BREAKING NEWS ~ HOT TOPICS

[Fashionista]

NASA locks down Glenn Research Center in Ohio
after unconfirmed reports of "activity involving a gun."

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[resigned]

Posted at 5:34 PM ET, 01/18/2011
Joe Lieberman to retire in 2012

By Chris Cillizza


Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (I) will not seek a fifth term in 2012, according two Democratic sources familiar with the decision.
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix ... n-201.html

[Fashionista]

<center>Terror attack kills 35 at Moscow airport
By LYNN BERRY, Associated Press

Monday, January 24, 2011


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... .DTL&tsp=1


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[Fashionista]

Aftershock with preliminary magnitude of 6.1 shakes eastern part of Honshu, Japan, U.S. Geological Survey says.


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[Fashionista]

<center>Warren Christopher dies at 85;
former secretary of State's quiet diplomacy was prized from Washington to L.A.



1925 ~ 2011</center>


Warren Christopher's tenacity and decorum helped him broker the release of American hostages from Iran for President Carter and secure the Bosnian peace agreement for President Clinton. He led an investigation into the LAPD after the Rodney King beating that resulted in key reforms.



<center></center>

Warren Christopher, the former secretary of State and eminence grise of the Democratic Party whose achievements in a wide-ranging public career include brokering the Bosnian peace agreement for the Clinton administration and leading an independent investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department that brought important reforms after a notorious police beating, has died. He was 85.

Christopher died Friday at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Kathy Osborne, his executive assistant at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.

Called "the best public servant I ever knew" by President Carter, Christopher was known as a skilled negotiator whose tenacity, decorum and discretion were prized traits in crises.

As deputy secretary of State in the Carter administration, he played a pivotal role in securing the release of the Americans held hostage in Iran. As secretary of State for President Clinton, he kept warring parties at the table during the Dayton, Ohio, peace talks between the Bosnians and Serbs. After returning to private life, he served as Vice President Al Gore's emissary in the Florida vote recount that settled the disputed 2000 presidential election.

When Los Angeles fractured along racial lines after the 1991 police beating of Rodney G. King, Christopher was drafted to head the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, which quickly became known as the Christopher Commission. Under his leadership, the 100-day inquiry produced a plan for the department's overhaul, including a strong call to replace Chief Daryl F. Gates, who later resigned.

The unity of the commission -- which included members selected by Gates and his main antagonist, Mayor Tom Bradley -- was in large measure a testament to its self-effacing chairman, whose quiet diplomacy produced results.

"Most talking is not glamorous," he once said. "Often it is tedious. It can be excruciating and exhausting. But talking can also tame conflict, lift the human condition, and move us close to the ideal of peace."

Unfailingly courteous and calm, Christopher was known for keeping his emotions in check under the most trying circumstances. He sometimes told the story of the time he was a deputy attorney general in the Lyndon Johnson administration and the president called him in the middle of the night. He lunged for the phone and broke his toe but concealed the accident — and the throbbing pain— for the entire conversation.

That was a small reminder of the stamina that went on public display as secretary of State, when Christopher logged more miles in pursuit of American objectives than any previous secretary in a four-year period. That record was built in part by his efforts to revive Middle East peace talks, which led him to make 35 trips to Israel and 24 to Syria.

But the lean, sober-faced diplomat was often portrayed by critics as weak and ineffectual. During his four years in the Clinton Cabinet he was faulted by Washington insiders for failing to articulate a coherent vision for American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era.

One of his sharpest critics, former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, said Christopher's weakness was his desire to "litigate issues endlessly, to shy away from the unavoidable ingredient of force in dealing with contemporary international realities and to have an excessive faith that all issues can be resolved by compromise." His skeptics called him "Dean Rusk without the charisma," comparing him to the Johnson-era secretary of State who was also known for his low-key style.

After every stint in public service, he returned to O'Melveny & Myers, the influential, old-line Los Angeles law firm where he began his career six decades ago and which he eventually led as chairman. He was credited with expanding the firm's international operations as well as its civic engagement, especially through pro-bono projects.

Warren Minor Christopher, the fourth of five children, was born on Oct. 27, 1925, in Scranton, N.D., a prairie town settled at the turn of the 20th century by Scandinavian and German immigrants.

His mother, Catherine, helped the needy, including hoboes who found their way to the family's doorstep from freight cars that ran near their home. She always declined the men's offers to work in exchange for supper because she believed "that our relatively good fortune was something to be shared, not bartered," Christopher wrote in "Chances of a Lifetime," his 2001 memoir.

His father, Ernest, managed the local bank and was well-liked despite having what Christopher described as the demeanor of "a taciturn Norwegian Lutheran." He said later that he was profoundly affected by his father's stories about how the Depression had ruined many farmers in town and by his struggles to resist foreclosing on their mortgages. Christopher said the strains of trying to keep the bank afloat while many of his friends and neighbors went under led to his father's incapacitating stroke in 1937 when he was only 49. Ernest Christopher died five years later.

What he learned from his father was that "you do not have to make a public display of compassion to be a compassionate person," Christopher wrote in his memoir. "The human scenes I witnessed in the flat, dry North Dakota plains while at my father's side may account more than anything else for the tilt of my social and political concerns in the direction of the unfortunate."

Hoping that a warmer climate would speed her husband's recovery, Catherine Christopher moved the family to California in 1939 and went to work as a sales clerk. Warren earned money delivering papers for the Hollywood Citizen-News and excelled on the debate team at Hollywood High School.

At 16 he entered the University of Redlands on a debate scholarship, but transferred after a year to the Naval Officer Program at USC. He graduated in 1945 as an ensign after completing an accelerated course of study that combined naval science with general academic classes. He served on an oil tanker in the Pacific theater as World War II was winding down.

In 1946, he entered Stanford, where he was chosen to serve as editor of the first Stanford law review. In 1949 he became the first Stanford law student to be placed in a clerkship with a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

During his year with legendary Justice William O. Douglas, he helped craft opinions on cases challenging the separate-but-equal education doctrine that would influence the court's language in the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954. Douglas became an important mentor, whose advice to Christopher was to "get out into the stream of history and swim as fast as you can."

In 1950 he became one of the first Democrats to join the conservative O'Melveny & Myers law firm. Eight years later, he became a partner and began his political ascent as a part-time researcher and speechwriter for then-California Atty. Gen. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, who was running for governor. After Brown's landslide victory over U.S. Sen. William F. Knowland, Christopher joined him in Sacramento as special counsel. He wrote Brown's inaugural speech and coined the phrase "responsible liberalism" to describe Brown's political philosophy.

In 1965, Brown tapped him to assemble and serve as vice chairman of a bipartisan panel to study the causes of the riots that had inflamed the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles that year. Named the McCone Commission after its chairman, Republican businessman and former CIA Director John McCone, it produced a report that faulted authorities for moving too slowly to quell the violence and urged some modest police reforms. Watts would provide the first of several opportunities that Christopher would have to examine urban violence firsthand.

In the summer of 1967 he joined the Johnson administration as deputy to Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark. He had been on the job only two months when rioting broke out in Detroit. Dispatched to that city to evaluate the situation with then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance, he advised President Johnson to send in the 82nd Airborne to shore up the Michigan National Guard. Forty-three people died in the disruptions there.

Christopher later helped calm riots in Washington and Chicago, where he coordinated efforts by the Army and local authorities to control disruptions by anti-Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He called the violence that unfolded there "essentially a police riot" and prosecuted Chicago police officers charged with brutality.

He also helped lead the Johnson administration's push for the Civil Rights Act of 1968. A follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it prevented discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing and was, according to Clark, "by far the most difficult and potentially far-reaching of all civil rights legislation." He described Christopher as a "major force" behind its passage.

A decade later, when Vance became Jimmy Carter's secretary of State, he recruited Christopher to serve as his deputy. Christopher, who was confirmed in 1977, was entrusted with some of the Carter administration's most delicate foreign policy assignments, from leading the effort to win congressional approval of the Panama Canal treaties to ending formal ties with the Chinese Nationalist government on Taiwan and negotiating a framework for future relations.

The full measure of his talent at negotiation was highlighted by the crisis that developed on Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian students, angry over U.S. sheltering of Iran's deposed shah, seized the American Embassy in Tehran and took 52 officials and staffers hostage. The drama would span Carter's last 18 months in office, the lowest point of which was a botched helicopter rescue that left eight American servicemen dead.

Vance, who had disapproved of the mission, stepped down and Carter named Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine) as his successor. Christopher was deeply disappointed at being passed over, but decided that he had to stay. "I had accepted the job of deputy without reservation or promise of advancement," he reflected years later. "To leave now out of disappointment at my failure to advance would be to elevate ambition over commitment, pride over duty."

He soon found himself in a crucial role.

It began in September 1980, when West Germany relayed a secret message to the Carter administration that a high-level Iranian official wanted to meet in Bonn with a senior American official. The Iranian was Sadegh Tabatabai, a member of Ayatollah Khomeini's inner circle. Tabatabai's overture to the U.S. was the first time in the then-10-month-old hostage crisis that an Iranian with direct ties to Iran's leadership had asked for a meeting. Carter sent Christopher to Bonn and put him in charge of negotiations. Freeing the hostages would consume Christopher's life for the next four months.

The Algerian government agreed to mediate the cumbersome negotiations, which had to be translated into three languages — Farsi, French and English — in order for all parties to communicate. With Iran demanding $14 billion in frozen assets and $10 billion of the shah's wealth that it claimed was being held in the U.S. — amounts that stunned U.S. officials, whose estimates were much smaller — Christopher employed a small army of bankers and lawyers to locate the funds and surmount the legal and bureaucratic hurdles blocking their release.

By early January, with only a few weeks left in the Carter presidency, Christopher decided to streamline the process by flying to Algiers with a core group of aides. He directed the final 13 days of the negotiations from the Algerian capital.

What Carter administration officials later described as the largest financial transaction in history, involving an intricately choreographed series of wire transfers totaling almost $8 billion and involving 14 banks — including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Central Bank of Algeria and the Bank of England — was concluded in the last hours of the Carter presidency.

As the architect of the agreement, Christopher had taken "what was by almost any standard a policy disaster for the United States and turned it into a triumph of U.S. interests," Gary Sick, the principal White house aide on Iran, told The Times in 1993.

By the time the hostages were flown out of Iran, Carter had been out of office for 35 minutes. Christopher was on the tarmac in Algiers when their plane landed and greeted each of the hostages by name.

"He was the interlocutor between the White House and Iran," Carter said of his loyal deputy years later, "and it was his determination and his courage and his ability as a negotiator and his wisdom that resulted in the release of every American hostage, safe and free."

When Christopher went to dinner at a Washington restaurant the day after the hostages' release, fellow diners applauded him. Their overt display of gratitude stunned the shy deputy, who had to be told that the applause was for him.

"What struck me then, as it does now," Christopher later wrote, "is how very strange, nearly magical, life can be. Who could have predicted only nine months before that one of the luckiest things ever to happen to me would be not being named secretary of state? Not finding myself in a job that would have kept my feet firmly planted in Washington?

"The lesson I draw from this chapter of my life is simple, and a little ironic: the chance of a lifetime is not necessarily the next rung up the ladder. It may be the one on which you already stand."

By 1991, Christopher was an elder statesman of Los Angeles with little ostensible need for more high-stakes headaches. But on March 3, an LAPD car chase ended in the brutal beating of Rodney King by several officers. An witness captured the beating on videotape, which showed other officers standing by and doing nothing to stop the vicious attack by their colleagues. Most of the officers involved in the incident were white; King was black.

When Christopher viewed the videotape two days later, he was "sickened and angry by what I saw." When he urged Bradley to launch an independent investigation, the mayor insisted that Christopher chair it. Against the advice of some of his closest friends, he agreed.

Some skeptics wondered whether the chairman of an establishment law firm would be bold enough to call for radical changes. The answer came 100 days later in a scathing 228-page report that found that a significant number of Los Angeles police officers condoned racism and used excessive force.

The commission recommended sweeping changes, including an overhaul of the department's disciplinary system and a move toward community policing. But its most controversial recommendation was that Gates, who had served 13 years as chief, step down.

The call for Gates' resignation had been unanimous, remarkable considering that what became known as the Christopher Commission had begun as two separate panels — one appointed by Bradley and the other by the embattled chief. Christopher brought the two bodies together. He presided over five fractious community hearings and a staff of 50 lawyers and 60 accountants who interviewed 300 current and former officers and reviewed 1 million pages of documents.

Throughout the investigation, Christopher displayed "a grasp of the sociological context," Stanley Sheinbaum, the Police Commission president who engineered Gates' departure with the help of the Christopher Commission report, told The Times in 1993. "I don't know how you would define vision, but he sure got an understanding of the context of the problem that was better than anyone's."

Christopher later led the successful campaign to pass Charter Amendment F, which revamped LAPD management, including the system for hiring and firing the chief and disciplining officers.

Christopher is survived by his second wife, the former Marie Wyllis, whom he married in 1956 after his first marriage ended in divorce; and their three children, Scott, Thomas and Kristen. He also is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Lynn Collins; and five grandchildren.

elaine.woo@latimes.com



http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/ ... 3709.story

[Fashionista]

Legendary Actress Elizabeth Taylor Has Died. She was 79


1932 ~ 2011

Elizabeth Taylor, the legendary actress famed for her beauty, her jet-set lifestyle, her charitable endeavors and her many marriages, has died, her publicist told CNN today

Developing Story...



Taylor succumbed to congestive heart failure early Wednesday morning at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Hospital, where she had been undergoing treatment for over a month.

"She was surrounded by her children: Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd and Maria Burton," Taylor's publicist, Sally Morrison, said in a statement.


Taylor’s son, Michael Wilding, issued a statement saying, “My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest with great passion, humor and love. Though her loss is devastating to those who held her so close and so dear, we will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world, her remarkable body of work in film, her ongoing success as a business woman, and her brave and relentless advocacy in the fight against HIV/Aids all make us incredibly proud of what she accomplished.”

Taylor is survived by four children, ten grandchildren and four great grandchildren.


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[Fashionista]

<center>Geraldine Ferraro, a Former Congresswoman & First Woman Vice Presidential Candidate on a Major Party Ticket, Has Died at Age 75


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First VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro dies at 75</center>


March 26, 2011 09:44 AM
Saturday, March 26, 2011


(03-26) 09:44 PDT BOSTON, CA (AP) --

The first woman to run for U.S. vice president on a major party ticket has died. Geraldine Ferraro was 75.

A family friend acting as a spokeswoman for the family say Ferraro, who was diagnosed with blood cancer in 1998, died Saturday at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Ferraro was an obscure New York City congresswoman when she was catapulted to national prominence at the 1984 Democratic convention. Walter Mondale chose her to run with him against incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

In the end, Reagan won 49 of the 50 states, the largest landslide in nearly half a century.

Some observers said legal troubles involving her husband and son were a drag on Ferraro's later political ambitions, which included her unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in New York in 1992 and 1998.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... .DTL&tsp=1

[Fashionista]

viewtopic.php?p=1045636#1045636




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[Fashionista]

<center>

A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck Japan on Tuesday morning,
according to the U.S. Geological Survey.




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[Fashionista]

<center>

Plane Carrying Michelle Obama Delays Landing Because Military Jet Was Too Close

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Michelle Obama's Plane Forced to Abort Landing Due to Mistake
First Lady's Plane Was Closer to a Military Jet Than It Should Have Been </center>
By LISA STARK

First lady Michelle Obama's plane had to abort its landing at Joint Base Andrews after it came closer to another military jet than it should have, officials said.

Air traffic controllers apparently allowed the planes to get too close to each other. The required separation is five miles apart, but controllers allowed the first lady's Boeing 737 to get within three miles of the giant C-17 military cargo plane, Federal Aviation Administration sources told ABC News.

The distance is important because large planes generate wake turbulence, rough air that can dangerously disrupt planes behind them.

<center><img src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzMDMyNTI1NzYwMDAmcHQ9MTMwMzI1MjU3ODI1MCZwPTEyNTg*MTEmZD1BQkNOZXdzX1NGUF9Mb2NrZV9FbWJlZCZn/PTImbz*2ODBkNjUxNjMwMjM*NGI4OGE3YTE5NTljYWE3MGY1NSZvZj*w.gif"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,124,0" width="344" height="278" id="ABCESNWID"><param name="movie" value="http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_65.swf"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"><param name="flashvars" value="configUrl=http://abcnews.go.com/video/sfp/embedPlayerConfig&configId=406732&clipId=13381408&showId=13411449&gig_lt=1303252576000&gig_pt=1303252578250&gig_g=2"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><embed src="http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_65.swf" quality="high" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="344" height="278" flashvars="configUrl=http://abcnews.go.com/video/sfp/embedPlayerConfig&configId=406732&clipId=13381408&showId=13411449&gig_lt=1303252576000&gig_pt=1303252578250&gig_g=2" name="ABCESNWID"></embed></object></center>


Air traffic controllers at the approach control facility in the Washington, D.C. area were handling Obama's plane, dubbed "Executive One Foxtrot." They told the plane's pilot to do a standard go-around and circle for an additional time to create the appropriate distance, which they did.

Even after the cargo plane landed, though, the controllers were reportedly still worried they couldn't clear the runaway in time for Obama's jet and asked the pilots to loop around the airport one more time.

There was no panic caused by the incident and no emergency vehicles were called in. Sources tell ABC News no one on the plane, including the first lady, were aware of the delay or the high-sky maneuvers.

"FAA controllers at Andrews Air Force Base instructed an incoming Boeing 737 on approach to Runway 19 to perform a 'go around' on Monday, April 18, 2011 just after 5 p.m. because the plane did not have the required amount of separation behind a military C17," the FAA said in a statement. "The FAA is investigating the incident. The Boeing 737 landed safely after executing the go around. The aircraft were never in any danger."

The first lady was returning to Washington, D.C., from New York, where she appeared on "The View" with Jill Biden and attended other events Monday.

The incident comes at a time when air traffic controllers are already under scrutiny.

There have been at least five reported incidents of air traffic controllers falling asleep on the job in the last two months, which has prompted negotiations between the government and the controllers' union to change the way controllers are scheduled to work.

The FAA has acknowledged there is a widespread problem with fatigue among controllers and that the agency is taking steps to improve the situation, including an additional hour of rest and changing their schedules so they cannot work a three-day weekend.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told ABC News today he is "hopping mad" about these recent incidents and that the agency "will just not tolerate it from our controllers."

"Guiding planes full of people in and out of airports is serious business. And so my reaction is I'm hopping mad about it and we will continue to suspend controllers and doing investigations until we put a stop to this," he said. "My idea is zero tolerance for this kind of behavior -- zero."

The Incidents:

Feb. 19: A controller in Knoxville, Tenn., went to sleep on the job during a midnight shift. Sources told ABC News that the controller made a bed on the floor of the control tower with couch pillows.

March 23: A controller on his fourth consecutive overnight shift at Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport left the radio tower silent after apparently falling asleep. Two commercial airliners were forced to land on their own.

March 29: Two controllers at Preston Smith International Airport in Lubbock, Texas, did not hand off control of a departing aircraft to another control center and it took repeated attempts for them to be reached.

April 11: A controller at Boeing Field/King County International Airport in Seattle fell asleep on the job. Boeing Field does not handle any commercial air travel.

April 13: A controller at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada was sleeping as a plane carrying a crticially ill patient was trying to land.

April 16: An air traffic controller fell asleep on the job at an air route control center in Florida.

April 17: An air traffic controller near Cleveland was suspened after being caught watching a movie -- Samuel L. Jackson's "Cleaner" -- on the job.

ABC News' Huma Khan and Sunlen Miller contributed to this report.






http://abcnews.go.com/

[yankee-in-france]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13256676

BIN LADEN IS DEAD.

[Fashionista]

<center>Singer Amy Winehouse found dead at her London apartment, UK Press Association reports. She was 27.


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[Fashionista]

Polygamist Religious Leader Warren Jeffs Found Guilty of Sexual Assault Charges

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[Fashionista]

Earthquake Listed at 5.8 Rattles East Coast From Virginia to New Hampshire

By JESSICA HOPPER (@jesshop23) Aug. 23, 2011


The largest East Coast quake in memory rattled nerves and buildings from Martha's Vineyard to to North Carolina, prompted the evacuation of Congressional buildings, slowed rail and air traffic, and forced two nuclear reactors offline.

The earthquake, estimated to be a 5.8 magnitude, sent people pouring out of office buildings, hospitals, the Pentagon and the State Department when it struck at 1:51 p.m. The pillars of the capitol in Washington, D.C., shook. Alarms sounded in the FBI and Department of Justice buildings, and some flooding was reported on an upper floor of the Pentagon as a result of the quake.

Parks and sidewalks in Washington were packed with people who fled their buildings. All of the monuments along the National Mall have been closed. Police on horseback kept people a safe distance from the Washington Monument and the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

National Parks Service Spokesman Jeffrey Olson told the Associated Press that there was "absolutely no damage" to the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial or other tourist destinations along the Mall.

The National Cathedral suffered damage to at least three of the cathedral's pinnacles, Dean of the Cathedral Samuel Lloyd said. The cathedral has been cordoned off with yellow police tape as a precaution.

Officials inspected Congressional buildings before members of Congress and their staff were allowed to return to their offices.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
Office workers gather on the sidewalk in downtown Washington, D.C., Aug. 23, 2011, moments after a 5.9 magnitude tremor
shook the nation's capital.

A number of small aftershocks are likely, says Dale Grant, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "We would not expect anything bigger, but it cannot be completely ruled out.

"The earth does what it does," he added.

East Coast Earthquake Photo Album

The quake was felt as far north as New Hampshire and in Martha's Vineyard where President Obama and his family are vacationing. It was felt as far south as South Carolina and as far west as Cleveland, Ohio.

Over the last 10 years, earthquakes have been felt in every state, said geophysicists at the U.S. Geological Survey at a press conference late this afternoon. Today's quake was felt in 25, an event David Wald called "rather unique."

For Special Coverage of the East Coast Earthquake, Including Your Chance to Share Your Photos, Stories and Videos, Click Here

The East Coast gets earthquakes from time to time, but rarely of a magnitude to make skyscrapers sway.

Paul Segall, a Stanford geophysicist who studies the structure and development of earthquake faults, called today's shaker "a significant earthquake for that part of the world. It could do significant damage."

"I can't remember an event that large on the East Coast," he said.

No significant damage or fatalities have been reported. Some injuries have been reported in Washington D.C., the fire department spokesman told the Associated Press. In New York City, the fire department said that they received a surge in calls.

Authorities in New York and Washington said cell phone traffic was so heavy that it hampered their ability to respond to emergencies. A spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency urged people to email and use text messaging instead of their cell phones for their next few hours to ease the congestion.

The epicenter of the quake was near Mineral, Va., 39 miles from Richmond, Va., and 83 miles from the nation's capital. The quake was .6 miles deep.

More...

http://abcnews.go.com/

[Fashionista]

Breaking: NJ Gov. Chris Christie will not seek GOP nomination; announcement 1 p.m. ET



Christie Decides Not to Run

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will not run for president, according to a source with direct knowledge of the governor’s thinking.
By deciding not to run, Christie is refusing the pleas of many establishment Republicans who have been urging him – even pleading with him – to jump into the race. Dozens of high-level GOP donors have been paying visits to Christie since the spring in the hopes of changing his mind.

But the governor spent months saying the same thing in myriad ways: “no.”

In an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer earlier this year, Christie said he was categorically not running for president.

“You don’t make a decision to run for president of the United States based on impulse. I don’t feel ready in my heart to be president,” he told Sawyer in April. “Unless I do, I don’t have any right offering myself to the people of this country. It’s much too big a job. And so you have to first feel in your heart that you’re ready and that you want it more than anything else.”

And during a speech in Washington, D.C., a few months earlier, Christie put an even finer point on it.

“What do I have to do short of suicide to convince people I’m not running?” he asked. “You have to believe in your heart soul and mind that you’re ready. And I don’t believe that in myself right now.”

But the will-he-or-won’t-he speculation reached a fever pitch once again less than two weeks ago when new reports surfaced that donors were trying mightily to get Christie to change his mind.

Sources close to the Republican governor told ABC News Sept 24. that “the pressure from donors and other people has intensified,” and that the “volume of calls” urging Christie to run had increased.

That was before Christie came face-to-face with some of the big-money GOP contributors who were hoping to lure him into the race during week-long fundraising tour that took him to Missouri, California and Louisiana. But it was at a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., last Tuesday where Christie heard some of the most passionate pleas to date.

Although he referred the crowd to his previous denials that he would not jump into the race, he also told a member of the audience who implored him to get in race that he was “listening to every word.”

“I mean this with all my heart. We can’t wait another four years, to 2016. I really implore you as a citizen of this country to please, sir, to reconsider,” one member of the audience told the governor. “We need you. Your country needs you to run for president.”

“I hear exactly what you’re saying and I feel the passion with which you say it, and it touches me,” Christie replied. “I’m just a kid from Jersey who feels like he’s the luckiest guy in the world to have the opportunity that I have to be the governor of my state.”

Later, he added, “I thank you for what you’re saying and I take it in and I’m listening to every word of it and feeling it.”

“It isn’t a burden,” Christie said of those who are putting pressure on him to enter the 2012 race. “Fact of the matter is, that anybody who had an ego large enough to say, ‘Oh, please, please, please stop asking me to be leader of the free world. It’s such a burden. If you could please just stop.’ I mean what kind of crazy egomaniac would you have to be to say, ‘Stop, stop.’?”

Christie continued, “It’s extraordinarily flattering, but by the same token, that heartfelt message you gave me is also not a reason for me to do it. That reason has to reside inside me.”

If he had jumped into the race, Christie would have faced many hurdles. Some candidates have been campaigning for more than a year and have significant infrastructures in place in early primary states. Christie would have been starting from scratch.

And while big-name Republicans were encouraging Christie behind the scenes, he was not on top of recent national polls.

An ABC News / Washington Post poll released Tuesday morning showed Christie in the middle of the 2012 Republican pack with 11 percent support, alongside Ron Paul. In the lead is Mitt Romney with 22 percent, then Texas Gov. Rick Perry with 15 percent, Herman Cain with 14 percent and both Paul and Christie with 11 percent.

Forty-two percent of Republicans and voters who lean Republican said they’d like him to get in the race, but 34 percent would not, 24 percent undecided.

ABC News’ Michael Falcone contributed to this report.

http://abcnews.go.com/

[Fashionista]

Apple co-founder and savior Steve Jobs dies at 56


Company Statement: "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius,
and the world has lost an amazing human being.






Steve Jobs was born in 1955, son of a Syrian-American college professor and an American woman, then unmarried.
He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs, whom he considers his real parents. While still in high school, he got a
summer job at nearby Hewlett-Packard Co., where he worked with another kid named Stephen Wozniak.




The iconic high-tech innovator who brought the company back from the brink had been battling pancreatic cancer.

http://www.sfgate.com/


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[Fashionista]

Breaking News: Libya's Gadhafi Is Dead, Rebels Claim




http://abcnews.go.com/



Breaking:
Libyan Government official says Col. Muammar Qaddafi is dead

http://www.cbsnews.com/




Breaking:

GADHAFI IS DEAD, LIBYANS SAY


Celebrations in Tripoli

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/



A cell phone picture reportedly taken in Sirte apparently shows Qaddafi covered in blood, though there is
no confirmation the man is Qaddafi or if he is in fact dead.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/ ... cbsContent



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[resigned]

Andy Rooney hospitalized

CBS News reported late Tuesday that longtime “60 Minutes” commentator Andy Rooney had been admitted to a hospital after developing “serious complications” after minor surgery last week.

The network said that Rooney, 92, was in stable condition. But at deadline, CBS declined to provide any additional details “at the family’s request.”

It’s been less than a month since Rooney appeared on “60 Minutes” to deliver what he said would be his last regular commentary for the long-running Sunday newsmagazine, ending a gig that started in 1978.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle ... story.html

[Fashionista]

Andy Rooney Dead @ 92

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[Fashionista]

Whitney Houston Dead @ the age of 48
1963 ~ 2012

viewtopic.php?p=1064645#p1064645




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[Fashionista]

CBS News Veteran Mike Wallace Dies @ age 93





1918 ~ 2012

April 8, 2012 11:12 AM

60 Minutes icon Mike Wallace dies at 93

CBS News legend Mike Wallace, the 60 Minutes' pit-bull reporter whose probing, brazen style made his name synonymous with the tough interview -- a style he practically invented for television more than half a century ago -- died last night. He was 93 and passed peacefully surrounded by family members at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn., where he spent the past few years. He also had a home in Manhattan.


"It is with tremendous sadness that we mark the passing of Mike Wallace. His extraordinary contribution as a broadcaster is immeasurable and he has been a force within the television industry throughout its existence. His loss will be felt by all of us at CBS," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO, CBS Corporation.


More...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-5 ... ?tag=stack




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[Fashionista]

Santorum suspends campaign

By Tom Cohen, CNN
updated 2:56 PM EDT, Tue April 10, 2012



Washington (CNN) -- Rick Santorum announced Tuesday that he is suspending his Republican presidential campaign after a weekend of "prayer and thought," effectively ceding the GOP nomination to Mitt Romney.

The former Pennsylvania senator made his announcement following the weekend hospitalization of his 3-year-old daughter Isabella.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we made the decision to get into this race around our kitchen table, against all the odds," Santorum said. "We made a decision over the weekend that while the presidential race for us is over, and I will suspend my campaign effective today, we are not done fighting."

The development means that Romney is now the certain GOP nominee to take on President Barack Obama in November, as Santorum was his main challenger. While Romney still needs to win several hundred delegates to clinch the nomination, Santorum's departure from the race leaves his path unhindered.

Santorum had canceled two events earlier Tuesday while adding an afternoon event that turned out to be his withdrawal announcement.

Hogan Gidley, the campaign's communications director, said the two morning events were canceled to allow Santorum and his wife, Karen, to "settle in at home" with their young daughter.

Known as Bella, the child was born with Trisomy 18, a serious chromosomal condition that interferes with development. Half of patients with the condition do not survive past the first week of life, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Campaign aides have acknowledged that the April 24 primary in Pennsylvania, the state he represented in Congress, was a must-win for Santorum's candidacy. But his once double-digit lead there slipped to single digits in a recent poll, and the cancellation of campaign events Monday and again on Tuesday morning stoked media speculation that Santorum was preparing to drop out in the face of front-runner Romney's commanding lead.

Meanwhile, a poll Tuesday shows Romney trailing Obama in a head-to-head matchup, though voters remain split on which presidential contender is best equipped to handle the economy.

The survey, from Washington Post/ABC News, showed 51% of Americans would choose Obama if the election were held now, compared to 44% for Romney.

According to the polling data, Americans are divided on which candidate would best handle economic issues: Forty-seven percent favored Romney while 43% named Obama. When asked which man would be better at creating jobs, 46% named Obama and 43% said Romney. Both margins were within the poll's 3.5% sampling error.

Voters were less divided on other key issues. Fifty-three percent said Obama was best poised to handle international affairs, compared to 36% who said Romney. Conversely, when asked which man would do a better job of reducing the federal deficit, 51% said Romney and 38% said Obama.

In terms of likability, Obama held a clear advantage, with 64% of Americans polled saying the president was a more friendly and likable person, a nearly 2-to-1 advantage over Romney, who was at 26%.

The serious gender gap between the two candidates -- also seen in recent Gallup and CNN/ORC polls -- also appeared in the new poll. Obama had the support of 57% of women, compared to 38% who said they backed Romney, while the former Massachusetts governor had the backing of 52% of men, compared to 44% who backed Obama.

Among another important voting block, independents, the poll shows a much tighter race, with 48% backing Romney compared to 46% for Obama, also within the survey's sampling error.

Romney has used a huge advantage in money and organization to build his lead over Santorum and fellow challengers Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul. In particular, the Romney campaign and the super PAC supporting it have spent millions of dollars on negative ads in the run-up to major primary and caucus votes so far.

However, Gingrich admitted Sunday that Romney was the likely nominee.

"I think you have to be realistic," Gingrich said on "Fox News Sunday." "Given the size of his organization, given the number of primaries he's won, he is far and away the most likely Republican nominee."

CNN's latest estimate of the GOP delegate tally shows Romney with 659, Santorum with 275, Gingrich with 140 and Paul with 71. It takes 1,144 delegates to clinch the nomination.

New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware vote on April 24, in addition to Pennsylvania. In all, 231 delegates are up for grabs in the five states.

Gingrich has said he will stay in the race until the Republican National Convention in August, despite running a distant third in the delegate count. The goal for both Gingrich and Santorum at this point appears to be preventing Romney from reaching the 1,144-delegate threshold before the convention.

While all but conceding the GOP race, Gingrich said Sunday he won't give up on trying to influence the party's platform that emerges going into the general election.

"I think platforms matter in the long run in the evolution of the party," the former House speaker said. "And the party is more than just a presidential candidate -- it's Senate candidates, House candidates, state legislators."

Gingrich also said he has already talked to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus about working in the fall "to help defeat Obama any way I could -- whatever the team thinks I can do to be helpful, I would do."

Beyond that, he said he wouldn't want to serve in a Romney administration and would rather "go back to a post-political career."

CNN's Kevin Liptak, John King, Peter Hamby, Shannon Travis and Steve Brusk contributed to this report.



http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/10/politics/ ... ?hpt=hp_t1



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[Fashionista]

Dick Clark: 1929-2012




Dick Clark, Entertainment Icon Nicknamed 'America's Oldest Teenager,' Dies at 82

By JULIA KATHAN and SHEILA MARIKAR (@SheilaYM)
April 18, 2012



Dick Clark, the music industry maverick, longtime TV host and powerhouse producer who changed the way we listened to pop music with "American Bandstand," and whose trademark "Rockin' Eve" became a fixture of New Year's celebrations, died today at the age of 82.

Clark's agent Paul Shefrin said in statement that the veteran host died this morning following a "massive heart attack."

Born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Nov. 30, 1929, Richard Wagstaff Clark began his lifelong career in show business began before he was even out of high school. He started working in the mailroom of WRUN, a radio station in upstate New York run by his father and uncle. It wasn't long before the teenager was on the air, filling in for the weatherman and the announcer.

Clark pursued his passion at Syracuse University, working as a disc jockey at the student-run radio station while studying for his degree in business. After graduating in 1951, Clark went back to his family's radio station, but within a year, a bigger city and bigger shows were calling.

Clark landed a gig as a DJ at WFIL in Philadelphia in 1952, spinning records for a show he called "Dick Clark's Caravan of Music." There he broke into the big time, hosting Bandstand, an afternoon dance show for teenagers.

Within five years, the whole country was watching. ABC took the show national, and "American Bandstand" was born.

Blazing a New Trail in Pop Music


"American Bandstand's" formula was simple. Clean-cut boys and girls danced to the hottest hits and the newest singles. In between, Clark chatted with the teens, who helped "rate-a-record," turning songs into sensations. Everyone showed up on "American Bandstand," from Elvis Presley to Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry to Chubby Checker.

When Dick Clark moved to Hollywood in 1963, "American Bandstand" moved with him. He started Dick Clark Productions, and began cranking out one hit show after another; his name became synonymous with everything from the $25,000 "Pyramid" to "TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes" to the "American Music Awards." In 1972, Dick Clark became synonymous with one of the biggest nights of the year.

New Year's Rockin' Eve

"Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" on ABC became a Dec. 31 tradition, with Clark hosting the festivities for more than three decades, introducing the entertainment acts and, of course, counting down to midnight as the ball dropped in New York's Times Square.

But the traditional celebration saw a temporary stop in 2004, when Clark suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and struggling to speak. Regis Philbin stepped in. But by the next New Year's Eve, Dick Clark was back, his speech still impaired. In halting words, he told the audience, "I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again. It's been a long, hard fight. My speech is not perfect but I'm getting there."

But that didn't stop him: he returned each year, and recently he was joined by Ryan Seacrest, the radio and television personality known for E!, "American Idol," and a reality TV empire.

"I am deeply saddened by the loss of my dear friend Dick Clark," Seacrest said in a statement today. "He has truly been one of the greatest influences in my life. I idolized him from the start, and I was graced early on in my career with his generous advice and counsel. When I joined his show in 2006 , it was a dream come true to work with him every New Year's Eve for the last 6 years. He was smart, charming, funny and always a true gentleman. I learned a great deal from him, and I'll always be indebted to him for his faith and support of me. He was a remarkable host and businessman and left a rich legacy to television audiences around the world. We will all miss him."


http://abcnews.go.com/




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[Fashionista]

Donna Summer, Disco Queen, Dead at 63

May 17, 2012 12:22pm

Donna Summer, the singer who came to be known as the “Queen of Disco” during her 1970s heyday, died today after battling cancer, a family member confirmed to ABC News. She was 63.

Summer was a five time Grammy award winner who was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard chart. Her hits like “Last Dance,” “Bad Girls,” and “Love to Love You Baby” made her a disco icon.

Born outside of Boston, Summer was raised by devout Christian parents who introduced her to both gospel and classical music. In a 2008 interview with ABC News’ “Nightline,” Summer remembered her mom singing songs to her before going to bed each night.

“As long as the classical station was playing on the radio, I wouldn’t cry,” she said. “If it was on for 20 hours, I would sleep for 20 hours. I would be calm. So I think that my mother probably helped my sense of musicality just by doing that.”

Summer left home at age 18 to audition for the Broadway production of “Hair” and got a role in the show when it moved to Germany. There, she met producer Giorgio Moroder, who would launch her solo career. She went on to produce hits like “Bad Girls,” “Last Dance,” and “She Works Hard for the Money,” a song that was inspired by a washroom attendant.

“I was at a Grammies party … and I went to the ladies room and on my way in I saw this little old lady sitting at the end of the bar. And she was asleep,” Summer told “Nightline.” “She was the bathroom attendant. And at that same moment, a group of ladies walked into the room and started spraying their hair and doing all these things. And my first thought was ‘God, she works hard for her money, that lady.’

“And then I thought, ‘man, that’s a song,’” she said. “So I went and grabbed my manager and we went back into the bathroom and started writing the song on a piece of toilet paper.”

Summer’s last album, “Crayons,” was released in 2008. In 2010, she told AllVoices.com that she was working on an album of disco standards.

Summer is survived by her husband, Bruce Sudano, three children, and four grandchildren.


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainme ... ead-at-63/

[Fashionista]

Rodney King Is Dead

Update Sunday June 17, 2012 12:45 PM EDT
Originally posted Sunday June 17, 2012 11:35 AM EDT

Rodney King, the man at the center of the Los Angeles riots, was found dead Sunday morning. He was 47.

Rialto, Calif. Police Sgt. Paul Stella tells PEOPLE that King's fiancée called police at 5:25 a.m. to say that she'd found King dead at the bottom of their pool. Officers pulled him out and administered CPR, which was unsuccessful. King was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m.

Detectives are now on scene, conducting a drowning investigation, but there hasn't been an official ruling on cause of death.

"I spoke with him about a week ago. He was really happy, upbeat and engaged," says Suzanne Wickham, director of publicity at Harper Collins, who published King's book, The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption, in April. "We were talking about him doing college lectures. He'd already gotten an offer from one college and we were hoping to get more. He was really excited. He loved talking to kids."

King's passing comes more than 20 years after he was beaten by L.A. police in 1991 following a high-speed chase. The incident, including startling images of King trying to crawl away from police, was caught on video, and the acquittal of the officers involved sparked the race riots that erupted in Los Angeles the following year.

Thousands were injured and 53 people died throughout the riot, which caused about $1 billion in property damage and inspired a national dialogue about racially-motivated police brutality.

"People, I just want to say, can we all get along?" King said on the third day of rioting after days of seclusion, according to CNN. "Can we get along?"

King was awarded $3.8 million in a civil case, but was left with permanent brain damage. He was arrested last year for DUI but told PEOPLE in April that he was doing well and was no longer drinking "as much as I used to."



http://www.people.com/people/article/0, ... 29,00.html



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King was discovered by his fiancée Cynthia Kelley (pictured left with King) in the pool (center) of their home
in Rialto, California this morning. Right is King pictured after the 1991 attack.

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