THE SHOW: 01/27/2010 - CARY COLEMAN OK WITH PICS / HAITI AND THE WILL TO SURVIVE / ANOTHER RECALL!!

Local Buzz:
"Police Charge 17-Year-Old With Attempted Murder"

*NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A 17-year-old was put behind bars Wednesday morning after being accused of shooting another teen during a fight in North Nashville.
Police said 17-year old Jerry Lillard was shot after a fight with the suspect on Hinkle Street. Witnesses said Lillard was able to walk to a nearby porch after the shooting and talked to a neighbor until EMS arrived.
The 17-year-old alleged gunman was charged with attempted murder in juvenile court.
Lillard remained hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

"Metro School Board Settles Lawsuit, Pays $1.2 Million"

*NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Metro School Board reached a settlement with a family who claims their child was assaulted on a Metro school bus.
Metro schools agreed to pay $1.2 million to Kimberly Lopez-Ruiz and her autistic son Gilbert.
In May 2007, police said special education student Kolby Ryan Harris raped 9-year-old Gilbert.
Police accused then 19-year-old Harris of forcing Gilbert to perform a sex act behind the driver of a small, special education bus.
Lopez-Ruiz, found out about the assault six days after it happened.
After learning that Gilbert was the second special needs student to be sexually assaulted on a special education bus in one year's time, Lopez-Ruiz filed a class action lawsuit against Metro School Board.
The lawsuit was settled Tuesday.
Since then Metro has put monitors and cameras on special education buses.

"Tennesseans Anticipate State Of The Union Message"

*NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Many Tennesseans will watch President Obama's State of the Union, with a keen ear on what he plans to do about unemployment.
Tennessee's unemployment rate last month was 10.9 percent, that's above the national rate of 10 percent.
The President's union address is expected to focus on what will be done to improve the job situation in the country.
The recession hit Tennessee hard over the past year. Nashville area home sales dropped into the double digits, something that hasn't happened in more than a decade.
Foreclosures forced by job loss has been prevalent throughout the state.
Many in Middle Tennessee have concerns with the budget deficit, although stimulus funds have assisted the state government along with other agencies.
"It wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit if he stopped right there and focused with intensity on those three items - jobs, debt, and terror - until he has them going in a better direction and then we could get on to dealing with other issues," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, (R).

Top Stories:
"Man Pulled Alive From Haiti Rubble 14 Days After Quake"

*A crowd of Haitian looters called for help from U.S. soldiers on Tuesday after finding a man buried in the rubble of a building that had been repeatedly scavenged since the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince two weeks ago.
A witness told Reuters the man, covered in dust and wearing only underwear, was rescued by soldiers from the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division at a ruined building on Rue de Miracle in downtown Port-au-Prince.
The Americans treated Rico Dibrivell, 35, for a broken leg and severe dehydration. Dibrivell said he had been trapped under the building since the Jan. 12 quake.
The military provided no details about how he managed to survive, saying only in a statement late Tuesday that Dibrivell's family said he had been missing for two weeks.
"He got sent to the hospital. He’s going to make it," Specialist Andrew Pourak, one of the rescuers, said.
More than 100 people have been unearthed by rescue teams since the quake, and many more by their neighbors, but most of those were in the immediate aftermath and authorities say it is unlikely for anyone to survive more than 72 hours without water. On Saturday, an international team of rescuers unearthed a shop clerk who they believed had been buried since the earthquake.
Hundreds of thousands of other hungry and thirsty children are scattered among Port-au-Prince's squatter camps of survivors, without protection against disease or child predators — often with nobody to care for them.
"There's an estimated 1 million unaccompanied or orphaned children or children who lost one parent," said Kate Conradt, a spokeswoman for the aid group Save the Children. "They are extremely vulnerable."
The U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, has established a special tent camp for girls and boys separated from their parents in the Jan. 12 quake, and who are in danger of falling prey to child traffickers and other abusers. The Connecticut-based Save the Children has set up "Child Spaces" in 13 makeshift settlements. The Red Cross and other groups are working to reunite families and get children into orphanages.

"North, South Korea Exchange Shots"

*SEOUL—North Korea fired artillery shells into the water near its maritime border with South Korea in two separate incidents Wednesday, prompting warning shots from the South.
The exchange, which caused no injuries or damage, underscored the divergent tracks relations between the two countries are taking, as peaceful negotiations are punctuated by bellicose rhetoric and occasional hostile actions.
South Korean defense officials said Wednesday that they fired warnings shots into the air from a nearby island in response. North Korea's state media issued a statement saying the firings were part of a military drill. The country earlier this week declared an area in the Yellow Sea near the inter-Korean maritime border as a "no sail" zone. Wednesday's firings occurred from positions on North Korea's southwest coast and did not cross into South Korean water.
The episode is part of a trend taking place over the past few months between North and South. While the militaries from the two countries have been steadily provoking and criticizing each other, economic and humanitarian discussions between the two are proceeding openly. The discussions are part of North Korea's recent effort to secure some economic help and a break from sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council after it tested a nuclear explosive last May.
South Korea's defense ministry said the North's firing created "unnecessary tension." But the leader of South Korea's Unification Ministry, which deals with North Korea, said it wouldn't cause the South to delay plans to meet with counterparts from the North next week on economic matters.
Last week, North Korean military officials criticized South Korea's defense minister after he said in a speech that the South would attack the North if it detected North Korea planning to use nuclear weapons against the South.
In November, naval ships from the two Koreas that were sailing near the maritime border traded gunfire for the first time in seven years. A North Korean patrol boat strayed across the maritime border and ignored messages from a South Korean vessel warning it to turn around, the South's defense ministry said at the time.
After the South Korean patrol boat fired a warning shot, the North Korean vessel fired more than 50 rounds, with at least 15 hitting the South Korean boat. The South Korean vessel returned a barrage of more than 100 rounds, setting fire to the North Korean ship. That ship reportedly made it safely back to port in North Korea.
Separately, South Korea's intelligence agency on Wednesday issued a new alert about cyber attacks on government networks, though it didn't specify a nation of origin. In June, it blamed North Korea for a series of attacks that denied service to business and government Web sites in the U.S. and South Korea.

"Ban slams the brakes on texting by truckers"

*President Barack Obama to truckers: Keep your hands on the wheel and save your text messages for later. Obama's transportation secretary on Tuesday banned truckers and commercial bus drivers from sending and receiving text messages, leaving the Texas Department of Public Safety scrambling to figure out how to enforce it.
The new rules, first broached last fall but announced with little warning Tuesday, carry stiff fines and prohibit sending or receiving text messages by truckers and commercial bus drivers, as well as by some local drivers, such as Dallas Area Rapid Transit operators.
"Today we're sending a strong message," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. "We don't merely expect you to share the road responsibly with other travelers – we require you to do so."
It's the latest in a Washington campaign to make drivers keep their eyes on the road in an age of wireless devices increasingly prone to distract them.

"Hillary Clinton blames Nigeria leaders for extremism"

*She pointed to poor living standards and "unbelievable" corruption.
Mrs Clinton was speaking after a young Nigerian man from a wealthy family was accused of trying to blow up a plane over the US on Christmas Day.
She said she believed that bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was "disturbed by his father's wealth".
The Nigerian government has not responded to Mrs Clinton's criticism.
Anti-state uprisings
Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil exporters but most of its people live in poverty.
With its large impoverished Muslim population and oil industry, Western diplomats have long feared that Nigeria could be a prime target for al-Qaeda.
But there have been no known al-Qaeda attacks in the country.
However, there have been several violent uprisings against the state by local radical Muslim sects.
Mrs Clinton was speaking at a "town hall" meeting with state department officials. "I do think that Nigeria faces a threat from increasing radicalisation that needs to be addressed, and not just by military means," she said.
"There has to be a recognition that, in the last 10 years, a lot of the indicators about quality of life in Nigeria have gone the wrong direction.
"The information we have on the Christmas Day bomber so far seems to suggest that he was disturbed by his father's wealth and the kind of living conditions that he viewed as being not Islamic enough."
Following the alleged plot, security screening for Nigerians travelling to the US has been tightened.
Nigeria's government has condemned the measures, saying 150 million Nigerians should not be blamed for the actions of one man.
Nigerian officials have also sought to distance their country from the alleged bomber - stressing that he left the country 10 years ago.
Mr Abdulmutallab has reportedly admitted undergoing military training with al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.

Celeb News:
"Source: Michael Jackson's Kids May Appear at Grammys"

*Will the King of Pop's kids be singing his praises this weekend?
A source tells E! News exclusively that Grammy Awards producers have been making a last-minute effort to incorporate in some capacity Michael Jackson's children—Prince Michael, Paris and Blanket—into Sunday night's tribute to their late father.

"Gary Coleman OKs Nude Scene for Bail Money"

*Gary Coleman apparently found himself caught between a rock and a gross place.
The producers of Midgets vs. Mascots, a straight-to-DVD mockumentary about five little people competing against five mascots for $1 million, announced today that Coleman has reluctantly OK'd the use of a shot of his genitals that he says was used in the film without his permission.
Coleman is reluctantly agreeing to it because it was Midgets' producers who bailed him out of jail yesterday.

"Conan Not Quite Done With NBC"

*There may be a legal drama in the future for Conan O'Brien and NBC after all.
The funnyman's former network has picked up the pilot of a one-hour show called Justice from from O'Brien's production company, Conaco, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Aside from being prohibited to come within 500 yards of 11:30 and the embargo on badmouthing NBC, another clause in O'Brien's $45 million exit deal you may not have known about was that his production shingle would stay with NBC Universal until the end of development season (when networks pick up shows for the coming fall).
O'Brien signed off Friday after less than eight months hosting the Tonight Show, paving the way for Jay Leno to reclaim the job on March 1.

Relationship:
"After 150, Facebook friends are meaningless"

*In the 1990s Professor Dunbar developed a theory that the volume of the neocortex, the part of the brain involved with language and conscious thought, can only manage active relationships with around 150 friends — Dunbar’s Number — regardless of how many friends a person has either online or offline. On sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, it is easy to collect 1,500 "friends” or more, but Dunbar said that when you examine the traffic, people maintain relationships only with an inner circle of no more than 150 people, as they do outside the online environment.
Dunbar reached the value of Dunbar’s number by studying a wide range of societies throughout history, including social circles from Neolithic and Roman times, to the modern office, and in non-human primates. The value of 150 is an approximation and there is no precise value, but Dunbar found that social groups larger than around this number tended to splinter.
Professor Dunbar’s findings are backed up by Cameron Marlow, a research scientist with Facebook, who said last year he had found Facebook users only communicate regularly with a small core of their listed friends.
In a study to be published later this year, Professor Dunbar applied his theory to Facebook to find out if Dunbar’s Number was exceeded in the online environment. To do this, he compared the traffic at the site of people with thousands of friends to those with hundreds or less, and found there was no discernible difference between them.
His findings suggest Dunbar’s Number is not exceeded, and the brain cannot expand its ability to have meaningful relationships with more people, even in the virtual world. Dunbar defined a meaningful relationship as one in which you contact people at least annually, and in which you understand the relationships between the person and others in your circle of friends.
Dunbar’s findings also showed women were better than men at maintaining Facebook relationships, which Dunbar said suggested women could relate to friends just by "talking” to each other, while males need to "do physical stuff together.”
Psychologists warning that sites like Facebook produce insecurity through encouraging a "friendship addiction,” or an urge to amass a large number of friends to prove people are popular, will no doubt welcome Professor Dunbar’s findings.

A health note:
"FDA recalls two million needles for infusion sets"

*WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has recalled more than two million needles made by a Japanese firm over fears they can introduce silicone fragments in patients' bodies.
The FDA said in a statement Tuesday that Nipro Medical Corp. had taken back products made between January 2007 and August 2009 after inspections in October last year showed between 60 and 72 percent of the needles were defective.
The needles are used to access ports implanted under the skin of chronically ill patients so that blood can be withdrawn or medications infused repeatedly.
Testing showed that when the needles were inserted into the port they sometimes produced slivers or "cores" of silicone, which could be flushed into the patient's body with adverse results.
Although 20 manufacturers produce the needles, only those made by Nipro were found to frequently result in coring.
"We will continue to work with manufacturers to address coring issues as quickly and thoroughly as possible," said Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA?s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

Today in Black History:
"Mahalia Jackson"

*January 27, 1972 - Gospel music legend Mahalia Jackson dies this day in Evergreen Park,ILL.

"Wal-Marvel Comics"

*With the obvious exception of Bubba in the green tank top in the back, can you pick out a single villain you would be scared of or a single hero that you would trust to save you? ~ Unknown

Thought for the day:

" In your hands you hold the seeds of failure or the potential for greatness. Your hands are capable, but they must be used and for the right things to reap the rewards you are capable of attaining. The choice is yours." ~ Zig Ziglar