Friday, July 05, 2013

Dwight Howard spurns Lakers, signs with Houston; and other headlines.

It has been confirmed that Lakers center Dwight Howard will sign a four-year deal with the Houston Rockets worth $88 million, guaranteed.  More on this in a separate blog entry.

The cause of a mishap at a fireworks show at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park in Simi Valley on July 4th is now believed to have been the premature explosion of one pyrotechnic device.  This apparently caused a chain reaction.  None of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening.

The police chief of Hostotipaquillo in Mexico was killed with a high-powered rifle that was lost in the "Fast and Furious" operation.  The gun was sold in 2010.

Authorities are now saying that a Redlands teacher who was arrested this week on charges of having had sex with a student may have actually been involved with three or more underage students.  She gave birth to a baby last month fathered by one of the students she allegedly had a sexual relationship with.  28 year old Laura Elizabeth Whitehurst remains free on $25,000 bail.

Before he became famous, Mick Jagger dated a model named Chrissie Shrimpton.  Now she's sold a lock of his hair at auction for $6,000.

A 21 year old from Atlanta challenged Olympian Lolo Jones.  If he could get 150,000 people to retweet a tweet of his, she had to go on a date with him.  He got the RTs and now he's going to get the date.

Roughly 60 Thai police officers with weight problems are going through a 12 day "boot camp" to try to get in shape.  The officer who loses the most weight wins a prize of 5,000 baht.  That's about $160 in U.S. dollars.

Stephen Hawking said "people who boast about their I.Q. are losers".  Then again, French tennis player Marion Bartoli wasn't boasting when she said her I.Q. was 175, which would be 15 points higher than Hawking's.  Or would it?  There's no record to support her claim.

An article that is headlines "Doing Disney on a Budget" can only make one scratch their head.  When an adult admission to Disneyland is going for $92, it is no longer a "budget" type place.

A man ran a mile last Sunday in the 129 degree heat of Death Valley, CA.  And he did it while wearing a Darth Vader costume.

Barry Weiner is an agent in New York City.  He was Paula Deen's agent, but she ended their relationship this week, saying through a spokesperson "she and her family thank him for the tireless effort and dedication over the years."

On a related note, the first idiot to try to profit from the Deen scandal was arrested in New York City after he allegedly tried to extort $250,000 from the celebrity chef.

As of a few hours ago, Joey Chestnut has still not had any solid food following his amazing feat of eating 69 hot dogs in ten minutes on the 4th at the Nathan's hot dog eating contest.

Did Scottie Pippen flee the scene after punching out a dude outside of Nobu in Malibu?  That's what the 911 tape recording claims.

Deleting something on Facebook may not mean what you think it means.  Often, users of FB are finding that items they deleted reappear on their timelines later on, probably restored from backups maintained by Facebook.

Will NSA leaker Edward Snowden go to Venezuela which has reportedly offered asylum to him?  Or will he wind up in Nicaragua, which is considering offering him asylum?  Stay tuned.

Two men.  Two mothers.  One man dead.  Both mothers insisting the scream on the audio recording of a phone call is their son.  That's the George Zimmerman murder trial recap for Friday.

When the Miss South Carolina pageant takes place next week, for the first time in its history, an openly gay woman will be competing.

In South Carolina, the father of a man who just enlisted in the Army mowed "We Love U Sam" and "Go Army" in his lawn.

A North Carolina woman who was thought to be missing had just done a "Greta Garbo."  24 year old Jennifer Kral told the police officers that "found" her in another state she just wanted to be left alone.  Her boyfriend had reported her missing.