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Nassar has long been a colorful figure in Orange County political circles. He gained notoriety by helping develop a plan to award "commissioner" badges to contributors to the 1998 campaign of Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas. That idea was abandoned because of the potential for abuse, but not before Nassar ordered himself a...
Nassar made headlines again in 2000 as one of Carona's professional reserves for failing to disclose an earlier arrest for allegedly making threatening phone calls, a charge that was later dismissed. He also did not reveal he was once the subject of a restraining order. Nassar resigned as a reserve that same year, and ...
Before testifying Friday, Nassar was granted "use immunity" by the government, meaning his testimony cannot be used against him. With an injured right arm in a sling, Nassar was allowed to take his courtroom oath with his left hand raised before he climbed into the witness box and admitted he sold badges for Carona in ...
Nassar said he broached the idea with Jaramillo, and then Carona, and that both men were receptive to it. Jaramillo told him that "he wished he had thought of it," Nassar said.
Nassar said one of the people he approached was his friend Mehdi Hatamian, a vice president at Broadcom Corp. Hatamian agreed to donate $1,000 himself and come up with four other checks, Nassar testified. Hatamian, who testified after Nassar, admitted he reimbursed his mother and three other relatives for their contrib...
Hatamian later hosted a barbecue for Carona, and Broadcom Corp. co-founder and Anaheim Ducks owner Henry Samueli attended. Jurors were shown pictures of Hatamian, Carona, Nassar and Samueli at that gathering.
As a reserve himself, Nassar testified, he considered the badge a perk and used it with great satisfaction, whether it was getting out of traffic tickets "several times," getting free admission to movies or helping facilitate service for a friend at a passport office.
"Did it give you a fair amount of glee to be able to go into movie theaters and flash your badge?" asked defense attorney Jeff Rawitz.
"It's a great feeling," Nassar said, repeating himself when Rawitz followed up with a similar question. "Yes, getting out of tickets and doing all this. It's a great benefit. Sure."
Hatamian, on the other hand, acknowledged under cross-examination that his credentials didn't help get him out of a traffic ticket the one time he tried.
Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross said investors in U.S. Treasurys are being lulled into a false sense of security by positive returns this year because yields aren’t high enough relative to inflation.
Gross, who oversees the world’s biggest bond fund, said bond investors face a similar fate as a frog that remains in a pot of water while the temperature is gradually increased until the amphibian is cooked.
Inflation erodes the value of the fixed payments of bonds over time.
Treasurys have returned 2.6 percent this year as Gross reduced government and related debt in his $243 billion Total Return Fund to minus 4 percent of assets as of April 30. Gross said governments such as the U.S. are intentionally keeping interest rates lower than they should be to help reduce record debt levels. The ...
The Federal Reserve has kept its target rate at a record low range of zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008 to help stimulate growth after the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Yields on 10-year notes fell below 3 percent today for the first time since December after ADP Employer Services reported that U.S. companies added fewer jobs in May than economists forecast. With the consumer price index rising 3.2 percent on an annual basis in April, the benchmark note offers investors a so-called re...
Gross recommends that investors buy “cheap bonds” and focus on “safe spread,” or buying more floating and fewer fixed-rate notes.
Investors should also add credit components that may include investment grade, high yield, non-agency mortgage, or emerging market related sectors, and increase the non-dollar emerging market currencies portion of their portfolios, he wrote.
The Total Return Fund has returned 8.13 percent in the past year, beating 78 percent of its peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gross, the founder and co-chief investment officer at Pimco, has averaged returns of 8.93 percent on average over the past five years, topping 98 percent of his competition.
The fund can have a negative position by using derivatives or futures or by shorting. Shorting is borrowing and selling an asset in anticipation of making a profit by buying it back after its price has fallen.
The firm’s U.S. government-related debt category can include conventional and inflation-linked Treasurys, agency debt, interest-rate derivatives, Treasury futures and options and bank debt backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to the company’s website. Pimco, a unit of the Munich-based insurer Allian...
Singapore's ethnic Chinese businessmen have made important contributions to bilateral trade and economic ties, China's State Councillor Yang Jiechi told a delegation from the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), as he urged them to continue doing so by supporting Beijing's drive to revive two Sil...
"We hope Singapore's Chinese business elite will use their talent and take part actively in the 'One Belt, One Road' initiatives as contribution to the Sino-Singapore friendship and cooperation," Mr Yang said at yesterday's meeting held at the Zhongnanhai compound in Beijing, where top leaders are based.
Mr Yang, who oversees foreign policy and outranks the foreign minister, also said China's economy is entering a new normal of slower but quality growth and economic conditions remain "healthy and stable".
He also expressed China's respect for the "commendable" contributions of Chinese organisations in Singapore in resisting the Japanese during World War II.
The 28-member SCCCI delegation is on a five-day trip, which began on Sunday, to mark 25 years of Singapore-China diplomatic relations and to explore opportunities from the Silk Road initiatives.
Launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the initiatives refer to the overland Silk Road Economic Belt connecting China to Europe via Xinjiang and Central Asia states, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road linking China to Europe via South-east Asia and Africa.
SCCCI president Thomas Chua told Mr Yang that the delegation is also hoping to strengthen exchanges with China's business chambers.
Meetings with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce are scheduled.
The trip includes a networking seminar and dinner hosted by the Bank of China and a visit to the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, the second flagship bilateral project after the Suzhou Industrial Park.
The SCCCI delegation was scheduled to meet Executive Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli yesterday, until a last-minute change on Sunday. He was likely to have been the first member of the apex Politburo Standing Committee to meet an SCCCI delegation in China.
Besides Mr Yang, the SCCCI delegates will also meet Overseas Chinese Affairs Office chief Qiu Yuanping and Tianjin leaders.
The SCCCI organises visits to China yearly but this trip is its highest-level ever, comprising 15 of its 56 council members and head honchos from listed firms.
Kenyan Lameck Aguta, who was victorious in Boston in 1997, has many motivations to once again wear the laurel wreath.
His strong faith is the biggest one, he said, as is his athletic drive and determination. And the prize money is also a factor. But while anyone would understand if he was fueled by anger, that has long disappeared.
Aguta was 25 when he realized his long-held dream of winning Boston, which made him a national hero and rewarded him with $75,000 in prize money -- an immense sum in Kenya.
"It was my dream and I achieved it," said Aguta, who got his start running the hills near his village home of Kisii, near Nairobi.
For three months Aguta rode the wave of adulation, of appearances and product endorsements. Then in July, all that changed.
Just three days after his wife gave birth to the couple's third child, Aguta was driving home to Kisii with $10,000 in cash in his luggage, which he had earmarked to begin a housing development for his village, when his car went out of control and flipped onto its roof.
Unhurt, he was helped out of the car by two policemen who caught sight of the cash in his luggage, which had sprung open. They questioned him, and as Aguta tried to explain that he was the Boston Marathon winner, another man clubbed his head from behind.
Aguta went into a coma for three months and nearly died.
When he awoke in the hospital, the money was long gone, and police were hunting for the four assailants. Aguta, meanwhile, began a laborious recovery, first simply to move and resume an active life, with running again only a distant possibility.
"They thought they'd killed me," said Aguta. "I'm lucky I survived because my wife and kids can still see me, so they're happy."
And that attitude has brought Aguta to Boston today. With the help of God, he said, he was able to find a bright side to his near tragic end.
"I am coming back to do what God has told me to do," he said, adding that he feels no anger toward the four men -- police officers -- who were convicted of the robbery and sentenced to four years in prison. "They will have to meet God, too."
The 1997 race had a familiar pattern, with three Kenyans breaking out of the pack, and then just two, Aguta and Joseph Kamau, matching strides coming out of the Wellesley Hills and into Boston. But in the last 2 1/2 miles, Aguta's strong finishing kick opened up some distance and he streaked through the ribbon in 2 hou...
Now 33, there is little to suggest that Aguta has the peak conditioning and strength to win another marathon, especially since his qualifying time at the Dallas marathon last December was around 2:30.
In fact, Boston officials are somewhat puzzled that Aguta submitted a qualifier, since all previous winners are automatically eligible. But Aguta said the Dallas race was just a trial run to see if he could handle the distance.
"I was not running my hardest," he said. "I was just trying to see how it felt to me. Then I trained harder after Dallas."
During the winter he stayed at his training center in Chapel Hill, N.C, a winter climate that resembles the Boston spring, though Patriots Day weather is unpredictable.
But, "I am ready for any weather," said the 5-foot-5-inch Aguta. "I would prefer it between 55 degrees and 70. But I have trained in all conditions and will be ready no matter what the day is like."
That Aguta is back in the race is surprise enough, but he's not running for nostalgia. Aguta is out to win again.
"I am the same man I was in 1997," he said. "If I have luck and the conditions are right and God wills it, I can win again. If God wants me to win I will win. I can win because [physically] I am back to where I was."
Aguta said he hopes his position at the start lets him begin with the established favorites, but he looks forward to competition with runners he knows.
"There are so many oppositions [competitors] from Kenya and all over the world it is just the same as it was eight years back," he said. "I can run just as I did then."
He calls it a miracle. In 2000, after recovering physically and as his mental faculties returned, Aguta considered running again, just to see if it was possible. A year later, he tried some distance work.
He gradually increased his distance, and built a program beginning in 2002. The gains were minimal but steady, Aguta said, and he had no serious setbacks.
By 2003 he was ready for the marathon distance, and the big test was Dallas.
"I just wanted to see what I could do and if it was good enough, I could start thinking about Boston and training for it," Aguta said. "That is all I have set my thinking on -- Boston."
As for the men who beat him, Aguta said anger would only cloud his mind and interfere with his goal. In fact, he said, his only wish for them at this point, "is that they repent for their sins so we can all go to heaven together."
Meanwhile, he is seeking his heaven on earth -- a repeat trip to the winner's circle Monday.
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CNN) -- Professional wrestler Owen Hart, a Canadian known as "Blue Blazer," fell 50 feet, hit his head and died when a wire holding him in the air either broke or became disconnected while he was being lowered into the ring.
Sunday's fatal accident occurred during a World Wrestling Federation match at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.
There were more than 16,000 people in attendance but viewers watching the event on pay-per-view television did not see the fall, which occurred about 75 minutes into the show. Recorded highlights of Hart's career were being shown at the time.
Hart, 33, the younger brother of Bret (The Hitman) Hart, a star with rival World Championship Wrestling, fell as he was being lowered from the arena's ceiling as his match introduction was about to begin.
It was a stunt he had performed before.
Some witnesses said the cable snapped, while others said it appeared Hart was somehow disconnected from it.
They said his head snapped backward when he hit a turnbuckle, one of the padded pieces of metal that hold the ropes together in each corner of the ring.
Hart was given CPR inside the ring as the ring announcer haltingly told the audience that the incident was not scripted, as professional wrestling matches openly are.
The wrestler was pronounced dead at a hospital.
"He was supposed to be lowered down into the ring," said Michelle Hindorff, a paramedic and dispatcher for Kansas City's ambulance service.
"It didn't get hooked on to him. He thought it was hooked on," she said.
The World Wrestling Federation said it is investigating what went wrong.
"We at the WWF are saddened by the tragic accident that occurred here tonight," said Vince McMahon Jr., the president of WWF. "We have no answers as to how this happened yet. We will shortly."
Hart was known for his acrobatic stunts and some members of the audience thought his fall was part of an act.
"We thought it was a doll at first," said 15-year-old Robert McCome. "We thought they were just playing with us. We were really shocked when we found out that it was no joke."
"He was moving pretty fast (as he fell)," said Jesse McDonald, who was sitting near the ring. "His chin and neck hit the top rope."
The arena fell into silence.
"I didn't see it, but from what I can gather, somebody slipped up," Hart's 83-year-old father, former wrestler Stu Hart, said from the family home in Calgary, Alberta.
"You don't get up 60 or 70 feet in the air without being properly anchored down," he said. "I haven't talked to Vince McMahon yet, but somebody was careless or missed something or else Owen would still be here."
The WWF is one of the biggest draws on cable and pay-per-view TV. The WWF admits that its events are more entertainment then sport.
Hart's fall happened in the second part of an event called "Over the Edge." The first portion, called "Sunday Night Heat," was televised live on the USA cable network.
The TV audience was being shown a montage of Hart's clips when he fell and the camera panned through the crowd while paramedics worked on him. The show stopped for 15 minutes before Hart was taken away, and the matches resumed.
All seven of Stu Hart's sons entered professional wrestling, with Owen joining in 1989. He had recently told a magazine that he was planning to leave wrestling when his contract was up.
Survivors include his wife, Martha, and two young children.
Telstra would be unable to make planned upgrades to payphones in a way that might include larger digital advertising hoardings under a push by the City of Sydney.
The practice of attaching digital advertising billboards to payphones flared as an issue of controversy in Melbourne recently. The City of Melbourne council rejected a bid by the telco to install 81 boards on public phones in the CBD, and is reportedly attempting to remove 39 boards already in place.
The City of Sydney council is pushing back against plans by Telstra to install billboards such as these in Melbourne's CBD.
The issue relates to a potential legal mechanism allowing Telstra to install upgraded payphones, which it can also use for digital billboard advertising, without council approval.
It is understood that none of these upgraded payphones has been installed in Sydney.
At its meeting on Monday night, the City of Sydney resolved that Lord Mayor Clover Moore would write to the federal Communications Minister seeking a determination that payphones not be used primarily for advertising.
The motion was put by Liberal councillor Craig Chung and was supported unanimously by the other councillors.
Cr Chung's motion states that Telstra is in dispute with "a number of city councils around Australia about the installation of public payphones with significant private advertising billboards and other telecommunications infrastructure".
The motion adds that Telstra appears to be using its obligation to provide universal communications services across the country "as a 'sword' to overcome any requirement to obtain approvals from city councils to erect unnecessary payphones to be used as unregulated and unwanted billboards".
Cr Moore said supporting the motion was part of her effort "to ensure the necessary infrastructure is delivered without negative impacts on our streets and public spaces."
Separately, the City of Sydney released a statement on Monday saying that larger payphone panels proposed to be installed by Telstra were not "low-impact facilities" that could be installed without council approval.
A Telstra spokesman said it believed its new payphones were able to be installed as low-impact facilities.
"In the majority of cases, Telstra is planning to upgrade and relocate existing payphones, not install additional phones," the spokesman said.
"Our vision for the new payphones is to ensure the technology offered to all users in the City of Sydney is comparable to other major cities such as New York City and Tokyo.
"Any use of the screens on the new payphones for commercial advertising is subject to a separate approval process by the City of Sydney in response to a planning development application," the Telstra spokesman said.

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