Ruth Madoff, the 67-year-old wife of alleged fraud mastermind Bernard Madoff, is being investigated by U.S. regulators over whether she helped maintain secret records used in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, a person familiar with the matter said. The Securities and Exchange Commission, combing through files at her husband’s New York firm, found evidence she may have helped track payments, the person said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public. Two people with knowledge of the probe said on Dec. 14 that the agency is also examining why her name appears on related transactions. ‘She’s not charged with anything, said Ira ‘Ike Sorkin, a New York attorney at Dickstein Shapiro LLP, which represents the couple. ‘The SEC has not sought to freeze her assets. She’s under no bail conditions. Authorities haven’t accused Ruth Madoff of wrongdoing. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein, who is overseeing criminal proceedings against her husband, today ordered the couple to surrender their passports. Bernard Madoff’s wife and brother, Peter, were the only people willing to sign a $10 million bond to secure his release. Ruth Madoff is seeking to hire her own lawyer, a person familiar with the matter said. […]
SAN FRANCISCO — Maybe your old truck isn’t responsible for destroying the planet after all. New climate change scenarios quantify the idea that oil is only a small component of the total global warming problem - the real problem is coal. If the world replaced all of its oil usage with carbon-neutral energy sources, ecologist Kenneth Caldeira of Stanford University calculated that it would only buy us about 10 years before coal emissions warmed the planet to what many scientists consider dangerous levels. ‘There’s an order of magnitude more coal than oil. So, whether there is a little more oil or a little less oil will change the details in, say, when we reach two degrees warming, but it doesn’t change the overall picture,’ Caldeira said Wednesday at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting. Many of the efforts to ‘green’ our world’s infrastructure have focused on the importance of changing the world’s transportation systems. Indeed, one of the images of environmental destruction is the car-choked freeways of Los Angeles - and hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius have become a badge of environmental pride. But as the latest projections show, when it comes to global […]
Global warming, some have argued, can be reversed with a large-scale ‘geoengineering’ fix, such as having a giant blimp spray liquefied sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere or building tens of millions of chemical filter systems in the atmosphere to filter out carbon dioxide. But Richard Turco, a professor in the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and a member and founding director of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment, sees no evidence that such technological alterations of the climate system would be as quick or easy as their proponents claim and says many of them wouldn’t work at all. Turco will present his new research on geoengineering - conducted with colleague Fangqun Yu, a research professor at the State University of New York-Albany’s atmospheric sciences research center - today and Thursday at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in San Francisco. ‘We’re talking about tinkering with the climate system that affects everybody on Earth,’ said Turco, an atmospheric chemist with expertise in the microphysics of fine particles suspended in the atmosphere. ‘Some of the ideas are extreme. There would certainly be winners and losers, but no one would know who until it’s too late. ‘If people […]
WASHINGTON — Bush administration officials often interfered with scientific data to reduce protection for endangered species, says a U.S. inspector general. An investigation of the U.S. Interior Department found serious flaws related to 15 decisions on policies for species at risk of becoming extinct, said the report delivered to Congress by Inspector General Earl E. Devaney. One of those decisions involved reducing the number of waterways considered critical habitat for the endangered bull trout, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Tuesday. The report describes ‘something akin to a secret society residing within the Interior Department that was colluding to undermine the protection of endangered wildlife and covering for one another’s misdeeds,’ said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, D-W.V., who leads the House Natural Resources Committee. The report suggests some of the policy decisions may need to be re-examined under the administration of President-elect Barack Obama. Interior officials said they had yet to read the report and could not comment, the Times reported.
WASHINGTON - When supporters of President-elect Barack Obama hold house parties to discuss ways of fixing the health care system over the next two weeks, they may find some unexpected guests. The health insurance industry is encouraging its employees and satisfied customers to attend. A trade group representing some of the nation’s largest health care businesses, including drug companies, is organizing several meetings. The American Medical Association and other medical societies are encouraging doctors to get involved. The Maine Medical Association will convene a community discussion on Dec. 30. Group Health Cooperative of Seattle has sent e-mail messages to 35,000 subscribers encouraging their participation, and one of its doctors plans to lead a session next Tuesday. The meetings, originally envisioned as a way to make good on Mr. Obama’s commitment to ‘health care reform that comes from the ground up, could thus turn into living-room lobbying sessions involving some of the biggest stakeholders in the health care industry. Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for the Obama transition team, said that more than 4,200 meetings had been scheduled, and more are in the works. The first ones were held on Sunday. Attendance is expected to average at least […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
