LAPD Chief Warns Of Strong Force After Lakers/Celtics Game 7

June 17, 2010

Yahoo News

By Daisy Nguyen

LOS ANGELES – City officials are warning basketball fans to stay away from downtown unless they have tickets to Game 7 of the NBA finals  between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics.

In an attempt to prevent the kind of unrest that broke out after the Lakers won last year’s championship, police will deploy hundreds of officers around Staples Center and other parts of the city Thursday to deter anyone from spoiling a potential celebration should the Lakers seize their 16th national championship.

“Win or lose let’s honor our hometown team for the amazing season they’ve given us and let’s honor our city and our neighbors by respecting all our laws,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urged fans Wednesday.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said officers will set up a perimeter around Staples Center to let in only those with tickets to the game. Tactical units will stick around afterward to dissuade fans from congregating outside the arena.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said he has notified hundreds of deputies to be on hand in case the police department needs backup.

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Cyber Chief Ready To Name Deputy

May 28, 2010

Federal News Radio

Cybersecurity Update – Tune in weekdays at 30 minutes past the hour for the latest cybersecurity news on The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris (6-10 a.m.) and The DorobekInsider with Chris Dorobek (3-7 p.m.). Listen live at FederalNewsRadio.com or on the radio at 1500 and 820 AM in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

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Obama’s Intelligence Chief Resigns

May 21, 2010

Telegraph

By Philip Sherwell

The abrupt departure of Dennis Blair, the president’s appointee as director of national intelligence in Jan 2009, signals that the US is still struggling to overhaul its often-squabbling intelligence agencies.

The retired admiral will hand in his resignation on Friday after Mr Obama called him on Thursday to ask him to step down, ending months of speculation about his future.  An administration official said that several “strong candidates” had already been interviewed as replacements – a clear indication that the White House had been planning his exit for some time.

The final blow for Mr Blair came when he was passed over for a crucial mission to Islamabad to discuss new US intelligence on threats by Pakistan Taliban against US targets.

James Jones, the national security advisor, and Leon Panetta, the CIA director with whom Mr Blair had lost previous turf wars, made the trip to present information provided by Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square bomber.

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Obama Chief Secretly Flies To Israel On Your Tax Dollar

May 20, 2010

The Jerusalem Post

By Gil Hoffman

“This memorial break, I am taking my son, my nephew Noah with Ari my brother, so they can have their bar mitzva  in Israel,” Emanuel boasted in the November 10 speech, winning cheers from the crowd. “Not to add humor to this moment, but that’s cheap applause. I’ll take an $18 check on behalf of him if you like. That’s obviously illegal as a public servant. That was a joke.”

But as the bar mitzva date approaches, the White House, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry have declined to give any details whatsoever about the event. A White House representative said Emanuel’s visit to Israel was “a private trip” and diplomatic officials in Jerusalem said they also didn’t provide details when National Security Council official Dennis Ross came for his son’s wedding.

The lack of information has led to speculation in the Hebrew press, with Haaretz reporting incorrectly that Emanuel would arrive in Israel this week and Ma’ariv suggesting that he had moved the bar mitzva away from the Western Wall, either because of threats from right-wingers or because the Obama administration considered the wall in the territory of a future Palestinian capital.

Neither Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz nor Rabbi Jay Karzen, who has conducted more than 2,000 bar mitzvas at the site, was contacted by Emanuel’s family or his office.

“We would have known about it if they inquired about it, so I don’t think they canceled a bar mitzva at the Wall or planned one,” Rabinovitz’s spokesman said.

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GE Chief Attacks Executive Greed

December 11, 2009

Financial Times

By Francesco Guerrera

Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric’s chief executive, said on Wednesday his generation of business leaders had succumbed to “meanness and greed” that had harmed the US economy and increased the gap between the rich and the poor.

Mr Immelt’s attack on his fellow corporate chiefs – made in a speech at the West Point military academy – is one of the strongest criticisms by a top executive of the compensation and business practices that prevailed before the financial crisis.

“We are at the end of a difficult generation of business leadership … tough-mindedness, a good trait, was replaced by meanness and greed, both terrible traits,” said Mr Immelt, who succeeded Jack Welch, one of the toughest leaders of his generation, at the helm of the US conglomerate. “Rewards became perverted. The richest people made the most mistakes with the least accountability.”

Several executives, especially in financial services, have apologised for their companies’ role in the crisis but Mr Immelt’s remarks went further, linking bad leadership to growing inequality.

“The bottom 25 per cent of the American population is poorer than they were 25 years ago. That is just wrong,” he said. “Ethically, leaders do share a common responsibility to narrow the gap between the weak and the strong.”

GE wants to win a large slice of the infrastructure projects funded by governments around the world in an effort to kick-start their economies.

Mr Immelt said business should welcome government as “a catalyst for leadership and change”.

Mr Immelt also issued a mea culpa over his inabilty to foresee the financial turmoil, which slashed GE’s profits and put its financial arm, GE Capital, under pressure, saying he should have been a better listener.

“I felt like I should have done more to anticipate the radical changes that occurred,” he said.

The GE chief now gathers GE’s top 25 executives to twice-monthly Saturday sessions to talk about the company and its future.

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