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Laura Powell

@LauraPowellEsq

Oct 10

While I have to wait on responses to public records requests, the Associated Press has picked up where I left off on the story of Nicole Price’s professional ties to Ian Roberts. (Link to the article in the comments, along with my prior posts on the subject.) Price employed Roberts, and I’ve also heard credible allegations that they were romantically involved.

In September 2023, Roberts proposed that the Des Moines school board award $116,000 in contracts to Price’s consulting firm, Lively Paradox, and another company. According to a district spokesperson, the CFO flagged the apparent conflict of interest and spoke with Roberts about it. Roberts later told board members he was canceling the proposal after receiving “an update from the finance team.” The board says it was unaware of the real reason for the cancellation at the time.

Just a few months later, in December 2023, the district paid Price $6,476 for leading a two-hour exercise at a school board retreat. Roberts approved that smaller payment himself, without board involvement. The AP reports that the board did not learn of Roberts’s relationship with Price until July 2024, when they were again considering hiring her.

The article omits one important detail—the board has said it received a resume from Roberts during his 2023 interview, and every publicly available version of that resume lists Lively Paradox as a past employer.

Board chair Jackie Norris told the AP that concerns of a conflict of interest were addressed with Roberts at that time, which was almost a year after the CFO had spoken to him about the problem. (I question whether these apparent private communications between the board and Roberts on the topic complied with Iowa’s open meetings laws.) “I strongly feel that a review is needed of all expenditures related to the former superintendent,” Norris told the AP.

Price counts several of Roberts’s other former employers—Millcreek Township School District, St. Louis Public Schools, and Aspire Schools—among her own clients. She told the AP she saw nothing improper about her work with Roberts’s employers.

The two also co-authored several self-published books, which Price admitted sold poorly. She said most sales came from Roberts purchasing copies to hand out at conferences. Despite that, she told the AP that Roberts’s wife encouraged her to move forward with a new book project. (A source has told me Price remains in regular contact with Roberts while he is in custody, though I have no way to confirm that.)

Despite her upbeat tone in interviews and continued defense of Roberts, Price has quietly removed references to him—and to their joint projects—from her websites in recent days. Perhaps she’s hoping the publicity will boost her business, but she also appears to be hedging against the risk of standing by an apparent conman and alleged criminal.

apnews.com/article/ian-ro…

https://x.com/LauraPowellEsq/status/1974898184351780981

My post about the Des Moines school board retreat Nicole Price was involved in.

https://x.com/LauraPowellEsq/status/1974898184351780981

Read 5 tweets

Laura Powell

@LauraPowellEsq

Oct 8

I’ve been examining public records related to the Des Moines Public Schools superintendent search, which was largely conducted behind closed doors.

This thread explores one aspect: consideration of input from the community on desired traits for the new superintendent. It focuses on the role of a new figure, who works nationally as an education consultant—in shaping the process. 🧵

DMPS held community forums to collect feedback on the qualities residents prioritized in a new superintendent. AJ Crabill, from the Council for Great City Schools, a Washington DC-based nonprofit, analyzed the feedback and presented it to the school board. Crabill describes himself as a “student outcomes evangelist,” and others have called him a “school board guru.” It was apparent from watching video that school board members are deferential towards him.

Crabill presented his findings at a DMPS board work session alongside Michael Hinojosa, the principal consultant hired by JG Consulting to manage the search.

Hinojosa is connected to Ian Roberts through the organization New Leaders. He also works for CGCS.

DMPS pays CGCS tens of thousands of dollars a year for these services. School board member Kimberly Martorano holds a paid position with CGCS.

Read 9 tweets

Laura Powell

@LauraPowellEsq

Sep 27

Ian Roberts, the Des Moines school superintendent arrested by ICE, has so many inconsistencies in his public biographies that it’s amazing that no one questioned his identity before.

I’ll keep adding receipts to this thread as I find information. 🧵

Court records show Roberts’s birthdate as December 18, 1970. But his original Wikipedia entry, created by an account that nearly matches a handle Roberts uses, says he was born December 18, 1978. And records from athletic competitions list his DOB at December 18, 1973.

Roberts is quoted in 2020 referring to Guyana as his birthplace and saying that his father immigrated to the United States in the 1980s and his mother in the 2000s. But in a 2024 local news story, he claims he was born in Brooklyn and raised by a single mother. His Facebook lists two secondary schools in Guyana as alma maters.

Read 28 tweets

Laura Powell

@LauraPowellEsq

Aug 1

University President J. Luke Wood, who identifies as African American, launched a “Black Honors College” at Sacramento State University last year. His stated goal is to transform it into the “HBCU of the West.” As he explained in an interview: “So we can’t be an HBCU—we weren’t founded in time, right? But we can be everything but the historical part.”

But that “historical part” is not incidental. “Historically Black Colleges and Universities” are called that because they were historically black, founded during a time of legal segregation. The designation came about in 1965 after the Civil Rights Act made it illegal for HBCUs to refuse to admit non-black students. When Wood laments that the program wasn’t “founded in time,” he is expressing a yearning for the time of segregation, which the Civil Rights Movement fought to dismantle.

The Black Honors College website claims it does not discriminate based on race, yet Wood has described the program as “specifically designed to serve Black students.” He and other university officials have emphasized that its primary purpose is to address the problem of lower graduation rates among black students. Notably, the program does not require applicants to show that they have personally faced any disadvantage or hardship.

Given President Wood’s own descriptions, it is difficult to see how this program complies with federal anti-discrimination laws, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

https://x.com/LauraPowellEsq/status/1950962499177881611

This thread contains a number of clips that give you an idea of Luke Wood’s views on race.

https://x.com/LauraPowellEsq/status/1950962499177881611

Sacramento State President J. Luke Wood was interviewed by Nigerian media during an official visit to the country last year. Wood said that the trip’s purpose was to recruit Nigerian students to attend the university, who he says are “the best students on the planet.” He advertised that studying at Sac State is affordable because the costs are partially subsidized by Californian taxpayers. He announced the university intends to sign a memoranda of understanding with Nigeria, South Africa, and Rwanda to facilitate the enrollment of African students.

In an article a Sacramento newspaper from around the same time, Wood is quoted as saying, “I believe in Pan Africanism.” He said the Black Honors College is “purposely and intentionally trying to be reflective of the diaspora” by staffing the program with black people from around the world. The goal is to “have a Black-centric experience in California.”

I also suspect that the goal is to improve his university’s statistics for black students by recruiting from the elite classes in foreign countries. It would obviously be easier to pack their numbers with black people from wealthy, educated families, who are likely to perform well, than it would be to figure out how to support disadvantaged African-American students.

The central, unanswered question is: How does a global effort to recruit students based on the color of their skin conceivably benefit California taxpayers?

Read 6 tweets

Laura Powell

@LauraPowellEsq

May 31

Yesterday, a trans activist attacked a man protesting against boys in girls’ sports at the California track and field championships. He was in his car with his wife and 4-year-old child at the time. He fought the attacker off with pepper spray before police intervened.
1/3

The attacker had been interviewed by local media earlier. The person appears to be a female who identifies as male. She rambled about oppression, Palestine, etc. “If you’re a Nazi, or complicit, I mean, f*ck off,” she said.
2/3

https://x.com/CBS47/status/1928696075210080623

The victim is a conservative activist, and the attacker identifies him by name as she approaches. It’s a sad commentary on the state of free speech culture that comments on this post indicate people believe his political views justify the attack.
3/3

https://x.com/CBS47/status/1928696075210080623

Read 4 tweets

Laura Powell

@LauraPowellEsq

Apr 3

Matt Taibbi is suing Congresswomen Kamlager-Dove for libel.

Members of Congress are shielded from liability for defamation for statements made during legislative activities, but Kamlager-Dove apparently didn’t realize this doesn’t extend to her social media communications, unless they were within the scope of her official duties as a member of Congress.

FYI, I was going to follow up my initial post with more detail about the law, but I realized what I wrote might be misleading without a qualification, so I edited the post.

I initially thought this looked like a strong case for Taibbi, but there’s a 6th Circuit case that held tweets from congresspeople falsely accusing the Covington Catholic student of hateful conduct were protected. I don’t find the reasoning persuasive, but another court might.

Read 4 tweets

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