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• Conspiracy Theory: Is Apple Orchestrating a Media Attack on Google?
  For various reasons, I’ve had plenty of free time on my hands lately.  And since I’m an Android Guy, I was closely following the CES 2010 developments.  I was also reading all I could about the Nexu…

I can’t say I’ve ever had a problem with the current design of scissors which has served us well since the mid-1700s, but designer Spencer Nugent has seen fit to magic up these Comfort Grip scissors. More »

Declaring the University’s efforts to improve the state of global health knowledge, education, and capacity building to be one of her “very highest priorities” as president of Harvard, Drew Faust today (May 18) announced the appointment of Sue J. Goldie, Roger Irving Lee Professor of Public Health and director of the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard School of Public Health, as the director of the Harvard Institute for Global Health (HIGH).

Faust also announced that the work of HIGH is so integral to the long-term focus and goals of Harvard that the organization that began its existence as an experimental faculty “initiative” has been granted permanent institute status.

“I believe that this is truly a moment of special possibility for global health, both in the world and here at Harvard,” said Faust. “If we needed to be reminded of this, we have been this past year, first with the global H1N1 pandemic, and then when the earthquake struck Haiti and we saw the world come together.

“We need to engage and equip our students, who are telling us in ever increasing numbers that they want to engage in the global health effort,” Faust continued. “We need to support the very best researchers and the work of our outstanding faculty, in fields stretching across the spectrum of inquiry from immunology to epidemiology, health policy, history, molecular biology, and philosophy. I have every confidence that Sue Goldie, who has already demonstrated her outstanding scholarship, leadership, and collaborative skills, is the person to lead this special effort.”

The appointment of Goldie, a MacArthur Foundation “genius award” recipient, marks the end of a yearlong, international search for a new director for HIGH. Goldie has been involved with HIGH since 2007, and as co-director of the executive committee worked to bring faculty from all parts of the University together, consistently advocating on behalf of junior faculty interested in global health.

Because HIGH is above all a collaborative organization dedicated to educating and training the next generation of global health leaders, Faust also appointed two faculty leaders to direct the critically important educational and training efforts.

Paul Farmer, the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), will oversee global health medical education and physician training. Farmer, also a MacArthur Fellowship winner, is chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at HMS, professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard School of Public Health, chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and is perhaps best known internationally as a co-founder of the global nonprofit Partners In Health.

David Cutler, the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics in Harvard’s Department of Economics and a member of the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School, will direct undergraduate and graduate programs in global health. Cutler, who worked on health care reform in the Clinton administration and served as a health care adviser to the Obama campaign, is a member of HIGH’s faculty executive committee, served as HIGH’s interim director for the past year, and led the effort to create a secondary concentration in global health at Harvard College.

Goldie said, “Strong leadership in global health already resides in the faculty of the Medical School, School of Public Health, and academic hospitals. As the faculty director for the Harvard Institute for Global Health, I see myself principally as a coordinator, facilitator, and collaborator. With a leadership team comprised of myself, Paul Farmer, and David Cutler, I am confident we can create a University-wide community that is bound by a sense of shared mission.”

“Global health is an intellectual and practical topic of tremendous interest to our undergraduate and graduate students,” said Michael D. Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and John H. Finley Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “Professors Goldie, Farmer, and Cutler are exactly the kind of seasoned leaders we need for such an important, University-wide institute. I am also thrilled that each brings to the institute a deep commitment to Harvard’s extensive educational offerings in global health.”

Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman said that granting institute status to HIGH and appointing Goldie “mark a very significant step along what has been a 15-year journey toward a truly collaborative and more interdisciplinary Harvard. Global health is an area in which we already have world-class researchers, clinicians, teachers, and students,” Hyman said. “By bringing them all together as parts of a coordinated whole, without boundaries or silos, we expect to have far more impact than we would expect from the already considerable sum of the many parts of our global health effort.”

“It is my conviction that for Harvard to remain a leader in the burgeoning field of global health, we must invest heavily in linking service to training and research,” Farmer said. “Since global health is not a discipline, but rather a collection of problems, we need to draw on the strengths of the Medical School, the School of Public Health, and the teaching hospitals — and especially on the work of our partner sites — to help tackle the biggest challenge of our time: understanding and improving delivery of services in this country and in others. Global health is a new paradigm and very different from its predecessor paradigm, international health. Boston is on the globe, too,” Farmer noted.

Cutler said he sees HIGH coordinating the teaching and training of students at all levels. “For undergraduates, this means having courses for those who want to learn a little, up to those who want to make global health their life’s focus,” he said. “It also means providing students with the ability to interact with the world and practice what they learn. For graduate students, this involves direct training in global health issues, access to people and research sites, and integration of the skills of many different disciplines. It will take a collaboration of faculty all across Harvard to make this happen. I know the faculty are eager to participate, and I look forward to helping organize them.”

The global health leadership appointments were praised by both Julio Frenk, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, and Jeffrey Flier, dean of Harvard Medical School.

“Sue Goldie, Paul Farmer, and David Cutler are uniquely qualified to lead HIGH to a new stage of development,” Frenk said. “The key to achieving successfully the institute’s mission will continue to be the ability to build bridges across the amazing intellectual capital of the entire University. Professors Goldie, Farmer, and Cutler have exceptional skills in team building and mentoring. They are also deeply committed to the educational mission of HIGH, as demonstrated by their crucial role in expanding the course offerings in global health and by their own dedication to teaching.”

Flier said, “This is a signal moment in our effort to bring together under a single banner the disparate parts of a world-class program in global health. I have no doubt that Sue Goldie, Paul Farmer, and David Cutler have the vision, collaborative instincts, and determination to bring people together in this common cause, and that together they will create a truly collaborative, interdisciplinary program that will benefit not only all the world’s peoples, but also will benefit Harvard as a university.”

Trained as a physician, decision scientist, and public health researcher, Goldie has broad interests that include using evidence-based policy to narrow the gap between rich and poor, leveraging science and technology as tools for global diplomacy, strengthening capacity through sustainable nonexploitative partnerships, and fostering innovation in education locally and globally. Drawn to health problems in the most vulnerable populations, she conducts rigorous analysis using the methods and tools of decision science, which uses mathematics to solve resource problems, to inform complex and difficult policy decisions. Her analytic work relates to a wide range of topics — from vaccine-preventable diseases to maternal mortality — in many settings, from disparities in the United States to broad failures of public health delivery in the poorest countries.

An accomplished scientist, Goldie has published 150 original research papers and has been principal investigator on awards from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation, which in 2005 awarded her its grant “for genius and creativity” in applying the tools of decision science to combat major public health problems.

She has received numerous teaching and mentorship awards, including the Harvard School of Public Health mentoring award and the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard University. She serves on the Standing Committee on Health Policy, teaches one of the largest classes at the School of Public Health in decision science, and this year also taught a new undergraduate class as part of the Gen Ed curriculum.

A member of the Institute of Medicine, Goldie is a graduate of Union College and Albany Medical College. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale University School of Medicine, and earned her M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1997. She joined the faculty of the School of Public Health in 1998.

Ford dreamed of it for long and finally the blue oval has managed to get an amazing EPA rating of 40mpg on the highway. The car that did the trick for Ford is the 2011 Fiesta and the latest EPS numbers suggest that it gets 29mpg in the city as well. Compare those numbers with the Toyota Yaris (4mpg lesser) and the Honda Fit (5mpg lesser) and we easily have a class leading commuter in the Ford Fiesta 2011. The US version of the Fiesta is powered by a 120hp1.6-liter Duratec four-cylinder engine and it comes with either a manual five-speed or a six-speed PowerShift automatic transmission, the latter option being the one to fetch those EPA numbers. Expected to arrive at dealerships this summer, the 2011 Ford Fiesta will bear a price tag of $13,995.

Filed under: Spy Photos, Coupe, Sedan, Performance, Paris Motor Show, Audi

Even though we won’t see the production version of the standard Audi A7 until this year’s Paris Motor Show, the men and women in Ingolstadt are already prepping a hotted-up version of the swoopy four-door coupe (we still aren’t used to typing that), as seen here in this latest set of spy shots. Rumors have stated that a RS7 Sportback might debut alongside the A7 in Paris, complete with a 580-horsepower V10, and it would certainly be show-stopping if Audi could pull off having all three variants of the A7 range on hand.

As for the car spied here, we spot larger air intakes, a more robust wheel/tire package, bigger brakes and quad exhaust pipes, seemingly proving that this A7 will definitely arrive wearing an S badge. However, the camouflaged beast isn’t as muscular as Audi’s RS models, which leads us to believe that the mid-range S7 is what’s under all of the swirly paper. As for what’s housed beneath the hood, your guess is as good as ours, but something along the lines of Audi’s new supercharged 3.0-liter V6 or the free-breathing 4.2-liter V8 could be in order. Scroll through the gallery below to see the S7 prototype from all angles.

[Source: CarPix]

Spy Shots: First look at Audi S7 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 May 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During his speech to shareholders and employees at BMW Group’s 90th Annual General Meeting, CEO Norbert Reithofer said that Rolls-Royce sales are on the rise.

“In the upper luxury segment, we started the global introduction of the Rolls-Royce Ghost at the beginning of the year,” Reithofer said. “Rolls-Royce sales are also on the rise: In the first four months of the year, 408 automobiles were delivered to customers, 100 percent more than in the same period last year.”

Click here to get prices on the 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost.

The Rolls-Royce Ghost is on sale now with prices starting at $245,000.

It has been reported that Rolls-Royce is working on a hybrid version of the Ghost that will share its technology with the BMW ActiveHybrid 7. Fuel-economy of the hybrid version should be improved by 15 percent. The standard Ghost manages an estimated fuel-economy of 17 mpg.

Rolls-Royce is also rumored to be working on an electric version of the Phantom on the roads within 12 months.

2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost:

– By: Omar Rana

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone on a populist attack against speculators by proposing a ban on naked short selling and CDS trading on a select set of securities.

That ban would impact European government bonds and 10 select German financial institutions within the eurozone.

The ban is being proposed by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

This move comes in the context of a German public severely displeased with the decision to bailout the fringe eurozone states at their own expense. Domestically, West Germans already support the eastern half of their country, which was reunified in 1990. Under the European Union, German taxes also subsidize development projects in other European countries.

The burden of the Greek bailout seems a step too far for many, particularly a center-right government under Chancellor Andrea Merkel.

Now her government has decided naked short selling and CDS speculation will end on European government debt and German financials.

How Germany intends to ban these activities has not yet been revealed, and it seems unlikely Germany will be able to ban speculation on all European sovereign bonds, which are not only traded in Germany.

What this does, in the short term, is increase market distrust in the eurozone. If Merkel wants to ban naked short selling, clearly she lacks confidence in European financial stability German financial companies.

This could lead to investors seeking alternative means to make these moves.

Now the euro is falling on the news:

Join the conversation about this story »

One of my many hang-ups with HTPCs is organization of the media.  In my perfect world, all TV shows up under TV regardless of whether it is something I recorded using my HTPC tuners, something I imported from a video file or even a ripped TV-series DVD from my DVD collection.  When someone using my HTPC is looking for a TV show it should always be listed under TV.
The problem with this is SageTV sees things differently.  If you import a video file – even if its a TV show it knows it hasn’t been recorded from the DVR function and therefore relegates it to “Videos.”  So what’s a perfectionist to do?
The answer is actually quite simple although I haven’t found a clear-cut how-to on this so I decided to write one myself to help out other overly-orderly SageTV users like myself.
There is another method that involves a very impressive metadata manager for SageTV called BMT (Batch Metadata Tools).  I’ll hold that method for a future how-to for now and focus on this simple method using SageTV Web Server:
The complete how-to after the jump…

Steps to Change a SageTV video file to the Recorded TV section

Note:  This is assuming you’ve already imported the video in question into SageTV’s database.
Step 1 – Install SageTV Web Server following these instructions
Step 2 – Select “Media Library” and “Search Imported Videos” from the top menu of SageTV Web Server

Step 3 – Search for the video.  In this example I searched for “Good Eats”

Below you see the found video file which is a mpg.  It currently is listed in videos – and I want it to show up under TV.

Step 4 – Select the video file you wish to convert, then click on “Edit Show Info” with your mouse

Step 5 – Put a checkmark in the “Edit Show Information” box.  Don’t worry about the warning – it’s been there for years and I have yet to mess up my SageTV database.  To be safe you can always back up your wiz.bin (database) file – I recommend you do this regularly anyway.

Step 6 – Once you’ve selected “edit show information” all fields will be editable.  Feel free to fill in any of the blanks like show name, episode name, category, description etc.  The key here is to make sure “Auto Generate New EPxxx EPGID” is selected with a checkmark.  This is what will move the video to the TV section by tricking SageTV into thinking it was recorded by SageTV.

Step 7 – Now you can click on the “update” button at the bottom-left of the page.

That’s it.  You can now open up SageTV and the file will be listed under TV.  Note that I left the “Show Name” as “Good Eats – S06E11 – Casserole Over” which really isn’t a great way to name it.  It’s best to name the show by the series name “Good Eats” and then name the episode name with… well the episode name.  But you get the idea.

The other way is a bit more automated and involves a really nice add-on known as BMT (Batch Metadata Tools).  I’ll cover that in a future how-to.

Care of the office of Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who’s among the most vocal critics of the White House plan to expand offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast.

Speaking of Texas political goofballery…

I’ve written extensively about the maniacal practices of the Texas State Board of Education: promoting creationism, twisting reality, and most recently engaging in ridiculous historical revisionism. Because, after all, Joseph McCarthy was simply a misunderstood patriot.

<insert rolleyes here>

Well, there’s been an update to this insanity. Two actually: one is that the Texas BoE is now an international embarrassment, since the UK paper The Guardian has picked up on this story. I’d like to think that the more publicity this story gets, the more pressure there will be on Texas citizens to throw those antireality bums out of the BoE. However, I suspect that the people who voted them in in the first place will consider stories like this a badge of honor.

The second bit of news sounds good at first, but I don’t think will make much difference: a California legislator is introducing a bill that will make sure that any Texas nonsense introduced into textbooks will be reviewed by the California BoE, and the results reported both to the Legislature and the secretary of education.

Personally, I don’t see much use for this bill. The concern behind it is that the decisions made by the Texas BoE have national ramifications, since they have such a huge educational system that it’s easier for textbook publishers to simply use the Texas standards in their books that they sell in the national market. That’s not strictly the case; in reality there are four very large markets that influence textbooks (California is bigger than Texas, in fact, and the other two are Florida and New York). It is true, though, to the best of my knowledge, that Texas does unduly influence the way education is presented in textbooks in national markets, however. I used to work in this business, and talked to quite a few teachers, educational experts, and people who helped create national education standards, so I have some experience in this.

Be that as it may, the California bill doesn’t really do much. It just says that the California BoE has to report any problems they see, but it’s vague on the next step. Even a staff member of Leland Yee, who introduced the bill, says it’s just a precautionary measure. It strikes me that the California BoE should be doing stuff like this anyway, so I’m unsure of the efficacy of a bill like this.

I’ll note that in 2005, Yee passed bills making it illegal to sell video games rated M to minors. I’m a bit of a libertarian when it comes to such things; while I don’t think young kids should be playing violent video games, I don’t think it’s the government’s place to be making it illegal. It strikes me as the government being in loco parentis, as well as just being a bandaid on a much larger issue.

This new BoE bill appears to me to be more of the same thing. We’ll see. I will add one thing: despite my admonitions above, I’m very glad that the government of a big state sees right through the snake oil the Texas BoE is peddling. While I don’t think California needs legislation to make sure the Texas BoE silliness doesn’t infect other states, they certainly need to keep a jaundiced eye on it.

Tip o’ the mortarboard to Slashdot.

A side glance at her guy will earn you a Twitter tongue-lashing from Eliza Dushku.

The Dollhouse actress isn’t afraid to use the high kicks she learned on the set of Bring It On if she catches you taking a peek at her hunny Rick Fox.

The actress Tweeted a screen grab of her TV set where she noticed The Bachelor’s Vienna Girardi — who is engaged to pilot Jake Pavelka — glancing at the former NBA star during Monday night’s taping of Dancing With The Stars.

“Vienna, I will CUT you. Keep yo’ eyes on yo’ own meat!” Dushku wrote jokingly.

What can we say — some girls just go crazy for chocolate!

Toyota today paid a $16.4 million fine to settle allegations by the National Highway Traffic Safety administration that the company was too slow to recall vehicles with defective accelerator pedals. The payment comes just two days before Toyota’s U.S. sales chief, Jim Lentz, is expected to appear before a congressional committee investigating Toyota recalls.

In paying the $16.4 million fine, the Japanese automaker denied that it violated the Safety Act or its implementing regulations.

“We have acknowledged that we could have done a better job of sharing relevant information within our global operations and outside the company, but we did not try to hide a defect to avoid dealing with a safety problem,” Toyota said when it agreed to pay the fine last month.

Toyota may still be subjected to additional fines as safety regulators investigate whether Toyota delayed a 2009 recall of all-weather floor mats that could jam the accelerator pedal. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week that the investigation could run through the summer.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Reuters

It is no secret that our book, Unscientific America, which will soon release in paperback, displeased many New Atheists. They didn’t much like the argument that science and religion can work together, rather than always being at odds; that constant warfare between the two isn’t necessary, and can be destructive. But don’t forget that there is another side in this debate that is also devoted to incompatibility, rather than reconciliation–the anti-science “intelligent design” types. Here is none other than Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute criticizing those like myself, or Michael Ruse, who are atheists but also take a compatibilist stance:
So it turns out that atheists like Ruse and Mooney promote compatibility between God and evolution out of constitutional concerns. They fear that if atheism and evolution become too closely linked, this could make the teaching of evolution unconstitutional. Thus, they feel they’d better fix the problem by going around preaching that God and evolution are compatible.
Now they might genuinely believe it’s possible to reconcile God and evolution, but then again, don’t forget we’re talking about ardent evolutionists and atheists who personally reject belief in God and expressly admit legally / politically oriented motives for pushing the compatibilist perspective. Isn’t that …

One of the most established festivals the Austin City Limits, has compiled an eclectic list of artistes for the 2010 edition. The festival will take place from 8 to 10 October 2010 and this year the lineup includes such bands as Muse, The Eagles, MIA, Phish and many more.

This is the lineup of Austin City Limits 2010 (acl 2010).
* The Eagles
* Muse
* Phish
* The Strokes
* M.I.A
* Flaming Lips
* LCD Soundsystem
* Spoon
* Vampire Weekend
* Norah Jones
* Band of Horses
* Monsters of Folk
* Deadmau5
* Sonic Youth
* Gogol Bordello
* The National
* Robert Earl Keen
* The Black Keys
* Broken Bells
* Slightly Stoopid
* Yeasayer
* Pat Green
* Rebelution
* Beach House
* The Sword
* Matt and Kim
* The xx
* Portugal. The Man
* The Temper Trap
* Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
* Girls
* Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
* Local Natives
* Gaslight Anthem
* Lucero
* Devendra Banhart
* Blues Traveler
* Pete Yorn
* The Soft Pack
* Gayngs
* Amos Lee
* Robert Randolph & The Family Band
* Ozomatli
* Richard Thompson
* Martin Sexton
* Manchester Orchestra
* The Almighty Defenders
* Miike Snow
* Mountain Goats
* Bear in Heaven
* Mayer Hawthorne
* Midlake
* Foals
* Switchfoot
* Cage the Elephant
* JJ Grey & Mofro
* Kinky
* Angus & Julia Stone
* The Morning Benders
* Hockey
* White Rabbits
* David Bazan
* Asleep at the Wheel
* Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
* Nortec Collective
* The Very Best
* Beats Antique
* Henry Clay People
* Blind Pilot
* GIVERS
* Dawes
* Band of Heathens
* Charlie Mars
* Two Door Cinema Club
* Lissie
* Sarah Harmer
* The Constellations
* T. Bird and the Breaks
* Chief
* Frank Turner
* Those Darlins
* Carolyn Wonderland
* Kings Go Forth
* The Relatives
* The Ettes
* Qbeta
* The Dough Rollers
* MyNameIsJohnMichael
* Basia Bulat
* Balmorhea
* Dan Black
* The Jane Shermans
* The Kicks
* Ponderosa
* Two Tons of Steel
* Caitlin Rose
* SPEAK
* Run With Bulls
* Maxim Ludwig
* Gospel Stars
* Heavenly Voices
* Wesley Bray & The Disciples of Joy
* Jones Family Singers
* Ashley Cleveland & Kenny Greenberg
* Buddy & The Straight Way Travelers
* Ruby Jane Smith
* The Verve Pipe
* Frances England
* The Jellydots
* Elizabeth Mitchell
* Okee Dokee Brothers
* Tom Freund
* School of Rock
* Q Brothers

No related posts.

Given all the news these days about bailouts in Europe, and Germany’s attempt to go after short-sellers, Jim Rogers’ appearance on The Keiser Report is very timely.

“The market has a lot more money than any government or any central bank, and in the end, the market’s going to come out way ahead.” Rogers starts around the 14 min mark.

Join the conversation about this story »

The 66°33′ Special Project line from Napapirji comes from designer Yoshinori Ono. 66°33′ is the latitude of the Polar Circle, which the label signifies as a new journey. Napapijri 66°33′ transcends mountains and cities to trace a modern line of innovation connecting Tokyo to other places around the world. Stylistic innovation, special fabrics (Japanese wools but also cotton combined with synthetic fibers which guarantee water resistance), outdoor inspirations that grow into specific details and functions. The collection consists of jackets, pants, shorts, and vests for the season.

Continue reading for more images.

From today’s print edition:

Blagojevich trial judge regarded as smart, unflappable

‘Renaissance man’ to preside over case alleging dark ages of
politics

By Jeff Coen and Bob Secter, Tribune reporters

Do you ever wonder what spins through a judge’s head while lawyers and
witnesses drone on endlessly for days and weeks at trial?





In the case of U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel, who is scheduled to
preside over the sweeping corruption trial of former Gov. Rod
Blagojevich in a little more than two weeks, there’s a good chance those
thoughts sometimes drift to grandly larcenous fantasies.





How else to explain "Money to Burn," the well-received 2002 novel penned
by Zagel about a federal judge who masterminds an audacious heist at
the super-secure Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago? (Spoiler alert: The
judge gets away with millions of dollars.)

Zagel may have an active imagination, but his broad list of admirers in
Chicago’s legal community view that as just another example of why he is
regarded as one of the smartest and most unflappable jurists at the
federal courthouse.

"He is definitely one of those people who can do the job well with half
of his attention," veteran lawyer Joel Bertocchi said of Zagel, who has
had parts in two Hollywood movies and whose broad interests range from
jazz to target shooting with court security officers.





At 69, and with more than two decades on the federal bench, Zagel boasts
a resume to qualify him as one of the most interesting men in Chicago.
He helped prosecute mass murderer Richard Speck, twice held state
Cabinet posts and was once married to TV investigative reporter Pam
Zekman.





As a jurist, he also moonlights on the secretive Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court that decides whether to issue warrants for electronic
eavesdropping on terrorism suspects.





In 1965, after graduating from the University of Chicago and Harvard Law
School, Zagel joined the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, where
he helped gain the conviction of Speck, the notorious killer of eight
student nurses on the city’s Southeast Side.





From 1970 to 1977, Zagel ran the criminal division of the Illinois
attorney general’s office. One of his assistants was Jayne Carr, who
would later marry Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson. As a colleague, Jayne
Thompson said, Zagel was hard-driving, meticulous with the law and
possessed of an "encyclopedic memory."





"He can sit down and write a legal pleading and fill in the citations,
including the page numbers, without bringing out a book," she recalled.





Zagel eventually went to work in Thompson’s administration, first as
director of the Department of Revenue and then as head of what was then
known as the Department of Law Enforcement.





One of Zagel’s deputies, Laimutis "Limey" Nargelenas,
then-superintendent of the state police, said Zagel was a hands-off
manager who gave his underlings broad latitude and didn’t see the need
for a lot of meetings.





"Sometimes he’d be working on a crossword puzzle while you were talking
to him," Nargelenas recalled. "But he was always listening and very
quickly comprehending what the problem was you were talking about."





Nargelenas said Zagel flashed a dry sense of humor that sometimes left
people wondering whether he was joking or not. Even back then,
Nargelenas said, it was clear that Zagel not only had an interest in
being a judge but also in writing and acting. "I sort of thought of him
as a Renaissance man," said Nargelenas, now a lobbyist for the Illinois
Association of Chiefs of Police.





Zagel was appointed to the federal bench in 1987 by President Ronald
Reagan, and while his law enforcement background has given him a
reputation for leaning toward the government’s view, he is widely viewed
by members of the defense bar as predictable and fair.





"I think he’s very, very bright. Even when he doesn’t know the answer,
he certainly acts like he does," said criminal-defense lawyer Rick
Halprin, who faced Zagel daily in the high-profile 2007 Family Secrets
trial. It ended with the convictions of five top associates of the
Chicago Outfit who had been charged in a broad conspiracy blamed for 18
murders.





Halprin, who represented mob boss Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, said Zagel
did a good job managing a case with colorful lawyers in a circuslike
atmosphere — a climate likely to be repeated in the Blagojevich case,
which features a star defendant and legal team with flairs for the
dramatic.





In Family Secrets, Halprin said, Zagel kept control both inside and
outside the courtroom. In one telling example, Zagel told an attorney,
Joseph Lopez, that he couldn’t write an Internet blog while the case was
on trial.





In that case, Zagel met with the lawyers before court each day to flush
out potential legal conflict so things could remain orderly in front of
the jurors, Halprin said. And while Zagel always remained personable, he
didn’t put up with much.





Zagel also is well-regarded among prosecutors, a fact demonstrated by
the way they worked courthouse procedures to steer the Blagojevich case
his way.





"He runs a no-nonsense courtroom," said former federal prosecutor Sergio
Acosta, who has appeared often before Zagel. "He is one of the most
highly regarded judges in the building."





In 2008, Zagel was appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
to a seven-year term on the intelligence court.





It’s unclear what kind of storylines that duty might put in Zagel’s head
or whether it will lead to a new novel after eight years. He’s in a bit
of an acting drought as well, as his last role was as the grieving son
of a murder victim in Chicago writer David Mamet’s 1991 film,
"Homicide."





Using the stage name J.S. Block, Zagel also appeared in the 1989 film
"Music Box," about a suspected war criminal on trial in Chicago. Zagel,
whose middle name in real life is Block, played a judge in the film. Its
courtroom scenes were shot at the same Criminal Courts Building that he
once prowled as an assistant state’s attorney.





Acting bug or no, Zagel will likely have little time for such pursuits
this summer when the only blockbuster he’ll be tackling is the
Blagojevich trial, which is scheduled to begin June 3.





The ousted Illinois governor will face a jury for allegedly leveraging
the powers of his office to enrich himself and a group of cronies. The
centerpiece of the prosecution case involves Blagojevich’s alleged
attempt to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.





It’s a trial that promises to last into the fall and generate nationwide
headlines. It will feature some of the biggest guns in the U.S.
attorney’s office up against the wily father-and-son defense team of Sam
Adam and Sam Adam Jr. Adding to the suspense, the outspoken ex-governor
has promised to take the witness stand in his own defense — a right
many defendants forgo for tactical reasons.





The judge, said Bertocchi, "will want the result of this trial to speak
well of the legal system."





For all his accomplishments, achieving such an outcome could be Zagel’s
biggest challenge to date.





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[email protected]

Republican candidate Rob Simmons, who served in Vietnam, says that Attorney General Richard Blumenthal owes an apology to all Vietnam veterans for statements that he has made about serving in the war-torn country.

Simmons, who often spoke about his service during multiple campaigns over his six years in the U.S. Congress, said veterans who actually served in Vietnam are very careful about how they speak about their experiences and whether they served in other coutnries during the war.

“He owes an apology to those whose service he has undeservedly capitalized on for his own political purposes,” Simmons said.

Simmons sharply criticized both of his main opponents in the U. S. Senate race –  Blumenthal and wrestling entrepreneur Linda McMahon of Greenwich.

“It was just a few weeks ago that The Hartford Courant revealed that McMahon, like Blumenthal, provided false information about her credentials,” Simmons said outside the state Capitol in Hartford. “She lied about her college degree, and she lied about her WWE background on her application to the state board of education. She also claims she doesn’t remember anything about the memo she authored that tipped off WWE’s steroid dealer to a federal criminal investigation. In reality, that was the smoking gun that nearly made Titan Towers into a federal office building and put her husband behind bars. How can she not remember that memo?”

He added, “Trust and character are qualities that cannot be bought, and they are issues in this race. Neither Attorney General Blumenthal nor Mrs. McMahon have lived up to the high standard that Connecticut demands.”

When asked if Blumenthal should step down from the race, Simmons responded, “I have not asked for that.”

Simmons said he had no criticisms of Blumenthal’s deferments that allowed him to avoid service in Vietnam.

“Which is fine if that’s what you want to do, but don’t come back 30 years later and tell people that you served in Vietnam when in fact you requested deferments from that service,” Simmons said. 

He also mentioned a clash during his race for the U.S. Congress in 2000 against U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson, whom he defeated in a tight race. During that campaign, issues were raised by Gejdenson’s supporters about Simmons’s record.

“I was falsely accused of being a war criminal,” Simmons said. “We were eventually able to prove it was false.”