The sign might have slipped, but Bill Cosby still eats for free at Ben’s Chili Bowl

Diners picking up a half-smoke at Ben’s Chili Bowl might have assumed the eatery’s most controversial policy — that comic Bill Cosby, a longtime friend of the family that owns the D.C. restaurant, eats free — had changed.
The sign announcing the perma-perk for Cosby (and for President Obama) had become something of a lightning rod in the wake of accusations last year from multiple women that the “Cosby Show” star had drugged and sexually assaulted them. Some folks this week noticed it had disappeared, a move that touched off social-media speculation.
But the rule still stands, says Vida Ali, the daughter-in-law of Ben’s founder Ben Ali, and the sign was apparently a victim of grease, not second thoughts. The tape that held it up failed, she explained, and it was put aside near the register. Now it’s propped up on a counter in an inconspicuous spot.
“First it was just handwritten, then the grease got to it, so we had it laminated,” she said. “But it falls down all the time.”
Ali says she’s wrestled with how to respond to the allegations against Cosby, whose image also graces a mural on the side of the Ben’s building. “We’re sensitive to all the parties involved,” she said. “But if I call you a friend today, and you do something wrong tomorrow, I can say what you did is wrong but still consider you a friend. They are two different things.”

Walter Cronkite's grandson, 22, kills himself in Colby College dormitory just days before graduation

Peter Cronkite, 22, of Manhattan was found dead at Colby College in Waterville, Maine
Police had responded to a medical emergency at a dormitory complex.

No further details have been released about his death .

Cronkite was a classical civilization major with a minor in cinema studies and was just about to graduate.

Cronkite was the son of actress Deborah Rush.

The grandson of the late CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite has committed suicide in his Colby College dormitory. 

Peter Cronkite, 22, from Manhattan, was found dead at the dormitory complex on campus on Sunday.

No further details have been released about his death. 
Cronkite was a classical civilization major with a minor in cinema studies and was about to graduate next month.

Cronkite was the son of Walter Cronkite III and the actress Deborah Rush. He also had a younger brother, Walter Cronkite lV. 
His family have not commented on his death.

His death was announced Monday by Colby President David A. Greene in a letter to the college community.
'It is with deep sadness that I write to report that Peter Cronkite '15 took his own life this weekend,' Greene wrote. 
'Peter's death is devastating to his family, his many friends, and the entire Colby community. Our hearts are heavy as we try to come to terms with this tremendous loss.' 

Flags were lowered on the Colby College campus and FoxBangor reported he was described as 'athletic, intelligent, and very kind, with a likeable personality that won him scores of friends and admirers.'

His family wrote in a New York Times obituary: 'His life on teams in school and area hockey leagues as a goalie was a great happiness in his life. 

According to Colby College President, David Greene, student-athlete, Peter "Pete" Cronkite took his own life this weekend. Peter is the grandson of prominent anchorman Walter Cronkite, and the son of Chip Cronkite and actress, Debra Rush.

He was a classical civilization major and cinema studies minor and also a member of the school's rugby team. He's described as athletic, intelligent, and very kind, with a likeable personality that won him scores of friends and admirers.

Counseling is available for students through the campus health center or by emailing Counseling@colby.edu .
Memorial and remembrance services have not yet been set.

Witchy Sez : 
This is so sad to see and read about. There seems to be so much sadness and unhappiness in this younger age group where they are taking their lives. It is a tragedy and it will deeply affect this family forever. My condolences to the family during this time of deep sadness.
Suicide one of the most mysterious, sad, and lonely of human behaviors.

Our  sincere  condolences  form the PICs

10 Celebrities You Didn't Know Was Spies

Josephine Baker
The singer and actress famous for her scandalous banana-skirted dance was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, but she didn't  stop making history after that. When World War II broke out, Baker was recruited by the French intelligence services to leverage her fame as a tool to gather information. Using her massive celebrity, Baker got in close with Japanese and Italian businessmen, ambassadors and other high-ranking figures, and everything she found out in conversation with them was given back to the French resistance. When she toured, Baker would also smuggle information about troop movements written in invisible ink on her sheet music.

Roald Dahl
The writer of dozens of classics of children’s literature including James and the Giant Peach and Matilda, Roald Dahl was a complex and fascinating figure. Before starting his writing career, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force, where he flew in multiple missions. Headaches grounded him and he was returned to England and then appointed to a post in Washington, D.C. While there, his superiors discovered his knack for language and started him writing propaganda. It wasn't long before the intelligence services had Dahl running information about American activities – including the non-interventionist “America First” movement – back to the home office.

Christopher Lee
One of the most iconic horror actors of all time, Christopher Lee’s career has spanned almost six decades. His first breakthrough came as Count Dracula in the British horror films made by Hammer Productions. During World War II, he joined the Air Force but was told that a failure in his optic nerve would never allow him to become a pilot. Undeterred, Lee turned his skills to intelligence, and he was soon recruited to the Special Operations Executive, a top-secret group organized to conduct sabotage and espionage actions in occupied Europe. The details of Lee’s missions during this time are still classified, and like a good soldier he’s never spilled as to exactly what he did during that time.

Greta Garbo
One of the most enduring mysteries in Hollywood is Greta Garbo’s retirement from acting in 1941. The notoriously reclusive star was one of the few actresses to make the transition to “talkies” successfully, but during the mid-30's she began taking less roles and mysteriously disappearing for months on end. During those times, Garbo was working with producer Alexander Korba and MI6 on a number of top secret intelligence missions. Her first task was to collect information on Swiss industrialist Axel Wenner-Gren, and she continued to work for the agency throughout the decade, reporting back on potential Nazi sympathizers and agents. Some say her work in Denmark was responsible for the survival of legendary physicist Niels Bohr. 

Frank Sinatra 
Ol’ Blue Eyes was a singer with a good deal of pull on both sides of the law. His connections to the Mafia have been well-documented, but the CIA also saw some good in Frank Sinatra. The intelligence agency allegedly made a deal with Sinatra to gloss over his Mob buddies’ illegal activities in exchange for Frank serving as a courier. On cross-country or transatlantic flights, Sinatra would often bring documents or diplomats for delivery on his private jet, which could pass through customs much easier than official transports. 

Julia Child 
The 6’2” cookbook author with the booming voice probably wasn’t the most inconspicuous person in the room, but Julia Child stumbled into espionage for that exact reason. At her height, she was too tall for the Women’s Army Corps, but still wanted to serve her country. Child was assigned to the laboratory of the Office of Strategic Services, where she worked to assist in the development of a shark repellent to keep undersea predators away from explosives. From there, she was posted abroad in Ceylon and China, where she transcribed and classified massive amounts of confidential communications from listening posts. After the war, she and husband Paul Child were transferred to Paris, where Julia got her first taste of French food and sparked a lifelong love affair with the cuisine. 

Moe Berg 
Athletes make exceptional intelligence operatives, because they have to travel frequently for work. Baseball player Moe Berg had that going for him and a lot more. Berg was a graduate of Princeton who spoke twelve languages, and in the offseason studied philosophy and got his law degree from Columbia. When he was traded to the Washington Senators, it wasn’t long before the diplomatic corps had brought Berg in to gather information on overseas tours. In 1934, while touring Japan with the All-Star team, he took video footage of Tokyo’s harbor and industrial areas, and was sent on multiple missions in Germany as well before the outbreak of open hostilities between the Axis powers and the United States. 

Charles “Lucky” Luciano 
Not all of the people on this list got into spying for love of God and country. Charles “Lucky” Luciano was the head of the powerful Genovese family, and his only goal was consolidating his power over the East Coast’s rackets. But after he was busted in 1936 for prostitution and thrown behind bars for 30 to 50 years, Lucky was desperate to shave down his sentence. He got the chance when Nazi saboteurs sank a French ocean liner that was being converted into a troop transport at the New York docks. Luciano’s mob controlled those docks, so he offered himself up as a conduit for information. He continued to help the Allies throughout the war and was released after serving just 10 years of his sentence. 

Cary Grant 
One of the most famous sex symbols in cinema history seems like an odd choice to be a spy, but somehow Cary Grant managed to pull it off. During World War II, one of the biggest concerns in America was the existence of Axis sympathizers on home soil, especially in positions of influence. So British agency MI6 reached out to some of Hollywood’s top producers and asked them to pick out an inside man to keep an ear to the ground in the movie industry. They chose Cary Grant, who spent the next few years digging for information. Grant’s most notorious success? Revealing that fellow heartthrob Errol Flynn was writing letters in support of Hitler and aiding German agent Hermann Erben.

Ian Fleming 
BY THOR JENSEN
We guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the creator of one of the most famous fictional spies of all time had a background in intelligence himself. Ian Fleming didn’t start writing until he was 43 years old, but he packed his early life with plenty of living. As a child, he was sent to an Austrian private school run by former spy Ernan Forbes Dennis, and his tutelage helped Fleming in his Royal Navy career. He started out as a personal assistant to Rear Admiral John Godfrey, the Director of Intelligence, and immediately began thinking up plans to foil the Axis. In 1942, he was put in charge of a commando group called 30 Assault Unit, who would accompany infantry advances to seize documents from enemy headquarters. After World War II ended, Fleming would use many elements of his service as inspiration for James Bond’s adventures. 

CHICKADEE TO MAMA JUNE

I'M PREGNANT!
And This Time I Call the Shots
Anna Chickadee Cardwell  is pregnant ... but this time around grandma won't be in charge.

Chickadee tells TMZ, she and husband Michael are 6 weeks pregnant. If Mama June reads this it will be the first time she'll learn she's going to be a grandma 2 times over.
June was calling the shots after Anna's first baby, Kaitlyn, was born, but this time June will be allowed to visit when Anna's around, but that's it. 

Anna says she doesn't trust her mom's judgment anymore, because when she was younger, June would leave her with various people for long periods of time. One of them was child molester Mark McDaniel. 

Anna says the only men who she'll trust with the new baby will be her husband and Uncle Poodle.

But Anna knows the value of a buck ... she says that there's one thing Mama June will come in handy for ... diaper coupons. 
The woman loves a good bargain. 

I Am a Woman...Bruce Jenner

Bruce Jenner has come out as transgender, Friday night on ABC News’ “20/20″ interview with Diane Sawyer. After much speculation, the former Olympian who was previously married to Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner confirmed, “I am a woman.”
“My whole life has been getting me ready for this. It’s not just the last few years, as they’ve been treating me, as a joke,” Jenner said, referring to the heavy tabloid press, which has surrounded him. “My whole life has prepared me for this moment so I want to take advantage of it and do the right thing.”
Jenner assured Sawyer that the interview is not a publicity stunt. The Friday night sit-down was the final TV spot that Jenner will ever appear as “Bruce.” He says from now on, he will continue his life as “myself.” Wiping away his tears, he said, “Bruce lives a lie…she is not a lie. I can’t do it anymore.”
Bruce Jenner: ‘No, I Am Not Gay’
Jenner explains that he still is, and always has been, attracted to women.
“No, I am not gay,” he said, adding that he has never been attracted to men. “I am, as far as I know, heterosexual. I’ve never been with a guy. I’ve always been married, raising kids.”
By the end of the two-hour interview, he concluded he will identify as “asexual.”
How Did Bruce Jenner Tell His Wives & Family?

Revealing that first person he told his secret to was his first wife Chrystie Crownover, Jenner said, “sexuality was totally different than what my issues were. I always felt heterosexual.” He told Crownover that he was cross-dressing, recalling, “I had bigger issues than just cross-dressing.”

His second marriage to actress Linda Thompson, whose previous partner was Elvis Presley, dissolved because of his issues and pain. “My gender was a big part of the breakup.”

Jenner confessed that he began to take hormones in the ’80s, and continued to do so for five years. Then, he started to get facial reconstructive surgery.

In the ’80s, Jenner also confided in his sister, who sat down with Sawyer during the interview. “I never told a soul for 30+ years,” she said, explaining that she was waiting for him to bring up the conversation again. “I thought maybe it was just a passing phase…you don’t get over this.”

When he told his mom, Jenner said that he assured her she did not do anything wrong. It’s just how he was born. He’s always been this way, and everything will be fine.

Why didn’t Jenner come out as transgender earlier in life? He explained he could not bear to tell his children or face the media firestorm. (Jenner has six biological children, plus the four Kardashians, whom he parented for more than 20 years, and still identifies as their father.)

“‘You’ve just got no guts'” is what Jenner would tell himself for years, since he had not come out as his true self. He continued to cross-dress, and admits he would wear dresses and walk around in public because he felt trapped in the wrong body.

Did Kris Jenner Know?

When Jenner met Kris Kardashian, she knew. The Olympian said he had been taking hormones for years so he had a “good 36B,” referring to his breasts. He was also cross-dressing, and the Kardashian mogul knew — but was not aware of the deep-rooted extent of his torment.

“I loved Kris. I had a wonderful life with her. I learned a lot from her,” Jenner said of his ex-wife, who declined to comment to ABC News. “I thought we had a pretty good sex life.”

Bruce Jenner Talks ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ Series: ‘I Had The Story’

Sawyer asked Jenner about the “Keeping Up with the Kardashian” craze, curious if he regrets doing the E! series, which follows the famous family — Kris, Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Rob, Kendall and Kylie.

“I had the story,” Bruce coyly said, bursting into laughter.

“The entire run, I kept thinking to myself, ‘Oh my god, in this whole thing, the one real true story in the family was the one I was hiding and nobody knew about it.’ The one thing that could really make a difference in people’s lives was right here in my soul, and I could not tell that story.”

Bruce Jenner Reveals He Contemplated Suicide

With his attachment to the Kardashian family, paparazzi began to follow Jenner’s every move — especially with his changing appearance. He recalls when he had his trachea shaved to reduce the size of his Adam’s apple, and someone leaked the story and there was a photographer waiting outside his appointment with a camera. After that moment, Jenner considered suicide. “I thought, ‘it’s like over.'”
How Bruce Jenner Told His Children: ‘They All Cried’

The first child Jenner told was his middle son, Brandon, whose mother is Thompson. “You could tell it was very difficult for him,” his son said, realizing that the moment was harder for his father than for him. “It’s tragic.”

“The first thing I thought was, ‘Oh, it finally makes sense,'” said Brody, who starred on MTV’s “The Hills.” Jenner’s youngest son, who is Crownover's, recalls thinking when he was younger that he would never see his father again. But his daughter with Crownover, Casey, reminisces about the time  Jenner assured her he would never go away and would always be her dad. Jenner reveals that Kim was the first he told of the Kardashian/Jenner clan, after she found him wearing a dress.

“Kimberly has been by far the most accepting and the easiest to talk to about it,” Jenner said, sharing a story from a surprising source: Kardashian West’s husband, rapper Kanye West, who helped his wife understand that Jenner is finally coming into himself, and it is nothing but positive.

“They all cried,” Jenner said of the famous siblings. “Mainly because they don’t want anyone to hurt dad. They’re very protective of me, especially Kendall and Kylie.”

In a statement to ABC News, the two Jenner sisters said, “We love our dad very much, he has the biggest heart and all we want is for him to be happy. If he’s happy, we’re happy.”

Khloe took the news the harshest, Jenner says. “She’s had a lot of losses in her life.” He adds she fears she will lose him, as her father. “I can’t argue that point, but I’m not going anyway. I’m still going to be here for you,” he’s tried to explain to her.

Kourtney, the eldest of the three Kardashian sisters, took the news well, but is concerned about her children — she has three with her partner Scott Disick, who is another “KUWTK” cast member.

“All of the girls, it’s tough on them,” Jenner disclosed to Sawyer.

Bruce Jenner: Coming Out As Transgender Gives Me Courage

“I would like to work with this community to get this message out,” Jenner said, shedding light on suicide, murder and race issues arising in the transgender community.

As for religion, Jenner explains that this is what his Christian faith tells him to do, but he did struggle with coming out, earlier in life. “I would sit in church, I would always wonder, in God’s eyes, how does he see me?”

Looking hopeful, Jenner already appears to be taking on the role of a spokesperson for the trans community.

“If this is the only problem I have in life, I’ve got it made,” he says, finally looking happy and carefree. “I’ve got my health, I’ve got my children, I have family, I have seven grandchildren now. I’m excited about the future to do some real good in the world.”

He concludes, “This is my cause in life. This is why God put me on this earth — to deal with this issue.”

If Only They Had the Chance to Grow Old.....

They may have looked like this

The Roving Reporter : Come home Mr. Jindal and do your job

                                                  Governor Bobby  Jindel

                                              Prentiss  Smith 

According to the 2011 America’s Health Ranking by the United Health Foundation, Louisiana is ranked as the 49th healthiest state to live in for the second straight year. According to that same study, Louisiana ranks 48th in high school graduations, 48th in occupational fatalities, 48th in infectious diseases, 48th in infant mortality, 48th in premature deaths, and 49th in children in poverty.

These are devastating statistics for any state, but particularly a poor state like Louisiana. These are not statistics that any of us who love this state should be proud of or satisfied with. And yet, we have the governor of the state traveling around the country auditioning for president of the United States on the Republican ticket in 2016, while exclaiming that he is not going to accept Medicaid funds for hundreds of thousands of lower- to middle-class Louisianans who have no health care.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has been feeding at the public trough all of his working life and has never held a private sector job, is showing he has put his party and his ideology ahead of the health and welfare of vast numbers of Louisianans.

I love Louisiana. I was born and raised in this state. It is a great state with great people, but our state is in big trouble economically. And regardless of what Gov. Jindal says, all is not as rosy as the governor would have us to believe. Mr. Jindal has convinced himself that he is presidential material, but he is not. He does not wear well in the broader country. He is not what America is looking for. He may have fooled the people in Louisiana twice, but he will not fool the American people. My advice to Mr. Jindal is to save his money, because he has as much of a chance of being president as I do.

America is not looking for a right-wing ideologue like Bobby Jindal. In fact, the country is not looking for a left-wing ideologue either. This country is split 50/50. Americans are looking for someone who walks the middle line — not left or right. Gov. Jindal has governed as an ideologue who is willing to say or do anything to promote himself and his own personal agenda. He has been running for president since he came into office, and it has hurt the state. He should come home and do his job.

Whoever the next governor of Louisiana is, he or she is going to have to spend their first term straightening out the mess that Jindal and the current legislature — both Democrats and Republicans leave them. Jindal and the Legislature seem to have forgotten who they work for and why they were sent to Baton Rouge. The economic good news that is being fed to the citizens of the state is a mirage.

Now you see it and now you don’t.
Over his term, Jindal has not been a friend of the working class and poor people of this state as evidenced by his turning down Medicaid funding from the Affordable Care Act. It would have helped hundreds of thousands of low- to middle-income people —mostly poor whites and blacks who live in rural and urban areas of the state. These are people who want and need access to affordable health care.

Now this administration is proposing to cut $300 million from higher education. That is crazy. Education is the key to how we are going to change all of the aforementioned problems in this state. We cannot continue to cut education as this governor has done during his two terms in office.

Quality education for our children is the best thing we can do to improve our state. These proposed cuts come on the heels of the governor hiring a new commissioner of education, who will be paid in excess of $400,000 a year. That is 10 times more than a teacher in the classroom in one of the poorest states in the union.

Our politicians — both Democrats and Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for paying a public official this exorbitant amount of money. School teachers in this state have not had a meaningful pay raise in years. We have lost thousands of good teachers because they are not being valued as they should be.

No public official in a state this poor should be paid that kind of money. The people of Louisiana should be outraged. Public education is the one thing that we should all be able to agree about — it should not be cut any more. Access to a good education enhances who we are and strengthens us as a state. It is the only way we are going to compete in this new world. It is past time for Mr. Jindal to come home and do his job. And that’s my take.

Prentiss Smith lives in Shreveport and is a member of the Greater Shreveport Human Relations Commission.

Thanx Prentiss

The  Roving  Reporter 

Demi Moore asks $75 million for penthouse that she bought 25 years ago with Bruce Willis

Demi Moore's home is atop one of the San Remo's towers; Bono of U2 owns the other

Demi Moore has very publicly hoisted her Manhattan penthouse onto the open market for $75 million, about a year after shopping it around as a so-called whisper listing.

She gave the New York Times the exclusive over the weekend, and now it has hit the public Multiple Listing Service — giving a peek at a rarefied residence.  The triplex is at the pinnacle of the south tower of the double-spired San Remo building on the Upper West Side.

Listing agent Adam Modlin, with not a trace of hyperbole whatsoever, calls it "the embodiment of the last unicorn of Manhattan," a "floating mansion ... in the clouds" that boasts "just the right balance of heavenly light all around."

Moore bought the penthouse in 1990 with her then-husband, Bruce Willis, and embarked on renovations that included installing "bold new windows in every room," according to the Times.

It did not, however, include renovations that she reportedly wanted Ashton Kutcher to cover as part of their divorce. She "chose not to complete an ambitious master suite renovation," the Times said.

Evidently she's selling it as a sort of public service:

"I’m spending the majority of my time in my other homes, and this apartment is too magnificent not to be lived in full time," she told the paper in an email.  It really is extraordinary, even if we tease about the hype surrounding it.



 She is still looking pretty good

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official Teaser #2

Get your first look at the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser #2!

Lucasfilm and visionary director J.J. Abrams join forces to take you back again to a galaxy far, far away as “Star Wars” returns to the big screen 

Little known facts about Abraham Lincoln's assassination

Wednesday is the 150th anniversary of the death of President Abraham Lincoln, and while most Americans know the history of his assassination, many aren't aware of some of the odd facts related to his death. 

The 56-year-old president was shot in the back of the head by well-known thespian John Wilkes Booth in Washington DC's Ford's Theater, but according to the New York Time's first report of the assassination, Lincoln wasn't even going to attend the play. Originally Lincoln was to attend with General Ulysses S. Grant. Neither wanted to go, but after Grant cancelled, Lincoln felt obliged. He tried to get House Speaker Schuyler Colfax to go, but he refused the invitation.

"[President Lincoln] went with apparent reluctance and urged Mr. Colfax to go with him," the Times reported. "But that gentleman had made other engagements."

Another person who wasn't in the the presidential box was Lincoln's bodyguard, Officer John Parker. According to a special report published in Smithsonian Magazine in 2010, Parker left his position to go to the saloon next door for intermission. Ironically, the same saloon where Booth was drinking just before shooting the president.

It's unclear exactly where Parker was at the time of the assassination, but he obviously wasn't where he was needed.

"Had he done his duty, I believe President Lincoln would not have been murdered by Booth," a fellow presidential bodyguard William H. Crook wrote in his memoir. "Parker knew that he had failed in duty. He looked like a convicted criminal the next day."

Somehow, Parker stayed on the White House security detail though, according to Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker, the widow blamed him for her husband's murder. He was fired three years after Lincoln's death when he was found sleeping on the job.

Speaking of little known facts about the president's security, the night before he left for Ford's Theater, Lincoln signed a bill creating the Secret Service. The same federal law enforcement agency that today ensures the safety of the president. However, in the agency's early years its sole duty was to suppress counterfeiting. The secret service didn't provide presidential protection until 1901 after president William McKinley was assassinated.

Another little known fact: Tom Hanks, who narrated the 2013 TV movie "Killing Lincoln," is actually related to the former president. The Academy Award winner is a third cousin, four times removed linked through Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks.

Also related to Lincoln through the Hanks family is actor George Clooney. According to Ancestry.com, the "O Brother Where Art Thou" actor is linked to the former president's maternal grandmother, Lucy Hanks. Apparently Clooney is Honest Abe's half-first cousin five times removed.

Didn't  expect  to see  me  yet so soon , did  you not ?
Sitting  in for  'Witchy'  , the lady has  more  irons in the  fire  that  cowboys  on branding  round-ups . 
Finish  here  now  to  post  for  grand-poppa  , not  to worry  he's  not  sick ,  somewhere  in Reno /or Vegas  painting  the  town  red . If  you see the 'Reno Rascals'  give  them  bus  fare  and send  them  home  (smiling).
Mr. Humble  at  your  service .

AP Was There: Original AP report of Lincoln's assassination

 On the night Abraham Lincoln was shot, April 14, 1865, Associated Press correspondent Lawrence Gobright scrambled to report from the White House, the streets of the stricken capital, and even from the blood-stained box at Ford's Theatre, where, in his memoir he reports he was handed the assassin's gun and turned it over to authorities. Here is an edited version of his original AP dispatch:

WASHINGTON, APRIL 14 -- President Lincoln and wife visited Ford's Theatre this evening for the purpose of witnessing the performance of 'The American Cousin.' It was announced in the papers that Gen. Grant would also be present, but that gentleman took the late train of cars for New Jersey.

The theatre was densely crowded, and everybody seemed delighted with the scene before them. During the third act and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggested nothing serious until a man rushed to the front of the President's box, waving a long dagger in his right hand, exclaiming, 'Sic semper tyrannis,' and immediately leaped from the box, which was in the second tier, to the stage beneath, and ran across to the opposite side, made his escape amid the bewilderment of the audience from the rear of the theatre, and mounted a horse and fled.

The groans of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed the fact that the President had been shot, when all present rose to their feet rushing towards the stage, many exclaiming, 'Hang him, hang him!' The excitement was of the wildest possible description...
There was a rush towards the President's box, when cries were heard -- 'Stand back and give him air!' 'Has anyone stimulants?' On a hasty examination it was found that the President had been shot through the head above and back of the temporal bone, and that some of his brain was oozing out. He was removed to a private house opposite the theatre, and the Surgeon General of the Army and other surgeons were sent for to attend to his condition.

On an examination of the private box, blood was discovered on the back of the cushioned rocking chair on which the President had been sitting; also on the partition and on the floor. A common single-barrelled pocket pistol was found on the carpet.

A military guard was placed in front of the private residence to which the President had been conveyed. An immense crowd was in front of it, all deeply anxious to learn the condition of the President.

It had been previously announced that the wound was mortal, but all hoped otherwise. ...
At midnight the Cabinet, with Messrs. Sumner, Colfax and Farnsworth, Judge Curtis, Governor Oglesby, Gen. Meigs, Col. Hay, and a few personal friends, with Surgeon General Barnes and his immediate assistants, were around his bedside.

The President was in a state of syncope, totally insensible and breathing slowly. The blood oozed from the wound at the back of his head. The surgeons exhausted every effort of medical skill, but all hope was gone.
The parting of his family with the dying President is too sad for description.

The President and Mrs. Lincoln did not start for the theatre until 15 minutes after 8 o'clock. Speaker Colfax was at the White House at the time, and the President stated to him that he was going, although Mrs. Lincoln had not been well, because the papers had announced that he and General Grant were to be present, and as Gen. Grant had gone North he did not wish the audience to be disappointed. He went with apparent reluctance, and urged Mr. Colfax to go with him, but that gentleman had made other arrangements ...

(Here follows a lengthy description of the simultaneous assassination attempt on Secretary of State William Seward that left him wounded.)

Secretaries Stanton and Welles and other prominent officers of the government called at Secretary Seward's house to inquire into his condition, and there heard of the assassination of the President.

They then proceeded to the house where the President was lying, exhibiting, of course, intense anxiety and solicitude.
An immense crowd was gathered in front of the President's house (the White House), and a strong guard was also stationed there, many persons supposing that he would be brought to his home.

The entire city to-night presents a scene of wild excitement, accompanied by violent expressions of the profoundest sorrow. Many shed tears.

The military authorities dispatched mounted patrols in every direction, in order, if possible, to arrest the assassins. The whole metropolitan police are likewise vigilant for the same purpose. ...
Vice President Johnson is in the city headquarters, and guarded by troops.


(Lincoln's death at 7:22 a.m. on April 15 was reported by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.)

Mr. Humble  says  this  is  for  you 'Baby' .
I have a reservation   for  a  night of  dining  and  dancing,  and  a little  loving  on the  side   for  dessert (smiling) .
Thanks  for  all the  help  you have  given me  through the  years .
Your  Big  Boy 

Blues legend B.B. King tells fans he's leaving hospital

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Blues patriarch B.B. King is telling fans he's feeling better and will be released from a hospital Tuesday.
The 89-year-old musician's daughter, Claudette King, told the Los Angeles Times that he had been hospitalized since the weekend for treatment of dehydration caused by Type 2 diabetes.
A 21-word post on B.B. King's official website expresses his gratitude for fans' concern and good wishes.
King was diagnosed with diabetes decades ago. In October, he canceled the remaining shows in his 2014 tour after falling ill in Chicago with dehydration and exhaustion.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has released more than 50 albums and sold millions of records worldwide.

Representatives for King didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.