In this task, you are given news articles and you need to generate a highlight, i.e., a short summary, with a maximum length of 10 lines.

Input: Consider Input: (CNN) -- Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, face corruption charges in a scandal that encompassed the Chicago Cubs, President-elect Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat and a children's hospital, according to an affidavit. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich talks to laid-off workers in Chicago on Monday. The men were each charged with a count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and a count of solicitation of bribery, authorities said. According to the affidavit outlining some of the charges against the Blagojevich and Harris, here are some of the details that led authorities to charge the officials: . Senate seat . Blagojevich said in phone conversation that he is conspiring to trade the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for positions that Obama has the power to appoint, namely the secretary of health and human services post.  Watch how the FBI's tapes show the governor wanted to trade seat » . In a November 3 conversation with an adviser, Blagojevich discussed receiving a kickback for appointing someone, identified only as "Senate Candidate 1," to the vacant Senate seat. Obama reportedly backed the Senate candidate. "During the call, Rod Blagojevich stated, 'Unless I get something real good for [Senate Candidate 1], s--t, I'll just send myself, you know what I'm saying?' " the affidavit says. He later said, "I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I'm saying? And if I don't get what I want and I'm not satisfied with it, then I'll just take the Senate seat myself," according to the affidavit. The governor said the seat "is a f---ing valuable thing; you just don't give it away for nothing." "Blagojevich has also been intercepted conspiring to sell the Senate seat in exchange for his wife's placement on paid corporate boards or Rod Blagojevich's placement at a private foundation in a significant position with a substantial salary," the affidavit says. Intercepted phone calls indicate that the governor also has conspired to sell the Senate seat in exchange for millions of dollars in funding for "a nonprofit organization that he would start and that would employ him at a substantial salary after he left the governorship," according to the affidavit. Tribune Co. Blagojevich and Harris threatened to withhold financial assistance from the Tribune Co. unless the company fired certain editorial board members who had been critical of Blagojevich and had called for the governor's impeachment. The money was related to the sale or financing of Wrigley Field, home stadium of the Chicago Cubs, a team owned by the Tribune Co. The governor instructed Harris to tell the Tribune's financial adviser that the assistance, which Blagojevich estimated to be worth at least $100 million, was contingent on the ouster of several board members. In a November 4 phone call, Blagojevich told Harris to tell the Tribune adviser, "Our recommendation is fire all those f---ing people, get 'em the f--- out of there and get us some editorial support." The affidavit gives only one name, Deputy Editorial Page Editor John McCormick. In a follow-up conversation, Harris said he had informed the adviser that the newspaper needed "wholesale changes" "This is a priority. Stay on it, right. I mean, he, he gets the message, doesn't he?" Blagojevich asked. "Oh, yeah. He got it loud and clear," Harris reportedly replied. In another follow-up conversation, Harris said the Tribune owner told the financial adviser that he "was very sensitive to our concerns" and that certain cuts personnel cuts were imminent. On November 21, Harris said he had singled out McCormick "as somebody who was the most biased and unfair." Beginning November 30, Blagojevich began talking to a sports consultant and a Cubs officials about making state money available for Wrigley Field. Children's hospital . On October 8, Blagojevich told a person described only as "Individual A" that he was willing to make $8 million available for Children's Memorial Hospital, but "I want to get [Hospital Executive 1] for 50." Individual A felt that Blagojevich was talking about a $50,000 campaign contribution from the hospital's chief executive officer and that the $8 million referred to a recent commitment by Blagojevich to secure state funds via "some type of pediatric care reimbursement." "Intercepted phone conversations between Rod Blagojevich and others indicate that Rod Blagojevich is contemplating rescinding his commitment of state funds to benefit Children's Memorial Hospital because Hospital Executive 1 has not made a recent campaign contribution," the affidavit says.

Output: Affidavit says Blagojevich called Senate seat "a f---ing valuable thing"
Governor talked of getting newspaper employees fired for editorials, affidavit says .
Blagojevich wanted campaign contribution for funding children's hospital, it says .


Input: Consider Input: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday defended the Bush administration's economic record, the invasion of Iraq and the treatment of suspected terrorists, warning that reversing its anti-terrorism policies endangers Americans. "We've accomplished nearly everything we set out to do," ex-Vice President Dick Cheney says Sunday about Iraq. In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's "State of the Union," Cheney said the harsh interrogations of suspects and the use of warrantless electronic surveillance were "absolutely essential" to get information to prevent more attacks like the 2001 suicide hijackings that targeted New York and Washington. "President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack," he said. Critics said the Bush administration's "alternative" interrogation techniques amounted to the torture of prisoners in American custody, while the administration's warrantless surveillance program violated federal laws enacted after the Watergate scandal. Since taking office in January, Obama has announced plans to close the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to halt the military trials of suspected terrorists there, and to make CIA officers follow the Army field manual's rules on interrogations. Cheney said the administration appears to be returning to the pre-2001 model of treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue, rather than a military problem. "When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what they're doing, closing Guantanamo and so forth ... they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that's required, that concept of military threat that is essential if you're going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks," he said. But Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pennsylvania, said the Bush administration's policies undercut "what is actually the source of America's greatness -- our principles." "How can we say that keeping a man in a black hole forever -- perpetually in a black hole -- and saying, 'Let's torture when we decide to,' is what America stands for?" asked Sestak, a former admiral who led the Navy's anti-terrorism efforts. The Bush administration took office at the end of an economic boom and left in the middle of a deep recession, with a budget surplus in 2001 becoming a $1 trillion-plus deficit by 2009. But Cheney said he and Bush had to spend money to deal with the September 11, 2001 attacks, the resulting war in Afghanistan, the disaster of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and the costly and unpopular war in Iraq, now nearly six years old. "All of these things required us to spend money that we had not originally planned to spend, or weren't originally part of the budget," Cheney said. "Stuff happens. And the administration has to be able to respond to that, and we did." Obama has begun to wind down the war in Iraq, which has cost more than 4,200 American lives and nearly $700 billion in direct costs. But Cheney said the United States has "accomplished nearly everything we set out to do" in Iraq, including establishing a democratic government in the Middle East. Cheney was one of the administration's leading advocates of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, pressing the Bush administration's argument that Iraq was concealing weapons of mass destruction and could provide those weapons to terrorists. None of those weapons were found after the invasion, but Cheney said, "We've eliminated that possibility." In 2005, Cheney said the raging insurgency against U.S. troops was in its "last throes." Nearly two years later, a commitment of more than 30,000 additional American troops and a widespread effort to pay former insurgents to turn against Islamic militants helped quell the worst of the violence. "I don't hear much talk about that, but the fact is, the violence level is down 90 percent," Cheney said. "The number of casualties [among] Iraqis and Americans is significantly diminished. There's been elections, a constitution. They're about to have another presidential election here in the near future. We have succeeded in creating in the heart of the Middle East a democratically governed Iraq, and that is a big deal, and it is, in fact, what we set out to do." But Sestak said the administration was too slow to react to the problems it faced in Iraq and let the conflict overshadow the "whole fabric" of U.S. national security. "The cost of this war is something that I strongly believe has far, far hurt us," he said. "We're going to recover, because we're Americans. But Iraq was just one piece of our security, and this administration failed to realize that." Though considered one of the administration's most influential figures, Cheney said President Bush rebuffed his advice on at least two issues.  Watch Cheney tout Bush administration » . He said Bush left former Cheney aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby "sort of hanging in the wind" by refusing to issue Libby a pardon before leaving office. Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to federal agents investigating the leak of a former CIA officer's identity. "I believe firmly that Scooter was unjustly accused and prosecuted and deserved a pardon, and the president disagreed with that," Cheney said. He would disclose no details of his efforts to lobby the president on Libby's behalf, saying they would be "best left to history." And Cheney said he argued against the administration's policy on North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. The Bush administration reached a still-incomplete disarmament deal with the isolated Stalinist state in 2007 and removed it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism as part of the deal. "I had my say," Cheney told CNN. "I got my chance to voice my views and my objections. I didn't think the North Koreans were going to keep their end of the bargain in terms of what they agreed to, and they didn't." The Obama administration has nominated Christopher Hill, the State Department official who was the top U.S. negotiator with North Korea, to be the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Cheney said Hill lacks the Middle East experience that his predecessors have, and "I did not support the work that Chris Hill did with respect to North Korea." "I think it's a choice that I wouldn't have made," he said.

Output: NEW: Cheney: Harsh interrogations, warrantless eavesdropping "essential"
NEW: Former vice president says Bush rebuffed his advice on two big issues .
"An administration has to be able to respond to [crises] and we did," Cheney said .
Cheney cites costs of dealing with 9/11 attacks, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq .


Input: Consider Input: (CNN) -- Donald Sterling can't seem to avoid trouble over recorded phone calls. In the latest twist to a downfall triggered by more recordings, the Los Angeles Clippers' owner allegedly threatened to "take out" his wife's lawyer and sue two doctors who declared him mentally unfit. He made several calls to the doctors this month and left profanity-laced voice mails to intimidate them out of testifying next month, according to attorneys for his wife, Shelly Sterling. "I'm not incompetent. You're (expletive) incompetent, you stupid (expletive) doctor," he said in a June 9 voice mail provided by his wife's attorneys. 'How dare you' In the message, he identifies himself and expresses anger about the release of his medical records. "There's an ethical issue here. ... How dare you give my records to a lawyer for the purpose of using it against me?" he demands. "You're nothing but a fraud and a liar and a cheat, and I'm going to see that you lose your license, and I'm suing you for conspiracy." Sterling made the calls to two doctors, James Spar and Meril Platzer, who diagnosed him as mentally incapacitated. Both will present their evidence in court on behalf of Shelly Sterling, who's vying to uphold a negotiated sale of the Clippers. Death threat? His wife's attorney, Pierce O'Donnell, said Sterling targeted him as well and threatened to "take you out." "I took that as a death threat," O'Donnell said. "That hasn't happened in 40 years as a trial lawyer." Donald Sterling waived doctor-patient confidentiality in connection with his mental evaluation, Shelly Sterling's attorneys said in court papers, an assertion denied by his lawyers. She asked a judge to order her husband and his legal team to stop contacting and harassing witnesses involved in the court battle. Los Angeles Judge Michael Levanas on Thursday rejected the wife's request to keep her husband and his lawyers away from witnesses, saying her assertions don't "rise to the level of great and irreparable injury." "It is probably no surprise to anyone that this case might involve high emotions and some litigation posturing," the judge wrote. Deal to sell the team . Donald Sterling's attorneys admitted he left the voice mails, but they said he meant no harm and was just distressed that his medical records were publicized. The two physicians who examined Donald Sterling didn't have his permission to talk to third parties, said Bobby Samini, another attorney for Donald Sterling, . In next month's probate court trial, Shelly Sterling will ask the court to uphold her deal to sell the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. Her decision to go to probate court follows a ruling by three physicians that her 80-year-old husband is mentally incapacitated and shows early Alzheimer's or other brain disease. The couple co-owns the basketball team. If one of the trustees is declared mentally incapacitated, the other becomes the lone trustee, according to records. His wife used that provision to negotiate the deal with Ballmer. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life and fined him $2.5 million after a different recording appeared in April in which he made a series of racist comments to a friend.


Output: Sterling allegedly left intimidating voice mail messages for two doctors .
He threatens to sue the two after they declared him mentally unfit .
Both will present their evidence in court on behalf of his wife, Shelly Sterling .