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guguvvv : Blagojevich Vows to Fight Charges With ‘Last Breath’ (Update3)
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By Andrew Harris
Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama for campaign cash, said he is innocent of the charges.
“I am not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing and I intend to stay on the job,” Blagojevich, a Chicago Democrat, said in his first press statement since his Dec. 9 arrest by federal agents. “I will fight, I will fight, I will fight until I take my last breath. I have not done anything wrong.”
Blagojevich and his former chief of staff, John Harris, are charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as solicitation of bribery. They are accused of using the governor’s power to appoint Obama’s replacement as a chance to reap as much as $1 million in campaign contributions. Harris resigned Dec. 12.
The Illinois House of Representatives is considering impeaching the governor after the chamber’s Democratic leaders abandoned plans Dec. 15 to let voters pick a new U.S. senator. A House impeachment panel said today it will subpoena witnesses including Harris and current and former deputy governors.
In his statement, Blagojevich, 52, went on to say that he is looking forward to responding legally to the charges that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald filed.
“I am dying to answer these charges,” he said. “I have the personal knowledge that I have not done anything wrong.”
Won’t Apologize
Blagojevich and Harris are also accused of demanding that the Chicago-based Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team and publisher of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, fire editorial board members who were critical of the governor in return for state help in its sale of the home stadium for the Cubs, Wrigley Field.
Blagojevich, a former prosecutor twice elected governor of the fifth-most-populous state, would become the first Illinois official to be impeached in 175 years. The governor has resisted calls for his resignation from influential Democrats such as Obama and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
The governor didn’t take questions following his three- minute statement at the James R. Thompson Center, the downtown Chicago building that houses state offices and agencies.
After he left the podium, Blagojevich’s attorney responded to questions and said the governor would stay on the job for months.
“If it’s too hard, if the people of Illinois suffer, he will step aside,” said attorney Sam Adam Jr., part of the governor’s defense team. He also said the decision to step aside may not be made much before Easter. The governor “is not going to apologize,” Adam said.
Impeachment Proceedings
Federal prosecutors said they have recordings of wire- tapped conversations of the governor discussing matters related to the charges. Adam said the tapes may not be as conclusive as prosecutors say.
“I guarantee you that when those tapes come out, and they’re not just 15-second snippets that an agent who sits down in an office somewhere pulls out what he thinks is bad, when we get to it, you’re going to find out the truth on these conversations,” Adam said.
The 21-member House panel that’s considering impeachment will reconvene on Dec. 22. The committee is also examining policy and spending decisions undertaken by the governor during the past six years that members say may have violated state laws and the constitution.
“I’m not going to quit a job that people hired me to do because of false accusations and a political lynch mob,” Blagojevich said.
‘Vindication’ Anticipated
The impeachment panel plans to call former Blagojevich fundraiser Antoin Rezko, who was convicted in June of planning to obtain millions dollars in kickbacks, according to a letter the committee sent to Fitzgerald.
Other witnesses the panel intends to call four current or former deputy governors, Ginger Ostro, who oversees the Illinois Office of Management and Budget, and every registered lobbyist for the state’s horse-racing industry, according the Dec. 18 letter released by the panel.
The letter seeks Fitzgerald’s guidance on whether calling any of the listed witnesses will interfere with his criminal inquiry. The committee also asked for the wire-tap recordings and the names of individuals referred to in the criminal complaint by titles such as “Adviser A” or “Lobbyist 1.”
Quoting Kipling
Until a new senator is sworn in, the state’s 12.8 million residents are represented in the U.S. Senate by just one of the two seats to which they are entitled. The lack of a senator also leaves Democrats a vote short in the chamber as they seek to pass legislation.
“I intend to answer every allegation,” he said. “However, I intend to answer them in the appropriate forum, in a court of law. And when I do, I am absolutely certain I will be vindicated.”
He quoted author Rudyard Kipling at one point, and at another he alluded to the impeachment proceedings.
“I know there are some powerful forces arrayed against me,” he said. “It’s kind of lonely now. But I have on my side the most powerful ally there is and it’s the truth.”
Edward M. Genson, an attorney for Blagojevich, has said his client is innocent of the charges. Reached by phone, Harris’ attorney James Sotos of Itasca, Illinois, declined to discuss the charges against his client.
The governor and Harris are scheduled to appear in court next on Jan. 14 for a probable-cause hearing.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris at the federal court in Chicago: aharris16@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 19, 2008 18:52 EST
By Jeremy Pelofsky and John Crawley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush bailed out automakers on Friday with $17.4 billion in emergency loans as he sought to stave off a collapse that would have cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Bush, seeking to bolster his legacy and bucking some fellow Republicans who would prefer the car industry to deal with its problems without government aid, said it would be irresponsible in a time of economic crisis to let carmakers die.
The government will offer up to $17.4 billion in loans to the U.S. automakers, reeling from a slump in consumer demand, and expects General Motors and Chrysler LLC to access the money immediately. The White House said the loan agreements had been signed.
Ford Motor Co, the other firm in Detroit's storied Big Three, said its liquidity was adequate for now and it did not need a loan at this point.
"If we were to allow the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers," Bush said, warning that to do nothing would deepen and prolong the U.S. recession.
U.S. stocks rose on the news of the lifeline to the sector, with GM shares jumping 10.9 percent.
The White House moved on its own after Republicans in the Democratic-controlled Congress blocked a deal last week. That plan followed weeks of negotiations that included desperate pleas on Capitol Hill from the auto chiefs.
Some $13.4 billion of the total package will be made available in December and January from a $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund originally designed to rescue struggling financial institutions.
Bush attached a string of conditions to the three-year loans and set a deadline of March 31 for the companies to prove they can restructure enough to ensure their survival or have the loans called back.
But the White House opted against a "car czar" proposal that was a cornerstone of the failed bailout efforts in Congress, and handed oversight responsibility to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson instead.
"We don't think that's something that we should impose ... just for 31 days when the next administration may or may not have a different view about how they want to handle it," deputy White House chief of staff Joel Kaplan said.
Democratic President-elect Barack Obama, who takes over from Bush on January 20 and will inherit the handling of the deal, welcomed the loan move as a necessary step. But he said he wanted to make sure workers did not bear the brunt of the restructuring.
"My top priority in this administration is to create 2.5 million new jobs and I want some of those jobs to be in the auto industry," Obama said at a news conference.
Obama has been calling for short-term loans to the sector based on steps toward long-term viability.
LABOR TERMS
Other Democrats and the main auto labor union assailed the deal as unfair, saying workers were going to have to concede too much.
One provision in the loan terms on worker pay brought protests from the United Auto Workers union, and then a change in wording by the U.S. Treasury. The Treasury altered the wording of the terms for automakers to seek reductions in wages and benefits to levels "competitive with" Japanese rivals.
Under wording released earlier in the day, the Treasury said it would require reductions to levels "equal to" average compensation paid per hour and employee by Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Corp in the United States.
The change was described as a correction of a grammatical error by a Treasury spokeswoman.
GM CEO Rick Wagoner said the company would now focus on fully implementing its restructuring plan and was confident of meeting the government's requirements.
Chrysler, widely seen as the weakest of the Big Three, said concessions would happen quickly and it would continue to undertake "significant cost reductions."
Private equity firm Cerberus said in a statement it would use the first $2 billion of proceeds from Chrysler's auto financing arm, Chrysler Financial, to backstop the government loan allocated to its struggling Chrysler car unit.
Ford, while not seeking an immediate loan under the program, has said it would like a line of credit from the government only to be used if its finances worsen significantly in 2009.
Analysts noted the automakers' woes were far from over.
"It's a lifeline, but it doesn't get them completely out of the woods. It takes them (GM and Chrysler) forward until March. Basically the next administration has to deal with it." said Erich Merkle, an analyst with Crowe Horwath in Michigan.
DIRE PICTURE
Some Republicans opposed to bailing out Detroit were dismayed at the loan package.
"I find it unacceptable that we would leave the American taxpayer with a tab of tens of billions of dollars while failing to receive any serious concessions from the industry," said Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who lost the presidential election to Obama on November 4.
The White House presented a dire picture if it did not act, saying that if the auto industry were to collapse, it could reduce U.S. economic growth by more than 1 percent, put about 1.1 million workers out of jobs and cost some $13 billion in new unemployment claims.
Underscoring the damage already done, auto parts maker Federal Mogul Corp said on Friday it was cutting 4,600 jobs.
The loan conditions included limits on executive compensation. Auto companies must pay back all their loans to the government and show their firms can earn a profit and achieve a positive net worth. The automakers would also have to provide warrants for nonvoting stock.
WALL ST BAILOUT FUNDS
Both GM and Chrysler have said a bankruptcy filing is not an option they would chose because of the risk it would drive more consumers away from their brands. Both have idled plants and laid off thousands of workers across North America.
A bankruptcy filing by one company could topple suppliers and endanger the remaining two companies because of the overlap in their key parts suppliers.
The Treasury said the move to help the automakers had effectively exhausted the initial $350 billion of the Wall Street bailout funds approved by Congress and that it now needed to access the rest of the $700 billion.
The remaining $4 billion in autos aid is contingent on the administration seeking the second half of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, an administration official said.
The loans would have an interest rate of at least 5 percent but could rise to 10 percent if the carmakers default, officials said.
In a ripple from the U.S. auto slump, Mexican conglomerate Alfa said on Friday it was temporarily halting production at its nine auto parts plants in Mexico that supply U.S. carmakers.
No automakers have been spared in the global sales slump.
Japan's Toyota Motor Corp could report its first annual parent-only operating loss in 71 years in the year to end-March, and may issue a profit warning at a scheduled year-end news conference on Monday, Japanese media reported.
Toyota, which declined to comment on the reports, last saw an operating loss in its first year of operation in 1937/38.
Japan's carmakers are also feeling the pinch from a strong yen.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was set to announce an aid package for his country's auto industry on Saturday. That aid could amount to several billion dollars.
(Additional reporting by U.S. autos team and Tokyo bureau; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)
CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama said on Friday that he wants to be sure that new jobs are created in the U.S. auto industry and that it survives not for a few months but for years to come.
"My top priority in this administration is to create 2.5 million new jobs and I want some of those jobs to be in the auto industry," Obama said at a news conference.
He declined to say what, if any, changes he would make to the $17.4 billion auto bailout plan announced by the White House on Friday, but he said his economic team would discuss with the industry and workers ways to ensure their survival.
"I just want to make sure that when we see a final restructuring package, that it's not just workers who are bearing the brunt of that restructuring," Obama said. "All shareholders are going to have to play a part in this process."
According to Rick Reilly of ESPN, they do. I don’t see it. I think Duke fans don’t like him. State fans certainly don’t love him. And, most of the rest of the ACC just wishes that he’d keep his contacts in for an entire game and get called for a travel every once in a while.
But, is Reilly right and I’m delusional? Does everyone really hate the “Bro”?
Now, that J.J. Redick, he was hated. Hansbrough, goes down as one of the top 5 all time Tar Heels. Rank’em if you like, in fact, I insist.
Along the hater lines, Terrell Owens called himself a media-created villain in his interview with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN, just two days after ripping ESPN’s Ed Werder for making up stories about his supposedly rocky and jealous relationship with teammate Jason Wittten. First, does it strike anyone as odd that Owens would blast and ESPN reporter and then grant the interview to another ESPN reporter?
Who are the top sports villains? Until his health started to deteriorate and removed him from the public eye, George Steinbrenner was on that list. We know Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens belong on the list. Who else? Mark McGwire?
Well, not if your name is Tony LaRussa. The Cards’ skipper continues to stump for McGwire’s Hall of Fame election (results out next month) based on his “certain integrity” for walking away from the $30 million left on his contract in 2001. There’s no doubt that McGwire did the honorable thing by stepping away from the game when he felt that his knees skills had finally succumbed to the steroid damage fallen off to the point that he could no longer play the game at the level that modern chemistry allowed he’d grown accustomed.
LaRussa still insists that McGwire never used steroids, that he went from looking like Jimmy Stewart to Paul Bunyan due only to eating all his vegetables and military pressing Babe the Ox. I would call that selective integrity.
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Rick Warren, Obama's inauguration pastor, denies homophobia
Rick Warren, the Orange County evangelical pastor who'll give the invocation at Barack Obama's historic presidential inauguration on Capitol Hill next month, says he's not at all homophobic, as some gay rights groups have charged, because he supported Prop. 8 to ban same-sex marriage.
Warren, who's at the center of a growing controversy over his inaugural invitation from the president-elect, said Prop. 8 became more about free speech than anything else. Speaking of free speech, as reported here, the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center strongly criticized Obama on Thursday for his invitation to Warren to pray with the immense crowd at the opening of the inaugural ceremony. The group also demanded that the Democratic president-elect disinvite Warren from participating.
Obama has said he doesn't agree with some things Warren says and vice versa, but Warren invited him to speak in August at the Saddleback Forum. And, Obama adds, disagreeing with someone doesn't mean being disagreeable to each other. That's something his campaign has preached about for two years. Listen to Obama explain it himself on the video.
Warren, who heads the mega-church Saddleback in Lake Forest, says he's got no problem with gays having relationships; just don't call it marriage, he says. Marriage is between one man and one woman and has been for 5,000 years in numerous religions.
Warren also points out that his congregation has donated many millions of dollars to help gays with AIDS, which couldn't possibly be labeled homophobic.
Listen to the explanation in his own words in this news video.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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The FBI is reportedly investigating allegations that a Minnesota businessman tried to funnel $75,000 in campaign contributions to Sen. Norm Coleman through the senator's wife, Laurie, at the same time Coleman was going into debt because of extensive home renovations.
According to a report from MyFOXTwinCities.com, two lawsuits allege that in the spring of 2007, Nasser Kazeminy began making $25,000 payments from Deep Marine Technology, a Texas company he controls, to Laurie Coleman's employer, insurer Hayes Companies Inc. of Minneapolis.
One of the lawsuits alleges that in March 2007, Kazeminy said that "U.S. senators don't make s---," and he would try to get money to the senator, MyFOXTwinCities.com said.
In 2006, the Colemans began renovations on their St. Paul home, adding a second-floor master bedroom, remodeling the kitchen, painting, refinishing floors and landscaping. Coleman's campaign told MyFOXTwinCities.com that the 2006 renovation project was budgeted at $328,000, but within four months the cost estimates hit $414,000 -- over-budget by $86,000.
Government ethics professor David Schultz told MyFOXTwinCities.com that the timing of the alleged donations from Kazeminy and the Colemans' burgeoning debt raise questions about the senator's credibility.
"On the one level it could just be a coincidence, on the other level this could be one of the reasons he's getting that money from elsewhere, to try to make up for his, to be able to pay off a loan, pay off a line of credit," says Schultz.
Coleman, not a party to the lawsuits, has denied any wrongdoing.
He and Democratic challenger Al Franken are still waiting out a lengthy recount to determine the winner of the state's Senate election on Nov. 4.
All access roads were blocked, barricades and corrugated iron fences guarded the perimeter of the ground, there were soldiers with guns mounted on jeeps, armed commandos everywhere and fearsome looking Sikhs in bright red turbans at checkpoints every 10 metres, frisking your every square inch.
It was like visiting a top secret military compound.
It was a fitting environment then for the Indian cricket team's own designated head of security, Rahul Dravid, to prosper.
He would make a highly efficient guard, treating the ball as an intruder, an individual without the correct pass, that must be regarded with the utmost suspicion and generally repelled at all costs.
Only if it is unfailingly polite and generous would he eschew caution.
Dravid stood on the pitch, fretting, the day before the match. He stared about the field, visualising the runs he might make but he had a perplexed expression.
He admitted to feeling mentally sound, but the runs just would not come. Andrew Flintoff came over for a chat and Dravid grimaced at the thought of facing him, knowing he would give him nothing.
"Tell you what, I'll give you a few half-volleys if you promise to give me a few runs," Flintoff said jovially.
The deal was not done and after an hour at the crease Dravid had an agonised five runs to his name. They included a fortuitous two from a horribly miscued hook off James Anderson, which had fallen safely into space on the leg side.
Dravid was lunging at the ball, moving too early and getting in a tangle. He looked like a No10. He was walking away from the crease between balls consumed with anxiety.
He was an advert for the fact that when a batsman is in form he thinks about nothing, and when he is out of form he thinks about everything.
A leg-stump long-hop from Anderson – a complimentary pass to the VIP area – got his score into double figures. It was his first boundary in an hour and a quarter of painstaking reconnaissance.
At lunch he had crawled to 11. The half-volley from Flintoff – as rare as a Manchester United freebie – arrived after the interval and was duly accepted – driven to the long-on boundary.
Gradually the rhythm of the old Dravid returned. He was less jumpy and more serene at the crease, the strokes were less indeterminate and jerky, and more assured and fluent.
There was the inimitable glide through the slips, the wristy scoop past mid-wicket, the checked punch down the ground.
Of course it would not be a Dravid innings without the immaculate block and the stylish leave with an arty flourish.
The drive off Monty Panesar to bring up the team 100 slipped between the two short extra-cover fielders and somehow evaded the dive of Stuart Broad as well.
It was the type of manoeuvre through an impossibly small gap that Indian rickshaw drivers consistently manage so well.
There was luck too – the fortune that so often evades those out of nick – as an inside edge slid past the leg stump.
Then there was the relief of a push for two to bring up a first fifty in nine innings, and a humble bat raised to the people who had stayed faithful, not least his captain who had given him another chance at number three, believing it gave him maximum time to become reacquainted with his old self.
Afterwards he allowed himself the liberty of a couple of deft paddles for two off Panesar. That is as flamboyant as Dravid gets.
His face broke out into a half smile. He was starting to relax. But come the second day and he will be back scrutinising every pass again.
An estimated $2 million worth of jewelry and other belongings was stolen from the home of Paris Hilton, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The incident occurred at 5 a.m. at Hilton's Hollywood Hills home on Clarendon Street. The burglar, or burglars, got into the house through an unlocked door, according to LAPD sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
According to detectives, a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and gloves ransacked Hilton's bedroom, took unknown property and fled, said Officer April Harding.
LAPD sources said they do not believe at this time that the incident is connected to infamous burglaries that have beset the Westside and Hollywood Hills and cost many celebrities hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry and other valuables.
In those cases, the two –- and possibly three –- men, clad in black and wearing ski masks and gloves, hit more than 70 homes in areas such as Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills and the hills above Encino, usually at night and often on weekends. The victims in those burglaries included former Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing and her Oscar-winning director husband, William Friedkin, Clippers basketball star Cuttino Mobley, Duran Duran guitarist John Taylor and his wife, Juicy Couture President Gela Nash-Taylor, and country music stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
Detectives from the LAPD's Van Nuys division were at the Hilton home this morning conducting interviews. The sources told The Times that Hilton was not home at the time of the burglary and that the house is equipped with security video equipment.
Harding said a security guard reported a forced entry at 5 a.m. at the Sherman Oaks home. The guard described the burglar as a man in a hooded sweatshirt and gloves.
Hilton recently told Esquire magazine: "The best thing I've ever bought with money is my house. Having a nightclub in your house really helps for having a party."
-- Richard Winton and Andrew Blankstein
Photo: Paris Hilton attends the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel grand opening party on Nov. 14 in Miami Beach, Fla. Credit: Evan Agostini / Associated Press |
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