Michael Vick’s attorneys are engaged in plea negotiations with federal prosecutors, who are pressuring the Atlanta Falcons quarterback to admit guilt in the dogfighting charges against him now that two more co-defendants have scheduled plea hearings for later this week, sources familiar with the case said yesterday.
Prosecutors asked Vick’s attorneys to give them an answer by Friday, said the sources, who declined to characterize the Friday request as a deadline. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
The government said at a recent court hearing that prosecutors are preparing a new indictment with additional charges in the case, and prosecutors are expected to seek that indictment by the end of the month if there is no plea deal with Vick.
As of yesterday afternoon, no plea deal was imminent, and Vick’s representatives declined to comment on the talks. “I don’t think we’re going to make any statements on that,” said Christopher Garrett, a spokesman for Vick’s Washington-based attorney, William R. Martin.
One source said last night that the plea agreement being discussed would involve a year or less of jail time for Vick and, if it’s accepted, would be designed by Vick’s legal team to ensure his release from jail while he’s still young enough to play football.
Thursday’s commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death has been mapped out for years. But Lisa Marie Presley’s idea for how to best mark the date bloomed just three weeks ago.
“People have been asking me to do another duet with him forever, but I had to do my own thing before I went back there,” says Presley, 39, whose 20th anniversary duet with her father, Don’t Cry Daddy, was never available commercially.
“So I was ready. I just had to figure out what would be right. And suddenly it came to me, all at the eleventh hour.”
More than 75,000 fans have flowed into Memphis to celebrate their American idol during Elvis Week, exceeding earlier projections. On Thursday, some will be treated to the sight of Presley’s only child using the magic of digital technology to perform another duet with her dad, this time In the Ghetto, a tale of inner-city blues and redemption that was a staple of Elvis’ Vegas shows.
But the younger Presley has added her own touch to this father-daughter reunion: Proceeds from sales of the song, which will be available on iTunes, will benefit a soon-to-be-established New Orleans branch of Presley Place, a transitional housing facility for homeless families. It’s a gesture that her benefit concert-focused dad would appreciate.
LIMA, Peru (AP) - A powerful earthquake shook Peru’s coast near the capital on Wednesday, toppling some houses in Lima and causing alarmed residents to flee into the street for safety. A tsunami warning was issued for South America’s Pacific coast based on the strength of the quake.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.5 magnitude temblor hit about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of 25 miles. It was followed by two strong aftershocks that registered at magnitudes 5.8 and 5.9.
There were no immediate reports of injuries. Associated Press reporters said the quake shook Lima for more than a minute and that some homes had collapsed in the city’s center.
Firefighters said some street lights and windows shattered in Lima and that hundreds of workers were evacuated from office buildings and remained outside, fearing aftershocks.
The quake also knocked out telephone service and mobile phone service in the capital. Firefighters were called to put out a fire in a shopping center.
Callers to Radio Programas, Peru’s main news station, said parts of several cities in southern Peru had been hit with blackouts.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for the coasts of Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia, and a tsunami watch from Panama to Mexico.
It also issued a tsunami advisory for the U.S. state of Hawaii. The center said it did not know if a tsunami had been generated.
Photo below: Jack Kerouac (right) & friend Neal Cassady
“It’s a book that has aged well,” said Martin Sorensen, floor manager at Kepler’s Books and Magazines in Menlo Park, Calif. A “noticeable” number of copies are sold each year at the store, he said, “certainly more than the average 50-year-old book.”
The autobiographical, stream-of-consciousness “On the Road” follows Sal Paradise (a character based on Kerouac) and Dean Moriarty (based on Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassady) as they ramble back and forth across the country, drinking, listening to jazz and having affairs.
Viking is releasing a 50th-anniversary edition on Thursday (the original came out Sept. 5, 1957), and is also publishing, for the first time in book form, the original version that Kerouac typed on a 120-foot-long scroll and a new analysis by John Leland, a reporter at The New York Times, titled “Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of A-On the Road- (They-re Not What You Think).” The Library of America will include “On the Road” in a collection of Kerouac’s “road novels” to be published next month. And the New York Public Library will pay homage in November with an exhibition of the original scroll and other materials from the Kerouac archives.
Army soldiers committed suicide last year at the highest rate in 26 years, and more than a quarter did so while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new military report.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release Thursday, found there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest since the 102 suicides in 1991.
“Iraq was the most common deployment location for both (suicides) and attempts,” the report said.
The 99 suicides included 28 soldiers deployed to the two wars and 71 who weren’t. About twice as many women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan committed suicide as did women not sent to war, the report said.
Preliminary numbers for the first half of this year indicate the number of suicides could decline across the service in 2007 but increase among troops serving in the wars, officials said.
WE’ll ee what he actually recommends next month. And as expected, they are blaming the latest attack that killed 250 people on Al-Qaeda. That’s not what I’ve read. Sunni Arab guerillas is who I read is responsible. Propaganda, propaganda, propaganda.
The top American commander in Iraq said Wednesday he was preparing recommendations on troop reductions before he returns to Washington next month for a report to Congress. He predicted the U.S. footprint in Iraq would have to be “a good bit smaller” by next summer.
But Gen. David Petraeus cautioned against a quick or significant U.S. withdrawal that could surrender “the gains we have fought so hard to achieve.”
He declined to offer specifics on upcoming recommendation. The report, expected next month, is seen as a potential roadmap for U.S. military and diplomatic policies in Iraq.
Petraeus also said the “horrific and indiscriminate attacks” that killed at least 250 Yazidis, an ancient religious sect, in northwestern Iraq on Tuesday were the work of al-Qaida in Iraq fighters
With the departure of Karl Rove, the media is speculating as to how that will affect Bush’s domestic agenda. White House deputy chief of staff Joel Kaplan argued that Bush will pursue an “ambitious agenda” despite Rove’s departure:
The tank is full. The president’s priorities haven-t changed, nor has his ambitious agenda. When we come back in the Fall, the Congress is going to have a full plate in front of it. [Fox News, 8/14/07]
Similarly, spokeswoman Dana Perino claimed, “We have a lot of things that we can get done.” In reality, Bush’s domestic agenda “has largely shrunk to veto threats of bills passed by the Democratic-led Congress.”
Even the White House’s faithful conservative allies aren-t buying the spin. Last night on Fox, right-wing pundits Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes disputed the White House’s contention that it has an agenda:
Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel continue to get the shaft from the mainstream media.
It’s as if these two genuine peace candidates aren-t even in the race the way they are neglected.
They can win debates, but the next day in the news coverage they barely get a mention.
And when the topic of Iraq comes up, their views get short shrift.
Case in point: Last Sunday’s New York Times.
The lead story on the front page of the Times was headlined “Democratic Field Says Leaving Iraq May Take Years.”
Well, that’s not what the whole field says.
Oh, the Times did say there was an exception: A subhed read: “With One Exception, Even Critics of War Plan Gradual Exit.”
And who was that one exception? Bill Richardson of New Mexico.
The article, which went on for two dozen paragraphs, never even mentioned Gravel’s name or Kucinich’s name, the two Democratic candidates who have been the most outspoken all along on the Iraq War.
Anyone reading the story wouldn-t even have known that Gravel or Kucinich was in the race, or if you did, you-d have to assume that they had changed their minds on pulling out of Iraq. Which they haven-t.
Not only is this a prime case of inaccurate reporting.
It’s also a perfect exhibit of how the leading media outlets in this country take it upon themselves to narrow the field before the voters have a chance to cast their ballots.
What might be called the Long Campaign has created a demand for news of political conflict, and that demand is being duly supplied. At this preposterously early date in the 2004 election cycle, the candidates for the Democratic Presidential nomination had participated in exactly one “debate,” as, for lack of a better word, these overpopulated, overmoderated, your-time-is-up Q & A panels are called. Two cycles ago it was zero debates. This time around, it’s-already!-eight.
The political arena is ideally a marketplace of ideas, but in our country, more often than not, it’s all marketplace and no ideas. Caveat emptor, Democrats. The market pressures in this particular souk almost all push in one direction: making political mountains out of policy molehills.
A case in point is the quarrel, nominally about foreign policy, that the two leading Democratic hopefuls have been carrying on for the past few weeks. It began during the YouTube/CNN extravaganza. A video questioner, citing Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel, asked, “In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your Administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?”
Senator Barack Obama, called upon to answer first, said, “I would. And the reason is this: that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them, which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this Administration, is ridiculous.” After noting that Cold War Presidents regularly spoke to Soviet leaders, evil empire and all, he went on, “One of the first things that I would do in terms of moving a diplomatic effort in the region forward is to send a signal that we need to talk to Iran and Syria, because they-re going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses.”
Senator Hillary Clinton, who was next up, spotted a chink in Obama’s armor and went for it:
I know Sean is purposely pissing off the administration by cuddling up with the likes of Chavez and Castro. He’s also passionate about these topics and is a damn good writer - JS
Sean Penn spent last week playing journalist in Venezuela. He was in the company of Hugo Chavez, a man with such abiding respect for journalism that he tries to shut down any news operation critical of his move toward tyranny.
Chavez did manage to shut down RCTV, the country’s oldest and most popular television network, by denying the renewal of its broadcast license. RCTV then switched to cable. And now Chavez is trying to close it down there, too.
But for now RCTV is still in operation, even if with a greatly reduced audience and under threat. Its status is indicative of where Venezuela is under Chavez: a nation whose democratic forces sometimes win and sometimes lose in a struggle to prevent a president from governing with unrestricted powers and without public challenges to his policies.
How much of that is going to end up in whatever story Sean Penn writes?
Penn claimed that he was in Venezuela to take in what was going on and then write about it. Nothing wrong with that, ostensibly. It’s what journalists do. He even tried to play I’m-not-a-movie’star.
The US government is on a A-burning platform- of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.
David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.
These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large’scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.
Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.
“Sound familiar?” Mr Walker said. “In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.”
Mr Walker’s views carry weight because he is a non-partisan figure in charge of the Government Accountability Office, often described as the investigative arm of the US Congress.
I just want to say a few words about Blue Herald Radio here. Jim Swanson is a true professional, and we are so very blessed to have had him choose Blue Herald to post his radio podcasts. Since it’s inception, he’s interviewed Matt Rothschild, Editor of “The Progressive” Magazine, Shawn Chang, Deputy Policy Director with FreePress.net, Matt Kelley from “The Innocence Project”. Larry Synclair, whose son, Larry Jr., was abducted by Larry’s ex-wife and taken to Russia illegally, comedienne Judy Croon, Craig Aaron from FreePress.net, Teresa Stack, President of “The Nation” magazine, Dr. Dewey Caron regarding the disappearance of the honey bees, and actor and author Kim Strauss. They are all great interviews and if you haven’t listened to them, you sure should.
If you have a blog, you can run Blue Herald Radio on your blog so people can listen as they read and comment with you. Just go here to get the code to put the button on your blog so people can listen at your place, too. Easy as 1,2,3. If you have any trouble with it, just email us and we’d be happy to help you set it up.
Tell your friends about Blue Herald Radio. It’s something we’re very very proud of. It’s great to listen to as your cruising the information highway! Give Jim a call anytime at all and leave him a message. Let him know what you think about anything you feel passionate about. Politics, music, current affairs……whatever. Show him some love!
Prosecutors asked Vick’s attorneys to give them an answer by Friday, said the sources, who declined to characterize the Friday request as a deadline. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
“People have been asking me to do another duet with him forever, but I had to do my own thing before I went back there,” says Presley, 39, whose 20th anniversary duet with her father, Don’t Cry Daddy, was never available commercially.
The autobiographical, stream-of-consciousness “On the Road” follows Sal Paradise (a character based on Kerouac) and Dean Moriarty (based on Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassady) as they ramble back and forth across the country, drinking, listening to jazz and having affairs.
participated in exactly one “debate,” as, for lack of a better word, these overpopulated, overmoderated, your-time-is-up Q & A panels are called. Two cycles ago it was zero debates. This time around, it’s-already!-eight.
Chavez did manage to shut down RCTV, the country’s oldest and most popular television network, by denying the renewal of its broadcast license. RCTV then switched to cable. And now Chavez is trying to close it down there, too.
