Check out this exclusive “Real Time” preview below wherein Maher shares his thoughts on one of comedy’s oldest tropes, and boils his preference for dog people down to the bathroom habits of both pets. It’s pretty important stuff, people.

“Real Time” airs Fridays at 10:00 EST on HBO.

WATCH:

Read more from the original source: Bill Maher’s New Rule For Cat People (VIDEO)

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This new set of changes come just after Facebook introduced its Subscribe button, which allows users to see any public post from users on the social network. The reaction to the new News Feed had been a bit more hostile than the reactions to that change, as you can see largely from the tweets below.

Here’s what Facebook has added to their user’s experience.

The New Top Stories Section:

Users can now see “Top Stories” and “Recent Posts” all in one stream, with “Top Stories” automatically appearing on top. According to the Facebook blog, the hope is to make Facebook more like a newspaper. If you don’t check it for a while the most popular stories from your friends and those you’re subscribed to appear on top. If you check it more frequently, more recent stories appear.

The New Top Stories Button In News Feed:

The tab at the top left-hand corner of a post in your News Feed now allows you to mark it as a “Top Story” or not. The hope here is to help users see more of what they want to, and less of what they don’t.

The New Ticker:

Perhaps the most dramatic change, the Ticker now appears on the right hand side of the page, above the Chat module. The Ticker essentially functions like a Twitter stream, allowing users to see short, real-time updates from those they subcribe to, as well as from friends.

However, the somewhat public outcry against the changes have already led to a number of ways to reverse the features and revert to some form of the “old” Facebook. Notably the free Chrome extension Facebook Ticker Remover completely does away with the Ticker. However, it’s unclear if site-altering extensions like this violate Facebook’s terms of service.

[For a video of how to remove the ticker in Google Chrome, watch below]:

But according to All Facebook, removing the Ticker isn’t the only change you can make. Extensions like Better Facebook and F.B. Purity give users the ability to strip down what they see as altering extensions. Both are available for Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera.

UPDATE: It seems due to the changes made by Facebook, Better Facebook no longer works. However, as noted on their Facebook page, a number of updates for the site-stripping-and-adding extension will be rolling out soon to address the issue.

Previously, better Facebook had over 75 options that allow you to add and remove features from your site experience (changing how you see it in your browser). Notably, the extension boasted tabbed Newsfeeds based on who was updating, but the new style of Newsfeed has been interfering with the ability.

F.B. Purity, which allows you to strip features such as chat and updates from pages from your experience, has already been updated. This extension now let’s you remove a number of features, now including the Ticker, if you so choose.

Despite some users’ hesitation to use the new features, more big changes may be on the way. Facebook will host its F8 developers conference tomorrow, and rumors about what will come are rampant across the web. Check out our slideshow of what to expect from F8.

Some reactions to the new Facebook changes are below.

More: Facebook Changes, Users React, And How To Go Back To The Old Site (PICTURES, TWEETS)

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The sexts were discovered by the victim’s sister, who became suspicious after witnessing Stefanie Dickinson, 37, hugging her brother multiple times. Dickinson is a sitting board member and treasurer of Ellicot School District-22, near Colorado Springs.

Deputies told the Colorado Springs Gazette that they believe Dickinson had been texting the boy since he accompanied her, her husband and two sons on a camping trip to Lake Meredith in mid or late August. After the trip Dickinson allegedly asked the boy for his cell phone number so that she could send him photos from the trip, but the arrest warrant says that Dickinson texted him that she wanted to sneak out of the house to meet with him.

Other text messages found on the boy’s phone said, “I just want u,” and on Sept. 2 they got more explicit. In the message, Dickinson talks about having sex and texts, “Baby I will rock ur f***ing world!”

In another message Dickinson’s text reads, “You can’t tell anyone about this at all because I could lose my family.”

A report cited by KDVR says that the boy told deputies that he felt uncomfortable, and says in the arrest warrant that she would frequently come to his football games and “would always tell me I have a sexy smile”.

Dickinson posted a $3,000 bail, and is due back in court next week.

SLIDESHOW: Teachers Behaving Badly: Student-Teacher Sex Scandals

Excerpt from: Stefanie Dickinson, An Ellicot School Board Member, Has Been Arrested For Sexting A 14-Year-Old Boy

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ABC15 in Phoenix first broke the news that the mysterious marks, which appeared on several of Southwest’s 737 aircraft, seem to be either Arabic or Arabic-type symbols. A company-wide internal memo from Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President Mike Van de Ven, obtained by ABC 15, explains that “these unauthorized markings typically appear as symbols or words tagged on the exterior of the aircraft.” However, the letter also asks staffers to be vigilant about any suspicious activity and reveals that both local and federal agencies are involved in the investigation.

KNX 1070 reporter Charles Feldman’s exclusive report reveals that the etchings seem “to have been done with a chemical process that reveals the text once an auxiliary power unit is turned on and heats up the outside skin of the aircraft.” Feldman also notes that Southwest Airlines has ordered its workers not to discuss the symbols with the media.

Brandy King, a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, tells The Huffington Post that “the activity has been going on for several months,” although she could not provide an exact start time. “We are tracking our fleet and logging when and where the vandalism is taking place,” she adds, but “other than that, we’re working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the acts of vandalism.”

ABC 15 posted their report online. WATCH:

Read the original here: Southwest Airlines Planes May Have Arabic Symbols, Feds Investigating

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Strapped to a gurney and minutes from death, Davis stated that he had not carried a gun the night of the murder and did not shoot the officer, Mark MacPhail, in a fast food restaurant parking lot on an August night in 1989.

Speaking directly to MacPhail’s brother and son, who witnessed the execution, Davis beseeched them to continue to examine the events that night. “All I can ask is that you look deep into this case so you can really find the truth,” he said.

Davis then addressed prison officials preparing to inject him with a lethal mix of chemicals. “May God have mercy on your souls,” he said.

(SCROLL DOWN FOR A RECAP OF OUR COVERAGE)

The first injection began at 10:54 p.m. and Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m. Afterward, Davis’ attorneys and legal advocates quickly decried the execution as a terrible miscarriage of justice.

“I had the unfortunate opportunity tonight to witness a tragedy, to witness Georgia execute an innocent man,” Jason Ewart, one of Davis’ attorneys, said outside the prison. “The innocent have no enemy but time, and Troy’s time slipped away tonight.”

Meanwhile, family members of the murdered officer expressed relief that the execution was over, according to the Associated Press.

News of the execution quieted hundreds of protesters who had lined the highway across from the entrance to the prison for hours, chanting and singing as they faced a small army of baton-wielding prison guards in full riot gear, sheriff’s deputies and state police. The crowd of protesters was quickly dispersed by police after Davis’ death was announced.

Local observers called the protests the largest at the state’s death row in many years. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Don Earnhart, manager of a Jackson, Ga., radio station, who said he has covered executions for several decades. Protests were also seen at the state capital, Atlanta, in Washington, D.C. and at the U.S. embassy in London.

The execution was delayed for more than four hours by a last-minute petition to the U.S. Supreme Court by Davis’ legal team. The justices denied the petition without comment or dissent.

Davis’ death ends an extraordinary legal saga that included three last-minute stays of execution and dozens of hearings before state and federal appellate courts. Over two decades, his legal team argued that a lack of physical evidence linking Davis to the crime and recantations by a number of critical eyewitnesses who originally implicated him in the shooting were reason enough for the Georgia courts to grant him a new trial.

But state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, repeatedly ruled against his appeals for a new trial and he was ultimately executed on the basis of the original jury verdict.

On Tuesday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which has sole authority to commute a death sentence in the state, rejected Davis’ plea for clemency, essentially sealing his fate. MacPhail’s family members had repeatedly stated their certainty that Davis was guilty of the crime and consistently fought his efforts to obtain clemency.

Earlier this week, the state’s pardons board was bombarded by hundreds of thousands of petitions to spare Davis’ life, including ones from William S. Sessions, a former FBI director, and Bob Barr, a four-term Republican congressman from Georgia and death penalty supporter. Many of those opposed to the execution noted the lack of physical evidence tying Davis to the crime and the recantation of eyewitness, many of whom told attorneys for Davis that they had been pressured by police to testify that Davis was the shooter.

“Imposing an irreversible sentence of death on the skimpiest of evidence will not serve the interest of justice,” Barr wrote in an editorial on the case last Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, Davis offered to submit to a lie detector test, but the request was denied by prison officials.

As the hours until the execution dwindled, calls for clemency continued from around the nation and the world, including from a group of former death row wardens, who wrote to Georgia authorities calling on them to halt the death sentence due to doubts about Davis’ guilt. Among the group was the former warden in charge of the Georgia death chamber.

“While most of the prisoners whose executions we participated in accepted responsibility for the crimes for which they were punished, some of us have also executed prisoners who maintained their innocence until the end,” the wardens wrote. “It is those cases that are most haunting to an executioner.”

Meanwhile, the family of the murdered policeman, Mark MacPhail, and the case’s original prosecutor have argued strenuously for Davis’ execution, and have asserted that there is no doubt that he is guilty of the murder.

Joan MacPhail-Harris, the officer’s widow, said this week that Davis “has had ample time to prove his innocence” and failed to do so, according to the Associated Press. She, along with MacPhail’s children, urged the pardon’s board to deny Davis’ petition for clemency this week.

An extraordinary hearing last year ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court gave Davis the rare opportunity to present evidence of his innocence as part of a petition for a new trial. The judge overseeing the hearing ruled that the state’s case against Davis “may not be ironclad” and agreed that Davis had raised some doubts about his conviction. However, the judge concluded that Davis had not provided the court with compelling evidence of his innocence and denied his request for a retrial.

Supporters of Davis said the unwillingness of the U.S. justice system to reconsider his death sentence in light of the witness recantations and other new evidence exposed fundamental problems in the justice system.

“Troy Davis has become an incredible symbol of everything that is broken, everything that is wrong” with the capital punishment in the U.S., said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International’s U.S. branch, in an interview on the prison grounds.

Jason Ewart, Davis attorney, said he hoped Davis death would lead to systematic reform.

“This case struck a chord in the world, and as a result the legacy of Troy Davis doesn’t die tonight,” Ewart said, standing beside Davis’ family members outside Georgia’s death row.

“Our sadness, the sadness of his friends and his family, is tempered by the hope that Troy’s death will lead to fundamental legal reforms,” he said, “so we will never again witness, with inevitable regret, the execution of an innocent man as we did here tonight.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the capital of Georgia. It is Atlanta, not Athens.
___

Go here to read the rest: Troy Davis Executed: Controversially Convicted Inmate Maintains Innocence Until The End

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Authorities said Wednesday they believe the bound, seminude, tortured bodies unloaded by gunmen during rush hour Tuesday were people connected with the Zetas cartel, whose presence has grown in the state since a crackdown began last year in their main base of Tamaulipas to the north. While Mexican officials would not say who carried out the attack, a banner left at the scene threatened the Zetas and bore the initials “G.N.” A U.S. law enforcement official said that appeared to refer to a group tied to Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, widely considered the world’s wealthiest drug trafficker.

But the official, who could not be quoted by name for security reasons, also said it would be surprising to see heavy involvement in Veracruz by Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel, which is based in the Pacific coast state of the same name on the other side of Mexico.

Drug trafficking in Veracruz was long controlled by the Gulf Cartel. But the business has been taken over by the Zetas, who had acted as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel before breaking away in early 2010 and waging a bloody war with their former allies across northeastern Mexico.

“We don’t have anything that corroborates or disputes” that the body dumping was linked to Guzman, the U.S. official said, adding that other sources say the Gulf Cartel could have been responsible. “Sometimes these criminal groups blame the other guys.”

Security expert Raul Benitez agreed it could be possible, however, because Guzman is forming alliances to attack the Zetas in other parts of Mexico. He said Guzman is seeking both to control territory and to punish the Zetas for attacking civilians, something that is shunned by most drug traffickers and that has ramped up government heat on all cartels. Veracruz, with its major port, is a key route for cocaine passing through Mexico from Guatemala en route to Texas.

The Zetas have been blamed in two of Mexico’s biggest mass killings of civilians since the federal government stepped up a crackdown on organized crime in 2006: the massacre last year of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas and a casino fire last month in the northern industrial city of Monterrey that killed 52 people, mostly women playing bingo and slot machines.

“El Chapo wants to ruin the Zetas in all locations because of their errors in Tamaulipas and Monterrey,” said Benitez, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “Those were mistakes for other cartels, too.”

Most of the dumping victims identified had previous criminal records and links to organized crime, Veracruz state Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez told Radio Formula on Wednesday.

“The killing of 35 people is deplorable, but it’s even more deplorable the same victims chose to extort, kidnap and kill,” Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte wrote via Twitter.

Authorities said they were examining surveillance video for clues to who left the 35 bodies beneath an overpass while other gunmen pointed weapons at frightened drivers.

Stunned motorists grabbed cellphones and sent Twitter messages warning others to avoid the area, which was alongside the biggest shopping mall in Boca del Rio, part of the metropolitan area of Veracruz city and less than a mile (1 kilometer) from where Mexico’s top state and federal prosecutors and judiciary officials began a meeting Wednesday.

The state attorney general said the bodies were left piled in two trucks and on the ground near the statue of the Voladores de Papantla, ritual dancers from Veracruz state. Photos from the scene show some victims marked with the letter “Z.”

Among the bodies was a local police officer who had disappeared two weeks ago, Escobar told W Radio in Mexico City.

Local media said that 12 of the victims were women and that some of the dead men had been among prisoners who escaped from three Veracruz prisons on Monday, but Escobar denied the escaped convicts were among the dead.

At least 32 inmates got away from the three Veracruz prisons. Police recaptured 14 of them.

Drug violence has claimed more than 35,000 lives across Mexico since 2006, according to government figures. Others put the number at more than 40,000.

The Gulf Cartel and the Zetas broke apart over the killing of a Zeta in the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, in January 2010. They have made a war zone of northeastern Mexico, drawing heavy presence of military and federal police in a special operation to stop the violence.

Since then, Zetas from the Mexico border area have been showing up in Veracruz, the U.S. official said.

Under Guzman, Sinaloa has grown bloodier and more powerful, controlling cocaine trafficking on the Mexican border with California, while expanding eastward to the corridor between Sonora and Arizona and waging a fierce battle for Chihuahua state bordering Texas.

Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel also appears to be expanding methamphetamine production on a huge scale, but has not been known to operate along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Continued here: Mexico Horror: Suspected Drug Traffickers Dump 35 Bodies On Avenue In Veracruz

Experts say Friday remains the most likely day that the NASA research satellite will come crashing down through the atmosphere. An estimated 26 pieces – representing 1,200 pounds – are expected to survive. NASA is anticipating a splashdown rather than a landing. Nearly three-quarters of the world is covered with water. The Aerospace Corporation in California, in fact, predicts that re-entry will occur over the Pacific late Friday afternoon, Eastern Time. But that’s give or take 14 hours.

The 20-year-old Upper Research Atmosphere Satellite will be the biggest NASA spacecraft to fall uncontrolled from the sky in 32 years.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html

Original post: Falling Satellite: NASA Tries To Predict Where And When It Will Hit Earth (VIDEO)

Fleming charged that the plan is a terrible idea which kills jobs provided by wealthy “job creators” who pay personal income taxes. When asked about his business ventures — including his role in a number of Subway restaurants and UPS stores — from which he earned $6.3 million last year, Fleming told MSNBC host Chris Jansing that his business expenses left him with little to tax “by the time I feed my family.”

Fleming told Jansing that the $6.3 million is “before you pay 500 employees, you pay rent, you pay equipment and food.”

“The actual net income of that was a mere fraction of that amount.”

“By the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over,” Fleming said.

Jansing pointed out that to a person making $40,000 or $50,000 per year, making $400,000 annually is “not exactly a sympathetic position,” but Fleming responded by calling his success a “virtue” and noting that “class warfare has never created a job.”

“This is all about creating jobs,” Fleming said. “This is not about attacking people who make certain incomes.”

Read this article: John Fleming, GOP Congressman, Blasts Obama Over Buffett Rule: I Can’t Afford A Tax Hike

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HuffPost Comedy attended the taping in Los Angeles on September 10 and we compiled our exclusive interviews both from the red carpet and backstage right here, along with some clips of the show to whet your appetite.

Here is the original post: The Roast Of Charlie Sheen: Clips & Exclusive Interviews From The Red Carpet <![CDATA[&]]> Backstage

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Sheen went on a spectacular, insult-spewing rampage against Lorre and CBS after he was fired for drug use and erratic behavior earlier this year. Lorre took the arrows silently – until Monday night.

The show opened with Jon Cryer, who played ad writer Harper’s sad-sack brother Alan, speaking at Charlie’s wake in front of a coffin and one of Sheen’s signature shirts. Alan said that it was a sad day for everyone.

“Speak for yourself,” one woman shouted from the audience.

Harper said that his brother gave everything he got in life – and women called out sexual diseases that they had contracted from him.

Later, Harper’s housekeeper noted that all he had ever asked for was “clean sheets and hosing the vomit off the occasional drug-addled hooker.”

The character of Charlie Harper was always considered a thinly-veiled version of Sheen in real life. Lorre’s script drove that point home with little romance or sentimentality. After a delivery man brings Harper’s ashes in a golden urn, Alan has a conversation and says it was “just like old times. I’m talking and you’re in a bottle ignoring me.” He considered how to dispose of the ashes, perhaps sprinkling them on the nearby beach.

“It’s simple, dignified, and pretty girls with oil will be sitting on you all day,” Alan said. “It’s kind of like your life – except for the dignified part.”

When Kutcher surprises Cryer’s character by appearing at the doorway, Charlie’s ashes are spilled all over the floor.

Lorre’s barbs come just as Sheen has been expressing contrition in recent days. He said on the “Tonight” show that he would have fired himself if he was in charge at CBS or the show’s producer. On the Emmy Awards telecast Sunday, he said he wanted to sincerely wish Kutcher and his old colleagues good luck for the new season.

Lorre packed his show with a couple of inside jokes. John Stamos plays a potential buyer of Harper’s house who backs off when he finds out who lived there. Stamos was widely considered a possible successor to Sheen before Kutcher was hired.

Actors Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson also appeared as potential buyers, playing their old characters Dharma and Greg, a Lorre-produced series that aired on ABC from 1997 to 2002.

Kutcher plays Internet billionaire Walden Schmidt, who made his appearance wet from a suicide attempt in the ocean. It seems Schmidt may be tall, good looking and rich, but he’s morose about a lost love.

Kutcher joins right in on the sex jokes that are the show’s stock in trade. He walks around naked, and other characters comment on his anatomy. Alan Harper takes Schmidt out to drink, where Schmidt meets two women and brings them to Harper’s home.

“I dig your house,” he said. “I’m going to buy it.”

That appears to set up the second episode, explaining how Schmidt comes to live with two people he doesn’t know in a house he just saw.

WATCH:

PHOTOS:

Read more: ‘Two And A Half Men’: Charlie Sheen Dies, Ashton Kutcher Debuts (VIDEO)

Instead of picking up a knife or a gun to seek retribution, people now choose the Internet as their weapon of choice. From a simple rant on YouTube to a custom website, scorned spouses resort not to the courts, but to their computer. There is clearly an increasing trend of estranged or former spouses or exes to digitally “kill” their former love online.

Just a few examples that I have seen: Imagine a husband whose wife was arrested for a crime, and another who had an abortion — both things that no one except for them had any knowledge. Then, unbeknownst to the wife, the husband surreptitiously obtained her medical or court records, scanned them and posted them online. Or the husband, in need of medicine for which he would be utterly embarrassed for another person to know about, with his former spouse threatening or actually posting photos of his prescription bottles online — clearly bearing his name in a newly created website photo gallery. How about the spouse that goes to the pharmacy and gets a printout of all of their partners’ medicines, scans that and posts it online?

The people that create these vindictive sites and posts don’t waste time ranting about it themselves on YouTube — that’s what Android’s and iPhone’s are for. When they see or observe bad conduct of their spouse, they secretly film it and save it for a rainy day. In their mind, that will make for a better-viewed video — and will inflict untold embarrassment and pain upon their ex when needed. And unfortunately, unless they have violated some state or federal law in doing so, they will have effectively digitally killed their spouse forever. Because even though the perpetrator may pull down the site or video, there are plenty of websites that enable us to review what was posted, and that content will have probably been saved by others.

There are so many websites online where former partners excoriate their exes that it defies my imagination. And I am not speaking of those videos or sites that simply “air the dirty laundry,” but rather those that are the equivalent of the hardcore porn of marital hatred. A hyperlink here to some of these sites would probably make for a better article, but frankly, I refuse to directly drive any traffic to these sites. I do not know the people that posted them nor if the content posted by them is true.

I remember a woman fifteen years ago that paraded around her husband and their young child at an airport, holding poster board signs (like a striking worker in a picket line) telling all who could see how horrible a father he was. A terrible experience for the father, but he got on the plane and left. He did not worry about what the people in the terminal thought, because they were gone. The wife’s psychotic protest would not live on the Internet forever.

Today, that same woman would likely be posting some horrific content on line. She might create a website in the father’s name like www.(insert ex’s name).com or www.horribledad.com (I looked today and the latter domain name is available if you are twisted enough to want to grab it). As long as that woman did not libel or slander the father, or violate some other state or federal law, it is very doubtful that a court would do anything. Some courts have exercised restraint and consequences over this type of material when children are involved; but if there are no children, many courts will not even touch it.

The present rash of advertised services on satellite radio and websites that suggest they can minimize damaging web content is not the answer. First, they don’t remove content, they just make it harder to find. Second, unless you are a celebrity with a common law or federal trademark over your name, it is difficult to control domain names or Internet content through federal courts or international organizations. This is an emerging area that requires new laws and judicial intervention.

I believe in the First Amendment, but I do not believe in intentionally destroying lives. Former or even present spouses can be vicious and many will digitally kill their ex. I think it is despicable, but I doubt that it matters to those who have or will do it.

Continued here: The Digital Murder of Your Ex

A CEO collective of four Cali billionaires ran the organization like a multi-national corporation, vertically integrated from jungle coca production to foreign street sales. The bosses practiced an unorthodox mix of remarkably sound business strategies and markedly unsavory specialties like bribery, blackmail and murder.

The trafficking giant’s inner-workings were obscured over the years by strict secrecy enforced at gunpoint. But a former high-level Cali figure now under U.S. witness protection has dispelled some of the mysteries. He describes the cartel business model as a unique blend of Big Business and Big Crime.

This list was culled from years of exclusive interviews with the man, a former chief of Cali cartel security. With apologies to Stephen Covey, I call it the seven secrets of a highly efficient criminal organization.

See more here: 7 Secrets Of A Highly Efficient Criminal Organization (PHOTOS)

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Last Thursday, MerchantService.com, a Sarasota-based company specializing in equipment and credit processing for businesses, announced it would offer its highest-volume customers a voucher for a free AK-47 rifle worth up to $750.00, according to the New Times of Broward and Palm Beach. The company is offering the gun as part of a broader campaign to empower merchants against violence through the use of “God, Guns, and Guts.”

“We launched the No Merchant Victims campaign because it’s our goal to promote a societal expectation change,” Gino Kauzlarich, president of Merchant Service.com, told Orlando’s Fox 35 on Monday. “And that is from the right of criminals to make you into a victim, we want to change that so criminals have the expectation of facing lethal force during the commission of a crime.”

Still, if not interested, customers can trade in the voucher for cash.

Recently, signing bonuses for credit cards have been on the rise, with Chase bank offering $300 cash back if the customer’s total spending tops $500 within the first three months. More benign offers range from Barclaycard’s Williams-Sonoma rewards card to deals on flights.

MerchantService.com isn’t the first business to use free guns as an incentive. Earlier this year, a Radio Shack in Hamilton, Montana was offering a gun to anyone who purchased Dish Network.

MerchantService.com itself takes the time to emphasize that its program doesn’t promote illegal activity.

“Keep in mind we are not simply handing out AK-47 assault rifles to anyone who opens an account with us,” the company’s website says. “You will receive a voucher…towards the purchase of a firearm at any reputable gun shop where you must go through the proper background checks and waiting period that the law requires.” (h/t New Times of Broward and Palm Beach.)

Watch Fox 35′s interview with president of Merchant Service.com Gino Kauzlarich:

Business offers free AK-47 to new clients: MyFoxORLANDO.com

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post mistakenly referred to the gun in question as an assault rifle.

Read this article: MerchantService.com, Florida Credit Processor, Offers Free AK-47 To Customers [WATCH]

The Fox News host was promoting his new book (a historical thriller about the Lincoln assassination), and he clearly had the presidency on his mind, because he told interviewer Peter Boyer that he was almost as powerful as the holder of that office.

“I have more power than anybody other than the president, in the sense that I can get things changed, quickly,” he said. “I don’t have to go through the legislative process; I don’t have to do any of that. I can just bring it to the people, and say, look, this has gotta be dealt with.”

O’Reilly has a history of making grand statements about his reach. Who can forget, for instance, his prediction that his Super Bowl interview with President Obama would be the most watched in “the history of mankind”? Or his attempt to draft himself as the key negotiator in the debt ceiling crisis?

There a bunch of good nuggets in the Newsweek profile. For instance, O’Reilly says he “likes” Obama personally, and that he warned Glenn Beck not to turn into “Elmer Gantry” when the two went on tour together. But that “power” statement stands out. (Interestingly, it’s a bit of a step back from a statement O’Reilly made in 2010, where he said definitively that he had “more power doing what I’m doing” than he would as president.)

It’s certainly true that, as the nation’s leading cable news host by some length, O’Reilly has a very large reach and influence. And the relative power of a television host versus, say, the Speaker of the House could be arguable, in a sort of sociological sense. Nevertheless, we are throwing the question open to you, the reader. Do you agree with O’Reilly’s statement?

RELATED VIDEO:

Read more from the original source: Bill O’Reilly: ‘I Have More Power Than Anybody Other Than The President’

Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund and a one-time top presidential contender in his native France, also denied using violence against a French writer who claims he tried to rape her in a separate 2003 incident. Throughout what appeared to be a heavily scripted 20-minute-long interview with French broadcaster TF1, Strauss-Kahn managed to come off as contrite even as the Socialist politician insisted he hadn’t forced himself on either of the women.

He said his May 14 sexual encounter with Nafissatou Diallo, an African immigrant who claimed that he attacked her when she entered his room in Manhattan’s Sofitel hotel to clean it, “did not involve violence, constraint or aggression.”

Still, he acknowledged, it “was a moral failing and I am not proud of it. I regret it infinitely. I have regretted it everyday for the past four months and I think I’m not done regretting it.”

It “was not only an inappropriate relationship, but more than that, it was a failing … a failing vis-a-vis my wife, my children and my friends but also a failing vis-a-vis the French people, who had vested their hopes for change in me.”

Strauss-Kahn resigned from the IMF’s top job in the wake of the scandal. Though he didn’t rule out a future return to politics, the man once widely regarded as the Socialist party’s best hope at beating France’s incumbent conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy said he needed to take time to think about his future.

Strauss-Kahn, who had a long-standing reputation as a man with a weakness for sex and women, said the Diallo imbroglio had profoundly changed him.

“I’ve seen the pain that I caused around me and I thought, I thought a lot,” he said. “That lightness, I’ve lost it for good.”

The interview was more than an extended mea culpa, though. Strauss-Kahn lashed out both at Diallo and, more broadly, at the U.S. justice system, which by allowing him to be paraded handcuffed before cameras he said had irreparably tarnished his image.

“When you are snatched up by the jaws of that machine, you have the impression that it can crush you,” he said. “I felt that I was trampled on, humiliated, even before I had the chance to say a word,” he said. Under French law, it’s illegal to show suspects in handcuffs.

Strauss-Kahn said that the New York prosecutor – who dropped all criminal charges against him in the Diallo case last month – had concluded the maid “lied about everything.

“Not only about her past, that’s of no importance, but also about what happened. The (prosecutor’s) report says, it’s written there, that ‘she presented so many different versions of what happened that I can’t believe a word,’” he said.

He added he suspected financial motives might have been behind Diallo’s accusations. She has filed a lawsuit against him, but Strauss-Kahn insisted Sunday he wouldn’t negotiate a settlement.

He also proclaimed his innocence in a separate legal battle pitting him against a young French writer and journalist who alleges he tried to rape her during a 2003 interview for a book she was writing.

The writer, Tristane Banon, has maintained she and Strauss-Kahn ended up tussling on the floor during an interview in an empty apartment, with the politician trying to open her jeans and bra and putting his fingers in her mouth and underwear.

“The version that was presented (by Banon) is an imaginary version, a slanderous version,” Strauss-Kahn said, adding that “no act of aggression, no violence” had taken place between the two.

Because a police investigation into the claims is ongoing, Strauss-Kahn declined to say anything more about the matter. If Paris prosecutors decide to pursue the case, Strauss-Kahn could face a possible trial.

Asked whether he had any intention of returning to politics, Strauss-Kahn said he would “take time to reflect” and rest before making any decision.

“But all my life was consecrated to being useful to the public good,” he said. “We will see.”

During the interview, Strauss-Kahn praised his wife, Anne Sinclair, former TF1 news anchor and wealthy heiress who he called an “exceptional woman.”

“I wouldn’t have gotten through it without her,” he said. “I hurt her, I know, and I’m sorry. But you know that she wouldn’t have been there for me, by my side, she wouldn’t have supported me in that way if from the very first second she didn’t know that I was innocent.”

Strauss-Kahn also defended the large sums of money spent on his defense in the Diallo case. In addition to his legal team’s fees, Strauss-Kahn was also initially subject to extensive and expensive bond conditions, including security measures estimated at about $200,000 a month, on top of the $50,000-a-month rent on a town house in New York’s trendy TriBeCa neighborhood.

While he understood that they could seem shocking, “compared with the daily difficulties that French people face,” he felt he had to do everything within his means to stay out of prison in Riker’s Island, where he had initially been detained for nearly a week.

A small group of demonstrators gathered outside of TF1′s Paris headquarters Sunday to denounce Strauss-Kahn. The protest was called by two feminist groups.

The AP does not name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified or come forward publicly, as Diallo and Banon have done.

___

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Here is the original post: DSK Interview: Former IMF Head To Speak Publicly

He also said he opposes the president’s proposal to require millionaires to pay the same tax rate as the middle class, known as the Buffett plan. “Class warfare might make for good politics, but it makes for rotten economics,” Ryan said.

As chairman of the House Budget Committee and the author of a long-term plan that radically alters Medicare and slashes tax rates for the wealthy as well as social spending, Ryan serves as something of an economic spokesman for House Republicans.

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who followed Ryan on “Fox News Sunday,” seconded his opposition to the tax on millionaires as well as the payroll tax cut extensions. “It’s too little, too late,” said Cain.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), appearing later on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” said he too would oppose taxing millionaires at a higher rate, citing Obama’s own comments from 2010, when the president argued that taxes shouldn’t be raised during rough economic times. “I think what he said then still applies,” McConnell said, insisting that small businesses would be hurt by such a tax plan.

As for the namesake of the Buffett plan, McConnell said that if billionaire investor Warren Buffett feels like he’s not paying his fair share, “he should send us a check.”

“If Warren Buffett would like to give up some of his benefits, we’d be happy to talk about that,” McConnell said, suggesting his benefits be means-tested.

Ryan, while backing a payroll tax hike, nevertheless said that tax hikes cannot be part of the deficit-cutting proposal that the super committee comes up with. As part of his explanation, Ryan made it clear that he sees no difference between raising taxes proactively and allowing tax breaks to expire. “You already have a $1.5 trillion tax increase coming in 2013,” he said, referring to the expiration of the Bush tax cuts that were extended by President Obama for two years. Ryan’s reference to the expiration as an “increase” gives greater weight to his willingness to let tax cuts for the middle class expire.

Because of the looming Bush tax cut expiration, said Ryan, the super committee should eschew tax hikes. “Why on earth would we go with that, especially when the problem is spending?” he said.

“You’re basically saying there’s going to be no bargain, no compromise,” host Chris Wallace pointed out.

“Clearly, Democrats could work with us” and get $1.5 trillion in spending cuts with no additional revenue, Ryan said. “That shouldn’t be that tough.”

As for the budgetary woes outside Washington, Ryan said, “We just don’t think we should be bailing out state governments.” He added, “That’s the constitutional responsibility of state governments, not federal governments.”

Former President Bill Clinton, appearing on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” backed Obama’s tax hike on millionaires, but suggested that the singular focus should be on job creation, with tax increases on the wealthy coming once the economy improves. “I don’t have any objection to talking about it now,” said Clinton. “Whether it’s good politics or not, it’s an honorable thing to do.”

Clinton urged passage of the payroll tax cut extension and the creation of an infrastructure bank to fund investments. He also hit at the major drag on the economy. “I don’t believe America can return to the full employment days of the ’90s until we can clear this bank debt from the mortgage crisis,” he said.

WATCH highlights from this week’s Sunday shows:

See the article here: Paul Ryan, Herman Cain Push For Tax Increases On Middle Class

When Boley looked up there was nothing between him and the end zone but 60 yards of greenery. Boley rolled down the sideline all that way to put the Giants up 14-6. Once he arrived in the end zone there was no longer acres of free space in front of Boley, but he didn’t seem to register that in his exuberance. In celebration of his big play, Boley fired the ball directly into the face of man standing just beyond the end zone. Despite this person standing just feet from Boley, the defender seemed not to notice him even after he pegged him in the head.

We have no more information on this highlight.

Read this article: Michael Boley Touchdown Celebration: Giants Player Hits Man In Face With The Ball (VIDEO)

Incoming

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• Michael Boley Touchdown Celebration: Giants Player Hits Man In Face With The Ba
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Hastings wrote: “It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology.” He went on to announce that Qwikster — the name is chosen “because it refers to quick delivery” — is becoming its own entity because ” “we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures, different benefits that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.”

The move comes on the heels of an overwhelmingly negative reaction to Netflix’s price hike in July. This week, the company announced it had lost many more subscribers than expected, and its stock price fell accordingly.

Early reaction to the surprise move was mixed. Twitter users did not warm to the name “Qwikster,” but Erick Schnonfeld at TechCrunch gave Hastings the thumbs up.

“You’ve got to give him credit for moving fast in the direction where he thinks the greatest opportunity lies.

“Who knows how investors will react in the morning?” Schonfeld wrote. “But it is the right move.”

Below, see Hastings’ apology video with new Qwikster CEO Andy Rendich, as well as a screenshot from Qwikster.com.

Link: Qwikster: Netflix To Split DVD Service Into New Business

This is by no means a new notion. In 1778, Lady Julia Stanley — the protagonist of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire’s novel “The Sylph” — muses that her husband has had a mistress since their wedding day and asks plaintively, “What law excludes a woman from doing the same?”

The simple answer was the law of the double standard that tolerated adultery in husbands but condemned it in wives — the law of England, indeed, the law of most lands. In an era of marriages contracted as either commercial or family alliances, when (in Lady Julia’s words) “the heart [was] not consulted,” this law was particularly onerous.

Let’s look at how patrician society in England and Italy attempted to assuage the wifely dissatisfaction and unhappiness that marked so many unloving marriages. Julia’s creator, Georgiana, knew the rules. The wife must produce an heir and until then, remain faithful. Afterward, as long as she was discreet, she could become another privileged man’s lover (no mating with the coachman or gardener!) but without conceiving his child. Her husband, who protected and provided for her, could only be clandestinely cuckolded.

Georgiana played by these rules. Whenever she seemed likely to stray, her controlling mother reined her in. It didn’t matter that her husband’s new mistress, Bess Foster, was her closest friend. Only after Georgiana had produced an heir could she decently look outside her marriage for the personal fulfillment so egregiously lacking inside it.

That happy day came when Georgiana delivered William Hartington “Hart” Spencer, her third child and first son, the longed-for heir who (she rejoiced) freed her from marital bondage. She began a passionate love affair with the much younger politician, Charles Grey. But Grey was not her mister. Rather, she had become his mistress.

Then Georgiana broke a cardinal rule — she became pregnant by Grey — and her furious husband forced her to choose. If she did not break off with Grey, she would never again see her children. Georgiana’s capitulation was immediate. Terrified and contrite, she renounced mistressdom and resumed her life as an unloved, cuckolded wife.

In Italy, the talented and beautiful Teresa Guiccioli, teenage wife of the very wealthy sixty-year-old Count Alessandro Guiccioli, had a similarly difficult marriage. But before she provided the Count with an heir, Teresa fell profoundly in love with the charismatic and equally smitten expatriate English poet George Gordon, Lord Byron.

They had sex almost immediately. Teresa’s maid helped cover their tracks. A priest acted as their go-between. Their affair invoked the unreality of Italian opera — assignations in gliding gondolas and charming, out-of-the-way villas, and long, long hours in bed. Soon, Byron proposed that they run away together.

Teresa was shocked. Did Byron not know that in Italy, a wife could have both a husband and a cavalier servente, an eternally faithful, devoted (though chaste) lover? Teresa could have Byron and Guiccioli together — as long as they pretended that she and Byron were not sexual partners.

The institution of cavalier servente did not challenge the husband’s dominance in marriage. As in England, a wife was supposed to produce her husband’s heir. Afterward, she was free to cavort with an amico — a “friend” or soulmate who would accompany her to plays, churches and elsewhere. But unlike his English counterpart, the amico was forbidden to have sex with her.

The supposedly sex-starved amico also had to swear eternal fidelity to his mistress and promise never to marry or to leave Italy. (Priests were a favorite choice, for their vows of celibacy precluded marriage with anyone.) This arrangement also protected the husband; should he die, his merry widow could never marry her amico. Murder, or suspicious accidents aka “Divorce, Italian Style” could not change the amico’s status. A husband’s demise was no reason — or excuse — for his wife’s platonic relationship to become a sexual one.

The wife’s conduct was carefully regulated. She could see her amico in her home but not in his. She could invite him to theatrical productions in her family’s box but not join him in his. She was bound forever to her husband, and she and her amico had to display admiration and affection for him, and never shame or dishonor him or his family’s name or, for that matter, her father’s.

So how did cavalier servente work for Teresa? First, Guiccioli “borrowed” a large sum of money from Byron, then invited him to move into their palace where eighteen servants spied on the lovers and made sexual trysts nearly impossible. Guiccioli also noisily exercised his husbandly right to sex with Teresa, making Byron intensely jealous.

As the affair deteriorated, Byron complained that a man should not be hobbled to a woman, and that his “existence [as a cavalier servente] is to be condemned.” Weary of the conflict and rancor, and no longer “furiously in love,” Byron left Italy — and Teresa — forever. Teresa grieved. In breaking the rules that forbid a cavalier servente from abandoning his mistress, Byron had broken her heart and humiliated her. Soon after, her unhappy marriage failed.

Georgiana and Teresa were exceptional women in unexceptional marriages, and their experiences were typical of those of legions of dissatisfied and unhappy wives who struggled for a modicum of relief from the constraints of their arranged marriages. The English assumed sex would occur but penalized its consequences; the Italians permitted socializing and companionship couched in terms of medieval courtly love, but forbid sex. Both imposed strict standards of decorum that upheld husbandly authority. Both systems were, in other words, based on hypocritical premises and for most women, could only work when practiced in the breach.

Our egalitarian society has yet to improve on these 18th century pioneering models by devising a way to respond to today’s realities. More than two centuries later the challenge still resonates: If a husband can have a mistress, why can’t his wife have a mister?

Follow this link: If He Has A Mistress, Why Can’t She Have…A Mister?

Here’s a running list of all the winners, updated immediately following each tension-filled envelope opening.

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy
Julie Bowen, “Modern Family”

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy
Ty Burrell, “Modern Family”

Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series
Michael Alan Spiller, “Modern Family”

Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series
Steve Levitan & Jeffrey Richman, “Modern Family”

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy
Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory”

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy
Melissa McCarthy, “Mike & Molly”

Outstanding Reality Competition Program
“Amazing Race”

Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
“The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”

Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music, Or Comedy Series
Don Roy King, “Saturday Night Live”

Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
“The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”

Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series
Jason Katims, “Friday Night Lights”

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series
Margo Martindale, “Justified”

Outstanding Directing In For A Drama Series
Martin Scorsese, “Boardwalk Empire”

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series
Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”

Outstanding Actress in a Drama
Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife”

Outstanding Actor in a Drama
Kyle Chandler, “Friday Night Lights”

Outstanding Writing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Dramatic Special
Julian Fellowes, “Downton Abbey”

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Mini-series or Movie
Maggie Smith, “Downton Abbey”

Outstanding Leading Actor in an Mini-Series or Movie
Barry Pepper, “The Kennedys”

Outstanding Directing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Dramatic Special
Brian Percival, “Downton Abbey”

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Mini-series or Movie
Guy Pearce, “Mildred Pierce”

Outstanding Leading Actress in a Mini-series or Movie
Kate Winslet, “Mildred Pierce”

Outstanding TV Miniseries or Movie
“Downton Abbey”

Outstanding Drama Series
“Mad Men”

Outstanding Comedy Series
“Modern Family”

PHOTOS:

Link: Emmys 2011 Winners: TV Award Winners (PHOTOS)

“Well, you know, I’m very proud of her, so I’m always gratified whenever anyone says anything nice about her. And I very much agree that she’s done a good job,” Clinton told Bob Schieffer on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“But I also have a high regard for Vice President Cheney’s political skills, and I think one of those great skills is sowing discord among the opposition. So I think he’s right that she’s done a heck of a job. But she is a member of this administration, and committed to doing it. And I think he, by saying something nice about her in the way that he did, knew that it might cause a little trouble,” Clinton continued.

“I don’t want to help him succeed in his political strategy. But I admire that he’s still out there hitting the ball.”

During recent interviews promoting his new book “In My Time,” Cheney has suggested that Hillary Clinton should run for president in 2012 against Obama.

“Hillary Clinton is a pretty formidable individual,” Cheney told ABC’s Jonathan Karl earlier this month. “I think she’s probably the most competent person they’ve got in their cabinet. And, frankly, I thought she was gonna win the nomination last time around.”

“Maybe if the Obama record is bad enough — and these days it’s not very good, given the shape of the economy — maybe there will be enough foment in the Democratic Party so that there will be a primary on their side,” he continued.

A Democratic primary “might even help the Republicans a little bit,” Cheney told Karl.

Cheney also appeared on “Face The Nation” after Bill Clinton on Sunday and insisted that he wasn’t playing politics.

“I just thought, Bob, that Democrats ought to have as much fun on their side as we are on our side,” Cheney said.

Read this article: Bill Clinton: Dick Cheney ‘Sowing Discord’ With Suggestion That Hillary Run Against Obama In 2012

But all good things must come to an end, and so it was with Colbert and Fallon’s status as BFFFSM (Best Friends Forever For Six Months), which expired last week. On Thursday night’s “Colbert Report,” the rival talk show hosts realized that they could no longer express their devotion to each other as best friends, noting the cruel irony of their relationship ending at the same time that they’re competing against each other for the Emmy.

The loss has clearly hit them both hard. On Friday night’s “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” they could barely hide their longing. After some introspection, the show took a turn for the Feival, and Fallon and Colbert dueted on “Somewhere Out There” for a Rondstadt-flavored ode to their lost love.

Is their relationship really over? How can they move on? Who will win the Emmy? And will Anderson Cooper actually befriend either of them? These are questions, y’all.

WATCH:

See the article here: Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon Sing ‘Somewhere Out There’ After Ending Best Friendship (VIDEO)

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UBS AG had previously put the loss at $2 billion when news of the scandal first broke Thursday. In a bid to reassure investors, the Zurich-based bank said Sunday it has “now covered the risk resulting from the unauthorized trading” and its equities business “is again operating normally within its previously defined risk limits.”

UBS also confirmed for the first time that the trader, 31-year-old Kweku Adoboli, was already under investigation by the bank when he revealed his actions to authorities Wednesday.

“The loss resulted from unauthorized speculative trading in various S&P 500, DAX, and EuroStoxx index futures over the last three months,” UBS said, adding that the magnitude of the bank’s risk exposure was hidden by fake trades.

Adoboli remains in custody in London, charged Friday with acts of fraud and false accounting dating back to 2008. His next court appearance is Thursday.

The fact that the fraud took place over three years raises serious questions about the bank’s ability to manage its risk. UBS said it has set up a special committee chaired by David Sidwell, the bank’s senior independent director, to investigate the incident.

Speaking for the first time since UBS revealed the loss, Gruebel told the Swiss weekly Der Sonntag that the loss couldn’t have been prevented.

“If someone acts with criminal energy, then you can’t do anything. That will always be the case in our business,” the former trader said in the interview published Sunday.

But some Swiss politicians and commentators have called for Gruebel’s head to roll over the loss, which is likely to put UBS’s third-quarter results deep in the red. Such a move would signal defeat for the gravel-voiced German, who was brought in more than two years ago to revive the bank’s fortunes after a series of missteps that included vast losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market and an embarrassing U.S. tax evasion case.

Gruebel told Der Sonntag that he has no intentions of resigning.

“I’m responsible for everything that happens at the bank,” Gruebel told the paper. “But if you ask me whether I feel guilty, then I would say no.”

Gruebel pledged to stamp out risky business practices at UBS when he came out of retirement in early 2009 to take the helm of Switzerland’s biggest bank. UBS had just suffered its biggest losses ever due to mistakes by the very investment unit that is now making headlines again, and had to take a $60 billion bailout from the Swiss government to stay afloat.

Swiss media on Sunday cited unnamed UBS board members saying the 67-year-old Gruebel retains the confidence of major shareholders, including the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. The sovereign wealth fund holds more than 6.4 percent of UBS’s stock, whose value dropped almost 10 percent following the announcement about the fraud.

Gruebel is expected to survive until at least Nov. 17, when he presents investors with an update on the bank’s activities. Banking experts in Switzerland have suggested the investors day may be used to announce a downsizing or even a spin-off of the investment unit.

In a previous case of rogue trading causing massive losses, the chairman of French bank Societe Generale, Daniel Bouton, stepped down more than a year after the bank revealed that a single trader lost euro4.9 billion ($6.7 billion). Bouton said that repeated attacks on him were becoming a threat to the bank’s health.

So far, it is unclear who could even replace Gruebel.

The only name that has been mentioned is that of Sergio P. Ermotti, chief executive of the bank’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business. Promoting Ermotti would satisfy those who want to see a Swiss at the head of the country’s most important financial institution, to counterbalance incoming chairman Axel Weber, another German and a former president of Deutsche Bank.

Meanwhile, UBS has sent a letter to major clients seeking to reassure them that the bank remains on solid financial footing.

The letter, confirmed by UBS spokesman Dominik von Arx, also claims that UBS “is taking the matter extremely seriously and is doing everything possible to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible.”

“Your assets are safe with us,” the Sunday Times of London quoted the letter as saying.

____

Raphael G. Satter in London contributed to this report.

Follow this link: UBS Rogue Trader Losses Reach $2.3 Billion, CEO Not Resigning

Deadline was the first to report the news, and Baldwin confirmed it on Twitter.

“Fox did kill my NewsCorp hacking joke,” Baldwin wrote. “Which sucks bc I think it would have made them look better. A little.”

Baldwin had made a reference to the omission in an earlier tweet, writing, “I did a short Emmy pretape a few days ago. Now they tell me NewsCorp may cut the funniest line. #NewsCorphumorlessaswellascorrupt.”

Deadline says that the joke came during the planned opening sketch for the Emmys, in which Baldwin was to play a fictional head of a television network. News Corp. told the site that it cut the joke because it didn’t want to make light of the phone hacking scandal which has engulfed Murdoch’s company.

It’s not the first time that a Murdoch property has been accused of going soft on the scandal. The Wall Street Journal was heavily criticized for an editorial strongly defending News Corp.

RELATED VIDEO:

More here: Fox Kills Alec Baldwin’s Phone Hacking Emmy Joke; Baldwin Pulls Out Of Ceremony

But rather than go for an all-out girlish look with a similarly feminine hairstyle, Paz opted for an edgier disheveled ‘do.

It may have been because she was in a rush, having overslept during her last-minute session at Hollywood Tans.

What do you think of the actress’ unique look?

Getty

Originally posted here: Paz De La Huerta Emmys 2011 PHOTO: Love It Or Leave It?

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My favorite thing about fall in Vermont is rambling through a nearby orchard, picking crisp, juicy apples and crunching into one, fresh off the tree. Yet, apples are so commonplace that they’re almost overlooked and pushed aside by flashier superfruits, such as pomegranates and goji berries.

But as a registered dietitian and associate nutrition editor of EatingWell Magazine, I know that apples have surprising nutritional benefits that justify the “apple a day” adage. Here are some of apples’ nutritional boons:

What’s your favorite kind of apple?

Kerri-Ann, a registered dietitian, is the associate editor of nutrition for EatingWell Magazine, where she puts her master’s degree in nutrition from Columbia University to work, writing and editing news about nutrition, health and food trends. In her free time, Kerri-Ann likes to practice yoga, hike, bake and paint.

Read the original: 6 Serious Health Benefits Of Apples

I mean, it really sucks. Got kids? If so, don’t do it.

You probably think you have no reason to listen to me. I’d agree if we were talking about shifting weather patterns or why Lil’ Wayne has diamonds instead of front teeth. But, hey, I’ve lived a pretty long time — by L.A. standards, I’m ancient — and I’ve had many life experiences, among them two marriages.

My novels The Starter Wife and Queen Takes King, as well as the original screenplay I wrote for Stepmom, all center on marital break-ups. I’ve become a reluctant expert; the poster ex-wife for divorce. My second wasband and I (I coined the term, it sounds nicer than “ex”) get along so well that we are often mistaken for a happily married couple at Little League games, the school play, or a first grader’s birthday party. We still share holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and, of course, Super Bowl Sunday. We sign off on emails to each other with a minimum three x’s and o’s. We kiss hello, we hug goodbye. Our divorce — though public and heavily laden with fancy attorneys whose grandchildren’s weddings we paid for — was actually about as amicable as one could hope. I have never said a bad word about my “was” to my children; I hope he can say the same.

What we no longer share is the bond of marriage.

The first time around, I was married just three months after meeting Starter Husband at a nightclub. (I didn’t say I was smart, just married.) My “starter” marriage proved to be just that — lasting three years, a year for each month of courtship.

I left my home, husband, four dogs, and shotgun, and moved around the corner from Canter’s Deli to an empty apartment with an empty aquarium. The first week apart from Starter Husband, I lost eight pounds. Friends forced me to eat matzoh ball soup, counting every spoonful. At night, alone in bed for the first time in years, I swam through my tears while listening to George Michael and Don Henley (the only time I’ve listened to Don Henley), weeping to Van Cliburn playing Mozart sonatas.

I also wrote my first screenplay.

I reasoned that marriage had held me back from fulfilling my dreams, from self-actualization — the pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (love and belonging hovering way below, only after safety needs and stuff like “breathing”). Oprah would have been proud.

I swore to my friends I would never marry again.

—
Um. Hey. Guess what? I was wrong. I got married. Again.

The second was supposed to be “my” marriage — ironic. I’d been determined to make holy matrimony my bitch. I knew the territory. We drove my baby-blue Ford Falcon downtown, got married in front of a judge and several gang members . Then I dashed off, making it to work that day by 10:30 that morning.

This time I would do it right. But after over 16 years of living together, almost ten years of marriage, with a family unit of two little boys, my husband’s two older children, and a mini-dachshund named Cecil, I found myself divorced. Again.

I was in my forties, and hadn’t learned a thing about relationships. If anything, I was less sure of what I knew at this point than when I was 16 and happily engaged to Prince (in my head). Since I’m not remotely Elizabeth Taylor, this divorce thing was getting old, fast.

What I’ve learned since is that divorce lingers. It makes you sad when you least expect it. It colors everything — from a first date with a promising somebody to a basketball game where your kid makes three-pointers. And you can tell yourself, yeah, I did it for my kids, so they could grow up with a healthy mother, a happier mother who had more time for them. But single motherhood, even with access to help, is not for sissies. Sure, I have more control over my children under the circumstances — but in return, I’m more strung-out, I’m more overwhelmed.

Okay, after the second break-up, I no longer have to eat osso bucco with Sumner Redstone, and that almost makes it worth it, but I also have to answer my children’s questions about why, how, when. I have to tell them that — despite my past, despite my wasband’s past — marriage is still worth trying.

It is also worth preserving.

Ladies (and curious men), these are my top seven (and a half) reasons for staying married:

1. All men suck…
…and all men are great. All men are annoying. And all men put the toilet seat down every time. All men are needy. And all men live to make you happy. All men are demanding. And all men are easy. (Well, actually, all men are easy, especially those in politics, but that’s a whole other subject.)

All men are cheap. And all men love shopping at the Tiffany’s counter. All men keep you guessing. And all men check in several times a day, just because. All men hog the covers. And all men tuck you in at night. All men are dull. And all men will whisk you off to Napa on a moment’s notice.

All men are mama’s boys. And all men are fighter pilots. All men are complicated. And all men have basic needs, like ESPN in HD.

Do you get what I’m saying, here? Men are human. Weird, I know.

Basically, if you hate your spouse and get divorced, you will be trading him in for a similar model, only in chinos. If you’re lucky.

2. Raising kids on your own sucks…
…but this doesn’t mean you want to raise them with someone new.

Divorce with children is — mathematically speaking — 180 million times worse than divorce without children. I’m sure there’s a New York Times study to back me up on this.

Kids are not better off with divorced parents. (Hi, angry tweets from ecstatically divorced parents!) Psychologist Judith Wallerstein conducted a 25-year study on the effects of divorce on the children involved; her book chronicling her findings is more frightening than any TV commercial advertising an Anthony Hopkins movie. If I really don’t want to sleep at night, I’ll reread her statistics. For example, children of divorce are more likely than children from intact families to drop out of school, suffer drug and alcohol problems, require psychotherapy, and get divorced themselves.

Recently, there was a new study in The American Sociological Review that showed children of divorce lag in math scores and social skills. For years.

Insomnia, much?

My observations of children of divorce, including my own, are simple. Divorce makes your kids’ life harder. Would you want to go to a different home every few days because it suits someone else’s schedule? Would you like to remember at which house you left your wallet, your laptop, your workout bag, your briefcase? How about sleep in a different bed, use a different toothbrush, get used to the new person in the kitchen and the master bedroom? Your kids have to remember textbooks, notebooks, backpacks, favorite t-shirts, socks, Vans, homework, football helmet, cleats… No wonder these kids are more anxious.

On top of that, they have to do science reports in first grade, master algebra in fifth. Everything’s gotten harder. I’ve volunteered in my sons’ classes, and I hate to say it, but I can tell which children have parents who are divorced. Admitting this brings me no pleasure, and a great deal of pain.

A friend of mine, a divorced mother, told me that her son was depressed about the new woman in his dad’s life. “I’m afraid I’m going to forget our Christmases, Mom,” he told her, “Someday, will it be like they never happened?”

Consistency is key to a happy, healthy childhood. Guess what’s inconsistent? Living with divorce.

3. The money sucks.
Financially speaking, both men and women are better off staying married. Post-divorce, the higher wage-earner typically pays alimony and child support. The lower wage-earner typically endures a lower standard of living.

Fighting over money turns people into the worst versions of themselves. This is true whether you’re divorced or married. Throw divorce lawyers into the mix and you have a recipe for bankruptcy, both financial and moral.

I’ve found that in dating, men are expensive — probably as expensive as women. I know many divorced women who’ve lent money to their boyfriends or bought them expensive gifts. No longer do men feel remiss in accepting, and in some cases, demanding money, clothes, cars, trinkets. Hey, we wanted men to be more like us, right? We’ve turned men into luxury items.

The only good thing to come out of this recession is that fewer people are getting divorced. Why? They can’t afford to.

4. Raising other people’s kids suck…
…because you’re also raising not only their issues, but their parents’ issues. That’s a f-ckload of issues, to put it in psychological terms. If you get divorced, it’s likely you’re going to be dating other divorced people — and guess what, they come with the same thing you have — ex-and-kid baggage. Hey, I love kids, I’ve raised or helped raise enough of them, going back over two decades — but being a stepparent, or even a stepfriend — is not for the faint of heart. Parents get bent out of shape when another adult comes into the picture, no matter how good their intentions. I’ve got the restraining order to prove it.

Fitting the pieces together with others after a divorce is a constant struggle, whether you’re talking about old exes, new marriages, or the children from either. I’ve talked and talked to women and men desperately trying to figure out how and when and with whom to start again. And why? Why put yourself through the drama? How do you fit the puzzle pieces together when one of the pieces is a hormonal pre-teen, another is a borderline personality ex bent on destroying everything in her path, including her own child, and a third is the dog who growls every time you enter the room.

This is not the most romantic scenario.

Bottom line: You may care as much for your significant other’s children as they do, but you are not their parent.

5. Dating sucks (after the first three months); your ex dating sucks and never stops sucking.
Look at your date. Does his slightly wheezy laugh grate on your nerves? What about the fact that he just called his ex-wife a b-tch? Or, better yet, a c-nt? Charmed yet? Do you like a backwards baseball cap and baggy jeans on a forty-year-old? No? Guess how much you’re going to like it in twenty years? Just. As. Much.

Every little quirk that you find the slightest bit irritating in your dining partner is guaranteed to become the central core of his personality as the years pile on. Good luck with that.

Speaking of dating. Dates will shock you — shock you — with what they believe is normal behavior. When a dinner date feels like a scene from Hangover 2, you know you’re in trouble.

Internet dating now seems like a safe, time-tested way to get to know people — until you read about the film executive who was the victim of a sexual attack by a man she met on Match.Com. Craigslist is just another name for potential date rape; to a single mother, nothing is scarier than craigslist.

Which brings me to another point: sex. Living with children is like living with parents. Except you’re not a teenager, trying to sneak one over on Mom and Dad. You are the sole member of the household responsible for the health and well-being of your children. And your kids don’t want you to date. They don’t want you to bring home someone new. Even if they like the new guy or girl, they don’t want to appear to be choosing sides against their other biological parent.

When you do go out with someone (after the kids go to bed), you size them up not only against your standards, but the standards of your children. You’re not the only one going out on that date — your seven-year-old is right there with you, with his toothy grin. Your fourteen-year-old is scowling in the background. Your stoic ten-year-old has tears welling up in his eyes.

Frankly, other than superficial dating far away from your kids’ eyes and ears, E.S.P. might be the only thing that makes sense for the single parent.

Yes, your happiness is important, but the moment you gave birth, your happiness took a backseat to that squalling bundle of joy. You’re not a teenager anymore. It’s not about you. Your self-actualization and self-esteem needs to move over and make some mac and cheese.

Keep this in mind, as well. Just as time is the only true test of love and marriage — time is the true test of divorce, as well. Time heals, it clarifies in surprising ways. The old hurts seem more minor, less lacerating. Now you’ve been hurt anew, and by someone with whom you don’t share children or a dog or a name. You’ve been hurt by someone you barely even know.

6. Bumps in the night suck.
A single mother feels it every day: When the sun goes down, there is no one there to watch your back. I have to be combination nursemaid and Rambo. I have not slept a full night in three years; it’s hard to sleep with one eye open and a dog named Peanut the only thing between you and potential threat. A phone call after nine sends chills down my spine. The other night my doorbell rang at 11:30. It was a drunken teenage girl (I’m learning there are no other kind) demanding her purse back. Er, you may not find this frightening if you have a man in the house. I, on the other hand, called the cops, and thought seriously about getting a gun.

It’s scary not being married.

7. Synergy sucks…
…when it’s gone. Prior to my divorce, an Oscar-winning screenwriter told me to keep in mind that a couple is more than just the sum of two people. Do you get it? Neither did I, but that’s probably why I don’t have an Oscar. Still, I’ve thought about what he said a lot since then. He was speaking of synergy, the mutually advantageous conjunction of distinct elements. The two of you have combined to make something that would not otherwise exist. What we are together is greater than what we are apart.

On the other hand (now ring-free), when you divorce, there’s you and the divorce.

A marriage is a living thing. A divorce — while it can go on forever in court, bankrupting you financially, emotionally, mentally and physically — is not a living thing; it’s a death.

Really hard to see that when you’re furious at each other, with one foot out the door, your middle finger raised high. Adrenalin loves a dramatic exit.

—
There’s that fallback saying people in a break-up often say: “You want to get to know someone? Divorce them”. I don’t believe it. I think it should be reworded: You want to get to know someone under the most stressful conditions…

On the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, divorce is just a tad less stressful than death of a spouse (presumably, one you liked). People don’t behave well under that kind of stress. Money is tight, the kids are upset, in the air is the odor of hatred. The spouse that you loved enough to marry is now a raging dick.

If your husband beat you, verbally abused you more than you verbally abused him, abused drugs, alcohol, or wanted a porn family, then by all means, leave. You’re better off. But, in other cases, maybe there’s a higher order. Maybe we were actually correct in selecting that person, that spouse, to procreate with.

In the midst of our separation, our family therapist, a cancer survivor in her 60s, who’d been practicing for many years, gave me sage advice, which I was too angry or blind to accept. “Wait until the kids are launched,” she told me. “Who knows? You may even find yourself in love again, with your husband.”

I chose not to take it. A big part of me wishes I had.

See the original post: Wasbands And Wives: Seven Reasons To Stay Married

And we’ve got all those gowns right here, not to mention the bags, shoes and diamonds. As for who was the best-dressed and who was the worst, you’ll have to vote on that yourself.

Take a look at our continually-updated slideshow.

Read the original: Emmys 2011 PHOTOS: The Best <![CDATA[&]]> Worst Of The Red Carpet

Moments earlier, thousands had arched their necks skyward and watched the planes speed by just a few hundred feet off the ground before some noticed a strange gurgling engine noise from above. Seconds later, the P-51 Mustang dubbed The Galloping Ghost pitched oddly upward, twirled and took an immediate nosedive into a section of white VIP box seats. The plane, flown by a 74-year-old veteran racer and Hollywood stunt pilot, disintegrated in a ball of dust, debris and bodies as screams of “Oh my God!” spread through the crowd.

National Transportation Safety Board officials were on the scene Saturday to determine what caused Jimmy Leeward to lose control of the plane, and they were looking at amateur video clips that appeared to show a small piece of the aircraft falling to the ground before the crash. Witnesses who looked at photos of the part said it appeared to be an “elevator trim tab,” which helps pilots keep control of the aircraft.

Reno police also provided a GPS mapping system to help investigators recreate the crash scene.

“Pictures and video appear to show a piece of the plane was coming off,” NTSB spokesman Mark Rosekind said at a news conference. “A component has been recovered. We have not identified the component or if it even came from the airplane … We are going to focus on that.”

Investigators said they also recovered part of the tail section, where the tab is located.

A tour near the site offered to journalists Saturday evening revealed debris spread in a fan-shape over more than an acre around a crater roughly 3 feet deep and as much as 8 feet across. Based on the crater’s location, it appears the P-51 Mustang went straight down in the first few rows of VIP box seats, or about 65 feet in front of the leading edge of the grandstand.

Yellow crime tape surrounded the scene and spectator seats remained askew.

Among the dead were the pilot and eight spectators. Officials said 69 people were treated at hospitals, including 36 who have been released and 31 who remain there. Nine were in critical condition late Saturday.

Doctors who treated the injured said it was among the most severe situations they had ever seen because of the large number of people, including at least two children younger than 18 who are not among those in critical condition.

Injuries included major head injuries, facial trauma and limb injuries, including amputations, said Dr. Myron Gomes, chief trauma surgeon at Renown Regional Medical Center.

“I’ve seen more patients, but never this many patients with this number of severe injuries,” added Dr. Michael Morkin, chief of Renown’s emergency department, who trained at Cook County General Hospital In Chicago.

“It was traumatic,” he said.

Despite the large number of dead and injured, witnesses and people familiar with the race say the toll could have been much worse had the plane gone down in the larger crowd area of the stands. The plane crashed in a section of box seats that was located in front of the grandstand area where most people sat.

“This one could have been much worse if the plane had hit a few rows higher up,” said Don Berliner, president of the Society of Air Racing Historians and a former Reno Air Races official. “We could be talking hundreds of deaths.”

Some credit the pilot with preventing the crash from being far more deadly by avoiding the grandstand section with a last-minute climb, although it’s impossible at this point to know his thinking as he was confronted with the disaster and had just seconds to respond.

One of the things investigators said they’ll be looking at is the health of Leeward, the 74-year-old pilot, who friends say was in excellent health.

Witnesses described a horrible scene after the plane struck the crowd and sent up a brown cloud of dust billowing in the wind. When it cleared moments later, motionless bodies lay strewn across the ground, some clumped together, while others stumbled around bloodied and shocked.

“I saw the spinner, the wings, the canopy just coming right at us. It hit directly in front of us, probably 50 to 75 feet,” said Ryan Harris, of Round Mountain, Nev. “The next thing I saw was a wall of debris going up in the air. That’s what I got splashed with. In the wall of debris I noticed there were pieces of flesh.”

Ambulances rushed to the scene, and officials said fans did an amazing job in tending to the injured. Just that morning, the 25 emergency workers at the air show had done a drill for such a large-scale emergency like this.

“We run through what we do in the event of an incident,” said Ken Romero, director of the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority. “We walked through how to respond, where the multi-casualty incident bus is and what is on the bus (by way of equipment), how to set up the treatment zones and how to triage.”

The crash marked the first time spectators had been killed since the races began 47 years ago in Reno. Twenty pilots including Leeward have died in that time, race officials said.

It is the only air race of its kind in the United States. Planes at the yearly event fly wingtip-to-wingtip as low as 50 feet off the ground at speeds sometimes surpassing 500 mph. Pilots follow an oval path around pylons, with distances and speeds depending on the class of aircraft.

The disaster prompted renewed calls for race organizers to consider ending the event because of the dangers. Officials said they would look at everything as they work to understand what happened.

Another crash, on Saturday, came at an airshow in Martinsburg, W. Va., when post-World War II plane, a T-28, crashed and burst into flames. The pilot was killed.

In Reno, the Mustang that disintegrated into the crowd had minor crashes almost exactly 40 years ago after its engine failed. According to two websites that track P-51s that are still flying, it made a belly landing away from the Reno airport. The NTSB report on the Sept. 18, 1970, incident says the engine failed during an air race and it crash landed short of the runway.

P-51 historian Dick Phillips of Burnsville, Minn., said Saturday the plane had had several new engines since then as well as a new canopy and other modifications.

Leeward, the owner of the Leeward Air Ranch Racing Team, was a well-known racing pilot. His website says he has flown more than 120 races and served as a stunt pilot for numerous movies, including “Amelia” and “The Tuskegee Airmen.”

In an interview with the Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner last year, he described how he has flown 250 types of planes and has a particular fondness for the P-51, which came into WWII relatively late and was used as a long-range bomber escort over Europe. Among the famous pilots of the hot new fighter was double ace Chuck Yeager.

The National Championship Air Races draw thousands of people to Reno every September to watch various military and civilian planes race. Local schools often hold field trips there, and a local sports book took wagers on the outcomes.

The FAA and air race organizers spend months preparing for air races as they develop a plan involving pilot qualification, training and testing along with a layout for the course. The FAA inspects pilots’ practice runs and briefs pilots on the route maneuvers and emergency procedures.

John Townes, a Reno pilot, said the plane didn’t sound right moments before the crash.

“It wasn’t quite vertical. It was at a very slight angle and because of that I think it probably saved a lot of people,” he said. “Normally when you see an air crash, you see recognizable wreckage. There was nothing, just little bits of metal.”

___

Associated Press writers contributing to this report include AP Airlines Writer Joshua Freed in Minneapolis; Haven Daley, Scott Sonner and Martin Griffith in Reno; Brian Skoloff in Salt Lake City; Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss.; and Michelle Rindels, Cristina Silva and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas.

___

Online:

http://bit.ly/mVL0PW

https://www.facebook.com/JimmyLeeward

http://www2.leewardairranch.com/

Go here to see the original: Reno Air Show Plane Crash: Airplane Crashes Into Stands At National Championship Air Races In Nevada (VIDEO)

If none of those options pan out, Beckham may have a future in retail or, perhaps, improv comedy. As part of an appearance on Ellen this week, Beckham went undercover at a Target. The 36-year-old peddled cologne to mostly unsuspecting customers and took orders from the comedienne. Hilarity ensued.

Hamming it up with an ease on camera likely accrued during his stint as the most famous man alive, Beckham really gave it his all — even if he didn’t exactly understand all of Ellen’s instructions.

Seeing as how the best part of his game, at this point in his career, is the service he can provide to his teammates with his inswinging crosses from the flank, perhaps it makes sense that Beckham would find himself so at home in the service industry.

WATCH VIDEO AT THE TOP

Continue reading here: David Beckham At Target For Ellen Show: Soccer Icon Shows Funny Side (VIDEO)

Not only is the Ethiopian model totally gorgeous, but she’s also an accomplished actress and a passionate activist for worldwide maternal and child health (you can read her first-person perspectives on the issues on The Huffington Post).

The model took a break from her advocacy work to pose for the October issue of Numero China. Shot by Tiziano Magni, the image shows Kebede curiously holding a tiny dress (with a seriously small cinched-in waist) instead of wearing it.

We’d say maybe it didn’t fit, but Kebede is a supermodel. Everything fits.

Check out the cover below — what do you think?

Read the original: Liya Kebede Covers Numero October Issue Sans Dress (PHOTO)

Maddow was in Atlanta to interview former President Jimmy Carter, but she spent the first part of her show on the bill and its chances of passage in Congress. She began, as she often does, with a seemingly unrelated few minutes on a recent hearings the Republicans held trying to block impending legislation about (of all things) the importing of humongous, exotic snakes. She cited this as an example of GOP dawdling on jobs. Then, Maddow turned to a speech Speaker John Boehner had given on Thursday, where, in her view, he exhibited several bouts of “head on desk, hypocritical inexplicability.”

However, she said, some Democratic opposition to the American Jobs Act was also inexplicable. As an example, she turned to Bob Casey, the senator from Pennsylvania. In an interview with the New York Times, Casey said he wanted the bill broken up into pieces because it was too long:

“I think the American people are very skeptical of big pieces of legislation,” Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said in an interview Wednesday, joining a growing chorus of Democrats who prefer an à la carte version of the bill despite White House resistance to that approach. “For that reason alone I think we should break it up.”

Maddow was flabbergasted.

“For that reason alone? Really?” she said, doing her best “Weekend Update” impersonation. “The objection to the bill is how long it is? What if we changed the font, sir? Would that be better for you? Widened the margins, maybe? How about if we put the whole thing in Comic Sans? That’s kind of a compact font. Would that help? The problem is it’s too long? Are you serious?”

While she was speaking, a text box written in Comic Sans (which would actually probably make the bill’s length longer, but no matter) even popped up on the screen:

WATCH:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

View original post here: Rachel Maddow Mocks Sen. Bob Casey’s Opposition To Obama Jobs Plan (VIDEO)

The fee will be waived if a customer completes one direct deposit and one online bill payment per month through an account, or maintains a balance of at least $1,500 in checking and savings accounts, Citigroup said on Friday

The change takes effect in December.

Under Citi’s current fee structure, customers are not required to maintain minimum account balances but must complete five transactions a month through an account to avoid a monthly fee of $8.

Citigroup said it will not charge for debit card use or online bill payment.

Stephen Troutner, head of banking products for Citi’s U.S. consumer bank, said free debit card use could woo customers from other banks that are weighing whether to charge for debit card use, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co.

“Customers have told us in no uncertain terms that is a huge source of irritation,” Troutner said.

New York-based Citi is the latest bank to tinker with its fee structure following changes in U.S. consumer banking regulations and laws over the last two years.

New regulations — part of a broad financial sector reform effort — limit overdraft fees and other penalty fees banks can charge.

In response, many banks have begun introducing monthly service fees for accounts, debit card use and visits to branches.

Bank of America Corp, the largest U.S. bank by assets, added checking account fees last year. The BofA changes include an ebanking account, which allows customers to use ATMs and online banking for free but charges a monthly fee of $7 for teller visits or receiving paper statements. (Reporting by Joe Rauch in Charlotte, N.C.; editing by John Wallace)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Original post: Citigroup To Start Charging Per-Month Fees On Low-Balance Accounts

My son was six weeks old when I first brought him to meet his uncle, Troy Davis. You would have thought I gave Troy a gold bar. He was scared to hold my tiny baby. I literally had to just put De’Jaun in his arms and walk away. And he was like, “But he’s so little. Come, get him, get him, get him.” I said, “No, you get him. You hold him.” It was such a magical moment, because it was like I was giving my brother this gift.

As a young child, De’Jaun didn’t understand that my brother, his uncle was incarcerated, much less slated for death. When the family was getting ready to leave after a visit, he’d say, “Come on, Troy, let’s go, let’s go!” But he couldn’t go with us, and my mom would say, “He’s in school. He can’t come. One day, he’ll come home with us.”

As De’Jaun grew older, I explained to him that his uncle was in prison. But I had not yet told him that Georgia planned to kill him. He confided in his uncle more than anyone else. When De’Jaun was 12 years old, it became clear to me that my son understood far more than I had realized.

Our dog, Egypt, had gotten out of the yard and had been hit by a car. We immediately brought Egypt to a vet who told us that the dog’s leg was broken in three places and would need extensive surgery to be repaired. If Egypt did not have the surgery, she would have to be put to sleep. The cost of the surgery was upwards of $10,000.

As I drove De’Juan home, I wondered how in the world I would come up with $10,000. Putting Egypt down might be the only realistic possibility.

In the silence of the ride, De’Jaun turned to me and said, “Mom, are you going put my dog to sleep like they’re trying to put my Uncle Troy to sleep?”

I had to swallow this giant lump in my throat to hold back the tears. I didn’t know that he related the two things. That he knew they were trying to kill his Uncle Troy. And, he knew about which method that they would use to kill him. At that point, I decided that if I had to pawn my car, I wasn’t going to be able to put our dog to sleep.

In addition to dealing with his uncle facing execution, carrying a full load of advanced placement classes in his high-school’s International Baccalaureate program, my son lives with the stress of me being critically ill. I have been battling stage-four breast cancer since De’Jaun was six years old. My original diagnosis was six months or less. That was over ten years ago.

My brother, Troy Davis is on death row for the 1989 tragic murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. On Aug. 19, MacPhail was gunned down while rushing to the rescue of a homeless man being pistol-whipped in the parking lot of a Greyhound bus station. The day after the murder, a man named Sylvester “Red” Coles told the police that Troy was the shooter. Troy, then 19 years old, was arrested and eventually convicted in 1991, primarily on the basis of eyewitness testimony.

There is no physical evidence linking Troy to the crime. The murder weapon was never recovered. Yet, he was sentenced to death. He has been on death row for 20 years, despite the fact that the case against him has completely unraveled. In fact, seven of the nine non-police witnesses later recanted or changed their testimonies, many stating that police coercion and intimidation led to their initial implication of my brother. Several new witnesses have come forward and implicated Sylvester Coles as the shooter.

This is Troy’s fourth time facing execution. De’Jaun remembers the first execution date vividly. It was July 17, 2007. He was 13 years old. We went to go see Troy, and Troy wasn’t really worrying about himself. He was mostly worried about his family — about us. I was looking at my mother. She was praying, praying, praying. It was a lot of people constantly praying, constantly praying.

Troy gave each family member a duty. What did he task his young nephew? He told him, “Just continue to do good in school, do what’s right, pick the right friends, watch over the family, and just respect the family. Respect your mom, your grandmother, and your aunties. Do what you love and have a good profession.” The execution was stayed within 24 hours of being carried out. The next year, Troy came within 90 minutes of being executed.

My son is wise beyond his years. He’ll say, “My uncle is not the only one going through this type of pain … a lot of people really want someone to hear their case but they don’t have the power and resources.” He knows that over 130 death row inmates have been exonerated, found innocent since 1973, demonstrating just how many innocent people are convicted and sentenced to death.

On March 28, 2011, the Supreme Court denied Troy’s final appeal, clearing the way for the state of Georgia to set a fourth execution date. Two weeks later, our mother passed away from “natural causes.” De’Jaun was the one who found her. She had just received a clean bill of health from her doctor the day before her death. I don’t think she could take another execution date. I believe she died of a broken heart.

Over the years support has grown. Amnesty International, NAACP, the ACLU, ColorOfChange.org, Bishop Desmond Tutu, President Jimmy Carter, and many more have stood up for Troy.

There is #toomuchdoubt in my brother’s case: There’s no physical evidence; seven out of nine witnesses have recanted or changed their testimony; there’s evidence that suggests there may be another shooter.

But still, last week, the state of Georgia decided to issue an execution date — September 21st.

We are turning up the truth, staying hopeful, and vigilantly praying that Troy’s life won’t be ended on September 21st.

Our supporters have launched a number of campaigns directing people to the many ways they can support Troy. Please join them for Troy, for me, and for my son.

A Peaceful Revolution is a blog about innovative ideas to strengthen America’s families through public policies, business practices, and cultural change. Done in collaboration with MomsRising.org, read a new post here each week.

*Want to help save Troy’s life? Below are some links where you can take action:

NAACP – http://www.naacp.org/pages/too-much-doubt

Amnesty International – http://blog.amnestyusa.org/tag/troy-davis/

ACLU – https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3621

ColorOfChange.org – http://colorofchange.org

*Here are some videos where you can get more information about Troy’s case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DGqRFM443Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMgARJjdOgc&feature=player_embedded

View post: The Execution of Troy Davis — A Mother’s Story

Just hours after being discovered, this comet met its end, barreling into the sun and likely disintegrating. Amateur astronomers Michal Kusiak of Poland and Sergei Schmalz of Germany reportedly first found the comet on September 13, shortly before it crashed into the sun on the 14th.

According to Spaceweather.com, the comet was actually a member of the the Kreutz family of comets, meaning it broke off of a larger mass. Typically comets like this are too small to see, but in this case, it was just big enough to remain visible.

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured the entire event.

Coincidentally, the comet headed for the sun just hours after a massive solar storm took place. The two incidents were not linked, however.

Space.com writes that the comet was “dragged” into the sun, and the sun has recently been unleashing more coronal mass ejections and strong solar flares “as it works toward a maximum in its 11-year activity cycle. Just last week, for example, the sun generated two X-class flares — the strongest type — and three CMEs.”

In May, another comet hit the sun, seemingly creating a massive coronal ejection. However, while there seems to be an ejection following this collision as well, scientists hesitate to say that comets are capable of creating these reactions. There currently is no definitive proof to suggest the two events are related.

WATCH the comet starting to be dragged in on September 13 (via Space.com):

WATCH the comet hitting the sun on September 14 (from SOHO via SpaceWeather.com):

See the original post: Comet ‘Dragged’ Into Sun, SOHO Observatory Detects Comet Just Before It’s Destroyed (VIDEOS)

Incoming

• soho observatory comets

During the interview to promote his upcoming film “J. Edgar,” the topic of gay marriage came up. Eastwood declared the opposition ridiculous, summing up his support for gays with one simple phrase, “I don’t give a f*ck about who gets married to anybody else.”

We decided to salute Clint for his poignant and logical (although NSFW) response by showcasing some of his most “I Don’t Give A F*ck” moments in photos from Getty Images. You’re welcome.

RELATED:

The rest is here: Clint Eastwood Doesn’t Give A F*ck (PHOTOS)

But last night she had the opportunity to make a more flattering statement — fashion-wise, that is. The 29-year-old tennis star celebrated the conclusion of the U.S. Open as well as New York Fashion Week at the Made In Polaroid Charity Auction, attended by big fashion names such as Patrick Demarchelier, Stefano Tonchi and Brad Goreski as well as Sting.

For the occasion Williams let her hair down (or, more accurately, out), showing off the hot pink streak in her curls. She donned a tight blue dress with zebra-stripe detail across the bodice and paired the body-con look with basic black pumps and silver bangles on both wrists.

Does the look work for the tennis pro or do Serena’s choices prove unflattering once again?

Take a look at the pics below!

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Read the original post: Serena Williams At Made In Polaroid Charity Auction: Hit Or Miss? (PHOTOS, POLL)

Oz said on his show Wednesday that testing by a New Jersey lab has found what he implied are troubling levels of arsenic in many juices.

However, the FDA says the lab methods were not appropriate and that its own tests show much lower arsenic levels. The agency warned “The Dr. Oz. Show” producers in advance that their testing was misleading.

Dr. Richard Besser, a pediatrician and former acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also scolded Oz Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show for scaring consumers with what Besser called an “extremely irresponsible” report, like “yelling `Fire!’ in a movie theater.”

The issue: arsenic is naturally present in water, air, food, and soil in organic and inorganic forms, according to the FDA.

“Organic arsenic is essentially harmless,” the agency says, and it passes through the body quickly. Inorganic arsenic is the type found in pesticides, and consuming it at high levels or over a long period can cause concern.

The testing “The Dr. Oz Show” did was for total arsenic, and the FDA even disputes those levels. The agency’s own tests found lower total arsenic from one of the same juice batches the show’s lab tested.

“There is no evidence of any public health risk from drinking these juices. And FDA has been testing them for years,” the statement says.

Note to consumers: They are talking about organic and inorganic arsenic – not organic versus non-organic fruits and vegetables.

An independent lab agreed with the FDA’s contention that the form of arsenic matters.

“A lot of things can have organically bound arsenic like kelp, but most of those flow right through you” and don’t accumulate, said William Obermeyer, a former FDA chemist who cofounded ConsumerLab.com. It is a company that tests dietary supplements and publishes ratings for subscribers, much as Consumer Reports does with household goods.

Tim Sullivan, a spokesman for Oz’s show, sent an email saying: “We don’t think the show is irresponsible. We think the public has a right to know what’s in their foods.”

Sullivan said Oz does not agree that organic arsenic is as safe as authorities believe, and that the show will do further tests to distinguish organic from inorganic arsenic in juice samples.

“The position of the show is that the total arsenic needs to be lower,” he said. “We did the tests. We stand by the results and we think the standards should be different.”

Watch Oz on “Today”:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read more here: Dr. Oz Under Fire From FDA Over Apple Juice Claims

The Rio de Janeiro state judge paid for that fearlessness: Acioli was shot to death in front of her house last month. And all of the 21 bullets that hit her came from a lot issued to police, including some in Sao Goncalo, the city where she worked. While violence and impunity are common in Brazil, the brazen murder of Acioli was an especially heavy blow, a message of intimidation from the vigilante militias.

The slaying was “a wound to the lawful state, to democracy; the figure of the judge is a symbol of justice,” said Denise Frossard, a retired judge who presided over some of Rio’s first cases against the militias in the 1990s. “If she is a judge and can be killed, how can a citizen feel secure enough to be a witness?”

Acioli’s death was the first murder of a judge in the state’s history, though Frossard herself survived three assassination attempts and had eight security guards ensuring her safety while she was on the bench.

Violent militias have grown in power and scope in recent years, taking over poor communities formerly controlled by drug dealers and coercing residents to pay for illegal utility hookups, transportation, and security. Their members include former and current police, firefighters and jail guards. Investigators say they have elected members as state and city legislators. They also have been praised by politicians, including Rio de Janeiro’s mayor, for taking back swaths of territory from drug gangs.

A probe by the state legislature in 2008 found militias were connected to execution-style killings, far-reaching extortion schemes, and the kidnapping and torture of a group of journalists investigating the gangs’ activities.

Acioli had been repeatedly threatened for taking on the police officers who were part of the gangs, and she had written letters to her superiors requesting protection. One week before her murder, she went to Rio police’s internal affairs office and said she was being threatened by officers from Sao Goncalo, where she worked, and Niteroi, where she lived.

The last case on her docket on Aug. 11, the day she died, involved policemen charged with executing an 18-year-old man in a slum. One of her last acts as a judge was to authorize their arrest.

A month later, three of the same Sao Goncalo police officers were charged with her murder.

The suspects knew the judge would ask for their arrest, and wanted to stop her, said Felipe Ettore, the head of Rio’s homicide division, in a press conference this week. They didn’t know she’d already issued the order.

“Their way of stopping her was to kill her,” Ettore said. “They went to court and followed Patricia to her front door.”

Nationwide, the lives of 134 judges are currently under threat, according to the National Council for Justice, which oversees the judiciary branch in Brazil. Requests for protection from magistrates jumped 400 percent in the month since Acioli’s death, according to the Brazilian Association of Judges.

The killing prompted the United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, to urge Brazilian authorities to protect those charged with enforcing the law.

“The assassination of Judge Acioli is evidence of the existence of a pervasive and serious problem regarding the protection of judges in Brazil,” said Knaul, a Brazilian judge herself.

Acioli’s caseload was taken on by three other judges. Seven prosecutors are now working with them.

“Her death did bring on a fear among prosecutors and judges; they’re human, and it’s natural to think, ‘That could be me tomorrow,’” said Claudio Lopes, Rio state’s attorney general. “But if this was done to intimidate justice, it is backfiring. We will be more rigorous than ever.”

The work is not only dangerous, it’s difficult. Militias infiltrate the state from local police departments to state legislatures. They have a particularly nefarious effect on the legal system because they blur the boundaries between legitimate agents of the law and criminals, Lopes said.

“They’re often composed of people credentialed by the state to promote public safety, and they turn against the state, against the public,” he said. “They usurp the authority of the state. In this way, they are a danger that goes deeper than drug traffickers.”

Even a few years ago, some politicians still praised militias for doing what the state couldn’t do: take on drug dealers entrenched in the city’s shantytowns.

Former Rio Mayor Cesar Maia welcomed them as a “lesser evil” and a form of “community self-defense” against drug gangs, according to the newspaper O Globo in 2006.

Current Mayor Eduardo Paes praised militias in a July 2008 interview on Globo television, saying they “brought peace to the population” in areas where the state had lost sovereignty to drug lords.

Such views are changing as the body count rises. The 2008 investigation led by Marcelo Freixo, head of the state legislature’s human rights commission, led to the arrest of one state representative and six city council members for militia activity. Hundreds were arrested on other charges because of information detailed in the report.

One of those arrested, Rio City Councilman Luiz Andre Ferreira da Silva, is accused of plotting to kill the city’s police chief and Freixo.

In Sao Goncalo, 34 officers were put on leave after Acioli’s death because they face serious criminal charges such as murder, according to Rio state’s Supreme Court. Arrest warrants have been issued for 28 of them.

In spite of the threats to Acioli, court officials had cut her security detail from four to one in 2007, said Tecio Lins e Silva, an attorney representing her family.

“This is a matter involving my life, and it is very important,” Acioli wrote in a letter appealing the decision. “I don’t understand the treatment being given to the case.”

But the security officers were not reinstated. At the moment she was shot, no one was there to protect her.

Follow this link: Brazil: Patricia Acioli Assassination Is Intimidating Message From Militias

Incoming

• patricia acioli assassination

Could Crystal have been correct? Is it more important to look good than feel good? After all, everyone wants to feel good and most of us want to look great, too. Well, guess what? Emerging medical science now reveals that Billy may have been correct. How young you look, scientists now say, may actually be more important than your age in years.

To put it in a slightly different way, are your looks killing you?

Perhaps this story will help illustrate the idea:

A Case In Point:

My first patient of the day, Paula, a 51-year-old executive, looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “I think I’m dying. I look so old!”

Although I didn’t say so, I was struck by how aged she did look. Yes, she was only 51 years old, but her appearance told a different story. At first glance, you might think she was 70. It wasn’t just that her skin sagged and that she had deep lines and wrinkles around her mouth and engraved smile lines around her eyes. No, it was much more than that.

Her skin just didn’t look healthy. There was no glow, no color and no vibrancy left to her countenance. I guess one might say she had lost “the blush of youth.”

“Well, Dr. Dharma,” you might say. “After all, she ain’t no spring chicken.”

“Sorry,” I say. “I don’t necessarily agree with you.” Why? Because 51 clearly isn’t all that old, especially these days when people are saying that 60 is the new 40.

Regardless of her age, she doesn’t have to look all worn out, tired and stressed to the max. She shouldn’t look older than she is — and neither should you. In fact, according to emerging medical research, if you look younger than someone of equal age, you may live longer than they will. And, if you look older than your age, medical science now tells us, you have a greater chance of dying younger.

Recently I attended perhaps the most advanced medical conference in recent history. It was called Telomere Biology in Health and Disease and was held in Stockholm, Sweden. To say the conference was top notch would be a rather large understatement. Indeed, the keynote address was given by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, the Nobel Laureate in 2009.

Dr. Blackburn was awarded the prize for her groundbreaking discovery of the importance of the telomere. She was joined on the faculty by many other leading scientists from around the world, who discussed the critical connection between telomere length, longevity and optimal health. I was honored to present a paper there on my own meditation research, which I’ll share a bit later in this blog.

Telomeres are one of the most recent medical discoveries. A telomere is the cap of your DNA, and as you age or develop an illness it shortens. Short telomeres are consistent with accelerated aging, inflammation, stress, memory loss, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and prematurely aging skin (as was seen with my patient Paula). It’s no wonder then that she also had memory issues, as well as other signs of accelerated aging.

On the third day of the conference, an intriguing presentation about skin aging occurred that held me spellbound. The speaker revealed an intriguing study from The Danish Aging Research Center and The Danish Institute of Public Health. In this work, called the Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins (LSADT), they found that for 1,826 twins, the perceived age from a facial photograph — as determined by three groups of raters including doctors, nurses and lay-people — was a “robust predictor of mortality” during the next seven years. All of the raters agreed on each photo as to which twin looked older than the other, and the one who looked older died sooner during the succeeding years.

Looking younger was correlated with less depression, better health habits such as nutrition and exercise and being married. Beyond that, looking older was associated with shorter telomeres, memory loss and poor physical condition.

Conversely, longer telomeres mean you’re aging well. Interestingly, it will soon be possible to follow your progress on a lifestyle modification program by measuring your telomeres on a regular basis, not unlike how you have your blood pressure or cholesterol checked periodically today. How old or young you look, therefore, is a clear determinant of your overall health, your memory function and how long you may live.

So how can you look younger? How can you stop the passage of time from ravaging your skin?
First of all, looking younger starts from the inside out, not the outside in, so let’s start by excluding procedures such as botox injections, fillers and plastic surgery. Rather, let’s begin with proven techniques that can lengthen your telomeres.

The first thing you must do is pay attention to your stress levels. Chronic stress has a very detrimental effect on your general health and that of your skin because it shortens your telomeres, and leads to inflammation, depression and cognitive decline, all shown to be associated with looking older and dying sooner. Chronic stress decreases your overall well being, which leads back to more stress, anxiety, depression and poor health. In this way it’s a vicious cycle.

Research has shown that meditation as part of a life style modification program (that includes a 10 percent fat vegetarian diet, taking certain supplements such as fish oil, selenium, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and being social) will help break the stress cycle and lengthen your telomeres. As I’ve shared on my other blogs, all meditation is great for stress reduction. The fastest, scientifically-proven meditation for reducing stress and enhancing well-being, is an easy mental exercise called Kirtan Kriya (KK), which takes only 12 minutes a day. KK is proven to strengthen brain function, reverse memory loss, decrease inflammation, boost mood and increase telomere length by a whopping 43 percent.

So I urge you to make sure you’re doing everything possible to look young by creating beautiful skin from the inside out. Eat well, take supplements if necessary, and definitely reduce your inner stress with meditation. Your telomeres will thank you, and you may up the likelihood that you’ll live a long time with a clear mind and lovely looking skin.

To discover more about the work of Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. and receive 2 free e-books please go to www.drdharma.com. To learn more about his research and download a copy of Kirtan Kriya, please go to www.alzheimersprevention.org

See the article here: Look Younger, Live Longer?

Netflix, in a note to investors, has said that they are set to lose about one million more subscribers than they thought they would following the big price change of July 2011.

The revised estimate breaks down like this: On July 25th, Netflix expected to have 10 million streaming-only customers, 3 million DVD-only customers and 12 million with both; now they expect to have 9.8 million with streaming, 2.2 million with DVD only and (still) 12 million with both. Effectively, Netflix had projected 25 million users at the end of this month; now they think they’ll have 24 million users.

To illustrate the loss, Netflix included the following charts in its letter to shareholders:

In trading this morning Netflix stock is down over 14 percent at press time and reached a low of over 15 percent down previously.

This continues the rough patch for Netflix, which, after years of growth, seems to have cooled somewhat in the eyes of consumers. In July it announced that it was doing away with its popular $9.99 DVD-plus-streaming plan in favor of two separate plans priced at $7.99 each, which led to a huge Internet backlash. More recently Starz, which provides Netflix with over a thousand streaming movies from the likes of Disney and Sony, announced that it would not renew its contract with Netflix when it expires in February 2012. Despite a rollout to over 40 Latin American countries earlier in the month, NFLX is falling hard on these revised consumer data.

In the letter, Netflix’s optimism is unflagging:

Despite the guidance revision, we remain convinced that the splitting of our services was the right longterm strategic choice. The strategy behind the split of our services is four-fold:

(1) to create a dedicated DVD rental division that takes pride in great execution and maximizes the
opportunity for disc rental over the coming decade;
(2) to enable us to improve our global streaming service even more rapidly, because it is not
meshed with a domestic DVD business;
(3) to enable us, with the growth in revenue, to license more streaming content and thereby
improve our streaming service even more;
(4) to remain very price aggressive, with $7.99 per month for unlimited streaming of a huge library
of TV shows and movies, and $7.99 per month for unlimited DVD rentals, 1 out at-a-time.

We know our decision to split our services has upset many of our subscribers, which we don’t take
lightly, but we believe this split will help us make our services better for subscribers and shareholders
for years to come.

Netflix, facing an insurgent Redbox, a rumored Blockbuster streaming service in October and costly contract negotiations with movie studios upcoming in 2012, is certainly in a trying time; but even with 24 million subscribers instead of 25 million, it does not seem in danger of going out of business anytime soon.

WATCH:

Original post: Netflix Price Increase Causes Bigger Subscriber Loss Than Expected

Tigers ace Justin Verlander is such a flamethrower. But the sparks didn’t start flying during the Tigers’ game against the White Sox on Tuesday at U.S. Cellular Field until after Verlander’s seven shutout frames. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Detroit relief pitcher Joaquin Benoit hurled a fastball and Chicago’s A.J. Pierzynski foul tipped it. The ball struck Tigers catcher Alex Avila’s mask, causing sparks to fly and Twitter to explode.

According to Chris Iott of MLive.com, Avila didn’t have any idea what reporters were talking about when he was asked to comment on the play.

Then he saw the replay.

“That was ridiculous. That was like a firecracker coming off my mask,” Avila said, via Jason Beck of MLB.com. Scroll down to watch the video.

WATCH: (Video via MLB.com)

Take a look at some Twitter reactions:

.bbpBox113810311211003904 {background:url(http://a0.twimg.com/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) #C0DEED;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block} Alex Avila is so tough his stubble causes sparks from foul tip balls off his mask. #MLB #Tigersless than a minute ago via Twitter for Android Favorite Retweet ReplyDirk Buttonbossman101

.bbpBox113824542325080064 {background:url(http://a0.twimg.com/profile_background_images/47329517/Krypto.jpg) #C0DEED;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block} Alex Avila Is On Fire — No, seriously…he is. Two .gifs of pure danger. http://t.co/nNxbGYv via @sbnbaseballless than a minute ago via Tweet Button Favorite Retweet Replyrobneyerrobneyer

.bbpBox113980542378196992 {background:url(http://a0.twimg.com/profile_background_images/120418853/Baseballs.jpg) #352726;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block} Alex Avila is lucky his mask didn’t catch on fire. #Tigers #Sparkless than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet ReplyCory Thorntoncordog85

.bbpBox113827316697808896 {background:url(http://a1.twimg.com/images/themes/theme2/bg.gif) #C6E2EE;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block} “Foul Tip Creates Sparks On Alex Avila’s Catcher’s Mask
” http://t.co/YZUXfvy I’m not convinced it was his mask, maybe he’s a cyborg…less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyMatt Blackmblackmn

Continued here: Alex Avila’s Mask Hit By Foul Tip, Sparks Fly In Tigers-White Sox Game (VIDEO)

The national poverty rate last year was 15.1%. That is up from 11.3% in 2000 and is the highest it has been since 1993. Over 46 million people lived below the poverty line in 2010. The cut-off for that line is households of four people who made under $22,314. The other troubling news was that median income per household nationwide was an inflation-adjusted $49,445. This is about the same as in 1989 and down 2.3% from 2009. Economists fear that Americans are not consumers. It is easy to tell why when their real income has been frozen in place for more than two decades.

The problems of poverty and low income are as much local as national. The poverty rate is 21% in Mississippi. The state also has the lowest median income at $36,850. Mississippi is among the states with the worst education systems, highest obesity levels, highest unemployment, and lowest rates of health insurance coverage. The state is an economic black hole, and it shows in the way people suffer there. And, as is true with black holes, it is nearly impossible for the residents of Mississippi to escape their difficult financial situations. There is a dearth of federal programs that target specific states and cities based on local economic need.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed census data from all 50 states on median income, poverty rates, unemployment, and lack of health insurance. We then identified the ten states that have the lowest median income. We also looked at why low-income households are concentrated in these states and what, in some cases, has been done to reverse the difficult situations.

These are the poorest states in America, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

Follow this link: America’s 10 Poorest States: 24/7 Wall St.

Having hit it off — while trying to kill each other on screen — in “Mr. and. Mrs. Smith,” Pitt tells Entertainment Weekly that they shouldn’t just be co-parents, they should once again be co-stars. “We should be doing [movies] together,” he tells the magazine. “That’s what we should be doing. We should be doing everything together, and then we could work less. We could have more time off.”

Of course, they’d have to establish some more creative trust; Jolie told Vanity Fair that, as she was working on her directorial debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” she wasn’t quite confident in her life partner’s input. Since they love each other and all, of course.

“He’d come in and say what he liked or what he didn’t understand,” she remembered. “Like any woman, I would listen to most of it and fight a few things. He’s been so supportive. But it’s hard to separate the person that loves you from the critic, so I don’t think he’s a fair judge.”

For more from Pitt, click over to EW.

PHOTO:

Link: Brad Pitt Talks Angelina Jolie, Family, Movies In Entertainment Weekly

In the book, McGinniss writes that Palin had a one-night stand in 1987 with future NBA basketball player Glen Rice nine months before she married her husband Todd. He quotes a friend who said Palin “had a fetish for black guys for a while.”

“She was a gorgeous woman. Super nice. I was blown away by her,” Rice tells McGinniss in the book, NBC reports. “Afterward, she was a big crush that I had.”

McGinniss’s book also alleges that Palin had an extramarital affair with her husband’s business partner, Brad Hanson, in the mid-1990s, and snorted cocaine off a 55-gallon oil drum while snowboarding.

“An utter fraud. An absolute and utter fraud,” McGinniss calls Palin in an interview about the book with NBC.

“At best, she’s a hypocrite,” McGinniss tells NBC’s Savannah Guthrie. “At worst, she’s a vindictive hypocrite.”

WATCH:

McGinniss famously moved into a house next door to Palin’s Wasilla, Alaska home to write his book — prompting the Palins to accuse him of stalking them. They built a high fence along their property to protect their privacy.

In response to McGinniss’s book, Todd Palin gave a statement to NBC saying that McGinniss “spent the last year interviewing marginal figures with an axe to grind in order to churn out a hit piece to satisfy his own creepy obsession with my wife.”

“I’d ask the fathers and husbands of America to consider our privacy when one summer day I found this guy on the deck of the rental property, just 18 feet away next door to us, staring like a creep at my wife while she mowed the lawn in her shorts,” Palin said.

McGinniss says that anything he learned about Palin by living next door did not make it into the book, but he does become a character in the story himself.

The New York Times writes in its review:

Soon Mr. McGinniss is settling in to enjoy the fuss his mere presence has created. “Normally, for a news story to continue beyond the first 24-hour news cycle, something newsworthy must occur,” he writes loftily, but “The Rogue” is filled with proof to the contrary. What was his hate mail like? He quotes it. What did Glenn Beck call him? That’s here too. Who took umbrage at this venom and chose to help him? One man offered him a hideout, despite Mr. McGinniss’s slight skepticism about his motives. “But you don’t know me,” Mr. McGinniss protested.

McGinniss’s book is scheduled to hit bookstores on Tuesday, Sept. 20.

Read this article: Joe McGinniss Sarah Palin Book, ‘The Rogue,’ Makes Controversial Claims About Former Alaska Governor

Moore was on to promote his new book, but the conversation turned to his controversial comments about bin Laden that drew so much attention in the wake of his death in May. Moore said he believed bin Laden had been “executed” and that America had “lost something of our soul” by not trying him for his crimes.

Hasselbeck came to the “View” desk ready for a fight, and she cut Moore off midway through his first sentence.

“I think that we did a very smart thing putting the Nazis on trial,” he began. “That was after the war was over,” Hasselbeck cut in.

“The war is over,” Moore said. “Michael, we’re still at war!” she snapped.

“No, we’re not, actually,” Moore snapped back. He said that the U.S. has spent countless time and money fighting things that have “nothing to do with the real threat,” and that the country should not be in Afghanistan.

“My point is that the way we show the world that we’re different is that we give even the most heinous person their day in court,” he said.

“You’re telling me Osama bin Laden deserves a trial?” an outraged Hasselbeck replied. “Where? In New York City? Absolutely not! How dare — and why, because Casey Anthony’s trial went so well?”

“What are we afraid of?” Moore said. “We’re Americans, man!” “Our rights are not afforded to him!” Hasselbeck shot back. The argument continued in that vein until a reluctant Whoopi Goldberg was forced to cut to a commercial.

WATCH:

Read more: Michael Moore, Elisabeth Hasselbeck Clash Over Bin Laden Death On ‘The View’ (VIDEO)

Today, I am launching my campaign to represent the people of Massachusetts in the United States Senate. After listening to people all across our state who know that we can do better, folks who are frustrated like I am that Washington just doesn’t get it, I’m running for the Senate so I can fight every day for Massachusetts families.

I hope you’ll take a minute to watch this short video:

Washington gives some of the biggest corporations in the world special loopholes and tax breaks, while middle-class families and small businesses struggle.

That is wrong. Our hard-working families deserve someone who believes in them, someone who is going to stand up and fight for their interests.

That’s why I’m running for the United States Senate.

I’ve fought all my life for working families, and I’ve stood up to some pretty powerful interests. Now those interests are sure to line up against our campaign — and that’s why I’m asking you to help me build the grassroots support we need to beat them.

Please click here to watch my announcement video – and while you’re there, be sure to sign up to join our campaign.

Then I hope you’ll share my announcement video on Facebook or Twitter.

We have a chance to help rebuild America’s middle class. We have a chance to put Washington on the side of families.

We can do this – together.

Read the original here: I’m Running!

I was blown away by her ability to so succinctly articulate the complexity of her emotions about the two sides of her father; the man who loves her and the man who seemingly treats women as disposable, interchangeable, companions for the purposes of physical and social convenience. It’s not that he’s blatantly disrespectful on any level and as a single man, his behavior is far from inappropriate, yet she has learned well, and recognizes the contrast between how he has taught her to be loved and how he treats women in general.

Her father lavishes her with affection and attention, so she feels cherished. Before she even understood what it meant, he told her she was beautiful, smart and worthy. This makes her relatively immune to the compliments of boys who try to impress her with words that would make a girl deprived of such reinforcement swoon or flee. Ambition, intelligence and good communication are her basic requirements. The young men courting her understand the bar has been set high and vie for her respect and friendship.

Our exchange prompted me to think about the fathers in my life: my father, my friend’s fathers, my brothers, colleagues etc. and what their daughters could possibly be learning from them about their self image and how they should be treated as women. Everything from what love looks and feels like, to the value of intelligence and definition of physical beauty are transmitted from father to daughter in verbal and non-verbal cues.

When I was about five years old, my father looked at me and offered a stern warning, “You have fat potential!”

At the time, I had no idea what he meant, but I could tell from his tone, and the way he looked at me, it was not good. I eventually learned what it meant and became obsessed with my weight. I was terrified of gaining weight. It took me many years, a handful of therapists and even more self-help books to get myself firmly on the path to reversing the damage inflicted upon my self image by my father’s well received words.

A colleague of mine recently bragged “I’ve been married 18 years and never once cheated!” I laughed and asked if he was impotent. Of course he wasn’t, but he did boast that his wife could wear his fourteen year old daughter’s bathing suit. This was his reason for fidelity; having a wife in her 40′s, with three children, that does God only knows what, to fit herself into clothing belonging to her child, barely two years into puberty. I could only hope that she was modeling healthy choices to her children in her efforts to keep herself this size.

I congratulated him and wondered if he would take responsibility if he were to discover his daughter throwing up her meals to meet his weight requirements. Could he even see how with all the pressure surrounding young girls to look like airbrushed, anorexic models, that his comments might have a detrimental effect on his daughter?

Another father, married 20 years with two teenaged daughters, has a beautiful family, whom he professes to love deeply and value greatly. Yet, he has been having an affair for almost 10 years. I asked him if he really believed his daughters and wife were clueless about his clandestine activities. He looked at me earnestly and nodded yes. I told him I disagreed and shared with him my understanding of the uncanny ability of children to know all things that parents try to hide. He admitted that he watched his own father’s infidelity throughout his parent’s marriage.

Then he mentioned a cousin of his who serially cheats on her husband; she attributes this to watching her father cheat on her mother and she realized in therapy how this experience left her with trust issues. Subconsciously, her cheating is her way of avoiding the heartache and humiliation she watched her mother endure. He became introspective when he realized how many of our friends are dealing with the fallout of their father’s affairs playing out in their relationships.

With so much emphasis on fathers to take care of their sons, and I emphatically agree that this is crucial, I would ask all fathers to recognize that your daughters need your care too. They are watching you and learning about their value based on the actions and words you offer them. Your treatment of their mother and the other women you befriend, love and interact with, speak volumes about a woman’s worth.

Your power lies in your understanding of the significant impact your behavior has on your daughter’s self image and how it will influence the quality of relationships she chooses. This is the currency she will carry as she travels into the world of adulthood.

Read this article: She’s Always Watching: The Impact of Fathers on Daughters’ Self Esteem

“Yeah, I blame my daughter for Caylee not being here today,” George Anthony told Dr. Phil McGraw. “I lost Caylee three years ago and I believe I lost Casey at the same time. I believe that. She is responsible.”

Casey Anthony was acquitted of killing Caylee in July. She was convicted on four lesser charges of lying to police and was released days after the trial ended. She is currently in Florida, serving a year of probation stemming from an unrelated 2010 conviction on check fraud charges.

George and Cindy Anthony have dramatically different points of view about their daughter’s level of involvement in their Caylee’s death.

Cindy Anthony said on the show that she does not know what happened on June 16, 2008 — the day her daughter’s attorneys claim Caylee drowned in the family swimming pool.

“I don’t know, but something happened that day that forever changed [Casey's] behavior,” she said. “I buy the part that Caylee drowned but I don’t buy the circumstances surrounding the drowning.”

George Anthony had a different point of view.

“I believe something else happened to her. … I believe Casey or someone else she was with possibly gave too much to Caylee. She fell asleep and didn’t wake up,” he said.

When McGraw asked, “Too much what?” Anthony replied, “Possibly some kind of drug or something like that.”

The drugs would have allowed Casey Anthony to “go out and have a good time. To be with friends,” George Anthony said. His wife was visibly surprised by his response.

“This is the first time that I’ve heard this out of his mouth,” Cindy Anthony said. She added: “I don’t buy that for a moment. I’m sorry. We disagree about this. … I’m really kind of shocked to hear that today.”

George Anthony also said he suspects his daughter was present when Caylee was buried in the woods near their house and said that she “probably had some help.”

Despite the difference in opinion, Cindy Anthony said she was not angry with her husband.

“If that’s how he feels and he is finally getting that out in the open, then I think that’s a good thing for him because he’s held so much in,” she said.

Casey Anthony Trial (ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Cindy Anthony had many potential excuses for her daughter’s bizarre behavior, but did say she believed there is “something seriously wrong with … her thought processes.”

But, in regard to the verdict that set her daughter free, Cindy Anthony did not mince words.

“I believe that justice for Caylee was when her mother walked,” she said. “I believe that with all my heart because I know the love that those two had and I know that Caylee’s soul would never have rested. … I believe it was an accident and until someone can prove differently that is what I believe.”

Read more here: Casey Anthony’s Father, George Anthony, Tells Dr. Phil He Blames Her For Caylee’s Death (VIDEO)

Police in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville arrested Lindsey Lowe, 25, on Wednesday after her father discovered one baby’s body in a laundry basket. According to a police affidavit, the young mother said she didn’t tell her family she was pregnant, but believes she got pregnant in January and never visited a doctor. Police said on Thursday they were trying to identify the father of the twins.

Police said they interviewed Lowe who said she went into labor Monday evening while on the toilet at her parent’s home. She said the first baby fell into the toilet and began to cry.

“Lowe stated that the baby was crying and Lowe did not want her parents to hear and find out about the child,” police wrote in the affidavit. “Lowe stated that she put her hand over the child’s mouth and she stated that she kept it there until the child was dead, which was a couple of minutes.” Lowe said she never checked the sex of the child.

A few minutes later, the affidavit says, she gave birth to the second child, who also fell in the toilet. She again put her hand over the baby’s mouth and held it there until the baby died, which she said took less time than the first child. She put both babies in the laundry basket and covered them up with blankets.

Police said both boys appeared to be full term and weighing about 5 or 6 pounds.

Lowe, who works at a pediatric dentist’s office, was charged with first-degree murder and remained in jail Thursday with no bond. Police said she is undergoing a medical evaluation.

Police Lt. Scott Ryan said Thursday that he didn’t know how she hid the pregnancy, just saying that she didn’t tell anyone. He would not say whether Lowe was helping them to identify the father.

Ryan said women with unwanted pregnancies have several options, including a safe haven law that allows newborns to be dropped off at places like hospitals and police stations.

“No matter how bleak the outlook may be for you, let someone help you out,” Ryan said.

Someone answered a call by The Associated Press to Lowe’s father but hung up when asked for comment.

Senior Pastor at City Road Chapel United Methodist Church Ron Lowery said he got a call from Lowe’s parents on Wednesday to come to the house for support during the police investigation. He said Lindsey and her sister grew up in the church and were regularly involved in youth activities.

On Thursday, he said the family was stable and was figuring out what to do next.

“It’s amazing how we somehow have the ability to cope even in life’s worst disasters,” Lowery said.

As to why Lindsey was so desperate to hide the pregnancy, Lowery said, “It’s a mystery to everybody.”

See the rest here: Lindsey Lowe, Tenn. Mom, Confesses To Smothering Newborn Twins