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Jack Lew's loopy signature may have to go

10 hrs.

This loopy mark is the signature of Jack Lew, the man who will reportedly be nominated as early as tomorrow to replace Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary.

But don't expect to see those squiggles on your dollar bills.

Lew is very likely to change the way he signs his name if he is named as Treasury Secretary. At least, that's what Tim Geithner did.

Last year, Kai Ryssdal at Marketplace radio interviewed Geithner about the change in his signature.

"He had to change his autograph ? when his signature was added to the storied list of those featured on our nation's currency," Marketplace reports.

Ryssdal, who preferred the old signature, pressed Geithner on the decision.

"Well, I think on the dollar bill I had to write something where people could read my name. That's the rationale," Geithner said.

So, as disappointing as this news is, we probably won't get those awesome Lew loopty-loos on our dollars.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/jack-lews-loopy-signature-may-have-go-1B7899175

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New Illinois legislature has 3 charged lawmakers

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) ? As members of Illinois' newest General Assembly took the oath of office Wednesday, the state that's still struggling to rebuild its image after two consecutive governors went to prison set yet another precedent of sorts: three sitting lawmakers facing criminal charges.

Illinois is no stranger to dramatic headlines about the nexus of politics and crime in its highest offices ? most recently former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's conviction for attempting to sell Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate seat. But experts and capitol veterans can't recall a comparable circumstance for state legislators since the early 1970s, when several were rounded up in a bribery trial involving cement trucks.

The allegations against the three officials vary widely: bribery, bank fraud and trying to bring a gun onto a plane. But experts say that while the charges differ, the accumulation and timing is damaging to Illinois as it struggles to address some of the most serious financial problems in its history.

"All this does is confirm those negative, cynical opinions that are out there," said Kent Redfield, a University of Illinois at Springfield political scientist. "Part of that reputation is well deserved ... but if you're trying to get citizens of Illinois to accept the legitimacy of the process you need as much credibility and trust as you can muster. That's in pretty low supply in state government currently."

The three legislators, Rep. Derrick Smith, Rep. La Shawn Ford and Sen. Donne Trotter, are Chicago Democrats who were all sworn into office Wednesday in Springfield. But that's where the similarities end.

Unlike Blagojevich and former Gov. George Ryan, who were accused of abusing their powers, only one of the cases involves political corruption.

Smith, who was appointed, was arrested on bribery charges and expelled from office in August, the first such expulsion in more than a century. In November voters put Smith back in office. He pleaded not guilty to allegations he accepted a bribe in exchange for supporting what he thought was a day care center's grant application.

Smith hasn't appeared publicly much since and his attorney didn't return messages. By state law, Smith can't be expelled again for the same charges.

"I am going to let bygones be bygones," he said after the election, vowing to work for his district.

The other two cases don't involve public office.

Ford, re-elected in November, faces bank fraud charges. He allegedly made false statements to a bank to get an increase on a line of credit, saying he'd use the money to fix investment properties but using the funds for expenses like car loans and his 2006 campaign. He pleaded not guilty last month. Ford says the incident was a mistake.

Trotter, a veteran lawmaker, was arrested when airport security workers found a gun in his bag. Trotter, who works in security, contends he simply forgot it was in his bag. He pleaded not guilty. His attorney didn't return calls seeking comment.

Some of the increased legal action may stem from Illinois' intensified focus against official wrongdoing.

When he took office a decade ago, former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's mission was to clean up the corruption-plagued Illinois. The investigations of Blagojevich, Ryan and Smith came under his watch. The state has also beefed up its ethics laws; last year officials abolished a program that allowed lawmakers to award college scholarships.

Authorities in Illinois' largest county say they've also focused efforts on lower level public officials, now that the focus is off governors. Gov. Pat Quinn vowed to keep the office scandal free after Blagojevich, and so far appears to have succeeded.

In 2010, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez launched a program to fight corruption involving publicly elected officials and public employees. The first sting netted six arrests including school officials. It was dubbed Operation Cookie Jar.

The approach of the program, which now counts 35 arrests, has been to work with police departments and seek out corruption instead of reacting to tips.

"In the past we were more reactive. The cases came in and we were notified," Alvarez said. "Our role is working from the bottom up."

Resources poured into fighting corruption on a federal level are more difficult to gauge. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the Chicago U.S. attorney's office, declined comment.

The Chicago area already has the most public corruption convictions of any federal jurisdiction nationwide, according to a 2012 University of Illinois at Chicago report. Since 1976, that's meant more than 1,500 convictions in the Northern District of Illinois. That includes the 2011 conviction of Blagojevich, who's serving a prison sentence, and Ryan, who was convicted of corruption in 2006 and is due to be released from prison this year.

Overall, during that time, Illinois has logged more than 1,800 corruption convictions, placing it third behind the more populous California and New York.

Even now, it's far from the only state with current lawmakers in legal trouble.

Those in South Carolina include Democratic Rep. Harold Mitchell, who pleaded guilty in November to misdemeanor tax charges and will pay a fine to avoid jail. Also that month, a jury found South Carolina Republican Rep. Kris Crawford guilty of failing to file past years' tax returns on time and must pay a fine but doesn't face jail time. California's Democratic state Sen. Roderick Wright won re-election despite fighting felony counts of voter fraud and perjury.

Reformers say they can't jump to conclusions about the three in Illinois. The charges against Trotter could amount to him forgetting about the gun and those against Ford as an honest mistake, said David Morrison, deputy director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. Smith's trial is in October.

"We need to watch the process play out," said Morrison.

___

Sophia Tareen can be reached at http://twitter.com/sophiatareen

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/illinois-legislature-3-charged-lawmakers-131102927.html

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Movie Reviews: 'Promised Land' Spotlights Social Issues - Oconee ...

A pair of corporate representatives, Steve Butler (Matt Damon) and Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand), arrive in a struggling farming community, intending to sell the locals on the idea of drilling for natural gas on their land. Initially, the local folks embrace the idea....all but a respected teacher, Frank Yates (Hal Holbrook). Others join in his objections, including environmental activist Dustin (John Krasinski) and local teacher Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt), who help rally the community against the drilling.?

Here's what the critics are saying:

Director Gus Van Sant has the challenging task of taking the divisive, high-tech practice of fracking and trying to make it not just human but cinematic. Working from a script by co-stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski, based on a story by Dave Eggers, he succeeds in fits and starts. The impoverished small town that's the tale's setting, a place in need of the kind of economic rejuvenation that extracting natural gas could provide, is full of folksy folks whose interactions with the main characters don't always ring true. ?Promised Land? has its heart on its sleeve and its pro-environment message is quite clear, but it's in the looser and more ambiguous places that the film actually works.--Christy Lemire, Associated Press

?

A social-issue drama handled in a very human way, ?Promised Land? presents its environmental concerns in a clear, upfront manner but hits some narrative and character bumps in the second half that weaken the impact of this fundamentally gentle, sympathetic work. Collaborating on a screenplay for director Gus Van Sant for the third time, after ?Good Will Hunting? and ?Gerry,? Matt Damon stars as a natural gas company rep who encounters more resistance than he bargained for when trying to buy up drilling rights on struggling farmers? land. This is something of a Frank Capra story preoccupied with the idea of what the United States used to be or is supposed to be, but the film isn?t quite rich or full-bodied enough to entirely pay off. Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

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Promised Land, which comes out nationwide January 4, follows Steve Butler and Sue Thomason (played by Damon and the always amazing Frances McDormand), two city slickers who come into the rural town of McKinley to buy up drilling rights for their company. At first, the locals seem to bite, but then at a town meeting a curmudgeonly schoolteacher confronts them over what he deems misleading practices.
All going as planned, right? Not exactly: Just as you think you know the way this movie is going to unfold, environmental activist and friendly bro Dustin Noble (played by our NYLON Guys cover star John Krasinski) shows up in town. And the thing is, though you're supposed to like this anti-fracking activist?you don't.
And that's just the beginning of the surprising twists and turns this film makes. Does it ever convince me that fracking is a necessary evil or the key to revitalizing rural America? No--but it also made me question my assumptions about who the good and bad guys are in this debate. And for the final 20 minutes alone, it's worth the price of admission. Rebecca Willa Davis, Nylon Magazine

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One of several ways this well-meaning picture falls short is in trying to sell a personal-salvation story as a salve to the conundrum it presents. As it unfolds on screen, it doesn't wash. When Damon's character jokes with DeWitt's Alice because despite the fact that she's got 80 acres of land, all she's growing is in a small garden in her yard, she tells him that the garden is for the benefit of her students. How so, Butler asks. "I'm teaching them how to take care of something," Alice replies, and as good and unaffected as Damon and DeWitt are in their roles, both of them might as well be wearing neon signs reading "FORESHADOWING" above their brows. And while the movie is potentially bracing in its assertion, in the tradition of such classic paranoid thrillers as "The Parallax View," that the lengths that a corporation will go to get its way can be sufficiently extreme to be almost beyond our ken, the demonstration of this assertion is more than a little on the pat side. Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies

"Promised Land" is rated R and runs 1 hour and 46 minutes. Check out show times at Beechwood Cinemas 11 and Carmike Cinema 12.

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Source: http://oconee.patch.com/articles/movie-reviews-promised-land-spotlights-social-issues

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