Nokia confirms acquisition failing French telecom company

Nokia confirmed Wednesday it is acquiring the ailing French telecom company Alcatel-Lucent through a public exchange offer in France and the United States, in a bid to become a leading global networks operator.

The Finnish company said the all-share transaction will be on the basis of 0.55 of a new Nokia share for every share of Alcatel-Lucent. The share offer values the French concern at 15.6 billion euros.

Alcatel-Lucent shareholders would own 33.5 percent of the fully diluted share capital of the combined company, with Nokia shareholders owning 66.5 percent.

The deal has been approved by each company's board of directors and is expected to close in 2016 subject to regulatory and other approvals, Nokia said.

The announcement follows confirmation a day earlier that Nokia was in advanced talks to buy Alcatel-Lucent, which has been racking up billions of euros of losses since its creation in 2006.

Both companies' chief executives, Nokia's Rajeev Suri and Alcatel-Lucent's Michel Combes, met with French President Francois Hollande briefly on Tuesday afternoon, and the French government said it would support the deal.

Nokia has recently made a turnaround since its 5.4 billion-euro sale of the lossmaking handset business to Microsoft a year ago, with three remaining sectors: networks, HERE mapping services and technologies and patents.

Nokia also said Wednesday it has "initiated a review of strategic options, including a potential divestment, for its HERE business." It gave no details.

Alcatel-Lucent, which has undergone repeated rounds of restructuring since the 2006 merger of France's Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent Technologies, is laying off more than 10,000 workers and last year made a net loss of 118 million euros.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rape victim flies 3,000 miles to testify against ex-Goldman exec

A tearful Irish woman flew 3,000 to testify against a former Goldman Sachs banker who she says raped her in the Hamptons.

The woman said former managing director Jason Lee attacked her in the bathroom of his East Hampton rental during a night of partying in 2013.

Identified only as Dana, the alleged victim said Lee, 38, barged into a restroom where she was changing and attacked her.

"With every ounce of strength I had in me I pulled my leg up and I kneed him in the groin," she said as Lee looked on stoically. "He fell off. I just sat there in disbelief. I couldn't believe it."

The woman, a student who lives in Ireland, was visiting her brother as he wrapped up a seasonal job on the East End.

Prosecutors argue that the married banker — who left Goldman in the wake of his arrest — met the victim, now 22, while celebrating his birthday with a pal at the Georgica eatery in Wainscott.

The continued carousing at Lee's $33,000 per month East Hampton rental pad, while his banker wife was back in Manhattan.

Lee's attorney, Andrew Lankler, tried to poke holes in Dana's story by presenting pictures taken prior to the attack of Lee and the woman together.

She told the court that she was never attracted to him and thought he resembled the Mr. Chow character form the Hangover movies.

Lee faces up to 25 years in prison if found guilty of the first-degree rape charge.

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Bipartisan agreement leads to change in doctors’ Medicare fees

Legislation permanently overhauling how Medicare pays physicians won approval Tuesday from an atypically united Congress as lawmakers banded together to erase an irritant that has dogged them for years.

Adding urgency to legislators' work, the measure headed off a 21 percent cut in doctors' Medicare fees that would have hit home Wednesday, when the government planned to begin processing physicians' claims reflecting that reduction. The bill also provides billions of extra dollars for health care programs for children and low-income families, including additional money for community health centers.

Working into the evening, the Senate approved the measure 92-8 less than three weeks after the House passed it by a lopsided 392-37.

"It's a milestone for physicians, and for the seniors and people with disabilities who rely on Medicare for their health care needs," President Barack Obama said in a written statement after the vote. He added, "I will be proud to sign it into law."

Conservatives were unhappy that two-thirds of the bill's $214 billion, 10-year costs were financed by simply making federal deficits even bigger, while liberals wanted added money for children and women's programs. Eager to demonstrate his party's ability to efficiently run the Senate they've controlled since January, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., defended the measure.

"It's another reminder of a new Republican Congress that's back to work," he said. "And while no bill will ever be perfect, this legislation is a sensible compromise with wide bipartisan support."

Top Democrats also expressed support for the legislation.

"This is a significant and hard won achievement that will ensure better quality health care and certainty for millions of seniors and children," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

The bill marks a tandem effort by Democrats and Republicans at a time when the two parties are far likelier to block each other's initiatives.

All eight "no" votes came from Republicans, including some of their most conservative members. Among prcongreesidential hopefuls, Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., voted against the bill, while Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted for it.

The bill's chief feature was its annulling of a 1997 law aimed at slowing the growth of Medicare that has repeatedly threatened deep cuts in reimbursements to physicians and led to threats by doctors to stop treating the program's beneficiaries. Congress has blocked 17 reductions since 2003, an exercise that invites intense lobbying and difficult choices about finding budget savings that both parties detested.

Instead, the measure would create a new payment system with financial incentives for physicians to bill Medicare patients for their overall care, not individual office visits.

While Democrats touted the legislation's added funds for children and the poor, Republicans were claiming victory in changes the bill makes in Medicare that would have a long-term though modest impact on the huge program's finances.

While $141 billion of the measure's costs over the decade would come from added federal red ink, about $35 billion would come from Medicare beneficiaries, mostly by raising the medical and prescription drug premiums paid by some upper-income recipients starting in 2018. Though the affected beneficiaries already pay higher premiums than lower-earning people, Congress seldom increases costs on seniors, fearing retribution come the next Election Day from older voters.

The bill would raise another $37 billion by cutting Medicare reimbursements to hospitals and other providers.

Before passage, senators rejected six amendments, three from each party, that were all but sure to lose but let lawmakers demonstrate their disapproval of provisions they opposed.

A Democratic proposal to extend the two years of extra money the measure provided for the popular Children's Health Insurance Program to four years lost on a 50-50 vote — short of the 60 votes needed to prevail. By 58-42, the chamber rejected an effort by conservatives to force Congress to find enough savings to pay for the entire measure without increasing federal red ink.

"Honestly it's my hope that the amendments are not approved, because we need to get this bill down to the president for signature before midnight," McConnell told reporters.

Senators faced conflicting pressures from lobbying groups.

The American Medical Association and other providers' organizations were urging lawmakers to pass the bill. AARP, the senior citizens' lobby, wanted legislators to back an amendment ending Medicare's annual coverage limits for therapy but stopped short of urging the bill's defeat without that change.

Conservative groups including the Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America pressed lawmakers to support the GOP amendment — which lost — to require Congress to pay for the entire bill.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who crafted the compromise with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., warned senators of the impending doctors' cuts and underscored the futility of trying to amend the bill.

"The House legislation passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, and we do not plan to act again, so we urge the Senate to approve the House-passed bill without delay," Boehner said in a written statement.

The 21 percent cut in doctors' fees technically took effect April 1. Citing federal law, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stopped processing those claims two weeks ago — in effect giving lawmakers time to complete the legislation. The agency processes around 4 million Medicare payments for doctors daily.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Google facing antitrust showdown in Europe

European regulators are poised to file a complaint alleging Google has been abusing its dominance in Internet search to thwart competition and innovation, according to memo that the company sent to its employees Tuesday.

Kent Walker, Google's general counsel, wrote that a "statement of objections" to Google's business practices will be released Wednesday by Europe's top antitrust regulator, Margrethe Vestager.

Besides outlining their belief that Google has been illegally rigging its search results to favor its own services, European regulators also may announce they are opening an inquiry into whether Google is also using its popular Android software for mobile devices to gain an unfair advantage over other digital services, Walker said.

A copy of the memo was posted online by the technology websites Re/Code and TechCrunch after The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported Vestager's plans to take action against Google, the Internet's most powerful company. Google confirmed Walker wrote the memo late Tuesday, but the company declined further comment.

The case sets up a legal battle that could culminate in Google being fined about $6 billion, or 10 percent of its annual revenue, and force the Mountain View, California, company to overhaul its system for recommending websites in Europe. But the process could take several more years resolve, especially if Google appeals any adverse decision issued by European regulators.

In the meantime, the allegations are likely to paint an unflattering picture of Google, which embraced "don't be evil" as its creed a few years after CEO Larry Page and his Stanford University classmate Sergey Brin founded the company in a rented Silicon Valley garage in 1998.

"Expect some of the criticism to be tough," Walker wrote Tuesday.

A complaint challenging Google's conduct "would represent a significant step towards ending Google's anti-competitive practices, which have harmed innovation and consumer choice," said Thomas Vinje, legal counsel for FairSearch Europe, a group that has been urging regulators to rein in Google.

Europe's looming showdown with Google also could intensify scrutiny of a similar U.S. antitrust investigation that the Federal Trade Commission settled in 2013 without finding any significant misbehavior. A confidential report mistakenly released to The Wall Street Journal last month revealed the FTC's legal staff had recommended suing Google for breaking antitrust laws only to be overruled by the agency's governing commissioners.

Google has offered to make concessions on three previous occasions in an attempt to settle Europe's nearly 5-year-old antitrust probe, only to have the negotiations unravel. The efforts to forge a truce occurred under Vestager's predecessor, Joaquin Almunia, who stepped down late last year.

European regulators, like their U.S. peers, have been looking into complaints that Google improperly highlights its own services in its search results at the expense of its rivals. The alleged favoritism corrals Google's services, a strategy that Google's critics contend enables the Internet's most powerful company to sell more of the ads that generate most of its revenue, while diverting traffic from other websites trying to compete with their own products.

Much of the complaint may focus on how Google displays its results in response to requests made by people who appear to be shopping online, Walker wrote.

Google repeatedly has denied any wrongdoing, arguing there is nothing preventing people from using other search engines to find information, entertainment and shopping recommendations. Critics, though, deride Google as a ruthless monopoly that wields its dominant position to stymie its rivals. By some estimates, Google processes about nine out of 10 search requests in parts of Europe — even more than in the U.S., where it commands about two-thirds of the market.

The push to crack down on Google is being led by a group of publishers and technology companies that includes Microsoft Corp., which once tangled with Europe's antitrust regulators over the way it bundled products with its Windows operating system.

An antitrust case against Google would be Europe's biggest since regulators wrangled with Microsoft.

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Somber remembrance will mark 2 years since marathon bombing

BOSTON (AP) — Boston will mark the second anniversary of the 2013 marathon bombings Wednesday with a subdued remembrance that includes a moment of silence, the pealing of church bells and a call for kindness.

Mayor Marty Walsh and other officials will raise commemorative banners on Boylston Street early Wednesday. A moment of silence follows at 2:49 p.m., marking the time the first of two bombs exploded near the finish line April 15, 2013. Church bells will then ring throughout the city.

Mayor Walsh has also declared April 15 "One Boston Day," a new tradition meant to honor the city's resilience and spread goodwill.

"April 15 is a date that has come to stand for our city's deepest values," Walsh has said. "One Boston Day will inspire all of us to come together as the community we are and share the spirit of Boston by giving back."

The relatively modest remembrance comes in contrast to 2014's commemoration of the attacks, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

Survivors, first responders and thousands of others gathered at the marathon finish line, and Vice President Joe Biden, at an earlier event, declared: "We are Boston. We are America. We respond. We endure. We overcome. And we own the finish line."

The new One Boston Day is partly inspired by survivors of the attacks, many of whom are now doing charitable works.

Liz Norden, a Stoneham resident whose two adult sons — J.P. and Paul — each lost a leg in the attack, has set up a nonprofit called A Leg Forever to help other amputees pay for costs that insurance won't cover. She says the work has been therapeutic.

"My boys had so much help from the generosity of people from everywhere," Norden said this week. "If you lose your leg to a horrific accident, you don't have the media coverage or the resources that my family was so blessed to have. So it's important that we try to help other amputees that don't have that."

People are encouraged to share their random acts of kindness using the Twitter hashtag OneBostonDay. The city has also launched a website.

An elementary school in Reading says students will be writing thank-you letters to local police and fire departments. The Hyatt Regency Boston will be accepting donations of new or gently worn men's sneakers for St. Francis House, a Boston homeless shelter.

Jurors in the trial of marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, meanwhile, have been warned to avoid anniversary events and this year's race. The Boston Marathon — one of the world's premier running events — takes place April 20; the penalty phase in Tsarnaev's trial begins the next day.

The jury has already convicted Tsarnaev of all 30 charges against him. In the next phase, they weigh sentencing the 21-year-old ethnic Chechen to death or life in prison.

Norden says nothing short of execution is warranted.

"He destroyed so many families that day," she said. "I want the ultimate justice."

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Pregnant Brooklyn woman among Americans trapped in Yemen

A pregnant Brooklyn woman is among at least 400 American citizens trapped in Yemen amid a US-backed bombing campaign.

The 24-year-old woman, identified only as Saffa, is holed up with her new husband, their two kittens and two huskies, according to ABC News.

They have tried in vain to get information to help them return home, but have been stalled by misinformation and bad phone lines.

"It's been a big mess," Saffa told ABC. "And I'm sorry, it's really ­f–ked up."

Saffa's sister Amber wrote the State Department from Brooklyn and sent an urgent letter to the agency's Yemen-emergency e-mail address.

She received a reply three days later that said, "We have no way to assist with their evacuation."

The Council on America-Islamic Relations and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee have filed a lawsuit against the State Department and Department of Defense for failing to evacuate its citizens.

Air India has evacuated hundreds of people to Djibouti, about 470 miles away across the Gulf of Aden.

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Brooklyn rep pushes bill to overhaul music royalties

Congress is finally facing the music.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Brooklyn/Manhattan) is pushing a bill that would overhaul the way authors, performers and record labels are paid for songs streamed online, and end the partial free ride enjoyed by traditional radio.

"For decades, AM/FM radio has used whatever music it wants without paying a cent to the musicians, vocalists, and labels that created it," said Nadler, who is introducing the Fair Pay Fair Play Act.

Currently, digital radio services pay one royalty rate, satellite radio pays a higher rate, and traditional radio pays royalties only to composers

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De Blasio’s Hillary diss leaves Democrats, Clintons fuming

He's Benedict Bill.

Democratic leaders are fuming after Mayor de Blasio turned his back on mentor and megasupporter Hillary Rodham Clinton by not endorsing her presidential bid.

A party source told The Post on Monday that Hizzoner has rankled the top echelon so much that donors may pull support for him when he's up for re-election.

"Some of Hillary's biggest bundlers are like, 'WTF?' " the source said.

A city Democratic insider said he fielded furious calls and texts from Clinton's people all day Monday, the day after de Blasio sniffed on NBC's "Meet the Press" that it was too early to endorse any candidate.

"I need to see any actual vision of where [candidates] want to go . . . We need to see the substance,'' said de Blasio, who has landed political jobs thanks to Clinton and her husband, Bill, and even served as campaign manager during her 2000 Senate bid.

A Clinton source scoffed: "He's known her for, like, 20 years! He doesn't know what her philosophy of government is?"

The Democratic insider added: "The Clinton people are really angry. They're furious."

In a closed-door fund-raiser for de Blasio in 2013, Clinton called him "a partner who always had my back,'' CNN reported.

The source blasted de Blasio as a puppet of progressives.

"He does everything the Working Families Party tells him. The Working Families Party is still not for Hillary," the source said.

Former Public Advocate and Democratic mayoral candidate Mark Green questioned why de Blasio was holding Clinton to a higher standard than Gov. Cuomo — who got the mayor's endorsement last year despite their clashes on taxes and other issues.

"Q for BdB: if you insist on prog vision pre-endorsement, how come u jumped on Cuomo bandwagon unquestioningly?" he tweeted.

Even Republican Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino was more upbeat about Clinton's candidacy than de Blasio.

"Westchester is proud to have Secretary Clinton as a leading candidate for president," he said.

Sources suggested de Blasio refused to endorse Clinton after her aides made it known they were mad he was headed to Iowa to talk about income inequality this week — at the same time she'll be in the state.

"He doesn't want to be taken for granted," a city party insider said.

Democratic National Committee member Rob Zimmerman ripped Hizzoner.

"It is a moral imperative for people who are leaders of the progressive movement to support her," Zimmerman told The Post.

State Democratic Chair and ex-Gov. David Paterson also rapped him.

"When you know someone is running for president, I would think you would have [your endorsement] resolved by the time it's announced," he told Fox's "Good Day New York."

But de Blasio had some allies.

"Today is not the day to discuss endorsements,'' said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who also declined to back Clinton.

De Blasio refused questions at Monday's Mets opener, where the Red Sox-loving mayor was booed by the crowd.

Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen, Reuven Fenton and Kate Sheehy

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Woman attacked, raped in bathroom of Gramercy bar

A 23-year-old woman was raped in the bathroom of a Gramercy bar, where a man grabbed her by the throat, forced her into a stall and attacked her, cops said.

The victim entered the woman's restroom of the Turnmill Bar on East 27th Street at around 7:45 p.m. on Saturday.

Bathroom stall at the Turnmill Bar.

The attacker, who is still at large, was hiding in another stall waiting to pounce, police said Monday.

The bathrooms at Turnmill are down one flight from the main floor and at the end of a hallway.

"When you have bathrooms downstairs, it isolates the victim from everybody else," a female patron said. "You're more prone to attract sketchy people down there."

The suspect was seen on video footage from outside the bar.

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The Lincoln assassination: A haunting look back

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Then-President Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 9, 1864

Reuters / Library of Congress

Lincoln is photographed in Washington on Feb. 8, 1865, 10 weeks before his assassination.

Reuters / Library of Congress / Anthony Berger

John Wilkes Booth prepares to assassinate Lincoln.

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John Wilkes Booth races to the Ford's Theatre stage in Washington after shooting Lincoln.

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John Wilkes Booth flees from Ford's Theatre in Washington after shooting Lincoln.

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Lincoln's house in Springfield, Ill., is draped in black after his assassination in 1865.

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Lincoln's box at Ford's Theater in 1865

AP

Lincoln wore his trademark silk top hat the night of his assassination. It's currently on display at

Reuters

Crowds gather at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

Reuters

John Wilkes Booth in Washington in 1865

Reuters / Library of Congress

A mold of Lincoln's face is displayed at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.

Reuters

A print shows John Wilkes Booth shooting Lincoln.

Reuters / Library of Congress

A hand-colored 1870 lithograph shows John Wilkes Booth shooting Lincoln as he sits in the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington April 14, 1865. Major Henry Rathbone rushes to try to stop Booth as Rathbone's fiancee Clara Harris (left) and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln (second from left) look on.

Reuters / Library of Congress

The presidential box is arranged April 3, 2015 identically to the way it was the night Lincoln was shot through this doorway at Ford's Theatre in Washington.

Reuters

A giant bust of Lincoln by artist David Adickes in a field outside of Williston, N.D.

Reuters

A man dressed as the Statue of Liberty poses in front of a Lincoln statue in Chicago.

Reuters

Various global stamps with Lincoln's image are displayed in the visitor center at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

Reuters

The single-shot Deringer pistol John Wilkes Booth used to kill Abraham Lincoln is displayed at the Center for Education and Leadership at Ford's Theatre in Washington.

Reuters

A wanted ad for Lincoln's murderer

Reuters

Lincoln's blood-stained gloves that were tucked into his coat pocket at the time of his assassination are displayed at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.

Reuters

Crowds gather for Lincoln's funeral procession in Washington on April 19, 1865.

Reuters / Library of Congress

The headline of The National News reports on the shooting of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in Washington on April 14, 1865.

Reuters

Lincoln in Washington in February 1865

Lewis Emory Walker / Library of Congress / Reuters

The Lincoln Memorial

Reuters

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Revelers celebrate a royal wedding, President Barack Obama continues his tour of Jamaica and more.

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Supermom: See her incredible makeup transformations 13 Photos

Melissa Brant, 31, from Ontario, Canada, uses paint and makeup to transform her face into everyone from Superman to the Grinch. See some of her amazing work.

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Owlets get an earful, President Barack Obama visits Jamaica, protesters rally in South Carolina and more.

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Kim Jong Un giggles, polar bears play, protesters burn cars and more.

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From fine wine hues and plush jackets to repping their favorite bands, check out these stylish celebs.

The best-dressed welcome spring in everything but black 10 Photos

From Miles Teller to Will Arnett, these dapper dudes are rocking trendy tan hues this spring.

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Cute critters enjoy the spring sunshine, President Barack Obama hosts a morning prayer and more.

That's hot: See the sun up close 23 Photos

Stare at the sun — in detail — without hurting your eyes.

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First Lady Michelle Obama shows off her moves, the White House hosts its annual Easter Egg Roll and more.

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Players compete at the British and World Marbles Championships in England, a pastry cook crafts a 132 giant chocolate egg in Belgium and more.

The day in photos 19 Photos

The Dutch cheese season opens in the Netherlands, Pope Francis gets a wax figure of himself in Paris and more.

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Mark-Viverito pushes plan to hire 1,000 more cops

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito on Sunday unveiled new details about her plan to hire 1,000 cops — while Mayor de Blasio continued to insist that the police force is fine "in its current state."

"We need to increase the overall headcount of the department," Mark-Viverito contended in a press release.

She said that, according to calculations made by council staffers, the total cost of the plan would hit more than $69 million in 2016, its first year, and rise to a total of $111 million by 2019.

The cost per new officer next year is projected to be $90,000, including salary and benefits, she said. Seven years in, it would climb to $181,000.

The council speaker said the city planned to make up some of the money through cuts to police overtime.

As The Post exclusively reported earlier this month, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton got into a shouting match with a top mayoral aide in pushing for the new cops, then denied it. De Blasio later insisted the force was "good . . . in its current state.''

Asked what de Blasio thought about the details of Mark-Viverito's plan Sunday, a rep, Amy Spitalnick, said, "The mayor's most recent comments still hold. The executive budget will come out this spring, and we look forward to working with the council throughout the budget process."

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

‘The Fault In Our Stars’ wins big at MTV Movie Awards

LOS ANGELES — Vin Diesel sang, Channing Tatum danced and Zac Efron showed off his toned abs yet again as the best shirtless winner for the second year in a row at Sunday's MTV Movie Awards.

"This is definitely not the Oscars," said "22 Jump Street" star Jillian Bell as she arrived for MTV's 24th annual irreverent treatment on Hollywood award shows.

In addition to such cheeky, fan-voted honors as best kiss and best shirtless performance, the awards at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles also served as an unofficial promotional platform for the upcoming blockbuster season.

Almost at odds with the raunchy spirit of the show, the big winner of the evening was the teen tearjerker "The Fault in Our Stars," which got the Golden Popcorn statuette for best movie of the year as well as multiple wins for star Shailene Woodley.

Other winners included Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatum and Jennifer Lopez, as well as Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep, who were not in attendance.

Woodley, who picked up the award for best female performance in "The Fault in Our Stars" in addition to the Trailblazer Award and best kiss honor (with Ansel Elgort), gave an emotional speech dedicated to the book's author, John Green.

"He gave this world a beautiful masterpiece," she said directly to Green, who was seated in the audience. Woodley said that the book changed her life when she read it and that his words will transcend the test of time.

Shailene WoodleyPhoto: Getty Images

In another poignant moment, Cooper, who won best male performance for portraying the late Chris Kyle in "American Sniper," thanked the audience for making the film such a big success and bringing attention to the plight of the soldiers.

"Chris Kyle would have turned 41 four days ago. Chris, this is for you," said Cooper.

But it was hard to be uniformly gracious when categories include other wacky awards like best villain (Streep for "Into the Woods"), and best WTF moment (Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen for "Neighbors").

Kevin Hart, who was the target of many size-related jokes throughout the night, brought his kids on stage to accept the comedic genius award. "I do it all for them," he said. "I'm trying to leave a legacy behind."

"The Fault in Our Stars" Writer John Green accepts the award for Movie of the Year.Photo: Reuters

Host Amy Schumer set the tone at the outset, poking fun at MTV, Hillary Clinton and even Harrison Ford.

"This is going to be the party of the year. I just hope Harrison Ford doesn't crash it," Schumer said, referring to the actor's recent plane mishap.

In one of the most energetic moments of the show, Robert Downey Jr. brought his fellow Avengers to their knees while accepting the Generation Award.

Cast mates Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner all took the stage to present their co-star with the award, which Downey called "the recognition I so desire." They then fell to their knees as Downey talked about his memories of the first MTV Movie Awards, and "clawing" his way to the top.

Woodley accepts another award for Best Female Performance.Photo: Reuters

"I partied way too much. I've squandered, resisted, repented," he said, imploring the audience to "dream big, work hard, keep your nose clean."

But the real focus was on what's coming up at the multiplex this summer. The Movie Awards' 2013, host Rebel Wilson, and her "Pitch Perfect" co-stars introduced a new clip from their upcoming sequel.

The team behind "Paper Towns," an adaptation of John Green's novel, debuted a new clip as well.

Of course, there was also an agenda behind Downey's accolade: the promotion of "Ultron." The "Iron Man" star introduced a new clip from the Marvel blockbuster, which bows May 1.

Even host Schumer had a film to promote: "Trainwreck," a relationship comedy with Bill Hader from director Judd Apatow that Schumer wrote and stars in.

"Go see my movie 'Trainwreck,' I think that's the biggest lesson we've all learned here tonight," said Schumer as she closed the show.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Celebrity tattoos and the danger of regret

What are these illustrated exhibitionists thinking?

Lena Dunham's body is a human canvas, scrawled with seven big and small tattoos, making her resemble a zaftig prison inmate.

With an estimated 17 tats inscribed on her porcelain skin, Angelina Jolie has turned herself into an orgy of ink.

But Dunham is 28 years old and so content with her generous curves, she can't keep her clothes on while appearing on TV.

Still, I wonder if the creator, writer, director, co-executive producer and star of the disturbing HBO show "Girls'' will regret her tramp stamps years down the road when her boobs lose their valiant struggle with gravity and the skin on her lower back sags like week-old lettuce.

At age 39, Jolie is a gorgeous movie star, filmmaker, the United Nations' special envoy for refugee issues, a crusader against cancer, and mother of six who's married to Hollywood hottie Brad Pitt, 51.

She's also made some major goofs.

Jolie was so into her second husband, fellow Hollywood denizen Billy Bob Thornton, now 59, that she and her man hung vials of each other's blood around their necks. But after their inevitable divorce in 2003, Angie had a tattoo of his name lasered off a spot below her bikini line, and had the inscription "Billy Bob'' erased from her upper left arm.

Her tats now include one displaying the geographical coordinates of her children's birthplaces. When Jolie gives in to wrinkles, age spots and cellulite, will she dare leave the house without wearing a burqa?

Angelina Jolie sports more tattoos on her inner arm.Photo: AP

Forget for a moment the tats multiplying all over pop runt Justin Bieber, 21, and focus instead on the skin decorations enveloping the high-end epidermises of female singers like Rihanna, 27, and Miley Cyrus, 22.

Bahamian-born RiRi (estimated tattoo count: 23) has admitted that her thirst for tats is like an addiction.

Lena Dunham has a tattoo of Eloise on her lower back.Photo: HBO

Cyrus (estimated tattoo count: 38, including the word "LOVE" inside her right ear) had her first one, the words "Just Breathe,'' inscribed below her left breast when she was just 17 years old, beating the 18-year-old age minimum in most states legally by obtaining her inked parents' permission.

Tattoos. Once they were sought mainly by men, many of them bikers, in the military or drunk. In a column that ran last month, I excoriated male celebs and ordinary mortals bearing XY chromosomes for lately rocking their inner Amish dudes by growing facial hair. Yuck.

Tattooed dames have succumbed to a mania that's grown alarmingly common among rich, narcissistic famous types, ladies who don't give a rat's rump if the sight of their flesh is capable of scaring small children and senior citizens.

And the insanity is contaminating ordinary women like measles.

So what drives gals to reinvent themselves as carnival freaks?

"I think it goes with the fantasy world [famous folks] live in,'' New York City-based celebrity stylist Oksana Pidhoreckyj, who's never considered getting a tattoo, told me. "I'm not against them. It's a personal choice. But while I find Angelina Jolie's tattoos are elegant, Lena Dunham's are the complete opposite. Let's leave it at that.''

"While I find Angelina Jolie's tattoos are elegant, Lena Dunham's are the complete opposite. Let's leave it at that." - Celebrity stylist Oksana Pidhoreckyj

Laura Osenni of Brooklyn, who has the image of a rose and a dolphin tattooed on her right shoulder, makes sure that her ink is visible to strangers only when she's wearing a bathing suit or a tank top.

"I don't want my body to be a conversation piece,'' said the showroom manager of a Manhattan commercial flooring company. "They can't cover up imperfections — maybe just divert people's eyes.''

I have a confession to make. During a night of heavy drinking during my freshman year of college, I wandered into a tattoo parlor and had a picture of a blue bird etched into my flesh. But unless you know me extremely well, you'll never find out where the bird exists on my body.

So if my teenage daughter came home tattooed, her dad and I would take deep breaths, express admiration for her independence — then lock her up until age 40. Kidding.

She's too smart to make my mistake.

Cradle robber sobber

In a cringe-worthy interview that aired on the ABC News program "20/20'' Friday, Barbara Walters sat down with monster mom Mary Kay Letourneau Fualaau and her husband, Vili Fualaau, and introduced to the world the couple's daughters, Audrey, 17, and Georgia, 16.

I feel sick.

The demented woman was a 34-year-old Seattle schoolteacher and married mother of four when she first bedded her 12-year-old sixth-grade student. She bore the first of his daughters when he was 13, then a second one behind bars. Mary Kay Fualaau served nearly 7¹/₂ years in prison after pleading guilty in 1997 to two counts of raping a child, then married her boy toy 10 years ago next month.

The freaks said they'd object if one of their daughters slept with a teacher!

At age 53, Mary Kay Fualaau today works as a paralegal, tutors some students and gives piano lessons. (Scary.) She said that she wants to start teaching again and have her name removed from the national sex-offenders registry. (Very scary.)

Vili Fualaau, a 31-year-old high-school dropout and disc jockey, talked on TV about his struggles with depression and alcoholism.

With a wife like that, I'm not surprised.

Wrong aisle to happiness

Liana Barrientos of The Bronx allegedly married 10 men between 1999 and 2010 — including immigrants from countries believed to harbor terrorists.

The serial bride at one point was wed to eight men simultaneously, a prosecutor alleged, as part of an apparent scam to help men remain in the United States. Now, she's believed to have just four spouses. The busty blonde, 39, pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of filing a false instrument.

A message to lonely folks in New York City — it's not worth it.

High times in the bedroom

Seventy-nine percent of people who took drugs or drank alcohol before having sex reported that the substances made for hotter experiences.

That means that 21 percent of folks who said they did the nasty while drunk or high did not get extra pleasure, according to a survey commissioned by Adam & Eve, a company that sells sex toys, adult videos and other kinky stuff.

Not everyone gets drunk or high on things like pot, cocaine, ecstasy or heroin, before rolling in the hay — 52 percent of respondents said they had sex sober.

That's good news for those who want to remember it.

Only death for Dzho

If Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, is sentenced to life in prison rather than death, he could one day walk free, reader Jay Taikeff of Brooklyn reminded me.

Free, like the Libyan intelligence officer who was convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The terrorist was convicted of murdering 270 people in the plane and on the ground and sentenced to life in prison in 2001. But in 2009, Scottish authorities sent him home after he developed prostate cancer. He was hailed as a Libyan hero until his death in 2012.

For murdering three people at the 2013 Boston Marathon, wounding 264 others and taking a campus cop's life, Tsarnaev should die.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Slain Walter Scott struggled to be a better dad

When I interviewed Walter Scott for a story about deadbeat dads in 2003, he talked about his struggle to support his kids — the same issue that haunted him the day he died in South Carolina a week ago.

Scott is believed to have fled a police officer during a traffic stop in North Charleston because he was concerned he'd be arrested over his late child-support payments. The unarmed, black man was then fatally shot in the back by the cop.

When I first met Scott in Charleston, it was to talk about Father to Father, a program he enrolled in after being locked up for failing to make child-support payments.

Scott didn't stand to get a reduction in those payments by agreeing to talk to me. Outing himself as a deadbeat wasn't going to help his public image, either.

The most he could hope for was that other dads struggling to make payments would learn about the program, which aimed to help them.

Scott told me at the time that after he initially got pinched, "I said, 'Man, you got four kids depending on you, and you got people in your life that love you. You got to get it together.' "

Scott wasn't perfect, but he was honest and didn't hide his time in the clink.

He told me he was so overwhelmed with not being able to hold down a job and make the payments that he withdrew from his children and turned to booze to kill the pain.

His mother, whom he tried to call before running from the cop nine days ago, set him straight for a spell, telling him that his kids missed him.

"That just broke my heart," he told me. "It helped me come to my senses."

Warning: The following video contains graphic content

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

The best subway lines for finding a seat on your morning commute

Park Slope, Bay Ridge, the Upper West Side and Forest Hills are the best neighborhoods to move to if you want to get a subway seat during the a.m. rush hour, transit data show.

As long as you're willing to ride the local.

New York's subway system has been breaking ridership records in the last year, with 6 million people cramming on trains on each of 29 different days in 2014. But riders looking to escape sardine-can trains can take the R line into Manhattan from Brooklyn neighborhoods including Park Slope, Bay Ridge, and Sunset Park.

That line operates at only 57 percent capacity.

MTA officials say this is because R train riders typically transfer in Brooklyn to either the express N train at 59th Street, or the D train at 36th Street in order to shave a few minutes off their commutes — even though those lines are more crowded.

Bruni Perez, 38, of Bay Ridge, said the R is a long trip for her but worth it to read in peace.

"I usually do get a seat," she said. "You have to get on towards the back. It's a slow train, you slog through Brooklyn, but having a seat and being able to read my Kindle makes it bearable."

Others said that though they might not always get a seat on the R train, it's still a lot less crowded.

"It's not super crowded, but I'm usually standing," said Justin Felder, 25, who lives off of the Union Street stop.

Upper West Siders also have good odds of getting a seat, as long as they don't mind taking the local.

The B and C lines above 60th Street only run at 58 percent capacity level.

"Oh no! My secret is out," said Cindy Martinez, 48. "I avoid the 2 and 3 in Manhattan. Crazy crowded. You take the B or the C to the Upper West Side, and you almost always get a seat. Plus it's quiet. It's like Upper Manhattan's secret."

Unlike the Upper East Side, where the Second Avenue Subway line is being built, the Upper West Side has two major subway routes — one on Broadway and the other on Central Park West.

The next-best lines are the M and R trains from Queens to Manhattan.

The lines, which are 59 percent full, run through neighborhoods including Jackson Heights, Forest Hills, and Rego Park.

The G train, which runs from Queens to Brooklyn, as well as the 2 and 3 line from Brooklyn to Manhattan, are other lines that aren't packed to the gills.

The MTA says they are at 61 and 63 percent capacity during rush-hour, respectively.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Government logic: Spending $28M to create 76 jobs

You've seen Andrew Cuomo's TV commercials, the ones that say, "The new New York is open. Open to innovation. Open to ambition. Open to bold ideas." The spot is promoting the Start-Up NY program.

Now the results are starting to come in: 76 jobs so far.

In the entire state. From a program that has spent $28 million advertising its own existence.

That's $368,000 per job.

Start-Up NY sounds great on its face. It's a tax cut. Who could argue with that? The problem is that it's a very, very narrow tax cut. It's only for certain kinds of businesses that do certain kinds of things in certain areas of the state. Surprise: It's had very narrow effects.

It's a classic example of how politicians have an irrepressible urge to tinker, to steer, to organize. Tech jobs in university towns are great, but they aren't defining the New York economy. Start-Up NY's professed goal? Creating 2,100 jobs. Over five years. Points for modesty.

In a state in which there are 7,775,000 jobs, that's projected job growth of 0.005% a year. Touting this as "economic development" is like saying you're going to fight hunger in India by sending Mumbai one box of Minute Rice.

What's really going on with sluggish job growth? It isn't a mystery. According to the annual survey by TaxFoundation.org, New York is the worst state for taxes.

That's 50th, out of 50. (New Jersey was 49th). In unemployment-insurance taxes, New York was 45th. In individual income taxes, 49th. In property taxes, 45th.

A different survey, completed in 2013 by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, ranked states by personal and economic freedom. New York was 50th on that list, too.

Still another study, the Thumbtack Survey of over 12,000 small businesses conducted in 2014, gave New York a D+ on small-business friendliness, one of the worst grades in the country, and a D on difficulty of starting a business.

In 2012 the Institute for Justice ranked the states by the onerousness of their occupational licensing requirements. New York finished 40th (with No. 1 being the least onerous state).

Let's look at one particular job and what it takes to take this gig in the Empire State. You must:

Complete a physical;

Apply for and receive a license to be an apprentice (don't forget your $40 check);

Serve a two-year apprenticeship, carefully recording your days and hours worked on the appropriate form;

Go get another physical;

Apply again to be licensed (with another $40 fee);

Complete a state training course;

Await official certification.

What job are we talking about? EMT? Nuclear bomb disposal technician?

No, barber. Two years of study to learn how to operate scissors. Two years is the amount of experience Barack Obama had as a national politician before he announced he was running for president. (Did he even have two physicals in that period of time? Never mind, the health of a barber is much more important to national security.)

Oh, and prospective barbers, after all that hoop-jumping, you're still a long way from being able to open a barbershop, sunshine. Says the state of New York: "Note: A license to practice barbering does not allow the operation of a business. A separate barber-shop license is needed to operate a business."

I'd tell you about those requirements, but The Post's printers wouldn't give me permission to have them do a 300-page special issue today.

At the same time Cuomo has been struggling to deliver on a promise to create 2,100 jobs, he killed fracking in New York. The Marcellus Shale, which bestrides Western New York and Pennsylvania, directly employs more than 30,000 Pennsylvanians, with some 200,000 jobs partially or wholly dependent on this form of energy extraction. These are high-paying jobs, too. The average wage in the industry in Pennsylvania is $62,000.

Liberal politicians lament the decline of good-paying industrial jobs for blue-collar workers, but when something comes along that sounds vaguely new and scary, their impulse is to yield to noted economists like Yoko Ono and David Letterman and ban the thing.

But we all know only Republicans support fracking. "I would say that is the wrong way to go," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry of the anti-fracking movement. "There is a lot of misinformation about fracking. I think that localized efforts or statewide efforts in many cases don't understand the science behind it."

Oops, did I say Rick Perry? Typo. He didn't give that quote, Sally Jewell did. Jewell is the secretary of the interior. In the Obama administration. Jewell has won the National Audobon Society's Rachel Carson Award and sits on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Fracking is a high-tech, high-wage industry: But, sorry, it's the kind of high-tech, high-wage industry that Cuomo won't allow. When economically besieged upstaters ask about fracking jobs, Cuomo's response is: Shut Up, New York.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

War against ISIS shows limits of drones

Why not just send in the drones?

That seems the easy solution against the Islamic State, which has the capacity to shoot down jet aircraft and is vicious enough to burn captured pilots alive.

Yet as of March 31, only a handful of the more than 5,500 airstrikes carried out by the US and allies against ISIS were conducted by remote-control drones. Whatever Hollywood may tell you, the drone revolution is still in its infancy.

That's because while the US military has more than 8,000 drones, relatively few are armed — and they are not as powerful as you might think.

The Air Force operates two types of drones that carry weapons, the MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper, both made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. of Poway, Calif. The Predator, originally designed only for surveillance, was modified in 2001 to carry two laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The Reaper, a larger version of the Predator, typically carries four Hellfires and two precision-guided 500-pound bombs. The Air Force owns about 160 Predators and 140 Reapers, but not all are available to fly combat missions.

Meanwhile, the nature of drone operations means the armed fleet is spread thin.

Photo: ZUMA Wire

To fly one Combat Air Patrol, defined as keeping one Predator or Reaper over a given target area 24/7, requires three to four aircraft — one flying the patrol, another on its way to take the first one's place, a third returning to base for maintenance and refueling, and a fourth already on the ground and being serviced. Given the size of its fleet, the Air Force currently can fly 65 armed drone patrols a day.

But with global responsibilities that include flying Predators and Reapers not only over the Middle East but parts of Asia, Africa and sometimes elsewhere, only a few patrols have been devoted to the parts of Syria and Iraq where Islamic State targets can be found — a fact revealed, perhaps unintentionally, by Air Force budget documents released in February. A slide in a presentation titled "United States Air Force Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Overview" warned that if Congress let automatic, across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration take effect, the service would have to reduce its 65 daily armed drone patrols by 10, "equiv to Iraq/Syria today."

Even if the armed-drone fleet were far larger, though, today's drones couldn't do much damage to a foe such as the Islamic State because they carry very little firepower.

"They are a great asset to have," said Eliot Cohen, a Johns Hopkins University professor and former Pentagon official who directed a Gulf War Air Power Survey for the Air Force from 1991 to 1993. But "you've got to be realistic about what you can actually accomplish with them."

The laser-guided Hellfire is perhaps the most accurate air-to-ground weapon in the world, but its warhead weighs a mere 13 to 45 pounds, depending on the variant. Such a weapon is ideal for targeting an individual or a vehicle, as the CIA does in counterterrorism targeted killings, but the Hellfire falls far short of the firepower needed to attack big targets.

The larger Reaper can carry around 3,000 pounds of munitions — the rough equivalent of six 500-pound bombs — but that pales in comparison to the manned B-1 bomber, which can carry 80 such bombs, a payload of 40,000 pounds.

Why that's important was dramatically illustrated in a Jan. 26 CBS News broadcast that showed how the Air Force needed nearly two dozen satellite-guided bombs to destroy a building the Islamic State was using as a weapons factory. A B-1 dropped 16 GPS-guided 2,000-pound bombs and six 500-pound bombs on the structure, their fuses timed to dig into the earth.

Rather than delivering firepower, the value of the Predator and Reaper against the Islamic State is their ability to loiter over the war zone virtually around the clock, gathering intelligence, finding targets and leading manned aircraft to them with the aid of daylight video and infrared cameras, laser designators and other sensors.

But if the number and firepower of today's drones limits their role in such conflicts, that probably won't always be the case.

The Predator and Reaper are the drone equivalent of World War I's biplanes, and future drones will be far more capable. The Navy is experimenting with a drone technology demonstrator the size of a conventional fighter plane, and one vision for the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — sometimes called the "last manned fighter" — is that its pilot may fly with a swarm of drone escorts equipped to penetrate tough air defenses and rain weapons on enemy ground targets.

Fearsome or awesome as that may sound, it's a prospect that still lies over the horizon.

Richard Whittle is the author of "Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution" (Henry Holt and Company), out now.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

JFK made Garland sing ‘Over the Rainbow’ every time she called

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April 12, 2015 | 6:00am

In the Company of Legends
by Joan Kramer and David Heeley
Beaufort Books

In the 1980s, Joan Kramer and David Heeley were Emmy-winning documentary makers, filming one-hour celeb profiles that would typically run on PBS.

But not everything they filmed made the final cut. And in their new book, "In the Company of Legends," the duo share some of their favorite off-camera stories.

• Elizabeth Taylor was tough to pin down, dubiously putting them off with claims of back pain, until the filmmakers asked their pal Katharine Hepburn to put in a good word. Kate agreed, but joked, "If she asks me to appear at one of her benefit fundraisers, I'll strangle the two of you." Taylor agreed, and while waiting for the violet-eyed glamour queen to arrive, filmmaker Kramer noticed a picture was taped to the fridge of Taylor at her heaviest. The actress put it there to try to keep her from eating.
• Frank Sinatra, too, was elusive. But they got a time for a sitdown at his home outside Palm Springs. A pistol-packing security guard told them, "Just point your camera at Mr. Sinatra. Don't shoot the house or any scenery. Security reasons." Talk about Rat Pack: Each of his pool's tiles bore the image of playing card — ace of spades, queen of diamonds — and his bathroom was decorated with framed cartoons he'd collected about Frank's ties with the Mafia.
• For a 1984 show about the late Judy Garland, the filmmakers set out to confirm a rumor they'd heard that the "Wizard of Oz" star was known to call John Kennedy at the White House, but he'd never let her hang up without singing "Over the Rainbow."
  
  

  Photo: Getty Images

  Brazenly, they tried to get a confirmation from Jacqueline Onassis. The former first lady's reply said simply "Story not true." Finally they reached Dave Powers, one of JFK's closest aides during his presidency. Powers answered: "Oh, sure I remember . . . He never would let her off the phone without asking her to sing a few bars . . . In fact, he would hold the phone out so that I could hear her sing, too."
• In 1987, at the height of the Iran-Contra affair, jokester Paul Newman answered his phone with "Ollie North here." Wife Joanne Woodward was just as funny. On the day of the interview, with the cameras ready, Paul asked her, "Darling, what if I go first." She replied, "Darling, I would mourn you."
• Michael Jackson has a walk-on in the book, in an anecdote told by Hepburn about shooting "On Golden Pond" on location at Squam Lake in New Hampshire. Jackson, who would have been around 22 during the shooting of the 1981 film, had come to visit friend Jane Fonda, but she had to fly back to LA one weekend.Hepburn found the pop star in a room in the attic of an old house they were staying in. "The room looked like a hurricane had hit it," Hepburn recalled. "I said, 'Michael, clean up this place right now.' And he said, 'Yes, Miss Hepburn,' in a voice I could hardly hear." The singer simply piled up all his clothes on a chair. Hepburn recalls, "I said to him, 'Don't you ever do your laundry?' And he said, 'Someone usually does that for me.' "
  

  Elizabeth TaylorPhoto: EPA

  So Hepburn took him to a public laundromat in a woodsy New England town and showed him how to feed quarters into the pay washing machines.

• During an interview one morning at Jimmy Stewart's home, there was a knock at the front door. It was a neatly dressed young man with an Australian accent. "Mr. Stewart's doing an interview," an assistant told the stranger, until Stewart — in classic Jimmy Stewart fashion — breezily told him, "Come on in."The young man from Melbourne sat down and explained that it had been his lifelong dream to travel to Hollywood and meet his idol. Then the stranger added, "Sylvester Stallone." They all sat in puzzled silence. "And since you lived in Hollywood for so long, Mr. Stewart, I thought you could introduce me to him."
  After politely explaining that he didn't know Sylvester Stallone, the endlessly affable Stewart had an assistant provide the man with the phone number for a publicist before showing him out.

  As he sat back down for his interview, Stewart said, "Well, he seemed like a nice fella."

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Saudi role in 9/11 being whitewashed by FBI

Just 15 days before the 9/11 attacks, a well-connected Saudi family suddenly abandoned their luxury home in Sarasota, Fla., leaving behind jewelry, clothes, opulent furniture, a driveway full of cars — including a brand new Chrysler PT Cruiser — and even a refrigerator full of food.

About the only thing not left behind was a forwarding address. The occupants simply vanished without notifying their neighbors, realtor or even mail carrier.

The 3,300-square-foot home on Escondito Circle belonged to Esam Ghazzawi, a Saudi adviser to the nephew of then-King Fahd. But at the time, it was occupied by his daughter and son-in-law, who beat a hasty retreat back to Saudi Arabia just two weeks before the attacks after nearly a six-year stay here.

Neighbors took note of the troubling coincidence and called the FBI, which opened an investigation that led to the startling discovery that at least one "family member" trained at the same flight school as some of the 9/11 hijackers in nearby Venice, Fla.

The investigation into the prominent Saudi family's ties to the hijackers started on Sept. 19, 2001, and remained active for several years. It was led by the FBI's Tampa field office but also involved the bureau's field offices in New York and Washington, and also the Southwest Florida Domestic Security Task Force.

Agents identified persons of interest in the case, establishing their ties to other terrorists, sympathies with Osama bin Laden and anti-American remarks. They looked into their bank accounts, colleges and places of employment. They tracked at least one suspect's re-entry into the US.

The Saudi-9/11 connection in Florida was no small part of the overall 9/11 investigation. Yet it was never shared with Congress. Nor was it mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Now it's being whitewashed again, in a newly released report by the 9/11 Review Commission, set up last year by Congress to assess "any evidence now known to the FBI that was not considered by the 9/11 Commission." Though the FBI acknowledges the Saudi family was investigated, it maintains the probe was a dead end.
The review panel highlighted one local FBI report generated from the investigation that said Abdulaziz and Anoud al-Hijji, the prominent Saudi couple who "fled" their home, had "many connections" to "individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001."

Abdulaziz Al-Hijji

But: "The FBI told the Review Commission that the communication was 'poorly written' and wholly unsubstantiated," the panel noted in its 128-page report. "When questioned later by others in the FBI, the special agent who wrote (it) was unable to provide any basis for the contents of the document or explain why he wrote it as he did."

How strange. Yet panelists did not interview the unidentified agent for themselves. They just accepted headquarters' impeachment of his work.

Odder still, the agent's report was just one of many other FBI communications detailing ties between the Saudi family and the hijackers. In fact, the Tampa office of the FBI recently was ordered to turn over more than 80,000 pages of documents filling some 27 boxes from its 9/11 investigation to a federal judge hearing a Freedom of Information Act case filed by local journalists over the Sarasota angle. The judge is sorting through the boxes to determine which documents should remain classified. Most are marked "SECRET/NOFORN," meaning no foreign nationals — a classification reserved for highly sensitive materials.

"The report provides no plausible explanation for the contradiction between the FBI's current claim that it found nothing and its 2002 memo finding 'many connections' between the Sarasota family and the 9/11 terrorists," Thomas Julin, the attorney who filed the FOIA lawsuit against the FBI, told the Miami Herald.
The panel's report also doesn't explain why visitor security logs for the gated Sarasota community and photos of license tags matched vehicles driven by the hijackers, including 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta.

The three-member review panel was appointed by FBI Director James Comey, who also officially released the findings.

Former Democratic Sen. Bob Graham, who in 2002 chaired the congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11, maintains the FBI is covering up a Saudi support cell in Sarasota for the hijackers. He says the al-Hijjis "urgent" pre-9/11 exit suggests "someone may have tipped them off" about the coming attacks.

The Florida home Abdulaziz Al-Hijji left two weeks before 9/11.

Graham has been working with a 14-member group in Congress to urge President Obama to declassify 28 pages of the final report of his inquiry which were originally redacted, wholesale, by President George W. Bush.

"The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier," he said, adding, "I am speaking of the kingdom," or government, of Saudi Arabia, not just wealthy individual Saudi donors.

Sources who have read the censored Saudi section say it cites CIA and FBI case files that directly implicate officials of the Saudi Embassy in Washington and its consulate in Los Angeles in the attacks — which if true, would make 9/11 not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war by a foreign government. The section allegedly identifies high-level Saudi officials and intelligence agents by name, and details their financial transactions and other dealings with the San Diego hijackers. It zeroes in on the Islamic Affairs Department of the Saudi Embassy, among other Saudi entities.

The review commission, however, concludes there is "no evidence" that any Saudi official provided assistance to the hijackers, even though the panel failed to interview Graham or his two key investigators — former Justice Department attorney Dana Lesemann and FBI investigator Michael Jacobson — who ran down FBI leads tying Saudi officials to the San Diego hijackers and documented their findings in the 28 pages.

Graham smells a rat: "This is a pervasive pattern of covering up the role of Saudi Arabia in 9/11 by all of the agencies of federal government which have access to information that might illuminate Saudi Arabia's role in 9/11."

Paul Sperry is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington."

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

City Democrats rally to raise money for Hillary Clinton

The local wing of Ready for Hillary sipped $10 Ceiling Breaker cocktails made with tequila, strawberry and lime juice at its final fund-raiser Saturday in anticipation of Clinton's presidential announcement.

Over 200 attended the event at SouthWest NY restaurant in Battery Park City, chanting, "Who are we ready for?" "Hillary!" and, "Who's going to be the first woman president?" "Hillary!"

They heard speeches from Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan), South Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

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Mickelson charging but still has long way to go to catch Spieth

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Well, look who snuck up the Masters leaderboard with a late-afternoon charge Friday.

Phil Mickelson, a three-time winner of the Green Jacket, had been left for irrelevance before a back-nine 32 pulled him to 6-under for the tournament, eight shots off Jordan Spieth's lead.

"It was a good back nine, obviously,'' said Mickelson, who shot 70 on Thursday and 68 on Friday. "I think we got a little luckier with the later tee time. The wind started to die down a little bit, and around Amen Corner, although there was still a little bit of wind, it was nothing like what was going on earlier in the day. We were able to get at some pins and make some birdies.''

Mickelson said he would not change his game plan going into the weekend, despite Spieth's 14-under number.

"[Friday] was a tough day starting out, where I'm 12 shots off the lead,'' he said. "I've got a difficult golf course with windy conditions and a lot of tough pins. It was tough to be patient. It was tough not to force the issue and make some dumb mistakes. It would have been really easy to do. But I shot a good round.

"[Saturday] is the same goal — to just go out and shoot as low a round as I can given what the conditions are, given where the pin placements are. A lot can happen on this golf course, and [Spieth] was playing some of the best golf coming into this tournament, he's playing the best golf in the tournament.

"I expect him to continue that, but you never know what's going to happen in this golf tournament.''

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Rory McIlroy's bid to complete a career Grand Slam is highly unlikely as he faces a 12-shot deficit entering the weekend. But at least McIlroy, the No. 1 ranked player in the world, will be here for the weekend after missing the cut last year.

McIlroy shot a second consecutive 71 on Friday and is 2-under for the tournament. A front-nine 40 had him in jeopardy of missing the cut before he rallied with a 31 on the back.

He called Spieth's 14-under "really, really impressive.''

"I think a few guys can still catch him,'' McIlroy said. "It will take, obviously, something extraordinary from myself to get up there, but you never know. I know better than most people what can happen with the lead around here [he lost a four-shot final-round lead in 2011].

"But Jordan's had the experience. He had the experience last year. He had a couple-shot lead and couldn't quite hold on to it. But he'll have learned from that and he'll definitely handle it better this time around."

McIlroy attributed his inconsistencies this week to "missing it in the wrong places.''

"But the good golf is in there,'' he said. "It's just a matter of trying to get rid of the bad stuff, which was all on the front nine today.''

Asked if he can still win this week, McIlroy said: "I would need to shoot a 14-‑under par weekend and Jordan would have to play a couple average rounds, and neither of those two things look like they're going to happen, so it's going to be tough.

"I'll go out and try and play the best that I can and we'll see where that leaves me. But, a few more nine holes like the one I just had there, you never know.''

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Justin Rose, who began the day at 5-under, three shots behind Spieth, had the most volatile round of Friday, falling to 2-under with three bogeys in his first four holes before rallying to get to 7-under with a 70.

Rose said he "drew a line'' in his scorecard after the poor start and rebooted.

"Just literally drew a line on my scorecard, pretty deep with pencil — like a metaphorical line in the sand, and just said to myself, 'Come on, play one shot at a time,' '' Rose said. "I needed to turn it around. It was a bad start, just didn't feel comfortable on the golf course. The wind was swirling in between clubs on every shot.''

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Morgan Hoffmann, from Wyckoff, N.J., shot an even-par 72 to make the cut in his first Masters. He will play with Jason Dufner on Saturday. Hoffmann rallied after a triple bogey on the 11th hole to make the cut.

He was playing in the group in front of Ben Crenshaw, who was playing his final Masters round, and called it inspiring. After his round, Hoffmann went to the 18th green to watch and said, 'It gave me goose bumps.''

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Two big-name players made big-time rallies to stay for the weekend Sergio Garcia started the day at 4-under, shot 40 on the front and bogeyed the par-5 13th and appeared on his way out. But birdies on four of the last five holes saved him.

"After the bogey on 13, I felt I've seen this movie before — a lot of times here,'' Garcia said. "It definitely didn't look like I was going to make it. I got fortunate to be here for the weekend.''

Garcia is paired with Tiger Woods in Saturday's third round, not a pairing either player likes because they're not very fond of each other. The last time the two were paired together was at the Players Championship, when Garcia accused Woods of intentionally distracting him by pulling a club from his bag and inciting a crowd reaction as Garcia was about to hit.

Rickie Fowler also scrambled to make the cut with four birdies on his final six holes.

"It feels pretty good now,'' Fowler said. "It was pretty stressful out there.''

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Though none of the amateurs in the field made the cut, Corey Conners followed an opening-round 80 with a 69 on Friday. … Kevin Na matched Spieth with the low round of the day at 66, and stands at 4-under for the tournament. … Bubba Watson, the defending champion and winner of two of the last three Masters, is 2-under.

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Wizards’ John Wall: Players voting on MVP award a bad idea

A representative for the National Basketball Players Association was on hand Friday morning at Barclays Center to collect the first annual Players Choice award ballots from the Wizards, who held a shootaround at the arena ahead of their 117-80 loss to the Nets.

But while many players around the league have said they should get a say in MVP voting recently — including Kevin Durant, last year's winner, and Stephen Curry, one of the favorites to win the award this season — one prominent member of the union isn't exactly enthusiastic about the idea.

"No," John Wall said when asked if he had voted yet, "and I probably won't."

Wall's argument against players voting for awards was fairly straightforward: he thinks the media does a decent job of handling the awards, and that players wouldn't be able to shake their personal biases against opponents when it came to voting for their peers.

"It doesn't matter to me," said Wall, who sat out to rest some nagging aches and pains before the playoffs start. "The media and the fans, those people have their own opinion. That's the key part. They're watching from the inside out.

"As basketball players, we know who the players are, but sometimes your pride and ego come in and you don't want to see that person get an award, so it don't really bother me.

"[With] us making votes, you're going to have people saying they are MVP and the best player in the league, and so it's never going to be a fair race, in my opinion."
That doesn't exactly fall in line with what Michele Roberts, the recently appointed executive director of the NBPA, reportedly said in a memo to the players announcing the implementation of the award:

"This program was created at your request to recognize outstanding performance of your peers, on and off the court," Roberts wrote, according to USA Today. "No one knows better than you what it takes to shine."

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Alan Anderson (sprained left ankle) missed his fourth straight game Friday, and coach Lionel Hollins said before the game he isn't sure when Anderson will return to the court.

The 32-year-old swingman injured the ankle in the fourth quarter of last Friday's victory here over the Raptors, when he stepped on Brook Lopez's foot.

With Anderson out of the lineup, both Bojan Bogdanovic and Markel Brown have been given more minutes, and Hollins even went with Deron Williams and Jarrett Jack playing together in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's loss to the Hawks.

When asked if the two point guard lineup was back, however, Hollins paused for a moment before saying, "That was a one-time thing."

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Big Papi homers after saying Yankees-Red Sox rivalry all but dead

Hours after David Ortiz all but called the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry dead, the Boston slugger did his best to add some life to it.

Ortiz hit a long homer to right-center off Esmil Rogers in the top of the 16th to give the Red Sox the lead — briefly — before they eventually held on and beat the Yankees, 6-5, in 19 innings on Friday night (and Saturday morning) at Yankee Stadium, thanks to a Mookie Betts sacrifice fly.

The blast by Ortiz, on an 0-2 pitch, finally put the Red Sox back on top after Yankees pitching had held them scoreless from the seventh inning on.

Still, the game hardly had the feel of the battles between the two teams a decade ago when they were at the top of the AL East.

And new faces aren't the only reason for the difference, according to Ortiz.

"We play with so many rules now that the rivalry we used to see five or 10 years ago is not the one you're going to see in today's game," Ortiz said before the game. "Teams pay more money to players and they want those players on field. They don't want a guy hit and on the DL. That's why MLB created all the rules. The rivalry will continue, it's just not gonna be at the same level when you see all the on-field fights."

Those seemed to be a staple of the fierce games at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park in the past.

The difference is primarily because of those new rules, according to Ortiz, who said teams play in fear of suspensions.

"Definitely," Ortiz said. "The rules right now are very strict and back when I first got here it was a little wild. … Right now, when you have a guy throw a pitch close to a hitter on the field, there's always a warning and concern. That was a big part of what this rivalry used to be."

So instead of Pedro Martinez and Don Zimmer wrestling during the playoffs, the games have become more sterile.

"Because that stuff ain't happening anymore, it seems like the rivalry's not the same," Ortiz said. "It's still the same the way we play the game. We want to beat up each other the professional way."

In the 16th, Ortiz showed he was up to the task again.

When reminded of Ryan Dempster's plunking of Alex Rodriguez when Rodriguez played while appealing his Biogenesis suspension in 2013, Ortiz chuckled.

"That was 88 [mph]," Ortiz said of Dempster, a light-thrower compared to Martinez. "I'll take 88 all day."

Despite his apparent nostalgia, Ortiz said he understood the new world.

"It's a lot of money," Ortiz said. "You don't want to have a guy making $20 million on the bench missing two weeks because a guy hit him on purpose or missing two weeks because he swung at somebody."

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Jets reach deal with another veteran linebacker

The Jets are going back to the linebacker well in free agency yet again, agreeing to terms with Joe Mays, a former Chief, on Friday.

Mays, an inside linebacker in Kansas City, is the third veteran linebacker in the past two weeks to land with the Jets as part of new general manager Mike Maccagnan's effort to add depth behind starters David Harris and Demario Davis.

Mays, 29, appeared in just eight games with the Chiefs last season because of a preseason wrist injury and has bounced around since the Eagles made him a sixth-round pick in 2008. Mays also has played for the Broncos and Texans.

The 5-foot-11, 245-pound Mays is perhaps best known for a vicious incident in 2012, when he took down then-Texans quarterback Matt Schaub so hard with a helmet-to-helmet hit that Schaub lost part of his earlobe. Mays was fined $50,000 and suspended one game for that play.

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A-Rod’s swinging a hot bat but Girardi likely to give him day off

If the main reason you are going to Yankee Stadium on Saturday is to watch the Yankees' best hitter, you might want to call an audible.

With the Red Sox starting right-hander Joe Kelly and Alex Rodriguez having played four games in five days there is a strong possibility the designated hitter will not be in the lineup.

"It depends on what happened [Friday night], there is a good shot at that happening,'' manager Joe Girardi said before the Yankees' lost a tough 6-5, 19-inning affair to the rival Red Sox Friday night. Rodriguez, who is hitting .286, went 2-for-5 with an RBI single. He was pulled for a pinch runner in the 11th after smacking a double.

The left-handed hitting Garrett Jones likely would be the DH on Saturday. Jones hadn't played in the first three games.

In the early going, the 39-year-old, who didn't play at all last season because of is PED suspension, hasn't looked completely overmatched at the plate. He homered Thursday night to hike his career total to 655, which is five back of Willie Mays and a tie for fourth place on the all-time list. Rodriguez, who hit second Thursday and third Friday, had a .375 on-base average.

"His at-bats have been good. You look at his swings and they have been good,'' Girardi said of Rodriguez, who has yet to play third or first base this season. "Everyone is going to (harp) on the numbers but our (team) numbers aren't out there glaring anyway. He is used to hitting in the middle of the order and understands how to hit in that position.''

As for playing Rodriguez at third or first, Girardi said he hasn't thought about that yet.

"I am not that far ahead,'' Girardi said. "At some point I will give [Mark Teixeira] a day off and [Chase] Headley a day off.''

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Girardi said if Carlos Beltran, who pinch hit for Chris Young in the seventh, would have been in the starting lineup, the switch-hitter would have been batting third, where he hit in the first three games. Beltran, hitting just .125, went 1-for-6 but delivered a key game-tying double in the bottom of the 18th.

The manager was correct in noting the Yankees' hitters haven't done much. Entering Friday night's game, they were hitting an anemic .191 overall average and a ghastly .143 (3-for-21) with runners in scoring position.

"That's got to change,'' Girardi said.

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Adam Warren proved he could pitch in the big leagues last year as a reliever, when he posted a 2.69 ERA in 69 appearances. Now he wants to show he has the stuff to be part of the rotation.

"I want to prove myself as a starter. I think I have proved I can pitch in the big leagues,'' said Warren, who will make his fourth big league start, and first since 2013, Saturday against the Red Sox. "I do have a little chip on my shoulder that I want to come out there and prove I can do this.''

Warren pitched as a starter in spring training and was inserted into the rotation when Chris Capuano went down with a quadriceps injury that landed him on the disabled list.

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When Girardi doesn't play Didi Gregorius at shortstop, look for Stephen Drew to shift from second base to play the position he manned for eight-plus years with the Diamondbacks and Red Sox.

"Until Brendan [Ryan] gets back that's what I will do,'' said Girardi, who started Drew at short on Friday night after he didn't start Thursday, when Gregorio Petit, a right-handed hitter, was at second base against Blue Jays lefty Daniel Norris. Petit went 0-for-1 with a strike out and a walk. He also made an error before he was taken out of the game.

Drew, who looked sharp at the plate in the final days of spring training, went 1-for-8 and is an anemic 2-for17 (.118).

Ryan, who is on the DL with a calf injury, isn't doing baseball activities yet.

Girardi made it clear Gregorius has been talked to about his baserunning blunders. He was thrown out attempting to steal third with two outs and the Yankees trailing on Opening Day. Thursday night, he took a far too aggressive turn around first after delivering an RBI single and was thrown out.

"Whenever we have a situation that takes place I talk to the players. I don't necessarily tell [the media],'' Girardi said. "The situations are addressed, whether it's through me or the coaches. It's such a small sample but the one thing I think is important is to find out what he was thinking and use it as a teaching moment.''

Though Girardi sat Gregorius and Beltran, he isn't a fan of shuffling lineups this early in the season.

"We will see how guys are swinging and go from there. A lot of our guys were swinging good in spring training, but I don't think you make a lot of changes early in the season,'' Girardi said.

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Friday night's game was the 1,300th managed by Girardi.

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On-duty cop hit by cab while crossing the street

A police officer was hit by a livery cab while crossing a street in Brooklyn early Friday morning, authorities said.

The female officer was in front of 295 Ocean Parkway when a car struck her just before 1:30 a.m., according to authorities.

Officials said the cop, who was on-duty at the time, was taken to Lutheran Hospital alert and conscious with minor cuts and bruises.

The driver remained on scene, and no criminality is expected, but the NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad was sent investigate, police sources said.

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