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Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:31:56 -0700

We hope that no one is really as soulless as Patrick Bateman, but Christian Bale's performance in 2000's 'American Psycho' was so frighteningly believable he must have had some real-life inspiration. Turns out Bale studied Tom Cruise's mannerisms to bring the clean-cut murder addict to life.

The movie's director, Mary Harron, revealed in an interview with BlackBook:

We talked about how Martian-like Patrick Bateman was, how he was looking at the world like somebody from another planet, watching what people did and trying to work out the right way to behave. And then one day he called me and he had been watching Tom Cruise on David Letterman, and he just had this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes, and he was really taken with this energy.

http://noel.stumbleupon.com/review/36935051/

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:08:13 -0700

Krista Norsworthy, Cronkite News Service

October 16, 2009 - 11:16PM

With one exception - Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio - Arizona addresses civil rights as well as any other state, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday.

"I think when the sheriff is out of town, Arizona is about as equal as everyone else when it comes to civil rights," Sharpton said at a civil rights forum in Phoenix.

Arpaio's crime-suppression sweeps, during which his officers arrest illegal immigrants, have drawn protests from minority groups and some political leaders. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently removed the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's authority to enforce federal immigration laws other than in jails, but Arpaio has argued that he still has authority to conduct the sweeps.

Sharpton said Arpaio is out of line.

"It is one thing for the sheriff to have a position, but it is another thing for him to supersede where the government and others on a federal level have deemed proper and appropriate," Sharpton said.

Sharpton, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, joined state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, and ASU Professor Raul Yzaguirre, a longtime civil rights advocate, at a forum organized by ASU's Center of Community Development and Civil Rights.

http://noel.stumbleupon.com/review/36934924/

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:00:21 -0700

by Kristine Harrington

Posted on October 16, 2009 at 11:05 PM

SURPRISE, ARIZONA -- Sheriff Joe Arpaio was back on the streets for another crime sweep Friday evening. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) officially lost their federal immigration certification today, but that has not stopped the arrests.

So far this evening, 19 people have been arrested, 6 face no charges but are suspected of being here illegally and ICE has already come for them. Two others are suspected illegal immigrants arrested for not having proper identification. Arpaio says this is proof that he can still enforce immigration laws. "We don't need 287 (g) we don't have to be controlled by Washington." said Arpaio during his 12th crime suppression sweep.

That's despite the federal government's move to deny over 100 deputies their ability to act as federal immigration agents. Arpaio's response: "I don't need the federal law."

http://noel.stumbleupon.com/review/36854697/

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:32:21 -0700

By KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press Writer Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press Writer - Tue Oct 13, 9:45 pm ET

DENVER - Parents and survivors of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School are saying good things about an essay released Tuesday by the mother of shooter Dylan Klebold.

Susan Klebold made the most detailed public remarks by any parent of the two Columbine killers in an essay published in O, The Oprah Magazine. She said in the essay she had "no inkling" her son was suicidal or depressed.

The essay sparked strong emotions for Connie Michalik, whose son, Richard Castaldo, was shot and partially paralyzed in the rampage. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 others before killing themselves.

The shooters' parents have said little in public since the massacre. They gave depositions in a lawsuit filed by victims' families, but a judge in 2007 ordered those depositions sealed for 20 years after the case was settled out of court.

Survivors and their families have been left wondering about the boys' parents in the decade since the shootings.

"You know, I always wondered how she felt and what she went through. 'Cause I know I went through a living hell, and I was always sure she did, too," Michalik told The Associated Press.

Michalik, who has never met Susan Klebold, said reading the essay answered some of her questions about the Klebold family.

"I applaud her for the courage to talk about this," Michalik said Tuesday.

In the essay, Susan Klebold described the day of the shooting. She at first feared Dylan had been shot at school, not that he was one of the perpetrators.

Susan Klebold said the family was evacuated from their home the afternoon of the massacre because authorities feared even Dylan's residence may have been rigged to explode. Still, she said, it took months for relatives to accept that the quiet boy who loved origami and Legos was to blame for the violence.

"We didn't know that he and Eric had assembled an arsenal of explosives and guns," Susan Klebold wrote. "We believed his participation in the massacre was accidental or that he had been coerced. We believed that he did not intend to hurt anyone."

The magazine released excerpts from the essay last week and published the full text Tuesday.

A magazine spokeswoman said Susan Klebold has turned down several interview requests over the years but agreed several months ago to share an essay. There were no plans for her to appear on the show.

In an introduction to the essay, Oprah Winfrey told readers, "Since the day her son participated in the most devastating high school shooting America has ever seen, I have wanted to sit down with Susan Klebold to ask her the questions we've all wanted to ask -- starting with, 'How did you not see it coming?' and ending with 'How did you survive?'"

A spokeswoman for Susan Klebold has said there would be no further comment.

One of the shooting's survivors, Krystal Miller, said Tuesday she has long had questions for the Klebolds but understood their silence.

"Over the years I would've loved to hear something," said Miller, whose maiden name was Krystal Woodman. "But it sounds like she is still just reeling from it and processing it. So how is someone supposed to come out and give answers when they're still trying to figure it out themselves?"

http://noel.stumbleupon.com/review/36707130/

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:32:20 -0700

Ha..this is why I would never do Karaoke...I do not have a singing voice; and who the Hell is Juanes...

Oct. 8, 2009 10:17 AM
Associated Press

STAMFORD, Conn. - Police say a woman singing karaoke in a Connecticut sports bar was attacked by six other women who didn't like her performance.

Five of the women were arraigned on assault and other charges on Wednesday in Stamford Superior Court. The other woman appeared in court Monday on the same charges.

Police say the Sept. 23 attack on the 25-year-old woman from Port Chester, N.Y., happened during karaoke night at Bobby Valentine's Sports Gallery Cafe in Stamford.

Authorities say the six women, all under the legal drinking age of 21, knocked the singer to the floor, punched her and pulled her hair. The victim suffered bruises and a chipped tooth.

The victim has said she was singing "A Dios Le Pido" by Colombian superstar Juanes when the violence began.

http://noel.stumbleupon.com/review/36706913/

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:22:33 -0700

by Casey Newton - Oct. 8, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Cash-strapped DHS seeks up to 8,800% fee hike for Ariz. care centers

Child-care costs could rise sharply next year if a proposal to exponentially increase licensing fees takes effect as scheduled on Jan. 1.

The state's 2,700 registered child-care facilities, which currently pay a $150 flat rate for a three-year license, will see that fee rise to as much as $13,442 next year, according to a sliding-scale fee schedule unveiled by the Department of Health Services this week.

That means those facilities with 150 or more children, which represent a quarter of all Arizona child-care centers, may face an increase of more than 8,800 percent. The new fees would make Arizona the most expensive Western state for licensing a children's facility, according to a January report by the Arizona Auditor General's Office.

California, the next most expensive state, charges $3,000 for three years of licensing for its largest facilities.

State officials say the new fee schedule resulted from deep budget cuts
and will not pose an undue burden on most providers.

The proposed increases shocked child-care providers across the Valley.

Humble acknowledged the difficulty the increase will pose for businesses. The department is organizing two public meetings this month for providers and other interested parties to provide feedback and offer alternatives to the proposed fee structure.

"I want to see if there are some creative ideas out there that help us structure in a way that makes more sense," Humble said.

Ultimately, though, providers are almost certain to see their fees increase sharply. "The dollar figure isn't all that negotiable," Humble said.

Public meetings on child-care facility licensing fees

Phoenix: 5 to 6 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Department of Health Services State Lab Auditorium, 250 N. 17th Ave.

Tucson: 5 to 6 p.m. Oct. 29 in the conference room of Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, 535 N. Wilmot Road, Suite 201.

http://noel.stumbleupon.com/review/36706789/

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:17:45 -0700

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Levi Johnston is going for the ultimate exposure -- his bare body.

The 19-year-old father of Sarah Palin's grandchild will pose nude for Playgirl, his attorney said Wednesday. To get ready for his close-up, Johnston is training three hours a day, six nights a week at an Anchorage gym with a local body builder. A formal agreement hasn't been reached with the online magazine, but the photo shoot is a "foregone conclusion," said Johnston's attorney, Rex Butler.

Johnston fathered a son with Bristol, the 18-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate who resigned as Alaska's governor in July.

Publication of the photographs could be another source of embarrassment for Palin, often mentioned as a possible 2012 presidential candidate. Her memoir, "Going Rogue," will be published next month and pre-sales already have made it a national best seller.

After Sen. John McCain chose Palin as his running mate, Johnston was thrust into the national spotlight early in the campaign after Palin abruptly announced her unwed daughter was pregnant and the couple would marry.

The couple broke up after the birth of their son, Tripp, in December. The relationship between the Palins and Johnston since then has often been strained, mostly over visitation issues.

Palin's representatives did not respond to a request for comment on the Playgirl job.

Johnston also has been marketing himself for a possible modeling or acting career, spending time in New York and Los Angeles. His publicist, Tank Jones, said Johnston is fielding offers for other media jobs, including a reality show.

Johnston's first TV commercial, hawking Wonderful brand pistachios, debuted this week.

In the short spot, Johnston walks toward the camera with Jones, an Anchorage private investigator who also is Johnston's bodyguard. As they approach the camera, fan voices call out to Johnston off-screen. As he snaps open a pistachio, a voiceover declares, "Now Levi Johnston does it with protection" -- a reference that Johnston has said in interviews that he and Bristol sometimes had unprotected sex.

No date has been set for the Playgirl photo shoot, but Butler expects the world will get a gander of the finished product by the end of the year.

Playgirl spokesman Vincent Stevens couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Butler said Playgirl approached Johnston about posing in the buff.

"We told him he would have to do what actors and actresses do. They get in the gym," Butler said. "He got in the gym."

Johnston has been working out with Marvin Jones, a former Mr. Alaska competitor and the brother of Tank Jones. The trainer has put Johnston on a low-carb, high-protein diet.

After a month of rigorous workouts, Johnston is showing impressive results, Marvin Jones said. But Johnston had a head start as a former high school hockey player.

"It's kind of scary, he has so much energy. He's working out before we work out," the trainer said. "When it's time for him to bare all, I think he'll be ready."

If the low-key Johnston has any pre-exposure jitters, none of his handlers have noticed.

"Levi is a man of few words, but once you know him, you know he's very confident," Marvin Jones said.

It wouldn't be the first show-it-all with political ties. Patti Davis, the daughter of former president
Ronald Reagan, posed nude for Playboy magazine in 1994.

http://noel.stumbleupon.com/review/36706092/

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:51:00 -0700

John Johnson Jr. - Oct. 7, 2009 08:53 PM
Los Angeles Times

Doomsday in 2036 just got a lot less likely.

After recalculating the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., have determined that the odds of it hitting the Earth that year are only 4 in 1 million.

"We've all but ruled out" a collision in 2036, said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near-Earth Objects office at JPL.

Previously, the odds had been calculated at one in 45,000, Chesley said.

While that doesn't sound like a very big danger, Apophis has been the greatest worry since 2004 for scientists who track threats from space. At that time, it appeared the asteroid had a 2.7 percent chance of hitting the Earth in 2029.

At nearly three football fields in diameter, Apophis would cause widespread damage if it hit the Earth, though not as much as the 6-mile-wide asteroid thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs.

The danger of a collision in 2029 was later downgraded, leaving 2036 as the encounter posing the greatest danger.

The latest calculations were based on observations with the University of Hawaii's 88-inch telescope, as well as the 90-inch Bok telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona.

In 2029, Apophis will pass within 18,000 miles of Earth, closer than some satellites. Even though scientists are certain it won't hit the Earth, they are less sure about how that close approach will affect its future orbit.

"The deflection caused by the 2029 encounter will be significant," Chesley said. "We're not worried about 2029. We're worried about its future trajectory."

The latest calculations, according to Chesley, suggest that in 2068 there is a one-in-300,000 chance of Apophis hitting the Earth.

http://noel.stumbleupon.com/review/36129574/

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:01:24 -0700

Posted: 10:07 am EDT September 15, 2009Updated: 10:19 am EDT September 15, 2009
COMMERCE, Ga. -- A Commerce man faces life in prison after pleading guilty to fatally shooting his 6-year-old grandson as the family was preparing to go on a Sunday afternoon picnic.

Robert L. "Bobby" Clark Jr. killed his stepgrandson, Michael Levigne, and shot his wife, Linda Clark, several times in the abdomen at the couple's home on June 7. Relatives say Clark became enraged after his wife accused him of taking a piece of watermelon meant for the picnic.

After the couple argued, Clark got his gun from the bedroom and killed the boy. Linda Clark was critically injured when she stepped in front of Michael's 5-year-old brother to protect him.

Robert Clark pleaded guilty to malice murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and aggravated battery.

He could have faced the death penalty at trial.

http://noel.stumbleupon.com/review/36129207/

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:44:56 -0700

Texas Boy, 15, Charged With Assault

Posted: 10:08 pm EDT September 15, 2009Updated: 4:27 am EDT September 16, 2009
GRAPEVINE, Texas -- Police say a 15-year-old Texas boy stabbed his mother in the back with a 6-inch kitchen knife while pretending to hug her after an argument.

Police arrested the teen Tuesday in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine about three hours after his mother called police.

Authorities say the woman was treated at a Dallas hospital for a non-life-threatening wound.

Police say the boy and his mom had an argument Monday night. He allegedly pretended to apologize Tuesday, then stabbed her while they embraced. The mother ran to her bedroom, locked the door and called 911.

The boy's identity is being withheld because of his age, but he faces a juvenile charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.