The Roving Reporter : Canadian Parliament Showers Love On Obama

NBC News       TIM STELLOH
Before a rapturous Canadian House of Commons on Wednesday, President Barack Obama grappled with the cascade of grim and chaotic news — with Orlando and Istanbul, Brexit and what he called an "increasingly strained" international order that is "riven by old divisions and fresh hatreds."

But Obama also used the speech — the first to be delivered in the Commons by a U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 1995 — to talk up the "extraordinary alliance" between Canada and the United States.
"In a world where too many borders are a source of conflict, our two countries are joined by the largest border of peace on Earth," he told the assembled lawmakers and others, adding that a shared and enduring commitment to a set of liberal values was behind that bond.
"No matter who we are, where we come from, last names, what faith we practice, here we can make of our lives what we will," he said. Referring to pioneers and prospectors, immigrants and refugees, Obama then quoted a civil rights icon.
"Deep in our history of struggle, said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Canada was the North Star, the Freedom Road that links us together."

And Canada loved it.

House members burst into applause repeatedly, and at this line — among others — there was a standing ovation: "Our relationship is so remarkable because it seems so unremarkable, which is why Americans are surprised when our favorite American actor or singer turns out to be Canadian."
It was Obama's third round of public remarks Wednesday during a series of talks dubbed "The Three Amigos Summit" by Canadian media, and as he concluded, the building erupted in a chant unlikely to be heard south of the border:
"Four more years! Four more years!"
Obama shook his head, waved and sat down, a wide grin across his face.

The Roving Reporter     G.

Stepbrother of Elvis Presley says 'The King' overdosed on purpose

Newsy       Jun 28th 2016 
Elvis Presley's stepbrother is releasing a new book, and it has some fiery allegations.
In the book, "My Brother Elvis," author David E. Stanley shares personal stories about life with Elvis and his struggles with addiction.

Presley died at his home on August 16, 1977, and the New York Daily News reports that in the new book, Stanley says Presley overdosed on purpose.

Stanley says: "I felt it was my responsibility to write a book about these realities of Elvis beyond the glitz, glamour and fun. He was human, and his very human frailties and vulnerabilities cost him his life. If addiction could happen to Elvis, it can happen to anyone."

Before this book, the cause of Presley's death was shrouded in rumors. A toxicology report after his death found 14 drugs in his system, but his family covered up his cause of death in an attempt to preserve his legacy.
Official reports say no drugs were found at Graceland, Presley's Memphis home where his body was found. But according to Stanley, there were pills and syringes around his body, and Stanley started hiding that evidence in his pockets before police got to the home.

"My Brother Elvis: The Final Years" comes out Aug. 16.

Witchy sez  this crap will drive you to drink :
I have no doubt that Elvis overdosed; even as a kid, I didn't believe the heart attack on the toilet story (unless the heart attack was drug induced), but it would be very difficult to prove that Elvis' death was suicide and not accidental. Elvis had been an addict for so long, it's not surprising that he had a lot of drugs in his system; the body needs more and more to get that same high the longer a person takes drugs. I question why Elvis' step-brother is cashing in on Elvis' misery now. It would not surprise me, though, if I saw somewhere that Stanley needs money and with all of the drug and alcohol abuse and overdoses of famous people happening (Prince, Heath Ledger, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, etc.) he thought that tarnishing the King's crown a bit and fattening his bank account at the same time, would not be such a bad thing. And besides, he's bringing Elvis' name back into the news and any publicity is good publicity, right?

[UPDATED]: Alabama Indian Tribe purchases Margaritaville Casino

By Vickie Welborn CONNECT      By Gary Hines CONNECT

SHREVEPORT - BOSSIER CITY, La. (KTBS) -

An Alabama-based Indian tribe has purchased Margaritaville Resort-Casino.

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians and Margaritaville are going through the approval process that’s expected to take until near year’s end to complete. The application for a change of ownership for Margaritaville is under review by Louisiana State Police, who will send their findings to the state gaming board, which would have to give the final stamp.

Margaritaville General Manager Barry Regula declined an official comment Friday. A spokeswoman for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians on Friday was unable to provide comment but said she would put together information.

KTBS 3 News broke the story about the pending deal Sunday shortly before 4 p.m. and within a half-hour received an official statement from the tribe.

The announcement states PCI Gaming, doing business as Wind Creek Hospitality in Atmore, Ala., which is an authority of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, along with Bossier Casino Venture, owner and operator of Margaritaville have entered an agreement whereby PCI will acquire 100 percent of BCV’s interest, subject to certain closing conditions.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

"PCI's success has been key to our ability to improve opportunity and increase services to our tribal members. This acquisition will further our goal of building a great company, providing superb customer service, dedicated to and appreciative of its employees and committed to the communities in which we operate. We look forward to becoming an important contributing member of the Bossier City/Shreveport community,” Tribal Chairwoman Stephanie Bryan said in a statement to KTBS.

Jay Dorris, president and chief executive officer of Wind Creek, commented; "We are proud of the quality and attention to customer service that characterizes our three successful gaming operations in the state of Alabama. We believe that Margaritaville Casino Resort in Bossier City is a great fit with our operating philosophy and will provide us the opportunity to further establish Wind Creek Hospitality as the premier operator of first class casino resorts in the Southeast."

Bossier Casino Venture Chief Executive Officer Paul Alanis added his thoughts, too, in the same statement: "Our strong management team has performed beyond my expectations in delivering a consistent, quality entertainment experience for all of our loyal customers. More than anything else, this has enabled us to succeed in a highly competitive environment and quickly become a market leader. I am extremely supportive of this transaction as I believe the Poarch Creek will continue our philosophy of quality customer service and their ownership will be of great long term benefit to our employees, our customers and the community."

One person familiar with the Margaritaville situation said an Indian tribe had tried to buy DiamondJacks casino in Bossier City, which last week was bought by Los Angeles-based investment firm Peninsula Pacific, which provides money to businesses. In a statement announcing the sale of Diamond Jacks, Peninsula Pacific did not say what its long-term plans are for the Bossier City casino.

If the sale of Margaritaville makes it through the full approval process, it would be the first Indian-owned casino in the Shreveport-Bossier market. There are three land-based Indian-owned casinos in central and south Louisiana. 

Shreveport-Bossier City has six casinos and a racetrack. Margaritaville is the newest, opening in 2013.

Situated adjacent to the Louisiana Boardwalk, Margaritaville features a single level, 26,600 square-foot casino, offering more than 1,200 slot machines and 50 table games, including high limit gaming areas.

Resort amenities include a 395-room hotel, six food and/or beverage venues, a spa, fitness center and pool, meeting and conference space, a 1,000 seat multi-use performance hall and parking for over 1,500 vehicles. Since opening, the property has won numerous awards in many types of design and service categories from a variety of regional gaming and hospitality publications.

About the Poarch Band of Creek Indians

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians are descendants of a segment of the original Creek Nation, which once covered almost all of Alabama and Georgia. Members of the Tribe have lived together for almost 200 years in and around the reservation in Poarch, Ala.

About PCI Gaming and Wind Creek Hospitality

PCI Gaming, which does business as Wind Creek Hospitality, is an authority of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.  Wind Creek Hospitality manages the Tribes gaming facilities including: Wind Creek Atmore, Wind Creek Wetumpka, Wind Creek Montgomery as well as multiple racetracks in Alabama and Florida. 

ORIGINAL STORY:

An Indian tribe is looking to move into the Shreveport-Bossier market and wants to buy Margaritaville casino.

The Alabama-based tribe and Margaritaville are seeking approval from the state to buy the Bossier City casino, sources tell KTBS News. The application for a change of ownership for Margaritaville is under review by Louisiana State Police, who will send their findings to the state gaming board, which would have to approve the purchase.

Spokesmen for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and for Margaritaville declined immediate comment, saying they would release details later.

Shreveport-Bossier City has six casinos and a racetrack. Margaritaville is the newest, opening in 2013.

One person familiar with the Margaritaville situation said an Indian tribe had tried to buy Diamond Jacks casino in Bossier City, which this week was bought by Los Angeles-based investment firm Peninsula Pacific, which provides money to businesses.

In a statement announcing the sale of Diamond Jacks, Peninsula Pacific did not say what its long-term plans are for the Bossier City casino.

If the sale of Margaritaville goes through, it would be the first Indian-owned casino in the Shreveport-Bossier market. There are three land-based Indian-owned casinos in central and south Louisiana. 

The Roving Reporter : British parties in turmoil after anti-EU vote

Svenja O'Donnell and Robert Hutton, Bloomberg News on Jun 26, 2016

Published in News & Features
LONDON –– The turmoil engulfing British politics worsened as the country's biggest parties descended into chaos after last week's national vote to leave the European Union.

Senior Labour Party lawmaker Hilary Benn was fired after calling on Jeremy Corbyn to quit as party leader, triggering the resignation of seven other members of Corbyn's shadow cabinet. In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is planning a possible second referendum on EU membership, while suggesting that she could block Britain's exit without another vote. And the campaign to succeed Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron began, with the Sunday Telegraph reporting that his allies will try to stop Boris Johnson from getting the job.

As infighting grips the country's two biggest parties, investors, executives and the EU's other 27 nations are waiting for the Britain to provide details on of how it plans to leave the EU.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Brussels and London Monday to discuss the situation with foreign policy officials.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Berlin Monday. The heads of what will be the EU's three biggest economies after Briain is gone are expected to discuss their response ahead of a meeting of the bloc's 28 leaders in Brussels on Tuesday.

There are differences within the governments on how tough a line to take with Britain, with the British political power vacuum also complicating the issue.

Corbyn may survive a Labour leadership challenge because of his popularity with the party membership, but he has lost authority over many of its lawmakers. Those pushing for him to go fear that whoever replaces Cameron will call a snap election, in which Labour would need a clear position on its attitude to the European Union and a leader who looks like a potential prime minister.

Corbyn, a long-time euroskeptic who voted against EU membership in 1975, ran a low-key campaign for staying in. He didn't make his first speech on the topic until two months after Cameron announced the referendum, and in his rare media appearances he repeatedly highlighted the EU's flaws, even while arguing for a "Remain" vote. Much of Labour's traditional strongholds in northern and central England, and Wales, voted to leave the bloc.

"There is growing concern in the shadow cabinet and the parliamentary party about his leadership," Benn said. "Jeremy is a good and decent man but he's not a leader. And that's a problem."

Among the shadow cabinet members who resigned were the party's education spokeswoman, Lucy Powell, and its health spokeswoman, Heidi Alexander.

Former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith told the BBC on Sunday that it would be "very, very difficult for the public -- who have voted for leaving the European Union -- to find they have a prime minister who opposed leaving the European Union."

Meanwhile, Sturgeon suggested that Scotland could block a British withdrawal from the EU because the necessary legislation might have to be approved in its Parliament in Edinburgh.

"Looking at it from a logical perspective, I find it hard to believe that there wouldn't be that requirement," she said on BBC. "I suspect the U.K. government will take a very different view on that, and we'll have to see where that discussion ends up."
Visit Bloomberg News at www.bloomberg.com

The Roving Reporter         G.

Happy Birthday Mama

Mama  It’s hard to find the words to say
How much you mean to  us
If it wasn’t for your love and care
I don’t know where  we'll  be.

How did you do it all, Mama?
A chauffeur, cook and friend
Yet find time to play with us
We  just cannot comprehend.

“Mama” is a simple word
But the meaning of it’s seldom heard
For everything we are  today
Our  Mama’s love showed us  the way.

Nobody’s equal to you, Mama
With you in our lives ,  we've  blessed
We love you so, and we  want you to know
We  think you’re the very best.

Words cannot say how we  love you
Please know that we’ll always be there for you too
Mama  and  just how much we  owe
In the high times and the low.

We may not shower you  with praise
Nor mention your  name in song
And sometimes it seems that we forget
The joy you  spreads as   you  goes along.

But it doesn’t mean that we don’t know
The wonderful example you  has shown
And way down deep in our  hearts
There’s a place just for Mama , alone.

Happy Birthday  Mama
Jonny  ,  Sha  , Jenny  , Man  Carano

The Roving Reporter : Louisiana twins found dead inside 3-year-old hot pickup truck

BOSSIER CITY, La. (WGNO) -– 
Police are investigating the heat deaths of a little boy and his twin sister. The toddlers were found inside a pickup truck outside their home in Bossier City Saturday afternoon.

KTBS reports that the twins' mother called neighbors looking for her children before discovering them in the truck.

No word on how the twins managed to climb inside the truck and close the door.

Authorities said they easily could have been inside for two hours.

The children's father was not home at the time. KTBS reports that he is a Bossier Parish sheriff`s deputy.

RIP  little angels .

Friends  this is a terrible shock ,they  live  across the river  from us .  My heart goes out to them .

The Roving Reporter                  G.

The Roving Reporter : Police say they found a man living with 12 girls, 1 'gifted' to him

June 19th 2016 On Thursday, police outside Philadelphia found a 51-year-old man living with 12 girls ranging in age from 6 months to 18 years old.
The man, Lee Kaplan, now faces a multitude of charges including statutory sexual assault.

Investigators say Kaplan fathered a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old with the now 18-year-old. That young woman came into Kaplan's home after her parents reportedly "gifted" her to Kaplan.

Police say the 18-year-old's parents, Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus, gave their daughter to Kaplan after he helped them with their financial problems. They have been charged with endangering the welfare of children. Daniel Stoltzfus is also charged with criminal conspiracy and statutory sexual assault. 
Philly.com reports the local district attorney said Kaplan had "brainwashed" the Stoltzfuses. 

The couple reportedly told police they're the parents of the nine other children found in Kaplan's home.

However, local media reports that authorities are struggling to confirm the identify of the girls because they can't find their birth certificates or social security cards. Investigators say they believe the girls are Amish.
"They were living down in the basement, they were hiding in the chicken coop," Lower Southampton Public Safety Director Robert Hoopes said.

A neighbor who was suspicious told KYW-TV she called the state's child abuse hotline.

"It was just an instinct. Like, I just felt like I wasn't going through another summer where everybody should be outside kinda thing and not see those little girls again," said Jen Betz, the neighbor who made the call. 

WPVI reports previous calls were made to police about Kaplan's home, but the authorities never had enough evidence to enter the property because none of the complaints were for child abuse. 
All three adults are each being held on $1 million bail.

The Roving Reporter                G.

The Roving Reporter : Happy Father's Day

 Anna Jarvis

On June 19, 1910, the governor of the U.S. state of Washington proclaimed the nation’s first “Father’s Day.” However, it was not until 1972, 58 years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official, that the day became a nationwide holiday in the United States.
MOTHER’S DAY: INSPIRATION FOR FATHER’S DAY
The “Mother’s Day” we celebrate today has its origins in the peace-and-reconciliation campaigns of the post-Civil War era. During the 1860s, at the urging of activist Ann Reeves Jarvis, one divided West Virginia town celebrated “Mother’s Work Days” that brought together the mothers of Confederate and Union soldiers. In 1870, the activist Julia Ward Howe issued a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” calling on a “general congress of women” to “promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, [and] the great and general interests of peace.”

Did You Know?
There are more than 70 million fathers in the United States.

However, Mother’s Day did not become a commercial holiday until 1908, when–inspired by Jarvis’s daughter Anna, who wanted to honor her own mother by making Mother’s Day a national holiday–the John Wanamaker department store in Philadelphia sponsored a service dedicated to mothers in its auditorium. Thanks in large part to this association with retailers, who saw great potential for profit in the holiday, Mother’s Day caught on right away. In 1909, 45 states observed the day, and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson approved a resolution that made the second Sunday in May a holiday in honor of “that tender, gentle army, the mothers of America.”

ORIGINS OF FATHER’S DAY
The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm–perhaps because, as one florist explained, “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that mothers have.” On July 5, 1908, a West Virginia church sponsored the nation’s first event explicitly in honor of fathers, a Sunday sermon in memory of the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah, but it was a one-time commemoration and not an annual holiday. The next year, a Spokane, Washington woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents. She went to local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials to drum up support for her idea, and she was successful: Washington State celebrated the nation’s first statewide Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. Slowly, the holiday spread. In 1916, President Wilson honored the day by using telegraph signals to unfurl a flag in Spokane when he pressed a button in Washington, D.C. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge urged state governments to observe Father’s Day. However, many men continued to disdain the day. As one historian writes, they “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products–often paid for by the father himself.”

FATHER’S DAY: CONTROVERSY AND COMMERCIALISM
During the 1920s and 1930s, a movement arose to scrap Mother’s Day and Father’s Day altogether in favor of a single holiday, Parents’ Day. Every year on Mother’s Day, pro-Parents’ Day groups rallied in New York City’s Central Park–a public reminder, said Parents’ Day activist and radio performer Robert Spere, “that both parents should be loved and respected together.” Paradoxically, however, the Depression derailed this effort to combine and de-commercialize the holidays. Struggling retailers and advertisers redoubled their efforts to make Father’s Day a “second Christmas” for men, promoting goods such as neckties, hats, socks, pipes and tobacco, golf clubs and other sporting goods, and greeting cards. When World War II began, advertisers began to argue that celebrating Father’s Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort. By the end of the war, Father’s Day may not have been a federal holiday, but it was a national institution.

In 1972, in the middle of a hard-fought presidential re-election campaign, Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday at last. Today, economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts.

Happy Father's Day  to each and everyone 
The Roving Reporter                     G.

Kim K straightens out a few OJ myths

Kim Kardashian with husband Kanye West (AP)

For some reason the summer of 2016 has become the summer of reliving a 22-year-old murder case involving former NFL star O.J. Simpson. There was an FX drama and then an ESPN documentary about Simpson and the case, shows that spanned more than 15 hours combined.

While some are suffering from O.J. fatigue at this point, there are plenty of people who are still as into the trial as they were in the mid-90s. And that’s how we got to the point where model, reality television star and generally, no-talent famous person, Kim Kardashian broke some news on the Simpson case.
For years, conspiracy theorists have believed that Robert Kardashian, Kim’s father, took the murder weapon out of the house when he left carrying a Louis Vuitton garment bag. There are some who think Robert Kardashian was included on Simpson’s team of attorneys as a way to keep him from testifying in the case.
But in a GQ interview (and here’s where I’d link to the story but be warned, there are NSFW photos in it … OK, proceed), Kim Kardashian says she looked through the Louis Vuitton bag, allegedly belonging to Simpson that brought home by her father (who died in 2003) and there was no weapon. Zero Knives!
“I know people said at the time that my father joined Simpson’s defense team so he couldn’t be called as a witness, because he had that Louis Vuitton bag, that supposedly had the [murder] weapon and stuff like that,” Kim Kardashian told GQ. “But that bag was sitting at my dad’s house. I remember I went through it. The news was like, ‘Where is this Louis Vuitton bag?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s upstairs.’”
And nothing in it?
“Just toiletries and clothes and golf clothes,” Kardashian said. “Just random stuff. I’m pretty sure it’s, like, still in—probably in my dad’s storage.” ( No shit??? There could be DNA or something)
If you were wondering ( not likely), Kardashian also told GQ that she liked the FX series but there were certain inaccuracies in it.
“[The show] said [O.J.] tried to kill himself in my bedroom and actually it was Khloé’s bedroom, not my bedroom,” Kardashian said.
Oh.
So anyway, make of Kardashian’s comments what you will. What’s far more interesting is that more than two decades after the most famous trial ever, we’re still asking those involved about it and still trying to piece it all together. Will we be trying to figure it out — while watching more documentaries and dramas on the case — 10 years from now? 20? More?
Considering we’re still searching for answers in 2016,  the interest doesn’t seem to be waning much.

PS: - ‘O.J: Made In America’:  ESPN’s landmark documentary: Very good.

Bill Cosby, dead to us... not role molel ... just a rapist , plain & simple

Virtually everyone in America, with the exception of delusionists like Whoopi Goldberg, long ago concluded Bill Cosby was a serial predatory pervert, based on the accounts of more than 25 women who said America’s Dad had drugged them.

Now, Cosby’s own words, in a 2005 lawsuit deposition he fought to keep secret, confirm him to be both that and, of course, a liar. Quaaludes were his weapon of choice.

“When you got the Quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these Quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” a lawyer asked.

“Yes,” Cosby answered, later admitting he had given Quaaludes to others.

While the statute of limitations on criminal prosecutions may have expired, his disgrace will live forever. Just imagine the first sentence of his obituary.

Adam Levine offers to pay for funeral and flight of former Voice Protegee



Hugh Hefner Demands Dismissal of Lawsuit Claiming He Conspired With Bill Cosby

JUNE 13, 2016     by Eriq Gardner
Chloe Goins alleges she was assaulted in 2008 at the Playboy Mansion.
As Bill Cosby continues to fight claims of sexually assaulting women — and lying about it — the unfolding scandal has also hit those who have allegedly aided the embattled entertainer over the years.

Chloe Goins claims to have been a victim of Cosby's at an event at the Playboy Mansion in 2008, and she's now suing Hugh Hefner for conspiring with Cosby. According to her complaint, Hefner told her at the party she looked "woozy" and that Goins should go "lie down" in the bedroom. Goins claims that Cosby gave her a drug to knock her unconscious and that Hefner "knew or should have known" that Cosby "over the years had a propensity for intoxicating and or drugging young women and taking advantage of them sexually and against their will or while they were unconscious."

On Friday, Hefner reacted to the lawsuit by demanding dismissal, arguing in court papers that the allegation "smacks of a desperate ploy to garner publicity and wrangle an unwarranted settlement." 

According to the 90-year-old Playboy founder's lawyers, the "vague and conclusory allegation" that Hefner should have known about Cosby or that the alleged assault was foreseeable must be rejected because Goins "fails to offer even the lightest dusting of operative facts" in support.

Separately, Hefner's attorneys point to statute of limitations. If Goins was a minor when the assault occurred, it's possible that the claim isn't time-barred, but Hefner points to what the plaintiff told authorities. A January 6, 2016 report states she was 18 years old at the Playboy Mansion event.

"The District Attorney's office was given no reason to believe she was a minor at the time of the incident and proceeded as if Goins was an adult victim, as demonstrated by the contemplated criminal charges against Cosby," states the memorandum from attorney Anthony Glassman. "The office declined to prosecute Cosby because it deemed the charges were barred by the statute of limitations. Not surprisingly, Hefner's name is not mentioned in the District Attorney's report, as investigating authorities never considered Hefner was responsible for, or participated in, Cosby's alleged criminal acts."

Cosby's own lawyers also point to this in arguing that the claims be dismissed. Besides statute of limitations, they also seize on a lack of corroborating evidence. "Significantly, police reviewed video footage of the Midsummer Night’s Dream party, and found no images of Plaintiff or Mr. Cosby in attendance," states Cosby's memorandum on Friday. "Similarly, police reviewed guests lists for all events at the Playboy mansion during the summer of 2008 and, once again, found no entries for Plaintiff or Mr. Cosby."

Daniel Radcliffe looks just like this old lady

 Nothing like an amazing celebrity doppelgänger to force you to do a double-take!

Daniel Radcliffe appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Monday night, and he discovered an incredibly unlikely look-alike for himself in the form of an old painting of a grandma.

Fallon and Radcliffe were going through antique photos that bare near-creepy similarities to themselves, most of which each of them had seen before. But when Fallon brought out a particular photo of an old lady that resembles the "Harry Potter" star, Radcliffe completely freaked out.

"What is it about me that I look like so many stern old ladies?" Radcliffe joked to after seeing the photo.

Fallon continued to show Radcliffe pictures of older women who look a lot like him, continuing to blow his mind.

Friend says O.J. Simpson will someday confess to the murder of his ex-wife

 June   6th 2016 
A longtime friend of O.J. Simpson says the former football star will someday confess to killing his ex-wife and her friend.

Ron Shipp, a former LAPD officer, told the New York Daily News that Simpson is "in total torment today."

SEE ALSO: Two miners in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, buried more than 60 hours


Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death in 1994. 

Shipp testified in Simpson's 1995 criminal case that Simpson told him, "'I've had some dream of killing her.'"
After a trial that captivated the nation and world, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the murders in 1995. However, Simpson was found liable in a civil suit in 1997 and ordered to pay the families $33 million.

The 68-year-old is serving a nine to 33-year sentence for a 2008 kidnapping and armed robbery. Shipp said he thinks Simpson could confess once he's released from prison, which could be next year.

He said, "I hope one day he actually will rid us of all the doubt and all the conspiracy theories and say, 'Sorry I cannot go to prison [because of double jeopardy laws], but I am sorry I did it.'"

"I do," he continued, regarding if he believed the confession could one day happen. "I got a call about a conspiracy theory about Jason (Simpson's son) being the killer and I thought, man, come on Juice, just say 'my son didn't do it.'"

Interest in the murders of Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson appears to have been renewed recently. A true crime series about Simpson's trial premiered on FX in February, and a five-part ESPN documentary is set to premiere this month. 

Earlier this year, a retired Los Angeles police officer came forward with a knife believed to have been buried at the Simpson estate. 

Forensic tests later determined the knife was not connected to the fatal stabbings.

American Muslims remember Ali as hero for their faith

Thomson Reuters    DANIEL TROTTA AND ALEX DOBUZINSKIS       June 5th 2016 
The death of boxing great Muhammad Ali cost American Muslims perhaps their greatest hero, a goodwill ambassador for Islam in a country where their minority faith is widely misunderstand and mistrusted.

"We thank God for him," Talib Shareef, president and imam of the Masjid Muhammad mosque in Washington, told a gathering of Muslim leaders who honored Ali in Washington on Saturday, a day after he died in a Phoenix hospital at age 74. "America should thank God for him. He was an American hero."

From the turmoil of civil rights and black Muslim movements of the 1960s to the darkest days after Sept. 11, 2001, Ali was a hero that U.S. Muslims could share with part of the American mainstream.

Muslims remembered Ali for many familiar reasons, hailing him as a champion of social justice, a lifelong supporter of charitable works and an opponent of the U.S. war in Vietnam.

Moreover, they said, he was a Muslim that a largely Christian country came to admire, even if Ali shocked and scared much of U.S. society after he joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name from Cassius Clay in 1964.

"When we look at the history of the African-American community, one important factor in popularizing Islam in America is Muhammad Ali," Warith Deen Mohammed II, son of the former Nation of Islam leader, said in a statement.

With some 3.3 million adherents in the United States, Muslims make up about 1 percent of the population, largely immigrants and African-Americans who have embraced the religion.

Although they have integrated into society better than some of their brethren in Europe, American Muslims face hardships even as the United State grows demographically less white and less Christian.

Since 2001, they have suffered backlash from those Americans who equate all Muslims with those who have attacked civilians out of some jihadist cause.

Decades before, black Muslim leaders such as Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X rattled the white establishment as religious and ethnic minorities who demanded equality for their people. Elijah Mohammad preached a version that denounced white oppression and opposed integration of the races.

Ali came to be widely revered, but there was a time when he was rejected, mostly by whites by also by some black leaders for his bold statements against white supremacy and for his refusal to embrace the model epitomized by Martin Luther King, a Christian.

"The sanitizing of Ali's image in recent years has led many to forget that he was reviled by many during the 1960s for his conversion to Islam and for his refusal to be inducted into the U.S. armed forces," said Frank Guridy, a visiting associate professor of history at Columbia University.

"He was seen as a traitor to the United States of America."

In the 1970s, Ali converted to Sunni Islam, the largest denomination among Muslims worldwide, and embraced Sufism, a mystical school of the faith.

At the gathering of Muslim-American leaders in Washington, speaker after speaker remembered him fondly as the Muslim who Americans came to love.

Ali defended Muslims last December, after Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump proposed temporarily stopping Muslims from entering the country in the wake of Islamist militant attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

"Our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is," Ali said in a statement.

He also used his influence to advocate the release of Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter who spent 18 months in a Iranian prison, and for Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was captured by Islamic extremists in Pakistan and later beheaded in 2002.

"Muhammad Ali was a gift from God," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, "not only to Muslims but to the world."

Muhammad Ali, 'The greatest of all time,' dead at 74

NBC News   JON SCHUPPE     June  3rd 2016    9:32PM
Muhammad Ali, the silver-tongued boxer and civil rights champion who famously proclaimed himself "The Greatest" and then spent a lifetime living up to the billing, is dead.

Ali died Friday at a Phoenix-area hospital, where he had spent the past few days being treated for respiratory complications, a family spokesman confirmed to NBC News. He was 74.

"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman, told NBC News.

Ali had suffered for three decades from Parkinson's Disease, a progressive neurological condition that slowly robbed him of both his legendary verbal grace and his physical dexterity. A funeral service is planned in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
Even as his health declined, Ali did not shy from politics or controversy, releasing a statement in December criticizing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda," he said.

The remark bookended the life of a man who burst into the national consciousness in the early 1960s, when as a young heavyweight champion he converted to Islam and refused to serve in the Vietnam War, and became an emblem of strength, eloquence, conscience and courage. Ali was an anti-establishment showman who transcended borders and barriers, race and religion. His fights against other men became spectacles, but he embodied much greater battles.

Born Cassius Clay on Jan. 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, to middle-class parents, Ali started boxing when he was 12, winning Golden Gloves titles before heading to the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where he won a gold medal as a light heavyweight.

He turned professional shortly afterward, supported at first by Louisville business owners who guaranteed him an unprecedented 50-50 split in earnings. His knack for talking up his own talents — often in verse — earned him the dismissive nickname "the Louisville Lip," but he backed up his talk with action, relocating to Miami to train with the legendary trainer Angelo Dundee and build a case for getting a shot at the heavyweight title.

As his profile rose, Ali acted out against American racism. After he was refused services at a soda fountain counter, he said, he threw his Olympic gold medal into a river.

Recoiling from the sport's tightly knit community of agents and promoters, Ali found guidance instead from the Nation of Islam, an American Muslim sect that advocated racial separation and rejected the pacifism of most civil rights activism. Inspired by Malcolm X, one of the group's leaders, he converted in 1963. But he kept his new faith a secret until the crown was safely in hand.

That came the following year, when heavyweight champion Sonny Liston agreed to fight Ali. The challenger geared up for the bout with a litany of insults and rhymes, including the line, "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." He beat the fearsome Liston in a sixth-round technical knockout before a stunned Miami Beach crowd. In the ring, Ali proclaimed, "I am the greatest! I am the greatest! I'm the king of the world."

A Controversial Champion

The new champion soon renounced Cassius Clay as his "slave name" and said he would be known from then on as Muhammad Ali — bestowed by Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. He was 22 years old.

The move split sports fans and the broader American public: an American sports champion rejecting his birth name and adopting one that sounded subversive.

Ali successfully defended his title six times, including a rematch with Liston. Then, in 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, Ali was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army.

He'd said previously that the war did not comport with his faith, and that he had "no quarrel" with America's enemy, the Vietcong. He refused to serve.


Muhammad Ali | PrettyFamous
"My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, some poor, hungry people in the mud, for big powerful America, and shoot them for what?" Ali said in an interview. "They never called me nigger. They never lynched me. They didn't put no dogs on me."

His stand culminated with an April appearance at an Army recruiting station, where he refused to step forward when his name was called. The reaction was swift and harsh. He was stripped of his boxing title, convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison.

Released on appeal but unable to fight or leave the country, Ali turned to the lecture circuit, speaking on college campuses, where he engaged in heated debates, pointing out the hypocrisy of denying rights to blacks even as they were ordered to fight the country's battles abroad.

"My enemy is the white people, not Vietcongs or Chinese or Japanese," Ali told one white student who challenged his draft avoidance. "You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. You won't even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs and you want me to go somewhere and fight but you won't even stand up for me here at home."

Rumble in the Jungle: Ali vs. Foreman:
Ali's fiery commentary was praised by antiwar activists and black nationalists and vilified by conservatives, including many other athletes and sportswriters.

His appeal took four years to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, which in June 1971 reversed the conviction in a unanimous decision that found the Department of Justice had improperly told the draft board that Ali's stance wasn't motivated by religious belief.

Return to the Ring

Toward the end of his legal saga, Georgia agreed to issue Ali a boxing license, which allowed him to fight Jerry Quarry, whom he beat. Six months later, at a sold-out Madison Square Garden, he lost to Joe Frazier in a 15-round duel touted as "the fight of the century." It was Ali's first defeat as a pro.

That fight began one of boxing's and sport's greatest rivalries. Ali and Frazier fought again in 1974, after Frazier had lost his crown. This time, Ali won in a unanimous decision, making him the lead challenger for the heavyweight title.

He took it from George Foreman later that year in a fight in Zaire dubbed "The Rumble in the Jungle," a spectacularly hyped bout for which Ali moved to Africa for the summer, followed by crowds of chanting locals wherever he went. A three-day music festival featuring James Brown and B.B. King preceded the fight. Finally, Ali delivered a historic performance in the ring, employing a new strategy dubbed the "rope-a-dope," goading the favored Foreman into attacking him, then leaning back into the ropes in a defensive stance and waiting for Foreman to tire. Ali then went on the attack, knocking out Foreman in the eighth round. The maneuver has been copied by many other champions since.

The third fight in the Ali-Frazier trilogy followed in 1975, the "Thrilla in Manila" that is now regarded as one of the best boxing matches of all time. Ali won in a technical knockout in the 15th round.

Ali successfully defended his title until 1978, when he was beaten by a young Leon Spinks, and then quickly took it back. He retired in 1979, when he was 37, but, seeking to replenish his dwindling personal fortune, returned in 1980 for a title match against Larry Holmes, which he lost. Ali lost again, to Trevor Berbick, the following year. Finally, Ali retired for good.

'He's Human, Like Us'

The following year, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

"I'm in no pain," he told The New York Times. "A slight slurring of my speech, a little tremor. Nothing critical. If I was in perfect health — if I had won my last two fights — if I had no problem, people would be afraid of me. Now they feel sorry for me. They thought I was Superman. Now they can go, 'He's human, like us. He has problems.' ''

He traveled incessantly for many years, crisscrossing the globe in appearances in which he made money but also pushed philanthropic causes. He met with presidents, royalty, heads of state, the Pope. He told "People" magazine that his largest regret was not playing a more intimate role in the raising of his children. But he said he did not regret boxing. "If I wasn't a boxer, I wouldn't be famous," he said. "If I wasn't famous, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing now."

In 2005, President George W. Bush honored Ali with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and his hometown of Louisville opened the Muhammad Ali Center, chronicling his life but also as a forum for promoting tolerance and respect.

Parkinson's Disease Overview
 Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease is a condition in which part of the brain becomes progressively more damaged over many years (a progressive neurological condition).
Seriousness
Moderate
Prevalence                                                           Fairly Common         

Divorced three times and the father of nine children — one of whom, Laila, become a boxer — Ali married his last wife, Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams, in 1986; they lived for a long time in Berrien Springs, Michigan, then moved to Arizona.

In recent years, Ali's health began to suffer dramatically. There was a death scare in 2013, and last year he was rushed to the hospital after being found unresponsive. He recovered and returned to his new home in Arizona.

In his final years, Ali was barely able to speak. Asked to share his personal philosophy with NPR in 2009, Ali let his wife read his essay:

"I never thought of the possibility of failing, only of the fame and glory I was going to get when I won," Ali wrote. "I could see it. I could almost feel it. When I proclaimed that I was the greatest of all time, I believed in myself, and I still do."

Even as his health gradually declined, Ali — who switched to more mainstream branches of Islam — threw himself into humanitarian causes, traveling to Lebanon in 1985 and Iraq in 1990 to seek the release of American hostages. In 1996, he lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, lifting the torch with shaking arms. With each public appearance he seemed more feeble, a stark contrast to his outsized aura. He continued to be one of the most recognizable people in the world.

Condolence to the family .... RIP  Great One ... you will be sadly missed  ...The PICs

Jane Goodall: Slain Zoo Gorilla Was ‘Putting an Arm Round the Child’

Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most renowned primatologists, wrote an email on Tuesday to the director of the Cincinnati Zoo, saying she thought the slain gorilla may have been protecting the boy who fell into the animal’s exhibit.
The scientist and animal rights activist extended her sympathies to the zoo’s director, Thane Maynard, amid national backlash over the shooting death of a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla named Harambe.

“I tried to see exactly what was happening—it looked as though the gorilla was putting an arm round the child—like the female who rescued and returned the child from the Chicago exhibit,” she wrote, according to the correspondence the Jane Goodall Institute made public. Goodall may have been referring to the 1996 incident at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois in which a female gorilla carried a boy to safety after he fell into her pit.

“Anyway, whatever, it is a devastating loss to the zoo, and to the gorillas,” Goodall wrote.

Harambe was shot dead after officials said he dragged around a 4-year-old boy who fell into its enclosure on Saturday. Authorities are considering possible criminal charges, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Goodall also asked how the two other female gorillas living with Harambe reacted to the death. “Are they allowed to see, and express grief, which seems to be so important to them?” she wrote.

“I feel so sorry for you, having to try to defend something which you may actually disapprove of,” she added.


 Thanx Yahoo

14-year-old-opers singer leaves Simon Cowell speechless

ANDY SWIFT          May 31st 2016
Watching Simon Cowell on Tuesday's America's Got Talent premiere was a lot like watching the Grinch — after his heart grew three sizes.

Once revered as the meanest man on television, Cowell still resembles the American Idol judge we loved to hate — he remains hopelessly devoted to black T-shirts and exposed chest hair — but there's a certain softness to him now. The man who once told an Idol contestant that she sounded like "Dolly Parton on helium" told a man that man that his act, which mostly revolved around lip-syncing pot holders, was "brilliant."

And, frankly, I wouldn't have had it any other way. Even in its most absurd moments, AGT has always felt like a safe space, making this softer Cowell the perfect replacement for Howard Stern. Had I been present for Cowell's meager backstage welcome party — I get that Dunkin Donuts is the show's sponsor, but who drinks orange juice out of a coffee cup?! — I would have gladly raised a (styrofoam) glass.

Now that we've gotten the pleasantries out of the way, let's relive some of the season premiere's most discuss-able auditions:
                         :Do you remember  these performers :

* Nathan Bockstahler, a 6-year-old comedian who already knows what he would do with the prize money: "Instead of 1 million dollars, I would like 1 million LEGOs." He's probably not going to win — guys, he's six — but he made for an entertaining first act. (Also, I doubt he gave the producers permission to use Justin Bieber's "Baby" as his entrance music. Rude!)

* Jose Fuentes, 58, danced with his dog Carrie; as he explained, his late wife never wanted to dance with him, so he got the next best thing. It was cute, but not quite Nathan-level cute, which explains why Fuentes earned the first "no" of the night from Heidi Klum. (To be fair, though, it took Klum a minute before she even realized: "Oh, that's why the dog is wearing a dress!")

* The Clairvoyants, a team of psych-ish lovers who were able to tell the shade of Klum's lipstick, the expiration date on Howie Mandel's eyedrops and the provider of an audience member's cell phone without looking at any of them. Cowell accused them of being witches, while Mel. B called the duo's powers "alien-like." (Personally, I'm not ready to rule them out as real-life X-Men.)

* Linkin' Bridge, a Kentucky-based musical quartet provided the Susan Boyle moment of the night, eliciting stunned expressions from all four judges with their harmonious performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." It's a good thing Cowell liked the song, because the group's tears of joy were heart-wrenching enough; I don't even want to think about what would have happened if they got a "no."

* The Spice Gurlz, an all-drag Spice Girls lip sync cover band, received the first rejection of the season. Though Cowell and Mel B gave the group a "yes," their efforts weren't enough to combat Klum and Mandel's "no"s. (Nor should they have been. Even RuPaul would have told those boys to "sashay away.")

* Hara, a visual artist/magician from a small village in Japan, put on a pretty impressive performance. It was a lot like what Beyoncé did at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards... with magic! So, really, what's not to love?

* Tape Man, a personal favorite of mine for reasons I'll work out in therapy, did a lot of weird stuff — including a duet of "Endless Love, " sung by potholders — and I loved every damn minute of it. "It was simple, but clever," Cowell remarked. "Unique, funny, brilliant." (Could Tape Man be Season 11's dark horse?)

**********Best of the best ***************
* Laura Bretan, a 13-year-old opera singer, is gunning to be the next Jackie Evancho. And with those pipes, she stands a pretty good shot! Is it any wonder Mel B gave her the first Golden Buzzer of the season?

Time to weigh in:
 Which season premiere act was your favorite? Did the right person get Mel B's Golden Buzzer? And do you agree that Cowell is a perfect fit? Grade his debut below, then drop a comment with all of your thoughts below.

Aunt Mae had this  take on Laura : 

Dear Laura, You are absolutely amazing and so, so talented. I am not a cryer but you brought tears to my eyes with your beautiful voice. I look forward to hearing more of you. Dear Mom and Dad, What great parents, please have lots of children, as you obviously are great at parenting. 
I watched this last night. Laura sang Nessun Dorma, one of my all time favorite pieces of opera and just killed it!!
What a charming, lovely child. xoxo Good luck to your family..