Bathroom Directive

The New York Times reports that " The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity."

Article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/us/politics/obama-administration-to-issue-decree-on-transgender-access-to-school-restrooms.html

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Maryland Woman Pleads For Husbands Release From Jail In Cuba

Jessica Gresko, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The wife of a Maryland man jailed in Cuba as an alleged spy has written to Cuban President Raul Castro to apologize and plead for his release.

Judy Gross' husband Alan Gross was arrested at the Havana airport in December 2009. At the time, he was working as a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government office that provides economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide.

"I recognize today that the Cuban government may not like the type of work that Alan was doing in Cuba ... But I want you to know that Alan loves the people of Cuba, and he only wanted to help them. He never intended them, or your government, any harm," Judy Gross wrote in a letter dated Aug. 4 and first reported Sunday by Reuters. "To the extent his work may have offended you or your government, he and I are genuinely remorseful."

Gross, who was able to visit her husband for the first time this summer, wrote that when she returned home she learned that the couple's 26-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

"We need him, and I need him, more now than ever before," she wrote, adding that Gross' release would be viewed "as a wonderful humanitarian gesture on the part of the Cuban people."

She also told Castro that she worried about the health of her husband. He is 61, has lost more than 80 pounds since he was arrested and has developed a problem that may result in permanent paralysis in his right leg, she wrote.

Judy Gross has denied that her husband was a spy. She has said that her husband is a veteran development worker who was helping members of Cuba's Jewish community use the Internet to stay in contact with each other and with similar groups abroad. Communications equipment he brought with him was intended for humanitarian purposes, not for use by Cuba's dissident community, she said.

Gross has not been charged, but senior Cuban leaders have accused him of spying. U.S. diplomats, meanwhile, have insisted Gross was doing nothing wrong. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for Gross' release in June, saying that his continued detention was harming U.S.-Cuba relations.

www.yahoo.com

CNN's Rick Sanchez Fired

NEW YORK -- CNN fired news anchor Rick Sanchez on Friday, a day after he called Jon Stewart a bigot in a radio show interview where he also questioned whether Jews should be considered a minority.

Sanchez, who was born in Cuba and had worked at CNN since 2004, was host of the two-hour "Rick's List" on CNN's afternoon lineup. He did a prime-time version of that show in recent months, but that ended this week because the time slot is being filled by a new show featuring former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and columnist Kathleen Parker.

Stewart had frequently poked fun of Sanchez on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," most recently for saying on the air that his show had received a tweet from House Republican leader John Boehner. Stewart called it a case of "send a twit a tweet."

"He's upset that someone of my ilk is almost at his level," Sanchez said during a satellite radio interview with Pete Dominick. Details of the interview were posted on the Mediaite website Friday and quickly became a topic of conversation in the media world.

Sanchez said that Stewart is bigoted toward "everybody else that's not like him." He said Stewart "can't relate to what I grew up with," saying his family had been poor and he had seen prejudice directed at his father.

Sanchez dismisses it when Dominick points out that Stewart, who is Jewish, is also a minority.

"I'm telling you that everyone who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority?" Sanchez said, adding a sarcastic "yeah."

"I can't see someone not getting a job these days because they're Jewish," he said.

www.foxnews.com

Georgia Executes Convicted Triple Murderer

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Georgia executed a triple murderer by lethal injection on Monday despite pleas from his lawyers for a delay on the grounds of mental incompetence after he tried to commit suicide last week.

Brandon Rhode, 31, was convicted in 2000 of killing a father and his two young children during a burglary in Georgia's Jones County, state authorities said.

He was declared dead at 10:16 p.m. after an execution witnessed by family members of the condemned, a member of the clergy and a paralegal, said state prison authorities.

He made no special request for a last meal and was given a chili hot dog, fruit cocktail, round potatoes, coleslaw, carrots and a slice of cake, the authorities said.

The execution at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification prison near Jackson, central Georgia, was delayed from 7 p.m. while the Supreme Court considered a final request for a stay, said Sara Totonchi, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Earlier, the state supreme court rejected an appeal for a stay. That court had granted a stay last week after Rhode was discovered in his cell having slashed his throat in a suicide attempt and was hospitalized.

"This is a particularly grizzly case. They rushed him to the hospital to revive him only to reschedule his execution," said Laura Moye, spokeswoman for Amnesty International, USA.

"He is not an innocent man but he is a human being and it is outrageous for the state of Georgia to execute him without determining his competency," Moye said in an interview.

Rhodes is the 25th inmate executed by lethal injection in the state. The drug sodium thiopental was used in the execution as part of the lethal cocktail.
www.latimes.com

Octo Mom Has Yard Sale/Auction

LA HABRA - Nadya Suleman made $2,600 at her yard sale/auction this weekend, and it's not over yet. You can still bid on her personal items until midnight tonight.

The auction can be found by clicking on Rick.com and then on the "Dees Sleaze" tab. Items that have yet to sell include a signed sonogram, a diaper bag signed "Octomom" and the octuplets' handprints and baby blankets.

As of Monday afternoon the item with the highest bid, $280, was the red bikini Suleman wore on the cover of Star Magazine.

The auction and yard sale were dreamed up by radio personality Tattoo, of the Rick Dee's Internet radio show Tattoo and Crew, in a last-ditch effort to keep his friend Suleman, and her 14 kids, off welfare.

The yard sale, held Saturday at her La Habra home, drew so many people that police had to close off her street to vehicle traffic.Items sold included a sofa billed as the sofa where Suleman was sitting when she first heard the news that she was pregnant with octuplets. Someone paid $150 for it. Others paid to have their picture taken with La Habra's most famous resident.

"She was very happy ... we are talking about someone who didn't have that money the day before," Tattoo said.

The goal, though, is to raise $10,000. Suleman is facing foreclosure and said Saturday, while sitting on the sofa before it sold, that if she becomes homeless she will have no choice but to go on welfare. Tattoo is arranging for her to make a club appearance this weekend for money.

"At the end of the day, Nadya is an attraction," Tattoo said.

He's also trying to get her a gig guest hosting on his radio show. "I'm not politically correct," he said.

www.ocregister.com

Husband Kills Estranged Wife And Four Stepchildren

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla.

A man who terrorized his estranged wife for months, threatening her with a knife and telling her she would end up in the morgue, killed the woman and four of his stepchildren during a middle-of-the-night rampage, police said Monday.

Patrick Dell, 41, and his wife, 36-year-old Natasha Whyte-Dell, had been going through a bitter divorce, and it appears he targeted her and his stepchildren, police said. However, Dell spared his biological 1- and 3-year-old children. A fifth stepchild, 15-year-old Ryan Barnett, also was shot in the house but was expected to survive.

Friends and neighbors said Whyte-Dell time after time took the man back — even though he had installed cameras to keep an eye on her and stalked her when she went to work and nursing school. She filed a restraining order against him in May after learning he was trying to get a gun.

The horror that unfolded around 2 a.m. Monday was the culmination of a lengthy dispute that came to a head Dec. 20, when Whyte-Dell said her husband came after her with a knife, slashed her tires and scratched an "X" into the concrete driveway.

He made a particularly chilling threat: "You will be going to the morgue," he told her, according to a police report. "Your family is going to cry today."

After that incident — five days before Christmas — Whyte Dell told police she feared for her life. Dell was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and criminal mischief. But he was released hours later without bond, said Riviera Beach Police spokeswoman Rose Ann Brown.

The Department of Children and Families investigated after the knife attack, but closed the case in February without removing the children, spokeswoman Elisa Cramer said.

Still, time after time, friends said Whyte-Dell took her husband back, hoping things would get better.

"She was supposed to stay away from him," Lydia Smith, a friend of the victims, said Monday as she stood in front of the crime scene crying. "He was extremely jealous, obsessive and possessive."

Dell seemed paranoid, a neighbor said, always thinking someone was against him. On Sunday, while he was at a club, he was asked to leave after making a drunken threat.

"He was talking about chopping up somebody," said neighbor Keisha Gordon, 30.

Gordon said she left the club with Dell and went to a nearby park, the last place Gordon saw him before the shootings.

A police officer was checking a suspicious vehicle around 2 a.m. when he heard what sounded like muffled gun shots, Riviera Beach Police spokeswoman Rose Anne Brown said. When officers approached the home, Dell went outside and shot himself, she said.

Inside the home, officers found the bodies of the woman and her four children: 10-year-old Daniel Barnett; 11-year-old Javon Nelson; 13-year-old Diane Barnett; and 14-year-old Bryan Barnett.

The small home where the killings happened was a popular hangout for neighborhood kids, who loved using the front-yard basketball hoop and closeness to a trim cemetery across the street that often was used as a park. Just a few doors down sits an immaculate red-brick church.

On Monday, a silver chain-link fence had been tangled with yellow crime-scene tape. A black mailbox was on a post outside with a single balloon in the shape of a red heart tied to it.

Neighbors said gunshots had become an all-too-common sound in the area. Jeanette Walker, a 56-year-old hairstylist who lives nearby, said she thought nothing of the gunfire because she heard no sirens.

"They over there shooting at each other again," she remembered thinking.

www.npr.org

Protesters Outnumbered At Soldier's Memorial Service

JAMES CITY —

— An hour before the memorial service for First Lt. Todd W. Weaver began Saturday afternoon, three members of Westboro Baptist Church, all women, stood quietly at the intersection of John Tyler Highway and Eagle Way holding anti-America signs.

Their message, however, was nearly lost in a sea of American flags held by the Patriot Guard Riders motorcycle club and the more than 100 people who gathered at the right-of-way to support the family and friends of the 26-year-old soldier who died in combat in Afghanistan.

For more than an hour the counter protesters waved signs and flags, screamed pro-America chants and sang patriotic tunes in hopes of shielding the church's signs and drowning out the Westboro trio's anti-America songs.
Among the family supporters was Williamsburg resident Megan Moore who held a sign that read, "Son, friend, husband, father, hero…what you done" to honor the memory of her former Bruton High School classmate.

"I want his family to know there are a lot more people out here for him than against him," Moore said.

Watching one the Westboro picketers step on the American flag upset Jerry McCardle, but it made him wave his small one even harder.

"This really makes my blood boil, she's making a mockery of the flag and the country that's giving her the right to be out here and say these things," he said.

Vehicles traveling down John Tyler Highway honked horns and gave thumbs-up signs to the crowd at the intersection, many in it wearing "God is Love" T-shirts. Smaller flags dotted the island at the entrance to the chapel. White signs proclaiming "Support our Troops" lined Eagle Way across from Jamestown High School.

The small Kansas-based Westboro congregation announced its intention on Sept. 23 to picket Weaver's service. The group is known for using protests at soldiers' funerals to claim God hates America. The news of the congregation's plans to be in James City spread quickly around the community and many people began mobilizing groups to counter protest.

The crowd at the intersection was the largest group in support of Weaver, but several other gatherings formed along John Tyler Highway.

College of William and Mary Law School student Roxy Logan stood along the road with a "God Bless our Troops" sign.

"It's disgraceful what they're doing," Logan said of the Westboro group. "This family should be allowed to bury their family member in peace."

For the most part, the church members and the counter protesters demonstrated peacefully. However, there were times when the two groups battled each other in heated exchanges.

"Go to Iraq or Iran then," shouted one woman as the church members sang one of their songs.

Another person in the crowd quickly urged the woman to keep her composure, telling her "God will judge them in the end."

"I know," the woman said.

Several officers from James City County Police Department were on hand to help with crowd control and make sure the protest remained peaceful, said Chief Emmett Harmon.

Around 2 p.m., the Westboro members packed up their signs, loaded them into a minivan and drove away.

The members departure was met with cheers and song.

"Na na na na na na na. Hey, hey goodbye," the crowd sang as the protestors drove away.

www.dailypress.com

Lyndsay Lohan To Be Released From Jail........One More Time

A Beverly Hills judge on Friday had ordered the actor behind bars for a month after she failed a court-ordered drug test. But another judge reversed that order.
A Beverly Hills judge on Friday thought he had found a novel way to get around the Los Angeles County jail system's early-release policy with a ruling aimed at keeping Lindsay Lohan behind bars for the next month.

But just hours after the actress was handcuffed and brought to a Lynwood jail, another judge intervened, issuing an order that is expected to pave the way for Lohan's freedom this weekend.

At issue was Judge Elden Fox's decision to send Lohan back to jail without bail after she failed a court-ordered drug test. Lohan's attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, complained that the judge was wrong to prohibit bail and filed an appeal. L.A. County Superior Court Judge Patricia M. Schnegg agreed with Chapman Holley and set bail at $300,000.
Several legal experts described Fox's decision to deny bail as highly unusual, particularly on what they considered a fairly minor drug case.

"She neither presents a danger to the community, nor is she a flight risk," said L.A. defense attorney Mike Cavalluzzi. "Those are the primary criteria for either denying bail or setting an appropriate amount of bail, especially given that this is a misdemeanor."

But others could not help but applaud Fox for attempting to enact serious punishment for Lohan after repeatedly defying the court. Veteran defense attorney Glen Jonas said the judge's actions effectively side-stepped the early-release process, which covers inmates sentenced to jail time but not to inmates awaiting sentencing.

"Judge Fox guaranteed Ms. Lohan will not receive early release by setting the hearing a month out with no bail. Judge Fox is fed up. Ms. Lohan is being treated like a drug addict on probation instead of a celebrity" with a drug issue, Jonas said.

Lohan has twice been sentenced to jail time, but in both instances she got out early because of overcrowding in the county's women's jail in Lynwood.

Instead of handing down a sentence against Lohan, Fox ordered her jailed without bail until an Oct. 22 hearing on whether she should be incarcerated for drug use. Fox wanted her to remain in jail for 30 days until her hearing.

Because of overcrowding, women convicted of crimes similar to Lohan's tend to serve about 25% of her sentence.

Fox said he postponed a final decision until October because needed further information from probation officials on Lohan's compliance before a revocation hearing could be held.

Lohan came to court with her strawberry blonde hair pulled back and wearing a dark business suit. She showed little emotion but appeared stunned when the ruling came down.

The scene was in sharp contrast with her previous court appearance, when she made a tearful plea for leniency before Judge Marsha N. Revel that was captured by live cameras and beamed around the globe.

The actress, best known for films including "Freaky Friday," "The Parent Trap," and "Mean Girls," also made news when cameras captured an expletive-laden message on her fingernails.

Revel, who was assigned the Lohan case before recusing herself from it, sentenced Lohan to 90 days in custody including 30 days in the county jail.

Lohan served less than one-third of her jail sentence and was released from an in-patient drug rehabilitation facility at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after 23 days.

Then last week, Lohan admitted on her Twitter feed that she had failed a drug test, setting the stage for the hearing Friday before Judge Fox.

Lohan's legal woes date back to 2007, when she was arrested twice over a three-month period for driving under the influence. She pleaded no contest and agreed to attend alcohol education classes.
www.latimes.com

Woman Kills Family Members 'For No Reason'

SEATTLE, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A woman opened fire on her family "for no reason," killing a son-in-law and two granddaughters before turning a gun on herself, Seattle police said.

The woman, Chhouy Harm, also fired at her daughter trying to flee from the family's West Seattle home Thursday before killing herself as police arrived, The Seattle Times reported.

"Grandma just shot them for no reason," said 17-year-old Tony Sun, a 17-year-old family member who arrived shortly after the shootings and saw police officers in front of the house.

Harm's daughter, who survived the shooting, told police officers outside of the home, "My mom has gone crazy," the report said.

Police said they didn't know of a motive for the deadliest shooting in Seattle since Kyle Huff killed six people in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood before killing himself in March 2006, the Times said.

A relative said tempers flared in the family's home Wednesday night but did not provide the newspaper with details.

www.upi.com

Supreme Court Will Not Stop Execution

THE US Supreme Court denied an emergency application yesterday that would have stopped Virginia from executing a woman convicting of two killings, clearing the way for the state to execute a female for the first time in nearly a century.

A Court spokeswoman added that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor voted to stop the execution of Teresa Lewis, who is scheduled to die by legal injection tomorrow.

Lewis, 40, was convicted of taking part in the hired killings of her husband and stepson in October of 2002. Lewis paid two men, one of whom was her lover, and purchased the guns they used in the murders of Julian and Charles "C.J." Lewis. In exchange for the killings, Teresa Lewis planned to split an anticipated $250,000 insurance payment with the shooters, Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller.

She admitted her role in 2003, pleading guilty to seven overall criminal counts and two counts of murder for hire.

The Supreme Court was Lewis' last stop on the long legal road leading to her execution. She was also denied clemency last Friday by Virginia's governor, Bob McDonnell.

Lewis' lawyers have long argued that she should not be killed because she has tested as low as 70 on IQ tests and the Supreme Court has ruled that killing mentally handicapped people constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. However, the lower courts have continually denied the argument that Lewis qualifies as severely mentally handicapped.

In denying her clemency, McDonnell said last week that since no medical professional has ever concluded that Lewis was mentally retarded, there was no compelling reason for him to intervene on her behalf.

Shallenberger and Fuller both received life sentences for the the murders.

www.heraldsun.com.au

Iran Accuses United States Of Double Standard

Iran accused the US of human rights violations today over plans by the state of Virginia to execute a woman for the first time in nearly 100 years, despite claims that she has severe learning difficulties.

Iran's state-sponsored media has devoted considerable coverage to reports about Teresa Lewis, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday for arranging the murder of her husband and stepson in 2002.

The parliamentary human rights committee said her case reflected "the double standards" of the American government, comparing her case to that of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

"We will file an official complaint to the international community against the US if the sentence is administered," Hossein Naghavi, an Iranian MP and the spokesman for the committee, told the semi-official Fars news agency. Several Iranian MPs have expressed concerns over Lewis's execution and have asked the US for her sentence to be commuted.

America was one of the several countries to express outrage over Ashtiani's case, which has embarrassed the Iranian government after receiving considerable international attention. Iran has since suspended the stoning sentence, although Ashtiani is still being held in jail and her family fear for her life.

In Virginia, governor Robert McDonnell refused an appeal for clemency for Lewis, who lawyers say has an IQ of 72. The supreme court has ruled that anyone with an IQ below 70 may not be executed. She has one last chance of appealing to the US supreme court ahead of her scheduled execution. The men who carried out the killings – one of whom was Lewis's lover – received life sentences.

Iranian news agencies highlighted similarities between the cases, reporting that Lewis, like Ashtiani, had been convicted of "having an extramarital relationship". MPs criticised the US for sentencing Lewis to death while sparing the lives of the killers – as happened in Ashtiani's case.

The Fars news agency criticised the US media for "being silent in the past seven years Lewis has been kept in jail". "On her execution day she'll wish for a better country whose judiciary would listen to its people rather than intervening in the internal affairs of other countries," it said.

"It's not been a long time since the American media attacked Iran over the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani … Lewis's case has similarities with Mohammadi Ashtiani's case with the difference that Sakineh has been found guilty for the crime she committed but there are lots of ambiguities in Teresa's case. The US and the American media tried their best to make a symbol of human rights out of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani because of the background of their atrocities towards Iran but after seven years, human rights organisations have been silent for Teresa. This shows their double standard in relation to other counties."

Iranian MPs Zohreh Elahian and Salman Zaker also condemned the US over Lewis's sentence which they say is "contradictory to international standards". They have called for a judicial review.

In an interview with ABC last weekend in New York, Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied Ashtiani had ever been given a death sentence by stoning.

www.guardian.co.uk

Is The United States Obligated To Make Obama's Aunt A Citizen?

(Sept. 21) -- As Congress prepares to re-initiate the stalled immigration reform debate this week, one very personal immigration issue looks poised to hit the president close to home.

President Barack Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, says she's done nothing wrong by illegally living in the United States for years and is therefore deserving of amnesty.

"If I come as an immigrant, you have the obligation to make me a citizen," Onyango, 58, told Boston's WBZ news.

In her first interview since Obama was elected president, Onyango described how she came to America in 2000 from her native Kenya, fell ill and was hospitalized. Upon her release, Onyango told WBZ, she was out of money. So rather than return to her homeland, she continued to live in the country in violation of immigration laws.
After stints in a Boston homeless shelter, Onyango was eventually put in public housing and began receiving disability payments. In 2004, an immigration judge ordered her to leave the country, but Onyango remained. However, she noted that her story was less about intentionally flouting federal immigration policy and more about its ineffectiveness.

"I didn't take advantage of the system," Onyango said. "The system took advantage of me."

Onyango says that she received no help from Obama as her case was reviewed by Judge Leonard Shapiro, who ruled in May that Onyango could remain in the United States.
www.aolnews.com

United Kingdom Proposes All Paychecks Go To State First

The UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.

The proposal by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.

Currently employers withhold tax and pay the government, providing information at the end of the year, a system know as Pay as You Earn (PAYE). There is no option for those employees to refuse withholding and individually file a tax return at the end of the year.

If the real-time information plan works, it further proposes that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first.

"The next step could be to use (real-time) information as the basis for centralizing the calculation and deduction of tax," HMRC said in a July discussion paper.

HMRC described the plan as "radical" as it would be a huge change from the current system that has been largely unchanged for 66 years.

Even though the centralized deductions proposal would provide much-needed oversight, there are some major concerns, George Bull, head of Tax at Baker Tilly, told CNBC.com.

"If HMRC has direct access to employees' bank accounts and makes a mistake, people are going to feel very exposed and vulnerable," Bull said.

And the chance of widespread mistakes could be high, according to Bull. HMRC does not have a good track record of handling large computer systems and has suffered high-profile errors with data, he said.

The system would be massive in terms of data management, larger than a recent attempt to centralize the National Health Service's data, which was later scrapped, Bull said.

If there's a mistake and the HMRC collects too much money, the difficulty of getting it back could be high with repayments of tax taking weeks or months, he said.

"There has to be some very clear understanding of how quickly repayments were made if there was a mistake," Bull said.

HMRC estimated the potential savings to employers from the introduction of the concept would be about £500 million ($780 million).

But the cost of implementing the new system would be "phenomenal," Bull pointed out.

"It's very clear that the system does need to be modernized… It's outdated, it's outmoded," Emma Boon, campaigner manager at the Tax Payers' Alliance, told CNBC.com.

Boon said that the Tax Payers' Alliance was in favor of simplifying tax collection, but stressed that a new complex computer system would add infrastructure and administration costs at a time when the government is trying to reduce spending.

There is a further concern, according to Bull. The centralized storage of so much data poises a security risk as the system may be open to cyber crime.

As well as security issues, there's a huge issue of transparency, according to Boon.

Boon also questioned HMCR's ability to handle to the role effectively.

The Institute of Directors (IoD), a UK organization created to promote the business agenda of directors and entreprenuers, said in a press release it had major concerns about the proposal to allow employees' pay to be paid directly to HMRC.

The IoD said the shift to a real-time, centralized system could be positive as long as the burden on employers was not increased. But it added that the idea of wages being processed by HMRC was "completely unacceptable."

“This document contains a lot of good ideas. But the idea that HMRC should be trusted with the gross pay of employees is not one of them," Richard Baron, Head of Taxation at the IoD, said in the release.

A spokesperson for Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was not immediately available for comment.

www.cnbc.com

Book Claims Michelle Obama Stated Life In White House Is Hell

Michelle Obama thinks being first lady is "hell" and that she "can't stand it," according to juicy revelations put forth in a new book.

In the new book, written by Michael Darmon and Yves Derai, France's first lady Carla Bruni claims she asked Obama about being the president's wife during a private discussion earlier this year, according to London's Daily Mail newspaper.

"Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!" Obamareplied, according to Bruni's bombshell account in excerpts obtained by the newspaper.

Details of the closed-door conversation -- which took place during a visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy last March to the White House -- are part of the book, "Carla And The Ambitious."

Obama's spokeswoman, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, said today that the first lady never described her White House life as "hell."

The French Embassy in Washington also released a statement denying that Obama ever said those words. The Embassy said Bruni "distances herself completely" from the book, which is due out Friday.

According to the Daily Mail, the outspoken Bruni, 42, also laces into French government officials, accusing them of trying to "kill" her husband by loading him up with work -- and that Sarkozy lets himself be "bullied" into doing it, the newspaper reported.

Aside from dishing dirt on Obama and her hubby, Bruni also takes a swipe at Princess Diana when discussing a recent visit to an Aids hospital in Africa.

Bruni married Sarkozy in 2008 after the French president divorced his wife.

Their quickfire relationship raised eyebrows in France at the time -- especially given Bruni's assertion in a 2007 magazine interview that she was "crazily bored by monogamy."

Asked about that famous comment in a recent TV interview, Bruni pointed out that Sarkozy was her first husband.

"Well I was never married, so I think monogamy has to do with marriage, right?" she said.

Bruni once described herself as a "man tamer" and has had a number of affairs with intellectuals and rock stars, including Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, and has a young son from a previous relationship.

In the book, Bruni said she refused requests by French cameramen to snap a photograph of her carrying a baby in her arms "like Lady Di" -- adding that there is "something obscene in promoting yourself when you are giving of yourself."

The book, released to combat an unauthorized biography of Bruni out this week, will hit French store shelves later this year.

www.nypost.com

Cuccinelli Compares Obama To King George

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli accused President Barack Obama on Sunday of respecting liberty less than the British crown did in the years before the Revolution.

“King George III and the parliament of Great Britain that we rebelled against respected the liberty of the colonists of America more than the Congress and the president of the United States of America,” he told thousands of tea party activists gathered on Washington’s National Mall for the 9/12 rally.

Cuccinelli, who has become a darling of the right because of his eagerness to butt heads with the administration, called the health law “the greatest erosion of liberty in my adult lifetime.” His office filed suit against the federal government on the day Obama signed the health care bill into law.

The analogy came during a condemnation of the new mandate that individuals buy health insurance, a key provision in the bill Obama signed into law this March. In 1774, after the first Continental Congress boycotted goods, Cuccinelli said the solicitor general told the British Crown that the government couldn’t mandate subjects buy products like tea.

“If the federal government can order you to buy health insurance, they can order you to buy anything,” he said.

The health care law has become one of the biggest issues galvanizing conservative voters, and Republicans hope to capitalize on polls that show the new law remains unpopular with a majority of voters to make traction with independents in the coming midterms. The individual mandate was included in the bill as a cost-control measure.

“Make no mistake about it: this lawsuit is not about health care,” he said, wearing a full business suit and black cowboy boots on a sweaty afternoon. “It’s about liberty and preserving liberty as the Founding Fathers understood it, not as the people who occupy this building rewrite it every week…all that stands between us and the end of federalism is one lawsuit.”

He told the conservative activists who had come from around the country that he hopes to argue his case before the Supreme Court in about a year-and-a-half.

www.hamptonroads.com

Offshore Oil Rig Explodes In Gulf/ Reported at 12:06 PM

An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico 80 miles off the Louisiana coastline Thursday, west of the site of the April BP blast that caused a massive oil spill, Coast Guard officials said.

There were 13 workers aboard the rig, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough told CNN, reporting that all were accounted for with one person injured.

They will be transported to Terrebone General Medical Center in Houma, La., according to a report in the Times Picayune.

The blast was first reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel told the Associated Press.

Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats are en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

Ranel says it hasn't been determined whether the structure is a production platform or a drilling rig or whether workers were aboard. Ranel says smoke was reported but it is unclear whether the rig is still burning.

www.nydailynews.com

1-In-4 Grown Men Travel With A Stuffed Animal

When Scott Hardy hits the road, he always makes sure to leave room in his suitcase for his stuffed animal.

That's right, the 34-year-old businessman always travels with Barkley, a stuffed beagle. No, it's not for his two daughters. No he doesn't sleep with a nightlight and no he isn't smuggling drugs.

Seven years ago Hardy's then girlfriend, now wife, gave him the doggie as a reminder of her.

"I travel enough that it's a nice reminder of home," said Hardy who runs an online legal notice company, Top Class Actions.

Housekeepers like to put it on top of his pillow or prop it up prominently on the night stand.

Even when Hardy travels on an annual guys trip -- a beach trip to Mexico this year -- Barkley comes along.

"I've had some friends who are like, 'What's with the stuffed animal?'" the Phoenix-area man said. "It's just a reminder of my beautiful bride."

"Barkley stays in the suitcase when I'm home," Hardy added. "He only comes out for trips."

Hardy isn't the only adult traveling with a stuffed animal. In fact, as many as one in every four grown men might just have a teddy bear tucked away in their suitcase.

Well, in the last 12 months, British hotel chain Travelodge has reunited more than 75,000 bears with the owners. That's a lot of stuffed animals left at its 452 hotels in the United Kingdom and Spain. So the company decided to investigate a bit further.

Travelodge surveyed 6,000 Britons and discovered that 35 percent of adults admitted they sleep with their teddy because they found cuddling their bear comforting. Additionally, many said the calming feeling of a bear hug helped them lower their stress level after a hard day.

And it turns out that a large number of the bear-toting travelers are men.

Travelodge said that 25 percent of men reported they take their teddy bear away with them when going away on business. The stuffed animal supposedly reminds them of home and -- some say -- helps fill a cuddle-void left by distant partners.

Men Travel with Stuffed Animals

One in ten single men surveyed admitted they hide their teddy bear when their girlfriend stays over and 14 percent of married men reported they hide their teddy bear in the wardrobe or under the bed when any family and friends come to visit.

Fear not, it's isn't just men who travel with stuffed animals.

Laurie Luck has a stuffed dog that she sleeps with every night -- at home or on the road.

"Puppy goes everywhere I go. He's kind of my security blanket," Luck said. "He's been everywhere. I sleep with him every night. I know that sounds terrible for a 42–year-old woman to say, but it's true."

Puppy has been camping, on a cruise. He's gone everywhere that Luck has been in the last 26 years.

Yes, that's right, Puppy isn't a holdover from childhood, but a more-recent acquisition.

"I was never allowed to have a stuffed animal or a blankie as a kid because my mom didn't want me to leave it and then not be able to sleep without it," said Luck, an animal trainer. "So 26 years ago, a friend gave me this. It sort of resonated with me. It was the stuffed animal I was never able to have as a kid."

She has never lost the stuffed animal when traveling but said to do so would be "disastrous."

"Puppy is more of a priority than my cell phone or purse," she said, adding, "I know I probably sound like an overgrown child."

Today, Luck said her friends and family accept her bunkmate when they learn about Puppy's existence.

"I made sure my husband was okay with it before we got married," she said. "I had to sort of break the news: I sleep with a stuffed animal. This is what I do and I hope there won't be a problem."

www.abcnews.go.com

Miss Mexico Becomes Miss Universe

A 22-year-old Mexico woman won the Miss Universe pageant Monday night after donning a flowing red gown and telling an audience it's important to teach kids family values. Jimena Navarrete of Guadalajara was first to answer an interview question Monday night and the last of 83 contestants standing in the headline-grabbing pageant on the Las Vegas Strip.

Her one-strap gown flowed behind her like a sheet as she walked. Earlier, she smiled in a violet bikini as she confidently strutted across the stage.

Asked by Olympic gold-medal figure skater Evan Lysacek how she felt about unsupervised Internet use, Navarrete said the Internet is important but parents need to be careful and watch over their kids.

I do believe that Internet is an indispensable, necessary tool for the present time," she said through an interpreter. "We must be sure to teach them the values that we learned as a family."

First runner-up was Miss Jamaica Yendi Phillipps, while second runner-up was Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell.

Navarrete -- who's been modeling since she was 15 -- is Mexico's second Miss Universe. Lupita Jones of Mexico won the title in 1991. Navarrete replaces Miss Universe 2009 Stefania Fernandez of Venezuela.

Navarrete's win thwarted Miss Venezuela Marelisa Gibson from giving the South American country a third consecutive win. Neither Gibson nor Miss USA Rima Fakih made the top 15 finalists.

With fans in some 190 countries watching on television and keeping tabs on Twitter, Navarrete and her competitors introduced themselves while wearing over-the-top national costumes. They then danced in silver and black dresses for the show's opening number before the top 15 finalists were announced.

The final 15 walked in swimsuits while Cirque du Soleil musicians played Elvis Presley songs including "Viva Las Vegas." The last 10 impressed in their gowns while John Legend and the Roots played a soulful medley including "Save Room."

By the end of the show, seven of the top 10 trending topics on Twitter had to do with the pageant, its contestants, its judges or owner Donald Trump. The mogul co-owns the pageant with TV network NBC.

Navarrete won a package of prizes including an undisclosed salary, a luxury New York apartment with living expenses, a one-year scholarship to the New York Film Academy with housing after her reign, plus jewelry, clothes and shoes fit for a beauty champion.

Campbell won the Miss Congeniality Universe award. Miss Thailand Fonthip Watcharatrakul won Miss Photogenic Universe and a second award for having the best national costume.

www.foxnews.com

Peruvian Court To Issue Decision This Week On Van der Sloot's Confession

(Aug. 24) -- A Peruvian appellate court will issue a decision this week on whether to uphold the confession of Joran van der Sloot in the brutal slaying of a 21-year-old woman in Lima.

Some in the media speculate that if the confession is thrown out, van der Sloot could walk free. But an international defense expert doesn't believe the judges will even consider throwing out the confession.

"There's not a chance in hell," said Michael Griffith, senior partner at the International Legal Defense Counsel. "The judges live there, and the people know who the judges are. You see where I'm going? This won't be thrown out."

And even without the confession, Griffith said, "they have plenty of independent evidence."

Van der Sloot, a longtime suspect in the disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway, is accused of the May 30 slaying of Stephany Flores. The Peruvian business student was found dead in van der Sloot's hotel room in Lima on June 2. Van der Sloot has been charged with first-degree murder and robbery in the case.

After van der Sloot's arrest, officials in Peru announced he had made a full confession to Flores' murder. Van der Sloot said he broke Flores' neck in a fit of rage after she used his laptop to find out about his involvement in the Holloway case, officials said.

"I did not want to do it," van der Sloot allegedly said about the attack. "The girl intruded into my private life. She had no right. I went to her, and I hit her. She was scared. We argued, and she tried to escape. I grabbed her by the neck, and I hit her."

The Dutchman later retracted that confession, saying he was arrested without a warrant and was not provided with an official translator, which he says caused confusion during questioning. Van der Sloot also said his laptop was improperly searched.

"All this with the intention of pressuring me to accuse [myself] of homicide," the Dutch native said in the complaint, obtained by the Peruvian news program "24 Hours."

In June, Superior Court Judge Wilder Casique Alvizuri spent nearly a week examining the evidence in the case before ruling that van der Sloot's claim that his habeas corpus rights had been violated was "unfounded." Alvizuri said he determined that van der Sloot had not only a state-appointed attorney present during his depositions but also a Dutch-Spanish translator.

Van der Sloot's attorney immediately appealed the decision. The case has since gone before a panel of three Peruvian judges. They are expected to review the details of the confession and issue a ruling sometime this week.

"We believe we did a good job demonstrating that there wasn't an official translator and that his attorney did not have a document accrediting her as his attorney," van der Sloot's attorney, Maximo Altez Navarro, told "In Session" on Aug. 20.

If convicted of Flores' murder, van der Sloot could face 15 to 35 years in prison.

Griffith has counseled and represented clients in more than 40 countries on a variety of charges. His most renowned case, involving an American incarcerated in a Turkish prison, was the basis for the film and book "Midnight Express."

He said he's certain van der Sloot will go to trial, even without the confession. "They have the video of him going in the room, they have DNA [evidence] on his shirt, they have the consciousness of guilt because he tried to flee and they have video tapes [of them together] inside the casino," he said.

"There is more than enough persuasive evidence to hold this case over for trial," Griffith continued. "Take this one to the bank -- you can quote me on that. Case closed."
www.aolnews.com

Violation Of Air Space Not Intentional

SEATTLE (AP) - A passenger aboard a float plane that violated the airspace around Air Force One while President Barack Obama was in town Tuesday was stunned to find out about the fuss that resulted, saying the incursion wasn't intentional.

The military scrambled fighter jets, and the two sonic booms from the Oregon Air National Guard F-15s startled many people in Western Washington.

The Cessna 180 float plane was flying to a seaplane base on Lake Washington, next to Seattle, from Lake Chelan in Eastern Washington, said passenger Laura Joseph. She told The Associated Press that neither she nor the pilot, Lee Daily, knew about Obama's visit or the air restrictions that accompany such a high-profile trip.

The Secret Service interviewed Daily after he landed at Kenmore Air on the north end of the lake, which had been shut down for the duration of the presidential campaign stop.

North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman John Cornelio said the civilian aircraft left the restricted area before the two jets arrived from the Portland, Ore.-based 142nd Fighter Wing and that there was no intercept. He confirmed the jets produced the sonic booms.

In a statement Tuesday evening, the Oregon Air National Guard said the jets were cleared to accelerate to supersonic speed minutes after takeoff. The Guard said the booms were heard by people from Longview, Wash., to the Puget Sound area.

Joseph, of Normandy Park, said she saw an F-15 outside the window as the plane approached Seattle.

"I saw a jet, just a white jet going by," she said. "I thought it was kind of odd to see a military jet."

The fighter only passed by the float plane once and didn't take any other action, Joseph said.

Joseph said she and Daily didn't know anything was wrong until they landed and were told they had to talk to the Secret Service. She also said she didn't hear the sonic booms.

"Oh my God, I can't believe -- is this the top news thing?" she said.

Joseph said she and Daily were allowed to leave after being interviewed by the Secret Service and haven't heard anything yet about possible sanctions.

Obama was in Seattle to stump for Sen. Patty Murray on a three-day campaign swing for endangered Democrats. Air Force One was on the ground at King County International Airport/Boeing Field in south Seattle at the time of the incident shortly after 1:30 p.m. The president's plane departed Seattle at 3:47 p.m.

The Air National Guard said the jets returned to Portland shortly before 3 p.m.

The two sharp booms, a few seconds apart, rattled windows in Seattle. Fire and police officials throughout the region said they were swamped with calls.

Oregon Air National Guard Staff Sgt. John Hughel said the F-15s were scrambled by NORAD from Portland International Airport. He said the guard has two fighters always on alert to patrol the air space from central California to the Canadian border.

www.wavy.com