Richest lawmakers became wealthier as economy faltered

The rest of the country is still struggling with high unemployment amid a sluggish-at-best economic recovery -- but the wealthiest members of Congress are in high cotton. Indeed, the top 50 wealthiest lawmakers saw their combined net worths increase last year, according to the Hill's annual analysis of financial disclosure documents.

Combined, the 50 lawmakers were worth $1.4 billion in 2009 -- an $85.1 million increase over their 2008 total -- the Hill reports. The members' total combined assets depreciated by nearly $36 million last year -- but Congress' well-to-do set also reduced their debts by a combined $120 million.

The list of 50 lawmakers spans both parties (27 Democrats and 23 Republicans) and both chambers of Congress (30 House members, 20 senators), the Hill reports.

Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts topped the list for the second year in a row; Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas made his debut in the top 10.

Here are profiles for the 10 most flush Hill power-and-money brokers:

1. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.): $188.6 million. Kerry's worth, which grew by $20 million in 2009, stems from his wife's assets. Teresa Heinz Kerry, of the Heinz ketchup family, inherited hundreds of millions upon the death of her previous husband, Sen. John Heinz.

2. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.): $160.1 million. Issa actually saw his minimum net worth drop by $4 million, partly due to the poor performance of a single investment fund. Issa's fortune stems from investments he and his wife made in the electronics market. Their company eventually became the largest producer of car anti-theft devices in the country. They sold the business in 2000.

3. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.): $152.3 million. Harman is married to audio-equipment mogul Sidney Harman; stock holdings from his company, Harman International Industries, helped Harman's net worth grow by $40 million last year. Sidney Harman is in the process of purchasing Newsweek; the magazine's massive debts will presumably drag down Harman's 2010 disclosure numbers a bit.

4. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa.): $83.7 million. No surprise here: The Rockefeller family name has for generations been a byword for fabulous riches. (Rockefeller's great-grandfather John Rockefeller was an oil magnate; inflation-adjusted figures still peg the founder of the Rockefeller fortune as the wealthiest man in history.) But the senator's uptick in personal wealth last year came mainly from his wife's investments.

5. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas): $73.8 million. McCaul saw his net worth double last year, mostly owing to stocks held by his wife. McCaul's father-in-law founded the radio empire Clear Channel Communications.

6. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.): $70.2 million. Warner made millions through investments in the cell phone industry, including the Nextel company.


7. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.): $56.5 million. Before his 2008 election to Congress, Polis made a fortune in online enterprises, transforming his family's greeting card company into BlueMountain.com and founding ProFlowers.com.


8. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.): $53.5 million. Buchanan grew wealthy as the owner of multiple auto dealerships in Florida.


9. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.): $49.7 million. Lautenberg co-founded a payroll services company in the 1950s that became one of the industry's global leaders


10. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.): $46.1 million. Most of the California lawmaker's wealth comes from real-estate holdings and investments made by her husband.

from yahoo news

The width strains against the failing hate.

The width strains against the failing hate.

Increase in women who drink and drive

WASHINGTON — The number of women arrested for drunken driving has jumped nearly 30 percent in the past decade, a dangerous trend that was all too evident when a wrong-way crash involving a woman in New York killed eight people.

The Transportation Department said the number of women arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs increased 28.8 percent between 1998 and 2007. The number of men arrested under the influence fell 7.5 percent during the same period.

"If you're over the limit, you're under arrest. This is a matter of life and death," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Despite the new trend, drunken driving arrests remain dominated by men. In 1998, 676,911 men were arrested for being under the influence, compared with 626,371 arrests in 2007. More than 126,000 women were arrested for DUI in 1998, a number which increased to 162,493 in 2007.

The Associated Press initially reported the figures earlier this month.

Laura Dean-Mooney, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said it was unclear why there has been an increase in the number of women arrested for impaired driving. "There's no hard data on that. What you're hearing more is that women are under more pressure, they're now perhaps the breadwinner because of the unemployment rate," she said.

"We need to make sure women understand that if you're a drinking driver, you're just as likely as a male to hit or kill or injure someone or perhaps even kill yourself, as we saw in the horrible Taconic Parkway crash," she said.

In New York's Westchester County, Diane Schuler drove the wrong way for nearly two miles on the Taconic State Parkway last month before her minivan slammed into an SUV, killing 8 people.

Schuler, her 2-year-old daughter, three young nieces and three men in the SUV were killed. Schuler's 5-year-old son survived.

A smashed bottle of vodka was found in the wreckage of Schuler's minivan. An autopsy found she had a 0.19 blood-alcohol reading at the time of the crash, well above the legal limit of 0.08, and had smoked marijuana no more than an hour before the wreck.

Transportation officials said the number of impaired women involved in a fatal crash increased in 10 states from 2007 to 2008. The states are: Ohio, New Hampshire, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, West Virginia, Indiana, Washington state, Kansas and Tennessee.

About 2,000 alcohol-related deaths involve women every year.

The government released the new statistics in connection with its anti-drunk driving enforcement campaign, which targets drivers leading up to the Labor Day holiday weekend. The enforcement campaign runs from Aug. 21 through the Labor Day weekend and involves 11,000 police departments and law enforcement agencies around the country.


by the associated press

The real Lion King

NYPD rookie makes arrest

NEW YORK – A New York Police Department rookie just couldn't wait to get started.

One of the NYPD's newest officers made his first arrest Thursday just minutes after graduating from the Police Academy in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden.

Officer Dariel Firpo, 23, was leaving the midtown Manhattan ceremony when he saw a 79-year-old man being robbed of his wallet and thrown to the ground by a mugger, police said.

The mugger tried to run away, but Firpo caught him without incident, they said.

"Officer Firpo made us all proud," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "He's off to a great start."

The man Firpo arrested, Jeffrey Grant, was being charged with robbery. Grant, 47, has 48 previous arrests and was just released last week from Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y., after serving time for a robbery conviction, police said.

Grant, of Manhattan, was in custody late Thursday and couldn't be contacted. The name of his attorney wasn't yet on record.

The mugging victim was treated at a hospital for a broken wrist.

Firpo's feat "may be the fastest police action upon graduation in department history," said chief police spokesman Paul Browne, who was at the graduation ceremony for the class of 250 new officers.

Firpo, who graduated from Lehman College in January with a degree in political science, said he wants to focus on community affairs while working in the nation's biggest police department.

"I'm really trying to stick in the community," he said.



by the associated press

HEALTH Panel says slow down on Tylenol

ADELPHI, Md. — Government experts called for sweeping safety restrictions Tuesday on the most widely used painkiller, including reducing the maximum dose of Tylenol and eliminating prescription drugs such as Vicodin and Percocet.

The Food and Drug Administration assembled 37 experts to recommend ways to reduce deadly overdoses with acetaminophen, which is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S. and sends 56,000 people to the emergency room annually. About 200 die each year.

"We’re here because there are inadvertent overdoses with this drug that are fatal and this is the one opportunity we have to do something that will have a big impact,” said Dr. Judith Kramer of Duke University Medical Center.

But over-the-counter cold medicines — such as Nyquil and Theraflu — that combine other drugs with acetaminophen can stay on the market, the panel said.

The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its panels, but it usually does.

The panel recommended 21-16 to lower the maximum dose of over-the-counter acetaminophen from 4 grams, or eight pills of a medication such as Extra Strength Tylenol. They did not specify how much it should be lowered.

The panel also endorsed limiting the maximum single dose of the drug to 650 milligrams. That would be down from the 1,000-milligram dose, or two tablets of Extra Strength Tylenol.


Industry responds
The industry group that represents Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth and other companies defended the current dosing that appears on over-the-counter products.
"I think it’s a very useful dose and one that is needed for treating chronic pain, such as people with chronic osteoarthritis,” said Linda Suydam, president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.

Some on the panel opposed a sweeping withdraw of products that are widely used to control severe, chronic pain.

"To make this shift without very clear understanding of the implications on the management of pain would be a huge mistake,” said Dr. Robert Kerns of Yale University.

If the drugs stay on the market, they should carry a black box warning, the most serious safety label available, the panel said.



by the associated press

Blogger said The Lunsford Post is Spam

Blogger said The Lunsford Post is Spam.


So if my post does not go through this is the reason .

Childrens Program uses animals

BOSTON — Yes, he’s obsessed with grooming, and he occasionally barks at you, but in most ways Isaac is not your typical fitness instructor. He weighs in at 350, eats 16 pounds of food at a time and he’s only 9 years old. And he’s a seal.

Isaac is one of five northern fur seals to be featured in a new exhibit at the New England Aquarium that aims to entice an increasingly obese generation of kids to get moving.

The seals twist, stretch, leap out of the water, run on their flippers and shoot like missiles under and between the fiberglass rocks. Isaac even stands on his head. The "Move It!” program at the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center, which opens Wednesday, uses the seals’ athleticism as an example for children.

"Those marine animals will do things that are jaw-dropping at times,” said Tony LaCasse, an aquarium spokesman. "We wanted kids to be inspired by them.”

The seals will dart around the $10 million center, built at the back of the aquarium on Boston Harbor.

The animals are rarely this close to the Atlantic. They live in the Pacific from Southern California to Japan, and north to the Bering Sea. Males grow to up to 7 feet long and 600 pounds, while females are about 5 feet and 110 pounds.

The seals are considered depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and a big reason is the hunters who pursued its pelt — two layers thick and stuffed with 300,000 hairs per square inch. The pelt demands constant grooming, and the seals attend to themselves in an endearing way, contorting their bodies so their long flippers can get the job done.

The center opening is a sign of health at the aquarium three years after it regained its accreditation after repairing shaky finances. The accreditation was pulled in 2003 by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums after financial struggles and layoffs followed two major expansions in the late 1990s.

The new center’s childhood fitness push comes as statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 32 percent of American kids ages 2 to 19 are overweight, including 17 percent who are obese.


by the associated press

Slain high school football rememdered

PARKERSBURG, Iowa — Thousands of mourners gathered Monday to remember a slain high school football coach as a man of faith who believed in leading by example.

Family, friends and former players packed into a church, community center and parking lot for the funeral for Ed Thomas, the 58-year-old longtime coach at Aplington-Parkersburg High School who was gunned down Wednesday in the school weight room.

Pastor Brad Zinnecker of First Congregational Church said the huge turnout was a testament to Thomas’ faith.

"They recognized a man after God’s own heart,” Zinnecker said. "His personal life and public life were one and the same.”

The number of mourners easily topped the roughly 1,800-person population of Parkersburg.

One of Thomas’ sons, Aaron Thomas, told mourners his father would have wanted the community to "get going” after his death and to do something to improve the town. He recalled that in May 2008, after Parkersburg was struck by a tornado that wiped out about one-third of the town and killed six people, Ed Thomas was a key leader in pushing for the recovery.

Aaron Thomas urged mourners to wake up today with a renewed sense of purpose. He said finding time for small tasks can make a difference.

Authorities have charged Mark Becker, a 24-year-old former player at Aplington-Parkersburg, with first-degree murder. He remained in the Cerro Gordo County jail.



by the associated press

Program could ease student loan payments

NEW YORK — Repaying a student loan could soon be a little less painful.

Starting this week, anyone with a federal student loan can apply for a program that caps monthly payments based on income, and forgives remaining balances after 25 years. Those choosing to work in public service could have their loans forgiven after just 10 years.

Eligibility for income-based repayment is determined by a person’s income and loan size. A calculator at www.ibrinfo.org can help borrowers determine their eligibility for the plan, which becomes available Wednesday.

Monthly payments would amount to less than 10 percent of income for most of the estimated 1 million people expected to enroll, experts say. Payments would never exceed 15 percent of any income above about $16,000 a year. The new payment option is intended to provide relief for those who earn modest salaries and struggle under the weight of student loans for years on end. By stretching repayment over a longer period, monthly payments are kept at a reasonable portion of income, though most people would not see any savings on the total cost of the loan.


by the associated press

Fears of dying drive teens to risky behavior

CHICAGO — A surprising number of teenagers — nearly 15 percent — think they’re going to die young, leading many to drug use, suicide attempts and other unsafe behavior, new research suggests.

The study, based on a survey of more than 20,000 kids, challenges conventional wisdom that says teens engage in risky behavior because they think they’re invulnerable to harm.

Instead, a sizable number of teens may take chances "because they feel hopeless and figure that not much is at stake,” said study author Dr. Iris Borowsky, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.

That behavior threatens to turn their fatalism into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Over seven years, teenagers who thought they would die early were seven times more likely than optimistic kids to be subsequently diagnosed with AIDS.

They also were more likely to attempt suicide and get in fights resulting in serious injuries.

Borowsky said the magnitude of kids with a negative outlook was eye-opening.

Adolescence is "a time of great opportunity and for such a large minority of youth to feel like they don’t have a long life ahead of them was surprising,” she said.

The study suggests a new way doctors could detect kids likely to engage in unsafe behavior and potentially help prevent it, said Dr. Jonathan Klein, a University of Rochester adolescent health expert who was not involved in the research.

"Asking about this sense of fatalism is probably a pretty important component of one of the ways we can figure out who those kids at greater risk are,” he said.

The study appears in the July issue of Pediatrics, released today.


by the associated press

Pastor welcomes guns

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For one day, at least, it was OK to pack heat in church.

More than 200 people answered gun-toting Pastor Ken Pagano’s call to celebrate the Second Amendment at New Bethel Church in Louisville on Saturday. There was just one rule for the several dozen who brought their guns along: No bullets.

"We are wanting to send a message that there are legal, civil, intelligent and law-abiding citizens who also own guns,” Pagano said during the 90-minute event, which was open to the public. "If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country would not be here today,” he told the crowd, drawing applause and exclamations of "Amen!”

The "Open Carry Celebration” included a handgun raffle, patriotic music and screening of gun safety videos. Some gun owners carried old-fashioned six-shooters in leather holsters, while others packed modern police-style firearms. Kentucky allows residents to openly carry guns in public with some restrictions.

"I just believe in the right to protect ourselves,” said Liz Boyer, who had a pink Glock in a black holster at her side. The 41-year-old isn’t a member of the church but teaches a class on gun safety for women at a local range.

Brittany Rogers, 23, feared guns as a child. But her fiance encouraged her to go sport shooting with him about a year ago, and she said she has been hooked ever since. On Saturday, she brought her tiny Kel-Tec P-32 to church.

Pagano’s protestant church, which attracts up to 150 people to Sunday services in a conservative neighborhood of southwest Louisville, belongs to the Assemblies of God. He thought up the event after some church members expressed concern about the Obama administration’s views on gun control, though the president hasn’t moved to put new restrictions on ownership.

Across town, a coalition of peace and church groups concerned about Pagano’s appeal to gun owners staged their own gun-free event.

Pagano’s event troubled his church’s longtime insurance carrier, which declined to insure the event and informed him it won’t renew the policy.


by the associated press

N.J. school helps kids to follow their dreams

CAMDEN, N.J. — Angelo Drummond wears a pressed white shirt and a red power tie for his presentation to his harshest critics — a panel of fellow students at Camden’s MetEast High School.

The stocky 17-year-old lays out his intention to study through the summer to bring up his scores on the SAT and New Jersey’s high school graduation exam. He also explains his senior-year project to plan a lounge where teenagers can hang out, study and avoid the trouble that snags so many in his city.

His peers tell the junior he needs to get his timeline together to apply for grants for the lounge, that he might need to scale back his ambitions for the project, and that he needs to learn more about how nonprofit organizations get grants.

It’s an extraordinary display of wisdom for students in a city where dropout rates are consistently among New Jersey’s highest and test scores are among the lowest. Neither is the case at MetEast, which graduated its first class of seniors Friday.

It opened in 2005 as a laboratory for education in a city where the schools are part of an entanglement of problems.

It’s one of about 60 schools nationwide established with the help of Big Picture Learning, a nonprofit with offices in San Diego and Providence, R.I.

The schools are small and very different from traditional schools. MetEast has just over 100 students. The educators are called "advisers,” not teachers, and they advise the same group of students all four years.

Classes are built around the idea that students will learn by following their passions. Students do internships. Graduation requirements include a senior project with the aim of doing some good for the community. And four times a year, every student makes a presentation to a panel of peers and adults.

All 28 students graduating from MetEast have been accepted to at least one college. Principal Timothy Jenkins expects most of them to attend in the fall.



by the associated press

Alternative Business investings

NEW YORK — Scott Painter makes his living betting on startup companies, having played a role in launching 29 of them over the years. But with the bad economy choking initial public offerings and acquisitions, Painter is now backing an idea that makes it easier for insiders like him to sell shares in their companies even before they go public.

SharesPost, which was founded by Painter’s business partner, Greg Brogger, launched publicly in June. Through the SharesPost Web site, Painter is trying to sell shares in several companies he helped found, including car pricing startup TrueCar.com.

SharesPost is one of a few private stock exchanges that are emerging to fight what venture capitalists call a liquidity crisis. These exchanges give stakeholders an alternative way to trade their shares in hot startups like Facebook for cold, hard cash — without having to wait years for an IPO.

Employees at startup companies often put in long hours but get salaries that can be 20 percent less than their peers at public companies. In return, they get stock or options they hope will bring sports cars and summer homes after companies goes public or get bought out.

Services like SharesPost could help startup workers get some cash while awaiting a distant IPO. Most people won’t be in on the action, though, since these exchanges are only open to a small pool of buyers.

And it’s not clear how much — or how little — stock has changed hands through them.

Still, if they manage to thrive, these exchanges could help the economy. By selling shares on a private exchange, an investor can free up funds to put into other startups.



by the associated press

Student Strip Search

Arizona school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old girl when they strip-searched her on the suspicion she might be hiding ibuprofen in her underwear, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The decision put school districts on notice that such searches are "categorically distinct" from other efforts to combat illegal drugs.

In a case that had drawn attention from educators, parents and civil libertarians across the country, the court ruled 8 to 1 that such an intrusive search without the threat of a clear danger to other students violated the Constitution's protections against unreasonable search or seizure.

Justice David H. Souter, writing perhaps his final opinion for the court, said that in the search of Savana Redding, now a 19-year-old college student, school officials overreacted to vague accusations that Redding was violating school policy by possessing the ibuprofen, equivalent to two tablets of Advil.

What was missing, Souter wrote, "was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear."

It was reasonable to search the girl's backpack and outer clothes, but Safford Middle School administrators made a "quantum leap" in taking the next step, the opinion said. "The meaning of such a search, and the degradation its subject may reasonably feel, place a search that intrusive in a category of its own demanding its own specific suspicions," Souter wrote.

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter. "Judges are not qualified to second-guess the best manner for maintaining quiet and order in the school environment," he wrote.

He said administrators were only being logical in searching the girl. "Redding would not have been the first person to conceal pills in her undergarments," he wrote. "Nor will she be the last after today's decision, which announces the safest place to secrete contraband in school."

The court's virtual unanimity was in contrast to the intense oral argument that seemed to exasperate the court's only female member, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She later said her male colleagues seemed not to appreciate the trauma such a search would have on a developing adolescent.

"They have never been a 13-year-old girl," she told USA Today when asked about her colleagues' comments during the arguments. "It's a very sensitive age for a girl. I didn't think that my colleagues, some of them, quite understood."

But yesterday's opinion recognized just that. "Changing for gym is getting ready for play," Souter wrote. "Exposing for a search is responding to an accusation reserved for suspected wrongdoers" and is so degrading that a number of states and school districts have banned strip searches. The Washington region's two largest school districts are among them.

Redding said the decision "feels fantastic." She described herself as shy and "not a good public speaker," but said the long legal battle "was to make sure it didn't happen to anyone else."

Safford Middle School assistant principal Kerry Wilson pulled the quiet honors student out of class, and she consented in his office to a search of her backpack and outer clothes. When that turned up no pills, he had a school nurse take Redding to her office, where she was told to remove her clothes, shake out her bra and pull her underwear away from her body, exposing her breasts and pelvic area.

No drugs were found, and Redding said she was so humiliated by the incident that she never returned to the school. Her mother filed suit against the school district, as well as Wilson.

After years of legal proceedings, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit eventually ruled in her favor.

Justices based their view on the court's warning in a 1985 case that, although school officials have leeway in deciding when searches of students are reasonable, the officials may not employ searches "excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction."

Lower courts have had trouble deciding when that standard applies, Souter wrote, so Wilson should not be held personally liable for the incident. The court ruled, though, that Redding's suit could proceed against the school district.

Ginsburg and Justice John Paul Stevens criticized the decision to remove Wilson from the suit, saying he should have known the search violated Redding's rights.

"Abuse of authority of that order should not be shielded by official immunity," Ginsburg wrote.

Redding's attorney, Adam Wolf of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the court made clear that strip searches would be used only in "extraordinary circumstances" and that "the justices saw what the general public saw: that these school officials overreacted and traumatized a young girl."

Francisco M. Negrón Jr., general counsel for the National School Boards Association, said he was glad the court recognized that the school officials had acted "in good faith." But he said the decision did not provide clear guidelines about how specific the accusation must be, or how dangerous the alleged drugs, before school officials employ such an intrusive search.

"I think there will be more litigation," he said.

But many states and school boards, including some in the Washington area, are simply not allowing strip searches.

The policy in Fairfax County, for instance, specifies that "personal searches may extend to pockets; and to the removal and search of outer garments such as jackets, coats, sweaters, or shoes; and to items such as pocketbooks or backpacks." In Montgomery County, officials with the Department of School Safety and Security said searches are limited to outer clothing and pockets. The "preferred method is self-search," where a student is told what to remove, said school system spokeswoman Kate Harrison. A third person is always present for any search, she said.


from the washington post

Fans continue to mourn Michael Jackson

LOS ANGELES — Police investigating Michael Jackson’s death looked into his medical treatment Friday, seeking to interview one of the pop king’s doctors and seizing a car that they said may contain drugs or other evidence in the death.

As medical examiners began an autopsy for Jackson, police towed a BMW from a rented home "because it may contain medications or other evidence that may assist the coroner in determining the cause of death,” police spokeswoman Karen Rayner said.

She said the car belongs to one of Jackson’s doctors whom police wanted to interview. Rayner said she did not know the doctor’s identity and stressed the doctor was not under criminal investigation.

The Associated Press confirmed that Dr. Conrad R. Murray was Jackson’s cardiologist. The Los Angeles Times reported that Murray was at Jackson’s house on Thursday.

In a 911 call released by fire officials, a caller reports Jackson was on a bed and not breathing or responding to CPR. The unidentified caller said Jackson only was with his personal doctor at the time.

The pop star died Thursday afternoon at UCLA Medical Center.

As stores reported they were inundated with orders for Jackson’s music, a chorus of grief for the megastar spread around the world, from statesmen to icons of music to legions of heartbroken fans.

"I can’t stop crying. This is too sudden and shocking,” said Diana Ross, who helped launch Jackson’s career. "I am unable to imagine this.”

The White House also weighed in for the first time, with a spokesman saying President Barack Obama saw Jackson as a spectacular performer and music icon whose life nonetheless had sad and tragic aspects.


by the associated press

Michael Jackson Family wants another autopsy

Michael Jackson's family wants a private autopsy of the pop icon because of unanswered questions about how he died and the doctor who was with him, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday.
"It's abnormal," he told The Associated Press from Chicago a day after visiting the Jackson family. "We don't know what happened. Was he injected and with what? All reasonable doubt should be addressed.".

People close to Jackson have said since his death that they were concerned about the superstar's use of painkillers. Los Angeles County medical examiners completed an autopsy Friday and said Jackson had taken prescription medication..

Medical officials also said there was no indication of trauma or foul play. An official cause of death could take weeks..

The coroner's office released the body to Jackson's family Friday night. There was no immediate word on whether the second autopsy was being performed right away. Jesse Jackson described the family as grief-stricken..

"They're hurt because they lost a son. But the wound is now being kept open by the mystery and unanswered questions of the cause of death," he said..

Two days after Jackson died at a Los Angeles hospital, his most famous sister, Janet, arrived at the mansion Jackson had been renting. She drove up in a Bentley and left without addressing reporters..

Moving vans also showed up at the Jackson home, leaving about an hour later. There was no indication what they might have taken away..

There was also no word from the Jackson family on funeral plans. Many of Jackson's relatives have gathered at the family's Encino compound, caring there for Jackson's three children..

A person close to the family told The Associated Press they feel upset and angry about a lack of information about those who were around the pop superstar in his final days. The person requested anonymity because of the delicate nature of the situation..

Jackson had been rehearsing for 50 London concerts aimed at restoring his crown as the King of Pop. He died Thursday at age 50 after what his family said appeared to be cardiac arrest..

A 911 call from Jackson's rented home reported that his personal doctor was trying to revive him without success. Police have talked to Dr. Conrad Murray and have said they intend to speak with him again but have stressed he is not a criminal suspect..

Murray has yet to speak publicly since Jackson's death. Police towed his car from Jackson's home hours after Jackson died and said later it could contain medication or other evidence. Coroner's officials also said Jackson was taking prescription medication but declined to elaborate..

A lawyer at a Houston firm, William M. Stradley, confirmed Murray had hired his firm and said one of its partners was meeting with Los Angeles police on Saturday. Stradley said Murray accompanied Michael Jackson to the hospital..

"He was there from the beginning and he's been cooperating with police from the very beginning," Stradley said. "Dr. Murray has never left L.A. since Mr. Jackson's death, and he remains there.".

Murray lives in Las Vegas but apparently left his practice and moved in with Jackson about two weeks ago. No one answered the door Saturday at his Las Vegas home, which property records show Murray bought five years ago for $1.1 million..

The promoter of the series of London concerts that Jackson was to begin next month has said Jackson personally insisted Murray be on the payroll..

Also Saturday, spiritual teacher Dr. Deepak Chopra said he had been concerned since 2005 that Jackson was abusing prescription painkillers and most recently spoke to the pop star about suspected drug use six months ago..

Chopra said Jackson, a longtime friend, asked him for painkillers in 2005 when the singer was staying with him following his trial on sex abuse allegations. Chopra said he refused. He also said the nanny of Jackson's children repeatedly contacted him with concerns about Jackson's drug use over the next four years..

He said she told him a number of doctors would visit Jackson's homes in Santa Barbara County, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Whenever the subject came up, Jackson would avoid his calls, Chopra said.



by the associated press

This is It, was Michael Jackson comeback

LONDON (AP) — It was to be the comeback of the young century: Michael Jackson using the "This is It" tour to retake his throne as King of Pop, lord of the dance and darling of the masses.

What grander stage than London for this late career magic? Jackson's much hyped revival was to be a marathon, 50-gig tour that gave him a shot at redemption — not to mention repairing his tarnished image, lifting him out of debt and making millions for promoters.

Eager fans spent more than $90 million on tickets despite widespread doubts about the pop icon's stamina.

Now the star is dead — and one of the city's biggest arenas has 50 open nights. London, the city that was to be Jackson's launch pad back to glory, has become a symbol of the wreckage of his life.

The calamity has left Los Angeles-based tour promoters AEG Live, which operates the 02 Arena where Jackson was to have performed, with a colossal problem. In addition to the money taken in by ticket sales, which must be refunded, the company had already paid Jackson millions and spent millions more getting ready for the planned July 13 premiere.

There is no question it's a disaster, said Chris Cooke, editor of the British music business bulletin CMU Daily. But no one knows the magnitude of the catastrophe.

"The question is how much they were insured, but they've been very quiet about that," he said. "Will the insurance company take the hit, or will they?"

He said AEG Live had been planning a world tour after the London gigs, and possibly an extended residency for Jackson at a Las Vegas hotel in order to capitalize on his revival after more than a decade away from the concert stage.

The goal was to give Jackson a total career makeover that would once again turn him into a money machine. Instead, the pressure to produce — and in effect, to compete with his younger self — may have contributed to his demise.

AEG Live said in a statement Friday that it would advise ticket holders early next week on how to get refunds, adding that fans should hold onto their ticket vouchers and proofs of purchase.

"At this moment our thoughts are with Michael's children, family and friends. We will announce ticketing information in due course," read a message on a huge screen outside the 02 Arena.

According to Bermuda-based insurer Validus Holdings Ltd., a group of insurers were covering the concert series through the Lloyd's insurance market, including its subsidiary Talbot Holdings Ltd. But Validus said it had less than $3 million at risk.

The tour was to have spanned into March 2010, and there was wide skepticism about Jackson's ability to meet such a demanding schedule — with some London bookmakers even taking bets on how many of the 50 shows the notoriously unreliable Jackson would actually perform.

Industry experts also believed his participation in the spectacle would be limited, with large segments taken up by dancers performing elaborate routines to taped performances of his many hits.

"AEG chose potentially the most ambitious run of dates in the history of the concert business," said Bill Werde, editorial director of Billboard magazine. "Now they're going to have to orchestrate the most ambitious refund program in the history of the concert business."

AEG Live, a unit of billionaire Philip Anschutz's empire, had stood to collect about 5 percent to 10 percent of the gross ticket revenue of $90 million to $100 million, plus as much as $15 million from concession and merchandise sales, Werde said.

Jackson himself would have made the bulk of the money from the ticket sales.

The refund process could be complicated by the fact that tickets were sold to people from a number of countries and because of the sheer volume of tickets sold, Werde said. Some 750,000 tickets, priced between $82 and $124, were sold, though some went for hundreds of dollars on Internet auction sites.

Experts familiar with Jackson's horrendous financial situation said the singer was counting on the tour to help pull him out of a reported $400 million in debt.

Attorney Jerry Reisman, who represented the Hit Factory in New York when Jackson recorded there, said Jackson desperately needed the tour revenues.

"He had substantial debt to creditors throughout the world, and he hoped to use the tour to repay them and create a cash flow for himself," Reisman said. "He had a very high standard of living. He lived like a prince, like royalty, traveling by private jets with a huge entourage. His debt was tremendous, exorbitant."

This financial pressure led Jackson to agree to 50 shows, a demanding schedule even for a younger, more fit performer.

Reisman said the promoters may try to recoup money already paid to Jackson in order to refund money to customers.

Joey Scoleri, a promoter with the North American music division of Live Nation, said Jackson's death had created complex legal and logistical problems for the promoters.

He said not since Elvis Presley had there been a case of an artist of Jackson's magnitude dying just before a major tour.

"The only other artist like this was Elvis, and tours weren't the financial undertaking then as they are today," he said. Presley died in 1977 before several tour dates.

Scoleri said it was likely the AEG concert division would suffer a financial hit, but it's the nature of the business to manage risks. He said promoters surely understood Jackson's health was a factor.

AEG Live spokesman Michael Roth did not immediately comment on the company's insurance coverage.

Insurance market Lloyd's of London said its member corporations had underwritten some insurance taken out for the Jackson concerts, but said AEG is likely to be have had multiple policies with several insurers, who would each have taken on a portion of the risk.

Spokesman Bart Nash said he did not know how much Lloyd's portion of the figure was, or the total cost of the coverage.

"We can confirm that some insurance for Michael Jackson's concerts has been placed in the Lloyd's market, but any losses are not likely to be significant," Nash said.

He said the policy would likely cover the death of an artist, costs of canceling the events, including funds spent on sets already built, promotion and publicity, and, possibly, estimated earnings from the concerts.

"The risk would be quite high," for artists in poor health, or with a history of canceling concerts, like Jackson, he said.

Chris Rackliffe, underwriter at insurance firm Beazley, said few insurers would have been prepared to take on the risk of an artist with Jackson's problems.

"His prior history, the fact of his health and the difficulties he has had in his life over the last few years means that, from our point of view, he would have been very high risk," Rackliffe said.

As for fans looking for refunds, those who bought tickets on the secondary market from the company viagogo will be able to easily have their money refunded, said chief executive Eric Baker.

"No forms, no fuss, just refunded," he said.

Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc., the primary ticket seller, did not immediately provide information on refunds.

Officials at eBay said any Michael Jackson tickets purchased in the last 45 days through the PayPal system would be covered by the buyer protection plan.

by the associated press

Man fears he will face charges

GUATEMALA CITY — Jean Anleu was so fed up with corruption in his country that he decided to vent on the Internet, sending a 96-character message on the social-networking site Twitter.

That message has now earned him a potential five-year prison sentence.

Writing under his Internet alias "jeanfer,” Anleu urged depositors to pull their money from Guatemala’s rural development bank, whose management has been challenged in a political scandal: "First concrete action should be take cash out of Banrural and bankrupt the bank of the corrupt.”

These words illegally undermined public trust in Guatemala’s banking system, according to prosecutor Genaro Pacheco. Authorities proved Anleu sent the message by searching his home, and then put him in prison for a day and a half before letting him out on bail.

Anleu’s lawyer, Jose Toledo, believes the government wants to make an example of him.

Pacheco said prosecutors plan to charge Anleu in July under a 2008 law that provides for five years in prison and a $6,200 fine for spreading false information that undermines the public’s trust in a financial institution.



by the associated press

Domestic violence

WASHINGTON — A longtime advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault was named to a new post Friday as a White House adviser on violence against women.

In announcing the appointment of Lynn Rosenthal, Vice President Joe Biden said that creating the job allows the White House to revive a focus on domestic violence issues — which Biden said were not at the forefront during the Bush administration.

The White House said Rosenthal will advise President Barack Obama and Biden, and work with government agencies to ensure that violence against women isn’t ignored and the perpetrators are held accountable.

A former director of a women’s shelter, Rosenthal was executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence from 2000 to 2006.

Biden said Rosenthal will be coordinating with several agencies, including Justice, State, and Health and Health and Human Services.


by the associated press