Howard and Gary Garver

Former Stern Show Interviewer Gary Garver Calls In. 11/16/09. 8:15am
After the break we heard a prank call that Ham Hands Bill made to a flower shop. Fred played the Black Eyed Peas ''Boom Boom Pow'' as they were coming back.

Howard said he had Gary Garver on the phone to talk about something he was doing on the internet. Howard said he likes Gary a lot but he's completely lost. He said that Gary was talking shit about him on some internet show.

Howard said they fired Gary from his freelance job where he went out and interviewed people. Howard said Gary's feelings are hurt and he went out and talked about him and he really resents the stuff he said. Howard said he said some horrible things about him. Gary said he didn't say anything horrible.

Howard told Gary he was going to let him talk about the way he feels. Gary said he loves Howard but he does feel bad about the way they fired him. He said that he worked with them for 18 years. Gary told Howard to tell the truth about this.

Howard said Gary said he was angry about the way they didn't get on the air and talk about why they fired him. Howard said the reason he did that was because generally in that business it's not a good thing to be fired. Howard said out of respect to Gary he didn't mention it on the air. Howard said he loves Gary and he felt the nice thing to do was not to go on the air and talk about why he was fired. Howard said he didn't want to go on and say that he was out of control so that's why he was fired. Howard wanted him to go on with his life and not worry about that.

Gary said he has gone on with his life and he's been fired for a year and a half now. Howard said he thinks that Gary should be hired by another station but Gary says he can't be hired by anyone. He said that no one will hire him now.

Garver said that everyone thinks that he lived in New York and he was a big part of the show but he was never there. Howard said they never said that Gary was there in New York. Gary said he was periodically on the show and that was it.

Howard said he wasn't going to go on the air and talk about him being fired. He said he didn't want to hurt Gary. He told him he was trying to help him. Gary said it didn't work because he can't get hired anywhere.

Howard said Gary was on this internet show talking about him and he had some clips of that to play. Garver was saying that Howard ruined his career. Howard said he didn't ruin his career. Gary said he went out and busted his ass on those interviews. Howard said he knows that, he loves what he did for them. Garver said that he went on for 30 minutes on that show and he knows that Howard isn't going to play it all. Howard played a little more of it and Garver was saying that everyone in the radio business hates Howard's guts. He said that's why he can't get a job.

Garver said that everyone in radio is jealous of Howard and that's why they won't hire him. Howard played more of the audio of Garver going off on him and he was talking about what happened to him and told his viewers to tune out if they didn't want to hear it. Gary said he was buried by Howard when he got fired and he never was good enough to hang out with the Howard Stern people. Garver said that Howard takes care of a few people and he doesn't take care of everyone like people think.

Howard said they worked with Garver on some stuff and they tired to rein him in but things just didn't work out. He said he would never bad mouth Gary on the air and that thing he's looking at as a snub wasn't a snub at all.

Garver said that he put his ass on the line every time he went out and did interviews. He said that no one liked him and what he was doing and he was hated by everyone. Howard said he thinks he did a really good job. He said he thinks that Garver's gripe with him is that he didn't announce that he was fired. Garver said when the interview went down a year and a half ago he was just trying to get some material for the show. Howard said he knows that but he fucked up a few too many times.

Gary said he was being sabotaged by someone and he tried to walk away from it all. He said this guy was trying to get him thrown out of red carpet events and he confronted him that one time and he got suspended for a month. Howard said he was trying to keep him working for them. He said that he didn't want him to get hurt or anyone else to get hurt. He said that Gary could have gotten hurt or he could have hurt someone else. Gary said he did that for 18 years and no one ever got hurt.

Howard said he just wanted to let Gary get his thoughts out on this. Gary said he wasn't done with this stuff because he wanted to talk about this show ''A Day in the Life'' that he says Doug Goodstein stole from him. He said that it was a concept he came up with to follow a porn star around for a day while taping it. He said that he came up with the porn star part of that.

Howard said Gary didn't come up with the concept. He said that following a porn star around with a camera isn't a new concept. Howard said that they have people come to him with concepts that they're already doing all the time.

Gary told Howard he wanted to talk about this without being cut off. He and Howard were cutting each other off but then they were telling each other how much they love each other.

Gary went on to tell Howard that he and Doug Goodstein were talking about doing ''A Day in the Life'' and the show never aired but Doug took it and went out and did this thing with the Wack Packers and used the same name. Doug Goodstein came in and asked who they did that show with. Gary said it was with Miss Howard Stern. Doug said they never did it with a porn star. He said that Gary is out of his mind.

Howard and Doug asked what it was that they did where they stole the ideas. Gary said they did something with the Wack Packers. He said he had the whole thing registered in the Library of Congress. Doug said they didn't do what Gary says they did but they've been doing stuff similar to it for years. He said that it's like doing a documentary or a reality show. Howard asked Gary if he ever saw the day in the life of Ozzy Osbourne. Howard said he came up with that idea. Howard said he went to Ozzy and told him that he should be followed around with a camera and they went out and did that. Howard said he could claim that he came up with every reality show.

Gary Dell'Abate came in and asked Gary why he called Doug a little Jew in the internet show he was doing. Garver said he never said that. Gary insisted he did so Howard played some more audio from that show where Garver threatened to beat Doug up if he sees him again. He said he'd take that little Jew bastard and choke him.

Howard said that they looked some stuff up on the internet and on MTV they did a ''Day in the Life of Nelly.'' He said that he can't be taking credit for coming up with that concept.

Howard said Gary's complaint is that he didn't come on the air and say that he was dismissed. Howard said he's doing that right now. Howard said he happens to like Gary and he was trying to protect him.

Garver asked Howard if he can use him as a reference now. Howard said he could have done that all along. Garver laughed. He said that he was keeping it secret the whole time too. He said he wasn't sure if he was allowed to talk about it. He said he wanted to come back and work for them and he was staying in touch with Tim Sabean all along.

Gary Dell'Abate told Garver that they had to warn him about a couple if incidents and they gave him parameters to stay within and he didn't do it. He said one time he got into an argument with a security guard and that's the kind of stuff they were worried about. He said that Garver would get into arguments with people like that and they were worried that he was going to get into a fight.

Gary said they told Garver to walk away and not provoke people. Garver said he did walk way. Gary said that he didn't walk away because he ended up wishing a gay man got AIDS. Garver said he was just defending himself.

Howard said he was shocked by the tirade he went on and he really doesn't want him to be upset. Garver said he's even more upset now. Howard said he wanted to give him an explanation about why he didn't mention it on the air. He said that's what this call was about. Howard said Gary seems comfortable going around talking about it on these shows now so that's fine and he'll talk about it.

Garver said that Howard was the one who opened up the can of worms with the whole Johnny Fratto and the Tourettes guy going out and doing the interviews. Garver said they won't find someone who can do what he did or what Stuttering John did. Howard said he doesn't have to be mad at the other guys. Gary said he's not mad at them.

Garver asked Howard why he didn't go to bat for him. Howard said he did go to bat for him a bunch of times. He said that they required a certain sensitivity and Gary didn't have that. Howard said he loved the interviews Gary did for them but when someone asks him to leave he just has to leave. He said it's not that important to argue over it.

Howard said he'd rather error on the wrong side and be safe than let him go on and get hurt. Howard said they had to fire him and they thought it would be best to keep it quiet. Gary said he thought he would be able to work for them again some day so that's why he kept it quiet too. Howard said he saw how out of control things were getting and he wanted to talk to him on the air about it.

Garver said he thought that he was going to get the chance to come back to the show. He said that he heard that Howard didn't want him back. Howard said he would love to have him back but he's not sure he can. Garver said he was just doing an act for the guy he wished AIDS on. He said he wasn't really threatening the guy. Garver said he knows he made a mistake but even Michael Vick got a second chance. Howard said there were other, previous, things that they were thinking about too. He said that they just didn't want anyone to get hurt.

Garver said that's fine and they have every right to keep him from working for him. He said that he knows that Howard's name is precious to him and he wouldn't want to hurt him. Howard said he would recommend Gary to other people to work for. He said that he doesn't know if he'd do that with the interviewing part but as a worker he's great.

Garver said he's gone out and done interviews on his own and he's never had a problem. He said he was just trying to get material for Howard and that's that. He said after 6 or 7 times of being kicked out of events he went off on the guy who was behind it. He said the day that Howard announced that Johnny Fratto was doing the interviews he got upset. He said he had a lot of people asking why he wasn't doing the interviews anymore.

Howard said he didn't want to air his dirty laundry on the air and that's it. He said he would have done that if Gary told him to. Garver said that's not true, he said if he had called Gary and told him to tell him to do that, he would have just blown it off.

Garver asked if he could plug his internet TV web site. Howard said he can do that now and he can call in at other times and do the same thing to get some plugs. Garver said you can go to Exscape.TV to check out his stuff. Howard told Gary he loves him and he wishes him all the best. Garver kept talking about why he was upset about the whole thing and Howard kept telling him why he did what he did.

Howard let Gary go and Robin said she still has no idea what that was all about. Howard said he had watched that video over the weekend and he wasn't sure why he was so upset with him either. He said sometimes you just don't know what people want. Howard thought he was protecting the guy but that's not the way Gary saw it. Howard said he thought it might be good for the air today but he really didn't get why he wanted it on the air.

Howard said he's sorry if that bored Robin. Robin said that his points didn't make a lot of sense to her. She said that his ''A Day in the Life'' thing didn't make much sense to her.

Howard said he really wasn't looking to piss Gary off. He felt bad after seeing that video over the weekend. Artie said he saw Gary Garver out in Las Vegas once and he had never seen someone more hung over in his life. He said it was the day after Gary got into a fight with his brother out in Las Vegas. He said it was like seeing Dracula that day and Gary said to him that he looked like shit. Howard said that's when she knew Artie was in trouble back then.

Howard said Gary is a sweet guy and he seemed really pained by the whole thing in that video he watched. He said there were a lot of warnings for Gary and he was really worried about him. He said it may have been too volatile of a situation for the guy.

Artie said that Garver went at the Darth Nihilus guy that one time. Howard said that was actually a great piece of tape. He said Gary has a great body of work that he's done for them. Howard gave him another plug for his web site and wrapped up with that conversation and went to break a short time later.

Gary Garver Rant

Almost Live with Gary Garver from Syndicate Radio on Vimeo.

New home!

Syndicate Radio's main room has moved to www.justin.tv/syndicateradio until problems over at LiveVideo have been solved. Syndicate Radio 2 will stay at www.livevideo.com until further notice. If any hosts need the sign in information contact one of the moderators in the room or DinoSyndicate. Make sure you sign up at www.justin.tv so that you can have access to meebo to contact Dino or any of the mods when your not in the room!

R.I.P. We loved you brutha....

Sorry to report that one of our own Rogny Rodriguez has passed away

Starbury TV

Watch live

New SCI-FI Channel

80's Horror Marathon!

Watch live video from Guyute's Horror Flicks on Justin.tv
If you have missed 1980-1985 horror flicks, Guyutee will be playing the years 1986-1989 to complete the marathon. Major cult classics like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween will be played as well, since they were made during this time. After the marathon if you would like to request a movie go to Guyutee's myspace and select from the list. I'm sure he will find a way to play it for you at a decent time.

Visit guyutee @ www.syndicateradio.tv/horror

www.myspace.com/guyutee to pick from his selection of horror flicks!

Who Is Sonia Sotomayor?

Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor was nominated last week to replace Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. How much do we know about this New York judge? Here's some biographical information:

Never forgot her impoverished roots and made her own robes for 10 years

Occasionally appears in court as her dark alter ego, Judge Saskia Sorrowmaker

Wears an Ace bandage on her left arm due to an old gavel-pounding injury

Feels that mini tacos are degrading, not in any racial sense, but from a taco-lover's perspective

Completely embarrassed herself one time by confusing the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV with the Privileges or Immunities Clause of Amendment XIV

Led the Circuit Court League in overrulings from 1996 to 1999

Rolls her R's in "overruled" in the most delightfully saucy way

Avoided formulating an opinion about Roe v. Wade on the off chance that she would be nominated for the Supreme Court

New Hampshire the 6th state in the Union to legalize same sex marriage

New Hampshire legalized gay marriage earlier today, becoming the sixth state in the union to do so and leaving Rhode Island as the only backwards New England state. It remains unclear whether New Hampshire is just doing this as another crazy libertarian protest of government intervention in our lives, but regardless of the reason, we're for it. And we hope Rhode Island gets on the gay marriage express soon.

Syndicate June Birthdays!

June 1st- Lostgirl

June 1st- Homiedajedi of h2flow

June 21st- Tamalamadingdong

June 1st- Beetlejuice

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

Greenland ice could fuel severe U.S. sea level rise

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New York, Boston and other cities on North America's northeast coast could face a rise in sea level this century that would exceed forecasts for the rest of the planet if Greenland's ice sheet keeps melting as fast as it is now, researchers said on Wednesday.

Sea levels off the northeast coast of North America could rise by 12 to 20 inches more than other coastal areas if the Greenland glacier-melt continues to accelerate at its present pace, the researchers reported.

This is because the current rate of ice-melting in Greenland could send so much fresh water into the salty north Atlantic Ocean that it could change the vast ocean circulation pattern sometimes called the conveyor belt. Scientists call this pattern the meridional overturning circulation.

"If the Greenland melt continues to accelerate, we could see significant impacts this century on the northeast U.S. coast from the resulting sea level rise," said Aixie Hu, lead author of an article on the subject in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

"Major northeastern cities are directly in the path of the greatest rise," said Hu, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

This is an even bleaker assessment than an earlier study indicated. A March article in the journal Nature Geoscience said warmer water temperatures could shift ocean currents so as to raise sea levels off the U.S. northeast coast by about 8 inches more than the average global sea level rise.

NOT LIKELY BUT POSSIBLE

However, this earlier research did not include the impact of melting Greenland ice, which would speed changes in ocean circulation and send 4 to 12 more inches of water toward northeastern North America, on top of the average global sea level rise.

That could put residents of New York, Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia, at risk since these cities and others lie close to sea level now, Hu said in answer to e-mailed questions.

Not only would coastal residents be at direct risk from flooding but drainage systems would suffer as salty ocean water would move back into river deltas, changing the biological environment, Hu wrote in an e-mail.

"In a flooding zone, because the higher sea level may impede the function of the drainage system, the future flood may become more severe," he wrote. If cities are prone to subsidence -- where the ground sinks -- higher sea levels would also make that problem worse, according to Hu.

The ice that covers much of Greenland is melting faster now due to global climate change, raising world sea levels. But sea level does not rise evenly around the globe. Sea level in the North Atlantic is now 28 inches lower than in the North Pacific, because the Atlantic has a dense, compact layer of deep, cold water that the Pacific lacks.

Greenland's ice-melt rate has increased by 7 percent a year since 1996 but Hu said it is unlikely to continue. Still, he and his co-authors ran computer simulations that included this fast-paced melting, along with more moderate scenarios with ice-melt increasing by 3 percent or 1 percent annually.

Hu said it was hard to say whether the 7 percent annual increase could go on for the next 50 years but said it was possible since the current rate of increase in climate-warming carbon dioxide is higher than the high end of projections by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

Openly gay teen voted prom queen at LA high school

LOS ANGELES – An openly gay teen was voted prom queen at Los Angeles' Fairfax High School in a campaign that began as a stunt but ended up spurring discussion on the campus about gender roles and teen popularity. Sergio Garcia, 18, was crowned queen Saturday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

"I feel invincible," Garcia said in his tiara and charcoal-gray tuxedo.

A few days earlier, he gave a speech that won over some cynics and led to an ovation and his unlikely victory.

"At one time, prom may have been a big popularity contest where the best-looking guy or girl were crowned king and queen. Things have changed and it's no longer just about who has the most friends or who wears the coolest clothes," Garcia told a gymnasium full of seniors. "I'm not your typical prom queen candidate. There's more to me than meets the eye."

Garcia assured the crowd he wouldn't wear a dress on prom night.

"I will be wearing a suit," he said. "But don't be fooled, deep down I am a queen."

The school, which sits at the end of the rows of chic shops on Melrose Avenue and was once attended by members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, has long been a haven for students who would be considered outcasts at many schools.

Garcia said he saw fliers advertising the prom and the election, and they didn't specify that the queen must be a girl. He thought the role would suit him better than prom king.

"I don't wish to be a girl," he told the Los Angeles Times. said. "I just wish to be myself."

Senior class president Vanessa Lo said she and many other students were initially against the idea but were won over by Garcia's speech and became convinced he wasn't just an attention-seeking clown.

"It just goes to show how open-minded our class is," Lo said.

Seventeen-year-old Unique Payne called the speech "great" and said she voted for Garcia "because I support the gay community."

Other students weren't as happy, and suggested many voted for Garcia just to see the spectacle of two boys dancing together at the prom.

"I'm not really happy about that," said 17-year-old Juan Espinoza. "He should've run for prom king.

Canada over worst of swine flu: Butler-Jones

OTTAWA -- Canada's chief public health officer says the country has seen the worst of the swine flu - for now.

Dr. David Butler-Jones said Monday it appears that spread of the virus is waning. "It looks at this point like we're over the worst of it in Canada for this season," he said.

"But, again, I'm going to hedge my bets on that because we're watching very closely and it's still within the incubation period of previous cases, so you could see a second spike."

There has so far been a confirmed total of 520 cases - including one death - of the strain of H1N1 in Canada. Nearly all the cases have been mild.

The virus seemingly peaked around the end of last month and the beginning of this one, Butler-Jones said.

"Once we've been a couple of weeks past the presentation of cases, etc., and we see the numbers, then we can say with some confidence that we're over the worst," he said.

"We seem to be trending in that way, but we'll have to wait and see over the next few days."

Some health officials have suggested the virus isn't likely to peter out over the summer as flu strains tend to do when the mercury soars in the Northern Hemisphere.

Butler-Jones didn't rule out more cases over the summer and a resurgence in the fall.

"We are suspecting that this will be back in the fall given how widely it's spread so far," he said.

"We need to be planning for that, including the development of vaccines and other things."

The federal government has signed a contract with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to produce a new vaccine for swine flu when one is developed, Butler-Jones said. Every Canadian is covered for two doses of the vaccine under that deal.

Federal scientists are working on a vaccine strain at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

In a further sign that spread of the swine flu virus is tapering off, Ottawa lifted its advisory against non-essential travel to Mexico on Monday as flu cases there start to level off.

The federal government says travel to Mexico - the epicentre of the swine subtype of H1N1 - is no longer a risk to Canadians since the virus has been spreading through Canada for some time.

The Canada Border Services Agency will continue to visually check travellers for signs of illness.

But the Public Health Agency of Canada will cease some Mexico-specific travel measures such as distributing health alert notices to passengers on direct flights to Mexico and having quarantine officers meet every direct flight entering Canada from Mexico.

News of the travel advisory being lifted comes as Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq attends the annual World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

Several countries - including China, Britain and Japan - urged the World Health Organization against raising the swine flu alert to the highest level.

WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan agreed to keeping the alert level at the current Phase 5 out of a possible six - one level short of a worldwide pandemic.

Aglukkaq said Canada was one of the countries in Geneva pushing for the WHO to take into account whether the virus was causing severe or mild illness, not just how quickly it was spreading.

"It has been raised by other countries, as well," she said. "Canada is not alone in those thoughts."

Utah and Arizona report swine flu-related deaths

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah officials reported the state's first death associated with swine flu and Arizona recorded that state's third victim, pushing the national death toll to 10 people.

David Sundwall, executive director of the Utah Department of Health, said a 21-year-old man with swine flu died Wednesday morning at aSalt Lake City hospital.

Sundwall said the man was overweight and had chronic medical conditions, including respiratory problems and other health issues, that would put him at risk.

Dagmar Vitek, medical director for the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, says an investigation to determine how the man contracted the virus is under way. She said officials don't believe he traveled recently.

In neighboring Arizona, health officials said Wednesday a 13-year-old boy from Tucson also has died with swine flu. The teenager died Friday of complications from the flu. He had been hospitalized May 10.

The Arizona Department of Health Services, which confirmed test results, said an older sibling of the teen is hospitalized with the virus, and other family members have recovered from the flu, according to spokeswoman Patti Woodcock.

In New York, students, officials, educators and friends gathered Wednesday at the funeral of an assistant principal who became New York City's first confirmed death related to swine flu. Hospital and city officials said complications besides the virus probably played a part in Sunday's death of the 55-year-old educator.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 5,700 confirmed and probable cases of swine flu in 47 states and Washington, D.C.

The World Health Organization said 41 countries have reported more than 10,000 cases, mostly in the U.S. and Mexico. The organization said 80 deaths have been reported

Allwine, voice of Mickey Mouse for 32 years, dies

LOS ANGELES – Wayne Allwine, the actor who voiced Mickey Mousefor more than 30 years, has died.

The Walt Disney Co. says Allwine died Monday of complications from diabetes, with Russi Taylor, his wife of 20 years and the voice ofMinnie Mouse, by his side. He was 62.

"Wayne dedicated his entire professional life to Disney," chief executive Robert Iger said in a statement Wednesday. "Over the last 32 years, (he) gave so much joy, happiness and comfort to so many around the world by giving voice to our most beloved, iconic character, Mickey Mouse."

A Southern California native, Allwine joined Disney in 1966 when he took a job in the mail room. He went on to work in the sound effects department and began voicing the company's main mouse in 1977.

His falsetto can be heard in 1983's "Mickey's Christmas Carol," 1988's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and at Disney theme parks around the world. He won an Emmy Award in 1986 for his sound editing on the NBC series "Amazing Stories."

Allwine was the third man behind Mickey's voice. The first was Disney himself, then Jimmy MacDonald, who became Allwine's mentor and passed him the reins after voicing the mouse for 30 years.

"He said, 'Just remember kid, you're only filling in for the boss,'" Allwine once recalled. "And that's the way he treated doing Mickey for years and years."

"Mickey's the real star," Allwine continued. "You know you just have to love the little guy while you have him, because he won't be yours forever."

Roy E. Disney, director emeritus for The Walt Disney Co., said Allwine did more than give Mickey a voice. He "gave him a heart and soul as well."

"He did an incredible job of bringing emotion, humor and appeal to the character, and superbly carried on the tradition originated by my Uncle Walt, and later by sound-effects wizard Jimmy Macdonald."

Besides Taylor, Allwine is survived by five children from a previous marriage: Erin, Alison, Peter, Christopher and Joshua.

Man sought prostitute for son, 14

A father who asked an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute to take his 14-year-old son's virginity has been given a suspended prison sentence.

The man from Bulwell, Nottingham, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was given a 10-month suspended jail term.

Nottingham Crown Court heard the man, 42, had approached the undercover policewoman in the Mapperley area in July believing her to be a prostitute.

He admitted trying to solicit a woman to have sex with a child.

You have a duty of care to your son to look after his moral welfare, not to break him into the ways of sex through a prostitute  Judge Jonathan Teare

The court heard the father was arrested during an undercover operation by the city's vice squad.

The man drove up to the undercover officer and asked her how much she would charge for sex with his son, who was sitting next to him in the car.

Judge Jonathan Teare said he was not sending the father to prison because of his previous excellent character and that he believed he did not mean any harm to his son.

He said: "What you were doing that night was to expose your 14-year-old son to a prostitute because you didn't know she was a police officer.

"You have a duty of care to your son and that is to look after his moral welfare not, as you might think, to break him into the ways of sex through a prostitute."

The father's barrister Matthew Smith said: "There is a thorough sense of shame the defendant feels.

"It's completely at odds with every other part of his character."

Mr Smith added that the boy would be allowed to continue to live with his father.

The defendant will be placed on the sex offenders register for five years.

Strikeforce...

Strikeforce is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts (MMA) and kickboxing promotion based in San Jose, California. It is headed by Scott Cokerand Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment, operators of the HP Pavilion and the San Jose Sharks. Its events and fights are currently shown on NBC, HDNet as a part of HDNet Fights, and Showtime. Future events are also expected to air live on CBS in 2009.

Scott Green will be the host of Strikeforce for Syndicate. He will handle interviews and talk diverse tactics about the sport.

Rumours???

So I was suppose to start this awhile ago....in case you missed TamUmers Rumers then here are a set of rumers.....

1) Doctor Gorilla and Golddog111 are supposedly having a relationship at Drg's nursing home and are apparently into the freaky shit.

2) Shuli, Dolaf(jewkkake), and TheRealKennedy(jewnig) are operating a underground sex operation of young jewish boys between the ages of 4-16 years old...famous syndicate customers may include yucko the clown and Lobosco.

3) Thanks for taking my email girls. I heard a rumor that really bothers me and it involves a few people we all know.

It started on new years eve when someone, we shall call "Beano" had a party at his house for new years eve. He had friends and family come over for a good time to drink and smoke and do whatever. So he invited some internet friends over. One tall giant we can call "Misturb'd" and "Fogny". 

It started out innocent, everyone sittin around having a good time with drinks and good food. But as the night progressed, Beano started imagining the giant Misturb'd in a wig and in a skirt and lets just say, to keep what happened once new years hit, Beano made Misturb'd program director for a certain internet network. It involved refried beans, a cucumber, and a lot of chorizo. Not a pretty sight says onlooker Fogny, who to this day rarely comes back online because of this.

This is one of those stories they never wanted to get out but little birdies are everywhere.

4) This guy Lobosco, I think he is a new member here wacks off to the syndicate. I am his brother and I see him on here all the time. He does not know I am his brother and I struck up a conversation with him...

5) Rumor has it that Grinch has to remove Jashley's diapers before he rapes her like a oversized twinky.

Thats all for now bitches! Check out more rumers on Mondays at 12 pm est after DTS

Former Catholic head of Milwaukee admits he's gay

NEW YORK – A Roman Catholic archbishop who resigned in 2002 over a sex and financial scandal involving a man describes his struggles with being gay in an upcoming memoir about his decades serving the church.

Archbishop Rembert Weakland, former head of the Milwaukee archdiocese, said in an interview Monday that he wrote about his sexual orientation because he wanted to be candid about "how this came to life in my own self, how I suppressed it, how it resurrected again."

Called "A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop," the book is set to be released in June.

"I was very careful and concerned that the book not become a Jerry Springer, to satisfy people's prurient curiosity or anything of this sort," Weakland told The Associated Press. "At the same time, I tried to be as honest as I can."

Weakland stepped down soon after Paul Marcoux, a former Marquette University theology student, revealed in May 2002 that he was paid $450,000 to settle a sexual assault claim he made against the archbishop more than two decades earlier. The money came from the archdiocese.

Marcoux went public at the height of anger over the clergy sex abuse crisis, when Catholics and others were demanding that dioceses reveal the extent of molestation by clergy and how much had been confidentially spent to settle claims.

Weakland denied ever assaulting anyone. He apologized for concealing the payment. The Vatican says that men with "deep-seated" attraction to other men should not be ordained.

In an August 1980 letter that was obtained by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Weakland said he was in emotional turmoil over Marcoux and that he had "come back to the importance of celibacy in my life." He signed the letter, "I love you."

The revelations rocked the Milwaukee archdiocese, which Weakland had led since 1977. He was a hero forliberal Catholics nationwide because of his work on social justice and other issues,

The archbishop, now 82, said he seriously considered the potential pain for the archdiocese of renewing attention to the scandal and thought about waiting "until I was dead" to have it published. But he decided to move ahead with the project.

"What I felt was that people who loved me as bishop here, when they read the book will continue to love me. The people who found it difficult, I hope will be helped a little bit by the book," he said.

In a sign of the deep emotions still surrounding Weakland and his departure, the Archdiocese of Milwaukeehas released a public statement alerting local Catholics to the upcoming book.

"Some people will be angry about the book, others will support it," the archdiocese said.

Weakland also writes about his failures to stop sexually abusive priests. In a videotaped deposition released last November, Weakland admitted returning guilty priests to active ministry without alerting parishioners or police.

"Any deposition is just a part of a whole picture and that picture has not been painted yet. And anybody can take out of that any sentence they want," Weakland said in the interview.

"I try to deal with this, I hope in an honest way, admitting my weaknesses in not being able to see this earlier, but at the same time doing what I could confront it."

Advocates for abuse victims said that Weakland's cover-up of his own sexual activity was part of a pattern of secrecy that included concealing the criminal behavior of child molesters.

Weakland, a Benedictine monk, served in Rome as leader of the International Benedictine Confederation and also worked on a liturgy commission for the Second Vatican Council, which made reforms in the 1960s meant to modernize the church.

Weakland said he wrote in the memoir that he was unprepared for "how lonely it is" to be a bishop and how difficult it can be to get the "feedback and support you need."

U.S. Catholics have long debated whether the priesthood had become a predominantly gay vocation. Estimates vary from 25 percent to 50 percent, according to a review of research on the issue by the Rev. Donald Cozzens, author of "The Changing Face of the Priesthood."

Weakland said Christians needed to speak more openly about gays in the priesthood without the "hysteria" that often characterizes the debate.

The archbishop has been living in a retirement community near the Milwaukee archdiocese and plans to move to St. Mary's Abbey in Morristown, N.J., this summer. He said he was not bitter about how the scandal had eclipsed his decades of work in the church.

"I refused to let myself become a victim and refused to let myself become angry," he said. "I want to take responsibility but I want to move on."

Gary Bababooey Pitch

Michael Jackson concerts may face legal challenge

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A music promoter plans to sue to blockMichael Jackson from performing in London this year, claiming that a contract signed by the "king of pop" prevents him from giving a concert until July 2010, the head of the promotion company said on Monday.

New Jersey-based AllGood Entertainment Inc contends it signed an agreement in November with Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, committing the singer to perform in July 2010 along with his brothers from the Jackson Five and sister Janet Jackson.

Under the agreement, Michael Jackson cannot give another concert until that Jackson Family reunion show, said Patrick Allocco, managing partner at AllGood Entertainment.

AllGood Entertainment sent a cease and desist letter to DiLeo and toconcert promoter AEG Live, which has signed Jackson to perform a series of 50 shows at London's 02 Arena starting in July, Allocco said. In the letter, AllGood Entertainment warned that its agreement with DiLeo barred Jackson from performing the London shows for AEG Live.

A source at AEG Live acknowledged the company had been contacted and called AllGood's claims meaningless. The source said rehearsals in Los Angeles are continuing in preparation for the July shows at the 02.

A representative for Jackson did not return calls.

Allocco said his company's plans to sue in federal court come after failed attempts to negotiate with Jackson and reach a deal to allow the London shows to go ahead.

"As of right now we've gotten zero cooperation from anyone, Frank DiLeo refuses to honor our agreement and that's why we're filing a lawsuit by week's end," Allocco said.

AllGood Entertainment said that its one-time concert featuring Michael Jackson is scheduled for July 3, 2010, at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. The concert would be available as a pay-per-view event over the Internet, Allocco said.

Jackson could make up to $30 million for the show, Allocco said.

"Thirty million for one show is unheard of, that's why we're so frustrated," he said. "Frank DiLeo is standing in our way. AEG has been constantly frustrating our ability to get this show."

Jackson's series of concerts in London also have been touted as unprecedented. AEG has said that, all together, the shows will gather the biggest audience ever to see an artist in one city.

Leo & Kate Help Last Titanic Survivor

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The last survivor of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 is getting a hand from Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

The "Titanic" stars, along with director James Cameron, have contributed to a $30,000 fund for Millvina Dean, 98,Access Hollywood has confirmed.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Celebs Who Give Back

The Irish Independent was the first to report the news.

The stars came forward after an appeal by photographer Don Mullan in the Sunday edition of the paper. Mullan had asked the stars and director of 1997 blockbuster to help Millvina, who has struggled with her nursing home bills.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: See Acting Powerhouse Kate Winslet Looking Gorgeous On The Red Carpet

Millvina was the ill-fated ship's youngest passenger - only nine weeks old upon being carried unto the Titanic from Southampton, England - and is now its last remaining survivor.

The photographer had been selling a limited edition shot, entitled "Still Surviving," of Millvina's hands signing an autograph in order to raise funds for her, and decided to reach out to the "Titanic" stars to pitch in. The photo is part of a new exhibition of his called "A Thousand Reasons for Living."

"I figured that if the edition sold out, it would secure Millvina for a full year. My plan, however, was to double the impact and thereby secure her for two years. I decided, therefore, at the opening of the exhibition, to publicly challenge James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, 20th Century Fox and Celine to match me dollar for dollar,'' Don told the Independent.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Leonardo DiCaprio

He is still waiting on a response from Celine, who won an Oscar for the film's theme song, "My Heart Will Go On," and the film's studio, 20th Century Fox.

US soldier guns down 5 fellow soldiers in Iraq

BAGHDAD – A U.S. soldier opened fire at a counseling center on a U.S. base Monday, killing five fellow soldiers before being taken into custody, the U.S. command and Pentagon officials said.

The shooting occurred at Camp Liberty, a sprawling U.S. base on the western edge of Baghdad near the city's international airport and adjacent to another facility where President Barack Obama visited last month.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the shooting a "terrible tragedy" and said Obama planned to meet with Defense Secretary Gates later in the day to discuss the matter. Gibbs said the president's heart goes out to the victims' families and wants to know what happened.

A brief U.S. statement said the soldier "suspected of being involved with the shooting" was in custody but gave no further details. A senior military official in Washington said three others were wounded, but theU.S. military in Baghdad said nobody else was hurt.

In Washington, Pentagon officials said the shooting happened at a stress clinic, where troops can go for help with the stresses of combat or personal issues. It was unclear whether those killed were workers at the clinic or were there for counseling. No details were released about the gunman or what might have provoked the shooting.

"Anytime we lose one of our own, it affects us all," U.S. military spokesman Col. John Robinson said in Baghdad. "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy."

Separately, the military announced Monday that a U.S. soldier was also killed a day earlier when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Basra province of southern Baghdad.

The death toll from the Monday shooting was the highest for U.S. personnel in a single attack since April 10, when a suicide truck driver killed five American soldiers with a blast near a police headquarters inMosul.

Attacks on officers and sergeants, known as fraggings, were not uncommon during the Vietnam war as morale in the ranks sank. However, such attacks are believed to be rare in the wars in Iraq andAfghanistan.

In 2005, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death for killing two officers in Kuwait just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In June 2005, an Army captain and lieutenant were killed when an anti-personnel mine detonated in the window of their room at the U.S. base in Tikrit. National Guard Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez was acquitted in the blast.

Additionally, there have been several incidents recently when gunmen dressed as Iraqi soldiers have opened fire on American troops, including an attack in the northern city of Mosul on May 2 when two soldiers and the gunman were killed.

Also Monday, a senior Iraqi traffic officer was assassinated on his way to work in Baghdad. It was the second attack on a high-ranking traffic police officer in the capital in as many days.

A car cut off Brig. Gen. Abdul-Hussein al-Kadhoumi as he drove through a central square in the capital and a second vehicle pulled up alongside and riddled him with bullets, police said, citing witnesses. Al-Kadhoumi was director of operations for the traffic authority.

The gunmen were armed with pistols equipped with silencers, the police added on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Incidents involving gunmen armed with sophisticated weapons, including silencers, have been on the rise since a string of high-profile robberies in April.

___

Associated Press Writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report from Washington.

Chuck Daly, Pistons Coach, Dies at 78

Chuck Daly, who coached the Detroit Pistons’ Bad Boy teams to two consecutive N.B.A. championships, then coached the Olympic Dream Team to a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, died Saturday in Jupiter, Fla. He was 78.

Duane Burleson/Associated Press

Detroit Pistons head coach Chuck Daly yelled instructions from the sidelines during game four against the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee on May 15, 1989.

Daly’s death was announced by the Pistons. In March, they said he was being treated for pancreatic cancer.

When Daly became the Pistons’ coach in 1983, the franchise had never won an N.B.A. championship since entering the league in 1948, representing Fort Wayne, Ind. In his nine seasons with Detroit, Daly’s teams made the playoffs every time. His Pistons swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1989 N.B.A. finals, then beat the Portland Trail Blazers in a five-game final the next year.

Daly was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 1994. When the N.B.A. celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1996, he was named one of the 10 greatest coaches in league history in balloting by members of the news media. The Pistons retired No. 2 in 1997 to commemorate his consecutive N.B.A. titles.

Daly’s Pistons featured scoring and flash in the backcourt, with Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Vinnie Johnson, and muscle up front, with Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman, John Salley, Mark Aguirre and James Edwards.

The Bad Boys were known as fierce defenders quick to toss an elbow or a body. Daly was a fast-talking figure who exuded energy and passion, but in dealing with these rugged sorts he used persuasion in place of an iron hand.

“If you’re going to be a coach, it’s going to be a selling job night in and night out,” he said. “I’ve had surgery on my right knee. It comes from bending a lot.”

As Brendan Suhr, an assistant to Daly, put it: “Chuck is a communicator. In the pro game, 95 percent of coaching is knowing the people. With Chuck, I’d raise that to 99 percent.”

Thomas once remarked: “Chuck Daly put a lot of trust in us. We had guys on the floor telling each other what to do, putting together game plans.”

When Daly assembled the first United States Olympic basketball team using professional players, he had enormous talent and egos to match. He blended the superstars on that Dream Team, led by Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, and they rolled to a gold medal.

For all the Olympic team’s scoring prowess, there were flashes of the Bad Boys aura. In the opening game, the 250-pound Charles Barkley drew a flagrant foul for smashing an elbow into the chest of a 174-pound player from Angola.

After the United States routed Croatia to win gold, Jordan remarked that “people said that no one plays defense in the N.B.A., but the biggest difference is our defense.”

Charles Jerome Daly, a native of St. Marys, Pa., grew up in Kane, Pa., and decided on his future while in high school.

“I remember telling my mother, ‘Mom, I’m going to be a basketball coach, and I bet I can make as much as $10,000 a year at it,’ ” Daly recalled. “I had read all the John Tunis sports books as a kid.”

Daly played basketball at St. Bonaventure and at Bloomsburg (Pa.) State College, then coached high school basketball for eight seasons in Punxsutawney, Pa. He went on to become head coach at Boston College (1969-71) and at Penn (1971-77), taking the Quakers to four consecutive Ivy League titles.

He entered the N.B.A. in the late 1970s as an assistant to Coach Billy Cunningham with the Philadelphia 76ers, and he was the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers for part of the 1980-81 season.

Daly resigned as the Pistons’ coach after the 1991-92 season, then coached the Nets for two seasons, taking them to the playoffs each time. He worked as a pro basketball television analyst, then coached the Orlando Magic for two seasons before retiring for good with a 638-437 record over 14 seasons.

Daly is survived by his wife, Terry; a daughter, Cydney; and two grandchildren.

While Daly’s Pistons were known for rough-and-tumble play, he was an elegant presence at courtside in dark blue suits, nicknamed Daddy Rich for his taste in fine clothing.

“You read the article that said I had 199 blue suits?” Daly said before coaching the East against the West squad of the fashionable Pat Riley in the 1990 N.B.A. All-Star Game. “Now I have 200. I went into a store and sure enough I bought a blue one. Nobody ever looks bad in a blue suit.”

As for his interest in clothing, he said: “This is not a game where you upstage the players. This is a business like any other business. You get bored. I get bored. You do something for fun.”

After crash, MA transit GM seeks operator cell ban

BOSTON – The head of the Boston-area transit authority says he'll ban all operators of trains and buses from even carrying a cell phone on board.

That's after a conductor told police he was texting at the time of a trolley collison Friday.

About 50 people were hurt, though none of the injuries were life-threatening.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority already bans operators from using cell phones. But general manager Daniel Grabauskas said Saturday the temptation was obviously too great for some.

He said he wasn't "going to wait for someone to die" to make a change, hopefully by the end of next week.

Steve MacDougall, the head of the union that represents most MBTA works, backs the change, saying public safety must be his members' top priority.

Schedule Change!

TamUmers Rumers will now be held on Mondays at 12 midnight est. They will follow the Dirty Twig Show. Remember to email rumors at tamumersrumers@live.com and have them heard every Monday night right after you get two hours of twig farting into his microphone and some stunt that will scar you for a few days!

Peace Out

JunglePiratewithTits!

Japan, Australia confirm first cases of swine flu

TOKYO – Japanese authorities scrambled Saturday to track travelers who arrived on the same flight as three people diagnosed with the country's first confirmed cases of swine flu. Australia also joined the ranks of affected countries with its first confirmed case.

Authorities in Tokyo quarantined a high school teacher and two of his teenage students who returned Friday from a school trip to Canada on a flight from the U.S. after they tested positive at the airport.

A lab at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases later confirmed they had the virus that has killed at least 47 people and sickened more than 3,100 in 30 countries, most in the U.S. and Mexico, Health and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said.

Since the outbreak began last month, several countries, includingJapan, have screened air travelers for flu symptoms. But news reports said as many as 11 people on the Northwest Airlines flight from Detroitthat landed in Tokyo on Friday avoided those screenings.

Taiwan's Centers for Disease for Control Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yi said 16 passengers who were on that flight — including two Americans and 14 Taiwanese — have arrived on the island. Shih said authorities were looking for them.

Masuzoe acknowledged it would be difficult to trace all those who came into contact with the three infected Japanese, who had visited Canada's Ontario province on a home-stay program with about 30 other students. The three were isolated and recovering at a hospital nearNarita International Airport.

"There are limitations to what we can do, but we will continue to monitor the situation and strengthen or relax such measures as needed," he told reporters.

Public broadcaster NHK TV urged people who were aboard the flight to call a special telephone number for consultations. So far, 49 have been traced and will be monitored for 10 days, officials said.

Asia has been largely spared from the virus that continues to claim lives in worst-hit Mexico, which announced its 45th death Friday even as it emerged from a national shutdown that closed schools and businesses and shuttered churches and soccer stadiums.

But a handful of cases have cropped up in the region, including in South Korea and Hong Kong. The Chinese territory quarantined more than 200 people in a hotel after confirming its first case in a guest a week ago. They were released on Friday, and many were unable to contain their delight as they poured from the building for the first time in seven days. One man hugged a police officer and broke into song.

Australia reported its first case on Saturday in a woman it said was no longer infectious. She first noticed her symptoms while traveling in the U.S., federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon told reporters.

New Zealand — the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to confirm cases — reported two more on Saturday for a total of seven. The two high school students returned last month from a school trip to Mexico. Six of the country's cases were in students and a teacher on that trip; the seventh traveled on the same plane as the group.

Pope: Church and Jews share 'inseparable bond'

AMMAN, Jordan – Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that his visit to the Middle East was a reminder of the "inseparable bond" between theCatholic Church and the Jewish people, a relationship that has been strained at times under his leadership.

The pope spoke from Mount Nebo, the wind-swept hill overlooking the Jordan valley from where the Bible says Moses saw the Promised Land. The sun broke through the morning mist just before the pope arrived at the site on the second day of a weeklong visit to the Middle East that will also take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"May our encounter today inspire in us a renewed love for the canon of sacred scripture and a desire to overcome all obstacles to the reconciliation of Christians and Jews in mutual respect and cooperation in the service of that peace to which the word of God calls us," said the German-born Benedict.

The pope sparked outrage among many Jews earlier this year when he revoked the excommunication of an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust. Benedict had lifted his excommunication along with three other ultraconservative prelates in a bid to end a church schism. But amid the uproar, the church has not allowed the bishop to resume his duties.

The pope's forceful condemnation of anti-Semitism and acknowledgment of Vatican mistakes have softened Jewish anger over the bishop. But another sore point has been World War II Pope Pius XII, whom Benedict has called a "great churchman." Jews and others say he failed to do all he could to stop the extermination of European Jews.

Despite the disputes, Jewish leaders say Benedict, who served in theHitler Youth corps as a young man in Germany and then in the army before deserting near the end of the war, has an excellent record in fighting anti-Semitism. He has already visited synagogues in Cologne, Germany, and New York and is expected at Rome's central synagoguelater this year.

The pope's visit to Mount Nebo was the first of many that Benedict will make to holy places during his first visit to the Middle East.

"The ancient tradition of pilgrimage to the holy places also reminds us of the inseparable bond between the church and the Jewish people," said Benedict. "From the beginning, the church in these lands has commemorated in her liturgy the great figures of the patriarchs and prophets, as a sign of her profound appreciation of the unity of the two testaments."

The pope has also had strained ties with Muslims that he hopes to improve during his Mideast visit. Benedict angered many in the Muslim world three years ago when he quoted a Medieval text that characterized some of Islam's Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith.

The pope expressed his "deep respect" for Islam on Friday and has said he was sorry and that the quotes did not reflect his personal views. But the comments continue to fuel criticism by some Muslims.

Jordan's hard-line Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, said Friday that they were boycotting the pope's visit because he did not issue a public apology ahead of time as they demanded.

Benedict is scheduled to meet with Muslim leaders Saturday at Amman's largest mosque — his second visit to a Muslim place of worship since becoming pope in 2005. Benedict's visit to Jordan is his first to an Arab country since becoming Pope.

Red Sox great Dom DiMaggio, Joe’s brother, dies

BOSTON (AP)—Dominic DiMaggio, the bespectacled Boston Red Sox center fielder who made his own mark on the major leagues despite playing in the shadow of Hall of Fame brother Joe and teammate Ted Williams, died early Friday at his Massachusetts home. He was 92.

DiMaggio died at about 1 a.m. with the Red Sox television replay of Thursday night’s game on in the background, said his son, Dominic Paul.

“He was in and out of consciousness, but he was acknowledging it. He was a Red Sox fan until the end,” his son said.

DiMaggio was surrounded by his family, according to his wife, Emily. He had been battling pneumonia, the Red Sox said in a statement.

“He was the most wonderful, warm, loving man,” his wife of 61 years said. “He adored his children, and we all adored him.”

DiMaggio was a seven-time All Star who still holds the record for the longest consecutive game hitting streak in Boston Red Sox history. Known as the “Little Professor” because of his eyeglasses and 5-foot-9, 168-pound frame, DiMaggio hit safely in 34 consecutive games in 1949.

The streak was broken on Aug. 9 when his big brother caught a sinking liner in the eighth inning of a 6-3 Red Sox win over the Yankees. Joe set the major league record with a 56-game hitting streak with the Yankees in 1941.

The Red Sox will pay tribute to DiMaggio with a moment of silence before Friday night’s home game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The nickname was about more than just appearance, his son said. Dom DiMaggio was a mathematics whiz who was offered a scholarship to Santa Clara College. He parlayed his numbers skills into a successful post-baseball business career and loved to play the stock market.

“That was his passion,” his son said. “He’d watch the stock ticker all day and the Red Sox all night.”

The oldest of the three center field-playing DiMaggio brothers was Vince, who had a 10-year major league career with five National League teams. Vince died in October 1986, while Joe died in March 1999.

“Dad had a great deal of respect for Uncle Joe and what he did,” his son said. “But he never felt inferior. He was a competitor and a strong competitor.”

Dom DiMaggio spent his entire career with the Red Sox, 10 full seasons plus three games in 1953, and was close friends with teammates Williams, Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky.

“He was a great player, and most of all, a great friend,” Pesky said. “I will miss him terribly.” Doerr called him a “class guy and a great teammate.”

“His loss saddens us all, but his contributions to the glory and tradition of our ballclub will forever be etched in the annals of Red Sox history,” principal owner John Henry said in a statement.

“Dom DiMaggio was a true friend and a great person he will also be missed,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre said on his Twitter feed.

DiMaggio retired because he’d been relegated to the bench and didn’t want to be a part-time player, said his son, who was just 3 years old at the time.

“I remember walking out to center field with him on the day he retired. For some reason what I remember most is thinking how big the green and red ball and strike lights were on the scoreboard. But I think that was just his way of saying goodbye to Fenway.”

While Dom did not have the offensive numbers of Joe, he was generally regarded as a better defensive player with a stronger arm. The younger DiMaggio led the American League in assists three times, putouts twice and double plays twice.

He was a career .298 hitter with 87 home runs, while Joe was a .325 career hitter with 361 homers. Dom’s baseball career was interrupted for three years (1943-45) by World War II when he served in the Navy, a military obligation that may have cost him induction into the Hall of Fame, Doerr once said.

DiMaggio and Pesky “were really penalized for that, and I think it was kind of a shame in a way because when you look, they have the numbers,” Doerr said in August 2007 during an appearance at Fenway Park.

Dom played a pivotal role in Game 7 of the 1946 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, a heartbreaker for Boston fans. He batted in two runs in the eighth inning to tie the game at 3, but injured his leg while running the bases and was replaced in center field by Leon Culberson for the ninth.

It was Culberson who fielded Harry Walker’s double and threw it to Pesky during Enos Slaughter’s famous “Mad Dash” from first to home that won the series for the Cardinals.

Many argued that if DiMaggio had been in center he would have handled the play better and prevented Slaughter from scoring.

“Watching the play had been pure agony for Dominic DiMaggio…,” David Halberstam wrote in his 2003 book, “The Teammates.” “His own injury, his own pulled hamstring, Dominic now decided, had been the decisive play of the game.”

After the Red Sox finally won the World Series in 2004, their first since 1918, DiMaggio, Pesky and Doerr were on hand on opening day 2005 to raise the championship banner at Fenway Park.

After his playing career, he started a successful company that manufactured upholstery and carpeting for automobiles, which he ran until his retirement in 1983. He remained active in many charitable and civic causes, supporting medical and education institutions, and serving on the board of trustees at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. A scholarship for a baseball or softball player at the school is named for him.

He cared deeply for the players of his era who did not receive pensions. For years he donated all the money he made from signing autographs to the American Professional Baseball Players Association, an organization that helped support older players not covered by a retirement plan.

He also a founding partner of the Boston Patriots, now the NFL’s New England Patriots.

DiMaggio grew up in San Francisco, one of nine children born to Sicilian immigrants. His mother was a teacher and his father was a fisherman. He is survived by his wife and three children, Dominic Paul, Peter and Emily.

The Rev. Jonathan DeFelice, president of St. Anselm, has been asked to perform the funeral Mass for DiMaggio on Monday at St. Paul’s Church in Wellesley.

More than 30K ordered to flee Santa Barbara fire

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – More than 30,000 people have been ordered to flee a wildfire that burned a five-mile-long front above wealthy coastal communities by Friday, after another hot, windy night in which the fire chief said "all hell broke loose."

Towering columns of brown smoke roiled off the face of the Santa Ynez Mountains after a fierce overnight battle as the 3,500-acre blaze repeated its pattern of relative calm in daylight and explosive behavior when evening winds arrive. It had been estimated at only about 1,300 acres Thursday afternoon.

"Literally last night, all hell broke loose," Santa Barbara city Fire Chief Andrew DiMizio said. Officials predicted Friday night would bring the same destructive mix of hot weather and strong wind gusts.

It was unknown how many homes were lost overnight on top of the estimated 75 houses destroyed earlier in the week in canyon neighborhoods along the north edge of Santa Barbara. Firefighters put out roof fires and kept the blaze from spreading into Santa Barbaraproper, and many homes were saved, DiMizio said.

The blaze jumped a highway and pushed west toward neighboringGoleta and east toward tony Montecito, and evacuation orders more than doubled in less than a day.

A statement from the fire joint information center at late morning Friday estimated that more than 12,000 properties were under mandatory evacuation orders, affecting 30,500 people. It said more than 9,000 properties were under warning for potential evacuation, affecting 23,000 people.

Oscar Funez, 39, his wife, Patricia, 42, and their son, Augustin, 4, were watching the fire on television Thursday night when they noticed other tenants leaving their Santa Barbara apartment building. They packed a suitcase and fled, too.

"It's our fourth fire in Santa Barbara. We know we have to have everything — paperwork, clothes, everything — ready to go," Oscar Funez said.

The family spent the night on cots in a recreation center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Authorities said more than 800 people were in evacuation shelters.

"Right now, if you're not evacuated in the Santa Barbara area, you are sheltering evacuees," DiMizio said.

More than 2,300 firefighters, aided by 14 air tankers and 15 helicopters, were fighting the blaze. Containment was estimated at 10 percent and the cause was under investigation.

Santa Barbara and adjacent communities, pinched between the coast on the south and the rugged mountains on the north, are subject to fierce local winds known as "sundowners" that sweep down from the slopes over this coastal city of about 90,000. In November, a wind-driven fire burned 200 houses in the area.

Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Tom Franklin predicted Friday would be a copy of Thursday's fire conditions, including low humidity and winds gusting to 50 mph or more.

Highs could hover around 100 degrees. A National Weather Service "red flag" forecast for extreme fire conditions continued.

The fire was burning along steep slopes in brush that is unusually dry so early in the fire season, Franklin said.

When the wind isn't blowing, the fire is being driven by terrain, authorities said.

Officials requested a DC-10 jumbo jet tanker capable of carrying much larger loads of retardant or water than helicopters or other aircraft, said assistant incident commander Kelley Gouette of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Officials said 11 firefighters had been injured to date, including three who were burned in a firestorm Wednesday.

They were reported in good condition at a Los Angeles burn center, but two will need skin grafts and surgery. Other injuries ranged from smoke inhalation to sprained ankles.

___

Associated Press writer Jeff Wilson contributed to this report.

Southwest Airlines Now Taking Passengers To Destinations By Shuttle Bus

Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist 'Ean' Evans dead at 48

COLUMBUS, Miss. – Bassist Donald "Ean" Evans of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd has died after a battle with cancer.

Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant said Evans died Wednesday at his home in eastern Mississippi. He was 48.

In a statement posted on lynyrdskynyrd.com the band said, "It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of longtime Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist Ean Evans. Ean put up a valiant battle with an aggressive form of cancer and he will be sorely missed by family, friends and fans."

Evans was born in Atlanta, but moved to Columbus after marrying his wife, Eva. He joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2001 and had been touring regularly with the band until being diagnosed with cancer in 2008, when he cut back on performances with the band.

Survivors include his wife and two daughters.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

"He was just one of those guys who was always a dreamer and always seeing ahead. And he was the most positive person I've ever met," Mike Chain, a guitarist who was close friends with Evans, told The Commercial Dispatch in Columbus, Miss.

The Jacksonville-based band was formed in 1966 by a group of high school students — famously, it took its name from a physical education teacher they disliked, Leonard Skinner.

They released their first album, "Pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd." It became one of the South's most popular rock groups and gained national fame with such hits as "Free Bird," "What's Your Name" and especially "Sweet Home Alabama," which reached the top 10 on the charts in 1974. The band was inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

The band suffered a tragic loss on Oct. 20, 1977, when their chartered plane crashed in a swamp near McComb, Miss. The crash claimed the lives of six people, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant. Keyboard player Billy Powell survived the plane crash that killed three band members. He died in January.

In 2001, bassist Leon Wilkeson died in his sleep in a hotel room near Jacksonville, Fla., and Chain said he was with Evans the night he got hired by the band.

"We were spending New Year's Eve together when this Skynyrd thing was happening," Chain said. "It didn't look like it was going to happen. But he just set his feet in the ground ... and was ready to stand up and fly to the moon. And he did."

Police Suspect in Conn. college killing arrested

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – A man who Connecticut police say sparked two fearful days at a university by killing a student and threatening a campus shooting spree surrendered Thursday night after seeing his photo in a newspaper.

Stephen P. Morgan, 29, was taken into custody about 9:15 p.m. after stopping at a Cumberland Farms convenience store in Meriden, about 10 miles from the Wesleyan University campus.

Clerk Sonia Rodriguez told The Associated Press that she didn't recognize Morgan when he came in and scanned the newspapers. He asked to use the phone but had trouble dialing, so he asked Rodriguez to dial the police department for him.

After he finished his call, Morgan walked outside to wait for police, Rodriguez said. She didn't realize there was anything wrong until several officers arrived and threw Morgan to the ground to arrest him.

When police told Rodriguez that Morgan was wanted for Wednesday's fatal shooting of 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich in Middletown, "I got nervous and I started crying," she said. "I just got very, very scared."

Morgan is being held on $10 million bond and is due in court Friday morning.

Justin-Jinich was shot several times inside a bookstore cafe just off campus by a gunman wearing a wig. Authorities have said Morgan and Justin-Jinich have known each other since at least 2007, when Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint against him while they were enrolled in a summer class at New York University.

An official with knowledge of the investigation told The AP that police stopped Morgan shortly after the shooting, spoke to him and let him go, only to later realize he was a suspect.

When police confiscated Morgan's car they found a journal in which he spelled out a plan to rape and kill Justin-Jinich before going on a campus shooting spree, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is under investigation.

Wesleyan officials said that police told them that Morgan targeted Wesleyan students and Jews in his journals. Justin-Jinich, of Timnath, Colo., came from a Jewish family, and her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.

Morgan's brother Greg told the AP that Morgan wasn't anti-Semitic. His family issued a statement pleading with Morgan to turn himself in "to avoid any further bloodshed."

Greg Morgan did not immediately return calls placed by The Associated Press after police announced the arrest. There was no answer at the home of Morgan's father.

A woman answering the phone for Justin-Jinich's father said the family had no comment Thursday night on Morgan's arrest. She would not identify herself.

Apparently applying the lessons of Virginia Tech, police and administrators locked down the 3,000-student campus and stepped up patrols as authorities launched a hunt for the killer.

"We are all breathing a little easier with this news," Wesleyan President Michael Roth said Thursday night.

Wesleyan officials had told students to stay indoors and staff members to stay home. Most buildings on campus, including cafeterias and the library, were locked Thursday. Normally bustling sidewalks were empty, and police cruisers patrolled the campus of the elite liberal arts school.

In dorms, students in flip-flops, gym shorts and pajama pants shuffled downstairs to pick up box lunches.

Brenna Galvin, a sophomore from Amherst, N.H., said her family was considering bringing her home. "It's hard to know what to do," she said. "Really, we're just trying to keep in touch with people at home."

The university's Usdan Center was opened briefly Thursday night so students could have dinner, but they were asked to return to their dormitories by nightfall. Officials planned to open the university library on Friday and start returning the campus to a normal schedule.

Middletown's only synagogue, Congregation Adath Israel, across the street from the bookstore, was closed Thursday and congregants were considering canceling Sabbath services Friday night and Saturday.

"It was a no-brainer to close the building until we knew more information," synagogue president Eliot Meadow said.

On Thursday afternoon, police got an arrest warrant charging Morgan with murder.

The shooting stirred memories of the Virginia Tech shootings, in which a deranged student killed 32 people and himself. A panel that investigated the 2007 massacre said university officials erred by not acting more quickly to warn students. Police had mistakenly concluded that the first two victims were shot as a result of a boyfriend-girlfriend dispute.

Sebastian Giuliano, mayor of Middletown, a city of 48,000, immediately thought of that tragedy as he saw five police cars race by Wednesday. "Don't tell me it's another Virginia Tech situation," he said.

The shooting occurred early Wednesday afternoon as several hundred students gathered for a concert held annually to allow students to blow off steam before finals. Police and university administrators moved everyone indoors and canceled the concert.

Police gave the all-clear late Wednesday afternoon and said there was no danger, but did an about-face two hours later, warning students to take immediate shelter.

Police said evidence uncovered at the scene prompted the renewed warnings, but they offered no details. Later Wednesday, they released a surveillance photo of the gunman and said they were looking for Morgan, a former Navy man who university authorities said had no connection to Wesleyan.

"Everything we did was based on information we received from Middletown police," Wesleyan spokesman David Pesci said.

There was more confusion when the university posted a photograph purportedly of Morgan on its Web site, only to use a photo of another man. It was replaced Thursday afternoon by two images supplied by police.

The last day of classes for the year was Tuesday. Final exams are scheduled to begin on Monday.

Morgan and Justin-Jinich had known each other at least since 2007. Police records show she filed a harassment complaint against Morgan when they were enrolled in the same six-week program at New York University. In a complaint filed in July 2007, Justin-Jinich said Morgan called her repeatedly and sent her insulting e-mails.

One of the e-mails warned: "You're going to have a lot more problems down the road if you can't take any (expletive) criticism, Johanna."

Both were interviewed by university police, but Justin-Jinich decided not to press charges.

In a statement read to reporters outside his parents' Marblehead, Mass., home, the Morgans said they were "shocked and sickened by the tragedy" and extended their condolences to the victim's family.

They added: "Steve, turn yourself in right now to any law enforcement agency wherever you are to avoid any further bloodshed. We love you. We will support you in every way and we don't want anyone else to get hurt."

Penny Wigglesworth, who lives in the same upper-middle-class neighborhood, called them a "model family" and described Morgan as pleasant and polite.

Justin-Jinich would have graduated next year from Wesleyan. She was a 2006 graduate of the Westtown School, a Quaker boarding school outside Philadelphia.

"It's just a tragic irony that her grandmother would survive the Holocaust and she would be gunned down in a bookstore," said Eric Mayer, a religion teacher at Westtown School who was her academic adviser.

Wesleyan officials said a memorial vigil for Justin-Jinich will be at 1 p.m. Friday in a campus courtyard.

___

Christoffersen reported from New Haven. Associated Press reporters Colleen Long in New York, Dave Collins in Hartford, Jay Lindsay in Marblehead, Mass., Patrick Walters in Philadelphia, Devlin Barrett in Washington and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

One of the last "Wizard of Oz" Munchkins Dies

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Mickey Carroll, one of the last surviving diminutive "Munchkins" in the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz," died of natural causes on Thursday in Missouri at age 89, a newspaper reported.

Carroll, who stopped growing at a young age, was an entertainer early in life and befriended actress Judy Garland, leading to a role alongside her in classic "The Wizard of Oz," the St. Louis Post-Dispatchreported.

He was a violin-playing Munchkin "Town Crier" in the movie, dressed in purple with a yellow flower in his vest. There were dozens of Munchkins in all.

In 2007, Carroll and a few other surviving Munchkins attended a ceremony to dedicate a Munchkin star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Born to Italian immigrants in 1919, Carroll's given name was Michael Finocchiaro, the Post-Dispatch reported. He died at a caretaker's home in Crestwood, Missouri, and he lived in the state nearly his entire life, the newspaper said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Shirtless Biden Washes Trans Am In White House Driveway

Drew Peterson indicted in 3rd wife's death

LOCKPORT, Ill. – Authorities say former Illinois police sergeant Drew Peterson is being held on $20 million bond and faces two counts of murder in his third wife's death. Illinois State Police Captain Carl Dobrich says the 55-year-old Bolingbrook man was processed and transferred to the Will County Adult Detention Facility in Joliet.

Dobrich says officials have tracked more than 1,100 leads in Savio's death and the disappearance of Stacy Peterson, Drew Peterson's missing fourth wife.

The body of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, was found in an empty bathtub. Her death originally was ruled an accidental drowning, but authorities later said it was a homicide staged to look like an accident.

Stacy Peterson disappeared in October 2007.

Report: 5,335 students dead/missing in China quake

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 37 mins ago

BEIJING – China on Thursday released its first official tally of students who died or went missing in last year's Sichuan earthquake — 5,335 — but denied allegations of corruption and shoddy construction — a politically charged issue that has been an enduring source of grief to parents.

Tu Wentao, head of the Sichuan's provincial education department, said 5,335 schoolchildren died or went missing in the massive May 12 quake, and another 546 have been certified as disabled from injuries they sustained.

"The numbers have gone through several checks by our department," said Tu, whose remarks at a press conference in Sichuan's capital,Chengdu, were carried on a provincial government news Web site.

No reason was given for the release of the figures on Thursday — days before the one-year anniversary of the disaster, which left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing and another 5 million homeless. But some say it could be a sign that the government is attempting to stem ongoing discontent.

Authorities began a count of victims within hours after the magnitude-7.9 temblor razed a major section of the mountainous province. But they have refused until now to say how many students were killed, many of them crushed when thousands of classrooms collapsed while other buildings around them remained intact.

Officials have said that compiling and confirming the names of the students was a complicated process, and blame the sheer force of the quake as the main cause of the number of flattened schools.

"According to our investigations and samples we have taken, we have not found any case of buildings that collapsed in the earthquake zone mainly because of construction quality," Yang Hongbo, head of Sichuan's construction department, said at the news conference.

He said "once there is concrete evidence to prove that problems exist in building designs and construction, relevant departments will investigate according to law."

But parents insist the schools crumbled so easily because corruption and mismanagement led to slipshod construction methods and weak buildings that were not up to code. Some say materials meant for school construction projects were sold on the side by contractors for personal gain.

So far no one has been held responsible or punished.

The childrens' deaths have sparked national outrage and have fueled unrest among parents. Many have petitioned and protested, only to be detained or warned against speaking out. Activists sympathetic to their cause have been harassed or taken away by police.

Si-si Liu, a Hong Kong researcher with Amnesty International, said the rights group welcomed the release of the new figures, but added that fundamental questions such as why so many schools collapsed have not been answered.

"We hope that the government will make public, explain to the public what efforts they have made and what's the progress of the investigation," Liu said. "They need to be a government that is accountable to its people. Authorities have to make these efforts transparent."

The London-based group released a report last week chronicling instances in which dozens of parents were questioned or detained by police while seeking answers from courts and local officials.

Grieving parents took little solace and were skeptical of the toll.

"Announcing the numbers won't bring us any consolation," said Liu Xiaobin, whose 11-year-old son was killed when the three-story Fuxin No. 2 Primary School sank into the ground and the rest of the neighborhood remained standing.

"We want the government to investigate the situation at the schools ... or we will petition again because that is our legal right," said Liu, who traveled to Beijing last week to take his case to the central government — only to be sent home by local officials.

Ai Weiwei, an avant garde artist and high-profile critic of Beijing's policies, said Thursday's disclosure was an empty gesture.

"There's no significance to this announcement because it didn't give any names or any other information on where they died, which schools or which classes they were in," Ai said in a telephone interview. "This is nonsense."

In his blog, Ai has confirmed almost 5,000 student names and estimates that the toll could reach 8,000. At least 20 of his helpers have been detained by local authorities, he said.

Tan Zuoren, another activist who conducted his own investigation into 64 schools in the quake zone, estimated that more than 5,600 students died or were missing. Tan, who has since been detained on suspicion of subversion, said that number was incomplete.

In Beichuan, a valley town so shattered it is being rebuilt in a new location, Liang Sifa insists "the government's number is definitely smaller than the actual figure."

"In Beichuan Middle School alone, the estimated student deaths are about 2,000," said Liang, whose 18-year-old son was killed in a school collapse. "I feel uneasy because the government is still lying."

Maine to allow same-sex marriage

Gay marriage is to be permitted in the US state of Maine after a bill was passed by both houses of the state's legislature and signed by the governor.

Maine will be the fifth US state to allow gay marriage, after Connecticut, Masschusettes, Iowa and Vermont.

A number of other states, including New Hampshire and New York, are also due to consider proposals to legalise it.

Earlier this week, Washington DC's city council passed a law to recognise gay marriages performed in other states.

'Careful decision'

The issue is a controversial topic in the US, and many states have passed bills and constitutional amendments banning gay marriage.

But in the north-eastern US, momentum has begun to favour supporters of gay marriage.

I did not come to this decision lightly or in haste  John Baldacci Maine governor

Maine's lower house approved the gay marriage bill by 89 votes to 57, and the state senate voted 21-13 in favour.

Maine's governor, Democrat John Baldacci, had previously been opposed to gay marriage, but changed his mind when faced with the bill.

"I have read many of the notes and letters sent to my office, and I have weighed my decision carefully," he said in a statement.

"I did not come to this decision lightly or in haste."

New Hampshire's governor is set to face a similar decision shortly.

Both houses of the state's legislature have approved a bill granting gay couples the right to marry.

In California, a similar bill was passed in 2005, but was blocked by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Last year, California voters backed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in a referendum, although the constitutionality of the vote is still being fought over in court.

Mindless Banter AKA Updates!

Syndicate is now allowed to use content from hulu.com. Receive in-depth details from Dino and he is also looking for producers who will be able to stream the movies, television shows and documentaries that are offered on the site. If you would like to be apart of this please contact the head lawn nigger in charge at Dino@syndicateradio.tv

Death toll from Brazil floods increase to 30

By CAROLINA ESCALERA, Associated Press Writer – 14 mins ago

SAO PAULO – Authorities struggled Wednesday to reach dozens of small cities in northern Brazil after floods and mudslides washed out roads and highways. The death toll from the flooding rose to at least 30 people.

Months of heavy rains extending from the Amazon jungle to the Atlantic coast have dislodged nearly 200,000 people from their homes and stranded thousands more in 10 states, according to civil defense officials.

"We are having difficulties getting help to people because many roads have been swept away with the floods," said Abner Ferreira, the civil defense official in the hardest-hit state, Maranhao, where at least eight people have died. Ferreira said at least six highways were shut down.

"We have two helicopters from the air force," Ferreira said. "We are using trucks and boats to get people help."

Television footage showed the rooftops of houses poking out of water in flooded towns and people using boats to move around.

Brazilian army Lt. Ivar Araujo said the water level of a river in one of the most affected regions in Maranhao has been rising about 1 foot (30 centimeters) per day. He said two bridges have been destroyed.

"There are some places that the water is so high that not even a boat can get to people," Araujo said. "Some people don't want to leave their homes but the houses have at least a meter and a half (5 feet) of water or more."

Araujo said the Brazilian army has sent more than 500 soldiers to aid the victims over the past two weeks. He said shelters are full, including a school holding more than 1,000 people.

"I didn't have time to get my things from the house," Francisca Antonia Gomes told Globo's G1 Web site in the state of Piaui. "I lost everything."

The flooding forced owners to close their shops and classes have been canceled in many schools in the affected areas.

"In only three hours it rained as much as we are used to seeing in two months," Odileida Sampaio, the mayor of the Para state city of Altamira, was quoted by the official Agencia Brasil news agency as saying. "It's a complicated situation that is affecting mainly the poor and the business owners."

The rains also interrupted the transfer of iron ore from the Carajas mine. Iron ore, the main ingredient in steel, is shipped overseas from Sao Luis, the state capital of Maranhao. The railway also transports 1,300 people per day. Vale is the world's second-largest mining company and the planet's biggest iron ore producer.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew over the hardest-hit areas on Tuesday, delivering food baskets to shelters and meeting with local officials. Silva promised aid to repair infrastructure, while voicing concerns that global climate change could be responsible for the unusually heavy rains and destruction.

Floods and mudslides late last year in the southern state of Santa Catarina killed more than 100 people, displaced 80,000 and set off a round of brutal looting in a devastated port city by people desperate for drinking water and food.

More rain is expected in the north in coming weeks, officials said.

___

Associated Press Writer Tales Azzoni contributed to this repor

Relatives grieve for Texas woman with flu who died

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 6, 8:38 am ET

HARLINGEN, Texas – This week should have been a joyous time for Judy Trunnell, a 33-year-old schoolteacher who had just given birth to a healthy baby girl.

But the friends and relatives whose cars lined the quiet street in front of her home in a quiet subdivision Tuesday instead were mourning her, the first American with swine flu to die.

"We're grieving now," said a woman with tear-streaked eyes who declined to give her name.

In Maryland, her cousin told WMAR-TV in Baltimore that Trunnell had died after spending two weeks in the hospital. She slipped into a coma, and her baby was delivered by Cesarean section, Mario Zamora said.

"She was just a beautiful person, warm at heart. She worked withdisabled children as a teacher," Zamora said. "Those that knew her will always remember her."

Texas health officials stopped short of saying that swine flu caused Trunnell's death. State health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said the schoolteacher had "chronic underlying health conditions" but wouldn't give any more details.

She died early Tuesday after being hospitalized since April 19, said Leonel Lopez, Cameron County epidemiologist.

Trunnell's death came as life in the areas hardest hit by the outbreak began returning to normal. In Mexico, where the current strain is thought to have originated, stores, restaurants and factories were officially allowed to reopen Tuesday. And U.S. health officials withdrew their recommendation that schools with suspected swine flu cases shut down for two weeks.

The only other swine flu death in the U.S. was that of a Mexico City toddler who also had other health problems and had been visiting relatives in Brownsville, near Harlingen. He died last week at a Houston children's hospital.

There have been 29 other confirmed swine flu deaths, all in Mexico. Hundreds of cases of the disease have been confirmed in several countries, but mostly in Mexico and the U.S.

Trunnell was from Harlingen, a city of about 63,000 near the U.S.-Mexico border, and taught in the Mercedes Independent School District about 15 miles west of her hometown.

She was first seen by a physician April 14 and was hospitalized on the April 19. Zamora said she had complained of difficulty breathing and was put on life support.

Doctors knew she had a flu when she came in, but did not know what kind, Lopez said. The area is undergoing a Type A influenza epidemic right now, and swine flu is one variety of that, he said. She was confirmed to have swine flu shortly before she died, he said.

Dr. Joseph McCormick, regional dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health's Brownsville campus, said the woman was extremely ill when she was hospitalized.

Mercedes school district officials announced that it would close its schools for the rest of the week and reopen Monday.

___

Associated Press writers Alicia A. Caldwell in El Paso and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.

Dom DeLuise dies at 75

Affable nature made him a popular character actor for decades with movie and TV audiences as well as directors and fellow actors, has died. He was 75.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Locking Up Nigeria's 'civil lunatics'

In the third of a series of articles looking at policing in Nigeria, the BBC's Andrew Walker visits a prison in the south-eastern city of Enugu where some people who have not committed any crime are locked up for years on end: "Welcome to the asylum!" says prison warder Iroha Uka, cracking a broad and toothy grin. We are in a section of Enugu Prison where the state prison service keeps what it calls its "civil lunatics". These are people who have been taken to court, either by the police or their families, and a magistrate has jailed them - indefinitely, sometimes for life. A dozen men live in filthy cells like this in Enugu Prison Usually they have committed no crime, or very minor ones that may not merit a custodial sentence anywhere else in the world. But the colonial-era law allows Nigerian courts to jail the mentally ill. Prisoners' Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (Prawa) is an organisation working to get "civil lunatics" released from Nigeria's jails. They have had 54 mentally ill inmates released from Enugu Prison since 2007. But there are still hundreds of others in already overcrowded jails all over the country. Distress Enugu's prison asylum is three tin-roofed sheds, split into separate "wards", rooms filled with rows of bunk beds.  Civil lunatics are people that the society doesn't want to be roaming around causing problems  Victoria Uzamaka Enugu Prison controller Vigilante 'jungle justice' On patrol with Nigeria's police They are hot as ovens and dirty beyond belief. Most of the day the people are locked inside because there are not enough warders to prevent them escaping. The men sleep on threadbare foam mattresses or on woven mats on the concrete floor. "None of these people will get any better here," says nursing officer Michael Aroh. "They need to be in a hospital environment, not a prison." A man approaches us and starts to yabber incoherently. Everyone around him laughs as he struggles to form words that mean anything. The distress in his eyes is clear, but he cannot stop the torrent of meaningless words that pour out of his mouth. Suddenly he gains a grip of his language and says his name is John and that he has been incarcerated for nine years. "I'm [in] difficulties here, I need help! They are detaining me here!" he says before slipping again into gobbledegook. Mr Aroh says John is actually called Uguchukwu Onaga and he suffers from schizophrenia. "His mother got tired of him and stopped coming to visit about four years ago." Another inmate, 26-year-old Ifeanyi, claims he was tricked into being sent to prison in February - possibly by his family. A small boy brought him some marijuana and then the police arrived and arrested him. "I have a wife and three children. She is pregnant with another," he says as his eyes well up with tears. The police - not a doctor - recommended he should be in the asylum for five months, but he is worried he will be forgotten. "I don't know how I will get out of here." Seven years Edeh Ogbonnah Bertrand managed to get out.  The asylum is a kingdom of its own  Ex-inmate Edeh Ogbonna Bertrand The 40-year-old was in the asylum for seven years. He says he was falsely accused of stealing some bottles of malt drink by a shopkeeper, who had a police friend arrest him. He was initially jailed in the regular prison, but was never tried. After several months he began to protest about his imprisonment and he was moved to the asylum. "The asylum is a kingdom of its own," he says. "The stronger inmates make the rules. You must do what they say or they will punish you. "They make you do things like wash the floor or the toilet or physically harm you." Mr Bertrand was released after Prawa lobbied the state chief justice to examine the status of prisoners in Enugu Prison. The organisation is working with families of people with mental illness trying to get them to take their relatives to psychiatric hospitals rather than to the police. 'Show them love' The prison service itself wants to clear their facilities of civil lunatics as it says jails are already bursting at the seams with regular criminals. The asylum was built as part of the prison during the British colonial era Enugu Prison has a capacity of 650, but has more than 1,000 people inside. Prisons are also filled with people who are yet to be tried for their alleged crimes. "Civil lunatics are people that the society doesn't want to be roaming around causing problems, unfortunately they are dumped in our prisons," says Victoria Uzamaka, controller of Enugu Prison. "We are trying to reach out to the families and to churches to get them to take care of them, show them love. In the cases we have released people have got better." But Mr Bertrand says being rehabilitated is not an easy process. "It's very difficult: Not having anything to do; getting used to the environment; not having any money; not having a career." He washes cars at a shop near the Prawa office, set up so ex-prisoners can make a small living. "Getting appointed with something to do is difficult."

Auschwitz note leads to survivor

By Laurence Peter and Marianne Landzettel  BBC News

A prisoner number was tattooed on Albert Veissid's arm in Auschwitz

Auschwitz survivor Albert Veissid does not know who put his name on a list that remained hidden inside a bottle for more than 60 years.

Builders working near the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp found the bottle recently. It had been left in a cement wall by inmates.

"I'm surprised by all of this," the 84-year-old told BBC News from his home in a village in the south of France.

The note bears Mr Veissid's name along with those of six Polish prisoners.

Mr Veissid, a French Jew, was arrested by French police in Lyon in August 1943 and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Nazi Germany murdered more than one million people, most of them Jews.

Since Monday, Polish and French journalists have contacted Mr Veissid, wanting to hear his story.

He only learnt about the message in a bottle when his grand-daughter told him what builders had found at the site in southern Poland.

The bottle had been left in the cement of a bunker near the Auschwitz camp. The note is dated 9 September, 1944.

The note stayed hidden for more than 60 years

The construction team to which Mr Veissid was assigned worked outside the concentration camp, in buildings used by the German SS as living quarters and for storage.

In one warehouse the prisoners had to fortify the walls in a section which was to serve the Germans as an air-raid shelter.

"I worked in the bunker, and the Christian Poles worked above me," he said.

At least two other members of the group survived the camp, an Auschwitz museum official said.

The daughter of Bronislaw Jankowiak - one of the Poles named on the note - has confirmed to the BBC that her father survived Auschwitz and died in Sweden in 1997.

In an e-mail, Irene Jankowiak said "he came to Sweden in 1945, rescued from Germany. There he met my mother, married and had four children. One of them is me."

"My father seldom spoke about his experiences during his imprisonment. It was too harsh for him. Now it feels like I have got one more piece to my family history."

The building the Nazis used for storage today belongs to a school. Recently when builders started to lay bare the brickwork under the thick layers of old cement they discovered the bottle.

'Very lucky'

"I wouldn't have survived if I hadn't worked in that construction team at Auschwitz," said Mr Veissid. "I was very lucky. I was friendly with the Poles and they gave me some of their soup. And what they stole from the Germans I hid in the bunker - jam and other food."

But Mr Veissid has no idea who added his name and camp identification number to the Polish names on the note.

Happier times for Albert Veissid - today and before his deportation

Mr Veissid's Holocaust journey began with a French police raid in August 1943. "The police rounded up quite a few young Jews that day," he recalled. "They handed me over to the Germans, who sent me to a labour camp in Provence. There the Gestapo came to find me and on 30 May 1944 I was sent to Auschwitz."

"The rest of my family hid from the Nazis - my father stayed in a cinema, my brother lived under a bridge and my mother and sisters found refuge with local peasants."

On 18 January 1945, days before the Soviet army reached Auschwitz, Albert Veissid was sent on a death march to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.

Later he was again moved to a smaller camp, about 80km (50 miles) away, where he was finally liberated.

Visits to Auschwitz

Mr Veissid returned to France suffering from tuberculosis and it took him four years to recover. Then he set up a small business in Marseille, selling clothes.

"Now I live in a pretty little Provencal village with my wife. I have a son aged 53, and a daughter aged 48," he told the BBC.

Over the years he has stayed in touch with other survivors and every year he goes back to visit Auschwitz. This year he went with a group of schoolchildren - to keep the memories alive for the next generation.

Syndey 'burgular' rescue from roof

New South Wales police rescue the man from the factory roof

A suspected burglar had to be rescued from the roof of the factory it is believed he was trying to break into.

Police were called to a joinery factory in Sydney, Australia, where the 53-year-old man had become stuck due to wet, slippery conditions on the roof.

Emergency crews eventually rescued him after a three-hour operation involving two fire engines and a helicopter.

Police have charged him with trespass, possession of housebreaking equipment and attempted breaking-and-entering.

New South Wales police said in a statement that a rescue unit first tried to reach the man on top of the three-storey building early on Sunday, but heavy rain had made the roof too dangerous to climb on to.

Police said that the man was found to have a helmet with a light, bolt cutters, a small ladder, backpack, tarpaulin, ropes and harnesses.

He was refused bail.

Sting's Daughter Suffers Nasty Fall, Fractures Skull

Yikes!

Sting's 18-year-old daughter, musician Coco Summer, is in the hospital recovering from a fractured skull following a nasty spill.

Coco was dining at a restaurant in Los Angeles when she complained of feeling ill. Upon standing, the aspiring singer fell and hit her head over the weekend.

Sting, who happened to be in the States, rushed to be at her bedside, while mother Trudie Styler, flew in from the UK.

Even though it's a "serious injury and Coco is under constant surveillance," she is said to be doing well.

We wish her a speedy recovery!

Updates!

Cams are not to be in use from 6am-6pm est. Host cams will also not be used during this time to conserve money. During the month of May please donate and thereafter as well. This will take affect Tuesday, May 5th, and will occur for one full month. Our new sponsor is titleboxing.com, their banner will appear on the website now.

Thanks!

Howard Defends Gays. Again.

If you're a regular reader of this site, you've probably read the various opinion pieces I've written on why I think Howard Stern is one of the most openly pro-gay media figures on the planet. 

In my continued quest to convince Stern's non-listeners of this, I wanted to share a snippet from this morning's broadcast.  It was one of those many moments on the show where Howard inserts an insightful, positive opinion on gays -- completely out of nowhere.

He was reading his fan feedback email on the air and then went off topic, talking about how someone had just complained to him that the show had become "too gay." Here's the exchange between Howard and his co-hosts Robin Quivers and Artie Lange:

Howard:  I was talking to someone recently and they said, 'Oh you have so many gay guests lately, the show is getting too gay.'  

OK -- first of all, we don't have that many gay guests.  And my feeling about gay people is that we have a responsibility not only to make gay marriage acceptable and to make gays feel as accepted as heterosexuals, but that we have to hold gay people above all others. 

Robin:  What the hell does that mean?

Howard: In other words, gay people are downtrodden.  They're beaten and abused for their sexuality.  And it goes across race – it's in the white community and the black community.  Gay people are the bastards of the world.  And in order for things to change – because anyone of you could have gay children, gay relatives or gay friends –

Robin:  And in some countries, you can be put to death for being gay.

Howard:  Yes.  You know, it reminds [me] almost of the Jews in Europe.  In Poland, Warsaw was one of the great cities of Europe.  They had Jews and the Jews were very important to the culture of Poland, and elevated the society. And then when the Nazis came and cleaned them out, Poland became what is today – nothing.  It's really…not much.

Now, gay people in our society are responsible for some of the most creative arts, and creative science – and not just the Arts, because I don't want this to sound like a cliché.  What I'm saying is that they're contributors, they are people who want to thrive and they're artistic and they're free thinkers.

So I think we have a responsibility to make [gays] acceptable.  We have to get past all this bullshit, so that some gay kid going to high school doesn’t get the shit beat out of him just because he's gay.  And like, what is this hang up with gay marriage, you know? Who cares?!

I mean, we aired a clip yesterday where this guy was carrying on – he's petitioning, and he's devoting his whole life to making sure that gay marriage doesn't happen in his state.  And I'm thinking, 'Geez, this man must have the most empty fucking life.'  It's just such bullshit.  

If you want to believe in God, that's great.  But don’t buy into these religions that were created by man that have all these cockamamie rules that were created by some uptight douche bag. 

Artie Lange:  And God created gay people, so I don’t know what these religious nuts are even talking about.  Look, you can become a Nazi and you could be mad at them for doing that.  But you're not born a Nazi.  Every type of person was created by God,  so you love them and accept them.  Some people think it’s a choice, being gay, but I really don’t think so.  I mean, why would you choose to be downtrodden?

Robin:  Why would you choose to get the shit kicked out of you?

Howard: Right.

 That was it, and the dialogue was over.  And that's the beauty of the Howard Stern show --   that he seamlessly inserted this progressive opinion on gay acceptance in between ridiculing Paris Hilton's self-indulgent Twitter posts and berating a show employee for eating a dead cockroach for $5.00.  True, it's a strange setting to place these pearls of wisdom, but, oddly enough, that only makes the message that much more striking.

[Editor's note:  You can read the full "Howard Stern Pro-Gay" series by clicking here]

  Written by Jenny Stewart on April 29, 2009 in PUBLIC FIGURES | Email this article

Vegas entertainer Danny Gans dies at 52

By Alan Duke
CNN

(CNN) -- Singer-impressionist-comedian Danny Gans died early Friday at his Las Vegas, Nevada, home, according to the hotel where he was based.

Danny Gans was one of Las Vegas' top entertainers and recently moved to the Encore Theatre.

Gans, 52, was voted Las Vegas "Entertainer of the Year" for 11 of the 13 years he was based there.

There was no immediate word on the cause of death.

"Everybody knew that when they came to Vegas, the one show they had to see was Danny Gans," said Robin Leach, who covers the Vegas entertainment scene on his Web site.

Hotel mogul Steve Wynn, who signed Gans to star in his Encore Theatre in February, said he was "devastated at the loss of our brilliant, talented and loving friend."

"One of the most unique human beings and entertainers in the world has been taken from us in an unexpected moment," Wynn said. "A profoundly tragic event that leaves us all sad and speechless."

Gans is survived by his wife, Julie, two daughters and a son.

"When he landed the residencies here in Vegas, he was thrilled that he would be able to go home every night to Julie and the three kids," Leach said.

Gans' last interview on CNN

Watch the last interview Danny Gans gave to CNN’s Larry King.
Tonight, 9 ET

see full schedule »

His long Vegas run began in 1996, when he gave up his one-man Broadway show and a tour schedule of 200 shows a year for a three-month gig at the Stratosphere Hotel.

He signed a nine-year deal to play in his own 1,250-seat theater at the Mirage Hotel starting in 2000. Some reports put the contract at $200 million.

When that expired early this year, Gans moved to the Encore Theatre, which sits between the Encore Hotel and the Wynn Las Vegas hotel.

"He was an absolute genius with the art of impersonation," Leach said. "There was nobody that he couldn't imitate, and he was uncanny."

Gans was working on an impersonation of President Obama, which he considered a tough assignment, Leach said.  Watch Gans speak with Larry King »

The easiest voice to imitate, Gans told Leach, was TV host Regis Philbin.

"When Regis came to see the show, Regis said, 'I thought I was talking out loud,' " Leach said.

Being great at being other people can limit your own fame, Leach said.

"Impersonating other stars doesn't give you too many opportunities out there in mainstream show business, to be honest," he said. "But what he did was the best there was in the business, and Vegas was the ultimate place to perform that act."

Gans released an album of his musical impersonations this year, but his records have not sold well outside Las Vegas, Leach said.

Gans, however, never aspired to be a global household name, he said.

"There was no lust for fame outside the fame he had here in this valley," Leach said. "I think he would have been very successful if he jumped on that treadmill of insanity."

The biography on his personal Web site says that out of college, Gans played minor league baseball for two years, until a career-ending injury.

He then turned to entertainment, traveling for 15 years before landing in Vegas.

Pa. Sisters, 65 and 70, Accused of Dealing Heroin

STROUDSBURG, Pa. (CBS) ―Two elderly sisters from Monroe County, Pennsylvania have been arrested for allegedly distributing drugs. Elizabeth Marie Grube, 70, and her 65-year-old sister, Elaine Volkert, are facing drug charges after being arrested on April 14. Investigators said they seized 400 bags of heroin with a street value of $8,000 and more than $2,000 from the home of Grube in the 1000 block of Ehler Street, reports CBS station KYW-TV in Pennsylvania. On the same day, a task force seized 988 bags of heroin with a street value of $20,000 and approximately $1,600 in cash from Volkert's home also in the 1000 block of Ehler Street. Police also seized quantities of Oxycontin and marijuana during the search. According to investigators, both Grube and Volkert had been selling between 500 and 1,500 bags of heroin every two weeks for the past two months. Prior to selling heroin, the sisters had been selling crack cocaine, police said. Two days after the sisters were arrested, their supplier, Juilo Cesar Checo, was taken into police custody. Grube and Volkert have been charged with Possession with the intent to deliver a controlled substance (heroin) and criminal conspiracy. Bail was set at $20,000. Checo was charged with Possession with the intent to deliver a controlled substance (heroin), criminal conspiracy and criminal use of a communication facility (cell phone). He is being held on $75,000 bail.

Crack is Whack!

Posted May 1st 2009 10:29AM by TMZ Staff

If a celebrity walks up to you and offers you some crack -- just say NO!

Miley Cyrus--Bring Home the Bacon

Posted May 1st 2009 12:30PM by TMZ Staff

Pork sales at BBQ joints are in serious decline since the swine flu pandemic broke out ... but Miley Cyrusain't afraid -- all the talk has left her seriously salivating for some pig meat.

Oh My Lord...Tupac!

Posted May 1st 2009 1:11PM by TMZ Staff

So we've gotten to the bottom of the mysterious pic of the dude who looks very much like Tupac Shakur ... kinda.



Here's what we know. The man walked into Bourbon Rocks in New Orleans last Sunday, and he caught the eye of the D.J. on duty -- MC Difficult. Mr. Difficult grabbed the mic and hollered, "Tupac's alive!" The crowd cheered and Difficult went over to the guy and asked his name. The man said, "My name is My Lord." 

Mr. Difficult then took a pic with Mr. Lord/Tupac (above), who then drank Budweiser for three hours with a hot chick. On his way out, Mr. Lord/Tupac asked Mr. Difficult if he knew where he could score some good weed.

Sounds like Tupac to us ...

Couple arrested for sex on lawn at Windsor Castle

LONDON – Queen Elizabeth II was at home at Windsor Castle, the sentries who guard her were on duty, and the large park surrounding the magnificent building was full of tourists on a Sunday afternoon. So it didn't take long for people to realize that something was out of order when an inebriated couple arrived from a nearby restaurant and began having sex on a grass bank outside the castle, according to witnesses.

"One window from the guardroom opened up and when a soldier saw what was going on he told his mates — and lots of windows opened up," witness Mark Robinson told The Sun newspaper.

"The couple did not care who was looking and just kept going as if they were in their own bedroom."

Japanese tourists filmed the couple, who only stopped when police officers arrived on the scene, witnesses said.

Thames Valley Police said the man and woman were arrested and given a written warning about outraging public decency.

The queen was in the castle at the time, but her office declined Friday to comment about what had happened.

Syndicate Birthdays-May

1)Dolaf/Hookahgod-May 2nd

2)Juggz-May 1st

3)John of Johnrika-May 5th

4)SpinDicate-May 13th

5)Junglebunnywithtits-May 22nd

6) TONEONE3rdFLOOR-May 26th

7)Dirtylimelight-May 30th

8)Jeff The Drunk-May 1st

9)Howard& Beth's Anniversary-May 9th

10)Wendy the Retard- May14th

11)Joey Boots-May 23rd

8 Year Old Girl Divorces 50 Year Old Husband

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 35 mins ago

CAIRO – An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday.

Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights.

The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man who she married in August after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known.

A court in the central Oneiza region previously rejected a request by the girl's mother for a divorce and ruled that the girl would have to wait until she reached puberty to file a petition then.

There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman's consent is legally required, some marriage officials don't seek it.

But there has been a push by Saudi human rights groups to define the age of marriage and put an end to the phenomenon.

One Saudi human rights activist Sohaila Zain al-Abdeen was optimistic that the girl's divorce would help efforts to get a law passed enforcing a minimum marriage age of 18.

"Unfortunately, some fathers trade their daughters," she told The Associated Press. "They are weak people who are sometimes in need of money and forget their roles as parents."

It was not clear if the man received money for the divorce settlement. The man had given the girl's father 50,000 riyals, or about $13,350, as a marriage gift in return for his daughter, the lawyer said.

The 8-year-old girl's marriage was not the only one in the kingdom to receive attention in recent months. Saudi newspapers have highlighted several cases in which young girls were married off to much older men or young boys including a 15-year-old girl whose father, a death-row inmate, married her off to a cell mate.

Saudi Arabia's conservative Muslim clergy have opposed the drive to end child marriages. In January, the kingdom's most senior cleric said it was permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry and those who believe they are too young are doing the girls an injustice.

But some in the government appear to support the movement to set a minimum age for marriage. The kingdom's new justice minister was quoted in mid-April as saying the government was doing a study on underage marriage that would include regulations.

There are no statistics to show how many marriages involving children are performed in Saudi Arabia every year. Activists say the girls are given away in return for hefty marriage gifts or as a result of long-standing custom in which a father promises his infant daughters and sons to cousins out of a belief that marriage will protect them from illicit relationships.

DMX--240,000 More Reasons Why His Life Sucks

Posted Apr 30th 2009 1:20PM by TMZ Staff

Jailed rapper DMX is about to get some more bad news -- he's just been ordered to pay nearly a quarter of a million bucks to a man he assaulted at JFK airport.

It all started 5 years ago, when Port Authority officers arrested X for posing as an FBI agent and using a fake police siren to pull Sergei Priporin and his family over at the airport.

X -- who claims he pulled them over for making him late for a flight -- was in possession of crack, Oxycodone, Diazepam and a billy club at the time.

The plaintiffs, who originally sued for $4 million each, are getting a total of $240,000 in damages.

X's lawyer, Richard Corde, told us: "Mr. Simmons still feels justified in pulling them over when they didn't get out of his way... he's not apologizing for that. He still believes the gentleman driving should have gotten out of his way. At the same time, he plead guilty to the charges and therefore paid for his behavior."

Linda's Boyfriend Free to Burn Hulk's Rubber

Posted Apr 30th 2009 4:00PM by TMZ Staff

It looks like Linda Hogan isn't the only thing her 19-year-old boyfriend is allowed to ride -- a judge just blocked the Hulkster's attempt to keep the youngster from driving his cars too.



Hulk had asked the judge in Pinellas County to keep Charley Hill out of the driver's seat because he feared his marital estate would be liable if the kid got into a wreck.

Hogan tried, the judge denied -- but the judge didn't necessarily disagree with Hulk's plight. In the papers, the judge wrote that it "would appear to be exceedingly imprudent" to keep Charlie from getting behind the wheel.

Hulk's attorney told us, "This issue certainly isn't over... clearly from [the judge's] statement from this hearing that in principal he agrees with our position but legally does not feel he is able to grant an injunction."

Swine Flu Spreads in 10 US States, Europe

y LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer – 2 hrs 23 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Virulent swine flu spread to 10 U.S. states from coast to coast Wednesday and swept deeper into Europe, extending its global reach as President Barack Obama mourned the first U.S. death, a Mexican toddler who had traveled with his family to Texas. Total American cases surged to nearly 100, and Obama said wider school closings might be necessary.

The World Health Organization said the outbreak is moving closer to becoming a full-scale pandemic.

Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the organization's top flu expert, told reporters in Geneva that the latest developments are moving the agency closer to raising its pandemic alert to phase 5, indicating widespread human-to-human transmission. That's just one step below level 6, a full-fledged pandemic.

In Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was questioned closely by senators about whether the U.S. should close its border with Mexico, where the outbreak apparently began and the casualties have been the greatest. She repeated the administration's position that questioning of people at borders and ports of entry was sufficient for now and said closing borders "has not been merited by the facts."

Dr. Richard Besser, the acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control, said in Atlanta that there are confirmed cases now in ten states, with 51 in New York, 14 in California and 16 in Texas. Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas, Massachusetts and Michigan, while a single cases have been reported in Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.

In a possible outbreak north of the Mexican border, the commandant of the Marine Corps said a Marine in southern California might have the illness and 39 Marines were being confined on their California base until tests come back.

Marine General James Conway told a Pentagon briefing an initial test indicated the sick Marine — who was not identified — might have swine flu but his illness did not appear life-threatening.

Obama said he wanted to extend "my thoughts and prayers" to the family of a nearly two-year-old Mexican boy who died in Houston, the first confirmed U.S. fatality among more than five dozen infections. Health officials in Texas said the child had traveled with his family from Mexico, to Brownsville on April 4 and was brought to Houston after becoming ill. He died Monday night.

"This is obviously a serious situation," and "we are closely and continuously monitoring" it, Obama said of the spreading illness.

Those sentiments were echoed by the Senate's top Republican. "This is a very worrisome situation and we're all following it very closely," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "We stand ready to closely work with the administration to protect the American people as this situation unfolds."

Meanwhile, Egypt's government ordered the slaughter of all pigs in the country as a precaution, though no swine flu cases have been reported there. Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork, but farmers raise some 300,000-350,000 pigs for the Christian minority.

The disease is not spread by eating pork, and farmers were to be allowed to sell the meat from the slaughtered animals.

In fact, officials appeared to go out of their way on Wednesday to not call the strain "swine flu." Obama called the bug the "H1N1 virus."

"The disease is not a food-borne illness," Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, CDC's interim science and public health deputy direct, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

She said the strain is particularly worrisome because "it's a virus that hasn't been around before. The general population doesn't have immunity from it."

People have various levels of protection against other more common types of flu because they are exposed to it over time, and that protection accumulates. She suggested that some older people might have more resistance to this particular strain than younger people because its traits might resemble outbreaks of decades ago.

Germany became the latest country to report swine flu infections. It reported four cases on Wednesday.

New Zealand's total rose to 14. Britain had earlier reported five cases, Spain four. There were 13 cases in Canada, two in Israel and one in Austria.

Obama said it is the recommendation of public health officials that authorities at schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu "should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible."

He was underscoring advice that the CDC provided earlier to cities and states, and that some schools — most prominently in New York City — already have followed.

"If the situation becomes more serious and we have to take more extensive steps, then parents should also think about contingencies if schools in their areas do temporarily shut down, figuring out and planning what their child care situation would be," Obama advised.

He advised people to take their own precautions — washing hands, staying home if they are sick, and keeping sick kids home.

Obama said the federal government is "prepared to do whatever is necessary to control the impact of this virus." He noted his request for $1.5 billion in emergency funding to ensure adequate supplies of vaccines.

CDC for days has said people with flulike symptoms should stay home — but now also is stressing that other family members should consider staying home or at least limiting how much they go out until they're sure they didn't catch it.

Besser, the acting CDC director, called it "an abundance of caution," but stressed that it's voluntary and that the government hasn't urged actual quarantine, which isn't really effective with flu.

___

Associated Press writers Lara Jakes in Washington, Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, Patrick McGroarty in Berlin and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Swine Flu No Match for the Spedi Pandemic

Posted Apr 29th 2009 11:50AM by TMZ Staff

While under quarantine on their honeymoon in Mexico, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are masking their love ... and all it took was a worldwide influenza outbreak.



Symptoms of swine flu include head and body aches, cough, sore throat, chills, trouble breathing, vomiting and/or diarrhea, which were also the side effects of witnessing Speidi's wedding this weekend.

There is no known cure for watching "The Hills."