A judge in New Zealand today eased the bail restrictions on Kim Dotcom and his MegaUpload co-defendants. Kim DotCom requested:

....internet access, permission to meet with his co-accused to research their court case, permission to go swimming at the pool at his mansion and be allowed to travel to a music studio to finish recording an album.

The judge granted all, with some limits on how often he could visit the recording studio. The Crown did not oppose internet access or going to the pool. The Judge, in granting the motion, said Kim DotCom was not a flight risk: [More...]

There were three winners of the MegaMillions grand prize. Two people in Colorado won substantial amounts..

The million dollar Colorado winner bought his/her ticket at the same 7/11 I bought mine at.

The $1 million winner bought a ticket at the 7-Eleven at 4040 E. 8th Ave. in Denver and the $250,000 winner bought a ticket at the 7-Eleven at 6802 S. Yosemite St. in Centennial.

So, it really could have been me -- but it wasn't. [More.....]

My picks (Game winner in BOLD): L-Ville (+ 9) over Kentucky, Ohio State (-2 1/2) over Kansas (7 units.)

Ronde van Vlaanderen tomorrow. Give me Cancellara.

Open Thread.

If you didn't win, don't feel bad. The odds:

If you buy 50 tickets a week, you will win the jackpot every 68,000 years.

Update: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner: A winning ticket was purchased in Baltimore, MD.

This is an open thread, not just limited to MegaMillions.

Keith Olbermann has been fired by Current TV. Keith promises a lawsuit. Eliot Spitzer will replace Keith. Apparently, they were negotiating until yesterday:

The two sides tried to hammer out a setlement Thursday and into Friday, but with Olbermann insisting on tens of millions of dollars to pay out his contract, they remained far apart, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Here's Keith's full statement. Current TV's full statement is here. [More...]

Details of Osama bin Laden's life on the run, from a police report of an interview with one of his wives. Two of his kids were born in a Pakistani hospital.

Toulouse Update: French police arrest 19 suspected Islamic militants. They aren't suspected of playing a role in Mohamed Merah's killing spree, they are just part of a crackdown on "undesirables" that has followed it.

Who's buying a MegaMillions ticket? It's up to $640 million.

I'll be busy at work today, this is an open thread.

The "Walmart of Weed" is opening in Washington, DC, just blocks from the White House and federal buildings.

Lindsay Lohan is released from supervised probation with praise from the Judge. She still has two more years of unsupervised probation.

14 years for Rod Blagojevich and 10 days for his former Chief of Staff Robert Harris who cooperated with the Government. Harris was Blago's chief of staff for three years, from 2005 through 2008. [More...]

The Sanford Police have released the full, six minute camera surveillance video of George Zimmerman's arrival at the police department.

MSNBC reports the video was taken four hours after the shooting. Also:

In the video, there are no readily visible signs of injuries to Zimmerman's head or blood on his clothes. However, he is wearing a red jacket, which could obscure blood stains. Also, at one point, an officer pauses to look at the back of Zimmerman's head, which he claims was injured by Martin.

Appearing on NBC's TODAY on Thursday, Zimmerman's attorney Craig Sonner described the video as "very grainy." He also pointed out that Zimmerman had been "cleaned-up" and received first aid in the four hours between the incident and Zimmerman's videotaped arrival at the police station.

This WOFL FOX 35 extensive interview last night of George Zimmerman's father, Robert Zimmerman, a former judge and Vietnam Veteran, deserves equal time with the video released yesterday of Zimmerman arriving at the jail from which so many people are deducing Zimmerman wasn't injured.

There's no resolution in the interview, we're still left with George's version vs. the Martin family's version. While he discusses what he's learned from George and others about the fatal encounter with Trayvon Martin, the interview is as much about the effect of the incident on George and the family, and the hate that the case has generated, as it is about the facts. It's long and painful to listen to because there is so much grief in his voice. My synopsis is below:

Link.

In my view, it severely undermines Zimmerman's claims.

Speaking for me only

(TL:) Comments now closed.)

Clayton Osbon, the Jet Blue pilot who freaked out today on a flight causing the plane to be diverted to Amarillo, has been charged with interfering with a flight crew. He's also on a psychiatric hold.

The transformation of our federal government by FDR was made possible because the Supreme Court made a dramatic shift in view of how it should review congressional legislation. The Court adopted a policy of deference to the legislative judgments of the Congress when it exercised its commerce power, requiring only that the means chosen bear a rational relation to the ends the Congress sought to achieve. Of course, the Congress could not act in a manner that was expressly prohibited by the Constitution, but absent that, its policy choice need only be rational.

With this freedom of action, our federal government has acted countless times to address problems that were national in character. Thus we have an Environmental Protection Agency, a National Transportation Safety Board, a Federal Emergency Management Agency and, yes, a Social Security Administration and Medicare.

This change of approach by the Court was famously described in the 1938 case United States v. Carolene Products.