Tag Archives: child

Lady Gaga Sued For $30.5 Million By Producer

Rob Fusari claims he hasn’t been compensated for co-writing songs, coming up with her stage name and helping her get a record deal. By Kelley L. Carter Lady Gaga Photo: Jason Merritt/ Getty Images A songwriter and music producer who claims he helped launch Lady Gaga filed a $30.5 million lawsuit against the pop superstar, The Associated Press reported Thursday (March 18). Rob Fusari says he was squeezed out of Gaga’s lucrative career after he co-wrote some of her songs, came up with her stage name and helped her get a record deal. Fusari’s lawyer hadn’t returned MTV News’ calls for comment by press time; Gaga’s rep also hadn’t commented on the suit. The producer said Gaga is his prot&#233g

Levi Johnston ordered to pay $1,750 a month in child support to Bristol Palin. As mother and sister lose home.

According to ADN : The teen father of Sarah Palin’s grandson has been ordered to make interim child support payments of $1,750 per month to Palin’s daughter. The amount is 20 percent of 19-year-old Levi Johnston’s adjusted annual income, as set out in Alaska statute. Johnston’s payments are based on estimated income of $105,000 and are retroactive to May 2009. The payments are slightly lower for January through April 2009 because of Johnston’s lower income. Palmer Superior Court Judge Judge Kari C. Kristiansen set a trial date in the matter for Sept. 23. I have become very frustrated with Levi’s legal team lately.

Rielle Hunter GQ Pictures “Repulsive”

John Edwards’ former mistress is getting a tough lesson in surviving celebrity after her racy photospread with the April issue of GQ Magazine left the. Continue reading

Barbara Walters: Rielle Hunter Finds GQ Photos 'Repulsive' at The …

John Edwards’ former mistress and mother to his child, Rielle Hunter , posed for some racy photos for her spread with GQ magazine, but Barbara Walters says Hunter regrets that decision. Walters disclosed on “The View” that she had spoken … Continue reading

Rielle Hunter Pictures | John Edwards | GQ Interview | Mediaite

Well, it looks like no matter how much you wish for it the Edwardses and their scandals are not going away. Behold the latest installment. Rielle Hunter has given a long interview to GQ in which she says, among other things, … Continue reading

Keith Olbermann’s father has passed away.

This from Keith’s blog, “Baseball Nerd”, which you can visit by clicking the title. My father died, in the city of his birth, New York, at 3:50 EST this afternoon. Keith goes on to eloquently (of course) describe the man that was his father, and his unwavering support

Obama Plans to Dismantle No Child Left Behind

ATLANTA (AP) — The Obama administration unveiled its plan Saturday to radically change his predecessor's No Child Left Behind law in hopes of replacing an accountability system that in the last decade has tagged more than a third of schools as failing and created a hodgepodge of sometimes weak academic standards among states. The changes would dismantle the 2002 law championed by President George W. Bush, moving away from punishing schools that don't meet benchmarks and instead focusing on rewarding schools for progress, particularly with poor and minority students. The blueprint calls for states to adopt standards that ensure students are ready for college or a career rather than grade-level proficiency — the focus of the current law. ''Unless we take action — unless we step up — there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential,'' Obama said during a video address on Saturday. ''I don't accept that future for them. And I don't accept that future for the United States of America.'' The blueprint also would allow states to use subjects other than reading and mathematics as part of their measurements for meeting federal goals, pleasing many education groups that have said No Child Left Behind encouraged teachers not to focus on history, art, science, social studies and other important subjects. And, for the first time in the law's 45-year history, the White House is proposing a $4 billion increase in federal education spending, most of which would go to increase the competition among states for grant money and move away from formula-based funding. The blueprint goes before the House Education and Labor Committee on Wednesday as Obama pushes Congress to reauthorize the education law this year, a time-consuming task that some observers say will be difficult. Committee Chairman George Miller, a Democrat from California, praised Obama's plan. ''This blueprint lays the right markers to help us reset the bar for our students and the nation,'' Miller said in a prepared statement. Education Secretary Arne Duncan briefed a handful of governors, lawmakers and education groups on the plan Friday, including Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican. ''The governor is very supportive of the direction the secretary is going,'' said Perdue's spokesman Chris Schrimpf. A few other highlights from the blueprint: — By 2020, all students graduating from high school would need to be ready for college or a career. That's a shift away from the current law, which calls for all students to be performing at grade level in reading and math by 2014. — Give more rewards — money and flexibility — to high-poverty schools that are seeing big gains in student achievement and use them as a model for other schools in low-income neighborhoods that struggle with performance. — Duncan has said the name No Child Left Behind will be dropped because it is associated with a harsh law that punishes schools for not reaching benchmarks even if they've made big gains. He said the administration will work with Congress to come up with a new name. Amy Wilkins, a vice president with The Education Trust in Washington, D.C., called the blueprint a ''culture shift.'' ''One of the things America has not been clear about is what k-12 is supposed to do,'' Wilkins said. ''In this, we're saying K-12 is supposed to prepare kids for college and meaningful careers.'' http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/13/us/politics/AP-US-Obama-Education.htm… added by: current89

American Idol: When No Man Loves the Women [Recaps]

Girls! All we really want is girls! Well, that’s all we really wanted at the beginning of this season’s competition, because a woman was due to win the crown. Now, three weeks in? We don’t want that anymore. No, the women have failed us. I mean, the men have too. I will write this exact same post minus the wo’s tomorrow. But right now we are talking about girls, and the girls are stinkin’ dinkins. Aren’t they? If the girls were a movie, they would be Good Luck Chuck . That movie isn’t even entertaining in a bad way. It’s just bad. If the girls were a food, they would be lima beans. A car? The Plymouth Sundance. They are bland and awful. Swamp rot. Cow’s cud. Dung. And the judges know it! Oh boy do they know it. Betcha wish you didn’t sign a five-year contract nowwww, Ellen! Seriously, how much must she regret it? Simon’s leaving after this year, the contestants are about as good as a production of Candide featuring Penny Marshall as Cunégonde, and Randy is actually starting to physically change into a Mole Person. Plus, Kara won’t put out. Maybe that’s why Ellen is reeking so hard in the judgin’ zone. Maybe she hopes that if she’s awful enough, Fox will let her out of her contract early. So it’ll be more of the “It was good!” and “I don’t know…” until May, I fear. It’s just how it’s going to be. It Was Good! Saying something about Crystal Ninjatrousers at this point is just dumb. Everyone knows that she blew it out the bowerbox. She sang that Gimme One Reason to Stay Heeeere song, by Tyler Perry, and she had her little amp next to her and yeah, she’s going to win the entire show, isn’t she? Is there anyone who might beat her? Maybe one of the other girls, like Alex Lambert or Little Pippy Urban. Wouldn’t it be so fantastic if Tim Urban won this season of American Idol ? This likely last season that any of us will watch. Ryan says his name and then there’s a loud creak and groan and a shower of sparks and a huge rafter swings down and kills Ryan, like the nice teacher in Carrie . And then Kara starts shaking and says “What’s… happening… to … meeeeee…” and her hair grows long and she grabs on to Randy but by then she is mostly bones and then she falls to the ground and her dessicated body shatters and all that’s left is her Nazi pin. (Somewhere Paula sits in her chainmail and says “Simon Fuller chose… poorly.”) And then pretty much everyone else is dead too and that’s it for Idol and Tim Urban is just standing there amid the carnage, smiling like a hunk piece of Wisconsin cheddar would if it could smile, wondering when he should start singing the new victory song, “With Wings to the Mountains of Our Dreams.” He figures now’s as good a time as any and starts bleating it out as the place goes up in flames and Simon’s chest explodes a mini Seacrest comes screeching out. Who else was good. Um… Sigh. I suppose that Lacey Brown didn’t totally whiff it this week. I mean, she’s still gross, but it was an improvement . Same for Didi Beady or whatever her name is. “Rhiannon” was a fun choice and she looked pretty, so good for her. Nice one, Doodi Tooti Fresh ‘n Fruity. I Don’t Know… Paige Miles. First off, has the child never watched the show before? If you sing “Smile,” you will go home. The producers will make it so. Because it is wayyy too good of an exit song to let it pass. Also, if she’d watched the show, Paige would realize that this is a competition for people to have contemporary singing careers. I think she maybe misunderstood that. I think she thinks this is a show where you just listlessly sing pretty songs a little bit and just kinda stand around, for fun. Simon keeps harping on about how she’s got such a good voice, but have we really heard that, at all? I have not. But maybe I am watching a different show than you. (I figured “American Irdool” was just a typo on my DVR.) That video above was Siobhan Magnus dedicating “House of the Rising Sun,” a song about prostitute sex workers, to her dad. That is one dizzy dame, huh? She is weird even for Idol . I’m not entirely convinced that the Siobhan Magnus experiences time in the same way that humans do. I think she might be the last airbender? That is a possibility. Whatever she is, she is off-putting. I know I’m supposed to like her because she is quirky and hit one high screech-note (also a Screech note) last week, but I just kind of don’t like her at all. Something’s awry there. Something unsettling. I don’t remember Willa the Wisp’s performance in the slightest, so I’m assuming it wasn’t terribly good. Anyone care to elaborate? Is there anyone else on this show? Am I forgetting anyone? Other than the person mentioned below, I mean. The Teen Scream Oh isn’t Katie Stevens the worst . Oh I just can’t stand her! The whole package is just so unappealing. Her weird strut, the fading gleam in her eye, the perky slope of Disney hair. It’s just wildly tone deaf. The producers’ strange attempts to produce a Miley or a Taylor this year were really fumbly and sad. Both girls, Haeley and Katie (eeeeeeee!), looked promising and then totally fizzled. I would not be surprised if Katie is sent packing tomorrow and she was supposed to be a frontrunner! They gave her the last-of-the-evening “pimp slot” the first week and everything! But alas, she buckled or caved or something else bad and implodey. If Katie Stevens were a car, she would be six million Toyotas. OK. I think that’s it for today. Tonight: The Men. Will Alex Lambert have to deal with his daughter Jan’s jealously issues with her sister? Will Tiger the dog show up? Will Tim Urban strip down to his shiny blue underoos and perform a sexy dance for Ellen, who can never shut up about his good looks? These are all questions we await the answers to. That chomping and scraping sound you hear is Simon grinding his teeth and praying for May. It’s us, too.

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American Idol: When No Man Loves the Women [Recaps]

Is President Obama channeling Ronald Reagan when it comes to the mass firing of educators in Rhode Island?

A Rhode Island school board’s decision to fire the entire faculty of a poorly performing school, and President Obama’s endorsement of the action, has stirred a storm of reaction nationwide, with teachers condemning it as an insult and conservatives hailing it as a watershed moment of school accountability. The decision by school authorities in Central Falls to fire the 93 teachers and staff members has assumed special significance because hundreds of other school districts across the nation could face similarly hard choices in coming weeks, as a $3.5 billion federal school turnaround program kicks into gear. I am extraordinarily angered by this decision, and stunned by the fact that Obama seems to endorse this scorched earth approach to solving such a complicated problem. These are underpaid teachers struggling to do a good job in a challenging environment, not petulant Teamsters demanding longer coffee breaks! And just who does the Rhode Island school board think they are going to find to replace these 93 fired teachers? What qualified educator in their right mind would interview for a job in a school that treats its teachers this way? The Washington Post shares my dismay. Now, all they have to do is find 93 excellent professionals to take their places. Recruiting the best educators should be easy, especially when you can offer them life in a very poor town and a job with no security. Just take a look at the statistics working against these potential replacement teachers. The statistics are dreadful, according to a CNN report, “Central Falls High School is one of the lowest-performing schools in Rhode Island.” The network adds that the school “operates in a community where the median income is $22,000, according to census statistics.” “Of the school’s 800 students, 65 percent are Latino and most of them consider English a second language. Half the student body is failing every subject, with 55 percent meeting requirements in reading and only 7 percent in math.” Can’t you just see teachers all over the country fine tuning their resumes for a chance to work at THIS school? These are teachers not fucking magicians! When teachers are facing these kinds of challenges you don’t deal with them punitively you offer them support, incentives, guidance. These are the same tactics used by Ronald Reagan back in 1981, to bust a strike by the air traffic controllers, the repercussions of which we are still feeling even today. The lessons learned from that debacle should inform President Obama that these decisions should not be taken lightly and that the fallout can last decades. I also find myself stunned that this president still uses the bullshit measurements provided by George Bush’s anti-educational No Child Left Behind Act to determine a school’s worth to its community. The NCLB act is one of those most punitive and unfair pieces of legislation to ever make its way through the Senate. It destroys children’s creativity and unfairly punishes schools in lower income or multi-lingual communities. Our President, who grew up in Hawaii of all places, should be hyper sensitive to that reality. But sadly he seems to be focusing on the numbers at the expense of the human cost of this decision. I expected more from this man who I worked so hard to help elect. Fortunately it appears that cooler heads may prevail . A Rhode Island school superintendent and union leaders, who have been at odds over a decision to fire every teacher at a struggling high school, signaled Wednesday that a compromise that would preserve jobs and overhaul the school may be possible. Gallo’s statement followed an overture Tuesday from the Central Falls Teachers’ Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. The instructors have offered support for a longer school day, as well as more rigorous evaluations and training, among other steps. That appeared to pave the way for reopening negotiations on the proposed dismissals. Well that is comforting news, and I certainly hope that the real grownups involved in this situation will do the right thing for these children. And that is NOT to fire a whole school full of teachers! However I am worried that Obama’s rash decision to weigh in on this crisis has damaged his credibility with America’s educators. I was working at a school during the 2008 caucuses and election, and I can tell you these people were passionate about politics. I had a number of very animated exchanges with teachers supporting Hillary before the nomination process was complete, and then a few with McCain supporters before the general election. These were the people most likely to show up for a rally, or make phone calls to help their candidate, or donate their time fund raising. And they have long memories. From this time forward President Obama needs to make sure that any decision which has this response: conservatives (are) hailing it as a watershed moment of school accountability. Is a decision that he avoids like the plague. Republicans have been trying to destroy the public school system for decades. Remember, an undereducated populace is much more likely to vote for the GOP ticket. It is in the best interests of any Democratic President to do everything in their power to spoil the Republican plans to dumb down our future voters. And job one toward that goal, in my opinion, is to quickly do away with NCLB, and to start giving our nations teachers the tools and the incentives to help create the artists, and inventors, and scientists, and politicians, and dreamers of tomorrow.

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Is President Obama channeling Ronald Reagan when it comes to the mass firing of educators in Rhode Island?

Apple admits using child labour and poisoning workers

Apple has admitted that child labour was used at the factories that build its computers, iPods and mobile phones. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7330986/Apple-admits-using-child-lab… At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple. The company did not name the offending factories, or say where they were based, but the majority of its goods are assembled in China. Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States. Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. “In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment,” Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers. Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories that abuse workers and where conditions are poor. Last week, it emerged that 62 workers at a factory that manufactures products for Apple and Nokia had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blur eyesight. Apple has not commented on the problems at the plant, which is run by Wintek, in the Chinese city of Suzhou. A spokesman for Wintek said that “almost all” of the affected workers were back at work, but that some remained in hospital. Wintek said n-hexane was commonly used in the technology industry, and that problems had arisen because some areas of the factory were not ventilated properly. Last year, an employee at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that is one of Apple's biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype for the iPhone. Sun Danyong, 25, was a university graduate working in the logistics department when the prototype went missing. An investigation revealed that the factory's security staff had beaten him, and he subsequently jumped to his death from the 12th floor of his apartment building. Foxconn runs a number of super-factories in the south of China, some of which employ as many as 300,000 workers and form self-contained cities, complete with banks, post offices and basketball courts. It has been accused, however, of treating its employees extremely harshly. China Labor Watch, a New York-based NGO, accused Foxconn of having an “inhumane and militant” management, which neglects basic human rights. Foxconn's management were not available for comment. In its report, Apple revealed the sweatshop conditions inside the factories it uses. Apple admitted that at least 55 of the 102 factories that produce its goods were ignoring Apple's rule that staff cannot work more than 60 hours a week. The technology company's own guidelines are already in breach of China's widely-ignored labour law, which sets out a maximum 49-hour week for workers. Apple also said that one of its factories had repeatedly falsified its records in order to conceal the fact that it was using child labour and working its staff endlessly. “When we investigated, we uncovered records and conducted worker interviews that revealed excessive working hours and seven days of continuous work,” Apple said, adding that it had terminated all contracts with the factory. Only 65 per cent of the factories were paying their staff the correct wages and benefits, and Apple found 24 factories where workers had not even been paid China's minimum wage of around 800 yuan (Pounds76) a month. Meanwhile, only 61 per cent of Apple's suppliers were following regulations to prevent injuries in the workplace and a mere 57 per cent had the correct environmental permits to operate. The high environmental cost of Apple's products was revealed when three factories were discovered to be shipping hazardous waste to unqualified disposal companies. Apple said it had required the factories to “perform immediate inspections of their wastewater discharge systems” and hire an independent environmental consultant to prevent future violations. However, Apple has not stopped using the factories. In 2008, Apple found that a total of 25 child workers had been employed to build iPods, iPhones and its range of computers. added by: animalia_libero