OBAMA, IN A SHIFT, TO LIMIT TARGETS OF DRONE STRIKES: President Obama plans to open a new phase in the nation’s long struggle with terrorism on Thursday by restricting the use of unmanned drone strikes that have been at the heart of his national security strategy and shifting control of them away from the C.I.A. to the military.  In his first major speech on counterterrorism of his second term, Mr. Obama hopes to refocus the epic conflict that has defined American priorities since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and even foresees an unspecified day when the so-called war on terror might all but end, according to people briefed on White House plans.

IMMIGRATION CASES MAKE UP 40% OF FEDERAL PROSECUTIONS, STUDY SAYS: Immigration-related offenses are now the leading type of federal prosecution, constituting more than 40% of cases compared with 22% for drug crimes, according to federal crime data. Many immigrants are now prosecuted because they try to cross the border again after being deported, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch. Often, they are so desperate to get back to their families in the United States that prison time is not a deterrent, the report said. In the past, people with no prior criminal record would have been deported without being prosecuted.

CAMERON SAYS BRITAIN ‘RESOLUTE’ AFTER ATTACK: A day after an attack on an off-duty British soldier by two knife-wielding assailants, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that Britain would be “absolutely resolute” in confronting terrorism and that extremist assaults would “only bring us together.”  Mr. Cameron was speaking after leading the emergency Cobra committee, a group of cabinet ministers and high-level security officials that oversees the operations of police and security agencies during high security alerts.  The attack raised new fears of terrorism when the soldier, walking near a military barracks in south London, was rammed by a car and then hacked to death. One of the men shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” during the attack, government officials said.  Police officers shot and wounded the suspects.

ISRAEL GENERAL SEES INCREASED RISK OF SURPRISE WAR: Middle East unrest increases the chance of a surprise attack on Israel, the head of its air force said on Wednesday, but added that he did not see an attack as imminent. “When you look (around) today I think that a surprise war can be born in very many configurations,” Major General Amir Eshel told a conference near Tel Aviv in remarks broadcast on local television and radio.

BREAK FREE: READ LBN DAILY!

ON EVE OF VOTE, BOY SCOUTS ARE DIVIDED OVER ACCEPTING GAY YOUTHS: Boy Scout leaders from around the country, engulfed in a culture war over homosexuality, gathered for a vote here Thursday on a landmark proposal that would permit openly gay youths — but not openly gay adult leaders — to participate in scouting.  In a secret ballot, more than 1,400 volunteer leaders from scouting’s 270 councils will accept or reject a proposal that has led to strident divisions and debate.

ARE YOU COMING TO THE HUGE LBN MEMORIAL DAY PARTY ON MONDAY?

All LBN E-Lert readers are invited to Michael Levine’s annual Memorial Day party on Memorial Day from 4pm-7pm at the popular, new Lenny’s Deli (formerly Junior’s Deli) – address; 2379 Westwood Blvd  Los Angeles, CA 90064. Enjoy Free Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Lemonade and celebrate Memorial Day with your friends and neighbors. Last year was totally sold out with over 300 people, so please R.S.V.P. immediately to:MLAsst@LCOonline.com or call 310-300-0950 ext. 303.

And please don’t forget to bring a pair of used shoes to donate for the “We All Walk in Different Shoes” campaign. They will be given to the L.A. Mission

STUDY: WOMEN 40 PERCENT MORE LIKELY TO DEVELOP MENTAL ILLNESS THAN MEN: There is a gender gap for mental illness, with females being up to 40 percent more likely to develop some type of mental health condition than their male counterparts.are nearly 75 percent more likely than men to have suffered from depression, and approximately 60 percent more likely to report an anxiety disorder.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Prominent business consultant Craig Valine along with  474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

13 PAKISTANI POLICE OFFICERS KILLED IN BLAST IN RESTIVE REGION: At least 13 police officers were killed on Thursday morning when a powerful remote-controlled bomb ripped through a police truck in southwestern Pakistan, officials said. At least 17 others were injured.  The attack, which took place shortly after 8 a.m. on the outer edges of Quetta, the provincial capital of southwestern Baluchistan Province, killed members of the rapid-response force of the Baluchistan Constabulary, a reserve police unit. Their truck was headed to a government building when a roadside bomb, believed to contain at least 200 pounds of explosives, went off, according to police officials.

LBN MEET: Actress Jennifer Aniston

LBN-NOTICED: ***LCO (www.LCOPR.com ) President Liam Collopy having lunch at Chin-Chin on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills this week.   ***Marisa Tomei and Emma Roberts dancing to Solange Knowles’ performance at the Intermix 20th Anniversary Party.   ***“The Office” star Ellie Kemper at Philip Marie in NYC.   ***Zach Quinto, Zoe Saldana and Michael B. Jordan at the Stella Artois Suite in Cannes.   ***Bruce Weber, Nan Bush, Blaine Trump and Steve Simon at Cipriani Miami.   ***Liza Minnelli backstage after seeing “The Trip to Bountiful.”   ***Popular Rant columnist having breakfast yesterday at Pink’s Hot Dogs on La Brea.

JERRY LEWIS REPEATS HIS DISTASTE FOR FEMALE COMICS: Ladies? Don’t make him laugh. Asked who his favorite female comics were Thursday at a Cannes Film Festival press conference, Jerry Lewis listed Cary Grant and Burt Reynolds. He then added: “I don’t have any.” In 1998, Lewis famously said that watching women do comedy “sets me back a bit” and that he has trouble with the notion of would-be mothers as comedians.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: Germany is just one of the 26 foreign countries with daily LBN E-Lert readers.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Jerry’s Deli near the Cedar Sinai Hospital in West Hollywood is closed.   ***A 7.3% plunge in the Japanese stock market Thursday spilled into the rest of the world, overshadowing moderately better economic data in Europe and a slight decline in jobless claims in the U.S. Bourses in Frankfurt, London, Paris and Milan slumped more than 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 47.41 to 15259.76 early in the U.S. session.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Hollywood celebrity publicist Michael Levine is using his large, annual Memorial Day Party to benefit his “We All Walk In Different Shoes” campaign by asking all of his 300 guests to bring a pair of used shoes to be donated to the Los Angeles Mission.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: LeBron Stuns In Overtime

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER:   ***Brooke Shields, rumored to be taking a spot on “The View,” has overcome her fear of talk shows. “I used to shy away because I thought it would be saying that I was giving up on being an actress,” she tells Hamptons magazine’s Memorial Day issue. “I think I was intimidated by it because I don’t enjoy confrontation  I’ve always been afraid I don’t have an opinion or I’m nervous about offending somebody. Then I realized I’m perfectly comfortable offending people.”   ***Not even Ann Curry could curry favor with Angelina Jolie for an interview with the actress about her voluntary double mastectomy. We hear NBC pushed the network news correspondent to get the first television chat with Jolie, following her shocking announcement last week that she’d had the surgery. But Jolie’s turned down Curry, and every other news outlet, for now. The NBC journalist had a long-standing relationship with Jolie and Brad Pitt, having interviewed them several times.

LBN-COMMENTARY By CHARLES M. BLOW: Why do Republicans keep endorsing the most extreme and hyperbolic African-American voices — those intent on comparing blacks who support the Democratic candidates to slaves? That idea, which only a black person could invoke without being castigated for the flagrant racial overtones, is a trope to which an increasingly homogeneous Republican Party seems to subscribe.  The most recent example of this is E.W. Jackson, who last weekend became the Virginia Republicans’ candidate for lieutenant governor in the state.  In a video posted to YouTube in 2012 titled “Bishop E.W. Jackson Message to Black Christians,” Jackson says:  “It is time to end the slavish devotion to the Democrat party. They have insulted us, used us and manipulated us. They have saturated the black community with ridiculous lies: ‘Unless we support the Democrat party, we will be returned to slavery. We will be robbed of voting rights. The Martin Luther King holiday will be repealed.’ They think we’re stupid and these lies will hold us captive while they violate everything we believe as Christians.”

HACKERS FIND CHINA IS LAND OF OPPORTUNITY: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – Click here

UNIQUELY, LBN: Dr. Jon Perlman, an LBN E-Lert reader from Beverly Hills, California.

LBN-COMMENTARY By LAMAR ALEXANDER : Major news outlets in recent days have reported that U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is raising money from the private sector—including from health-care executives—for use by a private entity that is helping to implement ObamaCare. The entity, Enroll America, is run by a former White House aide. The Washington Post quoted an HHS spokesman last week saying, “We requested additional money [from Congress] . . . but we didn’t receive any additional funding for the exchanges. So we had to come up with Plan B.”  My immediate thought was: Isn’t “Plan B” what got Oliver North in trouble during the 1980s?

LBN-COMMENTARY By JOE NOCERA: Among the many things Tim Cook apparently learned at the knee of Steve Jobs, during his long tenure as Apple’s No. 2, was how to create a “reality distortion field.” Or so it would appear after watching Cook, now Apple’s chief executive, testify on Tuesday at a Senate hearing on the company’s tax avoidance schemes.  Jobs was so persuasive that he could claim the sun was setting when it was actually rising, and everyone would nod in agreement. On Tuesday, despite the overwhelming evidence presented by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that Apple engaged in dubious tax avoidance gimmicks, Cook claimed that Apple never resorted to tax gimmickry. Even though the company appears to pay about 10 percent of its pretax income in taxes — when the federal corporate tax rate is 35 percent — Cook said, “We pay all the taxes we owe — every single dollar.” He added that Apple had never shifted any of its American profits to an offshore tax haven when, in fact, that is basically what it has done, routing tens of billions in pretax profits to a shell corporation in Ireland that exists solely to avoid taxes in the United States. He even said that the low taxes Apple pays overseas is on the profits of its overseas sales. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this was a flat-out lie.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Brave actress Angelina Jolie’s dramatic decision to undergo a double mas­tectomy was sparked by her beloved aunt’s battle with breast cancer. Sources say that Angelina secretly agonized over the decision for nearly 13 years, and finally chose to go under the knife after the younger sister of her moth­er Marcheline Bertrand– who succumbed to ovarian cancer at age 56 – was stricken with breast cancer when it returned for a second time.   ***Oscar de la Renta showed off his charming singing skills during his niece Katherine Pingree’s wedding to Andrew Dick last weekend in East Hampton. After the ceremony at St. Luke’s on Saturday, guests including Ally Hilfiger and Art Production Fund’s Casey Fremont headed to Further Lane Farms for the reception

CAREFUL: The U.S. economy is on stronger footing than a year ago, but Ben Bernanke wants to be careful not to squelch the recovery now.  ”A premature tightening of monetary policy could lead interest rates to rise temporarily, but would also carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery and causing inflation to fall further,” the Federal Reserve chairman told the U.S. congressional Joint Economic Committee today.  The Federal Reserve has kept its key short-term interest rate near zero since December 2008, and expects it to stay there for a “considerable time” as the recovery strengthens, Bernanke said.

DEBATE ASIDE, NUMBER OF DRONE STRIKES DROPS SHARPLY: President Obama embraced drone strikes in his first term, and the targeted killing of suspected terrorists has come to define his presidency.  But lost in the contentious debate over the legality, morality and effectiveness of a novel weapon is the fact that the number of strikes has actually been in decline. Strikes in Pakistan peaked in 2010 and have fallen sharply since then; their pace in Yemen has slowed to half of last year’s rate; and no strike has been reported in Somalia for more than a year.  In a long-awaited address on Thursday at the National Defense University, Mr. Obama will make his most ambitious attempt to date to lay out his justification for the strikes and what they have achieved. He may follow up on public promises, including one he made in his State of the Union speech in February to define a “legal architecture” for choosing targets, possibly shifting more strikes from the C.I.A. to the military; explain how he believes that presidents should be “reined in” in their exercise of lethal power; and take steps to make a program veiled in secrecy more transparent.

MAN BEING QUERIED ON TSARNAEV TIES IS KILLED BY OFFICER: A man in Orlando, Fla., who was being interviewed early Wednesday morning by an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement personnel about his ties to the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was fatally shot after he violently attacked the agent, according to the F.B.I.  The man, who was identified by a law enforcement official as Ibragim Todashev, injured the agent before he was killed, the F.B.I. said, adding that the injuries were not life threatening.

WE WANT YOU TO COME TO OUR HUGE MEMORIAL DAY PARTY!

All LBN E-Lert readers are invited to Michael Levine’s annual Memorial Day party on Memorial Day from 4pm-7pm at the popular, new Lenny’s Deli (formerly Junior’s Deli) – address; 2379 Westwood Blvd  Los Angeles, CA 90064. Enjoy Free Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Lemonade and celebrate Memorial Day with your friends and neighbors. Last year was totally sold out with over 300 people, so please R.S.V.P. immediately to:MLAsst@LCOonline.com or call 310-300-0950 ext. 303.

And please don’t forget to bring a pair of used shoes to donate for the “We All Walk in Different Shoes” campaign. They will be given to the L.A. Mission

NORTH KOREAN LEADER SENDS ENVOY TO CHINA: The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, sent his first special envoy to China on Wednesday amid signs that Mr. Kim’s government was trying to mend strained ties with Beijing and seeking breaches in the tightening ring of economic and diplomatic pressure over its nuclear weapons development.  The envoy, Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, who serves as director of the general political bureau of the North Korean People’s Army, met in Beijing with Wang Jiarui, the head of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party, said Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, in a report that gave no details of the talks.

ANTHONY WEINER MAKES IT OFFICIAL: He’s running for NYC mayor: Nearly two years after he resigned from Congress because of a sexting scandal, Anthony Weiner is running for mayor. He formally announced his candidacy with a two-minute, 16-second video that he posted online at midnight Wednesday. “I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down, but I have also learned some tough lessons,” Weiner says in the video, posted on YouTube.

FACEBOOK LOSING INTEREST OF TEENAGERS, STUDY SAYS : A study by the Pew Research Center and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society has confirmed anecdotal evidence that Facebook is falling out of favor with teenagers. “Teens who used Twitter and Instagram reported feeling like they could better express themselves.”

GARCETTI WINS LOS ANGELES MAYOR’S RACE AFTER LONG BATTLE: City Councilman Eric Garcetti won his bid to become the mayor of Los Angeles on Wednesday, bringing to a close a nearly two-year race that pitted him against another moderate Democrat with years of experience at City Hall.  As the results trickled in, Mr. Garcetti confidently told hundreds of supporters gathered at a Hollywood nightclub Tuesday night that the city had entrusted him with its leadership and he would not let Los Angeles residents down.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Top 10 turn-offs for women include cystic acne, raggedy nails, flatulence and belching, missing teeth, body odor, bad breath, hairy nostrils, “man boobs,” “goofy” glasses, and hair “mistakes.”

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Jann Wenner picked his son, Gus, 22, to head up Rollingstone.com, overseeing its editorial and business operations. While critics were quick to cry nepotism, the senior Wenner said his son had to prove himself. The redesigned site, he added, will be “more Internet-friendly.”   ***The Saturday Evening Post aims to reach younger readers and adapt to the digital world, as the magazine releases its iPad and iPhone app, which was built by digital publishing firm Yudu. The app includes digitized versions of the Post’s issues since November/December 2012.

LBN-INFO LINK – LATEST NEWS:
• Tornado Storms: Realtime Coverage
• Internal Revenue Service Investigation Realtime Coverage
• Associated Press/Justice Department Investigation
• Benghazi Investigation

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Men’s clothing designer Jimmy Au along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard seeing the Flaming Lips at Brooklyn’s GoogaMooga fest.   ***Jamie Foxx and former Knicks John Starks, Larry Johnson and Earl Monroe at Rolling Stone’s Bacardi Rebels bash at Roseland Ballroom in NYC.   ***Jennifer Lopez, Casper Smart and Lopez’s twins scooping up nearly 10 bags of candy at Sugar Factory American Brasserie in Las Vegas.   ***Rapper A$AP Rocky at Hood By Air’s pop-up shop, called Morph, at the Scion AV Installation in Los Angeles.   ***Prominent L.A. travel agent Ken Schneider having dinner last night at the popular Lenny’s Deli in Westwood.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER:   ***Tiger Woods’ ex is so furious about the golfer’s half-naked fishing outing with new girlfriend Lindsey Vonn that she’s threatening to take him back to court, say sources. A shirt­less Tiger, 37, and his scantily clad skiing sweetheart, 28, were photographed letting it all hang out as they enjoyed the afternoon of May 14 aboard his 61-foot yacht, Solitude, off Jupiter Island, Fla. While ex-wife Elin Nordegren doesn’t care who Tiger dates, she’s livid because their kids – daughter Sam, 5, and son Charlie, 4 – were with him, a source says.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: An estimated 16 million Americans have pre-diabetes, and many of them are unaware of their condition.

LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: I’ve been traveling to Yemen, Syria and Turkey to film a documentary on how environmental stresses contributed to the Arab awakening. As I looked back on the trip, it occurred to me that three of our main characters — the leaders of the two Yemeni villages that have been fighting over a single water well and the leader of the Free Syrian Army in Raqqa Province, whose cotton farm was wiped out by drought — have 36 children among them: 10, 10 and 16.  It is why you can’t come away from a journey like this without wondering not just who will rule in these countries but how will anyone rule in these countries?   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – Click here

UNIQUELY, LBN: Dani Hollander, an LBN E-Lert reader from London, England.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MICHAEL LEVINE (MEDIA EXPERT AND AUTHOR): Women who post a photo on Internet dating sites receive twice as many email messages as women who don’t. The same study found that men who reported incomes higher than $250,000 received 156% more email than those with $50,000.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MAUREEN DOWD: Networks are generally leery of shows that are set in the past.  TV executives think younger viewers don’t care about history. And they’re always on the hunt for the younger demo, working on the mistaken premise that millennials buy more and change brands more often than profligate and fickle baby boomers.  Or maybe networks are simply operating on the same principle that drives romance and commerce: the more elusive the prize, the more it’s worth.  It’s funny that networks are afraid of the past, given that they’re stuck in it. What Paddy Chayefsky could do with that paradox.  It turns out that Washington isn’t the only place where ideas go to die.   ***To read more, visit the LBB *agenda* Blog – Click here

LBN-COMMENTARY By MARK BITTMAN: On my recent book tour, I spoke with a number of people about my take on a positive direction for the American diet. I’ve been semi-vegan for six years and in the book (called “VB6,” for Vegan Before 6 p.m.[1] ), I argue that this strategy, or one like it, can move us toward better health. In the last 30 years, researchers have graduated from the notion that Americans should “eat less fat, especially saturated fat” — the catchphrase of ’80s nutritionists[2] — to widespread agreement that we eat too few unprocessed plants and too much hyperprocessed food, especially food containing sugar and those carbohydrates that our bodies convert rapidly to sugar. There is also compelling evidence that we eat too many animal products (something like 600 pounds per person per year) and too much salt.   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – Click here

MY REVIEW: “All my friends say I have gotten smarter since reading LBN daily.”—–Jennifer Coales, an LBN E-Lert reader from Key West, Florida.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PEGGY NOONAN: So many people are sad about America and cynical about its government. They don’t expect anything good to happen. They think certain poisons have entered the system and nothing can be done about it. Leviathan will not be cut back or tamed, Leviathan will go on abusing the citizen. People are all too willing to believe the Internal Revenue Service is hopelessly political in its judgments and actions. They are not shocked. They don’t think anything can be done, that the system cannot be corrected. They just grip the arms of the seat and wait for the weather to get worse.  But cynicism aids and abets deterioration. You’ve got to stay shocked. It’s disrespectful not to.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PHIL GRAMM AND STEVE MCMILLIN : President Obama has raised the national debt by nearly $6.2 trillion, the equivalent of $78,385 per family of four. It is true that projected deficits recently have been reduced. April tax filings increased 28% from 2012, but much of this was thanks to a one-time rush at the end of 2012 to report income before rates rose in January. The second largest reduction in the deficit came from Fannie Mae FNMA +2.34%taking a one-time accounting adjustment.  But unless the economy soars, or a significant budget agreement is reached, the most lasting legacy of the Obama presidency will be a $10 trillion increase in the national debt—a burden that bodes ill for the nation’s future.

THE LIST RANT By ERICKA T. BASS : 1. If there is a more boring sport that baseball, can someone please tell me what it is? Please.   2. I have tried electronic cigarettes many times and they suck.   3. I love tuna.   4. I would rather live in Syria that go to Wal-mart.   5. Jay Z is one incredibly ugly black man.   6. Jimmy Kimmel is an asshole.   7. When I met NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg I couldn’t believe how short he is.   8. I eat hard-boiled eggs for breakfast every morning.   9. F—k Yelp!   10. The food at Cheesecake Factory is awful tasting lard.   11. I started smoking pot when I was 11.   12. When I was a young girl, I wanted to be Dr. Joyce Brothers.   13. KABC was once a good radio station in L.A. Now, I wouldn’t listen to it, if I were being paid $100.00 a minute.   14. I love Asian gals. I only buy porno movies with Asian women in it.

***Shout back at Ericka T.- Email LBNElert@TimeWire.net. (Please Note: The opinions expressed by Erika T. are those of her alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the LBN E-lert or its staff.)

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Britney Spears has vowed not to waste a single minute on another dead-end rela­tionship – and she’s slapped new beau David Lucado with a baby and marriage ultimatum.   Incredibly, it worked! Although they’ve been dating for less than three months, sources say David, 27, has given his pop sweetheart an informal engagement ring. ***After decades of performing as a duo, Marie Osmond is ready to dump brother Donny for good. While she’s still tied to her contract with Flamingo Las Vegas, where she and Donny have been performing a 90-minute stage show since 2008, once that’s over Marie is ready to move on as a solo act, a source says. “She loves her brother, but she can’t take all the jealousy or his controlling nature,” said a family insider.   ***Justin Bieber’s party guests must agree to a strict set of rules, or they’ll get sued for $5 million.  TMZ has published a copy of Bieber’s “Liability Waiver and Release,” which bans guests from posting details, photos or recordings from the singer’s Calabasas home onto any social media platform, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Guests are also forbidden from talking about the “physical health, or the philosophical, spiritual or other views or characteristics” of Bieber and his guests.   ***It’s the kinda house 99.999% of the world will never see … let alone OWN — but TMZ has learned, Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi just purchased this $26.5 million mansion in Santa Barbara. The deal went through last week, and words can’t do justice to how insane this house is — it’s 10,522 square feet located in Montecito, which has some of the most beautiful vistas in Cali.  It’s got 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms and it sits on 13 ACRES.

DISASTER: The medical examiner has revised the death toll in yesterday’s tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, to 24, down from 51. Nine of the fatalities are children. At least seven of those children were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, police said. Emergency personnel continue to scour the school’s rubble.  President Barack Obama said today he doesn’t yet know the full extent of the damage but promised aid. “Oklahoma needs to get everything it needs right away.”

CREWS SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS IN OKLAHOMA AFTER TORNADO: Emergency crews and volunteers continued to work Tuesday morning in a frantic search for survivors of a massive tornado that ripped through parts of Oklahoma City and its suburbs, killing dozens of people and flattening whatever was in its path, including a hospital and at least two schools.  Much of the tornado damage was in the suburb of Moore, where rescue workers struggled to make their way through debris-clogged streets and around downed power lines to those who were feared trapped under mountains of rubble. Rescue workers equipped with thermal-imaging equipment and dogs sifted through plywood boards, upended cars and steel beams where houses and shops once stood.  The risk of tornadoes throughout the region remained high Tuesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman.

BIN LADEN PHOTOS WON’T BE RELEASED: The U.S. government doesn’t have to release more than 50 photos taken of Osama bin Laden after his death, following a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals. The three-member panel ruled unanimously that the photos were properly classified as top secret, essentially agreeing with the Obama administration that the images were too inflammatory to release. Judicial Watch, a conservative nonprofit, filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the photos and video associated with the May 2011 raid. The CIA used the images, some of which were taken at bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound in Pakistan, for facial-recognition analysis to confirm it was bin Laden.

TWO FBI AGENTS FALL TO THEIR DEATH: An FBI official shed additional light Monday night on the deaths of two FBI agents who were killed while training Friday. The spokeswoman says Christopher Lorek and Stephen Shaw fell to their death during a counterterrorism exercise, when the helicopter from which they were “fast-roping” ran into difficulty, dropping them a “significant distance” from the ship below. A formal cause of death for the two will likely not be announced for weeks. The two men were members of the bureau’s elite rescue team—the same one that saved the 5-year-old boy who was trapped for days inside an Alabama bunker. “They’re really the best of the best as far as civilians,” said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI hostage negotiator.

ARE YOU COMING TO THE LBN MEMORIAL DAY PARTY? ARE YOU? ARE YOU?

All LBN E-Lert readers are invited to Michael Levine’s annual Memorial Day party on Memorial Day from 4pm-7pm at the popular, new Lenny’s Deli (formerly Junior’s Deli) – address; 2379 Westwood Blvd  Los Angeles, CA 90064. Enjoy Free Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Lemonade and celebrate Memorial Day with your friends and neighbors. Last year was totally sold out with over 300 people, so please R.S.V.P. immediately to:MLAsst@LCOonline.com or call 310-300-0950 ext. 303.

EX-IRS CHIEF: I DIDN’T KNOW: Ignorance really is bliss. Douglas Shulman, the man in charge of the IRS when it was targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups, says that he didn’t know anything about what was going on. Shulman, who left in November, found out about the scandal like everyone else did—in the news. The testimony at the congressional hearing was the ex-chief’s first comment on the matter. “I agree this is an issue that when someone spotted it, they should have brought it up the chain,” he said. “And they didn’t. I don’t know why.”

GITMO DOCTOR DEFENDS FORCE-FEEDING: One of the head military physicians at the Guantánamo Bay detention center is denying claims that the force-feeding of prisoners—who have been on a hunger strike since February—is unethical. “It’s very easy for folks outside of this place to make policies and decisions they think they would implement,” the doctor told Al Jazeera. “When faced with people who are to the point of needing medical intervention to protect their life … suddenly it’s not a very abstract decision.” The practice, which consists of threading a tube through the prisoner’s nose and injecting supplements into their stomach, was condemned by the American Medical Association in April.

LBN READERS GET THE NEWS – FAST! FAST! FAST! EVEN SUPER-FAST!: Yesterday, the we got sad news that Ray Manzarek, keyboardist and founding member of The Doors, passed away today at 12:31PM PT at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany after a lengthy battle with bile duct cancer. All LBN E-Lert readers in all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries in 11 separate time-zones got the news BEFORE…..CNN, Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, NBC News, The Village Voice, The L.A. Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.

TUMBLR FOUNDER WAS HS DROPOUT: Before he created Tumblr—a micro-blogging platform acquired by Yahoo for $1.1 billion—David Karp was a high-school dropout. Bored with his classes at Bronx High School of Science, the bright teenager decided to opt for homeschooling. His mom, Barbara Ackerman, says it was the best decision he ever made. “It became very clear that David needed the space to live his passion. Which was computers,” Ackerman says. Now 26, with neither a high-school diploma or a college degree, Karp is a newly made billionaire. Currently living with his girlfriend in a $1.6 million loft in Brooklyn, the tall, slight brunet still entertains the thought of going to college one day. “At least I should be able to afford it,” he quips.

ACCUSED FORT HOOD SHOOTER PAID $278,000 WHILE AWAITING TRIAL: The Department of Defense confirms that accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan has now been paid more than $278,000 since the Nov. 5, 2009 shooting that left 13 dead 32 injured. The Army said under the Military Code of Justice, Hasan’s salary cannot be suspended unless he is proven guilty. If Hasan had been a civilian defense department employee the Army could have suspended his pay after just seven days. Personnel rules for most civilian government workers allow for “indefinite suspensions” in cases “when the agency has reasonable cause to believe that the employee has committed a crime for which a sentence of imprisonment may be imposed.

APATOW FORGOT LENA’S BIRTHDAY: Looks like Judd Apatow has gotten too used to dancing on his own. While accepting a Peabody Award at the Waldorf Astoria on Monday, the Girls executive producer admitted that he’d forgotten Lena Dunham’s 27th birthday. “I found out from [my daughter] Maude, who saw it on Entertainment Tonight,” he confessed to reporters. Apatow blamed his mistake on the fact that he wasn’t invited to a party. “Maybe there was a party, and I didn’t get to go?” he joked. The 45-year-old is currently working with Dunham on Season 3 of Girls, which won a Golden Globe this year for best comedy or musical TV series.

APPLE’S WEB OF TAX SHELTERS SAVED IT BILLIONS, PANEL FINDS: Even as Apple became the nation’s most profitable technology company, it avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world through a web of subsidiaries so complex it spanned continents and went beyond anything most experts had ever seen, Congressional investigators disclosed on Monday.  The investigation is expected to set up a potentially explosive confrontation between a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, at a public hearing on Tuesday.  Congressional investigators found that some of Apple’s subsidiaries had no employees and were largely run by top officials from the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. But by officially locating them in places like Ireland, Apple was able to, in effect, make them stateless — exempt from taxes, record-keeping laws and the need for the subsidiaries to even file tax returns anywhere in the world.

ADHD TIED TO OBESITY: According to a new study by the medical journal Pediatrics, men who were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in elementary school are more likely to be obese as adults. The study followed 207 boys, ages 6 to 12, who had been diagnosed with ADHD into adulthood. Scientists then compared that data with a different set of 178 boys, all without ADHD. The results showed the boys with ADHD were twice as likely to be obese by middle age. Some researchers theorize that medicines used to treat the disease, such as Ritalin and Adderall, suppress the boys’ appetites and stunt growth. Others suggest there are “biological underpinnings” of both obesity and ADHD.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Jamie Dimon, the nation’s most powerful banker, appears set to hold onto his title of chairman after JPMorgan Chase’s shareholders defeated a proposal to split the two top jobs, according to people who have seen the preliminary tallies. The margin of victory is unclear. The bank is still accepting votes at the shareholder meeting that gets under way here later on Tuesday morning, and the final outcome could change.   ***Yahoo’s $1.1 billion proposed acquisition of Tumblr is a huge coup for the young founder of the even younger start-up and a splashy move by Marissa Mayer to shake up her company.  It also heralds a larger shift in social media. Facebook arguably invented modern social networking, and is still the king. But increasingly its approach is seen as passive and outdated as people flock to sites like Tumblr where they can be more actively engaged in creating personal, expressive content to share — and which could potentially translate to advertising dollars.

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Helly Nahmad, dashing in for Sunday lunch at Amaranth, and asking that he and his soignee guest be moved from the middle of a banquette to a more private table in the center aisle, so they could not be overheard.     ***Bradley Cooper shooting David O. Russell’s “American Hustle” at Manhattan House on East 66th Street in NYC.   ***Steve Martin and Tom Hanks arriving together and skipping the rainy red carpet at the Drama Desk Awards on Sunday.    ***Amanda Bynes, with filthy feet, trying on Chanel shoes at Barneys in NYC.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Acclaimed documentary film director Peter Hankoff along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Golf’s rules-making bodies, the United States Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient, on Tuesday prohibited golfers from anchoring a putter against their bodies while making a stroke, a rule change the organizations first proposed in November. The worldwide ban against anchored putting strokes, applicable to professionals and amateurs alike, will not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2016.  Glen D. Nager, the president of the golf association, said the approval of Rule 14-1b was necessary “to preserve one of the important traditions and challenges of the game — that the player freely swing the entire club.”

EVA JOKES ABOUT WARDROBE MALFUNCTION: If you can’t beat ’em, join them. One day after Eva Longoria accidentally flashed photographers sans underwear at the Cannes Film Festival, the actress made light of the flub with a picture on Twitter. “Here’s my dress for tonight! No wardrobe malfunctions tonight!!!” she wrote Sunday, including a picture of her donning a very-sheer black dress—underwear included. It’s not the first time the Desperate Housewives’ Gabrielle Solis has shown too much skin, accidentally flashing her nipple at last year’s Oscars.

LBN-COMMENTARY By DAVID BROOKS: About two years ago, the folks at Google released a database of 5.2 million books published between 1500 and 2008. You can type a search word into the database and find out how frequently different words were used at different epochs.  The database doesn’t tell you how the words were used; it just tells you how frequently they were used. Still, results can reveal interesting cultural shifts. For example, somebody typed the word “cocaine” into the search engine and found that the word was surprisingly common in the Victorian era. Then it gradually declined during the 20th century until around 1970, when usage skyrocketed.   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – Click here

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW: JFK & JFK Jr.

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Media queen daughter Barbara Walters’ daughter Jacqueline Danforth was arrested in Naples, Florida. Danforth was collared on suspicion of DUI Sunday RadarOnline reported. Danforth, 44, was arrested, and subsequently released after paying $1,000 bond, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said, adding in their report its’ her first such infraction as an adult.   ***Multitasking, job-hopping Chelsea Clinton has quietly taken on a big new job at New York University. The former first daughter has tackled what the school calls a “multifaith” role as co-founder and co-chair of its brand-new Of Many Institute. The program is described by the university as aiming to “develop multifaith dialogue and train multifaith leaders.”   ***Mila Kunis introduced boyfriend Ashton Kutcher to her parents over a play and dinner this weekend. On Saturday, the couple took her folks to “Billy Elliott: The Musical” at the Victoria Palace in London.   ***Catherine Zeta-Jones has completed treatment for bipolar II disorder and Michael Douglas is ready to be home with his wife. “She comes home tomorrow,” the actor told People. “She’s doing a really good job of getting balanced. I’m proud of her.” The “Behind the Candelabra” star is currently in Cannes working to promote his new film.

CHINESE HACKERS RESUME ATTACKS ON U.S. TARGETS: Three months after hackers working for a cyberunit of China’s People’s Liberation Army went silent amid evidence that they had stolen data from scores of American companies and government agencies, they appear to have resumed their attacks  using different techniques, according to computer industry security experts and American officials.  The Obama administration had bet that “naming and shaming” the groups, first in industry reports and then in the Pentagon’s own detailed survey of Chinese military capabilities, might prompt China’s new leadership to crack down on the military’s highly organized team of hackers — or at least urge them to become more subtle.  But Unit 61398, whose well-guarded 12-story white headquarters on the edges of Shanghai became the symbol of Chinese cyberpower, is back in business, according to American officials and security companies.

OBAMA GETS PERSONAL ABOUT RACE AND MANHOOD IN MOREHOUSE COLLEGE SPEECH: President Obama on Sunday summoned the graduates of historically black Morehouse College to “transform the way we think about manhood,” urging the young men to avoid the temptation to make excuses and to take responsibility for their families and their communities. Delivering a commencement address at the all-male private liberal arts college in Atlanta, Obama spoke in deeply personal terms about the “special obligation” he feels as a black man to help those left behind. “There but for the grace of God, I might be in their shoes,” Obama said. “I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family — and that motivates me.”

LBN-MEMORIAL PARTY INVITE:

All LBN E-Lert readers are invited to Michael Levine’s annual Memorial Day party on Memorial Day from 4pm-7pm at the popular, new Lenny’s Deli (formerly Junior’s Deli) – address; 2379 Westwood Blvd  Los Angeles, CA 90064. Enjoy Free Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Lemonade and celebrate Memorial Day with your friends and neighbors. Last year was totally sold out with over 300 people, so please R.S.V.P. immediately to: MLAsst@LCOonline.com or call 310-300-0950 ext. 303.

BATTLE IN SYRIA PULLS HEZBOLLAH FURTHER INTO ASSAD’S WAR: Fighting raged on Monday in the strategic Syrian city of Qusayr, as the government unleashed new airstrikes and rebels resisted fiercely in parts of the city even as their makeshift hospitals overflowed with the wounded, Syrian opposition activists said.  The toll of dead and wounded also continued to rise for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is fighting its biggest battle yet on the side of President Bashar al-Assad. Both sides have depicted the fighting in Qusayr as a turning point in the war that is raising regional tensions as Hezbollah plunges more deeply into the conflict.

WAVE OF BOMBINGS KILLS DOZENS IN IRAQ: A wave of car bombs hit Baghdad and oil-rich Basra in southern Iraq on Monday, killing at least 48 people and injuring 170, security and medical officials said, deepening concerns that sectarian violence is pushing the country toward a conflagration recalling the widespread fighting of 2006-2007 before the withdrawal of American forces.  Some reports put the toll higher from the series of blasts, which began in Basra when two car bombs went off at a restaurant and a bus stop, the officials said.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: The average child in America watches over 40,000 television commercials in a year, or over 100 a day.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Rock icon singer Joe Cocker along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

LBN-SEE IT:…. “Random Access Memories,” from Daft Punk, is extremely ambitious and wildly inconsistent. It raises a radical question: Does good music need to be good?

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Jamie Dimon and the 10 other directors of JPMorgan Chase take the stage in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, to face shareholders who can take comfort in a rising stock price and a prospering bank. But those same shareholders may also deliver a humbling rebuff to Mr. Dimon and the bank’s board.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: Did you know that in addition to being read daily in all 50 of the United States, the LBN E-Lert is read daily in 26 foreign countries including: China, India, Brazil, Canada, Russia, England, France, Germany, Israel, Iraq, Mexico, Australia, Greece, Spain, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, among others.

LBN-SEE IT:….David Koch, the conservative industrialist, has given $23 million to public television

BOMBING KILLS KEY FIGURE IN NORTHERN AFGHAN PROVINCE: A suicide bomber disguised as a police officer killed 14 people on Monday, including the head of a provincial council in northern Afghanistan, officials said.  The head of the council, Rasul Mohseni, commonly known as Rasul Khan, was widely regarded as the most powerful man in Baghlan Province and was a veteran commander who had led northerners in revolt against the Taliban regime. He was killed along with four of his bodyguards and three police officers, as well as six civilians, according to Zubair Akbari, the province’s director of public health. Nine other people were wounded.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Barack Obama Sr.’s father was outright opposed to his son’s marriage to Ann Durnham (Obama’s mother) because he thought his son was neglecting his wife and two children in Kenya. He was also concerned that Ann was Caucasian.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***KNX Radio producer Jerry Edling to be a speaker at the International Space Development Conference in La Jolla on May 27th.   ***Charlie Rose will add another show to his already-packed TV hosting schedule.  The New York Times reported on Sunday that Rose will add a new primetime show on Friday nights beginning in July. The new show will use select segments from his late night PBS show “The Charlie Rose Show,” combined with new feature interviews. The half-hour show will be called “Charlie Rose Weekend” and broadcast from 8:30 – 9:00 p.m.   ***UK’s ITN confirmed on Monday that ITV editor Deborah Turness will resign from her post to become the president of NBC News. The Guardian’s Josh Halliday first tweeted the news and reported that NBC News confirmed Turness’ appointment. ITV News is produced by ITN.

RESTAURANTS RUINOUS FOR WAISTLINES: Fast food has gotten a bad rap, but regular restaurant fare fares no better when it comes to nutritional value. In fact, researchers found that meals from small US restaurants are 18 percent more caloric than comparable dishes from chain restaurants, and Canadian eateries follow a similar trend. It is typical for patrons of such establishments to unwittingly consume nearly a full day’s worth of calories and fat as well as one and a half times the recommended daily salt intake in a single meal.

LBN-THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

Levi Strauss Patents Iconic Metal Rivet for Reinforcing Pants Pockets (1873)

If you are wearing blue jeans, chances are a version of tailor Jacob Davis’s invention is hugging your hips right now. Davis did not invent jeans—that was the more famous Levi Strauss—but he did invent one crucial component: the copper rivets that reinforce the corners of the pockets, now ubiquitous on denim pants. Because Davis did not have the money to file the necessary patent paperwork, he wrote to Strauss—then Davis’s fabric supplier—suggesting they apply together.

UNIQUELY, LBN: Billy Ray Tompkins, an LBN E-Lert reader from Nashville, Tenn.

LBN-THINK AGAIN:….Empathy is deaf to facts and figures; it’s engaged by the “identifiable victim effect.”

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***A custom-made electric guitar played by Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison sold for $408,000 at auction over the weekend. The customized VOX guitar – which sold for double the expected amount – was part of the annual Music Icons auctions held on May 18th at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square, Billboard reports.   ***Romanthony, the house producer and DJ who sang the hook on Daft Punk’s 2000 single “One More Time,” died on May 7th at the age of 45. According to Spin, Romanthony’s family confirmed that he died from complications of kidney disease. ***Justin Bieber was straight up BOOED at the Billboard Music Awards last night and not like 1 or 2 people it was a straight up CHORUS of boos and it made Justin super uncomfortable.  It all went down when Cee Lo called on Bieber to receive the first ever Milestone Award — but when Bieb got to the stage, the crowd turned on him.  Of course, there were some screams from the hardcore Bieber fans and JB managed to silence the haters for a minute by thanking Jesus Christ (who’s gonna boo JC?) but overall, more boos than a haunted house.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER:   ***Dennis Rodman is being shadowed for a potential Sports Illustrated cover story — even as he celebrates his outrageous 52nd birthday at jiggle joint Cheetahs tonight, sources said. We hear that Rodman will pose for an SI shoot that will be a riff on his infamous May 1995 cover in black hot pants, a bustier and a dog collar and holding an exotic parrot.

LBN-THINK AGAIN:….

HOW TO LEGALIZE POT: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

LBN-COMMENTARY By MICHAEL BARONE: Chilling effect. That’s the term lawyers and judges use to describe the result of government actions that deter people from exercising their right of free speech.  There have been plenty of examples in the past 10 days. The Obama administration’s Justice Department issued a sweeping demand for two months of office, cellular and home telephone records from multiple Associated Press reporters and editors to investigate an alleged breach of national security.

LBN-COMMENTARY By ROBERT REICH (CHANCELLOR’S PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY; AUTHOR, ‘BEYOND OUTRAGE’): Google, Amazon, Starbucks, every other major corporation, and every big Wall Street bank, are sheltering as much of their U.S. profits abroad as they can, while telling Washington that lower corporate taxes are necessary in order to keep the U.S. “competitive.”

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD:   ***Katy Perry’s been lugging around some excess baggage for a long time – childhood pals say she was so top-heavy she wore two bras to school. In fact, one of the “Wide Awake” singer’s best friends from middle school, the Santa Barbara Christian School in California, recalled: “One time she changed for gym in the girl’s locker room. When she took off her shirt, she had not one, but two bras on, and she said, ‘My boobs are so massive, I have to wear two bras at once.   ***Sean Avery and Hilary Rhoda are back together again. Sources tell us the former New York Ranger, who now works in advertising for the New York-based Lipman Agency, and the model recently reunited.   ***Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have reportedly called it quits over the weekend.  The “Twilight” stars had been dating for more than three years, and separated briefly after Stewart’s dalliance with her “Snow White and the Huntsman” director Rupert Sanders last summer.  Their alleged split appears to be fueled by Stewart’s absence at Pattinson’s 27th birthday part on May 13.   ***’90s comedian Sinbad claims he’s broke as a joke … again — filing for bankruptcy for the second time since 2009. Sinbad (real name David Adkins) filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy last month, claiming he owes $10,991,715 in debt … and only has $131,000 in assets.

CONFUSION AND STAFF TROUBLES RIFE AT I.R.S. OFFICE IN OHIO: During the summer of 2010, the dozen or so accountants and tax agents of Group 7822 of the Internal Revenue Service office in Cincinnati got a directive from their manager. A growing number of organizations identifying themselves as part of the Tea Party had begun applying for tax exemptions, the manager said, advising the workers to be on the lookout for them and other groups planning to get involved in elections.  The specialists, hunched over laptops on the office’s fourth floor, rarely discussed politics, one former supervisor said. Low-level employees in what many in the I.R.S. consider a backwater, they processed thousands of applications a year, mostly from charities like private schools or hospitals.  For months, the Tea Party cases sat on the desk of a lone specialist, who used “political sounding” criteria — words like “patriots,” “we the people” — as a way to search efficiently through the flood of applications for groups that might not qualify for exemptions, according to the I.R.S. inspector general. “Triage,” the agency’s acting chief described it.

YIKES – TAXES ON SOME WEALTHY FRENCH TOP 100 PCT OF INCOME: More than 8,000 French households’ tax bills topped 100 percent of their income last year, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Saturday, citing Finance Ministry data. The newspaper said that the exceptionally high level of taxation was due to a one-off levy last year on 2011 incomes for households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million).

THE HEALTH TOLL OF IMMIGRATION: Becoming an American can be bad for your health.  A growing body of mortality research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in this country, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. And while their American-born children may have more money, they tend to live shorter lives than the parents.  The pattern goes against any notion that moving to America improves every aspect of life. It also demonstrates that at least in terms of health, worries about assimilation for the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants are mistaken. In fact, it is happening all too quickly.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? UCLA basketball coach Steve Alford along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

SONY’S UNWANTED GENRE: SUSPENSE: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog -Click here-

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Lady Gaga’s big-screen debut in Robert Rodriguez’s “Machete Kills” came thanks to a chance encounter in an LA tattoo parlor. The film’s star, Danny Trejo, was getting some new ink at Shamrock Social Club in LA, right next to Gaga, shortly before the movie started production, a spy said.   ***Media expert and author Michael Levine enjoying former client Melissa Manchester’s performance last night at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood.   ***Madonna and daughter Lourdes dining at a corner booth at Scarpetta in the Meatpacking District in NYC.   ***Cameron Diaz working out at Equinox on Greenwich Avenue in NYC.   ***Rod Stewart at Richie Romero’s The Diner in the MPD . . . Chris Bosh and wife Adrienne celebrating his NBA Heat’s playoff-series win over the Bulls at Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill in Miami.   ***Katie Holmes trying to slip incognito out of a class at Soul Cycle in TriBeCa in NYC.   ***Ryan Cabrera and Lil Jon playing ping pong at Slate NYC. ***Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne took another step toward a possible reconciliation when the pair walked the red carpet at an event in Beverly Hills last night with their daughter Kelly. Sharon and Ozzy met for lunch earlier in the day. Our spies say that as the meal went along, the two got pretty cozy together. The couple split last month and our sources say Sharon won’t consider getting back together with Ozzy until he proves he is sober for good.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: David Beckham Cries At Last Home Game

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Several famous actors were decorated during WWII. For example, Henry Fonda won a Bronze Star in the Pacific, Walter Matthau was awarded six battle stars while serving on a B-17, and David Niven was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit. Christopher Lee was a pilot in the Royal Air Force and also won a number of awards.

UN ADVOCATING BUGS AS FOOD: In many parts of the world, insects are an accepted part of the cuisine, and it would behoove Westerners to welcome bugs into their diets as well. A report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization concludes that insects are “underutilized” as food. They are good sources of protein and minerals, and their production produces fewer greenhouse gasses and is less land-dependent than the raising of livestock. Increasing our dependence on insects as a highly nutritious food source could help combat world hunger and, on the opposite end of the spectrum, even help reduce obesity.

DID YOU KNOW? Did you know that seven (7) members of the NFL Commissioner’s office read the LBN E-Lert daily?

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***”Star Trek Into Darkness” was an easy winner at the weekend box office, but its mission fell short of some analysts’ forecasts. The sequel to the 2009 film did $70.6 million, according to studio estimates from Hollywood.com.

LBN-SPORT INSIDER: ***As speculation swirls over whether coaching guru Phil Jackson will make a return to the NBA, a new book by him reveals his feelings about former players including Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman, who Jackson says created an alter ego with help from Madonna. In “Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success,” out Tuesday, the onetime Knicks player and famed coach of the Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers recalls Bryant’s “obsession” with Jordan, saying, “Kobe was hell-bent on surpassing Jordan as the greatest player in the game. His obsession with Michael was striking. Not only had he mastered many of Jordan’s moves, but he affected many of M.J.’s mannerisms as well.” When Jackson once “orchestrated a meeting” between the two, “The first words out of Kobe’s mouth were, ‘You know I can kick your ass one-on-one.’ ” Of wild Rodman, Jackson says, “Most of the players developed a fondness for Dennis right away. They soon realized that all his wild offstage theatrics — the nose rings, the tattoos, the late-night parties in gay bars — were all part of an act he’d created, with the help of Madonna, to get attention. ***OJ Simpson is already planning life after jail — despite the fact that his conviction has yet to be overturned — and priority numero uno: a massive college speaking tour to line his pockets.  Simpson is gunning for a retrial in his 2007 armed robbery case, for which he’s currently serving out a 33-year-sentence. If a new trial happens, and his conviction is overturned, Simpson’s time behind bars could be drastically reduced. With high hopes of getting out soon, Simpson reportedly told a source said hat he plans to go on a nationwide college tour to make some cold, hard cash speaking about the Nicole Brown murder case

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: ‘SNL’ Takes On IRS Scandal

UNIQUELY, LBN: Noreen O., an LBN E-Lert reader from Pearle City, Hawaii

LBN-COMMENTARY By MAUREEN DOWD: I went to New York last week to cover the TV presentations for the new season, shows like “Scandal,” “Shark Tank” and a faltering “American Idol.”  I may as well have stayed here.  You know that the faltering American idol in the White House must be reeling in this scandalous spring. No Drama Obama is immersed in drama so over the top it could have been scripted by Shonda Rhimes and Karl Rove.  Just four months after his second inauguration, the president is buffeted by gushing investigations, smug and deranged Republicans, and cat-who-ate-the-canary conspiracists. The man who promised in 2008 to make government cool again is instead batting away charges that he has made government “Nixonian” again.   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog -Click Here-

LBN-COMMENTARY By FRANK BRUNI: In the service of what I’m about to write, an admission I’m loath to make: I watch “The Voice.”  It gets worse. I watch “American Idol,” too.  Not whole seasons. Not even whole episodes. If I may brag a little, no one can fast-forward like I can, compressing two recorded hours of “The Voice” into 34 minutes and the “Idol” finale on Thursday night into about 19, including the pauses to top off my Chablis and brush the cracker crumbs from my comforter.  But I’ve experienced enough of these shows to know that they’re not merely singing competitions. They’re misery competitions. Bad-luck bake-offs. I’ll see you your high school expulsion, and I’ll raise you my stint in rehab.

LBN-COMMENTARY By ROSS DOUTHAT: Over the last decade, the United States has become a less violent country in every way save one. As Americans commit fewer and fewer crimes against other people’s lives and property, they have become more likely to inflict fatal violence on themselves.  In the 1990s, the suicide rate dipped with the crime rate. But since 2000, it has risen, and jumped particularly sharply among the middle-aged. The suicide rate for Americans 35 to 54 increased nearly 30 percent between 1999 and 2010; for men in their 50s, it rose nearly 50 percent. More Americans now die of suicide than in car accidents, and gun suicides are almost twice as common as gun homicides.

LBN-COMMENTARY By STEPHANIE COONTZ: As a historian, I’ve spent much of my career warning people about the dangers of nostalgia. But as a mother, watching my son graduate from medical school on Thursday, I have been awash in nostalgia all week.  In personal life, the warm glow of nostalgia amplifies good memories and minimizes bad ones about experiences and relationships, encouraging us to revisit and renew our ties with friends and family. It always involves a little harmless self-deception, like forgetting the pain of childbirth.  In society at large, however, nostalgia can distort our understanding of the world in dangerous ways, making us needlessly negative about our current situation.

LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: I just spent a day in this northeast Syrian town. It was terrifying — much more so than I anticipated — but not because we were threatened in any way by the Free Syrian Army soldiers who took us around or by the Islamist Jabhet al-Nusra fighters who stayed hidden in the shadows. It was the local school that shook me up.  As we were driving back to the Turkish border, I noticed a school and asked the driver to turn around so I could explore it. It was empty — of students. But war refugees had occupied the classrooms and little kids’ shirts and pants were drying on a line strung across the playground. The basketball backboard was rusted, and a local parent volunteered to give me a tour of the bathrooms, which he described as disgusting. Classes had not been held in two years. And that is what terrified me. Men with guns I’m used to. But kids without books, teachers or classes for a long time — that’s trouble. Big trouble.   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – Click Here-

THEY KNEW – TREASURY OFFICIALS TOLD OF IRS PROB IN JUNE 2012: Senior Treasury officials were made aware in June 2012 that investigators were looking into complaints from tea party groups that they were being harassed by the Internal Revenue Service, a Treasury inspector general said Friday, disclosing that Obama administration officials knew there was a probe during the heat of the presidential campaign. J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, testified alongside ousted IRS head Steven Miller, who did little to subdue Republican outrage during hours of intense congressional questioning. Both defiant and apologetic, Miller acknowledged agency mistakes in targeting tea party groups for special scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status, but he insisted that agents broke no laws and that there was no effort to cover up their actions.

10% OF FACEBOOK’S USERS ARE NOT HUMAN-INCLUDING MARK ZUCKERBERG’S DOG, BEAST, WHO HAS 1.5 MILLION FOLLOWERS: Dogs, cats, horses, toasters: You name it, it has a Facebook page. Facebook now has one billion users – but ten per cent of them are not human, according to new research.At least 100 million of Facebook’s ‘monthly active users’ are pets, brands and companies – and even Facebook founder Mark Zuckeberg’s dog Beast has a page. According to e-Marketer, an internet market research company, only 889.3 million of the one billion users are real people.

PRESIDENT SEEKS PATH FORWARD BEYOND TROUBLES: President Obama, struggling to find his footing after one of his most turbulent weeks in office, will try to push past the moment’s political furor with a focus on the few pieces of legislation he believes have a chance in Congress and on executive actions that do not require Republican approval.  The president’s aides, wary of what they say are Republican attempts to seize on woes as a way of thwarting Mr. Obama’s agenda, have ordered the White House staff not to be distracted by approaching hearings on Capitol Hill. Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff, has told those in the West Wing that he expects them to spend no more than 10 percent of their time on the controversies.

A BLACK MOUND OF CANADIAN OIL WASTE IS RISING OVER DETROIT: Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River.  Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted and long overlooked byproduct of Canada’s oil sands boom.  And no one knows quite what to do about it, except Koch Carbon, which owns it.

PASSPORT TO IDEAS THAT MATTER: LBN *agenda* Blog -Click Here-

S. KOREA SAYS NORTH LAUNCHES 3 SHORT-RANGE MISSILES: North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea off its east coast on Saturday, the South Korean Defense Ministry said.  Two missiles were launched in the morning, followed by another in the afternoon, said Kim Min-seok, a ministry spokesman.  “We remain vigilant and prepared in case the launching of these missiles might be followed by a military provocation by the North,” Mr. Kim said.  Tests of short-range missiles by North Korea are fairly routine. The last such tests were reported in March.

FRANCE’S HOLLANDE SIGNS GAY MARRIAGE LAW: French President Francois Hollande has signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriage, making France the 14th country to legalize gay weddings. France’s official journal announced on Saturday the bill had become law after the Constitutional Council gave it the go-ahead on Friday.  The bill, a campaign pledge by the Socialist president, has been for months hotly contested by many conservatives in France, where allowing gay marriage is one of the biggest social reforms since abolition of the death penalty in 1981.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Nutrifit founder Jackie Keller along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

BEYONCE RESPONDS TO PREGNANCY RUMORS: In an unusually aggressive move for the queen bee of hip-hop, Beyonce spoke out against rumors that she is pregnant with her second child on Instagram. “I can’t stop the rumors from starting, and I can’t really change peoples minds who believe them, all I can do is sit back and laugh at these low life people who have nothing better to do than talk about me,” she wrote. The defiant denial comes just days after “multiple sources” spoke out to confirm the star’s second pregnancy.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***FOX News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes will be honored with the $250,000 Bradley Prize for being a “visionary of American journalism” on June 12 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.  “Roger Ailes has been a visionary,” declared Michael W. Grebe, President and CEO of the Bradley Foundation, which will award four such prizes this year. “His innovative business-building strategies have revolutionized the uncovering and delivery of news in America.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Army Father’s Surpise Reunion With Daughter Is A Viral Tearjerker

PREPACKAGED DIET FOODS LINKED TO GREATER WEIGHT-LOSS SUCCESS: When it comes to dieting, prepackaged, portion-controlled food plans may be the way to go. In a recent study, dieters on a structured diet plan consisting of five pre-packaged meals each day along with a single meal prepared by the dieter lost an average of 16.5 pounds (7.5 kg) over six months—6.7 percent of their starting weight. By comparison, those merely advised on how to keep to a 1,000 calorie-per-day diet lost just 8.4 pounds (3.8 kg)—3.4 percent of their starting weight. Participants from both groups had a tendency to rebound toward their original weight, but a year in, the dieters on the packaged meal plan still had kept more of the weight off.

‘SMALLEST PENIS CONTEST’ IN BROOKLYN: NEW YORK BAR TO HONOR THE SMALL THINGS: Life, they say, is about learning to appreciate the small things. For proof, look no further than the first-ever “Smallest Penis Contest” at King’s County Bar in Brooklyn, New York, on July 20.According to a Craigslist ad seeking “less endowed men” to prove that “good things can come in small packages,” the contest will be “pageant style” and involve “talent, evening wear, and swimsuit elements.” And this won’t be just another pissing contest, either. As the Village Voice notes, winners will be selected by a “small member expert panel.”

SAUDI ARABIAN WOMAN SCALES EVEREST: A Saudi Arabian woman is among a group of 64 climbers who have reportedy scaled Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, according to reports from the AP this morning. Nepal’s mountaineering officials say that the 35 foreigners and 29 Sherba guides safely summitted at 29,035 feet on Saturday morning, after an all-night trek from the nearest camp. The Saudi, Raha Moharrak, is the first woman from her country to reach the top of Everest. The mountain—first summited by Sir Edmund Hillary and sherpa Tenzing Norgay—is considered a highly dangerous climb; already, six deaths have been recorded this year.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Romney Hurls Criticism Over Scandals

MTA TRAIN COLLISION LEAVES 60 INJURED: Eight people remain hospitalized—three in critical condition—after two commuter trains carrying more than 700 people collided Friday night, according to Connecticut Governor Malloy. Speaking to press Saturday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported “extensive infrastructure damage,” that will keep normal service from returning until a “full investigation” is complete. The train derailed, injuring up to 60 people, after colliding with another train heading to Grand Central. “It was just a crazy scene…People were thrown,” one passenger told the New Haven Register.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Beyoncé’s next album release and tour status remain uncertain, but she has good reason: the 31-year-old singer is reportedly expecting her second child with husband Jay-Z. The news, as reported by Us Weekly, would offer a clear explanation of her recent ailments: Beyoncé canceled a show this past Tuesday in Antwerp, Belgium on doctors’ orders due to dehydration and exhaustion. However, she went against medical advice and performed in the city the next night. Last week, multiple sources at the Met Gala in New York told the New York Post that Beyoncé is pregnant.   ***George Michael was involved in a car crash in England yesterday, and was reportedly airlifted to the hospital after paramedics were called to the incident.  The singer’s rep told TMZ that the “Careless Whisper” crooner was a passenger in a Range Rover that crashed on the M1 motorway at around 5:50 p.m. local time.  A statement released today said Michael suffered “superficial cuts and bruises.”

LBN-TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:

LBN-INVESTIGATES: The University of Rome is one of the world’s oldest universities and was founded by the Catholic Church in A.D. 1303. Often called La Sapienza (“knowledge”), the University of Rome is also Europe’s largest university with 150,000 students.

MY REVIEW: “I read LBN daily because it give me the news fast and easy. I don’t have time keep with all the news and LBN is a life-saver.”—–Harriet Z. Marlboro, an LBN E-Lert reader from Charleston, North Carolina

LBN-COMMENTARY By JACKIE KELLER: Closet Climate Change Deniers? Last week, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was scheduled to vote on the nomination of Gina McCarthy, a bipartisan choice to be the next Environmental Protection Agency administrator. None of the eight Republican members of the committee showed up, boycotting the vote, and effectively blocking it altogether. Here’s a detail that’s getting left out of the news reports: Seven of those Republicans don’t actually believe in the science behind climate change — and they refuse the notion that we have a responsibility to act on it.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PEGGY NOONAN: We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous. No one likes what they’re seeing. The Justice Department assault on the Associated Press and the ugly politicization of the Internal Revenue Service have left the administration’s credibility deeply, probably irretrievably damaged. They don’t look jerky now, they look dirty. The patina of high-mindedness the president enjoyed is gone.

LBN-COMMENTARY By CHARLES M. BLOW: Whether one thinks the demiscandals being howled about in Washington should or should not resonate more widely, they don’t. According to a Gallup report released Thursday, “The amount of attention Americans are paying to the I.R.S. and the Benghazi situations is well below the average for news stories Gallup has tracked over the years.” (The Associated Press phone records case wasn’t mentioned.) Why might this be?   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog -Click Here-

LBN READER COMMENT: “I can’t wait to heal so I can start reading LBN again every day.”—–Name withheld by request (An LBN E-Lert reader from Tel Aviv, Israel.

DO YOU? Do you have the GUTS to forward this LBN E-Lert to your friends, family and associates? Do you? Do you?

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW: Elvis

IRS STALLED CONSERVATIVE GROUPS, BUT GAVE SPEEDY APPROVAL TO OBAMA FOUNDATION: When the Barack H. Obama Foundation sought tax-exempt status to raise money for good works in Kenya, the Internal Revenue Service provided quick help. The IRS approved charitable status for the foundation, which was run by President Obama’s brother and named after his father, in about a month’s time. The IRS also agreed to give the group this important financial status retroactively, back to 2009, when it had begun its fundraising.  The 34 days the IRS’s Cincinnati office took to process the foundation’s application stands in contrast to the waits of several months — and sometimes longer than a year — that several conservative groups say they experienced with the same office. Obama has apologized, saying Americans have a right to be angry that the office improperly targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

SYRIA BEGINS TO BREAK APART UNDER PRESSURE FROM WAR: The black flag of jihad flies over much of northern Syria. In the center of the country, pro-government militias and Hezbollah fighters battle those who threaten their communities. In the northeast, the Kurds have effectively carved out an autonomous zone.  After more than two years of conflict, Syria is breaking up. A constellation of armed groups battling to advance their own agendas are effectively creating the outlines of separate armed fiefs. As the war expands in scope and brutality, its biggest casualty appears to be the integrity of the Syrian state.

FBI PROBES CHECHEN REBEL: The FBI has searched the home of an exiled former Chechen rebel after learning that he met with main Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev less than a month before he allegedly carried out the deadly attack. Musa Khadjimuradov confirms that FBI investigators came to his house Tuesday and examined the hard drives of his computers and questioned him about Tsarnaev’s visits to a shooting range and fireworks purchases. Khadjimuradov came to the U.S. from Chechnya in 2004 as part of the U.N. refugee program and met Tsarnaev through the Chechen Society of Boston. He says Tsarnaev visited him three times, the last time with his family.

$1M IN JEWELRY STOLEN IN CANNES: A-listers walking the red carpet in Cannes this week will be excused for not accessorizing their gowns with the usual bling. More than $1 million in jewelry was stolen from a Cannes hotel room where an employee of jewelry-maker Chopard was staying. The thief reportedly ripped the room’s safe out of the wall of the employee’s Novotel hotel room, making off with baubles meant for celebrities to wear to the film festival’s glitzy parties and premiere events. Cannes jewel robberies is a bit of a tradition at this point: $8 million worth was stolen in one 2009 incident, while a group of thieves during that same festival rode away with $21 million in Cartier bling.

HOLDER: EMAIL SEARCHES NEED A WARRANT: During a grilling by the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee over the suddenly-long list of controversies surrounding the Obama administration, Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that he supports requiring that the government and law enforcement obtain a warrant to access emails, Facebook messages, and other private Internet correspondence. Privacy advocates have been urging Congress to consider updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act since it became clear that the 1986 law granting the government access to opened emails via a non-judge-approved subpoena is horribly outdated. Holder’s comment that revamping the law “is something that I think the department will support,” is the first real indication that Congress might actually make a change

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Radio anchor and author Bob Brill along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Rupert Murdoch has claimed Facebook may suffer the same fate as troubled peer MySpace on the eve of the anniversary of the social networking group’s difficult initial public offering.

LBN-INFO LINK: LATEST NEWS:
• Associated Press/Justice Department Investigation
• Benghazi Investigation
• Internal Revenue Service Investigation

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Hollywood media expert and author Michael Levine to lecture tomorrow on the “Secret of Success” at UCLA in the afternoon.

GOOGLE GLASS ADDS NEW APPS: Big news for the 10 percent of Americans out there who would buy Google Glass if they could afford it: you can now aspire to one day earn enough money to have Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and Elle magazine displayed in your direct line of vision wherever you go. Following the announcement that it’s entering the music-streaming game, Google unveiled a number of new applications that have been adapted for Google Glass on day two of its annual developers conference. Google Glass was first introduced at last year’s conference and is still not quite ready for the public, though some developers and super-cool early adopters have been able to get their hands on an Explorer Edition for $1,500.

MOM CHASES CHILD’S ABDUCTOR WITH CAR: Mothers really will do anything for their kids. After being alerted that her 4-year-old daughter was abducted by a stranger driving past their house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Melissa Torrez jumped in her car to trail the person. Torrez followed the car for seven miles, even though she was unaware at the time that the abductor had already pushed the little girl out of the vehicle. She then rammed into the suspect’s car—she says it was accidental—and the driver ran off. When she looked into the back of his car, she said she saw an empty baby car seat. David Hernandez, 31, was arrested after he saw his picture on television and called police. After being interviewed, he was charged with kidnapping, a police spokesperson said.

LBN-NOTICED: ***After being arrested together last month, Reese Witherspoon and her husband, Jim Toth, were back to boozing Wednesday night (though spies said they didn’t cause any trouble this time around). The Hollywood couple was seen enjoying a round of cocktails at the Bryant Park Hotel’s Cellar Bar in NYC before they headed to Koi for sushi.   ***Sting and Trudie Styler at Antica Pesa in Williamsburg in NYC.   ***Bradley Cooper at Bon Appétit’s Las Vegas Uncork’d event at Caesars Palace’s VIP Bacchus Pools, where chefs, including Bobby Flay, Gordon Ramsay and Joel Robuchon, cooked a feast for 2,500.   ***Allison Williams hanging out with friends at Spring Lounge in NYC.   ***Miley Cyrus dancing to her own song “Party in the USA” at Maxim’s Hot 100 Party.   ***Demi Lovato dining with a group of friends at Lavo NY.

UNIQUELY, LBN: Sally Howland, an LBN E-Lert reader from Princeton, New Jersey.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Jo Wood, the second ex-wife of Rolling Stones’ rocker Ronnie Wood, claims in her new memoir that she and the musician once “smuggled smack” into the Bahamas back in 1978. In an early excerpt from her tell-all, “It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll: 30 Years Married To A Rolling Stone” published by RadarOnline, the former model claimed that an alleged “sharp suited” dealer named Victor had them sneak cigarettes laced with heroin during their vacation to Nassau.

REPORT: TORONTO MAYOR FILMED SMOKING CRACK: Two Toronto Star reporters and one Gawker editor say they’ve seen a video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. All three report that the cellphone video in question clearly shows Ford, in a well-lit room inhaling from, what looks like a glass crack pipe. The problem is the person who took the recording—someone who claims to have sold crack to the mayor—would only let The Star and Gawker watch the video on his phone while he held it in the back of a car outside a Toronto apartment complex. He wants six figures for the video, and, out of fear that it might be sold back to the mayor, Gawker is soliciting offers from news organizations or wealthy individuals interested in purchasing the video for public viewing. The Star says Ford’s chief of staff hung up when a rep called for comment.

SEX ASSAULTS HIGHEST AT DENVER PRISON: More than 10 percent of inmates at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility say they’ve been sexually assaulted or subject to sexual misconduct by the prison’s staff, according to a new study from the U.S. Department of Justice. As the Denver Post reported, it was the highest rate in the nation, four times the national average of 2.4 percent. In 2008, an inmate at the prison filed a lawsuit saying she’d been sexually assaulted by a corrections offer; she was awarded $1.3 million, though the officer involved was only sentenced to 60 days in prison. Several other prisoners filed another suit in 2011, but it was dismissed. Most women, inmates say, are afraid to report abuse, because the staff can retaliate by placing them in administration segregation. “So none of us say nothing about nothing,” one woman told The Denver Post.

GEORGE MICHAEL INJURED IN CAR CRASH: At least he wasn’t behind the wheel this time. Singer George Michael was airlifted to a hospital yesterday after a car crash in the U.K., sustaining minor injuries. But the entertainer’s rep has made it clear that Michael, who has a history of driving under the influence of various drugs, was a passenger in the crash (and he’s doing just “fine” after the crash). Michael was sentenced to eight weeks behind bars in 2010 after he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs and possessing marijuana. Whatever he was on, it led him to crash his Range Rover into a shop in north London. In 2006 he was banned from driving for two years after he was found passed out in his Mercedes and convicted of driving while high on drugs.

LBN-COMMENTARY By HÉCTOR CARRILLO: Brazil is potentially poised to become the third and largest country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, following a judicial order on Tuesday. Argentina was the first, in 2010, after the government brushed aside objections from Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, now the pope. The Uruguayan legislature followed suit last month. Mexico City has allowed such unions since 2010, and the Mexican state of Quintana Roo since 2011.  How can we reconcile these developments with the stereotype of Latin culture as a bastion of religiosity and machismo? How is it that the continent the Catholic Church looks to as its future (along with Africa) is home to what is said to be the largest gay-pride celebration in the world, in São Paulo, Brazil?

LBN-COMMENTARY By DAVID BROOKS: Government, Clinton Rossiter once wrote, is something like fire: “Under control, it is the most useful of servants; out of control, it is a ravaging tyrant.”  So you want government workers to be acutely aware of the ambiguous and perilous nature of their position. You want them to have a heart full of affection for the people they serve. They should regard the people as a mentor, respecting their wisdom, grateful for their trust and longing to serve them with deference and respect.  As they love and respect the voters, you also want government workers to fear themselves. You want officials who are aware that they probably went into government in part because they have a desire to shape and help other people, and that this desire comes with its own form of immoderation.   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

REPORT: DZHOKHAR CONFESSED IN WRITING: As investigators struggle to nail down Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s psychological state when he allegedly carried out the Boston bombings, a new report from CBS suggests that the 19-year-old confessed to the crime in a note before he was captured in the boat where he was hiding. The full text of the item, which was reportedly scribbled onto the side of the boat, has not been released. But one line, published by CBS, alludes to getting revenge for attacks on Muslims. “When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims,” it reads. Dzhokhar made mention of his deceased brother Tamerlan in the note as well, calling him a “martyr in heaven.” Despite the relevance of the message, authorities say it cannot be used in the case against Dzhokhar.

DEADLY TWISTERS RIP THROUGH TEXAS: At least six people were killed and dozens wounded Wednesday night after a tornado carrying hail “the size of softballs” barreled through North Texas. Authorities estimate that at least 50 people were taken to a local hospital, some eventually transferred to one more specialized, 35 miles away. While law enforcement hopes that the death toll will remain at six, rescue crews were said to be resuming their search at daylight. Roger Deed, Hood County’s sheriff, said he is most concerned with two people who were found alarmingly far from their home. The storm, made up of a “swarm of tornadoes” hit two large neighborhoods in Southern Granbury, leaving at least 250 people homeless.

ACTING HEAD OF IRS GETS THE BOOT: The IRS scandal has claimed its first scalp. Steve Miller, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has resigned after being asked to do so by the Treasury secretary, President Obama announced in a late-afternoon statement to the media. The agency was found to have inappropriately targeted conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status. “Americans are right to be angry about it,” Obama said of the misconduct. “I will not tolerate this kind of behavior … given the power that [the IRS] has and the reach that it has in all of our lives.” Obama also said he’d cooperate with Congress during its oversight review.

SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS SIX AMERICANS: At least 15 people were killed—including six Americans— after a suicide car bomb detonated beside a NATO convoy in Kabul early Thursday. Officials in Afghanistan say the explosion came from a Toyota Corolla, where the bomb was allegedly planted by an extremist group. A NATO SUV carrying “foreign advisers” was decimated in the blast, which also destroyed close to a dozen homes. Hezb-e-Islami, a group with close ties to the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack just hours after it happened. A spokesman for the Afghan Islamist group told officials that they were targeting U.S. military advisers.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Singer Tony Bennett along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

KFC SMUGGLED FROM EGYPT TO GAZA: It’s not just weapons and people who are smuggled underground from Egypt to the Gaza strip, but even fast food. Palestinians living in the region are currently obsessed with Kentucky Fried Chicken, even if it’s a little soggy by the time it reaches them. A 12-piece bucket sells for roughly $27 in Gaza, arriving after a four-hour sojourn from El Arish, Egypt, where that same 12-piece bucket costs $11.50. Khalil Efrangi, the 31-year-old entrepreneur behind the operation, coordinates the journey across an international border and through a smuggling tunnel. Isolated Palestinians crave even the most mundane things from outside of Gaza. “It’s our right to enjoy that taste the other people all over the world enjoy,” said Efrangi.

DAVID BECKHAM RETIRING FROM SOCCER: David Beckham’s done showing off his swag on the soccer field. Breaking the hearts of millions of fans across the world, the legend announced plans Thursday to retire from the sport at the end of the season. “I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level,” Beckham told the Associated Press. The English legend spent six years as captain of England’s main soccer team, and became the first player to participate in 100 UEFA Championship League matches. Beckham joined France’s top soccer league, Paris Saint-Germain, in January.

POT SMOKERS ARE SKINNIER: Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to … stop weight gain? According to a new study by researchers at the University of Nebraska, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, regular marijuana users are skinnier than those who have either never tried the drug, or don’t use it regularly. The study, which looked at 4,600 adults, found smaller waist circumferences in the 12 percent who identified themselves as regular weed smokers. On top of the skinny factor, researchers also found higher levels of “good cholesterol” (HDL) in those who smoke cannabis often.

KNICKS COACH EXPECTS SERIES VS. PACERS TO GO ON PAST TONIGHT’S GAME 5: Mike Woodson doesn’t believe he has held his last morning shootaround of the season. After today’s morning shootaround at Tarrytown, with do-or-die Game 5 on tap tonight, Woodson sounded very confident the series is heading back to Indianapolis. “I’m expecting to win tonight,’’ Woodson said. “This has got to be a wakeup now. If we lose, we go home and none of us want to go home. I sure as hell don’t. I think we’re going to show a lot of pride.’’The Knicks trail the best-of-seven second-round series 3-1 and only eight teams have ever recovered from that deficit. The Knicks never have, and it would be bitter if the season ends on their home floor, where the Knicks posted a 31-10 home record, best in the East.Finally, Woodson is succumbing to the pressure and will give Cope a chance!

SCIENTISTS MAKE EMBRYONIC CELLS: In a groundbreaking announcement for stem cell research, scientists at Oregon State University reported that they have discovered a way to turn human skin cells into embryonic cells. The successful experiment—the first to date—involves transplanting human DNA into an egg cell where all genetic material has been removed. A senior scientist in the study, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, called the breakthrough a “significant step forward…in regenerative medicine.” The news is of vital importance to the stem cell research community as it would allow the creation of the type of stem cell capable of transforming into any other type of human cell, without the use of an embryo.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Music publisher and writer Michael Sigman having lunch yesterday at The Palm in West Hollywood.   ***Actress Alison Janes having dinner last night at the award-winning Natalee Thai restaurant in Beverly Hills.   ***Mick Jagger was spotted at Teddy’s at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in LA early yesterday, when he arrived at 1 a.m., spies said. The rocker met there with mogul Steve Bing. “Both showed up for late-night drinks with several friends,” said a spy.   ***Danny DeVito grabbing a late- night cocktail at the bar at Spago with two male friends, laughing and in a great mood.   ***Nick Lachey and reunited boy band 98 Degrees at Old Homestead Steakhouse and the Ainsworth between promoting new album “2.0”.   ***Christian Slater with fiancée Brittany Lopez at Ava Lounge in NYC.   ***Floyd Mayweather Jr., John McEnroe, Spike Lee and Andrew Murstein at Madison Square Garden to see the N.Y.Knicks.   ***Jessica Alba hosting a charity ride at Flywheel West Hollywood to benefit Baby2Baby

MY REVIEW: “LBN is bold and independent. It tells the truth day after day. LBN is the no-spin zone for real.”—–Kyle Peterman, an LBN E-Lert reader from Montreal, Canada

DYLAN INDUCTED INTO ARTS ACADEMY: The poet laureate of the rock-and-roll era joined the ranks of some of the greatest writers, composers, painters, and sculptors in the world Wednesday night at an energetic induction ceremony at the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Michael Chabon, an award-winning American author and the event’s keynote speaker, delivered a speech to the audience titled “Rock ’n’ Roll”—an idea he insists was conceived before he knew Dylan was nominated. The event made history, marking the first time a rock-and-roller has been welcomed into the academy since its founding in 1898.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER:   ***Justin Timberlake joked about the female orgasm when he took the stage at the Cannes Film Festival last night.  In Timberlake’s new film “Spinning Gold,” the singer/actor plays Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart. Bogart famously convinced Donna Summer to record a second version of her explicit 1975 hit “Love to Love You Baby” for as long as 20 minutes. The sexy song, well known for its moaning and groaning that simulated female pleasure, launched the disco diva’s career.

CHRISTIE’S AUCTION BREAKS RECORD: A contemporary art auction at Christie’s shattered the record for the highest sales figure at an art auction Wednesday night, raking in a massive $495 million. Among the 12 pieces that brought in the big bucks were works by Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The top seller, a famous painting by Pollock titled No. 19, 1948 brought in $58.3 million. An impressive 66 out of the 70 works in the auction found new homes, leaving just four unsold.

LBN-QUOTE OF THE DAY: Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn. - C. S. Lewis

UNIQUELY, LBN: Darren K. Verrious, an LBN E-Lert reader from Madrid, Spain

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Billionaire mogul Kirk Kerkorian, who once owned United Artists and was “King of the Strip” with Vegas resorts including the MGM, is in ill health and allegedly being held hostage by handlers at his company, according to legal documents filed by his ex-wife Lisa Bonder Kerkorian. Kirk, 95, hasn’t been seen in public since June 2012, according to Lisa, who claims in court papers that managers of Kerkorian’s company Tracinda Corp. have been controlling him.   ***Kanye West is reportedly embarking on an international tour soon after his pregnant girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, gives birth, and the reality star is said to be furious that West is planning to hit the road shortly after their baby’s born.  West’s new album is rumored to drop on June 18, and according to a RadarOnline, the rapper will be launching a worldwide tour later this fall or early next year.

REPORT: DZHOKHAR CONFESSED IN WRITING: As investigators struggle to nail down Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s psychological state when he allegedly carried out the Boston bombings, a new report from CBS suggests that the 19-year-old confessed to the crime in a note before he was captured in the boat where he was hiding. The full text of the item, which was reportedly scribbled onto the side of the boat, has not been released. But one line, published by CBS, alludes to getting revenge for attacks on Muslims. “When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims,” it reads. Dzhokhar made mention of his deceased brother Tamerlan in the note as well, calling him a “martyr in heaven.” Despite the relevance of the message, authorities say it cannot be used in the case against Dzhokhar.

DEADLY TWISTERS RIP THROUGH TEXAS: At least six people were killed and dozens wounded Wednesday night after a tornado carrying hail “the size of softballs” barreled through North Texas. Authorities estimate that at least 50 people were taken to a local hospital, some eventually transferred to one more specialized, 35 miles away. While law enforcement hopes that the death toll will remain at six, rescue crews were said to be resuming their search at daylight. Roger Deed, Hood County’s sheriff, said he is most concerned with two people who were found alarmingly far from their home. The storm, made up of a “swarm of tornadoes” hit two large neighborhoods in Southern Granbury, leaving at least 250 people homeless.

ACTING HEAD OF IRS GETS THE BOOT: The IRS scandal has claimed its first scalp. Steve Miller, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has resigned after being asked to do so by the Treasury secretary, President Obama announced in a late-afternoon statement to the media. The agency was found to have inappropriately targeted conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status. “Americans are right to be angry about it,” Obama said of the misconduct. “I will not tolerate this kind of behavior … given the power that [the IRS] has and the reach that it has in all of our lives.” Obama also said he’d cooperate with Congress during its oversight review.

SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS SIX AMERICANS: At least 15 people were killed—including six Americans— after a suicide car bomb detonated beside a NATO convoy in Kabul early Thursday. Officials in Afghanistan say the explosion came from a Toyota Corolla, where the bomb was allegedly planted by an extremist group. A NATO SUV carrying “foreign advisers” was decimated in the blast, which also destroyed close to a dozen homes. Hezb-e-Islami, a group with close ties to the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack just hours after it happened. A spokesman for the Afghan Islamist group told officials that they were targeting U.S. military advisers.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Singer Tony Bennett along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

KFC SMUGGLED FROM EGYPT TO GAZA: It’s not just weapons and people who are smuggled underground from Egypt to the Gaza strip, but even fast food. Palestinians living in the region are currently obsessed with Kentucky Fried Chicken, even if it’s a little soggy by the time it reaches them. A 12-piece bucket sells for roughly $27 in Gaza, arriving after a four-hour sojourn from El Arish, Egypt, where that same 12-piece bucket costs $11.50. Khalil Efrangi, the 31-year-old entrepreneur behind the operation, coordinates the journey across an international border and through a smuggling tunnel. Isolated Palestinians crave even the most mundane things from outside of Gaza. “It’s our right to enjoy that taste the other people all over the world enjoy,” said Efrangi.

DAVID BECKHAM RETIRING FROM SOCCER: David Beckham’s done showing off his swag on the soccer field. Breaking the hearts of millions of fans across the world, the legend announced plans Thursday to retire from the sport at the end of the season. “I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level,” Beckham told the Associated Press. The English legend spent six years as captain of England’s main soccer team, and became the first player to participate in 100 UEFA Championship League matches. Beckham joined France’s top soccer league, Paris Saint-Germain, in January.

POT SMOKERS ARE SKINNIER: Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to … stop weight gain? According to a new study by researchers at the University of Nebraska, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, regular marijuana users are skinnier than those who have either never tried the drug, or don’t use it regularly. The study, which looked at 4,600 adults, found smaller waist circumferences in the 12 percent who identified themselves as regular weed smokers. On top of the skinny factor, researchers also found higher levels of “good cholesterol” (HDL) in those who smoke cannabis often.

KNICKS COACH EXPECTS SERIES VS. PACERS TO GO ON PAST TONIGHT’S GAME 5: Mike Woodson doesn’t believe he has held his last morning shootaround of the season. After today’s morning shootaround at Tarrytown, with do-or-die Game 5 on tap tonight, Woodson sounded very confident the series is heading back to Indianapolis. “I’m expecting to win tonight,’’ Woodson said. “This has got to be a wakeup now. If we lose, we go home and none of us want to go home. I sure as hell don’t. I think we’re going to show a lot of pride.’’The Knicks trail the best-of-seven second-round series 3-1 and only eight teams have ever recovered from that deficit. The Knicks never have, and it would be bitter if the season ends on their home floor, where the Knicks posted a 31-10 home record, best in the East.Finally, Woodson is succumbing to the pressure and will give Cope a chance!

SCIENTISTS MAKE EMBRYONIC CELLS: In a groundbreaking announcement for stem cell research, scientists at Oregon State University reported that they have discovered a way to turn human skin cells into embryonic cells. The successful experiment—the first to date—involves transplanting human DNA into an egg cell where all genetic material has been removed. A senior scientist in the study, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, called the breakthrough a “significant step forward…in regenerative medicine.” The news is of vital importance to the stem cell research community as it would allow the creation of the type of stem cell capable of transforming into any other type of human cell, without the use of an embryo.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Music publisher and writer Michael Sigman having lunch yesterday at The Palm in West Hollywood.   ***Actress Alison Janes having dinner last night at the award-winning Natalee Thai restaurant in Beverly Hills.   ***Mick Jagger was spotted at Teddy’s at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in LA early yesterday, when he arrived at 1 a.m., spies said. The rocker met there with mogul Steve Bing. “Both showed up for late-night drinks with several friends,” said a spy.   ***Danny DeVito grabbing a late- night cocktail at the bar at Spago with two male friends, laughing and in a great mood.   ***Nick Lachey and reunited boy band 98 Degrees at Old Homestead Steakhouse and the Ainsworth between promoting new album “2.0”.   ***Christian Slater with fiancée Brittany Lopez at Ava Lounge in NYC.   ***Floyd Mayweather Jr., John McEnroe, Spike Lee and Andrew Murstein at Madison Square Garden to see the N.Y.Knicks.   ***Jessica Alba hosting a charity ride at Flywheel West Hollywood to benefit Baby2Baby

MY REVIEW: “LBN is bold and independent. It tells the truth day after day. LBN is the no-spin zone for real.”—–Kyle Peterman, an LBN E-Lert reader from Montreal, Canada

DYLAN INDUCTED INTO ARTS ACADEMY: The poet laureate of the rock-and-roll era joined the ranks of some of the greatest writers, composers, painters, and sculptors in the world Wednesday night at an energetic induction ceremony at the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Michael Chabon, an award-winning American author and the event’s keynote speaker, delivered a speech to the audience titled “Rock ’n’ Roll”—an idea he insists was conceived before he knew Dylan was nominated. The event made history, marking the first time a rock-and-roller has been welcomed into the academy since its founding in 1898.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER:   ***Justin Timberlake joked about the female orgasm when he took the stage at the Cannes Film Festival last night.  In Timberlake’s new film “Spinning Gold,” the singer/actor plays Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart. Bogart famously convinced Donna Summer to record a second version of her explicit 1975 hit “Love to Love You Baby” for as long as 20 minutes. The sexy song, well known for its moaning and groaning that simulated female pleasure, launched the disco diva’s career.

CHRISTIE’S AUCTION BREAKS RECORD: A contemporary art auction at Christie’s shattered the record for the highest sales figure at an art auction Wednesday night, raking in a massive $495 million. Among the 12 pieces that brought in the big bucks were works by Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The top seller, a famous painting by Pollock titled No. 19, 1948 brought in $58.3 million. An impressive 66 out of the 70 works in the auction found new homes, leaving just four unsold.

LBN-QUOTE OF THE DAY: Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn. - C. S. Lewis

UNIQUELY, LBN: Darren K. Verrious, an LBN E-Lert reader from Madrid, Spain

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Billionaire mogul Kirk Kerkorian, who once owned United Artists and was “King of the Strip” with Vegas resorts including the MGM, is in ill health and allegedly being held hostage by handlers at his company, according to legal documents filed by his ex-wife Lisa Bonder Kerkorian. Kirk, 95, hasn’t been seen in public since June 2012, according to Lisa, who claims in court papers that managers of Kerkorian’s company Tracinda Corp. have been controlling him.   ***Kanye West is reportedly embarking on an international tour soon after his pregnant girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, gives birth, and the reality star is said to be furious that West is planning to hit the road shortly after their baby’s born.  West’s new album is rumored to drop on June 18, and according to a RadarOnline, the rapper will be launching a worldwide tour later this fall or early next year.

THE IRS WANTS YOU — TO SHARE EVERYTHING: And it asked what books people were reading. A POLITICO review of documents from 11 tea party and conservative groups that the IRS scrutinized in 2012 shows the agency wanted to know everything — in some cases, it even seemed curious what members were thinking. The review included interviews with groups or their representatives from Hawaii, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas and elsewhere. The long-awaited Treasury Department inspector general report released Tuesday says the agency itself decided some of its questions to conservative groups were way over the line — especially the one about donors.

EURO ZONE ECONOMY SHRINKS; RECESSION RETURNS IN FRANCE: Europe is slipping further into recession.  The euro zone economy shrank more than expected in the first three months of 2013, official data showed Wednesday, as France returned to recession for the first time since 2009 and Germany barely edged forward.  It marked the longest recession for the euro countries since the currency was introduced in 1999.

AXELROD: GOVERNMENT ‘TOO VAST’ FOR OBAMA TO CONTROL: The government is simply too vast for the President Obama to keep track of all the wrongdoing taking place on his watch, his former senior adviser, David Axelrod, told MSNBC. “Part of being president is there’s so much beneath you that you can’t know because the government is so vast,” he explained.

MANAGEMENT FLAWS AT I.R.S. CITED IN TEA PARTY SCRUTINY: An inspector general’s report issued Tuesday blamed ineffective Internal Revenue Service management in the failure to stop employees from singling out conservative groups for added scrutiny. Congressional aides, meanwhile, sought to determine whether the Obama administration’s knowledge of the effort extended beyond the I.R.S.  House and Senate aides said they were focusing on an Aug. 4, 2011, meeting in which the I.R.S.’s chief counsel appears to have conferred with agency officials to discuss the activities of a team in the Cincinnati field office that had been subjecting applications for tax-exempt status from Tea Party and other conservative groups to a greater degree of review than those from other organizations.

WATERGATE SLEUTH CARL BERNSTEIN’S E-MAIL ACCOUNT IS HACKED BY “GUCCIFER”: The Watergate sleuth’s e-mail account was breached by the hacker now being sought by federal investigators in connection with a spree of prior online incursions that have targeted a wide array of public figures.

HOUSE TO VOTE YET AGAIN ON REPEALING HEALTH CARE LAW: The 37th time won’t be the charm. But House Republicans are charging forward anyway this week on a vote to repeal President Obama’s signature health care overhaul, which will put the number of times they have tried to eliminate, defund or curtail the law past the three-dozen mark.

“This is what, the 40th time they’re going to do it?” scoffed Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, confessing that she had lost count. “Thirty-eight? 39? 40? 41?” She eventually settled on “high 30s” as her best guess.  Three dozen is a lot for a bill that currently has no prayer of becoming law. But the figure 37 actually understates the amount of time Republicans have devoted to litigating and trying to dismantle the president’s biggest legislative accomplishment.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Jamie Dimon has consulted lawyers, public relation experts and bankers as JPMorgan Chase wrestles with the fallout from a multibillion-dollar trading loss. But the bank chief has received advice from an unexpected corner: Lloyd C. Blankfein of rival Goldman Sachs. The two executives have talked privately a number of times in recent months about the challenges that Mr. Dimon is facing, people with knowledge of the relationship but not authorized to speak on the matter, have said.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Comedian Bill Hader along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

LBN-INFO LINKS – LATEST NEWS:
• Internal Revenue Service
• Benghazi Investigation

DOCTOR AVOIDS DEATH PENALTY IN MURDERS AT HIS CLINIC: Kermit Gosnell, the doctor convicted of murdering babies after failed abortions in his Philadelphia clinic, avoided the death penalty on Tuesday by agreeing to a sentence of life in prison without parole.  Dr. Gosnell, 72, waived his right to appeal three first-degree murder convictions handed down Monday, and he was immediately sentenced in two of the cases, known as Baby C and Baby D, the Philadelphia district attorney, R. Seth Williams, announced.

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Edward Norton, Zooey Deschanel, Bill O’Reilly, Valentino, Matthew Morrison and Greg Kinnear in the audience at “Lucky Guy” in NYC.   ***Lyor Cohen, Lauren Santo Domingo and Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld at Maria Baibakova’s dinner for Artspace at Convent of the Sacred Heart.   ***Hillary Clinton being honored by the Pacific Council at the Beverly Wilshire.   ***Rod Stewart telling a “Kinky Boots” usher he spent the day searching for “the right shoes” for the show and settled on silver-and-black brogues from Barneys.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Stewart Mocks Obama Over Latest Scandals

MY REVIEW: “LBN is smart, fast, fearless and insanely reliable.”—–Fern St. Thomas, an LBN E-Lert reader from London, England.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are giving $70 million to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to establish a four-year undergraduate program for students interested in a mix of the arts, visual design, entrepreneurship, computer science and marketing.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Word swept the Washington press corps today that Matea Gold of the Los Angeles Times bureau in D.C. is moving to the Post. She will cover the money and politics beat there for the WashPost.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Olympic champ Lind­sey Vonn is already talk­ing marriage with golfer Tiger Woods, and the downhill alpine skier is making sure she’s taken care of if they even­tually take a walk down the aisle by having HER say in a prenup. Tiger, 37, wants a pre­nuptial agreement to protect his $600 million fortune, says a source, but Lindsey, 28, is demanding half of the self-confessed sex addict’s dough if they split, plus a $20 million payout every time he cheats.   ***New York Yankee greats David Cone, Ron Guidry and Rich “Goose” Gossage helped Yogi Berra — the catcher whose infamously quirky quips included the gem, “The future ain’t what it used to be” — celebrate his 88th birthday Monday. Also at the Montclair Golf Club party in New Jersey were former skipper Joe Torre, “SNL” alum and Frank Sinatra impersonator extraordinaire Joe Piscopo and jazzman Steve Tyrell, who gave Berra a copy of his just-released “It’s Magic: The Songs of Sammy Cahn.”

LBN-VIDEO LINK: Bill Maher’s New Rule For Lindsay Lohan

UNIQUELY, LBN: Yoyo, an LBN E-Lert reader from Houston, Texas

LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: Arriving in Yemen last week, I had an experience I’d never had before. I drove from the airport into Sana, the capital, on the main thoroughfare, through a raging torrent of water. I was staying in the old city, a United Nations World Heritage site, which is accessed primarily by an ancient, moat-like road, known as the Sailah. It used to be made of dirt, shrub and pepper trees, which for generations absorbed water in the rainy season, although in downpours it would still flood. But, in 1995, at Yemen’s request, the United States paid to have it paved. Because Yemenis have largely deforested all the mountains around Sana, the lack of trees, vegetation and topsoil means the rainwater now rushes off the mountains, enters the paved city and finds its way to the paved Sailah, turning the road into a rushing aqueduct. Our S.U.V. eventually made it upstream to our hotel, giving a whole new meaning to the expression “we sailed into town.”   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

LBN-COMMENTARY By MICHAEL LEVINE (MEDIA EXPERT AND AUTHOR): Wealthier Americans pay higher taxes than middle- or lower-income earners. The wealthiest 1% of the population earns 19% of income but pays 37% of the income tax. The top 10% pays 68% of the tab. The bottom 50% earns 13% of the income, but pays just 3% of the taxes.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MAUREEN DOWD: Two of the hot topics trending on Twitter Tuesday were Angelina Jolie and the I.R.S.  Beauty and the Beast.  Jolie stunned the world with a New York Times Op-Ed article explaining why she decided to have a preventive double mastectomy once she learned that she has the BRCA1 gene, which spikes the risk for breast and ovarian cancers.  The actress was close to her mother, who died at 56 after battling ovarian cancer for nearly a decade, and she wrote that she “will do anything” to be with her own children as long as she can.   ***To read the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

LBN-COMMENTARY By NEAL GABLER: Barbara Walters’s announcement this week that she would soon bring her long career to a close elicited the obligatory tributes to her as a trailblazer for women and an exemplary figure in broadcast journalism.  But those plaudits may not go far enough. Whether or not Ms. Walters was exemplary, she may be the single most important TV personality of the last 50 years — just not for the reasons we’ve heard. More than any other journalist, she tore down the wall separating news from entertainment, the serious from the frivolous, the public figure from the celebrity.   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog - click here

LBN-COMMENTARY By JON VOIGHT: My love and admiration for my daughter can’t be explained in words. I saw her two days ago with my son Jamie. We all got together for his birthday, with her and Brad (Pitt). But I didn’t know. It wasn’t obvious at all. I found out (Tuesday) morning. I was as surprised as anyone and deeply moved by the way she’s handled this. She’s a very extraordinary person, the way she examined it and what she shared.

LBN-COMMENTARY By BARBRA STREISAND (SINGER; ACTRESS; DIRECTOR; COMPOSER; ACTIVIST): Sometimes in the face of national tragedy, politics should take a backseat. The hypocrisy of turning Benghazi into a deliberate cover-up scandal is preposterous at a time when the nation faces so many serious problems.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Nearly a decade after John Ritter’s death, his widow, Amy Yasbeck, has found love again with handsome Hollywood lawyer Michael Plonsker. The salt-and-pepper-haired attor­ney, 56, was part of the legal team that helped Amy, 50, and John’s chil­dren nab a whopping $14 million settlement in the wrongful death suit against medical personnel and the hospital John was taken to after he col­lapsed on the set of the sitcom “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.” ***Ashton Kutcher’s contentious divorce with Demi Moore has now spiraled into a $10 million battle over his venture capital fund with Madonna’s manager Guy Oseary and billionaire Ron Burkle. Kutcher and Oseary earlier this month announced their fund A-Grade investments, set up to invest in tech start-ups, was valued at $100 million and they were raising money from outside investors.

BENGHAZI, IRS: SON OF WATERGATE?: In his defense of President Obama, Press Secretary Jay Carney is beginning to sound a lot like Ronald Zeigler, Richard Nixon’s spokesman. Carney only has to use the word “inoperative,” as Ziegler did when incriminating evidence surfaced that proved his previous statements untrue. Following what appears to be a cover-up in the Benghazi attack, the Washington Post has obtained documents from an audit conducted by the IRS’s inspector general that indicate the agency targeted for special scrutiny conservative groups with “tea party” and “patriot” in their names, as well as “nonprofit groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution.”

RUSSIA DETAINS AMERICAN, SAYING HE IS C.I.A. OFFICER: Russia’s Federal Security Service announced Tuesday that it had detained a Central Intelligence Agency officer during an attempt to recruit a Russian agent, saying the American had brought a large sum of cash, technical devices and “appearance disguising means.”  The F.S.B., the successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B., identified the officer as Ryan Christopher Fogle and said he had been “working under the guise of” third secretary in the political department of the United States Embassy in Moscow. It said that Mr. Fogle was detained on Monday night and that he was carrying written instructions for a Russian recruit.

MY MEDICAL CHOICE By ANGELINA JOLIE: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – Click here

LADY GAGA WENT FROM “BORN THIS WAY” TO “TORN THIS WAY”: Over the weekend when she split her Versace latex pants while kicking off a North American tour in Vancouver. Despite giving her little monsters a partial view of the moon during “Heavy Metal Lover,” Gaga kept performing. Later in the concert, she had this message for her fans, which suggests she cares little for seam-y episode: “No matter how many rhinestones on my jeans, no matter how many fancy wigs I have, just remember that I don’t give a fuck about anything but you and the music.”

UNEVEN I.R.S. SCRUTINY SEEN IN POLITICAL SPENDING BY BIG TAX-EXEMPT GROUPS: Over the last two years, government watchdog groups filed more than a dozen complaints with the Internal Revenue Service seeking inquiries into whether large nonprofit organizations like those founded by the Republican political operative Karl Rove and former Obama administration aides had violated their tax-exempt status by spending tens of millions of dollars on political advertising.  The I.R.S. never responded.  During the same period, the agency singled out dozens of Tea Party-inspired groups that had applied for I.R.S. recognition, officials acknowledged on Friday, subjecting them to rounds of detailed questioning about their political activities. None of those groups were big spenders on political advertising; most were local Tea Party organizations with shoestring budgets.  For the I.R.S.’s bipartisan legion of critics, the agency’s record has underscored its contradictory and seemingly confused response to the fastest-growing corner in the world of unlimited political spending: tax-exempt groups that have paid for at least half a billion dollars in campaign ads during the last two election cycles

THE NEXT SCAPEGOAT By DAVID BROOKS: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – Click here

2 WAITERS ARRESTED IN KILLING OF MALCOLM X’S GRANDSON: The police here arrested two men on murder and robbery charges on Monday in the beating death last week of Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X, though many questions about the case remained unresolved.  The men taken into custody, David Hernández Cruz and Manuel Alejandro Pérez de Jesús, worked as waiters at the Palace Club, a downtown bar where Mr. Shabazz, 28, was beaten, in what the city prosecutor called a dispute over an excessive bill.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Music legend Aretha Franklin along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

LBN READERS GET THE NEWS SUPER-FAST! Yesterday Dr. Joyce Brothers, a former academic psychologist who, long before Drs. Ruth, Phil and Laura, was counseling millions over the airwaves, died on Monday at her home in Fort Lee, N.J. She was 85. LBN E-Lert readers in all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries got the news BEFORE…..The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times.

NOLA POLICE ID FIRST SUSPECT: New Orleans police on Monday identified the first suspect in the shooting on Mother’s Day that injured 19 people, including two 10-year-olds. Akein Scott, 19, has been positively identified by more than one witness, police said. Police searched two locations for Scott, both of which are just blocks from the shooting site. Ronal Serpas, New Orleans’s police superintendent, said Scott has been arrested before on charges of firearms possession, narcotics possession, and resisting arrest. Serpas said it was too early to know if Scott was the only shooter.

THE BUZZIEST FILMS AT CANNES: The 2013 Cannes Film Festival kicks off May 15 and runs through May 26 along the palm-tree-lined Promenade de la Croisette, opening with The Great Gatsby—a fitting film that mirrors the glitz, glamour, and buzzing excitement of the festival itself. Steven Spielberg is helming the 66th festival as the jury president, with Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz, and Oscar-winning director Ang Lee in tow to select the winner of the coveted Palme d’Or this year. From Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring to the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, see the most highly anticipated films at this year’s art-house-leaning festival.

PHONE RECORDS OF JOURNALISTS SEIZED BY U.S.: Federal investigators secretly seized two months of phone records for reporters and editors of The Associated Press in what the news organization said Monday was a “serious interference with A.P.’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news.”  The A.P. said that the Justice Department informed it on Friday that law enforcement officials had obtained the records for more than 20 telephone lines of its offices and journalists, including their home phones and cellphones.

LBN-BOOK NEWS:   ***Hillary Clinton has decided to tell all in a blockbuster $25 million memoir – so there will be NO secrets left to uncover when she runs for president in 2016! That’s what publishing industry sources and insiders close to the 65-year-old former first lady have said and they’ve shared explosive details of the shocking marital and political lies she’s likely to expose.   ***In a series of bombshells sure to rock the nation’s capital and her politi­cal supporters all across America, Hillary will finally admit the truth about her sexuality, her recent brain cancer agony and what really happened to Osama bin Laden’s corpse. The ambitious politico will also disclose what former White House intern Monica Lewinsky confessed about her affair with then-president Bill Clinton and divulge the Monica baby news that she’s kept secret for 17 years, sources say.

PANEL FINDS NO BENEFIT IN SHARPLY RESTRICTING SODIUM: In a report that undercuts years of public health warnings, a prestigious group convened by the government says there is no good reason based on health outcomes for many Americans to drive their sodium consumption down to the very low levels recommended in national dietary guidelines.

Those levels, 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day, or a little more than half a teaspoon of salt, were supposed to prevent heart attacks and strokes in people at risk, including anyone older than 50, blacks and people with high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease — a group that makes up more than half of the American population.

ABC UNVEILS 2013-14: ABC took the wraps off of its 2013-14 schedule on Tuesday morning, following speculation about where the network would slot its highly anticipated television series spin-off of feature film franchise The Avengers, entitled Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Elsewhere, ABC announced that Rebel Wilson’s sitcom Super Fun Night would get the plum post-Modern Family timeslot on Wednesdays and its upcoming spin-off of Sunday evening’s successful fantasy drama Once Upon a Time, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, would be heading to Thursdays. And comedy The Neighbors, which received an eleventh hour reprieve, is now headed to Fridays.

UNIQUELY, LBN: Joanna Clarkson, an LBN E-Lert reader from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

LBN-NOTICED: ***LCO (www.LCOonline.com) President Liam Collopy having lunch yesterday at Kate Mantilini on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD:   ***Charlie Sheen’s ex wife Brooke Mueller, was using drugs when pregnant with their twins. Two of Brooke Mueller‘s multiple rehab stints occurred while she was pregnant with twins Bob and Max and married to Charlie Sheen, RadarOnline reported. The startling information that Mueller used drugs while pregnant comes in the wake of her temporarily losing custody of the twins to Charlie’s ex-wife, Denise Richards. What’s more, Radar has learned from several sources that Brooke has been to rehab 20 times over the years.   ***Everything old is new again in Arsenio Hall’s world! He’ll be back on tv with a new talk show in September, and he’s romancing old girlfriend Paula Abdul. The two, who first dated back in 1989 and have reunited a few times since then, were spotted getting cozy at a Los Angeles Dodgers game on May 1. Now, sources say they’re both ready to pick up where they last left off.

IRS SCRUTINY WENT BEYOND TEA PARTY, TARGETING OF CONSERVATIVE GROUPS BROADER THAN THOUGHT: An IRS campaign to apply additional scrutiny to conservative groups went beyond targeting “Tea Party” and “patriot” groups to include those focused on government spending, the Constitution and several other broad areas.  The additional guidelines created by the agency were part of a timeline, obtained by Fox News, from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which is looking into the controversial IRS practice. IRS officials apologized Friday for the scrutiny, but new information suggests senior leaders were apprised of the effort as early as 2011 despite public denials from the top.

SUPREME COURT RULES FOR MONSANTO IN PATENT CASE: The Supreme Court has sustained Monsanto Co.’s claim that an Indiana farmer violated the company’s patents on soybean seeds that are resistant to its weed-killer.  The justices, in a unanimous vote Monday, rejected the farmer’s argument that cheap soybeans he bought from a grain elevator are not covered by the Monsanto patents, even though most of them also were genetically modified to resist the company’s Roundup herbicide.

PAKISTANI LEADER MOVES QUICKLY TO FORM GOVERNMENT: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif moved confidently to form a new government in Pakistan on Monday, announcing the next finance minister even as votes from Saturday’s election were still being tallied and protests continued over alleged vote-rigging in some cities.  Mr. Sharif’s confidence stemmed from his resounding electoral victory, which confounded analysts’ predictions of a stronger showing for his rival, the former cricket star Imran Khan. Although the count will not be finalized for several days, projections now give Mr. Sharif a near-majority of seats in Parliament.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? White House Press Secretary Jay Carney along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

CHINESE CREATING NEW AUTO NICHE WITHIN DETROIT: Dozens of companies from China are putting down roots in Detroit, part of the country’s steady push into the American auto industry.  Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology, selling everything from seat belts to shock absorbers in retail stores, and hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers.  While starting with batteries and auto parts, the spread of Chinese business is expected to result eventually in the sale of Chinese cars in the United States.

LBN-SEE IT:…. Élite educators used to be obsessed with “faculty-to-student ratio”; now schools like Harvard aim to be broadcast networks.

WALTERS TO ANNOUNCE 2014 RETIREMENT ON ‘THE VIEW’: On the program she invented, on the network where she worked for the past 37 years, on the medium where she broke barriers and rules for more than 50 years, Barbara Walters will announce on Monday morning, definitively and with no regrets, that she is calling it a career.

“It’s time,” Ms. Walters said, previewing the announcement she will make to the national television audience watching her daily program, “The View.”

MARCO RUBIO: IRS COMMISSIONER SHOULD RESIGN: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called on the IRS commissioner to resign on Monday, following the agency’s admission that it targeted conservative political groups during the 2012 election cycle. “[I]t is clear the IRS cannot operate with even a shred of the American people’s confidence under the current leadership,” Rubio said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. “I strongly urge that you and President Obama demand the IRS Commissioner’s resignation, effectively immediately. No government agency that has behaved in such a manner can possibly instill any faith and respect from the American public.”

AS TV RATINGS AND PROFITS FALL, NETWORKS FACE A CLIFFHANGER: As the major television networks prepare to unveil their new fall lineups in New York this week, they face threats from seemingly every corner.

Prime-time ratings for the Big Four broadcasters — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — together are dropping more precipitously than ever. Even their biggest hits, like “American Idol” and “Dancing With the Stars,” are fading fast. Advertisers are moving more cash to cable, cutting into the networks’ quarterly profits. New technologies are making it easier to skip those ads, anyway.  That’s not all: there are more outlets for programming cropping up all the time, with Netflix and Amazon and dozens of cable channels competing for actors, producers and, most important, viewers. Government regulators want to take back some of the spectrum allotted to local television stations. And start-ups like Aereo are threatening to deprive the stations of subscription revenue, causing some broadcasters to talk of options that were unthinkable a few short years ago. Some have warned they might go off the air entirely.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Brain scientists have identified the cerebellum as the part of the brain that prevents us from tickling ourselves. It helps us distinguish between expected and unexpected sensations.

LBN-THINK AGAIN:….

WHEN HELPING HURTS: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – Click Here

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Cameron Diaz enjoyed a girls’ night out at the Jade Hotel in Greenwich Village in NYC on Saturday night. The actress, who is in town filming “The Other Woman” relaxed with three girlfriends in the back bar. A witness said, “The bar area was so crowded, but Cameron and her friends sat right in front of the middle of the bar and joked around with the bartender.

DID YOU KNOW? Did you know that every day, tens of thousands of LBN E-Lert readers forward this LBN E-Lert to tens of thousands of their friends, family and associates? Do you? Do you?

HUNGRY? STAY AWAY FROM THE SUPERMARKET: For years, diet gurus have been advising people not to shop for food when they are hungry, and new data would suggest that this is sage advice. In a recent study, hungry participants purchased more high-calorie food items during a virtual food shopping experience than those who had just eaten a snack. Additionally, the researchers observed that people buying actual groceries in the late afternoon and early evening purchased a higher ratio of high-calorie to low-calorie foods than those who shopped closer to lunchtime.

LBN-MEET: Virgin’s Richard Branson:

HOLLYWOOD PARK, CLOSING AFTER 75 YEARS: The news last week was apparently not unexpected to those around horse racing. Hollywood Park, the Inglewood track opened in 1938 that for a long time was a hangout for LA’s rich and famous, will close at the end of the year.

MY REVIEW: “I love LBN but wish you ran the Ericka T. Bass rant every day. It is the best thing you got, by far.”—–Lola A., an LBN E-Lert reader from Ottawa Hills, Ohio

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Trauma Victims Reveal The Surprising Way They Healed

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Dolphins don’t have a sense of smell, but they do have a sense of taste and, like humans, can distinguish between sweet, sour, bitter, and salty tastes.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Authorities say former Detroit Lions wide receiver Titus Young has been arrested in California for the third time in a week. Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Joe Balicki says the 23-year-old Young was arrested late Friday in San Clemente for allegedly breaking into a home.

LBN-TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:

Jim Jones (1931)

An influential Indianapolis preacher, Jones formed the People’s Temple in 1955. After he became the subject of criminal investigations, particularly regarding his alleged diversion of cult members’ donations for his personal use, he and about 1,000 followers relocated to Jonestown, Guyana, in 1977. In 1978, cult members killed US Representative Leo Ryan and four others during an investigatory visit.

UNIQUELY, LBN: Mary-Ann Reilly, an LBN E-Lert reader from Brooksville, Maine

LBN-THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

Pope John Paul II Shot in Vatican City (1981)

In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot in Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square by Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, who was captured and imprisoned. Although the pontiff was shot in the stomach, he recovered and publicly forgave his would-be assassin. In spite of the physical setback caused by the shooting, he continued to travel widely, eventually visiting 129 nations and increasing the international character of the papacy.

LBN-COMMENTARY By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ: A CERTAIN DRAMA HAS BECOME FAMILIAR IN THE UNITED STATES (AND SOME OTHER ADVANCED INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES): Bankers encourage people to borrow beyond their means, preying especially on those who are financially unsophisticated. They use their political influence to get favorable treatment of one form or another. Debts mount. Journalists record the human toll. Then comes bewilderment: How could we let this happen again? Officials promise to fix things. Something is done about the most egregious abuses. People move on, reassured that the crisis has abated, but suspecting that it will recur soon.

THE LIST RANT By ERICKA T. BASS : 1. I know one L.A. stock-broker who says “It is what it is” at least 20 times a day. What a f—king stupid asshole! 2. The ugliest man in the world could easily be Summer Redstone. I have never seen a photo of him in the last decade where he doesn’t look constipated. 3. It is time to stop pretending that Obama is anything less than a failed President. 4. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out someday that Justin Timberlake is gay. 5. That said, I would love to have sex with his wife, Jessica Biel. 6. Ben Ash is the worst Deli in NYC. By far. 7. I dare you to look up a photo of Congressman Henry Waxman and not puke. 8. I just bought a new pet rat and am name him Oscar. 9. I can stand jerk-offs who post pictures of their ugly pets or photos of their food on Facebook. Do they actually think anyone gives a shit?

***Shout back at Ericka T.- Email LBNElert@TimeWire.net. (Please Note: The opinions expressed by Erika T. are those of her alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the LBN E-lert or its staff.)

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***TODAY show co-host Savannah Guthrie finally puts a ring on it. Savannah revealed she and long-time boyfriend Mike Feldman became engaged over the weekend, and she flashed her huge engagement ring. ***Bill and Hillary Clinton will not support Anthony Weiner in his dream of becoming mayor even though they love his wife, Huma Abedin, sources say. “The Clintons wish Weiner would just disappear. Every time he pops up, it’s a reminder of Bill’s scandal with Monica Lewinsky, and it isn’t helpful to Hillary’s hopes for 2016,” one Democrat said.

SENATOR: OBAMA SHOULD APOLOGIZE FOR IRS TARGETING: A Republican senator says she’s disappointed that President Barack Obama hasn’t personally condemned the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says Obama “needs to make crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable.”

EX-PREMIER IS SET TO REGAIN POWER IN PAKISTAN VOTE: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, once a political exile deposed by the military, returned to the cusp of power on Saturday, taking a commanding lead in a parliamentary election in which Pakistanis braved Taliban intimidation to cast ballots with historic prospects for the country’s democracy.  Record turnout was reported in several cities, incited by an energized political campaign dominated by the battle between Mr. Sharif and Imran Khan, the former cricket star whose appeal as an anti-corruption crusader had many predicting he could play a kingmaker role.  But even with just partial returns in early Sunday, Mr. Sharif’s party appeared to have secured enough seats to form a government easily. His supporters ran cheering through the streets of Lahore, honking horns and, in some instances, firing bursts of celebratory gunshots.

ROBERT GATES DEFENDS OBAMA MILITARY RESPONSE TO BENGHAZI: Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended the Obama administration’s response to the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi on Sunday, saying he would not have done anything different militarily if he had still been at the Pentagon.  ”Frankly had I been in the job at the time, I think my decisions would have been just as theirs were,” said Gates on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” referring to the role of then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey.

MUBARAK TALKS TO MEDIA FOR 1ST TIME SINCE DETENTION: In his first comments to the media since he was detained more than two years ago, Egypt’s ousted leader Hosni Mubarak said he is dismayed at the country’s state of affairs and particularly the plight of the poor. The 85-year old Mubarak said in remarks published Sunday in Al-Watan newspaper that it is also too early to judge his elected successor, Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, because he has a heavy burden to deal with. He also warned against a much-negotiated loan from the International Monetary Fund, saying it would make life harder for the poor in Egypt, where over 40 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: Japan is just one of the 26 foreign countries with daily LBN E-Lert readers.

‘BEST MOTHER’S DAY’ FOR CLEVELAND VICTIM’S MOM: Nancy Ruiz, the mother of kidnapping victim Gina DeJesus, called her reunion with her daughter “the best Mother’s Day gift I could ever have” as two of the three young women held captive for over a decade spent their first weekend of freedom with their families. Amanda Berry, 27, who is now the mother of a six-year-old girl, also spent the weekend with her family after being reunited with her family, although Berry’s own mother died in 2006, still heartbroken over her daughter’s disappearance. The third victim, Michelle Knight, slipped into seclusion Friday after being released from the hospital, where she reportedly declined visits from her family. Meanwhile, Castro’s brothers, Pedro and Onil, who were originally arrested in connection with the kidnapping but later released, insisted in a CNN interview that they knew nothing.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Author Don Miquel Ruiz along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 states and 11 separate time-zones.

NEW CATHOLIC SAINTS INCLUDE A COLOMBIAN NUN: Pope Francis on Sunday gave the Catholic Church a number of new saints, including hundreds of 15th-century martyrs who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam, as he led his first canonization ceremony in a crowded St. Peter’s Square.  The “Martyrs of Otranto” were 813 Italians who were slain in the southern Italian city in 1480 for defying demands by Turkish invaders who overran the citadel to renounce Christianity. Their approval for sainthood was made by Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, in a decree read at the ceremony in February where the former pontiff announced his retirement.

BODIES FOUND: Police say the bodies of a woman and a 13-year-old boy have been found after a days long standoff in Trenton, N.J., and a suspect was killed in the rescue of three children inside the home. Authorities said at a news conference Sunday that officers stormed the house and shot 38-year-old Gerald Tyrone Murphy because he was threatening one of the children. Murphy later died of his injuries.

DO YOU READ LBN? Send us your most original photo along with your name and where you live and we may use in LBN. E-mail: LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Steve Schwarzman at the Four Seasons restaurant in NYC with Jimmy Connors, who was in town to promote his book “The Outsider.” Wall Streeter and ex-tennis pro Tim LoBello joined the heavy-hitting duo, and Henry Kissinger also greeted Connors.   ***Sonja Morgan at OK! magazine’s “So Sexy” party with Ramona Singer, Jill Zarin and beauty guru Joey Healy.   ***Azealia Banks and Angela Simmons dancing at DL Rooftop on Delancey in NYC..   ***Trudie Styler at Zachy’s wine tasting at St. Bart’s church on Park Avenue in NYC.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Bill Maher Sounds Off On 3D-Printed Guns

DZHOKHAR TSARNAEV HEARTTHROB TO THE MISGUIDED: Not everyone hates Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — in fact … and disgustingly … there’s an ever-growing legion of teen girls who think he’s kind of a babe.  Using the hashtag #FreeJahar, thousands of teens have been tweeting their support for the younger of the two bombing suspects.The NY Post spoke to one girl who said she planned to get one of Dzhokhar’s tweets — “If you have the knowledge and the inspiration, all that’s left is to take action” — tattooed on her upper arm. Another girl — who tweeted last month “Yes i like Justin Bieber and i like Jahar but that has nothing to do with why i support him. I know hes innocent, he is far too beautiful” — told the paper she feels “like he’s my brother.” There’s a Facebook group dedicated to freeing the alleged terrorist that has more than 6,000 followers. Other sites and message board threads dedicated to Dzhokar boast fan fiction … and even fantasy sex scenes.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***An Oscar-winning producer wants the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to consider removing Michael Moore from the documentary branch of its board of governors because he says the Fahrenheit 9/11 filmmaker is overly partisan. Gerald Molen, who co-produced Schindler’s List with Steven Spielberg in 1993, also co-produced 2016: Obama’s America last year, a documentary starring Dinesh D’Souza that he says the Academy ignored because of the film’s politically conservative bent. In a letter he wrote to Academy president Hawk Koch, Molen blames Moore for the alleged snub, along with the other two governors on the Academy’s documentary branch, Rob Epstein and Michael Apted, whom he also infers are politically biased against conservative films.   ***Despite a debut $20 million above expectations, Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The Great Gatsby” had to settle for an impressive second place as “Iron Man 3″ held onto the top spot at the box office for the second straight weekend. “IM3″ collected $72.5 million, according to studio estimates from Hollywood.com. “Gatsby” collected $51.1 million.

LBN-MEET: Actress Lindsay Lohan:

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***The famous Joe’s Diner on Main Street on Santa Monica closes today.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Earthquakes kill approximately 8,000 people each year and have caused an estimated 13 million deaths in the past 4,000 years.

MY REVIEW: “LBN is cool and independent. I love reading it every day.” —–Tess Kim, an LBN E-Lert reader from San Francisco, California.

LBN-THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

UNIQUELY, LBN: Tabitha Venoms, an LBN E-Lert reader from Jupiter, Florida

LBN-COMMENTARY By JOE KLEIN: The Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups is outrageous. Those who did this should be fired immediately. That’s obvious. It continues a slovenly week for Barack Obama. The President has been very proud of the absence of scandal in his administration, and rightly so. The inability of his opponents to find any significant corruption in the historic $800 billion stimulus package was a real achievement, given the speed of the payout. None of his top aides have been caught up in taking bribes while in office–although their race through the revolving door into lucrative private sector positions is well beyond nauseating.

LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: IF you want to know how bad things can go in Syria, study Iraq. If you want to know how much better things could have gone, study Yemen. Say what? Yemen?  Yes, Yemen. Maybe the most unique post revolutionary political process happening in any country experiencing an Arab awakening is in poor, fractured, water-starved Yemen. In its own messy way, Yemen is doing what all the other Arab awakening countries failed to do: have a serious, broad-based national dialogue, where the different political factions, new parties, young people, women, Islamists, tribes, northerners and southerners are literally introducing themselves to one another in six months of talks — before they write a new constitution and hold presidential elections. (After decades of autocracy, people in these countries did not know each other.)   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog -click here-

LBN-COMMENTARY By ROSS DOUTHAT: As a taxpayer and a conservative who hopes to remain on good terms with the Internal Revenue Service for many April 15ths to come, I don’t want to speculate too freely about the motives of the “low level” I.R.S. employees who decided to single out Tea Party groups for an inappropriate level of attention during the heat of the 2012 campaign.  But I’m willing to guess this much: Even though an American Civil Liberties Union official described their excessive interest in right-wing groups as “about as constitutionally troubling as it gets,” the bureaucrats in question probably thought they were just doing their patriotic duty, and giving dangerous extremists the treatment they deserved.

LBN-COMMENTARY By FRANK BRUNI: THE problems with our country’s political discourse are many and grave, but an insufficient attention to Obamacare isn’t among them. We have talked Obamacare to death, or at least into home hospice care. The “Obamacare” shorthand itself reflects our need to come up with less of a mouthful than “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” given how regularly the topic recurs. “Obamacare” is like “J. Lo” or “KFC.” It saves syllables and speeds things along.  So explain this: according to a recent poll, roughly 40 percent of Americans don’t even know that it’s a law on the books.

BENGHAZI E-MAILS PUT WHITE HOUSE ON THE DEFENSIVE: A long-simmering dispute over the White House’s account of the deadly assault on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, flared up on Friday, with a disclosure of e-mails that show the White House was more deeply involved in revising talking points about the attack than officials have previously acknowledged.  The e-mails, which the administration turned over to Congress, show the White House coordinating an intensive process with the State Department, the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and other agencies to obtain the final version of the talking points, used by Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, in television appearances after the attack.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Each year, Americans throw out enough soda pop cans/bottles to reach to the moon and back—twenty times.

PAKISTANIS VOTE AS VIOLENCE MARS END OF VIBRANT CAMPAIGN: Pakistanis went to the polls in high numbers on Saturday, in a vote that carried the historic prospect of the country’s first fully democratic political cycle despite fresh violence from Taliban insurgents.  A bomb in the southern port city of Karachi killed at least 11 people, doctors said, offering an ominous start to the day after Taliban threats to dispatch suicide bombers to targets across the country. And intensifying claims of vote irregularities in Karachi raised the prospect that some of the vote would be invalidated in the country’s largest metropolis.

SMOKE FORCES EVACUATION OF WHITE HOUSE PRESS ROOM: Reporters and photographers were evacuated early Saturday from the White House press room because of smoke. The journalists were sent outside shortly after 7 a.m. while firefighters inspected the West Wing. They were allowed back into the building about an hour later. White House press officials did not immediately respond to calls and emails and the source of the smoke was unclear.

HEAT-TRAPPING GAS PASSES MILESTONE, RAISING FEARS: The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years.  Scientific instruments showed that the gas had reached an average daily level above 400 parts per million — just an odometer moment in one sense, but also a sobering reminder that decades of efforts to bring human-produced emissions under control are faltering.

MAN IN TRENTON HOLDING CHILDREN HOSTAGE: Police face an ongoing crisis with a man in Trenton, New Jersey, who has held hostages inside a home since Friday afternoon. Authorities received a call from a neighbor and reported to the site around 3:30 on Friday afternoon, finding a mother and child dead inside the home. The man pulled a gun and threatened harm to his children, who have now been held hostage inside the building for 15 hours. There are reportedly at least two children inside the home. Combined negotiation efforts between the FBI and Trenton SWAT team and the man barricaded inside the home are ongoing.

RUSSIA HID TSARNAEV’S TEXT MESSAGES: The Kremlin warned the U.S. about Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011—but they held back some crucial information according to a new report in The Wall Street Journai. U.S. officials tell the paper that Russia neglected to mention several text messages sent by Tsarnaev’s mother to a relative in Russia suggesting that Tamerlan was interested in joining militant groups. Such specific information could have spurred a more in-depth investigation on the FBI’s part. Of course, the paper notes, incomplete data-sharing goes both ways. Can’t we just get along?

SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY TO BE DEMOLISHED: After weeks of deliberations, officials at Sandy Hook Elementary came up with a solution both for the school’s relocation and for the use of the building where the worst school shooting in the nation’s history happened last December. After considering more than 40 potential sites for a new school building, the 28-person task force unanimously chose a location: the same site as the old school, but in a new building. The old school building will be demolished and a new one built in its place, at a cost of between $42 million and $47 million. “I’m finally at peace,” said one task force member. “I think it can be created in such a beautiful way.”

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***NBC canceled its prime time news magazine “Rock Center with Brian Williams” on Friday. The New York Times was first to report that the program had been canceled and would broadcast its final show on June 21, less than two years after its November 2011 debut.  ”Rock Center,” which was a project launched under former NBC News president Steve Capus, struggled to find a steady audience, due in part to multiple scheduling changes. When it first premiered, the show aired on Monday nights. It was quickly moved to Wednesday nights, then to Thursday nights, and most recently to Friday at 10:00 p.m., where it has been since November 2012.

DID YOU KNOW? Did you know that six (6) member of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. read the LBN E-Lert daily?

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Las Vegas is the top wedding destination with over 100,000 weddings a year, followed by Hawaii at 25,000 weddings a year.

TRYING TO BE HIP AND EDGY, ADS BECOME OFFENSIVE: Madison Avenue is learning a painful lesson: cutting edge advertising can slice both ways.  Some of the biggest names in marketing, including Ford Motor, General Motors, Hyundai Motor, Reebok and PepsiCo, have been forced recently to apologize to consumers who mounted loud public outcries against ads that hinged on subjects like race, rape and suicide.  PepsiCo found itself meeting this week with the Rev. Al Sharpton and the family of Emmet Till — the teenager whose death in Mississippi in 1955 helped energize the civil rights movement — to try to quell multiple controversies involving its Mountain Dew brand.  “It’s like the Wild West,” said Paul Malmstrom, a founding partner of the New York office of the Mother ad agency.

LOOK AT THE WORLD FOR REAL – READ LBN DAILY:

RYAN CROCKER NOMINATED TO BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS DESPITE DUI CHARGE: President Barack Obama said Friday he would nominate former U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, despite Crocker’s guilty plea last year to reckless driving in connection with a hit-and-run crash while he was intoxicated. Crocker, the former ambassador to Afghanistan, was originally charged with a DUI, but reached a deal with prosecutors in November that allowed him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge in the Aug. 14 crash in Washington state. His drivers’ license was suspended for 30 days and he was required to pay a $1,000 fine.

TROUBLED LIFE IN MALCOLM X’S SHADOW COMES TO A VIOLENT END: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog -click here-

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***A shudder went through Wall Street on Friday after the revelation that Bloomberg News reporters had extracted subscribers’ private information through the company’s ubiquitous data terminals to break news.  The company confirmed that reporters at Bloomberg News, the journalism arm of Bloomberg L.P., had for years used the company’s terminals to monitor when subscribers had logged onto the service and to find out what types of functions, like the news wire, corporate bond trades or an equities index, they had looked at. Bloomberg terminals, which cost an average of more than $20,000 a year, are found in nearly every banking and trading company.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: Australia is just one of the 26 foreign countries with daily LBN E-Lert readers.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***It’s long been known that Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis were making plans to record together the year before Hendrix’s death in 1970, but it turns out the pioneering guitarist and jazz trumpeter were hoping that Paul McCartney would join them on bass. Hendrix, Davis and jazz drummer Tony Williams sent a telegram on Oct. 21, 1969, to the Beatles’ Apple Records, hoping to get McCartney in for a session.

MY REVIEW: “Your “Different View” photos shock me every day. It’s the first thing I look for on LBN daily.” —-Ashley, an LBN E-Lert reader from Seattle, Washington.

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Anne Hathaway, Kelly Ripa, Jimmy Fallon and CAA’s Bryan Lourd at Lincoln Ristorante in NYC after the Lincoln Center Spring Gala honoring Reynold Levy.   ***Will Arnett and Megan Fox filming “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” in the lobby of 66 Franklin St. in TriBeCa in NYC.   ***“Royal Pains” stars Paulo Costanzo, Reshma Shetty and Brooke D’Orsay relaxing at Southampton Inn after filming.   ***Bjork at Scandinavia House in NYC to fete the US publication of three books by her friend Sjon.

LBN-TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:

LBN-COMMENTARY By STEVEN RATTNER: Europe’s economic problems are growing steadily worse, with unemployment in parts of the Continent now above the level reached in the United States during the Great Depression. Meanwhile, policy makers dither over solutions. Last week, the European Central Bank cut interest rates by a meager quarter of a percentage point, akin to giving two aspirin to a patient with pneumonia. Meanwhile, pressure is growing to ease the emphasis on austerity and to allow larger budget deficits.

LBN-COMMENTARY by DICK CAVETT: I remember once mentioning the name Jonathan Winters to Groucho Marx. The reply: “There’s a giant talent.” Among the pains suffered by Jonathan was an undeserved and unnecessary one. It was the up-and-down, here-and-there bumpy nature of his TV career. Not his great guest appearances, but actual Jonathan Winters Shows, which came and went, sometimes too quickly, over the years. The terms “misunderstood talent” and “bum career management” circulated.

MALCOLM X GRANDSON REPORTED SLAIN IN MEXICO: Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, was killed in Mexico on Thursday, a close family friend said. Shabazz, 28, is perhaps most widely known for intentionally starting a fire that killed his grandmother, Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabazz, 63, in Yonkers, N.Y., in 1997.

WOMAN SAVED 16 DAYS AFTER COLLAPSE IN BANGLADESH: In a startling development, a woman trapped for 16 days beneath the rubble of a collapsed building on the outskirts of Dhaka was discovered alive on Friday and then rushed to a nearby military hospital after rescuers pulled her free. The woman, whose name is Reshma, had apparently been in the basement of the building, though her location is not yet definitively known. Rescuers, speaking live on national television from the wreckage site in Savar, said they were clearing debris on Friday afternoon when they saw a pipe moving. It turned out to be Reshma, shaking the pipe from below, trying to gain attention.

SUSPECT IN BOSTON BOMBING TALKED JIHAD IN RUSSIA: It’s not every day that a well-dressed American shows up in this town, where shaggy cows meander over deeply rutted roads, so people remember Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Among the things that made the young visitor stand out, two acquaintances recalled on Thursday, was his avid interest in waging jihad.  “He already had jihad views when he came; I think because he was Chechen, he was rooting for his homeland,” Zaur M. Zakaryayev, 29, a member of a Salafi advocacy organization, the Union of the Just, said Thursday. “When he got here he was surprised at the conditions. I think he expected to find a full-fledged war, that one people was fighting with another.”  These new accounts out of Kizlyar, where Mr. Tsarnaev spent time with a cousin who is a prominent Salafi Islamist leader, have begun to flesh out a picture of what he did during his six months in Russia last year.

CONFIRMED: Tests have confirmed that Cleveland rape and kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro is the biological father of Amanda Berry’s 6-year-old daughter, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for the Ohio attorney general.  Also, Castro’s DNA profile did not match any other Ohio cases, but “national results are pending through the FBI,” the Ohio attorney general’s office said today in a news release.  Berry, her daughter and two other women were rescued Monday after the women were held at Castro’s home for the better part of a decade, police have said.

IRS APOLOGIZES FOR INAPPROPRIATELY TARGETING CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL GROUPS: The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews.

CITRUS DISEASE WITH NO CURE IS RAVAGING FLORIDA GROVES: Florida’s citrus industry is grappling with the most serious threat in its history: a bacterial disease with no cure that has infected all 32 of the state’s citrus-growing counties.  Although the disease, citrus greening, was first spotted in Florida in 2005, this year’s losses from it are by far the most extensive. While the bacteria, which causes fruit to turn bitter and drop from the trees when still unripe, affects all citrus fruits, it has been most devastating to oranges, the largest crop. So many have been affected that the United States Department of Agriculture has downgraded its crop estimates five months in a row, an extraordinary move, analysts said.

LBN-INFO LINK: Google News: Benghazi Investigation

PRO-INFLATION POLICIES SHOW SIGNS OF HELPING JAPANESE ECONOMY: For almost two decades, Japan’s economic fortunes have deteriorated, and little seemed to be done about it. But in the last few months, the nation’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has pushed policy makers and other officials to take bold steps to revive Japan, one of the world’s largest economies. Their handiwork was evident Friday when the yen hit 100 to the dollar for the first time in four years.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew along with other readers in all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries in 11 separate time zones.

STARTED AT THE BOTTOM By DAVID BROOKS: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

POSTAL SERVICE POSTS $1.9 BILLION LOSS IN SECOND QUARTER: The financially-troubled Postal Service announced on Friday that it had posted a $1.9 billion loss in the second quarter, which ended March 31, compared with a $1.3 billion loss last quarter, when holiday spending and heavy spending on political advertising during the 2012 election helped the agency stem its losses.  The Postal Service said it continued to suffer from a decline in mail volume and a 2006 Congressional mandate that requires it to pay $5.5 billion into a health fund for its future retirees. The agency defaulted on two payments last year for the first time and said it would not be able to make payments into the fund this year because of its worsening finances.

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Steve Martin and David Letterman at the Broadhurst Theatre in NYC seeing Tony-nominated Tom Hanks in “Lucky Guy”.   ***Hayden Panettiere and her boxing champ boyfriend Wladimir Klitschko at Bond 45 in NYC with Lucy Liu at a separate table.   *** Vanessa Hudgens and Austin Butler at Hyde Lounge at Staples Center during the Rolling Stones’ “50 & Counting” LA gig.   ***NFL star Cam Newton at Blue Water Grill in Union Square in NYC.   ***Olivia Wilde dancing with pals at eyewear brand Carrera’s Ignition Night at 5 Beekman . . . “Hunger Games” star Liam Hemsworth in a back room at Bootsy Bellows sipping Akvinta Vodka.   ***Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse hanging “inseparably” after Batali presented the New Orleans chef with the Humanitarian of the Year honor at the James Beard Foundation Awards.   ***Jason Bateman, Lily Tomlin and Aubrey Plaza in the audience at Bette Midler’s “I’ll Eat You Last.” in NYC.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Eggs contain the highest quality food protein known. All parts of an egg are edible, including the shell which has a high calcium content.

MY REVIEW: “I am honestly puzzled why everyone doesn’t read LBN daily.”—–Michael Slaw, an LBN E-Lert reader from Denver, Colorado.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Steve’s Deli in Pacific Palisades closed it’s door  as of this Wednesday. According to sources business had fallen greatly since it was purchased by former car dealer Steve Taub from former owner Lenny Rosenberg.

LBN-MEET: Actress Anne Hathaway:

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that he paid an undercover agent $1,000 to kill his estranged wife, The Associated Press reports. The heavy metal singer, 32, was arraigned in North San Diego County Superior Court on a charge of solicitation of murder. A judge set his bail at $3 million and said Lambesis must wear a GPS monitoring device and face travel restrictions if he’s released.   ***Slayer have shared the cause of Jeff Hanneman’s death last week, saying they have just learned the guitarist died from alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver. “While he had his health struggles over the years, including the recent necrotizing fasciitis infection that devastated his well-being, Jeff and those close to him were not aware of the true extent of his liver condition until the last days of his life,” Slayer wrote on their website. “Contrary to some reports, Jeff was not on a transplant list at the time of his passing, or at any time prior to that. In fact, by all accounts, it appeared that he had been improving – he was excited and looking forward to working on a new record.”

SANFORD AND THE ELECTORAL EFFECT OF SEX SCANDALS By NATE SILVER: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

NEW POLL HAS GREUEL LEADING BY 1 POINT: The latest survey by the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs shows Controller Wendy Greuel with 46 percent of likely voters, Councilman Eric Garcetti with 45 percent, and nine percent undecided.

DO YOU? Do you have the GUTS to forward this LBN E-Lert to your friends, family and associates? Do you? Do you?

UNIQUELY, LBN: Pussy-Cat, an LBN E-Lert reader from Liverpool, England.

EYE-OPENING REPORT ON MOMS AND BABIES: Finland may soon see an influx of mothers-to-be, thanks to a new report from international non-profit Save the Children naming it the best place on Earth to be a mother. This determination was made after an analysis of various factors, including maternal health, child mortality, education, and income. Mothers and children are at greatest risk in sub-Saharan Africa, where the 10 bottom-ranked countries are located. The US, meanwhile, came in 30th on the list of 176 countries and had the unfortunate distinction of having the highest first-day death rate in the industrialized world, with 11,300 babies dying on the day they are born each year.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Straight People Struggle To Answer Question That Gay People Are Asked Constantly

LBN-THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

US Supreme Court Classifies Tomatoes as Vegetables, Not Fruit (1893)

To most of us, a fruit is a sweet plant part eaten as a dessert or snack, but to a botanist, a fruit is a mature ovary of a plant. All species of flowering plants produce fruits that contain seeds. A vegetable, on the other hand, is simply part of a plant that is grown primarily for food. The tomato—one of the newer additions to world cuisine—can be said to meet both criteria but is technically a fruit.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***O.J. Simpson will return next week to the Las Vegas courthouse where he was convicted of leading an armed sports memorabilia heist to ask a judge for a new trial on the grounds that his lawyer botched his case.Simpson will take the witness stand to testify that the Florida lawyer who collected nearly $700,000 is to blame for his armed robbery and kidnapping conviction in 2008 and his failed appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court in 2010.

42 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT . . . NUTRITION: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

LBN-COMMENTARY By JOAN LUNDEN (AUTHOR, TV PERSONALITY ): As both a caregiver to my 94-year-old mom, Gladyce, and a mother of seven, Mother’s Day is a holiday that I cherish with my family. It’s a time to reflect on the lessons we’ve learned from mom, and the way those teachings have shaped who we are and how we instill values in our own families.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:…

ARIEL CASTRO’S ALLEGED SUICIDE NOTE INCLUDES CONFESSION ABOUT CLEVELAND KIDNAPPING: The suspect in the ghastly abduction of three Cleveland women wrote a suicide note in which he confessed his crimes, yet blamed the victims for being kidnapped, according to reports in CBS News and Cleveland TV station WOIO. Cleveland police have yet to confirm the existence of this document. However, WOIO investigative reporter Scott Taylor says he has seen the handwritten note.  ”I am a sexual predator,” Ariel Castro allegedly wrote in a 2004 letter police found in his dingy home. “I need help.”

BODY OF TAMERLAN TSARNAEV IS LAID TO REST OUTSIDE MASSACHUSETTS, OFFICIAL SAYS: The body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been laid to rest somewhere outside of Massachusetts, according to a funeral home official briefed on the situation. Worcester police said the remains of the 26-year-old have been “entombed.’’ The official said that the remains of the suspected Boston Marathon bomber were removed sometime before midnight Wednesday from the Graham Putnam & ­Mahoney Funeral Parlors where his body has been since last Friday.

GREEK YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT RISES ABOVE 60 PERCENT: Greek youth unemployment rose above 60 percent for the first time in February, reflecting the pain caused by the country’s crippling recession after years of austerity under its international bailout. Greece’s jobless rate has almost tripled since the country’s debt crisis emerged in 2009 and was more than twice the euro zone’s average unemployment reading of 12.1 percent in March.

KATHERINE RUSSELL, WIDOW OF BOMBING SUSPECT TAMERLAN TSARNAEV, HIRES CRIMINAL LAWYER: The widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has hired a prominent criminal lawyer with experience defending terrorism cases as she continues to face questions from federal authorities. Katherine Russell added New York lawyer Joshua Dratel to her legal team, her attorney Amato DeLuca said Wednesday. Dratel has represented a number of terrorism suspects in federal courts and military commissions, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainee David Hicks, who attended an al-Qaida-linked training camp in Afghanistan.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: On land, an animal the size of the blue whale would be crushed by its weight without the support of large, heavy bones. Because it is supported by water as a marine animal, the need for large, heavy bones is eliminated, allowing the blue whale to reach such a massive size.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: This Doesn’t End Well…

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Coca-Cola has moved to head off rising concerns that sugary drinks are contributing to an obesity epidemic by adopting clearer calorie-count labels, promoting diet drinks and renewing a pledge not to market to children under 12. The policy, announced on Wednesday, comes as the world’s largest beverage company and its rivals draw fire from health experts and lawmakers over the high calorie content of their flagship products.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: Aqua aerobics became popular in the 1990s but somewhat fell out of favor due to concerns that the buoyancy created by water limits the exercise’s effectiveness. However, a recent study finds that performing certain exercise routines in water does in fact increase muscle strength and reduce fall risk in postmenopausal women at risk of osteoporosis. The results also suggest that the exercise regimen helps maintain bone density. The researchers hope their findings encourage postmenopausal women to consider pool-based exercise.

LBN-SEE IT:….President Obama goes to Texas.

LBN-INFO LINK – POSITIVE, GOOD NEWS:
• Amazing News
• Gallup Well-Being Index
• Good News Broadcast
• MSNBC: Wonderful World
• HappyNews.com
• Positive Quote of the Day

LBN-VIDEO LINK: Arias: ‘Death Is The Ultimate Freedom’

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***In his new book The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison’s Legacy Goes on Trial, Doors drummer John Densmore spins a funny yet lurid, behind-the-scenes tale of his six-year feud with former bandmates Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek – a greed-filled courtroom battle in which he was accused of being an anti-American, card-carrying communist who supports al Qaeda.   ***The Beatles musical Let It Be will head to New York this summer for a run on Broadway. The production – which tracks the band’s early days, swift rise to stardom and dizzying heights of popularity – will see a limited engagement at St. James Theatre, according to The New York Times. The cast and creative and design teams have yet to be announced.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: 4-Year-Old Steals Ellen’s Heart

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Michael Douglas, Google mogul Eric Schmidt and Marina Abramovic at Jean Pigozzi’s home in NYC to celebrate his LimoLand line with Été for Barneys.   ***Jennifer Lopez and Casper Smart at Broadway show “Pippin” Tuesday in NYC.   ***Joe Jonas snacking on sliders and catching a game at Ainsworth in NYC.   ***Kate Upton at a Citi-hosted album release party for Lady Antebellum’s “Golden” at McKittrick Hotel in NYC.

BE AN LBN CORRESPONDANT: Send us your celebrity sightings. E-mail: LBNElert@TimeWire.net .

GET STUPID: A great way to lower your I.Q. is to STOP reading LBN daily.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Japan’s 9.0 earthquake in 2011 not only moved the island closer to the United States, it also shifted the planet’s axis by 6.5 inches.

LBN-MEET: Actor Sean Penn

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***The next Women in Film Malibu breakfast will feature attorney and producer Harris Tulchin on May 10th at 8 am. at the Malibu Chart House Restaurant.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Next time you go to Marlins Park, you won’t be sitting in the nosebleed seats, at least during weekday games.The Marlins, whose attendance ranks last in the National League five weeks into the season, have decided to close the upper bowl at Marlins Park for certain weekday games, an approach the team used at times at Sun Life Stadium.

LBN-COMMENTARY By DIANE NAMM: It was a joy to be part of this inspiring documentary project, to be associated with everyone involved, and to have met and filmed the Zeronian family. GO PUBLIC provides filmic evidence of the time-old saying, you reap what you sow. My day with the Zeronians proves that successful education is the ultimate act of collaboration — truly a team effort. The dedication of PUSD’s educators, the tireless determination of its administrators, the parents and the students themselves, who do not give up in the face of shrinking budgets, is nothing short of breathtaking.

LBN-COMMENTARY By EVA LONGORIA (ACTRESS, FOUNDER OF THE EVA LONGORIA FOUNDATION): Are maids a realistic reflection of Latinas in America today?? Yes, but they are not a reflection of every Latina. Stereotypes are constructed and perpetuated by those who believe in them. I choose not to.

LBN-COMMENTARY By ARIANNA HUFFINGTON: Japan’s spirit is being tested by the same recession and financial crisis afflicting all industrialized nations. But paradoxically, there are answers to be found to Japan’s very modern crises in its most ancient traditions.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW: Kate Moss

LBN-OVERHEARD:   ***Julia Roberts is staying away from her sister’s wedding, a source says, because she hates the groom and doesn’t want to get stuck with the bill. Nancy Motes – the star’s younger half sister – asked her famous sibling to be a brides­maid in her upcoming nuptials to John Dilbeck. Julia not only said “No” – she’s even refusing to go as a guest, the source added.

HORROR! ARIEL CASTRO ALLEGEDLY KEPT SEXUALLY ABUSED KIDNAP VICTIMS IN ‘ROPES AND CHAINS’: The three kidnapped women who endured a decade inside a rundown Cleveland home were bound by ropes and chains and rarely let outside, according to Cleveland’s police chief.  ”We have confirmation that they were bound and there was chains and ropes in the home,” Police Chief Michael McGrath said this morning on the Today Show. He also said they were “very rarely” permitted in suspect Ariel Castro’s backyard.  McGrath provided few other details about how long the women were restrained, saying “We’ll have a better feel for that question once the interviews with the victims is completed later today.”

HOSPITAL PRICES NO LONGER SECRET AS NEW DATA REVEALS BEWILDERING SYSTEM, STAGGERING COST DIFFERENCES: When a patient arrives at Bayonne Hospital Center in New Jersey requiring treatment for the respiratory ailment known as COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, she faces an official price tag of $99,690. Less than 30 miles away in the Bronx, N.Y., the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center charges only $7,044 for the same treatment, according to a massive federal database of national health care costs made public on Wednesday. Americans have long become accustomed to bewilderment and anxiety when confronting health care bills. The new database underscores why, revealing the perplexing assortment of prices for medical care, with the details of bills seemingly untethered to any graspable principle

GOING HOME: Amanda Berry, one of the three once-missing Cleveland women found Monday, will return home today, said Police Cmdr. Thomas McCartney.  She will make a statement and CNN TV will carry the statement live.  Amanda Berry, 27; Georgina “Gina” DeJesus, 23; and Michelle Knight, 32; and a 6-year-old daughter apparently born to Berry in captivity were found alive Monday in Cleveland, police said. The women are believed to have been abducted years ago — in 2002, 2003 and 2004 — and held captive at a Cleveland man’s home, according to police.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: As of July 2011, the population of Egypt was 82,079,663, making it the 15th most populated country in the world. Approximately 99% of the population lives on about 5.5% of the land.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates along with other readers in all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries in 11 separate time zones.

CALIFORNIA HOME TO 2.6 MILLION ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: That’s about one-quarter of the nation’s undocumented population, according to a USC study that’s being released as Congress considers immigration reform amid all sorts of political cross-currents. The study generally affirms what’s been reported in the past – that much of the undocumented population has been in the U.S. for many years and lead stable lives (17 percent of household heads are homeowners). Even so, they’re often stuck in low-wage positions; farming is the most common occupation in L.A., with 37 percent undocumented, followed by construction (23 percent), and personal services (19 percent). L.A. has the highest share of self-employed illegal immigrants.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Stewart Lambasts Government Incompetence

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Ryan Seacrest and ex Julianne Hough had an emotional meeting that left her in tears. Hough was at Soho House LA Saturday when she bumped into Seacrest with TV exec Ben Silverman. “Julianne went to Ryan and kissed him . . . they went to a quiet area to talk,” a spy said. “They had an emotional chat .  It looked like Julianne was wiping tears. Ryan then walked her back to her table and kindly said goodbye.”   ***Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis at McCormick & Schmick’s in Midtown in NYC.   ***Rockers Muse, Rose McGowan and Jack Huston at Near & Far, the newest hot spot from Tiny’s and Smith & Mills restaurateur Christopher Miller.   ***Mario Batali, Rachael Ray and Baron Davis celebrating Cinco de Mayo at John McDonald’s El Toro Blanco in the West Village in NYC.   ***Amar’e Stoudemire’s very pregnant wife, Alexis Welch, at Net-A-Porter’s pre-Met Ball soiree at Omar’s La Ranita with guests Karolina Kurkova and John Demsey.   ***Emma Roberts, Jessica Stam, Chace Crawford, Mark Sanchez and Ashley Greene celebrating Willow Road owner Will Malnati’s birthday at the Chelsea restaurant in NYC.   ***Popular Rant columnist Ericka T. Bass wearing a “I love Drag Queens!” t-shirt at Carney’s on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood yesterday afternoon.

LBN – PLANTING THE SEEDS OF WISDOM:

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***The lead singer of Grammy-nominated heavy metal band As I Lay Dying was arrested Tuesday in Southern California as authorities said he tried to hire an undercover detective to kill his estranged wife. Tim Lambesis, 32, was arrested at a retail business in Oceanside, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.    ***Actor and singer Justin Timberlake is taking his music touring business to WME. Although previously signed with talent agency CAA, WME had been repping Timberlake as an actor since 2009. It will now inherit all of his future business, including touring and endorsements.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Politician With Cancer Makes Emotional Plea For Medical Marijuana

LBN-THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

Coca-Cola Hits the Market as a Health Tonic (1886)

At a time when soda fountains were popular in the US due to the widespread belief that carbonated water was good for the health, American pharmacist John Pemberton came up with his own formula for a health tonic. Among its ingredients were cocaine, derived from the coca leaf, and caffeine, derived from the kola nut, leading to the name Coca-Cola. It was initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass.

LBN-INFO LINK – CURRENT GAS & OIL PRICES:
AAA: Gas Prices | AAA: Fuel Cost Calculator | DOE: Energy Historical Data | DOE: Gasoline/Diesel Fuel Update | DOE: Sources of Crude Oil | DOE: This Week In Petroleum | GasBuddy | MSN: Gas Prices by ZipCode | GasPriceWatch | How Gas Prices Work | Gas Prices Primer | Mapquest Gas Prices | Oil Price.com | USA Gas Prices Map.

UNIQUELY, LBN: Lady Loping, an LBN E-Lert reader from Madrid, Spain

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Teen Christian Group Demands Bibles In Schools

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman made a street plea to North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, about the release of a Korean-American that’s been sentenced and jailed: “Do me a solid.” Let Kenneth Bae go, he said, The Associated Press reported.

POSTCARD FROM YEMEN By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

LBN-COMMENTARY By SUZE ORMAN (HOST, “THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW”): THERE are no money problems. There are people problems. Success is not how many zeroes your bank account has. It’s about making the most of the life you have.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PIERCE BROSNAN (ACTOR): The U.S. Navy has new plans for testing and training exercises with sonar and explosives — and those plans spell disaster for whales. Now is the time for concerned citizens to come to their defense.

LBN-COMMENTARY BY ANN CURRY (NBC NEWS NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT): As a journalist, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with mothers around the world who are facing tough challenges in war zones and remote areas without access to medical care for themselves and their children. This is unacceptable.

LBN-COMMENTARY By GEORGE LUCAS (FILMMAKER AND FOUNDER OF THE GEORGE LUCAS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION): From kindergarten to college, certain teachers engaged my curiosity and motivated me to learn. While I was not the best student, their efforts left a lasting impact.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MARK CUBAN (OWNER, DALLAS MAVERICKS; CHAIRMAN, AXS TV): At the Mavericks we have been diving into any and all advances in medical science that can give us a competitive edge. I’m not talking performance enhancing drugs, I’m talking proactive analysis and advanced recovery methodologies. One that is obvious is the use of stem cells.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

U.S. DIRECTLY BLAMES CHINA’S MILITARY FOR CYBERATTACKS:

The Obama administration on Monday explicitly accused China’s military of mounting attacks on American government computer systems and defense contractors, saying one motive could be to map “military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.”  While some recent estimates have more than 90 percent of cyberespionage in the United States originating in China, the accusations relayed in the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on Chinese military capabilities were remarkable in their directness. Until now the administration avoided directly accusing both the Chinese government and the People’s Liberation Army of using cyberweapons against the United States in a deliberate, government-developed strategy to steal intellectual property and gain strategic advantage.

CHRISTIE REVEALS SECRET STOMACH SURGERY TO LOSE WEIGHT: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie secretly underwent lap-band stomach surgery to aggressively slim down for the sake of his wife and kids, he revealed last night. The Garden State governor agreed to the operation at the urging of family and friends after turning 50 last September.  He told The Post he was thinking of his four kids and how it was time to start improving his health when he decided to have the procedure. “I’ve struggled with this issue for 20 years,” he said. “For me, this is about turning 50 and looking at my children and wanting to be there for them.”  He also insisted that, contrary to what observers may say, the effort to slim down was not motivated by thoughts of a presidential bid.

ROLLING STONES TOUR ‘DOING GREAT’: PROMOTER DENIES HEAVY DISCOUNTING OF TICKETS: Reports of sluggish sales and deep discounting for the Rolling Stones’ “50 and Counting” tour are inaccurate, says the trip’s promoter. The tour is on a pace to gross close to $100 million from 18 shows. Discounting and price adjustments on Stones shows in L.A. and elsewhere reflect a “flex pricing” strategy andattempts by AEG Live and the Stones to keep tickets out of the hands of brokers. John Meglen, co-president of AEG Live subsidiary Concerts West, says more than 20,000 $600 tickets sold in Los Angeles across the four shows. “Did we hit a point where we ran out of people that would buy at $600? Yeah,” he says. “But why can’t we do the ‘market value’ thing? Why should, in my estimation, $3 million go to the brokers, instead of the artists?

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Caroline Kennedy along with other readers in all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries in 11 separate time zones.

WHITE HOUSE HOLDS FIRM ON CAUTIOUS PATH IN SYRIAN CRISIS: The White House insisted on Monday that it would not be thrown off its cautious approach to Syria, despite Israeli military strikes near Damascus and new questions about the use of chemical weapons in the civil war there.  The administration cast doubt on an assertion by a United Nations official that the Syrian rebels, not the government of President Bashar al-Assad, had used the nerve agent sarin. And it backed Israel’s right to strike Syrian targets to disrupt shipments of weapons from Iran to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

NEW WORRIES FOR DEMOCRATS ON HEALTH LAW: As the administration struggles to put in place the final, complex piece of President Obama’s signature health care law, an endeavor on a scale not seen since Medicare’s creation nearly a half-century ago, Democrats are worried that major snags will be exploited by Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.  Many Democrats also want to see a more aggressive and visible president to push the law across the country. This week Mr. Obama is returning to the fray to an extent unseen since he signed the law in 2010, including a White House event on Friday to promote the law’s benefits for women, the first in a series of appearances for health care this year.

FACING BLACK MARKET, PFIZER SELLS VIAGRA ON WEB: Pfizer has taken the unusual step of selling its erectile dysfunction drug, Viagra, to consumers on its Web site, in an effort to establish a presence in the huge online market for the popular blue pill, considered to be one of the most counterfeited drugs in the world.  Viagra is one of Pfizer’s marquee drugs — the company said it brought in more than $2 billion in sales in 2012 — but some drug experts estimate Pfizer could be losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year to a prolific black market of online pharmacies that cater to men too embarrassed to buy the drug through traditional means. As of Monday, in an arrangement with CVS/pharmacy, patients in the United States with a valid prescription for Viagra are able to fill their order through the new Web site, where the sentence “Buy real Viagra” is featured prominently. Patients will still need to visit a doctor, but they will be spared the additional trip to the pharmacy counter.

CHINA CUTS TIES WITH KEY NORTH KOREAN BANK: The state-controlled Bank of China said on Tuesday that it had halted all dealings with a key North Korean bank in what appeared to be the strongest public Chinese response yet to North Korea’s willingness to brush aside warnings from Beijing and push ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.  Chinese analysts said that the Bank of China’s move carried clear diplomatic significance at a time when the Obama administration has been urging China to limit its longtime support for the North Korean government. The Bank of China’s action also dovetails with a longstanding American effort to target the North Korean government’s access to foreign currency. Most countries’ banks already refuse to have any financial dealings with North Korea, making the Bank of China’s role particularly important.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: During the first half of the twentieth century, Shanghai was the only port in the world to accept Jews fleeing the Holocaust without an entry visa.

KIDNEY BEANS KEY TO COMBATING BEDBUG SCOURGE: Much to the dismay of people around the globe, bedbug populations are booming and existing pesticides are of little help. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important to find alternative means for eliminating the tiny bloodsuckers. One such method under investigation is bean leaf entrapment. Kidney bean leaves, which have microscopic hooked hairs that pierce bedbugs’ feet and trap them, are traditionally used in the Balkans to combat bedbug infestation. Researchers created a synthetic material meant to mimic the action of the leaf hairs, but it unfortunately failed to grasp the bugs as effectively as the original.

LBN-MEET: Actor Kevin Spacey

JOE FRANCIS GUILTY OF LA CHARGES, COULD FACE JAIL AGAIN: Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis has been in trouble with the law before, but this time could hurt. An LA jury convicted Francis of five misdemeanor charges in connection with assaults on three women after an outing in Hollywood: three counts of false imprisonment, one count of dissuading a witness from reporting, and one count of assault causing great bodily injury. The trial lasted two weeks and could send Francis to county jail for several years.

UNIQUELY, LBN: Sarah Lyn Lee, an LBN E-Lert reader from Memphis, Tenn.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Jurors hearing the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial have a stark vision of the dead pop icon after a lawyer showed them an autopsy photo. Jackson’s unclothed corpse lying on a coroner’s table looked nothing like the world’s most famous entertainer. The doctor who conducted Jackson’s autopsy returns to the witness stand for a second day Tuesday in the trial to decide if concert promoter AEG Live shares blame in his death with Dr. Conrad Murray.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Jason Collins may already be old news just a week after he became the first active male athlete in a pro team sport to publicly reveal he’s gay. According to the Associated Press, Collins is seeking a book deal for his planned memoirs, but at least one of the publishing houses his representative contacted has turned down the veteran NBA center

LBN-INVESTIGATES: As late as 1940, fewer than 1 in 20 adults held a B.A. degree in the United States. From 1945-2000, the number of B.A degrees awarded annually rose almost eightfold, from 157,349 to approximately 1.2 million.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Well, this would seem to be a first. The four most influential athletes in America really don’t play. At least not lately. Idle NFL quarterback Tim Tebow has been back in the news, but not for any heroics: he was recently cut loose by the New York Jets after a one-year experiment as a part-time QB behind Mark Sanchez failed to yield results. The “Tebowmania” days in Denver are only 15 months old, but it seems like 15 years. And yet, when Americans are asked which pro athletes they believe carry the most influence with the public, Tebow’s name tops the list.

JUSTIN BIEBER’S TATTOOS: A SELENA GOMEZ LOOK-A-LIKE, A CROWN, JESUS INK, AND MORE….

LBN-COMMENTARY By DAVID BROOKS: The opponents of immigration reform have many small complaints, but they really have one core concern. It’s about control. America doesn’t control its borders. Past reform efforts have not established control. Current proposals wouldn’t establish effective control.  But the opponents rarely say what exactly it is they are trying to control. They talk about border security and various mechanisms to achieve that, but they rarely go into detail about what we should be so vigilant about restricting. I thought I would spell it out.   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

LBN-COMMENTARY By FRANK BRUNI: As the Boy Scouts of America reassesses its ban on gay scouts and leaders, we’re hearing a lot about the organization’s need to remain sensitive to people whose religions condemn homosexual behavior. Their morals must be properly respected, their God aptly revered.  But what about the morals and the God of people whose religions exhort them to be inclusive and to treat gays and lesbians with the same dignity as anyone else? There are many Americans in this camp, and their opposition to the Scouts’ ban is as faith-based as the stance of those who want it maintained.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:…

LBN-INVESTIGATES: A person weighing 150 pounds on Earth would weigh 4,200 pounds on the sun because the sun’s gravity is 28 times that of Earth.

GORE IS ROMNEY-RICH WITH $200 MILLION AFTER BUSH DEFEAT: In 1999, Al Gore, then U.S. vice president and a Democratic candidate for president, sold $6,000 worth of cows.  The former senator, who spent most of his working life in Congress, had a net worth of about $1.7 million and assets that included pasture rents from a family farm and royalties from a zinc mine, remnants of his rural roots in Carthage, Tennessee. Funds from the cattle sale went to three of his kids, according to federal disclosure forms filed as part of his presidential run.  Fourteen years later, he made an estimated $100 million in a single month. In January, the Current TV network, which he helped to start in 2004, was sold to Qatari-owned Al Jazeera Satellite Network for about $500 million. After debt, he grossed an estimated $70 million for his 20 percent stake, according to people familiar with the transaction.

A HOMEMADE STYLE OF TERROR: JIHADISTS PUSH NEW TACTICS: Aware that intensified American counterterrorism efforts have made an ambitious Sept. 11-style plot a long shot, Al Qaeda propagandists for several years have called on their devotees in the United States to carry out smaller-scale solo attacks and provided the online education to teach them how.  “I strongly recommend all of the brothers and sisters coming from the West to consider attacking America in its own backyard,” wrote Samir Khan, an American who joined Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch and emerged as a fervent advocate of homegrown, do-it-yourself terrorism before he was killed in an American drone strike in September 2011.  “The effect is much greater, it always embarrasses the enemy, and these types of individual decision-making attacks are nearly impossible for them to contain,” Mr. Khan wrote in a Web publication.  The Boston Marathon bombing — which the authorities believe was carried out according to instructions that Mr. Khan posted online — offers an unsettling example of just how devastating such an attack can be, even when the death toll is low. It shows how plotters can construct powerful bombs without attracting official attention. It offers a case study in the complex mix of personality and ideology at work in extremist violence. And it raises a pressing question: Is there any way to detect such plotters before they can act?

DZHOKHAR’S FRIEND FREED FROM CUSTODY: Prosecutors have released Robel Phillipos, a friend of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, from jail on $100,000 bail on the condition that he be placed under house arrest and wear a monitoring ankle bracelet while awaiting trial. Phillipos, 19, was arrested by the feds last week for lying to investigators about the disposal of Tsarnaev’s belongings—a backpack containing emptied fireworks and his computer—after Tsarnaev was named a suspect. In affidavits, Phillipos’s friends and attorney claim he was “frightened and confused” when questioned by the FBI. Two other friends, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, were also charged last week with conspiring to obstruct justice in removing items from Tsarnaev’s dorm room after the bombing.

LBN-SEE IT:…. President Obama has been reluctant to use military force to contain the Syrian crisis, but the pressure is mounting for him to intervene. “All the options are horrible,” a former aide said.

ATTACKS FUEL DEBATE OVER U.S.-LED EFFORT: The apparent ease with which Israel struck missile sites and, by Syrian accounts, a major military research center near Damascus in recent days has stoked debate in Washington about whether American-led airstrikes are the logical next step to cripple President Bashar al-Assad’s ability to counter the rebel forces or use chemical weapons.  That option was already being debated in secret by the United States, Britain and France in the days leading to the Israeli strikes, according to American and foreign officials involved in the discussions. On Sunday, Senator John McCain, who has long advocated a much deeper American role in the Syrian civil war, argued that the Israeli attacks, at least one of which appears to have been launched from outside Syrian airspace, weakens the argument that Syria’s air defense system would be a major challenge.

TAG TEAM: JIHADIS, HACKERS JOIN FORCES TO LAUNCH CYBERATTACKS ON UNITED STATES: Middle East- and North Africa-based criminal hackers are preparing cyberattacks this week against the websites of high-profile U.S. government agencies, banks and other companies, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The attacks, dubbed #OpUSA, for Operation USA, will begin Tuesday, the department said in a warning bulletin circulated to the private sector last week. The bulletin was first obtained and posted online by blogger and cybercrime expert Brian Krebs.

IN COMMERCE PICKS ’08 ANSWERS ON FINANCES, POSSIBLE HINTS AT ROAD AHEAD: In November 2008, as President-elect Barack Obama began putting together his cabinet, reports emerged that he was considering nominating Penny Pritzker, the billionaire Hyatt Hotels heiress and businesswoman who had served as his chief campaign fund-raiser, as commerce secretary. But faced with awkward questions about her financial dealings, she declared that she did not want the nomination.  Last week, however, on Ms. Pritzker’s 54th birthday, she stood beside Mr. Obama as he announced her nomination for that same position, investing his administration’s political capital in trying to get her confirmed amid a far more toxic political atmosphere than he faced at the start of his first term.

‘WHISTLEBLOWER’ CLAIMS CLINTON COVER-UP: Mark I. Thompson, a self-described whistleblower in the Benghazi hearings, will testify on Wednesday that then-secretary of State Hillary Clinton intentionally cut out the counterterrorism bureau from communication on the attack. Thompson, deputy coordinator for operations in the bureau, leaked the scoop to Fox News, claiming he was threatened by unnamed State Department officials about coming clean in public. Rep. Jason Chavetz (R-UT) said Clinton put politics above security the night of the attack, while Greg Hicks, the second-highest-ranking American official in Libya, told investigators he thought it was an act of terrorism from the beginning. A State Department spokesman called the officials’ allegation “100 percent false,” while Clinton’s camp also denied the charges.

GIULIO ANDREOTTI, PREMIER OF ITALY 7 TIMES, DIES AT 94: Giulio Andreotti, a seven-time prime minister of Italy with a résumé of soaring accomplishments and checkered failings that reads like a history of the republic, died on Monday, Italian news agencies said. He was 94 and lived in Rome.  At the close of World War II, Mr. Andreotti was a close aide of Alcide De Gasperi, one of the founding fathers of the Italian republic, who practically reinvented the Christian Democratic Party after it had been wiped out by Fascism. He stayed at the political center of gravity until 1992, when the Italian postwar political order collapsed.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Rush Limbaugh insists it’s not his fault that ad revenue has dropped at his flagship WABC radio station — and if his boss keeps saying it is, Rush just may pack up his megadittoes and leave.In New York, that would very likely take him to WOR, which would create the biggest shakeup in city talk radio since WOR scooped up Bob Grant after WABC fired him in 1995.   ***In a ruling that is being compared to the case that led to free agency in baseball, a federal judge in California upheld an arbitration panel’s decision to release talk-radio host Michael Savage from a contract with his former syndicator, Talk Radio Network.

SEX ‘SUPERBUG’ DISCOVERED IN HAWAII: Say aloha to the new sex “superbug.” A drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea has been confirmed in Hawaii, and doctors are warning that it has the potential to be “a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect people more quickly.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is seeking $50 million from Congress to research an antibiotic that could treat the disease. Called HO41, the “sex superbug” was first discovered in Japan in 2011 and now has spread to Hawaii, California, and Norway.

LBN-THINK AGAIN:…

THE CONFIDENCE RESPONSES By DAVID BROOKS: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Strategic consultant Errol Rappaport along with other readers in all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries in 11 separate time zones.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Historic Plane Crashes, Explodes At Spanish Airshow

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: Did you know that this LBN E-Lert has daily readers in: London, England, Lima, Peru, Bogota, Columbia, Mexico City, Mexico, Moscow, Russia, among others.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: In Zeigler, Illinois, only the first four firemen to arrive at a fire will be paid.

LBN-BOOK NEWS:   ***On Friday afternoon, the Oxford English Dictionary’s Web site appealed to the public for help in identifying a mysterious book, “Meanderings of Memory.” The book is cited as an early source for words like “chapelled” (“adj. placed or stationed in a chapel”), “revirginize” (“trans. to render virginal again”) and forty-seven others. “We have been unable to trace this title in library catalogues or text databases,” they announced.

THE WORST: Los Angeles has the worst traffic in the nation and it’s gotten worse as the economy improves, according to a report released Wednesday. Because of congestion, the average motorist in the Los Angeles metropolitan area spent an extra 59 hours in traffic during 2012, according to a national scorecard from traffic information firm INRIX.

NEED A JOB? INVENT IT By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Justin Bieber ‘Attacked’ On Stage

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Justin Bieber was tackled onstage by a fan at a show in Dubai last weekend, but was able to shrug off the incident and continue the show. The singer was performing at the Sevens Stadium as part of his Believe tour when a young fan rushed the stage. The fan grabbed Bieber as he was playing piano, but security guards quickly grabbed the intruder, causing the piano to flip over. Bieber escaped unscathed, swiftly moved to the other side of the stage and continued with the rest of the song.   ***Lauryn Hill has paid off hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes she owed on the eve of her sentencing in a federal tax evasion case, her lawyer told Reuters. The singer is due in U.S. District Court this morning in Newark, New Jersey, after pleading guilty last year to failing to report income of more than $1.8 million between 2005 and 2007.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Despite being locked away in a Nevada prison cell, disgraced football legend O.J. Simpson set to go on a nation­wide tour. The former NFL star’s promoter, Norman Pardo, is preparing to travel the country with the “O.J. Simpson Road Show” – targeting high schools and colleges for presenta­tions that include live chats with O.J. from his prison cell. A handful of schools have already booked the show at a cost of $3,500 to $7,000, but it sparked a firestorm of protest during a “test” gig at Clarkston High School in Michigan on April 24.

UNIQUELY, LBN: Hollie A., an LBN E-Lert reader from Nashville, Tenn.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Media expert and author Michael Levine at the Booth Theatre in NYC Saturday night for the play “I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers” starring Bette Midler. Levine and Mengers were friends prior to her death in 2011.   ***Sofia Vergara and her fiancé, Onion Crunch king Nick Loeb, looked cozy as they took in a Broadway show. The couple sat in the ninth row for “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” starring Matthew Broderick, Thursday night. “They looked chummy,” says a witness.   ***“Twilight” heartthrob Robert Pattinson spent some of the weekend hanging out with Katy Perry. The actor was spotted dining with Perry and two other girls at Gemma in NYC on Friday night.   ***Anne Hathaway shopping for mod clothes with husband Adam Shulman at Blue & Creme on the Bowery in NYC.   ***John Legend opening the Yahoo on the Road tour, which also featured DJ Jonny Famous   ***British DJ Fatboy Slim at the private opening of “Lost Then Found,” a gallery exhibition of never-before-seen Andy Warhol portraits by Steve Wood at 345meatpacking.

LBN-COMMENTARY By BILL KELLER: IN the search for an American response to the civil war in Syria, the favorite guidebook seems to be our ill-fated adventure in Iraq. We have another brutal Middle East autocrat holding power on behalf of a sectarian minority. We have another dubious cast of opposition factions competing for foreign patronage. We hear some of the same hawks — John McCain, Paul Wolfowitz — exhorting us to intervene, countered by familiar warnings of “quagmire.” We even have murky intelligence claims that the regime has used weapons of mass destruction.  This time, though, we have a president who, having opposed the costly blunder of Iraq and been vindicated, is holding back. The theme song at the National Security Council is “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: At this point the economic case for austerity — for slashing government spending even in the face of a weak economy — has collapsed. Claims that spending cuts would actually boost employment by promoting confidence have fallen apart. Claims that there is some kind of red line of debt that countries dare not cross have turned out to rest on fuzzy and to some extent just plain erroneous math. Predictions of fiscal crisis keep not coming true; predictions of disaster from harsh austerity policies have proved all too accurate.  Yet calls for a reversal of the destructive turn toward austerity are still having a hard time getting through. Partly that reflects vested interests, for austerity policies serve the interests of wealthy creditors; partly it reflects the unwillingness of influential people to admit being wrong. But there is, I believe, a further obstacle to change: widespread, deep-seated cynicism about the ability of democratic governments, once engaged in stimulus, to change course in the future.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PEGGY NOONAN: I think we’re all agreed the president is fading—failing to lead, to break through, to show he’s not at the mercy of events but, to some degree at least, in command of them. He couldn’t get a win on gun control with 90% public support. When he speaks on immigration reform you get the sense he’s setting it back. He’s floundering on Syria. The looming crisis on implementation of ObamaCare has begun to fill the news. Even his allies are using the term “train wreck.” ObamaCare is not only the most slovenly written major law in modern American history, it is full of sneaked-in surprises people are just discovering. The Democrats of Washington took advantage of the country’s now-habitual distractedness: The country, now seeing what’s coming in terms of taxes and fees, will not be amused. Mr. Obama’s brilliant sequester strategy—scare the American public into supporting me—flopped.

LBN-COMMENTARY By LINDSAY LOHAN: Everyone thinks I’ve done coke so many times. But I’ve only done it maybe four or five times in my life. Yes, I don’t like it. It reminds me of my dad. I took it four times in a period from about the age of 20 to 23, and I got caught twice.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MICHAEL LEVINE (MEDIA EXPERT AND AUTHOR): The price of fame may be early death. An analysis of US newspaper obituaries shows that performers and athletes tend to die earlier than those who have success in other fields. While featured academics reached an average age of 82 and businesspeople and those in the political and military arenas reached 83, performers and athletes on average lived only to 77. These observations are fairly limited and do not establish whether shortened life expectancy is a cause or effect of a career in the limelight, but they certainly raise some interesting questions about the subject of celebrity.

LBN-COMMENTARY By NATE SILVER: A bill to allow unauthorized immigrants to gain citizenship carries electoral risks and rewards for the Republican Party. On the one hand, if the bill were passed, some of those immigrants would eventually vote. Roughly 80 percent of illegal immigrants are Hispanic, and about 10 percent are Asian — groups that voted heavily Democratic in the last two elections. On the other hand, such legislation could plausibly improve the Republican Party’s brand image among Hispanics and Asian-Americans, perhaps allowing the party to fare better among these voters in future elections. Which of these effects would outweigh the other?

LBN-COMMENTARY By RANDI ZUCKERBERG (FOUNDER AND CEO, ZUCKERBERG MEDIA; EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, DOT COMPLICATED): As parents, we need to ask ourselves whether we’re posting photos for our children or for ourselves. And if you’re posting it for yourself, wait a little bit before pressing the “share” button so you can really think about if it’s in your child’s best interest.

LBN-COMMENTARY By CARRE OTIS (WIFE, MOTHER, AUTHOR, ACTIVIST, MODEL): I’ve come to understand that language impacts thought, and vice versa. Without owning the word “no,” and all the other language under what I like to think of as the “No Umbrella,” I was denying myself the conviction and power that comes with it.

MY REVIEW: “LBN is fearless independent and ridiculously honest, which is why I (and my friends) read it every day.”—–Victoria Miller, an LBN E-Lert reader from Toronto, Canada.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW: Adele

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***TV chef Paula Deen has been raising eyebrows around town – and sparking rumors that she’s cooking up a divorce. In the past year, once-portly Paula has shed nearly 45 pounds and toyed with the idea of getting plastic surgery to tighten up her loose skin, leaving many to won­der if she’s getting ready to split from her hubby, tugboat captain Michael Groover. ***Hollywood has turned its back on Adam Rich – the beloved mop-topped tot on the hit ’70s series “Eight Is Enough.” Now 44, the virtually unrecogniz­able former child star is barely getting by, sources say. “Adam has been trying to sell script ideas for TV shows and movies,” said an entertainment industry source. ***Social workers have remove Charlie Sheen’s sons from the custody of his ex-wife Brooke Mueller’s care because of drug-related allegations. AND Sheen’s other ex Denise Richards has custody! The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services took Sheen & Mueller’s twin boys sons, Bob and Max, and in a surprising move, Sheen’s ex, Denise Richards, has been awarded temporary custody, RadarOnline.com reports. ***Shawn Holley is no chump , she agreed to represent Lindsay Lohan again with one big string attached…that she gets the $150,000 that Lindsay owes her for prior work. Sources connected with Lindsay’s team say when Lindsay was on the verge of being on the receiving end of an arrest warrant last week, they called Shawn and pleaded for help. We’re told Lindsay herself made multiple calls begging Shawn to come back.

BOMBER’S FRIEND SEEKS JAIL RELEASE: Lawyers for Robol Phillipos, 19, filed court documents on Saturday for his release, saying that he isn’t a flight risk and that he had nothing to do with the deadly attack on the Boston marathon, which killed three and wounded more than 200 others. Phillipos has been charged with lying to investigators about visiting bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s dorm room on April 18^th, after the bombing. Two other men have been charged with conspiring to obstruct justice after they allegedly removed from Dzhokhar’s dorm a laptop and backpack filled with fireworks. Phillipos’s lawyers say he had not spoken in Dzhokhar since December, and was at UMass on April 18^th just by coincidence.

SOURCE: ISRAEL STRIKES SYRIA AGAIN: Israel targeted Syria in another airstrike early Sunday, this time hitting a military facility just north of the capital, a Western intelligence expert confirmed. Israel declined to comment. “The sky was red all night,” said one man who lives less than a mile from the facility. “We didn’t sleep a single second. The explosions started after midnight and continued throughout the night.” The facility reportedly held Iranian-supplied missiles, which Israel contends was headed for Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Israel attacked the same site three months ago. U.S. President Obama, meanwhile, defended Israel on Sunday. “I’ll let the Israel government … confirm or deny whatever strikes they’ve taken,” Obama is expected to say in a televised remarks on Sunday.

SOURCE: TSARNAEV’S DAUGHTER AROUND BOMBS: An FBI source said on Saturday that suspected Boston marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev built the bombs while his wife, Katherine Russell, was out working—and he was home with their three-year-old daughter. It remains unclear if Russell played any role in plotting the attack, as she worked long hours as a home health aide while Tsarnaev stayed home with their three-year-old daughter, Zahara. Neighbors said they often recalled Tsarnaev taking walks with his daughter. Tsarnaev, 26, died on April 19^th after a shootout with police. His brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar, told investigators that they learned how to build the pressure-cooker bombs from instructions in al Qaeda’s online magazine, Inspire.

‘SUBURGATORY’ STAR JANE LEVY DIVORCING AFTER 7-MONTH STEALTH MARRIAGE: Suburgatory” star Jane Levy plays a moody teen on TV, but in real life she’s about to be a 23-year-old divorcee  ending a marriage that lasted all of 7 months — and no one seemed to know about.  Jane — who shot to fame in the last two years with her hit show on ABC — filed for divorce from actor Jaime Freitas on April 16, citing irreconcilable differences.  They married in March 2011 and were separated by October of that year … they just didn’t pull the trigger on a divorce. We’re told the breakup was amicable.  Levy’s filing indicates she doesn’t want to pay spousal support to Freitas — whose career isn’t quite at her level. We’re not familiar with a lot of his stuff then again, we don’t watch a lot of foreign flicks. Funny thing is they kept the marriage pretty quiet, as there’s virtually nothing out there about the couple.

KURTZ: ‘I AM TRULY SORRY’: Howard Kurtz, the former Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast, apologized Sunday on his CNN show Reliable Sources for erroneously saying Jason Collins was not open about his engagement to a woman in the Sports Illustrated article where Collins became the first active male athlete in a major sport to come out as gay. “It was a mistake that I made and it was sloppy and inexcusable,” Kurtz said, while also apologizing for initially modifying the story rather than retracting it. “I am truly sorry.” Kurtz said he read the profile of Collins, but did so  “carelessly” and didn’t see that Collins said he’d had a fiancée. Kurtz also said he took an “inappropriate” tone in a video about Collins he made with Lauren Ashburn at the Daily Download, a site at which Kurtz’s involvement has been questioned. Kurtz said it was simply “unfortunate timing” that he left The Daily Beast the same day that his Collins story was retracted, and that an “amicable divorce” had already been in the works.

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NIGEL EVANS: RAPE COMPLAINTS ‘FALSE’: British MP Nigel Evans, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, denied on Sunday the allegations that he raped one man and sexually assaulted another. Evans was arrested Saturday night, and questioned by police before being released on bail. Evans said he regarded the two men “as friends,” and one of the complaints dates back four years. “The complaints are false and I cannot understand why they have been made, especially as I have continued to socialize with one as recently as last week,” Evans said in televised remarks. Evans, 55, is openly gay, having come out publicly in 2010.

5 WOMEN KILLED IN LIMO CRASH:  Five women were killed late Saturday night when a limo carrying them burst into flames while on a San Francisco bridge. Five others, including the male driver, escaped. Police said all of the women were in their 30s. Police said smoke started coming out of the back of the limo, causing the driver to pull over. The limo was soon engulfed in flames, and the five women became trapped while four others managed to escaped. Police said they are investigating the cause of the fire, which was not related to an accident. The names of the victims have not yet been released.

REFEREE DIES AFTER BEING PUNCHED: A Salt Lake City man who was punched in the head during a soccer game last week died Saturday from bleeding in his brain. Ricardo Portillo, 46, was refereeing a soccer game at Eisenhower Junior High School on April 27^th when he dealt a penalty card to a 17-year-old player. The player, unhappy with the penalty, then punched Portillo in the head. At first, Portillo’s injuries appeared minor but swelling eventually led to a coma. The 17-year-old is currently being held in a juvenile detention center, and he is expected to be formally charged next week.

LBN – INVESTIGATES: Women in the first decades of the nineteenth century consulted texts such as William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine and Samuel K. Jennings The Married Lady’s Companion, which suggested releasing “obstructed menses” by bloodletting, bathing, iron and quinine concoctions, and black hellebore. Later in pregnancy, a woman could engage in “violent exercise, raising great weights, reaching too high, jumping, hitting the belly, and falls.”

ALASKA DORMANT VOLCANO SPEWS ASH: A dormant volcano in Alaska rumbled back to life on Saturday, spewing ash, steam, and gas into the air. Cleveland Volcano is in a sparsely populated part of Alaska, but it lies below a major air-traffic route between the U.S. and Asia. Although aviation experts said the eruption was not major enough to be a threat to planes, some air traffic was diverted on Saturday. Cleveland Volcano first showed signs of life in the summer of 2011, when lava started oozing out and caused lava domes to form at the center—and pressure to build inside the volcano. There have already been 20 to 25 sporadic explosions since then, but experts said Saturday’s explosions were stronger and long-duration airwave signals indicated a sustained eruption.

AEROSMITH CANCELS JAKARTA SHOW: Nobody in Jakarta will be singing “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” The U.S. band Aerosmith on Sunday canceled a concert in the Indonesian capital due to safety concerns. The concert had been scheduled for May 11^th, but recent threats by Islamic militants to bomb the Myanmar embassy had caused the band to rethink the concert. A concert promoter said that 85 percent of 15,000 tickets had been sold.

E!’S TWITTER FEED HACKED: Well it’s no AP Twitter hack, that’s for sure, but this sure will make Justin Bieber feel important. The Twitter feed of E! news was hacked on Saturday, with 5.2 million subscribers being told that Justin Bieber is gay. Text subscribers also received hacked messages. The Syrian Electronic Army, a pro-Assad hacking group, has claimed credit for the attack—but did not specify why exactly they know about Bieber’s sexuality. E! News said in a statement that they are working to resolve the hack as soon as possible. The hacking comes weeks after CBS News’s 48 Hours and 60 Minutes as well as the AP’s Twitter feeds were all hacked. This seems like a bit of a downgrade though.

TSARNAEV FRIENDS: ‘STILL MAKES NO SENSE’: In the two weeks since the Boston Marathon bombing and the ensuing manhunt that shut down the city, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s friends and associates still cannot make sense what happened to the 19-year-old, according to a profile in Sunday’s New York Times. “Nothing seemed out of the ordinary,” said Jason Rowe, Tsarnaev’s freshman roommate at UMass, Darthmouth. A wrestler in high school, his teammates said they looked up to Tsarnaev as a motivator, although few people saw what home life was like for Tsarnaev. By the time Tsarnaev was at UMass, his parents had left for Russia, although he never gave any indication he embraced Islam—until April of this year. Meanwhile, an independent autopsy has been scheduled for Tsarnaev’s brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a shootout with police—and after reportedly being run over by a fleeing Dzhokhar.

MILEY CYRUS: NO. 1 ON ‘MAXIM’ HOT 100 LIST: She broke the news on Twitter and Instagram, sharing a sultry shot of herself.  Miley Cyrus, who was “soEFFINGbored” on Saturday that she didn’t seem to know what to do, decided to join Instagram.  And her “first Instagram,” she said, “is dedicated to all my fans. Thank you for crowning me #1 Maxim Hot 100.” She posted the same shot on her Twitter feed. Maxim hasn’t confirmed it, but this is the time of year that the magazine typically unveils its list of Hot 100 women. Last year, Bar Refaeli topped the list, with Olivia Munn at No. 2. Miley, 20, recently bared her backside (and a good portion of her front side) in the pages of V magazine.

LBN – COMMENTARY By FRANK BRUNI: Men get passes, women get reputations, and real, lasting humiliation travels only one way. The size and scope of that mortification, despite many decades of happy talk about dawning gender equality, are suggested by recent news stories of one teenage girl in California and another in Nova Scotia who hanged themselves after tales or cellphone pictures of their sexual violation circulated among peers. It’s impossible not to wonder if shame drove them to suicide, and it’s impossible not to ask what sort of world allows the victims of such assaults to feel more irredeemably branded — more eternally damned — than their accused assailants by all appearances do.

LBN – COMMENTARY By MAUREEN DOWD: I felt suffocated, as though I’d never escape to the blazing, gritty larger world I dreamed of covering.  Driving to work every day, I passed a small cemetery connected to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Rockville. I would always look up and give a silent salute to F. Scott Fitzgerald, who was buried there in the Fitzgerald family plot. His modest headstone features the indelible final line of “The Great Gatsby”: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

KATHERINE RUSSELL: THE GOOD WIFE: Authorities are widening their gaze in the Boston Marathon bombing case to the Tsarnaev brothers’ closest associates, including Tamerlan’s mysterious widow, Katherine Russell. New details on Russell, 24, paint the picture of a privileged East Coast girl, who played alto saxophone, sketched pictures of cats, and bought clothes (and once stole) from Old Navy. Russell’s friends from college—who a classmate describes as “straight out of Sex and the City”—say she was “infatuated” with Tamerlan upon meeting him. By 2010 she had dropped out of college, converted to Islam, and married him. The FBI’s investigation into her role in the bombings is ongoing.

HUNDREDS OF SYRIANS FLEE COAST: Hundreds of Syrians have deserted coastal towns where government troops reportedly killed an estimated 150 people in two days. Activists posted footage online of mutilated and charred bodies, including women and children, killed in massacres in al-Bayda and Baniyas. Syrian government claimed the army operations were to drive back terrorist groups and restore peace. Refugees from the area have been blocked from taking shelter in a city south of the conflicted area, activists say.

HUMIDITY GIVES HOPE IN CALIFORNIA: The latest wildfire in California is spreading— but some are saying its timing is actually not half-bad. High temperatures on Friday caused the fire, located about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, to nearly triple in size to 43 square miles. But forecasters now say that increased humidity this weekend will help the over 900 firefighters battling the blaze to fight back. The fire, which began on Thursday and has taken 15 structures, will hopefully be hindered in its progress by lower temperatures and higher humidity. Let’s hope, for once, that the bad weather holds.

DIMON TO MEET WITH BANK EXAMINERS: JPMorgan Chase’s Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, is far from out of the woods. The financial world’s “last man standing” is scheduled for a meeting next week with dozens of bank examiners from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, including junior examiners who don’t usually interact with CEOs. It’s yet another show of the kind of close inspection he and his bank now face nearly three weeks after the OCC and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York told him they don’t trust his management. But the upcoming meeting may be a step in the right direction: it was suggested by the bank, not the authorities, and was allegedly initially scheduled in advance of the complaints.

FANS REJOICING ON STAR WARS DAY: It’s a particuarly happy Star Wars Day for fans of the epic space film series. Not only has a new trilogy been announced—directed by nerd hero J.J. Abrams—but at least two tie-in films will be released in the next few years. George Lucas, the series’ creator, is out largely of the picture (even more good news for some followers). And the fan-made Star Wars Uncut project is working on its version of The Empire Strikes Back. But are things going too well? Could the Dark Side be lulling us into complacency, only to send us another Phantom Menace-like horror? Let’s hope not, but whatever happens: May the Fourth be with you.

NATO: FIVE AMERICANS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN: Five U.S. service members were killed on Saturday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the latest deadly attack against international troops since the Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive this week. The coalition did not disclose the location of the blast; however, Javeed Faisal, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said the coalition patrol hit the roadside bomb in Maiwand district of the province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban. This incident marks the second-deadlist attack since the insurgency announced their new offensive on April 27. Three British soldiers were killed on April 30 when their armored vehicle hit a bomb in southern Helmand province.

GOOGLE RECOGNIZES PALESTINE: One small step for Google, one giant leap for Palestine? The tech giant’s local homepage is now labeled “Palestine” instead of the former (and cumbersome) “Palestinian territories.” The move comes five months after the United Nations upgraded Palestine to a nonmember observer state. A Google spokesman said Friday that the change will be rolled out across Google’s platforms and products, to the gratification of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But some aren’t so excited: a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded, saying that the move “has no diplomatic or political significance.”

RAT MEAT SOLD AS ‘LAMB’ IN CHINA: In the latest gag-inducing food scandal to hit China, authorities have revealed that the chemical-soaked flesh of rats was being sold as “lamb meat” in Shanghai markets. Mink, fox, chicken claws, and other faux meats were also being packaged as cow meat and mutton in the nearby province of Jiangsu. Police have made more than 900 arrests and seized 10 tons of the meats, but only after a criminal operation had sold roughly $1.6 million of the stuff. The rat-meat announcement comes at the end of a three-month national campaign that began in late January to uncover more than 382 meat-related offenses, seizing a total of 20,000 tons of fake, diseased, or otherwise adulterated meat.

CLERICAL ERROR LEADS TO CRIMINAL RELEASE: This must be pretty high on the list of history’s most unfortunate clerical errors. Los Angeles officials revealed Friday that Johnny Mata, charged for murder in a 2010 gang shooting, was mistakenly released from jail last month due to bureaucratic oversight. Even worse, the department waited until this week to announce the issue, apparently because it wanted to exhaust all possible leads first. The error allegedly occurred when a processing clerk forgot to enter a “hold” in Mata’s file in the computer system. He is still at large.

MAN SURVIVES BEING SWALLOWED BY HIPPO: In a gripping, almost-unbelievable account, business owner Paul Templer relives the day he was swallowed—and nearly killed—by a hippo in Africa. The accident occurred when Templer, then 27, rushed to help a client whose kayak had been overturned by the “two-ton bull.” As he reached the man’s boat, Templer says suddenly everything went black—leaving him completely unaware for minutes that he had been swallowed by a hippo. After freeing one of his hands, and opening the hippo’s jaw, he was able to free himself. But the terror wasn’t over. The hippo then quickly began stabbing the two men with its massive tusks. Templer survived—barely—after enduring more than 40 deep puncture wounds all over his body. His colleague did not.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY MARRIED: For celebrities this week, it’s not all arrests and unfortunate selfies. Keira Knightley, for one, has great news: she and fiancée James Righton got married on Saturday. The two wed in a low-key town hall ceremony in Mazan, France. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t classy: Knightley wore a Chanel dress by Karl Lagerfeld during the ceremony, performed by the town’s mayor. The couple reportedly drove off in a battered Renault —on their way to a lavish reception at a friend’s vast vineyard estate nearby, where scores of high-profile guests had gathered to celebrate. These are celebrities we’re talking about, after all.

BROOKE MUELLER LOSES CUSTODY OF TWINS: This sounds like it could be a modern-day Brady Bunch—at least with some tragic undertones. Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller’s twin 4-year-old sons have been taken out of Mueller’s custody—and they are currently staying with Sheen’s other ex-wife, Denise Richards. The Los Angeles Department of Family Services visited Mueller’s home on Thursday and deemed it an “unsafe environment,” according to TMZ. The twins are staying with Richards, who is mother to Sheen’s daughters Sam, 9, and Lola, 7, and has an adopted 22-month-old daughter Eloise.

OFFICIALS DEBATE REOPENING SANDY HOOK: Will the site of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre reopen its doors? That emotionally charged question was raised during a meeting Friday night between more than two dozen officials, who admitted the conversation was “difficult.” The other option on the table is to raze the building and open a new school down the street. Some Sandy Hook teachers reportedly emerged from the meeting in tears, while victims’ families are staunchly against children returning to the campus where 20 first-graders and six staffers were shot dead in December. “I will chain my body to it and protest if they try to reopen it,” said Erica Lafferty, the daughter of late Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung.

LBN-COMMENTARY By CHARLES M. BLOW: This is a generation of people who have come of age in an era of overlapping traumas — terrorism and wars and recession. They have also come of age in changing times, and are more tolerant and less punitive in their social view. They see this country, and the world, differently than we older folks do. Theirs is an America waiting to be made better, not one that is simply, and irreversibly, getting worse.

LBN-COMMENTARY By JOE NOCERA: For all the protestations by gun owners that most are responsible with their weapons, I have been struck by how many killings take place because people do careless, stupid things. In the gun report that my assistant, Jennifer Mascia, and I compile on my blog, I see daily examples of children accidentally shooting other children with a gun found in the house.

UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS TO 4-YEAR LOW: The U.S. economy added just 165,000 jobs in April, which caused the unemployment rate to fall to a 4-year low of 7.5 percent. March’s numbers were readjusted, with 50,000 more jobs added than previously reported, meaning that 138,000 jobs were added that month. Economists warned, though, that that doesn’t help improve the sluggish track the economy has been on. The first two months of the year saw an average of 200,000 jobs added, although growth cooled in March.

BOMB DNA NOT FROM TAMERLAN’S WIDOW: The female DNA and fingerprints found on fragments of a bomb found at the Boston bombing scene do not match those of Katherine Russell, the widow of dead suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but the FBI is still not entirely convinced that she’s not connected to—or at least had knowledge of—the attack. “I think they’re very skeptical of her story,” said former assistant FBI director and CBS News correspondent John Miller. “They want to know, is it possible all of this was going on concealed from you, or did you know the whole time?” Of particular interest is a phone call between Russell and Tsarnaev made hours after his image was first released by the FBI as a suspect.

CALI INFERNO HEADS FOR MALIBU: Hundreds of Southern California residents were evacuated Thursday night as a massive fire pushed toward the Pacific coast near Malibu. “I opened the door, and the whole mountain was on fire,” said Ventura County resident Paul Doebler, 80. The fast-moving brush fire has already burned through 8,000 acres, damaging 15 homes. Thousands more homes are still threatened Friday as the fire remained just 10 percent contained and it pushes toward Malibu. Known as the Springs fire, the blaze started at 7 a.m. and burned 100 acres in less than an hour, finally reaching the Pacific Coast late Thursday evening.

MAY SNOWSTORM HITS MIDWEST: Hope nobody was expecting spring to come in May. A rare May snowstorm on Thursday dumped 18 inches of snow across parts of Wisconsin and 15 inches in southern Minnesota. May storms are not totally uncommon in the northern parts of the state, but this storm was both larger than normal and hit farther south. Three cities in Iowa, meanwhile, topped records for the heaviest snowfall in May, with 11 inches reported in Algona and 10.5 inches in two other towns. Trace amounts of snow were reported in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle, although the ground was too warm for accumulation.

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BHUTTO PROSECUTOR ASSASSINATED: He was prosecuting the high-profile killing of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto—now he’s dead. Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali was shot as he drove to work in an Islamabad suburb. His car was ambushed by assailants on a motorcycle and another car who opened fire on Ali’s vehicle. No one has claimed responsibility for the fatal ambush. Ex–military head Pervez Musharraf is facing charges in connection to Bhutto’s death in 2007.

CATHIE BLACK EMAILS RELEASED: Hundreds of emails were released Thursday relating to the high-profile failure to make Cathleen Black the city’s schools chancellor—and it paints a fairly embarrassing picture. Black, a Hearst magazine executive who had no prior educational experience, was appointed chancellor in November 2010, and city officials quickly embarked on a PR campaign for her—although she was pushed out of the job just five months later. Since she had no education experience, the city had to get a waiver from the state to appoint Black—and its big strategy to drum up support was to get some high-profile women to back Black. Black herself even tried to reach out to Oprah Winfrey and Caroline Kennedy, while the office worked hard on others such as Nora Ephron, Diane von Furstenberg, and Suze Orman. Kind of pandering, but is that really why the city spent $25,000 to keep these emails secret?

WITHERSPOON PLEADS NO CONTEST: Elle Woods would approve of Reese Witherspoon’s gracious acceptance of responsibility for the incident last month which landed her husband with a DUI and her in handcuffs for disorderly conduct. Witherspoon pled no contest to charges and her husband, Jim Toth, pled guilty. She will pay a $213 fine and Toth will perform community service and take an alcohol education program. Earlier Thursday on Good Morning America, Witherspoon owned up to the bad judgement exhibited by her and her husband.

‘DOZENS DEAD’ IN SUSPECTED SYRIAN MASSACRE: Between 50 and 100 civilians are estimated to have been killed Thursday when Syrian government forces stormed the coastal village of al-Baida, opposition fighters said. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the number could exceed even 100, and many of those killed appeared to have been “summarily” executed by shooting or stabbing. Meanwhile, the United Nations–Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said he will step down, making the diplomatic efforts to end the bloody civil war seem even more distant. President Obama said Thursday that he is “looking at all options” about Syria, hours after the U.S. Defense secretary said the U.S. could possibly arm the opposition.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Fatality Rate For Oil & Gas Workers 7 Times National Average Rate. A new Centers For Disease Control And Prevention study points that oil and gas workers do dangerous work. Indeed, they have a fatality rate that is 7 times greater than the national average.  Oil and gas workers suffer 27.1 fatalities per 100,000 workers, while the US average is 3.8 fatalities, and many of the deaths are in helicopters.

BANGLADESH DEATH TOLL TOPS 500: The death toll in the deadly Bangladesh building collapse topped 500 on Thursday, while the country’s Finance minister tried to downplay the tragedy, calling it “not really serious.” “These are individual cases of … accidents,” Finance Minister Abud Maal Abdul Muhith said Friday. “It happens everywhere.” Muhith insisted that the disaster would not harm Bangladesh’s garment industry, the country’s biggest export industry. But he may have his work cut out for him: last month Disney decided to pull its factories from Bangladesh. Although Disney represented less than 1 percent of Bangladesh’s garment industry, others could follow the entertainment giant’s lead.

RHODE ISLAND APPROVES GAY MARRIAGE: It’s official: Rhode Island became the 10th state to legalize same-sex marriage Thursday evening. The legislation passed the Rhode Island House of Representatives, with 56 votes in favor, to applause from the galleries and House floor. Legislators even broke into a rendition of “My Country ’Tis of Thee.” The bill, which was later signed by Gov. Lincoln Chafee, allows same-sex weddings beginning August 1, and gives couples already in civil unions the right to change their status to married. “At long last, you are free to marry the person you love,” Chafee said.

U.S. SUICIDE RATES SURGE: No good news here. A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that suicide rates among middle-aged Americans have risen dramatically over the last decade. Between 1999 and 2010, suicide among 35- to 64-year-olds jumped almost 30 percent—most pronounced among men in their 50s. The baby-boomer suicide rise is complex, but experts say they believe it’s connected to the years of economic downturn and access to prescription medication.

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TSARNAEV BODY GIVEN BACK TO FAMILY: The body of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was given back to his family Thursday, while outraged crowds noted that it had arrived at a funeral home about 30 miles south of Boston the same day. A state official said Tsarnaev’s body will not be returning to Russia, after a rejection to conduct the funeral in Dagestan. It’s unclear exactly where Tsarnaev’s funeral will be held. Meanwhile, his brother, Dzhokhar, told investigators Thursday that the brothers had originally been planning an attack for July Fourth, but they moved the date up when they finished the bombs early.

AMERICAN JOURNALIST HELD IN SYRIA: Investigators believe that James Foley, the American journalist who was abducted at gunpoint in November in northern Syria, is being held by the Syrian government at a detention center near Damascus. Foley, a freelance journalist who had recently worked for GlobalPost and Agence France-Presse, was driving toward the Turkish border when an unmarked car intercepted him. He was last seen being forced out of his car by men holding Kalashnikovs and shooting in the air. GlobalPost says its representatives are meeting with the Syrian ambassador to secure Foley’s release.

SOLAR PLANE TAKES FLIGHT: A solar-powered plane that can fly through the night has started its sow transcontinental journey.The first electric plane that can fly both day and night with only the power from the sun’s rays began its first transcontinental flight Friday. The Sunseeker Duo from Solar Flight is flying from San Francisco to its final destination in Washington, DC—it’s expected to touch-down there mid-June—stopping at Phoenix, Dallas and St. Louis along the way.The plane can theoretically fly continuously, but its pilots will only fly it at 12 hour spans.

‘HOOTERS’ SHOE SHINE GETS BEER, WINE: In case you’re hoping to enjoy a beer, glass of wine, or sandwich while getting your shoes shined by scantily clad girls, Star Shine NYC is your place. The “Hooters” of shoe shines features attractive young women in black shirts and tank tops as shoe polishers, and on Wednesday night, the Community Board 1 for the Financial District voted to give them a beer and wine license. The beverages will be served between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., and are limited to two glasses per customer. “We won’t have guys hanging around, this isn’t a bar,” the owner said. “I’m going to vote for it,” said co-chair Susan Cole. “What the hell.”

MOUNTAIN DEW ADS PULLED: In stupid advertising news, Mountain Dew has produced—and Pepsi has since pulled—a spot that can be seen as a triple threat: racist, misogynistic, and just plain baffling. In the ad, five black men and a goat (a character named Felicia) are in a police lineup while a bloodied, bandaged woman on crutches is prodded by her lawyer (both are white) to pick a suspect. The woman shrieks and cries, “I don’t think I can do this,” while the goat makes comments such as “I’m gonna do you up,” and “Keep your mouth shut,” that only the woman can hear. As she runs off in hysterics, her lawyer takes a swig from a bottle of Mountain Dew. PepsiCo pulled the ad on Wednesday, which was the third installment in the Odd Future series by rapper Tyler, The Creator.

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NORTH KOREA SENTENCES AMERICAN: Bill Clinton, any chance you’re going to meet Kim Jong-un any time soon? North Korea sentenced U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae to 15 years in a hard-labor camp for so-called crimes against the state. Bae, who was born in South Korea, but is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested while visiting North Korea as a tourist. The reasons behind his arrest are unclear, although some have speculated that he was arrested after taking pictures of starving children. The harsh sentence could be that he will end up as a bargaining chip for North Korea, as relations between the communist country and the U.S. have continued to deteriorate. But it’s an even harsher sentence than the one given to two American journalists in 2009, when Bill Clinton had to personally negotiate for their release.

WOMAN RETURNS AFTER BEING MISSING FOR 11 YEARS: A Pennsylvania woman resurfaced in Florida on Wednesday, 11 years after she went missing—and years after being declared legally dead. Brenda Heist, 53, told police that she left in 2002 while she was going through a nasty divorce and had just been turned down for housing assistance. While crying in a park, she was befriended by two women and a man who invited her to go along on a monthlong hitchhiking trip through Florida. Heist never returned, and in the years since, she lived for seven years with a man in a camper, but has spent the past two years homeless. When she met with police earlier this week, she apologized for what she did to her family. She apparently turned herself in because she was tired of living on the run.

BANGLADESH MAYOR SUSPENDED: The mayor of the Bangladesh municipality where a clothing factory collapsed last week, killing hundreds, was suspended Thursday, as many have blamed the tragedy on lax oversight of the factory. The death toll in the disaster climbed to 430, while about 2,500 of the 3,000 people who worked at the complex have been accounted for. Eight people, including the building’s owner and his father, have been arrested so far in connection with the building’s collapse. A senior official said last week that the Savar municipality should not have granted permission for it even to be built, and five stories were on the permit—but an additional three were added illegally. Meanwhile, Pope Francis weighed in Wednesday, calling the conditions “slave labor.”

ECB CUTS INTEREST RATES: While expected, the European Central Bank’s move to cut its main interest rate Thursday comes as a welcome step in the right direction for many analysts. The ECB’s governing council cut the refinancing rate to a new low of 0.5 percent. The change in rate affects over €850 billion in ECB loans. While the ECB had planned on a healthier euro zone by springtime, data coming out this month are likely to show the economy contracting for the sixth straight quarter.

DAVID PETRAEUS TO TEACH AT USC: Former CIA director David Petraeus will be teaching part time as well as mentoring students who are veterans at the University of Southern California starting in the summer, officials will announce Thursday. He also will be joining the faculty at the City University of New York. Petraeus, who led the forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned in November as the head of the CIA after admitting an extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell.Broadwell, meanwhile, spoke publicly for the first time since the scandal at a prayer breakfast Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, saying she had “made some mistakes in the past,” but she is turning to her “faith” to help her move past it.

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BBC’S STUART HALL ADMITS SEX ABUSE: Former BBC presenter Stuart Hall on Thursday admitted to 14 counts of sexual abuse against girls ages 9 to 17 between 1967 and 1986. Hall, 83, formerly hosted It’s a Knockout and most recently was a sports commenter on BBC’s Radio 5 and sports columnist. He pleaded guilty April 16 and will be sentenced June 17. According to the charges, he sexually molested a 9-year-old girl in the 1980s by sticking a hand up her clothing, and he also allegedly kissed a 13-year-old girl on the lips. He had also been accused of rape, which he denied, and the complaint has been dropped. Nazir Afzal, the chief Crown prosecutor on the case, called Hall an “opportunistic predator.

J.J. ABRAMS VISITS ‘DOWNTON ABBEY’: Lost, Star Trek, Star Wars, and now … Downton Abbey? J.J. Abrams stopped by the set of the mega-popular British period drama Wednesday, tweeting a photo of himself in the kitchen with actress Phyllis Logan, who plays head housekeeper Mrs. Hughes. Time to start decoding: Abrams and Logan were mixing something in front of what seemed like an endless row of eggs. Any Lost fans want to take a guess at what it means?

WARREN BUFFETT IS NOW ON TWITTER: “Warren is in the house.” And with that, legendary billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the same man who once admitted to not knowing how to check his own voicemail, announced his Twitter presence on Thursday afternoon. Buffett joined the social-media website in order to participate in an interview with Fortune for a panel called “Warren Buffett on Women and Work…and Other Wisdom,” which is supposed to incorporate social media. His account, @WarrenBuffett, is already verified and had more than 12,000 followers by 12:30 p.m. ET.

BOMB-DETECTOR CON MAN GETS 10 YEARS: After being found guilty of selling more than £55 million worth of fake bomb detectors to numerous security hotspots, including Iraq, Jim McCormick was sentenced to 10 years in jail Thursday. It’s the maximum sentence for the three counts of fraud he was charged with. McCormick sold items billed as explosive- and drug-detecting devices for as much as £10,000 each, but in reality, they were based on novelty golf-ball locators that typically retail for roughly £15. A group of Iraqi exiles is calling for at least £7 million in compensation from McCormick, whom they blame for thousands of lost lives and injuries in Iraq. The justice called his fraud the most serious he’s ever encountered.

AMANDA BYNES’S TOPLESS BATHROOM PHOTO SHOOT: A DRAMATIZATION: The Ansel Adams of selfies had a bathroom photo shoot with no shirt on Wednesday night, and posted the fruits of her labor on the Internet.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

RNC AD SHOWS OBAMA WITH NEWTOWN MOM: Just making sure we’re on the same page: Republicans are blocking gun reform, but now they are criticizing President Obama for not passing it? The Democratic National Committee is fuming over a Republican National Committee ad called “First 100 Days,” which shows Obama consoling the mother of a victim of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting—but criticizes him for not passing gun reform in the wake of the massacre. The RNC insisted that it used a clip from an ABC News package, with an RNC spokesman tweeting, “I don’t think we control ABC.” It’s just another instance of the high-stakes fight over gun reform, coming two days after New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte was confronted at a town-hall meeting by the daughter of the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal, who was killed in the shooting.

PRITZKER TAPPED FOR COMMERCE SECRETARY: Is President Obama hoping Penny Pritzker can stimulate the economy with her own money? The commander in chief selected businesswoman Penny Pritzker as his secretary of Commerce on Thursday morning—and if confirmed by the Senate, she would be the richest member of the current cabinet by a long shot. Pritzker and the president previously have worked closely together—she was his finance chair during his first White House campaign and co-chair of his second campaign. Certain groups may look upon the nomination with some scrutiny. Pritzker, with an estimated worth of $1.85 billion, is ranked as one of the 300 wealthiest people in the U.S. by Forbes magazine. The Pritzker family runs the Hyatt hotel chain, which has clashed with union leaders in Los Angeles and Chicago. In 2001 Superior Bank, which the Pritzker family co-owned and Penny Pritzker chaired from 1991 to 1994, became the largest bank failure in a decade.

REESE WITHERSPOON TALKS ARREST: Reese Witherspoon took care of the big drunken elephant in the room early in her interview with George Stephanopoulos onGood Morning America Thursday morning, promoting her new film, Mud. “It was just completely unacceptable, and we are so sorry and embarrassed,” she said, addressing her recent arrest for disorderly conduct and the arrest of her husband, agent Jim Toth, for drunken driving. Witherspoon admitted to screaming, “Do you know my name?” at the arresting officer. “I told him I was pregnant. I’m not pregnant. I said all kinds of crazy things.” So what happened? Well, she said, “it was one of those nights.”

THIS IS HOW YOU TURN HIPSTER: Step one: grow a beard. Step two: move to Brooklyn. The New York Time enlightens us, once again, on how to become a hipster. Middle-aged Manhattanite writer Henry Alford spends a few days in Williamsburg, living among “the rooftop gardeners and the sustainability consultants and the chickeneers.” Some of his discoveries: the hip argyle wool socks he considers buying aren’t local; Bedford Avenue is a “veritable ocean of beard”; you still have to wait an hour for a restaurant that aesthetically aspires to “gulag in da hood.” But don’t worry, young people in Brooklyn, Alford’s conclusion is optimistic: the “eco-conscious, agrarian-seeming, hair-celebrating” 20-somethings are self-respecting.

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LBN-COMMENTARY By  JACKIE KELLER: Experiencing “brain fade”? Turns out that moderately intense exercise does more than helping to maintain blood pressure, improve energy, elevate mood and lower stress, it also stimulates the brain regions involved in memory. The brain releases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), helping to rewire memory circuits. The more you move, the more brain cells you use which turns on genes to make more BDNF. Sorry, you can’t take a pill to get it – only the brain can make it, and only with regular exercise. For brain benefit raise your heart rate to 70% of maximum (roughly 220 minus your age), for about 30 minutes, 5 days/week.

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LBN-NOTICED: Former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, greeting media expert and author, Michael Levine on 6^th Ave. in NYC yesterday.

JAMESTOWN SETTLERS ATE A CHILD: Scientists have confirmed the first archaeological evidence that Jamestown settlers resorted to cannibalism with the gruesome discovery of a 14-year-old girl’s skeleton. The English girl’s remains date back to the deadly winter of 1609–10, known as the “starving time,” when settlers ate dogs, cats, horses, and even humans in the Virginia colony. Much remains unknown about the dismemberment and cannibalization of the 14-year-old, though a forensic anthropologist confirmed that a blow to the back of her head split her skull in half and the skull was penetrated to remove her brain. Scientists have long speculated that Jamestown colonists ate fellow settlers—and likely committed murder in the process.

THREE MARATHON SUSPECTS ARRESTED: Three more suspects have been arrested in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings, police say. CBS reports that the trio was arrested for harboring or aiding the Tsarnaev brothers after bombing. Two of them, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, are reportedly from Kazakhstan and went to school with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. They are expected to be charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements, which are federal charges. The two reportedly have been held in a county jail for more than a week on allegations they violated their student visas. The third man, who is a U.S. citizen, will be charged with making false statements. According to ABC News, the new suspects allegedly removed a backpack full of fireworks that was in Dzhokhar’s dorm room at the request of Dzhokhar after the bombing.

COLO. APPROVES CIVIL UNIONS: Nothing like some midnight parties to kick off May Day. Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples held midnight civil-union ceremonies in Denver on Wednesday after a new law allowing the unions went into effect at 12:01 a.m. As the clock struck midnight, cheers broke out at Denver’s Wellington E. Webb government building, and the celebration wasn’t dampened by the reality that Colorado has a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock performed many of the first ceremonies, along with U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette and municipal judges and religious officiates. The first couple to wed were Fran and Anna Simon, who have spent years campaigning for same-sex marriage and civil unions. “I didn’t know what to expect,” Fran said. “I just expected being with Anna.”

SENATOR AYOTTE CONFRONTED ON GUN VOTE: New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte was confronted at a town-hall meeting in her own state on Wednesday by Erica Lafferty, the daughter of the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal who was killed in the school shooting. Lafferty first met with Ayotte in Washington earlier this month, a meeting she brought up during the confrontation. “You had mentioned that day the burden on owners of gun stores that the expanded background checks would harm,” Lafferty said. “I am just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in halls of her elementary school isn’t more important than that.”Ayotte is one of five senators being targeted in anti-gun campaigns led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords. The NRA has also poured thousands into ads supporting Ayotte, making her the poster face of the culture war over guns.

THOUSANDS RALLY FOR MAY DAY IN EUROPE: Happy May Day—time to take to the streets. Thousands protested throughout Europe on Wednesday, the day set aside to honor unions and organized labor. Trains and ferries were canceled in Greece as police—including 1,000 who were deployed to Athens—prepared for what they predicted would be thousands of protesters. “The government must take back austerity, the people can’t take it anymore,” said Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary of the public sector union ADEDY. Meanwhile, in Spain, where 27 percent of the population is unemployed, at least 80 protests were planned by organized labor throughout the country. The head of UGT, one of the country’s largest trade unions, called on workers to join in, saying there has “never been a May 1 with more reason to take to the streets.”

REPORT: TED CRUZ CONSIDERING PRESIDENTIAL RUN: This could make for some wild debates. Sources tell the National Review that Ted Cruz, a firebrand freshman senator from Texas, is considerign a presidential run. “Cruz already has grassroots on his side, and in this climate, that’s all he may need,” a Republican source tells the Review. Cruz has only been in the Senate for a few months, but he’s already proven an expert at getting attention—not always positive. Some establishment Republicans criticized the Texas senator for his harsh questioning of Defense secretary Chuck Hagel. Most recently, Cruz landed in hot water when he bragged that his fellow Republicans were mad at him for making them look like “squishes” when he threatened to filibuster gun control.

AMANDA KNOX: I DIDN’T DO IT: Diane Sawyer wasn’t skirting the drama Tuesday night as she conducted the first sit-down interview with Amanda Knox since the young woman was tried in Italy for the murder of her roommate. “Did you kill Meredith Kercher?” Sawyer asked. “No,” Knox replied. The interview was emotional at times, with Knox tearing up speaking about parents and reliving her her police interrogations, which she says broke her. “What happened to me, hit me like a train, and there was nothing I could to do stop it,” she said. ”For all intents and purposes I was a murderer, whether I was or not.” Of her acquittal’s recent overthrow by the Supreme Court of Italy, Knox says: “I can’t be afraid right now I have to be ready to fight and defend myself.”

SCIENTISTS CREATE WORLD’S SMALLEST FILM: Scientists at IBM have given new meaning to the term short film. Researchers arranged atoms on a copper surface to create a stop-motion film of a boy bouncing a ball, where the ball is a single atom. It’s so small, that 1,000 frames from the film side-by-side would be as wide as a strand of human hair. The researchers arranged each frame by passing a metal needle close enough to the copper surface to create a quantum “tunneling current” with the atoms they wanted to move. The film was just a fun project, but it highlights IBM’s recent efforts to manipulate atoms in order to create new forms of data storage.

GM PULLS ‘OFFENSIVE’ ADS: Dear GM, it is 2013, not 1938. Just getting that out there. The car company is pulling ads that featured a recording from 1938 that referred to China as the “land of Fu Manchu,” where people say “ching ching, chop suey.” The ads have already been running in Canada since the beginning of April and were also posted on Chevrolet’s European website. The ads were going for a 1930s nostalgia feel. Unfortunately, folks, that’s not really going to inspire people to buy American.

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‘DOWNTON’S LILY JAMES CAST AS CINDERELLA: She might be part of the upstairs on Downton Abbey, but British actress Lily James is about to get a lesson in being part of the servant class. James has been cast as Cinderella in Disney’s new live-action version of the classic movie, the studio announced on Tuesday. Shakespeare (and Harry Potter) vet Kenneth Branagh will direct, and Cate Blanchett has been signed on to play the evil stepmother. Is Maggie Smith just too busy, or can we cross our fingers that she will join as Prince Charming’s grandmother?

FISTFIGHT BREAKS OUT AT VENEZUELAN PARLIAMENT: Oh Hugo Chávez, how things have fallen apart without you. Venezuela’s Parliament session got heated on Tuesday, with literal fistfights breaking out, leaving at least seven legislators bruised and bloodied. The fighting stems from the opposition party’s refusal to acknowledge President Nicolás Maduro—Chávez’s hand-picked successor—as the winner of the April 14election. “They can beat us, jail us, kill us, but we will not sell out our principles,” said Julio Borges, one of the opposition’s legislators. Both sides accused the other of starting the melee, which turned violent after the National Assembly (controlled by Maduro’s party) passed a measure refusing to allow the opposition the right to speak until they recognized Maduro as president.

SCHWARZENEGGER BACKS IMMIGRATION BILLL: Is there a better example of the American dream than Arnold Schwarzenegger?. The former California governor and Austrian immigrant urged passage of federal immigration reform, saying on Tuesday that he is not any different from the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants. “These are all very hard-working people,” Schwarzenegger said. “They have a dream. They want to make their dreams a reality.” Meanwhile back in Washington, the immigration bill’s advocates are lobbying Republicans to cross the aisle and support it, since it will need some GOP votes to pass the House.

SYRIAN REBELS: HEZBOLLAH THREATENED US: Is Hezbollah thinking about getting involved in Syria? The Syrian opposition said on Wednesday that Lebanon’s Hezbollah had “threatened” them after the leader of the Islamic militant group backed Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s comments came after Hassen Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, said that the rebels would not be able to overpower Assad’s military—claiming that he still had “real friends in the region.” The Syrian rebels also warned against any intervention by Iran—a key friend of both Hezbollah and Assad. The infighting in the region comes just one day afterPresident Obama said that although Assad’s government had crossed the so-called red line by using chemical weapons, more information is needed before the U.S. will intervene.

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‘BAG MEN’ DAD MAY SUE NY POST: The father of one of the two boys featured in a New York Postfront-page photo as a suspect in the Boston bombings is seeking legal counsel and could possibly sue the tabloid, he said on Tuesday. On April 18, the tabloid featured a photo of 16-year-old Saleh Barhoum and another boy, with the headline “Bag Men” and subhead “Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon.” A photo of Barhoum had already circulated on the Internet, and he had spoken to police to clear his name the day before the newspaper came out. His father, El Houssein Barhoum, said his son was “scared to just go outside” in the aftermath of the Post cover. Barhoum said two staffers had visited him a day later, but they didn’t apologize.

GARBAGE IN, POWER OUT: Oslo burns garbage to produce energy. But with Norwegians producing less trash, the city is now importing junk. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and in Norway, that’s literally the case. But Oslo, the capital city, seems to be running out of this vital commodity.The New York Times reported Monday that Oslo, which has long burned waste to heat half of the city and almost all its schools, is lacking the materials need for fuel: household trash, commercial and industrial waste, and even hazardous junk from hospitals. With the rise of recyclable and reusable products, Oslo’s volume of trash just isn’t what it used to be.

MONSTER SUES SAN FRANCISCO: TO STOP DRINKING BANS: Let’s hope they have the energy for this fight. Monster Beverage Corp. filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing the San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera and his office of acting illegally by capping serving sizes and restricting marketing. Energy drinks, made by Monster as well as Pepsi’s AMP and Living Essentials’ 5-Hour Energy, have come under scrutiny from the government recently due to safety concerns.

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ISRAELI ROCKET KILLS PALESTINIAN: An Israeli rocket killed one Palestinian and wounded two others in Gaza on Tuesday—the first lethal airstrike in the region since the November truce. The man killed has been identified as Haitham Mishal, who Palestinian authorities said was a police officer but Israel claimed he was a jihadist involved in the April 17 rocket attack on Eilat. Al Qaeda–linked militants have claimed responsibility for the Eilat attack, but Israel believes Hamas—the ruling party in Gaza—is to blame. In the November truce, Israel agreed to stop assassinating wanted militants while Gaza militants said they would cease rocket attacks—which led to a few months of relative calm.

ZIMMERMAN: NO ‘STAND YOUR GROUND’ HEARING: George Zimmerman is putting his faith in a jury of his peers. The former neighborhood watch leader charged with the murder of Trayvon Martin passed on the opportunity to seek an immunity hearing with a judge as part of Florida’s “stand your ground” law. If he agreed to the hearing, a judge would have had sole discretion in determining whether he is immune from culpability in the killing of Martin under the state’s self-defense law. By not seeking the hearing, he is instead agreeing to let a jury make the determination in a trial.

FOUR-YEAR-OLD INDIAN RAPE VICTIM DIES: A four-year-old Indian girl who was brutally raped died on Monday, hospital authorities say. The little girl had been on a ventilator after suffering severe injuries to both her brain and her vagina. She had been in a coma since April 18, the day after the attack. The girl was the daughter of day laborers in Ghansor. Police said she was lured from her home and was found the next day—bleeding profusely—by her parents. Firoz Khan, 27, has been arrested in connection to the attack. A second man, Rakesh Chaudhary, 25, has been arrested for taking the girl to her attacker but not in the rape itself.

YAHOO EXTENDS MATERNITY LEAVE: Yahoo employees might not be able to work from home anymore, but they’ll be able to stay home for longer after having a child. CEO Marissa Mayer, two months after banning telecommuting, expanded Yahoo’s maternity policy to allow new mothers to take 16 weeks of paid leave and fathers to take eight weeks. That’s about twice as much leave as Yahoo employees previously got, though it still lags behind other Silicon Valley companies like Google, which offers 22 weeks, and Facebook, which offers four months.

OBAMA: NEED MORE FACTS ON SYRIA: Obama reaffirmed that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a red line, but that he needs more information before making a decision, and even then stopped short of promising military action. “What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them,” he said. If chemical weapons were used, he said, the administration would have to “rethink the range of options that are available to us.” When a reporter asked whether Obama had lost his “juice,” citing recent defeats on gun control and the sequester, Obama laughed it off. “If you put it that way, maybe I should just pack up and go home,” he joked.

‘KINKY BOOTS’ GETS 13 TONY NODS: Girls really do have more fun. Kinky Boots, the Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, led the Tony nominations on Tuesday with 13, while heavyweights Tom Hanks and Nathan Lane will face each other for Best Actor. Kinky Boots, which opened earlier this month to mixed reviews, has serious competition from Matilda, the musical adaption of Roald Dahl’s book. Also nominated were A Christmas Story and Bring It On: The Musical. The play revival Golden Boy led the play nominations with eight, with the late Nora Ephron’s final play,Lucky Guy, receiving six. Hanks, Lane, Holland Taylor, and Laurie Metcalf were all nominated, but there were some big-name snubs, including Bette Midler, Jessica Chastain, Katie Holmes, Scarlett Johansson, and Al Pacino.

COLBERT BUSCH ASKS SANFORD ABOUT AFFAIR: Three years to come up with an answer, and the best response you can think of is playing deaf? At their first debate Monday night, Elizabeth Colbert Busch asked Mark Sanford about his 2009 extramarital affair—and he said he couldn’t hear her. Colbert Busch said fiscal conservatism “doesn’t mean you take the money we saved and leave the country for a personal purpose,” referring to Sanford’s infamous 2009 trip to Argentina to visit his mistress—which caused him to resign. To top it off, moderator John Avlon said “she went there, Gov. Sanford” when Sanford attempted to ignore the question. Sanford said “I couldn’t hear what she said” with a smile and asked her to repeat herself, and she didn’t. The pair are locked in a closely watched race in a special election for a South Carolina House seat that once belonged to now-Sen. Tim Scott, who was appointed when longtime senator Jim DeMint resigned.

MAN LOSES LIFE SAVINGS AT CARNIVAL: Sadly, this story is not from the Onion . A New Hampshire man is calling foul after he blew $2,600—reportedly his life savings—on a carnival game. Determined to win an Xbox Kinect for his kids, Henry Gribbohm, 30, got carried away playing “Tubs of Fun” at a Hampshire-based fair, where he emptied his bank account and walked away with nothing but a giant stuffed banana with dreadlocks. “They explained to me I was going to get all my money back,” Gribbohm told local reporters. “I was going to get an Xbox Kinect…They lied to me.” Gribbohm has since filed a police report for fraud. “For once in my life I happened to become that sucker,” he said. Apparently he didn’t get the memo that carnie games were created for suckers like him.

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PRIVATE WOMEN’S ONLY CLUB OPENS IN LONDON: Private clubs are not only for men anymore—although these aren’t the cigar-filled rooms of men’s folklore. Instead, swanky women’s only clubs are popping up that promise to “take the stress out of everyday life,” like London’s posh new Grace Belgravia—the first private club for women. According to one of the club’s owners, Grace Belgravia is dedicated to “nurturing and empowering women”—for an $8,000+ annual membership fee. The club includes a spa, gym, restaurant, lounge, food delivery service, a celebrity hair stylist, and a medical center headed by the apothecary to the queen. It’s just one of the private women’s-only clubs that have been cropping up worldwide, including a “women’s business club” called The Sorority in London.

‘GAME OF THRONES’ BREAKS RECORD: HBO is YOLOing through 2013—and it’s paying off. The cable station smashed a previous viewership record Sunday night with an episode of their epic fantasy drama Game of Thrones. The episode, which raked in a massive 5.3 million viewers, beat its own series high of 4.9 million. But it’s not the only show making improvements. Fictional vice president Julia Louis-Dreyfus and her bumbling personal aide Tony Hale brought in the largest audience to date this season for Veep, with 1.3 million viewers.

MCCONNELL: I’LL HAVE A DRINK WITH OBAMA: Looks like somebody is taking those White House Correspondents’ Dinner jokes seriously—and we don’t mean Jay-Z. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s campaign account tweeted a photo on Monday of the Kentucky Republican sitting alone with a beer and an open chair after President Obama joked at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner about having a drink with him. At the swanky dinner on Saturday night, Obama said that some didn’t consider his bipartisan dinner enough, saying “some folks think I didn’t spend enough time with Congress. ‘Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?’ they ask. Really? Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell.” McConnell answered by saying “I’m shocked. He obviously doesn’t see my soft side.”

LINDSAY LOHAN: BLOGGER?: Now that Cat Marnell is writing a book, somebody has to contribute to druggy writing. Lindsay Lohan is rumored to be taking up the mantle, with the Post reporting that the actress will start blogging for Celebuzz in August—after she finishes her stint in rehab, that is. Celebuzz consultant A.J. Daulerio was evasive about Lohan joining the site, saying “I’m still waiting for the official grooming session.” Lohan will reportedly enter rehab at the Seafield Center in Westhampton Beach, New York, on Thursday, although she was seen partying at New York’s 1Oak this weekend.

OBAMA CALLS COLLINS, GIVES SUPPORT: That screening of 42 really did affect President Obama. On Monday night the president called Jason Collins, who came out as gay earlier that day—the first pro athlete to do so. A White House aide said Obama offered support and congratulated the NBA player. Collins, 34, revealed he is gay on Monday in a cover story for Sports Illustrated, and he cited his college roommate U.S. Rep. Ted Kennedy III in influencing his decision to come out. The two will march in the Boston Gay Pride Parade. Collins has mostly been met with praise for his decision, although ESPN reporter Chris Broussard stood out by saying being gay is an “open rebellion to God.”

KNOX: ‘I’D LIKE THE TRUTH TO COME OUT’: Amanda Knox’s image rehab tour continues. Knox told Diane Sawyer that she would like people to “reconsider” her as a person after her highly watched Italian murder trial. In a preview of an interview that will air Tuesday, Knox says she was in the courtroom when people were calling her “devil,” and everything that she had ever done in her life had been used against her in the Italian court. “For all intents and purposes, I was a murderer—whether I was or not,” Knox says. Knox, now 25, was found guilty of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in 2009, and spent four years in an Italian prison before the conviction was overthrown. “What happened to me was surreal, but it could have happened to anyone,” she says. Knox says she’d “like the truth to come out.” Knox’s acquittal has since been overturned, meaning she must face a retrial in Italy—if she ever returns.

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U.S. SENDS MEDICS TO GUANTANAMO: One hundred of Guantanamo Bay’s 166 prisoners are now on hunger strike, prompting the United States to send 40 nurses and medical specialists to monitor the situation. Of those on strike, 21 are being force-fed through a tube, a process described in graphic detail in a recent New York Times op-ed written by a prisoner. The inmates, many of whom are held without charge, are protesting their detention with the hunger strike, which began in February.

CATHERINE ZETA-JONES ENTERS REHAB: Catherine Zeta-Jones is nipping her mental health issues in the bud. On Monday, the actress checked into a 30-day treatment center to get help for bipolar disorder, according to TMZ. A source told the gossip site it’s a proactive measure for “maintenance.” Zeta-Jones did a similar treatment in 2011.

DUTCH QUEEN BEATRIX ABDICATES: The queen has left the building. The Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix abdicated the throne on Tuesday, handing it over to her son, Willem-Alexander. He will be the country’s first king since 1890. Beatrix, 75, who has been on the throne for 33 years, announced her plans to step down in January, saying it was time for a “new generation” to take over. About a million people are expected to travel to Amsterdam for the occasion, and street parties will take place throughout the country. The royal family will take part in a water festival on Tuesday night.

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FEMALE DNA FOUND ON BOSTON BOMB: Investigators have discovered female DNA on one of the bombs used in the horrific attack at the Boston Marathon—but don’t jump to conclusions yet. It’s not clear who the DNA belongs to, or even if the person played a part in helping that Tsarnaev brothers carry out their attack. There are several explanations as to why a woman’s DNA—or anyone’s DNA, for that matter—could be found on the bomb’s exploded remnants. Perhaps the person worked at a store where parts of the bomb were purchased, or her hair could’ve landed on the device after the explosion. FBI agents were, however, at the Rhode Island home of Katherine Russel, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow, Monday to reportedly collect a DNA sample.

RICIN SUSPECT HELD WITHOUT BAIL: James Everett Dutschke, the Mississippi man accused of mailing letters laced with the potent toxin ricin to President Obama and other officials, is being held without bail. A federal magistrate ruled that Dutschke is a “danger to the community,” and worried that he would try to run if he was released. The ruling is pending a preliminary hearing set for Thursday. This is just the latest twist in the bizarre ricin case. Dutschke is actually the second suspect arrested for the crime. The first, a man who impersonates Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly for a living, is no longer in custody.

NBA PLAYER JASON COLLINS: I’M GAY: Jason Collins of the NBA has become the first openly gay active player from a major American team sport. The 34-year-old, a center for the Washington Wizards, came out in a story he wrote for the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated. “I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, ‘I’m different,’” he said. “If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.” He said that the recent tragedy in Boston convinced him to come out now. “Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully?”

SYRIAN P.M. SURVIVES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: Well, that was close. Syria’s prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt after a car bomb was detonated in a pricey Damascus neighborhood. State media say that the bomb, which went off by Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi’s convoy, killed a bodyguard. The blast also knocked the windows out of a bus parked nearby. The attack happened in Mezze, a popular spot in the capital for senior officials. The blast is the latest attempt on a high-ranking official—last week an official was shot with a silenced gun at a restaurant in the neighborhood.

O’CONNOR REGRETS BUSH V. GORE: She stopped short of using the word “regret,” but retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor recently suggested that the high court shouldn’t have intervened in the 2000 election. “Maybe the court should have said, ‘We’re not going to take it,’” O’Connor, who provided the key fifth vote to install Bush as president, told the Chicago Tribune of Bush v. Gore. She admitted that election authorities in Florida had done a poor job, and added that the Supreme Court likely “added to the problem at the end of the day.”

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MISHA: ‘I NEVER TAUGHT TAMERLAN’: One of the most intriguing mysteries surrounding the Boston bombings was the identity of “Misha,” the man who allegedly “brainwashed” Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in the words of his uncle, Ruslan. The New York Review of Books tracked him down and revealed him to be Mikhail Allakhverdov, a Rhode Island man who knew Tsarnaev, but claims to have nothing to do with his radicalization. “I wasn’t his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this,” he said. He added he is cooperating with the FBI investigation and has been told his case is about to be closed.

CIA GIVES KARZAI BAGS OF CASH: For over a decade the CIA has been delivering money to the offices of Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, in the shadiest ways possible: suitcases, backpacks, and plastic bags full of cash. The New York Times reports that tens of millions of dollars have gone to Karzai’s office. And it doesn’t seem like the CIA is getting what it wants for its money: much of it is used to pay off warlords and politicians, many with ties to the drug trade, fueling the corruption U.S. diplomats have been trying to fight. “The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan,” an American official told the Times, “was the United States.”

STUDENT SHOOTS SELF AT OHIO SCHOOL: A student shot himself in a classroom at LaSalle High School in Hamilton County, Ohio, police said Monday morning. The student, who has not been identified, has been taken to the hospital. The county sheriff’s office says there is no longer a threat. A witness near the school said there were “lots of police cars and a police officer with a large gun in the street.” One cruiser crashed into a pole while responding to the scene.

JETS RELEASE TIM TEBOW: His prayers may finally have been answered. A year after joining the New York Jets—and not really getting any playing time—Tim Tebow is free. The Jets released the quarterback Monday morning. “Unfortunately, things did not work out the way we had all hoped,” said coach Rex Ryan. Now the question is whether Tebow will join another team as a quarterback or whether he’ll be a team’s secret weapon. That whole “secret weapon” thing didn’t work out so well last year, obviously.

REPORT: ‘TEEN MOM’ SIGNS $1M PORN DEAL: Looks like Farrah Abraham’s “sex tape” is being made into a porno after all. The Teen Mom star reportedly inked a nearly $1 million deal with Vivid Entertainment for the release of her tape, after initially claiming it was for private use only. The porno with James Deen allegedly comes with a classy title, too: “Farrah Superstar: Backdoor Teen Mom.” While most suspected the tape was good old-fashioned porn, Abraham and even Vivid founder and co-chair Steven Hirsch ran with the “sex tape” ruse for a while. Deen, meanwhile, tried to set the record straight that no one would believe it was for private use. “I said I’m like the worst person for this job because, not to be arrogant, but people are gonna know me,

SECOND MICHAEL JACKSON TRIAL STARTS TODAY: Monday is the big day for Michael Jackson’s family, as the trial over the potentially wrongful death of the beloved pop star begins in Los Angeles. Testimonies from family members as well as medical and financial experts will be delivered over the next several months, as jurors deliberate whether AEG Live, the company that promoted Jackson’s 2009 comeback tour, is responsible for hiring the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter of the performer.

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POLL: HILLARY WOULD WIN NEW HAMPSHIRE: If New Hampshire held its Democratic primary today, Hillary Clinton would win by a landslide. A WMUR Granite State poll surveyed voters in the state that typically holds the country’s first primary election on the current field of potential presidential candidates, and 61 percent of them said they’d vote for Hillary. Vice President Joe Biden, on the other hand, would get only 7 percent of the vote in this hypothetical primary, while neither New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo nor his Maryland counterpart Martin O’Malley would pass the 5 percent mark. Potential Republican voters were less decisive, giving Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul 15 percent each and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Rep. Paul Ryan tying in second place with 11 percent. It is a bit early to be predicting primary results, though, as none of these potential candidates have actually thrown their hats in the race.

BOEING: WRECKAGE WAS FROM 9/11: Boeing confirmed that the piece of an aircraft found wedged between two buildings in Manhattan last week comes from one of the two Boeing planes used in the 9/11 attacks. The company said the wreckage, which came from underneath the wing of a plane, was connected to the attacks, but is unsure which plane it came from. Medical examiners are preparing to sift soil in the area for human remains, and police are investigating how the wing part came to be lodged between the buildings—a rope attached to it suggests it could have been lowered.

SUICIDE BOMBING IN PAKISTAN KILLS SEVEN: Seven people are dead and 29 wounded after a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives on a busy road in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday morning. It wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, but the Taliban have been behind several other recent attacks against members of secular political parties in the lead-up to the country’s May 11 election. “The target was neither an election camp office nor a candidate of the parties on the hit list,” a government official explained. “This may not be directly linked to the elections, but it certainly is part of the campaign to create fear among people ahead of the polls, which militants say are un-Islamic.”

BLACK VOTER TURNOUT RATE SURPASSED WHITES’: For the first time ever, the rate of African-American voter turnout surpassed that of whites during the 2012 election. According to a new analysis of election results and census data from a collaboration between the Brookings Institution and the Associated Press, in November blacks also voted more than any other minority group. In fact, the ratio of black voters who took to the polls compared with whites who stayed home was so significant that, they say, if the turnout demographics had been the same as in 2004, Mitt Romney would be president right now.

CIVILIAN AIRCRAFT CRASHES IN AFGHANISTAN: A civilian cargo aircraft crashed in an air field north of Kabul Monday. A spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan said the aircraft was at a low altitude when it went down, but he had no information about who the aircraft belonged to or how many were on board. Whether or not there were any casualties is also unknown at this point.

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FOUR STABBED AT NEW MEXICO CHURCH: Is nowhere holy? Around noon, as Sunday Mass was wrapping up in a Catholic church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a man in his 20s jumped over several pews and began attacking churchgoers in the choir area. He stabbed four, according to authorities. The parishioners subdued him, holding him down until police arrived. No one was critically injured, and all four victims are being treated.

ISRAEL BOMBED SYRIAN CHEMICAL SITE: As reports of chemical weapons usage in Syria spread, the Free Syrian Army says Israeli jets bombed a chemical weapons facility near Damascus early Saturday morning. According to the Hebrew paper Maariv, Syrian Army air defense fired at the jets, which also flew over President Bashar al-Assad’s palace, but were unsuccessful. The rebels posted a video of smoke billowing from the chemical weapons headquarters, but government officials of neither side have responded to report.

DEATH TOLL RISES IN BANGLADESH: The death toll in Wednesday’s Bangladesh factory collapse has risen to nearly 400, as the chances of discovering more survivors continues to decrease. The latest official toll is 381 dead, most of them believed to be female garment workers, as a fire Sunday night further diminished the likelihood that more survivors would turn up. The building’s owner, who seems to have been trying to flee to India immediately after the collapse, was discovered by police and arrested Sunday, along with four factory bosses and two engineers. Officials say the factory, where 3,000 workers, mostly young women, make clothing for Western brands, was structurally unsafe, built on swamp land without proper permits.

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RICIN SUSPECT CHARGED: James Everett Dutschke, the 41-year-old former martial arts instructor arrested Saturday in connection with the ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, has been charged with attempting to use a biological weapon. Authorities say the Mississippi man, who denied any involvement earlier in the week (“I respect President Obama and love my country”), now faces life imprisonment. The ricin letter case took a mysterious turn Friday, when the original suspect, Kevin Curtis—a part-time Elvis impersonator who Dutschke had one hired for a party—was released. Speculation is now swirling that the former karate instructor had tried to frame Curtis for the crime—an allegation Dutschke fiercely refutes.

OBAMA GETS CROWD LOL’ING: At the 99th annual White House Correspondents’ dinner Saturday night, President Obama successfully sailed through the one night of the year where we don’t just hope—but demand—he be funny. After paying tribute to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, the president launched into a series of quips that left the entire room giggling. In one particularly funny bit—which got the majority of the 2,700 in attendance laughing—Obama picked fun at his relationship with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Some folks still don’t think I spend enough time with Congress. ‘Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?’ they ask.’ Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?” Obama said. Point taken.

CHRIS BROWN’S DAD: “I DON’T WANT MY SON DATING RIRI”: Chris Brown’s own father has the same feelings as most of America does when it comes to his son dating Rihanna — they should have NEVER gotten back together. In an interview with the New York Daily News, Clinton Brown said that while he understand CB’s attraction to RiRi, they are better off on their own. He told the paper, “I personally really didn’t want him and Rihanna back together.”  The elder Brown, who split from CB’s mom when he was 6, thinks the on-again/off-again couple does not have the proper balance to maintain a good relationship, explaining, “You have to have someone who is spontaneous and whimsical but you also have to have someone who is grounded and logical.”  Clearly neither Chris nor Rihanna would be described as “grounded” or “logical.”

DZHOKHAR IN VIDEO-RECORDED CELL: After being released from the hospital Friday, 19-year-old Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is now being held in a small, video-recorded cell. The medical detention center—located about 40 miles outside of Boston—holds male inmates who need long-term medical care or mental health care. A spokesman for the prison described Dzhokhar’s room as a small cell with a solid steel door and a slot for workers to pass him medication and food. While he has been placed in the tighter security part of the prison—meaning no television or radio—Dzhokhar likely still has access to a few books.

TWO SHOT NEAR PM’S OFFICE IN ITALY: Two police officers where shot outside the office of the Italian Prime Minister Sunday, causing authorities to halt the ceremonial swearing in of the new government taking place one mile away at the president’s palace. One man was arrested on the scene, but officials have yet to confirm whether or not it’s the shooter. Witnesses near the incident said they heard the suspect—who they describe as particularly well-dressed—shooting “shoot me, shoot me,” to police. It is still unclear whether the shooting was related to the event it interrupted—the swearing in of Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s new government.

PALIN: CORRESPONDENT’S DINNER ‘PATHETIC’: You betcha she’s mad. On Saturday, Sarah Palin expressed her anger over the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, calling the event itself “pathetic” and slamming those in attendance. “That #WHCD was pathetic. The rest of America is out there working our asses off while these DC assclowns throw themselves a #nerdprom,” read her tweet. While you could make the argument that she had made her point, the former vice presidential candidate wasn’t done. Palin then took to her Facebook page, where she wrote a more in-depth explanation of why she hates the event so much. “Yuk it up media and pols,” the post began.

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COLLAPSED BUILDING OWNER CAPTURED: One of the owners of the building that collapsed in Bangladesh Wednesday—killing more than 300—is being held by authorities. Officials say Mohammed Sohel Rana had been in hiding since the incident occurred, until he was captured by the Rapid Action Batallion while attempting to cross the Indian border. At the site of the building collapse, rescuers are continuing to pull survivors from the wreckage four days later. A group of nine victims, all of whom are alive, are allegedly stuck under rubble too massive for humans to lift. Heavy machinery is likely to arrive today in hopes of facilitating the rescue.

TAMERLAN WAS DENIED BOXING TITLE: For Tamerland Tsarnaev—the Boston Marathon suspect killed by police during a shootout—the American dream was impossible. After the award-winning, heavy-weight boxer captured the Golden Gloves championship in New England two years in a row, his status as a legal resident (rather than U.S. citizen) caused authorities to barr him from participating in the national tournament. In the aftermath of the bombing in Boston, many close to Tamerlan now point to this—the frustration he felt with being disqualified because of his origin—as the root of his anger. It wasn’t until he quit boxing, friends say, that Tamerlan began meeting with the radical Islamist mentor now known as “Misha.”

FAA ENDS AIR TRAFFIC FURLOUGHS: Kick off your shoes and remove your laptop, air traffic control is back in business. After Congress voted Friday to end the sequester-caused furloughs that led to thousands of delayed flights and fuming passengers this week, the Federal Aviation Administration made it official Saturday. Officials from the FAA announced they would be suspending the unpaid vacations—effective immediately—thereby returning air traffic facilities to their normal staffing levels. Regular operations will be back up by Sunday evening. Now we only have the usual delays to worry about.

JUSTICE BREYER ‘RESTING COMFORTABLY’: A bike accident Saturday in Washington caused Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to get reverse shoulder replacement surgery. The procedure, which a spokesperson for the court assured the media is standard, went smoothly. Now, “resting comfortably” at the hospital, he will be released in a few days time. Breyer was allegedly taking a ride around the Korean War Veterans Memorial when he fell. It wasn’t the first time the Supreme Court Justice has taken a tumble off of his bike—the San Francisco native broke his collar bone in 2011 doing the same thing.

ZACH BRAFF TO MAKE ‘GARDEN STATE’ SEQUEL: Star of ABC’s Scrubs Zach Braff successfully raised $2 million Kickstarter this weekend, the amount he needed in order to create a sequel to the millennial-beloved movie Garden State. Within only one day, Braff had already reached half of his goal, tweeting to fans who helped get him there that he “would not let them down.” Braff’s Kickstarter page will remain up for the next 26 days for those late-to-the-gamers who are anxious to reconnect with their old friend Andrew Largeman on the silver screen.

MICHAEL JORDAN WEDS YVETTE PRIETO: With this many guests, what celebrities were left to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Michael Jordan married longtime girlfriend Yvette Prieto in Palm Beach on Saturday—with a lavish party that had 2,000 invited guests. Around 500 guests—many who arrived via tour bus—attended the ceremony at an Episcopal church called Bethesda-by-the-Sea—the same church where Donald Trump married his wife, Melenia, in 2005. The newlyweds didn’t stray too far from home for the reception: it was held at the Bears Club, a golf course community in Jupiter, Florida, where Jordan recently bought a 38,000-square foot condo. It wasn’t a small intimate gathering at home, though, another 1,500 people were invited to the reception.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MAUREEN DOWD: W.’s presidency will go down in infamy because he ignored Katrina and the Constitution and cherry-picked intelligence with Tony Blair to build up a faux case for invading Iraq. That is why the three Democratic presidents who talked at his library’s dedication had to cherry-pick their topics, focusing mostly on W.’s good work on AIDS in Africa. Though he presents himself as the Batman of anti-terrorism, W. ignored the warning that Osama was going to strike and didn’t catch him dead or alive. He failed to fix the egregious problems of agencies coordinating watch lists and dropping the ball on information about terrorist suspects, which flared again in the Boston bombings.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-COMMENTARY By JUDITH DOBRZYNSKI: The next time you visit an art museum, look around — not at the paintings, but at the people in the galleries. It’s a fair bet that women will outnumber men; even government statistics say so. More women than men study art, too, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Art appreciation is a female predilection and so, you would think, is collecting. To buy art, you have to shop. Need I say anything about which sex has a proclivity for browsing — an essential element of buying, um, visual art? But the walls in art museums tell a different story. Over the centuries, as in most other areas, it’s mainly men who have glorified themselves by amassing large collections of valuable work.

RUSSIA DETAINS 140 SUSPECTED ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS: Russian police and security agents have detained 140 people at a mosque in Moscow on suspicion of involvement with Islamic extremism. A statement from the Federal Security Agency reported by Russian news agencies said among those detained in the Friday action were 30 citizens of unspecified foreign countries.

OBAMA NOT RUSHING TO ACT ON SIGNS SYRIA USED CHEMICAL ARMS: President Obama said Friday that he would respond “prudently” and “deliberately” to evidence that Syria had used chemical weapons, tamping down any expectations that he would take swift action after an American intelligence assessment that the Syrian government had used the chemical agent sarin on a small scale in the nation’s civil war.  Mr. Obama’s remarks, before a meeting here with King Abdullah II of Jordan, laid bare the quandary he now faces. The day after the White House, in a letter to Congressional leaders, said that the nation’s intelligence agencies had assessed “with varying degrees of confidence” that the Syrian government had used sarin, the president said he was seeking further proof of culpability for chemical weapons attacks. It is a laborious process that analysts say may never produce a definitive judgment. But Mr. Obama is also trying to preserve his credibility after warning in the past that the use of chemical weapons would be a “game changer” and prompt a forceful American response.

BANGLADESH FACTORY OWNERS ARRESTED AFTER BUILDING COLLAPSE: After an eight-story building collapsed in Bangladesh Wednesday, killing at least 300 workers, police have arrested the owners of two factories that operated within the building. “We’ve arrested Bazlus Samad, the chairman of New Wave Buttons and New Wave Style factories, and Mahmudur Rahaman Tapash, a managing director of one of these plants, after midnight,” Shyaml Mukherjee, deputy chief of police in Bangladesh’s capital city of Dhaka, told Agence France Presse.

EUROPE FACING MORE PRESSURE TO RECONSIDER CUTS AS A CURE: Unemployment has surpassed Great Depression-era levels in Southern Europe. Recession is drifting to the once resilient economies of the north. Even some onetime hawks on government spending say they cannot cut any more. After years of insisting that the primary cure for Europe’s malaise is to slash spending, the champions of austerity, most notably Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, find themselves under intensified pressure to back off unpopular remedies and find some way to restore faltering growth to the world’s largest economic bloc.

G.O.P. CLAIMS VICTORY AS BILL TO CURB FLIGHT DELAYS PASSES: President Obama and Congressional Democrats on Friday abandoned their once-firm stand that growing airport bottlenecks would be addressed only in a broader fix to across-the-board spending cuts, accepting bipartisan legislation that would bring the nation’s air traffic control system back up to full strength.  With remarkable speed, the House overwhelmingly approved legislation to give the secretary of transportation enough financial flexibility to shift as much as $253 million to the air traffic control system, less than a week after the onset of politically problematic flight delays driven by across-the-board spending cuts. The money will be shifted from airport improvement funds, and none would come from additional revenues, once a key demand of Mr. Obama and the Democrats. The 361-to-41 vote came less than 24 hours after the Senate rushed the measure through.

TELL EVERYONE ABOUT LBN: Tell all your Facebook friends about www.LBNElert.com:

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reaped a gain of nearly $2.3 billion last year when he exercised 60 million stock options just before the online social networking leader’s initial public offering.  The windfall detailed in regulatory documents filed Friday saddled Zuckerberg, 28, with a massive tax bill. He raised the money to pay it by selling 30.2 million Facebook Inc. shares for $38 apiece, or $1.1 billion, in the IPO.   ***LivingSocial, the daily deals site owned in part by Amazon, has suffered a massive cyberattack on its computer systems, according to officials at the company. The breach has impacted 50 million customers of the Washington, D.C.-based company, who will now be required to reset their passwords. All of LivingSocial’s countries across the world appear to have been affected, except in Thailand, Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Actress / comedian Kristen Wiig along with 474,000 other readers in all 50 of the United States and 11 separate time-zones

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Only one U.S President is known to have been divorced: Ronald Reagan.

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Lorne Michaels having dinner at Bobby Van’s at JFK in NYC.   ***Carmelo Anthony at Havana Central in NYC.   ***Matt Merola marking his 45th year as Reggie Jackson’s agent at Flex Mussels on West 13th Street in NYC, with Fran Healy, host of MSG’s “Halls of Fame”.   ***Mayor Bloomberg at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services’ spring benefit congratulating honorees Jean Shafiroff, Seymour R. Askin Jr. and Jerold D. Jacobson.   ***Beth Stern at the Christopher Fischer Southampton boutique.

AFTER ATTACK, SUSPECTS RETURNED TO ROUTINES, RAISING NO SUSPICIONS: Just five hours after the bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon last week, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was back at his computer, doing what he did almost every day, posting a message on Twitter.  “Ain’t no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people,” he wrote.  His brother, Tamerlan, 26, returned to his home in Cambridge, which he shared with his wife and their 3-year-old daughter, and went about his normal activities, including a trip to the supermarket. The bombings that turned America’s oldest and most prestigious road race into a scene of blood and horror had killed three people and wounded more than 260 others, many of them grievously. President Obama called the episode an “act of terror.” The heart of the city, Copley Square and much of Boylston Street, was paralyzed for days as hundreds of city, state and federal law enforcement personnel scoured the area for evidence and later cast a huge dragnet across the metropolitan region for the suspects, who would soon be identified as the Tsarnaev brothers.

ARREST: The FBI says Everett Dutschke, 41, of Tupelo, Miss., was arrested Saturday as part of an investigation into poisoned letters sent to the president and others.

LBN MAKES YOU SMART: Did you know that nine (9) leading professors from Oxford University in England read the LBN E-Lert daily?

RED CROSS ARRIVES AT GUANTANAMO: The hunger strike at Guantánamo is growing, and outside parties are stepping in. The U.S. military reported Saturday that the number of strikers has reached 100, one fifth of whom are being fed nutrients through feeding tubes. The strike has caught the attention of the Red Cross, which sent five inspectors to the prison camp on Friday for “an ad-hoc assessment visit” after the majority of prisoners were put in single-cell lockdown. It is the humanitarian organization’s 93rd visit to the prison since it opened in 2002.

CRIMINALS BEWARE, FOOD FINGERPRINTING NOW POSSIBLE: Fingerprint lifting techniques have been improved over the years, but there are still certain surfaces that defy law enforcement’s print recovery efforts, including feathers and skin. Fruits and vegetables, with their varied colors and textures and porous surfaces, have long been included on this list as well, but researchers in the UK have developed a method that can lift prints from smooth-surfaced foodstuffs like onions, apples, and tomatoes. If testing proves the method reliable, it could be employed by police in criminal investigations.

GEORGIA SCHOOL HOLDS FIRST INTEGRATED PROM: Racial segregation is still dying a slow death in parts of the rural Deep South, but one more blow was struck on Saturday when Georgia’s Wilcox County High School held its first-ever integrated prom. Although a “white prom” was still held last weekend, nearly half the school registered for this weekend’s 21st-century version. The prom was spearheaded by a group of four girls who campaigned at school and online (their Facebook group has over 24,000 likes). They were able to raise enough money for a ballroom rental, gift bags, and food. DJs and photographers from all over the country volunteered their services for the unforgettable night. The school board plans to vote soon on making proms official school events, prohibiting segregation in the future.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Lady Gaga has been named godmother to Elton John and husband David Furnish’s baby son Elijah. The pop singer is already the godmother to John and Furnish’s two-year-old,  Zachary, and the couple were so impressed with her guidance that they doubled down on Gaga’s godmother duties. ***Bruno Mars treated fans to an intimate concert at Cunard Hall on Thursday in NYC. The event allowed in 300 fans, plus VIPs including “Trance” star Rosario Dawson, singer Jason Derulo, “30 Rock” babe Katrina Bowden and Vincent Piazza of “Boardwalk Empire.” Rev Run and DJ Ruckus got the crowd going with a 45-minute set before Mars sang hits including “Locked Out of Heaven.”

UNIQUELY, LBN: Entertainment attorney Kim Swartz, an LBN E-Lert reader from Malibu, California.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Manti Te’o waited and waited. Finally, he found a team that couldn’t wait to draft him. The San Diego Chargers traded up to the No. 38 overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft to grab the Notre Dame linebacker on Friday night. The Chargers gave up a fourth-round pick just to move up seven spots and grab the inside linebacker.   ***Tim Leiweke, who helped build the Anschutz Entertainment Group brands in LA — Staples Center, the Kings and Galaxy, plus more — was named president and chief executive of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. That’s the company that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL team, its arena, the NBA’s Raptors and FC Toronto of Major League Soccer. So he goes from the team that hockey’s Stanley Cup last year to the NHL team with the biggest and most fervent fan base in Canada, if not anywhere.   ***L.A. Lakers star Steve Nash thinks he has a good reason NOT to pay child support — if he does, he thinks his ex-wife will spoil the kids with limos and other luxuries. Nash is locked in a legal war with Alejandra Nash over their 3 kids.  She currently lives in Arizona, where a judge handled their divorce and ruled she was not entitled to child support.  She’s appealing the ruling and we now know what they’re arguing over.

LBN-COMMENTARY By CHARLES M. BLOW: The Middle Class is in a funk, its view of the future growing dim as fear rolls in like a storm.  An Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll released Thursday found that while most Americans (56 percent) hold out hope that they‘ll be in a higher class at some point, even more Americans (59 percent) are worried about falling out of their current class over the next few years. In fact, more than eight in 10 Americans believe that more people have fallen out of the middle class than moved into it in the past few years.  The poll paints a picture of a group that is scared to death about its station in life.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW: Neil Young:

TOTAL US DEBT TO GDP: 105%:

Now that we have the first estimate of Q1 GDP growth in both rate of change and absolute current dollar terms ($16,010 billion), we can finally assign the appropriate debt number, which we know on a daily basis and which was $16,771.4 billion as of March 31, to the growth number. The end result: as of March 31, 2013, the US debt/GDP was 104.8%, up from 103% as of December 31, 2012 or a debt growth rate that would make the most insolvent Eurozone nation blush.

DZHOKHAR TSARNAEV, BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING SUSPECT, TRANSFERRED TO PRISON AT FORT DEVENS:  Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been moved to a prison at Fort Devens, Mass., from the hospital where he had been held since his arrest by police a week ago, the U.S. Marshals Service said on Friday. The 19-year-old ethnic Chechen, who was badly wounded in an overnight shootout last week with police hours after authorities released pictures of him and his older brother, also a suspect, had previously been held at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where some of the victims were also being treated.

OBAMA: ABORTION FOES WANT TO RETURN TO 1950′S: President Barack Obama vowed Friday to fight with Planned Parenthood against what he said were efforts across the country to turn women’s health back to the 1950s. Obama’s comments were the first to be delivered by a sitting president before the abortion-rights group. He lauded the group’s nearly 100 years of service to women, providing cancer screenings, contraceptives and other health services.

LBN-HEATH WATCH: Belief in God may improve treatment for those suffering with depression, says a new study.Faith in a higher being has been found to significantly improve treatment for people suffering with a psychiatric illness, according to research carried out by McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.

LBN-INVESITAGES: More than 65 million men from 30 countries fought in WWI. Nearly 10 million died. The Allies (The Entente Powers) lost about 6 million soldiers. The Central Powers lost about 4 million.

LBN-INVESITAGES: More than 65 million men from 30 countries fought in WWI. Nearly 10 million died. The Allies (The Entente Powers) lost about 6 million soldiers. The Central Powers lost about 4 million.

IDEAS THAT MATTER: Visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

U.S. ECONOMY SPEEDS UP, BUT LESS THAN FORECAST: The American economy sped up in the first quarter of this year, with output expanding at an annual pace of 2.5 percent, according to a Commerce Department report released Friday. The number was lower than the 3 percent forecasters had been expecting.

While faster growth of any kind is welcome, much of the acceleration in gross domestic product was probably a result of unusually slow growth at the end of 2012, when the economy grew at an annual pace of just 0.4 percent. Growth in the fourth quarter had been dragged down by reduced restocking of businesses’ inventories, for example, and in the first quarter businesses made up for this by adding much more to their shelves.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Legendary rock photographer Jimmy Steinfeldt along with other readers in all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries in 11 separate time zones.

ALIVE: At least 50 more people have been found alive amid the rubble of a garment factory that collapsed Wednesday in Bangladesh, according to the Bangladesh fire service deputy director Maj. Mizamur Rahman.  The newly discovered survivors were found inside a cavity after rescue workers dug a tunnel through the rubble of what had been the third floor, Rahman said. It will be several hours before rescue workers will be able to get to them.  So far, more than 2,300 other people have been rescued from the wreckage; more than 300 died.

SENATORS QUIETLY SEEKING NEW PATH ON GUN CONTROL: Talks to revive gun control legislation are quietly under way on Capitol Hill as a bipartisan group of senators seeks a way to bridge the differences that led to last week’s collapse of the most serious effort to overhaul the country’s gun laws in 20 years.  Drawing on the lessons from battles in the 1980s and ’90s over the Brady Bill, which failed in Congress several times before ultimately passing, gun control supporters believe they can prevail by working on a two-pronged strategy. First, they are identifying senators who might be willing to change their votes and support a background check system with fewer loopholes.

MY REVIEW: “To be honest, I felt like a dumb-ass before reading LBN daily. Now I feel smart. Reading LBN is easy and fun and it makes you smart. Trust me.” —–Holly O. Windecker, an LBN E-Lert reader from Stanwood, Maine.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: In the past, doctors diagnosed diabetes by pouring urine into the sand to see if it was sweet enough to attract bugs. Other physicians just dipped a finger in and took a taste.

LBN-READER INVITE: Free  LBN movie screening – Hating Breitbart. You are invited to the L.A. premiere of “Hating Breitbart” – a new film about the life of journalist and media pioneer Andrew Breitbart. Wednesday, May 1st, 7:00PM at the Laemmle Santa Monica 4, 1332  Second Street, Santa Monica, California. R.S.V.P. to: HBSM.DoAttend.com

LBN-NOTICED:   ***Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis passed the time at restaurant Joseph Leonard in the West Village in NYC by exchanging sweet nothings and kisses. A spy tells us the engaged couple, who are getting married next spring in upstate New York, were “exchanging whispers in the corner of the restaurant” while waiting 25 minutes for a table Wednesday.   ***True power players scurried between two events Wednesday: opening night of Bette Midler’s “I’ll Eat You Last,” about überagent Sue Mengers, and Barbra Streisand’s 71st birthday bash. Ironically, “Last” opens with Mengers having just been sacked by Streisand. Produced by a team including Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter, the show and a Russian Tea Room after-party brought out the A-list, including Jon Hamm, Mayor Bloomberg, Barry Diller, Ali MacGraw and David Geffen. But a VIP said Babs’ bash, hosted by Donna Karan, later “hoovered up the crowd,” which headed to the West Village in NYC.   ***Amanda Bynes using an adductor machine at an Upper East Side New York Sports Club, wearing sunglasses, white sweatpants and plastic black house slippers with white socks.   ***Diddy at the Knicks-Celtics game Tuesday, with Victor Cruz, Bernard King, Magic Johnson, Louis C.K., Ben Stiller, Phil Collins, Donny Deutsch and attorney Ben Brafman.   ***“The Trip to Bountiful” stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and Vanessa Williams at restaurant Willow Road in NYC.   ***Rob Shuter and pals at Bottino toasting the launch of Web site Naughty But Nice Rob.   ***Cindy Crawford slipping on a pair of New Balance sneakers backstage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gala in NYC.   ***Veteran comedian Adam Christing judging a comedy contest at the Ice House in Pasadena last night.   ***Popular Rant columnist Ericka T. Bass waiting for her car in front of the Laugh Factory comedy club on Sunset Blvd. last night.

UNIQUELY, LBN: Sojo, an LBN E-Lert reader from Tokyo, Japan

LBN-BOOK NEWS:   ***Brenda Dickson, who portrayed Daytime Television’s ultimate villain for 13 years as “Jill Abbot” from the glory days of The Young & The Restless, finally reveals the hidden story on what really happened to her.   Her book takes you through her life in Hollywood from age 17 until the present. It includes her discovery as Miss California as well as her home life with her parents as a young girl.

LBN-THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

Studio 54 Opens in New York (1977)

The disco craze was relatively short-lived, beginning in the mid-1970s and fading by the 1980s, yet it had a lasting influence on the music scene. A beat-driven style of dance music, disco got its name from the “discotheque,” the type of nightclub where it originated. No discotheque was more central to disco than Studio 54, the Manhattan club famous for its mix of celebrities, beautiful people, and hedonism. The club paralleled disco’s demise and closed in 1980.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: Iraq is just one of the 26 foreign countries with daily LBN E-Lert readers.

LBN-COMMENTARY By DAVID BROOKS: It was always going to be difficult to implement Obamacare, but even fervent supporters of the law admit that things are going worse than expected.  Implementation got off to a bad start because the Obama administration didn’t want to release unpopular rules before the election. Regulators have been working hard but are clearly overwhelmed, trying to write rules that influence the entire health care sector — an economic unit roughly the size of France. Republicans in Congress have made things much more difficult by refusing to provide enough money for implementation.   ***To read more, visit the LBN *agenda* Blog – click here

LBN-COMMENTARY By PEGGY NOONAN: Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 because he was not George W. Bush. In fact, he was elected because he was the farthest thing possible from Mr. Bush. On some level he knew this, which is why every time he got in trouble he’d say Bush’s name. It’s all his fault, you have no idea the mess I inherited. As long as Mr. Bush’s memory was hovering like Boo Radley in the shadows, Mr. Obama would be OK. This week something changed. George W. Bush is back, for the unveiling of his presidential library. His numbers are dramatically up. You know why? Because he’s the farthest thing from Barack Obama. Obama fatigue has opened the way to Bush affection.

LBN-COMMENTARY By TIMOTHY EGAN: The 102-hour sprint from the moment two bombs went off in Boston to the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Watertown, Mass., should be capsulized and sent to every law enforcement academy. Tireless culling of video images, apt use of tips and technology, and quick action by a fleet of cops showed both the risk and the range of good police work.  By contrast, we are reminded this month of the terrible price of bad police work. Amanda Knox’s book about her ordeal as a prisoner of coincidence for a murder in Italy and a documentary about five innocent teenagers framed for the Central Park rape case present a blueprint of official malpractice.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Gwyneth Paltrow admits that the racy gown she wore for this week’s “Iron Man 3” red carpet was “humiliating” after she realized that her bottom was “hanging out” of her dress and she needed some grooming before putting it on.  The newly crowned “World’s Most Beautiful Woman” made her confession when she sat down with Ellen DeGeneres to chat about her head-turning Antonio Beradi frock that had sheer panels running down the sides.   ***Eva Longoria revealed during an interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz that her divorce from Tony Parker really took a toll on her well-being.  The “Desperate Housewives” star and the NBA player filed for divorce in Nov. 2011 after three years of marriage. Longoria said that the months after the split were “probably the time I got the most compliments because I was so skinny.”   ***Dr. Conrad Murray is once again speaking out from jail (but not singing this time) — still proclaiming his innocence in the death of Michael Jackson and says he has hopes of practicing medicine again some day. Murray called in to the “Today” show this morning live from jail and said he is sorry that Jackson died, but he still maintains he is in no way responsible for his death. Murray is sticking to his story … that Jackson administered the fatal dose of propofol himself.   ***Congratulations go out to two iconic TV stars, “Little House on the Prairie” star and “Dancing With the Stars” alumna Melissa Gilbert and “Thirtysomething” actor Timothy Busfield, who got married in Santa Barbara, Calif., yesterday.   ***Evan Rachel Wood is vocal about her sexuality. “I felt like now was the time to no longer be silent about it,” she told The Daily Beast in reference to her coming out as bisexual in 2011.  The 25-year-old actress, probably best known for her roles in “Thirteen” and “True Blood,” is one of the few openly bisexual celebrities — others include Anna Paquin and Megan Fox.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER:   ***George Jones, the definitive country singer of the last half-century, died Friday at a hospital in Nashville. He was 81. He was hospitalized on April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure, the Web site of Webster & Associates, his publicists, said in announcing the death.

MORE CHARMING NEWS - Record Number of Households on Food Stamps– 1 out of Every 5: The latest available data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that a record number 23 million households in the United States are now on food stamps.The most recent Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP) statistics of the number of households receiving food stamps shows that 23,087,886 households participated in January 2013 – an increase of 889,154 families from January 2012 when the number of households totaled 22,188,732. The most recent statistics from the United States Census Bureau– from December 2012– puts the number of households in the United States at 115,310,000. If you divide 115,310,000 by 23,087,866, that equals one out of every five households now receiving food stamps.

CLINTON TEASES BUSH ABOUT PAINTINGS: As current and former heads of state gather in Dallas, Thursday, to honor George W. Bush, it would be wrong to ignore the cracks in the former president’s legacy. Leave it to Bill Clinton to address the elephant in the room: George W.’s paintings. “Your mother showed me some of your landscapes and animal paintings and I thought they were great. I seriously considered calling you to paint my own portrait, until I saw the emails that were stolen from your sister’s account,” Clinton said. “Those bathroom sketches were wonderful. But at my age, I think I need to keep my suit on.”

GAME CHANGE: U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced today that the United States has evidence chemical weapons have been used in Syria.  Hagel’s remarks come a couple of days after an Israeli intelligence official said Damascus was using weapons banned under international law against its own people in the country’s civil war. Syria has said rebels have used chemical weapons.  President Barack Obama has said the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons against its own people would be a “game changer.”

BARBARA BUSH ON JEB RUN: ‘WE’VE HAD ENOUGH BUSHES’: Amid the celebration surrounding the opening of son George W. Bush’s presidential library Thursday, former first lady Barbara Bush brushed aside talk of a Jeb Bush run for the White House in 2016. Appearing in an interview from Dallas on NBC’s “Today” show, Mrs. Bush was asked if she thought that Jeb, the former governor of Florida, should seek the presidency. “He’s by far the best qualified man,” Mrs. Bush said, “but no.” “We’ve had enough Bushes,” she said, saying “it’s not just four families, or whatever.”

ISRAEL SHOOTS DOWN HEZBOLLAH DRONE: Israel shot down a drone Thursday as it approached the country’s northern coast, the military said. Suspicion immediately fell on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. The incident was likely to raise already heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, a bitter enemy that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in northern Israel at the time of the incident, said he viewed the infiltration attempt with “utmost gravity.”

SYRIA CAMPAIGNS TO PERSUADE U.S. TO CHANGE SIDES: As Islamists increasingly fill the ranks of Syrian rebels, President Bashar al-Assad is waging an energized campaign to persuade the United States that it is on the wrong side of the civil war. Some government supporters and officials believe they are already coaxing — or at least frightening — the West into holding back stronger support for the opposition.  Confident they can sell their message, government officials have eased their reluctance to allow foreign reporters into Syria, paraded prisoners they described as extremist fighters and relied unofficially on a Syrian-American businessman to help tap into American fears of groups like Al Qaeda.  “We are partners in fighting terrorism,” Syria’s prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, said.