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http://www.wbaltv.com/video/22705544/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/01/2010-03-01_wiseguys_tickets_charged_with_hacking_into_ticketmaster_livenation_to_illegally_.html

Jonathan Saltzman and John R. Ellement

Globe Staff

Boston police said today they feared thousands of people will descend on the Hynes Convention Center later this week for a bridal show – only to discover the "show" was an Internet scam.

"What we found out is that there is no show,'' Detective Steve Blair said at police headquarters this afternoon. "It was a scam.''

According to police, someone set up a bogus website and created accounts on Twitter and Facebook, all to promote "The Boston 411 Bridal & Home Show 2010.'' The promotions claimed it would be held at the convention center March 5-7.

Blair said today an estimated 5,000 people paid at least $15 a person and that about 200 businesses also paid fees, ranging from $350 to $4,000. The payments were made through PayPal, police said.

Police said they began their investigation last week, but decided to hold a press conference today to alert the victims about the scam so they could cancel any travel plans they had for coming to Boston.

Police set up a special e-mail account they want victims to use so they can gather evidence in the case. The address is victims.bpd@cityofboston.gov.

The scammer or scammers have not yet been identified, but on the website announcing the bridal show, a woman by the name of Jamie Edwards of Boston appears to be the contact person for the fake event. The site includes a Boston-area telephone number.

Jimmy Jay was at police headquarters today listening as Blair briefed the press on the scam. Jay, 60 and of Weymouth, said he lost time and money to the scammer.

After a series of conversations with Jamie Edwards, Jay produced radio ads for the show in return for getting the cut-rate price of $335 for booth rental, he said.

"I am shocked,'' he said. "It amazes me that this would happen, that I'd get caught up in this sort of thing because I am pretty sharp.''

Jay said he personally knew 55 vendors who fell prey to the scam.

"I'm in disbelief,'' he said.

The scam included the Twitter account of theboston411. Today, the account indicated that it had been active since last fall and that it was used to 'tweet' announcements of the bridal show beginning Sept. 23.

5,200 strip for nude photo shoot at Sydney Opera House by photographer Spencer Tunick

EDS NOTE: NUDITY Members of the public begin to gather to watch as nude people gather on the steps of the Sydney Opera House to pose for a photo by Spencer Tunick of the U.S. , Monday, March 1, 2010. Some 5,200 people stripped down for the commissioned photo that is title "Mardis Gras: The Base." (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft) (Rick Rycroft, AP / March 1, 2010)

Home seized for dental bill -- fight goes on

Pamela Manson

The Salt Lake Tribune

02/25/2010 06:30:06 PM MST

A Salt Lake City woman who could lose her house over an unpaid dental bill has been granted another round in her fight to keep it.

The Utah Court of Appeals on Thursday said Capri Ramos can ask a trial court judge to void the sale of her house at a county auction in 1996.

Ramos bought the Glendale home for $51,000 in 1994 with a low-income homeowners loan from Salt Lake City. She has continued living there and making payments on the home during the fight over ownership.

In 1995, Ramos was charged $68 for dental treatment for her daughter and failed to pay the bill. Collection agency North American Recovery sued her and Ramos did not contest the action.

The Salt Lake County sheriff's department then was ordered to sell Ramos' real estate to pay off the debt, which had reached $958 with interest and added fees. The house was sold at auction for $1,550 and transferred to Salt Lake City-based Jarmaccc Properties LLC.

Court records indicate Ramos was served with notices of the sale, but she has claimed she knew nothing of it until 1998.

Ramos paid $1,200 to Jarmaccc through a bankruptcy and sued in 3rd District Court for return of the house. She claims the title should be returned under her bankruptcy plan and that there were inaccuracies that voided the 1996 sale documents.

Ramos won the case, but the Utah Court of Appeals returned the home to Jarmaccc in 2008 after ruling Ramos should have filed her lawsuit by 2002

Advertisementat the latest.

The Utah Supreme Court overturned that ruling last year and sent the case back to the Court of Appeals to consider Ramos' arguments that the sale should be voided.

On Thursday, that court said it needs more information and sent the matter to 3rd District Court for a hearing on whether Ramos had notice of the sheriff's sale and whether the sale price was "grossly inadequate," among other factors.

LINK TO ORGINAL STORY:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_13605591?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com

Flight Attendants' Fight Cancels Trip

A Delta Connection Flight was Canceled After the Crew Got Into a Fight

SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
Feb. 26, 2010

Flights are routinely canceled because of weather delays or mechanical problems, but passengers trying to fly from Rochester, N.Y., to Atlanta Thursday found their trip canceled for another reason: the flight attendants reportedly got into a fistfight.

Passengers told local news channel YNN Rochester that the flight, a Delta Connection flight from Rochester, N.Y., to Atlanta, was canceled after the two female flight attendants started fighting.

"Apparently they got into a fistfight on the plane," passenger Steve Mazur told local news YNN. "The pilot decided to kick everyone off the plane."

"They told us we had to get off the plane because stewardesses were fighting," passenger Corey Minton, also told YNN Rochester.

The regional flight was operated by Memphis-based Pinnacle Airlines. A company spokesman acknowledged that the flight was canceled and that two flight attendants had a disagreement, but disputed the fact that the there was a physical altercation.

Pinnacle Airlines spokesman Joe Williams told the Associated Press that the fight started just as Delta flight 887 returned to the gate after a passenger became ill.

Williams said that despite what passengers said there was no physical contact between the two women. He said he did not know the reason for the fight, which he called a "verbal disagreement."

The two Pinnacle Airlines flight attendants were removed from duty pending an airline investigation. Williams said the airline found alternate travel plans for passengers.

http://www.nileguide.com/blog/2010/02/26/6-secret-airport-museums/

WASHINGTON — The White House called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation today as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers.

In voicing support for a simple majority vote, White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle signaled Obama's intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under Senate rules that would overcome GOP stalling tactics.

Republicans unanimously oppose the Democratic proposals. Without GOP support, Obama's only chance of emerging with a policy and political victory is to bypass the bipartisanship he promoted during his televised seven-hour health care summit Thursday.

"We're not talking about changing any rules here," DeParle said. "All the president's talking about is: Do we need to address this problem and does it make sense to have a simple, up-or-down vote on whether or not we want to fix these problems?"

DeParle was optimistic that the president would have the votes to pass the massive bill. But none of legislation's advocates who spoke on Sunday indicated that those votes were in hand.

"I think we will get to that point where we will have the votes," predicted Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., a member of the Senate Democratic leadership. "I believe that we will pass health care reform this spring."

In a sober call to arms, Pelosi said lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public. "We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she said. "We're here to do the job for the American people."

Pelosi said it took courage for Congress to pass Social Security and Medicare, which eventually became highly popular, "and many of the same forces that were at work decades ago are at work again against this bill."

It's unclear whether Pelosi's remarks will embolden or chill dozens of moderate House Democrats who face withering criticisms of the health care proposal in visits with constituents and in national polls. Republican lawmakers unanimously oppose the health care proposals, and many GOP strategists believe voters will turn against Democrats in the November elections.

Pelosi, from San Francisco, is more liberal than scores of her Democratic colleagues. But she generally walks a careful line between urging them to back left-of-center policies and giving them a green light to buck party leaders to improve their re-election hopes.

Her comments seemed to acknowledge the widely held view that Democrats will lose House seats this fall — maybe a lot. They now control the chamber 255 to 178, with two vacancies. Pelosi stopped well short of suggesting Democrats could lose their majority, but she called on members of her party to make a bold move on health care with no prospects of GOP help.

"Time is up," she said. "We really have to go forth."

As a result, a new plan would call for the House to pass the Senate bill and send it to Obama. The Senate would then use budget reconciliation rules to make several changes demanded by House Democrats. Those rules prohibit filibusters.

Exactly what the legislation would look like remained a matter of negotiation within Democratic ranks. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, "is working with his caucus, the White House and the House leadership on strategy and next steps," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Sunday.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky renewed his party's demand that Obama and the Democrats start over and write a bipartisan health care bill. He said that while the reconciliation process has been used to pass legislation in the past, it should not apply to health care legislation.

"There are a number of other Republicans who do not think something of this magnitude ought to be jammed down the throats of a public that doesn't want it through this kind of device," McConnell said.

Pelosi said that "in a matter of days" Democrats will have specific legislative language on health care to show to the public and to wavering lawmakers. She predicted voters will warm up to the bill once they understand its details.

"When we have a bill," she said, "you can bake the pie, you can sell the pie. But you have to have a pie to sell."

At that point, added House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, top Democrats will make their pitch to their members.

"Within the next couple of weeks we're going to have a specific proposal and start counting votes to see whether or not those proposals could pass," he said.

Pelosi appeared on ABC's "This Week" and CNN's "State of the Union." DeParle and Cantor were on NBC's "Meet the Press," Hoyer was on CBS' "Face the Nation," while Menendez appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and McConnell spoke on CNN.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/politics/pelosi_career_dems_support_health_rv5IyPk9kkDq3eM9vaiVJJ/1#ixzz0grnDLf48

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-md.taylor28feb28,0,7279254.story

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-wjz-trashtruck0227,0,2651593.htmlstory

Michael Jordan buying controlling interest of NBA's Charlotte Bobcats from Robert Johnson

Mitch Lawrence
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

 

Originally Published:Saturday, February 27th 2010, 10:16 AM
Updated: Saturday, February 27th 2010, 1:15 PM

 

Phelps/AP

Charlotte owner Robert Johnson is selling controlling interest in the Bobcats to Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan has saved his own job of running the Charlotte Bobcats by buying the Charlotte Bobcats.

Charlotte owner Robert Johnson announced early Saturday that he is selling controlling interest in the team to Jordan, who has been the Bobcats' top basketball executive since 2006.

Jordan beat out former Rockets president George Postolos, who, league sources said, would have replaced Jordan as the team's top basketball executive if he had been able to buy the club. Jordan and Postolos were the only people interested in buying the team.

League officials were skeptical that Jordan, a part owner of the Bobcats, would exercise his right to buy the team from Johnson, who founded the Bobcats in 2003 and was the NBA's first solo minority owner. The Bobcats have been beset by losses during Johnson's tenure and Jordan has been known in the past for talking a good game when it came to purchasing teams, but never following through. In recent weeks, Jordan was able to put together a team of investors.

Jordan struck a deal with Johnson minutes before his exclusive negotiating window was to expire late Friday night.

NBA owners are expected to approve the sale, terms of which were not disclosed. The league clearly wanted Jordan to step forward and make the necessary moves to become majority owner.

"I am certain that as Michael Jordan returns to his home state as the principal owner of the Bobcats the team will continue its growth as a success on the court, as a business success and as a valued community asset," NBA commissioner David Stern said in a statement. "We expect the expedited approval process to be completed by the end of next month."

The Bobcats are in contention for their first playoff berth. Jordan's recent moves, including the hiring of coach Larry Brown, have helped erase some of his earlier mistakes in the draft, trades and the hiring of coaches.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/2010/02/27/2010-02-27_jordan_buying_controlling_interest_of_bobcats.html#ixzz0gpRdTxfO

‘My husband just shot me,’ woman says in 911 call

Drunk man disputes wife’s account, says it was an accident

Orlando Sentinel

4:29 p.m. EST, February 26, 2010

President Barack Obama abandons Rep. Charles Rangel against ethics charges

Michael Mcauliff and Richard Sisk
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

 

Saturday, February 27th 2010, 4:00 AM

 

Burke/AP

House Way and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., makes a statement on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, regarding an ethics panel's finding against him.

WASHINGTON - President Obama abandoned his defense of Rep. Charles Rangel against a raft of ethics charges Friday as a handful of rank-and-file Dems echoed GOP demands to demand that Rangel give up his chairman's gavel.

White House officials have privately called Rangel "untouchable" in the past, but Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama stressed that "rules are put in place for a reason and that those rules can and must apply to each and every person."

Obama also said that members of Congress "ought to be accountable," Gibbs reported, "and that applies to everyone," including the powerful 79-year-old Harlem Democrat who chairs the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Rangel typically tried to wisecrack his way out of trouble, saying he would not resign as chairman following his "admonishment" by the House ethics committee for taking two corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.

Rangel snapped at reporters: "Why don't you ask me if I'm going to stay chairman of the committee in light of the fact that we're expecting heavy snow in New York?"

In a statement later, Rangel was defiant and unrepentant. He called the committee's report "ill-considered, unprecedented, unfair to Congressman Rangel, and wrong on the facts and the law."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) played for time, giving lukewarm support to Rangel on the issue of the Caribbean trips.

Rangel didn't "knowingly violate the rules," Pelosi said, acknowledging more serious allegations are pending with the ethics committee. "We'll see what happens with that."

Fearing fallout from the Rangel scandals on their own reelection bids, four Democrats - Reps. Gene Taylor (Miss.), Paul Hodes (N.H.), Bobby Bright (Ala.) and Mike Quigley (Ill.) - called on Rangel to step aside as Ways and Means chairman.

"He should step down until all this is resolved," Taylor said.

Other House Dems, including members of the New York delegation, withheld comment out of personal affection and respect for Rangel, but several acknowledged he has become a drag on their campaigns and Democrats' efforts to retain the House majority.

Rangel's office issued a detailed rebuttal to the ethics committee's charge that he violated gift rules by accepting free trips to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008.

The committee said it couldn't determine whether Rangel knew about the financing, but concluded Rangel's staff knew and the congressman should have known.

The committee has yet to rule on charges that Rangel failed to pay taxes on a Dominican villa, hid $500,000 in income and had a sweetheart deal on four rent-controlled apartments.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/02/27/2010-02-27_dont_want_charles_in_charge_rangel_should_quit_chairman_post__dems.html#ixzz0gnPFxNSX

Third-place 'American Idol' contestant Elliott Yamin became an unlikely voice from the Chilean earthquake after documenting his experience on Twitter.

Former "American Idol" contender Elliott Yamin was in Chile during Saturday's massive earthquake and has been tweeting his experience there.

"I just escaped w my life, from an 8.3 earthquake!!!…is everybody ok?…where was the [epicenter]?” Yamin wrote on Twitter moments after the quake, which was later determined to be an 8.8 magnitude.

Yamin's tweets were picked up by news outlets including ABC, CNN and NBC, thrusting the third-place finsher on "Idol's" season 5 into the spotlight in the hours immediately following the disaster.

"I was on the sixth floor of our hotel ... I was actually tweeting at the time that the earthquake struck," Yamin said in a CNN interview. "It was obviously without warning ... just a very abrupt kind of swaying back and forth. The building was swaying back and forth, as was my room.

"Stuff was starting to fall off of the wall. The light was starting to flicker on and off.

"I stood up and headed towards my doorway ... I was yelling very frantically."

Yamin was staying in Vina del mar, 90 miles outside of Santiago, when the earthquake struck. He had been in town for the Vina del mar International Song Festival.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/americanidol/2010/02/27/2010-02-27_former_american_idol_contestant_elliott_yamin_tweets_from_chile_during_earthquak.html#ixzz0gmD2jCYb

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/quake_tsunami

8.8 Earthquake hits Chile

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_chile_earthquake