Meet John F. Wood

NEWS RELEASE
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

APRIL 11, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JOHN F. WOOD SWORN IN AS U.S. ATTORNEY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood was sworn in as United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri this morning, following unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Wood oversees a staff of 119, including 59 attorneys and 60 non-attorney support personnel. The office is responsible for prosecuting federal crimes in the district, including crimes related to terrorism, firearms, narcotics, child exploitation, and public corruption. The office also handles the defense of civil cases brought against the United States and the collection of debts owed to the United States.

Mr. Wood, 37, is a native Missourian. After graduating with Honors from the University of Virginia, he served on the staff of U.S. Sen. John C. Danforth of Missouri. Following his service for Sen. Danforth, Mr. Wood attended Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and served as Articles Chair of the Harvard Law Review.

Following law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge J. Michael Luttig on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States. He then practiced law at a leading national law firm.

Mr. Wood joined the Bush Administration in 2001 and held several prominent positions prior to becoming U.S. Attorney. He has previously served at the Department of Justice as a Deputy Associate Attorney General and as a Counselor to Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. He has also worked at the White House as Deputy General Counsel for the Office of Management and Budget. His last job prior to being nominated by the President to serve as U.S. Attorney was as Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is the third largest department of the federal government with approximately 180,000 employees and an annual budget of over $40 billion.

Mr. Wood’s wife, Julie, is Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She is a native of the Kansas City area. They have one son.

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This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html
Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106
www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html
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Wood replaces interim Bradley J. Schlozman whose job experience included a stint as a deputy in Justice's civil rights division where, among other things, he helped overrule career government lawyers by approving a Texas redistricting plan pushed by Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), then House majority leader.

The Washington Post reports that like Schlozman, Wood has never prosecuted a case. The Post disagrees with Wood's official press release. It says that immediately prior to taking up his job in Kansas City Wood was counselor to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty. Of course given McNulty's present notoriety that job might be something Wood doesn't want to talk about.

Back from the Beltway Wood, a cousin of Kit Bond, has spent little time in Missouri for at least a decade. Wood looks like a guy who is trying to find a job on the Federal Bench or maybe take his cousin's place in the Senate. He is blessed with a golden resume and lots of ambition. Bond should probably buy him a Garmin GPS to find his way from downtown to the Plaza. For those who don't live in KC, Garmin International, Inc. is headquartered at N 38 deg 51.333 min, W 094 deg 47.941 min.
Garmin World Headquarters

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Vote Today, Kansas City

It's time for Kansas City to winnow the field to two in the Mayoral primary tomorrow. We sure have no shortage of candidates - twelve people are vying for one of the two slots on the ballot in the general, that will be held in six weeks. I can only take three of them seriously, and of those three, any one would do a good job, but I'm backing Funkhouser because he is the sanest person in the race where TIF is concerned. He could be stronger on getting us light rail, and he could stake out a bit more territory on fixing the problems with the Municipal Courts. But on balance, Mark is my guy. Eighteen years as city auditor has given him an end-users perspective on the inner workings of city government - and what things actually cost - that the rest of the candidates just can't match, no matter how many terms they spent on the City Council or as County Executive.

Besides - how often do you get a chance to vote for a guy who answers to "Funk" and had his biggest fundraiser to date in a real live down-n-dirty blues bar?


The other two candidates worthy of consideration are Jim Glover and Alvin Brooks. Since our incumbent Mayor, the Absolutely Fabulous Kay Barnes has expressed disgust with the negative campaigning that burst ont he scene about the same time as Missouri's white-trash, poor-man's Karl Rove got picked up as a campaign staffer by one of the more desperate contenders...I will just say nothing about the rest of the field. Some I don't know enough about to attack, but a couple of them...I'll just abstain.

Now that that is taken care of -

You need to go over to Gone Mild and read Dan's rant about the idiocy of closing 20% of the polling places less than a week before the most contested mayoral primary in the post-Pendergast era!

My State Senator is doing a fine job of taking care of her constituents - if you go to her site you will see that she has the links up and the top of the page is dedicated to polling update information. For those too lazy to click the link, here's her PSA:

Dude Where's My Polling Place?

Thanks to Dan for the heads up on polling place changes for Tuesday's city elections. If you get confused -- you can always vote at the Election Board -- 1828 Walnut.

I have been pretty busy lately, and remiss in my duties - but cruise her site and see that she is by golly doing the job we elected her to do, and I look forward to selecting Jolie Justus on my ballot for years into the future, based on what I've seen so far. (This is where I take a flight-of-fancy 10 years down the road to a contest for Missouri's Class III Senate seat...I am a hopeless political junkie. Research to help those similarly afflicted is ongoing.)

Senator Justus. I just like how that sounds, you know?

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