Daily Bulletin

glass frog

2009-06-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Glass frog is making headlines for its uniqueness. The frog is also called Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum.

The transparent frog was discovered in Ecuador in 2009,it is an amphibian from the Centrolenidae family.The animal is often a transparent lime green making its heart, liver, and digestive visible through his skin.

The see through frog is very little ranging from 3 centimeters (1.2 in) to 7.5 centimeters (3.0 in) in length and can be found Mexico , Panama,Venezuela and Bolivia.Crystal frogs are an endangered species.

An expedition to the pristine forests of Ecuador near the Peruvian border uncovered 12 new species, including a salamander that Conservation International.

The discoveries in the Nangaritza region of the Cordillera del Condor included what the researchers termed a “remarkably ugly bug-eyed salamander,” a red poison arrow frog and a frog smaller than a “pinky” fingernail.

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mel hall convicted of sex abuse

2009-06-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

Mel Hall, a former Major League outfielder, was sentenced to 45 years in jail following a conviction of raping a 12-year-old and sexually abusing or inappropriately touching three girls, according to The Associated Press.

Hall, 48, was sentenced by a Tarrant County (Texas) jury on Wednesday and received 40 years for aggravated sexual assault and five years for indecency.

“A Tarrant County jury took about 90 minutes to convict the 48-year-old Hall on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child,” says the Associated Press. “The sentencing phase was to resume Wednesday after two witnesses testified Tuesday afternoon. Hall faces up to life in prison.

The AP reported that Hall, who played in the Majors for four different teams from 1981-1996, must serve about 22 1/2 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.

Maybe some of you may remember Mel Hall as a decent slugger with the Yankees back in the early ’90s. Those with good memories for home run trots may recall Hall’s as one of the longest, slowest and most asinine ever witnessed on the planet earth.

Hall's 13-year major league career ended in 1996. He hit .276 with 134 home runs and 620 RBIs in a career that included stints with the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Yankees and San Francisco Giants. He also played four years in Japan.

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donald trump buy wwe

2009-06-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

It was just announced LIVE here in Charlotte tonight that billionaire Donald Trump has purchased WWE Monday Night Raw from Vince McMahon.McMahon said he hasn't enjoyed his dealings with Trump, but he made him an offer he couldn't turned down.

Trump appeared on the big screen during Raw in Charlotte, N.C. in what appeared to be a pre-recorded video meant to seem live. Donald Trump declares that next week's Monday Night RAW will air commercial free for the first time in its history.Trump plans on attending next week's RAW.

But not to be upstaged, Vince McMahon plans on giving his farewell speech next week.

This story will definitely unfold over the next few days.

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derrick rose gang signs

2009-06-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

After a standout debut season in which he was voted NBA Rookie of the Year, Derrick Rose's off-season encountered more turbulence Thursday.

Weeks after he was linked to allegations of academic fraud at the University of Memphis, the Bulls' star guard issued a statement declaring his vehement opposition to gangs in response to a photo posted on the Internet that showed him flashing gang signs at a party in Memphis during his freshman year there.

An apologetic Derrick Rose has issued a statement through the Chicago Bulls, explaining why a photograph of him flashing a gang sign has been circulating on the Internet.
In a statement released Thursday, shortly after the Chicago Tribune and other news outlets reported on the photo, Rose called the picture a bad joke made during his one year at the University of Memphis and strongly denied that he has ever been involved in gang activity.

"This photo of me was taken at a party I attended in Memphis while I was in school there, and was meant as a joke . . . a bad one, I now admit. I want to emphatically state, now and forever, that Derrick Rose is anti-gang, anti-drug, and anti-violence. I am not, nor have I ever been, affiliated with any gang and I can’t speak loudly enough against gang violence, and the things that gangs represent. " Say Rose

"In posing for this picture, I am guilty of being young, naive and of using extremely poor judgment. I sincerely apologize to all my fans for my mistake. I pride myself on being a good citizen, and role model, that young people can look up to and I want to urge all my young fans to stay away from gangs and gang-related activities." he added

In the picture, Rose was throwing signs for the Gangster Disciples Nation, a prominent Chicago gang with tens of thousands of members, according to the Tribune. The gang is a dominant presence in the Englewood neighborhood where Rose grew up.

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david carradine death scene photo

2009-06-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, a former chief medical examiner for New York City who appears on the HBO cable TV show "Autopsy," who was hired by David Carradine's family, has released the results of his forensic examination. He has determined that David Carradine's death was not a suicide, but indicated that further information was required from Thai investigators to determine an exact cause of death.

Dr. Michael Baden said the following in a statement released to The Associated Press through Carradine's brothers, Keith and Robert Carradine:

"To reach a final determination as to the cause and the manner of death we must wait for further information from Thailand, as to the scene findings and the completion of the crime laboratory and toxicology studies that are still being performed."

"This is a devastating loss for our family and we greatly appreciate the compassion pouring in from all over the world," Keith Carradine said.Reached by phone after the morning briefing, Baden said he expects to receive more information from Thai authorities in a week or two and stressed that the information at hand was incomplete. Baden didn't elaborate on how suicide was ruled out

"The autopsy is only part of the analysis," he said.

David Carradine had been found in his Bangkok hotel room last week by a maid. His body was hanging in the closet of his room. A Thai tabloid, Thai Rath, published a graphic image of the death scene that police have said appears to be a leaked forensics image. Carradine's family was incensed when the photo was released, and promised legal action if it appeared in any U.S.-based media.

In the meantime, Robert Carradine asked the public and press for patience and time to allow the family to grieve.

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Holocaust Museum shooter James Von Brunn

2009-06-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of James Von Brunn, the suspected Washington National Holocaust Museum shooter. James Von Brunn is author of “Kill the Best Gentiles: A new, hard-hitting expose of the Jew conspiracy to destroy the white gene-pool,” says website holywesternempire.org.

Von Brunn had been charged with an armed burglary in 1981 says AP after entering a Federal Reserve Building. He was thereafter sentenced to 11 years in prison for carrying firearms into the Fed.

Reports identify Von Brunn as the shooter at Washington’s Holocaust museum and list his condition as “grave” or “critical”.

White supremacist James von Brunn, 88, apparently tried to make good on his promise Wednesday - storming the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and murdering a security guard.

The shooting was at 1 pm local time today. Both Von Brunn and a security guard were injured. Fox news is identifying Brunn as having ties to anti-Semitic and white supremacy groups.

After Von Brunn shot and wounded the security guard, museum guards fired at Von Brunn. Washington’s Mayor has said moments ago that the security guard is in grave condition.

The firefight, which left von Brunn in critical condition, capped a life spent spewing hatred.

"I'm in a state of shock, but I'mnot surprised he did it," von Brunn's ex-wife told the Daily News. "He used to make the statement that he was going out with his boots on. I took it to mean that he was going to go out and try to take some people with him."

More recently, the former New Yorker questioned the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate in online screeds.

It was unclear if something specific triggered his museum rampage - but the attack followed Obama's denunciation of Holocaust deniers.

The couple bounced around from Maryland to California to New Hampshire and back to Maryland, with von Brunn trying to make money in real estate.

He lived in New York City in the late 1960s, where he worked in advertising and film.

The couple had a son named Erik, who is 32 and a student at the University of Maryland. Von Brunn's child from an earlier marriage committed suicide.

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Holly Montag replacing Heidi on I'm a Celebrity 2

2009-06-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

Holly Montag will be replacing her sister Heidi Pratt on the reality show “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here.”

Holly will join the cast Wednesday after Speidi decided that the jungle really was too much for them. The duo had left early last week, only to regret the decision and blame "the devil" for leaving. In order to prove themselves, the couple were locked in a dark room. Heidi fell ill and was rushed to the hospital.

Because of all the drama surrounding Heidi and Spencer Pratt with their “We’re doing the show - no we’re not - ok, we’ll do it…” nonsense, producers of the show had a replacement celeb lined up to take over in case anything more happened.

Holly is currently staying in a luxury hotel until the show is ready to take her into the jungle.

Now, Holly will be joining the cast, which already includes two Baldwins, Janice Dickinson and former "American Idol" contestant, Sanjaya Malakar. Holly has been on several episodes of "The Hills" after joining the show in season four, including this past season's finale, where she caused a little bit of a ruckus at Speidi's rehearsal dinner.

One of the show's hosts, Myleene Klass, ended Monday night's episode announcing Holly's addition to the cast. "Tune in Wednesday ... and find out how the camp reacted to their new arrival [Holly]. So that's it, Heidi and Spencer have gone for good — or have they? You never know with those two."

Since Holly is a regular on 'The Hills' I guess that makes her enough of a celebrity for their criteria, right? :) Does this mean Holly is on her way to becoming the next big reality star?

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bryce harper on sports illustrated cover

2009-06-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas High sophomore catcher Bryce Harper is the ‘most exciting prodigy since Lebron.’

The power-hitting Harper, who batted .626 with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs this spring, will be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated on Thursday with a headline proclaiming the 16-year-old is ‘Baseball’s Chosen One.’ The subhead makes the comparison to NBA star Lebron James.

While prodigies seem to come and go — Freddy Adu and Michelle Wie come to mind (along with LeBron) — they don’t often appear on SI’s cover, making this an instant early piece of memorabilia.

Hardcore card prospectors already know who he is — he can be found in this year’s Upper Deck USA Baseball set on three cards — one signed card, one signed memorabilia card and one standard card.

Players’ first appearances, from Joe Namath’s “Broadway Joe” debut (right) to Michael Jordan (along with Sam Perkins) in his Carolina blue, always command a premium over other appearances. (And the magazine has a strong collector base as it is.)

“It is just amazing. I’m so proud of him for all the work he has done,” said Ron Harper, his father. “I don’t know if anyone in the country deserves it more than him. He just busts his butt for something he loves.”

By the time Harper, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound, smooth-swinging left-handed hitter, walked into his first-period class this morning, word had already spread to teachers and classmates of Harper's soon-to-be national notoriety. Las Vegas baseball coach Sam Thomas e-mailed the cover to staff at the school.

"This is so awesome. There are no words to describe it," Bryce Harper said. "With everyone seeing the magazine, that will put a big target on my back. But I don't care. I love that."

Harper hit seven home runs this month in six Sunrise Regional playoff games, but Las Vegas fell to Green Valley High in the title game. His power at the plate included blasting a 502-foot home run at the Tampa Rays’ Tropicana Field in a national home run derby in January.

So, while a 16-year-old appearing on the cover is significant, the issue also going to hold a significant place for collectors as well.

And it’s not even out yet.

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Mike Tyson's Daughter Dies

2009-05-27T05:18:00.000-07:00

Exodus passed away at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday at St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Ariz. “Our sympathies go out to the family,” says Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill.

Her seven-year-old brother found her hanging from a cord which was dangling from a treadmill in their home in Phoenix, Arizona.She was discovered when her mother, who was cleaning in another room.

Although her mother tried to resuscitate her at the scene, she was rushed to hospital in an “extremely critical condition”. She was placed on a life support machine, but yesterday she was pronounced dead.

Police are treating the case as an accident, saying it appears the child was playing on or near the treadmill and became tangled in the cord.

“Mike was very dedicated to that baby,'' said Sig Rogish, a longtime friend of Tyson and his former agent. “I think every parent's greatest fear is that they live beyond their children. I know Mike has had his troubles in his life, but he's always been a good father.”

His short-lived marriage to actress Robin Givens ended amidst allegations of physical and emotional abuse and mental illness. He was convicted of raping a beauty queen and spent three years in prison for the crime.

He was stripped of his boxing license for a year after biting off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear during a match, went to prison again on new assault charges, filed for bankruptcy in 2003 after squandering nearly $300 million -- around the same time his second marriage ended due to his reported infidelities -- and was arrested again in 2006 on charges of DUI and felony drug possession.

Tyson knows his life has been one big tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. In 2005 he told USA Today:

"My whole life has been a waste -- I've been a failure. I just want to escape. I'm really embarrassed with myself and my life. I want to be a missionary. I think I could do that while keeping my dignity without letting people know they chased me out of the country. I want to get this part of my life over as soon as possible. In this country nothing good is going to come of me. People put me so high; I wanted to tear that image down."

The family have not yet arranged a funeral for Exodus.

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Amy Mickelson Diagnosed With Breast Cancer

2009-05-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

Phil Mickelson has always put family before business, and right now the Mickelson family is dealing with some tough news. Amy Mickelson, the wife of the second-ranked golfer in the world, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Phil has canceled his golf schedule indefinitely to be with his wife.

According to a release from Mickelson's management company, his wife was to have more tests but begin treatment with major surgery as early as the next two weeks.

This is not the first time Mickelson has picked his family over golf. In 1999, during the final round of the U.S. Open, Mickelson was paired with Payne Stewart. Seeking his first major championship with Amy near her delivery date, Phil had his caddie, Jim MacKay carry a beeper in the golf bag in case she went into labor. He admitted he'd walk off the golf course if she beeped him.

Mickelson, the No. 2 player in the world with 36 career PGA Tour victories, was to play the Byron Nelson Championship this week before defending his title next week at Colonial. It was not certain if he would return in time for the U.S. Open on June 18-21 at Bethpage Black, where he was the runner-up to Tiger Woods in 2002 and is beloved by golf fans in the New York area.

Thoughts and prayers are with the Mickelson family.

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Maria Verchenova: New golf babes!

2009-05-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Maria Verchenova, 23, was born in Moscow and has been making a name for herself on the Ladies European Tour. Her career earnings are still modest, at $51,000, but she’s making amazing strides and playing solid golf.

Maria Verchenova, a young Russian golfer may give dudes everywhere reason to tune in soon, as she attempts to become to golf what Maria Sharapova is to tennis.

She is not only proving herself a fine player in her own right, she is also paving the way for other young Russian girls - her sister Anna included.

Verchenova admits that tennis star Sharapova is a role model - but she is adamant about the reasons.

"I am looking at Maria, not because of the way she looks but because of the way she plays," Verchenova explains. "I think Russian women are strong mentally. They are trying really hard and they are achieving things."

Verchenova is the first Russian to become a full-time member of the Ladies European Tour. She contended against golf heavyweight Anna Sorenstam at the 2008 Dubai Ladies Masters.

She started golfing at age 12 and was the 2004 Russian Amateur Champion and again in 2006. She qualified for the LET in 2007 and has been in the money in nearly every event that she enters. She achieved her first top 10 finish in her rookie year. By 2008 she had a top 5 finish.

Maria has several role models. Tiger Woods is her male hero and tennis star Maria Sharapova is a fellow countrywoman and someone that Verchenova looks up to and wishes to emulate.

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LaLa Vasquez Ushered Out Of Game

2009-05-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

LaLa Vazquez, who is a DJ and reality show host, was ushered out of the basketball game between the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks.

LaLa Vasquez is Denver Nugget star Carmelo Anthony’s fiance’, and was thrown out of the game due to a problem with old ladies sitting behind her in the stands.

With her husband's team in Dallas taking on the Mavericks, LaLa was ejected after an unspecified "incident" with some old ladies sitting behind her.

Video footage taken at the game last night shows LaLa Vasquez cursing and getting hostile as security guards attempted to escort her from the stands.

Today, LaLa released a statement claiming racial taunts and violent threats from Dallas fans started the altercation that became the talk of the game:

"Obviously playoff games bring out the best and the worst in fans but what happened on Monday night with the racial slurs / threats, verbal attacks on my son and physical attacks to myself by irate fans was completely unacceptable."

"The fans were totally out of control. What the cameras captured was me defending myself and didn't show the abuse that was taking place."

The Mavs and Nuggets are set to face off again tomorrow night.

The Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets will face off again tomorrow evening. Let’s hope LaLa can behave herself this time!

Biography

Born on June 25, 1980 in Brooklyn, New York, Alani “La La” Vasquez may have been raised in New York, but she was raised on music. After La La finished high school, her family moved to Georgia, where she got a job as a programming assistant at a local radio station. In 1999, La La moved — appropriately enough — to L.A. Currently, La La is the regular host of MTV’s Total Request Live and Direct Effect. La La most recently made headlines when she announced her engagement to NBA star Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets.

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Michael Landon's eldest son dead

2009-05-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

Mark Landon, an actor and eldest son of "Little House on the Prairie" star Michael Landon, was found dead Monday at his home. He was 60.

He was found about noon in the 1300 block of Sweetzer Avenue.

The cause of death was not immediately clear but there was no evidence of foul play, said Sgt. David Infante of the Los Angeles County sheriff's office.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is investigating the incident, but a spokeswoman said there was no evidence of foul play.

Michael Landon, one of the stars of “Bonanza” and “Little House on the Prairie” television series, died in 1991 of cancer.

Mark Landon, among Michael Landon's nine children, appeared in three movies, including "Us" - a CBS television movie written and directed by his father in 1991 just before he died of cancer at age 54. The film was a pilot intended to be another series for Michael Landon. It aired a few months after his death.

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Mark Cuban vs. Kenyon Martin

2009-05-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Not long before the calendar turned to Sunday and Mother's Day, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban celebrated the occasion with a verbal blast directed at Lydia Moore, mother of Denver Nugget Kenyon Martin.

The billionaire team owner and local mom became linked because of a brief confrontation in the heated aftermath of Game 3, when Denver benefited from an NBA-acknowledged officiating mistake and beat Dallas 106-105 for a 3-0 series lead.

The scene following the Dallas Mavericks’ heart-breaking loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game Three was chaotic. Put simply, the Mavs lost their minds.

Moments after his team lost Game 3 of its playoff series against Denver on a controversial non-call just before Carmelo Anthony's winning jump shot, Cuban heard a fan screaming about the Nuggets being "thugs," prompting Cuban to tell Moore, "That includes your son."

Josh Howard had to be held back by teammates from going after the refs (he also took his anger out on a photographer), and team owner Mark Cuban also took issue with a camera man

Though he played nice with the press after the game, Cuban did not hold his tongue when he spotted Kenyon Martin’s mom in the stands. Let’s just say he didn’t wish her a happy Mother’s Day.

According to Martin's agent, Brian Dyke, Cuban also told Moore, "Your son is a punk."

The NBA later said the non-call was an officiating mistake, but it was too late to help the Mavericks.

The Denver Post reports:

During the postgame chaos after Saturday’s Nuggets-Mavericks game, Dallas owner Mark Cuban had a brief but heated confrontation with Lydia Moore, the mother of Denver’s Kenyon Martin, who was seated near the tunnel that leads to the Mavs’ locker room.

Cuban said Sunday by e-mail that when he walked off the court, a fan was screaming about the Nuggets being “thugs,” so Cuban said to Martin’s mother: “That includes your son.”

According to Martin’s agent, Brian Dyke, Cuban spotted Moore amid numerous Nuggets fans and said, unprovoked, “Your son is a punk.” Regardless of what insult was stated, NBA spokesman Tim Frank said, “The situation on the floor postgame is being reviewed.” Cuban said by e-mail he knew Martin’s mother, because after a previous game that Denver won, she had approached him and made trash-talk-type comments.

There’s no question that the Mavs were screwed by the officiating in Game 3, but their actions thereafter make it a little hard to feel too sorry for them.

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henrik stenson wins Players Championship

2009-05-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sweden's Henrik Stenson kept his cool in 90 degree heat to win the Players Championship by four shots, as a frustrated Tiger Woods crashed out of contention at the TPC Sawgrass course.

The unflappable Swede carded the only bogey-free round on the final day, a six under-par 66 for 12-under overall, to pick up his first strokeplay win on the PGA Tour.

Stenson finished at 12-under 276 and won the title by four strokes over Ian Poulter, who managed a two-under 70, at the Stadium Course at the TPC at Sawgrass.

Britain's Ian Poulter shot a two-under 70 to finish second four strokes behind Stenson and post his best result on US soil.

"It was a nice day's work," said Stenson, who collected his second PGA Tour win after the 2007 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. "I played well all week and managed my game really well and myself more than anything. Obviously, it pays off."

Joint second overnight, world No 1 Tiger Woods had another frustrating day, slumping to eighth after carding a one-over par round marred by four bogeys, as a number of players struggled with the hard and fast greens.

Woods equaled his worst score when playing in the final pairing on Sunday with a one-over 73. The difference was, in the three previous occasions Woods shot a 73 in the final round, he still won the championship.

Woods took eighth alone at minus-five.

"Just a long, frustrating day," said Woods. "I thought I was doing a pretty good job of getting it around."

Phil Mickelson, who won two years ago, finished with a double-bogey and a bogey for a four-over 76. He finished in a group tied for 55th at three-over 291.

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Manny Ramirez to be Suspended 50 Games

2009-05-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Manny Ramirez has tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and will be suspended without pay for 50 games, the LA Times is reporting.

The Los Angeles Dodgers star is the most prolific player to be suspended by MLB since it began testing in 2003.

The paper is reporting Manny will attribute the positive test result to "medication received from a doctor for a personal medical issue."

The suspension will cost the Dodgers left fielder $7.7 million, or roughly 31% of his $25-million salary. Players in violation of baseball's drug policy are not paid during suspensions.

Ramirez, in a statement, blamed the test result on prescription medication for what he called "a personal health issue."

Ramirez tested positive during spring training for "a banned performance-enhancing substance that is not technically an anabolic steroid," according to a source not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

The substance, identified by the source as human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), could legitimately be prescribed for a man who does not naturally produce enough testosterone, according to a high-ranking sports doping authority. But HCG often is used as an antidote to diminished testosterone levels at the end of a cycle of steroid treatments, said BALCO founder and convicted steroid dealer Victor Conte.

The Dodgers currently have the best record in baseball.

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Moulin Rouge on fire

2009-05-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas firefighters are continuing to fight a blaze that appears to be contained to one building on the south side of the historic Moulin Rouge on Bonanza Road.

The Moulin Rouge, near Bonanza and US-95, opened in 1955 as the first and only integrated casino in Nevada. It was only open for five months. Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey and Sammy Davis Jr. were among headliners who appeared in the Club Rouge showroom. The hotel made the June 20, 1955 cover of Life magazine.

"We would all jam and have plenty of fun," said Bob Bailey, Master of Ceremonies at the Moulin Rouge in the 1950's. His wife Anna was one of the club's dancers.

The club made Las Vegas history. "It was the only place were people of various cultures could congregate," said Bob.

Radke said fire officials don’t know the cause of the blaze. He knows of no injuries. Additional firefighters and engines were added to fight the fire, not because it grew in intensity, but because it was hot and crews are rotating to the fight the blaze.

Joyce Sheets, who works at Nevada Restaurant Services across the street from the Moulin Rogue, said she called 911 when colleagues came to her and said they saw smoke and a window explode from a building on the property.

It was the only racially integrated hotel in the valley and it played host to the stars. When the Moulin Rouge came to West Las Vegas, it brought new life with it. New homes and businesses sprung up. When the club closed, the neighborhood around it fell on hard times.

There were a number of efforts to reopen the club, but one of the latest was dashed by the fire in 2003 that destroyed the main building. "To see it burn down is the same as to see one of your children getting into trouble," said Bailey.

The fire probably dashed any hope of ever seeing the Moulin Rouge rise from the ashes. The complex has been declared a hazard and has been closed to the public for years. This fire is probably the final blow.

The Moulin Rouge will live on only thru pictures and the iconic signs that were saved and moved to the Neon Boneyard.

In February, a request to tear down the historic building was considered because, according to the Uniform Code of Dangerous Buildings, the Moulin Rouge was considered to be a public nuisance. That same month, the owners filed for bankruptcy even though there was still talk of redeveloping the property.

The City of Las Vegas says the cause of the fire is still undetermined.

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wesleyan shooting:johanna justin jinich dead

2009-05-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

A 22-year-old Wesleyan University junior was gunned down Wednesday afternoon as she worked at a cafe inside a book store near campus.

Johanna Justin-Jinich, of Fort Collins, Colo., was shot several times at the Red and Black Café inside Broad Street Books. Her assailant, described as thin white man, then fled on foot and remains at large.

The shooter is believed to be Johanna’s ex-boyfriend.

"This is a devastating loss for Johanna's family, friends and for the entire Wesleyan community," Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth wrote. "Our hearts go out to all those who grieve for Johanna, and we hope all can find comfort in the support of friends, teachers and classmates."

The president of Wesleyan has issued the following statement late today about Johanna’s shooting:

It is my sad duty to inform you that a Wesleyan student was fatally shot at the Broad Street Bookstore earlier this afternoon. The parents of the student have already been notified, but we cannot release the student’s name until all of the immediate family have been contacted. A gun was recovered at the scene of the shooting; however the suspect is still at large. We have asked students, faculty and staff to remain indoors while Middletown Police continue to search for suspect(s). All campus events scheduled for today, including Spring Fling, are cancelled.

Wesleyan students had planned a candlelight vigil Wednesday night to remember Justin-Jinich, but in a broadcast email to the Wesleyan community shortly before 7 p.m., officials warned against any such gathering.

Memorial services have not yet been announced.

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Shia LaBeouf: my mother is the sexiest person!

2009-05-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

When asked by Playboy who you think the sexiest woman you know is, do you answer A: my co-star in Transformers Megan Fox B: Heidi Klum or C: my mother. If you’re Shia LaBeouf, you picked C.

Forget his “Transformers” co-star Megan Fox, actor Shia LaBeouf apparently thinks his mother is the “sexiest” woman he knows.

In a new interview with Playboy magazine, the actor reveals some unusual thoughts about the woman who gave him life, reports Star magazine.

“Probably the sexiest woman I know is my mother,” he says. “She’s an ethereal angel. Nobody looks like that woman. If I could meet my mother and marry her, I would. I would be with my mother now, if she weren’t my mother, as sick as that sounds.”

Apparently Shayna has not problem showing off her body to her son or his friends. LaBeouf reveals she often walked around the house naked with her friends.
“All of them would just be naked around the house,” he says. “That was strange for me, and it was really bizarre when my friends were there. You’ve got your little buds over, and Mom’s, like, playing naked connect the dots or whatever. She’s in the middle of goddess-group time, where it’s literally a bunch of naked women tracing auras around one another’s bodies with incense and then sitting together and humming for prolonged periods of time.”

The actor also said that marijuana use was casual, but that he saw what “drugs can do to you.”

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hannah montana and david archuleta

2009-05-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

Uneven duets are a real drag. You know, the kind where one singer obviously owns the other vocally? Yeah… So unhot. I just knew that’d be the case when I heard that season 7 American Idol runner-up and one of Neon Limelight’s top five male vocalists of 2008 David Archuleta would be teaming up with Disney darling Miley Cyrus for a vocal match-up on Cyrus’s hit show Hannah Montana.

Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case! Their duet, “I Wanna Know You,” debuted on Radio Disney yesterday in its entirety. The puppy-love song is a thousand percent catchy, and even though Archie clearly sings circles around Miss Montana, the pairing is pretty sweet!

Miley Cyrus is the youngest ever recording artist with four No. 1 albums in less than three years. "Hannah Montana The Movie" soundtrack from Walt Disney Records marks the fourth No. 1 album for the 16-year-old singer/songwriter.

Radio Disney is the No. 1, 24-hour radio network devoted to kids, tweens and families. Kids help pick the music that is played and are encouraged to interact via a toll-free phone line to the Radio Disney studio. The network's current playlist, driven by listener requests and representing major record labels, includes recording artists Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, David Archuleta, Jordin Sparks and Mitchel Musso. The network is available on 49 terrestrial radio stations and is also available via RadioDisney.com, Sirius and XM satellite radio, iTunes Radio Tuner, XM/DIRECTV and mobile phones. Radio Disney has a sister network in Latin America. Its brand extensions include multiple Radio Disney Jams CDs from Walt Disney Records and iTunes Music Store offerings.

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bird rock bandits trial

2009-05-01T23:35:00.000-07:00

A San Diego Superior Court jury found a member of the so-called Bird Rock Bandits guilty of second-degree murder Tuesday in the fatal beating of a professional surfer in La Jolla in a high-profile case that had attracted national attention.

Seth Cravens, 22, was convicted in the 2007 death of Emery Kauanui, 24, who died from brain injuries several days after suffering what prosecutors described as a sucker punch to the face thrown by Cravens.Cravens, 23, was found guilty Nov. 18 of second-degree murder and other charges in the death of Emery Kauanui, 24.

Cravens faces a possible sentence of 25 years to life in prison. San Diego Superior Court Judge John S. Einhorn scheduled sentencing for Jan. 12.

Cravens sat back in his chair and alternately gazed up and then down as the verdicts were read to a packed courtroom that included Kauanui’s mother and Cravens’ father, but otherwise showed no emotion. Later, as the jury was leaving the courtroom, he shook his head slightly.

Kauanui died in a hospital four days after he and Cravens got into a fight in front of Kauanui’s La Jolla home on Draper Avenue around 1 a.m. on May 24, 2007. Cravens and four other men had gone to the home, intent on retaliation, after Kauanui had spilled beer on one of the men earlier in the evening at the La Jolla Brew House and the two got into an argument.

Cravens punched Kauanui once in the jaw during the fight. Kauanui was knocked to the ground and suffered a fractured skull. The jury concluded that Cravens was guilty of “implied-malice murder,” which means that Craven’s was aware that his actions were dangerous but acted anyway.He was also convicted of four counts of assault by means likely to cause great bodily injury and one misdemeanor battery, stemming from earlier offenses.

Meanwhile Bonnie Dumanis Presents Citizens of Courage Award to Jennifer Grosso It takes a lot of courage for victims of crime to stand up and demand justice. Thursday some of them were honored with the 20th Annual Citizen's of Courage Award, including one woman who stood up to the men who murdered her boyfriend.Jennifer Grosso is a study in courage. When the Bird Rock Bandits attacked and ultimately killed her boyfriend, she attempted to break up the fight. When it came time for the trial, she became the sole witness against all the of the gang.

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dwight howard suspended

2009-04-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

Orlando center Dwight Howard's elbows ended up sidelining two Magic players for Game 6 against Philadelphia on Thursday.

The NBA suspended Howard one game without pay for a right elbow delivered to 76ers center Samuel Dalembert's head with 9:15 left in the first quarter of Game 5 in Orlando's 91-78 victory Tuesday.

Later in the first quarter, Howard jumped to block Willie Green's shot, and when Howard came down, his left elbow smashed guard Courtney Lee in the face and fractured his sinus. Lee will also miss Game 6.

“I’m very disappointed but I have to respect the N.B.A.’s decision,” Howard said in a statement. “I didn’t intend to hurt anyone.”

Stu Jackson, the league’s executive vice president for basketball operations, said Howard would have been ejected from the game if the referees had seen him make contact. Jackson said the contact was clear-cut on video replay.

“They saw the elbow thrown but they couldn’t determine whether or not the elbow actually made contact with Dalembert,” Jackson said. “This was an elbow that was thrown that made contact above the shoulders, and by rule there’s an automatic suspension.”

On his blog, Howard wrote Wednesday: "I'm just out there trying to win. That's got to be taken into consideration. I think when the league looks at the total picture of what's happened throughout this series that they will understand it's a physical game down in the paint."

The Magic leads the Sixers, 3-2, in the best-of-seven series.

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sarah jessica parker got twins

2009-04-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are expecting twin girls via a surrogate, Entertainment Weekly reports.

Both Parker and Broderick's reps confirmed the news.

The "Sex and the City" star and her actor-husband are expecting twins through a surrogate pregnancy, representatives for the couple said Tuesday.

Parker, 44, and Broderick, 47, "are happily anticipating the birth of their twin daughters later this summer with the generous help of a surrogate. The entire family is overjoyed," said a statement from the publicists.

The couple has a 6-year-old son, James Wilkie Broderick, and will mark their 12th wedding anniversary next month.

A friend of the couple told Entertainment Weekly that they have been trying to expand their family since the birth of their 6-year-old son James, but had been unsuccessful.

"They came to the conclusion that this was going to be the best alternative for expanding their family," the friend told Entertainment Weekly.

Details about the surrogate or her pregnancy were unavailable, the publicists said.

Parker starred in the "Sex and the City" TV series and the hit movie of the same name. Broderick's credits include the films "Glory" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and the Broadway musical "The Producers."

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carl edwards crash

2009-04-27T06:39:00.001-07:00

The unofficial count of eight fans were injured when Carl Edwards spun into the safety fence past the tri-oval during Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. At this time, none of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening. Two women was transferred to a local hospital via airlift due to the intense traffic after the race. She is believed to have sustained facial injuries and a broken jaw, according to Dr. Bobby Lewis, the medical director at Talladega Superspeedway.

After his car flipped end-over-end into the safety fence, shrapnel injuring seven in the crowd, NASCAR's Carl Edwards, in real-life Ricky Bobby-style, exited his fiery wreck, sprinting on foot to the finish. Spoilers inside, obviously.

Seven fans sustained minor injuries after being struck by flying debris when Carl Edwards' no 99 car went airborne into the safety fence on the final lap of the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday. While trying to block a move from race winner Brad Keselowski, contact sent Andrews' car spinning over Ryan Newman's hood and into the fence on the frontstretch. Track medical director Bobby Lewis said none of the injuries was life-threatening but two women were airlifted to Birmingham hospitals. Lewis said one, who was taken to UAB Hospital, likely had a broken jaw and also had a cut on her mouth. The other was transported to Brookwood Hospital because of an unspecified medical condition but was not hurt.

The other injured fans were treated and released, with two choosing to seek treatment locally from their own doctors, track spokeswoman Kristi King said. It wasn't clear if the fans were hit by debris from the car or the fence.

But the best part wasn't until after the crash, when Edwards exited the car, Ricky Bobby-style and took a sprint to the finish line. Heck, when even the NASCAR commentators mention the shades of Ricky Bobby in the action, you know you've got life imitating art.

In Edwards’s TV interview, he was thankful the damage was not more severe then it was:

“We’ll race like this until we kill somebody and then they’ll change it, but I’m just glad nobody got hurt today. I’m glad the car didn’t go up in the grandstands and hurt somebody. We were just racing hard and we’re lucky nobody got hurt.

“I saw some fencing at one point and that made me a little bit nervous. I don’t know if I could live with myself if I ended up in the grandstands.”

“Six of the eight people seen for injuries following the incident on the final lap have been treated and released, said Kristi King, Senior Director of Communications and Consumer Marketing at Talladega Superspeedway. “Two of the six chose to follow up with their own local physicians. The other two have been transported and were reported on in our earlier statement. Further updates will be made as information becomes available.”

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St. Louis Rams Select Keith Null

2009-04-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

With the 196th overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. The St. Louis Rams have selected Keith Null QB, out of West Texas A&M. At 6′3″ and 220 pounds Null is a solid drop back pocket passer. As a Junior Keith Null set school records with 4,134 passing yards and 41 touchdowns through the air in 2007. For a team with plenty of holes this is another player that at best will be a game day scratch or on the scout team in 2009. The Rams need players now, I am not a fan of this selection. With Curtis Painter and Mike Reilly still on the board among others this seems like another reach by the Rams. ESPN had Null listed as the 37th ranked QB in the draft.

BIOGRAPHY: Two-year starter awarded all-Conference honors since his junior campaign. Passing totals last season included 68.5%/5,097/48/15 after 67.4%/1,434/41/14 as a junior.

POSITIVES: Super-productive quarterback who lacks the arm strength to play at the next level. Sells ball fakes, looks off the safety, and knows where his receivers are on the on the field. Effectively leads the offense, shows great patience as well as poise in the pocket, and waits for receivers to come free. Throws with a fluid delivery and accurate in the short and intermediate field.

NEGATIVES: Does not consistently release the ball with proper footwork or throw tight spirals. Passes lacks zip, cannot drive deep throws, and the further downfield he throws the ball, more of an adventure he becomes. Does not show great pocket stature. Takes most of his snaps out of the shotgun, and he played in an offense that employed four receivers.

ANALYSIS: Null did a terrific job the two years he started at West Texas A&M, yet he lacks the physical skills to be anything other than a free-agent prospect and, at best, a practice squad player in the NFL.

PROJECTION: Free Agent

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myrtle beach fires

2009-04-23T07:52:00.001-07:00

Myrtle Beach is currently experiencing some of the worst fires that we've seen in a while on the East Coast; the damage caused by the quickly spreading flames has become so bad that authorities are discussing the possibility of the fire "moving to North Myrtle Beach."

Myrtle Beach Fires destroy dozens of homes. Wildfires have destroyed Myrtle Beach homes causing evacuations in the thousands.A cause of the fire, which started a day earlier in a wooded area west of the beach, had not been determined.

A wildfire along the coast of South Carolina has ripped through Myrtle Beach. Dozens of homes in Myrtle Beach are destroyed with no reported injuries. Hardest hit includes the Barefoot Landing development. Fires were already blazing shortly after midnight.

According to the Charlotte Observer, 40 homes have already burnt down, between 8,000 and 9,000 acres in Horry County have been torched and 2,500 residents (or visitors) have been forced into emergency shelters.

Says local WISHTV:

Adding to the problem were heavily vegetated patches called Carolina Bays that caught fire and fueled the blaze. Tropical downpours are often needed to extinguish such fires, said state Forestry Commission spokesman Scott Hawkins.”Once you get a fire in a bay, it’s very, very hard to put out,” he said.

Police banged on doors to awaken residents as strong winds pushed the blaze through a wooded swath toward the Barefoot Landing development, a sprawling complex of houses, condominiums and golf courses separated from the main route through Myrtle Beach by the Intracoastal Waterway.

Officials hoped the waterway would act as a natural firebreak to protect more populated areas closer to the beach. State fire officials said as many as 40 homes had been damaged or destroyed. North Myrtle Beach spokeswoman Nicole Aiello said only that 40 homes were damaged and the extent of that would not be known until later in the day.

About 2,500 people in a four-mile stretch on the western side of the waterway were told to leave their homes overnight, Aiello said. Shelters were set up at North Myrtle Beach City Hall and the House of Blues, where about 50 people watched a television over the bar looking for news updates. Outside, a white haze settled and the acrid smell of smoke was pervasive.

For now, our thoughts and prayers go out to anyone down in the Myrtle Beach area that might be in danger; we'll have more as this story develops.

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Allen Andrade Found Guilty

2009-04-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

Allen Ray Andrade, the man who murdered Angie Zapata , was just minutes ago convicted on the two main charges of first degree murder and bias-motivated crime (hate crime). He was also convicted of the significantly lesser charges of vehicle theft and identity theft.

As far as I’m aware as of writing, those are the highest convictions on all charges against him. And for his heinous crime, at 4:00PM MDT, Andrade will be sentenced to mandatory life without parole.

The two had met on a social networking site and spent a few days together before Andrade realized Angie was biologically male. After this discovery Andrade became enraged and began punching Angie in the face. He then took a fire extinguisher and struck he in the end twice. Although Andrade admitted to killing Zapata, his defense team argued he wasn’t in his right mind and acted on pure instinct.

This is the first time a person has ever been convicted of a hate crime against a transgender person and many are calling it a landmark case. Supporters of the transgender community have been active in publicizing this case and bringing awareness to equal rights for transgender people.

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David Kellermann found deat at home

2009-04-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

David Kellermann, the chief financial officer of Freddie Mac was found dead in his home Wednesday morning according to reports. The 41 year old was reported to have committed suicide. Kellermann was a 16 year employee at Freddie Mac and had been named CFO of the company this past September.

There were no signs of foul play, and the death is under investigation, Fairfax County Police Officer Shelley Broderick said. Broderick said early reports from others in the department indicated Kellermann’s wife reported a suicide, though the cause of death hasn’t been determined by officers at the scene.

Mary Ann Jennings, director of public information for the Fairfax County, Va., Police Department, said Kellermann was found dead in his Reston, Va., home.Jennings said that a crime scene crew and homicide detectives were investigating the death, but that there didn't appear to be any sign of foul play.Kellermann was named acting chief financial officer in September 2008, after the resignation of Anthony "Buddy" Piszel, who stepped down after the September 2008 government takeover. The chief financial officer is responsible for the company's financial controls, financial reporting and oversight of the company's budget and financial planning.

Before taking that job, Kellerman served as senior vice president, corporate controller and principal accounting officer. He was with Freddie Mac for more than 16 years.

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william perry hospitalized

2009-04-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

Football great player, William The Refrigerator Perry was admitted to a hospital Tuesday.

Former Clemson and NFL defensive lineman is listed in serious condition in an Aiken-area hospital after suffering from symptoms from a chronic illness.

A relative says the 46-year-old Perry is expected to recover.

Perry was a star on Clemson’s defensive line from 1981 to 1984 then gained fame with the Bears and played on both sides of the ball in his rookie season, a year in which they won their only Super Bowl.

Perry was one of just a handful of 300-pound-plus players in the NFL in the mid-'80s. Now it seems every team has at least five or six in that range. Perry became a commercial novelty as he helped lead the Bears to the Super Bowl XX title. Coach Mike Ditka made the most of Fridge's versatility by deploying him as a fullback and letting him plunge for short touchdowns with his uncanny quickness and tremendous girth. He scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl against New England.

After retiring from football, Perry once boxed 7-foot-7 former NBA player Manute Bol in 2002. In 2003 he participated in Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog eating contest. He seemed to enjoy devouring the hot dogs, but he finished about 40 hot dogs shy of the winner.

Perry, who has three daughters and a son, is also a grandfather. He made headlines when he had dental implants that corrected his once famous gap-toothed smile. His top front teeth had been shot out by a pellet gun when he was a child. Making his first visit to a dentist's office in 20 years, Perry's gums were infected and the procedure took three hours in the office of Vesna Sutter and Timothy Driscoll in Geneva.

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Philip Markoff, a Suspected Craigslist Killer arrested

2009-04-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

Boston University medical student Philip Markoff has been arrested by Boston Police on suspicion of being the “Craigslist Killer.”
Markoff stands accused of murdering masseuse Julissa Brisman and the robbery of another woman who both advertised their services on Craigslist.

Cops said the brainy blond doctor wanna-be, who grew up in upstate Sherrill, N.Y., and went to SUNY Albany for his undergraduate studies, has no rap sheet, but they think he has preyed on sex workers for a while. Police begged other victims to come forward.

Markoff had been followed for several days prior to the arrest after police received a tip-off after video footage taken near the scene of one of the crimes was released in an appeal for help. Markoff is expected to be arraigned Tuesday

"He is a predator," said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. "There may be other victims out there, and we want to help you."

Markoff, who was arrested after cops tailed him for several days, will be charged in Boston Municipal Court with the murder of Julissa Brisman.

The slain 26-year-old New Yorker advertised her services on craigslist and was shot in a posh Boston hotel last Tuesday.

Markoff also will be charged with kidnapping and robbery in an attack four days earlier in another luxury Boston hotel on an exotic dancer who advertised online.

Police believe last Thursday's armed robbery of a Las Vegas hooker in a Rhode Island hotel is also connected.

Markoff, originally from New York State but currently living in Quincy, just south of Boston, is believed to be a 2007 graduate of the State University of New York-Albany and studying in the 2011 class at Boston University. Philip Markoff was also engaged with Megan McAllister, and has a site for his wedding which is still online.

Brisman's mother was glad to hear there was a break in the case, but she was too distraught to talk.

Markoff is expected to be charged in that attack, too. Cops say Markoff's first known attack was April 10, when a 29-year-old woman who advertised as an exotic dancer on craigslist was attacked at Boston's Westin hotel. She was bound and robbed of her debit card and $800 in cash.

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Pulitzer Prize winners

2009-04-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

Here are the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists:

JOURNALISM:

Public Service: The Las Vegas Sun, notably Alexandra Berzon, for exposing the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip.

Breaking News Reporting: The New York Times for its coverage of a sex scandal that resulted in the resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Investigative Reporting: David Barstow of The New York Times for reporting on how some retired generals had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for war as radio and television analysts.

Explanatory Reporting: Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times for exploring attempts to combat Western wildfires.

Local Reporting: The Detroit Free Press, notably Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick; and Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Ariz. The Free Press was cited for uncovering lies by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that included denial of a sexual relationship with an aide that eventually led to jail terms for the two officials. The Tribune won for revealing how a popular sheriff's focus on immigration enforcement endangered investigation of violent crime and other aspects of public safety.

National Reporting: St. Petersburg Times for PolitiFact, a fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign.

International Reporting: The New York Times for coverage of U.S. military challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Feature Writing: Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times for coverage of a neglected girl and her adoption.

Commentary: Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post for columns on the 2008 presidential campaign.

Criticism: Holland Cotter of The New York Times for art reviews.

Editorial Writing: Mark Mahoney of The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y., for editorials on local government secrecy.

Editorial Cartooning: Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune for a style that engages readers.

Breaking News Photography: Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald for photos of the aftermath of disastrous storms.

Feature Photography: Damon Winter of The New York Times for photos of Barack Obamas presidential campaign.

___

ARTS:

Fiction: "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout (Random House).

Drama: "Ruined" by Lynn Nottage.

History: "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family" by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Co.).

Biography: "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House" by Jon Meacham (Random House).

Poetry: "The Shadow of Sirius" by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press).

General Nonfiction: "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II" by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday).

___

MUSIC:

"Double Sextet" by Steve Reich (Boosey & Hawkes).

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2009-04-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

Ellen Pompeo and her husband, Chris Ivery, are starting a family together, her rep, Jennifer Allen.

"It's great news," says Allen. "They're ecstatic."

"[Ellen and Chris] are thrilled," Pompeo's rep tells Us.

Pompeo, 39, and Ivery, 41, quietly wed in November 2007 in a low-key ceremony at New York's City Hall.

Less than a year later, the actress -- who plays Dr. Meredith Grey on the ABC hit -- already had babies on the brain.

"It's a huge lifestyle change, and I take that very seriously," she told Allure magazine of motherhood.

"We enjoy our life so much," Pompeo said in the October 2008 issue. "We go to Europe and sleep in. So when I have the baby, I won't feel like we've missed any fun, reckless times together, like staying up all night drinking champagne and having sex until five in the morning and not having to get up until two in the afternoon. But I've got to get on it, because the clock is ticking."

Pompeo, who's recently been spotted shopping for baby gear around Los Angeles, is not the only Seattle Grace doctor having a baby in real life: Costar Chyler Leigh and her husband, Nathan West, are expecting her third child, a girl, in May.

The "Grey's Anatomy" star, 39, and Ivery, 41, a music producer, were married by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a low-key ceremony in November 2007. The couple met in a grocery store in 2003 and began dating six months later.

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2009-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Celebrity Apprentice: Charity Jewelry Auction!

KOTU, which is now Herschel, Joan, and Clint, meets with the Schwann’s executives, who say they want something unique - rather than a redo of something they already make. Athena is also trying to figure out an entrée - Annie suggests turkey meatballs, which the rest of the team isn’t sold on. Jesse James, as project manager, notes that Annie seems set on doing what she wants, and he plans on keeping the drama to a minimum. He keeps Melissa with him, and sends Brande with Annie to do the cooking!

KOTU has decided to do an entrée using a skinless chicken breast based on Herschel’s research, and Clint supplies one of his wife’s recipes - soy ginger chicken. Ivanka drops in and remarks that her father would never eat it - but she would! Over at Athena, Melissa is trying to get some direction from Jesse about the marketing material, but is getting frustrated. Joe Kernen stops in to see what they’re doing just as Annie arrives with the ingredients - he is concerned the food might taste like crap! In the kitchen, Annie is getting on Brande’s nerves as she brags endlessly about her abilities! Over in the KOTU kitchen, Clint and Herschel are going at it over the idea of having yogurt as a desert.

As time goes on with the KOTU team, Herschel announces that Clint has decided he wants to do the whole Celebrity Apprentice task himself - he’s now cooking! Joan and Herschel think the soy ginger chicken is too salty - so they add orange juice to the soy sauce - and call it Asian orange chicken! Over in Athena’s kitchen, Jesse tastes the three recipes that Annie cooked - meatloaf, chili, and turkey meatballs with pasta - Jesse loves the chili! Annie is pushing for the meatballs, and Brande and Melissa agree - so Jesse gives in.

KOTU starts their marketing campaign, with Clint (who is not project manager) deciding to center things around his tour bus! Joan and Herschel sigh in resignation. Athena decides to call their meal the triple-play because there are three meatballs, but Jesse is not forthcoming about the rest of the campaign, which bothers Annie.

KOTU is the first to present their Asian orange chicken to the executives from Schwann’s. As they eat, Clint outlines how in the advertisement, he will accept these meals on his tour bus! Joan says it went much better than they thought. The executives like the chicken recipe, but are puzzled about how they would package the yogurt and berry desert.

Jesse James Wife Sandra Bullock

On July 16, 2005, James married actress Sandra Bullock, whom he met when she arranged for her 10-year-old god son, a fan, to tour the set of Monster Garage.
On April 22, 2007, a woman was lying outside James and Bullock's Southern California home in Orange County. When James confronted the woman, she ran inside her 2004 silver Mercedes and tried to run him over 3 to 4 times. The woman is said to be an obsessed fan of Sandra Bullock.
In January 2009, Jesse James and his wife were awarded temporary full-time custody of his daughter Sunny, following her mother's (adult film star, Janine Lindemulder) sentencing to 6 months in prison, for income tax evasion.
Sandra Annette Bullock: July 26, 1964 in Arlington, Virginia.
jesse james, jesse james sandra bullock, jesse james celebrity apprentice, sandra bullock, zerelda mimms
Jesse Gregory James: Lynwood, California in 1969. His great-great grandfather was a cousin of the outlaw Jesse James.

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Michael Prozer in Millionaire MatchMaker

2009-04-16T23:13:00.000-07:00

Michael Prozer is a 33-year-old, founder of Xchangeagent will be on the next episode of “Millionaire Matchmaker” a bravo reality show. He’s a Florida Tampa Bay native and worth a fortune with a private jet and a 33,000 square foot mansion.

Xchangeagent is an Enterprise payment service solution, bill payment platform. He recently met with Luis Alfredo Ramos Botero, the Governor of Antioquia, Colombia, to discuss key aspects of implementing their SecureXR payment solution for the online processing of payment transactions between the U.S. and Colombia once the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement is ratified by the U.S. Congress.

Patti Stanger the match maker of the show will be showcasing Prozer to help him find the Mrs. Right. His Internet money exchange business is worth 400 million dollars.

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john ziegler arrested

2009-04-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

From the Someone Left the Irony On Department, John Ziegler gets arrested by security guards outside USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism for committing journalism. He wanted to ask people attending their ceremony honoring Katie Couric with their Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism about the award, and the Annenberg School of Journalism apparently objected to journalism.

Here is video of Media Malpractice filmmaker John Ziegler being arrested yesterday in front of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism for practicing - Journalism:

John went to USC to witness and ask questions about Katie Couric getting the Walter Cronkite journalism award for her interview of Sarah Palin. He intended to also give away copies of his film but was literally prevented from doing so. He did not go there hoping for or expecting any sort of confrontation, especially with law enforcement. He was simply shocked and horrified by what happened there, as should every freedom loving American. He did absolutely nothing wrong and was handcuffed, detained and literally abused by law enforcement at the event. The video speaks for itself, John will have plenty to say about this very disturbing episode.

This video was shot and edited by Orange County Films. John Ziegler was not involved the the production or editing of this video in any way.

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Tim Wakefield No Hit Bid

2009-04-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

With one out in the bottom of the 8th, Oakland A's catcher Kurt Suzuki lined a single into left field ending Red Sox starting pitcher Tim Wakefield's no hit bid.

The day started with the Red Sox craving nothing more than quantity and quality from veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. Coming off a 12-inning loss Tuesday night that taxed the bullpen, Boston was 2-6, marking its worst start 1996.

But as Wednesday afternoon unfolded, it was nearly a magical day for the 42-year-old Wakefield, who came five outs away from spinning a no-hitter in his 402nd Major League start. Still, Wakefield did what he set out to do, pitching the Red Sox to a badly-needed 8-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Kurt Suzuki smashed a clean single to left with one out in the eighth, ending Wakefield's pursuit of giving the Red Sox no-hitters in three successive seasons. Clay Buchholz accomplished the feat against the Orioles on Sept. 1, 2007. Jon Lester followed suit on May 19 of last season against the Royals.

While those were two examples of young guns making good on their promise, this would have been the case of a trusted veteran reaching a personal pinnacle on a day his team desperately needed it. Boston's bullpen had worked 10 2/3 innings in Tuesday's loss.

"I've taken two or three into the 8th or 9th inning, you know I think you've got to be more lucky than good sometimes," said Wakefield.

"I'm not disappointed," said Wakefield. "It's something that's great to try to get, but the biggest thing today was to try to preserve the bullpen going into the off-day tomorrow, and hopefully we can get a streak going."

Wakefield didn't merely preserve his bullpen. He gave them an entire day off. By going the distance, Wakefield became the oldest pitcher in Red Sox history to pitch a complete game. He gave up four hits and two runs, walking two, striking out four and throwing 111 pitches.

The near miss brought back memories of Curt Schilling having his no-hit bid snapped with two outs in the ninth inning at Oakland on June 7, 2007. In that case, Schilling had snapped a four-game losing streak for his team.

"I thought about that a little bit," said Wakefield. "Again, it would have been nice to have the no-no. I've taken two or three into the eighth or ninth inning. You've got to be more lucky than good sometimes in that aspect. It didn't happen, but I'm pleased that I was able to save the bullpen today."

Back on June 19, 2001, Wakefield had a no-hitter against the Rays broken up with one out it in the ninth.

But none of that mattered to Wakefield, who was determined to help end a stretch during which the Red Sox lost six out of seven.

Wakefield has been with the Red Sox since 1995, longer than any other member of the team. It was win No. 179 of Wakefield's career.

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muppet scat video

2009-04-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

“The Muppet Christmas Scat” is performed by Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim in The Muppet Christmas Carol. The Muppet Christmas Carol is the fourth feature film to star the Muppets, and the first produced after the death of Muppets creator Jim Henson. Released in 1992, it was one of many film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

The muppet scat characters are small puppet characters. Watch the muppet scat video here:

The Muppet Scat video

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chris carpenter injury

2009-04-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter left Tuesday's 7-6, 10-inning loss to Arizona after three innings because of a strained left rib cage.

Carpenter had pitched three innings and allowed four hits before walking off the field in what’s become an all too familiar scene for the Cardinals. Carpenter’s health was a paramount issue for the Cardinals entering spring training as the righthander has had essentially the past two seasons robbed from him because of two elbow surgeries and a nerve condition in his shoulder.

Carpenter suffered the injury while swinging during an at-bat, and summoned the team trainer after throwing warmup pitches before the bottom of the fourth inning.

The Cardinals plan to re-evaluate the righthander Wednesday, and it is too early to tell how long the injury will keep him from pitching, officials said.

Carpenter completed his warmup tosses at the beginning of the fourth inning, but he and catcher Yadier Molina motioned for the trainer immediately after Molina threw to second base. Trainer Barry Weinberg and manager Tony La Russa converged on the mound, and after a brief discussion Carpenter walked off the field with Weinberg.

The Cardinals had just taken a 3-0 lead against Arizona on three doubles in fourth inning. Molina drove in two with his one-out line-drive double to left-center field. Two batters later Carpenter grounded out to third base to end the inning.

Carpenter, the 2005 NL Cy Young Award winner, appeared in only five games over the previous two seasons because of elbow and shoulder injuries. He had appeared to return to his Cy Young form in his first start of the season, in which he allowed an unearned run on one hit in seven innings.

Tamara Hofmann in love triangle with students

2009-04-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of teacher Tamara Hofmann and Sixto Balbuena. Now Samuel Valdivia is dead and police investigators want answers.

Hofmann was a former math teacher at Marcos de Niza High School, then El Dorado High School. It is at El Dorado that Hofmann met Samuel Valdivia

School officials knew that the 48-year-old teacher in a deadly love triangle with a student and former student had been in a questionable situation with the slaying suspect when he was 17.

She had been disciplined and eventually resigned from Marcos de Niza High School after Chandler police found her parked at 1 a.m. in 2006 with student Sixto Balbuena, now 20, who had her bra in his pocket, according to school records.Hofmann then went on to teach at El Dorado High School, a Chandler charter school for at-risk students, where she met Samuel Valdivia, an 18-year-old student who police say was slain by Balbuena Friday when he caught the two in bed.

The State Board of Education has known since March 2007 about her record with Marcos de Niza and began its own investigation that could have led to Hofmann losing her teaching certificate, but the investigation was put on hold because of Balbuena’s lack of cooperation and the lack of manpower, said Vince Yanez, executive director for the State Board of Education.

On Monday, however, principal Ramona Gonzalez said Hofmann has been suspended from the school since the Friday incident.

Hofmann, who earned a master’s degree in 2003 from ASU with a 4.0 GPA, taught in the Kyrene School District for 10 years before landing a job at Marcos de Niza in 2005. Her resume includes a long list of committees she joined and leadership roles she has taken over the years.

According to a Chandler police report from Nov. 1, 2006, Hofmann and Balbuena were parked in a car on a dark street far from their respective homes when neighbors became suspicious and called police.

Hofmann told police she stopped to empty a leaky ice chest. She also said Balbuena was a family friend and he had her bra because she had changed clothes earlier in the car by herself and later asked him to throw the clothes in the back.

The officer questioned them about whether they had sex, but the officer couldn’t establish any proof, so he wrote a report and forwarded it to the Tempe Union High School District, which took her out of the Marcos de Niza classroom the next day.

Court records show Hofmann has been going through a contentious divorce since December 2007.

Says reports:

According to court documents, Balbuena was on leave from the Navy when he arrived at Hofmann’s home in the 2500 block of West Ironwood Drive about 2 a.m. and called her to let her know he was outside. There was no answer so Balbuena let himself in, heard noises from the bedroom and thought something was wrong. He grabbed a knife from the kitchen and entered the bedroom, where he saw a man run into the bathroom.

Balbuena says he didn’t intend to kill the other man, just cause pain. He is currently in jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

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Star Marilyn Chambers dies at 56

2009-04-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Marilyn Chambers was found dead in her Los Angeles home Sunday night, but investigators do not suspect foul play, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman.

She was 56, just 10 days shy of her 57th birthday. Her 17-year-old daughter, McKenna Marie Taylor, found her dead last night. An autopsy is pending, but foul play is not suspected.

Chambers began her career in 1970 as a model for Ivory Snow soap, and starred two years later in the classic "Behind the Green Door."

According to her official site, in Green Door she had an interracial sex scene with Johnny Keyes that lasted for over 45 minutes; at the conclusion of it, she fainted. She also appeared in other films, including David Cronenberg's horror flick Rabid. (Here's a 2004 interview with Chambers and Cronenberg.)

She even had a hit disco single, Benihana, in 1976. Chambers041309"I'd like to be someone like Sammy Davis Jr., who can sing, dance, act — everything," she said in a 1977 profile by the LA Times.More recently, she turned her attention to politics. Reason notes that in 2004 she ran for vice president on the Personal Choice ticket, a Libertarian Party spinoff. She was also active in another anti-taxation, Libertarian offshoot, the Boston Tea Party, and was its VP candidate last year on some state ballots

"She was a really nice girl," said actor Ron Jeremy, who co-starred with Chambers in adult films starting in the 1970s.

Chambers' death was a "total shock," Jeremy said, because they had been scheduled to sign a contract Monday to perform together in an off-Broadway "tongue-in-cheek" re-enactment of the xxx classic "Deep Throat."
"What's strange is that she was at a stage where she was totally happy and totally content with her life," Jeremy said. "Her life was falling together, and she was doing really well."

A family member found Chambers, 56, in the mobile home where she lived in the Canyon Country area and called police Sunday evening, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitemore said.

The death appeared to be from natural causes, although toxicology tests have not been completed, Whitemore said.

The coroner's investigation has not been completed, and no cause of death has been determined, according to a spokesman with the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's office.

Although her career was mostly in X-rated films, Chambers' fame was boosted by the irony that her face had graced the Ivory Snow box, a soap advertised as "99 and 44/100 percent pure."

Chambers eventually co-starred with all of the best-known xxx actors of the 1970s and 1980s, Jeremy said.

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david buckner Faints on Glen Beck Show

2009-04-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

David Buckner, professor of organizational leadership at Columbia University, passed out live on Glenn Beck's Fox News show Monday afternoon.

During an interview over the economy Glenn Beck wore Jeans with his dress shirt because as we know, he's just a guy. He quickly apologized to his viewers.

"You all right?" Beck asked Buckner in the middle of a discussion on government investments.

"I'm passing out," Buckner told Beck.

"Want to sit down?" he asked, before the guest fell to the floor. "We'll be back in just a second," he said, and then the show cut to commercial.

Most thought it was part of the show or a stunt until Beck chimed in and asked to go to commercial so the man could get some help.

Glenn Beck has reported that he was up and about moving. It was a scary moment on Beck's show

I hope Mr. Buckner is okay, but it's really ironic that he fainted on Glen Beck's show on Fox News. Glen Beck is a nutjob who is trying to capitalize on September 11th.

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harry kalas died

2009-04-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

Longtime Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas, who punctuated innumerable home runs with his "Outta Here!" call, died Monday after being found in the broadcast booth before a game against the Washington Nationals.

Harry Kalas, the Hall of Fame broadcaster whose voice connected Philadelphia's team and its fans, died today after collapsing in the press box at Nationals Park, leaving behind a void of silence and a mourning organization. Kalas was pronounced dead at 1:20 p.m., almost an hour after he was rushed from the stadium, where he had been scheduled to broadcast the game between the Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies.

Kalas was pronounced dead at George Washington University Medical Center. No cause has yet been given. He was 73.

"We lost our voice today," team president David Montgomery said, his voice cracking. "He has loved our game and made just a tremendous contribution to our sport and certainly to our organization."

A member of the Philadelphia broadcast team since 1971, Kalas also became part of the city's identity -- and his signature call, "Outta here!" punctuated great home run moments produced by everyone from Mike Schmidt to Lenny Dykstra to Ryan Howard. Kalas, though, had struggled with his health of late, missing time for a recent undisclosed ailment. Still, last Wednesday, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Phillies hosted the Atlanta Braves.

Kalas was found by the Phillies director of broadcasting at about 12:30 p.m. and taken to a local hospital, Montgomery said.

Kalas had surgery earlier this year for an undisclosed ailment that the team characterized as minor. He looked somewhat drawn last week as the Phillies opened the season at home.

Kalas's death prompted the Nationals to reorganize their pre-game ceremonies, but there was never serious consideration to canceling the game -- something that probably would have happened were this game scheduled at Citizens Bank Park. Montgomery, speaking to Washington acting general manager Mike Rizzo before the game, said that Kalas would have wanted to play the afternoon's ballgame. Minutes before the first pitch, Nationals Park observed a moment of silence for the broadcaster.

"He was one of the all-time great voices, and to lose him like this is shocking," said current Washington assistant general manager Bob Boone, who played for the Phillies from 1972 to 1981, winning a World Series in 1980. "He has been such a class person, and has so many friends around baseball -- he just lived it."

Kalas's death triggered an outpouring of emotions and memories. At Nationals Park, fans from Philadelphia thought back to their favorite Kalas moments; his voice was a part of playoff losses and World Series championships alike.

"It's so hard to believe," said Rob Connor, a fan from Toms River, N.J.. "I just watched him yesterday on TV from Colorado. Any highlight you can think of, the first thing I hear in my head is Harry Kalas: 'It's outta here! A home run, and the Phillies take the lead!' It's just surreal."

Kalas missed most of spring training after undergoing surgery in February. The team declined to reveal details of the surgery, saying it was a "minor medical procedure." When news came of Kalas's collapse, Philadelphia closed its clubhouse to the media. Philadelphia players who emerged into the dugout before the game kept their heads down, and appeared somber.

"I think all of us know that we'll try to do the best we can," Philadelphia third base coach Sam Perlozzo said. "But I don't think it's gonna get out of our heads. I don't think that is going to happen, at least not for a little while. I think we'll all pull for each other and help each other out and try to get through it."

The Phillies had planned to visit the White House tomorrow, but have cancelled the trip.

For 26 seasons, Kalas shared a booth with another Philadelphia legend, Richie Ashburn. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame after receiving the Ford C. Frick Award in 2002. He was in the final year of a three-year contract with the Phillies. Kalas also did commercial voice-overs and narrated for NFL Films.

"He would call a spade a spade," Boone said. "But it was never offensive. You knew this was his team, the Phillies. He was a Philadelphia guy."

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Kadzis Family on Extreme Home Makeover

2009-04-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

The long-awaited finale of Tallahassee's experience with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" arrives in a two-hour special beginning at 8 p.m. Sunday.

ABC will air the episode "Fulfilling the Dream of a Dying Father," featuring the Kadzis family.

Extraordinary compassion led George Kadzis, a prison dentist, and his wife, Barbara, a lifelong teacher who herself was adopted, to open their hearts and home to special-needs children adopted from orphanages in China. The family faced major challenges in their cramped, hurricane-damaged home, which was especially difficult for daughter Melody to navigate, as she is blind.

George Kadzis, age 56, died three days after his family moved into the home. His wife Barbara, biological son Chris and six adopted children live in the "Panhandle Coastal Cottage" built for them by a cadre of volunteers and organized by local firm MyddeltonParker Builders.

The other adopted brothers and sisters also face significant physical challenges: Julia is deaf, Martin’s right arm and hand are deformed, and Phoenix and Celeste are now having their cleft palates repaired. Aileen lost her birth father to cancer, and her birth mother fled after his death.

Because Barbara and George Kadzis weren’t fluent in Chinese, and several of their adopted children could barely communicate in any fashion, the family turned to the universal language of music as an instrument to heal, communicate and transform. Chris, Barbara and George’s biological son, Martin, play the guitar and piano, Aileen plays the flute and Melody plays the zither, while sister Julia dances like she’s listening to every note — except that she can’t hear.

Now Ty and the designers, local builder Myddelton Parker Builders, LLC and hundreds of volunteers and workers, will step in and rebuild the Kadzis home. In addition, legendary singer/songwriter Stevie Wonder stops by on reveal day and performs a private concert for the family.

The cast and crew of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" descended on Tallahassee Feb. 20-27 to build the 3,600 square-foot house.

Tentative about the crafting of the story line, Barbara Kadzis was relieved after previewing a clip of the episode.

"I was afraid nobody would see George healthy," she said.

George Kadzis collapsed the evening before Ty Pennington knocked on the family's door. The famous cast didn't have a chance to speak or interact with him.

"They never saw him as the family man, the daddy, my husband," Barbara Kadzis said.
She and her children have been invited to view the show at a private party coordinated by MyddeltonParker Builders.

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Angel Cabrera Wins the 2009 Masters

2009-04-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

The final day of the 2009 Masters certainly unfolded in a bizarre fashion, but after Kenny Perry pulled his second shot on the 10th hole left of the green and failed to get up and down, Angel Cabrera had two putts to win the tournament on the second sudden-death playoff hole and became the last golfer standing in a Sunday slugfest at Augusta.

Argentina's Angel Cabrera has won his second major after a nerve-jangling playoff victory at the US Masters, becoming the first South American to claim the prized Green Jacket.

Perry seemed locked to win the tournament, holding a two-stroke lead with just two holes to play, but he finished bogey-bogey down the stretch, allowing playing partner Cabrera and Chad Campbell to join him in a sudden-death playoff.

The most bizarre circumstance surrounding Cabrera's win -- outside his Sunday yellow becoming the "new red" -- might be his early Sunday play: he shot an inexplicable one-over on the front-nine Sunday, bogeyed 10 and appeared poised to free fall from the leaderboard before rattling off three birdies on the final six holes.

His first playoff hole was no less odd, as Cabrera managed to hit his second shot off a tree before scrambling back for a par that extended his hopes of winning the green jacket to the 10th hole.

The win was Cabrera's second major in the past three years -- in 2007 he was the first Argentinian to win the U.S. Open -- as he became the first Argentinian to don a green jacket in Augusta's rich history.

And as surprising as watching Cabrera storm back to win was, it seems like a pretty fitting ending considering the insanity that consumed Augusta on Sunday.

FINAL LEADERBOARD

Final round scores in the US Masters at the par-72 Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia on Monday:

276 Angel Cabrera (Argentina) 68 68 69 71 (Cabrera wins in second hole of sudden-death playoff), Kenny Perry (US) 68 67 70 71, Chad Campbell (US) 65 70 72 69

278 Shingo Katayama (Japan) 67 73 70 68

279 Phil Mickelson (US) 73 68 71 67

280 John Merrick (US) 68 74 72 66, Steve Flesch (US) 71 74 68 67, Tiger Woods (US) 70 72 70 68, Steve Stricker (US) 72 69 68 71

281 Hunter Mahan (US) 66 75 71 69, Sean O'Hair (US) 68 76 68 69, Jim Furyk (US) 66 74 68 73

282 Camilo Villegas (Colombia) 73 69 71 69, Tim Clark (South Africa) 68 71 72 71

283 Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 71 70 73 69, Todd Hamilton (US) 68 70 72 73

284 Aaron Baddeley (Australia) 68 74 73 69, Graeme McDowell (Britain) 69 73 73 69

285 Nick Watney (US) 70 71 71 73

286 Paul Casey (Britain) 72 72 73 69, Ryuji Imada (Japan) 73 72 72 69, Trevor Immelman (South Africa) 71 74 72 69, Rory McIlroy (Britain) 72 73 71 70, Sandy Lyle (Britain) 72 70 73 71, Justin Rose (Britain) 74 70 71 71, Anthony Kim (US) 75 65 72 74, Stephen Ames (Canada) 73 68 71 74, Ian Poulter (Britain) 71 73 68 74, Rory Sabbatini (South Africa) 73 67 70 76

287 Ross Fisher (Britain) 69 76 73 69, Stuart Appleby (Australia) 72 73 71 71, Larry Mize (US) 67 76 72 72, Dustin Johnson (US) 72 70 72 73, Vijay Singh (Fiji) 71 70 72 74

288 Ben Curtis (US) 73 71 74 70, Ken Duke (US) 71 72 73 72, Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 69 73 73 73

289 Robert Allenby (Australia) 73 72 72 72, Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 71 70 75 73, Luke Donald (Britain) 73 71 72 73, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 73 67 75 74

290 Bubba Watson (US) 72 72 73 73

291 Lee Westwood (Britain) 70 72 70 79

292 Dudley Hart (US) 72 72 73 75

293 DJ Trahan (US) 72 73 72 76

294 Kevin Sutherland (US) 69 76 77 72, Mike Weir (Canada) 68 75 79 72, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 70 73 78 73

297 Andres Romero (Argentina) 69 75 77 76

298 Rocco Mediate (US) 73 70 78 77

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oklahoma fires

2009-04-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Dozens of homes burn as fires scorch Texas, Okla.

Fire crews in Oklahoma and Texas raced Thursday to control wind-whipped wildfires that destroyed dozens of homes, forced evacuations and shut down parts of a major highway.

Howling wind that had gusted to more than 50 mph grounded firefighting efforts by air in Oklahoma and drove blazes that scorched neighborhoods like "a war zone," Midwest City police Chief Brandon Clabes said.

The blaze blackened vehicles and destroyed about 25 homes in the suburb southeast of Oklahoma City, Clabes said, adding that a fire had erupted at a broken natural gas line.

"The wind is the biggest issue, because we can't get ahead of the fires," Midwest City Fire Marshal Jerry Lojka said. The National Weather Service said wind gusts topped 40 mph by Thursday evening.

Some residents in the eastern part of the city were told to head to a community center. The Lincoln County town of Sparks, which has about 150 residents, was also told to evacuate because of a large wildfire.

In Lincoln County, a firefighter suffered major burns and was taken to an Oklahoma City hospital, Chandler Emergency Management Director Larry Hicks said.

He said some crews already helping with blazes were being redirected because "there are fires everywhere."

"We've got fires breaking out where they've already been put out," he said.

Tricia Smith, who left her home in Midwest City, said the fire engulfed parts of her neighborhood.

"We thought we were safe, but in 30 minutes the fire went everywhere," she said.

Most of the state was under high wind warnings and red flag warnings, which indicate extreme fire danger, and the eastern half of the state was under a tornado watch.

Near Lindsay, about 55 miles south of Oklahoma City, 12 homes were destroyed and 20 more were being threatened, said Eric Johnson, Purcell's city manager. At least six homes and one church burned to the ground in Carter County and the number of destroyed properties was expected to rise, said Chester Agan, county assistant emergency management director.

Interstate 35, the state's main north-south highway, was closed in the county as well as in Payne County, where at least 12 agencies were battling a blaze estimated at five to six miles wide, said Kirk Mittlestet, emergency management director for Stillwater. Wind-whipped grass fires in western Oklahoma also closed State Highway 152.

Near the Oklahoma state line, firefighters in Texas battled a nearly 8-square-mile wildfire near Electra that destroyed two large commercial buildings and forced the evacuation of about 800 residents and a nursing home, according to the Texas Forest Service.

Crews also were fighting a 6-square-mile fire that destroyed three homes east of Archer City, about 90 miles northwest of Fort Worth. Residents near Breckenridge were evacuated when a nearly 5-square-mile fire threatened an apartment complex, the forest service said.

Montague County Judge Ted Winn said as many as 10 fires were raging across northern Texas, where winds were reported at about 60 mph. A fire at Lake Mineral Wells State Park in Parker County that destroyed one home and threatened 50 others was being spread by 40 mph winds, county spokesman Joel Kertok said.

He said another blaze in four Hudson Oaks subdivisions that destroyed four structures was 90 percent contained, and residents who had been evacuated were allowed to return home.

Lewis Kearney, another Forest Service spokesman, said fires also were reported in parts of the northern and central Texas counties of Hamilton, San Saba, Brown, Jones, Palo Pinto, Hood and Cooke. More than 93 percent of the state was under some stage of drought, according to a U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday.

Wild Fires Across South Central Oklahoma

Multiple fires going on during Thursday.

In Love County, evacuations started early Thursday afternoon on the western side of Oswalt Road... Near Wade and Pike Roads.

No structures burned yet, but there are some in danger. Another fire, two miles north of Marietta.

And two along Interstate 35, as well.

The situation in western Carter County is very serious, with an explosion at the Champion Chemical plant, and another at a propane distributor, also on fire.

We've also confirmed a fire in the Fox/Graham area... The Graham Fire Department itself caught on fire.

The First Baptist Church in Fox also burned.

Fire Damage "Worse Than May 3rd"

Updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2009, 9:45 p.m.

Authorities in Lindsay say at least 11 homes have been destroyed in a fire burning along State Highway 76.

Purcell Emergency Management officials say 12 to 15 square miles were burned.

OHP reports several roads are still closed in southern Oklahoma including State Highway 76 from Ratliff City to Healdton in Carter County, I-35 from Exit 51 to Exit 55 and State Highway 7 from I-35 to Hennepin in Murray County and State Highway 74 from State Highway 7 to State Highway 29 in Garvin County.

Residents in Velma are now being allowed to return to their homes.

Updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2009, 8:54 p.m.

Fires continue to burn in Choctaw. Parents searching for their children should go to shelters set up at 2nd and Main St., the downtown library or the Junior High auditorium at 3rd and Main.

A shelter has been set up at Eastland Hills Baptist Church at SE 29th and Hiwassee Road. The New Community Church at I-40 and Anderson road is also taking evacuees.

Purcell officials have set up a shelter at the fire department at 1505 N. Green Ave.

Updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2009, 7:55 p.m.

Midwest City fire crews say about 100 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged in Midwest City. Firefighters have reportedly stopped fighting individual house fires to concentrate on getting grass fires contained. Midwest City Police officials say this is probably the worst disaster in the city's history, even worse than the May 3, 1999 tornadoes. So far, no serious injuries have been reported.

Updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2009, 6:50 p.m.

Fires have burned across the state forcing numerous evacuations.

Oklahoma City residents between SE 120th and SE 149th from Anderson Road to Henney Road are being evacuated to the north and west of that area.

Midwest City Residents from SE 15th to NE 10th have been asked to evacuate to the Midwest Community Center at 100 N. Midwest Blvd. Residents can also go to the Choctaw Library.

Residents in Grady County between Bradley and Lindsay are being asked to go to Alex School.

Residents between the Grady County/Garvin County line and Lindsay are being asked to evacuate east to Lindsay.

Several homes in Meridian in Stephens County, along with a nursing home and animal hospital have been evacuated.

Homes have burned near Wellston and the town of Sparks was evacuated late Thursday afternoon.

A large grass fire shut down parts of Interstate 35 near Highway 51. At last check, that fire was burning about 25 miles wide.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has advice for those driving near the fires that are sparking across the state.

Captain Chris West with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol is advising drivers to stay away from those areas. He says if you see smoke, head the other direction.

OHP officers are also doing what they can to help. They are located at numerous sites throughout Oklahoma.

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nick adenhart dies in Accident

2009-04-09T17:38:00.000-07:00

22-year-old Los Angeles Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed in a hit-and-run car accident early Thursday morning — just hours after pitching six shutout innings against the Oakland A's:

Cops say someone driving a minivan blew through a red light and hit the Mitsubishi that Adenhart was riding in. Three people were killed in the crash, including Nick.

Cops say the person driving the van fled the scene -- but was later caught and charged with felony hit-and-run.

We're told one of the other men killed in the crash was also affiliated with the Angels organization.

The AP's story on Wednesday's game — in which the A's beat the Angels 6-4 — notes that it was Adenhart's fourth major league start:

Angels rookie Nick Adenhart scattered seven hits over six scoreless innings and escaped a pair of bases-loaded jams. He struck out five and walked three in his fourth major league start.

Adenhart was born in Silver Springs, Maryland on August 24, 1986. The right-handed pitcher graduated from Williamsport High School in Maryland and made his major league debut on May 1, 2008.

Fox Sports West and Adenhart tribute tonight

Because the Angels have canceled today's game against Oakland at Angel Stadium after the death of pitcher Nick Adenhart in a car accident after Wednesday's game, Fox Sports West has adjusted its programming schedule for tonight.

At 7 p.m., Bill Macdonald will anchor a roundtable discussion with Mark Gubicza, Rory Markas, Rex Hudler, Steve Physioc and Jose Mota. The group will gather at the top of the rocks at the stadium and offer their memories of Adenhart.

At 7:15 p.m., Fox Sports West will replay Wednesday's game, in which Adenhart started and pitched six scoreless innings. Fox has now decided to show only the first six innings of the game and follow with three episodes of a Fox Sports specialty, "In My Own Words," featuring segments with Vlad Guerrero, Jered Weaver and Chone Figgins.

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tam paton dies at 70

2009-04-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

Tam Paton, the former boss of Scottish pop-rockers the Bay City Rollers, has died at his home in Edinburgh aged 70.

Tam Paton, who managed the band at the height of their fame in the 1970s, died on Wednesday after reportedly suffering a heart attack.

He oversaw the group for 11 years as they enjoyed huge success.

In recent years he had been convicted on charges of drug dealing, dogged by allegations of sexual abuse and had been convicted of indecency.

With their youthful, clean-cut image, distinct tartan-trimmed outfits, and cheery, sing-along pop hits including Shang-A-Lang and Bye Bye Baby, the Bay City Rollers inspired “Rollermania” and quickly became a worldwide sensation.

Paton convinced Rollers fans that they performed on their early records and preferred a glass of milk to sex and drugs.

Subsequent revelations following the band's break-up have cast a shadow over their success.

Guitarist Pat McGlynn claimed Paton attempted to rape him in an Australian hotel in 1977.

He also spent time in prison in the early 1980s for indecency with young boys and was fined in 2004 after admitting possessing a large amount of cannabis.

In 2007 Paton was also fined £20,000 after admitting being concerned in the supply of cannabis at his home. Confiscation proceedings to seize crime profits resulted in him handing over £180,000.

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said a man died at Mr Paton's home on Wednesday night.

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queens center mall suicide

2009-04-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

A 56-year-old woman leapt three stories to her death at the Queens Center Mall around 3 p.m. on Wednesday.She was landing on and injuring a high school student on the lower level of the shopping center in Elmhurst, four stories below. Shoppers screamed and ran. Police officers and the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, arrived to help calm the crowd.

Mr. Brown said the woman was in her early to mid-50s and in the company of two teenagers when she jumped. It appeared that she had leaped from near a T-Mobile cellphone kiosk in the center of the atrium, and landed near a Tax Solvers kiosk on the lower level, set up to deal with the busy tax season.

The glass barrier over which the woman jumped runs around the atrium on each level. The barrier is roughly waist-high and topped by a curved titanium banister. Police and emergency service workers cordoned off sections of the mall and shut down certain escalators leading to the lower level.

The lower level, where the woman landed, was packed with high school students, many of them milling about after school. The injured student was taken to Elmhurst Hospital. He was expected to survive.

The student was identified by family members as Derrik Munoz, 17, who attends Amityville High School.

WPIX is saying that the teenage victim was walking on the ground level; NY1 says that he was sitting in a massage chair when the woman fell around 2:30. A witness,Shanell William,26 told the press, “First I thought it was a gunshot, and I said ‘I’m out of here.’ People started screaming. There was pandemonium and chaos. And I looked below to the lower level and people were screaming that someone had jumped from above.” Police cordoned off sections of the mall and shut down certain escalators leading to the lower level.

Ms. Williams said the death left her badly shaken. She said she just wanted to finish her shift and go home.

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russell dunham,medal of honor recipients dies at 89

2009-04-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

Russell Dunham, a World War II Army veteran who received the Medal of Honor, the military's highest decoration for valor, after he assaulted three German machine gun emplacements, killed nine German soldiers and took two prisoners on a snowy morning in 1945, died Monday at his home in Godfrey, Ill., of congestive heart failure. He was 89.

On Jan. 8, 1945, Tech. Sgt. Dunham's company, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, was facing a formidable German force at the small town of Kayserberg, France, on the Franco-German border. The men were issued white mattress covers as camouflage in the deep snow.

Heavily armed, Dunham scrambled 75 yards up a snow-covered hill toward three German machine gun emplacements. He took out the first bunker with a grenade.

Advancing toward the second, he glanced around to call up his squad and a bullet hit him in the back, tearing open a 10-inch gash. As he struggled to his feet, a grenade landed nearby; he kicked it away before it exploded.

He then crawled through the snow to the machine gun and lobbed his own grenade into the bunker, killing two Germans. His carbine empty, he leaped into the foxhole and hauled out a third enemy soldier by the collar.

In excruciating pain, his mattress-cover overcoat now stained a conspicuous red, Dunham ran 50 yards to the third machine-gun emplacement and took it out with a grenade. As German infantrymen began scrambling out of their foxholes, Dunham chased them down the back side of the hill. He and his elder brother Ralph, who was in the same unit, encountered a fourth machine gun; the older Dunham took it out.

Dunham was born in East Carondelet, Ill., on Feb. 23, 1920, and grew up in Fosterburg, Ill. When he was about 16, he went to live with brother Ralph in St. Louis, and the two young men made a Depression-era living selling soup and tamales on the street and in bars.

After the war, Dunham worked for 32 years as a benefits counselor with the Veterans Administration in St. Louis.

His marriage to Mary Dunham ended in divorce. His second wife, Wilda Long-Bazzell Dunham, died in 2002.

Survivors include a daughter from his first marriage, Mary Neal of Cobden, Ill.; two stepchildren, Annette Wilson of Godfrey and David Bazzell of Jarreau, La.; three sisters; and three granddaughters.

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pop winans dies

2009-04-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

The father of well known gospel artists Rev. Marvn Winans, BeBe and CeCe Winans and other siblings, has died.David “Pop” Winans dies at the age of 74.

David 'Pop' Winans Sr., died today in Nashville with his wife at his side. Funeral details have not been released

Winans suffered from numerous heart ailments as reported on Gospelrama late last year.

According to the Detroit News, Pop Winans visited the doctor the morning of Sept. 30 and stopped to have breakfast at a restaurant. On the way to his vehicle, he became disoriented and fell in the restaurant parking lot. He was taken to Beaumont Hospital by ambulance. On November 3rd Winans suffered a second stroke and subsequently suffered two more from which he never fully recovered.

In all, the Winans family has won 35 Grammy Awards. David and Delores met while singing in a traveling Gospel choir. The couple recorded as Mom & Pop Winans. They had 10 children including The Winans (brothers Marvin, Carvin,Michael and the late Ronald Winans, who died of a heart attack in 2005). Other family acts include Daniel Winans, Vickie Winans (daughter-in-law), brother and sister BeBe and CeCe Winans, and Angie & Debbie Winans. Their grandsons formed the third-generation group, Winans Phase 2 and grandson Marvin Winans Jr. has launched a solo career, and recently released a CD.

He sang with his wife and solo.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

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Dara Torres talks life in new book

2009-04-08T06:45:00.001-07:00

Dara Torres: Olympic Swimming's Full-Time Mom, Full-Time Champion

The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing came with more fanfare and anticipation than any Olympics in recent history.

The temporary opening of China's borders and the breathtaking—and controversial—Opening Ceremony combined to move the world to the edge of its collective seats.

And as fellow American swimmer Michael Phelps, then 23 years old, took to the pool in pursuit of Mark Spitz and history, another American swimmer's story captured the hearts of watchers.

A 41-year-old mother of one, Dara Torres set her eyes on a historic comeback to the sport she had dominated for parts of three decades.

A quarter-century ago, Torres announced her presence internationally at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games with a gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle. As a 17-year-old in those Games, she fit the mold of a world-class swimmer.

In each successive Olympics but the 1996 and 2004 Games, Torres came home with at least one medal. She even won five medals—three bronze and two gold, both individual and relay—in the 2000 Sydney Games as the oldest member of her American swimming squad.

She was 33 years old back then.

But eight years removed from her last Olympic triumphs, Torres was more than a seasoned veteran—she was old enough to be most of her competitors' mother, let alone be a mother herself.

She certainly had the confidence of an Olympic champion in the lead-up to her races, constantly addressing the glaring age gap with finesse and a smile. She believed in herself, and she could not imagine why the American public would not as well.

Her teammates elected her—along with Amanda Beard and Natalie Coughlin—a captain prior to the Games.

And Torres even submitted herself for a voluntary drug screening program to allay any fears or accusations of performance-enhancing drugs.

So when the games finally began, the American public did not tune out when Phelps hopped out of the pool. Instead, Torres grabbed America's attention.

She and Phelps—a one-two male-female punch that no other country could match—traded time in the spotlight. After the country roared for Phelps' team's come-from-behind victory in the 4x100m freestyle relay, it then cheered for Torres' team's second-place finish in the same event.

Torres was the anchor of that relay, unheard of for such a senior member of the squad.

Over the next week, Torres collected silver medals in her other two events, missing a gold in the 50m individual freestyle by 0.01 seconds.

She followed that near-victory with her third silver in three tries with the 4x100m medley relay less than 40 minutes later.

And while Torres did not leave Beijing with more gold medals than when she had arrived, she had three more silver medals for her collection.

But she also had much more than just medals to bring back—she had a transcendent story, triumphant for so much more than just herself.

Through it all—the whirlwind schedule, the rigorous training, the international microscope—Torres handled her comeback for a fifth Summer Games with the grace and ease of global role model and champion.

Torres talks life, swimming and staying fit in new book

At 6 a.m. Beijing time, Dara Torres awoke in her room at the Olympic Village and started her day.

Drink a Living Fuel breakfast shake at 6:15.

Get on the 6:45 bus to the Water Cube and arrive 15 minutes later.

Go for a quick swim, then take a hot shower, stretch and “get mashed.”

Wait in the team room.

Minutes before the start of the race -- the 50m freestyle final -- Torres was called into the ready room and shortly after that, she and the seven other swimmers walked onto the pool deck and prepared to swim the equivalent of track and field’s 100-meter dash.

The splash and dash. In 24 or 25 seconds, the fastest female swimmer in the world would be crowned. Could Torres, whose four previous Olympic gold medals were in relays, finally get an individual title?

“I went to the pool at 7 a.m. that morning with my coach Mark Schubert and nobody was there except Bob Costas,” Torres recalled Tuesday morning during a phone interview. “I yelled, ‘Good morning!’ to him. I went for a wake-up swim, checked out the pool, noted where the underwater cameras and marks on the bottom of the pool were ... got my plan. I was nervous but obviously excited.”

After the starting tone went off, Torres cut through the water at breakneck speed -- albeit gracefully -- and touched the wall in 24.07 seconds. It was her fastest swim ever and it broke the American record, but she finished 0.01 seconds short of a gold medal. German Britta Steffen clocked in at 24.06 and won the race.

Torres was second. In her mind, even though she had just earned an Olympic medal at the age of 41, she had simply lost.

“Needless to say I was happy,” said Torres, who became the oldest medalist in Olympic swimming history -- after becoming the oldest swimmer to make the U.S. Olympic team. “I can't look at it as a failure, that's a pretty harsh word. To me, in my head on the competitive side, I lost.”

Torres, eight months removed from her performance in Beijing during which she won three silver medals, released her memoirs on Tuesday. “Age Is Just A Number,” which she co-wrote with New York Times Magazine contributing writer Elizabeth Weil, takes a walk through her entire swimming career -- from when she was a teenager living in California and then as a student-athlete at the University of Florida, to her three comebacks as an adult.

She revisits past successes -- setting world and American records, winning Olympic medals -- and talks about the more difficult times in her life too. During her four years as a swimmer at Florida, she became bulimic. She’s dealt with two divorces, the death of her father and fertility problems. Michael Lohberg, the coach who guided Torres during her comeback for the Beijing Games, was stricken with a serious illness and was unable to travel to China for the Olympics.

In the book, Torres talks about getting back into the water in 2005 when she was pregnant with her first child. Despite being retired, it had been in Torres’ plans to resume swimming when she was expecting. Torres and David Hoffman, her boyfriend and the father of her daughter Tessa, joined a Masters swim club near their home in Parkland, Fla.

Torres had not been in the water for five years and, she says in her book, those first few laps on Day 1 were a challenge.

“For the first few laps I felt sluggish and winded, unconnected to the water I used to love,” she writes. “Then my stroke started coming back. The water started feeling heavy in my hands, like it’s supposed to. I didn’t have the dreaded sensation of just spinning my arms and not getting anywhere, like a cyclist trying to bike in too low a gear.”

After that, it was like she had never been out of the pool.

A few months after Tessa was born, Torres -- who swam right up until almost the final day of her pregnancy -- competed at the 2006 Masters World Championships at Stanford in August. On her last day at the meet, Torres was scheduled to swim the first leg of a coed 4x50-meter freestyle relay. She would be swimming her favorite distance, 50 meters. Torres broke the 50-meter freestyle world record three times in the 1980s.

Torres’ split time that day was 25.9 seconds, qualifying her for the U.S. Olympic Trials before the Beijing Games.

She and her all-star crew began training for Beijing. Lohberg was the master coach and directed Torres during each swimming workout. Anne Tierney and Steve Sierra stretched and “mashed” her -- mashing is a type of massage in which the masseuse uses his or her feet on the patient. This kept Torres’ muscles loose during those long months of intense training.

“They were my team and there was just no way I could have gotten [to Beijing] without my team,” Torres said of Tierney and Sierra. “I really couldn't have. Being flexible is extremely important. Training the way swimmers train and elite athletes train ... you definitely become tight. When you're in a pool you want to feel on top of the water and you want to feel loose. They helped me recover quicker and get ready for the next day.”

Aside from her silver medal in the 50-meter freestyle last August, Torres won two more silvers at the 2008 Olympics -- in the 4x100-meter freestyle and 4x100-meter medley races. The trio of medals brought her career total to 12 in five Olympics, tying her with Jenny Thompson for the most medals by an American woman.

So, what’s next?

Torres competed at the Austin Grand Prix in early March and won the only race she entered -- the 50-meter freestyle. She is looking forward to the U.S. Championships in July, and then the World Championships in Rome a few weeks later.

Torres currently swims 4,500-5,000 meters per week as she prepares herself for another big summer. After that, the 2011 Worlds are the next bigtime swimming meet. And of course, the London 2012 Olympics are also on the horizon. She will be 45 that year -- can her body hold up for one more Olympics?

“I think that right now I am just gearing towards Worlds,” she said. “I've endured many injuries and I am not sure yet."

But then again, age is just a number.

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alaska earthquake

2009-04-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

Alaskan earthquake shakes Anchorage in aftermath of Redoubt volcanic eruption
Even before the ash plume of the Mt Redoubt volcanic eruption clears, an unrelated 4.7 earthquake shook the Anchorage community on Tuesday afternoon. The epicenter of the Alaska earthquake was located 16 miles north of Anchorage and 9 miles northwest of Eagle River, according to the Alaska Earthquake Information Center.

Preliminary reports indicate no major structural damage and no injuries have been documented. The earthquake happened just a day after a series of earthquakes have occured world-wide, including a powerful quake with a magnitude 7.0 hit in the North Pacific ocean near the Kuril Islands, the deadly L'Aquila in central Italy and a smaller 3.0 tremor in Northern California.

Both the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii have indicated that there is no widespread tsunami threat following the coastal quakes.

While flights to Alaska were interrupted last week as a result of the Redoubt volcanic eruption, full air service has resumed and the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks are not expected to impede travel in the region.

4.7 earthquake not related to Redoubt volcano

The magnitude 4.7 earthquake that struck the Matanuska-Susitna area of Alaska Tuesday is not related to the Redoubt volcano, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO).
earthquake picture

The epicenter of the earthquake was near Big Lake, Alaska.

From the AVO website

A M 4.6 earthquake occurred roughly 20 miles north of Anchorage at 12:13 PM today (see the Alaska Earthquake Information Center for more information). The earthquake was not related to the volcanic activity.

Earthquake Details

Magnitude 4.7 (Preliminary magnitude — subject to revision)
Date-Time
* Tuesday, April 07, 2009 at 20:12:54 UTC
* Tuesday, April 07, 2009 at 12:12:54 PM at epicenter
Location 61.475°N, 149.805°W
Depth 26 km (16.2 miles) set by location program
Region SOUTHERN ALASKA
Distances
* 8 km (5 miles) SSE (147°) from Big Lake, AK
* 12 km (8 miles) WSW (242°) from Knik-Fairview, AK
* 13 km (8 miles) NNE (27°) from Point MacKenzie, AK
* 32 km (20 miles) N (356°) from Anchorage, AK
Location Uncertainty Error estimate not available
Parameters NST=013, Nph=013, Dmin=38.2 km, Rmss=0.56 sec, Gp=108°,
M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=1
Source
* West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center/NOAA/NWS
Event ID at00913517

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marie moore shooting

2009-04-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

A Florida woman fatally shot her son and then turned the gun on herself at a central Florida gun range, authorities said.

Marie Moore and her son, Mitchell, were taking target practice at a popular shooting range Sunday when, without warning, she shot him in the head and then turned the gun on herself.

Marie Moore, 44, of Altamonte Springs and her 20-year-old son, Mitchell, were sharing a firing lane at the Shoot Straight range Sunday, Casselberry police said. Shooters in an adjacent lane said the mother and son seemed to be getting along fine. A security video shows Moore walk up behind her son, point a revolver at the back of his head and fire a single shot, police said. She then put the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger.

Mitchell Moore, died at the scene. Marie, died a short time later at Florida Hospital Altamonte.

There was no argument or any other sign of a problem, said Casselberry police Lt. Dennis Stewart.

Witnesses said Moore, of Altamonte Springs, just pointed the gun at Mitchell and shot him at the range, Shoot Straight on U.S. Highway 17-92.

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sandra cantu found dead

2009-04-07T02:02:00.000-07:00

Authorities found the body of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu in a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond near her California home on Monday.

The girl had been missing since March 27 from her home in Tracy, California. Police did not identify a suspect.

News of the girl's death devastated her family, Tracy police spokesman Tony Sheneman said.

"They have just experienced the unimaginable," Sheneman said.

The day Sandra was last seen, she came home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives a couple of homes away. A short time later, she left that home to go to another friend's home, according to a spokeswoman for her family.

The child was last seen by her family wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings.

Authorities identified her body by the clothes she was wearing, Sheneman said.

Earlier in the investigation, police released surveillance video that showed the child in the mobile home park where she lives -- skipping and happily swinging her arms on the day she disappeared. They had hoped to get tips with the eight-second video.

Sandra Cantu's Body Found

Investigators said they identified Cantu's body by the clothing she was last seen wearing.The girl's cause of death hadn't been determined Monday night, but the case is considered a homicide.

Cantu, a student at Jacobson Elementary School, disappeared March 27 from inside Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park just off West Clover Road. Home security video of her released Saturday was taken shortly before she disappeared and showed the girl skipping down the road.On Monday morning, farmworkers found a black, sealed case while they were draining a pond near Bacchetti Road, about two miles from Orchard Estates.

The area is full of agricultural fields, plowed land waiting to be planted and some irrigation ditches. It's adjacent to a dairy farm.Sheneman said investigators spent hours combing the area around the pond before the suitcase was removed. They documented everything carefully, he said, photographing the scene, looking for footmarks and tire tracks and mapping the entire area with a laser device.Officials in white suits removed the luggage from the pond shortly after 5 p.m. It was loaded into a van and transported to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office in French Camp.

The luggage was taken into the county morgue where the body was identified. An autopsy will be conducted Tuesday morning.So far, no arrests have been made.Several search warrants have been executed in the case, and several people were questioned last week.A man who was questioned Friday came voluntarily to the police station, Tracy police Lt. Jeremy Watney said. He was driven to the station because he did not have transportation.On Friday evening, a witness saw a man who looked like the person who was taken in for police questioning returning to the park. He walked out of a car and went up to unit No. 43. Someone at the door gave him a hug and he walked inside. The man fit the description of a person wearing a plaid Pendleton shirt and scruffy hair who was being driven by police earlier in the day.The girl's father, Daniel Cantu, was interviewed Thursday by police in Tracy. He said he took a polygraph test. Cantu, who lives in Mexico, was also interviewed Wednesday by police.Sheneman asked that the community respect the family during this time.

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stolen cessna

2009-04-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

AP reports "authorities took 31-year-old Adam Dylan Leon into custody..." CNN reports: "the pilot, who they say is 31-year-old (Turkish born, Canadian citizen) Yavuz Berke, may have been suicidal. According to the network, he was commonly known as Adam Leon. While there was no further information on the suspect, a news report from 2008 said he apparently lost his license and vehicle for 7-days after being clocked at 160 km/hr in a 90-zone."

The stolen Cessna 172 landed near a highway in Ellsinore, Missouri (near Poplar Bluff) and the pilot was on the run.

Louisiana Air National Guard F15's were called upon as the airplane continued southbound. Officials believed, based on the flight path that the airplane could've been heading in that direction and may have had the range to make Louisiana.

(The following was written as the drama unfolded) As I write this, a stolen Cessna 172 should just about be running out of gas somewhere in southeastern Missouri. It was stolen earlier today from a flight school in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada and has been flying along at around 14,500 for a while now.

According to CTV.CA: "The small plane belongs to Confederation College's aviation program and was taken off from the Thunder Bay International Airport. According to local radio, someone jumped the fence and took off on an unauthorized flight."

That’s fairly high for a Cessna 172, odds are this pilot didn’t think to steal oxygen and a mask and if he’s passed out, this airplane must have autopilot or one of the best rigged airframes ever. It was last seen in the area of Poplar Bluff, MO.

The capitol building in Madison, WI was evacuated as the airplane flew near the area. This from Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel: " In Madison, Department of Justice spokesman Bill Cosh said "several precautions" were taken at the state Capitol after the report of the plane in state air space.

The Capitol was evacuated at about 5:10 p.m. and Capitol Police officers circled the building, telling state workers and visitors to "get as far away as possible."

FAA Says Stolen Cessna Being Tracked Over Duluth

A Cessna plane reportedly stolen from a Thunder Bay flight school has been intercepted by U.S. military aircraft.

According to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown, the plane was being tracked in the area of Duluth around 4:30 this afternoon.

Brown said the pilot of the aircraft, a student at the flight school, was not communicating with air traffic controllers.

The pilot showed no sign of hostile intent, and there are no plans to shoot down the aircraft.

We'll continue to follow this story and bring you the very latest as information becomes available.

Video from a FOX affiliate, possibly in Madison, WI

Memphis hires assistant Josh Pastner as coach

2009-04-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

Memphis has hired Josh Pastner, an assistant under John Calipari, as the Tigers' new basketball coach, a school spokesman said Monday. The university scheduled a news conference for noon Central Tuesday to introduce the 31-year-old Pastner, said athletics spokesman Bob Winn.

Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky last week after nine seasons with the Tigers.

Pastner, who is regarded to be a strong recruiter, worked one year under Calipari after six years as an assistant at Arizona, where he also played.

During Pastner's time under former Arizona coach Lute Olson, the Wildcats averaged 23 wins per season, captured two Pac-10 regular season titles, advanced to two NCAA Tournament regional finals and made six-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

In his only season at Memphis, the Tigers finished 33-4 with a Conference USA title and an NCAA regional semifinals appearance.

While in high school and college, Pastner coached AAU squads, following in the footsteps of his father, Hal Pastner, an acclaimed AAU coach in Houston, Texas.

Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson said last week that he planned to hire a new coach who would "wow" Tiger fans — one with head coaching experience. Names that surfaced during the search included Tennessee's Bruce Pearl, Baylor's Scott Drew and Florida State's Leonard Hamilton.

Memphis struggled mightily to hang on to Calipari but sought to put the best twist on his departure — saying the successful program he built was attractive enough to land one of the country's top coaches. Officials also boasted that university supporters would come up with plenty of money to pay a new coach.

Calipari was paid $2.3 million a year at Memphis and now has an eight-year contract at Kentucky worth nearly $32 million.

There was no immediate word on a Pastner's salary.

Calls from The Associated Press to Johnson and Alan Graf, a top member of the university's search team and the chief financial officer for FedEx Corp., were not returned Monday.

University officials refused to name coaches contacted about the Memphis job, but Johnson had said when word got out that Calipari was leaving his phone had been ringing off the hook. However, published reports indicated the search was not going as smoothly as the Tigers' concerned fans might have hoped.

One of the Memphis' latest contacts was with Hamilton of Florida State. The Seminoles acknowledged Monday that he had talked with the Tigers — but then announced a few hours later that Hamilton had a new five-year deal to stay in Tallahassee, Fla.

Drew issued a statement over the weekend saying he was staying at Baylor.

"Whenever your name is rumored for another job, it's a positive reflection on your hard work and respect for the job you are doing," Drew said. "At the same time, our staff wanted to rebuild Baylor into an elite basketball program and we are on the right track."

Early media reports on the Memphis search focused on Pearl, but Tennessee announced it had negotiated a new six-year contract with him.

Mike Anderson of Missouri and Southern California coach Tim Floyd were also mentioned as potential Memphis candidates. But Missouri approved a new contract for Anderson and Floyd said he was staying at USC.

Why Arizona Basketball Needs Josh Pastner To Save the Program

If Xavier’s Sean Miller, Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel, and all the other current and former coaches decide to spurn Tucson’s sunshine and stay put, Arizona Athletic Director Jim Livengood would be best served hiring a former face: 31-year old Josh Pastner.

The former Arizona walk-on, assistant coach, and for the past year an assistant and lead recruiter to John Calipari at Memphis would bring back the family atmosphere that the program has lacked the past two years.

Furthermore, Arizona is too good a program to be used by coaches to get better deals and have negative press continuously heaped upon it. Livengood needs a man who wants the job and will not use it as a stepping stone down the road.

Josh Pastner is that man.

Even as a little-used guard under Lute Olson in the mid-'90s Pastner acted more as coach than player. He was almost immediately hired to work under Olson after his eligibility ran out, and then had the foresight to leave the program for Memphis before WWIII really began in Tucson, with Lute Olson’s blessing.

Pastner is a brilliant recruiter, and has brought talent from across the west, most notably California and Texas, to the desert. His deep recruiting ties throughout the west will help Arizona face its first hurdle, its lack of essentially two years’ worth of recruits.

Whoever the head coach is next year, he will need warm bodies to fill the bench, and lots of them. While a coach should not be hired based solely on one year’s worth of recruits he could bring in, it should be noted that the star-studded Memphis recruiting class is up for grabs now that John Calipari has left for Kentucky.

Who’s to say Pastner couldn’t get one or two of them to come to Tucson? It’s not that hard of a sell.

Albeit for only one year, his apprenticeship under Calipari coupled with his near decade under Olson provides Pastner about as much preparation and knowledge possible for a career assistant. Why not go with Pastner?

The obvious, and only, negative about Pastner is his inexperience as a head coach. From an outside perspective, it is understandable to think that he should build his way up to a program of Arizona’s stature rather than beginning his career in Tucson.

This is a valid argument, however if Pastner surrounds himself with a quality, experienced coaching staff he should be able to turn Arizona Basketball around and bring it back to prominence.

First and foremost, Pastner would need an experienced lead assistant, and the most obvious choice would be Jim Rosborough, who was an assistant under Lute Olson both at Iowa and Arizona for 27 years. Other candidates should and undoubtedly would be considered, but whoever is selected must be an old and wise Yoda to Pastner’s Skywalker.

The one and only drawback to hiring Pastner is his inexperience, and having an established lead assistant will help ease the transition.

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Lincicome wins Kraft Nabisco crown

2009-04-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

Brittany Lincicome won the Kraft Nabisco Championship in Women’s Golf. Lincicome won the first major golf title of her career. Congratulations!

The 23-year-old American hit her approach shot to within 3 feet of the pin and rolled in her putt to finish with a 3-under-par 69, one shot ahead of Cristie Kerr and Kristy McPherson.

“That absolutely was the best shot of my life,” she said.

Lincicome, who had never led in the final round until the 72nd hole, trailed by three early on before her grandstand finish gave her a nine-under total of 279.

“It happened at the perfect time and moment,” she said.

Lincicome carded a final-round 69 for a nine-under total of 279 and the victory in the first women's major of 2009.

Kerr, a former US Women's Open champion, closed with a 71 and McPherson posted a 72 to finish on 280.

Down by one at the 18th tee, Lincicome belted a drive that left her 210 yards to the pin.

She hit a hybrid wedge that curled back within four feet of the hole.

"Huge shot on 18," Lincicome said. "My hands are shaking and my heart is racing. I'm trying to calm myself down by breathing or singing or whatever I can possibly do, and right when I hit it, it came off on the clubface exactly where we wanted to hit it and took the slope like I wanted it to and came really close, thank God."

McPherson, seeking her first LPGA Tour victory, led by one after 17 holes and couldn't convert a 25-footer for birdie at the last.

"Going down 18, I told my caddie, 'Tees are up, we have got to make birdie,' because Brittany is one of the few people that can hit a club in there that's going to stop where it did, and so we were just - it was a very awkward yardage," McPherson said.

"It was either a baby pitching wedge or bust a gap wedge. ... I was counting on a big kick to stride to get it close. Wanted to make the putt to take it to extra holes."

Kerr, who also was a stroke back at the 18th tee, drained her birdie putt from the fringe to put the pressure on Lincicome.

"I gave it everything I had," said Kerr, whose approach slid past the hole. "I made the putt, because a four-footer to win the tournament for eagle is a little shaky, but she got a read off me, too."

McPherson went into the round with a one-stroke lead, and had a near hole-in-one at the par-three 17th, where her tee shot bounced off the flagstick.

She missed a short birdie putt, but neither Lincicome nor Kerr could make their birdie attempts.

Australian Lindsey Wright closed with a 70 to finish in sole possession of fourth place on 282 while Norway's Suzann Pettersen (66) and Meaghan Francella (69) tied for fifth.

Defending champion Lorena Ochoa of Mexico finished eight adrift on 287, chipping in for eagle at the last to complete a 69.

Playing in the all-American final threesome, she became the first U.S. winner in the last six women’s majors. Kerr was the last to do so in the 2007 U.S. Open

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blagojevich indictment

2009-04-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

federal grand jury indicts former Governor Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges.

Federal prosecutors announced the indictment Thursday night in a press release.

Blagojevich, his brother Robert, and four others are named in the indictment, accused of corruption involving billions of dollars in state pension bonds.

The 19 count indictment contains new charges and alleges that Blagojevich and Alonzo Monk, along with Christopher Kelly and convicted felon Tony Rezko, agreed that they would use the offices of Governor and Chief of Staff for financial gain, which would be divided among them with the understanding that the money would be divided up after Blagojevich left public office.

Other than the wire taps its not clear what kind of evidence US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has, but legal experts say they wouldn't bet against him.

Reactions to ex-Ill. Gov. Blagojevich's indictment

Reaction from Illinois' elected officials and state residents to the federal indictment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich:

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"I'm saddened and hurt but I am not surprised by the indictment. I am innocent. I now will fight in the courts to clear my name. I would ask the good people of Illinois to wait for the trial and afford me the presumption of innocence that they would give to all their friends and neighbors." — Blagojevich.

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"We can only hope the former governor will not view this indictment as a green light for another publicity tour. Rod Blagojevich deserves his day in court, but the people of Illinois deserve a break." — U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

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"The indictment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich today serves as a stark reminder that enormous reforms are needed in our state." — Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross.

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"Most people I associate with who had any opinion about it, including myself, were irritated with the way he did things, the way he appeared to do things. We pretty much cheered when he was arrested." — John Olsson, a 47-year-old farmer from New Berlin. A Republican, he never voted for Blagojevich.

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"It is reassuring to see that our justice system works, but there is no joy in this indictment. Rod Blagojevich has decimated our state. And regardless of what happens to the former governor, Illinois residents will be paying for his time in office for generations to come." — Judy Baar Topinka, the Republican gubernatorial candidate defeated by Blagojevich in 2006.

***********

"I think if they make an example out of him, hopefully this curtails some of the corruption that's going on in our city and our state." — Bernie Puralewski, a 62-year-old Aurora resident who works as a manager at a Chicago hobby shop.

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"As this case moves forward, perhaps now we can close this book and begin to write a new one that speaks to the breadth of who the people of Illinois are and what they seek in the people they send to public office — honesty, integrity, truthfulness, vision and leadership." — U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.

***********

"In 2002, when Democrats came to power, we were promised this day would never happen again, but today's indictment coupled with their decision to support Rod Blagojevich for six years proves those promises were merely empty rhetoric in order to obtain and keep political power." — Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna.

***********

"Rod Blagojevich was elected and then re-elected governor based on the promise that he would reform and renew state government, but his government was more like an overloaded, malfunctioning sewage system. Now, it's up to the elected leaders in Springfield to respond to the demands of the citizens of Illinois and clean up this mess." — Cynthia Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

"Honestly, when I listened to him the very first time he ran, he really seemed like he does want to make a difference, that he's for the people of Illinois. The second time I said no way, he's a crook." _ Linda Dowdy, a 59-year-old tavern manager from Belleville and lifelong Democrat.

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sarah palin bikini video

2009-04-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

SARAH PALIN SWIMSUIT COMPETITION!! Miss Alaska Pageant 1984 …

Sarah Palin as Sarah Heath in the swimsuit competition of the 1984 Miss Alaska beauty pageant.

Here is the much viewed sarah palin bikini video, i just found out that this video is really a great hit, so im here guys to let you see the much viewed sarah palin bikini video. This video is from her participation in an alaska beauty pageant, here it is right now and Watch Sarah Palin Bikini Video.

Everyone seems to be looking for this video of Palin participating in the Miss Alaska Pageant 1984. She sure does have a way of keeping her name in the headlines.

In the video, the announcer says:

“Sarah says she wants to prepare for a career in television broadcasting by majoring in telecommunications and political science. It is no wonder that she has also been recognized by ‘Who’s Who?’ since she has displayed her leadership in all areas, from academics to student politics to athletics… Ladies and gentlemen, contestant no. 8, Sarah Heath.”

SHOT OF THE DAY

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lady gaga american idol

2009-04-01T22:37:00.000-07:00

Lady GaGa performs Poker Face on American Idol

Lady Gaga at a Liberace-ish piano filled with bubbles pounds out "Poker Face." Not my cup of tea at all, the song is very herky jerky as is she. Like her backup dancers though, they're frenetic and fun.

PEOPLE gave raves of GaGa saying of tonight’s performance:

Lady GaGa sang “Poker Face” and performed like it was the MTV Video Music Awards.

Amen to that. But TV Guide had no idea who GaGa was! TV Guide wrote the following tonight:

Lady Gaga
I told you that I’m square with music, right? I have no idea who this Gaga chick is, but she seems to enjoy fashion that makes her look like a drag queen from outer space. She’s clearly quite a force on stage and immensely talented, but it’s just not my bag, baby. Watch, the song will get stuck in my head and I’ll become the biggest Gaga fan in the world.

Wow. And the song is only number one in the U.S.

Watch Lady Gaga on Idol video below.

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Former First Daughter Getting Married with Marc Mezvinsky?

2009-04-01T18:02:00.000-07:00

Happy news for former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton!

According to the National Enquierer, their daughter, 29-year-old Chelsea Clinton, is getting married this summer!

According to the ever-reliable tabloid, Chelsea, 29, plans to tie the knot with boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky, 31, “in a lavish $1 million dream wedding.”

Marc is the son of former Iowa congressman Edward Mezvinsky and former NBC reporter and congresswoman Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky.

A source reveals “Chelsea hasn’t even admitted that she’s engaged to Marc, but that’s not stopping her from planning a wedding. She’s always dreamed of having a special wedding…”

Mezvinsky seems to be a good fit. The 31-year-old works in Wall Street and his dad is former Iowa congressman Ed Mezvinsky.

Bad part is daddy Mezvinsky has served time for investment fraud.

We hope that doesn't run in the family!

But on a good note, Ed has just been released from a halfway house and is out in time for the wedding.

A source reveals "Chelsea hasn't even admitted that she's engaged to Marc, but that's not stopping her from planning a wedding. She's always dreamed of having a special wedding, and these days that could set her parents back a million dollars, but they'd give her anything her heart desires for the event."

No definite wedding location has been set, though an insider says that "Hilton Head is a good bet because that's where she met Marc in 1993 at a Renaissance Weekend, an annual event for heavy-hitters that their families attended."

Marc and Chelsea attended Stanford University together, where they both studied finance.

If the news is true, then Congratulations to the happy couple!

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biden's daughter

2009-03-31T20:31:00.000-07:00

The video tape scandal report was broke late Saturday here on LALATE. Thomas Dunlap, then attorney for the tape’s seller, reportedly showed the tape to at least RadarOnline, claims the website. By Sunday, Dunlap reportedly ended his representation of the client, says Radar: Dunlap told RadarOnline.com early Sunday that he is no longer involved in the attempted sale of the video and informed his client he would not continue to represent him. The lawyer said he did not want to be involved due to circumstances surrounding the publicity of the matter. Joe Biden still has not commented at a summit in Chile (as of Saturday). Ashley Biden is 27, a social worker with the Delaware Department of Children, Youth and Families. Biden also sits on the board of the Delaware YWCA organization.Joe Biden’s Daughter Ashley May Be on Video Doing Drugs

Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley Biden may have been caught on video doing drugs. More specifically, Ashley is supposedly doing a line of cocaine and knows she is being videotaped. While political children and drugs may not surprise you, the shocking part is that Joe Biden, yes, the Vice President, was nicknamed the drug czar during the 80s for his stance against drugs and making anti-drug policy.

The New York Post broke the story first because someone is trying to sell them the video for $2 MILLION dollars. And the Post doesn’t want to get caught up in a legal mess if the tape is not Ashley Biden snorting coke, but they did want to get the scoop out first. They say:

A “friend” of Vice President Joseph Biden’s daughter, Ashley, is attempting to hawk a videotape that he claims shows her snorting cocaine at a house party this month in Delaware.

Dunlap and a man claiming to be a lawyer showed The Post about 90 seconds of 43-minute tape, saying it was legally obtained and that Ashley was aware she was being filmed. The Post refused to pay for the video.

The video, which the shooter initially hoped to sell for $2 million before scaling back his price to $400,000, shows a 20-something woman with light skin and long brown hair taking a red straw from her mouth, bending over a desk, inserting the straw into her nostril and snorting lines of white powder.

Biden has been an outspoken crusader against drugs, coining the term “drug czar” in 1982 while campaigning for a more forceful “war on drugs.”

So how soon do you think this will be shushed up? You know if this was one of George Bush’s daughters, all kinds of screaming in the media would follow. Will they do the same for the Biden’s?

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conficker worm

2009-03-31T18:32:00.000-07:00

The "Conficker" worm is live within Australia, security vendors have confirmed, where it is April 1. At this point, however, it remains quiescent.

Security company Trend Micro has seen the Conficker or Downadup worm increase the number of DNS resolutions, as expected, said Paul Ferguson, the lead researcher for security intelligence, advanced threats research. At this point, however, the worm has taken no other action.

Conficker is expected to hit the United States on Wednesday, April 1. But it is already a day ahead across the international date line, where Conficker is waking up.

In recent days, the prevailing attitude toward Conficker has turned away from a threat that could wreak havoc upon the Internet, more toward an event that needs to be closely monitored, but not necessarily feared. In part, that's because a signature has been identified and a scanner developed. Security analysts have also developed a list of actions to take to mitigate the effects of Conficker and similar worms.

Conficker preys upon a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows that was patched in October, although the worm does take a number of actions to try and shut down antivirus programs and prevent them from updating. The Apple Macintosh OS X operating system is completely immune.

So far, however, Conficker has laid low. "We've seen some host resolution in our honeypot systems, they're doing that," Ferguson said. "But aside from doing the expected DNS resolution, we haven't really seen anything else."

A spokesman from Symantec also said that the company's researchers haven't noted any malicious activity.

On April 1, according to security researchers, Conficker is scheduled to determine the local time, about once every 24 hours, to determine if it is in fact April 1 or later. At that time, the worm begins to generate a list of 50,000 domains, of which it checks about 500 or so for what researchers assume to be a digitally signed payload. What that payload is or what it will order the Conficker machines to do is unknown.

"The most commonly accepted thinking is that this is nothing more than just an effort to build survivability into the system," Ferguson said.

So what is Conficker? At this point, no one knows. But more and more researchers seem to be thinking that the number of infected Conficker machines will turn out to be a botnet, that can be ordered to attack servers or networks owned by governments or enterprises.

"I think it's just the Storm guys trying to build a bullet-proof botnet," said Roger Thompson, the chief research officer of AVG Technologies, in an instant-message conversation. "I always thought it was a corp/gov/edu problem."

Protect Your Windows PC from the Conficker Worm

The Conficker worm has infected millions of Windows computers—and is set to be unleashed on April 1st, 2009. Here's what you need to know to keep yourself safe.

How Does It Spread?

The worm originally started spreading using a network attack against the file sharing services in Windows, but since it can automatically update itself, it adapted to spread through the autoplay feature on removable media like USB thumb drives, by adding a new option to open where you see "publisher not specified". This allows the worm to spread to systems already patched against the original vulnerability, so using anti-virus software is even more important, because once it's on your computer it can spread further.

Is My Computer Affected?

Most anti-virus software has already been able to detect and remove the Conficker worm for a while now, so you are probably not at risk as long as you keep up with your updates and have real-time scanning enabled.

To actually detect and remove the worm, you can use the freely available Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool that can remove a large number of viruses—for a full guide, I've also written an article on how to scan and remove malicious viruses.

How Do I Stay Safe?

Staying safe from this, and many other viruses and worms, requires a combination of keeping your computer updated and using anti-virus software. Here's a couple of quick tips to follow:

Make sure your system is fully patched using Windows Update, and update MS08-067 has been applied.
Make sure your anti-virus is fully updated, enabled, and you've run a full scan.
Make sure you are using strong passwords (see our guide to choosing great passwords).
Disable the AutoPlay feature—which Conficker uses to infect systems.
Make sure your firewall is enabled when you are on untrusted networks.
Make sure your data is backed up—if you aren't sure what to use, see our five best Windows backup tools.

Keeping your system and your data safe is extremely important, so make sure to take some time out of your day to keep your system patched, updated, and virus-free. Hit the link for Microsoft's explanation of the situation, or check out my article on scanning and removing malicious viruses for the walk-through approach.
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Andrew Bynum at Playboy Mansion

2009-03-31T18:10:00.000-07:00

Goodness gracious this guy is brilliant. Last everyone heard, Andrew Bynum was weeks away from being ready to get back on the court with the Lake Show. But this past Saturday, Bynum was at the Playboy Mansion, picking playmates up onto his shoulders, jumping over velvet ropes - basically running through the Mansion as if it were an obstacle course.

Therein lies his genius: even though he was partying poolside while his teammates were prepping for the Hawks, no one can really get mad at him now that he’s officially ready to return. Is anyone in L.A. really going to waste time yelling at AB when they could be bringing him back into the fold?

Was it a good idea for Bynum to be photographed serving as a Bunny saddle while he's rehabbing an injured knee? Probably not. But on the Official Lakers Blog Danger Scale it barely moves the needle, in part because that girl looks like she weighs about a buck ten, max. I'm including the ears. It's not like Bynum scooped her up then set off to hike Kilimanjaro.

Still, there are things he could have put on his shoulders that would have been hazardous to his health, and by extension a championship for the Lakers. Heavy things. Poisonous things. Burdensome or irresponsible things. Mark Cuban. Jerome James. Jabba the Hut. Angry cobras. The collective poor decisions of Nicholas Cage, stateside and overseas. And so on. Your mission, therefore, is to create such images in the first ever Lakers Blog Photoshop Contest!

He picked up Playmate Nicole Narain and placed her on his shoulders and got somebody to take a picture with his digital camera.

Upper-body strength, check.

He hopped over a velvet rope near the DJ booth so he could take a picture with Narain and other Playmates who ended up sitting on his lap.

Jumping ability, check.

He sidestepped a few of the roaming cameras and got down with some Playmates on the checkered dance floor set up in the backyard.

Lateral movement, check.

Later, with lines around the bar getting longer, he pulled out a bottled beverage from one pocket and four plastic cups from another and offered up drinks to three Playmates who were with him.

Ability to adjust to game situations, check.

And maybe the best part of this whole thing is how eerily similar Bynum looks like Tracy Morgan in that photo. But if his physique has gotten anything like Morgan’s, maybe he isn’t quite ready to return.

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mcdonalds all americans 2009

2009-03-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

Everyone is well aware of the tradition of the McDonald’s All-American Game. Countless young men and women have played in this event over the years and have gone on to be very productive members of society. Some have gone on to become stars in basketball here in America and abroad.

USTE will be in Miami, FL watching the stars of tomorrow this week as we have been giving full media credentials to cover this event. USTE will be giving its readers the kind of insight that only we do here on our site. Look for our exclusive pics, audio and scoop in the coming days.

Bradley takes slam dunk contest

Texas-bound guard Avery Bradley won the McDonald's All-American slam dunk contest.

Ryan Kelly and Skylar Diggins won the 3-point shootout while Dante Taylor and China Crosby took the skills competition.

Bradley, from Puyallup, Wash., defeated Mason Plumlee and Derrick Favors in the finals.

Bradley earned a perfect score in the first round with two impressive dunks. On his first dunk he was on the baseline, caught the ball off the bounce, and did an impressive double-pump reverse dunk. On his second dunk he caught it off the bounce again and did a one-handed windmill.

"I talked to my friends to find out what dunks I was going to do," Bradley said. "I made it and I knew those dunks were going to give me perfect scores."

His best dunk in the final was when he threw it off the backboard, caught it in mid-air, and did another windmill.

Favors and Plumlee each recorded perfect scores on dunks in the first round, but were unable to put together a top score in the finals to pass Bradley.

But Plumlee tried as he picked up three balls and twice attempted to dunk all three at the same time.

"I didn't know what to think, but if he would have made it, he would have won it," Bradley said.

USC's Demar DeRozan won last year's dunk contest. Other former winners include LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter.

Former NBA star Dominique Wilkins, NFL stars Ed Reed, Shawne Merriman and Steve Smith as well as Grammy-Award winning singer Jon Secada were among the judges in the dunk contest.

Kelly, a 6-foot-10 shooter from Raleigh, N.C. who is headed to Duke, defeated Tommy Mason-Griffin 20-18 in the finals.

Diggins, bound for Notre Dame, defeated TaShauna Rodgers in the finals on the girls side.

"Someone said just shoot it and have fun with it," Diggins said.

Taylor defeated Milton Jennings in the finals of the skills competition and Crosby defeated Dara Taylor.

"It's big for me because I'm a big man and I don't really do guard stuff like that," said the 6-foot-9 Taylor.

The McDonald's All-American games are on Wednesday.

Asheville's Mason Plumlee finishes second in McDonald's All American slam dunk contest

Asheville's Mason Plumlee, of Christ School, is headed to Duke University to play basketball and competed in the McDonald's All American slam dunk contest, called the Powerade Jam Fest, on Monday night. Going up against some stiff competition, he finished second.

Plumlee showed some real power and athleticism. He'll be fun to watch at Dook.

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Tony Bennett Headed to Virginia

2009-03-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Not to be one-upped by that slick man John Calipari, Tony Bennett has gone from … Washington State to … Virginia?

Washington State men's basketball coach Tony Bennett will be named the new coach at the University of Virginia.

Bennett told WSU president Elson S. Floyd and athletic director Jim Sterk this afternoon that he has taken the job. Later, Bennett told his players of his decision.

Sterk said Virginia asked for permission to speak to Bennett on Friday.

"Dick and Tony Bennett have elevated the men's basketball program at Washington State to an unprecedented level of success," Sterk said. "We will begin a national search for a coach immediately with the goal of finding someone with the integrity, experience, and values that Dick and Tony brought to the program."

Dick Bennett was hired as WSU's coach in 2003, and after three seasons his son, Tony, was elevated from assistant coach to the head-coaching spot.

Dave Leitao resigned at Virginia two weeks ago after a 10-18 season, the Cavaliers' worst in more than 40 years. Leitao had coached at Virginia for four seasons.

Bennett was a hot item a year ago after taking the Cougars to a second straight NCAA tournament. He turned down a chance to go to Indiana, and also rebuffed advances from Marquette and LSU.

Meanwhile,In the Charlottesville Daily Progress has broken the story and indulged in a bit of hyperbole.

According to sources, he has been described as “a young Mike Krzyzewski” and has previously turned down offers from LSU, Marquette and Indiana.

Yeah. Not quite. The offers thing is true, but that’s because Indiana was going through a massive overhaul and the other two jobs aren’t necessarily better than Washington State.

But, apparently Charlottesville is.

But Bennett is a good coach, and I don’t know if it says more that Wazzu had a down year and he was still wanted for a new job, or if UVa has gotten to a point where its taking coaches from the middle of nowhere to lead the program.

This year, the Cougars fell back to a 17-16 overall record and a one-game appearance in the NIT.

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april fools day

2009-03-30T06:27:00.000-07:00

April Fool's Day Recession Buster Dinner at Boston restaurant

Does a $22 dollar filet mignon dinner for two sound too good to be true? A Boston restaurant claims to be offering this deal on April Fool's Day as an anniversary special.

Burtons Grill, located at 1363 Boylston Street in Boston's Back Bay, announced that it is offering a special dinner for two including: two Filet Mignons for $22, in celebration of the restaurant's two year anniversary on Wednesday, April 1, 2009, from 5:00PM - 10:00PM only.

The offer does not appear to be an April Fool's Day prank. CEO Kevin Harron says it is valid for parties of two who make a reservation by calling the restaurant at: 617-236-2236 and asking for "The 2-Year Anniversary Special."

Two Filtet MIgnons for $22: such a deal

The special offer includes: two 9 ounce filet mignons with two baked potatoes for only $22.00. Gratuity and tax are not included and the offer cannot be used in with any other discounts or promotions.

"People have cut back on dining out and we wanted to do something that would show gratitude to our loyal customers... and also hopefully introduce our brand to new customers," said Kevin Harron, CEO of Burtons Grill in a news release.

According to Harron, diners can take advantage of this one special promotion only at Burton's Grill's Boston location. The restaurant serves lunch, drinks and dining. The cuisine is described as "upscale and eclectic" Many menu items are naturally gluten-free, according to information on the website. The restaurant will also adapt other dishes, and has partnered with Gluten-Free Restaurant Awareness Program. Vegetarian dishes are also available.

Burton's Grill Location near Fenway Park

Burton's Grill is about two blocks from Fenway Park and is also fairly close to the Longwood Medical area. The 280-seat restaurant also has a seasonal outdoor patio and garage parking. Hours of operations are: Mon - Thu: 11:30 am - 10 pm, Fri - Sat: 11:30 am - 11 pm, Sun: 11:30 am - 9 pm.

On Red Sox game night, Burton's is open one hour later. Reservations and walk-ins are welcome and take-out is also available. For more information, please call 617.236.2236 or visit the restaurant's website.

April Fools Day virus - protect yourself now

By now, you have surely heard about the virus that’s due to attack computer users on April Fools Day. The virus known as the Conficker Worm is said to be one of the deadliest viruses to hit the internet in a long time.

The threat is so great that Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the attacker.

There is very little that is known about the virus other than the fact that it is triggered by the date of April 1, which is April Fools Day. There is however a lot of speculation and conjecture going on around the internet regarding the Conficker Worm.

I’ve heard that if infected your computer might shoot out spam from your email address, I’ve heard that if infected it will install child pornography on your computer, I’ve heard so many different things it’s hard to separate fact from fiction.

One thing that I know for sure, if you want to protect yourself from this virus, make sure that your Microsoft Windows software is updated. If you have not updated in a while or if you have never updated, you can update your software here.

If you have virus software installed on your computer, make sure that’s updated as well. If you don’t have some form of virus protection software installed, I recommend, AVG and AVAST. Both are free to use and do a very good job of protecting your computer.

Once April Fools Day rolls around and you feel that you somehow were infected, or if you want to check to make sure that you are not infected, you can check by pointing your browser towards f-secure.com, secureworks.com, microsoft.com or other security sites.

If you get a "page cannot be displayed" error for all the sites, there's a good chance they are blocked by Conficker or similar malware on your PC.

To remove the worm or virus, you can do so by downloading one of the removal tools below.

F-Secure removal utility ftp://193.110.109.53/anti-virus/tools/beta/f-downadup.zip

McAfee's removal tool http://67.97.80.71/vil/conficker_stinger/Stinger_Coficker.exe

I recommend updating your virus software and scanning your computer for worms and viruses on a consistent basis. There is always some type of new attack going on, it is best to protect your computer just in case.

How to Make Work More Fun This April Fool's Day

The guy next to you just got laid off. You're doing two jobs -- likely three by next Tuesday. No raise in sight. It's time for office hijinks to ease the pain--because we all could use a little laughter. A new book from Adams Media, THE ULTIMATE OFFICE PRANK BOOK by Mae B. Fired promises to make cubicle life more fun this April Fool's Day -- no matter how dire the economic outlook might be.

Whether it's filling the vending machine with a coworker's desk supplies, attaching fishing wire to phones and keyboards, or putting gelatin in the toilets, a good office prank can lighten the mood quicker than your boss can utter "cost-cutting controls." Split into chapters labeled Entry-Level, Middle Management, and Executive, jokesters are entertained with over 200 increasingly dangerous pranks. A collection that is bound to improve any April Fool's Day, THE ULTIMATE OFFICE PRANK BOOK saves the recession-dreary day.

Mae B. Fired is the pseudonym of three notorious office pranksters who found that setting out on their own business ventures was safer than risking a long career of pink slips in the corporate world.

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patti davis playboy

2009-03-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

Patti Davis and her mother, former First Lady Nancy Reagan, were interviewed by Lesley Stahl this morning on "CBS Sunday Morning" and there is good news to report: after many years of being estranged, the two have reconciled and their relationship is steadily improving. But Nancy Davis's appearance on the show has also triggered the resurfacing of the Patti Davis Playboy pictures.

Patti Davis Playboy Pictures: How Did Her Parents Respond?

During her interview on CBS Sunday Morning, Patti Davis said that her relationship with her mother improved after she issued her an apology: "I said, 'I know I've caused you pain. It was never my intention to do so...But I know I did and I want you to know I'm sorry." Did Patti Davis's appearance in Playboy cause her mother (and father) pain? It would be reasonable to assume that it did. At the very least, the Patti Davis Playboy pictures had to have been a great source of disappointment and embarrassment for President and Mrs. Reagan.Patti Davis Posed for Playboy: One of Many Acts of Rebellion

That Patti Davis posed for Playboy is solid evidence that she did not embrace the conservatism that her father President Ronald Reagan came to symbolize. But it is only one of many examples. Here are a few more: she smoked marijuana, she shacked up with Bernie Leadon of the Eagles, and she was a nuclear freeze activist. ... "She thinks I am wrong and that she is against everything I stand for," wrote President Reagan of Patti in his autobiography.

Patti Davis says that her relationship with her mother, though greatly improved, is far from perfect. "[It's] not like a Hallmark card. It wasn't suddenly everything is just fine and pink and rosy. It's not like there are never moments of pushing buttons," said Davis.

Patti Davis Biography

Patricia Ann Reagan was born on October 21, 1952 in Los Angeles, CA. She is 56 years old. Her parents are former President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Davis Reagan. She has two brothers, Ron Reagan and Michael Reagan who was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Reagan shortly after his birth in 1945. Her half-sister, Maureen Reagan, the daughter of Ronald Reagan and actress Jane Wyatt, recently died from cancer.

Davis dropped her father’s name “Reagan,” using her mother’s maiden name, becoming Patti Davis. The name change was in protest of her father’s political views. Davis says she was never really angry at President Reagan, but was angry at his “job choice.”

Patti Davis is an actress, author, singer and a Playboy Playmate. After facial cosmetic surgery, she posed nude in July 1994 for the cover of Playboy magazine and a centerfold spread at the age of 42. You can view the Playboy cover here. Her second venture with Hugh Hefner’s Playboy was making a kick boxing video with a male kick boxer in 1995.

She married her yoga instructor, Paul Grilley in 1984 and they divorced in 1990. Some publications say that she married Paul Hayeland in 1993; most have no mention of this marriage. According to People Magazine, Davis had a tubal ligation to prevent pregnancy. The magazine quoted her saying she was fearful of passing on her parents genes. Some reports say that the tubal ligation was reversed in 1986.

Davis saw little of her parents during their years in the White House, although when President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley in 1981, Mrs. Reagan reached out to her daughter. Patty said that was when she realized how frail her mother was.

The relationship with her mother began to mend when President Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and has been on on-going work in progress since.

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GM CEO Rick Wagoner Resigns

2009-03-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

The chairman and chief executive of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, resigned Sunday as part of a broad agreement with the Obama administration to funnel more government aid to the ailing auto giant, according to people close to the decision.

Mr. Wagoner, who has served as G.M.’s top executive since 2000, agreed to step down after it was requested by the president’s auto task force, these people said.

G.M. had no immediate comment on the sudden development, which came on the eve of Mr. Obama’s announcement on Monday that is to detail his rescue plans for G.M., Chrysler and the larger American auto industry.

But people in the company said G.M. would issue a statement on Mr. Wagoner after the president unveiled his plan in Washington.

The president’s task force is expected to recommend more short-term aid for G.M. and Chrysler, but with tight strings on the money and a deadline on getting concessions from union workers and creditors.

A person with direct involvement in the auto bailout discussions said the new deadline would be April 30.

“Thirty days from now, there will either be a bankruptcy or the naming of a chief restructuring officer who will have government authority to ‘knock heads together,’” this person said of G.M. In addition, the government must come up with a backup guarantee on loan for G.M. to operate in bankruptcy because the banks will not do it.

G.M. and Chrysler have almost exhausted the $17.4 billion in federal aid the two companies have received since December. G.M. has asked for up to an additional $16.6 billion, and Chrysler has requested an additional $5 billion.

According to people close to the talks, the task force will treat G.M. and Chrysler differently with respect to their overhlaul plans and aid requests.

Mr. Wagoner was not available for comment, according to people at G.M. As recently as March 18 he said in an interview that he did not consider his job at stake in his discussions with the president’s auto task force. “They so far haven’t commented on that,” he said.

Mr. Wagoner, a graduate of Duke University and the Harvard Business School, vaulted into Detroit’s consciousness in 1992, when he was named G.M.’s chief financial officer at the age of 38.

He was a protégé of G.M.’s former chief executive, John F. Smith Jr., who ran the company after Robert C. Stempel resigned in October 1992. Mr. Wagoner stepped in when G.M.’s purchasing chief, Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, left for Volkswagen in 1993.

A year later, Mr. Wagoner was named president of G.M.’s North American operations, and was elevated to president of the company and its chief operating officer in 1998. He succeeded Mr. Smith as chief executive in 2000, and became G.M.’s chairman in 2003.

Mr. Wagoner followed Mr. Smith in expanding G.M.’s operations outside the United States. In 2007, G.M. sold more vehicles outside North American than it did in its core market, in part because of Mr. Wagoner’s aggressive pursuit of sales in China, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

But G.M.’s share of its most important market, the United States, declined steadily under Mr. Wagoner. In 1994, when he took charge of North America, G.M. held 33.2 percent of the American market. Last month, G.M. held only 18.8 percent of American auto sales, according to statistics from Motorintelligence.com, which specializes in industry data. Auto sales in February were the worst for the industry since 1981.

Shortly after taking the chief executive’s job, Mr. Wagoner predicted that G.M. could earn as much as $10 a share by the middle of the decade, because of efforts the company expected to take to cut its costs, transform its operations and build its business.

Last year, Mr. Wagoner led the celebration for G.M.’s 100th birthday, promising to steer the automaker into its next century with new technology and a renewed vigor. But G.M. collapsed last fall when new-vehicle sales in the United States plummeted to their lowest level in 25 years. G.M. lost more than $30 billion in 2008, and has been subsisting on government loans since the beginning of the year.

As G.M.’s biggest defender over the years, Mr. Wagoner has long been the target of critics including shareholders.

“He’s a victim of problems that his predecessors did not solve, but he’s also responsible for where G.M. is today,” Mr. Useem said.

Bill Vlasic reported from Detroit and Sheryl Gay Stolberg from Washington. Micheline Maynard contributed reporting from Detroit.

In a meanwhile others newspaper and media also reported about the Rick Wagoner Resign.CNBC first reported that Wagoner would step down, adding that GM did not confirm or deny the report.

Politico is reporting that the Obama administration asked GM CEO Rick Wagoner to step down:

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

And the Wall Street Journal reports the same:

An administration official confirmed that Mr. Wagoner was asked to step down by the administration as a precondition for ongoing restructuring within the company.

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earth hour 2009

2009-03-28T07:29:00.000-07:00

Sydney first major city to mark Earth Hour 2009

The floodlit cream shells of the famed Opera House dimmed Saturday as Sydney became the world's first major city to plunge itself into darkness for the second worldwide Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

From the Great Pyramids to the Acropolis, the London Eye to the Las Vegas strip, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries planned to join in the World Wildlife Fund-sponsored event, a time zone-by-time zone plan to dim nonessential lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Involvement in the effort has exploded since last year's Earth Hour, which drew participation from 400 cities after Sydney held a solo event in 2007. Interest has spiked ahead of planned negotiations on a new global warming treaty in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December. The last global accord, the Kyoto Protocol, is set to expire in 2012.

Despite the boost in interest from the Copenhagen negotiations, organizers initially worried enthusiasm for this year's event would wane with the world's attention focused largely on the global economic crisis, Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley told The Associated Press. Strangely enough, he said, it's seemed to have the opposite effect.

"Earth Hour has always been a positive campaign; it's always around street parties, not street protests, it's the idea of hope not despair. And I think that's something that's been incredibly important this year because there is so much despair around," he said. "On the other side of it, there's savings in cutting your power usage and being more sustainable and more efficient."

In Australia, people attended candlelit speed-dating events and gathered at outdoor concerts as the hour of darkness rolled through the country. Sydney's glittering harbor was bathed in shadows as lights dimmed on the steel arch of the city's iconic Harbour Bridge and the nearby Opera House.

Earlier Saturday, the Chatham Islands, a group of small islands about 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of New Zealand, officially kicked off Earth Hour by switching off its diesel generators. Soon after, the lights of Auckland's Sky Tower, the tallest man-made structure in New Zealand, blinked off.

Forty-four New Zealand towns and cities participated in the event, and more than 60,000 people showed up for an Earth Hour-themed hot air ballooning festival in the city of Hamilton.

At Scott Base in Antarctica, New Zealand's 26-member winter team resorted to minimum safety lighting and switched off appliances and computers.

China was participating in the campaign for the first time, with Beijing turning off the lights at its Bird's Nest Stadium and Water Cube, the most prominent venues for the Olympics, according to WWF. Shanghai was also cutting lights in all government buildings and other structures on its waterfront, while Hong Kong, Baoding, Changchun, Dalian, Nanjing and Guangzhou were also participating, WWF said.

However, the official WWF Earth Hour Web site appeared to be blocked in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin on Saturday afternoon. While China rarely gives reasons for blocking Web sites, the campaign coincided with the 50th anniversary of the suppression of an uprising in Tibet that forced the Dalai Lama to go into exile.

In Hong Kong, the government planned to suspend its nightly "Symphony of Lights," which beams lasers and lights into the sky from 44 buildings on the city's famed Victoria Harbor. Landmarks along the harbor also were to switch off nonessential lights for an hour.

Later Saturday, Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva planned to press a button to turn off the lights at Khao San Road, a famous haven for budget travelers in Bangkok that is packed with bars and outdoor cafes.

Lights were to go down at the Grand Palace and other riverside monuments, and businesses along some of the Thai capital's busiest boulevards were also asked to participate, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said in a statement.

The capital hoped to reduce electricity consumption in the city of more than 8 million people by at least 30 percent — or 1,400 megawatts — during the event. Earth Hour organizers say there's no uniform way to measure how much energy is saved worldwide.

Earth Hour 2009 has garnered support from global corporations, nonprofit groups, schools, scientists and celebrities — including Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett and retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

McDonald's Corp. planned to dim its arches at 500 locations around the Midwest in the United States. The Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont hotel chains and Coca-Cola Co. also planned to participate.

Bosch Powers Down During Earth Hour 2009

30 Bosch facilities will turn off the lights for one hour on March 28, 2009 at 8:30 p.m. local time in recognition of World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Earth Hour 2009. Earth Hour is a global initiative of the WWF, where individuals, businesses and governments turn off their lights for one hour to show support for action on climate change. Amongst others, Bosch's facilities in Farmington Hills and Plymouth, Mich. will be dark for 60 minutes. The Bosch Group global headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, participated in WWF's Earth Hour 2008.

Globally, Bosch is committed to environmental stewardship through its site practices and product development. The Bosch Group has established a target of decreasing CO2 emissions among its worldwide manufacturing operations by at least 25 percent against 2007 levels by 2020. In addition to participating in Earth Hour 2009, Bosch has partnered with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (www.wbcsd.org), a coalition of companies dedicated to pursuing sustainable growth.

In 2008, the company joined the Chicago Climate Exchange and committed to reducing direct greenhouse gas emissions at its US operations by six percent by 2010, compared to a baseline from the year 2000.

"In the U.S., Bosch is working diligently to create more effective energy and sustainability practices," said John Mirsky, vice president, technical and engineering services, Robert Bosch LLC. "We encourage all associates to participate in environmentally-responsible practices in the office, including recycling and energy conservation."

"In addition to implementing eco-conscious measures within our sites, Bosch continues to develop energy-efficient technologies, even in the difficult times we currently face," said Peter Marks, chairman, president and CEO, Robert Bosch LLC. "For the past two years, more than 40 percent of our R&D was directed at products that help protect the environment and conserve natural resources."

Ecology is one of the pillars of Bosch's success and has been a key driver for many product innovations, not only automotive powertrain technology, but systems utilizing renewable energies - from gearboxes for wind turbines to ground source heat pumps, and from solar collectors to photovoltaics. Examples of Bosch sustainable technology include:

USA: West Memphis, AR; Santa Barbara, CA; Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, FL; Albion, IN; Farmington Hills, Plymouth and St. Joseph, MI; Burnsville and Glencoe, MN; Londonderry, NH; South Plainfield, NJ; Fairport, NY; Lincolnton and Raleigh, NC; Pittsburgh and Somerset, PA; Charleston, SC; Johnson City and Knoxville, TN; Waitsfield and Williston, VT

Mexico: Aguascalientes, Juarez, Mexicali and San Luis Potosi

Canada: Mississauga, Ontario

About Bosch

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. According to preliminary figures, some 282,000 associates generated sales of roughly 45 billion euros in the areas of automotive and industrial technology, consumer goods, and building technology in fiscal 2008. The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its more than 300 subsidiaries and regional companies in over 60 countries. If its sales and service partners are included, then Bosch is represented in roughly 150 countries. This worldwide development, manufacturing, and sales network is the foundation for further growth. Each year, Bosch spends more than three billion euros for research and development, and applies for over 3,000 patents worldwide. With all its products and services, Bosch enhances the quality of life by providing solutions which are both innovative and beneficial.

In North America, the Bosch Group manufactures and markets automotive original equipment and aftermarket products, industrial automation and mobile products, power tools and accessories, security technology, thermo-technology, packaging equipment and household appliances. Bosch employs approximately 25,000 associates in more than 70 locations throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with reported sales of $9.5 billion in fiscal 2007. For more information on the company, visit www.boschusa.com.

jeffrey Dean Morgan Sherrie Rose Baby!

2009-03-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

Denny Duquette is suddenly a daddy!

Former Grey's Anatomy star Jeffrey Dean Morgan, 42, recently found out that he has a child with actress/producer Sherrie Rose, Us Weekly reveals in its newest issue.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, 42, whose acting credits include “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Watchmen”, has a secret son. Sherrie Rose, Morgan’s former girlfriend, gave birth to a baby fathered by Morgan.

Sherrie Rose had been harbouring her well kept secret until now. Sherrie Rose decided to come clean and admit to US Weekly that she has a son, 4 years old, fathered by Morgan.

Mary Louise Parker was Morgan’s on and off fiancee. The couple has broken off their engagement twice.

Yes, I have a 4-year-old son with Jeffrey," Rose tells Usmagazine.com.

A source adds that the Watchmen star learned of the boy a few weeks ago and has since met him.

"He's shocked and surprised, but he wants to be in the child's life," the source tells Us.
Rose is an ex-girlfriend of Morgan's. The actor is also known for his relationship with his former fiancee, Mary-Louise Parker. They began dating in 2006 after meeting on the set of her Showtime series, Weeds, but she called off their engagement in April 2008.

shane mcconkey dead

2009-03-26T18:21:00.000-07:00

Extreme skiier and base jumping pro Shane McConkey has died in a ski-base accident while filming his latest movie in Italy..Shane McConkey the legendary skier died in a Ski Base Jumping accident in Italian Dolomites

A member of the Red Bull Air Force and pioneer of the ski-BASE-ing phenomena, McConkey experienced problems in the air after launching off a cliff with the expectation of deploying his parachute canopy and then soaring down to the ground—as he had done successfully some 700 plus times before.

McConkey started as a competitive freestyle skier, them moved on to extreme skiing movies. He won several national and international skiing competitions, including the X Games and World Extreme Skiing Championships, but became best known for combining base jumping with skiing.

According to ESPN, McConkey experienced problems in the air after launching off a cliff with the expectation of deploying his parachute canopy and then gliding down to the ground. A witness said a ski failed to come off in the air, causing McConkey to spin out of control, preventing him from deploying his parachute.

McConkey is survived by his wife, Sherry, and their 3½-year-old daughter Ayla.

Further details concerning McConkey's death is not yet disclosed.

montana plane crash

2009-03-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

A single-engine plane, reported to be carrying children on a ski vacation to the Rocky Mountains, crashed on approach to an airport in western Montana on Sunday.

At least 17 people have died in a plane crash in Montana in the United States, according to reports.

Preliminary reports indicated the dead include numerous children, the Federal Aviation Administration said. "We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids."

A photograph taken by an eyewitness moments after the crash and broadcast on CNN showed a fireball blazing through a grove of trees near a cemetery a short distance from the Bert Mooney Airport in Butte, Montana, where the plane went down.

A reporter from the Montana Standard newspaper cited local emergency officials as saying the plane was carrying a group of young children en route to a ski vacation in Bozeman, Montana, southeast of the crash site and about 50 miles north of Yellowstone National Park.

An FAA spokesman in Seattle, Mike Fergus, put the preliminary death toll from the crash at 17 people. He said there was no indication of any survivors on the plane, nor of casualties on the ground.

He said authorities on the scene had reported to the FAA that a number of children were on the plane.

A Los Angeles-based FAA official said the plane had taken off from the northern California town of Oroville, and crashed on final approach at the airport in Butte.

A spokesman said the small plane, a single engine turboprop Pilatus PC-12, departed from Orville, California, and that the pilot had filed a flight plan showing a final destination of Bozeman.

The plane crashed about 500 feet from the airport while attempting to land and caught on fire. There were no known fatalities on the ground.

An official of the Butte-Silver Bow County Fire Department reached by telephone declined comment, as did an airport spokesman, both of whom referred queries back to the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.

NTSB officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

walmart gang initiation

2009-03-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

A internet hoax dating back to 2005 has caused drama in Thomasville, Georgia including media coverage and public warnings.

The “Walmart gang initiation” hoax takes several forms, but usually involves gang members planning to kill black women at a local Walmart as an initiation for new gang members.

Being incapable of using Google, WCTV followed up a copy of the email with calls to local and state police. Turns out that local police also had the email and were incapable of using Google, because they put out and alert and increased patrols. The gang task force took a strong interest and went on high alert for a possible shooting. Your taxpayer dollars at work.

Here in Southern California, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department alerted deputies in a countywide general broadcast that Internet-based rumors concerning a possible gang initiation in which women are indiscriminately selected to be killed outside Walmarts have no credibility, said Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez.

"We take everything very seriously until we can evaluate what the issue is," he said.

After receiving information from Murrieta police indicating the e-mail messages were part of an urban myth started four years ago, the sheriff's department made sure personnel knew in case any calls came in on the subject, Gutierrez said.

Police agencies in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri and Texas have received calls from concerned citizens. Delaware State Police apparently were inundated with calls.

The threatening emails were first circulated in the Memphis area in 2005, according to Snopes.com , a Web site that tracks urban legends.

There are also reports on the email circulating in other parts of the United States. Here’s the only thing you need to know: it’s a 100% proven hoax.

natasha richardson life support

2009-03-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

The family of Natasha Richardson is reported to have taken her off life support Wednesday afternoon after a skiing accident left her brain dead.

Richardson was surrounded by family including her mother Vanessa Redgrave, aunt Lynn Redgrave, husband Liam Neeson and her two sons Michael 13, and Daniel 12.

Richardson was flown to New York yesterday to be close to family and friends. Initial reports suggested that she was in a serious condition, although TMZ was alone in denying the reports. With life support switched off, it’s believed that she won’t last the night.

Since her arrival, Neeson and the couple's two sons had been keeping vigil. Also paying visits were members of Richardson's family, including her mother, Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave, sister Joely Richardson and aunt Lynn Redgrave.

“It’s particularly tragic for Vanessa,” laments a Richardson confidante, “because she just finished playing a woman who loses her daughter in The Year of Magical Thinking, and now she has to endure it all over again.”

"[Richardson] was accompanied by an experienced ski instructor who immediately called the ski patrol," a statement from the Mont Tremblant resort said. "She did not show any visible sign of injury, but the ski patrol followed strict procedures and brought her back to the bottom of the slope and insisted she should see a doctor."

Resort spokeswoman Catherine Lacasse said that the actress was not wearing a ski helmet for her lesson. Reports say she was with her two sons with Neeson, Micheal Richard Antonio, 13, and Daniel Jack, 12, and returned to her hotel room shortly afterward.

"She was laughing and joking, and she walked to her room on her own," Lacasse said.

An hour later, Richardson fell ill with a headache. She reportedly was conscious upon leaving for the hospital. Richardson was transferred to Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal at about 5 p.m. after initially being taken to Centre Hospitalier Laurentien, which is close to the tony ski resort in Quebec.

The couple left the hospital together via ambulance at about 12:30 p.m. and were taken to Elliott Trudeau Airport to board a private flight back to New York.

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natasha richardson dies??

2009-03-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

Breaking news: Natasha Richardson, 45, the wife of Liam Neeson, dies today after a skiing accident at Mont Tremblant ski resort. She appeared to be fine after hitting her head, no bleeding, no symptoms. She then developed a headache, which eventually led to severe brain damage.

“I can only speculate, but it sounds like something we call the ‘talk and die’ syndrome,” said Dr. Steven Flanagan, director of Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University’s Langone Medical Center.

“What this implies is that someone hits their head and they are seemingly OK initially, but then they get a rapid collection of blood - usually called epidural hemorrhage - and that means bleeding between the skull and the brain.

natasha richardson dies??

Well known actress Natasha Richardson has just been reported legally dead. I know many of you heard that she was in a skiing accident this morning, but not one thought much of it, now Fox is reporting that she is “brain dead and being flown back to New York, where she will be taken off life support.” She was reported to be fine “fine at first.” She hit her head while learning to ski but then was seen talking and conscious. An hour later the 45-year-old actress’ said she had a headache and her health began to go down hill fast. Doctors are speculating that she died of “talk and die” syndrome.

Producers confirmed that her Richardson’s husband, Liam Neeson, left the set of his upcoming film Chloe immediately for Montreal to see her. It is unknown if he was able to speak to her before she lost consciousness.

Richardson comes from a long line of actors, her maternal grandparents were the actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, and her uncle Corin and aunt Lynn Redgrave are also both actors. Sister Joely Richardson is also an actress, best known for starring in the TV series “Nip/Tuck.”

This is truly horrible news and our condolences go out to her family and loves ones.

Julia Roberts DoN't Want Her Children To Act

2009-03-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

Sitting down for countless interviews as she makes her way through the promotional tour for her movie Duplicity, Julia Roberts has heard the whispers that refer to her new role as her sexiest yet. The 41-year-old actress, however, brushes off the compliments and jokes that the praise is all based on her temporary assets — a result of breastfeeding her son, Henry Daniel, now 21 months. “That’s just because my boobs are so big in it,” she laughs.

That said, Julia is full of pride when it comes to the work — both onscreen and off — she put into the film. With her three kids on hand, she explains that her success in balancing her loves of life has given her much to be proud of. “To make a movie as a mother of three children under 3? That’s an accomplishment I’m proud of,” she reveals to Entertainment Weekly. Fortunately for the busy mama, twins Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus ‘Finn’ Walter, 4, along with their little brother Henry, had no problems adapting to their environment!

“They were in the trailer, hanging out, reading books, jumping on the one bed they’re allowed to jump on, Henry’s taking naps.”

Opening up about her good-looking brood, a proud Julia gushes that her son Finn is a true “dreamboat.” Taking after his father Danny Moder — “green eyes and red hair” — Julia shares that her little boy has the “exact color hair” her husband sported as a child. As for Hazel and Henry, they are two of a kind! “[They] both have platinum hair and blue eyes,” she says.

Julia Roberts hates paparazzi

Actress Julia Roberts is whining again. In an interview with Moviefone.com, she accused the paparazzi of ruining the glamor of Hollywood.

According to Roberts, fans have too much access to the stars they admire.

“It’s so insidious and pointless. I think that takes away from getting to have this special moment where you go and see someone in a movie. That magic gets diluted because you see these people every hour, every day in something that’s bound together and called a publication.”

Despite being perched up there on her high horse, Roberts admitted reading gossip mags before.

“I’m not a consumer. I used to be. It got kind of so sickening. Like eating a giant cheeseburger, and halfway through you’re like: ‘What the f**k am I doing?! This is gonna make me sick.’”

In the interview, Roberts also says that she’s banned her kids from becoming child stars. She has three children, twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, 4, and Henry, 21 months, with husband Danny Moder.

“My first instinct is that I would prefer if my children wanted to be artists that they wait, you know, that they just wait - as long as they can.”

christine quinn Celebrating St. Patrick's Day In Washington

2009-03-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

Saint Patrick’s Day is always complicated for City Council speaker Christine Quinn. She’s plenty Irish, but she’s also gay, and so officially unwelcome at the city’s requisite Saint Pat’s political event, the parade down Fifth Avenue.In past years Quinn has gone as far as Dublin on March 17; last year, like most of the state’s pols, she found herself in Albany, at the emergency swearing-in of Governor David Paterson. Her parade boycott tomorrow will be a whole lot more fun: Quinn is one of the very few New York electeds who has been invited to President Barack Obama’s White House Saint Patrick’s Day party. There won’t be much green beer, but it’s a nice little political reward.

However,this year,Christine C. Quinn will once again be celebrating St. Patrick's Day away from home. The New York Times reports:

After all, when Ms. Quinn, an openly gay Irish American, became speaker in 2006, the organizers of the city's signature St. Patrick's Day Parade, down Fifth Avenue, made it clear that while she could march as an individual and as a city official, she could not display anything hinting at gay pride -- not a pin, not a button, not a sash. So she boycotted the event.

"I just don't understand why being stuck is more attractive than even trying," Quinn told the paper. "It just seems hard to accept, with all of the progress in our city, and all of the progress in the world, that we should be at loggerheads over the inclusiveness of the Fifth Avenue parade. It kind of boggles the mind."

In 2007, Quinn attended the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin, which she says "has always been inclusive."

This year Quinn is going to Washington, where she will attend reception for Irish-Americans at the White House featuring Prime Minister Brian Cowen of Ireland.

The group behind the parade, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, has a long historyof excluding gay people. In 1991 they tried to keep a gay organization out the parade and expelled the division that invited them.

Alice Waters' Crusade For Better Food

2009-03-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

Alice Waters, one of America's most famous Chefs and an influential advocate for local and organic foods as well as for small farming operations was on Sixty Minutes today. Waters is the co-owner of Chez Panisse, the original "California Cuisine" restaurant in Berkeley, California and informal Café Fanny (named after her daughter) in West Berkeley. She developed the Edible Schoolyard program in the Berkeley schools and is widely recognized as being responsible for the slow food movement in the U.S. It is a delightful interview that concludes with her hope to see an organic garden at the White House.

When it comes to food, Alice Waters is a legend. At age 64, she has done more to change how we Americans eat, cook and think about food than anyone since Julia Child.

Waters was only 27 years old in 1971 when she opened her French bistro Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., today considered one of the finest restaurants not just in the United States but in the world.

Waters has produced eight cookbooks, but she's more famous as the mother of a movement that preaches about fresh food grown in a way that's good for the environment. The movement, now called "slow food," is a healthy alternative to "fast food."

You might think this appeals only to the Prius-driving, latte-sipping upper crust, but Waters' ideas have gone mainstream.

It all started at Waters' culinary temple, Chez Panisse. She still shows up almost every day, as she has for the last 37 years, to oversee the cooking with her exquisite, infallible taste buds.

It's not just the cooking that has made her famous: it's the ingredients. She was one of the first to serve antibiotic and hormone free meats and insist on fresh, organic, locally-grown fruits and vegetables.

"You started a revolution in food. How we think about food. How we cook food. But do you think of yourself as a revolutionary?" correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Waters.

"I guess I do now, but when I started Chez Panisse I wasn't thinking of a philosophy about organic and sustainable. I just was looking for flavor," Waters replied.

It's flavor that comes from serving only seasonal food, one of her hallmarks; say "frozen" and Alice Waters shudders. Because all her food has to be fresh, she buys only from local ranchers, fishermen and farmers.

"People have become aware that way that we've been eating is making us sick," she said.

She has become the leader of a movement to change how we eat. And she's getting traction. Now you can go to your neighborhood grocery store - even Wal-Mart - and buy organic. But in the process, she's become a target.

"People say Alice Waters is self-righteous and elitist. And these are words I've heard over and over," Stahl pointed out.

"I feel that good food should be a right and not a privilege and it needs to be without pesticides and herbicides. And everybody deserves this food. And that's not elitist," Waters argued.