In the memo in which Dow Jones editor-in-chief Robert Thomson announced there would be job cuts at the Journal, he also said: "Our new budget includes an ambitious expansion of our web and international operations, both for the Journal and for Newswires, where we are adding 95 journalists over coming months."

So where exactly are those 95 people going? Not to the Wall Street Journal.

A spokesman for the Journal, Bob Christie, told Media Mob that those new hires will all be assigned to Dow Jones news wires, not at the Journal. Mr. Christie reminds us, however, that wire copy can be used, of course, inside the pages of the Journal.

And what's the timeframe for these hires? He said they'll start now, and there's no end-date in mind. So, conceivably, Mr. Thomson can take as long as he wants to hire.

So just what is the future of New York's most famous radio sports-talk show, Mike and the Mad Dog?

We don't really know, either! Newsday reported last month that Mike Francesa and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo were on the verge of splitting up after two decades on the air together. Both Mike and Chris have kept mum about it, and earlier this week Mike finally went on the air to talk about it ... but rather elliptically. As wonderful as Mike Francesa is--and he is wonderful--sometimes the pressure of speaking on the air for six hours a day can make someone sound slightly confused.  read more »

Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents may soon feel like they are living on the set of a reality TV show. The cast of the Apprentice-style MTV show starring 50 Cent is moving into a three-story, newly renovated loft building on the Greenpoint waterfront, a well-placed source has informed us.

The series will follow 16 aspiring rap moguls as they compete in a series of challenges to determine their "savvy, street smarts, manipulation, power and the art of winning"--"the skills that took 50 Cent from the streets to corporate America." At the end of each episode, 50 Cent will eliminate a contestant. The winner will get a full scholarship to an undergraduate or graduate business program.  read more »

This morning we noted that Rob Weisbach, who's been off the grid since leaving Weinstein Books in April, had brokered a book deal for an intruiging memoirist named Norman Ollestad. Mr. Weisbach had never worked as an agent before, and the question on everybody's lips--O.K., the question that would have been on everybody's lips if all of publishing wasn't at the beach today--was whether this deal was Mr. Weisbach's way of telling the world that he was starting a second career as a literary agent.

The answer is no. In a phone interview this afternoon, Mr. Weisbach told Media Mob that the Ollestad book was a one-off project and that he doesn't expect to be selling any more books.  read more »

On Wednesday, the Media Mob reported that NBC Universal, Fox News, and the Fox Television Stations group were filing a joint copyright infringement suit against Redlasso—the privately held company that provides users with a search engine targeting video and audio footage from stations and networks around the country.

Today, Redlasso executives informed their site’s users that because of the suit, they are currently suspending some services.

Redlasso posted a notice on its Web site today alerting its users to the change.  read more »

"Unfortunately, due to the legal actions taken against Redlasso by two networks, we are left with no alternative but to suspend access to our video search and clipping Beta site FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE," the notice

ThoroughbredTimes.com -- our favorite horse racing rag -- is reporting that the state's selection of a vendor to convert the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens into a racino should be happening soon. Real soon.

That's because New York State's Division of Lottery has finally reviewed all three proposals and deemed all three viable.

The parties vying for the chance to remake the dilapidated racetrack include SL Green in partnership with Hard Rock Entertainment; Delaware North Companies with Saratoga Harness Racing; and Capital Play, in partnership with Mohegan Sun, Extell Development and Plainfield Asset Management.

Morgan Hook, a spokesman for the governor, told ThoroughbredTimes.com that Governor Paterson, the Senate majority leader, Dean Skelos, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver now "can begin to have discussions about which one will be best for the state.  read more »

SDEROT, Israel -- As Barack Obama's plane took off from Ben Gurion Airport for Germany early Thursday, Israelis were opening up the morning newspaper to a center spread's worth of photos and quotes tailored to the local political palate.

In Jerusalem strolling arm and arm with Shimon Peres at his presidential villa. In a yarmulke next to the Western Wall. In southern Israel, looking up in awe at a smiling 10-year-old leg amputee from a Qassam rocket.

Just a few weeks ago, many Israelis fretted about the prospect of a Barack Obama presidency because he was a foreign policy unknown with Muslim lineage.  read more »

Insurrectionists in the Screen Actors Guild! It seems a group of Hollywood actors are uniting against the guild leadership in an attempt to pry the reins from the current leadership.

Calling themselves Unite for Strength, they've launched a campaign and nominated 31 candidates to head up the governing board that is making contract negotiations with major Hollywood studios, according to Reuters.

The emergence of a serious challenge to SAG's ruling coalition, a Hollywood-based group of moderates known as Membership First, likely means that the 3 1/2-week-old standoff between the union and studios will drag on for at least two more months.

Candidates running on the Unite for Strength slate include two stars from TV's "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff "Private Practice" -- Kate Walsh and Amy Brenneman -- as well as Doug Savant from "Desperate Housewives" and "Chicago Hope" veteran Adam Arkin.  read more »

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From the Obama campaign's flickr page.

(So much for the "tightly wrapped message?")

UPDATE: As seen in this other picture, she's also wearing a Hillary Clinton T-shirt with two Hillary Clinton buttons pinned to it.

Last night at the Bronx Democratic County Dinner, I ran into Ezra Friedlander, an Orthodox Jew who lives in Brooklyn and does political PR. He said he thought Barack Obama’s recent trip to the Middle East was good, but that John McCain “has a clearer understanding of the history and the players.”

Friedlander goes on to say he's "leaning towards" voting for McCain.

The trip did win over a once-skeptical Assemblyman Rory Lancman of Queens, who had offered his unsolicited advice to Obama before the trip.

This afternoon, Lancman put out a rather supportive statement, saying in part:

“For those of us whose familiarity with Senator Obama comes almost entirely from his twenty months as a presidential candidate, this closely scrutinized trip to the Middle East has been an opportunity to see him not as a mere candidate but as a potential president in a president's most important and challenging role - as commander in chief and leader of the free world.  read more »

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