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According to allegation, Robert Rizzo, the former city administrator of Bell, Calif., could have been the king of swindling public sector employees not so long ago. Today, Rizzo just pleaded no contest to 69 counts in his corruption trial, according to a Los Angeles County District Attorney's office press release. And he's likely to get the "the longest prison term for public corruption" - the judge says 10 to 12 years - in the area since 2000. Came in no more than a week before a jury was to be chosen, Rizzo's plea was a surprise to everyone counting the DA. "An open plea", this is what the DA's office calls the move to the presiding judge and was not a negotiated settlement. According to the DA's statement Rizzo was part of an alleged corruption ring that reportedly included his one-time deputy and co-defendant, former assistant city manager Angela Spaccia. On Monday, her trial is scheduled to start. Furthermore, five former Bell elected officials - including a mayor, vice-mayor, and three council members - were already found guilty in March. The reports say the ring was as brazen as it was large. The five ex-officials paid themselves salaries topping off at $100,000 yearly in a city of 35,000 people, 25 percent of whom lived underneath the poverty line. An audit had found that the officials unlawfully raised local taxes and fees to fund their salaries. They were pikers as compared to what allegedly went on somewhere else. According to the report, Rizzo's paycheck reached a $1.5 million peak in a year when he had 107 vacation days and 36 sick days. His salary before he resigned in July 2010 was just under what must have seemed in comparison a paltry $800,000, according to the DA's office. Putting it into context, that's about twice what the President of the United States makes. According to television station KTLA, Rizzo was charged with a variety of schemes that cost the city millions of dollars, including writi

Base from official figures, Britain is finally "on track" to recover from the economic crisis with employment back at the same level as in 2008. The economy grew by 0.6 per cent between April and June despite earlier speculation that there may have been a renewed recession. This has been followed by another rise earlier in the year. There are optimistic signs of growth with employment and the number of hours worked returning to pre-crisis levels, ending a five-year slump. But, in totality the size of the economy is still way smaller than previous to the crisis and politicians were last night eager to stress that Britain still faces years of austerity and improbability before it will have fully recovered. George Osborne, the Chancellor, said that the country was "on the mend" as he prepared to make improving the economy his key message at the next general election. "The figures are better than forecast," Mr Osborne said. "Britain is holding its nerve. We are sticking to our economic plan. "Britain is on the mend, but we've got to stick with the plan because there's still a long way to go." David Cameron, who went on his annual summer holiday, added: "We are on the right track - building an economy for hard-working people." Nonetheless, senior politicians also gave warning to people "not to get carried away"and stressed that ministers were not complacent. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said that he would not be prepared to declare that the economy had recovered before there had been another "two or three years" of strong growth. Neil Bentley, the deputy director-general of the CBI, said that the figures confirmed that Britain was on the road to recovery although there were likely to be "a few bumps ahead". "Underlying conditions are quite weak as consumers are still saddled with debt and despite the global economy picking up, the potential for getting knocked off course remains," he said. According to the O