The latest from Kenosha News’ Gary Kunich reveals new information in the ongoing saga of the federal investigation involving Robert Felner at the University of Louisville. And it affirms much of what this website has reported for weeks.

Kunich’s latest story (which was published in the Kenosha News last Friday but is not available online– contact me if you’re interested in the full story) reveals that Federal agents returned to the University of Rhode Island for the second time to conduct interviews and review paperwork:

Lavalle said agents returned Thursday to the University of Rhode Island for more interviews, but declined to say if they took any paperwork with them.

And then reveals that federal investigators have begun to examine Felner’s non-profit organization and similarly-named program at the University of Rhode Island:

While working as the director of the school of education at Rhode Island, Felner also created and oversaw the National Center on Education and Social Policy at the university, which also brought in millions in grant money while studying education reform. Although Felner left the university in 2003, he remained as director of the center until 2006 in what Lavalle said was a non-paid position.

Felner is still listed as the director of the center on the Web site at http://www.ncpe.uri.edu. When the Kenosha News called the center, a person answered the phone by saying, “Hello?” but declined to speak about Felner. All calls were referred to the university’s communications office.

One page of the Web site has a 2008 copyright attributed to Felner and the National Center on Public Education and Prevention out of Rock Island, a similar sounding but different organization. An official familiar with the investigation said law enforcement officials are looking into that connection.

-SNIP-

The National Center on Public Education and Prevention in Rock Island was a non-profit organization that was involuntarily dissolved in 2006 because it didn’t file an annual report a year earlier, according to an official at the Illinois Secretary of State, which registers all corporations. There is no known Web site for the organization and it’s not known what that organization did, but the address is for a business called The Law Centre, which rents space and administrative services to lawyers.

Read the rest after the jump…

Some Googling reveals that Timothy Feeney’s law practice is located at The Law Centre: McCarthy, Callas, Church & Feeney, P.C. According to Kunich, Feeney doesn’t return telephone calls.

Once again, Kunich’s reporting reveals what we’ve been saying for weeks — The investigation involves the purchase of illegal goods:

The Kenosha News also learned that the investigation is looking into illegal goods Felner may have purchased but federal agents refused to comment because it is an open investigation.

And he reveals that the investigation involves more than the $500,000 Scott Cox mentioned last week. It’s actually millions of dollars. So much for us being incorrect.

Felner’s attorney, Scott C. Cox, who has not returned several calls to the Kenosha News, originally told another publication that the investigation involved $500,000 and his client was innocent and cooperating with authorities.

The Kenosha News has learned that investigators are looking at millions of dollars in grants that Felner brought in while working at various universities throughout the United States, as well as a defunct non-profit that no longer exists in Rock Island, Ill.

And an interesting note from Kunich’s story: Felner brought in more than $47 million in grant money while at the University of Louisville.

More to come, folks. Stay tuned.