Mandatory News

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

UFC champ Jon Jones enters rehab after testing positive for cocaine

LAS VEGAS UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones announced Tuesday that he has entered a drug treatment facility.

The announcement came just days after Jones defeated Daniel Cormier on Saturday in the main event of UFC 182 at the MGM Grand Garden in a five-round decision that left many considering him as the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all time.

But in a random drug test given to him on Dec. 4 by the Nevada Athletic Commission, Jones tested positive for benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite in cocaine.

The Nevada commission follows the World Anti-Doping Agency code and benzoylecgonine is not banned out-of-competition. As a result, the commission was unable to penalize Jones or prevent him from fighting despite knowing of the positive test.

It conducted a follow-up test later in December that Jones passed. Yahoo Sports was unable to get the exact date of the second test that Jones passed.

Jones released a statement to Yahoo Sports through his attorney acknowledging his problem.

"With the support of my family, I have entered into a drug treatment facility. I want to apologize to my fiance, my children, as well as my mother, father, and brothers for the mistake that I made. I also want to apologize to the UFC, my coaches, my sponsors and equally important to my fans. I am taking this treatment program very seriously. Therefore, at this time my family and I would appreciate privacy."

The UFC released the following statement in regards to Jones:

We support UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones decision to enter a drug treatment facility to address his recent issue. While we are disappointed in the failed test, we applaud him for making this decision to enter a drug treatment facility. Jon is a strong, courageous fighter inside the Octagon, and we expect him to fight this issue with the same poise and diligence. We commend him on his decision, and look forward to him emerging from this program a better man as a result.

Nevada commission chairmanFrancisco Aguilar said the commission is going to discuss out-of-competition drug tests at its next meeting and whether to break from the WADA code in similar situations.

"I am pleased that Mr. Jones is addressing this issue and seeking help for his problem," Aguilar said.

The test given to Jones was analyzed for anabolic agents, peptide hormones, growth factors and related substances, beta-2 agonists, hormone and metabolic modulators, diuretics and other masking agents, stimulants, narcotics, canabinoids and glucocorticosteroids.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-champion-jon-jones-enters-into-a-drug-treatment-facility-214520325.html

How Benji Madden Convinced Cameron Diaz to Settle Down

Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden tied the knot on Monday, ending Cameron's serial dating streak for good. So what convinced her to settle down? The ladies of The Talk weighed in.

"I think she was ready," co-host Aisha Tyler said.

NEWS: Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden Are Married!

"I think it was a level of maturity on both parts," said co-host Julie Chen. "And the right chemistry between two people."

Some of Cameron's past suitors have included Matt Dillon, who she dated for three years, Jared Leto, who she dated for four years, Justin Timberlake, who she also dated for four years and Alex Rodriguez, who she dated for a year and a half.

A-Rod had high praise for Cameron in 2012 after their 2011 breakup.

"I will tell you about C.D.: She's probably one of the greatest human beings I've ever met, and just an amazing light," said the star athlete.

Cameron, 42, and Benji, 35, exchanged vows at an intimate, top-secret wedding ceremony held at Cameron's Beverly Hills home after getting engaged in December. Guests reportedly included Cameron's sister Chimene, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Ronson and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The bride reportedly tried to throw the press off the trail by telling her neighbors that she was having a pre-Golden Globes party.

Aisha told ET that having the wedding at home helped keep the ceremony private.

NEWS: Cameron Diaz: 'Yes, I Have Been with a Lady'

"[That] was smart," she said. "You don't do it at a hotel. You don't do it with an event planner, and it's easier and it's sweet."

Prior to the wedding, Cameron's Charlie's Angels co-star and bridesmaid Drew Barrymore threw a bridal shower at her Hollywood Hills home.

This marks the first marriage for both the actress and Good Charlotte singer.

Source: http://www.etonline.com/news/155901_how_benji_madden_convinced_cameron_diaz_to_settle_down/

Meet Stephen Frys Future Husband (Who Is Less Than Half His Age)

The star announces he is to marry his 27-year-old boyfriend.

The British comedian, broadcaster, writer, and polymath Stephen Fry has confirmed that he is to marry his 27-year-old partner, Elliott Spencer, after the Sun newspaper broke the story.

The beaming TV star and his toyboy posed for pictures together in London today, after being forced to confirm the news when the Sun picked up on a declaration to marry notice posted in a rural registry office. Fry had previously confirmed the news to his army of followers on Twitter.

The engagement comes less than three years after Fry tried to kill himself with a cocktail of vodka and pills as his previous long-term relationship foundered.

Fry and Spencer appeared today outside Frys London home, and Fry said: We are off now to celebrate our engagement.

Fry said the marriage would take place some time in the next year, and when asked about the engagement rings on their wedding fingers, he said, They are very similar, both are made of Rhodium and are almost matching.

Spencer, 27, is variously described as a writer and a stand-up comic. He says, however, in one Twitter post that before meeting Fry he suffered from low self-confidence:

He is the son of a succesful property developer, Robert Spencer, who has built homes across the U.K., according to the Daily Mail.

Spencer seems to be well-connected with Londons celebrity crowd and has posted pictures of himself with comedians such as Jimmy Carr and David Mitchell. He is a regular at Londons nightspot du jour, Chiltern Firehouse, and has tweeted about hanging out there with Kiefer Sutherland.

He is clearly a music fan, and his Twitter feed details his attendance at a seeemingly endless stream of live gigs, including Kate Bush, The Cure, and Morrissey in recent months.

He has been a guest at numerous high-profile events with Fry, such as the Hobbit premiere in London on December 1, in which Fry had a part.

In October, he traveled to Denver with Fry to support his work with LGBT rights organization The Matthew Sheppard Foundation.

A source told The Sunday Mirror: Stephen and Elliott get on brilliantly together. Its fantastic to see Stephen with a smile on his face again...Elliott seems to have given him the confidence to live his life again. Its great to have the old Stephen back.

Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/06/meet-stephen-fry-s-future-husband-who-is-less-than-half-his-age.html

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Montgomery County Public Schools: Schools Officials Considering Delaying ...

Montgomery County Public School students may have more time to sleep in the mornings as the board of education is considering several options to change the time school starts and ends.

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The Montgomery County Board of Education announced on Tuesday that Superintendent Joshua P. Starr has provided several new options to change school bell times.

According to reports, the Montgomery County Board of Education will only consider options that are cost-effective and also support a move to start school at a later time.

Superintendent Joshua P. Starr has proposed that all 24 high schools in the district delay the time school starts by 20 minutes for all students in all grades.

"I have said all along that I would like school to start later in the day in order to support the health and well-being of our students," Starr said. "But we must balance this decision against the other needs and priorities we have in the district and ensure any change to high school bell times do not place unfair burden on other students and their families."

Reports indicate that Starr has presented the board with new options to adjust school bell time. These options are estimated to cost less the $10 million yearly - a big difference from his 2013 recommendations which would have cost around $21 million annually.

The move to change the bell times of all Montgomery County Public Schools began in 2012 when parents launched an online petition proposing that schools should start at a later time because more sleep would positively affect the health and general well-being of teens.

Advocates of the move for later school start times cite scientific research which shows that due to their biological development teens usually sleep later and wake up later.

Supporters of the move have linked absenteeism, lower academic performance as well as the risk of depression and even fatal car accidents to teens being rushed out of bed.

The board is scheduled to hear a presentation on the different proposed options on Jan. 13. Meanwhile officials will collect public suggestions throughout January and into early February.

Reports indicate that by Feb. 10th the board would have settled and approved a new bell time that would be part of the 2016 budget request to the Montgomery County Executive and County Council.

"Any changes to our starting and ending times will have an impact on every student, parent and employee in Montgomery County Public Schools, so it is important that out citizens understands the options we are considering and let their voices be heard," said Patricia O'Neil, Board of Education President.

Source: http://www.jobsnhire.com/articles/16734/20150106/montgomery-county-public-schools-schools-officials-considering-delaying-school-start-time-by-20-minutes.htm

Daimler's self-drive car gears up for the future

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Meet the car of the future: self-driving, with touchscreen walls and seats that rotate to create an exclusive cocoon on wheels in which you can work, rest and play.

On this storyOn this topicIN Automobiles

Daimlers Mercedes-Benz F015 concept car was revealed on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas an event once dominated by Silicon Valley, but which is now increasingly focused on the intersection of cars and technology.

However, beyond being a showcase of their ambitions for the future, the vehicle also represents efforts by the German carmaker like its global peers to remain in the driving seat as technology companies such as Google steal a march on their turf.

We see cars widening their functionality to become a third place to relax, work, play, said Dieter Zetsche, Daimler chief executive. The autonomous car, he said, enables people to do exactly what they want or need to do.

Analysts believe autonomous vehicle technology stands to radically disrupt the auto industry. Self-driving cars could pave the way for new business models and new entrants to the sector, notably Google, posing a threat to traditional carmakers that are unable to keep up.

That pressure, combined with the potential to improve vehicle safety, is pushing carmakers deeper into the arena of technology, from basics such as automatic braking through to models that remove the need for drivers altogether.

We think fully autonomous vehicles are a real possibility, said Mark Fields, Ford chief executive, in remarks before the opening of CES. For the industry, probably in the next five years youll see somebody introduce autonomous vehicles.

Nevertheless, regulation, technology and unresolved ethical issues will stall development, say industry executives.

Auto ethicists need to resolve issues around how cars should respond in the event of an accident, said Dr Zetsche. Companies such as Daimler are grappling with scenarios such as how a car should behave when faced with the decision of crashing into a mother pushing a pram or driving into a ditch.

As autonomous driving evolves, Daimler already has an edge over its premium sector rivals.

The latest incarnation of the luxury S-Class saloon comes packed with an array of autonomous driving features. These include traffic jam assist, which allows the car automatically to follow the one in front at low speeds, and active lane-keeping assist, which automatically corrects the steering if the car starts to drift out of its lane. The company previously has also unveiled a semi-autonomous truck.

Mercedes commercial head-start, advanced test programme and brand values leave us confident it will be one of the leaders in this field over the next decade, Exane BNP Paribas told clients in a note last year.

Its cars, said Dr Zetsche, have logged hundreds of hours of autonomous driving without getting a ticket or even the finger.

Daimlers rivals in Germany and elsewhere are, however, catching up fast and are also preparing to show off their capabilities in autonomous driving at CES.

BMW is expected to demonstrate a system that enables a driverless car to find its own way to a parking spot in a multistorey car park, activated via a smart watch.

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Audi is testing an autonomous car on public roads from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas. The car will have a range of almost 900km, and can change lanes and overtake other vehicles unaided.

Volkswagen, which is making its maiden appearance at the tech show this year, is demonstrating its trained parking system, which allows a car to semiautomatically park itself in familiar spots such as at home.

Ultimately, the company says, drivers will be able to use their smartphones as remote controls to park cars entirely automatically, although driving regulations will have to be updated before this is made commercially available.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015. You may share using our article tools.Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fc84b088-9560-11e4-b3a6-00144feabdc0.html

Bess Myerson, noted ex-Miss America, dead

(CNN) -

Bess Myerson, the 1945 Miss America winner who became a celebrated media personality and public servant and then was brought down by scandal, has died. She was 90.

According to a statement from the Miss America Organization, she died in Santa Monica, California, on December 14. No cause of death was given.

Myerson's rise to fame was a classic rags-to-riches American success story: a bright Bronx girl from a housing project, the daughter of a house painter, who won the nation's most famous beauty contest and parlayed her renown into a media career. She became a model and spokesperson and spent many years on the game show "I've Got a Secret."

The path to celebrity was one followed by such pageant winners as Lee Meriwether, Mary Ann Mobley, Phyllis George and Vanessa Williams.

Later Myerson became part of New York's city government, serving as both commissioner of consumer affairs and commissioner of cultural affairs.

Myerson was also a role model in the Jewish community. If Jewish baseball players Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax were celebrated for their athletic abilities -- a response to jokes about Jews' lack of athletic skills -- Myerson was celebrated for her role as the first (and, to this day, only) Jewish Miss America. She won her pageant title in early September 1945 just after the end of World War II, a time when the horrors of the Holocaust were just being revealed.

"Her victory was seen by many as a symbolic statement of America's post-war rejection of the crimes and prejudices that ravaged Europe as well as a representation of the vitality of the American Jewish community," noted a biography on the Jewish Women's Archive site.

Myerson had even been asked to change her name for the pageant -- an idea she refused.

"It was the most important decision I ever made," she recalled. "It told me who I was, that I was first and foremost a Jew."

It was a decision with consequences, as some Miss America sponsors refused to have her represent them.

Nonetheless, the talented and intelligent Myerson -- who played the flute and piano at the pageant and used her Miss America scholarship money to pay for graduate studies at Juilliard and Columbia -- landed on her feet, becoming a popular TV personality in the '50s and '60s.

Members of the Jewish community looked up to her.

"Bess Myerson was the most important female image in your life," said a 1940s teenager quoted in Edward S. Shapiro's "We Are Many: Reflections On American Jewish History And Identity." "We didn't just know about her. We felt her."

For decades, Myerson was a well-known and beloved figure around New York. During Ed Koch's 1977 campaign for New York mayor, she was often at his side, giving rise to rumors of a romance with the bachelor politician.

"Koch wouldn't have won without Bess," Koch's campaign strategist, David Garth, told New York magazine.

But she fell short of higher office herself, losing a U.S. Senate primary in 1980. After Koch named her to the city's Cultural Affairs department in 1983, she saw her name tarred by the "Bess Mess," a mid-'80s scandal involving a romantic affair with a married contractor and an alleged quid pro quo with the judge in his divorce trial.

Myerson was eventually acquitted, but she was forced to resign her job. Moreover, other revelations about her life came to light, including another affair and a shoplifting charge.

She lived out the remainder of her life quietly, devoting her energy to charitable causes.

Myerson was married three times. Her first marriage, to Navy veteran Allan Wayne, ended in divorce in 1956. She was married twice to lawyer Arnold Grant before finally divorcing him in 1971. She is survived by a daughter.

Source: http://www.click2houston.com/news/bess-myerson-first-jewish-miss-america-dead/30541310

Samsung CES 2015 Keynote: Live From Las Vegas

Samsung Electronics CEO Boo-Keun Yoon speaking at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. (Photo: Taylor Soppe/Forbes)

By: Ryan Mac and Aaron Tilley

Forbes is live from Las Vegas where Samsung is about to take the stage at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show for the companys keynote address. The focus of todays talk from Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics CEO Boo-Keun Yoon will be the current buzzphrase Internet of Things and the company already announced a slew of new connected devices and appliances earlier on Monday.

***

6:34 p.m. -Samsung CEO Boo-Keun Yoon is introduced by the CEA President Gary Shapiro. No Michael Bay sighting yet.

6:35 p.m.- Yoon takes the stage. It takes him 20 seconds to mention the Internet of Things. Its 2015 and were going back to the future, he says, referencing the Michael J. Fox movie. Its not science fiction anymore. Its science fact, he adds pointing to creations like flat screen televisions.

6:43 p.m.-Yoon has mentioned Internet of Things or acronym IoT at least 20 times in the first five minutes. This may be a long night. These objects will actively support and protect us, the Samsung CEO says as hes backed up by pictures of smiling folks with their microwaves, blenders and home appliances.

6:46 p.m.-Jeremy Rifkin, president of The Foundation of Economic Trends, is the first guest on stage tonight. He believes that the focus on IoT will bring about a paradigm shift in technology history. In the Internet of Things society, everyone is a prosumer, actively consuming, producing and sharing with their connected devices, he says. Journalists and observers everywhere quickly Google Google the word prosumer.

6:51 p.m.-Rifkin: We are on the cusp of a great economic transformation. The Internet of Things will improve the lives of billions of people and create a more sustainable, democratic future. (If IoT can improve the lines here at CES that would be an awesome start.)

6:58 p.m.-Samsungs CEO is back on stage. Hes yet to unveil a new product but says that by 2017, 90% of Samsung devices will be IoT devices. Yoon also says he hopes to make that 100% within the next five years, before unloading some numbers on the audience. He said that the company put 665 million products in the hands of consumers last year. Thats 20 devices a second, he says, before pausing for a second. We just made 20. First joke of the night!

7:00 p.m.-Big announcement: Samsung says that all its future devices will be open to developers.

7:04 p.m.-Yoon brings on SmartThings CEOAlex Hawkinson, whose company was acquired by Samsung in August for a reported $200 million. Hawkinson says that all SmartThings gadgets work with all of Samsungs connected devices and names off some of his companys new partners including Netgear, Philips Hue and Honeywell.

7:05 p.m.-Not going to sugarcoat it, this keynote from Samsung has been fairly disappointing. Folks in the crowd are just not that excited. We want Michael Bay!

7:06 p.m.-Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman takes the stage as Hawkinson and Yoon depart briefly. He continues to hammer home the same IoT message. This feels like the beginning of a path centered around the user, he says, before outlining how a home entertainment system can tell you what music to listen to after monitoring and learning your habits.

7:11 p.m.-Yoon returns to the stage and says that Samsung will be committing $100 million toward bolstering and strengthening its programs from developers and startups.

7:20 p.m.-BMW senior vice presidentElmar Frickenstein, a spritely German with an awesome name, takes over for Yoon to discuss his companys new tablet integration with Samsung. Samsung gear can now help open and close doors, send directions or check the range of Beemers. Says Frickenstein: In the future connectivity will be the key technlogy for highly automated driving. a pre-recorded video of Frickenstein then flashes across the screen showing him driving away in a sleek car. HOW DID HE GET AWAY SO FAST?

7:25 p.m.-Yoon is back on stage and unleashing a monologue. Seriously, this cant be it, can it? Says Yoon, on the verge of tears: We areare holding in our hands are infinite possibilities. Now its up to us to enact them.

7:31 p.m.-The event is over. Bizarre. There wasnt really much said beside the pontificating over the Internet of Things catchphrase. People rush out of the auditorium, likely for the buffets.

Follow me onTwitterat@RMac18or email me at rmac@forbes.com.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2015/01/05/samsung-ces-2015-keynote-live-from-las-vegas/