While Kobe is trying to get to Italy ( The LA Times Lakers Blog reports that the Italian team is now appealing to President Obama), Blake Griffin is becoming comedy king of the year , and Luke Walton is currently assistant coaching at The University of Memphis, Ron Artest is spending a little more time at home. Artest (a.k.a. Metta World Peace) and his 8-year old daughter Diamond visited the KTLA morning news today to talk about the NBA lockout, Diamond’s budding music career, the art of handball, and her new single “Hero,” which tackles her battle with cancer. Diamond was diagnosed with cancer at age 4, and now as a happy and healthy 8 year old, she’s dropping tracks with the likes of Sade to inspire other children with cancer to believe in the best possible outcome. Her song “Hero” hit iTunes on September 27. Artest was most recently on the tube for getting voted off this season’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’ and before that, for asking to legally change his name to Metta World Peace. Diamond Artest was quoted as saying that she, too, would like to take her father’s last name of World Peace. According to The LA Times , she wants to do it out of “love and respect for her father.” Check out Diamond’s new music video above and watch the KTLA clip below to see just how big Ron Artest smiles when Diamond is on: Read more here: WATCH: Diamond Artest’s Inspirational Response To Cancer
Beverly Hills News
Posts Tagged ‘ news ’
100 roosters, $1 Mil. In Meth, Steroids Seized In Cockfighting Bust
This cockfighting story has it all — 100 roosters, $1 million in meth, steroids for birds and a deputy named Peck. CBS Los Angeles has unearthed this feather-filled gem in which deputies investigating possible drug sales claim they uncovered a cockfighting ring in Lancaster, Calif. Deputy Lillian Peck told CBS LA that as much as $1 million in meth as well as the roosters and steroids were seized in the bust. Four men and two women were also arrested. As outrageous as this story might seem, it’s not even the biggest alleged cockfighting ring to be broken up this week. The St. Petersburg Times reported on Thursday that cops say a ring involving seven households and 350 birds was uncovered in Hillsborough, Fla. A possible repeat-cockfighting offender was also arrested earlier this month for running a ring in Medina Township, Ohio, according to Newsnet 5. And on Wednesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on a former cockfighting suspect who is suing Alameda County for killing the birds they seized from his home. The cocks were ordered destroyed by a judge because some had Marekâs Disease, a contagion that causes internal lesions in fowl. Read more from the original source: 100 roosters, $1 Mil. In Meth, Steroids Seized In Cockfighting Bust
Disneyland Employee Hit & Killed by Car While Riding Bicycle Home from Work
After leaving “The Happiest Place on Earth” on Thursday morning, a female bicyclist was struck and killed by a vehicle. The woman, a Disneyland employee whose name has not been released, was riding home from work. more › Follow this link: Disneyland Employee Hit & Killed by Car While Riding Bicycle Home from Work
Floor Plan Porn: 834 Fifth Avenue
Listen chickadoodles , today is a travel day so we’re a little tight on time. We decided a little last minute to fly up to San Francisco to cavort and frolic for a few drunken days with our boozy b.f.f. Fiona Trambeau as well as much-adored pals Miss Anne, Patty Cake, and Falsetta Knockers and her husband Herr Wordsmith. While there, iffin anyone cares, we plan to visit the Kabuki Springs and Spa for a long massage, get a new tattoo, and see sassy comedienne Chelsea Handler who’s in town for the Litquake literary festival . Anyhoo , as short on time as we may be this morning we’re loathe to leave The Children high and dry so we thought we’d quickly pass along some heavenly floor plan porn in the form of a monumental 15-room duplex spread at the insanely posh and lavishly expensive limestone-clad Rosario Candela -designed building at 834 Fifth Avenue in New York City. The grandly-scaled 3 bedroom and 3.5 bathroom residence, owned by the estate of deceased concrete construction tycoon Walter C. Goldstein , was pushed on to the open market this week with an asking price of $27,500,000 and steep monthly maintenance/common charges of $9,396. Current listing information does not include photos of the titanic apartment but based on the included floor plan there are a few highlights Your Mama would like to point out: –the 38-foot long (and nearly 850 square foot) paneled living room with wood burning fireplace and quartet of over-sized windows with views over Central Park. –the sizable service wing that contains a large with walk-in china storage closet, a fully-equipped kitchen-sized pantry, and separate breakfast room. –the extensive staff quarters spread over two floors that total 7 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, plus a sitting room with kitchenette. –the sweeping curved staircase in the capacious entrance gallery–the kind of magnificent architectural drama Rosario Candela is famous for–that leads to the ballroom-scaled upper landing off of which open three grand bedrooms each with large bathroom. –the massive master suite with fireplace, boudoir, custom-fitted dressing room plus two additional walk-in closets and a large (but windowless) bathroom There have been a number of sales in the hoity – toity building the last couple of years including in July 2011 when Broadway producer Hal Prince sold his terraced, high-floor duplex for $24,900,000 to Amabel and Hamilton “Tony” James, the COO of the Blackstone Group COO James Hamilton. In January 2011 retail magnate Leslie Wexner –billionaire He-rah of of Limited Brands –sold their Thierry Despont -designed duplex to property developer Samuel J. Heyman . Financier (and former ambassador to Belgium) Paul Cejas sold his 2 bedroom spread in May 2010 to ink heir and tycoon Maurice Amon for $15,000,000 and the previous month Charles Schwab sold his high-floor aerie for $12,500,000 to San Francisco based doyenne Miriam “Mimi” Haas, widow of Levi Strauss executive and heir Peter Haas . The year before, in March 2009, philanthropic Loews heiress Laurie Tisch dropped $29,000,000 for a gracious 13-room residence with 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms (plus a 4-room staff suite with bathroom), 37-foot long living room, pine paneled library, 4 fireplaces, and two terraces. Some of the other residents–or apartment owners–at 834 include Bing Crosby’s son Harry, philanthropist, haute couture queen and high society doyenne Carroll McDaniel Portago Carey-Hughes Pistell Petrie who once lived on the 5 th floor and now lives in Pauline Pitt-designed digs on the 10 th floor, and famously fat living former “King of Wall Street” John Gutfreund and his very social wife Susan whose live primarily in a plush Parisian apartment they put up for sale in 2010 but still maintain an opulent Henri Samuel-designed 16-room apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue that measures in at a hefty hefty hefty 12,000 square feet . Your Mama has many times discussed 834 Fifth Avenue and its long list of high net worth residents who occupy some of the most grand and elegant apartments in all of New York City. Kudos to the kids at Curbed for being the first real estate gossip site to present this astounding and astonishing property and floor plan. exterior photo: Property Shark floor plan: Brown Harris Stevens Here is the original post: Floor Plan Porn: 834 Fifth Avenue
First AT&T, Now Blackberry: Cell Outages Lost In Translation
NEW YORK — BlackBerry users across the world were exasperated Wednesday as an outage of email, messaging and Internet services on the phones spread to the U.S. and Canada and stretched into the third day for Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. It was the biggest outage in years for BlackBerry users, and strained their relationship with an already tarnished brand. It came on the eve of the launch of a mighty competitor – a new iPhone model. Research In Motion Ltd., the Canadian company that makes the phones, said a crucial link in its European infrastructure failed Monday, and a backup didn’t work either. The underlying problem has been fixed, but a backlog of emails and messages has built up that the company has yet to work down. Meanwhile, emails and messages from other regions to Europe were piling up in RIM’s systems in the rest of the world, like letters clogging a mailbox. That caused the outages in the U.S. and Asia, said David Yach, RIM’s chief technology officer for software. In a letter posted Wednesday on RIM’s website Robin Bienfait, RIM’s chief information officer, apologized for service interruptions and delays. She said email systems are operating around the world and they are continuing to clear any backlogged messages. “You’ve depended on us for reliable, real-time communications, and right now we’re letting you down,” Bienfait said. “We believe we understand why this happened and we are working to restore normal service levels in all markets as quickly as we can.” At Zenprise Inc., a Fremont, Calif., firm that helps companies manage BlackBerrys issued to employees, vice president Ahmed Datoo said emails started piling up on U.S. servers shortly after midnight. By morning, the congestion was heavy enough at a particular client company to delay all email for BlackBerrys. The pileup started to ease in the afternoon. RIM is already struggling with delays in getting new phones out, a tablet that’s been a dud and shares that are approaching a five-year low. In the latest quarter, it sold 10.6 million phones, down from 12.1 million the same period last year. The duration of the latest outage could force large businesses to rethink their use of BlackBerrys, said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. Many of them have stuck with the phones because of the quality and efficiency of its email system, but that’s now in question, she said. Consumers are having second thoughts too. Andrew Mills, a child abuse investigator for the state of Arkansas, said he’d been thinking of getting some other smartphone for a while, and the outage was the “nail in the coffin” for him. The 27-year-old has used BlackBerrys for five years, but friends and family have abandoned them, and he’s set to do so in a few weeks. “From what I can see on their new phones they’re not doing anything that’s competing with Droid and iPhone,” he said. In the United Arab Emirates, the two biggest phone companies said they would compensate their BlackBerry users for the mishap by giving them at least three days of free service. Matthew Willsher, chief marketing officer for Etisalat, the country’s biggest telecom, said it was acting in response to the “exceptional and unprecedented circumstances.” Unlike other cellphone makers, RIM handles email and messaging traffic to and from its phones. That allows it to provide services that other phones don’t have, optimize data service and provide top-class security. But when it encounters a problem, a large share of the 70 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide can be affected all at once. BlackBerry outages tend to occur several times a year, but they usually last for less than a day. One of the BlackBerry’s big attractions is the BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, which works like text messaging but doesn’t incur extra fees. That service was affected by the outage, and to make matters worse for RIM, Apple Inc. is releasing software Wednesday for its iPhones that works like BBM. The iPhone 4S will be released on Friday. Competition from Apple is one of the chief causes of RIM’s diminishing fortunes. RIM shares fell 53 cents, or 2.2 percent, to close New York trading at $23.88 as major indexes rose. The shares hit $19.29 a week ago, the lowest level since 2006. ___ AP writers Rob Gillies in Toronto and Adam Schreck in Dubai contributed to this report. Go here to read the rest: First AT&T, Now Blackberry: Cell Outages Lost In Translation
Hawkized Triumph Scrambler Auctioned for Charity
Roland Sands Design created a customized Triumph Scrambler to be sold at an auction on October 2 in Beverly Hills, California, as part of the Stand Up for Skateparks benefit hosted by the Tony Hawk Foundation. See the original post: Hawkized Triumph Scrambler Auctioned for Charity
Golden California Enigma
From between the eastward waves of water and the westward waves of humanity, a golden girl has reached the four corners of the earth. Exactly three decades and thrice three decans later, a red carpet is now being unfurled by three sets of trilateral hands masquerading as the Trinity. Thirty eager fingers are releasing the veil to expose the ‘goddess of gold’ for a mirror image rumored to lie beneath. Could they not have heeded the mysteries of nature instead? The same desert palms, Joshua trees, blonde hills, sunsets and beaches facing west indeed reveal the reflective clues sought, but alas. One brother seeking the birthright of the other has been lured afar from the center of the world to here, the end of the earth. With his physicality, psychology and spirituality consequently trisected, three shadows now seek a unity of purpose in this golden mirage as they war against each other in greed. This mirage, however, leads to distorted images and mysteries.
Frederick Hertz: Same-Sex Divorce Barrier Lifted In CA Courts
One of the nastiest dimensions of the battle over same-sex marriage has been the lack of access to divorce courts for same-sex married couples that reside in non-recognition states. While you might think that anti-gay judges would be thrilled to help these gay couples break up, in fact that is not true. Judges in Texas, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and other states have refused to grant divorces to lesbian or gay couples who went elsewhere to get married or have relocated from the state in which they got married, on the grounds that granting a divorce would constitute a form of official recognition of their marriage. Mind you, most of these couples are not asking a judge to grant them any property or alimony based upon their marriage, since they’ve already settled those issues — they just want to get an order of dissolution. And the couples have good reasons for wanting the court order. Even if they have resolved their financial affairs, they need to get a divorce so they can be free of future liabilities, and so they will be able to marry or legally partner their new romantic interest. The legal origin of these problems stems from what is referred to as the “domicile” rule, which means couples ordinarily can only get divorced in the state in which they reside at the time of their break-up, regardless of where they lived when they got married. The purpose of this rule, which goes back more than a century, is to prevent nasty husbands (or wives) from evading the divorce rules of the state they live in, by simply hopping across the state line to get a divorce in another state. For example, if a husband in New York didn’t like the property rules imposed on him by the New York court, it would be unfair to his wife if he could simply drive a few miles away to a more lenient state and file for divorce there. While these rules may make sense for heterosexual couples who can always get a divorce in whatever state they live in, they wreak havoc for couples who live in states that won’t grant them a divorce under any conditions — even if they’ve reached a property settlement with their spouse. This is a vivid example of where the denial of the right to marry ends up as a denial of the right to get a divorce. Fortunately, the California legislature has just passed a bill (which was signed into law on October 9th by Governor Jerry Brown) that resolves this problem — at least for those who came to California and got married there in 2008. It will also help those who may in the future get married in California, if and when Proposition 8 (which bans same-sex marriages) is repealed or ruled to be unconstitutional. The bill is titled SB (Senate Bill) 651, and the full text can be found here. The new law will go into effect in January 2012. It provides that if a couple got married in California but lives in a state that won’t grant them a divorce (which is presumed if the state doesn’t recognize their marriage), the California court will have jurisdiction to grant them a dissolution. The divorce case will be filed in the county where the couple got married, and the dissolution is supposed to be adjudicated “in accordance with California law.” There is a lot that remains unresolved in this new legislation, especially what it means to adjudicate a divorce in accordance with California law if the spouses are not residents. But for those who have been able to reach their own private settlement agreement, this will enable them at least to obtain a formal dissolution. And, while there is also some uncertainty on the details, chances are the dissolution will be honored in other states, even non-recognition states. This will allow the ex-spouses to enter into contracts as a formerly married person, and to be treated once again as an unmarried person. It’s a long ways from full marriage recognition in every state, but at least the couples that married in California will now be free to get divorced, wherever they live! Go here to read the rest: Frederick Hertz: Same-Sex Divorce Barrier Lifted In CA Courts
‘Hackerazzi’ Was Just Really Good at Guessing Celebrities’ Passwords
It turns out the man who allegedly hacked into the e-mail accounts of celebrities like Scarlett Johansson and leaked nude photos relied less on technical prowess and more on tabloid fare to commit his crimes. FBI officials said that by reading tabloids and keeping up with celebrities’ Twitter and Facebook feeds, Christopher Chaney, 35, was able to guess the passwords of celebrities. more › Go here to see the original: ‘Hackerazzi’ Was Just Really Good at Guessing Celebrities’ Passwords
Why’s Gumby Waving at You from Today’s Google Doodle?
Have you seen today’s Google Doodle ? Did you wave back? The doodle serves as a tribute to the late Arthur “Art” Clokey, creator of our beloved clay friend Gumby. Clokey would have celebrated his 90th birthday today. more › See the original post here: Why’s Gumby Waving at You from Today’s Google Doodle?
