Kevin Provencher Pleads Guilty: Sports Reporter Jailed For Prostitution Ring
March 21, 2011 No Comment
SALEM, Mass. — A veteran New Hampshire sports reporter pleaded guilty Friday to running a prostitution business in Massachusetts featuring women who had auditioned for him and to intimidating a witness in an effort to prevent her from testifying against him. Kevin Provencher was immediately sentenced to state prison on two counts of deriving support from a prostitute, two counts of procuring a person into prostitution, two counts of solicitation for prostitution and one count of witness intimidation, prosecutors said. Each charge carries a penalty ranging from one to 2 1/2 years in prison. The sentences are to be served concurrently. Provencher was fined $5,000 and placed on probation for one year after his release. He also was ordered to have no contact with the women who worked for him as prostitutes and to forfeit a computer seized by police, according to a statement released by the Essex County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant District Attorney Melissa Woodard said in court that prosecutors had enough evidence to prove that Provencher, 52, set up a website soliciting women to work for an escort service he had established, claiming it was run by women. Two women who responded had sex with him before he hired them, she said. Provencher, of Manchester, N.H., advertised prostitution services on Craigslist and other websites, prosecutors said. He performed background checks on prospective customers to make sure they weren’t police officers, then would rent hotel rooms and provide the women with contact information for the clients. At the end of the day, the women would give Provencher half the money they earned or would deposit it an account he set up, prosecutors said. The scheme unraveled about a year later after managers at the Marriott Hotel in Andover, Mass., became suspicious and alerted police, prosecutors said. Provencher was initially arrested in July 2009 on two counts of deriving support from a prostitute. Prosecutors added witness-intimidation and other charges after he told the women who worked for him as prostitutes that his lawyer would “tear them apart” in the media if they spoke to police. Provencher worked for the New Hampshire Union Leader for 23 years. He no longer works there. He could not be reached for comment Friday. It was unclear who his legal representation was. Provencher has won four New Hampshire Sportswriter of the Year awards from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.
Continue reading …Defence minister vows to stand by president after 12 senior military commanders defect from regime A military showdown is looming in Yemen after the defence minister announced that the army would defend the president against any “coup against democracy”. The statement came just hours after 12 military commanders, including a senior general, defected from the regime and promised to protect anti-government protesters in the capital. “The armed forces will stay faithful to the oath they gave before God, the nation and political leadership under the brother president, Ali Abdullah Saleh,” said the defence minister, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed. “We will not allow under any circumstances an attempt at a coup against democracy and constitutional legitimacy, or violation of the security of the nation and citizens.” Prior to the statement, Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, suffered a significant blow when General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a longtime confidant of the president and head of the Yemeni army in the north-west, announced he would support “the peaceful revolution” by sending soldiers under his command to protect the thousands of people gathered in the capital demanding that Saleh step down. “According to what I’m feeling, and according to the feelings of my partner commanders and soldiers … I announce our support and our peaceful backing to the youth revolution,” Ali Mohsen said via a video statement released before noon. Minutes after Ali Mohsen’s defection, tanks belonging to the republican guards, an elite force led by the president’s son Ahmed Ali, rolled into the streets of Sana’a, setting the stage for a standoff between defectors and loyalists. Republican guard tanks took up strategic locations across the city, at Saleh’s residence, the ministry of defence and at the central bank. Meanwhile, tanks of Ali Mohsen’s 1st armoured division took up positions elsewhere in the city. Ali Mohsen’s pledge opened the floodgates to a stream of defections from the regime. Scores of ambassadors, regional governors, editors of government newspapers, prominent businessmen and senior members of the ruling party are among those who have either quit or announced their allegiance to protesters in the past few hours. Within hours, seven Yemeni ambassadors – to Japan, Syria, the Czech Republic, Jordan, China, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait – announced they were standing down, too. “The regime is crumbling. There is very little support left for the president now,” said Mohammed al-Naqeeb, head of the ruling party in Aden, now resigned. At first, protesters gathered at Sana’a University were unsure what to make of the general’s pledge, with many fearing an increased military presence might mean further attacks. But confusion soon gave way to jubilation as hundreds of soldiers from the 1st armoured division arrived on foot, greeted by protesters, who kissed them and hoisted them on to their shoulders. The soldiers were soon mingling with protesters as small entourages of Ali Mohsen’s men picked their way through the tent-filled streets, cheered on by young men waving placards carrying pictures of the general. Soon a line of policemen, soldiers, and businessmen had formed, each waiting their turn to step up on to a huge stage and announce their resignations to a roaring crowd of thousands. “We’ve bought you a birthday present, Ali – it’s a plane ticket to Saudi,” shouted Haeman Saeed, a leading Yemeni businessman after announcing his resignation from the ruling party. “The army are with you,” roared Abdallah al-Qahdi, a senior military general from Aden who was fired from his position last week for refusing to put down a peaceful demonstration. Qahdi said many regime insiders had been waiting for someone like Ali Mohsen to lead the way, and he expected most of the army to have defected by nightfall. But for the time being, the outcome remained unclear. Analysts said there may soon be a violent standoff within the military between those who have defected and the significant portions of the army still under the president’s control. Yemeni political analyst Abdul Irayani said: “Unfortunately, the president and his sons still have control over powerful sections of the military, including the republican guard and the air force. “We are all praying that Saleh leaves quickly and quietly to prevent the situation deteriorating rapidly.” Others suggest the resignations may have been negotiated behind the scenes. “I believe this is a step towards a transitional military government in Yemen,” said Abdullah al-Faqih, a professor at Sana’a University. The army split followed Saleh’s decision to sack his entire government after tens of thousands of mourners flooded the streets of the Yemeni capital on Sunday in a mass funeral for the 52 protesters killed on Friday in a sniper attack by loyalists. The president asked the cabinet to serve as a caretaker government until he forms a new administration. Piling further pressure on Saleh, the country’s most powerful tribal confederation also called on him to step down. Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, the leader of Hashed, which includes Saleh’s tribe, issued a statement on Sunday asking the president to respond to the people’s demands and leave peacefully; several religious leaders co-signed it. Ali Mohsen is between 50 and 60 years old, and is generally perceived to be the second most powerful man in Yemen. Most reports indicate he is the cousin of Saleh’s two half-brothers, although there is much confusion on this matter, with some claims that he is himself a half-brother to Saleh. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar’s name is mentioned in hushed tones among most Yemenis, and he rarely appears in public. Those who know him say he is charming and gregarious. But as commander of the north-east region and the 1st armoured division, Ali Mohsen acted as Saleh’s iron fist. The area he controls includes the governorates of Sa’ada, Hodeidah, Hajja, Amran, and Mahwit, and he is more powerful than any governor. Ali Mohsen was instrumental in the north’s victory in the 1994 civil war and in crushing the recent Sa’ada uprising. It is estimated that he controls more than half of all military resources and assets. Yemen Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The hammer comes down at last on those far-right ‘Liberty Dollars’ promoters
March 21, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media A federal jury in North Carolina finally is bringing the hammer down on the NORFED “Liberty Dollars” scam artists for trying to undermine U.S. currency: The leader of a group that marketed a fake currency called Liberty Dollars in the Asheville area and elsewhere has been found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy against the government in a case of “domestic terrorism.” Bernard von NotHaus was convicted Friday at the conclusion of an eight-day trial in U.S. District Court in Statesville. The jury deliberated less than two hours, according to the Department of Justice. Charges remain pending against William Kevin Innes, an Asheville man who authorities said recruited merchants in Western North Carolina willing to accept the “barter” currency, according to court records. Innes was indicted along with von NotHaus in 2009. “Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism,” U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins said. “While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country.” The case was investigated by the FBI, Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Secret Service with help from the U.S. Mint. “We are determined to meet these threats through infiltration, disruption and dismantling of organizations which seek to challenge the legitimacy of our democratic form of government,” Tompkins said. Von NotHaus, 67, faces up to 25 years in prison during sentencing, which hasn’t been scheduled. Back when the feds first raided von NotHaus’ operations in 2007, CNBC’s Lawrence Kudlow invited him on for an interview that was remarkably congenial, if notably ill-informed: KUDLOW: I don’t understand why people aren’t free to choose. If they want to circulate your coins or your paper, they should be free to do that. I do think it is against the law, but I think in a perfect world they should be free to choose. Von NotHaus’ outfit called itself NORFED — the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act & Internal Revenue Code. Among the coins it minted just before it was busted were Ron Paul dollars. On CNBC, Von NotHaus went on to claim that the NORFED currency was perfectly legal. Just for the record, minting coins to be used as currency in fact is illegal, under 18 USC 486 : Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. NORFED and its defenders liked to claim that there was nothing illegal about minting your own coins if you choose — though of course others this is true only if you don’t make them look like legal tender. It’s also somewhat irrelevant if you’re selling them as part of a pyramid scheme, and using the business for illegal money laundering — which is what NORFED was doing. As the original affidavit explained: The marketing system NORFED operates to sell the currency is a multi-level marketing scheme. The scheme gives NORFED, RCOs, and Associates a profit for selling the ALDs into circulation. When the ALD reached the point of being unprofitable, NORFED conducted a “move up” of the currency. In 1998, the ALD currency was minted using a $10.00 base, meaning that a $10.000 ALD coin, eDollar, or warehouse receipt was backed by one troy ounce of silver. In November of 2005, the thirty (30) day moving average of the spot price of silver reached the “move up point” set by the NORFED. NORFED recalled all of the $10.00 base coins and warehouse receipts and “re-minted” the currency as a $20.00 base currency. This change made what the day prior had been a $10.00 denomination ALD coin, warehouse receipt, or eDollar backed by one troy ounce of silver, a re-minted re-issued $20 denomination coin. This instantly doubled the value of the currency. The “move up” left the silver and gold holdings at the same level as they were at the $10.00 base. Thus the value of the entire currency was doubled without changing the holdings at all. The other effect of the “move up” was a tremendous increase in profits for NORFED, RCOs and Associates. The U.S. attorney’s description of NORFED’s activities as “domestic terrorism” has raised some eyebrows — Ben Smith at Politico calls it a “novel expansion” of the word’s definition, while the usual suspects of the wingnutosphere have been squawking. But there’s nothing particularly novel about it at all: “terrorism” has long been used to include crimes where the intent and motive involved attacking and undermining the government of the United States. And that’s abundantly self-evident in this case.
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Producers searching for someone with ‘the right mix of raw charm and charisma’ to portray the late rapper Tupac Shakur lookalikes have been offered the chance of screen stardom after a website invited online auditions for the lead in a biopic of the late rapper. Insearchoftupac.skeetv.com calls on would-be actors to download and perform a scene from the film as well as their favourite Tupac track. The scene appears to be a courtroom monologue in which the rapper protests: “I just don’t wanna be the scapegoat. I just wanna be. I wanna be.” The auditions are to run until 30 April. Morgan Creek Productions plans to start shooting its version of the music star’s life story this summer, with Training Day’s Antoine Fuqua in the director’s chair. Producer David Robinson told the Hollywood Reporter : “We’re looking for someone with the right mix of raw charm and charisma for the role. At this point, we’re more concerned about finding someone with the ability to give their entire heart into the performance than just looks and personality.” Shakur was shot dead in Las Vegas in 1996, curtailing a career that appeared to be hitting new heights following the success of his album All Eyez on Me. The rapper continued to sell millions of albums after his death, however, with a string of posthumous releases. In addition to his musical projects, he appeared in a number of films including 1993′s Poetic Justice, in which he starred opposite Janet Jackson. Shakur’s work and untimely death imbued him with near-mythical status in the eyes of some hip-hop fans, and he continues to inspire devotion. One follower reacted with dismay to news of the current casting call, saying on YouTube : “It’s impossible to find somebody to play Tupac or even tell a story about him. He was like the most complex man in the past decades! It’s like making another Mona Lisa with a cell phone. It’s not gonna work!” Rap Hip-hop Urban music Ian J Griffiths guardian.co.uk
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The British have long been sniffy about French theatre, but classic playwrights from Molière to Marivaux deserve another look We seem to have a love-hate relationship with French drama. We occasionally revive Racine and Corneille while sniffing airily at the way such neo-classic drama rigidly observes the unities. We also periodically dip into French farce while tut-tutting at its dubious taste, especially all those Feydeau jokes about stuttering and cleft palates. Temperamentally, I suspect we feel much closer to Russian and German drama than we do to its French counterpart. The vogue for everything French (plays, movies, fashion) seems to have faded. But it shouldn’t be that way. Here are five dramatists at whom we should take another look. Molière (1622-1673) The problem used to be one of translation; that has improved in recent years thanks to people like Tony Harrison, Christopher Hampton, Jeremy Sams and Ranjit Bolt. But there is something about Molière’s blend of comedy and tragedy that we still find elusive. And certain plays remain neglected; we do Tartuffe and The Misanthrope, but why not take a look at The School for Husbands or The School for Wives , which deal with the archetypal Molière theme of whether to compromise with or confront society’s rules? And I’ve never seen a British production of Georges Dandin – a play about bourgeois marriage famously revived in France by Roger Planchon , who paid serious attention to the seething life below stairs. We still look to Molière for a jolly romp. In fact, most of his plays are socially subversive as well as funny. Pierre Marivaux (1688-1763) Again, the problem is one of tone. The French even coined a term, “marivaudage”, to describe Marivaux’s precious, mannered dialogue: Voltaire described it as “the art of weighing flies’ eggs on scales made from a spider’s web”. But Timberlake Wertenbaker, Neil Bartlett and Nicholas Wright have successfully translated his plays. And they are eminently worth revival for their exploration of the metaphysics of the heart and the connection between class and passion. In plays such as The Double Inconstancy or The Game of Love and Chance , which Salisbury Playhouse is about to revive, the mask of pretence is stripped away and masters and servants swap roles with astonishing results. He’s is a neglected comic master. Eugene Labiche (1815-1888) Labiche’s reputation as a farce-writer has been overshadowed by that of Feydeau. But at least some his staggering 175 plays are worth examination. An Italian Straw Hat , famously filmed by René Clair, is one of the great comedies of chase and pursuit. And when Peter Stein ran Berlin’s Schaubühne, he had great success with Labiche. One particular play, The Piggy Bank, sounds wonderful: about seven members of the provincial bourgeoisie who break into their secret funds for what turns out to be a disastrous trip to Paris . I know Cheek by Jowl’s Declan Donnellan was at one stage toying with reviving Labiche. Why not now? Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) Obviously best-known as a philosopher and essayist, but also a dramatist of considerable skill. Vicious Circle, which used to be a small-theatre favourite, memorably shows three people locked together in a permanent hell. But Sartre also wrote a number of political plays about resistance to authority. I’ve always had a soft spot for Dirty Hands , which concerns the existentialist choice facing a young hero required to kill a communist party leader. And his response to Greek tragedy’s Orestes story, The Flies , uses the hero’s return to a plague-ridden Argos as a potent metaphor for France under German occupation. Doubtless some would say Sartre is dated. But why shouldn’t plays be of historical interest? Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) It seemed like everyone did Anouilh after the second world war: now his star has sadly waned. But The Rehearsal, with its echoes of Marivaux , remains a minor masterpiece. And I’d love to see a revival of one particular play, Poor Bitos . It’s all about a rich landowner who stages a party in which the guests are invited to come dressed as a figure from the revolution: the intention is to humiliate a communist deputy and despised scholarship-boy who arrives clad as Robespierre. What follows is a terrifying human fox-hunt that reveals a lot about class-antagonisms in post-war France. Anouilh’s “pièces charmantes” may have faded, but his darker work merits revival. Theatre Michael Billington guardian.co.uk
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• I’m paid less than a new starter I am training • How can I distance myself from a nuisance client? At the start of each week, we publish the problems that will feature in this Saturday’s Dear Jeremy advice column in the Guardian Work supplement, so readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. Here are this week’s dilemmas – what are your thoughts? Problem one: I’m paid less than a new starter I am training I have been in my job for about three years, for a company that is currently making a profit.
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The prices of chicken feed and chicken are increasing, but the sums don’t seem to add up. Felicity Lawrence investigates If you buy free range chicken at Sainsbury’s you may have noticed a price rise recently. Up from around £4.19 a kilo in December for a whole bird to £4.75 a kilo this week, according to the farmers who produce them and monitor retail prices. Chickens are fed on grain and the price has been rocketing, so no surprise that they suddenly cost more – rather a lot more, in fact, with that 14% hike which works out at roughly 87p more for an average size bird. But now here’s a mystery. The farmers who actually produce the chickens say they have had a cut in how much they are paid imposed on them retrospectively. They say that in February the large processor that supplies Sainsbury’s with free range birds, 2 Sisters Food Group (which pays the feed costs) told them that it was paying them 6p per bird less for chickens that they began farming in mid-December and which have already been sold to customers in the shops. The company also insisted that this new lower rate is what they will be paid from now on. The farmers calculate that the commodity price spikes translate into an increase in the cost of feed to the processing company of 27p per bird. They say too that they have been told by Sainsbury that the supermarket has already increased what it pays to the processor to take into account its rising feed costs. So what’s going on? And if costs are up by around 27p per bird why are consumers being charged an extra 87p per bird? I asked 2 Sisters for their version of this price war: “Rising commodity prices have created challenges through all parts of the protein supply chain. In addressing these challenges we have sought some temporary support from all our partners and growers. We have received this support in the vast majority of cases and we will address any outstanding issues through continued dialogue,” its spokesman Peter King told me. It declined to discuss any terms between it and the retailers it. Retail margins are commercially sensitive and Sainsbury simply said: “We know that current high feed prices are putting pressure on farmers’ costs of production, which is why we’ve increased the price we pay to our poultry suppliers. We remain committed to offering our customers the best quality food at competitive prices in this challenging economic climate.” The farmers involved are a cooperative of 47 poultry producers in the West Country and three of the group have now lodged claims in court to try to get back the money they say they are owed by 2 Sisters. “This is an illegal retrospective breaking of contractual commitments on payments for birds already shipped to supermarkets and purchased by customers,” their chairman Bob Shipley said. Their real fear is that what 2 Sisters calls “temporary support” farming families may end up having to call bankruptcy. Food & drink Food Felicity Lawrence guardian.co.uk
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Plans to restrict illegal filesharing could be delayed for at least a year as measures are battled out in high court Government plans to curb illegal filesharing could be delayed for at least a year as its most contentious measures are battled out in the high court. The UK’s two biggest internet service providers, BT and TalkTalk, will on Wednesday challenge the Digital Economy Act in a judicial review, on the basis that its proposals to tackle illicit filesharing infringe users’ “basic rights and freedoms” and received insufficient parliamentary scrutiny . The two companies together have 8.4m subscribers, and have repeatedly expressed opposition to elements of the act. The high court is expected to rule on whether the challenge can go ahead on Friday. If it agrees, the process of review could take until spring 2012, delaying implementation of the act even further, while content companies assert that illicit filesharing is costing UK businesses £400m annually in lost sales. The act was due to come into force in January, but has been delayed by a series of regulatory hurdles and now by the legal challenge. The outcome of the challenge is “critical” to the future of the act, a senior television executive told the Guardian. TV companies are increasingly concerned at the volume of their content being swapped over filesharing networks. Under the act, rights holders will collect data about people believed to be downloading film and music from filesharing sites. Internet providers will then match the rights holders’ data against their customer database and send warning letters to those accused. Repeat copyright infringers could have their internet access slowed or even blocked under secondary measures in the act. However, this second phase is understood to be about 18 months away from being considered as part of the measures. “Since the DEA passed into law there has been a considerable amount of work to do to implement the mass notification system,” said a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. “Secondary legislation setting out how the system will be paid for and how it will work has to be passed by parliament. Ofcom also has to set up an appeals process.” Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, last month passed one of the act’s most contentious measures – blocking access to websites accused of enabling filesharing – to Ofcom to review whether it is workable. The communications regulator is expected to report back in the summer. Copyright owners, largely represented by the Motion Picture Association and the British Phonographic Industry, support the act’s attempt to crack down on piracy but have become discouraged at its protracted and slow progress. The act’s cost-sharing arrangements also burden film and music bodies with 75% of the costs of the “mass notification system”, with internet providers footing 25% of the bill. Film bodies are more interested in forcing internet providers to block access to allegedly infringing sites , and are understood to have drawn up a blacklist list of around 90 so-called “cyberlocker” sites. The high court’s judicial review judgment is likely to be appealed by whichever side loses, further delaying its implementation. “The impact of online copyright infringement on the creative industries is huge,” said Christine Payne, general secretary of the creative industries trade union Equity. “The DEA is the result of many years of discussion between government, industry and trade unions to try to provide a framework to legislate against online copyright infringement. We believe we had no choice to intervene to give the government support for this case.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. Filesharing Digital media Internet Computing Media law Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NBC’s Andrea Mitchell Enthralled by ‘Remarkable Job’ Done By Obama and Rice
March 21, 2011 No Comment
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who after a 2008 presidential debate hailed Barack Obama’s foreign policy knowledge (“boy, he did show a command of foreign policy in terms of the nuts and bolts of it”), on Sunday’s Meet the Press trumpeted now-President Obama’s Libya action: “This was pretty remarkable – bringing this whole coalition together and getting the Arab League” to back military action. Mitchell also proclaimed Ambassador Susan Rice “did a remarkable job at the UN” where she delivered
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Downton Abbey writer to retell story of the sinking of liner in a six-part, seven-hour mini-series Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes’s next ITV drama is to be a mini-series about the sinking of the Titanic. Fellowes, who hit on a successful, Oscar-winning formula of interweaving the lives of upper and lower classes in the movie Gosford Park and repeated it for last year’s ITV1 hit Downton Abbey, will take a similar approach in retelling the story of the sinking of the Titanic on 14 April 1912. ITV promised that viewers will be “taken on a heart-wrenching journey through Titanic’s last hours, as the drama reveals which of the characters they have come to know so well will survive … and who does not”. “Interweaving multi-arc action, mystery and romantic plotlines and featuring fictional and historical characters, Titanic will focus on different characters ranging from steerage passengers to upper class guests,” the broadcaster said. “Each point of view will culminate in a cliffhanger as the ship begins to founder, building to an explosive conclusion which draws together each of the stories.” The sinking of the Titanic was a key plot point in Downton Abbey, with the heir to the title of Earl of Grantham going down on the “unsinkable” liner in the first episode, bringing the much-debated “entail” into play. Filming will begin on the six-part, seven-hour mini-series in Hungary in the spring and the drama has already been snapped up by foreign broadcasters including ABC in the US and Channel Seven in Australia. Maria Kyriacou, managing director at ITV Studios Global Entertainment, said: “The fantastic pedigree of the production talent behind this major series has generated huge interest from our global broadcast clients and we are very pleased to announce these new partners today. Providing a vividly different experience of the ship’s last hours alongside a definitive snapshot of what was a unique and uncertain moment in history.” Titanic is a UK/Hungary/Canada co-production and will be produced by Nigel Stafford-Clark and Chris Thompson. The executive producers are Simon Vaughan (Lookout Point), Kate Bartlett (ITV), Jennifer Kawaja, Julia Sereny (both Sienna Films), Howard Ellis and Adam Goodman (Mid Atlantic Films), and David Collins (Samson Films). •
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