Early on in the Bush administration, former USDE official Eugene (Wild Bill) Hickok was one of the point men on NCLB enforcement -- talking tough during the Paige era and making states do all sorts of horrible things. Last I remember, Hickok had moved into the private sector and was being given what some thought was too much space in the Washington Post to talk about the importance of tutoring (see here for all about that).
His outlaw ancestry rearing up, Hickok’s now back in the news, having just settled with the US Government over having not sold 800 shares of BofA stock before joining the government. They’re a lender, he was supposed to get rid of them along with other stocks he did sell. In a statement Hickok writes that he didn’t know what was going on until he was about to leave the government. He says he turned himself in and wasn’t trying to evade the law. (No news on whether this is indeed more fallout from the Spellings-Paige feud.) Click below to read the statement and see some links. From Hickock:
Reaction from Eugene W. Hickok on stock issue
March 20, 2007
“As deputy secretary of education, I agreed to divest certain bank stocks
owned by my wife and myself - a common practice for federal appointees.
“Upon leaving government service, our personal accountants completed my
annual financial disclosure forms, which were submitted in June 2005. Those
forms reported that I had not divested certain bank stocks that I thought I
had indeed divested.
“This information, contained in my own filings with the department, led to
the departmental review and subsequent settlement reported recently.
“I took responsibility for an oversight on my part. There was no intent on
my part to evade my divestment responsibilities.”
For more on this, look here, here, and -- most recently -- here.