Did the $3,200 Mindreader Hired For a Gov't Conference See The Firing of GSA Head Martha Johnson Coming?
From the Wash Post via the great Alan Vanneman (who notes, "You can't make this stuff up"):
[General Services Administration head] Martha Johnson submitted her resignation to the White House on Monday. Public Buildings Service chief Robert A. Peck and Johnson's top adviser, Stephen Leeds, were forced out Monday, White House officials said. Four GSA employees who organized the four-day conference have been placed on adminstrative leave pending further action.
The resignations come as the agency's inspector general prepares to release a scathing report on the training conference, held at a luxury hotel outside Las Vegas in October 2010.
Organizers spent $835,000 on the event, which was attended by 300 employees. The expenses included $147,000 in airfare and lodging at the hotel for six planning trips by a team of organizers. Among the other expenses were $3,200 for a mind reader; $6,300 on commemorative coin set displayed in velvet boxes and $75,000 on a training exercise to build a bicycle.
Your tax dollars at work, ladies and germs. Along with the mindreader, we shelled out for a comedian and a clown.
