Arnold Schwarzenegger signs law in memory of Kanye West’s mother
Kanye West performed while his late mother Donda West stood by in 2006 during a taping of the "Ellen DeGeneres Show." (AP Photo by Damian Dovarganes)
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law in memory of rapper Kanye West’s mother.
The Donda West Law requires cosmetic surgery patients to undergo a physical examination before the surgery.
Donda West died in 2007 after a cosmetic procedure. She had coronary artery disease, but it was undiscovered because she didn’t undergo a physical exam before the surgery.
While she was alive, Kanye had a close relationship with his mother. She accompanied him to several celebrity events, and she was always by his side on the red carpet.
Shortly after her death, Kanye continued to perform during concerts, and I don’t think he had time to properly grief.
I’m not making excuses for him, but maybe that’s why he’s prone to random outbursts.
Kandi reacts to fiance’s death
Kandi Burruss, the star of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” reacted to the killing of her fiance Ashley “A.J.”Jewell.
Here is what she posted on her Twitter page.
“I could never n a million years imagine this happening. please pray for AJ’s children. that’s who im the most concerned 4″
“im bout 2 giv my swollen eyes sum rest now. i just wanted to say thanks 2 every1 for their prayers. i gotta get up & go 2 my uncle’s funeral.”
“im just in one of those moods where i dont wanna talk, i dont wanna b held & told its gonna b ok. i just wanna cry myself 2 sleep, alone.”
Kandi’s fiance A.J. died after he was involved in a fight at a strip club parking lot. A man named Fredrick Richardson was arrested on a complaint of voluntary manslaughter.
Tim Russert’s father died
Tim Russert’s father Timothy Russert Sr. died today (Sept. 25) in Buffalo, New York at age 85, according to a statement released by his family.
Also known as Big Russ, the public became familar with him because he was featured in the late Tim Russert’s book “Big Russ & Me.”
Russert Sr. died from natural causes. Funeral plans haven’t been announced.
Patrick Swayze died at age 57
Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in the 1990 film "Ghost."
Actor Patrick Swayze died today (Sept. 14) from complications with pancreatic cancer. Swayze was well known for the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing.”
Although I wasn’t a fan of that movie, my personal favorite Swayze film was the 1990 film “Ghost” with Whoopi Goldberg and Demi Moore. The full Associated Press story is posted below via NewsOK.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers’ hearts with “Dirty Dancing” and then broke them with “Ghost,” died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.
“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.
Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer.
He had kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting “The Beast,” an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot. It drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran on the cable television station in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.
Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making “The Beast” because they would have taken the edge off his performance. He acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.
When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was “considerably more optimistic” than that.
“I’d say five years is pretty wishful thinking,” Swayze told ABC’s Barbara Walters in early 2009. “Two years seems likely if you’re going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I’d better get a fire under it.”
A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in “Dirty Dancing.” As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.
A coming-of-age romance starring Jennifer Grey as an idealistic young woman on vacation with her family and Swayze as the Catskills resort’s sexy (and much older) dance instructor, the film made great use of both his grace on his feet and his muscular physique.
It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life,” stage productions and a sequel, 2004’s “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” in which he made a cameo.
Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad “She’s Like the Wind,” inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”
And it allowed him to poke fun at himself on a “Saturday Night Live” episode, in which he played a would-be Chippendales exotic dancer alongside the corpulent — and frighteningly shirtless — Chris Farley.
A major crowdpleaser, “Dirty Dancing” drew only mixed reviews from critics, though Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, “Given the limitations of his role, that of a poor but handsome sex-object abused by the rich women at Kellerman’s Mountain House, Mr. Swayze is also good. … He’s at his best — as is the movie — when he’s dancing.”
Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action film “Road House,” in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar. But it was his performance in 1990’s “Ghost” that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side. He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Demi Moore) — with great frustration and longing — through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.
Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.
Why did he want the part so badly? “It made me cry four or five times,” he said of Bruce Joel Rubin’s Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.
Patrick Swayze portrayed a drag queen in the 1995 film "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything Jullie Newmar."
“Ghost” provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody.” It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn’t have won if it weren’t for Swayze.
“When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick,” Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show “The View.”
Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for “Dirty Dancing,” ”Ghost” and 1995’s “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,” which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.
His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.
“I couldn’t get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho,” he told the AP then. But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced “To Wong Foo,” Spielberg didn’t recognize him.
Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel “The Outsiders,” alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane. Swayze played Darrel “Dary” Curtis, the oldest of three wayward brothers — and essentially the father figure — in a poor family in small-town Oklahoma.
Other ’80s films included “Red Dawn,” ”Grandview U.S.A.” (for which he also provided choreography) and “Youngblood,” once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.
In the ’90s, he made such eclectic films as “Point Break” (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western “Tall Tale” (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill. He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse. In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite “Donnie Darko,” and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with “Chicago”; 2006 found him in the musical “Guys and Dolls” in London.
Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include “Urban Cowboy.”
He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in “Grease.” But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.
Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie “Skatetown, U.S.A.” The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.
Swayze had a couple of movies in the works when his diagnosis was announced, including the drama “Powder Blue,” starring Jessica Biel, Forest Whitaker and his younger brother, Don, which was scheduled for release this year.
Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on “man’s greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature’s laws,” he told the AP in 2004.
Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center, People magazine reported in a cover story.
Michael Jackson’s burial service
(from left) Janet, Randy, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon Jackson sat on the front row during Michael Jackson's burial service. (AP photo)
More than two-and-a-half months after his death, Michael Jackson’s body can now rest in peace. A burial service was held for the singer Sept. 3 at Forest Lawn Memorial Parkv in Glendale, C alifornia.
The Jackson family and several celebrity guests were in attendance including Elizabeth Taylor, Chris Tucker, Macaulay Culkin, Quincy Jones, Corey Feldman, Barry Gordy, Gladys Knight and Lisa Marie Presley.
Associated Press photos from the burial service are posted below. Click on the photos to enlarge them.
DJ AM dies at age 36
Adam Goldstein (also known as DJ AM) was found dead in his New York City apartment Friday Afternoon, according to TMZ.
A crack pipe and prescriptions drugs were found in his apartment, but the official cause of death is unknown.
Ironically, Goldstein was involved in a plane crash last year with Blink 182 rocker Travis Barker. Both men survived the crash.
This eerily sounds like the movie “Final Destination,” where a group of people were supposed to die in a plane crash, but they survived. However, they each were killed one by one throughout the movie
DJ AM was a disc jockey who played at numerous celebrity events. He was engaged to Nicole Richie until they broke up in 2005.
Ted Kennedy dies at age 77
Sen. Edward Kenneday (aka Ted Kennedy) died Tuesday night after a battle witih brain cancer. He was 77 years old. The Associated Press story is posted below via NewsOK.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother in a political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a year-long struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.
In nearly 50 years in the Senate, Kennedy served alongside 10 presidents – his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy among them – compiling an impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, immigration and more.
His only run for the White House ended in defeat in 1980. More than a quarter-century later, he handed then-Sen. Barack Obama an endorsement at a critical point in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, explicitly likening the young contender to President Kennedy.
To the American public, Kennedy was best known as the last surviving son of America’s most glamorous political family, father figure and, memorably, eulogist of an Irish-American clan plagued again and again by tragedy.
Kennedy’s death triggered an outpouring of superlatives, from Democrats and Republicans as well as foreign leaders.
“An important chapter in our history has come to an end. Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States senator of our time,” Obama said in a written statement.
“For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts,” said Obama, vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast.
Kennedy’s family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday.
“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” the statement said. “We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all.”
A few hours later, two vans left the family compound at Hyannis Port in pre-dawn darkness. Both bore hearse license plates – with the word “hearse” blacked out.
There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements. Two of Kennedy’s brothers, John and Robert, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada issued a statement that said, “It was the thrill of my lifetime to work with Ted Kennedy�..The liberal lion’s mighty roar may now fall silent, but his dream shall never die.”
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan said that her husband and Kennedy “could always find common ground, and they had great respect for one another.”
Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962, taking the seat that his brother John had occupied before winning the White House, and served longer than all but two senators in history.
His own hopes of reaching the White House were damaged – perhaps doomed – in 1969 by the scandal that came to be known as Chappaquiddick, an auto accident that left a young woman dead.
He sought the White House more than a decade later, lost the Democratic nomination to President Jimmy Carter, and bowed out with a stirring valedictory that echoed across the decades: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”
Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in May 2008 and underwent surgery and a grueling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy.
He made a surprise return to the Capitol last summer to cast the decisive vote for the Democrats on Medicare. He made sure he was there again last January to see his former Senate colleague Barack Obama sworn in as the nation’s first black president, but suffered a seizure at a celebratory luncheon afterward.
He also made a surprise and forceful appearance at last summer’s Democratic National Convention, where he spoke of his own illness and said health care was the cause of his life. His death occurred precisely one year later, almost to the hour.
He was away from the Senate for much of this year, leaving Republicans and Democrats to speculate about the impact what his absence meant for the fate of Obama’s health care proposals.
Under state law, Kennedy’s successor will be chosen by special election. In his last known public act, the senator urged state officials to give Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick the power to name an interim replacement. But that appears unlikely, leaving Democrats in Washington with one less vote for the next several months as they struggle to pass Obama’s health care legislation.
His death came less than two weeks after that of his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver on Aug. 11. Kennedy was not present for the funeral, an indication of the precariousness of his own health.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Kennedy’s son Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., said his father had defied the predictions of doctors by surviving more than a year with his fight against brain cancer.
The younger Kennedy said that gave family members a surprise blessing, as they were able to spend more time with the senator and to tell him how much he had meant to their lives.
“There are very few people who have touched the life of this nation in the same breadth and the same order of magnitude,” Obama said in April as he signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law.
Kennedy arrived at his place in the Senate after a string of family tragedies. He was the only one of the four Kennedy brothers to die of natural causes.
Kennedy’s eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a plane crash in World War II. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down in Los Angeles as he campaigned for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. Years later, in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash at age 38 along with his wife.
It fell to Ted Kennedy to deliver the eulogies, to comfort his brothers’ widows, to mentor fatherless nieces and nephews. It was Ted Kennedy who walked JFK’s daughter, Caroline, down the aisle at her wedding.
Tragedy had a way of bringing out his eloquence.
Kennedy sketched a dream of a better future as he laid to rest his brother Robert in 1968: “My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”
After John Jr.’s death, the senator said: “We dared to think, in that other Irish phrase, that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But like his father, he had every gift but length of years.”
His own legacy was blighted on the night of July 18, 1969, when Kennedy drove his car off a bridge and into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, on Martha’s Vineyard. Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old worker with RFK’s campaign, was found dead in the submerged car’s back seat 10 hours later.
Kennedy, then 37, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence and a year’s probation. A judge eventually determined there was “probable cause to believe that Kennedy operated his motor vehicle negligently � and that such operation appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.”
At the height of the scandal, Kennedy went on national television to explain himself in an extraordinary 13-minute address in which he denied driving drunk and rejected rumors of “immoral conduct” with Ms. Kopechne.
He said he was haunted by “irrational” thoughts immediately after the accident, and wondered “whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys.” He said his failure to report the accident right away was “indefensible.”
After Chappaquiddick especially, Kennedy gained a reputation as a heavy drinker and a womanizer, a tragically flawed figure haunted by the fear that he did not quite measure up to his brothers. As his weight ballooned, he was lampooned by comics and cartoonists in the 1980s and ’90s as the very embodiment of government waste, bloat and decadence.
But in his later years, after he had remarried, he came to be regarded as a statesman on Capitol Hill, seen as one of the most effective, hardworking lawmakers Washington has ever seen.
A barrel-chested figure with a swath of white hair, a booming voice and a thick, widely imitated Boston accent, he coupled fist-pumping floor speeches with his well-honed Irish charm and formidable negotiating skills. He was both a passionate liberal and a clear-eyed pragmatist, willing to reach across the aisle to get things done.
Kennedy’s speech in accepting defeat to Carter electrified the Democratic convention and turned out to be a defining moment. At 48, he seemed liberated from the towering expectations and high hopes invested in him after the death of his brothers, and he plunged into his work in the Senate.
First elected to the Senate in 1962 to his brother John’s seat, easily re-elected in 2006, Kennedy served close to 47 years, longer than all but two senators in history: Robert Byrd of West Virginia (50 years and counting) and the late Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who died after a tenure of nearly 47 1 / 2 years. Kennedy’s career spanned 10 presidencies.
His legislative achievements included bills to provide health insurance for children of the working poor, the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Meals on Wheels for the elderly, abortion clinic access, family leave, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
He was also a key negotiator on legislation creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit for senior citizens and was a driving force for peace in Ireland and a persistent critic of the war in Iraq.
Kennedy did not always prevail. In late 2008, he unsuccessfully lobbied for niece Caroline’s appointment to the Senate from New York. New York Gov. David Paterson chose then-Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand instead.
Wildly popular among Democrats, Kennedy routinely won re-election by large margins. He grew comfortable in his role as Republican foil and leader of his party’s liberal wing.
President George W. Bush welcomed Kennedy to the Rose Garden on several occasions as he signed bills that the Democrat helped write.
“He’s the kind of person who will state his case, sometimes quite eloquently and vociferously, and then on another issue will come along and you can work with him,” Bush said shortly before his first term began in 2001.
But Bush was also the target of some of Kennedy’s sharpest attacks. Kennedy assailed the Iraq war as Bush’s Vietnam, a conflict “made up in Texas” and marketed by the Bush administration for political gain.
Kennedy and his niece Caroline shook up the Democratic establishment in January 2008 when they endorsed Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination for president.
After Obama won in November, Kennedy renewed words once spoken by his brother John, declaring: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do. � It is time for a new generation of leadership.”
Born in 1932, the youngest of Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s nine children, Edward Moore Kennedy was part of a family bristling with political ambition, beginning with maternal grandfather John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, a congressman and mayor of Boston.
Round-cheeked Teddy was thrown out of Harvard in 1951 for cheating, after arranging for a classmate to take a freshman Spanish exam for him. He eventually returned, earning his degree in 1956.
He went on to the University of Virginia Law School, and in 1962, while his brother John was president, announced plans to run for the Senate seat JFK had vacated in 1960. A family friend had held the seat in the interim because Kennedy was not yet 30, the minimum age for a senator.
Kennedy was immediately involved in a bruising primary campaign against state Attorney General Edward J. McCormack, a nephew of U.S. House Speaker John W. McCormack.
“If your name was simply Edward Moore, your candidacy would be a joke,” chided McCormack.
Kennedy won the primary by 300,000 votes and went on to overwhelmingly defeat Republican George Cabot Lodge, son of the late Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, in the general election.
Devastated by his brothers’ assassinations and injured in a 1964 plane crash that left him with back pain that would plague him for decades, Kennedy temporarily withdrew from public life in 1968. But he re-emerged in 1969 to be elected majority whip of the Senate.
Then came Chappaquiddick.
Kennedy still handily won re-election in 1970, but he lost his leadership job. He remained outspoken in his opposition to the Vietnam War and support of social programs but ruled out a 1976 presidential bid.
In the summer of 1978, a Gallup Poll showed that Democrats preferred Kennedy over President Carter 54 percent to 32 percent. A year later, Kennedy decided to run for the White House with a campaign that accused Carter of turning his back on the Democratic agenda.
The difficult task of dislodging a sitting president was compounded by Kennedy’s fumbling answer to a question posed by CBS’ Roger Mudd: Why do you want to be president?
“Well, it’s um, you know you have to come to grips with the different issues that, ah, we’re facing,” Kennedy said. “I mean, we can, we have to deal with each of the various questions of the economy, whether it’s in the area of energy �”
He bowed out of the race after getting roundly beaten by Carter in the primaries and losing a rules battle at the Democratic convention. Later, when asked to assess the campaign, he replied: “Well, I learned to lose, and for a Kennedy that’s hard.”
Kennedy married Virginia Joan Bennett, known as Joan, in 1958. They divorced in 1982. In 1992, he married Washington lawyer Victoria Reggie. His survivors include a daughter, Kara Kennedy Allen; two sons, Edward Jr. and Patrick, a congressman from Rhode Island; and two stepchildren, Caroline and Curran Raclin.
In 1991, Kennedy roused his nephew William Kennedy Smith and his son Patrick from bed to go out for drinks while staying at the family’s Palm Beach, Fla., estate. Later that night, a woman Smith met at a bar accused him of raping her at the home.
Smith was acquitted, but the senator’s carousing – and testimony about him wandering about the house in his shirttails and no pants – further damaged his reputation.
Kennedy offered a mea culpa in a speech at Harvard that October, recognizing “my own shortcomings, the faults in the conduct of my private life.”
Later on, his second wife appeared to have a calming influence on him, helping him rehabilitate his image.
Kennedy’s family life has been marked by illness.
Edward Jr. lost a leg to bone cancer in 1973 at age 12. Kara had a cancerous tumor removed from her lung in 2003. In 1988, Patrick had a noncancerous tumor pressing on his spine removed. He has also struggled with depression and addiction and announced in June that he was re-entering rehab.
Kennedy’s memoir, “True Compass,” is set to be published in the fall.
Michael Jackson’s death ruled a homicide
Pop singer Michael Jackson’s death was officially ruled a homicide. (no surprise there). The Associated Press story is posted below via NewsOK.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Michael Jackson’s death a homicide, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press, a finding that makes it more likely criminal charges will be filed against the doctor who was with the pop star when he died and is the target of a manslaughter investigation.
Reports from law enforcement say the Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Michael Jackson’s death a homicide.
The coroner determined a fatal combination of drugs was given to Jackson hours before he died June 25 in his rented Los Angeles mansion, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the findings have not been publicly released. Forensic tests found the powerful anesthetic propofol acted together with at least two sedatives to cause Jackson’s death, the official said.
Dr. Conrad Murray, a Las Vegas cardiologist who became Jackson’s personal physician weeks before his death, is the target of the Los Angeles Police Department’s manslaughter investigation.
According to a search warrant affidavit unsealed Monday in Houston, Murray told investigators he administered a 25 mg dose of propofol around 10:40 a.m. after spending the night injecting Jackson with two sedatives in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to sleep.
The warrant, dated July 23, states that lethal levels of propofol were found in Jackson’s system. Besides the propofol and two sedatives, the coroner’s toxicology report found other substances in Jackson’s system but they were not believed to have been a factor in the singer’s death, the official said.
Murray has spoken to police and last week released a video saying he “told the truth and I have faith the truth will prevail.” His attorney, Edward Chernoff, had no immediate comment but has previously said Murray never administered anything that “should have” killed Jackson.
A call to the coroner’s office was not returned Monday.
Murray did not say anything about the drugs he gave to Jackson.
Michael Jackson’s autopsy results kept a secret
The autopsy results on Michael Jackson’s body have been complete. Unfortunately, we won’t know the results just yet.
The Los Angeles Police Department requested the results be kept secret because they’re afraid it could hinder the investigation into Jackson’s death.
Although we don’t know the official cause of death, I think it’s safe to say that prescription drugs were somehow involved.
Tim Henley
Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dances with his mother-in-law Eunice Kennedy Shriver after giving his acceptance speech. (AP photo)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver is dead at age 88. She is the sister of former President John F. Kennedy, the mother of Maria Shriver and the mother-in-law of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
She is best known for creating the Special Olympics, which allows people with disabilities to compete in athletic events.
The full Associated Press story is posted below via NewsOK.com. Click here to view/sign the guestbook.
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
President John F. Kennedy’s sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who carried on the family’s public service tradition by founding the Special Olympics and championing the rights of the mentally disabled, died Tuesday morning, her family said in a statement. She was 88.
Shriver had suffered a series of strokes in recent years and died at 2 a.m. at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis. The hospital is near the Kennedy family compound, where her sole surviving brother, Sen. Edward Kennedy, has been battling a brain tumor.
As celebrity, social worker and activist, Shriver was credited with transforming America’s view of the mentally disabled from institutionalized patients to friends, neighbors and athletes. Her efforts were inspired in part by the struggles of her mentally disabled sister, Rosemary.
Peter Collier, author of “The Kennedys, an American Drama,” called Eunice Shriver the “moral force” of the Kennedy family.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver is shown swimming with children in a pool at the day camp for mentally challenged children in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. (AP photo)
Shriver was also the sister of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the wife of 1972 vice presidential candidate and former Peace Corps director R. Sargent Shriver, and the mother-in-law of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. With Eunice Shriver’s death, Jean Kennedy Smith becomes the last surviving Kennedy daughter.
A 1960 Chicago Tribune profile of the women in then-candidate JFK’s family said Shriver was “generally credited with being the most intellectual and politically minded of all the Kennedy women.”
When her brother was in the White House, she pressed for efforts to help troubled young people and the mentally disabled. And in 1968, she started what would become the world’s largest athletic competition for mentally disabled children and adults. Now, more than 1 million athletes in more than 160 countries participate in Special Olympics meets each year.
“When the full judgment on the Kennedy legacy is made – including JFK’s Peace Corps and Alliance for Progress, Robert Kennedy’s passion for civil rights and Ted Kennedy’s efforts on health care, work place reform and refugees – the changes wrought by Eunice Shriver may well be seen as the most consequential,” Harrison Rainie, author of “Growing Up Kennedy,” wrote in U.S. News & World Report in 1993.
Click here to view/sign the guestbook.
Sargent Shriver and his wife Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968. (AP photo)
Cocaine contributed to Billy Mays’ death
The medical examiner determined the cause of death of television commercial pitchman Billy Mays.
The autopsy report indicates 50-year-old Mays, died June 27 from a heart attack, and cocaine use was contributing factor, according to the Associated Press.
The prescription drugs tramadol, hydrocodone and oxycodone were also found in his system. He was taking those drugs for his hip pain.
Film director John Hughes dies from heart attack
Legendary film director John Hughes died Thursday from a heart attack at age 59.
He directed “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Sixteen Candles,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Uncle Buck,” “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2.”
The Associated Press story is posted below via NewsOK.com.
A spokeswoman for John Hughes says the director of 1980s coming-of-age films like “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club” has died in Manhattan.
Michelle Bega says the 59-year-old Hughes died of a heart attack during a morning walk. He was in Manhattan to visit family.
He made a teen star of Molly Ringwald with 1984’s “Sixteen Candles” about a girl’s nightmarish birthday on the eve of her sister’s wedding.
Ringwald also starred in “The Breakfast Club,” about a group of high school misfits during Saturday detention, and “Pretty in Pink.”
Hughes also directed “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and wrote “Home Alone.” He lived in Illinois and set many of his films in the Chicago area.
Walter Cronkite dies at age 92
The legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite has passed away at age 92. Cronkite, who was known as the most trusted man in America, died at his home in Manhattan.
He suffered from cerebral vascular disease. The full Associated Press story is posted below.
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks’ golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called “the most trusted man in America,” died Friday. He was 92.
Cronkite’s longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease.
Adler said, “I have to go now” before breaking down into what sounded like a sob. She said she had no further comment.
Cronkite was the face of the “CBS Evening News” from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.
It was Cronkite who read the bulletins coming from Dallas when Kennedy was shot Nov. 22, 1963, interrupting a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap opera “As the World Turns.”
Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title “anchorman” was first applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own name became the term for the job in other languages (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; in Holland, they are Cronkiters).
“He was a great broadcaster and a gentleman whose experience, honesty, professionalism and style defined the role of anchor and commentator,” CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves said in a statement.
His 1968 editorial declaring the United States was “mired in stalemate” in Vietnam was seen by some as a turning point in U.S. opinion of the war. He also helped broker the 1977 invitation that took Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem, the breakthrough to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.
He followed the 1960s space race with open fascination, anchoring marathon broadcasts of major flights from the first suborbital shot to the first moon landing, exclaiming, “Look at those pictures, wow!” as Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon’s surface in 1969. In 1998, for CNN, he went back to Cape Canaveral to cover John Glenn’s return to space after 36 years.
“It is impossible to imagine CBS News, journalism or indeed America without Walter Cronkite,” CBS News president Sean McManus said in a statement. “More than just the best and most trusted anchor in history, he guided America through our crises, tragedies and also our victories and greatest moments.”
He had been scheduled to speak last January for the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., but ill health prevented his appearance.
My childhood memories of Michael Jackson
When I first heard Michael Jackson died, I didn’t believe it. I immediately assumed it was a publicity stunt.
Michael was known for being over-the-top. Throughout his lengthy career, he has pulled many publicity stunts to gain attention, like when he pretended to be in love with Brooke Shields. I won’t even discuss that publicity stunt marriage to Lisa Marie Presley.
So, surely his hospitalization was a publicity stunt to attract attention to his upcoming concert tour in London right?
For several hours, I refused to believe the news reports that said he died. It wasn’t until I saw a newscast that showed hospital workers carrying his body to a van. When I saw him wrapped in that white sheet, I knew it was true. The King of Pop is officially dead.
Sadness and grievance overcame me for the rest of the night thinking about Michael’s death. 
Why should I feel so sad about someone that I’ve never actually met before? I hear fans say Michael Jackson was a major part of their childhood. He was in their homes everyday, and they truly feel like they’ve lost a family member.
I know this might sound cliché, but it’s the truth. Michael was a major part of my childhood. Therefore, a part of my childhood died June 25 with the passing of Michael.
And a part of my childhood is now buried in that coffin.
My first memory of Michael was when I was about 6 or 7 years old. I remember watching the “Thriller” video at my aunt’s house. I watched it about 10 times in a row because I was mesmerized by the dance steps in the video, and I wanted to learn it.
When I saw footage of him performing “Billie Jean” at the Motown anniversary special and doing the Moonwalk, my eyes were in awe. I had never seen anyone dance like that before.
For the next decade, I tried to duplicate Michael’s performances. I would put on my socks and slide across the slippery kitchen floor trying to perform the moonwalk. I was never successful though.
I also did the spin and tried to stand on my toes like he does.
Throughout Michael’s career, I owned every album that he released during the 1980s and 1990s.
I used to stay glued to the television whenever I found out he was releasing a new music video.
Throughout my childhood, Michael was always in my home. Music was a major part of my family’s everyday activities.
When we were playing video games, music was always playing in the background. When we were playing basketball or hop scotch, we always had music playing in the background.
If we were walking up the street, we always had headphones on listening to music. Most of the time, it was Michael Jackson songs we were listening to.
My family would also frequently get together in the living room and have a dance off to Michael Jackson songs. Every time his music videos were played, we would gather around the television and watch without blinking.
When we were in the car, his music was always in our cassette player. There wasn’t a day that went by when Michael was not in my home in some form when I was growing up.
I always stood in front of television, along with my siblings, emulating the dance steps that Michael was doing in all of his music videos.
I idolized Michael Jackson during my childhood. I had the trademark white glove and the red jacket. I even tried to put a Jheri Curl on my hair. (which didn’t work).
I also use to imitate his “crotch-grabbing” dance which used to get me in trouble with my parents.
When Michael became the celebrity spokesperson for Pepsi, I started drinking Pepsi. To this day, Pepsi is still my favorite beverage.
Michael donated money and participated in charitable activities that raised money to try to cure world hunger. So, then I decided to participate in charity fundraisers too.
Michael went on a date with Madonna to the Oscars in 1991. Therefore, I started wanting to date Madonna too.
Michael hung out with his chimpanzee named Bubbles, so I wanted a chimpanzee too. (Of course my mom wasn’t having that).
His music and performances have forever changed the music industry. When Michael emerged as a solo artist, he forced other musicians to step up their game.
If performers wanted to stay relevant in the music industry, they could no longer just stand behind a microphone and sing. They had to be like Michael and display the intricate dance moves and the flashy innovative videos.
If you watch Usher, Justin Timberlake, Ginuwine, Ne-Yo or Chris Brown on stage, they perform the same dance moves that Michael performed during the 1980s and 1990s.
He gave new meaning to the words “music videos.” No one can ever do it like Michael.
Sadly, as his lifestyle and music turned into a bizarre circus show during the late 1990s, I stopped purchasing Michael’s new music, and I stopped following his career.
I did, however, continue to listen to his old songs and try to imitate his old dances. Two years ago, my sister, my cousin and I went to a karaoke place, and we sang “Thriller” in front of an audience.
We did the “Thriller” dance too and received a standing ovation afterward. (Yep, we still got it).
Athough the King of Pop is no longer here, you can still see his influence everytime you watch any modern music video or attend an elaborate high-energy stage concert by any performer. Michael is the originator of that.
By Tim Henley
Michael Jackson’s ghost caught on tape at Neverland?
While filming inside of the late Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, crews from CNN caught an image of what appears to be a ghost of someone walking in the background. No joke.
Take a look at the CNN video clip posted below. You can see the ghostly figure 19 seconds into the film.
I’m certain that really is Michael’s ghost. As much as he loved Neverland, there’s no way he would ever leave that place–even in death.
Jermaine Jackson’s interview with Matt Lauer
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
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TV pitchman Billy Mays died
Television pitchman Billy Mays was found dead in his home Sunday morning in Tampa, Florida.
Police said there were no signs of foul play and no signs of a break-in. Mays was well known as the commercial pitchman for various cleaning products including OxiClean and Orange Glo.
Mays was 50 years old.
Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays died in the same week. I guess it’s not a good time to be celebrity.
Click here to read the Associated Press story about Mays.
Ed McMahon died at age 86
Television personality Ed McMahon has died at age 86 at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Most people will always remember McMahon as Johnny Carson’s sidekick on the “The Tonight Show” from 1962 to 1992.
However, I will always remember McMahon as the host of the talent show “Star Search” from 1983 to 1995, which I watched every week with my family. The show was a precursor to “American Idol.”
“Star Search” helped launch the careers of several celebrities including Christina Aguilera, Drew Carey, Destiny’s Child, Britney Spears, Martin Lawrence, Dennis Miller, Rosie O’Donnell, Alanis Morissette, LeAnn Rimes, Ray Romono, Adam Sandler, Justin Timberlake and Usher.
McMahon was hospitalized in February with pnemonia and bone cancer.
Tim Henley
Golden Girls actress dies
Golden Girls actress Bea Arthur died Saturday from cancer at age 86.
The actress died at her home in Los Angeles.
Arthur is the second Golden Girls actress to pass away during the past year. In July, Estelle Getty died after a battle with Dementia.
Arthur portrayed Dorothy on the Golden Girls from 1985 to 1992.
Prior to that, she played on the 1970s sitcom “Maude.” She will be missed.
Tim Henley
Macaulay Culkin’s sister was impaired by alcohol when she died
A coroner said Macaulay Culkin’s sister Dakota Culkin was “more than likely impaired due to alcohol, according to People magazine.
Traces of alcohol was found in her system, but it’s not known what her blood alcohol level was.
Dakota Culkin, 29, was killed in December when she stepped out in front of a vehicle in Los Angeles.
The 29-year-old stepped out in front a car in Los Angeles, and the driver hit her.
She was rushed to the hospital with head injuries, and she later died.
The coroner also said the Culkin family told authorities she was attending a therapy program for alcohol addiction.
John Travolta’s teenage son died
John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s 16-year-old son died in Nassau Bahamas today during a family vacation.
Jett Travolta suffered from a seizure and hit his head on the bathtub in a hotel room, according to Reuters.
He was pronounced dead on the scene. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Travolta family.
R.I.P.
Starsky and Hutch actor Bernie Hamilton died
Starsky and Hutch actor Bernie Hamilton died this week from a cardiac arrest. He was 80 years old.
Hamilton played the police captain on “Starsky and Hutch” during the 1970s. Hamilton also played in the films “Carmen Jones,” “The Young One” and “The Jackie Robinson Story.”
R.I.P.
Actress Eartha Kitt died
Legendary actress/singer/sex symbol Eartha Kitt died from colon cancer on Christmas day at the age of 81.
Kitt’s career spanned more than 55 years. She became famous when she portrayed Catwoman during the “Batman” tv series in the 1960s which helped break down racial barriers.
She continued to appear in movies, television and films throughout her career along with recording music.
Her songs include “Santa Baby” and “Someone To Watch Over Me.” Eartha will be missed. A photo tribute is below.
Time Henley
James Bond actress was found murdered
Former James Bond actress Celine Cawley was found dead in her home in Ireland this week. According to the U.K. Daily Mail, police said an intruder broke into her home and killed her.
Her husband discovered her body after he came home from walking their dogs. The husband said he saw a masked intruder running from the home.
Cawley was 46 years old. She appeared in the 1985 James Bond film “A View To Kill.”
Celebrity briefs (Dec. 11)
– Taylor Hanson from the group Hanson and his wife Natalie had a new 8-pound son named Viggo Moriah.
– Actress Kate Walsh and her husband Alex Young have filed for divorce after 15 months of marriage.
– 1950s model Bettie Page died after suffering from a heart attack. She was 85 years old.
– In 2009, Paula Abdul will have an MTV reality show titled “Rah! Paula Abdul’s Cheerleading Bowl.”
– Actress Lauren London’s character on “90210″ will become bisexual beginning on the Jan. 6 episode.
– Sam Talbot, a contestant on Top Chef married girlfriend Paola Guerrero in New York City.
