The Daily Blog

JERUSALEM — The 4 1/2-year-long rape trial against former President Moshe Katsav ended today with Israel’s former “No. 1 Citizen” convicted. Whether the case that transfixed the country will encourage more victims of workplace harassment to come forward remains to be seen.

Katsav faces at least four years in prison. His lawyers have said they will appeal.

The rape case stemmed from when Katsav, 65, was minister of tourism before he became president in 2000. He was also accused of sexual harassment from his time as president.

They are the most serious criminal charges ever brought against a high-ranking Israeli official. Although Katsav is a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, Israel analysts do not expect any backlash against the prime minister.

Most of the current trial was held behind doors. The verdict was broadcast live on all three Israeli television channels and trumpeted in banner newspaper headlines. Several dozen women demonstrated outside the courtroom against Katsav, holding signs saying “we believe you,” referring to Katsav’s former employee who brought the rape charges.

The court’s criticism of Katsav was harsh, saying his version of events was “riddled with lies.” Katsav had no immediate response to the verdict, although his son told Israel Television his father was innocent.

The verdict was the main topic of conversation in Israel today.

“This is a sad day for the state of Israel but a joyous day for Israeli democracy,” Yonatan Livny, a Jerusalem lawyer, said as he got off his motorcycle. “It shows how the law can reach any echelon of society.”

The presidency in Israel is a symbolic office, with the president often called “the No. 1 Citizen in Israel.” Livny suggested that the president should undergo a confirmation hearing similar to officials appointed in the U.S.

Katsav, who was born in Iran and immigrated to Israel as a child, said he was being unfairly judged because he is Sephardic, a Jew from an Eastern country. The elite of Israel have traditionally been Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe.

Katsav accused journalists of a “witch hunt” against him, but some Israelis felt the press was not vigilant enough.

“Before Katsav was elected, there were all kinds of rumors that he was a ‘lady’s man,’” Livny said. “The press knew these rumors and yet they were all afraid to pursue them and see if there was any truth to them.”

But others blamed the media for judging Katsav before the facts were in.”This might surprise you, but I think that the press convicted him before the trial even started,” said Irit Potter, a computer analyst who was having lunch with a colleague at a cafe in a Jerusalem mall. “I think the trial wasn’t handled well at all, and it could even backfire against feminists who might not want to come forward with allegations of sexual abuse.”

Others said the verdict is a victory for women’s rights.

“From today, every woman — whether she has a doctorate or a fourth-grade education — will know that there are some things no one has the right to do to her against her will,” Neri Livneh wrote in the Haaretz newspaper. “No one can harass her any more without being called to account. Even someone who was president when the first complaint against him was filed was not able to evade investigation and trial, despite enormous efforts.”

Katsav was forced to resign in 2007 just two weeks before his term was due to end. He originally accepted a plea bargain that would have him admit to lesser charges but would not entail a jail sentence. But he changed his mind and insisted he wanted a trial to prove his innocence.

Chris Brown launched into a profanity-laced Twitter feud for several hours today with former B2K member De’Mario Thornton — a.k.a. Raz-B — in which both Brown and Thornton employed homophobic slurs and taunts. The exchange began after Thornton tweeted, using the Twitter handles for, respectively, Eric Benet, Brown, Halle Berry, and Rihanna, “I’m just sittin here Thinking how can n—-s like @ebenet & @ChrisBrown disrespect women as Intelligent as @HalleBerry11 [and] @Rihanna.” Brown quickly tweeted in response, “@razb2k, n—- you want attention! Grow up n—-!!! D— in da booty a– lil boy,” and followed up with several tweets taunting Thornton over his accusations that he was molested by his ex-manager and one of his former group mates. Thornton replied by accusing Brown of being on the down-low (i.e. in the closet).

By the end, both Brown and Thornton had apologized for using homophobic slurs and appeared to have moved on to tweet another day. It was all a masterful display of debate at its finest.

From the beginning of Nas’ career, producer Large Professor has been a steady collaborator, supplying the Queensbridge MC with three beats for his breakout debut ‘Illmatic.’ Though it’s been nearly two decades since they began working with one another, that hasn’t stopped the two from putting in work in the studio. The producer, whose real name is William Paul Mitchell, recently revealed that he’s sitting on a bunch of joints recorded with Nasty Nas, and that an a full-length collabo album might not be far off.

“That’s already there. We got mad joints in the can,” he told Forbez DVD. “It’s a matter of just when we’re going to release them, when we want to drop jewels on them.”

Large Pro, who was part of the heralded group Main Source, produced the beat on Nas’ first public appearance on the track ‘Live at the Barbeque,’ a cut included on 1991’s ‘Breaking Atoms.’ Their working relationship continued when Pro produced ‘One Time 4 Your Mind,’ ‘Halftime’ and ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell’ on Nas’ 1994 debut ‘Illmatic,’ reuniting for his 2001 comeback album ‘Stillmatic’ for the tracks ‘Rewind’ and ‘You’re Da Man.’

Pro nabbed Nas for his 2002 solo debut ‘1st Class,’ which also featured guest appearances from Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes. Since then, Pro has continued on to release several instrumental LPs as well as two more solo albums. He most recently produced Joell Ortiz’s single ‘Ohh’ off the freshly released ‘Free Agent’ album.

In the age of email, texting, online bill pay and cellphones, good old-fashioned snail mail seems about as cutting edge as 8-Tracks. That hasn’t stopped the U.S. Postal Service from trying to drum up business, though – and their latest ploy to get you to send someone a letter instead of an email plays on our love of Disney and Pixar.

Starting next August, customers will be able to purchase a pane of 20 stamps featuring five distinctive designs from Pixar’s classic animated films. The new series, entitled “Send a Hello,” are an offshoot of the classic “Art of Disney” series that appeared between 2004 and 2008. That set was originally intended to have three installments with iconic Disney scenes and characters depicting friendship, romance and celebration. The sets were so successful that they spawned two follow-up releases, these revolving around imagination and magic.

With those successful campaigns behind them, the USPS was eager to once again work with the House of the Mouse, and what better focus than the films of Pixar? Each of the company’s releases have been nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar, with five of them winning. The characters have become instantly recognizable for a new generation of film fans and the values of family and friendship exemplified in the titles have wide-ranging appeal.

The new stamps will feature Lightning McQueen and Mater from ‘Cars,’ Buzz Lightyear and two aliens from ‘Toy Story,’ Linguini and Remy the Rat from ‘Ratatouille,’ Carl Fredricksen and Dug from ‘Up’ and lovable robot Wall*E from the film of the same name. Each of the stamps features some fantastic artwork in the instantly recognizable Disney Pixar style. The stamps look so great that it almost seems a shame to ruin them by sticking them on a letter…

With Pixar now set to join the likes of Bugs Bunny and ‘The Simpsons’ with their own stamp series, what other animated series would you want to see adorning the letters in your mailbox?

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A tornado fueled by an unusually warm winter air sliced through parts of northwestern Arkansas early on New Year’s Eve, killing three people, injuring several others and knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses.The dead were killed at Cincinnati, a hamlet of about 100 about three miles from the Oklahoma border. Washington County sheriff’s dispatcher Josh Howerton said the storm touched down near the center of the community. He said “lots of injuries” were reported, and officials in nearby Benton County said the storm injured two people and damaged five homes there.Several flights to and from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport at Highfill, in Benton County, were delayed or canceled Friday morning as officials worked to clear storm debris littering the runway.

The region has been bracing for severe weather for much of the week. Gulf moisture riding southerly winds pushed temperatures into the upper 60s and 70s on Thursday — ahead of a cold front expected to drop temperatures into the teens by Saturday morning.

“Anytime you have a significant change in air mass there is going to be unsettled weather marking the two different air masses,” said Joe Sellers, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Tulsa, Okla.Rick Johnson, the deputy emergency manager for Washington County, said the same storm system caused damage in nearby Tontitown, but emergency responders had trouble reaching the damaged areas because of downed power lines.

The Tulsa weather office issued a tornado warning for Cincinnati and area towns at 6 a.m., nine minutes before the storm hit.

Later Friday morning, in south-central Missouri, baseball-sized hail was reported north of Mansfield in Wright County.

“This storm system has been showing significant signs that it could develop,” said Chris Buonanno, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in North Little Rock who was monitoring the storms as they moved deeper into Arkansas. “Conditions are favorable for seeing a severe outbreak.

“In the winter you don’t always have the instability” that would allow tornadoes to develop, Buonanno said. “This time, we have the instability.”

Marc Anthony is having a bit of trouble with the tax man. According to a report from RadarOnline.com, the ‘I Need to Know’ singer owes New York State more than $3.4 million in taxes for his real estate in Nassau County, Long Island.

A federal tax lien for $1.6 million was placed on the property a year ago and three months later, a $1.8 million lien was placed on the same property by New York.

This isn’t the first time Anthony has had tax issues. Back in 2007, he was slapped with a $2.5 million bill after delaying payment for four years.

According to PEOPLE, Anthony and his wife Jennifer Lopez together rake in a total of roughly $31 million annually.
Neither Anthony or his lawyer were reached for comment on whether or not the taxes have been paid back or not.

HONOLULU — Police in Hawaii are investigating the death of a Los Angeles writer and producer who was found in a room at an unnamed Waikoloa resort.

According to a statement from police on the Big Island, 50-year-old Aron Abrams was found dead Christmas morning after police and emergency personnel were summoned. An autopsy is set for Friday.

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports that Abrams was a writer and co-executive producer of “Everybody Hates Chris.” The program, starring Chris Rock, was nominated in 2006 for “Best New Series” by the Writers Guild of America.

He also was a supervising producer of “Grounded for Life,” co-producer of “3rd Rock from the Sun,” and a consulting producer of the long-running animated Fox series “King of the Hill.”

An Illinois judge has sentenced a retired U.S. Marine to four years of probation for killing a man whose dog urinated on his award-winning lawn.

Will County Judge Daniel Rozak made the ruling in the case this afternoon. As a result, Charles J. Clements, 69, will not serve any jail time for the May shooting of 23-year-old Joshua Funches, Chicago’s NBC 5-TV reported.

Funches was walking his fox terrier in the Chicago suburb of University Park on May 9 when the dog urinated on Clements’ front lawn, Will County prosecutors said. An argument between the two men ensued, during which Clements pulled out a .45-caliber handgun and pointed it at Funches, police say.Witnesses later told police Funches became agitated and said, “Next time you pull out a pistol, why don’t you use it?” Clements responded by firing a single shot that struck Funches in the abdomen, Assistant State’s Attorney Sondra Denmark said.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Clements had won a lawn-beautification award handed out to residents. Neighbors told the newspaper he was known to yell at anyone who stepped on his lawn.Funches, a father of two, was pronounced dead at St. James Hospital in nearby Olympia Fields.

Clements’ attorney, Daniel Collins, claimed the shooting was in self-defense and occurred after Funches repeatedly struck Clements in the face.

“He feared for his safety,” Collins told the Tribune in June. “He also felt that his life was in danger.”

In October, Clements was convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting. He faced a possible sentence of four to 20 years, with an option for probation.

During today’s sentencing hearing, Rozak said Clements had no prior run-ins with the law and said the case was not about his lawn, but “about your reaction … to being yelled at, pushed and punched in the face by a 23-year-old man,” the Tribune reported.Following the sentencing, the Will County State Attorney’s Office said in a statement that it respected the judge’s decision.

“Given the serious nature of the crime and the evidence presented at trial, the State’s Attorney’s Office asked the judge for a prison sentence for Charles Clements,” the statement reads. “After presiding over the trial and hearing all the facts and circumstances, the judge determined that probation was an appropriate sentence. He is an excellent judge and we respect his decision.”

Funches’ relatives were upset by the ruling.

“This is not justice,” his aunt, Gail Williams, told the Chicago Breaking News Center.

If two Mississippi sisters serving life in prison for an armed robbery that netted $11 want to go free, one will have to donate a kidney to the other.

Gov. Haley Barbour has pardoned Gladys and Jamie Scott, black women whose case has been a cause celebre among civil rights activists. But to be released, Gladys, 36, must donate a kidney to her 38-year-old sister, Jamie, who requires dialysis and needs a transplant.

There was no grumbling about the odd condition of the Scotts’ release. Their lawyer called the governor’s decision a victory and noted that Gladys Scott had already planned to donate a kidney to her sister.”It’s been a long time coming. I talked to Gladys on the phone and she was feeling wonderful. I’m sure Jamie is too,” Chokwe Lumumba, the sisters’ attorney, told AOL News by phone today. He said that while including the kidney as a condition of release “does sound a little barbaric,” Gladys would have donated the organ anyway.

The women had each served 16 years of their sentences and were eligible for parole in 2014, but state prison officials said they no longer considered them a threat to the public. In 1994, the pair were sentenced to life terms after they were convicted of armed robbery for hitting two men in the head with a shotgun in Forest, Miss., and stealing $11.Civil rights activists hailed the latest development and had long rallied around the women, arguing that their unusually long sentences were motivated by race.

NAACP President Ben Jealous tweeted his approval Wednesday night. “Spoke to Governor Barbour today, The Scott Sisters will be freed!!!!” he wrote. In an rare moment, the NAACP president praised the governor outright. “This is a shining example of how governors should use their commutation powers,” he told The Washington Post. Earlier this year, activists marched on the state Capitol to push for the women’s’ release.Barbour said the release was an early parole, not a pardon, and noted that Jamie Scott’s dialysis was costing the state nearly $200,000 each year. “The Mississippi Department of Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society,” Barbour said in a statement. “Their incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation, and Jamie Scott’s medical condition creates a substantial cost to the State of Mississippi.”

The women are expected to be released within the next 45 days.

Barbour, who is considering a run for president in 2012, announced news of the sisters’ parole only days after his comments about the civil rights movement sparked anger. In an interview with The Weekly Standard, Barbour credited the white Citizens Council with helping to rid his hometown of Yazoo City, Miss., of the Ku Klux Klan. White Citizens Councils were civic organizations created to prevent racial integration. Barbour later backtracked and called the groups — along with their opposition to integration — “indefensible.”

LOS ANGELES — On Dec. 17, 1975, 80-year-old Alice Lewis was raped and strangled inside the beach-area home here where she had lived most of her life. Her body was discovered the next day by a nurse who made regular visits.

Detectives worked diligently to solve the senseless slaying of a devout Christian grandmother who had outlived her husband and children, spending her days reading and living in solitude on a quiet street. But 20th-century forensics were no match for the killer, and the case went cold for 33 years.”Back then, the way fingerprints would be useful in a crime scene is if you identified a suspect and then made a match,” said Detective Tim Marcia, who works for the Los Angeles Police Department’s Cold Case Unit. “We didn’t have a database like we do now.”

Nor did earlier detectives have a database for DNA samples. Now police have one, and it is routinely updated with new samples from jailed California inmates. Marcia picked up the Lewis case in 2003, thinking he may find in the database a match to semen from the rape.Now, 35 years after the slaying, two men who were teenagers back in 1975 have been charged with committing the rape and murder during the course of a burglary. One defendant, Kevin Michael Shanahan, is jailed in Minnesota. He appeared in court today and waived an extradition proceeding, so he will arrive in California next week.

“It’s sad, a travesty to see an elderly person brutalized,” Marcia said. “They broke into the residence with the sole purpose of stealing objects and sexually assaulted and killed her.”

Solving the case took some pretty innovative detective work.

When he started looking at the case, Marcia was dismayed to learn that the physical evidence kept in the police locker had been destroyed. On a hunch, he went to the coroner’s office to see if it had any forensic records.

He was lucky -– a vaginal swab existed and it was tested for DNA. The results were entered into a database but had no hits.

Six years later, in 2009, Dennis Vasquez, 52, was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property. While he was in jail, his mouth was swabbed for a DNA sample that was placed in the database. Marcia then got a phone call –- he was told he had a match to Lewis’ killing.

Vasquez’s fingerprints were checked against those found at the crime scene and matched as well, Marcia said.

By the time all of this was processed, Vasquez had served time in jail and was back at home in Los Angeles when Marcia knocked on his door with an arrest warrant.

“He acted surprised, but he was extremely nervous,” Marcia said. “During the interview with him, he asked if he was the only person going to jail on this case, and that gave us a clue that more than one individual partook in the crime.”

Vasquez didn’t confess and asked for a lawyer.

Marcia went back to the file and found a set of fingerprints from the crime scene that had no match. So he pored through high school records and identified friends Vasquez hung out with back when he was 17.”Shanahan’s name popped up,” Marcia said.

At the time of Lewis’ slaying, Shanahan was 15 years old and lived near Vasquez — and not far from the victim. The extra set of fingerprints was entered into a law enforcement database and matched Shanahan, who had been arrested for a Colorado bank robbery in 1988, Marcia said.

Shanahan was charged with murder on Dec. 12. Vasquez is awaiting trial.

“It’s very satisfying to solve a case that once was thought to be unsolvable,” Marcia said. “Technology has played a major role in today’s crime fighting, and this case proves it is working well.”

LOS ANGELES — On Dec. 17, 1975, 80-year-old Alice Lewis was raped and strangled inside the beach-area home here where she had lived most of her life. Her body was discovered the next day by a nurse who made regular visits.

Detectives worked diligently to solve the senseless slaying of a devout Christian grandmother who had outlived her husband and children, spending her days reading and living in solitude on a quiet street. But 20th-century forensics were no match for the killer, and the case went cold for 33 years.”Back then, the way fingerprints would be useful in a crime scene is if you identified a suspect and then made a match,” said Detective Tim Marcia, who works for the Los Angeles Police Department’s Cold Case Unit. “We didn’t have a database like we do now.”

Nor did earlier detectives have a database for DNA samples. Now police have one, and it is routinely updated with new samples from jailed California inmates. Marcia picked up the Lewis case in 2003, thinking he may find in the database a match to semen from the rape.Now, 35 years after the slaying, two men who were teenagers back in 1975 have been charged with committing the rape and murder during the course of a burglary. One defendant, Kevin Michael Shanahan, is jailed in Minnesota. He appeared in court today and waived an extradition proceeding, so he will arrive in California next week.

“It’s sad, a travesty to see an elderly person brutalized,” Marcia said. “They broke into the residence with the sole purpose of stealing objects and sexually assaulted and killed her.”

Solving the case took some pretty innovative detective work.

When he started looking at the case, Marcia was dismayed to learn that the physical evidence kept in the police locker had been destroyed. On a hunch, he went to the coroner’s office to see if it had any forensic records.

He was lucky -– a vaginal swab existed and it was tested for DNA. The results were entered into a database but had no hits.

Six years later, in 2009, Dennis Vasquez, 52, was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property. While he was in jail, his mouth was swabbed for a DNA sample that was placed in the database. Marcia then got a phone call –- he was told he had a match to Lewis’ killing.

Vasquez’s fingerprints were checked against those found at the crime scene and matched as well, Marcia said.

By the time all of this was processed, Vasquez had served time in jail and was back at home in Los Angeles when Marcia knocked on his door with an arrest warrant.

“He acted surprised, but he was extremely nervous,” Marcia said. “During the interview with him, he asked if he was the only person going to jail on this case, and that gave us a clue that more than one individual partook in the crime.”

Vasquez didn’t confess and asked for a lawyer.

Marcia went back to the file and found a set of fingerprints from the crime scene that had no match. So he pored through high school records and identified friends Vasquez hung out with back when he was 17.”Shanahan’s name popped up,” Marcia said.

At the time of Lewis’ slaying, Shanahan was 15 years old and lived near Vasquez — and not far from the victim. The extra set of fingerprints was entered into a law enforcement database and matched Shanahan, who had been arrested for a Colorado bank robbery in 1988, Marcia said.

Shanahan was charged with murder on Dec. 12. Vasquez is awaiting trial.

“It’s very satisfying to solve a case that once was thought to be unsolvable,” Marcia said. “Technology has played a major role in today’s crime fighting, and this case proves it is working well.”

Marc Anthony is having a bit of trouble with the tax man. According to a report from RadarOnline.com, the ‘I Need to Know’ singer owes New York State more than $3.4 million in taxes for his real estate in Nassau County, Long Island.

A federal tax lien for $1.6 million was placed on the property a year ago and three months later, a $1.8 million lien was placed on the same property by New York.

This isn’t the first time Anthony has had tax issues. Back in 2007, he was slapped with a $2.5 million bill after delaying payment for four years.

According to PEOPLE, Anthony and his wife Jennifer Lopez together rake in a total of roughly $31 million annually.
Neither Anthony or his lawyer were reached for comment on whether or not the taxes have been paid back or not.

HONOLULU — Police in Hawaii are investigating the death of a Los Angeles writer and producer who was found in a room at an unnamed Waikoloa resort.

According to a statement from police on the Big Island, 50-year-old Aron Abrams was found dead Christmas morning after police and emergency personnel were summoned. An autopsy is set for Friday.

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports that Abrams was a writer and co-executive producer of “Everybody Hates Chris.” The program, starring Chris Rock, was nominated in 2006 for “Best New Series” by the Writers Guild of America.

He also was a supervising producer of “Grounded for Life,” co-producer of “3rd Rock from the Sun,” and a consulting producer of the long-running animated Fox series “King of the Hill.”

An Illinois judge has sentenced a retired U.S. Marine to four years of probation for killing a man whose dog urinated on his award-winning lawn.

Will County Judge Daniel Rozak made the ruling in the case this afternoon. As a result, Charles J. Clements, 69, will not serve any jail time for the May shooting of 23-year-old Joshua Funches, Chicago’s NBC 5-TV reported.

Funches was walking his fox terrier in the Chicago suburb of University Park on May 9 when the dog urinated on Clements’ front lawn, Will County prosecutors said. An argument between the two men ensued, during which Clements pulled out a .45-caliber handgun and pointed it at Funches, police say.Witnesses later told police Funches became agitated and said, “Next time you pull out a pistol, why don’t you use it?” Clements responded by firing a single shot that struck Funches in the abdomen, Assistant State’s Attorney Sondra Denmark said.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Clements had won a lawn-beautification award handed out to residents. Neighbors told the newspaper he was known to yell at anyone who stepped on his lawn.Funches, a father of two, was pronounced dead at St. James Hospital in nearby Olympia Fields.

Clements’ attorney, Daniel Collins, claimed the shooting was in self-defense and occurred after Funches repeatedly struck Clements in the face.

“He feared for his safety,” Collins told the Tribune in June. “He also felt that his life was in danger.”

In October, Clements was convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting. He faced a possible sentence of four to 20 years, with an option for probation.

During today’s sentencing hearing, Rozak said Clements had no prior run-ins with the law and said the case was not about his lawn, but “about your reaction … to being yelled at, pushed and punched in the face by a 23-year-old man,” the Tribune reported.Following the sentencing, the Will County State Attorney’s Office said in a statement that it respected the judge’s decision.

“Given the serious nature of the crime and the evidence presented at trial, the State’s Attorney’s Office asked the judge for a prison sentence for Charles Clements,” the statement reads. “After presiding over the trial and hearing all the facts and circumstances, the judge determined that probation was an appropriate sentence. He is an excellent judge and we respect his decision.”

Funches’ relatives were upset by the ruling.

“This is not justice,” his aunt, Gail Williams, told the Chicago Breaking News Center.

If two Mississippi sisters serving life in prison for an armed robbery that netted $11 want to go free, one will have to donate a kidney to the other.

Gov. Haley Barbour has pardoned Gladys and Jamie Scott, black women whose case has been a cause celebre among civil rights activists. But to be released, Gladys, 36, must donate a kidney to her 38-year-old sister, Jamie, who requires dialysis and needs a transplant.

There was no grumbling about the odd condition of the Scotts’ release. Their lawyer called the governor’s decision a victory and noted that Gladys Scott had already planned to donate a kidney to her sister.”It’s been a long time coming. I talked to Gladys on the phone and she was feeling wonderful. I’m sure Jamie is too,” Chokwe Lumumba, the sisters’ attorney, told AOL News by phone today. He said that while including the kidney as a condition of release “does sound a little barbaric,” Gladys would have donated the organ anyway.

The women had each served 16 years of their sentences and were eligible for parole in 2014, but state prison officials said they no longer considered them a threat to the public. In 1994, the pair were sentenced to life terms after they were convicted of armed robbery for hitting two men in the head with a shotgun in Forest, Miss., and stealing $11.Civil rights activists hailed the latest development and had long rallied around the women, arguing that their unusually long sentences were motivated by race.

NAACP President Ben Jealous tweeted his approval Wednesday night. “Spoke to Governor Barbour today, The Scott Sisters will be freed!!!!” he wrote. In an rare moment, the NAACP president praised the governor outright. “This is a shining example of how governors should use their commutation powers,” he told The Washington Post. Earlier this year, activists marched on the state Capitol to push for the women’s’ release.Barbour said the release was an early parole, not a pardon, and noted that Jamie Scott’s dialysis was costing the state nearly $200,000 each year. “The Mississippi Department of Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society,” Barbour said in a statement. “Their incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation, and Jamie Scott’s medical condition creates a substantial cost to the State of Mississippi.”

The women are expected to be released within the next 45 days.

Barbour, who is considering a run for president in 2012, announced news of the sisters’ parole only days after his comments about the civil rights movement sparked anger. In an interview with The Weekly Standard, Barbour credited the white Citizens Council with helping to rid his hometown of Yazoo City, Miss., of the Ku Klux Klan. White Citizens Councils were civic organizations created to prevent racial integration. Barbour later backtracked and called the groups — along with their opposition to integration — “indefensible.”

While it paled in comparison to the bombshell-filled obits of 2009 (MJ, Swayze), it was still a rough year when it came to losing our beloved stars to the hereafter. True, there were older actors, musicians, artists and Hollywood luminaries whose time had simply come — not that we won’t terribly miss the likes of Barbara Billingsley, Tony Curtis and Leslie Nielsen. But there were also shockers, like the sudden fall of two child titans, Gary Coleman and Corey Haim, along with out-of-nowhere heartbreakers like Dixie Carter and two-thirds of the revered Redgrave family.

As we flip over to a new year and go into reflecting mode, take a moment to remember many of the stars we’ve said goodbye to in 2010.

Michael Vick probably eliminated any chance of winning the MVP with his performance against the Vikings Tuesday night, but his redemption story has been popular with some, including Barack Obama.

But not everyone has gotten over the crimes for which Vick spent 19 months in prison. Tucker Carlson, on FOX News Tuesday at the same time Vick was playing the Vikings, said he thinks Vick should have been executed for his abuse of animals.

“I’m a Christian, I’ve made mistakes myself, I believe fervently in second chances,” Carlson said. “But Michael Vick killed dogs, and he did in a heartless and cruel way. And I think, personally, he should’ve been executed for that. He wasn’t, but the idea that the President of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs? Kind of beyond the pale.”

Former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Brandon Joyce has died from injuries sustained after he was shot outside a St. Louis-area Bass Pro Shop Friday. He was most recently a member of the St. Louis Rams’ offseason roster. Joyce was 26.

Three men have been arrested in connection with the murder. Cory J. Brooks, 21, Tory T. Brooks, 21, and Deveon C. Shockley, 21, all of the St. Louis area, have been taken into custody. Joyce was originally from St. Charles, a suburb of St. Louis.

According to police records, the men were involved in an altercation when Joyce was attempting to buy narcotics from them Dec. 24. There is a fourth suspect who has been preliminarily identified as the shooter, though he is not in custody.

Joyce was signed by Minnesota as an undrafted free agent out of Illinois State in 2008 but failed make to the team. He played for the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League in 2009.

New York police have arrested a man in the beating and strangulation of a woman whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase last week near a landmark restaurant.

Hassan Malik, 55, has been charged with murder in the second degree in the death of 28-year-old Betty Williams. He was arraigned this afternoon and ordered held without bond, police said.

When Malik was led out of the 23rd Precinct stationhouse in East Harlem early today, he told a reporter he was remorseful. When asked if he had anything to say to the victim’s family, he said “yes,” without elaborating, the New York Daily News reported.

Williams, a Bronx resident, was found Wednesday after police received a 911 call directing them to a large black suitcase on the sidewalk near Rao’s restaurant in East Harlem. There, authorities found the body inside the bag, police told AOL News last week.

According to the medical examiner’s office, Williams’ death was caused by neck compression.

Police sources told the New York Post that Malik said he paid the victim to have sex with him. The two went to his Sleepy Hollow apartment, where Malik said he caught Williams stealing money from him. He told police the victim then hit him with a frying pan twice. Afterward, he struck her with it and strangled her with an electrical cord, the Post reported.

Police got a break in the homicide following the release of a video that shows the alleged assailant wheeling the suitcase containing the victim down East 114th Street. A tipster reportedly saw the video and contacted police after recognizing Malik.Contacted by AOL News today, an official with the NYPD confirmed Malik’s arrest but declined to comment on the case.

The victim has a history of drug arrests, New York’s CBS 2 reported. The Post also reported that Malik has a criminal record that includes arrests for assault, aggravated harassment, robbery and drugs.

The location where Williams’ body was found is not far from where another body was found in a suitcase in June 2003.

A former Oregon bank manager who fled after she was accused of stealing up to $1.2 million from customers has surrendered in California, the FBI said.

The FBI had been seeking 37-year-old Shawna Leimomi Moore-Saia since Oct. 27, when a federal judge issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of identity theft, credit card fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. Moore-Saia’s whereabouts remained a mystery until Monday, when she walked into the FBI’s Los Angeles office and turned herself in.According to the FBI, Moore-Saia was employed by a Wells Fargo branch in Coos Bay, Ore., from August 2006 until last August. She was fired from her job after bank officials discovered many of her customers had lost large sums of money to unauthorized transactions.

Bank officials further allege Moore-Saia opened new accounts for customers, without their knowledge, so she could collect commissions on them, The Associated Press reported.

“She allegedly embezzled the money from the bank by targeting vulnerable, elderly and sick customers and their accounts,” the FBI stated on Moore-Saia’s wanted poster.

In October, the FBI raided Moore-Saia’s home and seized 178 collector coins, 50 prepaid debit cards, several firearms, 50 pieces of jewelry, 50 designer handbags and a 2009 Dodge Charger, The Register-Guard reported.According to the newspaper, Moore-Saia did not return home after the raid. The following month, the FBI announced a $10,000 award for information leading to her arrest.

The Oregonian reports that Moore-Saia was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail. She is expected to make her first court appearance today.

Fire broke out in an abandoned warehouse in New Orleans early today, killing at least eight homeless people who were trying to stay warm around a burning barrel. Two other people survived.

The death toll was provided by the city fire department, WWL-TV reported. The victims were believed to have been homeless, CNN said.The survivors who managed to escape through a window in the 9th Ward building said the blaze was ignited around 2 a.m. after people burned wood in a barrel to stay warm, Fire Chief Charles Parent told WWL-TV. Temperatures were around freezing.

The bodies — so badly burned that firefighters couldn’t tell the victims’ genders — have been brought to the coroner’s office, The Associated Press reported. It said cadaver dogs will be brought in to look for other possible victims.”There’s a lot of damage in the building,” Parent told WWL. “Right now it’s too hot to send them into the area.”

While it paled in comparison to the bombshell-filled obits of 2009 (MJ, Swayze), it was still a rough year when it came to losing our beloved stars to the hereafter. True, there were older actors, musicians, artists and Hollywood luminaries whose time had simply come — not that we won’t terribly miss the likes of Barbara Billingsley, Tony Curtis and Leslie Nielsen. But there were also shockers, like the sudden fall of two child titans, Gary Coleman and Corey Haim, along with out-of-nowhere heartbreakers like Dixie Carter and two-thirds of the revered Redgrave family.

As we flip over to a new year and go into reflecting mode, take a moment to remember many of the stars we’ve said goodbye to in 2010.

Michael Vick probably eliminated any chance of winning the MVP with his performance against the Vikings Tuesday night, but his redemption story has been popular with some, including Barack Obama.

But not everyone has gotten over the crimes for which Vick spent 19 months in prison. Tucker Carlson, on FOX News Tuesday at the same time Vick was playing the Vikings, said he thinks Vick should have been executed for his abuse of animals.

“I’m a Christian, I’ve made mistakes myself, I believe fervently in second chances,” Carlson said. “But Michael Vick killed dogs, and he did in a heartless and cruel way. And I think, personally, he should’ve been executed for that. He wasn’t, but the idea that the President of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs? Kind of beyond the pale.”

Former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Brandon Joyce has died from injuries sustained after he was shot outside a St. Louis-area Bass Pro Shop Friday. He was most recently a member of the St. Louis Rams’ offseason roster. Joyce was 26.

Three men have been arrested in connection with the murder. Cory J. Brooks, 21, Tory T. Brooks, 21, and Deveon C. Shockley, 21, all of the St. Louis area, have been taken into custody. Joyce was originally from St. Charles, a suburb of St. Louis.

According to police records, the men were involved in an altercation when Joyce was attempting to buy narcotics from them Dec. 24. There is a fourth suspect who has been preliminarily identified as the shooter, though he is not in custody.

Joyce was signed by Minnesota as an undrafted free agent out of Illinois State in 2008 but failed make to the team. He played for the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League in 2009.

New York police have arrested a man in the beating and strangulation of a woman whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase last week near a landmark restaurant.

Hassan Malik, 55, has been charged with murder in the second degree in the death of 28-year-old Betty Williams. He was arraigned this afternoon and ordered held without bond, police said.

When Malik was led out of the 23rd Precinct stationhouse in East Harlem early today, he told a reporter he was remorseful. When asked if he had anything to say to the victim’s family, he said “yes,” without elaborating, the New York Daily News reported.

Williams, a Bronx resident, was found Wednesday after police received a 911 call directing them to a large black suitcase on the sidewalk near Rao’s restaurant in East Harlem. There, authorities found the body inside the bag, police told AOL News last week.

According to the medical examiner’s office, Williams’ death was caused by neck compression.

Police sources told the New York Post that Malik said he paid the victim to have sex with him. The two went to his Sleepy Hollow apartment, where Malik said he caught Williams stealing money from him. He told police the victim then hit him with a frying pan twice. Afterward, he struck her with it and strangled her with an electrical cord, the Post reported.

Police got a break in the homicide following the release of a video that shows the alleged assailant wheeling the suitcase containing the victim down East 114th Street. A tipster reportedly saw the video and contacted police after recognizing Malik.Contacted by AOL News today, an official with the NYPD confirmed Malik’s arrest but declined to comment on the case.

The victim has a history of drug arrests, New York’s CBS 2 reported. The Post also reported that Malik has a criminal record that includes arrests for assault, aggravated harassment, robbery and drugs.

The location where Williams’ body was found is not far from where another body was found in a suitcase in June 2003.

A former Oregon bank manager who fled after she was accused of stealing up to $1.2 million from customers has surrendered in California, the FBI said.

The FBI had been seeking 37-year-old Shawna Leimomi Moore-Saia since Oct. 27, when a federal judge issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of identity theft, credit card fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. Moore-Saia’s whereabouts remained a mystery until Monday, when she walked into the FBI’s Los Angeles office and turned herself in.According to the FBI, Moore-Saia was employed by a Wells Fargo branch in Coos Bay, Ore., from August 2006 until last August. She was fired from her job after bank officials discovered many of her customers had lost large sums of money to unauthorized transactions.

Bank officials further allege Moore-Saia opened new accounts for customers, without their knowledge, so she could collect commissions on them, The Associated Press reported.

“She allegedly embezzled the money from the bank by targeting vulnerable, elderly and sick customers and their accounts,” the FBI stated on Moore-Saia’s wanted poster.

In October, the FBI raided Moore-Saia’s home and seized 178 collector coins, 50 prepaid debit cards, several firearms, 50 pieces of jewelry, 50 designer handbags and a 2009 Dodge Charger, The Register-Guard reported.According to the newspaper, Moore-Saia did not return home after the raid. The following month, the FBI announced a $10,000 award for information leading to her arrest.

The Oregonian reports that Moore-Saia was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail. She is expected to make her first court appearance today.

Fire broke out in an abandoned warehouse in New Orleans early today, killing at least eight homeless people who were trying to stay warm around a burning barrel. Two other people survived.

The death toll was provided by the city fire department, WWL-TV reported. The victims were believed to have been homeless, CNN said.The survivors who managed to escape through a window in the 9th Ward building said the blaze was ignited around 2 a.m. after people burned wood in a barrel to stay warm, Fire Chief Charles Parent told WWL-TV. Temperatures were around freezing.

The bodies — so badly burned that firefighters couldn’t tell the victims’ genders — have been brought to the coroner’s office, The Associated Press reported. It said cadaver dogs will be brought in to look for other possible victims.”There’s a lot of damage in the building,” Parent told WWL. “Right now it’s too hot to send them into the area.”

Five teenage buddies gathered in a motel room outside of Miami for a birthday celebration have been found dead in what police suspect was a case of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Police don’t think any foul play was involved in the deaths Monday afternoon of the youths — males between the ages of 16 and 19 — who were in a room at the Presidente Motel in Hialeah, Fla. Firefighters found a car running in a garage located underneath the unit, and investigators say the five appeared to have died after being overcome by the exhaust fumes, The Miami Herald reported.

“It seems like this is a tragic accident,” Hialeah police spokesman Carl Zogby told the newspaper.
“They left the engine running, the garage door closed. The room probably got filled with carbon monoxide,” Zogby told TV station WSVN. Police said they didn’t find any evidence of drugs or alcohol in the room, which contained bags of uneaten fast food, according to the Herald.

The Herald reported that the car, which had been borrowed from another friend, had to have its battery jumped before the youths left for the motel. “They thought the car wouldn’t start. That’s the reason [they left it running],” Maxon Ofea, a friend of the group, told the Herald.

The teens — identified as Evan Charles, Junchen Martial, Peterson Nazon, Jonas Antenor and Jean Pierr Ferdinand — were close friends from Hialeah’s Little Haiti neighborhood who were celebrating Martial’s 19th birthday, according to TV station WPLG. Nazon’s sister tried to discourage her brother from going to the motel, according to the Herald.”I was like, ‘What are you going to get a hotel for? Just stay home.’ … His friends were like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go,”’ Patricia Nazon told the paper.

Authorities said building inspectors will be looking into whether the motel’s ventilation may have been a factor in the deaths. “It doesn’t appear there is much ventilation other than the huge front door that you drive the vehicle through, but that door was closed already,” Hialeah Fire Rescue Lt. Cesar Espinosa told WSVN.

Zogby told the Herald that investigators are trying to determine if any safety equipment in the garage or the room above was capable of detecting carbon monoxide.

Halle Berry has been busy dazzling photogs on the red carpet recently, hamming it up for a new Farrelly Brothers comedy, and enjoying a new romance with Olivier Martinez — but she says that despite her glamorous adulthood, she’s still healing from the trauma she witnessed in her childhood home.

The Oscar winner, 44, opened up to CNN recently about what motivates her to work with an organization that supports women who escape violent homes.

Berry recalls being terrified that her violent dad, who physically abused her mom, would turn on her, adding, “I think I’ve spent my adult life dealing with the sense of low self-esteem that sort of implanted in me. Somehow I felt not worthy.” As incredible as that sounds coming from a highly paid, highly photogenic movie star, she explains, “Before I’m ‘Halle Berry,’ I’m little Halle….a little girl growing in this environment that damaged me…I’ve spent my adult life trying to really heal from that.”

Of her dedication to supporting others trying to escape domestic violence — including frequent volunteering at Jenesse Center, a Los Angeles shelter, and helping to renovate apartments for women leaving abusive relationships — she says, “I have a spot in my soul that understands the devastation that this causes a family.”

The law is finally catching up to ‘Teen Mom’ star Amber Portwood.

Indiana prosecutors formally charged the reality star today with two felony counts of domestic battery, one felony count of neglect of a dependent and one misdemeanor of domestic violence and battery, E! Online reports.

Law enforcement became involved in Portwood’s case after MTV camera crews filmed her hitting her ex-fiance, Gary Shirley, in front of their young daughter. The footage aired on ‘Teen Mom,’ and was subpoenaed from MTV after Indiana authorities received complaints from Child Protective Services.

Portwood’s brother, Shawn, told E! that Amber stayed with him last night while Leah stayed at Shirley’s house. “We were supposed to be having Christmas with my mom today, but plans have changed somewhat,” he said. “Gary is supposed to bring Amber to the courthouse today. If need be, he will be the one posting bail as well. Amber is very nervous. She is waiting for her lawyer to call her back. The paparazzi are swarming her house.”

Portwood faces up to three years in jail and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

A shotgun blast of news this year shredded what most Americans believe about what used to be called the “war on drugs” — that it was being fought to curb what were seen as simply criminal enterprises. Instead, it left us all facing the new dangers of narco-politics, whether it is cartels challenging governments and attacking social institutions, capitalizing on corruption, or involvement in the drug trade by terrorist groups.As a veteran California law enforcement officer told Politics Daily: “What we’re seeing in Mexico is cartels as new ‘state making’ agencies.”That’s politics, even if, as that street cop noted, it doesn’t sound like politics “in the sound byte sense.”A study by the private Center for a New American Security released in 2010 reported that ” … crime, terrorism and insurgency are interwoven in new and dangerous ways that threaten not just the welfare but also the security of societies in the Western Hemisphere … the capability to destabilize governments has made the cartels an insurgent threat as well as a criminal one.”A March report by our government’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted that the number of “foreign terrorist groups” involved in the global narcotics trade “jumped from 14 groups in 2003 to 18 in 2008.”Terrorists may “tax” smugglers of drugs, sometimes as a prelude to taking over the business — CRS, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the California street cop cite as an example Columbia’s FARC group, which formed in the 1960s with the goal of overthrowing the government and replacing it with a Marxist regime.The Taliban, which is not on the State Department terrorist list but is at war with the U.S. in Afghanistan, has alliances with narcotics traffickers, although al-Qaeda does not appear to sanction such connections, according to the CRS.By the end of 2010, narco-related violence will have accounted for nearly 30,000 murders in Mexico — everything from grisly beheadings to thug vs. thug gunfights, to raids by squads of cartel gunmen.Mexico’s Congress failed to act on President Felipe Calderon’s plan to squeeze the cartels by cracking down on money laundering and reorganizing local police forces so that they could better stand up to them. Mexico’s ordinary citizens are losing faith in their government. Cartel-fostered lawlessness has prompted ordinary Mexicans to resort to vigilantism to protect themselves from rapes and kidnappings including, in at least one instance, digging a trench around their town to prevent thugs from reaching it by going off-road in their SUVs.Cartels attack every element of “legitimate” society – cops, teachers, medical personnel. Cartels attack journalists, prompting El Diario, the leading paper of Juarez, Mexico, this September to publish an extraordinary Sunday front page “letter” to the cartels, saying: “Explain to us what you want from us. What are we supposed to publish or not publish, so we know what to abide by? You are at this time the de facto authorities in this city …”In a blood-soaked irony, many guns in cartel arsenals – including AK-47s and other assault rifles — come from the United States, according to a Washington Post investigation. They are often legally bought here and then smuggled across the border by gunrunners called hormigas (ants) even as cartel drug mules smuggle narcotics in the opposite direction. Efforts to regulate guns are hot-button political issues in the United States, and The Post article quotes Chris W. Cox of the multimillion-dollar lobbying group, the National Rifle Association, as saying: “To suggest that U.S. gun laws are somehow to blame for Mexican drug cartel violence is a sad fantasy.”Meanwhile, Mexican cartels — already key importers of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana to the U.S. – now dominate what was once our “homegrown” market in meth, the killer drug that began ravaging our heartland in the 1990’s.Economists talk about “contagion” — a political, cultural, or social force “infecting” a neighboring group. Contagion is an issue for the United States beyond the cartels’ core business of, say, providing the meth that destroys a teenager in Montana.

We all know President Obama supports his beloved Chicago sports teams, including da Bears. But the president spread some love Philadelphia’s way recently when he thanked Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie for giving Michael Vick a second chance following the star quarterback’s release from jail last year on an animal cruelty conviction.

On his Sports Illustrated blog, writer Peter King said Lurie told him the president said, ” ‘So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance.’ [Obama] was … passionate about it. He said it’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail. And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”

Lurie also told King that the president was proud of the football team’s plans to install alternative-energy measures at Lincoln Financial Field, including solar panels and wind turbines.

The team’s website also made note of the call from the First Fan:

Obama also conveyed his pleasure with the Eagles’ plans for the first fully self-generated alternative-energy stadium in the country.

“It’s good business for us, which is the point,” Lurie told King. “We talked about policy and what he hopes can happen with alternative energy, and he raved about us being the first to put a plan like this in place.”

King related the same story about the president’s call Sunday night on NBC, which had been scheduled to broadcast the Eagles’ game against the Minnesota Vikings. Because of a major snowstorm that hit the area, the game was postponed until Tuesday.

Michael Vick, a celebrated talent since his college days at Virginia Tech, quarterbacked the Atlanta Falcons until he was charged with, and eventually convicted of, running and participating in a dogfighting ring. After serving 19 months in federal prison, his career and his reputation were in tatters. He was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles last season and played sparingly — and unspectacularly. This season he has returned to old form, guiding his team to the NFC East championship and hearing his name mentioned often as a candidate for league MVP.

After initial protests from animal-rights groups about Vick’s return to the lucrative world of pro football, the hubbub has largely died down.

Five teenage buddies gathered in a motel room outside of Miami for a birthday celebration have been found dead in what police suspect was a case of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Police don’t think any foul play was involved in the deaths Monday afternoon of the youths — males between the ages of 16 and 19 — who were in a room at the Presidente Motel in Hialeah, Fla. Firefighters found a car running in a garage located underneath the unit, and investigators say the five appeared to have died after being overcome by the exhaust fumes, The Miami Herald reported.

“It seems like this is a tragic accident,” Hialeah police spokesman Carl Zogby told the newspaper.
“They left the engine running, the garage door closed. The room probably got filled with carbon monoxide,” Zogby told TV station WSVN. Police said they didn’t find any evidence of drugs or alcohol in the room, which contained bags of uneaten fast food, according to the Herald.

The Herald reported that the car, which had been borrowed from another friend, had to have its battery jumped before the youths left for the motel. “They thought the car wouldn’t start. That’s the reason [they left it running],” Maxon Ofea, a friend of the group, told the Herald.

The teens — identified as Evan Charles, Junchen Martial, Peterson Nazon, Jonas Antenor and Jean Pierr Ferdinand — were close friends from Hialeah’s Little Haiti neighborhood who were celebrating Martial’s 19th birthday, according to TV station WPLG. Nazon’s sister tried to discourage her brother from going to the motel, according to the Herald.”I was like, ‘What are you going to get a hotel for? Just stay home.’ … His friends were like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go,”’ Patricia Nazon told the paper.

Authorities said building inspectors will be looking into whether the motel’s ventilation may have been a factor in the deaths. “It doesn’t appear there is much ventilation other than the huge front door that you drive the vehicle through, but that door was closed already,” Hialeah Fire Rescue Lt. Cesar Espinosa told WSVN.

Zogby told the Herald that investigators are trying to determine if any safety equipment in the garage or the room above was capable of detecting carbon monoxide.

Halle Berry has been busy dazzling photogs on the red carpet recently, hamming it up for a new Farrelly Brothers comedy, and enjoying a new romance with Olivier Martinez — but she says that despite her glamorous adulthood, she’s still healing from the trauma she witnessed in her childhood home.

The Oscar winner, 44, opened up to CNN recently about what motivates her to work with an organization that supports women who escape violent homes.

Berry recalls being terrified that her violent dad, who physically abused her mom, would turn on her, adding, “I think I’ve spent my adult life dealing with the sense of low self-esteem that sort of implanted in me. Somehow I felt not worthy.” As incredible as that sounds coming from a highly paid, highly photogenic movie star, she explains, “Before I’m ‘Halle Berry,’ I’m little Halle….a little girl growing in this environment that damaged me…I’ve spent my adult life trying to really heal from that.”

Of her dedication to supporting others trying to escape domestic violence — including frequent volunteering at Jenesse Center, a Los Angeles shelter, and helping to renovate apartments for women leaving abusive relationships — she says, “I have a spot in my soul that understands the devastation that this causes a family.”

The law is finally catching up to ‘Teen Mom’ star Amber Portwood.

Indiana prosecutors formally charged the reality star today with two felony counts of domestic battery, one felony count of neglect of a dependent and one misdemeanor of domestic violence and battery, E! Online reports.

Law enforcement became involved in Portwood’s case after MTV camera crews filmed her hitting her ex-fiance, Gary Shirley, in front of their young daughter. The footage aired on ‘Teen Mom,’ and was subpoenaed from MTV after Indiana authorities received complaints from Child Protective Services.

Portwood’s brother, Shawn, told E! that Amber stayed with him last night while Leah stayed at Shirley’s house. “We were supposed to be having Christmas with my mom today, but plans have changed somewhat,” he said. “Gary is supposed to bring Amber to the courthouse today. If need be, he will be the one posting bail as well. Amber is very nervous. She is waiting for her lawyer to call her back. The paparazzi are swarming her house.”

Portwood faces up to three years in jail and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

A shotgun blast of news this year shredded what most Americans believe about what used to be called the “war on drugs” — that it was being fought to curb what were seen as simply criminal enterprises. Instead, it left us all facing the new dangers of narco-politics, whether it is cartels challenging governments and attacking social institutions, capitalizing on corruption, or involvement in the drug trade by terrorist groups.As a veteran California law enforcement officer told Politics Daily: “What we’re seeing in Mexico is cartels as new ‘state making’ agencies.”That’s politics, even if, as that street cop noted, it doesn’t sound like politics “in the sound byte sense.”A study by the private Center for a New American Security released in 2010 reported that ” … crime, terrorism and insurgency are interwoven in new and dangerous ways that threaten not just the welfare but also the security of societies in the Western Hemisphere … the capability to destabilize governments has made the cartels an insurgent threat as well as a criminal one.”A March report by our government’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted that the number of “foreign terrorist groups” involved in the global narcotics trade “jumped from 14 groups in 2003 to 18 in 2008.”Terrorists may “tax” smugglers of drugs, sometimes as a prelude to taking over the business — CRS, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the California street cop cite as an example Columbia’s FARC group, which formed in the 1960s with the goal of overthrowing the government and replacing it with a Marxist regime.The Taliban, which is not on the State Department terrorist list but is at war with the U.S. in Afghanistan, has alliances with narcotics traffickers, although al-Qaeda does not appear to sanction such connections, according to the CRS.By the end of 2010, narco-related violence will have accounted for nearly 30,000 murders in Mexico — everything from grisly beheadings to thug vs. thug gunfights, to raids by squads of cartel gunmen.Mexico’s Congress failed to act on President Felipe Calderon’s plan to squeeze the cartels by cracking down on money laundering and reorganizing local police forces so that they could better stand up to them. Mexico’s ordinary citizens are losing faith in their government. Cartel-fostered lawlessness has prompted ordinary Mexicans to resort to vigilantism to protect themselves from rapes and kidnappings including, in at least one instance, digging a trench around their town to prevent thugs from reaching it by going off-road in their SUVs.Cartels attack every element of “legitimate” society – cops, teachers, medical personnel. Cartels attack journalists, prompting El Diario, the leading paper of Juarez, Mexico, this September to publish an extraordinary Sunday front page “letter” to the cartels, saying: “Explain to us what you want from us. What are we supposed to publish or not publish, so we know what to abide by? You are at this time the de facto authorities in this city …”In a blood-soaked irony, many guns in cartel arsenals – including AK-47s and other assault rifles — come from the United States, according to a Washington Post investigation. They are often legally bought here and then smuggled across the border by gunrunners called hormigas (ants) even as cartel drug mules smuggle narcotics in the opposite direction. Efforts to regulate guns are hot-button political issues in the United States, and The Post article quotes Chris W. Cox of the multimillion-dollar lobbying group, the National Rifle Association, as saying: “To suggest that U.S. gun laws are somehow to blame for Mexican drug cartel violence is a sad fantasy.”Meanwhile, Mexican cartels — already key importers of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana to the U.S. – now dominate what was once our “homegrown” market in meth, the killer drug that began ravaging our heartland in the 1990’s.Economists talk about “contagion” — a political, cultural, or social force “infecting” a neighboring group. Contagion is an issue for the United States beyond the cartels’ core business of, say, providing the meth that destroys a teenager in Montana.

We all know President Obama supports his beloved Chicago sports teams, including da Bears. But the president spread some love Philadelphia’s way recently when he thanked Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie for giving Michael Vick a second chance following the star quarterback’s release from jail last year on an animal cruelty conviction.

On his Sports Illustrated blog, writer Peter King said Lurie told him the president said, ” ‘So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance.’ [Obama] was … passionate about it. He said it’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail. And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”

Lurie also told King that the president was proud of the football team’s plans to install alternative-energy measures at Lincoln Financial Field, including solar panels and wind turbines.

The team’s website also made note of the call from the First Fan:

Obama also conveyed his pleasure with the Eagles’ plans for the first fully self-generated alternative-energy stadium in the country.

“It’s good business for us, which is the point,” Lurie told King. “We talked about policy and what he hopes can happen with alternative energy, and he raved about us being the first to put a plan like this in place.”

King related the same story about the president’s call Sunday night on NBC, which had been scheduled to broadcast the Eagles’ game against the Minnesota Vikings. Because of a major snowstorm that hit the area, the game was postponed until Tuesday.

Michael Vick, a celebrated talent since his college days at Virginia Tech, quarterbacked the Atlanta Falcons until he was charged with, and eventually convicted of, running and participating in a dogfighting ring. After serving 19 months in federal prison, his career and his reputation were in tatters. He was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles last season and played sparingly — and unspectacularly. This season he has returned to old form, guiding his team to the NFC East championship and hearing his name mentioned often as a candidate for league MVP.

After initial protests from animal-rights groups about Vick’s return to the lucrative world of pro football, the hubbub has largely died down.

Lil Mama’s lip gloss is no longer poppin’. The rapper hit the stage in New York City last week, and instead of cheers, she was booed by the crowd during her performance.

Lil Mama acted as the special guest during Chris Brown’s ‘All Black Christmas Extravaganza,’ at Webster Hall on Thursday (Dec. 23). Although her set seemed to have started off well, the restless crowd stopped showing her love once she began to freestyle.

“You been the rat before the h—s and the cheese,” she started. “I been check before the stalk and the bean. None of these rap b——es is talkin’ to me. Talkin’ to me they not talkin’ to me, let a b—— play dumb like she off in the scene.” She didn’t get much further before the crowd’s booing got so loud that the host decided to stop the performance all together.

“Excitement comes in so many different forms,” she told the audience in an attempt to calm them down. “Once you lose something that’s pure and as deep as your mother, nothing can’t faze you,” she said, referencing her mother who succumbed to breast cancer in 2007. “I love ya’ll and the same ni—-s that hate me, made me great B!”

The 21-year-old Brooklyn native, who took time off from the music industry to become a judge on MTV’s ‘America’s Best Dance Crew,’ is said to be prepping a new album.

As long as the San Francisco 49ers had a chance to win the NFC West, coach Mike Singletary had a job.

Sunday night, hours after the 49ers were eliminated from playoff contention with a 25-17 loss in St. Louis, Singletary was fired by club president Jed York.

It was York who stood up for Singletary after a 0-5 start, predicting that the horrible start notwithstanding, Singletary was his coach and the 49ers would win the NFC West.

No team in history had made it to the playoffs after an 0-5 start, but coming into Sunday’s game in the Edward Jones Dome, the 49ers just needed to win twice by beating the Rams Sunday and Arizona next weekend. They also needed Seattle to lose at least once. The Seahawks help up their end, but the wretched performance by the 49ers left them eight points short and Singletary without a job.

The firing was officially announced by the club after returning to the Bay Area Sunday night. Singletary, who has two years left on his contract, was told of his dismissal after the team returned to its headquarters in Santa Clara.

Alanis Morissette and husband Mario “Souleye” Treadway have extra reason to be happy this holiday season. People Magazine confirmed that the happy couple welcomed a baby boy, Ever Imre Morissette-Treadway, on Dec. 25th. “All are healthy and happy.”

Alanis Morissette announced her pregnancy back in August via Twitter before appearing on the ‘Chelsea Lately’ show later that day.

Morissette and Treadway began dating in 2009 after Morissette’s five-year relationship (and engagement) with actor Ryan Reynolds ended. The couple were married on May 22, 2010 in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oil billionaire and archenemy of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was found guilty today of stealing 218 million tons of oil from his former company in a case widely believed to be politically motivated.

Khodorkovsky, 47, who was once the richest man in Russia, is thought by many to have been unfairly targeted by Putin, who wanted to thwart his political ambitions and influence. Khodorkovsky often financed opposition parties and expressed some interest in running for office.

He is already serving an eight-year prison sentence in Siberia after being convicted of tax evasion in 2005.He was convicted today with his co-defendant Platon Lebedev on charges of fraud and money laundering involving Yukos, the now bankrupt oil company founded by Khodorkovsky. They will be sentenced either this week or after Jan. 10, at the end of the Russian New Year holidays. Khodorkovsky could face up to six to 14 more years in prison.”The trial was a charade of justice, the charges were absolutely false, but I fear the sentencing will be very real,” Vadim Klyuvgant, the lead defense lawyer, told Reuters in an e-mail.

Klyuvgant and the defense team plan to appeal the decision, which they claim was the result of the Kremlin’s plan to destroy Khodorkovsky and his company.

The press was ordered out of the Moscow courtroom after Judge Viktor Danilkin read the verdict, preventing reporters from hearing him read out the details of the lengthy ruling, The Associated Press reported.

No explanation was given for the dismissal of the media.

Khodorkovsky, who once symbolized the ultimate oligarch, has been transformed into something of a famed political prisoner, with Amnesty International calling on Russian courts to overturn his conviction.

Germany’s human rights commissioner, Markus Loening, called today’s verdict an “example of arbitrary political justice.”

Earlier this month, Putin compared Khodorkovsky to Bernard Madoff, who is serving 150 years in a U.S. prison for a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors, and said “a thief should be in prison.” Putin previously compared him to Al Capone.

Just hours before the verdict was announced, The Independent published an article saying that if Khodorkovsky was found innocent, it would mean that Russian President Dimitry Medvedev had finally become “his own man.”

“A guilty verdict would prove that President Medvedev, who came to the power promising to end ‘legal nihilism,’ has not been able to step out of Mr. Putin’s shadow,” The Independent said.In an opinion article published in The New York Times in January 2010, Khodorkovsky wrote that his second trial is a mirror for what is happening in Russian society under Putin’s autocratic rule.

“I will not be exaggerating if I say that millions of eyes throughout Russia and the world are watching this trial,” he wrote.

“They are watching with the hope that Russia will still become a country of freedom and law, where the law is above the bureaucrat,” he continued. “Where supporting opposition parties is not a cause for reprisals. Where special services protect the people and the law, and not the bureaucracy from the people and the law. Where human rights no longer depend on the mood of the czar, good or evil.”

Lil Mama’s lip gloss is no longer poppin’. The rapper hit the stage in New York City last week, and instead of cheers, she was booed by the crowd during her performance.

Lil Mama acted as the special guest during Chris Brown’s ‘All Black Christmas Extravaganza,’ at Webster Hall on Thursday (Dec. 23). Although her set seemed to have started off well, the restless crowd stopped showing her love once she began to freestyle.

“You been the rat before the h—s and the cheese,” she started. “I been check before the stalk and the bean. None of these rap b——es is talkin’ to me. Talkin’ to me they not talkin’ to me, let a b—— play dumb like she off in the scene.” She didn’t get much further before the crowd’s booing got so loud that the host decided to stop the performance all together.

“Excitement comes in so many different forms,” she told the audience in an attempt to calm them down. “Once you lose something that’s pure and as deep as your mother, nothing can’t faze you,” she said, referencing her mother who succumbed to breast cancer in 2007. “I love ya’ll and the same ni—-s that hate me, made me great B!”

The 21-year-old Brooklyn native, who took time off from the music industry to become a judge on MTV’s ‘America’s Best Dance Crew,’ is said to be prepping a new album.

As long as the San Francisco 49ers had a chance to win the NFC West, coach Mike Singletary had a job.

Sunday night, hours after the 49ers were eliminated from playoff contention with a 25-17 loss in St. Louis, Singletary was fired by club president Jed York.

It was York who stood up for Singletary after a 0-5 start, predicting that the horrible start notwithstanding, Singletary was his coach and the 49ers would win the NFC West.

No team in history had made it to the playoffs after an 0-5 start, but coming into Sunday’s game in the Edward Jones Dome, the 49ers just needed to win twice by beating the Rams Sunday and Arizona next weekend. They also needed Seattle to lose at least once. The Seahawks help up their end, but the wretched performance by the 49ers left them eight points short and Singletary without a job.

The firing was officially announced by the club after returning to the Bay Area Sunday night. Singletary, who has two years left on his contract, was told of his dismissal after the team returned to its headquarters in Santa Clara.

Alanis Morissette and husband Mario “Souleye” Treadway have extra reason to be happy this holiday season. People Magazine confirmed that the happy couple welcomed a baby boy, Ever Imre Morissette-Treadway, on Dec. 25th. “All are healthy and happy.”

Alanis Morissette announced her pregnancy back in August via Twitter before appearing on the ‘Chelsea Lately’ show later that day.

Morissette and Treadway began dating in 2009 after Morissette’s five-year relationship (and engagement) with actor Ryan Reynolds ended. The couple were married on May 22, 2010 in a private ceremony at their Los Angeles home.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oil billionaire and archenemy of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was found guilty today of stealing 218 million tons of oil from his former company in a case widely believed to be politically motivated.

Khodorkovsky, 47, who was once the richest man in Russia, is thought by many to have been unfairly targeted by Putin, who wanted to thwart his political ambitions and influence. Khodorkovsky often financed opposition parties and expressed some interest in running for office.

He is already serving an eight-year prison sentence in Siberia after being convicted of tax evasion in 2005.He was convicted today with his co-defendant Platon Lebedev on charges of fraud and money laundering involving Yukos, the now bankrupt oil company founded by Khodorkovsky. They will be sentenced either this week or after Jan. 10, at the end of the Russian New Year holidays. Khodorkovsky could face up to six to 14 more years in prison.”The trial was a charade of justice, the charges were absolutely false, but I fear the sentencing will be very real,” Vadim Klyuvgant, the lead defense lawyer, told Reuters in an e-mail.

Klyuvgant and the defense team plan to appeal the decision, which they claim was the result of the Kremlin’s plan to destroy Khodorkovsky and his company.

The press was ordered out of the Moscow courtroom after Judge Viktor Danilkin read the verdict, preventing reporters from hearing him read out the details of the lengthy ruling, The Associated Press reported.

No explanation was given for the dismissal of the media.

Khodorkovsky, who once symbolized the ultimate oligarch, has been transformed into something of a famed political prisoner, with Amnesty International calling on Russian courts to overturn his conviction.

Germany’s human rights commissioner, Markus Loening, called today’s verdict an “example of arbitrary political justice.”

Earlier this month, Putin compared Khodorkovsky to Bernard Madoff, who is serving 150 years in a U.S. prison for a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors, and said “a thief should be in prison.” Putin previously compared him to Al Capone.

Just hours before the verdict was announced, The Independent published an article saying that if Khodorkovsky was found innocent, it would mean that Russian President Dimitry Medvedev had finally become “his own man.”

“A guilty verdict would prove that President Medvedev, who came to the power promising to end ‘legal nihilism,’ has not been able to step out of Mr. Putin’s shadow,” The Independent said.In an opinion article published in The New York Times in January 2010, Khodorkovsky wrote that his second trial is a mirror for what is happening in Russian society under Putin’s autocratic rule.

“I will not be exaggerating if I say that millions of eyes throughout Russia and the world are watching this trial,” he wrote.

“They are watching with the hope that Russia will still become a country of freedom and law, where the law is above the bureaucrat,” he continued. “Where supporting opposition parties is not a cause for reprisals. Where special services protect the people and the law, and not the bureaucracy from the people and the law. Where human rights no longer depend on the mood of the czar, good or evil.”

CHICAGO - Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner says he’s gotten engaged again.

Hefner said in a Twitter message early Sunday that he’d given a ring to girlfriend and Playmate Crystal Harris, saying she burst into tears.”This is the happiest Christmas weekend in memory,” he wrote.

To clear up confusion over whether the ring was simply a Christmas gift, Hefner later tweeted: “Yes, the ring I gave Crystal is an engagement ring. I didn’t mean to make a mystery out of it. A very merry Christmas to all.”

This would be the third marriage for the 84-year-old, star of E! reality series “The Girls Next Door,” which chronicles Hefner’s life at the Playboy Mansion. He divorced Playmate Kimberly Conrad last year.

Harris is 23, according to her online biography by E!

The badge and a steroid-filled syringe — it’s not the typical image most have for the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. But as more within law enforcement get nabbed in steroid investigations nationwide, observers say that usage levels among police officers could rival the seediest patches of the pro sports landscape.

“It’s a big problem, and from the number of cases, it’s something we shouldn’t ignore,” Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Lawrence Payne told AOL News. “It’s not that we set out to target cops, but when we’re in the middle of an active investigation into steroids, there have been quite a few cases that have led back to police officers.”

The pace of investigations into steroid use in the police ranks has picked up in recent months:

• A former police officer in Canby, Ore., who allegedly took delivery of some steroids while on duty pleaded guilty in February to purchasing steroids.
• An officer in South Bend, Ind., pleaded no contest in March to selling steroids.
• A Cleveland police officer was sentenced to a year in prison and five years of supervised release in April after he was found guilty of illegally purchasing steroids.
• A dealer Paw Paw, Mich., allegedly told authorities that he supplied “several police officers” with steroids, which led one Kalamazoo officer to resign in May.

Victor Conte, founder of the now-defunct lab known as Bay Area Lab Co-Operative that supplied numerous athletes with steroids and other banned substances, said it wouldn’t surprise him if as many as a quarter of police officers were using some kind of performance-enhancing drug.Seem high? While there are no empirical studies on the prevalence of steroids in law enforcement, the recent revelations that 248 police officers and firefighters from 53 agencies were tied to a Jersey City, N.J., physician gives some credence to Conte’s estimate. The monthslong investigation by The Star-Ledger of Newark also found that taxpayers often footed the bill for the drugs since many were prescribed.There’s debate as to what dangers doped-up officers pose to the public. South Bend police Capt. Phil Trent, for one, would rather not take a chance. Tony Macik, once a well-respected member of the South Bend police force, was arrested for assault years before a steroids investigation led to a 300-day jail sentence earlier this year.

“First we have an officer who is a drug dealer,” Trent said. “Second, you always hear about the bizarre size effects (of steroid use). If they are taking these drugs and it turns them into a raving lunatic, that’s something we should be concerned about in law enforcement.”

Conte said the psychological effects of steroids — including mood swings and so-called “‘roid rage” — are often overblown and can depend on how much of the drug is used. The same is true for the other side effects such as liver damage, depression and high blood pressure.

“I think overall, it’s kind of like alcohol,” Conte said. “If you’re a jerk when you’re sober, you’re going to be more of a jerk when you’re using.”

Joseph Santiago, a former police director in Trenton, N.J., told The Star-Ledger that Trenton had a “significant amount” of excessive force complaints.

“When you looked at these records, you start to see where there might be a correlation,” Santiago told the newspaper. “Is it absolutely clear? No. Would a complaint have been there regardless of steroids? Those are issues that need to be addressed.”

A lawyer for an 84-year-old Florida man who had his neck broken in September when he was thrown to the ground sought to get the Orlando police officer involved in the incident tested for steroids. The request was denied by the department, which claimed the test would violate the officer’s rights.

Testing in law enforcement — much the way it is in professional sports — is a touchy subject. Like pro ballplayers, officers are usually protected by unions, and drug testing is often used as a bargaining chip. A majority of departments have random testing for street drugs like cocaine and heroin, but few also test regularly for steroids.

“Obviously, we have zero tolerance for any kind of drug use,” said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, an organization that has about 350,000 members spread across some 2,100 chapters. “But just like anybody else, we believe officers have a right to due process, and we want to safeguard them from any (unnecessary) investigations.”

Law enforcement officials also cite the cost of testing for steroids as another reason such screenings aren’t universal.

Larry Gaines, chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice at California State San Bernardino, authored the first major paper on steroid use in law enforcement two decades ago. He said the rise in usage in steroids among the ranks coincided with a change of culture as many departments began to stress physical fitness.

Some officers, however, appear to have taken that to an extreme.

“This has become a great competition among officers,” Gaines said. “They want to be the biggest, strongest.”Conte said that carries over into regional and national police sports competitions that feature weightlifting, among other activities. “I’ve known people in those competitions who were using that stuff,” Conte said.

Professional athletes get called to testify before Congress, and some like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are indicted after federal investigations. So where’s the outcry over juiced officers on the street?

Gaines said that because there are no athletic records to protect, and kids usually don’t idolize police officers with posters on their bedroom walls, there’s little to keep the subject in the public consciousness.

“I don’t know what would have to happen to make this a major issue,” Gaines said. “Essentially, this has become commonplace.”

ORLANDO, Fla. — This technical foul thing is really getting serious now with Magic center Dwight Howard.

So is his frustration.

Howard received his 10th technical foul of the season — most in the NBA — in the second quarter of the Magic/Celtics game Saturday, coming after he tossed the ball out of bounds in disgust.

Howard had just been the object of a very-rarely called violation by veteran official Bob Delaney. While at the free-throw line, Howard had the ball taken away from him because he took more than 10 seconds to take his shot. Instead of handing over the ball, he tossed it away, which drew the technical.

Although opposing teams had complained in the past about Howard taking too long at the free-throw line, it never had been called before. Rarely in the NBA is it ever called. In Atlanta earlier this month, fans there counted in unison when Howard went to the line, hoping to draw attention to it. And they did. The officials of that game never called the violation, even when the fans reached 12 or 13 seconds.
Howard has been a poor free-throw shooter since he came into the league, and he has changed his pre-shot routine several times. It has gotten slower. He is shooting just 56 percent from the free-throw line this season, compared to 57 percent from the field.

“Things happen,” said Howard, who knew the league had been watching him. “And after that, it was in the back of my mind, don’t get another 10-second call. But I’m not going to change anything. I might just speed things up a little.”

The technical foul issue is the more serious one because there is an automatic suspension awaiting him when he reaches No. 16. The Magic have played only 30 of their 82 games. Once a player reaches 16, he is suspended again after every second technical foul.

The cost of them continues to increase, also. The first five technical fouls cost a player $2,000. From 6 to 10, the cost is $3,000. From 11 and beyond, it costs $5,000 per technical. The suspension at 16 also costs a player one game’s salary, which is significant from someone like Howard who’s making $16.5 million this season.

Stan Van Gundy got his sixth technical foul in the first half. He leads all NBA coaches in that category.