It has come to The Red & Black’s attention that passages of a column which ran on Wednesday’s opinion page was taken, in part, from the book “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto,” by Mark Levin. The column, “Cap and trade tax threatens economy” by Bernie Tokarz, included several paragraphs that were nearly word-for-word with Levin’s text.

“As I understood it, when you write a column, you aren’t citing things,” Tokarz told The Red & Black on Thursday. Tokarz said he knew the author personally and had a signed copy of the book. It is not The Red & Black’s policy to allow sources to be unverified and uncredited, and the column has been removed from the Web site. Tokarz is not a staff member, and therefore does not represent the organization. He will no longer be allowed to submit articles for publication in The Red & Black. The Red & Black deeply regrets this infraction.