From the Wires
Brad Pitt brings ‘Killing Them Softly’ to Cannes
during a photo call for Killing Them Softly at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)(Credit: Lionel Cironneau) CANNES, France (AP) — Brad Pitt has arrived in Cannes with a hardboiled crime film featuring heavy doses of President Barack Obama and a backdrop of the economic crisis.
Pitt stars in and produced “Killing Them Softly,” which screened at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday. It’s a stylized adaptation of a George V. Higgins novel that director Andrew Dominik has filled with speeches of Obama and former President George W. Bush to give the film a broader financial commentary on top of a story of violent, back-stabbing criminals.
Pitt said the movie was conceived “at the apex of the mortgage loan debacle,” which he called “criminal.”
Pitt also fended questions about his planned wedding to Angelina Jolie. He said no date has been set and Jolie was not with him in Cannes.
Singer Juanes: ‘Unplugged’ helped change sound
NEW YORK (AP) — Colombian superstar Juanes said singer-songwriter-producer Juan Luis Guerra got him out of his comfort zone when the musician started rearranging his songs for his “MTV Unplugged” taping.
And Juanes was happy to take on the challenge.
“He put me in another place, but for me as a musician, as an artist, I was like: ‘Wow. This is a new world. I feel like I can do this,’” Juanes said in a recent interview. “We tried different styles … (and) I was not used to that kind of arrangement.”
Continue Reading CloseAlaska residents warned about aggressive cow moose
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska wildlife biologists are warning about the dangers of moose calving season after several people were injured in the past week by protective cows, including a 6-year-old girl who was stomped by one in her backyard until her father scared it off with a log and a baseball bat.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Jessy Coltrane said cow moose are giving birth now, and people need to be extra careful in and near the woods.
“Cows are dropping calves all over town right now,” Coltrane said. “Those cows are so defensive of their little babies. They will literally stand there on the edge of the woods watching you, and if you take one step into their personal bubble, they’ll come out hooves flying.”
Continue Reading CloseTruck hits students at Calif. high school; 9 hurt
HEMET, Calif. (AP) — A high school student in a pickup truck ran into a group of teenagers who were crossing a street outside a California high school Wednesday, leaving nine people injured, and backpacks and clothing strewn across an intersection, officials said.
The accident occurred shortly after school ended for the day at Hemet High School, Riverside County fire officials said in a statement.
Three people were in critical condition, five more were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, and one refused treatment, they said.
Continue Reading CloseNY Sikh, Muslim workers allowed religious headwear
NEW YORK (AP) — New York<s Sikh and Muslim transit workers will be allowed to wear religious head coverings without a government agency logo after years of bitter legal battles that started after the 9/11 terror attacks.
A settlement between workers and New York City Transit run by the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority was announced Wednesday.
“This was the back-of-the-bus solution,” said Amardeep Singh, a Sikh-American community spokesman who compared the agency<s dealings with the employees to the pre-civil rights practice of seating black Americans at the back of public buses.
Continue Reading CloseStevens: Exception needed to Citizens United case
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says he expects the court has had second thoughts about parts of its controversial Citizens United ruling that eased restrictions on corporate spending in political campaigns.
Stevens, who dissented from that 2010 decision, made the comments Wednesday evening during a speech in Little Rock.
In the case, the divided court ruled that independent spending by corporations does “not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” Stevens says it’ll be necessary for the high court to create exceptions.
Stevens served on the Supreme Court from 1975 until his retirement in 2010. Nominated by President Gerald Ford, Stevens recently published a memoir.
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