Author: Serkadis

New EJI data analysis shows that the Eleventh Circuit – comprised of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia – has a higher per capita death sentencing rate than any other federal circuit.

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Did you buy the Aliens vs Predator Hunter Edition only to get saddled with a tailless facehugger figure? Don’t worry. Sega’s got your back.

CHICAGO (AP)  — Talk show host Oprah Winfrey plans to interview one of the American missionaries released after facing charges of child kidnapping for trying to take 33 children out of earthquake ravaged Haiti.

Harpo Productions says Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas, and his wife will appear on Friday’s live episode of  “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” A spokeswoman says the interview will be via satellite from Amarillo.

The missionaries still face possible charges and their leader and her former nanny remain in a Port au Prince jail. The missionaries have denied the trafficking charges.

The group was caught Jan. 29 trying to take the children out of Haiti without adoption certificates. They’ve said they planned to set up an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

PESOTUM, Ill. (AP)  — Illinois State Police now say that the more than two tons of marijuana they intercepted this week would be worth almost $20 million on the street.

Capt. Stuart Shaver puts the estimated value of the 4,400 pounds of marijuana found Monday in the back of a semi on Interstate 57 near Tuscola at $19.9 million.

Tuscola is about 30 miles south of Champaign.

Shaver says the marijuana was found tucked into boxes labeled cabbage.

Douglas County State’s Attorney Kevin Nolan says the three Livingston, Calif., men who were in the truck haven’t been charged. He expects that to happen early next week.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

CHICAGO (STMW)  — The Chicago couple had broken up, no hard feelings and moved on. But two years later, the woman watched in horror a video of the pair’s most intimate moments. It was secretly recorded without her permission, she said. Now she is suing her ex-boyfriend.

“I live in a very religious household, and a lot of the embarrassment in my mind is what people in my family would think,” said the woman, who identified herself in court papers and in an interview with the Sun-Times as “Jane Doe.” “As far as my career — this really upsets me, I mean, what would stop him from randomly sending this in an e-mail to my current boss or my future boss?”

Because the alleged taping happened in the man’s South Loop apartment in the 600 block of South Plymouth, she notified Chicago Police.

The man accused in the Cook County Circuit Court lawsuit denied the claims.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, and I’m calling the police immediately,” he told a reporter.

The two haven’t been together since 2008. Jane Doe said she received a call last year from another ex-girlfriend of the man telling her of the recording. The ex-girlfriend, who Jane Doe said had found the recordings, mailed her a DVD of the footage. Jane Doe said the ex-girlfriend also told her she found recordings of the man having sex with other women.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Remember the debut trailer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow? Impressive, right? You might be more impressed to learn that all the footage in that trailer were taken in-game. No CG cutscenes here, says producer David Cox.

Filed under: Motorsports, Chevrolet, Racing

This year’s Corvette racer, the C6.R headed to the GT class in ALMS and at Le Mans, has had a slow reveal. First its heart was unleashed, the production-derived 5.5-liter V8, then its livery stopped to pose. Now the car has been caught doing what it hopes to do best this year, heating up the tarmac at Sebring International Raceway.

There will be two teams competing: Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette 3; Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, and Emmanuel Collard in the No. 4. Their first race will be on March 20, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and the competition will be a gunslinger’s hall of fame: Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Spyker, Jaguar. Gentlemen, on your marks…

[Source: GM]

Official Corvette C6.R GT2 images follow day of testing at Sebring originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NEWS RELEASE
February 18, 2010                                                       Contact: Frank Murray, 542-4835

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, more people die of eating disorders than any other form of mental illness. In recognition of Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Feb. 21-27; the Columbia Basin College Counseling department is sponsoring an awareness event to provide resources, education, and support to those affected by eating disorders.  The event is Feb. 24, 1-3 p.m. in room TD 435 on the CBC Pasco campus. 

The documentary film, America the Beautiful, will be shown.  The film examines America’s fixation with outward appearance and the unrealistic standards of beauty dictated to the public by the media, pop culture, and the fashion industry.  The film is open to everyone.  Those with an interest in learning more about eating disorders or obtaining resources to help them or someone they know who struggles with an eating disorder, are encouraged to attend.

Tables with resource materials on eating disorders will be available in the HUB, 8 a.m. -12 p.m. on Feb. 24. For more information, contact Carrie DeLeon in the CBC Counseling department, 542-5508.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the Bulls have taken charge. Currently, the Dow is up 75 points to 10,384. The NASDAQ is up 13 points to 2239 and the S&P 500 is up 7 points to 1106.

Commodities aren’t doing too hot but oil is on a tear, up $1.72 or 2.2% to $79.05 a barrel.

Gold is up $1.50 to $1121 an ounce and silver is up $0.02 to $16.12 an ounce.

Futures are heading downward as grains, bonds, and natural gas head lower. Oil, metals and equities are soaring.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Today’s Mixed Action Was A HUGE Win For The Bulls
• Equities Have A Slow Day As Indices Close Up Slightly
• Morning Markets: Equities Up Slightly, Commodities Struggle To Hold Gains

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dubai’s police chief accused Israel’s spy agency in the methodical stalking and killing of a Hamas commander, saying Thursday he was nearly “100 percent” certain the Mossad directed the alleged hit squad.

It marked the first time Dubai authorities have directly implicated Israel in the case, which has now spread across several continents with investigators probing possible credit card links to U.S.-based banks and European officials grilling Israeli envoys over fraudulent passports.

Interpol also added 11 members of the alleged murder squad to its most-wanted list.

Neither Dubai nor the government of the United Arab Emirates hold any leverage over Israel, which has no diplomatic ties or business dealings with the Gulf state. But the Emirates’ status as a global crossroads — and its close ties to the West — could add to the international pressure on Israel for answers as suspicions grow.

Dubai’s police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, was quoted as saying he was “99 percent, if not 100 percent” certain the Mossad was behind the Jan. 19 slaying of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing.

“Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of al-Mabhouh,” Tamim was quoted as saying by The National newspaper, which is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi.

He told another local paper, Dubai-based Gulf News: “All elements strongly indicate the involvement of the Mossad.”

Tamim and other Dubai police officials could not be immediately reached for further comment. Israel government spokesman Mark Regev also had no comment.

The Dubai statements also will likely embolden the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has repeatedly accused Mossad agents since the murder and has vowed revenge.

Israel and Hamas fought a brutal monthlong war in Gaza last year. The two sides have observed an informal truce since the conflict’s end, but al-Mabhouh’s assassination could endanger the understanding.

A statement from Dubai police indicated that authorities are trying to avoid being drawn into the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“His killing has obvious political overtones,” said the statement carried on the state-run Emirates News Agency. “Nevertheless, Dubai Police are right to refuse to enter into that discussion, and to treat the killing as a crime that needs solving.”

Dubai police on Monday unveiled 11 suspects — 10 men and one woman — who apparently traveled to Dubai on European passports with real names and authentic data, but possibly altered photos.

The names released by Dubai matched at least seven people living in Israel — six dual Israeli-British citizens and another Israeli-German. They all deny any connection to the killing and are apparently not under investigation.

Interpol put the 11 suspects on its top watch list. The international police agency said it issued the “red notices” at Dubai’s request “to limit the ability of accused murderers from traveling freely” on the same altered passports: six from Britain, three Irish and one each from France and Germany.

Interpol says the notices are not meant to stigmatize the real people whose identities were stolen, but to help clear them of suspicion by helping police worldwide catch the true suspects.

Those whose identities were stolen will be able to travel as usual if they are using valid travel documents, though they may be subject to extra questions or verification, according to Interpol.

The total suspect list now stands at 18 — with two Palestinians in custody in Dubai and four men and one woman wanted. An official confirmed the number of suspects, but would give no further details.

The investigation also widened to the United States and Austria.

The alleged killers used fraudulent passports to open five credit cards accounts through U.S.-based banks, said the official, who has close knowledge of the investigation. The official gave no additional details, and spoke on condition of anonymity in line with standing policy

In Austria, Interior Ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said anti-terrorism authorities are investigating Dubai police claims that the alleged killers called Austrian numbers for use as a “command center.” Calls by The Associated Press to some of the numbers went to automated voice mail accounts.

The international fallout showed no signs of easing, with Britain and Ireland summoning Israeli ambassadors for discussions about the rogue passports.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said one of the nation’s top diplomats, Peter Ricketts, met with Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor.

“He made clear that we wanted to give Israel every opportunity to share with us what it knows about this incident,” said Miliband, adding that he would raise the issue with Israel’s foreign minister when they meet in Brussels in the coming days.

Prosor told journalists he was not able to add additional information to Britain’s request.

Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Zion Evrony, said he had nothing useful to tell Ireland because he knew nothing confidential about the Dubai assassination.

Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin has said the three Irish passports did have valid numbers but were issued to people with different names than those made public by Dubai.

In Paris, the French government summoned an Israeli diplomat to seek explanations for the use of a fake French passport by a suspect in the case, while Germany’s ambassador to the Middle East asked Israeli diplomats to contribute any information on the killing.

In Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman brushed aside the calls for greater Israeli disclosures.

“Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies,” Avigdor said Wednesday. Then added: “I don’t know why we are assuming that Israel, or the Mossad, used those passports.”

But that did little to stop speculation of Mossad involvement — and a possible national embarrassment if proven true.

Some Israeli commentators compared the case to the failed attempt to kill Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in 1997. Two Mossad agents posing as Canadian tourists were captured after injecting Mashaal with poison, and Israel was forced to send an antidote that saved Mashaal’s life. Today Mashaal is Hamas’ supreme leader.

The Mossad has been accused of identity theft before. New Zealand convicted and jailed two Israelis in 2005 for trying to fraudulently obtain New Zealand passports. But it would be the first time the Mossad has been suspected of using the identities of its own citizens.

Israel’s spy service has been suspected of carrying out assassinations for decades. Recent ones include Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah commander who was killed in 2008 by a bomb that ripped through his Pajero SUV in Damascus, Syria. Israel denied any role in the hit.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A heavy downpour sent the throngs living beside Haiti’s shattered national palace cowering under tarps early Thursday as the rush of water made much of the camp of earthquake victims impassable — an ominous foretaste of the rainy season to some.

Amputees struggled to maneuver through mud on crutches and wheelchairs.

Many in the makeshift tent cities housing nearly 600,000 people in Haiti’s capital still live without even plastic tarps, which the international community is trying to get to everyone by May 1.

So when the rain comes, bed sheets spread on sticks as protection from the sun quickly get soaked and people move in temporarily with neighbors who have waterproof tents. The lucky actually have beds off the ground.

“It’s hard to keep my kids clean. There’s too much rain, too much dirt,” said Joseph Dukens, 25, at the camp beside the national palace.

He pointed to his baby daughter, who had her leg amputated below her hip. “It’s only going to get worse.”

The government, aid groups and foreign governments have been wrangling for five weeks over how to housing earthquake survivors, but neither the weather nor the people are waiting.

Makeshift camps have hardened into shantytowns, adding a new dimension to the capital’s teeming slum life with an extra helping of disease, hunger and misery brought on by the Jan. 12 disaster, which killed more than 200,000 people.

While the camps blossomed, officials debated what to do with the 1.2 million people left homeless by the disaster nationwide.

In the meantime, people are planning to stay in some very dangerous places: at the bottom of hillsides they know will collapse in a heavy rain or near riverbeds that are bound to flood. They are crowded into polluted areas where sanitation is limited and disease is already starting to spread.

“The government has said for weeks that they have identified sites, but time is getting short and there has been little progress,” said Ian Bray, an Oxfam spokesman.

And the delay has caused complications, as evident on a former landing strip-turned-boulevard called Route de Piste, where a cluster of ramshackle villages has taken root.

Row upon row of corrugated tin and wood shacks stand against the wind as dusty men walk between them carrying saws and hammers.

Children look for the snow cone man at the crossroads, near where a lottery dealer named Max has set up his booth. In a shack marked “Boulangerie Pep La” — the people’s bakery — the smell of dough wafts from the oven.

The new neighborhood is very densely packed; some 27,000 people live there, according to Haitian Red Cross workers. U.N., foreign and local officials are directing aid to the site, while also designating it a “priority for decongestion” — meaning some people must move out.

The overcrowding is a chief reason officials say they don’t want to give people the waterproof tents. But people in the shantytown are making their own space, pushing out neighbors who arrived later so as to expand their tarp-and-pole shelters into more permanent homes.

And people simply do not want to go far from where they always lived and worked. With property hard to come by, aftershocks continuing and 38 percent of Port-au-Prince’s buildings destroyed by the magnitude-7 quake, according to U.N. satellite imagery, their options are limited.

On Thursday, a group of U.S. senators sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging the immediate relocation of displaced Haitians to higher ground before the rainy season begins in earnest.

“Tragedy will strike again when the rain comes. We urge your administration to stress this point with President (Rene) Preval and Prime Minister (Jean-Max) Bellerive,” they wrote.

Senators George LeMieux and Bill Nelson of Florida, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota also encouraged long-term investment, micro-loans for small businesses and seeding commerce outside Port-au-Prince.

Meanwhile eight of the 10 American missionaries detained while trying to take 33 Haitian children into the Dominican Republic without adoption certificates arrived in Miami late Wednesday night.

The two remaining detainees, Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter, went to a Port-au-Prince courthouse on Thursday to be questioned by the judge but Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said he had to cancel the session because the translator didn’t show up.

“Everything is going well,” Silsby told reporters, though she added, “I don’t know the exact day we are going to be free.”

Coulter, who has diabetes and was taken to a hospital the previous day, said she was feeling better.

Defense lawyer Aviol Fleurant said the judge rescheduled the questioning for Friday and was seeking to arrange a visit to the orphanage that Silsby, the missionary group’s leader, had hastily arranged in Cabarete in the Dominican Republic.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama welcomed the Dalai Lama for closely-watched White House talks Thursday, risking fallout in China over the get-together and Obama’s statement supporting preservation of Tibet’s identity and human rights.

“The president commended the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way’ approach, his commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said after the more than hourlong private meeting.

Speaking to reporters on the White House driveway, the Dalai Lama declared himself “very happy” with the session. The exiled Tibetan leader said he spoke to Obama about the promotion of human value, religious harmony, a greater leadership role for women around the world and the concerns of the Tibetan people. He said Obama was “very much supportive.”

Obama’s largely symbolic meeting with the Dalai Lama was kept low-key by comparison to other visiting leaders, out of deference to China. With Beijing considering the Buddhist monk a separatist, Obama doesn’t want to overly anger China at a time when its cooperation is needed on nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, climate change and other priorities.

So Obama sat down with his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate in the Map Room rather than the much-more-photographed Oval Office where presidents usually visit with international leaders. Their talks were held entirely out of view of cameras and the public. Instead, the White House only released just a single White House photo.

Even the description the White House press office gave reporters of the talks was done on paper.

All these gestures — small to many but important in the supersensitive world of diplomacy — were meant to tamp down China’s displeasure that Obama was holding the meeting in the first place.

“The optics of this thing are incredibly important to the Chinese,” said Michael Green, former President George W. Bush’s senior Asia adviser. “The Chinese government is preoccupied with protocol and how things look.”

It may not seem inflammatory to Americans accustomed to presidential meet-and-greets of many shapes and sizes. But a Dalai Lama-Obama appearance held in public would enrage China, which believes that official foreign contact with the monk infringes on Beijing’s sovereignty over Tibet. Although the Dalai Lama is revered in much of the world, Beijing accuses him of seeking to overthrow Chinese rule and restore a feudal theocracy in the expansive mountainous region. The Dalai Lama and analysts say that is untrue.

Still, China’s feelings matter because relations between Washington and Beijing have been strained for years, most recently because of the Dalai Lama’s visit and the Obama administration’s approval of a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that China claims as its own.

At the same time, Obama has to balance China’s views against criticism from U.S. lawmakers and activists that he buckled to China too much already on the topic, by not meeting with the Dalai Lama when he came to Washington in October.

The Dalai Lama has met with U.S. presidents for the past two decades, mostly in private encounters.

The Dalai Lama’s envoy, Lodi Gyari, said even a private meeting with Obama is a boost for Tibetans feeling marginalized by China. Green said just the “fact that they spend time together in an intimate setting means everything for the Tibetan cause.”

Charles Freeman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said that while he does not believe Thursday’s meeting will cause lasting damage to U.S.-China relations, short-term repercussions could include a postponement of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s expected visit to Washington in April.

Despite China’s angry words, recent U.S.-China tension may be easing. On Wednesday, five American warships were allowed to dock for a port call in Hong Kong, a possible indication that Beijing does not want relations with Washington to worsen.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Above we have the Acer neoTouch P300 Windows Mobile 6.5.3 QWERTY slider. Even lower resolution than the P400, this 3.2 inch device only has WQVGA resolution, and sports the old Qualcomm 7225 528 Mhz chipset..

Hopefully these bottom of the line specs will also indicate a bargain basement price, else the device will hardly be competitive with anything else around.

What do our readers think? Let us know below.

See the full specs after the break.

Filed under: Aftermarket, Minivan/Van, Performance, Europe, Ford

It’s every pistonhead’s nightmare scenario. Yes, yes, you love your kids. But what happens when the determination is made that you need a minivan. They make so much sense, and they’re so practical. And when you’re juggling three brats, two shopping bags and a stroller, being able to hit one button and slide the doors open is better than all the V12s in Britain. Sure, but remember this: minivan.

With that in mind, consider this: Some speed loving nutters over in jolly ol’ England have gone ahead and swapped in a 275 horsepower four-banger from a 2003 Ford Focus RS into the waiting bay of a Transit Connect. That’s pretty cool, eh? It actually gets a bit better. The builder installed a switch that let’s you switch tanks from gasoline to LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). When running on LPG, the motor still churns out 200 hp.

Of course, just tossing in a slammer of an engine is one thing, but if you want a true sleeper you need to do more. And more is precisely what’s been done. Aside from all the upgraded turbo parts and exhaust bits needed to take the normally 212 hp motor up to 275 ponies, there’s the five-speed manual from the RS complete with trick quaife limited-slip diff. Then you got performance tires, Sparco seats and a boost gauge. And it’s for sale for £8,000. Cool? Or should we say cool enough for enthusiast dad? Almost probably maybe yes. Full mod list after the jump.

[Source: Ford Transit Forum via Motor Authority]

Continue reading Enterprising tuners swap Focus RS engine into Ford Transit Connect

Enterprising tuners swap Focus RS engine into Ford Transit Connect originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This was today’s most important data point to pay attention to — the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI). 

It rose 0.3% in January, after rising 1.2% and 1.1% in December and November respectively. This is shown by the red line below.

The LEI has been rising for ten straight months, and had a critical inflection point right before the gigantic market rally of 2009. It also correctly began to dip before the U.S. entered recession in December 2007. Simply put, you made a lot of money listening to it recently, and historically it’s one of the few reliable forward indicators that exist.

While today’s January release was slightly weaker than the 0.5% rise expected by many analysts, it nonetheless continued the LEI’s important uptrend. We also shouldn’t forget that the LEI is currently higher than at any time in many years — which means that we can count on growth to hold up at least through the first half of 2010 just based on where the economy is now.

Economist Ken Goldstein @ The Conference Board: “The cumulative change in the U.S. LEI over the past six months has been a strong 9.8 percent, annualized. This signals continued economic recovery at least through the spring.”

It’s even so high right now that the index could drop a bit in the future, which seems inevitable given the spike, but still augur future economic growth. Anyone short ignores this ‘V’ at their peril:

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• CHART OF THE DAY: If You Thought The American Economy Was Juiced By Stimulus, You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet
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Fast Company writes that Creatmosphere, a British lighting design firm, has turned Brighton, England’s 1,000-foot long pier into a light art installation called “A Pier/Appears.” In 2003, the pier was burnt “to a crisp in a series of fires.” There have been numerous plans to rebuild the pier, but none have been realized due to the enormous costs involved. In a more low-cost solution, Creatmosphere outlined the 1866 building’s original form using neon-green, high-power lasers. 

While illuminated buildings have had a long history, lighting designers are now taking building lighting design in new directions. Buildings that incorporate light design into their facades are gaining in popularity, writes Fast Company.

Read the article and see more photos

For more on current trends in architectural lighting design read a Metropolis magazine piece on Speirs and Major Associates’s well-known lighting design work.

Also, Metropolis recently wrote a series of ”what’s next?” articles focused on possible future trends in various design disciplines. Lighting is an area of innovation. “Dr. Mariana Figueiro, the program director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, thinks the way we design spaces and the impact those spaces have on us will change dramatically—and soon.”

In comments to Metropolis, Dr. Figueiro said: ”Professional lighting designers are starting to be attuned to the health effects of light. You are going to be seeing a lot more dynamic lighting, rather than static on/off schemes.” Read Metropolis’s predictions for the future of lighting design.

Lastly, check out a TED talk with Olafur Eliasson, a light and space designer, who created New York City’s Hudson River ”Waterfalls” art piece.

Image credit: Creatmosphere

A whole bunch of you are sending in this absolutely horrifying story of a school district outside of Philadelphia that apparently gave its students laptops that included hidden software that allowed district officials to secretly turn on the laptops’ webcams and monitor student activities, no matter where they were. This all came to light when a student was disciplined for “improper behavior in his home” with the evidence being a photo of the kid from his laptop webcam. The district is now being sued for this. It’s rather stunning that anyone thought this was a good idea. Secretly spying on children in their homes when they have a very real expectation of privacy is downright horrifying. It’s not hard to see how this could be abused in very dangerous ways.



Update: Yikes. This may be more common than I thought. Julian Sanchez points us to a recent PBS Frontline episode about technology in schools that shows a school official proudly showing off the ability to spy on kids this way (well, using remote desktop emulation, rather than turning on webcams, but many of the kids seem to use webcams a lot). That part of the video starts at 4:37 and even shows him taking a photo of a girl as she does her hair via the camera:

The school administrator seems to think it’s funny to spy on kids this way. Wow.

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We probably all know by now that banks are 'hoarding' cash and not lending 'enough', which may or may not be a good thing.

After all, some conservatism is warranted, and the higher their cash buffers, the easier and sooner one can make an argument for government support to be removed.

Yet this graphic from the Economist Intelligence Unit to the right shows just how much cash banks have been holding in relation to their loans. The spike shown is obviously a function of both cash being kept and a reduction of loans outstanding. Note how it has jumped to a higher level than even during the 1970's.

Economist Intelligence Unit: A steady decline in the ratio of cash to business loans—from around 60% in the 1970s to a low of 20% in late 2008—has reversed sharply over the past year. According to Federal Reserve data, banks hoarded an all-time high of 98 cents in cash for every dollar of existing corporate loans during the week of January 13th. The latest reading, for the week of February 3rd, stands at 95 cents.

Thus it's clear that bank's could slash this cash-to-business-loans ratio by half and still be well above any level they maintained during the 1980's, 1990's, or 2000's.

Now before you jump on the tired bandwagon of decrying banks for not lending, as an investor you should be loving this chart. Trust us, it would be far worse news if the spike above was inverted. Now that would be a disaster.

What the spike shows is that there is massive future capacity for banks to start lending. Given that stock markets are forward-looking, this means that there is substantial fuel for U.S. businesses available for some day in the future when banks finally start to feel confident again about their balance sheets, and once U.S. businesses bring compelling reasons for loans to banks.

If lending is done intelligently, and patiently, then it will be great news for the economy once the spike above normalizes.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Like Gold? Then You Better Like Investing Abroad
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It’s not clear who the Austin, TX plane crash pilot Joe Stack hung out with, but let’s just put it out there and stop playing pretend: this is not good publicity for the “Tea Party” right, and no, we’re not saying Stack was a tea partier.

But in his insane manifesto he rails against the IRS, bailouts, and, well, all of the right wing’s typical enemies.

Is this fair to the right? No. Will some of the media use this as a chance to smear the “tea partiers”? Sure.

But we’re not talking about what’s fair, we’re just talking about what happens.

The bottom line is that this event is to Obama what Oklahoma City was to Bill Clinton, and Oklahoma City helped Clinton a lot in the dark days after the 1994 election.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Insane Manifesto Of Austin Texas Crash Pilot Joseph Andrew Stack
• Pilot Intentionally Crashes Plane Into IRS, CIA, And FBI Complex In Austin, TX
• EXCLUSIVE: Listen To The Voice Of Austin Texas Plane Crash Pilot Joseph Andrew Stack – CLONE

With January sales 264 percent higher than the same period last year, the all new 2010 Cadillac SRX continued its impressive run as it was introduced to the mid-sized luxury crossover segment, with January representing the fifth straight month of year-over-year increases of over 100%.

Last month we test drove the 2010 Cadillac SRX equipped with the 3.0L V6 engine that put out 265 horses and a peak torque of 223 lb-ft. While the vehicle certainly garnered our praise for the tremendous value it delivers to consumers, we did have a gripe with the lack of response from the engine, and the feeling that it was easily over-worked. We also were unable to evaluate the all-wheel-drive system, since our test car was a front-wheel-drive model.

Click here to get pricing on the 2010 Cadillac SRX.

This time, however, GM was kind enough to let us spend sometime with the 2.8L DOHC turbocharged V6 SRX with all-wheel-drive. So just what did we think of it? Read on to find out.

Hit the jump to read more and to view our high-res image gallery (at the bottom of the post).

Review: 2010 Cadillac SRX 2.8L V6 Turbo:

2010 Cadillac SRX 2.8L V6 Turbo Specifications:

Base Price: $48,815.
Price as Tested: $54,475.
Engine: 2.8L turbocharged V6 – 300-hp / 295 lb-ft of torque.
Transmission: Aisin AF40 6-speed automatic transmission.
Curb Weight: 4,307 lbs.
0 to 60 mph: 7.6 seconds.
Fuel-Economy: 15/22 mpg (city/highway).

All Photos Copyright © 2009 Omar Rana – egmCarTech.

Exterior and Interior:

While we won’t get into deep detail on the SRX’s build quality and design – we did that in the first SRX review – we will mention one thing; should you decide to purchase this vehicle, make sure you opt for the Platinum Ice Tricoat exterior paint (a $995 option), and the Shale with Brownstone upper accents for the interior. Though this may seem like trivial fodder for a car review, believe us when we say that that color scheme adds a tremendous feeling of luxury that is lacking with the darker colors.

Performance:

When GM set out to redesign the SRX two years ago, they had decided to scrap the V8 and instead offer a 3.0L V6 that put out 265 horses, and to offer a turbocharged V6. The latter offering is realized with the 2.8L DOHC turbocharged V6 that puts out 300 horses and up to 295 lb-ft of torque, bringing the SRX 2.8L V6 Turbo from 0-60 ph in 7.6 seconds; a full second faster than the standard 3.0L engine and closer to its fiercest rival, the 275-hp 3.5L Lexus RX 350.

Also crucial to the quickness premium offered with the SRX 2.8L V6 Turbo is the transmission. The standard GM 6-speed automatic found in the 3.0L is swapped out in exchange for an Aisin AF40 6-speed automatic transmission which decreases shift time and offers the driver-selectable ‘eco-mode’, which alters the transmission’s shift points to maximize fuel economy.

Despite the ‘eco-mode’ feature, the vehicle is a thirsty one as it returns an EPA estimated 15/22 mpg (city/highway). That figure is significantly low when compared to the 3.0L’s 18/25 mpg, and the 3.5L Rx 350’s 18/24 mpg. We were able to maintain a combined 16 mpg throughout the week; eco-mode was engaged for most of this time.

As we mentioned above, we missed out on this feature during our first test, but as is the case with all SRX turbos, our second test vehicle came standard with the feature (both SRX Turbo models come standard with AWD). At the core of the redesign is the all new advanced AWD system which features eLSD, or electronic limited-slip differential. We were fortunate enough to have experienced several inches of snow (never enjoyable except for the testing opportunities it provided) and have to say that the AWD system on this car provided for superb traction on slippery surfaces; rain, snow, and ice.

You’re probably wondering what it is exactly that the SRX 2.8L V6 Turbo has over the 3.0L and the Lexus RX 350 as far as performance is concerned. Compared to the SRX 3.0L, it has more pep, agility and sportiness, and it provides for driving experience that much more appeals to an enthusiast. With regard to the Lexus RX 350, both variants of the 2010 SRX dominates as far as handling is concerned, but unless you have the turbocharged 2.8L V6 SRX, you can expect the RX 350 to burn you on the straightaways (and we highly doubt you’ll be pulling any drag races with crossovers).

Overall:

Should you opt for the 2.8L SRX over the 3.0L SRX or the Lexus RX 350? Well that would depend on numerous factors, including price. The 2.8L offers tremendous benefit in that it derives its engine from a GM family of refined engines used in luxury European models, making faster and an overall more interactive driving experience. A drawback to consider however, would be the gas mileage, pricing and packaging that Caddy is offering, as the SRX turbo only comes in AWD and is significantly pricier than the standard SRX.

The starting MSRP on the 2.8L V6 Turbo with the Performance trim level is $48,815 (our test vehicles, fitted with a Premium package, starts at $51,360). This is significantly more than that of the base model SRX; $33,330; however, it comes with all the features from the 3.0L V6 Luxury trim level and adds navigation, rearview camera, heated front seats, wood trim, HID headlamps, park assist and much more as standard options.

Its competitor, the Lexus RX 350 AWD, comes with a starting MSRP of $39,025, but when all is said and done and optioned out to rival the SRX Turbo’s Performance trim level, the pricing would work out to be about the same.

With that said The Cadillac SRX 2.8L Turbo is definitely something to check out if you’re shopping in the all-wheel-drive crossover segment.

Review: 2010 Cadillac SRX 2.8L V6 Turbo:

– By: Stephen Calogera

All Photos Copyright © 2009 Omar Rana – egmCarTech.