A contentious exchange with an anti-gay protester. An announcement of her new single’s release. Just another day in the life of Lady Gaga – caught on video! In the latest edition of Gagavision – her YouTube video diary – The Lady is seen arguing with a Christian fundamentalist protester outside of one of her shows. The picketer, who was doling out “get out of hell free” cards, was a bigot with a big… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Hollywood Gossip Discovery Date : 06/04/2011 16:19 Number of articles : 5
Continue reading …
Memo highlights series of government ‘red lines’ under key parts as Labour accuses coalition of public relations exercise A two-month “listening exercise” in which medical professionals will be asked to contribute to a review of changes to the NHS has been thrown into doubt by a confidential memo highlighting a series of government red lines that must be maintained. As David Cameron and Nick Clegg joined the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, on Wednesday to launch the exercise at a hospital in Surrey, the memo by NHS chief executive David Nicholson indicated there may be little room for manoeuvre in reworking the health and social care bill. The memo drew a red line beneath the fundamental planks of the bill that are not for changing: GP consortiums, an independent commissioning board to oversee them, every hospital to become a foundation trust, and Healthwatch and primary care trusts to be abolished by 2013. The memo said there would be delays in setting up Monitor, a regulatory body for bringing competition in the NHS, to which many object, which will slip to July 2012, and the abolition of strategic health authorities will also be delayed to the same date. The memo is likely to be seized on by Labour which says that the “listening exercise” is more of a PR exercise. Cameron, speaking at Frimley Park hospital, said the two-month “pause” in the bill offered health workers an opportunity to amend the government’s plans that will see 60% of the NHS budget handed to GP-led consortiums. Steve Field, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, will chair a hastily assembled forum of medical experts that will report by the end of May or the beginning of June. The prime minister said: “Let me be clear: this is a genuine chance to make a difference. Where there are good suggestions to improve the legislation, to improve the changes, those changes will be made.” But “the status quo is not an option”, he said; the NHS could deliver better care, saving more lives, if doctors rather than “managers” were put in charge. Lansley appeared to indicate on Monday, when he announced the “pause”, that the changes would not be far-reaching when he said the bill would be amended “in the normal way” when it is revived in mid-June. But Clegg made clear on Tuesday that “substantive changes” would have to be made to the legislation. Change to the NHS was vital because of the increasing numbers of elderly people who will need treatment, Cameron said. “If we want to keep an NHS that is free at the point of use we have got to make the NHS more effective,” he said. He claimed the changes were already working, with 3,000 fewer managers and 2,500 more doctors in place, and many more people accessing life-saving drugs through the cancer drugs fund. “But we recognise there are questions,” he said. At Frimley Park, breast cancer surgeon Ian Laidlaw said he was concerned that giving groups of GPs more say in what hospitals do could threaten, not enhance, the latters’ success. The multidisciplinary teams they had built up in cancer care were delivering exceptional outcomes, he told the politicians. “These have been hard won, and I’m really concerned that the commissioning driven by GPs who also hold the budget will look for cost-efficient choices which will fragment the very teams that have delivered the service.” NHS Health David Cameron Nick Clegg Andrew Lansley Sarah Boseley Michael White Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Actor says the police let her down by not telling her about evidence that tabloid hackers were targeting her The actor Leslie Ash has spoken out for the first time against the Metropolitan police for failing to investigate claims that a private investigator working for the News of the World had hacked into her mobile phone, even though the force had held evidence since 2006 that he had targeted her along with her husband and two children. Ash, a former star of Men Behaving Badly, told the Guardian: “I feel I’ve really been let down. I can’t understand their behaviour at all.” Ash and her husband, the former footballer Lee Chapman, are suing the News of the World for breach of privacy after the Met confirmed in January that in a 2006 raid on the investigator Glenn Mulcaire, it had seized notepads in which he had recorded their mobile phone numbers and those of their two sons. Despite holding that information, which Ash said includes phone numbers for her GP, bank and a teacher at her sons’ school, Scotland Yard failed to tell her that she was a target. “The police were actually withholding evidence,” she said. “I’ve been brought up to trust the police. It’s not a good time for the police at the moment.” Ash became a regular in the headlines as soon as she appeared in the hit laddish comedy Men Behaving Badly, but tabloid pressure reached its peak when cosmetic surgery left her with inflamed lips in 2003 and when she contracted a form of MRSA in hospital the following year. Her family feared she would die. Now Ash says that messages left on mobile phones belonging to her and her children at that time were used by newspapers. “That really came home to me because that is not in the public interest,” she said. “The most painful things … had been said, while I was in hospital, to my kids, to my husband [along with] things really, really personal to my agent – who wasn’t just my agent, she was my friend. “All those worries about if I was going to work again, if I was going to walk again … I just feel horrible thinking that someone’s been able to access my private messages.” Scotland Yard finally confirmed that Ash was “a person of interest” to Mulcaire three months ago. Her lawyer had written to the police last October after she sought a court order forcing the Met to make that information available. Yesterday, Ash accused the Met of deliberating seeking to suppress the truth about the scale of phone hacking at the News of the World by refusing to notify hundreds of potential victims following its original 2006 inquiry, which resulted in the arrest and conviction of Mulcaire and the former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman. “They are hand in hand with the press,” Ash said. “We’re trying to break through into something that’s basically corrupt.” Referring to evidence given to parliament in 2003 by Rebekah Brooks, the former Sun and News of the World editor who is now chief executive of the papers’ parent company, News International, Ash said: “Rebekah said that day: ‘Yes, we have paid police before.’ That shouldn’t happen. You should be able to trust the police. Who do you trust if you can’t?” A new police phone-hacking investigation, Operation Wheeting, is now under way. On Tuesday the Met made the first arrests in the case since Goodman and Mulcaire were charged nearly five years ago. The News of the World’s chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, and the paper’s former assistant editor (news), Ian Edmondson, were released on police bail without charge. Both men deny wrongdoing. However, Ash said she was not encouraged by the arrests. “No, not at all. They’re just scapegoats. That’s all it looks like to me. The News of the World are going to try and give sacrificial lambs here. They will be happy to draw the line under those two arrests and the police will as well.” Executives insisted after Goodman was jailed that he was the only reporter at the paper who acted illegally, paying Mulcaire additional money on top of his six-figure News of the World contract to hack into messages. It has since abandoned this “rogue reporter” defence in the face of claims made in civil actions brought by a series of public figures that others at the paper were involved. Mulcaire typically wrote the first name of the journalist who had commissioned him to target a particular public figure in the top left-hand corner of his notes. The fact that he wrote “Clive” in his notepad helped to convict Mulcaire and Goodman of illegally accessing voicemails belonging to members of the royal household. Ash said the notes Mulcaire made about her and her family, along with many of their associates, included the name of a person they believe is a News of the World journalist who has been publicly linked with the hacking affair but has not been arrested. Ash said she had feared for years that underhand tactics were being employed by newspapers, including the News of the World’s rivals. Her suspicions were aroused when intensely private stories began to appear, but initially she feared that the stories had been leaked from within her circle of friends. “There were just too many things happening. It’s just certain things that happened at strange times that no one else could have known – especially when I was in hospital. Something came out in the newspaper that no one would have known apart from this friend of mine. When it came out in the paper I obviously thought it was them who had sold it.” Ash is one of around 20 people who are pursuing the News of the World in court, along with other well-known figures including the actors Steve Coogan and Sienna Miller, the former Sky Sports presenter Andy Gray and the football agent Sky Andrew. “The way they’ve done the first investigation [in 2006], the police were obviously trying to keep something very quiet,” Ash said. The former Met police assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, who was in charge of the original inquiry, claimed there were only “a handful” of victims. The Met’s acting assistant commissioner John Yates, who reviewed new evidence unearthed by the Guardian in July 2009 before concluding there were no grounds for a new inquiry, has said on several occasions that the number of people targeted was low. Referring to the number of people suing, Ash said: “Now there are [dozens] of people involved they are not going to be able to keep it quiet because for one person to take the News of the World to court – to sue – would be almost impossible, but now thousands of people are.” Ash also criticised her mobile phone provider, Vodafone, who she says refused to hand over mobile phone records dating back to the time of Mulcaire’s alleged offence. “Vodafone weren’t really helpful to start with. I contacted them. They said I had to get the police to contact our solicitors [to confirm they could release the records]. The police weren’t giving us any information so how were we going to get them to help us?” Friends in showbusiness had warned Ash that hacking was commonplace. “Someone within the PR business just said get yourself a pay-as-you-go phone because they are listening in to things. So we just stopped having conversations on the phone, but it’s quite difficult.” She conceded that she gave interviews to the press during the course of her work as an actor and TV personality but said her treatment in the media was “almost like [being] eating alive. I can’t explain it.” She said her legal action was not motivated by money or a desire for revenge. “It’s not vengeance. Well, maybe a little bit. I can’t lie to you. It really hurt me. Some of the stuff said has really, really hurt me. And if that’s what they wanted to do then they’ve done it. Maybe it is a little bit of payback time. “I want to make sure this is sorted out once and for all. If it is brushed under the carpet and these two guys are the only ones arrested, questioned, they will have a little break – a little sabbatical – and then they will come back and start doing it again. The whole tabloid culture has got to change.” James Robinson guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Dell Streak 10 to launch mid-June with Honeycomb, possible name change in the works
April 6, 2011 No Comment
Dell’s Windows 7 Rosemount tablet may not make it to the beach with you this summer, but that doesn’t mean the company won’t have an Android alternative when it’s time to start applying sunblock. According to Forbes , the 10-inch Android-powered slate we got an oh-so-quick glimpse of at CES should be ready to hit the market somewhere around mid-June, just a little bit later than we’d previously heard . The publication also hints that the tablet heretofore referred to as the Streak 10 may not retain that moniker when it’s time to launch, but it will most definitely be running Honeycomb , though we’re not sure if it’ll keep the Stage UI. Either way, summer 2011 is shaping up to be the season of Honeycomb, and we’re excited to see just what each manufacturer will do to differentiate themselves in the increasingly-crowded space. Dell Streak 10 to launch mid-June with Honeycomb, possible name change in the works originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Someone please tell me….why is this news…I mean who gives a flip….if ya need a story cnn..well..just make one up?…here’s a better one.. BREAKING NEWS !!!! A shopping cart has been spotted in a vacant lot!…now that’s interesting. …
Continue reading …Cabinet secretaries and federal agency heads have begun briefing their employees on what to expect in the increasingly likely event of a government shutdown. According to a Q&A distributed yesterday, and obtained by the Washington Post , employees won’t be able to work voluntarily, and those who do work will only…
Continue reading …The economy may have added 200,000 jobs last quarter, but unfortunately, “150,000 of them were filled by James Franco,” complained Stephen Colbert last night . And not only does Franco have many, many jobs —he’s also “worked his way around more college campuses than chlamydia.” But why should Franco…
Continue reading …
White House draws up detailed plans for shutdown with no budget deal in sight between Barack Obama and John Boehner The White House is drawing up detailed plans to shut down the federal government from Saturday that would suspend an estimated 800,000 employees and disrupt hundreds of services ranging from processing of tax returns to the closure of national parks, senior Obama administration officials said. The shutdown will begin at midnight on Friday unless the Democrats and Republicans compromise over this year’s budget, part of an ideological battle being waged over the size of the federal government and the soaring national debt. “We would anticipate significantly lower staffing levels at the White House and across all federal agencies,” one of the administration officials, who insisted on anonymity, told reporters. A shutdown would prompt widespread disruption, hitting health services, courts, housing loans, museums, weather forecasts and other federal government services. Visitors to the US would face delays as embassies stop processing visa applications. One of the officials said an estimated 800,000 out of the 2.8 million federal employees face being placed on extended leave, during which time they are unlikely to be paid. Exemptions will be made for services viewed as essential for security or safety, such as the military, law enforcement officers, customs officers and other border officials, and homeland security. The military would be paid up until Friday but, though continuing to earn beyond that date, would not receive any further pay cheques until the crisis is resolved. Democratic senator Chuck Schumer said yesterday there was “a glimmer of hope” that a deal could be reached, his cautious optimism contrasting with a meeting between Barack Obama and the Republican Speaker, John Boehner, at the White House on Tuesday which broke up without agreement and was followed by acrimonious public comments. The two spoke again yesterday and aides reported the mood was better, though the phonecall lasted for only for three minutes and significant differences remain over where cuts would be made. Boehner’s office said the Speaker told the president he “remains hopeful a deal can be reached and that talks would continue”. The statement said: “The Speaker reiterated that the House’s goal is to prevent a government shutdown and make real cuts in spending.” Congressional aides worked late on Tuesday and again yesterday on a compromise and reported some progress. The Obama administration’s decision to brief journalists on the details of a shutdown may be an attempt to pressure Republicans. The first visible sign of the shutdown would be closure signs, already being prepared, going up at Washington’s Smithsonian museums and galleries from Saturday, and scores of national parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite shutting their gates, as will the National Zoo. Events such as the annual Cherry Blossom parade, scheduled for Washington on Saturday, will also be cancelled, an Obama official said. On a bigger scale, loans for small businesses would not be processed and there would be no home loan guarantees. The tax office would suspend the processing of about 30% of tax refunds. The National Institutes of Health would stop taking new patients. The official said that those on welfare would continue to receive their cheques, at least for a few months. Congress would continue, but with many staff seen as non-essential told to stay at home. The courts would be expected to continue functioning as normal, at least for a few weeks. Jeff Zients, deputy director of the White House’s office of management and budget, emailed the heads of federal agencies earlier this week saying it was only sensible that contingency plans were being laid. “Given the realities of the calendar, good management requires that we continue contingency planning for an orderly shutdown,” he said. The standoff in Washington focuses on the annual federal budget up until this September. Boehner and his Republicans had sought $33bn (£20bn) in cuts and Obama agreed, but Boehner wants a further $7bn in cuts and is demanding that politically divisive areas such as abortion programmes be included. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, speaking in the chamber yesterday, expressed frustration with Republicans. “Every time we agreed to meet in the middle, they move where the middle is,” he said. The negotiations may turn out to be Republican brinkmanship. The last shutdown, which lasted for six days in November 1995 and a further three weeks from December 1995 to January 1996, cost $1.4bn and backfired on the Republicans, setting up the then President Bill Clinton for re-election in November 1996. Although the Republicans are under pressure from members of the Tea Party movement who backed them in November’s Congressional elections on promises to cut the federal deficit, they are conscious of what happened in 1996 and of current polls. A CNN poll on Monday showed 46% of those surveyed backed Obama’s approach to the budget negotiations and 45% the Republican approach. Much of the Tea Party anger is over the size of the federal deficit, which stands at $14tn, compared with about $5tn at the time of the last shutdown. Current differences between Democrats and Republicans are relatively small given the overall size of the US budget, making a deal possible. Boehner may emerge to tell supporters he had pushed Obama to the limit and secured more than the White House was prepared to agree to initially. But bigger budget battles lie ahead, with the Republicans saying this week they are seeking trillions to be cut from the federal deficit in the decade ahead. US politics United States Barack Obama John Boehner Republicans Democrats US economy Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Country will ask for bailout due to high debts and difficulty raising money – which analysts say could be €80bn Portugal’s prime minister has said his country will ask for a bailout due to its high debts and difficulty raising money on international markets. Prime Minister Jose Socrates said “the government decided today to ask the European Commission for financial help”. Portugal becomes the third financially troubled eurozone country after Greece and Ireland to request assistance from Europe’s bailout fund and the IMF. Analysts expect Portugal will need up to €80bn. A bailout had long been expected as Portugal, one of the 17-nation eurozone’s smallest and weakest economies, struggled to finance its economy. The move came as fears grew of a fresh debt crisis for weak countries on the fringes of the single currency zone as the European Central Bank prepared to start raising interest rates from the emergency level plumbed during the financial crisis. The euro rose on the foreign exchanges on Wednesday in expectation that the European Central Bank would raise borrowing costs from 1% and signal further policy tightening in the months ahead. But City economists warned that the interest rate rise would add to debt servicing costs and prove more problematic for countries such as Portugal and Ireland than for the core single country nations of Germany and France. Ben May, of Capital Economics, said: “If interest rates were to rise in line with market expectations, their impact would be greatest in the periphery and may prompt a further escalation of the region’s fiscal crisis. “Higher official interest rates will not only lower economic growth in the periphery, but will also prompt the average interest rate that governments pay on their debts to rise. Other things equal, then, higher interest rates will increase the chance of peripheral government debt spiralling out of control.” Along with other central banks, the ECB slashed interest rates during the financial crisis in an attempt to pull Europe out of recession, but it has responded to rising inflation in recent months with clear signals that borrowing costs will rise. The euro’s strength coincided with a rise in the price of gold to $1,454.84 an ounce. Marchel Alexandrovich, of Jeffries International, said a 1% increase in ECB rates would mean that mortgage debt interest payments of euro area households would rise by around 7% on average, but there would be a 30% jump in debt services payments for households in Portugal and Finland, a 15% increase in Ireland and around a 10% rise in Spain and Italy. “In aggregate, debt interest payments for the euro area households and non-financial corporations would rise by around 0.3% of GDP if ECB rates are one percentage point higher,” he said. “But Germany and France would see a rise of just around 0.1% of GDP, while Portugal, Spain and Ireland would see increases equivalent to 0.8% of GDP. “The countries which least welcome higher interest rates on economic fundamentals are likely to be the ones most affected by them. One more reason why the ECB would be wise to tread very carefully in the months ahead.” Several of Portugal’s banks have been calling on the government to accept help from its eurozone partners, warning that they can no longer continue to buy up Portuguese debt. Lisbon needs to find almost €5bn in repayments this month and another €27bn in June. The rising interest rate on Portuguese borrowing has added to the sense of crisis in the eurozone, amid reports that Greece is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to default on its borrowing. The Irish government is understood to be concerned about weaker-than-expected tax revenues and the vulnerability of its banking sector. An informal meeting of European finance ministers is planned for Friday. Portugal Europe Financial crisis Global recession Banking European Union Larry Elliott Heather Stewart Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …In what could possibly be one of the most interesting races since Al Franken’s win in 2008, JoAnne Kloppenburg appears to have ousted David Prosser as Supreme Court Justice in Wisconsin by just over 200 votes . This race is really a proxy vote on whether Wisconsin voters support Scott Walker’s extreme policies, since it’s likely that his union-busting initiatives will land in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, along with the method by which they passed them. After trading the lead several different times last night, it’s down to one precinct left to report with Kloppenburg ahead by 224 votes. Of course, this has already sparked charges from the Tea Party of voter fraud, the standard right-wing complaint whenever their guy doesn’t win. You can also count on a recount and the attendant spin, which is already beginning. Because of the closeness of the race, a Milwaukee election commissioner has asked police to guard ballots overnight. Robert Spindell, who sits on the city’s Election Commission and is active in Republican politics, wrote in an email that he had made the request “until such time that a more formal procedure can be set in place.” Here’s why this race is so important : But Hagedorn’s e-mail laid it plain to Walker’s supporters: elect Prosser, or the governor’s agenda is in peril . From the e-mail: “If Justice Prosser loses: The Supreme Court will shift from a 4-3 conservative majority to a 4-3 liberal majority. Governor Walker’s agenda could be stopped in its tracks by this new activist majority. Union bosses and their allies will be emboldened and further push to recall the brave Senators who voted for Governor Walker’s budget repair bill. (Chief Justice) Shirley Abrahamson and her allies will continue to drag down the reputation of the Court, with an additional vote to further push through their radical agenda.” At least they didn’t try to pretend they want an independent judiciary, eh? UPDATE: Walker denies that the election was a referendum on his agenda. Right. Sure. This was just a warmup. The real referendum will be that recall election headed his way. Update: Kloppenburg has declared victory .
Continue reading …