One more way your rental property can get trashed
After telling the story of Jason Winterholler, the Austin American-Statesman offers up the following: "Police said homeowners should do credit and criminal background checks on prospective tenants. They also warned owners to be skeptical of overly favorable deals and resist the urge to skip background checks just because the prospective renters seem nice." That advice will seem pretty straightforward to most landlords, even if sometimes it takes a lot of discipline to follow it. There are two things different here from the usual story of this kind. First, this advice is aimed at homeowners who attempt to rent out a [...]
Stopping financial misconduct with a multi-layered program
The Columbia (MO) Tribune has a story about how the University of Missouri is working to stop fiscal misconduct with a multi-layered program that even involves the public. The story focuses on the new fraud reporting hotline as well as other techniques like increased background checks. Let's review what's going on and how you can learn from it. The University is trying to curb and catch "financial misconduct." That phrase covers a number of offenses. They include theft and fraud, of course, but also statements or actions that violate internal financial policies, unlawful gifts, bribes, misuse of funds under grants [...]
Sometimes all you can do is chuckle: Wikipedia
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that purports to know about almost everything, seems to have missed important information about one of its own. The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit arm of Wikipedia. The Foundation's now-former COO, Carolyn Bothwell Doran was originally hired after being sent over as a part-time bookkeeper by a temp agency. It's not clear how she rose to the COO position. As COO, Doran was responsible for personnel management, with access to sensitive personal information. She was responsible for financial management with access to financial records. She prepared and filed the foundation's tax return. That's the kind of [...]
We’re going to evacuate you, but first …
During the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, lots of criminals wound up among good people on buses and in shelters. Still others used the occasion as an opportunity to get out of town and not come back. In Texas they think they have a solution for both those problems. The Houston Chronicle story headlined: "Next time, evacuees subject to criminal checks," leads with the following. "Texans seeking to escape the next hurricane or state emergency by evacuation bus will first be submitted to criminal background checks, the state's emergency management director says." There are several different ways you might [...]
SAT scores, transcript, background check
I've got a nephew who's going to college with the help of several scholarships. Those scholarships are contingent on good behavior. If he gets arrested for something like underage drinking, for example, his scholarships can be pulled. Many colleges have similar policies. Now some college administrators are thinking about criminal background checks as part of the admissions process. KHTV in Little Rock, Arkansas, reports that "What you do as a kid could soon determine your future. Because of violent incidents, like the Virginia Tech shootings, some colleges and universities are considering adding background checks to the admission process. And even [...]
Thinking about using Facebook or MySpace for background checks?
The SmartMoney web site has lots of good advice for job seekers. But in an article titled "Facebook Profiles Can Foil Job Searches" I found some good advice for employers, especially those considering using the social networking sites for part of background check on younger applicants. Jeanine DeBacker, an employment lawyer with Wendel Rosen Black & Dean in Oakland, Calif., says she often cautions her clients — employers and their human-resource managers concerned about the legality of conducting online background screenings of potential employees — 'to remember that people coming into the work force don't always know the proper way [...]