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Baltimore Sun

Super Bowl XLV Steelers-Packers: Green Bay 31, Pittsburgh 25 (final)

 

A dramatic second half comes to a close as the Steelers turn the ball over on downs, giving the Packers their fourth Super Bowl victory.

 

Athan Atsales

10:08 PM EST, February 6, 2011

On fourth and five from the Pittsburgh 33-yard line, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's pass to receiver Mike Wallace was high and went off his hands for an incomplete pass as Tramon Williams was on coverage.

The Packers take over on downs and proceed to run out the clock.

Final score: Green Bay 31, Pittsburgh 25.

That's Super Bowl Ring No. 4 for Green Bay.

A huge 44-yard pass to from Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to receiver Greg Jennings on third and 10 from the Green Bay 31-yard line set up three more points for the Packers.

They proceeded to drive to to the Pittsburgh five before Jordy Nelson was unable to stretch to grab a pass in the right-corner of the end zone on third down. Sam Shields was covering for the Steelers.

Mason Crosby kicked a 23-yard field goal with 2:07 left to put the Packers ahead by six.

Green Bay 31, Pittsburgh 25.

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Pittsburgh receiver Mike Wallace got behind the Packers' Sam Shields to grab a 25-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger with 7:34 remaining.

Green Bay safety Nick Collins was late coming over in coverage as Wallace grabbed the ball just before the goal line and cruised in. The drive covered 66 yards on seven plays.

Then Steelers receiver Antwaan Randal-El ran in a two-point conversion on an option pitch by Roethlisberger.

Green Bay 28, Pittsburgh 25.

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Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers hit receiver Greg Jennings on an eight-yard touchdown pass to the right-corner of the end zone, beating the coverage of Steelers safety Troy Polamalu.

The big play on the Packers' eight-play, 55-yard drive was a 38-yard pass from Rodgers to Jordy Nelson that set up Green Bay at the two-yard line. Rodgers was sacked for a six-yard loss before the touchdown pass.

Green Bay 28, Pittsburgh 17, with 11:51 left in the fourth quarter.

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Packers defensive end Ryan Pickett and linebacker Clay Matthews combined to jar the football loose from the hands of Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall.

Green Bay linebacker Desmond Bishop recovered the loose ball on the Packes' 45-yard line.

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With the exchange of kicks and some Green Bay penalties, the Steelers were able to switch field position in their favor.

As the third quarter ends the Steelers are in Packers' territory behind by four points. If Pittsburgh can claim the victory, it would be the largest deficit overcome in Super Bowl history at 18 points.

Green Bay 21, Pittsburgh 17.

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The Steelers had a chance to move within a point, but Pittsburgh kicker Shaun Suisham pulled a 52-yard field goal attempt with 4:30 to go in the third quarter.

On a third-and-13 play before the field-goal attempt, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had plenty of time to pass but no one was open and Packers linebacker Frank Zombo finally sacked the quarterback for a loss of two yards.

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On Pittsburgh's first possession of the second half, the Steelers ran five consecutive times for 50 yards.

Rashard Mendenhall covered the last eight yards to paydirt and Pittsburgh moved to within four points with 10:19 to go in the third quarter.

Green Bay 21, Pittsburgh 17.

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Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger finds receiver Hines Ward in the right corner of the end zone, after he lost defensive back Jarrett Bush with a fish-tail-like move, for an eight-yard touchdown reception.

Green Bay 21, Pittsburgh 10, with 39 seconds left in the half.

Pittsburgh drove 77 yards on seven plays in 1:45. After the kickoff, the Packers ran out the clock.

The Packers opt to run out the clock after Pittsburgh's ensuing kickoff.

Halftime: Green Bay 21, Pittsburgh 10.

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With good protection, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers hits receiver Greg Jennings on a 21-yard post pattern between three Steelers playing zone.

The Steelers' Ryan Clark came within inches of tipping the pass away and safety Troy Polamalu hit Jennings after the catch but couldn't prevent him from reaching the end zone.

The Packers drove 53 yards on four plays for the score.

With 2:31 left in the half, Green Bay 21, Pittsburgh 3.

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Ben Roethlisberger completed a pass to Antwaan Randle El to move the Steelers across the 50-yard line for the second time.

But two plays later, the Packers' Jarrett Bush stepped in front of a pass intended for Pittsburgh receiver Mike Wallace and intercepted it at the Green Bay 47 with 4:28 left in the half.

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Shaun Suisham puts the Pittsburgh Steelers on the scoreboard with a 33-yard field goal with 11:53 to go in the first half.

Pittsburgh drove 49 yards in 13 plays, with the drive stalling on the Packers' 15-yard line.

Green Bay 14, Pittsburgh 3.

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Under pressure, Ben Roethlisberger scrambles through the middle of the pocket and races toward the left sideline to the Packers' 32-yard line, moving the Steelers across the 50 for the first time.

End of first quarter, Green Bay 14, Pittsburgh 0

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With the Steelers snapping the ball from the eight-yard line, Packers defensive tackle Howard Green pushed the pocket back and hit Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as he released a pass. The throw fell way short of receiver Mike Wallace, who was being covered by Tramon Williams.

Packers safety Nick Collins stepped in, front of Wallace and Williams, caught the floating pass and returned it 37 yards for another Green Bay touchdown.

The Packers were penalized for excessive celebration, but now lead 14-0 with 3:34 to go in the first quarter.

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Despite pressure from his right side, with LaMarr Woodley and James Farrior making life difficult for Green Bay tackle Brian Bulaga, Aaron Rodgers drove the Packers across the 50 (a game first for either side) and then connected with Jordy Nelson on a 29-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline.

Nelson ran past Pittsburgh's William Gay, who was half a step behind Nelson, who grabbed the pass just before the end zone and scored. Green Bay leads 7-0 with 3:51 to go in the first quarter.

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The Packers averted disaster on the game's first punt when Tramon Williams muffed the kick but was able to recover after a wild scramble on the Green Bay 21-yard line.

Teammate Sam Shields was close to Williams when he fielded the punt and seemed to distract the returner. Pittsburgh's Keenan Lewis was also nearby but couldn't come up with the loose ball.

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Lea Michele of the television show "Glee" sang America the Beautiful and Christina Aguilera sang the Star-Spangled Banner, giving the players and coaches another set of goose-pimples on the sideline. A few tears were shed too.

The Green Bay Packers won the coin toss and decided to kick off, meaning they will receive the ball to start the second half.

The Steelers be moving from right to left on your sensory produced Blogosphere Stadium field. The Steelers are wearing white and the Packers green.

Sunday, February 6th 2011, 3:02 PM

Weiner/APFormer Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara.

Yin DongxunOpposition demonstrators gather at the Tahrir Square in Cairo.

 

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she is skeptical of the true motives of the protesters demonstrating in Cairo.

"We want to be able to trust those who are screaming for democracy there in Egypt, that it is a true sincere desire for freedoms," she told the Christian Broadcasting Network in her first public comments about the two-week-old crisis in Egypt.

"How do we verify what it is that we are being told, what it is that the American public are being fed via media, via the protestors, via the government there in Egypt in order for us to really have some sound information to make wise decisions on what our position is."

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have taken to the streets for the last 13 days, demanding greater freedom and the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for 30 years.

The images brought fear to the hearts of Arab despots and hope to pro-democracy movements in other authoritarian regimes.

But Palin was dubious.

"We need to find out who was behind all of the turmoil and the revolt and the protests so that good decisions can be made in terms of who we will stand by and support," she said.

Palin was especially concerned about the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, the most organized of Egypt's opposition parties, which has been asked to join political talks about the future government.

"Mubarak, he's gone, one way or the other you know, he is not going to be the leader of Egypt, that that's a given, so now the information needs to be gathered and understood as to who it will be that fills now the void in the government. Is it going to be the Muslim Brotherhood?

"We should not stand for that, or with that or by that," she said.

Palin said she was "not real enthused" about President Obama's handling of the crisis, harkening back to the famous 2008 primary campaign commercial branding him unready to handle a crisis.

"This is that 3 a.m. White House phone call and it seems for many of us trying to get that information from our leader in the White House it seems that that call went right to the answering machine," Palin said.

"Nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak."

She added, "Now, more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House."

She did not offer what would have done in Obama's place.

In general, Republican politicians talked about for a 2012 presidential run have remained mute on Egypt, while leading GOP lawmakers have been quietly supportive.

The exceptions are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has slammed the Obama administration as clueless about the Muslim Brotherhood, and Mike Huckabee, who criticized Obama for "abandoning a 30-year ally" in Mubarak.

On other topics:

Palin, who has a communications degree from the University of Idaho, said she wanted to use her skills to help out what she calls the "lamestream media."

"I've said this for a couple of years now, I want to help 'em. I want. I have a journalism degree, that is what I studied. I understand that this cornerstone of our democracy is a free press, is sound journalism. I want to help them build back their reputation. And allow Americans to be able to trust what it is that they are reporting," she said, according to a transcript of the exclusive interview with David Brody provided by CBN.

"What would give me great joy is what would become irrelevant is the misreporting that comes out of the mainstream media."

Asked what she would do differently if she jumped into a national campaign again, she said:

"I would continue on the same course of not really caring what other people say about me or worrying about the things that they make up, but having that thick skin and a steel spine."

"I do believe, David, that there are more commonsense conservative Americans on our side on the issues that we stand for, than there are those who oppose the idea of individualism and God-given liberty and opportunity to work hard and to progress according to our own work ethic and our own merits."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/02/06/2011-02-06_sarah_palin_i_dont_trust_we_know_true_motives_of_protesters_in_egypt.html#ixzz1DEoR2k9S

Obama's jobs plan: On a collision course with GOP budget cuts?

 

 

Mark Trumbull

Christian Science Monitor

Staff writer

February 4, 2011

 

The Obama administration outlined an "innovation strategy" for US job growth Friday, which emphasizes federal economic investments at a time when Republicans are calling for deep budget cuts.

The blueprint follows a State of the Union speech in which President Obama called for America to "out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world."

Although this theme isn't a new one for Mr. Obama, the White House has moved it to the forefront as the president seeks follow-on economic policies after stimulus and tax-cut legislation during his first two years in office. The move also comes as Obama has been trying to rebuild trust with American business.

His pitch: The economy will prosper if industry and government cooperate to improve the climate for entrepreneurship, manufacturing, and advanced research.

The strategy has three broad parts:

• Invest in "building blocks" of innovation, such as education, basic science research, and infrastructure for transportation and communication.

• Promote marketplace innovators through steps including tax incentives and a streamlining of the patent system.

• "Catalyze breakthroughs" in some industries that the administration views as crucial: clean energy, nanotechnology, biotech, and space capabilities.

The last goal is the most controversial, as it could move government more heavily into the role of "picking winners" in the private sector, by pushing funds toward emerging industries.

Elements of Obama's strategy appeal to many business leaders, and economists say the federal government has a long history of helping to lay the groundwork for innovation and jobs. But corporate America is also worried about high federal deficits – and whether runaway spending will diminish America's competitiveness.

Republicans, newly ascendant in Congress, have seized on the fiscal challenge as their emphasis. Even as Obama has made this innovation week (headlined Monday by a new "Startup America" initiative), they rolled out details of a deep spending-cut plan.

Many Republicans hope to roll back discretionary federal spending to 2008 levels, arguing that restraining federal debt is the best way to restore the job-creating spirits of private-sector employers.

The battle is partly over differing economic visions, but it also reflects positioning for elections in 2012. Polls show an anxious public, supportive of government policies that might help create jobs but also eager to halt the rapid rise of national debt.

Obama's position is that fiscal austerity is necessary, but should be imposed gradually as the economy recovers. Investing in innovation, administration officials say, will come in the context of a disciplined, long-term budget plan.

Republican spending cuts in the current budget year would fall in some of the same general categories that Obama hopes to target for investment: transportation, energy, science, and education.

Unveiling a report on the innovation strategy at a news conference Friday, Obama economic adviser Gene Sperling said the policies could create jobs in the present as well as the future. A federal commitment to nurture industries like clean energy, he said, sends a signal to potential job creators "who have cash on the sidelines."

Obama's budget plans, to be released Feb. 14, won't ignore the parallel need of "getting our fiscal house in order," Mr. Sperling said.

The latest national job numbers, released Friday, offered a mixed message on the economy. Although few private-sector jobs were created in January, according to a survey of employers, the US unemployment rate fell to 9 percent.

Even with the improvement in the unemployment rate, the Labor Department tallied about 14 million Americans as unemployed. The budget deficit, for its part, is also daunting: $1.5 trillion this year, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office estimate.

Next week, Obama plans to continue his innovation theme with a visit to Marquette, Mich., to promote improved wireless services that could help exporters and other businesses. Obama's goal is for high-speed wireless service to be accessible for 98 percent of Americans within five years.

 

The Obama administration outlined an 'innovation strategy' Friday. But GOP plans for budget cuts would fall in some of the same general categories that Obama hopes to target for investment.

6 Feb 2011

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Craig R. McCoy

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

Trial ready to begin in ‘kids for cash’ case

 

Testimony about an ex-judge could shed light on the Luzerne scandal; others pleaded guilty.

 

“I’m kind of hoping that he’s feeling the anxiety that Hillary and I felt before the trial she went through,
that horrible, horrible feeling that somebody has your life in their hands.”

Laurene Transue, whose daughter was jailed at age 15 in 2007 over a MySpace page that made fun of an assistant principal Mark A. Ciavarella Jr.  “I didn’t sell any kids down the river.   I’m not pleading guilty to anything relative to cash for kids, embezzlement, extortion, quid pro quo.   Absolutely not.”  in an interview given before his guilty-plea agreement came undone

Once Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. could do no wrong.   He was the popular judge, “Mr. Zero Tolerance,” who wouldn’t brook any misbehavior from belligerent youngsters appearing before him in juvenile court.

 

WARREN RUDA / Citizens’ Voice Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. in Scranton in 2009.

At right is Michael T. Conahan, who pleaded guilty, is awaiting sentencing, and could be called as a witness.

Today, despite all his protestations, Ciavarella is seen as the pitiless overseer of a cutthroat courtroom in which he conspired with another judge to grow rich upon the suffering of children.

Starting Monday, Ciavarella, 60, will get his chance to redeem his name as jury selection in his federal corruption trial finally gets under way, two years after the socalled kids-for-cash scandal exploded in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The trial is eagerly awaited in Luzerne County, where prosecutors say Ciavarella, now an ex-judge, and the county’s former president judge, Michael T. Conahan, took in $2.9 million in exchange for shipping children and teenagers to forprofit detention centers.

Among other cases, Ciavarella jailed a 12-year-old boy for two years for crashing the family car in a joyride.   He gave a six-month sentence to a teen spotted giving the finger to a police officer.   He ordered an 11-year-old boy — 4-foot-2 and 63 pounds — taken away in leg shackles when his parents were unable to pay a $488 fine. 

Since the scandal broke in 2009, the string of indictments and guilty pleas has managed to awe and appall many residents in a region long grown cynical about pols who dip into the public till.   But many of the details haven’t been aired in open court since everyone else charged in the case has pleaded guilty.

Ciavarella’s prosecution is expected to be the climax of a scandal that has mushroomed month by month. In all, federal prosecutors have brought charges against nearly 30 officials, including a third county judge, numerous court officials, a state senator, school board members, and county officials.

Marsha Levick, chief counsel for the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, said the alleged judicial wrongdoing constituted “the most serious judicial scandal in the history of the United States.”

The state Supreme Court has agreed to wipe out the criminal records of up to 4,000 youngsters whose cases were tainted over five years in Ciavarella’s courtroom.   Lawyers for these children and teens have lawsuits for money damages pending in federal court.

The state legislature set aside $ 500,000 to help what victims-rights advocates call the “original victims” — the people who were injured or whose possessions were stolen or damaged in the underlying delinquency crimes in the first place.

Yet to the consternation of their advocates, the state has yet to mandate that all juvenile defendants be represented by a lawyer — a key reason the Luzerne County hearings turned into kangaroo court.

With other major players in the alleged conspiracy on deck as possible prosecution witnesses — most notably Conahan, who has pleaded guilty in the scandal — the public is bracing for a trial that could shed new light on the depth of the wrongdoing.

Ciavarella always has the option of pleading guilty and accepting whatever sentence the court imposes.

Barring that, the trial should “air a lot of dirty laundry that perhaps has not seen the light of day yet,” said Ronald V. Santora, a lawyer for a former Luzerne County judge who had raised questions about Conahan.

This view was echoed by Levick, whose Juvenile Law Center played a significant role in unearthing the scandal.

If Conahan or others testify against Ciavarella, “ one would expect the gory details of what these individuals were up to and the mischief they were up to come out,” she said.

Until their downfall, Conahan was the intimidating top judge in the century-old courthouse in Wilkes-Barre and the more amiable Ciavarella the sole judge to hear juvenile cases.

Over five years, federal prosecutors say, the two friends and neighbors raked in $2.9 million in kickbacks and bribes, $143,500 of it cash stuffed into FedEx boxes.   The alleged bribes helped fuel a lavish lifestyle that included their joint purchase of an $ 800,000 condo affiliated with a yacht club in Florida.

The money came from the owner and builder of two detention centers for delinquent youths.   In return, the government says, the judges closed a competing county-run detention facility and made sure the ex-owner, Robert Powell, a rich Hazleton lawyer and friend of Conahan’s, got $58 million in county prison contracts.

Moreover, a state investigatory commission found, Ciavarella kept the centers busy.   In 2007, one out of four juveniles ruled delinquent in Luzerne County was removed from home — more than double the rate elsewhere in Pennsylvania.

His justice was swift and brusque.   “You’re gone,” he told 10th grader Hillary Transue before sending her away.   Her crime: creating a parody MySpace page that made fun of an assistant principal.

Laurene Transue, whose daughter was jailed at age 15 in 2007 over the MySpace page, said she and other parents were glad the trial was “finally here.”

“I know this might sound awful,” Transue said.   “I’m kind of hoping that he’s feeling the anxiety that Hillary and I felt before the trial she went through, that horrible, horrible feeling that somebody has your life in their hands.”

Hillary appeared without a lawyer for a hearing that lasted 60 seconds.   She spent a month at a wilderness camp until the Juvenile Law Center had Ciavarella’s decision reversed.

“I wish all of these kids had been given the same rights as Mr. Ciavarella has been given,” her mother said.   “I think about my kid — down came the gavel, and they put her in handcuffs and they took her out. No words, no hugs.”

The scandal unfolded against a systemic breakdown of oversight, as defense lawyers, prosecutors, the Judicial Conduct Board, and the state Supreme Court all missed warning signs and opportunities to rein in the two judges.

Tellingly, more than half of the youngsters appeared before Ciavarella without an attorney.   That was the highest rate of non-representation in any juvenile court in the nation, Levick said.

Of 22 lawyers on the public defender’s staff in Luzerne County, “not even one,” but “a portion of one,” was assigned to Juvenile Court, Basil G. Russin, the former chief public defender in Luzerne County, told an investigative panel.

When a member of his staff raised an alarm about the lack of representation, by his own account Russin told him, “We’re not going to seek clients.”

As Ciavarella cracked down and even as the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader spotlighted his high incarceration rate, the public saluted him.   In 2006, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Greater WilkesBarre named him man of the year.

“Everybody loved it.   The schools absolutely loved it. They got rid of every bad kid in school,” Russin said. “When I was in school, if you threw a spitball, maybe you went to the principal’s office and sat for a couple of periods. Last couple years, if you threw a spitball, they got the police and you ended up in Juvenile Court and got sent away.”

So even in a region seemingly inured to corruption, there was shock in January 2009 when news broke that Conahan and Ciavarella had agreed to plead guilty and serve seven-year prison sentences, well under the terms recommended in federal guidelines.

But an outraged federal judge, Edwin M. Kosik, killed the lenient deal six months later.   Kosik grew disgusted after both judges minimized their wrongdoing.

Last July, Conahan pleaded guilty anew, without any agreement on his sentence.   No date has been set for a sentencing hearing.   This should ratchet up the pressure on Conahan to deliver should he be called to testify.

There is little doubt that the defense faces an uphill battle.   Its task will be to smash the “kids for cash” allegation, which has become the central motif of the scandal.

The defense’s job will be harder not only because of the array of cooperating witnesses, but because of public admissions already made by Ciavarella.

In extraordinary testimony in 2009, he acknowledged taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the owner and builder of the detention centers.   He also admitted not reporting the money on his income taxes or his public income-disclosure forms.

While defense lawyer William Ruzzo declined to discuss the substance of his strategy, he did say he expected that 2009 testimony to be cited by prosecutors.

“I suspect it will be,” Ruzzo said. “It is testimony under oath by Mark.”

These admissions were made as another part of the scandal unfolded, having to do with another Wilkes-Barre newspaper, the Citizens’ Voice.

In 2006, Ciavarella, sitting without a jury, found the paper guilty of libel in stories that in part dealt with Billy D’Elia, the alleged head of organized crime in the region.   He ordered the paper to pay $3.5 million in damages.

On appeal, the newspaper’s lawyers dug up some remarkable evidence on the way to winning a pending retrial.

They presented testimony that Conahan had met regularly with D’Elia, that D’Elia had used a court security guard as a courier to carry sealed envelopes to Conahan ( it was never established what was in them), that Conahan had manipulated the court schedule to assign the libel case to Ciavarella, and that Conahan had predicted that the paper would lose the libel suit.

Conahan refused to testify at the appeals hearings.   Not so Ciavarella.

“ We were flabbergasted that he took the stand,” said W. Thomas McGough Jr., one of the paper’s lawyers at the time.   “ Everybody else invoked the Fifth Amendment, and he could have done that.”

In court, Ciavarella insisted that he had decided the libel suit on the merits and denied that the case had been fixed.

Yet he also dug himself into a hole, making statements almost certain to be quoted back to him at his own trial.

In one exchange, McGough asked him if he was a corrupt judge.   “Yes,” Ciavarella replied. McGough also pressed him about why his financial-disclosure forms failed to list the money from the detention center.

“So you lied on that?” McGough asked.

“I didn’t list it, correct,” Ciavarella replied.

“So you lied?” McGough said.

“Correct,” Ciavarella replied.

At the same time, Ciavarella was adamant that the undisclosed money had not been a bribe.   Rather, he insisted, it was a “finder’s fee” — money that the judges received for putting the owner, Powell, into contact with their builder, Robert Mericle.

Pressed by reporters, Ciavarella stuck to that point, saying the money had not driven his judicial decisions.

“I didn’t sell any kids down the river,” he said in a typical interview, given before his guilty-plea agreement came undone.

“I’m not pleading guilty to anything relative to cash for kids, embezzlement, extortion, quid pro quo. Absolutely not.”

While the initial guilty-plea agreements did not use such phrases, they did state that Ciavarella and Conahan had taken millions “in exchange for official actions.”   Both judges signed forms agreeing to this statement.

If the money paid Ciavarella was on the up and up, prosecutors are sure to point out, why did he hide it — failing to report it on his taxes and disclosure forms?

Powell and Mericle both have pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the scheme.   (D’Elia is in federal prison in Arizona on an unrelated conviction for witness tampering and conspiracy to launder drug money, and presumably won’t testify.)

Ciavarella may not be the only one to regret his public statements.

In court in late 2009, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon A. D. Zubrod, the top prosecutor in the case, also called the payments to the judges a “finder’s fee.”

Zubrod did so at the hearing at which Mericle, the detention centers’ builder, pleaded guilty to a relatively minor charge of withholding information from investigators.

At that session, Zubrod seemed to go out of his way to downplay Mericle’s criminality.

“This is not a kickback or bribe in any sense.   It is a common practice,” Zubrod said of the payments. “Mr. Mericle simply paid a finder fee to the judges in accordance with standard practice.”

In a filing Thursday, Ciavarella’s lawyers said they wanted to tell the jury about Zubrod’s statement.   The defense team said the prosecutor’s remarks were “directly inconsistent” with the government’s contention that Ciavarella had taken bribes.

Prosecutors won’t grant interviews.   In a court filing, they urged the judge to forbid the defense team to mention Zubrod’s remarks.

They argued that there was no contradiction — that while Mericle thought he was paying a routine finder’s fee, his associate in the deal, lawyer Powell, used the money to bribe the judges.

In an interview, Dan Richman, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Columbia Law School, said some judges might permit a jury to hear the apparent contradiction.

“There’s a distaste for the government taking contradictory positions at different times to serve its purposes,” Richman said.

In any event, David Sosar, an associate professor of political science at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, said many there had grown increasingly frustrated, feeling that the exact nature of the scandal had remained uncharted. He said the trial might remedy that.

 

“It’s been unresolved,” Sosar said. “A lot of people seem to think this will help this county get past some of the damage.”

Romney leads Obama, Huckabee even, in early 2012 survey

 

Mark Tapscott

02/06/11 11:15 AM

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads President Obama by two points, 44-42 percent, in the latest Rasmussen Reports national survey of voter preference for the 2012 presidential campaign. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is in a dead heat with Obama, with both drawing  43 percent.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin trails Obama by 11 points, while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is behind the Democratic incumbent by eight and Rep. Ron Paul, R-TX, by nine points.

As he should, Scott Rasmussen offers some important qualifiers about these results: "Seven lesser-known candidates trail by anywhere from 10 to 17 percentage points." Rasmussen added that:

"However, the most significant finding is that regardless of what GOP candidate is named, the president earns between 42% and 49%. This suggests the campaign is starting off in a fairly competitive environment, though much can change in the next year-and-a-half.

"If the president’s job approval ratings improve from this point forward, it is likely that his support will increase against all Republican candidates. If his job approval ratings fall, his numbers are likely to weaken against all potential candidates. It is reasonably safe to assume that the president’s actual vote total on Election Day 2012 will be close to his overall job approval rating.

"It’s also worth noting that a great deal of caution must be taken in terms of interpreting individual results. It is far from clear which candidates will seek the Republican nomination and who ultimately will be nominated.

"At this point in 2008, everybody assumed the Democratic nominee would be Hillary Clinton, and Rudy Giuliani was leading the Republican field. One candidate on our list, Mike Pence, has already dropped out of the race. Other names will be tested in the coming weeks."

Pence, the Indiana representative many conservatives viewed as their likely strongest candidate, announced last week that he will seek his state's governorship rather than the White House in 2012.

For more from Rasmussen on this survey, go here

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/romney_huckabee_even_with_obama_other_gop_hopefuls_trail

http://deadspin.com/5752262/mark-sanchezs-17+year+old-lady-friend-has-found-a-lawyer

Gas prices climbing despite hefty supply

Sandy Shore and Chris Kahn

AP Business Writer

 

February 5, 2011

Updated 14h 25m ago |

Retail gasoline prices are likely to creep higher as anti-government protests continue in Egypt and concerns remain about the stability of the Middle East.

 

Paul Sakuma, AP

This Chevron station in Mountain View, Calif., had prices well over $3 on Jan. 28, 2011.

 

The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.124 on Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service.   That's up 2.4 cents in the past week.   Analysts expect prices to stay at $3 a gallon or higher — perhaps rising as much as 8 cents over the next two weeks — until the conflict in Egypt is resolved and tensions ease in neighboring countries.

The pump increases come at a time when U.S. gasoline inventories are at an 18-year high of 236.2 million barrels. 

Crude oil imports are up, too, averaging 9.1 million barrels a day in the past four weeks, which is 641,000 barrels a day more than the four-week period in 2009.  At the same time, motorists are staying off the roads, with demand up less than 1% in the past month, as winter storms hit many parts of the country. 

"We will continue to have an amply supplied gasoline market all the way up through the spring and summer," energy analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.   "But it's a market that remains subject to the vagaries of geopolitics."

Without the uncertainty about the Middle East region, it's likely retail gas prices would have fallen from 5 cents to 10 cents recently, PFG Best analyst Phil Flynn said.  Much of the concern that has kept oil prices higher lies in the stability of the region. 

Egypt controls the Suez Canal and a nearby pipeline that, combined, carry about 2 million barrels of day from the Middle East to customers in Europe and America.  That's a relatively small amount, compared with the 87 million barrels consumed worldwide every day, but traders fear the protest will spread to nearby OPEC-producing countries.  It was a volatile week for oil prices.

Crude started just below $89 a barrel on Monday and shot up to almost $93 the same day.   The rest of the week, prices stayed between $92 and $90 a barrel before dropping again on Friday, back to Monday's level.  Oil prices fell after the government reported a sharp drop in the January unemployment rate, which helped the dollar strengthen against other currencies. 

Commodities like oil are priced in dollars, so a stronger dollar makes oil less attractive to buyers with foreign currency.  Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery fell $1.62 to $88.92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent crude lost $1.88 at $99.88 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Saturday, February 5th 2011, 12:30 PM

Robert Michelson, 21, was busted by Farmington Conn. cops after he called 911 to ask a dispatcher how much trouble he'd get in for growing marijuana.

A Connecticut man's plan to grow marijuana went up in smoke after he called 911 and asked how much trouble he would get into for growing the drug.

"I was just growing some marijuana and I was just wondering what, how much, you know, trouble you can get into for one plant," a not-so-bright Robert Michelson asked on Thursday night.

When the dispatcher asked if there was an active crime in progress, the 21-year-old answered "possibly."

Dispatchers traced the call to Michelson's home in Farmington, where cops found drug paraphernalia and a small amount of pot.

Michelson admitted he bought seeds and equipment online for growing.

He was released on a $5,000 bail. As he left the police station, he gave dispatchers two middle fingers.

"Presumably for doing such a good job," police said.

LINK TO 911 CALL:

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/video?id=7940992

GOP leader calls for end to earmarks, wants them for her district

Haddaway-Riccio has sought $1.4 million for Eastern Shore projects

Annie Linskey

The Baltimore Sun

9:29 PM EST, February 4, 2011

 

Washington Examiner

 

J.P. Freire

Feb 5 2011 - 10:46am

Obama sells out U.K. to Russia despite his popularity there

 

In news certain to shock the United Kingdom, where President Obama is popular, every Trident missile supplied to Britain by the U.S. will be known to Russia as part of Obama's arms control deal, according to information obtained by Wikileaks. From the Daily Telegraph:

A series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britain’s nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russia’s support for the “New START” deal.

Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US.

Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain.

During the negotiations, somebody must have told Obama to lie back and think of England. Unfortunately, it looks like he did. Most galling is the willingness of U.S. negotiators, and thus President Obama, to use Britain to secure the support of Russia for an arms control treaty that puts America at a disadvantage.

In fact, Britain has up until this moment had very strong sentiments for Obama. During the 2008 election, a British poll found that 53 percent felt certain Obama would make the best president:

Barack Obama is overwhelmingly Britain's choice to be the next US president, five times more popular than his Republican rival, John McCain, a Guardian/ICM poll shows today. Carried out ahead of the Democratic candidate's visit to Britain next week, the poll reveals that 53% feel certain he would make the best president, with only 11% favouring McCain; 36% declined to express an opinion.

There wasn't much question from region to region either:

The survey, carried out late last week, found that Obama's support is strongest among male voters - 57% of whom want him to be president. There are small regional variations in support: 50% back him in the south-east, against 57% in the north of England. But overall enthusiasm for an Obama presidency is solid across people of all ages and backgrounds. Unlike the US, there is no evidence of young Britons being keener on Obama than older people.

Even an article in the Daily Mail in December still boosted for Obama, headlined, "Finally something to smile about: Obama's popularity is on the rise as Sarah Palin's takes a tumble." And the London Times reported in July 2009 that British support for the U.S. following Obama's election was up 16 points from the previous year, at 70 percent:

Europeans have grown fonder of the US since Barack Obama became President, but Israeli affections have cooled and the Muslim world has barely noticed the new man in the White House.

These are the findings of a global opinion survey published by the Pew Research Centre yesterday. The poll found the biggest change in mood in Western Europe.

In Britain and most European countries, sentiment towards the US has returned to levels not seen since before the Administration of George W. Bush.

The French love America, with 75 per cent pronouncing themselves favourably disposed towards the US. Britain rings in second with nearly 70 per cent, up 16 points since last year.

This isn't the first time Obama has spurned the British. Within days of becoming president, he returned a bust of Winston Churchill that was a gift to the U.S. He gave the Queen an iPod and the Prime Minister some DVDs.

In other words, here's how Obama has cultivated the "special relationship:" By treating the Brits like a  dog.

The Jobs Report, and America's Two Economies

Robert Reich

Huffington Post

02.04.2011

At a time when corporate profits are through the roof, the Dow is flirting with 12,000, Wall Street paychecks are fat again, and big corporations are sitting on more than $1 trillion in cash, you'd expect jobs be coming back. But you'd be wrong.

The U.S. economy added just 36,000 jobs in January, according to today's report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Remember, 125,000 are needed just to keep up with the increase in the population of Americans wanting and needing work. And 300,000 a month are needed -- continuously, for five years -- if we're to get back to anything like the employment we had before the Great Recession.

In other words, today's employment report should be sending alarm bells all over official Washington. Granted, unusually bad weather may have accounted for some of the reluctance of employers to hire in January. But even considering the weather, the economy is still terribly sick. (Technical note: The official rate of unemployment fell to 9 percent from 9.4 percent, but that's because more workers have left the labor market, too discouraged to continue looking for work. The official rate reflects how many people are actively looking for work.)

We have two economies. The first is in recovery. The second remains in a continuous depression.

The first is a professional, college-educated, high-wage economy centered in New York and Washington, that's living well off of global corporate profits. Corporations continue to make money by selling abroad from their foreign operations while cutting costs (especially labor) here at home. Wall Street is making money by taking the Fed's free money and speculating with it. The richest 10 percent of Americans, holding 90 percent of all financial assets, are riding the wave. And their upscale spending has given high-end retailers and producers a bounce.

The second is most of the rest of America, and it's still struggling with a mountain of debt, declining home prices, and job losses. In coming months most Americans will also be contending with sharply rising prices of food and fuel.

Our representatives in Washington see and hear mostly the first economy. The business press reports mainly on the first economy. Corporate and Wall Street economists are concerned largely with the first economy.

But the second economy will determine our politics in 2012 and beyond.

And not even the first can be sustained permanently on its own. Corporate profits cannot continue to rise on the basis of foreign sales (which are slowing as Europe adopts austerity and China raises interest rates), the purchases of the richest 10 percent of Americans (which are dependent on a rising stock market), and cost-cutting measures at home (which are necessarily limited). Without a strong and broadly-based middle-class recovery, America's big money economy will fall in on itself. A major stock market "correction" is a certainty.

 

 

Atlanta —

From council rooms in small towns to the marble corridors of Capitol Hill, Americans are rightly focusing on ways to halt the tide of red ink.

Facing huge budget shortfalls, states like California and New York are considering radical cuts to balance their books. President Obama acknowledged the seriousness of the problem in his State of the Union message, calling it a "mountain" that could bury us and urging a five-year partial budget freeze. The president is right to admonish us about the magnitude of the problem that he helped mightily to exacerbate. Political leaders who are serious about fiscal discipline deserve some credit for finally acting to correct course.

But even the most aggressive measures to reform federal spending won't address the underlying cause of our public debt.

That's because the deficit that matters most is not denominated in dollars at all. Its currency is of the heart and mind. It's a manifestation of the values with which we circumscribe our actions, our purposes, and our values. I speak of a deficit of character, which arguably is the root of all of our major economic and social troubles today.

Your character is not defined by what you say you believe. It's defined by the choices you make. History painfully records that when a people allow their personal character to dissipate, they become putty in the hands of tyrants and demagogues. Such tyranny often takes the form of actual rulers, but it can also involve the serfdom of our nobler nature to a lord of lustful impulse. Decadence can destroy democracy as surely as dictatorship.

Among the traits that define strong character are honesty, humility, responsibility, self-discipline, courage, self-reliance, and long-term thinking. A free society is not possible without these traits in widespread practice.

When a person spurns his conscience and fails to do what he knows is right, he subtracts from his character. When he evades his responsibilities, foists his problems and burdens on others, or fails to exert self-discipline; when he allows or encourages wrongdoing on any scale; when he attempts to reform the world without reforming himself first; when he obligates the yet-unborn to pay his current bills for him; when he expects politicians to solve problems that are properly his own business alone; he subtracts from his character – and drags the rest of us down, too.

Mountainous debts, unconscionable deficits, irresponsible bailouts, and reckless spending: These are all economic problems because they sprang first from character problems.

Reform starts with recognition. Not the easy kind that points out flaws in others, but the hard kind that reflects on, then roots out, errors in ourselves.

Is it wrong to take a dollar from the responsible and give it to the irresponsible? Of course it is, which is why so many of us decry the billion-dollar bailouts given to reckless but politically well-connected government agencies and private firms. Yet how many of us accepted taxpayer-funded aid when we fell behind on mortgage payments for homes we never should have bought?

We would express outrage at parents who, after borrowing heavily to buy gadgets and expensive meals, canceled their children's preschool when the bills came due. So why do we cheer for government "stimulus" that will similarly hurt our children? What is it about doing these things a trillion times over that makes it right?

Once upon a time in America, most citizens expected government to keep the peace and otherwise leave them alone. We built a vibrant, self-reliant, entrepreneurial culture with strong families and solid values.

Somewhere along the way, we lost our moral compass. Like the Roman republic that rose on integrity and collapsed in turpitude, we thought the "bread and circuses" the government could provide us would buy us comfort and security. We have acted as if we really don't want to be free and responsible citizens, so we get less responsibility from our leaders and less freedom for us.

The good news is that Washington's profligacy sometimes shocks us into sobriety.

In 1890, American voters raged against the Republican-dominated House of Representatives for its lavish spending. They punished the "Billion Dollar Congress," cutting the GOP roster in the House by more than 90 seats. A similar backlash occurred this past fall, when Republicans gained 63 seats after Democrats (with some GOP complicity) spent hundreds of billions of dollars we didn't have.

In both cases, voters seemed mindful of Thomas Jefferson's warning: "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude."

Heeding that exhortation takes more than punishing spendthrift incumbents in Congress once in a while. Our federal government is ultimately a reflection of our self-government, so Americans who are serious about fixing the country's fiscal mess must begin by fixing their own character.

 

These resolutions make a good starting point:

•I pledge myself to a lifetime of self-improvement so I can be the model of integrity that friends, family, and acquaintances will want to emulate.

•I resolve to keep my hands in my own pockets, to leave others alone unless they threaten me harm, to take responsibility for my own actions and decisions, and to impose no burdens on others that stem from my own poor judgments.

•I resolve to show the utmost reverence and respect for the lives, property, and rights of my fellow citizens. I will remember that government money is really my neighbors' money, so I will not vote to loot them. I will stand on my own two feet, behave like an adult in a free and civil society, and expect the same of my children.

•If I need help, I will ask my family, friends, faith network, neighbors, local charities, or even strangers first – and government last.

•If I have a "good idea," I resolve to elicit support for it through peaceful persuasion, not the force of government. I will not ask politicians to foist it on others because I think it's good for them.

•I resolve to help others who genuinely need it by involving myself directly or by supporting those who are providing assistance through charitable institutions. I will not complain about a problem and then insist that government tinker with it at twice the cost and half the effectiveness.

•Finally, I resolve that the highest authority in which I place my strongest faith will not be the United States Congress.

Lawrence W. Reed, an economist and historian, is president of the Foundation for Economic Education.

Wednesday, February 2nd 2011, 4:23 PM

Acker/BloombergThe Apple Inc. iPad is displayed for a photograph. The popular tablet was part of an $1 million scam... ...as were several other valuable Apple products.

 

A Rikers Island inmate ran a nationwide cyber-crime ring from behind bars that forged fake credit cards to buy $1 million in iPads and  Apple computers, officials said Wednesday.

Shaheed "Sha" Bilal, 28, directed the massive syndicate, instructing his girlfriend and three younger brothers on how to encode the magnetic strips on credit cards with stolen financial information, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.

An army of underlings then went on shopping sprees with the phony plastic, buying up iPads and MacBook laptops that were later sold at a discount to a fence for cash.

Vance's office charged 27 members in the nearly three-year operation, including Bilal's 29-year-old sweetheart, Ophelia "Philly" Alleyne, whom he deputized acting boss after getting busted on a separate charge.

Officials said he would coach Alleyne by telephone from jail.

Aside from employing his brothers, Bilal even kept the name of his illegal operation in the family: He dubbed the conspiracy "S3" in honor of his baby boy, according to a law enforcement source.

"This was, in essence, a family affair," Vance said at a press conference Wednesday.

According to officials, Bilal's gang would purchase stolen credit-card information from websites based overseas.

Using inexpensive credit-card encoders, Bilal's brothers then programmed the information onto the magnetic strips of credit cards.

Investigators said the scam - which lasted from June 2008 to December 2010 - went undetected for so long because the counterfeit credit card had the criminals' names, not the victims'.

The ring spanned 13 states and the District of Columbia. It was so easy and lucrative that one gang member who was a shopper branched out to form his own syndicate, prosecutors said.

Officials said that the conspiracy compromised hundreds of bank accounts.

The bust was the work of a joint investigation between Vance's office and the Secret Service.

Over the 18-month probe, investigaters deployed their own modern technology, including electronic eavesdropping and GPS technology, to track the gang's activities.

The ring created email accounts to store and circulate stolen card numbers with which they manufactured the fake plastic.

One account, created by Bilal when he was released from prison in December, was "rightbackonit@yahoo.com, Vance said.

Nine members of the criminal gang including Bilal and Alleyne, were hauled before a Manhattan judge Tuesday on conspiracy and grand larceny charges. Prosecutors said other members are still being rounded up.

It was not immediately clear if Bilal's brothers Ali Bilal, Isaac Bilal, 25 and Rahim Bilal, 21, have appeared before a judge.

The three were also in charge of recruiting shoppers and running the fake credit card production, officials said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/02/02/2011-02-02_rikers_island_inmates_alleged_credit_card_scam_netted_1_million_from_ipads_and_a.html#ixzz1D1eKpETl

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9056802/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353547/Mother-banned-taking-pictures-newborn-baby-Maryland-hospital.html