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Monday, Jul 6, 2009
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Republican Gov. Mark Sanford didn't misuse public money for trips to visit his Argentine mistress, state investigators concluded after a review of executive travel records.
State Law Enforcement Division chief Reggie Lloyd said investigators reviewed records of two trips to Argentina and three to New York City in which Mr. Sanford acknowledged meeting Maria Belen Chapur. Mr. Sanford, who is fighting to hold onto his job, has already reimbursed the state $3,300 for lodging, meals and airfare for a trip to Buenos Aires in June 2008. Mr. Sanford saw Ms. Belen Chapur during that visit to that city, which he requested be added onto a trade mission.
Mr. Lloyd said his investigation showed that the trips, including the 2008 Buenos Aires leg, were for legitimate state business or paid for on Mr. Sanford's personal credit card. State officials, including the governor, are entitled to free time even on state-sponsored trips, Mr. Lloyd said. "What they do at night is their business as long as it's not illegal," he said.
Preparations for Michael Jackson's memorial service Tuesday are being made with Los Angeles city and county officials, who are anticipating a crowd of mourners that could top 750,000, according to sources involved in the planning.
2500 law enforcement officers are expected to be on hand to control the crowds, and fans are already pouring in to Los Angeles. The Los Angeles airport, hotels, and local and commuter rail hubs are already seeing a rise in Jackson-related arrivals, even as the Los Angeles World Airport and other public and private partnership members measure the holiday outflow, according to a partnership member.
Meanwhile, social media monitors for officials report that "Michael Jackson memorial attendance"-related Tweets on Twitter are now the most talked about topic and are accounting for 23 percent of all tweets, topping 6000 per min.
A fierce custody battle is brewing over two of Michael Jackson's children, with their mother relaying word Thursday that she plans to fight for them in court, and the Jackson family signaling they will fight right back.
Debbie Rowe, the mother of Prince, 12, and Paris, 11, spoke to her former attorney Iris Finsilver, who says, "She is going to be pursuing custody of the children."
"Frankly, she won't have to fight for them," Finsilver tells PEOPLE. "She is the children's biological mother. She loves her children."
The kids, along with a third child, Prince Michael II (Blanket), 7, whose mother is unknown, are in the temporary court-ordered care of Jackson family matriarch Katherine Jackson, 79, whom the singer named as guardian in his 2002 will. (Diana Ross was also named, in the event that Katherine was no longer living.)
LOS ANGELES - Federal judge tentatively acquitted a Missouri mother for her role in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old neighbor girl who later killed herself.
In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge George Wu acquitted Lori Drew of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. Wu said his ruling will become final when he issues it in writing.
Drew was convicted in a trial, but the judge said that if she is to be found guilty of illegally accessing computers, anyone who has ever violated the social networking site's terms of service would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
TORRINGTON, Conn. -- Police say a Connecticut girl overheard her mother's screams during sex and thought she was being assaulted, so she rounded up some friends to attack the woman's companion.
The 16-year-old girl, two boys and a 19-year-old man were arrested Tuesday and arraigned Wednesday on assault and conspiracy charges.
According to Torrington police and the woman, the girl thought her mother was being attacked on June 6. Police say the teens went into the bedroom and beat the mother's 25-year-old companion with a baseball bat and punched him. The man, Roger Swanson of Torrington, says he suffered a black eye and several bruises.
New Delhi's highest court issued a landmark ruling Thursday that decriminalized gay sex between consenting adults in India by declaring a colonial-era ban on homosexuality unconstitutional.
The decision by the Delhi High Court was hailed by gay activists here as a historic step in their struggle to achieve equal rights in a conservative society that largely regards homosexuality as a taboo illness.
The court ruled that the existing ban on homosexual acts was discriminatory and therefore a violation of individual rights guaranteed by the constitution.
Homosexuality has been illegal in India since 1860 under a statute introduced by British colonial rulers that banned "carnal intercourse against the order of nature." Conviction carried a fine and maximum 10-year jail sentence.
A photo ostensibly showing a 15-year-old nude girl has turned up in an iPhone app, highlighting Apple’s inability to safeguard its application store from prohibited content.
The image appears in the free app BeautyMeter, which enables people to upload photos that are then rated by others, who assign a star-rating to members’ body parts and clothing. It’s much like an iPhone version of Hot or Not and many similar sites.
On Thursday, Apple pulled the app from the iTunes store.
The photo to the right (censored by Wired.com) depicts a photo of a nude girl snapping a photo of her reflection in a mirror. In the screenshot, the girl, who is listed as a 15-year-old from the United States, is topless and partially nude at the bottom. Nearly 5,000 users of the app have rated the photo. iPhone app review site Krapps discovered the photo.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers cut far more jobs than expected last month and the unemployment rate hit a nearly 26-year high of 9.5 percent, underscoring the likelihood of a long and slow recovery from recession.
The loss of 467,000 jobs reported by the Labor Department on Thursday was 100,000 more than Wall Street economists had expected and was spread widely across economic sectors.
The economy has lost 6.5 million nonfarm jobs since the recession began in December 2007 and the unemployment rate has nearly doubled in that time.
One Jonas brother down, two to go. It's official: Kevin Jonas is engaged. The eldest Jonas brother proposed to his long time girlfriend, Danielle Deleasa, on Wednesday (July 1) and confirmed the news to People.
He showed up to her New Jersey doorstep Wednesday morning, got down on one knee and asked his girlfriend of two years to marry him. "She said yes, yes, yes, like 500 times super fast in a row," Jonas told the magazine. The pair have yet to set a wedding date.
Jonas, 21, and Deleasa, a 22-year-old former hairdresser from New Jersey, met in 2007 while their families were vacationing in the Bahamas. At the time the band was still up-and-coming and she admits that she didn't even know who the Jonas Brothers were. Kevin pursued Deleasa after he spotted her on the beach. "It still feels like a dream," she told People about the engagement.
California's controller will start paying many of the state's bills with IOUs as soon as Thursday after lawmakers failed to close the state's worsening budget deficit, adding a new measure of indignity to a state sinking deeper into dysfunction.
Lawmakers' failure to act on Tuesday, the end of the fiscal year, also widened California's deficit from what already had been a whopping $24.3 billion -- more than a quarter of its general fund.
The failure to balance the state's main checkbook and the looming IOUs prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to declare a fiscal state of emergency.
Under the declaration, state offices will be closed three days a month to conserve cash. If the Legislature fails to solve the deficit within 45 days, it cannot adjourn or act on other bills until the crisis is resolved.
Jon & Kate Plus 8 ratings plummeted 77 percent last Monday.
Only 2.4 million viewers tuned in -- significantly down from June 22's much-hyped divorce announcement episode, which was watched by a record 10.6 million.
(In comparison, the show's season 5 debut attracted 9.8 million watchers.)
Monday's episode, titled "The First 10 Years," consisted mostly of old clips. The show is now on hiatus until Aug. 3 to give the family "some time to regroup," the network said in a statement.
North Korea has test-fired two short-range missiles off its east coast, a spokesman for South Korea's defence ministry has said.
The spokesman said the surface-to-ship missiles were launched from a base near the port of Wonsan at about 0900 GMT.
Pyongyang had warned shipping to stay out of waters off its east coast.
The UN tightened sanctions against North Korea after it launched several missiles and carried out an underground nuclear test in May.
LOS ANGELES -- Police sources tell KTLA that they're making preparations for a massive public memorial for Michael Jackson Tuesday morning at Staples Center.
Officials are said to be holding closed-door talks about the possible event.
Officers Wednesday night closed Chick Hearn Court -- the street that runs in front of the downtown center -- apparently in anticipation of early crowds that could line up for a Jackson service.
Earlier in the day, members of Jackson's family met with officials from the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol about funeral services.
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Insurgents have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Thursday.
Spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the soldier went missing on Tuesday.
"We are using all of our resources to find him and provide for his safe return," Mathias said.
Mathias said the missing GI's identity was not being released to "protect the soldier's well-being."
There were conflicting reports about details of the soldier's disappearance.
An Afghan police official said the soldier went missing in the Mullakheil area of the eastern Paktika province. Gen. Nabi Mullakheil said there is an American base in the area.
Earlier, NBC News reported that the Taliban claimed to have captured three U.S. soldiers in the eastern province of Khost. The claim could not be verified.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the investigation into the death of Michael Jackson. According to The Associated Press, the agency -- which is tasked with enforcing the nation's controlled-substances laws -- has been asked by Los Angeles police to help investigate Jackson's doctors and his possible drug use prior to his death last Thursday (June 25) at the age of 50.
A federal law-enforcement official with knowledge of the case, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed to MTV News that the DEA is now involved in the investigation.
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's family will not hold a public or private viewing of his body at the Neverland Ranch, a spokesman for the family said Wednesday.
"Plans are under way regarding a public memorial for Michael Jackson, and we will announce those plans shortly," Ken Sunshine said in a written statement.
Jackson's will, which was filed in court Wednesday and dated July 7, 2002, did not specify where he wished to be buried.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will immediately require boxed warnings about the risk of serious neuropsychiatric symptoms on the packaging of two popular smoking cessation drugs -- varenicline (Chantix) and buproprion (Zyban, Wellbutrin and generics).
Reports of behavioral changes, depressed mood, agitation, hostility and suicidal thoughts and behavior associated with use of the drugs have been submitted to the FDA's adverse event reporting system.
Throughout the marketing history of the drugs, there have been 98 suicides and 188 attempted suicides in varenicline users and 14 suicides and 17 attempted suicides in buproprion users, the agency reported.
LOS ANGELES -- The family of Karl Malden says the actor who won an Oscar for his role in "A Streetcar Named Desire" has died at age 97.
Malden's family informed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences of his death on Wednesday. Malden served as the academy's president from 1989-92.
He made his screen debut in the 1940 movie "They Knew What They Wanted," and was praised for his role as Mitch in the 1951 classic "A Streetcar Named Desire."
OXFORD, Fla. (AP) -- A 12-foot pet Burmese python broke out of an aquarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in her bedroom Wednesday in a central Florida home, authorities said.
Lt. Steve Binegar, of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office, said the toddler was strangled by the snake in the town of Oxford, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando.
Pythons can kill by wrapping themselves around a human. Paramedics said the girl was dead when they arrived at about 10 a.m. EDT. Authorities did not release the girl's name. They remained on the scene outside her small, tan home, bordered by cow pastures on each side.
Sheriff's officials told the Orlando Sentinel that the snake broke out of a glass aquarium overnight, went to the girl's bedroom and attacked her. The owner found the snake wrapped around the girl and stabbed it while others called 911. It wasn't immediately known if the snake was killed. The newspaper said the snake slithered away and was missing.
Hilary Duff is coming to start some drama on the Upper East Side.
The singer and actress is joining the cast of Gossip Girl for a several episodes, reports EW.com.
Duff will play Olivia Burke, a famous film star in search of the normal college experience. Her school of choice will be New York University, where Blair (Leighton Meester), Dan (Penn Badgley) and Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) were also accepted.
Reporting from Beirut and Tehran -- Iranian authorities today temporarily shut down the newspaper of failed presidential contender Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of parliament, after it published a scathing letter condemning last month's presidential election and the government's response to allegations of widespread vote-rigging.
The Interior Ministry, controlled by a wealthy confidante of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ordered that election-related political activities stop now that the Guardian Council, which is headed by another ally of the president, has confirmed the vote.
The actions are part of a broader attempt by the Iranian government to use the instruments of state to contain, stigmatize and silence a movement built on the presidential election campaigns of Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Karroubi and the belief among their supporters that Ahmadinejad and his powerful allies stole the election.
ADELPHI, Md. -- A federal advisory panel voted narrowly on Tuesday to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, two of the most popular prescription painkillers in the world, because of their effects on the liver.
The two drugs combine a narcotic with acetaminophen, the ingredient found in popular over-the-counter products like Tylenol and Excedrin. High doses of acetaminophen are a leading cause of liver damage, and the panel noted that patients who take Percocet and Vicodin for long periods often need higher and higher doses to achieve the same effect.
The "Daily Show" producer and co-creator talks about what inspired her to take on big media
Don't peddle "Housegate" rumors, lawyer tells media, which sparks more "Housegate" stories, naturally
In a message to supporters, the governor writes, "How sad that Washington and the media will never understand"
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