Ted Kennedy: Help Raise the Minimum Wage (thinkprogress.org)
As many of you know, the federal minimum wage hasn't been raised in nine years. A minimum wage worker, who works full-time, 52 weeks a year, makes $5.15 an hour-$10,700 a year. That's not even enough to keep a single parent with one child above the poverty line!
Inside a rape trial (guardian.co.uk)
Twenty-five years ago, Barbara Toner was so shocked by the one-in-three conviction rate for rape that she wrote a book exposing the weaknesses in the system. Now the figure is one in 20. Why have things got so much worse? Toner followed a case from start to finish to try to find out
John Ireland: Curriculum Wars (inthesetimes.com)
Elizabeth Sevilla, a high school English teacher in Compton, says, "If this bill passes, my job gets easier. Kids giggle when the word 'gay' is spoken in class, because it is taboo. This distracts from my teaching, because I have to stop and challenge the ignorance. Many of them use it in a negative way, meaning 'stupid'-'You're so gay'-and this makes anyone who might be gay or have a gay family member or friend uncomfortable. But when the kids learn, for instance, that Langston Hughes, one of the great poets of the Harlem Renaissance was gay, they stop using the word as a weapon against one another."
Daniel McCoy: M. Night Shyamalan's Modern Library (ducts.org)
Introduced, abridged, and tastefully altered by the modern master of "Hey, Gotcha," M. Night Shyamalan himself, these matching volumes are sure to be a valuable addition to your home, apartment, friend's couch, teepee, igloo, or potlatch.
Will Durst: The Good and Bad News
The good news is failure is not an option. The bad news is it's a factory installed standard feature.
Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities.
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'Ghost Whisperer', followed by a RERUN'Close To Home', then a RERUN'NUMB3RS'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Al Gore and Rock Kills Kid.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Tyrese Gibson, Def Leppard, and Paul Morrissey.
NBC starts the night with a RERUN'Treasure Hunters', followed by a RERUN'America's Got Talent'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Orlando Bloom and Chamillionaire.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan is Bruce Springsteen.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson Daly are Xzibit, Wild Willy Parsons, Jeff Ross, and Radio 4.
ABC opens the night with a RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by a RERUN'Hope & Faith', than another RERUN'Hope & Faith', followed by the unwatchable '20/20'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Mariah Carey and Rob Zombie.
The WB offers a RERUN'What I Like About You', followed by a RERUN'Twins', then a RERUN'reba', followed by a RERUN'Living With Fran'.
Faux has a RERUN'24' (Day 5: 9am - 10am), followed by another RERUN'24' (Day 5: 10am - 11am).
UPN here has LIVE'MLB Baseball', with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California Angels visiting the Diamondbacks in sunny AZ.
PLEASE check local PBS listings for a FRESH'NOW With Bill Moyers David Brancaccio', the MOST IMPORTANT program on over-the-air-TV.
A&E has 'American Justice', 'City Confidential', another 'City Confidential', and the movie 'Touch The Top Of The World'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Dead Pool', followed by the movie 'For A Few Dollars More', then the movie 'Halloween 4: Michael Myers'.
BBC -
[2:00 pm] 'As Time Goes By' - Episode 5;
[2:40 pm] 'Are You Being Served' - The Club;
[3:20 pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 5;
[4:00 pm] 'My Hero' - Zero Tolerance;
[4:40 pm] 'My Family' - Ep 5 First Past The Post;
[5:20 pm] 'My Family' - Ep 6 My Will Be Done;
[6:00 pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30 pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Sweet;
[7:00 pm] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 46;
[8:00 pm] 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' - Episode 4;
[8:30 pm] 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' - Episode 11;
[9:00 pm] 'Absolutely Fabulous' - Door Handle;
[9:40 pm] 'Coupling' - Inferno;
[10:20 pm] 'The Catherine Tate Show' - Episode 1;
[11:00 pm] 'Spaced' - Episode 1;
[11:30 pm] 'Spaced' - Episode 2;
[12:00 am] 'Black Books' - Episode 1;
[12:30 am] 'Just For Laughs' - Episode 2;
[1:00 am] 'Absolutely Fabulous' - Door Handle;
[1:40 am] 'Coupling' - Inferno;
[2:20 am] 'The Catherine Tate Show' - Episode 1;
[3:00 am] 'Worst Week of My Life' - Episode 1;
[3:40 am] 'Worst Week of My Life' - Episode 2;
[4:20 am] 'Worst Week of My Life' - Episode 3;
[5:00 am] 'Without Prejudice' - Episode 4;
[6:00 am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has '100 Scariest Movie Moments', another '100 Scariest Movie Moments', still another '100 Scariest Movie Moments', followed by the movie 'Silence Of The Lambs'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Beverly Hills Cop', last night's 'Jon Stewart', last night's 'Colbert Report', 'Mind Of Mencia', 'South Park', and a FRESH'Stand Up Nation With Greg Giraldo'.
History has 'WWI Tech', followed by the movie 'Spartacus' (not the Kirk Douglas version).
IFC -
[6:00 AM] Sexy Beast;
[7:30 AM] Life Tastes Good;
[9:00 AM] Short: Moment of Clarity;
[9:15 AM] East Is East;
[11:00 AM] Samurai 7 Episode #12: "The Truth";
[11:30 AM] At The IFC Center #14;
[12:00 PM] Digging to China;
[1:45 PM] Life Tastes Good;
[3:15 PM] IFC Short Film Collection II: June;
[5:15 PM] Digging to China;
[7:05 PM] Lulu On The Bridge;
[9:00 PM] Scream 2;
[11:05 PM] House of 1,000 Corpses;
[12:45 AM] Confessions of a Dangerous Mind;
[2:45 AM] IFC In Theaters;
[3:00 AM] House of 1,000 Corpses;
[4:45 AM] IFC In Theaters;
[5:00 AM] Indie Sex: Taboos. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Wind blows up the dress of Russia's tennis star Maria Sharapova as she unveils the new Land Rover Freelander 2 at the pre-Wimbledon Women's Tennis Association party at the Kensington Roof Gardens in London, June 22, 2006.
Photo by Leon Neil
The Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" will receive a rare recognition from the Humanitas Prize, which honors screenwriting that helps "liberate, enrich and unify society."
"An Inconvenient Truth," which chronicles Gore's quest to draw attention to global warming, will receive the organization's first Special Award in over 10 years, president Frank Desiderio announced Wednesday.
Since 1974, the Humanitas Prize has presented awards and grants to TV and film writers whose fictional work reflects "the positive values of life." Documentaries are occasionally recognized with Special Awards. The last such honors went to Bill Moyers and Judith Davidson Moyers in 1995 for their documentary "What Can We Do About Violence."
A play about an American human rights activist who died in the Gaza Strip will open in New York in October, six months after it was pulled from the schedule at another theater amid charges of censorship.
"My Name is Rachel Corrie" is a one-woman show based on diaries and e-mails written by the 23-year-old U.S. rights campaigner killed by an Israeli bulldozer on March 16, 2003, trying to prevent demolition of a Palestinian building.
Producers Dena Hammerstein and Pam Pariseau said in a statement on Thursday the play would open at the off-Broadway Minetta Lane Theater on October 15, for a limited run to November 19.
British rock musician and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters performs during a concert at the Arab-Jewish coexistence village of Neve Shalom, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Thursday June 22, 2006. The concert was originally planned for a Tel Aviv sports stadium but, following criticism by fans in Britain, Waters changed the location to the village, where Israeli Jews and Arabs live in a shared community.
Photo by Tsafrir Abayov
William Shatner has always done an excellent job of poking fun at himself, but he's going to have plenty of help this summer.
The 75-year-old actor-singer, who starred as Captain Kirk in "Star Trek," will be the recipient of cheap shots and bawdy jokes - as Pamela Anderson was last year - at a Comedy Central celebrity roast in his honor, the channel has announced.
"Roast of William Shatner," scheduled to air Aug. 20 (10 p.m. EDT), will be taped earlier that month in Los Angeles.
Bidders flipped their wigs Thursday at a Manhattan auction where one of pop art icon Andy Warhol's signature silver hairpieces sold for $10,800.
The wig, complete with three strips of toupee tape applied to its inside, was worn by Warhol during the early 1980s. Warhol first began wearing the hairpieces in the early 1960s, and they eventually turned into fashion accessories more than a cover-up for his baldness. Presale estimates for the hairpiece were $4,000 to $6,000.
It was one of several lots put up at Christie's auction house by Jeffrey Warhola, the artist's nephew. A 1977 Polaroid photo of Muhammad Ali, signed by Warhol, sold for $19,200. And a Warhol Polaroid of Mick Jagger from 1975 went for $15,600.
A musical version of "The Lord of the Rings" is to open in London next year but the production has been reworked and cut after its world premiere in Toronto received some damning reviews.
"At a cost of 12.5 million pounds ($23 million), this is the most expensive musical ever staged in London," producer Kevin Wallace told Reuters on Thursday when announcing its London debut in June 2007.
The musical based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic trilogy will take over at London's historic Theater Royal Drury Lane from the award-winning Mel Brooks musical "The Producers," which has taken almost 40 million pounds ($75 million) at the box office.
Actors Jack Larson, right, and Noel Neill pose together at the film premiere of 'Superman Returns' in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, on Wednesday, June 21, 2006. Larson and Neill are the original Jimmy Olsen and the second Lois Lane from the 'Superman' TV series.
Photo by Matt Sayles
Andrew Wyeth has donated one of his watercolors to the High Museum of Art, following a retrospective of his 70-year career.
The watercolor is a 1976 study for "The Quaker," one of the artist's temperas that was featured in the "Andrew Wyeth: Memory & Magic" show that opened in Atlanta in November and now is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art until July 16.
The watercolor will be the only Wyeth at the High, where it was to go on display Thursday morning.
CBS said Thursday it is sending incoming evening-news anchor reader Katie Couric on a tour of several cities to meet informally with viewers this summer and hear what they're interested in seeing on the news.
One "town hall forum" is set for July 13 in Denver. Another meeting is planned for San Diego; CBS is not identifying other cities because plans are still in the works.
"It's an attempt to hear from regular folks on a whole broad range of things that will help us make decisions on how we can better serve our viewers corporate masters," said Rome Hartman, executive producer of the "CBS Evening News."
The meetings will not be filmed and reporters won't be allowed in to cover them, Hartman said. Denver CBS affiliate KCNC-TV, in a news release issued Wednesday, invited people to fill out a questionnaire if they are interested in participating. One hundred people representing a cross section of the community will be invited, the affiliate said.
Reese Witherspoon has sued Star magazine, alleging the tabloid ran a false story saying she is pregnant with her third child.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Superior Court claims a story in the magazine's June 26 issue falsely stated that she didn't want producers of two of her upcoming movies to know she was expecting. The story also suggested that Witherspoon, 30, was wearing maternity clothing, according to the lawsuit.
Witherspoon claims the story harmed her because it suggested she is hiding information from her producers. Being pregnant would affect her ability to perform her duties in connection with those films, the lawsuit said.
'La Gioconda,' a painting which bears a striking resemblance to Leonardo da Vinci's famous 'Mona Lisa' is seen Wednesday, June 21, 2006 at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine. Conservators at Harvard University were unable to confirm or disprove whether da Vinci painted it as a preparatory study for the 'Mona Lisa' or if it was done by a follower of da Vinci.
Playboy Enterprises Inc. said on Thursday it bought Club Jenna Inc., a multimedia adult-entertainment business founded by porn star Jenna Jameson. Terms were not disclosed.
Assets purchased under the deal include a film production business, a video content library, a network of Web sites and a DVD retail distribution deal.
Jameson and her husband, Club Jenna President Jay Grdina, also have signed personal service agreements with Playboy as part of the transaction.
CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said on Wednesday he was sorry about the bitter departure of newsman Dan Rather, who left the broadcaster after protracted talks to renew his contract fell apart.
Despite his longstanding role as the face of the CBS newscast, media watchers said Rather appeared to have been slowly pushed off the air since a reporting scandal over resident George W. Bush's military record in 2004.
"I'm sorry it ended the way it did," Moonves told executives at a PricewaterhouseCoopers media event.
Lego Group, whose iconic plastic building blocks have entertained millions of children for more than 70 years, said Tuesday it will shed 1,200 jobs to remold itself in an era when kids prefer playing with electronic gadgets.
The Denmark-based company, which is one of the last to produce toys in the United States, plans to close its U.S. manufacturing plant and lay off 300 people there in early 2007. About 900 employees in Denmark also will be sacked over the next three years.
Poduction will be moved from Enfield, Conn., to Mexico, where costs are lower, the group said in a statement. The company's distribution facility in Enfield will also be affected, Lego said, without providing details.
Chief executive officers in the United States earned 262 times the pay of an average worker in 2005, the second-highest level in the 40 years for which there is data, a nonprofit think-tank said on Wednesday.
In fact, a CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks, said the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
The typical worker's compensation averaged just under $42,000 for the year, while the average CEO brought home almost $11 million, EPI said.
In 1965, U.S. CEOs at major companies earned 24 times a worker's pay.
This handout photo released by the international Red Cross shows a proposed third emblem called the red crystal. Switzerland will host a diplomatic conference Dec. 5-6 aimed at approving a third emblem for the international Red Cross movement to include Israel, which has been denied full membership for nearly six decades, the Foreign Ministry said Monday Nov. 7, 2005. The Red Cross admitted Israel to the worldwide humanitarian organization early Thursday June 22, 2006, ending decades of exclusion linked to the Jewish state's refusal to accept the traditional cross symbol. The decision early Thursday completed a complicated process that included the creation of the optional, third emblem _ a blank, red-bordered square standing on one corner _ that could stand alone or frame the Israeli society's red star.
The final chapter may have been written for CBS' "Tuesday Night Book Club." The reality series was pulled from the CBS schedule after two low-rated episodes, a network spokesman said Thursday.
The June 13 premiere drew about 5 million viewers, with only about 4 million tuning in for the second airing. In contrast, reruns of CBS' popular "CSI" crime drama franchise are drawing 11 million viewers and up.
The Tuesday reality show, which followed the lives of members of a book club in Scottsdale, Ariz., will be replaced by reruns of "48 Hours Mystery."
For one type of orchid in China, procreating is a lonely affair. Rather than depending on insects or even the wind for pollination, scientists have discovered that the orchid Holcoglossum amesianum actually fertilizes itself, according to a report in this week's Nature.
The orchid defies gravity to twist the male part of its flower into the necessary shape to fertilize the female one, a team led by LaiQuang Huang of Tsinghua University found.
The orchid produces no scent or nectar, and the researchers did not see a single instance of pollination by an insect or by wind. Instead, the pollen-bearing anther uncovers itself and rotates into a suitable position to insert into the stigma cavity, where fertilization takes place.
This sexual relationship is so exclusive that flowers do not even transfer pollen to other flowers on the same plant, researchers found.
Richard Stahl, an actor whose more than 40-year career stretched from New York theater to film and television comedies such as "Laverne & Shirley," has died. He was 74.
Stahl died Sunday at the Motion Picture and Television Fund's health center in Woodland Hills after a 10-year battle with Parkinson's disease, his wife, actress Kathryn Ish, said Wednesday.
Ish and Stahl were both off Broadway theater actors when they met in 1959. They married later that year.
Claydes Charles Smith, a co-founder and lead guitarist of the group Kool & the Gang, died Tuesday in Maplewood, N.J. after a long illness, his publicist said. He was 57.
Kool & the Gang grew from jazz roots in the 1960s to become one of the major groups of the 1970s, blending jazz, funk, R&B and pop. After a downturn, the group enjoyed a return to stardom in the '80s.
Smith wrote the hits "Joanna" and "Take My Heart," and was a co-writer of others, including "Celebration," "Hollywood Swinging" and "Jungle Boogie."
Born on Sept. 6, 1948, in Jersey City, N.J., he was introduced to jazz guitar by his father in the early 1960s.
Later in that decade he was in a group of New Jersey jazz musicians, including Ronald Bell (later Khalis Bayyan), Robert "Kool" Bell, George Brown, Dennis Thomas and Robert "Spike" Mickens, who became Kool & the Gang. Other members would include lead singer James "JT" Taylor.
A flying fox bat, one of the 3 species of endemic bats found in Madagascar, flies in a forest in the Alaotra Mangoro region, June 17, 2006.
Photo by Benedicte Kurzen
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