Wasted Daily News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, charged with trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by President Barack Obama, considered offering it to talk show star Oprah Winfrey.

Blagojevich said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday that a friend of his had suggested asking Winfrey to fill Obama’s seat.

“She seemed to be someone who had helped Barack Obama in a significant way become president,” Blagojevich said. “She was obviously someone with a much broader bully pulpit than other senators.”

But he said he decided that the talk show queen, one of the richest women in America, was unlikely to accept the offer.

“She probably wouldn’t take it, and then … if you offered it to her, how would you do it in a way it didn’t look like it was some gimmick and embarrass her?”

Blagojevich is doing the interview circuit and said he will not attend Monday’s impeachment trial in the state Senate which could remove him from office.

(Reporting by Deborah Charles, editing by Vicki Allen)

DETROIT – James Howarth is a little confused by two letters he has received from the Internal Revenue Service.

The Detroit defense lawyer received one letter in November that said he owed the IRS money — five cents.

He was warned that he should pay “to avoid additional penalty and/or interest,” the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.

Howarth says he then received a second letter telling him the government owes him money — four cents. Read the rest of this entry →

NEW YORK – A federal judge in Brooklyn has rejected a Liberian woman’s religious reasons for smuggling endangered monkey meat into the country.

U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie ruled Wednesday that Mamie Manneh’s faith didn’t preclude her from applying for permits to import exotic food or explain why she misled officials.

Manneh was charged with smuggling the meat three years ago after customs agents seized a shipment of primate parts as it passed through Kennedy Airport on the way to her home in Staten Island.

Manneh’s lawyers claimed a First Amendment right, arguing that some Liberian Christians eat monkey meat for spiritual reasons.

Her lawyer didn’t respond to phone messages Saturday.

She faces up to five years in prison and deportation if convicted.