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A powerful series of storms cut through the Chicago area from southwest to northeast this evening, bringing funnel clouds and wind gusts of up to 81 mph, downing trees, sparking fires and knocking out electricity to thousands of Commonwealth Edison customers.
Tornado warnings the Chicago area have expired, and a severe thunderstorm watch scheduled to last until 1 a.m. was allowed to expire early.
For updates on the severe weather, check the Chicago Weather Center.
As of 10 p.m., more than 271,000 Commonwealth Edison customers were without power, according to ComEd spokesman Tony Hernandez. Of the affected customers, 62,085 were in Chicago; 151,783 were in the Northern region; at least 10,000 were on the Western region; and 47,462 were in the Southern region, Hernandez said.
Trees were reported down throughout the Chicago area, and wind gusts of 81 miles were reported inWheeling, according to the National Weather Service. Trees with footwide trunks were reported down in Skokie and Deerfield and blocking northbound Illinois Route 53 near Roosevelt Road in Lombard. Two people were in serious-to-critical condition at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston after the car they were in was crushed by a falling tree near Farragut and Leavitt avenues in the Bowmanville neighborhood on the North Side.
Wind gusts of 70 miles per hours were reported inNaperville at 8:30 p.m., 75 miles per hour in Wheaton at 8:28 p.m. and 60 miles per hour at theDuPage County Airport at 8:26 p.m., according to the Chicago Weather Center.
Joliet was pelted with 0.85 inches of rain in 16 minutes at 8:34 p.m.
As of 8:30 p.m., 300 flights had been canceled at O’Hare International Airport, and delays of 1 hour or more were reported for both inbound and outbound flights, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Delays of up to 2 hours were reported at Midway Airport, and more than 30 flights had been canceled.
Funnel clouds were spotted about 7:30 p.m. in Naperville and about 7:05 p.m. five miles west of Grayslake inLake County, according to the National Weather Service. About 8:05 p.m., another funnel cloud was spotted about four miles north-northwest ofSugar Grove in Kane County.
In Naperville, the City Council meeting was stopped and everyone in attendance was evacuated to the City Hall basement because of “tornadic activity,†an official said. People at a book signing at Anderson’s Bookshops in dowtown Naperville were asked to go to the basement there also.
Police received an unconfirmed report of a funnel near Hollingswood and Faulkner on the south side of Naperville, said Police Chief Dave Dial. There also was an unconfirmed report of a funnel cloud inAurora, Dial said.
The watch, declared at 5:45 p.m. by the National Weather Service’s Chicago-area forecast office, includes all northern Illinois counties except three in northwest Illinois on the Mississippi River. Areas near Peoria, meanwhile, were under a severe thunderstorm warning.
June already has shaped up to be one of the wettest on record.
Through Monday, 6.94 inches of rain had been recorded at Midway Airport, making this the third wettest start to June since observations started at the airport in 1928, according to WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling.
A chance of rain is in the forecast at least through Friday as southerly winds pump warm, moisture-laden air into northeast Illinois, Skilling says.
Some of the thunderstorms this evening may produce damaging winds, large hail, lightning and heavy downpours.
The chance of precipitation tonight and overnight is 60 percent. Highs today are hitting the upper 80s, with 89 degrees at Midway Airport at 3 p.m., 87 degrees at O’Hare Airport, and 90 degrees in Lansing, according to the weather service.Â
The chance of more rain Wednesday is 40 percent and on Thursday 30 percent, the weather service said.
It will cool off a bit after today. Highs Wednesday will be in the lower to mid-70s and Thursday in the mid- to upper-60s.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com
weather chicago â€" Google News
Tags: brings, Chicago, First, hail, rain, Summer, Tribune, winds â€"
By DANIEL MICHAELS
Air safety is serious business. So, more and more airlines are making it silly.
Thomson Airways uses cute kids. Air New Zealand does a disco extravaganza-starring Richard Simmons. More airlines are amping up their safety videos with humor and goofy gags â€" just to get fliers’ attention. WSJ’s Daniel Michaels reports.
Almost anything is worth trying to get stupefied passengers to focus on the required announcements about fastening seat belts and finding exits.
Air New Zealand has run videos with naked flight attendants, an obnoxious puppet and 1980s exercise guru Richard Simmons.
Virgin America uses freakish cartoon characters including a well-dressed fish. And Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific has played Lady Gaga.
“You see some of these and say, ‘Holy smokesâ€"can they do that?’†says Kevin Hiatt, vice president of the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation and a longtime airline pilot. “But it gets the point across.â€
Airline passengers are a tough audience. Road warriors tune out briefings, while novice fliers can freak out at talk of water landings and lost cabin pressure. But the Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators require carriers to hit the high points on every single flight.
Many flight attendants appear equally bored about the drills. Some repeat it dozens of times each week.
Southwest Airlines was among the first to acknowledge that the incantations are mind-numbing and often obvious. So the airline encourages staff who deliver the recitation to pepper it with one-liners like, “If you haven’t been in a car since 1957, this is a seat belt….â€
Southwest founder Herb Kelleher says a man once called to say the announcements weren’t “appropriate.â€
“I asked him whether he listened to them. He said, ‘Yes.’ I then asked him whether he listened to the safety announcements on other airlines. He said, ‘No,’†recalls Mr. Kelleher. “End of telephone conversation.â€
Electronic entertainment systems in the 1980s brought recorded, video safety briefings. Most were as listless as the live presentations were.
In 2000, Virgin Atlantic decided to have fun, producing an animated video with light touches. A fat passenger struggles to push his seat belt below his paunch. Others snore, wrestle with oxygen masks and set off the toilet smoke detector.
Virgin founder Richard Branson says it is logical that passengers will pay more attention if they smile, but he regrets not hitting on nudity. “If there’s anything that involves [being] naked, I wish we had come up with it first,†he says.
Recently, more carriers have been loosening up. Mr. Branson launched Virgin America in 2007 with an animated film that includes a buck-toothed nun who scrambles to turn off all her electronic gear and a matador seated next to a bull. The announcer urges passengers to see whether the nearest exit is behind them, but one man yawns and returns to his book. “Go on…we’ll wait,†says the announcer.
Virgin America
Virgin America’s animated safety video featured a funny nun.
Marketing Vice President Porter Gale says people at dinner parties have quoted lines from the video to her, like a description of the printed safety card: “Not only does it have pretty pictures, but it has important information…â€
Some ideas went too far, though. The FAA pressed Virgin to cut its sarcasm “for clarity of message†and nixed a polar bear that resembled a dog because passengers might get distracted trying to figure out what it was, says a Virgin spokeswoman.
Turkish Airlines last month unveiled an apparently standard video briefing. Interspersed are scenes of soccer stars from Manchester United goofing around with safety gear.
Striker Wayne Rooney sneaks up behind two teammates and yanks the tags on their life vests to inflate them. “Well, it’s not a toy,†scolds the announcer. When the two chest-bump with the inflated vests, the narrator loses patience: “Now, come on, guys, this is serious!â€
Few airlines have tried to amuseâ€"or shockâ€"as much as Air New Zealand has. In 2009, it produced a video titled “The Bare Essentials,†starring naked employees. Uniforms were painstakingly painted on, down to the kerchief ruffles.
Staff deliver the briefing with just a glint of irony. Even frequent fliers should “take…a second look,†says a flight attendant, raising her eyebrows.
Hours of nudity during the shooting didn’t keep employees from participating, says Mike Tod, marketing general manager. “We had no shortage of people wanting to get involved.â€
Last August, ANZ redirected the country’s rugby mania in a video with passengers decked out like a stadium of crazed fans and pilots sporting striped referee shirts. When a buff star player brushes past a swooning flight attendant, she grabs an oxygen mask to demonstrate how to use it.
The next video starred a furry, wisecracking puppet named Rico, who interrupts the presentation. A flight attendant announces the briefing will begin “before we take off.†Rico blurts out: “Before we take it off?â€
This year, the airline tapped Mr. Simmons for an aerobics-theme video called “Fit to Fly.†For it, the carrier transformed a jetliner mockup, normally used for designing cabin interiors, into a disco with a lighted floor reminiscent of “Saturday Night Fever.â€
Mr. Simmons sports a tank top with ANZ’s logo in sequins for the “safety exercise.†He leads staffersâ€"including Chief Executive Rob Fyfeâ€"and local celebrities, all clad in Reagan-era leggings, leotards and headbands. Passengers definitely pay attention.
“The movies are usually the stuff of dinner-party table conversation,†says Richard Fraser, a media executive in Auckland who flies frequently. He says the Bare Essentials video captured the country’s “edgy creative†spirit, while the rugby one was funny. But the recent two videos are “cringe-worthy,†he says.
Not all carriers go for laughs.Cebu Pacific Air got fliers to ogle last fall with live in-flight choreography. On one, female flight attendants buckled seat belts and donned life vests to Katy Perry and Lady Gaga recordings. A week later, a male crew boogied to the 1982 hit “Safety Dance.†On both flights, standard briefings were first delivered on the ground.
Britain’s Thomson Airways used children dressed as flight attendants in its video. The girl who explains how to use a life vest is barely bigger than it. The charter carrier auditioned 900 youngsters for 12 roles, but filming still required “many takes,†says Thomson’s customer services director, Carl Gissing.
Despite all efforts, even the most creative airlines acknowledge passengers don’t think of safety announcements as entertainment.
“We promise to do everything we can to make sure you have a safe, comfortable flight,†says the bored-sounding Virgin America narrator. “Not least of which is ending this speech now.â€
â€"Kaveri Niththyananthan contributed to this article.
Write to Daniel Michaels at daniel.michaels@wsj.com
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Tags: airlines, Dance, Journal, Name, safety, street, They, Wall, Want â€"
Severe weather in Chicago on Tuesday evening, including tornado warnings, have prompted a stoppage in train operation and thousands of households were cut off from electricity.
The National Weather Service issued the warnings for several counties including DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake and Will, according to the Naperville Sun.
Northeast Illinois commuter rail system, Metra, also reported delays and stops in operation.
Fallen trees caused by strong winds have stopped the inbound train to from Elgin to Chicago as well.
Also around 10,000 Commonwealth Edison customers were without power at 8:30pm EST.
Chicago’s airports have cancelled more than 300 flights at O’Hare Airport and also all flights have been delayed for at least an hour, the Sun reported, citing the Department of Aviation.
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Tags: amid, Business, Chicago, Hits, International, photo, Power, storm, Thousands, times, tornado, Warnings â€"
6:18 PM ETÂ Â | Â Â
By BusinessNewsDaily Staff
Southwest Airlines beat its competitors to the summer airfare war punch by offering a three-day sale with airfares as low as $ 40. The move has created lots of Internet buzz, and, presumably, lots of ticket sales. It’s also a good lesson for every business that has to get ready to ride out the long, hot summer and come up with a clever marketing plan to beat out the beach and the BBQ for customers’ attention.
Here are five lessons you can learn from Southwest.
Be first â€" You don’t have to be the cheapest, but it helps to get a jump on the competition when it comes to clever marketing. If you’re in a business where the competition is a bunch of copycats, make sure your ducks are in a row before you announce your plans. Get in and get out before your competitors know what happened. Let them play catch-up.
Think customer service â€" Southwest’s sale wouldn’t be such a big deal if the airline didn’t already have a great reputation. Make sure you’ve got the goods and the service to back up whatever big promises you make. Otherwise, your efforts will be for naught.
Know their price â€" When it comes to grabbing the headlines, Southwest knows what it’s doing. You don’t hasten media maelstrom with a 10 percent off sale.
Offer value â€" A sale on something no one wants isn’t really much of a sale. Southwest’s sale gives the customers what they want… a cheap ticket basically anywhere. If you’re going to offer a deal, make sure it’s a good one.
Be branded â€" Before you deploy a giant marketing initiative, be sure your brand is understood. Whether your business is local or a national powerhouse, having a clearly defined brand that customers understand is the foundation for a good campaign.
Â
southwest airlines â€" Google News
Tags: airlines, Business, BusinessNewsDaily, from, Learn, Lessons, should, Southwest â€"
By BY JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:10 p.m. Monday, June 20, 2011
Posted: 3:56 p.m. Friday, June 17, 2011
NEW HAVEN, Conn. â€" After a mountain lion was found dead near Greenwich last week, residents of the wealthy New York City suburb have been seeing cougars everywhere: perched on a wall at a golf course, traipsing down a scenic parkway, being chased by a pair of dogs.
Officials say the dead mountain lion likely escaped from captivity and found no evidence of other lions stalking Connecticut. That hasn’t stopped the buzz from permeating the essence of an idyllic suburb normally accustomed to worrying about geese droppings, the future of a makeshift Wiffle ball stadium and a proposed ban on leaf blowers.
“Just five minutes ago somebody from Old Bedford Road said they saw it,†said William Strain, who owns a store in the backcountry of Greenwich, where the lion was spotted.
But experts say such sightings are notoriously unreliable, with people often confusing bobcats, coyotes, dogs and other animals for lions, especially amid the recent hullabaloo.
“It’s a big exotic wild animal that’s capable of killing a human being,†said Mark Dowling, a director with the Cougar Network. “I just think people are excited about something big, dangerous and exotic. I think people want to be able to say they’ve seen something exciting, extraordinary.â€
He acknowledged, though, that it’s possible more than one cougar got loose.
State officials believe a mountain lion killed June 11 on a highway in Milford was the same one spotted earlier more than 30 miles away in Greenwich. But reports of more sightings persist.
A woman walking her dog Wednesday reported seeing two “hounds†chase a big cat, and a golf course employee said he saw a mountain lion on a stone wall. Police in nearby Fairfield received two sightings of a mountain lion. A big cat was spotted in northwest Greenwich a day after the lion was killed in Milford and another motorist reported seeing one on the Merritt Parkway.
The sightings prompted the closing of trails at the Audubon Center in Greenwich.
Rashe Campbell, manager of the Pet Pantry store in Greenwich, said a few customers with large Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs have come in to buy brightly colored collars in hopes of sparing them from anyone taking up arms against a mountain lion.
Dick Hoyt, who owns an outdoor trading shop in Greenwich, welcomed the animal.
“It’s pretty exciting to see something you would think you would have to go to a national park to see,†he said. “It’s just seems so out of place. It’s great that there are a lot of natural woods that critters like that can survive.â€
Some experts see a deeper reason for the phenomenon: A desire to believe in a comeback by nature.
“There is something in us that needs this sense of wild, especially in the most drab suburban places,†said Christopher Spatz, president of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation. “The cougar represents that. It reanimates things for people in these places that are as sterile as could be.â€
State officials say they believe the mountain lion found dead was kept illegally and either escaped or was released. They are conducting tests to determine its origins.
Alan Rabinowitz, a zoologist who is president and CEO of New York-based Panthera and whose research in Belize in the 1980s led to the creation of the world’s first jaguar preserve, said he agrees with wildlife officials that lions found in the Northeast have captive origins. But he said it’s possible a small population of lions has learned to exist in the wild.
“There’s a possibility that they are surviving in small numbers in the wooded areas of the Northeast,†Rabinowitz said. “Some of these could be multi-generational. Having once been captive, they are now wild animals. They are not just being set free as pets.â€
Rabinowitz said there have been credible sightings of mountain lions around the Northeast along with tracks and hair. He said there is plenty of prey such as deer, and mountain lions are highly adaptable and secretive.
But other private and government experts disagree. They say even a small population of mountain lions would be detectable through tracks, cameras set up by hunters and accidents with vehicles, but extensive surveys and investigations have failed to turn up signs of a population living in the wild or breeding.
“The evidence is not there,†said Mark McCollough, endangered species biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who wrote the report concluding the eastern cougar was extinct. “Even if there were captive animals released in the Northeast, we have no evidence that if there were they have survived for very long and left much if any trail of evidence that can point to a cougar persisting in this area.â€
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Tags: Beach, Conn., cougar, Loose, Palm, Post, pounce, Residents, Talk â€"
By Michelle Deal-Zimmerman Baltimore Sun reporter
10:46 a.m. EDT, June 21, 2011
Southwest Airlines is saying happy birthday to you with its 40th Anniversary sale offering fares starting at $ 40 one-way.
For the next 72 hours or so, customers can purchase one-way tickets for $ 40, $ 80, or $ 120 to select destinations, based on length of travel.
One-way fares are $ 40 for travel up to 450 miles; $ 80 for travel between 451 and 1,250 miles; and $ 120 for travel more than 1,251 miles, fares are $ 120 one-way. The fares are good for travel from Aug. 23 to Nov. 16.
And it’s a twofer for Baltimore travelers since Southwest is offering a parallel sale with its new subsidiary AirTran, with fares starting at $ 40 one-way.
“This is the first time that I can remember in my 30 years of tracking airfares that I have seen airfares from over 100 U.S. cities as low as $ 40 one-way,†said Tom Parsons, editor of online travel site BestFares.com.
From Baltimore, a $ 40 one-way ticket will get you to Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, Hartford, Long Island, Manchester, Newark, Norfolk, Pittsburgh, Providence or Raleigh/Durham.
Southwest’s sale does not include travel on Fridays and Saturdays and has a few blackout dates: Sept. 1, 5, 6 and Oct. 10. Taxes and government fees are additional. Tickets must be purchased by 11:59 p.m. on June 23.
southwest airlines â€" Google News
Tags: Baltimore, Birthday, offers, oneway, Sale, Southwest, starting â€"
Roger Ebert apologized â€" kind of â€" for anyone hurt by his tweet on Monday about the death of Jackass’ Ryan Dunn. (Ebert tweeted Monday: “Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive,†insinuating Dunn’s fiery crash was a result of drunk driving.)
“I offer my sympathy to Ryan Dunn’s family and friends, and to those of Zachary Hartwell, who also died in the crash,†Ebert, 69, posted on his blog Tuesday. “I mean that sincerely. It is tragic to lose a loved one. I also regret that my tweet about the event was considered cruel. It was not intended as cruel. It was intended as true.â€
PHOTOS: Stars gone too soon
“I have no way of knowing if Ryan Dunn was drunk at the time of his death,†Ebert added. “What I knew before posting my tweet was that not long before his death, he posted a photo on Tumblr showing himself drinking with two friends.â€Â
Dunn’s Jackass pal, Bam Margera, was furious with the film critic. “I just lost my best friend, I have been crying hysterical for a full day,†he tweeted. “And piece of s*** Roger Ebert has the gall to put in his 2 cents about a jackass drunk driving… F*** you!â€
Ebert clarified what he meant by his “Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive comment.â€
PHOTOS: Us’ tribute to stars we’ve recently lost
“I meant exactly what I wrote,†he said. “I wasn’t calling Ryan Dunn a jackass. In Twitter shorthand, I was referring to his association with Jackass. I thought that was clear. I note that Bam Margera uses the word ‘jackass’ in the same way in his tweet.â€
PHOTOS: Thrill-seeking stars
Ebert went on to cite various reports of Dunn’s history of driving too fast and even a possible past DUI. “I don’t know what happened in this case, and I was probably too quick to tweet,†he admitted. “That was unseemly. I do know that nobody has any business driving on a public highway at 110 mph, as some estimated â€" or fast enough, anyway, to leave a highway and fly through 40 yards of trees before crashing. That is especially true if the driver has had three shots and three beers. Two people were killed. What if the car had crashed into another car?â€Â
Tags: Apologizes, Dunn, Ebert, Magazine, Roger, Ryan, tweets â€"
It seems that a presidential candidate who launched his campaign without criticizing President Barack Obama and aims to run a let’s-get-serious campaign would be more at home on the “No Labels†line than running under the Republican banner.
But Jon Huntsman, who formally began his bid Tuesday testifying to the virtues of civility, is betting that GOP voters will ultimately want to defeat Obama more than just club him upside the head.
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It’s the central assumption of Huntsman’s candidacy: electability will trump purity.
No, Huntsman is not going to drop the rhetorical daisy-cutters on the president in a way that will make the pulses of party activists quicken. And, no, he’s not a down-the-line conservative on every issue.
“What’s going to unite Republican voters in South Carolina is: Who do they think can win in November, who can beat Obama,†said Richard Quinn, Huntsman’s Palmetto State strategist. “They’re sophisticated enough to know that you don’t beat Obama by appealing to a very small base of folks who just hate the guy.â€
Past GOP nominees haven’t met the right-wing litmus test and some even sought to run general election-style campaigns in party primaries.
George W. Bush and John McCain, at various times, both come to mind.
Huntsman’s challenge, however, is that he lacks some of the qualities that made the apostasies of Bush and McCain tolerable among Republican primary voters. Bush talked of his personal faith in Jesus Christ and came from a storied GOP family. McCain was known as a war hero before he became a politician and had been hawk in good standing for decades. Huntsman is a Mormon who talks of his faith as his “heritage,†is virtually unknown to most Republican activists and lacks the military credentials that could ameliorate his deviations from party orthodoxy.
Oh, and he just got through working in the Obama administration.
“In the Republican Party, it’s going to be a hard sell to nominate a candidate to go up against Obama who worked for Obama,†said former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a Mitt Romney supporter in 2008 who hasn’t endorsed in this campaign.
Todd Harris, a GOP ad man who is not working in the presidential contest, said Huntsman could find a difficult path in attempting to be the Serious Candidate.
“Huntsman would be the anti-Trump,†said Harris, alluding to the New York developer-cum-publicity hound. “Trump took off with the base because he never hesitated to hit Obama and sometimes to fight a little dirty. The base loved that. By all accounts, Huntsman wants to run a more cerebral campaign that focuses on policies as opposed to personalities. That can be tough in a crowded primary field that doesn’t typically reward nuance.â€
But Huntsman ought not be immediately written off as a latter-day Bruce Babbitt, a presidential hopeful who makes centrist elites weak in the knees but actual primary voters yawn.
First, to say that the Republican primary campaign is “unsettled†is an understatement. It’s completely up in the air, with Romney a highly vulnerable frontrunner, a group of flawed challengers and some potentially formidable candidates still on the sidelines.
Given these conditions, a candidate like Huntsman who is articulate, engaging, has a team of campaign veterans and the ability to tap into his personal wealth to stay afloat could emerge as a contender.
“One thing that potentially enables him to do this is that he can self-fund,†noted Harris. “Candidates who have to rely on fundraising have to hit hard to generate enthusiasm with small-dollar donors. But if he can self-fund then there’s a path.â€
And then there is New Hampshire.
Tags: Bets, Huntsman, Over, Politico, Serious, slashandburn â€"
Southwest Airlines is letting travelers go from, say, Seattle to Boise or Albany to Baltimore for $ 40. Some experts say the move by Southwest Airlines could spark a fare war in the industry.
It’s only a three-day sale, but a move by Southwest Airlines to sell one-way flights for as little as $ 40 is sending a big message: A new round of fare wars may be on the way.
On Tuesday, Southwest Airlines announced bargain rates on tickets for hundreds of its US routes, with one-way prices of $ 40, $ 80, or $ 120 for flights taken between Aug. 23 and Nov. 16. The sale lasts through Thursday.
For $ 40, fliers can go one-way from Seattle to Boise, Albany to Baltimore, or Cleveland to Newark, among many other examples.
Industry analysts say it’s a sign that, even after taking steps to fly fewer routes and keep planes fuller, airlines still don’t have an easy time selling seats in the current soft economy. Many Americans want to travel, but their plans are price-sensitive.
Meanwhile, a jump in fuel prices over the past year has squeezed airlines, pushing their costs up and prompting them to raise fares, which in turn can crimp demand for tickets.
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Some analysts say that, after doing fairly well during the summer busy season, the rest of the year could be a struggle for the industry.
“We are worried about what happens after Labor Day,†Helane Becker, an analyst for Dahlman Rose & Co, told the Associated Press. “We’re going to see less demand and more discounting.â€
In addition to Southwest’s move, JetBlue also announced sales on post-summer flights this week.
And the travel-search arm of Bing.com offers forecasts that even midsummer fares could fall in price.
Consider a round trip flight from Chicago to Los Angeles, from July 19 to July 26. The Bing Travel search finds prices of $ 306 round trip â€" and suggests that fliers wait to purchase the ticket, because it’s expected to fall by another $ 45.
If the Bing forecast proves accurate, that would make that July flight roughly identical with the prices Southwest is offering for later in the season ($ 240, or $ 120 each way).
Similarly, if you’re buying in late August, other airlines like Continental already beat Southwest’s price, offering the flight for $ 239 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Bing Travel.
Airfares to Europe, while not cheap, have also come down.
“We are now seeing the biggest savings on fares to Europe for departure Aug. 14-28,†says Tom Parsons of BestFares, writing in a Dallas Morning News column. “From Dallas, many cities are averaging in the $ 800 to $ 950 range for round-trip flights, including those to Dublin, Rome, Amsterdam, Prague, and Barcelona.â€
So, high fuel prices or not, airlines still need to fill seats â€" sometimes with fare wars. But they’ve also shown a willingness to cut money-losing routes. More of that could happen this fall as well.
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Tags: Ahead, airlines, Christian, Flights, Monitor, More, Sale, Science, Southwest â€"
Let me preface this by saying that I admire Roger Ebert tremendously. Everyone is a critic these days, tweeting on our way out of movies and into restaurants, but he remains a critic with a capital C, someone whose opinions are crafted on the basis of logical rules and long experience, and expressed with elegance.
And I understand the impulse to comment. That’s what we do best these days, and Roger Ebert does it better than most.
And this is the Internet, where the race is always to the loudest.
So it pains me to join the throng of people now castigating him for his tweet, following the death of “Jackass†cast member Ryan Dunn, that “Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive†and his repeated insistence that it was not objectionable, because he was right.
That is immaterial!
It does not matter that you were right. When you see a hearse drive past, you do not whip out a megaphone and bellow, “This was your own dang fault,†even if it was.
“But it’s what everyone was thinking!†“But it’s true that drunk driving is wrong.†True, true â€" but there’s a distinction between thinking and saying. Thinking is something no one does anymore, and we’re still saying things all the time.
The ability to communicate is something that Ebert has won the hard way, after a bout with thyroid cancer captured his voice.
But the ability to comment is not the obligation to do so.
And this is not a standard Internet case of the average foolish individual sharing a thought with friends that gets out of hand.
This is a far more pernicious impulse. It’s Insta-Commentary.
We live in the age of the Trusted Voice. Ebert’s is one of them. They are expected to tell us what is going on and what to think about it, as it is happening. If you are compelled to say something about everything, you are bound eventually to say something silly.
But the whole point of commentary was the imposition of a pause. News was supposed to break as fast as it could, at all times. Commentary followed and neatened things up, sorting through unruly tangles of fact and shining a light into corners where it might not have occurred to one to look the first time.
So Insta-Commentary is commentary stripped of the things that made commentary worthwhile: facts, and reflection. It’s a series of words arranged into sentences in such a way as to attract as many clicks as possible as soon as possible. It’s silly. It’s a little better than pointless but not much.
The impulse to Insta-Commentary makes you say things like “Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive†when a man has just died and you are still not fully apprised of all the facts.
Ebert has been praised for his ability to write at typing speed. But thinking at typing speed is a wholly separate matter. Twitter, the Land of the Mayflies, where if you don’t say anything instantly, you might as well say nothing at all.
And maybe you’d better not.
Sure, some would argue that celebrities hand in their Aren’t We Entitled To A Little Respect And Decency Cards at the proverbial door. And being a member of the “Jackass†franchise seems to give people the sense that they have carte blanche to carve “Don’t Try This At Home†as his epitaph.
Forget the months of mourning that used to follow someone’s death. I’d settle for the moment of silence.
This is, after all, how civility dies.
If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything?
Are you kidding?
If you don’t have anything nice to say, you probably will attract more Twitter followers.
Besides, why deny the world at large another opportunity to learn how right you are?
But civility is the subtle art of knowing the difference between what is right and what is appropriate. Ebert may well be right that it was Dunn’s drinking, then driving that led to his death. But was it appropriate to say so?
We have this idea that if we ever stop ourselves from sharing a single solitary thought, we are Wrongfully Concealing The Truth From The Vulnerable Young. And, as Ebert has reassured us repeatedly, he was right, after all.
Knowing that you are right â€" and choosing to say nothing.
Seems wrong.
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Tags: blog, Dunn, Ebert, Post, Roger, Ryan, shutting, subtle, Washington â€"
MLB commish Bud Selig just rejected a proposed $ 3 billion dollar TV deal between the Los Angeles Dodgers and FOX Sports … a deal that was the basis for the divorce settlement between Frank and Jamie McCourt.
As TMZ previously reported, the McCourts reached a settlement to their divorce on Friday that was predicated on MLB signing off on the FOX deal.
Now, with the demise of the deal, the McCourts are back to square one â€" PLUS it now seems unlikely the Dodgers will be able to pay its players and employees this month.
If the team misses payroll, Selig could seize operational control of the team and eventually force a sale of the team.
Tags: After, billion, Deal, McCourts, nixes, Screwed, TMZ.com â€"
Albert Pujols will miss four-to-six weeks with a small fracture in his forearm, an injury that comes just as he was heating up at the plate. Since snapping a career-long 105 homerless at-bat streak on May 23, Pujols had really improved his power.
His slugging percentage was up more than 270 points since May 23 and he had more home runs in the 25 games since than he did in the 48 games through May 22.
Most of his improvement in the power department since May 23 has come against righties. He is slugging just .333 with no home runs against left-handed pitchers since May 23, after slugging .452 with three home runs against lefties through May 22.
His slugging percentage against righties has increased from .396 to .763, and all 10 of his long balls since May 23 have come against right-handed pitchers.
Albert Pujols Through 73 Games
2011
Career Worst?
HR
17
15 (2010)
RBI
45
Yes
BA
.279
Yes
Slug pct
.500
Yes
>> Source: Elias Sports Bureau
Despite his recent improvements, Pujols is still off to one of the worst starts of his career. With Pujols out, the Cardinals could move Lance Berkman to first baseman and put Jon Jay in right field.
Although he’s having a down year by his standards, Pujols has still been a major part of the Cardinals’ offense, leading the team in runs scored and tying for the team lead with Lance Berkman in homeruns. He’s second on the team in both RBI and OPS.
Cliff Floyd and Derrek Lee have been mentioned as parallels to Albert Pujols since they both suffered similar wrist injuries. Pujols may not have it as bad as it’s being widely assumed.
Players With Similar Injuries
Cliff Floyd Pre-/Post-Wrist Injury:
Pre
Post
BA
.275
.280
Slug pct
.461
.495
ISO
.186
.215
AB/HR
28.2
20.4
>> Surgery after 2000 season
Derrek Lee Pre-/Post Wrist Injury:
Pre
Post
BA
.276
.291
Slug pct
.499
.484
ISO
.223
.193
AB/HR
19.8
24.3
>> Injured wrist in 2006
Lee injured his wrist in 2006 and his power has been drained every since. Floyd first injured his wrist in 1995 when he was 22 years old and then he had surgery after the 2000 season. His power numbers actually increased after his operation.
Defensive impact:• Pujols has struggled this year on defense with -4 Defensive Runs Saved at first base (i.e. he cost his team 4 runs with his defense). Pujols has never finished a season with negative Defensive Runs Saved.
• Berkman has struggled in his limited time at first this season. He has -2 Defensive Runs Saved in 40 innings there, but over the previous three seasons combined (2008-10) and 3,248 innings, he had a combined 16 Defensive Runs Saved.
• Berkman has been worse as a rightfielder this season, with -5 Defensive Runs Saved (worst among MLB RF).
• Jon Jay has been strong in 178 â…" innings in rightfield, with three Defensive Runs Saved this season.
Pujols has had 10 straight seasons of 30 HR, 100 RBI and a .300 BA, the longest streak in MLB history. He’s also one of four players to play in at least 140 games in each of the past 10 seasons. The others are Ichiro Suzuki, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu.
Tags: 2011, affects, blog, ESPN, Injury, Just, More, Pujols, Than â€"
Dennis Rodman got real physical at a bar in Akron, Ohio earlier this week, TMZ has learned â€" allegedly shoving a local patron after the man uttered two unforgivable words … “LeBron James.â€
According to the police report, obtained by TMZ, the man in question â€" named Michael Douglas (NOT the actor) â€" stopped by a local bar after he heard Rodman was drinking there.
According to the report, Douglas walked up to Rodman and joked with him â€" asking if he was in town to check up on LeBron … and for some reason, Rodman flipped and shoved him back.
Douglas wasn’t injured â€" and as of now, police aren’t pursuing an investigation due to lack of evidence.
But it all must be news to the Worm â€" because Rodman’s rep tells us, “Dennis has no clue what this is about.â€
Tags: accused, assault, James, LeBron, Over, Rodman, TMZ.com â€"
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Car crash kills daredevil Dunn
‘Jackass’ cast member Ryan Dunn dies early Monday of injuries sustained in a fiery car crash.
Jackass star Ryan Dunn, who along with his cast mates made people cringe and snicker through vulgar stunts in their multimillion-dollar TV and movie franchise, has been killed on Monday in a fiery car crash. He was 34.
Dunn, a daredevil whose most famous skits included diving into a sewage tank and shoving a toy car into his rectum, was driving his 2007 Porsche in suburban Philadelphia when it careered off the road, flipped over a guardrail and crashed into the woods before bursting into flames.
A passenger was also killed, and speed may have been a factor in the crash, West Goshen Township police said.
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Fiery crash … police tape marks where Ryan Dunn went off the road. Photo: AP
The force of impact shattered the vehicle into several twisted and blackened pieces, leaving the Porsche 911 GT3 unrecognisable except for a door that was thrown from the crash and not incinerated.
A 30-metre-long tyre skid marked where the car left the roadway.
Both Dunn and his passenger were severely burned. Police said they were able to identify Dunn through his tattoos and hair, but the identity of his passenger was still unknown.
Ryan Dunn … died in a car crash. Photo: Reuters
Dunn appeared on MTV shows Jackass and Viva La Bam and the three Jackass big-screen adaptations. He also was the star of his own MTV show, Homewrecker, and hosted Proving Ground on the G4 cable network.
His longtime friend and fellow Jackass daredevil Johnny Knoxville tweeted on Monday afternoon: “Today I lost my brother Ryan Dunn. My heart goes out to his family and his beloved Angie. RIP Ryan, I love you buddy.â€
Another Jackass star, Jason “Wee-Man†Acuna, tweeted: “RYAN DUNNâ€" a super awesome memory was at the J RODY walston & the business show!!! I MISS YOU BUD!! You were always a happy kick-ass dude!!â€
Click for more photos
Jackass star Ryan Dunn killed in fiery Porsche crash
Steve-O, Wee Man, Ryan Dunn, Preston Lacy, Bam Marjera, Dave England, Johnny Knoxville and Ehren McGhehe of Jackass pose in the press room during the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010. Photo: Getty Images
Dunn also starred in the yet-to-be-released film Living Will. The film’s website describes Dunn’s character as a “party bum slacker [who] returns from the dead as a mischievous and perverted ghostâ€.
In a statement, MTV praised Dunn’s tireless humour and enthusiasm and said he would be missed.
“We are devastated by the tragic loss of Ryan Dunn â€" a beloved member of the MTV family for more than a decade,†said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music/Films Group. “The Jackass brotherhood will never be the same.â€
Dunn was born in Ohio and moved at age 15 to Pennsylvania, where he met Bam Margera on his first day of high school, according to a biography posted on his website.
Dunn, Margera, Christopher Raab (known as Raab Himself) and Brandon DiCamillo, under the moniker CKY for “Camp Kill Yourselfâ€, started making videos that featured them skateboarding and performing stunts.
Dunn was working as a welder and at a gas station when Knoxville, a friend of Margera’s through the skateboarding circuit, asked the crew to allow their videos to be part of the series Jackass, which became a hit on MTV and ran from 2000 to 2002.
Perhaps his most famous stunt, in 2002′s Jackass: The Movie, involved inserting a toy car into his rectum and going to an emergency room, where he made up a story that he was in mysterious pain after passing out at a fraternity party. Dunn’s X-ray from the hospital became a popular T-shirt for Jackass fans.
In a 2000 stunt, he dived into a tank at a raw sewage plant wearing flippers, a mask and a snorkel.
A few hours before the 3am crash, Dunn tweeted a picture of himself drinking with two friends. The photo has since been removed.
Autopsies were to be conducted, though it was unclear when the results would be released.
AP
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[View the story "Tributes to Ryan Dunn" on Storify]
ST. LOUIS (AP) â€" Concluding a news briefing about Albert Pujols’ injury that killed the mood at Tony La Russa’s charity golf event, the St. Louis Cardinals manager let down his guard.
“I’m going to go find a place to cry,†La Russa said.
Pujols will be out an estimated six weeks with a fractured left wrist from a first-base collision over the weekend. Baseball will be without a three-time NL MVP and the Cardinals, tied for first in the NL Central, are left to absorb another devastating blow in a season marred by injuries.
“You can’t replace a player of his magnitude,†general manager John Mozeliak said. “It just seems like we’ve had to deal with one injury after another.
“We still have to find ways to win games, and that’s what we’ll do.â€
The team announced the results of an MRI and CT scan Monday, one day after Pujols was injured during a home game against Kansas City. The injury is a non-displaced fracture of the left radius bone and his arm is in a splint.
Mozeliak said he hoped to have Pujols back by the beginning of August and the team anticipated no lingering effects from what the general manager described as a small fracture. Mozeliak said Pujols’ left shoulder was sore but no structural damage was found.
Though his .279 average is 50 points below his career numbers, Pujols was starting to heat up after a slow start and went 3 for 3 with a homer in his last at-bat on Sunday. He’s among the league leaders with 17 homers and 45 RBIs.
Pujols was hurt trying to make a tag after taking an off-line throw from second baseman Pete Kozma and the Royals’ Wilson Betemit collided with the glove hand.
“He hit me on my wrist and my shoulder,†Pujols said afterward. “He kind of jammed me back. It’s the toughest play to make as a first baseman. It’s a bang-bang play. I saw the replay a couple of times, but I didn’t really want to look at it.â€
Betemit said there was no way to avoid the collision.
“I was running hard and the ball arrived at the same time I got to the base,†Betemit said. “That’s part of the game. I couldn’t do anything about it.â€
Mozeliak said he hadn’t spoken with Pujols, who had been optimistic after the game that the injury wasn’t serious.
“I was optimistic we were going to get better news,†Mozeliak said. “I really was.â€
The 31-year-old Pujols is due to enter free agency this fall after rejecting a multiyear contract extension at the start of spring training. He will be placed on the 15-day disabled list for only the third time in his career and the Cardinals said they would announce a roster move before Tuesday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Among the top options are first baseman-outfielder Mark Hamilton and infielder Tyler Greene, both of whom were optioned to Triple-A Memphis last week.
St. Louis was tied with the Brewers atop the NL Central despite the latest in a string of injuries. Pujols was hurt three days after cleanup hitter Matt Holliday returned from a quadriceps injury that landed him on the 15-day disabled list, and Holliday also missed time following an appendectomy.
Third baseman David Freese, second baseman Skip Schumaker and pitcher Kyle McClellan also have missed significant time for a franchise that early in spring training lost 20-game winner Adam Wainwright for the season.
“It’s tough,†pitcher Kyle Lohse said. “It’s kind of been the story to the season, it just seems like every month something’s happening.â€
Freese and utilityman Nick Punto have begun rehab stints and Mozeliak said they wouldn’t be rushed back. Mozeliak didn’t anticipate Allen Craig, on the DL with a knee injury, back for 3-4 weeks.
Lance Berkman took over at first base after the injury and could serve as the long-term fill-in at the position, although both Mozeliak and La Russa hedged on that. Berkman began the year as a full-time outfielder for the first time since 2004 and said earlier in the year that he anticipated outfield play to be easier on his legs because there would be fewer stops and starts.
“Getting Lance in a place where he’s physically feeling the best is a really good answer for us,†La Russa said.
The new Miss Michigan, Elizabeth Wertenberger, said she hopes her struggles with a chronic illness, and how she overcame them to represent her state in the Miss America pageant, will be an inspiration to struggling children.
At age 13, Wertenberger was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder where the body attacks the joints and sometimes other organs. She said for a time she was taking 13 pills a day to get her condition under control, and she later had to undergo chemotherapy, which damaged her kidneys.
“The doctor said ‘Elizabeth, I don’t mean to scare you, but there’s no way you should be walking right now,’†Wertenberger said. “They told me I’d never be in remission. I’m in complete remission.â€
Now, she said she hopes to use the Miss America organization’s partnership with Children’s Miracle Network to give other ill children hope.
“When the doctors didn’t have hope for me, I still had hope,†she said.
Wertenberger credits her passion for dance for helping to save her mobility. It was a passion she decided to share with the elderly when she started volunteering as a teenager.
“I had this rare connection with the elderly that I didn’t have with my peers,†she said.
That led to her platform’s focus on youth volunteering with the elderly.
“We have a lot to learn from one another,†she said. “I think we need to take advantage of (lessons from the elderly) while we have them here.â€
She also plans to speak out about cyberbullying because of her experience in recent years. A sports gossip website posted rumors about her love life after she started dating University of Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier.
“I think it’s important that we speak out against it and we use the Internet for positive things,†she said. “I think so many people deal with that on a day-to-day basis. It’s sad. It’s absolutely sad.â€
She competed as Miss Southwest this year and as Miss Monroe County in 2008, when she finished as second runner-up. She then took a year off to focus on school and work, but realized how much the Miss Michigan title meant to her.
“I was able to realize how important this organization was to my life. I realized this chronic illness didn’t just happen to me, that it wasn’t just a fluke,†she said. “I had a message to share.â€
She recently graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design with a degree in interior design and a concentration in graphics. Her goal is to someday own a design company that integrates graphics and interior designs to help companies strengthen their brands.
Wertenberger said part of her personal brand is that she doesn’t fit the pageant “mold.â€
“They don’t define who I am,†she said. “I’m not trying to fit in. I’d rather be myself and stand out.â€
Email: mhart@muskegonchronicle.com
Tags: bullied, Children, Elizabeth, Grand, Michigan, miss, MLive.com, Plans, Press, Rapids, Wertenberger, Work â€"
NEW YORK, June 17 | Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:48pm EDT
NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) â€" An advocacy group for deaf Americans sued Netflix (NFLX.O) on Friday for failing to provide closed captioning on its streaming online television and movies.
The National Association of the Deaf, in a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court, accused Netflix of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by not providing the deaf with equal access to its “watch instantly†digital video.
“While streaming (video) provides more access to entertainment to the general public, it threatens to be yet another barrier to people who are deaf and hard of hearing,†the lawsuit said.
Another advocacy group and three individuals filed a separate suit on Wenesday against Time Warner (TWX.N). Both lawsuits seek injunctions requiring the companies to provide closed captions on all streaming video content.
The suit filed on Friday said Netflix provides captions on less than 5 percent of its streaming titles, despite repeated requests from the association dating back to 2009.
“We’re aware of and sensitive to the concern,†said Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey, adding that for several years the company has communicated its progress on the issue of closed captioning on its website.
In 2009, Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt reported on the company blog that technological difficulties were hindering its attempt to add captions to streaming video. The advocacy group argued that captioning is technically possible, pointing to titles already captioned.
“For people who are deaf and hard of hearing, captions are like ramps for people who use wheelchairs,†the group’s lawyer Arlene Mayerson in a statement.
U.S. law requires public buildings to provide ramps for wheelchair access. The suit noted that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires that “places of entertainment†provide “full and equal enjoyment†for people with disabilities.
The suit says that by failing to provide captions, Netflix, the leading U.S. provider of on-demand video, increases the sense of isolation and stigma suffered by people with hearing impairments.
On Wednesday, the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness (GLAD) and three individuals sued Time Warner Inc in California state court for refusing to caption its online news videos at CNN.com. Although many of the videos on CNN.com are accompanied by text, the script seldom matches the content of the video and is not a substitute for captioning, the suit said.
Time Warner and CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Terry Baynes; Editing by David Gregorio)
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Tags: deaf, Groups, Netflix, Reuters, Sued, Time, U.S., Warner â€"
Tonight, the Miss America USA pageant will wrap up and we’ll finally know who we’ll be sending locks of our hair and mixtapes with Dashboard songs to. Time to take a look at Amber Marie Collins, AKA Miss New York USA’s photo reel. She just graduated from NYU Steinhardt and “teaches an ASD preschool class at The Gramercy School.†Lets see, standard gown picture? Check. Bikini shots? Check. Same practiced smile in all the photos? Double check. GAH! What. Is. This?
No explanation is offered on her Facebook page as to whether or not she was on the set of Brian De Palma’s remake of The Glass Menagerie. And although we have to give her credit for breaking the mold of standard drab beauty pageant photos, who designed this dress made of Pogs? And why did the photographer ask her to give him the “Ash from Alien†face?
Perhaps more importantly, why does her Facebook profile say she’s from Los Angeles, California? What is the Miss USA pageant hiding? Who can we meet in an abandoned parking garage to get some answers? While we figure this out, enjoy the greatest beauty pageant moment of all time, courtesy of the Palmetto state.
Perhaps the greatest change to rental services recently came through Netflix and online streaming of video content.
Netflix Canada offers a wide selection of movies at $ 7.99 a month unlimited. While not all studios have signed on, consumers are largely embracing the method of renting.
But with Internet streaming comes a hidden cost put forth by Internet providers. Usage-based billing caused a frenzy in early-2011 when consumers were being charged for every extra bit of broadband use they went over their usage caps a month.
Petitions from OpenMedia.ca’s Stop The Meter campaign led to a battle between federal government and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on the issue.
The CRTC’s website says that “the CRTC regulates rates, terms and conditions between the telephone/cable companies and the independent ISPs,†but it doesn’t regulate consumer prices.
However, OpenMedia.ca says the CRTC has more to do with it than they’re letting on. “They don’t regulate consumer prices. But they do regulate competing providers and are supposed to ensure there is reasonable pricing,†says Lindsey Pinto, communications representative for OpenMedia.ca
“They were allowing larger providers to force smaller providers to adopt the usage-based billing system to compete,†she says.
“I can see why companies want this, especially when they regulate television product as well as Internet.â€
Many companies at this point have a cap system, including Rogers.
“At this point there is a cap. It hasn’t really caused a problem,†says Luiza Staniec, manager of public relations for Rogers, Quebec and Atlantic Canada region.
“If the cap begins to affect users online, we will abolish it,†she says.
The company offers different packages with different broadband caps, for all types of consumers. “If you watch a lot of movies, pick the package with the highest cap,†she says. “If you don’t watch too many, you don’t need the high cap.â€
As for the cap conflicting with Netflix streaming, Staniec says if the cap becomes an issue, “they can be adjusted to suit the consumers.â€
Netflix said in January that it expected $ 50 million in operating losses in international business this year. This could perhaps be due in part to the changes to usage-based billing in Canada, costing consumers more broadband to stream Netflix video than ever before.
Netflix previously stated to CNN that it was “comfortable with (the losses) given the size of the opportunity.†But a large portion of last quarter’s earnings report was devoted to explaining the Canada situation. Netflix called the per-gigabyte fees “excessive.â€
Netflix could not be reached for further comment. Eastlink, which provides cable services to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, has a similar system to Rogers, where Bell Aliant has no cap at all.
The fight over usage-based billing is far from over at this point in time.
“The government has sent the CRTC back to the drawing board,†says Pinto. “There will be a hearing July 11th, and a decision will be made sometime in November.â€
But in the meantime, the costs to stream movies and watch Netflix may be too staggering for some consumers to handle.
“It takes a lot of bandwidth to stream a movie or watch Netflix,†says Pinto. “People will stop doing things that will bring them over the cap. There will be a disintegration from these services under this model.â€
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Tags: billing, continues, fight, Internet, times, Transcript, Usagebased â€"
Twitter users are celebrating Lady Gaga’s win at Canadian entertainment awards event the MuchMusic Video Awards.
The extravagantly dressed, turquoise-haired Lady Gaga picked up the award for International Video of the Year for “Judas†and the fan-selected UR FAVE International Video for “Born This Way.â€
“#MembershipRewards†remains promoted in first place and is followed by the hashtags “#signsuasidechick,†“#wordsthatdescribeme†and “#mydadgetsnocallbecause.â€
A new fast food craze and “nutritionist’s nightmare†has become an internet meme, gaining fans and haters almost as quickly as it is supposedly clogging arteries. Microbloggers are obsessed with the “Fried Kool-Aid†snack, posting videos and pictures of the “food†and making sure their followers know if they would eat it or bin it.
Microbloggers are commenting that “Pajama Jeans†(trousers that are designed to “look like jeans but feel like wearing pajamasâ€) are a horrible idea.
“Pajama jeans? Nice try but it’s [...] unacceptable to wear Pajama pants in public†and “Pajama Jeans? Might as well make a blanket with sleeves… Oh wait, they already have that,†post Twitterers.
Disney movie “Horse Sense†is in seventh place, the Spanish word for pedophiles (“pedofilosâ€) is in eighth place and “Goodnight Twitter†is in tenth place.
The top 10 most talked about topics on Twitter on June 20 at 7:30 AM GMT are:
#MembershipRewards (promoted)
#signsuasidechick (new)
#wordsthatdescribeme (new)
#mydadgetsnocallbecause (new)
GAGA WON (new)
Fried Kool-Aid (new)
Horse Sense (new)
PEDOFILOS (new)
Pajama Jeans (new)
Goodnight Twitter (-3)
wordsthatdescribeme â€" Yahoo! News Search Results
Tags: awards, Fried, Gaga's, goes, index, KoolAid, Lady, MuchMusic, Twitter, Video, Viral â€"
LeAnn Rimes is not a diva â€" she just plays one on TV.
Sunday night, the newlywed singer/actress guests on the season 3 premiere of Lifetime’s ‘Drop Dead Diva,’ starring Brooke Elliott as an attorney. Rimes plays the ex-wife of a celebrity accused of a hit-and-run, and she’s walking into the role winking at all the perceived drama surrounding her personal life.
AOL TV spoke to the star about ‘Diva,’ how she and hubby Eddie Cibrian handle tabloid coverage, her brief foray into soap opera acting and more.
Lately, you do more acting than singing.RIMES: Yes. ‘Drop Dead Diva’ asked me to do an episode last year. The character they offered me the first time is the complete opposite of this one, I loved it. But the timing wasn’t right. They wrote this character specifically for me, hoping I’d do it. I loved it when I read it. The show’s great, really funny. I love playing the scorned ex-wife of a TV star.
Are you careful not to take roles from producers who try to capitalize on your off-screen life?Completely. And I didn’t feel that this was. There are enough differences between my life, what I’ve experienced and this [character.] People don’t normally see me in roles like this. They see me in love stories. To do this was really funny. During breaks people on set were like, ‘You play a bitch real well.’ (Laughs) I said, “Thank you! That’s a compliment.â€
What do you like about ‘Diva?’The message of the show is that this aspiring model died and came back in someone else’s body, who is heavier, not necessarily who she’d want to be. But she has this amazing heart and is this smart-as-a-whip lawyer. We think body image is black-and-white, but we all come in so many different shapes and sizes. I just love that that’s on television â€" that there’s a real woman on television playing someone incredibly smart and successful. They break into song every once in a while. It’s really fun and really well-written, too.
Did you sing in the episode?No. I plan on staying away from singing roles as much as possible unless it’s makes sense for the character to be doing it.
Hollywood tends to put people in boxes. Is it difficult to get producers to see you as an actress?
Yeah. That happened before, but as you prove you have talent [it changes.] My voice will always be my God-given first talent, but acting is a different way of expressing myself. I’m really enjoying it. I’m trying to find roles that are right for me and I’m enjoying them.
Do you and Eddie talk about acting?Yeah. He was on set with me a few times, and he’d watch on the monitor. He’ll say every once in a while, “Hey, try this,†or “Try that.†It’s always great having him around. But for the most part, we let each other do what we do. (Laughs.) He gives me singing tips most of the time, which is even worse. [Note: Cibrian sang in a boy band called '3Deep.'] I’ve actually been working on acting since I was 15.
You did a one-day gig on ‘Days of our Lives’ opposite Jensen Ackles (‘Supernatural’) way back in 1998.Jensen was so sweet. The whole soap world is so hard. The hours [are long] and they shoot so quickly. I got that script that morning. It was one of the craziest things I ever did. But it was dipping my toe into the deep end. I did it because Jensen is a good friend.
The NBC Salt Lake City affiliate doesn’t want Eddie’s new series ‘The Playboy Club.’No. I think the best quote was from NBC when [execs] said they’ll find some other station to carry it. It captures that era. They really recreated The Playboy Club itself, and the hair, makeup and styling. It’s all pretty genius.
There was a recent report about Tori Spelling in a car accident after being chased by photographers.It’s definitely out of control. They hide in the weirdest places. Eddie has two children. When my step-kids are with me, I get very protective. We can get bombarded. If we ignore it, then the kids ignore it. I saw what happened to Tori. I felt so badly for her. You can get so freaked out when [pararazzi] is following you, you don’t know what you’re doing. Hopefully, they’ll back off.
What do you want people to know about you after watching your gig on ‘Diva’?People will either go “Oh, my God, I can’t believe she did that†in a negative way or they’ll say, “Oh, my God, it’s hilarious!†After all she’s been through, she played that role! There are so many lies that have been told about Eddie and me. It’s just ridiculous. You go through phases where you can’t believe people are doing this and being mean and hurtful. And then you have phases were you just laugh at it because it’s so outlandish. That’s the place that I’ve come to. People may think I’m an incredibly serious person, but I have this really wicked, sick sense of humor. I think the way you see I play the role [will show that.] You’ve got to laugh at yourself and your life. You can’t take everything so seriously.
‘Drop Dead Diva’ returns on Sun., June 19 (9p.m. ET) on Lifetime. Read more from AOL TV here >>>
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