STUDY: MANY BELIEVE GREAT RECESSION DAMAGE PERMANENT: As the economy continues to recover from the Great Recession, but only slowly, a new study found that many Americans believe the historic economic downtown that began five years ago was so
damaging that its effects are permanent. Researchers at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University found that 60 percent of U.S. residents think the nation's economy has undergone a permanent change, with more than half of those surveyed thinking it will take at least six years for the economy to fully recover, and 29 percent believing it will never hit the levels it reached before the recession.
SECRET SERVICE PROBING HACK OF BUSH FAMILY EMAIL: The Secret Service said Friday (February 8th) that it has opened an investigation into the hacking and publishing of personal emails between members of the Bush family. On Thursday, The Smoking Gun website published photos and email from former Presidents George W. Bush and George
H. W. Bush; former Florida Governor Jeb Bush; Dorothy Bush Koch, sister of George W. and Jeb; and other materials. Among them were emails and photos related to the senior Bush's recent extended hospital stay, including one that showed how serious it was, as Bush's chief of staff reportedly wrote to Bush's children, "Your dad's funeral team is having an emergency meeting at 10 a.m. just to go through all the details," and said this
information, quote, "fell under the broadening category of things NOT TO TELL YOUR MOTHER." Also included were self-portraits in the bathtub and shower painted by the younger former President Bush, as well as family email addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses. The hack reportedly involved messages from 2009 to 2012 and six email accounts, including those of: Dorothy Bush Koch; Willard Heminway, an old friend of George H.W. Bush; CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz, a longtime Bush family friend; former first lady
Barbara Bush's brother; and George H.W. Bush's sister-in-law.
CHECK IT OUT:
- Link to The Smoking Gun story: http://tinyurl.com/aaosrbt
- George W. Bush's self-portraits: http://tinyurl.com/acwohry
CONDI RICE FORMING BIPARTISAN GROUP ON IMMIGRATION: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is forming a group of high-profile Republicans and Democrats to work on finding bipartisan solutions to the immigration issue, Reuters reported Friday
(February 8th). Rice, who served as national security adviser and secretary of state for former President George W. Bush, is setting up the group with fellow Republican Governor Haley Barbour of
FIRST LADY ATTENDS FUNERAL OF MURDERED CHICAGO TEEN: First Lady Michelle Obama attended the funeral Saturday (February 9th) of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton,
who was shot and killed at a park near the Obamas' Chicago home just days after she performed with her school band at the president's inauguration last month. Mrs. Obama met privately with Pendleton's family and with some of her friends and classmates before the service at Greater Harvest Baptist Church, then sat in a pew next to senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who once led
Pat Quinn, and
that we are praying for you and that we will continue to work as hard as we can to end this senseless violence." Pendleton was killed in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity by gang members as she and her friends took shelter during a rainstorm in a park near her high school.
EX-
47-year-old son of civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson took a medical leave from Congress last June and never returned, with it eventually revealed that he was being treated for bipolar disorder.
CELTICS TOP NUGGETS 118-114 IN TRIPLE OVERTIME: The Boston Celtics pulled out a triple overtime victory over the Denver Nuggets last night (February 10th) in
led
ENTERGY: DEVICE MEANT TO PREVENT POWER OUTAGE CAUSED SUPER BOWL BLACKOUT: Power company Entergy said Friday (February 8th) that an electrical device that had been installed to prevent a power outage was instead what caused the Super Bowl blackout, taking the blame for the outage that stopped the game for 34 minutes early in the third quarter. Entergy officials said the device, called a relay, was supposed to protect the
Superdome from a cable failure between the company's power line and lines that run into the stadium. Soon after Entergy's announcement, the relay's manufacturer, Chicago-based S&C Electric Company, said that the power outage occurred because the so-called "trip setting" on the device, as, quote, "set by the system operators," was too low to allow it to
handle the electric load that was coming in. S&C Electric didn't name who the "system operators" are, but the equipment was owned and installed by Entergy. However, when asked during a City Council hearing in
or a defect in a part of the equipment, Entergy
determined.
PATERNO'S FAMILY RELEASE REPORT CHALLENGING FREEH'S FINDINGS: The late Joe Paterno's family released its own report yesterday (February 10th) challenging the conclusion reached by former FBI director Louis Freeh's report for Penn State on the Jerry Sandusky scandal that the legendary football coach and three former administrators covered up child sex abuse allegations against Paterno's longtime assistant. In the report commissioned by the family, former U.S. Attorney General and ex-Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh said Freeh's investigation last year resulted in a, quote, "rush to
injustice," unsupported by the facts. Thornburgh told the Associated Press that the central claim of Freeh's report that Paterno, quote, "'was engaged in a conspiracy . . . there's simply no basis anywhere in the report for that finding. That in my view renders the whole report of very little value." Freeh defended his report yesterday, saying in a statement, "I stand by our conclusion that four of the most powerful people at
55TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS RECAP: 55th Annual Grammy Awards kicked off with a bang. Taylor Swift started the show with a performance and then LL Cool J took the stage for hosting, joking and performing duties.
Fun. were the surprise winners of the night, winning for Best New Artist and "We Are Young" winning for Song of the Year. 2013 was a well rounded Grammy Awards show with Gotye
and The Black Keys taking home three awards each.
Former American Idols, Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood also took home hardware. Kelly earned the award for Best Pop Vocal Album for "Stronger" and Carrie took home the award for both, Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song for "Blown Away."
WINNERS
- Album of the Year:
- Record of the Year: "Somebody That I Used To Know," Gotye featuring Kimbra
- Best New Artist: Fun.
- Best Country Album: Zac Brown Band, Uncaged
- Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: "No Church In The Wild," Jay-Z, Kanye West,
- Best Pop Vocal Album: "Stronger", Kelly Clarkson
- Best Rock Performance: Lonely Boy, The Black Keys
- Best Urban Contemporary Album: Channel
- Song of the Year: "We Are Young," Fun.
- Best Country Solo Performance: "Blown Away," Carrie Underwood
- Best Pop Solo Performance: "Set Fire To The Rain," Adele
- Producer of the Year: Dan Auerbach
- Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: "Somebody That I Used To Know," Goyte feat. Kimbra
- Best Alternative Music Album: Making Mirrors, Goyte
- Best Rock Album: El Camino, The Black Keys
- Best Rock Song: "Lonely Boy," The Black Keys
- Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance: "Love Bites (So Do I)," Halestorm
- Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Kisses on the Bottom, Paul McCartney
- Best Country Song: "Blown Away," Carrie Underwood
- Best Country Duo/Group Performance: "Poonton," Little Big Town
- Best World Album: The Living Room Sessions Part 1,
- Best Rap Song: "Adorn," Miguel
- Best R&B Performance: "Climax," Usher
- Best Traditional R&B Performance: "Love On Top," Beyonce
- Best Rap Album: Take Care, Drake
- Best Rap Song: "N****s In
- Best Rap Performace: "N****s In
- Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
- Best R&B Album: Black Radio, Robert
Glasper - Best Dance/Electronica Album: Bangarang, Skrillex
- Best Dance Recording: "Bangarang," Skrillex featuring Sirah
- Best Regional Roots Album: The Band Courtbouillon, Wayne Toups, Steve Riley & Wilson Savoy
- Best Folk Album: The Goat Rodeo Sessions, Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile
- Best Blues Album: Locked Down, Dr. John
- Best
- Best Compilation Soundtrack Album:
- Best Latin Jazz Album: ¡Ritmo!, The Clare Fischer Latin Jazz Big Band
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Radio Music Society, Esperanza Spaulding
- Best Improvised Jazz Solo: "Hot House," Gary Buron & Chick Corea
- Best New Age Album: Echoes of Love, Oakram
- Best Comedy Album: Blow Your Pants Off, Jimmy Fallon
- Best Spoken Word Album: Society's Child: My Autobiography, Janis Ian
- Best Children's Album: Can You Canoe?, The Okee Dokee Brothers
- Best Reggae Album: Rebirth, Jimmy Cliff
- Best Long Form Music Video: "Big Easy Express," Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros & Old Crow Medicine Show
- Best Short Form Music Video: "We Found Love," Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris
FORMER KORN DRUMMER PLEADS GUILTY IN SLEEPING
DUI CASE: Former Korn drummer David Silveria has reportedly pleaded guilty to a charge of
driving under the influence. The DUI was in connection with an alleged hit-and-run from March of 2012 during which he rear-ended a vehicle in
At the time of the accident, Silveria told TMZ that it was an "honest mistake" and he had no alcohol in his system. He even blew a 0.0 on his breathalyzer test but police arrested him for driving under the influence after he told them he took a sleeping pill the previous night.
- Silveria has been sentenced to three years of informal probation, a first offender program and must attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving victim impact panel.
- The drummer left Korn in 2006 so he could focus on family and his restaurant.
NBC CANCELS 'DO NO HARM': NBC has cancelled the drama Do No Harm after just two episodes. The series premiere scored the lowest ratings of any in-season scripted show in the
history of the Big Four networks.
BOONDOCK SAINTS PRODUCER DEAD AT 42: Chris Brinker, producer of Boondock Saints, has passed away at the age of 42. Doctors at Kaiser's
CHRISTINA APPLEGATE QUITS ‘UP
several months while undergoing some major creative tweaking including the departure of series creator Emily Spivey.
Applegate announced in a statement, "It's been a great experience working on Up
All Night, but the show has taken a different creative direction and I decided it was best for me to move on to other endeavors. Working with Lorne Michaels has been a dream come
true and I am grateful he brought me into his TV family. I will miss the cast, producers and crew, and wish them the best always."
- The show is set to film five new episodes this month to finish up its second season and switch from the single-camera to a multi-cam format with a studio audience.
- Deadline.com is reporting that Lisa Kudrow is being eyed as a replacement though her producing partner Dan Bucatinsky took to Twitter to deny the rumor.
YOUR BIRTH YEAR COULD AFFECT YOUR HAPPINESS: New research finds that the year you were born could affect your sense of well-being. To find this, researchers studied nearly 2,300 Americans between the ages of 19 and 96. The participants rated their well-being at the
end of each week with statements such as "I enjoyed life," "I felt I was just as good as other people," and "I felt hopeful about the future" for 31 years. Researchers found that well-being tended to increase with age, but that people born between 1900 and 1930 had significantly
lower well-being scores than those born later, and the effect seemed to persist throughout their lives. Researchers think the great depression is to blame. The study was published in the journal Psychological Science. (BuzzFeed)
BOSSES WITH A BIG SIGNATURE LIKELY TO HAVE A BIG EGO: A new study claims the larger a C-E-O's signature, the more likely they are to be a narcissist. The researchers from the
more in capital expenditures and acquisitions, but pay lower dividends. Other experts were skeptical of the study, saying the assumption that people with large signatures are narcissists might be false, and that a large signature could mean high self-esteem and an extroverted personality. (Daily Mail)
A NEW WAY TO TREAT BROKEN BONES? The days of having friends and family sign your cast on your broken arm may soon be over. Scientists say broken limbs might soon be mended using artifical bone created from stem cells and a new, lightweight plastic.
The plastic is a special shape that allows blood flow though it, and it is said to slowly degrade as new bone grows.
