Stockton,Ca - Officer Hurt Arresting Bank Robbery Suspect

STOCKTON - A police officer was injured and a bank robbery suspect was arrested at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday after the BBVA Compass bank at 2287 W. March Lane was robbed, according to Stockton police.

A man entered the bank and demanded money from a teller, police said, although he did not display a weapon. He got away with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled on foot east on March Lane, police said.

A police officer spotted a man fitting the description of the robber about a block away from the bank and gave chase, tackling him, police said.

During the course of the arrest, police said, the officer's shoulder was injured. He was treated at a hospital and released, police said. The missing money was found on the suspect, according to police.

Matthew Joseph Monaco, 47, of San Bernardino, who had recently been released from prison and was being sought as a parolee at large, was arrested on suspicion on bank robbery, resisting arrest and parole violation.

A police mug shot of Monaco shows distinctive tattoos, including devil horns on his forehead, a devil on his throat and obscenities over each eye.

He was 14 yrs. 6mos. and 5 days old --- and the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th Century

In a South Carolina prison sixty-six years ago, guards walked a 14-year-old boy, bible tucked under his arm, to the electric chair. At 5' 1" and 95 pounds, the straps didn’t fit, and an electrode was too big for his leg.

The switch was pulled and the adult sized death mask fell from George Stinney’s face. Tears streamed from his eyes. Witnesses recoiled in horror as they watched the youngest person executed in the United States in the past century die.

Now, a community activist is fighting to clear Stinney’s name, saying the young boy couldn’t have killed two girls. George Frierson, a school board member and textile inspector, believes Stinney’s confession was coerced, and that his execution was just another injustice blacks suffered in Southern courtrooms in the first half of the 1900s.

In a couple of cases like Stinney’s, petitions are being made before parole boards and courts are being asked to overturn decisions made when society’s thumb was weighing the scales of justice against blacks. These requests are buoyed for the first time in generations by money, college degrees and sometimes clout.

“I hope we see more cases like this because it help brings a sense of closure. It’s symbolic,” said Howard University law professor Frank Wu. “It’s not just important for the individuals and their families. It’s important for the entire community. Not just for African Americans, but for whites and for our democracy as a whole. What these cases show is that it is possible to achieve justice.”

Some have already achieved justice. Earlier this year, syndicated radio host Tom Joyner successfully won a posthumous pardon for two great uncles who were executed in South Carolina.

A few years ago Lena Baker, a black Georgia maid sent to the electric chair for killing a white man, received a pardon after her family pointed out she likely killed the man because he was holding her against her will.

In the Stinney case, supporters want the state to admit that officials executed the wrong person in June 1944.

Stinney was accused of killing two white girls, 11 year old Betty June Binnicker and 8 year old
Mary Emma Thames, by beating them with a railroad spike then dragging their bodies to a ditch near Acolu, about five miles from Manning in central South Carolina. The girls were found a day after they disappeared following a massive manhunt. Stinney was arrested a few hours later, white men in suits taking him away. Because of the risk of a lynching, Stinney was kept at a jail 50 miles away in Columbia.

Stinney’s father, who had helped look for the girls, was fired immediately and ordered to leave his home and the sawmill where he worked. His family was told to leave town prior to the trial to avoid further retribution. An atmosphere of lynch mob hysteria hung over the courthouse. Without family visits, the 14 year old had to endure the trial and death alone.

Frierson hasn’t been able to get the case out of his head since, carrying around a thick binder of old newspaper stories and documents, including an account from an execution witness.

The sheriff at the time said Stinney admitted to the killings, but there is only his word — no written record of the confession has been found. A lawyer helping Frierson with the case figures threats of mob violence and not being able to see his parents rattled the seventh- grader.

Attorney Steve McKenzie said he has even heard one account that says detectives offered the boy ice cream once they were done.

“You’ve got to know he was going to say whatever they wanted him to say,” McKenzie said.

The court appointed Stinney an attorney — a tax commissioner preparing for a Statehouse run. In all, the trial — from jury selection to a sentence of death — lasted one day. Records indicate 1,000 people crammed the courthouse. Blacks weren’t allowed inside.

The defense called no witnesses and never filed an appeal. No one challenged the sheriff’s recollection of the confession.

“As an attorney, it just kind of haunted me, just the way the judicial system worked to this boy’s disadvantage or disfavor. It did not protect him,” said McKenzie, who is preparing court papers to ask a judge to reopen the case.

Stinney’s official court record contains less than two dozen pages, several of them arrest warrants. There is no transcript of the trial.

The lack of records, while not unusual, makes it harder for people trying to get these old convictions overturned, Wu said.

But these old cases also can have a common thread.

“Some of these cases are so egregious, so extreme that when you look at it, the prosecution really has no case either,” Wu said. “It’s apparent from what you can see that someone was railroaded.”

And sometimes, police under pressure by frightened citizens jumped to conclusions rather than conducting a thorough investigation, Wu said.

Bluffton Today - 'Crusaders look to right Jim Crow justice wrongs' by Jeffrey Collins
Photo: South Carolina Department of Archives and History

The Upside Of Economic Worries: Lower Gas Prices

NEW YORK (AP) — Soaring gasoline prices are in the rearview mirror.

For the first time in months, retail gasoline prices have fallen below $3 a gallon in places, including parts of Michigan, Missouri and Texas. And the relief is likely to spread thanks to a sharp decline in crude-oil prices.

The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is $3.51 per gallon, down from a high of $3.98 in early May. Last week's plunge in oil prices could push the average to $3.25 per gallon by November, analysts say.

Economist Philip Verleger equates it to "a stimulus program for consumers," leaving them more money for clothes, dinners out and movies. Over a year, a 50 cents-per-gallon drop in gasoline prices would add roughly $70 billion to the U.S. economy.

Arthur De Villar, a 48-year-old safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration, paid $2.96 for gasoline near his home in Manchester, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis — and he recently replaced his SUV with a four-door sedan.

With three boys at home between the ages of 11 and 14, the money De Villar saves on gas still gets spent. But it goes to the amusement park, a Cardinals baseball game or the movie theater.

"It's far better to be able to put (the money) anywhere other than in the gas tank," he says.

Prices for oil, gasoline and other commodities dove last week along with world stock markets over concerns the global economy is headed for another recession. When economies slow, demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel falls as drivers cut back on trips, shippers move fewer goods and vacationers stay closer to home. Oil fell to $79.85 per barrel Friday, a drop of 9 percent for the week. Oil reached a three-year high of $113.93 on April 29.

Economists caution that gasoline savings, while welcome, won't matter much to people if the worst economic fears come to pass.

"Yes it produces some relief, your bill at the gas pump goes down, but it's going down because there are worries that people won't have jobs," says James Hamilton, an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego. "The news has not been good."

And gasoline prices remain historically high. Gasoline has averaged $3.56 this year, the highest yearly average ever. Americans have cut back driving in the face of high prices, but they are likely to spend more on gasoline in 2011 than ever before — close to $490 billion, according to Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

Kloza says the latest drop in prices will stick around through most of the fall. And while that may only add $20 a month to a typical commuter's wallet, drivers say it matters.

Pat Wolf, 60, a retired information technology professional from East Lansing, Mich. responded with a "Holy Mackerel!" when he got a text from his wife Friday morning that said a station nearby was selling gas for $2.98 per gallon.

Wolf said prices in the area were $3.49 earlier in the week and he had no hope that they'd fall below $3. "It's one other thing in the back of your mind if you are deciding whether to buy some gizmo or other," he says.

Aureleano Duran, a house painter in Dallas, gave the cashier at a RaceTrac gas station $55 to fill up his red Dodge pickup Friday night, but the tank began to overflow before he shut off the nozzle — at $49.21. Duran plans to sock away roughly $30 a week in gas savings. "I'm trying not to spend a lot of it," he said. Then he excused himself: "I've got to go get my change."

Gasoline prices have always varied from state to state, but the gap now is especially big. Drivers along the coasts are paying significantly more than drivers in the middle of the country, analysts say. California drivers are paying the highest average price in the lower 48 states, at $3.89 per gallon on Sunday. Missouri drivers are paying the least, $3.21 per gallon, according to AAA, OPIS and Wright Express.

Differences in state taxes explain much of the gap. Another factor is that most of the oil used by refineries on the coasts comes from overseas, making it far more expensive than oil piped to refineries in the middle of the country from places such as North Dakota and Canada. The coastal refineries must compete with the growing economies of Asia for shipments of oil.

Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com, says that while he expects the national average to fall to between $3.25 and $3.50 between now and Thanksgiving, some areas could hit $2.50. He says prices in Lansing, Mich., and St. Louis had fallen below $3 already. A price war between filling stations near Bridge City, Texas, pushed prices to $2.62 last week.
"In some of these areas prices are collapsing," DeHaan says.

The trend could reverse, analysts say, if the world economy does not descend into recession. That's because the growth in oil demand from China and other developing nations will more than make up for falling demand in Europe and the United States.

The investment bank Goldman Sachs forecasts that oil will rise to $120 per barrel within the next six months. That's a jump of 50 percent from last week's closing price of just under $80 per barrel.

"Whatever we see gas prices falling to, it won't be the new normal. It will be a launching pad for winter and spring prices," says Kloza, from Oil Price Information Service.

AP Business Writer David Koenig contributed to this report from Dallas. Jonathan Fahey can be reached at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey

Economy Got You Down? 5 Ways America Is Still on Top

However gloomy the U.S. economy might look, the nation still leads the world in many ways. For now, anyway.

America's Upside

It's clear that all is not well in the U.S. marketplace: Unemployment is high. Investors worry about the implications of enormous debts and deficits at home and across Europe. The U.S. housing market has been a mess since the collapse of home prices in 2007 and is showing few signs of improvement. We've lost faith in our politicians. It's hard not to wonder if the U.S. has lost its competitive edge.
Emerging economies are catching up rapidly. China, the world's second-largest economy next to the U.S., expects an average of 9% growth a year for the next decade. The U.S., whose economy barely grew during the first half of this year, will be lucky to see much more than 2% growth this year.

But amid the doom and gloom, the U.S. is still the place most investors and businesses around the world turn to for opportunity — even though Brazil, Russia and other emerging economies are increasingly catching up. Analysts at U.S. Trust, the private wealth management division of Bank of America, recently reminded clients in a note about "What's right with America."

Fortune highlights five of those points, along with a dose of analysis and — ahem — skepticism.

Biggest and Most Productive Economy

The Chinese may buy more Prada handbags these days than most Americans, but the U.S. is still the world's biggest and most productive economy in the world.

Around this time last year, China passed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. But while many analysts say the East Asian giant could eventually surpass the U.S. by 2027, most Americans are still far richer than most Chinese. China's GDP per capita was $4,393 in 2010, while the U.S. is much wealthier at $47,184 per capita, according to the World Bank.

The U.S. is also the most productive economy in the world, with just as much output in a year ($14.6 trillion) as the next three biggest economies — Japan, China and Germany. Admittedly, while American workers are the world's most productive on an output per person basis, Norway in 2010 produced 25% more per hour (the best measure of productivity) than the U.S., according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Tops in Foreign Investment

China and Germany may sell many more goods and services abroad, but the U.S. remains the world's hot spot for foreigners investors. In 2009, foreign companies invested $3.1 trillion in the U.S. — triple that of France and the United Kingdom and more than six times that of China, according to a June 2011 report by the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
Admittedly, other countries, China in particular, have been steadily catching up. While the U.S. has lured foreign investors with its open economy and very low barriers to investments, businesses are turning to the East Asian giant to bolster sales as rising unemployment and government indebtedness erode confidence in developed nations.

In 2009, China overtook the U.S. to become the world's biggest auto market and companies from Kia Motors to VW have been investing billions into the country. For instance, Wolfsburg, Germany-based VW opened its first engine reprocessing plant in China in August and said it plans to invest $14.6 billion through its auto manufacturing ventures in the country by 2015.

Even if others are gaining ground, the U.S. is much more open to foreign direct investments than emerging economies like India, Russia, China and Mexico, according to the OECD's Foreign Direct Investment Restrictiveness Index.

World's Top Global Brands

Think of the world's most popular brands, and chances are most are born in the U.S.A. The U.S. may not manufacture most of the world's automobiles or computers, but it's known for many top brands that do so.
In 2011, nearly half of the world's top 100 brands were American, according to BrandZ, a brand equity database that lists 100 most valuable global brands. Of the top 10, nine are American — with Apple taking the top spot, followed by Google, IBM, and McDonald's.

Many U.S. brands may symbolize different things in varying parts of the world. If you live in Europe, McDonald's might allude a level of urban sophistication — and not just because folks in France call the Quarter Pounder with Cheese a Royal with Cheese.

"Unlike in North America and in some other parts of the world, McDonald's restaurants are considered in Europe to be a symbol of cosmopolitanism and a modern urban lifestyle among the young rather than simply a caterer of fast food to low income people," write economists at New Zealand's University of Waikato.

Indeed, emerging economies have been developing their own brands with varying successes. But the U.S. clearly leads in the world's images and ideas.

World's Best Universities

U.S. public schools may be flagging, but the nation is still home to many of the world's top universities. And foreign students in the U.S. make up an important piece of its economy.
While the number of American students fell slightly amid the recession in 2009, U.S. universities continued to attract students from abroad, according to a 2010 report by the Institute of International Education. Chinese students in the U.S. helped drive the overall increase of foreign scholars studying here — a record 690,923. Aside from China, students from India, South Korea, Canada and Taiwan accounted for more than half of all foreign students studying in the U.S.

For the most part, they pursued studies in business and management or engineering. The universities hosting the largest number include the University of South California, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and New York University.

So while China and Germany may outrank the U.S. as being the world's biggest exporter of goods, America clearly tops as the exporter of education (the U.S. Commerce Department regards money spent by foreign students at U.S. universities an export service).

If only U.S. policies did more to keep such talent here.

World's Top Reserve Currency

The value of the U.S. dollar may be declining, but it remains the currency of choice for many nations. The greenback accounted for roughly 61% of global central bank reserves during the first three months of 2011, according to the International Monetary Fund. The euro, which has been under attack amid Europe's ongoing debt crisis, ranks second with a 27.8% share.
The financial crisis has weakened foreign investors' faith in the U.S. dollar. And if there is to be a rival to the mighty greenback in this century, some analysts think it would surely be the Chinese renminbi given China's economic and trade power.

Even though the United Nations has urged central banks around the world to diversify their reserves away from the mighty greenback, the U.S. dollar continues to be favored by central bankers across the globe.

Author: Nin-Hai-Tseng

Purp Reynolds - The Release

My new video i just dropped for you all. Check it out and let me know how you feel about it. Shout out to everyone that came and supported me during the shoot. Special shout out to Natalie Zapata for being my first lady.

Texas Prisons End Special Last Meals in Executions

HOUSTON (AP) — It's a tradition with roots that can be traced far back in history: Before being put to death, a condemned prisoner can choose his last meal.

Not so anymore in Texas.

Officials who oversee the country's busiest death chamber stopped the practice on Thursday after a prominent state senator complained about a hefty request from a man executed for his role in a notorious dragging death. Now, inmates get to eat only what the kitchen serves.

The controversy began after Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed on Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. Prison officials said Brewer didn't eat any of it.

"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Within hours, Livingston said the senator's concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history.

"Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made," Livingston said. "They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit."

That had been the suggestion from Whitmire, who called the traditional request "ridiculous."

"It's long overdue," the Houston Democrat told The Associated Press. "This old boy last night, enough is enough. We're fixing to execute the guy and maybe it makes the system feel good about what they're fixing to do. Kind of hypocritical, you reckon?

"Mr. Byrd didn't get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical."

Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was convicted of chaining Byrd, 49, to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him to his death along a bumpy road in a case shocked the nation for its brutality.

It was not immediately clear whether other states have made similar moves. Some limit the final meal cost — Florida's ceiling is $40, according to the Department of Corrections website, with food to be purchased locally. Others, like Texas, which never had a designated dollar limit, mandate meals be prison-made. Some states don't acknowledge final meals, and others will disclose the information only if the inmate agrees, said K. William Hayes, a Florida-based death penalty historian.

Some states require the meal within a specific time period, allow multiple "final" meals, restrict it to one or impose "a vast number of conditions," he said.

Historical references to a condemned person's last meal go as far back as ancient Greece, China and Rome, Hayes said. Some of it is apparently rooted in superstition about meals warding off possible haunting by condemned people once they are put to death.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based anti-capital punishment organization that collects execution statistics, said it had no data on final meals.

Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, the state correction agency's practice has been to fill a condemned inmate's request as long as the items, or food similar to what was requested, were readily available from the prison kitchen supplies.

While extensive, Brewer's request was far from the largest or most bizarre among the 475 Texas inmates put to death.
On Tuesday, prisoner Cleve Foster's request included two fried chickens, French fries and a five-gallon bucket of peaches. He received a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court but none of his requested meal. He was on his way back to death row, at a prison about 45 miles east of Huntsville, at the time when his feast would have been served.

Last week, inmate Steven Woods' request included two pounds of bacon, a large four-meat pizza, four fried chicken breasts, two drinks each of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea, two pints of ice cream, five chicken fried steaks, two hamburgers with bacon, fries and a dozen garlic bread sticks with marinara on the side. Two hours later, he was executed.
Years ago, a Texas inmate even requested dirt for his final meal.

Until 2003, the Texas prison system listed final meals of each prisoner as part of its death row website. That stopped at 313 final meals after officials said they received complaints from people who found it offensive.

A former inmate cook who made the last meals for prisoners at the Huntsville Unit, where Texas executions are carried out, wrote a cookbook several years ago after he was released. Among his recipes were Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chili, a nod to the electric chair that once served as the execution method. The book was called "Meals to Die For."


Author: MICHAEL GRACZYK - Associated Press

G-Shocks & Jordans

88 Corner Ballin Edition:

Police Seize 8 Pounds Of California Bud From Bengals Receiver Home

A 2.5-pound shipment of marijuana was seized at the home of Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson(notes) on Wednesday.

Bengals tackle Anthony Collins(notes) was with Simpson at the Crestview Hills, Ky., house when police confiscated the package. A spokeswoman for the California Department of Justice said police tracked the shipment from California after a two-day investigation.

A woman, Aleen Smith, signed for the package before police swooped in. Simpson gave consent for authorities to search his home, where they found six additional pounds of marijuana and paraphernalia including "packaging materials, scales and smoking devices."

Simpson and Collins were detained but not arrested. The case will be addressed by the Kenton County (Ky.) Prosecutor's Office on Thursday.

The head of the National Marijuana Initiative, a government-funded organization that coordinates marijuana enforcement, told Californiawatch.org that the home was set up as a distribution network. "They had it all set up to receive supplies of high-grade marijuana from Northern California, and from there, it was being distributed from that residence," Tommy LaNier told the website.

Simpson had a career-high 146 yards receiving in Cincinnati's loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday. Collins, an offensive lineman, did not play in the game.

Author: Chris Chase

Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle

Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.

The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors.

Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV.

Figuring out the structure of proteins is vital for understanding the causes of many diseases and developing drugs to block them.

But a microscope gives only a flat image of what to the outsider looks like a plate of one-dimensional scrunched-up spaghetti. Pharmacologists, though, need a 3-D picture that "unfolds" the molecule and rotates it in order to reveal potential targets for drugs.

This is where Foldit comes in.

Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a fun-for-purpose video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of online tools.
To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.

Cracking the enzyme "provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs," says the study, referring to the lifeline medication against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

It is believed to be the first time that gamers have resolved a long-standing scientific problem.

"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," Firas Khatib of the university's biochemistry lab said in a press release. "The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems."

One of Foldit's creators, Seth Cooper, explained why gamers had succeeded where computers had failed.
"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at," he said.

"Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans. The results in this week's paper show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before."

Author: AFP, Plugged In

Hollywood Balks at Big Budget Movies as DVDs Drop

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood — long considered the land of excess— is becoming more cost-conscious, as movie executives rethink what they're willing to pay to make a blockbuster.

After years of beefing up budgets to meet audience expectations, movie studios are cutting back and canceling projects that are too costly. Half-baked, expensive movie ideas that would have received approval a few years ago are now under scrutiny. For movies that are made, producers have to settle for toned-down special effects, cheaper actors and fewer locations for shoots.
In the past five years, major studios have trimmed the annual number of films they release by nearly a third to cut costs and avoid having big movies compete head-to-head on opening weekends.

In July, two major projects were stopped mid-stream because of budget pressures. The Walt Disney Co. halted "The Lone Ranger," starring Johnny Depp, even though sets were already half-built in New Mexico. Universal pulled out of "The Dark Tower," a three-movie, two-TV-series colossus based on books by Stephen King.

A person familiar with Disney's thinking said the budget on "The Lone Ranger" was creeping north of $250 million, and the company wanted to shave it to around $200 million.

Universal, which became a unit of cable TV provider Comcast Corp. this year, withdrew from "The Dark Tower" because of problems with the business model, according to another person, who is familiar with that matter.

Neither person was authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Disney CEO Bob Iger explained the company's approach to analysts in July. "It's our intention to take a very careful look at what films cost," Iger said. "If we can't get them to a level that we're comfortable with, we think that we're better off actually reducing the size of our slate than making films that are bigger and increasingly more risky. "Blame it on declining DVD sales.

Until recently, studios could afford to churn out movies with heart-pumping action scenes featuring pricey special effects and high-salary actors. Although many of those movies cost more than they garnered in ticket sales, Hollywood could count on overall strong sales of DVDs to make up for excessive expenses.

"The DVD buying boom covered up a lot of sins in the middle part of the last decade," said Tom Adams, principal analyst and director of U.S. media for IHS Screen Digest.

But the curtain is falling on the DVD era. IHS said U.S. video disc sales fell from $10.3 billion in 2004 to $7 billion last year.
The popularity of low-cost rental options, such as Netflix and Redbox, along with the ease of piracy, has cut into DVD sales, making it tougher to profit from the movie business. Blu-ray disc sales and gains in digital purchases haven't made up for the shortfall.

Hollywood economics have been strained by movie budgets that have been rising steadily over the past couple of decades. To cut costs, some studios have dropped smaller budget movies with big-name, expensive actors, but kept making summer blockbusters based on franchises such as superheroes.

That trend has increased the average cost of major studio movies to $78 million in 2011 from about $42 million in 1995, according to Bruce Nash, the founder and president of Nash Information Services LLC, which operates The-Numbers.com
Fewer small movies means that each big-budget project has more pressure to deliver. Nash believes Hollywood will rely on tried-and-true material — sequels and reboots — rather than take a chance on untested pricey projects that follow in the footsteps of "Avatar."

"Studios are willing to spend money for well-established franchises," Nash said. "There's not that much enthusiasm in completely new franchises built from scratch."

While Hollywood's newfound frugality doesn't exactly herald the coming of sock-puppet cinema, the belt-tightening is likely to favor more character-driven productions such as "The Help," which struck box office gold with sales of $139 million so far, despite costing an estimated $25 million to make.

That was the strategy former Disney CEO Michael Eisner pursued when he brought cheap-to-produce but profitable films including "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" and "Ruthless People" to the big screen.

While the millions made on each film don't stack up to the estimated $400 million profit on 20th Century Fox's "Avatar," Eisner characterized his strategy as an attempt to string together a series of small hits rather than always swinging for a home run.
Eisner said many major studio movie budgets these days appear frightening. Big films can make more money, and they can also lose a ton.

"Yes, you can make a small fortune, but you better come with a large fortune," Eisner said in an interview. "It's just a riskier business."

Consider Universal Pictures' "Cowboys and Aliens," which had an estimated budget of $163 million but grossed $129 million in global ticket sales since its release July 29. Universal likely spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising, and it only keeps about half the take from theaters. Even if it does well on home video, the film is headed toward a multimillion-dollar loss.
Hollywood couldn't afford to make those bets any longer.

In 2004, American audiences spent $2.04 at home consuming movies for every $1 they spent on theater tickets, according to IHS Screen Digest. But that ratio has been falling consistently for the past five years. Last year, the ratio was $1.37 to $1.
Meanwhile, box office sales in the U.S. and Canada were flat in 2010, as rising prices from 3-D ticket surcharges offset falling attendance. The declining home video market means a big chunk of revenue — more than $7 billion a year globally — has disappeared from the movie economy.

Although theatrical revenue has grown overseas, thanks to booming markets like China, Hollywood is losing share to local producers.

Producers of "The Lone Ranger" and "The Dark Tower" are scrambling to get the movies made after their studios balked.
While neither project is dead, they may be made for less.

Oliver Lyttleton, a U.K.-based writer for the blog The Playlist for IndieWire, said the inflated budget for "The Lone Ranger" might have been caused by an ambitious early script from 2009, which he read.

It featured wolves, a mysterious creature named a Wendigo, a train crash, a silver mine that features a major battle scene and "loads of explosions." Not to mention the Western theme with its elaborate sets and costumes.

He speculated that Disney might have to swap out director Gore Verbinski to shave costs. The big-budget director helmed Disney's first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, but, according to the Los Angeles Times, he clashed with a previous studio head over the budget of the third movie and was dropped from directing the latest "Pirates" flick, which came out this year.
"It's not inconceivable that Verbinski will throw his hands up and just go, 'If I can't make the movie I want to make, I'll sling my hook,'" Lyttleton said.
Disney isn't saying anything specific about how it might cut costs.

The producers of "The Dark Tower" are faced with raising money and finding another studio to distribute the series. Producer Ron Howard said in a statement sent to The Associated Press, "we are continuing to be actively working on the project."
Howard and his co-producer Brian Grazer face a tough fight.

Not only did they produce the money-losing "Cowboys & Aliens," but Hollywood's love of sequels tends to fade quickly if the first installment fails to perform.

Warner Bros., dismayed by the disappointing receipts from its June release of DC Comics' "Green Lantern," is considering abandoning plans for a sequel, despite heavy hints at the end of the film about a resurgence of evil yellow forces.


Author: RYAN NAKASHIMA - AP Business Writer

Ice-T On Rick Ross, Lil Wayne & The Industry Fakes

Ice-T is one rapper than has never minced his words. But now, he tells VH1 that...most of these dudes are frauds. Check out the excerpt.

“That’s fake,” Ice-T blurts out. “Rick Ross stole a n****’s name. I call him ‘Identity Crisis.’ He thinks he’s [Freeway] Rick Ross, he thinks he’s Larry Hoover, he thinks he’s Big Meech, he thinks he’s MC Hammer, he thinks he’s Tupac. Like, who the f*ck are you really, dude?”

“When we rapped about dope— me, Snoop and everybody—it was like we doin’ it because we GOT to. Now these n***** is actin’ like it’s somethin’ that’s FUN. It’s so easy to fantasize about it. To actively do it? That’s a whole ‘nother f*ckin’ thing.

“Rap is pop right now. Q-Tip said, ‘Rap is not pop. If you call it that, then stop.’ Rap was a counterculture that went against pop. But when you have Rihanna singin’ on your records and you’re doin’ records with Katy Perry, that’s no longer rap. It’s pop music, pop using rap delivery. When you hear Lil Wayne sayin’ ‘I got a chopper in the car,’ you got, ‘Yeah, right you do.‘”

Eddi Projex & Zar The Dip - Lil Ni99as (Feat. Purp Reynolds)

Look out for a couple of my homeboys album coming out this year. A couple of good dudes that i vouch for in life people so support the music.

Gucci Going Back To Jail Again

Gucci Mane will spend the next six months in jail in Georgia, after admitting on Tuesday September 14th to pushing a woman out of his car earlier this year. Gucci Mane, pleaded guilty two counts of battery, two counts of reckless conduct and one count of disorderly conduct, according to a spokeswoman for the Dekalb County Solicitor – General’s Office. Gucci’s latest jail stint stems from a January 26th incident in which a young woman, named Diana Graham refused to accept Gucci Mane’s offer of $150 to stop at a hotel with him after breakfast. After Graham rebuffed the rapper, he pushed her out his Hummer, while it was in motion, down a suburban Atlanta street. Graham later went to the hospital for “soreness and pain.”

2Pac - In The Event Of My Demise (Poem)

In The Event Of My Demise

- Dedicate 2 Those Curious

In the event of my Demise

When my heart can beat no more

I Hope I Die For A Principle

or A Belief that I had lived 4

I will die Before my Time

Because I feel the shadow’s Depth

So much I wanted 2 accomplish

Before I reached my Death

I have come 2 grips with the possibility

and wiped the last tear from my eyes

I Loved All who were Positive

In the event of my Demise

Two Colors Or One?

Believe it or not, the "green" and "blue" colors in this spiral are exactly the same. They appear different because of the way our eyes perceive them in relation to the contrasting orange and pink stripes. Our eyes contain millions of 'cones' which decode light wavelengths to determine colors. When certain colors are combined, our brain is unable to process the information properly.

Supreme Court gives police leeway in home searches

Reporting from Washington— The Supreme Court gave police more leeway to break into homes or apartments in search of illegal drugs when they suspect the evidence otherwise might be destroyed.

Ruling in a Kentucky case Monday, the justices said that officers who smell marijuana and loudly knock on the door may break in if they hear sounds that suggest the residents are scurrying to hide the drugs.



Residents who "attempt to destroy evidence have only themselves to blame" when police burst in, said Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. for an 8-1 majority.

In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she feared the ruling gave police an easy way to ignore 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. She said the amendment's "core requirement" is that officers have probable cause and a search warrant before they break into a house.

"How 'secure' do our homes remain if police, armed with no warrant, can pound on doors at will and …forcibly enter?" Ginsburg asked.

An expert on criminal searches said the decision would encourage the police to undertake "knock and talk" raids.

"I'm surprised the Supreme Court would condone this, that if the police hear suspicious noises inside, they can break in. I'm even more surprised that nearly all of them went along," said John Wesley Hall, a criminal defense lawyer in Little Rock, Ark.

In the past, the court has insisted that homes are special preserves. As Alito said, "The 4th Amendment has drawn a firm line at the entrance to the house." One exception to the search warrant rule involves an emergency, such as screams coming from a house. Police may also pursue a fleeing suspect who enters a residence.

The Kentucky case began when police in Lexington sought to arrest a man who had sold crack cocaine to an informer. They followed the man to an apartment building, but lost contact with him. They smelled marijuana coming from one apartment. Though it turned out not to be the apartment of their suspect, they pounded on the door, called, "Police," and heard people moving inside.

At this, the officers announced they were coming in and broke down the door. Instead of the original suspect, they found Hollis King smoking marijuana and arrested him. They also found powder cocaine. King was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The Supreme Court ruled in Kentucky vs. King that the officers' conduct "was entirely lawful," and they were justified in breaking in to prevent the destruction of the evidence.

"When law enforcement officers who are not armed with a warrant knock on a door, they do no more than any private citizen may do," Alito wrote. A resident need not respond, he added. But the sounds of people moving and perhaps toilets being flushed could justify police entering without a warrant.

The ruling was not a final loss for King. The justices said the Kentucky state court should consider again whether police had faced an emergency situation in this case.

Author: David Savage, LA Times

Marijuana Viewed As Safer Alternative To Harder Drugs

A smoky haze blurs the view of the Louisville basketball game playing on the television, the chattering of voices drowning out the commentator’s voice.
Another puff.
Pipes and bongs litter the scene, and the smell of marijuana fills the room.
“It’s better smoked in a pipe or bong,” says Mr. X, a senior at Eastern, who asked to remain anonymous. “All of your friends come over and hang out, and that’s what we do – it’s like a social event.”
Drug abuse has been a recurring problem in Kentucky for decades. And college is often where many students do their first real experimenting with illegal drugs.
Eastern is no different.
While alcohol still holds the crown as the drug of choice, marijuana has a firm hold on second place.
An “unofficial” cash crop.
The drug’s prevalence in Kentucky shouldn’t surprise. Kentucky produces more marijuana than any other state, save, for California, according to 2007 reports from the Office of National Drug Policy’s Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program ( HIDTA ).
Marijuana is harvested in the state’s national forests, farms and even backyards, as the region’s climate is very conducive to the plant’s growth.
In fact, Mr. X said he is a strong believer in the cultivation of marijuana to help give a boost to Kentucky’s economy.
“It’s stupid that [marijuana] isn’t legal,” he said. “It’s the unofficial cash crop.”
The Routine
While some students acknowledge they smoke weed only now and then, Mr. X said he finds time to light up twice a day – once in the morning and then after school or work.
“Just before I walk out of the house, I’ll hit the pipe once,” he said, adding that in the mornings he smokes less than a gram.
In the evenings, however, he jumps to four grams.
“It’s not addicting,” he said. “It feels good. It’s relaxing, euphoric. It allows me to think of unreasonable thoughts I wouldn’t have thought of before. It allows my imagination to be active.”
Everything is OK in moderation, he said, adding that he believes smoking marijuana is less harmful than drinking alcohol. He also said marijuana is not the “gateway” to harder narcotics that some contend.
“Smoking has never made me want to do other drugs,” Mr. X said. “It’s just a healthier alternative to drinking. You feel more in control than getting drunk. People automatically think you do these wild things, but that’s not true.”
Still, Mr. X has had his share of close calls with weed, one of which landed him in jail for 20 minutes after a police officer conducted a search of his friend’s car.
“I didn’t want to let him go down alone, so I said half of it was mine,” Mr. X said.
His case was dismissed after being sentenced to 10 hours of community service. Mr. X even defended himself in court, saying he researched the state’s laws on marijuana and ultimately had his case diverted, owing to the first offender’s clause, which advocates a more lenient treatment in criminal sentencing for people who have not committed previous felonies.
“I escaped conviction because weed made me want to study law,” he said.
A Different Path
For most pot smokers, weed isn’t considered all that bad or considered a “hard” substance.
The label of a hard drug, they said, is reserved for the more-additive substances, like Oxycontine, crystal meth or cocaine.
For Mr. Z, another student who agreed to speak with the Progress on the condition that he remains anonymous, said his marijuana use has served as his retreat after repeated bouts with heavier drugs.
“Now, I just smoke weed because it chills me out, and I drink sometimes,” he said. “[In the past] I liked percs, Xanax, oc’s, but my favorite was acid. I quit because I had just had enough. It wasn’t worth being sick when I didn’t have a pill.”
Still, Mr. Z acknowledges that his drug use originated with marijuana, ultimately leading him to stronger drugs.
“I started smoking pot when I was 12, nothing else until I was 15, and from then on I just got messed up for the next three and a half years,” he said. “I snorted pills. I did percs, xanex, oxy’s roxy’s, triple c’s, tabs, adderall, and just about any combination of those. I tried coke once, and molly. Mushrooms were good too.”
A native of Powell County, Mr. Z said he wasn’t alone in his addiction, as several of his friends joined in. He said the peer pressure was there, and it often proved difficult to resist.
Mr. Z said he soon began spending nearly a hundred dollars a week to feed his drug habit.
“It got to where I could do three or four percs a day,” he said. “And eventually I could do them all day long.”
“I stopped a year ago,” he said. “It was really hard, but I just kind of stayed in my room for a week to get it all out of my system. I was really sick when I was detoxing, withdrawals are the worst.”
The detox process, however, is better than overdosing – something he acknowledges he’s had a few scares with.
“Once I thought I was going to overdose,” he said. “That was on percs, though. It was scary as hell. I took too much. I was throwing up, I was confused, couldn’t breathe and I was high as hell.”
Seeking Treatment
Meghan Scott, coordinator of H.E.A.T., or the Health Education Action Team on campus, said her organization offers in-depth, educational programs on drugs. But if students are seeking treatment, H.E.A.T. refers them to Eastern’s Counseling Center, which specializes in substance abuse.
Kevin Stanley, a senior staff psychologist with the Counseling Center, said the process for seeking substance abuse treatment is generally the same as seeking treatment for other issues.
“At one time students were a little shy about asking for help with substance abuse,” Stanley said. “Now they seem more comfortable reaching out.”
He said society’s softening stance on drug abuse has helped encourage some students to lower their guard and seek help, but he said that doesn’t prevent other students from falling into similar traps.
“The most common problems with substance abuse we see in the Counseling Center are that a student’s use has started generating some negative consequences, such as getting in trouble with the university or with law enforcement, relationship problems or academic problems,” Stanley said.
Stanley said his experiences suggest freshman seem to be the students most at risk of developing destructive drug habits, but he said he didn’t have any specific data that would bear this out.
“We seem to get more referrals of freshman based on campus violations,” Stanley said. “And one of our substance abuse counselors has heard that freshman in the first six weeks of a fall semester engage in the riskiest activities.”
Stanley added male and female students at Eastern are equally likely to acknowledge using marijuana in the last month. However, he said, males are more likely to admit consuming alcohol. And those students who have already passed the legal drinking age are more likely to have some experience with drugs other than marijuana.
Stanley also said the use of prescription pain medications and products similar to synthetic marijuana have also appeared in rare occurrences with students at the Counseling Center.
“Abuse of prescription pain medication certainly does happen here, but only about 1 percent of students report using these drugs in the past year,” Stanley said. “We’ve ( also ) seen some issues with various herbs that have been treated with synthetic cannabinoids, which are closely related to the active components of marijuana.”
For more information on drug-related treatment and information regarding substance abuse, contact the Counseling Center!

Purp Reynolds Music Blog

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Tall-T & Purp Reynolds - Feel It In The Air

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Surprise! Ashton Kutcher Has a Twin Brother

A number of roles come to mind when you hear the name Ashton Kutcher: "Punk'd" host, Demi Moore's 15-years-junior husband; "Dude Where's My Car?" thespian; Kelso from "That '70s Show;" former Hollywood gadabout; and now, of course, Charlie Sheen's replacement on "Two and a Half Men." One role that might not come to mind, however, is the one Kutcher was born into: that of a twin brother.

Ashton's fraternal twin, Michael, currently lives in their home-state Iowa raising his 7-year-old son and selling retirement plans. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy from a young age, Michael's life has been a bit more difficult than his brother's.

"I was the kid with the big Coke-bottle glasses, the hearing aid," Michael Kutcher told Details magazine in 2008. "There was a lot of teasing, a lot of the normal mean stuff."

Although known for pulling elaborate, embarrassing practical jokes on celebrities, Ashton protected his twin against the bullying of other kids. Michael said he was a model brother in many ways, including seeing Michael through a heart transplant at age 13. Having suffered for some time from a heart muscle disease, one day, Michael's heart stopped.

"Ashton never left my side," Michael told People of his brother's devotion through the procedure. "He showed me the love one brother has for another."

One successful heart surgery and twenty years later, Michael isn't looking to replicate Ashton's fame. He has, however, tiptoed into the spotlight as a lobbyist for Reaching for the Stars, an organization that works on behalf of children with cerebral palsy.
"Being Ashton Kutcher's brother, it gives me the opportunity to be that voice, and I realize that I needed to use the opportunity to help others," he explained during his first trip to Washington, D.C. last year.


Author: Joseph Brannigan Lynch, Yahoo TV

Woman from iconic 9/11 photo overcomes decade of hardship

The attacks on 9/11 changed the lives of billions -- and few more so than Marcy Borders. Soon after the World Trade Center attacks, Borders was photographed covered in dust and ash from the fallout. The photo, taken by Stan Honda of AFP, was one of the iconic images from that terrible day.

Borders has been through a lot in the 10 years since. There have been problems with depression and substance abuse, as well as lingering nightmares about Sept. 11. She recently spoke with the New York Post about her life's ups and downs over the past decade.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Borders had been working at her new bank job for just a month. The planes hit the World Trade Center, and a panicked Borders left her desk on the 81st floor of the north tower to go out into the street to see what was happening.

Just as she got to the street, the south tower fell, and Borders couldn't see much of anything. "I couldn't see my hand in fron
t of my face. The world went silent," she remarked. Eventually, someone pulled her into a building's lobby, where a photographer captured the haunting photo of her surrounded by harsh yellowish dust. According to the U.K.'s Telegraph, Borders still has the clothes she wore that day, "still unwashed and coated in the dust of the twin towers."

In her talk with the Post, Borders details some of the difficulties she's faced since then: "My life spiraled out of control. I didn't do a day's work in nearly 10 years, and by 2011 I was a complete mess. Every time I saw an aircraft, I panicked. If I saw a man on a building, I was convinced he was going to shoot me."

This past April, she checked herself into rehab, after realizing that she would die if she stayed on her current path. A little more than a week later, she got the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed by American forces. The news, along with her new clean and sober lifestyle, did a lot to help silence her inner demons. "I used to lose sleep over him, have bad dreams about bin Laden bombing my house, but now I have peace of mind."

Author: Mike Krumboltz

Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Villagers and veteran hunters have captured a one-ton saltwater crocodile which they plan to make the star of a planned ecotourism park in a southern Philippine town, an official said Monday.

Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde said dozens of villagers and experts ensnared the 21-foot (6.4-meter) male crocodile along a creek in Bunawan township in Agusan del Sur province after a three-week hunt. It could be one of the largest crocodiles to be captured alive in recent years, he said, quoting local crocodile experts.

Elorde said the crocodile killed a water buffalo in an attack witnessed by villagers last month and was also suspected of having attacked a fisherman who went missing in July.


He said he sought the help of experts at a crocodile farm in western Palawan province.
"We were nervous but it's our duty to deal with a threat to the villagers," Elorde told The Associated Press by telephone. "When I finally stood before it, I couldn't believe my eyes."

After initial sightings at a creek, the hunters set four traps, which the crocodile destroyed. They then used sturdier traps using steel cables, one of which finally caught the enormous reptile late Saturday, he said.

About 100 people had to pull the crocodile, which weighs about 2,370 pounds (1,075 kilograms), from the creek to a clearing where a crane lifted it into a truck, he said.

The crocodile was placed in a fenced cage in an area where the town plans to build an ecotourism park for species found in a vast marshland in Agusan, an impoverished region about 515 miles (830 kilometers) southeast of Manila, Elorde said.

"It will be the biggest star of the park," Elorde said, adding that villagers were happy that they would be able to turn the dangerous crocodile "from a threat into an asset."

Despite the catch, villagers remain wary because several crocodiles still roam the outskirts of the farming town of about 37,000 people.

They have been told to avoid venturing into marshy areas alone at night, Elorde said.

Lab Chimps See Sunlight For The First Time

If this doesn't make your eyes mist up a little, there might be something wrong with you.

RTL, a German television station, provided this tearjerking footage of lab chimps taking their first steps of freedom outdoors and into the sun.

It's in German, but we can gather that this was the first time the animals had ever been let loose in natural daylight.

Feel-good footage aside, the use of chimps in research has long been a hot-button issue.

A few months ago, 180 chimpanzees at a federal primate facility in New Mexico were the subject of a debate between the National Institutes of Health and animal-rights activists, who wanted the chimps to be released to a sanctuary where they could run free.

But no matter which side you're on, watching the pure joy in these animal's faces is sure to leave you in a good mood.

Author: Laura Hibbard, The Huffington Post

Lighting Is Amazing In Paris, France

This weekly collection includes eye-catching images from around the world....
“I quickly grabbed my camera and put it on a tripod by the window,” said the 31-year-old photographer who caught the moment the Eiffel Tower appeared to be struck by lightning. The photo, taken from his apartment window last year, surfaced this week and won the Office du Tourisme de Paris competition. It will be part of an upcoming show in France.

Fashion Designer Ralph Lauren (Polo) "Son" To Wed President George W. Bush "Niece"

First we had the royal wedding, then the other royal wedding, and then reality TV's royal wedding. Now comes a fourth royal wedding of sorts. This Sunday, David Lauren, son of legendary designer Ralph Lauren, and Lauren Bush, granddaughter of President George H.W. and niece of President George W., will join forces in holy matrimony.

The Labor Day weekend event, held at Ralph Lauren's Colorado ranch, will fuse the fashions of two of America's famed family dynasties. Think cowboy boots and American flags with a few diamonds sprinkled in.

Lauren, 27, met her 39-year-old fiance in 2004, when she was still a student at Princeton University. It was the classic tale of boy meets girl at a fashion gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Girl faces dilemma of taking boy's last name, which is the same as her first. After six years of courtship, David, a VP at his father's company, proposed to Lauren, a handbag designer and philanthropist, on the steps of the Met. She said yes and settled on being the future Mrs. Lauren Bush-Lauren.

The couple waited until after David's sister Dylan held her lavish wedding earlier this summer to steal the inevitable spotlight. This weekend, it's showtime. If you haven't received your embossed invitation yet, here's the wedding crasher version.

When: The ceremony and reception will take place on Sunday at the Telluride ranch. On Saturday, Ralph and Ricky Lauren will also host a rehearsal dinner, picnic, and softball game. On Monday, the guests will enjoy their own private rodeo. (A nod to a former Texas governor, perhaps?)

Where: The Double RL Ranch. You may have caught a glimpse of the sprawling 'rustic chic' digs on an episode of Oprah, or you may have spotted it on your DVD of 'True Grit'. Scenes from the classic Western were actually filmed there. The designer's 17,000-acre hideaway comes replete with teepees draped in American flags, an old West saloon and a scattering of log cabins equipped with Ralph Lauren linens. And that's just on an average day. Expect some unique designer flourishes throughout the property this weekend.

Dress code: Black tie with a "Western twist", according to Page Six. An exception however will be made for the bride, who plans to wear a gown designed by her future father-in-law and his 'assistant' Vera Wang. If it's anything like the bridal dress Lauren and Wang created for Dylan, it's bound to require several ladies-in-waiting to hold the train.

Guest list: 200 guests are expected to attend. Among them: the bride's parents, Neil Bush, and his ex-wife Sharon, along with her date, the Prince of Yugoslavia. Neil's brother George W. hasn't yet confirmed his attendance with press, but George Sr. and wife Barbara have made it known they won't be attending. The New York Post suggests the location's altitude may be one reason for the snub, though the Daily Mail points to the bitter, mud-slinging divorce between Lauren Bush's parents as another potential reason. Other possible guests this weekend include Rick and Kathy Hilton, writer Jay McInerny and designer Cynthia Rowley, all attendees at the Lauren-Bush engagement party earlier this month in the Hamptons. That affair, hosted by McInerny, had a strict all-white dress code. This weekend, friends and family will be rummaging for their denim and diamonds. Talk about a high-maintenance relationship.


Author: Piper Weiss, Shine Staff