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| TUESDAY • MAY 4, 2010 |
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 GOT HIM! — BOMBER CONFESSES: Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, was arrested late on Monday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as he tried to take a flight to Dubai, local and federal officials said. Shahzad, 30, was due to appear in federal court later on Tuesday to face charges of “driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1,” officials said. Had the bomb detonated, many people could have died, experts said. “He’s admitted to buying the truck, putting the devices together, putting them in the truck, leaving the truck there and leaving the scene,” the law enforcement source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He’s claimed to have acted alone. He did admit to all the charges, so to speak,” the source said, adding that investigators were still looking into his activities during a recent trip to Pakistan.
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LBN BEATS USA TODAY WITH LATE NEWS: Last night, all 317,000 LBN E-Lert readers got the Late-Breaking News that Federal agents and police detectives arrested a man in connection with Saturday’s foiled Times Square attack early Tuesday: The Connecticut man, Faisal Shahzad, 30, is a naturalized American citizen who is originally from Pakistan. LBN readers got the news BEFORE USA Today and many other major news outlets. LBN readers win again! Officials took him into custody at JFK Airport, The New York Times reports. He was nabbed “at the last second,” a source tells CNN—the flight he was on, headed to Dubai and had to return to the gate for authorities to make the arrest. Shahzad reportedly paid cash three weeks ago for the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder later found parked in Times Square and rigged with explosives; no paperwork was apparently involved in the sale. He also recently returned from a trip to Pakistan.
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 ‘FELA,’ CAGE’ TOP TONY NOMS: Star wattage will burn bright at the 2010 Tony Awards with Denzel Washington, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kelsey Grammer among those receiving nominations Tuesday. Washington and Law were each cited for best actor performances in “Fences” and “Hamlet,” respectively. Zeta-Jones was nominated for best performance by a leading actress in a musical, “A Little Night Music,” and Grammer was nominated for lead actor in a musical, “La Cage aux Folles.” “Fela!” — nominated for best musical — and “La Cage aux Folles,” nominated for the best musical revival, each received 11 nominations, followed by “Fences” with 10 nominations.
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 SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell along with 317,000 other “influencers” understands that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.
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 D.C. MAY LEGALIZE WEED: Washington, D.C.’s perennially stressed politicos may have a new way to unwind, as long as they have a doctor’s note: The D.C. Council will vote on Tuesday whether or not to legalize medical marijuana and thus dispensaries for patients who qualify. The drug’s widespread use is something of an open secret in the city, which studies have shown to have one of the highest rates of use (and highest rates of arrest)—11 percent of District residents admit to lighting up over the past year in spite of heavy fines, according to federal surveys.
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LBN-INVESTIGATES: The world’s first nuclear reactor was built in a squash court beneath a Chicago football stadium on December 2, 1942. While it only generated enough power to light a flashlight, it proved that nuclear power was feasible.
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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***A lost iPhone may be the least of Apple’s problems: Rumors are swirling that antitrust authorities may investigate the company after it issued a new licensing agreement for iPhone application developers that prevents them from using non-Apple software to create the apps. New advertising restrictions may also give the company’s iAd service an unfair leg up over other companies, and both new restrictions will be the subject of talks in the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department, which will determine whether or not an inquiry is needed.
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WORLD’S OLDEST PERSON DIES: Once again, the world’s oldest person has died. Kama Chinen of Okinawa, Japan, passed a week before her 115th birthday. Born in 1895, Chinen lived through three different centuries. As a Japanese centenarian, she was in good company: At last count, the country had over 40,000 people who are more than 100 years old. The title of world’s oldest person now belongs to 114-year-old Eugenie Blanchard of France.
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 LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Comedians lining up to sing “Happy Birthday” to George Carlin next Wednesday, May 12 at the Laugh Factory. Carlin, who died in 2008, would have been 73. It’s all part of a huge birthday party celebration of the life of George Carlin at the Laugh Factory.
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 LBN-VIDEO LINK: White Women’s Workout: Ladies, call Ty Bowman to lose weight. He’s a large scary black guy who will chase you down the street. Yes, he is sneering in this picture.
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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***A former CBS producer who admitted trying to extort $2 million from David Letterman over the late-night host’s affairs is bracing for time behind bars. Robert “Joe” Halderman is to be sentenced Tuesday to a six-month jail term, as planned when he pleaded guilty in March. ***Dan Lagani, the former president of Conde Nast’s Fairchild Fashion Group, is moving to the Reader’s Digest Association. In the new position of president of RD Media, he will oversee the publishing of the flagship magazine as well as other company businesses. ***MTV has just announced some of the big name presenters for the June 6th MTV Movie Awards, held at the Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City. The evening presenters include: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Shaun White, Jonah Hill, Steve Carell, and Russell Brand.
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 PAKISTAN ARRESTS TWO IN CONNECTION WITH TIMES SQUARE BOMB: Pakistani authorities have arrested two people in connection with the failed bombing in Times Square, according to an intelligence official who was not authorized to speak for the record. One of the suspects, Tausif Ahmed, allegedly traveled two months ago to the United States to meet with Faisal Shahzad, the American citizen who has been arrested by U.S. law enforcement.
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 LBN-NOTICED: ***Jack Nicholson dining with two of his kids, a son and daughter, at Elaine’s in NYC. ***Ted Nugent, Avid Hunter, at Primola in NYC with Lenny DePaul, the star of A&E’s “Manhunters.” ***Stars of the CW’s “One Tree Hill”, romancers in real life Sophia Bush and Austin Nichols strolling hand in hand at the corner of Sunset and Vine. ***Helen Hunt and her daughter having dinner at Louise’s Trattoria in Brentwood. ***Adam Sandler enjoying lunch at Louise’s Trattoria in Brentwood. ***Wall Street Journal op-ed editor having dinner at the beautiful Azalea restaurant in the theater district on 51st and Broadway in New York City. ***Actor and comedian Jason Stuart, who is up for a Emmy Nomination for his guest shot on “THe Closer,” was seen having a salad with “Baywatch” Babe Alexandra Paul, recently seen on “Mad Men” at Basix in West Hollywood. ***Pamela Anderson walks three miles in the California Wildlife Center’s “Walk on the Wild Side” event on Zuma Beach in Malibu, California. ***Angelina Jolie films “The Tourist” at the Rialto Market in Venice, Italy. ***Michael J. Fox, Oscar De La Hoya, Paris Hilton, Jeremy Piven, Will Smith, Mariah Carey and husband Nick Cannon were among the celebs watching the WBA welterweight boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. ***Kristen Stewart commits what some critics describe as a “Chanel catastrophe” at the Costume Institute Gala Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to: LBNElert@Timewire.net.
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 OIL SPILL APPROACHES FLORIDA KEYS: Gulf Coast residents are anxiously eyeing the path the oil spill will take, hoping it doesn’t sully their beaches. So far, weather has mostly kept the slick off the coastlines, but it’s approaching the Loop Current, which would carry the oil south along the Florida coast and into the Florida Keys. Officials expect it will take another week before one hoped-for solution—the placement of a huge box over the source of the leak—is in place. The Alabama Press-Register notes that the federal government did not have a single boom on hand when the oil leak began. Meanwhile, BP, the oil giant behind the spill, is now apologizing after trying to get local fishermen to waive legal rights in exchange for $5,000, reports The Daily Beast’s Rick Outzen from the Gulf Coast.
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LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Manny Pacquiao has agreed to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s previous cut-off date for a random Olympic-style drug testing protocol. ***A male University of Virginia lacrosse player was charged with first degree murder Monday after a member of the school’s women’s lacrosse team was found dead in her apartment, police said. Police were initially called to the off-campus apartment by a roommate who reported “a possible alcohol overdose,” said Tim Longo, chief of police in Charlottesville, Virginia. Police identified the dead student as Yeardley Love, 22, a senior from Cockeysville, Maryland.
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LBN-BOOK INSIDER: ***The attempted car bombing in Times Square is similar to the events imagined by author David Goodwillie in his new novel “American Subversive.” ***Writer Scott Turow, the king of legal thrillers, brings back his fictional defendant in ‘Innocent,’ the sequel to his first novel, the 1987 blockbuster ‘Presumed Innocent.’
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 CLINTON FACES OFF WITH IRAN’S LEADER AT UN NUCLEAR CONFERENCE: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced off with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations on Monday, accusing Tehran of “flouting the rules” of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and calling for “a strong international response.” Iran “will do whatever it can to divert attention from its own record and to attempt to evade accountability,” Clinton said at the opening of a month long conference on nuclear nonproliferation.
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LBN-HEALTH INSIDER: ***As controversial as mammograms are for women in their 40s, some get them even younger — and new research casts doubt on their usefulness. ***Cancer is all too common in dogs, especially golden retrievers: 60% of them die of it, more than twice the average rate for all breeds. That includes lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells; osteosarcoma, a cancer of the bones, and hemangiosarcoma, a particularly nasty cancer of the cells that line the blood vessels whose first symptom may be sudden death. ***Next month marks the 50th anniversary of the birth-control pill in the U.S.
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LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***MILAN - La Scala has canceled Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” with tenor Placido Domingo on Tuesday night because of a strike called by unions protesting government emergency measures regarding the finances of Italy’s 14 opera houses. ***Spotify, a new music service from Europe might be the first legitimate iTunes contender. And it’s coming soon to the United States. ***On May 19, under a “Music Saves Mountains” banner at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Emmylou Harris, Dave Matthews and eastern Kentucky native Patty Loveless will raise money for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s battle to end mountaintop removal.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By KERRI ZANE: Every woman over 40 has experienced that life altering moment of forgetfulness. The OH NO! Where did I put my keys? Where are my glasses? Or why the heck did I just walk into the bedroom? It is these very times that give us pause. Are we really getting that old? Has early Alzheimer’s set in? Or are we just simply overwhelmed and having a synapses meltdown? And for gawd sakes can we please put a pin in it. We’ve got too much to do!
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 LBN-RECOMMENDS By JOHNNY WIER (Olympic Figure Skater): When I’m in New York, I like to just walk around and go to restaurants—I especially love Cipriani. It’s is a big staple for me. I’m like an elephant; once I find something I like, I always go straight to it, no matter what’s new or what’s hot. I just go to what I know and I know I love Cipriani.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By DAVID BROOKS: The influence of governmental policy is largely a matter of its effect on cultural fabric and social bonds.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By ROGER COHEN: What was it like? I would ask myself, the years I lived in Berlin. What was it like in the leafy Grunewald neighborhood to watch your Jewish neighbors — lawyers, businessmen, dentists — trooping head bowed to the nearby train station for transport eastward to extinction? With what measure of fear, denial, calculation, conscience and contempt did neighbors who had proved their Aryan stock to Hitler’s butchers make their accommodations with this Jewish exodus? How good did the schnapps taste and how effectively did it wash down the shame?
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS SOWELL: Recent stories out of both Philadelphia and San Francisco tell of black students beating up Asian American students. This is especially painful for those who expected that the election of Barack Obama would mark the beginning of a post-racial America.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By BARACK OBAMA: I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you’re headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That’s what the American people called for in November, and that’s what we intend to deliver.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By JES ALEXANDER (Publisher of Herald de Paris): Last week I spoke with a mortgage lender, and asked him how many people he had been able to help under the governmental mortgage reform program. He said the requirements of the “reform” program were so convoluted that the only person he was able to help was a cardiologist with a $500,000 mortgage, who didn’t really need help. The program does not allow him to help those who really need to refinance. If this is a fair sampling of the current ruling parties’ “reform” programs, the trillion-dollar stimulus is just another smoke-screen to pacify the voting public and serve the private interest groups.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By STACEY OLLIFF (Senior Vice President of Legal & Business Affairs of Comcast Interactive Media): The News reports recently said the $8,000 homebuyer incentive was largely given to people who would have bought homes anyway, so the effective cost per incremental home sale stimulated was an incredibly inefficient $30,000 or more. That’s $30,000 that the country’s taxpayers don’t have to spend on something else. The same was true of the cash-for-clunkers program and other supposed “stimulus spending”. It is thinly disguised crony-capitalism with favored industries with powerful lobbyists like automakers and realtors getting short-term, meaningless subsidies that everyone else will pay for. The government can’t create wealth, only redistribute it and reduce aggregate wealth in the process.
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 LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By CHARLES DE GAULLE: A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
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 LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:
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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Jimmy Fallon has been named host of the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, which will air on NBC in August. ***Actor David Boreanaz has admitted to cheating on his wife of more than eight years. He’s that actor who starred in Angel and Bones, but here’s the really interesting part: RadarOnline.com says his mistress was Rachel Uchitel, the same one who carried on an affair with Tiger Woods. Boreanaz only came clean about his affairs after he was threatened by a mistress who is represented by Gloria Allred, who also represents Uchitel. TMZ confirms that Boreanaz’s mistress is represented by Allred, but disputes that he ever had an affair with Uchitel. ***David Carradine’s third wife, Gail Jensen, has died after a long history of alcohol related health problems. Jensen, 60, passed away late last week in a Fresno County, California, hospital after falling and hitting her head. ***Jenna Jameson and one of her two boys with Tito Ortiz were rushed to the hospital in an ambulance last night around midnight — after her son Journey began projectile vomiting shortly after 11 PM.
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LBN-QUOTE: “Everything is much richer if we understand that these qualities, good and evil, are distributed on a spectrum, throughout everybody.” -Peter Straub.
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LBN-HISTORY: On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on students during an anti-Vietnam war protest at Kent State University. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded.
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LBN E-Lert Edited by Natgeda Remy
Contributing Editors: Teju Jyothi, Rachel Yip, Kevin Aquino, Marissa Stone, Delia Ramos, Ben Yano, Anna Alaverdyan.
LBN E-Lert Disclaimer: 1.) The LBN E-Lert accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. The LBN E-Lert is not associated with any commercial or political organization and is transmitted via the web for the sole benefit of its subscribers. 2.) Unfortunately, computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses.
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Posted in Home | Comments Off
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LBN E-Lert Edited by Natgeda Remy
LBN E-Lert Disclaimer: 1.) The LBN E-Lert accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. The LBN E-Lert is not associated with any commercial or political organization and is transmitted via the web for the sole benefit of its subscribers. 2.) Unfortunately, computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses.
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Posted in Home | Comments Off
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LBN E-Lert Edited by Natgeda Remy
LBN E-Lert Disclaimer: 1.) The LBN E-Lert accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. The LBN E-Lert is not associated with any commercial or political organization and is transmitted via the web for the sole benefit of its subscribers. 2.) Unfortunately, computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses.
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| MONDAY • MAY 3, 2010 |
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 POLICE SEEK TIMES SQUARE SUSPECT: The manhunt is on: Police are seeking a white man who appears to be in his 40s after he was recorded walking away from a vehicle containing a car bomb in Times Square. In the surveillance footage, he is seen removing his shirt as he walks away from the SUV. Meanwhile, ABC News reports that the bomber made several mistakes that probably explain why the vehicle failed to explode: For starters, he used a non-explosive kind of fertilizer. He also did not open the valves on the propane tanks.
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WORKERS EYE 5 SOLUTIONS TO OIL LEAK: Workers are currently developing five potential solutions to deal with the catastrophic oil spill off the Gulf Coast: The first would inject dispersants into the sea floor to break up the oil; the second will attempt to close the blowout preventer that failed; a third would drop steel boxes on the slick to try to redirect the oil into pipes on a ship; the fourth is trying to install new pressure-control equipment on the well; and the fifth is the drilling of two relief wells. Despite all this, The Huffington Post says even the best-case scenario has the well leaking for at least another week.
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 PAKISTAN TALIBAN LEADER THREATENS US CITIES: Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has vowed to attack major US cities in two purported new videos released months after his reported killing in a US missile strike. The videos emerged after an attempted car bombing in New York City, for which his faction claimed responsibility in a third video, and provided the most substantial evidence so far that he survived a US attempt on his life. Mehsud threatened to retaliate against the United States for the killing of Islamist militant leaders, appearing in a nine-minute video allegedly made on April 4, after his supposed death in January.
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INTERNATIONAL LINKS INCREASINGLY LIKELY IN TIMES SQUARE BOMBING ATTEMPT: The failed car bombing attempt in Times Square increasingly appears to have been coordinated by several people in a plot with international links, Obama administration officials said. White House officials also characterized the incident as attempted terrorism for the first time, dramatically stepping up their description of the intended attack. “I would say that was intended to terrorize, and I would say that whomever did that would be categorized as a terrorist,” said press secretary Robert Gibbs.
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 ROMAN POLANSKI BREAKS HIS SILENCE: Roman Polanski, the director who fled the U.S. after copping to having sex with a 13-year-old in 1977, has declared in a blog post that he “can remain silent no longer” in the face of his treatment by the American and Swiss governments. Polanski, under house arrest in the fancy ski resort town of Gstaad, accuses the judge who was to sentence him of perjury and betrayal. The director says the extradition request against him is founded on a lie, and that the months he spent in a diagnostic facility after his arrest was to be his full sentence. Polanski also notes his victim has requested the case be dropped to spare her harassment. “I can no longer remain silent because the United States continues to demand my extradition more to serve me on a platter to the media of the world than to pronounce a judgment concerning which an agreement was reached 33 years ago,” Polanski says. He says he wants to “find peace,” be reunited with his family, and “live in freedom in my native land.”
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 UNITED,CONTINENTAL AIRLINES MERGE: MEET THE NEWEST MEGA-AIRLINE: The parent company of United Airlines has approved a merger with Continental, in a deal valued at over $3 billion, the airlines announced Monday. The deal would make the new airline, which will keep the United name and be based in Chicago, the worlds largest. Continental’s lead executive will be running the new mega-airline. With 21 percent of the domestic market, the merger will also put the airline ahead of Delta, which had become the top carrier after buying Northwest Airlines in 2008.
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 CONAN OPENS UP ABOUT NBC: Appearing on television for the first time since he left NBC, Conan O’Brien told 60 Minutes Sunday that his departure from the network was like “a marriage breaking up suddenly, violently, and quickly.” Of losing his dream job to Jay Leno, O’Brien said: “I got very depressed at times.” And when asked about his new beard, O’Brien responded: “That was my small victory, you know,” he said, referring to his beard. “O.K., so I lost The Tonight Show, but I’ll show them—I’ll stop shaving.” The funnyman also discussed his new nationwide tour, which helped distract him from his post-Tonight Show sorrow, and talked about his deal to host a late-night show for TBS in the fall.
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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***CBS “Late Night” host David Letterman has revealed that the Super Bowl commercial in which he, Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey squabbled on a sofa was originally conceived to include Conan O’Brien. However, O’Brien declined, Letterman says, so Winfrey took his place. ***A raging battle continued down to the last moment before deadline on Friday at the New Yorker over the contents of a magnum opus by veteran writer Connie Bruck about media billionaire and Democratic stalwart Haim Saban, WaxWord has learned. According to knowledgeable individuals, the piece is a staggering 11,000 words about the Egyptian-born, Israeli-bred mogul with a hotline to both Clintons. Bruck has apparently been working on the piece for an equally staggering eight months. According to two people close to the process, Saban’s former tax lawyer Matthew Krane has provided anecdotes to Bruck, including one suggesting that Saban used political influence to help complete his sale of the Fox Family Channel to the Walt Disney Company for $5.3 billion in October 2001. But Saban’s lawyers sent a letter warning the New Yorker of their intention to take action if the piece has inaccuracies or is “disparaging” of the mogul, according to one person close to the process.
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LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Todd McCarthy, the film critic laid off in March by the Hollywood trade paper Variety as part of a cost-cutting campaign, will start a new website called Todd McCarthy’s Deep Focus. The site will be in association with SnagFilms as part of its IndieWIRE blog network.
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LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Carly Simon still won’t say who her 1973 hit, “You’re So Vain,” was about. But she’s more open about why she finally decided to make a video. “I never really thought about it until I was on the ‘Today’ show recently, and had a 103-degree temperature,” she told the crowd at 1Oak during a Tribeca Film Festival party. “I was completely out of it, but I realized, why don’t I have a video for ‘You’re so vain?’ “Instead of creating her own, she held a contest. The winning entry featured a Hasidic Jew searching for a pie. ***Country singer Chely Wright’s reasoning was sound. “There had never, ever been a country music artist who had acknowledged his or her homosexuality,” she tells People magazine. “I wasn’t going to be the first.” But now Wright is changing her tune. “Nothing in my life has been more magical than the moment I decided to come out,” she says. ***Bret Michaels continued to make tremendous progress in his recovery this weekend — and one source close to the singer tells us the whole thing is nothing short of “amazing.” We’re told Bret was “very aware” and in a “good mood” this weekend during an evaluation with a specialist — the singer was even described as “somewhat talkative.”
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LBN-NOTICED: ***Renee Zellweger strikes a pose on the red carpet at the L.A Gay & Lesbian Centre’s “An Evening With Women” event in Beverly Hills. ***Adam Lambert visited Helsinki, Finland as a guest on the Finnish edition of “The X-Factor.” ***Avril Lavigne attended the Race to Erase MS Kickoff fundraiser at the Kitson Melrose venue in Los Angeles. ***Ashley Olsen arriving at the 2010 Lucille Lortel Awards at the Terminal 5 Club in New York City. ***Enjoying a family shopping trip, Khloe Kardashian joined husband Lamar Odom and her sister Kendall Jenner at the Kitson boutique in Beverly Hills. ***Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz took their son Bronx Mowgli for a hike at Mulholland Canyon Park in Los Angeles. ***Taking a break from filming her new movie “Just Go With It,” Nicole Kidman enjoyed a day at the links with her husband Keith Urban at the Wailea Golf Course in Maui, Hawaii. ***Rihanna was spotted enjoying a late night visit to Puro Lounge club in Berlin, Germany for her after show party following her concert. ***Colin Farrell and his “Ondine” co-star/ girlfriend, Alicia Bachleda, arriving and leaving its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. ***Simon Delaney, star of the Irish comedy farce “Zonad,” having a quick drink with director John Carney at Bar 13 in NYC, right before its Tribeca screening. ***Ivanka Trump crossing West 34th Street in a crowd — “she stood out like a sore thumb” — and walking into Daffy’s in NYC. ***Chris Noth, Alec Baldwin and Eric Bogosian at the opening night of “Enron” on Broadway in NYC. ***Leonardo DiCaprio and Bar Refaeli texting during lunch at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to: LBNElert@Timewire.net.
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LBN-INVESTIGATES: Kissing at the conclusion of a wedding ceremony can be traced to ancient Roman tradition where a kiss was used to sign contract.
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 LBN-SEE IT: BMW Germany ’s campaign for their factory approved “pre-owned” cars.
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 SLY: RAMBO IS DEAD: Sly Stallone says Rambo is finito. The action star has abandoned plans to bring a fifth installment of his heroic character to the big screen. Work on the series had been scrapped, Stallone admitted.
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 LBN-TODAY’S BIRTHDAY: Golda Meir (1898) Meir was Israel’s first female prime minister and the first woman in the world to hold such an office without having familial ties to a previous head of state or government. A signer of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948, she served in the fledgling nation’s parliament and held posts as minister of labor and foreign minister before becoming Israel’s fourth prime minister in 1969. During her tenure, she sought to ease tensions in the region through diplomacy.
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 LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: Can he follow it up with a championship ring? LeBron James won his second straight MVP award on Sunday night. The Cleveland Cavaliers star received 116 of 123 first-place votes, with Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant finishing a distant second. “Since I was a kid, I always said I’d find a way to put Akron on the map,” James said in comments that are likely to fuel speculation that he’ll leave Cleveland after this season. “It will always be my home and it will always be my life.” James became the 10th player to win consecutive MVP awards.
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 LBN-RECOMMENDS By KATIE LEE (TV Food Critic and Chef): The new show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC is great. Plus, it’s filmed in my hometown of Huntington, West Virginia. Jamie is truly revolutionizing the way kids eat in school by introducing healthier alternatives and totally revamping my home community. It’s really wonderful to see.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By ANN LOUISE BARDACH: Throughout the eight years of her husband’s presidency, the subject of Laura Bush’s role in a deadly car crash when she was a 17-year-old high school senior was considered off limits to the press. With an assist from friendly Texas officials, George W. Bush’s staff prayed the details of her deadly crash would never emerge. For many years, the Midland city attorney and police department blocked the release of the police report of the accident, until lawyers for the tabloid The Globe successfully appealed to the state’s attorney general. At the same time, the Bush family cautioned friends and former neighbors to be circumspect in their comments. During the 2000 election run-up, when I reached Billie Ruppe, who lived across from Laura’s family, the Welches, on Humble Ave. in Midland for 25 years, she said quickly, “I’m not going to give you any information till I talk to Laura. I would need to get permission from her.”
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By PAMELA REDMOND SATRAN, (Developer of nameberry.com): Sandra Bullock’s choice of Bardo as her newly-adopted son’s middle name puts the spotlight back on the O names — names that begin, end, or otherwise emphasize the letter O.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By ROMAN POLANSKI: It is true: 33 years ago I pleaded guilty, and I served time at the prison for common law crimes at Chino, not in a VIP prison. That period was to have covered the totality of my sentence. By the time I left prison, the judge had changed his mind and claimed that the time served at Chino did not fulfil the entire sentence, and it is this reversal that justified my leaving the United States. This affair was roused from its slumbers of over three decades by a documentary film-maker who gathered evidence from persons involved at the time. I took no part in that project, either directly or indirectly. The resulting documentary not only highlighted the fact that I left the United States because I had been treated unjustly; it also drew the ire of the Los Angeles authorities, who felt that they had been attacked and decided to request my extradition from Switzerland, a country I have been visiting regularly for over 30 years without let or hindrance.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: The disastrous oil spill in the gulf could help reverse environmentalism’s long political slide, but it will require leadership.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By PEGGY NOONAN: We are at a remarkable moment. We have an open, 2,000-mile border to our south, and the entity with the power to enforce the law and impose safety and order will not do it. Wall Street collapsed, taking Main Street’s money with it, and the government can’t really figure out what to do about it because the government itself was deeply implicated in the crash, and both political parties are full of people whose political careers have been made possible by Wall Street contributions. Meanwhile we pass huge laws, bills so comprehensive, omnibus and transformative that no one knows what’s in them and no one—literally, no one—knows how exactly they will be executed or interpreted. Citizens search for new laws online, pore over them at night, and come away knowing no more than they did before they typed “dot-gov.”
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 LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.
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 LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:
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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Actress Lynn Redgrave, an introspective and independent player in her family’s acting dynasty who became a 1960s sensation as the freethinking title character of “Georgy Girl” and later dramatized her troubled past in such one-woman stage performances “Shakespeare for My Father” and”Nightingale,” has died. She was 67.***Bloomberg reports there are “signs of renewed confidence in the art market,” and showbiz types are opting to cash out, including ex-power agent/erstwhile Disney exec Michael Ovitz and fashion designer/recent film director Tom Ford. Even the late author Michael Crichton’s estate has a collection that could fetch its $74.3 million estimated value. Another collector, the late Frances Brody, has a lot worth an estimated $194 million, including a Picasso expected to nab $90 million. ***Celebrity media expert and author Michael Levine is back in L.A. after a week in New York City. During his visit Levine was caught up in the Times Square bomb scare. Levine’s home is about ten blocks from the area and the streets in front of his house were all closed. “The New York Police seem very well prepared and rehearsed” said Levine. ***TMZ has learned Jenna Jameson and Tito Ortiz have agreed to reconcile, and the plan is for Tito to move back in the family home midweek. ***Peter Lopez — the music attorney who had close ties to Michael Jackson — left a suicide note that was completely silent as to why he took his life, sources connected to the situation said. We’re told the one-page, handwritten note expressed his love for his wife and kids and asked for forgiveness, but did not even hit at why Peter would end his life. A source close to the family said Peter dropped the kids off at school at about 9:00 AM Friday. When he got home, we’re told Peter went to the backyard and shot himself in the head.
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LBN-DID YOU KNOW: ***Dogs have about 10 vocal sounds; cats have over 100. ***2,520 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 without having a fractional leftover. ***Orgies were originally Greek religious events. They were offerings to the gods. ***A perfect number is a number whose divisors add up to itself such as 28: 1+2+4+7+14=28 ***Kissing is said to help prevent tooth decay.
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LBN-QUOTE: “One can see how political, national, cultural and religious beliefs do separate people, do create conflict, confusion and antagonism – this is an obvious fact – yet we are unwilling to give them up.” - Krishnamurti.
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LBN-HISTORY: On May 3, 1921, West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.
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LBN E-Lert Edited by Natgeda Remy
Contributing Editors: Teju Jyothi, Rachel Yip, Kevin Aquino, Marissa Stone, Delia Ramos, Ben Yano, Anna Alaverdyan.
LBN E-Lert Disclaimer: 1.) The LBN E-Lert accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. The LBN E-Lert is not associated with any commercial or political organization and is transmitted via the web for the sole benefit of its subscribers. 2.) Unfortunately, computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses.
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LBN E-Lert Edited by Natgeda Remy
Contributing Editors: Teju Jyothi, Rachel Yip, Kevin Aquino, Marissa Stone, Delia Ramos, Ben Yano, Anna Alaverdyan.
LBN E-Lert Disclaimer: 1.) The LBN E-Lert accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. The LBN E-Lert is not associated with any commercial or political organization and is transmitted via the web for the sole benefit of its subscribers. 2.) Unfortunately, computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses.
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| TUESDAY • APRIL 13, 2010 |
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 MEDICAL SCHOOLS CAN’T KEEP UP: As Ranks of Insured Expand, Nation Faces Shortage of 150,000 Doctors in 15 Years: The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors. Experts warn there won’t be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. That shortfall is predicted despite a push by teaching hospitals and medical schools to boost the number of U.S. doctors, which now totals about 954,000.
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 TERROR PLOT AIMED AT TIMES SQUARE: Three men had planned to attack the subway stations at Times square and Grand Central, according to a federal law enforcement source. Najibullah Zazi and and two others, all from Flushing, Queens, had plotted to bomb the stations last year on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. After being stopped by the police, Zazi fled to Denver, where he was arrested by authorities. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
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 ANDY STERN LEAVES SEIU: After 14 years in charge of the Service Employees International Union, Andrew Stern is expected to announce his resignation. Since he took over the union in 1996, Stern has grown into one of the most influential union leaders in the country and built the SEIU into a pillar of the labor movement, particularly after he made the bold move of taking it out of the AFL-CIO to form a rival federation in 2005. Under Stern, the SEIU’s membership continued to grow, even as other unions like it contracted.
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 TWITTER STARTS RUNNING ADS: After four years, Twitter begins running ads on its site Tuesday. The ads appear on the popular microblogging site when users conduct a search, much like the model Google uses. In the future, ads may appear in the stream of posts that visitors see when they use the site. Among the original advertisers are Starbucks, Virgin America, and Best Buy. At most, only one in ten users will actually see the ads Tuesday. Since its inception, observers have wondered how exactly Twitter would profit.
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WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT: ***12 members of the White House staff ***Over 100 winners of the Academy Award ***Over 500 best selling authors ***3 Nobel Prize winners ***Over 300 winners of the Grammy Award along with over 317,000 other “influencers” who understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool in all 50 of the United States and 24 foreign countries.
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FIRST LADY MAKES UNANNOUNCED VISIT TO HAITI: First Lady Michelle Obama is making her first visit to earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Obama took a helicopter tour Tuesday of the Haitian capital, where hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless following the Jan. 12 quake. The first lady was traveling with Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Jill. President Barack Obama’s administration says the purpose of the visit is to underscore U.S. commitment to the Haitian recovery effort. The U.S. has provided nearly $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to Haiti and pledged another $1 billion. Haiti’s government says an estimated 230,000 people were killed in the earthquake.
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LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Out promoting the remake of “Death at a Funeral,“ star Chris Rock has revealed that he will write an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low” for director Mike Nichols. Black Voices reports that Rock is replacing David Mamet on the rewrite. Mamet’s screenplay was first commissioned by executive producer Martin Scorsese back in 1999. ***In his beautiful, non-fiction feature film OH MY GOD (Hay House/April 15, 2010) filmmaker Peter Rodger sets out on a global quest to understand what the concept of God means to people in all walks of life. Frustrated by religious turmoil and fanaticism he posits the age-old question, “What is God?” to religious leaders, zealots, spiritual luminaries, humanitarians, fundamentalists, and ordinary people, along with celebrities including; Hugh Jackman, Seal, Ringo Starr, Sir Bob Geldof, HRH Princess Michael of Kent, David Copperfield, and John F. Demartini; all who share their unique perspectives and understanding of God. This provocative film is now available on DVD from Hay House.
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LBN-NOTICED: ***Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada having lunch yesterday with LCO Executive Vice President Liam Collopy at The Counter on Sunset Blvd. ***Christopher Mintz-Plasse, now in “Kick-Ass,” at Prime Italian in Miami, is becoming increasingly annoyed with “Superbad” fans calling him “McLovin”. ***Anna Wintour, daughter Bee Shaffer and other family members at Bowery pizza joint Pulino’s in NYC. ***Orlando Bloom walking his big, black dog on Madison Avenue near Barneys in NYC. ***Lance Bass and grooming guru Kyan Douglas brunching with Marlee Matlin and Joel Schumacher at Hotel Griffou in NYC. ***Cirque du Soleil CEO Guy Laliberte and Claudia Barilla, the mother of two children, dining late at Serafina on 61st near Madison in NYC. ***Elin Woods was spotted boarding a private jet in Orlando, the same day Tiger Woods finished fourth in the Masters tournament at Augusta, Georgia. ***Mindy Kaling and Ellie Kemper were spotted eating lunch at the food court at The Grove in Los Angeles. ***Kara DioGuardi rocks out in the booth with DJ Sky Nellor at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey. ***Roberto Farnesi and Lola Ponce attend a photocall for the Italian TV movie “Colpo Di Fulmine” in Rome. ***Danielle De Niese attends the 2010 Classical Brit Awards nomination launch held at The Mayfair Hotel in London, England. ***Demi Moore and Susan Sarandon meet with groups working to fight child slavery in Port Au Prince, Haiti. ***Denise Richards attends the “My Brother Charlie” book-launch celebration in Culver City. ***Malin Ackerman attends a party at Tao Beach in Las Vegas to celebrate the launch of Rerock Denim. ***Michelle Hunziker enjoys the warm weather on Miami’s South Beach. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to: LBNElert@Timewire.net.
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 LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Hyperion today announced plans to publish an historic new book based upon never-before-disclosed interviews with Jacqueline Kennedy. The book is scheduled for publication in September 2011. Conducted in the spring of 1964 and intended for deposit at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum—not yet in existence at the time—Mrs. Kennedy’s conversations with historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. were part of a wide-ranging oral history project that captured the recollections and reflections of those close to President Kennedy shortly after his death. The seven interviews have remained strictly sealed since then in accordance with Mrs. Kennedy’s wishes.
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PENNY MARSHALL’s BRAVE FIGHT: Penny Marshall is now exploring alternative medical treatments in a desperate attempt to beat her deadly cancer according to sources. “At this point, Penny is open to anything,” a family friend revealed.” She can feel herself getting worse and, according to her doctors, her condition is terminal, and she is not expected to live another year. “Penny is still going for her radiation and chemo treatments, but now she is trying this new therapy.”
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 LBN-SEE IT: Piano man, Billy Joel.
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 OBAMA, CHINESE LEADER DISCUSS POSSIBLE IRAN SANCTIONS: President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao held a private meeting Monday before the start of a nuclear security summit, with the focus on Iran — and its opposition to the nuclear nonproliferation agreement. The United States and its allies believe Iran is aiming to develop nuclear weapons. The Iranian government, meanwhile, indicates that it only wants a peaceful nuclear energy capability.
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AFGHANS PROTEST AFTER NATO SHOOTING: The strafing of a bus by NATO troops that killed four passengers Monday prompted protests and harsh words from Afghans whom the U.S. is courting for help in defeating the Taliban. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, which has been trying to minimize civilian casualties as it battles the Taliban for the support of ordinary Afghans, said it “deeply regrets the tragic loss of life.”
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 ‘GROWING CONCERN’ OVER MARKETING TAINTED BEEF: Beef containing harmful pesticides, veterinary antibiotics and heavy metals is being sold to the public because federal agencies have failed to set limits for the contaminants or adequately test for them, a federal audit finds. A program set up to test beef for chemical residues “is not accomplishing its mission of monitoring the food supply for … dangerous substances, which has resulted in meat with these substances being distributed in commerce,” says the audit by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General.
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POST OFFICE NEEDS TO CUT DEEPER: The U.S. Postal Service is laboring under an outdated business model and needs to cut salaries, close facilities and take other steps to to aggressively slash costs, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.
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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Former Washington Mutual Chief Executive Kerry Killinger defended the collapsed bank’s actions and said it shouldn’t have been seized by regulators in 2008. ***With Washington searching for ways to cut the budget deficit, IRS officials face intense pressure to collect more revenue. The agency plans more audits, especially of taxpayers in high brackets or those who are self-employed and deal in large amounts of cash. ***Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said China is set to overtake Japan as its biggest market outside North America, as the coffee giant plans to open thousands of stores in China over time. ***The German maker of a new tablet computer, ‘WePad’ is setting out to rival Apple’s iPad with the promise of even more sophisticated technology.
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LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Missouri billionaire Stan Kroenke has decided to exercise his matching rights and try to purchase the remaining 60 percent share of the St. Louis Rams. ***Kobe Bryant, who sat out two games last week to rest his legs and alleviate swelling in his right knee before returning to play in the Lakers’ 91-88 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, will not play in the Lakers’ final two games of the regular season because of the avulsion fracture in his right index finger ***A French events promoter named Greg Akcelrod, an amateur soccer player, nearly conned his way on to one of the winningest soccer teams in Bulgaria, CSKA Sofia.
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LBN-HEALTH INSIDER: ***By adding length or bulk to your teeth, dentists are looking to reshape the facial structure to smooth wrinkles and give a younger appearance. ***The World Health Organization said yesterday it did a poor job of communicating the uncertainties about the H1N1 virus which then caused confusion among the public. ***Dodger Stadium understands that the food gets (almost) as much attention as the game. So Executive Chef Joseph Martin and restaurant partner Levy Restaurants have made sure that when the Dodgers play the Arizona Diamondbacks on Opening Day next Tuesday (April 13), fans will be able to munch on exciting new food while warming those bleachers.
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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Sarah Jessica Parker - star of “Sex and the City 2″ and mother to two new baby girls - graces the May cover of Vogue. ***“Polytechnique” wins nine Genie Awards in Toronto. “Polytechnique,” a French-language movie that relives a 1989 Montreal college massacre of 14 women by a crazed gunman, on Monday night dominated the Genies, Canada’s film awards, with nine trophies, including best film. Denis Villeneuve earned a Genie for best director for “Polytechnique,” Karine Vanasse won for best actress, and Maxim Gaudette, who played the role of gunman Marc Lapine, earned the best supporting actor prize.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By RICHARD P. WENZEL: One year ago today, a government worker in Oaxaca, Mexico, became the first person to die of swine flu. At the bedsides of other men and women struggling to stay alive in Mexican critical care units, we clinicians noticed early on that this novel H1N1 flu virus diverged from influenza’s usual pattern of activity in striking ways. It began in the Northern Hemisphere, not in Asia, and in mid-spring, not late fall or winter. It also had a worrying predilection for children and young adults, not the elderly and newborns. In the months after those first deaths, the virus ignited a global pandemic. While the epidemic never became as deadly as we initially feared, it was not as mild as some experts now believe. What’s more, it exposed some serious shortcomings in the world’s public health response.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By QUEEN NOOR OF JORDAN (International Humanitarian Activist): The naysayers are wrong; it is not too late to put the nuclear genie back in its bottle, where it belongs. History has shown us that, through consensus, we can address the most vital global questions.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By DESMOND TUTU (1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner): Students are helping to pave a path to a Middle East peace, and I heartily endorse their divestment vote, encourage them to stand firm on the side of what is right, and urge others to follow their lead.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By PETER LAURIA: Conan O’Brien gave TBS a discount—a salary below $15 million—to join the network in exchange for something he now values more: ownership of his own show.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By TUNKU VARADARJAN: It’s time to end the sleazy whispering campaign against Karzai—and empower Hillary Clinton, America’s best hope to salvage relations with Afghanistan.
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 LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By PATRICK SWAYZE: If you live through the initial stage of fame and get past it, and remember that’s not who you are. If you live past that, then you have a hope of maybe learning how to spell the word artist.
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 LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:
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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***After three months off the air, Conan O’Brien performed before an audience on Monday for the first time since his ugly $32 million buyout from NBC in January. “This is the first time anyone has paid to see me. They’ve paid me to go away,” O’Brien told an audience of more than 2,500 in Eugene, OR. ***Sigourney Weaver has launched a blistering attack on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, saying James Cameron didn’t win the Oscar for Best Director because he “didn’t have breasts.” ***Hugh Hefner is giving up having multiple girlfriends now that he’s 84. The Playboy legend says he’s sick of keeping a whole harem happy and he wants to stick just with new love Crystal Harris. ***Jon Voight went on Fox News over the weekend to sound the alarm about the red menace in the White House. In an open letter to the American people, the Oscar winner warned of “the greatest lie” being “orchestrated President Obama has been cleverly trained in the Alinsky Method a socialistic, Marxist teaching with which little by little, he rapes our nation.” Chicago radical Saul Alinsky was known as the father of “community organizing.”
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LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***The Tonight Show announced its Bandleader, Kevin Eubanks, will officially leave Jay Leno’s side on May 28th ***The 53rd Annual Grammys will air live on CBS from Los Angeles’ Staples Center on February 13, 2011. Albums and songs released between September 1, 2009 through September 30, 2010 will be eligible for awards ***Hank Williams received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize yesterday for “his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity.”
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LBN-QUOTE: “An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions.” – Robert A. Humphrey.
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LBN-HISTORY: On April 13, 1970, Apollo 13 announces “Houston, we’ve got a problem!” as Beech-built oxygen tank explodes en route to the Moon.
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LBN E-Lert Edited by Natgeda Remy
Contributing Editors: Teju Jyothi, Rachel Yip, Kevin Aquino, Marissa Stone, Delia Ramos, Ben Yano, Anna Alaverdyan.
LBN E-Lert Disclaimer: 1.) The LBN E-Lert accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. The LBN E-Lert is not associated with any commercial or political organization and is transmitted via the web for the sole benefit of its subscribers. 2.) Unfortunately, computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses.
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LBN-VIDEO LINK: 
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TOYOTA TO TEMPORARILY STOP SELLING LEXUS:
LBN-VIDEO LINK: 
MOURNING PROCESSION WITH LECH KACZYNSKI’S BODY ARRIVES AT PRESIDENTIAL PALACE: The mourning procession with the body of Polish President Lech Kaczynski who died in an air crash arrived on Sunday at the presidential palace as tens of thousands of Poles lined the streets to pay last tribute.
IRAN TO COMPLAIN TO UN OVER OBAMA NUCLEAR ‘THREAT’: Iran will file a formal complaint with the U.N. against the United States after President Barack Obama excluded Iran from a pledge not to use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Obama’s implicit threat to use nuclear weapons against Iran was a “threat to global peace and security,” according to Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency.
ITALIAN WORKERS HELD IN AFGHAN ASSASSINATION PLOT: Afghan authorities have arrested three Italian medical workers in a plot to assassinate the governor of the southern Helmand province. The three workers were arrested Saturday along with six Afghans from a hospital run by Milan-based Emergency in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. The nine were planning to conduct suicide attacks in the province, said Daud Ahmad, the provincial governor’s spokesman. Authorities said the suspects had taken $500,000 from the Pakistan Taliban to launch their attack in a crowded location when Gov. Gulab Mangal was present.
SENATORS SIGNAL BRUISING CONFIRMATION BATTLE ON SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Two leading senators on the Judiciary Committee, which will consider President Obama’s upcoming Supreme Court nominee, signaled a bruising fight ahead. Committee chairman Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vermont, called the current conservative-leaning Supreme Court the most activist he had seen, while ranking Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama wouldn’t rule out a filibuster if Obama nominates someone the GOP perceives to be a liberal activist.
SHROUD OF TURIN GOING BACK UP BEFORE THE PUBLIC: The long linen with the faded image of a bearded man is the object of centuries-old fascination and wonderment, and closely kept under wrap. Starting Saturday, and for six weeks, both the curious and those convinced the Turin Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ can have a brief look. By late Friday, 1.5 million people had reserved their three-to-five-minute chance to gaze at the cloth, which is kept in a bulletproof, climate-controlled case. Organizers said earlier this year they hoped some 2 million pilgrims and tourists would see the linen during the special viewing from April 10 to May 23.
SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: TV hostess Leeza Gibbons along with over 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.
JIM CARREY: ELIN KNEW TIGER CHEATED: Tiger Woods has an unlikely ally in Twitter land. Jim Carrey came from out of the blue to stick up for the sex-obsessed golfer this weekend and take a shot at Tiger’s wife, Elin Nordegren. Carrey tweeted: “No wife is blind enough to miss that much infidelity. Elin had 2 b a willing participant on the ride 4 whatever reason. kids/lifestyle.” The “Ace Ventura” actor also said the public should back off: “Tiger owes nothing 2 anyone but himself. 2 please his father he gave up his childhood and his freedom in the world. That’s enough!”
DIXIE CARTER DEAD: ACTRESS DIES AT 70: “Designing Women” star Dixie Carter, whose Southern charm and natural beauty won her a host of television roles, has died at age 70. Carter died Saturday morning, according to publicist Steve Rohr, who represents Carter and her husband, actor Hal Holbrook. He declined to disclose the cause of death or where she died. Carter lived with Holbrook in the Los Angeles area.
LBN-COMMENTARY By GEORGE WILL: Today, nearly half of Social Security recipients choose to begin getting benefits at 62. This is a grotesque perversion of a program that was never intended to subsidize retirees for a third to a half of their adult lives.
LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By MARIAN ANDERSON: Prejudice is like a hair across your cheek. You can’t see it, you can’t find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating.
LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:
LBN-FACESPACE:
OBAMA: HEALTH DEAL MAY NOT WORK: Was it all for naught? President Obama concluded Thursday’s health-care summit with Republicans by saying that he did not think a bipartisan deal with Republicans was likely and suggested Democrats would use reconciliation to pass it over a Republican filibuster. “We cannot have another yearlong debate about this,” Obama said. Particular sticking points were covering the uninsured and outlawing insurers from rejecting customers with preexisting conditions. “I don’t know frankly whether we can close that gap,” Obama said. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were expected to count votes in their caucuses after the summit.
TWO BLASTS ROCK KABUL: Just one day after lifting an Afghan flag over Marja, the Taliban have claimed responsibility for a car bombing and suicide bombing in central Kabul that left at least 18 people dead and 32 wounded The New York Times reports. The car bomb hit a guesthouse popular with Indians, while suicide bombers descended on another guesthouse popular with Britons and Americans.
Kim Yu-Na Wins Gold: South Korea’s Kim Yu-Na triumphed Thursday, winning the Olympic gold with a record total score of 228.56 points after skating a 150.06 in the long-program and flawlessly executing a series of jumps, including the triple-flip. “I’ve been dreaming about this moment,” she said during a press conference. “I can’t believe this is not a dream any more.” Although Japan’s Mao Asada successfully performed two triple axels in the long program, she only managed the silver after slipping twice, errors that she said made her “full of regrets.”
KILLER WHALE TO BE SPARED: SeaWorld will keep Tilikum, the killer whale who killed a trainer in front of an audience on Wednesday, instead of destroying him or setting him free, MSNBC reports. The chief of animal training at SeaWorld said that the beast has been captive too long to return to the wild, and that he would not be killed because he is part of the amusement park’s breeding program and a companion to its seven other whales. SeaWorld has suspended all orca shows until it completes a review of how the trainers interact with the animals. One thing will definitely change: VIP visitors who were occasionally allowed to pet the whales will no longer do so.
SENATE HIJACKED—AGAIN: A rogue retiring GOP senator is single-handedly blocking a bill that would extend expiring unemployment benefits and health care payments to jobless Americans. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), largely considered a pariah within his own party after he was essentially forced by GOP leaders to retire this year rather than run for re-election, is demanding that the benefits be paid for with unused stimulus funds rather than add to the deficit.
REPORT: CRIST TO BOLT GOP: Sinking in the polls against his Republican primary opponent, Marco Rubio, and branded as unacceptably moderate by conservative activists throughout the country, Governor (and LBN reader) Charlie Crist’s time with the GOP may have finally come to an end. According to a report by Jack Funari of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, sources say Crist is laying the groundwork for an independent bid in order to bypass his contest with Rubio. His recent behavior certainly indicates as much: After being hammered in his primary over his early praise for President Obama and his backing of the stimulus bill, Crist forcefully doubled down on his decisions earlier this month despite their extreme unpopularity among Republicans.
THE REAL STORY: The untold shocking story behind why Patrick Kennedy has forsaken Congress - to help his mother Joan, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s ex, battle her booze-driven demons. That’s the heartbreaking family secret behind Congressman Patrick Kennedy’s decision to quit politics - he’s leaving public life to care for his troubled mother Joan.
DEAD BEAT DAD LEVI MUST PAY: A judge has ordered baby dada Levi Johnston to fork over big bucks in his child support war with ex Bristol Palin. Based on Levi’s earnings from various promotions and media outlets,the judge ordered the father of teen prego queen Bristol’s child to pay over $18,000 in back child support.
DAVID GEFFEN IS “YOU’RE SO VAIN”: CARLY SIMON REVEALS SONG INSPIRATION?: According to an interpretation of a clip of a remastered version of “You’re So Vain,” Carly Simon named David Geffen as the target of the song. When the song is played backwards, at least as heard in the clip, a voice whispers “David.” Geffen was the head of Simon’s record label at the time, and was supposedly paying more attention to Joni Mitchell. That would mean it is not about exes Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger or Kris Kristofferson.
LBN-RECOMMENDS By TERRY MORAN (Co-anchor of ABC News’ 
LBN-COMMENTARY By JANE FONDA (Activist, advocate and actress): Women accounted for just 7% of directors on the 250 top-grossing movies of 2009. That’s the same number as in 1987.
LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By HARRY HOUDINI: But it must not be thought that I say this out of personal experience: for in the many years that I have been before the public my secret methods have been steadily shielded by the strict integrity of my assistants, most of whom have been with me for years.
LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:
TIGER TO HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE FRIDAY:
COPENHAGEN KICKS OFF: Diplomats from 192 nations are attending the U.N. climate-change conference in Copenhagen, which opened on Monday, in what may be the world’s last, best chance to protect the world from a global-warming calamity. The conference is the culmination of two years of negotiations, and the first week of the two-week gathering will focus on refining the text of a draft treaty. According to conference president Connie Hedegaard, the key will be finding a way to funnel public and private funds to poor countries for years to come to help them combat climate change.
LBN-VIDEO LINK: 
TOY HAMSTER MAY BE TOXIC: Well, at least they haven’t become self-aware: This year’s holiday toy sensation, the Zhu Zhu robotic hamster, may contain toxic levels of tin and antimony. Consumer health Web site GoodGuide released a report Friday that found that the stuffed toy hamster contains 93 parts per million of antimony, above the 60 ppm limit enacted by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008.
SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Former baseball great Brooks Robinson along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power tool.
LBN-RECOMMENDS By JANE ROSENTHAL (Film Producer): One of the films that really sticks out in my mind is a movie that will be airing on PBS soon called 
LBN-RECOMMENDS By KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL (
LBN-COMMENTARY By ROBERT A. IGER (President and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company): Curbing piracy and making it easier to visit our country are straightforward and immediate ways to spur long-term job growth. The decline in foreign visitors has probably cost the country around 245,000 jobs. Piracy has cost another 375,000.
LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….Lindsay Lohan…..
LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By WILLIAM FAULKNER: Even a liar can be scared into telling the truth, same as an honest man can be tortured into telling a lie. (1932)
HOW OBAMA MADE UP HIS MIND: How did the president come to one of the most important decisions of his time in office? “I don’t want to be going to Walter Reed for another eight years,” President Obama told his advisers when explaining his thinking about the toll that an escalated war in Afghanistan might bring. In a detailed retelling of the day-to-day thinking behind the decision to add 30,000 troops to a war half a world away, Peter Baker of The New York Times writes that Obama was troubled by human and financial costs. Leaks caused a “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” reaction from the Pentagon. The president warned: “What I’m not going to tolerate is you talking to the press outside of this room.” Obama took to reading a book on Vietnam called Lessons in Disaster. Before every meeting, Vice President Biden sent the president a secret memo.
LBN-EDITOR’S NOTE: Yesterday, the LBN Editor completed a special three (3) part series titled LBN-INVESTIGATES (ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION). We recognized when we made the decision to publish this that it would be controversial and indeed it was hearing from thousands of LBN E-Lert readers from all over the world - both pro and con. The number one question we received about the series was “were all the inconvenient truths about illegal immigration true?”. Indeed, they were. Every sentence. Indeed, every was carefully reviewed and vetted by a team of dedicated LBN researchers. To review this special LBN-INVESTIGATES - Click - 
JURORS ‘DRAINED’ BY KNOX DECISION: In the wake of 22-year-old Amanda Knox’s conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher, the mood surrounding the trial is a somber one. Kercher’s brother recently described the conviction as “not a time for celebration… not a moment of triumph,” and jurors on the case are now talking to the press about the difficulty of their decision. “No one slept the night before the verdict was handed down, and I think we were all—judges included—in tears before the verdict was announced,” said one juror, adding that everyone involved was “emotionally drained” by the process. “Knowing what happened to Meredith, combined with having Knox and Sollecito sit in front of us every day made this psychologically tough,” said another juror. “I don’t see them as evil people, not like some of the Mafia killers on trial for massacring people. What mattered was the evidence, which you can’t ignore.”
SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Nationally syndicated radio talk show host and author Michael Medved along with approximately 317,000 understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.
LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***For years, experts have investigated the health effects of cell phone radiation, particularly whether it increases the risk of brain cancer. According to Danish researchers, who analyzed the incidence rate of brain tumors in adults between the ages of 20 and 79, there has been no substantial change in the number of adults developing brain tumors since cell phone usage sharply increased in the mid-1990s. Though heartening, researchers say these results do not prove that cell phone radiation does not cause brain tumors to develop. Because it may take many years of exposure for cell phones to promote tumor development, longer follow-up studies are needed.
LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By GEORGE BERNARD SHAW: People are always blaming circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them. (1893)
LBN-COMMENTARY By PEGGY NOONAN: A deep and perhaps the deepest benefit of the speech was that a Democratic president asserted compellingly, and with a high degree of certitude and conviction, that the United States is and has been immersed in a long struggle with intractable enemies.
LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:
LBN-OVERHEARD: ***It may be time to add more names to the ever-growing list of women Tiger Woods has had affairs with outside of his marriage to Elin Nordegren. Sources are saying that over the past few years, Woods kept himself busy with Cori Rist, another blonde that he met at upscale New York City bars, Mindy Lawton, a 33-year-old Florida waitress who spoke with London’s News of the World as well as Jamie Jungers, a Las Vegas model. “I love Tiger, but he got careless,” said a source. “He’s been doing this for years. He wanted to run with the big dogs.” Rist has issued a resounding “no comment” in response to the story, but Lawton was more than happy to detail her relationship with Woods: “Sometimes, I looked like a rag doll after we’d made love…. He really did like it rough,” she said. Lawton says they met in 2006 and on a scale of 10, she would give him a 12 in the bedroom, but while she wanted to be “the next Mrs. Woods,” all he cared about was a physical relationship. ***The 23-year-old daughter of Billy Joel and supermodel Christie Brinkley tried to kill herself yesterday by swallowing sleeping pills — adding another chapter of sadness to a life she has sometimes described as lonely and overwhelming. Medics were summoned to Alexa Ray Joel’s apartment on Bethune Street in the West Village at 12:21 p.m. after a female friend dialed 911 from a cellphone to report a possible overdose. The friend told 911 operators Alexa had taken eight pills and wanted to die, but felt funny and then wanted to live, sources said. When rescuers arrived, they found she was having difficulty breathing, Fire Department officials said. ***Two stars of the “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here” television show have been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly killing and cooking a rat to eat during filming. ***Tiger Woods’ mistress Jaimee Grubbs has been described as a cocktail waitress but Jaimee has been working in a medical marijuana “pharmacy” The woman who had a several-years affair with the athlete regarded as a golfing legend has been working at City Organic Remedies in Studio City, CA.
AMANDA KNOX LAWYER MAKES EMOTIONAL PLEA FOR ACQUITTAL: A defense lawyer for Amanda Knox made an impassioned plea to the jury Wednesday as the high-profile case neared its conclusion. Knox is the American student accused of killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, at the villa they shared in Italy. “We suffer at the memory of Meredith. But we look at the future of Amanda,” Luciano Ghirga said in his defense summation. “Meredith was my friend,” he quoted Knox as saying, rejecting the notion that she hated her roommate, who was fatally stabbed in November 2007.
ATLANTA MAYOR’S RACE HEADED FOR RECOUNT: CANDIDATES SEPARATED BY 758 VOTES; CONTEST EXPOSED CITY’S RACIAL FAULT LINES: A race for mayor of Atlanta headed for a recount on Wednesday after a knife-edge election that exposed a racial fault line running through the biggest city in the U.S. Southeast. Former state Senator Kasim Reed declared victory overnight when official results from the runoff vote showed him beating city councilwoman Mary Norwood by 758 votes out of 83,000 cast. But Norwood declined to concede defeat and is almost certain to demand a recount under rules that permit one when less than 1 percent of votes cast separates the candidates.
FACEBOOK TO LOSE GEOGRAPHY NETWORKS, ADD PRIVACY FEATURES: Facebook users will soon lose the ability to join a network of friends who live in the same area but will gain the widely desired ability to control who sees every piece of information they post. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in an open letter to users that appeared on the site Wednesday morning, said the social networking site has outgrown the usefulness of regional networks. “[A]s Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy,” he said in the letter.
NANCY PELOSI SPENDS $2,993 ON FLOWERS: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spent $2,993 in taxpayer money on flowers between June and October. House Majority Whip James Clyburn has a thing for Chantilly Donuts, spending about $265 at the Virginia shop in the past quarter. And Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), a fiscal conservative, decided to give about $2,000 in unused office funds back to the government to help reduce the deficit.
LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Sumner Redstone is prevailing in his latest family legal squabble, this time with his nephew over a disputed trust in a case that could have cost him hundreds of millions of dollars. Michael Redstone claimed that he had been unfairly deprived of shares in National Amusements. ***Charles Gibsons’s last day as anchor of ABC “World News” will be Dec. 18. The network says it plans to spend a good deal of time during his final week on the air looking back at the stories he covered. Gibson will be replaced in the evening news chair by Diane Sawyer. ***Arianna Huffington insists free online content is here to stay, in her address at the FTC journalism gathering. “Desperate” publishers need to “stop whining” and get busy figuring out how to make free content work for them, she says. “The news has become social.” Ms.Huffington is launching The Huffington Post Los Angeles today. “There are a lot of conversations going on in Los Angeles,” says Huffington, who previously launched local sites for Chicago, New York and Denver. The new site will be led by Willow Bay and Billy Silverman. ***The Forbes family is said to be close to a deal to sell its New York headquarters at 60 Fifth Avenue for about $55 million. The Forbes clan is selling assets as it faces financial pressure from the advertising slump. However, a spokesperson says: “Forbes has not signed any contract.” ***Prominent talk radio show host Martha Zoller reads this LBN E-Lert every day and quotes it frequency on her popular radio show in Georgia.
LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By GEORGE ORWELL: Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard for all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting. (1950) 
LBN-RECOMMENDS By JERMAINE BROWN (Artistic Director, Victoria’s Secret): I love the song 
LBN-SNAP:
LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….Tennis, anyone?…
OBAMA SAYS HE’LL VISIT INDIA NEXT YEAR: President Obama said Tuesday he has accepted an invitation from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit India next year. Citing India’s importance, Obama called it fitting that Singh should be the first official state visit of his young presidency. “This reflects the high esteem in which I and the American people hold your wise leadership,” Obama said in a welcoming ceremony for Singh at the White House East Room. “It reflects the abiding bonds of respect and friendship between our people, including our friends in the Indian-American community who join us here today.”
DOT FINES AIRLINES FOR SIX-HOUR TARMAC DELAY: CONTINENTAL, EXPRESS JET SLAPPED WITH $100,000 PENALTY FOR AUGUST INCIDENT: The Department of Transportation issued a fine against Continental Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines for stranding passengers in Rochester, Minn., for nearly six hours last August. It is the DOT’s first-ever fine for an airport stranding. The agency levied a total civil penalty of $100,000 against the carriers for their roles in the Aug. 8 incident, according to a press release. DOT also penalized Mesaba Airlines $75,000 for the way it handled ground operations.
LIEBERMAN DIGS IN ON PUBLIC OPTION: Sen. Joseph Lieberman, speaking in that trademark sonorous baritone, utters a simple statement that translates into real trouble for Democratic leaders: “I’m going to be stubborn on this.”
UK POLICE HUNT FOR FORMER ROYAL AIDE WHO KILLED BOYFRIEND: A former royal aide convicted of murdering her boyfriend has failed to return to prison on schedule, British police said Tuesday.Jane Andrews, 42, did not report back to East Sutton Park prison, southeast of London, on Sunday night, Kent Police said.”We have no information to suggest she is a threat to the general public, however we must be mindful that… she was convicted of murder,” Assistant Chief Constable Andy Adams said in a statement calling on the public for help in finding her.
LBN-RECOMMENDS By GAVIN DEGRAW (SINGER-SONGWRITER): I used to play on the New York bar scene with an Irish friend of mine named Collin Smith, he just put a record out called 
LBN-SEE IT:
LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By Sharon Tate: I honestly don’t understand the big fuss made over nudity and sex in films. It’s silly. On TV, the children can watch people murdering each other, which is a very unnatural thing, but they can’t watch two people in the very natural process of making love. Now, really, that doesn’t make any sense, does it? (1969)
LBN-DIFFERENT VIEW:
MAINE REJECTS GAY MARRIAGE: One year after California rejected Proposition 8, gay marriage has once again failed to find popular approval: Voters in Maine opted on Tuesday to repeal legislature-approved gay marriage, 53 percent to 47 percent.
WHITE HOUSE DISTANCES ITSELF FROM DEM LOSSES: Voters responding to ‘local issues that didn’t involve the president’: The White House distanced itself Wednesday from Democratic losses in two states, saying the races for governor hinged on local issues and were not a referendum on President Barack Obama. The Republican victories Tuesday in Virginia and New Jersey energized the opposition and are a setback for Obama as he struggles to overhaul the U.S. health care system, win passage of climate change legislation, and build political support for his handling of the war in Afghanistan.
ITALY CONVICTS ‘U.S. AGENTS’ IN CIA KIDNAP TRIAL: Two dozen Americans — most thought to work for the CIA — were sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday by an Italian court for their role in the seizing of a suspected terrorist off the streets of Milan in 2003, Italian media reported. They did not appear for trial and are not in custody, but the ruling could effectively make them international fugitives. The trial was the first to deal with a practice that human rights groups call “extraordinary rendition,” and they say the United States has often sent suspects to countries that practice torture.
POLICE DISCOVER AT LEAST 10 VICTIMS AT ANTHONY SOWELL’S HOME: Police have discovered four bodies and the remains of a fifth this afternoon at the home of Anthony Sowell, bringing the total body count to 11. Sowell’s home on Imperial Avenue now ranks among the deadliest crime scenes in Cleveland history.
MAN STABBED SELF TO KEEP JOB: TORN UNIFORM PANTS LED BLOCKBUSTER WORKER TO HATCH BIZARRE PLAN: Meet Aaron Siebers. The 27-year-old Denver man, a Blockbuster employee, was skateboarding yesterday afternoon when he fell and ripped his uniform pants. Due to work last night–and concerned about getting “written up” by Blockbuster superiors for not wearing his work-issued khakis–Siebers came up with a harebrained idea. Instead of just calling in sick, he stabbed himself in the leg and showed up at work claiming to have just been attacked by three Hispanic males. Siebers, who told cops he was assaulted as he walked toward the Blockbuster in Edgewater, had a deep stab wound in one leg and several other minor cuts on his face and stomach. As investigators began hunting for the assailants, they reviewed surveillance video from outside a Target store where Siebers claimed the attack occurred. The footage, however, showed no such assault. Confronted by cops, Siebers, pictured in the below mug shot, admitted that he had stabbed himself. He told investigators about the skateboarding accident, the resulting ripped pants, and how “he did not want to lose his job so he stabbed himself in the leg.”
SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Veteran literary agent Bob Diforio along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.
GREAT WHITES STAY CLOSE TO COASTS: Ever feel like you’re swimming with the sharks? You may be right. New research shows that great white sharks spend months each year near the central and northern California coastlines, passing close to populated beaches as they hunt elephant seals, sea lions, and other prey.
LBN-RECOMMENDS By DUSTIN HOFFMAN (Actor): Id recommend Circle Mirror Transformation, which I just saw at the 
LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….Comedian Sarah Silverman….
LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Who knew Nicole Kidman was such a bad girl? The actress, who kept her lips locked about her 10-year-marriage to Tom Cruise, drops some sultry dish about her love life in an interview with British GQ magazine. The demure Oscar-winner admits that she’s explored everything from monogamy to “obsession” and even “strange sexual fetish stuff” — although it’s not clear when the kinky canoodling unfolded, according to London’s Daily Mail. In contrast to her super-private relationship with Cruise, she describes her current marriage to country-crooning hunk Keith Urban as “a very extraordinary, adventurous place to be: incredibly raw, incredibly dangerous.” Nicolas Cage is blaming his ex-money manager for his money problems. But insiders say it was Cage who spent his way into big troubles. Jacob Bernstein reports on the star’s head-spinning treasure trove: more than a dozen houses, two Bahamian islands, dinosaur skulls, shrunken heads, the shah of Iran’s Lamborghini (and more). Fun while it lasted. ***Does James Franco have a funny bone? The Golden Globe-winning actor will be guest starring on sitcom 30 Rock, a source tells Entertainment Weekly. His story line will play out in a romance with Jane Krakowski’s character, Jenna. ***Tom Ford struggled with depression after he left Gucci. Ford, creative director of the fashion house for 10 years until 2004, told W: “I started to sink emotionally, spiritually. I became a little bit lost. It forced me to really think: Well, what am I, who am I, what am I about? It took me a bit of time to figure that out.” Adding, “I am a very spiritual person now,” Ford said he hadn’t changed completely: “Fashion is one way in which we hold ourselves together. Just because I’ve become spiritual doesn’t mean I can’t love crocodile.”
LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By ADOLF HITLER: It would be easier for the Devil to go to church and cross himself with holy water than for these people to comprehend the ideas which are accepted facts to us today. (1940)