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Most of my friends know I’m not a huge fan of EV startups. They take massive amounts of capital, the end customer (i.e. you and I) tends to be very sophisticated, demanding, and a pain in the neck, the technology is extremely challenging and I don’t believe the startups understand their long term costs as well as they think they do. But worse than that, the competition is very, very good and well entrenched. So while I love the concept of EVs and more specifically Plug in Hybrid EVs, I’ve been a huge skeptic of EV venture deals.

But . . .

• Go Tesla! The Toyota tie up is an exciting move. Toyota gets access to the EV business as a hedge against the possibility that the Volt and Leaf cleaning its clock and take the mantle of most green car company away, plus they get a massive much needed dose of positive PR that’s worth their $50 mm investment all by its lonesome to counteract the legions of recent “Toyota’s quality just went to hell” articles and the latest “let’s grill the Toyota executives” push in Washington. This is good.

• Toyota gets a great use for the recently shut down NUMMI plant in California, making them look like the hero in that story without having to actually operate a high cost union plant again (apparently a large part of the reason they got out of it). For those that missed that story – NUMMI was a GM – Toyota JV in Fremont, the last auto plant west of the Mississippi, and apparently Toyota’s only union facility. When GM went bust (sorry when you and I decided we liked losing money in the car business), Toyota took the opportunity to back out of the JV, leaving a huge hole in the local economy (it was just about the only customer for a number of local manufacturers). California’s political bosses get a brief reprieve from their shellacking by helping with big tax breaks to ink a deal that may bring back 10% of the lost jobs (about 10 of the top legislators and administrators joined the Governator to announce it).

• The venture capitalists who backed Tesla get a new investor to pony up a chunk of the massive cash that will be required at good valuations. Even better, the backing of Toyota in my mind drastically increases the chances that a Tesla IPO can get done, despite the huge questions analysts have had on their near term revenue prospects since they filed the prospectus earlier this year.

• You and I, who are funding a big chunk of Tesla anyway with the massive $400 mm+ DOE loan guarantee, now get a foreign auto company to invest underneath us. (Of note this will be our second multi-hundred million investment into that part of the San Francisco Bay Area, since we are doing the same thing for the solar start-up Solyndra a couple of miles down the road.)

• Tesla gets much needed cash, a cheap ready to go plant without union labor requirements, and access (if they are smart enough to leverage it) to the considerable manufacturing , marketing , and distribution talents of what has been up until recently the best run auto manufacturer in history. With it comes the automotive street cred that they are sorely lacking.
Filed under the “what’s the real story” side – a couple of questions have been raised by various analysts in the press.

1) Why is Toyota not doing this as a JV or operating partner? Which would make even more perfect sense from both parties perspective. There’s been no mention of Toyota helping on marketing/distribution and service, areas that Tesla will sorely need if they get rolling. But maybe it’s just early days.

2) How many of the local jobs are actively coming back? Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla was quoted as saying 1,000 jobs were planned (there were many, many, many times that many jobs lost when NUMMI shut down), and he was apparently very ambivalent on the subject of union or non-union.
But regardless, there is a lot to like about a Tesla Toyota Tie up.

Neal Dikeman is a partner at Jane Capital Partners LLC, a cleantech merchant bank, and the editor of Cleantechblog.com

Content provided by and all rights reserved to CleantechBlog.com. Also check out http://www.cleantech.org

With all Dell’s recent handsets running Android, many may wonder if the recent leaks of a Dell Windows Phone 7 handset will still come to fruition.

In a recent earnings conference call CEO Michael Dell re-affirmed the company’s commitment to Windows Phone 7.

"We’re very much working with Android and Windows Mobile 7, and we see those platforms as more attractive alternatives to other suggestions that you may have offered." he said.

The alternatives he referred to was Dell buying their own operating system, much like HP did.

The argument of owning vs licensing a mobile OS is currently being waged in the market, with companies which largely control their own OS appearing to be at a natural advantage at the moment. Dell has clearly chosen the later model, and will hopefully find success in the market due to this with some great Windows Phone 7 devices such as the rumoured Dell Lightening.

Read more at eweek.com here.

Check before you fold

Editor, The Times:

This is a response to “McDermott says don’t ban Internet gambling, tax it” [NWThursday, May 20].

Has anyone checked what is going on at the casinos here and in Las Vegas? Would taxing truly generate the numbers listed in the story? How would we identify who pays?

I question not only the idea, but also the Internet listings. Are we going to be required to identify players, get their names and addresses, then tax them? Or would we get the records of the offshore website and decide who pays and how much? This is a proposal that looks more complicated and has little chance of passing.

So why is this appearing just today? I wonder if it is Rep. Jim McDermott’s way of getting his name in front of voters for the primary. I guess it is the benefit of being an incumbent, but what does this really mean for Seattle?

This bill is a poor way to show voters that McDermott is bringing back to his community what we need. It is time to question whether he truly represents our concerns. There is a “remove the incumbent” movement in the country. I think its time to make that change.

— David Krafchick

Hands up for policies supporting longevity, prosperity

In supporting a sales-tax increase, Metropolitan King County Council Councilmember Julia Patterson states that police, prosecutors and juvenile-probation officers are “the basic services for which government exists.” [“Sales-tax hike may miss August ballot,” NWTuesday, May 18].

When tax revenues are robust, politicians are fond of providing moneys for tax-supported programs —which might not be the reason for government — only to find that these programs develop a core constituency and are hard to get rid of when economies sour.

It is when economies are thriving that government officials should be most careful in how they spend revenues and in budgeting for programs that support government’s purpose and could be sustained long-term.

— Richard Grubb, Redmond

Spend less

We need to tell the Metropolitan King County Council that the proper response to insufficient funds is to spend less money —not rob your neighbors.

— David Rogers, Bellevue

A team of scientists led by Mark Raizen at the University of Texas at Austin had the gumption to take on Einstein. And according to their new paper in Science, they won. The point of contention? The lovechild of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics: Brownian motion.

Here’s how they did it.

Step 1. Learning the Moves

In the 1820s, Scottish botanist Robert Brown looked through a microscope at plant bits floating in water, and wrote [PDF]:

“I observed many of them very evidently in motion . . . [these motions] arose neither from currents in the fluid, nor from its gradual evaporation, but belonged to the particle itself.”

To make sure that the pollen wasn’t alive–actually swimming around–Brown tried it with coal dust. Dust had the same moves.

Today, we understand that Brownian motion, the random break dance of these tiny particles, comes from the water molecules bumping against them. In 1907, Einstein determined the properties of the liquid and the particles that would help describe their wanderings and the motion of molecules. But he also said that it was “impossible” to determine at any moment the speed and direction of a single particle during this dance.

Step 2. Water Into Air

The reason for Einstein’s doubt? The particles bumped around too quickly to ever measure their speed and direction:

He believed that it would be impossible in practice to track this motion, given the incredibly short timescales over which the Brownian fluctuations take place. [PhysicsWorld]

How quick is too quick? A very tiny glass sphere (think micrometers) in water would change direction almost every 100 nanoseconds (about the time it takes light to travel 30 meters). Raizen wanted to make the time between moves longer, so they didn’t use water. They put the glass beads on a dance floor with fewer partners, using a medium whose molecules are farther apart: air.

Step 3. Floating on Air

Pollen doesn’t float on air. Neither does a micrometer-sized glass bead. Raizen’s team needed something to hold the glass up. They decided that the answer was light particles in a pair of laser chopsticks:

In 1907, Einstein likely did not foresee a time when dust-sized particles of glass could be trapped and suspended in air by dual laser beam “optical tweezers.” Nor would he have known that ultrasonic vibrations . . . would shake those glass beads into the air to be tweezed and measured as they moved in suspension. [ScienceDaily]

They could control a glass bead’s motion to the precise point where it was still dancing the Brownian, but not too fast to follow. But the lasers allowed them to do more than suspend the glass: By looking at how the glass bead deflected the light while it was buffeted by air molecules and bounced about on the chopsticks, the researchers could determine what Einstein dubbed impossible, a bead’s instantaneous direction and speed.

Step 4. Future Directions

Understanding these discrete steps will help wherever Brownian motion rules: everywhere from cell guts to the scent of perfume wafting through apparently stagnant air.

“It is certainly an important achievement to be able to directly measure the velocity of the Brownian particle at these short times,” says Christoph Schmidt of the University of Göttingen in Germany. “Technically it is now becoming possible to track individual particles with very high time and spatial resolution, limited in the end only by how many photons per second one can get to interact with the particle.” [New Scientist]

Related content:
80beats: Putting “Ears” on a Microscope Lets Reseachers Listen to Bacteria
Cosmic Variance: The Cell is Like Tron!
DISCOVER: Einstein’s Gift for Simplicity
DISCOVER: Einstein’s Lonely Path

Image: Science / AAAS

Job picture brightens, but not with help of rose-colored glasses

To lead off “Job picture brightens; older workers struggle” [page one, May 19] with Larry Dinwiddie was both unfair and misleading for the ranks of people over age 55 who are still searching for gainful employment. Though I feel badly for Dinwiddie, what he did in leaving a good job in a deep recession because he “had a life” casts a misrepresentation on what has really happened to many.

Most people over age 55 who are currently out of work were let go after putting in many years with companies. Many of these companies have used the recession and tight economy to clear out the higher-paid, longer-tenured employees and replace them with younger, lower-salaried employees.

This could be the legacy of this recession —people who put in many years for a company being cast aside when the opportunity presented itself.

— Robert Oberlander, Issaquah

To celebrate Pac-man’s thirty years, you can play online at the official 30^th anniversary Pac-man site, pac-man.com, or at Google where they have their first interactive doodle that allows everyone to play pac-man at the search engine’s home page. You can also download pac-man from the internet and play the game while you’re offline.

Pac-man is a game made by Bandai Namco Games in Japan. They chose the title for their popular character, PUCK MAN – which was later on called PAC-MAN. It was released in the United States in October 1980. This game became a huge hit worldwide that sold over 100,000 a year.

Pac-man has simple rules with cute and colorful characters. The goal is simple, to eat all the dots in the maze and avoid getting caught by any of the four ghosts – Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde. A power pellet gives Pac-man the ability to eat ghosts but only for a limited time. The pac-man trend resulted to popular animated television series and a hit disco record, “Pac-man Fever” by Buckner and Garcia. Namco Bandai will also celebrate their character with a new video game to be presented by mid of June at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

Related posts:

1. Celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man
2. Pac Man 30th Anniversary: ‘Insert coin’ for two player pacman free online game
3. Pac-Man Celebrating its 30th Anniversary

Earlier, the internet was delighted to find Google celebrating Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary with a playable doodle of the game. But in a freaky coincidence, some Firefox users are being haunted by ghostly music from the very same game. Mysterious! [BryanSchuetz] More »

Corrode, then erode

The hypocrisy of our local government officials is unbelievable. Danny Westneat’s May 19 column “Who are we to judge Arizona?” [NWWednesday] quotes Mayor Mike McGinn saying the Seattle City Council’s boycott of Arizona speaks to our values.

How does it speak to our values based on the fact that the boycott bypasses the largest contract with Arizona for the red-light cameras? These cameras bring tons of money to local government, but we continue to hear about huge budget problems.

I may not agree with Arizona, but let the state deal with the fallout of its actions; let us worry about our own problems. Citizens’ support for local government would continue to erode based on what we see and hear, and it would have lasting effects for this area.

— Fran Whitehill, Shoreline

Turn off your red light

As a Seattle native, I am ashamed of the recent City Council action to boycott Arizona. Having served the city for more than 15 years, owned a business in Seattle and even ran for Seattle City Council, I am now retired in Tucson.

Sorry Seattle. I voted for a sunny instead of a rainy retirement.

I am embarrassed by the boycott vote. Did any of our seven council members read the law before they voted? I seriously doubt it. What it says, as an example, is if you are stopped for a traffic violation, you will be asked for your driver’s license and registration. If you do not have them, you might be held to check documentation.

You would not be questioned in any way because of the color of your skin. So what’s the difference? Your license is run through a system to check for any arrest warrants.

Is our esteemed City Council aware that a half of all illegal immigrants entering the United States do so through Arizona? Could it be any wonder that 70 percent of Arizonans support the new law? And exactly what business is it of Seattle or any other city to tell Arizona how to handle its laws, which are being violated?

Mexico President Felipe Calderón said that the illegal immigrants are not illegal despite 111,000 Mexicans entered legally last year and are now citizens of the United States. Los Angeles also did this and we reminded the city that a quarter of all their water-generated electricity is supplied through Arizona.

Perhaps a reverse boycott should be considered? I hope Seattle loses its red-light cameras and I am sure that would disappoint many Seattleites.

— Bob Days, Tuscon, Ariz.

Never again

Since the Seattle City Council has boycotted Arizona, I plan to boycott Seattle. I will never shop in Seattle again.

— Larry Blanchcroft, Shoreline

Staying on the Eastside

With Seattle being the latest city to pass a resolution boycotting Arizona, I thought I would chip in too. Wild Ginger, Pike Market and a couple of watering holes such as the Pyramid Alehouse around Safeco Field will not be getting any more patronage from my family. We are boycotting Seattle and will keep our money on the Eastside.

— John Hession, Redmond

More than 8,000 in state foster-care system

Helping Washington’s foster children is a year-round labor of love

May is National Foster Care Month and it has prompted me to reflect on my experiences with the child-welfare system.

Growing up the youngest of seven children in a struggling, working-class family in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood, money was in short supply, but we always had room for another child, be it a cousin or neighborhood youngster. The motto was: “We take care of children.”

Before I had my own children, I became a foster parent. I took in 10 teenagers. They filled my home with love and joy.

More than 8,000 children and youth —through no fault of their own —are in Washington’s foster-care system. The state provides training and guidance for foster parents and comprehensive support for foster children whether they are in the courtroom, in a classroom or “aging out” of the system. However, the real heroes are the foster, relative and adoptive parents.

Foster parents take care of our children during difficult times. They complement the Legislature’s ongoing efforts to provide stability and support for families and children. I encourage more people to step forward.

— Sen. Claudia Kauffman, Kent

‘United we stand, divided we fall’

This is a response to “My history is part of your history” [Leonard Pitts column, Opinion, May 16].

Although blacks may have suffered the most, not counting holocaust victims exterminated in Europe, many of us have ancestors who suffered some level of oppression at some time in history before coming to the United States.

The hard truth should be uttered, but it should include the whole truth. Part of history is always ignored. I refer to the fact that slavery was not “invented” here in America. It was “ended” here. Slavery was the way of the world for several centuries before our country was ever dreamed of, starting in 1400s by Spain and Portugal.

Yet in less than a century after this country was born, we “ended” slavery and for one fundamental reason: There were simply more white people against it than for it. It could not have been any other way because majority ruled and still does.

Despite what Pitts wrote, I believe the United States is itself and not composed of other nations and cultures. It is composed of people who left behind those other nations and cultures for a better life here. We all came from elsewhere in our lineage, but now we should get back to unity.

— Clark Chase, Monroe

below, release from the Justice Department….

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES DIVESTITURES IN AMC’S ACQUISITION OF KERASOTES THEATERS

Divestitures Will Preserve Movie Theater Competition

in Chicago, Denver and Indianapolis Metropolitan Areas

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice announced today that it will require AMC Entertainment Group Inc. to divest movie theater assets in Chicago, Denver and Indianapolis in order to proceed with its proposed $275 million acquisition of most of the theaters operated by Kerasotes Showplace Theatres. The department said that the transaction, as originally proposed, would likely substantially lessen competition among movie theaters that show first-run, commercial movies in the Chicago, Denver and Indianapolis metropolitan areas, resulting in higher ticket prices and decreased quality viewing experience for moviegoers.

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division filed a civil lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Washington to block the proposed acquisition. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the lawsuit and the department’s competitive concerns. The states of Illinois, Colorado and Indiana joined the division’s enforcement action.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, AMC must divest the following movie theaters: AMC Gardens 13 and Kerasotes Glen 10 (North Suburban Chicago); AMC Cantera 30 (Upper Southwest Suburban Chicago); Kerasotes Showplace 12 Bolingbrook (Lower Southwest Suburban Chicago); Kerasotes Colony Square 12 (Upper Northwest Denver); Kerasotes Olde Town 14 (Lower Northwest Denver); AMC Castleton Square 14 or Kerasotes Showplace 12 Glendale Town (North Indianapolis); and AMC Greenwood 14 (South Indianapolis).

In addition, for the next 10 years, AMC must inform the Antitrust Division if it proposes to acquire movie theatre assets in those markets.

AMC, a Kansas City-based company, operates 304 U.S. theaters housing 4,574 screens, most of which are located in megaplexes (units with more than 14 screens and stadium seating). AMC had U.S. revenues of approximately $2.26 billion in 2009.

Based in Chicago, Kerasotes develops, owns and operates Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres LLC throughout the United States, with most locations in the Midwest. The privately held company operates 96 movie theaters with 973 screens in the United States and earned revenue of approximately $327.7 million in 2009.

As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement and the department’s competitive impact statement will be published in the Federal Register. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement during a 60-day comment period to John R. Read, Chief, Litigation III Section, Antitrust Division, United States Department of Justice, 450 5th Street, N.W., Suite 4000, Washington, D.C. 20530 (telephone: 202-307-0468). At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may enter the proposed settlement upon finding that it serves the public interest.

###

O famoso veículo do personagem Batman , o Batmóvel, chega em Guarulhos, pela primeira vez, para comemorar os 75 anos da DC Comics. A partir de hoje, dia 21, sexta-feira, o Batmóvel estará em exposição gratuita por uma semana no Internacional Shopping Guarulhos.

O veículo é um dos dois únicos exemplares no mundo – o segundo está em exposição pela Europa – e foi construído em fibra de vidro, baseado no desenho animado Batman: Bravos e Destemidos. Fãs de todas as idades, inclusive os mais velhos, poderão se encantar pelo Batmóvel, que pesa 150 kg, tem 4 metros de comprimento e 2 metros de largura.

Miniaturas de carros antigos

Além do Batmóvel, o shopping recebe a exposição de carros em miniatura nos dias 22 e 23 de maio. A iniciativa conta com 20 associados do Clube dos Colecionadores de Veículos em Miniatura que vão exibir cerca de 800 exemplares. Haverá na mostra, versões folhadas a ouro e de séries americanas customizadas. Também contará com exemplares raros da Drag Bus e de outras coleções limitadas produzidas no mundo.

O grupo, criado em 2004, realiza diversas exposições em eventos e inclusive já quebrou um recorde mundial: enfileirou 22 mil carrinhos em miniaturas.

Serviço
Exposição Batmóvel
Data: de 21 à 28/05
Horário: das 10h às 22h
Local: Internacional Shopping Guarulhos
End: Rod. Presidente Dutra, km 230 – Itapegica – Guarulhos/SP
Site: www.internacionalshopping.com.br

Fonte: Publicom

Published May 21, 2010
By Sara Schilling, Tri-City Herald staff writer

An event aimed at helping students prepare for college or other education beyond high school is from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Pasco.

“College Bound Day” will include information on financial aid and presentations from Columbia Basin College and Washington State University Tri-Cities officials.

Seventh- and eighth-graders also will be able to sign up for the state College Bound Scholarship program, which provides tuition and books to students from low-income families who meet certain requirements.

Students must sign up for the scholarship by June 30 of their eighth-grade year.

“It motivates them to do well and plan for their education beyond high school,” said Janie Morales-Castro, a College Bound Scholarship counselor who covers the Tri-City area.

The event is being put on by the College Success Foundation, CBC and WSU Tri-Cities. About 200 students and their families are expected to attend.

Even if students aren’t eligible for the College Bound Scholarship, they’re encouraged to show up because there’s plenty of college readiness information to share, Morales-Castro said.

The College Bound Scholarship provides tuition and book money for students from low income families who keep up their grades and stay out of trouble through high school.

The scholarship can be used at public or private universities, community colleges or technical colleges in the state.

More than 3,300 students from the Tri-Cities already have taken the College Bound pledge.

Saturday’s event is at the Gjerde Center at CBC. There’s no charge.

For more information about the College Bound Scholarship, go to www.hecb.wa.gov/collegebound

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

Published May 20, 2010
By Briefs, Tri-City Herald

The first-ever LINKS Day at Columbia Basin College in Pasco is planned from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today in the Gjerde Center.

Lunch will be provided and there will be a DJ.

People who register as LINKS members will get LINKS bucks that can be used to bid on donated items, from restaurant gift baskets to $500 in tuition credit for a current and returning student.

The LINKS program aims to reach CBC alumni, current and former CBC faculty and employees, community partners and others with connections to the college.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

Published May 20, 2010
By the Editorial Board, Tri-City Herald

In some ways, higher education is used as a bank by the Washington Legislature – at least by the Democratic caucus.

Sometimes the Democrats make a little extra deposit, but then, like the past two years, they yank it back.

It’s a heck of a way to run universities and colleges.

To deal with the shortfall this year, Columbia Basin and other community colleges are raising tuition 7 percent.  CBC is cutting 100 classes taught by part-time faculty.
In other words, students will pay more and have fewer classes to choose from.

Adjunct instructors make their living doing something besides teaching.  Conducting classes is an extra in their financial lives.

But they are more than that to the students.  And to the Tri-Cities.

Around here we have long crowed about the high level of academic achievement and thought represented by the number of engineers at Hanford and advanced degrees at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

They help provide a ready source of brainpower to fill adjunct faculty positions at CBC.  That’s an asset that ought to be preserved.

Tuition raises, of course, mean students or their families must dig deeper into their pockets.

Democrats have to take responsibility for this.  They will, logically, shift the blame to a faltering economy.

That’s fair, but it leaves out the fact that Democrats have had a majority in both houses of the Legislature for years and excluded Republican ideas for meeting revenue shortfalls.
Democrats consequently must take the blame for themselves.

Plus whatever credit there is.

CBC President Rich Cummins told Herald reporter Sara Schilling that the college is doing its best to keep cuts as far from the classroom and instruction as possible.

“We’re open for business, and we’re doing the best we can to ensure we’re serving all the students,” he said.

We certainly agree the schools, all of them, are doing what they have to do and making the best of a bad situation.

But the Legislature turns so readily to higher education whenever there’s a shortfall that it’s tough for schools to lay out long-range plans.

It’s not just CBC, of course.  Washington State University, the University of Washington and all the others in the state college and community college systems are being squeezed to the same degree CBC faces.

Meanwhile, enrollment is growing.

The need for higher education opportunities has never been greater than right now.

Education is near the top of every lawmaker’s priority list.  In the next session, we only ask that deeds match words.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

[JURIST] The Spanish National Court on Friday convicted [judgment, PDF; in Spanish] three members of the Basque separatist group ETA [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive] on charges relating to a 2006 bombing in Madrid. Mattin Sarasola, Igor Portu, and Mikel San Sebastian were found guilty of murder, attempted murder, and taking part in a terrorist attack and were each sentenced to 1,040 years in prison. The men were also ordered to pay 1.2 mil euro (USD $1.48 mil) in damages to the families of their victims. The lengthy sentence is largely symbolic as Spain imposes a 40-year limitation on prison sentences for terrorism convictions. The 2006 Madrid bombing ended a ceasefire [AP report] that had been declared by ETA. ETA is listed as a banned terrorist group by the European Union and has been held responsible for more than 800 deaths over the past 40 years.

The Spanish government continues to actively pursue charges against ETA. In March, the court accused [JURIST report] the Venezuelan government of aiding ETA in a plot to assassinate members of the Colombian government in Spain. In February, the Interior Ministry of Spain [official website, in Spanish] said that it took into custody the suspected ETA leader [JURIST report], along with two other people who are believed to be senior members of the group. In January, Spanish Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska ruled [JURIST report] that ETA had tried three times to assassinate former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in 2001 but had failed. Last June, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] upheld [JURIST report] Spain’s ban of Basque political groups Batasuna and Herri Batasuna for their alleged ties to ETA.

CHICAGO- Senator Dick Durbin’s hope for a transfer of some of the Guantanamo Bay detainees to Thomson Illinois may not even be discussed until next year.

A question was asked to Mr. Durbin about the transfer being blocked by the House Armed Services Committee, and whether a delay of the comprehensive plan and discussion until “after the election” was at hand. Durbin said, ” That’s a pretty cynical view…and very accurate.”

The debate on whether the Thomson Correctional Facility in Thomson Illinois will be taken over by the feds and if GITMO detainees will be housed there has been a hope of the Senator and the Obama administration since last year, but its run into opposition from both local and national leaders. The House Armed Services Committee has asked for a more detailed plan and as of now bans spending money to build or modify a facility within the United States.

Watch the comments here.

By ABDON M. PALLASCH
Sun-Times Political Reporter

CHICAGO–Gov. Quinn said today that the Thomson Correctional Center in Northwest Illinois might not be used for Guantanamo Bay-transferred enemy combatants after all.

But it would still be used as a federal prison, the governor said.

The state would sell the mothballed state prison to the federal government. The money would be used to help pay off the bonds sold to build the prison. Any leftover money would be used to help the state budget, Quinn said.

Recent votes in congressional committees show “the mood in Congress” seems to be against moving accused terrorists to the mainland, Quinn said.

“I think it’s less likely given the mood in Congress on this issue of detainees,” Quinn said.

But whether it’s filled with detainees or garden-variety federal prisoners, the state of Illinois can still make money selling the never-opened facility to the federal government, Quinn said.

“We are doing the appraisal process now,” Quinn said. “We anticipate having a federal prison in Thomson this year. They are overcrowded at the federal level. The proceeds of the sale will be used to retire some of the bonds. The remainder will be devoted to capital.”

Simon Cowell will bid farewell to American Idol on next Wednesday night’s Season 9 finale, and the tough-talkin’ music mogul has good reason for jumping ship on television’s most watched talent show after eight years: It bores him….

“After a while, you start to go on automatic pilot,” Cowell explained in an appearance Oprah on Thursday. “Too many times, I was sitting there [at the judges’ table] bored. The audience deserves more than that … and I can’t hide when I’m bored.”

Of course that doesn’t mean Simon’s done with reality competitions — he’ll launch an American adaptation of his UK hit, The X Factor in 2012.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission put out a bulletin this afternoon extending last year’s recall of HP and Compaq Li-Ion notebook batteries that were prone to overheating.

The recall in May of last year included 70,000 potentially defective batteries, and today that has been extended to approximately 54,000 more.

The extension of the recall is due in large part to consumer complaints of overheated and rupturing batteries. The commission said that HP has received 38 more reports of overheated batteries; with 31 resulting in minor property damage, and 11 resulting in minor human injury.

The following notebooks are affected in this battery recall:

HP Pavilion: dv2000, dv2500, dv2700 (body style pictured below), dv6000, dv6500, dv6700, dx6000, dx6500, dx6700, dv9000, dv9500, dv9700

Compaq Presario: A900, C700, F500, F700, V3000, V3500, V3700, V6000, V6500, V6700
HP: G6000, G7000
HP Compaq: 6510b, 6515b, 6710b, 6710s, 6715b, 6715s, 6270s.

Consumers with an affected battery should check out HP’s Battery Replacement Program site for further information.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010