THE SHOW: 12/21/2009 - Woman Behind Bars After Killing Pedestrian / Titans hammer Rams, 47-7 / Brittany Murphy's Death / TINA, MATHEW KNOWLES!!

Local Buzz:
"Woman Behind Bars After Killing Pedestrian"

*NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A pedestrian was struck and killed in Madison Sunday night, and Monday morning the driver was behind bars.
Metro police said the male pedestrian, who was in his 50s, died Sunday around 10:30 p.m. at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The victim was struck by a car around 8:30 p.m. on North Gallatin Pike.
Investigators said they believe the driver of the car, Angela Marie Shankle, was under the influence of either alcohol or drugs.
Police also suspect Shankle in another hit and run at the RiverGate Target earlier that Sunday night.
Shankle was charged with unlawful use of drug paraphernalia, drug possession without a prescription and DUI. Other charges were likely.

*NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee Highway Patrol will set up more than 100 checkpoints across the state during the rest of the year to arrest impaired drivers and other violators.
Highway Patrol Col. Mike Walker issued this warning: "If we catch you, we will arrest you. No exceptions. No excuses."
Violators often face jail time, the loss of their driver's license, higher insurance rates and dozens of other unanticipated expenses. These include attorney fees, other fines and court costs, towing and repairs, plus lost time at work.

"Tennessean Without Electricity On First Day Of Winter"

*JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - A powerful snow storm moved through Middle Tennessee over the weekend, and Monday morning thousands of Tennesseans were still without electricity on the first official day of winter.
In places like Johnson City, in east Tennessee, crews were still working Monday to restore services and clear roads.
The story, much worse in the Northeast, dumped record snow in some parts of the mid-Atlantic.

*One said: "Woman who killed preacher husband gets custody of their three children."
The other read: "Woman on death row loses her last appeal."
There are many striking factual similarities — and one stark difference — in the tragic stories of Mary Winkler and Gaile Owens, two Tennessee women who killed their abusive husbands 20 years apart.
Court documents in the separate cases recite the similarities:
• Both women, raised as fundamentalist Christians, suffered severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse from the spouses they killed.
• Both had small children — Winkler three daughters and Owens two sons — all younger than 12 at the time of the murders.
• Both of them were examined — some 20 years apart — by the same psychologist, Dr. Lynne Zager of Memphis, who said that both suffered from battered woman's syndrome — a condition that courts have recognized as "a female who is the victim of consistent, severe domestic violence."
• Both had concealed from relatives and close friends the suffering they endured at the hands of their husbands; both minimized the abuse when first questioned by police.
• Both were in financially troubled marriages and constantly were blamed by their husbands for being "spendthrift wives." Winkler had kited checks and argued with her husband about money the night before she killed him. Owens had stolen money from her employer, a doctor.
• Both women confessed when questioned by police, and both told the officers they blamed themselves for problems in their marriages.
• In both cases, the spousal abuse included lurid sexual details. In Owens' case, the sexual encounters were more violent and also involved her husband's extramarital affairs.
Mary Winkler's husband, Matthew, was a Church of Christ minister in Selmer in West Tennessee. In 2006, while he was in bed, she confronted him with a shotgun in an effort to discuss their marriage. With her children in the house, she shot him in the back, shattering his spine. Without calling 911, she left him to bleed to death while she drove with her daughters toward an Alabama beach.
read more: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091220/NEWS03/912200335/1017/news

The Titans did what they were supposed to do on Sunday — beat a lousy team and keep their postseason dreams flickering with three games remaining.
Thanks to some help, at the end of the day they found themselves just one game away from the final playoff spot.
But not everything was rosy following a 47-7 blowout of the Rams at LP Field.
Quarterback Vince Young left the game with an injured right hamstring in the second quarter and did not return. The player who’s been instrumental in the team’s climb from rock bottom is now a question mark heading into another critical game next Sunday against the Dolphins (7-6).
Young was injured as he completed a 44-yard run. Kerry Collins came off the bench with a 14-0 lead and guided the Titans (6-7) the rest of the way.
Later in the locker room, Young was upbeat, even doing a Santa Claus impersonation with a "Ho, ho, ho” when he was approached by a youngster.
Coach Jeff Fisher called the injury a "mild” hamstring injury. Young and Fisher said they would be careful moving forward, however.
"We’ll see. I don’t want to speak too fast right now,’’ Young said of his status for next week. "I am just going to go in and rehab it and get it back strong.
"Safety-wise, like I always say, I’m going to listen to the doctors and do what they say. It is all right. I don’t really feel too much pain. It is not too sore, so that is a good thing.’’
Young indicated he told Fisher he didn’t want to go back in the game because of concerns about making the injury worse. Young spent the second half on the sideline, riding a stationary bike at times.
Young, who completed 6-of-8 passes for 154 yards and a touchdown before leaving the game, missed practice time late last week because of a sore right knee.
That injury might have contributed to his hamstring strain. Young said he was unable to do his regular running — usually a few miles — during the course of the week.

Top Stories:
"Senate Democrats get 60 votes to move healthcare bill along"

*Reporting from Washington - The Senate took a giant step toward passing its sweeping healthcare bill early today, uniting fractious Democrats after months of debate over President Obama's promise to reduce the ranks of the uninsured.
Breaking the Republican filibuster required the votes of all 60 members of the Democratic caucus. The cloture motion, which passed 60 to 40, capped months of work by Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who personally negotiated compromises on big issues such as abortion and taxes, as well as parochial deals for key states and industries.
But with final Senate approval of the bill expected this week, Democrats and the White House were moving to shift the focus from their dozens of concessions -- such as jettisoning a government alternative to private health insurance -- toward the momentous changes they said it would bring: providing insurance access to 31 million more Americans, cracking down on insurance practices, and beginning to curb healthcare cost inflation.
"I wish this bill were different," Assistant Majority Leader Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said on the Senate floor Sunday, reflecting liberals' unhappiness over some compromises with conservatives in the party.
"But my disappointment . . . shouldn't lead me to conclude that this bill is wanting or this bill is bad. Just the opposite is true. . . . We have to look at the positive side of what this legislation will do."
Opinion polls indicate that the public's support for the healthcare overhaul is waning. Hoping to reverse that slide, Democrats and the White House are intensifying efforts to reshape public perception of the bill as a glass half full, not half empty.
"This is a historic crossroads," David Axelrod, senior Obama advisor, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Seven presidents have tried to pass comprehensive health insurance reform, seven presidents have failed. We're on the doorstep of getting it done."

*Police have arrested five men accused of stealing the infamous sign from Auschwitz last Friday. (CNN) -- Police in Poland have recovered the infamous sign stolen from the front gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp and arrested five men.

*James Cameron's 3-D epic rakes in an estimated $232 million worldwide, despite snow on the East Coast that held its North American box-office sales to $73 million.

*Brittany Murphy has died at the age of 32. Murphy suffered cardiac arrest at the home of her husband, Simon Monjack, and was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she was pronounced dead at 10:04 a.m. Following the shocking news of Brittany Murphy’s death yesterday morning, the star’s showbiz friends – and fans – have taken to Twitter to leave their tributes.
Brittany, who featured in the hit Clueless and rose to stardom after acting alongside Eminem in 8 Mile, died in Los Angeles at 10am of natural causes, a coroner's official said.
Brittany, 32, has denied rumours of drug use and eating disorders in the past.

"TINA, MATHEW KNOWLES: Divorcing"

*In a statement acknowledging that she filed for divorce last month, Tina Knowles calls the split from Mathew Knowles amicable. She writes, "We remain friends, parents and business partners. If anyone is expecting an ugly, messy fight, they will be sadly disappointed. We ask for your respect of our privacy as we handle this matter."
Tina's move to end the couple's 30-year marriage came a month after Mathew was named in a paternity suit by Alexsandra Wright, a Los Angeles woman who claims she is carrying his child.

"IVANA TO HUBBY: YOU'RE FIRED!"

*The fourth time wasn't the charm for Ivana Trump, who filed for divorce from her most recent hubby on Friday in New York City.
The Donald's ex and Rossano Rubicondi were married just shy of two years and never even had a honeymoon. Ivana issued a statement saying, "Given my extensive business interests around the globe, it has become increasingly difficult for us to find time together. With sadness, I say it is time to move on. I wish Rossano well."

*One of Jon Bon Jovi's sons was taken to the hospital early this morning.
Law enforcement sources in Middletown, NJ tell TMZ a call was placed from Bon Jovi's home at around 2:20 AM. Because of weather conditions, an SUV transported the boy to a local hospital instead of an ambulance.
He was taken to Rierview Medical Center in Redbank, NJ and released early this morning. We don't know the nature of the emergency.

"'Dance Crew' Judge Busted for Child Molestation"

*Shane Sparks -- a judge on the MTV show "America's Best Dance Crew" -- has been arrested and charged with 8 counts of child molestation.
The LAPD took Sparks into custody at 8AM PT this morning on a felony warrant charging him with molestation.
The alleged incidents began occurring in 1994 and continued for several years. According to the criminal complaint Shane allegedly committed the crimes of lewd acts upon a child -- all felonies. There is only one alleged victim.
The criminal complaint -- filed by the L.A. County District Attorney's office -- charged Sparks with 8 incidents of alleged molestation with an underage girl. There was a clerical error in the D.A.'s charging documents -- there are actually only 8 counts -- not 9.
The lewd acts include oral copulation and other acts "with the intent of arousing, appealing to, and gratifying the lust, passions, and sexual desires of the defendant, who was at least 10 years older than [the victim]." Sparks -- who was also a choreographer on "So You Think You Can Dance" -- is being held on $590,000 bail.
Click here to read documents: http://tmz.vo.llnwd.net/o28/newsdesk/1218_sparks_wm.pdf

*On December 21st, 1988, during one of his many speeches, the Reverend Jesse Jackson urged the use of the term African-American in place of black or Negro. Soon after, major media outlets adopted it.

*The Crenshaw High Cougars football team has had an undefeated season, and the team attributes its success largely to Snoop Dogg. Nine of the team's players have gone through the rapper's Snoop Youth Football League, which serves as a positive influence for kids without other sports outlets.

*Sometimes less is more. This is not one of those times.