Techcordance

Steve Jobs

SAN FRANCISCO, June 29 (Reuters) – Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs is back to work following a near six-month medical leave, the company said on Monday.
“Steve is back to work,” a company spokesman said. “He’s currently at Apple a few days a week, and working from home the remaining days. We are very glad to have him back.”
In January, after initially blaming his noticeable weight loss on a hormone imbalance, Jobs announced he was taking a temporary leave of absence, saying his health-related issues were “more complex” than he had originally thought.
Jobs, 54, was treated for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004.
He underwent a liver transplant in Memphis, Tennessee, while on leave. Although the hospital did not provide further details of his condition, it said he “is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.”
Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple did not immediately react to the news. They were up 62 cents at $143.06 in Nasdaq trading. (Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Tiffany Wu and Derek Caney)

U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.
New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said today in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.
“Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters “understandably attract this court’s sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them.”
Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg’s dissent, which she read aloud in court today.

Conyers

The House Judiciary Committee Chairman has backed off his plan to investigate the liberal activist group the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now also known as ACORN.
The Washington Times reported that Rep. John Conyers D-MI had called for hearings on ACORN to look into several possible crimes, including voter fraud.
Conyers said that the powers that be decided against it. But he wouldn’t say exactly who told him to call off the investigation.
The Washington Times also reported that Capitol Hill Democrats bristled at the idea of the hearings. They were concerned that it would re-ignite criticism of President Obama’s close ties with the group.

Piracy Alive and Well

A file-sharing fine against a Minnesota woman that mushroomed from $220,000 to nearly $2 million last week is just the latest evidence that illegally trading music and videos online is still with us in a big way.
In the spring, while pirates off the coast of Somalia were getting all the high-seas attention, four Swedish pirates of a totally different sort were being sentenced to pay more than $3 million in fines and serve a year in the brig. Their crime: running The Pirate Bay, one of the Web’s most-visited file-sharing communities.
The Pirate Bay is part of the trend of peer-to-peer technologies used to illegally swap music, videos and applications. Public sites such as Pirate Bay, IsoHunt and Mininova index and track BitTorrent files, which allow computers to connect and download content. People go to these sites to search for and grab music or videos.

Southern Baptists warned

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson predicts pastors will soon face prosecution under hate crimes laws if they preach that same-sex relationships are sinful.
Colson, who served prison time for his role in the Watergate scandal, delivered a grim forecast to Southern Baptist pastors at their annual meeting in Louisville, Ky.
Sponsors of congressional hate crimes legislation insist it won’t restrict speech, but Colson warned that ministers will face the threat of prosecution within the next two years.
He also said medical professionals are losing their conscience right to refuse to perform abortions, and faith-based ministries could soon have to hire non-believers.
Colson also predicted a continuing threat from Islamic terrorists and dismissed the Quran as an “irrational” invention of Muhammad rather than divinely inspired scripture.

Microsoft

BOSTON (Reuters) -Microsoft Corp issued software to fix 31 security flaws in its programs, a single-day record for the company whose products are targeted by hackers because they sit on the vast majority of computers.
The patches repair vulnerabilities in Windows, Office and Internet Explorer, as well as key pieces of software that businesses use in their data centers.
Once hackers are alerted to such vulnerabilities, they quickly start developing malicious software to exploit them. Such programs can be used for cybercrimes such as identity theft, sending spam and taking control of computer systems.
Alerting hackers to the flaws presents a challenge for businesses as they need time to test the patches before installing them on their computer systems. They need to make sure that the new software does not interfere with existing programs because patches can sometimes cause systems to crash.

Tiller

WICHITA, Kan – The family of slain abortion provider George Tiller said Tuesday that his Wichita clinic will be “permanently closed,” effective immediately.
In a statement released by Tiller’s attorneys, his family said it is ceasing operation of Women’s Health Care Services Inc. and any involvement by family members in any other similar clinic.
“We are proud of the service and courage shown by our husband and father and know that women’s health care needs have been met because of his dedication and service,” the family said.
Tiller was shot to death May 31 while serving as an usher at the Lutheran church in Wichita that he regularly attended. Scott Roeder is being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in Tiller’s death.
Family members said they wanted to assure Tiller’s previous patients that the privacy of their medical histories and patient records will remain “as fiercely protected now and in the future” as they were during Tiller’s lifetime.