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Tuesday, October 2, 2007

The jury in the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment trial revealed a guilty verdict Tuesday, ruling that the current New York Knicks coach subjected former Madison Square Garden executive Anucha Browne Sanders to unwanted sexual advances and verbal insults.

In a minor victory for Thomas, the ruling also said that Thomas will not have to pay punitive damages. However, Thomas’ employer, Madison Square Garden, was also found guilty of harassment and will have to pay millions dollars worth of punitive damages to Browne Sanders.

The ugly three-week trial originated with a US$10 million lawsuit filed by Browne Sanders, the former senior vice president of marketing and business operations for the Knicks. She was fired by the team in December of 2006, and following her dismissal she filed the explosive lawsuit alleging that Madison Square Garden fostered an environment of sexism and inequality, personified by the conduct of Isiah Thomas. She stated that Thomas repeatedly called her a “bitch” and a “ho”, and pressured her to kiss him and said that he loved her. She also stated that the firing was the result of her filing a complaint about Thomas. Madison Square Garden, and the coach known for his charismatic and emotional demeanor, denied the charges.

After the guilty verdict was read, a relieved Browne Sanders hugged her family and friends who were present at the trial. Thomas met with his lawyers, and while leaving the courthouse stated, ““I’m innocent, very innocent, and I did not do the things she has accused me in this courtroom of doing. I’m extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case. I will appeal this, and I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have.”

Madison Square Garden is also expected to appeal the decision.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Gay Talese wants to go to Iraq. “It so happens there is someone that’s working on such a thing right now for me,” the 75-year-old legendary journalist and author told David Shankbone. “Even if I was on Al-Jazeera with a gun to my head, I wouldn’t be pleading with those bastards! I’d say, ‘Go ahead. Make my day.'”

Few reporters will ever reach the stature of Talese. His 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, was not only cited by The Economist as the greatest profile of Sinatra ever written, but is considered the greatest of any celebrity profile ever written. In the 70th anniversary issue of Esquire in October 2003, the editors declared the piece the “Best Story Esquire Ever Published.”

Talese helped create and define a new style of literary reporting called New Journalism. Talese himself told National Public Radio he rejects this label (“The term new journalism became very fashionable on college campuses in the 1970s and some of its practitioners tended to be a little loose with the facts. And that’s where I wanted to part company.”)

He is not bothered by the Bancrofts selling The Wall Street Journal—”It’s not like we should lament the passing of some noble dynasty!”—to Rupert Murdoch, but he is bothered by how the press supported and sold the Iraq War to the American people. “The press in Washington got us into this war as much as the people that are controlling it,” said Talese. “They took information that was second-hand information, and they went along with it.” He wants to see the Washington press corp disbanded and sent around the country to get back in touch with the people it covers; that the press should not be so focused on–and in bed with–the federal government.

Augusten Burroughs once said that writers are experience junkies, and Talese fits the bill. Talese–who has been married to Nan Talese (she edited James Frey‘s Million Little Piece) for fifty years–can be found at baseball games in Cuba or the gay bars of Beijing, wanting to see humanity in all its experience.

Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s interview with Gay Talese.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Despite lots of publicity and media attention causing a last minute rush to buy tickets, there was no winner of the £85m jackpot in this week’s ‘Euromillions‘ lottery. This is the tenth week that no-one has won the top prize, which has ‘rolled-over’ to create bigger and bigger jackpots each week. Next week’s jackpot now looks set to be worth around £100m, the biggest in European lottery history.

To win the jackpot, Players must match five main numbers from 1 to 50, plus two ‘Lucky Star’ numbers from one to nine. This week’s winning numbers were 12, 15, 33, 44 and 50, with the Lucky Stars being 2 and 6.

The pan-Europe lotter is open to players in Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 76,275,360.

If the estimated £100 million jackpot were to be shared equally amongst the populations of the countries participating, each person would receive 50p.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Police in the West Midlands in England today said nearly 200 kilograms worth of drugs with value possibly as great as £30 million (about US$49 million or €36 million) has been seized from a unit in the town of Brownhills. In what an officer described as “one of the largest [seizures] in the force’s 39 year history”, West Midlands Police reported recovering six big cellophane-wrapped cardboard boxes containing cannabis, cocaine, and MDMA (“ecstasy”) in a police raid operation on the Maybrook Industrial Estate in the town on Wednesday.

The seized boxes, which had been loaded onto five freight pallets, contained 120 one-kilogram bags of cannabis, 50 one-kilogram bags of MDMA, and five one-kilogram bricks of cocaine. In a press release, West Midlands Police described what happened after officers found the drugs as they were being unloaded in the operation. “When officers opened the boxes they discovered a deep layer of protective foam chips beneath which the drugs were carefully layered”, the force said. “All the drugs were wrapped in thick plastic bags taped closed with the cannabis vacuum packed to prevent its distinctive pungent aroma from drawing unwanted attention.” Police moved the drugs via forklift truck to a flatbed lorry to remove them.

Detective Sergeant Carl Russell of West Midlands Police’s Force CID said the seizure was the largest he had ever made in the 24 years he has been in West Midlands Police and one of the biggest seizures the force has made since its formation in 1974. “The impact this seizure will have on drug dealing in the region and the UK as a whole cannot be underestimated”, he said. “The drugs had almost certainly been packed to order ready for shipping within Britain but possibly even further afield. Our operation will have a national effect and we are working closely with a range of law enforcement agencies to identify those involved in this crime at whatever level.”

Expert testing on the drugs is ongoing. Estimates described as “conservative” suggest the value of the drugs amounts to £10 million (about US$16.4 million or €12 million), although they could be worth as much as £30 million, subject to purity tests, police said.

Police arrested three men at the unit on suspicion of supplying a controlled drug. The men, a 50-year-old from Brownhills, a 51-year-old from the Norton area of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, and one aged 53 from Brownhills, have been released on bail as police investigations to “hunt those responsible” continue. West Midlands Police told Wikinews no person has yet been charged in connection with the seizure. Supplying a controlled drug is an imprisonable offence in England, although length of jail sentences vary according to the class and quantity of drugs and the significance of offenders’ roles in committing the crime.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Cecile Willert is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Ajax—Pickering riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed her regarding her values, her experience, and her campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

This morning, United States-based toy retail giant Toys “R” Us filed for liquidation with United States bankruptcy court. The company had about 735 stores in the country which may be closed as a result of the liquidation.

The motion came after the US holidays, after which the company said its revenue fell short of expectations. Toys “R” Us was seeking cooperation with its Canadian business to leave 200 stores open, the court papers said. The company said it would be unable to realize an earlier goal to leave as many as 400 stores open.

The papers filed in the court indicated that the United States holiday sales produced revenue US$250 million short of the expectations. In the report to the court, Toys “R” Us blamed in part its weakened e-commerce business. It wrote, “The stark reality is that the debtors are projected to run out of cash in the U.S. in May 2018.”

Toys “R” Us chief executive officer Dave Brandon said, “This is a profoundly sad day for us as well as the millions of kids and families who we have served for the past 70 years.”

Toys “R” Us said it was preparing to sell its businesses in Asia and Central Europe, including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

In September 2017, Toys “R” Us filed for bankruptcy in the US and Canada, and a judge allowed a US$2 billion loan.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital Partners, and Vornado Realty Trust purchased Toys “R” Us for US$6.6 billion in 2005. According to CNBC, the company had US$4.9 billion in debt at that time, which made it difficult for the company to adapt to the changing market.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Chinese officials have said that their country’s exports surged last December to edge out Germany as the world’s biggest exporter.

The official Xinhua news agency reported today that figures from the General Administration for Customs showed that exports jumped 17.7% in December from a year earlier. Over the whole of 2009 total Chinese exports reached US$1.2 trillion, above Germany’s forecast $1.17 trillion.

Huang Guohua, a statistics official with the customs administration, said the December exports rebound was an important turning point for China’s export sector. He commented that the jump was an indication that exporters have emerged from their downslide.

“We can say that China’s export enterprises have completely emerged from their all-time low in exports,” he said.

However, although China overtook Germany in exports, China’s total foreign trade — both exports and imports — fell 13.9% last year.