Missing B.C. woman found in U.S., but husband is still missing

(The Canadian Press) – 22 minutes ago

ELKO, Nev. — It is an astonishing tale of survival against all odds.

A British Columbia woman who vanished with her husband seven weeks ago on their way to Las Vegas was found alive Friday in a remote part of northeastern Nevada, police said.

Hunters found Rita Chretien, 56, with her van in Elko County, according to a joint statement from the RCMP and police in Baker City, Ore., where the couple were last seen. But there was no sign of her husband, Albert Chretien.

"We're stunned," the woman's son, Raymond Chretien, told the (Portland) Oregonian newspaper. "We haven't fully digested it. This is a miracle."

Rita Chretien survived 49 days in the wilderness by eating snow and small amounts of trail mix, her son said. She was airlifted to St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Centre in Twin Falls, Idaho, where a nursing supervisor said she was in fair condition Friday night.

RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk told The Associated Press that family members said she had lost 20-30 pounds during her ordeal but was on her feet, walking around at the hospital in Twin Falls.

A couple on four-wheelers spotted the Chretiens' van in a ravine near the Humboldt National Forest, Elko County sheriff's detective Sgt. Kevin McKinney told the Elko Daily Free Press.

"She sounds like she's coherent and she's very hungry," McKinney said, adding that officers interviewed her at the hospital.

Raymond Chretien said the sheriff's office planned to begin a search for his father Saturday, adding that he and his wife would be flying out to join his mother at the hospital.

Rita Chretien told her son she and her husband left their Penticton home March 19, crossed into Washington and reached Baker City that afternoon, where they bought gas at a food mart and were captured on a video surveillance camera.

The couple own a commercial excavating business and were headed to Las Vegas for a trade show.

Raymond Chretien said his mother told him they were sightseeing on back roads when their 2000 Chevrolet Astro van got stuck in mud. Three days later, Albert Chretien, 59 set out on foot to look for help, and never returned.

"I don't believe they were prepared for winter weather," Raymond Chretien said. "They don't go camping."

He said his mother doubts whether she would have lived more than another two or three days had the hunters not found her.

Rita Chretien kept a journal to let her family know what had happened if she didn't survive. Her son said she immediately apologized for the anguish she caused him, his two brothers and other relatives.

"She felt extremely bad for us all," he said.

The couple were reported missing by relatives after they didn't return home March 30.

In late April, police agencies said an extensive search air and ground had failed to turn up any sign of the couple or their vehicle.

_ With files from The Associated Press.

'Deathers' take over where birthers left off
By Shannon Travis, CNN Political Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With "birthers" mostly silent, "deathers" are now pushing a new conspiracy theory.

The release of President Obama's birth certificate last week apparently tamped down -- to a large degree -- skeptics who questioned whether he could legally serve as president because they said he wasn't a natural-born citizen. Now, a surprisingly diverse crop of people are questioning whether Osama bin Laden is actually dead.

Some media outlets and bloggers are calling them "deathers."

Their claims follow a wide range: Some believe that the world's most-wanted terrorist was not the man killed Sunday, others think bin Laden is dead but was killed many years ago, and still others believe that the September 11 mastermind is alive -- and secretly being interrogated.

One Fox Business News host is not going quite that far. Judge Andrew Napolitano at one point declared that "Osama bin Laden is dead," but he later seemed unconvinced. Napolitano also questioned the president's authority to kill him.

Napolitano began his Monday show by saying bin Laden was "killed on the illegal whim of the president." Moments later, he added, "Osama bin Laden is dead. And the president seems to think he has the right to kill whomever he wants so long as the person is perceived as a monster and the public supports it."

And yet the judge also questioned whether officials are "telling us the truth or pulling a fast one to save Obama's lousy presidency." Later in the broadcast, Napolitano asked a guest, "Do you believe he's dead, or do you want some more evidence: a photograph, a testimony of an eyewitness? Something other than the words of a president whose words we have doubted before?"

Others who are questioning bin Laden's death include a libertarian talk radio host, a well-known liberal anti-war activist and some everyday Pakistani students.

What their claims all have in common -- much like claims that the president was born outside the U.S., instead of in Hawaii -- is that they go against the agreed-upon facts.

Obama's decision not to release the photos of bin Laden's death seems to be stoking "deather" fires.

Alex Jones is a Texas-based talk radio host who also runs various websites and whose YouTube channel claims more than 24 million views. He is sometimes called a right-wing conspiracy theorist.

After the president's announcement of bin Laden's death, Jones told his listeners in one broadcast, "My friends, this is a complete and total hoax."

"Where is the body?" Jones asked in another show. "My White House sources nine years ago, on record, confirmed that he had been killed and was frozen on ice."

Cindy Sheehan, who is certainly not an ideological ally of Jones', appears to agree with him on bin Laden's death.

Sheehan became famous for protesting President George W. Bush's Iraq policy -- even camping out at the White House and the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch -- after her son was killed in the war.

Shortly after the president's bin Laden announcement, Sheehan planted seeds of doubt on her Facebook page and blog.

"It's not that I don't believe Obama about Osama because he's Obama, I don't believe him because he is just one in along line of butt-naked emperors," Sheehan wrote.

"The only proof of Osama being dead again that we were offered was Obama telling us that there was a DNA match between the man killed by the Navy SEALs and OBL. Even if it is possible to get DNA done so quickly, and the regime did have bin Laden DNA lying around a lab somewhere -- where is the empirical proof?" Sheehan continued.

Meanwhile, a Facebook page -- named "Osama Bin Laden Not Dead" -- has been created as a sort of message board for theories.

"This whole story is a distraction from Obama's birth certificate bollox," Kevin Lane posted. "That was all over the news until in the space of 24 hours he had found OBL, killed (but not captured) him, done DNA tests and got the results (dont that take 3 days) and dumped his body at sea. Surely if OBL was/is such a bad man they would want the world to see him dead whether the pics are gruesome or not."

"Bin Laden was taken alive and is being interrogated some where before being executed," David Colin Leach posted.

Shortly after the announcement of bin Laden's death, university students in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he was killed, expressed skepticism.

"That's propaganda," one student told CNN's Nick Paton Walsh. "Osama has been killed 10 years ago in Afghanistan. And it's just a propaganda to finish the war in Afghanistan." Others refused to believe that bin Laden was even in Abbottabad. And others echoed calls for the Obama administration to show pictures.

"If it is true, then why are they not showing his body?" one student asked.

One expert on conspiracy theories said that such wide, diverse claims have one common element: They often come from the political "fright wing."

"Your conspiracy theories tend to proliferate on the extreme edges of the political spectrum," said John Avlon, a CNN contributor and author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America."

"Unfortunately, you're going to have people who -- especially in today's politics and especially with the amplification that the Internet provides -- will embrace conspiracy theories on almost anything."

And Avlon said such people often share a common trait.

"They come up with these ornate explanations, alternate explanations, for how events occur, like JFK's assassination, in order to keep their own psychology in place. 'Nineteen guys could not have brought down the twin towers. It had to be a government conspiracy,' they say to themselves. Otherwise, the world becomes really scary and unpredictable and unstable for them."

"While it's entirely predictable that certain Osama bin Laden conspiracy theories would proliferate in the Middle East, because of some people who have a creative interest in those rumors ... the fact that such (bin Laden) conspiracy theories are anywhere in the American political spectrum is a little surprising and a lot pathetic," Avlon added.

'Celebrity Apprentice': And the fired celebrity is...
by Dalton Ross
Categories: Donald Trump, Reality TV, Television, The Celebrity Apprentice
Comments 854 Add comment

Image credit: Ali Goldstein/NBC
Firings! Hirings! Dudes in red cowboy boots! Meat Loaf spending half the task in the bathroom! It was two-hours of madness on tonight’s Celebrity Apprentice, headed by NeNe’s verbal beat down of Star Jones. But who was sent packing in the end? My full recap will be up at 2am but if you cant wait to sound off on what went down, then read on for more. [SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you've already watched Sunday's episode of The Celebrity Apprentice.]
In an episode that saw the teams tasked with putting on a hair show, Star Jones had her own personal challenge to contend with — withstanding a constant barrage of insults, accusations, and epithets from NeNe Leakes, who had tired of Star’s bossy, manipulative ways. Their epic feud guaranteed that neither would be fired so Donald Trump could keep that drama ramped up for at least another week. So when the women lost, it was Hope Dworaczyk who paid the price and took the elevator ride of shame down to a waiting town car.
But who knows, maybe she’ll be back next week! After all, Trump also let the previously fired La Toya Jackson back to the competition for no reason whatsoever. (Trump logic — gotta love it!) What did you think of the episode? Did NeNe go too far, or not far enough? Is La Toya being let back into the competition Celebrity Apprentice‘s most ludicrous twist yet? And how crazy were those on-stage hair stylists? Weigh in now and then check back later for my full recap. And for more Celebrity Apprentice news and views, follow me on Twitter @EWDaltonRoss.

New results will appear below as they become available. Pause
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seamarie‎ #Celebrity Apprentice - aww - was sure he'd announce who got fired before signing off.
Twitter - 1 minute ago
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DanWhitley‎ RT @jimmyfallon: Got Bin Laden AND interrupted Celebrity Apprentice? Win for Obama all around.
Twitter - 2 minutes ago
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SandyKess‎ RT @Kenny_Gizzle: I bet Celebrity Apprentice got interrupted for this breaking news, oh yea Obama still #winning lol
Twitter - 2 minutes ago
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queenmob‎ RT @jimmyfallon: Got Bin Laden AND interrupted Celebrity Apprentice? Win for Obama all around.
Twitter - 2 minutes ago
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TLDallas‎ RT @RichardHunter: Did @BarackObama just preempt the climactic ending of Celebrity Apprentice? I believe he did : )
Twitter - 2 minutes ago
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jose602‎ RT @JennHoffman: Love that Obama interrupted the Celebrity Apprentice to announce that we got Bin Laden. Trump is losing his mind. #obamwin
Twitter - 3 minutes ago
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silentcomedian‎ I'm curious. Who got kicked off Celebrity Apprentice?
Twitter - 3 minutes ago
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MidTownMoguL‎ RT @KhishaA: Trump vs. Obama. Celebrity Apprentice shut off by Obama. #Winning
Twitter - 3 minutes ago
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bluecheddar1‎ "Obama Interrupts Celebrity Apprentice to Announce Osama Bin Laden is Dead"-headline at FireDogLake
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EZBreezyT‎ RT @BionicBombshell: So Obama had the body for a week and just happened to make an announcement during Celebrity Apprentice...Obama is the King of giving ... - More »
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KarlyRossiter‎ RT @raykwong: RT @ClaraJeffery DUDE: friend points out that Osama news timed to interrupt Celebrity Apprentice.
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unitedmethod‎ RT @brandiofbham: I don't for 1 sec think that interrupting Celebrity Apprentice was coincidence tho. What fun is being prez if u can't stick it 2 the ... - More »
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Osama bin Laden is dead and his body has been recovered by U.S. authorities, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

U.S. President Barack Obama was to make the dramatic announcement shortly in a hastily called, late-night appearance at the White House.

As they waited for his statement, multiple news organizations reported sources in the White House had confirmed bin Laden's death almost a decade after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

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Globe cartoonists vs. bin Laden
It was unclear where how Mr. bin Laden was killed and how the U.S. captured his body. Officials have long believed bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, was hiding a mountainous region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Mr. bin Laden was killed at a mansion outside the Pakistani capital Islamabad, CNN reported. A senior U.S. counterterrorism official told Associated Press Mr. bin Laden was killed in a ground operation in Pakistan, not by a Predator drone. A senior Pakistani intelligence official confirmed that he was killed in Pakistan

The Saudi-born al-Qaeda leader became both the face of global terrorism and a symbol of the futile efforts to seek it out and fight it.

While his death is a victory for the anti-terror crusade by the U.S. and its allies, it's unlikely his demise will end the now-fractured network of terror cells that reaches across the world.

Counter-terror experts have noted al-Qaeda has grown into a more fragmented movement, its violent ideas having been franchised over to local allies who can operate without a central, larger-than-life figurehead leader.

“Al-Qaeda is an organization that evolved into an ideology, with Osama bin Laden's message receiving widespread attention in the Muslim world,” said Peter Bergen, one of the rare Western journalists who has met Mr. bin Laden in person.

“Clearly, the ideology will survive Osama bin Laden's death.”

Al-Qaeda has farmed out attacks to regional players in East Africa, Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East, local radical partners it inspired and funded over the years, said Rohan Gunaratna, author of Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.

“It will be a messy blow to the main al-Qaeda structure but the threat of terrorism will continue.”

At the same time, there are other examples of terrorist groups losing momentum after the capture of their charismatic leader.

After Turkey seized Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdistan Workers Party, an initial wave of retaliatory attacks eventually petered and his supporters ended their armed campaign. In Peru, the arrest of Abimael Guzman Reymoso of the Shining Path decimated the violent Maoist movement.

Mr. bin Laden reached out to various associated groups, such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines, Jemaah Islamiah, elsewhere in southeast Asia, the Salafi Group in Algeria and other insurgents in Indonesia and Yemen. These groups provided not only a striking capacity but also training facilities, filling in for the loss of al-Qaeda's camps in Afghanistan.

“These groups play an equally important role. We are seeing terrorist capability in the regional, local Islamic radical groups,” Mr. Gunaratna said.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda has been severely crippled, losing its sanctuary in Afghanistan. Top operational planners have been captured -- such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah -- or killed, such as Muhammad Atef. More than 3,000 alleged members or supporters have been arrested, more than of 600 of whom are now languishing in indefinite detention at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The U.S. and its allies have seized massive caches of weapons, handbooks and, more importantly, computers, videotapes and other electronics such as satellite and cellular phones that can be examined to retrace their former owners' activities and whereabouts.

Financial regulators have frozen tens of millions of dollars in assets from individuals and groups alleged to be raising funds for terrorism.

But al-Qaeda's brand of terror hasn't been put out of business. It has been accused of having a hand in everything from deadly 2002 bombings in Bali that left hundreds dead to the recent uprisings in Libya and Yemen to last week's bombing in Marrakesh, which killed 15 people in the usually peaceful country's deadliest attack since 2003.

Donald Trump pushed back Sunday at President Barack Obama for making him the "focus of the evening" in his White House Correspondents' Dinner speech, and laced into Saturday Night Live comedian Seth Meyers as a "stutterer" whose delivery was lacking.

Continue Reading

Trump's comments came in a quick phone-in to "Fox and Friends," a day after he sat almost stone-faced while the president and Meyers ripped him repeatedly, to belly laughs from the crowd. People at tables around him gaped at him watching for a reaction, and some of his tablemates wrote on Twitter that it was uncomfortable.

"Well, I really understood what I was getting into — I didn't know that I'd be virtually the sole focus," Trump said. "I guess when you're leading in the polls that sort of thing tends to happen. But I was certainly in a certain way having a good time listening. I don't think the American people are having a good time with $5 gas. ... I was thinking to myself as they were doing this, you know, the American people are really suffering and we're all" having fun at a gala.

"I thought Seth Meyers — his delivery frankly was not good," Trump added. He's a stutterer."

Prior to the dinner, after he strolled the red carpet with his wife Melania, Trump said that he actually didn't think he would get poked by the president.

"I wouldn't think [Obama] would address me" during his speech," Trump told ABC News.

On Sunday morning, after the skewering, Trump said, "You raise to a certain level in the polls and boy does the world come after you. ... That was a largely liberal room."

"I had no idea it would be to that extent, where you know, it was just joke after joke after joke," he said. "It was almost like, is there anyone else they could talk about?"

Trump was also asked if he had learned a lesson from the widespread coverage of his F-bomb-laden speech in Las Vegas last week.

"Well, it was a speech in Las Vegas, in front of a rough group of folks, and a great group of folks, and I got standing ovation... It was really well received," he said. "The fact is it's a word of emphasis with that group. Probably I won't do it anymore, to be honest with you."

But he also said people ought to realize that salty language is often used in tough negotiations.

"That is very mild compared to what happens in a real room," he said.

Some people complain about the pace of baseball, calling a nine-inning game an eternity. These people obviously had never heard of the 33-inning game in 1981 between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings. This week, Bill interviews author Dan Barry about his book, Bottom of the 33rd.

Click on the listen link above to hear the interview.

Bill’s Thoughts on Bottom of the 33rd

At 8:00 PM on April 18th, 1981, two triple A teams, the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, settled in to play a game of baseball. It was a cold, windy night, and it would get colder.

Eight hours and thirty two innings later, each team had scored two runs, and neither team appeared capable of scoring any more.

The game was mercifully suspended. The weary players and a handful of fans made their way home for Easter.

Two months later, the longest game in the history of organized baseball was completed. The 33rd inning took eighteen minutes.

Of this game and the players and others involved, Dan Barry has made Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game.

Barry isn’t kidding about the “redemption.” In the prologue, he writes:

Why did you keep playing? Why did you stay?

Because we are bound by duty. Because we aspire to greater
things. Because we are loyal. Because in, our own secular way
we are celebrating communion, and resurrection, and possibility.

That tone notwithstanding, Bottom of the 33rd also provides some pretty funny stories: Wade Boggs napping on the field with his head on third base, for example, and the “mischievous wind” that blows a sure homerun that would have ended the game in the 27th inning back into the glove of the disappointed Rochester centerfielder.

Some of the stories of what happened years later to the players involved in that game in Pawtucket are heartening: both guys who played third base that night, the aforementioned Boggs and Cal Ripken, Jr., made it to the Hall of Fame. On the other hand, Dave Koza, who finally won the game with a base hit, never made the jump to the Majors and struggled in his life after baseball.

Dan Barry’s account bravely aspires to be more than the story of an exceptionally long ballgame, and it succeeds. And of course the great thing about Bottom of the 33rd is that you can relive the adventure of that weird game in some warm, well-lighted place.

1. The Royal Wedding of Prince William & Catherine Middleton April 29, 2011 at 06:00am EDT - The Royal Channel

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Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both were shot in the head.

Lincoln's secretary, Kennedy, warned him not to go to the theatre.
Kennedy's secretary, Lincoln, warned him not to go to Dallas.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners.

Both successors were named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.

Both names are comprised of fifteen letters

Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?
by Matt Taibbi
America has two national budgets, one official, one unofficial. The official budget is public record and hotly debated: Money comes in as taxes and goes out as jet fighters, DEA agents, wheat subsidies and Medicare, plus pensions and bennies for that great untamed socialist menace called a unionized public-sector workforce that Republicans are always complaining about. According to popular legend, we’re broke and in so much debt that 40 years from now our granddaughters will still be hooking on weekends to pay the medical bills of this year’s retirees from the IRS, the SEC and the Department of Energy.

Christy is the wife of John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley. Susan is the widow of Peter Karches, a close friend of the Macks who served as president of Morgan Stanley’s investment-banking division. Neither woman appears to have any serious history in business, apart from a few philanthropic experiences. Yet the Federal Reserve handed them both low-interest loans of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars through a complicated bailout program that virtually guaranteed them millions in risk-free income.

The Real Housewives of Wall Street

The technical name of the program that Mack and Karches took advantage of is TALF, short for Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility. But the federal aid they received actually falls under a broader category of bailout initiatives, designed and perfected by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, called “giving already stinking rich people gobs of money for no fucking reason at all.” If you want to learn how the shadow budget works, follow along. This is what welfare for the rich looks like.

By BNO News
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday acquitted five men accused of participating in a 2002 gang rape in southern Muzafargarh district, Geo Television reported.
The Court upheld the verdict of the Lahore High Court (LHC) of exonerating the five men and sentencing another one, Abdul Khaliq, to life in prison. The Supreme Court suspended the initial 2005 verdict of LHC.


However, the three-member bench of the apex court maintained the LHC verdict in the case of the gang rape against Mukhtaran Mai, a 30-year-old resident of Meerwala village.
On June 22, 2002, Mai was gang raped in her village under orders of an influential local Mastoi tribe council. The victim said on Thursday that she will consult with her attorney the possibility of filing an appeal.
Initially, fourteen individuals were arrested and accused for their involvement in the gang rape. Eight of them were acquitted and the remaining six were sentenced to death penalty.
Afterwards, the Lahore High Court acquitted five of them and changed the death penalty to a sentence of life in prison. Mai filed petitions in the apex court against Khaliq and the other five people.
(Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)
Thursday, April 21st, 2011 at 12:35 pm | BNO NEWS |
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TORONTO - A Toronto janitor is cleaning up after learning his Lotto Max ticket bagged him a $16.6-million payout.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. says John Addo checked his ticket Saturday at a local store and found he had one of the three winning tickets in Friday's $50-million draw.

The Ghana native, who came to Canada 20 years ago, has been working seven days a week for an industrial cleaning company to make ends meet.

Addo said his friends teased him about his weekly ticket purchase, but he always believed he would win one day.

He plans to buy a home and visit his family in Ghana with his winnings, and also wants to invest some of the money.

Addo, who moved from Montreal to Toronto three years ago, said he couldn't stop crying when he found out that he had won.

EXCLUSIVE: American Idol's Pia Toscano Scores a Record Deal!

Credit: Kaminski/Splash News

Saturday – April 09, 2011 – 10:55am

Comments (73) »

Well that was fast!

Less than 24 hours after her shocking early American Idol exit, season 10 finalist Pia Toscano has scored a record deal, UsMagazine.com has exclusively confirmed.

PHOTOS: Idol's most shocking elliminations ever

The 22-year-old New Yorker -- booted from the Fox series Thursday -- will record her debut album under the Interscope Records imprint, which is chaired by Idol mentor Jimmy Iovine.

"Pia is being signed to a deal with Interscope Records who are rushing her into the studio to record an album ASAP," a source familiar with the contract talks tells Us. "Starting [Thursday] night after the show, Interscope told her they wanted her and first thing [Friday] morning Interscope brass started calling every top songwriter and producer in town to get an album together and rush release it."

VIDEO: Watch Pia's soaring rendition of "I'll Stand By You"

As for the contract, the insider says, "Papers are being finalized. It's basically a done deal. She's signing. They rushed everything but she's so excited."

Though Idol fans are still coming to terms with her dismissal, Toscano -- who will hit the road this summer for the Idols LIVE! concert tour -- is taking her bad news in stride.

PHOTOS: Idol stars' fashions critiqued

"You don't know for sure why things happen, but you know, it did!" she told reporters during a Friday conference call. "It was my time to go on the show and I'm excited to see what my future holds."

NDP FACT CHECK

Reality check: The Ignatieff stand-up and be counted tour?

JANUARY 12, 2011
“He is standing up and willing to be counted” Martha Hall Findlay, Globe and Mail, January 10, 2011

Standing up to be counted? Sounds like a great theme for a tour of Liberal ridings! Let’s check the record:

Michael Ignatieff was absent for a shocking 77% of House of Commons votes in 2010. That’s 107 votes missed.

That compares to 44% for Stephen Harper, 12% for Gilles Duceppe and 7% for Jack Layton.

And on confidence votes? Michael Ignatieff missed 76% of those.

If Michael Ignatieff misses work 77% of the time, is he really interested in being Prime Minister?

Analysis: who won the debate?

Canadian federal election leaders' debate

GLOBAL NEWSAPRIL 12, 2011 9:19 PM




Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, right, gestures to Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the debate during the English language federal election debate in Ottawa Ont., on Tuesday, April 12, 2011.
Photograph by: Adrian Wyld, CP Images
Dr. Royce Koop is a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University. Royce is an expert in the structures and operations of political parties in Canada. His areas of expertise include how members of Parliament construct, maintain and benefit from the local party organizations in their constituencies.

Sandford Borins is Professor of Strategic Management in the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and the Department of Management at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. He has been a visiting professor at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, and Scholar-in-Residence in the Ontario Cabinet Office. Professor Borins is the author of eight books, numerous articles on public management and a blog on information technology, politics, and government.

How well did the four leaders present their points?

Dr. Royce Koop: Harper is very effective at getting his message across. He is very clear, disciplined, and it's tough to knock him off his game. Ignatieff is not communicating as well as I thought he would. He's clearly new to this debate format.

Were there any knockout blows?

Dr. Royce Koop: There have not been any knockout blows thus far and I don't expect there to be any. There have been a few opportunities for Ignatieff to land some real blows on Harper, but he hasn't taken the opportunity. He is new to this debate forum and I do not think that he recognizes these opportunities when they present themselves.

Who were the clear aggressors and/or defenders throughout the debate?

Dr. Royce Koop: As can be expected, the three opposition leaders are the aggressors and Harper is the defender. However, Duceppe has distinguished himself as an aggressor. His opening comment was a strong, sharp attack of Harper. However, Harper is effectively defending himself in this debate. His strength is being disciplined, and he's keeping his cool very well.

Who preformed best?

Dr. Royce Koop: Harper behaved like the PM-in-waiting. These debate formats actually favour the incumbent PM. Everyone is attacking them, and so they are able to rise above it all and act prime-ministerial. This is how Chretien survived the debates in 1997 and 2000, by riding above all the attacks, and Harper is doing so very effectively tonight.

What was your impression of the Harper-Ignatieff face-off? Who won that tete-a-tete?

Dr. Royce Koop: I think that Harper won that exchange, but it was a close call. Ignatieff has to be able to knock Harper off his game, and he hasn't been able to do so effectively. He came close at the conclusion of the first exchange between them, but Harper came out on top.

Did anything unusual or surprising jump out at you during the debate?

Dr. Royce Koop: I was surprised that Duceppe was as aggressive as he was. It was clear that he was injecting issues into the debate that he intends to pick up in tomorrow's French debate. But it's clear that he perceives the Tories as a threat in this election, and his conduct in this debate proves that.

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Ex Prime Minister Harper must now call an election after he lost his job today. MP Harper must now see the Governor General on Saturday and Announce he lost and will call a new election on Saturday. Election is suspected to be in the next 60 days
It’s official — the government has fallen from power, clearing the way for a spring election.

The opposition Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois came together Friday afternoon in a historic vote to say they no longer have confidence in the Conservative government.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed reporters after the vote and said he would meet with the Governor General on Saturday “to inform him of the situation and to take the only course of action that remains,” referring to the dissolution of Parliament and an immediate election campaign.

Harper began his remarks by saying that while Canada’s economic recovery has been strong, the global economy is still fragile.

“The budget presented this week by the minister of finance, the next phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, is critically important,” Harper said.

“There’s nothing — nothing — in the budget that the opposition could not or should not have supported. Unfortunately Mr. Ignatieff and his coalition partners, the NDP and the Bloc, had already decided they wanted to force an election instead,” Harper said. “The fourth election in seven years. An election Canadians clearly don’t want.”

“Thus the vote today that disappoints me, will, I expect, disappoint Canadians,” Harper said.

He did not take questions.

Opposition leaders react

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Harper showed his contempt for democracy by not taking questions.

“We’ve seen an historic moment in our democracy … a prime minister condemned by the chamber for contempt,” Ignatieff said. “He’s lost the confidence of the House of Commons.”

“Over 36 days we’ll present an appeal to Canadians who don’t just want to restrain him but replace him,” Ignatieff said in reference to the campaign.

Ignatieff was repeatedly pressed by reporters to state “yes” or “no” to the question of whether he would seek to form a coalition government in the event of another Conservative minority, but he would only say he was focused on presenting a Liberal alternative to the Conservatives.

“If you vote for the NDP, if you vote for the Bloc, if you vote for the Greens, you will get more of this,” Ignatieff said, gesturing back to the House chamber. “More contempt for democracy, more neglect of the priorities of Canadian families.”

NDP Leader Jack Layton portrayed his party as the alternative to the Conservatives.

MORE

By Reality Check Team on April 12, 2011 5:59 PM
Categories: Leaders' debate
Debate's on and we're off to our fact-checking pile of facts and figures.

First up tonight was Conservative Leader Stephen Harper answering a question about corporate taxes and how he would justify them.

Ready for the recession?

It quickly turned into an attack by Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe, who charged that the Conservatives were unprepared for the recession in 2008, when they introduced Jim Flaherty's fiscal update in November 2008.

That was the statment that led to the prorogation of Parliament and the attempt to form a coalition between the Liberals and NDP.

Harper said his government was in close consultation then with other G8 countries about the recession and how to respond with a stimulus package.

But at the time, Flaherty said: "We may have a technical recession when the next quarter is put with this quarter. It may be that both quarters will be slightly negative for Canada," Flaherty said. "At that point we will have had a technical recession."

A few months earlier, he said the Conservative government will not go into deficit to cushion the economy from the slump in the U.S., the global credit crunch, or the strong dollar.

Canada and jobs

In his defence on handling the economy, Harper said the Canadian economy has created more than 480,000 new jobs - more than were lost during the recession.

That's true if you measure from trough to peak. But looking at the job situation over the longer term, Statistics Canada says there has been a net increase of 53,000 jobs between October 2008 and March 2011.

That's due to an increase of 64,000 part-time jobs but a decline of 11,000 full-time jobs since the recession began.

More on the economy

Inside The Budget Deal: Vulnerable Populations Targeted, But Family Planning Saved
First 12-04-2011 11:44 AM EDT | Updated: 12-04-2011 12:00 AM EDT

But not the budget items that are off limits during elections...both democrats and republicans avoid the big three where the most money is wasted...



WASHINGTON –- Congressional leaders unveiled their final budget deal early Tuesday, a $1.049 trillion spending plan that axes billions of dollars for some of the most vulnerable populations while preserving a handful of priorities for both parties.
The budget, which will keep the government funded through the end of September, includes an across-the-board cut of 0.25 percent to every domestic agency.
Key highlights include:
$600 million in cuts to community health centers.
$414 million in cuts to grants for state and local police departments.
A whopping $1.6 billion cut in the Environmental Protection Agency's budget, of which nearly $1 billion comes from grants for clean water and other projects by local governments and Indian tribes.
Cuts to homeland security programs for the first time ever, though much of the agency's two percent decrease stems from a $786 million cut in first responder grants to state and local governments.
A $7 million cut to the Bureau of Public Debt, which accounts for and provides reports on the debt.
A $1 billion cut to HIV and disease-prevention funds.
A $3 billion cut to agriculture programs, the biggest portion of which comes from the Women Infants and Children fund, which loses $504 million.
A $390 million cut to low-income heating assistance; Community Development Funds are cut by $942 million.
Contributions to the United Nations and other international institutions are cut by $377 million.
$45 million pulled from nuclear nonproliferation funds.
A $650 million cut to federal highway investments.
A rider tucked in by lawmakers from Western states that allows states to remove wolves from the endangered species list.
Democrats were able to preserve some of their education priorities, including keeping Pell Grant awards at $5,550 and giving a slight boost to funds for Head Start. They also prevented Republicans from slashing funds for the National Institutes of Health: The agency will absorb a $260 million cut, rather than the $1.6 billion cut sought by House Republicans.
Democrats also rescued family planning programs from elimination; instead, they will face a five percent cut. But the budget does restore the D.C. abortion ban, which prohibits the city from using federal or local funds for abortions, for five months.
Republicans can claim victory in defunding two programs under health care reform: the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan and Free Choice Voucher programs. They also succeeded in eliminating several of the Obama administration’s “czars” for healthcare, climate change, autos and urban affairs.

The big story of the week is the end of Glen Beck’s show on Fox News. Has he been cancelled? Is this a reaction to claims Beck’s show was too divisive? Had the sponsors pulled out? Well Beck claims he is ‘transitioning” off the air. His boss, Darth Vader made flesh, Roger Ailes has offered a helping hand: “Half of the headlines say he’s been canceled, The other half say he quit. We’re pretty happy with both of them.”

Loyalty.

For those unsure on Beck have a look at this video. It’s essentially as if Jeremy Clarkson lost the plot, hosted a News show and was watched by millions.

Trump

Donald Trump is potentially going to run for the Republican Nomination for President. Yep. Donald Trump. Host of the American version of “The Apprentice.” That’s the equivalent of Alan Sugar going for Prime Minister.

I can see no reason why he wouldn’t be a great President. I mean he recently bankrupted his own casino company. A casino. His own casino. Only a very special person could do that.

He also gets on with the common man. Recently saying in an interview:

“You know the funny thing, I don’t get along with rich people. I get along with the middle class and the poor people better than I get along with the rich people,”

He probably makes these friendships with comments like: (From the same interview) “Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich.”

Word of advice Trumpy. Don’t call them poor to their face and don’t bang on about how rich you are. They tend not to like that, the poor. Apart from that I’m sure you get on great.

Extra Trump

One more thing on DT. Donald the Trump has been doing interviews all over lately. My personal favourite was this one which included the opening gambit of:

“I mean this is very serious, I always take things seriously but, I’ve never taken it seriously like this, this is a very serious time in my life.”

Sound serious.

Independent.co.uk

Trump trumped in 'birther' campaign

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

The billionaire businessman Donald Trump, star of the US version of The Apprentice and aspiring Republican presidential candidate, may have put the brakes on his campaign before it even got off the ground.

Interviewed on the Fox television network on Monday, Mr Trump appeared to throw in his lot with the "birthers" who question whether President Barack Obama was even born in the US, and therefore his right to hold the White House. Producing what he claimed was his own birth certificate, Mr Trump boasted: "It took me one hour to get my birth certificate. It's inconceivable that, after four years of questioning, the President still hasn't produced his birth certificate. I'm just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate. Why's he making an issue out of this?"

However, the stunt produced more questions than answers after it was revealed that the document could not, in fact, have been the proof Mr Trump had hoped would legitimise his own claims on the presidency.

Officials in New York said that all genuine birth certificates are issued with the Department of Health's seal, as well as the signature of the city registrar. Much to Mr Trump's embarrassment, his document carried neither.

Mr Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, before moving with his mother to Indonesia five years later.

Leo- Tuesday, April 5, 2011

There is nothing to be gained by taking a pessimistic view of life at a time when the sky has so much to offer you. A successful outcome to a particularly difficult dilemma awaits you. Don’t take anything too seriously. The universe will soon deliver a run of positive news much to your joy. Proof is on the way.

Richard Branson unveils deep-sea submarine plans


REUTERSAPRIL 5, 2011 7:42 PM




Virgin Group head Sir Richard Branson sits on top of a solo piloted submarine during a photo opportunity at a news conference in Newport Beach, California April 5, 2011. Branson and explorer Chris Welch announced plans to launch the submarine to the deepest points of the world's five oceans.
Photograph by: Alex Gallardo, Reuters
LOS ANGELES - Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, known for such exploits as trying to balloon around the world, said Tuesday he planned to explore the deepest parts of the world's oceans with a jet-like submarine.

The 18-foot vessel is capable of descents of more than 36,000 feet below the surface, said Branson at a news conference in Newport Beach, California.

His project, called Virgin Oceanic, will undertake five dives over two years. The first is set for later this year, when the team plans to explore the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench at a depth near 36,000 feet.

Branson plans to pilot a second dive himself, into the Puerto Rico Trench in the Atlantic Ocean.

Other areas to be explored are the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean, South Sandwich Trench in the Southern Ocean and Diamantina in the Indian Ocean.

"There is just so much to explore, so much to discover," Branson told reporters. "We are going to obviously come across some fascinating creatures and learn some fascinating things that will hopefully be useful for mankind."

Branson said he expects the project to cost less than $10 million.

Branson said Virgin Oceanic could one day take passengers on deep sea dives, just as his Virgin Galactic project may one day take wealthy passengers on suborbital spaceflights.

Branson launched the Virgin chain of record stores in the 1970s, and his business holdings have grown to include a music recording label and Virgin Atlantic Airlines.

He has used his fortune to fund such efforts as trying to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon and set sailing records.

Last month, a suborbital spaceship owned by Branson's Virgin Galactic was attached to a carrier aircraft on a three-hour flight over California's Mojave Desert.

Its test flights are scheduled through 2011 with commercial operations targeted for 2012.

The company has collected deposits and fares from more than 330 aspiring amateur astronauts, who will each be charged $200,000 to experience suborbital spaceflight.

© Copyright (c) Reuters