Say Anything Blog

BEAVERTON, Ore. – A new invention could revolutionize solar energy – and it was made by a 12-year-old in Beaverton.

Despite his age, William Yuan has already studied nuclear fusion and nanotechnology, and he is on his way to solving the energy crisis.

It all started with Legos - after he learned nanotechnology to make robots take off. The seventh grader then got an idea inspired by the sun.

“Solar it seems underused, and there are only a few problems with it,” Yuan said.

Encouraged by his Meadow Park Middle School science teacher, the 12-year-old developed a 3D solar cell.

“Regular solar cells are only 2D and only allow light interaction once,” he said.

And his cell can absorb both visible and UV light.

“I started to realize I was actually onto something,” Yuan said.

At first, he couldn’t believe his calculations.

Al Milian, a prominent South Florida lawyer and former Broward County prosecutor, was arrested on drunk driving charges in Fort Lauderdale early Friday, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

BSO arrested Milian after he crashed into the lawn of a two-floor apartment building along Southeast Sixth Street and U.S. 1. He was unscathed, but his small gray Honda ran down a sign, damaged sprinklers and ruined landscaping. The damage was estimated at about $4,000, according to the building’s owner, Susanne Morton.

...As a Republican candidate, Milian was twice trounced in his bid to defeat Democratic Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle in 2000 and 2004.

One week ago, after the Republican National Convention had nominated John McCain and Sarah Palin, the Republican ticket enjoyed a 53-34 lead among white women over Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, according to polling conducted for CBS and the New York Times.

What a difference a week can make.

The new CBS/New York Times poll has the Biden-Obama ticket leading among white women by a 47-45 margin.

That’s a 13 point jump for the Democrats, and it has radically shifted the character of the race for the presidency.

Where a week ago, the average of national polls had the McCain-Palin ticket leading by almost three points, the Obama-Biden ticket is now up by two points.

And the momentum is entirely in the Democratic direction.

Following a state Supreme Court ruling Thursday, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi agreed to reverse his earlier action and move the Senate special election race close to the top of November’s ballot.

“The governor is going to comply with the ruling,” Barbour spokesman Pete Smith told CQ Politics. “The race will be near the top.”

The office of Republican Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann confirmed Thursday they are “working to comply” with today’s ruling.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Thursday on where the U.S. Senate special election is required by law to be placed on November’s ballot.

“We find that the special election for United States Senator must be listed in the first category of the ballot, along with all other national elections, and the law assumes the Governor and Secretary of State will follow the law,” Justice Jess H. Dickinson wrote in his ruling.

Republican Gov. Haley Barbour selected the ballot design Sept. 9 at a meeting of the Mississippi Election Commission, on which he and Hosemann make up a decisive majority over Democrat Jim Hood, the state’s Attorney General. Barbour placed the Senate race of Republican Sen. Roger Wicker and former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove race near the bottom of the ballot. The special election is to fill the remainder of the term of Trent Lott , who resigned last year.

Palin asked daughters on veep vote after they were already in OH for announcement

Appearing on Fox last night, Sarah Palin told Sean Hannity a heartwarming story of how she asked her teenage daughters for their opinion before accepting the vp offer.

“So ask the girls what they thought and they’re like, ‘Absolutely, let’s do this, Mom,’” Palin recounted of her daughters, Bristol and Willow.

Yet, according to the campaign-provided timeline of how Palin’s selection came about, her kids only found out the big news after they were spirited from Alaska to Ohio for the announcement.

“While there, Governor Palin’s children, who had been told they were going to Ohio to celebrate their parents’ wedding anniversary, were told for the first time that their mother would be a nominee for Vice President of the United States of America,” said the official timeline, as released by McCain’s campaign last month.

Todd Palin, in a separate interview with Fox this week, also said the kids were not told about the decision until after they left Alaska.

Asked about the discrepancy, Palin spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said: “She asked the girls to vote once they arrived in Ohio.”

When it was noted that, that would have been after the decision had already been made, Schmitt said Palin was still in Arizona at the time.

This, of course, doesn’t change the fact that the children were already in Ohio for the express purpose of announcing he news.

Records reveal Palin’s push for earmarks

...In a monthly status report to the city on March 7, 2000, newly hired “City Lobbyist” Steve Silver describes how the Palin administration had requested $6.6 million in federal earmarks for water and sewer improvements for Wasilla, and another $1 million for police equipment. Mayor Palin reviewed and signed the lobbyist’s report, dated April 5, 2000.

Those earmark requests have not previously been disclosed, said Keith Ashdown, chief investigator for the non-profit Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. Ashdown said the lobbyist’s report offers a rare window into a normally closed-door process. “The document you’ve found is a peek behind the curtain of how earmarks get approved in Washington,” he said.

Steve Silver, the Wasilla lobbyist, is a former top staffer for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who now is under federal indictment for allegedly failing to disclose thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his Alaska home. He has pleaded not guilty. Under Palin, the city paid Silver about $40,000 a year to lobby on behalf of Wasilla (the contract began years before Stevens was indicted.)

In Silver’s April 2000 memo to Palin, he writes that he had spent the month of February making appropriations requests to Sen. Stevens, a proud distributor of earmarks to his homestate of Alaska. “I am very hopeful that a good funding package will be approved later in the year,” Silver writes.

Silver also attaches the five-page letter he sent directly to Senator Stevens and his staff, requesting the federal earmarks. Silver breaks down why Wasilla, “one of the fastest growing communities in Alaska,” needs federal help, and says the small town “has tremendous needs which the State of Alaska cannot meet.”

“This further confirms that Palin was very supportive of the earmark system,” Ashdown said. “She was getting very specific feedback from this lobbyist.”

In the letter, Silver asks Stevens for $6.6 million for wells, a pump house, a reservoir and piping to improve water and sewer service for the city of 7,000 people. Silver then asks his former boss for police equipment for Wasilla, including $100,000 worth of radar units, bulletproof vests, Remington shotguns, Colt rifles and other gear. (The police earmark seems to have shrunk from the initial $1 million request.)

It’s unclear how successful Palin was in 2000 in securing earmarks for her state, Ashdown said. Part of the problem many critics have with earmarks is that they often are handed out in near secrecy, with few fingerprints left behind.

But Ashdown said that his research shows that as Mayor of Wasilla, between 1996-2002, Palin helped get nearly $27 million in earmarked federal funding. As previously reported, Palin and Silver were instrumental in bringing in millions for a local commuter rail project, a regional dispatch center, bus and airport facilities and other Wasilla projects.

In the lobbying documents, Silver also encourages Palin and other city officials to visit Washington, D.C., to meet with Sen. Stevens and the rest of the Alaska political delegation. “It is always a good idea for representatives of the City to meet personally with them during the process on their turf, so to speak,” he writes.

As the Alaska papers have reported, Palin took him up on the invitation and began making regular D.C. trips. “It was about being face to face with those who were actually writing the budget,” Palin told the Anchorage Daily News in 2006.

“We’ve been really successful getting earmarks,” Wasilla public works director Archie Giddings added. “If we get a federal earmark, it’s a direct result of lobbying,” Giddings said. “You don’t get an earmark unless you lobby for it.”

“The regulators were asleep, my friends,” McCain said. “The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president. And in my view has betrayed the public trust. If I were president today, I would fire him.”

But while the president nominates and the Senate confirms the SEC chair, a commissioner of an independent regulatory commission cannot be removed by the president.

From time to time, presidents have attempted to remove commissioners who have proven “uncooperative.” However, the courts have general upheld the independence of commissioners. In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt fired a member of the Federal Trade Commission and the Supreme Court ruled the president acted unconstitutionally. 

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was to star at two major California fundraisers and an Orange County rally for 15,000 next week, has canceled her two-day swing through the Golden State, campaign sources said.

The change is a shocker, because Palin’s presence had electrified the GOP base in California. Party insiders were distributing 15,000 tickets to her Sept. 26 rally in Orange County—and fundraisers reported an almost instantaneous sell-out of her two $1,000-a-head Sept. 25 fundraising events in Orange County and Santa Clara.

GALVESTON — Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas on Monday ordered all city employees not to talk to news reporters. She did not say when that order would be lifted.

Thomas and City Manager Steve LeBlanc will be the only officials allowed to talk to reporters. City spokeswoman Mary Jo Naschke vehemently denied the city was trying to clamp down on coverage.

She said emergency personnel and city employees were too busy to talk to reporters. Naschke also said the city had been accommodating news reporters by allowing them access to the island when others weren’t allowed, giving them escorted rides to damaged areas and allowing them to move about outside during a curfew.

But at a noon press conference Monday, Thomas and LeBlanc talked for less than 30 minutes and refused to answer more than five questions. Thomas said she would try to hold another conference today.

Daily News reporters who tried to speak to city employees were denied and told no one could talk except for the mayor and city manager.

“It’s the worst thing the city could do. Those who will suffer most are evacuees,” Publisher Dolph Tillotson said in a statement via text message. “The media will have to turn to other sources that might be less reliable. I can’t imagine a dumber move under these extreme circumstances.”

Before the press conference Monday, LeBlanc asked reporters whether he could go off the record. Some television crews agreed and turned their cameras off. LeBlanc then asked news crews to urge their bosses and managers to show more coverage of the island on television because evacuees didn’t care about what was happening in Houston.

Reporters staying at the city’s emergency operations center at the San Luis Hotel were asked to leave Monday. San Luis hotel owner Tilman Fertitta was housing reporters at the nearby Hilton Hotel, which he also owns.

Reporters would be allowed on the island only if they had proper identification, Thomas said. She didn’t clarify what that meant.

Reporters were also forbidden from visiting areas on the far West End, Thomas said. She did not explain why.

UPDATE: Crystal Beach and Bolivar are the story that is not getting told by the media. Stories are being told of a Homeland Security no-fly-zone over the Bolivar Peninsula. The aerial pictures linked here were taken by a private aircraft.

RebTex, what do you know about this?

Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, a maverick Republican from Maryland, endorsed Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president in an interview Wednesday with WYPR, Baltimore’s National Public Radio station.

Gilchrest, who lost a primary campaign and is retiring from Congress, has already endorsed the Democrat running for his seat, Frank Kratovil. Justifying his endorsement of Obama, Gilchrest said that “we can’t use four more years of the same kind of policy that’s somewhat haphazard, which leads to recklessness.”

Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), “have the breadth of experience. I think they’re prudent. They’re knowledgable.”

Gilchrest’s reference to prudence may be an allusion to a widely-circulated op-ed written by conservative David Brooks, who questioned whether Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had the necessary wisdom and prudence.

Cut from the original:

...the Democratic National Committee, using publicly available records, has identified 177 lobbyists working for the McCain campaign as either aides, policy advisers, or fundraisers.

Of those 177 lobbyists, according to a Mother Jones review of Senate and House records, at least 83 have in recent years lobbied for the financial industry McCain now attacks...

Phil Anderson: American Council of Life Insurers, Aetna, AIG, New York Life, MassMutual, VISA

Rebecca Anderson: Aegon, American Council of Life Insurers, Cigna, Barclays, Credit Suisse First Boston, HSBC

Stanton Anderson: The Debt Exchange

David Beightol: Allstate, Amerigroup, Charles Schwab, HSBC

Rhonda Bentz: VISA

Wayne Berman: American Council of Life Insurers, AIG, Americhoice, Shinsei Bank, Blackstone, Carlyle Group, Broidy Capital Management, Credit Suisse Securities, Highstar Capital, VISA, Ameriquest Mortgage, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Fitch Ratings

Charlie Black: JP Morgan, Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, National Association of Mortgage Brokers

Judy Black: Colorado Credit Union League, Genworth Financial, Bay Harbour Management, Merrill Lynch

Kirk Blalock: Credit Union National Association, Financial Executives International, American Insurance Association, Mutual of Omaha, Zurich Financial Service Group, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

Carlos Bonilla: Financial Services Roundtable, Freddie Mac

Christine Burgeson: Citigroup

Mark Buse: Freddie Mac, Goldman Sachs, Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

Nicholas Calio: Citigroup, Managed Fund Association, Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch, The Investment Company Institute, TIAA-CRE, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association

Ben Nighthorse Campbell: Amscot Financial Corporation, Community Financial Services Association, Fidelity National Financial

Andrew Cantor: American Insurance Association, Merrill Lynch

Alberto Cardenas: Fannie Mae

James Courter: Goldman Sachs, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Investment Company Institute, Merrill Lynch

David Crane: Financial Services Roundtable, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Bank of America, Association of Corporate Credit Unions, Freddie Mac

Dan Crippen: Merrill Lynch, National Multi-Housing Council

Arthur Culvahouse: Fannie Mae

Bryan Cunningham: Arch Capital Group

Alfonse D’Amato: AIG, Freddie Mac

Doug Davenport: Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Goldman Sachs, VISA

Ashley Davis: Prudential Financial, American Financial Group, American Premier Underwriters, Great American Insurance Company

Mimi Dawson: MassMutual

Melissa Edwards: Freddie Mac, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Access to Capital Coalition

Chris Fidler: American Bankers Association, Milcom Venture Partners, National Association Real Estate Investment Trusts

Samuel Geduldig: American Bankers Association, American Institute of CPAs, America Gains, Berkshire Hathaway, Consumer Bankers Association, Ernst & Young, Financial Services Roundtable, Investment Company Institute, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Prudential Financial, Sovereign Investment Council, Fidelity Investments, FMR Corp.

Benjamin Ginsberg: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, AIG Technical Services

David Girard-Dicarlo: American Financial Group, American Premier Underwriters

Juleanna Glover Weiss: RJI Capital, American Institute of CPAs, BNP Paribas, Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Slade Gorton: Allstate Insurance, Hannan Armstrong Capital

Phil Gramm: UBS Americas

John Green: Laredo National Bank, Alternative Investment Management Association, AIG, Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group, Fannie Mae, Icahn Associates, FMR Corp., AFLAC, VISA

Janet Grissom: American Institute of CPAs, NYSE, Merrill Lynch

Kristen Gullott: San Diego Credit Union

Kent Hance: Stanford Financial Group, Municipal Capital Markets Group, Inc.

Vicki Hart: American Financial Services Association, Citigroup, Investment Company Institute, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, New York Stock Exchange, VISA, Carlyle Group, Credit Suisse, Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, Goldman Sachs, National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders, Stanford Group, Lloyd’s of London, National City Corp.

Richard Hohlt: Capmark Financial Group, Fannie Mae, JP Morgan Chase and Co., Student Loan Marketing Association, Washington Mutual, Guaranty Bank & Trust, Peachtree Settlement Funding, Dime Savings Bank of New York

Gaylord Hughey: Heartland Security Insurance Group

Kate Hull: Credit Union National Association, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Zurich Financial Services, American Insurance Association, Financial Executives International

James Hyland: American Insurance Association, Seattle Home Loan Bank, Self Help Credit Union, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, Merrill Lynch, Mortgage Investors Corp., Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, Freddie Mac, New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup, VISA

Aleix Jarvis: Credit Union National Association, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Financial Executives International, Mutual of Omaha, American Insurance Association, Zurich Financial Services

Greg Jenner: American Council of Life Insurers, JG Wentworth, UBS, VISA, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Frank Keating: American Council of Life Insurers

Steven Kuykendall: California Bankers Association

William Lesher: Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Commerce Ventures, Rabobank International

Thomas Loeffler: Citigroup, Fannie Mae, Investment Company Institute, World Savings and Loan Association, United Services Automobile Association (USAA)

Kelly Lugar: RJI Capital Strategies

Peter Madigan: Arthur Andersen, Bank of New York, Broadridge Securities Processing, Charles Schwab, Deloitte and Touche, Goldman Sachs, International Employee Stock Option Coalition, Mastercard, NYSE, Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch, PNC Bank

Mary Mann: MassMutual

Paul Martino: Morgan Stanley, Baker Tilly

Jana McKeag: Venture Catalyst

Alison McSlarrow: Fannie Mae, Hartford

Mike Meece: Georgetown Partners

David Metzner: Ernst & Young, Harbinger Capital Investments, Prudential, Public Financial Management, Western Union

Susan Molinari: Freddie Mac, American Land Title Association, Association of Consumer Credit Unions, Beacon Capital Partners, College Loan Corp, Coventry First, E-Trade, Financial Services Roundtable, Rent-A-Center

John Moran: Cerberus Capital Management, American Council of Life Insurers, Accenture

John Napier: Freddie Mac

Susan Nelson: AIG, San Antonio Credit Union

Paul Otellini: Ernst & Young, Financial Services Forum

Steve Perry: Charles Schwab, Hoover Partners, HSBC, National Stock Exchange

Nancy Pfotenhauer: American Land Title Association, Mortgage Bankers Association

Elise Pickering-Finley: Credit Suisse, DE Shaw, Hartford Financial Services, Research In Motion, Retail Industry Lenders Association, URL Mutual

James Pitts: Advanced Association for Life Underwriting, AETNA, American Council of Life Insurers, AIG, Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, Debt Advisory International, Financial Services Coordinating Council, GE Financial Assurance, Hartford Life, Jefferson Pilot Financial, Kenwood Investments, MassMutual, Mutual of Omaha, New York Life, UNUM Provident, VISA, PMI Group

Tim Powers: AP Capital, Genworth Financial, Retail Industry Lenders Association, E-LOAN, General Electric Mortgage Insurance

Walter Price: Wachovia

Sloan Rappoport: Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. (FBR), Trafelet Delta Funds

Hans Rickhoff: Capital One, Investment Company Institute, United Services Automobile Association (USAA)

Kathleen Shanahan: New York Stock Exchange

Andrew Shore: Accenture, Retail Industry Lenders Association, Barclays, Bond Market Association, Credit Suisse, TPG Capital

Katie Stahl: Alliance for Investment Transparency, Ares Management, Fairfax Financial Holdings, Uhlmann Financial Group

Milly Stanges: TIAA-CREF

Aquiles Suarez: Fannie Mae

Don Sundquist: Freddie Mac, The Hartford

Peter Terpeluk: JP Morgan Chase, Ernst & Young, Prudential

Fred Thompson: Equitas

Jeri Thompson: American Insurance Association

John Timmons: National Association of Federal Credit Unions

William Timmons Sr.: American Council of Life Insurers, Citigroup, Dun & Bradstreet, Freddie Mac, Vanguard Group

Vin Weber: Agstar Financial Services, AKT Investment Corp., American Institute of CPAs, Ernst & Young, Freddie Mac, Louis Dreyfus Corp, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Jeffery Weiss: JP Morgan

Tony Williams: Russell Investment Group, American Life Inc., Northwestern Mutual