A.I.G. MAY SUE U.S. GOVERNMENT: At the height of the financial crisis in September 2008, the U.S. government stepped in to rescue American International Group in a highly controversial bailout, without which the insurance giant would have gone bankrupt. Now that AIG has paid back the $182 billion, the company has been running a national advertising campaign with the slogan, "Thank you America." But the New York Times reported yesterday that the company is also considering joining a shareholder lawsuit against the federal government. The suit contends that the terms of the rescue were onerous, depriving shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violating the Fifth Amendment, which ban the taking of private property for public use without just compensation. The main complaints are about the government taking a 92 percent stake in AIG, the deal's high interest rates, and sending billions to the insurer's Wall Street clients to settle credit-default swaps AIG had with the banks.

911 CALLS PLAYED DURING AURORA MASSACRE PRE-TRIAL HEARING: Two 911 calls from the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater massacre last July were played in court yesterday (January 8th) on day two of a preliminary hearing that will determine whether there's enough evidence to put suspect James Holmes on trial. In one call, a 13-year-old girl pleaded for help for two wounded relatives, one of whom, her six-year-old cousin Veronica Moser-Sullivan, died. In the other, the sound of some 30 gunshots can be heard. In other testimony yesterday, police detective Craig Appel said that during an initial interrogation, Holmes tried to put a staple he found on a desk into an electrical outlet, and after he'd had plastic bags put over his hands to preserve any traces of gunpowder residue, he gestured with one of the bags as if it were a talking hand puppet. An FBI explosive expert talked about how Holmes told authorities he booby-trapped his apartment because he wanted to divert emergency personnel to his apartment while he carried out the theater attack. And another agent testified that Holmes began buying guns, ammunition and other gear about two months before the shooting.

GIFFORDS, KELLY LAUNCH GUN CONTROL PAC: On the two-year anniversary of the assassination attempt that left her with serious injuries, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, ex-astronaut Mark Kelly, announced that they were launching a political action committee aimed at reducing gun violence. In a USA Today op-ed, the two wrote that the PAC, called Americans for Responsible Solutions, would help raise money to support greater gun control efforts, seeking to, quote, "balance the influence of the gun lobby." The couple made clear that they are not anti-gun, however, saying they themselves own guns and support Second Amendment rights. Giffords and Kelly were in Newtown, Connecticut, last week, where they met with the family members of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims.

2012 WAS HOTTEST YEAR ON RECORD FOR U.S. BY BIG MARGIN: Last year was the hottest on record for the U.S. by a big margin, the government announced Tuesday (January 8th), with the average annual temperature up to 55.32 degrees, a full degree warmer than the old record set in 1998. Scientists say breaking temperature records by an entire degree is unprecedented, with records normally broken by a tenth of a degree or so. According to researchers, the U.S. heat is caused partially by natural weather variations, such as the drought that hit nearly two-thirds of the nation and the effects of La Nina, as well as by climate change from man-made greenhouse gases. Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech, told AP that the temperature increases being caused by climate change are happening faster than scientists had predicted.

VENEZUELA TO POSTPONE INAUGURATION OF HOSPITALIZED CHAVEZ: Venezuela's government announced Tuesday (January 8th) that it will postpone the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez to a new term due to his health problems, as the 58-year-old leader remains hospitalized in Cuba after undergoing surgery a month ago, his fourth operation since being diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer in June 2011. Official medical bulletins say Chavez has a severe pulmonary infection and has had trouble breathing, and some believe he may be dying. However, Venezuelan government leaders insist Chavez, who's led Venezuela for 14 years, is completely fulfilling his duties as head of state. Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who Chavez indicated he wanted to succeed him if he not able to recover, has taken over the day-to-day running of the government. Opposition leaders were outraged by yesterday's announcement, insisting that Chavez must be sworn in on January 10th as dictated in the nation's constitution, or temporarily step aside. If Chavez were to die or step aside, new elections would be called within 30 days.

MEDGAR EVERS' WIDOW TO DELIVER INVOCATION AT INAUGURATION: The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Tuesday (January 8th) that Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of civil rights icon Medgar Evers, will deliver the invocation at President Obama's swearing-in ceremony on January 21st. Evers-Williams, herself a longtime civil rights activist, said she was "humbled" by being asked to do the invocation. Medgar Evers, the NAACP's Mississippi field secretary, was killed in the driveway of his Jackson home in 1963 in a racially-charged murder that helped spur the civil rights movement.

GLOBAL SEARCH BEGINS FOR MARS COLONISTS: The Netherlands-based nonprofit organization Mars One, which is planning to establish a colony on Mars, has begun the search for people to live on the Red Planet. Mars One released its basic requirements yesterday (January 8th), saying the most important criteria for the potential astronaut/colonists are intelligence, good mental and physical health, and dedication to the project. After being chosen, they will undergo eight years of training before the launch. The colony plan calls for a series of robotic cargo missions between 2016 and 2021, which will build a habitable outpost ahead of the arrival of the first four colonists in 2023. More colonists will arrive every two years, with not plans to return any of them to Earth. Mars One intends to fund most of its plans with a global reality TV project that will follow the effort from astronaut selection through to the settlers' first years on Mars.

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PUPPY BOWL RETURNING FOR ANOTHER YEAR: Puppy Bowl will be back for another year, as Animal Planet announced Tuesday (January 8th) that the annual adorable tradition will air on February 3rd, Super Bowl Sunday, from 3 to 5 p.m. There will be 63 puppies competing at the newly-named Geico Stadium, with a few new elements added this year. Among them, hedgehog cheerleaders will be on the sidelines, "Puppy Cam" technology will gave up close shots or puppy faces and limbs as they play, and an off-field camera will show substitute puppies warming up in a special puppy hot tub. Also back will be the Kitty Half-Time Show, with kittens tumbling and playing as the puppies get a break between halves

RG3 TO HAVE SURGERY ON TORN KNEE LIGAMENT: Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III is having surgery today (January 9th) on a torn collateral ligament in his right knee, and the procedure will also determine whether the rookie sensation also hurt the ACL in the knee, which could keep him out for most of next season if true, both AP and USA Today reported last night. Griffin was already playing with a brace in Sunday's wild card playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks, which Washington lost, after injuring his knee three weeks earlier. He hurt it again when he fell awkwardly in the first quarter, but stayed in the game, obviously hobbled, until the knee buckled in the fourth quarter when he tried to recover a bad snap.

STONE SOUR READYING NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO FOR FEBRUARY: Stone Sour will send its new single, "Do Me A Favor," to rock radio stations on February 12th, according to Blabbermouth. A video is already in the planning stages, with director Phil Mucci tapped to film the clip. Singer Corey Taylor gave Pulse of Radio a preview of what to expect from the song: "It's quite aggressive, and actually the label asked me if I would go in and tame stuff down and I was like, 'No.' I'm not doing that. This is going out the way it is and I'm not gonna touch it up. I'm not gonna have people looking for a song that doesn't exist. This is the way it is on the album, that's the way it's going to be when we put it out to radio."

  • "Do Me A Favor" is taken from House Of Gold And Bones, Part 2, the second half of Stone Sour's ambitious double concept album.
  • House Of Gold And Bones, Part 1 came out last fall, with the conclusion expected to arrive in April.
  • The CD's release with coincide with the publication of the first of a four-issue comic book series based on the album's storyline.

METALLICA 3D MOVIE INFLUENCED BY LED ZEPPELIN FILM: Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has revealed in a new interview with Classic Rock magazine some more details about the band's upcoming 3D feature film, which will combine concert footage with a fictional storyline. Ulrich cited the 1976 Led Zeppelin movie, The Song Remains The Same, as a major influence, explaining, "There are four members in Led Zeppelin, four members in Metallica, it's a full-length movie, and there's a lot in this film that does not take place onstage. The major difference is that the stuff that takes place offstage in the Metallica movie does not feature any members of Metallica. It's two separate worlds -- a Metallica show and a story that unfolds in a parallel universe -- and at some point they intertwine."

  • The Zeppelin film interspersed concert footage with fantasy sequences starring each member of the group.
  • The concert sequences for Metallica's movie were shot last August at two shows in Vancouver, Canada. The movie is directed by Nimrod Antal, who helmed 2010's Predators.
  • Ulrich told Pulse of Radio a while back that making a movie has been one of the most daunting challenges Metallica has ever taken on: "It's sort of fun, it's intimidating, it's a little overwhelming, to be honest, because it's a whole different league. You know, when we go down to HQ and record and make a record, it's kind of -- you know, we can manage the size of that (laughs). When you're talking about doing like a 3D movie that you're gonna like play all over the world, that's a little bit of a bigger undertaking, so obviously we're treading a little more carefully."
  • A summer 2013 release is expected for Metallica's film, which does not yet have a title.
  • Metallica has also begun working on material for its 10th studio album, which the band expects to begin recording later this year for a 2014 arrival.

MICHAEL BAY ANNOUNCES TWO MORE 'TRANSFORMERS' MOVIES: Michael Bay has made it known that the upcoming fourth Transformers movie will kick off a whole new trilogy for the franchise. Mark Wahlberg is set to star in the fourth film.

AL ROKER INVITED TO APPEAR IN NEW 'JACKASS' FILM: Johnny Knoxville has invited Al Roker to appear in the new Jackass movie to shart on camera. The invitation comes after Roker revealed to Dateline that he had an incident at the White House where he attempted to fart but accidentally pooped himself.

'FIFTY SHADES OF GREY' SCREENWRITER AIMING FOR NC-17 RATING: Kelly Marcel, the screenwriter for the film adaptation of E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey says the film version will be raunchy enough to earn an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. Though the film is still in the works and has not been rated yet, fans can be sure that Marcel will "100% go there" with the sex scenes.

MAN CLIMBS SUBMERGED NJ ROLLER COASTER TO RAISE AMERICAN FLAG: A 38-year-old New Jersey man climbed the partially submerged Seaside Heights roller coaster and posted an American flag to raise awareness for shore recovery efforts. Christopher Angelo was handcuffed and arrested when he climbed down. The coaster ended up in the water after Hurricane Sandy devastated the area, and has remained since the storm hit at the end of October. (AP)

WOMAN ASKS POLICE TO BE TAKEN TO JAIL: Police called to a convenience store in Kitsap, Washington said a woman approached an officer holding a 22-ounce-soda and asked to be taken to jail. The officer told the woman that she could not go to jail because she had not committed a crime. The woman allegedly responded by asking the officer, "What if I assault you?" before swinging her plastic bottle of soda at the officer's nose. The woman allegedly then turned around and put her hands together to be cuffed. She was charged with felony assault of a police officer and jailed in lieu of bail. (UPI)

MAN WAKES UP FROM STROKE ONLY SPEAKING WELSH: An 81-year-old man in England who spoke English for most of his life woke up from a stroke speaking Welsh, a language he said he knew as a child. The man's wife, Yvonne Morgan, said she and her husband Alun were born to Welsh speaking parents but mostly spoke English to each other. Alun said the English gradually came back but at first when he came out of the coma, he only spoke a few words in Welsh. He added, "Only my wife could understand what I was saying, and doctors were confused." (The Telegraph)

WIFE CALLS POLICE, TELLS THEM HER HUSBAND WON'T HAVE SEX WITH HER: A 53-year-old woman in Chandler, Arizona called police on her husband and told police she was upset because she and her husband "stopped having sex." Police said Gloria Pratt was intoxicated when they arrived but that no crime had been committed by Pratt or her husband. On their way out of the residence, police overheard the woman yelling at her husband, demanding that he "do something" before threatening, "I'm going to kill you." Police knocked on the door again and arrested Pratt, charging her with disorderly conduct and domestic violence. Pratt reportedly told police, after her arrest, that her husband was going to "get what was coming to him now." (AZCentral.com)

WOMAN SENT TO PRISON AFTER ROBBING WHITE CASTLE WITH TOY GUN: A St. Louis, Missouri woman who robbed a White Castle by crawling through the drive-thru window and threatening workers with a toy gun was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Michelle Faye White pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in November and was sentenced last week. During White's holdup of White Castle in August of 2011 she passed a note to the cashier demanded money and threatening to shoot. She even flashed the red, toy water gun. White then got out of her vehicle, crawled through the window and took a metal cash register drawer but left her water gun behind. Officers caught up with White at her apartment, thanks to a firefighter in the drive-thru who wrote down White's license plate number. White has a previous conviction for manslaughter, possession of drug paraphernalia and stealing. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

APP HELPS YOU FIGURE OUT WHO GOT YOU SICK: Trying to figure out who to blame for giving you the flu? There's an app for that - it's called "Help, I have the Flu," and scans your Facebook friend's status updates and more for clues. The app scans status updates for words such as, "coughing," "sneezing," and "flu." It even checks the places that they checked in, and even takes into account what time they posted, as several late-night posts might indicate sleep-deprivation and would thus make the friend more susceptible to catching the flu. The app even lets the user message the friend in question to let them know they've passed the flu on to someone else. (Huffington Post)

FAST FOOD FACTS FROM A FAST FOOD WORKER (Reader's Digest):

1) After we cook something, we put it in a holding cabinet and set a timer. When the timer goes off, we're supposed to throw it out. But often, we just reheat the food. So for the freshest meal, come between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. or between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. More people are in the restaurant then, so we're cooking and serving new food constantly.
2) That plain chicken breast may have been a healthy choice right out of the package. But sometimes we have to slather it with butter just to make sure it doesn't stick to the grill.
3) Most fast-food joints clean everything, including the grills and drink machine nozzles, with super-concentrated chemicals at the end of the day. If you're one of the first customers in the morning, you may be getting some of that chemical residue on the food or in the drink you order.
4) Those grill marks on your burger? Not real. They were put there by the factory.
5) Most of us will cook something fresh for you if you ask. But if you want to make sure your french fries come right out of the fryer, order them without salt; that forces us to cook you a new batch. Then you can add your own salt.
6) Avoid asking for "extra" of something, like cheese or sauce. As soon as you say "extra," we have to enter it at the register and charge you for it. Instead, just tell us you want us to "put a good amount on there" or "not to be skimpy with it," and we'll load you up.
7) Yes our chili is made from what you think. Meat from old burgers.
8) It makes me laugh when someone comes in and says she's trying to be healthy - and then orders a salad with crispy chicken. At McDonald's, some of those salads have about as many calories as a Big Mac. In fact, a small order of french fries contains four fewer grams of fat than a packet of our ranch dressing.
9) Because we're timed on how fast we get customers through the drive-though...we always prioritize those in line outside over anyone at the front counter.
10) One of my co-workers once got so mad that he spit in someone's food. He was suspended for three days; most of us would never do something like that.
11) Here's a good way to know how clean a fast-food establishment really is: When you get your drink, bend down and look up into the ice chute. If you see mold and other stuff growing in there - which is more common than you might expect - they're not cleaning the machine as often as they're supposed to.
12) Those gorgeous pictures of our food in our advertisements? They're airbrushed and touched up with fiberglass and paint. It probably takes two hours to make that picture; obviously, we're not going to be able to replicate that.
13) Please, please, get off your cell phone. I've had people pull up to the window, pay, and drive away without their food because they're talking on the phone and not paying attention. Then they're mad at me.