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A new look at an alien planet that orbits extremely close to its parent star suggests that the rocky world might not be a scorching hot wasteland, as was thought. In fact, the planet may actually be stranger and wetter than astronomers ever imagined. The exotic planet 55 Cancri e is a relatively close alien planet, just 40 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Cancer (The Crab). The super-dense world circles so close to its host star that it takes a mere 18 hours to complete one orbital lap. Using our solar system for comparison, 55 Cancri e is...

Hell no, we won’t go — unless we get goose down pillows. A key Occupy Wall Street leader and another protester who leads a double life as a businessman ditched fetid tents and church basements for rooms at a luxurious hotel that promises guests can “unleash [their] inner Gordon Gekko,” The Post has learned. The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to...

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected signs of icy bodies raining down in an alien solar system. The downpour resembles our own solar system several billion years ago during a period known as the "Late Heavy Bombardment," which may have brought water and other life-forming ingredients to Earth. During this epoch, comets and other frosty objects that were flung from the outer solar system pummeled the inner planets. The barrage scarred our moon and produced large amounts of dust. Now Spitzer has spotted a band of dust around a nearby bright star in the northern sky called Eta Corvi that...

Explanation: Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula, an immense stellar nursery some 1,500 light-years away. This stunning false-color view spans about 40 light-years across the region, constructed using infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Compared to its visual wavelength appearance, the brightest portion of the nebula is likewise centered on Orion's young, massive, hot stars, known as the Trapezium Cluster. But the infrared image also detects the nebula's many protostars, still in the process of formation, seen here in red hues. In fact, red spots along the dark dusty filament to the left of the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was hit with a $60 million libel lawsuit by a former Marsh & McLennan Cos executive over a column published on Slate.com concerning an insurance bid-rigging scandal.

Casey Anthony. The name and the trial spark emotion. But there is a far deeper issue lurking beneath, a monster of much greater importance. Recent years have borne witness to the rampant rise of prosecutorial zeal in the courts. While no responsible citizen wants crime unpunished, prosecutors, in all their forms, have been growing in power and influence. When prosecutorial power teams up with political ambition or a high-reaching career path, we must watch carefully the potential threat to individual liberty.

Keith Olbermann's national audience holds a 'meet-up' with the star. Keith Olbermann is BACK! And Algore's got him! Yes, Keefie is back on TV, bringing his "Meltdown" show to Uncle Al's little vanity network, Current TV. However, after the initial voyeur factor, when people tuned in to see Keef reduced to such rank humiliation, now his numbers are doing a nosedive even from that. The DUmmies dwell on this, here in this THREAD, "'Countdown’ on Current TV Drops 30% in Week Two." And then there is other news in the TV lib-talk wars: Eliot Spitzer has been CANCELED! OH NOES!...

The Eliot Spitzer experiment is over at CNN. The network reshuffled its prime-time schedule on Wednesday, canceling the former New York governor's 8 p.m. show, "In the Arena." Spitzer lasted less than a year at the network. He began on CNN's prime-time lineup last October paired with conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, who exited in February. The show never made a ratings dent in a tough cable news time slot dominated by Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly. CNN is moving Anderson Cooper's news program, which now airs at 10 p.m., into the 8 p.m. time slot. Former CNBC personality Erin Burnett...

CNN on Wednesday cancelled Eliot Spitzer’s 8 p.m. political talk show, “In The Arena,” after only nine months, and said it would shift Anderson Cooper’s 10 p.m. nightly newscast into the time slot.

1:42 p.m. | Updated CNN on Wednesday cancelled Eliot Spitzer’s 8 p.m. political talk show, “In The Arena,” after only nine months, and said it would shift Anderson Cooper’s 10 p.m. nightly newscast into the time slot. The cable news channel also said that Erin Burnett, a new hire from CNBC, would take over the 7 p.m. time slot on weekdays, replacing John King, who will move to 6 p.m. “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” which currently runs from 5 to 7 p.m., will move to 4 to 6 p.m. ... The changes at CNN will begin to take...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn: IMF head 'hired prostitutes from Manhattan madam'Dominique Strauss-Kahn hired prostitutes from the "Manhattan Madam" who infamously also served Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former Governor of New York, she claimed on Wednesday night. By Jon Swaine, New York 1:03AM BST 19 May 2011 Kristin Davis said she provided young women for the IMF chief in 2006, as he ran for the French Socialists' presidential nomination, and that one complained about his "aggressive" behaviour. "He was a client of my agency," she told The Daily Telegraph. "When men abuse women I'm no longer going to protect their identities". Mr Strauss-Kahn,...

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected the crossing of a solid planet in front of a star located at only 42 light-years in the constellation Cancer. Thanks to this detection, astronomers know that this "super-Earth" measures 2.1 times the size of our Earth. This is the smallest exoplanet detected in the neighborhood of our Sun. The discovery is based on data acquired by the Spitzer spacecraft last January. The data allowed astronomers to detect the "transit" of the planet, i.e. the tiny decrease of the star's brightness occurring when the planet passes in front of it. "So far, the exquisite...

On CNN’s In the Arena, Eliot Spitzer morphed back to his days in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, donning reading glasses and telling “fugitive” Wisconsin Senator Fred Risser he “poked around your state’s constitution for a few minutes this afternoon.” The senator, who joined the program by phone from an “undisclosed location,” is part of a group of Wisconsin lawmakers who fled the state in an effort to stop Gov. Scott Walker’s move to end collective bargaining. Those lawmakers now face the possibility of arrest.Spitzer, reading from the Wisconsin constitution, suggested arresting Sen. Risser might not be

NEW YORK (AP) – CNN’s prime-time talk show “Parker/Spitzer” is no more with the departure of Kathleen Parker. Her partner, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, will remain in the time slot in a new show called “In the Arena,” working with E.D. Hill, Will Cain and others.

This is how crappy it is to work for CNN... Kathleen Parker, the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who co-hosted CNN's 8 p.m. show, is leaving just five months after the show debuted, the company announced Friday."I have decided to return to a schedule that will allow me to focus more on my syndicated newspaper column and other writings," Parker said in a statement.More here This is like James Carville canceling an appointment so he can go get a haircut.I'm sure it wasn't a very pleasant experience working with a man like Eliot Spitzer, who probably was offended being in the...

After months of turbulence at CNN’s Parker Spitzer, the network will drop co-host Kathleen Parker from the show, according to sources and a memo released to CNN staff. Eliot Spitzer will continue with the show. According to CNN chief Ken Jautz, the new show will be solo-anchored by Spitzer and an “ensemble format” of contributors and be called In the Arena. The new show debuts Monday. Here’s the memo: I want to share with you some news today regarding our 8pm show. Kathleen Parker has decided to leave the program to focus on her writing, and we have decided to...

According to a report posted tonight on the website of The Wall Street Journal, CNN is considering replacing Kathleen Parker, co-host of the ratings-challenged Parker Spitzer. The WSJ story quotes unnamed sources who say a new co-host could be named to join Eliot Spitzer as part of a major overhaul of the show, which has floundered in the ratings since its debut three months ago. CNN’s primetime programs performed poorly in 2010, which marked the network’s worst ratings performance in fourteen years. Whether a re-boot of Parker Spitzer–and a resulting name change, one imagines–would solve any of the network’s problems...

CNN is considering replacing Kathleen Parker, co-host of its new evening program "Parker Spitzer," according to people familiar with the matter, as the network struggles to reverse a steep slide in its evening audience. The conservative columnist could be replaced by a new co-host to serve alongside former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, as executives mull a shake-up of the show, the people said, adding that no decision has been made. "Parker Spitzer" hasn't been able to significantly build its audience since its debut just over three months ago.

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Former Credit Suisse First Boston star banker Frank Quattrone surrendered to federal authorities Wednesday morning and will face criminal charges, prosecutors said. James Comey, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, will unveil the charges at a 1 p.m. ET press conference. Quattrone, a former star banker for CSFB, allegedly advised his colleagues in late 2000 to destroy documents while regulators were investigating the ways Wall Street investment banks were doling out shares of lucrative initial public offerings. The former banker is charged in a three-count criminal complaint with obstruction of justice, document destruction...

Astronomers have discovered that a huge, searing-hot planet orbiting another star is loaded with an unusual amount of carbon. The planet, a gas giant named WASP-12b, is the first carbon-rich world ever observed. The discovery was made using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, along with previously published ground-based observations. "This planet reveals the astounding diversity of worlds out there," said Nikku Madhusudhan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, lead author of a report in the Dec. 9 issue of the journal Nature. "Carbon-rich planets would be exotic in every way -- formation, interiors and atmospheres." It's possible that WASP-12b might...

Eliot Spitzer's TV sidekick is so fed up with playing second fiddle to the hooker-loving ex-gov that she's threatening to walk, sources told The Post yesterday. Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker actually stormed off the set of the "Parker Spitzer" show during a pre-taping a few weeks ago -- furious that her co-host is continually allowed to take charge of their nightly CNN chat-fest, the insiders said. Although still fuming, Parker did return to wrap up the segment, they said. But she's angry that the show's producers are allegedly doing nothing to play up her strengths on the ailing show,...

Who says politics isn't a circus? Kristin Davis, the one-time Manhattan madam who says she supplied call girls to El- iot Spitzer when he was New York's governor, shares a stage tonight with state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and all the o ther candidates in the only debate of New York's gubernatorial race. Davis is running for governor as the candidate of the Anti-Prohibition Party. She was guaranteed a place tonight when Republican Carl Paladino demanded that Cuomo debate all the third-party hopefuls, and Cuomo agreed. "It won't be hard to stand out in a crowd of middle-aged white men...

Last night’s “Parker-Spitzer” saw the lowest numbers yet for the program and the show did little to help the one that followed on the schedule — “Larry King Live” which had its worst numbers in more than 10 years. In its sixth outing, “Parker-Spitzer” drew 311,000 Total Viewers and 86,000 A25-54 viewers. That’s lower than the previous low for the time period set by Campbell Brown earlier this year. (332,000 / 87,000). Last week, Parker-Spitzer finished fourth in the time period averaging 465,000 Total Viewers and 124,000 A25-54. At 9pmET, “Larry King Live” put up its lowest A25-54 demo viewership...

Spitzer: Drinking establishments are adding jobs, "we are drinking away our sorrows, but this is not happy hour". In his opening argument on "Parker Spitzer," Eliot Spitzer says the real unemployment rate is 12.9 percent.

Eliot Spitzer returned to attacking the Tea Party and their allies on Thursday's Parker-Spitzer, lamenting that people "kind of from the fringe" like Christine O'Donnell "seem to be taking over the Republican Party." Guest Bernard-Henri Levy also joined in the Tea Party bashing, labeling the movement "really crazy" and insulted Sarah Palin as being less "American" than President Obama.The new CNN program led the 8 pm Eastern hour with a replay of correspondent Jim Acosta's interview of Delaware Republican Senate candidate O'Donnell, which first aired earlier in the day.

WENN / Wireimage It's a ho-down.The Manhattan madam who supplied hooker-happy former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer a slew of high priced call girls has labeled his new CNN primetime show a bore - "just like he was in bed".PHOTOS: The Sexiest And Most Scandalous Mistresses Strip Down"I really found Spitzer to be very boring," buxom madam Kristin Davis exclusively told RadarOnline.com."That is sort of synonymous of what the girls told me about him in bed, that he was boring, so I guess the expectations were met."PHOTOS: Hollywood Starlets Who Have Been Cheated OnSpitzer, former Client-9 of the illegal call...

CNN's new show “Parker Spitzer,” which made its debut Monday night, attracted only 454,000 viewers, a decline from the show it replaced, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The show netted 118,000 viewers in the 25-54 age demographic coveted by advertisers. The program features former New York Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer -- who resigned in disgrace in 2008 after a prostitute scandal -- and Kathleen Parker, a conservative columnist, in a dual anchor format. It lagged well behind 8pm ET rivals “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News Channel and “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on MSNBC. Those two shows drew audiences...

The new CNN entry “Parker Spitzer” may not be the answer to that network’s chronic ratings problems in prime time – at least from the evidence of its first night on the air. The political discussion program, featuring the hosts Kathleen Parker, the conservative columnist, and Eliot Spitzer, the one-time governor of New York, fizzled badly in its initial outing Monday, attracting only 454,000 total viewers. That not only left CNN far behind its main rivals — Bill O’Reilly on Fox had 3.1 million on Fox News and Keith Olbermann had 1.1 million on MSNBC – but it also trailed...

FLASH: CNN Parker-Spitzer had 454,000 viewers last night, came in 4th in cable news behind HLN... Developing...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – CNN's primetime talk show anchored by disgraced ex-New York governor Eliot Spitzer and journalist Kathleen Parker debuted to scathing reviews, with comments on Tuesday ranging from "unbearable" to "icky" and "obnoxious". Spitzer, a Democrat who was forced to resign in 2008 for hiring high-priced prostitutes, and Parker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative Washington Post columnist, were hired by CNN in a bid to add some fireworks to its struggling evening news line-up. But barely a good word could be found on Tuesday for the new "Parker Spitzer" show, which debuted one night earlier as a daily discussion...

May not be the chief TV critic for the Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal - just my friend Todd Greenberg. I thought it was entertaining enough to post (and right on target!): They open up with smooth jazz. Oh yeah.  This is going to be fun. Parker says they're not going be partisan, they're going to do something "different.". Parker can barely open her mouth. Its weird. Parker tells Spitzer to stop interupting her -  says she won't tell a Democrat (Spitzer?) which Republican told her they won't run if Palin runs. Confused. I thought she said they...

<p>Squirming like a flounder and blushing a terrible shade of crimson, Eliot Spitzer made his debut as a CNN talk-show host last night, looking as rushed and uncomfortable as a john on an austerity budget.</p> <p>I haven't seen a man look so embarrassingly awkward in the presence of a woman since the day I saw Eliot and his wife, Silda, together at a press conference.</p>

Once-hooker-happy Eliot Spitzer made his TV talk-show debut last night -- interviewing a guest who, like him, allegedly patronized prostitutes. Spitzer -- who resigned in disgrace as New York governor in 2008 after being exposed as a john with a frequent hankering for hookers -- conducted the bizarre interview along with his TV partner, conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, for their CNN show, "Parker Spitzer." One of the unlikely pair's guests was Hollywood screenwriter Aaron Sorkin -- who allegedly once shared Spitzer's infamous passion for call girls. Sorkin -- who penned the TV series "The West Wing," the flick "A Few...

Nobody doubts that Andrew Cuomo is a thumb-in-your-eye political brawler -- not that there's anything wrong with that. And for Eliot Spitzer to be feigning shock about it in public is a little rich, don't you think? Spitzer, the disgraced ex-governor kicking off a career as TV yakker, this week tossed a brickbat at Cuomo: "The problem Andrew has is that everybody knows that behind the scenes he is the dirtiest, nastiest political player out there," he said. Dirty? Nasty? From Spitzer? Chutzpah Hall of Fame, we say! Spitzer's basic problem with Cuomo isn't hard to figure out, of course....

Some may wonder if it is the political equivalent of the pot calling the kettle black. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, now a television commentator, took a swipe on Thursday at his former Albany rival, Andrew M. Cuomo, saying Mr. Cuomo, the Democratic candidate for New York governor, was “the dirtiest, nastiest political player out there.” Of course, as governor, Mr. Spitzer was the self-described “steamroller” who rubbed some lawmakers the wrong way with his own hardball tactics. Mr. Spitzer, whose CNN talk show, “Parker Spitzer,” is scheduled to make its debut in October, made the comment while being interviewed on...

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said he will back Democrat Andrew Cuomo come November, but it sure didn’t sound like much of an endorsement. “Everybody knows that behind the scenes that he’s the dirtiest, nastiest political player out there,” Spitzer said of Cuomo Thursday.

The state Commission on Public Integrity, which last year fined former top Eliot Spitzer aide Darren Dopp the maximum fine of $10,000 for his role in the Troopergate scheme, today notes that a judge backed up their decision despite Dopp's efforts to fight it. "Yesterday, after a thorough review, a judge upheld the Commission's decision to fine Darren Dopp $10,000 for his central role in the Troopergate matter. In March 2008, a different judge rejected Mr. Dopp's unfounded effort to prevent the Commission's hearing that resulted in this fine," CPI Executive Director Barry Ginsburg said in a statement. "This case...

When F. Scott Fitzgerald observed that there are no second acts in American life, he obviously couldn't have had before him the example of Eliot Spitzer and his adoring media. Once dubbed the Crusader of the Year and the Sherriff of Wall Street, Spitzer was to the mainstream media the embodiment of an exciting new kind of Democrat, a tough-as-nails moderate who might revive the party nationally under the banner of what Fred Siegel and Michael Goodwin have dubbed "Spitzerism." Although Spitzer's escapades with high-priced call girls brought his career crashing down in 2008, the financial crisis that began to...

The Al Gore police report is disturbing. To be specific, it's 67 pages of the quite graphically disturbing, as posted here by Red State. You are reading the news of this police report -- originally filed in October of 2006 -- only because the National Enquirer scooped the story. In June of 2010. You did not read it in the Portland Tribune, which has been on this story since 2007 and failed to tell its readers until the Enquirer broke the story. The Tribune's explanation for this is to be found here. Then there's the interesting news that Kathleen Parker,...

As has been speculated for about a week now, Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker will be paired up as co-hosts of a new 8pmET “spirited, nightly roundtable discussion program” on CNN. The Crossfire-like show replaces Campbell Brown’s program – which she announced she was leaving last month. Let’s take a look at the key players. Spitzer was a surprise regular guest on Dylan Ratigan’s new MSNBC show starting almost one year ago today. Over this past year he’s risen through the ranks at MSNBC and began anchoring occasionally a couple months ago during news hours. He also, of course, is...

Eliot Spitzer has found a new woman. Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker is the "leading candidate" to share a new 8 p.m. show on CNN with the former governor, according to sources close to the talks. Parker, 58, is probably best known for a column she wrote in September, 2008 calling Sarah Palin "out of her league" and urging her to get off the Republican ticket. The show -- which will air opposite Bill O'Reilly's ratings juggernaut show on Fox News Channel -- will be an updated version of CNN's old "Crossfire" program.

The appointment by New York Governor David Paterson of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to the vacant senate seat of Hillary Clinton raises serious questions surrounding the illegal dirty tricks employed to elect Gillibrand to Congress in the first place. In 2006 Governor George Pataki's Chief of Staff Zenia Mucha illegally obtained New York State Police records regarding a domestic dispute between then Congressman John Sweeney and his wife. The records were obtained by former State Police captain Daniel Wiese, who functioned as a dirty tricks operative for Pataki and later Governor Eliot Spitzer. Wiese was also the operative who pressured State...

ALBANY – Eliot Spitzer may be open to launching a new TV career but returning to the political world as a statewide candidate should be off the table. That’s the finding of a new Marist College poll that found 66 percent of New York voters don’t want the disgraced ex-love gov to run for statewide office this year. That’s a worse number for Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace in March, 2008, in a high-priced hooker scandal, than just last month, when a Marist survey found 58 percent of voters opposed to his seeking statewide office. “Eliot Spitzer’s attempt to reconnect...

CNN's Campbell Brown has resigned. The following are statements from both CNN President Jon Klein and a heartfelt letter from Brown explaining her reasons for leaving. STATEMENT FROM JON KLEIN, PRESIDENT OF CNN/U.S. "Today is about Campbell. We want to wish her well as she begins the next phase of her life. We respect her decision to leave. We will announce our programming plans in the coming weeks." An Excerpt From Brown's Statement "Simply put, the ratings for my program are not where I would like them to be. It is largely for this reason that I am stepping down...

He questions whether the candidate has the will to stand up to powerful interests. He faults him for failing to aggressively take on Wall Street. And he is not sure that he will vote for him for governor this fall, saying he wants to see “who else will be in the race.” In an unusually candid and sometimes biting assessment of his successor as attorney general, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer portrayed Andrew M. Cuomo as a man whose decisions have often been driven by political considerations and whose worldview has largely been shaped by the culture of Albany. During an...

According to a new documentary, disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer wasn't brought down by his penchant for high-priced call girls. He wasn't brought down by committing questionable, if not illegal, bank transactions to pay for the call girls. He wasn't brought down by his misuse of the New York State Police for political purposes. No, in the world of "Untitled Eliot Spitzer Film" director Alex Gibney, "Spitzer's takedown of financial industry bigwigs... paved the way for his downfall." According to the New York Post: Gibney made no apology for his pro-Spitzer take and the audience, which included Police Commissioner...

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer in March 2008. It was a routine transaction with an unusual request: Eliot Spitzer, then governor of New York state, had asked a Manhattan bank to remove his name and account information from a $5,000 wire transfer to a company called QAT Consulting Group. The request, if granted, would have violated the Code of Federal Regulations. It also triggered a mandatory bank investigation into the transaction and generated a suspicious activity report, or SAR, that has never been released by the government.It was Aug. 6, 2007, and Spitzer, in his inaugural year as governor,...

Deep inside the famous Orion Nebula, a colony of very young stars have been imaged by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Although the observatory ran out of liquid helium coolant in May 2009, two modules inside its Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) remain fully operational, capturing wonderfully detailed pictures of Orion's star-forming region currently exploding with stellar life.

A new book by former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s ex-best-friend offers to fill a gap that has frustrated analysts of Spitzer’s aborted career: A grand unified theory of Spitzer’s spectacular fall, which ended with his resignation and disgrace nearly two years ago. Lloyd Constantine, a Spitzer mentor who became a close friend and top deputy, believes that Spitzer’s “compulsion� to use prostitutes began to twist his friend’s character during 2006, the year he was elected. Spitzer came to office knowing he was doomed, according to Constantine, and acted irrationally from the moment he arrived - his time in Albany...

New York Governor David Paterson attempted to suppress an investigation into an aide’s alleged beating of said aide’s girlfriend, and lied to an ethics panel about the free tickets he scored to the World Series. In this, he follows Eliot Spitzer, whom he succeeded after Spitzer attempted to convince a banker to contravene federal banking laws (that is actually why he had to resign, not because he hired a prostitute, but since prosecutors decided for unclear reasons not to indict him, that part is forgotten). Paterson, in his sure-to-fail attempt to hold on to power for a few more months,...