faculty’s party affiliations reflect similar patterns on a national level.

University faculty across the country generally identify as liberal, according to a survey conducted by The Higher Education Institute at UCLA. More than 16,000 faculty members from 269 four-year colleges and universities responded to the survey.

In 2014, nearly 49 percent of all faculty from those institutions identified as liberal, and 11 percent said they leaned “far left.” About 13 percent of respondents listed themselves as conservative, and less than 1 percent of those surveyed said they leaned “far right.” The remaining 27 percent said they were more “middle of the road.”

Katherine Jellison, a professor and the chair of OU’s history department, said she was not surprised by the percentage of the university’s faculty registered as Democrats.

“I think you’d probably see the same thing at other universities that are the dominant institutions in their communities,” Jellison said. “So I think it’s the outside nature of OU and not having other competitors to be the major cultural force for this institution to rub up against.”

It’s a personal choice whether a professor discloses his or her party affiliation, Sherrie Gradin, a professor and the department chair of the English department, said.

“Some people are likely to talk about themselves and how they see things,” she said. “Others might keep tight lips about it.”

In the English department, Gradin said classes constantly talk about understanding how people relate and interact with each other, a conversation that is amplified during the election cycle.

“A lot of what we normally teach is magnified and highlighted with the fact that there’s such a contentious election cycle,” Gradin said.

Allison Giordano, a freshman studying communication sciences and disorders, said considering the political leanings of Athens County as a whole, she wasn’t surprised to see OU’s faculty have similar beliefs.

“It’s their right to say (their political views), but as long as they don’t pressure the kids to change their views, you have a freedom to say what your views are,” she said. “As long as you’re not teaching them that it’s better than another view, I think it’s fine.”

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