Sports agent Leigh Steinberg files for bankruptcy

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2006, file photo, celebrity sports agent Leigh Steinberg poses during a ceremony at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Steinberg filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 saying he takes responsibility for debts of several million dollars. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2006, file photo, celebrity sports agent Leigh Steinberg poses during a ceremony at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Steinberg filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 saying he takes responsibility for debts of several million dollars. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File)

(AP) ? Sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who represented many of the NFL's biggest stars and was the inspiration for the movie "Jerry Maguire," has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Known as the first super agent, Steinberg said Wednesday that he takes responsibility for debts of several million dollars.

"I just lost track while I was in rehab," Steinberg told The Associated Press. He said he struggled with alcohol for years but has been sober since 2010.

His attorneys filed the Chapter 7 petition late Wednesday in federal bankruptcy court in Santa Ana, Calif.

The filing comes weeks after an Orange County Superior Court commissioner authorized but didn't issue a bench warrant for Steinberg after he failed to appear in court in a case involving a $1.4 million debt. Steinberg said his attorney agreed to change the date of a hearing, told him not to show up and then failed to reschedule.

Court documents show a default judgment ordered Steinberg to pay the Irvine Co. for office space he leased in Newport Beach.

The agent said his debts are larger than the $1.4 million owed to the Irvine Co., and that his attorneys are still compiling the total. He said his only assets are some stock.

Steinberg has represented NFL stars such as Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Steve Young and Ben Roethlisberger. He was the inspiration for Tom Cruise's character in 1996's "Jerry Maguire." The movie turned "Show me the money!" into an enduring catchphrase.

Steinberg issued a statement shortly after the filing.

He said he delayed filing for bankruptcy for several years "because of my moral and legal obligation to people who advanced me funds or performed services in good faith. But the constant and aggressive collection efforts and press initiatives undertaken by creditors have harassed my family and prevented me from working to be able to pay these debts."

He said prospective clients have been pushed away after hearing of his debts.

"It doesn't seem logical to prevent a person who owes you money from working in their chosen field by attempting to ruin his reputation, but that is what has happened," he said. "I have lived with this in recent years, and it is time to follow a more constructive path."

Steinberg said he struggled with alcohol. In the past five or six years, "I began to check out episodically for short periods. My judgment and oversight of my affairs was not consistent and at times impaired. I am responsible for my own addiction ? no one forced me to drink ? and in revealing my struggle with alcoholism, I am in no way justifying or excusing my circumstance. But I discuss it to provide context as well as understanding and inspiration to those who also battle addictive behavior. I surrendered to the reality that I was an alcoholic and my behavior was impacting family and associates in March 2010. I surrendered to the concept that until I tackled alcoholism, other priorities needed to be put aside. ... I am responsible for these debts. But my priority was sobriety, and I have been continuously sober since that time."

The agent said the underlying cause of his inability to earn money and resolve his debt situation occurred in 2003.

"One of my employees admitted that ? without my knowledge ? he had taken a $300,000 loan from one of our NFL clients," Steinberg said in his statement. "It was exactly the kind of transaction that I had specifically forbidden, and it violated NFL Players Association regulations. The NFL player understandably fired me, then went to a rival agency. As a matter of background, you should know that this company is run by an agent who used to work at our firm. We filed a lawsuit to challenge the way this agent had left our firm, and we won. Two attorneys on the losing side are involved in the current case concerning my debt."

Ten years ago, Steinberg had a bitter legal fight with former partner David Dunn, who took dozens of NFL player clients and formed his own agency.

"Since then, I have made repeated offers to repay the player far more than the original $300,000," the statement continued.

"There are many legal complexities, but in a nutshell, his representatives ? the ones who lost the lawsuit ? have insisted on collecting monies without informing the NFLPA that the matter is settled. This point is crucial because I did not apply for recertification by the union after one of their agents (and his wife) filed suit against me in 2006. If I cannot be recertified, I cannot work in the field that I have been trained in, which is to the benefit of this rival agent. Keeping me out of business seems to be a priority above collecting the debt, and although substantial payments have been made, the demand is now four times the original amount. My attempts to rebuild my life have been hamstrung.

"I have attempted to make amends for damage my drinking caused to others. I believe that I have many productive years ahead and hope through this process that once again I will be able to make a positive impact on athletes and the world."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-12-Leigh%20Steinberg-Bankruptcy/id-fcd095b6ce504f75904166ad4e563794

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T-Mobile announces the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, available 'later this year'

Hot on the heels of the Galaxy S II's success, T-Mobile's getting another Samsung 4G device brewed up. The new smartphone, called the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, isn't set to be available until later this year, which unfortunately means we're getting very little details at the moment. According to the press release, the Blaze will have a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 42Mbps HSPA+ and a "brilliant Super AMOLED touch screen." Again, this is all we have been given at the moment, and we're confused by the fact that the display doesn't have an HD in front nor a Plus in back, as well as the phone's use of "Galaxy S" in the title. As always, it's our hope that this CES announcement will be shortly followed up with an opportunity to get some hands-on time and more details, and we'll keep you posted with any updates as they come in.

Continue reading T-Mobile announces the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, available 'later this year'

T-Mobile announces the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, available 'later this year' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/galaxy-s-blaze-4g-t-mobile/

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China uses trade to influence Taiwan election (AP)

XUEJIA, Taiwan ? China is an undeclared but widely acknowledged player in Taiwan's upcoming election.

Saturday's vote pits a China-favored incumbent against a challenger whose party on paper rejects the unification with China that Beijing wants.

Beijing hopes that Taiwanese voters will think of the benefits trade with China brings.

It has reduced import duties on orchids, tropical fruits and other regional specialties from Taiwan as part of a landmark 2010 trade agreement. Fish farmers on the terraced plains above Taiwan's west coast are exporting tons of sweet, flaky milkfish to the mainland, thanks to the lower duties.

The latest polls show a neck and neck race.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120109/ap_on_re_as/as_taiwan_voting_china

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Few part-timers, more working multiple jobs

By Eve Tahmincioglu

Hooray! There are fewer of you working part time.?

Boo! More of you are working multiple jobs.?

The job market continues to be a mixed bag for millions of workers across the country.?

On a positive note, when workers are able to clock in more than 35 hours a week after being forced to take fewer hours because of the tough economy, that?s good news for the economy and for employees.?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the number of part-time workers in the United States working reduced hours because they couldn?t get full-time work or had their hours reduced by their employers, declined by 371,000 to 8.1 million in December.?

It?s unclear, however, whether this latest government data on part-timers is a light at the end of the crummy labor market tunnel, or continued murkiness. The agency doesn?t track whether those individuals ended up with full-time gigs, or lost their part-time jobs.?

?It could be that some people working part time involuntarily had their hours restored to full time or it could also be that they became unemployed,? said Jim Borbely, an economist for the BLS.?

Despite this, Borbely said the dip in part timers could indicate ?a labor picture that?s improving? because the overall number of jobless in December declined to 13.3 million from 14.3 million in the same month last year.?

Not everyone is hopeful.?

?I hate to be a cynic, but I want to look behind the numbers,? said Ellen Ernst Kossek, a human resources professor at Michigan State University?s School of Human Resources & Labor Relations. ?Are they making the same money they did before, or did they take full-time jobs at lower wages. It?s about the quality of those jobs.??

In addition, she pointed out that more and more employees are taking on multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. ?A lot of companies are holding the line on wages for hourly workers and on overtime,? she said, and that?s forced many people to take on additional work.?

More than 7 million Americans were working two or more jobs in December, according to the BLS. That ups from 6.8 million in 2010 and 6 million in 2009.?

?Multiple jobs means increased stress and complexity for workers and that?s not good for health and families,? she maintained. ?Longer term, we need better quality jobs, economically.??

?

Source: http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/12/10119448-few-part-timers-but-more-are-working-multiple-jobs

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Sony introduces glasses-free 3D TV at CES

Despite being one of the biggest players in glasses-required 3D TVs, Sony is stepping outside the box.

The company has just introduced a new 46-inch TV that provides 3D visuals without the need for glasses. It uses a technology called autostereoscopic 3D, which presents the illusion of depth by incorporating thousands of tiny mirrors within the display itself.

The technology is able to trick your eyes into thinking that the display is more like a window than a flat-screen TV.

There were a lot of advancements in glasses-free 3D tech last year. We saw a start-up company at the mobile CTIA trade show and were blown away with its displays that literally do make it appear that objects are jumping out of the screen.

There used to be a concern that this technology was not suitable for large-screen devices and could not be viewed properly unless viewers were looking at the display head-on.

This has been one of the biggest issues, for example, for the Nintendo 3DS.

Those problems have become less of a concern with advancements in autostereoscopic standards. At the same time, the market for glasses-required 3D TVs has been somewhat dumbed down as low-cost sets have provided competition against the more powerful and sophisticated models.

But if there's anything the 3D TV chapter has taught us, it's that consumers do not want to wear 3D glasses at home. Sony is definitely taking a step in the right direction.

Here's a video of the display in action, from Cnet:


?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tgdaily_all_sections/~3/t9p7VJfCr3E/60694-sony-introduces-glasses-free-3d-tv-at-ces

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U-Pass fraudsters deported to China

TransLink estimates it loses several million dollars a year in U-Pass fraud.TransLink estimates it loses several million dollars a year in U-Pass fraud. (CBC)Canadian authorities have deported a Chinese couple who stole identity information from more than 150 Simon Fraser University students, CBC News has learned.

Siyuan Gu and Jing Wang, both 31, pleaded guilty in December to using forged student ID cards to obtain TransLink U-Passes, court documents show.

The documents said that when police raided Gu and Wang's apartment they found found "some retail PIN card terminals, a pinhole camera, wireless remote transmitter and receiver, a magnetic card reader, lock picks and locksmith tools."

The also found a 500-page printout of information on SFU students.

The information was obtained from university computers that had been compromised with devices that allowed the thieves to record the keystrokes of users.

"This constituted identity information on a large number of SFU students," according to a statement of facts entered at Vancouver provincial court.

The pair obtained 128 U-Passes between September and their arrest on November 21. They had 47 forged SFU student ID cards on them when they were arrested.

Other minor theft connections

The fraud represents a loss of nearly $20,000 for TransLink.

The U-Pass system allows students to pay $30 a month for access to transit services, a greatly reduced rate from the regular $151 three-zone pass. The program is available to all eligible public, post-secondary institutions in Metro Vancouver.

Investigators involved in the case say the pair have also been connected to a number of purse and wallet thefts in Burnaby as well as thefts from mail and financial institutions. They're believed to have used information gained from stolen ID to commit fraud.

The two pleaded guilty to fraud two days before Christmas and were deported back to China Dec. 27.

Gu was in Canada on a student visa for nine years and filed forged academic and bank records with Immigration Canada.

Wang was named on his visa as his spouse.

With files from the CBC's Jason Proctor

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/01/09/bc-sfu-upass-fraud.html?cmp=rss

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I want to believe ... in Tebow

He's not just a God-fearing QB with bad mechanics and a verb for a name: he's a playoff winner

Image: TebowGetty Images

Tim Tebow is the first Heisman Trophy-snagging quarterback since Carson Palmer to rack up a winning record in his second year as a starter.

OPINION

updated 1:00 p.m. ET Jan. 10, 2012

Jelisa Castrodale

For nine seasons on The X-Files, Fox Mulder, the FBI?s in-house alien chaser, kept the same poster tacked in his office, one with a grainy shot of an Ed Wood-ish flying saucer hovering above the words ?I Want to Believe.?

Mulder knew the truth was out there ? another of the show?s official slogans ? and spent the better part of the '90s trying to prove it. I have that poster in my office and, for the duration of this NFL season, I?ve considered taping Tim Tebow?s lightly bearded face to the top of the UFO. For me, the motto is the same: I Want to Believe.

I want to believe the AFC wild-card game was real, that the still-smoldering wreckage of my overworked Twitter timeline really was because Tebow led the Broncos to a 29-23 overtime win.

I want to believe Tebow finally did it, that he finally put together a four-quarter-and-11-second performance that didn?t need an index of excuses, explanations or a ?Yes, but ?.? He was 10 for 21 for 316 yards and two touchdowns, and added 10 carries for 50 more yards and a rushing TD. His game-winning scoring pass to Demaryius Thomas put them in the record books with the longest pass (80 yards) and shortest overtime (11 seconds) in playoff history.

(And forget Tebow for a second. The Broncos? most impressive left arm was the one that Thomas planted in Steelers CB Ike Taylor?s sternum. Freddy Krueger didn?t get burned as bad as Taylor did Sunday.)

?I have great teammates, and they make me look a lot better than I am,? Tebow told NFL.com?s Stacey Dales after the game.

Maybe. But after Sunday, Tebow and his orange and blue teammates have four overtime victories and more comebacks than the McRib.?

Tebow has become the first Heisman-snagging quarterback since Carson Palmer to rack up a winning record in his second year as a starter, and no other Heisman QB ? not Palmer, not Plunkett, not Staubach ? took his team to the playoffs in their sophomore season. (Although Staubach did win a Super Bowl in Year 3. Your move, Tim.) And No. 15 now has the same number of career playoff wins as Mark Bulger, Jay Cutler and Tony Romo ? with one more than Matt Ryan and Matthew Stafford.

I want to believe we can stop talking about Tebow?s throwing motion. Yes, he has ridiculous mechanics and sometimes his passes drift and wobble like the Rugrats balloons on the Macy?s parade route. But what he lacks in technique, he makes up in film study and practice time. He knows his limitations and, for the most part, gets the most out of his inefficient left arm.?

I want to believe Tebow has finally pressed the mute button on his critics, on everyone from the Chicago Bears to Bill Maher to Merril Hoge, who spent the first four months of the season tearing into Tebow like Grendel with an oversized Windsor knot.

What Hoge didn?t notice while he was busy frothing at the mouth was that Tebow?s numbers are comparable to the NFL?s other second-year quarterbacks. His passer rating is better than St. Louis' Sam Bradford and Arizona?s John Skelton and he?s ranked 28th to Colt McCoy?s 27th. (But Hoge has a point about completion percentage: Tebow's 46.5 percent in the regular season ranks below Skelton, Bradford, every other starting quarterback, the linoleum in the team laundry room and the chubby kid in the NFL Play 60 commercials).

BUT STILL: Tebow has helped Denver double its win total from last season and make its first postseason appearance since 2005. I want to believe that?s enough.?

I want to believe everyone else will believe, too, not in Tebow the Lucky Religious Rabbit?s Foot or Tebow the Allegory or Tebow(ing) the Action Verb. Tim Tebow is no longer a novelty. He?s a playoff-winning quarterback, one who will be packing his cable knit beanie and his Norelco beard trimmer for a trip to Foxboro.?

The Broncos already are nearly two-touchdown underdogs to the No. 1 seed Patriots, the same Patriots that already dismantled Denver once this season. There?s a chance it could happen again, that the clock ticking toward Tebow Time might be helplessly blinking 12:00 by halftime.

But ? until then ? I want to believe.

And I will.

Jelisa Castrodale has learned a lot about life by making a mess of her own. Read more at jelisacastrodale.com, follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/gordonshumway, or contact her at


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I want to believe ... in Tebow

Castrodale: Tim Tebow has helped Denver double its win total from last year and make its first postseason appearance since 2005. I want to believe that?s enough.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45942166/ns/sports-nfl/

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Video: First lady, aides sometimes clash

A new book about the Obamas claims that first lady Michelle Obama is a lot more involved in her husband?s administration than previously thought, and that has led to clashes with aides to the president at times. NBC?s Andrea Mitchell ?reports.

Related Links:

http://www.facebook.com/nbcnightlynews

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45920214/

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Oklahoma RB Brandon Williams transfers to Texas A&M

Oklahoma freshman running back Brandon Williams will transfer to Texas A&M, he confirmed to AggieYell.com, A&M?s Rivals website.

Williams, from Brookshire-Royal High School, said his primary motivation for transferring was to be closer to his 2-year-old daughter. He?ll have to sit out 2012. Williams asked coach Bob Stoops to be released from his scholarship, with hopes of transferring to either Baylor or A&M. Stoops said no to Big 12-rival Baylor, but gave the move to A&M the green light.

?I didn?t really care about me having playing time at Oklahoma,? said Williams, who enrolled early at Oklahoma. ?This has to do with her, not Oklahoma. If I have to sit out this year, it would be worth it because I would be with her. I talked to my mom and she thought that it would be a good idea.?

Source: http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2012-01-09/oklahoma-rb-brandon-williams-transfers-to-texas-am

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