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| MONDAY • NOVEMBER 9, 2009 |
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FT. HOOD SHOOTER AWAKE AND TALKING: Suspected Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is awake and talking, according to both Fox News and AFP. “He is talking. He is conversing with the medical staff,” Maria Gellegos, a spokeswoman for the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, told AFP.
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OBAMA TO SENATE: HURRY UP: Fourteen hours after the House passed health-care reform, President Obama was in the Rose Garden, extolling the Senate to “take up the baton and bring this effort to the finish line.” The president is hoping the Senate will pass its own version of health-care reform before the New Year. Despite the close vote in the Houseit passed by two votesthe cause’s toughest hurdles are likely yet to come.
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TOP BANKS SET FOR RECORD BONUSES: GOLDMAN SACHS, J.P. MORGAN, AND MORGAN STANLEYTHE THREE LARGEST BANKS TO EXIT FROM TARP, SO FARARE SET FOR A RECORD YEAR IN BONUSES: $29.7 billion, to be exact. That’s a 60 percent rise from last year, and more than 2007’s previous record of $26.8 billion. Divided out, it equals $250,400 for each employee. As a concession to regulators, the banks will pay out more in stock, in order to encourage long-term thinking.
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BERLIN WALL FELL 20 YEARS AGO: On November 9, 1989, Politburo spokesman Guenter Schabowski rocked the world during a news conference when he offhandedly mentioned that East Germany was lifting restrictions on travel across the border into West Germany, a statement that led to the downing of the Berlin Wall that evening. On Monday, Germany celebrates the 20th anniversary of the event.
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IRAQ PASSES PIVOTAL ELECTION LAW: It seems that a political crisis has been averted for now. On Sunday, Iraq’s parliament finally passed a law scheduling national elections for January 23. Members of parliament had struggled over representation of the Kirkuk region, an area held predominantly by Arabs and Turkomen, and Kurds who returned to the area in large numbers after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
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 DID HASAN KNOW 9/11 HIJACKERS?: Major Nidal Nalik Hasan may not have been carrying out a terrorist plot when he allegedly attacked Fort Hood, but that doesnt mean he hasnt rubbed shoulders with those who have: Hasan apparently attended the same mosque as two 9/11 hijackers, hosting his mothers funeral there at the time they attended. A radical imam, Anwar Aulaqi, led the Dar al Hirjah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia at the time. It is unclear whether Hasan had contact with hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour. Relatives and acquaintances of Major Nidal Malik Hasan say the stress that led to the rampage had been building for a long time.
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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Remember three years ago when the New York Post loudly trumpeted that its circulation had overtaken that of its rival, the New York Daily News? The New York Times reports a sober mood in the New York Posts newsroom after the tabloids circulation has fallen 30 percent in two-and-a-half years. Circulation is now 508,000less than the Daily News 544,000. The Daily News has also surged ahead this year in online readership. Editor Col Allan, who called it a joyous occasion when the Post overtook the Daily News, now downplays the rivalry, saying whether we are a little in front or a little behind has no impact on our forward business plan. ***Rupert Murdoch says he wants one of his children to succeed him at News Corp. “I am sure one of them will emerge,” he says. “It would be nice.” His family, with about 40% of the voting rights, will “have a lot of say.” Murdoch, 78, adds that he will step down “when I start to lose it.” ***AOL is appointing Susan Lyne, the former CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, to its board of directors, as the online company continues to put its leadership together ahead of its spinoff from Time Warner. The spinoff is still expected before year-end. ***Village Voice Media, the publisher of 14 local U.S. publications, including the 54-year-old Village Voice, is focusing on growth in Internet advertising, with its recently launched Voice Local Network. The Internet side of the business is up 75% from last year. ***This month’s Angeleno is the magazine’s tenth anniversary issue. The mag relives a decade of celebrity photography, highlights some fashionistas who elevated L.A.’s style in the 2000s and anoints as new “streetscape landmarks” Chris Burden’s Urban Light outside LACMA, Paul Smith’s pink store on Melrose, Santa Monica’s Civic Center garage, the tower looming over the arts high school downtown, and more. ***Joe Halderman, the CBS News producer accused of attempting to extort $2 million from CBS “Late Show” star David Letterman, will be headed to a Manhattan court on Tuesday morning for the first hearing in the criminal case against him.
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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Rent the Runway wants to do for high-end fashion what Netflix has done for movies by offering a simple mail-order system. ***Many analysts say the House bill is not as bad for business as many in the health care industry might have feared when the overhaul effort began.
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LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Despite many skeptics, 20th Century Fox thinks it can turn a profit on its 3-D science-fiction film Avatar, which is among the most expensive movies ever. ***UTA has signed Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who’ve co-written four James Bond films and are working on the fifth with Peter Morgan. Purvis and Wade, who had been repped by WME, have credits that include “Quantum of Solace,” “Casino Royale,” “Die Another Day” and “The World Is Not Enough.” They are writing Bond 23 with Morgan, and are separately scripting the sequel to “The Italian Job.” ***The consolidation between A and E Networks and Lifetime has begun, with more than 100 pink slips passed over the past week across the AandE Television Networks landscape. Layoffs are across the board, with Lifetime departments like legal, human resources, publicity and marketing particularly hard hit. ***Hollywood stereotypes die hard. And Gabourey Sidibe a plus-size, African-American actress with less-than-perfect features – fits no casting agents definition of a leading lady. But she is not deterred. I never wanted to be an actress, said Sidibe, 24, the star of the just-released Precious, whose understated performance as an abused, 350-lb, illiterate teenager has garnered critical acclaim and unexpectedly catapulted her onto the shortlist of potential Oscar nominees.
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LBN-NOTICED: ***Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne “looking romantic” over dinner at Serafina Fabulous Grill in NYC., where a fellow diner reported the rocker “smelled good . . . people commented on his cologne” ***Chefs Daniel Boulud, Jacques Torres and Laurent Tourondel at the opening of pastry chef Francois Payard’s chocolate bar inside Mauboussin’s five-story jewelry store on Madison Avenue in NYC. *** Aaron Eckhart and Molly Sims enjoyed a cozy dinner together at Sullivan’s Steakhouse in Baton Rouge. ***Lindsay Lohan was spotted at the exclusive Church Boutique in West Hollywood. ***Jensen Ackles and fiance Danneel Harris watched the Breeders Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Santa Anita Park in Los Angeles. ***Ellen Pompeo grabbed some groceries at a West Hollywood Whole Foods Market. ***BE AN LBN CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.
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NUCLEAR-POWERED SPACESHIP PLANNED FOR MARS MISSION: Russias space chief, backed by President Dmitry Medvedev, has proposed the development of a nuclear-powered spaceship that could transport astronauts to Mars and other far-flung planets. The preliminary design for such a ship could be ready as early as 2012, but it would take at least another nine years and about 600 million dollars (400 million euro) to actually build the space vehicle. Russias experience building nuclear-powered satellites will likely help engineers develop the new spaceship.
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 LBN-THE “INSIDE” STORY: An Iraqi man who tried to flee to Britain from the United States after allegedly running down his daughter for being too Westernised faces a possible murder charge after she died from her injuries. Arizona police said that Faleh Hassan Almaleki ran down Noor Faleh Almaleki (pictured above) and her boyfriends mother with his Jeep as the women crossed a car park in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria on October 20, allegedly an honour attack. Noor died on Monday, having failed to recover consciousness after the attack. The other woman, Amal Khalaf, was also seriously injured but is expected to survive. Police said that Mr Almaleki the fled the US and took a flight to London. Interviewed on arrival, Mr Almaleki told UK Border Agency officers that he was planning to spend a week visiting cousins in Glasgow where presumably he thought people get run over regularly - but he was denied entry. Officers then discovered that he was wanted for assault over the attack on his daughter. Miraculously, considering how many wastrels are normally allowed to stay in the UK as a result of our political correctness, he was finally deported last Thursday and was taken to jail in Maricopa County, Arizona, to be held on charges of aggravated assault charges that will now be upgraded.
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 BOMB-SNIFFING RATS: The Gambian pouched rat, with its superb sense of smell and tractable personality, has been used recently to locate land mines in its native Africa. Trained from a young age to associate the smell of explosives with a reward, the rodents learn to alert their handlers to the presence of mines. There are several advantages to using rodents rather than dogs in such operations, among them the fact that they are fairly small and thus rarely cause mines to detonate.
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LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Business journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin’s bestselling new book, Too Big To Fail, a minute-by-minute account of Lehman Brothers failure, hasn’t earned him more friends over at The New York Times. Some of Sorkin’s colleagues think that his relationships with his sources are too closeone of them compared his relationship with Wall Street honchos to Judith Miller’s relationship with Bush-administration officials. ***Andre Agassi is primarily concerned with Andre Agassi, according to a New York Times review of his ghostwritten autobiography Open. Reviewer Janet Maslin writes that Agassi’s interests do not extend far “beyond tennis, more tennis, the misery of tennis, the way sportswriters misunderstand tennis and the irritating celebrity that tennis stardom confers.” Other admissions from the book: Agassi took crystal meth in 1997, the worst year of his career; he’s lied about his love of tennis to interviewers over the years; and his frosted mullets may have included portions of toupee. Maslin calls the book “anticlimactic” but says it is saved by “somebody on the memoir team” with “great gifts for heart-tugging drama. ***”MSG’S hip reporter (and “Today” show contributor) Jill Martin celebrates the launch of her book, “Fashion for Dummies,” Thursday night at Fresco On-The-Go in NYC.
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LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Brian Leetch, a defenseman on the New York Rangers team that ended a 54-year Stanley Cup drought, will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday. ***Manny Ramirez has decided to take the $20 million and stay with the Dodgers next season, rather than opt out of his contract and look for work as a drug-tainted, weak-armed 37-year-old designated hitter in waiting. ***Former football star Lawrence Taylor has been released on bond following his arrest in a Miami-area traffic accident. According to Miami-Dade County jail records, Taylor was charged Sunday with leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, a second-degree misdemeanor. He was released on $500 bond later that night. It was not immediately clear if Taylor has an attorney.
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 SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Best-selling author Neil Strauss along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.
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LBN-COMMENTARY BY PAUL KRUGMAN: If the G.O.P. essentially shrinks down to a rump party across America, the country could become ungovernable in the midst of a continuing economic disaster.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By WARREN FARRELL, PH.D. (Author, The Myth of Male Power): Are you in favor of reinstating the military draft? Why? The draft should not be reinstated. However, male-only draft registration is illegal and immoral. Both sexes should be required to register for the draft or national service. If our son is required to register for the draft for a war he considers immoral, he faces a moral dilemma our daughters escape due to their sex. And legally, this violates the 14th amendment’s “Equal Protection of the Laws” clause. It is illegal and immoral for women to be the only group given the privileges of freedom without the responsibilities of freedom.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By PETER BART (V.P., Variety): Whether youre studying the Oscar race or box office results or simply scanning headlines, one question keeps reasserting itself: What ever happened to indie cinema? With the departure of Daniel Battsek, Miramax has now gone the way of Vantage and Warner Independent. Fox Searchlight is having an ominous autumn (Peter Rice knew when to jump ship) and the bloggers keep composing dirges about the Weinstein company (though most of them have not seen Nine or A Single Man).
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LBN-COMMENTARY By ROSS DOUTHAT: The only thing that may be more frightening than the possibility of annihilation is the possibility that our society could coast on forever as it is.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By MICHAEL BARONE: The scary story for Republicans was plain a year ago. Young voters went 66 percent to 32 percent for Barack Obama, while voters over 30 went for Obama by only 50 percent to 49 percent.
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 LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:…..U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates…..
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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Want a sneak preview of The Surreal Life in five years? Jon Gosselin and Levi Johnston appeared together in Times Square in NYC on Sunday. Levi was in town for his Playgirl shoot when he says he ran into Gosselin, who was in town filming commercials. The two posed for photos in near-identical pea coats. “You never know when celebrities turn up,” one onlooker marveled. ***Stephanie Adams, Miss November 1992, was the first and only Playboy Playmate to declare herself a lesbian. But she’s switched teams. Adams — named “best NYC lesbian sex symbol” in 2004 by the Village Voice — is engaged to marry “a loving, supportive, successful man,” she says. “I would like for his privacy to remain intact, but I will say that I intend to retire from being a public persona so that we can settle down and have children . . . Life is good . . . I have no regrets for anything.” ***Carrie Prejean wasn’t the only member of her family who got a peek at Carrie’s solo sex tape — TMZ has learned her MOM was in the room when the Miss California USA lawyers pressed play. Sources tell TMZ Carrie’s mom was in shock — instantly turning sheet white as she watched her daughter give herself a hand. As TMZ first reported, it took all of 15 seconds for Carrie to drop her $1 million demand from the Pageant people after the XXX tape was played.
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 LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By OSCAR WILDE: I’ll be a poet, a writer, a dramatist. Somehow or other I’ll be famous, and if not famous, I’ll be notorious. Or perhaps I’ll lead the life of pleasure for a time and thenwho knows?rest and do nothing. (1878)
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LBN-QUOTE: “Its kind of like the Civil War where brothers fought each other across the Mason-Dixon line. I dont want to stain my faith, I dont want to stain my fellow Muslims and I also dont want to stain my countrys flag.”-ABDI AKGUN, 32, of Lindenhurst, N.Y., who joined the Marines in 2000 and was deployed to Iraq, on the complicated position of soldiers who are Muslim.
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LBN-HISTORY: On Nov. 9, 1965, the great Northeast blackout occurred as several states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours.
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