Threat Assessment: January 9th-13th

AGAINST US

Alum pulls big gift after student paper gets nosy

Kent State University was all set to name its basketball court in honor of alumnus Jason Cope, who'd given $1 million to the school. But that was before the school paper started asking around and found that Cope was one of four defendants required by the SEC to pay more than $19 million in penalties for his part in defrauding investors in 1999 and 2000, when he was a manager at a financial firm. A miffed Cope promptly took back his money, and the court-renaming was cancelled. [Romenesko]