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The children of Martin Luther King, Jr., actress Brooke Shields, Rev. Al Sharpton, and basketball stars Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson spoke Tuesday at the memorial for Michael Jackson in Los Angeles. The most heartbreaking moment came at the end of the service, when Jackson's 11-year-old daughter, Paris, took to the stage for an emotional farewell. Mariah Carey stood on a stage, above Jackson's golden casket, and sung a rendition of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There." Queen Latifah read a poem from Maya Angelou. Stevie Wonder played the piano. "This is a moment I wish I didn't live to see come," Stevie Wonder said. Approximately 20,000 people gathered in the Staples Center for the event. Meanwhile, millions if not billions watched ad-free coverage on the broadcast and cable news networks.
In a time when jobs are scarce, Sarah Palin is lucky to have admirers in high places: the outgoing governor of Alaska is receiving support from outspoken Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who is already reaching out to offer her a place in the RNC. “I’m very excited about the opportunity to have Sarah Palin freed up now to engage across the country to help…reorient the party and grow it,” Steele told Fox News. “She said she now wants to be able to contribute in a different way, and as RNC chairman, I absolutely welcome it.” But he also seemed hesitant to rush her into the White House: "Not having talked to the governor, I take 2012 off the table right now simply because given everything she's going through personally, dealing with the financial mess that all these ludicrous investigations have put her and Todd in, at the moment, I think she's trying to focus on getting her house in order, her personal house in order."
Russian-American relations may be on the mend, but is it all talk and no action for Presidents Obama and Medvedev? The pair met in Russia and called a truce on a number of issues—vowing to open a joint early warning center to share data on missile launches and agreeing to each get rid of weapons-grade plutonium—but past presidents made similar deals and never made good on them, writes The New York Times. President Clinton and Boris Yeltsin agreed to build the data-sharing center in 1998, as did Clinton and Putin in 2000 and Bush and Putin in 2007, yet the center remains unbuilt. The plutonium initiative first came to light in the 1990s but hasn’t been enforced, either. Still, Obama’s top Russia adviser said the progress made by the two was groundbreaking. “They’re real things. It is not fluff,” said Michael McFaul. “I dare you to think of a summit that was so substantive. We didn’t solve everything in two days—that would be impossible. But I think we came a long way in terms of developing both a relationship that advances our national interest with the government and also laying out a philosophy about foreign policy."
Enough is enough, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On Tuesday the Nevada Democrat ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus to stop chasing down Republican votes for a health care-reform bill, and to also stop proposing taxes on health benefits. Baucus’s plans, Reid said (according to Democratic sources who spoke with The Washington Post), would cost the bill 10 to 15 Democratic votes and would, at best, win only a few Republican votes. Baucus wants to implement bipartisan-supported health care reform with a price tag less than $1 trillion that is deficit-neutral; the U.S. Senate Committe on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is slated to complete its health-care-reform-legislation blueprint this week or next. The panel’s Democrats support the HELP bill unanimously, while no Republicans are willing to back it.
Michael Phelps holds records both in and outside the pool. After getting caught red-handed hitting a bong last winter, the Olympic titan downplayed the scandal at lightning speed, according to a column in the Los Angeles Times. Phelps’s slew of ongoing endorsement deals, including one with Subway laden with stoner references visible to the discerning eye, are more pieces of evidence proving that maybe, just maybe, the United States has an increasingly open mind when it comes to marijuana use. Phelps was suspended from swimming for three months after word got out about his drug use and Wheaties revoked their $500,000 contract, but compared to sentences endured by other sports stars for similar missteps, he got off surprisingly easy. “The consequences to Phelps—actually, the lack of consequences—suggest that something bigger than mere endorsement dollars is in play,” wrote columnist Dan Neil. “It seems Phelps has moved the weed needle.”
Demigod and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong raced within a second of the lead today in the fourth stage of this year’s Tour de France. Armstrong’s ProTeam Astana squad won the 24.2-mile ride in and around the town of Montpellier after starting the latest stage in third place; the current frontrunner, Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara of the Saxo Bank team, narrowly held the lead with his group finishing third in the leg of the race. Armstrong and Cancellara both have an overall time of 10 hours, 38 minutes and 7 seconds, but Cancellara is technically considered a second ahead. Armstrong acknowledged the need for another pull-ahead although the title is well within his grasp. “This is a little bit of a disappointment,” Armstrong said, referring to the second-place status. “That’s cycling.”
Alberto Gonzales resigned two years ago as President Bush’s embattled attorney general, but it looks like he’s no longer out of work. Gonzales has lined up a teaching job at Texas Tech University for the fall, according to sources. He’ll be teaching a “special topics” course on the executive branch in the university’s political science, according to a member of the department. Gonzales was much maligned during the controversies over illegal federal wiretapping and the alleged politically motivated dismissal of several U.S. attorneys.
Get ready for the great stem cell debate to flare up once again: Researchers at the Newcastle University in England reported that for the first time, they have successfully extracted sperm cells from embryonic stem cells, Time magazine reports. While these cells aren’t suitable for implantation—which British law prohibits—they could be used as an important tool in researching male infertility. Normal sperm development, stem-cell bioethicist Insoo Hyun said, takes more than 15 years and isn’t easily observable—but the in vitro-derived sperm (which can only come from male embryos) would only take three months to mature. So, what’s next? Potentially, infertile men could grow sperm in a lab and regain the ability to father children. “We have the potential therapeutic use of a technology that pushes the boundaries of what people feel comfortable with ethically,” Hyun said.
A Taliban leader is buying children, training them for suicide bombing missions, and selling the children for $6,000 to $12,000 to other Taliban leaders, U.S. and Pakistan officials say. "[Baitullah Mehsud] has been been admitting he holds a training center for young boys, for preparing them for suicide bombing. So he is on record saying all this, accepting these crimes," the spokesman for the Pakistani army told CNN. A video of children at a training camp shows them killing and practicing exercises. Pakistan has stepped up its effort to remove the Taliban from its North West Frontier Province and, in response, the Taliban has increased the use of suicide bombing in the region.
So Joe Biden misspoke again—that’s no surprise. But it is surprising that President Obama has decided to step in and correct him. When asked by NBC News’ Chuck Todd about Biden’s statement that “we misread how bad the economy was,” Obama said, “I would actually—rather than say misread, we had incomplete information. What we always knew was that a) this recession was gonna be deep, and b) it was gonna last for a while.” He also told ABC News, when asked about the stimulus, "There's nothing that we would have done differently. We needed a stimulus and we needed a substantial stimulus."
Will New York Post photographers follow her around the globe? ABC News reports that “Federal prosecutors allowed Ruth Madoff to get her passport back today, in what people involved in the case said was ‘a clear sign’ she will not be prosecuted as an accomplice in her husband's $65 billion Ponzi scheme.” Ruth had surrendered her passport as part of her husband’s bail condition. "If you were going to charge her, you would not give her the means to leave the country," one source tells ABC News.
It's official: Al Franken is the junior senator from Minnesota. The comedian-cum-politician was sworn in on Tuesday, giving the Democrats the 60th vote needed to override Republican filibusters. Franken joins the Senate after an eight-month standoff with his opponent, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. He said that he envisions himself as a "people's proxy" in next week's confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
Ever wonder how someone as pure and good as Goose in Top Gun could be shot down in his prime, while animated bad guys systematically walk away without a scratch? Oh, unknowable universe! The live-action movie version of G.I. Joe premiering this summer will likely level the playing field with more than enough casualties, but in the meantime, Slate magazine has documented some of the best narrow escapes seen in the beloved '80s cartoon. Will Lady Jaye think of everything? Will Timber the dog grow opposable thumbs and save the day? Answer: yes. The gang of Joes, it should be noted, never kills their enemies, instead relying on disguises and deception to escape improbable situations.
Only hours after Rahm Emanuel suggested that a public option was a negotiable part of the White House's health care plan, President Obama released a statement from Russia recommitting the administration to that path. The statement read, "I am pleased by the progress we're making on health care reform and still believe, as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest." The disagreement marks the tensions between different figures in the White House as to the proper course for the legislation, a source tells the Huffington Post--and Emanuel has been pushing for the compromise for months. "I think it's more of a 'progressive groups don't freak the f*** out' statement," a health care strategist told the site.
A strange week in Alaska just got a whole lot stranger: Former governor Sarah Palin conducted her first interview since resigning from office—while fishing for salmon. According to Fox News, Palin was coy about her presidential plans, spent time blasting her critics, but dished out plenty of criticism for President Obama. Palin presented herself as "pretty darn independent" as she criticized the "obsessive partisanship" in Washington. When it came to 2012, Palin said she did not know what the future holds. And as she loaded reporters and news crews into small fishing boats and led them onto Bristol Bay, Palin said: "Average, hard-working Americans need to be able to get out there, unrestrained, and fight for what is right. Fight for energy independence and national security, fight for a smaller government instead of this big government overgrowth that Obama is ushering in."
It may be the biggest send-off ever, but as Michael Jackson is memorialized at the Staples Center Tuesday, the questions of his death are far from answered. With rumors swirling about Jackson’s prescription drug use, The Daily Beast’s Gerald Posner says in an exclusive report that Jackson’s addiction may have been influenced by an unlikely person: Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor, a close friend of Jackson's, was a loyal patient of Dr. Arnold Klein, a cosmetic dermatologist who Jackson soon began to consult. Despite warnings from friends that his relationship with Taylor was “toxic,” Jackson began seeing Klein for vitiligo, a patchiness of the skin—just after Taylor was sent to rehab. Though police won’t confirm that Klein is one of the five physicians under investigation in the Jackson case, Ben Evenstad, founder of the National Photo Group, who sent paparazzi to trail Jackson in Los Angeles, said that his photographers followed Jackson to Dr. Klein’s office two to three times a week, where he would stay anywhere from 30 minutes to 5 hours.
When Robert McNamara died on Monday, President Obama was busy launching his first official visit to Russia. And according to Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal, there’s a lot in common between the two men: both shared “soaring rhetoric, big plans and self-regard” and both favored top-down solutions imposed on major systems, like the banking industry and auto industry. David Halberstam wrote of McNamara: “Taking on guerrilla war was like buying a sick foreign company; you brought your systems to it.” But the failure in Vietnam—followed by McNamara’s similarly doomed style of top-down control as president of World Bank—may provide some important lessons for Obama. “The mentality of the planner remains alive and well in Washington today, along with the aura of cool intellectual certainty,” writes Stephens. “Obama might take a close look at McNamara's obituaries and note that he, too, is the whiz kid of his day.”
President Obama rushed through a packed schedule at the Russia Summit on Tuesday, marking another productive day, as he delivered a graduation speech at the New Economic School, met with members of Russian non-profit groups, and spent time with political opposition leaders, like chess champion Garry Kasparov. The president has now retired for the night, USA Today reports, and when he wakes early tomorrow morning, he'll head to the G8 summit in Italy—and the Russia visit will head into the history books. And it's likely to be a positive account: his visit—during which he accomplished a reduction in nuclear arms stockpiles and a compromise on Afghanistan--has received largely positive reviews.
When media moguls convene at Allen & Co.'s kickoff event in Sun Valley, Idaho, they'll be joined by an unlikely guest: LeBron James. The basketball giant is attending the conference to "listen and to learn" for ways to expand his marketing company, LRMR Marketing. James will also be rubbing elbows with Cablevision CEO James Dolan, who is thought to be pursuing James for the New York Knicks. But another important New Yorker will be absent: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a regular guest at the event.
Has Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had other things on his mind, perhaps? American officials have seized the lead in organizing Wednesday's G-8 summit, which is taking place in the Italian town of L'Aquila. The Italians are so ill-prepared for the event that some countries in the Group of Eight would like to Italy's membership revoked, senior western officials are telling The Guardian. "The G-8 is a club, and clubs have membership dues. Italy has not been paying them," one official said. Media attention in the run-up to the conference has been focused on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's partying. Some would like to see Spain replace Italy in the club, but any removal is unlikely.
Something to look out for: Rita Wilson is developing a series for HBO based on Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2003. It’s a coming-of-age tale about an intersex girl named Calliope Stephanides, who later becomes Cal. Wilson will produce the series with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies.
Seven U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Monday, marking the highest single-day death toll there in months. The deaths reflect the recent American offensive—its largest assault since 2001—and show that the Taliban has ramped up resistance as a result. Four servicemen were killed in the once-peaceful northern region when a single roadside bomb hit their vehicle. The other deaths were likely caused by a suicide bomber in the South, and one by open fighting in the east.
Residents along the border of North and South Carolina may now be able to rest easy: Police have confirmed that a burglar killed during a break-in is suspected to be the serial killer wanted for the string of five shooting deaths in South Carolina over the last 10 days. At 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, police officers in Gastonia, North Carolina shot and killed an alleged burglar after receiving a call from a neighbor who saw the man enter a vacant house. Police officers arrived at the scene and entered the building after knocking several times. A police officer was shot in the leg during the incident, but was treated and released from the hospital. The killer's name has not yet been released. The terrifying South Carolina killing spree began on June 27, and claimed the lives of a peach farmer, an elderly woman and her daughter, and a father and his 15-year-old daughter.
The death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair might be getting less mysterious: Police announced today that the gun found beneath the body of Sahel Kazemi was bought by the 20-year-old two days prior to the incident. Kazemi was found fatally shot on Saturday afternoon along with the former MVP. Although McNair's death has been ruled a homicide, police have yet to classify Kazemi's death, and are awaiting the results of forensic tests. The married father of four had supposedly been dating Kazemi—whose ex-boyfriend was recently questioned, but is not currently a suspect—for several months, and even had a Cadillac Escalade registered in both their names. The pistol was purchased just hours after Kazemi had been pulled over in the Escalade and charged with driving under the influence. McNair, who had been with her at the time, was allowed to leave the scene in a taxi.
"Now is the time for healing." That's how the South Carolina Republican Party chairman described the aftermath of his party's decision to censure their governor, Mark Sanford, who left the state on a secret rendezvous with his Argentine lover two weeks ago. The vote has no bearing on Sanford's ability to remain in office. 22 members of the party's executive committee voted to reprimand Sanford; 10 called for his resignation; nine voted to support him.
He may have lacked a nifty button, but President Obama tried to reset relations with Russia on Tuesday as he does best: with a speech. "Progress must be shared,” Obama said in Moscow, adding “America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia” and the countries are not “destined to be antagonists.” The speech was sprinkled with his trademarks—“by no means is America perfect,” he said at one point, and he mentioned his own unique background. Still, did Russians pay attention? It was not broadcast on any of the main Russian television channels or radio stations. Earlier in the day, Obama had a two-hour private breakfast with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Is the White House about to throw its endorsement of a public plan as part of health-care reform under the bus? White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel tells The Wall Street Journal that it’s more important for health-care legislation to create competition in the private market than it is to create a public option. "The goal is to have a means and a mechanism to keep the private insurers honest," Emanuel said. "The goal is non-negotiable; the path is [negotiable]." The White House will announce on Wednesday an agreement with hospitals for $155 billion in reductions in Medicare and charity payments.
Michael Jackson is ready to grace the stage for the final time: The King of Pop’s casket arrived at the Staples Center for his public memorial. Awaiting him were some 20,000 fans and celebrities like Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Kobe Bryant, and Jennifer Hudson. “Jackson's gold-plated casket, draped in crimson flowers, was placed in a the hearse by pallbearers in dark suits and gold neckties,” according to the Associated Press. When the Jackson family entered the building earlier today, 20 helicopters circled overhead. The logistical nightmare that some feared seems to have been avoided.
The Washington Post's executive editor admitted Monday that the idea of selling access to reporters and sources was wrong—not just the marketing materials for the salon series. "We should be in the business of shining bright lights on dark corners, not creating the dark corners," Marcus Brauchli told journalists at the paper. In an effort to rebuke wide criticism of the plan—which entailed the Post hosting an off-the-record dinner series where private donors would shell out up to $25,000—the paper is now conducting an internal review of its approval process for such events.
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