Highlights & Links for February 9, 2010
World/Politics
CNN is reporting Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a longtime fixture on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending, died after complications from gallbladder surgery, according to his office. He was 77 and had represented Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District since '74. (CNN)
Fox News is reporting Toyota said Tuesday it is recalling 170,000 Prius hybrid cars in Japan for braking problems and will soon disclose details of its global plans for a fix. The automaker will hold a news conference at its Tokyo office later today to outline details of the braking problem, including plans for a possible recall in the U.S. (Fox News)
Breitbart.com is reporting Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. His comments came as Iran said it would begin to produce higher enriched uranium from Tuesday, in defiance of Western powers trying to ensure the country's nuclear drive is peaceful. (Breitbart)
CNN tells us that The Dow closed below 10,000 Monday for the first time in three months, with financial shares leading the way, as worries about the U.S. economy and European debt weighed on investor sentiment. The last time the Dow finished below 10,000 was Nov. 4. (CNN)
In health care reform news the New York times is saying When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month, they will carry with them a fairly well-developed set of ideas intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable, by emphasizing tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net. It is not clear that Republicans and the White House are willing to negotiate seriously with each other, and Mr. Obama has rejected Republican demands that he start from scratch in developing health care legislation. (New York Times)
Tech News
Engadget is reporting Netflix Watch Instantly fans could be due for a big upgrade, as CNET has heard the company will roll out 5.1 surround sound and closed captioning later this year. No word on timing or any other details. (Engadget)
Techcrunch is reporting that there’s a way to view hundreds of photos on Facebook without lifting a finger: a new Facebook Prototype lets you turn these photo albums into slideshows. There is a link to activate the prototype here. After activating it, you’ll find a ‘Play’ button nestled between the ‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ navigation buttons in the photo viewer. Clicking it will turn the album you’re currently viewing into a slideshow, displaying a new photo every five seconds. (Techcrunch)
Mashable is reporting EA Sports President Peter Moore told Bloomberg that the popular Madden NFL series of football video games will make its way to Facebook. There’s no word on a launch date. Moore says we will definitely see Madden on the Facebook platform, but the social media version will be simpler than its console cousins, because EA wants to “make Madden more accessible.” (Mashable)
Engadget is telling us about The new zoomIt SD card reader from zoomMediaPlus. It adds a bit of external, swappable memory to the iPhone and iPod touch at long last, giving you the ability to store your iPhone's pictures on the card, or pull stuff off it onto your handset using the free zoomIt app. The Zoomit will cost $60 and will ship in April, but you can pre-order one now for a $10 discount. (Engadget)
The last and perhaps biggest bit of Tech news for the day comes from Mashable as they report that Gmail is set to become Google’s next major push into social media. According to The Wall Street Journal, the popular webmail service will soon launch a new feature for sharing content and status updates with friends. with this new social push, Gmail will offer a timeline-view of your friends’ status updates, just like on Facebook and Twitter. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google-owned YouTube and Picasa will be integrated into the stream. The huge question then is whether or not the new feature will include updates from Twitter and Facebook. If so, the new features could be thought of more like a TweetDeck or Seesmic, looking to provide an aggregate view of your friends’ social media activities along with the ability to push status updates to the services you use from inside of Gmail. If not, it could be thought of as a major competitor to Twitter and Facebook as Gmail looks to covert its millions of e-mail users into adherents to a whole new breed of social media service. (Mashable)
Gossip & Entertainment
The big news out of Hollywood is centering around the Conrad Murray Michael Jackson case. TMZ is reporting Dr. Conrad Murray was arraigned today and pled not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Michael Jackson. He was taken into custody for booking and bail was set at $75,000. Jackson's parents and several of his siblings were front and center for the 25-minute hearing. The judge ruled as a condition to bail, Murray cannot be in possession of (or prescribe) anesthetics and specifically mentioned Propofol. Murray will be in court again on April 5. (TMZ)
In related news TMZ is also telling us that the Medical Board is going After Murray with a vengeance. According to documents filed with the court, the Medical Board of California believes Murray showed, "utter disregard for the care and well-being of the persons entrusted to his care" -- namely, Michael Jackson. The Board wants the judge to step in because it takes the Medical Board a long time to yank a doctor's license. The judge will hear the Medical Board's request to suspend Dr. Murray's license as a bail condition in a few weeks. (TMZ)
Radar online is reporting that Gary Coleman pleaded guilty in a Utah court to a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge related to a domestic violence incident last April. The Different Strokes star, who turned 42 on Monday, was sentenced to 31 1/2 days in jail, but will only serve the time if he fails to complete a domestic violence course and to pay a $595 fine. (Radar)
TMZ is reporting that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will sue News of the World for reporting the couple was splitting up. The tabloid published a report January 24 that Pitt and Jolie had called it quits and agreed to custody and property division. The London lawyers for Pitt and Jolie, Keith Schillings, called the report a "false and intrusive allegation." (TMZ)
For the last bit of G&E goodness we’ll delve into the world of Trash TV. VH1’s newest season of Celebrity Fit club started last night. If you missed the debut and you’re into that kind of thing, I’m sure VH1 will be replaying it about 500 times this week. Radar online tells us the cast this season includes Bobby Brown, K-Fed and his ex-girlfriend and baby momma Shar Jackson, ex-Skid Row front man Sebastian Bach, R & B bad boy Bobby Brown, Bad Girls Club star Tanisha Thomas, Project Runway Season 1 winner Jay McCarroll, High School Musical's KayCee Stroh and ex-Baywatch babe Nicole Eggert. (Radar)
Watch the Celebrity Fit Club Trailer:
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