Sunday, January 31, 2016
Pope's Philadelphia Fiat sells at auction for $82K
PHILADELPHIA --
The popemobile is staying in Philadelphia.The black Fiat 500L, one of two used by Pope Francis during his trip to the city in September for the World Meeting of Families, sold at auction on Friday night.
Michael and Kate Chapman, owners of Chapman Auto Group, secured the winning bid of $82,000 at a black-tie event kicking off the weekend's Philadelphia Auto Show.
The Chapmans own seven Philadelphia area showrooms.
The auction started at 9 p.m. and lasted for only 11 minutes. Kenneth Gavin, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said more than 19 bidders from around the country participated.
"We are so heartened by the fact that this extraordinary gift will go on to enrich the lives of so many individuals," said Donna Crilley Farrell, executive director of the World Meeting of Families.
Chapman will put the car on display at his dealership in Horsham, he told Philly.com.
The second Fiat that Francis used in Philadelphia will remain on display at the auto show running until Feb. 7.
The Archdiocese said all auction proceeds will benefit charities and the archdiocese's special education schools.
Max Spann Real Estate & Auction Company conducted the auction.
American Soldiers VS Iraqi soldiers DANCE OFF at the border !! Wait for 00:19 hahaha
American Soldiers VS Iraqi soldiers - Media won,t show thisAmerican Soldiers VS Iraqi soldiers DANCE OFF at the border !! Wait for 00:19 hahaha
Posted by To The Culture on Monday, January 25, 2016
This device can bring dead hearts back to life.
Heart in a BoxThis device can bring dead hearts back to life.
Posted by Hashem Al-Ghaili on Saturday, January 30, 2016
January 31, 2016 – NATIONAL INSPIRE YOUR HEART WITH ART DAY – NATIONAL BACKWARD DAY
INSPIRE YOUR HEART WITH ART DAY
Always observed on January 31st, Inspire Your Heart With Art Day is a day to ponder how art effects your heart. Art is valued and appreciated for all sorts of reasons.Of the broad spectrum of art created in the world, the pieces that move us to tears or cause us to burst out in joyous laughter remain with us for a life time. Whether we are touched through music or see into an artist soul through their work, art has the power to change us, to inspire our hearts.
Inspire Your Heart with Art Day encourages us to explore the many genres of art and let it inspire us.
HOW TO CELEBRATE
- Visit an art gallery.
- Read a good book.
- Listen to music.
- Attend a ballet performance
- Start your masterpiece.
- Teach someone how to play an instrument.
- Attend an art lecture.
- Explore a new technique.
- See an inspirational film.
- Share your art with others.
HISTORY
Within our research, we were unable to identify the creator of National Inspire Your Heart with Art Day.
National Backward Day – January 31
NATIONAL BACKWARD DAY
HISTORYWithin our research we were unable to identify the creator of National Backward Day.
HOW TO OBSERVE
Do things backwards and use #NationalBackwardDay to post on social media.
.day good a is This
January 31st honors everything backward. National Backward Day is an opportunity to reverse our ways, our direction or simply our shirt. Dessert for breakfast, perhaps? There are many ways to celebrate this fun day, so just let your imagination be your guide.
This day is very popular with school aged kids but there is no age limit on who can participate in all of the backward fun. So EVERYONE, let’s have some fun!!
FUN FACT: Leonardo da Vinci wrote backward. Not only did the artist and inventor write from right to left, he wrote his letters backward.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Curiosity rover takes super cool selfie on Mars
HOUSTON --
Even NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is into selfies.The space agency released a photo combining 57 images taken on Jan. 19 at Namib Dune, where the rover is scooping sand for lab analysis. The photo was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at the end of the rover's robotic arm.
"The view does not include the rover's arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic," NASA explained in a statement.
NASA says the Namib Dune is part of the dark-sand "Bagnold Dune Field" along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. Scientists believe these dunes move as much as about 3 feet per Earth year.
Here are the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Award winners
FILM CATEGORIES
Cast in a Motion PictureBeasts of No Nation
The Big Short
Spotlight - winner
Straight Outta Compton
Trumbo
Male Actor in a Leading Role
Bryan Cranston in Trumbo
Johnny Depp in Black Mass
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant - winner
Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl
Female Actor in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett in Carol
Brie Larson in Room - winner
Helen Mirren in Woman in Gold
Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn
Sarah Silverman in I Smile Back
Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in The Big Short
Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation - winner
Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies
Michael Shannon in 99 Homes
Jacob Tremblay in Room
Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Rooney Mara in Carol
Rachel McAdams in Spotlight
Helen Mirren in Trumbo
Alicia Vikander in The Danish Girl - winner
Kate Winslet in Steve Jobs
Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
Everest
Furious 7
Jurassic World
Mad Max: Fury Road - winner
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
TELEVISION CATEGORIES
Ensemble in a Drama Series
Downton Abbey - winner
Game of Thrones
Homeland
House of Cards
Mad Men
Ensemble in a Comedy Series
Big Bang Theory
Key and Peele
Modern Family
Orange is the New Black - winner
Transparent
Veep
Male Actor in a Drama Series
Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones
Jon Hamm in Mad Men
Rami Malek in Mr. Robot
Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul
Kevin Spacey in House of Cards - winner
Female Actor in a Drama Series
Claire Danes in Homeland
Viola Davis in How to Get Away with Murder - winner
Julianna Margulies in The Good Wife
Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey
Robin Wright in House of Cards
Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Ty Burrell in Modern Family
Louis CK in Louie
William H. Macy in Shameless
Jim Parsons in The Big Bang Theory
Jeffrey Tambor in Transparent - winner
Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Uzo Aduba in Orange is the New Black - winner
Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie
Ellie Kemper in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Veep
Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation
Male Actor in a TV Movie/Miniseries
Idris Elba in Luther - winner
Ben Kingsley in Tut
Ray Liotta in Texas Rising
Bill Murray in A Very Murray Christmas
Mark Rylance in Wolf Hall
Female Actor in TV Movie/Miniseries
Nicole Kidman in Grace of Monaco
Queen Latifah in Bessie - winner
Christina Ricci in The Lizzie Borden Chronicles
Susan Sarandon in The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe
Kristen Wiig in The Spoils Before Dying
Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series
The Blacklist
Game of Thrones - winner
Homeland
Marvel's Daredevil
The Walking Dead
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Jimmy Page talks about the "gems" within his collection of Led Zeppelin recordings and memorabilia.
Jimmy Page Discusses Led Zeppelin Remastered Albums"I sort of kept everything really. I didn't sort of throw it away."Jimmy Page talks about the "gems" within his collection of Led Zeppelin recordings and memorabilia.
Posted by CBC News: The National on Friday, July 24, 2015
2 outstanding OC inmates taken into custody in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (KABC) --
The two remaining inmates who had escaped the Orange County Central Men's Jail on Jan. 22 were taken into custody in San Francisco, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Jonathan Tieu, 20, were arrested by the San Francisco Police Department, according to an OCSD tweet.
Bac Duong, 43, was the third inmate who had escaped with Nayeri and Tieu from the jail. He turned himself over to the Orange County Sheriff's Department Friday afternoon after flagging down a citizen.
Authorities believed Nayeri and Tieu were in the San Jose area and were heading to Fresno because of a family connection Nayeri had.
On Jan. 22, the trio escaped the jail in an elaborate escape plan that involved cutting through steel bars and plumbing tunnels and then rappelling down the building from the jail's roof. They had been accounted for around 5 a.m. that day and it wasn't until 16 hours later that authorities noticed their disappearance.
City Council seeks Pomona residents interested in serving on a City Commission. http://bit.ly/1lTzpDs
Service dog for Ontario boy with autism, cerebral palsy missing
ONTARIO, Calif. (KABC) --
A service dog belonging to an Ontario boy with autism and cerebral palsy has gone missing.The Australian Shepherd, named Buck, helps 12-year-old Zion with his behavioral problems and the family wants him back.
Buck jumped their fence almost a month ago and has not been seen since. The family has put up fliers, but said they keep getting torn down.
Zion's mother got another dog for her son, but said it isn't the same.
"He's not just a dog. He's the comfort of my son and he's like a son to me. He means a lot to us. I can't stand that my son is constantly hurting and asking for him day to day and I don't have a response for him," she said.
Buck is tri-colored with one brown eye and one green eye. He had a tag that said "assisted dog," along with another tag containing his owner's name and number.
Are you prepared for an emergency? The City of Ontario CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) is offering specialized training March 5, 12, and 19 from 9 AM to 6 PM at the Ontario Convention Center.
For more information or to sign-up, please call (909) 395-2545. To register online -> www.handsoninlandempire.or
#CERT #community #emergency #response
Friday, January 29, 2016
Vin Scully gets street named after him near Dodger Stadium
LOS ANGELES (KABC) --
It's a big honor for longtime Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. The L.A. City Council approved Friday to rename a street near Dodger Stadium after him.Elysian Park Avenue between Sunset Boulevard and Stadium Way will now be known as "Vin Scully Avenue."
In the past, Scully has said he would prefer that a street be renamed after Walter O'Malley, who brought the team to Los Angeles, or his son Peter.
Former Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda, former Dodger stars including Steve Garvey, Orel Hershiser, Maury Wills and Eric Karros, new Dodger manager Dave Roberts and 17 active players, including pitcher Clayton Kershaw and outfielder Yasiel Puig, attended the council meeting to support the motion, which was introduced by Councilman Gil Cedillo.
Thursday, Dodgers President Stan Kasten said there's no better way to recognize Scully than naming a street after him.
"We appreciate Gil Cedillo and city officials bringing this to the forefront, and we look forward to the day when everyone can drive on Vin Scully Avenue when they enter Dodger Stadium," Kasten said.
Scully has announced Dodger games since 1950, when the team played in Brooklyn. The Bronx native said in August that the 2016 season likely will be his last.
The 88-year-old has been an announcer longer than anyone else in sports history.
City News Service contributed to this report.
San Antonio is now open.
Officers are working on a fatal traffic collision on San Antonio between San Bernardino and Lincoln. The road will be closed while the investigation takes place. Please avoid this area during this closure. The area will be closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. - See more at: http://local.nixle.com/alert/5577209/#sthash.ea2aRqxN.dpuf
Escaped California Inmate in Police Custody
One of the three inmates who escaped a maximum-security California jail has been caught, the Orange County Sheriff's Department said Friday.
Bac Tien Duong, 43, was in police custody after telling residents in Santa Ana, Calif. that he wanted to turn himself in, according to the OCSD. Police are still searching for a white van and the other inmates, they said.
Duong allegedly stole the van over the weekend after going for a test drive, police said. The inmates were believed to be living in the van due to its large size, OCSD spokesman Lt. Jeff Hallock said in a press conference Friday morning.
Further details on Duong's capture were not immediately available.
Duong, along with 20-year-old Jonathan Tieu and 37-year-old Hossein Nayeri, was last seen Jan. 22 at 5 a.m. in a holding area, police said. The inmates' escape wasn't confirmed until 16 hours later, giving them a lengthy head start on authorities searching for them.
A jail teacher was arrested Thursday on charges of accessory to felony. Nooshafarin Ravaghi, 44, allegedly provided the inmates with a photo she printed from Google Earth that would have shown an image of the entire jail complex. Ravaghi denied providing the inmates with weapons or tools that would have helped them cut through their steel cell bars, police said.
Duong had been facing charges of attempted murder, while Tieu was charged with murder and Nayeri was charged with torture and kidnapping. All three inmates pleaded not guilty to the charges.
JULIA JACOBO
Fatal Traffic Collision
INCIDENT: FATAL TRAFFIC COLLISION DATE/TIME: Friday, January 29, 2016 @ 0825 hrs.
LOCATION: San Antonio Av @ McKinley Av UNIT: Traffic Services On January 29, 2016 at 0825 hrs., Pomona Police Officers responded to an injury traffic collision at San Antonio Av and McKinley Av involving an injury vehicle collision. Officers located a female unresponsive in a vehicle. The female was transported to an area hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. The other driver involved in the traffic collision remained at the location and was cooperating with the investigation. She was also transported to an area hospital for injuries. The collision is being investigated by the Pomona Police Department’s Major Accident Investigation Team. Anyone with information about this collision is encouraged to call the Pomona Police Department Traffic Services Bureau at 909-620-2081. Anyone with information that would aid in solving any crime is encouraged to contact the Pomona Police Department at 909-620-2085 If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call; at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477). Prepared by: Sergeant William Tucker Traffic Services Pomona Police Department 909-620-2081 - See more at: http://local.nixle.com/alert/5577137/#sthash.e1Z00ka9.dpuf
Where was the Pomona Historical Society at, when this was painted?
Really gets my goat, when people think, just because they have money. They can go and paint our historical landmarks. I caught this clown painting one of historical landmarks, and where was the historical society at. Like I said before, the only time they show up, is when they want to make a buck. You never see them walking around downtown and checking out our buildings or fountains to see nobody's destroying them. By the way I was able to get it painted back to white. But it wasn't prep right, so in time, the white paint will peel off, and the gold will come back again.
And like I said before, it's time for new leadership, before we lose or they get destroyed.
Just like what happened to the Clark Brothers Garage.
Here is a picture of one of John Pena's workers taking down the letters of the old garage. Later I found out he sold them. Mickey Gallivan had a chance to get them back, but she didn't want them, what's up with that. And they ended up getting sold. And to top it if, he was going to be fined for doing this, but the Mayor Moochie, who by the way is good friends with butcher of our history, refused to fine him. And we lost the letters to some buyer.
When will the members of the historical society wake up and smell the coffee, and get someone, that will protect our history from these fools.
If I hadn't showed up, nobody would of known what happened to them.
Every other day, I go by and check out the historic buildings to make sure nobody's painting or damaging our historic buildings or fountains, and where is Mickey at?.
She has her hand out, asking for money for a tour of downtown, that's the only time you will see the historical society in downtown Pomona.
Sure they have to raise money for the society, but sometimes you just have to do things with no charge.
It's our history for us to enjoy, but how can we, when we have to reach in our pockets to do so.
And one more thing, the Spanish community here in Pomona, don't like dealing with her, but they have to, because they need information about the old buildings and homes here on the south side of Pomona. They want to work with her, but she's not making it easy for them.
So wake up and smell the coffee historical society, or we are going to lose more of our history, with this behind close doors dealings that's going on.
Jan 29, 2016 - 31, 2016
67th Annual O'Reilly Grand National Roadster Show
Location: Several Fairplex Expo HallsMore than 500 show vehicles will compete for awards inside Fairplex Expo Halls
Another 400-800 vehicles will join the event Saturday & Sunday for the 11th Annual Grand Daddy Drive-In
Friday noon-8 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Admission ages 13+ $25
Ages 6-12 $10
Free for ages 5 & younger
Parking is $10 at Gate 9 on White Ave.
Visit for more information
January 29, 2016 – NATIONAL PUZZLE DAY – NATIONAL CORN CHIP DAY
Exercise your problem brain with a puzzle. January 29th is National Puzzle Day.
Whether it’s a crossword, jigsaw, word searches, brain teasers or Soduku, puzzles put our brains to work.
Studies have found that when we work on a jigsaw puzzle, we use both sides of the brain, and spending time daily working on puzzles improves memory, cognitive function and problem solving skills.
Word searches and crossword puzzles have the obvious benefit of increasing vocabulary and language skills.
Sudoku, a puzzle sequencing a set of numbers on a grid, exercises the brain as well. By testing memory and logical thinking, this puzzle stimulates the brain and can improve number skills.
The bottom line is, puzzles stimulate the brain, keeping it active and practicing its skills.
HOW TO OBSERVE
Spend time putting together a jigsaw puzzle with a friend, or grab a cup of coffee and complete a Sudoku or crossword puzzle. Use #NationalPuzzleDay to post on social media.
HISTORY
Started in 2002 by Jodi Jill, National Puzzle Day was created as away to share her enjoyment of puzzles. As a syndicated newspaper puzzle maker and professional quiz maker, Jodi Jill developed classroom lesson plans especially for National Puzzle Day and the popularity has grown year after year.
National Corn Chip Day – January 29
NATIONAL CORN CHIP DAY
January 29th is a great day to enjoy a corn chip topped with salsa or a little cheese. It is National Corn Chip Day.The corn chip or friotes are not to be confused with the tortilla chip. Both are made from cornmeal which is baked or fried in oil.
Differing steps for processing the corn separates the tortilla from the corn chip. The corn for a tortilla chip is soaked in a lime-water solution that breaks down the hulls. This creates a crisper, milder chip. A corn chip is sturdier with a richer corn flavor. Both were popular snacks originating in Mexico.
There are two men credited with patenting and marketing the corn chip in the United States. First, Isador J. Filler often ate a tostada (a hard corn tortilla with toppings) while traveling in San Antonio, Texas as a salesman. He struck on the idea of making them in rectangles and marketing them as a chip. In 1932 he patented his idea.
Around the same time, Elmer Doolin was also traveling in San Antino and was enjoying friotes. According to the story, he paid $100 for the recipe. Experimenting in his home until he created the perfect chip, he then started selling them from the back of his Model T Ford. When he began mass producing them under the name of Frito Corn Chips, they were a hit.
In 1945 Doolin came to an agreement for Herman Lay (of potato chip fame) to distribute Doolin’s Fritos across the country. The two companies merged in 1959 after Doolin’s death.
Enjoy some corn chips and use #NationalCornChipDay to post on social media.
HISTORY
Within our research we have been unable to identify the creator of National Corn Chip Day.
GOOD PEOPLE DO EXIST!
GOOD PEOPLE DO EXIST!Just remember, there are good people out there! whatever
Posted by whatever on Monday, September 14, 2015
Jefferson Airplane co-founder and Jefferson Starship leader Paul Kantner dies at age 74
SAN FRANCISCO --
Paul Kantner, an original member of the 1960s rock group Jefferson Airplane who stayed with the San Francisco-based band through its transformation from hippies to hit makers as the eventual leader of successor group Jefferson Starship, has died at age 74.Kantner, who drew upon his passion for politics and science fiction to help write seminal favorites such as "Wooden Ships" and "Volunteers," died on Thursday of organ failure and septic shock at a San Francisco hospital where he was admitted after falling ill earlier in the week, his former girlfriend and publicist Cynthia Bowman, the mother of one of his three children, told The Associated Press.
The guitarist and songwriter had survived close brushes with death as a younger man, including a motorcycle accident during the early 1960s and a 1980 cerebral hemorrhage, and gone on to recover from a heart attack last year. His death first was reported Thursday by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Few bands were so identified with San Francisco or so well-embodied the idealism and hedonism of the late '60s as Jefferson Airplane, its message boldly stated on buttons and bumper stickers that read "THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE LOVES YOU."
The band advocated sex, psychedelic drugs, rebellion and a communal lifestyle, operating out of an eccentric, Colonial Revival house near Haight-Ashbury. Its members supported various political and social causes, tossed out LSD at concerts and played at both the Monterey and Woodstock festivals.
Formed by veterans of the folk circuit in the mid-'60s, the Airplane combined folk, rock, blues and jazz and was the first group from a Bay Area scene that also featured Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead to achieve mainstream success, thanks to the classics "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit."
Besides Kantner, who played rhythm guitar and added backing vocals, the Airplane's best-known lineup included singers Grace Slick and Marty Balin; lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen; bassist Jack Casady; and drummer Spencer Dryden.
Jefferson Airplane, named in part after blues artist Blind Lemon Jefferson, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and is scheduled to receive the Recording Academy's lifetime achievement award this year.
Kantner, who looked as much like a college student as a rock star with his glasses and shaggy blonde hair, did not have the vocal or stage presence of Balin and Slick, or the instrumental power of Kaukonen or Casady.
But he became the conscience of the band and by the end of the '60s was shaping its increasingly radical direction, whether co-writing the militant "Volunteers" with Balin or inserting a profane taunt into his own incendiary "We Can Be Together," leading to an extended fight with their record company, RCA.
Meanwhile, Kantner and Slick became one of rock's most prominent couples. Rolling Stone would note their contrasting styles, labeling Slick "the Acid Queen of outrageousness" and Kantner her "calm, dry, sardonic flip side." In 1971, Slick gave birth to their daughter, whom the couple originally wanted to call God, but decided to name China. (China Kantner became an actress and MTV VJ.)
Slick and Kantner broke up in the late 1970s and Kantner had a son, Alexander, with Bowman, and another son, Gareth.
Kantner was the Airplane's only native San Franciscan and its most political and experimental thinker. He had been a science fiction reader since childhood and with friends David Crosby and Jerry Garcia among others recorded a 1970 concept album about space travel, "Blows Against the Empire," credited to Kantner and "Jefferson Starship."
Kantner, Crosby and Stephen Stills would collaborate on the escapist, post-apocalypse fantasy "Wooden Ships," a rock standard which Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills and Nash each recorded and performed at Woodstock.
With perfect timing for a '60s band, the Airplane began splitting apart at the end of decade. Kaukonen and Casady formed the blues group Hot Tuna, and Balin, the band's estranged original leader, also left.
In 1974, Kantner and Slick brought in new musicians and renamed the group Jefferson Starship. Their sound softened and, with Balin back, they had hit singles with "Miracles" and "Count On Me" among others and a No. 1 album, "Red Octopus."
But by the mid-1980s, when Slick and Mickey Thomas were lead vocalists, Kantner found the music so "mundane" that he left the Jefferson Starship and successfully forced the remaining members not to use the name "Jefferson." (His former bandmates called themselves "Starship" and had three No. 1 songs, including "Sara" and "We Built This City").
Over the past 30 years, Kantner, Balin and Casady occasionally performed as the KBC Band and a reunited Airplane briefly toured and recorded. Kantner made a handful of solo and Jefferson Starships albums and used various musicians in the studio and on the road, including daughter China on vocals and son Alexander on bass.
Kantner was born in 1941, the musical and nonconforming son of a traveling salesman. He dropped out of college to pursue a career in folk music and became friendly with Crosby and future Starship member David Freiberg, spending days and nights on the beach, strumming guitars and indulging in Crosby's premium stash of marijuana.
Soon after the release of the Airplane's first album, "The Jefferson Airplane Takes Off," the group underwent a fateful change: Vocalist Signe Toly Anderson left to have a baby in the fall of 1966 and was replaced by Slick, who had been a member of the Bay Area group The Great Society.
Slick brought a fiery, charismatic style and, just as important, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit," anthems for 1967's "Summer of Love" and highlights of the Airplane's landmark psychedelic album "Surrealistic Pillow." Kantner, who spent much of his life in his native city, would look back years later and remember a golden age of art, free love and joyous possibility.
He joked that San Francisco was a privileged haven, "49 square miles surrounded by reality."
He believed deeply in the '60s dream, often citing an anecdote that for a few days in 1966 the stars were so aligned that you could expect any wish to be granted. "Which, needless to say, it was," he liked to add.
Donald Trump boycotts Fox News debate, holds own event
DES MOINES, Iowa --
As his rivals made their final case to voters ahead of Iowa's kickoff caucuses, Donald Trump was headlining a show of his own.Just three miles from the site of the final GOP presidential debate before voting begins, Republican front-runner Donald Trump held what amounted to a cross between his typical rally and a fundraising telethon to benefit veterans.
Between his usual talking points on issues like the country's trade imbalance and media camera angles, Trump read out the names of wealthy friends who'd pledged major contributions to veterans' causes.
Later he announced the event had just cracked raising $6 million. When he announced he'd pledged $1 million himself, the crowd erupted into cheers.
It was the latest example of how Trump, a billionaire businessman and former reality television star, has completely rewritten the rules of campaigning, turning typical protocol on its head. Trump decided to boycott the debate due to a feud with debate host Fox News over and organized a competing event instead.
Trump opened by telling the students and veterans packed into a 775-seat auditorium at Drake University that he would have preferred to be at the debate, but felt he had little choice.
"You have to stick up for your rights. When you're treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights," he said.
In an interview with several reporters aboard his plane at the Des Moines airport before the event, Trump said that he'd been in touch with Fox throughout the day.
"The time to change my mind was two days ago," he said. "It's too late. When you look at the lines, what am I going to do? Tell thousands of people that, by the way folks, I'm going to go do the debate? I think it wouldn't look bad."
Fox News Channel issued a statement saying Trump had offered to appear at the debate upon the condition that Fox contribute $5 million to his charities, which the network said was not possible.
Trump's campaign responded with a counter-statement saying that, if "FOX wanted to join in that effort and make a contribution Mr. Trump would have welcomed that."
Trump's decision posed potential risks with just days to go before Iowa's caucuses. While recent polls show him pulling ahead in the state, he remains locked in a close race with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Iowa. And his decision was seen by some voters and local party leaders as a slight to those still making up their minds.
But Trump said he wasn't concerned. While some might take issue, he said: "You're going to have a lot of voters that like that were didn't get pushed around."
About halfway through the event, Trump yielded the stage for Staff Sgt. John Wayne Walding, an Afghanistan war veteran who lost his leg to sniper fire, to speak powerfully about his experience overseas and about coping with the aftermath of war at home.
Trump was later presented with a ring from a veterans group representing the number of veterans who commit suicide after returning home.
Trump was joined at his event by two of his rivals - Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum - who briefly spoke. Huckabee praised Trump for bringing them together, saying the three may be competing against each other, "but tonight we are colleagues in unison" for the cause.
Santorum spoke standing slightly to the side of Trump's podium, joking he didn't want his picture taken with the Trump campaign sign.
But in many ways the event was typical Trump. Moments after saying he would skip his usual campaign mainstay of reading off his poll numbers, Trump pivoted to a summary, bragging about his "amazing polls" and leading "by substantial margins in Iowa and every single state."
Later, as he introduced Walding, Trump offered the following: "He should be much more famous than me, 'cause he's a lot much more courageous than I am."
"I'm financially courageous," Trump added, but not so good at the other stuff.
Trump's campaign did not disclose on Thursday which groups would receive money raised from the event, but representatives had spent the day reaching out to various groups, in some cases inquiring about their programs and finances.
Among those contacted were the Green Beret Foundation, which provides care to veterans, and Fisher House, which provides free or low cost housing to veterans and military families receiving treatment at military medical centers.
Trump launched a website earlier Thursday to collect donations. Contributions collected there were funneled to The Donald J. Trump Foundation, Trump's nonprofit charitable organization. The page says: "100 percent of your donations will go directly to Veterans needs."
As for the debate, Trump predicted it would have far fewer viewers without him on the stage.
And his event offered some similar trappings. Reporters covering his event were ushered to a filing room with five long rows of tables, where they watched via closed circuit television.
When it ended, Huckabee sauntered into the filing room to answer reporters' questions, giving it the distinct feel of the post-debate spin room just down the road.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Thieves steal $11K in clothes and jewelry from Victorville Galleria, deputies say
VICTORVILLE, Calif. (KABC) --
Detectives are searching for four suspects they said stole more than $11,000 worth of clothing and jewelry from the Victorville Galleria.The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said the four suspects targeted multiple businesses inside the mall on Oct. 8, 2015.
The suspects stole shoes, T-shirts, jackets, jeans, hats, rings, necklaces and watches, according to investigators.
If you can help officials identify the suspects, you are urged to call the We-Tip Hotline at 1-800-782-7436. Tipsters can remain anonymous.
The suspects stole shoes, T-shirts, jackets, jeans, hats, rings, necklaces and watches, according to investigators.
If you can help officials identify the suspects, you are urged to call the We-Tip Hotline at 1-800-782-7436. Tipsters can remain anonymous.
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