(Saturday, June 19, 2010) : In Photos: Swedish Royal Wedding

The future Queen of Sweden and her Commoner Fiancé wed Saturday in Stockholm in a lavish wedding that attracted royalty dignitaries from around the world.

The ceremony for Crown Princess Victoria, 32, and her former personal trainer Daniel Westling, 36, is the first royal wedding in Europe since 2008, according to The Associated Press. The Royal Court told the AP that 950 guests were set to attend the event, which is reported to cost $2.6 million.

Some royals from Norway and Denmark arrived by yacht, reported the AP. Also present for the weekend’s festivities were Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito, Jordan's King Abdullah and Queen Sofia of Spain, Britain's Prince Edward and Sophie and golfer Tiger Woods' mother-in-law, Barbro Holmberg.

The wedding of Victoria, the oldest of three siblings and first in line to the Swedish throne, and Westling took place exactly 34 years after the marriage of her parents, Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf, according to Agence France-Presse.

Major international news organizations, including AP, AFP and Reuters, decided not to cover the event because of a dispute over local restrictions on the release of live television images. They did, however, provide details prior to the wedding. And luckily for those dying for a peek, Getty Images provided photo coverage of the day's private and public proceedings (see below).

FATHER AND THE BRIDE: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden is led into the church by her father the king Carl Gustaf of Sweden prior to the wedding ceremony between Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Daniel Westling at Stockholm Cathedral. (Photo by Torsten Laursen/Getty Images)

MEETING AT THE ALTAR: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and her husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, are seen during their wedding ceremony. (Photo by Torsten Laursen/Getty Images)

CATCHING THE TRAIN: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and her husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, are seen during their wedding ceremony. (Photo by Torsten Laursen/Getty Images)

NEWLY WED: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and her husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, are seen during their wedding ceremony. (Photo by Torsten Laursen/Getty Images)

ROYAL PAGEANTRY: People wait for Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and her husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, to pass after their wedding ceremony. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

PUBLIC PRIDE: People wait for Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and her husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

WEDDING CARRIAGE: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and her husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, wave to gathered spectators after their wedding ceremony. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

GREETING THE WORLD: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and her husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, are seen after their wedding ceremony. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

A ROYAL KISS: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and her husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, meet the general public as they appear on the Lejonbacken Terrace after their wedding ceremony. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

ALL SMILES: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and her husband Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, meet King Carl Gustaf and the general public as they appear on the Lejonbacken Terrace after their wedding ceremony. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

GREAT GROUP PHOEBE!!

A HAPPY FATHER'S DAY SHOUT OUT TO ALL BIG TEN FATHER'S!!

Love Andrea

Father's Day Turns 100. How Did Father's Day Start Anyway?


Father's Day was started 100 years ago in an effort to improve the image of Dads everywhere.

By Nicholas K. Geranios, AP / June 20, 2010

Spokane, Wash.


Father's Day was started a century ago because inventor Sonora Smart Dodd was upset by widespread mocking of fathers in popular culture as lazy, sleazy and drunk.


This June 20 marks the 100th anniversary of Father's Day, and while today's fathers have come a long way, some would say they could once again use an image boost thanks to the much-mocked antics of the likes of Tiger Woods and Jon Gosselin.

While it is easy to take shots at dads who mess up, it's important to focus on the important role of men, said Michael Gurian, an author who specializes in the struggles of men in the modern world.

"Making fun of guys to get them to perform and prove themselves, that's always going to exist," Gurian said. "But we have to equally celebrate them and empower them."

For Sonora Dodd, the last straw was a church sermon in 1908, when her priest rambled on about the newly created Mother's Day and the importance of mothers.

"I liked everything you said about motherhood," Sonora Dodd recalled telling the priest in a 1972 interview. "However, don't you think fathers deserve a place in the sun too?"

Her father, William Smart, survived the Civil War and then moved West to seek his fortune. His wife died in the winter of 1898, while giving birth of their sixth child.

But Smart, with the help of Sonora, the eldest child and only girl, held the family together. Sonora became convinced of the importance of fathers, at a time when they were not considered that relevant to the family.

While William Smart's sacrifice might have been somewhat unique in its time, these days 15 percent of single parents are men, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In addition, there were 158,000 stay-at-home dads in 2009 who raised the kids while their wives worked, the Census Bureau said.

And 71 percent of 6-year-olds ate breakfast and dinner with their fathers every day in 2006, the agency said. Fathers are also good about reading to their children, praising them at least three times a day and taking them on outings, various reports compiled by the Census Bureau said.

At the other extreme, Gurian said 90 percent of homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. Also, 71 percent of high school dropouts and 63 percent of young people who commit suicide are from fatherless homes.

"Without fathers you would have no civilization," Gurian said.

He acknowledged that men tend to take more risks, fool around more (see Edwards, John) and suffer more crippling addictions (see Sheen, Charlie) than women. They also seem slower to mature these days, often living at home into their 20s.

"Father's Day is hopefully a time when the culture says 'this is our moment to look at who our men and boys are," he said. "If we don't protect fathering, we are going to really be messed up."

Sonora Dodd certainly did her part. She pushed for the first Father's Day celebration, which was held in June 1910, in Spokane. Fathers in church were given red roses, and people whose fathers were deceased wore white roses.

Some also credit the invention of the holiday to Grace Golden Clayton of Fairmount, W.Va., who is said to have suggested to the pastor of her church in 1908 that he hold a service in honor of fathers.

But it was Dodd who campaigned nationally for the holiday.

Mother's Day was quickly accepted as a national holiday, with Congress in 1914 designating the second Sunday in May. Father's Day had a much longer road, perhaps reflecting the societal split involving mothers and fathers. It was not until 1966 that President Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers and set the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. In 1972, President Nixon signed the law that made it permanent, to the delight of necktie and golf club makers everywhere.

Sonora Dodd died in 1978 at age 96 and is buried in Spokane.

"She was a businesswoman and knew how to get things done," said Barbara Hillerman, Sonora Dodd's only grandchild.

Hillerman, 75, a college professor in Vienna, Austria, will be making her first trip to Spokane in decades for anniversary festivities. Her father was Sonora Dodd's only child, John Bruce Dodd, Jr.

She did not know her grandmother well, in part because her family moved back and forth across the country as her father rose in the Forest Service.

"My relationship to her was as grandchild and grandmother," Hillerman said in a telephone interview from Vienna. "One of my failures is we didn't talk about Father's Day."

But "I sent my grandmother a Father's Day card every year," Hillerman said.

21 Things Hiring Managers Wish You Knew

by Alison Green
Saturday, June 19, 2010
provided by U.S. News and World Report

01-We actually want you to be honest.

I see too many job applicants who approach the interview as if their only goal is to win a job offer, losing sight of the fact that this can land them in the wrong job. Think of it like dating. This means being honest about your strengths and weaknesses and giving the hiring manager a glimpse of the real you, so he or she can make an informed decision about how well you'd do in the job.

02-We pay attention to the small stuff.

Frequently, I see candidates act as if only “official” contacts—like interviews and formal writing samples—count during the hiring process. They'll send flawless cover letters and then check up on their applications with sloppily written E-mails with spelling errors. Or they'll be charming and polite to me but rude to an assistant. I pay attention to how quickly a candidate responds to requests for writing samples and references, and even how fast he or she returns phone calls.

03-We want you to ask questions.

I encounter many candidates who don't have many—or even any—questions when I ask what I can answer for them. Your interviewer wants to know that you're interested in the details of the job, the department, your prospective supervisor's management style, and the culture of the organization. Otherwise, you risk signaling that you're either not that interested or just haven't thought very much about it.

04-We'd like a thank-you note right away.

E-mail is fine for this and has the advantage of arriving faster, but handwritten notes are still appreciated (and are increasingly unusual so will stand out). And if there are multiple interviews, send a thank-you note each time.

05-We're hoping for some enthusiasm.

Commonly, job seekers are too worried about looking desperate. It doesn't look desperate to express your interest in the job or check in to ask about the hiring timeline. However, enthusiasm does cross the line if you are calling more than once a week, calling earlier than the date they said they'd get back to you, sounding like you're eager to take any job as opposed to this one in particular, or appearing as if this is the only option you have.

06-We need to know your real weaknesses.

Claiming that your biggest weakness is perfectionism and you work too hard is disingenuous. It looks like you're avoiding the question. Candidates who can't or won't come up with a realistic assessment of areas where they could improve make me think they're lacking in insight and self-awareness—or, at a minimum, just making it impossible to have a real discussion of their potential fitness for the job. I want to know about your weaknesses not because I'm trying to trip you up, but because I genuinely care about making sure you're a good fit for the job.

07-You should address being overqualified in your cover letter.

If you don't acknowledge it, we're afraid that you'll be bored, that you don't understand the position, that the salary will be too low for you. We need to hear things like: “At this stage in my career, having a job I enjoy is more important to me than salary. I have no problem earning less than I have in the past.” Or, “I want to move into this field, and I know that I need to start at a lower level in order to do that.” Or, “I wouldn't take a job I'm not excited about.”

08-Your resume objective usually hurts you.

Your resume gets tossed when it lists an objective totally unrelated to the position I have open. Really, just get rid of the objective altogether. It rarely helps, often hurts, and always takes up valuable real estate that could be better used to showcase your accomplishments. If you want to talk about your career objective and how this position fits it, use the cover letter for that.

09-The phone interview is not a casual chat.

While the interviewer wants to get a sense of your personality, a phone interview is still an interview, not an informal phone call with a friend. Don't sound stiff, but don't use the same tone you'd use to talk about your date last night. I've phone-interviewed candidates who I'm pretty sure were lounging on the couch, watching the game with the sound down, and snacking while we talked.

10-You shouldn't count on our job offer.

Whatever you do, don't let up on your job search, no matter how confident you are that an offer is coming. Things change; other candidates come along; plans for the position evolve or even get canceled. Until you have a firm offer in hand, you have to proceed as if you don't, since ultimately you can control only your side of the process—so keep setting up those other interviews.

11-We may check references beyond your list.

Simply not listing that person as a reference isn't enough; Reference-checkers can call anyone you've worked for or who might know you, even if they aren't on the list you provide. In fact, smart reference-checkers will make a point of calling people not on your list, because presumably you've only listed the people most likely to present you in the best light.

12-We don't like being stalked.

When you're searching for a job, enthusiasm is a good thing. But some job applicants cross the line from enthusiastic and proactive to obnoxiously aggressive—and, in doing so, kill their chances at a job offer. You have crossed the line if you are doing any of the following: Checking on the status of your application daily; calling and hanging up when you get voice mail, over and over; cold-calling numerous employees in the same company.

13-Some of us actually care about candidates.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from job seekers who write to me at Ask a Manager is about companies that don't respond to job applicants: no rejection, nothing. Personally, I think it's inexcusable—throughout the hiring process, but particularly after a company has engaged with an applicant in some way, like a phone interview or an in-person interview. It's callous and dismissive and lacks any appreciation for the fact that the candidate is anxiously waiting to hear an answer—any answer—and keeps waiting and waiting, long after a decision has been made.

14-You can gain an edge with your cover letter.

Individualize. Yes, it takes a lot longer than sending out the same form letter over and over, but a well-written cover letter that's obviously individualized to a specific opening is going to open doors when your resume alone might not have. These account for such a tiny fraction of applications that you'll stand out and immediately go to the top of my pile. And I'll give you an extra look, even if your resume isn't stellar.

15-You can be too early to the interview.

Many interviewers are annoyed when candidates show up more than five or ten minutes early, since they may feel obligated to interrupt what they're doing and go out to greet the person, and some (like me) feel vaguely guilty leaving someone sitting in their reception area that long. Aim to walk in five minutes early, but no more than that.

16-You can leave the subjective descriptions off the resume.

Your resume is for experience and accomplishments only. It's not the place for subjective traits, like “great leadership skills” or “creative innovator.” I ignore anything subjective that an applicant writes about herself, because so many people's self-assessments are wildly inaccurate and I don't yet know enough about the candidate to have any idea if hers is reliable or not.

17-Your resume should answer one key question.

The vast majority of resumes I see read like a series of job descriptions, listing duties and responsibilities at each position the job applicant has held. But resumes that stand out do something very different. For each position, they answer the question: What did you accomplish in this job that someone else wouldn't have?

18-New grads need work experience.

I receive all too many resumes from recent grads who have literally no work experience: nothing, not internships, not temp jobs, nothing at all. Find a way to get actual work experience before you leave school. Do internships every semester you are able, so that you have experience on your resume. Paid, unpaid, whatever it takes. If a part-time job of a few hours a week is all you have time for outside of your classes, that's fine. Do that. No one will hire you? Find work experience as a volunteer—that counts too.

19-We think a lot about your personality.

You might not get hired because your working style would clash with the people you'd be working with. Often, one personality type will simply fit better into a department than another will, and that's the kind of thing that's very difficult (if not impossible) for a candidate to know. Remember, it's not just a question of whether you have the skills to do the job, it's also a question of fit for this particular position, with this particular boss, in this particular culture, in this particular company.

20-We want you to talk in interviews, but be concise.

There's always at least one otherwise-qualified candidate in any hiring round who kills their chances by being too long-winded. You might think, “Well, some people are long-winded, but it doesn't mean he wouldn't do a good job.” The problem is that, at a minimum, it signals that you're not good at picking up on conversational cues, and raises doubts about your ability to organize your thoughts and convey needed information quickly.

21-Be honest in interviews, but don't spill about a bad boss.

You're far better off explaining that you're looking for new challenges, excited about this particular opportunity, taking the time to find something right, and so forth. I'm not crazy about advising someone to be anything less than forthright, and I don't normally recommend it, but in this area, the potential for giving an employer an bad impression is just too great to do it safely.

Copyrighted, U.S.News & World Report, L.P. All rights reserved.

Thanks,
Very good articles Phoebe!
Love, Ed

Khloe Kardashian's Extravagant Victory Gift to Husband Lamar Odom

Photo of Lamar Odom and his Wife Khloe Kardashian-Odom in his "NEW ROLLS ROYCE: Phantom"




Photo of a 2010 "ROLLS ROYCE: Phantom"




Helping his team win the NBA championship title should be a gift in and of itself for Los Angeles Laker Lamar Odom, but his wife must have thought the big win needed more celebration than a ticker tape parade.

E! News reports that Khloe Kardashian, Lamar's wife of nearly nine months, bought him a Rolls-Royce.

The car is said to retail at $443,000, and Kardashian's mother, Kris Jenner, calling it "fabulous," told E! News a few details about the gift.

"It's a brand-new 2010 Rolls-Royce," Jenner said. "Drop-top coupe, white on white."

Jenner was most likely describing the 2010 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, which Car and Driver magazine calls "pretty much everything you'd expect from a convertible that costs half a million dollars."

The review of the Rolls, written by satirist and pundit, P.J. O'Rourke, also referred to the car as "faster than the stink of how rich you'd have to get to buy one."

Some of the Phantom's features are classic: a teak wood deck ("the same kind of wood used in a really nice yacht," Car and Driver notes); a Rolls-Royce logo that remains upright on the wheel-heads even when they're in motion. But some are downright futuristic, like doors that close with the push of a button. It even has a mechanism to keep its iconic hood ornament safe: If someone messes with it, it drops into the car, and there's even a button on the dashboard that the owner can push to make the ornament disappear into the hood.

And for those who were speculating that Khloe bought the fancy ride with her hubby's money, Mrs. Odom has some choice words:

"People r so pathetic," Kardashian Tweeted after news of the purchase spread through the chatter-sphere. "Y would I give some1 a gift w/ their money? That's lame. I actually make my own money. Shocking I know. Stop hating!"

The couple seems to be wasting no time breaking in the new car: Khloe and Lamar were spotted rolling up to a fancy Father's Day dinner for Bruce Jenner at BOA in West Hollywood for Father's Day. Perhaps they're getting in as much joy-riding time as possible before traveling south -- the couple are reportedly going to Mexico soon for a much-deserved (at least for Lamar) vacation.

10 Most Common Home Decorating Don'ts

By Kimberly Fusaro

Sure, your rooms look OK at first glance: You finally got rid of that lumpy sofa and own a set of kitchen chairs that don’t fold up. But what would an interior decorator have to say about the state of your home? If you suspect your attempts at “mix and match” just look messy or your furniture arrangements are a little too fussy, read on to see if you’re committing our experts’ top decorating faux pas—and learn what you can do to fix them.


Faux Pas #1: Ignoring Scale

Every piece of furniture looks great in the store—but chances are your rooms aren’t showroom size. “Measure your space and decorate accordingly,” suggests Kenneth Brown, a Los Angeles–based interior designer who sells home decor pieces through QVC. For smaller rooms, ignore your instinct to use a series of diminutive pieces; fewer large-scale pieces will make it seem less busy. On a similar note, consider filling a wall with a single large painting, rather than a group of smaller frames. “It will act as an additional window and draw the eye beyond the room,” says Brown.

Photo by Shutterstock.

Faux Pas #2: Relying on Recessed Lighting

“I’m so tired of recessed lighting,” says Brown. “It makes a room look like a football field.” If you have recessed lights, use them, but layer your lighting by incorporating additional lighting features. Consider table lamps and floor lamps, and highlight artwork with picture lights. “Your room—and everyone in it—will look beautiful,” says Brown.

Photo by Shutterstock.

Faux Pas #3: Buying the Entire Matching Set

Just because a store showcases a sofa, loveseat, chair, table and ottoman as a set doesn’t mean you have to buy every piece. The first piece Brown recommends leaving behind? The loveseat. In its place choose two chairs, which will allow you to mix and match colors and patterns. Another way to mix things up: Choose a traditional sofa in an unexpected, modern color.

Photo by Shutterstock.

Faux Pas #4: Picking Paint Colors in the Store

“Stores have terrible lighting,” warns Brown. If you choose a color based on what you see in the store, chances are you’ll hate what winds up on your walls. Before you have an employee mix a few gallons of paint, first consider the colors in natural light, and then again in your home. For the best perspective, Brown suggests poking a hole in a piece of white paper, holding the paint swatch behind it, then looking at the color through the hole. This will give you an unadulterated view of the color.

Photo by Comstock Images.

Faux Pas #5: Letting an Accent Overtake a Room

Too much of one thing, like an animal print, can look overdone. “You don’t want to live in a theme park,” says Brown. It’s fine to introduce an accent piece—a few pillows, a throw or this animal print bench. Just remember that a little bit of pizzazz goes a long way.

Photo courtesy of QVC.com.

Faux Pas #6: Having Knickknacks Scattered Around

“Nothing’s worse than a bunch of tchotchkes placed randomly around a room,” says Susie Coelho, HGTV host, author and designer for Grandin Road. The most frequent offenders: angel statues, children’s pottery and mismatched candlesticks. Edit your collection as much as possible—consider showcasing just a few pieces and rotating the display seasonally—then put everything in a curio cabinet or on a corner table. By grouping like items, you make insubstantial pieces more significant.

Photo by Shutterstock.

Faux Pas #7: Displaying Greenery in Itty-Bitty Pots

"Plants should make a statement,” says Coelho. “Otherwise they should be left outdoors!” Yes, small planters were en vogue in the ’70s, but that decade has passed. The modern way to do it is to use one large tree in a pot. A series of small indoor plants is just going to make your space seem cluttered—and dated.

Photo by iStockphoto.

Faux Pas #8: Getting Overzealous with Wall Color

Walls covered in too many colors are distracting and create visual tension. “You want your guests to feel stimulated, but you also want them to feel relaxed, says Coelho. A yellow room followed by a turquoise room followed by an orange room looks tacky and badly planned. To ensure a soothing flow from room to room, focus on a subtle variety of colors or tones, such as coordinating shades of green or earth tones.

Photo by Shutterstock.

Faux Pas #9: Not Knowing When to Quit

People are inclined to add more furniture and more artwork and more stuff until they can’t move around in a room without knocking over a decorative table. “You may have some stunning pieces,” says Coelho. “But who can tell when they’re surrounded by average ones?” The current trend is toward simplicity. To make a statement, clear out clutter and let your rooms breathe.

Photo by Jupiterimages.

Faux Pas #10: Selecting Busy Textiles

When you’re choosing window coverings, tablecloths and upholstery fabrics, steer clear of anything with heavy gathering, ruffles or too much fringe. “Cleaner lines are better,” says Coelho, “and they’ll collect less dust.” If you favor prints, keep them subtle so you can switch things up periodically. If you opt for a loud print, you’re forced to use that piece as the room’s focus until you get rid of it.

Photo by Shutterstock.

Photos of the Home of the Week | In West L.A. (The four-bedroom, 3 1/2-bathroom house at 3044 Greenfield Ave. is listed at $1,895,000).

Rebuilt
(Ralf Seeburger)

The Westside home, formerly a single-level tract house, was transformed into a two-story with a focus on energy efficiency, natural light and recycled and experimental materials.

Eco-conscious
(Vladan Elakovic)

Chemicals, paint, carpet, tiles and air conditioning were shunned during the extensive remodel.

Kitchen
(Vladan Elakovic)

The cabinets and chair backs are clad with recycled tires.

Blue staircase
(Vladan Elakovic)

The stairs are made of flat steel supports covered in rubber dip, a material used to make tool handles.

Master bathroom
(Vladan Elakovic)

The double-headed shower is completely open, the water pouring directly onto a heated concrete floor covered in wood slats.

Roof
(Ralf Seeburger)

Glass double doors open to a covered roof terrace for taking in city views or outdoor sleeping.

Geometric
(Vladan Elakovic)

Concrete outer walls are made in part with recycled material.

Employee Embezzles $1.6 Million From Boss, Police Say



Detectives say Holly Martin-Campbell worked as a bookkeeper for a cement company near Gardena.

Embezzlement suspect Holly Martin-Campbell of Inglewood. (DMV photo)






LOS ANGELES -- An Inglewood woman is accused of embezzling $1.6 million dollars from her boss to fund a lavish lifestyle.


Detectives say Holly Daunielle Martin-Campbell, 37, stole the money while working as an administrative secretary at Blue Daisy Cement Products near Gardena.


Campbell used the money to buy a home in a gated community next to Hollywood Park, purchase a $22,000 Ducati motorcycle for her husband, and a BMW sport utility vehicle for herself, eat at expensive restaurants and attend sporting events and concerts, according to L.A. County Sheriff's detective Christopher Derry.


Martin-Campbell was arrested Tuesday on felony charges of grand theft and forgery. She is set to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.


Her boss says he had no idea she had served a 16-month prison sentence in the late 1990s for credit card fraud when he hired her in 2002.


Martin-Campbell was in charge of accounts receivable. Her job was to process the incoming checks from customers, Detective Derry said.


An investigation found that she began depositing checks into her own bank account in 2004. The checks, which were for a few thousand dollars up to $21,000, were made out to Blue Daisy, but Bank of America still accepted the checks, Derry said.


She would then delete the transactions.


The scam was uncovered in late 2008 when a Blue Daisy accountant realized the company's profits did not match the amount of product they were selling. The company's owner began scrutinizing the business transactions and found that Martin-Campbell had been depositing the checks into her own account.


Martin-Campbell is being held on $1.5 million dollars bail. She served a 16-month prison sentence in the late 1990s for credit card fraud.


Martin-Campbell faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.


Martin-Campbell's parents have paid $300,000 toward restitution but still owes $1.3 million to Blue Daisy.

Obama film co-director Damien Dematra (L) poses with Ilham Anas, (R), the Indonesian look alike of US President Barack Obama at the Jakarta cinema house for the debut screening of "Obama Anak Menteng" or "Obama the Menteng Kid", a film about Obama's childhood days in Indonesia.






AJAKARTA (AFP) – A film about US President Barack Obama's childhood days in Indonesia made its debut in Jakarta on Wednesday, promising a very different perspective on the man in the White House.


"Obama Anak Menteng" or "Obama the Menteng Kid", is set in the upscale Jakarta neighbourhood of Menteng, where Obama lived from 1967 to 1971 with his mother and Indonesian stepfather.


Co-director Damien Dematra said it showed the US president in a light that Americans might find strange.


"Viewers, especially Westerners, will see a different world. They'll see Obama eating chicken satay, not hamburgers. They'll see his neighbours and friends wearing chequered sarongs and Muslim caps," he told AFP.


Even so, producers skirted controversy surrounding the extent that Islam influenced Obama's early years in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.


A scene showing Obama, who is a Christian, praying like a Muslim was dropped as it was deemed "too political", Dematra said.


"He was just imitating other kids when they were praying but it didn't mean he wanted to be Muslim. That scene wasn't even shot because I didn't want people to take it out of context and use it against him," he said.


Based on his interviews with Obama's surviving neighbours and friends in the Indonesian capital, Dematra claims the film is "60 percent fact and 40 percent fiction".


Midwife Fitriah Sari, who was in the audience at the film's debut, said Obama was portrayed favourably.


"He showed that sometimes saying sorry is actually more effective than using the fist in solving conflict," Sari said.


Another who saw the film, Asmul Khairi, said: "This film was interesting.


"Obama is shown to be able to get along with anyone, regardless of race, religion or skin colour. He showed cultural or physical differences are no barrier to forging meaningful friendships."


The film features a cast of little-known Indonesian actors and was filmed in just over a month in the West Java city of Bandung -- which retains some of the sleepy charm of 1960s Menteng.


Its budget was a million dollars, Dematra said.


Twelve-year-old American Hasan Faruq Ali plays Obama, or Barry as the president was known to his schoolmates.


Like Obama, Ali -- who had no prior acting experience -- is the son of a mixed-race couple and moved from the United States to Indonesia as a toddler.


He speaks Indonesian and English, just as Obama switched between his mother-tongue with his parents and Indonesian with his friends.


Clips available on the Internet show "little Barry" learning to box with his stepfather after getting into a shoolyard fight, but ultimately learning to resolve conflicts through means other than violence.


"You're from the West, but black. You've got weird hair and a big nose," a neighbourhood boy replies when Obama introduces himself as Barry.


"We have to stick together to achieve our goals and resolve our problems and fights," Barry later tells his friends.


Dematra said: "When Obama first arrived, local kids rejected him as he didn't look like them. There was a scene where Obama was bullied and he had to fight. He fought and he won and then they accepted him".


Dematra said he did not want the film to be political, but to give viewers a sense of how Indonesia's cultural diversity -- mostly Muslim but with significant Hindu, Christian and other minorities -- might have influenced "this pluralist and inspiring figure".


The 100-minute film, produced by local company Multivision Plus Pictures, was due to debut earlier in June to coincide with a visit by Obama to his old hometown.


But the trip, like another scheduled for March, was postponed due to pressing issues in the United States. Obama is now expected in November.


"I was disappointed about the delays. If Obama sees the film, I'm sure he'll have a couple of minutes of reflection about his past. It will be a sweet memory for him," Dematra said.


The makers are hoping to release the film internationally in September.

Triple-Digit Heat Wave Sends Many To Pools, Beaches, Seeking Relief From The Late-Breaking Sunshine


Coco Gruber and her daughter Katelyn Gruber, 4, of San Fernando, cool off at the San Fernando Regional Pool Facilty wednesday as temperatures headed into the triple digits. The forecast is for even hotter temeratures at the end of the week.









When the sun finally dredged itself out of the fog this week, Los Angeles rejoiced in its belated glow.



But when the mercury shot into triple-digit temps Wednesday, it proclaimed the true start of summer.



"The color's back," said surfer Bob Klewitz, 60, of Woodland Hills, an Arleta High School teacher surveying the sunrise break on Wednesday at Surfrider Beach. "It's classic Malibu. The waves glisten. They shimmer. It's indescribable.



"I would say summer is declared official."



Sun-worshippers grumbled when May Gray morphed into June Gloom, which sulked into mid-July. But after weeks of a moist marine layer that refused to budge, the rays shone through without a hint of the blues.



The above-normal heat - as much as 10 degrees in some areas - is expected to peak Friday and last through Sunday. Temperatures could soar to 105 degrees in the San Fernando Valley and 109 in the Antelope Valley.



Four Valley communities reached the triple-digit mark Wednesday, with Woodland Hills leading the pack at 103, Chatsworth and Van Nuys, coming in at 101, and Northridge hitting 100.



Forecasters said the moist early summer veered into a fiery July with little time for residents to peel off their layers.



"Ouch!," said Bill Patzert, climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Ca ada-Flintridge. "This is called whiplash - from drizzle to sizzle in three or four days.



"Summer has not only begun,but it's begun with a vengeance."



Sunshine credits go to a high-pressure system from the Sonoran Desert, which cleared away the long-standing low- pressure blues, weather forecasters say.



But the Arizona blast may bring some monsoonal humidity that may make many Angelenos miserable.



"L.A. will be another swamp," said Bill Hoffer, a weather specialist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard. "Go to the beach, go to the malls, go to the bars, I guess. Drink Gatorade.



"Get some relief."



Early Wednesday, many took to the beach as the sun rose over the Santa Monica Mountains, sending waves of orange under the Malibu Pier.



Joanna Pardo and Austin Barrett, two wilderness rangers on break from federal jobs near Yosemite, had slept in their car in order to catch the moment.



"This is special," said Barrett, 21, of Dallas, Texas. "The sun ... it's starting to feel itself."



Walkers waded the waterline. Early sunbathers opened summer novels upon the sand.



And as clam-diggers scooped their limit in pools of an emerging tide, the surfers basked in the dawn of summer.



Jonathan Mariande, before waxing his 7-foot-4 Yater board, applied some of the first sunscreen of the season.



"At the right time of day, (Malibu is) paradise," said Mariande, 27, of Studio City.



"It's a beach day," said Nina Stutzman, 40, of San Clemente, cradling a Dan Brown novel while watching her 14-year-old son surf. "I'm so happy the sun's out, finally."



"Fabulous!," added Vera Soares, 45, of Malibu, strolling in sunshine.



Some, however, said the September-like temperatures follow an especially dry spring and could make for a trying fire season, which began with spot fires this week in Los Angeles and Camarillo.



"We have a La Ni a building, and it looks like a long dry summer," Patzert said. "If the Santa Anas arrive this fall before the rains, it's not only going to be scorching.



"It's going to be incendiary."

Fears Grow As Millions Lose U.S. Jobless Benefits

Alonzo Allen stands outside the apartment where he lives with his dog and sole companion, Ginger in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 7, 2010. Allen, 55, a former aid agency worker in Cincinnati whose benefits will run out in September, spends two days a week volunteering at the food bank in Over-the-Rhine and the other three looking for work. He said he worries about the one-bedroom apartment he rents and how he will feed his dog Ginger, who is the "only family I have."



CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Deborah Coleman lost her unemployment benefits in April, and now fears for millions of others if the Senate does not extend aid for the jobless.

"It's too late for me now," she said, fighting back tears at the Freestore Foodbank in the low-income Over-the-Rhine district near downtown Cincinnati. "But it will be terrible for the people who'll lose their benefits if Congress does nothing."

For nearly two years, Coleman says she has filed an average of 30 job applications a day, but remains jobless.

"People keep telling me there are jobs out there, but I haven't been able to find them."

Coleman, 58, a former manager at a telecommunications firm, said the only jobs she found were over the Ohio state line in Kentucky, but she cannot reach them because her car has been repossessed and there is no bus service to those areas.

After her $300 a week benefits ran out, Freestore Foodbank brokered emergency 90-day support in June for rent. Once that runs out, her future is uncertain.

"I've lost everything and I don't know what will happen to me," she said.

The recession -- the worst U.S. downturn since the 1930s -- has left some 8 million people like Coleman out of work.

Unemployment has remained stubbornly high at around 9.5 percent. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in June 6.8 million people or 45.5 percent of the total are long-term unemployed, or jobless for 27 weeks or more.

Before the recession began in late 2007, the unemployed received benefits, usually a few hundred dollars a week, for 26 weeks or around six months after losing their jobs.

Under the federal/state programs, which are administered by state governments and partly funded by taxes on business, only full-time workers are eligible for benefits. Within federal guidelines, benefits and eligibility vary from state to state.

As the downturn left more Americans out of work for longer periods, Congress voted to provide funding to extend benefits to as long as 99 weeks in some areas.

Some critics say this adds to the country's large fiscal deficit, and may even discourage job-seeking.


FOOD BANKS FEAR STRAIN

An attempt to pass another extension has become bogged down in partisan political bickering in the Senate. Relief agencies fear that failure to extend benefits will strain their resources and may worsen the U.S. housing crisis.

"This will put a great deal of stress and strain on our organization, which has already been working hard," said Vicki Escarra, chief executive of Feeding America, which has a network of more than 200 food banks. In the year ended June 30, Feeding America distributed 3 billion pounds (1.36 billion kg) of food, a 50 percent increase over the past two years.

The benefits debate has pitted the majority of Democrats against most Republicans and some conservative Democrats.

When the House of Representatives passed a $34 billion benefit extension on July 1, 11 fiscally conservative Democrats voted against it. The Senate may take up the issue again in mid-July, but Republicans like Senator Tom Coburn have argued any extension must be paid for with cuts elsewhere.

"Even then he (Coburn) is not sure if that's a good idea," said John Hart, a spokesman for the Oklahoma senator. "The longer the unemployed have benefits, the less incentive there is to find a job."

Most economists argue that cutting benefits could slow recovery, describing benefits as direct economic stimulus because almost every penny of it gets spent. In a June 28 client note, Goldman Sachs said if all additional U.S. stimulus spending expires, it could slow the economy up to 1.5 percentage points from the fourth quarter 2010 to the second quarter of 2011.

The note added that extending unemployment benefits and a $400 tax credit would "substantially mitigate" that impact.


3 MILLION CUT OFF IN TWO MONTHS

During the Senate impasse, from the week ended June 5 to the week ended July 10, more than 2.1 million Americans lost their benefits. Another million will join them by July 31.

In Ohio alone, where unemployment stood at 10.7 percent in May, more than 83,000 people lost their benefits in June.

Sister Barbara Busch, executive director of non-profit housing group Working in Neighborhoods in Cincinnati, 65 percent of the people who come seeking help with their mortgages are unemployed or underemployed.

"I fear once the benefits run out, I suspect we'll see a new wave of foreclosures," she said. "I just hope I'm wrong."

Ohio is a bellwether U.S. state in elections. The state's Democratic attorney general Richard Cordray said blocking extending jobless benefits was politically motivated ahead of the midterm elections in November.

"If people lose their benefits they will blame the congressional majority and the administration," he said. "As unappetizing as it is, that would appear to be the strategy."

Senator Coburn's spokesman Hart said suggestions the Republicans were playing partisan politics were "ludicrous."

"The Democrats say that because they want to avoid making the hard decisions," he said.

Alonzo Allen, 55, a former aid agency worker in Cincinnati whose benefits will run out in September, spends two days a week volunteering at the food bank in Over-the-Rhine and the other three looking for work. He said he worries about the one-bedroom apartment he rents and how he will feed his dog Ginger, who is the "only family I have."

"If the benefits stop, I'll be out on the street and I'll lose all my furniture," he said. "That's going to be tough."


(Editing by Eric Walsh)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S BIRTHDAY IS TODAY (AUGUST 4, 2010)!!!!!!!!!!






Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama may be celebrating his 49th birthday (today) Wednesday Aug. 4, 2010 without his wife and daughters, but CNN has learned there will be a hush-hush party at the White House on Sunday with close family and friends to make it up to him.


Two top White House aides confirmed the belated birthday bash on the condition of anonymity because the details are a state secret around the corridors of the West Wing.


"There will be some stuff Sunday," a top adviser to the president said vaguely without giving away any of the details.


The president is celebrating his birthday without his immediate family because first lady Michelle Obama just arrived in Spain for a planned mini-vacation with the couple's youngest daughter, Sasha, while eldest daughter, Malia, is away at summer camp.


But contrary to some news reports, the president will not be celebrating his birthday alone on Wednesday. After delivering a speech in Washington to the AFL-CIO about the economic recovery and having lunch at the White House with a group of Democratic senators, the president is heading to Chicago in the late afternoon. Aides say he is expected to have a quiet dinner with some close friends back home.


On Thursday, the president will tour a Ford plant in Chicago to highlight the auto industry's rebound, followed by some Democratic fundraising, including a bash honoring his birthday one day late.


The plans are still being put together for Sunday's birthday party, which appears likely to be a hot invite for the lucky few White House aides who get on the list.

RHINEBECK, N.Y. — Bill and Hillary Clinton have tried to shield their daughter, Chelsea, from the gaze of the public for most of her life.


But on her wedding day on Saturday, even as the Clintons sought to shroud the event in secrecy, residents and onlookers here decided they were going to celebrate along with them, invited or not.


So despite confidentiality agreements, anonymous hotel reservations and a no-fly zone established over the area, this moneyed and normally subdued town turned into a Chelsea theme park, with shop windows filled with tributes to her, including one with a live model in a wedding dress having her makeup done.


A baseball team sent its mascot, dressed up as a raccoon, parading through town with a sign asking Ms. Clinton to marry him. Teenage boys chased after former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, seeking autographs. Young women passed out slices of pizza with “I do” written in pepperoni.


Caravans of guests sped by reporters who waited forlornly in a pen on the road leading to the wedding site, while, just beyond, a dozen brown milk cows chewed on dinner.


At 7:23 p.m. came an announcement from the family via e-mail: Ms. Clinton was now married to Marc Mezvinsky.


“Today, we watched with great pride and overwhelming emotion as Chelsea and Marc wed in a beautiful ceremony at Astor Courts, surrounded by family and their close friends,” the Clintons said. “We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the beginning of their life together, and we are so happy to welcome Marc into our family.”


The former president and Mrs. Clinton, the secretary of state, also thanked Rhinebeck for its welcome and good wishes.


Ms. Clinton, 30, wore a strapless gown, beaded at the waist and designed by Vera Wang (who caused a commotion of her own when she showed up in town on Saturday). The mother of the bride wore a plum-colored gown by Oscar de la Renta.


The interfaith ceremony was conducted by Rabbi James Ponet and the Rev. William Shillady. Ms. Clinton is Methodist, and Mr. Mezvinsky is Jewish.


It included elements from both traditions: friends and family reading the Seven Blessings, which are typically recited at traditional Jewish weddings following the vows and exchange of rings.


A friend of the couple read the poem “The Life That I Have” by Leo Marks.


Many of the guests were friends of the bride and groom from college and work; they both attended Stanford University, and Ms. Clinton recently received her master’s degree from Columbia University’s Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health.


Family flew in, too. The president’s half-brother, Roger Clinton, was spotted in town in a T-shirt and track pants hours before the wedding.


Marie Clinton Bruno, a cousin of the president’s, reminisced about a 10-year-old Chelsea appearing as a bridesmaid at her own wedding, which was held at the Governor’s Mansion in Little Rock, Ark., in 1990. That day, Chelsea wore a pale pink dress with ruffles on the shoulders and tended to the artificial flowers in the bride’s bouquet.


“She was just a wonderful bridesmaid,” Ms. Bruno said. “She’s just as wonderful today as she was back then.”


As she strolled through Rhinebeck, Ms. Bruno spoke approvingly of the location: “It reminds me of the Ozarks in Arkansas, except more chic.”


President Clinton appeared to have followed his daughter’s instructions and lost quite a bit of weight for the ceremony. She had ordered him to lose 15 pounds, but people close to him said he had actually lost more than 20.


While the media and local residents have been buzzing for months about celebrities who were expected here — including Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg and John Major, the former British prime minister — none of those particular bold-faced names were invited.


Still, there was star power: One of the most prominent guests was Vernon Jordan, a longtime confidant of Mr. Clinton’s and a family friend.


But he was not generally recognized by the gawkers here as he strode into a cocktail reception Friday night. One man in the crowd authoritatively identified him as Hamilton Jordan, who was a top aide to former President Jimmy Carter and who died in 2008.


Another man in the crowd declared that Vernon Jordan was actually Warren Buffett.


The media pack surrounded the actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, who are married, with the force of a sudden summer storm. “We must be the only celebrities in town,” Mr. Danson said. “I’m sorry.”


Linda Ennis, a Clinton fan who drove more than an hour in hopes of glimpsing the former president and possibly the bride, seemed star-struck about Ms. Clinton. Like many here, she said she had watched Ms. Clinton grow up, then compared her grace to that of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.


“She’s turned into such a beauty,” Ms. Ennis said.


“It’s royalty,” her friend, Arlene Newman, added. “It’s our royalty.”


Photos released by the Clintons showed the former president looking solemn as he walked his daughter down an aisle created by rows of white chairs against a backdrop of arched windows and columns that evoked the White House. They also showed Ms. Clinton bursting with joy at several moments during the ceremony.


Jim Valli and his band provided music at the reception (the couple’s good friend Tim Blane and his band played at the rehearsal dinner). The reception was catered by the St. Regis Hotel (the rehearsal dinner by Blue Ribbon Restaurants). La Tulipe Desserts made the gluten-free wedding cake.


Mr. Mezvinsky, an investment banker at 3G Capital Management and a son of two former Democratic members of Congress, proposed to Ms. Clinton over Thanksgiving weekend, and the pair released a statement to friends joyfully wishing them a happy Thanksgiving and telling them about their wedding plans. The couple lives in a three-bedroom apartment on Lower Fifth Avenue in New York with views of Madison Square Park and the Flatiron Building; Mr. Mezvinsky bought the apartment in 2008 for $4 million.


Maureen Missner, whose shop, Paper Trail, was believed to be helping to prepare the gift bags, said this wedding felt different from one last year in the area, when the actor Griffin Dunne was married and residents spotted stars like Hugh Jackman.


She said that comparing it to Mr. Dunne’s wedding put these festivities into perspective. “This is not a star-studded wedding,” Ms. Missner said. “This is clearly about the bride and groom.”

Rapper T.I. and Singer Tiny Get Married (July 31, 2010)

Superstar ATL rapper T.I. and his longtime leading lady Tameka "Tiny" Cottle got married in Miami, Florida. They first sealed the deal in a Miami courthouse on July 30, 2010 according to a wedding license provided by TMZ. Then on Saturday, July 31 they tied the knot in a lavish private ceremony in front of close family and friends on Star island off the coast of Miami in a major celebrity mansion ( rumored to be Lebron James estate).


Tiny was ready to walk the aisle in her beautiful Valentino wedding gown, while the "Da King of the South" TI was rocking PRADA. Her bridesmaids were: Kandi of Real Housewives of Atlanta and former Xscape group mate, R&B singer Monica, and her reality show mate Toya Carter (former ex wife of Lil Wayne). The colors were platinum and black. There were a lot of A-LIST celebs who attended their wedding.



Some the stars who were on the guestlist for the wedding were:

Atlantic Records Executives

Lebron James

Diddy

Jay Z & Beyonce

Judy Greenwald (Atlantic Records)

Kevin Lyles

DJ Toomp

Ryan Cameron

Trey Songz

Kandi Burruss

Chelsea Lately

Young Jeezy

Attorney Dwight Howard

Antonia Carter

Jason Geter

Keri Hilson

Tyra Banks

Chris Brown

Monique

DJ Khalid

DJ Greg Street

Jamie Foster Brown



According to US Magazine, "They plan on returning to their hometown of Atlanta for a reception Saturday afternoon before jetting off to Las Vegas to celebrate with friends into the wee hours." They will plan to return to Atlanta early next week, so you can expect the party to keep going.


Tiny told Vibe earlier this year, "We living, we're happy, we're in love. I mean, it's no doubt in my mind that he doesn't love every piece of me and vice versa, so we're just doing what's comfortable and what works for us. Tiny and T.I.: Not for the world," Tiny told Vibe magazine. "When we get ready to make a move, we will make it. We just can't do it for everybody."


I guess Tiny did get her wish with an intimate private ceremony and the fairytale wedding she dreamed of. They truly celebrated their nuptials in style and I wish this hip-hop couple much continued success and blessings! I love them together!

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats Marry (July 31, 2010)

(

CNN) -- R&B power couple Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz have tied the knot, Keys' representatives confirmed to CNN on Sunday.



The two were married Saturday at a private residence overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.



Keys, 29, a 12-time Grammy-award winning singer, wore a Grecian-inspired, one-shoulder Vera Wang gown. Her groom, a DJ/producer/rapper, wore a tuxedo designed by Tom Ford that featured a white jacket and pale pink shirt.



The couple are expecting a child together.



Swizz Beatz and Keys have been friends for several years and worked together on one song for her current album, "The Element of Freedom."

L.A. Times Compton Centennial High School News

Vigil to be held tonight for Mitrice Richardson

Daily News Wire Services
Posted: 08/16/2010 11:38:11 AM PDT

Mitrice Richardson is seen here in a photo distributed after she went missing following her September 2009 arrest in Malibu. A candlelight vigil for the missing woman whose remains were recently found was scheduled to be held tonight, according to a family member blog "Bring Mitrice Richardson Home."
The vigil for Mitrice Richardson was scheduled for 6 p.m. at Leimert Plaza Park near the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Vernon Avenue in South Los Angeles.

Richardson disappeared in September after being released in the middle of the night from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Malibu/Lost Hills Station. Her remains were found last Monday, a few miles away from the station.

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2010:THE 5th YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF HURRICANE KATRINA IS THIS WEEK
Hurricane Katrina Dates
Date/Dates and Times for Hurricane Katrina
Formed August 23, 2005


You can argue over the details, but the government videos and White House photos make one thing clear. Bush is not a take-charge President. He did nothing during the crucial two days. He's not even a "can I lend a hand" President. In the briefing the day before, he made not one suggestion—did not even ask a question.
The day-ahead warnings were dramatically clear. Next morning, as Katrina hit New Orleans, Bush left his ranch for a drug-benefits, politicking tour starting with a birthday celebration for McCain, then a visit to "El Mirage Country Club", then on to Cucamonga, California. He missed that day's video conference on Katrina. Next day he continued his tour in California.
His sole contribution was to “assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared” the day before.” That assurance flies in the face of everything he had just been told, and could not have proved more wrong.
White House photos taken while Katrina destroyed New Oreans.
McCain Birthday El Mirage Country Club Rancho Cucamonga

Bush celebrates as levee breached

__________________________________________________________

Timeline of President Bush doing nothing to help:


Aug. 25, 6:30pm Katrina hits Florida (Category 1 Storm).

Aug. 28, 12:30pm Bush was warned "...whether the levees will be topped or not, that's obviously a very, very grave concern." Asked no questions.

Aug. 28 Mayor Nagin tells CNN "as soon as the levee systems are breached, there will be a tremendous amount of water, anywhere from 15 to 20 feet of water in some parts of New Orleans." Orders mandatory evacuation.

Aug. 29, 6:10am Hurricane Katrina reaches New Orleans.

Aug. 29, 8am Levees Overtopped.

Aug. 29, 9:12am National weather service gets report of levee breach.

Aug. 29, 11am After McCain birthday, Bush talks at El Mirage RV park, AZ.

Aug. 29, 12pm Bush misses video briefing on Katrina.

Aug. 29, 4:40 Bush appears at Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Aug. 30 Bush continues speaking tour in California.

Sept. 1, 7am Bush: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." (Now a Category 5 Storm)

_________________________________________________________


Who Gets Money? Priorities
There's a Video that Shows that President Bush Was Fully Warned Before Katrina Hit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 1, 2006
(Bush celebrates McCain's Birthday as Katrina breaches levees)

Bush celebrates as levee breachedWASHINGTON (AP)—In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

The footage—along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press—show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Linked by secure video, Bush's confidence on Aug. 28 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.

A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees and then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.

"I'm concerned about ... their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe," Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.

Some of the footage and transcripts from briefings Aug. 25-31 conflicts with the defenses that federal, state and local officials have made in trying to deflect blame and minimize the political fallout from the failed Katrina response:

—Homeland Security officials have said the "fog of war" blinded them early on to the magnitude of the disaster. But the video and transcripts show federal and local officials discussed threats clearly, reviewed long-made plans and understood Katrina would wreak devastation of historic proportions. "I'm sure it will be the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done," National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warned the day Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast.

"I don't buy the `fog of war' defense," Brown told the AP in an interview Wednesday. "It was a fog of bureaucracy."

—Bush declared four days after the storm, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility—and Bush was worried too.

White House deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Brown discussed fears of a levee breach the day the storm hit.

"I talked to the president twice today, once in Crawford and then again on Air Force One," Brown said. "He's obviously watching the television a lot, and he had some questions about the Dome, he's asking questions about reports of breaches."

—Louisiana officials angrily blamed the federal government for not being prepared but the transcripts shows they were still praising FEMA as the storm roared toward the Gulf Coast and even two days afterward. "I think a lot of the planning FEMA has done with us the past year has really paid off," Col. Jeff Smith, Louisiana's emergency preparedness deputy director, said during the Aug. 28 briefing.

It wasn't long before Smith and other state officials sounded overwhelmed.

"We appreciate everything that you all are doing for us, and all I would ask is that you realize that what's going on and the sense of urgency needs to be ratcheted up," Smith said Aug. 30.

Mississippi begged for more attention in that same briefing.

"We know that there are tens or hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana that need to be rescued, but we would just ask you, we desperately need to get our share of assets because we'll have people dying—not because of water coming up, but because we can't get them medical treatment in our affected counties," said a Mississippi state official whose name was not mentioned on the tape.

Video footage of the Aug. 28 briefing, the final one before Katrina struck, showed an intense Brown voicing concerns from the government's disaster operation center and imploring colleagues to do whatever was necessary to help victims.

"We're going to need everything that we can possibly muster, not only in this state and in the region, but the nation, to respond to this event," Brown warned. He called the storm "a bad one, a big one" and implored federal agencies to cut through red tape to help people, bending rules if necessary.

"Go ahead and do it," Brown said. "I'll figure out some way to justify it. ... Just let them yell at me."

Bush appeared from a narrow, windowless room at his vacation ranch in Texas, with his elbows on a table. Hagin was sitting alongside him. Neither asked questions in the Aug. 28 briefing.

"I want to assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared to not only help you during the storm, but we will move in whatever resources and assets we have at our disposal after the storm," the president said.

A relaxed Chertoff, sporting a polo shirt, weighed in from Washington at Homeland Security's operations center. He would later fly to Atlanta, outside of Katrina's reach, for a bird flu event.

One snippet captures a missed opportunity on Aug. 28 for the government to have dispatched active-duty military troops to the region to augment the National Guard.

Chertoff: "Are there any DOD assets that might be available? Have we reached out to them?"

Brown: "We have DOD assets over here at EOC (emergency operations center). They are fully engaged. And we are having those discussions with them now."

Chertoff: "Good job."

In fact, active duty troops weren't dispatched until days after the storm. And many states' National Guards had yet to be deployed to the region despite offers of assistance, and it took days before the Pentagon deployed active-duty personnel to help overwhelmed Guardsmen.

The National Hurricane Center's Mayfield told the final briefing before Katrina struck that storm models predicted minimal flooding inside New Orleans during the hurricane but he expressed concerns that counterclockwise winds and storm surges afterward could cause the levees at Lake Pontchartrain to be overrun.

"I don't think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not but that is obviously a very, very grave concern," Mayfield told the briefing.

Other officials expressed concerns about the large number of New Orleans residents who had not evacuated.

"They're not taking patients out of hospitals, taking prisoners out of prisons and they're leaving hotels open in downtown New Orleans. So I'm very concerned about that," Brown said.

Despite the concerns, it ultimately took days for search and rescue teams to reach some hospitals and nursing homes.

Brown also told colleagues one of his top concerns was whether evacuees who went to the New Orleans Superdome—which became a symbol of the failed Katrina response—would be safe and have adequate medical care.

"The Superdome is about 12 feet below sea level.... I don't know whether the roof is designed to stand, withstand a Category Five hurricane," he said.

Brown also wanted to know whether there were enough federal medical teams in place to treat evacuees and the dead in the Superdome.

"Not to be (missing) kind of gross here," Brown interjected, "but I'm concerned" about the medical and mortuary resources "and their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe."

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Spike Lee Explores New Orleans' Woes In New Film (Airing Monday 8/23/10 & Tuesday 8/24/10 on HBO at 9pm)

by FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer


Published: Sunday, August 22, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 10:28 p.m.

NEW YORK — Spike Lee's new HBO documentary starts on a high note: Super Bowl Sunday 2010, when the New Orleans Saints claim victory over the Indianapolis Colts.

In this publicity image released by HBO, Phyllis Montana-Leblanc wears a New Orleans Saints football jersey in a scene from the Spike Lee documentary, "If God is Willind and Da Creek Don't Rise."
AP Photo/HBO, David Lee


Saints fans, many still reeling from Hurricane Katrina's aftershocks, are deliriously happy.

“It's a rebirth,” says an overjoyed New Orleans native.

“It's divine intervention, man,” says another local.

But cautionary words are voiced as well. The Saints are world champions, but in the real world there are bills to pay and neighborhoods to rebuild.

Then, only 17 minutes into “If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise,” the BP oil spill enters the narrative.

“We sold our soul for the Super Bowl,” says Dean Blanchard, fearful that he might lose his seafood business.

The party is over.

Lee, the gifted director and documentarian, had long planned a return to the Gulf Coast for a five-year follow-up to his acclaimed “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.”

He began shooting Feb. 7, when the Super Bowl was played. The triumph by the Saints seemed a glorious conclusion for his new film.

“We thought we had our ending on the first day,” Lee said in a recent interview. “Little did we know.”

By the time the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and releasing a gusher of oil, Lee had wrapped production and was well into the editing process.

“But I knew we had to make that a part of the piece,” he said.

He does, dwelling on the BP disaster for roughly 40 minutes of the four-hour, two-part “If God Is Willing,” which premieres Monday and Tuesday on HBO (9 p.m. EDT).

But there is much more on his mind and in his film.


The stage is set with painful, all-too-familiar images of Katrina's immediate wrath in 2005.

Then, as the film goes on, the government's failure to protect New Orleans from the storm surge is compounded by seemingly endless failures to aid the recovery. Former residents who want to come home remain displaced. Public education continues to struggle. Health care needs are still unmet. The police department is in shambles. And on and on.

The five years didn't pass without successes, and the film covers those as well. They include a legal victory against the Army Corps of Engineers for shoddy maintenance of a navigation channel that resulted in some of the worst flooding. And there are nonprofit reconstruction efforts such as Make It Right, led by actor Brad Pitt, that have built affordable, storm-resistant homes in the Lower 9th Ward.

But then, just months after the Super Bowl win, the BP disaster struck.

“The story was changing every day,” Lee recalled. “We had to keep adapting, to stay on top of it as best as possible.”

Scores of people share their stories on-camera, including ordinary, often overlooked local figures. There are also experts and advocates, plus familiar faces such as former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, as well as Pitt and fellow celebrity activist Sean Penn.

To his credit, former FEMA Director Michael Brown is among those who participate.

Like other interview subjects who, when it counted, fell short, Brown points fingers. He says former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff “didn't know what he was doing. Let's be frank.”

He also offers context for the widely derided tribute — “Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job” — laid on him by President George W. Bush.

“If you look at that video clip closely, you'll see me wince,” says Brown, and, replayed in the documentary, it bears out his claim.

The date was Sept. 2, 2005, in Mobile, Ala., and, prior to the live TV appearance, “I had been describing to the president how bad things were. Telling him what I needed. Why things weren't working. ... And then we walk out and he makes that comment, and I'm like, ‘What the hell!” '

Neither Bush nor Chertoff made themselves available to Lee, nor — flashing ahead to the oil spill — does Tony Hayward, then CEO of BP. Still, Hayward is well represented by the infamous clip where he expresses his longing to get “my life back,” as well as in the soothingly scripted commercial where he states his regret for the oil spill, promises to make it right and adds his thanks “for the strong support of the government.”

But it goes beyond “strong support,” said Lee, who believes BP has been allowed to call the shots in its own interest, and often counter to the public good.

“What has been puzzling people, and I include myself, is how much BP has had control of the situation,” he said, echoing a sentiment heard from many in his film.

Heartbreaking but defiant, “If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise” picks up where “Levees” left off, as a catalog of plagues that largely could have been averted.

Why they weren't is not so puzzling, said Lee. “It's greed.”

6 Signs That You've Made It To The Middle Class

Not so long ago, most people viewed the hallmarks of success as something along the lines of a house, a white picket fence, two weeks vacation, two children and the ability to send those kids to college. Today, the middle class is a vanishing breed according to nearly every survey and statistic on the topic. Its disappearance is of such grave concern to the fabric of American society that the U.S. government launched a task force to explore the issue. Despite all of the attention to the subject, defining "middle class" remains a challenge, as everyone wants to be in the middle regardless of their income. Instead of focusing on the dollars, let's take a look at the lifestyle benchmarks that define middle class status.

Have You Made it to the Middle?
A wide variety of numbers have been thrown around in an effort to define the middle. People earning 20% of the average income and people earning 80% all claim to be part of the middle class. More than a few millionaires make the claim too. While there is no official financial standard, the middle class as defined by the government task force is characterized in terms of six financial aspirations, which we can view as benchmarks.

•Home Ownership
Home ownership remains the American dream. The step up from renting to owning signifies prosperity and achievement. With median home prices ranges differing by so much in different cities across the United States, the ability to achieve this goal varies significantly by geographical location. Someone earning an income in the 50% range in Detroit may not be able to afford even a small house in Los Angeles.


•Automobile Ownership
Owning an automobile provides freedom of movement and the luxury of avoiding the limited schedules and cramped quarters offered by mass transportation options such as buses and subways. Here again, the cost of cars varying widely, as does the kind of automobile required. For one driver, a used Hyundai will do the trick. For another, a new BMW signifies the achievement of this goal.


•A College Education for the Kids
Helping children get ahead in life is a primary goal for middle class families. Paying for a college education for children can cost anywhere from the low tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands. Decisions about which university of college to attend can have a significant impact on the price tag.

•Retirement Security
Retirement is a goal nearly everyone wants to achieve. It demonstrates success and provides a reward for decades of hard work. Once again, definitions make a difference. The amount of gold required to support your golden years will vary significantly depending on whether you want a staff of 10 at your villa in the South of France or a townhouse in Peoria, Illinois.


•Health Care Coverage
The ability to obtain healthcare is an important goal for middle class wager earners and their families. The high and rising cost of medical care and prescription drugs make healthcare coverage an ever-increasing need, as going without it can have serious negative financial implications in the event of a severe illness or injury.


•Family Vacation
The family vacation is a middle class staple. Vacations demonstrate that a family has disposable income and has been successful enough to take time away from work to focus on leisure.

What Happened on the Way to the Dream?
Globalization and technological advances began to reverse the growth of the middle class. The manufacturing base in the United States changed, as good-paying jobs in factories and heavy industries went overseas to lower-paying markets and labor unions lost much of their ability to bargain for high wages and good benefits. Later, white-collar jobs from accounting and data entry to reading medical images and answering telephones in call centers were also sent offshore. Many jobs that remained in the U.S. were eliminated by computers and other technological advancements that increased productivity.

To achieve or maintain a middle-class lifestyle, many households became two-income families. Achieving middle class goals became more difficult as employers eliminated their pension plans and defined-benefit plans, the cost of a college education continued to rise and the cost of healthcare jumped. For most of the 20-year period following 1990, the Commerce Department reports that real median income grew at a rate of about 20%, while the cost of a college education grew between 43% and 60%, the cost of housing rose 56% and healthcare costs jumped by 155%.

How to Get There
Although there are significant challenges to obtaining middle class status, there are some proactive steps that can help make the dream a reality. Budgeting is one of the most obvious. Understanding where your money goes each month can help you determine the exact makeup of the benchmarks you are trying to match. Are you looking for a Hyundai or a BMW?

Planning is another crucial step. Are the kids going to a state university or a private college? Are scholarships an option? Some savvy families find money for college by participating in programs which can aide families with the costs related to sending a child to university.

Working is another one of the requirements. A second job or a side business might be just what you need to boost your income and achieve some of your goals. Putting your money to work is also an important consideration. Investing has helped build wealth for generations. In fact, income earners ranked in the top 1% enjoyed significant increases in wealth even as the middle class fell into decline. Most of that wealth came from investments. Even if you don't have the means to invest for current income, you can take a few dollars from each paycheck and save for your retirement.

The Bottom Line
Don't underestimate the role of hard work and luck. Sometimes being in the right place at the right time or taking one particular course of action over another can make all the difference. So keep watching for opportunities and make the most of them when you find them. As motion-picture mogul Samuel Goldwyn said, "The harder I work, the luckier I get."

Social Networking Sites: Do You Send Out Friend Requests on Facebook, MySpace, Classmates.com, etc.?

How many Social Networking Sites are you a member of? There is every chance that if you are active online, then you are just not a member of one site, you are a member of probably 3 or even more.

And if you are an active online social networker, are you building a friend list of thousands or is your friends list just growing organically?

Everyone on the internet may have different strategies and ways of building their brand online – but how many of these people network online the same way that they do offline?

Most social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. have the facility of letting you add a message when you send out a Friend Request or invitation to connect (wording depending on which site you are on). Yet, hardly anyone uses it.

If you were are at a face-to-face networking event, would you consider barging in to a group of people and start shoving your business card in to everyone’s hands?

No, probably you wouldn’t. (At least I hope you wouldn’t!)

You would introduce yourself. Probably shake a hand and ask who the other person was. You would start a conversation.

So, why can’t people do this online? It seems too easy to go down a big list of contacts and click the friend request button in the vague hope that the other person will confirm that request quicker than you can wink.

Now, if you are building a mailing list so that you can start sending out Class Reunion messages, then you go for it. You may as well start shoving business cards out at networking events and hiring a team of telesales reps to call from a list of yellow pages. You will get the same hit rate!

If you are networking online and using the social networking sites to help Classmates reconnect, raise awareness of your Classmates and generally reach out to Classmates and Alumni, then stop and ask yourself how you are inviting people to join your network.

If you would shake someone by the hand and introduce yourself at a face-to-face meeting, do the same online. It may take longer in the short term, but the Classmate and Alumni relationships will be stronger in the long term.

GO AHEAD AND MAKE FRIENDS: IN FACT MAKE AS MANY FRIENDS AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN AND MOST OF ALL GOOD LUCK ON YOUR NEXT CLASS REUNION!

P.S. For those Classmates who receive a Friend Requests: Go ahead and ACCEPT IT. Who knows it just may be the only FRIEND REQUEST that you receive (and it is at least from a Classmate or from an Alumni, someone that you have something in common with already because you both attended the same school).

Actor Brad Pitts' "MAKE IT RIGHT FOUNDATION" Builds Homes In The 9th Ward of Louisiana After Hurricane Katrina



Pitts goal was to build 150 Homes in the 9th Ward. As of today 73 Homes have been built for Families. The Homes are able to be built by Pitt as well as by those who donate for them.Families who receive the Homes pay a small cost as well.

Kudos to Mr. Pitt and his "Make It Right Foundation". Along with Pitt, Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and many other Celebrities have started built Homes for Hurricane Katrina victims. Hurricane Katrina not only destroyed Homes in Louisiana but it destroyed Homes in Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama. But Louisiana was the hardest hit by the hurricane.


These are some of the Homes that have been built so far by Pitts Foundation (Oprah Winfrey's Homes & Tyler Perry's Homes were not found Online):

Photos Of The World's Shortest Man (Who Lives in Bogota, Columbia)!!

Photos of the (Guinness World Records) Shortest Man: Edward Nino Hernandez who is 24 years old, who is 70.21 cm (2 ft 3.46 inches), Edward has been recognized as the world's Shortest Man in the upcoming Guinness World Records 2011 book.

Edward leaning on his Mom's leg

Edward eating with his 11 year old brother

Walking with brother

Walking with mother

With his Guinness Framed Certificate

Bedtime for Edward

With the family dogs

Break Dance Performer at his Job

Edward waiting for the bus to go to work

Edward holding the 2011 Guinness World Record Book

World's Most Valuable Brands Named


Top 100 Global Brands: Apple Soars, BP Slumps and Coke's Still No. 1

Brand consultant Interbrand is out with its annual top 100 "Best Global Brands" ranking, with Coca-Cola topping the list for the eleventh straight year.

"They are ruthlessly consistent in the way they deliver their brand," says Jez Frampton, group CEO at Interbrand. "They are a fantastic case study about how to do it properly. "

On the other hand, BP could be a case study in what not to do when it comes to managing a brand. In the wake of the Gulf spill, BP fell out of the top 100 rankings after being on the list for nine years.".

"We all know how they handled the tactical issues around the spill itself. What they really haven't given us is a clear view to where BP is going in the longer term," Frampton says. "How would you feel right now as a BP employee? Companies are only as good as the people that work for them. Giving a clear vision to people inside and out is very important to them right now."

In contrast to BP, Toyota was able to better manage its recall scandal, he notes, although the carmaker did drop to number 11 in the rankings vs. number 8 in 2009.

The Top 10 (value in millions)

1. Coca-Cola: $70,452

2. IBM: $64,727

3. Microsoft: $60,895

4. Google: $43,557

5. GE: $42,808

6. McDonald's: $33,578

7. Intel: $32,015

8. Nokia: $29,495

9. Disney: $28,731

10. H-P: $26,867

In the accompanying clip, Frampton and I discuss these and other trends in the brand ranking, including:

Tech Rules: Technology firms -- IBM, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Nokia and HP -- comprise six of the top 10 global brands. Apple is "only" number 17, which seems low given its mindshare (and growing market share). But Apple is the "fastest-grower in terms of brand value" among the Top 100 firms, and should continue to rise in the years ahead, Frampton predicts; barring any issues with iconic CEO Steve Jobs, that is. Yahoo! made the list at No. 66, ahead of names like Porsche and Gap.

Financial Follies: The credit crisis and its aftermath -- big bailouts and big bonuses -- did great damage to the brand value of firms like Citigroup and UBS, Frampton says. Amazingly, Goldman Sachs' actually moved up in the top 100 rankings (to number 37 vs. 38 in 2009) despite all the negative press it received last year. "Brands take time to react," Frampton says. "This has certainly affected Goldman's reputation and its brand. How this plays out in the future will depend largely on them. They have an opportunity to take a much stronger lead in the rebuilding of the financial services market."

Watch the accompanying video for Frampton's predictions on which emerging market-based companies are most likely to make the list in the future, how HP's brand looks after the scandalous departure of Mark Hurd and which company was the biggest surprise in this year's top 100.


To see the Full List of the Top 100 Brands click here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-16/coca-cola-retains-title-as...

Ex-City Manager Among 8 Arrested This Morning in Bell, California Scandal

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES – The mayor and ex-city manager of the Los Angeles suburb of Bell were among eight current and former city officials arrested Tuesday in a corruption scandal that authorities said cost the city more than $5 million in excessive salaries and illegal personal loans.


The district attorney's office said several former and current City Council members were taken into custody along with ex-city manager Robert Rizzo and Mayor Oscar Hernandez.


"This, needless to say, is corruption on steroids," District Attorney Steve Cooley said at a news conference, standing next to a display of pictures of the suspects.


The district attorney, state attorney general and others have been investigating officials in the small working-class city since it was disclosed this summer that they were paying themselves huge salaries.


Rizzo, who was making nearly $800,000 a year, was booked on 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest.


The investigations involve allegations of corruption, misuse of public funds and voter fraud in the city where one in six of the 40,000 residents live in poverty.


A message left at Rizzo's Huntington Beach home was not immediately returned.


Others arrested were former assistant city manager Angela Spaccia, Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo, council members George Mirabal and Luis Artiga, and former council members George Cole and Victor Bello.


Former Police Chief Randy Adams, who was also scrutinized in the salary scandal, was not taken into custody.


Cooley, who knew Adams when he was the police chief in Glendale, said there was no evidence he committed any crimes.


"Being paid excessive salaries is not a crime," Cooley said. "Illegally obtaining those salaries is a crime."


Prosecutors allege the suspects misappropriated more than $5.5 million, including making illegal personal loans.


The complaint also said Rizzo made $4.3 million by paying himself through different employment contracts that were not approved by the City Council, and that council members paid themselves a combined $1.25 million for what Cooley called "phantom meetings" of various city boards and agencies.


Rizzo also was accused of giving $1.9 million in loans to himself, Spaccia, Hernandez, Artiga and dozens of others, authorities said.


Most of the arrests went smoothly, though police used a battering ram at the home of Hernandez before he opened the door.


The suspects were booked into county facilities and will be kept away from other inmates for their protection, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.


The arrests were the latest twist in a scandal that emerged in July with the disclosure that Rizzo was paid almost twice the salary of President Barack Obama.


It also was revealed that Adams was making $457,000 a year, and Spaccia was paid $376,288. Four of the five City Council members paid themselves nearly $100,000 a year for their part-time service.


Rizzo, Adams and Spaccia resigned and the council members reduced their salaries to about $8,000 following the disclosures and angry public reaction.


The four council members are currently the target of a recall.


Last week, Attorney General Jerry Brown sued eight current and former officials of Bell, accusing them of defrauding taxpayers by granting themselves salaries he said were far higher than warranted for the jobs they were doing.


Cooley said the investigation was not over and more charges could be filed.


"They used the taxes of the hardworking citizens of Bell as their own piggy bank, which they looted," he said.

___

Associated Press Writer Thomas Watkins also contributed to this report.

(NEWS EXCLUSIVE)
New York: Rikers Island Guard Wins $54 Million Lottery Jackpot

E-X-C-L-U-S-I-V-E


She's been homeless, bankrupt, a robbery victim and assaulted on the job -- but radiant Rikers Island guard Garina Fearon now has 54 million glorious reasons to start living la dolce vita.


The 34-year-old single mom from East New York, Brooklyn, who has endured a lifetime of hardship and poverty, told The Post she's the mystery winner of last Friday's Mega Millions drawing.


"I wanted a better life. I was struggling as a single parent," a beaming Fearon said yesterday. "I've really come back from nothing."


She never imagined such joy was possible when she was down to her last $25 six years ago and forced to file for bankruptcy.


Hard times struck again two years later, when burglars robbed her apart ment while she was at work guarding danger ous inmates.


Fearon, who spent part of her youth in a homeless shelter with no stable family, went on to endure sickening abuse from the monsters in her care.


"She's had feces thrown in her face and on her uniform in the years that she's been there," said a fellow jail guard. "She's a tough young lady."


How she won is as re markable as her change of fortune.


Fearon said she bought the wrong ticket at a Sutter Ave nue bodega, where she went to play Powerball, not Mega Millions.


"I only play every six months or so," said Fearon, who has a 16-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter.


She held on to the ticket all weekend, and didn't think about it until Monday, when she asked a co-worker for a newspaper. She scribbled the winning numbers on the back of an inmate pass as her shift ended.


As she waited for the bus, she made the amazing discovery.


"I was about to fold up the lottery ticket," Fearon said. "Then I saw the numbers, and I started running from one part of the parking lot to the other screaming."


She still hasn't come down from her high.


"I don't know what I'm going to do," she said. "It's something unexpected."


The first thing on her "to-do" list was to talk to supervisors at the Correction Department. She said she feels too loyal to the job to let it go, even with all that money coming her way.


"I'm going to go to my job to get some days off," Fearon said. "I don't want to resign."


Fearon said it was her correction career that rescued her from her financial ruin.


Her top priority is taking care of her ailing mom.


"I'm from Jamaica," Fearon said. "I have a sick mother. She has diabetes, and I'm going to buy my mom a house in Jamaica."


Fearon said she will take the lump-sum option, which will pay her about $30 million before taxes. Beyond that, she's not sure what she'll do next.


"I don't know anything about all this kind of money," she said.

Celebrities And Their Billionaire Beaus

Couple: Janet Jackson & Wissam Al Mana
The best way to get over an ex? Snag a wealthy businessman from Quatar. Janet Jackson, 44, got together with Wissam Al Mana -- the 30-something director of the Middle Eastern luxury company Al Mana Retail -- following her breakup with longtime partner Jermaine Dupri. Jackson and Al Mana went public earlier this year, making appearances at Paris Fashion Week and on the streets of London where she'd been promoting "Why Did I Get Married Too?”

Couple: Tyra Banks & John Utendahl
It takes a strong, confident man to handle Tyra Banks. Enter John Utendahl, the dashing -- and deep-pocketed -- boyfriend of the over-the-top supermodel and entrepreneur. The pair typically keeps a low profile, but it was a special occasion Monday night when they arrived hand-in-hand to the "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps" premiere in New York. Utendahl, who is in his fifties, first hooked up with Banks, 36, in 2007 and they've been quietly dating ever since. The businessman is a veteran Wall Street banker and owner of the Utendahl Group, an investment-banking firm.

Couple: Salma Hayek & Francois-Henri Pinault
First came baby, then came marriage for Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault. The 44-year-old actress and the 48-year-old French luxury magnate -- he's the CEO of the PPR group, which oversees Gucci and Balenciaga, among other brands -- welcomed daughter Valentina in September 2007. They announced their engagement the following summer only to call it off months later. Reconciliation followed and so did two marriage ceremonies: one in City Hall in Paris and another in Venice. A win for both Hayek and Henri!

Couple: Naomi Campbell & Vladislav Doronin
Naomi Campbell met her real estate mogul boyfriend Vladislav Doronin at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and now lives with him in Moscow. The 40-year-old supermodel brought Doronin to her appearance on “Oprah” in May. Sitting in the studio audience, he revealed he was legally married but separated from his wife of more than 10 years. "We don't live together," he said. Campbell told Oprah, "I like the men to wear the pants. I don't want to wear the pants. I like men who know what they want, know what they're doing, make their own decisions."

Couple: Padma Lakshmi & Teddy Forstmann
Stunning "Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi recently celebrated her 40th birthday with a lavish dinner party hosted by the wildly wealthy Teddy Forstmann, who is 30 years her senior. The chairman and CEO of IMG talent agency reportedly hired cancan dancers, contortionists, and a marching band. (That is love!) In February, Lakshmi gave birth to her first child, daughter Krishna, now 7 months old. (Krishna's bio-dad is, reportedly, businessman Adam Dell, the younger brother of computer honcho Michael Dell.)

Texting While Driving Is Taking A Deadly Toll on Roads

(HealthDay News) -- Distracted driving fatalities caused by cell phone use and texting soared in the space of three years, according to new U.S. government research released Thursday Sept. 24, 2010..


Texting alone caused more than 16,000 deaths in car accidents from 2001 to 2007, the researchers estimated. But auto deaths involving cell phones and texting while driving rose 28 percent in just three years, from 4,572 in 2005 to 5,870 in 2008.


"The increases in distracted driving seem to be largely driven by increased use of cell phones to text," said lead researcher Fernando Wilson, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.


"Overall use of cell phones have been pretty steady, but texting volumes have increased dramatically in the last few years," he added.


Distracted driving and its deadly toll was the focus of a government summit this week in Washington, D.C., at which officials called for tougher laws to counter the growing trend. They reported that more than 5,000 people were killed last year in distracted driving crashes.


In January, the government banned truck and bus drivers who travel interstate roadways from using a handheld device to send text messages.


The latest report, published online Sept. 23 in the American Journal of Public Health, uses data from the National Center for Statistics and Analysis's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which recorded all fatalities that occurred on public roads in the United States from 1999 to 2008.


Wilson's team found that drunk drivers are less inhibited about using cell phones as they drive. And there were also increased crashes into light poles, trees and other objects, with men involved in growing numbers.


"All this is consistent with people not paying attention while they are driving," Wilson said.


Solving the problem is complex, Wilson noted. He has no ready answers, but he suggested that "we need technologies that inhibit cell phone use while driving" and that more effective law enforcement of cell phone bans would also help.


Frank Drews, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Utah, said that "this is a timely study that adds another piece to the literature on driver distraction."


Drews added: "With work like this, it will be a little bit harder to deny that cell phone use while driving has a significant negative impact on public safety. I think at this point, once again, the question comes to mind, how much more scientific evidence will politicians need to put laws in place that protect the public from the dangers associated with cell phone use while driving?"


Jennifer Smith, a board member of FocusDriven, which advocates against cell phone use while driving, put it more bluntly.


The more than 5,000 traffic deaths each year from cell phone use is "equivalent to a major airliner going down every week in this country," she said. "If that was happening, they would ground all flights until they figured out what the problem was and they solved it. But because everyone likes their cell phones, we have to debate this."


Smith noted that all cell phone use when driving -- including hands-free cell phone use -- is dangerous. "All we need to be doing in our cars is driving. No phone call is that important that you can't wait until you stop," she said.




More information

For more on distracted driving, visit the U.S. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

New Facility Highlights Black Worker Center's Mission

Volunteers help fix up the Black Worker Center in the Paul Robeson Community Center. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times / September 24, 2010)






Program seeks to reverse unemployment and loss of traditional employers by helping African Americans get construction jobs.


Beads of sweat dotted Terrence Mason Jr.'s forehead Saturday morning as he brushed white primer on a metal pipe outside the faded South Los Angeles building that houses the Los Angeles Black Worker Center.


Mason, a sheet metal worker, was among dozens of electricians, painters and other construction workers who showed up in work boots and hard hats, tool belts strapped around their hips, to lend their skills to fixing up the center's new headquarters in the Paul Robeson Community Center on South Vermont Avenue.


The occasion was a "day of service and community" to spotlight a fledgling movement aimed at promoting local hiring policies that create career construction jobs for black workers.


"We're fighting to reverse the black job crisis," said Lola Smallwood Cuevas, project director of the UCLA Downtown Labor Center and a creator of the Black Worker Center, where the mission is to study and highlight the needs of African Americans in the Los Angeles labor market. Landlord Oneil Cannon, 93, offered a year's free rent in exchange for renovations.


There was a time when African Americans in Southern California could find jobs in aerospace, automaking and other industries that could boost their families into the middle class. But by 1985, many of those jobs, along with janitorial and hospitality work, had evaporated.


Data show that black workers have also been hit hardest by the recession. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that black unemployment in August was 16.3%, contrasted with 8.7% for whites, 12% for Latinos and 9.6% overall. The overall unemployment rate in California was higher, at 12.4% last month, according to the state Employment Development Department.


Under a withering sun Saturday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas told the assembled group that $900 million of public projects were scheduled to begin soon, not including Phase 2 of the Expo light-rail line and other transit projects also expected to generate thousands of jobs.


"There's a lot of work," he said. "We ought to have access to it.… We don't want to do it … catch as catch can."


With big transit projects and LAX renovations in the near future, Cuevas said training programs would be crucial to ensuring a flow of new workers into the job market.


Among the volunteers was Alisha Doyle, 27, who is learning how to work with power tools and apply for apprenticeships through a program called WINTER, Women in Non Traditional Employment Roles.


Madelyn Broadus, who last week received her journeyman's license as a sheet metal worker but, like many other volunteers, is unemployed, said her goal was to get more women like herself into well-paying construction jobs. A Boston University graduate, Broadus said she got the "bug" for construction after never earning more than $18.50 an hour as a mortgage loan processor.


Broadus, who previously worked on L.A. Live and the downtown Marriott hotel, said supervisors often "don't know where to put me." But she added she was capable and eager. "I will put my life on the line," she said.




martha.groves@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

Atlanta Bishop Eddie Long Denies Accusations Of Sexual Abuse From Male Parishioners

Bishop Long eulogizing at Coretta Scoot King's Funeral

Bishop Long with his Wife

Bishop Long and Ex-President George Bush

Bishop Long and Pastor Bernice King





ATLANTA — The prominent Pastor of a 25,000-member megachurch near Atlanta denies allegations in a lawsuit that he coerced two young men from the congregation into a sexual relationship, his attorney said.


Lawyers for the men, now 20 and 21, say they filed the lawsuit Tuesday in DeKalb County Court against Bishop Eddie Long. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they were victims of sexual impropriety.


President George W. Bush and three former Presidents visited the sprawling New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia for the 2006 funeral of Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Long introduced the speakers and the Rev. Bernice King, the Kings' younger daughter, delivered the eulogy. She is also a Pastor there.


The men who filed the suit were 17- and 18-year-old members of the church when they say Long abused his spiritual authority to seduce them with cars, money, clothes, jewelry, international trips and access to celebrities.


Craig Gillen, Long's attorney, says the Pastor "categorically denies the allegations."


"We find it unfortunate that these two young men would take this course of action," Gillen said late Tuesday after news of the lawsuit broke. He said Long had not yet been served with copies of the lawsuits.


Long has called for a national ban on same-sex marriage and his church counsels gay members to become straight. In 2004, he led a march with Bernice King to her father's Atlanta grave to support a national constitutional amendment to protect marriage "between one man and one woman."


He also has released several gospel albums, authored books on relationships and spirituality, and hosts a weekly television program.


B.J. Bernstein, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said she opened her investigation after getting a call from one of the boys. She said her law office is now broadening the investigation.


"We are taking calls and we do believe, based on what the boys' statements are, that there are other victims," she said.


Although the relationships started when the plaintiffs were past the legal age of consent in Georgia – which is 16 – she said Long abused his "spiritual authority" to coerce her clients into engaging in sexual acts.


Bernstein also said that Bishop made an excessive number of phone calls and e-mails to her clients. She said most of the notes were not crude, but several of them asked the clients to send him pictures. She said she will subpoena Long for his records.


"It's an irrational number of contacts," she said.


When asked about a possible motive for the accusations, Gillen referred to a break-in at Long's office in June. Bernstein said one of the plaintiffs is facing a criminal burglary charge in the incident, but she said the break-in was a way of lashing out at Long.


Bernstein said she contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office earlier this month when she became aware of the young men's allegations. She did not know what action, if any, the agency planned to take. She said she did not contact DeKalb County authorities because Long and his church have strong ties to county officials.


Patrick Crosby, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta, would not comment on whether federal prosecutors are investigating Long.


A Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said last Wednesday his office wasn't investigating. And Orzy Theus of the DeKalb County District Attorney's office said last Wednesday that county prosecutors do not plan to be involved.


"That's a civil matter. They were over the age of consent, that's not a criminal matter," said Theus.


Long was appointed Pastor of New Birth in 1987. Then, the church had about 150 members. Less than four years later, the church had grown to more than 8,000 members. Athletes and entertainers claim membership at the church.


Long's church was among those named in 2007 in a Senate committee's investigation into a half-dozen Christian ministries over their financing.


Today, New Birth sits on 250 acres and has more than 25,000 members, a $50 million, 10,000-seat cathedral and more than 40 ministries – including the Longfellows Youth Academy, a tuition-based program for young men 13 to 18.


The New Birth campus was quiet last Wednesday morning, with no unusual activity. Administrative staff referred media inquiries to Long's spokesman and people at the church declined to comment on the situation.

(Report: Significant Cheating By FBI Agents On Exam)

WASHINGTON – A Justice Department investigation has found that FBI agents, including several supervisors, cheated on an important test covering the bureau's policies for conducting surveillance on Americans.


Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine said Monday that his limited review of allegations that agents improperly took the open-book test together or had access to an answer sheet has turned up "significant abuses and cheating."


Fine called on the bureau to discipline the agents, throw out the results and come up with a new test to see if FBI agents understand new rules allowing them to conduct surveillance and open files on Americans without evidence of criminal wrongdoing.


The troubling review of the exam on surveillance rules follows Fine's report last week on the FBI's scrutiny of domestic activist groups. That investigation found that the FBI gave inaccurate information to Congress and the public when it claimed a possible terrorism link to justify monitoring an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh in 2002. That IG report also criticized the factual basis for opening or continuing FBI domestic terrorism investigations of some other nonviolent left-leaning groups.


In the inquiry into the exam, the inspector general looked only at four FBI field offices and found enough troubling information to warrant a comprehensive review by the FBI.


In one FBI field office, four agents exploited a computer software flaw "to reveal the answers to the questions as they were taking the exam," Fine said.


Other test-takers used or circulated materials that essentially provided the test answers, he said.


Fine said that almost all of those who cheated "falsely certified" that they did the work themselves, without the help of others.


Last year, Assistant Director Joseph Persichini, the head of the FBI's Washington field office that investigates congressional wrongdoing and other crime in the nation's capital, retired amid a review of test-taking in his office.


Persichini wrote down the answers to the test while two of his most senior managers were in the room taking the exam together, the IG said. Persichini used the answers he had written down to complete the exam another day, the IG added. A legal adviser also was in the room with Persichini and the two agents discussing the questions and possible answers.


Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he was "especially disheartened that several FBI supervisors cheated on this exam" and the senator called on the FBI to implement "a more trustworthy exam process going forward and hold accountable those responsible for the cheating."


Most FBI employees took the exam between May 2009 and January 2010.


"This report reinforces that the FBI cannot police itself," said Michael German, policy counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union. "There needs to be stronger oversight and stronger controls over the bureau's use of its investigative powers."


German also expressed concern about the surveillance guidelines themselves, saying they enable the targeting of people for investigation when there is "no factual basis to support that speculative belief."


An FBI professional organization said Monday it supported changes to ensure the integrity of future tests.


"We look forward to working with the bureau to develop better procedures to ensure that future exams are conducted in a uniform manner with clear and consistent instruction in all locations," said Konrad Motyka, president of the FBI Agents Association, which has membership of nearly 12,000 active and retired agents.

(Former L.A. County Labor Leader Investigated)


Probe focuses on $150,000 in consulting fees paid by one ex-SEIU official to another to under a confidential agreement, sources say.

Investigators are said to be questioning labor officers about payments to Alejandro Stephens. (Gary Friedman, Los Angeles Times / September 28, 2010)








As part of a lengthy corruption investigation, federal authorities have been examining $150,000 in consulting fees paid to a disgraced former Los Angeles labor leader under a confidential agreement signed by Andy Stern, then president of the powerful Service Employees International Union, according to documents and interviews.


The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles had considered filing embezzlement charges against Alejandro Stephens, who headed the SEIU local for county government workers, in connection with the payments, records obtained by The Times show.


Prosecutors decided last year not to include the embezzlement counts in a criminal complaint against Stephens, who is going to prison on other charges, but investigators were still questioning labor officers about the payments at least nine months later, say three people familiar with the probe. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of the federal inquiry.


They say the FBI and U.S. Labor Department investigators are focusing on whether Stern or other SEIU leaders expected Stephens to perform any work for the money, or if they approved what amounted to a no-show job for him.
SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette declined to answer questions about the agreement. In an e-mail she said, "Alejandro Stephens has had no role or involvement with the union for several years. Stephens violated the terms of his … agreement with the union, and we are aggressively seeking the return of all payments made to him under that agreement."


Stephens, 67, said that he did the work required by the 2007 agreement and that the union still owes him $75,000.


Attempts to reach Stern, who retired last spring and now sits on President Obama's bipartisan deficit-reduction commission, were unsuccessful. Federal officials would not comment.


The 2-million-member SEIU, the nation's second-largest union, has been wracked with allegations of corruption, especially in California. The Times reported in 2008 that another SEIU local in Los Angeles had directed hundreds of thousands of dollars to businesses owned by relatives and associates of its president, Tyrone Freeman, who was subsequently fired.


Federal authorities have since been investigating Freeman and other SEIU officials, according to court records and people close to the inquiry.


While looking into the Stephens agreement, investigators have also sought information about SEIU outlays to other consultants and firms with personal ties to union officers and about a book deal that paid Stern a six-figure advance, say the people with knowledge of the probe.


SEIU helped fact-check and promote Stern's 2006 book, "A Country That Works," and bought it in bulk, union officials have acknowledged. Stern has said that his book contract was entirely proper and that he did not accept royalties from sales to the union.


Legal issues aside, labor experts said such agreements as Stephens' can be troubling, especially when they are confidential.


"It's not transparent, so the union members could not see what's going on with their money," said David Witwer, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, who has written books on labor corruption.


In a separate case, Stephens pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion involving a labor nonprofit and was sentenced to four months in federal prison. He faced up to 43 years behind bars on those offenses but told The Times that he did not cooperate with the government in exchange for a lighter sentence.


"I'm no fink," Stephens said.


As the Stephens agreement notes, he lost his local presidency after his SEIU chapter was merged into a new one. The deal requires him not to disclose its terms or to say anything disparaging about SEIU.


When The Times learned the first details of the agreement in August 2008, 20 months after Stern signed it, SEIU officials said Stephens had violated its terms by staying on the county payroll. But the four-page agreement does not include a requirement that he give up his county job.


SEIU officials later said that Stephens had not done the work he promised to do.


The agreement calls for Stephens to receive a severance payment of about $77,000 and three annual grants of $75,000 each for the consulting duties, which were defined as "retiree relations and other community programs that support the union's work in Southern California."


Stephens said, "There was no money that was stolen, no money that was embezzled from SEIU. I'm getting screwed while everyone else is out there enjoying themselves. I'm the fall guy."


The Stephens arrangement led to the downfall of another SEIU leader, Annelle Grajeda, his former girlfriend.


Amid questions of whether she used her influence to keep him on the county payroll, Grajeda lost her positions as president of the merged local, head of SEIU's California council and one of the union's six executive vice presidents. More recently, Grajeda, who has denied any wrongdoing, retired as an SEIU staff member, Ringuette said.




paul.pringle@latimes.com

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

(Heat Topples Records, Bakes Inland And Downtown Los Angeles Area)

The temperature in front of the Provident Bank on Central Avenue in Riverside reads 108 at 4 p.m. on Monday.




Record-setting heat seared the Inland region Monday for a second day in a row, with overworked air conditioners churning up power demand, but the forecast set up the promise of cooler days ahead.


Temperatures will, however, remain well above seasonal averages for several more days.


A couple of high-temperature records toppled Monday.


At Riverside Municipal Airport, the high was 113 degrees, 7 degrees higher than the record for the date, set in 1993.


Lake Elsinore, which recorded a high of 111, saw the record -- 106, set in 1975 -- fall.


It wasn't just the Inland region that saw records. Downtown Los Angeles recorded its hottest temperature ever, reaching 113 just after noon, said Stuart Seto, a National Weather Service forecaster in Oxnard. The all-time record of 112 degrees was set June 26, 1990.


The Gonzalez family, of Riverside, went to escape the heat Monday night at Dairy Queen off Magnolia Avenue. At 8 p.m., it was still 95 degrees and there was a steady line at the outdoor walk-up counter.


Karen Gonzalez said her son Marcus became ill and got headaches. She gave him plenty of water and cold compresses.


The only way to beat the heat was "good old-fashioned ice cream," Rob Gonzalez said.


"It felt like Death Valley," 8-year-old Zoe Gonzalez said. "The ice cream makes me feel cooler."


For some, the heat was exacerbated by power failures that left them without air conditioning.


In Riverside, about 600 people in the Canyon Crest neighborhood were without electricity for about 2 ½ hours, starting about 2 p.m., said Dave Wright, general manager of Riverside Public Utilities. A dozen or so of those customers remained without power until about 6:30 p.m.


Older transformers working under heavy power loads failed, Wright said. He added that the utility expected to end the day with power demand -- 560 megawatts -- somewhere between the fifth- and tenth-highest day in its 110-year history.


Southern California Edison reported some outages Monday, but most were for customers who have agreed to have their air conditioners shut off for an hour at a time during peak demand, said Charles Coleman, an Edison spokesman.


Scott Andresen, another Edison spokesman, said Monday's energy demand hit a new peak for 2010 -- 22,771 megawatts, about 530 below the all-time record.


Edison was still weighing Monday whether to go ahead with planned outages for maintenance work scheduled for today and the rest of the week, Coleman said.


The situation was worse in Los Angeles and Orange counties, where Edison spokeswoman Mashi Nyssen said more than 30,000 heat-related outages had been reported as of 8 p.m. Monday.


While many people sweltered Monday, the Riverside County coroner's office reported no heat-related deaths. San Bernardino County's coroner could not be reached.


As Southern California baked, a few fires erupted, but calm winds kept them small.


A blaze in the Santa Ana River bottom off Mission Inn Avenue, near Mount Rubidoux Park, burned about 3 acres before it was contained at 6:30 p.m., said Riverside Fire Department Division Chief John Martinez. The cause has not been determined.


A firefighter who suffered heat exhaustion was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, but did not appear to be seriously injured, Martinez said.


In Thousand Oaks, west of Los Angeles, firefighters battled a small but persistent brush fire that was estimated at 15 50 acres, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.


The good news is Monday was the peak of the hot weather, said Philip Gonsalves, a National Weather Service meteorologist in San Diego.


Temperatures will begin to trend downward today and the relative humidity will begin to trend upward, he said.


Highs in the Inland valleys are expected to range from 96 to 102 today, then fall a degree Wednesday and Thursday. Daytime highs should be in double digits by Friday.


The rise in humidity could trigger some dry-lightning storms, so while flooding won't be an issue, fires could be.


The Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department has put extra hand crews and strike teams on the schedule but is not on alert, said Jody Hagemann, a spokeswoman for the department.


"We're in normal operations, but fully ready to respond," Hagemann said.


Staff writers Brian Rokos and John Asbury and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Reach Steven Barrie at 951-368-9466 or sbarrie@PE.com



(Now That's hot)!

Riverside: 113*

Downtown Los Angeles: 113*

Lake Elsinore: 111*

Hemet: 112

Temecula: 111

Beaumont: 100

Lake Arrowhead: 87

Big Bear Lake: 84

* Record

Photos of the 2010 Christmas Room Decorations at the White House

Michael Jordan's New Home Built in Jack Nicklaus's Development

This is the first look at Michael Jordan's swank digs in Jack Nicklaus' new "Bear's Club" development in Jupiter, Fla.

Analysis by Cary Lichtenstein of PGA National Real Estate indicates that Jordan paid $4.8 million for the land and $7.8 to build the mansion, and will likely have a total commitment of $20 million in the property when all is said and done. And while Woods' property comprises three lots with both ocean and Intracoastal Waterway access, Jordan's has neither, which could compromise its resale value. (See if you can bargain him down!)

The Jordan estate has 11 bedrooms, a two-story guard house and an athletic "wing" with a basketball court (of course). You'll note that the property isn't far from the golf course, but we're betting Jordan won't have to sneak onto the course at twilight to get in a few holes.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tiger Woods Newly Built $50 Million Bachelor Pad

7 Ways To Save Money On Your Mortgage

----------
Your mortgage payment is most likely your largest monthly expense. But there are ways you can decrease your monthly payment and pay off your loan faster.

Let's walk through the tips using this mortgage example:

•$200,000 mortgage
•30-year fixed rate mortgage
•6% interest rate
•$1,199 monthly principal and interest payment
Savings will vary based on your actual loan facts and timing of the change
----------

1. Make an Extra Payment Each Year

If you have the means, the easiest way to save money on your mortgage is by making an extra mortgage payment each year. These extra payments are automatically applied on your principal, not interest. Not only does your remaining balance drop, but you will not have to pay interest each month on that principal for the remainder of the loan term.

Savings: $47,000. By making one extra payment of $1,199 each year and applying it to your principal, you could save over $47,000 in interest and cut 5 years off the life of the loan.



2. Create Bi-Weekly Payments

Another way to pay off your loan early is by creating a bi-weekly payment plan. Put half of your monthly mortgage payment in a savings account every other Friday (or, on your pay day). Each month, pay your mortgage from the account. At the end of the year, you will have made 26 half payments, which is 13 full payments. This will leave with you an extra payment that you can put toward your principal. Most people manage the separate accounts themselves, but there are companies that you can hire to act as an escrow service and manage the payments for you.

Savings: $47,000. Same as extra payment.



3. Cut your PMI

Many people are forced to pay private mortgage insurance (PMI) because their down payment is less than 20 percent. If you are in this boat, you can petition your lender to cancel the insurance as soon as your mortgage balance falls below 80 percent of the home's appraised value. This can happen if your home's value has gone up or you have repaid some of the principal. This may require a new appraisal but could shave hundreds of dollars off your monthly payment.

Savings: $130 per month. If you only put down 5 percent and had a PMI rate of .78 percent, you could save $130 per month.



4. Fight Your Property Assessment

Property taxes can be thousands of dollars a year. If you think your home's value has decreased in the last year and it was not properly accounted for in your tax assessment, you can petition your assessor and fight your assessment. Lowering your tax assessment will lower your yearly taxes.

Savings: Varies. Depends on your local tax rate and home adjustment, but could be hundreds of dollars a year.



5. Recast Your Mortgage

Some lenders are willing to recast (reset) your monthly payment when you make large payments toward the principal of your mortgage. Usually, when you put money toward your balance, your monthly payment stays the same but the term of your loan shortens. When the loan is recast, your monthly principal and interest is recalculated so you end up with a lower monthly payment over the existing term of the loan.

Savings: $120 per month. Putting $20,000 into the loan would reset the payment to $1,079, saving you $120 per month.



6. Loan Modification

If you are late on your payments and are going through a financial hardship, you may be eligible to modify terms of your loan (such as rate, term, or principal balance) to make it more affordable. The goal of these programs is to allow borrowers to stay in their homes and continue making their monthly payments. Not everyone qualifies for these types of programs, but if you do, they can save you a lot of money. To find out if you qualify, contact the servicer of your mortgage or visit the Making Home Affordable eligibility site.

Savings: Varies. It can reduce your interest rate to as low as 2 percent, extend your term to 40 years, or reduce your principal.



7. Refinance Your Mortgage

The most common way to save money is by refinancing your mortgage to a lower interest rate. Reducing your rate can lower your monthly payment and help you save on interest payments. However, there are costs associated with refinancing so you want to be sure you are going to save enough to cover the refinancing fees. Zillow Mortgage Marketplace allows borrowers to shop for the lowest mortgage rates, without sharing any personal contact information with lenders. Borrowers can compare rates, loan programs, and lender ratings and reviews, and then calculate if refinancing makes sense before contacting a lender. With rates at historic lows, if you can refinance, and you haven't already, you should.

Savings: $126 per month. By lowering your interest rate to 5 percent, you would have a payment of $1,073 which would save you $126 per month. If the refinance costs $5,000, you would recoup the fees after 40 months.

Report: Aretha Franklin Suffering From Pancreatic Cancer

Posted Wed Dec 8, 2010 2:26pm PST by Access Hollywood

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, is reportedly suffering from cancer..

According to Detroit's WJBK FOX 2, a relative of the singer told reporter Al Allen that the singer is suffering from the disease. Another relative reportedly said the family is very concerned for the music legend..

Another report from the Detroit News claimed that Franklin has pancreatic cancer, according to a source familiar with the situation..

A rep for the singer was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Access Hollywood..

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, earlier this month, Franklin had surgery for an undisclosed reason..

"The surgery was highly successful," the music icon said in a statement to Access at the time. "God is still in control. I had superb doctors and nurses whom were blessed by all the prayers of the city and the country. God bless you all for your prayers!".

Last month, the multi Grammy-winning music legend announced that she was canceling all concert dates and personal appearances through May..