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Mr Wijat recommends Barrister Marie-Clire Bleasdale from radcliffe Chambers
Mr Wijat says Marie is one hell of a Hot Barrister!!

Marie's Motto for her clients is Win at All Costs and take no prisoners....
Marie is not Cheap but i you want the best in the Lodon legal scene this Marie is your girl...

Bazza Kandler from the famous London legal firm Nathan Bude Iwaner  will not use anyone else by Marie Claire Bleasdale

Marie Claire Bleasdale has been instructed by Bude Nathan Iwanier to represent their client Nathan Tielbaum and his Fineland Investment Group of Companies in the now quite famous Fineland Investments Limited v Janice Pritchard case beingv heard in the London  High Court of Justice- Chancery Division in Fetta Lane, London. Barrister Marie- Claire Bleasdale has wone very hearing so ar against Janice Pritchrad and elderly Invalid Pensioner.

Janice Pritchard  has been representing herself for about seven years against Nathan Tielbaum and his Fineland Investment Group of Companies who employed top london legal firms Ingram Winter Green and Bude Nathan Iwaner to take on the seasoned litigant and justice campaigher Janice Pritchard.

However it was not until they brough in  barrister Marie-Cl;aire Bleasdale, that Ingram Winter Green and Bude Nathan Iwaner started kicking goals and winning every hearing against elderly invalid Janice Pritchard including a trial beforer Acting Deputy Judge Alison Foster QC where barrister Marie-Claire Bleasdlae was able to obtain all the orders she sought for her client Fineland Investments and her instructing solicitor Bazza Kandler and his powerful legel firm Bude Nathan Iwaner at a hearing where Vivian Pritchard was too sich too attend.

Janice Pritchard says she is determined to fight on, having lost a hotly contested application on the 8th and 9th November, 2011 before Norris J to have her application to set aside the orders of Acting Deputy Judge Alison Foster QC made on the 31st January, 2011 in HC06C002639, and has now taken her case to the court of appeal.

 In an exclusing interview with Janice Pritchared, the INL News Legal, Investigative and Editorial Team were told..' I will take my case to the Suoreme Court and if that fails... I will take my case ot the International Court of Justice..." says Janice Pritchard.

This looks like being one of barrister Maire-Claire Bleasdale's most long running and interterestingt cases which is sure to put barrister Marie Claire Bleasdale and Radcliffe Chambers in the international spot light, with a case that is destined to be one of the most famours legal cases testing the law on possesion and ownership of property to the highest levels.
 
Barrister Marie-Clair Bleasdale has alos recently takwen on a new high profile case being a dispute iove ra family farm in Gloucester where it is alleged that very powerful legal firms have bene involved with using an unwitnessed will in 1990 to obtain a worngful grant of probate asw part of a criminal conspircy to defraud an aged pensioner of her lawful rights to the famioly farm, which has the potential to be turned into an over 20 million pound luxury property development. The case is really hotting up with allegations that Owen Rhys, acting as Adjudicator for HM Land Registry has acted in a wrongful and corruot way to help these set of powerful solcitors and investors obtain an order that their investment partner sshoul obtain the title deed of the property. The aged pensioner who is about to lose her family fram threatened Owen Rhys, acting as Adjudicator for HM Land Registry with reporting him and what she alleges is a corrupt group of legal people and investors acting in a criminal conspircy to steal her4 family farj that was left to her by her late father.

This will be another interesting one for barrister Marie Bleasdale who is know as the best property dipute barrister in London....
Barrister Marie-Claire Bleasdale

Radcliffe Chambers
11 New Square,  Lincoln's Inn, London, WC2A 3QB
Tel: 020 7831 0081

EmaiL:"Marie-Claire Bleasdale" <MCBleasdale@radcliffechambers.com>,
clerks@radcliffechambers.com
Marie-Claire was appointed a Recorder assigned to the South Eastern circuit on
23rd October 2009 and will be sitting as a Judge in the Crown Court for 5 weeks a year....

Year of Call:
1993
Real Estate Litigation section, Chambers Guide 2012; "Marie-Claire Bleasdale 'always displays superb energy and commitment and relates excellently to clients,' say observers. Her recent work has included Milwaukee Estates v Regent Inns, an application for permission to forfeit a lease vested in a company in administration".

Real Estate Litigation section, Chambers Guide 2011: "Marie-Claire Bleasdale impresses the market with her expertise in Party Wall Act appeals, easements and adverse possession matters."

Marie-Claire�s practice includes a wide range of contentious and non contentious Chancery work although she particularly specialises in property, probate and trust disputes. She is consistently recommended by The Legal 500. The most current edition notes that she "is a safe pair of hands and an excellent team player".

The focus of her practice is advocacy in court, in particular the conduct of witness actions and she has recently acted in a number of lengthy witness actions including:

Matthews-Donaldson v Whibley & Ors a 10 day constructive trust/proprietary estoppel dispute in the Brighton County Court

Trotman v Higgins Sheppard Stewart Ltd, Ozel v Trotman a 4 day right of way disputed in the Guildford County Court

Daejan Investments Ltd v Rahman a 4 day service charge dispute in the Leasehold Valuation tribunal

She has developed a reputation as a tenacious advocate and is praised by clients both for the effort and commitment she puts into all her cases and for the importance she attaches to communicating well with clients at every stage of her case.

Marie-Claire was appointed a Recorder assigned to the South Eastern circuit on 23rd October 2009 and will be sitting as a Judge in the Crown Court for 5 weeks a year.

For more details on Marie-Claire�s expertise in particular fields of law please click on the grey icons to the right of the screen.


Reported cases

Odey v Barber [2008] 2 WLR 617

Manu v Euroview [2008] I EGLR 165

Beanby Estates Limited v Egg Stores (Stamford Hill) Limited [2003] 1WLR 2064

Church in Wales v Newton & Ors [2005] EWHC 631 (QB), (2005) 16 EG 145 (CS)

News

Radcliffe Chambers recognised as leading client service set


23-08-2010

Radcliffe Chambers has been shortlisted as one of five sets in the client service category of the Chambers Bar Awards, having won the award in 2007 soon after the set was established in June 2006. The achievements of individual members have also been recognised in recent years at The Lawyer Awards, the Hot 100 and the STEP Private Client Awards and we are one of Chambers' Top Ranked Sets.

Radcliffe Chambers is committed to client care; the latest edition of the Legal 500 comments that we provide "what all solicitors want from a set of chambers: good value, good advice and good service".

In addition to the emphasis placed by individual members of chambers on client service matters, we have a team of six clerks led by Keith Nagle and John Clark who have worked at chambers for 34 and 19 years respectively. They are ably supported by deputies Robert Barrow and Justin Allen.

In addition Catherine Calder, our Director of Client Care and formerly a practising solicitor, has worked in chambers since 1999 to ensure that we meet the particular needs of instructing solicitors and their clients. She is assisted by James Pryor who was recruited last year from a leading firm of city solicitors.

Please do contact either Keith, John or Catherine if there is any assistance or information we can provide.
Radcliffe Chambers receives 41 recommendations in new edition of Chambers Directory


03-08-2010

Radcliffe Chambers barristers have secured 41 recommendations as Leaders at the Bar across ten core chancery and commercial sections in the forthcoming edition of Chambers, which is to be published in the Autumn.

The rankings are as follows:

Banking & Finance - Malcolm Waters QC

Chancery: Commercial - Keith Rowley QC, Ulick Staunton, Kate Selway

Chancery: Traditional - Peter Crampin QC, Keith Rowley QC, Robert Pearce QC, Hedley Marten, Francesca Quint, Gordon Nurse, Grant Crawford, Elizabeth Ovey, Thomas Dumont, Piers Feltham, Mark West, Roger Mullis, Kate Selway, William Moffett

Charities - Peter Crampin QC, Robert Pearce QC, Francesca Quint, Thomas Dumont, Mark Mullen, Joshua Winfield, Josh Lewison

Commercial Dispute Resolution - Keith Rowley QC

Consumer Law - Malcolm Waters QC, Elizabeth Ovey, Mark Fell

Pensions - Keith Rowley QC, Elizabeth Ovey

Planning - Robert Lewis

Professional Negligence - Keith Rowley QC, Thomas Dumont

Real Estate Litigation - Peter Crampin QC, Keith Rowley QC, Robert Pearce QC, Simon Williams, Mark West, Marie-Claire Bleasdale, Kate Selway,

THE SET Radcliffe Chambers is a "supremely user-friendly set" with reasonable charging rates and "barristers who are courteous and responsive." It is also blessed with clerks of high quality.
SILKS Robert Pearce QC acts on real property and landlord and tenant matters, including leasehold enfranchisement, business and agricultural tenancies, easements and covenants. His recent work has included advising an Oxford college on chancel repair liability and associated land registration issues. Peter Crampin QC has a very wide-ranging practice that encompasses advisory, litigation and mediation work. His recent caseload has included Favor Easy Management Ltd v Wu, a dispute over alleged gifts of a hotel and adjacent property. He also has a strong property practice abroad, and recently advised on a case concerning adverse possession in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Keith Rowley QC acts on land law, adverse possession, trusts and property-related professional negligence as part of a wide practice that includes many chancery areas.
JUNIORS Marie-Claire Bleasdale "always displays superb energy and commitment and relates excellently to clients," say observers. Her recent work has included Milwaukee Estates v Regent Inns, an application for permission to forfeit a lease vested in a company in administration. Kate Selway "is very bright, punchy, and doesn't sit on the fence. She is a delight to work with." Her current caseload includes a great deal of work for the Chief Land Registrar, and she also carries out litigation for the Serious Organised Crime Agency, recovering property from criminals. Mark West "is good to instruct on tricky cases." His recent work includes acting in relation to guarantee obligations at the Shard of Glass development on the South Bank, and advising on the registration of title to minerals in Cumbria. Simon Williams practises in all aspects of commercial and residential property litigation, including professional negligence matters. He recently acted in Joyce v Bowman Law, a case heard in the High Court which concerned determination of the causation and computation of damages in a claim against negligent conveyancers.

Company and commercial

Members of Radcliffe Chambers provide advice and representation on a wide range of company and commercial matters.

In the company law context these include: creation, management, amalgation and dissolution; directors� duties and disqualification; mergers and acquisitions; shareholder and board room disputes; tracing and recovery of corporate assets and all aspects of insolvency.

Our commercial expertise includes: the law of agency; enforcement of restrictive covenants; freezing injunctions and search orders; intellectual property; partnerships; sale and supply of goods and services; securities and guarantees; use of confidential information and contractual disputes generally.

Professional negligence

Suing professionals has been one of the fastest-developing areas of the law in recent years.

We have been at the forefront of this development, especially in claims against solicitors, barristers, accountants and surveyors. We also have experience in claims involving other professionals, such as insurance brokers and other financial advisers.

Members act, as the cab rank rule requires, for claimaints or defendants. However, some members are unable to act against certain insurers.

Members bring a sharper and more expert analysis to such claims because they practise in the underlying areas. Experience shows that this results in a faster and more successful outcome - whether by way of settlement, mediation or litigation. Insurers have found that early use of members to advise has paid dividends.

Property

"Radcliffe Chambers is a 'supremely user-friendly set' with reasonable charging rates and 'barristers who are courteous and responsive.' It is also blessed with clerks of high quality." Chambers and Partners 2012 - Real Estate Litigation section

Property law is a core area of practice for most members of Chambers.

We advise and represent clients on contentious and non-contentious property matters of all kinds, including:-

� freehold and leasehold registered and unregistered conveyancing
� land development
� easements
� restrictive covenants
� mortgages and other securities
� overage agreements
� adverse possession
� boundary disputes
� mines and minerals.

We also provide knowledgeable and practical help to clients in all areas of landlord and tenant law, including:-

� business tenancies
� rent reviews
� agricultural holdings
� residential tenancies
� housing law
� leasehold enfranchisement
� the right to buy.

Trusts and estates

"This classic chancery set plays host to a number of talented and distinguished barristers. Among the set's many strengths are the breadth and depth of real property, tax, trusts and estates expertise, not to mention its fine charities and Court of Protection practices." Chambers and Partners 2012 - Traditional Chancery section

Much of the work of the members involves advising, and litigating on behalf of, beneficiaries or trustees of family settlements or legatees or personal representatives of the estates of deceased persons.

Such work regularly extends to advising on:

� the interpretation and effect of declarations of trust and wills
� domicile
� the appointment, retirement and removal of trustees
� trustees' powers of appointment, maintenance, advancement and investment
� the appointment of trust funds
� varying trusts
� rectification
� tracing assets.

Members also work in those jurisdictions outside England and Wales where trusts are recognised.

Some members who specialise in this practice area also advise on associated tax matters.

Members also have wide experience of contentious and non-contentious probate matters (including questions of testamentary capacity, undue influence and want of knowledge and approval), of the law of intestacy and proprietary estoppel and in applications under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.

Advice is also given on Stamp Duty Land Tax and VAT on property transactions.
Other Practioners at Radcliffe Chambers
The Members of Radcliffe Chambers are:



barrister profile

Radcliffe Chambers

Ground Floor, 11 New Square
Lincoln's Inn
London
WC2A 3QB
Telephone:
020 7831 0081
Position:
Recorder
Date of Call:
Oct 1993
Inn of Court:
Lincoln's Inn
Qualifications:
MA (Cantab) DipLaw (Lond)
Public access work undertaken
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/lawreports/2476350/JOHNSON-v-LUXCOOL-LTD.html

JOHNSON v LUXCOOL LTD

Queen’s Bench Division HHJ Richard Seymour QC July 15, 2008

Aggravated damages - Bare licences - Damage to goods - Damage to property - Occupation - Trespassers - Occupation of premises amounting to bare licence - Validity of claims for damages - Property damage following eviction from premises - Unreliable evidence
FACTS
The claimant club owner (J) claimed damages, including aggravated or exemplary damages, as a result of damage done to the structures of premises and damage to goods belonging to her following her eviction from the premises by the third defendant property owner (H). J had occupied parts of properties including the rear of two properties previously owned by the first defendant and subsequently transferred to H. J ran a social club from the premises and alleged that her occupation was pursuant to a weekly tenancy. The environmental health department and police evicted J on the basis that H had taken possession of the premises. H later removed the roof. J maintained that goods under the roof that belonged to her had been damaged beyond repair or destroyed. She also stated that she had spent large sums fitting out the structures of the premises before her eviction and so was entitled to compensation for the loss of value of the works or the cost of repairing the structures.
ISSUES
Whether goods under the roof that belonged to her had been damaged beyond repair or destroyed.
HELD (claim struck out)
(1) On the evidence, J had not had any sort of tenancy of any part of the premises, but was simply a trespasser or a bare licensee. Consequently, J’s claims were rejected insofar as they depended on her having a tenancy.
(2) J’s evidence on any disputed matter could not be relied on. There was no clear evidence that damage had been caused to goods allegedly belonging to J as a result of the removal of the roof.
Michael Collard (instructed by AKAL, Ilford) for the claimant. Evan Price (instructed by Johns & Saggar) for the first and third defendants. Marie-Claire Bleasdale (instructed by Bude Nathan Iwanier) for the second defendant.



Australian Comedian- Peter Moon on the come back trail click here to find out more about this wacky character

http://inlnews.com/PeterMoon_AussieComedian.html 


Di Bliss and Alan Bond on their wedding day in 1995.

Police confirm Alan Bond's wife dead




WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at the High Court in London December 5, 2011. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth 

Assange to appeal extradition to UK's top court

LONDON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will appeal to Britain's Supreme Court Wednesday not to extradite him to Sweden over accusations of sex crimes, a move that could push his anti-secrecy website further toward oblivion.
Australian-born Assange, 40, became a worldwide celebrity and infuriated the U.S. government in 2010 when WikiLeaks released secret video footage and thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since then, the scoops have dried up and WikiLeaks has faded from the news headlines, starved of cash by major credit card companies that are refusing to process online donations to it, and bogged down by Assange's protracted legal troubles.
A charismatic but temperamental figure, Assange was detained in Britain in December 2010 on a European arrest warrant issued by a Swedish prosecutor after two female former WikiLeaks volunteers accused him of sexual assault.
His lawyers argue that the warrant is invalid because it was issued by a prosecutor rather than a neutral judge or court.
If the Supreme Court rejects the argument, he may take his case to the European Court of Human Rights but it is unclear whether that would stop his extradition to Sweden.
The Supreme Court hearings will last two days and the court is expected to announce its decision some weeks later.
ASSANGE ON "THE SIMPSONS"
Assange denies any wrongdoing and has said that the sex accusations, which surfaced at the height of the international furore over WikiLeaks, were an attempt to silence him.
He is convinced that U.S. authorities are looking for a way to go after him in retaliation for WikiLeaks' revelations.
Washington is divided over Assange, with some officials calling for tough action against him to deter would-be leakers and others saying a prosecution would be legally problematic and would give him a boost when he appears headed for irrelevance.
Bradley Manning, a U.S. army intelligence analyst suspected of passing thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, is facing a court-martial on 22 charges including aiding the enemy and wrongfully causing intelligence to be published online.
Meanwhile, Assange has been holed up under house arrest for over a year, mostly at the English country mansion of a wealthy supporter.
He has made some unexpected career moves, including a guest appearance in an episode of the satirical U.S. animated series "The Simpsons" due to be aired on February 19 [ID:nL4E8CU791].
In another TV first, Kremlin-funded station Russia Today announced last week that it had hired Assange to host a political talk show called "The World Tomorrow.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)



Deadly European cold snap spreads

By Anne-Christine Poujoulat | AFP 
A cold snap that killed 30 people in Ukraine over the past five days spread Tuesday to swathes of eastern and central Europe with record lows in Bulgaria and heavy snow in Switzerland and parts of Italy.
Emergency services in Ukraine said most of the dead were homeless people who froze to death on the streets, four were found in their homes, and more than 600 people sought medical help for frostbite and hypothermia.
Authorities opened 1,590 shelters to provide food and heat and were planning to set up 150 more as temperatures plunged to minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit) in some regions.
Police in Poland reported five new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the overall toll for January to 27 as overnight temperatures dipped to minus 30 Celsius.
In Vilnius, the capital of neighbouring Lithuania, one homeless man was found dead Tuesday, bringing the death toll there to eight since Saturday.
In the Czech Republic, a woman was found frozen to death in a garden shed in the capital Prague, police said.
In the Balkans, a 72-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman were found dead of cold in central and southern Serbia respectively, where the temperatures have fallen to minus 33 degrees Celsius, private B92 television reported.
Since Sunday, three people have died in Serbia and one in neighbouring Macedonia.
Meanwhile, two died in Romania, raising the death toll to eight since Thursday, the health ministry said.
Temperatures plunged to minus 29 degrees Celsius in central Romania on Monday night, sending gas consumption to a record high and forcing a huge increase in gas imports, an official said.
"In Bucharest and across the country, consumption has reached a historic high," from 57 million cubic metres per day earlier this month to 69 million on Monday, economy ministry official Claudiu Stafie told a press conference.
Stafie said imports have risen day after day and were expected to stand at 17.5 million cubic metres Tuesday and hit 20 million on Wednesday.
Neighbouring Bulgaria reported record lows and the Danube started to freeze over, threatening shipping.
Eighteen towns, including the capital Sofia, recorded their coldest January 31 since records started 100 years ago, with the mercury dropping as low as minus 29 degrees Celsius in Kneja, in the northeast, according to the national weather service.
In Switzerland, some 10 centimetres (four inches) of snow fell Tuesday morning, hampering flights, and the weather service predicted temperatures would drop to minus 15 Celsius in the ski resorts of Saint-Moritz and Sils-Maria.
The cold wave began enveloping central and northern Italy on Tuesday, as emergency services braced for the most severe week in 27 years and motorways prepared for traffic disruptions.
Travellers were being advised to postpone long journeys as snow began to blanket the Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany regions and the motorways agency said heavy trucks would likely be forced to suspend trips.
Schools and universities have been shut in the northwestern port of Genoa and snow ploughs are on alert at the airport of central Bologna, where the local civil protection agency has declared a state of alert until Thursday.











Kasturi Indian Restaurant ,
 35-37 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh, EH2 4RG. t: 0131 228 2441
|
e: bookings@kasturi-ed.co.uk
 Kasturi Indian Restaurant 
The best place to eat in Edinburgh


Special Offers

 

Our special offers are running daily and seasonly, please come back and check regularly.

4 Course Business Lunch only £7.95

including Rice and Side Dish

Pint & Pakora £4.49

2.30pm-5.00pm Happy Afternoon Snacks

10% Student Discount

collect order with valid student I.D.


Kasturi Indian Gourmet Restaurant 

www.kasturi-ed.co.uk/about.html
Located in the heart of Edinburgh's vibrant West End, Kasturi Indian Restaurant offers a haven for the connoisseur of gourmet Indian Food. Ideal for special ...


http://www.kasturi-ed.co.uk/about.html

"Kasturi was used in exotic perfumes for the Mughal Emperors long ago.
 The combination of the fragrance in the room and a menu of spicy dishes, creates
an atmosphere of complete relaxation and satisfaction in the best tradition of an Indian Gourmet restaurant."


Located in the heart of Edinburgh's vibrant West End, Kasturi Indian Restaurant offers a haven for the connoisseur of gourmet Indian Food. Ideal for special evening occasion, for pre-theatre or for sports celebrations. Tourists particularly welcome. Elegant decor and friendly service will make your visit to Kasturi a culinary experience to remember.

 

Please click here  to view the Kasturi Indian Restaurant  video on YouTube.




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Why flatworms may hold the secret to immortality

Young forever: Flatworms may hold the key to immortality due to their telomeres. Photo: Nottingham University
By Gaby Leslie

British scientists believe they may have identified how humans could potentially live forever - and it’s all about flatworms

Experts at Nottingham University have been examining how two species of flatworms are able to regenerate themselves again and again – raising hopes that scientists could find ways of alleviating the effects of ageing in human cells.

Flatworms, known as planarian worms, have long fascinated scientists with their apparently limitless ability to regenerate.
Young forever: Flatworms may hold the key to immortality due to their telomeres. Photo: Nottingham University
During the study 20,000 new and fully-formed flatworms were created from just one original worm by splitting it into tiny pieces.
The research team studied how the flatworms manage to replace aged or damaged tissues and cells in a bid to understand what drives their longevity.

Dr Aziz Aboobaker, who led the study, said: “We’ve been studying two types of planarian worms; those that reproduce sexually, like us, and those that reproduce asexually, simply dividing in two.

“Both appear to regenerate indefinitely by growing new muscles, skin, guts and even entire brains over and over again.


Key to a flatworm’s immortality lays in its telomeres – tiny sections of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes, protecting them from damage and the loss of cell functions linked to ageing.

Each time a cell divides the protective telomere ‘cap’ gets shorter. When they get too short, the cell loses its ability to renew and divide. According to the study an immortal animal would expect cells to be able to maintain telomere length indefinitely so that they could continue to replicate.

Dr Aboobaker predicted that planarian worms actively maintain the ends of their chromosomes in adult stem cells, leading to theoretical immortality.

Speaking about the findings, Dr Aboobaker said: “Our data satisfy one of the predictions about what it would take for an animal to be potentially immortal.

“The next goals for us are to understand the mechanisms in more detail and to understand more about how you evolve an immortal animal.”

The world’s longest living creatures

By Gaby Leslie
Some of the following creatures are known to have dated back further than the Middle Ages making great grandparents seem like youngsters. From the youngest to the immortal, check out our round-up of nine animal species that hold records for their freakishly long life spans.

Jeanne Louise Calment: 122-years-old


The first spot on the list belongs to the world’s longest living person ever. Born on 21 February 1875 and passing away on August 4, 1997, this French woman holds the longest confirmed lifespan in history, living to the grand old age of 122 years 164 days. Outliving both her daughter and only grandson, Madame Calment's genes may have contributed to her longevity since her father lived to 94 and her mother 86. According to several news reports, she is the last person lucky enough have met the artist Vincent Van Gogh, who allegedly visited her father’s fabric shop in 1888.

George the lobster: 140-years-old

A New York restaurant was lucky enough to offer the most mature crustacean ever caught on their menu. At a massive 20lbs and born in 1869 - the same year as leading men, such as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French painter Henri Matisse, giant lobster George was picked up from the icy waters of the Atlantic. Manager of City Crab and Seafood restaurant, who bought George for $100 (£68) said that a lobster’s age can be estimated by weight, with weight increasing by around a pound for every seven to ten years of life. Fortunately for George, after animal rights organisation PETA received a tip-off from punters about the tiny tank it had to live in, PETA managed to persuade the Park Avenue eatery to release George back into the wild.

Geoduck: 160-years-old


Recognised as a large edible saltwater clam with a six-inch-long shell and a neck that extends up to about four feet, geoducks (pronounced ‘gooey’ ducks) are a native species of the Pacific Northwest of the US and coastal areas of British Columbia, Canada. The geoduck market is predominantly based in Asia with an expanding one in the US as the American sushi industry has sparked a rise in domestic demand for the odd-looking seafood delicacy. Burrowed in deep muddy waters, the oldest living geoduck was recorded to be 160-years-old, but on average they live between 140 and 160 when not hunted by predators or eaten by humans. According to scientists, a geoduck's longevity is the result of low wear and tear as they don’t have to do much in order to survive.


Bowhead whale: 211-years-old


Dubbed, the ‘old men of the sea’ by a US reporter, bowhead whales are the oldest mammals on Earth living on average between 100-200 years. One individual whale is documented to have lived to the ripe old age of 211. By tracking changes in amino acids in the lenses of their eyes, scientists are able to determine the approximate ages of bowheads. Biologist Craig George found the key to their long existence. He said: “The bowhead's tough environment - cold water without abundant food available forces it to maintain a great body mass, an effective system for fat storage and an efficient mechanism to keep warm. The stress of living in arctic waters may nurture the whale's pattern of slow growth and long life.” In the past, bowheads have been hunted to near extinction.

Koi fish: 226-years-old

Koi are a domesticated kind of the common carp kept for decoration in artificial rock pools and ponds, there are types which are known to age to more than 200 years. One of the longest living vertebrate ever recorded, ‘Hanako’ translated into English as ‘Flower Maid’ is proof that women do live longer than men. The 15lb female fish from Japan died at the age of 226 in 1977. Born in 1751, 25 years before American independence, her old age could be accounted for by removing one of her scales and examining it extensively, similar to counting rings of a tree.

Tortoises: 255-years-old


Antarctic sponge: 1550-years-old

One specimen of this slow-growing Antarctic Ocean dweller is estimated to be over 1550-years-old. To put it in perspective, the specimen could have been living in 461AD – the same year that on March 17th St Patrick died. Though it may look more like a plant as it is immobile, scientists do class this sponge as a living creature with its lack of exertion and extremely slow growth contributing to its scarily long life span.

Turriptosis Nutricula: Immortal

This remarkable jellyfish-like creature tops our list as the world’s oldest living creature in terms of having no natural limit to its life span. The unique species is considered to be the world’s only biologically immortal animal, according to marine biologists at the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute in Florida.

A native to the warm salt waters of the Caribbean seas, the animal has been spotted far from its home in Spain, Italy, Japan, and the Atlantic side of Panama in recent times as it is thought they are silently invading the oceans by attaching themselves to ballast water tanks of ships. So what is its secret to anti-aging? The tiny transparent sea creature, which is about the size of a fingernail, can regenerate its entire body over and over again through a process called ‘transdifferentiation’ as it is able to turn one type of cell into another.A zookeeper tends to Addwaita, a giant Aldabra tortoise, at the Alipore Zoological Garden in Calcutta, India.

A tortoise’s long life span has been linked to the reptile’s slow metabolic rate. Experts reckon as a general rule, animals with a high metabolic rate die early, and those that burn energy more slowly can live on for decades. Reports in the media are frequently claiming that the world’s oldest tortoise has died – take Harriet and Tu’I Malila for example, who died at 175 and 188-years-old respectively.

But, Adwaita, a tortoise that lived in Bengal is estimated to have been around 255 when it died, making it just a toddler around the time of the American Revolution. Its age was verified by a technique called carbon dating, confirming Adwaita as one of the oldest creatures of modern times. His long life ended when his shell cracked and a wound developed some months before his death from liver failure in March five-years-ago.
[
Quahog: 410-years-old

Another seafood delicacy sets a record in the animal kingdom. In 2007, a specimen of clam was plucked off the coast of Iceland. By drilling through its cockle shell and counting each ring, the Arctica Islandica was claimed to be the longest-living animal species ever recorded by researchers at Bangor University. Nicknamed ‘Ming’ after the Chinese dynasty that ruled when the clam was born and its Siamese-like appearance, the clam was estimated to be aged between 405 and 410-years-old. Unfortunately, poor Ming died as it was being assessed by researchers.

Antarctic sponge: 1550-years-old

One specimen of this slow-growing Antarctic Ocean dweller is estimated to be over 1550-years-old. To put it in perspective, the specimen could have been living in 461AD – the same year that on March 17th St Patrick died. Though it may look more like a plant as it is immobile, scientists do class this sponge as a living creature with its lack of exertion and extremely slow growth contributing to its scarily long life span.




Turriptosis Nutricula: Immortal

This remarkable jellyfish-like creature tops our list as the world’s oldest living creature in terms of having no natural limit to its life span. The unique species is considered to be the world’s only biologically immortal animal, according to marine biologists at the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute in Florida.

A native to the warm salt waters of the Caribbean seas, the animal has been spotted far from its home in Spain, Italy, Japan, and the Atlantic side of Panama in recent times as it is thought they are silently invading the oceans by attaching themselves to ballast water tanks of ships. So what is its secret to anti-aging? The tiny transparent sea creature, which is about the size of a fingernail, can regenerate its entire body over and over again through a process called ‘transdifferentiation’ as it is able to turn one type of cell into another.

 

Katherine Jackson
© Charles Dharapak/AP
Katherine Jackson

More on Wonderwall: Photos of Jackson's final days
http://wonderwall.msn.com/music/The-Last-Photos-of-Michael-Jackson-3342.gallery

Judge backs Michael Jackson lawyer and friend

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=419208>1=28102
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michael Jackson's longtime attorney and a family friend should take over the pop singer's estate, a judge said Monday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff issued his ruling after a court hearing Monday morning. Attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain had been designated in Jackson's 2002 will as the people he wanted to administer his estate.

Jackson died June 25, deeply in debt. But a court filing estimates that his estate will be worth more than $500 million.

The singer's mother, Katherine Jackson, had applied to oversee her son's estate, but that was before the will surfaced. Her attorney, Burt Levitch, expressed concerns about McClain and Branca's financial leadership.

Levitch told Beckloff that Branca had previously been removed from financial positions of authority by Jackson. Branca's attorney says he was rehired by Jackson on June 17, days before Jackson's death.

Katherine Jackson did not appear at Monday's hearing. Branca did attend.

Related: Jackson and mother Katherine had unbreakable bond

Branca and McClain will have to post a $1 million bond on the estate, Beckloff ruled.


Michael Jackson, 1958-2009

 

 


http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9775030/Relative:-Police-suspect-GF-was-McNair-shooter


Sahel Kazemi.
 (The Tennessean / Associated Press)



Steve McNair played 13 NFL seasons.(Chris McGrath / Getty Images)

Relative: Police suspect GF was McNair shooter


Updated: July 6, 2009, 5:30 PM EDT


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - As police continued to investigate the Steve McNair homicide case, a relative of the woman found shot to death next to McNair claims police have told him they are almost sure 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi was the shooter, and that Kazemi purchased a gun in the past week.

Farzin Abdi, Kazemi's nephew, didn't know what day of the week the gun was purchased or what type of gun it was.

Nashville police didn't immediately have a reaction to the Abdi's comments.

"There was no way she was depressed and wanting to do this," Abdi said. "She was so happy. ... She just had it made, you know, (with) this guy taking care of everything."

Abdi said Kazemi believed McNair was divorcing his wife and she was preparing to sell her furniture to move in with him.

Shot twice in the head and two more times in the chest, McNair was the victim of a homicide, police declared Sunday. But authorities wouldn't say it was a murder-suicide — even with Kazemi dead at his feet from a single bullet.

McNair had been dating Saleh Kazemi for several months, and Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said Sunday that a semiautomatic pistol was found under her body. She was shot in the head.

McNair, who was married with four sons, had a permit to carry a handgun in Tennessee, and he was arrested once before with a 9mm weapon although charges in the case were dropped. Police said they had not yet determined who owned the gun found at the scene.

Investigators weren't looking for a suspect but were questioning friends of the couple as well as Kazemi's ex-boyfriend. They were also waiting for results of drug and other laboratory tests before deciding whether McNair was killed in a lovers' quarrel.

"That's a very important part of the investigation as we work to ultimately classify Miss Kazemi's death," Aaron said.

A public memorial and viewings are scheduled later this week for McNair.

The public will have a couple of opportunities to attend viewings in Nashville on Thursday and a memorial will be held later that evening at Mount Zion Baptist Church.

A funeral will be held Saturday in Mississippi but arrangements are not yet final.

Fans are asked to make donations to the Steve McNair Foundation.

The details surfacing after McNair's death stand in stark contrast to the public persona he enjoyed during his career.

McNair repeatedly played through serious injuries and pain to win, though he came up a yard short of forcing overtime on the Tennessee Titans' famous drive to lose the 2000 Super Bowl.

Generous, he frequently took part in charity work for both the Titans and later the Baltimore Ravens after a 2006 trade. McNair even helped load donated food, water and clothes onto tractor-trailers that he had arranged for Hurricane Katrina victims, and paid for three football camps for children himself this year.

McNair and Kazemi were found dead at a Nashville condominium — which overlooks the Titans stadium — that he rented with his friend Wayne Neeley. Police believe both died early Saturday. Neeley found the bodies hours later, and called a friend, Robert Gaddy, who played at Alcorn State with McNair. Gaddy dialed 911.

"People have certain things that they do in life," Gaddy said. "We don't need to look on the situation at this time (but) on the fact we just lost a great member of society."

The quarterback's agent, Bus Cook, said he had never heard Kazemi's name until news of the shooting broke Saturday. What McNair's wife knew wasn't clear Sunday. Cook said Mechelle McNair was "in and out of it." He said she had no comment after the police called his death a homicide.

"It doesn't make any sense. I don't know what to say," Cook said.

Mechelle was "very upset, very distraught" Sunday, Cook said. She was preparing to finish funeral arrangements Monday.

McNair split his time between Nashville and his farm in Mount Olive, Miss. He recently opened a restaurant near Tennessee State University that was aimed at serving healthy, affordable food to college students.

McNair was also seen so often at Kazemi's apartment that a neighbor thought he lived there.

McNair met Kazemi when his family ate often at the Dave & Buster's restaurant she worked at as a server, and the two began dating in a relationship that included a vacation with parasailing. Photos posted on TMZ.com showed McNair gazing and smiling at the young Kazemi.

"She pretty obviously got mixed up way over her head with folks," said Reagan Howard, a neighbor of Kazemi's.

A man who answered the door at a house in the Jacksonville, Fla., suburb of Orange Park said it was the home of Kazemi's family, but said her relatives did not want to comment.

"We don't have anything to say, please leave us alone," he said.

The victim's sister, Soheyla Kazemi, told the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville that the young woman had expected McNair to get a divorce. "She said they were planning to get married."

Kazemi often was dropped off by limousine in the early morning hours and recently went from driving a Kia to a 2007 Cadillac Escalade registered to both herself and McNair. Her niece told The Tennessean that Kazemi thought McNair was divorcing his wife of 12 years soon.

Nashville courts had no record of a McNair divorce case, but a home he owned in Nashville is on the market for $3 million.

The real estate agent declined to comment. Her online listing for property described it as a "gigantic house" of more than 14,000 square feet and photos showed a pool, home theater, baby grand piano and ornate furnishings throughout.

McNair and Kazemi were together Thursday night when she was pulled over driving that Escalade. She was arrested on a DUI charges, and he was allowed to leave in a taxi even though he was charged with drunken driving in 2007 when his brother-in-law was stopped for DUI while driving McNair's pickup truck.

McNair led the Titans to the 2000 Super Bowl, which they lost 23-16 to the St. Louis Rams despite his 87-yard drive in the final minute and 48 seconds. He was co-MVP of the NFL with Colts quarterback Peyton Manning in 2003.

Manning said in a statement Sunday that he had some great battles with the quarterback.

"Sharing the NFL MVP honor with him in 2003 was special because of what a great football player he was," Manning said. "I had the opportunity to play in a couple of Pro Bowls with him, and the time spent with him in Hawaii I'll never forget. I'll truly miss him."

The Titans drafted Vince Young in 2006 to replace McNair, who had mentored him since he was a teenager. They never played together but did play against each other that year.

"He was like a father to me. I hear his advice in my head with everything I do. Life will be very different without him," Young said in a statement Sunday.

McNair grew up in Mount Olive, Miss., and became a football star at Alcorn State, the Division I-AA school in his home state as he dominated the Southwestern Athletic Conference. He became a Heisman Trophy contender as reporters flocked to little Lorman to watch the man known as "Air McNair.

He still holds the Division I-AA (now known as Football Championship Subdivision) records for career yards passing (14,496) and total offense (16,823). McNair was drafted in 1995 by the Houston Oilers, who eventually became the Titans.

Picked four times for the Pro Bowl, McNair finished with 31,304 yards passing and 174 touchdowns. He led both the Titans and Ravens to playoff berths, including two AFC championship game appearances with Tennessee. Injuries finally led to his retirement after the 2007 season

Besides his wife, McNair is survived his sons Junior, Steven, Tyler and Trenton.




Fox News Contributor Rips Into Palin: "The Woman Is Inarticulate, Undereducated" (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post   |  Rachel Weiner 
First Posted: 07- 6-09 01:24 PM   |   Updated: 07- 6-09 01:42 PM

Even Fox News has started to turn on Sarah Palin. In the midst of a segment about the Alaska Governor's battle against "liberal" attacks, Liz Trotta went off-message.

Frankly, "the woman is inarticulate, undereducated," Trotta said, arguing that for once liberal criticism was "well-deserved."

"I think all the liberal stylists ... really have a case. She just begs for adjectives like flaky and wacky." When pressed, she added, "We're talking about somebody who, right from the get-go, has been a flashy person who gets into a lot of trouble and really has no credentials for any 

More in Politics...

 

Alaskans: Palin Had Gone Fishin' On The...

Alaskans: Palin Had Gone Fishin' On The...


Fred Barnes: Palin Has "Dashed Her Chances


Sarah Palin Flashback: 'Whining' About Media Coverage...


Sarah Palin's Second Chanc

Karen Dalton-Beninato Karen Dalton-Beninato: Pleading the Fifth: The Palin Constitution Revolution
I don't know what to call it but the Convolution Party aired its brand new platform on the steps of a Land of Lincoln courthouse, some in their Glenn Beck Live Free or Die shirts.

 

Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:

 




Lance Armstrong and his Astana team were fined for arriving late for the pre-strage registration this morning in Marseille, France. Rules state that riders must show up 20 minutes prior to the start or face a fine of 100 Swiss Francs ($92). Sneering contempt from the Tour de France competitions director is an added bonus.


Mon Jul 06, 2009 11:01 am EDT

Lance and Astana earn a $92 fine for showing up late

By Chris Chase

"Today, and as usual, the Astana team arrived late at the pre-stage registration, in contempt of the crowd, who has once again not seen Lance Armstrong," [Tour competitions director Jean-Francois] Pescheux told Reuters before the start of the third stage from Marseille to La Grande Motte.

"They don't care about the fine. We are going to ask the UCI to be tougher."

Of course they don't care about the fine. Ninety-two dollars? Lance drops more on that at breakfast. Has that amount changed since the first Tour in 1903? The last time I heard of a $92 fine I was watching The People's Court ... in 1987.  

And what's with the attitude, M. Pescheux? Let's not be perpetuating stereotypes about the French. It's bad enough that Lance is reinforcing notions that Americans show up late to everything. 

One of the excuses floated for that late arrival for Astana was that there was bad traffic in Marseille. The irony of showing up late to a bike race because your car was stuck in traffic is something even Pescheux should find amusing.

Update: Armstrong apologized for his tardiness on his Twitter account this afternoon, 

blaming it on a visit from actor Ben Stiller.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31759835/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?gt1=43001
Police may have killed suspect in S.C. slayings

Similar vehicle links series of five deaths to man shot overnight in N.C.


Image: Possible suspect
AP
This is an updated drawing of the suspected serial killer in Cherokee County, S.C., made available on Friday.













Video
  Manhunt for S.C. serial killer
July 6: Residents of a South Carolina town were terrorized after five people were shot to death in about a week. NBC’s Ron Mott reports from Gaffney, S.C..

Today show


Video: Crime & courts  
Former DC mayor arrested on stalking charges
July 6: Former Washington D.C. Mayor, and current D.C. Councilman Marion Barry has been arrested for allegedly stalking a female acquaintance. WRC's Darcy Spencer reports.


On the run

The U.S. Marshals want your help finding their "15 Most Wanted" fugitives, a notorious list of suspects fleeing everything from murder and robbery to child sex charges. To date, about 200 of the fugitives profiled on the list have been found. Tips leading to an arrest are rewarded up to $25,000. Click here to see the fugitives. 


NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 2:41 p.m. ET July 6, 2009

Authorities were investigating whether a man who was shot and killed Monday morning by police in North Carolina may be linked to the slayings of five people in South Carolina in a week.

South Carolina law enforcement officers were in Gaston County, N.C., near Charlotte, after county police shot and killed the man, who they said opened fire on them Monday morning, NBC News’ Ron Mott reported.

Investigators told NBC station WCNC of Charlotte that a gray or champagne Ford Explorer was found outside the house in Gaston County, about 30 miles north of Cherokee County, S.C., where five people were found shot to death in three incidents over eight days bridging last week.

Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton said Monday that a gray Ford Explorer was believed to link all five of the South Carolina killings.

“The physical evidence, the evidence that we have, the eyewitnesses that we have, puts the same person, we think the same vehicle, at all three locations,” Blanton said in an interview on NBC’s TODAY.

Questioning three people
Gaston County police were questioning three people who were reported to have entered a house about 2:40 a.m. when they discovered that one of them had an outstanding warrant. The man, whose identity was not released, fired a single shot when officers tried to serve the warrant, injuring one of the officers in the leg. Police fired four shots, killing the man at the scene, they said.

The killings began a week ago Saturday in Cherokee County, S.C., when the wife of Kline Cash, a 63-year-old peach farmer, found her husband shot to death in their rural home. Then, on Wednesday, relatives discovered the bodies of Gena Linder Parker, 50, and her mother, Hazel Linder, 83, bound and shot to death in a separate attack at Linder’s home.

Thursday, Stephen Tyler and his daughter Abby, 15, were shot as they were closing the Tyler Home Center near downtown Gaffney. He died Thursday, while Abby Tyler fought for her life for two days before dying Saturday at a hospital.

Blanton said deputies were searching for a man about 6 feet 2 inches tall with salt-and-pepper hair.

Hundreds of people thronged funeral services Sunday for the mother and daughter. Law enforcement officers provided security for the family and mourners. The crime spree terrorizing Cherokee County forced many people to curtail Fourth of July festivities.

Celebration turns to mourning
The Herald-Journal of Spartanburg, S.C., reported that the Tylers’ minister at Cherokee Avenue Baptist Church, Clyde Thomas, urged congregants to keep the faith in the face of tragedy. The newspaper said he had a pistol in his office Saturday.
“As Christians, we don’t live by explanations. We live by promises. We live by faith, not sight,” Thomas said.
Thomas said he had originally planned to deliver a sermon titled “Happy Birthday, America” for the Fourth of July service. But instead of upbeat patriotic music, Sunday’s program was changed to add hymns reflecting a time of mourning.

The killings alarmed many residents, and some talked of arming themselves.
“The irony is that the freedoms we have, we’re locked behind closed doors with firearms,” Thomas said. “We should be celebrating freedom, but we find ourselves very much restrained by fear.”
Blanton, the sheriff, said all the victims were shot. The shootings all occurred within about 10 miles of each other in Cherokee County, a community of 54,000 people set amid peach orchards and farms.

Investigators have released a sketch of the suspect, saying he was in his 40s and roughly 200 pounds.

More on South Carolina

 

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-experts-10_boilerplate_phrases_that_kill_resumes-97

The Savvy Networker

10 Boilerplate Phrases That Kill Resumes


The Savvy Networker

   by: Liz Ryan

The 2009 job market is very different from job markets of the past. If you haven't job-hunted in a while, the changes in the landscape can throw you for a loop.

One of the biggest changes is the shift in what constitutes a strong resume. Years ago, we could dig into the Resume Boilerplate grab-bag and pull out a phrase to fill out a sentence or bullet point on our resume. Everybody used the same boilerplate phrases, so we knew we couldn't go wrong choosing one of them -- or many -- to throw into your resume.

Things have changed. Stodgy boilerplate phrases in your resume today mark you as uncreative and "vocabulary challenged." You can make your resume more compelling and human-sounding by rooting out and replacing the boring corporate-speak phrases that litter it, and replacing them with human language -- things that people like you or me would actually say.

Here are the worst 10 boilerplate phrases -- the ones to seek out and destroy in your resume as soon as possible:

  • Results-oriented professional
  • Cross-functional teams
  • More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience
  • Superior (or excellent) communication skills
  • Strong work ethic
  • Met or exceeded expectations
  • Proven track record of success
  • Works well with all levels of staff
  • Team player
  • Bottom-line orientation

You can do better. What about adding a human voice to your resume? Here's an example:

"I'm a Marketing Researcher who's driven by curiosity about why people buy what they do. At XYZ Industries, I used consumer surveys and online-forum analysis to uncover the reasons why consumers chose our competitors over us; our sales grew twenty percent over the next six months as a result. I'm equally at home on sales calls or analyzing data in seclusion, and up to speed on traditional and new-millennium research tools and approaches. I'm fanatical about understanding our marketplace better every day, week and month -- and have helped my employers' brands grow dramatically as a result."

You don't have to write resumes that sound like robots wrote them. A human-voiced resume is the new black -- try it!

Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, former Fortune 500 VP and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new millennium workplace. Contact Liz at liz@asklizryan.com or join the Ask Liz Ryan online community at www.asklizryan/group.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely the author's.


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    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,530284,00.html



    American Life League


    Seventh Grader Sues School Over Right to Wear Pro-Life T-Shirt

    A California mom says her public school administrators violated her daughter's First Amendment rights when they ordered the seventh-grader to take off her pro-life T-shirt.

    Anna Amador has gone to court on behalf of her daughter, who she says was ordered by her principal to
    change her shirt on "National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day." The shirt the girl was wearing displays two graphic pictures of a fetus growing in the womb.
    The incident occurred in April 2008 at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, Calif. Amador alleges in her legal complaint that school Principal Terrie Rohrer, Assistant Principal C.W. Smith and office
    clerk Martha Hernandez mistreated her daughter and denied the girl her First Amendment rights when they ordered her to leave the cafeteria and change her shirt.
    "Before Plaintiff could eat [breakfast] she was ordered by a school staff member to throw her food out and report immediately to Defendant Smith's office, located in the main office of McSwain Elementary School," the complaint reads.
    "Upon arriving at the main office, Defendant Hernandez, intentionally and without Plaintiff's consent, grabbed Plaintiff's arm and forcibly escorted her toward Smith's office, at all times maintaining a vice-like grip on Plaintiff's arm. Hernandez only released Plaintiff's arm after physically locating her in front of Smith and Defendant Rohrer...

    "Smith and Rohrer ordered Plaintiff to remove her pro-life T-shirt and instructed Plaintiff to never wear her pro-life T-shirt at McSwain Elementary School ever again...
    "Completely humiliated and held out for ridicule, Plaintiff complied with Defendants' directives and removed her pro-life T-shirt, whereupon, Defendants seized and confiscated it. Defendants did not return Plaintiff's property until the end of the school day."
    The school administrators dispute some of the allegations, said Anthony N. DeMaria, attorney for the McSwain Union Elementary School District.
    "I think the school district has a very strong defense," DeMaria said. "The complaint does not properly characterize the events that happened. Certainly we dispute some of the events."
    He said he was unable to reach the administrators to determine which parts they say are incorrect, because school is out for the summer. Rohrer, the principal, told FOXNews.com on Monday that she could not issue a statement without consulting with the school superintendent and their attorney. The other defendants and school district employees did not respond to calls and e-mails from FOXNews.com.
    The school district sought to get the case thrown out due to "failure to state a cognizable claim," but a U.S. Eastern District Court judge ruled last month that all but one of Amador's claims could go forward.
    The complaint quotes school district officials saying that they ordered Amador's daughter to remove the shirt because it constituted "inappropriate subject matter" in violation of the school's dress code, which bans clothing with "suggestion of tobacco, drug or alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, profanity, vulgarity, or other inappropriate subject matter."
    Amador claims in the legal complaint that other students at the school have been allowed to wear expressive shirts, and she blames the school for “inconsistently applying their Dress Code based upon subjective determinations as to which messages are acceptable and which messages are not.”
    One of the girl's lawyers, Mark A. Thiel, said that the images on her shirt of a fetus in the womb were same as those in her science textbooks. He said no student had complained about the shirt, and he said the girl's parents were not called when the incident took place.
    "This was a young girl, not even in high school. But they didn't call," he said.
    A spokeswoman for the local Planned Parenthood chapter declined to take sides in the case.
    "Even offensive speech is protected as long as it doesn’t impinge upon the rights of others," said Deborah Ortiz, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.
    "School administrators have a mission to educate, and the student’s right to political speech should be protected in balance with this education mission."
    UCLA law professor and First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh said Supreme Court precedent appears to support the girl's case.
    "During the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court ruled that wearing black arm bands [at school, to protest the war] was OK,” Volokh said. “If students can wear armbands in protest, why can't they wear a pro-life shirt?"
    He said the case would be different if there was evidence that the shirt could have led to disruption or fighting.
    "Schools have a lot more authority than the government does in regulating speech,” he said. “If someone is speaking on a street corner and it looks like other people are going to start a fight over it, the government's job is to protect the speaker. That is not the case in schools. We need to make sure students learn. So if speech is highly disruptive, well … in that case we can suppress it.
    "But the school's position that they can restrict speech just because they find it inappropriate is not correct."
    But the fact that it's a K-8 school with very young children could change things, said Brooklyn Law School professor William Araiza. He pointed to the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Morse v. Frederick, where the court allowed a high school to suspend students in Juneau, Alaska, who waved a banner that read “Bong hits 4 Jesus” from across the street during an Olympic torch relay, because it was seen as promoting illegal drug use.
    “[The school] could almost use a “bong hits” kind of rationale about protecting students from inappropriate messages,” Araiza said. “For instance, would you allow a 4th grader to wear a gruesome picture of a bomb scene? You probably wouldn't.”
    First Amendment attorney William Becker, who represents Amador, disagreed that the shirt could be seen as containing inappropriate messages.
    "The message of the T-shirt is that life is sacred," he said. "One would be very hard pressed to find anything wrong with that particular idea, except that some people do object to the political message.”

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    US


    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31733401/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?GT1=43001

    Video

      Murders leave S.C. town on edge
    July 4: Fourth of July celebrations in Gaffney, S.C., took on a somber tone amid a desperate search for a killer believed to be responsible for at least five murders. NBC’s Ron Mott reports.

    Nightly News


    Image: Possible suspect
    AP
    This is an updated drawing of the suspected serial killer in Cherokee County, S.C., made available on Friday.










    S.C. town terrorized by 5 killings in past week AP

    15-year-old girl latest victim of suspected serial killer

    GAFFNEY, S.C. - A teenage girl shot while helping her father in their family's small furniture and appliance store died Saturday, becoming the fifth victim of a suspected serial killer terrorizing a small South Carolina community, authorities said.

    Abby Tyler, 15, died about 11:15 a.m. at a Spartanburg hospital after fighting for her life for two days, Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler said.
    Tyler was wounded and her father was killed Thursday as they worked to close the Tyler Home Center near downtown Gaffney.
    County Sheriff Bill Blanton said investigators believe the killings are linked and the search is on for a suspected male serial killer. An 83-year-old mother and her daughter were shot to death Wednesday, and a 63-year-old peach farmer was found dead at his home a week ago.
    Blanton said all the victims were shot, but he would not say how the deaths were linked. The shootings all occurred within about 10 miles of each other in Cherokee County, a rural community of 54,000 people set amid peach orchards and farms some 50 miles west of Charlotte, N.C.

    Killings have terrorized community
    The spree had alarmed residents canceling Independence Day holiday plans and arming themselves. The sheriff has warned door-to-door salesmen to stop knocking and anyone who breaks down on the county's rural roads to wait instead of walking to a house for help because he worries "people are going to start shooting at shadows."
    The killings began a week ago Saturday when the wife of 63-year-old peach farmer Kline Cash found him dead in their home. Then last Wednesday, relatives found 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, bound and shot to death in a separate shooting at Linder's home.
    Dozens of local, state and federal investigators were assigned to the case when the killings were linked. But a day later, the killer struck again, less than a half-mile from the sheriff's office serving as the headquarters for the investigation, killing 48-year-old Stephen Tyler and his daughter.
    "We're knee-deep in the investigation," Blanton said Sunday. "There's fear and concern here and there should be concern."
    Investigators have released a sketch of the suspect, saying he is in his 40s, with salt and pepper hair, about 6-foot-2, and roughly 200 pounds. They think he is driving a silver 1991-1994 Ford Explorer. 

    The last time the town was this threatened like this was 1968, when the "Gaffney Strangler" killed four women over 10 days and vowed to kill more. The town banded together, despite racial prejudice, to find the man who was killing white and black women.
    The strangler, Lee Roy Martin, called the editor of a local newspaper on Feb. 8, 1968, and told him where to find the bodies of two women he'd dumped in the woods. He threatened to kill even more women until he was "shot down like the dog I am."
    People started to comb the community for clues, which led to Martin's arrest. He was convicted of four murders and sentenced to four life terms. In 1972, he was stabbed to death in his cell.

    More on South Carolina
    MORE FROM CRIME & COURTS
    Crime & courts Section Front

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31707246/ns/health-addictions/

    Video

      Police fight Florida pill mills 
    April 30: Florida police face drug addicts and dealers from other states seeking painkillers. Watch more of Mark Potter's report.

    Nightly News

    Video
      Prescription drugs 'killing our young'
    July 5: In their own words, parents, community leaders and advocates discuss the "epidemic" of prescription drug abuse.

    Nightly News


    Interactives and quizzes

     
    NBC News/Voince Genova
    Lynn and Sam Kissick discuss the tragic death of their Daughter as a result of a

    prescription drug overdose


    NBC News / Vince Genova
    Sarah Shay seen before her tragic drug overdose.














    Prescription drug abuse ravages state's youth

    Prescription drug abuse is  a fast-growing problem that exists across the country,
     but officials say the problem is particularly acute
     in the cities and rural areas of Eastern Kentucky. NBC News' Mark Potter reports.

    Kentucky officials see an ‘epidemic’; officials say drugs coming from Florida

    By Mark Potter

    Correspondent

    NBC News

    updated 8:17 a.m. ET July 6, 2009

    MOREHEAD, Ky. — Late in the morning last New Year's Day, Sam and Lynn Kissick received a devastating phone call that would tear their lives apart.
    The caller informed them their 22-year-old daughter, Savannah, was being rushed by ambulance to the St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, Ky. She had long battled drug addiction, but it looked like this time, Savannah had overdosed on a combination of painkillers and sedatives while celebrating New Year's Eve. 
    After racing to the emergency room to be by Savannah's side, her parents were met by a physician with grim
    news. "I'm sorry, Mr. And Mrs. Kissick, but she didn't make it," he said.
    Savannah had just become the latest fatality linked to prescription drug abuse, a fast-growing problem that killed more than 8,500 Americans in 2005, according to the latest available statistics from the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says nearly 7 million Americans currently abuse prescription drugs, noting that is "more than the number who are abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, ecstasy and inhalants combined." The DEA also reports that "opioid painkillers now cause more overdose deaths than cocaine and heroin combined."
    "Something needs to be done, because it's killing our kids every day." said Lynn Kissick.  "People need to stand up and take notice. Our kids are dying. They're dying because of these drugs."

     A regional ‘epidemic’ 
    While the problem exists in every state in the country, Kentucky led the nation in the use of
    prescription drugs for non-medical purposes during the last year, according to the state'sOffice of Drug Control Policy. Officials said prescription drug abuse is particularly acute in the cities and rural areas of Eastern Kentucky.
    Last year alone, at least 485 people died in Kentucky from prescription drug overdoses,
    according to the state's Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Medical Examiners' records indicate the drugs most commonly found in those death cases were methadone, the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone, alprazolam (Xanax), morphine, diazepam (Valium) and fentanyl.
    "It's an epidemic and I'm afraid we're losing a whole generation," said Beth Lewis Maze, the Chief Circuit Judge for the 21st Judicial Circuit in Kentucky. "These pain medications are so highly addictive that these young people are digging themselves a very deep hole."
    In the region's newly formed drug court, Maze sees the ravages of prescription drug abuse at all levels of society. "I see good kids from good families, doctors, lawyers, teachers," she said.
    Greenup County Coroner Neil Wright calls prescription drug abuse "public enemy number one."  Half of the 50 deaths he logged last year were drug related, and "85 to 90 percent" of those calls involved prescription pill overdoses. "It affects everybody. I don't care, rich, poor, educated or non-educated, it affects everybody."
    Down the street, Greenup County Sheriff Keith Cooper dug through the many evidence bags his deputies have filled with prescription pill bottles and cash seized during drug arrests.
    "We are drowning in a sea of prescription medication," said Cooper, who complained about the skyrocketing number of crimes committed by addicts searching for money to buy painkillers.
    "It affects, quite literally, every kind, every type of crime that we have, the burglaries, the thefts, the accidents, the domestic disputes between families. It's breaking families up."
    In neighboring Rowan County, where Savannah Kissick died, Chief Deputy Sheriff Roger Holbrook was arrested recently on federal charges that he had conspired to distribute oxycodone. 

    Crowded rehabilitation clinics 
    Pastor Wayne Ross runs the Shepherd’s Shelter adult drug and alcohol treatment center in Mount Sterling, Ky. His 50 available beds are filled with residents struggling to recover from drug addiction, almost all of them from prescription pill habits. 

    Savannah Kissick was one of his clients, and she had graduated from the recovery program. Her return to drug abuse and her death from an overdose shook Ross and the clinic staff members who had worked hard for her success. 
    "I cried, it breaks my heart," said Ross, who officiated at Savannah's funeral. "She's not the only one. We've been directly involved with five different people who have OD'd. Three of the funerals I did, myself, as a minister. It just breaks my heart."
    Kay Fultz, 36, is also from Morehead, Ky. and is currently a resident of the Shepherd’s Shelter who said that at the height of her addiction, she was taking as many as 50 oxycodone pain pills a day and was dealing drugs to support her own habit.
    "It just starts out as a party drug, you know, every now and then," Fultz said.  "Once you start doing it every day, I mean it just takes compete control of your life."
    Finding a prescription drug supply was easy for Fultz. "It's very simple to get. It's everywhere," she said. But once addicted, the costs are severe. "I've lost everything. I've lost everything and it's so easy to do."

    Florida connection 
    During a recent classroom session at his clinic, Ross asked the residents where they bought their prescription drugs. Every person in the room had either traveled to Florida to obtain the medications, or had purchased drugs from someone else who had bought prescription painkillers there. 
    Florida has become notorious as a destination for addicts and drug dealers from around the southeastern United States.  They are drawn to the many pain clinics in Florida, some of which dispense hundreds of painkillers at a time after only a cursory medical exam.
    "You can go down there and within 24 hours have everything you need," said Fultz, who added that the medical exam she was given at a Florida pain clinic, where she pretended to suffer from pain, was not at all professional.
    "I mean, they look at your MRI, ask you how you are feeling — ‘I'm feeling pretty bad’ — and you leave there with pills."
    Sam Kissick, Savannah’s father, believes the drugs that killed his daughter came from Florida.
    "From where I'm sitting, it looks like they're handing it out like candy on Halloween," he said. "Anybody that goes down there can come back with carloads of pills, and then they're dumped out on our streets."
    To addicts in Kentucky, Florida is “like the promised land,” said Cooper, the Greenup County sheriff.
    Local police, federal agents and medical officials in Florida are targeting illicit prescription drug sales. The state legislature recently passed, and Gov. Charlie Crist signed, a law to regulate and monitor pain clinics, although the procedure won't be fully implemented until late next year. 
    Kentucky and most other states already have such monitoring laws in place, making it much more difficult for addicts and dealers to buy large amounts of prescription medication by going from clinic to clinic – a common practice in Florida.

    Families left behind 
    Karen Shay, a dentist in Morehead, Ky., also knows too well the cost and pain of prescription drug abuse. Two years ago, her 19-year-old daughter, Sarah, died from an overdose after partying with friends, who dropped her body off at a hospital and drove away. 
    Sarah Shay and Savannah Kissick had been childhood friends.
    "We have two young ladies that were beautiful, talented and intelligent, had the world by the tail, could have done anything and they're gone,” Shay said. “They're gone."
    In her work, Shay also sees the desperation of drug addicts, some of whom have visited her office seeking pain medication for fake dental problems. Because of Kentucky's prescription monitoring law, Shay is able to run computer checks on patients she suspects of doctor-shopping for painkillers and turns many of them away.
    "If [the painkillers are] taken the way they're supposed to be, it's a very powerful, helpful drug.  But when they're not taken the way they're supposed to, then it becomes a killer," she said. "It's amazing when you look in the paper, how many people have died from drug abuse. "

    During a recent visit to the cemetery where Sarah is interred, Shay cleared away the dying flower petals and placed a colorful pinwheel below her daughter's crypt. Looking upward to the plaque showing Sarah's name and picture, she quietly spoke the words, "Hi, Baby," then bowed her head. 
    "When you lose somebody like that, it puts a hole in your heart that nothing else will ever fill," she said.
    For the Kissicks, whose loss is more recent and raw, anger mingles with grief.
    "It's time that people were held accountable for what's happening. I think it's time that someone was held responsible,” Lynn Kissick said.
    The parents want to raise awareness about the problem so that others don’t have to endure their pain.
    "The drugs, they don't discriminate and it can happen to anybody," said Sam Kissick. "You may never have any idea that your child is exploring or fooling with prescription drugs at all, until they've already gone too far with it."

    Sitting at their dining room table recently, Savannah's parents sorted through colorful photographs of their daughter. 

    "She had a beautiful smile," said Lynn. In a quiet voice, Sam agreed, "That she did."
    Chantix, Zyban must carry depression warning

    More addiction stories

     

     


    MORE FROM MSNBC.COM

     

     

     

     


    http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/06/south.carolina.killings/index.html


    Police say the murder scenes are linked and they are searching for a man resembling this sketch.

    Police say the murder scenes are linked and they are searching for a man resembling this sketch.


    N. Carolina shooting stirs interest in S. Carolina serial killings


    • STORY HIGHLIGHTS
    • Police say no confirmed link between N. Carolina crime, S. Carolina serial killings
    • But video of N. Carolina crime site shows car similar to one sought in serial killings
    • North Carolina authorities say "evidence" prompted call to South Carolina police
    • Killer has slain five people in Gaffney, South Carolina, area, police say

    DALLAS, North Carolina (CNN) -- Police in Gaston County, North Carolina, shot and killed a suspect during a possible robbery early Monday, then called in police from South Carolina who have been chasing a serial killer.

    There was "evidence in regard to the man that was shot," said Capt. Joe Ramey of the Gaston County Police Department.

    He did not give specifics, and he said he could not state for certain that the suspect had a link to the serial killer case.

    "We saw evidence they needed to know about," Ramey told CNN.

    Gaston County is about 33 miles northeast of Gaffney, South Carolina. Police say a serial killer in the Gaffney area has killed five people since late June.

    Police in Cherokee County, which includes Gaffney, had issued a basic description of the killer and said he may be driving a Ford Explorer from the early 1990s.

    Video from outside the home in North Carolina on Monday showed a vehicle that seemed to match that general description.

    Early Monday, in Dallas, which is part of Gaston County, police received a call about a possible burglary in progress, police said. When they entered the residence, they found two people who lived there and a third who "was an acquaintance," police said in a news release.

     

    "A second check on the suspect individual uncovered an outstanding warrant" from nearby Lincoln County, police said. "Officers attempted to serve the outstanding warrant when the suspect pulled a gun and fired at officers. Officers returned fire killing the suspect."

    One officer was shot in the leg and has been treated and released from a hospital, police said.

    Jennifer Timmons of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division told CNN there was no immediate confirmation of any link to the serial killer case. "Processing any crime scene is going to take a while," she noted.

    The killer's latest victim was 15-year-old Abby Tyler, who was shot last week and died Saturday. Her father, Stephen Tyler, 48, had been pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, in their family-run furniture and appliance store.

    As residents mourned the Tylers over the weekend, they also had words of warning for the man terrorizing the community.

    "If he comes to me, face to face, I'm ready, I'm loaded, and I'm aimed for him," said Sarah Banister, a neighbor of one of the killer's victims.

    "I'm afraid for my life," said Robby Banister, her husband. "It's gonna be kind of like a dogfight. I'm telling you: I'm going to win."

    In an interview Monday on CNN's "American Morning," Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton said investigators have determined "through evidence" that the five killings are linked. Authorities are not giving details about the evidence.

    "We don't have a current motive or connection between the murders," said Blanton. "With a community this small, it's very possible I knew all the victims, and it's possible that all the victims knew each other. But we don't have any information right now that links the killer to [them]."

    Police released a sketch that they say is their best guess about the killer's appearance, based on witness reports. He is identified as a white male, approximately 6 feet 2 inches tall, with salt-and-pepper hair.

    The vehicle he was driving may be a Ford Explorer, possibly "goldish-tan or champagne" in color, Blanton said.

    "We're focusing on anything that even looks like a Ford Explorer," he said. Witnesses have said the killer appears to weigh about 250 pounds, "so we're saying probably 230 to 250," he said.

    The killer apparently also "had a ball cap on," but his clothes have been different, Blanton added.

    The first shooting occurred June 27, when peach farmer Kline W. Cash, 63, was killed. His wife found him dead in their home, the sheriff's office said.

    Blanton said Cash's home may have been robbed.

    Four days later, the bound and shot bodies of Hazel Linder, 83, and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, were found in the Linders' home, where she lived alone.

    Blanton said authorities are still trying to determine if anything was taken from that home.

    Leave has been canceled for all members of the police department and the sheriff's department, their respective chiefs have said.

    About 100 investigators from North and South Carolina are working the case, Blanton said.

     

    Asked how the 50,000 Cherokee County residents can try to stay safe, Blanton said, "Generally it's the same information just a crime prevention officer would use. People need to check on their neighbors, especially family, loved ones that live alone or elderly that live together. Travel in at least groups of two or more. But I've noticed the community is concerned and have a right to be."

    People in Cherokee County are operating "on regular schedules," businesses are open, and some schools began Monday, Blanton said. "But people are using caution. And that's what we're asking them to do. Just be cautious until we do catch this murderer." 

     

     


    Sepide Salmani, left, 23, comforts Soheyla Kazemi Sunday, July 5, 2009 in Orange Park, Fla. as they talk about the death of Soheyla Kazemi's sister, Sahel Kazemi, 20, in Nashville, Tenn. Sahel Kazemi  and former Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair(notes) were found dead Saturday at a Nashville condominium that he rented with a friend.

    Sepide Salmani, left, 23, comf… 
    AP - Jul 6, 1:09 pm EDT


    http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-mcnairkilled&prov=ap&type=lgns

    Relative: Police say woman with McNair bought gun

    By TERESA M. WALKER, AP Sports Writer

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—Steve McNair’s(notes) 20-year-old girlfriend bought a gun a couple of days before she was found dead alongside the slain former NFL quarterback, her relative said Monday.

    Farzin Abdi said police told him about the gun purchase by his aunt Sahel Kazemi, who was raised with him like a sister. Kazemi and McNair were found dead on Saturday in a Nashville condominium leased by the former Titans star.

    Abdi said police told him they are almost sure Kazemi was the shooter, but the 27-year-old nephew said he doesn’t believe she would do it. Abdi didn’t know what day of the week the gun was purchased or what type of gun it was.

    “There was no way she was depressed and wanting to do this,” he said. “She was so happy. … She just had it made, you know, (with) this guy taking care of everything.”

    Nashville police didn’t immediately have a response to Abdi’s comments.

    Abdi said Kazemi believed McNair was divorcing his wife and she was preparing to sell her furniture to move in with him.

    Nashville courts had no record of a McNair divorce case, but a 14,000-square-foot home he owned in Nashville is on the market for $3 million.

    Mechelle McNair has been described as very distraught about her husband’s death and has not commented on it.

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—Steve McNair’s(notes) 20-year-old girlfriend bought a gun a couple of days before she was found dead alongside the slain former NFL quarterback, her relative said Monday.

    Farzin Abdi said police told him about the gun purchase by his aunt Sahel Kazemi, who was raised with him like a sister. Kazemi and McNair were found dead on Saturday in a Nashville condominium leased by the former Titans star.

    Abdi said police told him they are almost sure Kazemi was the shooter, but the 27-year-old nephew said he doesn’t believe she would do it. Abdi didn’t know what day of the week the gun was purchased or what type of gun it was.

    “There was no way she was depressed and wanting to do this,” he said. “She was so happy. … She just had it made, you know, (with) this guy taking care of everything.”

    Nashville police didn’t immediately have a response to Abdi’s comments.

    Abdi said Kazemi believed McNair was divorcing his wife and she was preparing to sell her furniture to move in with him.

    Nashville courts had no record of a McNair divorce case, but a 14,000-square-foot home he owned in Nashville is on the market for $3 million.

    Mechelle McNair has been described as very distraught about her husband’s death and has not commented on it.

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—Steve McNair’s(notes) 20-year-old girlfriend bought a gun a couple of days before she was found dead alongside the slain former NFL quarterback, her relative said Monday.

    Farzin Abdi said police told him about the gun purchase by his aunt Sahel Kazemi, who was raised with him like a sister. Kazemi and McNair were found dead on Saturday in a Nashville condominium leased by the former Titans star.

    Abdi said police told him they are almost sure Kazemi was the shooter, but the 27-year-old nephew said he doesn’t believe she would do it. Abdi didn’t know what day of the week the gun was purchased or what type of gun it was.

    “There was no way she was depressed and wanting to do this,” he said. “She was so happy. … She just had it made, you know, (with) this guy taking care of everything.”

    Nashville police didn’t immediately have a response to Abdi’s comments.

    Abdi said Kazemi believed McNair was divorcing his wife and she was preparing to sell her furniture to move in with him.

    Nashville courts had no record of a McNair divorce case, but a 14,000-square-foot home he owned in Nashville is on the market for $3 million.

    Mechelle McNair has been described as very distraught about her husband’s death and has not commented on it.

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—Steve McNair’s(notes) 20-year-old girlfriend bought a gun a couple of days before she was found dead alongside the slain former NFL quarterback, her relative said Monday.

    Farzin Abdi said police told him about the gun purchase by his aunt Sahel Kazemi, who was raised with him like a sister. Kazemi and McNair were found dead on Saturday in a Nashville condominium leased by the former Titans star.

    Abdi said police told him they are almost sure Kazemi was the shooter, but the 27-year-old nephew said he doesn’t believe she would do it. Abdi didn’t know what day of the week the gun was purchased or what type of gun it was.

    “There was no way she was depressed and wanting to do this,” he said. “She was so happy. … She just had it made, you know, (with) this guy taking care of everything.”

    Nashville police didn’t immediately have a response to Abdi’s comments.

    Abdi said Kazemi believed McNair was divorcing his wife and she was preparing to sell her furniture to move in with him.

    Nashville courts had no record of a McNair divorce case, but a 14,000-square-foot home he owned in Nashville is on the market for $3 million.

    Mechelle McNair has been described as very distraught about her husband’s death and has not commented on it.

    Before their deaths, the public knew nothing of Kazemi’s relationship with McNair, a star who had earned the respect of his fellow NFL players for shaking off defenders and injuries and the love of fans amazed at how the quarterback kept showing up for work—and winning.

    He endeared himself further with his charity work. Not just from the checks he handed out, but for throwing himself into the efforts, like he did when loading boxes onto tractor-trailers bound for Hurricane Katrina victims.

    Publicly, McNair was a happily married man and proud father of four sons who split his time between his Mississippi farm and a home in Music City, where celebrities are cherished, not hassled.

    His death, however, thrust a darker side of his private life into the spotlight.

    “People have certain things that they do in life,” said McNair’s longtime friend Robert Gaddy, who called 911. “We don’t need to look on the situation at this time (but) on the fact we just lost a great member of society.”

    Even McNair’s longtime agent said he didn’t know about the former quarterback’s relationship with Kazemi.

    “As good as he was on the football field, that couldn’t touch the person,” agent Bus Cook said Sunday, still shaken by McNair’s death. “I mean it just couldn’t.”

    Hints of a problem with alcohol surfaced in May 2003 when a Nashville police officer pulled McNair over on suspicion of drunk driving. Police said the quarterback’s blood alcohol content was 0.18 percent—well over Tennessee’s legal limit. He also was charged with having a 9mm weapon with him, but all the charges were later dropped.

    McNair was charged with drunken driving in 2007 because he let his brother-in-law drive his pickup truck. Those charges were later dropped when the DUI charge against the brother-in-law was reduced to reckless driving.

    And McNair could have been charged again Thursday night when the same officer who arrested him in 2003 stopped a 2007 Cadillac Escalade driven by Kazemi and registered to both her and McNair. Kazemi was arrested on a DUI charge, and he was allowed to leave in a taxi.

    Police labeled his death a homicide Sunday, revealing McNair had been shot four times—twice in the head, twice in the chest—when found in a rented condominium he shared with a longtime friend, Wayne Neeley. Police found a semiautomatic pistol under Kazemi’s body.

    But police spokesman Don Aaron said they were reviewing every possibility, interviewing friends of both and an ex-boyfriend before labeling Kazemi’s death.

    On the football field, he simply was “Air McNair,” a winner.

    McNair still holds the NCAA’s Football Championship Series (formerly Division I-AA) records for career yards passing (14,496) and total offense (16,823) from his days at tiny Alcorn State in Mississippi.

    He played 13 NFL seasons, starting with the then-Houston Oilers, and led Tennessee to its famous last-second 2000 Super Bowl loss to the St. Louis Rams. He ended his career in Baltimore last season, after being traded away by the Titans after they drafted Vince Young(notes) as a replacement to the aching and expensive veteran.

    McNair’s friends want the quarterback to be remembered for his generosity. He gave away turkeys and checks in Tennessee, toys in Baltimore and paid for three football camps himself this year. Cook talked to someone Saturday who saw McNair cleaning up the field after one camp at Southern Mississippi.

    “That was Steve McNair. That’s who he is. And who he was,” an emotional Cook recalled.

    A viewing will be held Thursday at a Nashville funeral home, followed by another viewing at Mount Zion Baptist Church with a memorial service Thursday night. A funeral service will be held Saturday in Mississippi, but final details were not set.

    McNair met Kazemi at the Dave & Buster’s restaurant where she worked as a server and where his family ate often. The two began dating a few months ago in a relationship that included a vacation with parasailing. Photos posted on TMZ.com showed McNair gazing and smiling at the young Kazemi.

    Associated Press writers Travis Loller, Lucas L. Johnson II and Joe Edwards contributed to this story.

    Other Celebrity Updates

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    Megan Fox returns to her hotel, following the 'Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen' premiere, when a young fan attempts to hand her a rose in London, England.  June 15, 2009. Will Alexander/WENN.com







    Harry Potter actor tells of swine flu fear

    by AFP  July 6, 2009

    Actor Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, spoke Monday of his fears after contracting swine flu, saying he initially thought he might die.

    Grint described contracting the A(H1N1) virus, which has spread around the world, as "quite scary" but he recovered after spending a few days in bed.

    "It was quite scary when I first found out I had swine flu," he said at a press conference with other Potter actors including Emma Watson in London.

    "I thought 'Am I going to die?' But it was just like any other flu really."

    "I had a sore throat and I went to bed for a few days."

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    The 20-year-old's publicist confirmed on Saturday that he had suffered from the virus, taking several days off filming the next movie in the blockbuster series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

    Four people have died in Britain of swine flu, and the country has Europe's highest number of reported cases with nearly 7,500.

    The government has warned that figure could rise to over 100,000 new cases a day by the end of August.

    Photo Galleries

     

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090706/ap_on_en_mu/us_michael_jackson

    Jackson's mother loses control of son's estate AAP

    LOS ANGELES – A judge said Monday that Michael Jackson's longtime attorney and a family friend should take over the pop singer's estate for now, rejecting a request from Jackson's mother to be put in charge or share control.

    Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff backed attorneyJohn Branca and music executive John McClain, who had been designated in Jackson's 2002 will as the people he wanted to administer his estate. Attorneys for the pop singer's mother repeatedly objected to their appointment at Monday's court hearing.

    "It's our desire to do everything we can to carry out Michael Jackson's wishes and to maximize the estate," said Howard Weitzman, who spoke after the hearing on behalf of Branca. Weitzman issued a statement later calling the judge's ruling "the correct decision."

    The singer's mother, Katherine Jackson, had applied to oversee her son's estate, but that was before the 2002 will surfaced. Her attorney, Burt Levitch, expressed concerns about McClain and Branca's financial leadership.

    Jackson died June 25, deeply in debt. But a court filing estimates that his estate will be worth more than $500 million. His assets are destined for a private trust.

    A public memorial has been scheduled for Jackson in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday. Dozens of police officers and a fire truck were parked outside Dodger Stadium on Monday, where ticket winners could start picking up their coveted passes to the Staples Centerceremony.

    More than 1.6 million people registered to win the coveted free tickets, and only 8,750 names were chosen. Los Angeles officials are concerned about other fans clogging city streets.

    One person who won't be at the memorial is Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of Jackson's two oldest children. She had planned to attend, but backed out Monday.

    "The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy," Rowe attorney Marta Almli said. "Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael's memory privately."

    Lucky fans celebrated when they got an e-mail saying they had scored the hottest ticket in town. "Congratulations, your application was successful," said the message sent to Deka Motanya, 27, of San Francisco.

    She immediately Twittered: "OMG OMG OMG OMG i got tickets to the michael jackson memorial service!!!"

    On eBay, bids were reaching as high as $3,000, though it was impossible to verify the seriousness of those offers. Others on Monday were submitting bids more in the $100-$200 range.On Craigslist, asking prices also were in the thousands. Some unable to attend, though, simply wanted to give away their tickets — as one post read — "to only true fans."On the legal front, Katherine Jackson's attorneys had asked that she be appointed to serve as a co-administrator with Branca and McClain. Beckloff refused to grant that request.Branca and McClain will have to post a $1 million bond on the estate, Beckloff ruled. Their authority over the estate will expire Aug. 3, when another hearing on the estate will be held.
    "Mr. Branca and Mr. McClain for the next month are at the helm of the ship," Beckloff said.Attorneys also disclosed that another Jackson will from 1997 has been lodged with the court, but will only become a factor if the 2002 will is invalidated. Details of the older will were not disclosed.Levitch, an attorney for Katherine Jackson, told Beckloff that Branca had previously been removed from financial positions of authority by Jackson. Branca's attorney says he was rehired by Jackson on June 17, days before Jackson's death.Katherine Jackson did not appear at Monday's hearing. Branca did attend.

    Levitch said it was unclear whether McClain would serve as an administrator because he was of ailing health. Attorneys for McClain and Branca described him as having a physical disability but having a completely sound mind. They also noted a decades-long relationship with the Jackson family.

    The judge granted Branca and McClain several powers over the estate, including the rights to negotiate a settlement with concert promoter AEG Live over refunds for Jackson's canceled London shows. Beckloff stressed that Katherine Jackson should be given complete information about major transactions, but that he as the judge would grant final approval.

    John E. Schreiber, an attorney for Katherine Jackson, said, "Frankly, Mrs. Jackson has concerns about handing over the keys to the kingdom."

    Branca had a 5 percent interest in Sony/ATV Music Publishing in September 2005, according to Uniform Commercial Code filings in New York, but his interest was terminated in December 2007.

    Branca also was a trustee in MJ Publishing Trust, which held Jackson's 50-percent stake, but is not believed to be any longer, said John Schreiber, a lawyer for Katherine Jackson.

    Her lawyers had argued in court that Katherine Jackson needed to be special administrator of the estate to be able to determine if Branca and McClain had other dealings with Jackson or his partners.

    Paul Gordon Hoffman, an attorney for Branca and McClain, said some of Katherine Jackson's concerns were unfounded.

    "We're not aware of any real conflicts at all," he said in response to a claim that the men may have business dealings with parties such as concert promoter AEG Live.

    In contrast, Hoffman said Jackson's mother had more of a potential conflict administering the estate because she is a likely beneficiary.

    "If there are any conflicts by the parties, Katherine Jackson rather than Mr. McClain and Mr. Branca have them," Hoffman said.

    Beckloff noted the contentious relationship brewing between Katherine Jackson and Branca, who personally delivered the will to the family's home a week ago.

    "We're getting off to a bit of a rocky start here out of the gate," Beckloff said toward the end of Monday's hearing.

    L. Londell McMillan, Katherine Jackson's main attorney, said after the hearing that he did not expect a protracted fight.

    "We have no reason to believe this is going to turn into a nasty fight over millions and millions of dollars," McMillan said.

    He said he and other attorneys will be watching Branca's and McClain's actions closely.

    "We will be working to ensure that Mr. Jackson's legacy will be treated with dignity," McMillan said. "Mr. Jackson's life and legacy will be memorialized tomorrow and we will move forward."

    Associated Press Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch and Associated Press writers Daisy Nguyen and Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report

     

     

    Related

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_michael_jackson_memorial;_ylt=Ak2zm1YlxGnWtcPKzYqoKbonHL8C;
    _ylu=X3oDMTE2YmdmNnFpBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bi1yLWItbGVmdARzb


    A child passes a large poster at the Staples Center in Los Angeles , Sunday,













    AP – A child passes a large poster at the Staples Center in Los Angeles , Sunday, July 5, 2009.
    The venue 

    Debbie Rowe confirmed to attend Jackson memorial

    LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe will attend the pop superstar's memorial service.

    Former Jackson business associate Marc Schaffel said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that Rowe was confirmed for VIP seats
    . Rowe is the mother of Jackson's two oldest children.

    Meanwhile, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she'd "love it" if the Jacksons helped defray some of the city's expected costs associated
    with Tuesday's memorial, but that officials hadn't heard from the family.

    Perry said the city didn't immediately have an estimate of those costs. More than 1.6 million fans registered online for a chance to attend the
    Staples Center
     ceremony, and only 8,750 names were chosen. Los Angeles officials are concerned about other fans clogging city streets.

    "We're encouraging people to stay away," Perry said on CBS' "The Early Show" on Monday.

    The Rev. Al Sharpton, in an appearance Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America," made no mention of whether the Jacksons would help the city
    with some of the expected costs.

    "The city is trying to do what it should do to secure people," said Sharpton, a family friend. "That's what cities do. Clearly, no one in the family
    are happy that the city is incurring any expense at all. You're talking about an historic figure that will have an historic celebration, probably one
    that we would not see similar in this generation."

    Meanwhile, lucky fans celebrated when they got an e-mail saying they had scored the hottest ticket in town. "Congratulations, your application
    was successful," said the message sent to Deka Motanya, 27, of San Francisco.

    She immediately Twittered: "OMG OMG OMG OMG i got tickets to the michael jackson memorial service!!!"

    It was a real-life version of Willy Wonka's golden tickets. Each selected person gets a pair of free tickets, with the odds of being chosen about 1 in 183.

    Dozens of police officers and a fire truck were parked outside Dodger Stadium on Monday, where ticket winners could start picking up their coveted passes.

    Nancy Kothari, 31, drove all night from Yuma, Arizona, to be at the stadium before the gates opened.

    "I grew up with Michael Jackson, with his music," Kothari said. "`Thriller' was the first album I ever had."

    Kothari said she expected the service to be "extremely sad."

    "I'm kind of nervous in a way, but also excited," she said.

    Tickets were handed out in a drive-through process. Voucher holders had to get past a police checkpoint outside the stadium, then drive into a parking
    lot where orange traffic cones marked about 20 lanes. A police officer and an event staffer stood at the end of each lane. Drivers pulled up, handed over
    their vouchers, had a band placed on their wrist and were given tickets and another wristband.

    Ticket winners were to show up with a unique code and instructions, and organizers were to check IDs to make sure those picking up wristbands were
    the same people who originally applied online, said Staples Center spokesman Michael Roth.

    Fans must have both the ticket and the wristband to enter Staples Center on Tuesday. Wristbands that have been ripped, taped or tampered with will
    be voided.

    But Roth acknowledged that high-priced scalping of the free passes was possible because winners were permitted to give anyone their second bracelet.

    "Theoretically, the second wrist band can be sold," Roth said.

    Organizers were considering how to distribute any unclaimed seats, but had not immediately decided on a plan, Roth said.

    The memorial service will be broadcast live on five television networks.

    David Gobaud, 25, who studies computer science at Stanford University, said he didn't believe his e-mail of acceptance was real at first.
     "It's Michael Jackson, one of the greatest musical stars of all time," he said.

    Zach Moss, a 21-year-old ticket winner from Chicago who is working as a DJ in Las Vegas this summer, said clubgoers have responded strongly
    to Jackson's music since his death.

    "You can play two, three Michael Jackson songs back to back and people are going to have this huge jubilation celebration," he said.
    "Everyone throws their drinks up and shouts, 'MJ!' It's extremely powerful."

    The tickets will admit 11,000 people to the Staples Center plus 6,500 in the Nokia Theater overflow section next door. The streets around
    Staples Center will be closed to prevent those without tickets from trying to attend, police said.

    Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell warned the ticketless to stay away. He would not say how many police would be on the job, but alluded
    to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the recent championship celebration for the Los Angeles Lakers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

    "You'll be standing in the hot sun on a city street with a lot of other people," he said. "But not within eyeshot of Staples."

    The ceremony will not be shown on Staples' giant outdoor TV screen and there will be no funeral procession through the city.
    No details were available about the actual memorial events.

    The joyful anticipation among the chosen fans comes as the courts continue to untangle the future of Jackson's estate and police probe the
     circumstances of his death.

    Jackson died at age 50 on June 25 after going into cardiac arrest in the bedroom of his rented mansion.
    The cause of Jackson's death has not been determined. Autopsy results are not expected for several weeks.

    Jackson's family was planning a private ceremony at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills,
    McDonnell said. He did not provide further details.

    Associated Press Writers Jacob Adelman and Michael R. Blood, Television Writer David Bauder and
    National Writer Jesse Washington contributed to this report.

    Michael Jackson dies at 50
    Slideshow:Michael Jackson dies at 50

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    Court Sides With MJ's Will And WishesCBS 2 / KCAL 9 Los Angeles -

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