Uh-Oh! We Spot A Bump On Kat Von D! Did Jesse James Get Her Pregnant?
September 4th, 2010 by Taylor
Are Jess and Kat about to be parents? Tell us what YOU think!
Is it possible that Sandra Bullock’s ex-husband Jesse James, 41, knocked up his most recent fling, Kat Von D? Just look at this photo of the 28-year-old Miami Ink tattoo artist and Jesse at her Wonderland Gallery Opening in West Hollywood on Sept. 2 — you can clearly see a bump!
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Axl Rose STORMS Off Stage After Bottles Are Hurled At Him
September 3rd, 2010 by Taylor
DUBLIN — Axl Rose, it seems, needs a little more patience - and a much louder alarm clock.
The 48-year-old singer of U.S. hard-rock band Guns N' Roses irritated thousands of his Dublin fans at the 02 Arena on Wednesday night by showing up nearly an hour late - a recurring problem on his band's European tour - and then walking off after an unruly minority in the crowd hurled water bottles on the stage.
Most of the fans left, but Irish concert promoters MCD wouldn't let Rose leave until he finished the gig. The band went back on stage an hour later to a mostly empty venue and didn't stop playing until nearly 1 a.m.
MCD and the 02 issued a joint statement criticizing Rose for having "a long history for being late on stage," but emphasized that "no artist should be subjected to missiles and unknown substances being thrown at them."
Rose's patience snapped after he warned the crowd to stop throwing things on stage.
"Here is the deal. One more bottle up here and we go. We don't want to go. Your choice," he told the crowd during an abrupt break to the band's second song, "Welcome to the Jungle."
But when introducing his other band members before a following number, up came another bottle - and off Rose went to a chorus of boos. "OK, that's it. Good night. Have a nice evening," he said.
Politicians called on the promoters to refund tickets that cost an average of ?72 ($92). MCD declined to say whether anyone would get their money back.
"Reports say that the lights came on and the security people told concertgoers to go home. Confusion reigned and thousands of fans had left by the time the band came back again on stage to complete their set," Irish senator Michael McCarthy said.
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Teresa Giudice: How We Blew $11M
September 2nd, 2010 by Taylor
Bankrupt 'Houseives' Teresa Giudice is cashing in by sitting for magazine interviews, and for the latest In Touch cover she opens up about the humiliation of declaring bankruptcy and defends her spending sprees. Meanwhile she's asking for a raise on the show.
From the In Touch press release:
For Teresa Giudice, it was like living a nightmare. After ten years as the big-spending wife of a successful real estate developer, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star was being told by a lawyer that she and her husband, Joe, were $11 million in debt -- and needed to file for bankruptcy as soon as possible. "I was humiliated," she tells In Touch in an exclusive interview.
Not to mention shocked. Kept out of the loop regarding Joe's business dealings, Teresa, 37, had no idea they were in so much financial trouble until that fateful day in the lawyer's office. "Joe thought things were going to get better," she explains. But they got worse and worse in more ways than one. After that initial shock, Teresa saw her lavish tastes scrutinized and mocked. And her alleged $60,000 spending spree on home furnishings -- which reportedly took place right after she and Joe declared bankruptcy -- didn't win her many supporters. When Teresa stated her case on The View, insisting that she's now living within her means, Joy Behar replied, "How can you live within your means if you're now $11 million in bankruptcy?"
These days, though, Joe has taken control of the finances, doing all the grocery shopping and imposing a limit on Teresa's credit cards. And he doesn't mind: "I want to save more." While the girls used to always have brand new clothes, they now wear each other's hand-me-downs -- easy, since they're all growing so fast. "Me and my husband have learned a lot from our mistakes," Teresa shares, adding that, as heartbreaking as it is, bankruptcy does have a silver lining. "It's brought us closer together."
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Spain Breaks Up Male-Prostitute Trafficking Gang
September 1st, 2010 by Taylor
MADRID — Spanish police say that for the first time they have broken up a human-trafficking gang that brought men to the country to work as prostitutes, providing them with Viagra, cocaine and other stimulant drugs to be available for sex with other men 24 hours a day.
Authorities arrested 14 people, mainly Brazilians, on suspicion of running the organization and another 17 alleged prostitutes for being in Spain illegally, the National Police said in a statement Tuesday.
Police inspector Jose Nieto said the case involving the Brazilians was the first in which Spanish authorities dismantled a ring in which traffickers brought in men, rather than women, to toil as sex workers.
The victims, men in their 20s and estimated to number between 60 and 80, were mainly recruited in northern Brazil and saddled with debts of up to euro4,000 ($5,000) as the cost of bringing them to Spain.
Some were duped into thinking legitimate jobs awaited them as go-go dancers or models; others knew they would be working in the sex industry, but not that they had to be prepared for sex around the clock and would be moved from one province to another depending on demand for their services, Nieto told a news conference.
The men had to give half their earnings to the gang, and pay for rent and food in the apartments where they worked.
"If the men complained or caused any kind of problem, the gang leaders would threaten them, even with death," the police statement said.
The arrests were made in recent weeks and the alleged ringleader is a Brazilian based in Palma on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.
Besides Viagra and cocaine, the men were given marijuana and the club scene drug known as 'poppers', the police statement said.
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Tennessee Mosque Site Fire Was Arson, Police Say
August 31st, 2010 by Taylor
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — A suspicious fire that damaged construction equipment at the site of a future mosque in Tennessee has some local Muslims worried that their project has been dragged into the national debate surrounding Manhattan's ground zero.
Authorities told leaders of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro that four pieces of heavy construction equipment on the site were doused with an accelerant and one set ablaze early Saturday morning. The site is now being patrolled at all hours by the sheriff's department.
Federal investigators have not ruled it arson, saying only that the fire was being probed and asked the public to call in tips. Eric Kehn, spokesman for the Nashville office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said arson is suspected.
The site has already seen vandalism, said Joel Siskovic, a spokesman for the FBI in the Memphis office. A sign at the site was spray-painted with the words "Not Welcome" and then torn in half. The FBI is investigating the fire in case it is a civil rights violation.
"We want to make sure there are not people acting with the intent to prevent people from exercising their First Amendment rights," Siskovic said.
Essam Fathy, chairman of the planning committee for the mosque, said he has lived in the city about 25 miles southeast of Nashville for almost 30 years and has never run into problems with his faith until now. He's concerned that outsiders could be involved.
"I don't think this is coming out of Murfreesboro," he said. "There were no issues at any time, even after 9/11, there were no issues. It just seems like there's a movement in the United States against Islam."
The debate in New York over a proposed Islamic community center and mosque two blocks away from ground zero has pitted advocates for religious freedom, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama, against opponents who think it is insensitive to the victims of the terror attacks.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, weighed in on the project for the first time on Monday.
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Summer 2010 Hottest On Record, New Data Suggest
August 30th, 2010 by Taylor
ALBANY, N.Y. — New numbers confirm what the sweaty brows of Northeasterners have been saying for months: The summer of 2010 was a record-breaking scorcher.
Preliminary figures provided by the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University on Friday show 28 cities from Washington, D.C., to Caribou, Maine, set record highs for average temperature from March through August.
A large swath of the country sweltered in early August, when scorching temperatures and high humidity made it feel like at least 100 degrees in many places and prompted heat advisories for 18 states. While unrelenting heat is the norm in the Deep South, it's unusual in places like Burlington, Vt., and Portland, Maine, which saw their hottest spring and summer in more than a century.
The temperatures are consistent with a global pattern of severe heat-related weather this summer. Meteorologists say 17 nations have recorded all-time-high temperatures this year, more than in any other year.
Back in the normally temperate Northeast, the records are expected to stand. The remaining days of August are forecast to be hot with readings around 90 in many areas of the Mid Atlantic and Northeast.
The average temperature for a 30-day month is calculated by adding the high and low temperatures of each day and dividing by 60.
Art DeGaetano of the Northeast Regional Climate Center in Ithaca, N.Y., said the normal average temperature for March through August in Manhattan's Central Park is 62.5 degrees, and this year it was 67.5. The previous record high was 66.3 in 1991.
For June through August, the historic average for Central Park is 73.9 degrees, and it was 77.8 this year. The previous record high was 77.3 in 1966.
In Philadelphia, the March-August average this year was 68.9 degrees, surpassing 1991's record of 67.7. At Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., this year's average of 68.2 beat the 1991 record of 66.4, and in Caribou, Maine, this year's spring-summer average of 54.5 degrees beat the old record of 53.5 set in 1979.
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Bill McCollum Refuses To Endorse Rick Scott Amid Raging Florida GOP Family Feud
August 28th, 2010 by Taylor
Defeated Florida Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill McCollum is declining to support former rival and newly-minted GOP nominee Rick Scott as he heads into his general election campaign.
The St. Petersburg Times reports that McCollum, currently the Attorney General of Florida, signaled on Thursday that he offered his congratulations to Scott over the phone following Tuesday's election, but remains very skeptical of the self-funding contender's integrity.
"I still have serious questions," explained McCollum. "About issues of his character, his integrity, his honesty -- things that go back to Columbia/HCA," hitting on controversy surrounding Scott's pre-political profession.
Before he jumped into politics, Scott, a millionaire, was the head of Hospital Corporation of America -- a company that was slapped with a $1.7 billion fine after being hit with "14 felony charges stemming from a massive federal fraud investigation."
Leading up to Tuesday's primary, the Republican Party of Florida, standing firmly behind McCollum's candidacy, was reportedly concerned about the prospect of Scott swiping the state's GOP nomination after making a late jump into the race. At issue for members of the establishment, according to the Times, was the fact that the former health care industry exec possessed no allegiance to the state party or its operatives who were tirelessly working to defeat him.
Over the course of the primary, Scott repeatedly took aim at McCollum with relentless, negative attacks. The super-wealthly candidate blasted the state AG as the "Tonya Harding of Florida politics" and put out one campaign ad that even earned a rare rebuke from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
The internal turmoil pervading the Florida GOP reached a tipping point just hours before polls closed and votes were set to be tallied in the state's election earlier this week. The RPOF signaled it would cancel plans to hold a unity rally one day following the crowning of the party's newly-minted nominee.
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Blagojevich Auction Sold Off Confidential Client Files, According To Northwestern University
August 27th, 2010 by Taylor
CHICAGO — Northwestern University says files auctioned from storage units connected to ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich include confidential attorney-client documents.
University librarian Jeffrey Garrett said Wednesday that no files will be released until official processing. The items were auctioned after Blagojevich's campaign fund stopped paying storage fees.
Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission spokesman James Grogan says an attorney who abandons client files may be disciplined.
Blagojevich's publicist Glenn Selig says the former governor did not know specifically what had been in storage. He declined to address any attorney-client issues.
Blagojevich was convicted this month of lying to the FBI and likely faces a retrial on 23 other counts.
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Harry Reid Votes': New Anti-Harry Reid Group Launched By GOP Primary Loser Danny Tarkanian
August 26th, 2010 by Taylor
(AP) -- A vanquished Republican candidate is making a comeback in Nevada's U.S. Senate race, but not on the November ballot.
Businessman Danny Tarkanian, who finished behind fellow Republican Sharron Angle in the state's June primary, has formed a political committee to launch a website and run radio and TV ads dissecting Sen. Harry Reid's voting record.
It won't be flattering. The Las Vegas-based group -- Harry Reid Votes -- will remind residents of the "poor decisions" Reid has made for Nevada, Tarkanian said Monday.
"The votes that he has been making haven't been a big focus of the race," Tarkanian said. "We feel the majority of Nevadans will feel they were not good votes."
The group formed last week joins an array of independent political organizations pouring millions of dollars into the Nevada race, which polls show is a dead heat.
A spokeswoman for Tarkanian's group, Audrey Mullen, said the website will have interactive features that will allow visitors to take quizzes on Reid's voting record and answer the question, "How much is Harry Reid like you?"
The organization was formed under a section of the federal tax code that allows it to raise unlimited amounts of money from individuals, unions or corporations.
Tarkanian is the son of legendary University of Nevada, Las Vegas, basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. The new group will also give Tarkanian a visible public platform, which could benefit him politically if he decides to make another run at public office.
Meanwhile, Reid's campaign began running a new TV ad criticizing Angle's education agenda, including a proposal to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. "She's just too extreme," a narrator says, reprising a central theme of Reid's campaign.
Angle, a former teacher, has said decisions about education should be made at the state and local level, not in Washington.
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Yellow Cab Will Stop Running Anti-Islam Ads
August 25th, 2010 by Taylor
Earlier this summer, the leader of the group "Stop the Islamization of America" took out ads on 25 Chicago taxi cabs--and as of Tuesday, all of them will be removed.
Pamela Geller, who has been dubbed the "Queen of Muslim Bashers" and leads the "Stop the Islamization of America" movement, claimed the ads were directed toward Muslim women wanting to leave Islam--but ended up offending both cab drivers and passengers.
Today, Yellow Cab CEO Michael Levine issued a statement announcing the removal of the ads:
"Recently, the head of the group 'Stop the Islamization of America' took out ads on Chicago-area taxis. The ads in question were carried by independent affiliates of Yellow Cab Affiliation. The fleet owner was contracted and paid by an independent advertising company specializing in taxi top advertising."
"When Yellow Cab became aware of the ads three weeks ago, we immediately called the advertising company and asked to have the ads removed. We were told that they were taken down, but we found out today that three such ads were still running. They will be removed today. Yellow Cab does not regularly approve advertising content carried by our affiliates, but we do reserve the right to ask them to remove ads that offend either the drivers or the public."
The ads, which denounced honor killings, showed pictures of young women who were allegedly killed by their Muslim fathers for "refusing an Islamic marriage, dating a non-Muslim or becoming 'too Americanized,'" according to the Chicago Tribune. Below the photo, the ad reads "Is your family threatening you?" and is followed up with "LeaveIslamSafely.com."
Those against the ads say they paint an ugly and misleading picture of Islam.
"People like Pam Geller have a horrendous record," John Esposito, a professor of international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University told the Tribune. "It's a track record of not distinguishing between forms of religious terrorism and Islam itself."
Geller is also one of the leading voices against the building of an Islamic center and mosque near the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City.
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