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Italian judge who acquitted Knox: American might know 'real truth' about murder

Frances D'Emilio
The Associated Press
Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Amanda Knox
© The Associated Press/The Canadian Press/Elaine ThompsonIn this Oct. 4, 2011 file photo, Amanda Knox, standing in front of her father, Curt Knox, and other supporters, speaks at a news conference shortly after her arrival at Seattle-Tacoma
An Italian judge who was part of the jury that acquitted Amanda Knox said Wednesday that she and her ex-boyfriend were cleared of murder based on the evidence, but the "real truth" could be different.

Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann said in a state TV interview that Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito may know what happened in the 2007 slaying of Meredith Kercher, Knox's British roommate.

In his first public comments since the appeals court verdict Monday, the judge stressed the ruling was the fruit of the "the truth that was created in the trial."

"But the real truth could be different," Pratillo Hellmann added. "They could also be responsible, but the proof isn't there."

Pratillo Hellmann, the presiding judge, was one of eight jurors in the case.

Knox and Sollecito have vehemently denied wrongdoing in Kercher's murder. Knox flew home to Seattle on Tuesday, her first full day out of jail since she was arrested a few days after the murder. Sollecito was resting at his hometown in southern Italy, his lawyers said.

Asked who knew the truth about the slaying, Pratillo Hellmann referred to a third defendant, Rudy Guede, who was convicted of Kercher's murder in a separate trial and is serving a 16-year sentence in Italy.
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People

Best of the Web: US: New York City Students Stage Walkouts in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street

Rebecca Nathanson
Voice Blog
Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:52 UTC
protest
© Unknown

​Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, students from around New York will walk out of their classes and march down to City Hall this afternoon.

Once at City Hall, the students will join the larger Community/Labor March to Wall Street, which already has almost 3,000 people attending on Facebook.

A few months ago, New York Students Rising, a "statewide network of students and campus-organizations dedicated to defending public higher education and empowering students in New York State," according to its website, started organizing around budget cuts in the CUNY and SUNY systems and began to plan for a fall protest. Now, thanks to a chance scheduling overlap with Occupy Wall Street, it has morphed into a solidarity march, and other universities are joining in as well.

Students from Columbia, The New School, and NYU have been organizing for the walkouts, scheduled at 3:30 p.m. (for Columbia) and 4 p.m. (for NYU and the New School), in time to get to the 4:30 march. In addition, students and teachers at CUNY and SUNY schools will be holding teach-ins prior to walking out.
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People

Best of the Web: US: Wall Street protest grows as unions swell ranks

Ray Sanchez
Reuters
Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:15 UTC
wall street
© REUTERS/Mike Segar An Occupy Wall Street protester demonstrates in Foley Square in New York City, October 5, 2011. Protesters, who have staged demonstrations about the power of the financial industry and other issues and who have camped in Zuccotti Park near Wall street for nearly three weeks were joined by hundreds of Union members in a march and demonstration through lower Manhattan.

* Protests in New York number at least 5,000

* Workers, the unemployed bolster protest numbers

Thousands of anti-Wall Street demonstrators converged on New York's financial district on Wednesday, their ranks swelled by nurses, transit workers and other union members joining the protest over economic inequality and the power of U.S. financial institutions.

The Occupy Wall Street march, estimated at about 5,000 people, was mostly orderly and the largest so far, while smaller protests were staged in cities and on college campuses across the country.

A dozen people were arrested in New York, including one who was charged with assault on a police officer who was knocked from his scooter, according to police spokesman Paul Browne. Others who were arrested had tried to break through a police barricade, Browne said.
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Dollar

US, Philadelphia: Delaware mom accused of selling baby to go to Disney World

Dave Warner
Reuters
Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
A Delaware mother of three has been charged with selling her infant son for $15,000 because she wanted money to go to Disney World, police said on Wednesday.

Bridget Wismer, 33, of Brookside Park, Delaware, sold her 1-month-old son, Christian, to a Philadelphia man, John Gavaghan, 54, said police in New Castle County, Delaware.

Wismer and Gavaghan, who knew one another through mutual friends, were both charged with conspiracy and dealing in children.

The child was in good condition when he was found in Gavaghan's home, said Corporal John Weglarz Sr.

Christian is the youngest of Wismer's three children.
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People

The Origins of Occupy Wall Street Explained

Justin Elliott
Salon.com
Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:17 UTC
Occupy-Wall-St protesters
© Reuters/Brendan McDermid
In July Adbusters, a Vancouver-based publication known for its incisive critiques of capitalism, included a poster in that month's magazine that read simply:
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET

September 17th. Bring tent.

www.occupywallst.org
In response to the call, several loose-knit groups of organizers got involved and hundreds of people showed up on Wall Street on Sept. 17. A few weeks later, Occupy Wall Street is now spreading around the country and attracting intense interest from the media.

I spoke to Adbusters co-founder and editor in chief Kalle Lasn about the practical and ideological origins of the movement and about the continuing debate over its demands. The following transcript of our conversation has been edited for length.
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Wall Street

Memo To The Media: It's Not 'Anti-Capitalist' To Protest An Industry That Was Saved By Trillions Of Taxpayer Dollars

Zaid Jilani
Think Progress
Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:54 UTC
occupy wall street
One of the most popular demands at Occupy Wall Street is to get Big Money out of politics.

The occupation of Wall Street has now entered its third week and protests are spreading like wildfire throughout the country.

As the protests continue to grow, the media is increasingly taking notice. Yet many of these media outlets are insisting on referring to the protests as "anti-capitalist." Here are just a few examples:
- The Washington Post: The leading paper wrote today that "New York's budding anti-capitalism protest movement began last month with a vague sense of grievance over the widening gap between the rich and poor in America." [10/3/11]
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Wolf

US: Herman Cain Tells Wall Street Protesters: It's Your Fault You Don't Have Jobs


Fox News
Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:22 UTC
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Wolf

US: Chicago Traders Respond To Protesters With Signs Reading 'We Are The 1%'


Think Progress
Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:08 UTC
The Occupy Wall Street movement spread to Chicago this week, where protesters have gathered outside the Chicago Board of Trade, the world's oldest options and futures trading center. Like the protesters in New York and other cities around the country, the group gathered to protest our nation's growing income inequality, as the top 1 percent of Americans continue to see their incomes rise rapidly and their tax rates fall. The Chicago traders, confronted by the protesters' "We are the 99 percent" message, crafted their own not-so-subtle reply, hanging signs in eighth-floor windows that said, "We are the 1%":

we are the 1%
© USAanon|T|# OccupyChi
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Red Flag

US: Nancy Grace Sounds Off On Amanda Knox Verdict


Access Hollywood
Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknownNancy Grace
On Monday, an Italian appeals court threw out Amanda Knox's murder conviction and freed the 24-year-old after she spent almost four years in prison, but HLN host and Dancing with the Stars contestant Nancy Grace feels justice was not served.

"I was very disturbed, because I think it is a huge miscarriage of justice," Nancy told Access Hollywood' s Shaun Robinson after Monday's "DWTS" when asked about the high profile trial that also saw her co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, cleared of killing 21-year-old Meredith Kercher in 2007.

"I believe that while Amanda Knox did not wield the knife herself, I think that she was there, with her boyfriend, and that he did the deed, and that she egged him on. That's what I think happened," Nancy said, sharing her opinion.

Although the court overturned the conviction primarily based on discredited DNA evidence, Knox says she was not there the night of the murder, the Associated Press reported.
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Butterfly

US: Steve Jobs dies

Jon Swartz and William M. Welch
USA Today
Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:24 UTC
steve jobs
© Jeff Chiu, APCEO Steve Jobs holds up the new MacBook Air after giving the keynote address at the Apple MacWorld Conference in San Francisco. Apple on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011 said Jobs has died.

San Francisco - Steve Jobs, the innovative co-founder of Apple who transformed personal use of technology as well as entire industries with products such as the iPod, iPad, iPhone, Macintosh computer and the iTunes music store, has died.

The Apple chairman was 56.

The iconic American CEO, whose impact many have compared to auto magnate Henry Ford and Walt Disney - whom Jobs openly admired - abruptly stepped down from his position as CEO of Apple in August because of health concerns. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, a former Apple board member, called Jobs the best CEO of the past 50 years - perhaps 100 years.
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