Jesse Jackson Jr. resigns, acknowledges federal investigation

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. submitted a letter of resignation to House Speaker Boehner Wednesday, following a lengthy medical leave of absence.

Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. resigned from Congress on Wednesday, saying in a letter that he is cooperating with a federal investigation "into my activities" but blaming his health problems for his decision to step down just two weeks after his reelection.

Jackson's letter to House Speaker John A. Boehner was his first acknowledgment of the ongoing corruption inquiry into his  alleged misuse of campaign dollars.

"I am doing my best to address the situation responsibly, cooperate with the investigators, and accept responsibility for my mistakes, for they are my mistakes and mine alone," Jackson said in the two-page letter dated Nov. 21. "None of us is immune from our share of shortcomings or human frailties and I pray that I will be remembered for what I did right."

Despite his admission of "my share of mistakes," Jackson said his deteriorating health was the reason he was quitting. He has been on medical leave since June while receiving treatment for bipolar depression.

PHOTOS: 2016 presidential possibilities

"Against the recommendations of my doctors, I had hoped and tried to return to Washington and continue working on the issues that matter most to the people of the 2nd District. I know now that will not be possible," Jackson said in the letter.

"My health issues and treatment regimen have become incompatible with service in the House of Representatives. Therefore, it is with great regret that I hereby resign as a member of the United States House of Representatives, effective today, in order to focus on restoring my health," Jackson wrote.

The congressman could not be reached for comment.

Jackson, 47, won election this month while being treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.  He issued a statement on election night saying he would return to work once his doctors approved.

"Once the doctors approve my return to work, I will continue to be the progressive fighter you have known for years," said Jackson, who is no longer a patient at Mayo. "My family and I are grateful for your many heartfelt prayers and kind thoughts,” he said at the time. “I continue to feel better every day and look forward to serving you."

He has not appeared in the House since June 8. Nor did he stage a campaign event -- or even run a TV ad. Jackson advanced to the general election after defeating a one-term member of Congress, Debbie Halvorson, in a March primary.

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The next Congress will be sworn in Jan. 3 and Jackson would have been required to take the oath of office before being allowed to vote.

News of the resignation on the eve of Thanksgiving, when Congress was not meeting and many Washingtonians were traveling, seemed to take even Jackson staffers by surprise.
 
His press secretary, Frank Watkins, said Wednesday morning that he didn’t know anything about a possible resignation. Watkins attributed the rumors to press speculation.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said in a statement that she had spoken to Jackson and his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, in the afternoon.
 
“As he works to address his health, our thoughts and prayers are with him, his wife, Sandi, his children as well as his parents," she said in a statement. "We are grateful to him and his family for their long-standing record of public service to our country."

The House adjourned Friday and reconvenes at 2 p.m. Tuesday.  Protocol calls for Jackson's letter to be placed before the House on Tuesday and his resignation noted then, an official said. Normally the House has 435 members, but there is already one vacancy, so Jackson's will be a second.

Under Illinois law, Gov. Pat Quinn, a fellow Democrat, would call a special election to fill Jackson’s 2nd District congressional seat, which extends from Chicago’s South Side to Kankakee.

Jackson's resignation, long expected by political insiders, set off a scramble with as many as a dozen names of potential successors already surfacing. They range from political has-beens to up-and-comers in the south suburban district.

Jackson has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for alleged improprieties related to his bid to win appointment in 2008 to the Senate seat that had been held by President Obama. A Jackson emissary is alleged to have offered to raise up to $6 million in campaign funds for disgraced former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich in exchange for the governor appointing Jackson to the Senate seat.

Blagojevich is serving a prison term for corruption convictions, including trying to sell or trade the Senate seat.

After the March primary election, the congressman’s aides belatedly announced his medical leave, which at first was blamed on “exhaustion.”

He is the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, and the husband of Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson, 7th Ward.

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Actress Mayim Bialik to divorce husband of 9 years

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mayim Bialik is splitting from her husband of nine years.

The 36-year-old actress says in a statement posted online Wednesday that she and husband Michael Stone have decided to divorce. The couple has two young sons.

Bialik recently released a book about attachment parenting, but says the philosophy that encourages forming close bonds with near-constant physical contact played no role in the couple's split.

The Emmy-nominated star of CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" says "relationships are complicated no matter what style of parenting you choose."

She says divorce is "terribly sad, painful and incomprehensible" for children and adds that the couple's sons remain their priority.

Bialik first gained fame as the star of the 1990s sitcom "Blossom." She holds a doctoral degree in neuroscience from UCLA, specializing in obsessive-compulsive disorder in adolescents.

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Well: Yawning Begins Early, Though No One Is Sure Why

Everyone yawns. And we start yawning even before we are born.

Now, using ultrasound video recordings, researchers have worked out a technique to distinguish prenatal yawns from the simple mouth openings that we also engage in well before birth.

For the study, published on Wednesday in PLoS One, scientists scanned 15 healthy fetuses, eight girls and seven boys, at 24, 28, 32 and 36 weeks’ gestation. They distinguished yawns from jaw openings by the timing of the action and shape of the fetuses’ mouths. In all, they counted 56 yawns and 27 non-yawn mouth openings. By 36 weeks, the yawning had completely disappeared.

Why fetuses yawn is unclear — for that matter, it is unclear why adults yawn. In any case, the study’s lead author, Nadja Reissland, a developmental psychologist at Durham University in England, said that yawning in a fetus is different from yawning in adults.

“When you see a fetus yawning, it’s not because it’s tired,” she said. “The yawning itself might have some kind of function in healthy development. Fetuses yawn, and then as they develop they stop yawning. There’s something special in yawning.”

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Stocks end higher in pre-holiday session

The stock market crept higher Wednesday ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. Major market indexes got a slight lift after news broke of a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The truce was announced by Egypt's foreign minister and confirmed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A week of fighting has killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 48.38 points to 12,836.89. Three of the most expensive stocks in the average — Boeing, IBM and United Technologies — each rose more than 60 cents. Higher-priced stocks in the Dow carry more weight.

The Labor Department said that first-time applications for unemployment benefits fell by 41,000 last week to 410,000. The figure remains temporarily high because of Superstorm Sandy and was in line with what economists had expected.

“The news today didn't mess anything up,” said Harry Clark, CEO of Clark Capital Management, an investment advisory firm in Philadelphia. “With no bad news, this market will drift higher.”

That's partially because investors have stopped worrying as much about the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and government spending cuts that are set to take effect Jan. 1, Clark said.

Over the past week, congressional Republicans and Democrats have made conciliatory remarks and raised hopes that they will reach a deal to stave off the full effect of the budget-tightening measures.

While the cuts would hurt the economy gradually, they could be enough to push the U.S. back into recession next year, economists have warned.

“Both sides appear to have extended an olive branch,” said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade. “The assumption now is that, it may not be pretty, but at the end of the day they'll get some compromise worked out.”

In other Wednesday trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 3.22 points to 1,391.03. Utilities fell the most, while telecommunication companies rose the most, but no category moved more than 0.6 percent.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 9.87 points to 2,926.55. In the bond market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note inched up to 1.68 percent.

The quiet trading followed a largely uneventful Tuesday. The Dow dropped as much as 94 points after a warning from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about federal budget talks, then recovered to end with just a seven-point loss.

The stock market will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving and will close early Friday. Congress has the week off and will take up budget negotiations after its members return from the break next week.

Among companies making news:

— Deere, the maker of tractors and other farm and construction equipment, dropped 4 percent. It reported a quarterly profit of $1.75 per share, missing Wall Street expectations of $1.88.

— Chipotle Mexican Group, the restaurant chain, climbed 3 percent. It announced late Tuesday that it would buy back an additional $100 million of its own stock. That's in addition to a $100 billion buyback plan launched Oct. 18.

— Zale plunged 30 percent after the jewelry store chain reported a larger loss than analysts had expected. The company, which runs Zales stores and Piercing Pagoda kiosks, posted weaker sales. Jewelry store sales sank during the recession and have yet to recover.

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Feds charge former hedge fund manager in big insider-trading case

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a former hedge fund portfolio manager with securities fraud in connection with what they said was the most lucrative insider-trading case ever prosecuted.

In complaints filed in New York, authorities said investment advisors and hedge funds made more than $276 million in illegal profits or avoided losses by trading before the announcement in 2008 of negative results from clinical trials for an Alzheimer's disease drug being developed by Elan Corp. and Wyeth.

Prosecutors charged Mathew Martoma, a former portfolio manager at CR Intrinsic, an unregistered investment adviser, with securities fraud for allegedly illegally using information about the clinical trial results that he obtained from a neurologist at a hospital involved in the testing.

The criminal complaint did not name the neurologist, which it said was a cooperating witness in the case.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a a related civil suit Tuesday against Martoma, CR Intrinsic and Dr. Sidney Gilman, a neurology professor at the University of Michigan Medical School. The SEC suit said Gilman was chairman of the safety monitoring committee overseeing the clinical trials of the Alzheimer's drug.

Martoma met Gilman some time between 2006 and 2008 through paid consultations, the SEC complaint says. "During these consultations, Gilman provided Martoma with material, nonpublic information about the ongoing trial," the SEC complaint said.

In mid-July 2008, "Gilman provided Martoma with the actual, detailed results of the clinical trial" before an official announcement on July 29, 2008, the SEC said.

The FBI, SEC and U.S. attorney's office in New York scheduled a 12:30 p.m. EST news conference to discuss the case.

"The charges unsealed today describe cheating coming and going – specifically, insider trading first on the long side, and then on the short side, on a scale that has no historical precedent," said Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for Manhattan.  "As alleged, by cultivating and corrupting a doctor with access to secret drug data, Mathew Martoma and his hedge fund benefited from what might be the most lucrative inside tip of all time."

Follow Jim Puzzanghera on Twitter and Google+.

Also:

Senate moves insider trading bill to Obama's desk.

Baseball star Eddie Murray settles insider-trading investigation.

Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta guilty of insider trading.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/17/business/la-fi-sec-murray-20120818

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Elmo actor Kevin Clash resigns amid sex allegation

NEW YORK (AP) — Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash resigned from "Sesame Street" on Tuesday amid allegations he sexually abused underage boys, bringing an end to a 28-year career in which he turned the furry red monster into one of the most beloved — and lucrative — characters on TV and in toy stores.

"Personal matters have diverted attention away from the important work 'Sesame Street' is doing and I cannot allow it to go on any longer," the 52-year-old performer said in a statement. "I am deeply sorry to be leaving and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately."

His departure came as a 24-year-old college student, Cecil Singleton, sued Clash for more than $5 million Tuesday, accusing the actor of engaging in sexual behavior with him when he was 15. Singleton charged that Clash made a habit of trolling gay chat lines for underage boys and meeting them for sex.

It was the second such allegation in just over a week. On Nov. 12, a man in his 20s said he had sex with Clash at age 16. A day later, though, the young man recanted, saying their relationship was adult and consensual.

Clash was a young puppeteer at "Sesame Street" in the mid-1980s when he was assigned a little-used puppet now known as Elmo and turned him into a star, creating his high-pitched voice and child-like personality. Clash also served as the show's senior Muppet coordinator and Muppet captain, winning 23 daytime Emmy awards and one prime-time Emmy.

In a statement, Sesame Workshop said that "the controversy surrounding Kevin's personal life has become a distraction that none of us want," and that Clash had concluded "he can no longer be effective in his job."

"This is a sad day for Sesame Street," the company said.

Clash did not address the new allegations. He said previously that he had an adult and consensual relationship with the first accuser. The divorced father of a grown daughter, he acknowledged that he is gay.

At a news conference Tuesday, Singleton said he and Clash met on a gay chat line when he was 15, and for a two-week period, they had sexual contact but not intercourse. He said he didn't know what Clash did for a living until he was 19 and Googled the man's name.

"I was shocked when I found out what he did for a living," said Singleton, a student in criminal psychology who lives in New York but would not say where he goes to school.

He said he didn't consider speaking up until he heard about last week's accusation.

"I thought I was a unique circumstance," Singleton said. "I did not know that it was something he had done habitually."

Singleton's lawyer, Jeff Herman, said he had been contacted by two other potential victims and expects additional legal action. Sex with a person under 17 is a felony in New York if the perpetrator is 21 or older.

Elmo has been a major moneymaker for Sesame Workshop. By one estimate, Elmo toys account for one-half to two-thirds of the $75 million in annual sales the Sesame Street toy line generates for Hasbro.

Clash became something of a star himself. In 2006, he published an autobiography, "My Life as a Furry Red Monster," and he was the subject of the 2011 documentary "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey."

Episodes with Clash performing as Elmo will presumably continue well into 2014. Taping of season No. 44 will wrap by mid-December and will begin airing next September, according to someone close to the show who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of its production.

As for who might take over as Elmo, other "Sesame Street" puppeteers have been trained to serve as Clash's stand-in, Sesame Workshop said. "Elmo is bigger than any one person," the company said last week.

On Tuesday, Hasbro echoed that sentiment with its own statement: "We are confident that Elmo will remain an integral part of Sesame Street and that Sesame Street toys will continue to delight children for years to come."

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AP Television Writer David Bauder and AP Retail Writer Mae Anderson contributed to this report.

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Global Update: Meningitis Vaccine Gets Longer Window Without Refrigeration

In what may prove to be a major advance for Africa’s “meningitis belt,” regulatory authorities have decided that a new meningitis vaccine could be stored without refrigeration for up to four days.

The announcement was made last week at a conference in Atlanta of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. While a few days may seem trivial, the hardest part of protecting poor countries is often keeping a vaccine cold while moving it from electrified cities to villages with no power. In antipolio drives, for example, the freezers, generators and fuel needed to make ice for the shoulder bags of vaccinators can cost more than the vaccine.

The new vaccine, MenAfriVac, made in India for 50 cents a dose, was introduced in 2010. In bad years, epidemics during the hot harmattan winds have killed as many as 25,000 Africans and disabled 50,000 more. In Chad this year, vaccination drove down cases to near zero in districts where it was used, while others nearby had serious outbreaks.

Experts decided that the vaccine is safe for four days as long as it stays below 104 degrees.

While temperatures get higher than that in Africa, said Dr. Godwin Enwere, medical director for the Meningitis Vaccine Project, teams normally get the vaccine out of coolers at dawn, drive to villages and finish before the day heats up. Other experts said it should be kept in the shade and monitored with colored paper “dots” that darken after hours in the heat.

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Stocks close close to break-even

Stocks finish close to break-even
APNewsNow.

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Stocks are finishing the day close to break-even.

The Dow Jones industrial average is ending down seven points to 12,789. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose a fraction of a point to 1,387. And the Nasdaq composite index gained a fraction to 2,916.

Hewlett-Packard was among the biggest losers in the S&P 500. HP announced that a company it bought for $10 billion last year was lying about its finances. The stock fell 12 percent.

The Federal Reserve chairman warned that the Fed doesn't have the tools to offset the impact of the so-called fiscal cliff — the combination of tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 1.

Advancing stocks outnumbered decliners by 5-to-4. Trading volume was lighter than average, about 3 billion shares.

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Judge denies bid for Nativity displays in Santa Monica

A person jogs by last year's Nativity scene in Palisades Park. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times / November 19, 2012)

By Martha Groves

November 19, 2012, 1:40 p.m.

The city of Santa Monica can bar seasonal displays, including a Nativity scene that has appeared in Palisades Park for nearly 60 years, a federal judge ruled Monday.

In a closely watched case that has attracted national attention, Judge Audrey B. Collins denied a request from the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee to erect multiple large displays depicting the story of the birth of Jesus in the park overlooking the ocean. The coalition of churches has erected the displays every December since the 1950s.

But last year, after requests for display spots exceeded the space allotted, the city held a lottery to allocate spaces. Atheists won 18 of 21 spots. A Jewish group won another. The traditional Nativity story that used to take up 14 displays was crammed into two.

Controversy erupted, and as a result, the city decided the lottery would become increasingly costly. Last June, the City Council voted to ban all private unattended displays.

In October, Nativity scene proponents filed suit in federal court to allow the traditional Christian displays to continue. In a 27-page tentative ruling, Collins denied the group permission to erect their displays this year while the case is pending.

"The atheists won," said William Becker, attorney for the Nativity group. He then went on to compare the city to Pontius Pilate, the judge at Jesus' trial, saying: "It's a shame about Christmas. Pontius Pilate was exactly the same kind of administrator."

Santa Monica's attorney, Barry A. Rosenbaum, said the city is "very pleased" with the ruling. The judge, he said, "understood the government interests and that [groups wanting to put up displays] have a number of alternatives to erect displays." 

All the parties are due back in court Dec. 3, when the judge will hear additional arguments in the case.

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Hollywood Reporter addresses role in Blacklist era

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The son of The Hollywood Reporter founder Billy Wilkerson is apologizing for his father's and the trade paper's role in the 1947 Hollywood Blacklist that destroyed the careers of writers, actors and directors accused of having communist ties.

In an article published Monday by The Hollywood Reporter, Willie Wilkerson, 61, calls the Blacklist era "Hollywood's Holocaust" and says, "On the eve of this dark 65th anniversary, I feel an apology is necessary."

He says his father supported the Blacklist to exact revenge against the Hollywood titans he felt denied him entry to their club when he wanted to establish a movie studio in the late 1920s. Billy Wilkerson founded The Hollywood Reporter in 1930, and after World War II, used the paper as a vehicle for a series of editorials attacking communist sympathizers and their influence in Hollywood.

"In his maniacal quest to annihilate the studio owners, he realized that the most effective retaliation was to destroy their talent," Willie Wilkerson writes. "In the wake of this emerging hysteria surrounding communism, the easiest way to crush the studio owners was to simply call their actors, writers and directors communists. Unfortunately, they would become the collateral damage of history. Apart from being charged with contempt, for refusing to name names, none of these individuals committed any crimes."

Studios dominated the industry and denied work to those named on the Blacklist. Some writers worked under pseudonyms. Many actors and their families moved overseas to look for work. The Hollywood Reporter named names and ceaselessly covered the issue. The publication also details its role in the Blacklist era for the first time in a lengthy article published Monday.

"Any man or woman who, under the guise of freedom of speech, or the cloak of the Bill of Rights, or under the pseudo protection of being a liberal, says things, causes things to be said, or who actually is involved with many of the conspiracies that have now infested this great land of ours, has no place among us, be he commie or what," Billy Wilkerson wrote on Nov. 5, 1947. "He or she should be rushed out of our business."

The first Hollywood Blacklist was published Nov. 25, 1947.

Willie Wilkerson says it's possible that his father would have apologized for "creating something that devastated so many careers" had he lived long enough. He died in 1962, two years after the Blacklist was broken.

His son writes: "On behalf of my family, and particularly my late father, I wish to convey my sincerest apologies and deepest regrets to those who were victimized by this unfortunate incident."

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .

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Online:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

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