The Evolution of Evo Devo | RealClearScience

The first approach naturalists took to dealing with the great variety of animals was to sort them into groups, such as vertebrates (including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) and arthropods (insects, crustaceans, arachnids, and more), but between and within these groups there are many differences. What makes a fish different from a salamander? Or an insect from a spider? On a finer scale, clearly a leopard is a cat, but what makes it different from a domestic tabby? And closer to home, what makes us different from our chimpanzee cousins?

TAGGED: Evolutionary Biology, Developmental Biology, Evo Devo

Source: http://www.realclearscience.com/2013/06/27/the_evolution_of_evo_devo_253723.html?utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=rss

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Intuit Buys Elastic Intelligence, Will Use Connection Cloud To Help SMEs Build Apps

Some consolidation in the area of cloud services for enterprises: Intuit, the business services company that targets SMEs, is buying Elastic Intelligence, creators of Connection Cloud, a product that helps SMEs create DIY cloud-based apps. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/lirPygitVH8/

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Obama: Immigration reform will reduce the deficit (cbsnews)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/314546676?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Two Planes In Near Miss Over New York - Business Insider

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after two planes came perilously close to each other in a near miss over New York City on June 13, the Associated Press reports.

The incident happened around 3.45pm when a Delta Airlines Boeing 747 landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport came close to a Shuttle America Embraer E170 departing from LaGuardia Airport.

In a statement released today the FAA said the planes were "turning away from each other at the point where they lost the required separation." The issue occurred after the Delta flight had missed an approach and ended up traveling in the same direction as the Shuttle America flight.

One federal official told NBC New York that the two planes had come within 200 feet of each other.

NBC New York also got hold of a recording of the air traffic control contacting the planes, which is notable for how calm everyone involved sounds. Listen below (at around 0.30 in):

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/two-planes-in-near-miss-over-new-york-2013-6

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Players, coaches react to protests in Brazil

SALVADOR, Brazil (AP) ? Soccer's Confederations Cup, which ends on June 30, and next year's World Cup have been among many targets of the massive demonstrations sweeping Brazil. Some protesters angry at corruption and poor public services are also complaining about the millions of dollars spent on huge stadiums in cities with dire poverty and lack of public services.

Here are some voices from the men on the fields of play:

___

Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazil national team coach: "We all want justice in our country. Those in the government also want this. We can't only crucify them. We all want it and we will work together for that. But it doesn't happen in a day. We have to work together to tackle some issues so that hopefully in one, two, five or 10 years from now things can change."

___

Pele, Brazil's most famous former player: "There are a lot of bad characters taking advantage of this opportunity and they are hurting these peaceful protests that have been calling for what is best for the Brazilian people. I think we can't allow these bandits and bad characters to get in the way of this opportunity to make demands for our country."

___

Neymar, current Brazilian team star: "It's sad that it got to a point where we need to go to the streets to demand better conditions. The only way I can represent and defend the country is by playing football, and from now on I'll walk on the field inspired by this movement."

___

Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni: "I am very sorry and my whole team is very sorry to see that there is a lot of tension at the moment because this means there is dissatisfaction on behalf of the people, and this is not good for society, for social life, for sport, or for anything really."

___

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli: "As sportsmen we're hoping that tomorrow there is a great football match at the stadium and that nothing happens outside the stadium. It would be a paradox if inside the stadium we're trying to put on a show for the fans and 150 meters outside the stadium there is violence."

___

Italy defender Riccardo Montolivo: "If someone protests and expresses their unhappiness they should be respected, as long as the protest is done in a non-violent manner."

___

Congressman and former Brazil striker Romario, in a video message: "Keep protesting, keep going to the streets, always peacefully. It's the only way congressmen will understand that things need to change. Congratulations. More than ever I'm proud to be Brazilian."

___

Brazil defender David Luiz: "Brazilians love their country and that's why these protests are happening."

___

Brazil striker Fred: "I'm in favor of the protests as long as they are peaceful. I'm very proud to see the people fighting to improve public transportation, health services and so many other things."

___

Brazil striker Hulk: "After seeing the people on the streets demanding improvements, it makes me feel like joining them. They are doing the right thing, what they are saying makes sense and we have to hear them. Brazil needs to improve, we all know that."

___

Ricardo Zuniga, Tales Azzoni and Andrew Dampf contributed to this report from Brazil.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/players-coaches-react-protests-brazil-152045335.html

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Parental Guidance: Monsters University and Jack the Giant Slayer

68%

Rating: PG-13, for intense frightening zombie sequences, violence and disturbing images.

The MPAA rating kinda says it all. This adaptation of the Max Brooks book is a seriously intense, visceral and frightening experience. I can't recall walking out of a movie feeling this edgy and paranoid since Aliens. Brad Pitt, as a former United Nations investigator, must hopscotch the globe to determine the source of a pandemic that quickly turns people into zombies -- not the slow-moving, shuffling zombies but convulsing, flailing, ravenous freaks. There's also a ton of heavy-duty gunfire, panic in the streets, and a general obliteration of civilized society as we know it. Pre-teens who've played a lot of complicated, first-person-shooter video games probably won't have a problem with this; for the parents of anyone younger, get a babysitter.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927678/news/1927678/

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Scientists solve riddle of strangely behaving magnetic material

June 21, 2013 ? Materials scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames Laboratory have found an accurate way to explain the magnetic properties of a compound that has mystified the scientific community for decades.

The compound of lanthanum, cobalt and oxygen (LaCoO₃) has been a puzzle for over 50 years, due to its strange behavior. While most materials tend to lose magnetism at higher temperatures, pure LaCoO₃ is a non-magnetic semiconductor at low temperatures, but as the temperature is raised, it becomes magnetic. With the addition of strontium on the La sites the magnetic properties become even more prominent until, at 18 percent strontium, the compound becomes metallic and ferromagnetic, like iron.

"They knew that we could calculate x-ray absorption and magnetic dichroism, so we started doing that. It is a case where we fell into doing what we thought was a routine calculation, and it turned out we discovered a totally different explanation," said Harmon. "We found we could explain pretty much everything in really nice detail, but without explicitly invoking that local model," said Harmon.

The scientists found that a small rhombohedral distortion of the LaCoO₃ lattice structure, which had largely been ignored, was key.

"We found that the total electronic energy of the lattice depends sensitively on that distortion," explained Harmon. "If the distortion becomes smaller (the crystal moves closer to becoming cubic), the magnetic state of the crystal switches from non-magnetic to a state with 1.3 Bohr magnetons per Co atom."

Ames Laboratory scientists Bruce Harmon and Yongbin Lee partnered with the researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory and the University of California, Santa Cruz to publish a paper in Physical Review Letters, "Evolution of Magnetic Oxygen States in Sr-Doped LaCO₃."

This new understanding may help the further development of these materials, which are easily reduced to nanoparticles; these are finding use in catalytic oxidation and reduction reactions associated with regulation of noxious emissions from motor vehicles.

The research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science through the Ames Laboratory.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/A90M7OEpGSk/130621121018.htm

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Obama to meet with privacy, civil liberties board

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is holding his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board Friday as he seeks to make good on his pledge to have a public discussion about secretive government surveillance programs.

Obama has said the little-known Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board will play a key role in that effort. The federal oversight board reviews terrorism programs enacted by the executive branch to ensure that privacy concerns are taken into account.

The president is also tasking the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, to consider declassifying more details about the government's collection of U.S. phone and Internet records. Obama is specifically asking Clapper to review possible declassification of opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves the data-mining efforts.

The government has already lifted some of the secrecy surrounding the programs following disclosures earlier this month about their existence by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. But the legal opinions from the highly secretive court remain private.

The privacy board was created in 2004 but has operated fitfully ever since, given congressional infighting and at times, censorship by government lawyers. The board was dormant during Obama's first term and only became fully functional in May, before the NSA programs became public.

The board's chairman, David Medine, said the five-member group has a "broad range of questions" to ask about the NSA's widespread collection programs. The board was given a classified briefing on the programs last week and plans to release a report eventually with recommendations for the government.

___

Follow Julie Pace at on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-meet-privacy-civil-liberties-board-100342780.html

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Afghan peace bid on hold over Kabul-Taliban protocol row

By Amena Bakr

DOHA (Reuters) - A fresh effort to end Afghanistan's 12-year-old war was in limbo on Thursday after a diplomatic spat about the Taliban's new Qatar office delayed preliminary discussions between the United States and the Islamist insurgents.

A meeting between U.S. officials and representatives of the Taliban had been set for Thursday in Qatar but Afghan government anger at the fanfare surrounding the opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf state threw preparations into confusion.

The squabble may set the tone for what could be arduous negotiations to end a conflict that has torn at Afghanistan's stability since the U.S. invasion following the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on U.S. targets.

Asked when the talks would now take place, a source in Doha said, "There is nothing scheduled that I am aware of."

But the U.S. government said it was confident the U.S.-Taliban talks would soon go forward.

"We anticipate these talks happening in the coming days," said State Department spokesman Jen Psaki, adding that she could not be more specific. James Dobbins, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan "is packed and ready to go with his passport and suitcase," she said.

One logistical complication is a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Doha on Saturday and Sunday.

Kerry will discuss the Afghan peace talks with the Qatari hosts, senior U.S. officials said, but does not plan to get immersed in any talks himself or meet with Taliban representatives. A major part of his meeting will be devoted to talks on the Syrian civil war.

The opening of the Taliban office was a practical step paving the way for peace talks. But the official-looking protocol surrounding the event raised angry protests in Kabul that the office would develop into a Taliban government-in-exile. A diplomatic scramble ensued to allay the concerns.

Kerry spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday and again on Wednesday in an effort to defuse the controversy.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen appeared to side with Karzai by pointing out that alliance leaders at NATO's Chicago summit last year had made clear that the peace process in Afghanistan must be "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned".

"Reconciliation is never an easy process in any part of the world," Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels.

A Taliban flag that had been hoisted at the Taliban office in Qatar on Tuesday had been taken down and lay on the ground on Thursday, although it appeared still attached to a flagpole.

A name plate, inscribed "Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" had been removed from the outside of the building. But a similar plaque fixed onto a wall inside the building was still there on Thursday morning, witnesses said.

Asked whether the Taliban office had created any optimism about peace efforts, the source replied: "Optimism and pessimism are irrelevant. The most important thing is that we now know the Taliban are ready to talk, and sometimes talk is expensive."

Word of the U.S.-Taliban talks had raised hopes that Karzai's government and the Taliban might enter their first-ever direct negotiations on Afghanistan's future, with Washington acting as a broker and Pakistan as a major outside player.

Waging an insurgency to overthrow Karzai's government and oust foreign troops, the Taliban has until now refused talks with Kabul, calling Karzai and his government puppets of the West. But a senior Afghan official said earlier the Taliban was now willing to consider talks with the government.

"It's hard to talk and fight at the same time," said Marc Grossman, Dobbins' predecessor as the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The talks will be "really" difficult, said Grossman, now vice chairman at The Cohen Group consulting firm. He added that he was heartened that the protocol dispute, which he called "the first bump" in the process, was being worked out.

PRISONER SWAP

Pakistan's powerful military played a central role in convincing the Taliban to hold talks with Washington, U.S. and Pakistani officials said, a shift from widely held U.S. and Afghan views that it was obstructing peace in the region.

A prisoner swap is seen as likely to happen as the first confidence-building measure between the two sides, said one Pakistani official, who declined to be named.

But he said there were many likely spoilers in the peace process who would want to maintain the status quo to continue to benefit from the war economy and the present chaotic conditions.

"The opening of a Taliban office and the American readiness to hold talks with the Taliban is a forward movement. What happens next depends on the quality of dialogue and political will of the interlocutors," he said.

Pakistan has been particularly critical of Karzai, seeing him as an obstacle to a peace settlement.

In its talks with the U.S. officials, the Taliban was expected to seek the return of former commanders now held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, as well as the departure of all foreign troops.

The United States wants the return of the only known U.S. prisoner of war from the conflict, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who is believed to be held by the Taliban.

Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, reiterated Washington's desire to free Bergdahl and acknowledged that the Taliban are likely to raise their detainees at Guantanamo early in any talks.

"The exchange of detainees is something the Taliban has raised in the past and we certainly expect they will raise it," she said. "We are open to discussing this issue as part of the negotiations."

U.S. President Barack Obama cannot transfer the Taliban detainees from Guantanamo without a written notification to the U.S. Congress, where some lawmakers vigorously oppose that move.

The Doha protocol dispute burst into the open on Wednesday when Karzai said his government would not join U.S. talks with the Taliban and would halt negotiations with Washington on a post-2014 troop pact.

Officials from Karzai's government, angered by the official-sounding name the Taliban chose for its political office in Doha, said the United States had violated assurances it would not give official status to the insurgents.

A statement on Qatar's foreign ministry website late on Wednesday said that the office was called the "Political Bureau for Afghan Taliban in Doha".

The source familiar with the matter said: "The Taliban have to understand that this office isn't an embassy and they are not representing a country."

(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Dubai, Adrian Croft in Brussels, Lesley Wroughton and Warren Strobel in Washington, and Frank Jack Daniel, Mahreen Zahra-Malik and Matthew Green in Islamabad; Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Paul Simao and Jim Loney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-taliban-talks-qatar-not-expected-thursday-source-063921843.html

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How Google hires people - Business Insider

Google likely sees more data than any company on the planet. And that obsession carries through to hiring and management, where every decision and practice is endlessly studied and analyzed.

In an interview with The New York Times' Adam Bryant, Google's Senior Vice President of People Operations Laszlo Bock explains that some of the biggest stalwarts of the hiring and recruiting world, the interview, GPA, and test scores, aren't nearly as important as people think.?

Google doesn't even ask for GPA or test scores from candidates anymore, unless someone's a year or two out of school, because they don't correlate at all with success at the company. Even for new grads, the correlation is slight, the company has found.

Bock?has an excellent explanation about why those metrics don't mean much.

"Academic environments are artificial environments. People who succeed there are sort of finely trained, they?re conditioned to succeed in that environment," he says.

While in school, people are trained to give specific answers, "it's much?more interesting to solve problems where there isn?t an obvious answer," Bock says. "You want people who like figuring out stuff where there is no obvious answer."

As for interviews, many managers, recruiters, and HR staffers think they have a special ability to sniff out talent. They're wrong.?

"Years ago, we did a study to determine whether anyone at?Google?is particularly good at hiring," Bock says. "We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately performed in their job. We found zero relationship."

Google also used to be famous for posing impossibly difficult and punishing brain teasers?during interviews. Things like "If the probability of observing a car in 30 minutes on a highway is 0.95, what is the probability of observing a car in 10 minutes (assuming constant default probability)?"

Turns out those questions are"a?complete waste of time," according to Bock. "They don?t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart."

The only thing that works are behavioral interviews, Bock says, where there's a consistent set of questions that ask people what they did in specific situations.

Many of the assumptions and practices we have about hiring came about because we didn't have anything better. For decades, the?only (relatively) consistent data point among hires was GPA and test scores. It was an easy way to sort, and because that's the way it was always done, people stuck with it.

We can do better now. And though Google has something of a head start and a lot more data, more and more companies are catching on.?

The best thing about data? It's hard for people to contest. Even when people don't want to believe that they're underperforming, it's hard to dispute years worth of numbers. "For most people, just knowing that information causes them to change their conduct," ?Bock says.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-google-hires-people-2013-6

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Ibrutinib Continues Strong Showing Against Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Newswise ? HOUSTON - In a major international study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the targeted therapy ibrutinib continues to show remarkable promise for the treatment of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

The most recent interim findings of the 18-center Phase 2 study were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Previous interim findings were presented in December 2012 at the 54th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Unprecedented results, fewer side effects

?This oral inhibitor of the Bruton's tyrosine kinase in the B-cell receptor pathway is the most important breakthrough to date in the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma,? said Michael Wang, M.D., associate professor in MD Anderson's Departments of Lymphoma and Myeloma and Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. Wang is lead author of the trial.

?It is an oral drug, taken once a day, and its side effects are not severe. Yet it can achieve more than previous combination chemotherapy approaches. Our results constitute excellent news for our patients and patients around the world.?

The ongoing trial of oral ibrutinib in patients with heavily treated relapsed or refractory MCL has maintained a response rate as high as 70 percent - better than any other single agent ever tested in the challenging disease ? with milder side effects than other treatments.

Targeted approach to dangerous disease

MCL is a rare and aggressive B-cell subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, accounts for 6 percent of non-Hodgkin cases. Despite high response rates to initial highly toxic combination-drug chemotherapy, patients often relapse.

The B-cell receptor pathway is critical in B-cell lymphoma, and Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is an essential component of this pathway. Ibrutinib targets the BTK molecule, causing cell death and decreasing cellular migration and adhesion in malignant B-cells.
In this study, patients were given 560 mg daily ibrutinib in continuous 28-day cycles until disease progressed or side effects became intolerable. To date, 111 patients have participated in the study. Seventy-seven percent had stage 4 disease, and the median number of prior treatments was three.

Ongoing results continue to show promise

In the past six months, ibrutinib has continued to show excellent results. With a median follow-up period of 15 months:

? Overall response rate was 68 percent
? Complete response rate was 21 percent
? Partial response rate 47 percent

Response and complete remission rates improved with longer duration of treatment.

Among the 75 patients who responded, median:

? Response duration was 18 months
? Time to response was two months
? Progression-free survival was 14 months

Most side effects were minor and included diarrhea, fatigue, upper respiratory tract infections, nausea and rash. Grade 3 or higher effects included low white cell blood counts, anemia and diarrhea.

Next steps

Wang believes further investigation of ibrutinib as a first line therapy and in combination with other targeted therapies and traditional cytotoxic agents is essential.

?This drug, which is the safest option we have for MCL, shows unprecedented durable single agent activity,? he said. ?The favorable toxicity profile also implies that ibrutinib provides the opportunity for less intense and more effective regimens. The long-term impact of ibrutinib definitely warrants further clinical testing.?

Pharmacyclics, Inc., which developed ibrutinib, sponsored the clinical trial.

Wang?s co-authors at MD Anderson include Jorge E. Romaguera, M.D., Liang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., Kate Newberry, Ph.D., and Zhishuo Ou, M.D., Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma; Lei Li, Ph.D., Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology; and Bingliang Fang, Ph.D., Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Other members of the research team include Simon Rule, M.D., Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, United Kingdom; Peter Martin, M.D., Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York; Andre Goy, M.D., John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ; Rebecca Auer, M.D., Ph.D., Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom; Brad S. Kahl, M.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison; Wojciech Jurczak, M.D., Ph.D., Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; Ranjana Advani, M.D., Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California; Michael E. Williams M.D., University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia; Jacqueline Barrientos, M.D., Department of Medicine, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ, New Hyde Park, New York; Ewa Chmielowska, M.D., Oddzial Kliniczny Onkologii Centrum Onkologii, Bydgoszcz, Poland; John Radford, M.D., The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; Stephan Stilgenbauer, M.D., Universitatsklinikum Ulm, Klinik fur Innere Medizin II, Ulm, Germany; Martin Dreyling, M.D., Klinikum der Universitat Munchen ? Campus Grosshadern, Munich, Germany; Wieslaw Wiktor Jedrzejczak, M.D., Medical University of Warsaw, Poland; Peter Johnson, M.D., Cancer Research UK Centre, University of Southampton, United Kingdom; Stephen E. Spurgeon, M.D., Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon; Nancy Cheng, M.S., Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; Jesse McGreivy, M.D., Fong Clow, Sc.D., Joseph Buggy, Ph.D., Betty Chang, Ph.D., Darrin Beaupre, M.D., Ph.D. and Lori A. Kunkel, M.D., Pharmacyclics, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA; and Kristie Blum, M.D., Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, Ohio.

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Source: http://www.newswise.com/articles/ibrutinib-continues-strong-showing-against-mantle-cell-lymphoma

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MSSU board approves settlement agreement with fired president

JOPLIN, Mo. ? Bruce Speck, whose contract as president of Missouri Southern State University was terminated last week, will receive the equivalent of a year?s salary as well as housing and health insurance benefits through the end of the year.

Those terms were approved Wednesday by the Board of Governors.

According to the agreement, which also carried Speck?s signature, the university will pay Speck:

? All contract benefits through the end of this month.

? Twelve monthly installments, beginning in July, totaling $185,400, which is the amount of his annual salary.

? His health coverage through December. The agreement also requires the university to make available to Speck?s wife the same health coverage, at her expense, through December.

? A monthly housing allowance of $3,333.33 through December.

? $14,261.53, which represents 160 hours of accrued vacation pay.

The agreement requires Speck to return to the university its leased vehicle as well as other university property such as keys, computers, telephones or credit cards. It also includes a clause that stipulates that Speck may not sue the university.

The board voted unanimously last week to terminate Speck?s contract, which was effective through June 30, 2015. Sherry Buchanan, chairwoman of the board, disclosed the vote earlier this week and said in a statement that the termination was ?by mutual agreement? of the board and Speck.

Ron Mitchell, a Joplin attorney representing the board, said he thinks the agreement is ?amicable? to both parties.

?It was very important that we be fair, that we move forward in a positive fashion, that we not get bogged down with this to the detriment of the future,? Mitchell said after the board?s meeting at his office.

Mitchell said many of the terms of the agreement ? the paying of accrued vacation time and health insurance, for example ? are standard university policy regarding the departure of an employee. The payment of one year?s salary isn?t standard procedure for employees, he said.

?Given the fact that he had two years left on the contract, I think everybody thought that was fair,? he said.

Joy Dworkin, president of the faculty senate, said when contacted by the Globe on Wednesday night that she thinks the settlement is ?going beyond? what is listed in Speck?s contract.

According to his contract, the president would be paid his base salary and health coverage for six additional months in a situation wherein his contract was terminated ?by mutual consent? and initiated by the board. He would not be paid salary or benefits beyond his date of termination in the same situation if he initiated the termination, under the contract.

?I would say that I?m not shocked, but that does seem generous,? Dworkin said of the terms of the settlement. ?I suppose I could say I?m somewhat disappointed that this is an expensive settlement for Missouri Southern, but I feel quite confident that the faculty nevertheless is eager for us to move on to new leadership.?

Speck has been out of his office and unavailable for comment for about three weeks now.

Buchanan has repeatedly declined to comment on his absence. She also has declined to comment on why Speck?s contract was terminated, saying only that it is a personnel matter.

Mitchell said Speck?s last official day as president was Friday, the same day that the board voted to terminate his contract. He said he didn?t know when Speck?s last day on campus was, or why he had been gone.

In Speck?s absence, Mitchell said, the day-to-day operation of the university has fallen to the president?s council, which consists of the university?s four vice presidents and the director of athletics, as well as the leader of the Board of Governors.

What?s next?

AN INTERIM PRESIDENT has not yet been named by the board. The board is to meet at 4 p.m. today in Billingsly Student Center for its regular monthly meeting.

Source: http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x479815988/MSSU-board-approves-settlement-agreement-with-fired-president

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