| Burlco eyes Web auctions
Burlington County plans to join other local governments in auctioning government surplus items on the Web. The Burlington County Freeholders authorized its treasurer's office to sign an agreement with GovDeals Inc., which operates an Internet auction site called www.govdeals.com. The freeholders said they will sell vehicles and office equipment to the public online to make more money, save time and attract more bidders. Sharon Brauckmann, county purchasing agent, said the auction would be held later this year and not until the state Department of Community Affairs gives its approval. She said the state must approve a county application to waive the normal local public auction using an auctioneer. Kurt Brock, the county's chief financial officer, said the state is approving Internet auctions of government property only on eBay and GovDeals.
Browne leads delegation bidding to save Hydro
LOCAL MP Jeremy Browne is leading a cross-party delegation to the Ministry of Defence on Thursday morning in a bid to keep the UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton. They will argue for either rebuilding the sea chart maker on its current Admiralty Way site or relocating in the town. At the 45-minute meeting they will ask Defence Minster Derek Twigg to drop a third option of transferring to offices beside the MetOffice in Exeter. .
Auction of rights to OJ Simpson book cancelled
A court-ordered auction of the rights to O.J. Simpson's halted book-TV project If I Did It, Here's How It Happened has been cancelled. O.J. Simpson's surrogate company filed for bankruptcy last week, which has halted Tuesday's auction of the rights to the scrapped book and TV project If I Did It.(Richard Drew/Associated Press) The auction, originally scheduled for Tuesday in California, was scrapped because the former football star's company filed for bankruptcy in Florida late last week, according to a lawyer representing the family of Ron Goldman, who was killed alongside Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, in 1994. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges in the case in 1995. However, he subsequently lost a wrongful death civil suit brought by the Goldman family and was ordered to pay damages of $33.5 million US — little of which the family has recovered over the past decade.
Ex-Wakayama governor admits rigging bids
Former Wakayama Gov. Yoshiki Kimura pleaded guilty at the first hearing of his trial at the Osaka District Court on Tuesday to rigging bids and accepting 10 million yen in bribes in connection with prefectural public works projects. Kimura, who appeared in public for the first time in about five months since his arrested, said: "I deeply regret betraying the trust of prefectural residents. I'm really ashamed." According to the indictment, Kimura, 55, rigged bids on two prefectural tunnel construction projects and a sewerage construction project, which were all bid for on Nov. 11, 2004, in favor of a consortium of three general contractors in conspiracy with others accused in the scandal, including Satoaki Mizutani, the former treasurer of the prefectural government, and Chikanori Hioki, a former adviser of major contractor Obayashi Corp.
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