Newsmakers of the week

Arnold’s extra pair
In the spirit of partisan pranks-manship, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently sent a metal sculpture in the shape of bull testicles to California Senate President Darrell Steinberg—a metaphorical reminder of the bold budgetary decisions required by the state’s lawmakers in the face of a US$24.3-billion budget shortfall. Unfortunately, the joke fell flat. Steinberg, who is a Democrat, returned the sculpture to its sender, along with a note stressing the seriousness of the situation. In fairness to the governor, sources told MSNBC.com that the testicles were sent in response to a gag gift Steinberg sent to him—a package of mushrooms—after Schwarzenegger called the Democrat’s budget proposals “hallucinatory.” But the sculpture was apparently too much coming from a man who once called Democrats “girlie men.” When asked why so serious, Steinberg’s spokesperson told reporters, “We’ve got more important things on our plate right now than to waste any more time on such trivial matters.”

Too much information
On Monday, Canada’s Information Commissioner Robert Marleau resigned unexpectedly, only two years into an ostensible seven-year tenure. He was in the process of reforming the country’s access to information laws, which have come to be routinely subverted by secretive government officials. Only one day earlier, Marleau was quoted in a Toronto Star article decrying the whole system. When the Access to Information Act was introduced in 1983, he told the reporter, “we were amongst the leaders in the world.” Since then, he said, “It’s been the same song and dance, no effort by any government to have this legislation or these processes keep pace with time, change and technology.” The reasons for his hasty departure only 24 hours later, he told media, are “entirely personal and private.”

Way to go, Einstein
An iconic 1951 photograph of Albert Einstein—in which he is shown at his 72nd birthday party, wide-eyed, hair askew, sticking out his tongue at the camera—sold at auction in New Hampshire last week for US$74,324, a record for a photo of the great physicist. The print, one of an original nine Einstein had made, features an inscription in German to his friend, the journalist Howard K. Smith: “This gesture you will like, because it is aimed at all of humanity. A civilian can afford to do what no diplomat would dare. Your loyal and grateful listener, A. Einstein. ’53.”

Family resemblance
When Irene Prusik died in 2003 at the age of 73, her son, Thomas Prusik-Parkin, 49, kept her memory alive in an unusual manner. First, he gave her funeral director false information so that her death would go officially unre corded. Then he bought himself a wig, women’s clothes and heavy makeup, and for six years, he impersonated his mother in banks and even in court in order to collect her social security benefits and rent subsidies totalling US$115,000. Brooklyn police, responding to a tip, recently arrested Prusik-Parkin and charged him with theft, forgery and conspiracy. “I held my mother when she was dying and breathed in her last breath,” he told police upon his arrest, “so I am my mother.”

Let her eat cake
Imprisoned Burmese opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi—on trial for violating the conditions of her house arrest—celebrated her 64th birthday last week by inviting her doctors and her prison guards to a party. “[She] will celebrate her birthday by treating the people around her to rice and chocolate cake,” said lawyer Nyan Win, who brought birthday supplies to the prison in Yangon, including the chocolate cake, an apple cake, bouquets of orchids, and Indian-style biryani rice. Meanwhile, Suu Kyi’s supporters staged protests around the world calling for her release, and online, a high-profile campaign to free Suu Kyi is quickly gaining momentum. Among its illustrious signatories are fellow Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel and Desmond Tutu. And Sex and the City’s Sarah Jessica Parker.

Burden of proof
Adil Charkaoui, a Morocco-born Montreal resident, began a Canada-wide speaking tour last week to draw attention to the “nightmare” he endured after he was detained by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service six years ago for allegedly being an al-Qaeda sleeper agent. Charkaoui says after 9/11, CSIS agents—who believed he was associating with Muslims in Montreal with ties to extremists in North Africa—entered the pizzeria he owned and asked him “Where is Osama bin Laden hiding?” Not taking the query seriously, he said, “I told them he was in the basement, having a siesta.” Soon after, Charkaoui says they began interfering with his business. In 2003, he was detained under a security certificate law, and denied access to the evidence against him. After spending 21 months in prison, a Quebec judge released him on $50,000 bail on the condition that he agree to electronic surveillance. “This law is a medieval law,” he told a Toronto crowd last Thursday. “In a country like Canada, it is shameful.”