Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher kills girlfriend, self

Chiefs Player Involved in Murder-Suicide (Posted Dec. 1st, 2012)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher this morning shot and killed his girlfriend before going to Arrowhead Stadium and fatally shooting himself as team personnel tried to stop him, police said.

Police Capt. David Lindaman said Belcher, 25, and his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, 22, got into an argument at their home in the 5400 block of Crysler Avenue in Kansas City. Around 7:50 a.m., Lindaman said, Belcher shot Perkins multiple times. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Lindaman said Belcher’s mother, who was visiting the couple and their 3-month-old daughter from New York, witnessed the shooting and had been interviewed by police.

Belcher left the scene on Crysler and went to the Chiefs practice facility at Arrowhead, police said.

Police were called to the stadium around 8:10 a.m. When Belcher arrived there he encountered General Manager Scott Pioli, Coach Romeo Crennel and other team personnel. Police said Chiefs staff attempted to keep Belcher from committing additional acts of violence.

“He had a conversation with Scott Pioli,” Lindaman said. “There was no threat and it was quite friendly, from what I understand. The Chiefs organization had been very supportive of him and he was expressing that.”

When police arrived, they heard a gunshot and found that Belcher had shot himself in the head.

The Chiefs announced Saturday afternoon that their game Sunday against the Carolina Panthers at Arrowhead Stadium will be played as scheduled, with kickoff set for noon CST.

Chiefs owner Clark Hunt released the following statement: “The entire Chiefs family is deeply saddened by today’s events, and our collective hearts are heavy with sympathy, thoughts and prayers for the families and friends affected by this unthinkable tragedy. We sincerely appreciate the expressions of sympathy and support we have received from so many in the Kansas City and NFL communities, and ask for continued prayers for the loved ones of those impacted. We will continue to fully cooperate with the authorities and work to ensure that the approporiate counseling resources are available to all members of the organization.”

In a video titled “Belcher’s drive to succeed helps team and self” posted on the Chiefs website Nov. 21, Belcher commented on what he was most thankful for leading into the Thanksgiving holiday: “First and foremost, God. Family and friends just keeping me focused, coaches and just everyone.”

The video was removed this afternoon.

Belcher, originally from Long Island, N.Y., had been with the Chiefs for four years. He joined the team as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Maine.

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Sony’s radical PlayStation 4 controller concept: A motion-control device you can split in half

While Nintendo (NTDOY) has been busy innovating with unique controllers on the Wii and Wii U, Sony’s (SNE) DualShock controller for its PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 has remained virtually the same since 1997. A newly discovered patent reveals Sony might be planning on a radical overhaul of the DualShock for the PlayStation 4 that’s rumored to arrive next year. U.S. patent 20120302347A1 details a “hybrid separable motion controller” that resembles a DualShock controller with two PlayStation Move sensor balls attached to it. Much like how the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller combo separated the left and right hand input, the Sony controller patent goes one step further by allowing the two halves to be split and combined at any time – all without reducing the amount of buttons available.

The patent also highlights the inclusion of a “connection sensor for determining whether the controller is in a connected configuration or a disconnected configuration.”

One of the PlayStation Move’s biggest disadvantages is that it’s a separate controller and not the default one. As a result, most developers either saw it as merely a Wii Remote clone or as a niche controller with a limited install base not worth programming special controls for. If Sony were to include proper 1:1 motion controls within the default PS4 controller without turning its back on the “core” controller, it could greatly appeal to casual and core gamers.

Such a controller can be considered a natural evolution of the current DualShock 3 controller that sports limited motion controls using its three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope.

Of course, the controller is only a patent that may never make it to market, so don’t get your hopes up if it doesn’t happen.

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Show sheds light on Handel’s hidden “Messiah” helper

LONDON (Reuters) – Anyone dusting off their copy of George Frederic Handel‘s “Messiah” in the run-up to Christmas this year might spare a thought for the unsung hero of the piece.

Without Charles Jennens, experts argue that the 18th century oratorio would never have been created, robbing Western choral music of one of its greatest works.

Handel House Museum, located in the cozy London home where the German-born composer spent much of his life, is seeking to put the record straight about a man who, for many reasons, has been passed over by history.

“The Messiah would not have been written without him,” said the museum’s director Sarah Bardwell of Jennens, who lived from 1700 to 1773.

For landowner and patron of the arts Jennens, the words to the Messiah were an expression of deeply held Protestant beliefs, and he was determined that Handel, a composer he had long championed, set it to music.

The words, famously opening with “Comfort ye”, are not Jennens’ own but carefully selected verses from the Bible as well as a small number of psalms from the Book of Common Prayer.

“If you listen to the words it’s all to do with your relationship with God as in the individual, there’s none of the big theological questions,” Bardwell told Reuters.

“Everyone can relate to the Messiah, even beyond Christianity on some level,” she added. “I think that’s why Jennens is so instrumental.”

FRIEND AND BENEFACTOR

Jennens, whose family fortune came from iron, was a friend of Handel and a major backer, subscribing to his music and providing the texts for “Saul”, “Belshazzar”, “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato” and probably “Israel in Egypt”.

So important did Handel consider Jennens that he referred to “your oratorio Messiah” in a letter to the librettist and made a detour on his way home from its premiere in Dublin to visit Jennens and tell him of its success with audiences.

The exhibition, “The Man Behind Messiah”, includes Handel’s autographed score of Saul which Jennens also annotated, suggesting changes to the composer’s work including a different entry point for the words “impious wretch”.

Yet Jennens’ name never appeared on scores, helping to explain why his contribution is largely unknown. An intensely private man, Jennens had reasons for remaining anonymous.

As a “non-juror”, or someone who did not endorse the Hanoverian royal dynasty that succeeded the House of Stuart, he was effectively barred from holding positions of authority.

And when, late in life, he published groundbreaking single-volume editions of some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, he was attacked by a rival, Shakespearean commentator George Steevens (Eds: correct), and, thus, once again overlooked.

“It’s another reason he becomes kind of cut out of history,” Bardwell explained. “It’s been a fascinating insight into how people can just be written out of history.”

Ironically, despite his fundamental role in the Messiah and some of Handel’s other great oratorios, Jennens was not the biggest fan of a work that took less than a month to compose.

“He just thought Handel maybe rushed it off too quickly,” said Bardwell. Ruth Smith, the curator of the exhibition, believes Handel had the manuscript for about 18 months before he started work on it.

“For it to be rattled off in three weeks, I think Jennens felt that maybe he hadn’t done himself justice.

“I don’t think he ever quite got over his opinion that it wasn’t as good as he had hoped it was going to be. I think that also doesn’t help his reputation. I’m not sure he ever quite recovered from that.”

The Man Behind Messiah runs until April 14, 2013.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White)

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Jewel parent says sale talks proceeding

Exterior of Jewel-Osco's first "Green Store" located at 370 N. Desplaines in Chicago. (Antonio Perez / November 29, 2012)

By Emily Bryson York




Chicago Tribune reporter

6:51 a.m. CST, November 30, 2012

Supervalu, the Minneapolis-based parent of Jewel-Osco said sale talks are proceeding after stock closed down more than 18 percent Thursday, to $2.28.

The beleaguered grocery chain was likely moving to combat reports that sale talks with suitor Cerberus Capital Management had stalled over funding.

"The company continues to be in active discussion with several parties," according to the statement. "There can be no assurance that this process will result in any transaction or any change in the Company's overall structure or its business model."

Supervalu, the third-largest U.S. grocery chain, has acknowledged sale talks since the spring. The company has been closing stores and cutting jobs as it has underperformed competitors like Dominick's parent Safeway and Kroger.

If Supervalu does not sell to Cerberus, it may have to restructure on its own or sell off individual assets, which could have big tax consequences, Bloomberg said.

Reuters reported last month that buyout firm Cerberus was preparing a takeover bid for Supervalu, the third-largest U.S. supermarket chain.

Cerberus officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

-- Reuters contributed to this report

In addition to Jewel, Supervalu owns Albertsons, Cub and other regional grocery chains.

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Powerball jackpot winner: 'We'll have a good Christmas'

A 52-year-old Missouri mechanic and his wife claimed their share Friday of the record $588 million Powerball jackpot. ( Source: Associated Press)

Dearborn, Mo.—

A Missouri couple who won half of a record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot said on Friday they plan to stay put in their rural community, but know their lives will be changed.

“I think we'll have a good Christmas,” Cindy Hill said at a news conference where she and her husband, Mark Hill, were presented as winners of the jackpot by the Missouri Lottery.

Cindy Hill, 51, is a former office manager who got laid off in 2010. Mark Hill, 52, was a mechanic for Hillshire Brands, a food company, but has now quit his job.

They have three grown sons and a 6-year-old daughter adopted from China who were among about 25 relatives at the news conference, held in the gymnasium of the high school where they were sweethearts in the 1970s.

Cindy Hill first learned of the winning ticket on Thursday when she checked her numbers at the Trex Mart in Dearborn, a community of about 500 people 30 miles (50 km) north of Kansas City. She then called Mark Hill from her car. They had bought five tickets.

“I think I'm going to have a heart attack,” she told him. He told her to meet him at his mother's house so he could check the numbers for himself. “He said this is the ‘Show Me State,' show me.”

When they verified the numbers, they traveled to lottery offices in Jefferson City, Missouri, spent the night in a hotel and tried to comprehend what happened, Cindy Hill said.

“I thought ‘This isn't what I thought it would be like, now I'm really nervous,” she said. “I'm grateful, but there will be some not-so-good stuff to go along with it.” Earlier, she said “You are going to get people coming out of the woodwork and some of them many not be too sane.”

She said she and her husband plan to make the most of the winnings by giving to charity, to relatives for college education and other needs, and to the community.

“We are pretty well-grounded and worked hard all our lives,” Cindy Hill said.

Mark Hill deferred to his wife for most of the news conference, which was observed by about 300 students from grades 7 to 12 in the bleachers.

“It's all just kind of a fuzz,” Mark Hill said.

He said he has not grasped winning the money. On Thursday, for example, he went to buy toothpaste and other items to take to the hotel and found himself checking the price.

A CAMARO AND A HORSE

Cindy Hill said her husband wants a red Chevrolet Camaro car and she wants a horse. Daughter Jaiden wants a pony, Cindy Hill said. They also plan to travel, including a holiday with a lot of relatives in tow, she said.

The Hills won $293,750,000 before taxes. But they will take it in a lump sum of about $193 million rather than the larger amount over 30 years.

The Hills shared the Powerball payout with someone who bought a ticket at a food store in Fountain Hills, Arizona, on the outskirts of Phoenix. The Arizona winner has not yet come forward.

Some states allow lottery winners to remain anonymous but Missouri requires that the winner be publicly identified to claim the prize.

Dearborn reveled in its sudden arrival in the spotlight.

“It was a total surprise,” Don Palmer, a customer at the Trex Mart convenience store, said on Thursday. “Nothing ever happens in Dearborn.”

The winning numbers were 5, 16, 22, 23, 29, and the Powerball number 6.

The odds of winning the jackpot with a $2 ticket is one in more than 175 million.

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Study: DVRs now in half of US pay-TV homes

NEW YORK (AP) — A new survey finds that digital video recorders are now in more than half of all U.S. homes that subscribe to cable or satellite TV services.

Leichtman Research Group‘s survey of 1,300 households found that 52 percent of the ones that have pay-TV service also have a DVR. That translates to about 45 percent of all households and is up from 13.5 percent of all households surveyed five years ago by another firm, Nielsen.

The first DVRs came out in 1999, from TiVo Inc. and ReplayTV. Later, they were built into cable set-top boxes. The latest trend is “whole-home” DVRs that can distribute recorded shows to several sets.

Even with the spread of DVRs, live TV rules. Nielsen found last year that DVRs accounted for 8 percent of TV watching.

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No charges against Chris Brown in Fla. phone grab

MIAMI (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown won’t be charged with a crime after a woman claimed he snatched her cell phone when she tried to take his photo outside a Miami Beach club.

A memo released Friday by the Miami-Dade County State Attorney‘s office concludes there is no evidence that Brown intended to steal the phone in February or that he deleted the photo. One or the other is necessary for him to be charged.

Prosecutors say that Brown tossed the phone from his limo and that it was picked up by security.

A felony charge against the 24-year-old might have triggered a violation of his probation for his 2009 assault on singer Rihanna, who was his girlfriend at the time. The two have recently collaborated on a new duet.

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Jewel parent says sale talks proceeding

Exterior of Jewel-Osco's first "Green Store" located at 370 N. Desplaines in Chicago. (Antonio Perez / November 29, 2012)

By Emily Bryson York




Chicago Tribune reporter

6:51 a.m. CST, November 30, 2012

Supervalu, the Minneapolis-based parent of Jewel-Osco said sale talks are proceeding after stock closed down more than 18 percent Thursday, to $2.28.

The beleaguered grocery chain was likely moving to combat reports that sale talks with suitor Cerberus Capital Management had stalled over funding.

"The company continues to be in active discussion with several parties," according to the statement. "There can be no assurance that this process will result in any transaction or any change in the Company's overall structure or its business model."

Supervalu, the third-largest U.S. grocery chain, has acknowledged sale talks since the spring. The company has been closing stores and cutting jobs as it has underperformed competitors like Dominick's parent Safeway and Kroger.

If Supervalu does not sell to Cerberus, it may have to restructure on its own or sell off individual assets, which could have big tax consequences, Bloomberg said.

Reuters reported last month that buyout firm Cerberus was preparing a takeover bid for Supervalu, the third-largest U.S. supermarket chain.

Cerberus officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

-- Reuters contributed to this report

In addition to Jewel, Supervalu owns Albertsons, Cub and other regional grocery chains.

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Winning tickets sought in $588 million jackpot

The search is on for the country's newest multimillionaires, the holders of two tickets that matched all six numbers to claim a record $588 million Powerball jackpot.

Lottery officials said Thursday that the winning tickets matching all six numbers were sold at a convenience store in suburban Phoenix and a gas station just off Interstate 29 in a small northwestern Missouri town. Neither ticket holder had come forward.

The mystery fueled a giddy mood at the Trex Mart just outside Dearborn, Mo. — population 500 — as lottery officials and the media descended.

Cashiers Kristi Williams and Kelly Blount greeted customers with big smiles and questions about whether they had bought the winning ticket. No one had come forward to claim the prize by late Thursday morning, Missouri Lottery officials said.

"It's just awesome," Williams said. "It's so exciting. We can't even work."

The winning ticket sold in Arizona was purchased at a 4 Sons Food Store in Fountain Hills, Ariz., state lottery officials said.

In Dearborn, Williams said several local people buy lottery tickets there regularly and workers were hoping it was one of their regulars.

But Baron Hartell, son of the store's owner, Lowell Hartell, said truck drivers moving in both directions on the north-south interstate that connects Kansas City to the Canadian border who frequent the store are also considered locals.

"Even the truck drivers who come around, we see them every day, so they all feel like all locals to us," he said.

Store manager Chris Naurez said business had been "crazy" for Powerball tickets lately and that the store had sold about $27,000 worth of tickets in the last few days.

"This really puts Dearborn on the map," he said.

The general manager of Trex Mart suggested his staff would be sharing in the $50,000 bounty that the store will be awarded for selling one of the winning tickets.

"The response from the owner was, 'I guess we'll be able to give out Christmas bonuses,'" General Manager Kenny Gilbert said. "That's nice, especially at this time of year."

It appeared the winners had yet to come forward, and it wasn't clear if the tickets had been bought by individuals or groups. Winners have 180 days to claim their share of the prize money.

The numbers drawn Wednesday night were 5, 16, 22, 23, 29. The Powerball was 6. The $587.5 million payout represents the second-largest jackpot in U.S. history.

"If you find you're holding the winning ticket, be sure you sign the back and put it in a safe place until you can take it to a Missouri Lottery office," said May Scheve Reardon, executive director of the Missouri Lottery. "You will also want to get some legal and financial advice before you claim."

Americans went on a ticket-buying spree in the run-up to Wednesday's drawing, the big money enticing many people who rarely, if ever, play the lottery to purchase a shot at the second-largest payout in U.S. history.

Tickets sold at a rate of 130,000 a minute nationwide — about six times the volume from a week ago. That pushed the jackpot even higher, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association. The jackpot rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner.

In a Mega Millions drawing in March, three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot. This remains the largest lottery payout of all time.

___

Skoloff reported from Fountain Hills, Ariz.

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Womens’ stories dominate 2013 Sundance film lineup

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Sundance Film Festival, the top U.S. film festival for independent cinema, on Wednesday unveiled its lineup for 2013, with films centered on female characters dominating the American fiction film competition.

The 113 feature length movies, including both narrative films and documentaries, cover a range of topics, but more than half of those chosen for the U.S. dramatic competition focus on stories about women, including several about females exploring sexual relationships.

That includes “May In The Summer,” director Cherien Dabis’s new film about a bride-to-be forced to re-evaluate her life when she reunites with her family in Jordan that is one of 16 films in the U.S. dramatic competition.

It will kick off Sundance on January 17 as one of four first-night screenings that will comprise of one feature and one documentary from each of the U.S. films and world cinema sections – movies made outside the United States.

Overall, 4,044 feature films from around the world were submitted for the festival that is backed by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute for filmmaking and is the premiere U.S. event for movies made outside Hollywood’s major studios.

Indie films from Sundance festivals that have gone on to critical success include last year’s winner, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” as well as “The Sessions,” and “Little Miss Sunshine” and “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Other features about female journeys include writer director Lynn Shelton’s “Touchy Feely,” about a massage therapist unable to do her job when she suddenly has an aversion to bodily contact.

“There are a lot of women’s stories, and interestingly enough, a lot of those stories exploring sexual relationships,” the festival’s program director Trevor Groth said in an interview, noting it was a natural extension of an increase in female directors.

“We have had some over the years that have been from a male gaze looking at sexual politics and sexual relationships, but this year we have got a wave of films doing that from a female perspective, which is intriguing and exciting.”

Those include “Afternoon Delight”, a dark comedy about a lost L.A. housewife who takes in a young stripper, “Concussion”, about a woman in a lesbian relationship who becomes a call girl, and “The Lifeguard”, about a reporter who quits her job in New York and moves back home to Connecticut.

Stories from the male perspective include “C.O.G.”, the first film adaptation of comic writer David Sedaris. Adapted from a short story from Sedaris’ best-selling 1997 essay collection, “Naked”, Sedaris has co-written the screenplay about a cocky man traveling to Oregon to work on an apple farm.

PUNK PRAYERS

Other “Day One” screenings include “Crystal Fairy”, about two strangers on a road trip in Chile, and the documentaries “Twenty Feet From Stardom”, about backup singers for some of the biggest bands in pop music and “Who Is Dayani Cristal?”, about the search for an anonymous body in the Arizona desert.

Nonfiction films from the world documentary section tackle subjects ranging from Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot in “Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer”, to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake “Fallen City” to Google’s quest to build a giant digital library “Google and the World Brain”.

And returning to the United States, among American documentaries are an examination of the occupy Wall Street movement “99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film”, “Dirty Wars” about America’s covert wars and “Manhunt” that looks inside the CIA’s conflict against Al Qaeda.

Festival director John Cooper noted the strength and “immediacy” of the documentary lineup and “the way these films explain and expose the issues of our time, like economic inequality, corporate corruption and greed, the problems and sometimes the solutions of living in this information age”.

Movies in the Premieres section, which unlike the competition sections feature more established directors, will be announced December 3.

Overall, this year’s festival will feature movies from 32 countries and 51 first-time filmmakers. The festival begins on January 17, 2012 and runs through January 27.

(Reporting By Christine Kearney, editing by Patricia Reaney)

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