Before The Voice Top 3 performed for the last time Monday, the NBC show kicked off its finale with a tribute to the victims of Friday’s Connecticut school shooting tragedy. Coaches Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine were joined by ALL the Season 3 contestants for a stirring rendition of “Hallelujah.” Leonard Cohen’s song, also popularized by Jeff Buckley’s amazing cover, is emotional on an average day. In the wake of the Newtown shooting ? Amazingly so. As the fab four sang lead, their proteges provided backing vocals and all held name cards of the victims and their ages. Watch the moving video below: Hallelujah – The Voice
The University of North Alabama confirms it has kicked a player off the team after he fired off a racist slur in a Tweet about President Barack Obama. Coaches made the move after Bradley Patterson complained that Obama’s Newtown speech pre-empted Sunday night’s Patriots-49ers NFL contest. University sports publicist Jeff Hodges said the school found that there’s no question the tweet was issued by Patterson, and that he used a racial slur . Patterson joined the University of North Alabama team as a walk-on after the fourth game of this season. He has now been issued his walking papers.
What is on Adam Lanza ‘s hard drive? It looks like we may never find out. Before Friday’s elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the 20-year-old allegedly removed his computer disk drive and smashed it, according to The Hartford Courant . It will be difficult to recover any data, authorities and tech experts say. Two sources told the paper the hard drive was “broken in pieces.” ABC News reports it “appeared to have been badly damaged with a hammer or screwdriver.” Forensic electronics experts at the FBI will examine the drive in an effort to determine with whom Lanza corresponded electronically and how he otherwise used the device. Tech experts also say Adam Lanza may have “overwritten the drive.” FBI electronics experts will continue to examine the drive to see what is salvageable, but any insight into the mind of the Connecticut shooter may be lost forever. Meanwhile, more details about the gunman are slowly emerging. And under a cloud of national mourning, a renewed debate about gun control is heating up. A former director of security for Newtown Public Schools, Richard Novia said Lanza had Asperger’s syndrome, based on documents and discussions with Lanza’s mother. Nancy Lanza was murdered by Adam shortly before the Sandy Hook massacre; he is believed to have used three guns, all registered in her name. Novia said as part of his job, which he left in 2008, he would be informed of students who might pose problems to themselves or others for whatever reason. Russ Hanoman, a friend of Lanza’s mother, previously told CNN that Lanza had Asperger’s syndrome and that he was “very withdrawn emotionally.” But CNN has not been able to independently confirm whether Lanza had autism or Asperger’s syndrome, a higher-functioning form of autism. Both are developmental disorders, not mental illnesses. Many experts say neither Asperger’s nor autism can be blamed for the rampage, and saying his parents should have seen warning signs is highly debatable. “There is absolutely no evidence or any reliable research that suggests a linkage between autism and planned violence,” the Autism Society said in a statement. “To imply or suggest that is wrong and is harmful to more than 1.5 million law-abiding, nonviolent and wonderful individuals who live with autism each day.”
