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LOS ANGELES | January 28, 2012 Police continue a search for a man accused of sexual assault of a female UCLA student, the university which is ranked second of all universities nationwide and first in community service according to Washington Monthly's rankings. The sexual assault occurred at about 2:20 a.m. Friday at the top of the steps that connects the Saxon Suites dormitories with Gayley Avenue. The man accused of the assault called out to the female UCLA student while she was climbing the steps. After a short conversation, the man sexually assaulted her. Their brief conversation could have sounded something similar to the following: "Hey. What's your name? What's your major? Do you live around here? Yes? Well take some of this," and the sexual assault occurred. The assault victim eventually got away from the man and immediately called the police, who arrived shortly thereafter and after the man had already fled the scene, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. It appears that UCLA police are looking for the suspect who is described as a 6 foot tall white male weighing 150 pounds and about 21 years old with short brown hair and blue eyes, according to a crime alert issued by the UCLA's campus police department. NBC4 was told by several students that the sexual assault occurred along a narrow stairway where other similar crimes have occurred in the past. Those students said that female students usually try to avoid walking the stairway alone at night.

DES MOINES | January 27, 2012 Crawford S. Shaw, a Yale graduate and attorney licensed to practice in New York, said he represents a trust that owned a winning Iowa Lottery jackpot ticket purchased at a convenience store in December of 2010 that was associated with criminal proceedings and bankruptcy filings in New York and Delaware for which the clients involved with the trust are in Belize and as such have abandoned the claim for the jackpot worth $14.3 million dollars. The Iowa Lottery has confirmed the ticket as authentic. The Associated Press states that Shaw is the former C.E.O. of Industrial Enterprises of America Inc., a bankrupt public company District Attorney's office in Manhattan said was looted in a securities fraud scheme valued at $100 million. According to a report in MSNBC, Shaw referred a reporter to a statement issued by a law firm based in Des Moines that had performed work on behalf of the trust which said the identity of the buyer(s) of the ticket were unknown even to Shaw and offered to authorize the Iowa Lottery to pay the winnings, after taxes, to charities, but lottery officials declined, saying no payments would be made until the identities of the buyers were known. The Iowa Attorney General's Office and Division of Criminal Investigation announced a criminal probe into the matter. According to the Des Moines Register, the ticket was signed by Shaw on behalf of an company called Hexham Investments Trust. The name Hexham, however, was misspelled on the signature.

Fans Saturday night at the opening of Charlie Sheen's Violent Torpedo of Truth: Defeat is Not an Option in Detroit opted out of the show and some reportedly left after just 15 minutes. Many of those that remained booed the actor off the stage that after an hour ended when Sheen never returned from a musical break according to a BBC News report. Charlie Sheen, 45 and fired from the hit-show Two and a Half Men last month, opened Violent Torpedo of Truth show in Detroit Saturday night as the beginning of a tour of 22 shows, 20 of which are in the U.S. and Canada, according to BBC News, and if Saturday night in Detroit was any indication of the level of success Sheen is going to experience from the show, perhaps Charlie Sheen may experience reality after all. CNN reports that Ticketmaster lists on its website 19 shows in 18 U.S. cities with 3 shows in Canada, corroborating the total number of whos listed the BBC News report. There are minor differences of infornation between the two reports in the number and location of the shows, but the single major difference is that the BBC News report makes reference to Sheen's "sold-out" tour, whereas CNN makes the following statement about ticket sales: "Initial word on ticket sales was that the [Detroit] show sold out in 18 minutes. However, prior to the first show, tickets were still available on Ticketmaster as well as the secondary ticket market, which includes online ticket exchanges like Stubhub.com and TicketNetwork.com. Unwanted tickets available on those sites were going for less than face value prior to the show." "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie... when will you ever learn that people never like to hear the truth?" With 21 shows left on his tour, who knows?

LIMA | January 28, 2012 In a country where firefighters are not just notoriously underfunded, they volunteer where the entire nation's firefighting budget is only $19 million dollars per year, it is no surprise that a fire killed 26 people and injured 10 others at a 2-story unlicensed and overcrowded private rehabilitation center in the Peruvian capital, Lima on Saturday, officials said. The blaze started around 9 a.m. local time at the "God is Love" rehabilitation center for drug addicts and alcoholics located in the capital city's poor Zarate district. The cause of the fire is still unknown and the 10 injured were taken to Lima hospitals, said Zarate police chief Clever Zegarra. Peru's chief fire fighter, Antonio Zavala, said the fire was of "Dantesque proportions, with most of the people having died from asphyxiation" Gianfranco Huerta, who was being treated at the center, told local radio station RPP that he jumped from the second floor of the center to escape the fire. "The doors were locked, there was no way to get out," he said. Residents were apparently kept inside like prisoners, Health Minister Alberto Tejada told the Associated Press. An AP journalist at scene said all the windows of the building were barred that he was able to see. As police cordoned off the block, Journalists were not allowed inside. By early afternoon, all bodies had been removed from the center. "This rehabilitation center wasn't authorized. It was a house that they had taken over... for patients with addictions and they had the habit of leaving people locked up with no medical supervision," Tejada said.

LIMA | January 28, 2012 In a country where firefighters are not just notoriously underfunded, they volunteer where the entire nation's firefighting budget is only $19 million dollars per year, it is no surprise that a fire killed 26 people and injured 10 others at a 2-story unlicensed and overcrowded private rehabilitation center in the Peruvian capital, Lima on Saturday, officials said. The blaze started around 9 a.m. local time at the "God is Love" rehabilitation center for drug addicts and alcoholics located in the capital city's poor Zarate district. The cause of the fire is still unknown and the 10 injured were taken to Lima hospitals, said Zarate police chief Clever Zegarra. Peru's chief fire fighter, Antonio Zavala, said the fire was of "Dantesque proportions, with most of the people having died from asphyxiation" Gianfranco Huerta, who was being treated at the center, told local radio station RPP that he jumped from the second floor of the center to escape the fire. "The doors were locked, there was no way to get out," he said. Residents were apparently kept inside like prisoners, Health Minister Alberto Tejada told the Associated Press. An AP journalist at scene said all the windows of the building were barred that he was able to see. As police cordoned off the block, Journalists were not allowed inside. By early afternoon, all bodies had been removed from the center.

MEXICO CITY | January 21, 2012 A magnitude-6.2 earthquake hit off the coast of Mexico's southern state of Chiapas on Saturday, shaking the state from the capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez to Tapachula on the border with Guatemala. The U.S. Geological Surgey stated that the quake's epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean about 35 miles to the southwest of Mapastepec on the coast near the Guatemalan border with a depth of 41 miles. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injury. The 6.2 temblor hit at 12:47 p.m. local time and sent people into the streets in cities across the southern state. Jose Manuel Aragon, spokesman for the Civil Protection Agency of Chiapas said that the quake caused some commotion amongst residents which quickly died down after reports that no major damage was done nor were major injuries reported. The quake was felt strongly by residents in the capital Tuxtla Gutierrez as well as in Tapachula and in Comitan, the first two areas of which maintain the state's most populous areas.

LOS ANGELES | January 27, 2012 49-year old actress Demi Moore, mother of 3 daughters from former husband Bruce Willis, suffered convulsions after smoking an undisclosed substance, according to an emergency 911 recorded call from last Monday in which she was described as being "barely semi-conscious." The recording was released by Los Angeles fire officials and captures the few minutes it took paramedics to arrive as friends surrounded the actress who had collapsed. In the recording, an unidentified female is asked by the emergency operator "is she breathing normal?" The female responded and stated "No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up." When the operator asked if Moore had ingested or smoked anything, the female replied: "She smoked something. It's not marijuana but it is similar to incense," according to a BBC News report, although the complete reply was redacted on the advice of the city attorney's office citing federal medical privacy rules. "She's been having some issues lately with some other stuff," said the female. Asked by the operator if this had happened before, the female voice said: "There's been some stuff recently that we're all just finding out." Apparently, as the call was about to end, Moore began to improve when a man got on the telephone and told the operator that Demi Moore had calmed down and began speaking. Demi Moore's publicist had previously declared that Moore was suffering from exhaustion post her divorce from Ashton Kutcher, 16 years her junior at 33, last November.

LOS ANGELES | January 28, 2012 E Online entertainment news columnist Leslie Gornstein, Ask the Answer Bitch, in her column Thursday covered a report on the celebrity splits Heidi Klum and Seal, K.D. Lang and her domestic partner, Drew Carey and the lady he dated for 5 years, and Katy Perry and Russell Brand. In covering the report, as all of the split-ups happened in or around January, Gornstein raises the question "Is January to blame?" Since Leslie the Answer Bitch Gornstein knows everything, she answered her own question, with assistance from her colleagues, and the following is the response to whether January is to blame for all of the reported celebrity splits: quite simply put, "yes." Divorce attorneys confirm that January is a busy month for breakups and divorce filings in general, which includes celebrities. "People go through a very exhausting year, and people looking at the new year as a new life," says family law specialist Marilyn B. Chinitz a Partner of Blank Rome LLP at their New York office. "So as soon as January rolls around, people think, 'This is my new beginning.'" Gornstein also responded by stating that the holidays are also stressful. Traveling and complaining family members can lead to fights that end with a filing for divorce from which celebrities are not immune. Lastly, couples who decide to breakup often wait until the holidays are over, states the Answer Bitch.

VICTORVILLE | March 30, 2011On Tuesday about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles in Victorville, California at or near Westway Lane and Primavera Way at approximately 4 p.m., a 12-year old boy was arrested on the suspicion of stabbing a 13-year old boy with nonetheless a steak knife and later booked in the Apple Valley Juvenile Hall for investigation of assault with a weapon, terrorist threats and possession of a deadly weapon according to San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. When officers arrived at the scene, the 12-year old had a steak knife and a hand-held blade in the shape of a star. The 13-year old victim who sustained minor injuries, or basically, minor lacerations, had his wounds treated at the scene by paramedics. Names of the boys cannot be released as they are minors, reports KTLA. Interestingly enough, the Los Angeles Times has it that the 13-year old stabbed the 12-year old, in what is more than likely a typographical error.Upon questioning by deputies, not only did it become clear that boys will be boys, it was discovered that as two boys, the stabbing incident was the escalation of an argument over a mutual romantic interest - a girl. The argument escalated into threats and escalated yet again with physical violence when the 12-year old allegedly stabbed the 13-year old with the steak knife.Regardless of which boy stabbed the other, the fact of the matter is, two minor boys below the age of 18 were in the possession of what are considered deadly weapons and in an effort to resolve a dispute, they chose to use tools available to them in a fight for the femme. This never should have been an option. The arrested teen should be given a psychiatric evaluation as should his parents followed by an in depth look into his home life and the relationships he maintains with his parents to get an idea as to how and why this type of incident could occur. Is this the type of dispute resolution that children are learning today....

BURBANK | January 17, 2012 The Burbank police arrested a woman on suspicion of prostitution after allegedly offering sexual favors in exchange for Chicken McNuggets®. In a McDonald's® drive-through on the 1700 block of Olive Avenue late Wednesday night, Officer Joshua Kendrick told the Burbank Leader that Khadijah Baseer was seen opening customers' car doors. Luckily, it was a customer that told police that Baseer asked for Chicken McNuggets® in exchange for sexual favors. The man who was propositioned said he declined the offer. Is the American economy really recovering when prostitutes lower their tariff for Chicken McNuggets®? Could the bad economy in the United States have lowered the price of prostitution? It certainly is food for thought.

BURBANK | January 17, 2012 The Burbank police arrested a woman on suspicion of prostitution after allegedly offering sexual favors in exchange for Chicken McNuggets®. In a McDonald's® drive-through on the 1700 block of Olive Avenue late Wednesday night, Officer Joshua Kendrick told the Burbank Leader that Khadijah Baseer was seen opening customers' car doors. Luckily, it was a customer that told police that Baseer asked for Chicken McNuggets® in exchange for sexual favors. The man who was propositioned said he declined the offer. Is the American economy really recovering when prostitutes lower their tariff for Chicken McNuggets®? Could the bad economy in the United States have lowered the price of prostitution? It certainly is food for thought.

New York City | January 17, 2012 Alexis Rodriguez, 28, was treated at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital for pneumonia as an out-patient last week and survived, but the medical bill he received for more than $44 million nearly acted as a revolving door to the hospital and almost caused him an asthma attack. The $44,776,587 bill he received was apparently the result of a billing error caused by the hospital's billing company and billing errors threatened to send not just Rodriguez, but hundreds of other people back to the emergency room after they received inflated bills as well. The Daily News reports that Rodriguez actually owed about $300 for the out-patient care he received at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City last week. Somehow, invoice numbers were inserted in the space for the amount owed, leading to hundreds of panicked phone calls from patients. Rodriguez and others who had received the inflated bills were assured that they would receive new bills within a few days.

LOS ANGELES | January 27, 2012 Fierce Santa Ana northeast winds Friday are cause for the National Weather Service to issue a red flag warning for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties as the winds signify critical brush-fire conditions. The warning is in effect from 8 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday as gusts of wind in the mountain areas are expected up to 70 mph with valley and coastal areas experiencing gusts of up to 55 mph at its peak which should be reached Friday night into Saturday morning. As humidities are expected to drop rapidly Friday night into Saturday during which time widespread single digit humidities are expected to occur across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, should a brush fire be ignited there could be rapid spread of the fire that could lead to a threat to life and property. As of Friday morning, the winds are reaching higher than expected speeds and the advisory area has been expanded to include the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys. In addition, aside from the red flag warning with regard to critical brush-fire conditions, is a driving advisory the CHP issued due to heavy winds in the Newhall Pass area affecting driving conditions, as well as in rural areas and for older model vehicles that are non areo-dynamic experiencing difficulty driving from the strong gusts. Commuters are advised to drive with caution.

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The not without my daughter, Premise

SEATTLE | January 20, 2012 More than 280,000 electric customers, most of whom are customers of Puget Sound Energy around the Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia areas, are without power because of a winter storm that blanketed a good portion of Washington state with snow and ice. The winter storm also swelled Oregon's rivers and killed three people. Officials from Puget Sound Energy made a statement that it could take into the weekend or even later to have power back on for everyone. The National Weather Service states that warm temperatures Friday should melt the snow and ice in Western Washington's lowland areas as their forecast predicts rain into the following week. Forecasters, however, predict that melting snow could cause urban flooding and fill the Skokomish and Chehalis rivers above flood stage by Saturday night. As rain is forecast early during the week it could make flooding a focal point according to a report from the Associated Press.