Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

That's what University of Virginia continues to do, as my colleague at American Tradition Institute Chris Horner explains today in Washington Examiner. Earlier this week UVA -- as required by a court order -- delivered records relating to Climategate "Hockey Stick" chart creator Michael Mann that ATI asked for in January under a Freedom of Information Act request. Except the records provided -- less than half of the 9,000 or so records that UVA says are responsive to our request -- were of minimal relevance to Mann's research.

UVA has said it will claim exemptions to protect records of a "proprietary nature," which is irrelevant here under Virginia's FOIA law because all the research Mann did has been published, and therefore public. Obviously missing from the fluffy document dump this week were the already-publicized Climategate emails between Mann, East Anglia pals, and other alarmists...

Obviously Mann is not a lawyer, as there is no exemption in Virginia's FOIA for "private discussions between scientists about science" under taxpayer-funded research and institutions.

The school has spent approximately $500,000 to date keeping these records from the taxpayer, who paid for their production to begin with.

The university again labored to avoid releasing correspondence directly addressing the now discredited “Hockey Stick” graph produced while former assistant research professor Michael Mann worked there.

At least 126 of those emails were sent to or from Mann at UVa and were central to ClimateGate, which exposed a purported, now disavowed temperature record, as well as the Hockey Stick and related activities by scientists to keep dissenting work from publication. The emails showed scientists circling the wagons to protect their claims, funding and careers.