Coming Soon to Your Town: Fake ‘Madoff’ Auctions?

Ads for “Bernie Madoff Auction” sales have been popping up around the country in recent weeks, getting the word out in such places as Columbus, Ohio, and Charleston, S.C., by placing big stickers on the front page of local newspapers. The ads begin: “Due to losses caused by Bernie Madoff” and then detail such treasures as original art by Peter Max, Salvador Dali and Norman Rockwell — as well as Rolex watches and “other flashy items” — that are to be sold to “recover losses from Ponzi scheme.” Trouble is, it’s hard to tell whether any of the merchandise at these auctions was owned by Madoff or those he ruined or if the ads are just a dubious way to drum up traffic for run-of-the-mill estate sales.

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Google improves Gmail for iPhone, Android

Google has released a new Web-based version of Gmail that gives iPhone and Android phone users a more sophisticated version of the online e-mail service, including access to messages that’s faster and that works even when offline. Google demonstrated the Web-based mobile version of Gmail last week and announced its availability Tuesday on the Google Mobile blog. “You’ll notice that it’s a lot faster when performing actions like opening an e-mail, navigating, or searching.

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Leahy calls for ‘truth commission’ on torture

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman called Wednesday for the establishment of a nonpartisan "commission of inquiry" to investigate allegations of wrongdoing against former Bush administration officials in their prosecution of the war on terrorism. Nothing “did more to damage America’s place in the world than the revelation that our great nation stretched the law and the bounds of executive power to authorize torture and cruel treatment,” Sen.

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Nearly intact mammoth skeleton a rare find in L.A.

He had a rough life during the Ice Age, walking around with a couple of broken ribs and a possibly cancerous lesion on his jaw before dying at a young age. Now, at least 10,000 years later, visitors in Los Angeles, California, can see the remains of “Zed,” a Columbian mammoth whose nearly intact skeleton is part of what is being described as a key find by archaeologists at Los Angeles’ George C. Page Museum

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