LAWT 01-26-2012

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L.A. Watts Times Vol. XXX, No. 1268

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

HOROSCOPES RIES ~ If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true? As they asked many A moons ago in that lovely old song. Your dreams and goals, what you wish for yourself — all of these are to be highlighted from today onward for the next few weeks. Now is the time to think about your expectations.

This is also most definitely the time to be considering the people around you that you’re somehow hooked up to.

It’s also a good time to be assessing if your dreams and goals are your own or the result of peer pressure.

AURUS ~ There’s nothing wrong with ambition. It gets bad press. But unless you’re totally ruthless and hell-bent on climbing over others to get to the top, it’s actually a healthy fulfillment of our potential — to aim high and work at a high level. It’s definitely time to turn your mind to your career and ambitions now — where you’re going, where you want to go and what you want to do once you get there.

EMINI ~ Here’s some good news: If you feel like you’ve had just about all you can take, you’re due a break! The intensity of the past few weeks is about to ease off. The people around you are about to ease off.

You no longer have to consider face dark and/or scary facts every time you open your mouth. If you’ve spent the past few weeks tackling intense issues until your head hurts, pat yourself on the back and move on. It’s time to think about all that you’ve learned.

ANCER ~ Given that talking can be just a lot of hot air, it’s amazing how incredibly valid and lifechanging conversations can also be. Something that someone else says makes us realize some deep dark truth about ourselves or life and — whammo! Our whole perspective changes. Over the next few days and weeks, make sure you don’t go backing off from deep and meaningful conversations just because the topic makes you nervous. Don’t be scared of something just because it’s deep. You’ll be amazed at how tackling a subject that feels a bit ‘taboo’can lead you to seeing everything from a much wider perspective.

EO ~ Here’s some good news for you if you've been working hard and trying to get your romantic life on track: Mercury is moving into your love zone. This marks the start of a period of several weeks when you’re more likely to be thinking about love and important others in your life than about the mundane details and routines of life.

IRGO ~ There are times for going out dancing all night, putting lampshades on one’s head and generally doing what old timers called “tying one on.” And there are times to get your house (and life) in order.

Guess which cycle you’re in now? Put it this way: Let's hope you’ve had a fun the last month or so because Mercury’s move now into your 6th house of daily work and health means you can expect to party less and work more over the next few weeks. Whatever you do now,

Jan. 26 - Feb. 1 do it in partnership if you can - for the next four weeks or so, two minds are definitely better than one.

IBRA ~ Life, as any astrologer will tell you, goes in cycles. You’ve just come out of one where you were guided by the universe to think about your home, family and where you belong. You’re now moving into a new cycle where you expect to be making plenty of party appointments over the next few weeks. That or it’s you who’s having the party — and if so, it’s the ideal time for it.

CORPIO ~ There’s a trip into your past ahead. For some, it’ll be thanks to an actual trip which takes you back to somewhere you’ve been before, or seeing someone from your past, but for others it will be a mental (head) trip spurred on by running into and/or reconnecting with someone from your past. Look at the memories which are being stirred up now and see how past events are affecting your life today.

AGITTARIUS ~ Over the next few weeks, as Mercury cruises your third house, you can expect to be meeting new people, traveling a bit and even getting to know your neighbors (it’s the ideal time to organize a street party). Also, if you've been out of touch with your siblings, there should be more opportunities to get together and make up for lost time. This transit of Mercury also bestows you with greater mental agility. If you have a written project or task you’ve been putting off, leap into it now as you’ll find the words come more easily.

APRICORN ~ It’s time to ask yourself again: What do you really value in life? Over the next few weeks, you can expect this question to be raised for you again and again. For some, there will be issues related to “How hard to do I want to work in order to earn a decent living versus how much time off do I need to allow myself to have a decent quality of life?” The next few weeks will help you work out your answer.

QUARIUS ~ You’ve probably heard the one about the person who says “But enough about me. What do YOU think of me?” The passage of Mercury into your sign means you officially have the gift of gab now and over the next few weeks. Make sure you don't use it JUST to talk about yourself! You want to talk a lot, and a lot of what you want to talk about will be YOU. And there is nothing wrong with that. You have ideas and you need to express them and, quite honestly, you shouldn’t let anyone stop you.

ISCES ~ It’s so hard when someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer. But if it happens to you in the coming weeks, try answering with a mysterious “Why do you want to know?” Mercury, the planet of the mind, is going through your secret 12th house.

Keeping your ideas to yourself could be the best thing you can do so that when you do decide to talk eventually, your opinions will be fully formulated.

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Inside This Edition Job bias claims at record level

BY SAM HANANEL | ASSOCIATED PRESS

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal job discrimination complaints rose to an all-time high last year, led by an increase in bias charges based on religion and national origin.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it received nearly 100,000 charges of discrimination during the 2011 fiscal year, the most in its 46-year his-

tory. That’s a slight increase over the previous year, which had 25 fewer complaints.

Charges of religious discrimination jumped by 9.5 percent, the largest increase of any category.

Claims of bias based on ancestry or country of origin rose 5 percent.

Experts say the increase reflects the growing diversity of the nation's work force.

Claims based on race, sex and retaliation were the charges filed most often.

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12 BlackFacts.com January 28, 1989 After 62 years, the ColgatePalmolive Co. redesign packaging for its “Darkie” toothpaste made and sold only in Asia. The nickname for Darkie tooth paste is renamed “Darlie” and the Blackface, Sambo-like character is changed into a “non-racially offensive” silhouette.

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

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Tuskegee airman buried at Arlington ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — On the same day that retired Air Force Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr. took his resting place among other war and military heroes, his real-life story as a World War II aviator played out on movie screens across the country.

Weathers was buried Friday at Arlington National Cemetery in a service that began with a flyover of four F-16 jets in the Missing Man formation, a special honor reserved for pilots, by the 113th Wing of the D.C. Capital Guardians, the same unit that guards the airspace over the nation’s capital.

Weathers died Oct. 15 in Tucson, Ariz., of pneumonia at age 90. His burial coincided with the official opening in theaters of “Red Tails,” a George Lucas-produced movie retelling the story of the Tuskegee Airmen who debunked widely held beliefs that Black pilots were incapable of fighting in combat.

Shortly after the flyover, in which one of the three jets departed from formation, a caisson pulled by six horses carried Weathers’ body to his burial spot amid hundreds of the stark marble tombstones that cover the grounds of the national cemetery. An Air Force band accompanied the wagon, its drummer thumping a solemn beat as family followed on the chilly, overcast Friday morning. Family members wore red ties and scarves, as they had at Weathers’ Memphis funeral, as a nod to the aviators who painted their aircrafts’ tails red to set themselves apart.

Luke Weathers III, 61, said his father and other Black Americans who fought in World War II did so to prove they were men, “and then they wanted their country to love them, but that didn’t happen, either.”

Friday’s ceremony, however, finally delivered recognition of his father as a national hero, Weathers said.

This kind of attention to the Tuskegee Airmen is what the elder Weathers wanted throughout his life, said his daughter, Trina Weathers Boyce. Weathers was not vain, but he wanted to share the lessons of the airmen’s courage in war, their struggles for equality and their victory over a wartime enemy and over racism, she said.

“He would talk about his hard trials and tribulations to others, to children, because he never wanted us to feel like this (racism) is a reason we couldn’t make it,” Weathers Boyce said in a telephone interview Thursday. “He would tell us nothing good comes easy. He’d say there are going to be barriers ... and you can overcome them.”

Before the Tuskegee Airmen were formed in 1941, Black men were forbidden to fly for the U.S. military, even though they could be drafted. After years of struggle, the Army Air Corps began to allow African Americans to train for flight, albeit in still-segregated units.

Many of the tens of thousands of Tuskegee airmen, which included navigators, mechanics, medical personnel and others in support roles, trained from 1941 to 1949 at the Tuskegee Institute, which was founded by Booker T. Washington and was already home to an aeronautical engineering program. In the home state of the institute, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed a proclamation honoring the airmen, saying they changed Americans attitudes about race relations.

More than 900 Tuskegee Airmen were U.S. pilots, said Trent Dudley, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who is president of the East Coast Tuskegee Airmen Inc. chapter. An estimated 250 to 300 Tuskegee airmen are still alive. The exact number is not known because some have not registered with chapters.

“As with all the airmen, when we lose one of them, there is a chunk of history that goes with them,” Dudley said.

Defying social norms was already a family trait when Weathers was born in Grenada, Miss.

At the time, the town’s railroad track served as the economic dividing line. Weather’s mixed-race father and Black mother defied that dividing line, which led them to move to Memphis, where they opened their own grocery store.

Years later, Weathers was studying biology at Lane College in Jackson, Tenn., when he stumbled on an article in an international newspaper about the Tuskegee Experiment, the federal government’s name for the Army Air Corps training of African Americans, Weathers Boyce said.

His mother turned to the prominent Memphis family she worked for and, with the help of the family’s connections, Weathers was considered and eventually accepted into their program.

He always talked about the maneuver that save his life, Weathers Boyce said. A skillful pilot, he was a target of the Germans. In one combat flight, German aircraft were pursuing him and firing. He was forced to dip down and make a few turns in his plane to keep from getting shot, she said.

Weathers flew P-51 and P-39 fighters during his service from 1942 to 1945 and earned a Distinguished Flying Cross, according to the National Guard Bureau.

He and other Tuskegee Airmen were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007.

After the war, Weathers went on to become the first African American air controller, run a coinoperated laundry, raise five children, open a flight school, provide vocational rehabilitation for veterans and write a book about his life story that has not yet been published, Weathers Boyce said.

“We are still educating people on the Tuskegee history,” Weathers said, “because it’s a big part of American history, not African American or Black history, but American history.”

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

FFriends and family of former Tuskegee airman, retired Lt. Col. Luke Weathers arrive for burial services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Friday.

metro.net/expo

Watch for trains on Metro Expo Line tracks.

Test trains are now running in preparation for the upcoming opening of the Metro Expo Line, the newest extension of the Metro Rail system. Trains will be moving in both directions on the tracks.

Please remember to: > Obey all tra;c signals and warning devices. > Be alert at all times. Watch for a “TRAIN” signal. > Always push the button and wait for a “WALK” signal before entering the crosswalk. Never jaywalk across the tracks. > Never sit or stand on tracks. > Do not go around lowered gates. > Never make a left turn on a red arrow.

This tra;c rule will be enforced by cameras at intersections. > Right turns are allowed while an Expo Line train is passing through, but may be restricted at certain intersections.

For more safety tips, visit metro.net/ridesafely.

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BY SUZANNE GAMBOA | ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Black students: Duke study shows deeper problems

BY MARTHA WAGGONER | ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An unpublished study by Duke University researchers that says Black students are more likely to switch to less difficult majors has upset some students, who say the research is emblematic of more entrenched racial problems.

The study, which opponents of affirmative action are using in a case they want the U.S. Supreme Court to consider, concludes Black students match the GPA of Whites over time partially because they switch to majors that require less study time and have less stringent grading standards. Opponents of affirmative action cite the study in a case they want the U.S. Supreme Court to consider.

About three dozen students held a silent protest Sunday outside a speech by Black political strategist Donna Brazile that was part of the school’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. observance. Members of the Black Student Alliance have met with the provost to express their unhappiness with the study and other issues on the Durham, N.C.,

campus.

“I don’t know what needs to happen to make Duke wake up,” said Nana Asante, a senior psychology major and president of the Black Student Alliance.

The reaction from Black students has surprised one of the researchers, who said he wanted to show the need to find ways to keep minorities in difficult majors such as the natural sciences, economics and engineering.

Peter Arcidiacono, an economics professor at Duke, wrote the paper in May 2011 along with a graduate student and sociology professor Ken Spenner. Both Spenner and Arcidiacono are White. The paper has been under review since June at the Journal of Public Economics.

The statistics would likely reflect trends at other schools, Arcidiacono said. The study notes that national science organizations have spent millions to increase the ranks of Black science students.

“It’s not just a Duke issue. It’s a national issue,” he said.

The researchers analyzed data from surveys of more than 1,500 Duke students before college and

during the first, second and fourth college years. Blacks and Whites initially expressed a similar interest in tougher fields of study such as science and engineering, but 68 percent of Blacks ultimately choose humanities and social science majors, compared with less than 55 percent of Whites. The research found similar trends for legacy students — those whose parents are alumni.

The study’s claim that majors such as natural sciences required more study time was based on students’ responses to survey questions about how many hours they spent each week on studying and homework. The study found that those fields required 50 percent more study time than social sciences and humanities courses.

“I view the lack of (minority) representation in the sciences to be a problem, and I include my own field of economics,” Arcidiacono said.

“I’d like to see programs that are successful in increasing that representation.”

Black students at Duke haven’t taken that impression from the study, which came to light when the Chronicle of Higher Education AP Photo/The Herald-Sun, Christine T. Nguyen

Duke first-year Jonathan Hill-Rorie joins other students to protest over an unpublished study by Duke researchers stating that Black students or children of alumni are disproportionately likely to switch to easier majors. wrote about it earlier this month.

Affirmative action opponents cite the study in briefs involving a challenge of the undergraduate admissions policy at the University of Texas at Austin.

“What kind of image does this present not only of the academic undertakings of Black students at Duke but also of the merit and legitimacy of our degrees?” Asante asked. “And then, of course, it’s calling into question ... the legitimacy of how we even got to Duke in the first place.”

Duke, a private university, has about 6,500 undergraduate students, about 47 percent of them White and 10 percent Black. The largest group of minorities is Asian-American, representing 21 percent of the undergraduate population. Duke has no set formula for admitting students, said school spokesman Mike Schoenfeld. Instead, the admissions process takes into account many factors, including race, ethnicity and legacy status. The school selects about 1,700 students each year from more than 31,000 applicants.

“The experience of Black students, and indeed of all students, at Duke is of deep and ongoing interest to the university, and we take very seriously the issues that have been raised,” Schoenfeld said.

The study is the latest issue to trouble Black students at Duke, Asante said. She said administrators have not responded to questions

about plans to renovate the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and have not given support for the Black student group's recruitment weekend.

Schoenfeld said the Williams Center is a gem and officials are working with students to find a new, visible location for it. And he said the recruitment weekend is more important than ever because Duke received a record number of Black student applications this year.

But a letter to the editor of the student newspaper, signed by the provost and other administrators, failed to address concerns about those issues and the racial climate, Asante said.

“In failing to do that, it reaffirmed its own ignorance in terms of the necessity of acknowledging, accepting and working to change that climate,” Asante said.

BlackFacts.com January 29, 1913 Black Americans celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Major celebrations are held at Jackson, Miss., New Orleans, La., and Nashville, Tenn.

Three states — Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey — appropriate money for official celebrations of the event.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

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For some, pardons are about redemption, not freedom Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Harper readily acknowledges he killed a man in the early 1980s, but said he meant only to shoot the man in the shoulder while protecting himself during a bar fight.

Harper was sentenced to life in 1983. He was a good prisoner and earned the coveted trusty job in 1997.

It's a position in Mississippi that came with the chance at freedom.

Governors historically released the

AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

IThomas Ailes laughs on the porch of his Wesson, Miss., home as he recalls his reaction to receiving a pardon from Gov. Haley Barbour earlier this month. The Vietnam veteran drove to Jackson to pick up the executive order from the Mississippi Parole Board pardoning him for a marijuana conviction from the 1970s.

BY HOLBROOK MOHR | ASSOCIATED PRESS WESSON, Miss. (AP) — When Thomas Ailes heard from a friend that he'd been pardoned for a marijuana conviction from the 1970s, he didn’t wait for the Mississippi Parole Board to mail him the paperwork. He jumped in his blue Dodge truck and drove an hour to the capital to pick it up himself.

On an unseasonably warm morning this past week, the Vietnam veteran kicked back on his front porch in the tiny town of Wesson and proudly displayed Executive Order No. 1083, one of nearly 200 pardons former Gov. Haley Barbour signed in his final days in office.

“I’m going to have about 10 copies of this bad boy made. And this one here is getting framed!” Ailes said.

The pardon isn’t life-changing for Ailes, 61. He’s been out of prison since 1977. He’s disabled, so it won’t help him land a job. He never lost his right to vote.

“I just wanted the same clean

record I had when I joined the Marines,” he said. “I wanted it so I can clear my conscience.”

Ailes’ hopes may be dashed. The Mississippi attorney general’s office is trying to have dozens of pardons thrown out, including his.

In the shadows of the national headlines and angry reaction from victims of heinous crimes, there are many like Ailes, searching for redemption, not freedom.

Barbour, a two-term Republican governor, has been criticized for granting so many pardons and for giving them to people convicted of serious crimes like murder and rape.

Among those pardoned were trusties — prisoners so trusted that they are allowed to work at the governor’s mansion. Some lawmakers have vowed to craft legislation that would limit the governor’s pardoning powers.

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps has said that since he began working in the prison system in the 1970s, he did not know of any trusties who went back to prison for new crimes after being granted full

FAMU dismisses students charged with hazing TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The four students charged last week with hazing pledges of a Florida A&M University marching band club known as the Clones have been dismissed from the school.

The move was announced Monday during a FAMU board of trustees meeting. The students will have a chance to appeal their dismissal before a student judicial committee.

The four band members face misdemeanor hazing charges after

reports that other students were punched and paddled during initiation meetings that began in early September. Last week’s arrests are the latest in a scandal that has rocked the university and its famed Marching 100 band.

In November, FAMU drum major Robert Champion died hours after a football game in Orlando in what authorities said was a hazing ritual. His death has been ruled a homicide, but no charges have been brought.

pardons.

Most of the pardons were for lesser crimes, some dating back decades.

Four men who benefited from Barbour’s pardons were convicted of crimes in the 1960s — one for arson, two for burglary and one for robbery.

More than four times that many were convicted of crimes in the 1970s, and even more in the ’80s and ’90s.

Barbour has said 189 of the people who got reprieves were already out of prison, like Herbert Lowery of Vicksburg.

Lowery was 30 when he was busted for delivering marijuana and admitted he was looking for fast money to build a house and start a family. A shameful mistake, he called it, saying he's never even smoked pot.

Now 64, Lowery served less than a year in 1979 and hasn’t been in trouble since. But the felony conviction was a haunting embarrassment.

Like Ailes, the pardon isn’t likely to have much effect on Lowery’s life.

He too is disabled, from heart surgery and lung cancer. He’s an avid hunter, but a judge restored his right to own a gun years ago. He’s been voting ever since he got of prison.

“I just wanted to clear my name before I died,” Lowery said. “I’m so ashamed of what I did.”

For others, the pardons offer a chance at a better job and a better life.

Larry Harper, a convicted killer who worked as a prison trusty in the governor’s mansion for Barbour’s predecessor, Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, said he has been cleaning a chicken processing plant in Forest for eight years since he got out of prison on a suspended sentence. The murder, aggravated assault and weapon violations, he says, are like heavy chains that keep him from moving up in the world.

“That’s all I want is to do a better job. As far owning a gun and all that other stuff, I don’t care. I just want a better job,” Harper told The

trusties at the end of their terms, though new Republican Gov. Phil Bryant ended the program Thursday.

Harper was paroled Aug. 17, 1998. But less than a year later, he was arrested again, this time on aggravated assault and weapons charges. He said he didn’t have a weapon and didn’t assault anyone but was mixed up with the wrong crowd.

He was sent back to prison in June 1999 and again became a governor’s See PARDONS, page 15

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

JFK library to release last of his secret tapes

US Pacific Fleet gets new leader; admiral retires

AP Photo/US Navy, Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class David Kolmel AP Photo/The White House, Cecil Stoughton

A close-up look: On Tuesday, the Kennedy Library will release the final 45 hours of White House recordings secretly taped during President Kennedy’s time in office. The last tapes were made on Nov. 20, 1963, two days before his assassination in Dallas.

BY BRIDGET MURPHY | ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON (AP) — President John F. Kennedy's library is releasing 45 hours of privately recorded meetings and phone calls, providing a window into the final months of his life.

The tapes include discussions of conflict in Vietnam, Soviet relations and the race to space, plans for the 1964 Democratic Convention and re-election strategy.

There also are moments with his children.

On one recording, made days before Kennedy’s assassination, he asks staffers to schedule a meeting in a week.

He tells them he’s booked for the week-

end, with no time to meet with an Indonesian general then, either.

“I’m going to be up at the Cape on Friday, but I’ll see him Tuesday,” JFK tells staffers.

The tapes, being released Tuesday by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, are the last of more than 260 hours of recordings of meetings and conversations JFK privately made before his assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

In the scheduling discussion three days before his killing, JFK also eerily comments on what would become the day of his funeral.

“Monday?” he asks. “Well, that’s a tough day.”

“It’s a hell of a day, Mr. President,” a staffer replies.

Kennedy kept the recordings a secret from his top aides. He made the last one two days before his death.

Kennedy library archivist Maura Porter said Monday that JFK may have been saving them for a memoir or possibly started them because he was bothered when the military later gave a different overview of a discussion with him about the Bay of Pigs.

The latest batch of recordings captured meetings from the last three months of Kennedy’s administration. In a conversation with political advisers about young voters, Kennedy asks, “What is it we have to sell them?”

“We hope we have to sell them prosperity, but for the average guy the prosperity is nil,” he says. “He’s not unprosperous, but he’s not very prosperous. ... And the people who really are well off hate our guts.”

Kennedy talks about a disconnect between the political machine and voters.

“We’ve got so mechanical an operation here in Washington that it doesn’t have much identity where these people are concerned,” he says.

On another recording, Kennedy questions conflicting reports military and diplomatic advisers bring back from Vietnam, asking the two men: “You both went to the same country?”

He also talks about trying to create films for the 1964 Democratic Convention in color instead of black and white.

“The color is so damn good,” he says. “If you do it right.”

Porter said the public first heard about the existence of the Kennedy recordings during the Watergate hearings.

In 1983, JFK Library and Museum officials started reviewing tapes without classified materials and releasing recordings to the public. Porter said officials were able to go through all the recordings by 1993, working with government agencies when it came to national security issues and what they could make public.

In all, she said, the JFK Library and Museum has put out about 40 recordings. She said officials excised about 5 to 10 minutes of this last group of recordings due to family discussions and about 30 minutes because of national security concerns.

Porter has supervised the declassification of these White House tapes since 2001, and she said people will have a much better sense of the kind of leader JFK was after hearing them.

While some go along with meeting minutes that also are public, she said, listening to JFK’s voice makes his personality come alive.

She said he comes across as an intelligent man who had a knack for public relations and was very interested in his public image. But she said the tapes also reveal times when the president became bored or annoyed and moments when he used swear words.

The sound of the president’s children, Caroline and John Jr., playing outside the Oval Office is part of a recording on which he introduces them to Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.

“Hello, hello,” Gromyko says as the children come in, telling their father, “They are very popular in our country.”

JFK tells the children, mentioning a dog Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gifted the family: “His chief is the one who sent you Pushinka. You know that?

You have the puppies.”

JFK Library spokeswoman Rachel Flor said the daughter of the late president has heard many of the recordings, but she wasn't sure if she had heard this batch.

“He’d go from being a president to being a father,” Porter said of the recordings. “... And that was really cute.”

Adm. Cecil Haney delivers remarks during the U.S. Pacific Fleet change of command ceremony last. Haney assumed command from Adm. Patrick Walsh during the ceremony.

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — A new leader took over at the U.S. Pacific Fleet on Friday as Adm. Cecil Haney, former deputy of the U.S. Strategic Command, replaced Adm. Patrick Walsh, who is retiring.

Haney, a former submarine squadron commander, told about 900 people at the change-of-command ceremony that he plans to build on the foundation Walsh nurtured as he takes over the helm in an area that stretches from the U.S. West Coast to the Indian Ocean.

Haney said he will work with the other military services to support U.S. Pacific Command to enhance "maritime security and freedom of the seas with the talented men and women of Pacific Fleet and our allies and partners," according to a Pacific Fleet news release.

He comes to Hawaii from Nebraska, where the Strategic Command is located at an air base outside Omaha. The Strategic Command has responsibility for the nation's nuclear forces, including long-range missiles carried aboard submarines and bombers, and landbased missiles capable of striking around the globe.

Haney is taking over Pacific Fleet at a time when the military

faces looming budget cuts yet the U.S. seeks to boost its security focus on the region.

Walsh, speaking at the ceremony, warned that other nations are gauging U.S. commitment.

"They are watching with keen interest the effect of the U.S. economic challenges, the strain of more than a decade of war on the Navy's ability to remain forward, to remain engaged and ready," he said.

Walsh said he was sure the Navy would overcome these challenges.

"We have faced austere economic cycles in the past," Walsh said.

"And while the American public has kept faith with the Navy, they have not changed their view of our mission or their expectations of our response to crisis conditions."

Earlier this month, the Obama administration unveiled a new defense strategy that seeks to enhance the U.S. presence in Asia because of the region's economic importance and China's rise as a military power.

The Pacific Fleet includes 180 ships, nearly 2,000 aircraft and 125,000 sailors, Marines and civilians. The command stretches from the U.S. West Coast to the Indian Ocean.

AP Photo/US Navy, Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class David Kolmel

Adm. Cecil Haney, seen here with his wife, was promoted to the rank of admiral by Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert before a ceremony during which Haney assumed command of U.S. Pacific Fleet from Adm. Patrick Walsh.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

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U.S. says East Africa famine easing but not over

BY DOUGLAS BIRCH | ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the famine in Somalia has eased but 13.3 million people across the Horn of Africa still need emergency food, shelter or other aid.

The State Department says there

has been significant improvement in the 1 1/2-year-long emergency, still one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

David Robinson, acting assistant secretary for population, refugees and migration, told reporters Tuesday the flow of refugees out of Somalia into neighboring countries

Kodak files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection

has diminished, but thousands are still trying to get out and new camps are opening in Ethiopia and Kenya.

The crisis was triggered by crop failures tied to a regional drought, but officials said it has been aggravated by the fighting between Somalia's U.N.-backed government and al-Qaida linked insurgents.

FILE - Thousands of people, more than half of them children, died needlessly and millions of dollars were AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam, File wasted because the international community did not respond to early warnings of an impending famine in East Africa, aid agencies said last Wednesday even as they warned of a new hunger crisis in West Africa.

Groundbreaking jazz manager John Levy dies at 99 AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach, file

Financial woes: The Eastman Kodak Co., which hasn’t found a buyer for its patents, said last Thursday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Photography icon Eastman Kodak has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business.

The move comes as the ailing company has failed to find a buyer for its trove of 1,100 digital imaging patents. Kodak said in November that it could run out of cash in a year if it didn't sell the patents, for which it hoped to fetch billions.

Eastman Kodak Co. said early Thursday that it has secured $950 million in financing from Citigroup Inc., and expects to be able to operate its business during bankruptcy reorganization and pay employees.

The Rochester, N.Y.-based company, which was pummeled by foreign competition and then severely shaken by the digital revolution, has invested huge sums in new lines of inkjet printers that are finally on the verge of turning a profit.

CEO Antonio Perez said in a statement that the bankruptcy filing is “a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak.”

The company and its board are being advised by Lazard, FTI Consulting Inc. and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Dominic DiNapoli, vice chairman of FTI Consulting, will serve as chief restructuring officer. Kodak expects to complete its U.S.-based restructuring during 2013.

On its website, Kodak assured customers that the nearly $1 billion

in debtor-in-possession financing would be sufficient to pay vendors, suppliers and other business partners in full for goods and services going forward. The bankruptcy filing in the Southern District of New York does not involve Kodak’s international operations.

The Chapter 11 filing had been rumored for weeks. Multiple directors have resigned from Kodak’s board and the company last week announced that it realigned and simplified its business structure in an effort to cut costs, create shareholder value and accelerate its longdrawn-out digital transformation.

Since the start of the year, Kodak said it now has two business units — commercial and consumer — instead of three.

Previously, Kodak’s business segments were divided into its traditional film and photo paper products, consumer digital imaging and graphic communications, which included printing equipment. Home photo printers, commercial inkjet presses, workflow software and packaging are viewed as Kodak's new core.

Kodak has said it hopes the printer, software and packaging businesses will more than double in size by 2013 and account by then for 25 percent of its revenue, or nearly $2 billion.

Kodak did not announce job cuts as part of the bankruptcy protection filing. The company’s payroll has plunged below 19,000 from 70,000 a decade ago.

AP Photo/Jennifer Szymaszek, File

Jazz legend John Levy received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award at the NEA Jazz Masters Awards Concert in New York in 2006.

ALTADENA, California (AP) — John Levy, the first prominent African-American personal manager in the jazz or pop music field, whose clients included Nancy Wilson and Ramsey Lewis, has died at age 99.

Devra Hall Levy posted on his website that her husband died Friday in his sleep at his home in Altadena, Calif., less than three months before his 100th birthday.

An accomplished bassist, the New Orleans-born Levy performed with such jazz greats as Stuff Smith, Billie Holiday, Erroll Garner and Billy Taylor in the 1940s before joining pianist George Shearing’s original quintet. In the early 1950s, he became Shearing’s full-time manager and later went on to form his own management agency, John Levy Enterprises Inc. Levy’s client roster over the years included more than 85 artists, including Wilson, Lewis, Nat and Cannonball Adderley, Betty Carter, Roberta Flack, Herbie Hancock, Shirley Horn, Freddie Hubbard, Ahmad Jamal and Abbey Lincoln as well as comedian Arsenio Hall.

In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts recognized Levy as a Jazz Master, the nation’s highest jazz honor.

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Bulls’ Derrick Rose out again with toe injury

BY TOM WITHERS | ASSOCIATED PRESS CLEVELAND (AP) — Derrick Rose’s injured toe is better, just not good enough to risk playing on.

The league’s reigning MVP sat out his third straight game Friday night with a sprained left big toe, an injury he first sustained on Jan. 10 at Minnesota. Before the Bulls played the Cleveland Cavaliers without Rose, coach Tom Thibodeau said his star point guard has improved.

“Each day he’s moving in the right direction,” Thibodeau said, “and when he’s ready to go, he’ll go.”

Rose did not participate in the morning shootaround and he did not warm up with his teammates. Rose was not available for comment.

He entered the locker room briefly and walked past reporters into the trainer’s room.

Cavaliers coach Byron Scott joked that he was hoping Rose would be out.

“My prayers were answered,” Scott said.

The Bulls are taking a AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast cautious approach with Rose, who is averaging Of an injured Chicago Bulls guard Derrick 20.8 points and 8.7 assists. Rose, seen here, coach Tom Thibodeau said, Rose hasn’t played since “Each day he’s moving in the right direction, last weekend against and when he’s ready to go, he’ll go.”

Toronto. Even without their top player, the Bulls (13-3) blew own until Rose comes back.

“Here’s the thing about our team,” out Phoenix 118-97 on Tuesday. C.J. Watson started for Rose and scored 23 he said. “We have more than enough to win with. If he’s hurt and he’s points.

Watson will also take Rose’s spot injured, he doesn’t play. If he can tolerate the pain and feels good enough against the Cavs.

Thibodeau believes the Bulls have then he’ll play. That’s the way it is. enough depth and talent to hold their This is the NBA.”

La. seafood board may buy N.O. arena naming rights

BY JANET MCCONNAUGHEY | ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board says it may use some of the $30 million it received from BP PLC after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill to buy naming rights for the New Orleans Arena, where the NBA’s Hornets play.

Executive director Ewell Smith said Tuesday the promotional value would be part of a cam-

paign to restore confidence in Gulf seafood. Many seafood grounds were closed during the spill.

Smith said the campaign could include setting up Louisiana seafood vendor booths at other NBA arenas around the country.

He said the board has spoken with the Hornets and is awaiting more information. The arena is state-owned. A deal, he said, could come within 90 days.

The naming rights proposal was first reported in The Courier of Houma.

Woods looking for strong start in Abu Dhabi

BY MICHAEL CASEY | ASSOCIATED PRESS ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Healthier than he has been in nearly a decade, Tiger Woods comes into the 2012 season full of confidence and said Tuesday that he is hoping his strong showing at the end of 2011 will carry over into this week's Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.

Woods ended 2011 with his first victory in two years at the Chevron World Challenge and said Tuesday he is looking to pick more than that one win this year. His Chevron victory moved him up to 25th on the world rankings after he fell out of the top 50 last year.

"Actually, it's been quite a few years since I've been physically fit," said Woods, who estimated it had been at least eight years since he wasn't dealing with an injury. "So I'm looking forward to getting out there and then playing and give it a full season, which I haven't done in a while, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Woods opens his season in Abu Dhabi for the first time and will compete against a star-studded lineup that includes U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy, top-ranked Luke Donald, defending champion Martin Kaymer and second-ranked Lee Westwood.

"I'm looking forward to this year," Woods said. "That's something that I have to say, because I was able to prepare and get fit enough to prepare last year and towards the end of the year. I demonstrated to myself what I can do with implementing what (coach Sean Foley) wants me to do on the golf swing."

Woods took part in a traditional Emirati ayala dance earlier in the day with Westwood and McIlroy, and was in good spirits for most of the news conference. But he appeared slightly agitated when the questions turned to a book written

by Hank Haney, who was Woods' swing coach for six years.

The book due out in March chronicles the time Haney began working with Woods at the Bay Hill Invitational in 2004 until they parted ways a month after the 2010 Masters, where Woods made his return to golf after being exposed for multiple extramarital affairs that shattered his image and led to divorce.

Woods said he was unhappy that those he had worked with, including Haney and former caddie Steve Williams, who had spoken out.

"Certainly it's something that I have to deal with. I get asked at press conferences what these guys have done, and that's just part of it," he said. "Am I disappointed? Yes. Frustrated? Certainly, because I have to answer the questions. ... So I've answered them and I guess I'll have to continue doing it. Hopefully,

AP Photo/Scott A. Miller

Tiger Woods during the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 12, 2008 in Orlando, Florida. this will come to an end."

After missing much of 2011 with injuries, Woods said he finally was "healthy enough to practice" toward the end of the season and it paid off.

He finished third at the Australian Open, and then delivered the clinching point for the American team in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne before winning the Chevron.

"I think Australia was pretty big for me to go down there for two weeks and play in that type of wind, and to hit the ball as well as I did, I really controlled my golf ball for two weeks, and you know, I think that led to what I did at the World Challenge," Woods said. "I hit the ball just as well there, and made a couple of putts, and especially on the last two holes there. You know, consequently, got a W." The 14-time major winner would only say his goal this year is to win more than he had last year and was hopeful one of those victories would be another major. He is four short of Jack Nicklaus' record of 18.

"The game plan is still the same.

Every event I play in is to try and win," Woods said. "That's what's going to hold me back is obviously if I don't play well, and there's also going to be 155 other guys in the field that are going to have a chance, as well. There's a number of factors, and that's what makes golf so interesting; that it is very difficult to win golf tournaments. And to do it consistently over a long period of time, it's not easy to do."

Woods has traded Torrey Pines for Abu Dhabi this year and admitted his scheduling decisions are influenced by the appearances fees he is offered. Unlike the PGA Tour, the European Tour allows for appearance fees, which can reach into the millions of dollars for the top stars.

"You know, I'd have to say yes, it certainly does," he said of the fees.

"That's one of the reasons why a lot of the guys who play in Europe, they

do play in Europe, and they do get paid. I think the only tour that doesn't pay is the U.S. Tour. But, you know, a lot of the guys play all around the world and they do get appearance fees."

Woods refused to say how much he is getting at Abu Dhabi, the season-opening event on the European Tour.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

11

AP source: Fielder and Tigers agree on 9-year deal

BY NOAH TRISTER | ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT (AP) — With Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera in the middle of the lineup, the Detroit Tigers look ready for a season of slugging at Comerica Park.

Fielder and the Tigers agreed Tuesday to a nine-year, $214 million contract, a person familiar with the deal said. The AL Central champions boldly stepped up in the Fielder sweepstakes after the recent knee injury to star Victor Martinez. A week ago, the Tigers announced the productive designated hitter could miss the entire season after tearing his left ACL during off-season conditioning.

CBS first reported the agreement with Fielder.

The person told The Associated Press the deal was subject to a physical. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract was not yet complete.

Several teams had shown interest this winter in Fielder, the free agent first baseman who had spent his entire career with the Milwaukee Brewers. He visited Texas, and the Washington Nationals also got involved in the discussions.

The Tigers won their division by 15 games before losing in the AL championship series to Texas. With Fielder now in the fold, general manager Dave Dombrowski and owner Mike Ilitch have a team that figures to enter the 2012 season as a favorite to repeat in the division — with an eye on winning the franchise’s first World Series title since 1984.

“Everyone knew Mr. Ilitch and Mr. Dombrowski were going to make a move when Victor went down,” outfielder Brennan Boesch said in a phone interview with the AP. “But I don’t think anybody thought it would be this big.”

The move also keeps Fielder’s name in the Tigers’ family. His father, Cecil, became a big league star when he returned to the majors from Japan and hit 51 home runs with Detroit in 1990. Cecil played with the Tigers into the 1996 season, and young Prince made a name for himself by hitting prodigious home runs in batting practice at Tiger Stadium.

In an interview with MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM, Cecil Fielder said he was “shocked” by the news that Prince was heading to Detroit.

“He’s been there in Detroit most of his young life so I think he’ll be comfortable in that place,” Cecil Fielder said. “I know Mr. Ilitch is probably excited because he’s been wanting that kid since he was a little kid, so he finally got his wish.”

With Cabrera and Fielder, Detroit will begin this season with two players under age 30 with at least 200 career homers. According to STATS LLC, that’s happened only once before. At the start of the 1961 season, the Milwaukee Braves featured 29-year-old Eddie Mathews (338

Workers install a Super Bowl XLVI sign on the window of Lucas Oil Stadium as preparations continue for NFL football’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012.

It’ll be the New England Patriots against the New York Giants on Feb. 5.

AP Photo/Michael Conroy

AP Photo/Morry Gash, File

FILE- Prince Fielder and the Milwaukee Brewers have avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to a $15.5 million, one-year contract last Tuesday. homers) and a 27-year-old named Hank Aaron (219).

Fielder hit .299 with 38 home runs and 120 RBIs last season. He is a three-time All-Star and was the MVP of last year’s event in Phoenix.

The beefy slugger has averaged 40 homers and 113 RBIs over the past five years. He’s also been among the most durable players in the majors, appearing in at least 157 games in each of the last six seasons.

Fielder hits left-handed, while Cabrera is a righty. Manager Jim Leyland will get to decide where to put them in the batting order.

“I don’t think there’s a better right-left combo in any lineup in baseball,” Boesch said. “I’m sure Skip's wheels are already turning on how to set them up.”

And to think, the Tigers also have the American League’s reigning MVP and Cy Young Award winner — right-hander Justin Verlander.

Fielder’s deal is only the fourth $200 million contract in baseball history, following Alex Rodriguez’s $275 million, 10-year contract with the New York Yankees, A-Rod's $252 million, 10-year deal with Texas and Albert Pujols’ $240 million, 10-year contract last month with the Los Angeles Angels.

Among current players, Fielder’s $23.78 million average salary is behind only A-Rod ($27.5 million), Ryan Howard ($25 million), and Cliff

Lee and Pujols ($24 million each).

Dombrowski indicated last week he'd probably seek a short-term solution to Martinez’s injury, but he left himself some wiggle room, saying it depended who the replacement was.

Acquiring Fielder opens all sorts of possibilities. For now, Detroit has an opening at DH with Martinez out.

But Martinez is in the second year of a $50 million, four-year contract.

One option could be to move Cabrera from first base to third. He played third base regularly for the Florida Marlins before the Tigers acquired him before the 2008 season.

Third baseman Brandon Inge has one year left on a two-year, $11.5 million deal with Detroit.

AP Sports Writers Ronald Blum in New York and Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report.

BlackFacts.com January 31, 1919 In Cairo, Ga., on this date, baseball great Jackie Robinson is born.

The fifth African American to play major league baseball with a White team, Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, ending five decades of segregated baseball. At the time of his retirement in October 1972, Robinson is believed to have been the most respected of all baseball players.

NFL still finalizing Super Bowl seating capacity

BY MICHAEL MAROT | ASSOCIATED PRESS INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NFL is trying to avoid another super snafu.

One year after hundreds of ticketed fans were left without seats at Cowboys Stadium, organizers have added only 254 temporary seats to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the Feb. 5 game between the New York Giants and New England Patriots.

League spokesman Brian McCarthy said officials decided in March the capacity for a stadium that normally seats about 63,000 for football games would be expanded to roughly 68,000 for the Super Bowl — with most of the additional capacity coming from standing-room only tickets.

The league still could add some padded seats to camera platforms, standing-room only availability to stadium suites and perhaps additional seats near the auxiliary media area, but no more tickets are going on sale.

“What we do is take a hard look every year,” McCarthy said Tuesday.

“As we get closer to the game, our event planners will sit in each of the sections and fill in other areas that would not be used for a regular-sea-

son game. In general, we are taking a very fan-first approach, which is to deliver to our fans the best from the NFL.” That certainly wasn’t the experience some fans got in Arlington, Texas.

Just hours before kickoff of last year’s Green Bay-Pittsburgh game, league officials announced that about 1,250 temporary seats were deemed unsafe. The league scrambled to find new seats for about 850 people, forcing the rest to watch from standingroom only locations around the stadium.

Two days after the game, the displaced fans filed a federal lawsuit alleging breach of contract, fraud and deceptive sales practices.

League officials later agreed to give the affected fans several options. The approximately 2,800 people who were delayed in reaching their seats or relocated once they got inside Cowboys Stadium could receive a refund for the face value of last year’s tickets or receive a gameday ticket to a future Super Bowl.

Roughly 475 other fans who were left without seats for the game won by Green Bay had four options: Receiving a refund of three times the See SUPER BOWL SEATING, page 15

12

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Spike Lee frustrated by lack of diversity in film

Michelle Obama heading to Leno’s ‘Tonight Show’

Spike Lee, writer/director of “Red Hook Summer,” says we’ve still got a long way to go to diversify Hollywood.

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Spike Lee just premiered the fifth film in his “continuing chronicles of Brooklyn, N.Y.,” at the Sundance Film Festival, but the filmmaker is still frustrated at the lack of diversity in the entertainment industry.

Lee said Monday that in the “upper echelons of television and studios, it’s 1950. It’s Eisenhower.”

He says there is much work to be done before the film industry reflects

the diversity of the United States. He noted that the U.S. Census shows that “White Americans will be a minority by 2045, maybe sooner,” and said it makes “good business sense” for companies, including entertainment companies, to diversify their workforce.

Lee unveiled “Red Hook Summer” on Sunday to a full house that included such guests as Chris Rock, Alfre Woodard and Cuba Gooding Jr.

AP Photo/Cliff Owen

It’s back to “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” for first lady Michelle Obama.

Comedian Harvey heads to Ala. principal’s office

BURBANK, California (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama is headed to Jay Leno’s stage later this month.

NBC announced Thursday that the first lady will appear on “The Tonight Show” on Jan. 31, where

she’s expected to talk about life in the White House, her fitness initiative for children and her upcoming book about the White House kitchen garden.

She was a guest on the program

in 2008 when her husband was a candidate and also appeared via satellite hookup from the White House on “The Jay Leno Show” in 2009, the host’s perch before returning to “The Tonight Show.”

Seal, Heidi Klum announce separation

Going back to school: Comedian and syndicated radio personality Steve Harvey, impressed by an Alabama school’s fortitude in the face of disaster, is assuming a new role: principal.

AP Photo/Jason DeCrow

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Steve Harvey is relinquishing his role as one of the Original Kings of Comedy to become an Alabama school principal — at least for one day.

Students at Phillips Academy in Birmingham will be answering to “Principal” Steve Harvey on Thursday after the school won a contest sponsored

by Harvey’s morning radio show and General Mills.

The Birmingham News reports (http://bit.ly/zJyubE) that Angela Strozier, the mother of an eighth-grader at Phillips Academy, entered the contest by submitting an essay about the school's success. In it, she described how the deadly tornado outbreak in Alabama last April had affected many Phillips students.

In a statement, Harvey said he was impressed by the school’s “strong parental and community involvement.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Seal and Heidi Klum have announced that their storybook marriage is coming to the end.

In a statement Sunday night, the power couple announced their separation after rumors swirled over the weekend that a divorce was imminent.

“While we have enjoyed seven very loving, loyal and happy years of marriage, after much soul-searching we have decided to separate,” the joint statement read. “We have had the deepest respect for one another throughout our relationship and continue to love each other very much, but we have grown apart.

This is an amicable process, and protecting the well-being of our children remains our top priority, especially during this time of transition. We thank our family, friends and fans for their kind words of sup-

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File

Going their separate ways: In a statement Sunday, Heidi Klum, left, and Seal announced that, after "much soul-searching," they've decided to separate. They blame the breakup on "growing apart." The couple married in 2005 and have four children. port. And for our children's sake, we appreciate you respecting our privacy.”

The couple married in 2005 and has four children together, including the supermodel’s daughter from a

previous relationship.

They were one of Hollywood’s most high-profile couples and seemed to have the relationship everyone should envy. They two See SEAL, HEIDI KLUM, page 13

Thursday, January 26, 2012

13

Tracy Morgan of Actress Keke Palmer grows up ‘30 Rock’ released with ‘Joyful Noise’ from hospital 'BY ALICIA RANCILIO | ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — Keke Palmer became a star with her Nickelodeon show “True Jackson, VP,” which aired for three seasons and made her one of the highest-paid child actors on television. Instead of sticking with the show, though, she decided it was a good time to end it around her 18th birthday last August.

“I was approaching 18 and it’s just like I don’t want to be a grown woman on the show,” said Palmer in a recent interview. “I want my fans to grow with me. I don't want to stay stagnant and that’s what it pretty much came down to. You know, I’m growing up and I wanted to grow with my audience. Not for them to watch me and I’m left behind and just a memory from their childhood.”

Palmer shows she’s growing up with the film “Joyful Noise,” starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton. It’s about a small-town church choir that faces being shut down by budget cuts.

She plays Latifah’s teenage daughter Olivia, who falls for Dolly Parton’s character’s grandson, played by Jeremy Jordan.

In the film, Palmer has her first make-out scene, which she admits made her nervous.

“It’s not some Nickelodeon or Disney channel (romance) — it’s like the real deal!” said Palmer about kissing Jordan.

“The kissing scene I would say was the scariest thing for me.”

She joked about how she had to tell her dad to leave the room during filming.

“I’m like, ‘Dad, doesn’t this freak you out too, watching me do an on screen make out?’ ” she laughed.

“Joyful Noise” is now in theaters. It currently ranks No.

AP Photo/Carlo Allegri

All grown up: Actress Keke Palmer has graduated from her Nickelodeon show to a star turn in "Joyful Noise" with Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton. The young talent also shows off her singing skills in the film.

7 at the box office. The album's soundtrack also is No. 7 on the iTunes charts.

Palmer said she wants to continue showcasing her singing, acting and maybe host a talk show one day.

“Someday I would really love to do a talk show. That’s something I’ve always been interested in. I like to talk, and I love to help people.”

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

Shaken up: Actor Tracy Morgan collapsed at the Sundance Film Festival.

BY RYAN PEARSON | ASSOCIATED PRESS PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Comedian and “30 Rock” cast member Tracy Morgan has been released from the hospital after a collapse during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Publicist Lewis Kay confirms Morgan has left the Park City Medical Center after he suffered from “a combination of exhaustion

and altitude” on Sunday. Park City’s elevation is 7,000 feet.

Morgan was escorted from the Creative Coalition Spotlight Awards ceremony Sunday night at the festival.

Morgan posted a comment Monday on Twitter that the high altitude “shook up this kid from Brooklyn.”

He also says he’ll be back to work Tuesday on “30 Rock.”

SEAL, HEIDI KLUM Continued from page 12 starred together in the music video “Secret,” they renewed their wedding vows each anniversary, boasted of their love in the media and threw Halloween bashes together where they dressed in outrageous outfits, most recently last year in New York City, where the two engaged in their typical public display of affection for the cameras.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2007, the “Kiss from A Rose” singer described his wife, who has a tattoo of his name on her arm, as his best friend.

“It is really important that we have that understanding because apart from anything else it is really

healthy,” he said of the “Project Runway” host. “People often talk about the most important thing in a relationship. They say it is really important that you are turned on by your partner and you love each other, which is all really true. I often think that the most important thing, or certainly up there, with love is respect.”

TMZ first reported on Saturday that the two planned to divorce this week.

His announcement comes as he releases his new album, “Soul 2,” on Tuesday, which has songs like “Love T.K.O,” “Let’s Stay Together” and “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.”

UNIVERSAL PICTURES PRESENTS AN ANONYMOUS CONTENT/WORKING TITLE PRODUCTION A KEN KWAPIS FILM MUSIC DREW BARRYMORE JOHN KRASINSKI “BIG MIRACLE” KRISTEN BELL PRODUCED DERMOT MULRONEY TIM BLAKE NELSON VINESSA SHAW AND TED DANSON

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14

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Man pleads no contest to stalking Halle Berry LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man accused of scaling the fence of Halle Berry’s house will remain in jail after pleading no contest to stalking the Oscar-winning actress.

Deputy District Attorney Wendy Segall says Richard A. Franco was sentenced to serve 386 days in county jail Thursday, but he has already served half the term.

The 28-year-old was also placed on five years' probation, a year of psychological counseling and ordered to stay away from the actress for the next decade.

Franco was arrested outside Berry’s home in July after repeatedly coming onto her property. In one instance, the actress stated in a sworn declaration that Franco attempted to enter her kitchen, but she was able to lock the door before he got inside.

A burglary charge filed against Franco was dropped.

Rap group 2 Live Crew to reunite, tour this summer

BY SANDY COHEN | ASSOCIATED PRESS

AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file

A terrifying ordeal: Actress Halle Berry’s alleged stalker, Richard A. Franco, 28, pleaded no contest last Thursday in Los Angeles to her charges. He received a jail sentence, probation and was ordered to stay away from the Oscar-winner for 10 years.

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The rap group that created controversy in the early 1990s with songs like "Me So Horny" is reuniting and hitting the road.

Luther Campbell said Saturday that 2 Live Crew is back together and will tour this summer.

The rapper and producer made the announcement at the Sundance Film Festival, where he is promoting his appearance in the short film "The Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke."

The 51-year-old entertainer describes the offbeat film as "an art piece" that he did to help young filmmakers who were inspired by his hip-hop work. But his mind was on getting back with the old crew.

"I just can't wait to just start practicing," he said. "That's going to be a blast."

So will they be "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" (the title of the group's 1989 album that a judge deemed obscene, a ruling later overturned by the United States Court of Appeals)?

Not really, Campbell said.

"We're going to perform the songs and everybody's going to be excited," he said. "Some of the older people of our generation will be able to tell their kids, 'You're staying home tonight, we're going to see 2 Live Crew and shake our booty!'"

LL Cool J to host Grammys; first host in 7 years Oprah confident Obama

Katy Winn/AP Images for Fender Music Lodge

In this photo taken by AP Images for Fender Music Lodge, Luther Campbell is seen at the Fender Music Lodge during the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012 in Park City, Utah.

will win re-election

AP Photo/Danny Moloshok

Rapper turned actor LL Cool J, right (here with actor Chris Tucker at a Lakers game), promises a “great night” as this year’s Grammy host.

NEW YORK (AP) — After seven years with a no-host format, the Grammys will have an emcee — LL Cool J. The Grammy-winning rapper and actor says the Feb. 12 broadcast is “gonna be a great night” and adds his hosting duties are a dream come true.

The Recording Academy has already named some performers — the Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars and Jason Aldean.

It will be LL Cool J’s first time hosting the Grammys. He has hosted the live Grammy nominations concert since it began in 2008.

The Grammys will be broadcast on CBS from Los Angeles. The rap legend is a star on the network’s “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

The last host of the Grammys was Queen Latifah.

JAIPUR, India (AP) — Oprah Winfrey says she is confident that President Barack Obama will win another fouryear term in this year’s U.S. election.

The talk show host was addressing a literary festival Sunday in the northwestern Indian town of Jaipur.

Winfrey praised Obama’s handling of the presidency.

She said his next four years would be even more successful, with people able to get back to work.

Winfrey backed Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign in her first-ever political endorsement.

She was among the biggest crowd pullers at the annual Jaipur Literary Festival, which brings together top writers, poets and critics and around 50,000 literary fans from around the world.

Winfrey has been in India AP Photo/Manish Swarup for a week filming programs for her new TV network, Oprah takes India: Talk show host Oprah Winfrey, on a recent trip there, predicts an OWN. Obama win in November.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

15

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SUPER BOWL SEATING Continued from page 11 face value of the ticket ($2,400) and a ticket to Indy’s first Super Bowl; a game ticket to any future Super Bowl with airfare and four nights in a hotel room covered by the league; a check for $5,000; or a check for more money if they could document expenses topping $5,000.

McCarthy said fans had until Monday, after the two league championship games were completed, to decide. He did not yet have a number of how many fans asked for tickets to the Giants-Patriots game.

When the Indianapolis host committee sold NFL owners on the game, they estimated the stadium could be expanded to a capacity of 70,000.

After last year, the league took a more cautious approach and in March settled on the rough number of 68,000.

“It played a role,” McCarthy said.

Still to be decided is the actual capacity. That won’t be announced until late next week, which McCarthy said is customary.

The 254 seats were already in place Monday night when CBS filmed its annual show “The Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials,” hosted by

NOTICE TO ALL FORMER RESIDENTS AND PARTICIPANTS IN THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES (HACLA)

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) maintains a database of debts owed to Public Housing Agencies or Section 8 landlords and adverse information of former participants who have voluntarily or involuntarily terminated participation HUD rental assistance programs. This information is maintained within HUD’s Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system, which is used and updated by the HACLA. HUD requires the HACLA to report certain information at the end of a household’s participation in a HUD rental assistance program. HACLA is required to report the following: 1. Amount of any balance you owe the HACLA or Section 8 landlord and whether or not you have entered into a repayment agreement for the amount that you owe; and 2. Whether or not you have defaulted on a repayment agreement or if the HACLA has obtained a judgment against you; and 3. Whether or not you have filed for bankruptcy; and 4. The negative reason(s) for your end of participation (i.e. abandoned unit, fraud, lease violations, criminal activity, etc.).

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Last year, the seats were being installed right up until the last moment, with carpenters hammering away as fans arrived for the big game.

But McCarthy said the league has taken every measure possible to guard against another problem.

“Our fans expect a world-class experience from the NFL and we look to deliver that,” McCarthy said. “And there are things we have done to improve.”

One key change this year will be the addition of a new mobile phone application to receive real-time information on everything from weather to the waiting times at stadium gates.

The application includes a map of Lucas Oil Stadium and downtown Indy as well as a full event schedule on game day and the week leading up to the game as well information on restaurants and nightlife.

PARDONS Continued from page 5 mansion trusty in March 2001. When Musgrove left office in 2004, he had Harper released on a suspended sentence — meaning he was still on parole and didn’t have the conviction wiped from his record.

Barbour’s pardon could cut Harper loose from parole. If it stands.

Attorney General Jim Hood, the lone Democrat in statewide office, has pledged to fight dozens of the pardons, saying many people they benefited didn’t publish the notifications in local newspapers every day for a month as required for pardons.

It was the pardon of five governor's mansion trusties sentenced to life — four for killings and the other for robbery — which got the most attention. One had shot his estranged wife in the head while she held their young baby, and then shot and wounded her

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Hood said only 25 of the 198 people granted full pardons published the proper notifications, including Lowery, though about 10 others are still being reviewed. Ailes and Harper did not.

But Parole Board Chairwoman Shannon Warnock told the AP Ailes and others got vague instructions.

Some were led to believe they could

No Job too Big for God www.deathbymedication.com www.dorway.com Good Health Is Up to You publish once a week for a month — not every day as constitutionally required.

On Monday, a judge will decide whether the pardons can stand, though the ruling can be appealed.

Thinking back to that day on the porch, smiling in the warm sun and celebrating his good fortune, Ailes felt betrayed when he learned his pardon could be erased.

“That’s a crock,” Ailes said. “I guess that’s the way they do a veteran.

I did everything they told me to do.”

16

Thursday, January 26, 2012

James’ passion, great range remembered

BY NEKESA MUMBI MOODY | ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK (AP) — On her last album “The Dreamer,” released just three months before her death, Etta James sings a mix of covers — from the R&B classic “Misty Blue” to the Ray Charles song “In the Evening.”

But perhaps the most curious tune included on the disc may be the Guns N’ Roses staple “Welcome to the Jungle.”

That a 73-year-old icon of rhythm and blues would tackle the frenetic rock song — albeit in a pace more fitting her blues roots — might seem odd. But the song may be the best representation of James as both a singer and a person — rambunctious in spirit, with the ability to sing whatever was thrown at her, whether it was jazz, blues, pining R&B or a song from one of the rowdiest bands in rock.

“She was able to dig so deep in kind of such a raw and unguarded place when she sang, and that's the power of gospel and blues and rhythm and blues. She brought that

to all those beautiful standards and rocks songs that she did. All the number of vast albums she recorded, she covered such a wide variety of material that brought such unique phrasing and emotional depth,” said Bonnie Raitt, a close friend, in an interview on Friday afternoon after James’ death.

“I think that’s what appealed to people, aside from the fact that her personality on and off the stage was so huge and irrepressible. She was ribald and raunchy and dignified, classy and strong and vulnerable all at the same time, which is what us as women really relate to.”

James, whose signature song was the sweeping, jazz-tinged torch song “At Last,” died in Riverside, Calif., from complications of leukemia. Her death came after she struggled with dementia and other health problems, health issues that kept her from performing for the last two or so years of her life.

It was a life full of struggles. Her mother was immersed in a criminal life and left her to be raised by friends, she never knew her true father (though she believed it was

billiards great Minnesota Fats) and she had her own troubles, which included a decades-long addiction to drugs, turbulent relationships, brushes with the law and other tribulations.

One might think all of those problems would have weighed down James' spirit, and her voice, layering it with sadness, or despair. While she certainly could channel depression, anger and sorrow in song, her voice was defined by its fiery passion: Far from beaten down, James embodied the fight of a woman who managed to claw her way back from the brink, again and again.

It’s an attitude that influenced her look as well. Despite the conservative era, she dyed her hair platinum blonde, sending out the signal that she was far from demure, and owning a brassy, sassy attitude. She relished her role as saucy singer, a persona that she celebrated in her private life as well.

“In terms of 1950s rhythm and blues stars, she had kind of a gutsy attitude and she went out there and did what she did, and she was kind of bold ... and it had a huge influAP Photo/Jeff Christensen

A life well lived: Etta James, the feisty R&B singer whose raw, passionate vocals anchored many hits and made the yearning ballad "At Last" an enduring anthem for weddings, commercials and even the inauguration celebration for President Barack Obama, died Friday. She was 73. ence,” said David Ritz, the coauthor of her autobiography “Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story.”

“I think her gutsiness and her lack of fear and just her courage (made her special). ... I believe that made her important and memorable.”

Beyonce, who played James in the movie “Cadillac Records” about Chess Records, also spoke about her influence on other singers.

“I feel like Etta James, first of all, was the first Black woman I saw with platinum, blonde hair. She wore her leopard and she wore her sexy silhouette and she didn’t care.

She was strong and confident and always Etta James,” said Beyonce in a 2008 interview.

James could often be irascible.

Ritz remembers when he was working with her on her autobiography, touring with her around the country, that one time he approached her with his tape recorder and she barked: “If see that tape recorder again, I’m going to cram it up your (expletive).”

But at other times, she’d be effusive and warm and anxious to talk.

“Once she did talk, she was always candid and unguarded. She was a free spirit,” Ritz said.

While Ritz put her in the category of other greats like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, she never enjoyed their mainstream success. Though “At Last” has become an enduring classic, there

were times when James had to scrounge for work and, while she won Grammys and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she did not have the riches, the multitude of platinum records or the hits that some of her peers enjoyed.

“She at least enjoyed a great resurgence like John Lee Hooker did and B.B. King, (and) has had some great decades of appreciation from new generations around the world,” said Raitt. “There’s no one like her. No one will ever replace Etta.”

And Ritz said the lack of commercial success does nothing to diminish her greatness, or her legacy.

“Marvin certain knew it and Ray knew it ... the people who know that she was in that category,” he said.

“Whatever the marketplace did or didn’t do or whether her lack of career management didn’t do, it has nothing to do with her talent.”

And on Friday, the Queen of Soul was among those who paid tribute to James greatness, calling her “one of the great soul singers of our generation. An American original!”

“I loved ‘Pushover,’ ‘At Last’ and almost any and everything she recorded! When Etta SUNG, you heard it!”

AP Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott and AP Writer Mesfin Fekadu contributed to this report.