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FRIDAY • FEBRUARY 26, 2010

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.

DESPITE PRESSURE, CHINA STILL RESISTS IRAN SANCTIONS: Despite intense public and private pressure by the Obama administration, China has not yet shown any sign that it will support tougher sanctions against Iran, leaving a stubborn barrier before President Obama’s efforts to constrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Diplomats from two major European allies said this week that China had refused even to “engage substantively” on the issue of sanctions, preferring to continue diplomatic efforts with Tehran. And one senior diplomat said he believed that the most likely outcome might be a decision by China to abstain from voting on a resolution in the United Nations Security Council.

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.

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OVER AND OUT: Embattled New York Gov. David Paterson will not seek full term in office, Democratic Party source say.

LBN READERS WIN AGAIN!: The House Ethics Committee found Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel violated House rules when he accepted trips to the Caribbean. Rangel’s jaunts are considered hidden financing by corporations, and were accepted in knowing violation of House rules. Yesterday afternoon, all 317,000 LBN E-Lert readers got the news. BEFORE Fox News, CNN, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times.

COMMON GROUND: President Obama and Congressional Republicans sparred over health care during an all-day televised forum, with Republicans repeatedly urging the president to scrap his bill and start over.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***The Federal Reserve is examining the stratagems devised by Goldman Sachs and other big banks to help Greece mask its burgeoning debt over the last decade.

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.

WAGE LEVER: One in four Americans work for companies with federal contracts, and administration officials see an opportunity to lift more families into the middle class.

SIRIUS XM POSTS PROFIT, ITS FIRST SINCE MERGER: The satellite radio company Sirius XM Radio posted its first quarterly profit since its merger and said it expected to add 500,000 new subscribers in 2010 as the recovery in the car market increased demand. The results on Thursday suggest that the company, run by the media industry veteran Mel Karmazin, has solidified. Just a year ago, it flirted with bankruptcy.

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.

GADDAFI CALLS FOR JIHAD AGAINST SWITZERLAND: Libya’s dispute with Switzerland was intensified Thursday after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called for ‘jihad’ against the European nation “with all means” due to its referendum to ban minarets. “Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against (the Prophet) Mohammad, God and the Koran,” Gaddafi said. “The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbors and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold.”

NYC CANCELS SCHOOL: A whole bunch of kids must have done their snow dances: New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg canceled school for the city’s 1.1 million public school students on Friday after a massive snowstorm dumped 10 inches of fluff on the city, with more slated to come.

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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.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Nadya “Octomom” Suleman let loose Wednesday after her appearance on “The View”. The mother of 14 showed up at Greenhouse in NYC with a fur vest-wearing, Birkin handbag- toting male companion and a photographer pal about 11 p.m., drank water, and left by 12:30 a.m. The trio returned at 3 a.m. and drank shots at the bar. ***Mike Myers wearing a Canadian jersey as he watched his Canadian hockey team beat the Russians at the Blue Seats Sports Bar on Ludlow Street in NYC. ***Astor trial juror Judi DeMarco –who says she voted to convict Anthony Marshall after being threatened by another juror — enjoying drinks with friends at Pete McManus’ bar on 17th and 19th in NYC. ***Renee Zellweger tying a blond labrador to a tree outside Le Pain Quotidien on Madison in NYC, telling a fan it’s her boyfriend’s dog. (Bradley Cooper has a German shorthaired pointer and a chow-retriever mix). ***Rant columnist Ericka T. Bass singing “God Bless America” at the Hamburger Hamlet on the Sunset Strip last night around 11p.m. She had not been drinking. ***Before returning to London Jude Law was spotted sunning at “Do Brazil” on Shell Beach , St Barth’s along with a group of male and lovely female friends.. ***Sarah Jessica Parker at the Nations Capitol for the 2009 National Arts and Humanities Medal Ceremony last night. *** Nicole Kidman was spotted mingling with fellow guests at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the 12th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards. ***Jimmy Fallon arrives in Vancouver to tape his show, “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” during the Winter Olympics. ***Anne Hathaway turned up for the world premiere of Alice in Wonderland at London’s Odeon Leicester Square on Thursday. ***BE AN LBN CORRESPONDENT- Send your celebrity sightings to: LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

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.

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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Rupert Murdoch will turn 79 next month. As he approaches his final years at the helm of News Corp., his empire is said to be facing a growing internal factionalism. That conflict is likely to be the focus of a New York magazine story on the company, due out next week. ***Jay Leno returns to “The Tonight Show” on Monday night. But the network still must address the issue of who will one day replace him as host of the important late-night franchise. NBC “would be wise to start test-piloting guest hosts” to fill in for Leno, who turns 60 in April. ***Howard Stern “definitely” won’t be joining “American Idol” as the judge replacing Simon Cowell, according to sources close to the hit Fox show. 19 Entertainment, the London-based creator of the franchise, is expended to spend $38 million on Cowell’s replacement. ***LARadio founder Don Barrett is today’s guest speaker at prominent Hollywood P.R. firm LCO’s monthly P.R. training program for staff and interns.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: Selling in a tough economy.

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.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: The highest medal count for the United States in the Olympic Winter Games is 34, which the U.S. team attained in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: Approximately 1.7 million healthcare-associated infections are diagnosed every year. In a recent study–the first to investigate the costs associated with this problem–researchers concluded that pneumonia and blood-borne infections caught in hospitals killed 48,000 patients in the US and cost $8.1 billion in 2006. Patients who developed sepsis, a bacterial infection in the bloodstream, after surgery had to stay in the hospital an average of 11 days extra, at a cost of $32,900 per patient, while pneumonia patients stayed an extra 14 days after surgery, at a cost of $46,400.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Kim Yu-na was nearly flawless, and became South Korea’s first Olympic champion in figure skating. Mao Asada of Japan took silver and Joannie Rochette of Canada the bronze. ***Shannon Szabados stopped all 28 American shots and Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice in a 2-0 victory over the United States. ***A great divide exists between countries like Germany and Argentina in sliding sports — in the standings as well as in financing, coaching and gaining access to the world’s 16 courses.

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’ Nightline): Bomb Power. Great title. And for Garry Wills, one of our most insightful and provocative public intellectuals, it’s the key to the story of how the president became “an American monarch.” The answer, Wills says in this impassioned historical argument, can be found in the awesome power of The Bomb. Because the president had it, and could use it at a moment’s notice, “a huge secret empire” was constructed over the years—an empire of laws and constitutional innovations and a worldwide network of intelligence and military assets. It all amounted to a loaded weapon embedded in Article II. And every president since Hiroshima—especially George W. Bush, but including Barack Obama so far—has wielded it. Though Wills’ book sometimes seems to be an idée fixe (there are other factors at work in the triumph of executive power), it is essentially a call to constitutional conscience. Don’t miss it.

LBN-FILM REVIEW By MANOHLA DARGIS: “A Prophet” is one of those rare films in which the moral stakes are as insistent and thought through as the aesthetic choices.

LBN-COMMENTARY By DAVID BROOKS: The health care summit may not have bridged the partisan rift, but there were moments of hope for the next set of reformers.

LBN-FILM REVIEW By A. O. SCOTT: From time to time, “Cop Out” offers glimpses of the giddy, goofy delight it might have been.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: Since Republicans didn’t bother making much of a case at Thursday’s White House meeting, Democrats may have the last laugh by finishing the job and enacting health reform.

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-FILM REVIEW By MANOHLA DARGIS: “The Art of the Steal” is a hard-hitting documentary about a high-cultural brawl.

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.

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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***As we reported yesterday afternoon, the body of Andrew Koenig was discovered Thursday by Vancouver police, in Stanley Park. Koenig played sidekick to Kirk Cameron’s character on the hit 1980s TV show Growing Pains, and had been missing since Valentine’s Day. At a press conference, Koenig’s father said that the actor had taken his own life. Koenig had been on antidepressants, but stopped taking them last year. ***Tiger Woods wasn’t amused by billboards that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals planned to put up bearing his face and the slogan, “Too much sex can be a bad thing.” Lawyers for the golfer threatened to sue the activists if they used his once-valuable image in their campaign urging owners to neuter their pets. So now PETA says it will feature another famous philanderer, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, with the possible tagline: “Your dog doesn’t have to go to South America to get laid.” ***Grace Jones will perform at this year’s Elton John AIDS Foundation’s annual Oscar viewing party on March 7 at the Pacific Design Center in LA. Details are still under wraps, but as with recent shows at Hammerstein Ballroom and the Hollywood Bowl, the 61-year-old singer’s act will include a lengthy wait to take the stage and multiple, dramatic costume changes. In past years, Elton booked such artists as Mary J. Blige, Raphael Saadiq and the Scissor Sisters. ***It’s official. Simon Cowell is getting married! Beautiful Mezhgan Hussainy told RadarOnline.com exclusively that she and Simon are officially engaged. ***Jon Cryer, co-star of “Two and a Half Men,” was the target of a hit engineered by his ex-wife this according to the woman’s ex-boyfriend. According to documents filed in the custody battle between Cryer and ex-wife Sarah Trigger, Trigger’s lawyer claims on December 21, 2009, Trigger told her that her ex-boyfriend, Eddie Sanchez, had said he was going to kill Cryer and Trigger’s estranged husband, David Dickey.

LBN-DID YOU KNOW: ***Coca-Cola was originally green. ***People spend at least 3 years of their lives on the toilet. ***Seven million cell phones are dropped in the toilet per year. ***Brushing your teeth with the water on wastes 5 gallons of water. ***Blueberry juice boosts memory

LBN-QUOTE: “A damn fool with a plan beats a wandering genius a 100 times out of a 100.”-Michael Levine.

LBN-HISTORY: On Feb. 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in the garage of New York’s World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others.

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WEDNESDAY • FEBRUARY 17, 2010

TIGER TO HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE FRIDAY:

Tiger Woods will end nearly three months of silence Friday when he speaks to the media for the first time about his middle-of-the-night accident that sparked shocking revelations about his infidelity.

Woods will talk to a small group of reporters at 11 a.m. Friday from the clubhouse of the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., home of the PGA Tour.

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MONDAY • DECEMBER 7, 2009

NO SET PLAN FOR WITHDRAWAL: Hope you hadn’t marked it on your calendar: President Obama’s advisers have been working to downplay the significance of the July 2011 withdrawal date for Afghanistan that the president set in his speech last week. Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton have emphasized that that date will only be the start of a transfer of power to Afghan troops, and that any such transfer will be slow.

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.

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U.S. FORECASTS SMALLER LOSS FROM BANK BAILOUT: The Treasury Department expects to recover all but $42 billion of the $370 billion it lent to ailing companies during the financial crisis last year, with the portion lent to banks actually showing a slight profit, according to a new Treasury report.

DE NIRO, SPRINGSTEEN HONORED: This weekend, a surprise list of star performers celebrated Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, director Mel Brooks, jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, and opera singer Grace Bumbry at the Kennedy Center Honors. Three hundred guests, including Jack Black, Edward Norton, Sting, and Martin Scorsese, attended a reception in the East Room of the White House to celebrate the occasion. “I think when all my awards go to eBay, it will be the last,” Brooks said of his.

U.S. MILITARY CHILDREN ARRESTED IN JAPAN: Four American teenagers, all children of U.S. military personnel, have been arrested on charges of attempted murder after a woman was knocked off her motorbike with rope strung across two poles, Japanese police said. An 18-year-old man, a 17-year-old girl and two 15-year-old boys were taken into custody on Saturday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said. They are accused of causing a severe head injury to a 23-year-old restaurant employee by stringing a rope between poles across a road.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***New York magazine survived the sudden death in October of owner Bruce Wasserstein. Still, hard economic times have forced editor Adam Moss to cut the budget by more than 10%, reduce freelance contracts and slash writers’ pay. He still employs a large editorial staff of 100. ***Conde Nast’s former Portfolio.com is being reinvented as “helpful and earnest” under the new ownership of American City Business Journals. The site is adding features, like a tool called BizWatch that lets readers get updates on companies and execs from selected news sources. ***Simon Halls and Cindi Berger were made co-Ceo of the Hollywood P.R. firm PMK/HBH after their president Nat Schreiber left on Friday.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***After debuting in the shadow of “New Moon,” Warner Bros.’ “The Blind Side” has gained consistent box-office yardage week after week and has now topped the chart in its third weekend of release. With an overall year-to-date box office total of $9.66 billion through Sunday, this year is poised to beat 2007’s record revenues of $9.68 billion early this week. ***Over a 100 winners of the Academy Award read the LBN E-Lert every day. ***Debbie Harry, Kanye West and Paris Hiltonappear in a movie immortalizing the Gramercy Park Hotel. The film, directed by Douglas Keeve, also has cameos from Julian Schnabel Karl Lagerfeld, Ben Stiller, Winona Ryder, Russell Simmons, The Post’s David Landsel, and Ian Schrager,who transformed the hotel in 2005. “Hotel Gramercy Park” premieres on the Sundance Channel tonight, while Keeve and producer Wendy Ettinger will hold a private screening at the hotel penthouse.

OPRAH AIMS FOR TIGER: One woman is talking to Tiger Woods who isn’t saying she slept with him: Oprah. The queen of talk has “personally reached out,” according to the New York Daily News. Over the weekend, the number of women claiming to have slept with Tiger since his marriage grew to seven, including a porn star and a waitress at a Perkins eatery, who claims the golf star liked to spank her.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Tennis ace John McEnroe and rocker wife Patty Smyth raised eyebrows during a dinner hosted by Vito Schnabel for the “Happy Endings” exhibit at the W Hotel in Miami. The couple surprised diners, including artist Terence Koh, actor Stephen Dorff and Jann Wenner’s son Theo Wenner, by passing around what looked like a spliff during a discussion on marijuana reform. “They were talking about grass reforms and the next thing you know they were lighting up,” laughs an attendee. “No one seemed to mind, though.” ***Joy Behar dining with Oliver Stone at A Voce in the Time Warner Center in NYC ***Kelly Rutherford and Alexis Bledel drinking Akvinta cocktails and browsing at the alice + olivia pop-up shop on Third and 73rd in NYC. ***Saturn Award winning actor and musician James Marsten and a lady friend at the world premiere musical comedy “Love in Bloom” at Santa Monica Playhouse Sunday night. ***Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony cheered for the Dolphins as the team faced off against the New England Patriots in Miami. ***Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. stepped out to dinner with friends at West Hollywood’s Phillip Chow. ***Kim Kardashian was spotted at The Trevor Project’s Annual Cracked Xmas fundraiser at L.A.’s Wiltern Theatre. ***Halle Berry attended the Beverly Hills Hotel held at the Hollywood Reporter’s annual Woman in Entertainment breakfast. ***BE AN LBN CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

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LBN-VIDEO LINK: WATCH: Tom Friedman On Why The Afghan Surge Won’t Work.

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.

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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 Pray the Devil Back to Hell. It is about a group of women who pushed the warlords out and elected a woman president and that was pretty extraordinary.

LBN-RECOMMENDS By KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL (The Nation’s editor and publisher): Robert Frank’s black-and-white photographs are now in a compact and chronological exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A couple of weeks ago, I skipped out of work and spent two hours wandering through Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans. In June 1955, Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank bought a used Ford and set out across America. During his trip, Frank shot 27,000 images, which have been pared down for the show.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: History shows that cap and trade, a system specifically designed to bring the power of market incentives to bear on environmental problems, does work.

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.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….Lindsay Lohan…..

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Tiger Woods told one of his alleged mistresses his marriage was a sham — “It’s only for publicity” — this, according to her lawyer. ***Marc Christian MacGinnis, who won a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1991 from the estate of his ex-lover, actor Rock Hudson, after convincing a jury Hudson had knowingly exposed him to AIDS, has died. He was 56. Known as Marc Christian, he died of pulmonary problems June 2 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. The details were confirmed Friday by his sister, Susan Dahl, who said she did not publicly announce his death earlier because of her brother’s wish for privacy.

DID YOU KNOW: ***The world’s first book, the Diamond Sutra was first produced in China in 868 AD. ***C. Hopffer patented the fire extinguisher in 1722. ***Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. ***Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. ***The statement “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

LBN-QUOTE: “This Administration is a calamity. I never said that about any Presidency, including the Carter Presidency. This is a total disaster.”—-Dennis Prager, nationally syndicated radio talk show host.

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)

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, drawing the United States into World War II. More than 2,300 Americans were killed.

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SUNDAY • DECEMBER 6, 2009

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 - www.LBNElert.com.

GATES SAYS NO BIN LADEN INTEL IN ‘YEARS’: In a startling admission, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. has not had any intelligence on Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts in “years” on ABC’s This Week. Gates could not confirm reports that a detainee in Pakistan claimed had seen the al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan earlier this year.

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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.”

GEITHNER: YOU ALL WOULD HAVE FAILED: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Bloomberg News that all banks would have failed without a government bailout. “None of them would have survived,” he said, countering claims made by Goldman Sachs executives that they could have gotten through the financial crisis without assistance. Geithner also went after Wall Street’s high bonuses in an interview with Al Hunt. “It is very important that we change the way these executives are paid, the form of compensation, this year,” Geithner said.

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.

GITMO COMING TO ILLINOIS: Welcome to the neighborhood? Terrorism suspects now being kept at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will most likely be relocated to a state prison in Thomson, Illinois. The move would come over the vocal objections of congressional Republicans who do not want to see the prisoners land on American soil. Prison officials briefed members of the Illinois congressional delegation last week about the relocation.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Derek Jeter dining with a male friend at Nino’s Positano on Second Avenue in NYC, where he asked for his usual table and dined on grilled chicken with Italian sausage and shitaki mushrooms. ***Artist Les Rogers, whose show, “Last House,” opens at the Leo Koenig gallery in January, watching football with Sean Avery at 77 Warren in NYC. ***”The City” star Erin Kaplan, p.r. maven Lizzie Grubman and Tucker Blair publicist Zachary Weiss planning a reality show over food at Pastis in NYC. ***Tippi Hedren, queen of the cats, was singing at the piano bar at David Murdoch’s Penthouse Regency Club in Westwood, celebrating the lavish Launch party of her friend’s book First Person Cat by Jacque Heebner.-co-hosted by David Webb Precious Jewels, and Edward Lozzi. Along with 200 other guests singing, glad-handing and munching on caviar, lobster and lamb chops were Lou Ferrigno dancing, David Murdoch ducking, Kelly Lange reciting, Shirley Jones humming, Frank Stallone crooning, Roger Williams smiling, and famed attorney Tom Mesareau pontificating. ***Jessica Stroup attended Variety’s 3rd Annual Power of Youth event held at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. ***Jessica Alba picked up a Christmas tree from L.A.’s Mister Greentree. ***Victoria Beckham took her sons Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz to dinner at the Montage in Beverly Hills. ***Britney Spears and boyfriend Jason Trawick enjoyed a romantic dinner at The Little Door in L.A. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

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.

OBAMA DEATH THREATS LEVEL OFF: Threats against Barack Obama’s life have leveled off after a spike just before his inauguration and another in the first months of his presidency, The New York Times reports in a chilling article that recounts several threat scenarios. In one of many troubling cases, a young Marine, Kody Brittingham, pleaded guilty in August to threatening to kill the president in a chilling plan that was meticulously laid out with maps and photographs. Brittingham wrote that he’d taken an oath to “protect against all enemies, both foreign and domestic,” and signed a “letter of intent” in which he identified a “domestic enemy” in President Obama.

ARRESTED: Three boys and a girl from an American military base were arrested on charges of attempted murder for allegedly toppling a woman on a motorbike, causing her to suffer a serious head injury.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***The Bel Air Camera Store (www.BelAirCamera.com ) in Westwood was awarded the prestigious “5 W Report” as the best camera store of 2009 in Southern California today. ***The number of public charities has soared, resulting in more than $50 billion a year in lost tax revenue. ***As the Apple App Store evolves, it is changing the goals of developers, bolstering sales of iPhones and causing competitors to overhaul their product lines.

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http://www.americanheartassociation.com/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200000

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LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***The U.S. based Damah Film Festival will hit the road this December, as Damah Film Festival in Hiroshima opens its doors on December 11-13, 2009 in Hiroshima, Japan with showcases featuring this year’s nominees as well a special screening of a full length feature film. The renowned film festival, known for highlighting short films that focus on the importance of story and spirituality in filmmaking, will screen the feature film thriller, The Least of These starring Isaiah Washington, which was executive produced by Damah juror Ralph Winter.

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-VIDEO LINK: Winston Churchill Saves The World: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6llT2ZYg-4E

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***The date of the Beverly Hills Media Tea featuring Sharon Waxman, founder of The Wrap has been changed to Dec 15th due to her busy travel schedule. It will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

LBN-RECOMMENDS: The Editors of the LBN E-Lert Recommend: http://www.robertkotlermd.com/.

LBN-COMMENTARY By BILL KELLER: In “Invictus,” Morgan Freeman conveys the manipulative charm, the serene confidence and the lonely regret of Nelson Mandela.

LBN-COMMENTARY By FRANK RICH: Obama’s speech, for all its thoughtfulness and sporadic eloquence, was a failure at its central mission. On its own terms, as both policy and rhetoric, it didn’t make the case for escalating our involvement in Afghanistan. It’s doubtful that the president’s words moved the needle of public opinion wildly in any direction for a country that has tuned out Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq alike while panicking about where the next job is coming from.

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-COMMENTARY By DOUG GILES: What are the global warming grunts going to do now that the Apostles of the Holy Church of Climatology have been busted for cooking the “truth”.

LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: In the end the United States’ strategy in Afghanistan is not about how many troops we send or deadlines we set. It is all about our Afghan partners.

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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.

LBN-QUOTE: “Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me. It is an uncomfortable doctrine which the true ethics whisper into my ear. You are happy, they say; therefore you are called upon to give much.” - Albert Schweitzer.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 6, 1923, a presidential address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President Calvin Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress.

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WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 2, 2009

SALAHIS DECLINE TO TESTIFY BEFORE HOUSE COMMITTEE: Tareq and Michaele Salahi will not testify before Congress on Thursday about how they got into the White House last week for President Obama’s first state dinner, the Associated Press reported. The Salahis’ publicist said in a statement that the couple had already provided information to lawmakers.

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WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 2, 2009

PRESIDENT’S AFGHAN DRAWDOWN PLAN CALLED RISKY, ‘UNREALISTIC’: President Obama’s timetable for winding down the war in Afghanistan may be too short for the United States to achieve its war aims but too long to hold American public support, observers said Tuesday. Obama announced the deployment of another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in a Tuesday night speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, senior administration officials said. The announcement is coupled with a plan to begin withdrawing the American contingent in July 2011, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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.

TIGER WOODS APOLOGIZES AS GOSSIP MAGAZINE REPORTS AFFAIR: Golfer Tiger Woods apologized Wednesday for “transgressions” that let his family down — the same day a gossip magazine published a report alleging he had an affair. “I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves,” he said in a statement on his official Web site. Woods did not admit to an affair and offered no details about the “transgressions” in his statement.

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AHMADINEJAD: IRAN WILL FURTHER ENRICH URANIUM: PRESIDENT’S COMMENTS SEEM TO RULE OUT U.N.-BACKED NUCLEAR DEAL: Iran said Wednesday it would produce whatever nuclear fuel it needed on its own, the latest indication it was rejecting a U.N.-backed deal aimed at reining in Tehran’s nuclear program over fears it is geared to produce weapons. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran will enrich its uranium to an even higher level on its own, after expressing frustration over the ongoing negotiations over the U.N. deal to exchange its low-enriched uranium for more highly enriched fuel rods.

REPORT: 2,600 BODIES FOUND IN KASHMIR GRAVES: Nearly 2,600 bodies have been discovered in single unmarked and mass graves throughout mountainous Indian Kashmir, human rights activists said Wednesday, alleging some of the dead were likely innocent people killed by security forces. More than a dozen Kashmiri rebel groups have been fighting for independence from India or a union with predominantly Muslim Pakistan since 1989. Rights groups say there have been more than 8,000 disappearances since the rebellion began.

SEXTING’ BULLYING CITED IN TEEN’S SUICIDE: 13-YEAR-OLD HOPE WITSELL HANGED HERSELF AFTER TOPLESS PHOTOS CIRCULATED: Hope Witsell was just beginning the journey from child to teen. The middle-school student had a tight-knit group of friends, the requisite poster of “Twilight” heartthrob Robert Pattinson and big plans to become a landscaper when she grew up. But one impetuous move robbed Hope of her childhood, and eventually, her life. The 13-year-old Florida girl sent a topless photo of herself to a boy in hope of gaining his attention. Instead, she got the attention of her school, as well as the high school nearby.

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.

‘DAWN OF A NEW ERA’ FOR AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA?: South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma announced new policies to tackle the country’s AIDS epidemic, on Tuesday. On World AIDS Day, Zuma spoke of “the dawn of a new era” in a speech where he took a markedly different approach from his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, who had questioned the link between HIV and AIDS.Speaking in the country’s capital, Pretoria, Zuma announced policies that would see more people treated for HIV, including treatment for all HIV-positive babies under the age of one. He also announced a campaign to mobilize all South Africans to be tested for HIV.

CLIMATE SCIENTIST AT CENTER OF E-MAIL CONTROVERSY TO STEP DOWN: A scientist who is one of the central figures in the controversy over hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit announced Tuesday that he is stepping down while the university investigates the incident. Climate skeptics have seized on several e-mails from Phil Jones, director of the university’s Climatic Research Unit, to other researchers as evidence that prominent scientists have sought to silence their voice in the debate over global warming. The e-mails were pirated and posted online last month.

AUSTRALIA’S PARLIAMENT DEFEATS GLOBAL WARMING BILL: Australia’s plans for an emissions trading system to combat global warming were scuttled Wednesday in Parliament, handing a defeat to a government that had hoped to set an example at international climate change talks next week.The Senate, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government does not hold a majority, rejected his administration’s proposal for Australia to become one of the first countries to install a so-called cap-and-trade system to slash the amount of heat-trapping pollution that industries pump into the air.The 41-33 vote followed a tumultuous debate in which the conservative main opposition party at first agreed to support a version of the government’s bill, then dramatically dumped its leader and switched sides after bitter divisions erupted within the party.

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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-NOTICED: ***Celine Dion cheered on the Miami Heat along with her husband René Angélil and their 8-year-old son René Charles as the team faced off against the Boston Celtics at the Miami American Airlines Arena. ***Natalie Portman enjoyed dinner with friends at Jose Andres’ L.A. restaurant The Bazaar. ***Britney Spears and boyfriend Jason Trawick were spotted at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in West Hollywood. ***Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie shared an intimate dinner together at La Dolce Vita restaurant in Beverly Hills. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

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-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Charles Gibson will sign off from “World News” on Dec. 18, with Diane Sawyer succeeding him as anchor soon thereafter. ***On the heels of “Glee’s” early success, Brad Falchuk has inked his first overall deal: a two-year, seven-figure pact with series producer 20th Century Fox TV. ***Urged by clients to move faster, Nielsen responded with a plan to accelerate the rollout of the Internet meter to its national people meter sample. The plans call for Nielsen to complete the roll out by Aug. 31, 2010, instead of some time in 2011.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***The editors of the Literary Review magazine said best-selling American author Jonathan Littell was awarded Britain’s “Bad Sex in Fiction Prize,” for a cringe-inducing passage which compares a sexual encounter to battle with an one-eyed mythological monster. Littell’s book, “The Kindly Ones,” is a 900-page epic narrated by a fictional Nazi officer. ***Julie Powell admits readers may find her new book “Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession” — a bit jarring. Powell dissects the pain caused by her two-year affair with an old college flame that sent her into an emotional tailspin and almost sunk her marriage.

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-COMMENTARY By DICK MORRIS: As the Congress prepared to vote to let us enter the world of waits for doctors, waits for specialists, waits for testing and waits for surgery, radiation and chemo, we should pause to consider the relative records of the private medical care system in the United States with the socialized system in the U.K. In 2008, Britain had a cancer death rate 0.25% while the United States had a rate of only 0.18%. The UK cancer death rate was 38% higher than in the United States. The Guardian, the UK’s left wing daily, estimated that “up to 10,000 people” are dying each year of cancer “because their condition is diagnosed too late, according to research by the government’s director of cancer services.” While many people die because of late detection due to their own negligence, there is no reason to believe this self-neglect is more common in the UK than in the US.In Canada, the cancer death rate is 16% higher than in the United States.

LBN-COMMENTARY By WILLIAM MOYERS (President of the Hazelton Foundation): How likely is it that addicts who receive treatment will recover? At Hazelton, roughly 50% of patients remain abstinent in the year following treatment. That might seem low, but it isn’t – especially compared to the treatment of other chronic diseases with a behavioral component, like diabetes, hypertension, and asthma. There is still no cure for addiction – more research is needed. But there is a solution that includes personal responsibility.

LBN-RECOMMENDS By JERMAINE BROWN (Artistic Director, Victoria’s Secret): I love the song Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon. They sing with passion. It’s mixing a lot of different elements together. Right now, music has taken a turn and we’re looking for someone who is going to bring something different and these guys are bringing something different and they perform with passion.

LBN HEALTH NEWS: ***Golf player Doug Barron is suing PGA for suspending him from professional golf. Although Barron has been receiving synthetic testosterone shots monthly since 2005 for medical reasons, he is the first to be punished for synthetic testosterone doping. ***At Lincoln University, PA, obese students with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above are required to take a fitness course that meets three hours a week; those who do not complete the course cannot graduate. ***Based on recent data and research, the US Oral Cancer Foundation believes that HPV is replacing tobacco as the new primary cause of the spread of oral cancer.

LBN BUSINESS NEWS: ***The ADP National Employment Report said that 169,000 private sector jobs were lost in November 2009, fewer than the 195,000 jobs that were lost in October but worse than the 160,000 cuts expected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. This is the eighth consecutive decline in job losses at private companies, evidencing that the economy is recovering, albeit slowly. ***The slowdown in job losses also poses a problem for rehiring, proposing a challenge for President Obama as he plans his stimulus package before tomorrow’s meeting with business leaders. ***The Vanguard Group Inc. reports that 60 percent of their 401(k) accounts have recovered now back to where they were before stocks tumbled roughly two years ago. Participants who continued to contribute had a higher chance of recovery.

LBN SPORTS INSIDER: ***A Los Angeles cocktail waitress has emerged as the third woman in the Tiger Woods’ scandal, after a voicemail message he allegedly left on her cell phone was made public by Us Weekly on Wednesday. Tiger Woods released a written statement “apologizing for his transgressions,” and that he has “left his family down.” ***Allen Iverson has signed to play with the Philadelphia 76ers again, after playing only 3 games with the Memphis Grizzlies. ***Star closer Billy Wagner has agreed to sign a $7 million, one year, free-agent contract with the Atlanta Braves.

LBN HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***John Mayer helped reunite exes Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson Monday at New York City nightclub Butter, shuttling back and forth between their separate tables throughout the night. The two women were talking before the night ended, and seen laughing, but left separately.

LBN-COMMENTARY By Malcolm Gladwell (Best-selling author): The school year in the United States is on average 180 days long. The South Korean school year is 220 days long. The Japanese school year is 243 days long. In America, we do not have a public education problem; we have a “summer vacation” problem.

LBN-SNAP:

LBN- LYRICS OF LIFE By GEORGE HARRISON: There’ll come a time when all of us must leave here Then nothing sister Mary can do Will keep me here with you As nothing in this life that I’ve been trying Could equal or surpass the art of dying Do you believe me?

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….Tennis, anyone?…

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***It’s just a coincidence Meredith Baxter recently appeared in the Hallmark Channel’s ‘’Bound By a Secret,'’ but ironically the actress revealed a very personal secret on ‘’Today'’ this morning. Baxter, perhaps best known for her seven years playing TV mom Elyse Keaton on ‘’Family Ties'’ in the 1980s, will be the latest star to come out of the closet, revealing she is a lesbian. Meredith Baxter took a Caribbean cruise catered to lesbians, according to the National Enquirer.

LBN-QUOTE: A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company, comforts and inspires. -Hedy Lamarr.

DID YOU KNOW: ***Algeria gained independence from France on July 5, 1962. ***Bees do not have ears. ***There are approximately 73,000 types of spiders. ***The popular band U2’s original name was Feedback. ***Many, if not most, of the best recordings in the first 40 years of Grammy history failed to win a Grammy, including seminal records by Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Bruce Springsteen, John Coltrane, and many others.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 2, 1954, the Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R Wis., for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”

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TUESDAY • NOVEMBER 24, 2009

OBAMA SETS DEC. 1 TROOP DEADLINE: More numbers for the administration to swat down? NPR is reporting that President Obama plans to announce his troop plan for Afghanistan on Tuesday, Dec. 1, and that he will announce a “sizeable force of additional troops.” Obama will explain his decision during an address, likely Tuesday night, Politico reports.

1 IN 4 BORROWERS UNDER WATER: Home sales may have risen in October, but this ought to damp any celebration: The proportion of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth rose to 23 percent. With nearly 10.7 million households having negative equity in their homes in the third quarter, a sustained housing recovery is unlikely.

HASAN’S LAWYER: DUE PROCESS TRAMPLED: Paralyzed from the chest down, a groggy Maj. Nidal Hasan wavered in and out of consciousness during an hour-long hearing in his hospital room this weekend and lawyer John P. Galligan claims these circumstances that do not meet the accused’s due-process rights. As pretrial proceedings for the most infamous military psychiatrist-turned-gunman begin, Army officials say Hasan requires “unique and tailored” proceedings, but Galligan doesn’t trust it. “What does that mean?” Galligan, a retired colonel, asked. He continued, “Already on most basic fundamental parts of pretrial process, I am not saying it is totally derailed, but they need to do some maintenance to make sure we stay on track.” Galligan says the military has ignored procedural requests and his request to question Hasan’s unit commander, noting also that Hasan was transferred between units last week (while still in the hospital) for unclear reasons.

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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.”

TRAPPED ‘COMA’ MAN: HOW WAS HE MISDIAGNOSED?: A Belgian car crash victim who was misdiagnosed as being in a vegetative state for 23 years was conscious the whole time, it has emerged. For years he listened to the conversations going on around him but he was unable to communicate with his doctors or family. Rom Houben was 23 at the time of the near-fatal car crash in 1983 that left him paralyzed. Doctors presumed he was in a vegetative state following the accident and they believed he could feel and hear nothing. Neurologist Dr.Steven Laureys of the University of Liege, in Belgium carried out a brain scan using state-of-the art scanning system and discovered that Houben’s brain was fully functional.

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.”
Stubborn, he means, in opposing any health-care overhaul that includes a “public option,” or government-run health-insurance plan, as the current bill does. His opposition is strong enough that Mr. Lieberman says he won’t vote to let a bill come to a final vote if a public option is included. Probe for a catch or caveat in that opposition, and none is visible. Can he support a public option if states could opt out of the plan, as the current bill provides? “The answer is no,” he says in an interview from his Senate office. “I feel very strongly about this.” How about a trigger, a mechanism for including a public option along with a provision saying it won’t be used unless private insurance plans aren’t spreading coverage far and fast enough? No again.

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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-NOTICED: ***Prominent business attorney Rick Citron having lunch yesterday at The Breeze restaurant in Century City Hotel. ***Avril Lavigne broke bread with Chris Jones, Charlotte Ronson, Roman Jones, and Scott Storch at Macalusos in South Beach. ***Lady GaGa signed copies of her new CD at Best Buy in Los Angeles. ***Hayden Panettiere chatted with Deryck Whibley at Voyeur in West Hollywood. Lindsay Lohan was also at Voyeur. ***Carrie Underwood went shopping at Bloomingdales in L.A.s Beverly Center. Kelly Clarkson was also at the Beverly Center, stopping in at the Solstice Sunglass boutique. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***The axe is starting to fall on the staff of 20 producers and reporters that Lou Dobbs left behind when he left CNN two weeks ago. CNNers are being told that they can start applying for new jobs at the news network, with the implication that their old jobs will soon end.

LBN- LYRICS OF LIFE By LAURA NYRO:

Do you hear what I hear

When your lips are kissing mine

Can you hear the bells darling

Can you hear them when Im kissing you

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 The Wilderness. Proper Irish tenor vocal, just a wonderful singer.

LBN-COMMENTARY By SUSAN ESTRICH: So, as it turns out, did I not need to have my breasts squeezed in the mammogram machines every year between the ages of 40 and 50? Could I have missed the two scares in there, especially the one when both of my kids were babies? Maybe. Or rather, in my case, thank God, yes. Then againWhen I saw my doctor yesterday, the one I have trusted with my life and the lives of my children for all these years, the one who sent me for all those tests, I asked him if he would still be sending his women patients who are in their 40s for mammograms. The short answer is yes.

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LBN-RECOMMENDS By HEIDI KLUM (The Project Runway host-and proud mother of four): My favorite hotel is The Hyatt Regency in Japan. Its fantastic. They have heated toilets, and when you push the button, it flushes up! The first time its a bit of a surprise.

LBN COMMENTARY BY JOY BEHAR: ***My favorite 5 talk show hosts are: Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, Joan Rivers, Larry Sanders, and Dick Cavett.

LBN-COMMENTARY PRIVATE ADVICE MEMO TO ADOLF HITLER By LARRY Grobel(Best-Selling Author): Dear Adolf: why? You dumb f**k! Did you have any idea how history would use your name as a synonym for the Devil? Stay out of Poland. Don’t invade Russia in the winter. Return to your painting. Apologize.

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)

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LBN-DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD: *** Itll be a dreamy entertainment lineup for the first state dinner of the Obama White House: singer Jennifer Hudson is set to perform Tuesday night. Hudson, who won an Academy Award for her role in the movie Dreamgirls, is part of a larger lineup that also includes Indian performers, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the dinner wont be announced until later in the day. *** Celebrity chef Paula Deen got an unexpected serving of ham across her face. The Food Network star was helping unload 25,000 pounds of donated meat for an Atlanta food bank on Monday when someone threw one of the hams like a football and accidentally smacked her. Deen tells WGCL-TV: “I thought it busted my lip, but it didn’t.” *** The shimmering, white glove Michael Jackson wore when he premiered his trademark moonwalk dance in 1983 was auctioned off for $350,000 plus tax on Saturday. *** The driver of a Miley Cyrus tour bus was killed Friday when the bus overturned, but the 16-year-old Hannah Montana star wasnt on board, Virginia State Police said. Sgt. Thomas Molnar said the bus ran off the left side of Interstate 85, struck an embankment and overturned. The accident occurred around 8:15 a.m. in Dinwiddie County, about 40 miles south of Richmond. Speed and weather werent considered factors.

DID YOU KNOW: ***The word encyclopaedia is derived from two Greek words meaning “a circle of learning. ***Sumerians invented writing in the 4th century BC. ***The first novel, The Story of Genji, was written in 1007 by Japanese noble woman Murasaki Shikibu. ***The largest horse statue in the world, the Zizkov Monument in Prague, stands 30 ft tall. ***The first novel sold through a vending machine - at the Paris Metro - was Murder on the Orient Express.

LBN-QUOTE: The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. -Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

LBN-HISTORY: On Nov. 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy.

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WEDNESDAY • NOVEMBER 4, 2009

LBN-INVESTIGATES: As of November 2009, the Earth’s population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6.795 billion. About 227,000 people are added to the world each day.

IT’S TWINS! STEVE MARTIN, ALEC BALDWIN TO HOST OSCARS: Breaking with tradition, a pair of hosts — Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin — will serve as co-hosts of the 82nd Academy Awards, Oscar telecast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman announced today. We think the team of Steve and Alec are the perfect pair of hosts for the Oscars, said Shankman and Mechanic. Steve will bring the experience of having hosted the show in the past and Alec will be a completely fresh personality for this event. I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin, said Martin.

GOP WINS BOTH GOVERNOR RACES: Republicans swept Tuesday’s gubernatorial races, with Bob McDonnell easily winning in Virginia and Chris Christie squeaking ahead of incumbent Jon Corzine in New Jersey. The New Jersey loss is a big blow for Democrats, as President Obama had campaigned heavily for Corzine.

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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.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***While the week-long American Film Market opens Wednesday in Santa Monica amid signs of a general economic rebound, producers and sales agents are still expressing trepidation about the unstable commercial landscape.

BLOOMBERG HANGS ON: Michael Bloomberg is still New York City’s mayor, but at least challenger Bill Thompson made him sweat. Bloomberg won a third term 51 percent to 46 percent, after polls showed him winning in excess of 15 points; four years ago, he won by a 20-point margin.

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.”

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***It turns out Jay Leno is having a positive effect in the ratings. Unfortunately, the impact is on another network’s numbers. According to a ratings analysis by ABC, the Alphabet’s collective adults 18-49 Nielsen ratings with scripted series in the 10 p.m. slot have gone up an eye-popping 16 percent since “The Jay Leno Show” debuted this season. ***A Nielsen analysis of media use finds that 77% of adults are reached by radio on a daily basis, second only to television at 95%. The Web reaches 64%, newspaper 35%, and magazines 27%. The study “proves that radio is still a popular medium,” says the Radio Advertising Bureau. ***The New York Times might have ended up as part of Google, according to Ken Auletta, author of “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.” Auletta tells IWantMedia.com that Google co-founder Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt discussed buying the Times, “but in the end decided that if they succeeded, it would sabotage their identity as a neutral search engine.” Of co-founder Sergey Brin’s suggestion that he should put his book online for free, Auletta says, “I think [he] has an innocent faith in the Internet and inadequate knowledge about how books are published.”

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Sumner Redstone thinks the skies are brightening for Viacom. By keeping a sharp eye on costs while continuing to invest in programming, Sumner said during an earnings call today, Viacom is in a strong position to benefit as the economic clouds begin to part. ***Film biz haunt restaurant Orso is closing. The New York Times reports that the 20-year-old restaurant will shutter by November 21 after suffering a shift in the town’s center of gravity when CAA and ICM moved to Century City. The hangout was also hurt by losing a mainstay when New Line - once the biggest house account, according to the NYT - cut hundreds of employees in a corporate restructuring. Orso will follow in the footsteps of other Hollywood power spots like Morton’s, Chasen’s and the original Spago on Sunset Boulevard. ***Call it an EU-turn: General Motors announced on Tuesday that it will retain its European division, Opel. The move is, the Financial Times writes, an embarrassment for the German government, which had thrown its weight behind the sale of Opel to Canada’s Magna and Russia’s Sberbank. ***Following the lead of foreign regulators, New York’s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit Wednesday against Intel, the world’s largest chip maker.

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11-YEAR-OLD GIVES BIRTH AT WEDDING: An 11-year-old Bulgarian girl recently became one of the worlds youngest mothers after giving birth at her wedding. Kordeza Zhelyazkova was rushed to the hospital in her wedding dress. “I’m not going to play with toys anymoreI have a new toy now,” Kordeza said as she showed off her daughter. Kordeza met her babys 19-year-old father after he rescued her from bullies on the playground. The marriage was arranged after the father, Jeliazko, faced six years in prison for sex with a minor.

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.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: Lung specialists are hopeful that a new technique that repairs lungs deemed too damaged for transplantation will increase the supply of organs available to patients who need them. While more research is needed to see if the repairs will hold up inside a human body, the results of laboratory testing have been promising. The technique, an out-of-the-body gene therapy treatment, promotes the production of interleukin-10, a substance that helps reduce damaging inflammation in the lungs. Human lungs subjected to the treatment showed significant improvement in their ability to take in fresh oxygen and expel carbon dioxide.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy have been giving their library cards a workout.
Their original script “Once Upon a Time in Hell,” which landed on the Black List of most liked screenplays last year, has sold to Phoenix Pictures. Based on Alexandre Dumas’ classic revenge tale “The Count of Monte Cristo,” “Hell” updates the story to modern London’s organized crime underworld.

LBN- LYRICS OF LIFE By WILLIE NELSON:

Theres a home place under fire tonight in the heartland

And the bankers are taking my home and my land from me

Theres a big achin hole in my chest now where my heart was

And a hole in the sky where God used to be

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-COMMENTARY By JULIA BAIRD: Barbara Ehrenreich argues that positive thought has at times made us deaf to the pleas of those who warn of potential dangers- the Iraqi resistance, Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, and the Wall Street implosion. Urging positivity is not just beside the point when our circumstances are rotten, it’s also dangerously distracting.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Lower costs helped to boost third quarter operating profit at Harlequin, with earnings up 22.5%, to C$22.9 million ($21.6 million and current exchange rates); profits had a C$2 million benefit from foreign exchange. ***Sassy former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s new book, “Read My Pins,” is flying off store shelves — and publisher HarperCollins has just ordered a third printing. “I am thrilled,” Albright told Page Six. The tome recounts how Albright used her collection of brooches as a diplomatic message-sender — starting with an elaborate snake pin worn to meet Saddam Hussein after he blasted her as an “unparalled serpent.” “People want a little bit of fun in our all-too-often grim world,” Albright said. “So why not foreign policy with a nice piece of jewelry?”

LBN-COMMENTARY By CONNIE MARTINSON (TV Show Host): One year from now, will Obama win or lose the healthcare debate? One year from now Obama will have achieved some of his objectives and he will have lost a few, such as changes in Medicare that AARP objects to. The Obama White House will declare a victory and healthcare progress will have inched into the future. Loose threads will remain, how to handle illegals who have children born in USA, how much financial aid to senior citizens on aggressive treatments, and the big question of population growth or abortion.

LBN-COMMENTARY By Michael Levine: Americans correctly believe that public servants are not punished for any wrongdoing other than at the next election. As a public servant you can strike out as many times as you like and there is never, ever any accountability.

DISNEY TO OPEN RESORT, PARK IN SHANGHAI: ITS THE YEAR OF THE MOUSE IN CHINA: The Walt Disney Company has won approval from the Chinese government to build a theme park in Shanghai after a 20-year courtship. The $3.5-billion parknot including resorts and infrastructurewill be one of the largest foreign investments ever in China. The initial resort is slated to open in five or six years and will be slightly bigger than Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: The World Series gave News Corp.’s Fox network world-class ratings last week as the New York Yankees squared off against the Philadelphia Phillies in four much-watched games. Fox can thank baseball for a huge average audience of 14.69 million viewers.

LBN-RECOMMENDS By DUSTIN HOFFMAN (Actor): Id recommend Circle Mirror Transformation, which I just saw at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater on 42nd Street. It takes place in an acting class. I come from that world and it was accurate. Its a wonderful and intimate space with only about 80 seats.

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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-NOTICED: ***Veteran literary manager Peter Miller having drinks at The Avalon Hotel last night. ***Katie Holmes and Anna Paquin taking a break from filming the indie production, “The Romantics,” with meals at the Frisky Oyster and La Cuvee on Long Island’s North Fork. ***Moon-walker Buzz Aldrin in stitches as a buff young man in a revealing astronaut outfit dropped by the Park Avenue apartment of Vivian and Nat Serota for the party for his new book, “Magnificent Desolation,” about his battle to recover from alcoholism. ***Emmy Rossum and boyfriend Adam Duritz were spotted at McDonough’s in Savannah. ***Isla Fisher went shopping at L.A.’s Trina Turk boutique. ***Kara DioGuardi vacationed at the Grand Wailea in Maui with husband Mike McCuddy. ***Zac Efron was seen working out at a Toluca Lake gym. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

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)

DID YOU KNOW: ***The Queen of England has 30 godchildren. ***The word quiz was allegedly invented in the 1830s by a Dublin theater owner named Richard Daly and was a result of a bet where Daly said he could make a nonsensical word known throughout Dublin in 48 hours. This fact is disputed, however. ***A raccoon will eat everything except tomatoes. *** All mammals can get rabies, but viral reservoirs are found in carnivores (foxes, dogs, cats) and bats. ***Rain falls at 11kmph (7mph).

LBN-QUOTE: ” The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people’s money”-Margaret Thatcher.

LBN-HISTORY: On Nov. 4, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, as the country chose him as its first black chief executive.

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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
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WEDNESDAY • NOVEMBER 4, 2009

LBN-INVESTIGATES: As of November 2009, the Earth’s population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6.795 billion. About 227,000 people are added to the world each day.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….Comedian Sarah Silverman….

LBN-QUOTE: ” The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people’s money”-Margaret Thatcher.

LBN-HISTORY: On Nov. 4, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, as the country chose him as its first black chief executive.

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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
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MONDAY • NOVEMBER 2, 2009

HAMID KARZAI DECLARED RE-ELECTED AFTER RUNOFF SCRAPPED, OFFICIALS SAY: Afghan officials on Monday cancelled Saturday’s run-off presidential vote following the withdrawal from the race of the last challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, and declared President Hamid Karzai to be the winner of the country’s fraught elections. President Obama faces a new complication in Afghanistan: Enabling President Hamid Karzai to regain enough legitimacy to help the United States find a way out of the war.

PAKISTAN BOMBER KILLS 34: A suicide bomber killed at least 34 people on Monday as the United Nations removed its expatriate staff workers from the northwest region of Pakistan. The second bombing of its kind in a week, the attack showed the strength of al Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan.

SENATE DAYS AWAY FROM FINANCE BILL: A bill will be introduced “within days” in the Senate to redraw the financial regulatory map and alter the way that rules are put forward by the U.S. Treasury and Congress, the Financial Times reported Monday.

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NORTH KOREA: LET’S TALK: North Korea indicated on Monday that it is prepared to end a year-long boycott of nuclear disarmament talks with the United States. The call comes a week after a North Korean official visited the United States on a rare trip. “The conclusion we have reached is that the direct parties, which are the North and the United States, must first sit down and find a rational solution,” a North Korean government official told an official news agency.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Confronting financial insecurity, companies are keeping more cash on hand than in any time in the past 40 years. In the second quarter, American firms held nearly $1 trillion in cash, up from $876 billion earlier this year. Google, Pepsi, and Texas Instruments all reported higher cash holdings in the last quarter. According to the Wall Street Journal, the cash hoarding is a blessing and a curse: saving more means companies are investing less, damping economic growth, but when the economy does turn around, companies will have more money on hand for hiring and capital expenses. ***Leading executives of many prominent companies including - Intel, Starbucks, Home Depot, McDonalds, Ford Mord Company, Wal-Mart, Exxon read this LBN E-Lert daily.

AMAZING-LBN READERSHIP GROWTH OUTPACES TOP MEDIA: While it may be hard to believe, it true. In the last six (6) months while the combined circulation of the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post has declined, the readership of this LBN E-Lert has grown over 7%. The LBN E-Lert is now read daily by approximately 317,000 people in all 50 of the United States and 24 foreign countries.

LBN-BRUTAL FACT: The 27th Amendment, preventing members of Congress from granting themselves pay raises during the current session, was introduced in 1789 by James Madison, but not ratified until 1992.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***Alarming new research shows that many children taking widely-used antipsychotic medications gain weight and become overweight or obese in as little as 11 weeks. While weight gain is a known side-effect of some antipsychotic drugs, the study suggests that children and teens may be more vulnerable than adults in this respect. Doctors worry that the weight gain, in combination with increases in cholesterol and other blood fats that have also been linked to these drugs, may make these children more prone to cardiac problems in adulthood.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman” is showing little sign of weakening audience support after host David Letterman was shaken by an image-rocking scandal according to media expert and author Michael Levine. ***BusinessWeek president Keith Fox is stepping down but will remain at parent company McGraw-Hill. Fox informed colleagues of his decision on Friday, less than three weeks after McGraw-Hill announced it had reached an agreement to sell BusinessWeek to Bloomberg. ***Bee Shaffer has landed a job. The beautiful daughter of Vogue editor Anna Wintour will be starting work as an assistant to CollegeHumor.com co-creator Ricky Van Veen at his new TV and Web production outfit, Notional, at the end of November. ***Travis Armstrong, the controversial opinion page editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press, has resigned.

NEW BAIL OFFER: A French lawyer for Roman Polanski says he has submitted a new bail offer to a Swiss court to try to free the filmmaker from jail. Lawyer Herve Temime says the offer Monday includes “adequate guarantees” that Polanski will not flee justice if released. The 76-year-old director is awaiting a decision on extradition to the United States.

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LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Daniel Battsek, head of Disney’s specialty label Miramax Films, is being forced out after a series of flops failed to turn around the struggling company behind such films as “No Country for Old Men.” Disney will shut down Miramax’s New York and Los Angeles offices. ***The New York Times reports that GE and Comcast have moved closer to a deal that would give the latter control of NBC Universal. An announcement could come as soon as next week, sources with knowledge of the talks told the newspaper on Sunday. ***Julia Roberts’ Red Om Films has acquired rights to “In the Neighborhood,” a non-fiction book by Peter Lovenheim to be published next April by Perigee, Variety reports. Roberts will produce with Philip Rose and Lisa Gillan. The deal marks the fifth property Red Om has set up through its first-look deal with Reliance Big Entertainment. ***The King of Pop is now the King of the box-office as Sony’s $60 million investment proves to be money well-spent. The Kenny Ortega-directed music documentary “This is It” rocked a worldwide audience to the tune of $101 million in five days of release. An impressive domestic 5-day total of $32.5 million combined with international sales of $68.5 million proves that the Jackson phenomenon is alive and well, particularly overseas.

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LBN-NOTICED: ***Coco Rocha speeding down East 42nd Street in NYC — no helmet, wet hair — on a Razor scooter. ***Model Veronica Varekova leaving town for Rwanda as a new spokeswoman for the African Wildlife Foundation. ***Jessica Alba and husband Cash Warren went on a private tour of the new Hard Rock Hotel Tower in Las Vegas. ***Lamar Odom and wife Khloe Kardashian popped into Buttercake Bakery in L.A.s Sunset Plaza. ***Paris and Nicky Hilton hung out with friends at Nobu restaurant before partying at West Hollywood nightclub Voyeur. ***David Beckham and his son Brooklyn enjoyed a Lakers game at the L.A.s Staple Center. ***BE AN LBN CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

STRUGGLE WITH RACE: South Koreans were taught to take pride in their nations ethnic homogeneity, but in the past seven years the number of foreign residents has doubled.

TOUGH LAW: Britain has become one of the more aggressive countries in attacking the use of cell phones while driving.

LBN-SEE IT:….Music legends David Crosby, 68, and Art Garfunkel, 67,rocked out at the same event in NYC on Thursday.

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (age 29) along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

STOP IT: Nearly all Americans say sending a text message while driving should be illegal, a New York Times/CBS News poll says.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***The Yankees stepped closer to their 27th championship Sunday night, as they beat the Phillies 7-4 in Game 4 of the World Series. The Bronx bombers now lead the series 3-1. With the game tied 4-4 at the top of the ninth inning, Alex Rodriguez scored the go-ahead run that opened the flood gates for the Yankees. As Rodriguez put it, “There’s no question that I’ve never had a bigger hit.” ***Meb Keflezighi has become the first American man to win the New York City Marathon since 1982. Keflezighi, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, earned his first major marathon title Sunday. Born in Eritrea, the 34-year-old became a U.S. citizen in 1998.

LBN-COMMENTARY By Brian Tracy: The Law of Correspondence says that your outer life tends to be a mirror image of your inner life. Everywhere you look, there you are. Everywhere you look, you see yourself reflected back. You do not see the world as it is, but as you areinside. If you want to change what is going on in the world around youyour relationships, results, and rewardsyou have to change what in going on in the world inside you. Fortunately, this is the only part of your life over which you have complete control.

LBN-COMMENTARY By BAY BUCHANAN: According to a recent Gallup study, 40% of Americans view themselves as conservative, 36% call themselves moderate, and only 20% fall into the liberal category. While this may be great news for conservatives, the Grand Old Party did not fare so well.

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By ALLEN GINSBERG: I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night. (1956)

LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: The Obama stimulus plan is helping, but it not nearly enough. Unless something changes, high unemployment will continue for years to come.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PETER BEINART: For many Muslims, Bin Laden was like the drunk guy in the bar who punches the boss that you hate. You might cheer the guy, but you dont want him running the company. And that conviction only grows when he starts aiming his punches at you.

LBN-RECOMMENDS By FRAN DRESCHER (Actress): I would really recommend that every woman read Naomi Wolfs The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. Its a fantastic concept, it says that no matter how high women get on the food chain in the corporate world, because they are women living in a mans world, they dont invest their money in the way that men might. Many of them put most of their money on their back and on their face because regardless of how educated they are or how successful they are or how much money they make, their true value in our society is if they look like a million bucks.

LBN-COMMENTARY By DON BARRETT (LARadio.com): I am currently reading The Instinct to Heal by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber. It is a life changing read that promises to cure depression, anxiety, and stress without drugs and without talk therapy.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:…..

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Frank Jr., Nancy and Tina Sinatra are expected tomorrow at the Paley Center in NYC — plus William Friedkin, Twyla Tharp and photographer George Kalinsky — for the screening of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ 1980 Carnegie Hall concert footage to promote the new box set “Sinatra New York”.

LBN-QUOTE: “Im dumbfounded. After all these years, I still dont get how Broadway works, or what to make of our culture.”-NEIL SIMON, whose Brighton Beach Memoirs became one of the biggest commercial flops on Broadway in recent memory, closing a week after it opened.

LBN-HISTORY: On Nov. 2, 1976, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter defeated Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford, becoming the first U.S. president from the Deep South since the Civil War.

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FRIDAY • OCTOBER 16, 2009

CLINTON CRITICIZES BUSH HANDLING OF AFGHAN CONFLICT: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that President Bush’s administration was “unrealistic” in its dealings with the war in Afghanistan. Clinton told CNN the Bush administration was unrealistic both in terms of the number of U.S. soldiers it committed to the conflict and in its relationship with certain Afghan political leaders.The war was “under resourced” since its start in 2001, she said, and she indicated the Bush administration’s attention was improperly shifted to Iraq.

NEW ELECTION IN AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan presidential election: take two. Western and Afghan officials are suggesting that a runoff is likely in Afghanistan’s disputed presidential race after widespread allegations of fraud wrecked the first vote’s legitimacy, the Wall Street Journal reports. The news is a mixed bag for the White House: On the one hand, a new election could bolster the government in Kabul if it’s perceived as fairer than the previous one, which many saw as rigged in favor of incumbent Hamid Karzai. On the other hand, it could make it difficult to come to a decision on whether to bolster the American troop presence in Afghanistan until the vote’s outcome becomes clear. According to the Journal, results might not come until January, making the delay a significant problem.

WAS BALLOON BOY A HOAX?: America wasted two hours of its collective life Thursday following live coverage of a helium balloon said to contain a frightened six-year-old. Now they’re demanding answers as to whether it was all a hoax after the boy in question, Falcon Heene, was found hiding in his home the whole time. In a CNN interview on Thursday, Falcon answered a question as to why he didn’t reveal himself to his parents even though they were searching the house with authorities by saying to his father: “You had said we did this for a show.” Pressed as to whether the child had let the cat out of the bag on a publicity stunt, Falcon’s father Richard Heene denied the claim. “I’m kind of appalled after all the feelings that I went through, up and down, that you guys are trying to suggest something else,” he said.

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SUICIDE BOMBER HITS PAKISTAN’S PESHAWAR: With a ground invasion imminent, Pakistan is waging an air and artillery battle against Taliban forces in its country, but the enemy is wreaking plenty of havoc of its own. A suicide bomber detonated himself in Peshawar on Friday, killing 12 people. The bombing was only the most recent in a wave of attacks that have killed about 150 people in the past 11 days and included a shockingly brazen assault on the army’s headquarters.

NEPALI TEEN BIDS FOR CROWN OF WORLD’S SMALLEST MAN EVER: A 22 inch-tall Nepali teenager who laid claim to the title of worlds smallest man when he came of age this week says he is looking forward to global fame, international travel and an arranged marriage with a bride of similar stature. When Khagendra Thapa Magar, who weighs just 10lbs, turned 18 he submitted an application to the Guinness Book of World Records, hoping to realise his ambition of being recognised as the planets shortest man, a title currently held by He Pingping of China, who is 28.7 inches tall.

OBAMA’S JUDGE PROBLEM: As the White House works frantically on a diverse set of policy goals, liberal activists say one critical element of Obama’s agenda has slipped through the cracks: judicial confirmations for appellate and district courts. Only three of the president’s 23 nominations for federal judgeships have been confirmed.

BANK OF AMERICA LOSES $2.24B AS LOAN LOSSES RISE: Bank of America Corp. said Friday it lost more than $2 billion in the third quarter as loan losses kept rising, providing further evidence that consumers are still struggling to pay their bills. The nation’s second-largest bank, which lost $2.24 billion after accounting for preferred dividends, said its losses for failed loans came to almost $10 billion during the July-September period, up almost $1 billion from the second quarter. The bank also added $2.1 billion to its reserves to cover bad loans, bringing its provision for credit losses to $11.7 billion. The bank’s total allowance for loan and lease losses sits at $35.83 billion.

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Music legend Jim Peterik along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

SCIENTISTS CREATE ‘SEXUAL TSUNAMI’: Scientists at the University of Toronto found that by genetically tweaking fruit flies so they failed to produce a particular type of pheromone or odour, it turned them irresistible to their species. Professor Joel Levine, who led the study, removed the cuticular hydrocarbon pheromone, used by the flies to communicate. They discovered that when the pheromone was removed, it created a “sexual tsunami” where the bugs proved attractive to one another, regardless of sex. The research found that male fruit flies with no history of homosexuality attempted to mate with their pheromone-free males, according to the research published in journal Nature.

THE NEXT CATHOLIC SCANDAL: Meet Nathan Halbach, a 22-year-old battling brain cancer whom his mother says is being nickel-and-dimed by his biological father, Franciscan priest Henry Willenborg, and by the Catholic Church. While on a retreat to save her failing first marriage 26 years ago, mother Pat Bond fell in love with Father Willenborg, and the two had a sexual relationship that resulted in Nathan and lasted five years, until an enraged young woman showed up at Bond’s house claiming that Father Willenborg had been her lover since she was in high school. Priests who missed out on celibacy class are evidently more common that one might think. According to a 1990 study by scholar A.W. Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine, 20 percent of Catholic priests had continuing sexual relationships with women, while 8 to 10 percent had occasional heterosexual relationships. According to Father Willenborg’s deposition, the church never disciplined him or suggested he leave the priesthood.

BOMB KILLS 4 U.S. TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN: Four U.S. service members died in a roadside bombing attack, and two civilians were killed in crossfire during a military operation, military authorities in Afghanistan said Friday. The bomb attack occurred Thursday in the southern part of the country, but the precise location was not available. Two troops died at the scene and two died later of wounds.

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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Microblog service Twitter is making a foray into viticulture with a wine label: Fledgling Wines. A joint project with San Francisco DIY winery Crushpad and nonprofit literacy organization Room to Read, proceeds from Twitters two winesa Pinot Noir and a Chardonnaywill go toward promoting child literacy in the developing world.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Openly gay actor Jason Stuart guest-starred in The Closer opposite Kyra Sedgwick on TNT recently played a straight man. ***Julian Myers, 91-year-old Hollywood publicist, back from St. George, Utah, where he entered six track and field events in the Huntsman World Senior Games and won three first place and three second. Fourth consecutive year he has done this, winning the long jump, javelin (only second time) and 3,000 meter run, where he holds record for men in the 85-89-year-old division.

LBN-BRUTAL FACT: Indonesia has counted 17,508 islands within its territory.

LBN-THE WORLD OF ART: **David Hockney, who moved to Los Angeles from England in 1964 and is as associated with L.A. as almost any artist, has been living back in Yorkshire with his longtime partner, John Fitzherbert, since 2005. Hockney, now 72 and growing more deaf, is still painting but also making a lot of his art these days on his iPhone and using Photoshop.

MIXED-RACE COUPLE DENIED MARRIAGE LICENSE: An interracial couple was denied a marriage license by a Louisiana justice of the peace, Keith Bardwell, who said he turned them down out of concern for their potential children. Bardwell said he wasnt racist and had done ceremonies for black couples in his house; he explained that his decision to deny a license to Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32, of Hammond, Louisiana, was based on his personal observation that neither white nor black families are accepting of interracial kids.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Almost three (3) years to the date from it’s original release the business book “Broken Windows, Broken Business” remains a international sales phenomena throughout the world.

MONDEGREENS: A mondegreen is a series of words that result from the mishearing of a statement or lyric, creating an often humorous new meaning for the original phrase. Perhaps one of the most famous mondegreens is the misinterpretation of the line “there’s a bad moon on the rise” in Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song “Bad Moon Rising” as “there’s a bathroom on the right.” The word “mondegreen” was coined in 1954 by writer Sylvia Wright and is itself a mondegreen.

LBN-SNAP:….Christy Turlington…

LBN LYRICS OF LIFE By VAN MORRISON:

You can take all the tea in China
Put it in a big brown bag for me
Sail right around the seven oceans
Drop it straight into the deep blue sea
Shes as sweet as tupelo honey
Shes an angel of the first degree
Shes as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee

LBN- COMMENTARY By CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL: In my last column, I joked that with public spending out of control and the piling on of the international bailout bill, economic collapse seems to be the goal of Congress. It is getting harder to joke about such a thing however, as the non-partisan General Accounting Office (GAO) has estimated that the administrations health care plan would actually cost over a trillion dollars. This reality check may have given us a temporary reprieve on this particular disastrous policy, however, an equally disastrous energy policy has reared its ugly head on Capitol Hill.

LBN-RECOMMENDS By RUDY GIULIANI (Former Mayor of New York): I highly recommend the all-new Yankee Stadium. Its magnificentthe best baseball stadium ever built. It captures all of the tradition and feel of the old stadium yet its completely state-of-the-art and much larger. People will be able to go to the restaurants there all year round and get a tour of the stadium even if they cant get to a game.

LBN-RECOMMENDS By DICK MORRIS (Political Commentator and Best-Selling Author): Michael Levine has written a sensational paperback: Guerrilla P.R. 2.0: Wage an Effective Publicity Campaign without Going Broke. It updates - really completely rewrites - an earlier book and gives a comprehensive guide to survival and triumph in the world of new media. The rules of the new media are the opposite of the old media and Levine explains them clearly.

LBN-COMMENTARY By BAN KI-MOON (U.N. Secretary General): Melting ice. Parched landscapes. These are the images of climate change. Last month I visited the Arctic. An icebreaker took me to the Polar ice rim. In just a few decades, the same ship may be able to sail all the way to an ice-free North Pole. - Photograph by Michael Hall.

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By JACK KEROUAC: No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. (1960)

LBN-NOTICED: ***Justin Timberlake was hanging out with Alfonso Ribeiro and a group of friends at Nobu in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. ***Rex Lee celebrated the real-life assistants of Hollywood with a cocktail party hosted by Audi at Bond St. Beverly Hills. ***Alicia Silverstone promoted her new cookbook at Book Soup in West Hollywood. ***Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant were spotted at LAX nightclub in Las Vegas. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN SPORTS INSIDER: ***The Philadelphia Phillies may have suffered plenty of cuts, bruises and blows to their ego, but when Thursday night’s game ended, they were the last ones standing. The Phillies, proving that they still are the baddest bullies on the block, outlasted the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-6 to win Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. The Phillies have beaten the Dodgers in five of six postseason games dating to last year, and will try to put a stranglehold on their title belt today in Game 2 at Dodger Stadium.

MEDIA INSIDER ***Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial.com, has watched as his “Pick Your Five” application exploded in users on Facebook over the past several weeks. Since March, LivingSocial.com’s “Pick Your Five” feature has gone viral millions of times over, attracting up to 150,000 new users per hour and more than 6 million new users in its first week launch alone. The application allows you to pick any of your top five likes or dislikes and share them with your friends. Currently, the application has more than 17,700,000 monthly active users on Facebook.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….David Axelrod,Senior Adviser to the President…..

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Fred Durst just filed for divorce against his wife Esther Nazarov — and the papers say their marriage only lasted a month. Durst filed the papers in L.A. County Superior Court on Tuesday, citing “irreconcilable differences. “In the papers, Durst says they were married from July 13 until August 25. ***They tried to make Anna Nicole Smith go to rehab, but her boyfriend said “No, no no.” Before her death, Smith’s boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, dismissed a physician’s suggestion of drug rehab for Smith, saying it “would kill her,” according to the testimony of the late model’s one-time bodyguard on Thursday during a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to try Stern and two doctors for illegally giving sedatives, opiates, and other drugs to Smith.

DID YOU KNOW: ***During the warm summer days, hippos secrete a reddish, oily fluid, called pink sweat, which acts as a skin conditioner to keep their skin moist. ***Igloos are actually made from a spiral of ice blocks, not rows of ice blocks. ***During the battle of Iwo Jima, 6 Navajo code-talkers sent and received over 800 messages without any errors and without computers. ***An insect exerts so much energy in one hour of flying that it may lose as much as a third of its total body weight during flight.

LBN-QUOTE: “The test of a man’s or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel. Anybody can behave well when things are going smoothly.” - George Bernard Shaw.

LBN-HISTORY: On Oct. 16, 1964, China detonated its first atomic bomb.

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FRIDAY • OCTOBER 9, 2009

OBAMA ACCEPTS NOBEL AS ‘CALL TO ACTION’: President Obama said today he was “surprised and deeply humbled” to win the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. “I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments. But rather as an affirmation of American leadership. … I will accept this award as a call to action.”

NASA’S STRIKE ON MOON WORKED, MISSION OFFICIAL SAYS: NASA said Friday’s rocket and satellite strike on the moon was a success, kicking up enough dust for scientists to determine whether or not there is water on the moon. “We have the data we need to actually address the questions we set out to address,” said Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, mission. It will be awhile before all the data from the satellite can be analyzed to determine if there is water on the moon, according to LCROSS project manager Dan Andrews.

AIRPORTS TO SCREEN PASSENGERS FOR H1N1 SYMPTOMS: With the holiday season just a few weeks away, health officials fear the swine flu will pick up right along with air travel. New government guidelines are on their way, designed to help keep passengers healthy. This flu season, airport staff across the nation won’t just be screening for security threats. They’ll also be looking out for health threats people who look like they may have the H1N1 virus.

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PROPOSALS TO CREATE JOBS ADD UP TO SECOND STIMULUS:
Confronted with big job losses and no sign the U.S. economy is ready to stand on its own, Democrats are working on a growing list of relief efforts, leaving for later how to pay for them, or whether even to bother. Proposals include extending and perhaps expanding a popular tax credit for first-time home buyers, and creating a new credit for companies that add jobs. Taken together, the proposals look a lot like another economic stimulus package, though congressional leaders don’t want to call it that.

FEDS QUIZ 2 MORE IN ALLEGED NYC BOMB PLOT: MENS’ PHOTOS SHOWN TO IMAM WHO ALLEGEDLY WARNED ACCUSED PLOTTER ZAZI: Federal investigators have questioned two men whose photographs were shown to a Muslim religious leader along with a picture of an Afghan immigrant accused of plotting a bomb attack in New York City. Adis Medunjanin, a Bosnian immigrant, met voluntarily with investigators for 14 hours, said Robert Gottlieb, a New York lawyer representing him. Zarein Ahmedzay, a 24-year-old New York City cab driver, also was interviewed by the FBI, said his brother, Nazir Ahmedzay.

NUCLEAR ENGINEER FROM CERN LAB ARRESTED FOR AL-QAEDA LINKS: French agents have arrested a researcher from Europe’s top atomic lab on suspicion of links to al-Qaeda, fuelling fears that terrorists could be targeting the nuclear industry. The 32-year-old man, who was detained along with his brother, works for the prestigious European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) in Geneva, Switzerland, according to French police sources.

EU TO END AIRLINE BAN ON LIQUIDS IN CARRY-ONS: RESTRICTIONS ON FLIERS TO CEASE WHEN NEW SCREENING TECHNOLOGY IS INTRODUCED: The European Union’s top transport official said Friday that restrictions on airline passengers carrying liquids in carry-on luggage will end when new screening technology is introduced. EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said the rules won’t expire as originally planned in April because machines to check bags for liquid explosives aren’t yet widely available.

UCLA STUDENT’S THROAT SLASHED IN CHEMISTRY LAB: 20-YEAR-OLD ATTACKER BOOKED ON SUSPICION OF ATTEMPTED MURDER: A UCLA student has been booked on suspicion of attempted murder in the stabbing of a fellow student in a chemistry lab on campus. Los Angeles Police Officer Sara Faden says 20-year-old Damon Thompson was arrested Thursday in the Young Hall chemistry building shortly after the attack. Authorities say he slashed the woman’s throat in front of other students who were in the undergraduate teaching lab at the time.

OFFICIAL: IRAN READY TO BLOW UP HEART OF ISRAEL AYATOLLAH’S REPRESENTATIVE ISSUES THREAT IF ATTACKED BY JEWISH STATE OR U.S.: Iran would “blow up the heart” of Israel if it was attacked by the Jewish state or the United States, a Revolutionary Guards official was quoted Friday as saying.”Even if one American or Zionist missile hits our country, before the dust settles, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel,” Mojtaba Zolnour said, according to IRNA news agency. Zolnour is a deputy representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the elite Guards force. Iranian officials have previously said Tehran would retaliate in event of an Israeli or U.S. attack.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: *** After more than a century on the sidelines, golf will return to the Olympics at the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. Rugby, last played in 1924, is coming back as well. *** The NBA envisions having franchise teams in European cities, although commissioner David Stern said Thursday there was no timetable for that to happen. Stern was speaking in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, before the first ever NBA exhibition game on the island. “There’s some good possibility over the course of many years, that if there’s appropriate arena development in Europe, there could be actual NBA franchises in Europe,” he said. “That’s the way we see the development of basketball in the world.”

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BUSINESS INSIDER *** Hummer, the off-road vehicle that once was a symbol of Americas love for hulking trucks, is now in the hands of a Chinese heavy equipment maker. General Motors Co. and Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp. finally signed the much-anticipated deal to sell the brand on Friday, according to a joint statement issued by both companies.

MEDIA INSIDER *** In yet another sign that sports is hot, CBS is close to selling out about 80% of its ad inventory for Super Bowl XLIV on Feb.7. It shows that the sports-advertising marketplace seems to be recovering more quickly than other TV venues. Prices range from $2.5 million to $3 million for a 30-second, in-game spot, say insiders. Next year’s Super Bowl will showcase some intriguing ad battles. Rivals PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are committed to the game. Online jobs site Monster is expected to join the fray, lining up for attention against competing advertiser CareerBuilder. Other marketers expected to participate include Hyundai Motor, Bridgestone, GoDaddy.com, and InBev Anheuser-Busch.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***While the War on Christmas may have the holiday on the retreat, General Claus has a secret weapon up his sleeve: Glenn Beck. A new illustrated childrens edition of his gooey Yuletide tale The Christmas Sweater is set to hit shelves later this month. This isnt the first time that weve seen apolitical fiction from a Fox News staple, but it will be the third book Beck has released in five months. Combined with his radio show, his television program, and his live tour/Colonial Williamsburg re-enactment, its no wonder he cries so much. Those are tears of exhaustion.

HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Get ready for more SuBo!Britains Got Talent 2009 runner-up Susan Boyle will make her highly anticipated album debut with I Dreamed A Dream which will be released on Columbia Records on November 24. Many predict the album could be one of the years biggest selling albums during a week in September, its pre-release sales alone topped Whitney Houston and the Beatles at the top of Amazon.coms charts. The full track-listing after the jump!

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By Franklin Delano Roosevelt: There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. (1936)

LBN-SNAP:

LBN-NOTICED: ***Diddy threw himself a bash at L.A.’s Guys and Dolls. Also at Guys and Dolls were Cassie, Brandy and her brother Ray J. ***Pete Wentz and wife Ashlee Simpson Wentz took son Bronx Mowgli to the San Diego Zoo. ***Josh Duhamel enjoyed a night out with friends at Tin Lizzy’s in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood. ***John Mayer had dinner with a friend on the patio of West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont just across from Gerard Butler. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Diddy threw himself a bash at L.A.’s Guys and Dolls. Also at Guys and Dolls were Cassie, Brandy and her brother Ray J. ***Pete Wentz and wife Ashlee Simpson Wentz took son Bronx Mowgli to the San Diego Zoo. ***Josh Duhamel enjoyed a night out with friends at Tin Lizzy’s in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood. ***John Mayer had dinner with a friend on the patio of West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont just across from Gerard Butler. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-SEE IT:

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Elizabeth Taylor said Thursday that her heart surgery was successful, adding that “it was like having a brand new ticker.” The message on her Twitter page comes two days after she announced she was having heart surgery at an undisclosed hospital to repair a leaky valve.“Any prayers you happen to have lying around I would dearly appreciate,” she said Tuesday.

DID YOU KNOW: ***Earth gets heavier every year. Roughly 1000 tons of space dust land of its surface annually. ***In the United States between 1975 - 1995, there were only four states without earthquakes: Florida, Iowa, North Dakota, Wisconsin. ***The first words that Thomas A. Edison spoke into the phonograph were, Mary had a little lamb. ***An egg will float if placed in water in which sugar has been added. ***In ancient Egypt, a Pharaoh would have slaves stand naked in honey to keep the flies away.

LBN-QUOTE: When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear. -Mark Twain.

LNB-HISTORY: On Oct. 9, 1967, Latin American guerrilla leader Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia while attempting to incite revolution.

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WEDNESDAY • SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

POLICE STORM LAB TECH’S HOME: More than 20 police and FBI agents stormed the Middletown, Connecticut apartment of Yale lab technician Raymond Clark late Tuesday night, executing search warrants and naming Clark, 24, as a “person of interest” in the investigation of Yale pharmacology student Annie Le’s murder. New Haven police led Clark away in handcuffs so they could obtain samples of his blood, hair, and skin, reports Newsday. The news came mere hours after the New York Post identified Clark as the polygraph-failing “person of interest” various publications had previously described. According to the Post, police had the apartmentwhich Clark shares with his girlfriend and fianceon lockdown for much of Tuesday.

MILITARY CHIEF SUGGESTS NEED TO ENLARGE U.S. AFGHAN FORCE: The nations top military officer pushed back Tuesday against Democrats who oppose sending additional combat troops to Afghanistan, telling Congress that success would probably require more fighting forces, and certainly much more time. That assessment by the officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stopped short of an explicit request for more troops. But it signals that the military intends to have a public voice in the evolving debate as many Democrats express reluctance to expand the war and President Obama weighs options.

BAUCUS RELEASES HEALTH CARE PROPOSAL: The long-wrangled-over health care proposal by Senator Max Baucus, which has largely become President Obama’s blueprint, comes with a slimmed down price-tag of $856 billion over 10 years.

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CARTER: WILSON OUTBURST RACIST: THIS SHOULD HELP CONSERVATIVES RALLY TO JOE WILSON’S CAUSE: Wilson’s now-infamous “you lie!” outburst during Obama’s health-care speech last week has drawn the ire of former president Jimmy Carter. The Associated Press reports that Carter told a town-hall meeting at his presidential center in Atlanta that he thought Wilson’s “dastardly” heckling was “based on racism” and represented “an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.”House Democrats led a winning 240-179 vote Tuesday to formally sanction Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) for his outburst during Obama’s health-care speech last week.

FDA APPROVES SWINE-FLU VACCINE: The Food and Drug Administration approved the new H1N1 vaccine on Tuesday. Limited supplies will become available during the first week of Octoberabout a week earlier than expected. Then, 45 million more doses will arrive on October 15. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said they’ll be available at 90,000 sites across the country, including schools and clinics.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***Some say that Dr. Richard Pazdur, the man in charge of the nations cancer drug office, makes it too difficult for experimental drugs to come to market.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Huffington Post maven Arianna Huffington is teaming up with former “Friends” writer Greg Malins to develop a sitcom for ABC set in politics. “Freshmen” revolves around three new members of Congress — two men and one woman — who wind up sharing an apartment.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Money and success dont always come hand in handbut for Facebook, they finally do. The social-networking powerhouse turned its first profit, in the second quarter of 2009, it announced Tuesday. Advertising Age notes that the most significant aspect of the news is that Facebook has accomplished its goal without a fully developed advertising business. The company is still tweaking how it advertises to its millions of users, and its virtual gifts products are still in the early stage. The company at the root of Facebooks advertising revenue? The granddaddy of them all, Microsoft. ***Finn M. W. Caspersen, a prominent philanthropist, was suspected of secreting millions of dollars at LGT, a private bank controlled by Liechtensteins royal family. ***Ben S. Bernanke said the U.S. economy was probably growing now, but it would not be sufficient to prevent the unemployment rate from rising. ***Apple Inc. said Tuesday it hired Intel Corp.’s top lawyer, Bruce Sewell, a day after the chip maker announced his departure. ***Apple said Sewell will report to CEO Steve Jobs as the company’s general counsel and senior vice president for legal and government affairs.Vivek Kundra, the federal government’s chief information officer, is pushing agencies to use cloud-based computing to modernize themselves, save money and become more energy-efficient. ***After three decades as one of the nations top-grossing independent restaurants, Tavern on the Green in NYC, facing a decline in profitable corporate events and tourism, filed for bankruptcy.

DR. KLEIN SUES: Dr. Arnold Klein has sued Dr. Steven Hoefflin in the Michael Jackson prescription drug saga — sued him for defamation of character. According to the suit, Dr. Klein claims Dr. Hoefflin told The Sun in the minutes following Jackson’s death, “[Dr. Conrad] Murray definitely called Klein because Klein taught him how to administer Propofol … Murray would have counted on Klein to be the source of Propofol and guide him on its use.” Klein claims Hoefflin’s conduct was “willful, fraudulent, malicious, oppressive and reckless” and was done “with the intent to injure and harm Dr. Klein.”

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol,” the newly released follow-up novel to “The Da Vinci Code,” has broken the first-day sales record for adult fiction at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Doubleday, part of Bertelsmann, is making a first printing of 5 million copies for the U.S. market. ***19-year-old Emmett Rensin, son of David Rensin, has made profitable use of his required reading list of the classics with the sale of “Twitterature” to Penguin U.K. and U.S. Set for a December 2009 release, “Twitterature” answers the burning question — what if the likes of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, William Shakespeare and Jack Kerouac had Twitter accounts?

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***New York based producer Zachary Lezberg has acquired the ShowBiz Expo name and trademark, from previous owners J.D. Events. Under Lezbergs direction, ShowBiz Expo returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center for a one-day show on Saturday, October 17. Plans are to expand ShowBiz Expo into a two-day event in April/May 2010 for NYC and LA respectively. The last time ShowBiz Expo was presented in Los Angeles was in 2002. ***After an all-night negotiation session which ended with a signed contract at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, The Weinstein Company acquired distribution rights to designer-turned-director Tom Ford’s “A Single Man,” the hottest movie at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. ***Final Nielsen numbers show Jay Leno attracted 18.4 million viewers Monday. Meanwhile, the Leno halo gave Conan O’Brien’s “The Tonight Show” a ratings shot, giving the him his best performance in the adults 18-49 demo since June 26.

CLINTON SUPPORTS NEWSOM: It’s pretty unusual to see a former president make an endorsement for governor so early in the campaign - and there will be those who see Clintons decision to side with SF Mayor Gavin Newsom as payback for the bad blood between himself and Jerry Brown during the 1992 race for the White House. Whatever - Newsom gets the endorsement, which may or may not be a big deal as the campaign moves forward.

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LBN-NOTICED: ***Mega-powerful music attorney John Branca having lunch yesterday with old friend Hollywood publicist Michael Levine at the Grill on the Alley in Beverly Hills. ***Jeff and Deborah Wald with Sugar Ray and Bernadette Leonard at the hot, new restaurant The Tavern in Brentwood. *** Jeremy Piven stopped in at Kitson Malibu at the Malibu Lumber Yard with a friend. *** Dave Annable celebrated his birthday with friends and family at L.A.s STK, and later enjoyed blowing out his candles on a cupcake tower at Coco de Ville. ***BE AN LBN CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net,

LBN-COMMENTARY By JOHN STOSSEL: It’s time for a change. Next month, I leave ABC News to start a weekly one-hour prime time show with Fox News.

SUPPORT LBN: You can easily support this LBN E-Lert. Simply CLICK on all of the Sponsor Links. Support our advertisers.

LBN-COMMENTARY By BILL BENNETT: Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, American history is an irreversible force, ever-progressing and changing the course of human history. Within the past five years alone, America established the first modern democratic state in the Middle East and elected the first African-American president in history.

LBN-COMMENTARY By FRANK BRUNI (Author of “Born Round: the Secret History of a Full-Time Eater”): With person after person I met on my book tour, I came to see that our memories aren’t really patchy; they’re patchworks, randomly retrieved bits and scraps that we weave together into something different.

IT’S HERE: The September LBN Eye is here - Click here.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MICHAEL MOORE (Oscar and Emmy-winning director ): My crew and I had one thought in mind while we were filming Capitalism: What if the powers-that-be refuse to give us funding for the next movie after they see what we’ve put in this one?

LBN-COMMENTARY By MAUREEN DOWD: The pressure from House Democrats, and a handful of Republicans, on Joe Wilson to apologize was a rare triumph for civility in a country that seems to have lost all sense of it.

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Famed attorney Russell Frackman and approximately 310,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: Applied Materials is one of the most important U.S. companies youve probably never heard of. It makes the machines that make the microchips that go inside your computer. The chip business, though, is volatile, so in 2004 Mike Splinter, Applied Materialss C.E.O., decided to add a new business line to take advantage of the companys nanotechnology capabilities making the machines that make solar panels. The other day, Splinter gave me a tour of the companys Silicon Valley facility, culminating with a visit to its war room, where Applied maintains a real-time global interaction with all 14 solar panel factories its built around the world in the last two years. I could only laugh because crying would have been too embarrassing. Not a single one is in America.

LBN-COMMENTARY By JOSEPH KEARNS GOODWIN: Without a concerted campaign to root out corruption within the administration of President Hamid Karzai, all Americas efforts there will be in vain.

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By Albert Einstein: Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. (1931)

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Marc Malkin is reporting that Telepicturesthe media company behind Ellen DeGeneres and Tyra Banks showsis looking to develop a View-like show with Kate Gosselin and TV cook Paula Deen. “They’re looking around and casting for other women to be on the show with them,” one source tells Malkin. “But they want all the women to be moms.” Gosselin guest-hosted the View twice this week, unveiling a new hairdo in the process. ***Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay injured his foot during a rehearsal with pro partner Cheryl Burke, People reports. Delay announced the injurywhere else?on Twitter, explaining “may have a stress fracture in my foot. No worries, it’ll take more than that to keep me off the dance floor.” After a doctor’s examination in Los Angeles, Delay tweeted “No stress fracture. It’s a pre-stress fracture. I live for another day.” Docs will decide whether Delay can continue the show, which premieres Sept. 21 on ABC. ***Jude Law’s baby mama, Samantha Burke, is out to land a big-money deal for exclusive photos of their love child — just as Law’s play debuts on Broadway next month. The 24-year-old model’s lawyers are shopping an exclusive interview with Burke and pictures of their daughter to coincide with his run as “Hamlet” at the Broadhurst. ***The architectural world is still buzzing about last week’s memorial service for Charles Gwathmey, who was given 10 eulogies by the likes of Ralph Lauren, Steven Spielberg and Brian Williams in the packed Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum. Universal Studios president Ron Meyer made a lasting impression on the crowd — including Dustin Hoffman, Paul Simon, Lorne Michaels, Charlie Rose and Richard Meier — when he quoted Paris Hilton, saying, “This really, really, really sucks. How the [bleep] could this happen?” ***Malcolm Gladwell, the author of “The Tipping Point” and “Blink,” is said to be an “epic ladies’ man.” But he won’t share secrets. “Since moving to New York in 1996, he’s cast his net wide and deep to amass a staggering tally of conquests,” Sean Macauley reports on TheDailyBeast.com. “There’s been the poetess, the psychotherapist, the photographer, the filmmaker, the fact-checker, the writer at The New Yorker, the bisexual literary siren . . . the tall blonde he took to Bar Blanc last December was so smoking hot, an eyewitness wrote that Gladwell ‘made all the guys in the restaurant want to write their own New York Times best sellers.’ ” But Gladwell refused to spill. “This is utterly ridiculous,” he said. “I write books. I’m a private person . . . I don’t think I want to participate in this at all.” ***Jimmy and Dustin Flynt — nephews of legendary Hustler founder Larry Flynt — are embroiled in a legal battle with their uncle over the use of the Flynt name. In December 2008, the brothers announced plans to launch Flynt Media Corporation, and Uncle Larry immediately took action.

DID YOU KNOW: ***The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. ***There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. ***The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing. ***A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. ***There are more chickens than people in the world.

LBN-QUOTE: “I’d rather have a rectal examination on live TV by a fellow with cold hands than have a Facebook page” — George Clooney.

LBN-HISTORY: On Sept. 16, 1974, President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft evaders.

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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
Contributing Editors: George Gutierrez, Grace Son, Rae Benjamin, Randi Carlson.

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SUNDAY • AUGUST 23, 2009

THOUSANDS AVALANCHE LBN POLL; SIGN TO BOYCOTT SCOTLAND TRAVEL: In the largest reader response in LBN E-Lert history, thousands of E-Lert readers from America to China; from Iraq to South Africa flooded the LBN reader poll to register their passionate support of travel boycott to Scotland, protesting the decision to release a convicted terrorist. The initial poll results showed a 94% support for the travel boycott. The final results of the poll will be delivered to the White House and State Department later this week.

AFGHAN CONFLICT ‘SERIOUS’ AND ‘DETERIORATING’-MULLEN: The situation in Afghanistan is “serious and deteriorating,” Washington’s top military officer said on Sunday. “I think it is serious and it is deteriorating, and I’ve said that over the past couple of years, that the Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated in their tactics,” Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN.

LACK OF SUPPORT: Lack of support from Afghan officials has hindered American efforts to win over residents in a region where the Taliban remain a menacing presence.

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PARTNER IN CRIME: Iraq’s Foreign Minister had a shocking announcement Saturday–he suspects the country’s own security forces of being complicit with the coordinated attack on Wednesday that killed more than 100 people, including many of his employees. “The operation was organized and planned for months,” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. “I don’t rule out that there was collaboration by the security forces.”

LONG TIME COMING: After a cooling of relations, the two Koreas held their first major political meeting in nearly two years on Sunday.

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Megan Kelly from Fox News along with approximately 307,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

SECRET BROKER: Although Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination as health secretary months ago, the former senator is exercising tremendous influence on the shaping of the health-care bill from behind the scenes, the New York Times reports.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***For decades, farmers, lawn care workers and professional green thumbs have relied on the popular weed killer atrazine to protect their crops, golf courses and manicured lawns. But atrazine often washes into water supplies and has become among the most common contaminants in American reservoirs and other sources of drinking water. Now, new research suggests that atrazine may be dangerous at lower concentrations than previously thought. Recent studies suggest that, even at concentrations meeting current federal standards, the chemical may be associated with birth defects, low birth weights and menstrual problems.

LBN-THE “INSIDE” STORY: In Malaysia a Muslim model will receive 6 strokes from a rattan cane after admitting in an Islamic court to the crime of drinking beer in a bar. Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno (pictured above) said yesterday that she asked Malaysian authorities to punish her in public instead of in a prison, but they refused to go against official procedures. Shukarno is scheduled to be the first woman in this Muslim-majority country to be flogged under Islamic law after she was arrested in a raid and sentenced by a sharia court for drinking alcohol at a hotel lounge last year. I want to send a message that I really regret what I did, so I want to be punished in front of other people, Kartika said in a telephone interview from her northern home state of Perak. If other Muslims can see me being caned, I hope it will convince them not to drink.

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY BY RICHARD NIXON: To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President I must put the interests of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad. (1974)

LBN-SEE IT:….Martin Bandier, chief executive of the music publisher Sony/ATV, is always on the hunt for new music catalogs.

—–LBN E-Lert: Charity Link of the Week—–

ELIZABETH EDWARDS OPENS FURNITURE STORE IN NC: The wife of former North Carolina Sen. and presidential candidate John Edwards has opened a furniture store. Multiple media outlets report that Elizabeth Edwards opened the store called Red Window in downtown Chapel Hill on Saturday. Edwards says the store will be similar to The Red Door, a charity store her mother managed in Japan. John Edwards also attended the opening.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Lionel Richie having lunch at One Pico at Shutter’s Hotel in Santa Monica. *** Stephen Moyer was spotted hold hands his two favorite girls, his fiance Anna Paquin and daughter Lilac, while strolling down Main Street in Venice, California. ***90210 starlett Shenae Grimes dinning at West Hollywoods Katsuya restaurant. *** Country sensation, Taylor Swift was seen handing out pizza, cookies, and milk to her fans outside her London hotel. *** Greys Anatomy actor Eric Dane enjoyed breakfast with friends at Kings Road cafe in West Hollywood. ***be an lbn correspondent Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: Greece is just one of the 24 foreign countries with daily LBN E-Lert readers.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***With the jobless rate hovering near double digits, some corporate refugees are taking the entrepreneurial route by necessity. ***Nevada’s unemployment rose to 12.5 percent in July, while joblessness in especially hard-hit Las Vegas surged to 13.1 percent. Its the highest jobless rate both statewide and locally since the state began tracking data in 1976.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Lisa Leslie, one of the W.N.B.A.s original players in 1997, will retire at the age of 37 as the leagues career leader in scoring and rebounding, and as one of its most recognizable pioneers.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MAUREEN DOWD: The real question about Anna Wintour is not whether shes warm she has her furs for that but whether she can stay relevant in a more down-market age.

LBN-COMMENTARY BY MICHAEL SIGMAN (Writer/ Editor, Media Consultant and the president of Major Songs): What are your addictions? Humphrey’s sweet vanilla frozen yogurt with malt and cookie dough. I only have it about once a week, but the classic symptoms of addiction are there: I think about it every day, I always eat too much even though I know I’ll regret it later and the idea I could quit any time I want is a joke. And though I don’t literally consume the Humphries in the closet, only those closest to me know about my compulsion. Many of my friends and acquaintances, in fact, are under the illusion that I’m a fairly normal person.

LBN-COMMENTARY By FRANK RICH: The simmering undertone of violence in our politics seems to be getting darker.

LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: Policy solutions for climate change, poverty, food security and biodiversity need to be as integrated as nature itself.

LBN-COMMENTARY By DR. ANDREW WEIL (Founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine): Sally Field is a talented actor. But what qualifies her to promote Boniva, an osteoporosis drug that is of limited benefit, has worrisome side effects, and for which there are natural alternatives that merit careful consideration?

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:..Steve Jobs…

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Annie Leibovitz is as famous as the people she photographs but now the genius behind the lens is close to financial ruin — a victim, some say, of her own relentless artistic ambition. In what now appears as a disastrous decision to raise funds, Leibovitz took a 24-million-dollar loan from Art Capital Group (ACG) — in effect a high-end pawn broker — in December 2008 using her own photographs as collateral. That debt is due September 8 and if she can’t pay up, she could lose her life’s work. ***Actress Milla Jovovich married director Paul W.S. Anderson in an intimate outdoor ceremony at their home in Beverly Hills on Saturday. ***Hugh Hefner’s estranged wife is suing the Playboy king, claiming he owes her more than $5 million. Kimberly Conrad married Hef back in 1989. They had a prenup. Approximately 9 years later they split but never divorced. When they separated, they signed an amendment to the prenup which guaranteed Kimberly a ton of money. For 10 years, Kimberly has been living in the house next to the Playboy mansion with their two sons. Everything was going swimmingly, until Hef decided to sell the house this year. According to the lawsuit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, Hef allegedly announced he was not going to honor the agreement anymore and she had 9 months to get out of the house.

LBN-DID YOU KNOW: ***No woman may have sex with a man while riding in an ambulance within the boundaries of Tremonton, Utah. ***The Israeli Defense Force allows gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military. ***Ants never sleep. ***Petroleum accounts for over 90% of Saudi Arabias exports. ***The London Underground, which opened in 1863, is the worlds oldest railway system.

LBN-QUOTE: “I will visit the lovely Scotland when, say, Hell freezes over. Their decision to release a convicted terrorist is disgusting. They can do nicely without my money. And I, more importantly, can do without appearing indifferent to the outrageous act of injustice and immortally. Further, I will work hard to encourage my friends and family to join the boycott!”——Nancy S.Revel, Fort Lee, N.J.

LBN-HISTORY: On Aug. 23, 1927, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery.

LBN-FACESPACE:

1.Name: Brooke Kelley, nicname: Brooklynn2.What is your profession? I’m a social and political activist. I co-host a webisode on Freedom.TV. I write and edit magazines, blogs and books. I draw, paint, dance model and sing. I’m a solver of puzzles.
3.Which living person do you most admire?
Ron Paul with second best trailing far behind.
4.Which president of the United States was/is your favorite?
I find them ALL to be too militaristic and power hungry.
5.Do you believe in UFOs?
Most def.
6.Who are your heroes in real life?
Real life heroes? My friends!
7.Whats the most important thing in your life?
The most important thing in my life is working to attain total personal and spiritual freedom.
8.What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I don’t like to talk bad about people, so I’ll just say this: If there’s a problem, then I fix it!
9.Where is your ideal location to live?
On the road. From place to place. Here and there. Flutter, flutter.10.Email and Website:ComposingMoments@gmail.com https://mail.lcoonline.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.restoretherepublic.com/vlog

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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
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FRIDAY • JULY 31, 2009

RECESSION WORSE THAN PRIOR ESTIMATES, REVISIONS SHOW: The first 12 months of the U.S. recession saw the economy shrink more than twice as much as previously estimated, reflecting even bigger declines in consumer spending and housing, revised figures showed. The worlds largest economy contracted 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the last three months of 2008, compared with the 0.8 percent drop previously on the books, the Commerce Department said today in Washington.

OBAMA MORE BARTENDER THAN MEDIATOR AT BEER SUMMIT: President Barack Obama played bartender-in-chief on Thursday at a “beer summit” of the main players in a racially charged case that he hoped would be a “positive lesson” in a national dialogue on race. Obama, the first black U.S. president, said it was a “friendly, thoughtful” conversation over beer at the White House with prominent Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and police Sergeant James Crowley, who is white. ***LBN-VIDEO LINK: VIDEO: Cambridge Cop Says No One Apologized at White House…

RALLY SPURS STOCKS TO ‘09 HIGHS: Stocks rallied Thursday after two days of losses thanks to a smaller-than-expected climb in weekly jobless claims and as second-quarter earnings continued to top estimates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 83.74 points, or 0.9%, to 9154.46 — the highest close since Nov. 4 — after rising as much as 176 points during the trading day. The benchmark is up 40% from its 12-year closing low of 6547.05 hit on March 9.

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W.H. MAKES CEOS PAY FOR LUNCH: Four of the most powerful business leaders in America arrived at the White House one day last month for lunch with President Barack Obama, sitting down in his private dining room just steps from the Oval Office. But even for powerful CEOs, theres no such thing as a free lunch: White House staffers collected credit card numbers for each executive and carefully billed them for the cost of the meal with the president. The White House defended the unusual move as a way to avoid conflicts of interest. But the Bush administration didnt charge presidential guests for meals, one former official said, and at least one etiquette expert found the whole thing unseemly suggesting it was a serious breach of protocol.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS ‘CLUNKERS’ REBATE PLAN WILL GO ON:
The White House said Friday that the “cash for clunkers”
program was still alive even though the $1 billion that
Congress had appropriated for it has already been snapped up.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: In addition to being read daily in all 50 of the United States, this LBN E-Lert is read daily in 23 foreign countries including: China, Mexico, Sweden, India, Greece, Israel, South Africa, New Zealand, England, Italy, France, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Canada, Spain, Australia, among others.

HOME SAFE AND SOUND: Space shuttle Endeavour and its seven astronauts touched down in Florida Friday morning to end a 16-day flight and successful space station construction mission.

GIVE A CALL: Recently the LBN carefully detailed the 13 separate arrests that lifetime criminal Charlie Samuel had before being accused of murdering 17 year old Lily Burk last Friday. We thought a couple of the judges in these cases should hear directly from LBN E-Lert readers so we are listing their names and telephone # for your convenience. How do you feel about an entire justice system that failed to protect a totally innocent young lady in the prime of her life?

LBN-NOTICED: ***Quincy Jones all over St. Tropez, starting with lunch at Club 55, then a soire at Hotel Byblos, where he hooked up with moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, then to the VIP Room with Busta Rhymes. ***David Schwimmer discussing his upcoming appearance on “Entourage” with the show’s executive producer/writer Doug Ellin over lunch at Coffee Shop in NYC. ***Ed Norton and Maria Bello enjoying dinner with friends at Le Chateau Marmont. ***Jessica Alba and daughter Honor Marie hit up Lemonade in West Hollywood for a fun lunch. The next day, the two went hunting for baby clothes together at the boutique Bel Bambini. ***Jamie Foxx was seen partying at the Chicago club Roof. The actor and about 50 guests arrived just before 1 a.m., and he began an impromptu mambo line immediately. ***Angelina Jolie touched down at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank on Thursday after spending nearly two hours in the sky for a flying lesson. ***BE AN LBN CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-THE “INSIDE” STORY: In the UK a woman with multiple sclerosis won her legal battle yesterday on assisted suicide. Debbie Purdy had hoped to secure a guarantee that her husband Omar Puente (both pictured above) would not be prosecuted if he accompanied her to the Dignitas euthanasia clinic in Switzerland. The House of Lords, the highest court in the land, has said that the law against aiding and abetting suicide, which is currently punishable by up to 14 years in jail, cant be changed, but it can be applied or not against the background of individual circumstances. And the Lords have compelled the Director of Public Prosecutions to set out circumstances where they either will or will not apply the law.

LBN-SNAP:….CAA’s legendary Bryan Lourd…

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Havana’s famous seaside avenue, the Malecon, could be mistaken for Hollywood Boulevard this week as four high profile film stars come to the Cuban capital in the splashiest sign yet of warming U.S.-Cuba relations. Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Robert Duvall and James Caan arrived in Cuba on Wednesday, with del Toro in town to pick up an award and the other three working on a “research project,” a spokesman for the group said on Thursday. ***Larry David says the on-screen reunion of the “Seinfeld” cast will be “tough to beat.” The “Seinfeld” co-creator and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator-star says the cast will appear together in the finale of the upcoming seventh season of the HBO comedy series. ***The Walt Disney Co. on Thursday posted a 26 percent drop in profits during its third-quarter from the quarter a year ago due to a decline in revenue at its media networks and theme parks. Despite big marketing pushes on the 3D films “Up” and “Hannah Montana,” movie studio revenue was down 12 percent to $1.26 billion.

CASH FOR CLUNKERS GETS ANOTHER $2 BILLION: The House voted today to spend another $2 billion on the cash for clunkers program. The program offers rebates to car owners who trade in old gas-guzzling vehicles for more fuel-efficient ones. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the program on Monday.

FINANCIAL MESS: Dr. Conrad Murray needed a big payday when he became Michael Jackson’s personal physician last spring. The Las Vegas cardiologist owed at least $780,000 for settlements against his business, outstanding mortgage payments on his house, delinquent student loans, child support and credit cards. And that doesn’t include the $68,000 the distributor of an energy drink says Murray, a one-time business associate, owes for skipping out on payments.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Steven Pleshette Murphy will step down as CEO of Rodale September 1 and be succeeded by Maria Rodale, granddaughter of the company founder and daughter of Robert and Ardath Rodale who both led the publisher at different points. Maria Rodale has been with the company since 1987 and chairman since 2007. In a statement, Murphy said that after a wonderful decade at Rodale, I have decided not to renew my contract and to take time off to pursue my own creative interests.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: Comedy WATCH: Top Ten Things Overheard At The White House Beer Summit.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***The Wall Street Journal is said to be developing a new social network, to be called WSJ Connect, which is described as a “LinkedIn Killer.” The Journal is enlisting News Corp. sibling Slingshot Labs, the media giant’s arm that works on digital products, to help build the site. ***Scott Donaton, the former publisher of Entertainment Weekly, is being named by Interpublic’s Mediabrands to lead a new branded- entertainment unit dubbed Ensemble. Branded content “hasn’t realized its full potential,” says Donaton, previously editor-turned-publisher at Ad Age.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Lisa Diggs, owner of the Catalyst Company, and founder of the Buy Michigan Now campaign (www.buymichigannow.com) received the President’s Call to Service award Monday for contributing more than 4000 hours of community service to the state of Michigan. Diggs received the award, and a personalized letter/certificate from President Barack Obama, for her efforts to revive the Michigan economy by creating a in-state buyer’s guide, convincing Governor Granholm to grant a state-wide proclamation, and for the creation of the first state-wide Buy Michigan Now festival, going on now.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***A study involving 8,652 people between the ages of 51 and 61 found that people who are divorced or widowed have 20% more chronic health conditions, like heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, than married people. In addition, those who remarried had 12% more chronic health conditions than those continuously married, suggesting that divorce has a lingering detrimental impact on health that may never be fully remedied. One shortcoming of the study is that it does not address the impact of marital quality. According to previous research, people who remain in unhappy marriages may be at increased risk for health problems like high blood pressure, depression, and heart disease. ***During consideration of the health care reform bill (H.R. 3200), the House Ways & Means Committee rejected an amendment that would have helped ensure illegal aliens would not receive taxpayer-funded health care benefits.

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SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom along with approximately 300,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Atlanta police have video they believe shows two suspects in the slaying of boxer Vernon Forrest. The surveillance video is from cameras at the gas station where Forrest was robbed Saturday night and a nearby apartment complex. Part of the video shows the suspects pulling into the gas station. Another portion of the video shows them leaving the station. ***Lamar Odom to sign a four-year deal for $33 million with L.A. Lakers.

LBN-COMMENTARY By LARRY FLYNT (Publisher, Hustler Magazine): President Obama: You have proven to be a great campaigner. You have yet to demonstrate your ability to govern. Who needs the Republicans? They dont know what compromise is. Theyre just out to derail your presidency. Bitch slap em at every opportunity and put them in their place. They lost; you didnt.

LBN-COMMENTARY By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Yesterday, Barack Obama was God. Today, he’s fallen from grace, the magic gone, his health care reform dead. If you believed the first idiocy — and half the mainstream media did — you’ll believe the second. Don’t believe either.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MANOHLA DARGIS: Theres something irritatingly self-satisfied about Funny People, which explains why, though it glances on the perils of fame, it mostly affirms its pleasures.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: Many Americans dont understand that getting the government involved in health care wouldnt be radical: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance.

LBN-COMMENTARY