Commentator paid to promote No Child Left Behind settles with Education Dept. News
Commentator paid to promote No Child Left Behind settles with Education Dept.

[JURIST] Conservative radio commentator Armstrong Williams [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] has agreed to pay the US Department of Education [official website] $34,000 after a year-long investigation of the commentator's agreement to endorse President Bush's education policies, a Department spokesperson confirmed Sunday. Williams has admitted no wrongdoing, but the Justice Department determined that Williams was overpaid for his contracted work. In 2003, the Department agreed to pay Williams $240,000 in exchange for his promotion of the No Child Left Behind Act [text] in various media outlets without disclosing his connection to the administration.

An investigation was initiated after the Government Accountability Office [official website] released an audit which revealed no evidence of Williams having carried out the promotion. The Justice Department review did not evaluate whether Williams improperly promoted the White House's agenda, but the GAO General Counsel concluded in October 2005 that the payments were illegal [JURIST report]. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.