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Friday, August 13, 2010
Meet Desperate Housewives New Boy Toy
Looking for a fresh start after her split from Orson, Desperate Housewives‘ Bree (Marcia Cross) hires a hunky handyman—played by 90210‘s Brian Austin Green—to spruce up her, ahem, house.
“Bree has an instant physical attraction to him,” explains executive producer Bob Daly of Green’s character, who is introduced in the ABC soap’s seventh-season premiere on Sept. 26. “But then over time it turns into something more.”
Unfortunately for Bree, her boy toy has also caught the eye of Wisteria Lane’s newest cougar, Renee (Ugly Betty‘s Vanessa Williams). “Suddenly by episode 4 they’re both going after him,” says Daly. “So there’s a little competition for Brian Austin Green.”
Illegal immigrant sues over lost custody of child in Mississippi
Mississippi officials conspired to take the infant of an illegal immigrant from Mexico so the girl could be adopted by a white couple, a civil rights group charged Thursday in a federal lawsuit.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said Cirila Baltazar Cruz was separated from her daughter, Ruby, for a year before her child was returned to her in 2009 after the intervention of the group.
Cruz had the baby at Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula in November 2008. Two days after the child was born she was taken from her mother when the Mississippi Department of Human Services deemed Cruz unfit, according to the lawsuit.
Cruz - who spoke no English and little Spanish and could not read or write - was interviewed by a hospital interpreter. The interpreter spoke Spanish, not Chatino, a dialect indigenous to Cruz's native Oaxaca in rural Mexico, the group's lawsuit alleges.
After talking with Cruz, the interpreter told one of the immigrant's relatives that Cruz was trading sex for housing and wanted to give the child up for adoption, according to the lawsuit. Cruz said in the court filing that she tried to explain to the interpreter she worked in a Chinese restaurant and lived in an apartment.
"When they tried to take my baby away I felt that I was done wrong, and I was very angry. It was a very painful experience for me and for my baby. This is why I want other people to know, because I don't want anyone else to go through the same experience," Cruz said in a statement released Thursday by the SPLC. Cruz is back in Mexico with her daughter.
The lawsuit, which names MDHS, Singing River Health System and others, seeks monetary damages and alleges the state officials conspired to deny Cruz and her child their constitutional rights to family integrity, said Mary Bauer, the law center's legal director. It also alleges Cruz was targeted by state officials because of her race and nationality.
"It's hard to put a value on losing your daughter for year," Bauer said. "It's one of the most outrageous cases we've ever seen."
The child was placed in the home of Wendy and Douglas Tynes, two attorneys who lived in Ocean Springs and were foster parents. The complaint said the Tynes were seeking to adopt. The suit alleges MDHS officials conspired with a youth court judge and the Tynes to keep Cruz from her daughter so she could be adopted by the couple.
Messages left at the Tynes' offices weren't immediately returned.
Even before the lawsuit, the case had drawn national and international attention, prompting a federal review and an agreement that requires Mississippi to notify the Mexican consulate when similar situations occur.
MDHS declined to comment.
Hospital spokesman Richard Lucas said he hadn't seen the lawsuit Thursday. He said the hospital followed proper procedures.
"For us to be included in such a complaint is frivolous and entirely inappropriate," Lucas said. "Our mission includes providing care for all who come to us in need, and we did exactly that in caring for Ms. Cruz, who came to us in distress ..."
Advocates say Cruz's case is an example of a nationwide problem that is hard to document because it involves illegal immigrants who are often deported and most youth proceedings are confidential. Bauer said the law center had received calls for assistance from immigrants in other states.
For some immigrants, it's difficult to regain parental rights once they're lost. Language barriers, family court confidentiality laws and deportation are among the obstacles.
Immigrants' rights attorneys say the problem is that federal laws govern undocumented immigrants, but their children, who are often U.S. citizens because they were born here, are under state jurisdiction.
Richard Rocha, deputy press secretary for ICE, said immigrants who are being deported are supposed to retain their parental rights to make custody decisions for their children.
"If custody assistance is required, parents are able to coordinate with the proper state agencies," Rocha said in an e-mail.
That may be ICE's policy, but states usually don't adhere to it, said Marcia Zug, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, who has researched the issue for more than a year and documented about 20 cases.
"The separation is really the result of policies of state welfare agencies," Zug said. "States are highly skeptical of whether it's in the best interest of these children to leave with deported parents rather than grow up in America."
In an October 2009 letter obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center, U.S. Health and Human Services officials informed Mississippi DHS Executive Director Donald Thompson about the findings of a federal investigation of the Cruz case.
Joseph J. Bock, acting associate commissioner for the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, cited a lack of reasonable efforts to prevent the child's removal and that the agency used Spanish interpreters when it was known Cruz spoke Chatino.
Bock also said state officials didn't do enough to locate Cruz's relatives to place the child with them.
"The MDHS staff interviewed did not see these issues as problematic. This leads us to conclude that this may be how business is conducted and that this is not an isolated incident," Bock wrote.
Some passengers dispute jetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater's claim that he was provoked
He's ready for takeoff again.
Aside from the fact that he has "man-boobs" Flight attendant Steven Slater - suspended after he fled a jet in a snit through an emergency chute - wants his wings back, his lawyer said Thursday.
"Steven's hope is to return to aviation," lawyer Howard Turman said outside Slater's home in Belle Harbor, Queens. "That is his love."
Slater, 38, has been hailed as a working man's hero for telling off a passenger over the intercom, grabbing beer and jumping out a slide at Kennedy Airport on Monday.
But some passengers on jetBlue Flight 1052 dispute the steaming steward's claim that he was provoked by a woman who hit him with a carry-on bag or overhead door and cursed him out.
Port Authority cops interviewed about 40 people on the Pittsburgh-to-New York flight and haven't found anyone who backs up Slater's story.
College student Hilary Baribeau, 20, came home to Maine after a three-day hiking trip to find cops wanted to grill her.
"We heard your name and wanted to check in with you and see what you had to say about the flight," she said they told her.
"Pretty much what I remember happening is I got on a plane and I got off a plane," the Carnegie Melon University senior said. "I don't remember anyone getting into any fights, any confrontations."
Slater's lawyer gave a vague description of the supposed clash during early boarding in Pittsburgh that left Slater with a gash on his head.
"There was a great deal of shoving. Steven came over to assist and was hit in the head by either a bag or a bin," Turman said.
An internal jetBlue memo cast some doubt on Slater's claim.
"There's much more to this story that we don't know, including: Was there an altercation on the flight that precipitated or motivated Mr. Slater's action?" jetBlue COO Rob Maruster wrote, according to The Wall Street Journal.
After he slid out of the plane, Slater went home, where cops found him drunk and in bed with his boyfriend - his eyes bloodshot and reeking of booze, sources said.
When cops asked him if he had been drinking, Slater said, "Yes, while waiting for you to show up," sources said.
Slater, who was suspended by jetBlue, was charged with trespassing, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.
His lawyer said he's optimistic his mercurial client will avoid a stiff penalty.
"We had preliminary discussions with the district attorney's office and believe there will be a favorable outcome for my client," Turman said.
He said a company offered to hire Slater to endorse a nonalcoholic "relaxation drink," but he turned it down because the incident "is not a joke" and his real love is aviation.
If Slater does return to the skies, there's at least one passenger from Flight 1052 who will be rooting for him.
Keleigh Nealon, 25 said she's flown with Slater several times before, and his bubbly personality always brightened her day.
"I just feel so bad for him," said Nealon. "I've been on flights with him and he's the one who is always so nice. He makes your flight enjoyable."
Nealon didn't see a confrontation. But when she was stepping off the plane, she heard an agitated Slater venting to a colleague about how "common courtesy has gone out the door."
"It was so out of character," Nealon added. "You knew something was wrong. Something bad had happened."
Friday the 13th...
Well the day has just begun and as we all know many people are very much superstitious about this day. From the horror movie of the same name to the person who tells you not to walk under that ladder to the black cat that stares at you while you walk to the train station on your way to work, today - Friday the 13th, is a day of fear for some. But what is this day all about anyways?
Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year. Any month's 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday.
The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia, frigga meaning "Friday" and triskaidekaphobia (or paraskevidekatriaphobia) being a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning "thirteen") attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning "fear"). The word was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953.
According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a "Friday the 13th" superstition before the 19th century. The earliest known documented reference in English occurs in an 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini:
[Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; and if it be true that, like so many other Italians, he regarded Friday as an unlucky day, and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday, the 13th of November, he died.
One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.
In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was put to death on a Friday.
Some events are intentionally scheduled for Friday the 13th for dramatic effect. They include:
Resident Evil 5 was released in the US and UK on Friday March 13, 2009.
SAW - The Ride at Thorpe Park, UK was opened on March 13, 2009. Coincidentally the ride was marred by "teething problems" for the first few days after it was opened
Black Sabbath's eponymous debut album was released in the UK on Friday, February 13, 1970.
The Opening ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games took place on Friday, August 13, 2004.
The 13th book in A Series of Unfortunate Events was released on Friday, October 13, 2006 by Lemony Snicket, also known as novelist Daniel Handler.
Four of the twelve films in the Friday the 13th series, including the most recent (reboot of a second film), were released on a Friday the 13th. The sequel to the reboot is planned to be released on Friday September 13, 2013.
Joss Whedon's show Dollhouse aired its pilot on February 13, 2009.
Every Friday the 13th thousands of bikers ride to the small town of Port Dover Ontario, Canada.
Boston Lee Day is celebrated every Friday the 13th. Participants gather to enjoy the Boston Lee Drink for which this day is named.
The popular Browser-based RPG Dragonfable has an undead war every Friday the 13th, with a common drop being the hockey mask all of the monsters wear.
The 2009 film 2012 was released on Friday November 13, 2009.
Stuntman Sam Patch scheduled a 125-foot jump into the Genesee River on Friday, November 13, 1829, his largest jump to date. The jump killed him.
Due to the large number of events that happen in the world, a similar list could be compiled for any combination of day of the month and day of the week. Events that have been notable for being linked to the concept of Friday the 13th include:
Hurricane Charley made landfall in south Florida on Friday, August 13, 2004.
The "Friday the 13th Storm" struck Buffalo, New York on Friday, October 13, 2006.
The asteroid 99942 Apophis will make a close encounter with Earth, which had been thought may have been closer than the orbits of communication satellites, on Friday, April 13, 2029.
The Andes Plane Crash of 1972 occurred on Friday, October 13, 1972.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
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