Hot Insane News

Did Aretha Franklin Die?

2010-12-27T22:38:00.000-08:00

The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin has died. That’s the news that’s topping Google Trends at this moment. Nothing is confirmed as yet.

Aretha underwent surgery for a mystery illness about a month ago. And rumor has it that she had pancreatic cancer. The National Enquirer reported recently that Aretha has incurable pancreatic cancer. The rag lists pancreatic survival rates at 5-10%, and even lower for someone of Franklin’s age and weight. Patrick Swayze died from the same form of cancer in September last year.

Fox 2 News quoted Franklin herself as saying she had “highly successful” surgery recently. “God is still in control. I had superb doctors and nurses whom were blessed by all the prayers of the city and the country,” she said.

Franklin canceled a number of concerts back in October citing “health reasons,” and in early November, she has cancelled all engagements for the next six months.

The death rumor could just be a hoax. We’ll keep you updated.

Our prayers go out to Aretha and in God we trust always.

Now it seems that this was a Hoax.

FBI vs. Wikipedia: "FBI Has Not Authorized Use of the FBI Seal on Wikipedia"

2010-08-04T08:17:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK (CBS/CNET) The Federal Bureau of Investigation has sent a nasty letter to Wikipedia demanding that the FBI's official seal be removed from an article about the law enforcement agency due to authorization and counterfeiting issues.

"The FBI has not authorized use of the FBI seal on Wikipedia," said the letter to Wikipedia obtained by The New York Times. "The inclusion of a high quality graphic of the FBI seal on Wikipedia is particularly problematic, because it facilitates both deliberate and unwitting" copying and reprinting of the FBI's seal.

The letter, dated on July 22, goes on to threaten legal action if Wikipedia fails to comply the request to remove the seal.

So what does Wikipedia think about all of this?

CNET reports that the free, web-based, collaborative encyclopedia project thinks the FBI may have misread the law it cited in its angry letter.

"While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version of Section 701 that you forwarded to us," Mike Godwin, general counsel for Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit company that runs Wikipedia, wrote the FBI in response.

Godwin argues that Section 701 prohibits the unauthorized reproduction of the insignia on badges and identification cards - not encyclopedia articles.

"The use of the image on Wikipedia is not for the purpose of deception or falsely to represent anyone as an agent of the federal government," Godwin wrote in the letter obtained by The New York Times. "We are in contact with outside counsel in this matter, and we are prepared to argue our view in court."

FBI spokesperson William Carter defended the July 22 letter, saying there is no exception to the rule.

"You can't use the FBI seal, by law, unless you have the permission of the FBI director," Carter told the newspaper.

Despite the FBI's request, Wikipedia continues to display the official seal in high quality on its page about the FBI.

Story Contributed by Steven Musil, News Editor at CNET News

Beaver County, Bradys Run Lake drained for dredging

2010-08-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

Bradys Run Lake is being drained as part of a $2.1 million dredging project to remove silt.

Beaver County Public Works Director James Camp said workers are waiting for silt in the lake bottom to drain before starting the dredging. Meanwhile, they are cleaning out upstream sedimentation basins and preparing several park areas to receive material dredged from the lake.

Camp said it would be several weeks before dredging commences. The project is scheduled for completion in May.

Maybe this can be done to remove some invasive species like the Asian Carp.

Santa Monica College Demolition Plan

2010-08-03T06:43:00.000-07:00

SANTA MONICA – Santa Monica College Board of Trustees’ plan to demolish Corsair Stadium, not retrofit and remodel, is angering local neighbors. Santa Monica College Board of Trustees last night met to review and vote on a final EIR (Environmental Impact Review) which encompasses multiple structures being demolished.

The structure proposed by Santa Monica College for demolition sparking the most reaction is Corsair Stadium, the 3 story cement stadium on 16th street. Plans for that structure are dominatingSanta Monica news this morning.

Other structures proposed by Santa Monica College for demolition are The Liberal Arts classroom (Pearl St), the Letters and Science building, the Math Complex, the Library Village, the P.E. building, and the ESL building.

The Friends of Sunset Park community (FSOP) is urging Santa Monica College to retrofit and remodel, not demolish and rebuild, the Stadium. They write “FOSP Board of Directors urges the SMC Board of Trustees to (1) direct college staff to re-route the planned access to parking under the new Student Services building to Pico Blvd., and (2) consider the health and welfare of nearby families and school children and, therefore, choose to RETROFIT and REMODEL instead of continuing to tear down and replace every building on the main campus.”

Best 4th of July quotes from Lincoln, Napoleon, Gandhi, Kennedy, Obama and others

2009-07-02T08:16:00.001-07:00

The 4th of July: America’s Independence Day is normally filled with the 3 F’s – food, friends (and/or family) and fireworks. It’s also a great day for parents to slip in a little education and help our children understand what it is we are celebrating. Here are some great quotes about freedom and liberty to get you started.
“The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.” ~ Saul Alinsky
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“Liberty is the breath of life to nations” ~ Bernard Shaw

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide” ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
“Where liberty dwells, there is my country” ~ Benjamin Franklin
“We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others. ”
~ John F Kennedy

“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul” ~ Moshe Dayan
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope”. ~Winston Churchill

“Better to starve free than be a fat slave” ~ Aesop
“Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?” ~ Gandhi

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” ~.Martin Luther King, Jr.

“That’s why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women – students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors — found the courage to keep it alive.” ~ President Barrack Obama

Raleigh 'Sewer Monster'

2009-07-02T08:14:00.001-07:00

By Josh Shaffer

This colony of prehistoric creatures known as bryozoans – thousands of wormlike animals – is living in a sewer under a shopping center in Raleigh. It's about the size of a golf ball.

RALEIGH It looks like blob of wriggling pudding staring out through a single, puckered eye. You can see it caught on camera, clinging to the concrete pipes below Raleigh's Cameron Village: the Sewer Monster.

It's really a colony of prehistoric creatures known either as bryozoans or moss animalcules, thousands of wormlike animals, biologists report. Clustered together in a glistening mass, they feed through tentacles on whatever floats past. More common in ponds, they have turned up in a set of sanitary sewer pipes under one of the country's oldest shopping centers.

Living in a 6-inch sewer main, the clusters of worms are about the size of a golf ball, estimates Ed Buchan, an environmental coordinator with the city. But the video footage, captured with a tiny snakelike camera, makes the monster appear at man-eating size to viewers watching at home.

That may explain why a two-minute video tour of the Sewer Monster's lair has spread across the Web like flesh-eating bacteria, prompting nationwide cries of horror and disgust.

“Mystery Life Form in NC Sewer!” read one headline, followed by this comment: “It looks like meat. HEART MEAT!”

At Cameron Village on Wednesday evening, visitors were split into two groups: Those who had seen the sewer monster video and been horrified, and those who planned to Google it the minute they had the chance.

Maria Schmitt, 21, Jeff Lepley, 21, and Annie Powell, 21, were in the latter camp, but they quickly rectified that using Schmitt's iPhone.

“It looks like a brain or something,” Schmitt said. “That's in the pipe?”

“I keep expecting a baby's head to pop out,” added Lepley said.

“I'm glad I don't live here,” said Powell, a Houston native.

The trio immediately regretted their decision to watch the video before eating dinner at the Village Draft House.

“I'm glad I didn't order pasta,” Schmitt said.

Contractor shot video

Raleigh's Public Utilities Director Dale Crisp said the video was not shot by the city, but rather a contractor hired by the property owner. Lynne Worth, property manager for Cameron Village, was out of the office Wednesday and could not be reached.

Crisp said the city first learned of the video several weeks ago when a link was sent to an employee in the stormwater division. Raleigh has two teams of employees whose sole task is to send tiny cameras into sewer lines and then review the footage.

This video surprised even the pros who thought they'd seen it all.

“I don't know if we've seen anything move on its own inside a sanitary sewer line,” Crisp said. But shop owners in Cameron Village only laughed.

This isn't the first time a bryozoan has ventured inside a sewer pipe. Denver's utility workers discovered some last year, but opted to leave them alone. So far, said Mitch Terry, of the Colorado city's water and sanitation district, they hasn't clogged anything.

Critters are harmless

Bryozoans are harmless, said Thomas Kwak, a biologist at N.C. State University.

If they were to take on the qualities of a Sewer Monster, it would be a very slow attack. Bryozoans move 1 to 10 centimeters a day, Kwak said.

Suspected serial killer Scott Kimball leads police to bodies, won't be charged

2009-07-02T08:07:00.001-07:00

By Jim Spellman
CNN

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- Serving time for lesser crimes, Scott Kimball is leading investigators to bodies.

Scott Kimball is currently serving a 48-year sentence on theft and habitual criminal convictions.

Partly mummified bones thought to be those of his uncle, Terry Kimball, were discovered Monday in a remote Rocky Mountain pass near Vail, Colorado. DNA tests are pending to confirm the victim's identity, and the cause of death is pending a forensic examination, authorities said.

Terry Kimball is one of several suspected homicide victims associated with Scott Kimball since his jailing in 2008. He is serving a 48-year sentence in state prison in Fairplay, Colorado, on theft and habitual criminal convictions.

Kimball will also serve a 70-month federal sentence on firearms charges after the state sentence. The firearms charges led to Kimball's 18th conviction.

However, Kimball probably will not be charged in any of the deaths.

Sources with knowledge of the cases said Kimball's December 2008 plea to theft and habitual criminal charges, and the 48-year sentence, was part of a deal that included revealing the locations of the bodies. Authorities wanted to give victims' families resolution. Without his cooperation, authorities doubt they have enough evidence to convict him.

Earlier this year, Kimball revealed where the remains thought to be his uncle's were, according to law enforcement sources close to the case. However, the search was delayed until snow had melted.

The FBI would not confirm that Kimball, 42, identified the site. However, FBI spokeswoman Kathleen Wright said, "we went to (a) specific location for a specific reason. It wasn't random."

Terry Kimball, 60 at the time, was last seen with Scott Kimball in September 2004, according to a 2007 federal search warrant affidavit.

Scott Kimball told his wife that his uncle had won the lottery and left for Mexico with a stripper, the affidavit said, but FBI investigators think Kimball killed his uncle and dumped his body in Vail Pass, more than 100 miles from the home they shared in a Denver suburb.

In March, Kimball accompanied FBI investigators to southeastern Utah to search for the body of Leann Emry, who was 24 when she vanished after departing on a camping trip in 2003. FBI agents found Emry's remains shortly after Kimball returned to jail.

Kaysi McLeod was 19 when she disappeared in 2003. McLeod, the daughter of Kimball's ex-wife, was last seen getting a ride to work from Kimball, according to the 2007 affidavit. In fall 2007, a hunter found her remains in northwest Colorado.

Kimball is also suspected in the disappearance of exotic dancer Jennifer Marcum, who disappeared in 2003, according to the affidavit.

Sources close to the investigation say they think Kimball killed Marcum and buried her body near Rifle, Colorado. Authorities have not found her remains.

"We are continuing to look for Jennifer, and we will leave no stone unturned," Wright said.

Kimball drew the FBI's attention in 2002 while jailed for writing bad checks. Kimball offered authorities information about his cellmate, Steven Ennis, who was suspected in a drug ring, according to the 2007 affidavit. The FBI arranged Kimball's release and began paying him as an informant.

Kimball was supposed to report back to the FBI on Marcum, Ennis' former girlfriend, when she disappeared.

The FBI would not reveal how long or how much Kimball was paid. He was arrested again in March 2006 near Palm Springs, California, after a police chase and standoff

Snake kills toddler: Should this be a pet?

2009-07-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

I will admit I'm no fan of snakes, or any cold-blooded pets for that matter. But when I saw this shocking story of the Sumter County baby who was hunted in the night in her crib by the family's pet Burmese python, I just can't fathom what makes this creepy thing such an attractive pet.

It is attractive, I will admit, with smooth shiny scales that make excellent purses. But these snakes consume large amounts of food, and due to their size, require large, often custom-built, secure enclosures, which can be very expensive. This is the reason, so many of them are released to the wild by pet owners and are now wreaking havoc in the Everglades. Remember that stunning picture of the 13-foot python that burst open as it tried to swallow whole a 10-foot alligator? Well, in the past five years, the U.S. has imported more than 144,000 Burmese pythons, according to National Geographic. Hatchlings sell for as little as $20. But once the cute little baby snakes turn into 15-foot-long beasts, they get dumped into our wet national forest.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced a bill in February to ban the import of pythons. Broward County Rep. Kendrick Meek, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Mel Martinez, introduced the same bill in the House in May. Hearings have yet to be held. And there has even been talk of exacting a bounty on the snakes in the Everglades.

Back to this family pet. These snakes are quite docile most of the time. There are reports of how often the child held this python or the other pet, a 6-foot boa constrictor, and found them almost affectionate. But they also have instinct. The mother's boyfriend, Charles Darnell, 32, told authorities he last checked on the snake shortly after midnight. It had escaped its terrarium. He put the snake in a bag and put it back inside the glass case. Then he put a quilt over the terrarium and tied something around the quilt. State law says pythons are supposed to be kept under lock.

When next he awoke he found the 8-foot snake wrapped around Shaunnia Hare, age 2. Typically, this snake will use its sharp backward-pointing teeth to hang on tight to its prey (the girl had bite marks on her head, according to one report). To keep the prey from fighting, it wraps its muscular body around it and contracts its muscles, killing the prey by constriction.

Does this seem like a family pet to you?

-- Sharon Kennedy Wynne

OK! Magazine Michael Jackson Cover Picture: Too Much?

2009-07-02T08:03:00.001-07:00

A photo of a dying Michael Jackson lying on a stretcher is the cover image on the latest edition of OK! Magazine, and is certain to elicit strong, mixed reactions.

The race is on to break the latest news on what may be the biggest celebrity gossip story ever, but do we really need to see "the last photos" of the pop icon?

OK! allegedly paid $500,000 for the cover picture you see below.

While covering Jackson's tragic death is unavoidable, would a tribute such as the commemorative covers released by Entertainment Weekly be more appropriate?

On the flip side, do you want to see all the details because you are interested in the story, even if the images of the dying Jackson happen to be upsetting?

What do you think of the picture on OK's "tribute" issue below? Is it disrespectful to Michael Jackson or are they just reporting the news? Tell us in our poll:

Susan Boyle hospitalized after losing in 'Britain's Got Talent' finale

2009-06-01T08:32:00.001-07:00

by Vicki Hyman

DAVID CHESKIN/AP PHOTOFriends from Susan Boyle's Scottish hometown gather to watch their local hero in the finale of "Britain's Got Talent" Saturday

The pressure of being Earth's most YouTube'd woman got to Susan Boyle, who was hospitalized Sunday after losing "Britain's Got Talent" the previous night, judge Piers Morgan tells a British morning show. (British tabs report that Boyle was acting strangely at her hotel after the defeat, running down corridors while shouting "I hate this show.')

"She's gone in for some rest," Morgan says. "She needs to get away from everyone - get away from the show, from the media, the public, and just have a bit of down time to herself."

The hospitalization was voluntary, and Boyle had been seeking help from doctors throughout the week leading up to the finale, he says. "She had too long to wait between the audition show and the final, and the pressure just builds and builds and builds."

Boyle took her defeat with grace, saying "the best people won" (that would be the dance group Diversity). And don't cry for her (Argentina) - the classical singer stands to reap more than $8 million in the next year in endorsements, appearances and recording deals, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Air France Flight 447: Could A Lightning Strike Have Damaged The Plane?

2009-06-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

By Scott McCartney

An investigation into what happened to Air France Flight 447 likely will be lengthy and complicated, beginning with the difficult search to find the aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean and retrieve its voice and data recorders.

The wide-body Airbus A330-200 carrying 228 people disappeared after some four hours in flight on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The plane sent an automatic message to Air France “signaling electrical circuit malfunction,’’ the company said.

Speculation has swirled that the plane was flying into strong thunderstorms and was hit by lightning. Safety experts note, however, that planes are built to withstand lightning strikes, and crashes resulting from lightning are extremely rare, especially when planes are at cruising altitude and can fly above or around storms.

“I cannot recall in recent history any examples of aircraft being brought down by lightning,” Bill Voss, president and CEO of Flight Safety Foundation, Alexandria, Va., told The Associated Press.

Planes have multiple backup electrical systems, including batteries and small turbines that deploy from the belly of the jet and generate power as they turn in the wind. Since apparently no distress call was received from pilots, officials have suggested something catastrophic happened to the jet. Electrical fires have brought down planes. In most crashes, a chain of events and mistakes typically leads up to the crash, with several key contributing factors.

We’ll keep you updated - stay tuned.

Jobless benefits available for Volusia

2009-06-01T06:43:00.001-07:00

The federal government has approved disaster unemployment assistance for Volusia County residents who were recently impacted by the severe storms and flooding that hit the area.

Disaster Unemployment Assistance helps people who have become unemployed as a direct result of a declared disaster and who do not qualify for regular unemployment benefits. It also covers those who are self-employed and owners and workers of farms and ranches as well as those who fish for a living.

Individuals can apply online at www.floridajobs.org or www.fluidnow.com. They can also file by telephone at (800) 204-2418, Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Air France Flight Status: Still Missing. Where Is The Airbus A330-200?

2009-06-01T06:38:00.001-07:00

Today, the Air France flight AF447 left the Rio de Janeiro airport, and it should have landed at the Paris airport at 09:15 GMT, however, the plane is missing. The pilots of the Airbus A330-200 plane reported a technical fault at the electric circuit, and that they are experiencing turbulence. After that, the AF447 flight has gone missing and there are no news yet. Air France

officials said that they don’t know where the plane is at the moment, and they are hoping that all people aboard and the crew are OK.

The AF Airbus A330 had 216 passengers and 12 crew, and the Brazilian officials said that the pilots last reported something at 11 P.M. local time when they were near the island of Fernando de Noronha. This is at about 1,5000 northeast of Rio de Janeiro, between the city of Natal and the island of Ilha do Sal.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said that he is deeply concerned, and he assured people that he will do the utmost to find the Airbus A330-200 plane. I remind you that the missing Air France flight AF447 was carrying 228 people aboard, and we surely hope that all of them are OK.

The Airbus A330-200 is considered one of the safest planes, and such aircraft didn’t have a fatal commercial flight crash. According to experts, the A330 shouldn’t go down in flight or when climbing to the flight route as accidents happen when landing or when planes take off. Also, the Air France didn’t have a fatal crash since July 2000 when a Concorde plane crashed, but the supersonic airplanes aren’t used for commercial flights anymore.

We will keep you updated with the Air France Flight AF447 status, and we hope that the passengers of the Airbus A330-200 will be found safe and alive.

Michael Vick leaves prison for home confinement

2009-05-20T07:05:00.001-07:00

(CNN) -- Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick left a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, early Wednesday, according to his publicist and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Michael Vick, left, arrives at federal court with attorney Billy Martin in Richmond, Viriginia, in 2007.

He will serve the last two months of his 23-month sentence in home confinement in Virginia, his publicist Judy Smith said. He is a native of Newport News, Virginia.

Vick, 28, pleaded guilty in August 2007 to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia.

He will return to professional football as soon as September if reinstated by the NFL, according to the sports agent who negotiated Vick's 10-year, $140 million contract with the Falcons. Meanwhile, Vick's attorneys have said he will work at a Newport News construction firm following his release, and he has also agreed to participate in a documentary for $600,000.

Last month, a federal bankruptcy judge denied a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan presented by Vick, urging him to offer the court another plan to emerge from bankruptcy. The plan called for Vick to come up with $750,000 to $1 million in cash to be paid to creditors, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Santoro said, but added he saw no evidence Vick could come up with that much. Santoro suggested Vick's next plan not call for him to keep two houses and three cars, as did the rejected proposal.

In testimony, Vick acknowledged committing a "heinous" act and said he should have acted more maturely. He said he has been earning 12 cents an hour as an overnight janitor in prison. His Falcons salary, he said, was between $10 million and $12 million. He acknowledged failing to handle his money well.

Following his release, Vick plans to work with the Humane Society of the United States on anti-dogfighting campaigns following his release, Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle told CNN on Tuesday.

Vick will work on programs aimed at preventing youths from getting involved in dogfighting, and also on programs to assist young people who have already been involved in the blood sport.

Pacelle said the Humane Society was approached by Vick's representatives. He said he has traveled to Kansas twice to meet with the former quarterback, and during the second visit, the two discussed how Vick could use his sway over youths to discourage them from involvement in dogfighting, as well as help those who were apprehended in connection with it.

Details have not yet been hammered out, Pacelle said, but will be in the next couple of days.

More attention has been paid to dogfighting as a result of Vick's case, Pacelle said. The Humane Society, which offers rewards for tips involving dogfighting, has recently paid out $40,000 in five different cases, he said.

Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian and chef, dies

2009-05-05T10:34:00.001-07:00

LOS ANGELES - Dom DeLuise, the portly actor-comedian whose affable nature made him a popular character actor for decades with movie and TV audiences as well as directors and fellow actors, has died. He was 75.

DeLuise died Monday night, son Michael DeLuise told KTLA-TV and radio station KNX on Tuesday. The comedian died in his sleep after a long illness. Calls to his agent were not immediately returned.

The actor, who loved to cook and eat almost as much as he enjoyed acting, also carved out a formidable second career later in life as a chef of fine cuisine. He authored two cookbooks and would appear often on morning TV shows to whip up his favorite recipes.

As an actor, he was incredibly prolific, appearing in scores of movies and TV shows, in Broadway plays and voicing characters for numerous cartoon shows.

Writer-director-actor Mel Brooks particularly admired DeLuise's talent for offbeat comedy and cast him in several of his films, including "The Twelve Chairs," "Blazing Saddles," "Silent Movie," "History of the World Part I" and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." DeLuise was also the voice of Pizza the Hutt in Brooks' "Star Wars" parody, "Spaceballs."

The actor also appeared frequently in films opposite his friend Burt Reynolds. Among them, "The End," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," 'Smokey and the Bandit II," "The Cannonball Run" and "Cannonball Run II."

Another actor-friend, Dean Martin, admired his comic abilities so much that he cast DeLuise as a regular on his 1960s comedy-variety show. In 1973, he starred in a situation comedy, "Lotsa Luck," but it proved to be short-lived.

Other TV credits included appearances on such shows as "The Munsters," "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.," "Burke's Law," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Diagnosis Murder."

On Broadway, DeLuise appeared in Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" and other plays.

Because of his passion for food, the actor battled obesity throughout much of his life, his weight reaching as much as 325 pounds at one point. For years, he resisted the efforts of family members and doctors who tried to put him on various diets. He finally agreed in 1993 when he needed hip replacement surgery and his doctor refused to perform it until he lost 100 pounds.

He and his family enrolled at the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, N.C., and DeLuise lost enough weight for the surgery, although he gained some of it back afterward.

On the positive side, his love of food resulted in two successful cookbooks, 1988's "Eat This It Will Make You Feel Better!" and 1997's "Eat This Too! It'll Also Make You Feel Good."

At his Pacific Palisades home, DeLuise often prepared feasts for family and friends. One lunch began with turkey soup and ended with strawberry shortcake. In between, were platters of beef filet, chicken breast and sausage, a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and a saucer of lettuce.

He strongly resembled the famed chef Paul Prudhomme and joked in a 1987 Associated Press interview that he had posed as Prudhomme while visiting his New Orleans restaurant, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen.

DeLuise was appearing on Broadway in "Here's Love" in the early 1960s when Garry Moore saw him and hired him to play the magician "Dominick the Great" on "The Garry Moore Show."

His appearances on the hit comedy-variety program brought offers from Hollywood, and DeLuise first came to the attention of movie-goers in "Fail Safe," a drama starring Henry Fonda. He followed with a comedy, "The Glass Bottom Boat," starring Doris Day, and from then on he alternated between films and television.

"I was making $7,000 a week a lot of money back then but I didn't even know I was rich," he recalled in 1994. "I was just having such a great time."

He was born Dominick DeLuise in New York City on Aug. 1, 1933, to Italian immigrants. His father, who spoke only Italian, was a garbage collector, and those humble beginnings stayed with him throughout his life.

"My dad knows everything there is to know about garbage," one of the actor's sons, David DeLuise, told The Associated Press in 2008. "He loves to pick up a broken chair and fix it."

DeLuise's introduction to acting came at age 8 when he played the title role of Peter Rabbit in a school play. He went on to graduate from New York City's famed School of Performing Arts in Manhattan.

For five years, he sought work in theater or television with little luck. He finally decided to enroll at Tufts College and study biology, with the aim of becoming a teacher.

Acting called him back, however, and he found work at the Cleveland Playhouse, appearing in stage productions that ranged from comedies such as "Kiss Me Kate" to Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

"I worked two years solidly on plays and moving furniture and painting scenery and playing parts," he remarked in a 2006 interview. "It was quite an amazing learning place for me."

While working in summer stock in Provincetown, Mass., he met a beautiful young actress, Carol Arthur, and they were soon married.

The couple's three sons, Peter, Michael and David, all became actors and all appeared with their father in the 1990s TV series "SeaQuestDSV," in which Peter and Michael were regulars.

WHO raises alert level on Swine Flu

2009-04-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

The UN's World Health Organization has raised the alert over the spread of swine flu to level five - one short of a full-blown pandemic.
A phase five alert means human-to-human transmission in at least two countries.
The move comes after a 23-month-old Mexican child died in Texas - the first death from swine flu outside Mexico, where the outbreak originated.
In Spain, officials confirmed the first case of swine flu in a person who has not travelled to Mexico.
Announcing the increased alert level, WHO Director General Margaret Chan urged all countries to activate their pandemic plans - including heightened surveillance and infection control measures.
She said action should be undertaken with "increased urgency".

WARNING: Facebook Scam On the Loose, Steals Passwords

2009-04-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

by Pete Cashmore

Facebook is falling prey to a widespread phishing attack today that tries to steal your login and spam your friends.

I’ve got a number of messages in my Facebook inbox with links to “FBAction.net”, a site that displays a fake Facebook login. Enter your details there, and it will spam all your friends with the same message and link. More worrying: you might get locked out of your account for a time until Facebook sorts out this mess.

There is no malicious payload with the attack, it seems: no virus is downloaded or any other nasties: it’s simply a huge nuisance for Facebook users.

As always, don’t enter your Facebook password if the URL is not Facebook.com, and contact Facebook if you’re no longer able to access your account.

Swine flu confirmed in Massachusetts, Maine

2009-04-29T12:26:00.001-07:00

Posted by Christine Chinlund

Governor Deval Patrick (left) spoke today about the two swine flu cases in Lowell at a news conference with Dr.JudyAnn Bigby, Secretary of Health & Human Services, and Commissioner John Auerbach of the Department of Public Health.

By Stephen Smith and Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

Disease trackers in Massachusetts and Maine confirmed today that swine flu has arrived in New England, with two boys from Lowell recovering from the viral illness after being exposed while on vacation in Mexico.

Three adults in Maine have tested positive, authorities there said.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and state health authorities said there is no evidence that the Lowell children, whose names and ages were not disclosed because of patient confidentiality laws, have transmitted the virus.

]Massachusetts disease trackers confirmed today that swine flu has arrived in New England, with two boys from

"None of the contact cases, zero of the contact cases have been symptomatic," Patrick said, emphatically.

Dozens of people who might have had contact with the pair -- relatives, neighbors, playmates -- have either tested negative for swine flu, or shown no symptoms of the respiratory disease. Still, as a precautionary measure, those considered at high risk of flu complications because of underlying medical conditions have been given anti-flu medication.

Lowell's health director, Frank Singleton, said that the boys attend separate private schools but that neither attended classes after returning from Mexico a week ago. One child fell ill Thursday, while the other became sick Sunday, Singleton said. A third sibling is not ill and has returned to school, Singleton said. The boys' parents do not have symptoms either, but both opted to not go back to work.

"They recovering," Singleton said. "They are not very happy because it's not very pleasant to have the flu."

The state Department of Public Health received conclusive word from federal authorities at midmorning that the boys were indeed infected with swine flu, a disease that has stoked widespread fear because humans have no immunity against the ailment.

Patrick's presence at a late morning press conference, flanked by his top health officials, underscored both the concern about the disease and a desire to present a united front against the virus and public anxiety.

"We want the public to know we are prepared," the governor said, "and we want the public to be prepared."

Patrick urged precautions: "If you are sick, stay home from work, and I would ask special sensitivity from employers."

So far, theDepartment of Public Health has tested about 40 samples that doctors sent to the state laboratory because patients had flu-like symptoms and had traveled to regions with reported cases of swine flu. After preliminary testing, only three samples raised red flags and were sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Two of those samples were from the Lowell students; results are pending on the third sample, according to Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's epidemiologist.

State health authorities pledged to move swiftly to investigate potential cases and to prevent transmission through measures similar to the contact-tracing that was used in Lowell.

"Our major goal is for swine flu to not spread in Massachusetts," said Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, the state's secretary of health and human services. "We've already had two cases here and it's spread in the United States. So we know there's a chance it can spread here."

In Lowell, parents expressed concern about their own children's health as word spread about the two boys infected with swine flu.

Samantha Frazier, five months pregnant and with a 14-month-old in a stroller, said the viral illness left her "terrified. My kids are my life. I would absolutely lose it if one of them got sick."

Meanwhile, scores of families in the central Massachusetts town of Spencer kept children home from school today after reports that two elementary students were suspected of having swine flu. School officials decided to keep the Lake Street School open despite parents' concerns, as officials awaited definitive lab test results. The students -- believed to be a first grade girl and a third grade boy -- were not identified.
And in Brockton, a hospital spokeswoman said samples from two adults who exhibited flu-like symptoms were sent for testing. One had come to the Brockton Hospital emergency room. The other visited a doctor affiliated with the hospital. Their names, gender and ages were withheld, but hospital spokeswoman Rachel Labas (cq) said both patients had recently been to Mexico.
"At this point, that travel is the differentiating fact," Labas said. "We aren't taking samples for suspected swine flu if they are just exhibiting flu-like symptoms, at this point."
Lou Tartaglia, (cq) director of Brockton's health department, confirmed the two adults are the only suspected cases in the city at this point.

U of Del: four students with “probable” swine flu

2009-04-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

By Susan Snyder
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Four students at the University of Delaware have been identified with "probable" cases of swine flu, the University of Delaware announced in a special health alert to staff and in a notice on its web site tonight.

The students, who were experiencing mild flu like symptoms, were treated at the university's health services center on Monday, and the Division of Public Health received preliminary test results confirming the probable cases on Tuesday, the university said.

None of the four students have traveled to Mexico recently, said Jay Lynch, health and social services department spokesman. One had been to New Jersey, one to Florida and one to Chicago over spring break, however. Officials are unsure how the students may have come in contact with the illness, he said.

Lynch noted that a new definition of "probable" swine flu cases was issued at 3 p.m. yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and that under that definition, the University of Delaware cases qualified. The day before they would not have.

"This is really evolving," he said.

He said it made sense for the university, a sprawling campus of 20,000 students and many buildings, to remain open, as opposed to the school in New York, which shut down after many cases were reported.

"The University of Delaware is not just one building," he said.

What's important is that students with symptoms stay away from others as they would if they had other illnesses.

He's not sure when the CDC will have the results of the tests which are needed to confirm whether the students have swine flu.

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell will hold a news conference at 11 this morning in his office in Wilmington to provide details on the cases.

The university and the public health division plan to conduct clinics on campus this morning to assess and treat other students with symptoms. The location of the clinic was to be announced this morning.

But classes will continue as usual, officials said, although some large campus activities may be rescheduled.

About 9 p.m. tonight, shortly after the university began sending out emergency messages by text and email to staff and students, more students showed up at the health center for medical help, said Andrea Boyle, a university spokeswoman.

The campus community is in a state of "concern" about the probable swine flu cases, she said.

Toddler in Texas becomes 1st swine flu death in US

2009-04-29T07:43:00.001-07:00

HOUSTON (AP) — A 23-month-old toddler in Texas became the first confirmed swine flu death outside of Mexico as authorities around the world struggled to contain a growing global health menace that has also swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations. Officials say the death was in Houston.
Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Houston Health and Human Services Department, said Wednesday that the child had traveled with family from Mexico to Brownsville in South Texas. The child became ill in Brownsville and was taken to a Houston hospital and died Monday night, she said.
"Even though we've been expecting this, it is very, very sad," Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday of the infant's death. "As a pediatrician and a parent, my heart goes out to the family."
President Barack Obama said this morning that Americans should know the government is doing all it can to control virus. Obama also says schools should consider closing if the spread of the swine flu virus worsens.
Canada, Austria, New Zealand, Israel, Spain, Britain and Germany also have reported cases of swine flu sickness. Deaths reported so far have been limited to Mexico, and now the U.S.
As the United States grappled with this widening health crisis, Besser went from network to network Wednesday morning to give an update on what the Obama administration is doing. He said authorities essentially are still "trying to learn more about this strain of the flu." His appearances as Germany reported its first cases of swine flu infection, with three victims.
"It's very important that people take their concern and channel it into action," Besser said, adding that "it is crucial that people understand what they need to do if symptoms appear.
"I don't think it (the reported death in Texas) indicates any change in the strain," he said. "We see with any flu virus a spectrum of disease symptoms."
Asked why the problem seems so much more severe in Mexico, Besser said U.S. officials "have teams on the ground, a tri-national team in Mexico, working with Canada and Mexico, to try and understand those differences, because they can be helpful as we plan and implement our control strategies."
Sixty-six infections had been reported in the United States before the report of the toddler's death in Texas.
The world has no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies — and that decision hasn't been made yet — it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.
"We're working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful," Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu work, told The Associated Press.
The U.S. is shipping to states not only enough anti-flu medication for 11 million people, but also masks, hospital supplies and flu test kits. President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stockpiles and monitor future cases, as well as help international efforts to avoid a full-fledged pandemic.
"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the WHO's flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told a telephone news conference.
Cuba and Argentina banned flights to Mexico, where swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people and sickening well over 2,000. In a bit of good news, Mexico's health secretary, Jose Cordova, late Tuesday called the death toll there "more or less stable."
Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, has taken drastic steps to curb the virus' spread, starting with shutting down schools and on Tuesday expanding closures to gyms and swimming pools and even telling restaurants to limit service to takeout. People who venture out tend to wear masks in hopes of protection.
The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States rose to 66 in six states, with 45 in New York, 11 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Indiana and Ohio, but cities and states suspected more. In New York, the city's health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.
The WHO argues against closing borders to stem the spread, and the U.S. — although checking arriving travelers for the ill who may need care — agrees it's too late for that tactic.
"Sealing a border as an approach to containment is something that has been discussed and it was our planning assumption should an outbreak of a new strain of influenza occur overseas. We had plans for trying to swoop in and knockout or quench an outbreak if it were occurring far from our borders. That's not the case here," Besser told a telephone briefing of Nevada-based health providers and reporters. "The idea of trying to limit the spread to Mexico is not realistic or at all possible."
"Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva, recalling the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy.
Authorities sought to keep the crisis in context: Flu deaths are common around the world. In the U.S. alone, the CDC says about 36,000 people a year die of flu-related causes. Still, the CDC calls the new strain a combination of pig, bird and human viruses for which people may have limited natural immunity.
Hence the need for a vaccine. Using samples of the flu taken from people who fell ill in Mexico and the U.S., scientists are engineering a strain that could trigger the immune system without causing illness. The hope is to get that ingredient — called a "reference strain" in vaccine jargon — to manufacturers around the second week of May, so they can begin their own laborious production work, said CDC's Dr. Ruben Donis, who is leading that effort.
Vaccine manufacturers are just beginning production for next winter's regular influenza vaccine, which protects against three human flu strains. The WHO wants them to stay with that course for now — it won't call for mass production of a swine flu vaccine unless the outbreak worsens globally. But sometimes new flu strains pop up briefly at the end of one flu season and go away only to re-emerge the next fall, and at the very least there should be a vaccine in time for next winter's flu season, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health's infectious diseases chief, said Tuesday.
"Right now it's moving very rapidly," he said of the vaccine development.
Besser appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," CNN and CBS's "The Early Show."

CDC: How to Protect Yourself Against Swine Flu

2009-04-27T11:20:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON — The acting head of the Centers for Disease Control said Monday that people can best protect themselves against the swine flu threat by taking precautions they were taught as kids, like frequently washing their hands.

Asked what individual steps should be taken, Richard Besser replied: "The things that we learned when we were little, covering a cough ... staying home when you have a fever, frequent hand-washing. If people do these things, it will decrease the spread in our communities."

Besser also said the U.S. government is being "extremely aggressive" in the steps it has taken, or is considering, to protect the American public. He said he didn't think he would personally recommend traveling to parts of Mexico where the new virus has taken hold, but noted that no decision has been made on a possible travel ban.

Besser said he was not reassured by the fact that so far in the U.S., no one has died from the disease.

"From what we understand in Mexico, I think people need to be ready for the idea that we could see more severe cases in this country and possibly deaths," Besser said. "That's something people have to be ready for and we're looking for that. So far, thankfully, we haven't seen that. But we're very concerned and that's why we're taking very aggressive measures."

Besser said there can be no one-size-fits-all approach when the severity of the problem varies from area to area. "You cannot see an outbreak occur at the same level in all places," he said.

He also said the government has worked hard to have the necessary medications in place in such a scenario and already has begun distributing them to states.

Asked in one interview why the United States was not issuing travel bans and quarantining passengers at airports, as some countries have done, Besser said: "We are being extremely aggressive in our approach to this outbreak and each day we're evaluating what we're undertaking and we'll make additional measures as necessary. What you're going to see in an outbreak like this is different things taking place in different parts of the country based on what's going on there."

"What we're going to be doing at the borders, and that will be taking place starting today, is doing passive screening, asking people about fever and illness, looking for people who are ill and handing out cards that let people know what's going on in Mexico and what's going on here so people can take action to protect and prepare," Besser said.

The CDC was posting guidelines on its Web site Monday for health departments and members of the public to decide what to do in the event of illness.

Besser appeared on NBC's "Today" show, CBS's "The Early Show," and ABC's "Good Morning America."

Fiancee of suspected 'Craigslist Killer' Philip Markoff comes to his defense

2009-04-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

BY BEVERLY FORD IN BOSTON AND HELEN KENNEDY IN NEW YORK

Med student Philip Markoff poses with fiancee Megan McAllister.

The fiancee of the accused "Craigslist Killer" insists her future husband is a "beautiful person" who's innocent of slaying a hired masseuse in a luxury Boston hotel.
Philip Markoff, arrested Monday after an intensive police investigation, "could not hurt a fly," his future wife Megan McAllister wrote in an e-mail to ABC's "Good Morning America."
"Philip is an intelligent man who is just trying to live his life so if you could leave us alone we would greatly appreciate it," she wrote Tuesday.
"We expect to marry in August and share a wonderful, meaningful life together."
Markoff, a 22-year-old medical student, was due for arraignment in Boston later Tuesday. He was arrested for the April 14 slaying of Julissa Brisman, along with an attack on a second woman four days earlier in another Boston hotel.
Police were investigating whether a similar assault involving an exotic dancer at a Rhode Island hotel was linked to Markoff, of Quincy, Mass.
Brisman, a 26-year-old masseuse, and the other alleged victims advertised their services on Craigslist. Brisman's massage table was set up inside a 20th-floor room at the tony Marriott Copley Place when police found her lying in a pool of blood.
Brisman was shot several times, apparently after resisting Markoff's attempts to bind her hands with plastic "zip tie" handcuffs, authorities said.
Markoff and McAllister met while attending SUNY Albany, with their Aug. 14 wedding coming four years after their first date. They met while volunteering in a local emergency room, according to a Web page devoted to their wedding.

By Globe Staff

The fiancée of the Boston University medical student accused of using Craigslist to target and attack women in hotels defended him today in an e-mail she sent to ABC News.

The fiancée, Megan McAllister, accused police of trying to make money off the plight of her fiancée, Philip Markoff, 23, who was arrested last night on charges that include murder.

"Unfortunately you were given wrong information as was the public," McAllister wrote in the e-mail, which is posted on ABC's website. "All I have to say to you is Philip is a beautiful person inside and out and could not hurt a fly! A police officer in Boston (or many) is trying to make big bucks by selling this false story to the TV stations."

McAllister continued, "What else is new?? Philip is an intelligent man who is just trying to live his life so if you could leave us alone we would greatly appreciate it. We expect to marry in August and share a wonderful, meaningful life together."

McAllister did not respond to email messages and could not be reached by the Globe for comment.

Baby mammoth Lyuba, pristinely preserved, offers scientists rare look into mysteries of Ice Age

2009-04-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

BY OLIVIA SMITH

She may be 40,000 years old, but an amazingly well-preserved baby mammoth is in great shape for her age, bringing scientists closer to solving some of the mysteries of the Ice Age.
Lyuba, who was discovered in 2007 in the Russian Artic, was about one-month old when she fell victim to a mudslide or drowned according to National Geographic, which will air a special about her, "Waking the Baby Mammoth," on Sunday April 26 at 9 p.m.
The clay-like substance that likely suffocated her also "pickled" her, preserving the little mammoth in a nearly pristine state, USAToday.com reported.
Her skin and organs are intact, and scientists were able to identify milk from her mother in her stomach.
"We are learning more about what [mammoths] ate and how to recognize animals that are healthy versus stressed," Daniel Fisher, a member of the research team, told National Geographic.
While previously discovered mammoth specimens, which are less well-preserved than Lyuba, appeared to be starving, Lyuba was the picture of health.
By examining Lyuba's teeth, researchers hope to gain insight into what caused Ice Age mammals, including the mammoths, to suddenly vanish around 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene era.
"This quirky line of investigation is a tool by which we'll be able to solve the late Pleistocene extinction," Fisher told National Geographic. "We'll be able to distinguish between the two main competitors: climate change and hunting."

New Photos of 'Craigslist Killer' Revealed

2009-04-20T12:43:00.001-07:00

BOSTON — Police in New England released new surveillance photos of the so-called "Craigslist Killer," as they continue to hunt the man linked to at least two robbery cases and one death linked to the Web site.

Police in Warwick, R.I., released the pictures Monday in their investigation of another robbery at a Holiday Inn Express Hotel there on Thursday. On Tuesday, the body of Julissa Brisman was found in a room at the Boston Marriot Copley Place. She was shot multiple times in the torso during a robbery and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

The same man was photographed Friday at the Westin Hotel in Boston, where a 29-year-old Las Vegas woman was found bound and robbed, police said.

Boston police are investigating more than 150 tips about Brisman's murder.

Brisman, of New York City, advertised massage services on Craigslist and had a massage table set up in the room where she was shot Tuesday. The woman attacked in Warwick advertised lap dances on Craigslist. She was held at gunpoint before her husband entered the room and her attacker fled.

Boston police haven't explicitly said the same man committed both crimes, though the suspects have similar descriptions. They cite only "a strong connection" in the cases.

Investigators from Boston and Warwick continue to work closely together following up on tips and reviewing crime scene evidence, MyFOXBoston.com reported.

Parents get cheerleader coach Carlie Beck fired for nude pix

2009-04-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

But they say it was not revenge for their daughter’s being barred from team

Coach fired for nude Playboy photos
April 20: A high school cheerleading coach is out of a job after she posed for photos on Playboy magazine’s Web site. Adelle Geniella, who was captain of the cheer team, and her parents, Heather and Scott Geniella, discuss the controversy.

By Michael Inbar

“Sis boom bah” will never have the same meaning again at a California high school after the family of an ousted cheerleader ratted out a coach for posing nude on a Playboy Web site. But the family insists it was a matter of morals and respect — not sour grapes — that led them to full dis-clothesure.

Adelle Geniella appeared live on TODAY Monday with her parents, Scott and Heather Geniella, to talk about the case that has a high school near Sacramento up in arms — and debating just what it means to be a role model.

Adelle had been barred from next year’s tryouts for having more than three unexcused absences from Casa Roble High School. But when she learned cheerleading coach Carlie Beck had gone undraped as Playboy’s “Cyber Girl of the Week,” she said it smacked against her sensibilities.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

“When I found out about it, I definitely lost respect,” Adelle, 14, told Matt Lauer. “That’s not where my morals stand.”

Divided community
When parents Scott and Heather Geniella informed a school administrator at Casa Roble High School about Beck’s extracurricular activities, the coach was promptly given the boot. The ouster has Beck, 20, pursuing legal action, and divided the community between Team Carlie and Team Adelle.

Some cheerleaders waved “We Want Carlie Back” banners in front of the high school, with one rooter telling NBC that Beck “was always so professional” and “was a really good role model for us.”

YOUR TURN
Discuss: Should coach get her job back?
Still others applauded the decision to give Beck her walking papers. And dad Scott noted to Lauer Monday that Beck wasn’t living up to the standards that are in effect for her cheerleading charges.

“This is a leader of young women,” he said. “They want to hold the children to a very high standard. These cheerleaders are not allowed to have racy pictures on MySpace, there’s a lot of things they’re not able to do, or shouldn’t.”

Heather Geniella says she understands that some people view the family’s whistle-blowing as revenge for her daughter’s not being allowed to compete for a spot on next year’s cheerleading squad. But she insists they would have brought Beck’s nude modeling to the school’s attention no matter what Adelle’s situation was.

“I would if it was a football player’s coach or it if was a teacher or anybody that worked at the school,” Heather told Lauer.

TODAY
From left, Scott Geniella, Heather Geniella and their daughter Adelle talk to Matt Lauer about the controversy at Casa Roble High School.
“When Adelle was not able to try out because she was absent one day of school that I failed to excuse, that took away from the fact that she’s an excellent student, she hasn’t cut a day of school in her life,” Heather Geniella said. “And when they say, ‘Well, we’re trying to set the standards very high for these girls,’ that upset Adelle,” the mother added.

“She said, ‘Mom, there are rumors that she has been on the Internet naked.’ So she was upset at the double standard, that [Beck] is good enough to be in a leadership position.”

Morals debate
Speaking with NBC, Carlie Beck — or Carlie Christine, as she is identified on the Playboy site — said she respects all viewpoints about her nude modeling, but feels that it should not have affected her employment at Casa Roble.

TODAY
Cheerleading coach Carlie Beck says that her nude photos should not have affected her employment.
“I understand that morals are a subject of opinion, and although parents may have different opinions than I, they’re entitled to those,” Beck said. “As far as [whether] the job can be based on someone’s opinions of morals, I don’t know that that is true.”

Ironically, Case Roble’s own strict standards prevented the school from finding out about Beck’s modeling activities during their background check. Heather Geniella said in an interview school officials had “Googled her from a school computer where there’s blocks on it and they can’t see those sites.”

Lauer asked Heather Geniella whether she would be willing to let bygones be bygones if Adelle were allowed to try out for the cheerleading team, and Beck was allowed to keep her job as a coach.

Heather said absolutely not.

“I get to choose who influences my daughter,” she told Lauer.

Mel Gibson's Wife Files for Divorce After 28 Years of Marriage

2009-04-13T10:59:00.001-07:00

Mel Gibson 's wife Robyn has filed for divorce after 28 years of marriage.

In the papers -- signed Apr. 9 -- she cites "irreconcilable differences."

"Throughout our marriage and separation we have always strived to maintain the privacy and integrity of our family and will continue to do so," a rep for Gibson, 53, tells Usmagazine.com in a statement.

TMZ.com alleges that "there is no prenuptial agreement" based on source reporting. In 2006, Gibson's fortune was estimated at $900 million. Under California law, community property -- which includes earnings -- is divided 50/50.

See Hollywood's ugliest splits

Robyn -- who famously stood by Gibson during his highly publicized 2006 DUI arrest -- lists the date of separation as "to be determined," which TMZ points out is important because "earnings generally cease to be community property when the couple separates."

Robyn, who has seven children with Gibson, has requested spousal support and attorneys' fees.

She is also seeking joint physical and legal custody of their son, Tom, who turns 10 Tuesday. (Tom is their only child who is a minor.)

See Hollywood's longest relationships

Robyn has snapped up attorney Laura Wasser, who most recently represented Britney Spears in her split from Kevin Federline .

The couple has dogged split rumors for some time.

Gibson was recently photographed with a woman who did not appear to be his wife in Costa Rica on March 4.

See today's top celeb news photos

Asked at the time if he and Robyn had split, his rep had no comment.

"Mel is on family vacation with his entire family and their friends," a source told Us. "His sons are there with their girlfriends, his pregnant daughter is there - the whole family is there."

More news from Usmagazine.com

Obama girls name their new puppy 'Bo' Portuguese water dog

2009-04-13T07:38:00.001-07:00

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer – Sun Apr 12, 10:25 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Bo? No jest. The first family has settled on a first pet — a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog that the Obama girls are naming Bo.
The selection was one of the White House's most tightly kept secrets.
President Barack Obama's daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, picked a black and white pup, a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Associated Press Saturday night.
The dog is a gift from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who owns several Portuguese water dogs himself.
"We couldnt be happier to see the joy that Bo is bringing to Malia and Sasha," Kennedy said in a statement. "We love our Portuguese water dogs and know that the girls — and their parents — will love theirs, too."
The Washington Post reported in its online editions Saturday night that Obama's daughters chose the name Bo for the pup because first lady Michelle Obama's father was nicknamed Diddley. The name for the dog was an apparent reference to the singer "Bo" Diddley.
White House aides told the AP that the office of the first lady arranged an exclusive deal on the dog story with the Post. The officials, who demanded anonymity because of the deal with the Post on exclusive details, said the dog was not in the White House as of Saturday evening.
Throughout the day Saturday, celebrity Web sites and bloggers were abuzz with rumors of the first family's selection of a Portuguese water dog; one site even claimed it had pictures of the future first pet.
The president had embraced the frenzy: "Oh, man, now, that's top secret," Obama joked Friday to reporters.
Obama promised his daughters a puppy during the campaign.
"This is Washington. That was a campaign promise," Obama said when he appeared on Jay Leno's talk show last month, as the audience roared with laughter. "No, I'm teasing. The dog will be there shortly."
The president and first lady had said their choice was down to either a Portuguese water dog or a Labradoodle because they were considered good pets for children who have allergies, as Malia does.

At least 12 killed at immigration center in NY

2009-04-03T13:17:00.001-07:00

By WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press Writer – 2 mins ago
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – A gunman opened fire on a room where immigrants were taking a citizenship exam in downtown Binghamton on Friday, killing as many as 13 people before committing suicide, officials said.
Gov. David Paterson said at a news conference that 12 or 13 people had been killed. The suspected gunman carried identification with the name of 42-year-old Jiverly Voong of nearby Johnson City, N.Y., a law enforcement official said.
The suspect's body was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an office of the American Civic Association building, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and was talking on condition of anonymity.
The gunman barricaded the rear door of the building with his car before entering through the front door, firing his weapon, the official said.
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at an event in New York, told the crowd that someone entered a room where an examination was being given from immigrants to become U.S. citizens, then shot and killed 12 or 13 people.
The Binghamton SWAT team responded, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also sending agents to Binghamton.
The American Civic Association helps immigrants in the Binghamton area with naturalization applications, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The association describes itself as helping immigrants and refugees with counseling, resettlement, citizenship, family reunification and translators.
The association's president, Angela Leach, "is very upset right now," said Mike Chanecka, a friend who answered a call at her home as Leach wept in the background.
"She doesn't know anything; she's as shocked as anyone," Chanecka said. "For some reason, she had the day off today. And she's very worried about her secretary."
Two women and a man suffering gunshot wounds were being treated at Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, said hospital spokeswoman Christina Boyd. One was stable, one was serious and one was critical. Their ages ranged from 20s to 50s, she said.
Linda Miller, a spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, said a student from Binghamton University was being treated there.
The shooting occurred in a mixed neighborhood of homes and small businesses in the center of Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 located 140 miles northwest of New York City.
College student Leslie Shrager told the AP that she and her five housemates were sleeping when police pounded on the front door of their house next door to the shooting scene.
Officers escorted the six Binghamton University students outside, she said, and that's when they learned of the shooting.
"One of our housemates thought they heard banging of some kind. But when you're living in downtown Binghamton, it's always noisy," said Shrager, of Slingerlands, an Albany suburb. "Literally two minutes later the cops came and got us out."
At the junction of the Susquehanna and the Chenango rivers, the Binghamton area was the home to Endicott-Johnson shoe company and the birthplace of IBM, which between them employed tens of thousands of workers before the shoe company closed a decade ago and IBM downsized in recent years.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers George M. Walsh and Chris Carola in Albany and Devlin Barrett in Washington.

Source: 4 die, up to 40 held hostage in Binghamton shootings

2009-04-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- At least four people were killed Friday when a man opened fire in a building in Binghamton, New York, a law enforcement source close to the situation said.

Armed law enforcement officers gather at the scene of Friday's shootings in Binghamton, New York.

The source said more than a dozen were wounded.

The man began shooting in the American Civic Association, which helps immigrants and refugees, during a citizenship test, the source said.

The source said there may be 20 to 40 people who have been taken hostage.

The local newspaper, the Press & Sun-Bulletin, said on its Web site that at least four people were shot and 41 people had been taken hostage.

It said sharpshooters from the city's SWAT team were poised outside the building.

Video from the scene showed a person on a stretcher being taken to an ambulance.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the FBI is sending hostage negotiators and an evidence response team to the scene. The agency has an office in Binghamton, and agents are being sent from offices in Albany and Syracuse as well.

The newspaper said the incident began around 10:30 a.m. ET. Nearby apartments were being evacuated and Binghamton High School is on lockdown, it said.

"Within minutes [the situation] turned into one just flooded with police," Bob Joseph, news director of WNBF Radio, told CNN.

The American Civic Association helps immigrants and refugees with a number of issues, including personal counseling, resettlement, citizenship and reunification, and provides interpreters and translators, according to a United Way of Broome County Web site, which is affiliated with the association.

Binghamton is about 140 miles northwest of New York City.

Flag of Facism?

2009-04-02T08:24:00.001-07:00

By John Wallace

Mr. G. Richard Wagoner, the chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors, was recently forced to resign his position because of pressure from the Obama administration. He was told that if he didn't leave, the Obama administration would not give General Motors any more federal bailout money. President Obama also told General Motors and the Chrysler Corporation that if they wanted more federal bailout money, they would have to shrink and refocus their businesses according to his (the federal government's) wishes.

In our country's history, there have been some limited instances of the federal government exercising some sort of control over private industry, but that was during wartime. The current assault on American capitalism by the Obama administration is unprecedented in both its scope and speed and should raise the red flag of alarm for all freedom-loving Americans.

World history has shown us that the implementation of strict government controls over private industries has been one of the first steps in the introduction of various forms of Fascism to formerly free countries. The practice of a government taking control of private industries was refined by Benito Mussolini in Italy in the 1920's and it is called 'corporatism.'

According to Wikipedia, political scientists use the term 'corporatism' to describe "a practice whereby a state, through the process of licensing and regulating officially-incorporated social, religious, economic, or popular organizations, effectively co-opts their leadership or circumscribes their ability to challenge state authority by establishing the state as the source of their legitimacy, as well as sometimes running them, either directly or indirectly." Mussolini described it more simply when he said, "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."

Some corporatist-style regimes of the 20th century included those of Benito Mussolini of Italy (1922-1945), Adolph Hitler of Germany (1933 to 1945); Francisco Franco of Spain (1936 to 1973); Juan Peron of Argentina (1943 to 1955) and even our own President Franklin Roosevelt (1933 to 1945) during the 'New Deal.' The Mussolini, Hitler, Franco and Peron regimes were brutal, totalitarian, Fascist dictatorships, but not all the regimes that had a corporatist foundation were fascist. The Roosevelt administration, despite its many faults, could not be described as fascist, but the 'New Deal' program was definitely corporatist.

Corporatism boils down to this: The government tells industry (and eventually labor unions) what to do and that they must do it for the supposed good of the country, or else their individual leaders will pay a price. Does this sound similar to what is happening to the auto industry today?

Where in the U.S. Constitution does it authorize the President of the United States to fire the head of a major private corporation just because he disagrees with his management policies? Where in the U.S. Constitution does it authorize the President of the United States to decide what kind of cars a private company will build? or what kind of car I will drive? President Barack 'Mussolini' Obama is taking this country down a very dangerous road and a road that America has never taken before.

Confucius said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Are the 'corporatist' policies of President Obama and his administration just the first steps of many in a move towards a government takeover of our major industries? Are these policies much different than those that Mussolini and Hitler initiated in the early stages of their rise to power?

With the Politburo in our expanding federal government now having the power to hire and fire the leaders of major private corporations and to tell the auto makers what cars they can produce, will they soon be telling Americans what kind of cars they can drive; how much money they can earn; where they can go to school, what sodas they can drink, what foods they can't eat, where they can travel, what national ID card they must carry at all times and it will impose any number of other restrictions on them. Look at California, where the state legislature is currently considering banning black cars by 2012, for some bogus global warming reason.

Thomas Jefferson said: "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." Americans must remember that we cannot fully enjoy our freedoms and liberties in America unless we keep our government limited. As our government grows and becomes more intrusive, as it is today, it is our freedoms and liberties that are becoming limited.

Welcome to the United Socialist States of America!

If we continue on President Obama's road to socialism, the American people will no longer be free. The question is: "Will we learn to accept our captivity at the hands of our new masters or will we be willing to do something about it?"

John Wallace
"For Freedom, Liberty and Sovereignty"
New York Campaign for Liberty
Chatham, New York
www.NYCampaignForLiberty.com

Large recall of Evenflo high chairs for choking hazard

2009-04-02T08:19:00.001-07:00

My kids highchair is the one my wife used when she was a kid. We know that that thing is solid and won't have any problems with it. The same goes for the babies crib. It was mine and is still in perfect condition.

Two Evenflo models — Envision and Majestic — linked to injuries in children

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Evenflo Co., announced Thursday a voluntary recall of about 643,000 Envision high chairs and expanded a recall of 90,000 Majestic model high chairs. Both models of high chairs were recalled due to risks from falls and choking hazards.

Consumers should stop using the recalled products immediately, the company said.

In the Envision model, recline fasteners and metal screws on both sides of the high chair can loosen and fall out, allowing the seatback to detach or recline unexpectedly. Children can fall backwards or fall out of the high chair and suffer bumps, bruises or cuts to the head. Detached hardware also poses a choking hazard to children.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

Evenflo has received 320 reports of Envision seatbacks detaching or reclining unexpectedly, resulting in 19 reports of bumps and bruises to the head and 35 reports of other injuries including abrasions, pinches and bruises. The Envision models were manufactured in China and sold in stores from December 2002 through April 2006 for between $80 and $110.

The recall involves all Envision high chairs, including model numbers: 2891321, 2891321A, 2891333, 2891351, 2891351A, 2891365, 2891375, 2891403, 2891403A, 2891466, 2891466A, 2891478, 2891536, 2891536A, 2891573, 2891586, 2892351 and 2892351A. The model number can be found on a white label on the seatback. “Evenflo” and “Envision” are printed on the front of the tray.

In the expanded recall of the Majestic line, plastic caps and metal screws on both sides of the high chair can loosen and fall out, allowing the seatback to suddenly fall back or detach from the high chair, causing children to fall backwards out of the high chair.

Evenflo has received 16 reports of Majestic seatbacks reclining, falling back and/or detaching unexpectedly, resulting in five reports of bumps and bruises to the head and five reports of other injuries including bruises and abrasions.

The expanded recall involves Evenflo Majestic high chairs, model numbers: 3001395, 3001395A, 3001604, 3001700, 3001713, 3001713A, 3001730A, 3001732, 3001733, 3001742, 3001742A, 3001756, 3001821A, 3001840A, 3001845, 30011848, 3001852, 3001932, 3002719 and 3003845 manufactured between Jan. 23, 2007 and Dec. 31, 2008. The model number and manufacture date are located on a white label on the seatback. “Evenflo” is printed on the label and on the front of the tray.

Majestic models manufactured in 2009 are not included in the recall.

Mark Ballas Sports Dancing with the Stars Boner

2009-04-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

by Elizabeth Fairview

Mark Ballas is having an embarrassing moment.
Where's Chris Hansen with To Catch a Predator when you need him? Poor 17-year-old Shawn Johnson, who last week, was almost nabbed by her stalker, is now dealing with another kind of weirdo - her own dance partner!

Mark Ballas and Shawn Johnson performed the lindy hop on Tuesday night’s Dancing with the Stars, however the Internets started to blow up with the news that Ballas was sporting more than just some jivin' moves. Now it could have been those flimsy, red cotton shorts, or a bad camera angle, but judge for yourself - TMZ has the video. Don't act like you're not impressed, people.

Asian Irrawaddy Dolphin Less Rare Than Thought

2009-04-01T08:09:00.001-07:00

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Recent surveys estimated that Bangladesh’s coast is home to nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins, several orders of magnitude more than any other population.
Dolphin and porpoise species that have adapted to rivers and deltas around the world have long been considered some of the most vulnerable of marine mammals because of their restricted habitats. In 2007, the baiji, a river dolphin that thrived in the Yangtze River for 20 million years in today’s China, was said by experts to have been driven to extinction by a mix of impacts from the nearly half billion people now living in that watershed. The vaquita, a porpoise living in brackish waters where the Colorado River empties into the Gulf of California, is critically endangered, biologists say, depleted by fishing nets and the disruptions in the great river’s flow in the 20th century from dam construction.

The maze-like coast of Bangladesh is a haven for river dolphins, but fishing nets and disrupted water flows from upriver dams pose threats.
But in the great weaving of mangrove-fringed islets and channels that make up the sprawling coast of Bangladesh, biologists have found a thriving population of another species that marine mammal experts had also thought depleted — the Irrawaddy dolphin. After methodical surveys, biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Chittagong University in Bangladesh estimate that the region is home to 6,000 of the dolphins, by far the largest known population.

Little research had been conducted on marine mammals in the area until now, the wildlife group said. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed the species as vulnerable. The new research, published this week in two conservation journals, is reassuring, but the scientists who conducted the surveys warn of growing threats to the species, including risks from entanglement in fishing nets and changes in water flows from damming of the river (as with the Mexican porpoise).

“This discovery gives us great hope that there is a future for Irrawaddy dolphins,” Brian D. Smith of the conservation society, the study’s lead author, said in a statement. “Bangladesh clearly serves as an important sanctuary for Irrawaddy dolphins, and conservation in this region should be a top priority.”

As I’ve written here before, it may well be that the rarest thing in nature these days is abundance. So it’s worth celebrating this survey in Bangladesh. But it’s also worth having another look at the departed baiji, as a reminder of what can be lost when human activities overwhelm an ecosystem:

G-20 protesters break into Royal Bank of Scotland

2009-04-01T06:23:00.001-07:00

I think it will be a year or two maybe even less before America will follow England as rejecting these banksters. Hopefully we will get the peoples out there and it will say "stop handing out our money to your friends" The banks who knew they were screwing people over in the long run with bad debts.

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER

LONDON – G-20 protesters in downtown London have smashed windows and entered the Royal Bank of Scotland building. They have also tried to storm the Bank of England.
At least 4,000 protesters have jammed into London's financial district for demonstrations Wednesday. Protesters broke windows and scrawled the word "thieves" on the side of the Royal Bank of Scotland building.
Protesters were also pelting riot police with eggs and fruit and confronting them at barricades.
Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference in London ahead of the Group of 20 summit being held Thursday. World leaders are gathering with hopes of resolving the global financial crisis.
Eight people have been arrested in the G-20 demonstrations so far. There have been no reports of injuries.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
LONDON (AP) — Thousands of G-20 protesters jammed downtown London on Wednesday and some tried to storm the Bank of England, pelting police with eggs and fruit and rocking the barricades designed to control them.
Demonstrators shouted "Abolish Money!" and clogged streets in the financial district known as "The City" even as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference elsewhere in the British capital.
Protesters had branded the day "Financial Fool's Day" ahead of Thursday's summit of world leaders who are gathering in hopes of resolving the global financial crisis that has lashed nations and workers worldwide.
"Every job I apply for there's already 150 people who have also applied," said protester Nathan Dean, 35, who lost his information technology job three weeks ago. "I have had to sign on to the dole (welfare) for the first time in my life. You end up having to pay your mortgage on your credit card and you fall into debt twice over."
Demonstrators hoisted effigies of the "four horsemen of the apocalypse," representing war, climate chaos, financial crimes and homelessness.
"The greed that is driving people is tearing us apart," said Steve Lamont, 45, flanked by his family and protesters who were banging on bells, playing drums and blowing whistles.
At least eight people were reportedly arrested for having police uniforms. One police officer lost his helmet and demonstrators tossed it around like a trophy and chanted slogans.
Helicopters hovered above the protests and some buildings were boarded up in case the protests turned ugly. Many banks had extra security and hundreds of police officers lined the streets.
Despite the pushing and shoving along the police barricades, there were no reported injuries.
Fearing they would be targeted by protesters, some bankers swapped their pinstripe suits for casual wear and others stayed home. Bolder financial workers leaned out their office windows Wednesday, taunting demonstrators and waving 10 pound notes at them.
Especially in Britain, bankers have been lambasted as being greedy and blamed for the recession that is making jobless ranks soar.
"It seems like everything is in a mess," said protester Steve Johnson, 49, an unemployed construction worker. "You get bankers getting massive bonuses, and the MPs (British lawmakers) are lining their own pockets."
Musician and political activist Billy Bragg said the time was now to make a difference.
"It's better than sitting down shouting at the television at these bankers," he said. "We cannot go back to the way things were before to the million-dollar bonus culture."
Protesters included anarchists, anti-capitalists, environmentalists, students, unionized workers, unemployed workers and others hurt by the global financial crisis.
One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England. Another black-clad demonstrator waved a fake light saber at officers.

Ashley Biden Cocaine Video: VP's Daughter Caught Snorting Coke On Tape?

2009-03-31T19:07:00.001-07:00

by Mike Baron

Ashley Biden snorting coke on video?. Ashley Biden is the daughter of Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden.
A friend of the daughter of veep is attempting to hawk a videotape that he claims shows Ashley Biden snorting cocaine at a house party this month in Delaware.

Ashley, 27, is now caught up in a cocaine video scandal and there is no doubt that this is particularly distressful considering her father has been crusader against drugs. In fact, he is the one who coined the phrase 'drug czar' in 1982 while campaigning for the 'war on drugs'.

An anonymous male "friend" of Biden took the video, according to Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer representing the seller. Dunlap and another man claiming to be a lawyer showed The New York Post 90 seconds of a 43-minute tape, saying it was legally obtained and that Biden was aware she was being filmed. The Post turned down the opportunity to pay for the video.

The fact that the New York Post won't pay for the video doesn't mean there won't be a bidding war for it. Read more here.

If and when the video is leaked we will post it here.

April Fools Pranks

2009-03-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

Plus you can always check out http://www.onecrazyoffice.com for some great office pranks.

by Jessica Madison

Tomorrow is April Fools’ Day, the one day of the year where you can get away with elaborate pranks and sophomoric gags alike with some amount of impunity. So as long as there are no serious consequences – that is consequences that last longer than 24 hours – you’re pretty much good to go. Now all you need are some good pranks. So in case you’re like most people (i.e. me) and don’t already have your three-part April Fools’ plans already lain out, here are some quick and easy last minute April Fools’ Day pranks for you to try.

The Old Rubber Band on the Faucet Prank
Not much to explain here. Put a rubber band over the bottom of a faucet, then stand in wait for your unsuspecting target(s) to use the sink. Hilarity ensues. Note: this works best in the morning before your target is fully awake.

Pretend Parking Ticket
Another simple trick. Print out a fake parking ticket. Insert under the windshield wiper of your loved ones, and wait for the response. For a quick result, write “April Fools!” in big bold letters on the back.

Set The Clock Two Hours Ahead
Pretty self explanatory, this works best for family members or with significant others. Simply wait until your target has gone to bed, then change both their clock and their alarm two hours ahead. That way, when their alarm goes off they panic thinking they’ve overslept two hours. At which time you can yell: April Fools!

Related prank: Set their alarm for the middle of the night, then hide their clock in a drawer. Leave a note saying April Fools’ attached to the clock.

Superglue Coins to the Ground
Empire Records anyone? This one is also self explanatory. Glue coins to the ground in a busy area, the sidewalk works well, and wait nearby as people passing by try to pick up the coins.

Pant-Splitting Fun
Find an old piece of cloth. Then place a dollar bill on the floor. When you’re unsuspecting target comes along, stops, and bends down to get it, rip the cloth down the middle. Almost every time the target will reach back in panic to check their pants.

These should give you a good start. Any other ideas you can think of? List them in the comments section.

Police: Man Fatally Stabs Sister, Decapitates 5-Year-Old On Birthday

2009-03-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

Can someone explain what makes someone do this to another human being? I just can't fathom anything like this. I was a teenager once myself and had all the emotions, but I never wanted to intentionally hurt anyone especially my family, one of whom is only 5 years old.

MILTON, Massachusetts — A man on a rampage fatally stabbed his 17-year-old sister, decapitated his 5-year-old sister in front of a police officer and then turned toward his 9-year-old sister with a knife in his hand before officers shot him dead in what their chief described as "a killing field."

There was no clear motive for the events that unfolded Saturday, the day after the 5-year-old's birthday, in a tony Boston suburb that also is home to Gov. Deval Patrick. But there was no doubt at the carnage wrought by 23-year-old Kerby Revelus against his sisters in the two-family home they shared with their parents and grandmother.

Five-year-old Bianca was killed as a cake for her birthday, which investigators believe was Friday, sat on the kitchen table. Nine-year-old Sarafina dialed emergency services and watched police shoot her brother as her elder sister, 17-year-old Samantha, lay dead on the floor.

Sarafina was hospitalized Sunday with defensive wounds to her hands and stab wounds in her abdomen and one of her legs, police said.

"In policing, we see the raw human emotion every day, but to think that a human being could afflict such an atrocious, violent act on his own family is unbelievable," Milton police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr. said. "When I walked up to the first officer (on the scene), I could see the whole story right in his face. This just told me that this was something very bad."

Saturday's attack came about 24 hours after Revelus had gotten into a fistfight with a man living next door, Wells said.

"Blows were exchanged," he said. "I don't know the cause of it, but we're confident that did happen. He had been agitated in the hours that followed that, going into the day and last night."

Investigators believe Revelus targeted Samantha, a senior at Milton High School, and fatally stabbed her with a household knife while their grandmother, who neighbors say lives on the first floor, was doing laundry in the basement. The children's parents, whose identities weren't immediately revealed, were away; their mother is a nurse at a Boston hospital, Wells said.

Sarafina, a student at the Tucker Elementary School, just behind the house, called police around 5 p.m. local time. An officer on patrol in the neighborhood arrived within a minute, Wells said, and could hear an altercation inside as he reached the second floor. The police dispatcher operator tried to persuade Sarafina to open the door, but when she didn't the officer broke through.

"As the officer entered the door, (Revelus) decapitated (Bianca) in front of him," Wells said. "He actually walked into a killing field. He walked into such carnage, as far as the atrocity of it, I've never seen it."

Within moments, four officers were inside and two of them shot Revelus as he tried to get to Sarafina, Wells said. Revelus fell, still clutching the knife.

Details about the number of shots and who killed Revelus were pending the outcome of an autopsy Sunday.

Revelus had recently served jail time on a gun charge, Wells said, but the details would not be released until courts opened Monday. Neighbors said Revelus was in a car that was pulled over by police and from which one occupant threw a gun into a sewer.

Police had been called to the family's house in 2004 after a domestic violence report that Revelus had punched a woman living there, Wells said.

A neighbor, Norm Walsh, said his daughter Kate Walsh, a New Hampshire police officer, reported hearing two shots as she went outside to bring in groceries from the family car. Moments later, a blood-covered officer emerged carrying Sarafina, seeking towels to stanch her bleeding.

"It's shocking to me," said Norm Walsh, whose son is the same age as Revelus. "He played a lot of pickup hoop in the driveway."

Walsh said the family members had lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years and were warm. They were of Haitian descent, as are many residents in the neighborhood, where Creole is spoken alongside English.

"The family is a solid family. Both parents worked; good kids. Completely makes no sense," Walsh said.

Samantha's classmates referred to her by her nickname, Princess, and remarked at her grace, class and friendliness. She had been one of about 20 students who had been at the high school Saturday afternoon to rehearse for a poetry jam on Thursday. Saturday morning, Samantha also had practiced for a school fashion show.

"She had a stage presence like you couldn't believe," classmate Kassi Stein said.

Sobbing, she added: "She had just a soft voice and everyone would lean in to hear what she was saying."

In one of the poems Samantha was to recite, "Acquaintance," she wrote of the strength of women in the face of "ignorant souls."

The poem closed, "So what lousy wind brought you here? What values you offer? She's a woman, a queen, a goddess. Don't treat her like any other."

A two-hour grief counseling session was held at the school Sunday afternoon and will be offered Monday to students and employees.

The officers involved in the case were placed on administrative leave and were receiving counseling from the Boston Police Department.

ShamWow Guy Vince Shlomi Gets Busted In Furry Situation

2009-03-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

You would think being a prostitute would be hard enough without having to worry about infomercial stars punching you in the face. When I read this I could not stop laughing. Now I am waiting for Billy Mays to be caught in a gay train prostitution ring. I wonder when Vince Shlomi punched the girl if he said "ShamPOW" Sorry couldn't help myself.

It looks to us like Vince Shlomi is spending all that ShamWow money on prostitutes and fur.

Shlomi, who’s most commonly known as the ShamWow dude, was recently arrested on a felony battery charge after allegedly beating up a prostitute. Dude, no hitting!

According to TheSmokingGun.com:

“Shlomi told cops he paid Harris about $1000 in cash after she ‘propositioned him for straight sex.’ Shlomi said that when he kissed Harris, she suddenly ‘bit his tongue and would not let go.’ Shlomi then punched Harris several times until she released his tongue.”

But wait! Was Vince wearing the cruel stuff while acting out?

We need YOUR help! If you’re a fur expert, chime in and help us determine if the tacky fur trim is real or fake.

It looks to us like we might have to charge ShamPOW with a felony fur offense!

Eight killed in North Carolina nursing home rampage

2009-03-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

I just don't understand why anyone would go and shoot a bunch of senior citizens when he never worked there, and didn't even know anybody at that facility. It will be interesting to see his reasoning on why he chose to do this terrible act.

(CNN) -- An armed man shot and killed seven patients and a nurse at a Carthage, North Carolina, nursing home Sunday morning before being wounded during a shootout with a police officer, authorities said.

Relatives of the nursing home's patients gathered at a nearby church, where they learned details of the shooting.

Three other people, including the police officer and a visitor to the nursing home, were wounded in the attack, Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie said. The police officer was treated and released, McKenzie said.

The slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98, Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger said. The man accused of carrying out the attack, 45-year-old Robert Stewart, was in custody, and his condition was unknown Sunday night, McKenzie said.

Stewart was not an employee of the nursing home -- the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center -- and he did not appear to have been related to any of the patients, she said.

"There is still more to be uncovered as far as his purpose in being there," she said.

A witness told CNN affiliate WRAL that Stewart was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and other weapons. The officer who stopped him, Justin Garner, "acted in nothing short of a heroic manner" and probably prevented the carnage from being worse, Krueger said.

Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony assault on a police officer, and other charges are pending, she said.

Carthage is about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh.

Sunday's killings were the latest in a series of high-profile but apparently unrelated rampages in March, including the killings of 10 people by an Alabama man who was then killed by police. At a southern Illinois church, a man shot and killed the pastor and stabbed two parishioners, and a 17-year-old in Germany killed 15 people in two small towns before dying in a shootout with police.

In Carthage, crisis counselors were setting up in the town's First Baptist Church to aid survivors of the latest killings.

"I don't know the emotion entirely has set in," McKenzie said. "This is a small community built on faith, and faith will get us through."

Beware Conficker worm come April 1

2009-03-25T11:58:00.001-07:00

In an event that hits the computer world only once every few years, security experts are racing against time to mitigate the impact of a bit of malware which is set to wreak havoc on a hard-coded date. As is often the case, that date is April 1.

Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years.

Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent... though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives.

Thanks in part to a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the head of the writer of the worm, offered by Microsoft, security researchers are aggressively digging into the worm's code as they attempt to engineer a cure or find the writer before the deadline. What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.

Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.

At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.

Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.

Ice jams make flooding worse around Bismarck, ND

2009-03-25T11:25:00.001-07:00

By BLAKE NICHOLSON – 9 hours ago

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — With record amounts of water feeding into the Missouri River from swollen tributaries on top of a blizzard, state officials urged evacuations along the river and were considering using helicopters to dynamite an ice jam to ease flooding around Bismarck.

Residents in low-lying subdivisions along the river in Bismarck and Mandan were ordered to leave their homes Tuesday after access roads flooded.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., called Bismarck "the most urgent threat" in North Dakota because of ice jams north and south of town and heavy snow forecast. Officials did not immediately have an estimate on the number of people forced to evacuate along the river.

President Barack Obama declared North Dakota a federal disaster area, which means the federal government will pay 75 percent of state and local government costs for the flood fight. North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven said the state is grateful for the help.

The Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday cut water releases for the first time ever from the Garrison Dam north of Bismarck to ease flooding.

No water will be released from the upstream dam until the flooding eases in Bismarck, spokesman Paul Johnston said. A reduction in the water releases takes about two days to reach the city, he said.

The move will cut power generation at the dam and force the Western Area Power Administration to buy electricity on the open market to meet obligations to its customers, Johnston said.

The National Weather Service said two ice jams were reported — one just south of Fox Island and one north of Bismarck. Officials said the threat intensified with the blizzard conditions.

"We think putting explosives on the ice jam is the best option," Hoeven said at a news conference Tuesday. "We've identified a demolition team and we are arranging to fly them in to help with the placement of explosives."

Officials also were considering using salt to open up a river channel. Bismarck Mayor John Warford said the city has 1,800 pounds of salt available.

Jane and Michael Pole, of Fox Island, decided not to wait for any worse conditions. "We just grabbed a bag, threw some stuff in and left," Jane Pole said.

The Bismarck area got 7.5 inches of snow since Monday night, with winds gusting to more than 45 mph, the National Weather Service said. The snow was expected to continue into Wednesday morning.

Authorities transferred 146 inmates from the Missouri River Correctional Center, a minimum-security prison along the Missouri River, to the main state penitentiary. Deputy warden Patrick Branson said the river was close enough that officials "felt we had to get all those guys out of there."

Most flood concern earlier had been focused on North Dakota's biggest city, Fargo, and its neighbor Moorhead, Minn., where the Red River's crest of 39 to 41 feet was projected for Friday evening. It was recorded at 33.93 feet early Wednesday.

An emergency dike to protect downtown Fargo was being raised to 42 feet, but the expected crest would still threaten several neighborhoods and hundreds of homes in lower areas.

Hundreds of volunteers were at work on another day of piling sandbags, with a goal of filling nearly 2 million. "We don't see any fear," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said. "We just see people working very hard."

In Crookston, Minn., about 50 miles northeast of Fargo, ice jams caused a sudden rise on the Red Lake and led city officials to ask about 200 people in low-lying areas to voluntarily evacuate. The city was working to raise its flood protection to withstand the river's crest later this week.

Elsewhere in Minnesota, a faster-than-predicted rise of the Sauk River led to flood warnings and sandbagging in Cold Spring and Sartell.

During a meeting of Fargo city officials, officials worked hard to dispel notions, relayed by a Salvation Army volunteer in the local newspaper, that some residents were afraid.

"Fear is a healthy emotion and creates respect for the situation," Steve Carbno, disaster coordinator for the Fargo chapter of the Salvation Army, said afterward.

"But nobody's bailing," he said. "We are Norwegian, German, stubborn and fighters. This is our place, and we'll stay here."

On the Net:

NOAA: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crh

More women needing cash go from jobless to topless

2009-03-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

Darn and I thought those girls liked me too. Everytime I go in there I have to keep telling myself that it is their job to make me feel attractive. No easy feet either. Oh well I only go about once or twice a year anyways.

By KAREN HAWKINS

CHICAGO (AP) — As a bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain, Rebecca Brown earned a couple thousand dollars in a really good week. Now, as a dancer at Chicago's Pink Monkey gentleman's club, she makes almost that much in one good night.
The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler.
Employers across the adult entertainment industry say they're seeing an influx of applications from women who, like Brown, are attracted by the promise of flexible schedules and fast cash. Many have college degrees and held white-collar jobs until the economy soured.
"You're seeing a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things," said Gus Poulos, general manager of New York City's Sin City gentleman's club. He said he got 85 responses in just one day to a recent job posting on Craigslist.
The transition to the nightclub scene isn't always a smooth one — from learning to dance in five-inch heels to dealing with the jeers of some customers.
Some performers said they were initially so nervous that only alcohol could calm their nerves.
"It is like giving a speech, but instead of imagining everyone naked, you're the one who's naked," Brown, 29, said.
Eva Stone, a 25-year-old dancer at the Pink Monkey, said dealing with occasional verbal abuse from patrons requires "a thick skin."
Makers of adult films cautioned that women shouldn't rush into the decision to make adult movies without considering the effect on their lives.
"Once you decide to be an adult actress, it impacts your relationship with everyone," said Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of adult film giant Vivid Entertainment Group. "Once you make an adult film, it never goes away."
The women at the Pink Monkey say dancing at a strip club might not have been their first career choice, but they entered the business with their eyes wide open. The job gives them more control and flexibility than sitting in a cubicle, and "it's easy, it's fun and all of us girls ... look out for each other," Brown said.
In this economy, "desperate measures are becoming far more acceptable," said Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist who's had clients who worked in adult entertainment.
For some, dancing is temporary, a way to pay for college loans or other bills. Others say they've found their niche.
Dancers at the upscale Rick's Caberet clubs in New York City and Miami can make $100,000 to $300,000 a year — in cash — even with the economic downturn, club spokesman Allan Priaulx said.
Priaulx said 20 to 30 women a week are applying for jobs at the New York club, double the number of a year ago.
Rhode Island's Foxy Lady held a job fair Saturday, seeking to fill about 35 positions for dancers, masseuses, bartenders and bouncers. The Providence Journal reported that more than 150 job seekers showed up to apply for work at the strip club. Foxy Lady co-owner Tom Tsoumas said a recent promotion to cut prices helped the club regain business lost due to the bad economy, forcing it to hire more employees.
Still, analysts say, the industry isn't immune to the economic recession. Business is down an estimated 30 percent across all segments, including adult films, gentleman's clubs, magazines and novelty shops, said Paul Fishbein, president of AVN Media Network, an adult entertainment company that has a widely distributed trade publication and an award show.
"In the past, people have said this industry is recession-proof," said Eric Wold, director of research for financial services firm Merriman Curhan Ford. "I definitely don't see that; maybe recession-resistant."
Strip club dancers and managers said they're drawing in the same number of customers, but fewer high rollers.
"They're not getting the big spenders," said Angelina Spencer, executive director of the Association of Club Executives, a trade group for adult nightclubs. "They're not getting the guys who come in and drop $3,000 to $4,000 a night anymore."
Still, the clubs' operating structure leaves them with low overhead and profit margins of up to 50 percent, Wold said.
Dancers are independent contractors, paying clubs a nightly flat fee depending on how long they work. At the Pink Monkey, for example, dancers who arrive at 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday pay a $40 "house fee," while women who don't arrive until midnight pay $90. And they keep their tips.
Wold and others say it's almost impossible to estimate the size of the adult entertainment industry because few companies are publicly traded. He does pay close attention to three that are: Lakewood, Colo.-based VCG Holding and Houston-based Rick's Caberet, which own clubs, and New Frontier Media, a Boulder, Colo.-based adult film producer and distributor.
All three are profitable.
Rick's Caberet had $60 million in revenue in its 2008 fiscal year, up from $32 million the year before, Wold said, and he estimates VCG will have $57 million for last year, compared with $40.5 million in FY2007. New Frontier Media generates more than $400 million in consumer buying a year.
Larry Flynt, whose half-billion dollar Hustler empire publishes magazines, produces and distributes films and operates a casino, said he's continued to do well. But he doesn't expect those who are solely in the film business to survive.
"A lot of the small studios are out of business now, there's no doubt about that," Flynt said.
Adult magazines also are struggling along with the larger publishing industry, and have to cut pages like everyone else.
But the economic realities aren't keeping jobseekers away.
Vivid Entertainment's Hirsch said the number of women in his business has doubled in the last couple years, with roughly 800 working as adult actresses. "It is more competitive than I've seen it in 25 years," he said.
That doesn't mean all the newcomers are planning on lengthy careers in the industry.
Stone, who has a bachelor's degree in graphic design, took up dancing four years ago to help pay her student loans. She plans to go to graduate school this year to pursue a master's in education.
Brown, meanwhile, has a ready answer for those critical of her career choice.
"I have job security," she said.

Alaska volcano Mount Redoubt erupts 3 times

2009-03-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

Looks like the volcano everyone has been waiting for has finally erupted. Mount Redoubt has done just that, but not just once. So far the count is at 3 eruptions. Most people have to pay extra for the kind of action.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano has begun erupting.
Geologists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory say the volcano erupted three times late Sunday and early Monday, with the largest eruption sending a plume of smoke some 50,000 feet above sea level.
Mount Redoubt is roughly 100 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Geophysicist John Power says "this is a fairly large eruption, close to the larger cities in Alaska."
He says no cities have yet reported any ash fall from the volcano, but noted that it's still early.
Geologists say seismic activity around the volcano had been intense in recent days, and expected that the volcano would blow soon.
Power says Mount Redoubt last erupted nearly 20 years ago.

The return of the Smiley Face Killer

2009-03-23T07:04:00.001-07:00

By David Brauer

Since Kristi Piehl broke the "Smiley Face Killers" story last May, she lost her job as KSTP-TV's investigative reporter. But ABC's "Good Morning America" doesn't know how to quit her.
Piehl will be on GMA Monday at 7 a.m., the Hutchinson Leader reports, touting a "new direction" for the lurid and dubious tale of serial killers roaming the Midwest, dispatching up to 70 young men whose bodies have never been found.

The smiley face refers to the ubiquitous '70s icon found in the general vicinity of each alleged murder, even though the icon is found in the general vicinity of everywhere.
Authorities have repeatedly checked out the theory, spun by two retired ex-New York cops, and found it wanting. In Minneapolis, police rejected links to the well-publicized Chris Jenkins disappearance. The FBI says there is no proof a killer or killers are at work: "The vast majority of these instances appear to be alcohol-related drownings."
In a memorable takedown, then-Minnesota Monitor staffer Steve Perry flayed the story, writing, "Let the record show that Kristi Piehl of KSTP has done her part to bring the yarn to the huddled masses yearning to breathe the vapors of another massive conspiracy." Over at Mpls.St.Paul, Brian Lambert wrote that the theory, "Boggles ... every rational instinct."
Then again, Piehl's story won a regional Emmy Award, which Lambert pronounced "ludicrous."
Nevertheless, this is the sort of "unsolved" situation that grieving parents can't quit, and TV news can't either. In fact, Piehl has officially joined the two: since leaving Channel 5, she and the father of a possible victim have started a website, sfkillers.com. According to the site, working the smiley face cases is now Piehl's full-time job.
Tune in Monday, if you dare, to see whether Piehl's new cottage industry remains a house of cards.
By the way, it will be fun to see how KSTP's local newscasts play a network story from someone they just let go.

Coast Guard finds person clinging to overturned boat

2009-03-02T09:52:00.000-08:00

Corey Smith, left, and Marquis Cooper are two of the men missing, officials said.
BREAKING UPDATE:
The Coast Guard has found an overturned boat with one person clinging to it. It's unknown if it's the vessel of four missing boaters.

The Coast Guard vessel, Tornado, was traveling from Mississippi on a training exercise, but joined in the search. Coast Guard officials said another boat has left to aid in the search. Officials said if medical attention is needed, a helicopter will be sent out.

PINELLAS COUNTY (CNN) --The search for the four boaters missing in the Gulf of Mexico since Saturday night has expanded.

Two NFL players are among four boaters missing off Clearwater.

Coast Guard officials said Monday that three planes are searching the area and the Nantucket, a Coast Guard vessel from south Florida, has traveled to the Gulf and is now aiding in the search.

Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper and NFL free agent Corey Smith, who played for the Detroit Lions for the past three seasons, are still missing from the trip, family members and colleagues said Sunday.

Cooper and Smith both formerly played for the Buccaneers. Cooper was with the Bucs in 2004 and 2005 and Smith played for the team from 2002 to 2004.

The Coast Guard began searching around 2 a.m. after it learned that four men -- Cooper, Smith, and former University of South Florida football players William Bleakley and Nick Schuyler -- had not returned from their fishing trip Saturday evening as expected.

Rough weather has hampered the effort, but "it's still a very active search," Coast Guard Capt. Tim Close told reporters Sunday afternoon.

Poor visibility from heavy waves forced the search-and-rescue effort to be conducted primarily by air, though authorities deployed patrol boats as well, Close said.

Searchers have expanded their search to 1,600 square miles although they have focused on 750 square miles of open water in the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles west of Clearwater Pass.

From there, the men had left the Seminole Boat Ramp in a 21-foot single-engine boat about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard said.

Rebekah Cooper said she became worried Saturday night when she didn't hear from her husband. She called her one of her husband's fishing buddies, Brian Miller, who contacted the Coast Guard with the coordinates of where the men planned to fish.

"Usually I'm on the boat. It's a little difficult wondering if something would have been different if I had been there," Miller said. "Or who knows? They may be just sitting out there with a broken motor -- and that's what we're hoping for."He said it was clear something was wrong when Cooper didn't call Saturday night.

William Bleakley, from Crytal River, played football at USF.
"He should've been within range to use his cell phone, and he knows enough to shut it off when he goes out so the batteries are still there," he said.

Close said weather conditions were relatively good Saturday, "but the weather picked up overnight."

"It's a small vessel for the conditions that are out there right now," Close said Sunday afternoon.

Rebekah Cooper said her husband was aware of Sunday's weather forecast and for that reason picked Saturday for the trip.

"Fishing is his first love, it always has been," she said, adding, "I have a lot of faith in him out there."

Cooper's father said he learned of the situation Sunday morning from his daughter-in-law. His son "routinely stays out on the water 12-14 hours," Bruce Cooper, a sports anchor in Phoenix, Arizona, said in a statement.

Close said authorities had not received a distress signal from the boaters. Close said Cooper owns the boat.

Bruce Cooper called his son an "avid fisherman."

"He goes deep sea fishing any opportunity he gets," Cooper said in the statement. "Two years ago I went deep sea fishing with him. I swore I would never do so again; I didn't like the fact that I couldn't see land. Needless to say I am very concerned. I am praying and hoping for the best."

The boat, a center-console vessel manufactured by Everglades Boats, is billed as "unsinkable," Close said.

The Detroit Lions released a statement acknowledging that Smith was among the missing men, adding, "Our thoughts and prayers are with all the passengers, their families and all those involved in the search efforts."

Schuyler's father, Stu, told reporters that the four men knew each other from working out at a gym, and that his son had accompanied Cooper and Smith on a fishing trip last week that lasted 15 hours.

Bleakley lettered from 2004 to 2006 as a tight end for USF, according to a spokesman for the university's athletics department. Schuyler was a walk-on defensive end for USF in 2006, but he never played in a game, the spokesman said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Will and Nick, as well as the Florida Coast Guard as they continue their search," USF Athletic Director Doug Woolard said in a statement Sunday.

The Coast Guard asked anyone with information on the boaters to contact its St. Petersburg, office at 727-824-7506.

Chicago Man Arrested for Allegedly Targeting Obama With HIV-Infected Blood

2009-02-27T07:22:00.001-08:00

By Mike Levine
FOXNews.com

A man from President Obama's hometown of Chicago has been arrested for allegedly sending Obama and his staff envelopes containing HIV-infected blood, in the hopes of killing or harming them.

It's only the second time ever that HIV-infected blood has been sent with malicious intent through the U.S. mail system, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said.

In the weeks leading up to Obama's inauguration, Saad Hussein, an Ethiopian refugee in his late 20's, sent an envelope addressed to "Barack Obama" to offices of the Illinois government in Springfield, Ill., according to court documents. The envelope contained a series of unusual items, including a letter with reddish stains and an admission ticket for Obama's election-night celebration in Chicago's Grant Park. Court documents said Hussein, who takes drugs to treat a mental illness, later told FBI agents he is "very sick with HIV" and cut his fingers with a razor so he could bleed on the letter.

Hazmat teams were called in after the envelope was opened, and offices of the Illinois Department on Aging and the Department of Revenue were locked down for nearly two hours, locking 300 staffers in their offices, court documents said.

Hussein, with his brother acting as an interpreter, told FBI agents he was actually "an admirer" of Obama and was "seeking help from the government," according to court documents. He also told them he was hoping to obtain tickets to the inaugural ceremonies in Washington, the documents said.

Days after sending the letter to Obama, Hussein allegedly placed two more letters in the mail, one addressed to "Emanuel," an apparent reference to Obama's current chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. The two letters contained what appeared to be dried blood, the court documents said.

Hussein, who has never held a job in the three years he's been in the United States, was arrested last month. An affidavit filed at the time accused Hussein of "knowingly" mailing letters "containing HIV-infected blood, with the intent to kill or injure another," in violation of federal law.

The affidavit does not address whether the letters could have actually killed or injured anyone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV is spread only through sexual contact with an infected person, through sharing needles with an infected person, or through blood transfusions of infected blood.

The spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Peter Rendina, expressed confidence that the U.S. mail system is safe.

"To me the U.S. Postal Service is the most secure form of communication in the world," he said. "In no way are we seeing a trend."

After Hussein's arrest, he was placed in a Chicago correctional facility. He has yet to be formally charged. A judge ordered he receive a mental examination to see if he's fit for trial, but as of two weeks ago the court couldn't locate a translator to conduct the examination, according to court documents.

A publicly-appointed attorney representing Hussein declined comment, saying he was "not at liberty to discuss pending criminal matters."

This is not the first time law enforcement officials have had to take Hussein into custody. He was arrested by police in 2006 after starting a fire in the middle of a crowded Chicago intersection. When officers arrived on the scene, he was waiving the Koran in the air and yelling "Allah Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic. Court documents said he was transported to a hospital, where he called President Bush a terrorist and criticized American foreign policy. He was not formally charged, but he did spend time in the mental health unit of the hospital.

The latest case marks the second time HIV-infected blood has been sent through the U.S. mail. In 2006 a "disturbed individual" placed a plastic vial of HIV-infected blood in the mail, according to Rendina. The unidentified individual was arrested and charged, and is now receiving psychiatric treatment at a federal medical detention center, Rendina said.

Nine killed as Turkish plane crashes near Amsterdam airport

2009-02-25T07:03:00.000-08:00

A Turkish passenger jet crashed as it tried to land at Amsterdam's main airport Wednesday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 50 -- 25 seriously -- Dutch airport authorities have said.

The Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800, which had 127 passengers and seven crew members according to the airline, broke into three pieces on impact in a field near Schiphol Airport.

The injured included both crew and passengers, said Assistant Local Mayor Michel Bezuijen.

It is too early to determine the cause of the crash, Bezuijen said.

A news photographer at the scene said she saw an unknown number of bodies lying under a white blanket, Maaike Voersma, a journalist with Dutch newspaper De Bers, told CNN.

A passenger on the plane who spoke to Turkish network DHA said he saw injured people trapped and squeezed between the seats when he walked off the plane. iReport: Send your videos, stories

The Boeing 737-800, which originated from Istanbul, Turkey, was trying to land at Schiphol when it went down at about 10:40 a.m. local time, Dutch airport officials said.

Pictures from the scene showed the plane broken in three pieces. One tear was in front of the wing, splitting the "Turkish" logo in two, and a larger tear was farther back along he fuselage.

Most of the injured were seated toward the back of the plane, which sustained the most damage, a passenger on the plane told Turkish station NTV. Many of the passengers simply walked off the plane through the cracks in the fuselage, witnesses told NTV.

Images from the scene showed medics treating passengers on the ground next to the buckled hulk of the plane, while firefighters and police examined the aircraft.

Emergency exits were wide open and there was no signs of fire damage to the fuselage. Also visible was one of the aircraft's engines, apparently separated from the shattered remains of one of the wings.

The plane landed in a flat farmer's field near the airport, RTL journalist Greg Crouch told CNN. He said the weather at the time was partly sunny with no wind or rain.

Witnesses said they saw the nose of the plane pitch up suddenly before the crash, Crouch said.

A bank manager who was a passenger on the plane told NTV that there were no emergency announcements. The crew's last word to the cabin was an announcement to fasten seatbelts and prepare for landing, the bank manager said.

He said he felt the pilot giving more power to the engines before feeling "turbulence," then a sudden drop. He described the crash as similar to a sudden impact that was over in a matter of seconds.

Kieran Daly, of Air Transport Intelligence said the impact had been severe but it could have been survivable because of the lack of fire. He added that there had been vast improvements in the materials used to build airplanes, meaning they did not burn as easily.

Daly also said that the Boeing 737-800 is a reliable aircraft that has been successful and safe in service.

"They really are pretty much state-of-the-art airliners with every imaginable technical benefit the industry has come up with over the years," Daly told CNN.

"You would be optimistic that they would be quite survivable in an accident." Daly said the Turkish aviation industry has a "pretty good record" of safety, and that Turkish Airlines, the national carrier, has a "very good record."

Turkish Airlines said it has 52 Boeing 737-800s in its fleet. They can carry as many as 165 passengers each, the airline said.

The airline's last accident was of a small commuter jet in 2003, he said. It was a fatal crash that happened at a remote airfield in eastern Turkey, he said. "Their mainline operation is safe," Daly said. "Their pilots are well thought of."

The last accident at Schiphol Airport happened in December 2003 when an EasyJet flight carrying 103 passengers to London collided while with a lamppost while taxiing during icy conditions, according to Aviation Safety Network's Web site. The crash caused significant damage to the aircraft, but no one was killed.

The last fatal incident at the Amsterdam airport happened in April 1994 when a KLM aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff as it tried to return to Schiphol. Three of the 24 passengers and crew members on board were killed.

Slain actress found dark side of Hollywood dream

2009-02-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

Hopefully they will find out whoever did this. It is always a shame when something like this happens to someone who is just trying to follow their dream. Sure it is not the first time and it won't be the last time, but I think with the technology we have today it would be very hard for a murder case to go cold. I wonder if it went cold because the police don't have the resources to follow the case in the first place.

By Rupa Mikkilineni
Nancy Grace Producer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Juliana Redding was 21, an aspiring actress and model who, like so many others before her, had moved from Arizona to southern California in pursuit of the Hollywood dream. She wound up the victim in a real life murder mystery -- one few people are willing to talk about in any detail.

Juliana Redding, an aspiring model and actress, was found murdered in her Santa Monica apartment.

By the age of 18, Redding had earned her first film credit, appearing in a 2005 independent film called "Kathy T Gives Good Hoover," about college students and the graffiti culture.

In 2006, she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica, California, with her pet Yorkshire terrier.

She was also taking college courses while working part-time in a trendy Venice Beach bar.

Friends grew worried in March when they couldn't reach Redding for a few days. They called her mother in Redding's hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Her mother called the Santa Monica police.

Police found Redding dead inside her apartment. "The manner of death is homicide," said Sgt. Rinaldi Thruston of the Santa Monica Police Department.

Although there are unconfirmed reports that the cause of death was blunt force trauma, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office denies that. "Those media reports are not accurate. The cause of death was not blunt force trauma. The file has been sealed by police, so we cannot disclose the actual cause of death."

Police also would not disclose whether a weapon was used or whether Redding's apartment had been broken into, which would give clues as to whether she knew her assailant and opened the door for him or her.

Thruston also refused to say whether Redding had been sexually assaulted.

"We have made no arrests in this case nor do we have any suspects or persons of interest at this time," Thruston said.

He said police have collected evidence from the crime scene that could link a potential suspect to the crime. Police are hoping they will continue to get tips and leads from the public.

According to friends, Redding had been dating another actor for two years and they had broken up about six months before her slaying, but remained friends.

It is unclear whether she had a new boyfriend, but police have been interviewing all of Redding's known friends and neighbors.

"We believe the police are doing what they can to solve this case, but we really prefer no media attention," her mother said.

Police will not comment on the forensic results of that blood or any specific evidence at the crime scene. They also will not reveal whether any of Redding's neighbors heard screams or other sounds of a struggle.

At this point, there are more questions than answers.

If anyone has any information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for Juliana Redding's death, please call the Santa Monica Police Department tip line at (310) 458-8449.

Obama is at the White House

2009-01-20T07:33:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barack and Michelle Obama were at the White House on Tuesday to meet with President Bush, as hundreds of thousands gathered at the Capitol for Obama's inauguration.

The Obamas attended a prayer service at St. John's Episcopal Church on Tuesday morning and then headed to the nearby White House for a meeting with the outgoing president and first lady Laura Bush.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, arrived at the White House shortly before the Obamas. The Obamas, Bushes and Bidens were expected to have coffee at the before heading to the Capitol.

The 9 a.m. church service kicked off a day of events for the man who will become the nation's 44th president at noon ET.

As many as 2 million people are expected to crowd into the area between the Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial as Obama takes the oath of office.

Gerrard Coles of Norwalk, Connecticut, had staked out a position in front of St. John's.

"Everyone's down here -- hopefully to catch a glimpse of Barack, just for a split second," he said. "I think this was a beautiful thing. It's something I always wanted to do. It's not every day that you get to be a part of history. Rather than just watch it on TV, you actually get to partake in it and you have a story to tell your kids."

A crowd gathered at a barricade near the church was letting children and shorter onlookers move to the front of the crowd so they could get a better view.

Some spectators will be more than a mile from the swearing-in ceremony, watching on giant TV screens erected along the National Mall.

Thousands arrived before daylight Tuesday in standing-room-only trains. They carried blankets and wore Obama scarves to ward off the wind chills of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Suburban Washington train stations were jammed. A four-story parking deck at the Springfield, Virginia, station was filled at 5 a.m. Trains rolling into the stop about 15 miles south of the Capitol had no room for the hundreds on the platform.

The Metro rail system's Red Line was shut down about 9 a.m. after a pedestrian was hit by a train, further snarling the already overloaded train service, fire officials said.

On Monday night, visitors wandered around the Mall, snapping pictures and shooting video of the Capitol and monuments.

The scene around Lafayette Square was almost chaotic, with cars turning around in the street as they were confronted with barriers to closed-off areas and clots of pedestrians crossing streets against the light.

The visitors' excitement rubbed off on some of the jaded locals, one of whom said D.C. residents were "cynical of government."

"The energy on the streets is something I've never seen before," said Nancy Wigal, a 45-year-old technical writer who lives in the Mount Vernon Square area. "People are walking lighter, standing taller and are reaching out to one another. It feels like hope. It feels like shared happiness."

The morning began at 4 a.m. for many as those without tickets made a land grab on the Mall, rushing to stake out positions for the ceremony.

After Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden take their oaths of office on the western front of the Capitol, Obama will deliver his inaugural address, which Obama aides say will emphasize that America is entering a new era of responsibility.

In the approximately 20-minute speech, Obama will say America has been hurt by a "me-first" mentality that contributed to the current economic crisis, aides say, and he will call on individuals -- as well as corporations and businesses -- to take responsibility for their actions.

After a formal farewell to President George W. Bush and lunch with congressional leaders, Obama will head up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, where he and his family will watch the inauguration parade from a reviewing stand. The parade begins at 3:45 p.m. ET.

The new president and first lady will then close the night by attending 10 official inaugural balls.

Officials say they really don't know how many will show up, but estimates range from 1 million to 2 million.

Organizers have said about 280,000 people can fit into the secure zones around the Capitol and roughly 300,000 into the area around the parade. A mere 28,000 seats are available on Capitol grounds.

Those with tickets to the inauguration will undergo tight screening, including passing through magnetometers, when they enter the seating area in front of the Capitol.

Spectators without tickets will be routed to the Mall, which for the first time will be open from end to end for an inauguration. Security there will be less stringent.

Jeri Pickett of Rochester, New York, was one of the few who got a ticket.

"I'd just like to see the inspiration of America," said Pickett, when asked what he was expecting from Inauguration Day. "There's so much warmth here now, and excitement -- rejuvenation."

Transportation officials say they will run subway trains on rush-hour schedules starting at 4 a.m. as well as extra buses. The Metro expects more than 1 million riders.

Inauguration events have already drawn record crowds. A crowd attending an inauguration concert Sunday was estimated between 300,000 and 400,000 and stretched from the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Washington Monument, which stands at the midpoint of the Mall.

While Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said Monday there was "no credible threat" to the inauguration events, a security cordon has been put in place around the city's core, turning much of downtown Washington into a pedestrian-only zone.

In addition to Secret Service, the security effort will involve 8,000 police officers from the District of Columbia and other jurisdictions, 10,000 National Guard troops, about 1,000 FBI personnel, and hundreds of others from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Park Service and U.S. Capitol Police.

Another 20,000 members of the National Guard are ready to respond if there is an emergency, according to outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Inauguration Day 2009 - Barack Obama

2009-01-20T06:46:00.000-08:00

By ALAN FRAM,

WASHINGTON – The streets of the nation's capital pulsed with expectation Tuesday as crowds determined to witness the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama overwhelmed mass transit lines and clogged security checkpoints.

Energized by the historic moment, tens of thousands of people turned this city's orderly grid of streets into a festive party scene. Ready to endure below-freezing temperatures, they streamed up from subway stations and thronged past parked buses, emergency vehicles and street vendors, bound for Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Mall for the inauguration.

"This is the culmination of two years of work," said Obama activist Akin Salawu, 34, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who helped the candidate as a community organizer and Web producer. "We got on board when Obama was the little engine who could. He's like a child you've held onto. Now he's going out into the world."

By 4 a.m., lines of riders formed in suburban parking lots for the Metro transit system, which opened early and put on extra trains for the expected rush. Many parking lots filled up and had to be closed.

Streets around the Capitol quickly filled with people, and security checkpoints were mobbed. The cold registered at 21 degrees Fahrenheit at 7:45 a.m.

Warming tents and other facilities on the Mall were late opening because traffic and crowds delayed staffers from reaching them. Ticket holders approaching the Inaugural site on Capitol Hill awaited security sweeps in a line estimated at thousands.

Connie Grant of Birmingham, Alabama, said she got up at 3:30 a.m. after coming to Washington with a group. Three hours later she was still on 7th street waiting for police to clear the way into the Mall.

She said the wait didn't matter. "I sacrificed and came here. To me, this is very historic. I just wanted to be here."

Christian Alderson of Berryville, Va., went to Memphis, Tenn., in 1968 to support the sanitation workers strike and said he was there when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

"That day was sorrowful," Alderson, 73, said as he stood near the mall. "This is a dream come true for me."

At the opposite end of town, Georgetown University students chanted "Obama!" and "Fired up Ready to Go!" as they walked down M Street toward the Mall.

A flea-market atmosphere prevailed on downtown streets, with white tents set up to sell Obama T-shirts and mugs as well as food, bottled water, snacks, scarves and footwarmers. The scent of grilled coiled sausages and steaming Chinese food greeted those who walked toward the parade route, more than six hours before Obama would pass by.

As the first waves of people began moving through security screenings, they scrambled for prime viewing spots along Pennsylvania Avenue — sitting on the curb, staking out plots of grass, or clambering on to cold metal benches.

Suburban subway riders also seemed to be in a jubilant mood, despite the early hour. In Fredericksburg, Va., an hour south of Washington, chants of "Obama! Obama!" rang out at a commuter rail station when the line started moving at 5 a.m. for the first trip into Washington.

World history teacher Calvin Adams of Arlington, Va., said he got up extra early so he could witness history being made first-hand and teach it to his classes.

"Eventually I'll teach American history," said Adams, 23. "I'll say, 'This is how it works because I've been there, I've seen it.'"

The joyous mood was tempered only by delays and by the dashed expectations of revelers eager to get an up-close look at history.

Alice Williams, a 51-year-old teacher of gifted children from Kansas City, Mo., had the coveted purple ticket that would placed her in front of the Capitol, but she got caught in the crowd bottleneck and instead was stuck a half mile away.

"We got blocked off; there was too much traffic and no guidance," she said forlornly. "I've been walking for an hour and a half. All I want to do is see my president sworn in"

One parade entrance was supposed to open at 7 a.m. The crowd, which was one-block deep, counted down at 7 a.m. The gate did not open. The chants got louder at 7:30 a.m., but the gates remain closed.

D.C. police have projected inaugural crowds between 1 million and 2 million. Planners say attendance could easily top the 1.2 million people who were at Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 inauguration, the largest crowd the National Park Service has on record.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs Takes Medical Leave of Absence

2009-01-14T19:42:00.001-08:00

Well this doesn't sound good at all for Apple. I know that Apple Stock has dropped almost 10 % in after hours trading which is to be expected right after news like this. It will be interesting how Apple moves foreward from this. They should have some new gizmo in their back pocket that they can unveil while Jobs is out so it will show more confidence that Apple can survive without Jobs in the Long run. And who knows maybe Apple has that up their sleeve. It will also be interesting to see if Apple now goes through Layoffs or if Jobs even comes back at all. It doesn't sound good for the future of the company. But Jobs should of made a strong foundation that should have Apple running lightyears after he passes anyways.

By Mike Musgrove and Peter Whoriskey

Washington Post Staff Writers

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs today announced that he will take a leave of absence as a result of health concerns.

"During the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought," Jobs wrote in an e-mail sent to all Apple employees.

He said he intends to return to the company at the end of June.

Speculation about Jobs's health has swayed the company's share prices during the past year as his increasingly gaunt appearance left some investors worried. The iconic tech leader, who is often viewed as the main driving force for his company's recent successes, was treated for pancreatic cancer several years ago.

Jobs did not deliver a keynote at the recent Mac-centric trade show this year, citing a hormone imbalance. The company's share price rose 4 percent on the news, a result of investor relief that Jobs was not suffering a recurrence of cancer.

Apple products, particularly the iPod and iPhone, have gained a rare kind of loyalty from customers, and much of the credit is given to Jobs's demanding leadership. He is reputedly relentless in his demands that Apple engineers make products that simplify technology, an approach that often gives the company's products a minimalist chic.

In 2004, Jobs received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and had surgery, which apparently was successful. Last June, however, Jobs appeared gaunt and the uncertainty over his health created new worries for investors. Stock prices suffered as a result.

Concern about Jobs's health heightened Dec. 16, when the company announced that he would not attend Macworld, a conference that he has addressed in his trademark black turtleneck for several years. Instead, the company sent marketing chief Philip Schiller to make a presentation.

Apple's stock fell as much as 10 percent after the company made that announcement.

Jobs was forced to address the rumors last week. In recent months, Jobs and the Apple board had declined to provide more information about the chief executive's health.

"Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed," he wrote on Jan. 5. "I've decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

"As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008," his note said. "The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors."

Jobs said that the cause of his troubles was a "hormone imbalance."

But many health professionals said then that hormone imbalance is not a specific medical diagnosis

While Jobs is away from the company he founded, Apple will be steered by chief operating officer Tim Cook.

American Idol Bikini Girl Katrina Darrell Photos, Video: Off To Hollywood

2009-01-14T06:16:00.000-08:00

And I missed the episode too. Oh well at least I can look up pictures up on the internet like everyone else is this morning. I quit watching because it is the same old thing every year.

by Mitch Marconi

American idol bikini girl Katrina Darrell has become the latest viral hit of American idol season Number 8.

Katrina Darrell wore as little as she was legally able to American Idol auditions in Phoenix, Arizona and it appears that the 20-year-old model from Chino Hills, California is on her way to Hollywood.

Darrell takes the stage and sings "Vision of Love" wearing high heels and a string bikini.

After judges Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell voted yes, new judge Kara DioGuardi put her foot down, sung a few bars herself to show how the song should have been handled.

Yet the sassy Darrell made it through to the next round.

Leading up to Tuesday night's premiere of "American Idol," the stage was set for big changes: co-creator Nigel Lithgoe was out, a new fourth judge was in, and producers promised fewer bad auditions and more "reality."

It ended up being the same old same old.

Elvis Presley's Birthday Celebrated All Around the World

2009-01-08T09:56:00.001-08:00

Elvis B-day is here again. I expect their will be a lot of great movies on tonight if you have cable. They might even bring some to Basic if you are lucky. I am not as big of a fan of Elvis to go all the way to Graceland, but then again I wasn't around during Elvis time.

by Robert Dougherty

Elvis Presley fans celebrate the milestones of the King's life like clockwork. Graceland is fuller than usual on certain anniversaries, like last year when the 30th anniversary of Elvis's death was commemorated. Today, Elvis Presley fans celebrate a less morbid milestone, of the day when it all bega

Elvis Presley's birthday will be celebrated today by Elvis fans, many of which are in Graceland already. The 74th birthday celebration should be a mere prelude to the bigger milestone of his 75th birthday in 2010.

Nevertheless, Elvis birthday tributes will be taking place all over, especially in Graceland. Elvis's birthday has already been celebrated with a few days worth of events, with a few more to come the rest of the week.

For Elvis's actual birthday today, Graceland will have gospel tributes, Elvis-style renditions of Happy Birthday, a special ceremony hosted by Priscilla Presley, birthday toy beat scavenger hunts, and more.

The Elvis birthday tributes continue on at Graceland up to Sunday, January 11. Countless other Elvis fans will likely have their own tributes set up in the rest of the country.

The Elvis birthday bashes are taking place as the Elvis industry in general continues to thrive, even during the recession. Elvis continues to be the number 1 earner among dead celebrities, according to Forbes Magazine. Presley's song "If I Can Dream" will even be used as part of Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony.

Graceland continues to see a steady supply of tourists, with attendance only down in 2008 because 2007 was the anniversary year of Elvis's death. Graceland will undergo more developments and improvements in the years to come.

The anniversary of Elvis's birthday is more joyous to celebrate than his death, one would imagine. His first birthday on January 8, 1934 is when the whole Elvis phenomenon technically kicked off, after all.

The anniversary of his death, on August 16, is a bit more mournful, especially considering what Presley had become by then. But it may not be so sad for those who are in the "Elvis is still alive" camp.

Still, Elvis's birthday is another occasion to celebrate the King's life, especially when it was facing happier times.

Sources

Elvis.com- "The Elvis Presley Birthday Celebration" www.elvis.com/graceland/calendar/elvis_birthday.asp

UPI.com- "Elvis business good, despite economy"

Macy's will shutter 11 stores in 9 states

2009-01-08T09:32:00.001-08:00

Looks like macy's is hurting even worse than most originally thought. It has yet to be said if they will continue to host the thanksgiving parade in the future. Hopefully within time they will be able to reclaim their lost stores.

Macy's will close 11 underperforming stores in 9 states; Dec. same-store sales fall 4 percent

* Mae Anderson, AP Retail Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Department-store operator Macy's Inc. said Thursday it will close 11 underperforming stores in nine states -- affecting 960 employees -- and lowered its forecast for the fourth quarter after one of the weakest holiday seasons in years.

Stores slated to close include locations in Los Angeles, West Palm Beach, Fla., Nashville, Tenn., and St. Louis, among others. Cincinnati-based Macy's Inc. says the closures will cost about $65 million, most of which will be booked in the 2008 fourth quarter.

Clearance sales at the stores begin next week.

"These closings are part of our normal-course process to prune underperforming locations each year in order to maintain a healthy portfolio of stores," said Macy's Chief Executive Terry J. Lundgren in a statement.

Employees at the stores that are closing may be considered for open positions at other Macy's stores, the company said.

Department-store operators have been among the harder-hit in the retail sector as consumers cut back amid the recession, hunting for bargains and trading down to discounters.

Macy's reported Thursday that its December sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, fell 4 percent -- still not as bad as the 5.3 percent drop analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting.

Total sales for the five-week period ended Jan. 3 fell 5 percent to $4.4 billion from $4.61 billion last year.

Same-store sales fell 7.5 percent during the combined November and December holiday period. Macy's said the holiday season ended with improving sales in the fourth and fifth weeks of December but that sales were sluggish before that.

The company said it marked items down sharply in the fourth quarter to gain sales and reduce its inventories, but that hurt its margins and led it to lower its profit forecast for the fourth quarter and full year.

Macy's now expects earnings of 90 cents to $1 per share in the fourth quarter, down from its previous guidance of $1.10 to $1.30 per share. Analysts expect earnings of $1.11 per share.

For the full year, the company now expects to earn $1.10 to $1.20 per share, down from its previous forecast of $1.30 to $1.50 per share. Analysts expect a profit of $1.35 per share.

Steve Jobs Death Rumor A Hoax! Jobs Is Alive

2009-01-06T13:02:00.000-08:00

Wow I wonder who is behind this. Can somebody tell me where Bill Gates was at this time. I wonder if this was just another hacker trying to be funny, corporate espionage, or somebody who was trying to short on Apple stock and found a way to try and make some big money. Anyway you slice it, it is pretty bad that you are trying to tell the world that the person who brought us the ipod is dead. Steve Jobs is alilve of course.

by Mitch Marconi

Surfacing rumors of Steve Jobs death have been going around the internet as of late. MacRumors, one of many cover sites for Apple's annual Macworld prodcut launches, was apparently hacked.

The people who hacked MacRumors made false news of Steve Jobs' death. Valleywag.com had posted an image of what the hacked page looked like. Steve Jobs is still alive, despite is weight loss he is working on himself currently according to reports.

Could the hackers been trying to spook people? Many fix the stocks? Who knows, but hopefully the criminals are caught.

U.N. protests school hit as Israel attacks intensify

2009-01-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

The Israeli military stepped up its offensive in Gaza Tuesday, surrounding densely populated Gaza City with its ground forces after at least 50 air strikes pounded the region overnight.

The United Nations said one Israeli air attack struck an elementary school in Gaza City where hundreds of Palestinians had taken shelter, killing three men.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Asma Elementary school was clearly marked as a U.N. installation. It said over 400 people had been given shelter at the school when it was hit Monday night.

"Well before the current fighting, UNRWA had given to the Israeli authorities the GPS (global positioning system) co-ordinates of all its installations in Gaza, including Asma Elementary School," the agency said in a news release.

"UNRWA is strongly protesting these killings to the Israeli authorities and is calling for an immediate and impartial investigation," it added.

Other air strikes hit the homes of people linked to Hamas, including the Wadi family in Jabalya, Hamas security sources said. Eight people were killed in that strike. An overnight air strike hit the Jabalya home of Imad Siam, one of the leaders of Hamas' military wing. Another attack hit the home of a Hamas-affiliated family in Gaza City, killing at least three, according to an eyewitnesses.

Israel claimed Tuesday to have killed 130 Hamas fighters since beginning a ground offensive at the weekend.

As its forces continued to encircle Gaza City -- which has a population of about half a million people -- European diplomats swarmed into the region trying to pull together the elements for a cease-fire. But neither Israel or Hamas has showed any real interest in international calls for a truce.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told French President Nicholas Sarkozy Monday that Israel wanted a "full solution" to the conflict, not just a cease-fire that allowed Hamas to fortify itself, Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman said.

"Before the last cease-fire with Hamas began, Hamas had missiles with a range of 20 kilometers," Regev said Tuesday. "By the end of the cease-fire, the range of the missiles grew to 40 kilometers. Israel does not want the next cease-fire to allow them to get missiles with a range of 60 kilometers."

A Hamas rocket penetrated farther than ever before into Israel on Tuesday, landing in the town of Gadera, about 36 kilometers (23 miles) north of the Gaza border, the Israeli military said. On Monday, a rocket hit a kindergarten in Ashdod, about 26 kilometers (16 miles) north of Gaza.

Hamas had fired 30 rockets at Israel by Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli military said. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida warned Israel that the militants would continue rocket attacks "for many months" and vowed to strike deeper into Israeli territory.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in northern Gaza late Monday in a "friendly fire" incident involving an explosion from a tank shell that hit a building the troops were in, bringing the Israeli troop deaths from the Gaza ground operation to five, the military said. Two dozen troops were wounded in the explosion -- one critical, three severely.

With no end in sight to the conflict, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated. Hundreds of wounded people swarmed into Gaza's largest hospital and scores of Gazans headed for the morgues -- where two bodies are crammed into each drawer.

"Everybody here is terrorized by the situation," John Ging, the director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza told CNN, from Gaza City. "There's no place that you can be safe if you're a civilian here. It's not safe in your home.

The Israeli military said another 80 trucks with humanitarian aid would be allowed to pass into Gaza on Tuesday at the Kerem Shalom crossing

According to Palestinian medical sources, at least 23 people were killed in Gaza on Tuesday, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 555 since Israel launched its operation on December 27. Most of the deaths are militants, but include at least 100 civilians, the sources said. Another 2,750 Palestinians have been injured, most of them civilians, the sources said.

The Israeli ground assault was launched Saturday night. Israel says it is the second phase of an operation to stop militants from firing rockets and mortars into southern Israel.

The incursion followed eight days of air strikes on the territory to stop the rocket attacks, which have killed four Israelis since the military operation began.

FBI jobs, homeland security jobs looking to Hire

2009-01-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

I am going to have to apply for one of these jobs I think. I always wanted to be in law enforcement, but I could never take the time off from work to go to the academy. I always needed the money I was currently earning.

By Terry Frieden

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite a bleak economic environment featuring wide-ranging layoffs and rising unemployment, the nation's premier law enforcement agency is touting "one of the largest hiring blitzes in our 100-year history."

The FBI is about to embark on its biggest hiring spree since immediately after the September 11, 2001.

The FBI posted openings for 850 special agents and more than 2,100 professional support personnel. Officials say it's the largest FBI job posting since immediately after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The FBI's unexpectedly large number of job openings results more from attrition and a wave of retirements than from growing government appropriations, Bureau officials told CNN.

The FBI routinely advertises openings for individuals with critical skills in computer science and language fluency. But John Raucci, assistant director of the FBI's Human Resources Division, says current needs are much more wide-ranging.

"We're also looking for professionals in a wide variety of fields who have a deep desire to help protect our nation from terrorists, spies and others who wish us harm," Raucci said.

The lengthy list of openings includes positions in finance and accounting, security, intelligence analysis, training and education, nursing and counseling, physical surveillance, electrical engineering, physical and social sciences, and auto mechanics.

Procedures for applying and a full listing of available positions are posted on the Web site fbijobs.gov.

"This is a great time to apply for a great job in the FBI," said the bureau's chief spokesman, Richard Kolko.

Officials note at least a few jobs are currently available in every one of the FBI's 56 field offices across the nation.

The FBI lists openings throughout the year, but seldom has anything close to the current number of available positions.

The present job postings expire on January 16, but a new, possibly smaller set of openings will be posted shortly thereafter, the agency said.

Steve Jobs has hormone imbalance, will remain CEO

2009-01-05T08:53:00.000-08:00

I wonder what this is going to do to their stock now? Hopefully not much or it can go higher for all I care. I have some. I am surprised that they Apple finally came out and said something. Sure everyone has known something has been up for awhile now, but they are usually very secretive about everything.

By ANDREW VANACORE

NEW YORK – Apple Inc. founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, said Monday that a hormonal imbalance is to blame for the weight loss that has prompted worries about his health.

Jobs, 53, said he will undergo a "relatively simple" treatment and will remain in charge of Apple.

"A hormone imbalance ... has been `robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy," Jobs said in a public letter, adding, "Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis."

Speculation about his health percolated in 2008 as Jobs appeared gaunt at public appearances. Those worries intensified after Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple said in December that Jobs would not be making his annual keynote address Tuesday in San Francisco at the Macworld conference.

Officially Apple said Jobs would not appear because this year will mark the company's last appearance at the show, which is run by a separate company, the IDG technology media group. Rather than have its CEO speak even as it prepared to wind down its participation in Macworld, Apple said Phil Schiller, an Apple marketing executive, would give the company's presentation.

But while some analysts expected this week's Macworld to help Apple show it could execute its long-term strategy without Jobs as its public face, others have questioned the company's viability without Jobs, who has emphasized the design principles that made standouts out of Apple's Mac computers, iPods and iPhones.

Investors appeared happy to have some clarity on his health. Apple's shares rose $3.42, 3.8 percent, to $94.17 in morning trading.

In his statement, Jobs said, "The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I've already begun treatment."

He added, "Just like I didn't lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this spring to regain it."

The company's board released a statement separately, saying, "Apple is very lucky to have Steve as its leader and CEO, and he deserves our complete and unwavering support during his recuperation. He most certainly has that from Apple and its Board."

Jobs announced in 2004 that he had undergone successful surgery to treat a form of pancreatic cancer — an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. The cancer is extremely rare and easily cured if diagnosed early. Jobs did not have a deadlier and more common form of pancreatic cancer, called adenocarcinoma.

John Travolta's Son Jett Dead at 16

2009-01-02T19:31:00.001-08:00

You always hate to hear when something like this happens to anybody. Our condolences to the Travolta Family.

NASSAU, Bahamas - John Travolta's teenage son, Jett, died in the Bahamas after falling ill and hitting his head at his family's vacation home, police said Friday. A house caretaker found Jett, 16, unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning. He was taken by ambulance to a Freeport hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to a statement from chief police superintendent Basil Rahming.

The teenager had last been seen going into the bathroom on Thursday and had a history of seizures, according to the statement. Police said they are planning an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Another police spokeswoman, Loretta Mackey, said Jett apparently hit his head on the bathtub.

A spokeswoman for Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport said she could not release any information because of privacy concerns.

Jett was the oldest child of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, who also have an 8-year-old daughter. The family arrived on a private plane Tuesday and had been vacationing at their home in the Old Bahama Bay resort community.

"The Travolta family has become like family to us at Old Bahama Bay and we extend our deepest sympathies to them," said Robert Gidel, president of Ginn Resorts, the property's owner.

Overboard: Jennifer Seitz Lost at Sea

2008-12-28T07:54:00.000-08:00

Man this doesn't look good. It is hard to imagine falling overboard in this day and age without being pushed. What I don't understand is how they think she might have gone overboard. Where else would she have gone on the ship? It shouldn't be that hard to find a person on a cruise ship. What is going to come out next is if she was on medication or suicidal. I am not saying anything like that since I did not know Seitz.

Survellience Video Shows Woman in Robe Going Overboard

By ANDREA CANNING

The U.S. Coast Guard and Mexican authorities are searching for an American woman who went missing on a cruise ship near Cancun, Mexico. Jennifer Seitz, 36, may have gone overboard.

The Coast Guard, along with Mexican authorities, is searching for a missing American woman who is thought to have fallen overboard Thursday night near Cancun, Mexico.

(AP Photo)

Early Friday morning, Seitz's husband reported her missing aboard the Norwegian Pearl Cruise Ship, which was steaming towards the Caribbean.

"At that particular point, they started a search on the ship and they eventually discovered some recorded tape, the image of a woman going overboard wearing a white bathrobe sometime around 8 o'clock the previous evening. That would be on Christmas night," Capt. Dean Lee of the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami, Fla., told ABC News.

When it was reported, the Coast Guard joined Mexican authorities in a search of an area 15 miles off the coast of Mexico. Choppy waters added to challenges of a maritime search and the woman has not been located.

Norad Santa Tracker

2008-12-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again. I know me and my kids will be tracking Santa on the Norad Santa Tracker like most families today and tonight.

The military personnel charged with being the eyes in the sky are certainly acting like he does — and they've been joined on the Internet by millions of believers.

Even doubters have reason to pause when they hear the North American Aerospace Defense Command — or NORAD, which monitors air and space threats against the U.S. and Canada — is in charge of the annual Christmas mission to keep children informed of Santa's worldwide journey to their homes.

"They challenge it, but only to a point," said Senior Master Sgt. Sharon Ryder-Platts, 49, who for five years has been a Santa tracker, taking calls from those wanting to know the location of jolly old St. Nick.

According to NORAD, Santa began his latest flight early Wednesday at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. Historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. NORAD points out that only Santa knows his route.

Last year, NORAD's Santa tracking center answered 94,000 calls and responded to 10,000 e-mails. About 10.6 million visitors went to the Web site, which can be viewed in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese.

NORAD's holiday tradition can by traced to 1955, when a Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears, Roebuck & Co. ad telling children of a phone number to talk to Santa. The number was one digit off, and the first child to get through reached the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

Col. Harry W. Shoup answered.

Shoup's daughter, Terri Van Keuren, said her dad, now 91, was surprised to hear that the little voice on the other end thought he was Santa.

"Dad thought, `What the heck? This must be some kind of code,'" said Van Keuren, 59.

Shoup, described by his daughter as "just a nut about Christmas," didn't want to break the boy's heart, so he sounded a booming "Ho, ho, ho!" and pretended to be Santa Claus.

Enough calls followed that Shoup assigned an officer to answer them while the problem was fixed. But Shoup and the staff he was directing to "locate" Santa on radar ended up embracing the idea. NORAD picked up the tradition when it was formed 50 years ago.

"If we didn't do it, truly I don't know who else would track Santa," Maj. Stacia Reddish said.

The task that began with no computers and only a 60-by-80-foot glass map of North America now includes two big screens on a wall showing the world and information on each country Santa Claus visits. It took off with the Web site's 1997 launch, Reddish said.

Now, curious youngsters can follow Santa's path online with a Google two-dimensional map or in 3D using Google Earth, where he can be seen flying through different landscapes in his sleigh.

NORAD officials are hesitant to list all the potential sites Santa will visit with certainty.

"Historically, Santa has loved the Great Wall of China. He loves the (Space) Needle in Seattle. He of course loves the Eiffel Tower," Reddish said. "But his path is completely unpredictable, so we won't know."

Ryder-Platts, 49, who has a 17-year-old son, said taking calls from children helps her keep her Christmas spirit.

"For someone like myself, my son is older, you know it just keeps you in touch with the spirit of Santa Claus," she said. "I miss out on that at home so this keeps me close to Santa. I believe! It keeps me in touch with other believers."

On the Net:

http://www.noradsanta.org

Barack Obama Shirtless on Hawaii Beach (PHOTOS)

2008-12-23T19:32:00.001-08:00

47-year-old U.S. President shows he is fit to lead

By TheImproper.com

President-Elect Barack Obama looks fit and relaxed during a vacation to Hawaii on Dec. 22. Obama, 47, played golf and walked around shirtless on Hawaii's balmy beaches.

The Obama family is staying at a $9 million oceanfront home over the mountain from downtown Honolulu, where Barack grew up. The five-bedroom house sits on an acre of land in front of Kailua Beach, a favorite spot for windsurfers, kayakers and dogwalkers.

Obama, who is resting before he takes office Jan. 20, is said to be a fitness fanatic, letting nothing keep him from his six-day-a-week regimen. Obama is an avid basketball fan who's reportedly interested in installing a basketball court at the White House when he takes office.

Exercise, Obama says, keeps him focused and relaxed. "The main reason I do it is just to clear my head and relieve me of stress," he recently told Men's Health magazine. "My blood pressure is pretty low and I tend to be a healthy eater."

The former U.S. Senator, who has kept up an insanely hectic schedule since he hit the campaign trail in 2006, prefers early-morning workouts. "Most of my workouts have to come before my day starts. There's always a trade-off between sleep and working out. Usually I get in about 45 minutes, six days a week. I'll lift [weights] one day, do cardio the next. "I wish I was getting a 90-minute workout," he added.

Obama's favorite snack is Planters Trail Mix, consisting of nuts, seeds and raisins, washed down with organic berry tea. His vices include smoked sea-salt caramels in milk chocolate.

President Bush: Automakers to get $17.4B

2008-12-19T06:59:00.001-08:00

I can't believe this thing passed even though Congress turned them down. I guess we don't live in a democrazy anymore.

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Citing danger to the national economy, the Bush administration came to the rescue of the U.S. auto industry Friday, offering $17.4 billion in emergency loans in exchange for concessions from the deeply troubled carmakers and their workers.

At the same time, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Congress should authorize the use of the second $350 billion from the financial rescue fund that it approved in October to rescue huge financial institutions. Tapping the fund for the auto industry basically exhausts the first half of the $700 billion total, he said.

President Bush said, "Allowing the auto companies to collapse is not a responsible course of action." Bankruptcy, he said, would deal "an unacceptably painful blow to hardworking Americans" across the economy.

One official said $13.4 billion of the money would be available this month and next, $9.4 billion for General Motors Corp. and $4 billion for Chrysler LLC. Both companies have said they soon might be unable to pay their bills without federal help. Ford Motor Co. has said it does not need immediate help.

Bush said the rescue package demanded concessions similar to those outlined in a bailout plan that was approved by the House but rejected by the Senate a week ago. It would give the automakers three months to come up with restructuring plans to become viable companies.

If they fail to produce a plan by March 31, the automakers will be required to repay the loans, which they would find very difficult.

"The time to make hard decisions to become viable is now, or the only option will be bankruptcy," Bush said. "The automakers and unions must understand what is at stake and make hard decisions necessary to reform."

He said the companies' workers should agree to wage and work rules that are competitive with foreign automakers by the end of next year.

And he called for elimination of a "jobs bank" program — negotiated by the United Auto Workers and the companies — under which laid-off workers receive unemployment benefits and supplemental pay from their companies for 48 weeks. If they remain laid off beyond that, they move to a jobs bank in which the company provides about 95% of their pay and benefits. Until the most recent contract, people could remain in the jobs bank for years. Early this month, the UAW agreed to suspend the program.

Bush's plan is designed to keep the auto industry running in the short term, passing the longer-range problem on to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Paulson said that with the help for the carmakers, the government will have allocated the first half of the largest government bailout program in history.

He said he was confident that the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have the resources to address a significant market crisis if one should occur before Congress approves the use of the second half of the rescue fund.

Paulson said he would discuss the process with congressional leaders and Obama's transition team "in the near future."

The White House package is the lifeline desperately sought by U.S. automakers, who warned they were running out of money as the economy fell deeper into recession, car loans became scarce and consumers stopped shopping for cars.

The carmakers have announced extended holiday shutdowns. Chrysler is closing all 30 of its North American manufacturing plants for four weeks because of slumping sales; Ford will shut 10 North American assembly plants for an extra week in January, and General Motors will temporarily close 20 factories — many for the entire month of January — to cut vehicle production.

Bush said the auto manufactures have faced serious challenges for many years: burdensome costs, a shrinking share of the market and plunging profits. "In recent months, the global financial crisis has made these challenges even more severe," he said.

The president said that on the one hand, the government has a responsibility not to undermine the private enterprise system, yet on the other hand, it must safeguard the broader health and stability of the U.S. economy.

"If we were to allow the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers," he said.

"Under ordinary economic circumstances, I would say this is the price that failed companies must pay," the president said. "And I would not favor intervening to prevent the automakers from going out of business. But these are not ordinary circumstances.

"In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action."

Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli thanked the administration for its help.

In a statement Friday morning, Nardelli said the initial injection of capital will help the company get through its cash crisis and help eventually return to profitability. He said Chrysler was committed to meeting the conditions set by Bush in exchange for the money.

Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally said his company would not seek the short-term financial assistance but predicted the aid would stabilize the industry.

"The U.S. auto industry is highly interdependent, and a failure of one of our competitors would have a ripple effect that could jeopardize millions of jobs and further damage the already weakened U.S. economy," Mulally said.

General Motors said the short-term loans would help preserve jobs and "lead to a leaner, stronger General Motors."

"We know we have much work in front of us to accomplish our plan. It is our intention to continue to be transparent as we execute our plan, and we will provide regular updates on our progress," the automaker said.

Bush considering "orderly" auto bankruptcy, Ford and GM

2008-12-18T14:55:00.000-08:00

What an Idiot. No wonder all the stocks plummeted right after he talks.

By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration is looking at "orderly" bankruptcy as a possible way to deal with the desperately ailing U.S. auto industry, the White House said Thursday as carmakers readied more plant closings and a half million new jobless claims underscored the deteriorating national economy.

With General Motors, Chrysler and the rest of Detroit anxiously awaiting a White House decision on billions of dollars in emergency federal loans, press secretary Dana Perino said it wasn't simply a choice between government rescue and the disastrous collapse of a major industry.

"There's an orderly way to do bankruptcies that provides for more of a soft landing," she said. "I think that's what we would be talking about."

President George W. Bush, asked about an auto bailout, said he hadn't decided what he would do but didn't want to leave a mess for Barack Obama who takes office a month from Saturday. A White House decision on helping the troubled automakers could come as early as Friday.

Bush, like Perino, spoke of the idea of bankruptcies orchestrated by the federal government as a possible way to go — without committing to it.

"Under normal circumstances, no question bankruptcy court is the best way to work through credit and debt and restructuring," he said during a speech and question-and-answer session at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. "These aren't normal circumstances. That's the problem."

Perino emphasized there were still several possible approaches to assisting the automakers, including short-term loans from the Treasury Department's $700 billion Wall Street bailout program.

The Big Three automakers said anew that bankruptcy wasn't the answer, as did an official of the United Auto Workers who called the idea unworkable and even dangerous. GM said a report that it and Chrysler had restarted talks to combine was untrue.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Capitol Hill that grim new unemployment data heightened the urgency for the administration "to prevent the imminent insolvency of the domestic auto industry."

The California Democrat said Bush has the legal authority to act now, and should attach the accountability standards that were included in a $14 billion House-passed and Bush-supported carmaker bailout that died in the Senate last week. That plan would have given the government, through a Bush-appointed "car czar," veto power over major business decisions at any auto company that received federal loans.

Pelosi spoke after the government announced that initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 554,000 last week.

The comments in Washington came a day after Chrysler LLC announced it was closing all its North American manufacturing plants for at least a month as it, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. await word on government action. General Motors also has been closing plants, and it and Chrysler have said they might not have enough money to pay their bills in a matter of weeks.

Separately, there were worries that GMAC LLC, which provides financing for GM vehicle and dealer loans along with home mortgages, could be forced to file for bankruptcy itself. GMAC was having trouble finding adequate support from its bondholders for a debt transaction that would allow it to become a bank holding company and gain eligibility for the $700 billion rescue package.

Prices of GM and Ford stocks fell sharply Thursday after the remarks out of the White House. Ford, unlike General Motors and Chrysler, is not seeking billions in federal bailout loans, but a collapse of the other two could hurt Ford as well.

Alan Reuther, the United Auto Workers' legislative director, said the union urged the administration during a meeting this week to follow the provisions included in the House-passed auto aid bill.

Congressional aides in both parties who have been closely following the discussions suggested the talk of bankruptcy could be a tactic to extract more hefty concessions from the companies and union in exchange for granting short-term loans from Treasury's financial industry rescue fund.

Perino said one factor preventing an announcement of action by the administration is that discussions continue with the various sides that would have to sign on to a managed bankruptcy — entities such as labor and equity holders in addition to the companies themselves.

A senior administration official said the talks between Bush officials and the Big Three and their stakeholders amount to information-gathering, not negotiating.

The White House has repeatedly emphasized its opposition to "disorderly bankruptcy" — presumably a Chapter 7 filing that would effectively shut down a company and require liquidation of assets. That has left on the table the possibility of forcing one or more automakers into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows a firm to keep operating while under a court's purview.

Harlan Platt, who teaches corporate turnarounds at Northeastern University in Boston, said the government may be waiting for an offer of an ownership stake in the companies, much as it received in return for capital plowed into banks. "You really have to ask the question: If this is good enough for Wall Street, why isn't it good enough for Detroit?" he said.

On Thursday, spokesmen for Chrysler, GM and Ford generally referred to their previous comments that bankruptcy was not a workable solution. The car companies argue that no one would buy a vehicle from a bankrupt company for fear that the company might not be around to honor warranties.

"We continue to work with the administration to find a solution to this liquidity crisis," said GM spokesman Tony Cervone.

Chrysler spokeswoman Shawn Morgan noted previous statements against bankruptcy by CEO Robert Nardelli. Financing for even a prepackaged bankruptcy would be difficult to get in the current tight credit market, Chrysler has said.

The National Automobile Dealers Association also spoke out against bankruptcy for car companies "in any way shape or form, orderly or disorderly, prepackaged or unpackaged, managed or unmanaged," said spokesman Bailey Wood.

Bush said the auto industry is "obviously very fragile" and he is worried about what an out-and-out collapse without Washington involvement "would do to the psychology" of the markets.

"There still is a lot of uncertainty," he said.

At the same time, the president said anew that he is worried about "putting good money after bad," meaning taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used to prop up companies that can't survive the long term.

He revealed one other consideration — that Obama will become president in just over a month.

"I thought about what it would be like for me to become president during this period. I believe that good policy is not to dump him a major catastrophe on his first day in office," Bush said.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Ken Thomas in Washington, Tom Krisher in Detroit and Bree Fowler in New York contributed to this story.

Actor in Ohio Christmas show dies in 25-foot fall

2008-12-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

I wonder if any charges are going to be brought up against the church in this one if they find that the cable that suspended Shryock was not supposed to be holding up a person. I think is is right though that they have canceled the rest of their shows. I don't think anyone would have wanted to participate in the rest of them, and plus who would want to try and replace the actor. That just wouldn't be right.

A spokeswoman at a Cincinnati mega-church says a Christmas pageant actor who fell about 25 feet during the show's opening night performance has died.

Crossroads Community Church says 23-year-old Keri Shryock died Thursday morning at University Hospital. A church spokeswoman says Shryock was a graduate student at Xavier University.

Shryock was playing the role of a wise man in a contemporary Nativity story and was suspended by an overhead cable when she fell Wednesday night. A spokeswoman for the church says it's not clear how the accident happened.

The church says it has canceled the 10 remaining performance of the Christmas show.

Birdman of Berlin shared flat with 1,700 budgies

2008-12-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

I can't imagine how he could take the smell of all the poop!!! Let alone the noise. Maybe he just turned his hearing aid off. I understand having pets and not wanting to be lonely, but this is taking it to another level. Go to the park and feed the ducks if you want to be surrounded by birds.

Berlin city officials, summoned by complaints over the noise, found a 60-year-old man sharing his two-room flat with 1,700 budgerigars.

The budgies were living on perches installed along the walls, while the floors were saturated with droppings, veterinary services said here Wednesday.

The pensioner told officials he had adopted two birds because he felt lonely and that nature had done the rest.

About 1,000 of the birds were evacuated on Tuesday, 300 on Wednesday, while the remainder were to be taken from the flat to a rescue shelter over the next few days, officials said.

The tenant was also having to move as the flat was deemed no longer fit for human habitation.

Ga. judge jails Muslim woman over head scarf

2008-12-17T18:31:00.000-08:00

This is a different situation for sure. On one hand you have a female whoes religion it is to wear that headgear when she is out in public. And could be shamed for not doing so. And on the other side you have the law in the place she lives in that says no headgear in the courtroom. I believe you have to listen to the law on this one, but she can not be blamed for sticking by her religion.

A Georgia judge ordered a Muslim woman arrested Tuesday for contempt of court for refusing to take off her head scarf at a security checkpoint.

The judge ordered Lisa Valentine, 40, to serve 10 days in jail, said police in Douglasville, a city of about 20,000 people on Atlanta's west suburban outskirts.

Valentine violated a court policy that prohibits people from wearing any headgear in court, police said.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations urged federal authorities to investigate the incident as well as others in Georgia.

"I just felt stripped of my civil, my human rights," Valentine told The Associated Press on Wednesday from her home, after she said she was unexpectedly released once CAIR got involved. Jail officials declined to say why she was freed.

Municipal Court Judge Keith Rollins said that "it would not be appropriate" for him to comment on the case.

Last year, a judge in Valdosta in southern Georgia barred a Muslim woman from entering a courtroom because she would not remove her head scarf. There have been similar cases in other states, including Michigan, where a Muslim woman in Detroit filed a federal lawsuit in February 2007 after a judge dismissed her small-claims court case when she refused to remove a head and face veil.

Valentine's husband, Omar Hall, said his wife was accompanying her nephew to a traffic citation hearing when officials stopped her at the metal detector and told her she would not be allowed in the courtroom with the head scarf, known as a hijab.

Hall said Valentine, an insurance underwriter, told the bailiff that she had been in courtrooms before with the scarf on and that removing it would be a religious violation. When she turned to leave and uttered an expletive, Hall said a bailiff handcuffed her and took her before the judge.

Drew Peterson Gets Engaged While Still Married to Missing Wife

2008-12-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

I can't believe someone would marry this guy after what has happened. Have they been living under a rock or something? Or does this girl just want her 15 minutes of fame. Whatever the reason she is sure going to get it. The attention. This is just so nuts though to even comprehend it for me is crazy.

By Sara Bonisteel

The ex-cop who is a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife and whose third wife died suspiciously in a bathtub is planning to walk down the aisle for a fifth time.

Drew Peterson, 54, is engaged again, his lawyer and publicist confirmed Wednesday to FOXNews.com.

Though Peterson is still married to his fourth wife, Stacy, who was 23 when she disappeared last year, he has found a new 23-year-old fiancée, he told "Drew Peterson Exposed" author Derek Armstrong Tuesday.

"The kids have met her," said Armstrong. "They like her and they know about this engagement."

Peterson has two young children, Anthony, 6, and Lacy, 4, with Stacy Peterson. The missing mom's family contends she is dead.

"Oh my God, I’m speechless," Pam Bosco, a spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family told FOXNews.com when informed of Drew Peterson's engagement. "History repeats itself, so I imagine that that’s the same situation he had before: He’d be involved with somebody when he was getting rid of the one before."

Armstrong said the new fiancée, whom Peterson refused to identify, lives within 15 minutes of Peterson's Bolingbrook, Ill., home. He said the couple have been dating about four months. Lawyer Joel Brodsky and publicist Glenn Selig did not identify the woman either.

Selig said the engagement happened "sometime within the last couple of days."

A sticking point for Peterson is that he is currently married.

"This is not uncommon for Drew," said Selig. "When he was married to Kathleen still, he was in the process of divorcing Kathleen when he proposed to Stacy. He’s done this before and, you know, he seems very happy."

Earlier this year, Peterson met with high-profile Chicago attorney Jeffery M. Leving, a lawyer in the Elian Gonzalez case, to see what his rights to a split might be.

Leving told FOXNews.com that Peterson had not yet filed for divorce.

Desertion for at least one year is grounds for divorce under Illinois law -- though Peterson, as the divorce petitioner, would have to show he wasn't at fault for causing his wife to leave, Leving said.

Peterson has been at the center of the investigation into the whereabouts of his wife, who vanished on Oct. 28, 2007.

After Stacy's disappearance, the body of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, was exhumed, and her 2004 bathtub drowning was re-labeled a homicide.

Earlier this year, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow issued a statement about the Savio and Stacy Peterson cases, indicating that a special grand jury is still weighing evidence in both.

"I fully expect there to be a resolution in at least one of these investigations in the near future," Glasgow said.

Stacy Peterson's family is pinning its hopes on that resolution.

"You’ve just got to stay focused on the investigation and hope that as the Illinois state prosecutor said, that they’ll have [it] resolved soon," Bosco said.

'Death Map' Shows Where Americans Most Likely to Die

2008-12-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

Well damn I live in the South. That sucks. Oh well at least I don't have to worry about freezing to death. That's for sure. I really don't have to worry about hurricanes where I am at, but I do have to worry about tornados a lot. That is the one thing that is common in my area. Hopefully if you are reading this you are lucky not to have to deal with these kinda things, but then again where is the fun at then?

A new map plotting deaths resulting from forces of nature reveals where Mother Nature is most likely to kill you.

People living in the South along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts have a higher likelihood of dying from a natural hazard compared to residents of the Great Lakes area and urbanized Northeast.

And while intense hurricanes and tornadoes steal headlines for their intense winds and overall destruction, the new map shows what other previous studies have found, that everyday hazards, such as severe winter and summer weather, and heat account for the majority of natural hazard deaths in the United States.

"This work will enable research and emergency management practitioners to examine hazard deaths through a geographic lens," said researcher Susan Cutter of the University of South Carolina, Columbia. "Using this as a tool to identify areas with higher than average hazard deaths can justify allocation of resources to these areas with the goal of reducing loss of life."

Cutter and Kevin Borden, also of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, analyzed nationwide data from 1970 to 2004.

In addition to the South having high mortality from natural hazards, other risky areas included the northern Great Plains region where heat and drought were the biggest killers and the Rocky Mountain region (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico) with winter weather and floods as top killers. The south-central United States is also a dangerous area, with floods and tornadoes posing the greatest threats.

Cutter and Borden found that of the natural hazards, some were more deadly than others over the years, including:

"It is the chronic hazards like severe summer weather and severe winter weather and heat that are contributing the majority of the hazard fatalities, not fatalities associated with things like earthquakes or hurricanes," Cutter told LiveScience. She added that people and officials tend to be more prepared for big hurricanes and tornadoes, which could partly explain the lower mortality from these storms compared with everyday occurrences.

Overall, during the study period, nearly 20,000 people died due to natural hazards. For comparison, here are the top five causes of U.S. deaths in 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

The natural hazards research, which will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Health Geographics, was supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

Barack Obama is Times 2008 Person of the Year

2008-12-17T07:22:00.001-08:00

Who didn't see this one coming? But then again Hitler, Stalin, and Bush were all named man of the year also. Hopefully he goes the way Time is hoping. As everyone else does, but it is food for thought. I wonder what Obama will do now that he has been named Times Person of the Year.

Posted by Jason Tuohey

It may come as no shock that Time magazine named Barack Obama its "Person of the Year," but the magazine's online package does offer one surprise -- previously unseen photos of the president-elect from his formative years at Occidental College.

Time's managing editor Richard Stengel said the magazine picked Obama for his constant presence in news coverage throughout the year, and for being elected president at a "periolous" and "critical" time in American history.

Obama "energized Americans in a way that we haven't seen in a long time," Stengel said on CNN today.

Time's online package provides previously unpublished photos of Obama at Occidental College, which he attended from 1979 to 1981. The black-and-white photos were taken in 1980 by Lisa Jack, an aspiring photographer at the time, and show Obama wearing a hat and striking a variety of poses. Take a look at the photos.

Obama's time at Occidental College is a largely overlooked period of his biography, but one where he began to lay the seeds for his future in public service and politics.

The Globe's Scott Helman chronicled Obama's maturation this August in an article and video on the president-elect's years at Occidental. Here's a taste:

"Much has been made in this presidential campaign, both good and bad, of Obama's Ivy League pedigree - his bachelor's degree from Columbia University, and his law degree from Harvard, where he led the prestigious Law Review. But it is during the two years Obama spent at Occidental, a small liberal arts school in Los Angeles, that he started on the path that has led to the Democratic presidential nomination."

Fed cuts Rates to Lowest ever, .25%

2008-12-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

I think this might be showing the world how bad it has really gotten. Sure they probably already noticed, but when they see us failing this bad that we have to cut our interest rates so low, you know they are going to be scared. If our economy fails then so follows the world. I hope they have some real bright people working on this because Bernanke is going to kill the US economy single handily.

Fed cuts target for key interest rate to record low, pledges to use all available tools.

The Federal Reserve has cut its target for a key interest rate to the lowest level on record and pledged to use "all available tools" to combat a severe financial crisis and prolonged recession.

The central bank on Tuesday said it had reduced the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, to a range of zero to 0.25 percent. That is down from the 1 percent target rate in effect since the last meeting in October. Many analysts had expected the Fed to make a smaller cut to 0.5 percent.

The Fed's aggressive move was greeted enthusiastically by Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average rose about 350 points in late-afternoon trading.

The Fed's action and statement made clear that economic conditions have worsened since its last meeting in October.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues said they will use unconventional methods to try to contain a financial crisis that is the worst since the 1930s and a recession that is already the longest in a quarter-century. For example, the Fed last month said it planned to purchase up to $600 billion in direct debt and mortgage-backed securities issued by big financial players including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an effort to boost the availability of mortgage loans.

That move was one of a series the central bank has taken to increase its loans by hundreds of billions of dollars as a way to deal with the worst financial crisis to hit the country in more than 70 years.

The Fed on Tuesday also made clear that it intends to keep the funds rate at extremely low levels.

"The committee anticipates that weak economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for some time," the central bank's panel that sets interest rates said in a statement.

Even before the announcement of a lower target, the funds rate has been trading well below the old target of 1 percent. For November, the funds rate had averaged 0.39 percent. Analysts said it was likely to fall further with the Fed setting the new target as low as zero.

The Fed's decision was matched by a reduction in the prime lending rate, the benchmark rate for millions of business and consumer loans. Banking giant Wells Fargo and Co. said it was cutting its prime rate to 3.25 percent, down from 4 percent before the Fed action. Other banks are expected to quickly match Wells Fargo's move.

The Fed has never pushed its target for the federal funds rate as low as zero to 0.25 percent. The lowest target rate before had been 1 percent, a level seen only once before in the past half-century.

Given how low interest rates are, the central bank said it planned to use a variety of unconventional methods to flood the banking system with credit and drive interest rates lower.

"The Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth and to preserve price stability," the Fed said.

The announcement on the deployment of unconventional methods had been expected given that Bernanke and other Fed officials have sought in recent comments to let financial markets know that the central bank will not be out of ammunition to battle the economic downturn even with the funds rate at such low levels.

In its statement Tuesday, the Fed said that since its last meeting in late October, "labor market conditions have deteriorated, and the available data indicate that consumer spending, business investment and industrial production have declined. Financial markets remain quite strained and credit conditions tight."

The central bank acknowledged that it had room to battle the economic weakness because inflation pressures have "diminished appreciably" as the price of energy and other commodities has fallen sharply.

The Fed action came only hours after the government announced that consumer prices dropped by a record amount of 1.7 percent in November, reflecting a record decline in the price of gasoline and other energy products.

ct unemployment - ct department of labor

2008-12-16T12:14:00.000-08:00

ark Davis

Hartford (WTNH) - The Department of Labor is struggling to meet the demands of Connecticut residents who are out of work. And another major employer sending out pink slips today will soon add to the department's workload.

Along with all the other money troubles the state is facing, its funds for the unemployed are rapidly running out. In turn, 18,000 residents are being contacted because their 26 weeks of state unemployment has run out. And they are now eligible to apply for seven more weeks of federal coverage.

At the State Labor Department, claims have more than doubled since the same time last year to over 4,000 per week. The agency brought the number of people at their two call centers up to 60 today and are now answering the phones til 6 pm.

"More people are getting through. There's less busy signals and also, because of the extra hours at the call centers, the average wait time is now about 30 minutes versus last week," Nancy Steffens, of CT Department of Labor, said. "It was about an hour."

While News Channel 8 visited the Labor Department today, the computerized system indicated there were about 50 people waiting at any time. Chances are good it's going to be getting even more busy. The agency says filing online at their website is much, much faster.

"We are at 6.5 percent unemployment," Governor Jodi Rell said. "Our fear would kick in if it were to get much higher than that."

The manager at a Watertown plant, that makes parts for all of the auto companies, told News Channel 8 that he has furloughed all of his 250 employees from now through January because there are no orders from the auto companies to fill.

New unemployment numbers for the state come out on Thursday. The Governor says if they're any higher, the state will need help paying benefits.

"We have already asked the federal government, as part of any stimulus package, to also make sure that those states that are reaching a higher number in unemployment be allowed some leeway there and possibly some funds to help cover our balance," Governor Rell said.

Because the state knows that the Unemployment Trust Fund is running out of money, the Commissioner of the Department of Lab has ordered that the unemployment tax, paid by your employer, will nearly double starting next month from the current .9 percent to 1.4 percent.

Delayed 911 response leads to Brittany Zimmermann's death

2008-12-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

I really hope heads roll for this. When you become a 911 disptacher you become part of a very important system that can not be taken lightly in any situation. No matter what. Some jobs are like that. I hope Bittany Zimmermann's family can take solace that she is in a better place though. And hopefully they will see her again someday.

A slain 21 year old student who was being attacked by a stranger called 911 but no one came in time to her rescue, according to reports.

dispatcher who took the April 2 call from Brittany Zimmermann's phone shortly before she was murdered told investigators that she either didn't hear a scream or that "it didn't register as a scream."

The length of delay between the mishandled 911 call and when Madison police were sent to her West Doty Street apartment to find her brutally murdered haven't been made known to the public.

Investigators have however revealed in previously sealed court documents obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal that the delay time was 48 minutes.

Dane County has taken some harsh criticism from the public regarding the delay, and tough questions have been raised about whether a prompt response might have saved Zimmerman's life.

Police are still looking for her killer.

"We are working diligently on this case, have generated significant leads, and are making progress," said Joel De Spain of the Madison Police Department.

The police said they believe Zimmerman was attacked by a stranger. Her apartment door showed signs of forced entry.

Adam Walsh Murder Solved; Ottis Toole Expected to Be Identified as His Killer

2008-12-16T11:28:00.000-08:00

Well it is good that this is finally over for all the families involved. People will finally get some closure. I am sure most people already had come to the conclusion of this though.

By Carly Hart

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported today that the nearly 30 year old murder of Adam Walsh is solved. At 2:30 p.m. today, investigators are expected to finger Ottis Toole as the perpetrator in the disappearance and murder of Adam Walsh. Ottis Toole, who confessed to the murder of Adam Walsh twice and recanted his confession twice, died in 1996. The 2:30 p.m. press conference will bring closure to the family.

Adam Walsh murder was never forgotten

As a child in the 1980s, I remember the Adam Walsh case. Adam disappeared from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida in 1981 and I remember watching the made-for-tv movie, Adam (1983), where Daniel J. Travanti played John Walsh and JoBeth Willams played his wife, Reve. I don't know if my parents let me watch it because they wanted me to be afraid to ever wander away, but Adam has stuck with me ever since then. Now that I have children of my own, I can empathize with the Walsh family as I see their loss of a son with a new perspective -- not as a 10 year-old kid, but as a parent who would be devastated at the loss of a child.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported today that the nearly 30 year old murder of Adam Walsh is solved. At 2:30 p.m. today, investigators are expected to finger Ottis Toole as the perpetrator in the disappearance and murder of Adam Walsh. Ottis Toole, who confessed to the murder of Adam Walsh twice and recanted his confession twice, died in 1996. The 2:30 p.m. press conference will bring closure to the family.

Adam Walsh murder was never forgotten

As a child in the 1980s, I remember the Adam Walsh case. Adam disappeared from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida in 1981 and I remember watching the made-for-tv movie, Adam (1983), where Daniel J. Travanti played John Walsh and JoBeth Willams played his wife, Reve. I don't know if my parents let me watch it because they wanted me to be afraid to ever wander away, but Adam has stuck with me ever since then. Now that I have children of my own, I can empathize with the Walsh family as I see their loss of a son with a new perspective -- not as a 10 year-old kid, but as a parent who would be devastated at the loss of a child.

John Walsh turned his grief into child advocacy. He knows the pain of the loss of a child in a violent crime and strives to help other parents never to have to feel a similar grief. Viewers of the program will tell you that John Walsh is especially passionate about fugitives wanted for crimes against children. America's Most Wanted has had great success with assisting in the apprehension of fugitives featured on the show. As of today, 1,049 fugitives have been apprehended through America's Most Wanted's efforts and the assistance of viewers.

Every week when America tunes into America's Most Wanted hosted by John Walsh they are reminded of the murder of his son just by seeing him on the screen. For me, just seeing him on television is a stark reminder of his personal loss. Now, with the case finally coming to closure with Ottis Toole being named as the killer, I hope that when I and the other viewers tune in that we feel a sense of joy and triumph for the family now that the murder has been officially solved.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottis_Toole

Atlantis Airlines Plane en route to NY with 11 on board is missing

2008-12-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

I think it is kind of hard to misplace a plane. Especially one that is in the air. I do know though that if they did crash then odds are it will be very difficult to find the plane in the middle of the ocean. Especially if most of it sinks. Hopefully everyone on the Atlantis Airlines plan are ok, and will be found soon.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — A plane en route to New York with 11 people on board disappeared after taking off from the Dominican Republic, authorities said Tuesday.

The Atlantis Airlines plane, which was expected to make a refueling stop in the Bahamas, sent an emergency signal before disappearing from the radar 35 minutes after takeoff on about 3:30 p.m. Monday, said Jose Tomas Perez, director of the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute.

The U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies were searching in the Atlantic Ocean about 4 miles (6 kilometers) west of West Caicos island but has not found any wreckage, said Nick Ameen, a spokesman.

The plane, a multiengine Britton-Norman Islander, departed from Santiago in the Dominican Republic, he said.

Internet Explorer security problems Alert

2008-12-16T06:20:00.000-08:00

This is when I am glad that I use Safari, Firefox, and Camino. I have not used Internet Explorer in over 10 years. I never liked it and thought it was slow. Of course back then everything was slow though. I hope no one is personally affected by this though. I have always been wary of putting my personal information out on the internet.

Users of Internet Explorer, the world's most popular web browser, are at risk of having their computers hijacked because of a security flaw.

By Matthew Moore

The flaw allows criminal gangs to take control of people's computers and steal their personal information when they visit websites that have been corrupted by malicious hackers.

It is believed that as many 10,000 sites have been compromised since last week.

Microsoft said that it had detected attacks on machines using Internet Explorer 7, the most widely-used version of the browser, but that other versions are "potentially vulnerable".

"We are actively investigating the vulnerability that these attacks attempt to exploit," the firm, which also makes the Windows operating system, said in a security statement.

"We will continue to monitor the threat environment and update this advisory if this situation changes."

By last Saturday about 0.2 per cent of Internet Explorer users had already visited one of the websites designed to exploit the flaw, according a statement on the technology giant's Malware Protection blog. The flaw was first exploited last week but there has been a sharp increase in attacks in the last few days.

Given that three-quarters of people on the web use Internet Explorer, millions of people could already have been targeted.

Microsoft has published a list of technical changes that it say should protect against the threat until it can release a software update to close the loophole, although the instructions would be incomprehensible to most casual surfers.

It has also advised users to enable their firewalls and install anti-virus and anti-spyware software, but web security experts say the best guarantee of safety is to use an alternative browser such as Firefox, Safari or Opera, which can all be downloaded for free.

The websites corrupted by the hackers are mostly Chinese, and have been programmed to steal passwords for computer games which can be sold for money on the black market.

But the Internet Explorer security flaw could also be exploited by criminals seeking to steal people's bank details, private data and identities. "That's a big fear right now," said Paul Ferguson of Trend Micro security researcher, warning of "mayhem" if fraudsters succeed.

Graham Cluley, a virus expert at internet security firm Sophos, said that the “staggering” number of people could be affected by the attacks. While many of the compromised sites are pornographic, many are legitimate, mainstream web pages.

“Problems like this are found all the time but Microsoft always has a fix. What’s new about this situation is that there is no fix.

“This is a really critical and serious problem. People should make sure their anti-virus software up to date, and remember to install Microsoft’s security patch when it is released.”

But he added that switching browsers may be an over-reaction. “It’s certainly a fix and gets around this problem, but Firefox, Google Chrome and other browsers all have their own security issues.”

Obama Picks Arne Duncan for Education Post

2008-12-15T17:28:00.000-08:00

I didn't even know this was a position until I just read about it. I do think it is kinda weird though that Obama chose someone was also works in Chicago. One would think that Obama would try to stay away from Chicago right now with all the attention on it right now.

By Sam Dillon

Arne Duncan (Photo: Charles Bennett/Associated Press)

President-elect Barack Obama will name Arne Duncan, the superintendent of schools in Chicago, to be his Secretary of Education, a senior Democratic official and a second person close to the decision said.

Mr. Duncan is a Harvard graduate whose friendship with Mr. Obama began on the basketball court and flowered into frequent discussions of education policy.

He has seven years’ experience as chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school district, where he has earned a solid reputation for confronting pressing issues in public education, like how to raise teacher quality, how to transform weak schools and when to shutter those that are irredeemably failing.

Word of the selection comes as Mr. Obama’s transition team said Monday that he would make an important announcement on Tuesday morning at the Dodge Renaissance Academy, an elementary school that Mr. Duncan and Mr. Obama visited together in October 2005.

SNL's David Paterson Skit Causes a Stir

2008-12-15T14:57:00.000-08:00

It will sure be interesting to see what SNL has to say about this once they comment on it. Also what David Patterson is going to say about it too. Probably something that will make him look even better in the public eye. (No pun intended) I didn't see the SNL sketch myself, but I youtubed it just like everyone else.

Live from New York, it's time to mock the disabled!

With Sarah Palin out of the national eye, "Saturday Night Live" turned its satirical guns toward another governor, New York's David Paterson. However, this time the laughs weren't quite as hearty. It's one thing to mock a moose-hunting beauty queen, but quite another to laugh at the visually impaired.

Governor Paterson is a legally blind man who took over for the disgraced Eliot Spitzer earlier this year. SNL's Fred Armisen portrayed Paterson as a bumbling man who is completely unqualified for the position. Funny? The studio audience seemed to like the skit, but many groups are outraged and speaking out.

The National Federation of the Blind issued a statement calling the characterization "absolutely wrong" and criticized the show for playing up the stereotype that blind people are "incapable of simple tasks." Meanwhile, Governor Paterson's office issued a statement that the show should be able to "find a way to be funny without being offensive." Indeed, while comedy is in the eye of the beholder, many of the knee-slappers at Paterson's expense seemed to be, as the New York Post put it, rather "stock." Wandering aimlessly? Confused? One could argue that Mr. Magoo pulled the same gags a lot better 50 years ago.

Still, funny or not, searchers sought out the "SNL" video. Queries for "snl david paterson" and "armisen david paterson" both surged on Sunday and continue to stay hot. "SNL" has yet to release a comment in response to the outrage, but if the heat keeps up, perhaps Mr. Armisen will invite the real governor to make an appearance. Hey, it (kinda) worked for Sarah Palin...

by Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo! Buzz Log

Green Pit Viper,Dragon Millipede Discovered More than 1,000 species discovered in Mekong: WWF

2008-12-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

This is always cool to see. 1000 species discovered. Including the Green Pit Viper, Dragon Millipede, huntsman spider, and a Rat that they thought was extinct over 11 million years ago.

This undated handout picture released on December 15 by WWF Greater Mekong Programme shows a Gumprechts green pitviper

BANGKOK (AFP) – Scientists have discovered more than 1,000 species in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region in the past decade, including a spider as big as a dinner plate, the World Wildlife Fund said Monday.

A rat thought to have become extinct 11 million years ago and a cyanide-laced, shocking pink millipede were among creatures found in what the group called a "biological treasure trove".

The species were all found in the rainforests and wetlands along the Mekong River, which flows through Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.

"It doesn't get any better than this," Stuart Chapman, director of WWF's Greater Mekong Programme, was quoted as saying in a statement by the group.

"We thought discoveries of this scale were confined to the history books."

The WWF report, "First Contact in the Greater Mekong", said that "between 1997 and 2007, at least 1,068 have been officially described by science as being newly discovered species."

These included the world's largest huntsman spider, with a leg span of 30 centimetres (11.8 inches), and the "startlingly" coloured "dragon millipede", which produces the deadly compound cyanide.

Not all species were found hiding in remote jungles -- the Laotian rock rat, which the study said was thought to be extinct about 11 million years ago, was first encountered by scientists in a local food market in 2005, it said.

One species of pitviper was first noted by scientists after it was found in the rafters of a restaurant at the headquarters of Thailand's Khao Yai national park in 2001.

"This region is like what I read about as a child in the stories of Charles Darwin," said Dr Thomas Ziegler, curator at the Cologne Zoo, who was involved in the research.

"It is a great feeling being in an unexplored area and to document its biodiversity for the first time both enigmatic and beautiful," he said.

The new species highlighted in the report include 519 plants, 279 fish, 88 frogs, 88 spiders, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 15 mammals, four birds, four turtles, two salamanders and a toad -- an average of two previously undiscovered species a week for the past 10 years.

The report warned, however, that many of the species could be at risk from development, and called for a cross-border agreement between the countries in the Greater Mekong area to protect it.

miami real estate, condo vultures

2008-12-14T18:57:00.000-08:00

Looks like everyone is trying to make some money in the downturned economy. Condo Vultures are everywhere. Vultures are everywhere, but you can't blame them. If I had the money I would probably do the same thing.

Condominium units are being offered for bulk sale at a newly-built Brickell high-rise.

BY MATTHEW HAGGMAN

mhaggman@MiamiHerald.com

Want to buy a condominium on Brickell Avenue with sweeping views of Biscayne Bay and a short stroll away from a revived South Miami Avenue buzzing with new restaurants and nightlife?

You have 346 units to choose from -- and the developer wants you to buy all of them.

A newly built two-tower condo project called 1060 Brickell Avenue is putting 60 percent of its units up for sale in hopes of finding a bulk buyer.

Adam Greenberg, a Miami broker who is marketing the units, said the developers realized that selling individual units would take too long in this sluggish market.

''These developers don't want to keep the units and be a rental owner, that's not what they do,'' said Greenberg, the managing director of BayBridge Real Estate Group.

The bulk offer is another sign of growing impatience with South Florida's struggling housing market. Many condo builders are trying to unload units in a tight credit market and contracting economy -- and as thousands of new condo units hit the market.

Few bulk deals have been completed, however, despite an enormous inventory of unsold units and hordes of vulture buyers trolling for bargains.

''It's like the Wild West; the buyers have an itchy trigger finger,'' said Jay Massirman, president of Rivergate Residential, a Miami firm that acquires residential real estate. ``But when you look at the numbers and look at the market, it's hard to make a transaction work.''

The sticking point has been price: Vulture buyers want steep discounts while developers are holding out for better prices.

Lenders, meanwhile, have largely been reluctant to foreclose on developers struggling to repay loans amid slow sales. This has given more breathing room for builders hoping for better offers.

Most bulk deals, thus far, have been for townhomes and condos in suburban areas. The few bulk sales for high-rise condos have largely been internal deals. For instance, Miami builder Related Group joined with a Philadelphia investor to buy 146 of its own units at the 528-unit 50 Biscayne building in downtown Miami.

''There has been this stand-off,'' said Massirman, referring to developers selling units and bulk buyers. ``There has been nothing forcing these people to sell.''

The 576-unit 1060 Brickell, in the heart of Miami's Brickell neighborhood, was finished earlier this year. It was built by Extell Development, a New York City firm with projects in Boston and New York, including the W Hotel in Times Square.

Greenberg said he's betting he can sell the units at 1060 Brickell because the developer is willing to slash prices deeper than other builders have. Greenberg declined to give an asking price but said the builder will entertain offers in the range of the low $200s per square foot.

By comparison, when Related Group purchased its own units in bulk at 50 Biscayne the price was about $250 a square foot.

To date, downtown condos produced during Miami's housing boom have experienced a better closing rate than many had expected. Since 2003, 17,299 condos have been completed -- with 12,169 closing, according to a recent survey by condovultures.com. That is a 70 percent closing rate.

But it has been a struggle to close units in the remaining condo buildings with excess inventory.

While lenders have generally been patient in allowing builders to close units, some have grown impatient. Two weeks ago, Wachovia Bank filed papers in Miami-Dade Circuit Court to foreclose on dozens of unsold units in the Miami River condo, Wind.

Office Depot to Close 112 Stores

2008-12-12T09:08:00.000-08:00

It is a dark day when one of the biggest Office shops have to start closing their stores. Office Depot which is one of the 2 biggest Office Retailers in the country seems to be shrinking more and more everyday. As Office Depot closes more of it's stores Staples looks to take advantage of it.

Office Depot Inc. will close five of its seven stores in Massachusetts as part of a larger strategic review that will result in the closing of 112 underperforming stores in North America over the next three months.

Office Depot is an office supplies retailer with headquarters in Florida and a rival of Staples Inc. of Framingham.

When the store closings are completed, the chain will have 1,163 stores in North America, said Office Depot, which added that 40 of the store closings will be in the Northeast and Canada.

Joe Biden gets New Puppy, Beats Obama to punch for first puppy

2008-12-12T06:52:00.000-08:00

Looks like Joe Biden beat Obama to the punch to get the first puppy of the white house. It seems that Biden has chose a German Shepherd. In a time everyone is looking up goldendoodles and other fashion breeds, Biden goes with a all time classic. Now the pressure is really on Obama to pick out the next best breed. Maybe stay with the Germans and get a dachsund.

Malia and Sasha Obama apparently aren’t the only ones who were promised a puppy if they stuck it out through the presidential election.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden picked out a German shepherd pup last weekend from a breeder near his Delaware home, according to a local newspaper report.

Biden was reportedly promised the post-election dog by his wife, Jill, who would tape pictures of different dogs on the back of the seat in front of Biden on his campaign plane.

The vice president-elect picked out a month-old male German shepherd from a breeder in Chester County, Pa., according to the Daily Local News. The breeder told the paper Biden wanted a family dog that was social and obedient and said Biden's granddaughters will name him.

The puppy will be delivered to the Bidens at the vice presidential residence after the Inauguration and after the breeder trains him, the paper reports.

GM, Chrysler Face Immediate Cash Crisis As Senate Vote Fails

2008-12-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

This is crazy to me for one reason. Sure I don't think they should of given them the bailout. But I don't think they should have given the banks the bailout either. They should of let everyone fail for making the bad investments and then started up news banks that were financially viable. But then that would make a lot of foreign investors pissed off and tried to bomb us. Instead we are making this recession 10 years longer than it needs to be. But I can't understand why they would just hand trillions to the banks so they can spend it on bonuses and trips, and yet they won't give anything to the auto industry and gave a line for line statement of what they were going to do with the money.

DETROIT -(Dow Jones)- General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC face an immediate cash crisis in the aftermath of the Senate's rejection of a $14 billion emergency loan package, analysts said Thursday.

The auto makers, which said they will run out of money by year's end without a government lifeline, will struggle to make massive payments to parts suppliers due at the beginning of January absent government assistance, said Gregg Lemos Stein, a credit analyst at Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

"If anything, the automotive market has worsened since GM and Chrysler first said they may not have enough liquidity to make it into next year," Lemos Stein said. GM and Chrysler warned last month that liquidity is running dangerously low.

The U.S. auto makers are dealing with the weakest domestic sales environment in a quarter century, as well as deteriorating conditions in overseas markets that had until lately helped offset weakness at home in recent years. Sales have plunged in recent months as the economic outlook worsens and credit conditions remain tight.

Buckingham Research analyst Joseph Amaturo said failure of the loan package could force GM into bankruptcy.

In a note published earlier Thursday, Amaturo said that if the bill failed in the Senate, "GM is in a very precarious financial situation and likely files for bankruptcy by year-end."

The auto maker is trying to avoid being pushed into filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a move it contends will eventually lead to liquidation because consumers won't buy vehicles from a bankrupt auto maker.

GM, which burned through $6.9 billion in cash in the third quarter, said late Thursday that it will assess its options to ensure it remains viable. The company is likely to renew its request to the Bush Administration to tap the $ 700 billion in funds made available to rescue the financial system or approach the federal reserve, according to several sources familiar with loan negotiations.

The auto makers and supporters of the bill to provide emergency aid to the manufacturers have argued that failure to provide aid could have disastrous implications, leading to the collapse not only of the auto makers but also the massive supply chain and dealers.

Lemos Stein said S&P is "very concerned about the spillover effects on suppliers," adding, "in a worst case, Ford may have to utilize its liquidity to keep its supply base intact."

Ford Motor Co. (F) didn't ask for an immediate cash infusion but is requesting access to a credit line should the environment deteriorate further. Ford believes a failure of GM or Chrysler would ricochet through the U.S. auto industry and force a bankruptcy at one of both of the other auto makers.

Ford declined comment on the result of Thursday's Senate vote, while Chrysler representatives weren't immediately available for comment.

Shares of the auto makers and most suppliers plunged in New York trading Thursday as pessimism grew about the outlook for bill in the Senate.

-By Sharon Terlep, Dow Jones Newswires; (248) 204-5532; sharon.terlep@ dowjones.com

-By Stephen Wisnefski, Dow Jones Newswires; (312) 750 4142; stephen.wisnefski@ dowjones.com

Macaulay Culkin's sister, Dakota, killed by car

2008-12-11T13:18:00.000-08:00

My heart and prayers go out to the Culkin's. But it goes out for anybody who has had this tragic event happen in their family.

"Home Alone" child star Macaulay Culkin's sister died Wednesday after being struck by a car.

According to TMZ, law enforcement sources say that Dakota Culkin was walking on Los Angeles' Westside on Tuesday when she stepped off a curb and was struck by a car.

Macaulay's rep says: "We can officially confirm that the victim is Dakota Culkin. This is a terrible tragic accident. We have no further comment at this time."

The 29-year-old Culkin was taken to the UCLA Medical Center, where she died of her injuries Wednesday afternoon.

So far, no arrests have been made in the case, which is under investigation by the LAPD.

I have no words. This is terrible, terrible news.

And I hate to bring this up, but this is the third actor who has lost a family member violently in recent weeks.

First, Jennifer Hudson's brother, mother and nephew; then Mark Ruffalo's brother, Scott; now McCauley Culkin's sister, Dakota.

Photo: Macaulay Culkin. Credit: WireImage

Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Illinois, on Lockdown

2008-12-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

Hopefully everything it OK at the High School. I have been in lockdown a few times for bomb threat when I was in High School back in the day.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Illinois, has been placed on lockdown.

Aurora is just about an hour away from Chicago and a couple of hours from me since I live in Peoria, Illinois.

The article, "Aurora high school on lockdown, police checking rooms," goes on to say that the situation has been posted on the school's website and parents are being advised by phone and e-mail.

So far the action has been evaluated as proactive indicating that all students at

Waubonsie Valley High School

are safe subject to the police and administration going room to room.

Originally it was reported that someone was shot at but that rumor has been deemed false. In fact, at this time the rumor of a firearm is unsubstantiated but, of course, must be checked out.

The Freshman Building at

Waubonsie Valley High School

has been cleared but the main school remains on lockdown. The police want to verify that there is no one being held hostage or hiding in the school.

This type of fear has emanated from the few decades of school violence often ending in mass killings such as Columbine and Platte High school to name just a couple.

I was surprised to find out that this is considered an act of terrorism.

The minds of young people and others don't always mesh.

Back in 1970 there were a lot of confrontations between the National Guard and everybody from students to radicals who wanted to show their dissatisfaction with the government.

One such incident was Kent State University. Students were placing flowers in the barrels of the soldier's guns and putting them in a corner making them feel unsafe. Ultimately they began random firing killing four students who had nothing to do with anything.

The National Guard was heavily criticized but it should be remembered many of these soldiers were just kids as well and it is really unfair to break the law and essentially "tease the dog" and then complain when you get bit.

I recall when my son's high school went on lockdown. Someone thought they saw a gun. They did but it was a wooden model. Still, the kid was expelled. That is how serious school systems are taking the situation these days.

While many people would disagree with me, I am all for weapons checks at school doors. It is better to be safe than sorry.

By Gary Davis

References:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1323596,waubonsie-valley-high-school-lockdown-121008.article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shootings

FocusGroups.com - Focus Groups

2008-12-10T07:48:00.000-08:00

I haven't tried to do this myself, but Focusgroups.com might be able to find a focus group and get you some extra money in your pocket. I tried doing surveys, but they never amounted to anything.

Need a job? Get paid to be in a focus group! FocusGroups.com lists Focus Groups state by State. FocusGroups.com gives you a selection of Focus Groups reduced city by city that hire people like you on a regular basis.

And the listings are extensive.

For example in Los Angeles, the list is reduced to sections of Los Angeles and each section for multiple listings.

On the web: focusgroups.com

Exercise and pre-eclampsia: Are pregnant women at risk?

2008-12-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

I like most people are looking up eclampsia because of watching House. Well this is what I found out about eclampsia.

Today’s conventional wisdom is that healthy pregnant women can benefit from exercise. In fact, the new exercise guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend that expectant mothers should try to exercise at a moderate intensity for at least two and a half hours throughout the week, and after having their baby. Women who already exercise and are active can maintain that during and after pregnancy, as long as they stay healthy and check in with their doctor to see if their regimen needs tweaking.

But a new study suggests that high levels of activity may increase the risk of pre-eclampsia, a condition affecting pregnant women that’s marked by high blood pressure and protein in the urine and can ultimately cause death to mother or baby. It can also cause symptoms such as headaches, swelling and weight gain. The study looked at the leisure-time physical activity of 85,139 pregnant women in Denmark, assessing the time spent exercising, what type of exercises the women did, and at what intensity.

Among the findings, women who did moderate-level activities for long durations had an elevated risk of severe pre-eclampsia, but there was no correlation between low levels of vigorous activity only (from one to 269 minutes per week) and having the condition.

Severe pre-eclampsia risk was also higher for women whose vigorous activities lasted more than 270 minutes per week, compared with women who did no vigorous activity.

Exercise intensity levels were measured using metabolic equivalents, or the ratio of someone’s working metabolic rate compared with their resting metabolic rate. Researchers noticed a greater severe pre-eclampsia risk among women who came in at more than 40 Metabolic Equivalent Task hours per week, but saw a reduced risk among those in the range of 30 to 40 MET hours per week. Researchers estimated that about 40 MET hours per week was the equivalent of one hour of bicycling or 50 minutes of jogging per day. In addition, specific exercises were examined, with high levels of bicycling or brisk walking — more than 270 minutes per week — linked with a greater risk of severe pre-eclampsia.

In the study, published online this month in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, researchers wrote, "We were not able to confirm that increasing leisure time physical activity in early pregnancy protects against pre-eclampsia. In fact, our data even suggest that leisure time physical activity exceeding 270 minutes/week in first trimester may increase the risk of severe pre-eclampsia."

--Jeannine Stein

Photo credit: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times

Activists take polar bear plunge into icy Walden Pond

2008-12-09T18:31:00.001-08:00

I remember when I was in scouts they had tthis things where you had to get up at 5 in the morning and go swimming in the cold. You got some kind of Polar Bear Merit badge or something like that. I never did it becuase I watch Seinfeld and saw what could do to you. No thank you.

CONCORD, Mass. -- Dozens of brave New Englanders took the polar bear plunge on Saturday to raise awareness on global climate change.

Activists dove into the icy Walden Pond shouting demands for action to stop the advance of global warming.

Some of the participants were even dressed as polar bears.

The thermometer on site read 38 degrees and the water was 45 degrees.

The polar bear plunge was just one of hundreds of similar events held around the world as part of "Global Day of Climate Action."

Rod Blagojevich, Illinois Governor Arrested

2008-12-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday on charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder.

Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democratic governor was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.

Otherwise, Blagojevich considered appointing himself. The affidavit said that as late as Nov. 3, he told his deputy governor that if "they're not going to offer me anything of value I might as well take it."

"I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain," Blagojevich allegedly said later that day, according to the affidavit, which also quoted him as saying in a remark punctuated by profanity that the seat was "a valuable thing — you just don't give it away for nothing."

The affidavit said Blagojevich also discussed getting a substantial salary for himself at a nonprofit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.

It said Blagojevich also talked about getting his wife placed on corporate boards where she might get $150,000 a year in director's fees.

He also allegedly discussed getting campaign funds for himself or possibly a post in the president's cabinet or an ambassadorship once he left the governor's office. He noted becoming a U.S. senator might remake his image for a possible presidential run in 2016, according to the affidavit. And he allegedly said a Senate seat would also provide him with corporate contacts if he needed a job and present an opportunity for his wife to work as a lobbyist.

"I want to make money," the affidavit quotes him as saying in one conversation.

The affidavit said Blagojevich expressed frustration at being "stuck" as governor and that he would have access to greater resources if he were indicted while in the U.S. Senate than while sitting as governor.

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement that "the breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering."

"They allege that Blagojevich put a for sale sign on the naming of a United States senator," Fitzgerald said."

Messages left for Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero and at the governor's press office were not immediately returned Tuesday morning.

Among those being considered for the Senate post include U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and Jesse Jackson Jr.

The affidavit outlined a Nov. 10 call between Blagojevich, his wife, his chief of staff — John Harris, who also was arrested Tuesday — and a group of advisers in which Harris allegedly suggested working out an agreement with the Service Employees International Union.

Under the plan, Blagojevich would appoint a new senator who would be helpful to the president-elect and in turn get a job as head of Change to Win, a group formed by the union. The union would get an unspecified favor from Obama later.

Nothing in the court papers suggested Obama had any part in the discussion. In fact, Blagojevich allegedly said in the same conversation that Obama most likely would not appoint him as secretary of health and human services or to an ambassadorship because of the negative publicity that has surrounded the governor for three years.

One day later, according to the affidavit, Blagojevich allegedly told an associate he knew Obama wanted a specific Senate candidate but "they're not going to give me anything except appreciation." He finished the remark with an expletive.

Blagojevich also was charged with using his authority as governor in an attempt to squeeze out campaign contributions.

Corruption in the Blagojevich administration has been the focus of a federal investigation involving an alleged $7 million scheme aimed at squeezing kickbacks out of companies seeking business from the state. Federal prosecutors have acknowledged they're also investigating "serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud" under Blagojevich, who has a $177,412 salary, though it's unclear whether he accepts the total.

Political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko who raised money for the campaigns of both Blagojevich and Obama is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of fraud and other charges. Blagojevich's chief fundraiser, Christopher G. Kelly, is due to stand trial early next year on charges of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.

According to Tuesday's complaint, Blagojevich schemed with Rezko, millionaire-fundraiser turned federal witness Stuart Levine and others to get financial benefits for himself and his campaign committee.

Federal prosecutors said Blagojevich and the chairman of his campaign committee have been speeding up corrupt fundraising activities in the last month to get as much money as possible before the end of the year when a new law would curtail his ability to raise contributions from companies with state contracts worth more than $50,000.

According to the affidavit, agents learned Blagojevich was seeking $2.5 million in campaign contributions by the end of the year, with a large part allegedly to come from companies and individuals who have gotten state contracts or appointments.

The affidavit also outlines Blagojevich conversations related to Tribune Co., which has been hoping to sell Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs which the publishing giant also owns.

Blagojevich was quoted in court papers as telling Harris in a profanity laced Nov. 4 conversation that his recommendation to Tribune executives was to fire the editorial writers "and get us some editorial support."

Harris is quoted as telling the governor Nov. 11 that an unnamed Tribune Owner, presumably CEO Sam Zell, "got the message and is very sensitive to the issue."

The affidavit said Harris quoted a Tribune financial adviser as saying cuts were coming at the newspaper and "reading between the lines he's going after that section," apparently meaning editorial writers. Blagojevich is quoted as saying: "Oh, that's fantastic."

"Wow," Blagojevich allegedly replied. "Keep our fingers crossed. You're the man. Good job, John."

Harris allegedly told Blagojevich in his conversation with the financial adviser he had singled out deputy editorial page editor John McCormick as "somebody who was the most biased and unfair."

After hearing that, Blagojevich allegedly stressed to the head of a Chicago sports consulting firm that it was important to provide state aid for a Wrigley Field sale.

Blagojevich took the chief executive's office in 2003 as a reformer promising to clean up former Gov. George Ryan's mess.

Ryan, a Republican, is serving a 6-year prison sentence after being convicted on racketeering and fraud charges. A decade-long investigation began with the sale of driver's licenses for bribes and led to the conviction of dozens of people who worked for Ryan when he was secretary of state and governor.

FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said federal agents arrested the governor and Harris simultaneously at their homes at 6:15 a.m. and took them to the Chicago FBI headquarters.

He did not have any details about Blagojevich's arrest, only that he was cooperative with federal agents.

"It was a very calm setting," he said.

The governor was to appear later Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan to answer the charges. The time was not immediately set.

___

Associated Press Writer Don Babwin contributed to this report.

'Hero Dog' Pulls Injured Friend From Oncoming Traffic

2008-12-09T06:12:00.000-08:00

You have to admit this is very sweet. I can't believe no one would pull over to help especially after seeing another dog trying to help. I have stopped many times myself when I see animals hurt and try and help them or call the proper people to take care of them. Hopefully this little hero dog will be inspiration for everyone else to stop and help things less forunate than themselves.

Footage from a traffic camera overlooking a busy freeway in Santiago, Chile captured a dog performing a heroic act — pulling an injured friend from oncoming traffic.

The video, from Azteca America Colorado, shows an injured dog lying in the middle of a freeway after being hit by a car, while a rescue dog dodges traffic to run to its side. The rescue dog then drags the severely injured canine across lanes of traffic as cars swerve around it.

No motorists stopped to help either dog, but a highway crew arrives at the end of the video.

The translation of the announcer is as follows:

"These images seen from the surveillance cameras show a very common situation with our overpopulated highways. It is normal for us to see dogs run over. In the video, we can see this dog fighting for his life because he was run over by the vehicle.

"What is very touching is to see the very heroic actions of this other dog who is trying to pull him to the side of the highway. We are going to keep seeing things like this until we find a solution to the dogs living on the streets."

Paula Abdul selling ’Idol’ gifts on HSN

2008-12-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Wow to me this is anything Paula Abdul can do to make a quick buck. But hey that's just me. She sees that American Idol is about to start up again and she has been in the news lately. Well this would be a great time right before Christmas to come out with a new Line. We shall see how it goes with Sales.

By Associated Press
Monday, December 8, 2008

NEW YORK — They might not go home with a recording contract, but Paula Abdul doesn’t let any "American Idol" contestant leave empty-handed. She designs and distributes each season jewelry for the aspiring singers as a keepsake of their experience.

Beginning this month, Abdul’s fans will be able to buy similar mementos from HSN.

"I pretty much wear my jewelry all the time now, but I end up giving it away," she says. "I’ll take it off my wrist or neck and give it to someone who likes it."

Abdul has made jewelry since the first season of "Idol" in 2002.

Once she saw what the contestants had do endure from harsh critic Simon Cowell, she wanted to do something nice for them, she says. "I wanted something the kids could touch and feel to remind themselves that their talent got them here."

She previously sold a limited jewelry collection on QVC. The new HSN Forever Your Girl line, which debuts Saturday, also includes handbags and other accessories, with a price range of $29-$200.

Among her newest pieces is a beaded leather cuff bracelet that will go to the female participants in the new season inscribed with a message to "reach for the stars."

Abdul says she’s looking forward to welcoming her old friend and new judge Kara DioGuardi to "Idol" when the top-rated Fox show returns Jan. 13. "Hopefully she’ll give Simon hell," Abdul says.

The singer-dancer-choreographer’s other plans for 2009 include her first album of new material in over a decade and a new reality TV special for MTV called "Rah! Paula Abdul’s Cheerleading Bowl."

Media taking mug shots -- foreign, familiar -- to bank

2008-12-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

Well this kinda sucks. I know I wouldn't want my mugshot up for everybody to see if I got arrested. I would think some of these people would be able to sue, but then again it might not be a damn thing they can do about it since the got arrested and got Mug shoted. Celebrity Mug Shots yeah those are great.

(CNN) -- Newspaper, magazines, Web sites and a few book publishers are tapping into a curious American fascination: mug shots.

Publications like Local MugSHOTS run nothing but photos of recent arrestees in a community.

You don't have to commit a violent crime; you don't have to be convicted; you don't even have to be a celebrity (though for some publications, it helps).

Just get arrested -- no charge is too small -- and your mug could grace the pages of a local magazine or Web site.

But why are we drawn to these unbecoming images of our fellow residents? Are Americans simply voyeurs? Or in their eternal vigilance, do Americans seek to learn whether their neighbors are pederasts, thieves, drunk drivers or loiterers?

John Watson, associate professor of journalism at American University in Washington, said, "We like being frightened without being in actual peril."

One needs look no further than the existence of horror flicks to see the phenomenon in action, he said, and the fact that mug shots are of real people make them more appealing than werewolves and masked men with chainsaws.

"These are pictures of monsters who actually exist, and we can look at them from the safety of wherever we are, and they disappear when we close the book," said Watson, an expert on journalism ethics.

Celebrity mug shots have a different allure in that they feed off human schadenfreude; they allow us to say, "Well, this starlet isn't so rich and glamorous now, is she?" See Paris Hilton's, Frank Sinatra's mug shots »

Mug shots of strangers have a raw entertainment value. Americans seem to be titillated by images of arrestees, and several media outlets are capitalizing on it.

Online newspapers such as Newsday and the Palm Beach Post run sections of nothing but mug shots of people arrested the night before. Other Web sites, such as mugshots.com, intermingle celebrity and historical mug shots with those of average Joes and Janes. There are also numerous books -- "Least Wanted" and "Booked," among them -- dealing in mug shots, both famous and layperson.

Though most newspaper editors contacted for this story declined to comment, Tim Burke, the Palm Beach Post's deputy managing editor, explained the Post's mug shot feature was "hugely popular" among readers, attracting several thousand clicks a day.

"It's just another way of getting readers online," he said.

Watson said mug shots make good newspaper fodder for three reasons: They are generally cheap or free to obtain, readers enjoy them, and they're "legally safe" to publish, meaning you can't be sued for printing what is essentially a government document.

"There's low risk and a high level of consumer salability," said Watson, who also holds a law degree.

Max Cannon, publisher of Local MugSHOTS, knows this firsthand. His publication is one of many weekly magazines that provide community roundups of recent arrestees.

Like other publications -- see Jail, Cellmates, Busted and Gotch-ya! -- the Clearwater, Florida-based Local MugSHOTS sells for $1 and provides little editorial content outside photographs, names and charges.

Cannon said the idea came to him about eight years ago. He was publishing a free magazine called "Profiles" that he distributed to doctors' offices and restaurants in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It was a "waiting room publication," he said, containing jokes, riddles, odd factoids and some Rutherford County mug shots.

After hearing that mug shots were also popular in the local Daily News Journal, Cannon had an idea.

"We put in more and more mug shots and less and less jokes," he said. "We expanded the pages and charged $1 for it. We distributed it through convenience stores."

Now, Local MugShots has a circulation of about 250,000 across nine states. Cannon even uses filler pages -- of celebrity mug shots, famous prisons, women on death row -- to accompany the mug shots from the targeted regions, which are generally low- to middle-income neighborhoods in metropolitan areas.

"The publication seems to sell best where the crime takes place," Cannon said.

Cannon also includes photos of fugitives and sex offenders, which he said provides a public service. A reader in Tennessee once recognized a local sex offender as her child's softball coach, and this year police in Leon County, Florida, apprehended a man accused of robbing a Wal-Mart after a reader recognized him from Local MugSHOTS, Cannon said.

But what about mug shots of people who have already been arrested? Is there a public service in publishing those?

Some publications, such as Local MugSHOTS, offer only names and charges. The Palm Beach Post adds the date and time of the arrest. Newsday provides a few paragraphs of details regarding the incident.

Watson said that unless publications give readers details, like Newsday does, any claim to be providing a public service is tenuous.

"Here's a bad guy. Is that a public service? Maybe if you look at it with a very jaundiced eye," he said. "If you were really doing a public service, you'd point out specifics."

An example is public lewdness. In some cities, Watson said, you could be arrested for public lewdness for urinating on a telephone pole.

However, if someone's photo appeared in a local publication with the only detail being that the charge was public lewdness, the reader is left to wonder whether "you're exposing yourself to children or you got drunk and are taking a leak in an alley."

Ken Deffenbacher, chairman of the psychology department at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, has done studies on the effects mug shots have on witnesses to crimes.

In the case of newspapers and magazines publishing mug shots, there is little threat of miscarriage of justice unless there is a witness who did not come forward at the time of the crime and whose memory may be tainted by seeing the mug shots, he said, conceding the possibility was remote.

He otherwise likened mug shot audiences to people who comb through obituaries or wedding and divorce announcements, either out of curiosity or to search for neighbors or long-lost pals.

"I just really don't know why people find it fascinating," Deffenbacher said. "If the main reason is voyeurism, it's as American as apple pie, I guess."

Christopher McCuin dies in jail

2008-12-08T06:19:00.000-08:00

I don't think christopher mccuin will really be missed by anybody. This sucks though for all the families involved and I feel for them. I can't believe anybody would be able to eat somebody though. I know people believe in cannibalism, but I don't get it.

TYLER, Texas — A Tyler man who was accused of the mutilation death of his girlfriend earlier this year is dead.

Smith County Justice of the Peace James Meredith said he pronounced Christopher McCuin dead Sunday afternoon at East Texas Medical Center. Sheriff's officials said McCuin had been found unresponsive in his Smith County jail cell, Tyler television station KLTV reported.

Meredith said the death didn't appear to be from foul play. He said an autopsy is planned.

McCuin, 26, was charged with capital murder in January in the death of 21-year-old Jana Shearer. Police said they found an ear boiling in a pot on a stovetop at the crime scene, and a hunk of flesh on a plate and impaled on a fork at the kitchen table. Authorities say it was unclear whether McCuin consumed any part of the woman's body.

Mattel Wins Bar to Sales of Some MGA Bratz Dolls

2008-12-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

By Edvard Pettersson and Heather Burke

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Mattel Inc., the world’s biggest toymaker, whose products include the Barbie doll, won a court order banning MGA Entertainment Inc. from making and selling Bratz dolls that were found to infringe Mattel copyrights.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson in Riverside, California, yesterday granted Mattel’s request to stop MGA from making most of its multiethnic fashion dolls that have contributed to a drop in Barbie sales since being first sold in 2001. A jury earlier found that a Mattel designer came up with the Bratz name and characters and secretly took the idea to MGA.

“Mattel has established its exclusive rights to the Bratz drawings, and the court has found that hundreds of the MGA parties’ products, including all the currently available core female fashion dolls Mattel was able to locate in the marketplace, infringe those rights,” Larson said in his ruling.

The judge also granted Mattel’s request to order MGA not to use the name “Bratz.” El Segundo, California-based Mattel asked for an injunction against MGA after a two-phase trial.

The jury found that ex-Barbie designer Carter Bryant came up with the Bratz idea and made most of the original sketches for it while he was still at Mattel. It awarded Mattel $100 million in damages, 5 percent of the $2 billion the toymaker sought.

MGA, based in Van Nuys, California, said in a statement today that Larson’s injunction was too broad and inconsistent with “the limited jury verdict.” It said it will appeal.

Bratz Sales

Closely held MGA said in court papers that a ban on Bratz sales would be “lethal” for the company. Bratz sales through June were $3.1 billion, according to evidence at the trial. MGA said its Bratz profit was $405.4 million, while Mattel claimed it was as much as $777.9 million.

“We will seek to stay enforcement of this order until our appeal is resolved so we can maintain the over 1,500 people that MGA employs, and continue to give our consumers a product they desire,” MGA Chief Executive Officer Isaac Larian said in the statement.

Larson said his order won’t go into effect until after he has ruled on both sides’ post-trial motions. A hearing on those motions is set for Feb. 11.

“It could be quite a period of time before there is actual enforcement of the injunction,” Lawrence Hadley, a copyright lawyer with Hennigan Bennett & Dorman in Los Angeles, said yesterday in a phone interview.

‘Mattel’s Rights’

MGA may have a heavy burden trying to overturn the infringement ruling on appeal because appellate courts are reluctant to second-guess a jury’s and court’s factual findings, without clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, Hadley said.

“We’re extremely pleased that the court granted Mattel’s motion for an injunction and ordered MGA to stop selling Bratz products that infringe on Mattel’s rights,” Robert A. Eckert, Mattel’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. The ruling “underscores what Mattel has said all along -- that MGA should not be allowed to profit from its wrongdoing,” he said.

Mattel argued that all Bratz dolls infringe its copyright because they use the same “sculpt” based on Bryant’s drawings. Bryant settled with Mattel weeks before the start of the trial in May. The terms weren’t disclosed.

MGA claimed that the jury found that only the first generation of Bratz dolls, which are no longer in production, infringed Mattel’s copyright. MGA pointed to a note the jury sent to the judge during deliberations asking whether they could find that only the first Bratz dolls infringed Mattel’s copyrights.

Doll Exemptions

In a separate order specifying which dolls MGA won’t be allowed to sell, Larson made exceptions for dolls he identified as “Cloe’s younger sister,” “the younger version of Yasmin,” and “the younger Alicia,” if they are packaged separately from infringing dolls. The judge made further exceptions for dolls he identified only by exhibit number.

Getting Bratz off the shelves might not help Mattel’s Barbie much even though MGA’s doll cut into market share in the past. Sales of both slid this year in the face of new competitors including Jakks Pacific Inc.’s Hannah Montana dolls and Mattel’s own High School Musical products, according to Sean McGowan, a Needham & Co. analyst in New York who rates Mattel a “strong buy.”

“Mattel still has to make dolls kids want,” McGowan said in a phone interview. “It’s not just a matter of getting rid of your competitors.”

Barbie Sales

Mattel rose 67 cents, or 5 percent, to $13.87 at 10:24 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Shares fell 34 percent in the year ending yesterday.

Barbie remained the top girls’ toy this year, the National Retail Federation said Nov. 19. Hannah Montana overtook Bratz as the No. 2 girls’ toy, with Bratz dropping to fourth place, according to the group’s 2008 Top Toys survey conducted by BIGresearch. The survey polled 8,758 consumers from Nov. 5 to Nov. 11.

Larian said last month that MGA cut 70 jobs because of “high legal fees” incurred in the suit.

Mattel announced last month it would cut about 1,000 jobs, or 3 percent of its workforce. The toymaker has incurred $44 million in incremental legal costs this year through September, about two-thirds of it related to the MGA case, Mattel spokeswoman Lisa Marie Bongiovanni wrote Nov. 4 in an e-mail.

“Maybe what comes out of this is a more fruitful settlement discussion,” McGowan said. “It might be in both parties’ interest to come to a settlement. Both companies would be incurring substantial legal bills fighting the fight that doesn’t seem to end.”

The case is Bryant v. Mattel, 04-09049, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Riverside).

fluidnow.com florida unemployment

2008-12-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

Well it looks like there are problems all around the country right now with dealing with unemployment. The place where I work is actually still hiring, but it is all temp work and I have a feeling they will be laying off within a few months anyways. My supervisor thinks they are crazy for trying to expand right now.

Since October, a handful of businesses have either closed or announced temporary layoffs including Oceaneering, Century Boat, Circuit City, Stock Building Supply, Trane, Berg Steel Pipe and Linen n' Things.

When companies do this the workers usually head to the Workforce Center in Panama City.

Sue Senkle, Workforce Center Rep., said, "We have seen increased foot traffic here at the work force center, but we have been prepared. We quite often are told and try to get the numbers so that we can be prepared with unemployment booklets and go out to the employers and prepare people for the temporary layoffs that have occurred."

If you're having trouble finding a job, Senkle says don't get discouraged.

"We do have open positions in our area. There is currently about 140 positions on our website, and if they come here to our office, register with us, we can let them know where those openings are."

What about unemployment compensation? How do you get it? Depending on your work history, you may be eligible for $275 a week for a maximum of 39 weeks.

There are two ways you can apply. First, you can call 1-800-204-2418 and apply over the phone.

Second, you can do it online at www.fluidnow.com. That takes you to Florida's unemployment compensation page. Scroll down to "file an unemployment claim (initial claim)," click on the first link to the application, and follow the steps.

The Workforce Center is located in the Mariner Plaza on 231 in Panama City. It's open from 8 to 5, Monday through Friday.

Gunfire follows witnesses fleeing violence in Mumbai

2008-11-26T17:39:00.000-08:00

There always has to be something going on I have noticed around the world. It is a big world so it makes sense, but at the same time it is a small world too.

Manuela Testolini and her colleagues had just sat down to dinner at the Oberoi hotel restaurant in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday when the sound of gunfire erupted outside.

Manuela Testolini was in Mumbai on business when a series of brazen attacks broke out.

At first, they didn't know what it was. Then, one of Testolini's colleagues saw a man get shot to death outside the restaurant's front door, and everyone started to run.

"We left everything behind, including purses and phones," Testolini told CNN's Miles O'Brien. "There was a lot of panic."

Testolini said gunfire followed her as she and dozens more fled through the kitchen and down to the ballroom, where they found temporary refuge from the gunfire and grenades raining outside.

Testolini, a Canadian in Mumbai for business, was at the center of a brazen series of coordinated attacks in southern Mumbai that rocked the city overnight Wednesday.

Gunmen rampaged through a series of targets in the commercial capital of India, killing indiscriminately and taking hostages at two luxury hotels.

Testolini said she and 200 others waited in the dark ballroom for several hours, listening to the intensifying sounds of gunfire and grenades. Eventually, the hotel staff began evacuating guests 10 at a time, women and children first, to the street.

For a moment, she thought she was safe. But then, the gunfire returned.

"They were pursing us, and we ran, and we could hear them shooting at us," said Testolini, the ex-wife of music icon Prince and founder of In A Perfect World children's foundation.

Testolini and her colleagues eventually found shelter in an undisclosed location, where they are keeping up with the news on their BlackBerrys, waiting for signs that it's safe to move.

"We are far enough away to feel safe but close enough to feel what's going on," said Testolini, who was scheduled to leave Mumbai on Thursday afternoon. "We'll lay low till at least the daylight."

There's no telling where Testolini would be now had she been in her room at the Taj Mahal Hotel, where gunmen are holding hostages on multiple floors.

Help number

The State Department has established a Consular Call Center for Americans concerned about family or friends visiting or living in Mumbai, India. The number is 888-407-4747.

One witness told local reporters that gunmen stormed the lobby, demanding to know who had U.S. or British passports, and took about 15 people hostage.

Yasmin Wong, a CNN employee who was staying in the Taj, said she hid under her bed for several hours after she was awoken by gunfire.

Wong said she received a phone call from the hotel telling her to turn her light off, put a wet towel by the door and stay in her room until she was told otherwise.

She complied, but then she went to her window and saw smoke and debris.

"I saw a guy outside the window above me who had smashed the window and was hanging out," Wong said. "At that point, authorities told us to run out of the hotel."

Wong said she passed dead bodies in the hotel's halls as she searched for an exit, finally leaving through the pool entrance.

"The main thing I thought was, was it going to end? And it just never ended," Wong said.

Floating tool bag spotted in night sky

2008-11-26T17:35:00.000-08:00

So now we have to watch for a Floating Tool bag to come down and hit me in the head. They say if you drop a dime from the empire state building that it becomes a missile. So what is going to happen when a tool bag is dropped on us from space?

How did we miss this earlier! The floating tool bag, the set of tools lost by Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper during a spacewalk to repair a part of the international space station last week has been spotted in the night sky over Ontario, Canada.

Kevin Fetter video taped the bag through a high-powered telescope, and naturally the footage has made its way online.

NASA told reporters that they’d like to retrieve the bag, but are mostly concerned at the moment that it might end up slamming into one of the solar panels on the international space station.

Unfortunately there has been no sign of the missing spider yet.

Footage as follows. It’s not terribly exciting, but we are looking at a tool bag in the sky, which is somewhat amazing in itself.

Forty Years Old Kimberly Arigot Arressted For Sending Images To Teens

2008-11-25T16:43:00.001-08:00

Authorities report that Kimberly Arigot, a forty years old woman from Davis county is arrested for sending inappropriate images to teenage boys between 1 and 17 years old

Kimberly Arigot has used her cell phone to send the images. She has been taken to custody by the Syracuse police officers.

According to KSL.com "officers say Kimberly Arigot sent inappropriate text and picture messages to boys ages 15 to 17. When police investigated, they found out she was also having sex with them."

Kimberly Arigot has been booked into jail. The news Newsradio 102.7 FM/ 1160 AM and KSL.com will feature more information on the case of Kimberly Arigot tomorrow morning.

In a separate report from KSL the news radio reports that according to investigators things between Kimberly Arigot and the teenage boys escalated into sexual encounters in multiple places, including Arigot's own home. Syracuse investigators believe those relationships had been going on for a good part of the year.

According to Transworld News Kimberly Arigot was arrested and has reportedly confessed to sending the pictures and having sex with the teens. Arigot was released from jail after posting bail.

Presently Kimberly Arigot faces felony charges of unlawful sex and unlawful contact with minors as well as providing alcohol to underage students.

The accompanying image of Kimberly Arigot is from the KSL News radio report.

Student maura murray wrecks car on snowy road, disappears

2008-11-25T16:41:00.001-08:00

By Rupa Mikkilineni
Nancy Grace Producer
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Every weekend for more than four years, Fred Murray has walked the road where his daughter, Maura, vanished. Family, friends and volunteers help him look in the woods and mountains near Haverhill, New Hampshire, for clues to what happened to her.
Maura Murray, 21, disappeared while driving in the New Hampshire woods on a snowy night in 2004.

Maura Murray, 21, disappeared while driving in the New Hampshire woods on a snowy night in 2004.

Maura Murray, a 21-year-old nursing student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, disappeared on a cold and snowy night in February 2004. She was last known to be driving from Massachusetts through New Hampshire. It is still unclear where she was heading in her black 1996 Saturn.

The car was found abandoned, its front end crashed against a tree. It apparently had skidded off a road at a sharp curve.

Shortly after the accident, a passing bus driver stopped and asked Murray if she needed help. She said no.

Ten minutes later, police arrived. Inside the crumpled Saturn, they found some of Murray's belongings -- school books, running gear, snack foods and alcohol -- police won't say what kind. But Murray was gone, along with her car keys and a backpack she always carried.

There was nothing to hint she'd be motivated to run away, according to her fiancé, William Rausch, and her father, Fred Murray. Video Watch why this cold case is a true mystery »

Maura Murray had just gotten engaged to Rausch, her college sweetheart and an Army lieutenant stationed in Oklahoma. They planned to marry after she graduated from nursing school in June 2005. She'd found a summer nursing job in Oklahoma. She had everything to look forward to.
Missing student
Nancy Grace looks at the Maura Murray case
8 & 10 PM
see full schedule »

"She was in good spirits and had no worries or reason to run away from her life," Fred Murray said.

Investigators initially operated under the theory that the dean's list student was troubled and had decided to escape from the demands of her life for a while. As a result, they did not immediately begin to look for her.

The search did not begin until 39 hours after her crashed car was found. When it finally got under way, helicopters, search dogs and ground teams covered the area near where Murray's car was found.

The dogs picked up her scent for about 100 yards, leading investigators along the road to an area between two homes. There, the dogs lost the trail.

Murray's credit cards and cell phone have not registered any activity since the night she disappeared, February 9, 2004.

Tom Shamshak, a private investigator hired by the Murray family to continue the search, said police and volunteers looked for her for two days.

"No footprints were even found in the snow," he said. "Luckily there hadn't been any fresh snowfall in those two days."

Shamshak has concluded that only two scenarios could explain what happened to Murray. Either she was picked up by someone driving on the road, or she walked to a nearby house to ask for help.

Police say they did not treat Murray's case as an abduction because they saw no signs of a struggle at the scene.

Before she left campus, police learned, Murray had e-mailed her professors and informed them she'd be absent for a few days because of a death in the family. Murray's family and friends said no one in the family had died.

Police also noted that Murray had enough food and other items in her car to suggest she might be taking a short getaway vacation.
advertisement

Murray is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, 120 pounds, with brown hair and blue-green eyes. She was last seen wearing a dark coat and jeans and carrying a black backpack and Samsung cell phone.

A $40,000 reward is being offered for any information leading to her whereabouts or the arrest of the person responsible for her disappearance. The tip line is 603-271-2663, New Hampshire State Police.

Circuit City Black Friday Deals

2008-11-25T16:40:00.001-08:00

No sooner had Best Buy offered up their Black Friday 2008 ad, Circuit City followed quickly with their ad deals. The Circuit City ad shows a number of great deals to be had on a number of video games; some games on certain consoles have more deals than the others.

Deals for games on the Sony PSP, PS2 and PS3 are not as extensive as on the Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Wii. Black Friday is an important day for Circuit City, who recently declared bankruptcy. Hopefully shoppers will be able to show that people still have money to spend in stores, and could be a great sign for the start of the holiday season.

Here I will highlight at least one great deal for each console, these include, Ice Blue DS unit with Brain Age and carrying case for $139.99, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for $4.99 for PC, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for $9.99 for PSP, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with guitar for $54.99 for PS3. These are just a few; see more deals at Circuit City