MANHUNT FOR FIRED LAPD OFFICER WHO'S KILLED THREE: A manhunt is ongoing in California after a fired Los Angeles Police Department officer who threatened, quote, "warfare" against the LAPD killed three people, including a policeman. The focus of the search narrowed
yesterday afternoon (February 7th) to the mountains around Big Bear Lake, about 80 miles east of L.A., where police found Christopher Dorner's burned-out pickup truck and tracks leading away from it. Earlier in the day, nervous officers patrolling in Southern California mistakenly shot and wounded two innocent people in a vehicle resembling Dorner's, and shot at another similar vehicle, but didn't injure the driver. Police guards were also posted outside the homes of people Dorner vowed to attack, including officers and their families, in a  manifesto he posted online. In it, the 33-year-old Dorner, who also served in the Naval
Reserves, wrote, "I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" to the LAPD, stating, "I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own, I'm terminating yours."

The search for Dorner, who was fired from the LAPD in 2008 on the charge of making
false statements, began after he was linked to a killing Sunday in which one of the victims, 28-year-old Monica Quan, was the daughter of a former police captain who had represented him during his disciplinary hearing, in which the tribunal ruled against him. Quan and her fiance, 27-year-old Keith Lawrence, were found shot in their car at their condominium. Yesterday, two officers on patrol in Riverside were ambushed at a stoplight by a motorist believed to be
Dorner, who drove up next to them and opened fire. One died and the other was seriously wounded.

Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field training
officer, Sergeant Teresa Evans, saying that in the course of an 2007 arrest, Evans more than once kicked suspect Christopher Gettler, a schizophrenic with severe dementia. The man's father gave testimony that supported Dorner's claim.  But after the tribunal ruled against him, Dorner's complaint was considered a false statement. Dorner said in his manifesto that after he was fired he lost everything, including his relationships with his mother, sister and close
friends. He indicated he knew he would die once he began killing, but said he would use all of his training to avoid capture and track his targets, saying, "You have misjudged a sleeping giant."

BRENNAN DEFENDS DRONE STRIKES: John Brennan, who President Obama has nominated to head the CIA, strongly defended anti-terror drone attacks during his confirmation hearing Thursday (February 7th) before the Senate Intelligence Committee. After the hearing was interrupted five times by protesters before the room was ordered cleared except for staffers and media, Bennan said there's a, quote, "misimpression" about the drone
strikes, insisting that they are only used against targets planning to carry out attacks against the U.S., not as retribution for earlier attacks. Brennan, Obama's top anti-terrorism aide, also said that as deputy manager at the CIA during President George W. Bush's administration, he'd been told that harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, had provided valuable information. But he said that after reading a classified intelligence report on the matter, he doesn't know if waterboarding actually did provide such information, but said that in any case it is, quote, "something that is reprehensible and should never be done again."

POTENTIALLY HISTORIC BLIZZARD NEMO BEARING DOWN ON NORTHEAST: A blizzard that has the potential to be an historic storm in New England is set to strike the Northeast beginning today (February 8th), with up to two feet of snow possible along the Interstate-95 corridor between the New York City area to Boston and beyond. Airlines have already canceled more than 2,600 flights, and school has already been canceled today
for much of the region. The snow from Winter Storm Nemo is expected to start this morning, with the heaviest amounts falling tonight and into Saturday, with wind gusts possible of up to 65 miles per hour. Widespread power failures are feared, along with flooding in coastal areas that are still recovering from Superstorm Sandy. Boston could get more than two feet of snow, while New York City was expecting 10 to 14 inches.

FIRST LADY TO ATTEND MURDERED CHICAGO TEEN'S FUNERAL: First Lady Michelle Obama will attend the funeral service on Saturday (February 9th) for a Chicago teenager who was shot and killed just days after performing at festivities for President Obama's inauguration last month. White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will also attend the service in Chicago. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya Pendleton
was killed on January 29th after she and some friends rain into a park shelter to get out of the rain and a gunman walked up to them and began shooting.  Pendleton, an honors student and majorette in the King College Prep School band, was not the target of the shooter.

ASTEROID TO FLY BY VERY CLOSE TO EARTH NEXT WEEK: A 150-foot-wide asteroid will fly by very close to Earth next Friday (February 15th), but scientists say there is no chance that it will hit our planet. The asteroid will come within some 17,000 miles of the Earth,
which is closer than the orbit of high-flying communication and weather satellites, and the nearest known flyby of an object this size. It will zip by at 17,400 miles per hour, which is about eight times faster than a bullet from a high-speed rifle, and even with binoculars and telescopes will appear only as a small point of light. The flyby will occur in the afternoon, Eastern time, over Indonesia, so observers won't be able to see it from the U.S. Designated Asteroid 2012 DA14, it was discovered last year by astronomers in Spain. If it were to impact the Earth -- which it won't -- it would release the energy equivalent of 2.4 million tons of TNT and wipe out 750 square miles. That's what happened in Siberia in 1908, when forest around the Tunguska River was flattened by a slightly smaller asteroid that exploded about five miles above ground.

AURORA THEATER SHOOTING VICTIMS HARASSED BY CONSPIRACY
THEORISTS: A court filing this week by Arapahoe County, Colorado, Deputy DA George Brauchler reveals that some survivors of the Aurora movie theater massacre have been, quote, "relentlessly" harassed by conspiracy theorists who believe the shooting never happened, the Yahoo! News blog The Lookout reports. The filing says the conspiracy theorists have not only contacted victims, but recruited others to contact them and to publicly post maps with their addresses and phone numbers on social media sites. Brauchler said the targeted victims have expressed concerns about their privacy and safety. The deputy DA made the revelation while arguing that a gag order in the Aurora case should be lifted, but requesting that victims' names be censored out to avoid further harassment. Conspiracy
theorists have also harassed some Newtown, Connecticut, residents, charging that massacre also didn't happen.

STUDY: BABY BOOMERS IN WORSE HEALTH THAN PREVIOUS GENERATION: Despite all we hear about baby boomers being more active and youthful than previous generations, a new study found that in fact, they are in worse health than their parents were at the same stage of life, despite medical advances, with obesity and lack of exercise taking a toll. Researchers said that about 13 percent of baby boomers reported being in excellent health in middle age, compared to 32 percent of the previous generation who said the same thing at the same stage of life. Study lead author Dana King of West Virginia University School of Medicine and his colleagues used data from an ongoing national health and nutrition survey to compare the answers of people who were ages 46 to 64 between 1988 and 1994, and the baby boomers who were in the same age range between 2007 and 2010. What they found:

• About 39 percent of boomers were obese, compared to about 29 percent of the previous generation.
• Baby boomers were less likely to get regular exercise.
• About 16 percent of boomers had diabetes compared to 12 percent of the previous generation.
• More than twice as many baby boomers walk with a cane or walker compared to the previous generation.
• On the positive side, boomers don't smoke as much as the previous generation, are less likely to have emphysema and less likely to have a heart attack.

OFFICIAL: CAROLINE KENNEDY 'LEADING CONTENDER' TO BE AMBASSADOR TO CANADA: Fox News reported Thursday (February 7th) that Caroline Kennedy is the, quote, "leading contender" on President Obama's short list of candidates to be the next ambassador to Canada, citing what was described as a senior Democratic official. Kennedy,
the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, has been a strong political and financial supporter of Obama.  Canadian newspapers have also been floating other possible candidates for the spot, including former Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, retired Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.

ARMSTRONG SUED FOR $12 MILLION: Lance Armstrong was sued Thursday (February 7th) by a Dallas promotions company that wants back the $12 million in bonuses and fees it paid him for winning the Tour de France from 2002 to 2004, three of his seven Tour wins, all of which were stripped from him last fall. SCA Promotions had tried in a 2005 legal dispute to prove Armstrong cheated to win before it ultimately settled and paid him the money. Their
lawsuit notes that he repeatedly testified under oath in that dispute that he didn't use steroids, other drugs or blood doping to win, all of which he admitted to doing last month when in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. An Armstrong spokesman referred to the February 2006 settlement, which states, "No party may challenge, appeal or attempt to set aside" the
agreement, which is "fully and forever binding." But SCA counters that the case can be reopened because Armstrong's repeated lies under oath prevented it from proving he doped.

TOOL DRUMMER SAYS WE WILL SEE NEW ALBUM IN 2013: Although Tool singer Maynard James Keenan reportedly told a Chilean radio station earlier this week that the band would not release a new album in 2013, drummer Danny Carey has swooped in to set fans' minds at ease at least a little. Carey told New Zealand's The Rock FM that a new album would
arrive "sometime this year . . . that's all I can say," adding, "The sooner the better for us. We're working everyday but you can never predict it, honestly. We're really excited about it so I hope all the fans will be too."

Carey also revealed to a different New Zealand website that one of the band's new
songs is a 20-minute epic, saying, "It's like an ever-evolving thing, it's probably going to turn into a thing that's like, a big trilogy type of feel to it . . . It will probably be over a 20-minute piece when it's all finished, so it will be a good part of the record. We're dealing with it in sections, but it's coming together really well, we're having lots of fun working on it,
that's for sure."

THEORY OF A DEADMAN AT WORK ON NEXT ALBUM: Theory Of A Deadman finished the touring cycle behind its fourth album, 2011's The Truth Is . . . , this past December, and the
band has not spent a lot of time soaking up the sun and watching TV on their couches. In a new post at Twitter, the band revealed that work had already begun on album number five, writing, "New album underway!!! New stuff by summer!! Thx Theory fans." The group gave no indication whether it was already recording or just getting into the songwriting process for the disc.

• The Truth Is . . . debuted at Number Eight on the Billboard album chart when it came out in July 2011, while also snagging the Number One
       position on Billboard's Rock, Hard Rock and Alternative lists.
• Five massive rock singles were released from the set, including the chart-topping "Lowlife," "Bitch Came Back," "Out Of My Head," "Hurricane" and "Gentleman."
• Despite all the love from radio, The Truth Is . . . did not approach the million-plus sales of the band's previous  effort, 2008's Scars & Souvenirs.

METALLICA TO PERFORM NATIONAL ANTHEM, THROW OUT FIRST PITCH AT GIANTS GAME: The San Francisco Giants have announced that Metallica will throw out the first
pitch and perform the National Anthem at the world champion baseball team's May
3rd home game at AT&T Park, which will be dubbed Metallica Night. The Giants will be playing against the Los Angeles Dodgers that night. Metallica was originally formed in L.A. in 1981 but moved to San Francisco the following year to recruit bassist Cliff Burton and be part of that
city's heavier underground metal scene.

• Special event tickets for the game go on sale this Saturday morning (February 9th) at 8:00 a.m. PT.
• Special event tickets include a limited edition Metallica/Giants hat. According to Loudwire, a portion of the ticket sales will be donated to the Bill Graham Foundation, which strives to give grants in the area of music, the arts, and education, while also
       supporting social work, environmental protection, and spiritual and compassionate projects in the San Francisco community.

ELTON JOHN TO GUEST ON QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE ALBUM: Music legend Elton John is the latest artist to make a guest appearance on the upcoming album from Queens Of The Stone Age. Elton revealed the news earlier this week on Chelsea Lately, which is being guest-hosted all week by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. Grohl, who played all the
drums on the new Queens disc, said, "Recently Elton and I recorded something together, something that people wouldn't imagine the two of us doing together," before letting Elton tell the rest of the story.

Elton explained, "I was in Vegas and I came back to L.A. and Engelbert Humperdinck had written me this very sweet letter and asked me to do a duet with him and I couldn't say no
. . . I went there and sang the duet with him and then I drove three blocks in the Valley and went from Engelbert to Queens of the Stone Age, which was a bit of a mindf***."

• Elton is no stranger to performing with modern rockers, having made an appearance on the last Alice In Chains album as well.
• He said about recording the Queens song, "It was really a great track . . .
       we played for three hours, and (Grohl) played on every take and every take
       was amazing. He's just built like a brick s***house when he plays the
       drums, you know, and it was fantastic."
• The new Queens album, the band's sixth and its first since 2007's Era Vulgaris, also features guest appearances from Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, former Queens
       bassist Nick Oliveri, Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan and others, A
       release date has yet to be confirmed.

CHECK IT OUT: Watch Dave Grohl interview Elton John on Chelsea
Lately:

MARILYN MANSON COLLAPSES ON STAGE: Marilyn Manson's concert in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on Wednesday night (February 6th) had to be cut short after the singer collapsed onstage while performing his hit, "The Beautiful People." According to various reports, Manson knelt on the stage shortly after the song began and vomited before falling backward.  Although the band continued to play for a few moments, members of the crew eventually came onstage and carried Manson off, ending the show.

• Since Manson usually closes his act with "The Beautiful People," it probably would have been the last song of the night anyway.
• A representative for Manson later told USA Today, "He's fine. He had the flu and he threw up. He's recovering today (Thursday, February 7th), his day off. The tour goes on as planned tomorrow (Friday, February 8th) in Calgary."
• The 44-year-old Manson is touring behind his latest album, Born Villain, which was released last year. A song from the disc, "No Reflection," is up for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance at this weekend's Grammy Awards.

CHECK IT OUT: Watch fan-filmed footage of Manson collapsing
on Wednesday night:

BRETT RATNER TO PRODUCE 'FARMVILLE' ANIMATED SERIES: Brett Ratner
has joined up with Six Eleven Media to turn the popular social networking game Farmville
into an animated show. No network is currently attached to air the series.

SIMON COWELL HOPES TO LAUNCH FOOD REALITY SHOW IN U.S.: Fox seems to have a lot of faith in Simon Cowell's ability to spin reality TV into gold. The network
is in talks to pick up an American adaptation of Cowell's new UK show called Food, Glorious Food!

The cooking show features a crew travelling around the country trying to find
unique recipes for dishes to sell in a high-end supermarket with winners receiving a cash prize. An insider tells Radar Online, "It's a pretty easy formula to translate to U.S. audiences, it's a little bit like Antiques Roadshow meets Top Chef... and Simon believes it could really take off."

• The series has yet to premiere in the UK but Simon is reportedly eyeing a U.S. premiere in 2014.

MEN HIJACK TRAIN WITH CHILI POWDER: A gang of men in India hijacked a train to free an accomplice who was being transported from a court appearance, by a police escort.
According to reports, 10 men overpowered the train's driver and incapacitated police men by throwing chili powder into their eyes. The gang forced the train to stop and the man in custody, Upendra Singh, escaped into a waiting van.  Authorities have sealed the borders in Chhattisgarh. Singh was facing charges of kidnapping and robbery. (BBC)

WOMAN COMMITTS SUICIDE BUT LEAVES NOTE BANNING CERTAIN PEOPLE FROM FUNERAL: A 22-year-old aspiring designer, who committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge, left behind a "list of five girls she did not want to attend her funeral." Authorities found her designer handbag nearby with "pages of handwritten notes that described her torment and that singled out the five people." The notes reportedly show that the girl, Ashley Riggitano, was bullied by her fashion friends. Her bag also reportedly contained Adderall and Klonopin. (Gothamist)

MEN SPEND MORE THAN WOMEN ON VALENTINE'S DAY GIFTS: Dinner, red roses, chocolates and jewelry - perhaps it's not surprising that new research finds that men outspend
women on gifts for Valentine's Day by 123-dollars. RetailMeNot, an online coupon website, released data that men spend an average of 287-dollars on Valentine's Day gifts while women spend just 164-dollars. The average person in a relationship plans to spend around 266-dollars for Valentine's Day. The research also found that 28-percent of men surveyed hope for a meal on Valentine's Day, and 19-percent of men said they'd like to receive tickets to an event.  Twenty-four-percent of women surveyed said they hope to receive jewelry for
Valentine's Day. (Yahoo)

OUTDATED
SEX LAWS STILL IN EFFECT (The Stir):

1) Cleveland, Ohio- Women are not allowed to wear patent leather shoes. The
shocking reason why: the reflective surface will enable others to take a peek
at their panties.

2) Virginia- Fornication is still forbidden under the Code of Virginia,
Section 18.2-344. And forget about oral sex. All forms are considered
"crimes against Nature." But the most shocking is a law that comes
down on cab drivers. It is illegal to drive a person if you think they are
going for "illicit sexual intercourse."

3) Arizona- You can't have more than two sex toys in your home.

4) North Carolina- No kinky moves allowed. Couples must stay in the
missionary position while gettin' busy ... oh, and the shades must be drawn.

5) Connorsville, Wisconsin- A man is prohibited from shooting a gun
while his partner is having an orgasm. What? Why in the world did they ever
need a law for that?!

6) Tremonton, Utah- A woman cannot have sex in an ambulance. Honestly, who in
their right mind would break this law in the middle of a medical emergency?

7) Alabama- An ordinance states that women cannot
use sex to pay off bets on matches they are playing. They also can't have sex
while at pool halls?

8) Minnesota- It's illegal for a guy to have sex with a live fish. So a
cold one is OK? So this one actually should be against the law just because of
the ick factor alone. I am amazed there needs to be a law for this!

9) Massachusetts- You can't have sex with a rodeo clown in the presence
of horses. Apparently it really spooks the horses.

10) Willowdale, Oregon- You cannot swear while having sex with
your wife.

HOLDING AN INSTRUMENT IN YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE PIC IS ATTRACTIVE: A new study of Facebook profile pictures finds that men holding musical instruments in their profile photo are more attractive to women. For the study, a team of Israeli researchers created
a Facebook profile for a good looking guy, and sent friendship requests to 100 single women along with the line "Hey, what's up? I like your photo."  In half of the friend-requests, the guy was holding a guitar, and in the other half he was not. Everything else about the two profile photos was identical.
Only five of fifty women accepted the friend request from the guitar-less guy, while 14 of 50 accepted the request from the man with the guitar. Study author Dr. Sigal Tifferet, a professor of psychology at Israel's Ruppin Academic Center, says that musicality is something women find alluring at a subconscious level because it may signal that a man has
better genes or be multi-talented. (Men's Health)

WHAT YOUR FAVORITE MONOPOLY PIECE SAYS ABOUT YOU (The Gloss):

1) Car. You are passing through life in a dazzling blur. You are going where you are
going very, very quickly, but what will you find when you get there, Car
people? Is there even a "there" you have in mind or do you just want
to go faster and faster, the wind streaking through your hair, zig zagging down
cliffs in Monte Carlo until, one day - one day there will be a crash, car
people. No one can go so fast and emerge unscathed. Remember thou art mortal.

2) Wheelbarrow. I don't think you've had fun a day in your life. Stop.
Look up from your workload. Unfurl your tired hands. It is okay to let go a
little bit. Want to go do shots? No, seriously, let's do shots. Lemon drops.
You'll like them, I promise.

3) Dog. You were so faithful. And kind, really. You would slip extra
monopoly money to younger members of your family that were running low. You
never understood why everyone couldn't win. The fact that not everyone can win
at life fills you with a well of sorrow that will never dry.

4) Thimble. Safe, safe, safe, like you're in a little tower. Unlike the
wheelbarrows, you do not long for fun. You are intensely risk averse. You like
eating healthy, and going for walks, and you do not drink much. You believe
sugar is the devil. You will live to be 105.

5) Ship. You are a warmonger. It's fine. I mean, you're also a patriot,
but you should stop wearing t-shirts that advocate bombing other countries.
You're really in a minority, ship people. But you're strong in your convictions.

6) Top Hat. You wish men would wear ascots again. If you are a man, you
wish you could wear an ascot. All you ever wanted was a world of beauty and
grace and evening clothes, where everything seemed to happen amid a backdrop of
velvet curtains and softly playing chamber music. And if you need to make a
fortune and crush everyone in your path to get to that beautiful world, by God,
you will.

7) Shoe. You are probably happy just to be here. Here on the planet
earth, that is. You just want to walk all over this great planet, and go all
the places, and see everything. You are a new soul, and you are beautiful.

8) Iron (Gone, Forever.) You believed in hard work. Moreover, you
believed there was no shame in hard work. You did things, and if you didn't get
them right the first time, you just went back and did them again. You didn't
question your boss. You just did as you were supposed to as well as you could,
and you were grateful to do it. You think the kids today are all communists.

9) Cat. You're probably a communist. No, but really, you are wily.
You're quick thinking. You figure it's only a matter of time until your witty
Tweets get you a book deal. You believe not only that you can look a king in
the eyes, but that you OUGHT to, because you're just as good as them. You
believe this regardless of whether or not you have any personal
accomplishments. You have crippled the iron. I love you. I hate you. I am you.

YOUR DIET INFLUENCES HOW YOU SLEEP: Just as previous research has found that how much you sleep can affect your food choices, new research now links diet to how well you sleep. To find this, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania studied data from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examinations Survey. They found that people who slept five to six hours per night consumed the most calories, and people who slept nine or more hours per night consumed the least number of calories. However, people who slept seven to eight hours per night showed the highest food variety in their diet, and researchers say a varied diet tends to be a marker for good health.
The study was published in the journal Appetite. (TIME)