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March 07, 2012 | | GADGETS As rumors swirled and investors got giddy, Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage on Wednesday to announce a brand-new iPad. From a sharper camera to a pared-down Siri, The Daily Beast runs down the features. DEFENDER Rush Limbaugh has gained some support from an unlikely place: liberal talk-show host Bill Maher. Maher tweeted Tuesday, “Hate to defend #RushLimbaugh, but he apologized, liberals looking bad not accepting.” The Real Time host is among the few who are taking Rush’s apology to heart—at least 34 sponsors have pulled out of Limbaugh’s radio program, and Sandra Fluke, who was the target of Limbaugh’s “slut” comment, has rejected the mea culpa. Maher was first dragged intro the controversy by Sarah Palin, who countered Obama’s support of Sandra Fluke with a call for him to return the $1 million that Maher, who she called a “rabid misogynist,” had given to the president’s super PAC. Feud Newt Gingrich made clear on Wednesday that he isn’t calling it quits any time soon—because he’s not confident in the alternative candidates. If he felt Rick Santorum’s nomination and subsequent election were a sure thing, Gingrich says, he might back down. “If I thought he was a slam dunk to beat Romney and to beat Obama, I would really consider getting out,” he said on Bill Bennett’s radio show Wednesday morning. “I don’t.” Meanwhile, a top Santorum adviser told The Huffington Post last night, "The path is for [Gingrich] to move aside and let us have a one-on-one shot with Romney. That's the path." COZY The conviction of Texas financier R. Allen Stanford yesterday was a long time in the making, reads a feisty Wall Street Journal editorial today: The Securities and Exchange Commission had been investigating—and ignoring—evidence that Stanford was operating a Ponzi scheme since 1997. The SEC investigated his operation in 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2004, each time concluding it was a probably a Ponzi scheme and each time failing to do anything about it. Coincidentally, the official heading many of these investigations was Spencer Barasch, a senior SEC enforcer who later went to work for Stanford. Barasch has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle Justice Department charges he violated conflict-of-interest rules, but he continues to practice law, and the SEC is still mulling whether to let him return to the commission. CONFIRMED After days of rumors, Snooki is coming out about what’s inside: she is indeed pregnant, and engaged to her boyfriend, Jionni LaValle. Her first thought on hearing the news was “Shit, I've been drinking!” She added, “I was worried. It was New Year's Eve and we were in Vegas, so I did go crazy.” Snooki had previously denied speculation that she was engaged, saying her boyfriend had to buy her a giant ring first. She revealed the news on the cover of Us Weekly, to be published Friday. | | 
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