President of LSU Faculty Senate speaks to Levees.org on expenses relating to Ivor van Heerden lawsuit~“The $457,000 that LSU has expended on legal costs for the Ivor van Heerden case brings the total cost of this shameful episode, including the $453,000 settlement, to at least one million dollars. What else could the expenditure of that sum have done? It could easily have paid Dr. Van Heerden’s salary until his retirement, an action that would have put LSU’s support for free inquiry and free speech beyond question. Alternatively, that sum would cover the cost of a ½% goodwill salary increment for the entire LSU faculty, a faculty which has received no raise for five years. One million dollars would cover more than one-quarter of the midyear budget cut that LSU received last year. It would have subsidized long subscriptions to up to five major library databases or fitted out the laboratories for two beginning scientists."
 
Capitalism funds natural disasters? ~Salon