Let your mouth speak archive

The Federal Government is ordering people caught losing huge amounts of money gambling while on Centrelink payments to pay back more than $9 million.

Through cross-referencing casino high-roller information with Centrelink customers, the Government has found more than 500 people who gambled thousands of dollars while receiving benefits.

Those caught have been ordered to pay back more than $9 million to the Government.

Human Services Minister Tanya Plibersek says in many cases people gave Centrelink false information about their income or assets.

"It's also the case that some people may start out correctly in receipt of benefits and then their circumstances change, they return to work for example but they don't tell Centrelink that their circumstances have changed," she said.

Ms Plibersek says some of the offenders were found to be laundering money for criminals.

"We don't understand how someone whose on new start or a disability support pension or an aged pension can afford to put $200,000 or $300,000 through a casino," she said.

"It often means someone has undeclared income or undeclared assets or they're engaged in a criminal enterprise of money laundering."

Actor Nicolas Cage was arrested in the streets of New Orleans last night after having a drunken spat with his wife Alice Kim while trying to figure out the exact location of their rental home in the French Quarter.

Apparently Cage was well sauced and during the argument quickly escalated which according to Reuters led to his arrest on Friday night at 11:30 p.m. for suspicion of domestic abuse battery, disturbing the peace and public drunkenness as was released in a statement by the New Orleans Police Department.

The argument between Cage and his wife was sparked after the two were trying to figure out the exact location of their residence and when Kim disagreed with Cage he reportedly “grabbed her by the upper arm and pulled her to what he believed was the correct address,” the Louisiana police reported.

Cage was arrested after attempting to jump into a taxi but was stopped police after appearing to be heavily intoxicated on being ordered out of the cab. Cage argued with the police which led to him being arrested.

According to TMZ, he was being held on $11,000 bond but lucky for him, his bounty hunter friend Duane “Dog” Chapman, who was there to help bail him out. Cage is now expected to attend a court hearing on May 31 to face all charges.

That’s one drunken evening gone horribly wrong…

BECKLEY — Bob Cabaniss knows well the perils of gambling, an addictive hobby laden with pitfalls that plunge the hooked into dark caverns of despair, often with no escape route.

For him, the most enticing form of wagering was in the arena of sports.

And it nearly made him a total loser in life, once he went through a tidy sum of money — a common tale among gamblers.

“It was bad,” says the founder and owner of Williamsville Wellness, a treatment center in Hanover, Va., just north of Richmond.

“I lost a lot of money. I almost lost my marriage. Luckily, I didn’t get to that depth of gambling. I started with a pretty large amount of money, and I ended up with a small amount of money.”

Based on his own grim experiences, Cabaniss launched a private facility to help gamblers overcome the urge to splurge at lottery outlets, poker machines, casinos, athletic gambling outlets and the like.

Not a week passes that he doesn’t get several calls from West Virginia gamblers mired in some form of wagering.

Monday, he plans to be on the campus of Marshall University, then at the Capitol in Charleston on Tuesday with a request to hook up with the state to accept West Virginians on a contracted basis. He also wants to appear at West Virginia University.

“Every place has a gambling problem,” he said. “It’s just the matter of magnitude. Yes, you have a gambling problem in West Virginia. Yes, it’s getting worse.”

As access to gambling expands, he said, the problem is exacerbated.

“We’re talking about a small percentage of the population,” Cabaniss said in a telephone interview.

“It’s not a huge percentage of the populace that’s having a gambling problem. But as access becomes easier, more people gamble, and within that small percentage there is a problem.”

West Virginia recently approved table games at race tracks, along with a casino at The Greenbrier, although the latter isn’t considered troublesome for state residents by Cabaniss, given the fact it is more upscale and more difficult for most West Virginians to reach.

Considering all the forms of gambling, however, Cabaniss says “thousands” in this state are beset with a problem. And he constantly hears the woeful tales of those victimized by games of chance.

“They have lost everything,” he said.

Cabaniss says some have turned to Gamblers Anonymous but this approach has been lacking, since it doesn’t provide one-on-one treatment.

Typically, when a gambler runs through his resources, his turns to embezzlement at his place of employment. Seldom does a gambler turn to violent crime, such as a bank stickup.

“But if they have access to funds, whether it be the family funds, a lot of times they take money from parents or grandparents, or their wives,” Cabaniss said.

“They run up credit card bills. Or falsify information on credit card forms. I’ve had people embezzle from various companies. That’s the normal, at the first stage of gambling addiction. At the very end stage, oftentimes you commit suicide. It’s the highest suicide rate of any addiction. Even drugs.”

Cabaniss describes the success rate of the program provided by his eight therapists as “very high.”

“Do you get cured?” he repeated the question.

“It’s something like alcohol. You become a nondrinker. If you gamble, will you become a compulsive gambler again? There’s a good chance you will. So, you’re never really cured. You become a nongambler. It’s not a problem. You don’t think about it. It’s not there any more. That’s great recovery. There are various stages of that. Some people fight it every day.

“There’s no pill you can take to cure you. We have by far the best success rate of any place in the country, but it’s not 100 percent. Gambling addiction is more of a mental addiction. There’s no substance there.”

Cabaniss says he can readily understand why the allure of gambling is so pervasive nowadays.

“You become a gambling addict or a compulsive gambler with the ease of it, with the speed of it, and with the illusion of winning,” he said.

With lotteries, where a number is assigned and one must wait until the end of the day, the addictive power is less, he said, but with scratch-off tickets all three elements come into play — access, instant results and the allure of winning.

“In West Virginia, you have video poker terminals,” he said. “There you have the ease, you have the illusion of winning, and you have tremendous speed. They’re very addictive.”

The same holds true with casino gambling, where slot machines provide quick results and the promise of hefty payoffs to the winners.

“Thirty years ago, a huge lottery check was $300,000, and now it’s $300 million,” Cabaniss said.

Three decades ago, the one-armed bandits enticed players with $1,000 prizes but now can offer $20 million while a gambler pushes a button.

What many gamblers don’t understand, or simply refuse to accept, is that the house, be it private enterprise or a state-run lottery system, wins most of the time, Cabaniss said.

“The house doesn’t always win, but the house wins,” he said. “The only way you can win is not to play.”

As we reported yesterday, actor Nicolas Cage was arrested for assaulting his wife outside their rental home in New Orleans, it is now being reported that he is being bailed out by none other than Dog the Bounty Hunter himself, Duane "Dog" Chapman.

After being tossed in the clink for domestic violence and disturbing the peace after an alleged argument with his wife Alice Kim as well as taunting cops when they arrived at the scene, Cage was being held on $11,000 bond.

But have no fear, Nic! Dog is on the case.

Dog's wife, Beth Chapman, posted on Twitter, "My guy just walked out of the jail damn new Orleans 8 hours holy cow that's a lot of time to Process one guy."

Before Cage was arrested on Saturday morning, he went to a tattoo shop where reportedly, he stumbled around saying that he didn't know where he lived. He threw his clothes off, asked to for a tattoo and also asked the employees to call police, because he didn't know where he lived.

Cage won an Oscar for his role in Leaving Las Vegas, where he played a hopeless alcoholic. Perhaps the character wasn't such a stretch for him.

Cage has infamously faced a lot of debt, with the IRS has filing liens against him for back taxes dating back to 2002 bringing the total he owes the government to around $14 million. A bank also sued Cage for missing several payments on a $2 million dollar loan he took out earlier two years ago. Cage also purchased a 9-foot tall pyramid tomb in a New Orleans cemetery, naturally.

Cryptologic is based in Ireland where the company relocated to be closer to the online gambling industry hubs in the United Kingdom. Cryptologic’s Canadian roots are recognized by another online gambling software provider based in Montreal Canada, called Amaya Gaming. Amaya’s Insync Platform solutions are innovative high end gaming technology packed products capable of providing mobile server and network based electronic gaming.

Amaya Gaming recently announced it had acquired 652 170 shares in the common stock of Cryptologic for some $1 075 816.19, which represents 5.05 percent of the common Cryptologic shares in issue. The percentage of outstanding common shares is based on 12,907,120 shares outstanding as of March 24, 2011.
President and Chief Executive Officer of Amaya, David Baazov commented on the acquisition and the formal stock exchange notification, "...in order to facilitate a possible strategic transaction with the Issuer. Amaya is also considering one or more other alternatives to a strategic transaction with the Issuer. Amaya will continue to monitor the business and affairs of the Issuer, including its financial performance, and depending upon these factors, market conditions and other factors, and the status of its alternative discussions, Amaya may acquire or dispose of Common Shares as it deems appropriate, in open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions or otherwise."

Cryptologic has been making noises over the last few months that the financial situation at Cryptologic was less than stellar and it was seeking solutions to alleviate the pressure on the firm. Cryptologic has been undergoing restrained spending and budget cutting to bring the bottom line up and accommodate share holders needs for profit. The firm has ordered an independent strategic review to give the firm a direction forward which might include a provision that systematically disposes of the firm’s assets.
Amaya has been gaining market share over the last year or so with a recent announcement that it had acquired the contract to deliver online gambling services to the Dominican Republic.

Share in online gaming companies without exposure to "illegal" US gamblers rocketed this morning in response to Friday night's crackdown against the three largest poker websites in America. Bwin.party, the newly merged combination of sportsbook group Bwin and poker site operator PartyGaming, leapt more than a third, rising 44.3 to 175.3p. Analysts said the European gaming operator could be the biggest beneficiary of the high-profile bust by the US authorities as punters switch to legal sites, improving their liquidity and the potential size of payouts.

Smaller rival 888, which last week broke off merger talks with Ladbrokes, saw its shares rebound 5.75 to 40.5p.

Playtech, the software provider to gambling industry, was the other main winner, with the shares jumping 36.36 to 352.11p.

In a dramatic swoop against PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, US authorities closed down the sites in America, claiming they had “concocted an elaborate criminal fraud” to trick and bribe banks into “massive money laundering and bank fraud”.

Charges were levelled at 11 people, with the founders of the three sites facing up to 20 years in jail if found guilty of breaching US anti-gambling and money laundering laws. The indictment also sought the repayment of $3bn (£1.8bn) as the US Department of Justice (DoJ) seized the companies’ bank accounts and took control of their US websites.

The crackdown surprised many in the industry, given America had long turned what seemed like a blind eye to the ongoing activity of the three websites despite their flagrant contravention of 2006's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act - legislation that forced the likes of PartyGaming and 888 to withdraw from America.

Some industry experts believe, however, that busting the websites is the prelude to America legalising and regulating online gambling - potentially to the benefit of US land-based casino operators, such as those occupying Las Vegas' Nevada strip.

James Hollins, an analyst at Evolution Securities, said: "All in all, we think the newsflow is good to very good news for the operators of non-US facing poker operations."

He said that, assuming the US authorities follow through on Friday night's bust, "US-facing poker operators would (1) certainly cease to operate in the US, (2) they may close globally, if their ‘.com’ sites are seized, and (3) their reputations, even if they stay open outside US, would be seriously damaged".

He added: "On balance, we think that ‘clearing the decks’ can stimulate regulation rather than prohibition, with licences, and revenues, going to US land-based operators, with the potential for European operator business-to-business upside."

Execution Noble analyst Geetanjali Sharma said: "The US facing operators have been a drain on the profitability of the European operators as their US liquidity drew the non-US poker players and at the same time these operators diverted cash gained from the US operations to gain market share in the regulating territories in Europe."

Washington - The District of Columbia is preparing to move forward with a plan to legalize online gambling, following the expiration of a 30-day waiting period when Congress could have blocked the measure.

Mayor Vincent Gray signed the plan into law in January as part of the city's 2011 budget.

The Washington Post reported that city officials are now planning to set up as many as 30 online gambling "hot spots" in locations like hotels and bars across D.C. by Sept. 1, making the city the first U.S. jurisdiction to allow Internet gambling.

Congress, however, may still intervene on the project, which is seen as a way to generated much-needed revenue for the District.

The fallout over $272,000 in campaign contributions from a political action committee funded by now-tainted online gambling company PokerStars continued Monday with some Nevada lawmakers saying they would return the money.

Meanwhile, State Sen. Greg Brower, R-Reno, a former U.S. Attorney for Nevada, who sought an investigation into PokerStars' political activities over the weekend, pressed Secretary of State Ross Miller to further the probe.

The founders of PokerStars were among 11 individuals charged with bank fraud, money laundering and operating illegal gambling businesses in a nine-count federal indictment unsealed Friday in New York. The U.S. Department of Justice seized and shut down the American operations for PokerStars and two other online gambling companies, FullTilt Poker and Absolute Poker.

In a letter Monday, Brower asked Miller if PokerStars violated Nevada law with respect to recently reported campaign contributions and lobbying activities. Brower said federal law prohibits foreign contributions to federal, state and local campaigns. He plans to develop a bill that would put into state law a specific prohibition on foreign contributions, similar to the federal law.

PokerStars, which has headquarters on the Isle of Man, a British dependency, made contributions to 68 legislative candidates, constitutional officers, political party PACs and legislative caucuses. The contributions, made between Sept. 23 and Oct. 18, ranged from $1,000 to $10,000.

"I am working with (the legislative counsel bureau) as we speak," Brower said.

Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Scott Gilles said the office began an initial review Monday before receiving the letter from Brower. Reel PAC, which was funded by a $299,970 contribution from PokerStars corporate headquarters on Sept. 23, may be in violation of federal law.

"What we looked into this morning does not appear to be in violation of Nevada law," Gilles said. "We have forwarded the matter to our election integrity task force and we will give it an appropriate investigation."

Gilles said Miller won't be involved in the matter because his re-election campaign was given a $5,000 contribution from the PokerStars political action committee on Oct. 7.

"The secretary will be walled-off from the investigation," said Gilles. He wouldn't comment when asked if Miller planned to return the contribution.

Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, who was given a $10,000 contribution by the PokerStars PAC, said won't keep any money that came from the foreign company.

"As soon as we realized that there was a question, that this wasn't a U.S. owned company and was a foreign owned company we returned the money," Oceguera said.

He also said he would support repeating in state law the federal prohibition on foreign money in elections.

PokerStars gave $10,000 contributions on Sept. 29 to Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval and his Democratic opponent, Rory Reid. Mike Slanker, who worked for the Sandoval campaign, said Saturday the donation was returned last week after an internal investigation showed the PAC had one contributor "who was not an American citizen."

Edie Cartwright, a spokeswoman for Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, said the office has begun looking into whether or not a foreign corporation can fund a political action committee. While the review is just preliminary, Cartwright said the initial finding was that state laws did not apply.

Cartwright said Masto and Miller discussed the PokerStars matter over the weekend.

Masto and Nevada Controller Kim Wallin were the only two state constitutional officers who did not receive campaign contributions from the PokerStars PAC, according to the report.

Reel PAC donated $3,000 to Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki and $2,000 to Treasurer Kate Marshall on Oct. 7.

PokerStars, which is said to control more than 50 percent of the online poker market, is the primary backer of Assembly Bill 258, which seeks to legalize Internet poker in Nevada.

Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, who introduced Assembly Bill 258, and Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, traveled to England last year to see the online gambling company's facilities. Reel PAC donated $7,500 to Horne and $5,000 to Atkinson.

Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes advised three legislators that it was appropriate for them to take "educational, fact-finding" overseas trips last year at the expense of an Internet poker company

The company hired former Nevada Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, former Nevada gaming regulators Randall Sayre and Scott Scherer, public relations experts and financial experts to help gain support for passage of AB 258.

The nine counts in the 51-page indictment charged the 11 individuals with violating the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Act, which prohibits banks and financial companies from processing Internet gambling transactions. Violations can bring up to 30 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

The U.S. government also filed a civil lawsuit seeking $3 billion in money laundering penalties from the website operators.

Lane Garrison was an up and coming star on the show Prison Break, but in an instant Garrison, who was 26 at the time, was invited to a high school party and drank two beers and two shots… and the results were tragic.

Convicted of vehicular manslaughter, Garrison was sentenced to three years and four months in jail.

Over the course of 20 months, Garrison was sent to eight different prisons.

He told Today's Matt Lauer he "absolutely, 100 percent" believed he deserved to be there.

Back in 2007, Garrison was behind the wheel when his Land Rover jumped a curb and hit a tree, killing passenger 17-year-old boy Vahagn Setian and seriously injuring two 15-year-old girls who were in the back seat. Garrison had met Setian along with two girls that night at a high school party.

Toxicology reports concluded that he was under the influence of cocaine and his blood alcohol level was two and a half times the legal limit.

Before being sentenced, Garrison told the victims' families he was "genuinely remorseful" and "sickened" by his behavior that night.

Garrison was released from prison back in 2009, let off for good behavior. All-in-all, he spent two years behind bars.

Lane went on the Today show today to send the message of "don't drink and drive." He also accepted responsibility in court, telling the judge, "I am guilty."

He says that he's surprised he survived the 77 days he spent in L.A. county jail waiting to be processed, but told Lauer that he had a guardian angel over him.

"I try to go on with my life by teaching other people," Garrison said.

Garrison had previously told TMZ his prison stint was "a painful experience that I would wish on no one."

That is in response to a new crackdown from the Justice Department. The government targeted sites such as Pokerstars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, AbsolutePoker.com, UltimateBet.com and UB.com. ESPN has apparently pulled both programming and paid ads from its website, radio network, etc. Meanwhile, the New York Times says the offshore gambling business has been a potent force in Washington, spending millions on lobbyists such as former U.S. Senator Al D’Amato and House member Barney Frank. Rep. Frank isn’t a poker player, but says the government should be “indicting people for the empty houses we have around” in the mortgage mess, instead of busting people for their online “full houses.” There was an earlier enforcement blitz on Internet gaming sites, under the Bush Administration.

After Brooke Mueller was seen on store surveillance tape trying to hock a stereo and a watch at a pawn shop at an Inglewood, CA, pawn shop, Denise Richards is stepping forward to save Sheen and Mueller's twin sons, Bob and Max. After Mueller was given custody of the toddlers, Charlie has been fighting vehemently to get them back (well, his lawyers have while he's been bombing and not bombing on his tour).

Denise told Charlie it was apparent Brooke couldn't care for the twins and Charlie was on the road doing his show, so she offered to take their kids until the rehab dust settled.

Meanwhile, Charlie's lawyer Mark Gross, has told Mueller's attorneys he's going to attempt to change the custody arrangement by stripping Brooke of both legal and physical custody, on grounds she has relapsed and went back into rehab. Worse than that for Mueller, Sheen's attorney wants to terminate Charlie's obligation to pay Brooke $55,000 a month in child support. How many Yo Gabba Gabba DVDs does she need to buy?

As TMZ reported, Brooke went back to rehab following a week of binging as well as refusing to take a drug test, which was part of her and Charlie's custody agreement.

As for Charlie's response to Denise Richards about taking his kids, he reportedly told her, "I'll keep you posted."

It is unclear where the twins are but sources say they are being cared for by Brooke's mother.

This whole story is stranger than fiction, since Charlie and Denise had one of the nastiest divorces in Hollywood history. For Denise to offer to take care of his twins means the pair have completely done a 360.

Get your Charlie Sheen odds in the Bodog Sportsbook today. If you need an account, Join Bodog today!

She can take care of my twins too😡😡!! My twin.........well you know 😄

MONTREAL - The U.S. crackdown on Internet gambling is moving closer to Kahnawake interests.

Last week, U.S. authorities charged 11 people, including the principals of Internet gambling companies Poker******Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker in a case that seeks at least $3 billion U.S. in forfeitures and penalties.

Absolute Poker is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and its computer servers are located in a Kahnawake business.

In addition to criminal charges, there is a civil complaint in which justice officials are seeking the forfeiture of multiple foreign bank accounts linked to various companies and individuals.

Among the bank accounts is one in the name of Tokwiro Enterprises, a company once owned by former Kahnawake grand chief Joe Norton.

Attempts to reach Norton Wednesday proved unsuccessful and it is not clear if he still has a stake in Absolute Poker or its sister online gambling site, Ultimate Bet.

Norton is not among the defendants named in the indictment.

According to a declaration by an FBI agent in support of a restraining order on the bank accounts, Norton was the “beneficial owner” of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet in 2009, which was when the bank account in question was set up.

A numbered account at the Sparkasse Bank Malta in the name of Tokwiro Enterprises is listed among the court documents.

Murray Marshall, general counsel for Kahnawake Gaming Commission, said the ownership of Absolute has changed from Tokwiro to Blanca Games Inc.

Norton’s name is no longer on the permit, Marshall said.

Norton, who served as grand chief for about 24 years before stepping down in 2004, was instrumental in bringing the Internet gaming industry to his South Shore community.

In 2008, Absolute Poker was involved in an online cheating scandal and the Kahnawake gaming commission assessed a $500,000 fine to the site then owned by Norton through Tokwiro.

The commission is reviewing the indictment issued Friday by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney.

“It’s a situation ... that is evolving quickly, and we are certainly monitoring it carefully,” Marshall said.

“What the repercussions will be for the individual operators, what it might mean for the industry generally and us specifically, it’s too soon to tell.”

Tokwiro’s website is still responsive and describes the Norton-controlled company as owning and managing Absolute Poker and UltimateBet.

On Wednesday, U.S. justice officials said there’s nothing preventing the three Internet gambling companies whose domain names were seized by the FBI from refunding players’ money.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Wednesday that the U.S. entered domain-name use agreements with the other two companies, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, so that players can log on and withdraw money from their existing accounts.

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake said Tuesday that it is working with its gaming commission “to review and analyze” developments related to the U.S. indictment.

Recent developments “may have widespread implications,” the council said in a statement.

“The actions are being taken primarily in the area of banking and payment processing – the actual gaming activities are secondary,” Grand Chief Michael Ahríhron Delisle Jr. said in the statement. “While charges have been announced, no one has been convicted of any wrongdoing.”

The Iowa Senate approved a gambling package Wednesday that looks to study Internet gaming for a year and takes care of two other long-standing legislative issues.

The bill is a far cry from legislation that was bounced around early this session that would have legalized Internet gaming in the state.

Democrat Jeff Danielson of Cedar Falls, the floor manager for the bill, said the final package was the result of hours upon hours of negotiations, which he said he was proud of even though he could count “on my two hands” the number of times he’s been in a casino.

“I earn my money, I like to keep it,” he said. “Casinos are in the taking business, not the giving business, at least in terms of gaming.”

The measure:

n Requires the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to study Internet gambling and produce a report for the legislative session that begins in January 2012. An amendment that was added to the bill requires the Iowa Department of Public Health also study the societal impact of Internet gambling and produce a report for the legislature by Oct. 1, 2011.

n Changes the law that requires citizens to approve by referendum the continuing existence of the casinos every eight years. Under the legislation, there is a single eight-year review, then a referendum would go on the ballot only if 10 percent of the residents of the county sign onto a petition calling for it.

n Strikes a deal between the state’s various horse breeders and the Altoona race track over purses.

Sen. Randy Feenstra,

R-Hull, tried to add an amendment that would have banned smoking in casinos, but it was ruled not germane to the question and failed without a vote.

The most debate came after Sen. Jerry Behn,

R-Boone, moved an amendment that would have kept the referendum procedure in place. Proponents of the measure said changing the rules on citizens was unfair and the 10 percent requirement was too steep a requirement. But opponents said the requirement was too costly for local election officials and it stifled investment from casino companies that were nervous about the possibility of losing their investment every eight years.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said the legislation took care of at least two issues which “have vexed the legislature for a number of years.”

The Senate passed the measure 38-12 and it now moves to the House.

In other business, the Senate passed a mental-health bill that gives the state more control over mental-health treatment. The Senate version, which passed 27-23, on a largely party-line vote, creates eight mental-health regions in the state and the state assumes control over Medicaid-funded services while non-Medicaid expenses are still paid for by counties.

Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, said the legislation is the starting point for several years of mental-health reform that the state must undertake.

Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley of Chariton said Republicans thought the legislation was “too nebulous” for most of the party to support.

“We wanted to see a fiscal note, but they don’t have one,” he said.

Also Wednesday, senators voted 26-24 along political party lines to approve budget bills covering the judicial branch and administrative and regulatory functions that included a 50 percent funding level for fiscal 2013 — an effort by majority Senate Democrats to find middle ground with Gov. Terry Branstad’s demand for a two-year budget.

“We are ready to work with Gov. Branstad and Republican legislators on meaningful budget reforms that will shake up the budget-making process,” Gronstal said. Under this plan, the legislature would take action during the 2012 session to determine the final, appropriate funding level for the FY13 budget, he said.

However, Branstad told reporters he did not find that approach acceptable in resolving the current impasse over his intent to adopt a two-year budget and five-year long-range strategic plan for state government to bring more stability and predictability to the budgeting process.

Bradley Franzen, one of 11 people charged last week with being part of an online gambling conspiracy, pleaded not guilty before a U.S. magistrate in New York.

Franzen, 41, of Illinois and Costa Rica, is accused of lying to banks about the nature of the transactions they were processing, and of creating fake companies and websites to disguise payments to poker companies.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced on April 15 a revised indictment against the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. PokerStars, based on the Isle of Man, Ireland’s Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker of Costa Rica are the leading online poker sites doing business with U.S. customers, according to prosecutors.

“Not guilty, your honor,” Franzen told U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas today in Manhattan after being asked how he pleaded to the charges.

Franzen was charged with nine counts, including conspiracy to violate the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, operating an illegal gambling business and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud as well as being part of a money laundering conspiracy. If convicted of the charge of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, he faces as long as 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Surrendered Today

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Friedlander told Maas that Franzen surrendered to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York this morning. Maas agreed to release Franzen on $200,000 bond secured by his parents’ home and their signatures.

“We’ll be reviewing the indictment and at this time we have no further comment,” his lawyer, Sam Schmidt, said after the hearing.

The indictment names two principals from each company and others who allegedly worked with them to illegally process payments.

Prosecutors allege that after the U.S. enacted a law in 2006 barring banks from processing payments to offshore gambling websites, PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute worked around the ban to continue operating in the U.S.

The poker companies named in the indictment are accused of using fraudulent means to circumvent federal laws and “trick” banks into processing the payments on their behalf. The government is seeking at least $3 billion in forfeitures and penalties.

The case is U.S. v. Scheinberg, 10-CR-336, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Members of the Happy Days cast are claiming they have been cheated out of at least $10 million by the network CBS, sources report. Anson Williams (who played Potsy), Marion Ross (Marion Cunningham), Don Most (Ralph Malph), Erin Moran (Joanie Cunningham) and Patricia Bosley, wife of the late Tom Bosley (Howard Cunningham), filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that CBS cheated them out of more than $10 million in royalties as well as Happy Days merchandise, including money made in sales of DVDs, lunch boxes, board games and casino slot machines. It should be noted that the show's more successful stars Henry Winkler (Fonzie) and Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham), aren’t a part of the suit.

Apparently, the slot machine was the straw that broke the camel's back after the former cast saw their images on slot machines at a casino.

“Despite this ongoing obligation, defendants adopted a ‘don’t ask, don’t pay’ policy,” the suit said according to the Associated Press. “If you don’t ask, then we don’t pay.”

The actors' attorney Jon Pfeiffer, filed a breach of contract suit against CBS in a Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday.

Apparently, CBS knew all along the cast members were owed the money, but didn't bother paying because apparently, the didn't ask. The network stated “We agree that funds are owed to the actors and have been working with them for quite some time to resolve the issue.”

For the record, it is being reported that CBS believes they owe the cast $9,000 each.

The cast of the famous show, which aired for ten years, between 1974 and 1984, were promised a 5% cut from net proceeds if their sole image was used and a 2.5% per cent cut if their image appeared as part of a group shot. However, the actors claim they haven't received a red cent from all the merchandising.

Actress Catherine Zeta Jones may have a lot on her plate at the moment especially with the recent public announcement of being diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, but that certainly wasn’t enough to stop the actress from joining the upcoming screen adaptation of “Rock of Ages” together with Tom Cruise and Russell Brand.

Last week, Jones went public with her illness and confessed to the media that she was dealing with bi-polar disorder, which was apparently sparked by having a tough year dealing with her husband’s battle with cancer. After checking into a treatment facility, Jones is now claims to be “feeling great and looking forward to starting work this week,” revealed her publicist.

Now, that she is back on her feet, Jones has accepted a role in the musical “Rock of Ages” and according to CBS News, she will be cast as a villain which incidentally was a character not included in the original Broadway play.

Rock of Ages tells the story of Sherrie Christian, a small town girl who ventures off to Hollywood to chase her dream of becoming a rock musician during the 80’s and during her quest she falls in love with fellow aspiring rocker Drew but is also led to down a path that nearly destroys her.

Jones, who previously starred in Chicago and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, is no stranger to musicals and she can surely work her way through the hair band rock scene of the 80’s. Hairspray…I see a lot of hairspray in her future.

When the 1st Western photojournalists covering the conflict in Libya were killed yesterday, the world found out about it thru Facebook and Twitter. Now the Facebook page of one of the victims has changed into a defacto memorial for the net community to grieve and honor his passing.

Oscar-nominated photographer and filmmaker, Tim Hetherington, 40, and Pulitzer Prize-nominated Getty Pictures photojournalist Chris Hondros, 41, were fatally injured by a mortar attack in the surrounded Libyan city of Misrata. Two other photographers, Guy Martin and Michael Brown were seriously injured in the same shelling. Martin remains in a vital condition and Brown's wounds are reported not to be life-threatening.

Over the passage of the day, Tim Hetherington's Facebook page became a spur of the moment commemorative, with masses of condolences to his family and tributes to his work and memory. Friend and commenter Lorena Turner's message summarizes the thoughts of the photography community : "Let's celebrate his contribution to our knowledge of war and the complex interactions within it. Tim's loss will be felt by everyone with an eye and mind that is engaged in the world."

The 1st mention of Hetherington and Hondros's deaths became known around 9:30am PST through Facebook updates by fellow photographer Andre Liohn, who was with Hetherington in a Misrata infirmary. "Sad stories Tim Hetherington died in Misrata now when covering the front line. Chris Hondros is in a significant status," wrote Liohn.

Within minutes, in search of additional info, chums and co-workers had shared and tweeted Liohn's words. All hoped that the stories were inaccurate, a wayward rumour, a mistake or possibly a sick joke any fact other than Hetherington's passing. At the same time, contrary statements about whether Hondros was alive or not circulated.

Tweeting slowed. Short on confirmed info, suitors and good friends alike, withdrew their fingertips from keyboards and asked if Hetherington's family had been informed. If he wasn't dead, this appears to have been an injurious rumour to avoid. If he had been finished then they as Twitter and Facebook users were messengers of Hetherington's death notice. Social networking demonstrated both its strength to disseminate information and its restrictions in authenticating fact.

The United States violated global trade law by shutting down Internet gambling sites based in Antigua and elsewhere and prosecuting their owners, according to Antigua and Barbuda officials considering action in the World Trade Organization.

Antigua and Barbuda, which licenses Internet gambling companies, has waged a long battle in the WTO over U.S. efforts to keep Americans from patronizing offshore betting sites. Last week's shutdown of the three biggest online poker sites has the Caribbean nation ready to go another round.

It contends U.S. crackdowns against foreign betting sites are illegal and protectionist, since gambling for money is permitted in U.S. casinos and since online betting is allowed for state-regulated horse racing in the United States.

"I don't think there's another country in the world that puts people in jail for engaging in trade that's lawful under international law," Mark Mendel, the Caribbean government's legal advisor, told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. "It's as if Antigua would put Americans in jail for selling pineapples."

U.S. prosecutors in New York seized the domain names of three online poker sites last week, shutting them down and charging their owners with $3 billion of fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors charged that the three foreign-registered companies tricked regulators and banks into processing illegal online gaming proceeds from U.S. customers.

U.S. prosecutors allowed two of the companies -- PokerStars, which is incorporated in the Isle of Man, and Full Tilt Poker, which is incorporated in Ireland -- to reopen their websites on Wednesday so players could withdraw funds from their accounts and so people outside the United States could resume playing.

Prosecutors said the third company, Antigua-based Absolute Poker, could do likewise if it agreed, as the others did, to prohibit U.S. customers from playing for anything of value and to appoint an independent monitor to enforce that agreement.

Antigua's finance minister, Harold Lovell, issued a statement on Wednesday calling the shutdown an illegal attempt to squelch competition.

"I am concerned that at this point in time United States authorities continue to prosecute non-domestic suppliers of remote gaming services in clear contravention of international law," Lovell said.

JOBS, REVENUE FOR ANTIGUA

Online gambling is the tiny island nation's second-largest employer after tourism, according to the Journal of International Commerce and Economics. Antigua says its betting operators have every right to offer their services to American consumers, and the WTO has agreed.

It ruled in 2005 that the United States violated international agreements on trade in services by prosecuting the operators of offshore Internet gambling sites. The WTO rejected the U.S. argument that the restrictions were necessary to protect public morality.

Antigua claimed it was losing $3.4 billion a year because of the U.S. ban, but the WTO put the figure at $21 million. In 2007, it said Antigua could retaliate by suspending that amount annually in intellectual property rights held by U.S. firms.

Government officials from the Caribbean nation are meeting this week to discuss whether to go back to the WTO to seek more sanctions against the United States because of the poker shutdown.

The U.S. prosecutors said they shut down the sites because the owners laundered money and conducted fraudulent transactions. Mendel, Antigua's lawyer, said the United States illegally blocked them from using regular credit cards and banking services.

"They're not defrauding anybody. They're not stealing money from anybody. They're just trying to run their businesses," Mendel said.

An ex-collegue, Patricia Caruso, is going after cutthroat pit bull, Nancy Grace, who hosts the HLN TV show Swift Justice, where she tends to berate people.

Reportedly, Caruso alleges that she met Grace in 2002 when they worked together on Court TV, and in 2008, they started developing and marketing a series, tentatively called Grace's Cases, which then became Swift Justice under the agreement that Caruso would be executive producer. Apparently Caruso worked hard on the show and then at the eleventh hour, was ousted.

In the lawsuit, Caruso claims that for two years she “worked tirelessly and successfully to develop, market and sell a syndicated television series featuring Grace – all in support of her future role as executive producer of the series.”

When the show got picked up by CBS in 2009, Caruso even claims that she and Grace went out for a celebratory dinner with their husbands. However, things quickly went downhill when Caruso realized she was left out of dealings and would not be asked to come on board as executive producer, even though Grace promised she wouldn't proceed without her.

Hey, if you've ever watched Nancy Grace berate people on TV before, Caruso would know that she's not dealing with a pussy cat. For Caruso's part, she's asking to be compensated with $15 million.

Nancy's rep told Fox 411, "Ms. Grace will respond in full, in court — not the media — and has great faith that the truth will come out."