Lohan returns to court for latest probation update

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2011 file photo, actress Lindsay Lohan appears for a probation hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. Lohan returns to a Los Angeles court Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, to update a judge on her probation progress, which involves therapy sessions and cleanup duty at the county morgue. (AP Photo/Mario Anzuoni, Pool/file)

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2011 file photo, actress Lindsay Lohan appears for a probation hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. Lohan returns to a Los Angeles court Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, to update a judge on her probation progress, which involves therapy sessions and cleanup duty at the county morgue. (AP Photo/Mario Anzuoni, Pool/file)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Lindsay Lohan is returning to court to give a judge her second update on how she's faring under strict new probation requirements.

The hearing on Tuesday is expected to be much like Lohan's last progress update: short and without surprises.

The starlet has been doing cleanup work at the county morgue and attending psychotherapy sessions in an effort to avoid problems with her probation for separate drunken driving and theft cases.

Lohan's spokesman Steve Honig says the actress has made her community service her "primary focus" and is eager for Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner to receive the details.

The 25-year-old struggled with her probation until Sautner imposed a series of tough new rules, including monthly meetings with the court, in November.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-17-People-Lindsay%20Lohan/id-28f23789c7784149bde76d8e7195367a

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Executive Pardon Power Needs to Be Restricted (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Over the years, executive pardons have generated controversies at state and federal levels. The recent public outrage over Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's decision to pardon several convicted killers again brings attention to the abusive nature of pardon powers. Before this controversy, there were serious questions regarding clemencies granted by former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Should there be limits to this executive power?

The original intent of pardon power was to prevent miscarriages of justice. If a person was wrongly convicted or harshly sentenced, the president or governor will be able to correct the injustice. Unfortunately, many of the recent pardons drift from the law's true spirit. The clemencies recently granted by Barbour are perfect examples of this abuse.

In the case of the four convicted killers pardoned by the governor, there were never any reservations regarding the original convictions. Furthermore, popular support for these pardons is almost nonexistent. Barbour can't really claim he made these decisions for the public good.

The worst part about these pardons was the fact Barbour did not consult with or notify the families of the victims prior to making this decision. In an interview with Fox News, the governor defended his decision citing Christian values of forgiveness and compassion. Yet, he showed arrogance and insensitivity to the victims' families in his handling of the situation.

As the U.S. is a democracy, the idea one person holds the power to pardon any convicted criminal runs contrary to core democratic tenets. If jurors and not judges are tasked with deciding the fate of a defendant in court, why couldn't the legislative branch or the public have some say on pardoning decisions?

Since there are some merits to executive pardon powers, they should not be completely eliminated. But changes should be made to hold executive chiefs accountable for their pardons and commutations. Given that presidential pardon power is keenly protected by the U.S. constitution, any changes will have to take place at the state level. Hopefully, the recent controversy has raised enough public awareness on this important issue to empower corrective actions.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120117/cm_ac/10847857_executive_pardon_power_needs_to_be_restricted

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Democrat seeks GOP names on Countrywide VIP loan list (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The top Democratic member of a congressional oversight panel turned up the heat on its Republican chairman on Tuesday to identify the four GOP lawmakers who got special treatment in the controversial "Friends of Angelo" mortgage program run by the now-defunct Countrywide Financial Corp.

Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter on Tuesday to the panel's chairman, Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, in which he pressed for disclosure of all four GOP congressmen's names. In the letter, Cummings took issue with how Issa has handled the investigation into the Countrywide VIP loan program.

"In response to your subpoena, the Committee obtained information about four previously unknown instances in which Members of Congress received VIP loans, including three current Republican House Members and one former Republican House Member. After discovering that all of these Members are Republicans, you sent a letter on December 16, 2011, referring their cases to the House Ethics Committee," Cummings wrote in the letter dated January 17th to Issa.

The "Friends of Angelo" program's name refers to Angelo Mozilo, the former chairman and CEO of Countrywide, the California-based lender that became a dominant player in the mortgage business during the housing boom. In October 2010, Mozilo agreed to pay $67.5 million in a combined penalty and "disgorgement of ill-gotten gains" to settle SEC charges of fraud and insider trading related to Countrywide's risky subprime mortgage lending practices. At the time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the $22.5 million fine was the largest ever paid in an SEC settlement by a senior executive of a publicly traded company.

Issa has waged a high-profile campaign for three years to obtain mortgage files of members of Congress who received special treatment from Countrywide.

POTENTIAL FOR A POLITICAL FIRESTORM

Disclosures about members of Congress getting discounted loans and other financial perks have the potential for a huge backlash in an election year.

Veteran GOP Representatives Howard McKeon and Elton Gallegly, both Republicans of California, have admitted their names are on a list of members of the U.S. House of Representatives who received discounted loans from Countrywide, according to the Saturday edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Cummings criticized Issa for reversing course during the investigation after previously saying he would disclose the names of any lawmakers who received VIP loans. Instead, after receiving information about four previously unknown instances of politicians winning favor from the mortgage lender last month, Issa sent the names to the House Ethics Committee.

"Since you failed to consult with me before taking these actions, I have several questions about how you want to proceed with the investigation," Cummings wrote.

The Maryland Democrat called on Issa to name the two remaining loan recipients. Cummings also wanted to know why Issa planned to interview Countrywide officials who were involved in the "Friends of Angelo" loan dealings.

"Rather than publicly identifying the four additional Members who received Countrywide loans or attempting to determine whether they took any official actions on behalf of Countrywide, you chose instead to refer their cases to the Ethics Committee," Cummings wrote.

"These sudden shifts raise key questions about how you plan to proceed with this investigation," he added.

Cummings also asked if Issa intends to schedule public hearings on the investigation and whether he will call on Mozilo to testify.

A spokesman for Issa was not immediately available for comment late on Tuesday.

After the housing bust and widespread defaults on subprime mortgages, the failing Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America in 2008.

(Reporting By Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/pl_nm/us_usa_countrywide_congress

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Happy MLK Day! Kick off the week with Monday’s links: Skipping naps could lead toddlers to become poorer problem-solvers ? Colorado.edu 13 ideas for having family fun on the cheap ? Real Simple Rising cost of donor banks leads women to search for free sperm online ? Yahoo! Shine How a millionaire teaches his kids [...]

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Google tackles online privacy in unusual ad blitz (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Google is focusing on the importance of protecting personal information in an unusual marketing campaign for a company that has been blasted for its own online privacy lapses and practices.

The educational ads will start appearing Tuesday in dozens of U.S. newspapers, including The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, and magazines, including Time and the New Yorker. Google Inc. also will splash its message across billboards within the subways of New York and Washington, as well as various websites.

Google will address some of the basics of online privacy and security in the "Good To Know" ads, which will all include referrals to a website for additional information.

Initial topics to be covered include the steps that can be taken to protect online account passwords and the use of computer coding to locate and identify Web surfers. Google will also try to explain why its widely used search engine can produce more helpful results if it knows more about the past interests of the person making the request.

While Google views the campaign as a public service, it may come across as disingenuous to critics who say the Internet search leader compiles too much personal information about its users and then isn't careful enough about protecting the sensitive data.

In a major gaffe, Google exposed the personal contacts of its email users in 2010 when it launched a new social service called Buzz. That breakdown led to a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission requiring the company to submit to external audits of its privacy policies every other year.

Google's commitment to privacy was called into question again in 2010 when it acknowledged that company-dispatched cars taking photos of streets around the world also had been vacuuming up personal e-mails and website activity occurring over unsecured wireless networks set up in homes and small businesses.

"This campaign should be nominated for some kind of award for fiction," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "If grades were given out for privacy protection, Google would get a D plus."

Google's ads are coming out at a time when lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and Europe have been examining whether to mandate changes on how much information that websites can gather about visitors without giving them more controls to prevent the surveillance.

Gathering digital dossiers of personal data helps target Internet ads at people more likely to buy the products and services being peddled. Google has an incentive to ensure online ads remain as effective possible because those commercial messages generate most of its revenue, which totaled $27 billion through the first nine months of last year. The company's full-year figures are due out Thursday.

The ad campaign is "really just a PR offensive to help dim the increased scrutiny of Google's privacy practices," Chester said.

Not so, says Alma Whitten, who was named Google's director of privacy for product and engineering after the company acknowledged its 2010 missteps.

"We all have family and friends that ask us for advice on privacy and security all the time," Whitten said. Those recurring questions, she said, made Google realize it should do something to give everyone a better grasp on the fundamentals of online privacy.

The total bill for the multi-week blitz will run in the "tens of millions" dollars, according to Google. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., declined to be more specific

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_hi_te/us_google_privacy_ads

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Rio crowd explodes as Jose Aldo posts crazy finish of Chad Mendes at UFC 142

So much for the lack of finishes from Jose Aldo. The UFC's featherweight champ ended the "Rocky IV" dreams of Chad Mendes with a big knee and two brutal punches.

The champ beat the clock at the end of the first round by landing a vicious knee. Mendes went limp and fell before eating two more punches squarely on the face. Referee Mario Yamasaki stopped it at the 4:59 mark of the first round in the main event of UFC 142 in Rio de Janeiro.

Aldo can be a boisterous sometimes when it comes to the post-fight celebration. Tonight, he went a little overboard. At the end of the fight, the second the Octagon door opened, he flew through running into the crowd. In what was a near riot-like scene, the fans went crazy on Aldo. He was eventually carried on their shoulders and got back into the cage after a few minutes.

Aldo (21-1, 3-0 UFC) runs his win streak to 14 straight. He hasn't lost a fight since 2005.

"Jose is a great champion. I wanted keep the pressure on and close the distance and get my hands on him," Mendes said. He's got great takedown defense and footwork. Watching a lot of his fights, I knew it would be tough to take him down. He was the better man."

Mendes, a former elite college wrestler, had to get the fight to the ground to give himself a shot. Aldo was simply too big and too athletic. The champ stuffed all five of Mendes' takedown attempts.

In between those tries, Mendes ate kick after kick on his lead leg. It took roughly three minutes for the challenger to switch stances to protect that leg.

With just under a minute left in the round, Mendes actually got into a favorable position. He had standing back control and delivered some solid knees to the back of Aldo's legs. Aldo freed himself with eight seconds left in the round. Mendes turned, ducked his head and tried to shoot forward for another takedown. Aldo's reaction time was ridiculous as he landed a quick left knee. Mendes fell to his back where he ate the next punches to force the stoppage.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/rio-crowd-explodes-jose-aldo-posts-crazy-finish-050851819.html

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AP source: Pineda, Montero in Yanks-Mariners swap (AP)

SEATTLE ? The Seattle Mariners agreed to trade right-hander Michael Pineda to the New York Yankees for catcher Jesus Montero on Friday, a swap involving two of baseball's top young talents.

A person familiar with the deal confirmed the trade to The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss the trade that will be completed pending physicals.

As part of the trade, the Yankees also sent 24-year-old pitcher Hector Noesi to Seattle for 19-year-old righty Jose Campos.

The deal addresses needs for both sides. The Yankees were looking for another starter, preferably young, to add to their rotation, while the Mariners were desperate for a slugger to add to an offense that was among the worst historically the last few seasons.

In addition, another person familiar with the agreement told the AP the Yankees had reached a deal with free agent pitcher Hiroki Kuroda on a $10 million contract for one season. The 36-year-old righty was 13-16 with a 3.07 ERA for the Dodgers last season. Kuroda's contract is pending a physical.

After losing in the first round of the playoffs, the Yankees kept looking for pitching this winter after they passed on bidding for the top free agents in what was a weak year for starters.

They could part with the 22-year-old Montero because they have several catchers in their system who are considered far better defensively. They have Austin Romine at Triple-A, plus Russell Martin earned an All-Star appearance in his first year with New York and was praised for his work with the Yankees' pitching staff.

In just 69 plate appearances, Montero hit four homers, drove in 12 runs and batted .328 for New York in a September call-up that earned him a spot on their playoff roster. He showed patience at the plate and an ability to hit with power to the opposite field.

Montero hit .288 with 18 homers and 67 RBIs at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year. Montero nearly came to Seattle back in 2010 as part of a deal for Cliff Lee that fell apart. Lee was later traded to Texas.

Pineda, who turns 23 later this month, earned his way into the Mariners' rotation with his performance last spring. By the end of the season, he was in place as Seattle's No. 2 starter for the future behind ace Felix Hernandez.

Pineda went 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA in his rookie season that started fast, then endured typical rookie struggles as the season progressed. One of Pineda's high points was starting at home against the Yankees on May 27 when he was already 6-2. Pineda threw five innings that night of a 4-3 Seattle victory.

But Pineda's rookie problems started soon after. Over his final 17 starts, Pineda was 3-8 and his ERA ballooned to 4.74. Overall, he struck out 173 in 171 innings.

Pineda was expendable because of Seattle's rich depth of starters. The Mariners have Hernandez at the top of their rotation and just signed Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma. Those two, combined with lefty Jason Vargas and young prospects Charlie Furbush and Blake Beavan, will likely make up Seattle rotation to begin the season.

In the minors, three of Seattle's top prospects all project as starting pitchers: right-hander Taijuan Walker, lefty Danny Hultzen ? the No. 2 pick in last year's amateur draft ? and righty James Paxton.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120114/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bba_yankees_mariners_trade

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