Monday, July 08, 2013

$73 to park at a broken meter and other headlines

In the city of Los Angeles, if you park at a broken meter, prepare for a $73 parking ticket.  Now if Governor Brown will sign a bill, they will no longer have the legal authority to do that.  Considering roughly one in ten meters within city limits are broken at any given moment, it seems patently unfair for the city to profit from their failure to fix those meters.

Today marks singer Lauryn Hill's first day in her new accommodations at the "gray bar" hotel where she will spend three months following her conviction for tax evasion.

First responders who aided the victims of the crash of Asiana Flight 214 have told gripping stories of how they rescued the passengers.  Meanwhile, officials refused to discuss whether or not one of the two young girls who died in the crash had been struck by a vehicle responding to the crash.

Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Secretary of State John Kerry remains hospitalized in Boston at Massachusetts General Hospital but her condition has been upgraded from critical to fair.  Reports are she had symptoms of a seizure.. 

From the "be careful what you wish for" file:  Wanda Lee Ann Podgurski, age 60, had been convicted of disability and insurance fraud this past January.  She fled before sentencing and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, in absentia.  In June, she sent a tweet saying "Catch me if you can" and now she's in jail. 

There's something rotten at a Golden Corral restaurant in Florida.  Meat and other food stored by a dumpster, captured on video by an employee.  Now we're learning a manager was terminated over improper food handling procedures, and the father of the employee involved allegedly attempted to sell the video for $5,000 before it was posted to YouTube.

George Clooney and Stacy Keibler have ended their romantic relationship.  It was or wasn't her desire to have children.  It was or wasn't her desire to be married.  It was or wasn't their demanding schedules that kept them apart so much.  The two aren't talking and neither are their representatives.

Texas Governor Rick "No Abortions" Perry has announced he will not seek reelection in 2014.  He isn't saying yet, but he will almost certainly run for the presidency in 2016.

Brad Pitt is jealous of Matt Damon.  No, really.  Reports indicate that when Damon told him that he walks his kids to school, something the paparazzi-swarmed Pitt could never do, Pitt expressed his envy.

Country star Randy Travis is in critical condition in a hospital suffering from viral cardiomyopathy.  That's where a viral infection causes a serious deterioration in the ability of the heart to function. 

Records on the SEAL mission to capture Osama bin Laden have been purged from the Pentagon and sent to the CIA, in what appears to be an attempt to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act's requirements.  This from what was supposed to be the "most transparent administration in history"?  More on this in tomorrow's daily blog.

In Ohio, both the prosecution and defense in a murder case asked the Parole Board to spare the convict from the death penalty, in an unusual situation.  A new county prosecutor has been elected and he's changed office policy on seeking the death penalty.

Before you mentally remove actor Johnny Depp from your personal "A-list", bear in mind he will return in the upcoming "Pirates of the Caribbean 5" and after it makes a pile of money, the horrible box office of "The Lone Ranger" will be mostly forgotten in Hollywood.  Until his next bomb there after.

A beauty pageant winner in British Columbia kept a promise to shave her head, if she was the top charity fund-raiser in the contest.  She did it to keep a promise, and to raise money for her chosen charity.

As Aaron Hernandez sits in a 70 square foot cell while waiting to be tried on murder charges, the ACLU is now concerned about the fact he's in that cell over 20 hours per day with only very limited interaction with other human beings.  While he is much safer in that isolation cell than in the jail's general population, the ACLU raises a valid point.

The jury is still out on whether or not giant retailer J.C. Penney's will continue to survive, but things look better now than they did three months ago when former CEO Mike Ullman became the head guy once again.

The woman who won on NBC's "The Biggest Loser" in 2009 is being sued by a fitness company because after signing a deal to represent their brand, she regained too much weight for her to be used.  Apparently she's lost the weight again, but the company says "too late."

Like father, like son.  Or so one might conclude after hearing that Lawrence Taylor Jr., son of football Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor was arrested on charges involving sex with a minor.  LT pled guilty to similar charges himself years ago.