Langford’s indictment comes as no surprise with the waning hours of the US District Attorney’s office likely to undergo change in January.  The Indictment also includes Langford’s Friends William Blount and Al LaPierre.

Birmingham’s NBC 13 Broke the news story a few hours ago:

Breaking News: Langford, LaPierre, Blount face 101-count federal indictment

Andrea Lindenberg and Rod Carter
Published: December 1, 2008

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford was arrested Monday and the 101-count indictment against him has been unsealed.

This morning, U.S. Attorney Alice Martin announced that Langford, along with friend Al LaPierre and businessman Bill Blount, face charges of conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering and filing false tax returns.

Langford was taken into custody at his job at Birmingham Budweiser Distributing. LaPierre turned himself in. Blount was expected to do the same.

Martin said Langford, as president of the Jefferson County Commission, steered $7.1 million in business to Bill Blount’s investment banking firm Blount Parrish. Martin said that in exchange, Blount ensured Langford’s “crushing debt” to the tune of $235,000.

During the news conference Martin said Langford received bribes from Blount—through friend Al LaPierre—to buy clothes and jewelry from expensive New York boutiques and high-end stores in Birmingham as well.

Martin said that between 2003 and 2006, Blount paid for about $235,000 in clothing, jewelry and charge account bills for Langford.

The U.S. Attorney also said that Blount gave Langford a $11,000 Rolex watch.

Another accusation is that Bill Blount engineered a personal loan from Colonial Bank for Langford, who defaulted on the loan. Then, Martin said, Blount set up a loan for LaPierre at the same same bank to pay off Langford’s original loan.

Martin said it was all in return for steering Jefferson County bond business to Blount’s Montgomery firm, including the multi-billion dollar sewer bond business.

She said, “He (Langford) sold his public office to a friend.”

Reginald McDanial with the Internal Revenue Service said, it was a “textbook, tax fraud scheme.” He went on to say, “all money is taxable, even money from illegal activity is taxable.”

On Monday morning, Deborah Vance with the mayor’s office released a statement which said in part:

“This is certainly no surprise to us—we anticipated something happening soon especially knowing Alice Martin’s days in office are numbered with the swearing in of a new president in late January—just a little over a month from now.”

Langford was set to make a first appearance Monday morning at 10 a.m.

According to Gas2.org:

The Irish government has announced radical plans to introduce more than 250,000 electric cars onto the nation’s roads by 2020, a staggering ten percent of the total vehicles in the country.

If the scheme is successful, Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), the state energy agency, estimates an annual cut in CO2 emissions of around 350,000 tonnes. Transport currently accounts for more than a third of Ireland’s carbon emissions, higher than any other sector.

Under the plan, launched last week, businesses will be eligible to join an Accelerated Capital Allowance Scheme, allowing them to claim a 100 percent tax write-off when they convert their fleet to EVs.

However, officials are under no illusions over the scale of the challenge to wean the country’s drivers off their dependence on fossil fuels. According to SEI chair Brendan Halligan, “We will need to alter our attitudes towards electric vehicles and accept that there is no other way forward.”

The Irish scheme follows earlier news of a German plan to introduce one million EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles over the next eleven years.

As a supplement to the article above the Irish Examiner reported this:

Thursday, November 27, 2008

More than 250,000 electric cars to grace roads by 2020

By Seán McCárthaigh

MORE than 250,000 electric cars will be on Irish roads by the end of the next decade.

And, in an incentive to have 10% of all Irish-registered vehicles powered by electricity by 2020, the Government will be offering a 100% tax write-off to businesses.

Energy Minister Eamon Ryan yesterday expressed confidence the new tax allowances could see Ireland become a major test centre for car manufacturers.

The incentives come under the Accelerated Capital Allowance Scheme, designed to encourage firms to switch to more energy-efficient equipment.

A special taskforce is also being established which will examine the infrastructure necessary for a national roll-out of electric vehicles, especially the availability of battery-charging facilities.

The state energy agency, Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), is also to set up a €1 million project to research, develop and promote the use of electric vehicles, including public demonstrations of electric cars.

SEI has also published a buyer’s guide and developed a calculator to help motorists estimate the cost of switching from petrol and diesel models.

However, an SEI report published last May revealed there are few immediate economic benefits for motorists to change to electric or hybrid cars due to their high purchase cost, even though they cut down on CO2 emissions and have lower running costs.

SEI estimates CO2 levels in the Republic could be cut by 350,000 tonnes if the target of 10% of car-owners switch to electric models over the next few years.

Transport accounts for 35% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions — the largest of any sector including industry and private households.

SEI chair Brendan Halligan admitted a significant amount of work was still necessary for electric cars to gain widespread acceptance. “We will need to alter our attitudes towards electric vehicles and accept that there is no other way forward,” he said.

Mr Ryan, who jointly announced details of the new plans with Transport Minister Noel Dempsey said the Government expected considerable international investment to result from the new plan which would also help Ireland reduce its annual €6bn bill for fossil fuels.

But Fine Gael’s energy spokesperson Simon Coveney criticised the Government’s plans, claiming the 10% target for electric cars by 2020 was unambitious and inadequate.

“It is both feasible and realistic to aspire to achieve the complete replacement of petrol and diesel engine driven cars with electric vehicles within 15 years,” said Mr Coveney.

He pointed out that other countries had already set such targets.

Also interesting, also from Gas2.org, “In a conference on the future of electric transportation, the German government has detailed a major plan to put one million electric and plug-in hybrid cars on the country’s roads within the next 11 years.”

[sniplet 1st-YouTube-Post-Nannell]

My first ever YouTube post features my grandmother talking about Sears & Roebuck in her lifetime.  I have been part of other video’s but never posted my own video.  My inspiration for the video came from an assignment my mom gives to her 6th graders.

Every year my mom assigns her class a project where they either have to audio only record or video tape an interview with a veteran.  By doing this her students memorialize and document stories from the elderly.  My grandmother has lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Space Race, Cold War, and several presidents.  She has a story and experience for just about everything.  Over time I hope to make some videos for peronsal posterity.  I doubt I will post every video but hope to make many more.

Enjoy the video and tell me what you think about my fabulous video editing skills!  By the way the person in the background asking questions is me.  So for thoose of you who have never heard my voice please ignore the accented southern drawl.  I like to think my accent isn’t that thick.  Enjoy!

[sniplet cnn-student-loan-CB]

CNN’s Campbell Brown reported the story and video above and as follows:

(CNN) — It feels a little bit right now like we are all in a suspended state.

We are waiting for President Bush to leave office, waiting for Obama to take over, waiting for the automakers to come up with a bailout plan, waiting for the credit markets to unfreeze, waiting for the other shoe to drop in this terrifying economic environment.

All of us are trying to be patient to let all these various actors either depart or take the stage, to let all these various bailout plans do what they are supposed to. But while we wait, there are a lot of people falling through the cracks.

I was really struck by one college student telling his story to NPR over the weekend.

He owes the University of Arkansas $2,000 dollars. He has just a few weeks until the end of this semester to pay what he owes the school or he has to drop out.

He was counting on a bank loan, but with the credit freeze he can’t get one. He’s hardly the only one.
It is the topic du jour in dorm rooms right now as students pack up for the Thanksgiving holiday.

How many of them won’t be coming back because they can’t get loans to cover tuition or their basic expenses?

Paying off years of student loan debt might be a struggle at times, but not being able to get a student loan in the first place is a disaster.

We are all trying to be patient, but letting the education of our young people fall by the wayside right now is truly a disaster for all of us.

In case you haven’t been keeping up with the Big 3 Automakers request for $25 billion in Bail Out you should probably read these post:

• General Motors Return 2 Corporate Jets
• US Automakers CEO’s Grilled On Capitol Hill
• General Motors Video Scares up Support

[sniplet snl-spoof-big-3]

Gas prices slip below $2 nationally

• Average price in U.S. is below $2 for first time since March 2005, survey says
• All-time high average — $4.11 — was set four months ago
• Average price dropped 33 cents in the past two weeks
• Survey: Diesel prices are under $3 for the first time since September 2007

(CNN) — Gas prices dropped nearly 33 cents in the past two weeks, dipping below $2 for the first time since March 2005, a national survey said Sunday.
This station in Rio Vista, California, had gas prices below $2 on November 19. [pic to left]
The average price of self-serve, unleaded gasoline on Friday in the United States was $1.97, said Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey. The last time the price was below $2 was on March 4, 2005, she said.

The all-time high average was $4.11, set on July 11, according to Lundberg, and prices have been dropping ever since.

“The rate of decline has slowed somewhat, but it is still dramatic at 33 cents in two weeks,” she said.

Diesel prices averaged $2.93 on Friday, slumping under $3 for the first time since September 2007, she said.

Lundberg attributed the price reductions to a drop in crude oil prices and demand, and also because of low refining margins.

“Crude oil remains [the] main driver,” for the decline, she said, noting that crude oil futures settled on Friday below $50.

Demand is always low in November, she said, but the weakening economy is reducing it further.

However, Lundberg said that if crude oil prices do not fall further, “then the end of this [gasoline] price crash is either here or near.”

The Lundberg Survey is based on responses from more than 5,000 service stations nationwide.

On Friday, drivers in St. Louis, Missouri, paid the least at the pump — $1.61 — while drivers in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Anchorage, Alaska, paid the most, at $2.81.

Here are average prices in other cities:

• Detroit, Michigan — $1.76
• Houston, Texas — $1.78
• Atlanta, Georgia — $1.88
• Boston, Massachusetts — $2.01
• Chicago, Illinois — $2.10
• Washington — $2.19
• Los Angeles, California — $2.22

In the end the Big 3 US Automakers will get assistance and I hope they do.  I just want to make sure it is used correctly and not to line the pockets of the wealthy.

MSNBC.com and Reuters is reporting that GM is Returning 2 Leased Jets from their corporate fleet.

GM to return two leased jets amid criticism

By Poornima Gupta

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp will return two of its leased corporate jets amid intense criticism in Washington this week on the luxury travel arrangements of its chief executive even as the company pleads for federal aid.

CEO Rick Wagoner was in the capital to testify on the company’s dire financial situation but his testimony was overshadowed by irate lawmakers who blasted him for flying on a private jet to ask for public funds and failing to make personal sacrifices in exchange for federal assistance.

Chief executives from Ford Motor Co, and Chrysler LLC, who were also there to plead for $25 billion in federal aid, came under fire too for flying to Washington in private jets.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said on Friday GM decided to return the aircraft because of a “really aggressive cutback in travel.”

The company, which is in a cost-cutting mode, is scrutinizing every trip, he said, but declined to disclose the name of the company it leases the airplanes from.

Wilkinson said the decision to return the leased corporate jets was made before this week’s hearings and that the company in September returned two other of the seven jets it had at the beginning of the year.

“There is a perception issue,” Wilkinson said of Wagoner’s travel to Washington on a private jet. “We need to be very sensitive to that going forward.”

He, however, said the company has not decided on what mode of transportation Wagoner would take if had to travel to Washington again.

Wagoner and Ford CEO Alan Mulally are required by their companies to fly by private aircraft for security reasons, according to company documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The policy for Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli is not required to be disclosed because the company is not publicly traded.

Skeptical lawmakers took to task the three CEOs for their luxurious travel arrangements at congressional committee hearings.

“Couldn’t you have downgraded to first class or something, or jet-pooled or something to get here?” Rep. Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat, asked the executives at a hearing held by the U.S. House Financial Services Committee.

Even Democrats who said they were sympathetic to the automakers’ plight expressed frustration that the executives used private jets while professing ruthless cost-cutting measures.

A Chrysler spokesman said the automaker also leases or charters jets. He, however, declined to comment on whether the company was rethinking the use of private jets for executive travel, saying it was a “private matter.”

Ford did not have an immediate comment on its corporate jet policy.

According to Ford’s proxy, CEO Mulally’s compensation included $752,203 in 2007 for personal use of company aircraft.

About two years ago, the head of Ford’s North American operations, Mark Fields, gave up use of a corporate jet for personal travel to his home in Florida after the arrangement came under criticism at a time when the automaker was losing billions and slashing jobs.

He now flies first class on commercial planes.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

The Boston Herald is reporting that she is using the publicity for fame credit. But in here interview with People Magazine it appears to me that she was more trying to clear her name and apologize to Mrs. Spitzer and CNN.com gave more details and objective reporting of the situation and the interviews.

Prostitute to Spitzer’s wife: ‘I’m sorry’

Story Highlights

• Dupre’s message to Silda Wall Spitzer: “I’m sorry for your pain”
• She says she was stricken by the pained expression on Silda Wall Spitzer’s face
• Dupre, 23, said Spitzer was polite and businesslike when they met

NEW YORK (AP) — The prostitute at the center of the scandal that brought down former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has apologized to his wife.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre also sat down with Diane Sawyer for an ABC “20/20″ segment to be aired Friday.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre tells People magazine that the FBI informed her in early March that it was investigating one of her clients. A few days later, she found out which client when she recognized Spitzer on TV — resigning.

That was March 12, after revelations Spitzer had used Emperors Club VIP, where Dupre worked.

She says she was stricken by the pained expression on Silda Wall Spitzer’s face.

“I try not to revisit that place too often, but when I think about his speech, I think of her face, her eyes, the hurt,” Dupre said.

Her message to Silda Wall Spitzer: “I’m sorry for your pain.”

Dupre, 23, said Spitzer was polite and businesslike when they met. “Some guys, they want to have conversations and really get to know each other. With him, it clearly was not like that,” she said. “It was more of a transaction. Strictly business.”

Dupre, who was known then as Kristen, said she practiced safe sex with all her clients, including Spitzer. On her attorney’s advice, she would not elaborate on their liaison, or say whether Spitzer visited her more than once. She did say that he dressed casually and she did not see his security detail.

Dupre also sat down with Diane Sawyer for an ABC “20/20″ segment to be aired Friday. In that interview, ABC said, she describes how an “upper middle-class, girl next door got into the profession and the psychological journey she continues to experience.”

Four people have pleaded guilty to running the prostitution operation. Last week, federal prosecutors said they wouldn’t bring criminal charges against Spitzer.

Dupre, 23, envisions a future for herself in music, fashion and “writing books” — but not prostitution. “Never again.”

I am not certain where Cuil got that picture but it is certainly not me.  Maybe one day they will have a webmaster toolkit similar to other search engines that allow to select the image that is displayed next to results.