NightBlogger

The small town of Harper Woods, Michigan is at the center of an international scandal involving allegations of bribery, the Saudi royal family, and a $100 billion dollar fighter jet contract. Harper Woods is suing a British defense contracting firm, BAE Systems, alleging that the company engaged in illegal behavior, including paying over $2 billion in bribes and kickbacks to the former Saudi ambassador to the U.S., in connection to a large fighter jet contract BAE had with Saudi Arabia stemming back to the 1980s. Why is this small town of less than 15,000 residents involved? Because the town invested part of its public employees’ retirement fund, about $135,000, in BAE Systems and now the town says it wants to make sure the company is spending shareholder money properly. More

A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators. By failing to report income, the psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman, and a colleague in the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Timothy E. Wilens, may have violated federal and university research rules designed to police potential conflicts of interest, according to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa.

Like Dr. Biederman, Dr. Wilens belatedly reported earning at least $1.6 million from 2000 to 2007, and another Harvard colleague, Dr. Thomas Spencer, reported earning at least $1 million after being pressed by Mr. Grassley’s investigators. More