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Madoff expressed remorse but was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison Justin Lane/EPA/Corbis

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Madoff Gets the Max

Short apology, long sentence. "I'm sorry. I know that doesn't help you," said Ponzi schemester Bernard Madoff as part of his statement to victims assembled in Manhattan federal court for his June 29 sentencing. "One hundred fifty years," said U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, calling Madoff's crimes "evil." The judge also said he thought Madoff had not fully cooperated with authorities since his arrest in December and not a single friend or relative had written to attest to Madoff's good character or charitable deeds. On June 30, the Associated Press reported that prosecutors are looking into criminal charges against as many as 10 other people. But the feds said the next day that Madoff's wife, Ruth, isn't one of them.

Madoff Sentenced to Maximum 150 Years

GE Cashes In

Quick, who's the biggest beneficiary of a federal program to thaw the credit markets? Nope, it's not Bank of America (BAC) or Citigroup (C) or any of the other troubled banks. Correct answer: General Electric (GE). The company didn't initially qualify to take part in the scheme, known as the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, in which Washington guarantees debt issued by banks. But GE managed to win inclusion because its finance arm, GE Capital, owns a savings and loan in Utah. GE had raised $74 billion through TLGP as of the first quarter—equal to nearly one-quarter of the $340 billion in debt backed by the program since its inception last year. Yet unlike banks that have participated in the effort, GE has not had to submit to the Fed's stress tests or rules limiting risk. The White House is working to close some of the loopholes in its rescue programs.

ProPublica, Washington Post

High Court Thunder

On the last day of its current term, June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court took action on a trifecta of cases concerning business. The most important: In a 5-4 ruling that employment lawyers say may prompt more reverse-discrimination lawsuits, the court said a group of mostly white New Haven firefighters were wrongly denied promotions when the city tossed out an employment test because of concerns that it was biased against blacks. A second 5-4 decision dealt a blow to banks hoping to answer to just a single national regulator: The justices held that a financial institution's federal charter does not insulate it from investigation by state attorneys general for discrimination and other crimes. Finally, the court let stand a lower court ruling allowing Cablevision Systems (CVC) to offer its subscribers a setup under which they can store TV shows on a central server, rather than a box in their home. That turned back a copyright challenge by TV networks and Hollywood studios and portends broader adoption of remote DVR services.

A Coup in Honduras

In the eyes of many Hondurans, President Manuel Zelaya was getting way too cozy with fiery Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, who is giving Honduras some $350 million in subsidized oil and infrastructure financing as part of his efforts to build a leftist bloc in the Americas. So when Zelaya copied a page from Chávez's playbook and tried to carry out a referendum that might have let him run for reelection, the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court ruled he was out of line. Zelaya defied that ruling and was ousted in a June 28 military coup—the first in Latin America since the Cold War ended.

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