MORE TWISTS IN PETRAEUS SCANDAL: There were more twists in the David Petraeus scandal on Monday (November 12th), which came as AP cited former staff members and
friends of the retired general and now ex-CIA director as saying he was shocked to learn over the summer that his biographer-turned mistress, Paula Broadwell, was suspected of sending threatening emails warning another woman to stay away from him. Petraeus told these associates his relationship with the second woman, married Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, was
platonic. In an unexpected new twist in the case, the Pentagon said early today that General John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is under investigation for alleged, quote, "inappropriate communications" with Kelley, although what those communications were about hasn't been revealed.  Additionally, an FBI search was apparently conducted last night at Broadwell's North Carolina home.

It was Broadwell's harassing emails to Kelly that launched the FBI investigation that
eventually led to Petraeus' affair being discovered. The FBI concluded relatively quickly that no security breach had occurred, according to AP, but the investigation continued into whether Petraeus had any role in the harassing emails. The FBI didn't reveal the investigation to Congress or the White House, finally telling President Obama's director of intelligence, James Clapper, about it on Election Day last week. Clapper called Petraeus that night and urged him to resign, and Obama was informed of the investigation Thursday, before Petraeus came to personally offer his resignation.

Although Congress didn't know, an FBI source notified Republican Rep. Dave Reichert
of Washington in late October that the CIA director was involved in an affair.  Reichert arranged for an associate of his source at the FBI to call House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Cantor notified the FBI's chief of staff about the conversation, but didn't tell anyone else because he didn't know if it was credible. The FBI told Cantor it couldn't confirm or deny an investigation, but assured his office that it was acting to protect national security. Justice
Department policy is not to share information from an ongoing criminal investigation with anyone, including the White House and Congress, unless national security is involved, which is wasn't in this case.

AP reported last night that the FBI agent who contacted Reichert was the same one
who first was told about the allegations by Kelley. That agent's role in the case consisted only of passing along information from Kelley to the FBI agents who conducted the investigation, but that agent was later told to stay away from the case because they were concerned that he'd become obsessed with it.  The agent was a friend of Kelley and had previously sent her shirtless photos of himself.

NATURAL GAS BEING EYED IN INDIANAPOLIS EXPLOSION: The investigation into what caused a massive explosion in an Indianapolis neighborhood this weekend that killed
two people and injured seven focused on natural gas Monday (November 12th), with officials checking gas lines and a homeowner saying a faulty furnace could be to blame. Officials cautioned, however, that it was too soon to rule out other causes, saying only that they don't believe a meth lab caused the explosion that destroyed two homes and severely damaged dozens of others.

FIVE FOUND DEAD IN OHIO GARAGE IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE: Five people were found dead, including three children, in a Toledo, Ohio, garage Monday (November 12th) in what appears to be a murder-suicide. The children, ages 10, 6 and 5, their 54-year-old grandmother, and 32-year-old uncle were found in a car with hoses leading into it from the exhaust of a running truck. Their bodies were found when the husband of the grandmother, Sandy Ford, had called police to say he found suspicious notes in the house and couldn't get into the garage. Police said the children had been primarily living with their grandparents, but their parents were trying to regain full custody. It's believed Ford was upset about
that.

SOUNDGARDEN UNLEASHES ‘KING ANIMAL’ TODAY: Soundgarden releases its first album in 16 years, titled King Animal, on Tuesday (November 13th). The disc is the first
collection of all-new studio material since 1996's Down On The Upside and the first fresh recordings by the legendary Seattle grunge act since they reunited in 2010.  Drummer Matt Cameron told Pulse of Radio that the band deliberately stayed away from anything that would put pressure on the group -- like a record label -- and just had fun recording: "You know, it was kind of cool just to go in there and just record for ourselves, basically. We knew that our fans would like it, and we just wanted to try to make a record that would stand up with the rest of our catalog. I think the only pressure we put was on ourselves, or from ourselves,
and yeah, it was kind of nice, like, not having that added pressure of any kind
of label interference."

• In a review posted on Monday (November 12th), Loudwire said that King Animal "settles in nicely, picking up right where the band left off so many years ago and taking care of a lot of unfinished business."  The review added that the disc "offers up
       an eclectic mix of visual imagery, thought provoking prose, all set to a timeless
       soundscape of flourishing rock with a reminiscent feel."
• Earlier this week the band unveiled the details of a winter 2013 North American tour that will kick off on January 18th in Washington DC and feature a number of two-night stops in cities like New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and the group's hometown of Seattle.
• Soundgarden will also play three "intimate" North American shows this month to celebrate the  release of King Animal, in New York City on Tuesday, in Toronto on November 16th and in Los Angeles on November 27th.
• The band also performed on Monday night (November 12th) on CBS-TV's Late Show With David Letterman, with a longer performance on his Live From Letterman webcast.

THREE DAYS GRACE AND SHINEDOWN PLAN CO-HEADLINING TOUR: Three Days
Grace and Shinedown will team up for a co-headlining arena tour of the U.S., starting on February 1st in Moline, Illinois. 14 dates have been confirmed so far, with more to be announced. P.O.D. will be the special guest opening act on all dates. Three Days Grace said in a statement, "We can't wait to get back out on the road to play live for our fans; that's the best part of doing what we do."

Shinedown's Brent Smith added, "Shinedown prides itself on always taking our live shows to the next level and giving our fans everything they want -- honest, emotional, and incendiary
performances. This tour is no exception. In fact, we're raising the bar."

• Three Days Grace just wrapped up more than a dozen shows in intimate venues to support the release of the band's new album, Transit Of Venus.
• The disc's first single, "Chalk Outline," has hit Number One on the Active Rock and Mainstream Rock  radio charts.
• Shinedown's fourth album, Amaryllis, came out earlier this year and hit Number Four on the Billboard chart.  The current single, "Enemies," is the third track to make the
       Top 10 at rock radio. Confirmed Three Days Grace / Shinedown
       tour dates (subject to change):
  
       February 1 - Moline, IL - iWireless Center
  
       February 2 - Madison, WI - Alliant Energy Center
  
       February 5 - Minneapolis, MN - Target Center
  
       February 6 - Green Bay, WI - Resch Center
  
       February 8 - Nashville TN - Bridgestone Arena
  
       February 9 - Huntington, WV - Big Sandy Superstore
  
       February 10 - Knoxville, TN - Knoxville Civic Auditorium Coliseum
  
       February 12 - Saginaw, MI - DOW Events Center
  
       February 13 - Battle Creek, MI - Kellogg Arena
  
       February 15 - Fort Wayne, IN - Allen Co War Memorial
  
       February 16 - Lexington, KY - Rupp Arena
  
       February 17 - Reading, PA - Sovereign Center
  
       February 19 - Baltimore, MD - 1st Mariner Arena
  
       February 20 - Lowell, MA - Tsongas Center

NEW DEFTONES ALBUM OUT, COULD BE BEST OF BAND’S CAREER: Deftones issue their seventh studio album, titled Koi No Yokan, on Tuesday (November 13th). The disc follows up 2010's Diamond Eyes, the band's biggest hit since 2002's White Pony, and is already
riding a wave of advance critical acclaim. The LA Music Blog called it "the best album from Deftones in years and quite possibly the best in their entire career," while Loudwire reported that "if the Smashing Pumpkins were heavier, ballsier and angrier, they'd make albums that sound like this."

Frontman Chino Moreno told Pulse of Radio that he thinks the new album is a perfect example of what Deftones does best: "Some of my favorite things about Deftones are the dynamics. I mean, yes, we're a heavy band, but we're not just like, you know, in your face, aggro, the whole time, punching you in the face. There's also this very soothing element where there's, you know, a lot of soundscapes and a lot of outside influences other than just, you know, attack, attack the whole time. I don't know, I really think we meld those things great."

SECOND NEW GREEN DAY ALBUM ARRIVES AMIDST UNCERTAIN FUTURE: Green Day releases the second of three new albums, Dos!, on Tuesday (November 13th), although not under the circumstances the band probably first envisioned. Just days before the release of the first record, Uno!, on September 25th, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong had a profanity-laced meltdown at a Las Vegas festival and entered rehab a few days later, where he remains. The group has since canceled all promotional events and tour dates for the rest of 2012 and the first two months of 2013, with the trio's plans beyond that yet to be decided.

In reviews published this week, the Los Angeles Times called Dos! "a far better record than Uno! In fact, it's an excellent Green Day album -- one of its best." The Toronto Star, on the other hand, called the new disc "thoroughly ordinary" and "astonishingly tuneless coming from a band that can usually be depended on for a few hooks."

• The last of Green Day's three new albums, Tre!, will now come out on December 11th of this year instead of January 15th, 2013.
• Drummer Tre Cool said, "We feel bad we have to delay our tour, so to make
       up for it we want to give our fans the music earlier than we had planned."

ANOTHER NEW RELEASE FROM SLASH ON THE WAY: Slash will release a special three-disc "enhanced" edition of his sophomore solo album, Apocalyptic Love, on November 19th
exclusively through Best Buy. The set includes the original 15-song album, two additional bonus songs, eight previously unreleased acoustic tracks and the "Live From NY" concert DVD filmed at Slash's record-release show in New york City. The package will also include a collectible guitar pick tin. (Blabbermouth)

UPCOMING RUSH RELEASE: Rush will release three deluxe editions of its landmark 1976 concept album 2112 on December 18th. The CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray versions will feature 5.1 Surround Sound mixes, three unreleased live tracks and the first-ever Rush digital comic book, along with a new album cover, liner notes and unpublished photos. The super deluxe
package contains the CD/Blu-ray and all the other features, plus a 40-page physical comic book illustrating every song on the record, all collected in a hardbound case.

NICK AND JOANNA GARCIA SWISHER ARE HAVING A BABY: Despite NBC pulling the plug on her recent series Animal Hospital, Joanna Garcia Swisher and her former Yankee husband, Nick, have much to celebrate as they announced they are expecting a baby set to
arrive in the Spring of 2013. The news was announced on Nick Swisher's Facebook page.

MUPPETEER WHO VOICES ELMO ACCUSED OF HAVING SEX WITH A MINOR: Kevin Clash, the man who created and has voiced the beloved Sesame Street character Elmo
since the muppet's debut on the show has taken a leave of absence following
allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy. Clash
admits to a relationship but claims that his involvement with the accuser was
between two consenting adults.

The accuser, who is now 23, has hired the same law firm who represented one of Jerry Sandusky's victims. Sesame Workshop, who was first approached about this situation back in June, released a statement on their website today calling the accusations of underage conduct
unsubstantiated and that an investigation only revealed that Mr. Clash violated
the company policy regarding internet usage. His leave of absence was explained
as a need 'to protect his reputation.'

• This is the first sex scandal associated with Sesame Street in the show's 43-year history.

INT'L. ENERGY AGENCY: U.S. TO BE WORLD'S TOP OIL PRODUCER BY 2017: The International Energy Agency said in its annual long-term report out Monday (November 12th) that the U.S. will overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's top oil producer
by 2017. Additionally, the IEA said that by 2035, the U.S., which currently imports about 20
percent of its total energy, would become nearly energy self-sufficient.  Driving the IEA's optimistic forecasts, which are in sharp contrast to its previous reports, is the boom in oil and gas being extracted from shale through the controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing, dubbed "fracking."

MORE WOMEN THAN MEN NOW HAVE DRIVER'S LICENSES: For the first time since cars first hit the road at the dawn of the 20th century, more women than men now have driver's
licenses, and the current trend indicates the gap will only widen. A study from the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute that covered the years 1995 to 2010, found that at the start of the research, male drivers slightly outnumbered women, 89.2 million to 87.4 million. But by 15 years later, women had 105.7 million licenses compared to 104.3 million men.  Study co-author Michael Sivak predicted that this will likely have safety and
economic implications, since women are more likely than men to buy smaller,
safer and more fuel-efficient cars, to drive less, and to have a lower fatality
rate per distance driven.

U.S. HAS THE WORLD'S FASTEST SUPERCOMPUTER: The U.S. has grabbed the world's fastest supercomputer crown back this year from China and Japan, after falling behind
them starting in 2009. A new, $100 million supercomputer called Titan has been found to be the fastest, with a performance record of 17.59 petaflops per second, which equals quadrillions of calculations per second. The supercomputer is based at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and beat the former champion, the Sequoia supercomputer at California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The U.S. currently has three of the top five
fastest supercomputers, with the other two in Japan and Germany.

UPS ENDS DONATIONS TO BOY SCOUTS OVER ANTI-GAY POLICY: UPS has decided that it will no longer make donations to the Boy Scouts of America as long as gay youth and adults are banned from being members or leaders in the Scouts. The UPS Foundation, which gave more than $850,000 to the Boy Scouts in 2011, made the change after an online petition
protesting its annual grants to the organization drew more than 80,000 signatures. A UPS spokeswoman said groups applying for foundation grants will have to follow the same standards the company does by not discriminating based on race, religion, disability or sexual orientation. The move from UPS follows computer chipmaker Intel also withdrawing their corporate donations to the Boy Scouts over the anti-gay policy.

OXFORD AMERICAN DICTIONARY NAMES 'GIF' WORD OF THE YEAR: The Oxford
American Dictionary has named "gif," which stands for graphics interchange format and is a common format for images on the Internet, as its word of the year. Although gif was first released by CompuServe back in 1987, it's had a cultural resurgence in recent years, most commonly used for funny commentary. Katherine Martin, head of the U.S. dictionaries program at Oxford, said, "Gif celebrated a lexical milestone in 2012, gaining traction as a verb, not just a noun. The gif has evolved from a medium for pop-cultural memes into a tool with serious applications, including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is
transforming to keep pace." This year's runner-up was the abbreviation "YOLO," which stands for "You only live once."

COULD CRYSTAL METH HELP FIGHT THE FLU?: Scientists In Taiwan say the illegal drug methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth, may have flu-fighting properties. To figure this out, researchers exposed cells found in the lining of human lungs to various amounts of methamphetamine, and then exposed them to a strand of the influenza virus. After about two-days researchers found that the meth-exposed cells had fewer influenza viruses left alive than the control group of cells that were not exposed to meth. Doctors do not recommend taking the drug, but say they hope this research will lead to treatments or a cure for influenza in the future. (Daily Mail)

FACEBOOK TESTING A SOUND ALERT FEATURE FOR WALL POSTS: Facebook is testing out a new sound alert system that plays a "ding dong" noise each time someone writes
on your timeline, sends you a message, or invites you to an event. Facebook says that only a small number of profiles have been enabled with the new sound alerts, which can be controlled through account settings. Facebook says it's also working on a new comments system. (Fox News)

ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO YOUR CELL PHONE?: New scientific data shows your cell phone might be making you itch. Researchers analyzed 75-cell-phones to see which models contain two common allergens - cobalt and nickel. Flip phones contained the most nickel, and in the category of smart phones the Blackberry was the only model to contain either of the allergens. According to the Mayo Clinic, if your skin is in contact with the metal too long you could develop an allergy to it. (Women's Health)

STRANGE BEAUTY PRODUCT: COLLAGEN DRINKS: Would you consider drinking a beauty product? That's exactly what the creators of "Pure Gold Collagen" - a beauty drink-- want you
to do. "Pure Gold Collagen" contains collagen - a protein in the skin that gives it a youthful look. Creators of the drink claim drinking it boosts collagen levels in the skin. One dermatologist says he hasn't seen any evidence that taking collagen orally would improve the quantity of collagen in the skin. (Daily Mail)