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April 24, 2012 | | BLAME GAME In the opening salvo of John Edwards’s much-anticipated trial, his attorney tries to pin the blame on former staffer, Andrew Young—now the government’s star witness against the two-time presidential candidate. The Daily Beast’s Diane Dimond reports from the courthouse. NEWS CORP. James Murdoch is sticking to his story that he never saw an incriminating email regarding phone hacking at News of the World until 2010. Speaking before the Leveson inquiry into press standards, the former chairman of News Corp.’s British newspaper division insisted management told him the paper had a clean bill of health. It was Murdoch’s first time before the inquiry, created to deal with the fallout from the News Corp. phone-hacking scandal. His father, Rupert, testifies later today. Corruption The Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation of Walmart, several sources tell The Washington Post and Bloomberg. The probe started in December after Walmart met voluntarily with Justice officials and told them it was looking into whether its Mexico arm had paid bribes. Still, that's long after the retailer allegedly covered up the bribery, according to The New York Times. The Times says a whistleblower informed Walmart executives in 2005 that Walmart de Mexico paid more than $24 million in bribes, but the company shut down its inquiry and didn't inform law enforcement. Death Row One of the largest death rows in the United States may shut down if California voters approve a measure this November. The measure, which qualified for the ballot yesterday, would replace death with life in prison without parole as the state's toughest penalty. More than 700 people on death row would have their sentences commuted. Part of the motivation is financial: the legal process takes so long, those 700 prisoners are more likely to die of old age than by injection, and the 13 inmates that California has successfully executed in the last 23 years cost taxpayers $4 billion. Hinting Somewhere, Mitt Romney is smiling. While speaking to a crowd at the Delaware GOP headquarters Monday, Newt Gingrich said that he would have to “reassess” his campaign if he does poorly in the primary there Tuesday, hinting he may drop out of the race for the party’s presidential nomination. He has spent recent weeks actively campaigning in the winner-take-all state, but if he scores low in Delaware, he said, “I think we need to take a deep look at what we are doing.” But he also warned Mitt Romney not to become too complacent. “Governor Romney is clearly the frontrunner, but that doesn’t mean he is inevitable,” Gingrich added. | | 
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