Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Techno-thriller author Tom Clancy dies and other eye-catching headlines on Wednesday

Tom Clancy, whose military/spy/thriller novels spawned four feature films and two television miniseries has died at age 66 of undisclosed causes.  He was one of only three authors in the 1990s to have sales of more than 2 million from their first published novel (John Grisham and J. K. Rowling are the other two).

The U.S. Postal Service defaulted on a payment of $5.6 billion to pre-fund retiree benefits.  The payment became past-due on September 30th.

An unidentified "whistleblower" will receive a payment of $14 million from the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The business he informed on is also being withheld, but they must have paid a really big fine.

So Mia Farrow divorced Frank Sinatra in 1968, her son Ronan Farrow was born in 1987, she was "partnered" with Woody Allen from 1980 through 1992, and now she's saying Sinatra might be Ronan's father.  Wow.

An inmate in a Louisiana prison who spent 40 years in solitary confinement has been ordered released by a judge because the inmate has terminal liver cancer.

A Head Start program in Bridgeport, CT has been forced to close due to the federal government shutdown and parents who relied on the program for child care while working have been left in a bind.

The Susan G. Komen foundation's Southern Nevada unit has turned down a donation from the dancers in the Riviera's long-running show "Crazy Girls", saying they don't partner with businesses that sexualize women.

When an 18 year old man was hugging his 24 year old girlfriend, he had a handgun in his waistband.  It was bothering her so he went to move it and accidentally shot and killed her.  Maricopa County law enforcement is investigating.

Michael Jackson's mother and children will not be getting any money from AEG as the jury has decided that while AEG did hire Conrad Murray, he was not "unfit".

Miley Cyrus says weed and "Molly" are the bomb but she is not a fan of cocaine.  I'm sure the mothers of many daughters who see Miley as a role model were thrilled to hear this.

Sandra Bullock has confirmed that both she and co-star George Clooney were wearing the same thing underneath their astronaut costumes in "Gravity" which opens Friday.  They wore "Spanx."

Firefighters in Chesterfield, Missouri will be able to wear their pink t-shirts after all.  The members of the board that oversees the Monarch Fire District had said they would not approve the month-long wearing the t-shirts this year.  The firefighters do this to raise money for research and awareness of breast cancer.

Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence is talking about how it still stings that she was called "fat" early in her career.

110 employees at the Paramount Studio have received layoff notices as the studio moves to cut costs.

Tom Hanks will portray the real-life Captain Phillips in a film that opens a week from Friday, but some of the crew members who were aboard the ship when pirates attacked are suing the ship's owners; alleging that the real Phillips sailed them into danger in order to cut the cost of the voyage.

Former Cleveland Browns QB Bernie Kosar was pulled over on suspicion of DUI and he blamed his inability to pass a field sobriety test on the fact his former offensive line didn't block for him.