Lawyer says Jackson doctor under tight security

FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011, photo, Dr. Conrad Murray waits to leave the courtroom for the day during the final stage of his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Murray indicated in a court filing on Tuesday, Dec. 13, that he should be declared indigent so that he has access to a court-paid attorney for the appeal of his involuntary manslaughter conviction. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011, photo, Dr. Conrad Murray waits to leave the courtroom for the day during the final stage of his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Murray indicated in a court filing on Tuesday, Dec. 13, that he should be declared indigent so that he has access to a court-paid attorney for the appeal of his involuntary manslaughter conviction. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The doctor convicted of killing Michael Jackson is coping with tight security and isolation and remains optimistic that he will win an upcoming appeal, his civil attorney said Tuesday.

Charles Peckham said sheriff's deputies appear to be subjecting Conrad Murray to more security than other inmates at Men's Central Jail and that the physician was left heavily shackled during their jailhouse meeting.

"Treating him like Hannibal Lecter is offensive," Peckham said, referring to the fictional serial killer from popular books and films. A sheriff's officials defended the security measures, saying they were for Murray's safety.

The attorney had to obtain a court order Tuesday to meet with Murray to discuss strategy on a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Jackson's father. Peckham said despite the judge's order, he was denied entry to the jail, but officials relented after speaking with the civil trial court handling the case.

He said their initial 30-minute meeting was cut short when the jail was placed in lockdown, but Peckham said the time was enough to upset him and see that Murray's fortunes had dramatically changed.

"This man who saved lives made a mistake, and they're going to make him pay like a mass-murderer," Peckham said. The doctor spoke extensively to documentary filmmakers before his conviction, but few details of his life behind bars have been divulged.

Murray "is a real target because of his notoriety and because of the Michael Jackson connection," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. "We're just being extra cautious right now."

He said jail officials will evaluate how to handle Murray's incarceration, but that he may not serve his whole sentence in isolation from other inmates. He noted that without a recent change in state law, Murray would be serving his term in state prison, not a county lockup.

Peckham said Murray, who has been jailed since a jury convicted him of involuntary manslaughter on Nov. 7, is optimistic that an appellate court will grant an appeal on the case.

Peckham's visit came hours after the physician, who was never paid the $150,000 a month he expected for serving as Jackson's personal physician, asked a court to provide a publicly funded attorney to handle his appeal because he is indigent.

J. Michael Flanagan, who was one of Murray's criminal defense lawyers, agreed with Peckham's description. He said that when he visited Murray recently, four deputies escorted the physician into the meeting room and shackled him to a table.

"He can't even scratch his nose," the attorney said. Flanagan said he saw another inmate who was charged with murder meet with his attorney without the same restrictive measures.

"This is because of his notoriety," Whitmore said. "It's not so much the crime itself."

Peckham said he didn't "think the sheriff's department is being anything but professional. I do however believe the amount of security for Dr. Murray is vastly out of proportion with the potential threat."

He said Murray told him he appreciates the support and prayers he's received from former patients and friends.

In the early days of his confinement, Murray was classified as suicidal in jail records, according to a probation report. Peckham said he saw no indications that the physician intended to take his own life and that he seemed to be in control of his mental health.

Murray indicated in a two-page court filing Tuesday that he would rely on a court-funded attorney to help craft his appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that felony convicts have a constitutional right to assistance of counsel.

Flanagan and Murray's other criminal attorneys had sought to present evidence to jurors about Jackson's finances, details of his deal for a series of comeback concerts, and information about other doctors treating the pop superstar. But the judge refused and ruled the trial would be about Murray's care of the singer.

The Houston-based doctor had been giving Jackson nightly doses of the powerful anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid. The drug is normally given in hospital settings with extensive monitoring equipment, but testimony showed Murray had only basic equipment and left Jackson's bedside on the morning of his death.

Pastor has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 23 to decide whether to order Murray to pay any restitution to Jackson's family or reimburse them for funeral expenses, which totaled more than $1.8 million.

Jackson's estate estimated the singer would have earned at least $100 million if he had performed his "This Is It" concerts planned for London's O2 arena.

Murray will lose his medical license as a result of the conviction is upheld.

___

Follow Anthony McCartney at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-12-13-Michael%20Jackson-Doctor/id-3d4320b6af2f44d2b7a8edba83518f70

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Marlins' offer $200M-plus to Pujols

Bob Nightengale of USA Today has some specifics on the Marlins? 10-year offer to Albert Pujols, reporting that the proposal is ?in excess of $200 million.?

Last week when the Marlins reportedly made a nine-year offer to Pujols it was said to be for significantly less than the $200 million or so the Cardials offered him earlier this year.

Obviously a 10-year offer to Pujols should be expected to top $200 million?anything less than $20 million per season would seem sort of silly?but if nothing else this shows once again how serious the Marlins are.

And if the two sides are truly talking about no-trade clauses that suggests they?re fairly deep into negotiations.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/06/report-marlins-offer-to-albert-pujols-tops-200-million/related/

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Harley-Davidson tries to lose its geezer appeal

For Harley-Davidson, Michael Adams is a godsend.

When the 22-year-old college senior showed up for a $25 rider training class at a community college last year in Michigan, his aspiration was to someday buy his ultimate American icon: a Harley.

But he quickly found he was in enemy territory.

"Everyone my age was talking about buying a 'crotch rocket'" Adams said. "They wanted a Ducati or Yamaha or some other kind of import; but I never heard any other talk about a Harley."

Undeterred, Adams soon abandoned his Honda motorcycle, and paid cash for a brand new $14,000 Harley-Davidson Dark Custom Street Bob, using money he'd earned at a variety of jobs, from operating a forklift to working an internship at a Kentucky newspaper.

For the past decade, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Harley-Davidson Inc had largely been stymied in its attempt to reach a younger audience.

As it poured resources into entirely new lines of bikes, often designed to lure the 20 and 30-something crowd, or used advocates like a Victoria Secret supermodel to encourage younger buyers to feel it's cool to own a bike ? Harley's core customer base of well-heeled baby boomers only got older.

But the effort is finally gaining traction under Chief Executive Keith Wandell, who took Harley's helm in 2009. He immediately began modernizing the company, from the assembly line to the dealership floor, even if it meant offending loyalists.

Talking to analysts at a motorcycle plant in Pennsylvania two weeks ago, Wandell said he is now squarely focused on diversifying the buyer base by "extending the reach of the brand beyond our core customers." But, he admitted "that's a touchy situation ... our core customers have allowed our company to be successful ? so there's a certain amount of jealousy, if you will, around the brand."

Some of the old timers already are pushing back on the company when they see new bare-bones retro bikes that make up the hot selling Dark Custom lineup and are aimed largely at youth, said Joe Fredo, sales manager of Harley-Davidson of New York City.

"They're like, ugh, that's not a real Harley," he said.

The effort to get younger has consumed millions of dollars worth of investment in design changes, aggressive marketing of lower-priced bikes, and a massive effort to teach thousands of aspiring bikers to operate a motorcycle.

"Our goal really was to be the No.1 seller of motorcycles to young adults in the United States," Chief Marketing Officer Mark-Hans Richer said. "We are now."

Since Wandell took over, the company has increased its share of the heavy-bike market under the age of 35 by more than a third. It now owns 48.6 percent of that market, according to R.L. Polk & Co. registration data, quadruple the share of its closest competitors in the segment.

Honda Motor Co., Suzuki Motor Corp, Yamaha Motor Corp, Kawasaki Motors Corp and Ducati Motor Holdings SpA compete head on with Harley for young buyers.

The move may come just in time for Harley, which is seeing its youth market share rise as the size of the entire market ? including sales to boomers ? has been slipping in the face of economic turmoil in recent years.

In 2008, 16.6 percent of new Harley buyers were estimated to be under the age of 35, according to company filings and J.D. Power and Associates data. By 2010, that number had increased to about 21 percent and it is expected to have remained steady in 2011.

The 108-year-old Harley-Davidson does not disclose its sales by demographic, but Richer says the company now sells more bikes to people born after Jimmy Carter was president than it sold to their parents' generation when they were the same age.

But there is still plenty of work to do.

At the Pennsylvania analyst meeting, Richer ? one of a handful of 40-something executives serving as Wandell's lieutenants ? followed the CEO's presentation by showing a slide that indicates the company's average buyers are still too old.

It showed a bell curve related to the current age of the company's buyer base, with the peak of the curve sitting squarely at about age 55. "It's not a war between this end and that end ... but our job is to broaden the customer base," he said.

One of Richer's key moves was to shatter the misconception that Hogs were expensive so-called Geezer Glides, or large touring bikes more for comfort and road trips than for sex appeal and drag strips.

"A lot of young adults would tell us, "hey I like Harley, but Harley's are like $20,000 (and) I don't have that kind of coin right now," said Richer, who joined Harley from General Motors in 2008.

To do this, Richer launched an ad campaign marketing a bare-bones retro bike called the Iron 883 for the price of $8,000, the equivalent of $6 per day with certain financing packages. In one ad, equating the bike's operating cost to "about six bucks a day," the company said the 883's daily cost was "cheaper than your smokes, a six-pack, a lap dance, a bar tab, another tattoo, a parking ticket, a gas station burrito, bail, cheap sunglasses (or) more black T-shirts."

Other changes forced designers and dealers to rethink the way they make and sell bikes.

The key example of this is the new Dark Custom trim line of bikes, such as the Street Bob that Adams, the student, spent his savings on. They reflect a more old-school and sporty design and carry a softer finish thanks to matte-black paint schemes.

"Among the young people, they just love the look of it. It's kind of that rockabilly, rock-and-roll, urban, cool cruiser look," said Kenn Hartmann, a salesman at Harley-Davidson in Berwyn, Illinois.

Richer, speaking to the analysts, showed a slide that indicates two of every three Dark Custom buyers are new to the brand ? which doubles the conquest rate of all other bikes the company sells.

Another tactic is getting dealers to help train aspiring bikers how to operate a powerful motorcycle through various learn-to-ride programs, such as Rider's Edge and Motorcycle Boot Camp.

Motor City Harley-Davidson in Farmington Hills, Michigan, is one of several dealers to jump head-first into the initiative. Marketing manager Jennifer Loberman said one-third of all participants in this program since 2007, or about 500 prospective buyers, were under the age of 35. A quarter of them bought a bike within 12 months.

Danny Solis, a 29-year-old living in Chicago, decided earlier this year that he finally had enough money to buy a motorcycle. In mid-summer, shortly after attending Rider's Edge at the Berwyn dealership, he bought a new Harley-Davidson.

"At first I really didn't want a Harley," he said, citing a competitor's bike he found more alluring. But after considering the cost of his first choice, and realizing used Harley's were typically as expensive as new ones, he bought an orange Forty-Eight for about $11,000.

Pricing has definitely been a key part of the equation, but the promise of a cheap bike isn't fueling the brand's entire drive toward a younger demographic.

In fact, the highest-selling model among young buyers is the $19,000 Street Glide, a touring bike that looks much like the meatier gliders that have become a preferred option among boomers. And, J.D. Power said that buyers between the ages of 30 and 40 year spent nearly $1,900 on gear, parts and service for motorcycles in 2010, or $300 more than they did in 2008.

But the bike with the most momentum is the Iron 883, which anchors the brand's Sportster family and is available in the Dark Custom trim package.

"Our bestseller is our cheapest bike," said Fredo, from the New York dealer. "I can't hardly keep them in stock."

Due to popularity in a variety of markets, the lower-priced Sportsters are growing twice as fast as Harley-Davidson's other motorcycle segments. But this comes at a time when margins are under pressure due to restructuring initiatives and other factors.

In 2008, right before Wandell arrived, Harley-Davidson's average operating profit on a new bike was about $3,184. Through the first nine months of 2011, that number has fallen by $30 per bike, though the decline is significantly greater (as much as $350 per bike) if measured at the retail rather than production end of the supply chain. This includes profit from parts and accessories, but not income from bike financing.

Richer signaled a willingness to take a short-term hit, if necessary, to win young buyers that Harley estimates have a 93 percent loyalty rate.

"There's no question a person buying a first Harley may not be as short term financially beneficial as a boomer. But the customer's value over a lifetime is pretty easy to get excited about."

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45545242/ns/business-autos/

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Head of Russian election watchdog detained (AP)

MOSCOW ? The leader of Russia's only independent election monitor was detained at a Moscow airport for 12 hours, a colleague said Saturday, the latest government pressure on the group ahead of Sunday's parliamentary vote.

Golos has documented thousands of election law violations during the latest campaign ? most of them linked to the United Russia party, which dominates the Kremlin and supports Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

United Russia dominates Russia's political life and has received overwhelmingly favorable coverage during the campaign, mostly from Kremlin-controlled national television. But the party is increasingly disliked, seen as representing a corrupt bureaucracy and often called "the party of crooks and thieves."

Golos leader Lilya Shibanova was held at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after refusing to give her laptop to security officers late Friday, the group's deputy director Grigory Melkonyants said. She was released after giving up the computer, he said.

"The detention was politically motivated," Melkonyants told The Associated Press.

The detention follows a decision Friday by a Moscow district court to fine Golos $1,000 for violating a law forbidding the publication of public opinion research within five days of an election.

The group has come under growing pressure since Sunday, when Putin accused Western governments of trying to influence the election through their funding of unidentified Russian non-governmental organizations. Golos, whose name means "vote," is supported by grants from the United States and Europe.

The group's staffers all over Russia "face threats and psychological pressure," Melkonyants said.

Kremlin-controlled NTV television showed a half-hour program on Friday evening that attacked Golos directly. The program included shots of suitcases full of U.S. dollars and claimed that Golos was openly supporting opposition parties and trying to discredit the elections.

The Kremlin is determined to see United Russia maintain its majority in parliament. President Dmitry Medvedev and Putin, who serves as prime minister, both made final appeals for the party on Friday, warning that a parliament made up of diverse political camps would be incapable of making decisions.

Putin needs the party to do well in the parliamentary election to pave the way for his return to the presidency in a vote now three months away.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_election

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Russian President Threatens Punishment for Recent Space Blunders (SPACE.com)

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has threatened to dole out strict punishments to officials responsible for a string of recent failures in the country's space program, according to news reports.

Medvedev threatened disciplinary action, heavy fines or even criminal penalties for the country's recent space woes, which have included a series of rocket crashes and lost spacecraft over the past 11 months, according to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

"The latest failures [in the space industry] seriously harm Russia's competitiveness," Medvedev said on Nov. 26, according to Ria Novosti. "This means that we need to conduct a serious analysis and punish those responsible."

The country's most recent blunder stranded a spacecraft in orbit around Earth, instead of sending it on its intended path toward Mars. The Phobos-Grunt probe was designed to collect samples from the Martian moon Phobos, but shortly after its launch on Nov. 8, the spacecraft's thrusters failed to fire in a maneuver that would have set it on course for the Red Planet.

An international effort is underway to rescue the $165 million mission, but flight controllers at the Russian Federal Space Agency and the European Space Agency have been struggling to regain contact with the probe, and time is quickly running out. [Photos: Russia's Mars Moon Mission]

The notoriously tight-lipped Russian Federal Space Agency has remained guarded about the status of Phobos-Grunt, which has fueled speculation that the possibility of saving the spacecraft or the mission is unlikely.

If the problem with Phobos-Grunt cannot be resolved, the vehicle will likely fall back to Earth sometime in mid-January, scientists have said. Phobos-Grunt is the 19th spacecraft Russia has launched toward Mars since 1960. None has achieved full mission success.

The Russian space program has also suffered four rocket failures within the past year, adding to the troubles.

In December 2010, three navigation satellites were lost after a Russian Proton rocket failed before it reached orbit. A military satellite and a communications satellite were also lost in two separate rocket malfunctions.

In August, a Soyuz rocket carrying a robotic cargo ship suffered a malfunction minutes after launch in what was a rare mishap for the typically reliable fleet of Soyuz boosters. The rocket and the Progress 44 cargo freighter crashed in Siberia and were destroyed.

Investigations into the accident traced the problem to a faulty gas generator in the rocket's third stage, and spaceflight operations were temporarily halted until the issue was resolved.

On Oct. 30, a Progress 45 cargo ship was successfully launched to the International Space Station, and a manned launch carrying three new crewmembers for the orbiting complex followed almost two weeks later.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111201/sc_space/russianpresidentthreatenspunishmentforrecentspaceblunders

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Court weighs trademark on Maker's Mark wax seal (AP)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. ? The dripping red wax seal atop a Maker's Mark bottle makes the bourbon stand out on shelves. Three federal judges are trying to decide whether the company can keep that distinction.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati heard arguments Thursday over whether Maker's Mark can keep the trademark on the capper or if other liquor companies can use a similar seal.

Maker's Mark in 2010 won an order awarding it exclusive rights to the seal. Attorneys for London-based Diageo North America and Casa Cuervo of Mexico argued that wax seals have been used for centuries and Maker's Mark wasn't harmed by their use of it on a special bottle of tequila.

Maker's Mark attorneys said the company has a valid trademark on the wax seal.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_re_us/us_wax_seal_battle

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