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A popular comedian could face charges in Bismarck for a regular part of his routine.

Ron White, the Scotch-swilling, cigar-smoking Blue Collar Comedy Tour comedian, performed at the Belle Mehus Auditorium on April 30. But prior to that, a Bismarck citizen tipped off police that part of White’s routine might run afoul of a Bismarck city ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places.

Gary Semmel, 55, wrote a letter dated April 17 to the Bismarck Police Department, letting them know White smokes a cigar during his act, which seems to be at odds with the city ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places, Sgt. Dwight Offerman said.

Semmel did not have a listed phone number.

Management for White declined to comment, publicist Kathe Nelson said.

Because of the letter, police placed a plainclothes officer at the first of White’s two performances to document his smoking, Offerman said. The officer reported back that White lit up a cigar to start the show, took one puff, then let the cigar burn out. He lit up again and took another puff later in the show, again let it run out, then didn’t light it up again until the end of the show, Offerman said.

Smoking in public places is an infraction, punishable by fines of up to $500. Offerman said the report will be sent to the city attorney.

White, whose nickname “Tater Salad” was listed as his alias on the police report, is best know for his performances on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour with Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy. The Texas Legislature declared April 27 “Ron White Day” to honor the Texas native.

White is no stranger to run-ins with the law, having been arrested in Vero Beach, Fla., for marijuana and paraphernalia possession in September. He pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to probation.

via Comedian may be charged for smoking at Bismarck show.

On May 5th, general users will have access to an entire year of Microsoft’s brand new operating system, Windows 7, for free It is already available to download for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. This version is only the Release Candidate and will expire June 1, 2010. The Release Candidate is merely the near finished product and is basically the final stage in testing. It’s supposed to have all the features of the final version. We don’t know when the final version will be released but rumors say it’ll be either late 2009 or early 2010.

A beta version of Windows 7 was released some time ago, and from using it for a short time, I can gather that it was much faster and more friendly than Windows Vista. Indeed for those of you who hated Vista, Windows 7 is Vista done right. Windows 7 boasts a lot of new features including a new taskbar, libraries, jump lists, etc. Windows 7 will also come packaged with the newest Internet Explorer IE8.

via Microsoft to give away free Windows 7 for a year | mndaily.com - Serving the University of Minnesota Since 1900.

Early yesterday evening, BismarckTribune.com was attacked by a foreign hacker and malicious code was placed on some of our web pages. As of 12:30 PM Thursday, the code has been removed and the site is functioning normally.

The Bismarck Tribune would like to apologize for any inconvenience or concerns this may have caused. While this instance has been deemed a ‘low risk’ threat, we take these matters very seriously and have taken steps to prevent future attacks.

And for our readers that do not have virus/spyware protection, we offer the following free downloads:

AdAware – Spyware removal: http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

AVG – Antivirus software: http://free.avg.com/

Thank you,

Rod Austin

Online Manager

The Bismarck Tribune

rod.austin@bismarcktribune.com

701-355-8832

via Bismarck Tribune - Bismarck News - Bismarck Tribune site safe to use.

The Obama administration for the first time is weighing in on a Recording Industry Association of America file sharing lawsuit and is supporting hefty awards of as much as $150,000 per purloined music track.

The government said the damages range of $750 to $150,000 per violation of the Copyright Act was warranted.

“The remedy of statutory damages for copyright infringement has been the cornerstone of our federal copyright law since 1790, and Congress acted reasonably in crafting the current incarnation of the statutory damages provision,” Michelle Bennett, a Department of Justice trial attorney wrote .pdf Sunday to a Massachusetts federal judge weighing challenge to the Copyright Act.

The position — that the Copyright Act’s monetary damages are not unconstitutionally excessive — mirrors the one taken by the Bush administration and should come as no surprise.

Two top lawyers in President Barack Obama’s Justice Department are former RIAA lawyers: Donald Verrilli Jr. is the associate deputy attorney general who brought down Grokster and fought to prevent a retrial in the Jammie Thomas case. Then there’s the No. 2 in the DOJ, Tom Perrilli. As Verrilli’s former boss, Perrilli argued in 2002 that internet service providers should release customer information to the RIAA even without a court subpoena.

Presidential administrations often intervene in lawsuits in which the constitutionality of a federal law is in question. This case concerns a former Boston University student challenging a peer-to-peer file sharing case.

Still, parts of the government’s brief sounded as if it was taken from the RIAA’s public relations playbook.

“Congress sought to account for both the difficulty of quantifying damages in the context of copyright infringement and the need to deter millions of users of new technology from infringing copyrighted work in an environment where many violators believe that their activities will go unnoticed,” Bennett wrote.

The RIAA has sued more than 30,000 individuals for file sharing the last five years. It is winding down the campaign and is lobbying internet service providers to discontinue service to copyright scofflaws.

via Obama Sides With RIAA, Supports $150,000 Fine per Music Track | Threat Level from Wired.com.

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Imagine the Batmobile busting bad guys in Bismarck, North Dakota, or “Knight Rider’s” KITT corralling criminals on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Carbon Motors Corp.’s E7 concept vehicle was on display recently near the U.S. Capitol.

Carbon Motors Corp.’s new high-tech cop car prototype might not be quite up to superhero specs, but some police say it could be a welcome addition to their arsenal.

“I don’t see any downside to this car,” said Carl Latorre, a Pennsylvania State Police dispatcher who served 35 years as a Philadelphia police officer. “I am so excited about this car. This car rates up there with cops carrying automatic weapons to combat what the criminals carry now. It’s about time that something like this came about.”

OK, so it doesn’t have a nanotech cloaking capability or rocket boosters, but every feature on the Carbon E7 concept vehicle draws on suggestions from more than 3,000 law enforcement professionals.

via Cops help dream up high-tech police car - CNN.com.

You’ve got to be kidding me. A place like Bismarck, ND even has an opinion on something like this? Talk about complete overkill. We already got more cops per capita than any other city in the nation and now they need “supercars” to handle our extremely low crime rate?

Keep spending money foolishly like this and we will end up in the same budget scenario as California.

It’s impressive to be able to give away 31.2 million free Gmail accounts, as Google has. It’s even more impressive to get customers to pay for 40 million mailboxes, as Zimbra reported today, representing a sharp spike from the 20 million paid mailboxes reported in early 2009.

The secret to Zimbra’s success? Innovation and integration, in part. While Google Maps has found its way into a range of different applications, Zimbra leads Gmail in mash-ups (called “Zimlets” in Zimbra parlance). My company is a Zimbra customer, and one of our sales engineers wrote a Zimlet to integrate Alfresco with Zimbra…in his spare time…over a weekend.

Yes, Zimbra is that easy to extend.

As for innovation, as just one example Zimbra beat Gmail to offline application access by two years. Not bad for a company with a fraction of Google’s employees (or PhDs).

As VentureBeat points out, Zimbra is now ahead of Gmail in unique mailboxes and only slightly behind Microsoft’s Hotmail service. That’s pretty impressive: one little open-source company takes on the two titans of software and wins (against Gmail), or shortly could win (against Hotmail).

Yes, the jump from 20 million to 40 million is likely due to Comcast’s decision to use Zimbra for its user e-mail accounts. But it’s still impressive.

via Zimbra tops Google’s Gmail with 40 million paid mailboxes | The Open Road - CNET News.

North Dakota-based Bobcat Co., known for its skid-steer loaders, is forming an alliance with snowmobile-maker Polaris Industries Inc.

It’s a move both companies hope will add customers and boost profits as they battle an economic slump.

Polaris CEO Scott Wine says his company will make work vehicles and sell them to Bobcat for sale through Bobcat’s dealer network. Later, the two companies will develop other vehicles and share technology.

Polaris spokeswoman Marlys Knutson says the initial wave of vehicles will be made at the company’s plant in Spirit Lake, Iowa, beginning next year.

Polaris, based in Medina, Minnesota, makes all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and motorcycles. Bobcat, based in West Fargo, North Dakota, makes compact construction equipment.

via Bobcat, Polaris Announce Alliance - Money News Story - KCCI Des Moines.

In case you haven’t had a chance to read the 1000+ page stimulus bill that was passed on Friday, Ron Lieber at the New York Times has highlighted some of the provisions that will directly affect the average American.

Here’s our summary of what Lieber has put together, supplemented with more details from the Associated Press:

* Tax credit of up to $400 for individuals, $800 for couples for 2009 and 2010. Figure your individual credit by taking 6.2% of your earned income. Note that your employer can adjust your withholdings so that the credit is returned to you over the year instead of all at once. The Associated Press says most people will see this in the form of a $13 bump in weekly paychecks starting in June, and dropping to about $7.70 a week for the duration of 2010.

* The $1000 child tax credit will be extended to more families, and if you’re a poor family with three or more kids, you’ll get an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit.

* No tax on the first $2400 of unemployment you receive in 2009.

* The government will subsidize up to 65% of your premium for Cobra coverage if you lost your job after Sep 1st, 2008. If you declined Cobra, you’ll have 60 days to reconsider.

* $87 billion is going to help states administer Medicaid, which the AP notes “could slow or reverse some of the steps states have taken to cut the program.”

* If you get food stamps, you’ll get more.

* If you’re drawing unemployment, expect to see $25 more per check, and the duration of the benefits has been extended.

* If you receive Social Security payments, you’ll see a one-time extra payment of $250.

* If you buy a new car, light truck, recreational vehicle or motorcycle in 2009, you’ll be able to deduct the state and local taxes you paid on it.

* If you add energy-efficient doodads to your home this year, you can get a tax credit to cover 30% of the costs, up to $1500.

* Pell Grants will increase slightly.

* The “Higher Education Tax Credit” will refund “up to $2,500 of the cost of college tuition and other related expenses in 2009 and 2010. You’ll need to spend at least $4,000 in a single year to get the full credit.”

* You can use withdrawals from a 529 college savings plan to cover computers and related technology and services for the first time in 2009 and 2010.

* First time home buyers who buy between January 1-December 1 2009 will receive a refundable tax credit of up to $8000, figured by taking 10% of the purchase price of your home. The credit doesn’t have to be repaid, but you do have to keep the home for at least 3 years.

* The amount of pre-tax income you can set aside through your employer for public transit will increase to $230 a month (equivalent to what you can set aside if you drive).

* The Alternative Minimum Tax has been set aside for another year.

* $3.7 billion will go to local police programs, mostly for hiring new officers.

Many of these tax credits fade out if you make over $75,000 annually, or $150,000 as a couple.

via Stimulus Bill: What The Stimulus Bill Has For Everyday Americans.

RIM announced today the impending release of the latest version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Server. BES 5.0 will add a bunch of new features to improve the BlackBerry experience for enterprise users. Here’s a quick list of what’s been announced:

* Retrieve corporate documents behind firewalls

* Add, read, rename and delete folders on the handset and have those changes be applied to the desktop email client

* Create rules within the inbox to filter email and have those changes be applied to the desktop

* View attachments in calendar entries and meeting requests

* Download and store emails and email attachments onto microSD cards

via RIM announces BES 5.0 | BlackBerry Cool.

WASHINGTON – The Senate voted Wednesday night to give a tax break of up to $15,000 to homebuyers in hopes of revitalizing the housing industry, a victory for Republicans eager to leave their mark on a mammoth economic stimulus bill at the heart of President Barack Obama’s recovery plan.

The tax break was adopted without dissent, and came on a day in which Obama pushed back pointedly against Republican critics of the legislation even as he reached across party lines to consider scaling back spending.

“Let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the essential,” Obama said as Senate Republicans stepped up their criticism of the bill’s spending and pressed for additional tax cuts and relief for homeowners. He warned that failure to act quickly “will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession.”

via Senate OKs $15,000 tax break for homebuyers - Yahoo! News.