The digital age has brought about many changes in the world. Travel is one such area that has changed dramatically over the years. In days past one could not walk through a downtown area without running into a travel agency. However, the introduction of online travel booking has seen the downturn in the live travel agencies. In the US alone more than half of all travel agencies that existed have closed.

Many see this as a sign of progress. However, the travel companies that have managed to stay in business say that things are getting worse. They have said that they were able to offer more options than the online companies can and offer it with service that you will not get from an internet connection. But the fact is that the savings were always far greater.

The difference being that travel agencies were paid through an additional charge on the travel plans that you made. This is where the changes have brought costs to the ground. The online companies actually make deals with the airlines and hotels and that is where they are able to make their money.

Still the world around mourns the loss of travel agencies for the most part. The fact is that hiring a travel agent was far easier than going through the steps yourself online. But the idea that you can save hundreds of dollars by booking a trip online is too much for many people to pass up.

Experts agree that online travel sites have killed the live travel agency business. They are simply not able to remain competitive in the market. The total end of live travel agencies is a real possibility according to statistics that have been released. How soon this will happen is anyone’s guess.

A need audio tape has been released in which Mel Gibson admits to punching Oksana Grigorieva.  He is also heard threatening to kill her in the tape.

In the tape Oksana tells Mr. Gibson that he hit her and broke her teeth.  To which he responds by saying “you deserved it.”

There is currently an investigation by the L.A. County Sheriffs Department into whether or not Mr. Gibson should be charged with domestic violence.  The death threats on the audio tape could be used to add additional charges.

Throughout the tape Mr. Gibson is heard threatening Oksana.  He tells her at one point that she needs a bat in the side of the head.  In another sequence he threatens to put her in a rose garden.  He says “Threaten you? I’ll put you in a f#ckin rose garden you c#nt. You understand that? Because I’m capable of it. You understand that?”

A complaint was filed by Oksana on July 5th which started the domestic violence investigation. She said that she went to the police because Mr. Gibson had made death threats against her and that she feared for her life.

The new tape has Mr. Gibson admitting that he punched her in the face.  Oksana is heard to say “What kind of a man is that? Hitting a woman when she’s holding a child in her hands? Breaking her teeth twice in the face! What kind of man is that?” Mel Gibson then responds by saying “Oh, you’re all angry now! You know what, you f* cking deserved it!”

Mels statement confirms a statement by Oksana to friends that Mel had punched her and knocked out her front teeth.

After the tape was released Mel Gibson was let go by the William Morris talent agency.

The questions now are will Mel’s career survive the latest tapes and will he do jail time for the assault and the death threats.

The NAACP passed a resolution that said the Tea Party movement has racist elements and calls for the leaders of the Tea Party to condemn racism and bigotry within its ranks.  The Party has responded by saying that the resolution was simply a political ploy and had no merit.

The resolution was passed at the NAACP’s annual convention in Kansas City, Mo.  Initially the resolution stated that the NAACP repudiated the racism of the Tea Party and stood against the organizations attempt to “push our country back to the pre-civil rights era.”  The actual wording to be released does not criticize the Tea Party as a racist organization, but asked that it condemn racists and racist behavior in its organization.

In that statement the NAACP said that it had no issue with the Tea Party movement, but that it took issue with “the Tea Party’s continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements.”

The resolution was due to an incident where Tea Party protesters allegedly yelled racial statements at black lawmakers on Capitol Hill ahead of a health care vote.

The Tea Party rejects the statement that its members verbally assaulted black lawmakers.   They state that there is no visual or audio evidence that supports these allegations.  Phillip Dennis said “there was no proof” of the behavior the NAACP describes.

Mr. Dennis went on to say “We don’t care about the pigment of one’s skin.”  He went on to reprimand the NAACP of playing the race card.

In response to the NAACP’s resolution the St. Louis branch of the Tea Party had a meeting to draft a resolution condemning the NAACP for turning itself into a bigoted and partisan attack dog organization.

The Tea Party has repeatedly defended itself against statements that accuse it of being a racist organization.  They continue to disavow any knowledge of racially derogatory signs which show up in their crowds.

Tea Party organizer Bill Hennessy wrote that the Tea Party stands for smaller government and fiscal responsibility.  He continued to say “When you look at the crime and poverty and family breakdown of the African-American community you see a half-century of failure by the NAACP. None of those persistent problems was caused by the Tea Party movement, yet the principles of the Tea Party are exactly what’s needed to wind down the multigenerational destruction in the African-American community.”

The Senate Finance Committee has alleged that drug maker GlaxoSmithKline covered up results from its clinical trials of Rosiglitazone (Avandia). In the report the committee stated that GlaxoSmithKline hid negative results which were associated with heart risks.

Avandia is a drug which was approved to treat type 2 diabetes. The drug was approved in 1999. Internal emails show that GSK management looked to downplay findings which brought into question the safety of the drug. An internal memo showed that there was a clinical trial which found that Avandia had a worse lipid profile than Pioglitazone (Actos).

In a follow-up email an executive of the company wrote about the results stating “we would hope that these do not see the light of day.” This email was from July 20th, 2001.

A review of clinical trial data in 2007 showed the drug to have a 43 percent increase in risk of heart attack among patients.

Based on information from Glaxo it was predicted that if the poor trial results became public that the company could loose $600m for the period of 2002-2004.

Congress ruled in 2007 that all drug companies must disclose all negative results associated with trials of new drugs.

The data shows that GSK conspired to downplay negative information from its customers. This is not the first time GSK was found to have hidden negative trial results. In 2004 they were shown to have hidden information concerning its antidepressant, Paxil. Paxil was found to cause teenagers to have suicidal behaviors and thoughts. GSK settled an associated lawsuit by agreeing to post data from all of its trials.

In response to the report GSK has stated: “The Senate Finance Committee (SFC) has released a small subset of the 14 million pages of documents provided to plaintiffs’ counsel in the product liability litigation.”

Yankees Owner, George Steinbrenner has died at the age of 80.

I spokesman for the family has released the following statement from his family: “It is with profound sadness that the family of George M. Steinbrenner III announces his passing. He was an incredible and charitable man. First and foremost he was devoted to his entire family – his beloved wife, Joan; his sisters, Susan Norpell and Judy Kamm, his children, Hank, Jennifer, Jessica and Hal; and all of his grandchildren. He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again.”

Under Steinbrenner the Yankees won seven World Series Championships. They won in 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2009. Steinbrenner has owned the Yankees since 1973.

George Steinbrenner once said that, “Owning the Yankess is like owning the Mona Lisa.”

George died after suffering a massive heart attack. He was taken to St. Joseph’s hosptial in Tampa, Florida where he died.

In all of Major League Baseball, George was the longest serving owner. In that time his team had won 11 AL pennants.

Over recent years Steinbrenner’s health had failed to the point where he was rarely seen in public. His son is the current managing partner of the team.

The Yankees were purchased by Steinbrenner for the low sum of $8.7m. He turned the Yankees into the most valuable team in the United States. The current estimated value of the team is over one billion dollars.

Steinbrenner was also known to be a firery, hands on owner. He was suspended from the game on multiple occasions. Once for making illegal contributions to Richard nixon and again after paying someone to get information on one the players on his team.

A web programmer named Paul D. Ceglia claims that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, contracted with Ceglia back in 2003 to develop a website that he called ‘The Face Book’. This contract is the basis of a lawsuit Ceglia filed in the New York Supreme Court.

In his suit, Ceglia says that this contract stated that he would be paid $1000 upfront and 50% ownership in the website. The contract also says that Ceglia was to get an increase in that ownership for each month until the contract was completed, starting with January, 2004. He is now suing for 84% of the company and unspecified monetary damages for having been deprived of that ownership to the date of filing.

According to the experts, the estimated current value of Facebook is upwards of $9 billion. Ceglia has asked the court for declaratory judgment and relief based on current value. Facebook has already stated that the “suit is completely frivolous” but the judge has ordered a temporary freeze on company assets until the case can be heard.

Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have faced a lawsuit before. Back in 2007, three former Harvard classmates accused Zuckerberg of stealing both the programming code and the business plan from them when they were all in school. In that suit, a confidential settlement was reached that gave the three former classmates $65 million in Facebook stock and cash but it was never revealed whether the accusations had any truth to them.

With Facebook now reaching the milestone of the most visited website in history, this lawsuit could be a huge blow to the future of the social networking site. At this point, no one knows for sure as the contract has not been made public. There has been no word of a hearing date on the matter as of yet.

Consumer Reports said on Monday that it will not provide a recommend rating for Apple’s iPhone 4. They believe that the reception issues are not just software related but are due to a hardware design issue.

Consumer reports provided the following statement on they’re blog: “Consumer Reports’ engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side — an easy thing, especially for lefties — the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal.”

Apple identified the problem earlier in the month, but stated that the issue was due to software. They did not believe that it was a hardware issue. Apple believes that it was using the wrong formula to calculate the reception bars. They also stated that touching the phone in the lower left hand corner could cause all the bars to disappear when the user was in an area with a weak signal.

Consumer Reports had a different opinion on the issue. When Consumer Reports tested the iPhone with other AT&T phones none had the problem that the iPhone 4.0 demonstrated. This test also included an iPhone 3GS. Consumer Reports concluded that there is an actual loss of signal strength and not just a software illusion.

The report continued to state that connecting the gap between the phones antennas is the cause of the problem. Right now the most affordable solution is to take a piece of duct tape ors electrical tape and cover that area. It may kill the aesthetics of the phone but it seems to work.

If you don’t take the signal issue into account, Consumer Reports said that the iPhone 4 was the highest ranking phone that its tested. The iPhone 4 has the best display and camera on the market today. Still the magazine recommends getting a 3GS until the company fixes the issue. The believe the fix should be free to all customers and not cost $29.00 like the bumper they’re offering.

Apple says that the software update will be released in the next few weeks. They believe this solution will fix the glitch. But if the issue is hardware related this fix will only mask the issue.

Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy, has sent a request to Playboy to buy the outstanding listed shares of the entertainment company. Playboy readership has been in decline for the last decade.

If Hugh Hefner is able to buy the outstanding shares, Playboy will become a privately held company. The company is currently valued at $185m. Shares rose by 30% on the news.

In the letter that was sent to the company, Hugh Hefner stated that he would not sell the company.

Playboy was created in 1953 by Hugh Hefner. Mr. Hefner is currently 84 years old. Despite its notoriety, Playboy has seen falling advertising revenues over the years.

As adult entertainment becomes readily available over the internet at little cost Playboy has seen a decline in readership. Playboy has seen one of the biggest problems for print magazines in the new digital age.

Because of the dismal numbers Playboy began discussing selling the magazine.

Hugh Hefner still acts as editor-in-chief for the magazine. He has been well known for his silk smoking jackets and his beautiful girlfriends.

Mr. Hefner is currently in talks with the private equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management. They would be the company who would be involved in the financing of the boy out if it were to go through.

Playboy’s board of directors has stated that no decision about the proposed buyout has been made.

LeBron James has left the Cleveland Cavaliers in the dust.  Thursday LeBron told the world that he would play for the Miami Heat next season. LeBron played in Cleveland for seven years.  In each of those seven years the Cleveland Cavaliers failed to win a national championship.

LeBron underscored his belief that moving to Miami was the right thing to do by stating, “We’re going to be a real good team.”

The Miami Heat won the free agencies lottery, by not only being able to sign Lebron, but by also signing Chris bosh and Dwayne Wade the day before.

The three superstars were considered that top picks of the most celebrated free agencies in the history of the NBA.  Pat Riley did an amazing job in getting them all to commit to Miami.  Miami is now positioned to have a dynasty for years to come.

In his interview with ESPN, Lebron said the process was everything he expected and more.  He also thanked all the teams that he interviewed during the process.

Lebron also said that he didn’t decide until Thursday morning where he would play. “It was day-to-day.  This morning, woke up and had a great conversation with my mom, and I was set.”

Lebron said that all he really wanted was to be able to help his team win and that this was a very emotional time for him. “I never wanted to leave Cleveland, and my heart will always be in that area, but I also feel this is the greatest challenge for me to move on.”

What’s amazing to think is that Wade, James, and Bosh all entered the league in the same Year.  In 2003 James was the number one overall pick,  with Bosh coming in at number four and Wade coming in at number 5.  Also, coincidentally or not, all of their contracts were the same length of time.  Ensuring that they would become free agents during the same year. LeBron ended up going to Cleveland while Wade went to the Heat and Bosh went to Toronto.  Of the three, Wade is the only one to win a championship.  The Miami Heat won a championship with Shaq in 2006.

This signing has been a huge boom for Miami Heat ticket sales.  By Thursday afternoon they had every available season ticket for the coming season.  The Heat did hold back some tickets for single-game purchases.

No amount of crying was going to keep Lindsay Lohan out of jail this time around. Lindsay was ordered Jail time by a Beverly Hills Judge for past transgressions.

Lindsay was sentenced to 90 days in county jail, which is to be followed by 90 days in a drug program for violating her probation agreement. The court said that Lindsay missed seven weekly alcohol counseling sessions during the six month period from December of last year to July of 2010.

Lindsay did not take the news very well. She could be heard saying, “Are you serious?” as the verdict was read. After the verdict Lindsay continued to sob and cover her face as she started to understand the ramifications of her actions.

Appealing directly to the judge for leniency Lohan said, ““I did everything I was told to do. I thought I was being compliant. I did the best that I could. I wasn’t asking for special treatment…I was just trying to balance my jobs. I don’t want you to think I don’t respect you or your terms.”

The Judge in the case gave Lohan 30-days for two incidents where she was sited for driving under the influence and 30-days for reckless driving. The sentences are to be served consecutively.

Lindsay will be required to surrender to authorities on July 20th.