Shitzer

CNN - Sources: Spitzer under prostitution investigation

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Sources: Spitzer under prostitution investigation

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is under investigation for allegedly meeting with a prostitute in a Washington hotel, two sources with knowledge of the investigation tell CNN.

One of the sources said Spitzer is identified in a criminal complaint as "Client-9," and that Spitzer's alleged involvement was caught on a federal wiretap.

The criminal complaint involved an alleged high-end prostitution ring run out of New York. Four individuals were charged last week with allegedly running it.

Prosecutors say the ring provided prostitutes costing as much as $3,100 an hour. The criminal complaint did not name any customers, but authorities did intercept text messages, e-mails and telephone calls.

Spitzer on Monday said he "acted in way that violates his obligation to his family," without elaborating or taking questions.

His statement came hours after the New York Times reported he told senior administration officials he had been involved in a prostitution ring.

"I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, to whom I promised better," he said.

"I am disappointed that I failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself," he said. Watch Spitzer's apology

Before the news conference, three Democratic sources told CNN that a top Spitzer aide had told them that the governor would resign. At the news conference, Spitzer declined to respond to questions as to whether he would step down.

The Times' Web site cited an anonymous administration official and said the New York governor met with his top aides before making his statement.

"The governor called his senior staff together and told them he wanted to inform them first about a major announcement of a personal nature," a prominent New York Democrat told CNN.

"To say this is a shock is an understatement," said CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who went to law school with Spitzer.

The Republican Governors Association has called on Spitzer to resign to "allow the people of New York to pursue honest leadership."

"The American people are tired of corrupt and hypocritical politicians. The governor of New York is just another in the long list of politicians that have failed their constituents," Nick Ayers, RGA executive Director, said in a statement.

Spitzer's office, the U.S. Attorney's office in New York and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg all declined to comment on Spitzer.

Spitzer, 48, served as New York's attorney general for eight years before being elected governor.

Time magazine named him "Crusader of the Year" during his two terms as New York attorney general.

Tabloids labeled him "Eliot Ness," after the hero in the crime drama "The Untouchables," because of his reputation for rooting out corruption, busting white-collar criminals and tackling organized crime.

He was also known for prosecuting several prostitution rings.

He also worked as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan and worked for three New York law firms after receiving his law degree from Harvard.

The first-term Democrat had been considered a rising star among his party.

Spitzer is married and has three daughters.

Reuters - Oil soars to record near $108

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Oil soars to record near $108

Monday, Mar 10, 2008 6:38PM UTC

By Matthew Robinson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil shot up more than 2 percent on Monday to a record near $108 a barrel, extending a rally led by investors seeking a hedge against the tumbling U.S. dollar and inflation.

U.S. crude traded up $2.24 to $107.39 a barrel by 1:20 p.m. EDT, off a record $107.85 hit earlier in the session. London Brent crude jumped $1.63 to $104.01.

Fears of a U.S. recession following the biggest U.S. job losses in five years and strains in the credit market have sunk the dollar and raised expectations the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates again to prop up the economy.

Speculators have rushed into commodities as a hedge against rising inflation, helping to lift oil to average over $95 so far this year despite signs the faltering U.S. economy is crimping demand in the giant market.

"What you have seen over the last few months is fantastic strength in a whole range of commodities, all of which together significantly add to inflation and erode real incomes and profits," said Michael Saunders of Citigroup.

"If it were just oil it would be more manageable, but it's not ... What you are seeing now is far more widespread and therefore more damaging."

A fall in U.S. crude oil inventories reported in government data released last week and OPEC's decision on Wednesday to hold supplies steady have also boosted prices.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil was quoted on Monday as saying speculation and political tension would keep prices at triple digits through the year, and some analysts are adjusting their forecasts higher.

"We certainly do see the balance for the rest of the year averaging $100," said Paul Horsnell of Barclay's Capital.

"But we are not going to say that it's going to stay above $100 for every single minute of every trading day for the rest of the year."

Cartel officials insist that speculators are driving up oil prices and that supply and demand fundamentals do not support current levels.

Khelil said prices could retreat in 2009 with a recovery of the U.S. dollar following the election of a new U.S. president and as fundamentals reassert themselves.

OPEC will next meet in September, although ministers could confer informally at a conference between consumers and producers in Rome on April 20-22.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Fineren in London and Fayen Wong in Sydney; Editing by David Gregorio)

Reuters - NY Gov. Spitzer tied to prostitution ring: NYT

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NY Gov. Spitzer tied to prostitution ring: NYT

Monday, Mar 10, 2008 6:30PM UTC

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, the New York Times reported on its Web site on Monday, citing an administration official.

There were no further details of what his involvement may have been.

Spitzer was due to make an announcement at 2:15 p.m. EDT, the Times said.

As state attorney general before being elected governor in November 2006, Spitzer was sometimes called the Sheriff of Wall Street for his prominent role in investigating financial cases.

A Democrat, he entered the governor's office promising reform but soon entered into a conflict with Republican leaders in the state Senate, slowing his agenda.

He has been married to Silva Wall Spitzer since 1987 and they have three daughters.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Eric Walsh)

CNN - Police seek second 'person of interest' in UNC death

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Police seek second 'person of interest' in UNC death

A shadowy figure in the back seat of an SUV in surveillance photos is a second "person of interest" in the slaying of the University of North Carolina student body president, police said Monday.

Police on Saturday released photos taken by an ATM camera that show a young man driving a sport utility vehicle possibly using one of student Eve Carson's ATM cards in the Chapel Hill area.

A large, shadowy form appears in the back seat of the vehicle, which police say may been Carson's.

Carson, 22, was found shot to death early Wednesday in a suburban neighborhood near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. Her Toyota Highlander was found the next day in another neighborhood to the west, close to where she lived with roommates.

"We do believe there is a second unidentified male seated in the rear seat," the Chapel Hill Police Department said in a statement. "We have been exploring ways to enhance the quality of this photo in an effort to learn more about this person."

Police have not identified the pictured driver, who was wearing a hooded sweat shirt and a vintage Houston Astros baseball cap.

Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran said Saturday that Carson's killing "feels like a random crime."

The medical examiner told police that there were no injuries to Carson's body besides gunshot wounds and no signs of sexual assault, Curran said.

On Sunday, more than 1,000 people crowded the First United Methodist Church in Carson's hometown of Athens, Georgia, for her funeral, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.

The University of North Carolina will hold a memorial service for Carson after students return from this week's spring break, Chancellor James Moeser said in a statement on the school's Web site.

On Saturday, the school's top-ranked men's basketball team wore reminders of the popular student president on their jerseys as they took on Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Watch as students remember the slain campus leader

The North Carolina players wore patches on the jerseys that simply read "Eve," and many of Duke's fans donned small light-blue ribbons as a show of support.

A moment of silence for Carson also was held before tipoff.

The UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees has pledged $25,000 to the Crime Stoppers program in the area for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible in Carson's slaying. Carson was a student member of the board.

Reuters - As border tightens, smugglers raise their game

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As border tightens, smugglers raise their game

Monday, Mar 10, 2008 2:23PM UTC

By Tim Gaynor

NACO, Arizona (Reuters) - When U.S. authorities raised a tall curtain of steel through this tiny Arizona border town to prevent people crossing illegally from Mexico, the smugglers on the south side were ready.

Using blowtorches and welding gear they burned a rectangular gate in the barrier large enough to drive a truck through, then they sealed it with a padlock to use it at their leisure, border police say.

As the U.S. government pushes ahead with an unprecedented security buildup along the porous Mexico border in this presidential election year, profit-hungry Mexican drug and human smugglers the length of the line are raising their game.

Border police are encountering ingenious and often simply brazen attempts to foil security at both the ports of entry and empty spaces along the nearly 2,000 mile (3,200-km) border by human and drug smuggling organizations.

"The more fencing and the more manpower that they see, the bolder the smugglers are becoming," Border Patrol agent Dove Haber said as she stood by the tall steel wall in Naco, which is patched most days by a busy repair team.

"Before we had the amount of technology and manpower and infrastructure that we have, they were able to operate with some impunity, and they don't want to see that change."

CARS FLYING THROUGH THE AIR

Illegal immigration is a hot topic in the United States, and both presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John. McCain and Democratic Party rivals Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pledge to secure the porous Mexico border.

The difficulties involved in actually doing so were made clear last week when Ralph Basham, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the government might be unable to meet a timetable to gain "operational security" over the border by 2011.

Ongoing measures to erect 670 miles of new fence on the border are credited with helping to cut arrests to some 870,000 last year from 1.1 million. Nevertheless, smugglers are trying and, in many cases succeeding, in breaching every kind of barrier thrown in their paths.

Sturdy steel posts have been sunk in the ground in many areas to stop vehicles crossing north, although drug traffickers have responded by building elaborate vehicle ramps to drive cars over the top, border police say.

"It's like the old show 'The Dukes of Hazzard,' cars flying through the air," said James Jacques, a supervisory Border Patrol in San Diego, Calif.

Illegal border crossers are also routinely beating pedestrian barriers using ladders tailor-made in clandestine Mexican workshops, border police say, while others have used screwdrivers to try to clamber over new 14-foot tall, steel-mesh barriers designed to deny handholds.

One such attempt was foiled. "It took the man a while, and by the time he got to the top, we were waiting for him," said Andrew Patterson, a Border Patrol agent in Yuma, Arizona.

YARD BLOWERS AND HORSESHOES

Crossing over the line in remote areas can be straightforward, although the challenge for smugglers and illegal immigrants is to disguise their tracks as they trek north over soft, sandy trails. Here, too, they are proving ever more resourceful, Border Patrol agents say.

Illegal entrants have long used branches to rub out their tracks -- in an old technique borrowed from the Apaches. Some have turned to gas-powered leaf blowers to thwart agents tracking, or "sign cutting," for them on roads running parallel to the border.

"One smuggler we caught would cross two, six, ten, 15 people in a group, and every time he crossed a road, he would blow out their 'sign' with the yard blower," Jacques told Reuters in an interview.

Professional smugglers have for years also wrapped their feet in carpet offcuts or strips of foam to try to slip north without a trace, and have laid boards and ladders to cross dirt roads monitored by the Border Patrol.

Other scams include smugglers taking their shoes off and hopping rock-to-rock in a bid to leave no tracks; putting their shoes on backward to try to confuse pursuers, and even attaching boards studded with horseshoes to pass as animals.

"They think it looks like hoofs," agent Haber said of this scam, which proved unsuccessful. "But the stride of an animal and a human are not the same. A horse would be having to take a lot of very, very small steps to look like a human."

JALAPENOS AND SKIN GRAFTS

Smugglers are not only adapting to tougher security in the empty spaces of the border, they are using a seemingly endless variety of wiles to try to beat detection as they pass through the ports of entry, some of them new, many of them recycled.

In addition to special compartments in car tires, gas tanks and door panels to hide drugs, U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors at ports of entry in New Mexico and west Texas recently found marijuana submerged in jars of jalapeno pickles, stuffed into mattresses and even hidden in Christmas holiday candles.

At crossings in California, meanwhile, inspectors in recent years have found a child smuggled inside a sealed papier-mache pinata doll, illegal immigrants crammed inside vehicle seat covers, and, late last month, two Mexican women smuggled in a pickup trucks' engine compartment through Calexico, Calif..

As controls tighten, criminals slipping over the line have also tried to thwart digital scanners linked to immigration and law enforcement databases by burning off their fingerprints, smearing with them superglue, and even, in the case of one man, having them surgically replaced with skin from their feet.

"It's an ongoing battle," said CBP spokesman Brian Levin. "I used to say I thought I had seen everything, but there's always something new."

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Eddie Evans)

USA TODAY - Rodgers ready to step out of Favre's shadow

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By Skip Wood, USA TODAY

Now that life without Brett Favre has settled into the consciousness of the NFL and fans of the Green Bay Packers, a closer look at his presumable successor reveals much.

At his first press conference since Favre's retirement announcement last week, Aaron Rodgers came across as something of a Roger Daltrey creation, and not simply because of his 1970s-style, over-the-shoulders hairstyle.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss?

Maybe.

At least in off-the-field presentation. At various points during his press conference, Rodgers showed off several Favre-like qualities, exhibiting an easy-going manner, a self-deprecating wit and an unmistakable yet subtle self-confidence.

Rodgers even did the swig-of-the-bottled-water-thing, much in the same way Favre did when explaining his decision to retire several days earlier.

He did, though, stress one thing.

"I'm not Brett Favre, and if they're wanting me to be the next Brett Favre, I'm not going to be him," Rodgers said. "I'm Aaron Rodgers. That's who I am. I'm going to be the best quarterback I can be.

"He did it his way, I'm going to do it my way, and hopefully I can be successful."

The 24th pick in the 2005 draft out of California, Rodgers admittedly chafed at but then embraced being Favre's vice president, for lack of a better phrase. He watched, learned and matured.

Rodgers is the first to acknowledge he often and for the foreseeable future will be compared to Favre, and notes that's not only proper but natural.

But as Favre did after taking over for fan favorite Don Majkowski 16 years ago, Rodgers understands reality. The other guy's gone. So go with it.

"I'm in a good situation," Rodgers said. "I've got a great team around me. A lot of people are focusing on what I'm going to do. It's what the team is going to do, really. I'm an important part of that, I know my role, and I need to play well.

"I'm stepping into a team that's established already. I'm going to be expected to play well, I expect to play well, but I've got a great supporting cast around me."

Website address: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/packers/2008-03-09-rodgers-favre-shadow_N.htm

USA TODAY - AP: NFL, Matt Walsh near agreement on Spygate material

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NEW YORK

Maui golf pro Matt Walsh, the former New England Patriots employee said to have tapes of illegal spying by the team, is close to an agreement to turn over information to the NFL.

"Both sides are optimistic that any remaining issues can be addressed successfully and they are committed to reaching a full agreement as promptly as possible," the statement added.

Walsh, a golf pro at Kaanapali, has been seeking protection from lawsuits and other legal action, whether by the Patriots or other parties. The two sides have been negotiating for almost a month after reports surfaced just before the Super Bowl that Walsh videotaped a walkthrough practice of the St. Louis Rams before the 2002 title game. It was won by the Patriots 20-17 over the Rams, who were favored by more than two touchdowns.

Walsh's lawyer, Michael N. Levy of the Washington firm of McKee Nelson, confirmed Sunday night that an agreement was near.

"I have consistently asked the NFL to provide appropriate legal protections for Mr. Walsh," Levy said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

"In recent discussions I have had with the league's lawyer, we have made substantial progress toward this end, and I am hopeful that we will be able to craft an agreement with the necessary legal protections so Mr. Walsh can come forward with the truth."

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said Walsh was not interviewed as part of the league's investigation into "Spygate," which involved the league confiscating tapes from a Patriots employee who recorded the New York Jets' defensive signals from the sideline during the opening game of the 2007 season.

Six confiscated tapes and other documents pertaining to the Patriots' taping were subsequently destroyed by the league. Goodell has defended the destruction of the tapes.

As a result of that investigation, New England coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team was fined $250,000 and forfeited its 2008 first-round draft choice. That pick would have been 31st overall, but New England still has the seventh overall pick, obtained in a trade with San Francisco last year.

Goodell has also met with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who asked pointed questions about taping of both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles. The Patriots beat the Eagles in the 2005 Super Bowl and the Steelers in two AFC championship games.

"As commissioner Goodell has repeatedly emphasized, 'Nobody wants to hear from Matt Walsh more than the National Football League,' NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Sunday night.

In addition to the negotiations over Walsh's testimony, Willie Gary, who played in that game for the Rams, filed suit in New Orleans last month accusing the Patriots of fraud, unfair trade practices and engaging in a "pattern of racketeering." Three fans joined in the suit.

Specter subsequently said that his interest might be covered by that suit.

"I think now that the lawsuits have been started, that I got the ball rolling, and the plaintiffs' lawyers are picking it up," he said.

Website address: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2008-03-09-walsh-spygate_N.htm

Yes We Can

I'm 27 Y'all

I've been doing this blogging thing for over a year now, started when I was 25, continued at 26. Now I'm 27 y'all. It's already March. The year and time slows down and waits for no one.

I took my birthday off from work on Wednesday. Watched a lot lot of DVDs. Didn't do much reading but got some much needed rest. Last night I got so drunk and wasted. Partied it up.





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