MAMA JUNE : GETTING GASTRIC SLEEVE : Regular Dieting Too Risky

Mama June's going under the knife to find a safer weight loss solution ... after falling unconscious multiple times.  
We're told June is set to go in for gastric sleeve surgery later this month, and hopes to lose at least 80 more pounds. She's been on a crusade to slim down so she'd be healthy enough for the surgery. She's already dropped 90 lbs.
We're told "sleeve specialist" Dr. Michael Feiz in Beverly Hills will perform the operation. 
TMZ broke the story ... June was hospitalized two weeks ago after collapsing. Although doctors couldn't pin down the problem, we're told they suspect she was pushing her dieting too far.   
Your  day is not too bad ... take  a look at this  'Hillbilly.'   HeHe

JOHNNY DEPP TRUMP'S A 'BRAT'!!!

Johnny Depp inarticulately ragged on Donald Trump Saturday, calling him "a brat" and then doing a dead-on imitation of the Prez hopeful.
Depp spoke at Arizona State University about the methods behind his acting, but went off on a Trump tangent.  
His imitation -- at the end of the clip -- is pretty hilarious.

The Roving Reporter : Canada's Justin Trudeau brings a warm front to Washington

President Obama welcomes Prime Minister Trudeau to the Oval Office on March 10 . Though Trudeau's predecessors made regular trips to Washington , this is  the first visit by a Canadian premier in 19 years.
By Nicole Gaouette and Kevin Liptak, CNN

Washington (CNN)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Thursday visit to the White House has the administration beaming even as American presidential candidates are bashing a central pillar of U.S.-Canada ties.

Trudeau's trip is expected to yield announcements on the environment and border security and cover shared security challenges in the fight against ISIS.

The 44-year-old leader's arrival marks the first official visit by a Canadian prime minister in 19 years. The schedule will involve a special level of pomp and circumstance to signal White House pleasure that after nine years of conservative rule, its northern neighbor now has a like-minded leader in office.

"The new prime minister would fit almost perfectly in the Democratic Party alongside the American president," said Michael Byers, a professor of international politics at the University of British Columbia.

Trade and climate change will top the agenda, according to White House officials. And though Trudeau pledged on the campaign trail to downgrade some of Canada's presence in the Middle East to fight ISIS, he has expanded collaboration with the U.S.-led coalition, earning the Obama administration's appreciation.

President Barack Obama's top climate envoy, Todd Stern, said the administration is eyeing a reduction in methane emissions as one potential takeaway from the visit. Administration officials also hope to make progress in resolving a long-running dispute over lumber imports into the United States.

Mostly, the White House is seeking to underscore what they regard as deep similarities between Obama and Trudeau.

Shared values and interests haven't prevented tensions, though. Republican and Democratic presidential candidates have ripped into the North American Free Trade Agreement, which sets the rules for free-flowing trade between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Sanders campaign: Michigan win due to trade message 01:46
Republican candidate Donald Trump called NAFTA "a disaster" in a September interview with CBS, vowing that after his victory the U.S. will either "renegotiate it, or we will break it." And he continued to hammer away on trade leading up to Michigan's primary Tuesday.

Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, attacked rival Hillary Clinton in Flint, Michigan, on Sunday for supporting the deal, virtually borrowing Trump's words when he called the trade pact "disastrous."

Even Obama has attempted to distance himself from the deal, which he noted last year was under negotiation when he was still in law school. In promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade plan, Obama has pushed back on suggestions that it is simply a newer version of NAFTA, saying "that's not the trade agreement I'm passing."

"To see NAFTA become anathema and have the candidates distance themselves from their largest trading partner is very worrying" for Canadians, said Laura Dawson, director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank.

Canadians want to update the agreement to reflect whole realms of business that weren't covered in the accord, such as e-commerce.

But it's not expected that Obama would be willing to engage in NAFTA discussions as he works to gain support for his own trade plan before he leaves office. And focusing on NAFTA wouldn't help Clinton, who is now disassociating herself from a deal she supported when her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, signed it into law.

"Because the word NAFTA is political poison, it can't be updated" right now, said Dawson.

There are other trade issues also at play over the three-day visit. Trudeau, who took office in November, will wrestle with President Barack Obama on thorny issues including a disagreement on softwood lumber.

The U.S. is reluctant to renew a 2006 agreement that came under attack from U.S. lumber producers who said Canadian timber was unfairly subsidized. The deal expired in October 2015 and if it's not renewed by this October, Canadian producers could pay new tariffs.

RELATED: Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline

Even so, the Trudeau-Obama bond is already widely seen as an improvement over relations between the Obama administration and former Canadian leader Stephen Harper.

Their ties ground down over opposing views on several issues, including the environment and climate change -- particularly expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline that would have ferried oil from eastern Canada to refineries in the U.S.

Obama rejected the proposal in November after a seven-year review, citing climate change concerns. Harper, from oil-rich Alberta, had vociferously championed the pipeline, and didn't share Obama's climate change concerns. In contrast, though Trudeau would have preferred the deal, it hasn't been a cornerstone of his agenda or his posture toward the U.S. and he and the White House are more in line on many other environmental concerns.

The political chasm between Harper and Obama manifested in a number of ways, "most notably in the almost complete freezing out of Obama's ambassador to Canada," Byers said. "He could hardly get a meeting with a government official during his last six months in Ottawa."

There was some concern in the U.S. about cooperation with Canada in the Mideast when Trudeau won in part on his campaign pledge to pull Canadian fighter jets from the fight against ISIS. That was quickly put to rest.

On February 8, Trudeau announced Canada would send more military personnel to northern Iraq and increase its intelligence efforts in the region, contributing an aerial refueling aircraft and up to two manned aerial surveillance planes.

Trudeau on keeping Canada safe AND inclusive

Trudeau on keeping Canada safe AND inclusive 01:39
"Canada continues to play a critically important role" in the effort to defeat ISIS, Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said Tuesday.

Trudeau's commitments, good through March 2017, "are very much in line" with the needs of the anti-ISIS coalition, she said.

Trudeau's pledge boosted Canadian military personnel on the ground to about 830 people who will help with operational planning, intelligence and targeting.

Some of those Canadians are "training the Kurds how to paint targets for laser-guided bombs," said Byers of the University of British Columbia. "They're actually designating targets -- it's as close to a combat role you can get while still calling yourself a trainer."

The nature of the work means they "will almost certainly take casualties as a result," he said.

Security closer to home is likely to be the focus of one agreement Trudeau and Obama are expected to announce during the visit: an arrangement to share exit and entry information on American and Canadians crossing the border, according to U.S. officials.

And an agreement on climate change and the environment -- a priority for both men -- is also expected.

The Globe and Mail, citing Canadian Cabinet ministers, said that announcement could involve tighter fuel and auto-emission standards and steps to promote electric cars, charging stations and ride-sharing apps.

"The commitment of both leaders to addressing this global challenge is clear," Stern, the climate envoy, said Tuesday, referring to climate change. "And I suspect under their leadership, North America will make significant progress this year and next."

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The Roving Reporter :Out of office, Jindal looms over Louisiana budget crisis

By Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Bobby Jindal left the governor's office nearly two months ago, but his legacy permeates a special legislative session aimed at digging Louisiana out of deep financial troubles.

Louisiana's worst budget crisis in nearly 30 years is threatening public colleges with cuts that could shutter campuses mid-semester and putting health care services for the poor and disabled at risk of elimination.

State leaders blame the Republican former governor for creating — and hiding — many of those woes.

Jindal, burnishing his fiscal conservative credentials for his failed presidential campaign, refused to hike taxes or approve any action that even resembled a tax hike, including trimming expensive business tax credits, even amid an economic downturn. So, TV's bearded men of "Duck Dynasty" got millions in film tax credit subsidies, while tuition skyrocketed for college students at campuses struggling with deep state financing cuts.

Criticism of Jindal is bipartisan and widespread, with irritated lawmakers left sifting through the highly-unpopular choices of raising taxes or taking a hatchet to higher education and government services. They're considering enacting tax bills Jindal vetoed and stripping a fake tax credit created to protect Jindal's anti-tax record.

Legislators are hearing that cuts described by the Jindal administration as "efficiencies" actually went much deeper, striking at services. They've learned about borrowing practices that increased state debts and about threats to Louisiana's cash flow because it spent down reserves.

"We've been living in a fictional world for the last eight years," said Jay Dardenne, a Republican who served as lieutenant governor under Jindal and is now chief financial adviser to Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who inherited the problems.

Edwards called the special session to try to stabilize Louisiana's budget. He also suggested he is revealing the true depth of the problems Jindal hid.

"It's time for fiscal responsibility in this state. No more smoke and mirrors," Edwards said.

The state has to close an estimated $900 million shortfall in its $25 billion budget by June 30, a gap that shrank as Edwards and lawmakers slashed spending and tapped into patchwork financing. Next year's shortfall tops $2 billion.

Negotiations continue between Edwards and the majority Republican legislature over tax hikes to fill the gaps. But there's little disagreement about the problems' origins.

Guarding his anti-tax record, Jindal balanced the budget with short-term fixes: selling state property and raiding savings accounts. As the assets disappeared or promised savings didn't pan out, budget gaps appeared. The oil price slump worsened the problems.

"The previous administration focused more on spending money that didn't exist, which is why we're in the situation we're in now," said House Appropriations Chairman Cameron Henry, a Republican.

Jindal and his former chief political adviser did not return calls for comment. But before he exited office, Jindal defended his financial management, saying he chose to grow the private sector rather than the government. He wanted even deeper cuts but faced legislative resistance, he said.

"I think the approach we took was absolutely right," Jindal said in December. "We held the line on taxes. We were willing to cut government."

Lawmakers went along at the time, rather than buck Jindal in a state with a powerful governor who can retaliate by eliminating local construction projects and strip items from the budget with a line-item veto. No lawmakers defend Jindal now that he's gone, and some who acquiesced to the budgeting tactics now acknowledge their own culpability.

"We may have offered some critiques and some criticisms, but we went along with it anyway," said Senate Finance Chairman Eric LaFleur, a Democrat.

The budget instability prompted one national credit rating agency to downgrade Louisiana last month. State officials worry more blows could follow.

"You can't spend more taxpayer money than you take in for seven years in a row and not expect a downgrade to your credit rating," said Treasurer John Kennedy, a Republican.

Other expenses are surfacing.

Costs skyrocketed for outside attorneys Jindal used to defend his policies rather than government lawyers. A recent audit said Jindal's borrowing maneuvers to generate quick cash will cost Louisiana as much as $231 million over decades. Outsourcing programs that helped cut state payroll — a point Jindal touted in his campaign — have created problems.

"Privatization does not save us money. In some cases, it costs us money," Henry said.

With Jindal gone, lawmakers have started chipping away at his policies. The first bill to gain House passage was aimed squarely at him.

The measure, awaiting Senate approval, would scrap a much-maligned tax credit Jindal pushed ahead of his White House bid to comply with a no-tax pledge he made to anti-tax activist Grover Norquist's organization.

The complex credit didn't raise money or cut taxes. It just gave Jindal cover to say he kept his pledge. Lawmakers grudgingly passed it rather than risk steep cuts to colleges.

During the debate, the repeal's sponsor, Republican Rep. Chris Broadwater, was facetiously asked if Norquist had approved the new measure.

Broadwater pulled out a puppet of Grover, the Muppet, and replied to laughs and applause: "Grover has made an appearance and is OK with the repeal."

He shoved it into a paper bag when the repeal passed.

The Roving Reporter                 G .

The Roving Reporter : Former First Lady Nancy Reagan dies at 94

       Nancy Reagan, the former actress who was fiercely protective of husband Ronald Reagan through a Hollywood career, eight years in the White House, an assassination attempt and her husband's Alzheimer's disease, died on Sunday at age 94, the Reagan library said.
Michael Reagan said on Twitter he was saddened by his stepmother's death. "She is once again with the man she loved," he wrote.
      Reagan became one of the most influential first ladies in U.S. history during her Republican husband's presidency from 1981 to 1989.
Her husband, who affectionately called her "Mommy" while she called him "Ronnie," died in 2004 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's, the progressive brain disorder that destroys memory.
      As Nancy Davis, she was a Hollywood actress during the 1940s and 1950s and married Reagan, a prominent film actor, in 1952. She then served as first lady of California during her husband's stint as California governor from 1967 to 1975 before moving into the White House after his decisive victory over incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
      Her most publicized project as first lady was the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. After her husband developed Alzheimer's disease, she became an advocate for discovering a cure.
She was diminutive and publicly soft spoken but Nancy Reagan's strong will, high-tone tastes and clout with her husband made her a controversial figure during his presidency.
      As Reagan's wife, political partner and adviser, she became one of America's most potent first ladies, alongside the likes of Franklin Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor, Woodrow Wilson's wife, Edith, and Bill Clinton's wife, Hillary.
      "I see the first lady as another means to keep a president from becoming isolated," she said in 1985. "I talk to people. They tell me things. And if something is about to become a problem, I'm not above calling a staff person and asking about it. I'm a woman who loves her husband and I make no apologies for looking out for his personal and political welfare."
Tiny and frail in her later years, Reagan devoted her time to caring for her ailing husband at their home in Los Angeles' exclusive Bel Air enclave. She was always a stickler for protocol and detail and stoically presided over the former president's weeklong funeral and celebration of his life in June 2004.
                      'I FORGOT TO DUCK':
      One of her most trying times as first lady came when John Hinckley stepped out of a crowd outside a Washington hotel on March 30, 1981, and fired six shots toward the president, striking him in the chest. A .22-caliber bullet punctured his lung and nearly entered his heart.
      "Honey, I forgot to duck," he told her at the hospital.
Some critics lambasted Nancy Reagan as a meddlesome "dragon lady," derided her anti-drug campaign and ridiculed her for consulting an astrologer to schedule presidential events.
President Reagan called this view of his wife "despicable fiction," saying in 1987: "The idea that she is involved in governmental decisions and so forth and all of this, and being a kind of dragon lady - there is nothing to that."
      The reputation was established during Reagan's time as California governor and followed her to Washington. She was first accused of being a vacuous spendthrift interested chiefly in renovating and buying new china for the White House, lavish entertaining, her designer wardrobe and the like, then portrayed as a cunning manipulator of policy and people.
      Advocates of the latter view saw her influence as virtually unlimited in such matters as the dumping of presidential advisers, efforts to get a nuclear arms accord with the Soviet Union and her husband's decision to seek a second term in 1984.
      Some Reagan-watchers said reports of Mrs. Reagan's influence were exaggerated and that it was merely the protective concern of a loving wife.
      She frequently clashed with President Reagan's chief of staff, Donald Regan, who lambasted her in a 1988 "tell-all" book after he was ousted from the White House during the chaos of the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987. Regan disclosed that she had used astrology to decide the timing of presidential speeches and trips, and even her husband's 1985 cancer surgery.
      "Virtually every move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared in advance by a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise," Regan wrote.
      James Baker, who served as White House chief of staff during Reagan's first term, took a different view, telling PBS in 2011: "If there was one person who was indispensable to Ronald Reagan's political success, it was Nancy Reagan."
Nancy Reagan acknowledged she had the ear of her husband.
      "In most good marriages that I know of, the woman is her husband's closest friend and adviser," she wrote in her 1989 memoir, "My Turn." "... But however the first lady fits in, she has a unique and important role to play in looking after her husband. And it's only natural that she'll let him know what she thinks. I always did that for Ronnie and I always will."
Ronald Reagan was known for penning innumerable letters to his wife. In one, he stated: "I more than love you, I'm not whole without you. You are life itself to me. When you are gone I'm waiting for you to return so I can start living again."
                                    'RONNIE'S LONG JOURNEY':
      The former president's Alzheimer's struggle made Mrs. Reagan a campaigner for broader human embryonic stem cell research, a stand that put her at odds with many Republicans.
"Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him. Because of this, I'm determined to do whatever I can to save other families from this pain," she said before his death in 2004.
      Some critics dismissed her "Just Say No" efforts as simplistic but she became America's most visible anti-drug crusader at a time when the crack cocaine epidemic was raging.
In 1988, she addressed the U.N. General Assembly, saying the United States must do more with tougher law enforcement and anti-drug education efforts and should stop blaming the poor nations that produce most of the narcotics used by Americans.
      "We will not get anywhere if we place a heavier burden of action on foreign governments than on America's own mayors, judges and legislators. You see, the cocaine cartel does not begin in Medellin, Colombia. It begins in the streets of New York, Miami, Los Angeles and every American city where crack is bought and sold," she told the General Assembly.
      Mrs. Reagan had her left breast surgically removed in October 1987 after a cancerous tumor was discovered.
She was born Anne Frances Robbins into a crumbling marriage in New York on July 6, 1921. Her car-salesman father deserted the family soon after, and her mother, actress Edith Luckett Robbins, resumed her show business career two years later.
      In 1929, her mother married Loyal Davis, a neurosurgeon. Nancy came to adore him, even taking his name, and the doctor was believed to have had considerable influence on his eventual son-in-law's shift from Democrat to Republican years later.
      After graduation from elite Smith College, she worked as a nurse's aide, then began a stage career in New York. Starting in 1949, she had an eight-year career in films including one - "Hellcats of the Navy" (1957) - co-starring with Ronald Reagan.
      She often took supporting roles but had starring roles like one in the 1953 B-movie "Donovan's Brain" about a scientist who kept the brain of a dead millionaire alive in a tank.
Ronald Reagan divorced another actress, Jane Wyman, in 1948. They had a daughter, Maureen, and adopted a son, Michael.
      At the time, Ronald Reagan headed the Screen Actors Guild. Davis was stunned when an industry newspaper published a list of communist sympathizers and her name was included (it turned out to be a reference to another actress of the same name). She sought out her future husband for assistance.
During the early years of the Cold War, Hollywood blacklisted - refused to employ - numerous people accused of holding communist views, ruining many careers and lives.
       Ronald and Nancy Reagan got married in 1952 and had two children together - Patti Davis, an actress, and Ron Jr., who pursued careers in ballet and television.
Thanx  Will Dunham in Washington; Additional reporting by Megan Cassella; Editing by Bill Trott, Diane Craft and Jeffrey Benkoe)

The Roving Reporter      G.

The Roving Reporter UPDATE : Police investigate knife found at O.J. Simpson's onetime LA home

LOS ANGELES, March 4 (Reuters) - 
Police said on Friday they were examining a knife purportedly found at the former home of O.J. Simpson, the onetime football star acquitted of stabbing to death his ex-wife and her friend in the "Trial of the Century" two decades ago.
Forensic investigators were conducting DNA tests on the blade, which was recently turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department by a retired motorcycle officer, Lieutenant Andrew Neiman told reporters at a news conference.

EARLIER: Police are reportedly investigating newly uncovered evidence in O.J. Simpson murder case
Neiman said the officer told investigators he was given the knife by a construction worker, who in turn claimed to have found it on Simpson's property in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles when the house was being torn down in 1998.
Simpson's former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death on June 12, 1994, at her condominium a few miles away.
The murder weapon had not been recovered at the time of his sensational trial, which was carried live on major television networks in the United States and transfixed much of the nation.

Key players in trial:
A medical examiner testified for the prosecution at the time that Brown Simpson and Goldman were likely slain with a single-bladed, six-inch knife.
Police declined to elaborate on the timeline of when the knife was recovered but Neiman said it was possible that "the whole story is bogus from the get-go."
He also would not name the retired police officer or speculate on why the weapon had been given to police only in the past two months.
"We still don't know if that is an accurate account of how this item came into our possession," Neiman said, adding: "If you are the individual that provided that knife (to the police officer) we would love to have you contact our Robbery Homicide Division."
Authorities have not described the knife but the celebrity website TMZ reported it was a kind of folding knife typically used in hunting and fishing.

NBC News, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, reported that it was a smaller, relatively inexpensive utility-style blade typically carried by construction workers or other laborers and inconsistent with it being the murder weapon.
Legal experts said Simpson could not be put on trial for the murders again because of the doctrine of double jeopardy.
"There really are no exceptions. Once somebody has been found not guilty of a crime, he cannot be charged with that crime again, under any circumstances," said University of Southern California law professor Michael Brennan, a former criminal defense attorney. "O.J. could confess to the crimes and he couldn't be charged again."
Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor in the trial, told Entertainment Tonight in an interview she was pleased police were taking the find seriously, even if it was unlikely to lead to a new charges.
"The likelihood of any prosecution stemming from this evidence is very, very slim," she said. "But we have to find out what this means, what the truth of this is."
Clark also said she believed it was possible that DNA evidence could be lifted from the blade that could shed light on the case.

Simpson was found liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman by a civil court jury in 1997 and ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families, a judgment that has remained largely unfulfilled.
He was convicted in Las Vegas in 2008 of kidnapping and robbery in a bungled attempt to recover memorabilia from his storied football career and was sentenced to a prison term of up to 33 years.

Highlighting the enduring fascination the case holds for the American public, there were roughly 150 tweets per minute about O.J. Simpson on Friday, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph.

Reports about the knife surfaced just as a popular new FX cable television drama series, "The People v. O.J. Simpson," chronicling the trial, is airing. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Chicago, Jill Serjeant in New York, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Rigby and James Dalgleish)

The Roving Reporter  ....G.

The Roving Reporter :Police CONFIRM knife found on OJ Simpson's estate, but believe he 'can't be charged again in murder case'

The LAPD have confirmed a knife was found on OJ Simpson's estate, but believe he "couldn't be charged" again for the murder of his former wife.

Speaking in a live news conference today, an officer confirmed a knife was found on the estate in the late 1990s by a former LAPD officer - who was either retired at the time, or retired shortly after.

They told reporters: "Within the last month, the LAPD became aware of an item that was allegedly recovered by a citizen at the Rockingham Estate property, possibly during the demolition of the site."

However, when asked if this would be a case of double jeopardy - meaning Simpson could not be charged again in the murder case - the officer admitted he believed that the former star "could not be charged again".

He said: "It is my belief that double jeopardy would be in place here. We could not charge Mr Simpson, because he has already been aquitted."

Speaking about the item found, police confirmed it was a "knife", but could not describe it any further.

They added: "My understanding is that it's a knife, not a machete."

And they confirmed it was handed to the former LAPD officer, believed to have been retired or close to retirement at the time, in the late 90s, when they were working as a motor officer.

The officer is believed to have been off duty at the time, and they added: "I do not know if he was retired when he received this item, or if he was still an LAPD officer and retired after - we are looking into that."
The case has remained open over the last decade, as the LAPD said in the conference: "Unless there's an arrest or conviction to prove we have closed the case, the cases remain open, thats where we are with this case."

The investigation will continue, with forensic tests underway on the knife.

They will then test for any DNA or hair samples.

Asked his own response to the news, the officer admitted: "I was really surprised, I would think an LAPD officer would know that any time you come into contact with evidence, you should and shall submit that to investigators.

"We are looking into that, but i was quite shocked."
The LAPD will look at both administrative and criminal charges, but as the officer is now retired, they admitted it's unlikely there will be administrative charges.

We need to determine if this is evidence, and if not, we need to prove one way or other that it's not.

OJ's ex wife Nicole Simpson and her friend, 25-year-old waiter Ronald Goldman, were stabbed to death on June 12th, 1994.

The mother-of-two died after being stabbed several times in the head and neck. Their bodies were discovered outside her house in the early hours of June 13.

A jury found Simpson not guilty after the eight-month trial that ended at the beginning of October, 1995.

The Roving Reporter                      G .