Top officials from the Obama Defense Department sat down on February 2nd with the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. Cyber-terrorism and the growing influence of the Taliban were among the topics of discussion.

Alan Beaman was sentenced to 50 years in prison for a murder that he did not commit. Jennifer Lockmiller was found dead in her apartment near Illinios State University in central Illinios. She had been stabbed with a pair of scissors and had an electrical chord tied around her neck.
 
The problem with the judgment, said a recent Illinios Supreme Court holding, was that evidence suggested Beaman was in Rockford at the time of the murder. The murder occurred about 120 miles south of Rockford in Bloomington.
 

A suicide bomber killed C.I.A. Agent, Elizabeth Hanson, at a base in the Afghan mountains. On December 30th, Hanson was slain along with three American security guards, four CI.A. agents, and a Jordanian intelligence officer.

San Francisco based Google may pull its highly popular search engine from Chinese cyberspace, reported the Financial Times. The move comes after Google complied with censorship requirements of the Chinese government, a controversial position initially taken by the company in 2006. Goggle’s stance to comply with China’s stringent internet policies clearly did not sit well with some of the company’s high ranking corporate officials.
 

 The Swedish engineering group Haldex is a heavy hitter in the Stockholm Stock exchange, and calls itself a “provider of proprietary and innovative solutions to the global vehicle industry…” 
 

NBC recently reported that superstar athlete Michael Jordan has filled lawsuits against two major Chicagoland grocery stores, Jewel and Dominick’s.

The former Chicago Bull alleges that he has been injured from the grocery stores’ unauthorized use his identity. The claims stem from two separate ads taken out by Jewel and Dominick’s, both of which congratulate Jordan on his recent hall-of-fame induction.

Last month's American Bar Association Journal included an article explaining the position of Malcolm Young, who is a scholar at Northwestern School of Law. According to Young, more states should follow the lead of New York and take a more rehabilitative approach to solve prison system problems.

One of Rockford's largest banks, Amcore, has agreed to sell off 12  branches to Midland States Bank of Effingham, Illinois.

Midland States Bank is set to acquire branches that are located in Dixon, Freeport, Mendota, Oregon, Peru, Princeton, Rock Falls and Sterling. For Amcore, which also sold four rural Wisconsin branches in November, this sale is another step in an effort to assure the bank is adequately capitalized.

About 100 part-time employees are being cut from a UPS facility in Rockford, but full-time employees are said to be unaffected. UPS points to the current economic recession as the cause of a drop in volume, which resulted in lay-offs.

The UPS facility, which is located at Chicago Rockford International Airport, apparently may call back laid-off employees when business picks up.

In the past few years, New York City has seen a dramatic increase in the number of reported cases of bedbug infestations. The City Council even established a bedbug advisory board.