TRIUMPH CRUISE SHIP FIRE CAUSED BY OIL LEAK: The Coast Guard said Monday (February 18th) that the engine room fire that disabled the Carnival Triumph cruise ship
last week, leaving it without power or working toilets for days in the Gulf of Mexico, was caused by a leak in a fuel oil return line. Coast Guard Commander Teresa Hatfield estimated that the full investigation, which is being led by the Bahamas, where the ship is registered, will take six months. The Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board are representing U.S. interests in the probe. While praising the crew's response to the fire, Hatfield said one of the things that will be investigated is why the ship was disabled for so long. The Triumph, which left Galveston, Texas, on February 7th for a four-day cruise,
finally made it to Mobile, Alabama, late Thursday (February 14th), pulled in by tugboats.

AILING PRESIDENT CHAVEZ MAKES SURPRISE RETURN TO VENEZUELA: President Hugo Chavez made a surprise return to Venezuela early Monday (February 18th) after
undergoing cancer surgery and more than two months of treatment afterward in Cuba, leading to celebrations in the streets by supporters. However, the 58-year-old Chavez remained out of sight, with the Venezuelan government saying he was at the military hospital in Caracas, where he'll continue his treatment.  Chavez's return was first announced on Twitter, in a message that read: "We've arrived once again in our Venezuelan homeland. Thank you, my God!! Thank you, beloved nation!! We will continue our treatment here."
Venezuela has been secretive about Chavez' condition as well as about what type
of cancer he's been battling, revealing only that it's in the pelvic region.

  • Chavez was re-elected to a new six-year term in October.

CBS NEWS: NEWTOWN'S LANZA WANTED TO TOP NORWEGIAN KILLER'S DEATH TOLL: Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old man who carried out the Newtown massacre in December, killing 20 first-graders and six adults at an elementary school as well as his mother before taking his own life, wanted to kill more people than the 77 murdered by a Norwegian man in 2011, CBS News reported Monday (February 18th), citing unnamed law enforcement
sources. However, a spokesman for the Connecticut state police dismissed the report as
inaccurate speculation. The CBS report said that Lanza saw himself in direct competition with Anders Behring Breivik, who carried out his politically-motivated bombing and shooting attack in Norway in July 2011, driven by anger at Muslim immigration. Citing two officials, CBS further stated that Lanza targeted Sandy Hook Elementary School because he saw it as
what was described as "the easiest target," with the, quote, "largest cluster of people." The report says Lanza was also motivated by violent video games and had spent many hours playing them and working on his computer shooting skills in his basement gaming room.

RUSSIANS HOPING TO FIND METEORITE FRAGMENTS TO SELL: The meteorite that exploded over Russia's Ural mountains on Friday morning (February 15th), causing a shockwave that injured about 1,200 people, from shattered glass and debris, and caused some $33 million in damage, has now led to a rush of people trying to find fragments of the meteorite that they hope could sell for thousands of dollars. Groups of people have started
digging through the snow and ice around the city of Chelyabinsk, where many of the videos showing a glowing fireball streaking through the morning sky were filmed. Scientists have
already found 53 small fragments around Lake Chebarkul, where a 26-foot-wide crater opened up.  NASA has estimated that the meteor was 55-feet across before entering Earth's
atmosphere and weighed about 10,000 tons, and Russia's space agency said it was moving at a speed of 19 miles per second. Scientists have called it a once-in-a-century event.

CHICAGO TEEN KILLED HOURS AFTER SISTER STOOD BEHIND OBAMA IN GUN SPEECH: A Chicago 18-year-old was shot and killed on Friday (February 15th) just hours after her sister stood behind President Obama as he gave a speech on the rampant gun violence in the city. Janay McFarlane was killed while walking with a friend during a visit to her father in the northern suburb of Lake County, leaving behind a three-month-old son.
Her family said she was an unintended target. Hours earlier, McFarlane's 14-year-old sister, Destini Warren, stood behind the president as he spoke at Hyde Park High School on the more dangerous South Side about gun violence. Janay McFarlane also spent time on the South Side, where her mother lived. Obama had gone to his hometown to speak in part because of the
shooting death of Chicago 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, which made headlines when she was killed just days after performing in the Inaugural festivities for Obama's second term. First Lady Michelle Obama attended her funeral.

CHECK IT OUT:

RUBIO'S PAC RAISES $100K FROM SPEECH'S WATER BOTTLE MOMENT: Senator Marco Rubio's political action committee, Reclaim America, has raised more than $100,000 via a fundraising pitch linked to the Florida Republican's awkward water bottle moment as he delivered the GOP's response to the State of the Union address.  Rubio quickly tried to make light of the moment after the speech, tweeting a picture of the water bottle he grabbed for and sipped while maintaining eye contact with the camera, and saying the next day on ABC's Good Morning America, "God has a funny way of reminding us we're human." Rubio's PAC launched the fundraiser last Wednesday (February 13th), the day after the speech, giving
away white water bottles with the name "Rubio" in red lettering for a minimum donation of $25. The pitch read, "Send the liberal detractors a message that not only does Marco Rubio inspire you...he hydrates you too."

CHECK IT OUT:

BURGER KING'S TWITTER ACCOUNT HACKED TO LOOK LIKE MCDONALD'S: Burger King was the victim of hackers yesterday (February 18th) who changed their Twitter account to look like that of rival McDonald's. Around noontime, BK's profile image was switched to show a photo of McDonald's new Fish McBites and the golden arches logo, with the
caption, "Just got sold to McDonald's because the whopper flopped..."  Some messages were also tweeted and retweeted, including ones that used profanity, racial slurs and drug use references, before Burger King was able to get Twitter to freeze the account about an hour later. McDonald's quickly said they weren't responsible, tweeting, "We empathize with our @BurgerKing counterparts. Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking."

CHECK IT OUT:

TEXAS WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO TWO SETS OF IDENTICAL TWINS: A 36-year-old woman gave birth on Valentine's Day to two sets of identical twins, a Houston hospital announced on Monday (February 18th), saying the four boys were delivered via Cesarean section at 31 weeks. Tressa Montalvo and her husband, Manuel, already have a two-year-old son named Memphis, and weren't using any fertility drugs when they conceived sons Ace, Blaine, Cash and Dylan. The odds of having two sets of naturally occurring identical twins in one pregnancy is around one in 70 million.

MAKER'S MARK REVERSES ITSELF, SAYS WON'T LOWER ALCOHOL CONTENT: After receiving a large number of complaints from customers about the recent news that it was going to slightly reduce the alcohol content of its bourbon, Maker's Mark has decided has decided against making the change. Under the headline, "You spoke. We listened," the company wrote on its website, "Effective immediately, we are reversing our decision to lower the ABV (alcohol by volume) of Maker's Mark, and resuming production at 45 percent alcohol by volume." The company had planned to lower the amount of alcohol from 45 percent to 42 percent -- which would translate to a reduction from 90 proof to 84 proof -- as a way to stretch supply. Maker's Mark has been struggling to keep up with demand, which has more
than doubled in the past seven years.

AFTER 'LINCOLN,' MISSISSIPPI VERY BELATEDLY RATIFIES 13TH AMENDMENT: It was a long time in coming -- nearly 150 years to be exact -- but Mississippi has finally and very belatedly ratified the 13th Amendment that ended slavery, and it was the Oscar-nominated movie Lincoln that spurred the correction of the historical oversight. The events were set in motion when Dr. Ranjan Batra, a recent immigrant from India, did some online research after seeing Lincoln in November and discovered that Mississippi had never actually ratified the constitutional amendment. The state did vote to do so in 1995, nearly 20 years
after Kentucky, the second-to-last state to ratify, held its vote. But through an apparent clerical error, Mississippi never officially notified the United States Archivist of the ratification. Batra and a friend reported the mistake to officials, and Mississippi finally sent in the paperwork this month to make the ratification official.

AFTER 'LINCOLN,' MISSISSIPPIVERY BELATEDLY RATIFIES 13TH

THREE DAYS GRACE ADDING TO TOUR WITH NEW SINGER: Three Days Grace has extended its current touring schedule to include a new round of headlining dates in April and May, according to Loudwire. The band, which is currently on the road with Shinedown, will kick off the new run on April 17th in Portland, Maine, with 11 gigs confirmed so far through a
May 17th finale in Youngstown, Ohio. P.O.D., the support act on the current trek with Shinedown, will appear on the May 17th bill but is not yet confirmed for the rest of Three Days Grace's headlining trip.

At the moment, Three Days Grace features My Darkest Days frontman Matt Walst
on vocals instead of founding singer Adam Gontier, who left the group in December. It is not yet known whether Walst, the brother of Three Days Grace bassist Brad Walst, will join the band permanently and how that could affect My Darkest Days.

  • The original January announcement of Gontier's departure cited health factors as a reason for his exit, although he later contradicted that explanation.
  • Gontier, who is launching a solo career, said in January that he left the band after more than 20 years because "I had enough of the money coming before the music . . . the music really wasn't coming from the heart."
  • Three Days Grace claimed that Gontier told them he was leaving through his lawyer, with no personal discussion or contact between him and his bandmates.
  • Three Days Grace is touring in support of the band's fourth album, Transit Of Venus, which includes the Number One rock radio hit "Chalk Outline." The band will address its future plans once its live commitments are completed.
  • Newly announced Three Days Grace tour dates (subject to change):

         April 17 - Portland, ME - State Theatre

         April 19 - Stroudsburg, PA - Sherman Theatre

         April 21 - Atlantic City, NJ - House of Blues

         April 23 - Huntington, NY - The Paramount

         April 28 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Revolution

         May 1 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade

         May 7 - Corpus Christi, TX - Concrete Street Amphitheater

         May 10 - Dallas, TX - The Palladium Ballroom

         May 14 - Libertyville, IL - Austin's Fuel Room

         May 15 - South Bend, IN - Club Fever

         May 17 - Youngstown, OH - Wedgewood Entertainment Center

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH AIMING FOR SUMMER WITH NEW ALBUM:  Five Finger Death Punch is aiming for a summer 2013 release for its fourth studio album, which the band is in the process of recording now.  Guitarist Zoltan Bathory has posted a series of photos from the sessions online at Instagram, with his captions mentioning a summer arrival for the disc and teasing an album title.  The group is recording at the Hideout in its hometown of Las Vegas.  The new CD will be Five Finger Death Punch's fourth release in six years, and Bathory told Pulse fo Radio a while back that he didn't worry about Five Finger Death Punch coming up with new material: "We have a lot to say. I tell you what, we're not going to be hurting for material for a long time probably. We have like three, four albums worth of stuff. So it's not gonna be an issue. It's pretty much just the mechanical part of like, you know, like properly recording the songs. You have to go to a good studio, you know what I mean, you have to
spend some time. But all the material, yeah, we have a lot of stuff."

  • Guitarist Jason Hook told Loudwire last summer that the band had
         taken recording equipment on tour with them, explaining, "The idea
         behind that is just to keep the creative muscle worked out. It's just like
         going to the gym; if you stop for a year, you lose all your strength . . .
         touring is great, but we should always be prepared and always exercising
         that creative muscle -- in my opinion, anyway."
  • Five Finger Death Punch's new disc will follow up 2011's American Capitalist, which featured the singles "Under And Over It," "Remember Everything" and "The Pride." All three of the band's albums so far have gone gold.
  • The band is scheduled to make a number of festival appearances this summer, along with a slot on a yet-to-be-announced "big tour" -- rumored to be the Rockstar
         Energy Mayhem Festival     -- in the U.S.

CHECK IT OUT: See one of Bathory's in-studio shots at  http://instagram.com/p/Vw8HhbzDks/

DEVICE DID NOT MEAN THE END FOR DISTURBED: Disturbed frontman David
Draiman posted a statement online over the weekend reassuring fans that his new band Device did not mean the end of Disturbed. Draiman wrote, "Disturbed is still on hiatus. A hiatus is an extended break, not 'breakup.' We have fought long and hard together, all of us, to make Disturbed what it has become, and are not just walking away from it . . . The existence of Device does not in any way shape or form mean the end of Disturbed. They are two completely separate entities, and I hold them both in the highest regard." Device's first single is due out this week, with its debut disc arriving on April 9th. (Blabbermouth)

NEW METALLICA VIDEO: As part of the promotion for their new line of Vans shoes, the members of Metallica have each shot a video where they meet up with Vans-backed athletes.
Following clips of bassist Robert Trujillo meeting skater Tony Trujillo and guitarist Kirk Hammett hanging out with pro surfer Nathan Fletcher, the latest video shows frontman James Hetfield showing pro skateboarder Steve Caballero his vintage car collection and giving him a tour of Metallica's San Francisco headquarters. (Loudwire)

CHECK IT OUT: Watch James Hetfield give Steve Caballero a look at his cars and a tour of Metallica HQ:

 

ROBERT PLANT HINTS AT 2014 LED ZEPPELIN REUNION: Robert Plant hinted that 2014 might see another revival of Led Zeppelin. During his recent appearance
on Australia's 60 Minutes, he planted the seed for future band activities -- while pointing
the finger at Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones for holding up ongoing Zep plans. Plant defended himself against fans believing that he's the sole holdout for new Zeppelin music and road dates, saying, "Y'know, the two other guys are Capricorns and they keep schtum. They don't say a word. But they are quite contained in their own worlds and they leave it to me. . . and I'm not the bad guy."

When reminded that the fans long believed him to be the "bad guy," Plant said, "Well then, you need to see the Capricorns -- 'cause, I've got nothing to do in 2014."

  • Last October at the New York City press conference following the press preview of Zeppelin's new concert film, Celebration Day, Plant played it coy -- and then downright rude -- to reporters clamoring for some type of statement about future Zeppelin plans. After some coaxing by the event's moderator, Plant finally answered the reunion question with a bit of respect for the reporters in the room: "We
         were so happy that we were actually gettin' it right (coughs) and taking it beyond what we thought we were about that night. There were moments in it where we just took off and pushed off in some place. The responsibility of doing that four nights a week for the rest of time is a different thing. 'Cause, we're pretty good at what we do; the tail should never wag the dog. If we're capable of doing something in our own time that will be what will happen. So any inane questions who are from syndicated outlets (laughter), you should just really think what it takes to answer a question like that in one second, y'know? We know what we've got."

BLACK SABBATH AND QUEEN GUITARISTS TO COLLABORATE? Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and Queen six-stringer Brian May are said to be planning a collaborative album based around the vast amount of unused riffs that both men have compiled, according to Blabbermouth. The idea would be to collect the riffs in one place and then let fans build their own songs around them. The existence of the project was revealed in the latest issue of Kerrang! magazine, in which May answered questions posed by some of his fellow
musicians.

Iommi's submitted question was, "When are we going to get to work on that album of
riffs together? You know what I'm talking about..." May replied, "Yes, I do know what he's talking about and I'm very, very keen. The record he's talking about was supposed to be a secret but I guess he's blown it now!"

  • May explained that the project was hatched when he visited Iommi's studio and was struck by the amount of unused material the Sabbath guitarist had. May said, "The idea was to put all these riffs out in some form so that people could build their own songs from them. You could make your own music with Tony Iommi on guitar!"
  • Iommi, along with bassist Geezer Butler and singer Ozzy Osbourne, has just completed 13, the first Sabbath album in 35 years to feature three of the four original members of the band.
  • The guitarist was diagnosed with cancer in January 2012, just before work on the album commenced, and has been undergoing treatment ever since.
  • Sabbath is expected to tour North America this July and August, following the June
         release of the new album.