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This and that for a Tuesday

Sentencing postponed again for former Congressman Steve Buyer. Purdue sets records in donations, research funding. And, so long, Pee-wee Herman.

Dave Bangert

Aug 1, 2023

Thanks today to sponsor Wabash River Cycle Club, presenting the Wabash River Ride on Aug. 26. This ride offers both paved and gravel routes, all of varying length (32-, 62- and 100-miles in distance). The Wabash River Ride has well-supplied restock stops throughout all of its routes, provides roadside assistance for cyclists who need help and wishes to provide a supportive environment for all cyclists who seek to challenge themselves on whatever distance they choose. To sign up or get more information, go to www.wabashriverride.com or click the image below.

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A few notes on for a Tuesday morning …

BUYER SENTENCING ON HOLD, AGAIN: Former U.S. Steve Buyer will wait until Sept. 19 to find out his sentence, after being convicted of insider trading after his time representing Greater Lafayette in Congress in the 1990s and early 2000s. Buyer’s sentencing, scheduled for Monday morning, was postponed after questions came up about previous representation by his lawyer’s firm for one of the companies Buyer was convicted of cashing in on. That’s the second delay for Buyer’s sentencing in a U.S. District Court in New York.

Buyer was convicted in March in connection to $320,000 in profits he made with accounts for himself, his family and a woman federal prosecutors said he had an affair with.

Federal prosecutors charged Buyer in July 2022, accusing Buyer of cashing in when T-Mobile merged with Sprint in 2018 and when Guidehouse, a Virginia firm that provides consulting services to government clients, bought Navigant Consulting Inc. During his trial, Buyer’s attorneys said the former congressman was simply acting boldly, but legally. An SEC filing accused Buyer using inside information gleaned during golf outings and then trying to cover his tracks. (Here’s more on what led to federal charges, filed in 2022.)

Federal prosecutors are pushing for a three-year prison sentence and that Buyer should pay nearly $1.4 million to cover the legal bills of companies forced to incur expenses when he was prosecuted on insider trading charges. In court documents, Buyer’s team called that exorbitant and asked the court to spare him time in prison.

Buyer, 64, a Republican from Monticello, was first elected to the U.S House in November 1992, in Indiana’s 5th District. In 2002, when Buyer and then-Rep. Brian Kerns were drawn into the same district, Buyer won the 4th District seat. He didn’t run in 2010, retiring, he said, because he wanted to spend more time with Joni as she dealt with health issues. The timing then came as he was fending off complaints that the Frontier Education Foundation, an entity he created, failed to channel scholarships to college students, as advertised, as it racked up administrative and travel costs.

POWER OUTAGES, FOOD HELP: Fairfield Township Trustee Monica Casanova sent a reminder after this weekend’s power outages that the township is in position to help financially qualified residents who lost food in the heat after the early Saturday morning storms. Some parts of Fairfield Township, which includes much of Lafayette, went without power until Sunday afternoon. She said food vouchers take the form of a check made out to the grocery store and can be used for food. Amounts are determined by household size and can be viewed on the township’s website under assistance standards. To check eligibility requirements and to find an application, go to: https://fairfieldtownship79.in.gov

PURDUE HITS NEW MARKS ON RESEARCH FUNDING, GIFTS: Purdue started the week by touting that it had set records in fiscal year 2023 for research funding and private donations, with both topping $600 million in a 12-month period ending June 30.

Purdue received $613 million in research funding, with was a 9% increase over the amount brought into the campus in fiscal year 2022, according to the university. The money went toward approximately 3,500 research projects, according to a university release. Of the money brought in, $98 million came from the U.S. Department of Defense, the first time that source has topped the list for Purdue, according to the university. (The runners-up: $95 million from the National Institute of Health and $81 million from the National Science Foundation.)

Purdue had $610 million in gifts from 83,836 donors in the year that ended June 30. That was up 12.6% from the previous record, the $542.1 million contributed the year earlier in fiscal year 2022, according to university figures. That included a record $110.8 million raised in 24 hours on the Purdue Day of Giving in April.

PURDUE SETS PRESIDENTIAL LECTURE LINEUP: Purdue President Mung Chiang will host a series of Q&As on campus as part of the Presidential Lecture Series. The events are free. Times and locations will be set on several of them. Here’s the lineup, announced last week:

Sept. 7: Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn, the duo credited with the seminal work 50 years ago in inventing the TCP/IP that led to the Internet’s success. 6 p.m., Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall.
Sept. 12: Paul Alivisatos, the University of Chicago’s 14th president, will discuss the state of higher education in America.
Oct. 17: Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger will talk about the revitalization of semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
November, date to be determined: Purdue grad Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor for Virgin Galactic.

IF YOU’RE KEEPING SCORE: Still no word on the Jennifer Teising case at the Indiana Supreme Court …

SO LONG, PEE-WEE: A guy in the TV lounge at Libby Hall, my dorm freshman year, said I should stick around one late night in fall 1982. He loved this guy who was going to be on David Letterman in a few minutes. This was the first bit I saw, then, from Pee-wee Herman.

See, it works.

It set a tone for the rest the ‘80s. Thanks for everything that followed, Paul Reubens.

Thanks, again, to today’s sponsor, the Wabash River Cycle Club, presenting the Wabash River Ride on Aug. 26.

THANK YOU FOR TWO YEARS OF BASED IN LAFAYETTE, AN INDEPENDENT, LOCAL REPORTING PROJECT. JOIN IN FOR YEAR NO. 3. FREE AND FULL-RIDE SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS ARE READY FOR YOU HERE.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com. Like and follow Based in Lafayette on Facebook: Based in Lafayette