LBN E-Lert

MONDAY • JANUARY 4, 2010

LAX OVERSIGHT CAUSED CRISIS, BERNANKE SAYS: Regulatory failure, not low interest rates, was responsible for the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis of the last decade, Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, said in a speech on Sunday. Mr. Bernanke’s remarks, perhaps his strongest language yet assessing the roots of the financial crisis, came as he awaited confirmation for a second term as Fed chairman and as he sought greater regulatory authority from Congress.

LOUSY ECONOMIC OUTLOOK FOR 2010S: Perhaps we shouldn’t be celebrating the end of the Aughties: According to economists, the 2010s may not be much better. At the American Economic Association’s annual gathering, economic experts offered a bleak outlook for the new decade, with many predicting that the GDP would grow less than two percent per year for the next 10 years.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.

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NEW AIRPORT CRACKDOWN: In response to the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner, the Transportation Security Administration drafted new rules, made effective Sunday at midnight. The Obama administration notified airlines that every passenger from countries on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list and “countries of interest,” including Nigeria, Pakistan, and Yemen, will be patted down and have their belongings searched, and all travelers entering the U.S.

DUBAI HAS TALLEST SKYSCRAPER: The tower of Babylon doesn’t have anything on the Burj Dubai, a roughly 2,684-foot behemoth that is set to open in Dubai on Monday. With more than 160 floors, the Burj is now the world’s tallest building, beating out previous record-holder, The Taipei 101, reportedly by 1,000 feet, although the Burj’s exact height—which expanded considerably during construction—remains a closely guarded secret.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Presumably in response to rather tawdry excerpts from Peter Biskind’s new book, “Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America,” Beatty’s lawyer Bertram Fields has issued a statement denying the book was authorized by the multi-hyphenate. “Mr. Biskind’s tedious and boring book on Mr. Beatty was not authorized by Mr. Beatty and should not be published as an authorized biography,” Fields said in the statement that appeared on The Huffington Post. ***An LBN Investigation reveals that Samuel Clemens (Mart Twain) was born on and died on days when Halley’s comet could be seen. During his life he predicted that he would die when it could be seen.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***News Corp. will do better in 2010 than the previous year thanks to the strong performance of its cable and film businesses, says chief Rupert Murdoch. “In 2009 we had a $3.5 billion operating profit, we will do better in 2010.” Advertising will pick up but not at boom levels, he adds. ***Rock star Bono is calling for tougher controls over the spread of intellectual property online. “The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen the music and newspaper business is the size of the files,” he writes in the New York Times.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***“Avatar” sped past the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office after three weekends in release, making it the fourth-biggest movie of all time. James Cameron’s 3-D sci-fi epic, from News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox, saw sales of $202 million during the New Year holiday weekend. ***Bennett “Ben” Bradley, a well-regarded stage director and producer at Hollywood’s Fountain Theater, was found murdered Saturday night, the victim of multiple stab wounds. A Sunday KABC TV report said that a stage manager went to Bradley’s apartment and discovered his body there when Bradley did not show up for a rehearsal of the Fountain’s next production. A Los Angeles Police Dept. advisory issued Sunday said the attack against Bradley, 59, “occurred at around 5:50 p.m., inside Bradley’s apartment in the 100 block of South New Hampshire Avenue.” ***Noel Kendall, a veteran exhibition and distribution executive, died Dec. 26 after a 14 year battle with cancer, Variety reported Sunday. He was 67. Kendall worked in the film industry for 35 years in film buying, theater operations and distribution. He was most recently in charge of buying for Phoenix-based Harkins Theaters, which added more than 150 screens during his tenure.

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LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Her blood-soaked act is familiar to her fans, but two who saw Lady Gaga (pictured) performed at the Fontainebleau in Miami on New Year’s Eve actually feared she’d been seriously injured. A spy told us, “Two people thought she was hurt and asked security after she was carried offstage if she was OK.” Celebrities including Chance Crawford, Hayden Panettiere and Kevin Connelly sat front-row for the sold-out show before heading to the after-party at Liv, which also drew Bow Wow, Akon and Chris Brown, who “stayed very low-key, sipped water and kept to himself.” ***KABC’s Dave Williams is flipping his drive time shift, moving from mornings with Peter Tilden to afternoon news.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Actress Helen Hunt having dinner at Louise’s Trattoria in Brentwood. ***John Larroquette and his companion buying caps and hats at Fedora Primo in Santa Monica. ***Alan Arkin was seen shopping at the Santa Fe Place Mall in Santa Fe, NM (where he lives) the day after New Years. ***Be an LBN-CORRESPONDENT -Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@Timewire.net.

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STUDY: A study found those who fulfilled their two-year Teach for America commitment showed lower rates of civic involvement afterward than those who declined to join or dropped out.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***CBS says it has sold 95% of its 62 advertising slots for this year’s Super Bowl, despite the fact that two of the event’s longest-running advertisers — Pepsi-Cola and General Motors — plan to pass on the Feb. 7 game. One key to brisk sales: “There’s not one price for ads.” ***Time Warner celebrity news site TMZ plans to launch a sister site devoted to sports. The four-year-old TMZ, which has 110 employees, draws 21 million people worldwide each month, far more than the sites for entrenched rivals like Us Weekly or “Entertainment Tonight.” ***The Jets and Bengals will meet again in the first round of the A.F.C. playoffs on Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati. ***The Cowboys set up a rematch with the Eagles in the first round of the playoffs at Cowboys Stadium after their third consecutive victory and second straight shutout. ***Mattel, the world’s largest toy manufacturer, is scheduled to announce a deal to become the new toy partner of World Wrestling Entertainment. ***According to baseball lore, a curse was placed on the Boston Red Sox after Babe Ruth, the “Bambino,” was sold to the New York Yankees in 1920. Before the sale, the Red Sox had won 5 World Series titles; the Yankees had never even played in a series. Following the sale, the Yankees went on to win 27 World Series titles. The Red Sox, meanwhile, failed to win another series for more than 8 decades, finally breaking the “curse” in 2004. ***A shirtless Tiger Woods graces the cover of the February issue of Vanity Fair.

LBN-BRUTAL FACT: The oldest living things on Earth are believed to be single-cell prokaryotes, more commonly known as bacteria. Scientists have discovered fossils of such prokaryotes from roughly 3.5 billion years ago.

LBN-COMMENTARY By TINA BROWN: Obama was always this guy. When I met him in 2007 along with a small group of New York donors, he was just the same as he is as president. A bit wordy, a bit aloof, a bit theoretical. There was a hint of truculence when challenged to be specific on policy. The gaggle of demanding Park Avenue big shots who shared the elevator with me on the way down were underwhelmed. They also felt vaguely dissed. He had failed to make a fuss of any of them.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: If Obama doesn’t retrieve his spine and retrieve it soon, and then his Presidency will go down in the history books as one of biggest disappointments in American history.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: The odds are that good economic news will be a blip, not an indication that we’re on our way to sustained recovery.

LBN-COMMENTARY By LARRY GROBEL (NY Times Best-Selling Author): The worst movie of 2009: I hate to go against the grain, but in terms of expectations, the most disappointing movie of the year would be Avatar. The story was weak and hackneyed, the bad guys a cliché and one-dimensional, the dialogue sophomoric, and the 3-D wasn’t as exciting as Coraline. Yes, there was beauty in the visuals, I’ll concede that. But for the money spent, and the years it took, this did not come close to meeting one’s high expectations.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell and his wife, Vicky, are furious after discovering their wedding video was being offered on Craigslist as macabre “lost” footage of dead starlet Brittany Murphy, who was a maid of honor at their 2004 ceremony. Cornell claimed the video was stolen and he threatened to sue the popular site, which has removed the video from sale. ***An outraged Angelina Jolie exploded in a rage and threw Brad Pitt out of the house when he staggered home after a tequila-fueled drinking binge, say insiders. “Pack your things and get out!” sources say the enraged actress stormed as Brad tried to defend his guys’ night out.

LBN-QUOTE: “Stronger regulation and supervision aimed at problems with underwriting practices and lenders’ risk management would have been a more effective and surgical approach to constraining the housing bubble than a general increase in interest rates.”-BEN S. BERNANKE, the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

LBN-HISTORY: On Jan. 4, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined the goals of his ‘’Great Society'’ in his State of the Union address.

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SUNDAY • JANUARY 3, 2010

U.S. SHUTS DOWN YEMEN EMBASSY: Suspected bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab may have failed to carry out his mission, but American officials are still worried about the regional affiliate of Al Qaeda in Yemen, the group that President Obama said yesterday was behind the attack. On Sunday, the U.S. shuttered its embassy in Yemen out of fear the group is planning to strike.

SURVIVING ON FOOD STAMPS ALONE: As the Great Recession wears on, Food Stamps use is already at a record high and within those numbers is a fast-growing subcategory of recipients—six million Americans so far—who have no actual cash income. The swift increase has been only partially monitored by authorities and policymakers, and is complicated to track as it includes some recipients that may have found employment or others receiving under-the-table forms of income.

HEALTH-CARE FOES’ LAST RESORT: SUE: A small group of conservative lawmakers and legal scholars are focusing their anti-health-care energies on bringing the overhaul bill before the Supreme Court. Opponents think their last, best hope to stop the bill is to sue, and are arguing that the legislation’s mandate that people get insurance or pay a penalty is unconstitutional.

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CARTOONIST’S ATTACKER TIED TO AL QAEDA: The Somali man who attempted to attack cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in his home on Friday was “suspected of being involved in terror-related activities in East Africa” and had “close ties to the Somali terror organization Al-Shabaab as well as to Al Qaeda leaders in East Africa,” according to Danish authorities.

OBAMA TO PRESSURE WEAKENED IRAN: President Obama’s declared deadline of one year to make progress toward ending an international dispute over Iran’s nuclear program is coming up soon and the Iran he faces today is unrecognizable from the one that first heard his ultimatum.

MOON CRATER COULD SUPPORT COLONY: Another decade passed—and there’s still no colony on the moon. What gives, NASA? Researchers may give the idea a boost, however, with the news that a 260-foot deep, 213-foot wide hole on the moon’s Marius Hills region may be ideal for a lunar base.

TALIBAN CRIPPLES CIA OPERATION: The CIA lost decades of experience in the deadly attack on its Forward Operating Base Chapman in Afghanistan. The head of that intelligence-gathering operation was among the seven killed, and with her death (her name has not been released, though it’s been acknowledged that she was a mother of three) the agency lost 14 years of Afghan experience.

REJECTED: Of the 24 cabinet nominees made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, 17 were rejected and 7 approved, a signal that he cannot count on Parliament for support.

LBN-INVESTIGATE: 100,000,000,000 tons of dynamite would have to be detonated every second to match the energy produced by the sun.

LOST PLANE FOUND IN ICE: After three summers of searching and 97 years after it was abandoned, Australian researchers have unearthed a landmark of exploration—the first plane ever to fly to Antarctica. The plane was used by Australian explorer Douglas Mawson in the early 1900s as a sled-like vehicle, but the extreme cold caused its engine to give out and it was left behind and became buried in ice.

NEW APPROACH: After decades of living on credit, Americans are rearranging their lives to elevate experiences over things.

WEIGHT-LOSS SURGERY HITS THE MASSES: Moderately overweight and diabetic people could soon qualify for bariatric surgery, which limits food intake and often leads to drastic weight loss. Currently only approved for people with a BMI of 40, or 35 with complications, innovations in the procedure are lowering risks and costs—one company is working on an incisionless option that would take only an hour when perfected. The surgery cures more than half of Type-2 diabetes cases, and eases symptoms for heart disease, sleep apnea and other problems.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***Today, the prestigious “5 W Report” www.5WReport.com has name Dr. Robert Jeffrey www.DrRobertJeffrey.com as the Chiropractor of the Year - 2010.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Stores have long used sales and demographic information to better aim their goods at customers. But retailers now have access to a vast trove of digital data — and better tools to make sense of it.

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LBN-NOTICED: ***Tina Fey and husband Jeff Richmond dining at Ouest in NYC and being extraordinarily nice to some German tourists sitting next to them. ***Andrea Bocelli devouring capers at the bar at Le Cirque in NYC while waiting for his dinner companions. ***Usher ordering everything on the menu at Philippe Express in NYC for his posse, and asking for the music to be turned up. ***Charlize Theron at the ME & RO store in Los Angeles buying a Moroccan ring set for herself. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

SEXY TELL-ALL JUMPS INTO BEATTY’S BED: ‘How many women were there? Easier to count the stars in the sky.” But in his rollicking new book “Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America” (Simon & Schuster), biographer Peter Biskind hazards a guess about the conquests of Hollywood’s most notorious lothario — based, he says, on “simple arithmetic.” Biskind estimates “12,775 women, give or take, a figure that does not include daytime quickies, drive-bys, casual groping, stolen kisses and so on.”

LBN-SEE IT: Singer Sade, Yesterday and Today…..

SAILING RIGHT?: We’ve heard of rock ‘n’ roll cruises, literary cruises, even Rosie O’Donnell lesbian family cruises. Now comes the Newsmax Cruise, organized by the conservative magazine and Web site run by Christopher Ruddy and financed by Pittsburgh far-right-winger Richard Mellon Scaife. Departing from Fort Lauderdale on March 21, and returning a week later after stops in Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas, will be Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, John Fund, Ronald Kessler, and pundit Dick Morris. Ads promise cruisers will get “to explore and discuss domestic and international events from a conservative prospectus.”

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Veteran entertainment publicist Nanci Ryder ,along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers”, understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

FORMER DEATH CAMP AUSCHWITZ SAW RECORD 1.3 MILLION VISITORS IN 2009: International interest in the most prominent symbol of the Nazi death machine, the Auschwitz concentration camp, remains high, with a record number of visitors in 2009, officials said Sunday.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PETER BEINART: Ronald Reagan once compared the flow of a presidency to the flow of a movie: Grab their attention at the beginning, coast for a while; then a big finale at the end. When he signs health-care reform in January, Barack Obama will have successfully completed Act One. Health care and the massive stimulus bill passed back in February represent the two most important pieces of progressive legislation in four decades. Domestically, Obama has had the most successful opening act of any president since Reagan himself.

LBN-COMMENTARY By BONO: How is it that the country that made us all fall in love with the automobile has failed, with only a few exceptions, to produce a single family sedan with the style and humor and grace of the cars produced in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s? Put aside the question of whether those models were male (as in longer, lower and wider, Dr. Freud) or female (as in fender skirts, curvy belt lines and, of course, headlights). Either way, they all had sex appeal. (In Ireland in the ’70s, it was the E-Type Jag that made sense of puberty.) Today, however, we have the mundanity of our marriage to the minivan and the S.U.V. and long-term relationships with midsize cars that are, forgive me, a little heavy in the rear cargo hold.

LBN-COMMENTARY By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF: There’s scarcely a form of foreign aid more cost-effective than getting micronutrients like folic acid into the food supply.

LBN-COMMENTARY By CAROLYN BUCIOR: Parents and educators should realize that too often their children’s education is in the hands of unskilled, untrained substitute teachers.

LBN-COMMENTARY By JONATHAN GALASSI: A publisher selects, nurtures, positions and promotes a writer’s work, while an e-book distributor is a purveyor of work that has already been created.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Charlie Sheen’s twin boys Bob and Max will live with only their mother for at least a month, People magazine reports. Child-welfare officials inspected the home Brooke Mueller is renting in Aspen, Colorado, and found her to be a good mom to the 10-month-olds. The inspection last week was in response to a domestic violence-related 911 call Mueller made Christmas Day. The court date for Mueller’s and Sheen’s lawyers to meet was postponed. A new date was not announced. ***Arianna Huffington is on the hunt for an apartment in the Big Apple. The move will allow the author and founder of the Huffington Post to spend more time with her daughters, Isabella and Christina, and at the HuffPo’s Manhattan headquarters. Isabella graduates high school this spring and will join her older sister at Yale this fall. Huffington is looking for an apartment near her Web site’s SoHo offices, but will keep her Beverly Hills home.

LBN-QUOTE: “The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.” - Marcel Pagnol.

LBN-HISTORY: On Jan. 3, 1959, President Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state.

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SATURDAY • JANUARY 2, 2010

BOMBER TRAINED BY AL QAEDA: President Obama used his first radio address of the new year to discuss the failed terror attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Flight 253, making a direct link between that incident, unrest in Yemen, and al Qaeda. “We know that [Mr. Abdulmutallab] travelled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies,” Obama said. “It appears that he joined an affiliate of al Qaeda, and that this group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America.” Obama defended his record on national security, saying that withdrawal from Iraq, increasing troops in Afghanistan, and targeting militants in Yemen, are key to protecting Americans. “All those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on Christmas must know you too will be held to account,” he said.

IRAN AT THE BREAKING POINT: Far from petering out after the summer’s crackdowns, Iran’s opposition movement appears stronger than ever, and the government has responded by shooting protesters, jailing activists, and allegedly assassinating opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi’s nephew.

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CHINA’S SURGING BANKS: American banks may be slow to return to normal lending, but China’s banks are doling out loans like never before, filling a crucial role in the world’s economic recovery. According to The Washington Post, Chinese lending in 2009 was triple the rate from the year before, with $1.3 trillion injected into the world economy by Chinese banks in just the first nine months of the year.

WHITE HOUSE’S MORTGAGE MESS: Looking for a New Year’s resolution, Mr. President? A number of critics say adopting a new foreclosure prevention policy might be a good start. The administration’s $75 billion program is designed to keep homeowners from foreclosure, but some experts say that by lowering mortgage payments on a trial basis for its participants, it may have made things worse for some by only temporarily making their loans sustainable and raising false hopes.

BOMB TAKES HEAVY TOLL AT PAKISTAN SPORTS EVENT: In a village organizing to resist the Taliban, a suicide bomber targeted civilian families, killing at least 89 people.

MAN ATTACKS FAMOUS DANISH CARTOONIST: Danish police shot and wounded a man who was trying to enter the home of 74-year-old cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who drew the controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb in 2005. Westergaard has received several death threats since the cartoons were published along with the work of 12 other cartoonists. They sparked protests and the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Beirut and Damascus in 2006.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***Although it is too early to write the obituary for swine flu, medical experts, already assessing how the first pandemic in 40 years has been handled, have found that while luck played a part, a series of rapid but conservative decisions by federal officials worked out better than many had dared hope. The outbreak highlighted many national weaknesses: old, slow vaccine technology; too much reliance on foreign vaccine factories; some major hospitals pushed to their limits by a relatively mild epidemic.

IT’S HERE (AND NOW)—THE JANUARY LBN EYE: Look at, stare if you want, into the January LBN Eye - Ten (10) unique, compelling photographs from LBN E-Lert readers all over the world - CLICK HERE.

IRAQ TO SUE BLACKWATER: The Iraq government said Friday that it will file a lawsuit against five Blackwater security guards recently cleared of manslaughter charges in the 2007 killing of 17 citizens. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed the charges, citing misconduct of the prosecutors, which has enraged Iraqis who see the shooting as an unprovoked massacre.

LBN-NOTICED: ***California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar and his wife Maria having dinner last night at The Palm in West Hollywood. ***UCLA Football Head coach Rick Neuheisal & wife Susan spotted at the historic Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC basking in the glow of a come from behind win in the EagleBank Bowl sharing some strategies and the goal of bringing the Bruins program to National Prominence with producer Mike Flint and cinematographer Anthony Lewis (son of Jerry). ***Bob Balaban, Gloria Steinem, Nora Ephron, Nick Pileggi and Christine Lahti dining at Orso in NYC. ***Harry Connick Jr. with his daughter, Georgia, 10, at Chez Josephine in NYC. ***Richard Dreyfuss pigging out on pasta at Coppola’s on West 79th Street in NYC. ***Rosie O’Donnell turning heads on Lincoln Road in South Beach with her new girlfriend, mother of six Tracy Kachtick-Anders. ***Football legend Jim Brown at the Blue Door in the Delano in Miami with a bevy of beauties, as Jared Leto arrived with his own pack of pretties. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Fox and Time Warner Cable have ended their marathon negotiations, announcing on New Year’s Day that their standoff was over. It’s unclear how close Time Warner came to meeting Fox’s demand for $1 per subscriber. “We’re happy to have reached a reasonable deal with no disruption in programming for our customers,” said Time Warner Cable’s CEO in a statement. The two companies have been squaring off since Fox has demanded higher cable fees from the cable provider. ***Deborah Howell, former ombudsman at The Washington Post and top editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, died in New Zealand today at age 68 after being struck by a vehicle while on vacation with her husband. ***Rush Limbaugh said Friday that tests show there is nothing wrong with his heart after he was rushed to a Honolulu hospital following chest pains. “The pain was real, and they don’t know what caused it,” Limbaugh said. He added that he is not on painkillers, which he acknowledged an addiction to in 2003, before entering rehab. In the short press conference at the hospital, Limbaugh said he received the best possible care “right here in the United States of America.” “I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the United States health system,” he said. ***Who will replace Simon Cowell on “American Idol”? Bookmaker.com, a leading online gambling site, has a line for those who want to wager. Piers Morgan is the favorite at odds of 2-1 (bet $1, win $2), followed by Sean “Diddy” Combs at 3-1, Quincy Jones at 3½-1, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds at 4-1, Simon Fuller at 6-1, Rob Stevenson at 6-1 and Russell Simmons at 6½-1. Cowell is quitting “Idol” to star in the US version of his “X Factor.” ***Lauren Glassberg of WABC is engaged to Alain Allegretti, chef/owner of popular Provencal restaurant Allegretti on West 22nd Street.

LBN-BRUTAL FACT: Meet the Press, which is the all-time longest-running television show and is still on the air, began in 1945 as a radio show called “American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press.”

IN DEFENSE OF THE AUGHTS: Conventional wisdom is that the last 10 years, labeled the “Decade from Hell” by Time magazine, were a complete disaster. But The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein argues that the criticism may be short-sighted. “In the grand sweep of history… I’d bet the Aughts will be remembered more as the age when the Internet transformed everyday existence than anything else,” Klein writes. “It’s the age of Google, of Wikipedia, of blogs and video on demand and YouTube and e-readers and GPS in our pockets and email everywhere we go and online connectivity from airplanes and Christmas shopping from Amazon.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: One in fourteen women in America is a natural blonde. Only one in sixteen men is.

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LBN-VIDEO LINK: JibJab’s “Never a Year Like ‘09″ ……The clever cats at JibJab have no equal when it comes to cramming a galaxy of knowing cultural allusions into a tiny video space. Here, their authoritative roundup/sendup of 2009, to introduce our own Best of 2009…

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Elton John says he has been helping American rapper Eminen fight drug problems for more than a year. John says Eminem is succeeding in his well-publicized battle against substance abuse.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas has long had a reputation as a lovably wacky player, but no one’s laughing about reports that Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton drew guns on each other during an argument in the team’s locker room. Arenas has nonetheless done his best to find humor in the situation, telling ABC News, “I like the story, it’s intriguing,” and posting messages to his Twitter account about how he’s “the new JOHN WAYNE” and that “media is too funny.”

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LBN-COMMENTARY By JOHN T. BRODERICK Jr. and RONALD M. GEORGE: As more cash-strapped litigants represent themselves in court, the rules should be changed to allow them to obtain legal services on a limited basis.

LBN-COMMENTARY by Michael Chertoff: For years, Americans have focused primarily on overseas-based terrorists as the main threat to our security here at home. But these arrests have raised the question whether the threat from our own countrymen is becoming as significant as that posed by foreigners. Because so much of our security effort over the last few years has been focused abroad or at our own borders, are we now getting more vulnerable to an attack from within?

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***”The Partridge Family” star Danny Bonaduce has been showing off his body art in Jamaica. The actor, now more famous for his troubled personal life, has a tattoo bearing the name of his fiancée, Amy Railsback with the word “Forever,” and the number 11 to signify the date they first kissed. ***”People are starting to see it like drunk driving, and that’s the comparison we need to continue to make.” ***Steve Farley, an Arizona state representative from Tucson who in 2007 first proposed banning texting while driving

LBN-NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS By MANDY MOORE: Start taking guitar lessons—“I’ve started and stopped lessons a million times, but I’m less likely to cancel or make other plans if I’ve made the commitment and am paying someone.

LBN-QUOTE: A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age. – Robert Frost.

LBN-HISTORY: On Jan. 2, 1905, Japanese Gen. Nogi received from Russian Gen. Stoessel at 9 o’clock P.M. a letter formally offering to surrender, ending the Russo-Japanese War.

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THURSDAY • DECEMBER 31, 2009

GOVERNOR ARNOLD - A MASSIVE FAILURE ACCORDING TO LBN READER POLL: Over 80 % of the thousands of LBN E-Lert readers who voted in yesterdays LBN E-Lert Reader Poll described California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a “disaster” who has behavior more like a wild-spending hack than a heroic reformer.

SPY AGENCIES FAILED TO COLLATE CLUES ON TERROR: The National Security Agency four months ago intercepted conversations among leaders of Al Qaeda in Yemen discussing a plot to use a Nigerian man for a coming terrorist attack, but American spy agencies later failed to combine the intercepts with other information that might have disrupted last week’s attempted airline bombing. The electronic intercepts were translated and disseminated across classified computer networks, government officials said on Wednesday, but analysts at the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington did not synthesize the eavesdropping intelligence with information gathered in November when the father of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, now accused of the attempted bombing, visited the United States Embassy in Nigeria to express concerns about his son’s radicalization.

OBAMA GETS PRELIMINARY REPORT TODAY: Obama’s Hawaiian vacation isn’t much of a break. On Thursday, the president will receive a preliminary report on the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Flight 253 over Detroit. The report will focus on how alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to board a flight to America despite his suspected terrorist ties, and will explore how to avoid such incidents in the future. White House officials said Obama was unlikely to comment publicly about the report, although he’d probably talk with his national security team several times during the day.

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LBN-INVESTIGATES (OUTRAGEOUS LAWSUITS): A SPECIAL FIVE PART SERIES- PART 1: 1) Stella Liebeck, of Albuquerque, sued McDonald’s in 1992 after spilling a cup of the restaurant’s coffee, burning her lap several and hospitalizing her for a week. Two years later, a jury award her $160,000 in direct damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages, which a court later reduced to $480,000. They eventually settled ot of court for an undisclosed amount. Liebeck inspired the creation of the Stella Awards, which highlight particularly “wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits”. 2) In 2005, Pearson, a Washington D.C. judge, sued a small mom-and-pop dry cleaner for $54 million for misplacing his pants. The shop’s owners, Jin and Soo Chung, returned the pants a week later, but Pearson refused them, saying they were not his $800 trousers but a cheap imitation. He also sued the Chungs and their son $1,500 each, per day for more than a year, claiming that the store’s signs, which read “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Same Day Service,” were fraudulent. In 2007, a judge ruled in favor of the Chungs and ordered Pearson to pay the couple’s court costs, and possibly their attorney fees as well.

TALIBAN CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR BLAST: The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a military base in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday that killed one Afghan and eight Americans working for the CIA. It was the worst loss of life for the U.S. in Afghanistan since October.

U.S. WARNS OF BALI ATTACK: A New Year’s Eve terrorist attack may be brewing in Bali, according to the U.S. government. The local U.S. Embassy there emailed U.S. citizens on the resort island, quoting the local governor as saying, “There is an indication of an attack on Bali tonight.” The Bali Tourism Board also distributed the warning, and wrote in an email, “While Indonesia’s counterterrorism efforts have been ongoing and partly successful, violent elements have demonstrated a willingness and ability to carry out deadly attacks with little or no warning.” Indonesian authorities did not release additional details, nor did the governor’s office confirm the warning.

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: ***Entertainment attorney David Fox. ***Political commentator Dick Morris. ***Mayor of New York City Mike Bloomberg. ***Radio Talk Show host Judith Regan. ***Hollywood agent Jeff Berg. ***Author Nancy Spears. ***Rock & Roll legend Paul Stanley. ***Prominent Urologist Dr. Peter Loisides. ***USC Law Professor and political commentator Susan Estrich. ***TV hostess and teacher Suzanne Sena. Along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MARTHA ZOLLER (Political Analyst and Radio Talk Host): My favorite TV show is “I Love Lucy” for so many reasons. I loved that Lucy was always trying to break into show business. I loved that Ricky looked just like my dad. I saw the show only in reruns, so I was heart-broken to find out that Desi and Lucy were divorced. I never quite got over it. I still watch it every chance I get, but I would never own it on DVD. It’s something you have to watch on a television set with commercials. It’s just not the same without them. I’m not afraid to admit, I love television. My current passion is Robin Hood on BBC America. When I want to relax, I close the curtains and watch some good television or go to the movies.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***A radio show staffer has confirmed that Rush Limbaugh was taken to a Honolulu hospital with chest pains late Wednesday, but said the conservative talk-show host is now “resting comfortably,” CNN reports. Medics reportedly ferried Limbaugh from the Kahala Hotel and Resort, where he was vacationing, to Queen’s Medical Center in serious condition. ***Millions of homes could see Fox News dropped from their cable package if News Corporation fails to reach a deal with Time Warner on a new contract by Thursday night. The two have been locked in a standoff over distribution rights, with Fox insisting it receive a dollar per month per cable subscriber for access to its shows and live broadcast events, a number that Time Warner feels could create a difficult precedent for other stations.

WHITE HOUSE FIRES BACK AT CHENEY: Former VP Dick Cheney accused President Obama of “trying to pretend” the nation isn’t at war with terror—and the Obama administration is fighting back via the White House blog. In a post entitled “The Same Old Washington Blame Game,” communications director Dan Pfeiffer said not only does Obama understand the gravity of the situation, but he understands it better than Cheney did.

LBN-SEE IT:…..Renown, veteran music publicist Mitchell Schneider……

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***In a year in which Michael Jackson has received an array of posthumous tributes, the Library of Congress will end things with yet another nod to the superstar’s greatness. Jackson’s 14-minute short film “Thriller” was announced as one of 25 works chosen to be preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry for 2009. The Library of Congress said that the John Landis directed video featuring Jackson as a zombie “revolutionized the music industry.”

IRAN PARLIAMENT WANTS OPPOSITION JAILED: In a sign that Iran’s crackdown on anti-government protests is escalating, the country’s state-run news media reports that its parliament is now calling for the arrests of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who ran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this year, in addition to Fa’ezeh Hashemi, daughter of former president Ayatolla Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

LBN- LYRICS OF LIFE By LAURA NYRO:

On a street corner where the kids boogie all night or where the winds sing and the stars shine like holiday lights, come a band of angels, salvation in their might and as for peace on earth…

Feel this love, my brothers and sisters, feel the season turn, she is the mother of time.Wonders that take you, rivers that give, that’s where mother’s spiritual lives.

LBN-RECOMMENDS: The Editors of the Elert proudly recommend SPORT – photography exhibit hosted at The Annenberg. For more information call 213.403.3000 or email info@annenbergspaceforphotography.org.

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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Stock markets will ring out one of their most volatile periods in history Thursday, after a rally that replenished half the losses from the financial crisis.

ROSIE O’DONNELL’S NEW LOVE: Rosie O’Donnell is starting the New Year with a new girlfriend! The former talk show host was spotted walking hand-in-hand in Miami Beach on Tuesday with new gal pal Tracy Kachtick-Anders. Tracy is a Texas-based artist who started the Open Arms Campaign, a non-profit organization to recruit and foster adoptive families that targets the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. She has six children, five of whom are adopted.

LBN-QUESTION - WERE KATHY GRIFFIN AND THE COWARDLY LION - SEPARATED AT BIRTH? Send your vote to: LBNElert@TimeWire.net

CHINA’S ‘EXHAUSTED’ PANDAS: It’s a cruel irony that nature’s most adorable animal steadfastly refuses to make more of itself, even on the brink of extinction. With less than 3,000 giant pandas in the wild, China’s Chengdu Giant Panda Research Institute is crucial to preserving the population—but the notoriously picky animals are refusing to play along. This year only four new baby pandas were born after 18 in 2008, a drop off Chinese researchers attributed to the pandas being “too exhausted” to procreate.

VAN LEFT UNATTENDED IN TIMES SQUARE FOR 2 DAYS: The year might really have gone out with a bang. In an appalling security breach, NYPD officers failed to notice a sinister-looking van illegally parked in plain sight for two days in the heart of Times Square — where hundreds of thousands will gather for New Year’s Eve festivities tonight — red-faced authorities admitted yesterday. It was only after workers at 7 Times Square spotted the vehicle, which was in a no-parking zone with no license plates, plastic bags over the tinted windows and a bogus police placard in the windshield, that the bomb squad evacuated buildings, cordoned off streets and pored over the van.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Newly single Susan Sarandon and a guy resembling her alleged ping pong paramour Jonathan Bricklin made a pit stop at Mermaid Oyster Bar in the Village Tuesday night. ***Silvano Marchetto, who played a cardinal in “Angels & Demons” and got his Screen Actors Guild card, at his restaurant Da Silvano in NYC, asking Frank Capra III to put him in “Cop Out,” now shooting in town with Bruce Willis. ***Zac Posen hosting nine friends for dinner at Le Caprice in NYC, surrounded by Coco Rocha, Oscar de la Renta, Sienna Miller and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-RECOMMENDS by MICHAEL LEVINE (Hollywood Media Expert and Best-Selling Author): The new Bob Dylan “Must Be Santa” video asks the dual question: Has he gone off the deep end, or have we for worshiping his every move? The latest video is a mind-trip even by Dylan standards and I’m afraid I have once again been seduced by his unpredictable genius. Is there no end to the Dylan mystic? Not that I, or anyone else I respect can see. None.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Business expert, lifestyle guru and best-selling author Susie Coelho (http://www.susiecoelho.com/), a regular panelist on the Fox Business Network’s Cavuto, went head-to-head with esteemed guests Tuesday on such topics as executive bonuses in the wake of the meltdown on Wall Street and JP Morgan’s intent to scrap plans for a European bank because of England’s big bonus tax. Observed Coelho, “In the aftermath of the bailout, big banks are saying to the American people ‘thanks for the Get Out of Jail Free Card,’ it’s high-risk, no repercussion business as usual.” ***Pulling a knife on someone on Christmas—nothing a good heart-to-heart can’t get over, right? Brooke Mueller, wife of Charlie Sheen, has asked the judge who placed a restraining order on Sheen to modify the order and allow her and the actor to contact each other “so they can work on resolving the conflicts in their marriage.” According to Mueller’s lawyer, Yale Galanter, the domestic disturbance on Christmas was “one bad night,” and the two still love each other. ***Paris Hilton stole my insole! So claims a shoe company suing her over the design of a heart-shaped insole she allegedly copied from them. New York-based Gwyneth Shoes says it patented the heart pad in 2007, months before the February 2008 launch of Paris Hilton Footwear. ***Abraham Lincoln was not gay, no matter what playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer says — according to Harold Holzer, whose written 35 books about our 16th president and the Civil War. The subject came up in this week’s New York magazine story about Kramer — co-founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT UP — and his 4,000-page manuscript, “The American People,” which claims that George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Lewis and Clark and Lincoln were all homosexuals. ***TMZ has learned Dr. Arnold Klein, who treated Michael Jackson for decades, had an office employee who just died … an employee who had a history of drug abuse, even while working for Dr. Klein. Bruce Ayers, who worked for three years as Dr. Klein’s research assistant and confidant, was found dead on a sidewalk on December 18 in Los Angeles. Dr. Klein tells TMZ he fired the 44-year-old Ayers in February, after learning Ayers was allegedly stealing drugs and money from Klein’s office.

LBN-QUOTE: “Think of what it took for the father, one of the most respected bankers in Nigeria, to walk into the American Embassy and turn in his own son. The father’s a hero. His visit by itself should have been enough to set off all kinds of alarms.” THOMAS H. KEAN, chairman of the 9/11 commission, on Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, whose son is charged with trying to blow up an American jetliner.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 31, 1946, President Harry S. Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
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TUESDAY • DECEMBER 29, 2009

U.S. HAD INFORMATION BEFORE CHRISTMAS OF A TERROR PLOT:

The United States government had intelligence about a possible Al Qaeda attack around the holidays and had more information about where the suspect had been and what some of his plans were, an official said.

Some of the information at the time was partial or incomplete and it was not obvious that it was connected, the official said, but in retrospect it now appears clear that had it all been examined together it would have pointed to a pending attack involving the Nigerian suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Mr. Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to carry out a bombing on a Detroit-bound flight Christmas Day.

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TUESDAY • DECEMBER 29, 2009

THE RETURN OF TERROR POLITICS: When President Obama spoke out on the terrorism scare in Detroit, Michigan, he entered a debate that had already begun over his administration’s new approach to combating terrorism. “As a nation we will do everything in our power to protect our country,” Obama said while vacationing in Hawaii. “We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland.”

PUTIN: RUSSIA TO DEVELOP OFFENSIVE WEAPONS TO KEEP BALANCE WITH U.S.: Russia needs to develop “offensive strike systems” to preserve strategic balance with the United States, without producing its own missile defense, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday. Putin’s comment, made at a press briefing in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, echoed a similar call from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week.

CONDEMNATION AS CHINA EXECUTES BRITON FOR DRUG SMUGGLING: The British government condemned China’s execution of a British national Tuesday on drug smuggling charges.”I … am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. “I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken.” Akmal Shaikh was convicted of carrying up to 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of heroin at the Urumqi Airport in September 2007. According to Chinese law, 50 grams (1.76 ounces) is the threshold for the death penalty.

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AIRPORTS SLOW TO RECEIVE WHOLE-BODY IMAGING SCANNERS: Only 19 U.S. airports have received sophisticated imaging machines that can detect explosives hidden in clothing. Security experts say the scanners may be the best defense in stopping attacks such as an attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound aircraft Christmas Day. The Transportation Security Administration wants to install more of the devices, known as whole-body imaging scanners, but the agency has met resistance from civil liberties groups, passengers and some members of Congress.

SNOWED IN: GPS STRANDS COUPLE IN SNOW FOR 3 DAYS: CHOOSING THE SHORT ROUTE LEFT THEM SNOW BOUND, CELL PHONE GPS SAVED THEM: A Nevada couple letting their SUV’s navigation system guide them through the high desert of Eastern Oregon got stuck in snow for three days when the GPS unit sent them down a remote forest road. On Sunday, atmospheric conditions apparently changed enough for their GPS-enabled cell phone to get a weak signal and relay coordinates to a dispatcher, Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger said.

BRISTOL PALIN SEEKS FULL CUSTODY OF BABY: JUDGE’S RULING REVEALS HEATED LEGAL BATTLE WITH LEVI JOHNSTON: A judge’s ruling has revealed a heated legal custody battle between Sarah Palin’s daughter and the father of her grandson. Bristol Palin’s request to keep the proceedings closed was denied last week by a Superior Court judge. A temporary order had authorized the use of pseudonyms while the court was considering the request, which stated that no good “could result to the child by an onslaught of media.”

IRAN MAKES NEW WAVE OF ARRESTS, BLASTS WEST: NOBEL LAUREATE’S SISTER IS HELD; MINISTER SAYS U.K. WILL GET ‘SLAP IN THE MOUTH’: Iranian security forces made a wave of new arrests Tuesday, including Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi’s sister and a relative of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, pressing forward with a broadening crackdown on the reformist movement in the wake of deadly protests this week.Meantime, state media reported that tens of thousands of government supporters rallied on Tuesday while the government accused Western countries of fomenting the violence.

BRAZILIAN KIN TO FIGHT TO GET BOY BACK FROM U.S.: GRANDMOTHER REQUESTS THAT COURT HEAR 9-YEAR-OLD SEAN GOLDMAN’S WISHES: The Brazilian family of a 9-year-old boy returned by court order to his U.S. father said Tuesday it will fight to regain custody. Lawyers for the Brazilian relatives of Sean Goldman said they will push forward with a request from his Brazilian grandmother to allow the boy to make his wishes known in court.The request was initially denied but the Supreme Court has not issued a final ruling.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***About Face is the first coffee table book published by Pixie Press Worldwide. It is a collector-edition book of b & w photos of male celebrities shot on vintage Polaroid film by celebrity photographer John Russo. This is a passion project of the publisher’s and proceeds from the book will go to Smile Train, an awesome charity that has performed more than 500,000 free cleft palate surgeries on children around the world.

SMUGGLING: Iran seeking to smuggle 1,350 tons of uranium from Kazakhstan, intelligence report says. Story is developing.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Home prices rose modestly in October but beneath the apparent good news were some disquieting signs of deterioration. Analysts expect prices this winter to resume their descent, putting fresh pressure on the fragile economy. ***Companies Urge Workers to ‘Stay Union-Free’ as Labor Bill Looms. With Obama supporting a ‘check-card’ bill to make unionizing easier, U.S. business gears up in push to fight legislation. ***Google’s computer operating system, due to be released next year, may rank among software most targeted by hackers in 2010, according to a Dec. 29 report from the computer security company McAfee. ***The Los Angeles-based law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp (MS&K) announced that renowned entertainment industry executive John Schulman will join the firm as a partner and the chairman of its entertainment department, effective January 1, 2010.

LBN HEALTH WATCH: ***Group health premiums have jumped double-digits some years, with the largest increases hitting small business. A relatively new health plan option (introduced in 2004) offers hope. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) work in IRA-like fashion to cover out-of-pocket medical costs with tax-sheltered money. An HSA is an investment account funded by each individual, with optional contributions from your business. Money from the HSA pays health expenses until the insurance kicks in. ***Florida is debating a proposed amendment to its state constitution that would try to block, at least symbolically, much of the proposed federal health care overhaul on the grounds that it tramples individual liberty.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: Warner Bros. declared Monday it will set a new industry record in reaching $3.99 billion in worldwide ticket sales in 2009. “We’re really proud of this achievement, and it was only possible through the combined efforts of an incredibly talented group of people, including everyone involved with the creation, production, marketing and distribution of more than two dozen films worldwide over the last 12 months,” Warner Bros. Pictures Group prexy Jeff Robinov said. “Hangover” grossed over $300 million and become the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. Warners has several titles in the market, included newcomer “Sherlock Holmes,” which debuted to $62.5 million over Christmas weekend, “The Blind Side” and “Invictus.” But the top worldwide grosser of 2009 was Warners’ “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” with $934 million.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***University officials on Monday suspended Mike Leach while the school investigates complaints from receiver Adam James and his family about how the player was treated after a concussion in practice earlier this month. ***Colts coach Jim Caldwell will not second-guess the decision to rest his starters Sunday. Jim Caldwell believes he made the right call Sunday. Caldwell pulled Indy starters early in third quarter of loss to Jets. Caldwell said players were supportive of the decision.

LBN-RECOMMENDS: The Editors of the LBN E-lert recommend Just 45 Minutes from Broadway – Playing at The Edgemar Center for Art. For tickets and additional information call 210-399- 3666 or email info@edgemar.com.

LBN-SEE IT:….I hate my parents…

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LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***CBS‘ Monday lineup showed its resilience by dominating a rerun-filled night. Repeats of CBS’ flagship comedies “The Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” were the highest-rated programs of the night by a mile. *** “Transformers” star Megan Fox was overwhelmingly voted both the year’s sexiest female actress, and the actress who gave the worst performance of the 2009, according to an online poll released Monday. ***For more than 60 years, TV stations have broadcast news, sports and entertainment for free and made their money by showing commercials. That might not work much longer. The networks and local stations are mimicking what cable channels do: They’re charging pay-TV companies such as DirecTV and Comcast a monthly fee per subscriber to carry their programming. The changes could mean higher cable or satellite TV bills, as the networks and local stations squeeze more fees from pay-TV.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***A recent feature in the LA Times has created heat for the career of Mateo, a blond, white musical genius from New Hampshire who emerged from serving nearly five years in the California state penitentiary as one of the premier mariachi and bolero singers in the Americas. Mateo has sold thousands of copies of his CDs singing in restaurants and on the streets of East L.A., but has always struggled financially.

LBN-COMMENTARY By MICHAEL SIGMAN (President of Major Songs): My favorite tv show of all time is The Sopranos. Start with the best TV theme song, proceed to the most astonishing performance in all of TV (James Gandolfini and Tony, of course), then throw in brilliant scripts and amazing supporting actors. There was a season or two that didn’t quite hold up, and the series ending was disappointing, but overall, no series can match it. What sets it apart from other great crime series like The Wire is the hilarious dialogue.

EXPAND YOUR REACH: The LBN audience wants to know you. You can advertise in the LBN E-Lert and reach all 317,000 “influencers”. E-mail for information, LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LOOK INTO THE (LBN) JANUARY EYE: Ten (10) of the world’s most provocative, interesting, original, unusual, alluring photographs in the word- CLICK HERE.

LBN-NOTICED: *** Marcus Allen, former NFL star leaving Urth Café in Beverly Hills. ***The supermodel Heidi Klum and hubby Seal took their kids ice skating while on vacation in Aspen, Colorado, on Monday. **** Kanye West and his lady friend Amber Rose hit up the Grove shopping mall in LA for the post-Christmas sales. ***LiL’Wayne performed a farewell concert in his home town of New Orleans yesterday to thank his fans, family and friends for their support before he heads off to prison. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***James Sullivan, the drummer for the Huntington Beach rock band Avenged Sevenfold, died on Monday, according to Orange County authorities. The cause of death is still under investigation. Sullivan, 28, was found unresponsive inside his home. ***The White House’s so-called “money-hunk” is engaged.Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag is set to marry ABC News correspondent Bianna Golodryga, Golodryga announced on ABC’s Good Morning America Tuesday.The couple first met at the White House Correspondents Dinner last May, and the man who White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once said “made nerdy sexy” soon won Golodryga’s heart. ***Joe Francis The “Girls Gone Wild” founder is vowing to sue Gawker.com for $10 million after the Web site labeled Francis “a rapist” while crowning him the winner of its “Douche of the Decade” poll. Francis claims, being labeled as “a rapist” cost him a $10 million dollar deal. ***Jane Fonda, who now lives with boyfriend Richard Perry in Los Angeles invited friends Al Pacino, Warren Beatty and Sean Penn to have dinner at Perry’s home. ***Eye surgeon Jeff Dello Russo celebrated his 40th birthday this month at his loft on East 20th Street, Chef Rocco DiSpirito decided the sangria needed a kick, so he spiked it with Grand Marnier. Word spread and models started crashing. When neighbors’ complaints shut the party down at 3 a.m., Damion Luaiye, the notoriously selective doorman from Rose Bar, invited the diehards to his lounge for a nightcap. ****Private eye Bo Dietl has a new best friend: Gov. Paterson, who came to his Christmas party last week in the private room at Sparks Steak House, where business reporter Charlie Gasparino, former Jets linebacker Greg Buttle and Judge Edwin Torres were spreading yuletide cheer.

LBN-QUOTE: A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. - Lao Tzu.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 29, On Dec. 29, 1940, during World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
Contributing Editors: Sargam Pathak, Rachel Yip, Marissa Stone, Rita Elias, Marlynn Duran.

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MONDAY • DECEMBER 28, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: GOODNESS GRACIOUS, GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!:

A singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains of al Qaeda’s attempt to down an American passenger plane over Detroit.

As seen in these photos, the alleged bomb consisted of a packet of powder sewn into the briefs of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian. Al Qaeda took credit Monday for the attempted bombing, boasted of its ability to overcome U.S. intelligence and airport security, and promised new attacks.

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MONDAY • DECEMBER 28, 2009

FLIP-FLOP! NAPOLITANO CHANGES HER MIND: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed. Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, a young man on the U.S. watch list was given a visa and allowed to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with a powerful explosive hidden on his body. A day after saying the system worked, Napolitano backtracked, saying her words had been taken out of context. “Our system did not work in this instance,” she said on NBC’s “Today” show. “No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way.”

OBAMA ORDERS AIRLINE SECURITY REVIEW : In the wake of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s alleged attempt to blow up a transcontinental airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day, President Obama ordered on Sunday a review of two major components of airport security: watch lists and the equipment used at airport checkpoints.

AMERICA’S COVERT WAR IN YEMEN: THIS OUGHT TO PLEASE JOE LIEBERMAN: A day after the Connecticut senator called for preemptive action there, The New York Times writes “the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against al Qaeda in Yemen.” A year ago—well before the Christmas attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by a Nigerian allegedly “trained and equipped” in al Qaeda in Yemen—the CIA sent several of its top counterterrorism operatives to the country, and Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics. American officials said Yemen could become Al Qaeda’s next operational and training hub, rivaling the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan.

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IRAN SQUEEZES MOUSAVI: A day after opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi’s nephew died during a crackdown that reportedly killed nine others, the Iranian government is keeping up the pressure on Mousavi.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***With less than a week left until the end of the year, the U.S. stock market looks well-positioned to close on a high. Compared with last year’s global financial fallout, the S&P 500 is “poised for what could be the best year since 2003.” The S&P is up 66.5 percent since the economy bottomed out in March, whereas in 2008 it was down 38.5 percent. For 2009, the Dow is up 19.9 percent and the NASDAQ is up 45 percent. ***Good news for the economy, bad news for people who like fire sales: Holiday sales rose 3.6 percent between November 1, and December 24, a small rebound that should help retailers avoid the disaster they faced last year after a 2.3 percent drop. Profits are expected to rise as well, since retailers had a whole year to plan their inventories to match consumer demand. Online sales, meanwhile, surged 15.5 percent, though they still make up less than 10 percent of all sales. ***In difficult times, a spate of ad campaigns is focusing on love, including pitches for BlackBerry, Subaru and Lens Crafters.

TOUGH ON TRAVELERS: Passengers at airports around the world encountered extra security, with international travelers undergoing new bag inspections, body searches and questioning.

WINNING: Openly gay candidates are winning elections more often, even in states that passed bans on same-sex marriage.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***The highest grossing box-office weekend of all time was led by “Avatar,” “Sherlock Holmes” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” With an estimated total for the three-day (F-S-S) of $278 million, the July 2008 record of $260.8 million is history. The box-office is now virtually assured to reach $10.5 billion for the year.” Avatar” surged past “Sherlock Holmes” for top position in a film lineup that took in a record $278 million in the U.S. ***Tom Strickler, an Endeavor partner who left voluntarily rather than join the new agency, said by e-mail, that he had just returned from a road trip that involved climbing in the Cordillera Huayhuash in northern Peru, coastal exploration in Chile and Brazil, cricket lessons in Sri Lanka, a trek in the Himalayas, volunteer work at an orphanage in Calcutta, and an electronic music festival in Serbia. “I am now beginning the long journey to start a nonprofit organization in the field of education,” Mr. Strickler said. ***Cassian Elwes, who for years headed a vigorous independent-film operation at Morris, only to find himself out, said of his current status, “I’m on vacation.” ***Reprises like “The Fugitive,” “Bionic Woman” and “Melrose Place” have fared poorly, and yet next fall will bring “The Rockford Files”, “Charlie’s Angels” and “Hawaii Five-O”.

LBN-SEE IT: Clint Eastwood

2 MEN DETAINED ON AZ FLIGHT: Calm your nerves, America: Two men were detained on a flight from Orlando, Florida to Phoenix, Arizona in what appears to be a case of mass hysteria. The men attracted the other passengers’ attention by “talking loudly to each other in a foreign language” and when one got out of his seat while the seatbelt sign was still lit. Also, one of the men was thought to be watching video of a suicide bombing; turns out that it was the 2007 Jamie Foxx movie The Kingdom. Nothing dangerous was found when the men and their possessions were searched; they were released after questioning.

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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Curtis Sliwa will soon be back on morning-drive time radio. The Guardian Angels’ founder starts Jan. 11 on AM 970 the Apple. Sliwa has been a radio broadcaster for almost two decades, most of that time on WABC, where he began his career in 1990 and where he partnered with radical lawyer Ron Kuby for eight years before Citadel Broadcasting replaced the team with Don Imus. ***Meryl Streep, Mike Nichols, Yo-Yo Ma and Eva Longoria discover they are distant cousins in PBS‘ “Faces of America” with Henry Louis Gates Jr. The four-part documentary airing in February uses DNA to explore the genealogy of 12 famous Americans. ***Ad revenue fell this year at TMZ, but that isn’t stopping Warner Brothers from investing in a new venture: TMZ Sports.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Martial arts manager Darin Harvey having dinner last night with his son Tanner at the California Pizza Kitchen in Brentwood. ***Kiefer Sutherland and Jon Bon Jovi dining together at Lure Fishbar in NYC ***Jude Law and on- again girlfriend Sienna Miller at a casual brunch in the backroom at Swifty’s in NYC. ***Willem Dafoe and West African singer Angélique Kidjo dancing and singing during a photo shoot for Britain’s Independent at the Cooper Square Hotel penthouse in NYC. President Obama and his family stayed at the Kailua Guesthouse Hotel in Hau‘oli,Hawaii. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understands that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***The New York Jets beat the Indianapolis Colts 29-15 on Sunday, ending the Colts’ perfect season and, improbably, earning themselves a shot at the playoffs. The victory came after a curious coaching decision by Colts coach Jim Caldwell, he benched quarterback Peyton Manning in the third quarter and replaced him with third-string rookie quarterback Curtis Painter. ***L.A based massage therapist Steve Oskard recieved the (www.RemedyOnLine.com) prestigious “5 W Award”www.5WRepot.com for best sports massage in 2009.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: Everyday, more money is printed for Monopoly sets than for the U.S. Treasury.

LBN-COMMENTARY By TUNKU VARADARAJAN: A more telling commentary on our state of mind—a commentary, in truth, on the extent to which we have become injured to threats of terrorism,is the swiftness with which our popular culture has made light of the episode. “Fruit of the Loon,” blared the front page of the New York Daily News, in a play on the name of an underwear brand (owned, it turns out, by Warren Buffett). Twitter and Facebook chat has dwelt on how the inconvenient anatomical location of the bomber’s burns would make his eventual tryst with 72 virgins a forlorn affair. People are asking when the last time it was that a Dutchman tackled a Nigerian outside a soccer field, and making quips about an Islamist “boxer rebellion,” a terrorist “brotherhood of the traveling pants,” a “jock-strap jihad,” and a “new Y-front in the war on terror.

LBN-MEDIA TRACKER:

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

LBN-COMMENTARY By JANET MASLIN: Jan. 8 will be the 75th anniversary of the birth of Elvis Presley. Don’t fear that this milestone will be celebrated too quietly. Elvis 75 (a shorthand moniker for the event itself, as well as the title of a new greatest-hits collection) will bring an onslaught of commemorative festivities and products, like parties at Graceland, concerts with Elvis impersonators and a movie suggesting that Presley, who died on Aug. 16, 1977, has spent the last three decades in outer space. It will bring everything except realistic thoughts of what the uncontrollably self-destructive Elvis might have been like as a 75-year-old man. Naturally, there are books. Lots and lots of books. Among the standouts — beyond a tell-all by the doctor who knows a lot about Presley’s death and a hagiography from the lifelong buddy who is fond of saying that America has had many presidents but only one King — is Alanna Nash’s long look at Elvis’s bizarre history with women. She has cleverly borrowed one of his most seductive song titles, “Baby, Let’s Play House.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: Let’s bid a not at all fond farewell to the Big Zero — the decade in which we achieved nothing and learned nothing.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: A Year In Review: http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/never_a_year_like_09?cmpid=1261

LBN-COMMENTARY By GERALD POSNER: The Los Angeles District Attorney’s team probing the death of Michael Jackson has decided not to pursue murder charges against the singer’s doctor when it presents its case to a grand jury early next year, a source familiar with the investigation tells The Daily Beast. Instead, the source says, the DA will likely ask for a manslaughter indictment against Conrad Murray, Jackson’s in-house physician when he died. In cases like this in California, it is ultimately up to the grand jury to decide what the final charges are, but in the large majority of cases, they defer to the prosecutor’s request.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***TMZ has released a previously unpublished photo that appears to show John F. Kennedy tanning on a boat as two naked women jump off into the ocean, and two more tan in the nude on the upper deck. The photo, believed to be taken during a Mediterranean boat trip that then-senator JFK took with brother Ted Kennedy and Senator George Smathers in 1956, has been authenticated by multiple experts. At the time of the trip, Jackie Kennedy was pregnant, and had an emergency C-section that resulted in a stillborn child while JFK was on the boat. The picture could have, as TMZ put it, “torpedoed” Kennedy’s presidential run if it had surfaced during the 1960 presidential election. ***Brooke Mueller told police that Charlie Sheen used a knife to threaten her at a home in Aspen, Colorado, TMZ reports. Sheen landed in jail on Christmas Day for domestic abuse, including felony menacing, which involves a threat with a deadly weapon. According to TMZ, Mueller has recanted much of her story, and was legally drunk with a .13 blood alcohol level at the time of the incident. A judge has ordered Sheen to stay away from his wife until the legal case is resolved, a move that is mandatory in domestic violence cases filed in Colorado. ***The “48 Hours” producer accused of trying to blackmailing David Letterman has floated an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a one-year prison term, sources said.

LBN-QUOTE: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” - Anais Nin.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 28, 1981, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.

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SUNDAY • DECEMBER 27, 2009

AL-QAEDA PLANNED PLANE BOMBING: Did Northwest Flight 253—the one that alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up on Christmas day—have a hero? The New York Times and New York Post laud Dutch filmmaker Jasper Schuringa who restrained Abdulmutallab and helped to remove the explosive device from his hands. But, ABC News says that the attack was thwarted not because of heroics, but rather because the makeshift detonator failed to work; otherwise, Abdulmutallab was packing more than enough explosives to bring down the plane. ABC News adds that Abdulmutallab’s plot was “organized and launched by al-Qaeda in Yemen”—according to Abdulmutallab, the explosive device he brought on board the plane was sewed into his underwear by al-Qaeda operatives.

ELITE U.S. FORCE EXPANDING HUNT IN AFGHANISTAN: Secretive branches of the military’s Special Operations forces have increased counterterrorism missions against some of the most lethal groups in Afghanistan and, because of their success, plan an even bigger expansion next year, according to American commanders.

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Over 300 Grammy Award winners along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

AIRLINES ANNOUNCE NEW RESTRICTIONS: Can we officially declare the past week the worst week for travel ever? After two massive blizzards screwed up holiday-travel plans nationwide, the failed terrorist bombing of an airplane on Christmas Day has led to a slew of new restrictions. In one of the more arbitrary-seeming moves, some airlines have begun telling passengers that they must remain seated and have no items in their laps for the final hour of their flights. Air Canada has also said it is limiting passengers to one carry-on item, per the advice of the U.S. government.

U.S. TROOP DEATHS DOUBLE IN 2009: A chilling note on which to end the year: After a bomb killed a U.S. service member in Afghanistan on Sunday, the number of U.S. troop’s deaths in Afghanistan in 2009 has doubled the 2008 figure. In 2009, there were 310 American troops that died in Afghanistan, compared to 155 in 2008. The increase in casualties is due in part to a new influx of troops and is expected to continue to rise as more troops arrive in Afghanistan in 2010. 2009 is already the deadliest year so far of the Afghanistan war.

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REPORTS: FOUR KILLED IN IRAN: Thousands of anti-government protesters who gathered in Tehran Sunday were met by Iranian security forces’ open fire, leaving at least four dead in the country’s bloodiest dispute in months, witnesses say. The demonstrators chanted, “Death to the dictator,” rejecting official warnings about protesting Sunday. The day marks the religious observance of Ashura, which commemorates.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***On the final Sunday of the decade, The New York Times has handed over its op-ed page to some of the nation’s most talented writers: Richard Ford, Richard Powers, Colum McCann, and Jonathan Safran Foer, among others.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***The United States now has its first-ever case of a contagious, aggressive, and drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, according to the Associated Press. The patient is Oswaldo Juarez, a 19-year-old Peruvian who came to the U.S. to study English. Only a handful of people in the world are thought to have been infected by the rare strain of the disease—but it killed 52 of the first 53 people it infected in South Africa three years ago.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Bruce Springsteen dropped in for a performance of “The Nutcracker” with his two kids at the New York City Ballet in NYC last week. ***Jane Fonda and her entire family were having Christmas Eve dinner at Oak Fire Pizzeria & Pub on La Cienega in Los Angeles. They were all sharing pizzas, salads and entrees. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-SNAP: Robert McKee’s traveling screenwriting seminars have attracted scores of filmmakers and aspiring writers, many of whom have gone on to Oscar glory.

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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***This was the year of Internet sales, as the economy lagged and retailers pinned their hopes on online shoppers. In hopes of capitalizing on end-of-the-year holiday shopping, many stores held online sales on Christmas Day. Retailers were persuaded to withhold in-store sales in order to draw customers to their Web sites for last-minute holiday shopping. Larger chains, such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy are taking a different route, offering deep discounts immediately after Christmas to lure customers to continue their shopping binges. Gift cards were a more popular-than-usual gift item this year, as inclement weather kept people indoors and away from malls. Some retailers offered same-day gift-card purchase and e-delivery, catering to the most last-minute of shoppers. ***At a time when many governments could use more revenue, Amazon.com must collect sales taxes in only five states.

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MAN GETS 12 YEARS FOR EATING RARE TIGER: A Chinese villager named Kang Wannian has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for killing and eating what is believed to have been the last wild Indochinese tiger in China. With fewer than 2,000 left in the forests of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma, the Indochinese tiger faces the very real possibility of extinction. Though Kang claims to have killed the animal in self-defense while gathering freshwater clams in a nature reserve, a local court sentenced him to 10 years for killing the rare animal as well as two years for the illegal possession of firearms. Four villagers who helped dismember and eat the tiger were also sentenced to several years in prison.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Country star Willie Nelson has joined the Animal Welfare Institute’s efforts to save the last of America’s wild horses.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Looks like outgoing quarterback Tim Tebow won’t be the only person missed at the University of Florida next year: Head football coach Urban Meyer surprised sports fans Saturday by announcing that he will step down after Florida plays Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. Meyer cited health concerns as his reason—“I have ignored my health for years, but recent developments have forced me to re-evaluate my priorities of faith and family,” he said.

LBN-THE RANT LIST By ERICKA T. BASS: 1. Merry Christmas to all of my fans and screw-off to those losers who don’t get what I preach. 2. People who don’t understand me are people with immature feelings and intense reactions to truth who are trying to shield themselves from emotional trauma. 3. My brutal honesty cuts through the protective curtains that cowards can’t stand. 4. My last three girlfriends who have ranged in ages from 19 to 53 all accommodate my fears and desires as I do theirs. It’s as if we have a mutual conspiracy to shelter and protect one another from our own final abandonment. All of them worshipped my unpredictable moods, petty and vicious anger. Just like my readers. 5. Alec Baldwin is getting so fat I would suggest he start wearing a quadruple-breasted suit. 6. For the last decade I have refused to shop at stores that play Christmas music. 7. Most days I like the LBN E-Lert but wish they grew bigger balls in the new year. Screw fear in 2010. 8. KISS belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 9. Some days I am happy I have tattoos on my chest and some days I am not. 10. I don’t agree with a word that bigoted asshole Pastor Bob screams but I do kind of dig his campy hairstyle. ***Shout back at Erika T. Bass = Email LBNElert@TimeWire.net. (Please Note: The opinions expressed by Erika T. Bass are those of her alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the LBN E-lert or its staff.)

LBN-COMMENTARY By Gerald Posner: The first goal of government investigators this Christmas weekend? “Trying to figure out if the guy is a nut or an operator,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, referring to 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, a Nigerian national who unsuccessfully tried to ignite an explosive device on an incoming Northwest airlines flight to Detroit on Christmas Day. Al Qaeda or angry loner? The second goal is almost as urgent. How did someone whose father, the recently retired chairman of Nigeria’s First Bank, apparently warned American embassy officials several weeks ago that his son’s religious views had become increasingly extreme and militant, gain access to a plane heading to the United States?

LBN-COMMENTARY By Maureen Dowd: As my brother Kevin headed off to Christmas Eve Mass in the Maryland suburbs, I asked him how he thought the first year of Barack Obama had gone. He didn’t have to pray long over that one. “Fine,” he replied, “if you like unmitigated disasters like the Hindenburg and the Redskins season.”

LBN-COMMENTARY by Doug Giles: When one begins to go through the meat grinder of life, the first thing to evaporate like a pack of Camels at a crack house is joy.

LBN-COMMENTARY by Howard Altman: Nearly two months before Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab allegedly smuggled a home-made incendiary device onto Northwest Flight 253 and tried to blow it up over Detroit on Christmas Day, Al Qaeda’s official magazine in Yemen printed an article calling upon members of the shadowy Jihadi network to use stealth tactics to attack aircraft and airports, according to a translation by terror expert Evan Kohlmann. The article, which came out in the Oct. 29 edition of Sada Al-Malahim—the official publication of Al Qaeda in Yemen—was written by that company’s top commander, Abu Basir al-Wahinshi. Titled “War is a Trick,” it appeared on page 8, advising “would-be Al Qaeda members on how to utilize all available weapons to kill ‘Apostates’ and Western nationals,” says Kohlmann, who released a translation of the article on Saturday.

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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***The divorce may be final and the show may be over, but Jon Gosselin is still making headlines as his New York City apartment was reportedly burglarized and vandalized with a butcher knife on Saturday. After slashing the former Jon & Kate Plus 8 star’s clothing, bed, and furnishings, the culprit reportedly left a note stabbed into the Gosselin’s bedroom dresser with a butcher knife. Though the note was signed with the name of his ex-girlfriend “Hailey Glassman” and referred to him as a “cheater,” anyone could have signed her name, according to law-enforcement officials. Whoever did write the note, however, allegedly took Gosselin’s television, Nintendo Wii, and cookware, among other items. Gosselin’s attorney also says a 100-year-old Ming vase was “smashed to pieces” and that the NYPD fingerprinted the photographed the crime scene on Saturday. Gosselin says he hopes felony charges will be brought against the perpetrator. ***Police say Ivana Trump has been escorted off a plane in Florida after she became belligerent when children were running and screaming in the aisles. Authorities say the first ex-wife of billionaire Donald Trump cursed at the children Saturday, and when flight attendants on the New York-bound plane tried to calm her, she became even more aggravated. ***Charlie Sheen and wife Brooke Mueller are planning to undergo counseling after a heated fight at a dinner party in Aspen, Colorado, that landed Charlie in jail on domestic violence charges Friday morning. “They were fighting at a dinner in a friend’s house and it continued until the next morning,” a source close to Mueller tells People. “Both of them were drinking and neither was supposed to be. They both have histories of alcohol abuse and have made every effort to stop. But things got out of hand.”

LBN-QUOTE: I’ll give the atheists a lot: The Creation Museum is a riot. The psychos shooting up abortion clinics and telling gay couples they’re going to hell are evil, and anyone of faith has an obligation to condemn them. Abominable stuff has been done in God’s name for centuries. The Bible has a lot of crazy shit in it about stoning people for using the wrong salad fork. Up with science and reason!-Ada Calhoun.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 27, 1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.

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SATURDAY • DECEMBER 26, 2009

Passenger Attempts to Blow up Plane: A Nigerian man aboard a flight en route to Detroit allegedly tried to ignite a powdery substance as the plane neared its destination on Friday in an effort to blow up the aircraft, a senior U.S. counter-terror official told the AP. The White House released a statement calling it an “attempted act of terrorism.” Multiple law enforcement officials identified the passenger as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who is allegedly a suspected terrorist on the government’s no-fly list. He reportedly said Al Qaeda instructed him to cause an explosion on the flight from Amsterdam once over U.S. soil. The suspect also told authorities the substance, which he said he acquired in Yemen, was taped to his leg and that he had used a syringe of chemicals to combine with the powder to cause an explosion, a method consistent with terrorist techniques.

REMEMBERING THE 2004 TSUNAMI: Five years after a devastating tsunami left 250,000 dead across Asia, affected countries are marking the grim anniversary with public and private ceremonies and prayers. In Banda Aceh and Indonesia, the site of 150,000 deaths. The country’s vice president prayed at a mass grave for tsunami victims with residents of the area, who left flowers as well.

JASPER SCHURINGA TACKLES SUSPECTED TERRORIST ON NORTHWEST FLIGHT 253: Jasper Schuringa has been identified as the principal man who tackled the would-be terrorist on Northwest flight 253. The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, attempted to ignite some kind of explosive device between his legs when Schuringa leaped over the seat and tackled Mutallab, extinguishing the fire and burning himself in the process.

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KEEP THE WORLD-WIDE REVOLUTION ALIVE: In addition to being read daily in all 50 of the United States, this LBN E-Lert is read in 24 foreign countries including: China, Japan, Israel, England, Australia, Germany, France, Iraq, Mexico, Brazil, Canada among others. Please forward it to all of your friends throughout the world. They will thank you.

OBAMA’S CLIMATE CHALLENGE: President Obama may have secured momentum for global action on climate change at Copenhagen with American pledges to reduce emissions, but following through will be a major challenge. “There is no doubt that energy legislation is going to be tough, but I feel very confident about making an argument to the American people that we should be a leader in clean energy technology—that that will be one of the key engines that drives economic growth for decades to come”.

TOYOTA TO LAUNCH NEW HYBRID: With the Prius in high demand, Toyota is working on another hybrid to help secure its dominant position in the future. The new car will be smaller and cheaper than the Prius, which has a starting price of $22,400. The Prius accounts for more than 75 percent of Toyota’s hybrid sales worldwide.

CHANGE OF VENUE: Some lawyers believe a judge might consent to move the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed from Manhattan, but such an outcome is not guaranteed.

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LBN-MUSIC INSIDER: ***Singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt is dead at 45 after an overdose of prescription muscle relaxants. The Los Angeles Times reports, Chesnutt was paralyzed in a car accident in 1983. And despite being confined to a wheelchair and having only limited use of his arms, he fashioned a career as a critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, and guitarist after being discovered by REM singer Michael Stipe in the late 1980s.

BETTER SECURITY: Stung by the televised knockdown of Pope Benedict XVI at Christmas Eve Mass, the Vatican said Friday it would review security procedures.

MISSING ARIZONA CHILD RESCUED: Seven hours after being abducted by a stranger, 5-year-old Natalie Flores was rescued early Saturday in Phoenix, after her suspected kidnapper led police on a car chase. A patrol officer noticed the man’s pickup truck, which sped off once spotted, and police managed to cause it to crash using spike strips on the road. The suspect, a 45-year-old man who police have yet to publicly name, was captured after a foot chase. Natalie was being examined by health officials, but otherwise is in good shape, police said.

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Sharon Waxman, founder of The Wrap, along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Teens have been among the most reliable cash cows for retail chains around the country for decades, but the deep recession is rapidly changing that equation. Spending at stores that specialize in selling clothing to teens is down 7.8 percent versus the previous year, and is now the worst performing sector in all of retailing. Teen mainstays like Abercrombie & Fitch and Hot Topic have seen double-digit declines from the same month last year. ***The chief executive of organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market Inc. is giving up his title of chairman, following years of petitioning by an activist shareholder to separate the two roles. Co-founder and CEO John Mackey is voluntarily giving up his chairmanship, a position he’s held since the Austin, Texas, company’s inception in 1978, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mackey will remain on the board.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Hugh Jackman, tennis great John McEnroe and Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundvist cheering on the Knicks at Madison Square Garden in NYC. ***Oscar winner William Hurt, sporting a full Santa beard, dining alone at Peri Ela Turkish restaurant in NYC, despite the invitation of four ladies to join them at their table, and chatting with owner Silay Ciner. ***Ashley and Jessica Simpson dining on steaks at Angelo & Maxie’s in NYC with their grandparents. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Kobe Bryant scored 35 points while his Lakers teammates piled up technical, letting the Cavaliers leave Los Angeles with a victory.

LBN-COMMENTARY By BRIAN TRACY: Leaders are committed to excellent performance of the business task at hand, and to continuous improvement. A leader is the person who chooses the area of excellence for his or her team. A leader knows that excellence is a journey, not a destination. Leaders are committed to being the best in everything they do. They constantly strive to be better in their key result areas. They compare themselves with people, organizations, and products or services that are better than they are, and they are continually improving.

LBN-COMMENTARY By ROSS DOUTHAT: President Obama baffles observers because he’s an ideologue and a pragmatist all at once, and he prefers cutting deals to walking away from the negotiating table.

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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Sienna Miller has invited on-again love Jude Law to join her in Barbados to celebrate their birthdays. The two, who rekindled their romance while starring in rival Broadway productions, are now working on another reunion in the Caribbean. ***Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, Brooke Mueller was legally drunk when she called 911 on Charlie Sheen and we’ve learned, Brooke has fessed up that her allegation was phony. Sources say authorities gave both Charlie and Brooke blood alcohol tests. Brooke registered a .13 while Charlie registered a .04. By the way, the 911 call came in at 8:34 AM on Christmas day. We’re also told Brooke recanted her story to a female officer just before the bail hearing, telling the cop she was drunk when she made the 911 call. Nevertheless, law enforcement sources say police will still pursue the case at least for now. We’ve also learned Sheen has hired well-known Colorado attorney Richard Cummins to represent him. Cops responded to the 911 call, arrived at the home and Sheen was arrested after Brooke claimed he assaulted her. Charlie was booked for two felonies and one misdemeanor relating to domestic violence. As we first reported, Sheen told law enforcement Brooke was the aggressor and he was just trying to defend himself.

LBN-QUOTE: “Jealousy, that dragon which slays love under the pretense of keeping it alive.” - Havelock Ellis.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 26, 1941, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.

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FRIDAY • DECEMBER 25, 2009

READERS SLAP E-LERT BUT STRONGLY STATE LATE POPE NO SAINT: Thousands of LBN E-Lert readers from 11 time zones expressed themselves clearly in response to yesterday’s LBN Question saying they found the timing of the question on Christmas Eve “insensitive and inappropriate” but overwhelming stated that they don’t believe the late Pope Pius XII was “even close to a Saint”. Scolding the LBN E-Lert many hundreds of readers sided with reader Tony Medley “This question indicates a clear anti-Catholic bias on the part of the LBN E-Lert. Why would you ask such questions on Christmas Eve, except to inflame anti-Catholic prejudice. Are you still beating your spouses? You should be ashamed of yourselves.” But the criticisms of the LBN for many readers didn’t in any change the strong, overwhelming feeling for over 75% of readers that the late Pope was far close to a war criminal than a Saint. To review yesterdays question, click on www.LBNElert.com.

OBAMA’S LOW-KEY HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY: All Obama wants for Christmas is a little peace and quiet, a White House spokesman told reporters as Air Force One made its way from Washington to the president’s birthplace of Hawaii Thursday. Bill Burton said Obama would like to spend his holiday away from current occupational stresses and has not scheduled any public events during his time on the island.

MORTGAGE GIANTS GET UNLIMITED GOV’T BACKING: In a move that allows the White House to provide emergency aid without going through Congress, the Obama administration said Thursday that it would provide unlimited financial assistance to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The companies were taken over by the Bush administration last year as they teetered on bankruptcy, one of the key events en route to the financial meltdown in September.

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TALIBAN VIDEO MAY SHOW U.S. SOLDIER: Six months after disappearing from his post in Afghanistan, American Pfc. Bowe Robert Bergdahl may have resurfaced as a hostage of the Taliban in a newly released video. A video by the insurgent group purports to show Bergdahl, who identifies himself in the film and says he has been treated humanely. But his identity has yet to be confirmed by the military.

DAVID GOLDMAN AND SON ARRIVE HOME: After a five-year legal battle to reclaim his son, David Goldman and nine-year-old Sean Goldman finally returned to America together Thursday—and they did so in style, on a private jet chartered by the NBC television network. “It is now time for our new beginning, the rebirth of our family at such a special time of the year,” Goldman said in a written statement.

POPE ATTACKER STRUCK BEFORE: The string of bad luck encountered by world leaders in Italy continued Thursday as Pope Benedict XVI was knocked down by a woman jumping the crowd barriers in St. Peter’s, while he walked down the aisle to say Christmas Eve Mass. The pontiff arose quickly and was unhurt, according to the Vatican; the woman, Swiss and Italian citizen Susanna Maiolo, 25, is said to be mentally unstable. However, a cardinal’s leg was broken during the scuffle.

YEMEN SAYS IT ATTACKED A MEETING OF AL QAEDA: Yemeni fighter jets, acting on intelligence provided in part by the United States, struck what the Yemeni government said was a meeting of operatives from Al Qaeda early Thursday morning, and officials suggested that a radical cleric linked to the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings might have been among the 30 people killed.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***If passed, health-care reform may be the most sweeping social legislation in at least four decades, but for tens of millions of Americans, life under the proposed law may seem little different. President Obama pledged during his push for health-care reform that under any plan that passed, “If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan” and many of the 160 million workers who get insurance through their employer will likely do just that.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Jay Leno shopping in Beverly Hills Neiman Marcus Cartier department for Christmas for his wife Mavis. ***Veteran Hollywood publicist Stan Rosenfield meeting at The Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills ***Oliver Stone holding court with billionaires Donald Trump, George Soros and Steve Schwarzman at a private party hosted by Nouriel Roubini — nicknamed “Dr. Doom,” for predicting the economic crisis — at RDV Lounge in the Meatpacking District in NYC. ***Moby catching the burlesque show at Headquarters, along with Robert Seigel, who wrote “The Wrestler” and directed this year’s indie, hit “Big Fan,” which was filmed at the Manhattan gentlemen’s club in NYC. ***Diners at Beppe in Gramercy stopping as Panic! In NYC at the Disco guitarist Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith walked in. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

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SMOKE AND CHRISTMAS: As temperatures drop, efforts to curb pollution from burning wood are clashing with tradition.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Filmmaker Michael Moore (pictured) started a summer film festival five years ago in his adopted hometown of Traverse City, Mich. Now he’s teaming with Emmy winner Jeff Garlin to organize a midwinter comedic counterpart. The inaugural Traverse City Comedy Arts Festival will be held Feb. 19-21. It will feature star performers, along with talented up-and-comers. The lineup will be revealed next month. ***The film “It’s Complicated” received an R rating for a scene in which two stars share a joint, kicking up attacks on the M.P.A.A. for being out of touch.

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THE HISTORICAL JESUS CHRIST: Most scholars agree that Jesus of Nazareth was a historical figure, a preacher and healer who was crucified by order of the Romans in Jerusalem. He is the central figure in Christianity and an important prophet in Islam. Christmas, December 25th by the Gregorian calendar, is celebrated as his birthday, although there is no evidence that this was his actual date of birth.

CHINESE DISSIDENT JAILED 11 YEARS: A Chinese court convicted democracy activist Liu Diablo of subversion and sentenced him to 11 years on Friday in a powerful demonstration of the government’s authoritarian grip on its citizens. Liu, a 53-year-old former professor of literature, had drafted a petition in 2008 demanding free speech, free elections, and the rule of law only to be arrested the same year in response.

LBN-VIDEO LINK: ……Aetv.com Go Inside the World of Compulsive Hoarding-Watch Full Episodes Online

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Although the chief, Jeff Bezos, says, “We start with the customer and we work backward,” a solid core of customers remains unsatisfied with the Kindle. ***A well-timed employee stock option exchange has delivered a generous windfall to nearly all of Google’s 20,000 workers–about $117,000.

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT? Twelve (12) members of the White House staff along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” in all 50 of the United States and 24 foreign countries. They understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

LBN-SEE IT: Janice Dickinson and her boy toy both took a licking in L.A. yesterday.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: If you put a drop of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

LBN-RECOMMENDS: The Editors of the LBN E-Lert Recommend: www.AltUse.com.

LBN-COMMENTARY By BRUCE RIEDEL: Thirty years ago, on Christmas Day 1979, the Soviet 40th Red Army invaded Afghanistan and began the conflict that still wracks that country today. For the Soviet Union, the invasion turned into a disaster that contributed to the collapse of communist system and the Russian empire. The mujahedin that defeated Moscow were based across the border in Pakistan. Today, the United States is fighting an insurgency in Afghanistan operating from a safe haven in Pakistan. Many suggest that the outcome will be the same for the United States as it was for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—ultimate defeat at the hands of the insurgency. That analysis misses the many fundamental differences between the two wars.

LBN-COMMENTARY By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad did not just reject President Obama’s latest feckless floating nuclear deadline. He spat on it, declaring that Iran “will continue resisting” until the U.S. has gotten rid of its 8,000 nuclear warheads.

LBN-COMMENTARY: By MANOHLA DARGIS : In the pleasurable, daffy if at times daft “It’s Complicated,” Meryl Streep takes a character and makes you love her.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

LBN-COMMENTARY By A. O. SCOTT : There are worse things than loutish, laddish cool, and as a series of poses and stunts, “sherlock holmes” is intermittently diverting.

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***This year’s will be a somber Christmas for the family of Brittany Murphy, the 32-year-old actress who died suddenly of cardiac arrest on Sunday. Murphy’s loved ones buried her at a private funeral on December 24 at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn Cemetery, according to a family spokesman. The plan hopes to have a larger memorial early in the New Year. ***Nicolas Cage’s financial troubles keep getting worse. The star, who’s been accused by the IRS of failing to pay more than $6.2 million in back taxes and who in turn filed a multimillion-dollar suit against his business manager, is now being sued for $15 million by Red Curb Investments for allegedly failing to pay back a $3.5 million loan and for failing to disclose that he owed money to the IRS. Cage’s lawyer said: “Any claim that our client engaged in any fraudulent conduct is ridiculous.” Red Curb could not be reached. ***Ventura County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded on Wednesday and Thursday. In cases, singer / songwriter Paul Anka called 911. Anka say his beef on Wednesday was that Anna Anka copped an attitude when he came over to visit their son and his step-daughter — Paul has been living in a hotel since he filed for divorce earlier this month. Paul called 911 after Anna refused to let him play with their son.

LBN-QUOTE: “Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.” - Mary Ellen Chase

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 25, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on TV to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a Communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.

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THURSDAY • DECEMBER 24, 2009

HEALTH CARE PASSES SENATE : After 25 days of debate—the second-longest in Senate history—the Senate passed a landmark health-care bill Christmas Eve morning, as expected, by a margin of 60-39, with Democrats and two Independents joining together against Republicans.

LBN-THE “INSIDE” QUESTION?: The Vatican has defended its moves towards beatifying the late Pope Pius XII (pictured above), saying that they reflected the piety of the wartime Pontiff and not his “historical importance”. Pope Benedict XVI has sparked anger among Jewish groups by bestowing the title “venerable” on Pius, criticized by historians for his silence during World War II in the face of the Holocaust. The title is apparently a necessary step towards beatification and eventual sainthood for Pius, who was pope from 1939 to 1958. But a spokesman for the Prussian Pontiff Benedict said in a note issued yesterday that it did not derive from Pius’s “operative choices” but his deep piety and “witness of Christian life”. ***LBN QUESTION?: ***Would the Roman Catholic church be better off purging pedophiles from within its own ranks rather than awarding posthumous sainthood to what some scholars describe as a war criminal? ***Would the Jewish victims rounded up by the Nazis in Rome during 1943, under the eyes of and with the active connivance of the Vatican, suffering in cattle trucks on their way to be gassed in Auschwitz, have understood the ecclesiastical distinctions highlighted by the Church, especially noting that Jesus was a Jew? ***Send your reply to: LBNElert@TimeWire.net (Please put ”LBN-Inside Question” in the subject line).

BOY RETURNED TO DAD IN BRAZIL : New Jersey father David Goldman just received a pretty nice Christmas gift: his 9-year-old son Sean. Sean’s maternal grandmother and stepfather brought the boy to the U.S. consulate 25 minutes in advance of the 9 a.m. deadline set by the chief justice of Brazil’s Supreme Court, who ruled in favor of Goldman on Tuesday. The ruling, which the Brazilian family accepted on Wednesday, ended a 5.

MARTHA MELTDOWN: Martha Stewart had a meltdown after finding out that her darkest, deepest secrets will be exposed in a tell-all book written by her former best friend! The explosive memoir by Mariana Pasternak will reveal intimate details of 68-year-old Martha’s private life, including her lesbian “dates,” the attacks she faced in prison, and her boozy temper tantrums, sources say.

HOSTAGE STANDOFF OVER : An eight-hour hostage standoff with a wheelchair-bound gunman at a Wytheville, Virginia post office finally came to an end Thursday morning. The suspect wheeled himself out of the office and was taken custody while his three hostages were freed.

PERPLEXITY AFTER AUSCHWITZ SIGN THEFT : It was hard to know what was more shocking: the haplessness of the thieves who stole the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign looming over Auschwitz, or the laxness of the security protecting this emblem of the Holocaust’s perversity and horror. The thieves first tried to steal the sign, which means “Work Makes You Free,” last Thursday evening. But they lacked the right tools. Undetected, they drove to a hardware shop in the nearby town of Oswiecim and bought better tools. When they returned to the camp past midnight, there were no guards in sight, no evidence that surveillance cameras were functioning. They set to work. Just as any visitor to the concentration camp could, they easily climbed atop the modest wrought-iron gate. They unbolted one side of the sign and then ripped off the 66-pound metal frame when the other side proved more difficult. They then discovered the sign would not fit into their car, according to Artur Wrona, the prosecutor and lead investigator in the case. So they had to saw it in three pieces, but dropped the “i’ in Frei and left it behind

LBN-THE “INSIDE” STORY: In the UK a failed asylum seeker who left a 12-year-old girl to die in a road traffic accident has won the right to remain in this country, outraging her family and stunning officials from the UK Borders Agency. Aso Mohammed Ibrahim (pictured above) was banned from driving and had run out of appeals against deportation when he fled the scene of the accident as Amy Houston lay dying under the wheels of his car. The Iraqi Kurd, who has since committed further driving offences, was told by a judge in Manchester that he could stay in the UK because, in the 6 years since the tragedy, he had put down roots, married a British woman and now has 2 daughters.

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IS FT. HOOD CLERIC DEAD?: Yemeni officials are reporting that the Muslim cleric—who was in contact with the Ft. Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan—was killed in an air raid on al Qaeda fighters, along with 29 other militants. But a Reuters report is disputed by CBS News, which cites two sources familiar with the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who say that the imam is not among the dead from the strike and was not in the area.

BIN LADEN DAUGHTER IN IRAN SEEKS REFUGE: A teenage daughter of Osama bin Laden, who has lived with at least five of her siblings in a guarded compound in Iran since 2001, took refuge last month in the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, and family members are trying to arrange for a large number of relatives to leave Iran for Saudi Arabia or Syria, one of Mr. bin Laden’s sons said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. The son, Omar bin Laden, broke with his father, the leader of Al Qaeda, before the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and on the Pentagon and now lives in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He said that his sister Iman, 19, walked away during a shopping trip in Tehran about a month ago and made her way to the Saudi Embassy, hoping to be reunited with her mother, who lives in Syria.

LBN-SNAP:…BRITTANY SPEARS…..

SARANDON AND ROBBINS BREAK UP: In what must be one of the quietest breakups in Hollywood history, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon split over the summer, her publicist revealed to People magazine on Wednesday. The two actors, well-known for their support of left-wing causes, had been with each other—though not married—for 23 years, after meeting on the set of baseball romance Bull Durham. No reason was given for the breakup.

SUN BELT CHALLENGES: The states that grew fast during the real estate boom are now experiencing declines, the Census Bureau reported.

ROBERT BYRD’S STRUGGLE: He may be 92 years-old and frail, but Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) isn’t going to let anything stand in the way of health-care reform. In order to break a Republican filibuster against the Democrats’ health-care bill, the oldest senator has been wheeled through the freezing cold into the Capitol to signal his approval of the legislation with a thumbs up—and sometimes a fist pump.

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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Falling demand for gasoline has the nation’s oil refiners mired in a crisis, and analysts say worse times may be ahead. ***Web sites that help people create one-of-a-kind gifts are reporting sizzling sales growth this holiday season. ***Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs was paid his customary $1 annual salary in 2009, but Apple’s strength through a rough economic climate returned the value of his personal holdings in the company to pre-meltdown levels.

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

MADOFF MOVED TO HOSPITAL: Bernard Madoff is unwell. The ponzi schemer is serving a 150-year sentence in a federal prison in Butner, N.C., but has been moved to a low-security medical center inside the prison for an unspecified illness. A prison spokeswoman said Madoff was moved to the hospital on Dec. 18, but has not disclosed what he is being treated for. Earlier this year, prison officials stated that Madoff had not been diagnosed with cancer.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Frank Sinatra Jr, Nancy Sinatra and friends having dinner at Marino on Melrose Ave in Los Angeles ***Daniel Craig washing down steak tartar with four espressos at Bistro Chat Noir in NYC while his female companion had chicken Cobb salad. ***Justin Tuck at Club Macanudo in NYC picking up 10 boxes of yuletide smokes for his Giants defensive line mates. ***Curtis Granderson celebrating his trade to the New York Yankees at The Fifty/50 in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. ***Alicia Keys celebrating her new album, “The Element of Freedom,” at M2 in NYC with her rapper boyfriend, Swizz Beatz. ***Barbara Walters with her “friend” Frank Langella at the Richard Holbrooke/Kati Marton holiday party on the Upper East Side in NYC. ***Travel consultant Dave B. Goodman and his band of bros touring a series of L.A. Gentlemen’s Clubs in a run-up to Christmas. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

THE REAL SANTA CLAUS?: Most children lose faith in Santa around age 8, but a few believe until 11 or 12. According to child psychologist Charlotte Reznick, “just as there are children who grow up too fast, there are children who remain innocent for a while longer.”

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Doug Stephan along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

LBN-INVESTIGATES: The first bomb the Allies dropped on Berlin in World War II, killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: Only about one-fifth of all heart patients undergo cardiac rehabilitation following a heart attack or bypass operation, however, research suggests that such treatment significantly reduces a person’s chances of suffering another heart attack or dying in the next three to four years. Furthermore, the data show that the more rehab sessions a patient attends, the lower this risk is. Experts hope that these findings will encourage more cardiac patients to complete the recommended number of rehabilitation sessions.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Actor, activist, and best-selling author Michael J. Fox’s A Runny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future, a book for graduates, presenting his accumulated wisdom and lessons based on his life experiences, including such topics as ambition, curiosity, flexibility, the importance of mentors, and the power of facing both successes and setbacks with open eyes, sold to Ellen Archer at Hyperion, with Leslie Wells editing, for publication in April 2010, by Amanda Urban at ICM (world). ***Alice Waters‘ Classic Chez Panisse: A 40th anniversary celebration of Chez Panisse, the illustrated story of the restaurant told in its cultural context, full of memorabilia, photographs, and iconic menus, for publication in fall 2011; a companion cookbook similar in format and content to Alice’s THE ART OF SIMPLE FOOD, including how to grow and cook food seasonally year-round; and an untitled personal narrative by Waters, sold to Emily Takoudes at Clarkson Potter, by David McCormick at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (NA). ***Alan Dershowitz’s analysis of our legal system over the past 50 years, told through the lens of the pivotal cases in the author’s career, as well as the legal decisions he has not personally been involved in that have shaped American jurisprudence and that will continue to forge our future, sold to Roger Scholl at Broadway, for publication in Spring 2012, by Helen Rees at the Helen Rees Literary Agency (NA). ***Actor and advocate for women’s rights and breast cancer research Meredith Baxter’s “candid and revealing” memoir of her eventful personal and professional life, presenting a portrait of her life as an actress, mother of five children, and grandmother, and discussing her fight with breast cancer, her 19 years of sobriety, entrepreneurship, and her recent decision to come out and announce that she is gay, sold to Diane Salvatore at Broadway, with Lorraine Glennon editing, by Dan Strone at Trident Media Group, with Alan Iezman at Shelter Entertainment Group (world). ***Grammy Award-winner and General Hospital’s Dr. Noah Drake Rick Springfield’s Late, Late at Night, the “extremely candid story” of his initial rise, subsequent fall and his rise again in the music and entertainment business as well as his life long battle with depression, sold to Stacy Creamer of Touchstone Fireside, for publication in October 2010, by Steve Fisher at APA (world English).

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Karina Longworth is the new film editor at the LA Weekly. She is the co-founder of Cinematical.com, the former editor of SpoutBlog, and calls her personal film blog Vidiocy. ***A segment of “60 Minutes‘ on CBS will focus on the California water situation, with reporter Lesley Stahl talking to Governor Schwarzenegger, farmers and others. It’s scheduled to air Sunday, Dec. 27. ***The Wrap brought its film screening series to the Aero in Santa Monica for “Sherlock Holmes,” with a post-movie discussion between composer Hans Zimmer and the site’s Sharon Waxman.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***An N.F.L. Committee’s development of a new helmet-testing protocol, amid a tangled web of industry relationships and using data long believed to be incomplete, is drawing criticism. ***George Michael, dean of Washington sportscasters, has died after a long battle with cancer, according to a reporter at WRC-TV (Channel 4), his former employer.

LBN-COMMENTARY By DICK MORRIS: Obama’s health care bill, the poisoned Kool-Aid making its way through the Senate, will not confer any of its supposed benefits on Americans until 2013. But they will find themselves chafing at its restrictions and paying its taxes immediately after the law takes effect. Then, they will see no gain, but plenty of pain, for the next three years.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….Richard Simmons….

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***More bad behavior from Amy Winehouse: The singer was charged Wednesday with an assault at a theater. The 26-year-old was arrested after she turned herself in, and charged with a public order offense and common assault. Winehouse was released on bail. Police did not offer a description of the incident, but British papers are reporting that she allegedly tussled with a member of the theater’s staff after she was heckled at a performance. ***Mary J. Blige punched husband Kendu Isaacs in the face at her record release party at club M2 Tuesday night. The singer slugged Isaacs, drawing blood, after she thought he was flirting with a waitress. “She turned to him and was screaming, ‘You’re not going to ruin my night,’ ” our witness says. ***Sean Penn isn’t sitting at home crying over his separation from Robin Wright. The star, 49, who canceled two movies to try to save his marriage, has been dating swimsuit model Jessica White, 25. But Penn was spotted last weekend at North Hollywood’s No Bar with a new beauty, “also tall, hot, young-looking, with dark hair,” an eyewitness told E! Online’s Mark Malkin. ***Ethan and Joel Coen are looking for a complete unknown to star with Kurt Russell in their remake of “True Grit” for Paramount. An open call has gone out for a 12- to 16-year-old girl, “no experience necessary.”

LBN-QUOTE: “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!” - Hamilton Wright Mabie.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 24, 1992, President Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.

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TUESDAY • DECEMBER 22, 2009

BOX OFFICE PASSES $10B FOR FIRST TIME EVER:

It’s now official: The domestic box office has crossed the $10 billion mark for the first time in motion-picture history.

Research company Hollywood.com called the record Tuesday, noting that year-to-date North American theatrical revenue has hit $10,008,000,000 with 11 days left on the calendar.

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TUESDAY • DECEMBER 22, 2009

NOVEMBER HOME SALES LEAP: After surging 10% in October, sales of existing homes jumped again in November, growing 7.4% compared with October to an annualized rate of 6.54 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. “This clearly is a rush of first-time buyers not wanting to miss out on the tax credit,” said NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun.

SPECIAL DEALS, CARVE-OUTS KEEP HEALTH CARE AFLOAT: Democrats call it compromise. Republicans call it bribery. But both sides agree that special deals are why the Senate is on track to pass a health care bill by Christmas. It wasn’t clear whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had the support needed to move ahead with his chamber’s health care bill until Sen. Ben Nelson, the last Democratic holdout, had a change of heart this weekend. He agreed to support the bill in return for compromise language on federal funding for abortion and more money for his home state of Nebraska.

CENTENARIAN VOTER LAUDED BY OBAMA DIES: Ann Nixon Cooper, 107, was mentioned in president’s election night speech: Ann Nixon Cooper, the Atlanta centenarian lauded by President Barack Obama in his election night speech last year, has died. She was 107. Obama in his 2008 speech called Cooper an example of “the heartbreak and the hope” of the past century. He noted she’d been born at a time when women and blacks couldn’t vote and lived to cast her ballot for the country’s first black president.

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SUICIDE ATTACK ON PAKISTAN PRESS CLUB KILLS 3: MANY OF 17 WOUNDED WERE ON BUS PASSING BUILDING AT TIME OF EXPLOSION: A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a press club in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding 17 in an attack that comes at a time of growing violence and political turmoil in Pakistan. Militants have perpetrated a string of attacks in the country’s northwest in revenge for an army offensive in the lawless tribal area of South Waziristan, the Pakistani Taliban’s main stronghold. But many militants are believed to have fled to North Waziristan since the campaign began in mid-October.

CITY TO SHUT DOWN CHRISTMAS EVE TO SAVE CASH: THE City of Chicago will be shutting down early for the Christmas holiday, as part of Mayor Daley’s plan to save the cash-strapped city money. City Hall, public libraries, health clinics and most other city offices will be closed on Christmas Eve as those city workers are being forced to take the day off without pay.

DIANE SAWYER BEGINS AT ABC’S `WORLD NEWS’: Diane Sawyer was all business on a busy first day as anchor of ABC News’ flagship evening newscast on Monday, save for a brief salute at the end to Charles Gibson, whose retirement opened the job for her. “For you, Charlie Gibson, I hope you had a good day and a great night,” Sawyer said, a reference to Gibson’s usual signoff.

CORONER LOOKING INTO BRITTANY MURPHY LEAK: Los Angeles coroner’s officials are looking into how details of an investigator’s report on Brittany Murphy’s death were leaked to TMZ.Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter says he doesn’t know how the Web site apparently obtained the confidential report. TMZ’s report stated the investigator, who is only identified by last name, noted numerous bottles of prescription medications were found in Murphy’s name at the Hollywood Hills home where she collapsed Sunday.

PHILIPPINE VOLCANO ON VERGE OF ERUPTION AS LAVA OOZES DOWN MOUNTAIN… BUT VILLAGERS ARE REFUSING TO LEAVE: A rumbling volcano in the Philippines was on the verge of a major eruption today – but thousands of villagers living on its slopes are refusing to leave their homes. Already, 40,000 people have fled the no-go zone around Mount Mayon, which oozed crimson lava during eerie scenes captured last night.
But around 3,000 residents, mostly farmers, remain – with some even returning after being evacuated up to three times by authorities.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Canidian Booksellers Conference set for May 28 in Toronto.The Canadian Booksellers Association has chosen a new name, time and location for its annual conference. The CBA National Conference will take place from May 28 to 30, 2010 at the Toronto Delta Airport West hotel. CBA executive director Susan Dayus said she hoped the timing, immediately after BookExpo America in New York, would be convenient for booksellers and help them reduce costs if they were going to BEA. “Someone who is coming from Vancouver or Edmonton … can swing around back this way, so they can come to our conference before going home and they’ve saved the cost of that extra flight,” she said. It is also just before the Canadian Retail Council’s conference, which some members have expressed interest in attending, she added.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Stocks rise for 3rd day after jump in home sales In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 42.55, or 0.4 percent, to 10,456.69. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2.69, or 0.2 percent, to 1,116.74, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 8.95, or 0.4 percent, to 2,246.61.

EUROSTAR BACK IN SERVICE AFTER 3-DAY SUSPENSION: PARIS-TO-LONDON TRAIN DEPARTS BUT TENS OF THOUSANDS REMAIN STRANDED: Eurostar resumed its high-speed rail service linking Britain, France and Belgium on Tuesday after a three-day suspension that stranded tens of thousands of holiday travelers and left French President Nicolas Sarkozy indignant.The first train pulled out of the Gare du Nord station in Paris shortly after 8 a.m. carrying 750 passengers, many of whom had been stranded for days. Hundreds of others waited in a line that stretched across the cavernous Paris train station, as Eurostar staff circulated with trays of pastries and coffee in paper cups.

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PRINCE WILLIAM SPENDS A NIGHT ON THE STREETS: British royal sleeps near Blackfriars Bridge to highlight plight of homeless: A cold alley in central London is a far cry from a palace — but it was the spot Prince William chose to sleep to highlight the plight of homeless British teenagers. He spent a chilly night near Blackfriars Bridge last week with Seyi Obakin, the chief executive of British homeless charity Centrepoint. William has been the charity’s patron since 2005.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***AP player of the year: Suh scores one for the d. Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh bulled past the guys who play the glamour positions and proved you don’t have to score touchdowns or toss passes to be the player of the year. ***Serena Williams is 2009 AP Female Athlete of Year Playing her best at the most important events, Serena Williams re-established herself as the top player in women’s tennis in 2009 and was a landslide choice as Female Athlete of the Year by members of The Associated Press. ***Vazquez sent to Yankees for Cabrera Pitcher Javy Vazquez has been traded back to the New York Yankees by Atlanta in a swap that sent Melky Cabrera to the Braves on Tuesday.

Nebraska defensive tackle bulled past the guys who play the glamour positions and proved you don’t have to score touchdowns or toss passes to be the player of the year. ***is 2009 AP Female Athlete of Year Playing her best at the most important events, re-established herself as the top player in women’s tennis in 2009 and was a landslide choice as Female Athlete of the Year by members of *** sent to for Cabrera Pitcher has been traded back to the New York by Atlanta in a swap that sent to the on Tuesday.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Is ¡°AVATAR¡± the best picture front-runner for the Oscars? The screening of AVATAR at the Academy was received with long applause for everything. So, with the worldwide gross of $232 million, James Cameron¡¯s movie may become the front runner for the Oscars***2012 tops India charts 2010¡å has become the highest grossing Hollywood film in India. Roland Emmerich¡¯s film has grossed $19.2 million in only five weeks of being released. The previous record was set by ¡°Spider-Man 3¡å in 2007 with a mark of $14.2 million. ***Guy Richie and Sherlock Holmes- Guy Richie¡¯s philosophy: ¡°Work comes first. It¡¯s primary, not secondary. Making films is like a fantasy, and the older I get the more of a fantasy it seems to become. So I feel very lucky to be part of something like this.¡± He spent this year finishing ¡°Holmes,¡± which stars Robert Downey Jr. as the Victorian sleuth and Jude Law as trusty sidekick Dr. Watson. The film opens around the world this week. ***STARZ hires Chris ALBRECHT ¨C Former HBO Chairman. Starz Entertainment has named the successor to outgoing CEO Robert Clasen, former Home Box Office honcho Chris Albrecht. Albrecht spent 22 years at HBO. He was responsible for programming ¡°The Sopranos¡± and :Sex and the City.¡± ***Roman Polanski has been denied of his appeal to dismiss the 32-year-old charges against him. California¡¯s Second District Court panel will not order Judge Peter Espinoza to hold a hearing on the merit¡¯s of dismissing Polanski¡¯s charges.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***Emergency health alerts for the Facebook generation? The nation’s ambulance crews are pushing a virtual medical ID system to rapidly learn a patient’s health history during a crisis — and which can immediately text-message loved ones that the person is headed for a hospital. ***Obama will delay vacation President Barack Obama says that he would delay his year-end Hawaiian vacation to remain in Washington as the health care bill makes its way through the Senate. ***The FCC, which maintains that all cell phones sold in the U.S. are safe, has set a standard for the “specific absorption rate” of radiofrequency energy, but it doesn’t require handset makers to divulge radiation levels. While there’s been no long-term studies on cell phones and cancer, some scientists suggest erring on the side of caution. ***Cincinnati-based consumer product giant, Proctor & Gamble Company, just voluntarily recalled about 700,000 units of Vicks Dayquil cold medicine. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the recall was initiated based on the discovery that the packaging for the medication was not child proof. The company has informed both the Consumer Product Safety Commission and U.S. Food and Drug Administration of their action.

LOOK INTO THE (LBN) DECEMBER EYE: Ten (10) of the world’s most provocative, interesting, original, unusual, alluring photographs in the word- Click here.

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By L. Ron Hubbard: You don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion. (1948)

LBN COMMENTARY By NANCY SPEARS (Author of Buddha 9 to 5):
Right Livelihood emphasizes loving what you do and working hard to help others build an enlightened life. The Buddha’s principle of Right Livelihood does not reject the materialism of our corporate system but rather works within it to achieve abundance. Companies are in business to offer a service. This concept of service (or any work benefiting a customer) is part of the vision of Right Livelihood. Since our lives, and our occupations, are “works in progress,” the Buddha’s emphasis is less on what particular job one does and more concerned with how our success makes the world a better place.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Daphne Guinness, Michael Des Barres, Gabriel Byrne and Patti d’Arbanville helping Anthony Haden-Guest celebrate the republication of “The Last Party” at club 230 Fifth in NYC. ***Kimberly Guilfoyle near her Midtown Fox News office in NYC, being complimented by the pedicab driver known as SpongeBob on “that all black, S&M-ish outfit with the knee-high boots you wore on Geraldo a few nights ago — very hot”. ***Vanessa Williams and Popeater’s Rob Shuter discussing Kim Kardashian’s hair at the opening of the Gregg Giannillo salon on East 60th Street in NYC. ***Britney Spears and boyfriend Jason Trawick enjoyed an early dinner at West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont Hotel. ***Paris Hilton and Doug Reinhardt enjoyed a getaway at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego with Frankie Delgado and Jennifer Rovero. ***Angie Stone had breakfast with a friend at Hollywood’s The Griddle Café. ***Rumer Willis and beau Micah Alberti were spotted window shopping at The Grove in L.A. ***Davie Navarro and Colby Veil were at Rainbow in Hollywood Sunday night. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Richard M. Nixon appeared on more Time magazine covers (48) than anyone, but Barack Obama — with 24 covers after just his first year in office — is on pace to triple Tricky Dick’s total if he wins a second term. Only 16 people have appeared on 10 or more Time covers, and all are politicians, though only one, Saddam Hussein (12), was not American, Teqnolog reports. Ronald Reagan was second with 45, followed by Bill Clinton (33), George W. Bush (31) and Jimmy Carter (27). Hillary Clinton, with 16, has appeared on the most Time covers for a female and for a non-president.

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By KURT VONNEGUT: The telling of jokes is an art of its own, and it always rises from some emotional threat. The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous because they are in some way truthful. (2002)

WHO READS THE LBN E-LERT: Prominent chiropractor Dr. Robert Jeffery along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” in all 50 of the United States and 24 foreign countries.

JOIN US: Join the many successful advertisers who advertise in this LBN E-Lert. It effective and reasonable and you can reach all 317,000 “influencers” (including 12 members of the White House staff, over 500 authors, over 100 winners of the Academy Award, 3 Nobel Prize winners, over 300 Grammy Award winners). For information, e-mail - LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***HBO says Ricky Gervais will be a star voice in a 13-episode animated comedy series early next year.The cable network said Tuesday that “The Ricky Gervais Show” will be based on his wildly popular podcasts. Gervais has appeared on HBO in the series “Extras,” which won him an Emmy as best comedy actor. He also created and starred in the British TV series “The Office,” from which the hit NBC version was adapted. His new show will debut Feb. 19. He is also hosting NBC’s broadcast of the Golden Globes Awards on Jan. 17. ***Police concerns about a terrorist attack stemming from the 2003 arrest of Michael Jackson led to a request for federal help, according to FBI files kept on the late pop star. The Santa Maria Police Department in California asked for FBI “involvement” after Jackson was arrested for child molestation. Police, according to the FBI, said they believed the court case would be a “soft target” for terrorism because of “worldwide media coverage.” ***Taylor Swift and Beyonce are among the artists set to perform next month at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, it was announced Tuesday. Other performers include the Black Eyed Peas, Maxwell and country trio Lady Antebellum. Beyonce, a 10-time Grammy winner, has 10 nominations.

DID YOU KNOW: ***For every normal web page there are 5 pornographic pages. ***The heaviest domestic cat is a tabby called ‘Himmy’ who weighed 46lb 15oz at his death in 1984. ***Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. ***Chickens can’t burp. ***A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

LBN-QUOTE: “Strong people don’t need strong leaders.” - Ella Baker

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 22, 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln from Georgia, saying, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”

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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
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MONDAY • DECEMBER 21, 2009

THE WORST DECADE EVER FOR STOCKS: TRY NOT TO WEEP OVER YOUR PORTFOLIO THIS HOLIDAY SEASON: The 2000s were, according to The Wall Street Journal, the worst decade ever for stocks. The 0.5 percent that stocks on the New York Stock Exchange have lost on average per year since 1999 is the most in the nearly 200 years of recorded stock-market history—more even than the 1930s. The 1990s were the best decade ever, with a 17.6 percent average annual gain.The 2000s were, according to The Wall Street Journal, the worst decade ever for stocks. The 0.5 percent that stocks on the New York Stock Exchange have lost on average per year since 1999 is the most in the nearly 200 years of recorded stock-market history—more even than the 1930s. The 1990s were the best decade ever, with a 17.6 percent average annual gain.

SENATE CLEARS CRUCIAL HURDLE: Senate Democrats should be able to approve health-care reform before Christmas after the legislation cleared a key hurdle along party lines early Monday morning. The 1 a.m. procedural vote went 60-40, with potential last-minute spoilers Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson both voting aye.

MURPHY WAS ILL BEFORE DEATH: Brittany Murphy had flu-like symptoms, including vomiting, before her death early Sunday morning. TMZ reports that authorities found “a lot” of prescriptions in the house, and that Murphy had been taking prescription meds for the flu-like symptoms she complained of for several days before her death. Murphy’s mother reportedly told paramedics that her daughter had type-2 diabetes, a condition that could have triggered a heart attack in conjunction with prescription meds. Despite the wishes of Simon Monjack, Murphy’s husband, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office intends to perform an autopsy on the actress.

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U.S. SETS 3-HOUR LIMIT ON TARMAC WAITS FOR PLANE PASSENGERS: The Transportation Department is ordering airlines to let passengers stuck in stranded airplanes exit after three hours. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Monday announced the three-hour limit and other new passenger protections long sought by consumer advocates. From January to June this year, 613 planes were delayed on tarmacs for more than three hours.

CLERIC’S DEATH FUELS DEMONSTRATIONS: New trouble for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: The death on Sunday of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, one of the founding members of the Iranian republic, caused the Iranian regime to tighten security due to fears that mourners could quickly turn into protestors. In Tehran, mourners chanted, “This is the month of blood. The regime is coming down.”

HOW THE FED BLEW IT: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is on track to be appointed to a second term by the U.S. Senate, but does he deserve it? The Washington Post takes a damning look at how the Fed’s approach to regulation under Bernanke left banks exposed to the financial crisis. “[R]ather than looking for warning signs, the Fed had joined—and at times defined—the mainstream consensus among policymakers that financial innovations had made banking safer,” The Post writes.

LBN-THE “INSIDE” STORY: A Muslim chef who lost a claim of religious discrimination against Scotland Yard after complaining he was forced to cook pork sausages and bacon faces a legal bill of more than £75,000. Hasanali Khoja (pictured above) accused the Metropolitan Police of failing to consider his Islamic beliefs when he was asked to handle pork products as a catering manager at a police station. The £23,000-a-year chef claimed suggestions by his bosses that he should wear gloves and use tongs left him “stressed and humiliated”. But Mr. Khoja lost his claim in May after a police employee told an employment tribunal how she saw Mr. Khoja actually eat bacon rolls and pork sausages. The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) has now won a ruling ordering Mr. Khoja to pay its costs, which total at least £76,200.

LBN-THE “INSIDE” STORY-PART 2: The late Pope Pius XII (pictured above) is reportedly one step closer to sainthood after former Hitler Youth and Nazi anti-aircraft gunner Pope Benedict XVI signed a decree attesting to ”his virtues”. The decree means that Pius XI, a former Papal Nuncio to Germany and well known German sympathizer, during which time the above photo was taken, can be beatified once the Vatican certifies that a miracle attributed to his intercession has occurred – and doubtless THAT will be arranged in double-quick time through the good offices of some deluded adherent. Beatification is the first major step before possible sainthood. Many historians and Jewish groups have argued that Pius should have done more to prevent the extermination of 6 million Jews by the Nazis, but the Vatican insists Pius used quiet diplomacy to try to save Jews. In fact he was so quiet according to many historians, the notoriously pro-Nazi pope never said a damn thing. He was almost as silent on the Holocaust as his latter-day successors are tight-lipped over pedophile priests many have said.

STOLEN AUSCHWITZ SIGN RECOVERED: The infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign that was stolen Friday from former death camp Auschwitz has been located in northern Poland, authorities say. Five men between the ages 25 and 39 have been detained for questioning, and the sign has reportedly been chopped up into three pieces, one for each word. Polish police say that the alleged thieves are not neo-Nazis.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Twitter Inc., will finally have a profitable year, Bloomberg reports. In October, Twitter agreed to allow Google and Microsoft’s Bing to make its micro messages searchable for a reported $15 million and $10 million respectively. Until earlier this year, making money wasn’t even a focus for Twitter, which poured almost all of its time into product improvement. ***Businesses are hiring more and more temporary workers, suggesting that they might soon take the next step and hire permanent employees if they believe the economy will keep improving. Temp hiring has been on the rise for four months, whereas in the period after the last two recessions, in the early 1990s and in 2001, employers added temps for only two or three months before bringing on more permanent workers. ***China is increasingly known for shipping out cheap labor, and a backlash against Chinese workers has grown in Africa and Asia.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Avatar may have topped weekend box-office sales, but for a film billed as a game-changer as important as the original Star Wars, its $73 million in weekend ticket sales disappointed industry expectations and failed to earn the film even a record for December sales. The snowstorm that pummeled the east coast may have been partially to blame. ***Brett Ratner has sealed an overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV. Rat TV has also signed president Martha Haight to a two-year term. Ratner, according to Variety, is looking to build a small screen division in the manner of Jerry Bruckheimer or Brian Grazer. “Most TV shows now are better than a lot of features. It’s a great medium to explore and experiment. I can try things that I wouldn’t try on a feature,” Ratner said. ***Much-respected NBC veteran Jerry Petry is leaving the network after a nearly 34-year run. Petry, currently executive VP of administration for the NBC Universal TV Group, has told Peacock staffers and friends that he’s decided to retire at the end of this month. His boss, NBC U TV Group west coast president Marc Graboff, confirmed the news in an email to staffers, saying he had “mixed feelings” about Petry’s exit. ***Over 100 winners of the Academy Award read this LBN E-Lert daily.

NICE TRIP: L.A.’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s 9-day trip to Berlin, London, and the climate conference in Copenhagen with seven staffers will cost an estimated $120,266, including hotel and airfare but not his security detail, his spokeswoman told.

KEEP THE REVOLUTION ON FIRE: Every day, seven days a week, ten of thousands of LBN E-Lert readers forward this E-Lert to tens of thousand of friends, family and associates. Do you? Do you?

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LBN-SEE IT:…..Vice-President Joe Biden…..

WHITE AMERICANS’ MAJORITY TO END BY MID-CENTURY: The estimated time when whites will no longer make up the majority of Americans has been pushed back eight years — to 2050 — because the recession and stricter immigration policies have slowed the flow of foreigners into the U.S.

LBN-NOTICED: ***Veteran photographer Harry Langdon and L.A. Country District Attorney Steve Cooley at a Christmas party last night at the Beverly Hills home of author and former Playboy Playmate Donna Spangler. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-COMMENTARY By LISA SHARKEY (SVP, Director of Creative Development - HarperCollins Publishers): My favorite TV Show of all times: My favorite TV shows of all time to watch are: MASH, Seinfeld,Friends, Saturday Night Live, 30 Something, Murphy Brown, Bewitched, Rob and Big, HOUSE, Columbo, Nova, Entourage, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, American Idol, anything on The Weather Channel during stormy seasons, and baseball games especially the Little League World Series. My favorite shows to work on were Good Morning America, Inside Edition, The CBS Morning News (with Maria Shriver and Forrest Sawyer) and local news programs around the dial, especially WCBS-TV’s Noon News. I like to watch shows that make me laugh and I liked to produce ones that made me cry.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Yesterday, actress Brittany Murphy tragically died of an apparent heart attack at age 32. The 317,000 readers of this LBN E-Lert got the news BEFORE CNN by over an a hour. ***Traditional media such as magazines, newspapers, television and radio will continue to lose advertising share next year, according to The World in 2010, a collection of expert predictions from The Economist. “Harnessing the advertising potential of social media will be key. ***The “dowdy” Reader’s Digest Association, owned by investor group Ripplewood Holdings, plans to transform itself into a soon-to-be-renamed “multibrand media company,” with Web sites like AllRecipes.com and magazines like Every Day With Rachael Ray.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***The N.F.L. conceded publicly for the first time that concussions can have lasting consequences.

LBN-COMMENTARY By GERALD POSNER: “This is like Lindsay Lohan dying,” a studio executive told me, reacting to the news Sunday afternoon that 32-year-old actress Brittany Murphy had been pronounced dead a few hours earlier at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “It really doesn’t come, unfortunately, as a shock.” While Murphy, the star of Clueless, Don’t Say a Word and, most memorably, 8 Mile, may have had a clean-cut image for most of her fans, inside the small world of Hollywood, the sentiment yesterday was unanimous: She was a mess.

LBN-COMMENTARY By RON LIEBER: The American savings rate hit a 16-year high in the spring, and the reasons went beyond the poor economy. Tighter credit and retirement accounts played a part.

LBN SUPPORTS CHARITY: Every year the LBN E-lert donates $52,000.00 worth of valuable advertising to 52 charities from around the world. LBN readers can play a role in that selection. Please submit your favorite charity to us for consideration: Send to: LBNElert@TimeWire.net (Please put LBN - Charity Prize in the subject line).

LBN-COMMENTARY By KATHLEEN KINGSBURY: Few kids dream of being an college admissions officer when they grow up, and most recruiters fall into the job by accident. While this is changing somewhat, admissions officers are most often former campus tour guides who got their start as application readers at their own alma mater, then ended up staying on as admissions officers by default. And a lot of them have backgrounds that show few qualifications to evaluate prospective students. One associate director of admissions we talked to had a previous life as a knitting-pattern designer. Another counselor fought wildfires. Even Harvard’s dean of admissions admits he was forced to repeat the 9th grade after skipping more than 50 days of school.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PAUL KRUGMAN: The difficulty of trying to pass health care reform shows how dysfunctional the Senate, and the United States government as a whole, has become.

LBN-COMMENTARY By LESLIE H. GELB: We have seen the future of international politics and it is Copenhagen. That future holds for monster issues like global warming as well as most bilateral negotiations. Too bad for all of us. The next decade portends at best small accomplishments in world diplomacy; at worst, stalemates festering into disasters, as well as torturous leadership days ahead for the United States, with China increasingly lying in wait as a successful spoiler.

LBN-COMMENTARY By EDWARD LU: To meet its new goals for human spaceflight, NASA should launch early and launch often, rather than make grand plans that stretch over decades.

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SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Best-selling author Nancy Spears along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Catherine Zeta-Jones gave well-placed fans at her Broadway show, “A Little Night Music,” a little something to remember by inadvertently flashing her boobs onstage. Zeta-Jones stars with Angela Lansbury in the revival. In one scene, her character is reunited with her long lost lover and opens her kimono to show him what he’s been missing. But audience members on the left side of the orchestra the other day also got a spectacular view. One told us, “I couldn’t believe it. No wonder Michael Douglas looks so happy. The couple sitting next to me also saw it and poked each other.” ***We worried when we heard Martha Stewart had rapper Snoop Dogg on her show to bake chocolate brownies “with green sprinkles.” During his appearance Friday, notorious pot smoker Snoop hinted his treats often have a special ingredient.

LBN-QUOTE: “When a job comes open now, our members fill it with a temp, or they extend a part-timer’s hours, or they bring in a freelancer — and then they wait to see what will happen next.” - WILLIAM J. DENNIS Jr., director of research for the National Federation of Independent Business.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 21, 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

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FRIDAY • DECEMBER 18, 2009

OBAMA: WE ARE RUNNING SHORT ON TIME FOR CLIMATE DEAL: Delegates at the U.N. Climate Change Conference are “running short on time” to reach agreement on a deal, U.S. President Barack Obama told them Friday.”There is no time to waste,” he said. “Now I believe it’s the time for the nations and the people of the world to come behind a common purpose. We are ready to get this done today, but there has to be movement on all sides.”Obama sounded impatient with the progress of the two-week conference so far, saying the scope of climate change discussions over the years have produced little more than talk.

IRANIAN FORCES TAKE OVER IRAQ OIL WELL: Iranian forces took control of a southern Iraqi oil well on a disputed section of the border on Friday, US and Iraqi officials told AFP. “There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran,” a US military spokesman told AFP at Contingency Operating Base Adder, just outside the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.”The oil field is in disputed territory in between Iranian and Iraqi border forts,” he said, adding that such incidents occur quite frequently.

GM TO SHUT DOWN SAAB AFTER DEAL TALKS COLLAPSE: ‘It’s devastating,’ dealership owner says after sale to Spyker falls through: General Motors Co. said Friday it will shut down Saab after talks to sell the brand to a Dutch carmaker collapsed, marking the third time this year that a deal by GM to sell an unwanted brand has fallen through. GM said it had a small window of time to complete the deal and issues arose during the sale talks with Spyker Cars that could not be resolved. GM Vice President John Smith said representatives from GM, Spyker and the Swedish government were still in discussions Friday morning when talks fell apart. Smith declined to elaborate on the reasons.

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THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS FALLING!: The balance has shifted: More states reported declining unemployment in November than posted increases, according to a government report released Friday.The national unemployment rate improved to 10% last month as joblessness fell in 36 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Labor Department’s survey on state unemployment. The rate rose in eight states and held steady in six.

ONLINE POSTING OF WOMEN’S ABORTION INFORMATION CHALLENGED IN OKLAHOMA: A judge could determine Friday whether to allow an Oklahoma law to go forward that will post information online about women who get abortions in the state — an act critics say would be harassment and an invasion of privacy. “We don’t feel that the government should be able to run a grand inquisition into women’s private lives,” says Jennifer Mondino, an attorney challenging the law on behalf of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights.

YOUR (COMMUTER) CARRIAGE AWAITS! THRIFTY QUEEN CATCHES ORDINARY PASSENGER TRAIN ON HER JOURNEY TO SANDRINGHAM FOR CHRISTMAS: There was a buzz at King’s Cross this morning as platform 11b began crawling with police. Could it be a drug bust, the crowd wondered? Or was a rock star about to board a train? Then a small lady in a headscarf appeared, a handbag on one arm and a posy on the other. Fellow passengers on the 10.45 First Capital Connect service to King’s Lynn couldn’t quite believe their eyes as the Queen stepped on board a first class carriage. The monarch, with a few attendants, sat at the rear of the train in an eight-seat section of a carriage which was separated from the rest of the seats by a sliding glass door.

STORM HEADS TO MID-ATLANTIC, FLOODS FLORIDA: Wet pre-winter system prompts warnings from Carolinas to New Jersey: Air travelers received a bitter taste to a wet pre-winter storm that threatened to dump more than a foot of snow on parts of the mid-Atlantic region this weekend. The Federal Aviation Administration reported delays at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Arrivals and flights were pushed back at least 30 minutes, FAA reported.

HEATED DEBATE AGAIN OVER ‘WAR ON CHRISTMAS’ CLAIMS: Americans are in a war that pits the politically correct against Christmas carolers, some say. They say it’s a battle that plays out in the halls of Congress, retail stores and public schools across the country, and it’s one that’s been raging for years. Republican Rep. Henry Brown of South Carolina introduced a resolution this month asking that the House express support for the use of Christmas symbols and traditions and frown on any attempt to ban references to the holiday. “Each year, I could see a diminishing value of the spiritual part of Christmas,” Brown said. “It would seem like another group would go from the Christmas spirit to the holiday spirit.” “What I’m afraid of — if we don’t bring some kind of closure to this continuous change, then in 20 years it will almost be completely different from what we see today … and so we would lose the whole emphasis of what the very early beginnings of Christmas was all about.”

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Nancy Tellem, one of Hollywood’s top female execs, is stepping down as president of the CBS network’s entertainment group to take on a new role as a senior advisor to CBS CEO Les Moonves. She will concentrate on new business initiatives and emerging technologies.

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LBN-NOTICED: ***Actress Julia Alexander at The Jeanie Madsen Gallery in Santa Monica last night for a screening of her film The Bilderberg Club. ***Cindy Crawford went shopping at Fred Segal Fun in Santa Monica. ***Cam Gigandet and his girlfriend Dominique Geisendorff grabbed lunch with their daughter Everleigh at Toast in Los Angeles. ***Channing Tatum was spotted in the Mac store in Hollywood. ***Reese Witherspoon did some late-night shopping at Kitson Kids in Los Angeles. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT – Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Pepsi’s Super Bowl streak is over after a 23-year run. Advertisements for the drinks won’t appear in next year’s Super Bowl on CBS. Instead, the company plans to shift its ad dollars to a new marketing effort running mostly online. Super Bowl ad prices are said to be dropping. ***The Huffington Post expects to become profitable “within months.” But the site must compete in the same “topsy-turvy advertising market” as newspapers. Ad experts say HuffPost still gets treated like a poor relation due to its “shaggy and uneven offerings.” ***The number of journalists killed around the world in 2009 rose to a record 68 after a massacre in the Philippines, says the Committee to Protect Journalists. The press group says the 2009 tally compared to 42 deaths in 2008 and surpassed the previous record of 67 deaths in 2007.

LBN-COMMENTARY By ROBERT SPENCER (Author of The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran): President Obama’s June 4, 2009, Cairo address to the Muslim world was filled with reverential references to the teachings of the “holy Koran,” the speech serves as a lesson in the… self-delusion, and political correctness that pervades Western assumptions… Obama cited verse 5:32: “The Holy Koran,” said the President, “teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind…” This sounds peaceful, but Obama ignored the next verse (5:33), which mandates punishment for those whom Muslims do not regard as “innocent.”

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By WALT WHITMAN: Yes, Mexico must be thoroughly chastised! Let our arms now be carried with a spirit which shall teach the world that, while we are not forward for a quarrel, American knows how to crush, as well as expand! (1846)

LBN-COMMENTARY By CONNIE MARTINSON(Producer/Host/Columnist): My favorite TV show of all time: “Maverick” is my favorite TV show for all times. It is still clever, well-written and pertinent in this era of Poker games. Jimmy Garner was a true leading man, Roy Hargrove was a literate producer and, incidentally, the director was Leslie H. Martinson. Remember “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres” and “I’m working on it”?

LBN-INFO LINK: AAA: Gas Prices.

LBN-RECOMMENDS By ROBERTA MYERS (Editor-in-Chief of ELLE magazine): A few weeks ago, I was happily reading in my bedroom, but my silence was pierced by a kind of mesmerizing howl, caterwaul, some beautiful pained noise coming from my living room. I went out to see what it was and found on the television Wim Wenders’s The Soul of a Man, the iconic director’s contribution to Martin Scorsese’s film series, The Blues, on PBS. The stories of Wenders’ favorite blues singers are each as heartbreaking as they are riveting. And, oh yes, the music. Next up is Mike Figgis’ Red White and Blues.

LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***C. D. B. Bryan, a novelist and journalist whose 1976 book, “Friendly Fire,” about the accidental death of a soldier in Vietnam, the consequent anguish of his family and their rage at the Army and the federal government, became one of the enduring works of reportage on the Vietnam War, died Tuesday at home in Guilford, Conn. He was 73. ***Toward the end of his thought-provoking book “The Moment of Psycho,” the film historian David Thomson gives us a long list of movies made possible or informed by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror classic “Psycho” — a list that includes not just Brian De Palma homages to Hitchcock like “Dressed to Kill” and slasher films like “Halloween” and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and their innumerable spawn. When he sticks to talking closely about “Psycho” and Hitchcock’s vision, however, Mr. Thomson is at his best, goading the reader to rethink that movie and its influence, while demonstrating the wit, acuity and daunting knowledge of cinema that have made his “Biographical Dictionary of Film” a classic reference work.

LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***Leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells that helps regulate appetite, has long been touted as a possible treatment for obesity. Now, researchers believe that it may also reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. A 12-year study of 200 volunteers found that those with the lowest levels of the hormone were more likely to develop the disease than those with the highest levels. Furthermore, research on mice found that those that received doses of leptin were more adept at navigating a maze.***There’s good news for high-school graduates: Researchers have found they have less severe asthma symptoms than others. Those with fewer than 12 years of education had worse control of their asthma and were more likely to visit emergency rooms, Canadian researchers reported Dec. 17 in the journal Respiratory Research. Why the discrepancy? The researchers, who looked at 871 adults, suspect it has to do with poverty: Poorer people tend to have less education. At the same time, they may be exposed to dirtier environments, tobacco smoke and mold, and outdoor urban pollution.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Former Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan has been in discussions to become the Washington Redskins’ next head coach, according to two NFL sources. The two sides still have some issues to work through, however, before an agreement is reached. ***There’s been a flurry of reports by several news agencies over the past few hours that Tiger Woods is about to head to Arizona to enter a rehab facility for sex The Boston Bruins and Philadelphia flyers are scheduled to play at Fenway Park on Jan. 1. Last year, Detroit and Chicago played at Wrigley Field after the first Classic matched up Buffalo and Pittsburgh on a snowy day in western New York.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Pepsi will not advertise its drinks in next year’s Super Bowl, ending a 23-year run so the company can focus on a new marketing effort that will appear mostly online. Pepsi beverages have been advertised in the Super Bowl since 1987. Frito-Lay, a unit of parent company PepsiCo Inc., will still advertise. The company, which is based in purchase, N.Y., wouldn’t say how much it spent last year on Super Bowl ads, but it was one of the biggest advertisers, buying several minutes of commercial time. Ad time last year cost about $3 million for 30 seconds, on average.

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LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….

LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Melanie Griffith has undergone surgery to remove the early stages of skin cancer from her face. Spokeswoman Robin Baum said Thursday that the procedure was conducted early enough to prevent future complications. ***Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal really have called it quits, apparently early enough in December that nobody will feel obligated to go all out on Christmas shopping this year. ***The Times of London reports that Simon Cowell has been in talks with the Fox network since the summer and is preparing to announce an arrangement that would bring “X Factor” a U.S. version of his British hit music contest, to U.S. audiences in 2011.

DID YOU KNOW: ***The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter in the English language. ***1 in every 200 people are classified as psychopathic. ***You are 98% more likely to be murdered or raped by a family member or a close friend than a stranger. ***Donald Duck never wore pants but always wore a towel when he came out of the shower. ***Charlie Chaplin once won third place in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

LBN-QUOTE: “Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and to let him know that you trust him.” - Booker Washington.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 18, 1957, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first civilian nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, went online.

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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
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THURSDAY • DECEMBER 17, 2009

TEDDY SAVED JFK’s BRAIN: A shocking treasure trove of Kennedy documents, photos - and even a human brain fragment believed to belong to former president John F. Kennedy - have been found in the attic of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s Hyannis Port home. The stunning discovery came when workers recently cleaned out the historic Cape Cod, Mass, house, which originally belonged to Joe and Rose Kennedy, to begin preparations to convert it to a museum.

MEXICAN RAID KILLS DRUG CARTEL BOSS OF BOSSES: Officials had offered $2.1 million reward for capture of Arturo Beltran Leyva: Two hundred Mexican Navy marines stormed an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed drug cartel chief in a two-hour gun battle, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon’s drug war.Arturo Beltran Leyva, the “boss of bosses,” and six members of his cartel died in the shootout Wednesday in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, according to a navy statement Thursday.

HOUSE PASSES JOBS BILL: A jobs bill, $626 billion for the Pentagon, and an expansion of the national debt ceiling were among the final bills of the year passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives. The debt ceiling allowed the Democrats to table questions about the deficit until next year, and the $150 billion jobs-creation bill was passed on party lines and won’t get out of the Senate, according to The Washington Post.

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SENATE STUCK IN FULL NELSON: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid still is missing one Democratic vote to secure health-care reform, and all eyes are on the final holdout, Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson.

SENATE PANEL APPROVES BERNANKE NOMINATION: FED CHAIRMAN LEAPS HURDLE TO SECOND TERM STEERING THE ECONOMY: A Senate panel on Thursday approved the nomination of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to run the nation’s central bank for another four years. The Senate Banking Committee voted 16-7 to send Bernanke’s nomination to the full Senate for consideration. Approval came after a two-hour debate that heaped both praise and criticism on the Fed chief.

SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: ***Producer Mike Medavoy ***Attorney Gloria Allred. ***TV Hostess Mary Hart. ***12 members of the White House staff. ***Political commentator Dick Morris. ***Veteran agent Jeff Berg ***Best-selling author Neil Strauss ***Billionaire Mark Cuban ***Professors from Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Oxford, Columbia ***The Mayor San Diego and Portland ***Over 100 Academy Award winners —-all understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

COPENHAGEN TALKS IN DANGER: The Copenhagen climate talks are in danger of failing. Dozens of heads of state began arriving in Copenhagen, ostensibly to sign a pact to curb emissions, on Friday, but with only one day left in the conference, negotiators have failed to draft a coherent text, in part due to disagreements over how much the developing world ought to join the industrialized world in cutting emissions.

LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Santa has come a little early to 4,000 people with mortgages this year. Citigroup has decided to suspend foreclosures and evictions for 30 days, beginning Friday and ending Jan. 17. ***Brian Moynihan, head of Bank of America’s consumer and small-business banking operations, was named new CEO of the banking giant, succeeding Ken Lewis, who announced his retirement in September following the controversial acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

WATER PROBLEMS: The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose serious health risks and still be legal.

LBN-THINK AGAIN:….

LBN-COMMENTARY By MICHAEL LEVINE: Distraction, brought on by technology, has created an addled citizen one that so consumed with texting in their vote to American Idol that they forget to vote or worse, why they were voting in the first place.

DRUG KINGPIN DEAD: Two hundred Mexican Navy marines stormed an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed drug cartel chief in a two-hour gunbattle, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon’s drug war. Arturo Beltran Leyva, the “boss of bosses,” and six members of his cartel died in the shootout Wednesday in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, according to a navy statement Thursday.

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

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Pope Benedict XVI, who at 82 still handwrites his speeches, is tapping YouTube, MySpace and podcasts to lure disenchanted youth to the Catholic Church. He now has a MySpace playlist that includes a rap song by Tupac Shakur. His midnight Christmas Mass will be podcast. ***Sharon Waxman, founder of the Wrap, reads the LBN E-Lert because she understands that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power tool. ***CNN will finish 2009 behind MSNBC in prime-time ratings, the first time CNN has ever trailed a competitor other than the Fox News Channel over a full calendar year. In recent months, CNN has also trailed its own sister network, HLN, where hosts do offer opinions. ***Rick Blair, who has been interim CEO of Philip Anschutz’s online businesses Clarity Digital Group and Examiner.com, is being named to the job permanently. Examiner.com is a network of locally focused Web pages, offering blog-like content from “examiners.” ***The Wall Street Journal is said to be leaving its longtime reps at Creative Artists Agency to join rival United Talent Agency. UTA will sell film and television rights to published articles in the Wall Street Journal, which recently regained its position as the largest U.S. newspaper. ***Tiger Woods, as popular with the public as Frank Sinatra before he admitted to infidelity, is now about as appealing as singer Kid Rock, according to the Davie Brown Index, which is used by advertising agencies to gauge the ability of celebrities to influence consumers.

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HOW WHITE IS FACEBOOK?: Users of Facebook, the popular online social network, are increasingly black and Latino, according to a study released Wednesday. Facebook researchers have found that 11 percent of the approximately 100 American users are African-American, 9 percent are Latino, and 6 percent are Asian.

HARASSMENT: In what U.S. officials describe as a concerted effort to harass American diplomats, frequent car searches and the denial of visas have disrupted embassy work.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***The Screen Actors Guild announced its nominations for 2009 this morning. The major nods veered precious little from those of the Golden Globes announced earlier this week, however, in the lead actor categories “The Hurt Locker’s” Jeremy Renner takes the place of Tobey Maguire while Meryl Streep - for “Julie & Julia” - is in instead of Emily Blunt. ***Prominent CAA agent Fred Specktor reads the LBN E-Lert because he understands that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.

LBN-SEE IT:…This Los Angeles reservoir contained chemicals that sunlight converted to compounds associated with cancer. The city used plastic balls to block the sun, but nearby homeowners asked why, if the water didn’t violate the law.

LBN-NOTICED: ***LCO www.LCOonline.com, one of Hollywoods leading public relations firms, had it’s annual Holiday party last night for it’s staff at the iconic Garden of Taxco Mexican restaurant in West Hollywood. Each staff member had to recount “the funniest” work moment of the year with several stories involving the firms work for legendary rock group Kiss latest triumph U.S. tour. ***Jude Law, who is done playing Hamlet on Broadway, canoodling in a cozy red banquette at the Russian Tea Room in NYC with Sienna Miller, giving new meaning to a Wednesday matinee. ***Leight and Leslie Keno, the identical twin antique dealers, hosting a holiday dinner at Primola in NYC. ***LCO 2.0 co-directors Josh Goodman and Maryanne Conlin discussing the tools of social media with renown CAA agent Fred Spectkor at his office in Century City. ***Britney Spears took her sons Preston and Jayden to dinner at Asia de Cuba inside West Hollywoods Mondrian Hotel. ***Jennifer Lopez went shopping at Beverly Hills Alice + Olivia Boutique. ***Mel Gibson picked up some shades at the Solstice sunglasses store in Camarillo. ***Sarah Michelle Prinze grabbed lunch at E. Baldi restaurant in Beverly Hills. Producers Ralph Winter and Mark Joseph at the Rihga Royal’s Sky Lounge in HIroshima, in town for the Damah Film Festival in Hiroshima ***Nicole Ritchie promoted her new House of Harlow Holiday Collection at Bloomingdales in Costa Mesa. ***Adam Lambert was spotted at the Jingle Ball after-party at the Opium *Hard Rock* in Hollywood. ***Zachary Quinto attended *Spike* TVs Video Game Awards at LA Lives Nokia Event Deck. ***Kellan Lutz and Rachel Bilson presented families with a $100 Target GiftCard at the Target To-Go event in San Francisco. ***BE AN LBN-CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: John Madden retired from NBC in April, ending a 30-season run as a TV analyst that followed a decade as Raiders coach, but hes still involved in football.

LBN-RECOMMENDS By JONATHAN KARP (Publisher and editor in chief of TWELVE imprint): In two wide-eyed sittings, I devoured My Paper Chase by Harold Evans, legendary newspaperman, racounteur extraordinaire, and my former boss at Random House. I didn’t know much about his rise from working-class roots to the pinnacle of journalism in the U.K., nor did I know the full story of how he wooed Colin Powell, Marlon Brando, and Tina Brown, but it’s all here, told with the brio and brilliance characteristic of this multitudinous British-American innovator.

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By H.P. LOVECRAFT: We must recognize the essential underlying savagery in the animal called man, and return to older and sounder principles of national life and defense. We must realize that man’s nature will remain the same so long as he remains man; that civilization is but a slight coverlet beneath which the dominant beast sleeps lightly and ever ready to awake. (1918)

In any event, Ive played around using Notepad as opposed to Microsoft Word several times and it seems to be off and on in terms of fixing the apostrophe problem. Unfortunately it doesnt seem to be consistent. Can we revisit this issue? Perhaps there is another option.

Many thanks again!

LBN-COMMENTARY By TINA BROWN: Tiger Woods has broken another record. I’m not talking about his new accolade for being athlete of the decade. I am talking about the fact that your typical celebrity sex scandal will produce, at most, a 10-day sustained media barrage before the cool down begins. Yet here we are at the end of Week Two with the inexhaustible angles on Tigers troubles still derailing dinner-party conversations with no signs of abating.

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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Don’t expect the Woods-Nordegren family Christmas to be as exciting as their Thanksgiving: According to People magazine, Elin is taking the kids to Sweden for the holidays, and possibly longer. Originally, the former model had planned on leaving in January, but apparently she will return to her home country sooner. ***Kate Hudson, upset by her breakup with Alex Rodriguez, found a sympathetic ear at the local premiere of “Nine.” At Tuesday’s after-party at M2 in Chelsea, Hudson was seen chatting quietly with Madonna, who dated the Yankee slugger last year. “When the cameras were on Kate she was all smiles. But privately you could tell she has had her heart broken,” a witness said. ***Robert Downey Jr.’s troubled past came back to bite him on a recent trip to Japan, where he was promoting ‘Iron Man 2.’ He told David Letterman Wednesday night that he was hassled at the airport for years-old felony convictions, “not recent stuff like you or Tiger.” ***Courtney Love has not only lost legal control over her daughter– Frances Bean Cobain — a judge has now issued a restraining order, prohibiting Courtney from having any direct or indirect contact with the 17-year-old.

DID YOU KNOW: ***Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could produce over a million descendants. ***Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can’t find any food. ***Human birth control pills also work on gorillas. ***The groundhog is only accurate in predicting the weather 28% of the time. ***Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful man-powered airplane flight, near Kitty Hawk, N.C.

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LBN E-Lert Edited by Shannon Donnelly
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WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 16, 2009

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT TOPS DEBT LIMIT: The latest calculation of the National Debt as posted by the Treasury Department has - at least numerically - exceeded the statutory Debt Limit approved by Congress last February as part of the Recovery Act stimulus bill.

The ceiling was set at $12.104 trillion dollars. The latest posting by Treasury shows the National Debt at nearly $12.135 trillion.

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WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 16, 2009

LBN-THE “INSIDE” STORY: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (pictured above, looking not unlike Dr Hannibal Lecter) lost nearly a pint of blood after he was attacked in Milan by a protestor who threw a metal model of the citys cathedral in his face. The 73-year-old PM, famed for his right-wing views and his alleged sexual exploits, had a second night in hospital after doctors admitted his injuries were worse than they had first thought. Mr. Berlusconi also suffered a broken nose and lost two teeth during the assault as he signed autographs at the end of a stormy political rally.

HEALTH CARE INCHES FORWARD: Health-care reform moved forward slowly and unsurely, as senators rejected a proposal to make it easier to import prescription drugs from countries like Canada, where they are much cheaper.

U.S. FORGOES BILLIONS IN CITI DEAL: The federal government decided to give up billions of dollars this week when the IRS issued an exception to its tax rules allowing Citigroup (and a handful of other companies partially owned by the federal government) to hold on to billions of dollars in tax breaks that would otherwise lose value when the government sells its shares to private investors.

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COPENHAGEN NEARS DEAL ON FORESTS: According to The New York Times, negotiators at Copenhagen have “all but completed” a deal that would compensate countries for preserving forests and, in some cases, peat soil, swamps, and fields to help fight climate change.

U.S. ORDERS 56K NEW CONTRACTORS: THE 30,000 NEW TROOPS FOR AFGHANISTAN AREN’T EVEN THE HALF OF IT: The U.S. plans to send between 26,000 and 56,000 new private-sector contractors to Afghanistan as well, raising the total number of contractors in the country to anywhere between 130,000 and 160,000.