Bus Driver Found Not Guilty In Crash That Killed 15 People The verdict has come down in the case of the bus driver who was so exhausted that he dozed off while driving and crashed, killing 15 people last year. His lawyer’s defense that the crash was the result of another vehicle that ran the bus off of the road held up in court, as he was recently found not guilty of manslaughter. Fox News A casino bus driver at the helm of a New York crash that killed 15 people last year was found not guilty of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide on Friday. Ophadell Williams was found guilty on one count of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Williams wept and covered his face with his hands as the verdict was read. On the one count he was found guilty of, the judge sentenced him to 30 days in prison, which he has served. He also has to pay a fee of $500. Prosecutors alleged he was so exhausted it was as though he was drunk behind the wheel. Do you think justice was served in this case? Shutterstock
The frantic 911 call placed by Jovan Belcher’s mother after the NFL player’s girlfriend was shot Saturday has been released, and is not for the faint of heart. Belcher’s mother begged her son’s dying girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, to stay alive while pleading for an ambulance shortly after the athlete shot her. Jovan Belcher 911 Call “She’s still breathing but please hurry,” a distraught Cheryl Shepherd says on the recording of her 911 call with Kansas City emergency dispatchers. “I don’t know how he (inaudible), they were arguing, please hurry.” She also is heard encouraging Kasandra Perkins to stay alive. “Stay with me, the ambulance is on the way. Stay with me Kasandra, stay with me,” Shepherd yells, adding that the bleeding Perkins is “just barely” awake. When a dispatcher asked about Belcher, Shepherd says only: “He left.” When police arrived at the couple’s home at about 7:50 a.m., they found Perkins’ body on the floor of the master bathroom with multiple gunshot wounds. The Kansas City Chiefs linebacker, 25, had murdered Perkins, 22, at their home, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and shot himself in the head. He and Perkins have a three-month-old child. Jovan Belcher ‘s suicide took place in front of Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and Coach Romeo Crennel. The tragedy has set off widespread debate – and even a strong Bob Costas gun control statement – and turned the NFL world on its head for the past week. Our hearts go out to Cheryl and her grandchild.
Bigfoot is totally real. At least that’s what veterinarian Melba S. Ketchum claims after a five-year study of more than 100 DNA samples that she believes comes from the elusive hairy beast. Under Ketchum’s direction at DNA Diagnostics in Nacogdoches, Texas, a team of researchers has concluded that the creature may be a human relative. One that somehow developed around 15,000 years ago as a result of a hybrid cross between Homo sapiens (modern humans) and an unknown primate. While many people have claimed to have seen the creature over the years, its existence has never been confirmed, despite a plethora of photos and footprints. The ongoing search is the subject of Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” TV series. “Well, it came to me, I didn’t go after it, that’s for sure,” Ketchum said of the evidence of Bigfoot’s existence in an exclusive interview with The Huffington Post . “I did not believe in it. But my lab did a lot of animal testing, and we did species identification. We didn’t have any hits on anything interesting until five years ago.” Ketchum’s professional work includes nearly 30 years in genetics research and forensics, and has yet to pass the scrutiny of independent researchers. After her team attempted DNA sequencing of hair samples from an alleged Bigfoot encounter, however, they say they found some unusual things in the hair. There wasn’t enough DNA to conclusively verify what they were seeing in the material, but DNA Diagnostics later received more samples to investigate. Those included hair, blood, saliva and urine, all reportedly from Bigfoot sightings. Ketchum’s team believes that over the past five years, the team has successfully found three Sasquatch nuclear genomes – an organism’s hereditary code. That, they believe, proves that the animal is real and a human hybrid. Ketchum’s study showed that part of the DNA her team sequenced revealed an unknown primate species, she said, which suggests that Bigfoot is a real creature. “They’re not any of the large apes – they are a separate lineage,” Ketchum said. “My personal theory is that it probably branched off and evolved in parallel with the rest of the primate lineage.” Bigfoot, she says, is a being “crossing with female Homo sapiens.” But skeptic Benjamin Radford told Live Science is not convinced. The scientist raised doubts about the outcome of this latest attempt to give credibility to Bigfoot . “If the data are good and the science is sound, any reputable science journal would jump at the chance to be the first to publish this groundbreaking information,” Radford said. Radford, in critiquing the findings, suggests that if the mitochondrial DNA is identical to Homo sapiens (modern humans), it could mean one of two things: “The first, endorsed by Ketchum, is that Bigfoot ancestors had sex with women about 15,000 years ago and created a half-human hybrid species currently hiding across North America.” “There is, however, another, simpler interpretation of such results: The samples were contaminated.” “Whatever the sample originally was – Bigfoot, bear, human or something else – it’s possible that the people who collected and handled the specimens accidentally introduced their DNA into the sample, which can easily occur with something as innocent as a spit, sneeze or cough.” Not so, counters Ketchum. “Early on, we started getting human results on the mitochondrial DNA – that’s maternally inherited and it can show where you’re from,” Ketchum said. “Different labs had already tested alleged Sasquatch samples in the past, and all of these labs were getting human results, so they just threw it out.” “We split the samples with another forensic lab – one worked on it manually while the other did it robotically, extracting the DNA – and we ran several tests.” “That confirmed there was no contamination. And we ended up getting human sequences on many samples.” Bigfoot: Real or fake? Real! Fake! View Poll »
Mario Lopez and Courtney Mazza have made it official. They got married Saturday in Mexico! Lopez and his fiance have been together since early 2008 and have a two-year-old daughter. They exchanged vows just before sunset at the Mexican seaside estate of Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis, which hopefully isn’t a harbinger of trouble to come. Not surprisingly, Mario’s celebrity news employer Extra was first to report the news. Lopez says he’s hoping he and Courtney Mazza will soon expand their family. “We’re working on that,” The X Factor host admitted. “Right after the wedding.” “We’ll wait for the guests to leave and then we’re getting right on that!” Guess we’ll see in late August or early September if they succeeded. The wedding of Mario Lopez and Courtney Mazza will be featured in a two-hour TLC special titled Mario & Courtney’s Wedding Fiesta , slated to air December 8. It’s the first marriage for Mazza and the second trip down the aisle for Lopez, though his 2004 marriage to model and actress Ali Landry was annulled days later. Congratulations to the happy couple! [Photo: WENN.com]
The Bachelorette star Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum married Saturday in Pasadena, Calif. Surrounded by family, friends and Bachelor alumni including Ali Fedotowsky, Emily Maynard, and Jason and Molly Mesnick, the couple said “I do” in an outdoor ceremony. Officiated by franchise host Chris Harrison. Seriously. “Today is all about our friends and family,” Ashley Hebert said. “It’s about standing with J.P., looking around at all the people we love in the same room there to celebrate our love.” And the TV crew who foots the bill … hey, do what you gotta do. The 28-year-old dentist from Madawaska, Maine, was a contestant on The Bachelor and made it to the final three in Brad Womack’s second stint on the show. She then met New York construction manager Rosenbaum, 35, on Season 7 of The Bachelorette in 2011. The couple got engaged on the season finale. Hebert and Rosenbaum are just the second couple in the franchise’s 24 seasons to make it from the final rose to the altar, following Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter in 2003. Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney also met on the show, though he initially chose Melissa Rycroft before changing his mind and asking out runner-up Molly. The Mesnicks are married and expecting their first child together. Like Mario Lopez and Courtney Mazza , who also got married yesterday, Ashley and J.P.’s nuptials will be shown December 16 in a two-hour special on ABC. Congratulations to the married lovebirds! [Photo: WENN.com]
As People noted, Tina Fey’s daughter Alice made quite a memorable first appearance: “She has worked alongside her fair share of good-looking actors (Jon Hamm, anyone?), but Tina Fey‘s latest costar may just be the cutest one yet.” Alice Zenobia was a spot-on imitation of Liz Lemon, decked out in a blue dress and matching headpiece with the trademark sass that Tina Fey so deftly brings to the role. There have been a few spot-on casting choices in film and on t.v. when it comes to younger versio
My Bieber Experience started on Thursday November 22nd at 11:19 P.M. I received an email from BieberFever saying I had won the M&G contest and I was invited to the M&G. I just started balling my eyes out. I only got 4 hours of sleep because I was so excited. The morning of November 23rd my mom and I drove from NY to Ottawa, Canada. We arrived at the arena about 1:30. From 1:30 to 3:00 I stood outside the buses and watched Kenny, Pattie, Jeremy, Justin’s grandparents, Nick Demora, all of the dancers, Alfredo, Justin’s bus driver, The Wanted and Carly Rae Jepsen go inside the arena. They were all really friendly and waved at us. Some of them even yelled “Hey!” At 3:00 P.M I changed into my dress and got in line for the M&G. Since I had won a contest, I had to meet Justin after all the people that paid. We paired up with 4 other people because we were told we had to take a picture with a group of 6. The security opened the curtain and there stood Justin. After almost three years I was meeting him. I walked in first before everyone else. I said “Hi Justin, How are you?” He responded with “I’m good, how are you?” Then I embarrassed myself by answering with “I’m good, how are you?” Then I went to give him a hug. Right when I was about to put my arms around Justin, the security guard grabbed my waist and pulled me away from Justin. Justin obviously felt bad because he then put his arm around my waist, pulled me into him, kissed my temple and said “I’m sorry sweetheart.” Then I heard my mom say “Can she just get a single picture without the group?” The security guard was like “No, it has to be a group.” Then Justin was like “No, No, let her get a single picture I don’t want to do anymore big groups.” but before anyone could agree the other 4 people in my group walked in. Justin greeted them and we took the picture. My mom and I are standing next to Justin and the other girls are infront of us. After the picture I asked for a proper hug and Justin said “Sure!” as soon as I got my arms around him and he got his arms around me, I was literally picked up and pulled out of the room by security. As soon as I got out of the room I broke out into sobs. I was yelling “Did he just kiss me?” Everyone was staring at me like I was crazy. My mom was just jumping up and down “YES YES YES.” I literally could not stop crying for the next 2 hours. After that it was concert time. We went in and found our seats! We were on the floor, 25 rows away from the stage and like 6 rows away from the runway. Justin is the best performer I have ever seen live. He really puts on the best show as you can tell how much he loves doing it. It was by far the best day of my whole entire life. I could not believe how nice Justin was. Obviously I knew Justin wasn’t a jerk but I was blown away how much he just cared. It’s hard to fake love for your fans in person. You can tell Justin just loves us all so much . I want to thank @Catchjbfever for the opportunity to meet Justin and making my dream come true. I also want to thank Justin for outdoing my expectations when I met him. It was an all around amazing day. -Katie (@iyiyiforjustin) P.S. I’m the girl in the white lace dress right next to Justin! Here is the original post: My Bieber Experience started on Thursday November 22nd at 11:19…
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has had plenty of time on his hands to think about the violent unrest that his crude 14-minute YouTube video, Innocence of Muslims , caused, and he has no regrets. Nakoula, who’s stewing in a Los Angeles jail because he violated the conditions of his probation stemming from a fraud conviction unrelated to the movie, told the New York Times in an interview “that he would go to great lengthys to convey what he called ‘the actual truth’ about Muhammad.’ In Nakoula’s first public comments since landing back in the clink, he explained that before he wrote the script to what became Innocence of Muslims — an early draft was called The First Terrorist — he thought, “I should burn myself in a public square to let the American people and the people of the world know this message that I believe in.” He also cited the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Tex. in which U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 29 others on the military base. Nakoula’s interview is part of a larger investigative piece about the making of Innocence of Muslims that the paper calls “a bizarre tale of fake personas and wholesale deception,” adding: “as with almost everything touched over the years by Mr. Nakoula — a former gas station manager, bong salesman, methamphetamine ingredient supplier and convicted con man — it is almost impossible to separate fact from fabrication.” The Times story indicates, by the way, that there’s more to Innocence of Muslims than just a 14-minute YouTube clip. The finished film is apparently one hour and 30 minutes long. [The New York Times] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Jake Owen shared the news on Twitter: “Today is the greatest day of my life. Welcome Olive Pearl Owen. 6lbs 3 oz Turkey Baby!!! Happy Thanksgiving pic.twitter.com/fiIc7MxJ.” Jake Owen is a dad. The country singer and his wife, Lacey Buchanan Owen, welcomed a baby girl on Thursday in Nashville. Owen also released the following statement to People: “Lacey and I are so excited to start our own family. We are looking forward to teaching Pearl everything we learned from our parents and also lear
