The Daily Blog

A battle raged in the backcountry of Western Texas last week.

On one side: 35 volunteer firefighters from Brewster County.

On the other: two wildfires, each more than 100 square miles wide and capable of traveling at a rate of one football field per minute when the wind whips up.

The grass of Brewster County, a vast, mountainous region that juts into Mexico, was yellowed and dried up from a seven-month-long drought that meteorologists call the worst in history. The fields provided ample fuel for the flames, and at one point, the fire approached the edge of a residential district, threatening 60 homes.

“It’s been terrible; it’s been horrible,” said Tom Santry, coordinator for emergency management services in Brewster Country. “The grass is extremely dry. We’ve had fires one after the other.”

Finally, the Texas Forest Service stepped in, and by Tuesday the agency had contained 90 percent of the fires. Around the flames that continue to burn, miles upon miles of grazing and grassland lie scorched.

Mildred Patricia Baena, 50, has been identified as the mother of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child, RadarOnline.com reported Tuesday night.

Baena, who goes by Patty, was a housekeeper for the Schwarzenegger family for 20 years before retiring in January.

According to TMZ, the former housekeeper—who lives several hours outside of Los Angeles with Schwarzenegger’s illegitimate son and her three other children—began to “pursue Arnold” in the late 1990s. She reportedly told friends that she and Schwarzenegger had unprotected sex during the day at his house, though she didn’t tell him that he was the father of her child until the boy was a toddler.Schwarzenegger announced Monday night that he had fathered a child with a household staffer over a decade ago, before he was elected as California governor.

LAS VEGAS — Charles Oakley, one of the NBA’s all-time tough guys and now a Charlotte Bobcats assistant, has sued a Las Vegas resort over what he calls a May 2010 “gang-style beat down” by security guards who injured him.

Oakley filed the lawsuit Thursday in Clark County District Court against the Aria hotel-casino at MGM Resorts International’s CityCenter complex, the Las Vegas Sun reported. Five security officers also were named in the lawsuit.

Oakley was an invited guest at Aria’s VIP pool area May 28 when he left the area, the complaint says, but security officers and staff prevented him from re-entering.

After a “verbal altercation” with officers, Oakley attempted to return to his room when he was “assaulted” by them in a secluded area of the resort, the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint contends the officers wrestled Oakley to the ground and punched and handcuffed him, and that he was taken to the hospital with injuries to his neck, back, head and wrist, “all or some of which may be permanent and disabling.”

The complaint alleges negligence, assault, assault with excessive force, battery, false imprisonment and defamation. It seeks unspecified general, special and punitive damages.

An MGM Resorts International spokeswoman said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

The 47-year-old Oakley has been among VIPs who have participated in Michael Jordan’s Celebrity Invitational golf fundraiser presented by Aria.

The 6-foot-9, 245-pound Oakley was a power forward for Chicago, New York, Toronto, Washington and Houston between 1985 and 2004. Now an assistant coach with Charlotte, he developed a reputation over the years as an enforcer, rebounding machine and Jordan’s bodyguard.

Fans of ‘The Real Housewives of New Jersey’ may have missed former cast member Danielle Staub in last night’s premiere, but Staub’s explosive departure from the show doesn’t mean she’s parted ways with drama.

Fresh on the heels of a rumored romance with rapper Ray J, Staub has signed a three-year contract with Scores Gentleman’s Club in New York, TMZ reports.

Staub has agreed to do one live appearance and occasionally appear on ScoresLive.com, the club’s adult website.

While signing a contract with a strip club may raise eyebrows, the 48-year-old is no stranger to nudity. During her stint on ‘Housewives,’ Staub bared it all for the cameras as audiences followed her through reconstructive surgery on a botched breast augmentation. She was later accused of leaking her own sex tape in 2010.

Maria Shriver has asked for compassion and privacy just hours after it was revealed that her husband of 25 years, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, had fathered a child with a member of their household staff.

“This is a painful and heartbreaking time,” Shriver said in a statement to the media. “As a mother, my concern is for the children. I ask for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal. I will have no further comment.”
They have four children, ranging in age from 13 to 21.

The former California governor had similar sentiment in comments to the Los Angeles Times earlier Tuesday. “I ask that the media respect my wife and children through this extremely difficult time. While I deserve your attention and criticism, my family does not.”

Shriver reportedly moved out of the couple’s house earlier this year after Schwarzenegger revealed to her that he was the father of a staff member’s child.

“After leaving the governor’s office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago,” Schwarzenegger said Monday in a statement. “I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry.”

The woman with whom Schwarzenegger had the affair reportedly worked in the family’s home for the past 20 years, and retired this past January. Though her name has not been released, she told the Times that she left voluntarily and received severance pay.

“I wanted to achieve my 20 years, then I asked to retire,” she said, adding that she “left on good terms with them.”

Schwarzenegger and Shriver announced their seemingly shocking separation just last week.

The Chuck E. Cheese’s chain of restaurants uses the slogan, “Where a kid can be a kid.” But to one San Diego mother , the chain is really where a kid can develop a serious gambling habit.

Debbie Keller, a real estate agent with two kids ages 3 and 5, is suing the Dallas-based restaurant chain for $5 million because she feels that many of the games intended for children at these locations are actually illegal gambling devices — like slot machines and roulette wheels.

Although Keller is asking for a jury trial as well as damages and restitution totaling at least $5 million, her lawyer, Eric Binink told the San Diego Union Tribune that the money is a secondary issue.

Benink said the lawsuit’s real purpose is to prevent Texas-based parent company CEC Entertainment Inc. from keeping the machines in its game rooms.

“We don’t think that children should be exposed to casino-style gambling devices at an arcade,” Benink said, adding that the games take only a few seconds to play and some of them feature a roulette-style wheel.

Many of the games at Chuck E. Cheese rely on 25 cent tokens, and, depending on the score, dispense tickets that can be redeemed for prizes. The higher the score, the greater the number of tickets. The more tickets, the better prize.

Chuck E. Cheese attorneys are moving for a dismissal of the lawsuit on the grounds that the games are legal and the California Legislature never intended to make operating a children’s arcade game a criminal act. They also contend that even if the games were illegal, then Keller would be an admitted participant in illegal gambling and therefore barred from seeking damages and restitution.

One of them is the fact McNabb may be perceived as a tough veteran to coach for anyone not named Andy Reid. It hasn’t helped reports surfaced last week that McNabb refused to wear a playsheet wristband under Mike Shanahan in Washington. A trying combination of age (34) and ego may be too much for any quarterback-needy team to take on board.

The list of teams desperate for a quarterback is also shrinking, as six were selected in the first 36 picks of the 2011 draft. In addition, teams such as Arizona (Kevin Kolb) and Miami (Carson Palmer) are reported to have their trade sights set on younger veterans who are set to become available.

At one point, it seemed like the Vikings might be a possibility, but that’s fading fast as they’re moving on from the era of being coached by Reid’s former right-hand man, Brad Childress. His replacement, Leslie Frazier has already said one of those six rookies, Christian Ponder, is projected as Minnesota’s starter.

So if McNabb is to keep a job in the league, it will likely need to be as a backup to help an inexperienced passer. Unfortunately, the pride of the six-time Pro Bowler might get in the way of that.

Although getting strong support from and having consistent success under Andy Reid, McNabb was under-appreciated throughout his time in Philadelphia. He just was the wrong personality fit with Shanahan, and after an injury-riddled 12 years, the skills aren’t No. 1-caliber anymore as teams embrace the new wave of athletic passers.

Last week was doubly rough for McNabb, as he also took some tough verbal jabs from boxer Bernard Hopkins. The personal insults about McNabb aren’t fair, but it’s a stark reality McNabb the player is no longer a coveted commodity.

Former Redskins quarterback and NFL Network analyst Joe Theismann thinks, however, McNabb still has the assets that go with what teams are looking for a modern passer — athleticism that allows him to make plays out of the pocket and his dangerous arm.

“There isn’t a team that’s looking at Donovan that wouldn’t think of him as a starter,” Theismann said.

With teams having a short offseason to train young quarterbacks, Theismann sees value in McNabb starting for a team such as Minnesota or Tennessee, where he can help a rookie quarterback such as Ponder or Jake Locker. That’s especially important in an abbreviated offseason with a short learning curve for passers learning a new system.

The Vikings in particular would offer things the Redskins couldn’t for McNabb: a consistent rushing attack featuring an elite runner in Adrian Peterson and a receiving corps with a bona fide big-play target in Sidney Rice.

“In Washington he had very little around him,” Theismann said. “There were lot things that didn’t go right.”

Legendary Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has been featured in Guitar Hero and had run-ins with hackers—but he can’t always figure out how to get his gadgets to work for him.

“All of us are tortured by tech,” he told the Huffington Post. “I still cant get my flashing light on my video machine from the 1800s to stop flashing. I have one of the old ones that played videotape. I cannot turn it off.”

Simmons, is the spokesperson for the real time social media translation platform Ortsbo, and acknowledges that technology has changed some things about how he lives his life.

“I hardly talk to my daughter unless I’m texting and chatting,” he said. “We’re too busy to do voicemail and shmoicemail and all that stuff.”

But despite all that and some of the headaches of tech, Simmons says he appreciates the conveniences of a wired life.

“You know, I drive a truck, and I can get in and start that thing right away and it tells me when it’s out of gas and when I want to go somewhere I know exactly: the GPS and the shmeePS and the IRA and all that,” he said. “What’s great about it is modern cars are automatic. When I was growing up they were stick shift, you wanted to hang yourself. Isn’t it great to be able to get in your car and press your foot to go forward?”

GUATEMALA CITY — Assailants killed at least 29 people – decapitating most of the victims – on a ranch in a part of northern Guatemala plagued by drug cartels, national police said Sunday.

The massacre took place early Sunday in the town of Caserio La Bomba in Peten province near the Mexico border, according to National Civil Police spokesman Donald Gonzalez. Among the 29 dead were two children and two women.

It is one of the worst massacres since the end of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war in 1996.

Gonzalez said police are investigating whether the attack is related to Saturday’s killing in Peten of Haroldo Leon, the brother of alleged Guatemalan drug boss Juan Jose “Juancho” Leon.

“Juancho” Leon was killed in 2008 in an ambush that Guatemalan authorities blame on Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel, which has increasingly wrested control of the drug trade outside Mexico, at times by eliminating their competition.

Guatemalan police said the victims of Sunday’s massacre were bound and their bodies showed signs of torture. They were believed to have worked on the farm. Police found a message written in blood at the scene saying: “Salguero, we’re coming for you.” Police did not say who Salguero was.

Authorities said soldiers were searching the area for the unidentified assailants and didn’t offer a motive for the attack.

“This is a terrible event that we must clarify and investigate regardless of the consequences, whoever is the author of this massacre,” said Guatemala Prosecutor General Claudia Paz y Paz.

Late Sunday, authorities said they had found a wounded survivor of the massacre, who stayed alive by pretending to be dead. But officials did not release any details of what the survivor said.

Guatemala is a major transshipment point for drugs, the U.S. State Department said in its latest narcotics report. Its weak law enforcement, rampant corruption and proximity to Mexico have drawn Mexican drug cartels into its border regions.

In February, the government lifted a two-month-long state of siege that it had declared in Alta Verapaz province, which neighbors Peten province, during which security forces were sent to quell drug-related violence.

The state of siege gave the army emergency powers – including permission to detain suspects without warrants – and resulted in the arrest of at least 20 suspected members of the Zetas.

The Zetas are a group of ex-soldiers who began as hit men for Mexico’s Gulf drug cartel before breaking off on their own, quickly becoming one of Mexico’s most violent organized crime groups and spreading a reign of terror into Central America. They are notorious for their brutality, including beheading rivals and officials. Authorities have linked them to a series of massacres and mass graves in northern Mexico.

The Zetas began controlling cocaine trafficking in the Alta Verapaz region in 2008 after killing “Juancho” Leon.

Montae ‘M Bone’ Talbert of the ‘Teach Me Hot to Dougie’ famed group, Cali Swag District, has reportedly died, according to Radar Online.

Although authorities have yet to confirm the victim’s name, it is believed that the young man fatally shot Sunday evening outside of an LA liquor store was, in fact, Talbert. A gun fight between to vehicles reportedly broke out before Talbert, 22, who was in one of the vehicles, was fatally wounded.

Speculation of Talbert’s death was further substantiated when fellow Cali Swag District member, Smoove, tweeted, “Ma life changed drastically in the. Blink of an eye rip mbone.”

The group catapulted into the spotlight when their 2010 club hit, ‘Teach Me How to Dougie,’ landed on the Billboard charts at number 28 and brought with it an equally contagious new dance — Michelle Obama has even showed off her ‘Dougie’ moves.

(Reuters) - Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru was killed when he jumped off the balcony of his home late on Sunday, police said on Monday.

Police said they were trying to ascertain whether the 24-year-old — the first Kenyan to win the Olympic gold in the marathon at Beijing in 2008 — had deliberately killed himself by jumping off the balcony at his home in Nyahururu, a town in the Rift Valley, some 150 km (94 miles) northwest of the capital Nairobi.

Jaspher Ombati, the regional police chief for the area, said Wanjiru appeared to have suffered internal injuries after the fall and was confirmed dead by doctors at a nearby hospital.

“I can confirm that Wanjiru is dead. It is not yet clear whether it was a suicide or if he jumped out of rage, or what caused him to fall to the ground,” Ombati told Reuters.

“He jumped from his first floor balcony to the ground. He was bleeding from the nose and the mouth, and may have suffered internal injuries,” the police chief said.

Ombati said police were investigating a possible love triangle that could have been behind the death of Wanjiru, a former winner of the Chicago and London marathons.

Ombati said the athlete’s wife Triza Njeri had come home to find Wanjiru in bed with another woman, had locked the couple in the bedroom and ran outside.

Wanjiru then leapt from the balcony, he said.

Ombati said Njeri and Wanjiru’s female companion are assisting police in investigating the death.

Last December, Wanjiru was charged in court with threatening to kill Njeri and illegal possession of an AK-47 assault rifle.

Njeri later withdrew her accusation of attempted murder against him in court, saying the couple had reconciled.

He also suffered minor injuries from a car crash in January when he swerved to avoid an oncoming truck, hit a pot hole and rolled his car.

Wanjiru defied the heat of Beijing in 2008 to triumph in an Olympic record time at the games held in China.

As a young man, Wanjiru moved to Japan in 2002 to attend high school after winning a cross country selection trial in Kenya.

NEW YORK — Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s reputation with women earned him the nickname “the great seducer,” and not even an affair with a subordinate could knock the International Monetary Fund leader off a political path pointed in the direction of the French presidency. All that changed with charges that he sexually assaulted a maid in his hotel room, a case that generated shock and revulsion, especially in his home country.

Police said the maid picked Strauss-Kahn out of a lineup. Unless the charges are quickly dropped, they could destroy his chances in a presidential race that is just starting to heat up.

An arraignment expected Sunday night was postponed until Monday. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer William Taylor said testing for evidence delayed the arraignment.

“Our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination,” Taylor said. Strauss-Kahn is “tired, but he’s fine.”

The IMF, which plays a key role in efforts to control the European debt crisis, named an acting leader and said it remains “fully functioning and operational” despite Saturday’s arrest of its managing director.

A second lawyer for Strauss-Kahn, Benjamin Brafman, told The Associated Press that his client will plead not guilty. He and another lawyer went in and out of the Harlem police precinct where Strauss-Kahn was being held Sunday afternoon, and declined to answer reporters’ questions until the arraignment. A somber-looking Strauss-Kahn was later escorted out of the precinct, his arms behind his back.

“He intends to vigorously defend these charges and he denies any wrongdoing,” Brafman said Sunday night.

Brafman is one of the city’s most high-profile defense attorneys. His clients have included mobsters and such celebrities as Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and ex-New York Giants star Plaxico Burress.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested less than four hours after the alleged assault, plucked from first class on a Paris-bound Air France flight that was just about to leave the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Amber Rose is letting it all hang out on the July/August issue of King Magazine, literally and figuratively. Decked in blue lace lingerie, the blond beauty, not only shows off her killer curves but opens up about her personal life, comparing and contrasting her current relationship with Wiz Khalifa to her previous relationship with Kanye West.

“There’s no comparison in personalities,” she explained. “You know when people say, ‘How do you go from Kanye to Wiz Khalifa, that’s a downgrade.’ But the only question I can ask them is: Have you ever dated Kanye? Because I have, and believe me, I did not downgrade at all. Not in any aspect, at all.”

According to Rose, after splitting from West last year, she promised herself never to get involved with another man in the music industry, but all that changed when she met 23-year-old Wiz. Their relationship started out as a business venture, in which Rose gifted Khalifa with a pair of glasses from her forthcoming sunglasses line. They later formed a friendship that blossomed into something more.

“I chilled with him for two weeks,” she said. “We didn’t kiss or nothing. Then he left for Pittsburgh and when he left I was so lost without him.” Despite their four year age difference, Rose notes Khalifa is a “grown man about his business,” calling him a “positive” person who “always has a smile on his face.”

Rose only began dating Khalifa earlier this year, and according to reports, things are already getting serious. Khalifa is rumored to be looking to put a ring on her finger, although neither has confirmed tales of an engagement.

A native of Philadelphia, Rose once worked as a stripper before taking on a modeling career. Her relationship with West lasted two years before ending last summer.

Fleetwood Mac are back — or at least they will be when the two main members finish with their current solo commitments. Vocalist Stevie Nicks revealed that the veteran four-piece will be reconnecting in the coming months, although the details of the reunion are still up in the air.

“When my album and Lindsey [Buckingham’s] albums come to a stop, then Fleetwood Mac will gather again and we’ll either make another record or we won’t and we’ll just go on tour,” the singer told Perez Hilton (via Gigwise).

Nicks released her seventh solo effort, ‘In Your Dreams,’ in May. She will play the final show of a brief tour in support of the record on Saturday in Las Vegas. Buckingham, meanwhile, has a sixth LP in the pipeline. ‘Seeds We Sow’ is due out in September.

Fleetwood Mac last released an album in 2003, titled ‘Say You Will.’ The group undertook a world tour in 2009, but did not release any new material. The current lineup of the group has been consistent since 1998, when keyboard player Christine McVie left after 28 years of service.

If the band do issue a new album next year, it will be their 19th studio effort.

The New York Times and The New York Post are currently reporting that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund has been arrested.

The New York Times tweeted “Head of I.M.F. Arrested in New York and Accused of Sexual Attack.”

The New York Post reports:

The French political bigshot who heads the International Monetary Fund was arrested for allegedly sodomizing a Manhattan hotel maid today — getting hauled off an Air France flight just moments before takeoff from Kennedy Airport, police sources told The Post.

Three Port Authority detectives pulled Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the plane’s first-class cabin just two minutes before it was due to depart for Paris, the sources said.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, was turned over to NYPD officers from the Midtown South precinct, and the case is being investigated by the Special Victims Unit.

According to The New York Post, a housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn’s New York City hotel room at noon on Saturday. Sources claim that Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom and grabbed the housekeeper, forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

This story is still developing. Check back in for more updates.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Coming Home tour came to an abrupt end when the hip-hop mogul had to cancel his final tour stop in Phoenix on Tuesday (May 9), due to illness.

According to TMZ, the 41-year-old was suffering from the flu, not low ticket sales, when he decided to cancel the show. “Sean has a high fever and is under doctor’s orders to stay in bed,” his rep told the website.

Diddy also took to his Twitter page to break the news to fans and apologize for the inconvenience. “i guess i pushed it too far because i literally cant get outta bed. im sorry phoenix-i regretfully have to cancel the show. im so sorry,” he wrote. “yall dont know how sorry i am-ive never been this sick in my life-refund information will be posted on diddydirtymoney.com later today. again im sorry. going back to bed now to fight this flu. f—-!”

The Coming Home tour kicked off last month in Minneapolis, and has been plagued with rumors of dismal tickets sales ever since. Last week Combs blamed “logistics” for the cancellation of five other tour dates.

DALLAS — Former Dallas Cowboys running back Ron Springs, who spent the past four years in a coma after losing oxygen during a 2007 operation, has died at age 54 without ever regaining consciousness.

Former Cowboys teammate Everson Walls, who donated a kidney to Springs for a transplant, says the Springs family informed him that his friend died about 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Medical City Dallas hospital.

The hospital is where Springs, who played in college at Ohio State, first slipped into the coma in 2007 after undergoing surgery to remove a cyst from his forearm.

Walls said the death came as a surprise.

He said funeral arrangements are pending.

Walls says, “He was such a worldly person who touched so many lives in every area code.”

Rapper Ray J and former ‘The Real Housewives of New Jersey’ cast member, Danielle Staub, are dating, MediaTakeOut.com reports.

Staub, who left ‘Housewives’ after two explosive seasons, was photographed locking lips with the ‘Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business’ star. Wielding a glass of champagne, the 48-year-old mother of two looks carefree as she puckers up to Norwood, 18 years her junior.

Love hasn’t been easy for Staub. Her criminal past was revealed during the first season of ‘Houswives’ when cast members confronted her about Charles Kipps’s book ‘Cop Without a Badge’ which exposes Kevin Maher, one of Staub’s ex-husbands, as an undercover FBI informant. She was also accused of leaking her own sextape in 2010.
Norwood’s ultimately unsuccessful quest for true love was captured by cameras on ‘For the Love of Ray J’ in 2009 and 2010.

Although she walked away from her role on ‘Housewives,’ Staub can’t seem to part with reality TV and was recently spotted filming a “food-related” series for VH1 with Heidi Montag and Jake Pavelka of ‘The Bachelor.’

The NYPD has released this sketch of a cab driver who they say tied up and raped a woman passenger in Brooklyn last week, according to The New York Daily News.

The victim, an unidentified 26 year-old, told police she had been drinking and celebrating Cinquo de Mayo at Public Assembly on North 6th Street in Williamsburg, when she got into a cab to go back to Manhattan. She briefly fell asleep, only to wake up a few blocks away from the nightclub, at the corner of Rodney St. and South 1st, where the cab driver then allegedly held her at knifepoint, bound her wrists together and raped her, reports The Brooklyn Paper.

The cabby then stole her cellphone and $20 before letting her go around 6am.

Cops told the Daily News the woman was taken to a local hospital where she was treated for cuts on her hands and face.

Police say the suspect is in his mid-40’s, is about 5-foot-8 and was last seen wearing an orange turban.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission told CBS News it has offered its full cooperation in the case, posting sketches at all city taxi garages.

Police ask anyone with information to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS.