Skip to Content

July 2009

Pakistan raises concern over US Afghan offensive (AP)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 06:33 — admin

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's government raised concerns Wednesday about a U.S.-led offensive in neighboring southern Afghanistan with visiting U.S. regional envoy Richard Holbrooke.
Islamabad is concerned the major U.S. offensive in Afghanistan's Helmand province ahead of elections there next month could push Taliban fighters across the border.
"We have some concern which we have been discussing with the U.S.," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official said Islamabad has "reservations" about the Helmand offensive because militants crossing the border could destabilize Pakistan's province of Baluchistan, which for years has been facing a separate low-level insurgency by nationalist groups seeking more autonomy.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Pakistani authorities had conveyed their concerns to the "appropriate quarters."
Pakistan's army has already beefed up its presence along the border in the area, and the official said authorities had not yet seen an influx into Baluchistan of militants from Afghanistan's Helmand province, where some 4,000 U.S. Marines launched an operation on July 2 against Taliban insurgents.
If a significant influx does occur, however, Pakistan may be forced to move troops over to the northwest from its border from India. But the official stressed that Islamabad cannot make that shift "beyond a certain point."
The Pakistani establishment still views India as its greatest threat. The two nations have fought three wars over the past six decades.
Pakistan shares a 1,600-mile (2,600-kilometer) rugged border with Afghanistan, inhabited on both sides by ethnic Pashtuns with strong family and clan ties who travel freely across the frontier. The section opposite Helmand is about 160 miles (260 kilometers) long and lies in Baluchistan.
Holbrooke said the U.S. was committed to coordinating with the Pakistani government in combatting militants.
"We want to be sure that we share with your government and your military, military plans so you can be prepared and coordinate because a lot of different things can happen here," Holbrooke said.
"The Taliban could move east into Baluchistan and cause additional problems, they could move west towards Herat, they could be trapped, and we have to be prepared," he said.
Pakistani forces are also wrapping up an offensive in the Swat Valley in the country's northwest, and have been carrying out strikes in nearby South Waziristan, part of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border. The military is softening up the region ahead of an offensive aimed at eliminating Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, the top commander of Pakistan's Taliban. Mehsud has been blamed for scores of suicide attacks and Islamabad considers him the country's greatest domestic threat.
On Wednesday, intelligence officials said Pakistani fighter jets destroyed two suspected militant hide-outs in South Waziristan, killing six men Tuesday believed to be associates of Mehsud. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
It was not possible to independently confirm the strikes or casualty figures in the remote area, where access for journalists is restricted.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who met with Holbrooke on Wednesday, reiterated Islamabad's objections to U.S. drone strikes in northwestern Pakistan, which target suspected top Taliban militants and al-Qaida leaders, saying they are counterproductive.
The strikes have "seriously impeded Pakistan's efforts towards rooting out militancy and terrorism from that area," Gilani's office said the prime minister told Holbrooke.
He also called on the U.S. to share intelligence with Pakistan and to provide equipment, ammunition and unmanned vehicle technology.

Pakistan already receives significant funding from the United States to arm its security forces and battle insurgents.

____

Associated Press writers Zarar Khan and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.

Wireless Outdoor Speakers

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 06:03 — admin

When multiple drivers are used in a system, a "filter network", called a crossover, is used to separate the incoming signal into different frequency bands appropriate for each driver. A loudspeaker system with n separate frequency bands is described as "n-way speakers": a 2-way system will have woofer and tweeter speakers; a 3-way system is either a combination of woofer, mid-range and tweeter or subwoofer, woofer and tweeter.

The modern design of moving-coil drivers was established by Oliver Lodge in (1898). The moving coil principle was patented in 1924 by Chester W. Rice and Edward W. Kellogg.

Wireless Outdoor Speakers

Garden Chairs

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 04:57 — admin

Garden Chairs

A bench is a piece of furniture, which mostly offers several persons seating. As a rule, benches are made of wood, but one can also find stone benches and benches made of synthetic materials. Many benches have arm rests. In public areas, benches are often donated by persons or associations, which may then be indicated on it, e.g. by a small copper plaque.

Various types of benches are specifically designed for and/or named after specific uses, such as a Bench (weight training) is used for fitness exercises, such as the bench press which is named after its use of a bench a Communion bench is not used as a seat Piano benches offer usually one person seating and are height adjustable. a spanking bench, such as a caning bench, is specifically designed for a spankee to lie upon, possibly strapped down, while submitting to paining of the posterior Swing seats are independently movable, suspended benches, used for play or as a relaxing porch swing. a courting bench (or kissing bench, or tête-à-tête): a two-seater with the seats pointing in opposite directions, thus almost facing each other. A friendship bench in a school playground is where a child can go when they want someone to talk to. The bench in a courtroom, behind which the judge is seated.

Michael Jackson aimed to direct movie about foster children (Reuters)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 03:54 — admin

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) –
Three months before his death, Michael Jackson committed to co-directing and financing a movie -- a poignant drama about foster children -- and planned to get started as soon as he completed his London concerts.

The news is the latest in a series of revelations that are helping to shed light on the pop star's passions and projects, even as the investigation into his abuse of prescription drugs and a tussle over custody of his children rage on.

The movie project also is eerily keyed to one of the most haunting aspects of Jackson's life: his apparent feeling that the Jackson 5's huge success robbed him of his childhood.

"He was very excited about making movies and wanted his hands on everything, from working on screenplays to producing, to writing the music. However, he never showed any interest in acting," B-movie producer, writer and director Bryan Michael Stoller said of Jackson, who starred in the 1978 pic "The Wiz."

Stoller said he had a 23-year friendship with the pop star and was his partner in the film company Magic Shadows. He was to have co-directed the movie, called "They Cage the Animals at Night," which Stoller said they had been developing for seven years.

INSPIRED BY BOOK

The project was based on a 1985 book about the real-life experiences of author Jennings Michael Burch, who bounced around foster homes as a child. Jackson showed the book to Stoller in 2002 at his Neverland estate and asked if he wanted to produce and co-direct a movie version.

"Michael told me often he felt like he grew up as an orphan, like a foster kid, because he never was in one home," Stoller said. "To him every hotel was like a different foster home. He said he used to sit in the window and see kids playing outside and cry because he couldn't be part of that."

Stoller optioned the book for $1 -- initially without telling Burch about Jackson's involvement. When he did tell him, Stoller said the author was excited to work with the singer.

Jackson, meanwhile, was concerned that Burch, then 67 and suffering from cancer, might not survive to see the movie made. So Stoller suggested bringing Burch to Neverland in 2003, where Jackson turned the tables and interviewed him for what was to be a TV special and for the eventual DVD.

During their highly charged conversation, Jackson asked the author if he had ever considered suicide. Burch said he had, and Jackson said he too had considered it during his darkest days. (A clip from this footage is available at THR.com.)

Stoller recorded their meeting, an addition to a collection of videos he made with Jackson over the years, and to hours of audio recordings from their meetings.

Stoller told The Hollywood Reporter he has now come forward because he believes this material humanizes his friend at a time when much myth-making about Jackson is taking place. The producer also is marketing his video, audio and photos either for outright sale or as a project he would produce and direct.

He said he already has had interest from NBC, CBS and E!

But insiders in the Jackson camp said there was no formal deal in place for any Jackson involvement in "Cage"; discussions between the artist and Stoller occurred when Jackson was without management, which may have frowned on any distractions as he prepared for the London shows.

'CAST AWAY' CAST OFF

Jackson's last film foray was a 2005 comedic farce, "Miss Cast Away and the Island Girls," produced, written and directed by Stoller and starring Eric Roberts. Jackson is briefly in the movie as Agent M.J., who comes to the rescue of various characters on a beam of light. The movie was a direct-to-DVD release sold briefly at Blockbuster stores.

When Jackson was indicted on child molestation charges shortly after its release, Blockbuster pulled the film from its shelves. "Miss Cast Away" has been sold overseas by Showcase Entertainment, and Stoller said he has offers for a new domestic video release for Jackson's last movie appearance.

"They Cage the Animals" also was affected by the molestation charges, Stoller said. In 2003 the producer arranged a three-hour meeting in a Universal City hotel between Jackson and Mel Gibson, who besides being an actor is a producer and partner in Icon Prods. "They got along great," Stoller said. "It was kind of funny. Mel was a little nervous. He was hugging a pillow the whole time, kind of playing with it. Michael was kind of shy."

Icon signed a deal to develop the project with a budget of $12 million-$20 million, according to Stoller, who was paid by Icon to write the screenplay. A couple of months later, when Jackson was indicted in Santa Barbara, Calif., Icon dropped the project, and Gibson stopped returning Stoller's phone calls. There were news reports in 2005 that Icon had dropped the project. A spokesman for Icon said the company briefly was involved in developing it in 1995 but had lost interest by 1997. Stoller has a copy of his contract with Icon dated 2002.

Stoller said Icon still owns the screenplay, but an Icon representative rebutted that, saying the company has had no involvement or ownership for 10 years. Gibson declined comment for this report.

WATCHING MOVIES

Jackson lost contact with Stoller for about two years during the period when the singer was on trial. But after his acquittal, Jackson reached out to him. They had watched dozens of movies in the Neverland theater; Stoller said Jackson's favorite was "To Kill a Mockingbird," and that they also discussed doing a remake of the comedy musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

"When Jackson called in 2007, he still had movies on his mind," Stoller said. "He had begun to purchase movie production equipment. He was always asking how things work, but I never saw him really work things. But he wanted all the toys. He bought a dolly and wanted me to show the kids how to use it because they were using it as a play toy, riding around on it."

Jackson wasn't interested in making a blockbuster. "He wanted to do movies the Academy would like," Stoller recalled.

Three months before Jackson's death, he and Stoller had "a pretty serious meeting" about reviving "They Cage the Animals" as an indie feature, the producer said.

"Michael was going to put up $8 million and not have to deal with any studios or producers and then take it to the studios afterward," Stoller said. "He was very passionate about being a director. He was determined to make this movie."

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)

Granite Pulls

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 01:24 — admin

A cabinet is usually a box-shaped furniture, either standing alone as a piece of furniture or built into or attached to a wall (such as a medicine cabinet) typically made of wood but now often made of synthetic materials, and used for storage of miscellaneous items.

A cabinet intended for clothing storage is usually called a wardrobe or an armoire (or a closet if built-in). In previous centuries, such a cabinet was also known as a linen-press. In British usage, a wardrobe occasionally was referred to as an oakley, because of the oak wood used in its construction. In India, a cabinet is often referred to as an Almari.

Granite Pulls

Health bill a boon to doctors (AP)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 00:50 — admin

WASHINGTON – House Democrats want to give doctors a $245 billion sweetener that helps ensure their critical support for a health care overhaul bill. Next up: trying to explain how they could do it without breaking President Barack Obama's promise that health legislation won't increase the federal deficit.
Obama reiterated the pledge in a "CBS Evening News" interview Tuesday, saying: "It's got to be deficit neutral. It can't add to our deficits."
So what of the Congressional Budget Office's conclusion that the House bill does add to the deficit?
Democrats and the Obama administration argue that the $245 billion included for doctors — the approximate 10-year cost of adjusting Medicare reimbursement rates so physicians don't face big annual pay cuts — does not have to be counted in the overall cost of the health care bill.
Their only-in-Washington reasoning is that they already decided to exempt it from congressional "pay-as-you-go" rules that require new programs to be paid for. In other words, it doesn't have to be paid for because they decided it doesn't have to be paid for.
The administration also says that since Obama already included the so-called "doc fix" in his 10-year budget proposal, it doesn't have to be counted again in the health overhaul bill.
"It so happens they added that to this piece of legislation, but that's sort of already baked into our fiscal trajectory," White House budget director Peter Orszag said last weekend on "Fox News Sunday."
"We're looking at what's happening with regard to new policy," Orszag added. "And with regard to new policy, this is deficit neutral over the first decade."
Old policy or new, no one disputes that the "doc fix" does in fact add to the deficit. And the administration's position carried no weight with the CBO when it released its analysis of the House Democrats' bill.
The CBO, Congress' nonpartisan budget scorekeeper, said Friday that enacting the legislation "would result in a net increase to the federal budget deficit of $239 billion over the 2010-2019 period." The increase is mostly because of Democrats' failure to pay for the "doc fix," but CBO didn't even bother to entertain the notion that its cost should be excluded.
The response from House Democrats? A wave of triumphant press releases claiming — misleadingly — that CBO's estimates backed up their claims that their bill was deficit neutral.
The issue is providing ammunition for Republicans, who are accusing Obama of breaking his deficit-neutrality promise. And health experts scoff at the Democrats' fuzzy math.
"Of course it adds to the deficit," said Alex Vachon, a health policy analyst. But at the same time, Vachon and others give the Obama administration and congressional Democrats some credit for attempting to permanently fix the doctor payment issue.
Since its enactment in 1997 the so-called "sustainable growth rate" mechanism, which uses a complex formula to establishes annual target costs for physicians' services under Medicare, has not kept up with actual costs.
That's required Congress to step in almost annually with one-year fixes to prevent doctors from facing ever-bigger potential cuts in payment rates. The cut that loomed for doctors in 2010 was 21 percent. Without a permanent redo of the payment formula, Congress would presumably have had to continue to do one-year fixes, something that would also have cost money and that doctors hated because of the uncertainty involved.
The "doc fix" has been a top priority for the American Medical Association, which cited its inclusion as a key reason for its endorsement of the House Democrats' sweeping health care bill.
In the Senate, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who is presiding over negotiations aimed at a bipartisan agreement on health care, said the issue of paying for the "doc fix" has not yet come up in the talks.
Robert Laszewski, a former insurance company executive who's now a consultant to industry, contended doctors were "paid off" to support the House bill.

"The AMA would not have endorsed the House bill without the doc fix," Laszewski said. "The fact that the CBO has said the doc fix would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the cost of the bill makes clear how much it is worth to the docs."

Asked to comment, the AMA provided a written statement from the group's president, Dr. James Rohack: "Expansion of health care coverage, elimination of denials for pre-existing conditions and repeal of the flawed Medicare physician payment formula are all reasons the AMA supports the House bill."

___

AP Special Correspondent David Espo contributed to this report.

Eddie Cibrian's Wife Is Estranged and Still Pissed at LeAnn Rimes (E! Online)

Wed, 07/22/2009 - 00:44 — admin

Los Angeles (E! Online) –
She might not want him, but Eddie Cibrian's wife says LeAnn Rimes can have him.

Brandi Glanville, who called the country songbird a stalker (yet managed to avoid a lawsuit, if not a tongue-lashing), tells Us Weekly that she and Cibrian "have decided to take some time apart."

"I want to do what is best for our children. Eddie and LeAnn deserve each other," she said.

Rimes—who has been married to Dean Sheremet for seven years and who denied mixing it up with Cibrian, her costar in the unfortunately steamy Lifetime movie Northern Lights—has yet to respond to that generous sentiment.

Meanwhile, Cibrian's rep is characterizing the split as a bump in the road.
"Apparently, the press wishes to continue to play out Eddie Cibrian's domestic situation publicly with an unfair flair of tabloid fervor," rep Steve Sauer tells E! News. "

"Eddie is a devoted and loving father first and foremost, and the speed bump he and Brandi are experiencing needs to be worked out privately for everyone's benefit."

Glanville and Cibrian married in 2001 and have two sons together, 6-year-old Mason and 2-year-old Jake.

In March, Cibrian called reports of his alleged affair with Rimes "a fabricated story that is using random snapshots as connective tissue to create a scandalous relationship."

Sort of like how all parties involved used random snapshots to create the facade of a united front when the going got tough.

··· THEY SAID WHAT? Get today's most commented stories now at www.eonline.com

Apple 3Q beats Street despite recession (AP)

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 21:47 — admin

SEATTLE – Apple Inc. seems to have missed the memo — you know, the one about the recession.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple coasted past Wall Street's expectations for its fiscal third quarter on a wave of laptop and iPhone sales. It did it during a quarter in which total computer shipments fell worldwide. And it did it without sacrificing profit.
Investors sent Apple's stock up $6.82, or 4.5 percent, to $158.33 in after-hours trading Tuesday. Shares had dipped $1.40 to end regular trading at $151.51.
"Times are tough. Apple continues to post pretty strong numbers," said Shaw Wu, an analyst for Kaufman Bros. "It's pretty incredible. It truly is."
Apple, the closest thing the tech industry has to a luxury brand, said earnings for the three months that ended June 27 jumped 15 percent to $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per share. Apple's profit was $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per share, in the same period last year.
The company, which recently welcomed CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs back from medical leave, said sales increased 12 percent to $8.34 billion from $7.46 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Apple beat Wall Street's forecast on both measures. Analysts were expecting Apple to earn $1.17 per share — less than last year — on $8.20 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.
"In a better economy I think we would have sold even more," Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said in an interview.
Apple said it sold more than 5.2 million iPhones in the quarter, more than seven times what it sold in the 2008 quarter, thanks in part to a newly released version of the device.
Apple also sold 4 percent more Mac computers than a year ago, with a 13 percent rise in laptop unit sales more than making up for a 10 percent drop in desktops. Meanwhile, researchers recently reported a 3 percent to 5 percent decline for the overall worldwide PC market in the same period.
Apple's decision to cut laptop prices during the quarter helped it buck the industry trend, even though the move dragged laptop revenue down 2 percent. Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, said Mac sales picked up after the company announced the cuts, its first major price reductions in the recession.
Cook said Mac revenue was also hurt as businesses that typically buy more expensive models continued to put off technology spending. Other computer makers, such as Dell Inc., have also said customers are holding on to their existing machines for longer than normal.
Wu noted that lowering prices didn't eat into Apple's gross margin, which improved from a year ago and beat his expectations. Apple said component costs weren't as high as anticipated, and Wu said he thinks the Mac remained one of Apple's most profitable businesses.
The main weak spot was Apple's iPod line. Even though iPod Touch unit sales more than doubled, total iPod unit sales fell 7 percent, hurt by declines in what Apple considers its traditional MP3 players — iPod Classic, Nano and Shuffle. Oppenheimer told analysts on a conference call that such declines are to be expected as Apple "cannibalizes" iPod sales by offering similar features, plus access to thousands of third-party applications, in the $229-and-up iPod Touch and the iPhone — the cheapest of which is now $99, plus a monthly service contract.
Apple's revenue increased in every region, including the U.S. and Europe. Average revenue in each of Apple's retail stores was $5.9 million, lower than the $6.8 million Apple reported at the same time last year.
At the end of the quarter, Apple's cash hoard totaled $31.1 billion, up from $28.9 billion at the end of the previous quarter.
For the current fourth quarter, Apple said it expects to earn $1.18 to $1.23 per share on $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion in sales. Analysts are looking for a stronger performance — profit of $1.30 per share on revenue of $9.1 billion — but Apple's guidance is typically conservative.

Democrats divided on health care overhaul (AP)

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 20:29 — admin

WASHINGTON – House Democrats put their divisions on display over the details and timing of health care legislation Tuesday despite fresh attempts by President Barack Obama to hasten a compromise on the issue that looms increasingly as a major test of his clout.
With a self-imposed deadline for action in jeopardy, the Democratic leadership juggled complaints from conservatives demanding additional cost savings, first-term lawmakers upset with proposed tax increases and objections from members of the rank-and-file opposed to allowing the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry.
"No one wants to tell the speaker that she's moving too fast and they damn sure don't want to tell the president," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a key committee chairman, told a fellow lawmaker as the two walked into a closed-door meeting. The remark was overheard by reporters.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., vowed weeks ago that the House would vote by the end of July on legislation to meet two goals established by Obama months ago. The president wants legislation to extend health coverage to the tens of millions who now lack it, at the same time it restrains the growth in the cost of health care far into the future.
The president also has vowed that the legislation will not swell the deficit, although a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday that the pledge does not apply to an estimated $245 billion to increase fees for doctors serving Medicare patients over the next decade.
Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, said that was because the administration always assumed the money would be spent to avert a scheduled cut of 21 percent in doctor's fees.
At the White House, Obama and moderate and conservative Democrats verbally agreed on "some type of hybrid of a Medicare advisory council," said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark. Obama last week urged lawmakers to adopt something along those lines, saying it would slow the growth in the health care program for seniors.
In the Senate, a small group of bipartisan lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee met behind closed doors, pursuing an elusive agreement.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, described the process as a grinding one. "Basically, it's filling in the blank pages. There are about a thousand" of them, she said.
It was unclear when — or whether — the White House or Democratic leadership would intervene in hopes of expediting legislation that has yet to materialize despite months of negotiations led by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
But increasingly, it appeared that the best Democrats could hope for this summer would be a vote in the full House by the end of the month, and some sort of agreement on a bipartisan plan in the Senate before lawmakers head home for their summer vacation.
Even that remained a difficult challenge, though.
"If we can get to consensus, we're going to move," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters. "If we can't get to consensus, we're going to continue to work on creating consensus."
At the White House, Obama clearly had Republicans in mind, not Democrats, when he demanded action.
"So I understand that some will try to delay action until the special interests can kill it while others will simply focus on scoring political points," the president said. "We've done that before. And we can choose to follow that playbook again, and then we'll never get over the goal line and will face an even greater crisis in the years to come."
He said that despite the controversy, months of debate have produced agreement on numerous health care issues, and he summoned lawmakers to complete the work.
"When we do pass this bill, history won't record the demands for endless delay or endless debates in the news cycle. It will record the hard work done by the members of Congress to pass the bill and the fact that the people who sent us here to Washington insisted upon change," he said.
Obama has spoken in public nearly every day for more than a week on the issue, some times more than once. At the same time Republicans have upped the political stakes.

On Monday, Michael Steele, the Republican chairman, likened Obama's proposals on health care to socialism, and said the chief executive wanted to conduct a "risky experiment" that will damage the nation's economy and force millions to lose the coverage they now have.

Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was quoted as telling fellow conservatives, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," a reference to the site of French Emperor Napoleon's defeat in 1815.

Given the struggle, the polls show slippage for Obama, although he remains popular.

Still, with details unsettled and Democrats in disagreement, the president is battling the impression if not the reality that his proposal is stalled.

He met at the White House during the day with so-called Blue Dogs, moderate and conservative Democrats whose call for additional cost savings has slowed work in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The panel is the only one of three that has yet to approve its portion of the legislation.

Separately, nearly two dozen first-term lawmakers have called for changes in tax increases in the legislation that would apply to individuals making more than $280,000 a year and couples over $350,000.

Pelosi said on Monday she favored a change so the tax wouldn't take effect until income reached $500,000, a statement that cheered Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., one of the lawmakers who had expressed concern.

But Rangel told reporters that neither Pelosi nor the rank-and-file critics have spoken with him about the suggested change. "I support what we have put out. If anybody has a problem with it I'm anxious to listen to it," he added.

In a measure of the complexity of the task, Orszag said conservative Democrats had reacted favorably to proposals to create an independent commission to recommend future increases in health care provider payments under Medicare.

It is one of only a few proposals in circulation that officials say has the ability to restrain the skyrocketing growth of health care costs.

But accepting such a proposal would require lawmakers to surrender their current power to set fees, which they can adjust to favor constituents.

"I think that we always need to be reminded that members of Congress don't serve under presidents, they serve with presidents," said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.

___

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Erica Werner, Charles Babington and Ben Feller contributed to this story.

ESPN reporter secretly videotaped nude in hotel (AP)

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 19:20 — admin

HARTFORD, Conn. – ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was secretly videotaped in the nude while she was alone in a hotel room, and the video was posted on the Internet, her attorney said.
The blurry, five-minute video shows Andrews standing in front of a hotel room mirror. It's unknown when or where it was shot.
Andrews' attorney, Marshall Grossman, confirmed Tuesday that the video posted on the Internet shows the 31-year-old reporter. He said she decided to confirm it "to put an end to rumor and speculation and to put the perpetrator and those who are complicit on notice that they act at their peril."
Andrews plans to seek criminal charges and file civil lawsuits against the person who shot the video and anyone who publishes the material, Grossman said.
"While alone in the privacy of her hotel room, Erin Andrews was surreptitiously videotaped without her knowledge or consent," Grossman said in an earlier statement. "She was the victim of a crime and is taking action to protect herself and help ensure that others are not similarly violated in the future."
Andrews has covered hockey, college football, college basketball and Major League Baseball for the network since 2004, often as a sideline reporter during games.
A former dance team member at the University of Florida, Andrews was something of an Internet sensation even before the video's circulation. She has been referred to as "Erin Pageviews" because of the traffic that video clips and photos of her generate, and Playboy magazine named her "sexiest sportscaster" in both 2008 and 2009.
She last appeared on the network as part of its ESPY Awards broadcast on Sunday, and is scheduled to be off until September, when she will be covering college football, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said.
"Erin has been grievously wronged here," Krulewitz said. "Our people and resources are in full support of her as she deals with this abhorrent act."
It was not clear when the video first appeared on the Internet. Most of the links to it had been removed by Tuesday.
Several TV networks and newspapers aired brief clips or printed screen grabs of it Tuesday. Grossman responded to an e-mail question about whether he plans to go after those outlets by reiterating his statement that Andrews plans to seek civil charges against "anyone who has published the material."
He would not say what law enforcement agencies might be investigating.
ESPN is based in Bristol, but Connecticut State Police were not involved in an investigation into the video, said Lt. J. Paul Vance, a department spokesman. Vance said investigations into Internet crimes often begin in the victim's home state or wherever the video was shot, if that can be determined.
A phone call to a listing for Andrews in Georgia went unanswered. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it was not involved in any investigation of the video.
Video voyeurism laws vary from state to state. In Connecticut, it is considered a felony and can result in a prison sentence of up to five years, Vance said.
FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said the FBI was not involved in the case, and was unsure if there was any federal jurisdiction.
Ephraim Cohen, a spokesman for the video portal Dailymotion, could not confirm the video had actually appeared on his company's site, but said it may have been there months ago. He said a search for the name of the user who purportedly uploaded the video showed the person had opened an account in February, but had since closed it.
"As far as we can tell, the user took the account and the video down a while ago," he said.

Illegal videos often are posted to multiple sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion, which remove them as soon as they are found. The videos also often circulate on peer-to-peer or file-sharing sites, much like illegal music downloads.

Graham Cluley, who writes a blog for the antivirus software maker Sophos, wrote that several links purporting to send Internet users to the Andrews video actually sent them to sites with malicious software and computer viruses.

He said the some of the hackers actually include a portion of the video on their sites, apparently hoping that the malware gets passed along as users share the link with friends.

"They keep on using (videos like this) because it works," Cluley said. "If more people thought with their head rather than with their trousers, maybe less of these viruses would spread on our computers."

Krulewitz, the ESPN spokesman, said the network has decided not to cover the issue as a news story, "particularly since it has no bearing on her role as an on-air reporter."



Theme by Dr. Radut.