Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gets up to 5 years sentence in prison for violating terms of his probation due to lying under oath that he has an affair with his chief of staff.
Kilpatrick who is 39, asked Judge David Groner to show him compassion and empathy during the hearing last week, but Groner said that “that ship has sailed.”
On Teusday, Kilpatrick stated that he wanted to go home, added that he is not there for any offense such as gun charge or drug charge. He said that he’s only there for “confusion over written orders”. After hearing Kilpatrick’s statement, the judge remained unmoved.
After pleading guilty in 2008 to obstruction of justice, an issue of $1 million was ordered to Kilpatrick to pay the city. Last month Groner ruled out that Kilpatrick failed to report all of his assets and meet some of the other conditions of his probation.
Kilpatrick now has 42 days in which he could file an appeal.
Groner agreed with the prosecutors that Kilpatrick continued to lie after his release from jail the first time, he could afford to give more and has hid his assets intentionally.
Nissan has sold out of orders for its upcoming Nissan LEAF electric-vehicle.
“We think there is a big future for this car. I can already tell you that the production for 2010 is already sold out,” Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said today during a luncheon at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan.
So far in the United States, the Nissan LEAF has brought in 13,000 orders, which will be delivered in December. That number equals the full U.S. allocation for the Nissan electric-car.
Refresher: Power for the Nissan Leaf comes from a 107-hp electric-motor that runs on power supplied by lithium-ion cells. On a full-charge, the Nissan Leaf allows for a driving range of 100 miles with a top speed of 87 mph. A full charge takes up to 8 hours on a standard 200V outlet. Buyers can opt for the DC 50kW quick-charger, which recharges the battery up to 80 percent in under 30 minutes. Prices for the 2011 Nissan LEAF will start at $32,780 but with a federal tax-credit prices will come in as low as $25,280, or for a lease payment of $349 a month.
The former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick has been ordered to serve between 18 months and five years in prison for violating terms of probation imposed against him in 2008.
Originally Kilpatrick was jailed for 99 days after being forced to resign his post when he was found guilty of obstruction of justice.
On that occasion, it was determined that Kilpatrick tried to obstruct the investigation process that was against his wife in connection with the death of one woman who was murdered.
He is also accused of lying while giving testimony, when asked whether or not sustained a extra-marital relationship with one of their employees.
Another of the charges were filed against Kilpatrick, has to do with the disappearance of documents where broken down his wife’s finances.
For this last charge, the Court ordered restitution to the City of Detroit the sum of $ 1 million dollars to be by way of payment of back taxes.
Judge David Groner, Circuit Court of Wayne County, who had originally ruled in the case probation, stayed the same, indicating that Kilpatrick will have to complete the prison term.
After a three-year hiatus, Formula One is coming back to the states in 2012 and the city that’s been chosen to host the World Cup of Motorsports? Austin, Texas. Yes, Austin.
According to the release from F1, the race will be held in the city from 2012 to 2021, and since Austin doesn’t have a race track, a facility will be purpose-built to host the events. Get all the details in the press release after the jump.
The presence of the CEO, Steve Jobs of Apple in the next developer conference of the the company aims to the announcement of the new hardware.
In June Apple will hold its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which has already confirmed the presence of company CEO Steve Jobs.
The fourth generation of the device, will have new features like better camera with flash (presumably 5MP) camera for video call, Apple will use an A4 processor and have a screen resolution of 960 x 640. Other highlights include a longer battery life, iChat (for calls and videoconferencing) and greater storage capacity.
Also use iPhone OS 4.0 operating system, which among its advantages, will run several applications at once (multitasking), one of the requirements being demanded by users.
On the other hand, Walmart chain reduced the price of iPhone 3G to $ 97, confirming the imminent arrival of a new version.
Last year, Apple used the WWDC to introduce a faster version of the iPhone. All tickets for the event were sold out eight days before they confirmed the involvement of Steve Jobs, according to Business Week.
Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. We recently saw a perfect example of that during Volvo’s crash avoidance system demo to the media where an S60 sedan had a technological glitch causing it to crash in the back of a truck (thankfully no one was injured).
Audi recently experienced something similar when it decided to show the new A1 hatchbacks cart-like maneuverability by taking it on a skateboard half-pipe in Brussels. While performing the stunt, the A1 flipped onto its side and smoke started to blow out of the engine bay.
Audi employees quickly rushed to the scene and tried to push the car back on its wheels… even before the stunt driver escaped. We guess they were trying to avoid anyone from taking pictures, which obviously didn’t work.
Refresher: The 2011 Audi A1 will go on sale in Europe later this year with prices starting around 16,000 euros ($22,062 USD). Power will come from a lineup of 4-cylinder engines, which consists of two TDI diesels and two TFSI gasoline units with output ranging from 84-hp to 122-hp. Mated to a 7-speed S tronic transmission, fuel-economy will range from 44 mpg and 62 mpg.
Everything’s still getting hammered, though markets are off their lows somewhat.
A possible surprise? Goldman Sachs is solidly in the green.
Why?
Our best guess it that it’s rising for the same reason everything else is falling: folks are liquidating their winners in favor of cash. In this case, Goldman shorts have had a nice ride, and are taking profits to get into ever-strengthening US dollars.
BMW has its M GmbH department; Mercedes-Benz has its AMG; Lexus has its ‘F’; and Audi has its ‘S’ and ‘RS’. According to documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Nissan North America has filed for trademark protection of the names “IPL” and “Infiniti Performance Line” to create a high-performance segment for its Infiniti Division product line.
The application says that the IPL trademark will protect the brand’s usage of “high-performance motor vehicle parts,” including turbochargers and superchargers for engines, cat-back exhaust and muffler systems, shifter knobs, suspension parts, brakes, sports seats and off-road headlights.
An Infiniti spokesman declined to confirm the trademark filing or the brand’s product plans.
The memo, which was sent in 2002, describes plant construction in terms of the Three Little Pigs fable. BP concluded that a brick home presented a better cost-value ratio than a blast resistant home.
A BP spokesperson said to The Daily Beast that the company has “fundamentally changed the culture of BP” since a rig explosion in 2005.
For Deepwater survivors who have held off on suing their employer, this shocking memo could be a turning point. Bloodhound oil rig prosecutor Tony Buzbee said yesterday “Many of these men that work for Transocean [and BP] are very loyal.” How now?
Recently, we’ve noted some similarities between Amanda Palmer and the band OK Go, in that both had been signed to major record label deals, both had built up an amazing (and amazingly loyal) group of fans through various means (different for each) using methods totally outside of their major label marketing effort (which was somewhat lacking in both cases)… and last month, both were officially dropped from their label deals.
In the past, getting dropped from a major record label deal was seen as a bad thing — a sign of trouble for the band. But in both of these cases, the process of getting dropped was initiated by the musicians themselves, who realized they could do much more outside of the major label system, than within it. So it seemed like a bit of serendipity, that both acts had aspects of their ongoing tours overlap in San Francisco this week — leading to an event put together by Creative Allies at the Ex’pression College for the Digital Arts, where both acts performed and did some chatting about music and the music business as part of a webcast. Thanks to Amanda, I was able to attend in person with a small group of folks in the studio, and it was a fun time — as both acts basically celebrated their freedom from their record label deals.
You can see the webcast in two parts below (not sure why it’s two parts, and it was not easy at all to find the second part):
It’s yet another reminder of how the role of the major labels is totally changing. Historically, the only way to be successful in the music business was to get a major label deal. They were the gatekeepers, and without a deal, you were out of luck. Being dropped from a major was effectively the end of your career as a performer with a very small number of exceptions. But, these days, artists are realizing that there’s so much more that can be done without major label help, and that actually being on a major can hinder or block those opportunities, that it’s become a cause for celebration when you get “dropped” — or, perhaps, more accurately, freed!
While there’s plenty of music, there were two key points on the whole business model side of things that came up that are worth repeating (in case you don’t feel like watching both videos — though, you should, since they’re pretty cool). The first is that during the interview session between acts, Amanda was asked about “direct to fan” stuff, and she made a point that I’ve been trying (perhaps unsuccessfully) to highlight for quite some time: and that’s that each act needs to do something that fits with what works for them. Her fear is that there’s so much talk about “direct-to-fan” offerings, that people are going to start just trying to all do exactly the same thing, rather than charting a course that’s unique to them.
We’ve tried to point this out as well, in noting how different the various success stories are. Inevitably, of course, someone says that we’re saying everyone should do what one of these artists are doing (a favorite of critics is the false idea that we’ve said everyone should go to Disneyland with some fans, like Josh Freese). But that’s not the case at all. For Freese, it was a part of his personality (and his life, as he basically grew up at Disneyland, and performed there as a kid). The whole point of learning how to better connect with fans and giving them reasons to buy, is not that everyone has to use Twitter, or that everyone has to offer “tiered” offerings. Or that everyone has to tour, even. It’s that there are many different ways that each artist can connect with fans and give them a reason to buy directly, and that each artist has to figure out the way to apply the concept in a way that fits with their own personality and sensibilities. It’s great that Amanda was able to really drive home that point during her interview.
The second part is actually an amusing exchange between OK Go and Amanda after OK Go’s second song. Lead singer Damian Kulash asks the audience for questions, and if you listen closely on the video, you can hear Amanda ask about how the band was able to not just get dropped by Capitol/EMI, but also to take the last record with them (something she was unable to do with Roadrunner/Warner Music). Kulash tries (not all that successfully) to dance around the legalities by setting up a hypothetical version of EMI — but basically admits that with EMI more or less fighting every day to avoid defaulting on massive loans — while at the same time fighting with the Beatles and other top acts, the label apparently found the fact that Kulash might occasionally pen op eds for the NY Times that made the label look totally clueless on digital things, that it was better to just usher the band out the door as quickly as possible. And, as such, the band had a bit of leverage, which was used to not just get out of the contract, but to take the last record with them.
Of course, the business model stuff was a minor part of the overall evening, which really was very much about music, and a rather celebratory mood from both acts about their freedom to stretch out creatively — as both demonstrate beautifully in their separate performances. Among the many highlights, there’s Kulash forgetting lyrics and later getting a case of the giggles in the middle of the band’s hit song “Here It Goes Again” — plus a rendition of “What To Do” performed entirely by the band using a table full of hand bells… And Amanda playing a song from her upcoming EP of Radiohead covers played on the ukulele because, as she noted, she can.
It may be hard for Lindsay Lohan to wear her new ankle bracelet at first but she’ll get used to it. This thing on her ankle might be just the right solution for her problem.
Its called the SCRAMx bracelet and checks every 30 minutes Lindsay Lohan for alcohol traces inside ther body. Definetely Lohan doesn’t want to end up in jail that’s why she now has this new device that will keep her away from alcohol. Its good that Lindsay realized to get back on the right path and to become clean for good.
Everything started after she didn’t appear for a mandatory court appearance after she lost her passport in europe that kept her there for a while.
Good luck then to Lohan because she has to wear the device 24 hours a day 7 days a week until her next court date on July 6th. She’s also been warned that she will undergo random drug testing and should not drink any liquor, else the device will detect it.
We are talking here of jail time, any normal person would do whatever the law says just to keep out of jail but do you think she will make it, no drugs, not even a single drop of liquor?
Lindsay Lohan (Lindsay Dee Lohan), an American actress, model and pop singer-songwriter made it again to the gossip pages this week. Lohan’s “all-night heavy partying” was allegedly criticised but her studio chiefs of her recent film Georgia Rule.
This time an alcohol-monitoring bracelet or breathalyzer keeps Lindsay Lohan from heavy drinking. An ankle monitor is a device that only ones that have probation or that are under house arrest can get, often they are strictly required to wear.
The device was handed to Lohan’s ankle last Monday for not showing up for a hearing last week in Beverly Hills, California. Instead of showing up on the scheduled hearing, she attended the Cannes Film Festival in France, but this is not the first time Lohan had a bracelet in her ankle.
The bracelet works by testing the skin every half hour. If alcohol is present, it will cause a reaction in the fuel cell of the device. After which, the information is sent from the device to the phone lines and then to the company. The information alerts the courts or the probation officer if alcohol is detected at a certain amount or level.
A patent application filed by IBM engineers reveals the company’s developing technology that will allow governments to shut down the engines of private automobiles via traffic signals. It’s like Skynet… only much worse.
Engineers from IBM, suddenly free from the burden of making computers, are hoping to ruin the driving experience by handing over the ability to stop and start car engines over to traffic lights, railroad crossing gates and other transportation signals. Here’s the abstract:
The present disclosure is directed to a method for managing engines in response to a traffic signal. The method may comprise establishing communications with a plurality of participating vehicles; responding to a stop status indicated by the traffic signal, further comprising: receiving a position data from each participating vehicles; determining a queue comprising a list of participating vehicles stopped at the traffic signal; determining a remaining duration of the stop status; sending a stop-engine notification to the list of participating vehicles stopped at the traffic signal when the remaining duration is greater than a threshold of time; responding to a proceed status indicated by the traffic signal, further comprising: sending a start-engine notification to a first vehicle in the queue; calculating an optimal time for an engine of a second vehicle in the queue to start when the first vehicle starts moving; and sending the start-engine notification to the second vehicle in the queue at the optimal time.
The goal of the system is to lower fuel usage and optimize the movement of vehicles through intersections by controlling engine operations remotely via traffic signals. A railroad crossing could sense the vehicles in the general vicinity were going to be stuck for a while and would then cut the power to save gas. It’s similar to the start/stop systems on a few modern cars but taken to perverse extremes.
The patent just covers the method and steps for a system, not the actual communications technology, but it’s still scary and impractical in places where someone needs to use their A/C.
Turkey’s Autopia Europa – Click above for high-res image gallery
Istanbul, Turkey will reportedly be home to the world’s largest auto dealership, called Autopia Europia. The space is so big it’s probably more convenient to think of it as an industrial complex, rather than an auto dealer: more than two million square feet, each of the five floors almost 20 feet high, 200 auto sales outlets hawking new and used metal, shot through with 56 eateries, 48 repair shops, 24 banks and 42 insurance companies. And that’s just a taste of the options.
Perhaps the most unusual feature of Autopia Europia is the test-drive track on the roof of the building. The building’s developers expect six million visitors per year, and we can only imagine they’re including a lot of foot traffic in that estimate. With a 900-car parking garage, even with three people in every car, it would take nearly seven years to accommodate that many guests. Construction has just begun so they’ve probably got a couple of years to crunch those numbers again.
You can have a look at it in the gallery of high-res renderings below, or in the video after the jump. Hat tip to Brian!
Shell executives sent a 12-page letter to the MMS assuring that planned operations in Alaska would be vastly more safe than the BP’s Deepwater Horizon.
Greenpeace seized on the letter and released a point-by-point rebuttal.
Greenpeace cites past documents from Shell that discount the possibility of a faulty blowout preventer. Also, Shell’s Frontier Discoverer is 44 years old:
Shell is scrambling to show that its plans are nothing like BP’s, but it cannot paper over the information contained in its 2010 Exploration Plan for the Chukchi Sea, which states, “a large oil spill, such as a crude oil release from a blowout, is extremely rare and not considered a reasonably foreseeable impact.” Shell dismissed the risk of a blowout, just as BP’s 2009 Exploration Plan downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident with the Deepwater Horizon, suggesting that it was unlikely, or virtually impossible, for an accident to occur. Shell claims that a Deepwater Horizon-type blowout would not occur in the Arctic Ocean because the exploration wells will be drilled in shallow water. However, on May 11 the former head of regulatory affairs at the U.S. Minerals Management Service – the agency with oversight for offshore drilling—testified before the U.S. Senate on blowout occurrence rates and causes, saying that “well control performance for deepwater drilling was significantly better than for shallow water operations.” Despite what Shell says, the risk of a blowout is higher in the shallow waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig was built in 2001, was state-of the-art and heralded as ushering in a new era of exploratory drilling. In contrast, Shell will use the drillship Frontier Discoverer for exploratory drilling in Alaska this summer. The ship was built in 1966, when Lyndon Johnson was President.
In case you forgot, Alaska drilling is the real long-standing energy controversy.
The Frontier Discoverer was cleared to drilling as soon as July, before Ken Salazar suspended all drilling for a month.
Rupert Murdoch appears to be finally putting his money where his mouth is with respect to Google News.
When Rupert Murdoch’s Times of London and Sunday Times switch to paid web sites sometime in the next month, only their homepages, not individual articles, will appear in search engines, reports paidContent’s Robert Andrews, who got a preview of the new sites on Monday night.
It’s all a more conservative strategy than News Corp (NYSE: NWS) stablemate WSJ.com, but: “When we showed it to people, that was the model they preferred,” said Times executive editor Danny Finkelstein. “We’re completely unashamed about this. We’re trying to get people to pay for the journalism and we wanted to do it in a very simple way.”
Assistant editor Tom Whitwell added on the search issue: “The clarity is something that was very important. If you’re asking someone to pay for something, it has to be very clear what they’re paying for.”
The Australian communications minister has labelled internet search giant Google “creepy” and said that the company’s collection of wireless network data through its Street View service was the single biggest breach of privacy in history.
Earlier this month, Google announced it had discovered that the roving cars it uses to create its online mapping services were inadvertently gathering data on people’s website use over unsecured wireless networks.
Google apologised, but the admission caused alarm across the globe.
Germany’s consumer protection said that Google had acted “illegally” and failed to show respect for the privacy of its citizens. The UK Information Commissioner has asked Google to delete information gathered on British citizens as soon as possible.
It’s putting about 470 hp on the ground so far getting it to hook has been a problem but working that issue now along with deciding on color for the new paint job. Buddy of mine had it sat under pine tree for years he restored it half way then I bought it and need to finish it. The process is slow and expensive but it will be worth it when I am finished.
Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gets up to 5 years sentence in prison for violating terms of his probation due to lying under oath that he has an affair with his chief of staff.
The former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick has been ordered to serve between 18 months and five years in prison for violating terms of probation imposed against him in 2008.
The presence of the CEO, Steve Jobs of Apple in the next developer conference of the the company aims to the announcement of the new hardware.
It may be hard for Lindsay Lohan to wear her new ankle bracelet at first but she’ll get used to it. This thing on her ankle might be just the right solution for her problem.
