This from Alistair Steele...

So Larry O'Brien will hear his fate a week earlier than everyone expected. The news broke late yesterday afternoon (actually, the first anyone heard of it was on the "Zero Means Zero" blog just after 3 p.m. Hmmmm....) Justice Douglas Cunningham had set August 12 as the verdict date. It will now be August 5th. So is this good news or bad news for the mayor? What does it all mean? Likely very little. According to one of O'Brien's defense lawyers, Vince Clifford, the change came at the request of the court, and such requests typically have more to do with the judge's schedule than anything else. In other words, don't read too much into it. On another note, the verdict will be delivered in the larger, grander court room 37 instead of the more modest court room 36.