Obama accuse McCain

Here was one of article i found today,
read here at full report.

Obama accuses McCain camp of lies, phony outrage

Sep 10 11:20 AM US/Eastern
By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday accused Republican John McCain's campaign of using "lies and phony outrage and Swift-boat politics" in claiming he used a sexist comment against vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Calling it "the latest made-up controversy by the John McCain campaign," Obama responded to the Republicans' charge that he was referring to Palin when he used the phrase "lipstick on a pig" at a campaign stop Tuesday.

"I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and Swift-boat politics. Enough is enough," he said.

Obama's reference was to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an outside group that in 2004 made unsubstantiated allegations about Democratic nominee John Kerry's decorated military record in Vietnam.

On Tuesday, Obama criticized McCain's economic policies as similar to those of President Bush, saying: "You can put lipstick on a pig ... it's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."

The McCain campaign contended that the comments were directed at Palin, the GOP's first woman on a presidential ticket. In her acceptance speech last week, she had referred to herself in a joke about lipstick being the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull.

Accusing Obama of "smearing" Palin in "offensive and disgraceful" comments, the McCain campaign demanded an apology—though McCain himself used the folksy metaphor a few times last year, including once to describe Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan.

The McCain campaign on Wednesday issued an Internet ad that said Obama was talking about Palin and said of Obama: "Ready to lead? No. Ready to smear? Yes."

Obama began a discussion of education at a Norfolk high school on Wednesday by assailing McCain's campaign.

"What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country. They seize on an innocent remark, try to take it out of context, throw up an outrageous ad because they know that it's catnip for the news media," Obama said.

Barack Obama's words in attacking John McCain have put him on the hot seat.

Hot seat heah,
great Obama was take to Hot seat, hehehe, is god article,
of course get a hot seat, he was run for presiden
here the full report of the news
with following details

Barack Obama takes heat for 'lipstick on a pig' remark about McCain

BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT


Now it's getting really dirty.

The road to the White House turned into a mud pit Tuesday as a John McCain ad claimed Barack Obama wanted to teach sex education to 5-year-olds, while Obama accused McCain and Sarah Palin of trying to "put lipstick on a pig."
RELATED: MCCAIN FIRES BACK WITH 'LIPSTICK' AD, BARACK CRIES 'SWIFT BOAT'

At a campaign event in Virginia, Obama mocked McCain and his running mate for their effort to co-opt his campaign's "change" mantra."

"You can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said as the crowd cheered. "It's still a pig."
RELATED: BURNING QUESTIONS FOR SARAH PALIN

"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink."

Though Obama prefaced the "lipstick" jab by referring to the GOP ticket's political positions, Republicans charged it was a thinly disguised slam on Palin, who famously described herself as a hard-charging hockey mom during her GOP convention speech last week.

"The difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull?" she joked. "Lipstick!"

McCain-Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said, "Barack Obama's comments today are offensive and disgraceful. He owes Gov. Palin an apology."

The Obama camp maintained it was no personal insult at Palin - just the use of a common expression to suggest the McCain-Palin ticket was trying to dress up bad policy. They circulated quotes in which McCain used the "lipstick on a pig" line to attack a Hillary Clinton health care plan.

Meanwhile, Team McCain slimed Obama in a new 30-second ad.

The spot portrays Obama as a lightweight on education reform, saying his one accomplishment is legislation to teach "comprehensive sex education" to kindergartners.

"Learning about sex before learning to read?" the ad intones. "Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family."

But as the McCain camp's documentation noted, Obama said he backed the legislation as a state senator for "age-appropriate" instruction to teach young children how to protect themselves from pedophiles.

Obama, addressing the issue in his 2004 U.S. Senate race, said, "I have family members as well as friends who suffered abuse at that age."

Tuesday night, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, "It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls.

"Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn't define what honor was. Now we know why."

The nastiest exchanges of the campaign came as both candidates prepare for a solemn joint appearance at Ground Zero tommorrow to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

msaul@nydailynews.com

Obama takes the Pig and Poke at Palin

Really, are you sure this is correct,
how know this is a news offer the internet,
you may trus or not, is completely ip to you
here the full report from www.nypost.com



OBAMA TAKES A PIG AND A POKE AT PALIN
By GEOFF EARLE in Washington and CARL CAMPANILE in NY

Barack Obama stuck his foot in his mouth yesterday when he said "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig"- which the angry McCain campaign immediately denounced as an out-of-bounds attack on running mate Sarah Palin.

Obama delivered the line while campaigning in Lebanon, Va., tearing into his rivals for not representing real change.

"You know, you can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said, "but it's still a pig."

He added, "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called 'change.' It's still gonna stink after eight years."

Many in the Obama crowd cheered and leaped to their feet in delight - apparently taking the "pig" comment as a direct slam at Palin.

McCain's camp in turn accused Obama of "smearing" Palin in his "offensive and disgraceful" comments and demanded an apology - though McCain himself used the folksy metaphor a few times last year, including once to describe Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan.

Get COMPLETE Election Coverage

The McCain campaign on Wednesday issued an Internet ad that said Obama was talking about Palin and said of Obama: "Ready to lead? No. Ready to smear? Yes."

Obama then accused McCain's campaign of using "lies and phony outrage and Swift-boat politics" by saying his comment was sexist, and called it "the latest made-up controversy by the John McCain campaign."

One of her most memorable lines during her vice-presidential acceptance speech at the GOP convention last week was the ad lib: "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." The line drew roars from the party faithful.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, speaking on behalf of Republican nominee John McCain's presidential campaign, quickly called on Obama to apologize.

"It's disgraceful. Sen. Obama owes Gov. Palin an apology," Swift said.

"This is just the latest in a series of comments that females like me will find offensive . . . There's only one woman in the race. It's hard to think this was directed at anybody other than Gov. Palin."

New York Republican activist Georgette Mosbacher said Obama's pig remark was beyond the pale.

OOOoooo Obama "piq on lipstick tragedy"

OOOoooo Obama "piq on lipstick tragedy"
OOOoooo Obama "piq on lipstick tragedy"
Obama i like you, come on be president
Be no.1 person in USA, i hope US will be much more greater and stronger,
but remember people come 1st,
I know Obama will make changges

update report for piq on a lipstick tragedy


Obama Puts Different Twist on Lipstick

Amy Chozick reports on the presidential race from Lebanon, Va.

What’s the difference between a more hopeful kind of politics and old-fashioned attacks? Lipstick.

Barack Obama says the John McCain-Sarah Palin policies don’t represent change, they’re “just calling the same thing something different.”

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” Obama said during a town-hall style event here Tuesday night.

The comment was widely interpreted as a play on Republican vice-presidential candidate Palin’s joke during the Republican National Convention that the only difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom was lipstick, though the campaign said Obama wasn’t referencing Palin’s comments.

Obama has been hammering the Republican ticket for adopting his change mantra. “This is a guy who supported George Bush 90% of the time. What does that say about somebody’s judgment that they agree with George Bush 90% of the time?” he said.

“You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called ‘change,’ it’s still going to stink,” Obama said. “After eight years, we’ve had enough of the same old thing. It’s time to bring about real change to Washington and that’s the choice you’ve got in this election.”

This isn’t the first time in a 24-hour period that lipstick has become an issue. As he was introducing Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden, Missouri Rep. Russ Carnahan said Palin had “zero experience in national government, zero experience in foreign affairs. There’s no way you can dress up that record, even with a lot of lipstick.”

Republicans struck back, calling the attacks on Palin old-style Washington attacks that run counter to Obama’s promise of change. “Sarah Palin’s maverick record of reform doesn’t need any ‘dressing up,’ but the Obama campaign’s condescending commentary deserves some dressing down,” says RNC spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson.

Hogs were a theme of Obama’s town hall. Later in the event, while discussing the No Child Left Behind policy that puts stress on teachers to test students, he made another swine reference. “There’s a saying in Southern Illinois that you don’t fatten a hog by weighing it. You can weigh it every day, that’s not how you fatten it up,” Obama said.

UPDATE: The McCain campaign quickly struck back convening a conference call with reporters and former Mass. Gov. Jane Swift to paint the common expression as a sexist jab at Palin. “As far as I know there is only one candidate in this contest who wears lipstick,” Swift said.

The reaction set off a frenzied dive into the opposition research vault. Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton sent reporters a Chicago Tribune article published in 2007 during the Democratic primaries that cites McCain criticizing Hillary Clinton’s health care plan. “I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” McCain is quoted as saying about Clinton’s proposal.

Obama Disgraceful

is getting hot and hotter,
Mc Cain Camp says Obama's "lipstick" is disgraceful
common is a campaign, cant take it, don't be president
is politics, take it like a man
see full report from

McCain camp: Obama's 'lipstick' remark disgraceful
By NEDRA PICKLER

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses supporters at Lebanon High...
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LEBANON, Va. (AP) - What's the difference between the presidential campaign before and after the national political conventions? Lipstick. "You can put lipstick on a pig," Barack Obama told a rally in a reference to a line in Sarah Palin's vice presidential acceptance speech. "It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama told an audience Tuesday that GOP presidential nominee John McCain says he'll change Washington, but he's just like President Bush.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin's joke even if it's not what Obama meant.

McCain's campaign called the comments "offensive and disgraceful" and said Obama owes Palin an apology. Obama's campaign said he wasn't referring to Palin and said the GOP camp was engaging in a "pathetic attempt to play the gender card." Obama's camp also noted that McCain once used the same phrase to describe Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan.

Obama followed up by saying Palin is an interesting story, drawing boos at the mention of her name that he tried to cut off.

"Look, she's new, she hasn't been on the scene, she's got five kids. And my hat goes off to anybody whose looking after five. I've got two and they tire Michelle and me out," he said.

In Virginia, a questioner asked Obama to join Republicans and agree that candidates' families and religion are off limits. Palin's pregnant teenage daughter and the teachings of her church, the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church, have been the subject of scrutiny since McCain picked her as his running mate.

Obama responded that he already has said families are off limits and he's very protective of his daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha. He said he doesn't want their inevitable future mistakes to become newspaper fodder if he gets to the White House.

Obama also is no stranger to attacks on his religion. He's been the subject of a false rumor campaign saying he's a Muslim, and the racially tinged sermons of his longtime former preacher caused problems for his campaign earlier this year.

He stressed that he's a Christian and "so the fact that Gov. Palin is deeply religious, that's a good thing." He said poking around in her religion or saying it's wrong is "offensive" and he wants to have a debate about the issues.

"But don't give people some sort of religious litmus test because I don't want somebody to question my faith and I'm certainly not going to question somebody else's," he said.

---

On the Net:

Obama: http://www.barackobama.com

Obama Smears McCain-Palin As Lipstick On A Pig

hehehe McCain Palin is Lipstick On A Piq,
hehehe McCain Palin is Lipstick On A Piq,
hehehe McCain Palin is Lipstick On A Piq,
hehehe McCain Palin is Lipstick On A Piq,
hehehe McCain Palin is Lipstick On A Piq,

Obama called the attacks "lies, outrage and swift boat politics."

the news is buzzing today, today i read article from www.politico.com/blogs

yeah its getting hot and hot

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking at a high school in Norfolk, Obama took a few moments to address what he calls "the made-up controversy" of the day, Amie Parnes reports.

Obama said the McCain campaign moved to "seize an innocent remark and take it out of context because they knew it's catnip for the news media."

"See, it would be funny, but the news media decided that would be the lead story yesterday. This happens every election cycle. Every four years, this is what we do. This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about...Enough!" he said.

Obama called the attacks "lies, outrage and swift boat politics."

"These are serious times and they call for a serious debate...spare me all the phony outrage. Spare me all the phony talk about change," he said.

UPDATE: McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responds: “Barack Obama can’t campaign with schoolyard insults and then try to claim outrage at the tone of the campaign. His talk of new politics is as empty as his campaign trail promises, and his record of bucking his party and reaching across the aisle simply doesn’t exist.”

She is Anne Kilkenny

Ya ya ya, even New York time get misspelled
Every one can make's mistake :
i found an article that misspelled of Anne Kilkenny, here is the article from The New York Times
She is Anne Kilkenny not Ann Kilkenny

----update this article has been corrected







Palin’s Start in Alaska: Not Politics as Usual

Correction Appended

WASILLA, Alaska — The world arrived here more than a century ago with the gold rush and later the railroad. Yet one aspect of American life did not come to town until 1996, the year Sarah Palin ran for mayor and Wasilla got its first local lesson in wedge politics.

The traditional turning points that had decided municipal elections in this town of less than 7,000 people — Should we pave the dirt roads? Put in sewers? Which candidate is your hunting buddy? — seemed all but obsolete the year Ms. Palin, then 32, challenged the three-term incumbent, John C. Stein.

Anti-abortion fliers circulated. Ms. Palin played up her church work and her membership in the National Rifle Association. The state Republican Party, never involved before because city elections are nonpartisan, ran advertisements on Ms. Palin’s behalf.

Two years after Representative Newt Gingrich helped draft the Contract With America to advance Republican positions, Ms. Palin and her passion for Republican ideology and religious faith overtook a town known for a wide libertarian streak and for helping start the Iditarod sled dog race.

“Sarah comes in with all this ideological stuff, and I was like, ‘Whoa,’ ” said Mr. Stein, who lost the election. “But that got her elected: abortion, gun rights, term limits and the religious born-again thing. I’m not a churchgoing guy, and that was another issue: ‘We will have our first Christian mayor.’ ”

“I thought: ‘Holy cow, what’s happening here? Does that mean she thinks I’m Jewish or Islamic?’ ” recalled Mr. Stein, who was raised Lutheran, and later went to work as the administrator for the city of Sitka in southeast Alaska. “The point was that she was a born-again Christian.”

For all the admiration in Alaska for Ms. Palin, her rapid ascent from an activist in the P.T.A. to the running mate of Senator John McCain did not come without battle wounds. Her years in Wasilla, her first executive experience, reveal a mix of successes and stumbles, with Ms. Palin gaining support from a majority of residents for her drive, her faith and her accessibility but alienating others with what they said could be a polarizing single-mindedness.

“She is an aggressive reformer who isn’t afraid to break glass, to bring change to Wasilla and later to the state of Alaska,” said Taylor Griffin, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, who declined to address specific aspects of Ms. Palin’s tenure as mayor. “Washington needs some of that.”

In Wasilla, Ms. Palin is widely praised for following through on campaign promises by cutting property taxes while improving roads and sewers and strengthening the Police Department.

Her supporters say she helped Wasilla evolve from a ridiculed backwater to fast-growing suburb. The population of about 5,000 during her tenure as mayor has grown to nearly 10,000 now, and the city is filling with big box stores, including a Target that is scheduled to open on Oct. 12, one of three opening statewide that day in the chain’s Alaska debut.

But her critics say too much growth too quickly has made a mess of what not long ago was homesteaded farmland.

And for some, Ms. Palin’s first months in office here were so jarring — and so alienating — that an effort was made to force a recall. About 100 people attended a meeting to discuss the effort, which was covered in the local press, but the idea was dropped.

Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.

Anne Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. “They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,” Ms. Kilkenny said.

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship,” Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support. Ms. Emmons, who left her job and Wasilla a couple of years later, declined to comment for this article.

In 1996, Ms. Palin suggested to the local paper, The Frontiersman, that the conversations about banning books were “rhetorical.”

Ms. Emmons was not the only employee to leave. During her campaign, Ms. Palin appealed to voters who felt that city employees under Mr. Stein, who was not from Wasilla and had earned a degree in public administration at the University of Oregon, had been unresponsive and rigid regarding a new comprehensive development plan. In turn, some city employees expressed support for Mr. Stein in a campaign advertisement.

Kitty Bennett contributed reporting from Washington.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 5, 2008
An article on Wednesday about Sarah Palin’s tenure as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, misspelled the given name of a town resident who said Ms. Palin suggested banning some books from the town library. She is Anne Kilkenny, not Ann.

UPDATE: FDA Unveils Report On Drugs Under Investigation

Yeah we will waiting some great report form Dow Jones Newswires,
will see what will happen,
hopping for the best
please read this article for more details


Full report from Jared A. Favole Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Food and Drug Administration on Friday unveiled a report listing 20 drugs that the agency is investigating for potential side effects, as part of a new policy to warn patients and health-care professionals as early as possible.
The list includes a wide array of drugs, from Eli Lilly & Co.'s (LLY) anti- depressant Cymbalta to Purdue Pharma LP's powerful painkiller Oxycontin. It also addresses a range of adverse reactions, including cardiac arrest, cancer and Purple Glove Syndrome, which can result in patients having their arms amputated.
The FDA has already sent out warnings on a handful of the drugs on the list. For instance, the report lists TNF blockers - such as Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) Remicade - as being potentially associated with cancer in children. The FDA said in June it was investigating the possible link.
But there appear to be new ones, too. The report lists Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) and Elan Corp. PLC's (ELN) multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri as potentially being associated with skin cancer. Medical journals have reported cases of melanoma in patients taking the drug, but the FDA hasn't previously said it was investigating the drug for this side effect.
The table, which the FDA will start issuing quarterly, is aimed at giving consumers and health-care professionals early indications of what the FDA is investigating, but may end up creating more confusion. Indeed, the agency is concerned "that people will stop taking a drug inappropriately" because it is on the list, said Paul Seligman, associate director of safety policy at the agency.
The intention is for patients and doctors to use the list to be aware of potential adverse events and to encourage them to report any problems with the drugs to the FDA. The list doesn't represent a comprehensive list of drugs the FDA is investigating, Seligman said.
The report is generated from the agency's adverse-event-reporting database. That compilation consists of voluntary reports from patients and health-care professionals, and is widely considered to capture only a fraction of the actual adverse events associated with any given drug.
Seligman said the FDA is hopeful the quarterly reports will encourage people to report adverse events.
-By Jared A. Favole, Dow Jones Newswires; 202.862.9207; jared.favole@ dowjones.com

SWAT TEAM ENDED HOSTAGE AT WHEATON BANK

Thanks to the GOD that,
this hostage is ended,
and thanks to the SWAT Team for the great works
read the report at articles bellow








Hostage situation ends after SWAT team enters Wheaton bank
SWAT team members rushed the bank about 4:15 p.m. Two loud booms were heard shortly before officers rushed into the Wheaton Bank & Trust, at 211 S. Wheaton Ave.

Wheaton police, DuPage County sheriff's police and federal agents in tactical gear carrying large caliber weapons are responding to a hostage situation at a Wheaton bank Friday afternoon.

Jamar Simpson, 23, of Wheaton, an employee of the Wheaton Bank & Trust, at 211 S. Wheaton Ave., said he was told that a man had grabbed a policeman's gun and ran into the bank. Wheaton police are being assisted by the sheriff's office, the FBI, Glen Ellyn and Naperville police.

Carol Cafferty

This morning i read a blog from Jack Cafferty,
there was a socking news, his wife is pass away.

here is the news i found from his blogs

Jack Cafferty isn’t here today for the Cafferty File because of some tragic news.
His wife of 35 years, Carol, passed away unexpectedly this morning. Carol was everything to Jack. The dedication of his book reads, “for Carol, my wife, my life.”
Jack wrote about how she was the inspiration for him to get sober and straighten up his life: “In all the years that we’ve been married, she has always brought to the table her unshakable grounding in something a lot more real than being on television or being recognized in the corner drugstore. She has been my rock, having done a magnificent job of keeping me from getting full of helium and drifting off the surface of the earth… She was all the incentive I needed to make painful but transforming changes – to get sober and stop smoking. I knew that I’d lose her if I didn’t. She’s an amazing woman who simply wasn’t worth losing.”
One story Jack loves to tell is how he and Carol met – when he was a local news anchor in Kansas City. They started to meet regularly for a quick meal between his shows and became good friends. Whenever Jack had to leave, his exit line was “We’d better wrap this up. Got to get back to the station.” One night Carol finally asked, “What kind of a gas station do you work at? You’re always wearing a tie.”
Jack explained it was a television station. He loved the fact that she had no clue and couldn’t care less that he had been on air there every night for four years. He later described that as one of his life’s “twenty-four-carat moments” that made his heart soar. He said to himself then that he might marry her because “it can’t get any more honest and pure than that.”
Our deepest sympathies go out to Jack and to their two daughters, Leslie and Leigh. Our thoughts are also with Jack’s other two daughters, Julie and Jill, and his grandchildren.
Carol was an animal lover. If you’d like to make a donation in her memory, the family asks you give to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. You can contribute at aspca.org.

please accept my condolence, i hope your wife is rest in peace

Hot Lingerie Mayor In Hot Water Over MySpace Pics

Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist’s name is sure to be mentioned when Arlington holds its annual town meeting Wednesday.

Some of the mayor’s roughly 500 constituents will want to know her views on the issues affecting the Eastern Oregon community; others will want to talk about her underwear.

The mayor’s lingerie is a hot topic here, with some residents upset that she posted pictures of herself wearing only a black bra and panties on her MySpace page. She was on one of the town’s fire engines.

Kontur-Gronquist, who is also the fire department’s executive secretary, said the photos were taken before she was elected mayor three years ago, and she saw no reason to remove them from the Internet after taking office.

“I’m not going to change who I am,” she said. “There’s a lot of officials that have a personal life, and you have people in this community who have nothing better to do than scrape up stuff like this.”

Lorena Woods is one of those residents who say the photos of a scantily clad mayor reflect badly on Arlington.

“It’s a picture of her in bra and panties on a rural protection fire truck in a rural protection fire hall,” Woods said. “This isn’t the way we want our city to be portrayed.”

Councilman Jeff Bufton said he’s heard a lot of negative comments about the pictures but declined to say whether the council plans to address the topic.

Some residents said they were starting a recall petition.

And at least one city council member is speaking out, saying the photos are inappropriate and send the wrong message to kids.

“It gives the impression that it’s just OK to do whatever you feel like doing, whenever, and not have any kind of concern about how it might affect other people, and that is a big concern I have,” council member Alice Courtney told KATU.

Source:
Hot Mayor In Hot Water Over MySpace Pics
http://selflaugh.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/hot-mayor-in-hot-water-over-myspace-pics/

Winners of Joint Food Lion/Coca-Cola Scholarship Sweepstakes Announced AT CIAA Tournament

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Reniki Cumbo of Fayetteville, N.C., was the Grand Prize winner of a $20,000 scholarship during halftime of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) men’s championship game held in Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday, March 1.

Cumbo was one of 11 finalists who participated in the Food Lion/Coca-Cola Scholarship Sweepstakes, an in-store promotion held in January, earning finalists a VIP trip to the CIAA Tournament and a chance to win up to $35,000 in CIAA scholarships. Food Lion and Coca-Cola hosted the finalists during the CIAA tournament weekend and invited all 11 to center court to select a winner.

First Prize winner of a $10,000 scholarship was Melvin C. Brimfield of Columbia, S.C., and Runner-Up Prize winner for a $5,000 scholarship was Marchell Green from Richmond, Va.

To pick a winner, finalists selected a numbered basketball and actress Jurnee Smollett from the recent movie “The Great Debaters” randomly selected one Grand Prize, First Prize and Runner-Up Prize winner by drawing three MVP cards—Food Lion’s loyalty card—with corresponding numbers to the basketballs.

Other finalists were as follows:
Aisha Bolton Cary, N.C.
Wendy McRae Fayetteville, N.C.
Nubia Olubowale Charlotte, N.C.
Lenetta Johnson Greensboro, N.C.
Brenda James Lynchburg, Va.
Yvette Williams Charleston, S.C.
Kevin Kelley Norfolk, Va.
Jacqueline Joyner Forrestville, Md.

Food Lion has been an Official Corporate Partner of the CIAA for 15 years. Through this relationship, Food Lion has provided scholarships to deserving students at historically black colleges and universities. Food Lion also is the title sponsor of the Food Lion CIAA Women’s Basketball Tournament and the exclusive food retail sponsor at all CIAA events.

Food Lion LLC is a subsidiary of Brussels-based Delhaize Group (NYSE: DEG). Food Lion LLC operates approximately 1,300 supermarkets, either directly or through affiliated entities, under the names of Food Lion, Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, Harveys and Reid’s. These stores meet local customer needs and preferences for the freshest and best quality products. Food Lion LLC employs approximately 73,000 associates in 11 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080307005688&newsLang=en

Gunman shoots 17 people at Northern Illinois University

THE death toll from a shooting at a US university today is now six, with four of the victims being female, the university president has said.

Dr John Peters spoke to reporters at the scene of the Valentine's Day massacre at Northern Illinois University's DeKalb campus outside Chicago.

He said four people, including the gunman, died at the scene, and two died later at the hospital.

Another 16 people were injured.

The gunman, who was described as a white male about 6ft (180 cm) tall, used a shotgun and two handguns, Police Chief Donald Grady told CNN.

Packed classroom

One student told local radio that roughly 100 students were in the classroom when the man stood up and opened fire.

Other witnesses said bloodied victims were hit by buckshot.

The 25,000-student campus, which is 100km west of Chicago, was shut down and classes cancelled, the university said on its website.

Gunman stood on stage

"He was aiming towards the crowd but I don't think he was aiming at a specific person," a witness named Sheila told WBBM radio.

"He was quiet. He just stood on the stage in front of everybody and just started shooting.

"I saw him holding the gun and it was huge. I thought it was fake and then I realised he was really shooting at people and I got down.

"I saw a lot of blood. I have blood all over my clothes."

Mass panic

A student told of the panic as people tried to flee.

Jillian Martinez told the Chicago Tribune she was sitting in the back of the class when the gunman suddenly “appeared” and began shooting.

“There's this door in the lecture hall nobody ever goes through,” she said.

“I remember seeing it open, and thought it was weird that somebody had opened the door.

“All of a sudden, there was someone standing there.”

She said the man then began his rampage.

"All I saw was the flash of shooting.

"He pulled out his gun, he just started shooting at all the kids. He just started shooting at people, and I ran out of there as fast as I could."

The shooting came 10 months after 32 students and faculty were shot down by a mentally disturbed student at Virginia Tech University in the deadliest massacre ever at a US school.

Northern Illinois University, chartered in 1895, is a teaching and research institution with nearly 1300 teachers. It has 862 international students from 88 nations.

With Reuters and AFP
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23217812-401,00.html

Emergency days added to school year

ST. ANN — The Pattonville School Board has approved a 2008-09 school calendar with six more emergency days. District officials said the state is requiring all school districts to add the days to the end of the school calendar.

The district will have to change the last day of school based on how many of the six days are used; Pattonville has a 177-day school year, but the calendar tentatively shows it at 183.

The first day of school will be Aug. 14 and the last day is set for June 4. But it could be as early as May 28, depending on how many emergency closings occur.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/9E9645192E371ACA862573DF001697C0?OpenDocument

Microsoft Makes Unexpected $44.6B Offer for Internet Icon Yahoo

Microsoft Offers $44.6B for Yahoo

Friday February 1, 9:14 am ET
By Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer

Microsoft Makes Unexpected $44.6B Offer for Internet Icon Yahoo
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.'s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.

The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, comes with Sunnyvale-based Yahoo in a vulnerable position.

In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will "carefully and promptly" study Microsoft's bid.

With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo's stock slipped to a four-year low earlier this week and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008.

The announcement sent Yahoo's share price up 60 percent in premarket trading, while Google fell 8 percent, weighted down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.

In a letter to Yahoo's board of directors, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated the world's largest software maker is determined to bring the two companies together.

To underscore its resolve, Microsoft is offering a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing stock price Thursday.

Since reaching a 52-week high of $34.08 in October, Yahoo shares have fallen 46 percent. Yahoo climbed $10.40 a share, or 54 percent, to $29.58 in premarket trading. Microsoft shares fell $1.40, or 4.3 percent, to $31.20.

Ballmer revealed in the letter that Yahoo had rebuffed a previous overture a year ago, saying it had a turnaround in the works. But he pointedly noted Yahoo has instead deteriorated significantly.

"A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved," Ballmer added.

Microsoft's previous offer was rebuffed by Terry Semel, who stepped aside last year as chief executive under shareholder pressure.

Microsoft sent its latest takeover offer to Yahoo late Thursday, shortly after Semel resigned as the company's chairman. The letter is addressed to Semel's successors, new Chairman Roy Bostock and the current CEO, co-founder Jerry Yang, who is one of Yahoo's largest shareholders.

"Microsoft's consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers," Ballmer wrote.

In a prepared statement, Yahoo said its board "will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo's strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders."

Under terms of the proposed deal, Yahoo shareholders could choose to receive cash or Microsoft common shares, with the total purchase consisting of 50 percent cash and 50 percent stock.

Microsoft said it sees at least $1 billion in cost savings generated by the combination, and intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo engineers, key leaders and employees. The software giant said it believes the takeover would receive regulatory clearance and close in the second half of 2008.

Signaling Microsoft doesn't intend to take no for an answer, Ballmer wrote that the company "reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo's shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal."

Google shares fell $46.55, or 8.3 percent, to $517.95 in premarket trading after the Mountain View-based company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates.

While Yahoo is struggling, Microsoft is thriving. The Redmond, Wash.-based company last week forecast a rosy 2008 -- despite broader economic worries -- after it blew by Wall Street's expectations for a second consecutive quarter.

AP Business Writer Jennifer Malloy in New York contributed to this story

source : http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080201/microsoft_yahoo.html

INTELLIGENCE

Spy vs. Spy
They had Robert Hanssen. We had Sergei Tretyakov.

The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy In America After the End of the Cold War

By Pete Earley

Putnam. 340 pp. $25.95

The CIA and the FBI were hugely damaged by the supermoles Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, who ran their own private spy bazaars and peddled vast amounts of U.S. secrets to the Russians for years. No one seemed to notice when Ames drove a red Jaguar XJ6 to CIA headquarters or when the FBI's Hanssen escorted a stripper to Hong Kong.

So it is understandable that the two agencies might want the public to know that for at least a few years in the late 1990s, they had a mole sending secrets the other way. Enter Col. Sergei Tretyakov, a Russian spy who defected in New York in 2000 as the deputy rezide nt (station chief) there of the SVR, the successor to the KGB's foreign intelligence directorate. Some four years later, author Pete Earley found himself in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner with two FBI agents, two CIA officers, soft drinks, snacks and the defector. The meeting had been set up by an FBI agent who contacted Earley and encouraged him to write a book about the Russian. Earley, a former reporter for The Washington Post, is the author of Family of Spies, a well-received account of the John Walker naval spy ring, and Confessions of a Spy, a perceptive book about Ames that did not receive the attention it deserved, perhaps because it came out after four other books about the case, including (full disclosure) one by this reviewer.

Tretyakov, who had been assigned to the Russian mission at the United Nations since 1995 and to Ottawa before that, gave the FBI 5,000 secret SVR cables and more than 100 Russian intelligence reports, according to one U.S. intelligence official cited by Earley. Tretyakov apparently first tried to defect around 1997 but agreed to remain as an "agent in place," passing secrets to the FBI until October 2000, when he vanished from a Russian residential compound in the Bronx with his wife, daughter and cat. Four months later, the United States acknowledged his defection, but Comrade J (the title is drawn from the KGB's code name for Tretyakov, Comrade Jean) is the first account of his espionage career. "It is one of our biggest success stories," puffed the unnamed U.S. intelligence official.

Perhaps so. But to put the case in perspective, Tretyakov spied for the United States for about three years, while Ames sold secrets to Moscow for nine years (and caused the death of 10 Soviets working for the CIA), Walker spied for 18 years, and Hanssen betrayed America on and off for 22 years. Yet, if Tretyakov was not a world-class mole, he was definitely a world-class name-dropper. And that is the difficulty with his story. All defectors tend to exaggerate their own importance, or at least the importance of their information, especially if they worry that when they run out of secrets to reveal they may be cast aside.

Tretyakov's claims about Strobe Talbott, the deputy secretary of state under President Clinton, are a case in point. "Russian intelligence had tricked and manipulated him," Tretyakov said. "He became an extremely valuable intelligence source." Georgi Mamedov, the Russian deputy minister of foreign affairs, was "a longtime co-optee" of the SVR, who met often with Talbott and who "was reporting everything that was said or done by Mr. Talbott directly to us at the Center." Employing a familiar Nixonian technique -- ironic for a KGB man -- Tretyakov is careful to add that Talbott "was not a Russian spy." Talbott, contacted by Earley, called the defector's charges "erroneous and/or misleading." When he spoke with Mamedov, Talbott said, both officials presumed they would each report everything back to their own governments.

Similarly, Tretyakov says a friend who was the KGB man in Israel had Prime Minister Golda Meir as his "main target." But Tretyakov, Earley writes, said his friend "was elusive whenever he was asked whether or not Meir had been a KGB source." And, if one is to believe Tretyakov, the KGB "created the myth of nuclear winter" in the 1980s by hornswaggling Carl Sagan and other American and foreign scientists -- although, Earley points out, whether that is true "is impossible to discern." Tretyakov also accuses Eldar Kouliev, Azerbaijan's representative to the United Nations in the 1990s, of being "a deep-cover SVR intelligence officer." And former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Earley notes, "frequently met with Kouliev." And no doubt with Strobe Talbott.

The defector describes five Canadians he says he recruited while stationed in Ottawa and gives their code designations but not their real names. He says he also recruited Alex Kindy, a former member of the Canadian parliament. He claims that Alexander Kramar was the SVR's man inside the much-criticized U.N. Oil-for-Food program -- part of the sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime -- and helped the Russians steal half-a-billion dollars "to line the pockets of top Russian government leaders in both the Yeltsin and Putin presidencies." Also, according to Tretyakov, before the Soviet Union collapsed, KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov sent up to $50 billion in Communist Party funds out of the country, although where the money went, nobody knows. That's an oft-told tale in Russia; Tretyakov provides no details to substantiate the story of the party gold.

The real value of Sergei Tretyakov's saga lies less in his scattershot claims and innuendoes than in his sharp eye and gossipy insider's view of the KGB/SVR's training, methods, foibles and tricks. The CIA resettles defectors and pays well the ones it likes. It certainly must like Tretyakov because, Earley reports, his pay package topped a record $2 million. He lives now in a secret location under a new name. His wife, Helen, drives a Porsche, and Sergei has a Lexus SUV. *

David Wise is the author of "Nightmover: How Aldrich Ames Sold the CIA to the KGB for $4.6 Million" and "Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012402750.html

Miss Michigan Crowned Miss America

By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY
The Associated Press
Sunday, January 27, 2008; 12:04 AM

LAS VEGAS -- Miss Michigan Kirsten Haglund, a 19-year-old aspiring Broadway star, was crowned Miss America 2008 on Saturday in a live show billed as the unveiling of the 87-year-old pageant's new, hipper look.

Haglund, of Farmington Hills, Mich., sang "Over the Rainbow" and walked a crowd-pleasing strut in a black and gold bikini to clinch the title. She beat Miss Indiana Nicole Elizabeth Rash, the first runner up, and Miss Washington Elyse Umemoto, the second runner up for the $50,000 scholarship and year of travel that comes with the crown.

Haglund, who studies music at the University of Cincinnati, grew up in a pageant family. Her mother is an active volunteer, and her grandmother Iora Hunt, competed for the crown as Miss Michigan 1944. Hunt joined Haglund at a news conference.

"The only words that come to my mind is that this is a dream come true, not just for me but for my family as well," Haglund said. "I'm not just standing up here alone."

Haglund, a cheery, classic blond, wore a revealing silver sequined dress and black bikini during the evening gown and swimsuit portions of the pageant. As her platform issue, she promised to advocate for awareness of eating disorders, an illness from which she has recovered.

The crowning at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip was aired for the first time on TLC. It capped a four-week reality series, "Miss America: Reality Check," which followed the contestants as they were pushed to shed the dated look of Miss Americas past and adopt a more updated style.

The show was the latest in a series of attempts to find an audience with a younger demographic after more than a decade of declining ratings.

The 52 newly made-over aspiring beauty queens who sought the top tiara sported updated hairdos, sassy attitudes and red carpet-worthy fashion throughout the competition.

Usually tame by modern TV standards, the swimwear competition kicked it up a notch. Most contestants wore black bikinis, and some struck provocative poses and twirled as the audience howled. Contestants also wore blue jeans and added a bit of humor to the traditional opening number, the parade of states.

Haglund's moves won howls from the audience. "I think for the audience, the swimwear and evening wear was much more entertaining, am I right?" Haglund said when asked about the show's new look.

The changes included a chance for "Reality Check" viewers to text message votes for their favorite contestant. Miss Utah, Jill Stevens, an Army medic who served in Afghanistan, was named "America's Choice."

Stevens did not make to the final 10, but she took the disappointment with pluck. She dropped and gave the audience push ups before joining the other losers on a riser on the side.

Producers added a twist to the interview portion, as well. They asked people on the street to pose questions, and the results were edgier than usual. Contestents were asked about binge drinking, HIV and Britney Spears' pregnant younger sister, Jamie Lynn.

"No I don't think she should be fired," Miss Indiana Nicole Elizabeth Rash said. "They're still people, they're still human beings. We all deserve second chances."

The long-struggling pageant had promised a new look for this year's beauty battle. "Entertainment Tonight" reporter Mark Steines was the master of ceremonies of the show. Clinton Kelly of TLC's hit "What Not to Wear" also helped with the hosting duties. Kelly had instructed the girls on how to update their looks during the reality show.

The pageant sounded different, too. A deejay spun dance music from turntables set up on stage. Contestants danced and waved to the audience during commercials breaks. The losers were seated on risers on one side of the stage, while the parents of the finalists, in black tie, were seated on the other.

The show was the latest in a series of attempts to find a new audience after more than a decade of declining ratings. The fading institution was dropped from network television in 2004. It spent a two-year stint on Country Music Television before being picked up last summer by TLC, a cable channel reaching 93 million homes in the U.S.

TLC added the pageant to its reality-TV stable, and announced plans to reinvent the look of the show and find an "It girl" ready for modern celebrity.

In addition to the $50,000 scholarship, Haglund will embark on a year of promoting the pageant, her platform issue and the Children's Miracle Network, a pageant partner.

___

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/26/AR2008012601668.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Lexington's Grace Gore in Miss America Pageant tonight

The Jackson Sun

Grace Gore, the Lexington resident currently wearing the tiara of Miss Tennessee, is one of 52 ladies competing tonight at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas for the title of Miss America.

The pageant begins at 7 p.m. local time on the TLC cable channel.

Read more in Sunday's edition of The Jackson Sun. And learn more about Gore, including photo galleries from the 2007 Miss Tennessee Pageant, at the link below:

http://orig.jacksonsun.com/misstn2007/index.html

Snowboarder carries extreme burden

Hospitalized father's legal troubles heavy on Fresno X-Gamer's mind

By MAREK WARSZAWSKI

last updated: January 25, 2008 03:49:45 AM
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When pro snowboarder Andy Finch starts sliding down the halfpipe at this weekend's Winter X Games, he knows his wife, Amber, will be at the bottom cheering him on.

Finch knows his mother, Joanie, will be home in Fresno watching on television, crossing her fingers that her 26-year-old daredevil son doesn't get hurt.

And Finch knows his father, Cliff, will be lying in bed at the Palo Alto veterans hospital, battling constant pain and partial paralysis on his right side -- and facing attempted murder charges back in Fresno.

Soon, most of the country will also know about Cliff Finch's ordeal.

One of the world's top snowboarders and a 2004 Olympian, Andy Finch has long been adept at launching his body in the air and making it spin two or three times before landing.

But since that September day when his father was shot seven times by police officers after leading them on a high-speed chase across Fresno, Finch has had to learn a new technique: how to perform those aerial maneuvers while keeping his mind grounded and focused on the task at hand.

"It's pretty easy not to think about my dad when I'm over in Europe, but here it's going to be a little bit different," Finch said Wednesday by phone from Aspen, Colo. "It's going to be a little more real."

Things will get a lot more real Saturday evening as Finch prepares for his qualifying run in men's superpipe. That's when ESPN is scheduled to broadcast a feature story on Finch and his family situation.

Cliff Finch, who police said shot at officers before they returned fire, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and evading police and posted $125,000 bail. A pre-preliminary hearing is scheduled today in Fresno County Superior Court.

Although Andy Finch said doctors have not determined what caused his father's behavior, some family members believe Cliff Finch might have been suffering from a condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder from his days in Vietnam.

Andy said, "He, to me, was the dream father -- what every kid would love to have. That's what makes this so tough.

"My father respects the police. In his right mind he'd never do anything like that."

Part of the ESPN feature was filmed at Fresno's Veterans Administration hospital, where Cliff Finch was in recovery before being transferred to Palo Alto last week to take advantage of that facility's spinal cord injury unit, and part of it was filmed at Andy Finch's house in Truckee.

The feature will be seen not only by the millions of households that subscribe to the cable sports network but also live at the Winter X Games on several Jumbotron screens stationed around the halfpipe.

"It's going to be on right before I ride," Finch said. "That'll be a little weird."

Those thoughts are echoed by fellow Fresno native Eric Asistin, a friend of Andy's who will be in attendance this weekend in Aspen.

"If it were me, I'm not sure I would've done (the ESPN feature)," Asistin said. "But this is Andy we're talking about. He finds the good in any situation."

Despite the mental strain, Finch is enjoying one of his best seasons in pro snowboarding. The 1999 Bullard High graduate is ranked second in the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour standings.

Finch earned one of the biggest victories of his career Jan. 5 in the halfpipe at the O'Neill Evolution in Davos, Switzerland. The following weekend, despite a badly bruised lower back, he placed fifth at the Burton European Open in Laax, Switzerland.

A man of deep religious convictions, Finch credits his faith and the support of his wife, Amber Shelhamer, with keeping him focused on his career through difficult times.

Known for his reckless, go-for-broke style, Finch said he will keep a recent promise he made to his father about taking it easy in practice this week.

After earning a silver medal at the 2005 Winter X Games, Finch has since been unable to compete in the finals because of injuries he suffered during training runs.

"Every year I do something silly that busts me up a little bit," he said. "It's a habit I've got to break."

Finch said the 8-inch diameter bruise on his lower back, which caused him to miss a week of filming in France with his main sponsor, Rip Curl, will be 100 percent healed when he competes in the elimination round Saturday evening.

The finals are scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

"The X Games are definitely on my list of (contests) I want to win," Finch said. "I only have a couple left, and this is the one I really want."

This year, there's even more incentive than usual.

http://www.modbee.com/sports/outdoors/story/191092.html

Why Paige Davis Returned to Trading Spaces (and Vice Versa)

By JOE RHODES

TV GUIDE
Paige Davis — perky as ever, but older, wiser and with darker, straighter hair — thought long and hard before agreeing to return to TLC's Trading Spaces, the genre-establishing home-makeover show that made her famous in 2001 and then abruptly fired her in 2005 because producers wanted the show to go in a different direction. Which it did — straight down the ratings tubes. Now Davis is back and the new season premieres tonight at 10 pm/ET.

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When new management took over at TLC last year, one of their first priorities was revitalizing Trading Spaces, which at its peak drew as many as nine million viewers and was consistently Saturday night's top-rated cable show. Brant Pinvidic, TLC's new senior vice president of programming, decided the only way to save the franchise was to get Davis back in the fold. It wasn't easy. "We felt like the bad boyfriend who had dumped her at the prom," Pinvidic says, "and now we're asking for a second chance."

Davis, who has spent most of the intervening years doing musical theater (including a Broadway run of Chicago) after a development deal with CBS for possible talk shows and a sitcom didn't pan out, was interested — but with conditions. She wanted the old gang back together again: original designers Doug Wilson, Hildi Santo Tomas, Laurie Hickson-Smith and Frank Bielec. And she insisted the show return to its original low-budget premise — two rooms, two days, for $1,000 or less — a format that had been tinkered with to the point of unrecognizability as the show tried to keep up with the wave of more, shall we say, "extreme" makeover shows that had flourished in its wake.

"To watch something that I loved crash and burn was really sad," says Davis, covered in sawdust and debris on the set of a house in Palm Desert, California, visible evidence that the New Paige will be just as involved, if not more so, than she was before. She is everywhere on the set, asking questions, vacuuming, pitching in, even when the cameras aren't on. Trading Spaces, she says, is still about the fun of making over a room on a budget and an impossible deadline, and it's still about the homeowners and the designers. But it's also clear that, in many ways, the show is also about her.

"To not use a host was one of the more visible destructive mistakes they made in terms of the fans," she says. "I know what the fans love. And what they don't like. They wanted the old show back. They wanted the theme music and the fast-motion overhead camera and the goofy antics. And they wanted the family back."

Still, there have been tweaks, the most noticeable being that there will be more interesting backstories for the homeowners, who won't necessarily be neighbors but will have some connection. The Palm Desert episode involved a divorced couple, the ex-husband and wife making over each others' bedrooms. So yes, there are issues beyond whether to upholster the headboards.

"I was really nervous when they started talking about storylines and rivals and conflict; I was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, we are not Jerry Springer here,'" she says. "But I'm satisfied that it doesn't overtake the show. I'm all for it, because I think it allows the audience to be more invested in whether the homeowners actually like the rooms.

"But it doesn't get in the way at all. We're still the same innocent, charming show we were. I kept saying that the show has to have bounce. It's got to be goofy and corny and bouncy."

Get all five of our collectible Lost covers, then go behind the scenes on the set for our exclusive preview of the new season. Plus: Take a sneak peek at this year's hot new Super Bowl ads. Try four risk-free issues of TV Guide now!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tvguide/348934_tvgif26.html

Former Indonesian dictator Suharto dies

By ZAKKI HAKIM, Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Former dictator Suharto, an army general who crushed Indonesia's communist movement and pushed aside the country's founding father to usher in 32 years of tough rule that saw up to a million political opponents killed, died Sunday. He was 86.
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Suharto had been ailing in a hospital in the capital since Jan. 4 when he was admitted with failing kidneys, heart and lungs. Doctors prolonged his life through dialysis and a ventilator, but his condition dramatically worsened over the weekend. He stopped breathing and slipped into a coma Sunday.

A statement issued by chief presidential doctor, Marjo Subiandono, said he was declared dead at 1:10 p.m. The cause of death was given as multi-organ failure.

Finally toppled by mass street protests in 1998, the U.S. Cold War ally's departure opened the way for democracy in this predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million people and he withdrew from public life, rarely venturing from his comfortable villa on a leafy lane in the capital.

Suharto had ruled with a totalitarian dominance that saw soldiers stationed in every village, instilling a deep fear of authority across this Southeast Asian nation of some 6,000 inhabited islands that stretch across more than 3,000 miles.

Since being forced from power, he had been in and out of hospitals after strokes caused brain damage and impaired his speech. Blood transfusions and a pacemaker prolonged his life, but he suffered from lung, kidney, liver and heart problems.

Suharto was vilified as one of the world's most brutal rulers and was accused of overseeing a graft-ridden reign. But poor health — and continuing corruption, critics charge — kept him from court after he was chased from office by widespread unrest at the peak of the Asian financial crisis.

The bulk of political killings blamed on Suharto occurred in the 1960s, soon after he seized power. In later years, some 300,000 people were slain, disappeared or jailed in the independence-minded regions of East Timor, Aceh and Papua, human rights groups and the United Nations say.

Suharto's successors as head of state — B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati Sukarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono — vowed to end corruption that took root under Suharto, yet it remains endemic at all levels of Indonesian society.

With the court system paralyzed by corruption, the country has not confronted its bloody past. Rather than put on trial those accused of mass murder and multibillion-dollar theft, some members of the political elite consistently called for charges against Suharto to be dropped on humanitarian grounds.

Some noted Suharto also oversaw decades of economic expansion that made Indonesia the envy of the developing world. Today, nearly a quarter of Indonesians live in poverty, and many long for the Suharto era's stability, when fuel and rice were affordable.

But critics say Suharto squandered Indonesia's vast natural resources of oil, timber and gold, siphoning the nation's wealth to benefit his cronies and family like a mafia don.

Jeffrey Winters, associate professor of political economy at Northwestern University, said the graft effectively robbed "Indonesia of some of the most golden decades, and its best opportunity to move from a poor to a middle class country."

"When Indonesia does finally go back and redo history, (its people) will realize that Suharto is responsible for some of the worst crimes against humanity in the 20th century," Winters added.

Those who profited from Suharto's rule made sure he was never portrayed in a harsh light at home, Winters said, so even though he was an "iron-fisted, brutal, cold-blooded dictator," he was able to stay in his native country.

Like many Indonesians, Suharto used only one name. He was born on June 8, 1921, to a family of rice farmers in the village of Godean, in the dominant Indonesian province of Central Java.

When Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch in 1949, Suharto quickly rose through the ranks of the military to become a staff officer.

His career nearly foundered in the late 1950s, when the army's then-commander, Gen. Abdul Haris Nasution, accused him of corruption in awarding army contracts.

Absolute power came in September 1965 when the army's six top generals were murdered under mysterious circumstances, and their bodies dumped in an abandoned well in an apparent coup attempt.

Suharto, next in line for command, quickly asserted authority over the armed forces and promoted himself to four-star general.

Suharto then oversaw a nationwide purge of suspected communists and trade unionists, a campaign that stood as the region's bloodiest event since World War II until the Khmer Rouge established its gruesome regime in Cambodia a decade later. Experts put the number of deaths during the purge at between 500,000 and 1 million.

Over the next year, Suharto eased out of office Indonesia's first post-independence president, Sukarno, who died under house arrest in 1970. The legislature rubber-stamped Suharto's presidency and he was re-elected unopposed six times.

During the Cold War, Suharto was considered a reliable friend of Washington, which didn't oppose his violent occupation of Papua in 1969 and the bloody 1974 invasion of East Timor. The latter, a former Portuguese colony, became Asia's youngest country with a U.N.-sponsored plebiscite in 1999.

Even Suharto's critics agree his hard-line policies kept a lid on Indonesia's extremists. He locked up hundreds of suspected Islamic militants without trial, some of whom later carried out deadly suicide bombings with the al-Qaida-linked terror network Jemaah Islamiyah after the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S.

Meanwhile, the ruling clique that formed around Suharto — nicknamed the "Berkeley mafia" after their American university, the University of California, Berkeley — transformed Indonesia's economy and attracted billions of dollars in foreign investment.

By the late 1980s, Suharto was describing himself as Indonesia's "father of development," taking credit for slowly reducing the number of abjectly poor and modernizing parts of the nation.

But the government also became notorious for unfettered nepotism, and Indonesia was regularly ranked as one of the world's most corrupt nations as Suharto's inner circle amassed fabulous wealth. The World Bank estimates 20 percent to 30 percent of Indonesia's development budget was embezzled during his rule.

Even today, Suharto's children and aging associates have considerable sway over the country's business, politics and courts. Efforts to recover the money have been fruitless.

Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, was released from prison in 2006 after serving a third of a 15-year sentence for ordering the assassination of a Supreme Court judge. Another son, Bambang Trihatmodjo, joined the Forbes list of wealthiest Indonesians in 2007, with $200 million from his stake in the conglomerate Mediacom.

Suharto's economic policies, based on unsecured borrowing by his cronies, dramatically unraveled shortly before he was toppled in May 1998. Indonesia is still recovering from what economists called the worst economic meltdown anywhere in 50 years.

State prosecutors accused Suharto of embezzling about $600 million via a complex web of foundations under his control, but he never saw the inside of a courtroom. In September 2000, judges ruled he was too ill to stand trial, though many people believed the decision really stemmed from the lingering influence of the former dictator and his family.

In 2007, Suharto won a $106 million defamation lawsuit against Time magazine for accusing the family of acquiring $15 billion in stolen state funds.

The former dictator told the news magazine Gatra in a rare interview in November 2007 that he would donate the bulk of any legal windfall to the needy, while he dismissed corruption accusations as "empty talk."

Suharto's wife of 49 years, Indonesian royal Siti Hartinah, died in 1996. The couple had three sons and three daughters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080127/ap_on_re_as/indonesia_suharto

Muse shares story behind ‘Hey There Delilah’

Woman who inspired hit song clears up truth about Plain White T’s tune

By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 10:02 a.m. ET Jan. 23, 2008

As a nationally ranked runner and an Olympic hopeful, Delilah DiCrescenzo is used to being chased — but by other athletes, not by pop singers from Chicago. But, she said on Wednesday, she doesn’t mind the attention the chase has brought her.

“What I really hope through all of this is that it spotlights track and field, and it gives the sport a face, which is really important to us athletes in an Olympic year,” the woman who inspired Song of the Year nominee “Hey There Delilah” told TODAY co-hosts Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer on Wednesday.

It’s been a long chase both for her and for Tom Higgenson, lead singer for the Plain White T’s, who wrote the song five years ago after being introduced to DiCrescenzo by a friend. Higgenson was smitten and even though she had a boyfriend, he told her he was going to write a song about her.

“I thought he was just being flirtatious and leading me along,” the 24-year-old athlete told Lauer and Vieira. “I had a boyfriend at the time, so I really didn’t believe him.”

Higgenson and his band played the song for years at club dates and concerts, and it became a favorite with their fans. But it wasn’t until last summer that it broke out into the mainstream and began climbing the charts until it was the nation’s top single. That was when Higgenson performed the song on TODAY and told Ann Curry the story of unrequited love that had inspired it.

DiCrescenzo, meanwhile, remained all but anonymous. A graduate of Columbia University, she had returned to her native Chicago to work. A good but not great runner in high school and college, she gave the 3,000-meter steeplechase a try in 2006 and found that she was good enough in the grueling race to think about trying to make the Olympic team this year. To pursue that dream, she moved to Conshohocken, Pa., where she trains full-time while working as an assistant track and cross-country coach at Bryn Mawr.

She kept casually in touch with Higgenson, mostly through e-mails and instant messages. When the song was nominated for a Grammy as Song of the Year, he called and invited her to come to the Feb. 11 ceremony with him. With her boyfriend’s blessing, she accepted and found herself in the spotlight.

She said it’s something of a relief to go public with her identity and to clear up any confusion about her role in a love song whose lyrics seem unequivocal:

Hey there Delilah, I’ve got so much left to say

If every simple song I wrote to you

Would take your breath away, I’d write it all

Even more in love with me you’d fall, we’d have it all.

“I knew it was fictionalized, and I’m glad that I finally get the opportunity to say I do have a boyfriend and it is romanticized,” she said. “The song means so much to so many different people. I’m just happy that it’s had so much success, and I don’t mind playing along with it.”

Her boyfriend, who did have bouts of jealousy when the song came out, is also relieved. “He’s a lot happier now that I get a chance to clear up the confusion,” she said. “He’s been a good sport through the whole thing.”

She hasn’t gotten a dress for the occasion yet. “I’ve been concentrating on my training for the Olympics,” she admitted. Her event, the steeplechase, is contested over hurdles and a water hazard. For the first time at this year’s Olympics, it will be run by women as well as by men, and DiCrescenzo will compete in the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in June. The top three finishers at the trials will go to Beijing in August.

Asked by Lauer which would be more exciting, seeing Higgenson win the Grammy or making the Olympic team, DiCrescenzo chose to be diplomatic.

“I want both,” she said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22799483/

ESPN benches Jacobson

Remarks at roast ripping Notre Dame called inappropriate

ESPN's Dana Jacobson arrives at the premiere of "United 93" during the Fifth Annual Tribeca Film Festival at the Ziegfeld Theatre on April 25, 2006 in New York City. (Evan Agostini/Getty Images / January 23, 2008)

By Ed Sherman | Tribune reporter
January 23, 2008

Add ESPN's Dana Jacobson's name to the list of media members who recently found themselves in trouble because of inappropriate comments or actions.

Sources have confirmed that Jacobson, a co-host of "First Take" on ESPN2, currently is serving a one-week suspension because of her behavior at a Jan. 11 roast for ESPN Radio personalities Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic at Atlantic City, N.J.

While declining to confirm Jacobson had been suspended, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said, "Her actions and comments were inappropriate and we've dealt with it."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-23-espnbritejan23,0,6613456.story

ESPN Suspends Dana Jacobson For Derogatory Remarks

Atlanta, GA 1/23/2008 04:09 PM GMT (FINDITT)

ESPN suspended sports announcer Dana Jacobson for a week due to her behavior at a Jan. 11 roast for ESPN Radio personalities Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic at Atlantic City, N.J.

At the roast, Jacobson made a drunken, rambling speech that included vulgar references about Notre Dame. Jacobson said "F*** Notre Dame," "F*** Touchdown Jesus," and finally "F*** Jesus."

Jacobson is a Michigan graduate, and she and Golic, a former Irish defensive lineman, often have exchanged rants about the rivalry between the schools.

A newspaper account said the crowd booed Jacobson. Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis also was in attendance.

Golic and Greenberg are the hosts of ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" radio show.

For more sports news, please check out http://news.finditt.com/NewsList.aspx?cat=6&wcat=5
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=34087&cat=6

The Center for Public Integrity: Administration Lied About Iraq

A new web project called The Center for Public Integrity, which focuses on ethics and integrity, concludes in a recent study that the Bush administration deliberately lied about Iraq, in order to get public support for going to war with Iraq.
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Presently the The Center for Public Integrity website is down due to public interest and technical reasons. Since people can't access the site very easily we tried gather quotes from the media on what The Center For Public Integrity has concluded about the Bush Administration, The War in Iraq and who is behind The Center.

Here is what The New York Times has to say.

The Center for Public Integrity, a research group that focuses on ethics in government and public policy, designed the new Web site to allow simple searches for specific phrases, such as “mushroom cloud” or “yellowcake uranium,” in transcripts and documents totaling some 380,000 words, including remarks by President Bush and most of his top advisers in the two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks…. There is no startling new information in the archive, because all the documents have been published previously. But the new computer tool is remarkable for its scope, and its replay of the crescendo of statements that led to the war. Muckrakers may find browsing the site reminiscent of what Richard M. Nixon used to dismissively call “wallowing in Watergate.”

The database is online at publicintegrity.org.

"Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the research center say their work has documented “at least 935 false statements” on hundreds of occasions, particularly that Iraq had unconventional weapons, links to Al Qaeda, or both."

An interesting story from FreeAmericaDigital Blog asks Did the United States go to war under false pretenses?

Did the United States go to war under false pretenses? It’s sad to say as an American, but it sure is looking that way. President Bush and his top officials made at least 935 false statements in the two years following 9/11 about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq - quote from The Center for Public Integrity.

The fact is I didn’t need these people to tell me how messed up the situation is. I like most of America drank the kool-aid. I was told, even showed pictures of weapons of mass destruction, what a dog and pony show. I was told about the intricate links between the terrorist that attacked my country and this evil man Saddam Hussein. All, as we now know was a lie, even President Bush admitted that the intelligence was wrong, I love how he said, “but big deal Saddam Hussein is such a bad man we should break every international law there is and go kill him any way”( I paraphrased). One America saw through this cloud of crap, he knew that the only way for America to keep it’s integrity was to stick strictly to the Constitution, that American is Ron Paul.

He voted to stay out of Iraq, right now over 30,000 Americans would be alive, over 200,000 Americans would have their arms and legs. War unfortunately is something that will happen, when our territory is invaded, when every possible avenue is exhausted then war is something that we will have to face.

When that day comes I will stand up and support my country. However, that day did not come. Congress never declared war as the Constitution the law of the land says we must do. We were fed lies and in the emotional time that was 9/11 we gobbled up those lies. We were duped, tricked, and in the end we have all paid the price, some of us with our lives.

CNN has the following highlights on The Center For Public Integrity Report

"Study searched database for statements by Bush, aides, in 2001-2003. Bush made 260 false statements about Iraqi weapons, al Qaeda, study says. Study accuses former Secretary of State Colin Powell of 244 false statements. Also on the list: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, former White House spokesmen."

http://www.huliq.com/48095/center-public-integrity-administration-lied-about-iraq

Documents of War

By Tobin Harshaw

Tags: C.I.A., Iraq War, National Security

“Students of how the Bush administration led the nation into the Iraq war can now go online to browse a comprehensive database of top officials’ statements before the invasion, connecting the dots between hundreds of claims, mostly discredited since then, linking Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda or warning that he possessed forbidden weapons,” reports this morning’s Times:

The Center for Public Integrity, a research group that focuses on ethics in government and public policy, designed the new Web site to allow simple searches for specific phrases, such as “mushroom cloud” or “yellowcake uranium,” in transcripts and documents totaling some 380,000 words, including remarks by President Bush and most of his top advisers in the two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks…. There is no startling new information in the archive, because all the documents have been published previously. But the new computer tool is remarkable for its scope, and its replay of the crescendo of statements that led to the war. Muckrakers may find browsing the site reminiscent of what Richard M. Nixon used to dismissively call “wallowing in Watergate.”

While the left side of the blogosphere (see here and here and here) is crowing indignant, you can consider Ed Morrissey less than impressed:

The Center for Public Integrity hardly qualifies as “independent”. It gets much of its funding from George Soros, who has thrown millions of dollars behind Democratic political candidates, and explicitly campaigned to defeat George Bush in 2004 … Besides Soros, it gets financing from the Streisand Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Los Angeles Times Foundation. The FIJ shares most of its board members with the CPI, which hardly makes it a separate entity in terms of its political direction …

In fact, there is nothing new in this site that hasn’t already been picked apart by the blogosphere, and some of it discredited. It includes the debunked charge that Bush lied in the “sixteen words” of the 2003 State of the Union address. Joe Wilson’s own report to the CIA and to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirmed that, at least according to Niger’s Prime Minister, Iraq had sought to trade for uranium in 1999. The CPI site has the sixteen words posted as one of their false statements.

Let’s boil this down. An organization funded by known political activists puts up a website with shopworn quotes taken mostly out of context and misrepresented — and this somehow qualifies as news?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/documents-of-war/

An Online Scavenger Hunt on Prewar Claims: What Did You Find?

By JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr.

WASHINGTON — While reporting for an article in The New York Times today, I spent a while rummaging around in the new online database assembled by the Center for Public Integrity, which allows users to do keyword searches of every public statement made by President Bush and his key advisers about Iraq, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction, from just after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, until after the fall of Baghdad.

For all the power of search engines and Boolean logic, and for all the foregone conclusion of the enterprise, there’s still an element of serendipity in this kind of approach to reliving the past. You never know what you’ll come up with. You might not even be all that sure what, precisely, you are looking for. Even knowing that every single document in this compilation has been published elsewhere already, it’s inevitable that you’ll find something to raise your eyebrows.

One striking feature of the material in the data base was the sheer opacity of some of what important people were saying, based on intelligence that most people now acknowledge was spurious.

For example, about ten weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Tim Russert of NBC News asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice whether she agreed with an assessment by the Czech government that Iraqi agents met with one of the hijackers who flew into the World Trade Center.

“In evaluating the report,” Ms. Rice replied, “certainly one would have to suspect that there’s no reason to believe Saddam Hussein wouldn’t do something exactly of that kind; that he would not be supportive of terrorists is hard to imagine. But this particular report I don’t want to comment on, because I don’t want to get into intelligence information.”

Now, was that a lie? Or a demurral? A confirmation, or a non-denial? Hard to say. But if there is one lesson that journalists learn over and over, it is that a fuzzy answer should be a red flag.

Asked what had surprised him during the center’s own look at its data, Charles Lewis, who founded the center, mentioned several things. One was the sheer number of lies — that’s his word; the center is definitely taking a stand on this, referring to the project as the “False Statements Database.” The next surprise he mentioned was how many times it was former Secretary of State Colin Powell whose statements were wrong — second only to President Bush himself. Mr. Lewis said he was sure why that was so — maybe it was because of Powell’s role drumming up international support for the Administration’s policy. In any event, the observation shows that Mr. Lewis, too, came to the task with preconceptions.

The database is more than just a collection of transcripts with a customized search engine. It also includes newspaper articles, books, and government reports published later, allowing a user to compare some of what is known now to what was said then. (For example, it includes the follow-up reporting by Jim Risen of The Times that helped debunk the Czech report about the hijacker Mohammad Atta supposedly meeting with Iraqi intelligence handlers in Prague.)

Mr. Lewis said that he hoped people would send in even more data, documents, and statements to add to the database. Social bookmarking tools included in the site, like Diggit and del.icio.us, will enable users to combine their efforts and share their results.

Meanwhile, on the first day of the site’s operation today, it appeared to be overwhelmed by traffic — there was quite a lag waiting for its pages to load.

Once the crowd thins out, readers who visit the project, at publicintegrity.org, are invited to return here and report back on which search terms generated the most striking results and what kinds of things turned up that were the most surprising.

I’ll report back myself, with a couple more intriguing searches and results.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/an-online-scavenger-hunt-on-prewar-claims-what-did-you-find/

The New Batman Movie Star Heath Ledger Has Died

Shock, Grief as Family, Friends, Colleagues Mourn Heath Ledger

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

By Robin Wallace

AP Jan. 22: Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his New York City apartment Tuesday afternoon.

In Heath Ledger's native Australia, where the actor as a teen heartthrob had set the local entertainment industry afire years before American audiences got their first glimpse of the blonde star, fans and colleagues are mourning the loss of a promising talent who had been anointed the heir apparent to the mega-watt legacy of Aussie exports Mel Gibson and Russell Crowe.

"It is equal parts shock and dismay, a waste of a talent," Michael Bodey, film reporter for The Australian, said of the Australian reaction to news of the actor's death in his New York City apartment Tuesday. "He was always one of the most interesting and intriguing actors to interview," Bodey said.

The news rocked Hollywood's tight-knit group of Australian actors.

"What a terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to Heath's family," fellow Aussie actress Nicole Kidman told London's Daily Telegraph.

Informed of the news at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, actress Naomi Watts, Ledger's former long-term flame and "Ned Kelly" co-star, reportedly broke down in tears.

In Hollywood, where one of Ledger's first major U.S. roles was playing Mel Gibson's son in "The Patriot," Gibson issued a statement calling Ledger's death "a tragic loss."

“I had such great hope for him. He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss," Gibson said in the statement. "My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.”

In a statement read by Ledger's father, Keith Ledger, on Australian television, Ledger's family expressed their shock at his "untimely and accidental" death, language aimed at thwarting media speculation that what appeared Tuesday to be a drug overdose could have been a suicide.

Bodey, who had interviewed Ledger several times throughout his career, said the media frenzy surrounding Ledger's death would be particularly difficult for his family because of Ledger's rocky relationship with the Australian press -- he reportedly did not live in Australia because of the paparazzi's relentless pursuit.

While Ledger was never comfortable with being branded a superstar, or the media attention that came with that, he was a gifted and dedicated artist who loved the craft of acting, Bodey said.

"He was quite generous and willing to take part in the creative aspect of his business," Bodey said. "He never came to enjoy the business side of show business, but was a talented actor only now beginning to hit his stride."

In recent years, Ledger had made his home in New York City, where, Bodey said, he found relief from the media spotlight he loathed. On Tuesday night, residents of his lower Manhattan neighborhood were devastated by the news of his death.

"I'm very, very sad," said Tamba Mossa, the superintendent of the building where Ledger had been living for the past four or five months. "I wasn't prepared to hear about his death at that moment. He was a very great man," Mossa said.

Mossa said Ledger had recently "looked sad."

Following an Oscar nomination for 2005's "Brokeback Mountain," Ledger's career was expected to skyrocket with his upcoming appearance as The Joker in "The Dark Night," the latest Warner Bros. installment in the "Batman" franchise slated for release in July 2008.

"The studio is stunned and devastated by this tragic news," Warner Bros. president Alan Horn told London's Daily Telegraph. "The entertainment community has lost an enormous talent. Heath was a brilliant actor and an exceptional person. Our hearts go out to his family and friends," Horn said.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Ledger's publicist Mara Buxbaum asked the public and the media to respect the family's privacy.

"We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident," Buxbaum said in the statement. "This is an extremely difficult time for his loved ones and we are asking the media to please respect the family's privacy and avoid speculation until the facts are known."

Ledger, who earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a gay cowboy in 2005's "Brokeback Mountain," was found dead Tuesday at his downtown Manhattan residence, naked in bed with sleeping pills in the apartment, police said. He was 28.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324747,00.html

Death of Heath Ledger throws films into disarray

by Claire Sutherland

January 23, 2008 09:15am


HEATH Ledger's shocking demise is not only a terrible loss for his daughter Matilda, his Perth-based family and his many fans, it also throws into disarray two movies.

Ledger was in production with the next instalment in the Batman series, The Dark Knight, in which he was starring opposite Christian Bale as a macabre joker.

Related links:
Heath Ledger found dead in New York apartment
Heath Ledger's life in pictures

Early photos from the set suggest Ledger was taking the series into a new darker chapter.

Also on Ledger's slate was the new Terry Gilliam film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, about a travelling theatre company. It was due to start filming in London shortly.

Ledger was one of Australia's true international acting stars. His American breakthrough role came with the teen hit 10 Things I Hate About You, but real global respect came with his Oscar nominated turn in the moving gay cowboy drama Brokeback Mountain.

He met his now ex-partner Michelle Williams on the set of the film. The pair had a baby, Matilda, but broke off their engagement and split recently.

Gossip has since linked him with troubled young actor and party girl Lindsay Lohan.

Ledger had a troubled relationship with the media in his home town of Sydney. Paparazzi photographers squirted Ledger and Williams with water pistols at the premiere of Brokeback Mountain.

He later angrily denied reports he had spat on the photographers.

"It was just silly and unnecessary. It really hurt our feelings and it hurt my feelings to suddenly have a quick title above my name now, that we're a gang of spitters,'' he told the Herald Sun later.

But he said he regretted flicking the finger at photographers.

"Pulling finger signs at photographers, it's not representing who I am, it's representing the panic that occurs when you turn around and there's a camera staring in at you. You see red, or I do.

"I'm a young guy and I've grown up with this in the younger years when you're more passionate and protective and you're more explosive during that time of your life and it felt like a natural reaction for me.

"I didn't feel that I was rebelling against anything. Obviously it's not the most polite way of dealing with things, but I didn't feel they were being polite. I forget that when I do that I'm not pulling a finger sign at a guy holding a camera, I'm pulling a finger sign in a newspaper that everyone reads.''

Ledger later sold his Sydney dream house, claiming the paparazzi had driven him out, and moved to Brooklyn in New York where he lived with Williams and Matilda before the split.

Ledger can be seen in cinemas now in the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23095502-2902,00.html