On March 5, Dr. Jody Baumgartner delivered a lecture on the place of political humor in America life, hosted by Oakland University’s Center for Civic Engagement.

Dr. Baumgartner just completed a short video project (details coming soon…). This was put together, as an outtake of sorts, by the director.

Dr. Olga Smirnova recently published a White Paper, “The Representation of Victim Nations in Stolen Data Markets” (https://cj.msu.edu/assets/CINA-White_Papers-Smirnova_Geo_Distribution.pdf) as part of the work on social network analysis of hacker communities:

“The cybercriminals sell stolen data on various online platforms such as Open Web and Dark Web forums. To this date, there is limited research on the types of products sold on the “Dark Web”. This brief reports geographic distribution of victim nations differences between Open and Dark web forums. The criminals tend to advertise in line with their perceptions of detection. The forums where advertisements occur have larger impact on prices and types of exchanges than the geographical locations where the data comes from.”

The project was funded by a DHS grant, through the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, as part of the Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Center (CINA) led by George Mason University.

Congratulations to Dr. Samantha Mosier for being selected to be one of this year’s class of participants in the BB&T Active Learning and Leadership Development Incentive Grant Program! During the program she will be working to document connections between active learning and developing leadership skills among our students.

Col. Robert Scott Barker (US Army, retired) will remain the president of the Pitt County Veterans Council for another year and has recently been named the master of ceremonies for this year’s Memorial Day event on the Greenville Town Commons on the 27th of May.

Dr. Casey Fleming will present a project at the annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration in March 2019 in Washington, DC. This study, with data drawn from interviews and survey data of city and county managers across three southeastern states, investigates the factors affecting career trajectories or the “path to managerhood” of local government executives, including formal skills, professional and social networks, and mentoring as well as luck and good fortune.

Hanna Kassab’s New Book: Corruption, Institutions, and Fragile States, co-authored with Jonathan D. Rosen and published by Palgrave Macmillan, is out. The book examines the relationship between state fragility and corruption. It analyzes a variety of regions throughout the world, including Latin America, Central Asia and the Middle East, Africa, Central America and Mexico, South America, and Russia. States that are plagued by high levels of state fragility and corruption facilitate illicit activities and other criminal enterprises.

See: https://www.amazon.com/Corruption-Institutions-Fragile-States-Kassab-ebook/dp/B07L9QJRHJ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1547150302&sr=8-2&keywords=hanna+kassab

Congratulations to Hugh Lee, whose Alabama Elder Law is now in it’s 11th Edition! The 1906 page book (!) answers some of the most common questions facing elder law attorneys, Alabama Elder Law provides a concise, comprehensive resource for practitioners who represent elderly clients. This treatise covers all aspects of elder law, including:

• Powers of attorney
• Financial decision making
• Healthcare decision making
• Guardianship and conservatorship
• Adult protective services
• Civil commitment
• Representative payees
• Long-term care insurance
• Medicaid and Medicare
• Nursing home care and regulation
• Alternatives to nursing homes
• Social Security retirement and disability benefits
• Supplemental Security Income
• Government retirement systems
• Private retirement plans
• Veterans’ benefits
• State and local taxation
• Estate planning
• And more

The text provides references to underlying primary law, which elder law attorneys must consult on a daily basis. It also offers substantive knowledge as well as advice about the process of founding and developing an elder law practice. Editorial features save attorneys research time.

See https://store.legal.thomsonreuters.com/law-products/Treatises/Alabama-Elder-Law-2018-2019-ed-Alabama-Practice-Series/p/105879946

Dr. Kassab’s Grand Strategies of Weak States and Great Powers has recently been published by Palgrave. The book examines the idea that “grand strategies” can be thought of as overall survival strategies of all states. Great powers seek survival against other great powers seeking to undermine their power and position, determining prestige-seeking behavior as psychotic and destructive. Weak states suffer from systemic vulnerabilities and trade whatever political power they have to a great power for economic assistance. If enough weak states support a particular great power, then that great power will become more powerful relative to competitors. This forms an international system fashioned by these transactions.

See the book at https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319704036.

Congratulations Dr. Kassab!

Dr. Sharon Paynter received a $100,000 grant from the State Employees’ Credit Union Foundation for the Public Fellows Internship program for 2019.

In 2004, the SECU Board of Directors chartered the SECU Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization funded by the contributions of SECU members, to help identify and address community issues and promote local and community development in North Carolina primarily through high impact projects in the areas of education, housing, healthcare and human services. From the beginning, SECU Foundation initiatives have allowed the Credit Union and its members to demonstrate the cooperative’s “People Helping People®” philosophy in a powerful and profound way.