Kourtney & Kim Take New York Season Premiere: Could You Tell There Was Trouble?

Yes, they went there.
In tonight's season premiere of E!'s own Kourtney & Kim Take New York, Kris Humphries tells Kim Kardashian, "You're my wife now. It's going to take a lot to get rid of me," and it's just one of many instances where the show acknowledges the fate of the couple's 72-day marriage. In fact, the show starts off with magazine covers and TV reporters discussing the end of their marriage, before it cuts to eight weeks earlier.

So were the early warning signs showing that early in the marriage? Here our top five moments during the hour-long episode that suggested cracks in Kim and Kris' union...
1. They've Never Lived Together: While Kim and Kris started the episode calling each other "husband" and "wifey," things turned sour when the couple got to New York and officially began living together for the first time. "Kim is a compulsive neat freak," sister Kourtney says before we learn Kris is a bit of a slob. "When I see a messy room, it literally ruins my day," Kim stresses. Later in the episode, the couple fights over Kris leaving his clothes on the floor and Kourtney says Kim is acting crazy.
Kris later tells Kourtney that he's started leaving stuff around their room just to annoy Kim, which Kim does not find amusing. After Scott Disick decides to move out of the apartment the four of them (and baby Mason!) are sharing, Kim asks Kourtney if Kris can have his room. "I can't live with Kris," she says. "He's such a slob."
2. He Doesn't Get Along With Kourtney: Kim and Kris were both really excited to live with Kourtney and Scott...before they actually started living with Kourtney and Scott. Kris wasn't feeling Kourtney's new holistic lifestyle, but tried to make it work at first. Then Kourtney took it a little too far: Naked. Yoga. In. The. Living. Room. Yes, Kris arrived home from a workout to find a naked man and a few half-naked ladies practicing yoga in the living room. "I can't live with Kourtney anymore," Kris tells Kim before offering to pay for her new room. Later, when Kourtney tries to apologize, Kris seems to brush it off before saying, "Thanks, that's a nice gesture." But it seems it was a little too late.
3. Or Mason: While Kris starts off the episode saying, "I'm excited to be Mason's uncle," he quickly changes his tune when he finds out Mason's playroom is ten feet outside of his door and the little guy is waking him up earlier than he'd like. "It's important to me that Kris bonds with Mason," Kim says. "It's been a really hard adjustment to be around a baby. He's going to be a really good dad someday."
4. They Want Different Things: A welcome to New York party is thrown in Kim and Kris' honor and they were really excited for it. Or at least Kim is. First, Kris gets annoyed that Kim is taking so long to get ready (he passed the time by cutting Scott's armpit hair). The tension remains when Kris says he doesn't want to stay at the party long, because he has to train early. When they arrive, he gets frustrated when he sees how long the pressline is and leaves Kim to do all the press. "It's so embarassing," Kim says. Later, when they're told it's time to cut their welcoming cake, Kris says, "You care about that. I don't give a f--k." A frustrated Kim says, "He's not even trying to compromise with me." Kris eventually ends the fight by saying, "I really do love you, though."
5. He Doesn't Like New York: In the beginning of the episode, Kris says he usually trains in Los Angeles or Minnesota and admits he's nervous about keeping up with his workouts in New York. "It's hard getting adjusted," he tells his friend Josh. "Everything in New York is screwing me up. I don't feel like I'm in my training element." After the naked yoga incident, Kris decided it's time to make a change. "I love you so much," he tells his wife before dropping the bomb: He's leaving New York to continue his training in Minnesota. "It's just too hard," he says. Kim admits she's sad, but says she'll support Kris' decisiomn because he's "really supportive" of her career and wants to do the same for him. "I should definitely be supportive of my husband." Before he leaves, Kris tucks her in bed like he did when they first started dating and tells Kim he loves her.
What did you think of the episode? Do you think Kim and Kris were doomed from the start? Should Kris have stuck it out in New York?

The road to frenzied Black Friday

Pepper-sprayed customers, smash-and-grab looters, beatings and bloody scenes in the shopping aisles.
How did Black Friday devolve into this?
Experts say a volatile mix of desperate retailers and cutthroat marketing has hyped the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales to increasingly frenzied levels that resulted in shopping-related violence from Los Angeles to New York last weekend.

With stores opening earlier, bargain-obsessed shoppers often are sleep-deprived and short-tempered. Add in the online-coupon phenomenon, which feeds the psychological hunger for impossible bargains, and you've got a recipe for trouble, said Theresa Williams, a marketing professor at Indiana University.
"These are people who should know better and have enough stuff already," Williams said. "What's going to be next year, everybody getting Tasered?"
Across the country during the holiday weekend, there were signs that tensions had ratcheted up, with violence resulting in several instances.
A woman turned herself in to police Saturday after being accused of pepper-spraying 20 other customers at a Los Angeles-area Walmart on Thursday as they struggled to get to a crate of Xbox video game consoles.
In Kinston, N.C., a security guard pepper-sprayed unruly customers scrambling for electronics.
In New York, crowds looted a clothing store in Soho. A man was shot during an attempted robbery outside a store in San Leandro, Calif.; shots were fired at a mall in Fayetteville, N.C.; there was a stabbing outside a store in Sacramento, Calif., and a near riot broke out over $2 waffle irons in Little Rock, Ark.
"Instead of a nice sweater, you need a bulletproof vest and goggles," said Betty Thomas, 52, shopping Saturday with her family at a mall in Raleigh, N.C.
The wave of violence revived memories of the 2008 Black Friday stampede that killed a Walmart employee and put a pregnant woman in the hospital on New York's Long Island. Walmart spokesman Greg Rossiter said Saturday that Black Friday 2011 was safe at most of its nearly 4,000 U.S. stores despite "a few unfortunate incidents."
Black Friday -- named that because it puts retailers in the black -- has become more intense as companies compete for customers, said Jacob Jacoby, a consumer behavior expert at New York University.
The idea of luring in customers with a few doorbuster deals has long been a staple of the post-Thanksgiving sales. But now stores are opening earlier, and those deals are getting more extreme, he said.
There's also a new factor, Williams said: the rise of coupon websites like Groupon and LivingSocial, the online equivalents of doorbusters that usually deliver a single, one-day offer with savings of up to 80% on museum tickets, photo portraits, yoga classes and the like.
The services encourage impulse buying and an obsession with bargains, Williams said, and get businesses hooked on quick infusions of customers.
"The whole notion of getting a deal, that's all we've seen for the last two years," Williams said.
The violence has prompted some analysts to wonder whether the sales are worth it, and what solutions might work.
In a New York Times column last week, economist Robert Frank proposed slapping a 6% sales tax on purchases between 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and 6 a.m. Friday in an attempt to stop the "arms race."
Small retailers, meanwhile, are pushing Small Business Saturday to woo customers turned off by the Black Friday crush.
Next up, today, is Cyber Monday, when online retailers put their wares on sale. But on Saturday, many shoppers said they still prefer buying at stores.
Thomas said she likes the time at the mall with her family too much to shop online.
To her, the more pressing problem was that the Thanksgiving weekend sales didn't seem very good.
"If I'm going to get shot, at least let me get a good deal," Thomas said.

FBI opens inquiry into hacking of Sept. 11 victims

In response to requests from members of Congress and to at least one news report, the FBI in New York opened a preliminary inquiry on Thursday into allegations that News Corp. journalists sought to gain access to the phone records of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to several people briefed on the matter.

The investigation is in its earliest stages, two of the people said, and its scope is not yet clear. It also is unclear whether the FBI has identified possible targets of the investigation or possible specific criminal violations.
The inquiry was prompted in part by a letter from Rep. Peter King, a Long Island Republican, to Robert Mueller III, the FBI director, in which he asked that the bureau immediately open an investigation of News Corp., citing news reports that journalists working for its subsidiary, News of the World, had tried to obtain the phone records of Sept. 11 victims through bribery and unauthorized wiretapping, the people said.
The decision to open a case in New York stemmed from the expanding hacking scandal that has wracked Britain for days, ever since disclosures that News of the World had illegally intercepted the voice mail of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old girl abducted and murdered in 2002.
It also follows a decision by News Corp.'s CEO and chairman, Rupert Murdoch, to withdraw from the biggest media takeover bid in British history.
The investigation was expected to be handled jointly by two FBI squads in the bureau's New York office: one that investigates cybercrimes and another that focuses on public-corruption and white-collar crimes, one of the people said. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
It was not immediately clear whether federal prosecutors in Manhattan were involved in the case; they would most likely have jurisdiction over any prosecution because the Sept. 11 victims and their cellphones were in Manhattan when they died. Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan, also declined to comment.
Laura Sweeney, a Justice Department spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said: "The department does not comment specifically on investigations, though any time we see evidence of wrongdoing, we take appropriate action. The department has received letters from several members of Congress regarding allegations related to News Corporation, and we're reviewing those."
Jack Horner, a spokesman for the company, declined to comment.
King said in his letter on Wednesday that he was requesting the investigation not only as the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security, but also as a congressman whose district lost more than 150 people in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"It is my duty to discern every fact behind these allegations," he wrote.
He cited recent news reports, apparently referring to an article first published on Monday in The Daily Mirror, a chief competitor to News of the World, which closed Sunday as a result of the scandal.
The article said reporters working for the paper had contacted a private investigator, a former New York police officer, and offered to pay him to retrieve the phone numbers of Sept. 11 victims and get details of the calls they had made and received in the days leading up to the attacks.
"If these allegations are proven true," King wrote, "the conduct would merit felony charges for attempting to violate various federal statutes related to corruption of public officials and prohibitions against wiretapping. Any person found guilty of this purported conduct should receive the harshest sanctions available under law."
It is not clear if the person referred to in the Daily Mirror article was a police officer at the time of the attacks.
Murdoch began his media career in Australia in 1952 after inheriting The News newspaper after the death of his father, and he has built News Corp. into one of the world's biggest media groups. Assets include Fox News, the 20th Century Fox movie studio, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and three newspapers in Britain — down from four with the death of the News of the World.

Details emerge of woman's jailhouse call as media pursue Strauss-Kahn

One day after a stunning court revelation about an accuser's lack of honesty in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case, media across New York descended on the freed financier with a renewed sense of vigor.
On Saturday, the former head of the International Monetary Fund was pursued by photographers and news teams across Manhattan. After emerging from his posh Tribecca townhouse, Strauss-Kahn and his security detail blazed through downtown city streets in a black Mercedes sedan, darting in and out of roadways in an

attempt to outrun camera crews in pursuit.
Ten vehicles from an array of different news teams gave chase, including at least three photographers perched atop motorcycles, according to CNN producer Raelyn Johnson.
Interest surrounding the scandal reached a fever-pitch Friday when a New York judge released Strauss-Kahn from house arrest after prosecutors presented evidence questioning the credibility of his accuser.
Also, less than two days after the alleged victim said the attack occurred, she spoke over the phone with a boyfriend in an Arizona jail in a recorded conversation.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that she said that "she's fine and this person is rich and there's money to be made," as originally reported by The New York Times.
The source also said the alleged victim had bank accounts in multiple states.
"She was getting deposits of several thousands of dollars at a time from people she knew, potentially involved in drug dealing," the source told CNN.
The 32-year-old immigrant admitted to prosecutors that she lied about the specifics of her whereabouts following the alleged attack, the details of an asylum application and information she put on tax forms, according to documents filed in court Friday by prosecutors.
Meanwhile, in her native Guinea, residents in the nation's capital expressed their support for the alleged victim, despite her tainted testimony.
"Really, you should have sympathy on her," said Mabity Boungoura in the Guinean capital of Conakry. "When you do something bad to a woman, you need to recognize and accept it."
While the case has taken a dramatic turn, it has not been dismissed, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said Friday.
The indictment and charges -- including criminal sexual acts and sexual abuse -- against Strauss-Kahn, 62, still stand, he said.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said the alleged victim told "substantial lies about her own background and the facts of this case."
The development is particularly stunning given prior statements by New York authorities, who spoke forcefully about the accuser's credibility. It appears to leaves the felony case against Strauss-Kahn seriously undermined, despite DNA evidence of sexual contact recovered from the hotel suite.
The judge said authorities will continue to withhold the French financier's passport, but that he is free to travel in the United States.
Prosecutors said Friday that the woman admitted to lying in her application for asylum in the United States, claiming she had been a victim of a gang rape. She cried when she first told prosecutors about the rape, but in a subsequent interview admitted it never occurred.
In angry remarks delivered outside the courthouse, the woman's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, admitted problems with his client's credibility, but the bottom line, he said, is that she was attacked.
"That was true the day it happened and it is true today," he said, describing in chilling detail the account the woman gave of her attack and the bruising on her body.
"She has described that sexual assault many times to the prosecutors and to me. And she has never once changed a single thing about that account."

Man charged in New York pharmacy killings to be arraigned

A man accused in the shooting death of four people inside a pharmacy in New York will be arraigned Thursday on murder charges.
Long Island resident David Laffer, 33, is accused of shooting two employees at Haven Drugs in Medford as well as two customers before leaving with prescription drugs Sunday morning.
He has been charged with first degree murder and resisting arrest, Suffolk County police said.

Laffer's wife, Melinda Brady, 29, was also arrested. She was charged with third degree robbery and obstructing governmental administration, authorities said.
Both Laffer and Brady will be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Central Islip, Long Island.
Police identified the dead as Raymond Ferguson, 45, and Jennifer Mejia, 17, both pharmacy employees, as well as customers Bryon Sheffield, 71, and Jamie Taccetta, 33.
Mejia's death comes just before her graduation from Bellport High School on Thursday, said school secretary Maryann Malcolm.

Seven Killed Over Weekend

Four people were shot and killed inside a Long Island pharmacy Sunday, capping a violent weekend in the New York region in which three more people were killed and nearly two dozen others were wounded by gunfire, authorities said. The murders on Long Island were believed to have been the result of a botched robbery shortly after the pharmacy, Haven Drugs in the Suffolk County town of Medford, opened for business, police there said. In Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, three men were

slain in separate shootings that also injured 23 people from early Saturday through Sunday, authorities said. In Medford, police were called to the pharmacy on Southhaven Avenue at about 10:20 a.m. by a person who was in the parking lot and reported hearing gunshots, a spokeswoman for the Suffolk County police said. Police arrived and found four people fatally shot inside the store. An official with knowledge of the case said one of the dead was an 18-year-old clerk and another was a pharmacist whose age wasn't yet determined. The two other victims were customers, the official said. Their identities weren't released pending the notification of their families. Investigators believe the shooting occurred during a robbery and that a single gunman was responsible, the police spokeswoman said. There were no arrests and police didn't provide a description of the suspect. The police spokeswoman said it was unclear if anything was taken from inside the store. The clerk was identified by family members as Jennifer Mejia, a senior at Bellport High School in Brookhaven who was due to graduate Thursday and aspired to become a doctor. Her father, Rene Mejia, described her as a "wonderful daughter," who worked at the pharmacy for about two years. She wished him a happy Father's Day early Sunday as she left for work. The father, speaking outside their home, said she was looking forward to her prom on Wednesday. "Now I just see the dress inside," he said. "You have to remember all of the good things." In her yearbook, Ms. Mejia wrote that her nickname was "Little Bean" and penned a note telling her parents and siblings that she loved them. Kimberly Jimenez, 18, a friend and classmate, said Ms. Mejia's "ambition was to help people." "She was never a troubled person," she said. "For this to happen, it's so random. Crazy—crazy." Shaken residents converged on the crime scene and described the pharmacy as a mom-and-pop shop where employees knew patrons by name. "They know you, they know who you are," said Nicole Kaiser, 27. "This isn't that type of town. I can't believe it." Linda Pickford, 56, said the owner, who police said was not among the victims, would often ask her about her family members and was a known fixture. "It's just shocking – it's terrible," Ms. Pickford, a middle school principal, said of the carnage. In the five boroughs, New York Police Department officials said several raucous house and block parties were believed to have been the sites of separate shootings in which multiple people were killed or injured. Early Saturday, a party in East New York, Brooklyn, became the scene of a wild shooting when gunmen began spraying bullets at about 3:15 a.m. leaving one man dead and eight others injured, police said. According to police, Donzell Rogers, 20, died at an area hospital after he was shot at the party on Wyona Street. The eight others were taken to hospitals with injuries that weren't considered life threatening. Police said several people were being questioned and two guns had been recovered at the scene but no arrests had been made. At about 9:50 p.m. Saturday, a barbecue attended by more than 50 people in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was interrupted by gunfire, killing 45-year-old Jerry Armstrong, police said. No arrests were made. In Marine Park, Brooklyn, three teenagers were shot and wounded just after midnight Sunday, police said. Their injuries weren't considered life-threatening. About 15 minutes later in Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, four men and one woman were shot and injured during a fight at a barbecue. The victims were all listed listed in stable condition. At 4:40 a.m. Sunday, a Queens man visiting relatives in East New York, Brooklyn, was shot and killed in front a deli on Rockaway Avenue, police said. Anthony McRae, 22, was shot five times in the back and once in the leg and was declared dead at the scene by emergency medical technicians, police said. No arrests were made, police said. In Queens, two separate shootings left two men injured. In Manhattan, a Harlem man was shot and wounded. Two more shootings in Brooklyn wounded two men, police said. The details of those incidents weren't immediately available.

Google to dub its mobile-payments service 'Google Wallet'?

It appears that one of Google's mobile-wallet partners has stolen some of the Web giant's thunder ahead of tomorrow's planned announcement. Google, which is widely expected unveil its long-rumored mobile-payments system on Thursday, will dub the service "Google Wallet," according to what appears to be an internal memo from The Container Store. According to the memo, which was published by Thisismynext.com, the Web giant plans to launch Google Wallet near the end of summer: Google representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google is holding a media event in New York on Thursday in which it is expected to unveil a system that would allow users to pay for retail purchases by holding select Android-based Sprint smartphones up to a specialized reader at checkout counters (point of sales). The service is expected to tap near-field communications technology (NFC), which lets devices exchange information wirelessly with one another over very short distances, about 4 inches. Google reportedly plans to introduce the service initially in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., as well as partnering with MasterCard and Citigroup to allow the financial giants' customers to use their debit and credit cards to pay for purchase from their Android smartphones. The event is scheduled to be held at Google's New York offices. And it will kick off at 12 p.m. ET. CNET will live-blog the news using the Cover It Live tool. So come back about 20 minutes before the press conference starts to get in on the pre-event chatter and follow the news here as it happens.

'Dark Knight Rises' Production Kicks Off With First Official Photo

Better late than never, right? We had hoped and assumed Christopher Nolan's third "Batman" flick was going to kick off production not too long after "The Dark Knight" wrapped up its record-breaking run in 2008. Instead, the filmmaker pushed forward with "Inception," and as even the most diehard Bat-fan must surely admit, Nolan's twisty dream-world thriller was quite a fine cinematic diversion.

Now though, principal photography on Nolan's third and reportedly final Caped Crusader flick — "The Dark Knight Rises" — has officially begun, with the production expected to span three continents, from India, Scotland and England to Pittsburgh, New York and Los Angeles. And to celebrate this highly anticipated beginning, Warner Bros. has released the film's first official photo and fired up a viral marketing campaign.

The photo features Bane, the heavily muscled villain played by "Inception" vet Tom Hardy. With Bane bathed in shadows, his back to the camera and a freaky mask on his head, the pic offers an excellent introduction to a character not very well known to the masses but one who is cherished by comic-book fans.

The Bane photo was the payoff of a brand-new viral effort that began with a muffled audio file on the film's official website. Savvy technophiles were able to analyze the audio and discover a Twitter hashtag (#thefirerises) and account, which in turn led to the discovery of a hidden image at Thedarkknightrises.com. Expect the marketing campaign to continue for quite a while — the film doesn't hit theaters until July 20, 2012. "We're very much excited about really finishing a trilogy and giving a conclusion to our story," Nolan told us in February. "And that's what we're doing."

Yanks schedule checkup on A-Rod's hip

BALTIMORE -- Alex Rodriguez said that he feels no discomfort in his surgically repaired right hip, but the Yankees slugger will agree to have an examination when the team returns to New York.

Rodriguez said that he could have an appointment on Friday, before the Yankees open the Subway Series at home against the Mets, but he stressed that there is no particular urgency to do so.

"Checkups are going to be part of the rest of my career," Rodriguez said. "We're doing it to be very proactive. I wouldn't be surprised if there's another one in October or January.

"Again, we'll be sitting here next year talking about that. We just want to make sure -- that's a certain box, and we want to check it off."

Rodriguez had a procedure performed in March 2009 that knocked him out until May 8, when he homered on the first pitch he saw from the Orioles' Jeremy Guthrie in Baltimore.

Rodriguez has had few ill effects since, and Dr. Marc Philippon gave him a clean bill of health over the winter to resume full-force baseball workouts instead of focusing on rehab exercises.

But recently, Rodriguez has been less inclined to use his lower half in swings, a flaw that hitting coach Kevin Long has worked to correct.

Rodriguez homered twice off the Rays' James Shields on Tuesday. Still, Long suggested that Rodriguez get the hip looked at, just to make sure he is as close to 100 percent as possible.

"It's definitely no excuse for any poor performance," Rodriguez said. "It has nothing to do with bad feelings or aching or anything. I've actually been working my tail off with Kevin and feeling better every day. Finally, yesterday, I got a little results."

Rodriguez typically has a winter checkup with Philippon in Vail, Colo., but the team is not expecting Philippon's presence to be necessary in New York.

"I think you just want to make sure he's OK," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Al talked about being proactive and making sure that everything is OK.

"He said he doesn't necessarily feel anything, so from our standpoint, you're not worried about it. He's had checkups before. It's an issue he's had, and we thought he moved a lot better this year."

The expectation is that team physician Christopher Ahmad will be able to execute what Rodriguez believes will be a relatively routine checkup.

"There's no urgency," Rodriguez said. "We've had a little bit of a crazy schedule here, travel-wise, but when it's convenient for everybody, we'll get it done."

TV networks are deciding who's in and who's out

As TV executives huddle in screening rooms the next few days, watching pilots for proposed fall series, they're having to adjust to a couple of big surprises.Not long ago few would have predicted that "American Idol" would still be TV's No. 1 show, even without Simon Cowell. And even fewer would have guessed that the most-watched comedy, "Two and a Half Men," would be facing life without Charlie Sheen.In fact, it's been a rough year for broadcasters all around. The major networks got pummeled by critics for a slate of uninspired new offerings last fall, which no doubt helps explain why each suffered notable ratings erosion this season. No. 4 NBC was hammered the worst, with double-digit declines in major categories, according to the Nielsen Co.So executives are facing tough decisions about the futures of some onetime audience favorites that might be bulldozed to make way for new series.

Among the long-running shows that are, in the industry's lingo, "on the bubble": ABC's family drama "Brothers & Sisters," NBC's perennially endangered comic caper "Chuck" and Fox's crime drama "Lie to Me." Their fates are likely to depend on how appealing the new pilots seem when executives watch them.Other series, such as NBC's heavily publicized "The Event," ABC's superhero drama "No Ordinary Family" and CBS' "The Defenders," are considered near-certain bets for cancellation.Despite its high ratings, "Two and a Half Men" should also be added to the "bubble" list, since Sheen was fired from the show amid a spectacular public meltdown and CBS and Warner Bros., the studio that makes the show, are scrambling to adapt the comedy without its big star. Most insiders consider it a foregone conclusion the show will return in some form, but the details have yet to be worked out."That's a decision they're going to have to make," Brad Adgate, an analyst at Horizon Media in New York, said of CBS. "If you don't have 'Two and a Half Men' on Monday night, what do you put there?"Luckily for CBS executives, their network is the one perhaps best-positioned to handle such uncertainty heading into the "upfronts," the annual selling season that begins later this month, when networks present their fall schedules to advertisers in New York. CBS is the most-watched network by far, although it's also the oldest-skewing, with an average viewer age of 55. Tuesday night, for example, is rock-solid on CBS with the "NCIS" franchise, one of the most popular on TV.Because it has the fewest holes in its lineup, CBS ordered just 16 drama and comedy pilots, compared with 22 for NBC and 24 for ABC. (Fox also ordered 16, but it programs just two hours on weeknights compared to three for its rivals.)But the Sheen case has created a major strategic problem. This season the network moved its sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" to Thursdays, where it has helped the network establish a comedy base on that night for the first time in years. "We got the beachhead we wanted," said Kelly Kahl, CBS' scheduling chief.If the network has to move ahead without "Two and a Half Men," executives might be forced to roll "Big Bang" back to Monday as well as delay a plan to try comedies on Wednesday. CBS officials have made it clear that they would not welcome such a retreat.Another complication for CBS: The enduring strength of "Idol." Many observers expected Fox's singing contest to fall apart without the snarky presence of Cowell, the show's putative star, who left to develop "The X Factor" for Fox this fall.But with new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez, "Idol" has remained a ratings powerhouse, even after its regular pattern was shifted from Tuesday-Wednesday to Wednesday-Thursday. Indeed, Fox is poised again to win the ratings race among viewers ages 18 to 49 — the category most advertisers covet — by at least half a ratings point over its nearest challenger, CBS."We confounded everybody," said Preston Beckman, Fox's scheduling guru, who added that the strength of the show "was always about the kids" who compete and not necessarily the judges.That doesn't mean Fox faces no challenges. The network served up one of this season's biggest flops, the drama "Lone Star," which was yanked after two airings. And Fox faces risky launches in the fall for "X Factor" and especially "Terra Nova," a costly sci-fi epic that is already generating rumors of production woes. Beckman characterized both premieres as top priorities for Fox. "X Factor" is considered a likely bet for Wednesday and Thursday this fall, the same slots occupied by "Idol."ABC finds itself in a much dicier position. Top shows such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" are aging. "Dancing With the Stars" is heavily dependent on casting and draws a relatively old audience. With the exception of the much-admired comedy "Modern Family," the network has gone years without creating a new hit. It remains unclear whether top programmer Paul Lee, who has been in the post less than a year, can engineer a turnaround this coming season."They really need hits," Adgate said. "Their franchise shows continue to show some audience erosion."Then there's NBC, which has been in a ratings free fall for the last few seasons. Bob Greenblatt, the former top Showtime programmer brought in by new owner Comcast, faces a steep hill in trying to make the network competitive again, with Monday and Wednesday nights in need of near-total makeovers.The one bright spot for NBC? Strong ratings for the premiere of "The Voice," the singing competition with star judges Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton. Many insiders consider it likely that the show will be retained for the fall schedule and likely be kept on Tuesdays, to avoid a conflict with "X Factor."Of course, it's still early, and much will depend on what happens in those dark screening rooms the next few days.The good news for the networks? This pilot season is looking a lot stronger than last year's.Looking over the list of 88 scripted pilots, Adgate said: "It seems like the networks are focusing more on the untraditional, are getting away from the typical dramas and comedies you get year in, year out."

Body count now at 10 as police confirm more remains found on NY beach highway are human

The latest two sets of remains found along a New York beach highway are human, authorities said, bringing to 10 the number of bodies found in a search for victims of a suspected serial killer.

Authorities have not definitively linked all the remains found in the past five months to the same suspect, but they have said four escorts who advertised on the website Craigslist who were found in December were likely victims of a serial killer.

Police happened upon the first set of four remains while searching for a missing New Jersey prostitute last seen in a nearby community nearly a year ago. That woman has yet to be found.

Police searching late last month along Ocean Parkway discovered a fifth body, which prompted authorities to commence a widespread search involving dozens of officers, dogs, helicopters, mounted units and volunteer firefighters. That effort led to the discovery April 4 of three more sets of remains and two more on Monday near Jones Beach State Park.

Police investigating the deaths have kept many details of the killings to themselves, but the revelations have shaken some veteran officers.

"It's pretty startling," Detective Lt. Kevin Smith, a Nassau County police spokesman, told reporters Tuesday. "We have eight sets in Suffolk County. We have two more now. It's all been very startling. All of it has. It's just amazing that we're finding people. We have a lot of work to do."

Among the more recent six sets of remains, none has been identified by gender, and police have not indicated a cause of death, nor have they tied them to the four bodies found in December.

State and Nassau County police wrapped up a search of several miles (kilometres) of Ocean Parkway on Tuesday; officials in neighbouring Suffolk County finished a four-day search last week. All the police agencies said they were open to returning to the barrier island to resume searches as developments warrant.

Detectives said it appears some victims had been dead for a long time. The first of the women found late last year went missing in 2007; a second in 2009 and the remaining two in June and September 2010.

13 killed in New York tour bus accident

Officials say the tour bus, reportedly from an area casino, flipped on its side on a highway and hit a pole, shearing off most of the top of the vehicle. At least 6 of the injured passengers are listed in critical condition.
Reporting from New York
Thirteen people died early Saturday morning in the Bronx when a tour bus flipped on its side on a highway and slid into a pole, the New York City Fire Department said. The metal pole for an overhanging sign ripped through the windshield and sheared off most of the top of the bus, according to media reports.
About 20 passengers were taken to hospitals; at least six were listed in critical condition, the Fire Department said.
Firefighters said they had to cut out parts of the bus to rescue several passengers trapped in the mangled vehicle, which was carrying about 33 passengers.
The bus left the Mohegan Sun Casino, a southern Connecticut gambling complex, at about 3:45 a.m. and was headed to Chinatown in Manhattan, according to media reports.
The large casino is about two hours from the city and has become a popular destination for brief excursions for many New Yorkers, including those from the immigrant communities of Chinatown.
The Fire Department responded to an alert about the crash at 5:37 a.m. and rushed to the scene on Interstate 95 where it intersects the Hutchinson River Parkway.
The roads in the area were shut down while emergency workers responded to the accident.
The New York Daily News reported that police are searching for a tractor-trailer truck that may have made contact with the bus moments before the crash.

Lupe Fiasco: Interview (Video Gallery)

Lupe Fiasco is sitting in the suite of London hotel room flicking through a Buyer’s Guider for Ferrari's. “Got a little collection of Ferrari’s,” he says casually, turning onto a new page.

It seems like an odd admission from the rapper. While he’s created some of the biggest hip-hop anthem of recent years - 2007’s ‘Superstar’ perhaps being the biggest - Fiasco isn’t someone you would associate with the more glamorous side of the profession. His songs, for example, are often fiercely political and always lyrically intelligent, rather than brash and boastful, and, he’s an active philanthropist.

As his record label Atlantic has also discovered in recent years, he also does things on his own terms. ‘Lasers’, his new album, arrives in stores this week four years after its predecessor ‘The Cool’ and at the end of a long-running saga, which culminated in his fans staging a protest outside the label’s offices in New York.

To mark its release, Fiasco sat down with Gigwise to discuss the record, his political interests and the future.

‘Lasers’ has been four years in the pipeline. It must be a huge sigh of relief to be finally putting the album out there?

“Yeah - simply. But that’s dishonest to say as well because this was an album that up until the protests and the petition we had all but moved away from. It was all about let us go to another record company; it got to that point. We’re already looking at the next one and moving on.”

You announced the comeback with ‘The Show Goes On’, which is a very uplifting and motivational track. Is it fair to view that as a statement of intent for the album as a whole?

“Yeah, it has that. It’s also very, on a non-musical level, it’s also very telling of the process because it was a record that was given to me by the record label. So it’s this little bit of label, some Lupe, some fans - everybody that was involved in the whole thing all coming to a head in ‘The Show Goes On’. So it’s funny that for the show to go on, we had to do ‘The Show Goes On’. On that level it’s pretty funky. But the song itself it was meant to be an uplifting, inspirational record that spoke on a lot of different subjects and gave you the premise of what the rest of the record was going to sound like. Big songs, big hooks and big verses - touching on big topics and naming names so to speak.”

Before we talk about the delays, can you just go back to when you actually started putting these songs together?

“I don’t know, man. It was over the course of a few years, and it was something that was start and stop. And literally stop and go start work on a completely different project and come back to it, and trash can a whole phase of it. I say there are four phases of it that I remember. There were songs that I made for ‘Lasers’ that didn’t make ‘Lasers’, then there were songs that I didn’t do for ‘Lasers’ that snuck their way on, so it was a pretty interesting process creatively…not even creatively, just from a production standpoint.”

Did you find that easy or difficult to have to cope with?

“It was easy because it was a break from…there was a creative misunderstanding between myself and the label, so it was great because you don’t just be recording for the sake of recording. At a certain level, you want to have a point to what you’re doing, and when you get this uncertainty from the label you feel like you’re wasting your time because you’ll make like nine songs and the label just want like any of them. And I’m saying nine songs given to me by the label. It’s like if somebody kept sending your food back the kitchen. You’re the chef and you’re like, ‘Well bring your own food to the restaurant and I’ll cook what you want me to cook’.”

As an artist who released ‘Food and Liquor’ in 2006 and ‘The Cool’ in 2007, was it frustrating to face such uncertainty?

“Yeah, very frustrating on a personal, emotional and spiritual level - it was very frustrating. The traditional relationship between a record company and an artist is not good, so with this one it’s even multiplied. The role reversal and paradigm shifts that took place were very taxing. The mental thing that I went through...I was very depressed at a certain point because I was told I was unsuccessful, I was told I was wack. You get all this stuff coming from your record company and you’re like, ‘Come on man.’ It was something where it felt like they’re tearing me down, so I had to completely disconnect myself from it. I’m not even doing music for that now, I’m doing music because I really like it and I love it, and if I love it I’m not going to do it.”

The delay culminated in a petition that your fans put together. That must have been quite humbling.

“It was very empowering; I was silently empowered. You’ve got 250 chanting and screaming kids, and beyond the number it’s a group of people - 17 and 19 year olds - who put that together and got permits and noise ordinates and car pools and plane tickets. To see people mobilised like that…it wasn’t something that I got behind or instigated - it was something that they did on their own. So it was very silently empowering, a vindication in some instances, but at the same time to, humbling. It was something that made me feel like it’s bigger than me.”

Had you at the point resigned yourself to the idea that the album just wasn’t going to come out?

“Yeah, I was done. For me it wasn’t even lets comprise and get the record out, it was let me go to another record company, let me go independently and we can just be done with this. I can move onto another phase and you can move onto another phase, and that will be that. But I’m still at the point now where the wounds between me and the record label - it’s not that it’s healed or unhealed, I’m just done with it. I’m very numb to the situation, but happy with the album in the same breath.”

You’ve always written lyrics that make people stop and think. ‘Words I Never Said’ is perhaps your most politically driven song on the new album. Do you find it easy to write songs like that?

“Yeah, very easy - I didn’t even write that down, because that’s my core. That’s the stuff that I can just sit back and speak on for hours, and for me it’s a collage of all these different ideas and events and themes that have a political undertone, a social undertone, a conspiracy theory undertone to it, and just putting it out there. It’s very similar to the song ‘American Terrorist’ that I did on my first record I guess it’s just the way that it’s put. Where this could be played on the radio, ‘American Terrorist’ would never get on the radio.”

I think one of the reasons why it might be seen as controversial is because of the lyrics about President Obama. It’s not something people would expect from a rapper.

“Traitorous even, or treasonous. I was never on the bandwagon of Obama like that, because I’m not on the bandwagon for the American Government, the Federal Government. It’s not all 100 per cent evil, but it does a whole lot to not make you think that. The economical policies that are instigated really makes you think that the American government is a bunch of evil bastards. So just because you’re black you’re still representing that government, and when Obama came into office he enacted the same policies that we would critique other presidents for. The people who are on your economic team and determine the economic polices for the rest of us are the same people who ran those financial institutions, the same people who were corrupt and could possibly face criminal charges, but he’s the head of your economic thing. Honestly, what the fu*ck is that? That’s what you call a WTF. So I think the critiques are poignant.

“I love Obama, and I love the fact that it’s a black president of the United States of America, but he’s not the first black president. Robert Mugabe is a black president too so lets not get to talking about precedents being set. The fact that he’s black and American, that’s different. But that it’s anything special beyond that, that just because of that everything’s going to be a utopia, then that’s not true.”

Where did your interest in politics come from?

“From my mother and my father, specifically my mother directly, my father kind of indirectly just watching him and the things that he was involved in, and the things that he would participate in doing. My mother was more direct, my mother was more specific events, specific places, specific people [and] names in the world. I’d be 11, 12, 13 talking to my mother about the seven day war or talking to her about different instances [and] engagements or American foreign policy in different parts of the world - in Africa or the Caribbean. When you get that education young that’s what you know about, and over time you learn more but that’s the foundation you build on.”

What do you think of the current condition of hip-hop that ‘Lasers’ will find itself in. How do you view the genre at the moment?

“It’s weird to say objectively, but put it the way it is: it’s negative. You still have your lights of positivity in there, you still have you Mos Defs and your Commons and your Talib Kweli - you still have that presence there - but the majority of it is negative. The actual messages are very negative.

“I have a certain level of celebrity, on par or even greater than some of my contemporaries, you know some of the quote-on-qoute, ‘conscious rappers’, but I have the ability to be on 106 & Park, where as maybe Dead Prez doesn’t. So it’s not taking anything away from Dead Prez, it’s just being the agent of change over here. Where as Talib Kweli is the agent of change in the underground arena, Lupe Fiasco is the agent of change who is that young rapper that everybody respects who walks the line between celebrity and underground, and this is where he fits. So looking at the terrain that I have and the weapons that I have, and fighting that war where I’m at. I’m almost like Trojan Horse so to speak. I can get on KISS FM, which is like the pinnacle of the hip-hop world in the US. They’re playing my record, and I’m talking about uplifting and all those positive imageries. But also at the same time those controversial thought provoking things, not just positive for the sake of utopia. I think it’s going to fit nicely. I don’t think it’s going to rock the boat, but I’m not about rocking the boat - I’m about balancing the boat.”

You touched on the fact that you’ve been doing side-projects while waiting for your feud with the label to end. One of the most exciting of those is Child Rebel Solider with Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. Can we expect an album?

“Honestly I don’t know, it’s all scheduling. We’re all three independent artists, all working. It’s not like we’re dormant, we’re all working, so it’s about finding that moment where we can all get together and sit down, and come up with the songs and the ideas. We just haven’t had the opportunity to do that as of late, enough to put an album, a serious album together, and even if we get to that point, the business of the album coming out is ridiculous because it’s three separate labels, three separate interests and that’s going to be a paperwork nightmare. So there’s elements to it - big hurdles that need to be jumped before we can proceed with it properly and give people what they want, which is an album.”

You mentioned that you were waiting for this album to come out you’ve been thinking about what will come next. Can you tell us anything more about that?

“Well there’s my punk band Japanese Cartoon - we’re trying to do another album this summer - but then there’s another Lupe record that I want to do before the end of the year. Because it’s been so long, it’s been four years, I think we have the opportunity to write almost, because it’s been so long. So I’m actively perusing getting the label to agree with that, and that will be it. More music and more music and more music, and touring, touring, touring. That’s the formula for me now so we’ll see if that pans out.”