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Shared Pain?

In what may be the largest early release of inmates in United States history, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration is proposing to open the prison gates next year to some 22,000 low-risk offenders.
According to details of a budget proposal made available to The Bee, the administration will ask the Legislature to authorize the release of certain non-serious, non-violent, non-sex offenders who have less than 20 months to go on their terms.

The proposal would cut the prison population by 22,159 inmates and save the cash-strapped state $256 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1 and more than $780 million through June 30, 2010. Besides reducing the inmate population, the proposal also calls for a reduction in more than 4,000 prison jobs, most of which would involve correctional officers.

Good luck, to the correctional officers I mean.

Read the story at this week’s 5:

Schwarzenegger proposes to release 22,000 prisoners

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Lights Out

The incandescent light bulb, one of the most venerable inventions of its era but deemed too inefficient for our own, will be phased off the U.S. market beginning in 2012 under the new energy law just approved by Congress. Although this will reduce electricity costs and minimize new bulb purchases in every household in America, you may be feeling in the dark about the loss of your old, relatively reliable source of light. Here’s a primer on the light bulb phase-out and what will mean to you:

Get the skinny at this week’s 4:

The End Of The Light Bulb

Send comments on this week’s 4 to: [email protected]


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Our Fate?

Mars could be in for an asteroid hit. A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday.

The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to an object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and wiping out 60 million trees.

See the story at this week’s 3:

Asteroid May Hit Mars In Next Month

Send comments on this week’s 3 to:  [email protected]


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Putin’s Secret Billion Dollar Fortune

The claims over the president’s assets surfaced last month when the Russian political expert Stanislav Belkovsky gave an interview to the German newspaper Die Welt. They have since been repeated in the Washington Post and the Moscow Times, with speculation over the fortune appearing on the internet.

Citing sources inside the president’s administration, Belkovsky claims that after eight years in power Putin has secretly accumulated more than $40bn (£20bn). The sum would make him Russia’s – and Europe’s – richest man.

Hmmm.

Read the story at this week’s 2:

Putin, The Kremlin Power Struggle And The $40bn Fortune

Send comments on this week’s 2 to:  [email protected]


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A Lesson In Business From The Spears Family

Britney Spears’ 16 year old sister, a Nickelodeon actress named Jamie-Lynn, is pregnant. Here’s why you should care: the sisters, and their mother (who was slated for a book deal) are a textbook case of How To Ruin Your Personal Brand, and watching their deconstruction has become a fascinating look at a case study in mismanagement.

Read the lesson at this week’s 1:

Britney’s Sister Gets Pregnant

Send comments on this week’s 1 to: [email protected]

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Slainte!