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As reported by Brady MacDonald of the Chicago Tribune:

Work is expected to begin this year on a 100-acre Michael Jackson entertainment complex in Gary, Ind., that would include a museum, performing arts center, hotel, golf course and theme park inspired by the pop singer’s Neverland Ranch. “Everything is in the planning stages at this point, but we’re moving on a fast track, and we’re looking forward to actually breaking ground sometime in 2010,” said Odie Anderson, president of the Jackson family project in the pop singer’s hometown.

Anderson said the Indiana theme park would include rides found at Jackson’s 2,700-acre Neverland Ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif. It’s not yet clear whether the park would include all the same attractions. The $1 billion project would be built over 10 years, starting with the museum, arts center and hotel, then golf course and theme park.

To stay on pace with the nightlife in Miami, Burger King’s Whopper Bar will serve a small variety of American beer and a large variety of Whopper sandwiches and get this… Open 24 hours!

This will be Burger King’s first location to serve beer in the United States. The restaurant will offer similar options like that of Sonic. Although BK won’t have a drive-up car hop service; the location offers a delivery service, a window for walk-up orders and an outdoor dining area.

“Not only is South Beach in our backyard, but the warm weather, famous nightlife and colorful personality of the destination make it a great fit for a Whopper Bar restaurant,” Chuck Fallon, Burger King’s North America president, said in a company statement.

Burger King’s bar will offer variations on its traditional Whopper sandwich, including an exclusive addition: the Black & Bleu Steakhouse XT. Customers will be able to choose from 20 sauces.

The Whopper Bar concept was introduced in March 2008, and the first bar opened a year later at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. Burger King has also opened bars in Munich, Singapore and Venezuela.

“We strongly support Google’s action,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, recalling that President Barack Obama had spoken out publicly in favor of Internet freedoms during a webcast event in Shanghai last year.

“The president has strong beliefs about the universal rights of men and women throughout the globe. Those aren’t carved out for certain countries,” Gibbs said.

Obama’s spokesman however avoided a question on whether the Google row could threaten wider US-China relations, which Obama has attempted to improve since coming to office last year.

Gibbs on Wednesday declined to go into details about the extent of the administration’s discussions with Google about its showdown with the Chinese government.

But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked for an explanation from China for what Google said was a wave of “highly sophisticated” cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists.

Google announced on Tuesday that it would stop bowing to Chinese Internet censors and could pull out of the world’s largest online market of 360 million users.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said Thursday that the Chinese government administered the Internet “according to law and we have explicit stipulations over what information and content can be spread over the Internet.”

Two government officials said on Thursday that internet companies must obey the laws of China and help the government steer the country by guiding public opinion.

“China’s Internet is open,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, according to the Associated Press. “China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law.”

China’s Information Office had more words for Google, without mentioning the company by name.

“Our country is at a crucial stage of reform and development, and this is a period of marked social conflicts,” said Minister Wang Chen of China’s State Council Information Office in an interview posted to the agency’s web site on Thursday, Reuters reports. “Properly guiding Internet opinion is a major measure for protecting Internet information security.”

Internet businesses must adhere to “propaganda discipline,” he said.

The agency also listed five Chinese websites that have failed to adequately censor crude and pornographic content. “Step up the clean-up,” the agency ordered through its website.

Google announced on Tuesday that it intended to cease censoring search results on its Chinese-language Google.cn search engine, after discovering in December that hackers, apparently originating from China, had breached its network and stolen unspecified intellectual property and attempted to gain access to the Gmail accounts of human rights activists involved in China issues.

Subsequent reports have revealed that at least 33 other major technology, financial and defense companies were targeted for attack as well.

Google indicated that if it can’t come to an agreement with Beijing to find some way to provide uncensored search results in a way that wouldn’t violate Chinese laws, it was prepared to pull its business out of China.

Google said that the hackers had only succeeded to obtain minor information from the accounts of two activists, but this did not include the content of the e-mails. Only the date the accounts were opened and the subject lines of some e-mails were obtained.

The company said that the Gmail accounts of other activists had been routinely accessed by third parties, possibly through phishing attacks designed to trick the users into revealing their login credentials.

According to Reuters, law professor and human rights lawyer, Teng Biao, wrote on his blog that someone had breached his Gmail account and forwarded his e-mail to another account. A Hong-Kong based human rights group also announced that a human rights lawyer in China named Jiang Tianyong had his Gmail account hacked in November.

CNET reported on Wednesday that lawyers at a U.S. law firm were also targets of an attack. The firm of Gipson Hoffman & Pancione are representing the plaintiff in a $2.2 billion lawsuit against the Chinese government and Chinese companies for allegedly stealing parts of its software for use in China’s Green Dam filtering program, part of China’s so-called “Great Firewall” censorship system. The firm said employees received e-mails this weekthat appeared to come from lawyers within the firm and that included attachments containing malware or links to sites where malware was stored.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Yu, addressed the implications that it was responsible for the hacks by telling reporters on Thursday that Chinese law prohibits hacking.

Yahoo said in a statement on Wednesday that it was “aligned” with Google’s stance but declined to say whether it would follow suit and sell off its 39 percent stake in the Alibaba Group.

Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond, told public radio’s Marketplace program Wednesday evening, that residents were delivering flowers and notes of support to its Beijing offices following its announcement.

Reuters reports that one note left for Google read: “Google is the true hero in this silent city.”

Another note, referring to China’s “Great Firewall” web-censorship, read: “The tallest walls cannot divide people’s sentiments. Google: Bye, let’s meet on the other side of the wall.”

Visitors have also left small glasses of liquor, a Chinese funeral tradition.

The White House said Wednesday that it has been briefed by Google about its announcement and that it was waiting for China’s reponse. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama had been clear during his trip to China in November that an open exchange of information makes countries stronger.

Photo: A Chinese Google user presents flowers to the Google China
headquarters in Beijing, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

In the post, Google outlined in rather striking detail a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” that occurred last month, targeting around 20 companies. In its investigation, the search giant found that the attackers’ primary objective was accessing Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. It also found that dozens of other Gmail accounts owned by human rights activists worldwide were compromised, most likely due to phishing scams or malware.

Google wouldn’t say it, but implications are that the Chinese government had something to do with these attacks.

As a result of the attacks, Google has decided to reassess its presence in China. The Chinese government and Google have fought over censorship before, but currently the search engine does block certain results (such as images of the Tiananmen Square massacre).

Now Google’s making it clear that it won’t comply with China’s demands any longer. Here’s the key paragraph from the Google post:

“These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

Google has taken a very public stand against censorship, albeit one that is years overdue. How this series of events plays out could not only affect Google and the tech community, but global politics as a whole.

Simon Cowell will no longer be crushing terrible singers’ dreams on the most popular show on television.

Cowell just announced this will be his last season on “American Idol” — and that he’s leaving the show to be a judge and executive producer on FOX’s upcoming American version of “The X Factor” … the British talent show that launced Leona Lewis‘ career.

Cowell just made the announcement during the semiannual Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena.

The 2010 Fusion Hybrid beat out the Volkswagen Golf TDI and Buick LaCrosse to win the car class and the odd-looking but highly practical 2010 Transit Connect won the truck award over the Chevrolet Equinoxand Subaru Outback.

It was only the third time in 17 years of the Detroit auto show awards that one automaker won both major categories.

A jury of 49 automotive journalists voted on the awards. Earlier, Motor Trend magazine named the Ford Fusion its Car of the Year award, adding to other awards that the automaker has won in the U.S., Europe and Asia over the past year.

The video below is from MotorTrend’s Press Conference/Unveiling of the Car of the Year:

The Eagles came out flat and never recovered as they Cowboys used a team-record 27-point second quarter to cut down the Birds 34-14 in a Wild Card showdown in Big D.

The Boys picked right up where they left off after last weeks 24-0 beat down of the Birds but marching up an down the field while capitalizing on a slew of Philly turnovers.

Tony Romo threw for 244 yards, two TDs and no picks as he handed the ball off often to his backs. Donovan McNabb, didn’t have the same luxury of a quality rushing attack as he struggled to 230 yards, one TD and one pick.

The game was actually tied at seven early in the second half when Eagles’ safety Sean Jones appeared to pick off a Romo pass deep in Cowboys territory. But, Dallas coach Wade Phillips challenged the play and it was overturned.

The Boys went on to score a TD and the rest of the game was history.

The biggest problem for the Birds was that they only held the ball for about seven minutes in the first half as the offense sputtered and the defense struggled to get off the field.

The Eagles weren’t the only sloppy team on the field. The teams combined for a record 228 penalty yards as the Birds were flagged nine times for 116 yards and the Boys were tagged for 112 yards on 14 penalties.

Now the questions begin for the Birds. The biggest question — will McNabb be back?

Click here to watch on JibJab’s site.