Free Republic

BOSTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Two former eBay Inc (EBAY.O) security executives were sentenced to prison on Thursday for carrying out a campaign to harass and intimidate a Massachusetts couple through threats and disturbing home deliveries after their online newsletter drew the ire of the company's then-CEO. Jim Baugh and David Harville were sentenced to 57 and 24 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in an extensive harassment campaign that involved sending the couple cockroaches, a funeral wreath and a bloody Halloween pig mask. U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, who imposed the sentences during hearings in Boston, called it...

Bed Bath & Beyond exec Gustavo Arnal didn’t say a word to his wife before apparently leaping to his death from their swank, 18th-floor apartment in Lower Manhattan, The Post has learned. Arnal, 52, also didn’t leave a note explaining the plunge, which occurred while his wife was in the home with him around 12:20 a.m. Friday, law-enforcement sources said Sunday.

Detroit - A small battery company backed by General Motors is working on breakthrough technology that could power an electric car 100 or even 200 miles on a single charge in the next two-to-four years, GM's CEO said Thursday. Speaking at an employee meeting, CEO Dan Akerson said the company, Newark, Calif.-based Envia Systems, has made a huge breakthrough in the amount of energy a lithium-ion battery can hold. GM is sure that the battery will be able to take a car 100 miles within a couple of years, he said. It could be double that with some luck, he

Megyn Kelly has a heated interview with Ibrahim Hooper (CAIR) regarding the firing of Juan Williams from NPR.

WASHINGTON – A Goldman Sachs executive has been named the first chief operating officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division. The market watchdog says Adam Storch, vice president in Goldman Sachs' Business Intelligence Group, is assuming the new position of managing executive of the SEC division.

A former Microsoft executive blasted off into space Thursday morning with the Expedition 19 crew aboard a Russian spacecraft headed for the International Space Station. Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian native, headed up Microsoft's application software group and oversaw the creation of the ubiquitous Office applications before leaving in 2002. Simonyi joined Microsoft in Feb. 1981, and during 21 years there, he headed up early development of both Word and Excel, and worked as an architect and distinguished engineer in the Microsoft Research organization.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The U.N. humanitarian chief accused Hezbollah on Monday of "cowardly blending" in among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel. The militant group has built bunkers and tunnels near the Israeli border to shelter weapons and fighters, and its members easily blend in among civilians. Jan Egeland spoke to reporters at Larnaca airport in Cyprus late Monday after visiting Lebanon to coordinate an international aid effort. On Sunday, he toured the rubble of Beirut's southern suburbs, a once-teeming Shiite district where Hezbollah had its headquarters. During that visit,...

UNITED NATIONS - The executive who wrote an e-mail memo suggesting that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have known about a U.N. contract awarded to the company that employed his son denies that he, personally, ever discussed the firm's bid with the U.N. chief, his lawyers said Wednesday. The memo written by Michael Wilson describes a brief encounter in which officials from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection S.A. discussed the company's bid for the contract with the secretary-general "and his entourage" during a summit of French-speaking nations in Paris in late 1998. The London law firm Schillings issued a brief...

In the first charges growing out of City Hall corruption investigations, a former top executive with the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on 11 felony counts of fraud. The indictment of John Stodder, 49, a senior vice president who left the firm last week, centers on charges that he participated in a scheme over a two-year period to defraud the Department of Water and Power out of $250,000. He also is accused of overbilling the Port of Los Angeles, architect Frank Gehry's firm and the World Wide Church of God. Stodder, who faces...

CHICAGO (AFP) - The Tribune Company announced a shake-up in the leadership ranks of its Newsday and Hoy newspapers in the wake of a circulation scandal. The media titan, the second-largest US media group, said it is replacing the publishers of its Long Island paper Newsday and its Spanish-language counterpart as it moves to restore credibility in the titles. Newsday COO Timothy Knight will take over as chief executive officer (CEO) and publisher of the newspaper effective August 15. He suceeds Raymond Jansen, who has served as Newsday publisher since 1994, and who moved up his retirement date in light...

Blood Money Former Exec: American Company Paid Terrorist Group to Protect Overseas Interests By Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz April 16 — Before his company sent him overseas, Allan Laird, a former Denver-based mining executive, had never heard of Abu Sayyaf. As Laird quickly learned when he arrived in the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf is one of the world's most-feared terrorist organizations, closely connected to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Laird said he also soon discovered the company for whom he formerly worked, Echo Bay, was regularly paying Abu Sayyaf and other terror groups in the Philippines in exchange for...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Despite chronic budget troubles, University of California officials have approved a $27,300 pay raise for a UC San Francisco executive.</p> <p>The 12.9 percent hike for Bruce Spaulding, vice chancellor at UCSF, was approved by UC President Robert Dynes and Board of Regents' chairman John Moores.</p>

Penthouse Publisher Guccione Says Men Are Basically the Same, Only Sex Lives Vary Depending on Country All men are basically the same, according to Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione only their sex lives vary depending on the country they're from. "The British are reserved, the French are arrogant, the Italians are lovers, and the Germans like to spank each other," Guccione tells Details magazine for its September issue. "Sex will always be the dominant factor in any man's life whether he realizes it or not. It's what motivates him to buy the car he drives, the house he lives in,...

In another blow to the state Republican Party's bid to win the governor's office, Western Wireless chief executive John Stanton has decided he will not run for governor in 2004. Stanton became the third big name to turn the party down after King County Sheriff Dave Reichert dropped out and U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt of Spokane, who had been thinking about a run for governor, promised instead to announce this month whether he'll challenge U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. "While I am very flattered to be considered, for professional and personal commitments I will not be able to pursue anything in...