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In China, the heat is being turned up on local governments, which have been characterized as the SIVs of the country’s financial bubble.

Local governments are saddled with huge debts, and are desperate for the real estate bubble to continue feeding the beast.

As such, we’re not surprised to see stories like this, from ShanghaiDaily.com:

THE mayor of a southeast China city committed suicide yesterday by jumping from a government building.

Officials in Fujian Province confirmed Zhang Guosheng’s early-morning death.

Zhang, the mayor of Putian, jumped about 8:30am after he scrambled out of a toilet window on the fifth floor, according to a statement released by the information office of the city yesterday afternoon.

He died later in hospital.

Here’s what makes this story remarkable. ShanghaiDaily describes this as a trend:

More than 20 suicides have been reported among China’s officials since 2009.Their deaths have fueled speculation they were “sacrifices” to prevent investigations of other corrupt officials.

Zhen Lifu, 51, a senior political adviser in Jiangmen City, of south China’s Guangdong Province, was found dead after hanging himself near his home on March 20.

Join the conversation about this story »

Knight Frank India, one of the leading international property consultants, has launched a property search app for iPhones.
Using this app, the customers will be able to search for exclusive properties across the globe that they may wish to buy or rent. This is done using global GPS search function.

At the launch of the app, Pranab Datta, Vice Chairman and Managing director, Knight Frank India, said,

Knight Frank has always looked at exploring new options for its client’s which help them connect to their ideal property. With today’s ever evolving telecom market, this is a good space to serve all our HNI customers across the globe. Our Knight Frank App showcases the properties in an extraordinary and effective way on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. It couldn’t be easier or more fun to browse the best local or global properties on the move.

However, the Indians need to wait a bit. According to the Knight Frank, the app is soon going have India specific search options.
Knight Frank`s property app is indeed an innovative idea that allows you to make property search by country, region or postcode.
Via: TelecomTalk

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When you were a teenager, how many times did you wish you could have called the cops on your parents for being too nosy? It may be too late for you to slap some juris prudence on your folks, but a trailblazing teen in Arkansas has filed harassment charges — criminal, not civil — against his mom for hassling him on Facebook.

According to the teen’s complaint, which has been approved by prosecutors, his mother: “Hacked my Facebook and changed my password. She also changed the password to my e-mail so I could not change it. She posted things that involve slander and personal facts about my life.”

The mother, who does not have custody of the 16-year-old, she was just doing her due diligence as a parent.

Reports CBS News:

Her son forgot to log off of his Facebook page one day while using her computer so she took the opportunity to do a little snooping. New says the boy had written that he had gone to Hot Springs one night and drove 95 mph on the way home because he was upset with a girl. Several other posts on his site also bothered her, but she refused to elaborate.

While the prosecutor wouldn’t go into detail on the specific case, he did describe the state’s legal definition of “harassment” as when, “a person commits the offense if he engages in conduct or repeatedly commits acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person.”

The mom is scheduled to make her first court appearance on May 12.

Facebook Family Feud: Mom Snoops Online, Son Charges Harassment, So They’ll See Each Other in Court [CBS News]

by Ashley Braun

green-butts.com

We’re not sure how Sir Mix-a-lot would feel about these butts, but hipsters would probably be all over them.

Although … if so-called “100% natural” cigarette filters do become
a biodegradable, flower-seeding reality, will it also unleash an invasion of smug litterbugs?*

*Disclaimer: Smoking is gross.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Like what you see? Sign up to receive The Grist List, our email roundup of pun-usual green news just like this, sent out every Friday.

Related Links:

Wal-Mart stores are littered with wasteful products this month

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Imaginary, underwater subway lines are always the most convenient route

Construction on the new office has begun.

The FBI is investigating an affordable-housing deal in which Los Angeles officials channeled $26 million to a developer who they knew was under criminal investigation for alleged misuse of public funds, city officials said Thursday.

The developer, David Rubin, was indicted last fall in New York for alleged bid-rigging and fraud, charges unconnected to the L.A. project.

The $26 million went toward construction of a 92-unit apartment building near downtown L.A. for disabled homeless seniors. It has sat empty since October while its prospective tenants live in shelters or substandard housing.

The city’s Housing Authority, concerned about irregularities in the deal, has refused to release money that would pay the tenants’ rent. Without that rental income, the developer could be forced into default. In turn, the city could be on the hook for millions of state and federal dollars that it helped arrange for the developer, City Controller Wendy Greuel said in an interview Thursday.

The controversial deal came to light in an audit released by Greuel’s office. FBI agents have requested notes and documents gathered during the audit, the controller’s office said.

The agency involved in the deal is the Housing Department, which oversees compliance with rent control laws and aids construction of privately run, affordable apartments. The Housing Authority, a separate agency, manages federal Section 8 rental vouchers and city-owned housing projects.

The audit found that in 2008, Housing Department officials "blatantly disregarded information that … one of the partners was under federal investigation."

Officials "then chose not to share this information with the city attorney or other stakeholders," Greuel said in a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other city leaders.

The audit does not accuse any city officials of criminal behavior, or allege that the $26 million was misspent.

Doug Guthrie, the newly appointed head of the Housing Department, said he was working to find a way to "get these people housed."

Guthrie succeeded Mercedes Marquez, who headed the agency when the deal was made.

"We are left today with a much-needed project [that] sits empty," Greuel said, calling it "a fiasco."

Officials in the housing department, she added, "appeared to act in the developer’s best interest, as opposed to the best interest of the city and the taxpayers."

Rubin could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Donald Etra, was not immediately available. Marc Gelman, chief executive of Enhanced Affordable, said the company had done nothing wrong, adding that it has severed ties with Rubin. Gelman blamed squabbling city agencies for keeping homeless seniors from moving in to the new building, and said he might sue the city for not releasing the rent money.

"I have an empty building that every day costs money to operate, pay the debt … a minimum of a few thousand dollars a day," Gelman said. "And these poor homeless people, we have them coming to our office, our building, on a daily basis."

Added Rudolf Montiel, the head of the Housing Authority: "It is reprehensible that public officials would aid and abet in the misuse of federal dollars. ... Unfortunately, the tenants are the ones who are bearing the brunt of the misdeeds of this developer."

— Jessica Garrison at Los Angeles City Hall

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Today, Apple unveiled a major update to the iPhone OS which is expected to reach iPhone 3G/3GS and 2nd/3rd gen iPod users sometime this summer, and iPad users in the fall. While the banner feature of this release is its multitasking capability, the announcement that Apple will open a web-based gaming network akin to Xbox Live and PlayStation Network has potential to be the biggest coup.

Game Center lets users invite friends to play games, start multiplayer games through matchmaking, track achievements, and compare their high scores on a Web-based game network. This is a huge addition to the iPhone ecosystem which puts it on par with the two major home consoles, and actually catapults it past BOTH Nintendo’s Wii and its DS.

Currently, Nintendo offers Web-based gameplay on a title-by-title basis for its systems, but it has no unified service with gamer identities, records, or social invitations where users can form a community.

In a recent interview, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime dismissed iPhone OS as a viable gaming ecosystem. Too many users were downloading free games and had only low engagement levels, he argued.

“If our games represent a range between snacks of entertainment and full meals, depending on the type of game, theirs aren’t even a mouthful, in terms of the gaming experience you get,” Fils-Aime said.

But the addition of an online gaming service has the potential to turn the “mouthful” of iPhone OS gaming into something much more satisfying.

Unfortunately, information about the upcoming service is still scarce. Apple’s iPhone developer site says it will be available “later this year,” but it does not say whether it will be a subscription service like Xbox Live, nor does it say how users will interact with it.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Around 6 million General Motors light pickup trucks and SUVs are under federal investigation for possible brake-line failure that can be caused by corrosion. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its first stage of formal investigation covers Chevrolet Silverados, Avalanches, Suburbans and GMC Sierras, Tahoes and Yukons from the 1999 to 2003 model years.

NHTSA said that it received 110 owner complaints of “loss of breaking effectiveness,” 37 of which were confirmed by dealers. Three of the complaints allege that corroded brake line failure led to crashes.

In addition to the light pickup trucks, the NHTSA is also investigating 189,000 heavy-duty pickups for the same problem.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

MIAMI-   As the April 30th  Florida deadline to switch parties approaches, and amid the continued media chatter over a Crist 3rd party run, the head of the Charlie Crist campaign firmly denies that the Republican Senate candidate will run as an independent.

“To put these rumors to rest once and for all, as we have said countless times before, Governor Crist is running for the United States Senate as a Republican. He will not run as an Independent or as a No Party Affiliation,” Campaign manager Erik Eikenberg said in a press release today “The Governor is proud of his conservative credentials and stands firmly behind the principles of limited government and more personal freedom, the bedrock values of the Republican Party. He is proud to be a member of the Party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan.”

Eikenberg blames the Rubio campaign for helping to spread “baseless rumors” of a possible Crist independent run to “distract voters” from, his primary opponent, Marco Rubio’s record.

“The fact of the matter is, Speaker Rubio double billed taxpayers for flights, charged everything from his family reunion to car repairs to the Republican Party, and used political committees as his personal slush fund – so it should come as no surprise that he and his campaign will try whatever methods possible to change the subject as voters begin scrutinizing his record,” Eikenberg writes. “This should completely and utterly put to rest any of the unfounded rumors coming from the Rubio campaign that Governor Crist would run as anything other than the Republican that he is.” 

FULL CRIST CAMPAIGN STATEMENT:

TALLAHASSEE – The Charlie Crist for U.S. Senate campaign released the below statement from Campaign Manager Eric Eikenberg in response to the Rubio campaign’s continual attempts to distract voters from the Speaker’s lengthy legislative record:

“Speaker Rubio and his campaign have spent this entire race trying to distract voters from learning about his actual record, whether it be his votes for tax increases, support for cap and trade and a carbon tax, his flip flop on immigration reform, or his questionable financial dealings. 

“The fact of the matter is, Speaker Rubio double billed taxpayers for flights, charged everything from his family reunion to car repairs to the Republican Party, and used political committees as his personal slush fund – so it should come as no surprise that he and his campaign will try whatever methods possible to change the subject as voters begin scrutinizing his record. 

“Instead of being open and honest with voters and owning up to the thousands of dollars that remain unaccounted for from his political committees and releasing his tax returns, the Rubio campaign would prefer to spread baseless rumors.

“To put these rumors to rest once and for all, as we have said countless times before, Governor Crist is running for the United States Senate as a Republican. He will not run as an Independent or as a No Party Affiliation.

“The Governor is proud of his conservative credentials and stands firmly behind the principles of limited government and more personal freedom, the bedrock values of the Republican Party. He is proud to be a member of the Party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan.

“This should completely and utterly put to rest any of the unfounded rumors coming from the Rubio campaign that Governor Crist would run as anything other than the Republican that he is.” 

###

The World Bank voted today to approve a $3.75 billion loan to South Africa’s public utility Eskom, the bulk of which would finance construction of what will be the world’s seventh-largest coal plant. The United States abstained from the vote.

EDF’s Climate and Air Program Director Peter Goldmark said in EDF’s news release:

Giving the go-ahead to the Medupi coal plant, which will release massive amounts of greenhouse gases for decades, without a clear South African plan to level off and then decrease emissions amounts to a step backward when the world is moving forward to a clean energy future.

This was a missed opportunity for the U.S. and the World Bank to move away from a traditional focus on fossil-fueled growth and toward a new model of low-carbon economic development.

An abstention is a weak position for the U.S. to take in defense of its own proposal. Next time, the U.S. and others must vote no if we’re really going to reverse the headlong stampede to build coal plants in the developing world. The coal lending guidelines are a good start — but now the Bank should adopt them and Treasury must show, at a minimum, that it is willing to act on them.

The problem here is not giving South African citizens access to cheap energy – we all want that. The challenge is to do that within a framework that clearly puts South Africa, and the world, on a course where greenhouse gas emissions will peak and then decline. South Africa has not explained how the Medupi plant, or the successor coal plant right behind it, fits into a realistic program to level off and then decline the level of greenhouse gas emissions.

The U.S. Treasury Department issued a statement today, saying:

the United States is concerned about the project since it would produce significant greenhouse gas emissions, and uncertainty remains about future mitigation efforts. Without actions to offset the carbon emissions of the Medupi plant, the project is incompatible with the World Bank's strategy to help countries pursue economic growth and poverty reduction in ways that are environmentally sustainable. We also remain concerned about other facets of the project, including the inconsistency of Eskom's procurement process with the World Bank's Procurement Guidelines, deficiencies in the environmental impact assessment, and potentially inadequate efforts to mitigate local pollution. The project is also inconsistent with new guidelines on coal lending adopted by the United States in December 2009.

In a larger sense, this decision highlights the challenge the World Bank is facing in adhering to its own Development and Climate Change Strategic Framework, which looks to “support sustainable development and poverty reduction at the national, regional, and local levels, as additional climate risks and climate-related economic opportunities arise.” The vote also apparently conflicts with the leaders’ statement from the September 2009 Pittsburgh meeting of the G-20, of which South Africa is a member. That statement commits all members to “phase out and rationalize over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” that “encourage wasteful consumption.”

EDF’s 2009 report “Foreclosing the Future: Coal, Climate and International Public Finance” urged multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, to hasten the shift to renewable energy by adopting recommendations like deploying public international finance in support of renewable energy, energy efficiency and other alternatives to coal.

As the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other multilateral financial institutions seek a capital increase from the U.S. Congress, they will be faced with a decision as to when cheap, dirty development will finally take a backseat to clean, sustainable alternatives.

EDF strongly encourages the U.S. Congress and Treasury to help shift World Bank resources and strategy towards a fundamental rethinking of development priorities – both by providing sufficient funding for the Bank’s dedicated Clean Investment Funds and by reorienting the Bank’s overall lending portfolio toward low-carbon development.

Read more in EDF's news release.

There’s been a bit of a kerfuffle going on between the news aggregator Newser and entertainment news site TheWrap. Newser summarizes news that it aggregates, and apparently, TheWrap was not happy with this practice. TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman posted a biting criticism of Newser, to which Newser’s Michael Wolff replied with his own volley filled with barbed snark. This then kicked off a vicious fight over Twitter, which was joined by folks from all over the media industry. Finally, TheWrap took it up a notch and sent Newser a formal Cease & Desist, requesting that Newser stop using TheWrap as a source (via Mediagazer).

The C&D letter claims:

Newser’s conduct violates The Wrap’s rights because: (1) The Wrap generates and
gathers time-sensitive information at a cost, including, without limitation, original stories
ferreted out and reported by The Wrap’s full-time employees and paid contributors; (2) Newser
free-rides on The Wrap’s sweat of the brow by publishing summaries of these stories without
affording The Wrap appropriate credit and a prominent link; and (3) Newser is in direct
competition with The Wrap. Thus, Newser’s conduct, in addition to amounting to garden variety
plagiarism, constitutes unfair competition and violates certain deceptive trade practices statutes.

There are a few major problems with this — in that of the three rights that TheWrap claims Newser violates, it’s not clear that any are actually rights that TheWrap has! The first one is basically an attempt to bring back the hot news doctrine, which is hotly contested these days — but would be a huge mistake for news publications. Right now, it’s still a pretty big question though as to whether or not hot news actually can be applied in this way. Just because TheWrap generates time-sensitive info, it doesn’t mean that others can’t do anything with it. And that’s because the second “right” has been totally rejected by the courts. The claim that this is free riding on The Wrap’s “sweat of the brow” is meaningless, because as the courts decided in the Feist case, there is no protection for “sweat of the brow” works. Bringing it up makes no sense, and suggests someone’s making a legal argument that has long since been debunked. Finally, the fact that the two sites are in competition is meaningless. Competition is allowed. It’s called capitalism. And TheWrap is exaggerating and wrong to call this plagiarism. Rewriting something may be obnoxious, but it’s not plagiarism, nor is it a deceptive trade practice.

So, while Newser might be doing something that many consider slimy or tacky, it’s not technically doing anything illegal. That said, the fact that TheWrap thought it was necessary to draft a formal C&D seems a tad excessive, although I’m sure the lawyers involved were more than happy to help — even if the legal arguments appear weak. However, if Newser were to comply (and it doesn’t have to), TheWrap really hurts itself more than anything. Sure, Waxman claims that in the 14 months that TheWrap has been around, Newser has sent it only 1,600 users. But, that’s 1,600 more users than it would have sent had it not used TheWrap as a source. And yes, while it’s true that Newser does not seem to add its own spin to the articles it summarizes, perhaps that is all that the Newser user wants. After all, the experience on Newser is very different from the one on TheWrap, so each site most likely appeals to a different type of audience. If anything, Newser exposes TheWrap content to a user segment that would not have seen TheWrap otherwise.

That said, I personally find the Newser user experience annoying and obnoxious — the site design and link practices don’t make for a good news consuming experience — and certainly don’t make for a very friendly neighbor online. Despite Newser’s claims that it links to its sources, it does so in a very unfriendly way (hard to find, forcing you to visit ads to leave the page). This sort of practice, even if legal, may lead to two results, neither of which are good for Newser: (1) Annoying its readers, leaving them to go elsewhere and (2) Annoying everyone else online, keeping them out of wider social media circles. They might not think this is a big deal, but if no one else is ever linking to Newser, it’s not likely that Newser stays in business. Rather than complaining, perhaps TheWrap should have just watched as Newser crumbled.

Either way, we’re likely to see more fights like this one, as newspaper publishers who overvalue their own work continue with their misguided clamoring for the “hot news” doctrine, which would treat “hot news” as protected property. Not only is this a bad idea for all of society, this would ultimately spell doom for the publishers themselves, who would undoubtedly be mired in trying to figure out who owned what news rather than focusing on reporting and analyzing and figuring out how to give their customers a true reason to buy.

On that note, it’s worth noting (with amusement) that the news story that kicked off this whole brouhaha was the story about how Beyonce’s Label was blocking her YouTube channel. Which, of course, we here at Techdirt had written about two days before either Waxman or Newser posted on it.

But you don’t see us complaining… even as we wipe the sweat off our brow.

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Article Tags: ClimateGate

NEW BEDFORD — The chief of law enforcement for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been removed from his job after allegations of document shredding during an investigation by the Commerce Department’s inspector general, according to an aide to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

The NOAA official, Dale Jones, has been under fire since the shredding revelations surfaced in mid-winter during sworn testimony in Gloucester over the handling of law enforcement cases in the Northeast regional fishery.

According to the aide, Jones is being replaced for now by Alan Risenhoover, director of the NOAA Office of Sustainable Fisheries.

“While this not a cause for celebration, it is clearly an improvement,” said Frank in a prepared statement. “I express my gratitude to Dr. Lubchenco for this positive step, and I expect NOAA to undertake a careful and thorough selection process as they select a new director of law enforcement.”

Source: southcoasttoday.com

Read in full with comments »   

Filed under: Hybrid, SUV, Truck, Plants/Manufacturing, GM, Hummer, Off-Road

Sure enough, someone out there still wants Hummer. According to a report by The Car Connection, Raser Technologies has put multiple bids in for the General Motors Earth-squishing trucks – both before and after the failed bid from China’s Sichuan-Tengzhong. Raser Technologies made a name for itself by converting an H3 into a plug-in hybrid not too long ago, and if the company managed to gain control of the future of the Hummer brand, you could bet your biscuits it wouldn’t be too long before a hybrid truck made its way into showrooms.

Raser Technologies already has a prototype extended-range EV platform – the same tech fitted into the electrified H3. According to the company, the truck can cruise up to 40 miles on electric-only power, and should be capable of close to 100 mpg by the time everything’s said and done. There’s some speculation that GM is shy about handing Hummer over to Raser because of the potential threat to Detroit’s own extended-range EV program, though we find that one tough to swallow.

For now, it looks like a dead end for Hummer. With GM already switching off the lights and sallying forth with the wind down, it doesn’t look good for the brand, but as we learned with Saab, there’s always hope. We’ll keep you posted on the next on again/off again deal.

[Source: The Car Connection]

One more bidder reported left for Hummer, but is GM listening? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no secret that Palm is having trouble staying afloat.  The company, which debuted webOS and the Palm Pre at CES in 2009, have suffered from lackluster sales across the board, and have been a primary takeover target for some time.  Though he acknowledges that issues exist, CEO Jon Rubinstein continues to forge ahead.  In an interview with Fortune, he discusses some of the strategies that the company is undertaking to return to success.

When asked about success in the smartphone marketplace:

“I still believe that there’s going to be likely five successful players in this space.  It’s a huge and rapidly growing market.  And I think that having a small share of that market you can have a successful company. We just need to get up to scale, and that’s our number one goal.  It’s not profitability, it’s to get to scale. When we get to scale the economics of the business completely change. We went through that same thing at Apple, by the way.  I mean, it was a similar situation many, many years ago where you just didn’t have the economies of scale.  And once we crossed over that Apple became a cash machine.”

When asked about partnering with Sprint at launch:

“Hindsight is always 20/20, but you have to understand that we had a long-term relationship with Sprint. Sprint wanted to do an aggressive launch on webOS.  They were willing to invest significant marketing dollars.   But the quid pro quo for that is that we had to do an exclusive with Sprint. Now, if I sit today and I kind of roll back the clock and go, okay, now if I could have launched in October with Verizon, and done a shorter exclusive with Sprint, and the world would be completely different today, yeah, I mean, that’s easy to say. But you don’t know these things at the time. And Sprint has been a really good partner for Palm.  They continue to be a really good partner for Palm.”

Check out the full interview here.  You’ll hear different things depending on who you talk to; some believe the blame falls on Sprint, while others chalk it up to Verizon, while others blame Palm across the board.

My take on the matter?  I chalk it up to the following: (1) A terrible marketing campaign throughout the life cycle of the webOS devices, (2) poor marketing on Verizon’s side (when compared to other devices like the DROID) until recently, (3) the lack of a touchscreen slate-like device (think HD2 here) to compliment the portfolio, and (4) a lackluster App Catalog.  If Palm can fix those things (and they appear to be doing so as of late), then I could see them being successful long-term.

What do you think?  Will Palm be successful in the long-term, or will they be purchased by another company?

Via Fortune

By Jesse Benton

Dr. Paul will be on MSNBC with Dylan Ratigan tomorrow at 4:00 pm ET and then…..

Jesse Ventura is guest hosting Larry King on CNN at 9:00 ET, and has invited Ron to take part in his political panel. Should be interesting!

The brother of Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is now facing manslaughter charges in the death of their father.

Mark Kerrigan, 45, stands accused of fighting with his elderly dad in a violent altercation that prosecutors say ultimately caused Daniel Kerrigan’s death on January 24th.

“We allege that the defendant’s violent reckless actions and complete disregard for his father’s safety and well-being endangered Daniel Kerrigan’s life and resulted in the substantial harm that led to his untimely death,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said in a statement released by his office. “This defendant should have known that the cruel acts that he committed against his elderly father, including grabbing him by the neck with enough force to cause a fracture, were highly likely to result in substantial harm and endanger his father’s life. Compounding these tragic circumstances is the fact that we allege the altercation by the defendant began because he wasn’t allowed to use the family telephone late that night, a seemingly trivial issue that we allege triggered the defendant’s drunken rage and led to his committing the malicious acts that led to the death of his elderly father.”

According to prosecutors, the events leading up to the elder Kerrigan’s death started early in the evening when Mark Kerrigan argued with an unnamed female at the family home.

Stoneham police responded to a 911 call after she called for help because Mark Kerrigan allegedly would not allow her to leave.

Daniel Kerrigan, 70, returned home to help calm the situation and Stoneham police left after speaking with all the parties.

Over the next six hours, allege prosecutors, the defendant started to drink liquor and argue with his parents over the use of the phone. Mark Kerrigan had been calling the unnamed woman, leaving over a dozen messages on her cell phone.

Prosecutors say Daniel Kerrigan refused to allow further access to the phone causing his son to became angry and aggressive.

According to a statement released by the District Attorney’s office:

“Sometime after midnight, the defendant came into his parent’s bedroom screaming obscenities and yelling about the telephone not working. The victim and his wife went downstairs to the kitchen in an attempt to talk to their son. The defendant then allegedly engaged in a heated argument with the victim, which escalated to a violent physical altercation where the defendant allegedly pushed, grabbed and shoved the victim, resulting in several pictures falling off the wall. The defendant then allegedly forcibly grabbed the victim around the neck, causing a compression fracture to the left thyroid cartilage of his larynx, and the victim fell to the kitchen floor onto his back, unconscious.

The defendant’s mother then called 911 and during her recorded call for help, the defendant is heard screaming obscenities at his father and yelling at him.”

When first responders got to the scene the elder Kerrigan was unconscious.

According to prosecutors, Mark Kerrigan tried to hide a bottle of scotch and refused to obey police orders. Obviously intoxicated, say authorities, Kerrigan fought and swore at the officers telling police that his father was “faking it.”

Daniel Kerrigan was rushed to Winchester Hospital and pronounced dead an hour later. The Chief Medical Examiner determined that Kerrigan died from cardiac dysrhythmia, a condition brought on by a violent physical altercation that resulted in a fracture to his larynx.

The Kerrigan family has been standing by Mark Kerrigan and released the following statement through their attorney today:

“We are deeply disappointed at the continued prosecution of Mark Kerrigan. We disagree with the decision to indict and look forward to the facts being considered by an impartial jury. The Kerrigan family continues to believe that he is not responsible for the death of their beloved Daniel Kerrigan. Mark Kerrigan has been living at home supporting and caring for his mother and is in complete compliance with all conditions of his pre-trial release and we see no reason that the situation should change.”

Mark Kerrigan is scheduled to be arraigned on the new manslaughter charge tomorrow morning.

Workers and community activists took to the streets on March 23, 2010 in opposition to the plans to close schools and reconfigure the city under corporate direction. The Kresge and Skillman Foundations are designing the plans over local objection.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

At Detroit City Council meeting

Plan to steal pensions opposed

By Cheryl LaBash
Detroit
Published Apr 7, 2010 3:02 PM

On March 29 more than 500 Detroit workers, retirees and community members filled the Detroit City Council’s auditorium to oppose the $6 billion giveaway of city pension assets initiated by Mayor Dave Bing. They shouted out, applauded each other’s one- minute public comments and challenged the City Council to stand up against the backdoor maneuver. Bypassing not only the City Council but the elected pension boards and unions, the mayor secretly initiated state legislation for “distressed pensions” that, if passed, will allow him to transfer the control of the city’s two fully funded pension plans to a state-authorized Municipal Employees Retirement System. In a unanimous rebuke, the City Council demanded the mayor reverse his action. But it cannot be withdrawn, only blocked in the legislative committees.

Councilmember JoAnn Watson pointed out, “It is not our pension systems which are ‘distressed,’ It is Detroit that is distressed. We need a state of emergency declared so we can enact a moratorium on foreclosures and sell city-owned homes to Detroiters for a dollar.”

This majority African-American city has suffered racist disinvestment for decades as auto plants closed, moving jobs to rural areas. Automation increased productivity and profits using fewer workers. Highly profitable new housing construction spread suburbs farther and farther from the city center while insurance and mortgage redlining disadvantaged city residents. Underfunded schools deteriorated. Freeway construction destroyed Paradise Valley, the historic Black business center, and then bypassed neighborhood businesses on major city streets. During the housing mania, subprime loans were disproportionately forced on African-American homeowners in Detroit fueling foreclosures and causing the transfer of assets built through generations of homeownership. More than 50 percent of Detroiters are unemployed, especially youth, whose futures are being stolen. It is a crisis imposed on Detroit residents.

Now a substantial concentration of pension capital — $6 billion — controlled by Detroiters is on its way to being handed over to be controlled by a nine-person pension board assembled from small towns across the state. Detroit pension funds have subsidized hotel and other development in Detroit, where its residents now work. It’s like having an absentee landlord, said a firefighter at the council meeting.

Certainly the most concerned about this shock and awe attack are city workers and retirees who gave up wage increases to lock in some security for their post-work years. Currently the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees is resisting the imposition of a 10 percent pay cut through furlough days. AFSCME represents the lowest paid job classifications; many of their members are women single heads of households.

The city administration claims the move is to protect the pensions of city workers — still traditional, defined-benefit, life-time pensions for most — and also save the city $20 million per year to help offset a much publicized $350 million budget deficit. Although no reduction of current pensions has been suggested yet, the practice of distributing earnings in excess of 7.9 percent to retirees, which especially helps pensioners and survivors whose income has been eroded by inflation — termed thirteenth check — will disappear. Instead, the mayor proposes to reduce the city’s required contribution to the pension fund. And it is the mayor’s stated position that new hires will be forced into defined contribution, 401(k) type retirement plans instead of the “for-life” pensions for current workers and retirees.

Banks deepen debt crises

The global capitalist economic contraction is exposing the ruthless rule of the banks, which demands more and more from local and state governments, forcing them to borrow to cover debts incurred before the crash as the tax base is eroded by unemployment and foreclosures and capitalist laws that prohibit unbalanced budgets for any but the federal government. In one transaction, a full one-seventh of Detroit’s reported budget deficit — $50 million annually — is mandated to pay international financial giant UBS and other banks and financiers for pension obligation certificates and an interest rate swap that crashed. In the renegotiation, payment is essentially garnished from the city just like creditors take part of a worker’s pay before it is even received. All of Detroit’s proceeds from casino taxes are currently deposited with a third-party bank to pay $4.2 million per month before the remainder goes to the city accounts. How much of the “deficit” is owed to the banks remains an unanswered question. The pension obligation certificates fully funded the two Detroit pension funds that the mayor is giving away.

Detroit and the state of Michigan are not alone. “California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay.” (N.Y. Times, Mar. 29) The banks were bailed out with tax dollars, are paid full value by federal mortgage insurance for inflated mortgages in foreclosure, and squeeze cities and states to cut budgets, wages and benefits to transfer wealth from the workers who created it to capitalist financiers as production for profit contracts.

Squeezing wealth from the working class and our communities is not the only possible solution. The urban Marshall Plan advocated by Councilmember Watson calls for massive federal funding for jobs and community-driven economic development. In 1935 the Works Progress Administration provided jobs for more than eight million unemployed. The WPA in Detroit dismantled blighted buildings, and constructed roads and schools. More than 33,000 Detroit structures are on the city’s demolition list, providing enough work to absorb every unemployed Detroiter immediately in a deconstruct/recycle program. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last struggle was for jobs or income for all. It is still an urgent task that calls out for completion now. Pension benefits are deferred wages.
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Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 2 is now available for download. Although it has some small changes, it does not have any striking difference from the earlier Beta 1. If you are using Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 with regular updates, there is no need to install the Beta 2 for you. If nothing goes wrong, this is will be the final beta before the final release.

You can download Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 from http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/beta2.

Here is a brief overview of the changes that Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 2 have:

• The windows control buttons are still on the left but their order have been changed to Close, Minimize and Maximize.
• The new Ubuiquity slideshow is now live.
• Ubuntu One can sync Firefox bookmarks and mobile contacts.
• Rythmbox finally has the UbuntuOne Music Store plugin.
• New logos and icons in GDM and various other locations.

[image via WebUpd8]

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Saab management says its small car will be called 92, while the 9-3 might be renamed 900.

GM wasn’t able to turn Saab into a success story, but Victor Muller, the new CEO of the recently established Saab-Spyker is optimistic about the brand’s future. (For those under rocks, Spyker recently purchased the Swedish carmaker.) Muller promises to honor Saab’s heritage in a future where new product is key.

Saab-Spyker is in the midst of a thorough review of Saab’s future plans, but Muller says he is pleased with the 2011 9-5, which stylistically does a nice job hiding the fact that it’s based on the GM Epsilon platform. The SportCombi wagon version of the 9-5, which is said to look stunning, is still some time away and will be launched in mid-2011. In April 2011, the 9-4X crossover will be launched. It will be contract-manufactured by GM in the General’s Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, plant alongside the Cadillac SRX, with which it shares underpinnings.

With ties that close, Muller must seek to keep the relationship between GM and Saab amicable, and he acknowledges that the American company has invested vast sums to bring Saab’s Trollhättan, Sweden, production site up to modern standards. But product development was painfully neglected. The 9-5 carried on for over 12 years; GM essentially skipped an entire product cycle.

Keep Reading: The Future of Saab to Draw Heavily on Heritage – Car News

Related posts:

1. 2014 Saab 9-1 Rendered – Car News
2. Saab Product Plans for 2010 and Beyond – Car News
3. Saab Sale to Supercar Maker Koenigsegg Pending – Car News

While our last post may make it appear we feel Apple’s latest OS has Microsoft’s soundly beaten there are still some areas where Microsoft, even at this early stage is ahead.

One is the social network integration, which seems Microsoft as more outward facing, embracing multiple social networks suck as Facebook and Flickr. Apple has persistently decided to go it alone, even when faced by the whole industry embracing Facebook for example.

The next is the ability to leverage an existing gaming social network in the form of Xbox Live, which has a pretty fanatical following.

Windows Phone 7 will of course still support more form factors that the iPhone, which is likely locked pretty much into its current shape.

Windows Phone 7 also has some new UI paradigms which seem to be catching on pretty nicely.

Lastly, embracing web technologies like Silverlight and Flash may give Windows Phone 7 developers a leg up in bringing apps rapidly to market.

Are there other advantages I have missed? Let us know below.