Facebook photo of duct-taped kids prompts couple's arrest

A northern Arizona couple have been arrested on suspicion of child abuse after allegedly posting pictures on Facebook of their children bound with duct tape, KPNX reports.

The Coconino County Sheriff's Office says the 2-year-old and 10-month-old children were bound around their wrists and ankles and had their mouths closed with tape.

The sheriff's office says one child was hung upside down on an exercise machine, the Phoenix TV station reports.

KSAZ TV reports that Frankie and Kayla Almuina were arrested at their home in Williams, Ariz., after an anonymous tipster saw the photos on the mother's Facebook page and called the Arizona Child Abuse Hotline.

"They did indicate that they were simply joking, however it is apparent through the photographs that this was not a joke. The photos depicted the children's faces in sheer terror," Commander Rex Gilliland of the sheriff's office tells KSZA. "Clearly you can't tape another person's hands and mouth shut. Especially small children. It is clearly child abuse and they were charged appropriately."

The children were placed in the custody of relatives while the investigation continues, KSAZ reports.

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List of Sears, Kmart stores closing

2 p.m. update: An 80th store has been added to the closing list, this one in Indiana:

Kmart, 6050 US Hwy 6 Portage IN 46368

Original post: Sears Holdings released a list of 79 of the 100-120 Sears and Kmart stores to be shut. Each store, according to Sears Holdings, employs 40 to 80 people. Here is a list with the type and address of the stores closing. Closing dates "to be determined."

Sears Hardlines Only, 1916 19th Ave Lewiston ID 83501
Sears Hardlines Only, Us Hwy 25e - Ste B2 Middlesboro KY 40965
Grand/Essentials, 5451 Halls Mill Rd Ste 14 Mobile - Halls Mill AL 36619
Grand/Essentials, 101 E Interntn'l Speedway Deland FL 32724
Grand/Essentials, 12080 Carmel Mountain Rd San Diego - Carmel CA 92128
Grand/Essentials, 3020 Se Federal Hwy Stuart FL 34997
Grand/Essentials, 4560 Forest Hill Blvd W Palm Beach FL 33406
Grand/Essentials, 3610 Peck Rd El Monte CA 91732
Grand/Essentials, 7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd San Diego - Clarmnt CA 92111
Grand/Essentials, 375 Amherst St Bldg 1 Nashua NH 03063
Grand/Essentials, 480 West Street Keene NH 03431
Grand/Essentials, 1363 Nw St Lucie W Blvd Port St Lucie FL 34986
Grand/Essentials, 9200 Baltimore Nat Pike Ellicott City MD 21042
Grand/Essentials, 8375 E Grand River Brighton MI 48116
Grand/Essentials, 601 North M-291 Lee's Summit MO 64063
Grand/Essentials, 625 Highway 136 West Baraboo WI 53913
Sears Full-Line, 1400 Metrocenter Jackson MS 39209
Sears Full-Line,150 S 69th St Upper Darby PA 19082
Sears Full-Line, 18000 Vernier Ave Harper Woods MI 48225
Sears Full-Line, 15 Crestwood Plz St Louis-Crstwd MO 63126
Sears Full-Line, 5244 Hickory Hollow Pkwy Antioch TN 37013
Sears Full-Line, 3661 Eisenhower Pkwy Macon GA 31206
Sears Full-Line, 880 N Military Hwy Ste 1086 Norfolk VA 44221
Sears Full-Line, 921 Eastchester Dr Ste 1002 High Point NC 27262
Sears Full-Line, 2121 N Monroe St Space 300 Monroe MI 38671
Sears Full-Line, 1722 Veterans Blvd Mccomb MS 39648
Sears Full-Line, 1404 Old Aberdeen Rd Columbus MS 39705
Sears Full-Line, 2109 S Scatterfield Rd Anderson IN 46016
Sears Full-Line, 1357 S Main St Adrian MI 49221
Sears Full-Line, 5167 Hwy 70 Cypress Bay Plaza; Suite 90 Morehead City NC 28557
Sears Full-Line, 2727 Iowa St Lawrence KS 66046
Sears Full-Line, 1400 Nw Garden Valley Blvd #1 Roseburg OR 97470
Sears Full-Line, 200 Paul Huff Pkwy Nw Cleveland TN 37312
Sears Full-Line, 1057 Broad St Sumter SC 29150
Sears Full-Line, 363 S Illinois Ave Oak Ridge TN 37830
Sears Full-Line, 1250 S Hover Rd Longmont CO 80501
Sears Full-Line, 351 W Schuylkill Rd Pottstown PA 19465
Sears Full-Line, 1801 Nw Us Highway 19 Crystal River FL 34428
Sears Full-Line, 1631 W Rose St Ste 2 Walla Walla WA 99362
Sears Full-Line, 1100 N Wesleyan Blvd Rocky Mount NC 27804
Sears Full-Line, 1689 E Broad St Statesville NC 28677
Kmart, 17625 Chillicothe Rd Chagrin Falls OH 44023
Kmart, 951 By-Pass Rd Winchester KY 40391
Kmart, 2601 S Main St Rice Lake WI 54868
Kmart, 2960 Derr Road Springfield - N'land OH 45503
Kmart, 51027 Highway #6 Glenwood Springs CO 81601
Kmart, 1605 Buford Highway Buford GA 30518
Kmart, 101 Town & Country Lane Hazard KY 41701
Kmart, 1525 Sadler Road Fernandina Beach FL 32034
Kmart, 225 S Tyndall Pkwy Callaway FL 32404
Kmart, 66011 Van Dyke Washington Twp. MI 48095
Kmart, 9550 Wicker St. John IN 46373
Kmart, 1724 State Road 44 New Smyrna Beach FL 32069
Kmart, 1605 S First Street Willmar MN 56201
Kmart, 50700 Gratiot Ave North Chesterfield Twp. MI 48051
Kmart, 9552 Highway 5 Douglasville GA 30135
Kmart, 237 East Main Hendersonville TN 37075
Kmart, 5005 W 120th Broomfield CO 80020
Kmart, 1777 U S 1 South St. Augustine FL 32086
Kmart, 2047 E University Drive Auburn AL 36830
Kmart, 75 E Broad St Gadsden AL 35903
Kmart, 2727 16th Ave S W Cedar Rapids-16th Av IA 52404
Kmart, 2244 S Reynolds Rd Toledo - Reynolds Rd OH 43614
Kmart, 627-701 E Manhattan Blvd Toledo - Manhatn Blv OH 43608
Kmart, 7201 Pendleton Pike Indy - Pendlton Plza IN 46226
Kmart, 230 Cleveland Ave S W Atlanta GA 30315
Kmart, 1105 North Court Street Medina OH 44256
Kmart, 810 Saxon Blvd Orange City FL 32763
Kmart, 5600 Milgen Rd - Bldg 106 Columbs-Manch Sq GA 31907
Kmart, 7965 Tara Boulevard Jonesboro GA 30236
Kmart, 11003 Hull St Rd Midlothian VA 23113
Kmart, 3616 W Kimberly Rd Davenprt-Kimbrly Rd IA 52806
Kmart, 2421 N Federal Hwy Pompano Beach FL 33064
Kmart, 4141 Martin Way Lacey WA 98516
Kmart, 3100 Hamilton Rd Columbus - Hamltn Rd OH 43227
Kmart, 1734 Mall Dr Duluth - Mall Dr MN 55811
Kmart, 4300 Xylon N New Hope MN 55428
Kmart, 3201 White Bear Ave White Bear Lake MN 55110
Kmart, 6807 Midlothian Turnpike Richmond - Midloth VA 23225

Verizon Wireless backs off $2 payment fee

Verizon Wireless is backing off plans to charge customers for one-time payments made online or by phone with their credit cards.

In a statement released Friday, the wireless carrier cited customer feedback as the reason for canceling the fee.

"Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time," said Verizon President and CEO Dan Mead in a statement.

The announcement follows reports from outlets including the New York Times that the FCC planned on looking into the proposed fee.

"On behalf of American consumers, we're concerned about Verizon's actions and are looking into the matter," said the FCC statement obtained by the Times.

The "convenience fee," as Verizon calls it, would have taken effect Jan. 15. In their statement, Verizon said the fee was designed to make one-time payments more efficient.

Obama delays request for $1.2T debt limit hike

President Obama is delaying his request to increase the debt ceiling by another $1.2 trillion, but only temporarily.

"The administration is in discussions with leaders in both houses (of Congress) to determine the best timing for submission of certification and any subsequent votes in the two houses," White House spokesman Joshua Earnest said Friday.

Members of Congress had requested the delay so that lawmakers could register objections when they return to work next month.

Even if the Republican House or the Democratic Senate oppose the requested hike in the debt ceiling, Obama can veto the objection under an agreement reached with Congress in August.

From the Associated Press:

The White House had been ready to ask for the increase Friday because the government is within $100 billion of exhausting its current borrowing authority. Congress would then have 15 days to reject the request, though Obama would veto any objections in order to ensure that the government does not default on its obligations.

But with Congress not due to return to Washington until mid-January, lawmakers asked Obama to delay his request so they would be in session during the 15-day period allowed for objections. ...

A senior White House official said Obama will make his request within days. The Treasury Department will use accounting measures to ensure that the nation does not reach its debt limit before the $1.2 trillion increase is finalized, said the official, who requested anonymity because the person lacked authority to speak publicly.

The debt limit is the amount the government can borrow to finance its operations. It has soared because the government has run record deficits over the past decade. The borrowed money has helped pay for two wars, stimulate the nation's economy after the worst recession since the Great Depression and keep intact broad tax cuts initiated during the Bush administration.

Obama's request to increase the nation's borrowing authority would boost the debt limit to a record $16.4 trillion. The president and Congress agreed to raise it to that level in three steps as part of the August deal that was struck hours before a threatened government default.

Officials say the $1.2 trillion increase should be enough to allow the government to keep borrowing until the end of 2012, or just after the presidential election.

Congress agreed to raise the debt limit by $400 billion in August and by another $500 billion in September. House Republicans voted against the second increase, but failed to block it because the Senate approved it. The increases are scheduled to take effect unless both chambers vote against them.

Jim Carrey dating a College Student

Jim Carrey has stopped creepily mooning over Emma Stone long enough to fall for someone else. The New York Post has identified the blonde recently seen in the company of the 49-year-old funnyman as Manhattan-based student Anastasia Vitkina, the ex-girlfriend of one of his pals.

The age-contrasting pair are said to be "hot and heavy," and Vitkina seems to going the extra mile for the relationship (literally): She's been jetting back and forth to Los Angeles to spend time with Carrey.

In recent months, the star has been spied treating Anastasia to a "cozy dinner date" in New York (per Us), and to a Guns N' Roses concert in Los Angeles.

Carrey has been flying solo since calling it quits with Jenny McCarthy in April of 2010 after five years of funny-faced togetherness.

Michael Jordan engaged to model girlfriend

Michael Jordan is engaged to longtime girlfriend Yvette Prieto, a Cuban-American model he's been dating for three years.

Publicist Estee Portnoy confirmed the news Thursday, first reported by television station WCNC in Charlotte.

The Charlotte Bobcats owner got engaged over the Christmas weekend. No wedding date has been set.

Jordan, an NBA Hall of Famer who won six titles with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, is 48. Prieto is 32.

This will be Jordan's second marriage. He married Juanita Vanoy in September 1989, and they divorced in 2006. They have two sons, Jeffrey Michael and Marcus James, and a daughter, Jasmine.

Mom’s lawsuit: I’ll fix their wagon!

She crashed her “Pathfinder’’ on a Bronx street — so her mom is suing Toys R Us.

Alisa Speller was pushing her 1-year-old daughter, Skyla Price, across Walton Avenue in the toy wagon modeled after the real SUV, when a rear wheel popped off, according to her Bronx Civil Court lawsuit.

Speller said the toy came to a screeching halt, sending mother and daughter tumbling to the pavement.

“I just flipped over it and fell on top of my daughter,” Speller said.“It was my first time using it.”

The $128 she spent to buy the two-seat, 25-pound toy — equipped with four cup holders, seat belts and a superlarge storage compartment for toys — was a gift from Skyla’s grandmother.

The Toys R Us Web site describes the Pathfinder as a sort of Mercedes-Benz of wagons, promising, “You and your kids will love it.”

Speller paid an extra $15 to have the toy assembled and claims the store’s workers did not put it together properly.

“If they charge people to assemble it, they should do it correctly,” said her lawyer, Francis DeCaro, who filed the suit, seeking unspecified damages.

Toys R Us did not return requests for comment.

N.Y. Times says it mistakenly 'spammed' 8.6M subscribers

An e-mail telling more than 8 million New York Times subscribers that their accounts were canceled was sent erroneously by the newspaper and was not spam, the Times says.

Update at 4:45 p.m. ET: The Times now says that a subscription-cancellation e-mail received by 8.6 million subscribers and others was not spam but was "mistakenly" sent by an employee. "We regret that the error was made, but no one's security has been compromised," said said a Times Company spokeswoman.

As The Washington Post points out, Times corporate media reporter Amy Chozick tweeted that the e-mail should have reached only about 300 people.

"We apologize for any confusion this may have caused," the paper says in an e-mail and in a front-page "note to readers."

Original post: The New York Times says a mass e-mail notice to home subscribers and others warning that their account was canceled was likely spam.

At one point, the newspaper's "customer care" site online was knocked off for more than an hour.

The Times' media blog Media Decoder quotes a newspaper spokesperson as saying the e-mail, which offered customers a discount if they reconsidered their purported cancellation, appears to be spam.

But the blog's Amy Chozick reports that some people familiar with the Times' technical operation suggested it might be an erroneous mass e-mail.

In any case, here is what The Times tweeted:

If you received an email today about canceling your NYT subscription, ignore it. It's not from us.

Another media blog, JimRomanesko.com quotes from an corporate note to Times' employees in which the e-mail is called a "spam message."

Tiger ex-mistress tweets she's pregnant

Rachel Uchitel, the ex-mistress that started it all for Tiger Woods.

The first of Tiger Woods' former mistresses to expose the string of affairs which led to his divorce has tweeted that she is five months pregnant.

Rachel Uchitel posted pictures late Tuesday on the social networking site, showing her with new husband Matt Hahn, an insurance broker, touching her bump. She wrote "checking out my baby bump at 5 months..." and "expecting big things for 2012... Five down, Four months to go..."

The couple had a small wedding in Las Vegas in October and an insider told Life & Style at the time that Uchitel was pregnant and the pair planned to have a bigger wedding after the baby arrives.

This is the first time Uchitel herself has confirmed the news.

The pair met in November 2010 and lived together in New York for several months before moving to San Francisco shortly before the wedding.

Uchitel, 36, became a household name after she became the first of Woods' alleged mistresses to expose his infidelity, leading to a string of revelations in 2009, which eventually forced him to take a break from competitive golf and caused his divorce from wife Elin Nordegren in August 2010.

Uchitel later appeared on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" where she sought help for a "love addiction."

She first rose to fame in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, when the New York Post published a front-page picture of her crying as she searched in vain for her fiance, investment banker James Andrew O'Grady, in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

U.S. warns Iran against closing Hormuz oil route

The U.S. warned Iran Wednesday that it will not tolerate any disruption of naval traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran's navy chief said the Islamic Republic is capable of closing the vital oil route if the West imposes new sanctions targeting Tehran's oil exports.

Iran's Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told state-run Press TV that closing the strait, which is the only sea outlet for the crucial oil fields in and around the Persian Gulf, "is very easy" for his country's naval forces.

It was the second such warning by Iran in two days, reflecting Tehran's concern that the West is about to impose new sanctions that could hit the country's biggest source of revenue, its oil sector. On Tuesday, Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi threatened to close the strait if the West imposes such sanctions.

In response, the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet's spokeswoman warned that any disruption at the strait "will not be tolerated."

The spokeswoman, Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, said the U.S. Navy is "always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation."

With concern growing over a possible drop-off in Iranian oil supplies if sanctions are imposed, a senior Saudi oil official said Gulf Arab nations are ready to offset any loss of Iranian crude.

That reassurance led to a drop in world oil prices. In New York, benchmark crude fell 77 cents to $100.57 a barrel in morning trading. Brent crude fell 82 cents to $108.45 a barrel in London.

Western nations are growing increasingly impatient with Iran over its nuclear program. The U.S. and its allies have accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the charges, saying its program is geared toward generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.

The U.S. Congress has passed a bill banning dealings with the Iran Central Bank, and President Obama has said he will sign it despite his misgivings. Critics warn it could impose hardships on U.S. allies and drive up oil prices.

The bill could impose penalties on foreign firms that do business with Iran's central bank. European and Asian nations import Iranian oil and use its central bank for the transactions.

Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil producer, with an output of about 4 million barrels of oil a day. It relies on oil exports for about 80 percent of its public revenues.

Iran has adopted an aggressive military posture in recent months in response to increasing threats from the U.S. and Israel that they may take military action to stop Iran's nuclear program.

The navy is in the midst of a 10-day drill in international waters near the strategic oil route. The exercises began Saturday and involve submarines, missile drills, torpedoes and drones. The war games cover a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch of sea off the Strait of Hormuz, northern parts of the Indian Ocean and into the Gulf of Aden near the entrance to the Red Sea as a show of strength and could bring Iranian ships into proximity with U.S. Navy vessels in the area.

Iranian media are describing how Iran could move to close the strait, saying the country would use a combination of warships, submarines, speed boats, anti-ship cruise missiles, torpedoes, surface-to-sea missiles and drones to stop ships from sailing through the narrow waterway.

Iran's navy claims it has sonar-evading submarines designed for shallow waters of the Persian Gulf, enabling it to hit passing enemy vessels.

A closure of the strait could temporarily cut off some oil supplies and force shippers to take longer, more expensive routes that would drive oil prices higher. It also potentially opens the door for a military confrontation that would further rattle global oil markets.

Iran claimed a victory this month when it captured an American surveillance drone almost intact. It went public with its possession of the RQ-170 Sentinel to trumpet the downing as a feat of Iran's military in a complicated technological and intelligence battle with the U.S.

American officials have said that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate the drone malfunctioned.

Cheetah, chimp star of Tarzan movies, dies at 80

Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan, Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane and Johnny Sheffield as boy with Cheetah.

Cheetah, the chimpanzee that purportedly appeared in Tarzan movies in the early 1930s, has died of kidney failure at the age of 80, WTSP TV reports.

The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Fla., says the community "has lost a dear friend and family member" with the death of Cheetah on Dec. 24.

Sanctuary outreach director Debbie Cobb tells The Tampa Tribune that the chimp was outgoing, loved finger-painting and liked to see people laugh.

Cobb says the average chimp survives 25 to 35 years in the wild and 35 to 45 years in zoos.

Could a chimp really be 80 years ago? R.D. Rosen produced a lengthy article in The Washington Post raisng doubts about at least one other 'Cheeta' and its owner's claims to Hollywood credentials.

Cobb says Cheetah came to the sanctuary from the estate of Johnny Weissmuller, former American Olympic gold medal swimmer who played Tarzan in the 1930s.

Cheetah played Tarzan's comic sidekick from 1932 to 1934, the sanctuary tells WTSP.

Ron Priest, a sanctuary volunteer for seven years, tells the newspaper that Cheetah stood out with his ability to stand up and walk like a human, with shoulders tall, and back straight.

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A device attempts to elevate the iPad's keyboard

Even if you love the iPad, you're probably not keen to write your next novel using its on-screen virtual keyboard. You may not be thrilled to type up a lengthy email with it, either.

Steve Isaac felt the same way. So the Seattle-based software designer got to work on a way to make the iPad easier to type on. Using a stretchy silicone, he invented a keyboard that sits atop the tablet's on-screen keyboard when the device is turned on its side. He called it, TouchFire.

Isaac, who worked on an early tablet at computing startup Go in the '90s, isn't unique in dreaming up this type of device. But his invention has garnered intense support on Kickstarter — a website where entrepreneurs and artists solicit funding for their projects and often give rewards in exchange, such as a limited-edition poster or first version of a product.

In Isaac's case, he turned to the site to raise money to transform his prototype into a real device, offering the first run of TouchFires to Kickstarter backers. His effort raised $201,400 by the time it a few weeks ago. That was more than 20 times the $10,000 that he and his business partner had hoped to snag.

The TouchFire's birth as a consumer product shows the growing importance of sites such as Kickstarter. They offer a new way to finance bright ideas and usher them to the masses. Kickstarter visitors can search through a bevy of proposals for everything from graphic novels to consumer electronics, coming from creators who must meet their stated funding goal in a specified period of time in order to actually use the money.

About 45% of the projects meet or exceed their goals, Kickstarter said. This year, site visitors pledged about $79 million to projects that either succeeded, including Isaac's, or were still in the process of soliciting funds.

The response to the TouchFire in particular indicates that, despite the tough economy, people are interested in shelling out for ideas they believe in — something that benefits both consumers and entrepreneurs.

"It sure makes us feel very good about the potential for this project and the demand for this project," Isaac says.

It's validation for a year and a half's worth of work. Not long after the iPad came out in April 2010, Isaac started fashioning prototypes by cutting up transparent silicone laptop keyboard covers (the kind you use to protect a laptop's keyboard from dirt) and thin sheets of silicone.

He had a number of stipulations for the TouchFire: It should somehow work with the iPad's existing on-screen keyboard and have springy "keys" that you could actually feel. It had to be small, light and unobtrusive. It needed to respond to your finger taps, but, as on a hardware keyboard, be insensitive enough that you could rest your fingers on the keys without triggering the typing of random letters.

Last September, he connected with Brad Melmon, an industrial designer who was also based in Seattle. The duo refined Isaac's original idea and created the TouchFire company together.

A TouchFire prototype Isaac recently brought to The Associated Press' San Francisco office looked deceptively simple. On the surface, it appeared to be just a flexible keyboard cover with some rigid plastic on the sides.

But a closer look revealed small bumps on the underside of the keypad's silicone keys — bumps that provide typing fingers with the proper amount of resistance. Magnets on the sides and the bottom adhere it to the magnetic portions of the face of the iPad 2, allowing it to sit right on top of the on-screen virtual keyboard without sliding around. If you use the original iPad, a non-slip layer on the bottom of the TouchFire helps keep it in place.

Typing with it was fairly comfortable, though it would take some getting used to its squishy feel (a more apt name might be SquishyType).

Creating a functional prototype like this was just the first step, though. Isaac and Melmon needed funding to make their idea into a consumer product. So after briefly looking for outside investors, they turned to Kickstarter in October.

Not every idea makes it through KickStarter's application process, which is required before you can start seeking funds through the site. The TouchFire was initially rejected — Isaac suspects their pitch wasn't demonstrative enough. But after adding a video that showed it in action, KickStarter approved the application and added it to the site on Oct. 20.

Isaac and Melmon hoped to raise $10,000 by the campaign's Dec. 13 deadline by offering a TouchFire to anyone who pledged at least $45 — about the same price they eventually hope to sell them at in stores.

This wasn't a problem. By the fifth day of their Kickstarter campaign, they reached their goal. In the final seven days, the project had snagged more than $167,000 in funding. Isaac says he now expects to ship more than 5,000 TouchFires to Kickstarter backers.

Marci Liroff is one of the excited buyers. Liroff, a Los Angeles-based casting director and producer who successfully funded one of her own films through Kickstarter, uses an iPad for nearly everything. But she turns to a laptop if she wants to write more than a simple email — she finds it too difficult to do so on the iPad. Liroff hopes the TouchFire changes that (and she jokes that if it does, she'll never have to leave the couch again).

"I just thought it was a really brilliant idea," she says.

Not everyone is convinced, though. Gartner Research analyst Ken Dulaney is skeptical that the TouchFire will appeal to the masses, saying it doesn't really seem different from the scads of wireless keyboards already available for the tablet.

"I can tell you, you just need to go down the Apple Store to see how littered the market is for keyboards for iPads," he says.

Indeed, there are tons of options available to iPad users, from cases with built-in keyboards to stand-alone keyboards that sit next to the iPad.

Isaac is optimistic, though. He and Melmon are deciding on a manufacturer to make the device, and Isaac said they're likely to ship the TouchFires to donors in January. After that, they hope to make the devices available for sale as soon as possible.

Sears to close 100 to 120 Kmart, Sears stores

Sears Holdings Corp. plans to close between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores after poor sales during the holidays, the most crucial time of year for retailers.

The closings are the latest and most visible in a long series of moves to try to fix a retailer that has struggled with falling sales and shabby stores.

In an internal memo Tuesday to employees, CEO and President Lou D'Ambrosio said that the retailer had not "generated the results we were seeking during the holiday."

Sears Holdings (SHLD) said it has yet to determine which stores will close but said it will post on http://www.searsmedia.com/ when a final list is compiled. Sears would not discuss how many, if any, jobs would be cut.

The company has more than 4,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada. Its stock fell $7.88, or 17%, to $37.97 in premarket trading.

The company's revenue at stores open at least a year fell 5.2% to date for the quarter at both Sears and Kmart, the company said Tuesday. That includes the critical holiday shopping period.

Sears Holdings said the declining sales, ongoing pressure on profit margins and rising expenses pulled its adjusted earnings lower. The company predicts fourth-quarter adjusted earnings will be less than half the $933 million it reporter for the same quarter last year.

Sears Holdings also anticipates a non-cash charge of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion in the quarter to write off the value of carried-over tax deductions it now doesn't expect to be profitable enough to use.

Sears said it will no longer prop up "marginally performing" stores in hopes of improving their performance and will now concentrate on cash-generating stores.

"These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers," D'Ambrosio said.

The weaker-than-expected performance reflect what analysts say is a deteriorating outlook for the retailer.

The results point to "deepening problems at this struggling chain and renewed worries about Sears survivability," said Gary Balter, an analyst at Credit Suisse. "The extent of the weakness may be larger than expected but the reasons behind it are not. It begins and some would argue ends with Sears' reluctance to invest in stores and service."

The company has seen rival department stores like Macy's Inc. and discounters like Target Corp. continue to steal customers. It's also contending with a stronger Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, which has hammered hard its low-price message and brought back services like layaway, which allows financially stressed shoppers to finance their holiday purchases by paying a little at a time.

The tough economy hasn't helped, either. Middle-income shoppers, the company's core customers, have seen their wages fail to keep up with higher costs for household basics like food.

But the big problem, analysts say, is Sears hasn't invested in remodeling, leaving its stores uninviting.

"There's no reason to go to Sears," said New York-based independent retail analyst Brian Sozzi, "It offers a depressing shopping experience and uncompetitive prices."

Sears Holdings Corp., based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., said that the store closings will generate $140 to $170 million in cash from inventory sales. The retailer expects the sale or sublease of real estate holdings to add more cash.

Sears Holdings appeared to stumble early in the holiday season, as it opened its Sears, Roebuck and Co. stores at 4 a.m. on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Rivals including Best Buy Co., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Toys R Us opened as early as Thanksgiving night. Sears stores had opened on Thanksgiving Day in 2010. Kmart has been opening on Thanksgiving for years.

A hint that trouble might be brewing came in mid-December when Sears Holdings unexpectedly announced that 260 of its Sears, Roebuck and Co. locations would stay open until midnight through Dec. 23.

Kmart's 4.4% decline in revenue at stores open at least a year was blamed on diminished layaways and a drop in clothing and consumer electronics sales. Part of Kmart's layaway softness likely stemmed from competitive pressure. Wal-Mart had said that its holiday layaway business had been popular. Toys R Us expanded its layaway services to include more items. Kmart's grocery sales climbed during the period.

Sears cited lackluster consumer electronics and home appliance sales for its 6% dropoff. Sears' clothing sales were flat. Sales of Lands' End products at Sears stores rose in the mid-single digits.

Sears Holdings said it also plans to lower its fixed costs by $100 million to $200 million and trim its 2012 peak domestic inventory by $300 million from 2011's $10.2 billion at the third quarter's end.

D'Ambrosio acknowledged in his internal memo that criticism over Sears Holdings' performance was likely to come, but that the company was prepared for the days ahead.

"We will bounce back and become stronger than ever," he said.

Quit-smoking program for teens uses tech tools

Many smokers will resolve to quit on New Year's Day— and if some health educators have their way, increasing numbers of quitters will be teenagers, on Jan. 1 and throughout the year.The National Cancer Institute is rolling out a new quitting program aimed at teens. It now includes a website (teen.smokefree.gov) and texting support, and in January it will add a smartphone application, says Erik Auguston, a behavioral scientist at the institute.

The program joins others with the same aim: Helping teen smokers quit before they become chronic adult smokers. It comes on the heels of new data showing teen smoking rates are dropping again after stagnating for a while.

But it's hardly good news that 19% of teens smoke by 12th grade, says Lloyd Johnston, a researcher at the University of Michigan who leads an annual study tracking teen smoking, drinking and drug use. Previous research suggests most of those teens will keep smoking and some light smokers will become heavy smokers, he says.

"From a health viewpoint, (tobacco) is probably the most important of all the drugs," Johnston says. "There's no other product, legal or illegal, that kills as many people."

But teens are not very receptive to messages about diseases they won't develop for decades or to programs aimed at adults, Auguston says: "Traditionally, teens and young adults have not actively engaged in quitting smoking. They are more in the uptake process." And when they do try to quit, Auguston says, they often go it alone and fail.

The Smokefree Teen program relies upon:

•Messages that emphasize teens are in charge. One slogan on the site about teens and their health decisions: "We're NOT going to tell you what to do."

•Materials that focus on teen-specific triggers. Those include mood, social life, test anxiety and peer pressure.

•Technologies teens use. Teens who want to quit can text QUIT to iQUIT (47848) to start getting helpful messages or go to the website to connect with counselors via instant messaging or phone. They also can join support networks on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

The program "is a gigantic step in the right direction," says Alexander Prokhorov, a behavioral scientist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who has developed anti-smoking programs for teens, including Aspire, an arcade game.

Teen smokers are receptive to messages about staining their teeth, smelling bad, wasting money, harming the environment — and even the fact that their smoke can hurt their siblings and pets, he says. That kind of information, he says, is "eye-popping to many of them."

Maria Shriver reconsidering divorce from Arnold?

Is Maria Shriver having second thoughts about splitting from Terminator actor/former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger?

That's what TMZ is reporting Monday, citing Shriver's Catholic faith as the reason why she might be reconsidering tossing the husband who cheated on her. The Catholic Church officially forbids divorce, although Catholics divorce all the time and some of Shriver's Catholic Kennedy relatives are divorced.

Still, the evidence for this supposed reconsideration is thin. TMZ says Schwarzenegger has been working hard to win Shriver back, plying her with presents and sweet words. The two have been spotted together on dinner dates in recent months, and were united in common concern this summer when the youngest of their four children, 13-year-old Christopher, was hospitalized in intensive care following a beach accident.

Shriver filed for divorce in July, following revelations that Schwarzenegger had an affair with their housekeeper and fathered the housekeeper's now-teenage son. Shriver had moved out of their Brentwood, Calif., home months earlier, and has since bought a new house nearby that she is renovating.

On Twitter, the claim that the divorce might be off spread quickly, although no one cited any proof. A regular on Twitter herself, Shriver hasn't tweeted anything about her marital plans.

Does that sound like second thoughts?

No fanfare for Christmas among Amish

There's no Christmas tree. No lights or glittery display outside the house. No little girls in special Christmas dresses or little boys wiggling in new Christmas suits. There's definitely no Santa Claus and maybe not any gifts.

But Christmas for Michigan's Amish community is filled with food and cheer. The highlight of the holiday will be stories and discussions about the religious meaning of Christmas, as the extended family gathers on Christmas Day.

Christmas is the biggest holiday on the Amish calendar and Michigan is home to 11,000 Amish, one of the largest populations in the country. But in keeping with the Amish way, it's a simple Christmas for simple folks -- and an about-face from the Christmas excess that abounds in so many households this time of year.

"We have the quiet way of honoring Jesus coming," said Simon Miller, of Clare. "Nothing to be seen by men, nothing to bring glory to ourselves."

The Amish are sometimes called the Plain People because of their traditional signatures -- the horse-drawn buggy and nondescript clothing of men in dark suits fastened with hooks instead of buttons and women in full-length dresses.

But they don't talk much about it. Most don't have telephones, although some share a phone with one or two other families.

Many Amish won't pose for photographs, considering that a form of vanity.

Most live off the grid, avoiding commercial electricity. Amish children usually attend an Amish school, and only until eighth grade.

But the Amish embrace their uniqueness as a way of protecting their people from what they believe to be outside corruption.

Church is celebrated regularly, but instead of building a facility, the members will meet in the house of member of their group.

"They have a strong sense that their church should be separate from the world," said Steven Nolt, a professor of history at Goshen College in Indiana and one of the authors of "Amish Grace, How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy." "So their dress, the way they interact with non-Amish neighbors, their nonuse of technology both separates them from mainstream society and also bolsters their own sense of community."

It's also an expression of how they believe they should live.

"Their plain dress is an expression of simplicity and humility and modesty," Nolt said. "It is a symbolic marker, a demarcation between the Amish and their non-Amish neighbors."

The Amish practice a conservative form of Christianity that dates to the late 17th century, when a group of Swiss Anabaptists -- dissenters from the Catholic church -- split off from the Anabaptists and followed Jacob Ammann.

The majority of American Amish live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. The group is growing, with the Amish population nationally roughly doubling every 20 years, Nolt said, thanks to their large families and that 85(PERCENT) of those born to Amish parents remain in their faith as adults.

Not surprisingly, this time of year when many are putting up their holiday decorations or shopping for gifts, the Amish take a plain view as well. For the Amish, Christmas is quiet and gentle holiday, an observance rather than a celebration, with family and religion as the centerpiece.

"Our way of celebrating Christmas is to sit and read with the children and tell them the story of how Jesus came to Earth through the Virgin Mary and how he shed his blood for us on the cross, as a family talk about what Christmas means," said Simon Miller of Clare.

There will be gifts in some Amish households but any gifts will be useful.

"One year I got a stepladder," Miller said. "The children get clothes or something they need." Younger children may also receive a second gift, perhaps a toy or storybook, he said.

"It'd be something that makes for their imagination. Oh, we'd give a little tractor or something like that," Miller said.

And there will be Christmas dinner. It typically consists of turkey, and may include what Miller calls "Christmas pudding," a layered mixture of cream cheese and red and green gelatin.

And despite not putting up Christmas lights of their own, the Amish may well enjoy the lights of others.

"We don't want to be judgmental," said Aaron Miller, a deacon in the Old Order Amish who is not related to Simon Miller. "The children enjoy looking at the lights, but to us, that's not the meaning of Christmas. We focus on the religious part of it."

What did Melanie Amaro say after her 'X Factor' win?

Melanie Amaro poses after winning 'The X Factor' on Thursday in L.A.

That Melanie Amaro had an emotional reaction to her X Factor triumph Thursday would be an understatement.

After winning the contest's $5 million recording deal, the 19-year-old, Coral Springs, Fla., resident was almost literally speechless when host Steve Jones asked her numerous times on stage for her reaction. Shortly after that, she got lost in the lyrics of her victory song, Listen.

"My mind went blank. I was so overwhelmed. I couldn't even think. All I was saying was, 'You just won. Can you believe that? You just won?' And I've sung Listen so many times and my mind went blank. I could not remember the words," Amaro told USA TODAY after the show ended.

She said the victory still had not sunk in, more than an hour after the show.

"I'm still feeling as though I'm in a dream. And I still need to wake up," she said, pinching her arm. "It still has not hit me."

That said, it must have been a pretty good dream.

"I feel amazing," Amaro said. "I feel as though my whole life has just transformed right in front of me. And I've worked so hard. So, to be where I came from, to be in this position now, I feel amazing. And I'm so thankful. And I thank the fans who have put me in this position, all the supporters, the public in general, who have supported me the entire time. I thank you guys so much."

Amaro's win is especially dramatic, because at one point she had been eliminated by her mentor, Simon Cowell, who said he realized his mistake and then asked her to rejoin the competition. They acknowledged that on stage after Jones announced Amaro's victory over runner-up Josh Krajcik.

"What (Cowell) said to me on stage was just like, 'Thank you so much for coming back. Thank God I came and got you back.' Wow! That's all I've been wanting to hear from Simon. That's Simon. I was looking for approval from him for so long," she said.

Amaro was non-committal when asked what she plans to do with her winnings. "We'll see what happens. That's all I can say. I'm just so thankful. I'm so thankful. Whatever happens, happens."

Robert De Niro, wife welcome baby daughter via surrogate

Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower walk the red carpet at the 'New Year's Eve' premiere on Dec. 7 in New York City.

Surprise! Robert De Niro, 68, is a daddy again.

The actor and his wife, Grace Hightower, 56, have just announced the happy news that they are welcoming a daughter, Helen Grace Hightower, to the family.

The healthy 7-pound, 2-ounce baby was born through a surrogate mother, according to De Niro's rep.

This is the couple's second child. Their first, Elliot, was born March 18, 1998.

De Niro and his first wife, Diahnne Abbott, have a son, Raphael, a former actor who works in New York real estate, and De Niro also adopted Abbott's daughter, Drena, from a previous relationship.

De Niro has twin sons, Julian Henry and Aaron Kendrik, conceived by in vitro fertilization and delivered by a surrogate mother in 1995, from a relationship with former model Toukie Smith.

Prince Philip hospitalized with chest pains

Britain's Queen Elizabeth, left, and Britain's Prince Philip leave following a visit to the Museum of Liverpool on Dec. 1, 2011.

Just in: Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has had a coronary stent put in after he experienced chest pains and was rushed to a hospital on Friday.

The Associated Press quoted a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace who said the procedure was minimally invasive but Philip, who turned 90 in June, will remain in the hospital for a short time for observation.

Philip was taken by ambulance from Sandringham, the queen's estate in rural Norfolk where the royal family traditionally gathers for Christmas, to the cardiac unit at a hospital in Cambridge for "precautionary tests" after suffering chest pains.

Philip has has managed a heart condition for some time, and has had episodes like this before, but mostly he has enjoyed robust health and a full schedule for decades.

The British are getting ready to celebrate the queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, marking her 60 years on the throne.

Cops pepper-spray rowdy crowd buying new Air Jordans

Kristopher Rush, 14, shows off the Nike Air Jordan shoes he got for Christmas from his parents today outside the Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis. Police were called in to control crowds of shoppers flocking to Lafayette Square and Castleton Square malls in Indianapolis waiting for the shoes.

Police used pepper spray to break up a rowdy crowd of 2,000 jostling to buy new Air Jordan Retro XI Concord shoes in suburban Seattle, while officers also made arrests in suburban Detroit and in DeKalb county outside Atlanta.

The Seattle Times says the police at the Westfield Southcenter mall in Tukwila, Wash., were so outmanned they had to call for support from some two dozen officers around the Seattle area. One person was arrested.

"We used pepper spray on some of the fights to disrupt the crowds," Tukwila police Officer Mike Murphy said, according to the Times. "This was not a pro-police crowd. The crowd was less than cooperative with instructions from police to quit fighting and to quit cutting."

Most of the trouble broke out in front of two shoe stores that opened at 4 a.m. to sell the new $180 Nike shoe. At one point, the crowd broke down a door, the Associated Press reports.

Seattle police also reported pushing and shoving, but no arrests, as 100 shoebuyers descended on Seattle's Northgate Mall.

In Taylor, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, police said Southland Mall security called police for assistance at around 5:30 a.m. today when a large crowd of about 300 people was lined up outside the shopping center, which was not scheduled to open until 8 a.m., the Detroit Free Press reports.

Police said about 100 people broke into the mall by forcing open the main doors. Police officers from four surrounding towns assisted Taylor, Mich., police in the melee.

Crowds also gathered outside sports apparel shops in other parts of the state, the Associated Press reports.



The Kalamazoo Gazette reports that about 300 people waited at The Crossroads mall in Portage in southwest Michigan. Police were called to disperse the crowd. About a dozen people sat in lawn chairs Thursday night outside one shop in Southfield, north of Detroit, according to the AP.

In Georgia, as many as 20 squad cars responded after a large crowd apparently broke down the door to the Mall at Stonecrest in Lithonia while waiting for a store to open at 8 a.m., Fox 5 Atlanta reports.

Update at 2:07 p.m. ET: In Kentucky, the Louisville Metro Police were called around 4 a.m. to Jefferson Mall to break up a fight among a large crowd waiting to buy a new shoe, a police spokeswoman says, according to The Courier-Journal.

Officers were also called out because of disruptive crowds at Wellington, Fla., at two Indianapolis malls and on Staten Island.

Update at 3:18 p.m. ET: In Louisiana, several people were hurt when a crowd surged into the Alexandria Mall when it opened at 6 a.m. so stores could sell a limited number of the AJ shoe, our Gannett colleagues at The News Star report. A front door was broken, and local police ordered the mall closed temporarily. It reopened at 9 a.m.

Several shoppers were taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries.

Update at 3:39 p.m. ET: Near Oakland, Calif., between 1,500 and 2,000 "sneakerheads" who had lined up overnight were turned away from the Hilltop Mall in Richmond after a gunshot was fired about 7 a.m., the Contra Costa Times says. No one was injured and a suspect is in custody.

The mall halted sales of the shoe today and reopened for normal business at 10 a.m.

Nearby, at the Westfield Solano mall, in Fairfield, two adults were arrested as shoppers jostled to get in line, one for pushing another customer, one for shoving a police officer.

South of Oakland, police temporarily closed the Bayfair Mall, in San Leandro, after shoppers began forcing their way in at 6 a.m.

Update at 4:01 p.m. ET: Here are some more reports of sneaker madness:

* Outside the nation's capital, police in Virginia and Maryland were called in for crowd control, WUSA-TV says. One man was arrested for trying to steal a pair of AJ Concords in Fredericksburg. Another person was injured in Loudoun County.

* In Toledo, Ohio, police arrested three people during a mall rush.

* Dozens of police officers had to restore order at Carolina Place Mall in Pineville, N.C., after fights erupted among a crowd of about 200 people lined up before dawn.

* Police near Atlanta arrested three people -- including a mother who left her children in the car to line up before dawn -- after an unruly crowd broke a door at the Stonecrest Mall in Lithonia, Ga.

Jury awards record $150 billion payout to family of burned child

This undated family photo shows Robbie Middleton, who was allegedly doused with gasoline and set on fire on his eighth birthday on June 28, 1998. Middleton survived his horrific injuries for 12 years before dying last year of a rare form of skin cancer.

A jury in Texas has awarded $150 billion in damages to the family of a man who died 12 years after he was horrifically burned on his eighth birthday in what is reportedly the largest personal injury award in U.S. history.

Lawyer Craig Sico said his clients don't expect to collect any of the $150 billion judgment. Instead, they hope it will help persuade prosecutors to seek charges against a man they say doused Robbie Middleton with gasoline and set him on fire.

Middleton survived his horrific injuries for 12 years before dying last year of a rare form of skin cancer, which attorneys argued was related to the extensive burns.

Sico and Middleton's family said they now hope for a renewed investigation of Don Wilburn Collins, who Middleton accused of attacking him.

Collins never faced criminal charges in Middleton's case, in part, prosecutors said, because of inconsistencies in the evidence and difficulty obtaining information from such a young victim.

Sex offender
Now 26, Collins is in prison for an unrelated sexual assault conviction against another 8-year-old boy and for failing to register as a sex offender. He is to be released next year.

He did not appear in court during the civil trial and no attorney appeared on his behalf.

Sico said he asked jurors to make a statement in the case by topping the biggest civil verdict he was aware of — a $145 billion judgment handed down against the tobacco companies in Florida in 2000.

The Fayette County jury returned the $150 billion verdict Tuesday after a two-day trial.

The Florida tobacco verdict of $145 billion, which was later overturned, had stood as the largest U.S. civil jury verdict, said John T. Nockleby, professor and director of the civil justice program at the Loyola Marymount University School of Law in Los Angeles.

"It's the kind of award that has no meaning outside of an expression of moral outrage," he said. "They could have awarded a trillion dollars, and it would have made no difference."

Middleton's mother, Colleen Middleton, said Wednesday the family hadn't really thought about the size of the judgment.

"We're never going to see any money," she said. "What we thought was please let these people realize Robert was precious, like everybody else's child, and he didn't deserve this."

"When they came back with the $150 billion, I was like: 'They get it.' And that made me feel so good," she said.

Cold case review
Robbie Middleton was attacked on June 28, 1998 — his eighth birthday — as he walked through a wooded area in the Southeast Texas town of Splendora, northeast of Houston. A neighbor who discovered the boy told a 911 dispatcher that the burned child said, "Some kids threw the gas on him."

When police questioned the boy, who was burned over 99 percent of his body, he told them: "Don did it."

Collins, who was 13 at the time, was taken into custody five days later. He was held in juvenile detention for six weeks before he was released without charges to the custody of an uncle appointed as his legal guardian.

In a video deposition taken just before he died last year, Middleton identified Collins as a person who sexually assaulted him about two weeks before the fire attack.

Montgomery County Attorney David Walker said Wednesday that the sheriff's department's cold case unit already has been reviewing the Middleton burning case for several months.

Walker, who was not county attorney at the time of the assault on Middleton but was working at the office, told the Los Angeles Times that Collins was not charged because "the case was very, very difficult, with evidence that was not clear or necessarily compelling at that time."

He said Middleton was severely injured and "his ability to say what had happened and who did this horrible crime to him was extremely difficult."

"There will be people who will say that's an excuse, but the professionals here worked very hard," Walker added.

Matt Damon rips President Obama in Elle magazine

Matt Damon slammed President Obama over his lack of leadership in the new issue of Elle magazine.

Matt Damon doesn't have much goodwill left for President Obama.

The Oscar-award winning actor — who had once been a staunch supporter of the commander-in-chief — is lashing out at the President in a new Elle magazine interview, declaring he needs to grow a pair of cajones.

"I've talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, 'Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politican,'" Damon told the publication. "You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better."

The "We Bought a Zoo" star also weighed in on the Occupy Wall Street protests, arguing Obama’s lack of leadership has contributed to Americans’ overall discontent with the government.

"If the Democrats think that they didn't have a mandate — people are literally without any focus or leadership, just wandering out into the streets to yell right now because they're pissed off," said Damon, 41. "Just imagine if they had a leader."

It's not the first time Damon — who stumped for Obama in 2008 — has expressed his contempt for the President. But his latest remarks seem to be the most heated to date.

In March, the Harvard University dropout told CNN's Piers Morgan that Obama had misinterpreted his mandate and was deeply disappointed in the President.

President Obama referred to the interview and jabbed Damon back during May's White House Correspondents' Dinner.

"I've even let down my key core constituency: movie stars," the President joked. "Just the other day, Matt Damon — I love Matt Damon, love the guy — Matt Damon said he was disappointed in my performance. Well, Matt, I just saw ‘The Adjustment Bureau,’ so — right back atcha, buddy."

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Kobe Bryant's Wife, Vanessa, Files for Divorce

Kobe and Vanessa Bryant have been married for more than 10 years.

Kobe Bryant's wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce on Friday from the Los Angeles Lakers star, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split.

Vanessa Bryant filed papers in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana. TMZ reported that according to court documents filed in the Orange County Superior Court, Vanessa Bryant will be represented by high-profile divorce lawyer Laura Wasser — who has previously worked for Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie and Kim Kardashian — and attorney Samantha Klein.

A representative for the couple released a statement saying, ''The Bryants have resolved all issues incident to their divorce privately with the assistance of counsel and a Judgment dissolving their marital status will be entered in 2012.''

The couple have been married for 10 1/2 years and have two daughters, ages 8 and 5.

In the statement, the Bryants ''ask that in the interest of our young children and in light of the upcoming holiday season the public respect our privacy during this difficult time.''

The filing of the documents comes more than eight years after Vanessa Bryant stuck by the Lakers star after he was accused of sexually assaulting a Colorado woman.

The Colorado case was dropped when Bryant's accuser refused to testify.

Unidentified sources told TMZ that Vanessa Bryant was filing for divorce because she believed her husband had been unfaithful.

Did You Vote for Barack Obama?

Man wins lawsuit over towels left inside him by surgeons

An Ohio man has won a $275,000 settlement from the federal government because surgeons at a Veterans Administration hospital left two surgical towels inside him after a kidney operation, The Plain Dealer reports.

The towels -- measuring 14-by-11 inches -- were discovered after Robert Sanner, 47, of New Philadelphia, Ohio, underwent a CAT scan because of pain and discomfort days after the operation, the Cleveland newspaper says.

Because of the incident, the VA Medical Center in Cleveland has purchased a new system that uses radio frequency ID chips to keep track of sponges and other surgical equipment, the newspaper reports.

DHS ends cooperation deal with Arizona sheriff

The Civil Rights Division of U.S. Justice Department today said a three-year investigation finds that Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office has engaged in a "culture of bias" involving racial profiling and a widespread pattern of discrimination of Latinos.

Update at 8:23 p.m. ET: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio called the report "a sad day for America as a whole."

"We are going to cooperate the best we can. And if they are not happy, I guess they can carry out their threat and go to federal court," he said.

He said that the decision by Homeland Security to sever ties would result in illegal immigrants being released from jail in large numbers and they would go undetected, the Associated Press says.

The sheriff claimed they would be "dumped on a street near you. For that, you can thank the federal government."

Update at 2:50 p.m. ET: In the wake of the Justice Department findings, the Department of Homeland Security has cut off Maricopa County from access to the Secure Communities program and ended an agreement through which the state is allowed to detain individuals in the country illegally after their initial arrest. Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement that DHS is "troubled" by the Justice Department report. "Discrimination undermines law enforcement and erodes the public trust," the statement says. "DHS will not be a party to such practices."

Here is the DHS statement:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is troubled by the Department of Justice's (DOJ) findings of discriminatory policing practices within the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO). Discrimination undermines law enforcement and erodes the public trust. DHS will not be a party to such practices. Accordingly, and effective immediately, DHS is terminating MCSO's 287(g) jail model agreement and is restricting the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office access to the Secure Communities program. DHS will utilize federal resources for the purpose of identifying and detaining those individuals who meet U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement's (ICE) immigration enforcement priorities. The Department will continue to enforce federal immigration laws in Maricopa County in smart, effective ways that focus our resources on criminal aliens, recent border crossers, repeat and egregious immigration law violators and employers who knowingly hire illegal labor.

Update at 12:44 p.m. ET: The investigation found a number of instances in which "crime suppression activities" were initated on complaints that "described no criminal activity, but rather referred, for instance, to individuals with 'dark skin' congregating in one area, or the individuals speaking Spanish at a local business."

"The use of these types of bias-infected indicators as a basis for conducting enforcement activity contributes to the high number of stops and detentions lacking in legal justification," Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said in his letter.

Update at 12:42 p.m. ET:

Among the allged civil rights violations:

Hispanics were routinely targeted for traffic stops without reasonable cause, and subsequently charged with immigration-related crimes. Legal residents were sometimes treated as if they were illegal immigrants and even jailed.

Latino inmates with poor or no English proficiency were frequently punished for not understanding English, were required to fill out forms in a language they did not understand or were denied critical services available to English-speaking inmates.

Community activists and critics who spoke out against the Sheriff's Office's treatment of Hispanics were themselves targeted for retaliation.

The Justice Department also found that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office did not adequately train or supervise its personnel to avoid civil rights violations and, in fact, permitted the specialized units to engage in unconstitutional behavior, The Arizona Republic reports.

The department found three additional areas of concern that require further review. Investigators allege some sheriff's deputies use excessive force against Latinos; the agency's immigration enforcement programs have caused distrust within the Latino community; and that certain types of criminal cases have been improperly investigated.

Update at 12:36 p.m. ET: In his letter, Perez said the department would "prefer to resolve this matter without resort to further litigation, although we will not hesitate to file suit, if necessary."

Update at 12:30 p.m ET: According to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez's letter to Maricopa County attorney Bill Montgomery, investigators found that the alleged pattern and practice of discriminating against Latinos flows from the top echelons of the sheriff's office and has compromised its ability to provide quality law enforcement to county residents, The Arizona Republic reports.

Investigators believe the sheriff's office followed a pattern or practice of unconstitutional treatment of Hispanics both inside the jails and in traffic stops, especially by the sheriff's human smuggling and work-site enforcement units.

Update at 12:10 p.m. ET: The Justice Department today accused the office of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio of racial profiling in traffic stops and immigration operations and discriminating against Spanish speakers in the county jails, The Arizona Republic reports.

The Justice Department issued the Maricopa County sheriff an ultimatum -- voluntarily agree to stop the alleged unconstitutional practices or face a lawsuit under provisions of federal Civil Rights Act.

An excerpt from the report:

Based upon our extensive investigation, we find reasonable cause to believe that MCSO [Maricopa County Sheriff's Office] engages in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing. Specifically, we find that MCSO, through the actions of its deputies, supervisory staff, and command staff, engages in racial profiling of Latinos; unlawfully stops, detains, and arrests Latinos; and unlawfully retaliates against individuals who complain about or criticize MCSO's policies or practices, all in violation of Section 14141. MCSO's discriminatory police conduct additionally violates Title VI and its implementing regulations.

We also find reasonable cause to believe that MCSO operates its jails in a manner that discriminates against its limited English proficient ("LEP") Latino inmates. Specifically, we find that MCSO, through the actions of its deputies, detention officers, supervisory staff, and command staff, routinely punishes Latino LEP inmates for failing to understand commands given in English and denies them critical services provided to the other inmates, all in violation of Title VI and its implementing regulations.

The findings were announced at a Phoenix news conference.

Original post: The Justice Department has been investigating allegations of civil rights violations and racial profiling involving the Maricapo County Sheriff's Office for more than three years.

The announcement could mark the end to a probe that has served as a backdrop as Arpaio pursued his controversial attempts at immigration enforcement through crime sweeps and worksite raids, the newspaper says.

The sweeps have in the past led to dozens of sheriff's deputies descending on heavily Latino neighborhoods looking for minor infractions as a way to launch into immigration screenings.

The scope of the sweeps has broadened, however, since federal immigration officials in 2009 took away Arpaio's authority to perform street-level enforcement as part of a federal program.

Arpaio and his administrators have consistently denied that his immigration-enforcement measures target Latino residents.

Both of those immigration-enforcement tactics have generated broad public support along with claims of racial profiling, The Republic reports.

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