NEW YORK, April 15 (UPI) — The late pop star Michael Jackson‘s 15-year-old daughter, Paris, says she would like to be a heart surgeon when she grows up, the New York Post reported.
From: http://pheed.upi.com/click.phdo?i=d7d3398d829d3ae84026ab2cdb4e7d86
Filed under: Federal Reserve, World Leaders, Tax Cuts
By ADAM GELLER
Believers hailed its reduced tax rates and deregulation as springboards for economic miracles under the leadership of President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Critics dismissed the very same ideas as so much trickle-down hocus-pocus and voodoo.
It’s been most of three decades since debate over “supply-side” economic policies was at the center of U.S. politics. But for the moment, talk of conservative economic ideas that were as central to the story of the 1980s as Michael Jackson‘s moonwalk and the first MacIntosh personal computer is back. Why? A pair of its leading proponents have returned to the headlines.
Memories of economic days gone by were rekindled last week when David Stockman, Reagan’s budget director, unleashed a scathing attack on years of decision-making by U.S. leaders, including his former boss. It continued this week, when Thatcher’s death on Monday prompted recollections — some fond, others not so much — of how the Iron Lady imposed her will on a long-stagnant British economy.
‘Time Machine’
The confluence of events got economists waxing about what the past means for today, although there’s disagreement on how much supply-side’s ideas have been abandoned in the U.S. or are just awaiting their moment of return. In the meantime, there was Arthur Laffer, the U.S. economist often called the father of supply-side, back on television three times Monday, recalling a warm friendship with Thatcher that highlighted a time when prevailing wisdom on taxes, deficits, and the roles of government and individuals was very different.
“We’re back in the time machine,” said Yoram Bauman, a Seattle economist who makes a living doing stand-up comedy about the dismal science — and who has long opened with a joke or two about supply-side to test the depth and endurance of his audience’s knowledge.
Supply-side economists argued that reducing taxes through lower rates would encourage work, saving and investment. Early supply-side theory promised that the reduced tax rates could pay for themselves by raising tax revenues. Under Reagan, the government lowered tax rates and reduced government regulation as the Federal Reserve worked to rein in inflation. The administration’s focus on lowering tax rates for the wealthy, labeled “trickle-down economics,” reflected the belief that these gains would encourage the rich to spend and invest more to create jobs for others.
Now that theory — and Bauman’s comic material, for that matter — may have found its moment, but it’s not clear how long it will last.
‘Destruction of Fiscal Rectitude’
It began last week when Stockman wrote a lengthy opinion piece in The New York Times, followed by interviews, to …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Man shopping Michael Jackson medical records...
(First column, 14th story, link)
Source: Drudge Report
By The Huffington Post News Editors
LOS ANGELES — Jury selection has begun in a lawsuit that Michael Jackson‘s mother has filed against the promoter of his planned comeback concerts.
Potential jurors began filling out questionnaires on Tuesday in advance of the trial, which may last up to three months.
600 ? 600 : true);” href=”http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9121347/texas-tech-red-raiders-hire-tubby-smith-head-coach” width=”200px” border=”0px” href=”http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9121347/texas-tech-red-raiders-hire-tubby-smith-head-coach”3″ color=”black”>Michael Jackson‘s wrongful death trial to begin…
(First column, 6th story, link)
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Alamy
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL
By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By The Huffington Post News Editors
Happy 80th birthday to music icon Quincy Jones!
Jones, whose friends call him “Q,” first fell in love with music when he was in elementary school and started playing the trumpet. As a teen he befriended the then-young pianist Ray Charles, and embarked on a path that “saved his life” and made him one of the world’s greatest musicians to date.
Jones has won more Grammy Awards than any other artist in history (he was nominated for 79 and won 27). He scored a myriad of films and TV themes, released dozens and dozens of records, founded Vibe magazine, and worked with Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin and Amy Winehouse, among others.
Filed under: Coca-Cola Company, Pepsico, Consumer Goods, Food & Beverage, Scandals and Lawsuits
By CANDICE CHOI
NEW YORK — It wasn’t too long ago that America had a love affair with soda. Now, an old flame has the country’s heart. As New York City grapples with the legality of a ban on the sale of large cups of soda and other sugary drinks at some businesses, one thing is clear: soda’s run as the nation’s beverage of choice has fizzled.
In its place? A favorite for much of history: Plain old H2O. For more than two decades, soda was the No. 1 drink in the U.S. with per capita consumption peaking in 1998 at 54 gallons a year, according industry tracker Beverage Digest. Americans drank just 42 gallons a year of water at the time.
But over the years, as soda increasingly came under fire for fueling the nation’s rising obesity rates, water quietly rose to knock it off the top spot. Americans now drink an average of 44 gallons of soda a year, a 17 percent drop from the peak in 1998. Over the same time, the average amount of water people drink has increased 38 percent to about 58 gallons a year. Bottled water has led that growth, with consumption nearly doubling to 21 gallons a year.
Stephen Ngo, a civil defense attorney, quit drinking soda a year ago when he started running triathlons, and wanted a healthier way to quench his thirst. Ngo, 34, has a Brita filter for tap water and also keeps his pantry stocked with cases of bottled water. “It might just be the placebo effect or marketing, but it tastes crisper,” said Ngo, who lives in Miami.
The trend reflects Americans’ ever-changing tastes; it wasn’t too far back in history that tap water was the top drink. But in the 1980s, carbonated soft drinks overtook tap as the most popular drink, with Coca-Cola (KO) and PepsiCo (PEP) putting their marketing muscle behind their colas with celebrity endorsements from the likes of pop star Michael Jackson and comedian Bill Cosby.
Americans kept drinking more of the carbonated, sugary drink for about a decade. Then, soda’s magic started to fade: Everyone from doctors to health advocates to government officials were blaming soft drinks for making people fat. Consumption started declining after hitting a high in the late 1990s.
At the same time, people started turning to bottled water as an alternative. Its popularity was helped by the emergence of single-serve bottles that were easy to carry around. Until then, bottled water had mainly been sold in “big jugs and coolers” for people who didn’t trust their water …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
AP
…read more
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By The Huffington Post News Editors
LOS ANGELES — A judge says she is inclined to allow a lawsuit by Michael Jackson‘s mother against a concert promoter she claims is responsible for her son’s death to go to trial on a single claim.
Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos issued a tentative ruling Monday stating that a jury should decide whether concert giant AEG negligently hired the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the singer’s 2009 death.
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More on Pop Culture
LAS VEGAS, Feb. 22 (UPI) — Cirque du Soleil’s new show “Michael Jackson One” is to begin its residency at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas this May, producers said.
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19 (UPI) — Prince Michael Jackson, the 16-year-old son of late U.S. pop music icon Michael Jackson, is working as a special correspondent for TV’s “Entertainment Tonight.”
CHICAGO — The prospect of prison looms over former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife after they agreed to plead guilty to charges in an alleged scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items — including furs, a gold watch, a football signed by U.S. presidents and even a hat once owned by Michael Jackson.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much time either Jackson could end up doing when the legal drama inevitably reaches its climax before a federal sentencing judge within a few months. But judges frown on brazen breaches of public trust, said one former federal prosecutor, and that may mean the former Chicago congressman will likely to have to serve at least a few years behind bars.
“It shows hubris and arrogance that a politician sees his campaign coffers as his to spend as likes,” said Jeff Cramer, who as an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago worked on multiple corruption cases. “With these kinds of charges, I cannot imagine him not going to prison … for 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 years.”
He thought Sandi Jackson, at most, would spend several months in prison.
Prosecutors are reluctant to ask judges to send couples with school-age children, like the Jacksons, to prison for long terms at simultaneously — so it’s possible, Cramer said, that the government will seek to stagger their sentences in such a way that the Jacksons aren’t behind bars at the same time.
Read more at Official Wire. By Michael Tarm.
It was a pretty radical idea at the time. A television channel showing all music videos all the time? Michael Jackson, Fatboy Slim, Journey, Queen, Jamiroquai, Madonna, and the Beastie Boys, twenty-four seven? No one thought it would work, but it did, big time. They did want their MTV. I thought about this last night as I watched the Grammy Awards and the newest line-up of musical talent, from fun. to Mumford & Sons, from Nas to Frank Ocean. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Kate Seamons 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Great Finds
By Michele Catalano, Contributor Before Beyoncé there were others; Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
The process finding a jury untainted by international news coverage of a prostitution scandal got under way in fits and starts Tuesday in the trial of the business partner of a Zumba instructor accused of using her dance studio as a front for prostitution.
More than 140 potential jurors were called into the courtroom Tuesday before being dismissed to fill out questionnaires in the trial of Mark Strong Sr., who faces 59 misdemeanor counts including conspiring with Zumba instructor Alexis Wright.
Defense lawyer Dan Lilley said most of the questioning of potential jurors would be done privately in judge’s chambers.
“This is a long and laborious process, most of which is not public,” he said.
Lawyers said it could take a couple of days to select a jury. A judge previously rejected a defense motion to move the trial because of pre-trial publicity.
Justice Nancy Mills will be hard-pressed to find jurors who know nothing about the case.
Celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, whose clients have included Chris Brown, Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson, said cases like this one cause problems for judges.
“These are what I affectionately call ‘supersized trials,’ trials that for whatever reason end up gaining momentum that’s far beyond what the case justified,” Geragos said from Los Angeles.
Both Strong and Wright have pleaded not guilty.
Strong, 57, has said he helped Wright launch her Pura Vida dance-fitness studio in Kennebunk by co-signing for her lease and loaning money that was repaid with interest.
He acknowledged having a physical relationship with Wright but said he never paid her for sex. He denied engaging in any criminal conduct.
Police said Wright videotaped many of her encounters without her clients’ knowledge and kept meticulous records suggesting the sex acts generated $150,000 over 18 months. A lawyer who has seen the client list says it totals more than 150. So far, more than 60 people have been charged or pleaded guilty. Some of them will be called to testify.
Wright, who lives in nearby Wells, will be tried at a later date. She faces 106 counts including prostitution and invasion of privacy for acts allegedly performed in her studio and in a rented office across the street.
In Kennebunk, people became accustomed to news crews and satellite trucks after indictments were handed up in October. At first, locals were baffled and bemused by the news coverage. Eventually, many of them became irate.
Michael Reed takes the view of many Kennebunk residents — that Strong, Wright and the vast majority of accused johns are outsiders whose actions shouldn’t reflect negatively on the community, known for its beaches, captain’s houses and, across the river in Kennebunkport, the Walker’s Point compound of former President George H.W. Bush.
“Maybe it’s blown out of proportion a little bit. My personal opinion is that I don’t care,” said Reed, who suggested many other residents had lost interest in the case.
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Follow David Sharp on Twitter at http://twitter.com/David_Sharp_AP.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Judy Begehr, AdVoice Much like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and other newsmakers before him, Lance Armstrong opted to tell his story to Oprah Winfrey. The interview averaged 3.2 million total viewers in its premiere telecast and achieved new heights for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). In the wake of Armstrong’s tell-all, there are three crystallized marketing insights that we can all learn from:
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
