Talk:John G. Rowland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
B This article has been rated as b-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
This article is supported by the Politics and government work group.
WikiProject Connecticut
This article is part of WikiProject Connecticut, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Connecticut, United States on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the assessment scale.
Articles for deletion This article was nominated for deletion on 2006-06-06. The result of the discussion was speedy keep.

Contents

[edit] Initial discussions

Talk about a standard hack job, particularly given the cowardly masked domain forwarding. Given the whole of this article to date, it is clearly in violation of Wikipedias policy of NPOV and abuses a system built as a tool for education not anonymous political mudslinging. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.6.72.86 (talk • contribs) .

Lemme get this straight. An anonymous domain is complaining about another anonymous domain editing the article? And we've got a RFD that's sigged by a non-existent user? Right. Well, I'm removing the NPOV dispute tag until someone can actually cite some examples of NPOV being violated in the article. That being said, it would be nice to see some cites in the article. Justin Bacon 09:01, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I was referring to the fact that Jodirell2006.com domain is redirected to this page. the domain name was registered through a service that exists to hide who owns the domain and controls the forwarding.

It is interesting that no one sees the oddity of uncited allegations of misconduct receiving greater coverage than the official record of a politician who served twenty years in office. Obviously the documented allegations leading to his removal from office and guilty pleas are relevant, but the other stuff? Perhaps "NPOV" needs to be explained to me better

The scandals are, for better or for worse, the most notable thing about Governor Nowland. They, unlike essentially everything else about his political career, garnered national attention. If you have pertinent details regarding the rest of his political career you are, of course, welcome to submit them to the article. But pretending that a sitting governor who was indicted, convicted, and jailed is not notable primarily due to that unusual fact is completely unsupportable. Also, as I noted before, this entire article needs far better citing on all fronts (including the non-criminal portions of his career). But your broader complaint seems to be that the article references additional investigations into Rowland's administration for which he has not been convicted (and may never even be indicted). Nixon was, similarly, never convicted for Watergate. But it would be silly to suggest that a description of Watergate should not appear in Wikipedia's article on Nixon. Finally, it would be advisable for you to sign your comments in the future. Justin Bacon 05:29, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree that the scandals themselves are notable, perhaps even more so than the accomplishments. The problem is that there is not a single mention of anything positive accomplished in a nearly 30 year career. That combined with the above really taint the NPOV of the article for the time being. It should be marked as NPOV disputed because as it stands now, it is not NPOV, it is a very lopsided and selective view of an entire politial career.

[edit] Further investigations

I don't understand the "Further investigations" section, which is below the sections on conviction and release from prison. Does that mean that investigations are still ongoing? Or did these investigations occur before he pleaded guilty? Is he facing further charges as a result of these investigations? Or should the section be moved so the article is more in chronological sequence? John Broughton 13:41, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

As I read this I believe it should be removed, the investigation referenced was prior to his incarceration. It resulted in charges not being filed. It is also misleading in that it states "Three non-profit organizations closely associated with large contributors to his campaigns for public office are also mentioned by investigators", which is not factual. Non-profits are prohibited from campaign contributions, although as an individual Harry Gray did contribute, though I couldn't cite the website as it's done in frames.--24.91.192.4 15:30, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spousal abuse allegations

Why is this even here. A closer examination shows this is a Freedom of Information complaint against the Middlebury, CT police department. The finding is against them for not preserving records. Rowland's ex-wife has never made this allegation anywhere. It seems seems like a hatchet job. Discussion welcome. 24.91.192.4 20:58, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

I took it out. Negative info on an individual MUST be sourced in order to be allowable in an article, per wikipedia policy. (And even if allegations HAD been made, I don't think that is notable. A conviction, yes, but that's not what is under discussion.) John Broughton 15:39, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Minor question

"During those years, the state invested more than $2 billion to rebuild the University of Connecticut, which is now New England’s top public university." By what measure is UConn New England's top public university?--rsgdodge 15:23, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Good catch... that's some pretty POV material. I'm going to remove the last part of that sentence. If someone would like to add it back in, please make sure you have a good source to back it up. - Zagsa 16:07, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This seems to have several NPOV errors

Can we please edit these to make them NPOV? 1)"During his term, more than 455,000 acres of open space were preserved for future generations and state parks were revitalized"

2)"The Adriaen’s Landing project, the most ambitious capital city development project in decades in the state, continued to progress during Rowland's time in office"

Also, these aren't cited: During those years, the state invested more than $2 billion to rebuild the University of Connecticut. Major investments were also made in the Connecticut State University and Community Technical College systems; enrollments as of 2004 were at an all-time high.

As of 2004, Connecticut students led the nation in performance, and the number of spaces in pre-school programs more than doubled during his term in office.

Kefjohnson 00:01, 9 November 2007 (UTC)