What's Really Wrong With America Part Four

Sanjaya is back with a tell-all ‘Idol’ book

Sanjaya Malakar, best known for his hair-raising run on season six of “American Idol,” is back — and he has a tale to tell.

“I realized that I had a story that no other past contestant has said,” Malakar told Access Hollywood.

The “Idol” alumnus has penned an autobiography, “Dancing To The Music In My Head,” and is releasing a new CD of original music with the same title.

Written with Alan Goldsher and centered around his time on the reality competition, the book includes everything from his “grueling” auditions to taking the stage in the “Idol” top 10.

Among the insider info is a look at how contestants make it to the judges’ table. Potential contestants go through three auditions before they ever get in front of the cameras.

“Then they get on the show and they’re beat down,” Malakar said.

Still, Malakar found Simon Cowell’s criticisms fair — even if the snarky Brit didn’t seem to be a fan.

“His job is to really just tell exactly what he thinks,” Malakar said. “Whether that’s brutal or not.”

And after all, it was “Idol” that rocketed the singer and his ever-changing hair to fame.

“The show… really helped and formed who I am as an artist,” he said. “I basically grew up in front of everyone on the show. I was about to turn 17 when I first auditioned.”

While it was “American Idol” that gave him his start, when it came to recording his new album, Malakar looked to global influences.

“(It’s) world pop, like fusion. I have lot of different kinds of influences. I love jazz music. I love funk. I love R&B, hip-hop. I’m trying to comfortably fuse them with like a base of world beats,” he said.

And if things don’t pan out with his singing career?

“I have always been interested in math and the sciences, biological sciences,” he said, adding that he’s interested in being “a public figure” and pursuing acting and modeling as well as music.

But till then, he’s still got his “Fanjayas” — not to mention a steady girlfriend.

“I’ve actually been dating my girlfriend for a year this Halloween,” he said. “She’s in Seattle, she’s finishing her senior year (of high school).”

Mexico: Man admits dissolving 300 bodies

TIJUANA, Mexico - A man accused of helping a Mexican drug kingpin dispose of hundreds of victims by dissolving their bodies in acid was arrested in the border city of Tijuana, authorities said Friday.

A Mexican military statement said Santiago Meza Lopez confessed to disposing of at least 300 bodies over a decade, but authorities provided no further evidence to back the claim. Officials contend he dumped the bodies in graves, poured acid on them and let them dissolve underground.

The victims are believed to be rivals of Teodoro Garcia Simental, an alleged former lieutenant of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel, authorities said.

Soldiers and police paraded Meza, 45, before reporters at a cement-block shack on the outskirts of Tijuana where he allegedly disposed of the bodies. Two grave-sized holes had been dug near the walls.

The security officers had Meza tell reporters how he allegedly got rid of the bodies, prodding him to speak up whenever he mumbled.

Meza, who has not yet been charged, was arrested along with three other people Thursday at a Tijuana hotel. He told reporters Friday that he got paid $600 a week for his work and repeated his claim that he had disposed of 300 bodies.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration identified Garcia as one of 10 men it believes are battling for drug trafficking routes through Tijuana. The DEA said Garcia is the chief rival of alleged Arellano Felix cartel leader Fernando Sanchez Arrellano.

Mexican officials have blamed the power struggle for a surge in violence in Tijuana, the birthplace of the Arellano Felix cartel. The two men split in April after a shootout between their followers in Tijuana left at least 14 people dead, Mexican and U.S. officials say.

The Arellano Felix cartel rose to power in 1980s. Since 2002, four brothers who led the cartel have been killed or arrested, most recently Eduardo Arellano Felix, who was captured in October in his Tijuana home.

Mexico's drug violence has surged and grown more gruesome in recent years, particularly in northern border cities Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Drug violence claimed more than 5,300 lives last year.

In one case last year, authorities said they found human teeth and other remains inside barrels of acid left on a Tijuana street. Officials did not say whether Meza was suspected of involvement in that case.

Also Friday, two human heads were found inside coolers near police stations in Celaya, a city in central Guanajuato state, said state deputy Attorney General Armando Amaro. Hours later, police found the bodies with their hands handcuffed.

A message was left with the heads threatening allies of a drug cartel knows as "La Familia," Amaro said. It was signed by Zetas, a group of hit men for the Gulf Cartel.

What's Really Wrong With America Part Three

Judges: Mom not guilty of drowning daughters

CLEVELAND - A mother charged with aggravated murder in the bathtub drownings of her two daughters was found not guilty by reason of insanity Friday.

A three-judge panel in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court determined that 23-year-old Amber Hill suffered from a severe mental disorder when she drowned her daughters on Oct. 1, 2007.

"The court concludes she did not know the wrongfulness of her horrific acts," said Judge John Sutula.

Hill could have faced the death penalty if convicted of killing 4-year-old Janelle Cintron and 2-year-old Cecess Hill.

She remained jailed, where she has been held since the deaths, pending a civil commitment hearing on whether she should be hospitalized by court order. A hearing date was not immediately set.

Sutula said evidence from both the court's forensic psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist obtained by the defense concluded that Hill had suffered from "a major depressive disorder with psychotic features."

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mark Mahoney said the state believed Hill should be hospitalized.

"We will argue she is a danger to herself and others and that she be committed to a psychiatric institution," he said.

Defense lawyers did not dispute that Hill drowned the girls at the Cleveland apartment where they lived.

Defense attorney Fernando Mack had said Hill heard voices telling her to "do it, do it" on the day the children died.

Police said Hill called the girls' father, Jamie Cintron, at his job and told him that the children were "at peace." Cintron rushed home and pulled his daughters from the bathtub.

A forensic pathologist in the Cuyahoga County coroner's office had testified that marks on the older girl's neck indicated she may have struggled and was strangled.

Carolyn Hutchins, Hill's mother, said she thanked God for the verdict.

"Now my daughter can get some help," she said. During the trial, Hutchins had testified that she wanted to take her daughter to a hospital for mental health counseling before the children died.

Mack said Hill had since been medicated and was functioning well.

"She was a good mother," said the defense attorney Myron Watson. "She cared for those children. Those children were the center of her life."

Intersection

Hayward Street and Maryland Avenue

Price of Gas Today

The Rambler 22 January 2009

Word I’m drinkin the coffee tonight so let me break it down to ya one time like my name was DJ Lance. Yayerr…
It’s Thursday here for about another two hours forty minutes. I’m off for the next three so I’m lovin life . No football this weekend but Winter X has started, thank the good lord for ESPN HD. It’s clod. I mean cold. Cold like death creepin out your shithouse backwards. Did I mention the cold? Years and years ago we lived in Miami. Then we moved to North Jersey. In the middle of January! The moving guy looked at me and said, “Yo, I love jersey man, but damn it’s January, dude.” Should have seen it coming, man.
But it didn’t suck completely. Just mostly. I did get the chance to see the final live performance of the original lineup of Govt. Mule. They played a festival at Waterloo in West Jersey, in August 2000. Three days later, Alan Woody was dead.
Tomorrow being Friday, I will be paying bills and running the errands. I may swing by where they’re bustin down that old shopping center over there in town. I should hurry, though, it’s almost gone. That reminds me, I have to go to the bank tomorrow, which is right by where the demolition is going on, which reminds me, did I bring my check home or is it in my desk drawer… Questions for tomorrow, or two hours and a half hours from now, provided I make it up that long. I don’t really feel old and I like to stay up and kick it late when I can, but ten fifteen and I’m done, man. I think my grandparents stay up later than I do these days.
I’m hoping to take some pictures tomorrow. I know I said it was cold, but it’s supposed to be in the fifties tomorrow, who knows. I’ve gotten some good ones the last week or so. I’m lucky to live in a really photogenic place; there’s never any shortage of subject matter, it’s just getting the good lighting.
I would be upstairs watching tv right now, but I’m not into One Life To Live (OLTL ZOMG!). That was weird. I’m not allowed to actually touch the tv I paid for during the nine o clock hour, so here I am, wondering if Neil Young really did want to kill people from Laurel Canyon, or was he just really really drunk? I thought only good ole boys from the south got angry drunk like that, oh to live vicariously…
I do like it at night in the winter, like tonight, when there’s a little bit of humidity, just enough so it feels like it wraps you up and keeps you warm. Nights with rings around the moon, and it’s so light outside you can see everywhere.
I don’t have much else tonight. I’ve got a china cabinet over there in the corner of the kitchen, too bad there were no corners in the dining room. It’s a pity, most of my non sequitur go to Twitter these days, so not a lot gets stored. But on the really bright side, not much gets lost either.
I’ve been jamming to a lot of M Ward the past week or do. Today I listened to Stevie Ray and Jimi all day. I finally listened to all NINE CDS of this Chuck Berry box set I ran across last summer. I picked up about a hundred cd off torrents last weekend. Arrr!!! Ha! I heard Dave Matthews solo album recently, it was not terrible, I was impressed, a little. I have the new Franz Ferdinand, haven’t listened to it yet. I’ve had the new Andrew Bird for about a month and haven’t gotten to that one either. I bought Chinese Democracy and fifteen minutes later saw it in a blog. Damn. I always forget to look there first. I’ve been watching a lot of the original Electric Company with my kid. Good Stuff. Seeing those old ones makes me think of things I hadn’t remembered, maybe ever, it’s an interesting phenomenon. Remember, long before Spider Man shared a comic cover with a President he was on the Electric Company, cool.
Well, the coffee’s gone and so am I. We’ll holler at ya tomorrow, y’all come, now.

Intersection

Travers St. and Choptank Ave.

End Of The Day

Damn Seagulls

Seagulls don’t care, man. They do not give a damn about you. They do not like you and you just about have to run slap over them to get them to move. And don’t even think about waving some bread around. It’ll be you in The Birds, not Tippi Hedron.
Immediately after I took this, I gunned, it, took out about sixty of them, and drove like hell. The remaining 4200 followed me through three counties to my house, and proceeded to give me “one for the road”. Sleep soft, fallen gulls, sleep soft.

What's Really Wrong With America Part 2

Pa. man considered bank error ‘a gift from God’

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - A Pennsylvania man said he considered it divine providence when a bank error put more than $175,000 in his and his wife's account.

Fifty-year-old Randy Pratt and 36-year-old Melissa Pratt face trial in Columbia County Court on felony theft and conspiracy charges. They waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

The trouble started when a $1,772.50 deposit to the Pratts' FNB Bank account showed up as $177,250 last summer. Police say that instead of telling the bank, they withdrew the money, quit their jobs and moved to Florida.

They were buying a house in the Orlando area when the mistake was traced.

Randy Pratt told the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise he did attempt to ask the bank what happened, but was ignored. He said he considered the money "a gift from God."

The couple gave away thousands of dollars, including $25,000 to a Florida church shelter for the homeless, he said.

Randy Pratt remained in county prison. A judge denied a request to lower his $100,000 bail. Melissa Pratt, who told the court she was estranged from her husband, was free on unsecured bail.

What's Really Wrong With America Part 1

John Thain to leave Bank of America

NEW YORK - Former Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain will resign from Bank of America, effective immediately, according to CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino.

Earlier, Bank of America’s shares fell sharply after a report that executives are meeting to discuss Thain’s future with the company.

The report on CNBC followed news that Merrill, which was about to report a $15.45 billion fourth-quarter loss, decided to move up its year-end bonuses, doling out cash just days before it was officially acquired by Bank of America on Jan. 1.

CNBC reported that Bank of America’s chief executive, Ken Lewis, met with executives Thursday to discuss Thain’s future.

A spokesman from Bank of America declined to comment on a potential meeting.

CNBC has also learned that Thain spent $1.22 million redesigning his office — including $35,115 for a "commode on legs" — when he became CEO of Merrill Lynch a year ago. Thain also paid his driver $230,000 for one years work, which included the driver's $85,000 salary and bonus of $18,000, and another $128,000 in over-time pay, documents show. Drivers of top executives are often paid about half that amount.

Such expenses would have followed $12.2 billion of net losses at Merrill in the second half of 2007 as writedowns on mortgages and other toxic debt began to mount. Thain became chief executive in December 2007.

The outlays recall heavy spending on personal items by senior executives at other companies, including a $6,000 shower curtain owned by former Tyco International Ltd chief Dennis Kozlowski, and an office fish tank acquired by former Citigroup Inc executive Todd Thomson.

Bank of America has increasingly come under criticism in recent weeks for its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. The deal forced Bank of America to ask for a second multibillion dollar investment from the government as it absorbed the mounting losses at the New York-based investment bank.

On Thursday, Bank of America said it knew of Merrill’s plans to move up the bonuses.

“Merrill was an independent company until Jan. 1 of 2009,” said Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri. “John Thain decided to pay year-end incentives in December, as opposed to their normal date in January. Bank of America was informed of his decision.”

Bonuses were not paid, though, to Thain and four other top executives — President and COO Greg Fleming, Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai, President of Global Wealth Management Robert McCann, and General Counsel Rosemary Berkery — who requested they not receive additional compensation.

Bank of America last week struck a deal with the government to receive an additional $20 billion in funds as part of the Treasury Department’s bank investment program. The government also agreed to backstop losses on additional assets. The investment comes after Bank of America already received an initial $25 billion as part of the program.

Offshore wind farm clears one federal hurdle

WASHINGTON - Plans for the nation's first offshore wind farm got a boost Friday when a federal agency rejected high-profile opponents' arguments that the giant turbines would damage the environment off Cape Cod.

A bitter fight over the proposed wind farm has lasted more than seven years. Its foes, including Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., argue the wind farm would kill birds and endanger sea life, and harm the scenic area's tourism and fishing industries.

But the new Minerals Management Service report said developer Cape Wind Associates' plans pose no major environmental problems.

The new Obama administration will decide the project's fate. President-elect Barack Obama, who wants to double alternative energy production over the next three years, visited an Ohio company that makes parts for wind turbines on Friday. He takes office Tuesday.

"We're handing off to the next administration," said Minerals Management Service director Randall Luthi. "It is up to them to decide."

Supporters say the project will provide cheaper energy, reduce pollution and create green jobs. Various federal and state agencies have been reviewing the proposal for 130 windmills across 25 miles of federal waters in Nantucket Sound since 2001.

Cape Wind has pitted two of the most powerful politicians in Massachusetts against each other. Both are strong Obama supporters.

Kennedy vs. Patrick
Kennedy, whose family's Hyannis Port compound would have a clear view of the farm, has tried to derail the project in Congress, citing risks to fishing, navigation, aviation and the sanctuary of Nantucket Sound. On Friday, Kennedy criticized the agency's report and said the fight wasn't over.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a close Obama ally who wants his state to be a leader in alternative energy, has been a strong Cape Wind backer.

The developers, who have estimated the project's cost at $1.2 billion, hope the wind farm will be operational by the end of 2011. They say it could provide up to 75 percent of Cape Cod's power demands.

The turbines would stand 440 feet above sea level when the tallest blades are pointing straight up.

The report's conclusions were welcomed by supporters who see the wind farm as a safe, clean way to create renewable energy and new jobs.

"Massachusetts is one major step closer to becoming home to America's first offshore wind farm and becoming a global leader in the production of offshore renewable energy," said project developer Jim Gordon.

Opponents vowed to continue their fight, accusing the government of overlooking environmental, safety and other problems as officials rushed to approve the project before the Bush administration departs.

FAA still reviewing
Noting the Federal Aviation Administration is still reviewing the project and that the Interior Department's inspector general is looking into how the Minerals Management Service handled Cape Wind, Kennedy said the project would face tough sledding.

"I do not believe that this action by the Interior Department will be sustained," Kennedy said in a statement. "By taking this action, the Interior Department has virtually assured years of continued public conflict and contentious litigation."

The Minerals Management Service must wait at least 30 days before issuing its final decision on the project. That order will include a decision on whether to issue a lease, Luthi said. Approval would set the stage for Cape Wind to seek a federal lease for the project to be located in federal waters.

High and Church Streets.

Price of Gas Today

I think the last time I saw gas so cheap was probably before I had kids.