Is Your iPad Causing Your Chronic Pain? Can't live without your tablet, laptop, or smartphone? These gadgets may be convenient, but for many, they may also be the source of chronic pain.

Michele Rouse, a 30-something billing manager in Rockville, Md., isn't all that different from a lot of people fond of electronic gadgets. She loves her smartphone, adores her ipad, worships her laptop and seems to spend almost all of her waking hours on one or another of them.
But about two years ago, her chronic use of electronic devices turned into another type of chronic problem — pain. "It started out as headaches that became more and more severe over time," Rouse recalls. "Eventually, it turned into shoulder pain that became so bad that I had trouble using my arm."
Rouse is one of a growing number of Americans who have developed chronic pain as a result of using smartphones, iPads, and other trendy electronic devices. "Surprise! Your keyboard may be the most dangerous part of your office," notes Moshe Lewis, MD, a pain management specialist in private practice in Redwood City, Calif. "Computer use is one of the leading causes of office-related repetitive strain injuries (RSIs)."
Fortunately, Rouse was able to get a handle on her computer- and smartphone-related pain. By modifying the way she uses her electronic devices, Rouse has kept her pain at bay.
If you experience similar pain while using smartphones, iPads, or computers, take a look at the specific problems these devices can cause and how you too, can solve them.
Desktop Computers: Shoulder and Neck Pain
If your desktop computer is causing you pain, then it is probably set up in a way that strains your muscles, explains Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, director of the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, Inc., and author of Pain Free 1-2-3 — A Proven Program for Eliminating Chronic Pain Now. "Classically, shoulder and neck pain are especially problematic if people are not keeping their wrists and elbows resting on a stable surface," he says. "Because of this, it is important to have a proper wrist support, and it is helpful to use a chair where your elbows are on the armrests." Other steps to help prevent pain while working at a desktop computer include use of an ergonomic keyboard and placing the monitor slightly below eye level to prevent neck strain.
Laptops: Stress on Your Wrists and Neck
You may have noticed that the term "laptop" is slowly being phased out in favor of "notebook." That, explains Dr. Lewis, might help eliminate part of the problem with these handy portable computers. "Your lap is a terrible surface for a portable computer," he says. "Not only does your lap overheat a computer, but the hip-height keyboard and screen puts strain on your wrists and your neck. Your lap is less steady than a table, which also makes for high-stress typing."
In addition to using a table instead of your lap, Lewis has these suggestions to help eliminate problems with portables. "To reduce risks for repetitive strain injury, try elevating the computer to eye-level and connecting an external keyboard to your laptop," he says. "This will allow you to use the computer as comfortably and ergonomically as you might use a desktop." Lewis also warns that if you are at risk for RSIs, it may be best to avoid buying an ultra-compact netbook. "Netbooks have keyboards that are smaller than regular laptops, and this can increase the likelihood of typing with incorrect posture."
Tablets: Strain on Fingers and Hands
Tablets like Apple's iPad are all the rage, but these cool new toys are not without their chronic pain risks. "Prolonged use of tablet computers can cause different forms of repetitive strain injuries to the fingers and hands," notes John L. Pappas, MD, the medical director for the Beaumont Centers for Pain Medicine in Royal Oak, Mich. "Good posture and frequent, short breaks can help minimize these symptoms."
If you are using your iPad or other tablet like a little computer, Lewis says you can avoid problems by following the same protocols suggested for a laptop: Buy the right accessories to set the screen at a comfortable working height and use an external keyboard.
Smartphones: Thumb and Finger Injuries
Smartphones are arguably the most widespread phenomenon of recent years and a potential cause of chronic pain. "Texting and phone browsing have become key parts of professional communication, and they have simultaneously become a frequent source of repetitive strain injuries," says Lewis. "Smartphones tend to be heavier than regular cell phones. This extra weight can reduce blood flow to the thumbs when using the phone, causing thumb injuries and aggravating carpal tunnel syndrome. Android phones and iPhones increase your risk for the very reasons they make such enticing gadgets — the touchscreen and added functionality makes them more useful, and thus they tend to keep your fingers active when you might otherwise be still."
Lewis suggests a few simple solutions to curb the chronic pain related to smartphones. "You should use both thumbs when texting, and take breaks in between writing messages," he says. And Lewis has a radical suggestion for those who just can't stop texting and emailing from their smartphones: "If you find your hands truly in need of a rest, try an old-fashioned remedy: Use your phone to talk instead of type."

By Wyatt Myers

Medically reviewed by Niya Jones, MD, MPH

Lake County, Florida Explosions Reported At Blue Rhino Gas Plant

Video, News, Florida Explosions, Lake County, Lake County Florida Explosions, Florida Explosion, Lake County Explosion, Rhino Explosion, Rhino Explosions, Rhino Propane, Green News

Explosions at a gas plant in Lake County, Fla., were reported on Monday night.
The series of fiery blasts began in the town of Tavares around 11 p.m. at Blue Rhino, a company that describes itself as "America's #1 propane tank exchange brand."
There were no reports of fatalities, but seven people were taken to area hospitals. Two workers escaped the plant unharmed.
Arial footage of the scene showed fires burning over a large area, and shooting large flames and plumes of smoke into the night sky, The Associated Press reported.
Resident Norma Haygood told Orlando's WESH 2, "It sounds like bombs are going off."
Instagram user megzrenee posted:

Residents within a 1-mile radius of the plant were evacuated, The Orlando Sentinel reported, but that order was lifted at 3 a.m. on Tuesday after the fire was contained.
Blue Rhino is a subsidiary of Ferrellgas Partners, the second-largest distributor of propane in the U.S., NBC News reported.
In a news conference, Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesman John Herrell said the plant had about 53,000 20-pound propane cylinders on site. It is unknown at this time what started the fire and explosions.
Here's the latest news from The Associated Press:
TAVARES, Fla. — A series of explosions rocked a central Florida propane gas plant and sent "boom after boom after boom" through the neighborhood around it. Several people were injured, with at least three critically injured.
All the workers at the plant were accounted for early Tuesday after officials initially could not account for more than a dozen employees.
John Herrell of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said there were no fatalities despite massive blasts that ripped through the Blue Rhino propane plant late Monday night.
"Management is comfortable saying all of those they knew were there tonight have been accounted for," he said.
One person injured in the explosion was listed in critical condition at University of Florida Health Shands Hospital. Two others were listed in critical condition at Orlando Regional Medical Center and a spokeswoman there said a third patient was en route, also listed as critical.
Herrell said some others drove themselves to area hospitals.
The Blue Rhino plant, which is northwest of Orlando, refilled propane tanks typically used for barbecues and other uses.
Herrell said a crew of 24 to 26 people was working at the plant on an overnight shift when the explosions occurred around 11 p.m.
Video footage on WESH-TV in Orlando showed fires burning through trucks used to transport propane tanks, which were parked at the plant. The fire was sending plumes of smoke into the air hours after the blast. Emergency crews could also be seen massing nearby.
Herrell said an evacuation zone was initially a one-mile radius but had been reduced to a half-mile radius. No injuries have been reported from residents in the neighborhood and residents were later allowed to return to their homes.
Marni Whitehead, 33, who lives less than a mile from the plant, said she was in bed ready to go to sleep when she heard a loud boom.
"It was like a car had run into my house, is what I thought had happened," she said.
She ran outside and saw other neighbors outside and then they saw the explosions.
"We knew right away it was the plant, the propane plant," Whitehead said. "After that, it was just sort of panic."
Whitehead likened the explosions to Fourth of July fireworks. "And it was just boom after boom after boom," she said.
Herrell said officials believe the fire was contained and wouldn't spread to another part of the plant but they could not guarantee that.
Herrell said the plant usually has 53,000 20-pound propane tanks.
According to the Leesburg Daily Commercial, the plant was built in 2004 and employs fewer than 50 people.

Teresa And Joe Giudice Charged With Fraud In 39-Count Indictment

"Real Housewives of new Jersey" couple Teresa and Giuseppe "Joe" Giudice have been indicted on federal charges of bank and bankruptcy fraud, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
The Giudices were charged Monday in a 39-count indictment with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements on loan applications and bankruptcy fraud, according to the indictment.
The fraud was allegedly committed between September 2001 and September 2008. During that time, Teresa and Joe, of Towaco, N.J., allegedly submitted fraudulent mortgage and loan applications. For example, in September 2001 she applied for a $121,500 mortgage loan by falsely claiming she was an executive assistant and submitted fake W-2 forms and fake paystubs.
Teresa and Joe are also accused of hiding their assets during their 2009 bankruptcy petition. They filed for Chapter 7 in October 2009 and allegedly failed to disclose accurate information about their businesses, rental properties and Teresa's "Real Housewives" salary.
In addition, Joe failed to file tax returns from 2004 through 2008, even though his income topped $990,000.
“The privilege of living well in the United States carries certain real responsibilities, including filing tax returns when required and paying the correct amount of tax,” said Shantelle P. Kitchen, special agent in charge of the IRS-Criminal Investigation's Newark Field Office. “Today’s indictment alleges the Giudices did not live up to their responsibilities by failing to file tax returns, falsifying loan applications and concealing assets in their bankruptcy petition. The reality is that this type of criminal conduct will not go undetected and individuals who engage in this type of financial fraud should know they will be held accountable.”
Combined, the charges carry a maximum sentence of more than 50 years in prison.
This is not the only legal woe the New Jersey fam has had to deal with recently.
Joe is still awaiting trial for wrongfully using identifying information of another and impersonation. He was arrested more than two years ago, NJ.com notes. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The former developer allegedly used his brother's information to obtain a driver's license, People magazine previously reported. Joe has denied any wrongdoing.
The Giudices have been featured on "Real Housewives of New Jersey" since the series premiered in 2009. OK! Magazine reported Teresa rakes in more than $650,000 per season from Bravo.
UPDATE: Teresa sent a statement to "Entertainment Online" regarding the charges.
"Today is a most difficult day for our family. I support Joe and, as a wonderful husband and father, I know he wants only the best for our lovely daughters and me," she said. "I am committed to my family and intend to maintain our lives in the best way possible, which includes continuing my career. As a result, I am hopeful that we will resolve this matter with the Government as quickly as possible."

Victor Castillo, Walmart Employee, Fired Over $106,000 Scam

A 23-year-old walmart employee in Hobbs, N.M., has been fired after police arrested him for allegedly stealing more than $106,000 worth of fake money orders, company spokesperson Kayla Whaling told The Huffington Post Monday.
Police estimate the employee, Victor Castillo, began running the scam as early as April, and would take about $1,000 with each order, according to New Mexico News.
Walmart discovered the money was missing after a company audit in July, Hobbs police Capt. Michael Walker told local TV news station KRQE, and Walmart's loss-prevention team subsequently began monitoring video surveillance of the store.
“The way he was doing it they were almost untrackable," Walker told KRQE. Castillo would apparently input the money order into Walmart's MoneyGram system, then turn off the computer at just the right moment so that the valid order would still print out but there was no documentation of it on the screen.
But once video caught Castillo in the act, Walmart was able to go into the computer and track records of his orders -- 111 of them to be exact. Just before his arrest on Thursday, Castillo had printed out $11,000 worth of fake orders.

Elvis' Palm Springs Home: Ready for Its Encore?

Elvis Presley's Palm Springs getaway may finally open to the public in a way the King of Rock 'n' Roll would have been satisfied with, with tours promised for this fall. Ownership of the home that Elvis and Priscilla Presley bought in 1970 -- and which the singer owned until his death in 1977 -- has been given to one of the investors in the desert property after a months-long court battle.

Reno Fontana and his wife bought the house in 2003 with the help of backers, but Fontana went into bankruptcy several times and was evicted in January, reports Palm Springs TV station KMIR. As described in the video above, a judge decided last week that the place dubbed "Graceland West" belongs to investor Randy Raicevic, who told KMIR that he plans to repair and revamp the tourist landmark so that it looks the way it did in Presley's day. Raicevic told Palm Springs' Desert Sun newspaper said that it will then be open daily for tours, at $20 per person, with a target date of Oct. 1.

The way the home's presence impacts the neighborhood might be different, too. Fontana purportedly irritated neighbors with the large parties and busloads of tourists that he hosted at the house. Raicevic told The Sun that visitors will be kept to a minimum, though, and "We'll not keep busy streets."

Johnny Depp Just Might Be Quitting Acting

Say it ain't so!
In an interview with BBC News on Monday, Johnny Depp said that his latest film, "The Lone Ranger," could very well be one of his last.
Depp said there are "quieter" things he would like to do aside from acting.
"At a certain point, you start thinking, and when you add up the amount of dialogue that you say per year, for example, and you realize that you've said written words more than you've actually had a chance to say your own words, you start thinking of that as a kind of insane option for a human being," Depp said.
While he might not quit immediately, Depp said it is "probably not too far away."
And this isn't the first time Depp has mentioned retirement (tear).
In his June interview with Rolling Stone, he said that while he thinks of retiring every day, he's not sure he can actually relax.
"Relax, I can't do. My brain, on idle, is a bad thing. I just get weird. I mean, not weird. I get, I get antsy," he said.
Well lucky for us, he has a booked-solid schedule, including a role in "Into the Woods," an "Alice in Wonderland" sequel and, rumor has it, the fifth installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean."
So even if you are ready to say goodbye, we're not ready to let go just yet, Johnny.

Kim Kardashian’s Global Travel Plans

Crazy-busy traveler Kim Kardashian has been keeping a low-profile at home after the birth of her baby girl, North West, in June, but apparently she’s already planning her next move: accompanying Kanye on the European leg of his world tour. Radar Online reports big-sis Kourtney is fuming over the idea of taking an infant overseas for the stress of traveling. A family friend said Kim “loves the buzz of taking 10 flights in three days,” but Kourt wants her sister to put the baby’s well-being first. “Kim does whatever she wants, and she’s always been self-centered,” said the source, “so Kourtney’s been disappointed so far.” Ouch.

Cannes Jewel Theft: $53 Million Of Jewelry Taken In Armed Robbery At Carlton Hotel

The Carlton Hotel in Cannes.

An armed robber stole millions of dollars worth of jewels at a hotel in Cannes, officials said.
According to the BBC, the theft took place on Sunday at the jewelry exhibition Carlton hotel. The stolen gems are worth around $53 million, the AFP reported.
Sky News also confirmed the incident.
According to The Independent, the heist took place in broad daylight. Local news media said the thief escaped with the stolen jewels in a briefcase.
This is the third major jewel heist this year to take place at Cannes, the site of one of the world's most prestigious film festivals. During festival in May, $1.4 million of gems were stolen from a Swiss jeweler. Later in the week, a diamond necklace worth $2.6 million was taken.
Oddly enough, the Carlton hotel is one of the major locations in 'To Catch A Thief'-- the classic Hitchcock film about a retired jewel thief.
Here's more on Sunday's heist, from the AP:

PARIS — A staggering 40 million euro ($53 million) worth of diamonds and other jewels were stolen Sunday from the Carlton Intercontinental hotel in Cannes, in one of Europe's biggest jewelry heists in recent years, police said. One expert noted the crime follows recent jail escapes by members of the notorious "Pink Panther" jewel thief gang.
The hotel in the sweltering French Riviera was hosting a temporary jewelry exhibit over the summer from the prestigious Leviev diamond house, which is owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev.
A police spokesman said the theft took place around noon, but he could not confirm local media reports that the robber was a single gunman who stuffed a suitcase with the gems before making a swift exit. The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record.
The luxury Carlton hotel is situated on the exclusive Promenade de la Croisette that stretches a mile and a half along the French Riviera, and is thronged by the rich and famous throughout the year. The hotel's position provides not only a beautiful view of the sea but also an easy getaway for potential jewel thieves along the long stretch of road.
"It's a huge theft. Anytime you talk about a heist with many millions of dollars it turns heads and feeds the imagination," said Jonathan Sazonoff, U.S. editor for the Museum Security Network website and an authority on high-value crime.
He said the likelihood of recovering the stolen diamonds and jewels is slim, because thieves can easily sell them on. "The fear is, if you're dealing with high quality minerals, it's hard to get them back," Sazonoff said. "They can be broken up and so they can be easily smuggled and sold."
The valuable gems were supposed to be on public display until the end of August. It was not immediately clear how many pieces were stolen.

Several police officers were placed in front of the Carlton exhibition room – near a Cartier diamond boutique – to prevent the dozens of journalists and photographers from getting a look in at the scene of the crime.
Hotel officials would not comment, and attempts to reach Leviev or his company were not immediately successful.
Europe has been struck by several brazen jewelry thefts in recent years, some of which have involved tens of millions of dollars in treasure.
On Feb. 18 in Belgium, some $50 million worth of diamonds were stolen.
In that heist, the stones from the global diamond center of Antwerp had been loaded on a plane headed to Zurich when robbers dressed in dark police clothing and hoods drove through a hole they'd cut in the Brussels Airport fence in two black cars with blue police lights flashing. They drove onto the tarmac, approached the plane, brandished machine guns, offloaded the diamonds, then left in an operation that took barely five minutes.
Authorities have since detained dozens of people and recovered much of the stolen treasure in that operation.
Five years ago, in December 2008, armed robbers wearing women's wigs and clothing made off with diamond rings, gem-studded bracelets and other jewelry said then to be worth $108 million from a Harry Winston boutique in Paris.
As Christmas shoppers strolled outside, the gunmen forced store employees to strip rings, necklaces and earrings from window displays and pull more out of safes – a brazen robbery that took place in the presence of security guards and security cameras in one of Paris' toniest shopping locales.
Also in 2008 – in February of that year – in a scene reminiscent of the movie "The Italian Job," masked thieves drilled a tunnel into a Damiani jewelry company showroom in Milan, Italy. They tied up the staff with plastic cable and sticky tape, then made off with gold, diamonds and rubies worth some $20 million. The robbers had been digging for several weeks from a building under construction next door.
Cannes appears to be the favorite target this year – in May it was struck by other two highly publicized jewelry heists during the Cannes Film Festival.
In the first theft, robbers stole about $1 million worth of jewels after ripping a safe from the wall of a hotel room. The jewelry was taken from the Novotel room of an employee of Chopard, the Swiss-based watch and jewelry maker that has loaned bling to A-list stars walking the red carpet at the film festival.
In the second, thieves outsmarted 80 security guards in an exclusive hotel and grabbed a De Grisogono necklace that creators say is worth 2 million euros ($2.6 million.)
Sazonoff said it's normal for robbers to gravitate to a place like Cannes, whose glimmering harbor and glamorous film festival attract the world's rich and famous. "Why do thieves target Cannes? It's simple ... On the Cote d'Azur, it's where the monied people flow," he said.
Sazonoff also said police would likely probe whether Sunday's heist is linked to recent jail escapes by alleged members of the Pink Panther jewel thief gang.
On Thursday, a member of the gang escaped prison after accomplices rammed a gate and overpowered guards with bursts from their AK-47s, police said. Milan Poparic fled with fellow inmate Adrian Albrecht from the Orbe prison in the western Swiss state of Vaud.
Police say the Pink Panthers network's members are prime suspects in a series of daring thefts. According to Interpol, the group has targeted luxury watch and jewelry stores in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States, netting more than (EURO)330 million (>285m) since 1999.
Poparic is the third member of the Pink Panthers to escape from a Swiss prison in as many months, according to Vaud police.
"The brazen drama of it is their style... The possibility of the reemergence of the Pink Panther gang is very troubling and taken seriously by law enforcement worldwide," Sazonoff said. "The theft of high value diamonds is exactly what they do, so it's not a great leap to assume they are on the warpath again. They are a crime wave waiting to happen."
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Thomas Adamson can be followed at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

Review: Google Chromecast

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
-Sir Arthur C. Clarke

It’s probably the most overused quote in tech writing… which sucks, because I’d really like to use it to describe how I feel about the Chromecast.
The Chromecast is deceptively simple: you plug it into your TV, then stream video and music to it from apps running on your iPhone, Android device, or laptop. The Chromecast itself has no remote; whatever device you’re streaming from is the remote. The Chromecast has next to no user interface of its own, either; it’s got a single screen that shows the time and whether or not it’s connected to your WiFi that appears when nothing is being streamed, but again, the device you’re streaming from largely acts as the interface. The Chromecast is a wireless portal to your TV, and doesn’t try to be anything more.

A Box Full Of Surprises
I’ve been thinking about it all night, and I don’t think I’ve ever been as surprised by a device as I am by the Chromecast.

The price? Surprise! It’s $35. Are you kidding me? According to Google, they’re not selling them at a loss. Even after accounting for the Wi-Fi chip, the CPU, 2GB of flash memory, the RAM, licensing the right to use HDMI, assembly, packaging, and shipping them to the states, they’re somehow making money selling these things for thirty five dollars. Sure, their profit margin is probably like, four cents — but that they’re not selling these at a loss at that price point is kind of absurd.
The setup? Surprise! It’s ridiculously easy. Plug it into HDMI, give it some juice (through USB, which most new TVs have, or a standard wallwart), then run the Chromecast app on a laptop to tell it what Wi-Fi network to connect to. Done.
App compatibility? Surprise! It’s already there on day one in some of the most notable online video apps, including Netflix and YouTube. I didn’t even have to update the apps — I just launched ‘em on my phone and the Chromecast button was sitting there waiting for me. They’ve even already built an extension for Chrome that drastically expands the functionality of the device (though, in its beta state, it’s a bit buggy — more on that later).
Hell, even the very announcement of the Chromecast was a bit of a surprise. Google somehow managed to keep the Chromecast a secret until right before its intended debut, even with a bunch of outside parties involved. Netflix, Pandora, teams from all over Google, everyone involved in the manufacturing process — all of them were in the loop, yet nothing leaked until someone accidentally published a support page a few hours too early.
Now, none of that is to suggest that the Chromecast is perfect. It’s not! Not yet, at least. But its biggest issues are quite fixable, assuming that Google doesn’t look at the “overwhelming” sales of the Chromecast and say ‘Oh, well, screw this thing.’ And for just $35, the few blemishes it has are pretty easy to overlook.
aking The Bad With The Good:
Video streaming quality is quite good (on par with what I get on my Xbox 360 or my Apple TV, at least) particularly when pulling from an app or website that’s been tailored for compatibility — so Netflix, Youtube, or Google Play, at the moment.
If you’re using the Chromecast extension for Chrome on your laptop to project an otherwise incompatible video site (like Hulu or HBOGO), however, video quality can dump quite a bit depending on your setup. It’s using your laptop as a middle man to encode the video signal and broadcast it to the Chromecast, whereas the aforementioned compatible sites just send video straight to the dongle, mostly removing your laptop from the mix. When casting video tabs on a 2012 MacBook Air running on an 802.11n network, the framerate was noticeably lower and there were occasional audio syncing issues.
While we’re on the topic, the Chrome extension packs a bit of an easter egg: the ability to stream local videos from your laptop to the Chromecast. Just drag a video into Chrome, and it’ll start playing in a new tab. Use the Chrome extension to cast that tab, and ta da! You’re streaming your (totally legitimate, not-at-all-pirated-am-i-right) videos without bringing any other software into the mix. I tried it with a bunch of video formats (AVIs, MOVs, MKVs), and they all seemed to work quite well, albeit with the lowered framerate I mentioned earlier.
Even within the apps that have already been tweaked for Chromecast compatibility, there are some day one bugs. Sometimes videos don’t play the first time you ask them to, instead dropping you into a never-ending loading screen. Other times, the video’s audio will start playing on top of a black screen. These bugs aren’t painfully common, but they’re not rare, either.
Fortunately, it’s mostly all good — and it can only get better
Even with a bug or two rearing its head, the Chromecast is easily worth its $35 price tag.
Remember, this thing just launched, and it came mostly out of nowhere. Those bugs? They’ll get patched away. The sometimes-iffy framerate on projected tabs? It’ll almost certainly get better, as the Chromecast extension comes out of beta.
Pitted against the AppleTV — or, in a fairer comparison, against the AppleTV’s built-in AirPlay streaming feature — the Chromecast’s biggest strength is in its cross-platform compatibility. Whereas AirPlay is limited to iOS devices and Macs (with limited support for Windows through iTunes), Chromecast will play friendly with any iOS, Android, Mac, or Windows app that integrates Googles Cast SDK. Having just launched, the Cast protocol obviously isn’t nearly as ubiquitous as AirPlay, either in terms of Apps that support it or in terms of other devices (like wireless speakers) that utilize it — but assuming that developers embrace the format (and really, they should), both of those things could quickly change. If developers support the protocol, Google could quite feasibly open it up to third parties to be integrated directly into TVs, speakers, and other types of gadgets. If that happens, AirPlay could be in trouble.
On the topic of its cross-platform compatibility: the experience on Android is a slightly better than it is on iOS, as Google has considerably more freedom on the platform; for example, apps that use Chromecast can take priority over the lockscreen, allowing the user to play/pause/skip a video without having to fully unlock their Android device. That’s just icing on the cake, though; for the most part, all of the primary features work just as well on iOS as they do on Android.
Conclusion
It’s one of the easiest recommendations I’ve ever made: If the Chromecast sounds like something you’d want, buy it. It’s easily worth $35 as it stands, and it’s bound to only get better as time goes on, the bugs get ironed out, and more apps come to support it.
[Disclosure: Google loaned me this Chomecast for me to tinker with, but it goes back as soon as my review is done. With that said, I liked it enough that I've already ordered o
 
 

Michigan Hospital Allegedly Bars Black Nurse From Touching White Patient

An east Michigan nurse sparked an uproar in February, when she claimed that she had been barred from taking care of a white baby, because she's black. Now an employee at a nursing home in the same area is claiming that her boss gave her a very similar dictate, which could be illegal.

Sandrea Butler, a nursing assistant at the Shiawassee County Medical Care Facility, says that a nurse told her that neither she nor any black employees could touch a specific white patient. Butler added that the patient had complained that he'd been bruised after being handled by a black worker, reports WNEM in Saginaw, but later retracted that. Her own experience with the older white man had been nothing but cordial, she said. They chatted baseball.

"It plays in your mind, and you feel like you are nothing," Butler told the TV station. "I know I'm something. I know I graduated from college. I know I have certificates. I know I've been working in the health care field for 12 years. But do you feel like you're as good as a white person?"

More: Pre-Employment Medical Exams: A New Scary Kind Of Discrimination

She added that the public way the comment was made, in front of all the other residents, was particularly painful. As is the fact that she's dedicated herself to caring for all people. If that white man suddenly became critically ill, she said, she would race to his side to try to save his life.

"My certificate does not have a race on it," she added.

Rick Cordonnier, the facility administrator for the medical center didn't respond to AOL Jobs' request for comment, but in an interview with WNEM he defended the decision, saying it's important for the center to comply with a patient's wishes, whether it's a nurse of a specific gender, or race. "We are protecting staff members from potential allegations," he also said.

Making race-based decisions about what your employees can do on the job, even if at the request of a customer, violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to Justine Lisser, senior attorney-adviser at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency tasked with enforcing workplace anti-discrimination law.

"Customer preference is no excuse for race discrimination. It's pretty clear," she told AOL Jobs, adding that the one narrow exception when job discrimination is permissible, is when the job is profoundly intimate -- for example a home care aide who is responsible for bathing a patient. In that case it would be acceptable for someone to request a caregiver of the same gender.

Another Michigan medical facility that was recently accused of obliging patient's racial preferences, the Hurley Medical Center in Flint, settled quickly with a black nurse for an undisclosed amount
By Claire Gordon

Becki Salmon, Philadelphia Bride, Saves Drowning Boy During Engagement Shoot

It was a picture perfect moment that nearly turned to tragedy.
On a blazing hot Saturday earlier this month, Becki Salmon and her fiance, Matt Werner, spent a few hours in a Pennsylvania park trying to capture the ideal engagement shot.

But the romantic scene took a heart-racing turn when Salmon noticed a little boy fighting for his life in the creek behind her. She immediately abandoned the photo shoot and dove into the water to help, WPVI reports.
The couple's photographer, Ken Beerger, captured each moment of the dramatic rescue as she pulled the boy out to safety.

"If I would have had my wedding dress on that day, that's what I would have been in the water in," Salmon, who’s a trained lifeguard and paramedic, told WPVI.

One British bride, when faced with a life-threatening situation, actually did help a guest in distress while she was already made up in her wedding dress.
When Kylie Cox noticed that a friend had stopped breathing while dancing at her wedding, she immediately started performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until the paramedics arrived, the Mirror reported in April. Cox and her new husband then left their reception to accompany their friend to the hospital, whom they weren’t sure was going to make it.
“Me and Russell spent the first night of our marriage at the hospital, because we didn’t know whether our friend was going to live or die,” Cox told the Mirror. “The doctors told us it was a miracle he survived.

4-year-old genius invited to join MENSA

Anala Beevers is just four years old, but she already knows the location and capital of every US state. She learned the alphabet at four months of age, then at eighteen months learned numbers in Spanish. The precociously intelligent youngster claims she's smarter than her parents, and both mom and dad agree.
Her genius has not gone unnoticed, and has led to an invitation to join MENSA, an international organization for the 'super-smart.' MENSA, which is mostly populated by adults, usually claims members with intelligence in the top 2% of the populace. Anala, who can also identify planets and dinosaurs, is in the top 1%.
"She keeps us on our toes," says her father Landon, who would like to see her get her own reality TV show. When asked what she wants to do when she grows up, Anala says she'd like to be a nurse.

Eike Batista, Formerly World's 8th Richest Man, Loses $33 Billion In Just 16 Months

You think losing a $10 bill is bad? Trying losing $33 billion, and with it your ranking among the world's richest men.
That’s what’s happened to Brazilian oil tycoon Eike Batista, who last year was quite literally on top of the world. Life was good, he was eighth richest man on the planet, and once he even vowed to overtake Mexico’s Carlos Slim as the planet's richest man.
It didn't last, and Batista has since watched his $34 billion net worth plummet some $33 billion over 16 months or so, according to Bloomberg. The big problem? His oil conglomerate, OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA, lost 90 percent of its value over the last year, leaving Batista with a relatively paltry $200 million when including debts he owes to investors.
Batista, known for his charismatic persona and opulent lifestyle, simply may have been overly optimistic at a time when his country was experiencing strong economic growth. (Brazil’s economy has since fallen on harder times.) Sergio Lazzarini, of the INSPER Business school in Sao Paulo, told BBC News that Batista's business model “was exaggerated in every sense.”
Batista’s optimism nevertheless appears undiminished, even in the face of debts to OGX investors such as General Electric, IBM and Abu Dhabi’s state investment fund Mubadala, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“I will honor all of my obligations,” Batista wrote in a Valor Economico newspaper op-ed last week where he admitted regretting taking his companies public. “I won’t leave a single penny unpaid for each one of my debts.”
At such a vast sum, Batista’s losses stand as the greatest decline in personal net worth since March 2012, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index.
Other billionaires who've had hard landings in recent years include Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, who lost $17 billion in 2010, as well as Sean Quinn, once known as Ireland’s richest man, who declared bankruptcy in 2011 after being worth $6 billion just 3 years earlier, according to Forbes.

Is Khloe Kardashian Trying to Trick Her Fans?

Khloe Kardashian and her husband Lamar Odom have been surrounded by a pretty upsetting scandal for the past few weeks.

A woman is claiming that she had a year-long affair with the nba star and when Khloe found out, she reportedly kicked Lamar out of their marital home.

According to the reports, Khloe is now desperate to avoid divorce and is "begging him to come back."

Since the scandal exploded, the reality star has been posting various pics of her hubby, which makes it look like they're together and it's business as usual.

What we find unusual, however, is that at least one of the pics that was posted and made to look like a new photo is actually over a year old.

Khloe recently tweeted this photo of the back of Lamar's head as he sits and watches TV. "I think someone is watching us #Henry," she wrote (referring to the giraffe). In the old version of the same photo, which she had posted 594 days prior, she included the caption, "Henry is watching the fight with us :)"
 


 Same photo, different captions... 594 days apart. Something doesn't add up.

This actually isn't the first time Khloe has fooled fans with an old photo. Just two weeks after sister Kim Kardashian gave birth, Khloe posted a pic on Facebook that showed her dog sleeping on the couch next to Kim with the caption "I love my lil baby so much..."

Media outlets were immediately buzzing with reports that Khloe had posted the first pic of Kim when, in fact, it was an old photo that she had Instagrammed months before.

These could just be misguided "Throwback Thursday" photos, but since the Kards are all so social-media savvy and always label their #tbt photos as such, we can't help but wonder if she is trying to do her own spin control, especially considering that the couple hasn't been photographed together in almost two months.

In fact, the only photos we've seen of them together have been--you guessed it--on Khloe's Instagram page, where she posted an old photo from their wedding night and another undated pic of her husband kissing her on the cheek.

Do you think she's posting old photos to try to throw people off?

Ten Things You Need to Know Today: July 25, 2013

our daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
1. U.S. SURVEILLANCE SURVIVES CLOSE VOTE
The House voted 217-205 to reject a bid to halt the NSA program that collects millions of Americans' phone and Internet records.
2. HIGH-SPEED TRAIN DERAILS IN SPAIN
At least 77 people were killed and 140 injured when the train jumped the tracks after a curve in the country's worst rail accident in decades.
3. OBAMA TAKES ECONOMIC MESSAGE TO FLORIDA
The president will speak at a Jacksonville port to turn Americans' attention away from gridlock in Congress and onto the economy.
4. POPE AIMS TO INSPIRE YOUTH
Francis is meeting with over 1 million young Roman Catholics in Rio and visiting a slum, after pleading this week that the faithful shun materialism.
5. WEINER ASKS VOTERS TO STICK WITH HIM
A new poll is due out today on the New York City mayor's race, taken after the candidate's admission he continued sexting after resigning from Congress.
6. WHERE THE MAIL WON'T BE DELIVERED
Congress approved a plan to stop delivering mail door-to-door by 2022, instead of moving to curbside delivery and cluster boxes.
7. NEW WELL CONSIDERED AT BURNING RIG
Officials hope the relief well will stop gas from spewing from the out-of-control rig off the Louisiana coast.
8. FAMOUS FIRST DAUGHTER TAPPED FOR DIPLOMATIC POST
Obama named Caroline Kennedy U.S. ambassador to Japan.
9. A NAME FOR A PRINCE
The royal baby, now known as George Alexander Louis, has a name that has been held by six previous kings.
10. WHY FORMER PRESIDENT SHAVED HIS HEAD
George H.W. Bush, 89, showed his support for the sick child of one of his Secret Service agents.

Google introduces Chromecast, a $35 HDMI streaming solution for televisions

The 2-inch device runs "a simplified version of Chrome OS" and requires separate USB power. You connect it to your local WiFi network and it finds similarly connected devices that it can work with. It can be ordered right now on Google Play and will apparently ship in one to two days. Of note, the device seems US-only for now, as our UK colleagues are showing a "not available in your country" prompt. Early buyers get three months of free Netflix with the purchase. Additionally, it's also heading to retail (read: Best Buy) on July 28th. Google ended its presentation with a quick word that Chromecast functionality will eventually come embedded in various other devices, and that it's working on getting other countries access "as quickly as possible." No specs were given during the presentation, but its Google Play page lists the device as HDMI-CEC compatible, and it uses 2.4GHz 801.11 b/g/n WiFi. Given the separate USB power required, the $35 nets you a Chromecast device, an HDMI extended, a USB power cable and a separate power adapter.
Apps that work with the device include a "Cast" button that allows users to push video to their televisions and control various aspects remotely (volume, play, pause, etc.). "Once Chromecast is plugged in, you just go to YouTube on your smartphone," Google reps said. "You'll see the cast button in your UI and you press it -- Chromecast will pull the info you requested from the cloud and play it on your TV." Meanwhile, an on-stage demonstration showed YouTube video being pushed "via the cloud," thus enabling other apps to be used while a video is being viewed on a television screen. Netflix was up next, and it has similar remote control functionality. Google Play movies and television (expectedly) also work with Chromecast, and Google delightedly demonstrated it with Vin Diesel vehicle Fast Five. Finally, Google demoed full Google Chrome projected on a TV and controlled remotely with a "standard $500 Windows 8 laptop." The feature is "still in early days," but a promise has already been made: that users will be able to easily project content to televisions via their web browser.
Update: We've added Chromecast's first commercial (which demonstrates much of the device's functionality) above, and a source link with Google's formal announcement.
Update 2: Aside from the Google Play store and Best Buy, you can also buy the Chromecast from Amazon. Thankfully, that three-month gratis Netflix would still be applicable if you buy it from the online giant.

He waves! Our first Royal wave.

First Thoughts On Meeting A Prince
Preliminary thoughts upon “meeting” the Royal Baby for the first time:
He waves! Our first Royal wave.
Kate didn't fall down the steps while holding her son. I held my breath just in case. After all, she was wearing heels.
Kate made absolutely no attempt to appear like anything other than a woman who has just given birth. Okay, her hair looked better than most new mothers, but

Sgt. Sean Murphy, Cop Who Leaked Bombing Suspect Photos, Disciplined

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — A state police photographer who released photos of the bloodied Boston Marathon bombing suspect during his capture was placed on restricted duty Tuesday.
Sgt. Sean Murphy said he leaked the photos of what he called "the face of terror" to Boston magazine last week to counter a glamorized image of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
Three of Murphy's 14 photos show a battered and blood-streaked Tsarnaev emerging from a boat in a backyard, the red dot of a sniper's laser sight trained on his head.
Murphy wasn't authorized to release the photos. He already served a one-day, unpaid suspension and has received another five-day unpaid suspension. Following a status hearing at state police headquarters Tuesday, Murphy was placed on desk duty, where he won't have contact with the public, until an internal investigation is complete.
Col. Timothy Alben, the commander of the state police, said more discipline is conceivable, but he ruled out the possibility that Murphy would be fired.
"I don't see Sgt. Murphy being terminated for this particular set of circumstances," he said.
After the hearing, Murphy declined to comment, except to say, "Life is good."
Murphy's 19-year-old son, Connor Murphy, said he couldn't be more proud of his father, praising him as a man of integrity and noting his father never tried to hide what he had done.
"If I could be one quarter of a man that he is now, I'll be more than happy with my life," he said.

Pressure mounts on Anthony Weiner to quit NYC mayoral race after sexting scandal

Anthony Weiner resisted calls to withdraw from the new York City mayoral race Tuesday after finding himself caught in another sexting scandal similar to the one that ended his congressional career two years ago.
Weiner admitted sending a woman sexually explicit photos and messages and acknowledged the activity took place as recently as last summer, more than a year after he resigned from the House in June 2011 for the same sort of behavior with at least a half-dozen women.
With his wife, Huma Abedin, standing an arm's length away from him, Weiner told a hastily called news conference he would stay in the race despite the new onslaught of negative publicity.
"I want to bring my vision to the people of the city of New York. I hope they are willing to still continue to give me a second chance," Weiner said.
In an editorial posted online Tuesday, the New York Times urged Weiner to drop out of the race, saying Weiner "should take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from cameras, off the Web and out of the race for mayor of New York City."
Three of his rivals for mayor — Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former City Councilman Sal Albanese, both Democrats, and billionaire John Catsimatidis, a Republican — also called on Weiner to quit the race.
"Enough is enough," de Blasio said. "The sideshows of this election have gotten in the way of the debate we should be having about the future of this city."
Another mayoral hopeful, city Comptroller John Liu, stopped short of calling for Weiner to bow out, but suggested his "propensity for pornographic selfies is a valid issue for voters."
The other leading Democratic candidates, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former City Comptroller Bill Thompson, did not immediately comment.
The congressman fessed up to the naughty texts after sexually explicit photos and online chats between "Carlos Danger," allegedly the pseudonym for the city hall hopeful, and an unidentified woman surfaced on the blog, TheDirty.com.
The reports claim that that the conversation between the pol and an unidentified 23-year-old woman took place on the social media website Formspring in August 2012, a year after he resigned from his post in Congress after being caught the first time — and nearly seven months after his first child with wife Abedin was born.
The woman claims on the blog that she first started talking online with Weiner in July 2012 and it became intense by August 2012, when he offered to find a Chicago condo where they could meet up.
She also alleges that they had phone sex and that they exchanged nude photos of each other. She claims she received photos from Weiner of his penis sent from a Yahoo email account under the “Carlos Danger” name. The purported image was subsequently posted on TheDirty.com.
Buzzfeed.com later reported that a source close to the matter said Weiner exchanged the explicit messages and photos with a woman named Sydney Elaine Leathers in late July of last year. The website characterized Leathers as a "progressive activist" from Indiana.
Weiner released a written statement on Tuesday afternoon, which he read again at the press conference, admitting to additional raunchy conversations.
"I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have,” he said in the statement, referring to comments he made two months ago during the start of his mayoral campaign.
“As I have said in the past, these things that I did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through challenges in our marriage that extended past my resignation from Congress. While some things that have been posted today are true and some are not, there is no question that what I did was wrong. This behavior is behind me.”
Weiner did not elaborate on which of the new reports are true or false and whether or not it took place last summer.
It's unclear how the lewd news will impact Weiner's campaign. Some New Yorkers have shown a willingness to forgive his past indiscretions since he announced his mayoral campaign via YouTube in May.
He has since shot to the lead in the polls, with a Quinnipiac University survey last week showing he held 25 percent of the vote.
Officials from Anthony Weiner’s mayoral campaign did not respond to requests for additional comment from FoxNews.com.
FoxNews.com's Perry Chiaramonte and The Associated Press contributed to this repor

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/24/pressure-mounts-on-anthony-weiner-to-quit-nyc-mayoral-race-after-sexting/?cmpid=prn_aol&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing6%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D348282#ixzz2ZyKVslbc

Incredible Cloud Formation Over Michigan What caused the stunning phenomenon?

Residents of Iron Mountain, Mich., were treated to an extraordinary display of bulbous-looking clouds on Monday night. The phenomenon was captured by Joe Nottage, who posted the image on Facebook and asked, "Can anyone explain this?" Meteorologist Jeff Last tweeted the photo and wrote, "Mammatus in Iron Mt, Mich this evening. Taken by Joe Nottage. #miwx pic.twitter.com/83lsFPlBtw."

What caused the formation of the ball-like clouds? As Last noted in his tweet, these are actually mammatus clouds, a pattern of pouches bubbling beneath the base of a larger cloud. Mammatus clouds may look ominous, and sometimes they foreshadow trouble. In fact, mammatus clouds can indicate severe thunderstorms are imminent. The clouds form following sharp gradients in temperature, moisture and wind shear, and can extend for hundreds of miles.

LIVE Updates: Everything You Need to Know About the Birth of the Royal Baby

Click through to see the baby's first moments in public with the Duke and Duchess, and read below for everything you need to know about the birth of Britain's newest royal heir, updated LIVE:

7/23/2013
4:55 pm EST: A very popular baby! Peter Hunt of the BBC reports a staggering number of people who were talking about the Prince of Cambridge when Kate and William presented him to the public:

Katherine Jackson: Michael Jackson Didn't Cause Own Deat

LOS ANGELES — The promoters of Michael Jackson's ill-fated comeback concerts watched the singer waste away and should have reached out to his family for help, the superstar's mother tearfully told a jury on Monday.
Clutching a tissue and hanging her head at times, Katherine Jackson said she didn't know the extent of her son's weakness until after the start of her trial against AEG Live LLC.
"They watched him waste away," she said after her attorney cited several emails from top workers preparing for the "This Is It" shows. The messages described her son's condition as deteriorating and cited his inability to rehearse.
"They could have called me," Katherine Jackson, 83, said. "He was asking me for his father. My grandson told me that his daddy was nervous and scared."
Her comments came under questioning from her attorney, Brian Panish.
Moments earlier, an attorney for AEG Live had questioned why the Jackson family matriarch _if her purpose for filing the lawsuit was to find out the truth about her son's death, as she had testified – hadn't read through thousands of pages of deposition testimony, or asked her grandchildren about what happened in her son's rented mansion before his June 2009 death.
She later said that while she could have asked her grandchildren about some issues, she didn't want to bring it up with them.
She also said that she didn't see a photograph of her son shot six days before her his death until after the trial started.
Katherine Jackson at first didn't seem to want to look at the photo, which has been repeatedly displayed during the trial and shows her son wearing a T-shirt, his arms thin and bones visible in his upper chest.
Katherine Jackson claims AEG Live failed to properly investigate Dr. Conrad Murray, who was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving the singer an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.
AEG defense attorney Marvin S. Putnam told jurors during opening statements in the negligence lawsuit in April that the case centered on personal responsibility – specifically Michael Jackson's decision to ask Murray to administer propofol as a sleep aid while he prepared for his shows.
AEG Live denies it hired the doctor or bears any responsibility for Jackson's death.
Katherine Jackson said she believes AEG Live hired Murray, not her son. She said she never heard of the cardiologist until her son died, and indicated that she felt Murray bore responsibility for her son's death.
"Even though he asked for it, he could have said no," she said of Murray.
Putnam also asked Katherine Jackson about her son's payments to her over the years. She said he directly paid many of the expenses on her home and would occasionally give her cash as a gift.
Saying she didn't keep track of the payments, Katherine Jackson appeared to being annoyed at the questions.
"What does this have to do with the death of my son," she asked Putnam.
The attorney also asked her about conversations she had with her son about prescription drug use.
She said she asked him about it when he lived in Las Vegas and he denied he was abusing prescription medications.
"I'm a mother, quite naturally he denied it," she said. "He wouldn't want me to think that."
She said she wasn't surprised by his denial and likened the situation to a child who'd disobeyed his mother while playing outdoors.
Putnam said Jackson was a 50-year-old man at the time of his death. "He's still my child," Katherine Jackson said. "He'd still want me to hold his respect."
She said she was aware her son took medications for pain in his back and scalp after he sustained injuries over his career. She said she never saw signs that her son was abusing medications, including when she and several of her children went to the singer's Neverland Ranch in 2002 for an intervention.
Her son was fine but upset that they thought he had a problem, she said.
___
Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Jay Z, Kanye, Madonna Join Stevie Wonder's Florida Boycott In Wake Of Zimmerman Verdict

A number of top-level celebrities are reportedly following in Stevie Wonder's footsteps and plan to boycott Florida in protest of the state's "Stand your Ground" laws. The list, which was first reported by AURN's April Ryan and credited a "a source close to Wonder," includes the likes of Madonna, Usher, Kanye West, Jay Z, Rihanna and Rod Stewart.
Wonder announced his intention to boycott any state with "Stand Your Ground" laws after a jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the 2012 killing of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman did not invoke the "Stand Your Ground" defense in the trial, though it did figure into the police's decision not to not arrest Zimmerman for weeks after the incident. Additionally, the "Stand Your Ground" defense appeared in instructions to jurors, and a juror cited the law in explaining the not-guilty verdict.
"I decided today that until the 'Stand your Ground' law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again," Wonder said at a concert in Quebec City. "As a matter of fact, wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world. The truth is that -- for those of you who’ve lost in the battle for justice, wherever that fits in any part of the world -- we can’t bring them back. What we can do is we can let our voices be heard. And we can vote in our various countries throughout the world for change and equality for everybody. That’s what I know we can do."
Florida is not the only state with "Stand Your Ground" laws on its books -- at least 23 other states have similar provisions providing varying degrees of legal protection to those who use force in perceived self-defense.
The Huffington Post is reaching out to representatives for a number of artists on this list and will update this post should more information be made available.
UPDATE: A local news outlet in Florida cites "an executive affiliated with the 'Legends of the Summer' tour" who says the Justin Timberlake and Jay Z concert planned for August 16 at Sun Life stadium will go on. As stated earlier, HuffPost has reached out to Timberlake and Jay Z's reps for comment on the reported boycott.
UPDATE 2: A source with knowledge of the matter has denied to HuffPost that Rihanna is joining the boycott. We'll continue to update as more information becomes available.
The original article continues below.

• Mary Mary
• Eddie Levert
• Rod Stewart
• Madonna
• Usher
• Pattie Labelle
• Kanye West
• Mary J
• Trey Songz
• Jay Z
• Rolling Stones
• Justin Timberlake
• R. Kelly
• Rihanna
• Alicia Keys
• Joe
• Will I AM
• Keyshia Cole
• Young Jeezy
• Erykah Badu
• Wale
• Frankie Beverly
• Parliament

Japanese Train Passengers Push 32-Ton Train Car To Free Woman Stuck In Gap

TOKYO -- Dozens of Japanese train passengers pushed a 32-ton train carriage away from the platform to free a woman who had fallen into the 20-centimeter (eight-inch) gap between the train and platform during the busy morning rush hour Monday.
The act of heroism was captured by a newspaper photographer, whose photo of the rescue ran in the Yomiuri daily's evening edition.
A public announcement that a passenger was trapped prompted about 40 people to join train officials to push the carriage, whose suspension system allows it to lean to either side, according to the Yomiuri newspaper, Japan's largest daily.
The unnamed woman in her 30s was then pulled out uninjured to applause from onlookers at JR Minami-Urawa station, just north of Tokyo.
After just an eight-minute delay, the train went on its way.

Michael Madison To Be Charged In Discovery Of Bodies In Trash Bags: Cops

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A suspicious odor unearthed one body in a trash bag in a rundown neighborhood here, and then two more were found over the weekend, and police expected Monday to charge a man who indicated he might have been influenced by a serial killer whose home was found littered with bodies a few years ago.
Police and volunteers scoured about 40 empty homes Sunday until their search was suspended, with no immediate plans to resume, said East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts.
He identified the suspect as 35-year-old Michael Madison and said Madison was to be charged Monday but did not elaborate.
An odor led to the discovery Friday of one body in a garage. Two others were found Saturday – one in a backyard and the other in the basement of a vacant house. The victims were found about 100 to 200 yards apart, and authorities believed they were killed in the past six to 10 days.
The bodies of the three women were all wrapped in plastic bags in fetal positions. "It didn't look like a person could actually fit in the bag," Spotts told residents and activists who gathered Sunday to search.
They're part of the latest in a series of high-profile cases involving the disappearance of women from the Cleveland area.
In 2009, the mostly nude bodies of 11 women were found in garbage bags and plastic sheets throughout the Cleveland home of Anthony Sowell, who was convicted in 2011 of murdering the women and sentenced to death. In May, three women who vanished separately about a decade ago were found captive in a rundown house. The owner of the house, a former school bus driver, has pleaded not guilty to kidnap, rape and other crimes.
Madison threatened about a month ago to attack women in the same fashion as Sowell, said Eric Wilson, a neighbor who saw Madison frequently. Mayor Gary Norton said Madison gave similar indications to authorities.
"He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence," Norton told The Associated Press.
Madison was arrested Friday after a police standoff. A woman at a small white house at an address for Madison said the family was shocked by the allegations. She identified herself as a family member and answered a few questions through the blinds of a window Sunday but refused to come out or give her name. It wasn't clear whether Madison has an attorney.
Madison was classified as a sex offender in 2002 when he was sentenced to four years in prison for attempted rape, according to court records. He had previous convictions in 2000 and 2001 for drug-related charges.
Wilson and others said Madison was a neighborhood fixture, constantly walking up and down streets and seen everywhere. Teenager Daniqwa Martin said Madison had offered her a ride in the past but she always declined.
One neighbor, Nathenia Crosby, said she was familiar with Madison and had seen him walking through the neighborhood. She said she had told him to stop chatting with her daughter and warned him after seeing him talk to her cousin.
"It's very scary, especially when he used to be talking to my daughter," said Crosby, 48. "But I told him he was too old to be talking to my daughter because she was only 19. When I found out how old he was, I said, `You need to move on, she's too young.' "
Detectives continued to interview Madison, Norton said. He said authorities have "lots of reasons" to suspect there are more victims, but he refused to say why.
Spotts indicated that Madison's comments haven't provided clarity on whether more bodies might be found.
"He really hasn't stated that there's any more, but he hasn't said anything that would make us think that there's not," Spotts said.
All three bodies were found in the fetal position, wrapped in several layers of trash bags, Norton said. The bodies were in advanced stages of decomposition and it would take several days to identify them and how they died, Cuyahoga County medical examiner Dr. Thomas P. Gilson said Sunday.
Martin, 16, said she smelled the odor Tuesday but ignored it, thinking it was a dead animal.
About three dozen volunteers, including community anti-crime activists, fanned out Sunday morning across yards, through vacant houses and along a railroad to help police search. The chief advised them to watch for missing floor boards as they looked inside houses. One young searcher crawled under a board screwed across a door to go inside a house.
Barbara Stirtmire, part of a local motorcycle club whose members were pitching in to search Sunday, said she came to help because she knows so many people in the area and herself has a teenage daughter.
"It doesn't make the city look good, I know that," said Stirtmire, 31, who works at a nearby auto parts store. "But as far as everybody coming together, it's beautiful."
The neighborhood in East Cleveland, which has some 17,000 residents, has many abandoned houses and authorities want to be thorough, the mayor said.
"Hopefully, we pray to God, this is it," he said.
___
Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at . Associated Press writers Kantele Franko in Columbus, Dan Sewell in Cincinnati and Peggy Harris in Philadelphia contributed to this report. https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus