By Ryan Paul
July 08, 2008 - 08:55AM CT

Linux filesystem developer Hans Reiser revealed the location of his wife's body to law enforcement officials yesterday. Reiser, who is a well-known figure in the open source software community, was found guilty of murdering his estranged wife, Nina Reiser, in a trial that concluded in April.

Nina Reiser disappeared in 2006 while she was involved in a bitter divorce dispute with Hans over his failure to provide child-care payments. He was arrested and charged with murder after police conducted an extensive investigation that included 24-hour covert surveillance.

Reiser vigorously denied responsibility for the murder during the ensuing trial. But the prosecution presented several key pieces of evidence, including a sleeping bag cover stained with Nina's blood, which was found in Hans Reiser's vehicle with books about murder investigations. The car was found with the passenger seat removed and an inch of standing water on the floor.

When Reiser took the stand in his own defense, his implausible claims and erratic behavior in the courtroom largely undermined his efforts to convince the jury that he was innocent. The location of the body was unknown during the trial, so Reiser repeatedly claimed that Nina had absconded with money from his company and had gone back to her home in Russia.

by Steven Musil
July 6, 2008 8:15 PM PDT

Toyota plans to install solar panels on the roof of the next generation of Prius hybrid cars, according to a report in Monday's edition of the Nikkei newspaper.

The panels, which are expected to begin appearing on the high-end version of the gasoline-hybrid car as early as next spring, will supply part of the two to five kilowatts needed to power the air conditioning, MarketWatch cited the Japanese business daily as reporting. Kyocera will reportedly supply the panels.

The move would make Toyota the first major automaker to incorporate a solar-power generation system into a mass-produced car. Prius was introduced in 1997 and has since sold more than 1 million vehicles worldwide. The car was redesigned in 2003, and a third generation has been widely expected to appear soon.

By John Rogers
July 3, 2008

Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure.

He was 83. His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home. Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country.

The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos. "You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview. "Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.

Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, was the first Bozo the Clown, a character created by writer-producer Alan W. Livingston for a series of children's records in 1946. Livingston said he came up with the name Bozo after polling several people at Capitol Records.

By Tim Shipman and Philip Sherwell
June 30, 2008 @ 8:16 AM

Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president's future campaign role is a "sticking point" in peace talks with Mrs Clinton's aides.

The Telegraph has learned that the former president's rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence. A senior Democrat who worked for Mr Clinton has revealed that he recently told friends Mr Obama could "kiss my ass" in return for his support.

A second source said that the former president has kept his distance because he still does not believe Mr Obama can win the election. Mr Clinton last week issued a tepid statement, through a spokesman, in which he said he "is obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Senator Obama is the next president of the United States ".

Mr Obama was more effusive at his unity event with Mrs Clinton on Friday, speaking fondly of the absent former president, who attended Nelson Mandela's birthday celebrations in London instead. The candidate told the crowd: "I know how much we need both Bill and Hillary Clinton as a party. They have done so much great work. We need them badly."

June 30, 2008

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologist pulled off a daring rescue off the Panhandle -- that of a bear. Officials say a 375-pound male black bear was seen roaming a residential neighborhood, evidently in search of food, near Alligator Point, some 40 miles south of Tallahassee.

The bear was hit with a tranquilizer dart, but he managed to bolt into the Gulf of Mexico before the drugs took effect. At that point, FWC biologist Adam Warwick jumped in to keep the bear, who was some 25 yards offshore, from drowning. He managed to get the bear to shore, and then a backhoe operator helped load the animal onto a truck.

The bear was relocated to Osceola National Forest near Lake City, Fla. On The Early Show Monday, Warwick told co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez he wasn't worried about the bear injuring him as much as a sting ray stinging him. "I just wanted to try to get in front of him and keep him from swimming out there and drowning," Warwick says. The bear, he continued, "started to swim, started to make the four-mile swim across the harbor.

And so, I looked at (a colleague) and I said, 'I've got to go out there and stop him.' So, I took off my shirt and shoes, jumped in the water and swam in the direction to head him off and keep him from going into deeper water. Once I did that, I got in front of him, tried to create some splashing and some commotion and tried to get him to go back into shore. But he wasn't having any of that.

By John Timmer
June 27, 2008 - 02:13PM CT

As we noted last month, a number of states have been considering laws that, under the guise of "academic freedom," single out evolution for special criticism. Most of them haven't made it out of the state legislatures, and one that did was promptly vetoed.

But the last of these bills under consideration, the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), was enacted by the signature of Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday. The bill would allow local school boards to approve supplemental classroom materials specifically for the critique of scientific theories, allowing poorly-informed board members to stick their communities with Dover-sized legal fees.

The text of the LSEA suggests that it's intended to foster critical thinking, calling on the state Board of Education to "assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories."

Unfortunately, it's remarkably selective in its suggestion of topics that need critical thinking, as it cites scientific subjects "including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning." Oddly, the last item on the list is not the subject of any scientific theory; the remainder are notable for being topics that are the focus of frequent political controversies rather than scientific ones.

June 19, 2008

A Massachusetts high school is facing a pregnancy boom with 17 girls entering summer vacation expecting babies in what some have called a pregnancy pact. Officials at Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Mass., are investigating whether half of the teens made a pact to get pregnant during the school year, Time.com reported.

Officials said that beginning last fall a large group of girls started asking the school clinic for pregnancy tests, the site said. "Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," principal Joseph Sullivan told Time.com. The pregnancy rate at the 1,200-student school is four times higher than the previous year, and officials were shocked to learn that men in their 20s had fathered some of the babies, Time.com said.

"We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," Sullivan told Time.com. The Gloucester baby boom is forcing this city of 30,000 to grapple with the question of providing easier access to birth control, something this largely Catholic enclave is slow to embrace, the site said. Nurse practitioner Kim Daly administered 150 pregnancy tests to students by May, prompting her and the clinic's medical director, Dr. Brian Orr, to lobby for the prescription of contraceptives regardless of parental consent.

That move drew the ire of Mayor Carolyn Kirk, whose public outcry against the pair led to their resignations last month. "It is very clear that the board [at Northeast Health System of Beverly, which manages the clinic] is not in favor and will not support contraception in the school," Orr told the Boston Globe. "There is an epidemic of teen pregnancy at the school."

By Dick Arrmey
June 18, 2008

Countrywide Financial Corp.'s "friends of Angelo" program provided sweetheart loans to key banking players in Washington, D.C. They included former Fannie Mae chief executive Jim Johnson, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.).

The growing scandal surrounding the "friends of Angelo" loans (so-called by company employees, referring to Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo) should serve as a political wake-up call. Yet the Senate appears intent on pushing forward legislation, co-authored by Sen. Dodd, that would bail out the worst actors in the subprime mortgage banking industry.

Campaigning in Lancaster, Pa., on March 31, Sen. Barack Obama blamed Countrywide's CEO for "infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis." Yet Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) and Mr. Dodd have crafted a bill to provide $300 billion in new taxpayer loan guarantees to Countrywide and others. The bill will allow troubled financial institutions to foist the riskiest mortgages in their portfolios onto the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) -- ultimately putting the American taxpayer on the hook for their bad bets.

Right now, nearly a third of Countrywide's mortgage portfolio is composed of an especially chancy loan called a "payment-option ARM." Also known as negative-amortization loans, payment-option ARMs allow borrowers to pay less than the interest owed each month, with the shortfall added to the principal balance. At set intervals the loans are recalculated, or recast, to be fully amortizing.

June 18, 2008

GULFPORT, Ill. — Floodwaters breached two levees in western Illinois on Wednesday and threatened more Mississippi River towns in Missouri after inundating much of Iowa for the past week.

The breaches 45 miles south of Gulfport flooded farmland near the hamlet of Meyer and south of there in the Indian Graves levee district, Adams County Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Julie Shepard said. Meyer, a town of 40 to 50 people, had to be evacuated, and authorities patrolled the town Wednesday morning to make sure no one was left behind, she said.

Officials monitored levees in other Mississippi River towns in Illinois and Missouri in hopes that they would hold. Flooding that began in eastern Iowa caused more than $1.5 billion in damage as it crept south toward the Mississippi. About 25,000 people in Cedar Rapids were forced from their homes, 19 buildings at the University of Iowa were flooded and water treatment plants in several cities were knocked out.

Now the floodwaters are a problem for communities such as Gulfport and Clarksville, Mo. Authorities rescued people by helicopter, boat and four-wheeler on Tuesday after the river broke through a levee in Gulfport. Lois Russell was among those who watched her house get inundated with water. "What else am I going to do? Where else am I going to go?" said the 83-year-old Russell, who had lived in the white farmhouse for 57 years.

June 17, 2008

A military judge dismissed charges Tuesday against a Marine officer accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis. Col. Steven Folsom dismissed charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani after finding that a four-star general overseeing the case was improperly influenced by an investigator probing the November 2005 shootings by a Marine squad in Haditha.

"Unlawful command influence is the mortal enemy of military justice," Folsom said. "In order to restore the public confidence, we need to take it back. We need to turn the clock back." Chessani, of Rangely, Colo., was the highest-ranking officer to face a combat-related court-martial since the Vietnam War. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled, but Folsom barred Marine Forces Central Command from future involvement in the case.

Of eight Marines originally charged in the case, only one is still facing prosecution in the biggest U.S. criminal prosecution involving Iraqi deaths to come out of the war. The incident occurred after a Marine was killed by a roadside bomb. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who faces voluntary manslaughter charges, and a squad member shot five men by a car at the scene.

Investigators say Wuterich then ordered his men to clear several houses with grenades and gunfire, leaving women and children among the dead. Wuterich has pleaded not guilty. Folsom's ruling comes two weeks after Gen. James Mattis took the stand — a rare courtroom appearance for such a high-ranking officer — to address the judge's initial finding that there was evidence of unlawful command influence in the case.

by Holly Jackson
June 16, 2008 3:44 PM PDT

A Missouri woman accused of contributing to a teenager's suicide by creating a fake MySpace account to taunt the girl pleaded not guilty in federal court Monday, according to Reuters and other media sources.

After she was implicated in the hoax aimed at harassing a teenage neighbor, Lori Drew of the St. Louis area was charged with conspiracy and accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress. The case captured the attention of the blogosphere and the world. The story first broke in Drew's hometown paper, the St. Charles Journal, a year after the October 2006 death of 13-year-old Megan Meier.

It was a twisted tale of an adolescent girl who was tricked into believing a boy she met on MySpace was her boyfriend and was then crushed when he turned on her. The article said that one night comments by "Josh Evans" became increasingly cruel, and his statement to Meier that "the world would be a better place" without her may have led to her suicide that evening. Prosecutors say Drew was behind the fictional MySpace account, which she created to find out what Meier was saying about her daughter.

The girls had experienced a recent falling-out. Drew was a family friend of the Meiers' and was aware of the teenager's battle with depression, according to reports. When the story hit national airwaves, angry bloggers got involved, outing Drew's name, address, and phone number on the Internet. While the online community fought their battle against Drew, Missouri prosecutors discovered there was no state law that applied to the case.

June 13, 2008

WASHINGTON — NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert has died. Russert, host of top-rated Sunday talk show "Meet the Press," reportedly died of a heart attack. He was 58. A noticeably shaken Tom Brokaw made the announcement live from New York, saying his colleague collapsed and died early Friday afternoon in the NBC News bureau in Washington.

Brokaw said Russert had just returned from a trip to Italy with his wife, Maureen Orth, and son, Luke, to celebrate Luke's graduation from Boston College. "He has been a very familiar face on this network and throughout the world of political journalism as one of the premiere political analysts and journalists of his time," Brokaw said.

Russert grew up in Buffalo, which Brokaw said Russert had just visited last week to assist in moving his father to a new home. Russert's father, known as Big Russ, was the subject of one of Russert's best-selling books. "I think I can invoke peronal privilege to say that this news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice. He'll be missed as he was loved - greatly," Brokaw said.

June 12, 2008

BLENCOE, Iowa - Frightened Boy Scouts huddled in a shelter as a tornado tore through their western Iowa campground, killing four people and injuring 48 others who had little to no warning of the approaching twister. Tornadoes also touched down in Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska on Wednesday.

They killed at least two people in northern Kansas, destroyed much of the small town of Chapman and caused extensive damage on the Kansas State University campus. In Iowa, rescue workers cut their way through downed branches and dug through debris amid rain and lightning Wednesday night to reach the camp where the 93 boys, ages 13 to 18, and 25 staff members were attending a weeklong leadership training camp.

The boys were split into two groups when the storm hit the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in the remote Loess Hills. One group managed to take shelter, while the other was out hiking. At least 42 of the injured remained hospitalized Thursday morning, with everything from cuts and bruises to major head trauma, said Gene Meyer, Iowa's public safety commissioner.

At least four of the injured had been airlifted from the camp, he said, refusing to elaborate on their conditions or identify the dead. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families of the victims," Gov. Chet Culver said. "We continue to do everything we can to make sure those injured are going to recover."

June 5, 2008

While Hillary Clinton plans to announce Saturday her support for Barack Obama’s candidacy, Democratic party leadership is growing increasingly frustrated with her timetable — rancor that could hurt her chances of salvaging the party’s No. 2.

Clinton raised the ire of several high-powered Democrats after she refused to concede and acknowledge Obama’s historic achievement Tuesday, when it became clear he had earned enough delegates to become the first black presidential nominee of a major party. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told FOX News that he “hopes” Clinton’s scheduled address Saturday, which would end her bid to become the first woman president, would be a “very positive statement of support.”

“It would be in her best interest,” he said, adding it would bring the party together. In an e-mail to supporters released late Wednesday, Clinton wrote, “On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign. … I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party’s nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.”

Party leaders hope she does. Congressional lawmakers from Clinton’s home state of New York — who were some of her biggest backers — endorsed Obama as a group Thursday, signaling it’s time to close ranks behind the presumptive nominee. Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Congressional Black Caucus member, said a lot of Democratic lawmakers “are very disappointed that she did not acknowledge he had enough delegates to be the nominee. And we’re not even talking about congratulations.”

By Lester Haines
3rd June 2008 08:26 GMT

Discovery yesterday docked successfully with the International Space Station at 18:03 GMT, with mission STS-124 astronauts boarding at 19:36 GMT. Discovery crew greeted by Expedition 17 members aboard the ISS. The shuttle arrived bearing mission spcialist Greg Chamitoff, due to join the exisiting Expedition 17 crew, relieving flight engineer Garrett Reisman.

It also carries the second consignment of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory, constisting of the large Japanese Pressurized Module and robotic arm system, plus spares for the bothersome Russian ASU toilet. STS-124 kicks off in earnest today with the first of three spacewalks.

Mission specialists Mike Fossum and Ron Garan are scheduled to venture forth at 15:32 GMT and "transfer the Orbiter Boom Sensor System back to the shuttle from its temporary location of the station’s truss". The sensor system is used to check the shuttle for damage and was stowed aboard the ISS during Atlantis's STS-123 to allow Discovery to free up extra cargo bay space for the Kibo delivery.