Wednesday, October 5, 2011

He successfully defended Michael Jackson in his 2005 child molestation trial and now he’s speaking out about Conrad Murray’s case.
“[Murray] looks unprofessional, he looks mediocre, he looks narcissistic and selfish," Tom Mesereau told Jane Velez-Mitchell. "At a time when he should be caring about his patient, he seems to be always caring about himself and I think it may take him down.”
Complete courtroom coverage of the Conrad Murray trial airs live on HLN from gavel to gavel and is on In Session from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET every week day.
Posted by: 
Filed under: Conrad Murray • Evidence • Michael Jackson • Testimony • Witnesses
Share post |  Add a comment | Permalink

Forget a smoking gun, best evidence is a cell phone

Posted: 07:35 PM ET
Commentary by HLN legal analyst B.J. Bernstein
Today's Conrad Murray proceedings showed the modern state of evidence today and made clear that thanks to our adoption of technology, we all carry around stylish, de facto evidence machines capable of containing significant information to help recreate events for a trial.
Our phones and our love to connect create virtual roadmaps for prosecution or substantiating a defense: dates, times, documents, phone numbers, photos and audio recordings. All these details are now able to be preserved, for better or for worse, by our devices.
While the rules of law require a detailed foundation to admit the evidence, which seems to slow the "excitement" of a trial, these crucial details can often make or break a case.
Today we saw how all this information plays out in court, with exact dates and times made available for Dr. Murray's phone calls and e-mails in the days and hours before Michael Jackson's death.
Clearly the most momentous result was the finding of an audio recording on Dr. Conrad Murray's phone.
Four minutes and 12 seconds that cannot help but move you.
Evidence that amplifies the tragedy of Jackson's death.
Evidence also subject to different interpretation.
Does it show Dr. Murray's lack of care or Michael's desperation to succeed on tour and do anything to get the rest he needed to perform? It's too early to know.  The only agreement is how this recording revealed the depth of pain felt by Michael Jackson and his desire to make a difference with his music.
Share post |  Add a comment | Permalink

Coroner: No obvious cause of death

Posted: 06:53 PM ET
On the stand, Los Angeles County Coroner Investigator, Elissa Fleak said she had difficulty determining the cause of Michael Jackson's death. From the coroner’s report, he appeared to be a healthy 50-year-old man. But the peculiar circumstances of his death led the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office to open a death investigation.
Prosecutor David Walgren walked Fleak through her investigation of the crime scene at Jackson's home on Carolwood Drive.
On her first trip to Jackson's home, Fleak said she found multiple bottles of the anesthetic propofol, a bottle of the sedative lorazapam, and a drug used to combat the effects of lorazapam, flumazenil. Fleak also testified that she found a prescription of the muscle relaxer tizanidine. Dr. Arnold Klein had prescribed that drug to Omar Arnold, one of Jackson's many aliases.
On her second trip to Jackson's home, Fleak found the bags of medication that Dr. Conrad Murray had stashed during the frantic scene after Jackson stopped breathing. Jackson's security guard Alberto Alvarez helped Dr. Murray hide the bags in a cabinet in another bedroom. Fleak testified these bags contained vials of the topical anesthetic lidocaine, propofol, lorzapam, and a pediatric anesthetic midazolam.
Complete courtroom coverage of the Conrad Murray trial airs live on HLN from gavel to gavel and is on In Session from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET every week day.
Posted by: 
Filed under: Conrad Murray • Drugs • Evidence • Testimony • Witnesses
Share post |  Add a comment | Permalink

Full transcript of Michael Jackson's recorded talk with Dr. Murray

Posted: 06:09 PM ET
Dr. Murray's iPhone is displayed for the court by prosecutor David Walgren. Dr Murray used this phone to record his conversation with a drowsy, possibly drugged Michael Jackson.
This is the official court transcript of the recording made by Dr. Conrad Murray of an apparently drugged Michael Jackson on May 10, 2009. The conversation lasts a little more than four minutes and was recorded by an application on Dr. Murray's cell phone.  The pop icon died six weeks after the recording was made.
Jackson:  Elvis didn’t do it.  Beatles didn’t do it.  We have to be phenomenal.  When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I am them to say, “I’ve never seen nothing like this in my life.  Go. Go.  I’ve never seen nothing like this.  Go. It’s amazing.  He’s the greatest entertainer in the world.”  I’m taking that money, a million children, children’s hospital, the biggest in the world, Michael Jackson’s Children’s Hospital.  Gonna have a movie theater, game room. Children are depressed. The –in those hospitals, no game room, no movie theater. They’re sick because they’re depressed.  Their mind is depressing them.  I want to give them that.  I care about them, them angels.  God wants me to do it.  God wants me to do it.  I’m gonna do it, Conrad.
Filed under: Conrad Murray • Evidence • Michael Jackson
Share post |  Add a comment | Permalink

Star's family, fans stunned as MJ audio played

Posted: 05:30 PM ET
The jury was focused on their transcripts as an audio recording of what sounded like a drugged Michael Jackson played out in court.
But family and fans of Michael Jackson were not nearly so reserved while the recording made six weeks before Jackson's death amplified across the court.
"The audio was all over, it was like surround sound in that courtroom," said In Session correspondent Jean Casarez, who is attending the trial.
Posted by: 
Filed under: Conrad Murray • Evidence • Family • Fans • Michael Jackson
Share post |  Add a comment | Permalink

The many (many) names of Michael Jackson

Posted: 04:17 PM ET
According to the affidavit requesting a search warrant for Michael Jackson's medical records, these are the aliases Jackson would use with the different doctors he saw.  This evidence seems to corroborate the defense's position that Jackson was taking drugs unbeknownst to Dr. Conrad Murray.
All this information was gathered by the Los Angeles Police Department as they investigated Jackson's death:
Jackson’s aliases used with Dr.  Conrad Murray:
  • Omar Arnold
  • Paul Farance
  • Paul Farnce
Share post | 5 Comments |  Add a comment | Permalink

Recording: A slurring Michael Jackson talks to Dr. Murray

Posted: 03:12 PM ET
The voice of a slurring, impaired Michael Jackson brought the Dr. Conrad Murray trial to a standstill today.
The recording was made by Dr. Murray on his iPhone while speaking with Jackson about his upcoming tour. The audio was timestamped May 10, 2009.
DEA forensics expert Stephen Marx conducted analysis on Dr. Conrad Murray’s iPhone.  Marx testified that he found the recording while examining an application on the phone called iTalk.
Share post | 9 Comments |  Add a comment | Permalink

Michael Jackson audio recording: "I hurt, you know? I hurt."

Posted: 02:51 PM ET
Here is the full transcript of the audio  just played in court of an impaired Michael Jackson talking to Dr. Conrad Murray about his tour.
These images are from the overhead projection that was displayed in court. We'll have much more on this emotional, significant piece of evidence posted here soon.
You can also listen to the actual full length recording right here.
Share your reaction in the comments section below or on Twitter @HLNTV or at Facebook.com/HLN.
Complete courtroom coverage of the Conrad Murray trial airs live on HLN from gavel to gavel and is on In Session from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET every week day.
Posted by: 
Filed under: Conrad Murray • Evidence • Michael Jackson
Share post |  Add a comment | Permalink

MJ's doctor's credit card declined

Posted: 02:20 PM ET
The first witness the prosecution called Wednesday morning was a medical sales representative who testified Dr. Conrad Murray's credit card was declined.
Sally Hirschberg works for Seacoast Medical Supply company and told the court her company did not fulfill an order from Dr. Murray for an infusion I.V. set because of the card being rejected.
Hirschberg said, "The account, I believe, had a credit card declined and so the paper work was pulled from the warehouse prior to being ordered or shipped."
Posted by: 
Filed under: Conrad Murray • Drugs • Evidence • Testimony • Witnesses
Share post |  Add a comment | Permalink

Michael Jackson, aka...

Posted: 01:40 PM ET
An examination of prescriptions written by Dr. Conrad Murray revealed an abundance of orders for a patient named Omar Arnold.  Was that his alias for Michael Jackson? It certainly seems so, though it's yet to be confirmed on the witness stand.
The testimony of Stephen Marx, a computer forensics analyst, is turning up plenty of fresh information about both Dr. Murray and Jackson. Drug orders, who was filling them, how often they were made.  And it's also apparently revealed the pop star's pseudonym.
Complete courtroom coverage of the Conrad Murray trial airs live on HLN from gavel to gavel and is on In Session from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET every week day.
Posted by Unknown at 11:32 PM 0 comments

After 5 years in Alabama, new law has illegal immigrant family packing

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed the state's immigration bill into law in June.Montgomery, Alabama (CNN) -- Gabriela Vazquez maneuvers through piles of clothes and toys while trying to control her two small children.
"They never stop," she says, while pulling a pair of pants from an almost-empty drawer and deciding whether to toss the pants to the "keep" or "leave" pile. The decision is not an easy one.
Vazquez is attempting to pack five years of her life in the United States into only a handful of bags.
"I crossed over into the U.S. with nothing but my clothes, so I'm taking nothing, only my clothes and my kids," she says.
Vazquez began packing moments after a federal judge in Birmingham, Alabama, last week allowed most of the state's controversial law, known as HB56, against illegal immigration to go into effect.
The law allows police officers to check the legal status of people when suspicions exists, detain them and turn them over to federal authorities. It is described by both its supporters and its opponents as the strictest state immigration law in the nation.
Where are Alabama immigrants moving?
"We expected the judge to rule like the other judges who blocked the laws in Arizona and Georgia," Vazquez says, referring to similar anti-illegal immigration laws approved in those states, with federal judges subsequently blocking the more severe parts of those bills.
"Now, they can take me away from my children anytime," Vazquez says.
Her journey began five years ago when she and her husband left the Mexican state of MIchoacan and headed north in search of jobs.
"In Mexico, it is hard to find a job. I'm 35 years old, and the ads seeking help say they want people between the ages of 18 and 35," Vazquez says.
"It wasn't easy coming over. We left our parents, our siblings, our family, and they didn't know what was going to happen to us."
The couple entered the United States illegally and headed for Montgomery, where they had relatives. They first rented a room in amobile home with other families until they found jobs. Vazquez's husband, Marco, became a carpet installer while she jumped from job to job in restaurants, hotels and grocery stores.
They managed to save enough to move into their own place. Along the way, she gave birth to a boy, now 4 years old, and a girl, now 2.
"I was not planning on having kids, but here they are," Vazquez says with a smile.
A year ago they bought a mobile home that they renovated themselves. Vazquez proudly shows pictures of the transformation of the dwelling, and points out the kitchen cabinets she sanded and repainted. She also brags about her husband's work replacing the floor and walls, and the brand-new electric range the couple bought after the old gas one that came with the mobile home exploded during the renovation.
"There was a small leak and the thing just blew up," she says.
The final product is a two-bedroom house fully furnished for a family of four. A large wrap-around sofa fills the living room in front of an old model big-screen TV set.
A desktop computer sits on a breakfast bar that divides the living room from the kitchen, where a glass table for six can be found. All those belongings will be left behind unless they find a buyer soon.
Vazquez apologizes for the mess she says is caused by her efforts to pack as soon as possible.
The freshly painted walls have few pictures on them but the nails where many portraits hung a few days ago are still visible.
When her husband arrives from work, the two kids are happy to see their father, especially the little girl, who doesn't want to leave her mother's side.
Marco Vazquez is a reluctant participant in his wife's plan, which calls for her to return to Mexico with the kids while he stays behind to try to sell their belongings before he joins them. He would prefer to have his family wait so they can all leave at the same time.
"I ask her to stay just long enough so we can save the money to take the truck back to Mexico, but she has made up her mind," he says.
Gabriela Vazquez hangs up the phone. She has been talking with her mother in Michoacan, who is already planning for her return. In a matter of minutes she warms corn tortillas on the stove and makes her husband some tacos filled with cochinita pibil -- shredded pork in a red chili sauce typical of southern Mexico.
The little boy comes asking if they can watch a movie. He wants to see "Finding Nemo," but his mother convinces him to watch something else. "Nemo" is already packed away, but she doesn't want to tell him that.
"It is hard," she says. "I've been crying all weekend long and he cried when he saw me. He asks, 'Why do we have to go, why am I not going to school anymore?'"
She decided to pull her son out of pre-kindergarten the same day HB56 went onto effect.
Her fear was that she would be arrested while he was in school and authorities would turn him over to child-support services.
She says the African-American teacher cried when she told her they were leaving,
"I held back tears as she told me about the struggles the black community had fought in this same state," she says.
And she is not the only one to take her kids out of school. According to the Alabama secretary of education, more than 2,000 Hispanic children have skipped school since the law went into effect.
By nightfall, Marco Vazquez is playing outside with the kids. A friend arrives and Marco offers him a room to stay once his wife leaves. The man agrees but says he can only pay $50 a month -- that is, if he can keep his job. Marco agrees and turns his attention back to the kids.
His wife comes out with two bags full of clothes and tosses them in the back of the pickup truck, telling her husband to give them away. He takes a look and sees clothes the kids wore just a few days ago. He also finds a bag full of toys and a couple of strollers.
"Those were expensive," he says.
Gabriela Vazquez shrugs and goes back inside to continue packing for the trip.
Posted by Unknown at 11:24 PM 0 comments

Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies

(CNN) -- Steve Jobs, the visionary in the black turtleneck who co-founded Apple in a Silicon Valley garage, built it into the world's leading tech company and led a mobile-computing revolution with wildly popular devices such as the iPhone, died Wednesday. He was 56.
The hard-driving executive pioneered the concept of the personal computer and of navigating them by clicking onscreen images with a mouse. In more recent years, he introduced the iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad tablet -- all of which changed how we consume content in the digital age.
His friends and Apple fans on Wednesday night mourned the passing of a tech titan.
"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives," Apple said in a statement. "The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."
More than one pundit, praising Jobs' ability to transform entire industries with his inventions, called him a modern-day Leonardo Da Vinci.
"Steve Jobs is one of the great innovators in the history of modern capitalism," New York Times columnist Joe Nocera said in August. "His intuition has been phenomenal over the years."
Jobs' death, while dreaded by Apple's legions of fans, was not unexpected. He had battled cancer for years, took a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as chief executive in August because he could "no longer meet (his) duties and expectations."
Born February 24, 1955, and then adopted, Jobs grew up in Cupertino, California -- which would become home to Apple's headquarters -- and showed an early interest in electronics. As a teenager, he phoned William Hewlett, president of Hewlett-Packard, to request parts for a school project. He got them, along with an offer of a summer job at HP.
How Steve Jobs grew up
Jobs 'set the agenda' for tech industry
Jobs dropped out of Oregon's Reed College after one semester, although he returned to audit a class in calligraphy, which he says influenced Apple's graceful, minimalist aesthetic. He quit one of his first jobs, designing video games for Atari, to backpack across India and take psychedelic drugs. Those experiences, Jobs said later, shaped his creative vision.
"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future," he told Stanford University graduates during a commencement speech in 2005. "You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
While at HP, Jobs befriended Steve Wozniak, who impressed him with his skill at assembling electronic components. The two later joined a Silicon Valley computer hobbyists club, and when he was 21, Jobs teamed with Wozniak and two other men to launch Apple Computer Inc.
It's long been Silicon Valley legend: Jobs and Wozniak built their first commercial product, the Apple 1, in Jobs' parents' garage in 1976. Jobs sold his Volkswagen van to help finance the venture. The primitive computer, priced at $666.66, had no keyboard or display, and customers had to assemble it themselves.
The following year, Apple unveiled the Apple II computer at the inaugural West Coast Computer Faire. The machine was a hit, and the personal computing revolution was under way.
Jobs was among the first computer engineers to recognize the appeal of the mouse and the graphical interface, which let users operate computers by clicking on images instead of writing text.
Timeline: Steve Jobs' careerTimeline: Steve Jobs' career
Apple's pioneering Macintosh computer launched in early 1984 with a now-iconic, Orwellian-themed Super Bowl ad. The boxy beige Macintosh sold well, but the demanding Jobs clashed frequently with colleagues, and in 1986, he was ousted from Apple after a power struggle.
Then came a 10-year hiatus during which he founded NeXT Computer, whose pricey, cube-shaped computer workstations never caught on with consumers.
Jobs had more success when he bought Pixar Animation Studios from George Lucas before the company made it big with "Toy Story." Jobs brought the same marketing skill to Pixar that he became known for at Apple. His brief but emotional pitch for "Finding Nemo," for example, was a masterful bit of succinct storytelling.
In 1996, Apple bought NeXT, returning Jobs to the then-struggling company he had co-founded. Within a year, he was running Apple again -- older and perhaps wiser but no less of a perfectionist. And in 2001, he took the stage to introduce the original iPod, the little white device that transformed portable music and kick-started Apple's furious comeback.
Thus began one of the most remarkable second acts in the history of business. Over the next decade, Jobs wowed launch-event audiences, and consumers, with one game-changing hit after another: iTunes (2003), the iPhone (2007), the App Store (2008), and the iPad (2010).
Observers marveled at Jobs' skills as a pitchman, his ability to inspire godlike devotion among Apple "fanboys" (and scorn from PC fans) and his "one more thing" surprise announcements. Time after time, he sold people on a product they didn't know they needed until he invented it. And all this on an official annual salary of $1.
He also built a reputation as a hard-driving, mercurial and sometimes difficult boss who oversaw almost every detail of Apple's products and rejected prototypes that didn't meet his exacting standards.
By the late 2000s, his once-renegade tech company, the David to Microsoft's Goliath, was entrenched at the uppermost tier of American business. Apple now operates more than 300 retail stores in 11 countries. The company has sold more than 275 million iPods, 100 million iPhones and 25 million iPads worldwide.
Jobs' climb to the top was complete in summer 2011, when Apple listed more cash reserves than the U.S. Treasury and even briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil as the world's most valuable company.
But Jobs' health problems sometimes cast a shadow over his company's success. In 2004, he announced to his employees that he was being treated for pancreatic cancer. He lost weight and appeared unusually gaunt at keynote speeches to Apple developers, spurring concerns about his health and fluctuations in the company's stock price. One wire service accidentally published Jobs' obituary.
Jobs had a secret liver transplant in 2009 in Tennessee during a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple. He took another medical leave in January this year. Perhaps mindful of his legacy, he cooperated on his first authorized biography, scheduled to be published by Simon & Schuster in November.
Jobs is survived by his wife of 20 years, Laurene, and four children, including one from a prior relationship.
He always spoke with immense pride about what he and his engineers accomplished at Apple.
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do," he told the Stanford grads in 2005.
"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."

Posted by Unknown at 11:17 PM 0 comments

Civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth dies at 89

(CNN) -- The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who helped lead the civil rights movement, has died, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute said Wednesday. He was 89.
Shuttlesworth is among the iconic figures honored in the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. King once called Shuttlesworth "the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South."
President Barack Obama issued a statement honoring Shuttleworth, saying he "dedicated his life to advancing the cause of justice for all Americans. He was a testament to the strength of the human spirit. And today we stand on his shoulders, and the shoulders of all those who marched and sat and lifted their voices to help perfect our union. ...
"America owes Reverend Shuttlesworth a debt of gratitude, and our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Sephira, and their family, friends and loved ones."
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against segregated busing in Montgomery, Alabama, Shuttlesworth rallied the membership of a group he established in May 1956 -- the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights -- to challenge the practice of segregated busing in Birmingham.
Shuttlesworth also helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, with King and other civil rights leaders.
Shuttlesworth's efforts weren't without a price: his home was bombed on Christmas Day in 1956, but he and his family were not injured.
He was, however, hurt in 1957 when he was beaten with chains and whips as he sought to integrate an all-white public school.
That same year, Shuttlesworth helped King organize the SCLC, serving as the organization's first secretary from 1958 to 1970. He later served briefly as its president in 2004.
In 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Shuttlesworth a Presidential Citizens Medal -- the nation's second-highest civilian award -- for his leadership in the "non-violent civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, leading efforts to integrate Birmingham, Alabama's schools, buses and recreational facilities" and helping found the SCLC.
Shuttlesworth also protested segregated lunch counters and helped lead sit-ins at the eateries in 1960.
He participated in organizing the Freedom Rides against segregated interstate buses in the South when he joined forces with the Congress On Racial Equality.
In 1963, he was injured again when a fire hose was turned on him during a protest against segregation in Birmingham. The blast of water, directed against demonstrators by order of Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor, slammed Shuttlesworth against a wall. He was hospitalized but recovered.
He was also a principal in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, which he helped organize.
In the early 1960s, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he fought homelessness and continued the movement against racism. There, he founded and served as pastor of the Greater New Light Baptist Church from 1966 to 2006.
In the 1980s, he established the Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation in Cincinnati, which provided grants to help low-income families buy homes.
The Ohio Civil Rights Commission has placed Shuttlesworth in its Hall of Fame.

Posted by Unknown at 11:10 PM 0 comments

Sunday, October 2, 2011

If You Dont Believe Watch This- Recent Mass UFO Sightings 2011

Posted by Unknown at 11:57 PM 0 comments

WE ARE NOT ALONG

Posted by Unknown at 11:47 PM 0 comments

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Sugar Hill Records co-founder Sylvia Robinson dead at 75

NEW YORK (AP) -- The woman some call the mother of hip-hop has died.Sugar Hill Records co-founder Sylvia Robinson dead at 75
Sylvia Robinson, who had a hit as a singer-songwriter with the sexually charged "Pillow Talk" but was later known as one of hip-hop's early founders as the record label owner that put out "Rapper's Delight," rap's first mainstream success, died Thursday, according to publicist Greg Walker. She was 76.
Robinson, born Sylvia Vanterpool, died of congestive heart failure at the New Jersey Institute of Neuroscience in Seacaucus, New Jersey.
Along with her late husband, Joe, Robinson was the owner of Sugar Hill Records. In 1979, it released the song that would become widely known as rap's first hit, "Rapper's Delight," by the Sugar Hill Gang.
The song was released as hip-hop was just beginning to emerge as a genre; for the most part, it was a budding phenomenon bubbling on New York City streets. Robinson recognized the potential of the music and wanted her struggling label to capitalize on it.
"She saw where a DJ was talking and the crowd was responding to what he was saying, and this was the first time she ever saw this before," her son Joey said in a 2000 interview with NPR. "And she said Joey, wouldn't this be a great idea to make a rap record?"
It turned out she was right. After gathering three rappers (Master Gee, Wonder Mike and Big Bank Hank) to record the 15-minute song, the party groove became a sensation. The condensed version was considered the first rap song to get radio play and reached the top 40 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
The Sugar Hill Gang faded into rap history, not recording other songs that would match its original flourish. But Sugar Hill Records would continue to play a part on the early years of hip-hop with a roster that included Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five.
Robinson's roots in the record industry were deep. She was a blues singer in the 1950s, recording for Columbia and Savoy Records on songs like "Chocolate Candy Blues." Later, she was part of the duo "Mickey & Sylvia."
But she had perhaps her biggest hit as a solo artist with "Pillow Talk," a seductive song released in 1973. Robinson was also a producer and songwriter for others.
She is survived by three sons and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren
Posted by Unknown at 11:23 PM 0 comments
Barack Obama
Posted by Unknown at 12:15 AM 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)