Ex-senator’s wife accused of plagiarizing history book from Wikipedia
nypost.comMercury News.McCorquodale, who is the wife of former Democratic state Senator Dan McCorquodale, had earned a whopping $2.45 million in grants since 2009 by writing the aforementioned history book as well as grant applications.
The executives awarded her the no-bid contracts as she was “uniquely qualified to do the work.”However, Santa Clara County investigators became suspicious of the star scribe after Mercury News claimed that a fifth of her 580-age opus — which was submitted two years late in January — was lifted nearly “word for word” from Wikipedia, the History Channel, Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation website, and even, somewhat ironically, the Mercury News.
Think the novel equivalent of a duplicitous English student copying their essay from Cliffnotes. In light of the allegations, Santa Clara County executive Jeff Smith has since placed the project “on hold” pending a third-party investigation into McCorquodale’s “troublesome” manuscript, Mercury News reported.Meanwhile, Lee said he was “extremely concerned” about the “apparent lack of oversight” regarding the alleged Wikipedia pilferer’s no-bid contracts.
Responding to allegations, McCorquodale has since claimed that the copy was only a rough draft. “The paragraphs you cited were highlighted in my working copy, and all have long been removed or substantially rewritten, drawing from numerous sources and incorporated in the final bibliography,” McCorquodale said, The Independent reported.
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