Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson Thursday defended the Tigers men’s basketball program of any wrongdoings, but wouldn’t confirm that Derrick Rose is the player at the center of alleged major NCAA violations. “We wouldn’t play anybody if we hadn’t checked it out pretty thoroughly,” Johnson told The Associated Press. In a letter to the school, obtained by The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, the NCAA says the athlete in question played for the Tigers in the 2007-08 season and the 2008 NCAA tournament. The only person who played just that season was Rose.
According to Wikipedia administrators speaking to The Register:
Multiple editors have been “openly editing [Scientology-related articles] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities.” (more…)
Would Judge Sotomayor be qualified to serve as a juror? Let’s say she forthrightly explained to the court during the voir dire (the jury-selection phase of a case) that she believed a wise Latina makes better judgments than a white male; that she doubts it is actually possible to “transcend [one's] personal sympathies and prejudices and aspire to achieve a greater degree of fairness and integrity based on the reason of law”; and that there are “basic differences” in the way people “of color” exercise “logic and reasoning.” If, upon hearing that, would it not be reasonable for a lawyer for one (or both) of the parties to ask the court to excuse her for cause? Would it not be incumbent on the court to grant that request?
Should we have on the Supreme Court, where jury verdicts are reviewed, a justice who would have difficulty qualifying for jury service?
The priest, the Rev. Alberto Cutié, said he was joining the Episcopal Church and planning to marry his girlfriend of two years, who was also becoming an Episcopalian.
Speaking at Trinity Cathedral, an Episcopal church in Miami, Father Cutié (pronounced koo-tee-AY) told reporters that the prayers of his friends and followers had sustained him “at this time of transition” in his life.
“With God’s help,” he added, “I hope to continue priestly ministry and service in my new spiritual home.”
In a private ceremony inside the cathedral, Father Cutié, 40, and his fiancée, Ruhama Buni Canellis, 35, were received into the Episcopal Church.
*Isaac Carothers, a close ally of Mayor Richard M. Daley, could soon become the 31st Chicago Alderman to be convicted on criminal charges since 1973. Far more interesting than his own troubles, though, is the revelation that Carothers has been wearing a wire for more than a year.
*Also indicted is developer Calvin Boender, who is close to Carothers and who made a controversial $200,000 loan to Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D, Ill.) after the congressman wrote a letter in support of a zoning change he sought. Boender is accused of bribing Ald. Carothers in order to get the same zoning change, which reportedly added about $6 million to the value of one of his properties. (more…)
“I am confident that we can move this process forward,” Obama said after meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at
the White House. The
president said that means both sides must “meet the obligations that they’ve already committed to” - an element of the peace effort that has proved elusive for years.
Abbas told The Associated Press after the session with Obama that no meetings with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are on the horizon. He said there are no preconditions for such a meeting but “obligations” on Israel through the so-called road map for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Abbas added that he would not even assist Obama’s special envoy, George Mitchell, in trying to encourage Arab states to begin warming relations with Israel until Israel accepted these conditions. “We can’t talk to the Arabs until Israel agrees to
freeze settlements and recognizes the two-state solution,” Abbas was quoted saying. “Until then we can’t talk to anyone.”
However,
The Washington Post went on, “Abbas and his team fully expect that Netanyahu will never agree to the full settlement
freeze - if he did, his center-right coalition would almost certainly collapse. So they plan to sit back and watch while US pressure slowly squeezes the Israeli prime minister from office. ‘It will take a couple of years,’ one official breezily predicted.”
Abbas, the article continued, “rejects the notion that he should make any comparable concession - such as recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, which would imply renunciation of any large-scale resettlement of refugees.”
In his speech, Bush did not specifically refer to the high-profile debate over President Obama’s decision to halt the use of harsh interrogation techniques. Bush also didn’t mention Cheney, his former vice president, by name.
Instead, he described how he proceeded after the capture of terrorism suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in March 2003. (more…)
Charges brought against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned.
The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force — one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.
In Beijing, it was a day of horror. I was there, as a reporter, and during a night lit up in memory with flame and tracer bullets, watched troops and armored personnel carriers move toward the square–as street protesters set fire to barricades, and then, unarmed and overwhelmed by the guns of the People’s Liberation Army, fell back. In the early hours of the morning, I watched a few thousand protesters make a last stand in the square, weaponless and surrounded on three sides by thousands of AK-47-toting soldiers. Shortly before dawn, I saw those troops, on foot and in armored personnel carriers, force the remaining protesters out. (more…)
AS President Obama and UN diplomats mull a response to North Korea’s latest nu clear blast, the hermit tyranny’s southern neighbor may have unearthed the best one: the Proliferation Security Initiative.
If the Obama administration were to adopt this almost-forgotten Bush-era bit of innovative “cowboy diplomacy” as its own, it could become the most important international method of containing Pyongyang.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), one of the Senate’s leading abortion rights supporters, said she will not specifically ask Sotomayor about Roe but said she has no reason to doubt Sotomayor’s position on the issue. “I feel as comfortable as I could possibly feel,” Boxer said.
The abortion issue is likely to arise in Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings in July, in part because of her background as a Catholic. But she is unlikely to offer any more clarity than have previous nominees. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., for instance, ducked the question during his 2005 hearings by saying that Roe is “settled as a precedent of the court.”
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor wants to give jailbirds the right to vote. It’s her opinion that the federal Voting Rights Act can be used to force states to allow voting by currently imprisoned felons. Ms. Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion in a 2006 felon-voting case should make senators extremely wary of confirming her for the high court.
In Hayden v. Pataki, a number of inmates in New York state filed suit claiming that because blacks and Latinos make up a disproportionate share of the prison population, the state’s refusal to allow them ballot access amounts to an unlawful, race-based denial of their right to vote. Eight of 13 judges on the liberal-leaning Second Circuit dismissed their arguments, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled likewise in a similar case.
TweetBeep.com does what the I.T. guys call alerts. Once programmed, it will search Twitter once an hour and shoot you an e-mail if it finds, say, the name of your company or the latest batch of #swineflu tweets. TweetBeep saves you from spending your day hovering over the Advanced Search page.
If you love Twitter, you’ll love TweetBeep! Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company, anything, with hourly updates! You can even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL (like bit.ly or tinyurl.com). Now, how cool is that?!
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The personal medical records of tens of thousands of people have been lost by the NHS, the Department of Health has confirmed.
A total of 140 security breaches were reported within the NHS between January and April this year.
These included computers containing medical records stolen and left by skips and stolen and passwords taped on encrypted discs with sensitive information, The Independent newspaper said.
Over the last six months, the Information Commissioner has been forced to take action against 14 NHS bodies for breaching data regulations.
In an interview with the newspaper, Commissioner Richard Thomas, said the watchdog had ordered an urgent review of data security in the health service.
Before Americans lit the fires for their Memorial Day barbecues, North Korea lit four: an underground nuclear test — far more powerful than their 2006 test — and reportedly fired three short-range ballistic missiles.
Iran lit its own fire, sending six “warships” — really coastal patrol boats — for the first time into international waters in the Gulf of Aden. Iranian President Ahmadinejad also rejected the latest Western proposal for a freeze on Iran’s nuclear development in return for a promise of no new sanctions.
Don’t let anybody mislead you: The new push to get a 15% ethanol mandate out of Washington is simply to restore profitability to a failed industry. Only this time around those promoting more ethanol in our gas say there’s no scientific proof that adding more ethanol will damage vehicles or small gas-powered engines. With that statement they’ve gone from shilling the public to outright falsehoods, because ethanol-laced gasoline is already destroying engines across the country in ever larger numbers. (more…)
The problems were the same old bugaboos that have haunted light rail for years in Kansas City: a lack of good population densities, inadequate policies that spur the kind development that generates riders, too much cheap parking and our general unwillingness to approve a tax for light rail (with the exception of Clay Chastain’s repealed plan from 2006).
As a refresher, the $845 million line would have run from I-29 and Vivion Road in North Kansas City across the river through downtown to the Plaza and east to Watkins Parkway and south to 63rd street. The price for taxpayers: a three-eight cent sales tax increase.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The manager of Democrat Paul Morrison’s 2006 campaign for attorney general is now a member of the state ethics commission, and anti-abortion groups and some conservatives are upset about it.
Mark Simpson joined the Governmental Ethics Commission last month, named by House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat. Simpson, an assistant Douglas County district attorney, also is a former executive director for the Kansas Democratic Party.
Morrison, an abortion-rights Democrat, unseated Attorney General Phill Kline, an anti-abortion Republican, in a contentious campaign in which Morrison questioned Kline’s investigation of one of the nation’s few late-term abortion providers and Kline’s pursuit of patient records for potential evidence. Morrison left office in January 2008 after admitting to an extramarital affair.
Prominent conservative Republicans argue someone with such a partisan past shouldn’t sit on the commission that enforces campaign finance laws.
The Johnson County Commission today approved a series of bus fare increases, including a 50-cent hike for the popular express route linking Overland Park and Lawrence.
The increase raises the price of a trip to $3 on the K-10 Connector, which runs between Johnson County Community College and the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One of the men responsible for gunning down a 24-year-old Leawood woman as she attempted to leave Westport last fall. pleaded guilty on Tuesday.After admitting he participated in the killing, 19-year-old Claude Sterling III hid his face as he left the courtroom and was taken back to jail.Inside the courtroom, Sterling confessed to his role in the slaying of Devin Cassidy.
The 451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command will be located at the Lanny J. Wallace Reserve Center, 3130 George Washington Blvd, according to a report from the Associated Press.
The unit has been placed on “carrier status” by the Army Reserve, allowing for time to equip, recruit and train the soldiers. The planned activation date for the unit is Sept. 16, 2011.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt was on hand with Sen. Sam Brownback, Sen. Pat Roberts and with Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, chief of the U.S. Army Reserve, for the announcement.
The Board of County Commissioners today approved a series of bus fare increase and a fare policy for Johnson County Transit, beginning July 1, 2009. The fare from the popular K-10 Connector express route will increase by 50 cents to $3 and a 10-ride pass will rise from $15 to $22.50. Other fare changes include $2 for basic service (current fares are $1.25 and $1.75 depending on the service) and a daily fare of $1 per trip for riders using local circulator bus services in Olathe, Shawnee, De Soto, Spring Hill, and northeast Johnson County. The Transit Department estimated the fare increase will generate approximately $67,000 in the final half of 2009 and will be used to offset the cost of expanded bus service. The last time Johnson County raised fares occurred in 1999. (more…)
Pre — due to go on sale on June 6 exclusively at AT&T’s smaller rival Sprint Nextel (S.N) — is seen as Palm’s best hope to win back market share lost to rivals such as Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone.
AT&T is the exclusive U.S. provider for the iPhone. In response to a question about the Pre at the All Things Digital conference near San Diego, Stephenson said Sprint currently has the exclusive rights for Pre but added that he would like to sell the Pre one day.
LONDON (Reuters) - Sony Ericsson introduced a new phone on Thursday that allows consumers to connect to their PlayStation3 gaming consoles, part of its Christmas line-up and its strongest sign yet of integration with parent Sony Corp.
The world’s fifth-biggest handset maker, which has slid down the rankings as the mid-market handset segment has been squeezed, said telecoms operators were hungry for phones that could drive data usage without needing huge subsidies.
CHICAGO — Carlos Zambrano went wild in a ball-tossing, bat-swinging tirade after being ejected, and was gone when Reed Johnson hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning that sent the Chicago Cubs over the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 Wednesday. The Cubs ace was tossed by umpire Mark Carlson in the seventh after Nyjer Morgan scored the tying run on a wild pitch, beating catcher Geovany Soto’s throw to Zambrano at the plate. Zambrano jumped up, argued the call and appeared to nudge Carlson. The excitable right-hander then pointed in Carlson’s face and gave him the ejection sign.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said the Bush administration should have let General Motors go bankrupt instead of bailing out the troubled auto giant, according to The Hill.
Cheney told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow that he disagreed from the beginning with Bush’s decision to provide a short-term loan to the embattled automaker. At the time, the move was intended to keep the GM solvent until then-President-elect Obama could take the reins. A month before he left office, Bush announced a $13.4 billion bridge loan for General Motors and Chrysler.
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the U.S. Census Bureau detailing the substantial involvement of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in the 2010 Census. Included among the 126 pages of documents, obtained by Judicial Watch under threat of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, is ACORN’s original Census partnership application. The document describes 18 different areas of responsibility requested by the community organization, which is under investigation in multiple states for illegal activity during the 2008 election, including voter registration fraud.
A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 57 percent of Americans oppose legalizing same-sex marriage while 40 percent are in favor.
The poll, released Wednesday, comes on the heels of the California Supreme Court’s upholding of Proposition 8, a citizen-enacted constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage. The poll results reflect the highest opposition to the controversial issue since 2005, when a similar survey produced a 59-37 percent margin against same-sex marriage.
In 2008, a Gallup poll showed 56 percent of those surveyed were in opposition to gay marriage while 40 percent supported it; and in 2007, the numbers were 53 percent in opposition to 46 percent in support.
The new poll shows nearly half of Americans (48 percent) believe allowing two people of the same sex to marry will “change our society for the worse,” while only 13 percent say it will “change society for the better.” Thirty-six percent of those surveyed said it would have no effect at all.
“I am not done,” Funkhouser said.He added this was his second state of the City speech.”I know there are some people who wish it were my last, but let there be no misunderstanding, I will be giving my third state of the city speech at this time next year,” Funkhouser said.His supporters in the audience applauded that line, KMBC’s Micheal Mahoney reported.Earlier this week, organizers of the drive to recall Funkhouser turned in another 13,000 names. Weeks earlier, the group turned in about 9,000 signatures. About 7,400 of those were valid.
TOPEKA, Kan. - Shawnee County officials have voted to prevent District Attorney Chad Taylor and his staff from carrying guns to work.
The 2-0 county commission vote Thursday opts Shawnee County out of a new state law going into effect July 1 that gives Kansas prosecutors permission to carry firearms in county courthouses.
It is common online behavior to copy and paste content off a website. Right or wrong, it happens, but now with Tracer (available free in Beta from Tynt), you can watch each instance and begin to learn what people are most interested in. Each time a user pastes content from your website into an email, blog or website , we automatically add a URL link back to your site’s original content. This ensures you get credit for content that you have created. You can’t stop users from copying off your site but you can make the pasted content your virtual ambassador!
(Note: Since I copied and pasted the text above from the Tynt website, it automatically added the reference and link above. And when you go to that link, it highlights in yellow the text that was copied.)
Now, some abortion rights advocates are quietly expressing unease that Judge Sotomayor may not be a reliable vote to uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision. In a letter, Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, urged supporters to press senators to demand that Judge Sotomayor reveal her views on privacy rights before any confirmation vote.
“Discussion about Roe v. Wade will - and must - be part of this nomination process,” Ms. Keenan wrote. “As you know, choice hangs in the balance on the Supreme Court as the last two major choice-related cases were decided by a 5-to-4 margin.”
The project, which is being tested ahead of its formal launch in June, involves 550 first and second year students and some staff of a department at Aoyama Gakuin University, which is located just outside Tokyo in Sagamihara city.
The school’s iPhones are meant to create a mobile information network between students and professors, but they are also a convenient way for the teachers to take attendance in class.
As students enter the room, instead of writing their name on a sheet, they simply type in their ID number and a specific class number into an iPhone application.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc on Thursday made official plans to separate its AOL division sometime around the end of this year, a widely expected move that sheds one of the media company’s weakest divisions.
For Time Warner, the move represents a return to its roots as a pure content company with a focus on its cable channels, film studios and publishing businesses and unwinds a massive merger in 2000 that failed to live up to its promise.
NEW YORK — The NHL went against its previous plan, pushing up the start of the Stanley Cup finals to avoid a long layoff. The league announced Wednesday night that Detroit will host Pittsburgh on Saturday night in Game 1 of the first championship rematch in 25 years. Last week, the NHL said the finals would begin June 5 if both conference finals were not decided by Tuesday. Plan B was put in place because NBC and the league didn’t want to stunt the excitement about the matchup that has a potential to draw nontraditional viewers.
