“'Do you trust me?' can be deadly question for Marines - Lansing State Journal” plus 4 more

'Do you trust me?' can be deadly question for Marines - Lansing State Journal
'M*A*S*H' TV writer Gelbart dead at age 81 - United Press International
Israeli film 'Lebanon' wins top prize at Venice Film Festival - Haaretz.com
Tom Ford movie "A Single Man" at Venice film fest - Denver Post
Law used to indict Blagojevich challenged as vague - The Guardian

'Do you trust me?' can be deadly question for Marines - Lansing State Journal

Posted: 13 Sep 2009 12:58 AM PDT

RALEIGH, N.C. - Lance Cpl. Patrick Malone was relaxing on his bunk at an Iraqi combat base when a direct superior interrupted his late-night movie.

It was time for a game Marines sometimes play to build confidence in colleagues: Point a gun at a comrade and ask, "Do you trust me?"

Cpl. Mathew Nelson raised his weapon - and the 9 mm pistol went off, striking Malone in the head. The higher-ranking Marine rushed to the wounded man's side and tried to perform CPR, but Malone was mortally wounded.

The game, which has cropped up in barracks across Iraq and Afghanistan, is supposed to make a serviceman feel comfortable enough with a comrade that he would stare into the other Marine's gun barrel. But it violates the military's basic weapon-safety rules.

Deadly end in 2007

"I can't believe the Marines, these professional soldiers, are playing these games," said Damian Malone, father of the slain 21-year-old.

The younger Malone "was willing to put his life on the line every day, and when he came back to his unit he wasn't supposed to have to worry about his safety."

On Thursday, Nelson pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and seven counts of reckless endangerment for the shooting at Combat Outpost Viking in Anbar province just before midnight on March 9.

Nelson, 25, of Dearborn Heights, was sentenced Thursday to eight years in Camp Lejeune's brig, demoted to the lowest rank in the Marines and given a bad-conduct discharge.

"From the beginning, my client has been eaten up with remorse," said Vaughan Taylor, a civilian lawyer who represented Nelson.

Taylor said the two Marines had finished the trust game, and Nelson turned away. His subordinate, from Ocala, Fla., called out to tell him he was going to attend to the unit's vehicles outside.

The corporal turned back, pulling the trigger on the weapon he didn't know was loaded, Taylor said.

The game typically begins when one service member partially inserts a bullet magazine into the handle of a pistol and pretends to pull back the gun's slide to make it appear that the weapon is ready to fire. He then points the weapon at a fellow service member before either pulling the trigger or lowering the gun. Typically, even if he pulls the trigger the weapon will not discharge because a bullet is not in the chamber.

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'M*A*S*H' TV writer Gelbart dead at age 81 - United Press International

Posted: 12 Sep 2009 11:51 AM PDT

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Writer Larry Gelbart, whose works included episodes of the TV series "M*A*S*H," has died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at the age of 81, his wife Pat says.

The New York Times reported Saturday that in addition to his work on the long-running Korean War comedy series, Gelbart wrote for Broadway musicals and films such as "Tootsie."

Gelbart said in 1983 the four years he was connected to "M*A*S*H" was particularly special given the show's focus on comedy amid the grim world of warfare.

"I am convinced," Gelbart wrote in the Times, "that we achieved a creative freedom unheard of in the medium before or since."

Among Gelbart's Broadway works were "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "Shy Fox." His film efforts include "Oh God!" and 1962's "The Notorious Landlady."

The Times said Gelbart, who died of cancer Friday, also is survived by two children, two stepchildren, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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Israeli film 'Lebanon' wins top prize at Venice Film Festival - Haaretz.com

Posted: 13 Sep 2009 12:51 AM PDT

"I dedicate this work to people all over the world that come back from the war safe and sound," the director told the audience at the award ceremony. "They work, get married, have children, but the memories get stuck in their souls."

Maoz was a young man when he served as a combat soldier in the Israel Defense Forces during the invasion.

The operation led to a two-decade long occupation by Israel.

"Variety" has described the film as the boldest and best of the recent mini-wave of Israeli movies; the New York Times called it "an astonishing piece of cinema."

The awards jury was headed by Ang Lee, himself a Golden Lion-winning director.

Iranian-born Shirin Neshat won the Silver Lion for best director for "Women Without Men," set against the backdrop of Iran's foreign-backed coup in 1953.

Best actor went to Britain's Colin Firth in designer Tom Ford's directorial debut "A Single Man," and best actress went to Russian Ksenia Rappoport for "La Doppia Ora."

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Tom Ford movie "A Single Man" at Venice film fest - Denver Post

Posted: 11 Sep 2009 09:50 AM PDT

VENICE, Italy—Tom Ford switched from the catwalk to the red carpet on Friday, presenting his directorial debut—an intimate movie about coping with loss and grief—at the Venice Film Festival.

"A Single Man" stars Colin Firth as a college professor coming to grips with solitude after his partner of 16 years dies. Also starring are Matthew Goode, playing the professor's partner, and Julianne Moore as a longtime friend who harbors an unfulfilled love for Firth's character.

The movie was the last of 25 films to screen in competition for the Golden Lion, Venice's top prize. The winners are announced Saturday.

"A Single Man" is based on the book by the same name by Christopher Isherwood. Ford, a former Gucci

and Yves Saint Laurent designer, said the film is "the most personal thing" he has ever done.

He said the film is not "about being gay" but rather touches on universal themes.

"It's really a film about love and isolation that I think all of us feel, so it is very universal," Ford said at a news conference. "When I see someone who sees the film and says, ' It's a gay story,' I don't even know what they are thinking, it just seems to me a human story."

Ford himself is gay.

"When I was coming to terms with being gay, it's never anything that was particularly traumatic for me," he said. "I have been in a relationship with the same person for 23 years."

The story begins with George (Firth) discovering his partner Jim (Goode) lying dead from an automobile accident. George wakes from what is only a nightmare—only to face the truth that his partner is really gone.

He starts to plan his own suicide, carefully organizing his belongings and visiting his friend Charley (Moore).

"(George) thinks it is the last day of his life, so for the first time in a long time he is seeing, and he is pulled by the beauty of life," Ford said. He "has a kind of epiphany where he understands what life was

about."

The movie is set in 1962 Los Angeles during the height of the Cuban Missile crisis and the looming nuclear threat. In an apparent nod to his past career, Ford recreates the era with meticulous attention to details and style.

Fashion "is a very fleeting and commercial art," he said. "This is pure expression."

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Law used to indict Blagojevich challenged as vague - The Guardian

Posted: 12 Sep 2009 09:59 PM PDT

MIKE ROBINSON

AP Legal Affairs Writer= CHICAGO (AP) â€" Among the corruption charges faced by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is a statute of just 28 words with enough pop to send big names to prison for corruption, but it's under attack by those who consider it vague and unfair.

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, ex-newspaper mogul Conrad Black and one-time Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling have all been convicted of what's known as honest-services fraud. The law makes it illegal for officials, executives and others to scheme to deprive those they serve and possibly others of "the intangible right to honest services."

"It causes fear. It causes confusion," said Chicago attorney and former federal prosecutor Zachary T. Fardon. "And that's the heart of the problem."

There are two separate cases challenging the law pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Antonin Scalia recently described the 21-year-old measure as so poorly defined it could be used to prosecute "a mayor for using the prestige of his office to get a table at a restaurant without a reservation."

Congress adopted the statute in 1988 after the Supreme Court held that prosecutors could not merely assume wire fraud and mail fraud statutes â€" the workhorse laws in corruption prosecutions â€" covered lost honest services. The mail and wire fraud laws require a defendant to obtain money or property from the wrongdoing; merely depriving a victim of honest services wasn't enough to win a guilty verdict.

In the years since, prosecutors have used the honest services law to bolster the more conventional charges of mail and wire fraud. But experts say aggressive federal prosecutors, such as Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney in northern Illinois, appear to be using it both more often and as a lead charge in an indictment.

In Blagojevich's case, honest-services fraud holds a prominent place in a 19-count indictment that accuses the impeached governor of depriving Illinois residents of his honest services through a wide-ranging scheme involving kickbacks, campaign money and a host of other misdeeds.

"The statute is very vague, and because it is vague, it is a pet statute of prosecutors," said Chicago attorney and former federal prosecutor Julian Solotorovsky. "They're stretching it to the fullest extent possible."

Among those challenging the law is former Alaska state Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, who prosecutors say illegally failed to disclose that he was in job negotiations with an oil-field operations company at the same time the state legislature was also considering an oil bill. The case hasn't gone to trial as the high court considers whether the charges should be dropped because Weyhrauch wasn't required by Alaska state law to disclose those job talks.

Black and two of his three co-defendants were convicted of depriving the Hollinger International media empire of their faithful services as corporate officers. The offense includes pocketing $5.5 million the government said belonged to the company's shareholders.

The executives initially said the money represented fees from companies that bought community newspapers from Hollinger. But Black and his co-defendants now say the money was really management fees the company owed them and which were "recharacterized" to avoid Canadian income tax.

They say that since they were trying to avoid Canadian taxes and not harm Hollinger, they didn't deprive the shareholders of their honest services and the charges should be thrown out.

The high court has yet to decide whether to take up Skilling's appeal, which argued the honest services law is so vague that it is simply unconstitutional.

"The Supreme Court's decisions to hear two appeals challenging the law in the same term could mean the justices have concerns about prosecutors extending the statute's reach," Lisa Casey, a Notre Dame University law professor who has written about the law and its recent expanded use against corporate executives.

Just prior to accepting Black's case, the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's patronage chief, Robert Sorich, who was convicted in 2006 in a City Hall hiring fraud scandal. But it was that case that prompted Scalia to say the time has come to clarify confusion over just what the law means.

"Indeed, it seems to me quite irresponsible to let the current chaos prevail," he said.