January 2011
252 posts
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As Chaos Reigns, Foreigners Advised to Leave...
CAIRO - Foreign governments stepped up their warnings about travel to Egypt, with several urging their nationals to evacuate as soon as possible, further fueling uncertainty over where the Arab nation is headed after nearly a week of mass protests. The fears of foreign tourists mirrored those of many Egyptians. Dozens with the means to do so rented jets or hopped aboard their own planes in a mad...
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Ohio Democrats Say Gov. John Kasich Ignoring...
An African American state senator says Ohio’s new Republican governor John Kasich told her in a heated exchange over minority cabinet appointments: “I’m not going to hire your people.” State Sen. Nina Turner said she wondered after the recent private meeting if “your people” meant black people. So far Kasich has filled 22 of 23 cabinet posts with white...
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Airline Crews to Ground Sex Traffickers Heading to...
DALLAS — Sex traffickers who plan to come to Dallas to conduct business during the Super Bowl weekend might find themselves grounded if they travel by plane. Employees from at least five airlines will attend a special training session this week to learn how to get better at recognizing sex traffickers among travelers and learn what security measures to take. “We want to become...
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Authorities Go After Designer Drug Dubbed 'Bath...
They sound like something you can pick up at a drug store for a relaxing soak in the tub. But “bath salts” are the latest designer drug to catch law enforcement’s attention and are drawing calls for a crackdown following reports of deaths and injuries. The “salts” are really a powder that is snorted, injected or smoked. They are sold in inexpensive packets marked...
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Massive Winter Storm to Sweep Much of Nation This...
In a winter that’s becoming known for its powerful storms, the one that’s about to form might be the most impressive of all in terms of the size and scope — affecting much of the eastern two-thirds of the country during the first half of the week. Heavy snow, ice, rain, thunderstorms and bitter cold will occur along the storm’s path, with the likelihood of widespread...
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SAG Awards 2011 Winners.
Meanwhile, Julianna Margulies took home her second-consecutive award in the Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series category for her critically acclaimed turn as Alicia Florrick on ‘The Good Wife.’ On the comedy side, Alec Baldwin was once again awarded Oustanding Actor in a Comedy, marking his fifth-straight win in the category and 14th nomination overall, while Betty White won...
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Public Urination Lands Fugitive In Jail.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A man convicted of armed robbery in Jacksonville nearly 30 years ago had been on the run since escaping from a Tampa work release center in 1983 was arrested last week after an Atlanta officer saw him urinating in public.
When the man was picked up on Friday, he told police his name was Claude Brooks. Because the charge was for a civil infraction rather than criminal,...
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Split Verdict for Ex-Cops Accused of Covering Up...
Brandon Piekarski, 16, left, and Collin Walsh, 17, right, were charged with homicide, and Derrick Donchak, 18, center, with lesser counts in the beating death in Shenandoah, Pa. of Luis Ramirez, an illegal immigrant.A federal jury in Pennsylvania has returned a split verdict in the case of three former police officers accused of trying to cover up the beating death of a Mexican illegal immigrant...
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Police: Army Wife Killed Kids for Being 'Mouthy'.
TAMPA, Fla. (Jan. 29) — When police responded to a call from a concerned relative and found Julie Schenecker on the back porch of her Tampa home, they said she was covered in blood and made a gut-wrenching admission: She had killed her teenage son and daughter because they were “mouthy.”
Police said the military officer’s wife, described by her mother as depressed, shot...
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Taraji P. Henson Strips for PETA.
Actress Taraji P. Henson has joined the growing list of celebrities who are a part of PETA’s “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign.
The 40-year-old actress saw a documentary which showed how animals on fur farms were skinned alive, and she immediately gave up wearing fur.
Henson said, “Before I saw that documentary, I would wear fur. But I saw this...
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Russia Identifies Suicide Bomber in Moscow Airport...
MOSCOW — The suicide bomber who killed 35 people and wounded 180 at Moscow’s largest airport was a 20-year-old man from the volatile southern Caucasus region, Russian investigators said Saturday.
Breaking a five-day silence over the probe, federal investigators also said foreigners were deliberately targeted, marking an ominous new tactic in Russia’s losing battle with...
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Police Kill Maryland Robbery Suspect, Hostage...
TAKOMA PARK, Md. — A suspect who took a bank teller hostage during a robbery Friday in Maryland was shot and killed by police after he walked outside using the woman as a shield.
When the man walked out of the Capital One bank branch in a Washington suburb, he was holding a gun to the woman’s head. It also appeared he had a bomb taped to him, police said. Officers were already...
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2011 NBA All-Star Starters Revealed.
Denver coach George Karl likes to say each All-Star squad should have 15 players, rather than 12. It’s a great idea for the West this season, with there about to be some serious snubs. As for the East, 10 seems a better number this season in a conference that after the top teams has as much depth as the local park’s kiddie pool. Perhaps the East should concede two spots to the West....
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Top Egyptian Official Says Mubarak in Control.
CAIRO — Egypt’s parliament speaker says President Hosni Mubarak remains in control of the country despite chaos engulfing the capital and other cities. Speaker Fathy Surour says: “Matters are in the safe hands of Hosni Mubarak and he will act and you will see these actions.” Protesters have seized the streets of Cairo, battling police with stones and firebombs, burning...
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NASCAR Announces New Points Format, Chase Changes,...
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Citing the need to make the championship format “simpler,” NASCAR chairman Brian France formally introduced a new points system for the three national touring series Wednesday and also announced slight changes to the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff format and race qualifying procedures. As has been rumored during the last two weeks, the new points payout will...
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Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Indicted in 2 More...
Serial killer Rodney Alcala, who was convicted in 2010 of torturing and murdering four California women and one girl in the 1970s, has now been indicted in the murders of Ellen Hover, left, and Cornelia “Michel” Crilley.Serial killer Rodney Alcala has been indicted in the murders of two New York women who were found dead in the 1970s, according to published reports. The women have been...
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Gladys Horton of the Marvelettes Dead at 66.
Gladys Horton, the powerful soul singer who co-founded the all-female Motown ensemble the Marvelettes, died late Wednesday in a nursing home outside of Los Angeles. The 66-year-old’s cause of death is unknown, though she was recovering from complications due to a stroke she suffered last year, her son told the Associated Press. Horton was born in 1944 in a suburb of Detroit and raised by...
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Social Security Fund Will Be Drained by 2037.
WASHINGTON - Social Security’s finances are getting worse as the economy struggles to recover and millions of baby boomers stand at the brink of retirement. New congressional projections show Social Security running deficits every year until its trust funds are eventually drained in about 2037. This year alone, Social Security is projected to collect $45 billion less in payroll taxes than...
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WatchHow far would you go to get your children into a better public school? The best intentions of one Ohio woman landed her in jail. In a highly unusual case, Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single mother who lived in Akron public housing, was convicted of lying about her residency in order to send her two daughters to a highly ranked school. Her sentence, which inflamed emotions in the community, was 10...
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Super Bowl MVP will receive a Chevy Camaro...
The Super Bowl is right around the corner, and that means one NFL player is close to winning their dream prize. No, we’re not talking about the Lombardi tropy, but the Pete Rozelle MVP award, and more importantly the prize car that goes along with it. This year, the winner will get to feel the breeze through their un-helmeted hair because General Motors is supplying a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro...
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Color-Coded Terror Warnings to Be Gone by April...
WASHINGTON — By the end of April, terror threats to the U.S. will no longer be described in shades of green, blue, yellow, orange and red, The Associated Press has learned. The nation’s color-coded terror warning system will be phased out beginning this week, according to government officials familiar with the plan. The officials requested anonymity to speak ahead of an announcement...
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Utah Legislature Considering Official State Gun.
Despite concerns about timing, Utah lawmakers are moving ahead with a bill designating the Browning 1911 pistol as the official state gun. It seems the inventor, John M. Browning, a Utah native born on Jan. 23, 1855, is a revered figure whose work is deemed worthy of a lasting tribute. His company is still headquartered in Utah. “This pistol is Utah,” state Rep. Carl Wimmer, sponsor...
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Federal Budget Deficit on Track to Hit Record $1.5...
WASHINGTON — A continuing weak economy and last month’s bipartisan tax cut legislation will drive the government’s deficit to a record $1.5 trillion this year, a new government estimate predicts. The eye-popping numbers mean the government will continue to borrow 40 cents for every dollar it spends. The new Congressional Budget Office estimates will add fuel to a raging debate...
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Obama's Centrist Tone Hits Right Note; State of...
The bar was lower for Barack Obama’s State of the Union address because he only recently gave the speech of his life in Tucson — and in the aftermath of that tragedy, no one in the chamber one was going to so much as whisper, “You fib.”
The proof? Early reviews suggest his calls for unity, “steady as she goes” affect and soothing, recycled rhetoric suited the...
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Phylicia Barnes' Dad: 'Please Let My Daughter Go'.
Phylicia Barnes’ father made an impassioned plea to whoever is responsible for his 16-year-old daughter’s disappearance.
“Please let my daughter go,” a distressed Russell Barnes said in an interview with AOL News today. “We miss her and love her dearly.”
The teenager from Monroe, N.C., was visiting relatives in Baltimore when she vanished without a trace...
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Murder Trial Begins for Iraqi Immigrant Accused of...
She had shunned an arranged marriage and gone to live with her boyfriend. And Noor Almaleki ended up dying in an “honor killing” carried out by her own father, prosecutors say.
Faleh Almaleki, who had moved the family from Iraq to Arizona, apparently felt his 20-year-old daughter had become too Westernized, according to prosecutors. He allegedly crashed his Jeep into his daughter...
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Author Natasha Burton Claims She Had 'Affair' With...
Author Natasha ‘Tajah” Burton claims that she had a lesbian affair with a woman who sounds like singer Rihanna. The author describes in detail her relationship with a “Barbadian, female pop/R&B artist” in her upcoming book, ‘Low Down Dirty Shame.’ Burton alleges that she jokingly said she wanted to meet the artist, and a friend obliged and introduced both...
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Meet Oprah Winfrey's Half-Sister.
She was the family secret that Oprah Winfrey called “one of the greatest surprises” of her life.
But on Monday’s Oprah Winfrey Show, Patricia, the media mogul’s , stepped forward in a very public way.
During the show, Winfrey revealed that she learned she had a sister last October, saying the discovery “left me speechless.”
She was 9-years-old and living...
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Here Comes More Snow, From Deep South to New...
Winter storm watches and warnings are in effect from the Deep South to New England for another significant winter storm system, one that will spread snow, sleet, rain and strong thunderstorms along its path during the next couple of days. Snow amounts might reach a foot in the hardest-hit areas in the mountains of West Virginia, northwestern New Jersey, southeastern New York and southern and...
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Jack LaLanne dies at 96.
LOS ANGELES – Jack LaLanne was prodding Americans to get off their couches and into the gym decades before it was cool. And he was still pumping iron and pushing fruits and vegetables decades past most Americans’ retirement age.
The fitness fanatic ate well and exercised — and made it his mission to make sure everyone did the same — right up to the end at age 96, friends and family said.
...
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Bombing at Moscow's Busiest Airport Kills Dozens.
Moscow officials believe a suicide bombing is behind a terrifying explosion today at the city’s busiest airport that killed at least 35 people and wounded 180. Three men are thought to have plotted the explosion, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. The blast had the power of seven kilograms of TNT, Interfax added.”From the preliminary information we have, it was a terror...
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Two Florida Police Officers Killed During...
Two Florida police officers were killed and a deputy U.S. marshal was wounded today during a shootout in St. Petersburg, Fla. The incident comes after a weeklong rash of unrelated police shootings throughout the U.S., in which four officers have been killed and several others wounded in the line of duty. Several hours after the shooting, the suspect was found dead, The Associated Press reported....
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Walk for Life Focuses on Planned Parenthood.
SAN FRANCISCO, JAN. 21, 2010 - On the 37th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, Americans are gathering East and West to affirm their support of the pro-life cause. On Friday, thousands will gather in Washington D.C. in a rally and March for Life, to remind congress of the pro-life views of many U.S. citizens. Thousands more will come together in San Francisco...
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WatchDETROIT, Mich. (WJBK) - Fox 2 is following breaking news. A Detroit police commander and three officers were shot at around 4:30pm Sunday at the police department’s 6th precinct. Those who were seriously hurt were transported to Sinai Grace Hospital. All are expected to survive. The shooter was killed at the scene.Commander Brian Davis is in critical condition. He was shot in the lower back....
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FBI: Woman Confesses to Kidnapping Infant Carlina...
A North Carolina woman has confessed to kidnapping an infant from a New York City hospital more than 23 years ago, authorities said in court papers filed today. Annugetta Pettway, also known as Ann Pettway, told investigators she had suffered a number of miscarriages before she grabbed 1-month-old Carlina Renae White from Harlem Hospital in New York City on Aug. 4, 1987, FBI agent Maria Johnson...
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China's New Stealth Jet May Use Technology From...
BRUSSELS — Chinese officials recently unveiled a new, high-tech stealth fighter that could pose a significant threat to American air superiority - and some of its technology, it turns out, may well have come from the U.S. itself. Balkan military officials and other experts have told The Associated Press that in all probability the Chinese gleaned some of their technological know-how from...
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Gucci Mane Recording a Track With Britney Spears?
Sometimes a rumor is so crazy, bizarre and puzzling that we have to engage with it. The most current one goes a little something like this: Britney Spears is recording a track with Atlanta trap rapper and purveyor of crazy facial tattoos Gucci Mane. This has to be a pipe dream, right? There’s no way this could be real. Well, Gucci’s publicist, Kali Bowyer, says it is indeed...
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Obama's economic agenda: Boost US competitiveness.
WASHINGTON -Under pressure to energize the economy, President Barack Obama will put job creation and American competitiveness at the center of his State of the Union address, promoting spending on education and research while pledging to trim the nation’s soaring debt. Obama hopes this framework will woo Republicans as he searches for success in a divided Congress and will sway a wary...
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Officials: 'Bath Salts' Are Growing Drug Problem.
FULTON, Miss. — When Neil Brown got high on dangerous chemicals sold as bath salts, he took his skinning knife and slit his face and stomach repeatedly. Brown survived, but authorities say others haven’t been so lucky after snorting, injecting or smoking powders with such innocuous-sounding names as Ivory Wave, Red Dove and Vanilla Sky. Some say the effects of the powders are as...
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Women: Pa. Abortions Left Us Sterile, Near Death.
PHILADELPHIA — When Davida Johnson walked into Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s clinic to get an abortion in 2001, she saw what she described as dazed women sitting in dirty, bloodstained recliners. As the abortion got under way, she had a change of heart - but claims she was forced by the doctor to continue. “I said, ‘I don’t want to do this,’ and he smacked me. They...
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Keith Olbermann Gives Abrupt Goodbye to MSNBC...
NEW YORK — Keith Olbermann, MSNBC’s most successful and controversial personality for his outspoken liberal prime-time program, gave an abrupt goodbye to viewers and said Friday was his last show.
It was not immediately known if he quit or was fired. Olbermann did not address the question, and MSNBC said only that they and Olbermann had ended their contract. He signed a four-year...
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Bryant To Get Cement Prints At Hollywood Landmark.
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant has championship rings and an MVP trophy, but he’s about to get an honor usually reserved for the stars of Hollywood.
Bryant will become the first athlete to have a hand and foot print ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Representatives for the theater announced Thursday that Bryant will have the ceremony setting his...
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Mexican Pop Singer Kalimba Jailed On Rape Charge.
CANCUN, Mexico — Mexican pop singer Kalimba was jailed Thursday on charges of raping a teenage girl.
Kalimba arrived in the Caribbean city of Chetumal on a Mexican federal government plane after being deported from El Paso, Texas, for immigration violations.
His lawyer, Eliezer Garcia, told the Televisa network that Kalimba was in Texas on a business trip when he was arrested and was not...
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Hawaii Law Bars Release of Obama Birth...
HONOLULU - A privacy law that shields birth certificates has prompted Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie to abandon efforts to dispel claims that President Barack Obama was born outside Hawaii, his office says.
State Attorney General David Louie told the governor that privacy laws bar him from disclosing an individual’s birth documentation without the person’s consent, Abercrombie...
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Warrant Issued for Woman Who Raised Abducted Baby.
RALEIGH, N.C. - The woman who raised a child kidnapped from a New York hospital two decades ago has violated her probation and is believed to be on the run from authorities, North Carolina officials said Friday. A warrant was issued for her arrest.Corrections officials tried repeatedly to contact Ann Pettway after finding out that investigators want to question her in the 1987 abduction of the...
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Michelle Obama Heads Back to Oprah, Staying in...
First Lady Michelle Obama headed to Chicago on Thursday for a taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Obama’s interview is said to be focused on ways that the nation can support families who have a member in the United States military. The show will air next week and comes at a time when Mrs. Obama has been very much in the public eye. On Wednesday, the first lady announced that...
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127 Busted in Largest Mafia Roundup in FBI...
Federal authorities today announced what they called the largest mob roundup in FBI history: the indictment of 127 people, including key Mafia figures from the New York, New Jersey and New England crime families, on charges ranging from murder and racketeering to gambling, extortion and loan-sharking.
About 800 law enforcement members from the FBI, the Secret Service, the U.S. Labor Department,...
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Source: Will Smith Eyeing 'Annie' Reboot Starring...
It’s no “hard knock life” for the Smith family these days. Variety reports that Will Smith is exploring a remake of the classic musical ‘Annie,’ starring none other than daughter Willow Smith.
The Sony project is still in development, and details surrounding it remain scarce. Sources say hip-hip mogul Jay-Z, who worked with Willow on her ‘Whip My Hair’...
