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The Supreme Court, in session this morning, is releasing its rulings on the landmark campaign finance case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Early reports indicate the court’s rulings will indeed rewrite federal campaign finance law, particularly as it applies to corporate and union independent expenditures.

Capital Eye‘s Michael Beckel is busy preparing an analysis of the decision, so be sure to check back here later today.

In the meantime, read the excellent live chat being conducted by SCOTUSblog, as it’s providing a play-by-play of the court’s ruling. SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein says this of the decision: “Much will depend on the wording, but today’s decision is a small revolution in campaign finance law.”

As we write, Supreme Court justices are reading from their opinions within the Supreme Court’s chambers.

It appears the opinions are gigantic — dozens and dozens of pages worth of majority opinions and partial dessents. Read the written opinion here.

And read our previous coverage of the issue, which spans the months that the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case has been in play.   

The many varieties of Commons we've been describing in the EDFix calls have a wide range of governance mechanisms, from Linus Torvalds' benevolent dictatorship over Linux to emissions trading markets and simple arrangements among neighbors about when to pasture their cattle or sheep. Some functional mechanisms can be very elaborate, like the water-temple rituals in Bali.

One useful model for thinking about goods in the Commons is the four-square matrix at the bottom of this page in Wikipedia, which maps excludability against rivalry, dividing the world into four categories of goods: private goods, common pool resources, public goods and club goods. (There'll be a quiz on the call.)

Charlotte Hess and Jesse Ribot have been deepening our common understanding of this territory. They will join us on Monday, January 25, 2010, for EDFix Call #5, as part of our quest to define the "Sustainability Commons." Join us on the call at noon ET (9am PT) at:

• Phone number: +1 (213) 289-0500
• Code: 267-6815

If you'd like to get announcements about upcoming EDFix conference calls and the results with podcast releases, please sign-up here:

GREENWOOD, S.C. — Cambridge Academy athletic director Ray Tackett said Wednesday the school plans to retire Gaines Adams’ number 22 jersey in honor of the former Bears defensive end.

Adams passed away Sunday following cardiac arrest attributed to an enlarged heart.

“Nobody will ever wear 22 again,” Tackett said. “And we’re going to name a football award after him, the ‘Gaines Adams MVP’ award.”

Tackett said the jersey ceremony is likely to take place before the first home football game in the fall. A memorial service for Adams was held at the school on Tuesday.

Adams, the team’s go-to receiver and a two-way standout, led Cambridge to a 12-1 record and state title in 2000 while playing eight-man football. After one year of prep school, Adams went on to be an All-American at Clemson and become the fourth-overall draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the ‘07 draft.

Tackett said the school is considering naming its football field after Adams.

A Clemson official said the university might consider retiring Adams’ number 93 jersey, although nothing is imminent.

The funeral will be held Friday at 1 p.m. at Rock Springs Baptist Church in Easley, S.C. Members of the Bears will charter a plane to attend. The Buccaneers will do the same.

By Vaughn McClure

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

In 2014, the Ford Mustang will celebrate its 50th anniversary, meaning we’ll see an all-new Mustang ponycar. According to a report by MotorTrend, FoMoCo is considering taking the Mustang global.

However, with Ford’s global rear-wheel-drive program dead, product planners are trying to figure out how they’re going to build the next-generation Mustang, especially since Alan Mulally’s “One Ford” theme won’t allow them to build vehicles unique to one country.

Under consideration is an evolution of the current model with some styling upgrades and a continued focus on the 412-hp 5.0L V8 as the halo engine. A second option calls for a tubrocharged V6 for markets like Europe. Last but not least, one source says that Ford may transform the Mustang into an ultra-high tech performance coupe that will compete with the likes of the Nissan GT-R.

A Godzilla killing Mustang? We’re excited for 2014.

2011 Ford Mustang GT:

– By: Kap Shah

Source: Motor Trend

Here’s a quick roundup of some news on experimental drugs:

Two pills for multiple sclerosis fared well in clinical trials published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. One, Novartis’s fingolimod, was tested against a placebo and against Avonex, a form of interferon sold by Biogen Idec. The other, Merck KGaA’s cladribine, was tested against a placebo. (The main findings of the studies had previously been reported.)

Current drugs for MS are given via injection or infusion, so the convenience of oral drugs would be an improvement for patients. But, as the WSJ notes, the studies of fingolimod and cladribine suggested that the drugs may have serious side effects that will have to be weighed against the potential benefits.

A new approach to treating clostridium difficile showed promise. C. diff is a nasty bug that causes severe diarrhea, and tends to flourish in patients who have previously taken powerful antibiotics. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found C. diff patients who received combination of two experimental biotech drugs (monoclonal antibodies) in addition to antibiotics were less likely to have a C. diff relapse than patients who received antibiotics and a placebo. The Phase 2 study, which needs to be confirmed by a larger trial, was funded in part by Medarex, a Bristol-Myers Squibb subsidiary that was a developer of the drug. Merck bought rights to the drug in a deal last year.

An HIV drug failed in late-stage trials, Merck said. The drug, vicriviroc, is the same class as Pfizer’s Selzentry. Dow Jones Newswires notes that analysts’ expectations for sales of vicriviroc were modest, because Selzentry’s sales have been relatively low.

Photo: iStockphoto

Google’s public fallout with China is still a matter of hot debate and both parties seem reluctant to take a definitive stance. Google’s decision to stop censoring results on Google.cn may seem drastic, but the tone of the post is still a bit subdued and leaves the door open to negotiations. Chinese officials haven’t made any offic… (read more)

A North Aurora man went on a lengthy diatribe before being sentenced to natural life in prison today for sexually assaulting two girls he had befriended at their church.

Charles E. Granter, 64, had been found guilty in 2009 for two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, involving the girls, who were 9 and 11 when the incidents took place between 2005 and 2007.

State law mandated the life sentence, so there was little suspense in Wednesday’s hearing before Kane County Judge Allen Anderson. But before being sentenced, Granter gave a 20-minute address, criticizing Anderson, the North Aurroa police, prosecutors and the alleged victims, who, according to Granter, lied about him.

Granter called Kane “the most corrupt county I’ve ever seen” and said there were flaws in the prosecution’s timeline that would have required him to possess a “Star Trek” style transporter device.

“I never dreamed I’d end up like this,” he said finally.

According to authorities, Granter met the girls and their families through the church they all attended. Granter’s wife and a half-dozen church members were in court as a show of support for Granter.

“If I needed help, he’d be the person I’d call,” fellow church member Terry McKinney said of Granter.

–Clifford Ward

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

France’s quest to become one of the first G7, industrialized countries to tax carbon hit a roadblock last month when the country’s Constitutional Court ruled against the landmark tax for being too easy on polluters.

The court said the law’s numerous loopholes benefiting carbon-dependent industries rendered it ineffective.

On Wednesday, the French government said it planned to submit a revised version of its carbon tax legislation to parliament on July 1st.

The major change in the law would be the extension of the tax to 1,000 highly polluting industrial sites, including power stations, oil refineries and cement works, notes Dow Jones.

What doesn’t change are some of the loopholes benefiting energy and carbon-dependent industries and the tax rate, which stays put at 17 euros ($24.38) per ton of carbon-dioxide emissions. The new bill will include the input of businesses and environmentalists.

The Medef, France’s leading business lobby, has called on the government to postpone implementation of the tax to 2011.

On a parallel track, aware that the carbon tax could hurt the competitiveness of French businesses, the French government is also seeking to level the playing field by lobbying for a European Union-wide carbon tax on imports entering the EU, reports the AFP.

Sweden, Denmark and Finland have implemented carbon taxes of their own. France would be the biggest economy to apply such a measure.

Photo Credit: AFP via France24.com

The White House’s plan on Thursday to propose stricter limits on the size and trading activities of big banks is only the latest in a long list of curbs or proposed limits on Wall Street from Washington in the last year. Here are some other examples.

1) Jan. 14, 2010 — The White House proposes that large financial companies pay a fee to repay any taxpayer losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

2) Dec. 16, 2009 — Sens. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) and John McCain (R., Ariz.) propose reinstating the Depression-era Glass Steagall law, which would build firewalls between commercial and investment banking at U.S. banks. That law was repealed in 1999.

3) Dec. 11, 2009 — The House of Representatives passes a bill that would require large financial companies to finance a $150 billion fund to pay for future failures of large financial companies. The bill would also require large banks to face tougher consumer protection rules, pay more in fees, and the government would have the power to break up large banks if they posed a threat to the broader economy.

4) Dec. 6, 2009 — President Obama slams Wall Street in 60 Minutes interview. “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers.”

5) Oct. 22, 2009 — The Federal Reserve proposes new standards for incentive pay at banks, and pledges to conduct more scrutiny of the pay plans at the countries largest banks.

6) May 22, 2009 — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. imposes a new policy that forced large banks to pay higher fees for deposit insurance.

7) May 7, 2009 — Federal regulators publish results of stress tests into the country’s largest banks, despite the objections of many banks and even some government officials. The results find that 10 banks need a bigger capital cushion to continue lending in a stressed banking environment.

8) Jan. 17, 2009 — The White House proposes new rules for all financial companies, including the requirement that large national banks face scrutiny from state regulators for consumer protection rules.

Mercedes Benz USA has entered the Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For top. This is Fortunes’ 13th annual survey of this kind.

"The most important considerations for this year’s list were hiring and the ways in which companies are helping their employees weather the recession.  All 100 companies on our list are currently hiring, many of them aggressively, leading to more than 96,000 open job positions expected in the next year," Fortune Deputy Managing Editor Hank Gilma… (read more)

Funny guy Ashton Kutcher — notorious prankster and former star of MTV’s Punk’d — took to his Twitter page overnight with a big annoucement for comedy fans:

“Hosting SNL on Feb 6 with musical guest Them Crooked Vultures. Could not be more excited. more to come…..” the actor wrote late Wednesday.

This will be Ashton’s fourth time delivering the laughs on Saturday Night Live. The comedian last hosted NBC’s long-running sketch comedy series in April 2008.

People wander the streets in front of the remains of a boarding school in the downtown area of Port-au-Prince. Credit: Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images

I’ve worked at Oxfam through all sorts of different emergencies. The Haiti earthquake somehow feels different from those previous disasters.

I guess that’s because Haiti was already in a terrible state before the earthquake struck. Endemic poverty, weak government, weapons on the streets are just some of the ingredients that, compounded by the horror of the earthquake, mean that rebuilding Haiti, and helping the poorest people, will be such a massive task.

Tell the IMF to cancel Haiti’s debt

At the moment the world’s attention is focused, rightly, on the humanitarian effort. Leaders are pledging to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Haiti and help them to build a brighter future out of the rubble.

World leaders and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are meeting in Montreal, Canada, on Monday to discuss the world’s response to the devastation that the earthquake has inflicted.

There is one thing they can do that can massively improve Haiti’s prospects. By canceling the country’s crippling debt the international community can help put Haiti on a stronger footing for the future.

Even before this earthquake struck, Haiti was weighed down by the burden of debt. They already owed over $891 million to the IMF and other lenders. This is a legacy of loans from global financial institutions and donor nations to unelected governments of years past.

The head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has come out and said that the IMF supports the idea of cancelling these debts. That’s fantastic news. But like a lot of these grand statements, we need to see it turned into action before we can consider it a done deal.

Following the earthquake, the IMF announced a $100 million loan to Haiti. They’ve subsequently said that this could be turned into a grant. But we need them to act now to make sure this happens

If they don’t do this these combined debts would lock them in poverty for years to come. That’s why we’re calling on the IMF to act now to get rid of the debt – and we need you to email them and show your support.

If these debts aren’t cancelled, Haiti will be sending tens of millions to the IMF and other international bodies even as it struggles to rescue and rebuild. If these debts are cancelled, the Haitian government will have a better chance to build their country, so that it is stronger than before.

Email the head of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn to demand that the IMF cancels Haiti’s debt immediately to make sure that earthquake relief doesn’t create a new debt burden.

Take action: Tell the IMF to cancel the debt

Donate to the Haiti emergency appeal

Ford Romania plans to invest 400 million euro this year in its factory based in Craiova (southern Romania), money which are loaned from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The agreement was signed today by Romanian Public Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu, vice president of the European Investment Bank Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen and Wolfgang Schneider, Ford Europe vice president for governmental and environmental issues.

The loan, on which the Romanian government will provide an 80 per cent gua… (read more)

A Hazel Crest man accused of biting off the right nipple of an off-duty Chicago Police officer outside a Gold Coast steakhouse was ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bail today.

Fernando Cooper (right), 31, of the 18100 block of South Kedzie Avenue, was charged with aggravated battery of a police officer, resisting arrest and attempted disarming of a police officer for the Sunday night incident outside Gibson’s Bar & Steakhouse.

Authorities said that about 9:30 p.m., the officer was working security for the restaurant when he was told that Cooper was outside grabbing at the feet of passersby in an attempt to shine their shoes.

Cooper became belligerent when the victim told him to leave the area and bumped his chest into the officer and shoved him with his hands. He left when the victim told him he was a police officer and displayed his badge but returned moments later and punched the officer in the face while the officer was calling for police on his cell phone.

When the officer tried to place Cooper under arrest, Cooper struggled with him, grabbing at the victim’s gun.

“He then raised his head and bit the victim in the chest, biting the right nipple off,” Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti said at Cooper’s bond hearing.

The officer was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where doctors told him the nipple, which was recovered at the scene, could not be reattached and that the victim would require reconstructive surgery.

Outside court, Cooper’s wife — who did not want to be identified by name — said her husband spoke with her briefly from the police station and told her he did not know that the victim was a police officer. She said he had apparently been drinking at the time,but said it was unclear what exactly occurred.

“The alcohol is the main reason [for Cooper’s troubles],” she said, adding that her husband struggles with alcohol abuse. “When you’re intoxicated, the alcohol does the talking for you.”

– Matt Walberg