Rob Gronkowski has apologized for acting like a bonehead. The Patriots tight end – who missed the end of the regular season and the playoffs with a broken forearm – was caught on video in Las Vegas last month, dancing up a storm and wrestling with a friend on the stage of a nightclub. But Gronkowski has now seen the error of his way… sort of. The All-Pro posed with a fan at Universal Studios in Orlando Sunday while donning a shirt that reads “Sorry for Partying.” With this gesture be enough for Bill Belichick? We somehow doubt it.
The LAPD has moved back into a “normal state of police operation” after Tuesday’s Christopher Dorner gun battle, a signal that the manhunt is over. Cops won’t officially declare Christopher Dorner dead until the tests are run on the corpse believed to be inside what is left of a burned down California cabin. Still, every indication is that Dorner was inside when the cabin went up in smoke. A rep for the police department says the city is no longer on tactical alert. Dorner met his fate following a frightening shootout in which he exchanged fire with police and barricaded himself in a remote cabin in Big Bear, Calif. The former LAPD officer is accused of killing four people, including two police officers, one of whom died yesterday during the gun battle with Dorner. Authorities are working to examine the remnants of the cabin and ID any remains before putting out an official report confirming the death of Dorner. The manhunt for the 33-year-old spanned a week and much of Southern California before apparently ending in Big Bear yesterday afternoon. Early Tuesday, two cleaning ladies at a condominium in Big Bear discovered a man they say looked like Dorner, who was rumored to be hiding there. He took them hostage, tied them up and tried to escape, stealing a pair of vehicles along the way. Now law enforcement officials are confident they got their man. Acting on reports of a carjacking, law enforcement officials quickly tracked the man accused of targeting police officers and their families in February. “The suspect that stole the vehicle matched the description. He crashed the car and then took off,” San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said. As he barricaded himself in an empty cabin, the man believed to be Dorner fired a .50-caliber sniper rifle, shooting two deputies, killing one of them. Dorner tried to escape by throwing a smoke grenade at officers. Police also deployed smoke grenades as a screen so the wounded could be evacuated. The resort town of Big Bear had been the focus of the manhunt since last Thursday, when a burned-out truck belonging to Dorner was found in the area. Weapons, survival gear and a gas mask were also found. As media and SWAT teams descended on the town, police say Dorner hid in plain sight in an unoccupied condo across the road from their command post.
SMH. Breezy shole is gone need more people now! Via NY Post: The embattled police chief of Richmond, Va., resigned today, after he was accused of sloppy work that allowed Chris Brown to allegedly fake his way through community service. Bryan Norwood, who had been his city’s top cop since 2008, came under intense scrutiny last week when Los Angeles prosecutors said R&B crooner Brown logged hours of work in Richmond that he couldn’t have possibly done. Brown was sentenced to 180 days — or 1,440 hours — of labor in his 2009 plea-bargain deal for savagely assaulting girlfriend Rihanna. After doing 581 hours in LA County, Brown was given permission to finish his debt to society in his home state of Virginia, where he claimed to have finished all court-ordered work. “As of today I’ve accepted the resignation of Bryan Norwood from his post as chief of police for the city of Richmond,” Mayor Dwight Jones announced. “He has offered leadership that has brought us a little bit further in our endeavors to improve public safety. In many ways the Richmond Police Department and the city is better off because of his dedication.” Ray Tarasovic, who had previously served as Richmond’s assistant chief, was talked out of retirement and elevated to Norwood’s old job. “We’ve reached, however, a mutual agreement, at this time, that his time as Richmond police chief has come to an end,” Jones said of Norwood. “We certainly wish Chief Norwood much luck in his endeavors going forward.” SMH.
Chicago is becoming Murder Capital USA 2 Suspects In Custody For Shooting Of Hadiya Pendleton Via The Grio reports: Two men were taken into custody Sunday as “persons of interest” in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Chicago girl , a Chicago police spokeswoman said. Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said the two men, ages 18 and 20, were taken into custody early Sunday morning and are being questioned. She said no charges have been filed. The development comes one day after Hadiya Pendleton’s funeral, which was attended by first lady Michelle Obama and several other dignitaries. Pendleton was shot to death Jan. 29 in a park that is about a mile from President Barack Obama’s home on the city’s South Side. Police have said Pendleton was an innocent victim in a gang-related shooting. Just days before her death, the band majorette was among the performers during events for Obama’s inauguration. Her slaying brought new attention to Chicago’s homicide rate, and came in a January that was the city’s deadliest in a decade. In 2012, Chicago recorded 506 homicides. Among the other dignitaries at Saturday’s funeral were Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush. Such a beautiful young lady. Condolences to her family, may they find some solace in the loveliness she brought to them and others in her short life. Rest In Peace to a young life ended entirely too soon. When will the senseless violence end???
Call it strangely eerie or a fitting send off, on the same day that former New York mayor Ed Koch died, a new documentary about him and titled simply, Koch will open in the city he lead and will be buried in. Koch, who served as NYC mayor from 1978 – 1989 over three terms, died at 2am Eastern Time from congestive heart failure, according to the New York Times. Directed by first-time filmmaker Neil Barsky, Koch offers a portrait of the combative, humorous and straight-talking mayor who also served as a Congressman before taking the city’s highest office. The film chronicles the history of NYC alongside Koch’s tenure, which began as the city faced the depths of near bankruptcy and malaise in the late ’70s. As he served in the ’80s, the city faced racial strife and the dawn of the AIDS crisis as well as homelessness and the ascendance of Wall Street wealth in the go-go ’80s. In 1987 he famously refused a permit for the New York Giants to have a ticker tape parade to celebrate their victory at Super Bowl XXI because the team had moved to the Meadowland Complex over the river in New Jersey some years prior. “If they want a parade, let them parade in front of the oil drums in Moonachie,” said Koch referring to the town near the Giants’ adopted home. Koch also left his touch on the entertainment world, even serving as judge on The People’s Court after his mayorship and even as a film critic through his we show, Mayor At the Movies , according to Deadline.com. He also appeared in dozens of films and television shows including The Muppets Take Manhattan , Sex and the City , Spin City and of course, Saturday Night Live . Zeitgeist Films will open Koch , which premiered at last October’s Hamptons International Film Festival, at the Angelika and Lincoln Plaza theaters in Manhattan this weekend. It will head to other areas of the city in the coming weeks in addition to other U.S. cities in a slow roll-out. “I spoke to him on the day of the premiere [from the hospital] and he said, ‘don’t let the applause go to your head,'” Barsky said Friday morning on local news station, New York One. “He’s the ultimate publicist for himself and the city. It’s very regrettable he couldn’t attend the premiere of what I think is an affectionate film.” Koch log line: Former Mayor Ed Koch is the quintessential New Yorker. Still ferocious, charismatic, and hilariously blunt, the now 88-year-old Koch ruled New York from 1978 to 1989—a down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime. First-time filmmaker (and former Wall Street Journal reporter) Neil Barsky has crafted an intimate and revealing portrait of this intensely private man, his legacy as a political titan, and the town he helped transform. The tumult of his three terms included a fiercely competitive 1977 election; an infamous 1980 transit strike; the burgeoning AIDS epidemic; landmark housing renewal initiatives; and an irreparable municipal corruption scandal. Through candid interviews and rare archival footage, Koch thrillingly chronicles the personal and political toll of running the world’s most wondrous city in a time of upheaval and reinvention. [ Sources: Deadline , NYT , New York One ]
Beyonce lip-synching scandal? What Beyonce lip-synching scandal? The superstar singer is clearly moving on well from last week’s Inauguration-based scandal, releasing a new video that tales fans behind the scenes of a photo shoot for Pulse NYC, Beyonce’s fifth fragrance. It hits shelves on February 1. Beyonce Fragrance Shoot Where did the concept for this perfume emanate from? Says Beyonce: “I thought that now that I am a New Yorker and I’ve learned about how I can accomplish anything in this city, I felt it was an appropriate energy for the new fragrance.” Fair enough. The artist will also perform at halftime of Sunday’s Super Bowl, possibly reuniting with Destiny’s Child and putting on a show for hundreds of millions of global fans. Will you be watching?!?
Russell Erxleben has been arrested for kicking a financial plot way outside the uprights of the law. According to The Associated Press, the former NFL player was arrested yesterday on allegations that he schemed investors out of more than $2 million between 2005 and 2009. Erxleben, an ex-placekicker for the Saints and Lions, faces count of money laundering and security fraud. The maximum sentence for these charges? Over 100 years in jail! That’s worse than actually being stuck on the Lions! In 1999, Erxleben was sentenced to seven years behind bars after robbing other investors of $36 million. He stills owes $28 million in restitution from that incident.
San Francisco football fans looking to have an all-time day and night one week from Sunday may find themselves hampered by a Super Bowl alcohol ban. Mayor Ed Lee is pushing to limit liquor sales before the Super Bowl February 3. He’s worried about another incident like the 2012 World Series, in which the city saw wild rioting and vandalism from drunken fans after the Giants won. Lee doesn’t want to issue an outright Super Bowl alcohol ban, but he is encouraging business owners to “serve something (other) than heavy alcohol.” His reasoning is that “inebriation sometimes doesn’t help with people who want to maybe go beyond the bounds of acceptability in their celebration.” Do you agree that perhaps an abundance of caution is warranted? More importantly, who do you think will win Super Bowl XLVII? The 49ers The Ravens View Poll »
Might there be hope for Haylor after all? Taylor Swift touched down in London yesterday, with sources confirming Harry Styles in both in the city and has a couple days off. Coincidence?!? Yes, Swift’s rep tells E! News, explaining that his client is simply overseas to perform and pose for some magazine covers. “Once she disembarked, she was met by a bodyguard and a driver who took her straight into a central London,” a source says. “She is staying at a London hotel. She seemed excited to be here.” Swift and Style split toward the end of 2012, with one insider claiming Taylor was too prude for the One Direction star. And while neither side has spoken out since then, the female artist did Tweet a photo of herself in the studio not long afterward, with rumors of a Harry Styles breakup song hitting the Internet. Might it now need to be to put on hold?
Law enforcement officials in Albuquerque confirm that an unidentified 15-year old male shot and killed two adults and three children in an area home today. The culprit was arrested for murder and other charges connected to the incident, which took place in a rural community approximately 10 miles southwest of the city center. Bernalillo County sheriff spokesman Aaron Williamson says police are “trying to identify the victims,” but each was shot more than one time. Several guns were found at the residence/crime scene, including a semi-automatic military-style rifle. It’s unknown who owned the weapons. Said Peter Gomez, a neighbor who spoke to The Huffington Post: “It’s a horrible thing. You see all this stuff that happens all over the country, the shootings in the schools and theaters, and then it happens right here. It’s sad.”
