Week of June 1, 2009
A missing Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris ran into
lightning and strong thunderstorms over the Atlantic Ocean, officials said
Monday. Brazil began a search mission off its northeastern coast.
Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse said, "it is possible" the plane was
hit by lightning. Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, left Rio on Sunday at 7
p.m. local time (2200 GMT, 6 p.m. EDT) with 216 passengers and 12 crew
members on board, company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand.
General Motors Corp. said Tuesday that it has tentatively agreed to sell its
Hummer brand, a day after the U.S. automaker filed for bankruptcy protection
with hopes that it will transform its most profitable assets into a new company
within just 30 days. The Detroit-based company did not name the proposed
buyer or the price, but said the sale will likely save more than 3,000 U.S. jobs in
manufacturing, engineering and at various Hummer dealerships.
A child has become the fifth person in New York City to die with swine flu. The
medical examiner is conducting tests to determine what role the virus played in
the child's death. The Health Department has refused to release the victim's
name or say what borough the child lived in. However, the Daily News identified
the child on Monday as 11-week-old Steven Montanez of the Bronx. The family
told the newspaper that the baby had the flu when his aunt found him
unconscious Thursday and he died shortly afterward.
Appeals court judge Sonia
Sotomayor is getting her first
chance to make an impression on
senators who will vote on her
nomination to the Supreme Court,
with a marathon set of Capitol Hill
meet-and-greets that kicks off what
could be a long debate.
Sotomayor's schedule Tuesday is
packed with roughly half-hour
meetings — known as "courtesy
calls" — that are as important for
the courtly tone they set for the
debate as they are for offering a
few moments of candid
conversation with the nominee.
Week of June 1, 2009
Swine flu cases have now been reported in all 50 states, with the total number of
people infected probably surpassing 200,000, U.S. health officials said Monday.
"It's accurate to say that there are probably several hundred thousand people
that have been impacted by this flu," said Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But that's in line with what we
would see with seasonal influenza if we had the number of cases we are
reporting right now."
New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize gay marriage after the Senate
and House passed key language on religious rights and Gov. John Lynch — who
personally opposes gay marriage — signed the legislation Wednesday afternoon.
Cairo Egypt - Quoting from the Quran for
emphasis, President Barack Obama called
for a "new beginning between the United
States and Muslims" Thursday and said
together, they could confront violent
extremism across the globe and advance the
timeless search for peace in the Middle East.
"This cycle of suspicion and discord must
end," Obama said in a widely anticipated
speech in one of the world's largest Muslim
countries, an address designed to reframe
relations after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
2001, and the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
President Obama is in the middle of a four-
nation Middle East trip.
The number of people on the unemployment insurance rolls fell slightly for the
first time in 20 weeks, while the tally of new jobless claims also dipped, the
government said Thursday. The Labor Department report provides a glimmer of
good news for job seekers, though both drops were small and the figures remain
significantly above the levels associated with a healthy economy.
France - Recalling the "unimaginable hell" of D-Day suffering, President Barack
Obama paid tribute Saturday to the against-all-odds Allied landings that broke
Nazi Germany's grip on France and turned the tide of history.
"The sheer improbability of this victory is part of what makes D-Day so
memorable," Obama said. He spoke under a sunny sky at the American
Cemetery on cliffs overlooking Omaha Beach and the rest of the Normandy
coastline where on June 6, 1944 Allied ships disgorged American, British and
Week of June 1, 2009
Canadian soldiers under the withering fire of Nazi troops awaiting the Allies'
cross-channel gamble.
Soldiers fought for two hours with armed men apparently holding police hostage
at a house in Acapulco, leaving one soldier and 15 gunmen dead, a military
official said Sunday. Three soldiers and three Mexican bystanders were
wounded. Several Mexican tourists were evacuated from small hotels in the old
Acapulco neighborhood, which was once popular with Hollywood stars but has
since become run-down. The gunbattle erupted Saturday night when soldiers
received a tip about the presence of armed men at a gated house, said an army
colonel who led the operation and spoke on condition of anonymity for security
reasons.
Three Indiana state pension and construction funds want the Supreme Court to
block Chrysler's sale to Fiat so they can pursue an appeal in hopes of getting a
better deal. The funds filed emergency papers at the high court early Sunday.
An appeals court in New York approved the sale Friday, but gave objectors until
Monday afternoon to try to get the Supreme Court to intervene. Chrysler LLC
wants to sell the bulk of its assets to a group led by Italy's Fiat Group SpA as part
of its plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
Lindsay Lohan took to what
appears to be her official Twitter
page to defend herself after
"Celebrity Rehab's" Dr. Drew
Pinsky expressed concern over
the actress in comments to
Parade Magazine. "I thought
REAL doctors talk to patients in
offices behind closed doors,"
she Tweeted on Friday, not
referring directly to Dr. Drew.
"Am I wrong? Hmmmmm. I
think NOT! Yay!" I'm convinced
that she'll get sober one day,"
he said. "But I'm afraid that
between now and then, she
may get a nearly mortal wound
of some type. I'm really
convinced that something horrible is going to have to happen to her before she
really gets over it and embraces sobriety. She needs to give it up. I have this
image that she's going to lose a limb or something before she does. And it scares
me."
Week of June 1, 2009
Technology - Microsoft said it is buying the assets of Rosetta Biosoftware, a unit
of Merck, as part of an effort to expand into the life sciences software arena. The
Rosetta technology will be used to add genetic and genomic data management
abilities to Microsoft's recently announced Amalga Life Sciences effort.
Microsoft’s new Bing
search engine in its
first week on the
planet, but did that
early buzz translate
into traffic? A report
suggested that Bing's
debut was successful
enough to eclipse
Yahoo Search during
its first week, but
subsequent analysis
from Search Engine
Land and other data of
sites suggests otherwise. Statcounter, a Web traffic tracking company, reported
that as of Thursday, June 4, Bing accounted for 16.28 percent of the U.S. search
market, surpassing Yahoo's 10.22 percent just days after going live on Monday.
Worldwide, Bing's advantage was said to be slimmer (5.62 percent to Yahoo's
5.13 percent). But, Statcounter's data is "based on aggregate data collected by
Statcounter on a sample exceeding 4 billion page views per month collected from
across the Statcounter network of more than 3 million Web sites. Stats are
updated and made available every 4 hours, however are subject to quality
assurance testing and revision for 7 days from publication," according to the
company.
AMD launched its first six-core processor, which will compete against Intel's
"Dunnington" chip. The "Istanbul" Opteron processor is for high-end server
computers that use two, four, and eight processors or "sockets." Istanbul boasts
up to 34 percent more performance-per-watt over the previous-generation quad-
core processors.
Trend - Both Sony and Microsoft pushed upcoming services and devices that
allow users to download full games to their hardware. For Microsoft, it's a new
arm of its online marketplace that will let gamers download full retail games to
their system's hard drives. For Sony, it's the new PSP Go, a slimmed-down
version of its flagship portable gaming hardware that does away with its game
slot in place of pushing Wi-Fi game downloads to its 16GB of built-in memory.
Week of June 1, 2009
Both companies are pushing direct downloads as the premiere way to buy new
games, and many are expecting the direct-downloading technology to be one of
the main selling points in the next generation of gaming hardware. As a side
effect, the new revenue model largely cuts out used game retailers, since there's
less physical media to resell or swap with friends.
Entertainment -
Singer Susan Boyle was being treated
for exhaustion at a mental health clinic
Monday after taking second place in a
TV talent competition that turned the
humble church volunteer into a global
star, the show's producers and a
newspaper said. Boyle was admitted to
London's Priory Clinic on Sunday, a day
after she finished behind a male dance
group on the show "Britain's Got
Talent," the Sun newspaper reported.
The hit films “Twilight” and
“Slumdog
Millionaire” " were set to battle it out at
the"2009 MTV Movie Awards" but it
wasn't much of a fight, as "Twilight"
took the biggest bite of Golden Popcorn
with five awards. MTV cranked up the
cinematic fun quotient this year by
debuting the two new categories "Best
Song From a Movie" and "Best WTF
Moment." Those new
categories enabled fans to vote on movie soundtrack hits such as "The Climb"
from "Hannah Montana: The Movie:" as well as pick this year's most jaw-
dropping "WTF" movie moment that left audiences speechless, such as the
naked break-up scene in "Forgetting Sarah Marshal."
Conan O'Brien made his Tonight Show debut Monday -- but critics weren't
exactly roaring with laughter. "After one show, let's say he's a work in progress,"
wrote Randee Dawn of The Hollywood Reporter. "O'Brien commanded the stage,
but seemed more comfortable laughing it up with erstwhile sidekick-turned-
announcer Andy Richter than in interacting with his 380 audience members."
O'Brien's opening monologue mostly consisted of "sketch upon sketch" - notes
New York Post TV critic Linda Stasi -- most of which were "at times, painfully
unfunny."
Week of June 1, 2009
Paul McCartney and
Ringo Starr came together
to promote "The Beatles:
Rock Band" video game.
The two surviving Beatles,
along with Yoko Ono and
Olivia Harrison, appeared
Monday at Microsoft's
Electronic Entertainment
Expo presentation at the
University of Southern
California's Galen Center.
Ono and Harrison were
briefly introduced, but didn't
say anything before McCartney and Starr appeared on stage to banter about the
upcoming game. "Whoever thought we'd end up as androids?" joked McCartney.
In the music game developed by Harmonix and published by MTV Games,
players will be able to follow — and perform as — members of the legendary
music group, beginning with their early days in 1963 Liverpool through their final
rooftop performance. Unlike its "Rock Band" predecessor, "The Beatles" edition
will feature three-part vocal harmonies.
Disney Channel has closed a deal for a fourth season of the blockbuster series
starring Miley Cyrus. The cable channel also has ordered a second season of its
breakout new comedy series "Sonny With a Chance," starring Demi Lovato, and
has tapped Jeffrey Hornaday, choreographer of such movies as "Flashdance"
and "A Chorus Line," to direct and choreograph the fourth "High School Musical"
movie. There had been questions about whether Cyrus would return to the series
that made her a global star, with the teen actress-singer recently expressing her
intention to continue her small-screen duties as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana
for one more year. As part of the deal, Cyrus will get a long hiatus to work on the
feature "The Last Song," with production on the fourth season of "Hannah
Montana" slated to begin next year. (Filming of the show's third season wraps
this week.)
Miley Cyrus is taking her music on the road and bringing her rock 'n' roll style to
Walmart. Miley announced her 2009 North American Tour on Wednesday,
presented by Walmart, and promoted by AEG Live. And just in time for her tour,
Miley is launching a new clothing line with designer Max Azria of apparel house
BCBGMAXAZRIAGROUP, sold exclusively at Walmart starting in August. The
line includes tops, pants, graphic tees, shoes and accessories all priced below
$20.
Week of June 1, 2009
Brad Pitt is at studio in L.A. working on pre-production for his next movie,
Moneyball , Usmagazine.com has learned. The film -- based off the 2003 book,
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game -- centers around the Oakland
Athletics baseball team. Pitt will play Billy Beane, the A's general manager who
assembled the team on shoestring budget with new technology to draft players.
U.S. President Barack Obama is the first sitting head of state to make the Forbes
Celebrity 100 Power List, with his many magazine covers and best-selling books
blurring the line between politics and celebrity. The president came in at No. 49
on the annual list released on Wednesday -- which ranks celebrities based on
their earnings and mentions in the media -- after he made $2.5 million last year
from his two best-selling books. "Obama is hands-down the most famous person
in the world," said Lacey Rose of Forbes magazine. "His historic presidential run
helped him sell more than a million copies of his books; he landed on many
magazine
It's official: Angelina is the most powerful celebrity in the world.
So says Forbes magazine's annual Celebrity 100 list. - releases this week.
The star -- who earned $27 million last year - knocked Oprah Winfrey out of the
top spot, which the talk show host has held for the past two years.
"American Idol" champion Kris Allen will
sing the U.S. national anthem on Sunday
before the second game of the NBA finals,
pairing the winner of TV's top-rated talent
show with U.S. professional basketball's
biggest series.
The 23-year-old Allen, a student from
Arkansas, won the 2009 season of the
popular singing contest, defeating presumed
front-runner Adam Lambert who was known
for his outlandish style.
The Tony Awards will include a few bona fide
music stars among the usual song-and-
dance numbers. Elton John, Dolly Parton
and Poison will help toast Broadway's finest
at Sunday's ceremony, performing with the casts of top-nominated shows "Billy
Elliot The Musical," "9 to 5 The Musical" and "Rock of Ages."
Hip TV Saturday Night (TVS)
Week of June 1, 2009
HBO2 has a True Blood marathon all night.
At 8, NBC has the Penguins/Red Wings game.
GSN has the Game Show Awards at 8.
At 8:30, CBS has a new Worst Week , then new episodes of Harper's Island
and 48 Hours Mystery .
FOX has a new Cops at 8:30, then a new America's Most Wanted .
At 9, BBC America has a new Primeval at 9, followed by a new Graham Norton
Show .
CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show at 9.
Also at 9: Hallmark has the movie Come Dance At My Wedding .
At 10, ABC has a new Pushing Daisies .
Travel Channel has a new Samantha Brown's Great Weekends at 10.
At 12:30AM, Cartoon Network has two
new episodes of Bleach .
Radio news - Casey Kasem no longer
relevant to current music as Premiere
Radio yanks his “American Top 10” and
“American Top 20” syndicated countdown
shows. Kasem started the national
countdown genre back in July of 1970 with
“American Top 40.”
Top movies this week -
Up
Night at the Museum: Battle of the
Smithsonian
Drag Me To Hell
Star Trek
Angels & Demons
Dance Flick
X-Men Origins: Wolverines
Ghosts of Girfriends Past
Obsessed
The Brothers Bloom
The Soloist
17 Again
Hannah Montana The Movie
Race to Witch Mountain
Earth
Monsters vs. Aliens
Fast & Furious
Week of June 1, 2009