URBANA — The teen charged with resisting arrest in the incident that left his friend dead at the hands of a police officer is due back in court in two months.
Alfred Ivy, the Urbana attorney for Jeshaun Manning-Carter, 16, of Champaign, on Wednesday asked Judge Heidi Ladd to continue his client’s juvenile delinquency case again.
State’s Attorney Julia Rietz had no objection, noting that Manning-Carter had some “issues” with school attendance which she was hopeful would be resolved by the April 13 court hearing. She said she was pleased that he and his mother, Laura Manning, plan to take part in the Parenting With Love and Limits family-oriented counseling program starting next week.
Ivy, Rietz, the youth, and his mother huddled in the courtroom for a conversation before the judge took the bench.
Manning-Carter was in the backyard of a home at 906 W. Vine St., C, on Oct. 9 when his friend Kiwane Carrington, 15, also of Champaign, was fatally shot by Champaign police officer Dan Norbits, as Norbits and Police Chief R.T. Finney responded to what they were told was a burglary in progress.
The police have said that both teens resisted their commands to get on the ground. An inquest into Mr. Carrington’s death is scheduled for Thursday.
Several supporters of Manning-Carter crowded the hall outside the courtroom where his hearing was going on. Only members of the immediate family, caseworkers, and the news media are typically allowed to sit in on juvenile delinquency hearings.
At a news conference before the hearing, some of those supporters renewed their call for Rietz to dismiss the charges against Manning-Carter.
Carol Ammons of the Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice said that group and others working with it have collected 1,766 signatures on petitions which they have forwarded to Rietz asking her to drop the charges so that Manning-Carter “is free to testify.”
“We really need to know what he saw,” Ammons said, adding that community involvement “is critical in getting justice in any case.”
Rietz reiterated that her prosecutorial decisions would not be driven by petitions.
“If they really want to help him they could show up at READY (school) and encourage him and the other students to go to school every day or offer to help tutor them so that they pass all of their classes other than spending their time collecting signatures on a petition,” Rietz said.
Rietz said she’ll be watching to see what kind of progress Manning-Carter is making in the alternative school in Champaign. He was referred to READY in December because of poor attendance at Central High School, Rietz said.
An internal investigation of the entire incident is ongoing in Champaign, where Norbits remains off the street but is doing administrative duties in the station.
A Champaign man who police say led them on a high-speed chase through parts of the city early Saturday has been charged with possession of a stolen vehicle.
Amandre McGill, 23, who listed an address in the 700 block of North Prospect Avenue, was arrested about 12:10 a.m. after he was found hiding under a porch in the 300 block of Elmwood Drive.
A Champaign police report said an officer tried to stop a car with expired registration on Walnut Street in downtown Champaign around midnight Friday.
The car took off fast, running at least three red lights and almost hitting two Mass Transit District buses. Because of traffic and the speed of the fleeing car — estimated at more than 70 mph — police ended the pursuit.
Not long after, the car crashed into a parked truck at the corner of Clark and Flora streets and its two occupants ran off.
When residents of the 300 block of Elmwood reported someone trying to get in their house, police searched and found McGill hiding under a porch.
Police also learned that the car had been stolen late Friday night from the Circle K on North Lincoln Avenue in Urbana. It belonged to Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
The passenger who got out and ran was charged with misdemeanor obstructing a peace office.
McGill was released from the county jail after posting bond Tuesday. He is due back in court March 30.
Field notes on the 2010 Chicago Auto Show – Click above for the series
Without doubt we have never come across a more comically true summary of the auto show experience. A nine-panel series on the experience of the Chicago Auto Show by the magnificently named Lunchbreath is so spot on that it’s already giving us PTSD about the Geneva Motor Show, and Geneva hasn’t even happened yet. From the camera phones to photo profiling to that guy in the Escalade, it’s all in there. If you like the panels below, check out his Unsolicited Proposals to Detroit, and the Housewares Trade Show for something completely different.
I recently flew out to beautiful San Diego, California to take part in an Executive Roundtable session hosted by President Stan Glasgow and EVP/CMO Mike Fasulo at the Sony headquarters. It was great to finally visit Sony’s new building and participate in discussion about the current state of the company. The building was very impressive architecturally, with incredible landscaping and various “green” features such as solar panels on the parking deck and a fountain that cascades recycled water collected from the air conditioner system. Upon arrival, I encountered a spacious lobby with quotes from Sony’s co-founder Akio Morita in a large font dressed upon the walls. I felt like I was in heaven – this was my dream world, and a place I would love to eventually work at one day.
After being whisked away into a green room slathered with lavish pastries, Starbucks coffee and other confectioneries, I met up with other major players in the press, including representatives from Bloomberg, NBC, LA Times, TWICE, Dealerscope, NPD, and other analyst/media outlets. It was quite surreal to be amongst these individuals – Sony Insider is a small site, and I’m rather young (most of these people had at least ten years of age on me or more). Regardless, I encountered a few familiar faces and felt quite comfortable in the various conversations that were taking place during breakfast.
Before the Roundtable, several of us embarked on a tour of Sony headquarters – there are eleven floors in total and each one has a large picture of Akio Morita near the elevator. It was very inspirational to see Sony making sure that employees had constant reminders of the company’s past – a subject that I find incredibly important to preserve. I swear I also noticed the make.believe “dot” sound played in the elevator.
One of the first areas of the building we visited was the large Sony Café on the top floor – it is a huge cafeteria and sushi bar with stylish white chairs and tables, booths, and a plethora of reasonably priced food and drink options. The whole setup looked truly regal, and reminded me of something you would expect to find at an institution such as Google. Sony even had a ping pong table and do tournaments every so often. There is also a large open air patio that connects to the Café and overlooks the beautiful surrounding San Diego mountains and valleys. The view is truly breathtaking.
I also was able to visit the offices of the Corporate Communications department, which is an area of Sony I speak with often. Thanks to Media Relations Specialist Ana Reyes for all of her assistance, help and dedication in making sure this trip was perfect in every way. Regardless, it was amusing to finally see the place that housed so many of the people who have helped Sony Insider. I saw the open cubicles of Internet Communications Specialist Jen Martin, Social Media Evangelist Sukhjit Ghag, Senior PR Specialist Honey Mae Kenworthy, and VP Dave Migdal and so forth. Interestingly enough, Dave doesn’t work in an office separate from the others like you’d expect a VP to have – he simply has a double cubicle with a sliding door. This is really perfect for him, because honestly he is a very friendly and humble person. They are all neighbors with each other and I could see various product and event strategies scribbled on dry erase boards. This kind of environment obviously leads to instant collaboration and group awareness of various matters.
After the tour, we were led to a large meeting room on the 9th floor that had Stan Glasgow, Mike Fasulo, several members of the Communications and Marketing teams within. I could tell this is one of the most important rooms in Sony, where I’m sure many key meetings and decisions have occurred. A large black oval shaped table (at least 20 feet long) was in the middle of the room, with more than a dozen seats situated around it and name tags for each individual in front of their seats. There were IPELA cameras situated around the room and long thin microphones on the table in front of the chairs with a push to talk button and volume controls. I wondered if anyone from Japan was watching.
The meeting kicked off with Stan and Mike speaking about some various topics. While there was heavy mention of 3D, I have decided to talk about that in a separate post as I have many questions that Sony is working on answering. Stay tuned.
One of the first items of interest was the mention of how Sony’s attempts to bring that synergistic mentality to their product offerings was really starting to pay off. Stan referenced how Sony and Best Buy sold 12,000 BRAVIA TV bundles that included a PS3, one game and a Blu-ray movie. It was the best bundle deal Best Buy has ever done and that Sony has ever done. Stan also mentioned one day record sales with another bundle during Fall of last year, where Sony sold a BRAVIA TV and a PS3 at SonyStyle for a great price, which helped Sony move three times more TV’s than the prior year.
BRAVIA Internet Video Link also seems to be faring well, with the service now nearly having one million users. There was no specific mention if these are one-time or reoccurring users, but it was still a positive sign for this product segment. I’ve always been very skeptical of the BIVL device because it has such diverse reviews online. When it was first released it was slammed by many who commented on its performance and lack of services, but recent reviews have pegged it as a great solution for those with broadband connections (above 3mbps) who want to enjoy SD/HD Netflix and Amazon content. The BRAVIA Internet Video Link will have an eventual successor this year that I will be reporting on later that will nullify many of the issues found in the first product, such as lack of Wi-Fi, compatibility with only Sony TV’s, and limited connectivity.
There was also mention that “green” initiatives are faring well, and Sony has identified that younger consumers are still leaning towards products and designs with environmentally conscious features. Stan also stated that the company has collected more than 25 million pounds of electronics products for recycling during its “Take Back” campaign.
Mike Fasulo chimed in about Sony’s marketing efforts, which have been going extraordinarily well according to several of his statistics. I think Mike is more powerful in Sony than the public realizes and demonstrated to me a real calculative mentality that is obviously razor sharp from constant interaction with Sony’s amazing researchers. I was pleased to finally observe him speak, and also noticed he was thinner and without a mustache these days.
Sony is committing more focus on the retail shop front, which he feels Sony can do now because they embraced innovative marketing strategies. Sony communicates with two thousand people on a regular basis on future products and ideas, which started a few years ago.
The metrics were very positive for Sony’s HDNA and the Panel of Experts (with Justin Timberlake, Peyton Manning, etc) – in their surveys, consumers had nearly 60% recall on those commercials, which is quite impressive considering 20-25% is the average in the consumer electronics industry. Retention of the Sony commercials has the ability to bring consumers to retail; there was a 15% call to action, when the industry average is below 10%. Fasulo proudly mentioned that sales rose nearly 13% during the “Panel of Experts” campaign. There was also mention of Sony launching a new advertising campaign in April for digital imaging, and heavy marketing efforts during the Summer and Holidays for 3D.
There was also quite a bit of conversation about the upcoming Sony Dash.
Someone asked “Why is Dash stationary?” and the answer was that through consumer input, people said it makes a lot of sense to do a stationary device that can be moved around the house. Sony made a choice based on this, and the general feeling in the room that this was just the beginning for Dash. In testing, they wanted to identify a different type of display product, and didn’t want it to be a picture frame. Internet connectivity with rich services to back it up and alarm clock functionality was a big factor.
I inquired if Sony had any plans to court Hotel chains with the Dash, and was told that it would initially be put forth towards consumers, and could be a possible option for businesses in the future. I think that would be a brilliant idea if Sony could manage to hook up with a hotel chain and have the Dash standard in every room – imaging having hotel services available on the Dash, along with 1,500 other apps and Netflix. It seems like a no brainer.
There was also some discussion during the Roundtable about how Sony is going to change a lot of things with dealers. I took notes on this, but I feel TWICE has summarized it far better than I could have:
Looking to be more responsive to the needs of A/V specialty and custom-installation dealers, Sony marketing executives announced at the company’s annual line show here, Tuesday, that its minimum advertised pricing (MAP) programs on television displays initiated last fall have begun to pay dividends and will be expanded into other categories going forward.
Mike Fasulo, Sony executive VP and chief marketing officer, said at a press roundtable during the event that specialty dealers have embraced Sony MAP policies, which offer real penalties for non-compliance across a wider swath of products and model than the SURE and SSPG programs used in the past.
“Every note I’ve gotten from a specialist has been a thank you, in terms of MAP,” Fasulo said.
He said Sony just announced the expansion of the MAP program into home audio/video as well as TV and is now studying the likelihood of expanding it into the digital imaging category, as well.
“We are introducing a program on our [DI] premium products that will require an in-store demonstration,” he said.
“The specialist retailer is extremely important to me, it is extremely important to our industry, and it is going to be vital to 3D,” Fasulo said, responding to market conditions that forced the recent closing of the MyerEmco chain. “I think demonstrations are going to make a comeback and this is going to be multichannel-oriented where it is going to be Internet and brick-and-mortar.”
In part to help A/V specialty dealers, Fasulo said Sony’s TV lines are shipping three months earlier than ever this year, which should help alleviate some dealers that were left short of inventory prior to the Super Bowl period.
CHAMPAIGN — Three teens were arrested following a fight Wednesday morning at Champaign Central High School.
According to a Champaign police report, an ongoing argument led to a fight among students at the high school. Police were initially called to the high school at 9:38 a.m.
More officers were called to the high school at 11:32 a.m., with the latter call also involving a reported scuffle among parents.
Police arrested a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl for aggravated battery and took them to the juvenile detention center.
Police also arrested a 17-year-old girl for aggravated battery and took her to the Champaign County Jail.
No parents had been arrested as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to Champaign police spokeswoman Rene Dunn.
TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau, known as the infomercial king and best-selling author, was ordered by a federal judge to serve 30 days in prison and must turn himself in Thursday.
“This was an attempt by Mr. Trudeau to harass, intimidate and influence the court,” said U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who was flooded with hundreds of “harassing, threatening and interfering” e-mails, locking up the judge’s e-mail system and shutting down his Blackberry for part of the day.
Last week, Gettleman found Trudeau in criminal contempt of court and nearly threw him in jail after Trudeau asked his supporters to e-mail a federal judge overseeing a pending civil case brought by the Federal Trade Commission.
The Illinois House has passed legislation that could complicate efforts to house terrorism suspects at an unused prison in northwestern Illinois.
The measure would require lawmakers to vote on any proposal to transfer ownership of state property worth $1 million or more. It passed 81-31 Wednesday and now goes to the Senate.
Gov. Pat Quinn has reached an agreement with the Obama administration to sell Thomson prison to the federal government. It would be used to house prisoners now held at Guantanamo Bay.
If lawmakers were vote on the plan, it might fail.
The proposed voting requirement is far from becoming law. It still needs Senate approval, and then Quinn could still block it.
BSQUARE Corporation has announced it will offer the new Windows Phone 6 Starter Edition SKU, software designed to help OEMs reach new and emerging markets with their consumer mobile handsets.
Bsquare will offer two versions of the Windows Phone 6 Starter Edition SKU: Multilanguage versions with and without Microsoft ® Office Mobile. The Windows Phone Starter Edition SKU supports 2G (GSM), 2.5G (CDMA2000 xRTT, EDGE, GPRS), CDMA (Rev A, EV-DO Revision A) and TD-SCDMA radios.
“Businesses are hungry for mobile solutions that can support the needs of both knowledge workers and field service professionals while also providing scalability to IT organizations,” said Brian Crowley, Bsquare’s president and CEO. “Windows Phone is an ideal platform for developing smarter, more compelling devices and the new Windows Phone 6 Starter Edition SKU makes it available to a broader set of device manufacturers globally. By providing the technical support, training, software products and engineering services to a broader base of customers, we offer a complete solution and are helping expand the Windows Phone device ecosystem beyond the traditional smartphone.”
“Bsquare is now serving the broader mobility market by making Windows Phone licensing available to a wider audience,” said Nalin Rohatgi, mobility channel business development manager at Microsoft Corp. “OEMs can choose the Windows Phone operating system for vertical market devices to help customers extend their business systems to mobile devices.”
All your dreams do come true – Click above for high-res image gallery
We’re going back and forth on this one. Do we file it under “We’ll believe it when we see it” or “Pinch me I’m dreaming”? Either way, we get to sub-tag it, “Thank God for rich friends.” That’s right y’all, Audi is allowing Horchaus, the Canadian distributor MTM, to federalize some special four-ringers for American consumption. These are the real deal, hopped-up German Audis, straight from the tweaker factory.
As we’re sure you all know, Audi keeps a whole bunch of extra spicy models back in Europe. Why? The excuses typically involve some song and dance about Americans not wanting high performance station wagons (as if), though in the case of the RS4 Avant (arguably the most desirable car we can’t buy), the U.S. prohibition was because the rear-mounted battery didn’t pass DOT certification…
So which cars can we now get via Horchaus? The RS4 Avant, RS4 Convertible, S3, the RS6 sedan and RS6 Avant, Q7 V12 TDI and TT RS. And there’s something else to note: Since Euro-tuner MTM is involved in the equation, these cars can be pumped up a bit over stock. One example would be the twin-turbo V10 in the RS6 upped from a paltry 580 horsepower to a more appropriate 735 hp.
That said, Horchaus’s pricing announcement is leading us back to the “We’ll believe it when we see it” category. Using nothing but a straight Euros-to-dollars conversion rate, the RS6 would cost you about $150,000. However, Horchaus is saying it can be yours for just $107,600. Here’s where it gets hinky. Supposedly Horchaus can sell you a R8 V10 5.2 FSI for $98,000, which is mucho less expensive than Audi USA sells them for (the last one we drove cost $172,250). We don’t believe this last bit. Still, will us Americanos be able to get two of the hottest wagons in the world? Si senor, si.
The Illinois Senate met behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss the state’s budget woes, prompting complaints that the meeting was an illegal violation of the public’s right to keep an eye on public officials.
Both the Democratic majority and the Republican minority met with experts from the National Council of State Legislatures for a briefing on how the recession is affecting state budgets. Reporters and other observers were barred from the meeting.
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) and Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) agreed to close the meeting so that lawmakers could ask questions without feeling undue scrutiny, said Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon.
It allowed the Senate to “begin a bipartisan dialogue about the state’s fiscal condition,” Phelon said.
“That’s not how open democracy works,” countered David Morrison of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “It does not seem like the right way to start the (budget) process if your goal is to give the public the voice in state policy.”
NCSL covered the costs of the visitors, one traveling from Washington and one from Denver, Phelon said.
The Constitution requires public access to “sessions” of both houses of the General Assembly and meetings of its committees. Although the briefing was for all members of the Senate, Phelon said the Senate was not in session or meeting as a committee.
Public-access lawyer Don Craven of Springfield said legislative rules allow for private political caucus meetings, but when both groups come together, that’s a Senate session.
“The problem here is, where does this practice end?” Craven said. “They can meet in this way on any other issue.”
Sen. Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry), an NCSL executive committee member, said there was also a practical reason: One meeting was “more accommodating to our guests,” eliminating the need for separate presentations to each party’s caucus.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — More than 1,000 people who depend on Illinois government for services and paychecks are visiting the state Capitol to lobby for higher taxes.
They say the state cannot fix its $13 billion deficit solely through spending cuts. They argue that such deep cuts would gut state programs, from road repairs to prisons to addiction treatment.
They held a rally Wednesday and then fanned out through the Capitol to lobby individual lawmakers.
The event was organized by the Responsible Budget Coalition, which includes groups such as Voices for Illinois Children, AARP and the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn supports a tax increase and wants to pass it this year, but the Republicans competing for his job say they would balance the budget without raising taxes.
One of two Antioch Township men charged with hoarding guns, explosives and drugs in their house pleaded guilty to a reduced charge Wednesday in Lake County Circuit Court.
John Thomas, 24, was placed on probation for two years after pleading guilty to unlawful storage of explosives during a hearing before Circuit Judge Fred Foreman.
Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Hoffert said Thomas and his father, Burl Thomas, were both at their residence in the 25000 block of West Linden Lane when police arrived with a search warrant Sept. 2.
Inside the house, police found more than 30 weapons, including a live military AT4 rocket launcher, semiautomatic rifles, handguns and shotguns.
They also found a half-pound of dynamite, blasting caps and detonator cord.
Two ounces of cocaine, about a pound of marijuana and 500 pills of prescription drugs were also seized during the raid.
Both were charged with armed violence, possession of explosives, cocaine and marijuana and unlawful use of a weapon, but Hoffert agreed to drop those charges against John Thomas in exchange for his guilty plea.
Burl Thomas was found psychologically unfit for trial in December and is undergoing treatment at a state Department of Human Services hospital.
A report on the progress of that treatment is scheduled to be presented to Foreman on March 23.
Before John Thomas’ guilty plea was accepted, Hoffert had him sworn in and he testified that all the contraband in the house belonged to his father.
Burl Thomas has pleaded not guilty to the original charges and faces a prison sentence of 15 to 30 years if convicted when he is released from treatment.
The maximum penalty John Thomas could have faced for the unlawful storage of explosive charge is five years in prison.
Audi has been a sponsor of the United States Ski Team since 2007 and having recently produced the documentary Truth in Motion, Audi has created two new ad spots that will run during the 2010 Winter Olympics and will take a ‘friendly’ shot at the competition.
The first commercial, “Friendly Competition,” takes a shot at BMW pointing out that “Audi’s biggest competitors is forced to face this truth, following the results of three straight Car and Driver comparison tests.”
The second commercial called “Spell” takes a stab at Italian Supercars, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and others. The theme of the ad focuses around how Audi’s market share is growing faster than its competitors’, and the Audi S4, Q5, A5 Cabriolet and R8 V10 break the trance and make consumers take notice.
Aaron Woodman, director of consumer of experiences at Microsoft, provided an in-depth interview with Laptop Magazine about Microsoft’s new mobile OS.
When asked how tiles helped applications, Woodman noted:
To the right of the Start experience is an application list. But I want the most important or most used or the things I care about most up on the Start experience. The difference is that the application list is just a set of general tiles and as you promote them they become live tiles in the Start experience. So they become much more dynamic and have the ability to expose information dynamically and kind of have a heartbeat
We’ll be pretty prescriptive in terms of what extensibilities will be available in which hubs, and that’s true with the live tiles as well, where we actually have prescriptive ways to build a live tile and making that dynamic and bringing information to it. So we’ll expose that pretty broadly, and ISVs wil ultimately get to decide how best to articulate that.
Regarding twitter integration, he said:
We will absolutely support Twitter, and we’re working through the Windows Live team to do that. We actually have a pretty significant advantage in the sense that Windows Live has in most cases private reciprocal agreements with social networking. The point is that Windows Live actually helps us interact with those social networking feeds. And you’ll not only see Facebook and Windows Live but over 70 other feeds at launch. So you’ll see pretty wide integration.
In terms of contact integration where you see a lot of people show up I think that might be limited to your Webmail bases, so Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and your corporate mail like Exchange, and then Facebook and Windows Live. I’m not sure whether we will pull contacts from Twitter or just feeds.
Lastly and most significantly, he was asked how Microsoft intends to prevent being leapfrogged by the other mobile OS’s in the 9 months between announcement and actual release of devices.
Aaron replied:
We talk a lot about this internally. We will continue to see competitors march. We’re announcing early so that we can motivate and move the developer story forward and be ready at GA (general availability) for a powerful experience for end users with applications. And that’s an important part of the strategy. In a perfect world we’d launch with all of our partners including ISVs at GA and no one would know about it, but I don’t think that’s reasonable.
The second thing I would say is that we feel very good about our long-term differentiation. I think we have a very unique perspective about how to build a phone around putting end users and building the user experience around the task rather than just access to applications. And the result is a very different look and feel. But those are very, very deep principles. Additionally, we’re bringing to market a set of services and integration that is not easily copied. That’s something that we’ll be able to defend over a long period of time. And if you look at Xbox Live as an example there is nobody else that has an Xbox Live in their back pocket that they haven’t brought to market. That sort of differentiation is something that is going to sustain us over a long period of time
Read the full interview, which contains many more interesting questions and answers, here.
Several families were left temporarily homeless after a kitchen fire in a large Elgin apartment building early Wednesday morning, firefighters said.
The fire caused no serious injuries. Three people, including one firefighter, were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, firefighters said.
It started around 2:45 a.m. in the kitchen of a third floor unit in the 1100 block of Fleetwood Drive, just south of Route 20 and McLean Boulevard, according to the fire department.
Emergency crews put the fire out by 3 a.m. but spent another two hours at the scene completing their investigation and securing the property.
“The kitchen was pretty much destroyed,” Elgin Fire Capt. Dick Cummings said. “There was smoke and heat damage to both the apartment and the third-floor hallway area.”
Firefighters estimated the damage at $30,000, Cummings said.
The city of Elgin shut down the apartment building because of water and electrical damage. Twelve people obtained emergency food or shelter from the American Red Cross, city spokeswoman Sue Olafson said.
Olafson said the occupants of all but two units – the one where the fire broke out and the one directly below it – were to be allowed to return Wednesday evening.
It’s probably one of the oddest face-offs we’ve seen all year – Godzilla vs. a refined luxury supercar. The guys at Motor Trend decided to find out how the 621-hp $273,000 Bentley Continental Supersports stands up to the popular 485-hp $87,000 Nissan GT-R.
The government has your baby’s DNA – By Elizabeth Cohen – … It’s simple, the pediatrician answered: Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it’s often done without the parents’ consent, according to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn Screening & Genetics Resource Center. … Many parents don’t realize their baby’s DNA is being stored in a government lab, but sometimes when they find out, as the Browns did, they take action … – CNN
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FBI wants records kept of Web sites visited – by Declan McCullagh – The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes. – CNET.com and Feds push for tracking cell phones – CNET.com ————
Appealing to the Lowest Common Denominator – Election-year Politics and the Toll on Economic Policy – Themes on the Economy – by Diane Swonk, Chief Economist, Mesirow Financial
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China Just Raised Its Reserve Requirements Once Again – Joe Weisenthal – Heads up: The only central bank that matters anymore, the PBOC, just hiked reserve requirements once again. Bloomberg: The reserve requirement will increase 50 basis points effective Feb. 25, the People’s Bank of China said on its Web site today. The current level is 16 percent for big banks and 14 percent for smaller ones. – Money Game at Business Insider
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Guest Post: Will Obama Destroy Any Hope Of U.S. Energy Independence? – Guest Post Natural Gas Obama Administration Reality – Submitted by Charles S. Brant, Energy Correspondent, Casey Research – The U.S. consumes nearly three times the amount of oil that it produces domestically on a daily basis. How can this statistic get any worse, you might ask? Imagine in 2010 the Obama administration persuades Congress to pass a budget that results in a reduction of domestic oil production by 10% – 20%, making the supply/demand imbalance even more lopsided. Foreign oil companies will gain a distinct advantage over American domestic operators as an unintended consequence of these proposals. – Zero Hedge
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Fed Chooses To Try Unwind Via Eye Of Needle – Michael Pento – Planned interest rate hikes will fail to forestall inflation. . – Forbes
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Washington’s Snowfall Yesterday Was Nothing Compared to Bernanke’s On-Line Snow Job – by Gary North – Yesterday, the House Committee on Financial Services had scheduled hearings. Bernanke had been invited. He was a no-show. Congress was shut down. So, he posted his testimony. It is here. – Lew Rockwell.com
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Bernanke on the Fed’s balance sheet – James Hamilton – Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke last week released a statement of how the Fed intends to manage its bloated balance sheet over the next few years. Here I offer my interpretation of what his plan involves. – Econbrowser
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Charges in Web Video Bring Unusual Rebuttal From F.D.I.C. – By SEWELL CHAN – All week long, officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation watched with growing dismay as a YouTube video ricocheted around the Internet. In 4 minutes 26 seconds, the clip asserted that the agency’s sale last year of the assets of the failed bank IndyMac to a group of private investors was a sweetheart deal.Finally, F.D.I.C. officials decided they had had enough. “It is unfortunate but necessary to respond to blatantly false claims in a Web video that is being circulated” about the creation of OneWest Bank out of the assets of IndyMac, the agency’s chief spokesman, Andrew Gray, said in a written statement late Friday. – NY Times
How Governments Hide Their Liabilities – by Donald Marron – Donald Marron Blog In my testimony to the Senate Budget Committee the other day, I recommended that Congress set specific fiscal targets for bringing our out-of-control deficits and debt under control. … But as the New York Times points out in two articles today, a measurable target isn’t enough. You also need to make sure that the government doesn’t game the accounting to hide its liabilities. Exhibit A is Greece. Exhibit B are all the contingent liabilities of the United States government, of which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been the most prominent (and expensive)
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Government looks to foreign SWFs to fund housing market – By Howard Schneider – The Federal Reserve is set to halt its purchases of mortgage-backed securities at the end of March, and officials are counting on foreign sovereign-wealth funds to buy the securities and keep the housing market funded. – Washington Post
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In this issue of The Institutional Risk Analyst, we ask whether the Fed’s Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) isn’t driving global deflation. – Christopher Whalen ————
Plan B? For the GSEs, There Might Not Even Be a Plan A – by PAUL JACKSON – February 1 came and went — was it 15 days ago already? That was when the Obama administration said it would proffer up some details as to its thinking for the future of the GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to be part of the overall federal budget proposal. Instead, we got one measly sentence that managed to say nothing at all. – HousingWire
Given what the Olympics have become lately, I have to admit to not paying attention to any of it so far. I heard the news of the luger’s death, and that’s been about it. So perhaps more people already knew about this, but apparently one of the mogul skiers has a bit of a reputation as a spam/spyware purveyor. It sounds like the guy is now out of that business, but what’s fascinating is how his reputation has been tarnished over all of this, despite winning Olympic medals. The Canadians wouldn’t let him on the team this time around years back, due to their dislike of his activities, so he switched his citizenship to Australia, and basically, it sounds like everyone hates him:
After Begg-Smith’s second place finish in Vancouver this week, one Australian news organization published an article calling him–in the headline, no less–a “sourpuss.” Another, the Sydney Morning Herald, labeled the Olympic athlete as “Mr. Miserable” and speculated that he was “simply flying a flag of convenience” with no real ties to Oz.
Canadians were more direct. Facebook groups such as “Dale Begg-Smith is a sourpuss” and another calling him a “traitor” have popped up. Twitter messages after the mogul race have included “traitor,” “fake Canadian and all-around jerk,” plus other phrases entirely unsuitable for a family publication.
Obviously, some of that hatred is due to him switching citizenship, but the article explains why his spamming/spyware activities are a large part of it as well (and may have resulted in the citizenship switch). I find this interesting not just because of the Olympic angle, but because of the reputation angle.
Reputation is a rather valuable “scarce good,” and destroying your reputation through shady activities can come back to bite you for a long, long time, even if you do plenty of other amazing things. Just ask Metallica.
BSQUARE Corporation 
Aaron Woodman, director of consumer of experiences at Microsoft, provided an in-depth interview with Laptop Magazine about Microsoft’s new mobile OS.
