SALT LAKE CITY —(CNN) Police in Utah say a car plunged 60 feet into a canyon and sank in the icy Colorado River with a 5-year-old girl trapped inside.
Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Darrel Mecham said the car driven by the girl's grandmother — 60-year-old Evelyn M. Maestas — went off the road Friday south of the city of Moab.
Maestas and her 11-year-old adopted daughter Tori were able to escape from the car through a broken window and get out of the river.
They told authorities they saw 5-year-old Danica still inside the car as it sank.
Search crews were not immediately able to find the car and the girl in the deep water.
Maestas and Tori were taken to a hospital for treatment of hypothermia. They are from Mancos, Colo.
In late 1970, Allen Shaw decided to install a 100% live "free form" rock format and hired John Zacherle, Vin Scelsa, and Michael Cuscuna to do live shows on the station. On February 14, 1971, the station changed its call sign to WPLJ after Allen Shaw noticed the call letters as the name of a song on the Mothers of Invention record, "Burnt Weeny Sandwich."
The song, WPLJ, was originally performed by the Four Deuces.
The Four Deuces were an United States rhythm and blues vocal quartet, formed in the mid-1950's in Salinas, California, California....
in 1955 and stood for "White Port and Lemon Juice". The station became a politically radical and musically eclectic voice of the counter-culture. It received positive critical reviews from the "underground" press, but did not generate a large enough audience to become financially viable.
In September 1971, Allen Shaw and ABC Programming Executive Bob Henaberry designed and pioneered the very first AOR (album oriented rock) format, playing only the best cuts from the best selling rock albums with a minimum of disc jockey talk.
The slogan of the station was "Rock 'N Stereo". The station would play the music of artists such as
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin was a Rock and Roll band formed in London England in 1968 by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham....
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Pop/Rock and Roll band formed in 1962 by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and John Lennon....
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is a prominent United States Rock music band often regarded as "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" ....
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, innovator, and cultural icon....
Cream (band)
Cream was a 1960s United Kingdom supergroup which featured guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker....
The Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an United States rock and roll musical band, best known for hit singles like "Black Water", "China Grove", "Listen to the Music" and "What a Fool Believes"....
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an United States jazz/soft rock band centered around the core members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen....
Elton John
Sir Elton John is a five-time Grammy winning singer/songwriter. He was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinner, England in 1947....
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an England hard rock band. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be one of the earliest pioneers of the heavy metal genre, although they have never seen themselves as a heavy metal band per se....
Rod Stewart
Roderick David Stewart is an England singer and songwriter of Scotland descent, most known for his uniquely raspy, gravelly, hoarse-sounding voice and personable singing style, as exemplified in his signature song "Maggie May"....
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, born in Belmont, Massachusetts, Massachusetts....
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder is the stage name of Stevland Morris, an United States singer, songwriter, record producer, musician, and activism....
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an United States musician who emerged as one of the leading lights of the early 1970s singer-songwriter boom....
The station was different from Top 40 stations (such as co-owned WABC) in that they played more album tracks. The audience ratings shot up dramatically, and WPLJ became New York's most listened-to FM rock station for most of the decade of 1970s.
In 1973, Allen Shaw brought Willard Lochridge, the General Manager of sister station WRIF in Detroit, to New York to manage WPLJ. Lochridge then brought Larry Berger, Program Director of WRIF, to WPLJ.
Larry Berger took over as Program Director of WPLJ in 1974, and the station adopted the slogan "New York's Best Rock". Some of the personalities on the station during this period included Jim Kerr,
Pat St. John
Pat St. John is Americas most preeminent and longest serving radio personality and voice actor....
Jimmy Fink
Jimmy Fink is a New York Radio personality.Born & raised in Eastchester, New York and has a BA in Speech Arts/Communications from The American University in Washington DC....
Carol Miller, Tony Pigg
John Zacherle
John Zacherle is a United States television host and voice acting known for his long career as a television horror host broadcasting horror film movies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York City in the 1950s and 1960s....
Larry Berger himself hosted a Sunday night call-in show to discuss the station with listeners, but would refuse to discuss the playlist, which was the primary thing most listeners cared about. During these call-in segments, Berger was also accused by many callers of "pitching up" the music so that they could fit in more commercials while still being able to claim that they played a large number of songs per hour. Berger of course repeatedly denied these accusations. As per 20 September 1999 episode of "Crap from the Past", host Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber suggests that this practice was actually used to train listeners' ears to find the same music played on other stations to sound strange, thus returning them to WPLJ.
By 1977, WPLJ tended to emphasize
Hard rock
Hard rock is a form of rock and roll music which finds its closest roots in early-1960s garage rock and psychedelic rock.... artists such as
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin was a Rock and Roll band formed in London England in 1968 by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham.... (there was a nightly "Get the Led Out" segment),
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath is an English people heavy metal band. The band includes Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward ...
Rush (band)
Rush is a Music of Canada progressive rock rock band comprising bass guitar, keyboard instrument and singer Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drum kit and lyricist Neil Peart....
Kansas (band)
Kansas is a 1970s United States rock band, specializing in progressive rock with a distinctly American flavor....
Boston (band)
Boston is an United States rock music rock band that achieved its most notable successes during the 1970s and 1980s....
Queen (band)
Queen is an English rock and roll band formed by Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, and Brian May in 1970.... who happened to get less airplay than on competing station WNEW-FM. At that point, the station stopped playing pop songs, and their audience ratings were very good.
During its album-oriented phase, it was most noted for its "montages"; snippets of classic-rock songs were spliced together around a particular subject, such as gasoline (during the gas shortages of the 1970s).
In 1982, WPLJ got competition with WAPP 103.5., which happened to have identical AOR format. (WAPP was commercial-free in the summer of 1982). WAPP beat WPLJ in the ratings that fall, and WPLJ reacted by adding more
New Wave music New Wave is a term that has been used to describe many developments in music, but is most commonly associated with a movement in Western world popular music, in the late 1970s in music and early 1980s in music inspired by the Punk_Rock rock or ...
such as Flock of Seagulls, Dexy's Midnight Runners
The Go-Go's The Go-Go's are an all-female American rock and roll group formed in 1978 in music. They made rock history as the first all-women band in pop music that played their own instruments and wrote their own songs to top the Billboard charts with a #...
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus , better known by his stage name, Elvis Costello, is a United Kingdom musician, singer, and songwriter of Irish people ancestry....Men at Work Men at Work were an Australian reggae-influenced rock band of the early Timeline of trends in music ....they mixed in with the usual AOR fare. Their ratings would end up being better than those of WAPP, after WAPP started adding commercials. In early 1983, the station added "Billy Jean" by Michael Jackson, playing it several times a week (note that many AOR stations including WNEW FM added that song and it did chart on the rock tracks chart). The song flopped and was dropped after only a couple days. In March, WPLJ added "Beat It' by Michael Jackson, which received very positive reaction. While he was not a typical AOR artist that cut was played by many AOR stations due to
Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, is a virtuoso guitarist and a founding member of the hard rock band Van Halen....
The station also dropped most 1960's songs by May and was cutting back on AOR artists while playing more modern rockers.
CHR and Hot AC years.
In the Spring of 1983 the station began a transition from AOR to CHR
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio, or CHR, is a radio format that is common in the United States and Canada that focuses on playing current and recent popular music as determined by the Top 40.... ). As 1983 progressed, and with word that a CHR format was coming to 100.3 FM up the dial, WPLJ moved further into a CHR direction. But Larry Berger stated that he did not make the decision to move to a CHR format until the last week of June. It finally crossed the line from AOR to Rock leaning CHR on June 30, 1983. At this point the station played predominantly AOR and New Wave rock cuts but would mix in two or three rhythmic pop cuts like "Flashdance"/Irene Cara, "Time"/
Culture Club
"She Works Hard For The Money."
Donna Summer
In a sense WPLJ was the first FM station since 1979 to go to a Top 40 format of some sort. However, the station still called itself "New York's Best Rock", even though the station was going to be moving away from playing a lot of rock songs. That July, Larry Berger discussed the changes on his call-in show, to a disapproving reaction from the traditionalist rock audience. (Competitors WNBC had been a defacto Top 40 AM station while WYNY had been the de-facto FM hits station throughout the early 1980s, playing many current songs as part of their hot adult-contemporary format). The station's airstaff, which stayed on during the early transition months, would gradually change, as WNEW-FM picked up some of the station's best-known DJs, such as Carol Miller and Pat St. John. (Morning man Jim Kerr and sidekick Shelli Sonstein would remain with the station into the end of the decade.)
Jimmy Fink
Jimmy Fink is a New York Radio personality.Born & raised in Eastchester, New York and has a BA in Speech Arts/Communications from The American University in Washington DC....
Marc Coppola (actor) Marc Coppola is an American actor and DJ currently working for WAXQ in New York....
could be heard a couple of years later at Infinity Broadcasting's K-Rock (WXRK).
That August, at the same time Z 100 was launched across town, WPLJ was known as "The Home of the Hits" and in October added top-forty-type jingles. So in a way it was "New York's Hit Music Station" before Z-100.
WHTZ
WHTZ, also known as Z-100, is a radio station that serves North Jersey and the neighboring New York City region, broadcasting at a frequency of 100.3 MHz.... went on the air around the same time. (The following spring, WPLJ identified itself very briefly as 'The new Musicradio PLJ' before switching to 'Hitradio 95' WPLJ just a few days later. In 1985, the station became known on-air as "Power 95". Ratings went up after switching to CHR, though they were still just behind Z-100 most of the time. The double-whammy of Top 40 on one end and light-music
WLTW. WLTW, known on-air as "106.7 Lite fm," is an radio station located at 106.7 Frequency Modulation with an adult contemporary radio format in New York City....
proved the kiss of death for the AC format on WYNY, which eventually went country.
In December 1987, the station changed its call letters to WWPR (World Wide Power Radio), but the call sign reverted back to WPLJ the following year, because the change had caused confusion among listeners. (It has been said that competitor Z-100 joked before WPLJ's call letter change that the "PR" in the calls stood for "Puerto Rican."
The station continued to be successful until 1990, when ratings slowly went down. While Hot 97 at this time tended to play more dance and urban songs, and Z-100 played mainstream pop music, WPLJ leaned slightly towards rock. Larry Berger had left the station in 1988, replaced in early 1989 by Gary Bryan from KUBE in Seattle, who was program director and ultimately, morning show host, having ousted 20 year morning host Jim Kerr. Bryan lasted barely a year, before giving up and crossing the street to Z100 for Morning Zoo host chores. Bryan was replaced by Tom Cuddy as VP of Programming, who installed Rocky Allen, from WKSE in Buffalo for morning drive. WPLJ began to regain some momentum but in a stunning move in the Spring of '91...To be continued...
Ed McMahon arrives at the premiere of ÒThe Simpsons MovieÓ in Los Angeles , July 24, 2007.
(Matt Sayles/AP Photo)
(CNN)--Ed McMahon, former sidekick to Johnny Carson on "Tonight" and a familiar TV commercial pitchman, is hospitalized in intensive care, and a person close to him said Friday that McMahon has bone cancer.
Spokesman Howard Bragman said McMahon, 85, had been hospitalized for several weeks for treatment of pneumonia and other ailments. He declined to identify the Los Angeles facility.
"It's serious," Bragman said when asked about McMahon's condition, noting his age. But, Bragman added: "We're hopeful."
A person close to McMahon, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said the illnesses included bone cancer.
On Saturday morning's show, 7-10am, our guests will be JIMMY FALLON to give us a preview of his premier show Monday night, FRANK RICH to give us a preview of his Sunday NY Times column, and DONALD TRUMP Jr. to give us a preview of the new season of The Apprentice, which begins Sunday night.
JODIE Foster has given us many amazing performances over the years - but one you won't be seeing is her emotionally charged confrontation with officers from the Beverly Hills Police Department after they nailed her for speeding.
A crew from truTV's reality show "Speeders" - which rides with highway patrols to film motorists getting caught speeding and then trying to talk their way out of a ticket - was with the Beverly Hills cops last weekend when they clocked a Prius allegedly going 54 mph in a 35 mph zone.
When an officer and the camera crew approached the car, they found Foster - winner of Best Actress Oscars for "The Silence of the Lambs" and "The Accused" - sitting behind the wheel.
Our source relates that, "Foster refused to sign a waiver to appear on the show, so the camera crew ceased filming and returned to the police car. But she grew quite agitated and angry, and kept insisting to the police officers that the radar gun must have made a mistake. She maintained to the officers that she was only going 30 mph at the time they pulled her over, and she kept interrupting and complaining that the process was taking too long."
During Foster's histrionics, the officer made a call to get his supervisor to the scene, "which just further annoyed her," according to our spy. "Despite her numerous requests otherwise, the cops still issued her a citation."
Beverly Hills Police spokesman Lt. Tony Lee told Page Six: "She was upset that she got pulled over, but she signed the ticket and went on her way."
Reps for the Yale-educated mom of two, who made $15 million per movie, did not return multiple calls and e-mails. Foster, 46, who recently starred in Fox's family flick "Nim's Island," is said to be developing a biopic about Nazi-era director Leni Riefenstahl.
NEW ORLEANS —(CNN) A Louisiana woman is accused of trading two young children in her care for a pet cockatoo and $175 cash from a couple who had been trying for years to have their own child, authorities said Thursday.
Donna Greenwell, 53, a long-haul trucker with an arrest record from Pitkin, is charged with aggravated kidnapping, along with would-be adoptive parents Paul J. Romero, 46, and Brandy Lynn Romero, 27, of Evangeline Parish.
"The Romeros had good intentions from what we see," said Keith Dupre, a detective with the Evangeline Parish Sheriff's Office. "They really wanted to take care of the kids. The kids were well-dressed and seemed to be treated good by the Romero family."
The transaction for the 5-year-old boy and the 4-year-old girl was negotiated by phone after Greenwell spotted a flier posted at a livestock barn selling a cockatoo for $1,500 and called the Romeros on Feb. 18, Dupre said.
Although Paul Romero had three children from a previous marriage, Dupre said, he and Brandy had tried unsuccessfully for years to have a child together.
When they told that to Greenwell, she allegedly offered to hand over the boy and girl for about $2,000. When the Romeros said they couldn't meet the price, Dupre said, "Ms. Greenwell agreed to make an even trade: the bird for the kids."
Greenwell showed up with the children at the Romeros' home the next day and said she would also need $175 for an attorney to complete adoption paperwork, Dupre said. But she had no authority to put the children up for adoption.
Everything began to unravel last week when authorities received a phone tip that the Romeros and the children would be at a local fast food restaurant, where authorities approached them. The children are in state custody.
Authorities believe Greenwell began caring for the children about a year ago at the mother's request.
The detective said Greenwell "stated that the mother was having a hard time and asked her to baby sit. She said one month led to two months and two months led to a year."
The children's father, of Leesville, was questioned and has expressed interest in getting custody of the children. The mother is believed to be in Texas but told investigators through a relative that she plans to come to Evangeline Parish soon. The state would decide whether the parents can visit or gain custody of the children.
Authorities are checking a claim made by the children to one police officer that they were sexually and physically abused, although not by Greenwell or the Romeros.
The Romeros were free on $5,000 bond. Greenwell — described as a long-haul trucker with an extensive arrest record including charges of kidnapping, assault and theft — remained in jail on $100,000 bond, Dupre said. She turned herself in on Sunday.
The court clerk's office said Thursday that attorneys had been appointed for Greenwell and Paul Romero. Greenwell's court-appointed lawyer, Timmy Fontenot of Mamou, declined comment. A message was left Thursday afternoon for Romero's lawyer, Kelly Tate.
Police in Glenmora, near where Greenwell lives, are seeking information from anyone who might know if Greenwell has sold other children.
"She's had numerous children living with her at various times over the years," said Officer Jennifer Potter, who received the anonymous telephone tip that eventually led to the arrests.
HOUSTON —(CNN) FBI agents have arrested the chief investment officer of troubled Stanford Financial Group, accusing Laura Pendergest-Holt of obstructing a Securities and Exchange Commission fraud investigation.
The SEC has been investigating allegations of an $8 billion investment fraud involving Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford's financial group. Stanford was served legal papers by FBI agents last week and ordered to surrender his passport, but has not been charged with a crime.
Pendergest-Holt was arrested Thursday in Houston, where Stanford Financial Group is based. The FBI said she was taken to the federal detention center and would appear in federal court Friday morning for an arraignment.
"She is looking forward to working with the government to get all the facts out and put this behind her," her attorney Brent Baker said Thursday night.
The government alleges in a federal complaint that Pendergest-Holt obstructed the investigation with some of her answers to SEC investigators' questions, including failing to reveal to the SEC how much she knew about investments in Stanford International Bank Ltd.
The FBI said in an affidavit that Pendergest-Holt repeatedly misrepresented how much she knew about the bank's Tier III portfolio, which represented about 81 percent of the bank's portfolio, and did not let the SEC investigators know that she had learned of a $1.6 billion loan to a shareholder.
The complaint also alleges that Pendergest-Holt did not reveal that she was a member of the bank's investment committee.
"We appreciate the quick and decisive action of the Department of Justice and the FBI, and thank them for their fine work and cooperation in this matter," SEC Deputy Enforcement Director Scott Friestad said in an e-mail.
Stanford is accused in civil charges of lying about the safety of investments he sold as "certificates of deposit" and promised unrealistically high rates of return. Regulators also said he faked historical data about other investments which he then used to lure in more investors for the CD products.
Michael Zarich, the company's senior investment officer, has told authorities he didn't know where 90 percent of Stanford's portfolio was invested. Zarich has said he was trained by Pendergest-Holt to deflect questions about the investment strategy while pitching to wealthy clients in Antigua, where the bank was chartered.
(CNN)--The Rocky Mountain News publishes its last paper tomorrow.
Rich Boehne, chief executive officer of Rocky-owner Scripps, broke the news to the staff at noon today, ending nearly three months of speculation over the paper's future.
"People are in grief," Editor John Temple said a noon news conference.
But he was intent on making sure the Rocky's final edition, which would include a 52-page wraparound section, was as special as the paper itself.
"This is our last shot at this," Temple said at a second afternoon gathering at the newsroom. "This morning (someone) said it's like playing music at your own funeral. It's an opportunity to make really sweet sounds or blow it. I'd like to go out really proud."
Boehne told staffers that the Rocky was the victim of a terrible economy and an upheaval in the newspaper industry.
"Denver can't support two newspapers any longer," Boehne told staffers, some of whom cried at the news. "It's certainly not good news for you, and it's certainly not good news for Denver."
Tensions were higher at the second staff meeting, held to update additional employees who couldn¹t attend the hastily called noon press conference.
Several employees wanted to know about severance packages, or even if they could buy at discount their computers.
Others were critical of Scripps for not seeking wage concessions first or going online only.
But Mark Contreras, vice president of newspapers for Scripps, said the math simply didn't work.
"If you cut both newsrooms in half, fired half the people in each newsroom, you'd be down to where other market newsrooms are today. And they're struggling," he said.
As for online revenues, he said if they were to grow 40 percent a year for the next five years, they still would be equal to the cost of one newsroom today.
"We're sick that we're here," Contreras said. "We want you to know it's not your fault. There's no paper in Scripps that we hold dearer."
But Boehne said Scripps intended to keep its other media, both print and in broadcast, running.
Scripps said it will now offer for sale the masthead, archives and Web site of the Rocky, separate from its interest in the newspaper agency.
LONDON--(CNN) A newborn was left in a shopping bag on a residential block in London on Thursday, the Daily Mail reported.
A group of kids found the less than 24-hour-old abondoned baby girl on the third floor of an apartment building, suffering from the cold. The baby is recovering at a hospital and has been named Grace by the nursing staff.
Police are searching for the mother, who they fear could be in physical and mental distress, and are studying surveillance footage, the Mail reported.
"I would like to stress to anyone who hears this appeal, in particular the mother, that they should not hesitate to call us," Inspector Simon Rooke, from Lambeth Police, told the Mail. "We are concerned for the welfare of the mother and want to ensure that she is receiving the appropriate medical attention."
(CNN)--Could Jewel’s Dancing future be over before the competition even begins?
With the premiere of Dancing with the Stars less than two weeks away, the singer has already been sidelined with this season’s first injury.
“I guess I really over did it on the rehearsal front!” the singer wrote on her blog (in an entry titled The Bee’s Knee) posted on Wednesday. “My knees have been hurting so badly that I finally broke down and talked to [husband Ty Murray] knee doctor yesterday.”
And the prognosis wasn’t good: “He said I have tendonitis in my knees and that I have to start a course of medicine to try and bring the swelling down,” she writes.
The worst part of getting bum knees: staying off her feet for a few days and not hitting the rehearsal studio with her partner, newcomer Dmitry Chaplin, to practice their first dance, the cha cha.
“I’m just worried I won’t even be able to dance!” the singer continues. “Hopefully these steroids will really do the trick and I can keep bad flare ups at a [sic] bay in the future.”
(CNN) — After weeks on the run, officials have nabbed a fugitive who infiltrated White House grounds: on Wednesday, they announced the capture of one of the raccoons raising mayhem around the executive mansion over the last month.
White House spokesman Bill Burton confirms the National Park Service has captured at least one of the particularly ambitious mammals and released it safely in an "undisclosed location."
The pesky intruders were first spotted roaming the premises early this month, and have since proved to be a repeated nuisance for National Park Service officials charged with maintaining the White House grounds.
The matter even made its way to one of the White House daily briefings with reporters, when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged the difficulty officials were having in catching the animals. Several traps were set up around the White House lawn in early February after it was determined that one large raccoon and several smaller ones were the chief mischief doers.
The traps had included peanut butter and apples as bait, but it was ultimately salmon that did the trick, Burton said.
FULLERTON, Calif. —(CNN) Fullerton police have arrested a man after a high-speed chase in which officers forced the van off the road, shattered the driver-side window and repeatedly beat the suspect after he was pulled from the vehicle.
Police say the driver, who was suspected of beating a security guard, was being chased through Fullerton on Tuesday night when a patrol car bumped his van from behind, causing the van to pull into brush.
A KCAL-TV helicopter camera showed officers surrounding the vehicle before they smashed in the window. Officers appeared to repeatedly order the suspect outside, then pulled him out and beat him repeatedly before taking him into custody.
Police Lt. Doug Cave says the chase started outside a Target store as officers arrived to check out reports of a man trying to attack a security guard with a hammer.
Fullerton is about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
(CNN) -- A 24-year-old teacher from Holyoke, Massachusetts, is in custody after allegedly leaving town with a 15-year-old student, city officials said Tuesday.
Lisa Lavoie, a 24-year-old teacher, is charged with enticement of a child.
Lisa Lavoie and the male student were found in Morgantown, West Virginia, Monday night after apparently being together for a week, Holyoke Mayor Michael Sullivan said.
Investigators have charged Lavoie with enticement of a child.
On February 13, the student's parents informed school officials of a possible relationship between the teacher and their son. That was late on a Friday afternoon, and when officials went to the school to question Lavoie, she was gone for the day. The next week was a vacation week for the school.
The student was reported missing on February 16, at the start of the vacation week. Lavoie wasn't reported missing until she didn't show up for school Monday.
Officials said the pair were in Vermont on Thursday before showing up in West Virginia on Monday. No details were provided on how their alleged movements were traced.
Officials couldn't take the pair into custody until after gathering enough evidence to obtain a warrant from the district attorney's office, said Holyoke Police Chief Anthony Scott. They got the warrant Monday and asked police in Morgantown to arrest Lavoie.
She has been placed on administrative leave pending conclusion of the investigation, Sullivan said.
Beginning next week Liz Smith will be posting more news, hot gossip and opinions all the time on wowOwow — free from the constraints of newspaper deadlines. Thursday will be the last Liz Smith column for The New York Post — the first time in 33 years that Liz Smith’s column will not be in a New York newspaper. This sad news for the New York print business is spectacular news for us. Our fabulous and beloved Diva of Dish will be here on wowOwow, posting exclusive-to-Liz breaking celebrity news as it happens. It will, occasionally, be highlighted with audio and film and all the tools of an internet-entrepreneur.
In addition to her work as a founder of wowOwow, Liz Smith has just been named a Contributing Editor at Parade Magazine. Her next cover story for Parade appears this coming Sunday, and is an in-depth look at Liza Minnelli. Parade has the largest circulation in America (33 million sold, distributed on more than 470 Sunday newspapers and with a readership of over 72 million). Additionally, her column will continue to appear in Variety, in syndicated newspapers and on websites such as MyWay.com.
The New York Post editor in chief Col Allen has written to Liz to say that, ”like so many other newspapers around the country we are buffeted by unprecedented economic gales” and could not renew the contract for what he described as a “legendary column.”
Liz Smith’s column began February 16, 1976 at The New York Daily News, then the city’s largest newspaper. In 1991, hot with her scoops on the Ivana / Donald Trump divorce, her column moved to New York Newsday. For over a dozen years, Liz was published in Newsday (appearing in the Queens, Long Island and New York City editions), the New York Post and the Staten Island Advance, making her the first and only columnist to ever appear in three metropolitan newspapers at the same time. In 1995 when Newsday folded it’s Manhattan edition she moved to The New York Post. He column has always been known for wit, humor and a sense of fair play. Liz remarked famously that “Gossip is just news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress."
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Stocks bounced back Tuesday, a day after falling to nearly 12-year lows, after comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke that downplayed bank takeover fears helped spark a big rally.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 236 points, or 3.2%, according to early tallies. The Dow ended the previous session at the lowest point since May 7, 1997. The S&P 500 index rose almost 30 points, or 4%, after ending the previous session at the lowest point since April 11, 1997.
The Nasdaq composite added 54 points, or 3.9%, after ending the previous session at a 3-month low. The Nasdaq has held up better than the broader market this year.
Gains covered a variety of sectors, with banks, housing, retail, technology and energy all among the big gainers.
Stocks tumbled Monday, and for the last few weeks, on worries that not even the many government stimulus programs and aid packages will be sufficient to slow the recession. The declines left the Dow and S&P 500 at almost 12-year lows.
"The market lost around 10% in two weeks, which is a very quick plunge, so its not a surprise to see an oversold bounce," said Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
However, he added that comments from Ben Bernanke were helping to sustain Tuesday's advance, after the Federal Reserve Chairman sought to downplay fears that the government was considering taking over struggling banks.
Investors have been very nervous that banks will have to be nationalized, or that they will have to file for bankruptcy protection, as both options would wipe out all shareholder value.
In light of these fears, investors were responding well to Bernanke's assertion that the banks have a "franchise value" that would be hurt by nationalization, Sparks said.
Investors seemed to set aside the rest of the Fed chair's more dour congressional testimony, including his assertion that the recovery will take more than two or three years. Bernanke spoke before the Senate Banking Committee as part of his two-day semi-annual testimony on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, he will address the House Financial Services Committee.
President Obama will address both chambers later in the day, discussing the economy, the $787 billion stimulus package and his goal to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. The speech is due to start at 9 p.m. ET.
(CNN) -- A NASA satellite crashed back to Earth about three minutes after launch early Tuesday, officials said.
NASA launches a rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday.
"We could not make orbit," NASA program manager John Brunschwyler said. "Initial indications are the vehicle did not have enough [force] to reach orbit and landed just short of Antarctica in the ocean."
"Certainly for the science community, it's a huge disappointment."
The satellite, which would have monitored greenhouse gases to study how they affect the Earth's climate, was launched on a Taurus XL rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 1:55 a.m. PT (4:55 a.m. ET).
But the payload fairing -- a clamshell-shaped structure that allows the satellite to travel through space -- failed to separate from the rocket, NASA officials said.
The weight of the fairing caused the rocket and the satellite to come crashing down to Earth about three minutes later.
A team of investigators will look into what caused the payload fairing to fail to separate.
"We'll get back to flying at a pace that allows us to do so successfully," said Chuck Dovale, NASA Launch Director, at a press briefing after the failed launch.
The $273 million satellite, called the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, would have collected global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere to help better forecast changes in carbon-dioxide levels and their effect on the Earth's climate.
