Hamilton faces U.S. Grand Jury investigation....

A U.S. District Court grand jury served Newport News Public Schools with a subpoena and search warrant in connection with Del. Phil Hamilton's negotiations with and employment by Old Dominion University.

"We are cooperating fully," said Superintendent Ashby Kilgore.

Hamilton released a brief statement saying his re-election campaign will continue. "Considering the amount – and the tone – of news coverage afforded this story by certain media outlets, it is understandable that an investigation would be initiated," Hamilton said. "I welcome the inquiry and it is my hope that it will be completed swiftly. I am confident that the investigation will confirm my innocence, and I look forward to continuing my service to the people of Newport News and James City County."

Hamilton, is a Newport News Republican, retired teacher and administrator. He works part-time for the district as a leadership training coordinator.

"He's still working for us," said district spokeswoman Michelle Price, who said the district was served on Sept. 2.

Hamilton recently resigned his $40,000-a-year job at the Old Dominion University Center for Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership after the Daily Press obtained emails showing that he was angling for a job with the school and negotiating salary even as he carried the amendment that helped create the educational center.

Hamilton is a powerful budget negotiator with tremendous sway over state tax dollars and he managed to get the center funded to the tune of $500,000-a-year starting in the summer of 2007. He apologized for the flap and embraced an ethics investigation instigated by House Speaker William J. Howell.

Hamilton was pursuing the job with Old Dominion during the early months of 2007, and he consistently traded emails with Old Dominion employee David Blackburn, a former Newport News employee who worked with Hamilton for about 5 or 6 years on the Peninsula. Hamilton's emails came primarily from his Newport News school email account.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request to Old Dominion, the Daily Press obtained stacks of emails detailing discussions between Hamilton and Blackburn and other Old Dominion officials regarding funding for the center.

However, when the Daily Press made a similar request to Newport News Public Schools the search through eight-months of records turned up only a single innocuous note between Hamilton and an Old Dominion official. This dearth of information was striking considering the amount of emails stored at Old Dominion that originated from Hamilton's Newport News account.

Old Dominion University rector Ross Mugler would not confirm or deny that college officials were involved in the investigation.

"No comment," Mugler said late Friday.

Comments

[Neil B ♪ ♫]

PS: Some of that was quoted from the link, but HTML italics did not work - ! I can tell also from "Daily Press" being normal type.
Blog Owner/s, please allow HTML tags ... unless I am mistaken.

[Neil B ♪ ♫]

JTB, I looked up that link from a 1996 Daily Press article (http://robinabbott.com/media-mentions/following-her-dreams-mom-juggling-school-volunteering-to-become-lawyer/?searchterm=trible). It is quite innocuous. Robin did work for Mr. Trible (former Senator, (R)-VA) as a Paralegal. She did get the Scholarship, which you falsely imply is given to one or two folks at a time. You misleadingly stated:
"Mr. Trible gave her a free ride, in exchange for her services as his assistant."

You claim this is a "free ride", as if Robin failed to meet some criterion for the Scholarship. Then, you say "in exchange for her services ..." accusing Mr. Trible of having bad motives - as if you would know the basis from your suspicious intuitions or whatnot. That is a shameful accusation, and you had the resources to know better:

She is attending CNU through the Presidential Scholarship Program, created last year by Trible for students in the top percentile in schools and colleges around the country. To be considered for the scholarship, a student must maintain a grade point average of 3.5 out of a possible 4.0. Abbott has a 3.7 grade point average.

"Robin fits the criteria; enthusiastic, hard-working and never satisfied with anything less than the best. She is the type of student we want in the scholarship program. Her efforts at TNCC, where she was an A-plus student, was the basis for her selection to the program," says Trible. "Robin is a truly remarkable woman. She is always giving of herself to her family, community, job and academic endeavors."

Robin clearly deserved the scholarship. Did you expect Trible to deny what is deserved according to criterion, just because she did work for him once? Also, don't you think there is input from other people about the Scholarship? So I see that your "gossip" wasn't the bare fact of it being awarded - yes, it was - but your interpretation of what it meant.

[J. Tyler Ballance]

The archive function that I was referring to is a server function and acts independent of desk top software. If the user archives, then the emails will be saved. If the user does not take steps either with a software like outlook or other mail management system, to save the sent emails, then the server will purge the sent emails after a specified period.

This was just offered as a plausible explanation for the missing emails from the sender side, not as a defense for Mr. Hamilton.

As for the scholarship issue, the candidate states on the campaign website, that the Presidential Scholarship was received from Mr. Trible. It is not, gossip. Mr. Trible gave her a free ride, in exchange for her services as his assistant. Based on my previous experience on the faculty of three colleges outside of Virginia, Presidential Scholarships are not generally handed out to internal staff, but are typically used to lure top students who would not otherwise apply to a particular school.

You imply that I am on one side in this race, but that is simply untrue. I am for neither candidate, but I am for Virginians getting an honest discussion of issues. We all should be hearing the candidates describe real solutions to the real problems that we all face.

If Mr. Hamilton knows that he offered a de facto sale of his legislative support to ODU, then he should step aside and let someone else have time to build a campaign. If on the other hand, he knows that, like the Trible Scholarship award, that his situation merely has the appearance of possible ethics problems, then he should say so, and resume debating the real issues and solutions before the public; and the sooner the better.

[Neil B ♪]

JTB, are you sure? People who are public servants know they are expected to keep pertinent emails (or maybe all of them from public institutions.) Also, the "Archive" for Outlook can be set to keep the emails indefinitely in a separate folder. The individual account holder decides which settings to use, or can at least find out what they are - true? Also Daily Press reports that one innocuous email from the period remained. If all were dumped, it would be gone. Correct me if wrong about anything, and I at least give credit for willingness to criticize in your own Party.

But nothing from Google on this alleged scholarship, etc. (Note Tribble is a Republican.) None of that is reported anywhere, is it? You know it is considered trashy to dump gossip on a blog when there are no extant references, unless you supply it yourself.

[J. Tyler Ballance]

The lack of email records at Newport News, may not be as suspicious as you imply.

With many large institutions, if the individual email account holder does not archive his Sent emails, the system-wide Sent archive is regularly dumped as Sent emails become older than thirty, or sixty days.

While I do not know if Newport News Schools' email system is set-up for auto-deletion of old, Sent emails, it could offer an explanation as to why the receiving end has records, while the sending end does not.

Have whoever is covering this debacle ask if Newport News auto-deletes non-archived emails.

This story is really starting to stink. The longer Phil Hamilton delays what is surely the inevitable, the worse shall be the position of his replacement. By delaying his resignation, Mr. Hamilton is handing his seat over to a Democrat, who herself has some questionable past deals, including a full scholarship given to her by Paul Trible for, "services rendered" as his assistant.

Get out now Phil, and let the citizens have a candidate untainted by scandal run under the Republican banner. If you are later exonerated, then run for office again, if you want. But, for now, the best course is to step aside until the investigation has cleared you, if that is going to be the case.