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Congressional Progressive Caucus: Back to Work Budget (pdf)
George Zornick: A Truly Progressive Budget Vision (The Nation)
The "Back to Work" Budget contains a $544 billion increase over current spending on public investments and job creation in the first year, including $75 billion for an infrastructure program, $155 billion for a public works program and aid to distressed communities, $80 billion for hiring teachers and $92 billion for reinstating the Making Work Pay tax credit. It also expands unemployment insurance, sends more money to the states and undoes the sequester cuts.
Richard Norton-Taylor: Iraq war planning wholly irresponsible, say senior UK military figures (Guardian)
Former chief of defence staff Lord Guthrie criticises Bush administration but says Blair government must also share blame.
Matthew Yglesias: The Glory Days of American Journalism (Slate)
Ignore the doomsayers: The news-reading public has never had more and better information at their fingertips.
John McDermott: "Lunch with the FT: Noam Chomsky" (Financial Times)
The linguistics professor is seen by some as a truth-teller, by others as an anti-US crank. He talks to John McDermott about the link between activism and academia.
Megan Carpentier: Steubenville and the misplaced sympathy for Jane Doe's rapists (Guardian)
Rape is unique in US society as a crime where the blighted future of the perpetrators counts for more than the victim's.
Libby Copeland: "The Economic Logic of Marrying Young (If You're Miley Cyrus)" (Slate)
During my parent's generation, couples launched their adult lives together and built families and financial stability along the way, whereas now, those of us in our 20s and 30s believe we should be well on our way to professional success before marriage. It would seem that pop stars like Miley Cyrus are forgoing that by marrying barely out of puberty, but in fact they just happen to work in a business that brings success at an abnormally young age.
Adam Tod Brown: The 5 Worst Things You See While Working in Fast Food (Cracked)
#3: Drug Dealing
Interview by Laura Barnett: Andreas Scholl, countertenor - portrait of the artist (Guardian)
The singer talks about the danger facing critics, suffering for his art and making a video featuring a bodybuilder with a violin.
David Haglund: Submitting Plagiarized Fiction Is a Waste of Everyone's Time (Slate)
Even putting aside the question of whether the already published piece of fiction was recognized, what has he proven? That it helps to have a personal "in" with The New Yorker? That it helps to make your name elsewhere first? This is news how, exactly? And different from other areas of life in what way?
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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly cloudy, but seasonal.
"Tonight Show" In 2014
Jimmy Fallon
It appears that Jimmy Fallon is a go to replace Jay Leno as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" - and that the long-running late-night offering will be packing its bags for a cross-country move.
According to the New YorkTimes, NBC has "made a commitment" to Fallon, who currently hosts the network's "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," airing after Leno. (The TImes says, however, that a deal has not yet been struck.)
The Times says that NBC is also building a studio in the network's New York headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to accommodate the switch in hosts. (Fallon currently tapes "Late Night" in New York; "Tonight" was originally filmed in New York, before moving to Burbank, Calif., in 1972.)
As for when Fallon would assume Leno's duties, the Times reports that the transition is slated for a fall 2014 timetable, when Leno's contract expires.
Jimmy Fallon
Pledge $3M To Maine Library
Stephen & Tabitha King
Stephen King and his wife have agreed to pay $3 million to overhaul their century-old hometown library in Maine, as long as $6 million is raised from other sources.
Tabitha King, the author's wife, serves on the building committee of the Bangor Public Library, which is planning a $9 million modernization. She's also a former longtime board member.
One of the library's most pressing needs is a new roof to protect its collection, described as the biggest in northern New England. The library's copper roof was installed in 1912, when the library was built, and library officials say it's beyond repair.
The Bangor Daily News, which first reported the Kings' matching grant, says residents will vote in June whether to borrow $3 million for the roof repair.
Stephen & Tabitha King
LP Turns 40
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd's seminal stoner album "Dark Side of the Moon" is turning 40 on Sunday, and the band's website has developed an interactive feature whereby fans can help turn a specially designed moon on the site dark.
Starting after midnight Sunday in England (8:01 p.m. EDT on Saturday), fans are invited to play back the classic album on PinkFloyd.com, then tweet their memories, photos or other thoughts and comments using #DarkSide40.
The collective tweets will darken a side of the moon on the website, EMI Music said on Wednesday.
One of the best-selling albums of all time, released in the United Kingdom in 1973, "The Dark Side of The Moon" was Pink Floyd's first No. 1 album in the United States. It remained on the U.S. chart for 741 weeks between 1973 and 1988, and has spent 30 years on the UK charts.
Pink Floyd
Renewed
"CSI"
CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" has been renewed for a 14th season, with series star Ted Danson's contract being extended for the series.
Cast members Elisabeth Shue, George Eads, Jorja Fox, Eric Szmanda, Paul Guilfoyle, Robert David Hall, Wallace Langham, Elisabeth Harnois, David Berman and Jon Wellner have also signed back on for the show's return in the 2013-2014 season.
The series, which is produced by CBS Television Studios and Entertainment AB Funding LLC in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Television, has been a reliable ratings hit for the network. In its current 13th season, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" has won its Wednesdays at 10 p.m. time period, averaging a 2.9 rating in the key 18-49 demographic and 11.9 million total viewers. It's also proven to be a global hit, scoring the International TV Audience Award for "most watched show in the world" three years running.
Jerry Bruckheimer, Carol Mendelsohn, Anthony Zuiker, Don McGill, Jonathan Littman, Louis Milito, Ann Donahue, Cindy Chvatal and William Petersen serve as executive producers on the series.
"CSI"
"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"
Cedric the Entertainer
Who wants to host "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"? Cedric the Entertainer does: He was named to the job Wednesday.
The comedian and actor will join the show for its 12th season in national syndication this fall.
He replaces Meredith Vieira, who launched the weekday version of the game show in 2002 and remained host for 11 seasons.
Cedric the Entertainer
Charity Buys Back Dresses
Princess Diana
Two dresses worn by Princess Diana will finally return to Britain's palaces after years of being in private ownership abroad.
Historic Royal Palaces, a charity that runs Diana's former residence, Kensington Palace, bought the two gowns on Tuesday at a London auction of the princess's dresses.
The charity said Wednesday the dresses will remain in Britain and will be shown to the public in exhibitions. It hopes to show at least one of the gowns at a display of royal dresses this summer.
The gowns are a Bruce Oldfield black velvet evening gown Diana wore in 1985 and an ivory and pink sequined crepe dress by Catherine Walker worn on a state visit to Brazil in 1991.
Princess Diana
Turns Self In
Bobby Brown
Bobby Brown has surrendered to authorities and will begin a 55-day jail sentence for a driving under the influence conviction.
Brown's attorney and a spokesman for the city attorney's office say the R&B singer turned himself in at a Los Angeles courthouse Wednesday.
Brown pleaded no contest to DUI and driving on a suspended license in February. He will also be required to serve four years on informal probation and complete an 18-month alcohol treatment program after he is released.
The conviction is Brown's second for DUI in less than a year. He avoided jail after pleading no contest to a March 2012 drunk driving case.
Bobby Brown
Judges Reject Appeal
Pussy Riot
Moscow's highest court panel has rejected an appeal by three members of the punk band Pussy Riot against their hooliganism conviction following a protest against Vladimir Putin.
Moscow City Court's presidium upheld the verdict against the band last week. The decision was published Wednesday.
The band performed a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral shortly before Putin was elected to a third term, entreating the Virgin Mary to save Russia from Putin. The court panel said this offended religious believers and disturbed the peace.
Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were given two-year sentences last August. Samutsevich was released on appeal, but her conviction was not overturned.
Pussy Riot
Sues Ex-Mother-In-Law
Neal Schon
The lead guitarist for the rock band Journey has filed a federal lawsuit in Minneapolis that accuses his former mother-in-law of libeling him in her blog posts.
Neal Schon says Judy Kozan, the former mayor of Waseca, has "attacked and harassed" him for years through Internet postings and comments in the media. Schon's lawsuit says Kozan suggested that he has failed to support his ex-wife and their two daughters.
The Star Tribune says the lawsuit references a Hennepin County family court judge who determined that Schon has exceeded his required payments to his ex-wife, Amber Schon, and their children.
Kozan denies ever mentioning Schon or her daughter in her blog postings. She blames a British tabloid for incorrectly concluding that she considered her former son-in-law a deadbeat dad.
Neal Schon
Michigan Facility Partners With Rapper
Medical Marijuana
A Michigan medical marijuana facility is partnering with a member of the Grammy-winning rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to cultivate and distribute a new strain of medical marijuana.
The Green Oasis and Stanley "Flesh-N-Bone" Howse have agreed to work together on "Phifty Caliber Kush," which they say has a noticeable floral taste and is an effective pain reliever.
Flesh-n-Bone Global executive Michael "Tony B." Bernardi tells The Flint Journal that Howse hopes the product can provide relief for any qualified, verified patient.
Michigan voters approved marijuana for some chronic medical conditions in 2008.
Medical Marijuana
Librarian Sacked For Harlem Shake Video
Oxford
Oxford University students are rallying behind a librarian who they say was unfairly sacked after students filmed themselves performing the "Harlem Shake" in a college library.
Laura O'Brien, president of the Middle Common Room at the university's St. Hilda's College, says students are investigating Calypso Nash's dismissal.
The Middle Common Room represents the college's postgraduate students. The Junior Common Room, which represents undergraduates, said it is asking for Nash to be reinstated.
The students say that college officials fired Nash because she allowed about 30 students to film their version of the global YouTube sensation in the library.
Oxford
Demolition Permit
Andy Griffith
The widow of actor Andy Griffith has gotten a permit to tear down the house where he lived for many years on the North Carolina waterfront, upsetting friends who had hoped it would be preserved as a museum or Graceland-type estate.
Cindi Griffith obtained the demolition permit Monday, according to Dare County records. County officials and friends confirmed the permit is to demolish a smaller house along the Roanoke Sound that Griffith bought in the 1950s, not the larger house that he and Cindi built nearby several years ago.
William Ivey Long, the Tony Award-winning costume designer whose parents were friends with Griffith and his first wife, Barbara, said Griffith told him in 2007 that he wanted to preserve the older home as a museum. The two discussed the possibility when Long had an exhibit of his costumes at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, Long said.
Griffith wanted the museum to include items from his TV shows, along with memorabilia from his music career, Long said. They didn't discuss whether it would compete with the Andy Griffith Museum in Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy, Long said.
Cindi Griffith didn't return messages Wednesday. Her husband's will doesn't mention a museum or the property. The will - dated May 3, 2012, two months before Griffith died - turns over most of his property and estate to the trustee of a trust, whose records aren't public. The attorney for the will declined to comment.
Andy Griffith
HBO Issues Odd Disclaimer
"Phil Spector"
HBO's upcoming film "Phil Spector" has taken a different tack from all the other recent movies that have been based on true stories.
That's because the film, which takes place during the trial of record producer Phil Spector for the 1993 shooting death of Lana Clarkson, insists in its opening credits that it is not based on a true story.
This, even though Spector and Clarkson are characters in the film, in which music-producer Spector is accused of the murder of Clarkson.
Continues the disclaimer: "It is a drama inspired by actual persons in a trial, but it is neither an attempt to depict the actual persons, nor to comment upon the trial or its outcome."
Mamet's film focuses not on the trial itself, which is a matter of public record, but on the interaction between Spector and his attorney Linda Kenney Baden, played by Helen Mirren. Baden herself served as a consultant on the film, but could not tell Mamet or Mirren anything about conversations that are protected by attorney-client privilege, even though those conversations, as imagined (or fictionalized) by Mamet, make up much of the film.
"Phil Spector"
In Memory
James Herbert
British horror writer James Herbert, whose best-selling spine-tinglers included "The Rats" and "The Fog," has died at age 69.
Herbert's publisher, Pan Macmillan, said he died Wednesday at his home in Sussex, southern England. It did not disclose the cause.
The London-born Herbert studied graphic design, print and photography before finding work at an advertising agency.
His first novel, "The Rats" - which depicted London being overrun by mutant flesh-eating rodents - took 10 months to complete and was published in 1974. It sold 100,000 copies in three weeks and was later turned into a film.
He went on to write 23 novels, selling 54 million copies around the world.
Most recent bestsellers included "Nobody True" and "The Secret of Crickley Hall," which was turned into a three-part series for BBC television that aired in December.
Herbert was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 - the same year he was named "Grand Master of Horror" by the World of Horror Convention.
He is survived by his wife Eileen and three daughters.
James Herbert
In Memory
Harry Reems
Harry Reems, the male star of the 1972 cultural phenomenon "Deep Throat," which brought pornography to mainstream audiences, has died at age 65.
Reems died Tuesday afternoon at the veterans' hospital in Salt Lake City, his wife, Jeanne Sterrett Reems said Wednesday. Doctors haven't determined his cause of death but Reems had multiple health issues, including pancreatic cancer, his wife said.
Reems was born in in New York in 1947 as Herbert Streicher. He served in the U.S. Marines before he ended up in the entertainment industry in the 1970s. He aspired to become a serious actor but was thrown in front of the camera while working on the production crew for "Deep Throat."
When the original male lead didn't work out, Reems, the lighting director, stepped in. He played a doctor helping a patient, played by Linda Lovelace, with a sexually sensitive area at the back of her throat. Lovelace died in 2002.
The movie, an unlikely box-office sensation, became a touchstone for obscenity laws and a target for anti-smut activists.
In 1976, Reems was convicted of obscenity for his role in the film and faced a potential five-year prison term. Celebrities including Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty came to Reems' defense, and the conviction was overturned.
After "Deep Throat," he went on to star in dozens of adult films, including "The Devil in Miss Jones."
In the 1980s, he left the porn industry and moved to Park City, Utah, where he eventually became a real-estate agent.
In 1989, a judge placed Reems on five years' probation and ordered him to pay back taxes after pleading guilty to failing to pay income tax on $35,000 in movie earnings. The court also ordered Reems to undergo an alcohol detoxification program and undergo psychological counseling.
In a 2006 interview with the Deseret News, Reems described his battles with alcohol and how his life transformed after he became sober.
He married Jeanne in 1990, the first and only marriage for both.
Reems struggled with multiple health problems in his final years and was hospitalized on March 5. His health problems kept him at home in recent years and he went through chemotherapy earlier this year for early stage pancreatic cancer.
Besides his wife, Reems is survived a brother. He had no children.
Harry Reems
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