Reporter Claims to Crack Natalee Holloway Case

Aruba Reopens Investigation Into Teen's Disappearance

After a Dutch journalist declared that his private investigation had solved the mysterious disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, the chief prosecutor in Aruba announced today that he is reopening the case.

Reporter Peter R. de Vries said he used a sophisticated network of hidden cameras in what he called an "undercover operation" to obtain evidence that he claimed "has solved the mystery" of Holloway's disappearance on May 30, 2005.

The mystery behind the disappearance of the blond teenager has eluded efforts by the Aruba police and even the FBI for more than two years.

ABC News will air a 90-minute special edition of "20/20: The Final Hours of Natalee Holloway" on Monday, Feb. 4, at 9:30 p.m. ET

De Vries said he showed some of the key pieces of evidence to the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Aruba, Jan. 24, and the island's chief prosecutor, Hans Mos, announced today that he has "intensified [the] investigation of Natalee Holloway due to recently received information."

Mos had publicly closed the investigation last month after an exhausting and often frustrating two-year probe.

"This information may shed a new light on the mode of which Natalee Holloway has died and the method by which her body disappeared," Mos said today.

He credited de Vries with uncovering the leads and said, "This information may help considerably in the solution of the mystery of Natalee's disappearance."

De Vries said that he and his team had been conducting an undercover operation for several months, and that he would broadcast his findings in a special program on Dutch television this Sunday.

The only piece of the upcoming program the de Vries would release was a conversation between himself and Mos after he showed police the evidence he had collected. "Am I sitting opposite a happy man now?" de Vries asks Mos. The prosecutor is shown answering, "Now at least the truth is surfacing and with that we can at least wrap up this case."

The Alabama teenager disappeared after a boozy night in an Aruban nightclub during a high school graduation trip. She was last seen outside Carols 'n Charlies bar with Joran van der Sloot, who is from Holland, and the brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, from Aruba. They have twice been arrested, denied any involvement in her disappearance, and released due to lack of evidence.

After his latest release, Van der Sloot did a television interview with de Vries earlier this month where the reporter challenged his honesty. Van der Sloot was calm during the interview, but after the cameras were turned off he threw a glass of wine in de Vries' face.

The incident prompted de Vries to comment, "He doesn't have complete control over his behavior."

Source-http://www.abcnews.go.com

By JESSICA VELMANS

Bills' Everett says he's accepted invite to attend Super Bowl

"Yeah, I am going to be going to the Super Bowl and sitting with the commissioner," Everett told Houston's KRIV-TV for a story on its Web site Thursday. "I think it's pretty cool, you know, just go and hang out with the commissioner. He's the head man in charge of the whole NFL ... that's kind of a big deal right there."

Everett, who lives in Houston and has been rehabilitating there, has had a remarkable recovery in the months since suffering the injury while making a tackle in Buffalo's season-opening game Sept. 9 against the Broncos.

Everett was paralyzed from the neck down when he arrived at Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital and spent the first few days on life support. He underwent four hours of surgery as a team of doctors realigned his neck and stabilized it with screws, rods and a titanium plate. Doctors initially feared Everett would never walk again.

Goodell flew to Buffalo to visit with Everett shortly after his injury.

"Oh man, I've come a hundred miles compared to where I am today," Everett told KRIV. "I started out not being able to move anything to walking. I've come a long way, man."

At an appearance in early January at a high school football banquet in his hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, Everett showed little indication of his injury. He discussed his injury and recovery on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Thursday, where former Bronco Domenik Hixon also appeared via satellite from Arizona, site of the Super Bowl. Hixon is now a member of the New York Giants.

KRIV also reported Everett was invited to attend President Bush's State of the Union Address on Monday, but that the player had to decline because of prior commitments.

"I thought it was great that they invited me to that," Everett told the station. "It was kind of impressive and all. I was like kind of surprised at the whole deal and everything."

Source-http://sports.espn.go.com

Packers rally past Seahawks in snowy Green Bay

GREEN BAY (Reuters) - The Green Bay Packers overcame a disastrous start to rally past the Seattle Seahawks 42-20 in a driving snowstorm on Saturday, advancing to the NFC Championship Game for the first time since the 1997 season.

Playing in rapidly deteriorating conditions, veteran Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre and running back Ryan Grant led the way in a dominating offensive performance by the home team.

Green Bay fell 14-0 behind on two early touchdowns after a pair of fumbles by Grant but steadied quickly and grabbed the lead for good early in the second quarter after touchdowns on four successive possessions.

Green Bay will next play the winner of Sunday's Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants game for the right to advance to the Super Bowl in Arizona on February 3.

Packers rally past Seahawks in snowy Green Bay

(Writing by Ros Krasny; Editing by John O'Brien and Simon Evans)

Source-http://www.reuters.com

Few things quicken the pulse of a veteran performer like stepping back into the spotlight after a long time away.

The year just past saw the rebirth of many of the biggest names in music: The Police. Led Zeppelin. Garth Brooks. And now, Doyle & Debbie.

As one-half of the big dogs on the top rung of the fourth tier of country music's greatest duos, Doyle Mayfield has seen his share of the triumphs associated with limited regional success. In the late '80s, you could barely turn on your radio in western Idaho and south central Alabama and wait five or six hours without hearing Doyle & Debbie's breakout hit, "Stock Car Love," which Mayfield performed with first partner, later second wife, Debbie Gentry.

"I knew just as soon as we hit 'stop' on that Tascam four-track cassette recorder in 1988 that 'Stock Car Love' was gonna be a hit," Mayfield says. "My wife at the time, Darlene, wondered what I was doing spending all that time in our spare bathroom with Debbie, but when I waved that tape in front of her face and said, 'Baby, this is the ticket to the good life,' she understood."

Neither Darlene Mayfield Schwartz nor Debbie Gentry Mayfield could be reached for comment.

Mayfield and Gentry married in 1989 and formed the first incarnation of Doyle & Debbie. They toured relentlessly into the early '90s. Hits such as "Grandma Flickertail" and "Whine Whine Twang Twang" made their way onto low-power radio stations and truck stop compilations alike, filtering back to Mooney's Gap, Tenn., one of Mayfield's five childhood hometowns.

It was back in Mooney's Gap that those same recordings made an impact on young Debbie Purdy, who had her own dreams of stardom, albeit dashed by very early motherhood.

"I knew every song in the Doyle & Debbie catalog inside and out," Purdy says, "and so many of them I took to heart, like 'Barefoot and Pregnant.' It's like they were singing about me right in my face, and the fact that Doyle was from my hometown made it that much more exciting."

ONE TOO MANY

As the early '90s rolled along, the dramatic changes taking place in the country music business mirrored the turmoil in Mayfield's life.

In the midst of a 1993 tour stop in Uvalde, Texas, promoting D&D's latest single, "Coochie Coochie Coo," Mayfield met another young singer named Debbie, surname Cochran. He decided to take her on as the first client in his short-lived management firm, El Pollo Diablo Productions.

"I had a certain fondness for mescaline at the time, so I'm not sure what I was thinking, bringing two Debbies into my life at the same time," Mayfield says now.

The transition into 1994 showed the most potential for success for the act. Rechristened "Doyle & Debbie & Debbie" for a single long weekend in Reno, they quickly dropped back into the more familiar duet formation, with Cochran now in the primary Debbie slot and Gentry taking an "extended hiatus" from touring that lasted until her divorce from Mayfield in March 1995.

With Cochran in the fold, Doyle & Debbie notched another moderate hit in Utah with "When You're Screwing Other Women." D&D were poised to jump into a much bigger spotlight with "God Loves America Best," which was supposed to have been the theme song for George W. Bush's first gubernatorial campaign in Texas, until an unfortunate incident at one of the first campaign rallies, the details of which are sealed by federal court order.

Still the song remains a linchpin of the Doyle & Debbie live experience. "I don't look at that song as so much 'pro-war' as 'pro-military/industrial complex,' " Mayfield says. "It says to me, 'Look at how great America is: We can entertain you and we can blow your [expletive deleted] up at the same time, using materials from the exact same company.' "

PURDY SINGS ON ... AND ON

Meanwhile, back in Mooney's Gap, Debbie Purdy embarked on what she imagined would be her final pit stop on the race to the checkered flag of superstardom with a New Year's Eve gig at the Mooney's Gap VFW hall.

Little did she, or eventually her three children, know that the one-night stand would turn into 12 years of performances on that tiny stage. "They were so good to me at the VFW," Purdy says. "They even gave me a little plaque the night I sang 'Stand By Your Man' for the 10,000th time. I was touched they kept count."

PART-TIME DEBBIES

The strain of the small pockets of nationwide success started to show for Doyle & Debbie during the back half of the '90s. Cochran and Mayfield married in January 1996 and divorced later that same month, but continued on as a duo, notching another minor hit with the ode to conjugal visits "Death Row Jethro." Cochran stayed with the act until late 1998, when Mayfield announced to a festival crowd in Butte, Mont., that he could take any woman in the crowd and make her into what he called "my next Debbie."

Debbie Cochran Mayfield Stephens O'Leary could not be reached for comment.

Mayfield doesn't like to talk much about what country music historians call "the Debbieless Years" of 1999 through late 2007, though there were plenty of "part-time Debbies" who auditioned for the role. "The problem is gettin' 'em to wanna change their names. If they's worth a damn, they want their own name," Mayfield says. "So either you settle for someone with a average voice who's kinda needy, or you find a good one already named Debbie."

April "Debbie 3" White, Shelby "Debbie 4" Miller, Jackie "no, not that one" Collins, Jacquelyn "Debbie 5 and 9" Parker, Shelley "Debbie Mark VI" Parker, Jennifer "Debbie for a Day" Kirby, Loren "Debbie 8" Dennihy and Jasema "Debbie X" Colley all could not be reached for comment.

TAKING ON THE BIG TIME

That's also not to say Mayfield didn't attempt to make it big on his own, albeit in a slightly different fashion. In August of 2000, Mayfield attempted to challenge comedian/newly minted Monday Night Football commentator Dennis Miller to a fight after Miller made an offhand comment about touring a Nashville "sequin mine" during a preseason broadcast.

"That got me fired up right quick — some know-it-all Yankee comin' to my adopted hometown and sayin' something like that," Mayfield remembers. "Once I found my keys and got that Geo Metro jumped, I high-tailed it to Adelphia Coliseum and waited for that no-good so-and-so to come out.

"Well, turns out I blacked out from the excitement and the Loritabs, and didn't realize it was three days later. I wondered why the parking lot was empty. But it's all good between me and Denny-boy now that he's on Fox News all the time."

Representatives for Miller, the Tennessee Titans, the National Football League and Fox News Channel could not be reached for comment.

THE DREAM FULFILLED

It wasn't until six weeks ago that Doyle Mayfield's collision course with fame got back on track.

Back home in Mooney's Gap to take care of some unspecified community service, he stuck his head into the tiny VFW hall for a cold one. On that tiny stage he beheld his destiny: an angelic singer warbling the distaff hits from the Doyle & Debbie catalog, and already named Debbie.

"I know it's the big break I've always been looking for," says Debbie Purdy, who, after five minutes of conversation with Mayfield that cold, gray night, joined Doyle & Debbie full-time. "It's like I was born to be part of this amazing country music tradition, what with me being named Debbie and all."

In the very short time they've been together, Mayfield and Purdy have already added two new songs to the act: the linguistically poignant "ABC's of Love" and the destined-to-be hit "For The Children," which Mayfield is already shopping around Music Row.

"We haven't even finished the demo yet, but we've already been turned down by Faith, Martina, Carrie, Trisha, Reba and Shania, so there's some buzz on it around town," Mayfield says. "We're hoping to get it to Jessica Simpson by the end of the week, Lord willin'."

News of the newly reconstituted Doyle & Debbie spread through the entertainment community like wildfire. Late-night talk staple Conan O'Brien was the first in line to grab the duo for his show, with Doyle & Debbie scheduled for an appearance on Friday, Jan. 11, even if Purdy isn't quite sure who O'Brien is.

"I've been singin' till three o'clock in the morning for the past 15 years, and we didn't have TV down at the VFW hall, so I haven't even seen this Late Night with Conan The Barbarian stuff, Purdy says. "Is this the fella that replaced Arsenio Hall?"

But the really big news for Doyle & Debbie is their Tuesday-night residency at the world-famous Station Inn, which started January 8, giving longtime fans the chance to see the old hits (and new Debbie) in an intimate setting. "This is something I never thought I'd get to do," Purdy says.

"Here I am, taking Nashville by storm, right alongside the most famous man ever to hail from Mooney's Gap, doing it right in the shadow of massive amounts of condo construction. It don't get any better than this."

"That's mighty fine, Debbie," Mayfield replies.

"Thank you, Doyle," Debbie concludes.

source-http://www.rctimes.com

The saga of Doyle & Debbie

By Lucas Hendrickson

Lucas Hendrickson writes nonfiction about pop culture and other topics at www.largelandmammal.com

Pregnant Marine believed dead

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — A pregnant Marine who vanished nearly a month ago is believed dead and buried in a shallow grave near Camp Lejeune, N.C., and authorities are searching for the key suspect — a man she had accused of raping her last year, authorities said Friday afternoon.

Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach, 20, last seen Dec. 14 when she was eight months pregnant, had accused a fellow Marine, Cpl. Cesar Armando Lauren, of raping her last year, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service official said.

She was scheduled to testify at an Article 32 hearing on the rape charges in December when she disappeared, said Paul Ciccarelli, the NCIS special agent-in-charge at Camp Lejeune.

Lauterbach’s body had not been found when officials disclosed her death shortly before 1 p.m. on Friday, though authorities said they had “tangible evidence” and were actively looking for her grave in a nearby “wooded residential area,” off well-traveled Gum Branch Road in Onslow County.

Sheriff Ed Brown of the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department said he believes Lauren fled the area about 4 a.m. on Friday and authorities are looking for him.

Lauren is believed to be driving a black pickup truck with North Carolina plates.

Brown said yesterday he had reason to believe Lauterbach was still alive.

Brown said it was unclear how long Lauterbach has been dead, or whether she was still pregnant at the time of her death.

Authorities have obtained physical evidence linking Lauren to the death, Brown said.

Brown’s office has recently tried to question Lauren, but Lauren refused, saying his lawyers had advised him not to speak to authorities, Brown said. Lauren has three attorneys, he said.

Marines at Camp Lejeune have not commented on the case beyond disclosing that Lauterbach joined the Marine Corps in June 2006 and has not been deployed overseas. She is currently assigned to the Group Consolidated Administration Center, Service Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine officials said.

Lauterbach’s mother, Mary Lauterbach, of Dayton, Ohio, contacted sheriff’s officials Dec. 19 because she was “suspicious that something bad may have happened to her daughter,” sheriff’s officials said in a prepared statement earlier this week. Lauterbach’s baby was due to be born Jan. 12, Brown said.

The pregnant Marine was last heard from Dec. 14 when she spoke to her mother by telephone, sheriff’s officials said.

Investigators found her cell phone discarded near the main gate at Camp Lejeune on Dec. 20. No calls have been made on the phone since Dec. 14, sheriff’s officials said.

Her car was discovered Monday night at the bus station in Jacksonville, N.C., sheriff’s officials said. Sheriff’s officials believe the car has been at the bus station since Dec. 15, Brown said.

Lauterbach’s stepmother told authorities that Lauterbach is bipolar and had a history of compulsive lying, according to search warrant affidavits filed this week. She also told investigators that Lauterbach said “a senior officer ... had raped her and that the investigation had gone sour.” Ë

Pregnant Marine believed dead

By Andrew Tilghman and Trista Talton - Staff writers
Posted : Friday Jan 11, 2008 13:40:25 EST
source-http://www.marinecorpstimes.com

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Light snow fell in Baghdad early on Friday in what weather officials said was the first time in about a 100 years.

Rare snowfalls were also recorded in the west and centre of Iraq, plunging temperatures to zero degrees Centigrade (32 degrees Fahrenheit) and even colder, an official said.

The snow in Baghdad, which melted as it hit the ground, began falling before dawn and continued until after 9 am, residents said.

"Snow has fallen in Baghdad for the first time in about a century as a result of two air flows meeting," said a statement by the meteorology department.

"The first one was cold and dry and the second one was warm and humid. They met above Iraq."

The director of the meteorology department, Dawood Shakir, told AFP that climate change was possibly to blame for the unusual event.

"It's very rare," he said. "Baghdad has never seen snow falling in living memory.

"These snowfalls are linked to the climate change that is happening everywhere. We are finding some places in the world which are warm and are supposed to be cold."

Snow was also reported in the mountainous Kurdish north of the country, where falls are common.

First snow for 100 years falls on Baghdad

Source-AFP

At Stonewall Jackson Elementary, being different is embraced

'In some schools, it's a stigma if you're a special-ed student. Here, the children don't know the difference.'

12:00 AM CST on Monday, December 24, 2007

Second of three parts

For the woebegone Dallas school district, bad news seems to hit the headlines with clockwork predictability. Small wonder that a lot of parents don't want their kids in a DISD school.

But Jessie Kierbow's parents wish she never had to leave. Stonewall Jackson Elementary School is one of the district's profound successes, a place where all that sometimes-hollow happy talk about tolerance and achievement has real and palpable meaning.

It's common for children who, like Jessie, have Asperger's syndrome, to loathe school: Their characteristic quirks and social deficiencies make them ready-made targets for bullies. According to some studies, as many as 90 percent of Asperger's kids have reported being tormented at school, sometimes on a daily basis.

There's a social alchemy at Stonewall that somehow escapes that kind of routine cruelty. Perhaps it's because, for years, the school has housed deaf-education and other special-ed programs alongside the mainstream student population. Maybe it's because the close-knit neighborhood just east of Mockingbird Station attracts supportive, involved parents. A lot of parents, in turn, credit the school's warm and gifted staff.

Jessie likes the school she has attended since kindergarten just fine, although, she told me with brisk matter-of-factness while giving me a tour of the building, "Once you're in the fifth grade, there's no dillydallying!"

Academically, Jessie has nothing to worry about. She has exceptional language ability – at 10, she taught herself Japanese, and she frequently peruses the dictionary to pass the time.

But social adjustment for Asperger's kids is typically tough, said Freida Apodaca, who was Jessie's fourth-grade special-education teacher.

"Intellectually, she understands that we're in school to learn, and the teachers are here to help us," Ms. Apodaca said. "In an emotional sense, she knows she reacts to things differently. She started out with a lot of barriers, like not knowing how to make friends."

Ms. Apodaca likened Jessie's initial encounter with school to the experience I might have of parachuting into a foreign country whose language and customs I don't share: "You wouldn't know what's expected."

Teachers at Stonewall have tutored Jessie not just in academics but in relating to the people around her. It's pleasant work, Ms. Apodaca said. "Jessie's a great kid. She's fun. She's got a great sense of humor."

Jessie was all business the day I visited her language-arts class at Stonewall last month. The kids were starting a new book, Island of the Blue Dolphins, and she read part of the opening chapter aloud, her pitch and intonation perfect.

It's one thing for the grown-ups to like you, of course, and quite another for the kids to accept you on the playground. Jessie is an extraordinarily gifted child, but one of her most shining triumphs came last year when she advanced to the finals of the district spelling championship – and the student body was abuzz with excitement.

"In some schools, it's a stigma if you're a special-ed student," said principal Olivia Henderson. "Here, the children don't know the difference."

It's easy to love the school itself, a vintage art-deco building with a cozy interior reminiscent of an earlier era. The gymnasium, the hardwood polished to a matte sheen by generations of kid-sized tennis shoes, served as a dance studio on the day I visited.

The fifth-graders were studying ballroom dancing for physical education (why didn't they have this when I was a kid?), concentrating hard as they step-hopped, step-step-hopped. Jessie towered over her partner – fifth grade is an age of dramatic and sometimes comic physical disparities – but they worked their way earnestly through the steps.

"Jessie just doesn't see anything negative," language-arts teacher Margaret Sorrells told me later in the morning, while the kids were working in groups on poster illustrations. "She brings out the best in everybody. She's very innocent, and children respond to that."

But the school itself, she said, provides a safe harbor for kids who might not quite fit in elsewhere.

"Maybe it's because all the parents have bought into it, or because this is a real cross-section of Dallas," Ms. Sorrells said. "Everybody rises to the best level. The rules are just expected and everybody knows it – they don't have to be enforced."

She echoed a sentiment I heard from a lot of other Stonewall teachers and parents: "This is something that's right about the DISD."

Inevitably, of course, word has gotten out. Jessie's parents made significant sacrifices to get their daughter into Stonewall as a kindergartner. Her mom lives in one of the neighborhood's few apartment complexes, unable to afford a house in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, but unwilling to settle for a more affordable area elsewhere.

Stonewall is closed to incoming transfers from other schools; there's just no more room. Turnover is low, and Ms. Henderson herself, who has been there for 17 years, has declined offers to go elsewhere.

The neighborhood's changing economics are a topic that Ms. Henderson approaches carefully. When another apartment complex was torn down last year to make way for expensive new houses, 30 low-income kids had to transfer to other schools – a loss, in her estimation.

"Our children are exposed to many different kinds of kids at a very young age, and they learn acceptance," she said.

"When the Jessies of the world come along, they understand."

This is Jessie's final year in the school she has attended for so long. Next year, she starts middle school.

"She's such a sweet, sweet kid," Ms. Apodaca said. "She can socialize now and feel confident with it. She keeps her heart and mind open to what people are willing to offer her."

Jessie's family and school have provided her with a sturdy foundation that many Asperger's children – that many children in general – don't get.

She knows that being different can be hard, but that it can be managed. And she knows the people who really count wouldn't change a thing.

Source-http://www.dallasnews.com

Shop crawl designer shoes

January 10, 2008

Along the stretch of stores on Southport, you can find designer shoes for $500 or 5 cents (with the right deal). The boutiques in this Lakeview spot offer something for every pocketbook.

Perchance

Joy Chen heels are $179.99 — then pick out a second pair for a nickel at City Soles.
(Courtesy)

If money isn’t too much of an object, and black-and-white chic is your style, then, perchance, Perchance is for you. Flirty heels in black and brown — from designers such as Stuart Weitzman and Cole Haan — dominate the menu. One rack, largely devoted to cashmere dresses, in the back of the store is all Perchance devotes to clothing. But a $320 cream-colored cashmere sweater babydoll dress had me in a corner doing math to see if I could afford it.

Hours: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; Noon-5 Sunday

M2 Boutique

3527 N. Southport

(773) 248-9866

I could have spent three hours in M2 Boutique — every accessory is here to taunt you from colorful leather clutches to long silver chained necklaces to giant cocktail rings. Silver-painted seashell earrings with gold trim are $28. Plaid headbands a la Blair on “Gossip Girl” are on sale for $5. Fun, kitchsy signs, T-shirts and plaques with sayings such as “Kids Are for People Who Can’t Have Cats” line the walls. Winter items are on sale, so hurry.

Hours: Noon-7 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-6p.m. Saturday; Noon-5 p.m. Sunday; Closed Monday

Southport Grocery and Cafe

3552 N. Southport

(773) 665-0100

www.southportgrocery.com

Eating inside a grocery store sounded pretty lame to me. But it was somewhere between eating the ginger carrot bisque and the burger lovingly topped with caramelized onions and sour cream that I started to think it was a great idea. If your day of shopping allows, sit down, eat and take home something for later. My husband wanted to marry me all over again after I brought home the cheese plate of the day, which the cafe sells inside the store. It includes three cheeses (I’ll hope for your sake you get the manchego), red and green grapes, sugared walnuts and a freshly made baguette for $12.99.

Hours: Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday; 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday

Another helping

Two shops are a sequel to others in the city. Here’s how they measure up to the original:

Anthropologie, 3532 N. Southport Avenue, (773) 935-2693: Not emotionally ready to cheat on your beloved Gold Coast Anthropologie with the Southport version? You’re not alone. After a year of remaining faithful, I decided to take the plunge. And yes — I felt dirty. Besides easy parking, the new store doesn’t have much on the old one. Its major downfall? A lousy sales rack. Instead of a breezy, wide open sales rack that makes most of my dreams come true, this store stuffs bargains onto a couple of racks in a claustrophobic room. On top of that, the clothing is mixed with the furniture. I nearly missed a dress hiding behind a display of coffee mugs. The verdict: I say ditch your car and public transport it to the original.

City Soles on Southport, 3432 N. Southport, (773) 665-4233: I won’t waste your time telling you how this offshoot is just as perfect as its Bucktown counterpart. I’ll just say this: It’s 5 Cent Sale time. For every pair of designer shoes you buy (most are between $125 and $180), you get a second pair for 5 cents. Choose from flat booties to two-toned heels to red patent leather flats with brass details. Designers include Biviel, Corso Corno and Joy Chen. Sale runs through the end of the month.

source-http://www.suntimes.com

Senators push to allow guns in national parks

WASHINGTON -- Led by Idaho Republican Mike Crapo and Montana Democrat Max Baucus, 47 senators are pushing the Bush administration to allow gun owners to carry firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges.

The lawmakers have signed a letter asking Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to lift Reagan-era restrictions that prevent citizens from carrying readily accessible firearms onto lands managed by the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The current regulations, developed in the early 1980s, "infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms on or across these lands," the senators wrote.

The policies also differ from some other federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service. "These inconsistencies in firearms regulations for public lands are confusing, burdensome and unnecessary," the letter said.

Thirty-nine Republicans and eight Democrats signed the letter, including both senators from 17 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., signed the letter, as did fellow GOP Sens. Wayne Allard of Colorado, John Ensign of Nevada and Pete Domenici of New Mexico.

Kempthorne spokesman Chris Paolino said officials had received the letter and were reviewing it.

"We will take the senators' views into consideration," Paolino said.

The current regulations, adopted in 1983 under then-Interior Secretary James Watt, state that visitors to national parks must render their weapons inaccessible. Guns do not have to be disassembled, but they must be put somewhere that is not easily accessible, such as in a car trunk, said Jerry Case, chief of regulations and special park uses for the National Park Service.

"They don't have to be broken down," he said. "Preferably they're in your trunk and unloaded. Our regulations do allow people to transport weapons through a park as long as it's not accessible."

The rules were developed to ensure public safety and provide maximum protection for wildlife, Case said, noting that before the rules were adopted, "people would go out and shoot wildlife in national parks." Everything from snakes to bears to wolves and coyotes were shot by park visitors, whether for sport or because people felt threatened, Case said.

National parks have a lower crime rate than many similarly sized communities, Case said, adding that many national parks have large campsites. "If you have people start plinking around with weapons, then you have accidents," he said.

Lindsay Nothern, a spokesman for Crapo, said there was no single incident that led to the letter to Kempthorne, a former Idaho governor and senator.

"People (in Idaho and other Western states) have been complaining about it for a long time. It's more a matter of why not?" Nothern said. "We've got a guy who's a Westerner as Interior secretary. He certainly understands these issues."

The National Rifle Association has long pushed for relaxation of the gun ban, but Nothern said no lobbying group was behind the letter.

"People want to see a bogeyman in this and there isn't one there," he said. "It's about consistency, and how folks use the land."

While some gun-rights groups argue that park visitors need guns for self-protection, Nothern said that was not an argument Crapo was making. "We are doing it for consistency in the law, so people can follow the law," he said.

Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said there's "no reason that law-abiding citizens shouldn't be allowed to carry a firearm on our public lands."

Baucus "thinks it's a matter of Second Amendment rights, and it's also the right thing to do for people who simply want to cross through our parks to access prime hunting areas," Kaiser said.

The National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group that works to protect and enhance national parks, supports the current regulations.

"There's no reason to need a gun in a national park, and it would possibly lead to unfortunate accidents and other problems, so we'd rather not see them in the parks," said Laura Loomis, the group's senior director of government affairs.

source-http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/
By MATTHEW DALY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

KERRY SAYS OBAMA CAN 'TRANSFORM' NATION

CHARLESTON, SC -- At the College of Charleston here -- far from the snowy fields of Iowa and the leafless trees in New Hampshire -- John Kerry today endorsed Obama for president.

Quoting Martin Luther King, Kerry told the crowd jammed into a courtyard at the college, "The time is always right to do what is right," before beginning a 17-minute-long endorsement of why he has "confidence" to believe that Obama "should be, can be, the next President of the United States."

Saying that it was time for the country to experience "healing" -- a message Kerry said he gave to President Bush when he congratulated him for winning the 2004 election -- the Massachusetts senator told the crowd that Obama had a unique ability to bring people together.

Speaking of his own presidential campaign four years ago, Kerry said that back then he had "committed" himself "to fight for a new era of concern for community and not division. And that he had called President Bush after conceding the election and "warned him of the danger and division in our country and our desperate need for unity."

Kerry commended the other Democrats in the race, saying that each would fight to take the country in the right direction. But he credited Obama with the ""potential to lead a transformation"

Kerry said that the keys to real leadership are judgment and character -- the two words the Obama campaign has said sets their candidate apart. He pointed to the Iraq war, which he had supported but now opposes, and said Obama had been right about it all along.

Kerry also took some of the credit for Obama's speedy rise in Democratic politics. "I'm proud to have helped introduce Barack to our nation when I asked him to speak in 2004. Obviously Barack did all the heavy lifting," he said.

Comparing his international background with Obama's, he said, "Like Barack, I lived abroad as a young man and I share with him a healthy respect for the advantage of knowing other countries and cultures, not from a book or a briefing, but by personal experience, by gut, by instinct," Kerry said.

The thrust of Kerry's message, however, was to add the authority of an elder statesman to Obama's message and address the two main criticism leveled against him: inexperience and that his call for change lacks substance.

Kerry compared Obama's youth to that of Thomas Jefferson's when he was 33 and wrote the Declaration of Independence or Martin Luther King Jr.'s when he lead the Montgomery bus boycott at 26 or gave "The I Have a Dream Speech" at 34.

Taking on the charge of "false hope" raised by Clinton, Kerry compared that idea to innovative ideas put forward by former presidents -- including FDR's call for Social Security, JFK's goal to land on the moon, and Thomas Jefferson's belief in public education.

Obama joined Kerry on the stage and the two exchanged hugs, and he thanked Kerry not only for his endorsement but his service to the country. His remarks were similar to those he gave in New Hampshire two days ago, ending his speech with a resounding, "Yes we can!" that was echoed by the audience.

The endorsement of Kerry may not bring votes to Obama, but it allows him to point to established Washington politicians that can lend his insurgent candidacy an air of legitimacy that some say he lacks because of his limited time in national politics. It also allows Obama to show that major Democratic leaders nationally are not flocking to Clinton's campaign, slightly undercutting any momentum coming out of her win in New Hampshire.

The endorsement may also raise some eyebrows. Critics might point to Obama's criticism of Edwards right before the Iowa contest by leveling the same charge against him that was brought against John Kerry in the 2004 race. "We are less likely also to win an election with somebody who had one set of positions four years ago and has almost entirely different positions four years later," Obama said.

"We've been through that. It's a problem and so if you are concerned with delectability having somebody who has been consistent, who has opposed the war from the start so the opponent can't say he was for the war just like I was," he added.

Source-http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com

South Carolina crushed the Republican presidential candidate's hopes in 2000

South Carolina crushed the Republican presidential candidate's hopes in 2000. This time, he has a new battle plan -- and a 'truth squad.

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- John McCain, riding high from his victory in the New Hampshire primary, got a hero's welcome Wednesday as he arrived at sunset at South Carolina's elite military college, where he was lavishly introduced by pillars of the GOP establishment.

In an auditorium at the Citadel, silver-haired veterans waving small American flags greeted the former Navy fighter pilot. Fresh-faced cadets in crisp gray uniforms stood at attention onstage as the compliments poured forth from the state's House speaker and attorney general and from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
"This man has seen it all face to face. He knows the world and the world knows him," said Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster.

Could there be a more unlikely setting than South Carolina for McCain's victory lap?

In his maverick 2000 presidential bid, South Carolina was McCain's Waterloo, where he was crushed by the state establishment's favorite, George W. Bush.

The senator from Arizona now returns to that blood-soaked political battlefield hoping to prove his appeal to the conservative party regulars he needs to keep his resurgent campaign on track for the long haul.

But South Carolina remains littered with political land mines for McCain. There are more evangelical conservatives here than in New Hampshire, and they view him with suspicion. And no one has forgotten the 2000 battle, which featured scathing personal attacks from both sides.

"There's some lingering resentment that sticks in your mouth," said David Woodard, a pollster at Clemson University who supported Bush.

McCain kicked off the new phase of his campaign Wednesday in economically troubled Michigan, a state he won in 2000.

GOP primary rules in Michigan allow independents to vote. That could make it possible for him to outpoll former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- whose father was a popular GOP governor there -- by assembling the same coalition of independents and Republicans that brought him victory in New Hampshire.

But in South Carolina, an all-Republican primary will test McCain's ability to compete with more-conservative candidates like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has been leading in recent polls; Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who is banking heavily on a strong showing in the state; and Romney, who came in second in New Hampshire.

Republican candidates fanned out across the post-New Hampshire political map Wednesday. But all of the major candidates will converge in Myrtle Beach, S.C., tonight for a debate to be broadcast by Fox News (at 6 p.m. PST).

McCain plans to remain in the state through the weekend. He is inaugurating a very different campaign than the one he conducted here in 2000, underscoring changes in his style, and in the country, in the last eight years.

He is better-organized, reflecting his decision -- criticized in some quarters -- to temper his maverick style with outreach to the establishment.

His signature issue is no longer campaign finance; that has been eclipsed by the war in Iraq and immigration.

South Carolina's 2000 primary was a turning point for McCain, coming on the heels of a surprising victory over Bush in New Hampshire. Bush fought back hard. The state was flooded with negative ads and mailings and phone-jamming calls from both campaigns. The most personal slam -- coming from anonymous sources -- was a rumor that McCain had fathered a black child. He and his wife have an adopted dark-skinned daughter from Bangladesh.

"We were literally stunned the last time by some of that," McCain said early this week, reflecting on the ferocity of the campaign. "To think that people would be making phone calls to say that -- did you know that we have a black baby? -- I mean, that was beyond belief."

This time McCain's campaign has formed a "truth squad" to respond to any attacks on the candidate. Addressing another perceived shortcoming, McCain worked hard to build the institutional support he lacked in 2000, heavily courting the top party leaders and former Bush fundraisers.

His team is led by Graham, McMaster and Bobby Harrell, speaker of the state's House of Representatives, where more than half of the members have endorsed McCain.

That support may not be enough to blunt the opposition he will meet over his controversial proposal that would provide a way for illegal immigrants to become citizens, which critics deride as amnesty for lawbreakers. Sentiment runs so strong that when Graham, a McCain ally on the issue, discussed it at a state GOP convention, he was booed.

McCain lately has distanced himself from the bill. But Tuesday, even before McCain made his victory speech in New Hampshire, the South Carolina group Columbia Christians for Life fired off an e-mail urging conservatives to expose "John McAmnesty McCain's" immigration record before the state's primary.

McCain also faces trouble from the state's sizable faction of religious conservatives -- a group that was a potent force in Huckabee's victory in Iowa. He has tried to mend fences with those he had alienated in a blistering 2000 attack on evangelical leaders. McCain spokesman B.J. Boling sees progress in New Hampshire exit polls that showed McCain split the vote of born-again Christians there with Huckabee almost evenly.

Still, hard feelings linger. Drew McKissick, a South Carolina Romney backer, said McCain's record since 2000, especially his position on immigration, had made the senator even less palatable.

"His level of support among religious and social conservatives is abysmal," said McKissick, a member of the Christian Coalition's national board. "It was not good in 2000, and he's done nothing but aggravate conservatives since then."

McCain's advisors acknowledge that they face a difficult race with Southerners Huckabee, who is a Southern Baptist minister, and Thompson.

But they believe McCain is now a far stronger candidate than in 2000 because of the public's focus on war and national security issues.

McCain's camp plans to lean heavily on veterans -- especially some of the men McCain was held with in a North Vietnamese prison camp -- on the campaign trail.

"The fundamental difference between South Carolina today and South Carolina eight years ago is that we're in a war with hundreds of thousands of men and women, many of them from South Carolina, deployed in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq," said McCain advisor Steve Schmidt.

"That resonates in South Carolina."

At the Citadel rally, McMaster appealed to the local community's respect for the military in making the pitch for McCain.

"This man is the only one who has worn the uniform," he said. "He's the only one who's been in battle; he is the one who is prepared to be the next commander in chief right now."

McCain said he hoped the 2000 campaign's bitterness was a distant memory for South Carolina's voters. "Eight years is a long, long time in politics," McCain said.

Source-http://www.latimes.com
By Maeve Reston and Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
January 10, 2008

THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE: BEYOND NEW HAMPSHIRE

Battles loom in Michigan and Nevada
Democratic race settles into two-person contest, while it's a wide-open competition for the Republicans

PAUL KORING

January 10, 2008

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Republican presidential hopes turned to Michigan, Democrats' to Nevada yesterday after tiny New Hampshire recast the race for the White House.

For Republican Mitt Romney, Michigan looms as a must-win, a home-field battleground where he grew up and his father was governor.

For the Mormon and former Massachusetts governor, who invested millions and months in Iowa and New Hampshire, only to lose both, a third defeat in Michigan could effectively finish his White House bid.

"It's just getting started," Mr. Romney, 60, insisted yesterday, but in an ominous sign, his free-spending campaign suspended television advertising in South Carolina.
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The Globe and Mail

For Senator John McCain, buoyed by his New Hampshire victory, a win in Michigan would make him the Republican front-runner, a remarkable turnabout for the 71-year-old former naval aviator and prisoner of war whose presidential bid all but collapsed last summer.

"Nothing is quite as invigorating as a win," Mr. McCain said yesterday on his arrival in Michigan, where the Republican primary is next Tuesday. "We won here in 2000 and we will win again in 2008."

Barack Obama said his disappointing second place in New Hampshire only adds resolve to his White House bid.

"We are the insurgent campaign," the 46-year-old black Illinois senator said after New Hampshire voters refuted the predictions of pollsters and pundits that his momentum was unstoppable.

"Over the last few days, because of our win in Iowa, I think that folks started to anoint us in a way that they were anointing Senator Clinton back in the summer - and that's always a dangerous place to be."

So treacherous is it that Mr. Obama lost, albeit narrowly, to the party-establishment machine headed by Ms. Clinton, 60, whose come-from-behind win in New Hampshire transformed the Democratic race into a tough, two-contender fight.

As if to demonstrate that, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson ended his campaign yesterday after twin fourth-place finishes that showed his impressive credentials could not compete with his rivals' star power.

He planned to announce the decision today, two people close to the governor said.

Ms. Clinton's victory in New Hampshire came at the hands of women, union members and bedrock blue-collar Democrats who turned out in record numbers to right her listing campaign.

She admitted it had been a wild final 48 hours since polls showed her trailing Mr. Obama by double-digits.

"It was an emotional roller-ride," she said yesterday.

"I'm up and I'm at it, and I'm going to keep going as we take on all the rest of the contests between now and Feb. 5." She was referring to Super Tuesday, when more than 20 states vote and more than half of the delegates that will select the presidential standard-bearer of each party are at stake.

The next Democratic contest is Nevada, where yesterday Mr. Obama picked up a key endorsement from the mostly Hispanic Culinary Workers Union, whose 60,000 members service the hotels and casinos in Las Vegas strip.

Beyond Michigan and Nevada looms South Carolina, the next major contest for Republicans on Jan. 19 and the Democrats a week later.

Former senator John Edwards, who was John Kerry's running mate on the unsuccessful 2004 Democratic ticket and who trailed a distant third in both Iowa and New Hampshire this year, must win in South Carolina or face political oblivion.

More than 50 per cent of registered Democrats in South Carolina are black and the primary will be the first head-to-head contest for that key bloc.

"I feel a lot more comfortable now understanding this is a victory we are going to have to earn, and the American people are not just going to hand over the keys to the White House," Mr. Obama said yesterday.

If the Democratic race seems to have settled into a two-person contest, the Republican field remains wide open.

In addition to Mr. McCain, Mr. Romney and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is waiting in the wings after spending little time or money on the small, first states.

"I think his strategy is looking better and better," Paul Cellucci, the Giuliani campaign manager and a former ambassador to Canada, said yesterday.

"Six weeks ago, we were worried about Mitt Romney winning big in Iowa, winning big in New Hampshire."

Instead there have been "different winners in Iowa and in New Hampshire. We could have a different winner in Michigan," while Mr. Giuliani campaigns hard in Florida, and the big states are scheduled to vote on Super Tuesday.

***

The Republican voter

Exit polling of primary voters shows that John McCain is winning support from a broad spectrum of the electorate.

***

NEW HAMPSHIRE

SEX
McCain Romney Huckabee Other
MALE 35% 31% 10% 24%
FEMALE 38% 32% 13% 17%

***

AGE
McCain Romney Huckabee Other
18-24 27% 17% 15% 41%
25-29 37% 33% 11% 19%
30-39 38% 28% 12% 22%
40-49 35% 31% 12% 22%
50-64 38% 30% 12% 20%
65+ 40% 44% 7% 9%

***

FAMILY'S FINANCIAL SITUATION
McCain Romney Huckabee Other
Getting ahead financially 35% 32% 14% 19%
Holding steady 37% 32% 12% 19%
Falling behind 38% 26% 12% 24%

***

DECIDED WHOM TO SUPPORT
McCain Romney Huckabee Other
Today 36% 33% 12% 19%
Within three days of caucus 46% 29% 12% 13%
In the last week 46% 25% 8% 21%
In the last month 32% 32% 14% 22%
Before that 30% 33% 11% 26%

SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

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