Get Cynical

This is shocking. MySpace is still around?

From the Smoking Gun:

JANUARY 5–Before becoming the country’s most distinctive new voice, Ted Williams compiled a lengthy rap sheet that landed him in several Ohio lockups on a variety of criminal charges, according to law enforcement records.

Williams, 53, has been busted for theft, robbery, escape, forgery, and drug possession. He is pictured at right in mug shots (click to enlarge) taken as a result of those Ohio collars, which stretch back more than two decades.

The convicted felon’s speedy rise to fame is not sitting well with one Columbus businessman who called cops on Williams and a female companion in early-July. The man, a manager at National Tire & Battery, told cops that Williams and the woman were “refusing to leave the business property” and had become an “ongoing problem” for the business, according to a police report.

Fasten your seatbelts boys and girls.

You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.

From The NY Post:

The homeless man with the “golden radio voice” wanted a second chance — and did he ever get it.

As soon as Ted Williams, a panhandler who became an online hit after video of him begging on an Ohio roadside was posted to the Internet, appeared on a local radio show this morning the offers began pouring in — including a dream job with the Cleveland Cavaliers and a free house.

“The Cleveland Cavaliers just offered me a full-time job and a house! A house! A house!,” repeated a stunned Williams, 71, on local radio station WNCI.

A caller to the show who said she represented the Cavs offered Williams, who shot to stardom after local newspaper the Columbus Dispatch on Monday posted video of his perfectly-pitched panhandling, a full-time job doing voiceover work for the team and parent company and a free home in Cleveland.

From CNBC:

New Jersey isn’t giving up its effort to seize unused money on gift cards and traveler’s checks.

Lawmakers voted last year to allow the seizure of cards after two to three years as a way to raise about $80 million and help balance the state’s budget.

But in November, a federal judge temporarily struck down the law.

The Record of Bergen County reports the state isn’t giving up though. State treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff has told a judge that the state will appeal the earlier ruling.

From TPM:

A source close to the three-term congresswoman said Bachmann will travel to Iowa this month for multiple meetings to seek advice from political forces there and party elders close to the caucus process before coming to a final decision regarding a potential presidential run. Bachmann, a native of Waterloo, Iowa, also is set to deliver a keynote speech at an Iowans for Tax Relief PAC fundraiser Jan. 21 in Des Moines, Iowa.

“Nothing is off the table,” Bachmann chief of staff Andy Parrish told ABC News when asked whether the Iowa trip signaled Bachmann’s intent to run for president. “The congresswoman is excited about her first trip to Iowa this year.”