| MONDAY • JULY 16, 2007 |
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THE GRIM REAPERS: The war on terror will soon get even scarier for America’s enemies – the United States is on the verge of unleashing its best pilotless aircraft yet, the Reapers. The robot killers from the sky – a step up from the current Predators – will be tracking down enemy fighters from 50,000 feet up. The Reaper is outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting capability and packs a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.
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 KILLER QUAKE: A strong earthquake struck northwestern Japan on Monday, causing a fire and radioactive water leak at one of the world’s most powerful nuclear plants and turning buildings into piles of lumber. At least seven people were killed and hundreds injured.
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 KIDNAPPED TO KILL; TALIBAN USES YOUNGSTERS FOR SUICIDE MISSIONS: Calling child suicide bombers a “fearful and terrifying truth,” President Hamid Karzai yesterday freed a 14-year-old Pakistani boy arrested in eastern Afghanistan the night before he originally was to kill a provincial governor. Rafiqullah, who goes by one name, told The Associated Press that while attending a madrassa, or religious school, in Pakistan he and two other boys were separated from the rest of the students, trained to drive a car, and made to watch videos of suicide bombers carrying out attacks.
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SHUT DOWN: U.N. inspectors have confirmed that North Korea has shut down its sole functioning nuclear reactor, its first step toward halting production of nuclear weapons.
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POPE ON THE WAY: Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit New York and possibly several other American cities next spring, Vatican sources said yesterday. It would be Benedict’s first trip to America as pope and the fourth papal visit to New York City.
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AID TO PAKISTAN IN TRIBAL AREAS RAISES CONCERNS: The United States plans to pour $750 million of aid into Pakistan’s tribal areas over the next five years as part of a “hearts and minds” campaign to win over this lawless region from Qaeda and Taliban militants. But even before the plan has been fully carried out, documents and officials involved in the planning are warning of the dangers of distributing so much money in an area so hostile that oversight is impossible, even by Pakistan’s own government, which faces rising threats from Islamic militants.
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UN WARNS IT CANNOT AFFORD TO FEED THE WORLD: Rising prices for food have led the United Nations programme fighting famine in Africa and other regions to warn that it can no longer afford to feed the 90m people it has helped for each of the past five years on its budget.
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APOLOGY: A day after agreeing to a record settlement with 508 victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony apologized.
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 LBN-VIDEO LINK: Bush like Hitler says first Muslim member of Congress —- Video…
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LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***Researchers at MIT have identified a molecular mechanism that could lead to a drug to treat people unable to live normal lives because of their fears. In a report published online yesterday by the journal Nature Neuroscience, Li-Huei Tsai and colleagues said an enzyme called cdk5 helps stem fears – and, in mouse studies, can be manipulated to eliminate that fear.
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GIRL TALK HAS ITS DOWNSIDE: Talking obsessively about boys or the social pecking order may be considered a teen girl’s rite of passage, but too much shared angst may be a bad thing, researchers said yesterday. “Talking about problems doesn’t always make us feel better,” said Amanda Rose of the University of Missouri, whose study appears in the journal Developmental Psychology. She and her colleagues found that adolescent girls who endlessly rehash their troubles may become overly anxious and even depressed.
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MONEY RACE: The eight Democrats running for president raised more than $80 million from April 1 to June 30, while the 10 Republicans raised less than $50 million.
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 U.S. IS FALLING SHORT; VERTICAL CHALLENGE: America used to be the tallest country in the world. From the days of the Founding Fathers right on through the industrial revolution and two world wars, Americans towered over other nations. But America’s predominance in height has faded. Americans reached a height plateau after World War II, gradually falling behind the rest of the world. By the 1960s, most northern and western European countries had caught up with and surpassed the United States. Young adults in Japan and other prosperous Asian countries now stand nearly as tall as Americans do.
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LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Harry Potter and his wizard-school pals enjoyed a wand-erful weekend at the box office. The latest installment of the series conjured up $77.4 million for a first-place finish, according to studio estimates released yesterday. ***Though profitable for the last nine years, Universal has been noticeably short on blockbusters to call its own. And that is largely by design. ***The doctor has given Michael Moore’s docu “Sicko” a good bill of health. Expanding to 756 theaters over the weekend, the Weinstein Co. film made an estimated $2.6 million in its third frame for a total of $15.8 million. ***E! is headed to the Dogg house. Cabler has greenlit production on a half-hour reality skein focusing on hip-hop superstar Calvin Broadus Jr., aka Snoop Dogg. ***SAG has tapped Jeff Margolis, who has served as exec producer of the SAG Awards since 1999, to produce the next three awards telecasts.
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 LBN-A DEEPER LOOK: Limato Agency world in Limato limbo; ICM split causes Hollywood power struggle: The schism between ICM and Ed Limato, which manifested itself in a parting of the ways on Friday, is already causing ripples within the agency business. If Limato becomes a free agent – with clients like Mel Gibson, Denzel Washington and Steve Martin, to name just a few, and their commissions – then the balance of power in Hollywood is about to change. But who would get Limato, a well- respected – and expensive – dealmaker who has three assistants and big overhead…not to mention one polarizing client in Gibson, who may turn people off at other agencies. Of all the players, seems William Morris is emerging as the candidate with the right appetite. (WMA’s topper Jim Wiatt could not be reached over the weekend.) The three-decade relationship between ICM and Limato ended Friday, with both parties expected to battle it out in an arbitration hearing tentatively scheduled for Aug. 1. A key issue is a non-compete contract clause that Limato is expected to challenge. That clause would keep him tied to the agency as a consultant for several years and forbid him from taking star clients like Gibson, Washington, Martin, Liam Neeson, Richard Gere and Billy Crystal to another agency. Another issue will be commissions. Attorney Tom Hansen is pressing the case for Limato, but both sides expect a settlement to be reached before a case goes to court. Rumors of a Limato departure have been in the air for more than a month, but the incident that triggered it came Friday. While chairman-CEO Jeff Berg and co-prexy Chris Silbermann were in Sun Valley, Idaho, attending the Allen & Co. mogul fest, they issued a short press release from ICM’s Century City headquarters that Limato had been stripped of his co-president title and demoted to movie agent. It was a move that Berg said in the press release was designed to “support the next generation of leadership.”Limato, who was working out of ICM’s offices that day, didn’t know the announcement was coming until an assistant read him the missive over the phone. Almost immediately, Limato’s lawyers and the agency began discussing ways to negotiate a settlement of his contract.
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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Don Imus is coming back to the airwaves in September, according to private eye Bo Dietl, who was a regular on “Imus in the Morning” on WFAN. Dietl said on Post State Editor Fred Dicker’s Albany radio show, “I’m not supposed to say, but . . . if he was to be coming back, I would look to September.” ***TiVo, the bane of the advertising world, may now be a long-awaited boon thanks to its new Nielsen-style commercial ratings system. Starting today, TiVo will report monthly commercial ratings based on data collected from its 4.3 million digital video recorder units. ***Publisher David Hiller just dropped a “mid-year business update” on L.A. Times staffers that has fresh bad news: “Revenue was down 10% in the second quarter, and cash flow down a whopping 27%, making it one of the worst quarters ever experienced.” Hiller acknowledges that readers are turned off by ads in inconvenient places, but one of his responses to declining revenue is going to be ads on the Times front page. Not the small discreet ads that the New York Times runs, but the inch-and-a-half strips the Wall Street Journal sells.
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POLICE: HUSBAND WARNED HOURS BEFORE SINGER DIED: Police say they told a National Guardsman with sniper training to stop harassing his estranged wife hours before he is suspected of shooting her to death as she sang with a band in a restaurant and bar. David Munis remains at large. The suspect, described by people who know him as a “big hunter” and an avid outdoorsman, may have headed for the woods, police said.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN: Is the extremist agenda of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – including support for terror, development of nuclear weapons and confrontation with the United States and Israel – popular among Iranians? Are they willing to make the sacrifices that would come from an increasingly tight global boycott imposed because of Iran’s defiance of United Nations strictures on its nuclear development? A rare glimpse into the minds of the Iranian people – via a telephone survey of Iranians conducted for Terror Free Tomorrow – shows that the answers to both questions is “no!”
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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Ford Motor Co. said it isn’t in talks to sell its profitable Volvo car business, after published reports in the U.K. and the U.S. said the company may dispose of the Swedish unit. ***Just inches away from a historic 14,000-point high, the Dow Jones industrial average still needs all the help it can get this week if investors want to keep embracing Wall Street’s mystifying midsummer dream.
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BAD VIBE: L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa heard boos when he stepped to the microphone at today’s media debut of new Galaxy member David Beckham in Carson. It really came through on TV, and I’m told the mayor looked taken aback by the reception. City News Service calls it “a notable round of boos.” Villaraigosa also was the butt of jokes from Jay Leno again during the monologue on last night’s “Tonight Show.”
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LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Sharon Waxman is on leave from the Hollywood beat at the New York Times bureau on Wilshire to write a book about museums and the international antiquities market. She’s currently in Egypt, checking out the pyramids for the book. ***Beverly Hills celebrity Spa 415 hosting a book signing cocktail party for the hottest gift book of the year “Never”.
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THE LIST RANT By ERICKA T. BASS: 1. If you are so busy you have to read your Blackberry while pissing in a public restroom, you are a king-size jerk-off! 2. I wonder if Dick Cheney is a cold prick in his private family life. 3. Thank God I don’t look like the Olsen twins. 4. Almost all delis are rip-offs. 5. I would like to create a special rose ceremony on The Bachelor and shove it up his ass. 6. Enough with Katie Couric’s rating struggle. 7. F–k ringtones! 8. To hell with athletes who rap. 9. I had to watch six commercials and six trailers at the movie theatre and the morons who run them wonder why people stay home. ***Shout back at Ericka T. E-mail – LBNElert@TimeWire. (Note: The opinions of Ericka T. Bass are those of her and her alone and don’t necessarily represent the opinions of the LBN E-Lert).
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LBN-READER NOTE: Four (4) simple things every LBN reader can do to support the E-Lert. 1. Forward it to friends, family and associates. They will thank you. Information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power tool. 2. Visit the new website. www.LBNElert.com . You can now easily search the last 30 days of LBN. 3. Read and use the Bulletin Board section at the bottom of the page. You will discover the unexpected. 4. Click on all of the Sponsor Links. Please support our LBN Sponsors!
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MORE DEPARTURES FROM MCCAIN ‘08: In a widely expected move, Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) press department resigned en masse today. Communications director Brian Jones stepped down, along with deputies Matt David and Danny Diaz. Research director Brian Rogers and South Carolina McCain spokesman Adam Temple are also leaving the campaign.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By BILL MAHER: You can imagine my pride yesterday when Los Angeles turned out to be the place where the Catholic Church has had to pay the largest fine ever for diddling kids, $660 million.
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LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Steiner Sports is expected to announce on Monday that it will auction off nearly 2,500 pages of personal journal entries of Joe DiMaggio. ***Barry Bonds, who is idling at 751 home runs, is 0 for his last 20 and has no homers since July 3, a stretch of 23 at-bats.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: The opponents of universal health care appear to have run out of honest arguments.
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 OSAMA’S SON PISSED AT WEDDING REAX: When your dad is the internationally loathed terrorist Osama bin Laden, most anything you do is going to make news. But for some reason, Omar bin Laden was shocked at the media coverage of his marriage to a woman nearly twice his age. Little O told Saudi newspaper al-Watan that he was “stunned and outraged” by publicity surrounding his wedding to a 51-year-old grandmother. Jane Felix-Browne, who herself has been married and divorced five times, is actually bin Laden’s second wife.
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 LBN-NOTICED: ***Prominent L.A. realtor Julie Craig having dinner last night at the Enterprise Fish Co. in Santa Monica.***Katherine Heigl picking up her wedding dress at the Oscar de la Renta atelier in NYC. ***CNN’s Anderson Cooper at ‘21′ in NYC just missing birthday girl Nancy Kissinger and her hubby, Henry.
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BIG BILL: Steven Seagal has sued a Los Angeles law firm, claiming he was “substantially overcharged” for its services. The actor hired Loeb & Loeb in 2002 to represent him after he was called to appear as a grand jury witness in the federal extortion case against his former production partner Julius Nasso, whom he accused of trying to bilk him after dissolving their partnership. Seagal’s complaint states that he got suspicious when Loeb & Loeb’s bill ended up totaling $1.1 million.
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HOT WEDDING: Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell marry Saturday in what her publicist calls an “intimate ceremony” at her Southern California ranch. Guests brave 100-degree heat to celebrate the matrimony, which is the second for Ugly Betty’s resident transgender schemer and the first for the Crossing Jordan detective.
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 LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW……Jessica Biel…..
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GO ON AN UNEXPECTED ADVENTURE - Read and use the Bulletin Board section at the bottom of the page.
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 LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Although Luciano Pavarotti, 71, is wheelchair-bound with pancreatic cancer and going through his fifth round of radiotherapy, his wife, Nicoletta, told La Stampa: “He’s fighting like a lion, and he has never lost his heart. He has not lost weight – which by the way he would have liked – or his hair”. ***Dane Cook says the rumor mill about him is a hoot. “You haven’t made it in Hollywood until someone says you’re gay. I got that one a few years ago,” the stud-muffin comic tells Cosmopolitan. “Last week, I got an e-mail asking me if I was dead. There was some Web site claiming that I’d died in New Zealand while waterfall jumping. The Internet is really informative – but it can also be just a huge bathroom wall.” ***Lindsay Lohan has checked out of a Malibu rehab center after a stay of more than six weeks.
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LBN-QUOTE: “Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere” —– Helen Gurley Brown.
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LBN-HISTORY: On July 16, 1918, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks.
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Everything. Anything. Here Now.
1. Watch this: 60 Seconds to Save the Earth! You could help make a difference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqDdGmAc-k8&feature=dir.
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3. Marketing Ideas with Impact- www.LCOonline.com.
4. Going to New York and need a guide? Check out the 50 Most Memorable Manhattan Locations featured on Sex and the City: http://www.hbo.com/city/#.
5. $660 Million Dollar Settlement in priest abuses- www.latimes.com.
6. Don’t forget to attend Michael Levine’s book signing for his new book “Never” at Spa15 this Thursday, July 19th, 6:30-8:30.
7. FREE! FREE! Place your 30 word ad here. Send to: LBNelert@Timewire.net.
8. Home for Natural Remedies & Healthy Solutions: www.alternativemedicine.com.
9. Crystal Sky, LLC. an established Prod/management company seeks a temporary assistant to CEO/Producer. Email your cover letter and resume to Melanie at: execsec@crystalsky.com.
10. SONGWRITERS! Take your songwriting to a new level. Study with gold & platinum Grammy-nominated song writer, Harriet Schock, in person or on-line: (323) 934-5691. harrietschock@earthlink.net.
11. Whimsical, yet Intelligent Science-Fiction- www.SimonOfSpace.com.
12. Avoid Tragedy! Please go to this site: http://kidsandcars.org/.
13. News and Ideas on Eco-friendly living: www.lime.com.
14. Discount First Class Travel, Inc. call Meghan Hughes: 310-922-5104.
15. Visit AT Tramp Salon in Beverly Hills! Call 310-887-1891.
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LBN-VIDEO LINK: Senators flare on Iraq —