CHICAGO — The federal corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich— ousted Illinois governor, Elvis impersonator and reality TV star — will provide a summer's worth of legal and political theater.
The trial is scheduled to begin Thursday and will last three or four months. It will include testimony from Blagojevich and former aides cooperating with prosecutors, the courtroom airing of recorded calls between Blagojevich and his associates and a jury that will be anonymous until after the verdict.
"The breadth of the alleged corruption is breathtaking," says Ron Safer, a Chicago defense lawyer and former assistant U.S. attorney. "It will be shocking."
From Our Universe Visualized on YouTube: The MODIS instrument, on board NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, is capturing images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill began on April 20, 2010 with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. This short video reveals a space-based view of the burning oil rig and, later, the ensuing oil spill through May 24, 2010. The oil slick appears grayish-beige in the images and changes due to changing weather, ocean currents, and the use of oil dispersing chemicals.
Life imitated Pixar's 'Up' today in Europe, as a man successfully crossed the English Channel in the air... held aloft by colorful helium balloons.
American Jonathan Trappe, 36, is the first person to accomplish the feat, living out a fantasy that many have dreamed.
"Didn't you have this dream, grabbing on to a bunch of balloons and floating off?" Trappe asked reporters. "I think it's something that's shared across cultures and across borders -- just this wonderful fantasy of grabbing on to toy balloons and floating into open space."
Trappe hitched a bunch of balloons to a chair, but his rig was a little more complex than a toy or the house in 'Up.' He took navigation equipment, tracking devices and an oxygen system along for the ride, which was approved by aviation officials.
Ardi Rizal is just two years old but he knows how to puff with the best of them. The Indonesian youngster has a 40-cigarettes-a-day smoking habit. Ardi got his first taste when his dad Mohammed, a 30-year-old fishmonger, gave him a cigarette when he was just 18 months old - and now he throws tantrums if he can't doesn't get his 40 cigarettes a day. His 26-year-old mother Diana has been trying to get him to quit with little success. She said, "He's totally addicted. If he doesn't get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams and batters his head against the wall. He tells me he feels dizzy and sick." Officials have offered to buy the family a car if he quits, but his father said: "He looks pretty healthy to me.
