A little money goes a long way

Scott Mandia has set up a defense fund for climate science which, yesterday had a huge victory. After a hearing in the never ending attach on Mann, Va Judge Gaylord Finch held that

a. Mann could intervene in the suit seeking his correspondence against UVa and
b. He would reconsider his earlier decision to grant access to Michael Mann's Emails before the court decided if they should be made public.

More at Scott's site, the Guardian, and information about the suers of record, ATI

The American Tradition Institute was launched in Colorado in February 2009 as the nonprofit Western Tradition Institute, changing its name to ATI last year. WTI, in turn, was a spinoff of the Western Tradition Partnership (WTP) — a 501(c)(4) political advocacy group backed by energy interests.

“They are offshoots from the same poisoned roots,” said Peter Fontaine, the attorney representing Michael Mann in the ATI lawsuit.

WTP, which has since changed its name to American Tradition Partnership (logo above), describes itself as a “no-compromise grassroots organization dedicated to fighting the radical environmentalist agenda.” It was first registered as a Colorado nonprofit in 2008 by Scott Shires, a Republican operative with a checkered past: He was fined over $7,000 for campaign finance violations in Colorado, pleaded guilty in a scheme to fraudulently obtain federal grants for developing alternative fuels, and was tied to an illegal gambling ring. WTP was active on behalf of oil and gas industry interests in the 2008 commissioners race in Garfield County, a center of Colorado’s energy industry

Perhaps the churnalist of record and the not quite statistician should do their jobs rather than tut tutting about how people who recognize climate change when they see it should stop drinking soda and releasing CO2?