Jason Chen, a blogger for the tech website Gizmodo.com, says police raided his California home after he posted a video of Apple’s latest top-secret iPhone prototype.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
CLICK HERE To read the letter that Gawker Media — which owns Gizmodo — wrote to authorities claiming the search was not legal because Chen is a “journalist….”
Thanks to Kat for highlighting that in the middle of this article about Hawass complaining that he still wants the repatriation of certain artefacts at the opening of the NY Tutankhamun exhibition there is a line about a possible new discovery in the Valley of the Kings. I don’t think that I’ve seen mention of this elsewhere but apologies if it is old news:
Hawass also announced that a set of four foundation deposits — similar to time capsules — and a limestone fragment with a text indicating a tomb was hidden nearby were recently discovered in the Valley of the Kings.He said this discovery gave him hope he would soon find the tombs of Ankhesamun, Tut’s wife, and that of Nefertiti, his stepmother.
Straight from the horses mouth, comes the news that the latest incarnation of every suit-totin’, email-checkin’, business-type’s favourite phone OS (that is, BlackBerry OS 6.0) will be released this Summer.
During an analyst talk today, RIM co-chief Mike Lazaridis showed off the first official teasers of the new OS.
New features will include the previously mentioned WebKit browser — which will now play a central role in the OS, and the OS will support both trackpad and touchscreen devices, but the juiciest bombshell was the news that older BlackBerries will be able to upgrade, though it wasn’t stated how many models will be given the option.
That’s nice of RIM, isn’t it?
[via Phone Arena]
[JURIST] Former Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega arrived in France Tuesday to face money laundering charges after being extradited from the US. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a surrender warrant Monday after a federal judge lifted the stay blocking his extradition last month. Noriega will appear Tuesday before French prosecutors to hear the charges against him, which stem from allegedly laundering $3 million in drug profits by purchasing property in Paris. Noriega’s lawyers have said they will seek his immediate release, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a former head of state.
Noriega has been fighting extradition since 2007. Last month, the US Supreme Court declined to reconsider Noriega’s petition to stop the extradition process. His lawyers filed the petition in February after the Supreme Court denied certiorari on the case in January. Noriega, who has been declared a prisoner of war, sought to enforce a provision of the Geneva Convention that requires repatriation at the end of confinement. Noriega and his wife were sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail by a French court in 1999, but France agreed to hold a new trial if he was extradited.
Las Vegas has done a lot over the years to spiff up its image. But one thing it hasn’t quite been able to shake: The picture of the casino exec living large on the shareholder’s dime.
Last week we looked at MGM Mirage (MGM) and its lavish pay for lackluster performance. This week, we turn to Las Vegas Sands (LVS), where the company and its board clearly know how to sweat the small stuff — while paying out the big bucks to select high-rollers in the corner office.
Chairman and Chief Executive Sheldon G. Adelson made $5.6 million in 2009, including $1 million in cash and $1.8 million in stock options, according to the proxy the company filed on Friday. But look a little closer, and you’ll see that the biggest single chunk of his pay falls under “other compensation” — the home of perks like tax-prep assistance and personal security.
And sure enough, true to Las Vegas stereotype, security for himself and his family is the biggest chunk of that — a whopping $2.45 million. The proxy doesn’t go into detail, so we can only imagine that he has a phalanx of full-time body-guards in his entourage; at $150,000 a year for the upper end of the scale, he could keep 15 employed full-time with enough left over to buy them all sharp suits and shades.
Adelson also got “the full-time and exclusive use of an automobile and a driver of his choice,” at $163,812, “the annual reimbursement of professional fees of $100,000,” and the use of Sands-casino gyms and even dry-cleaning services — price-tag omitted, but no doubt priceless for the well-groomed gaming chief. We haven’t seen dry-cleaning mentioned as a perk since Jack Welch’s divorce proceeding.
And then there are the home repairs.
“The Company also permits its executive officers to use Company personnel for home repairs during business hours on a limited basis. The Company requires that these executives reimburse it in full for these services. There is no incremental cost to the Company for any of these benefits.”
It’s no doubt heartening to shareholders that the company can spare its workmen during business hours without losing money on the deal. But the best news for Sands executives may be that the company stands by its employees’ work. Robert G. Goldstein, Sands’ executive vice-president, had work done on his house in 2008 by a subsidiary of the company and, sadly, it wasn’t up to snuff.
“Mr. Goldstein believed, and the Company acknowledged, that some of the work was not performed in an appropriate manner. The matter was referred to an independent expert, who concurred about the quality of the work and concluded that Mr. Goldstein should not be obligated to pay the $0.4 million incurred by the Company for costs and overhead on the job. These findings have been accepted by the Company and Mr. Goldstein.”
If all this sounds like a lot of distractions for a company that styles itself the “leading global developer of integrated resorts,” not to worry: the Sands is outsourcing other non-core operations, including part of its corporate plane fleet — to its own CEO.
Sands and Adelson swapped aircraft throughout 2009, with Sands paying Interface Operations LLC — a company controlled by Adelson and his wife — some $1.2 million to rent its Boeing Business Jet, Gulfstream G-III and Gulfstream G-IV; at the same time, Interface paid Sands $652,114 to rent its three Gulfstream G-IVs, a Gulfstream G-V and two Boeing 737s. Meanwhile, Interface Bermuda Ltd., controlled by Sheldon Adelson, collected $6.1 million from Sands for the use of its two Boeing 747 aircraft. Net to Adelson entities: $7.45 million.
The more we think about it, the more it strikes us that all of Vegas’s various reputations may fit the bill: When it comes to customers’ money, what happens in Vegas sure does seem to stay in Vegas. And that new family-friendly atmosphere? It’s there all right — but it sure helps to belong to the right families.
Image source: Nevada Tumbleweed via Flickr.
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After reviewing the new devices we saw yesterday—the Blackberry Bold 9650 and the Pearl 3G—RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis revealed what we’ve been waiting for at this year’s WES: BlackBerry 6.0. Updated: Video! More »
The Opel Ampera team with the first pre-production Opel Ampera
The first pre-production 2012 Opel Ampera, the Chevy Volt’s European sibling, rolled off the assembly line at GM’s Pre-Production Operations assembly line in Warren, Michigan on April 23.
“We’re right on target for producing the Ampera for European markets later next year,” said Andrew Farah, Vehicle Chief Engineer for the Ampera “There’s still work to be done, but being able to drive an Opel Ampera off our pre-production line is a great accomplishment for the teams here and in Europe.”
GM said that assembly workers will continue to build more pre-production Amperas in the coming months and that the pre-production vehicles will not be sold at dealerships, but used instead for testing and validating the production intent design as well as developing the final vehicle software and controls. Engineers in Europe and the United States also use them to tune the vehicle’s overall driving experience.
Most of them will end up being used in safety and structural integrity testing.
– By: Kap Shah
Depois de anunciado e aguardado, o novo Nissan Leaf que é novo modelo totalmente elétrico da companhia, já chegou a impressionantes 6.635 reservas em apenas três desde que se tornou disponível para reservas, após um depósito online antecipado de $99 por quem estava interessado, sendo que esse valor pode ser reembolsado depois.
O liberação das reservas do modelo elétrico para o público em geral irá começar somente no dia 15 de maio, mas as pessoas que demonstraram grande interesse no carro já puderam reservar o modelo ecologicamente correto antes dos outros.
Mas os números grandiosos prometem não parar por ai. A montadora japonesa estima chegar aos 25 mil pedidos até que o carro seja lançado no mercado no final desse ano. Uma prova do sucesso do Leaf foram as 6.635 reservas já feitas, o que motiva a Nissan a lançar uma plataforma inteira de veículos elétricos.
Via | Top Speed
Music is a language that’s woefully underrepresented in the science of Internet search. You can Google a song title or some lyrics and get good results, but the language of melody and rhythm remains elusive for most search engines. As a lifelong musician, I’ve wanted a tool that translates musical input into useful search results for years, but while Shazam has received the most attention — especially after being featured in an iPhone ad — Midomi’s more powerful paid app has won over fans by adding a sing-to-identify function. Because indeed, you can’t Google a melody.
As of today, Midomi has rebranded itself as SoundHound and introduced a new freemium model aimed at challenging Shazam on both free and paid music app charts. The company has also hired away Shazam’s former VP of business development, Katie McMahon, in an effort to execute on a partnership strategy to incorporate its sound-matching search tool into other sites and applications. Its ambitions could also make SoundHound a target for acquisition, since it does something Google and its rivals cannot.
Although SoundHound’s search is imperfect –- it doesn’t really work for strummed chords or harmonized vocals, and it relies on a crowdsourced website for its somewhat limited sing-to-identify database -– it outclasses by far any of the available melody search engines I’ve seen on the web. I’ve used it to identify wordless jazz standards I heard as a child and carried around in my head for decades; it picked them out in a matter of seconds. And it’s faster than Shazam when it comes to identifying recorded music, too.
Its first order of business is taking on its better-known rival by offering more functionality at the same price, with voice search, lyrics and videos built into the app — users can identify five songs per month for free, while a $5 premium app will provide unlimited IDs.
Over the longer term, SoundHound can branch out into other arenas, which I discussed with WaldenVC’s Larry Marcus, an investor in SoundHound parent company Melodis Corp. as well as an early Pandora stakeholder. (Melodis has raised $16 million from WaldenVC, Global Catalyst Partners, TransLink Capital and JAIC America.) The app currently makes money through mobile ads and affiliate sales of songs, but Marcus said SoundHound is exploring deals with carriers and device makers seeking to incorporate search into music apps, as well as extending its search functionality into existing music subscription services. Furthermore, the company is using sound matching to develop an advanced voice search technology that uses the sound of words rather than converting them to text – what Marcus called a “natural misspelling engine” that can also correct mispronunciations. Might Google be knocking on SoundHound’s door next?
In a case of Erykah Badu Deja Vu, M.I.A.’s new video “Born Free” is so graphic its been pulled from YouTube. The Sri Lankan rap star’s nine-minute short film has been banned from YouTube.com due to its disturbing scenes of graphic violence.
The controversial footage premiered on M.I.A.’s official website on Monday, but the hitmaker revealed shortly after that thanks to bosses at her label UMG, the video is not welcome on the world’s leading video sharing website.
“FUCK UMG WHO WONT SHOW IT ON YOUTUBE! FOR THE U.S >>>>>>WATCH HERE http://miauk.com/,” she Tweeted Monday. “OK NOT UMG FAULT!”
In the “Born Free” vid, military police round up red-headed boys in a series of violent raids and beat them to death. In one particularly disturbing scene, a 10-year-old boy is shot in the head in an effort to force other children to escape the concentration camps.
Filed under: Etc., Porsche, Design/Style
If you’re planning a road trip, there are worse ways than going in a Porsche. But notwithstanding the extra space afforded by the Cayenne sport-ute or the new Panamera four-door, most Porsche don’t have a wealth of luggage space. Fortunately, Porsche Design has released a full line of luggage and travel accessories made especially for its sister-company’s line-up.
Part of the Porsche Design Driver’s Selection, the new Travel Collection offers choices of Ultralight polycarbonate hard-shell luggage, AluFrame wheeled pieces and leather Carfit baggage. They’re all made to fit in the trunks of the 911, Boxster, Cayman, Cayenne or Panamera, and many of the hard-shell pieces can even be ordered to match standard Porsche exterior paint colors. To cap it off, there’s extra accessories like coordinating wallets, jackets designed for the traveler and the requisite sunglasses for the road. Check ’em out in the gallery below, along with the details in the press release after the jump.
[Source: Porsche Design]
Continue reading Porsche Design packs it in with new Travel Collection
Porsche Design packs it in with new Travel Collection originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Well now that the once leaked, now official Pearl 9100 and Bold 9650 have announced, it’s time to focus on some new leaked devices. More pictures of the BlackBerry Flip 9670 and Atlas 8980 have appeared over at CrackBerry. Both devices smiled for the camera and that’s about it. No further indication on when we will see either of these devices launch…
You’re reading a story which originated at BlackBerrySync.com, Where you find BlackBerry News You Can Sync With…
This story is sponsored by the new BlackBerry Sync Mobile App Store. Grab your free copy today at www.GetAppStore.com from your BlackBerry.
BlackBerry (Flip) 9670 and Atlas 8980 Smile for Camera Again…
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Sony’s decision to end 3.5-inch disk production is just another signal that local storage media and platforms cannot be trusted with your precious data.
The history of data storage and backup is littered with the corpses of dead formats. Seven years ago I wrote about the beginning of the end of 3.5-inch floppy disks. At the time, it was still a popular portable storage medium, and I was derided as a heretic. Now, Sony has finally decided to stop making 3.5-inch floppy disks, which pretty much marks the end of the format.
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announced the winners of the 2010 Professional Awards, representing the best in landscape architecture around the world in the categories of general design, residential design, analysis and planning, research and communication.
The jury considered 618 entries – the largest number in ASLA history – from 20 countries around the world, selecting 49 projects for distinction.
The awards ceremony will take place on Monday, September 13, at 12 noon during the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in Washington, D.C.
View the full list of award winning projects.
Image credit: 2010 Professional Award of Excellence. Shanghai Houtan Park: Landscape as a Living System, Shanghai, China. Turenscape, China and Peking University Graduate School of Landscape Architecture
Ford CEO – Alan Mulally
FoMoCo today announced that its first quarter 2010 net income came in at $2.1 billion, or 50 cents per share, a $3.5 billion improvement from the same period a year ago. Ford says the number moved up due to strong selling new products, improvements in its global Automotive operations, and higher profits at Ford Credit boosted results.
Excluding special items, Ford reported pre-tax operating profit of $2 billion, or 46 cents per share, an improvement of $4 billion from a year ago. It marked the Dearborn automaker’s highest quarterly pre-tax operating profit in six years.
“The Ford team around the world achieved another very solid quarter, and we are delivering profitable growth,” said Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally. “Our plan is working, and the basic engine that drives our business results – products, market share, revenue and cost structure – is performing stronger each quarter, even as the economy and vehicle demand remain relatively soft.”
Ford pointed out that since it has decided to sell Volvo to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group for $1.8 billion, it will report all of Volvo’s 2010 results are being reported as special items and excluded from Ford’s operating results.
Ford said that its first quarter revenue was $28.1 billion, up $3.7 billion from the same period a year ago. If Volvo had been excluded from 2009, Automotive revenue would have increased by $7 billion, or more than 30 percent.
– By: Omar Rana
This 3D map of Earth, carved by IBM’s new nanometer-scale silicon milling machine, could fit alongside 999 other Earths onto a single grain of salt. Here’s a look at the machine behind it: More »
WASHINGTON–Greta Van Susteren talked to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich about his defense strategy to try to subpoena President Obama for his criminal trial. Van Susteren interviewed Blagojevich at his North Side Chicago home.
Click below for transcript.
Below, transcript from Fox News…..
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Now, you are going to Chicago, to the private home of former governor Rod Blagojevich, where in the very early morning of December 9th, 2008, the FBI barged in and he was arrested. Former governor Blagojevich is accused of, in essence, trying to sell then Senator Obama’s open Senate seat to the highest bidder. Governor Blagojevich goes “On the Record” about this upcoming trial.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: Governor, nice to see you.
ROD BLAGOJEVICH, FORMER ILLINOIS GOVERNOR: Thanks for being here.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Governor, you’re in a little bit of a fix. You’ve this trial coming up June 3rd, and a lot of pre-trial matters have come to light recently and I want to talk to you about — let’s start first with the tapes. The prosecution has wiretapped you, has tapes of you, and there’s a dispute over what’s going to be played in court. What’s the dispute?
BLAGOJEVICH: Well, they taped my conversations for six weeks. Our government came in to the sanctity of this home, actually, and put the wiretaps on these telephones and a lot of other telephones.
I’ve taken the position from the very beginning that I’m innocent of everything and anything they’re falsely accusing me of, and that a lot of the truth can be found in those tapes. And from the beginning, I’ve said, Play all the tapes.
My lawyers were instructed by me to challenge the government. We waived the opportunity to challenge the tapes, happily did that, and challenged the government to say that, Allow both sides to play any tape they want. They should play anything they want to play in court and let us play any tape that we want to play in court. The government declined to comment, and then they’ve recently gone into court, the snuck into court to try to get the judge to rule that all the tapes should not be played.
This case in so many ways is upside down. Mr. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, invades the sanctity of my home. The government is in here looking at those private conversations. Those are his tapes and he’s going to court to suppress his own tapes. And I’m the one saying play them all because I note the truth is on those tapes and will show I did nothing wrong.
VAN SUSTEREN: You say he snuck into court. You had no notice the prosecutor was going into court and say we only want to play these tapes and not all the tapes?
BLAGOJEVICH: The way the motion was written by the government with footnotes and buried in the body of a motion that was filled with a lot of other things was an incipient request to suggest that not all the tapes be heard. They even misled and said the judge ruled that all the tapes wouldn’t be played which was not the case at the time they filed the motion.
VAN SUSTEREN: Has your lawyer heard all these tapes?
BLAGOJEVICH: We had tapes for months.
VAN SUSTEREN: You have copies of the tapes?
BLAGOJEVICH: Yes.
Let me say this. I’ve been consistent from the beginning. From the moment I was falsely accused, I said long before we had access to the tapes, play all the tapes, because I know who I am and I would not do the things they are suggesting that I did.
And I know that notwithstanding some language on the tapes, the use of pro fan, which I have apologized for. I didn’t know —
VAN SUSTEREN: That is not a crime.
Do you have any idea how many hours of tapes the prosecution intends to play at your June 3rd trial?
BLAGOJEVICH: I don’t know that. But what I do know is they have in a very dishonest way taken selective snippets of conversations out of context, purposely misleading the people and purposely providing false information.
VAN SUSTEREN: They’ve identified what tapes they are going to play? You know what they are going to play?
BLAGOJEVICH: No. They’ve quoted some of them. They’ve released a couple of them. And they’ve done it in a way where snippets of conversations were taken out of context.
And if you are allowed to listen to the breadth of the conversation — again, I can’t comment on what is on the tapes. The very government that taped me went into court to say I can’t what is on them nor can I allow to you take a look at them.
VAN SUSTEREN: There’s a gag order ton this part of it, the contents of the tape?
BLAGOJEVICH: That’s correct. And the government sought that gag order. They’ve been free to take snippets of conversation out whenever they choose to do it, and it is designed to mislead the public.
VAN SUSTEREN: Hasn’t the judge said, OK Governor Blagojevich, you identify what tapes you want heard and I’ll consider it so it is not a complete bar at this point?
BLAGOJEVICH: That’s correct. The judge seems to be a fair and thoughtful man. He’s obviously a very smart, intelligent man who understands and knows the law. So he has said two things. He said one publicly that if I testify that he wail will you us to play the tapes we want to play.
VAN SUSTEREN: Just if you testify, not for a doctrine of complete? Let’s say hypothetically, a tape is put on that has half a thought, and it is your position that half of thought falsely convoys a message. Are you allowed to play the entire thought without having to take the witness stand?
BLAGOJEVICH: I don’t know that yet. The judge has said that if I testify, which will, by the way, he will allow us to play the tapes that we ask for. This is as I’ve been told by my attorneys.
And the judge said in the last court day, and I was there because I challenged the prosecutor to be there too, to explain why he’s preventing all the tapes from being heard except the tapes that he went out and got.
But the judge said that — instructed my lawyers to submit to him the different tapes that we would be requesting to be heard in court. And so, I’m cautiously optimistic and hopeful he will say yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: What is the prosecution’s opposition? Do they think you are going to waste a lot of time and play 400 inconsequential conversations and bore the jury to death or do they have a more sinister purpose to evade, confuse, or do something with the jury?
BLAGOJEVICH: I fervently believe the prosecution is trying to cover- up their misdeeds.
VAN SUSTEREN: Which misdeeds?
BLAGOJEVICH: That they arrested a sitting governor and falsely accused him of things he didn’t do and did it in a super sensational press conference on December the ninth, 2008, this is what Mr. Fitzgerald did. And e used and quoted from the tapes from snippets of the tapes to suggest that was the basis for arresting a governor in a state like Illinois — unprecedented.
And he did it, and he said, and I’m quoting, that he was doing to “stop a crime spree.” The reality is when people hear the whole truth and hear what was on those conversations, the days and weeks leading up to those acts by the government, by the prosecutors, there was no crime spree. He lied.
VAN SUSTEREN: Why did he do that? Just for the sake of lying or something more sinister? Not that lying isn’t sinister.
BLAGOJEVICH: I believe the effort to prevent all the tapes being played is designed to keep justice from being heard in court as it is to cover-up their wrongdoing and misdeeds.
To suggest you should — to arrest a sitting governor, to state in a press conference where the whole world is listening that you have a governor trying to sell a Senate seat for money which the allegation he made at the press conversation that he had heard conversations over the telephone, had to come in at 6:00 in the morning in my home where my little girls are sleeping, invade the privacy of our home to say they had to stop the crime spree before it happened is just a flat out lie.
The tapes show what the truth is. I have said from the beginning play all the tapes. Why is my accuser is trying to prevent the full truth from being heard? I believe part of it is because he’s covering up the fact that he told this big lie that foreseeably led to a chain of events that would remove a governor from office that would undo the will of a people, undo an election, and he doesn’t ever want anybody to know that’s what he did.
There’s a smoking gun on these tapes, and that smoking gun is directed and pointed at the prosecutor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: Next the question we all want answered — why does former governor Blagojevich want to call President Obama to the witness stand? More with governor Blagojevich, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWS BREAK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Continuing with former governor Rod Blagojevich. Now, why does governor Blagojevich want to put President Obama on the witness stand? We went to Chicago to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: You are in essence accused of selling the Senate seat vacated by President Obama. Everyone that you ever had a conversation with about that Senate seat, is there any way you could have spoken to someone and not have it tapped. Did you have a conversation in the car, for instance, with the other person?
BLAGOJEVICH: I had a conversation with Senator Dick Durbin.
VAN SUSTEREN: Where?
BLAGOJEVICH: In my office in Chicago.
VAN SUSTEREN: Was your office bugged?
BLAGOJEVICH: They say it wasn’t. So Senator Durbin and I, we spoke about the Senate seat, and he offered to be a go between. I decided that my first choice I was going to try to appoint the daughter of my political nemesis, the House speaker was blocking a public works bill that would create 500,000 jobs he was blocking, health care for over 300,000 families, working people in writing.
And I wanted a guarantee in writing to not raise taxes on people.
VAN SUSTEREN: They say they didn’t bug your office.
BLAGOJEVICH: The office downtown Chicago, that conversation with Senator Durbin, my recollection was there. Bu I spoke to Senator Harry Reid —
VAN SUSTEREN: On the phone?
BLAGOJEVICH: On the telephone from my campaign office. I spoke to Harry Reid about the Senate seat, enlisting his help. Senator Menendez, the head of the Senate campaign committee for the Democrats, who expressed an interest —
VAN SUSTEREN: On the phone?
BLAGOJEVICH: On the telephone, working out what was going to be what I called the best political deal in the political history second to the Louisiana Purchase, because I was going to hold my nose and appoint someone who I thought was working against the people in many ways, but notwithstanding, her father was creating legislation gridlock.
VAN SUSTEREN: Who else did you talk to?
BLAGOJEVICH: I spoke to Rahm Emanuel. I spoke to several people.
VAN SUSTEREN: Who are the sort of the main players in this discussion of the Senate seat? Who did you talk to — I’m trying to figure out who is going to be on tape and who is not.
BLAGOJEVICH: I can’t tell you that
VAN SUSTEREN: Who do you remember talking to, to give me some idea?
BLAGOJEVICH: Again, I spoke to Senator Reid, Senator Menendez, then Congressman Rahm Emanuel days after the election right here from this room, and several other people about potential scenarios on the Senate seat.
VAN SUSTEREN: A lot of the conversations about the Senate seat maybe some that aren’t on tape but a lot are or should be because they are done by telephone?
BLAGOJEVICH: Most of the conversations I was engaged in during that six week period had been tape recorded.
VAN SUSTEREN: You mentioned President Obama. You have filed notice to the court that would you like to subpoena him. And you have enumerated a number of reasons. What is it that you think Senator Obama — President Obama, then-Senate Obama, could offer you at trial on June 3rd that would be helpful to your case?
BLAGOJEVICH: I think President Obama can help prove my innocence.
VAN SUSTEREN: How?
BLAGOJEVICH: Let me say this, before anybody says I’m interested in bringing everybody down with me. That’s completely not the case. I’ve done nothing wrong.
What I’m interested in is for the whole truth to come out that neither did I do anything wrong, President Obama didn’t do anything wrong, the senators that I talked to didn’t do anything wrong either. And so they should come into court and tell the truth as they know it. Swear on the holy bible as I’m looking forward to do —
VAN SUSTEREN: I got that, but what is it that — the judge is going to say how is President Obama going to help your case? He is going to ask that flat out to your lawyer. Tell me how.
BLAGOJEVICH: Again, a lot of evidence and information that I’m prohibited by court order because it is under seal to tell you. So there’s relevance connected to that.
VAN SUSTEREN: In the pleading your lawyers talked about a conversation in December ’08, a conversation. President Obama called you?
BLAGOJEVICH: Again, I can’t — because of the court order and me following the law I can’t comment specifically on those telephone conversations. My lawyers filed motions in court. They redacted, as far as I understand, they redacted the substance of those. There was a computer glitch apparently that made some of this stuff unwittingly public — the media found it.
VAN SUSTEREN: You see that still as part of the seal?
BLAGOJEVICH: It is still part of seal.
VAN SUSTEREN: What is the breadth of the gag order? What can you or can’t talk about?
BLAGOJEVICH: I can’t talk about the evidence that we have and we know that is currently under seal, which is as far as I know everything. I can tell you independently what I recollect.
VAN SUSTEREN: Can you tell me independently what recollect about the conversation you had with President Obama in December of ’08?
BLAGOJEVICH: Again, I don’t think I can. I don’t think I should in that particular case. President Obama and I, I can recall independently, spoke at the governor’s event at the Independence Hall in Philadelphia days before I was arrested.
VAN SUSTEREN: In person?
BLAGOJEVICH: In person. And a lot of other governors —
VAN SUSTEREN: Was it about the Senate seat, just generally?
BLAGOJEVICH: I don’t think I should say what we talked about. It will all eventually —
VAN SUSTEREN: If it is not about the Senate seat, I have a hard time figuring out why he would be a witness that the court is going to allow you to call.
The court ought to let you play any tapes that in any way exculpate you or even tend to. They should let you call witnesses that will help you in your defense. The one thing the court won’t do is let you call someone who doesn’t have anything to benefit you.
BLAGOJEVICH: Again, there’s information and there’s evidence that is under seal. And I’m prohibited by a court order from specifically talking about those things —
VAN SUSTEREN: Even from what you recollect?
BLAGOJEVICH: I feel like if I start going into substance of conversations it is a slippery slope and I might inadvertently cross the line.
VAN SUSTEREN: What is the line? What does the gag order say you can and can’t do?
BLAGOJEVICH: Again, the evidence that we have access to that we had the chance to review, the taped conversations.
VAN SUSTEREN: That’s out, you can’t talk about the content of those.
BLAGOJEVICH: The FBI interviews. The statements of potential witnesses, all those things are not something that would be appropriate for me to comment on.
Let me also say in the case of President Obama and me, and again, let me be very clear, I know absolutely no wrongdoing that the president was involved in. And I know I was involved in no wrongdoing. But there is a common political support of ours named Tony Rezko who is relevant to both me and President Obama.
Again he wrote a letter to a federal sentencing judge —
VAN SUSTEREN: Is Rezko helpful to you at your June 3rd, trial?
BLAGOJEVICH: I can’t comment about the specifics of the case.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is he on your witness list?
BLAGOJEVICH: I’ll leave that for the lawyers to discuss.
VAN SUSTEREN: The president is not going to appear on some wiretap?
BLAGOJEVICH: I’m telling you from my reelection I don’t recall talking to President Obama during that period on the telephone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Are you hankerin’ for some hot 4G action, but a little worried that the new tech could add a premium on top of the handset price? Well, lucky for you I have some good news: The new hotness — the Sprint EVO 4G — is rumoured to cost only $199 on contract from Best Buy.
Darrin Morton from OZCarGuide got the info from a Best Buy employee, but sadly has no photos or other evidence to back the claim up, so it will remain on the “rumour” pile for now.
But, while it’s not a revolutionary price, it is in line with current (non-4G) models, so it seems a logical (if not pleasant, given the whole “next-gen” thing) price point.
This is, of course, without word of how much the monthly plan will cost, so you kids better keep on saving your pocket money, just in case.
Total, the French oil and gas major, has invested an undisclosed sum in ethanol maker Coskata, which has developed a refining process that can turn garbage, old tires and other waste materials into ethanol.
Warrenville, Ill.,-based Coskata plans to use proceeds from the Total equity investment to scale production and commercialize its production.
Returning investors included Blackstone Cleantech Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), Globespan Capital Partners, and Arancia – see full press release.
In January 2008 General Motors said it was investing in Coskata. It also did not disclose the amount of its investment.
Last fall Coskata went live with a demonstration plant in Madison, Pa. The output will be delivered to GM, which will test it at the company’s Milford Proving Grounds.
Total also holds a stake in Gevo, an Englewood, Colo.-based producer of butanol.
Content: Far Cry 2
Price: Check pricing for your region
Availability: All regions Xbox LIVE regions except Japan and Korea
Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) This game supports English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Download the manual for this game by locating the game on http://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". Far Cry® 2 is a true open-world FPS where every decision you make affects the outcome of the game. The first sequel to the award-winning franchise takes you to one of the most beautiful and hostile environments in the world – AFRICA. You are a gun for hire, trapped in a war-torn African state, stricken with malaria and forced to make deals with corrupt warlords. Your mission is to hunt down and kill The Jackal. This evil arms dealer has been perpetuating this conflict for years, wreaking havoc on the land an all of its innocent people. Run, swim, drive, fly, shoot, fight and smash your way through over 50km² of open world. Beware though, sometimes the hunter can become the hunted. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/a
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Content: Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
Price: Check pricing for your region
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except Japan and Korea
Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) This game supports English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Download the manual for this game by locating the game on http://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". A flawed mercenary and a medicated psychopath forced together on a violent and chaotic path seeking redemption and revenge. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
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Content: SHReK the THiRD
Price: Check pricing for your region
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except Japan and Korea
Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) This game supports English. Download the manual for this game by locating the game on http://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". Save Far Far Away in this hilarious twisted fairy tale with Shrek and his friends in a new adventure from the movie and beyond… There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
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