After crime, punishment awaits ex-Gov. Blagojevich

AAA??Dec. 6, 2011?5:51 AM ET
After crime, punishment awaits ex-Gov. Blagojevich
MICHAEL TARMMICHAEL TARM, Associated Press??

FILE - In this July 26, 2010 file photo, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, left, and his wife Patti, right, arrive at the federal courthouse with their daughters Annie, front holding Patti's hand, and Amy, in Chicago during his first trial on corruption charges. Convicted on multiple counts of corruption, Blagojevich is scheduled for his sentencing hearing beginning Tuesday, Dec,. 6, 2011, at federal court in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

FILE - In this July 26, 2010 file photo, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, left, and his wife Patti, right, arrive at the federal courthouse with their daughters Annie, front holding Patti's hand, and Amy, in Chicago during his first trial on corruption charges. Convicted on multiple counts of corruption, Blagojevich is scheduled for his sentencing hearing beginning Tuesday, Dec,. 6, 2011, at federal court in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 21007 file photo, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, right, dances with his wife, Patti, during the Inaugural Ball in Springfield, Ill. Blagojevich, convicted on 18 counts of corruption in June 2011, is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, for the start of his sentencing hearing. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2003 file photo, Illinois' first lady Patti Blagojevich, left, applauds with her father, Richard Mell, center, during inauguration day ceremonies for her husband, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, in Springfield, Ill. Blagojevich, convicted on 18 counts of corruption in June 2011, is scheduled to appear in federal court in Chicago, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, for the start of his sentencing hearing. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 19, 2008 file photo, then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich bites his nails as he enters a news conference in Chicago to make his first substantial public comments since his arrest on federal corruption charges. He denied wrongdoing and was later was impeached and removed from office. On Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, the former governor is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Chicago on 18 counts of corruption. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 10, 2006 file photo, then-Illinois Gov. Rod. Blagojevich runs along with the State Fair Twilight Parade at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. Arrested on Dec. 9, 2008 on multiple corruption charges, Blagojevich denied wrongdoing and was later impeached and removed from office. On Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, the former governor is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Chicago on 18 counts of corruption. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

CHICAGO (AP) ? Rod Blagojevich's days of reckoning arrive Tuesday when a federal judge opens a sentencing hearing for the disgraced former Illinois governor on 18 corruption counts, including trying to auction off President Barack Obama's old Senate seat.

The impeached state executive-turned-reality TV star has good reason to feel anxious and afraid at the two-day hearing in Chicago. He faces the prospect of 10 or more years behind bars.

If Judge James Zagel settles on a sentence Wednesday of more than a decade, that would make it one of the stiffest penalties imposed for corruption in a state with a long history of crooked politics.

Prosecutors will ask Zagel to imprison the twice-elected governor for 15 to 20 years, arguing he has not only shirked all responsibility for his crimes but repeatedly thumbed his nose at the U.S. justice system.

Blagojevich has already paid a price in public ridicule and financial ruin, the defense argues in proposing a term of just a few years. They also seem bent on an approach judges often frown upon at the sentencing stage: Continuing to insist their client is innocent.

Both sides could finish their pitches to Zagel during Tuesday's hearing, which was moved to a large ceremonial courtroom to accommodate expected crowds. But Zagel says he'll wait until Wednesday to pronounce a sentence ? possibly so he can sleep on it.

The 70-year-old judge, who played a judge in the 1989 movie "Music Box," must answer nuanced questions according to complex sentencing algebra, including whether any good Blagojevich accomplished as governor counterbalances the bad.

In describing the humiliation his family has faced, the defense cited Blagojevich's appearances on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice," where he struggled to use a cellphone, and his wife, Patti, eating a tarantula on the reality show, "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!"

After sentencing, Zagel will likely give Blagojevich weeks before he must report to prison. Once there, the man heard scoffing on FBI wiretaps about earning a low six-figure salary would have to take a prison job ? possibly scrubbing toilets ? at just 12 cents an hour.

Blagojevich's sentencing comes just days before his 55th birthday and three years to the week of his Dec. 9, 2008, arrest.

The jury deadlocked in his first trial, agreeing on just one of 24 counts ? that Blagojevich lied to the FBI. Jurors at his recent retrial convicted him on 17 of 20 counts, including bribery.

Legal experts have said Blagojevich needs to display some remorse when, as expected, he addresses Zagel Tuesday or Wednesday. But the big unknown is whether the often cocksure ex-governor will beg for mercy at the hearing or yet again protest his innocence.

A flat-out apology isn't always considered a must. If it isn't sincere, it can only anger a judge.

The defense could call others to speak in court. But as Blagojevich became politically radioactive, longtime friends scattered, so it's not clear who would be willing to speak for him now.

Wives often plea for leniency, but Zagel likely wouldn't view Patti Blagojevich sympathetically. On FBI wiretaps, she was heard encouraging her husband's bid for campaign cash or a top job in exchange for an appointment to Obama's vacated seat.

___

Michael Tarm can be reached at www.twitter.com/mtarm

Associated PressNews Topics: Legal proceedings, Political corruption, Crime, Reality TV, Sentencing, Law and order, General news, Political issues, Government and politics, Television programs, Entertainment, Arts and entertainment

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-06-Blagojevich%20Sentencing/id-52d00d450cec4eeea0ee23c6f4bf7ba0

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Center For Surf Research At San Diego State University Is First Of Its Kind

SAN DIEGO -- The California city that inspired "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," the 1982 comedy film that did much to propagate the laid-back surfer image, is now home to the world's first Center for Surf Research. And, no, it's not a clever way for college kids to earn their degrees by hanging out at the beach.

Jess Ponting has heard those jokes. A sustainable tourism professor, he recently founded the first-of-its-kind institute at San Diego State University with the aim of building a database and spreading awareness about what has evolved from a beach counterculture to a multibillion dollar global industry, with both positive and negative impacts. Ponting was amazed to find how little research and critical analysis exists on the surf industry

"We want to quantify exactly what we're dealing with," said Ponting, who, on the university's web site, sports a suit-and-tie while holding a surf board. "I think it's way bigger than anybody gives it credit for, but no one has taken it seriously enough to look at it before."

Decades ago, long-haired surfers chasing isolated ocean peaks far from the crowded beaches of Australia and California stumbled into remote villages from Indonesia to Latin America and kicked off the global phenomenon. Today, so many surfers are traveling the globe in pursuit of that perfect swell that surf tourism is being seen as a top income-generator for nations from Papua New Guinea to Liberia, Ponting said. Even China has created a so-called Minister for Extreme Sports to dive in on the booming business.

Yet there is virtually no concrete data on just how big the board-carting crowd has become nor exactly how much money they generate. Scholars like Ponting estimate surf fever has caught on in more than 100 countries, while the U.S. surf industry alone generates an estimated $7 billion annually, according to the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association.

Chad Nelsen, who is doing a dissertation on the economics of surfing as part of his doctorate studies in environmental science at the University of California Los Angeles, said the only other university he has found with a formal surfing program is Great Britain's Plymouth University, which offers a Surf Science and Technology degree. That program focuses more on training students in design, production and marketing of surf products and tourism.

The SDSU research center has scheduled summits to bring together surfers, environmental organizations, tourism businesses and the small but growing wave of scholars studying surf economics. Ponting is arranging trips that will take students to places where tourism driven by surfers is making a difference in alleviating poverty and protecting the environment.

One of Ponting's hopes is that connecting the different facets of the surf industry will carry over into helping governments in developing countries understand the surf crowd and develop plans to handle the hordes.

To date, few people question the impact of surfers, Ponting said, and there are few sweeping plans about how to properly manage the surf tourism trade.

Ponting, a lifelong surfer from Australia, has traveled the globe catching waves and has seen how crowds of swell seekers have transformed remote parts of the world ? in both good and bad ways.

With no planning, many poor, remote communities discovered by surf explorers in the 1960s got caught up in what Ponting calls "the race to the bottom" with locals expanding their homes and offering cheap accommodation, but with little infrastructure to handle the mounting sewage and trash, which seep into pristine marine environments.

As a result, "surf slums" sprang up in paradise. Ponting points to some traditional Muslim villages in Indonesia that found themselves dealing with big-city problems brought in by the outsiders, including illegal drug use and prostitution.

On the other hand, there are places like Papua New Guinea, a model that has a national surf management plan limiting the number of surfers to popular spots and taxing them to help pay for sewage treatment, water systems and schools. Papua New Guinea also requires surfers to pay for a local surf guide, creating jobs for its people instead of merely playing host to foreign travel companies.

Surfers are unique in that they ? unlike other kinds of tourists ? will often pursue a wave no matter how far and difficult it may be to get there, Ponting said. They flock to nations in the midst of wars or after natural disasters, making them a resilient market for impoverished countries struggling to persuade traditional tourists to return.

That makes them a key market for places like Liberia, which has struggled to lose its image as a place of civil unrest but is quickly rising as the next unexplored surf frontier. Ponting is working on funding for a joint project with a nonprofit organization to guide the country's tourism department so locals reap the benefits instead of foreigners who may better understand the market.

The research center is working on developing a program that would certify surf hotels that ensure their operations do not pollute and that invest money back into the local communities where they are located. There is a growing tide of philanthropy among surfers wanting to help the places they visit.

Nelsen, who works as an environmental director at Surfrider Foundation, said the surf research center will give a much needed boost to organizations like his working to make the industry sustainable. He said it will also give credibility to scholars who have been dismissed because of the "Spicoli bias," referring to Jeff Spicoli, the apathetic, stoned surfing character in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

"If you have academically vetted information, it's a lot more valuable and accepted, and there's precious little of that out there on surfing," Nelsen said. "We don't want to see surfers discounted when they talk to their local city councils. This will provide tools so surfers can justify their interest in protecting surfing areas."

Corrine Roybal, a 21-year-old SDSU hospitality and tourism management major, said she held those stereotypes before taking a class from Ponting.

"It's an industry I didn't know really existed," said Roybal, after listening to Ponting lecture on a recent afternoon about how boats shuttling surfers to waves are destroying reefs with their anchors. "I had the stereotypical view of a surfer just out there to surf. It has really opened my eyes."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/03/center-for-surf-research-_n_1127544.html

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Indian Minister Wants Web Companies To Self-Censor User Content

Another day, another government trying to figure out how to censor the internet. This time it's India, where acting communications minister Kapil Sibal is meeting with officials from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook to pressure them to self-censor user content, the New York Times reports. The issue is that someone wrote something mean about a politician, Sonia Ghandi, on her Facebook page. That's right. While other countries come up with broader excuses for trying to interfere with what people can post online -- China says it's trying to stop porn, the US says it's trying to protect copyright holders -- Sibal is openly just upset about politicians being criticized.?His solution, the report says, is to have web companies use humans to monitor and delete objectionable content before it gets posted. Since TechCrunch has lots of readers in India, and uses Facebook for comments, I guess this means Facebook would be required to decide what comments people in the country are allowed to post here? Or would TechCrunch get blocked like it is in China if there are any comments by anyone that are negative about Indian politicians? Hard to say at this point. Sibal's effort isn't a law.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DrkCc21tZXU/

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Jessica Simpson to Have a Girl! Or a Boy!

Jessica Simpson will find out the gender of her baby on Monday, but the singer took a guess last night at the launch of her sister's clothing line in New York City.

"I think it' a girl," the pregnant star told People, while fiance Eric Johnson chimed in with: "I think it's a boy."

One of them will probably be correct.

Why is Jessica - seen above getting some practice in with nephew Bronx - even learning her first child's sex ahead of time?

"I like to plan things out," Simpson told Us Weekly at the same event. "It'll be good to know what colors to make the nursery. I'm obsessed with thinking about what it's going to look like."

We're just glad there are no signs here of a pregnancy in crisis, as a recent report claimed. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Simpson gushed last night over "knowing that [Eric] and I created something inside of me... We love each other so much, and knowing that I love this baby inside of me is so amazing."

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/jessica-simpson-to-have-a-girl-or-a-boy/

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Long's wife says she'll withdraw divorce petition (AP)

DECATUR, Ga. ? The wife of Atlanta-area megachurch founder Bishop Eddie Long has filed for divorce after more than 20 years of marriage, but says she plans to withdraw the petition.

Vanessa Long filed for divorce Thursday in DeKalb County Superior Court in suburban Atlanta. She and Eddie Long, the pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, married on March 10, 1990. According to the divorce petition, the couple is living in "a bona fide state of separation."

On Friday, Vanessa Long said in a statement issued through the church that she plans to withdraw the divorce petition. Her statement says, "I love my husband. I believe in him and admire his strength and courage."

She says that the divorce filing "followed years of attacks in the media that frustrated and overwhelmed me."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_re_us/us_georgia_megachurch_pastor

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi praises U.S. engagement (Reuters)

YANGON (Reuters) ? Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed on Friday renewed U.S. engagement with Myanmar, saying she hoped it would set her long-isolated country on the road to democracy.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a final meeting with Suu Kyi as she wrapped up a landmark visit to Myanmar which saw the new civilian government pledge to forge ahead with political reforms and re-engage with the world community.

Clinton and Suu Kyi - the Nobel laureate who has come to symbolize the pro-democracy aspirations of Myanmar's people - held a private dinner on Thursday and met again on Friday at Suu Kyi's lakeside home, effectively her prison until she was released in November last year after years in detention.

"If we go forward together I'm confident there will be no turning back from the road to democracy. We are not on that road yet but we hope to get there as soon as possible with our friends," Suu Kyi said.

The two, arguably the world's most well-known women politicians, met for about an hour and a half then stood on a verandah, holding hands as they spoke to a crowd of reporters.

They both appeared visibly moved as they embraced after their meeting, and a senior U.S. official said it was clear they had established a strong personal rapport during their first face-to-face talks.

Neither mentioned U.S. sanctions on Myanmar, imposed because of rights abuses and the suppression of democracy. But Clinton said at a later news conference that the restrictions might end if reforms continue.

"If there is enough progress, obviously we will be considering lifting sanctions. But as I said before we're still at the very early stages of this dialogue," she said after being asked about sanctions by a Myanmar reporter.

She acknowledged that removing the sanctions would help Myanmar's struggling economy, but said the United States needed to be sure that real changes were under way.

"There need to be some economic reforms along with political reforms so that the benefits would actually flow to a broad base of people and not just to a very few," she said.

ALTERNATIVES TO CHINA

Clinton has repeatedly praised Myanmar's new army-backed civilian government for moving ahead with reforms following elections last November that ended some five decades of unbroken military rule.

The government has taken steps to broaden political participation, release some political prisoners, and gradually expand freedoms of expression and assembly.

Suu Kyi said Myanmar needed help on education, healthcare and strengthening rule of law and welcomed new U.S. support for World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessment missions to help draw up priorities for a country whose shambolic economy is increasingly reliant on China.

"We have to find out what our greatest needs are," she said.

Clinton said the United States would do what it could to help, announcing new support for small programs to help landmine victims and support microfinance and healthcare projects.

But in a sign of the straightened circumstances the United States faces amid fears of huge budget deficits, the new funding amounted to just $1.2 million on top of the $40 million the United States already provides in aid to Myanmar each year.

Clinton's trip follows a decision by U.S. President Barack Obama last month to open the door to expanded ties, saying he saw the potential for progress in a country until recently seen as a reclusive military dictatorship firmly aligned with China.

Suu Kyi and Clinton both stressed that Myanmar's new civilian leaders - many of them former military figures - must address the issue of political prisoners, which Clinton said still numbered more than 1,000 despite the release in October of about 230.

"We need all those who are still in prison to be released and we need to ensure that no more are arrested," said Suu Kyi, the daughter of the country's assassinated independence leader, Aung San.

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Clinton's trip - the first by a senior U.S. official in more than 50 years - represents an opportunity for both Myanmar and the United States, and both appear eager to press ahead with rapprochement.

Myanmar's new leadership hopes the United States will eventually ease or remove the sanctions, opening the resource-rich but desperately poor country to more foreign trade and investment and help it catch up to booming neighbors such as Thailand and India.

For Washington, improved ties could underscore Obama's determination to up U.S. engagement in Asia and balance China's fast-growing economic, military and political influence.

Clinton met representatives of ethnic minority groups, some of which have been locked in bloody conflict with the army for decades, as well as civil society organizations

U.S. officials said the meetings were aimed in part at underscoring that the new outreach to Myanmar's government does not mean a halt to pressure on human rights and political freedom.

Both Clinton and Suu Kyi called for an end to the conflicts between the army and minority guerrillas, which U.S. officials say may prove the toughest challenge ahead for the country's leaders.

Clinton, after her talks with President Thein Sein on Thursday, announced a package of modest steps to improve ties, including U.S. support for the IMF and World Bank assessment missions and expanded U.N. aid programs.

She also said the United States would consider reinstating a full ambassador in Myanmar - a position which has been unfilled for more than 20 years - which could mark a symbolic next step in the warming ties between the two countries.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/wl_nm/us_myanmar

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Asia stocks mixed before Merkel speech, jobs data

BANGKOK (AP) ? Asian stock markets were mixed Friday as markets nervously awaited U.S. employment figures and a key speech by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in hopes she might unveil new steps to stanch Europe's escalating debt crisis.

Benchmark oil lingered above $100 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro and the yen.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.4 percent to 8,627.85, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.1 percent to 4,272.90. But South Korea's Kospi was marginally down at 1,913.88 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.5 percent to 18,909.07. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and mainland China were also lower. Malaysia and New Zealand rose.

Merkel's speech Friday before Germany's parliament about Europe's financial crisis comes ahead of a summit of European Union leaders on Dec. 9, whose goal is to deliver a long-term solution to the debt crisis.

Merkel has acknowledged the need for changes to the European Union treaty to impose stricter financial controls on countries that use the euro common currency to prevent them from taking on too much debt.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland said they were working together to make it easier for banks to borrow dollars.

The coordinated effort was meant to prevent Europe's debt crisis from exploding into a global panic. Should a European bank fail or if a country default on its debt, investors fear it could result in a freeze-up in global lending like the one that occurred in 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed.

China's central bank also acted to release money for lending and to shore up growth by lowering bank reserve levels for the first time in three years. The bank actions caused global stocks to rally Thursday.

Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong, said the huge boost to markets on Thursday led some investors to cash in shares for profits Friday.

"We had a big gain yesterday. The Hang Seng gained about 1,000 points, so for today maybe it is reasonable to consolidate," Yip said.

Gambling shares were among those being sold off. Hong Kong-listed Wynn Macau lost 6.5 percent and SJM Holdings Ltd. fell 4.5 percent.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics fell 1.3 percent after Australia's highest court temporarily extended a ban on sales of the company's Galaxy tablet computers in the country. The case stems from a suit by Apple that accuses Samsung of copying the iPad and iPhone and violating Apple's patents.

Another rise in applications for weekly U.S. unemployment benefits dampened the mood on Wall Street on Thursday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.2 percent to close at 12,020.03. The S&P 500 index slipped 0.2 percent to 1,244.59. The tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up 0.2 percent to 2,626.

The Labor Department said initial applications rose to 402,000 last week, the second weekly increase in a row. The figures didn't change expectations for the government's monthly labor report, which comes out Friday. Economists forecast that the unemployment rate will remain at 9 percent.

Traders also got little encouragement from a better manufacturing report. The Institute for Supply Management said that manufacturing grew last month at the fastest pace since June. The crucial jobs report for November will be released by the Labor Department on Friday.

Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 7 cents to $100.13 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday. The contract lost 16 cents to end at $100.20 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.

In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3458 from $1.3460 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose to 77.78 yen from 77.76 yen.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-02-World-Markets/id-8f84a4968e2e4226acdbaea0fbcbf7c0

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