Through his parents' odd jobs and his solid class work at Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School, Ferrer went on to college (University of Miami) and law school (University of Pennsylvania). Today, with misty eyes, a wife and two sons, he says he's living the American Dream.
Using stirring, Rubio-esque language to describe his up-from-the-bootstraps journey, the 44-year-old Ferrer blends loyalty to family and allegiance to American exceptionalism. The only difference is that Ferrer's party of advancement is Democrat, not Republican.
The only difference?
One's a schemer who created a malleable, slightly dishonest "man of principles" persona to ride a wave and advance an agenda of maximizing personal power via national politics, and the other is a career civil servant who has invested his life and significant legal and personal skills into serving the public and doing the right thing.
Politics aside, Ferrer has a rare skill that is much needed in a U.S. attorney: He knows h ow to bridge the gap between two opposing sides, Hogan said. “Willy has an amazing ability to walk into the room where everyone is diametrically opposed and, more times than not, get everyone on the same page,” Hogan said. “He understands people and their motivation, and he is very good at finding common ground.”
BTW, I didn't know Ricky Arriola raised over $200k for Obama -- nice!
Who knew the company hired to handle Florida FCATs was so screwed up:
Memos obtained by The Miami Herald from the state department of education and South Florida school districts showed that Pearson had problems throughout the testing season, including:
- A subcontractor failed to deliver testing materials to some schools.
- Some of the company's student databases weren't compatible with state databases, delaying the bulk of student scores.
- Tenth-graders had to be given the exams again on paper after a computerized version had systemwide glitches.
- Technical problems plagued testing of the state's new computerized end-of-course exams.
Pearson officials did not respond to requests for comment from the Herald on Friday or The Associated Press on Sunday.
Additionally, to save money, the state opted to have the writing tests this year graded by one person instead of two. The state delayed releasing those results to make sure they were valid.
The state's chancellor for kindergarten through 12th grade, Frances Haithcock, sent a memo late Friday to superintendents apologizing for the scoring delays. She said the test results will be reliable.
"I fully intend to take action that will ensure the contractor-related problems experienced this year are not repeated in the future," she wrote.
School administrators say the delays make it difficult to make staffing decisions for the next academic year. For students, the scores determine which classes they can take, what extra help they need and whether they can change schools.
Pearson has had problems with exams in other states, too.
The company and the College Board settled a class action lawsuit for nearly $3 million after 4,400 students were underscored on the SAT in 2006.
Pearson was blamed for delays related to test-scoring problems in Arkansas last year and South Carolina in 2008. This year, Wyoming claimed $9.5 million in damages after an online test administered statewide by Pearson was plagued with glitches.
Mr. Campbell and his colleagues, each working from a home office, are frantically trying to set up a program that will let them share images with executives at their prospective partner.
But at the moment when Mr. Campbell most needs to focus on that urgent task, something else competes for his attention: “Man Found Dead Inside His Business.”
That is the tweet that appears on the left-most of Mr. Campbell’s array of monitors, which he has expanded to three screens, at times adding a laptop and an iPad.
On the left screen, Mr. Campbell follows the tweets of 1,100 people, along with instant messages and group chats. The middle monitor displays a dark field filled with computer code, along with Skype, a service that allows Mr. Campbell to talk to his colleagues, sometimes using video. The monitor on the right keeps e-mail, a calendar, a Web browser and a music player.
Even with the meeting fast approaching, Mr. Campbell cannot resist the tweet about the corpse. He clicks on the link in it, glances at the article and dismisses it. “It’s some article about something somewhere,” he says, annoyed by the ads for jeans popping up.
I love how this guy could not resist some stupid headline about a corpse when he needed to focus on his upcoming business meeting.
I've seen lawyers check emails, Facebook, sports scores, celebrity updates, full-on porn, all while in depositions, courtrooms, on conference calls, in meetings, at lunch tables, and yes -- while driving their fancy cars.
In fact, I've long claimed there is a class component to calls for bans on cell phone use or texting while driving -- I'm pretty sure most lawyers do this regularly and also think they are pretty talented at it -- in other words, the law really should apply to others (poor people, young, uneducated) who can't seem to multitask so well:
Preliminary research shows some people can more easily juggle multiple information streams. These “supertaskers” represent less than 3 percent of the population, according to scientists at the University of Utah.
The problem is we all think we're in that three percent.
But don't worry, sez the Senator, it was totally my best friend's fault!
“Last Friday, I took a moment to check my personal email account during a quiet minute on the Senate floor. I received several emails from a former city colleague and life-long friend. I had no prior knowledge as to what the emails would contain and when the contents of one was discovered to be less than appropriate, it was promptly closed. I cannot control what individuals may send me and am disappointed that at a time when there are major issues impacting Florida, an insignificant issue such as this receives any attention.”
What's worse -- four seconds of harmless skin during the workday, or publicly throwing your life-long friend under the bus?
Dancer/lawyer/all-around good guy Wilfredo Ferrer gets the nod:
President Barack Obama nominated Miami-Dade native Wifredo Ferrer as the new U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida Thursday.
The position, which requires Senate confirmation, is among the most powerful of the 93 U.S. attorney's offices nationwide. The Miami post is also among the most demanding and sprawling -- with 290 prosecutors handling white-collar fraud, public corruption, drug-trafficking and human-smuggling cases from Key West to Fort Pierce.
His résumé was an easy sell: He is a one-time federal prosecutor in Miami and is currently chief of Miami-Dade County's federal litigation section. He's also the former deputy chief of staff to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.
The son of Cuban immigrants also was valedictorian at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High, first in his class at the University of Miami, and president of his class at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
The search beyond South Florida simply means that the CIP wants to make sure that it finds the best person for this community. That person might very well be from our own back yard.
HAHAHAHA, Tom's always been a joker. Nice line, though.
The city hopes the stadium will eventually attract further commercial development, perhaps including a hotel, to several city-owned parcels on the site's eastern and western flanks that will be left undeveloped for now. Those lots will be occupied temporarily by surface parking and an existing recreational ball field.
But critics of the plan see myriad missed opportunities. Many fear that the stadium will become another sports venue that fans largely evacuate after a game, like the old Miami Arena or the current AmericanAirlines Arena, both of which failed to spur promised redevelopment.
By giving over most of the 42-acre Orange Bowl site to the Marlins stadium and multistory garages, some say, the city has sharply reduced the options for a broader mix of development -- such as retail, offices and housing -- with sufficient economic oomph to revitalize the larger neighborhood around it.
HAHAHAHA, Dave Samson's always been a joker. Nice taxpayer ripoff, though.
In other good news, all you bigfirmers holding your breath for January and February to end, it ain't over yet:
Hinshaw & Culbertson, a Chicago-based firm with about 490 attorneys, cut 11 attorneys and 17 staff members last week in an effort to trim costs amid the economic slowdown.
The firm, which has nine of its 26 offices in Illinois, made the reductions across all offices and the dismissals weren't concentrated in any particular practice areas, said Bill Roberts, Hinshaw's managing partner.
The employee cuts amount to nearly 3% of the former 1,002-worker headcount.
Two former colleagues in the Miami prosecutor's office -- attorneys David Buckner and Curt Miner, who attended Harvard University law school with Acosta in the early 1990s -- say they intend to apply for the position. They are among more than a half-dozen potential candidates -- including Miami-Dade County government lawyer Wifredo ''Willy'' Ferrer, a one-time federal prosecutor as well as deputy chief of staff and counsel to former Attorney General Janet Reno.
