Friday News Bucket

8 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on June 8, 2007 at 7:12 am

   for driving in NYC? NYT

   Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to reduce traffic by charging people who drive into the busiest parts of Manhattan received significant support on Thursday as Gov. Eliot Spitzer endorsed the idea and the Bush administration indicated that New York stood to gain hundreds of millions of dollars if the plan were enacted.

   If the measure is approved by the Legislature, New York will become the first city in the United States to impose a broad system of congestion pricing, which was introduced in London in 2003 and has been credited with reducing traffic there.

   Governor Spitzer said he would work to ensure passage of the plan, which is a major part of the mayor’s blueprint for improving air quality and traffic flow for the next several decades. The Bloomberg administration has estimated that it could put the program into effect within 18 months of legislative approval.

   So, how much will they charge?

   …The mayor’s plan would charge $8 for cars and $21 for commercial trucks that enter Manhattan below 86th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays, or $4 for drivers within the congestion zone, with several exceptions.

   Be interesting to see if this passes the legislature.

2. 

   CabinGirl on June 8, 2007 at 8:11 am

   Not even safe for the police chief: AP/Yahoo

   Carloads of attackers descended on a police chief’s house northeast of Baghdad at dawn Friday, killing the official’s wife, two brothers and 11 guards, and kidnapping three of his grown children, Diyala provincial police reported.

   The attack, which came when the police chief was not at home, was one of the boldest and bloodiest in months of stepped-up violence around the city of Baqouba, where al-Qaida in
   Iraq and affiliated groups have been fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces and local insurgents who have turned against al-Qaida.

   Elsewhere in northern Iraq, two suicide bombers struck a Shiite mosque and a nearby police station near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and more than 25 people were killed or wounded, police said

3. 

   CabinGirl on June 8, 2007 at 12:34 pm

   One of my least favorite characters on Grey’s Anatomy will be going soon: MSNBC

   Isaiah Washington has lost his job on the hit ABC medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” five months after creating a furor with his use of an anti-gay slur.

   Washington’s contract option was not renewed for next season, series producer ABC Television Studios said Thursday.

   “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore,” Washington said in a statement released through his publicist, Howard Bragman, without elaboration.

   Way to take responsibility for your own actions, Isaiah.

4. 

   CabinGirl on June 8, 2007 at 12:41 pm

   seems to have a Botticelli mural: Reuters

   A fresco in a Hungarian chapel is believed to be by Italian renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, the head of the local museum said on Friday.
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   The fresco, part of a four-piece mural in the ruined castle of Esztergom, northern Hungary, had been known but experts only discovered during recent renovation works that it bore the hallmarks of the 15th century Florentine painter’s style.

   “It’s not as if we had suddenly happened on a Botticelli,” said Bela Horvath, director of the Esztergom Castle Museum.

   “Restoration has been going on since 2000 with the most modern methods and the art historian and the head of the restoration have identified, based on the style, that it could be a Botticelli,” Horvath said.

   The images depicting the four medieval virtues were made after the archbishop of Esztergom at the time, Janos Vitez, asked the school of Filippo Lippi, who had been training Botticelli in Florence, to decorate the chapel, Horvath said.

   Pretty cool.

5. 

   dada on June 8, 2007 at 12:49 pm

   no pun intended, but it would appear mr. jefferson’s criminal complaints have a lot more behind them than $90k in marked bills in a freezer.

   look at these numbers, and imagine if you will, how he might have amassed, what appears to be, a rather substantial fortune:

   WASHINGTON

   A federal judge on Thursday froze the assets of Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, three days after the congressman was indicted on corruption charges.

   U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III granted the government’s request for a restraining order keeping Jefferson from using nearly $500,000 and about 33 million shares of corporate stock prosecutors say he was paid in bribes.

   […]

   “We’re talking about cold, hard cash,” said Rosen, who has followed the Jefferson case. “Where there is a fungible asset, the scope of the restraining order is broad.”

   […]

   While a defendant has a constitutional right to a lawyer, Rosen said that doesn’t mean the government can’t aggressively pursue a defendant’s assets.

   “There is no constitutional right to use criminal proceeds to obtain counsel. That is unequal to the right to a defense,” Rosen said. “There is a constitutional right to a public defender.”

   Times-Picayune, NoLa

   obviously, business was good while it lasted.

   lTMF’sA
   

   

   
   clik images for info

6. 

   Connecticut Man1 on June 8, 2007 at 1:02 pm

   Bush Sucks shows you just what bush is sucking back…

   You tell me if that looks like what I think it is?

7. 

   Connecticut Man1 on June 8, 2007 at 1:39 pm

   Video and comments via David Sirota:

   Watch Democratic presidential candidates pass the buck and pretend they have no power to end the Iraq War.

   If you are not part of the solution,

   then you are part of the problem.

8. 

   ask on June 8, 2007 at 2:36 pm

   Attorney-general knew of BAE and the £1bn. Then concealed it

   British investigators were ordered by the attorney-general Lord Goldsmith to conceal from international anti-bribery watchdogs the existence of payments totalling more than £1bn to a Saudi prince, the Guardian can disclose.

   The money was paid into bank accounts controlled by Prince Bandar for his role in setting up BAE Systems with Britain’s biggest ever arms deal. Details of the transfers to accounts in the US were discovered by officers from the Serious Fraud Office during its long-running investigation into BAE. But its inquiry was halted suddenly last December.