Week of January 1, 2009

Conflict continues - Israel bombed a mosque it says was used to store weapons

and destroyed the homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives on Friday, the

seventh day of a blistering offensive in Gaza and the day after an airstrike killed a

prominent Hamas figure.

In Aspen, a fireworks show was postponed and many bars and restaurants were

forced to close on New Year's Eve after gasoline bombs were discovered at two

banks shortly after 2 p.m., police said Thursday. Two more bombs, made with

fuel and cellphone parts, were discovered in an alley, police said. "We believe

the suspect abandoned his plan halfway through," Assistant Aspen Police Chief

Bill Linn said. The man suspected of constructing the bombs, James Blanning,

72, apparently shot and killed himself in a rural area outside of town, police said.

He had "a history of using dynamite, and is known to law enforcement," police

said.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday announced that he was

withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama's commerce

secretary amid a grand jury investigation into how some of his political donors

won a lucrative state contract.

plunged into rare pre-inaugural crisis

talks with congressional leaders,

declaring the national economy was

"bad and getting worse" and embracing

tax cuts now expected to reach $300

billion. He predicted lawmakers would

approve a mammoth revitalization

package within two weeks of his taking

office. If the two-year plan is enacted,

workers would see larger paychecks

almost immediately because taxes

withheld by the government would drop.

The break would be retroactive to Jan.

1, and couples receiving a $1,000 tax

cut would begin receiving an extra $40

in twice-monthly paychecks as the government tries to spark more

consumer spending

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered Gazprom to stop all shipments of

natural gas to Europe through Ukraine. Russian gas is already not getting

Week of January 1, 2009

through the pipelines that cross Ukraine. Gazprom has blamed Ukraine, saying

Russia has delivered the gas but Ukraine has shut down the pipelines and is

President-elect Barack Obama hailed a rare Oval Office gathering of all U.S.

presidents as an extraordinary event on Wednesday as the current occupant,

President George Bush reminded his predecessors and successor that the office

"transcends the individual." "I just want to thank the president for hosting us," the

president-elect said, flanked by former President George H.W Bush - on one side

and his son on the other. Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter both smiling

broadly, stood with them. "All the gentlemen here understand both the pressures

and possibilities of this office," Obama said. "For me to have the opportunity to

get advice, good counsel and fellowship with these individuals is extraordinary."

and picking up a reporter's notebook. The Ohio

man who became a household name during the

presidential campaign says he is heading to Israel

as a war correspondent for the conservative Web

site pjtv.com. Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (WUR'-zuhl-

bah-kur) says he'll spend 10 days covering the

fighting. He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he

wants to let Israel's "'Average Joes' share their

story." Wurzelbacher gained attention during the

final weeks of the campaign when he asked Barack

Obama about his tax plan.

converter boxes ran out of money on Sunday. Anybody requesting a $40 coupon

to offset the cost of buying a converter box for digital TV will now be placed on a

waiting list, says Meredith Baker, acting head of the Commerce Department's

National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Those who still

use antennas to receive their TV signals, will need the boxes as regular analog

TV shuts down later next month. How long will people have to wait? "I don't

know," Baker told reporters. Already, 103,000 people are on the list. Baker

attributed the cash shortfall, in part, to a late surge in coupon requests.

Starting this week, Best Buy will offer refurbished Apple 3G iPhones in 350

stores. Refurbished phones will be available at all Best Buy stores by the end of

January, the retailer says. Refurbished iPhones will cost $149 and $249,

depending on the memory. (Original prices: $199 and $299, respectively.) You’ll

still have to sign a two-year service contract with AT&T, the exclusive iPhone

carrier in the USA.

Week of January 1, 2009

Sony’s Playstation 2 leads the list

for most popular game consoles in

2008:

Passing - Donald Westlake,

considered one of the most

successful and versatile mystery writers in the United States. He was 75

Sports -

Rose Bowl - Oregon State 27, USC 21.

Capital One Bowl - Georgia 24, Michigan 12

Orange Bowl - Virginia Tech 20, Cincinnati 7

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt has sued two of his nephews for selling

their own line of adult movies under the same family name. Flynt accuses the

nephews of producing pornographic films that are "inferior products" and

"knockoff goods." He said he filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court to

protect his family name in the industry.

album sales — the music industry's main source of revenue — dropped for a

fourth year. According to the Nielsen Co.'s year-end figures, music purchases —

CD, vinyl, cassette and digital purchases of entire albums (grouped together as

total albums), plus digital track downloads, singles and music videos — attained

a new high of 1.5 billion, up 10.5% over 2007. More than 70% of those

transactions were digital track downloads, a record total of 1.07 billion that

swamped 2007's previous high of 844.2 million by 27%. Last week's track

downloads set a record of 47.7 million, and 71 songs exceeded 1 million

downloads this year, compared with 41 last year (and just two in 2005). Track

downloads outsold albums by a ratio of 2.5 to 1.

Week of January 1, 2009

million.

Garth Brooks lost ground to The Beatles but is still by far the best-selling artist of

the SoundScan era (post-1991, when Nielsen began tracking album sales

electronically), leading the Fab Four by a tally of 68.1 million to 57.1 million.

Although vinyl albums gave way to CDs years before SoundScan launched, it's

worth noting that vinyl sales hit a 17-year high in 2008 with 1.88 million, up

top vinyl seller with 25,800 copies.

was the year's top-selling digital

song with 3.42 million

also topped 3 million, by

160,000. Rest of the top five:

the No. 1 album, selling 2.87

la Vida or Death and All His

albums to sell 2 million in 2008, compared with eight in 2007.

President-elect Barack Obama has kicked pal Oprah Winfrey from the top spot

on this year's list of the most influential celebrity do-gooders of 2008. A poll by

DoSomething.org ranks how celebrities inspire and motivate young people 25

and under to want to make a positive change in their community, country and/or

world. Also on the list, in order: Oprah, Angelina Jolie, Ellen DeGeneres, Brad

Pitt, Al Gore, Lance Armstrong, Michelle Obama, Bono and Michael J. Fox.

preserves access for the cable system operator's 15.7 million subscribers to the

Nickelodeon network, MTV and 17 other channels. The two sides, citing

Week of January 1, 2009

disagreement over fee hikes, had threatened a damaging blackout at a minute

Cable customers. The programmer Viacom and Time Warner Cable agreed on

compensation that preserved access for the cable system operator's 15.7 million

subscribers to Dora's Nickelodeon network, MTV and 17 other channels.

annual New Year's Eve tribute on PBS to

notable figures who died during the year, he

included his friend, George Butler, whose

1977 film "Pumping Iron" featured a then-

unknown bodybuilder named Arnold

Schwarzenegger. The screen even flashed

a Butler tombstone, 1943-2008. The PBS

show had confused him with another

George Butler, a longtime jazz record

executive who signed Wynton Marsalis,

who died April 9. What's odd about the

mistake is that Rose and Butler are old

friends through Rose's first wife, meeting

shortly after they graduated from college in

North Carolina.

An autopsy is planned for John Travolta's teenage son, who died after apparently

hitting his head on the bathtub while the family was vacationing at their home in

the Bahamas, authorities said. Jett Travolta, 16, had last been seen entering the

bathroom on Thursday and had a history of seizures, Police Superintendent Basil

Rahming said in a statement. A house caretaker found the teenager unconscious

in a bathroom late Friday morning. He was taken by ambulance to a Freeport

hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the statement said.