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Media Relations

Herald-Times articles

April 5, 2007

IU professor's legal work for wineries under scrutiny: Tanford involved in lawsuit challenging shipping ban
by Steve Hinnefeld

Indiana University law professor Alex Tanford said he's done nothing wrong by representing wineries and consumers in their battles with states over interstate wine shipping.

"I'm well within university guidelines," he said Thursday.

But the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of Indiana, which has been on the other side of the fight, has complained about Tanford's work to members of the state Legislature.

The university has begun an audit of whether Tanford violated IU policies. And the wine wholesalers are trying to persuade lawmakers to withhold $1 million from IU's state appropriation and create a fund to pay legal costs if the state loses wine-shipping litigation.

IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said Lauren Robel, the dean of the law school, requested an internal audit after receiving information about Tanford's legal work.

"It's an allegation we've taken seriously," he said. "We're going to investigate in a way that should give us a definitive answer."

Tanford has represented wineries and consumers in several cases, including Granholm v. Heald, a landmark Michigan case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states couldn't bar shipping by out-of-state wineries but let in-state wineries ship their products.

James Purucker, an Indianapolis lobbyist who represents the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers, said the group was alarmed when it learned Tanford asked to be awarded $800,000 in legal fees for cases in which his clients won.

Purucker went to legislators and IU officials with copies of Tanford's billing records, suggesting the hours he claimed to have worked conflicted with times he should have been teaching. "I think the (legislative) leadership got concerned with what they were seeing," he said.

Tanford now represents consumers and wineries in a federal lawsuit that challenges Indiana's ban on shipping wine directly to consumers or retailers.

Purucker said the case could go to the Supreme Court, and if the state loses, it could face significant costs. That's why he's asked Senate fiscal leaders to include the "wine litigation contingency fund" in a budget amendment that comes out today.

Some legislators don't like it that Tanford, working for a state university, is doing legal work that could cost the state money.

"I think it's totally inappropriate for a state employee to be pursuing things on behalf of an outside client and trying to get paid on the state taxpayers' nickel to do it," Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, told the Louisville Courier-Journal.

But Tanford said the complaints are sour grapes from the wholesalers, and he has no intention of curtailing his legal work.

He said the work has been within the limits set by IU's conflict-of-commitment policy, which allows faculty to spend, on average, one nonweekend day a week on outside professional activities.

"I don't use the university's resources," he said, adding that he uses his own computer for the work.

He said he has spent 3,000 hours over eight years on winery litigation. Even if it all had been on weekdays, he said, it would average out to less than the allowable one day per week.

Tanford said being active in court makes him a better teacher.

"I teach litigation," he said. "I'm in a professional school. I cannot teach my students litigation if I myself am not actively involved in some litigation."

'Mad Money' man 'on' even off camera: Jim Cramer is as wired as an athlete before taping show at Assembly Hall
by Sarah Morin

Before Wednesday's taping of his CNBC hit TV show "Mad Money" at Assembly Hall, Jim Cramer sat alone in the IU women's basketball team room.

Like an athlete anticipating a big game, Cramer said he was nervous.

He didn't want to mess up. And most importantly, he didn't want to disappoint.

"I'm very concerned that it will go awry," Cramer said.

Cramer skipped a trip with his Mad Money crew and others to local favorite Nick's tavern after dinner Tuesday night to make sure he was in the zone for Wednesday's taping.

No such revelry before "game day."

"For me, stocks is like sports," Cramer said.

And training for the game is always on.

His brown eyes dart back and forth from a reporter to a large silver Sony television on CNBC with a rolling stocks ticker. He comments on certain stocks. Points this, points that. A lap top and newspaper sections are strewn across a table top.

Wearing a navy pin-stripe suit over a blush-colored dress shirt — TV antishine make-up already on — Cramer is more subdued than the "boo-yah" stocks guru he is on television.

No slamming buttons that yield different sound effects signaling a stock's worth: a horn, a jack hammer etc.

"I'm not as combative in person. I am quieter than on the show," he said.

Cramer hates to see himself on TV, and never watches his own show. He said his on-air persona is about having fun and catching people's attention.

When it's show time, it's go time. The cameras roll, and so do his shirt sleeves.

Cramer said his appearance and the show's setting mirror his days — and desk — as a hedge fund manager. He now shares that knowledge on his show, analyzing the stock market and offering investment advice. During the lightening round segment, he takes calls from viewers.

And it's been a hit, especially with college students. Cramer took his full-throttle TV show to campuses in February 2006.

He said the efforts from the IU Mad Money Club, which sent him a 10-minute video including a spoof of his favorite TV show "24", to lure him to Bloomington caught his attention.

"It won me over," he said. "Heart and desire matter to us. This has been the school with the greatest groundswell."

For the local taping, Cramer decided to focus on Cummins, a global company based 36-miles away in Columbus that designs, manufactures, sells and services diesel engines and related technology.

He called it "the triumph of the heartland of America over the heartlessness of Wall Street," he said.

Also Cramer asked Mark Cuban, Indiana University alumni and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, to join him for the show taping.

Cramer said he's known Cuban for 15 years. He called Cuban, "a remarkable hero" and "a force of greatness."

The taping also attracted viewers from outside Bloomington. A group of four Purdue students were first in line, sitting on railings along the West entrance to Assembly Hall.

The guys covered up their black and gold Purdue garb with cream-colored Mad Money IU shirts.

Being first in line has guaranteed them first row spots for the taping.

Omar Hasan, a junior, said Cramer's charisma is why he woke up at 7 a.m., drove the two hours from Purdue and missed class to see him.

He makes the inner-workings of stocks — essentially making money — easy to follow, Hasan said.

His friend, John Berlakovich, just had thing on his mind: "Is Mark Cuban going to buy the Chicago Cubs or not?"

So how does someone whose net worth is reported to be more than $100 million do it?

Here's a typical schedule:

• 3:45 a.m.: Cramer rises at his Summit, N.J., home.; has two daughters, 15 and 12.

• 4-5 a.m. : Workout with a personal trainer in his home. He used to weigh 205 pounds, now he's at 175.

• 5 a.m.: Starts memo for that day's show. His driver picks him up to take him to Wall Street.

• 7:15 a.m.: Arrives at thestreet.com, which he co-founded in 1996. The Web site offers stock alerts and ratings.

• 11:30 a.m.: Goes to CNBC, decides what he wants that show to be about. He talks with his 21-year-old nephew, who is head writer for the show. The show is not impromptu — he has it memorized — except for the lightning round segment in which viewers call in with questions.

• 4:01 p.m.: Show time.

• Bedtime? It depends. Tuesday night, it was after 10:30 p.m.

Who is Jim Cramer?

The host of CNBC's "Mad Money" graduated from Harvard College, after which he became a reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

He's a former hedge-fund manager and owner and senior partner of Cramer Berkowitz. He retired from his hedge fund in 2001.

He then went back to Harvard for a law degree, and joined sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.

Cramer is the author of several books, including "Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," and "You Got Screwed: Why Wall Street Tanked and How You Can Prosper."

Aerobics pioneer challenges 'apathy' about exercise, health
by Dann Denny

One of Dr. Kenneth Cooper's more notable patients is President George Bush.

"He consistently rates his stress level as moderate, crediting the six hours of exercise he gets every week," he said. "If he can do that, with all his responsibilities, what's your excuse?"

Known as the "Father of Aerobics," Cooper drew more than 300 people to his Wednesday night talk in the Indiana Memorial Union.

Still looking fit at 76 years of age, this pioneer in the international fitness movement acknowledged that his 1968 best-selling book, "Aerobics," helped trigger a fitness revolution.

Millions of baby boomers became "Cooperized" into running, walking, swimming and biking.

But Cooper said he twice turned down offers to become the U.S. Surgeon General, because of the federal government's lack of commitment to fighting obesity, poor diets and sedentary lifestyles.

"The apathy in Washington about these issues is unbelievable," he said. "There's no real commitment to changing things."

That said, Cooper challenged audience members to take personal responsibility for their own health.

"Many Americans don't die," he said. "They kill themselves."

Speaking like a speed-talker — words flying off his tongue like bullets from an automatic weapon — Cooper showed chart after chart depicting the declining health of many American adults and children.

"Eighty person of all disease in this country results from a sedentary lifestyle," he said. "The best way to get rid of disease-causing stress is to exercise at the end of the day."

He cited his landmark study of 13,000 patients showing that people with a sedentary lifestyle are four times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those who exercise moderately.

Cooper also unveiled data that links childhood obesity to IQ; and establishes a correlation between regular exercise and academic performance.

Cooper concluded his talk by showing slides of several of his octogenarian patients, — such as Johnny Kelley, who ran 61 Boston Marathons before completing his last one at age of 84.

"Whenever he was interviewed by the media he said his physician, Dr. Ken Cooper, said it was safe for him to run marathons at his age," Cooper said. "Each time he raced I prayed, 'Please God, don't let him die.'"

Another of his prized patients is a 90-year-old woman who is a speed-walking champion.

"She sent me the nicest card I ever received," he said. "It said, 'Dr. Cooper, because of you I forgot to grow old.'"

Purdue president speaks out about Steffey's death in radio address
by Associated Press

The death of a Purdue University freshman who was fatally shocked by an electrical transformer in a dormitory utility room apparently was caused by a series of tragic coincidences, Purdue University President Martin Jischke said in a radio address.

Purdue officials still are investigating how Wade Steffey gained access to the utility room, which is required to be locked but did not have warning signs posted outside, Jischke said Wednesday on school radio station WBAA.

"At this point, we don't know whether Wade somehow opened the locked door, or whether the mechanism was defective or had inadvertently been left unlocked," he said.

"However, the location and nature of the door make it very clear that it is not a public entrance," he said.

Steffey, 19, died early on the morning of Jan. 13, and his body found on March 19. Officials said he was fatally shocked when he entered a Purdue dormitory through an unlocked exterior door of the utility room containing high-voltage electrical equipment.

His parents, Dale Steffey and Dawn Adams of Bloomington, said last month they had retained a law firm in anticipation of taking legal action regarding the death of their son.

Jischke said he would not comment further on Steffey's death until after the investigation is completed and a report is issued in a few weeks.

"Every student is precious to us, and we take our responsibility for these students and their safety very seriously," Jischke said.

Shelly Fields, a Purdue University staff member who participated in searches for Steffey, said she was concerned that Jischke's comments seemed to place the blame for the tragedy on Steffey.

"It's kind of like saying, 'Well, he should have known better,"' Fields said after listening to Jischke's radio address.

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