Cast For Next 'Amazing Race' Revealed! Premiers Sept. 25th

CBS ANNOUNCES THE CAST FOR THE NEW SEASON OF "THE Amazing Race," PREMIERING SUNDAY, SEPT. 25

This Season’s Cast Includes a Pair of Olympians, Former NFL Tight End, the Youngest Person to Ever Sail Around the World Alone and Two Winners of “Survivor”

Eleven teams will embark on the adventure of a lifetime on the new season of THE Amazing Race, premiering Sunday, Sept. 25 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Emmy Award nominee Phil Keoghan is the host.

This season, the multi-Emmy Award-winning series sends 11 new Teams on a Race around the globe, making first time visits to exotic locations such as Indonesia, Malawi, Belgium and Denmark. Along the way, Teams will travel through four continents and 20 cities and cover nearly 40,000 miles.

Teams will be tested early and often and met with a new penalty called the “Hazard,” which will impact one Team’s future on the Race right from the starting line. The global journey sets off from the foothills of Southern California where the Teams’ problem solving abilities will be put to the test as they search for clues to their first destination, Taipei, Taiwan. Teams fortunate enough to survive the first leg will find themselves amidst an 8th Century Buddhist temple in Indonesia, riding elephants through the rain forests of Thailand, and racing for their lives when they discover they’re facing the series first ever Double Elimination.

This season’s cast includes a pair of Olympic snowboarders, twin Sisters, an ex-NFL tight end, flight attendants, the youngest person to ever sail around the world alone, two winners of SURVIVOR, Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca, and many more.

This fall marks the 10 year anniversary of THE Amazing Race, which originally premiered on Sept 5, 2001.

Following are the 11 teams, listed in no particular order:

Ernie Halvorsen
Age: 29
Hometown: Chicago
Current occupation: Project manager

Cindy Chiang
Age: 30
Hometown: Chicago
Current occupation: Brand manager

Connection to Teammate: Engaged
____________________________________________________________________

Justin Young
Age: 31
Hometown: Stone Mountain, Ga.
Current occupation: Doctor

Jennifer Young
Age: 26
Hometown: Stone Mountain, Ga.
Current occupation: Special education teacher

Connection to Teammate: Siblings

Liz Canavan
Age: 24
Hometown: Deerfield, Ill.
Current occupation: Marketing Assistant

Marie Canavan
Age: 24
Hometown: Deerfield, Ill.
Current occupation: Soul searching

Connection to Teammate: Twins
____________________________________________________________________

Ron Zeitz
Age: 44
Hometown: Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Current occupation: American Airlines Flight attendant

Bill Smith
Age: 49
Hometown: Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Current occupation: American Airlines Flight attendant

Connection to Teammate: Domestic Partners
____________________________________________________________________

Ethan Zohn
Age: 37
Hometown: New York, N.Y.
Current occupation: Change maker

Jenna Morasca
Age: 30
Hometown: New York, N.Y.
Current occupation: TV host/student

Connection to Teammate: Dating

Bill Alden
Age: 63
Hometown: Albany, Ore.
Current occupation: Farmer/rancher

Cathi Alden
Age: 62
Hometown: Albany, Ore.
Current occupation: College instructor/retired High
School principal

Connection to Teammate: Married for 40 Years/Grandparents
____________________________________________________________________

Andy Finch
Age: 30
Hometown: Truckee, Calif.
Current occupation: Professional snowboarder

Tommy Czeschin
Age: 32
Hometown: Crowley Lake, Calif.
Current occupation: Professional snowboarder

Connection to Teammate: Friends/Former Olympic Snowboarders
____________________________________________________________________

Amani Pollard
Age: 36
Hometown: Pine Mountain, Ga.
Current occupation: Business owner

Marcus Pollard
Age: 39
Hometown: Pine Mountain, Ga.
Current occupation: Retired NFL player/football
coach

Connection to Teammate: Married
____________________________________________________________________

Kaylani Paliotta
Age: 33
Hometown: Las Vegas
Current occupation: Cocktail waitress

Lisa Tilley
Age: 32
Hometown: Las Vegas
Current occupation: Cocktail waitress

Connection to Teammate: Friends/Former Vegas Showgirls
____________________________________________________________________

Laurence Sunderland
Age: 48
Hometown: Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Current occupation: Yacht manager

Zac Sunderland
Age: 19
Hometown: Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Current occupation: Record setting boat captain
(Zac was the youngest person to ever sail around
the world alone)

Connection to Teammate: Father/Son Adventurers
____________________________________________________________________

Jeremy Cline
Age: 35
Hometown: Alamo, Calif.
Current occupation: Commercial real estate broker

Sandy Draghi
Age: 33
Hometown: Dublin, Calif.
Current occupation: Nurse practitioner

Connection to Teammate: Dating

THE Amazing Race sends 11 teams on a trek around the world. Each Team is comprised of two people who have a pre-existing relationship with one another. At every destination, each Team competes in a series of challenges — some mental and some physical — and when the tasks have been completed, they learn their next destination. Teams who are farthest behind will gradually be eliminated as the contest progresses, with the first team to arrive at the final destination winning $1 million.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/08/31/cbs-announces-the-cast-for-the-new-season-of-the-amazing-race-premiering-sunday-sept-25/101916/

Is THIS McDonald's Chicken???

PETA's original McCruelty campaign logo

 

Chickens killed for McDonald's are slaughtered using an outdated method that results in extreme suffering. As one of the biggest sellers of chicken meat, McDonald's has the responsibility—and the ability—to reduce this abuse by demanding that its U.S. and Canadian suppliers use a less cruel slaughter method. Learn more.

In the slaughterhouses of McDonald's U.S. and Canadian chicken suppliers, birds are dumped out of their transport crates and hung upside down in metal shackles, which can result in broken bones, extreme bruising, and hemorrhaging. Workers have the opportunity to abuse live birds, and birds have their throats cut while they are still conscious. Many birds are immersed in tanks of scalding-hot water while they are still alive and able to feel pain.

In 2000, following the launch of PETA's (original) McCruelty campaign, McDonald's made some basic animal welfare improvements. Since that time, the company has refused to eliminate the worst abuses that its chickens suffer, including abuses during slaughter. This cruelty could be illegal if dogs or cats—or even pigs or cows—were the victims. 

There is a less cruel method of slaughter available today that would eliminate these abuses, yet McDonald's refuses to require its U.S. and Canadian suppliers to switch to it. 

• 1997: Following the McLibel verdict, PETA writes to McDonald's asking the company to take steps to alleviate the suffering of animals killed for its restaurants.
• October 1999: PETA launches its McCruelty campaign after two years of failed negotiations with McDonald's.
• September 2000: Following 11 months of campaigning and more than 400 demonstrations against McDonald's, PETA announces a moratorium on its campaign after the company agrees to make some positive changes for farmed animals. This marks the first time in U.S. history that a major seller of meat agrees to make farmed-animal welfare improvements.
• September 2000 to February 2009: PETA tries to work with McDonald's to modernize the company's animal welfare standards and make further improvements, especially regarding how its chickens are slaughtered in the U.S., but McDonald's refuses.
• February 2009: PETA lifts its moratorium against McDonald's after the company fails to require its U.S. and Canadian chicken suppliers to adopt a less cruel slaughter method.

Help stop McDonald's cruelty now!

http://www.mccruelty.com/why.aspx

Wondering Where 'Consumer Confidence' Went??!

No matter which direction the markets gyrate, no matter what the politicians have to say, one thing has become abundantly clear this summer: Confidence, the very lubricant of both politics and finance, has collapsed. 

It's not just a collapse of public confidence in national politicians; it would be nice if the problem was confined to the Beltway. No, instead, it spreads from Washington to Wall Street, where debt and equity markets are connected to European markets, central banks and policymakers -- who are, in turn, connected to others around the globe. 

And not one of them knows, truthfully, what to do. The dirty, little secret of our era is that the globalized economic and political order is so vast, contains so many variables and moving parts, that nobody really knows how it works. So, here's the answer, in a nutshell: It doesn't. And every day it is destroying the lives  of everyday people. 

We've done some private polling and found shocking levels of pessimism: 95 percent of a group of Americans over 50, with conservative political views, were pessimistic or very pessimistic about the outlook for job creation and economic growth. Nearly 90 percent said they expect to be personally hurt by turmoil in the markets. But it doesn't stop there, even with that demographic. 

Fifty-nine percent of all Americans lack confidence in the U.S. financial system, the lowest level of confidence in the banking sector in three years, according Rasmussen Reports. One-in-three worry that their money will be wiped out in a bank failure. And a similar number thinks the U.S. unemployment rate will be even higher in a year. The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures consumer confidence daily, recently fell to a two-year low. And while investors fret about a double-dip recession, most Americans don't believe the recession ever even ended. 

Politicians -- particularly in the United States -- have triggered this collapse of confidence. A majority of Americans oppose the debt ceiling deal, according to the latest poll by The Washington Post, and eight in 10 are dissatisfied with the way the political system works. Nearly half of all Americans literally view Congress as corrupt, according to Rasmussen, which adds, "That's the highest finding to date." 

The debt ceiling debacle and deal proved so melodramatic and ultimately so much smoke-and-mirrors that it is hard to take either major political party seriously anymore. The notion that the Congress would abdicate the constitutional power of the purse to a "supercommittee" is somewhere between laughable and pathetic. One's political preference in this country essentially comes down to choosing the lesser of two evils.

But bankers and business leaders are now following suit; it is likely no accident that being a member of Congress now ranks as the lowest of professions -- but only just below being a Fortune 500 CEO or a banker. The wild gyrations of the markets only underscore this point: Markets are crashing down and shooting up on every single piece of data because of increased volatility. 

Which is a polite way of saying: No one knows what the hell is going on. Except for hedge funds, of course, and big institutional investors who are making a killing. One hedge fund, in particular, has been shorting European government debt instruments -- waiting for the central banks to pump in more money -- and then buying long and sitting pretty. In other words, the shrewd bankers are playing the panicky politicians. And everyday people? Everyday people are selling low, watching their 401ks evaporate, to big smart, institutional investors. 

This is not bulls versus bears; it is sharks against fur seals. And neither the bankers nor the politicians want to address the core points: The demographic in the United States and Europe is aging and consuming less, and is piled high with debt, public and private. Increased efficiency through technology suppresses job creation. On the other side of the world, China and India are growing like a weed. And a band of instability, predicated on bad or unstable regimes, fluctuating oil prices and soaring food prices, stretches around the middle of the Earth. Look at the Arab world alone. 

So, how can we expect a citizen or individual to have confidence in the globalized economic and political order? It isn't just people who have modest assets who have reason to stop believing in the system. Even younger people who don't have assets struggle to find work and watch their parents' life choices fail. Why should they have confidence in a system that is, after all, collapsing? 

Richard Parker is a contributor to McClatchy-Tribune Information Services and editor and president of Parker Media, where Ramona Flume is editorial director. Researcher Jessica Schwartz contributed to this article.

http://mobile.cleveland.com/advcleve/db_96783/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=8z6yA7BW&full=true#display 

Ah, The Irony- - - -Oral Robert's Grandson 'Comes Out'!

Late televangelist also had son who committed suicide after coming out, but Dallas man takes different path

GAY PROGENY | Randy Potts, left, attended the funeral of his grandfather, Oral Roberts, right, but wasn’t invited to sit with family.

Randy Roberts Potts grew up like many in this area. Raised in an evangelical family, he married at 20 and had three children.

But at 30, he came out as gay and moved to Dallas.
Today, few in his family speak to him. But last year he summoned the courage to take his children to visit his grandfather — Tulsa evangelist Oral Roberts.

Roberts, who died last year, had four children: Potts’ mother, a Tulsa attorney; her sister, who died in a plane crash with her husband in 1977; Ronnie Roberts, who committed suicide in 1982; and Richard Roberts, who became president of Oral Roberts University in 1993 but resigned in 2007 after being accused of using school funds for personal and political purposes.

Potts identifies most closely with his deceased uncle, Ronnie. They look alike. They were both teachers. They married, had children and divorced at about the same age.
“We married very similar women, too,” Potts said.

They were also about the same age when they came out. But there is a major difference between the two.
Ronnie came out as gay to the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, in the early 1980s. Six months later, Ronnie Roberts committed suicide.
Potts, on the other hand, learned to embrace his identity.

Potts said he believes people need to take responsibility for their own lives. If their families aren’t supportive, they need to surround themselves with people who are. That is what made the difference for him.
But the times were different as well, for Potts and his uncle.

“By the time I was in my late 20s, we had ‘Will & Grace,’” Potts said. “In 1982 in Tulsa, there were no role models.”
Although it was pretty common knowledge in the LGBT community that Oral Roberts had a gay son, in the family and at church it was a big secret. Potts said he didn’t know himself until fairly recently.
“In the gay community people knew that,” he said. “In my family it was utter heresy that I mentioned it.”
He said the “the act of saying it publicly” has estranged most of his family from him.
Since he came out, Potts said only two people in his family even talk to him — his brother and a distant cousin.

Potts met his wife at age 18. They married two years later and had three children.
Ten years after they married, he and his wife divorced. When she got a new job in Dallas, he moved here to be near his children. They have joint custody.

His estrangement from his family began much earlier.
He compared his mother to Sarah Palin.

“She reminds me a lot of my mother,” he said of Palin. “I hear my mother in her, the same sort of mindset.”
Potts said his relationship with his mother reflected her relationship with her father.
Last year, he decided to take his children to meet their great-grandfather, a man he described as very cold.
“I was terrified of him as a kid,” Potts said.

He recalled that as he was growing up, his grandfather never remembered his name or the names of any of Potts’ cousins.

But he was surprised during this last visit.
“He wanted to be the grandfatherly type in that visit,” Potts said. “It was nice that he was play-acting for my kids.”

When he arrived, he was surprised that Roberts had learned the names of each his great-grandchildren, and he gave each of the children a $20 bill and an autographed copy of one of his books.

“That’s his legacy, his life’s work,” Potts said, saying he thinks his grandfather believed the book would mean something to his great-grandchildren when they were older.

Despite Roberts’ attitude toward his great-grandchildren, Potts said he knows it must have been difficult for the evangelist to see Potts himself. “I know I must have reminded him of Ronnie,” he said. “I was the same age as Ronnie when he died. I know that ran through his head several times when he looked at me.
“He was very isolated and alone,” he said. “He was always too busy for friends. So here he is 91. He lost his wife in 2005.”

Potts’ grandmother was his closest relative. He described her as kind and loving. She died the year he came out.

For her funeral, he was not allowed in the family tent. Instead, he stood outside to hold one of the tent poles.
When his grandfather died last December at the age of 91, Potts decided to attend the funeral. but he was not invited to sit with the family.

But Potts lives a happy life in Dallas. He works several jobs to make ends meet. He’s doing some writing on several subjects. He said he’s heard little from his family about a recent an article published by This Land, an Oklahoma periodical, about his family.
He has an agent and hopes to publish a book out about the same subject.

http://www.dallasvoice.com/oral-roberts%E2%80%99-gay-grandson-speaks-out-1032465.html

At The Movies----How Rude Are The People Around You???

One of the first W.C. Fields movies I saw was an early 1930s Paramount all-star film called "If I Had a Million." Given a cool million to spend as he wishes, Fields uses the money to buy a fleet of jalopies allowing him to careen around Los Angeles, hunting down pernicious road hogs. Whenever Fields sees someone hogging the road, he rams them with one of his cars, hops into the next waiting car in his fleet and heads off in search of a new victim.

I am often reminded of the grand old comic when I'm in a multiplex these days. I think of myself as a generally peaceful citizen, but it seems as if almost every time I go out to the movies I find myself spoiling for a fight with some rude knucklehead who's texting or talking during a movie. I usually just bark, "Put the phone away!" but it's hard to resist the temptation to knock some sense into them, just as Fields did to his road hogs.

Apparently I am not alone. Matt Singer at IFC News says that going to the movies, far from being a refuge from the outside world, is now an even more stressful experience than real life. He is asking people to sign a petition designed to improve the moviegoing experience. He suggests that in addition to shutting their mouths mouth and silencing their cellphones, people should never bring a baby to an R-rated movie, stop throwing their garbage on the theater floor and never, ever, bring loud, stinky food to the theater, suggesting that people who arrive at the multiplex with Chinese takeout in crackly plastic containers "should receive one warning. A second violation gets you a lifetime ban." 

I'm on board with Singer's proposal, but it doesn't really deal with the prickly issue of new technology -- especially the proliferation of texting in the middle of movies. I've found that at least in my family, there is a dramatic generation gap on the texting question. My 13-year-old son considers it totally acceptable to stay in touch with pals during a movie while I find it loathsome and obnoxious, especially to everyone in the vicinity of the glowing light of a cellphone.

I tried explaining to my kid that texting was also insulting to the filmmakers, who have every reason to expect that the audience might actually give their undivided attention to their work. But he wasn't buying that, arguing that if the audience pays good money they should be able to make their own decisions about how much attention a film merits, which I'm afraid is a sign of exactly what happens to your cinematic values when you've grown up watching Michael Bay movies.

If anyone has a strong opinion on this issue I'd like to hear it. Personally, I'd be happy to have theater owners eject anyone guilty of rampant texting, at least unless they can prove that they've been in necessary contact with a baby sitter or an elderly relative. Am I guilty of being too much of a multiplex vigilante? Or would you, too, like a little more peace and quiet when you watch a movie, regardless of how much it might infringe on every American's right to big-screen free speech?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2011/08/movie-theater-manners-etiquette-film-rules-petition-texting.html

Rep. Maxine Waters: 'The tea party can go straight to hell'

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) came out swinging against Republicans in Congress on Saturday as she addressed the unemployed during a forum in Inglewood.

The event occurred a day after new statistics were released showing that California's jobless rate last month went up to 12%, from 11.8%.  California now has the second-highest rate of unemployment in the nation, trailing only Nevada at 12.9%, and its jobless rate is well above the U.S. average of 9.1%.

Waters vowed to push Congress to focus on creating more jobs. "I'm not afraid of anybody," said Waters. "This is a tough game. You can't be intimidated. You can't be frightened. And as far as I'm concerned, the 'tea party' can go straight to hell."

More than 1,000 people attended "Kitchen Table Summit," which was designed to give the jobless an opportunity to vent to elected officials and share their struggles about finding a job.

KABC-TV quoted speakers talking about living without medical insurance and surviving paycheck to paycheck.

"Thank God I am healthy because a medical illness would bankrupt me," said Regina Davis of Inglewood.

Congresswomen Laura Richardson and Karen Bass also attended. Several people urged the representatives to push for a national jobs program.

According to the Employment Development Department, California employers added just 4,500 new jobs last month, a steep drop from the revised 30,400 jobs added in June.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/tea-party-maxine-waters-hell.html

This 'Silent Disco' Is Deafening!

Instead of relying on the massive speaker systems found at most clubs, this newish trend has partygoers donning wireless headphones to hear a live DJ broadcast.

Revellers with headphones dance in a silent disco area on third day of the Open'er Festival 2011 in Gdynia, Poland, 02 July 2011. Each festivalgoer received a pair of wireless headphones in order to be able to listen to music on two separate channels.

On a Saturday evening in June, the dance floor at Santa Monica's Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club was packed with patrons enthusiastically dancing, singing and doing call-and-response with the DJ. It's a scene that could have been unfolding on umpteen dance floors across the city, but in this case, something very different was going on.

The cool-kid crowd was moving and grooving to silence. Or so it seemed.

Actually, the revelers were taking part in a phenomenon known as "silent disco," a dance party where the booming music is both private and shared. Instead of getting their audio fix from the massive speakers found at most dance clubs, partygoers donned custom wireless headphones to tune in to a live DJ broadcast.

The term silent disco was coined in 2005 at the U.K.'s Glastonbury Festival, where headphones were used to share music en masse without violating local noise restrictions. Robbie "Motion Potion" Kowal, a San Francisco-based DJ, was the first to try the concept in the U.S. at Tennessee's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in 2006. Since then, he's invested in his own set of 1,000-plus headphones and has taken silent disco on the road to clubs, festivals and public spaces where noise ordinances would otherwise make a dance party impossible.

Friday night will be his third time bringing silent disco to Central since the club opened to the public last September.

"It's becoming one of our signature parties," said Rory Lovett, one of Central's co-owners. Due to its growing popularity, he said, Central has decided to make it a monthly event second Saturdays starting in December.

According to Kowal, one of the things that makes silent disco such a crowd-pleaser is the "voyeuristic passerby factor." In previous months, the party at Central has spilled out onto 14th Street. People who stumble upon it "can't even conceptualize what the heck is going on because they see people dancing around and they don't hear anything," he said.

Kowal thinks the "unintentional comedy factor," as he put it, is equally compelling. "You see people trying to sing along and not knowing the words ... or pretending to know the words so their friends think that they [do]," he said. "So much of club culture now is so over-serious.... This has a way of bringing the smiles and laughter back."

Stephanie Tucker of Hollywood, who in June was attending her second silent disco night at Central, said that "on a normal dance floor, everyone stays in their little circles." But at silent disco, she's experienced more interaction among strangers. "It's almost like because everybody has got the headphones on that we all have something in common."

The headphone concept encourages more conversation too. Dancers can take their headsets off (or turn down the volume) at will to chat with someone, and the lack of a sound system means they can actually hear one another — an option, well, unheard of in conventional clubs. "It's not this inescapable pounding DJ set," said Lovett.

Those tuning in to Kowal's broadcast will hear his signature blend of rare groove and album rock reimagined as dance mixes — in June, his "Good Vibrations" mix included the Beach Boys and Marky Mark. Friday night he'll be joined on the decks by Los Angeles-based DJ Quickie Mart.

Kowal will also be bringing silent disco to the sprawling Sunset Strip Music Festival on Saturday. See the website for details as they emerge: http://www.sunsetstripmusicfestival.com.

Silent disco "favors more adventurous music," said Kowal. Participants are "really listening ... because you put those headphones on and it goes directly from the DJ's brain into yours."

http://www.latimes.com/theguide/bars-and-clubs/la-et-night-disco19-20110819,0,2697314.story

More People Becoming Vegans----Including Bill Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton is speaking out about his plant-based, heart-healthy diet, saying that he believes the vegan regimen is helping to reverse the damage to his heart and blood vessels caused by cardiovascular disease.

Former President Bill Clinton during a recent visit to Haiti. Clinton says that his vegan diet is improving his cardiovascular health.

"It's turning a ship around before it hits the iceberg, but I think we're beginning to turn it around," he told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

It's not the first time Clinton has changed his famously Krispy Kreme-oriented eating habits to improve his health. When the former president had a quadruple bypass in 2004, he lowered the cholesterol in his diet.  But when doctors last year had to implant two stents to open one of the veins from that surgery, the president took matters further and began following the advice of Dr. Dean Ornish, the diet guru who helped spark the notion of turning to vegetarianism to reverse coronary heart disease with the publication of this study (subscription required) in the Lancet in 1990, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., who runs the cardiovascular prevention and reversal program at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, and went vegan -- cutting out meat, dairy, eggs and most oils.

News of his new diet started trickling out after daughter Chelsea Clinton's July 31 wedding, an event at which guests dined on vegan dishes and a gluten-free cake, and at which Clinton appeared slim and healthy.  By September, a flurry of reports had delved into the president's new eating habits, some questioning how the 64-year-old really felt about giving up meat for protein shakes and almond milk ("I like the vegetables, the fruits, the beans, the stuff I eat now," he tells Gupta now.) In December 2010, PETA named Clinton its Person of the Year, estimating that his diet shift spared the lives of 200 animals a year.

Vegan diets aren't always healthy.  As Los Angeles Times reporter Jeannine Stein found last year when she peeked in the pantry of one vegan couple, cutting out meat and dairy can leave a lot of room for nutrient-poor choices like potato chips and Taco Bell burritos.  But the right kind of veganism, according to Clinton, can promote good health.  "All my blood tests are good, and my vital signs are good, and I feel good, and I also have, believe it or not, more energy," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-bill-clinton-vegan-20110818,0,5976547.story

A 9 Year Old Predicts His Own Death, And Then Dies

Dr. Gregg and Kathryn Korbon's son Brian was almost 9 years old when he told his parents he wouldn't make it to his "double digits."

"That's when I got worried," said Kathryn, who took her son to see a therapist. Kathryn and Gregg recounted Brian's strange premonition at StoryCorps in Charlottesville, Va. 

Brian hadn't wanted a birthday party when he turned 9; but in the next several months, he decided he wanted a party after all.

Then one day, Kathryn came home to find Brian pulling a red wagon down the driveway, filled with his toys and camping gear.

"I'm ready to go on my trip," the boy said.

Kathryn replied, "Brian, I'll be so sad if you leave."

"Mom, I have to go."

His mother explained that Brian couldn't leave because of his upcoming party; he relented.

But before the celebration — planned for May 8, 1993 — Brian wrote letters to some of his friends, and put a sign on his door that read, "Brian's on a trip. Don't worry about me."

Brian played in a Little League game after the party. Though he was the smallest player on the team and normally was afraid of the ball, his father recalls that during that game, Brian was fearless.

He was walked in his first at-bat. The next batter hit a triple — Brian ran the bases, charging across home plate.

"He was the happiest little boy you ever saw. He gave me a high-five and went into the dugout," Gregg recalls, "and then he collapsed."

A Little League field in Charlottesville, Va., is named after Brian C. Korbon.

Before his death in 1993, Brian posted this sign to his bedroom door.

When his coach brought Brian out of the dugout, Gregg tried to revive him. "I'm an anesthesiologist. That's what I do, is resuscitate people," he said.

"And something inside told me he wasn't coming back."

Soon after leaving the hospital, Kathryn realized her son had somehow known what would happen to him.

"That's what he was trying to tell us all that time," she said.

"Yeah, but it wasn't in my belief system that something like that could happen," Gregg replied.

Gregg returned to the field after Brian's death, to get his car. On a beautiful spring day, he watched another game of Little Leaguers.

"All of a sudden, everything got very clear," Gregg recalls. "And I had this sense that if I could bring Brian back, it would be for me, not for him — that he had finished. Any unfinished business was just mine."

Brian was determined to have died of heart failure. After his death, the ballpark where he had played that day was renovated and renamed the Brian C. Korbon Field.

A plaque was placed at the site:

On May 8, 1993, Brian Korbon died suddenly in the south dugout after scoring the first run of his Little League career. This ball field is dedicated to his wisdom, faith and courage. May those who play here share Brian's sense of fair play and joy of life, and those who cheer them find a greater sense of community and love for their children.

Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo with Vanara Taing. Recorded in partnership with WMRA and WVTF.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120580047

Bishop in Missouri Waited Months to Report Priest

In the annals of the sexual abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, most of the cases that have come to light happened years before to children and teenagers who have long since grown into adults.

Bishop Robert Finn took over the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri in 2005. 

But a painfully fresh case is devastating Catholics in Kansas City, Mo., where a priest, who was arrested in May, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of taking indecent photographs of young girls, most recently during an Easter egg hunt just four months ago. 

Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has acknowledged that he knew of the existence of photographs last December but did not turn them over to the police until May. 

A civil lawsuit filed last week claims that during those five months, the priest, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, attended children’s birthday parties, spent weekends in the homes of parish families, hosted the Easter egg hunt and presided, with the bishop’s permission, at a girl’s First Communion. 

“All these parishioners just feel so betrayed, because we knew nothing,” said Thu Meng, whose daughter attended the preschool in Father Ratigan’s last parish. “And we were welcoming this guy into our homes, asking him to come bless this or that. They saw all these signs, and they didn’t do anything.”

The case has generated fury at a bishop who was already a polarizing figure in his diocese, and there are widespread calls for him to resign or even to be prosecuted. Parishioners started a Facebook page called “Bishop Finn Must Go” and are circulating a petition. An editorial in The Kansas City Star in June calling for the bishop to step down concluded that prosecutors must “actively pursue all relevant criminal charges” against everyone involved. 

Stoking much of the anger is the fact that only three years ago, Bishop Finn settled lawsuits with 47 plaintiffs in sexual abuse cases for $10 million and agreed to a long list of preventive measures, among them to immediately report anyone suspected of being a pedophile to law enforcement authorities. 

Michael Hunter, an abuse victim who was part of that settlement and is now the president of the Kansas City chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said: “There were 19 nonmonetary agreements that the diocese signed on to, and they were things like reporting immediately to the police. And they didn’t do it. That’s really what sickens us as much as the abuse.” 

The bishop has apologized and released a “five-point plan” that he described as “sweeping changes.” He hired an ombudsman to field reports of suspicious behavior and appointed an investigator to conduct an independent review of the events and diocesan policies. The investigator’s report is taking longer than expected and is now due in late August or early September, said Rebecca Summers, director of communications in the diocese. 

The bishop also replaced the vicar general involved in the case, Msgr. Robert Murphy, after he was accused of propositioning a young man in 1984. The diocese has delayed a capital fund-raising campaign on the advice of its priests, a move first reported by The National Catholic Reporter.

Bishop Finn, who was appointed in 2005, alienated many of his priests and parishioners, and won praise from others, when he remade the diocese to conform with his traditionalist theological views. He is one of few bishops affiliated with the conservative movement Opus Dei.

He canceled a model program to train Catholic laypeople to be leaders and hired more staff members to recruit candidates for the priesthood. He cut the budget of the Office of Peace and Justice, which focused on poverty and human rights, and created a new Respect Life office to expand the church’s opposition to abortion and stem cell research. He set up a parish for a group of Catholics who prefer to celebrate the old Tridentine Mass in Latin. 

Father Ratigan, 45, was also an outspoken conservative, according to a profile in The Kansas City Star. He and a class of Catholic school students joined Bishop Finn for the bus ride to the annual March for Life rally in Washington in 2007. 

The diocese was first warned about Father Ratigan’s inappropriate interest in young girls as far back as 2006, according to accusations in the civil lawsuit filed Thursday. But there were also more recent warnings.

In May 2010, the principal of a Catholic elementary school where Father Ratigan worked hand-delivered a letter to the vicar general reporting specific episodes that had raised alarms: the priest put a girl on his lap during a bus ride and allowed children to reach into his pants pockets for candy. When a Brownie troop visited Father Ratigan’s house, a parent reported finding a pair of girl’s panties in a planter, the letter said.

Bishop Finn said at a news conference that he was given a “brief verbal summary” of the letter at the time, but did not read it until a year later. 

In December, a computer technician discovered the photographs on Father Ratigan’s laptop and turned it in to the diocese. The next day, the priest was discovered in his closed garage, his motorcycle running, along with a suicide note apologizing to the children, their families and the church. 

Father Ratigan survived, was taken to a hospital and was then sent to live at a convent in the diocese, where, the lawsuit and the indictment say, he continued to have contact with children.

Parents in the school and parishioners were told only that Father Ratigan had fallen sick from carbon monoxide poisoning. They were stunned when he was arrested in May. 

“My daughter made cards for him,” said one parent who did not want her name used because the police said her daughter might have been a victim. “We prayed for him every single night at dinner. It was just lying to us and a complete cover-up.” 

A federal grand jury last Tuesday charged Father Ratigan with 13 counts of possessing, producing and attempting to produce child pornography. It accused him of taking lewd pictures of the genitalia of five girls ages 2 to 12, sometimes while they slept. If convicted, he would face a minimum of 15 years in prison.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 15, 2011

An earlier version of this article incorrectly characterized part of a three-year-old agreement to settle lawsuits in previous sex abuse cases. The settlement, for $10 million, included a list 19 — not 90 — preventive measures, including immediately reporting possible abuse to the police.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/us/15bishop.html?_r=2&hpw

5 Tips for a Happy Domestic Partnership

For many, domestic partnership is the next logical step in the relationship-growth path after the dating stage.

While it can be cohabitating bliss, it can also be a near disaster if you don't learn how to co-exist peacefully under the same roof. The 'little things' may seem small at first, but when repeated on a daily basis, frustrations like dishes in the sink can definitely exacerbate quickly.

Here are a few lessons I've learned (and am still learning) along the way to keep a functioning home and resultantly, a happy relationship.

Money Matters -- This uncomfortable conversation is one of the most important to have to discuss who puts in what, who takes care of bills, etc. There is no one solution -- you have to find what works for you. The system will also need revisiting and adjusting as careers and financial situations change.

Communication -- My friend Sunny recently told me, "You have to learn how to live, love and fight under one roof." When arguing, your first instinct may be to leave the nest and stay elsewhere, but taking off doesn't set a very good precedent in establishing a home with someone. Learning how to argue is important, and this may require laying down some house rules. Learning how to argue in a mature and non-destructive manner is something that usually takes time, since you have two completely different people with different styles and backgrounds. But it's a work in progress and one that hopefully through practice and creation of new habits, gets better with time.

Chores -- Instead of obsessively nagging your partner to do the dishes or make the weekend plans, determine the tasks in which you have a comparative advantage. If you're quick at doing the dishes and actually don't mind it, perhaps that's your task and your partner who loves making plans can be in charge of organizing dinner with the in-laws. Don't take it personally -- just get smarter and more efficient with the division of responsibility.

Staying Attractive --Sure, the courting phase is over, but living together is not a ticket to wear pajamas 24-7, talk in a baby voice or pack on the pounds. If you want the sparks to continue, make an effort in your appearance and hygiene.

Keeping Your Individuality -- Everyone needs his or her personal time. It may feel natural to do everything with your partner, but it's important to still have alone time with your friends and vice versa. Give each other the opportunity to miss each other.

Amy Chan is a relationship columnist. To read more of her blogs, visit www.amyfabulous.com

Face Transplant Patient Doing Well; New Photo Released

Face transplant patient Charla Nash, who was disfigured after being mauled by a 200-pound chimpanzee two years ago, says she is recovering well and is grateful for the reconstructive surgery that is returning her to a fuller life.

Charla Nash underwent a full face transplant after she was attacked by a chimpanzee in February, 2009. (Photo from AP)

In photos released Thursday by Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, Nash is shown with her new face, still swollen but similar in skin tone to her face prior to the attack. Nash, 57, lost her lips, eyes, nose and hands in the attack. Hands were also transplanted in the 20-hour operation in May. However, complications ensued and the hands were removed.

"Losing the new hands is just a bump in the road of my recovery," Nash said Thursday in a statement release by the hospital. "I believe that one day I'll have two hands to help me live as a blind person with confidence."

The face transplant, the third full face transplant performed in the United States, has been successful thus far.  

"I will now be able to do things I once took for granted. I will be able to smell," she said. "I will be able to eat normally. I will no longer be disfigured. I will have lips and will speak clearly once again. I will be able to kiss and hug loved ones. I am tremendously grateful to the donor and her family."

The transplanted face is not similar to her pre-accident appearance, but it also does not replicate the face of the donor. The underlying facial bones and muscle of the recipient changes the shape of the donor's tissue, according to hospital officials.

The first-ever full face transplant took place last year. The procedure is still considered experimental.

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-face-transplant-20110811,0,2042104.story?track=rss 

80 Years Old & Getting Boob Jobs?!

At age 83, Marie Kolstad has a rich life. She works full time as a property manager and keeps an active social calendar, busying herself with 12 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. 

Marie Kolstad, 83, a widow who lives in Orange County, Calif., underwent a three-hour breast lift with implants.

But one thing needed improvement, she decided: her figure. At her age, she said, “your breasts go in one direction and your brain goes in another.” So on July 22, Ms. Kolstad, a widow who lives in Orange County, Calif., underwent a three-hour breast lift with implants, which costs about $8,000. 

“Physically, I’m in good health, and I just feel like, why not take advantage of it?” said Ms. Kolstad. “My mother lived a long time, and I’m just taking it for granted that that will happen to me. And I want my children to be proud of what I look like.” 

Ms. Kolstad is one of many septuagenarians, octogenarians and even nonagenarians who are burnishing their golden years with help from the plastic surgeon. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, in 2010 there were 84,685 surgical procedures among patients age 65 and older. They included 26,635 face-lifts; 24,783 cosmetic eyelid operations; 6,469 liposuctions; 5,874 breast reductions; 3,875 forehead lifts; 3,339 breast lifts and 2,414 breast augmentations. 

Except for a brief turndown during the recession, those numbers have been rising for years now, and experts say the trend seems likely to accelerate as baby boomers begin to pass age 65. But the increase also has raised concerns about safety and the propriety of performing invasive elective surgery on older patients, who may suffer unintended physical and psychological consequences. 

There are as many reasons for getting plastic surgery as there are older patients, experts say. Some people are living longer and remaining healthier, and they want their physiques to align with their psyches. Some are preening for potential mates and want their feathers to look their freshest. Some are still working or looking for jobs and want to be seen as more youthful contenders. 

And some are simply sick of slackened jowls, jiggly underarms and saggy eyelids. Gilbert Meyer, a retired film producer in Boynton Beach, Fla., who gave his age only as “over 75,” saw Dr. Jacob Steiger, a facial plastic surgeon in Boca Raton, Fla., for an eye and neck lift last year. He spent $8,000.

“I was looking at myself in the mirror and didn’t like what I was starting to see and did something about it,” Mr. Meyer said. “Why not look as good as you can when you can?”

Mary Graham, a 77-year-old restaurant owner in Thomasville, Ga., got a face-lift and breast implants earlier this year. “The only time I go to the doctor is for plastic surgery,” she said. 

Ms. Graham plans to open another restaurant in Tallahassee, Fla., in the fall. “I work seven days a week,” she said. “I wanted to look as young as I feel.” 

Her plastic surgeon, Dr. Daniel Man of Boca Raton, Fla., who said he is seeing increasing numbers of patients over age 70, said, “These people are healthy and want to be an active part of society.”

Any operation poses risks, but surprisingly few studies have focused on older patients and cosmetic enhancements. One report, published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in June, found that the hazards in people over age 65 are no greater than in the younger population. 

Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic reviewed the medical records of 216 face-lift patients over the course of three years. The researchers found no significant difference in the instances of minor or major complications between one group of patients whose average age was 70 and another group whose average age was 57.6.

“We’re saying it’s not chronologic age that’s so important, but it really is physiologic,” said Dr. James E. Zins, the senior author of the study and chairman of the department of plastic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.

All patients in his study were screened for such health problems as lung and heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as use of medications, like anticoagulants, that could have complicated the operations. But not all older patients may be so thoroughly screened, , so his findings don’t necessarily mean the risks are minimal in an older population. 

“Is there a theoretical age upon which complications do become more likely?” he mused. “Does that mean that patients 70 and 75 years and over can safely undergo a face-lift with the same complication rate as young patients? We didn’t have enough numbers to answer that question.”

While face-lifts can be performed under “conscious sedation,” other reconstructive procedures typically require general anesthesia, which may be risky for an elderly patient. Older patients may take longer to heal, and the results of plastic surgery may not last as long as in younger patients, said Dr. Michael Niccole, a plastic surgeon in Newport Beach, Calif. 

Some critics questions whether the benefits are worth the risks, which may be underestimated.

“You know there are biases because of the underreporting of negative findings,” said James Hughes, executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, a nonprofit research group in Hartford. “The doctors have more or less financial incentives to do these procedures, and that often leads them to understate alternative kinds of treatments or medical advice.” 

Harriet A. Washington, author of two books about medical ethics issues, asks how older patients can give informed consent to plastic surgery when so little is known of its risks to them, especially to those with chronic conditions like diabetes, osteoporosis and heart disease. 

“It’s one of those things that has crept up on us, and I think, as usual, we’ve embraced the technology before we’ve really embraced the ethical questions and dimensions,” she said. 

And while most research indicates that people benefit psychologically from cosmetic procedures, reporting improvements in their appearance and in body image, a minority experience some kind of emotional “turbulence,” said David Sarwer, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. 

“There are truly psychological repercussions to these procedures, which often aren’t covered in the informed consent process,” he said.

And yet: Assuming a patient is healthy, meets all of the presurgical criteria and understands that there are risks, why is it people often are squeamish about seniors going under the knife?

Nancy Etcoff, an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School who studies biology and social beliefs about beauty, believes the double takes arise from our culture’s mixed feelings about old people actively on the prowl. “Part of our stereotype of old people is that they are social, warm and likeable, but powerless and sexless,” she said. “Here we are in the age of Viagra, which is very well accepted, but suddenly the idea of older people, mostly women, wanting to be sexually attractive at that age makes us uncomfortable.

“If an older woman wants to regain eyelids or wants a breast that she doesn’t have to tuck into a waistband, then why not?” 

Ms. Kolstad asked herself much the same question. “In my day, no one ever thought about breast enhancement or anything,” she said. “But nowadays women go out and they would never get a second look if they show their age. I find that you have to keep up your appearance physically, even if you just want a companion or someone to ask you to dinner. 

“That’s not going to happen if you don’t have a figure that these geezers are looking for.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/health/09plastic.html?src=me&ref=general

Schwarzenegger Cheats On Maria & Then Wears This???

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- Arnold Schwarzenegger appears to be using his wardrobe to send a message to estranged wife Maria Shriver. The former governor recently donned a t-shirt that read, "I survived Maria."

The shirt reads, "I survived Maria" (TMZ)

Schwarzenegger was spotted wearing the shirt during a bike ride Sunday in Santa Monica.

The garment was designed by Shriver's staff as a joke and given to Schwarzenegger last November during a farewell party for his staff, TMZ is reporting.

The shirt, which originally had the dates 2007-2010 printed on the bottom, was altered to list the dates 1977-2010. Schwarzenegger and Shriver began dating in 1977.

The couple filed for divorce earlier this year after Schwarzenegger admitted to fathering a child with former housekeeper, Mildred "Patty" Baena. 

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-schwarzenegger-t-shirt-diss,0,5499820.story 

Celebrating Girl-Groups!

It was all about love. Waiting for it, finding it, showing it, fearing for it, fighting for it, sometimes losing it, sometimes taking it all the way to happy-ever-after marriage. On Saturday afternoon the rock archivists of the Ponderosa Stomp and Lincoln Center Out of Doors presented a fond four-hour marathon of girl-group songs from the early 1960s, sung by the women who made them. 

Leslie Gore

Headlined by Ronnie Spector, Lesley Gore and LaLa Brooks (of the Crystals), the concert also brought back names that drift by on oldies stations: the Exciters, the Jaynetts, the Angels, the Cookies, the Toys, the Chantels, Reparata and the Delrons, Maxine Brown, Baby Washington, Beverly Warren. 

While the event was called “She’s Got the Power!,” most of the songs told just the opposite story: of women with strong voices and chiming, rocking tunes who were declaring how completely their happiness depended on a guy’s love. (Ms. Gore had the rare exception with her feisty “You Don’t Own Me.”) The show’s backup orchestra, which included guitarists from the Rascals, Yo La Tengo and the Patti Smith Group, was cleverly named the Boyfriends. 

The singers were teenagers in the 1950s and ’60s, with high, bright, sometimes untrained voices that leaped out of transistor-radio speakers, like Ronnie Spector’s raw, arresting tone: a definitive Noo Yawk voice. The songwriting behind them came largely from cubicles and office-building studios in New York City, where teams like Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry distilled tales of romance down to two and a half minutes and a chorus like “Baby, I Love You.” 

There were girl groups elsewhere, particularly in Motown, but this concert at the Damrosch Park Bandshell rightly celebrated New York as the fountainhead. The music reflected the city, uptown and downtown, with brash arrangements, doo-wop harmonies, a frequent hint of a Latin beat and some Broadway storytelling. The sophisticated harmonies and horn arrangements behind a song like Ms. Gore’s “Judy’s Turn to Cry” easily connect to show tunes. 

The concert was in three parts: a revue with the lesser-known singers doing a few songs each; a string of minisets from the headliners; and a closing tribute to the prolific Ms. Greenwich, described by Paul Shaffer (who sat in on keyboards) as “the spirit of the girl-group sound.” A representative from BMI, the royalties collection agency, announced that by its tabulation Ms. Greenwich’s songs have received airplay totaling 125 years. 

The singers aren’t teenagers anymore. Voices have lowered and thickened; dance steps, with a few exceptions, were more limited. Arlene Smith of the Chantels worked the stage in a motorized wheelchair as she sang “Maybe.” But many of the voices had aged well. The clear standout was Ms. Brooks, lean and incredibly limber at 64, who belted “And Then He Kissed Me,” “Da Doo Ron Ron” and a borrowed song, “River Deep, Mountain High,” with lavish, exultant drama (and a little Tina Turner rasp for “River Deep”).

Ms. Brown’s songs — “All in My Mind,” “Oh No Not My Baby” and “We’ll Cry Together” — were suffused with pained suspicion and tearful relief. Brenda Reid pushed the Exciters’ songs “Tell Him” and “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy” toward hearty gospel. Louise Murray, one of the many vocalists on the Jaynetts’ “Sally Go ’Round the Roses,” brought out the desperate warning at the core of that mysterious song. 

Typical of the Ponderosa Stomp’s thoroughness, the performers also included half a dozen of the era’s frequent backup singers, among them Toni Wine, who wrote (with Carole Bayer Sager) “A Groovy Kind of Love,” and sang it solo at an electric keyboard with elfin affection. 

Though women’s songs now express more independence, the girl-group sound has been durable. It’s had its latest resurgence with bands like the Cults and Best Coast, and Ms. Spector made a point of singing a slightly expurgated version of Amy Winehouse’s girl-group-styled “Back to Black.” At the Ponderosa Stomp young love — yearning, confused, desperate, triumphant, blissful — still glowed from the grown-ups onstage, culminating in that definitive girl-group wish in the finale: “Be My Baby.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/arts/music/shes-got-the-power-at-lincoln-center-review.html?_r=1&WT.mc_id=AR-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M213-ROS-0811-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click