Denny Hamlin airlifted to hospital, will stay overnight

FONTANA, Calif. — Denny Hamlin will remain hospitalized overnight after being airlifted to a local hospital after a hard single-car crash at the inside wall on the final lap of Sunday's Auto Club 400.

Hamlin was awake and alert in the infield care center before being transported, but was taken to the hospital after complaining of lower back pain. A helicopter was used due to post-race traffic.

The name of the hospital was not released.

Hamlin was helped from his car after the hard hit and seemed to collapse outside his car after he had pulled the window net down. He was taken by ambulance to the infield care center, where crew chief Darian Grubb hurried inside to check on the driver.

Hamlin's girlfriend, Jordan Fish, tweeted Sunday night: "Thank u everyone for your messages concerning Denny. Darian is keeping us posted. He's alert n awake, main concern is his back

Logano and Hamlin, who have traded barbs since the season opening Daytona 500, battled side by side, bumping and passing in the closing laps.

They were drag racing down the backstretch, but Logano got loose on the bottom and made contact. Logano went into the outside wall, Hamlin went into the inside wall and Busch sailed by for the win.

"After what happened last week, that's what (Hamlin) gets," Logano said following the race. "We have nothing to hang our heads about, that's for sure."

Logano left JGR to join reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski at Penkse Racing to start the season.

The feud between Hamlin and Logano started at this season's Daytona 500, where Hamlin was unhappy with the way he claimed his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate clogged traffic near the end of the race. In a Twitter message to Brad Keselowski, Hamlin referred to Logano as a "genius teammate."

Last week at Bristol Motor Speedway, Hamlin tapped Logano into a spin in Turn 2 while battling for second with 152 laps remaining. Logano went to Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota to confront him after the race before being separated by crewmembers.

"It's frustrating," Logano said. "We've got a freaking genius behind the wheel of the 11 car. Probably the worst teammate I've ever had. So I learn that now. He chose to run into the back of me. So whatever. I have a scorecard. I ain't putting up with that."

That escalated into a war of words on Twitter afterward with Logano writing, "Hey @dennyhamlingreat job protecting that genius brain of yours by keeping your helmet on." Hamlin responded with "Why's that ... what would u do?", prompting @joeylogano to reply "Show you some love and appreciation." Hamlin responded, "Need my address?" And then: "Last time I checked he had my cell and direct message button to choose from if he's got a problem ... Otherwise hush little child."

Though Hamlin showed slight remorse on Friday over some of his comments, Logano made it clear through short answers that the ill feelings aren't going away anytime soon.

In one-sentence responses, Logano vowed to race Hamlin "the way he raced me" and said there won't be any resolution "until anyone says anything to me personally."

"I haven't gotten a phone call, so he can tell you whatever he wants, right?" Logano said to reporters.

Minutes earlier, Hamlin told the media he regretted questioning Logano's driving ability because "I didn't need to give my opinion on that; I think it was kind of a low blow."

When the two were teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin said, they clashed on the racetrack several times but it was kept out of the spotlight.

"It never really was public, but we had times where it was like, 'Hey, why'd you race me that way?' or vice versa," Hamlin said. "I think I had just as much disappointment as him on the racetrack as teammates as he had in me. I think it was an even shake there.

"Off the racetrack, we'd see each other on the racetrack in Monday morning meetings and be like nothing ever happened."

It was Busch's first win of the season after he had flirted with winning several times in the first four races.

"They forgot about me. I knew they were going to," Busch said. "It's so fun to come out here and perform like this."

Busch acknowledged that he probably wouldn't have pulled out the victory if not for Logano and Hamlin's heated battle, which he called "golden."

"I was just thinking, hopefully I can get by before they wreck. I can make this happen," Busch said.

What is Florida Gulf Coast University?

It’s safe to say that a few weeks ago not many people outside South Florida had heard about Florida Gulf Coast University. Now, thanks to the school’s basketball team and its historic forward march in March Madness, it’s the new “it” school, at least for the moment. What exactly is it? And where is it?

Florida Gulf Coast University is a 760-acre accredited public comprehensive university located in South Fort Myers, on the southwest coast of the state. It has some 11,300 undergraduate students and 1,400 graduate students, 92 percent of whom are from Florida, and it offers 52 undergraduate degree programs, 30 graduate degree programs, two doctoral programs and on specialist program, according to its Web site. It has its own astronomical observatory

It was established in 1991 with the idea of being a commuter school where most students took classes online, but it did not start classes until August 1997. In 1999, the president, William C. Merwin, decided to turn the school into a more traditional four-year school that used technology both in class and elsewhere on campus. Dormitories were built and the campus has a number of lakes. The average SAT score for new students is 1530, and the average GPA for all students is 2.99, the school’s website says.

On Sunday, Florida Gulf Coast’s basketball team earned a place in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16, the first No. 15 seed to reach that round ever. Its next game is against another Sunshine State team: the University of Florida Gators.

Powerball mystery: Who is the lucky New Jersey resident who bought the lone winning ticket

 Some lucky New Jerseyan hit the $338.3 million Powerball jackpot.

A single ticket sold in the Garden State matched all six numbers in Saturday night’s drawing for the sixth largest Powerball prize in history.

The lucky numbers were 7, 29, 31, 52, 53 and Powerball 31. If the winner opts for a lump sum payout, he’ll receive $221 million after taxes.

 The New Jersey Lottery said it would release further information about the winning ticket Monday, including where it was purchased and if the winner had come forward.

Thirteen other tickets matched all but the final Powerball number Saturday night — each yielding a cool $1 million, pre-tax.

Those tickets were sold in New Jersey and 10 other states.

 The last Powerball jackpot was doled out in early February, when Dave Honeywell in Virginia bought the winning ticket and took a cash lump sum for his $217 million jackpot.

The largest Powerball jackpot ever came in at $587.5 million in November.

With News wire services

Why is Kentucky's biggest fan, Ashley Judd, pulling for Louisville?

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

A Kentucky fan rooting for Louisville is like:

a. Tom pulling for Jerry.

b. A Hatfield endorsing a McCoy.

c. Good and evil getting a timeshare together in Clearwater.

d. Marshall Henderson stopping for red lights.

(Answer: All of the above.) So why is UK's No. 1 fan throwing her support behind the Wildcats' biggest rivals?

After Louisville's convincing win against Colorado State, Ashley Judd tweeted a congratulatory message to Rick Pitino's team and said she's pulling for them this March. "The rising tide and success lifts all Kentucky," she wrote at the end of the message, sounding like the cheesiest line of dialogue from her most embarrassing IMDB credit.

That's a lovely sentiment. Even in this polarizing world, fans can pull for archrivals in the name of state unity. If Kentucky isn't going to make the NCAA tournament (and lose early in the NIT), then why shouldn't Ashley Judd root for Louisville? That's a breath of fresh air.

Girl who was cruelly denied ice cream at Pacers game gets free yearlong supply

Indiana Pacers fan Georgia Arnett enjoyed a 22-point Indiana win against the Orlando Magic on Tuesday, but midway through the game she was cruelly denied mint chocolate chip ice cream by her bearded boyfriend (Chris Webber expertly telestrated the scene on NBA TV, as seen in the video above.) Despite Arnett's multiple attempts to snag a small spoonful, her boyfriend spurned her advances and left Arnett ice cream-less.


It was one of the best defensive plays in the NBA this year. Justice has been served, however, thanks to Blue Bell ice cream. The folks at Blue Bell saw the video and gave Arnett a certificate for a yearlong supply of free ice cream.

Winning $338M Powerball jackpot ticket sold in N.J

A jackpot dream has come true for the lucky owner of one Powerball ticket worth $338.3 million, and lottery officials in New Jersey are holding a press conference Monday to reveal some details about the lucky ticket from Saturday's drawing.

At the Soda King in Manalapan, N.J., clerk Govind Patel said he is hoping the store's recent good fortune will continue. A week ago a lucky customer hit five numbers -- and won $1 million.

"We are very excited," Patel said. "It would amazing if we sold another winner."

It would also bring a small financial windfall -- the store that sells the winning ticket claims a $10,000 check. The winning numbers from Saturday night's drawing: 17, 29, 31, 52, 53 and Powerball 31. It's the fourth-largest jackpot in Powerball history. A lump sum payout would be $221 million.

Other Powerball players also stand to get rich. One Powerball ticket that matched five numbers, sold in Iowa, is good for $2 million. Spreading the wealth even further, 13 tickets worth a cool $1 million were sold in 11 states. Florida and Pennsylvania each had two; Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia had one each.

No one had won the Powerball jackpot in more than a month, since Dave Honeywell in Virginia bought the winning ticket worth $217 million.

Electrician Teddy Jackson, who bought a 40 tickets in Tom's River, said Sunday he checked his tickets more than once to make sure he had no winner.

"There were a few where I had one or two numbers, but that was it," Jackson, 45, said. "Now, I have to watch someone else get my money, buy the powerboat I would have gotten …. it was fun to dream."

The largest U.S. jackpot of any kind was a $656 million Mega Millions pot, won March 30, 2012, and split by winners in Maryland, Illinois and Kansas.

The largest Powerball jackpot ever came in at $587.5 million in November. The winnings were split between two winners -- a couple in Missouri and an Arizona man.

The largest Powerball jackpot won by a single ticket was $365 million claimed in Nebraska in February 2006. But even that one was split -- eight workers at a Lincoln, Neb., meatpacking plant had pooled their funds.

Powerball is played in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The chance of hitting all five numbers and the Powerball number is about 1 in 175 million.

Acceptance by Example, on the Field and at Home

By SCOTT FUJITA

My three young daughters, like most kids, are curious and ask a lot of questions. My wife and I are as open and honest with them as possible. But there’s one question I’m not prepared to answer: “Why aren’t Clare and Lesa married?”

 I don’t know how to explain to them what “inferior” means or why their country treats our friends as such. I don’t want to tell them that “Yes, our friends love each other just like Mommy and Daddy love each other, but that their love is considered ‘less than.’ ”

As my girls grow up, they will learn about a few of the more embarrassing moments in our nation’s history. And I expect they’ll ask questions. But for the most part, I’ll be prepared to respond because I can point to the progress that followed.

They will learn that their great-grandmother Lillie delivered a son, their Grandpa Rod, in a Japanese-American relocation camp during World War II. Initially, they might be shocked that this is part of America’s past. But I’ll be able to tell them, ”I think a lesson was learned from that experience, and it won’t happen again.”

They will learn that couples of different races, like their grandparents, were once denied the right to marry. But at least I’ll be able to say, “Thanks to a Virginia couple named Richard and Mildred Loving, things are better now.”

At some point, they will hear the term “separate but equal,” and will learn there was a time when their father would not have been able to go to the same school or sit in the same restaurant with many of the same friends that he now shares an N.F.L. locker room with. But then I can say to them, “That was a long time ago, and look how far we’ve come.”

I anticipate us having similar conversations about women’s suffrage or Rosa Parks. And each time, I’ll be able to say that this country moved toward progress. Sometimes, change is slow, but when we know better, we do better.

Sometimes, people ask me what any of this has to do with football. Some think football players like me should just keep our mouths shut and focus on the game. But we’re people first, and football players a distant second. Football is a big part of what we do, but a very small part of who we are. And historically, sports figures like Jackie Robinson, Billie Jean King and Muhammad Ali have been powerful agents for social change. That’s why the messages athletes send — including the way they treat others and the words they use — can influence many people, especially children.

Believe it or not, conversations about issues like gay marriage take place in locker rooms every day. In many respects, the football locker room is a microcosm of society. While there is certainly an element of bravado in our sport, football players are not the meatheads many think we are. For some of my friends who raise personal objections to marriage equality, they still recognize the importance of being accepting. And many of them also recognize that regardless of what they choose to believe or practice at home or at their church, that doesn’t give them the right to discriminate. I am encouraged by how I’ve seen such conversations evolve.

Recently, I heard someone say: “You can legislate tolerance, but you can’t legislate acceptance. That takes a societal shift.” Such transformation requires more than just common sense. It takes love, understanding and time. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. I agree with the lower courts that said Proposition 8 violated the constitutional rights of gay men and women without any evidence-based rationale for doing so, and I, along with other professional athletes, signed my name to a brief sent to the court stressing the importance of marriage equality. Now the Supreme Court — like a referee in a football game — has the opportunity to simply enforce the rules as written. And I’m confident the justices will.

I support marriage equality for so many reasons: my father’s experience in an internment camp and the racial intolerance his family experienced during and after the war, the gay friends I have who are really not all that different from me, and also because of a story I read a few years back about a woman who was denied the right to visit her partner of 15 years when she was stuck in a hospital bed.

My belief is rooted in a childhood nurtured by a Christian message of love, compassion and acceptance. It’s grounded in the fact that I was adopted and know there are thousands of children institutionalized in various foster programs, in desperate need of permanent, safe and loving homes, but living in states that refuse to allow unmarried couples, including gays and lesbians, to adopt because they consider them not fit to be parents.

In articulating all my feelings about marriage equality, I almost don’t know where to begin. And perhaps that’s part of the problem. Why do we have to explain ourselves when it comes to issues of fairness and equality? Why is common sense not enough?

Years ago, my wife and I became friendly with a young woman whose teenage brother committed suicide after coming out to an unsuspecting and unsupportive father. This woman explained that her father was a football guy, a “man’s man” — whatever that means. She challenged me to speak up for her lost brother because, as she said, the only way to change the heart and mind of someone like her father was for him to hear that people he admires would embrace someone like his son.

I hope that soon after Tuesday’s arguments in front of the Supreme Court, people like me won’t have to speak up for those sons or daughters. No one owns the definition of love. It comes in all shapes and sizes. As Toni Morrison wrote, “Definitions belong to the definer, not the defined.” One thing I know for certain is that you can’t put a face on love, and you can’t tell me what a family is supposed to look like.

I recently received a message from a friend who has been in a committed relationship with her partner for eight years: “Pretty much my entire adult life I’ve always felt like I should settle for not having similar rights because I’m old enough to see how far we’ve come. I’ve grown accustomed to it. But I so hope it changes for the next generation because I hate to think that because they love, they should feel ‘less than.’ ”

I don’t ever want to explain to my daughters that some “versions” of love are viewed as “less than” others. I’m not prepared to answer that kind of question.

Instead, in just a few short years, and in the same way we now sometimes ask the previous generation, I hope my daughters will ask me: “What was all the fuss about back then?” I’m looking forward to hearing that question.

Aaron Craft’s last-second 3-pointer helps Ohio State avoid an upset in chaotic West Region

When Aaron Craft missed three important free throws in the final five minutes of Sunday's round of 32 matchup with Iowa State, there was concern on Ohio State bench that the Buckeyes' standout point guard might be tiring.

"Coaches were telling me he's exhausted," Ohio State coach Thad Matta told CBS after the game. "But he's too tough to be tired."

Craft validated his coach's faith in him by sinking the biggest shot of Ohio State's season on the Buckeyes' final possession.

Having utilized a ball screen to get 6-foot-7 Georges Niang switched onto him, Craft then noticed that the Iowa State forward was conceding a jump shot and playing him to take away the drive. Craft took advantage of the space, pulled up and buried a clutch tie-breaking 3-pointer with 0.5 seconds to go from the right of the top of the key, sending the Buckeyes to the Sweet 16 with a 78-75 victory.


Not only did Craft finish with 18 points and six assists, he also scored Ohio State's final seven points of the game. As if that weren't enough, Craft also made the game's biggest defensive play, sliding over to draw a highly questionable charging call on Iowa State's Will Clyburn that negated a potential Cyclones 3-point play with less than two minutes remaining in the game.

Craft's heroics helped Ohio State become the lone top-five seed to advance to the West Regional in Los Angeles next week.

With WCC champ Gonzaga, Mountain West champ New Mexico and Big 12 co-champ Kansas State all sent home early, Ohio State becomes a clear-cut favorite to return to the Final Four for a second straight year. The Buckeyes will face sixth-seeded Arizona in the marquee semifinal with ninth-seeded Wichita State facing either 12th-seeded Ole Miss or 13th-seeded La Salle in the other.

Ohio State being in such a favorable position seemed unlikely as recently as a month ago when the Buckeyes were still struggling to find secondary scorers to complement Deshaun Thomas. Since then, other scoring options have begun to emerge more consistently and Ohio State has continued to play consistently strong defense, contributing to a 10-game win streak and last weekend's Big Ten tournament title.


Thomas had his usual 22 points on Sunday and Craft contributed on both ends of the floor, but it was LaQuinton Ross who was the unsung hero. The talented but enigmatic Ross scored 17 points off the bench to help Ohio State overcome a 3-point barrage from the Cyclones.

Prior to Ohio State's victory, the Big Ten had six teams still alive in the NCAA tournament and Michigan and Michigan State already in the Sweet 16. Craft's huge last-second shot ensured Ohio State will join them.

Ohio State Survives on a Buzzer-Beater Out of a Child’s Daydream

DAYTON, Ohio — The West Region is in shambles. The one, three, four, five, seven and eight seeds will not be going to Los Angeles for the regional semifinals this week.

 But somehow — barely, luckily, unbelievably — the No. 2 seed, Ohio State, can pack its bags.

Aaron Craft, the senior point guard from Findlay, Ohio, grew up dreaming about hitting a game-winning shot for the Buckeyes in the N.C.A.A. tournament. He lived out that fantasy Sunday when his go-ahead 3-pointer with five-tenths of a second remaining sent Ohio State past Iowa State, 78-75, and gave an already wild N.C.A.A. tournament another memorable moment.

Craft did not have thoughts of home or family or realized dreams when the ball splashed through the net. He raised his arms and yelled to his teammates to return to their full-court press.

“The first thing I thought was how much time is left and how to get a stop,” Craft said.

The arena, speckled with scarlet and gray, being only about 80 miles west of Columbus, Ohio, burst into pandemonium. Iowa State’s Georges Niang, who defended the shot, crumbled to his knees.

After a last-ditch shot by Korie Lucious fell well short, the Buckeyes surrounded Craft at midcourt. Iowa State Coach Fred Hoiberg trudged into the locker room and told his players he loved them.

On the podium for the postgame news conference, Hoiberg stared down at the box score for 12 seconds before declining to make an opening remark. He was too overwhelmed.

“What they’ve done, what they’ve accomplished, words can’t describe,” Hoiberg said of his team. “They left their heart on the floor.”

Hoiberg fashioned his team as giant slayers, loading the roster with transfers like Lucious, Chris Babb and Will Clyburn. They led the nation in 3-pointers made per game, making them a tough team to stamp out of any game. Ohio State Coach Thad Matta knew it, saying he wanted his team to build at least a 12-point lead to absorb Iowa State’s runs.

The Buckeyes did that. They had a 13-point lead, 69-56, with six minutes remaining. It did not last.

The Cyclones chipped away, chipped away, chipped away, finally tying the score at 69-69 with a layup by Lucious with four minutes remaining. Moments later, a 3-pointer by Tyrus McGee gave Iowa State its first lead since early in the second half. The mighty Buckeyes seemed to be on the ropes.

It would have been only fitting, in this combustible West region, for Ohio State to go down, too. Its path to the Final Four, following the losses of top-seeded Gonzaga, third-seeded New Mexico, fourth-seeded Kansas State, and so on, seemed clear of the predictable obstruction.

And there was 10th-seeded Iowa State, nearly muddying up the bracket yet again, if not for a key steal by Deshaun Thomas with less than a minute remaining. He was so excited by the defensive play that his leg began cramping. He hobbled back on offense and struggled to set a screen.

Craft fired up a shot at the top of the key that missed, but the rebound was tapped out of bounds by Iowa State. The Buckeyes had the ball again with 29 seconds left.

For the Cyclones, who out-rebounded Ohio State, 36-22, the last mishandled rebound was a backbreaker.

“We couldn’t corral that last rebound,” Hoiberg said. “That gave them the opportunity to hit the game-winning shot.”

More important, Craft said his first shot — while it missed — felt good out of his hands. He was not planning to take another shot, but as time wound down, Iowa State switched on the screen set by LaQuinton Ross, and Craft found himself matched up against the 6-foot-7 Niang.

He weaved in and out, drew separation and fired up a shot: his only 3-point attempt of the game.

“I didn’t have to rush it too much,” Craft said. “I was fortunate to get the shot off clean.”

He added, “Every kid dreams of situations like that.”

Matta said it was not exactly how the play was expected to unfold, but it worked out having the ball in their best player’s hands.

“We told him, let’s play for the win here,” Matta said. “It was pretty good timing on his part.”

Ohio State has won 10 games in a row. It beat Iona, the second-highest scoring team in the nation, by adapting to the Gaels’ style, showing they are not another plodding Big Ten fundamentals-centric team, but one that can run, and leap, and score.

On Sunday, the Buckeyes got back to their more familiar style of play: gritty, poised and tough-minded defensively. They turned the ball over only 9 times, while forcing 16. They shot 51 percent and scored 18 points off turnovers.

And, for all that effort, they are barely alive, moving on to their fourth consecutive Round of 16, which, in this region, after this game, could not feel sweeter.

What Happens To Kenya If Indicted Candidate Uhuru Kenyatta Wins The Election?

As provisional results from the Kenyan presidential election roll in, things are looking up for Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity and may face a trial this year at The Hague.

Voter turnout was high on Monday, when at least 70 percent of Kenya’s estimated 14 million registered voters poured into polling stations. Lines were so long that some polls were obliged to remain open for hours after scheduled closing times had passed.

Deadly violence rocked the country following the last presidential vote in 2007, killing at least 1,200 people and displacing hundreds of thousands. This time around, new electoral institutions were in place. Tens of thousands of security men were out in force across the country, government officials on all sides are making it a point to call for calm, and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission -- established under the 2010 constitution -- is overseeing the tally.

Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s founding president Jomo Kenyatta, went up against seven other candidates on Monday. His main competitor is current Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who ran during the 2007 election but lost to then-incumbent Mwai Kibaki, whose term limit is now up. Their fathers were Kenya's leading politicians, and rivals, in the 1960s.

Kenyatta’s early lead is raising concerns about his upcoming trial. He is accused of helping to organize and fund violence following the elections five years ago, a charge he denies.

The candidate is innocent until proven guilty according to domestic and international laws, but it is possible that his election would damage Kenya’s diplomatic standing with its neighbors -- and with the United States, which is the country’s primary aid donor and a devoted security partner.

“Given the comments that have been made, there’s an indication that the West favors Raila Odinga,” Jendayi Frazer, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs and fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, said on Tuesday.

“I’d expect a warmer relationship [between the U.S. and Kenya] if Odinga wins the presidency, but in either case American interests and Kenyan interests are aligned,” she added.

Interests Intertwined

In 2011, the last year on record with USAID, American assistance to Kenya totaled $484.5 million. The vast majority of those funds -- $407 million -- went to public health initiatives.

A total of $8 million was devoted to counterterrorism, about twice the amount that had been devoted to that purpose only a year earlier. As an important partner to the U.S. in terms of security, Kenya is one of the top recipients of U.S. military assistance funding on the continent. The two countries have a shared interest in clamping down on militant groups including al-Shabaab in Somalia and other al Qaeda-linked organizations across North and West Africa.

The relationship has raised concerns about U.S. interference in Kenyan politics, with critics charging that the military aid empowers Kenyan security officials to clamp down on suspected terrorists -- and even political dissidents or separatist actors -- with little regard for human rights protections.

Given the high priority placed on counterterrorism operations by the United States, it is unlikely that a Kenyatta election would do much to hurt American cooperation with the Kenyan administration, despite the ICC indictment.

But that hasn’t stopped some from voicing their concerns. In a conference call with journalists in February, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson made a barely veiled reference to Kenyatta’s impending case in response to a question about Washington’s stance regarding the two candidates. Officially, neither candidate is endorsed by the U.S. and officials all the way up to President Barack Obama have called only for fair and free elections. Carson wasn’t quite that careful.

“Choices have consequences,” he said. “We live in an interconnected world and people should be thoughtful about the impact that their choices have on their nation, on the region, on the economy, on the society and on the world in which they live.  Choices have consequences.”

It would certainly be diplomatically awkward if Kenyatta were elected only to be tried for crimes against humanity months later. But the U.S. isn’t directly involved in that case; it is not a member of the ICC, and has long refused to join, citing concerns that its own officials might be targeted for political reasons. The American level of engagement with the international court has risen only slightly under the Obama administration.

If Kenyatta were elected, in other words, his indictment would not affect U.S. relations with Kenya in any official capacity.

The candidate has promised to cooperate with the ICC when the time comes for him to appear in court, but that day could be a long time coming. The case has been plagued with problems, including reports of mysterious disappearances of witnesses and allegations of bribery.

Kenyatta was slated to appear at The Hague on April 11, which would coincide with a runoff election in Kenya if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the Monday vote. Now, it is likely to be delayed even further -- at least until August.

More Pressing Concerns

For now, most Kenyans are more focused on the threat of violence than on that relatively faraway court date. The bases of support for both frontrunners are strong in their respective areas, and backlash in the event of an unexpected result could lead to turmoil.

Odinga represents the Coalition for Reform and Democracy, or CORD; and Uhuru Kenyatta’s bloc is called the Jubilee Alliance. But just as in the last election, voters’ political affiliations seem to be based on ethnic loyalties rather than policy differences. Early data released by the IECB show that constituents in areas dominated by Kenyatta’s Kikuyu tribe -- the most populous and politically well-connected group in Kenya -- swung heavily in favor of Kenyatta, while Odinga was more popular in communities that have traditionally been opposed to Kikuyu dominance, including members of his own Luo tribe, to which Obama’s father belonged.

Five years ago, violence ramped up only after Kibaki’s victory was announced, meaning that the risk of turmoil this time around has not abated quite yet. Already, clashes have taken place in the southeastern regions surrounding Mombasa, killing at least 12 people including police officers and militants. But those incidents could have been a result of separatist clashes not directly related to ethnic tensions that plague the country as a whole.

If violence is kept to a minimum as the days and weeks go on, it will mark a victory for a nation eager to reclaim its pre-2007 reputation for stability.

“Large voter turnout was a clear indication that people are trying to own this process,” Frazer said.

“A successful election is extremely important in Kenya because of its high priority and strategic location… It is the economic engine of East Africa and the host of many international organizations and businesses. Stability in Kenya is key to the stability of the entire region.”

This high-stakes vote isn’t necessarily over yet, since a runoff vote looks increasingly likely. At least half the votes have been counted by the IEBC, and provisional results show Kenyatta with 53 percent of the vote and Odinga with 42. This would seem to give Kenyatta a good chance of avoiding a runoff, except that the IEBC decided late on Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of spoiled ballots -- mismarked sheets that are essentially counted as blanks -- would be included in the total number of ballots submitted. That could be just enough to push Kenyatta’s total down below the 50 percent mark.

Only if Kenyatta emerges victorious in the end and Kenyan authorities prove successful in keeping clashes to a minimum will the problem of the president-elect’s indictment come to the fore.

That could be troublesome since the ICC case is a sensitive subject in Kenya. For many, it is a sign of international interference in what should be a domestic affair. Kenyatta himself noted in a January interview with Al Jazeera that his supporters were suspicious of the charges.

“If Kenyans do vote for us, it will mean that Kenyans themselves have questioned the process that has landed us at the ICC,” he said. “But that does not mean that we will cease to cooperate.”

A jail sentence, if it ever comes, would put the kibosh on a Kenyatta presidency. But until that day, the candidate can expect to follow through with the business of becoming president should he win this pivotal election.

Who Is Yvette Prieto? Michael Jordan Files For Marriage License With Longtime Sweetheart

Michael Jordan filed for a marriage license in Florida on Thursday and is expected to wed his longtime fiancée, Yvette Prieto.

Jordan appeared at the main Palm Beach County courthouse to apply for a marriage license, which is good for 60 days, the Associated Press reported.

Although the identity of the bride wasn't revealed, TMZ said it has obtained photos of the former NBA star and Prieto filing marriage papers. TMZ said the couple plan to wed on April 27.

Prieto and Jordan started dating in 2008 and became engaged around the Christmas holiday in 2011, his publicist said. The pair have kept a relatively low profile and have only been spotted a few times over the past couple of years, sometimes courtside at Charlotte Bobcats' games, of which, Jordan is an owner.

This marriage will be Jordan’s second. His first wife, Juanita Vanoy, received a $168 million divorce settlement when their 17-year marriage ended in 2006, news accounts said. They have three children, Jeffrey Michael, Marcus James and Jasmine.

The legendary Chicago Bulls shooting guard, who wore No. 23, averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. He was also a five-time MVP champion, played in 14 All-Star games and was the top scorer for 10 seasons. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1985 and has won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest twice. Magic Johnson said, “There is Michael Jordan, and then there's the rest of us.”

So who's the woman who stole Jordan's heart? Here are eight things to know about Prieto:

1. She’s a Cuban-American model and has posed for several designers, including Alexander Wang, the new creative director of Balenciaga.

2. She met Jordan in 2008, two years after his divorce.

3. They've been living together since 2009 in a house in Kendall, Fla. The 5,500-square-foot house is in a gated subdivision in Miami and was purchased for less than $300,000.

5. She has dated Julio Iglesias Jr., the older brother of Enrique Iglesias. In a 2003 interview, Iglesias called Prieto “fantastic,” “loving,” “simple” and “a very good person.” 

6. Records show Prieto is a principal with the Miami-based companies Aqua Management and Beet the LBS. Before that, she studied business management and worked at her dad’s company.

7. Prieto filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2002, and it took her two years to pull out from under it, the SacBee reported.

8.  Prieto had first registered as Republican on her voter registration card before switching to Independent, Fox News said.

Kitty Power

Michael Jordan Applies for Marriage License With Fiancee Yvette Prieto

Michael Jordan is headed for the altar -- again. On Thursday, March 7, the 50-year-old NBA legend hit up a courthouse in West Palm Beach, Fla., to apply for a marriage license with fiancee Yvette Prieto. County clerk spokeswoman Kathy Burstein confirmed the news to the Associated Press.

Michael Jordan is headed for the altar -- again. On Thursday, March 7, the 50-year-old NBA legend hit up a courthouse in West Palm Beach, Fla., to apply for a marriage license with fiancee Yvette Prieto. County clerk spokeswoman Kathy Burstein confirmed the news to the Associated Press.

Jordan and Prieto dated for three years before getting engaged in 2011. His rep told North Carolina TV station WCNC that he proposed over Christmas.

This will be the second marriage for the Charlotte Bobcats owner; he was previously wed to Juanita Vanoy for 17 years before their 2006 divorce. He and Vanoy -- who received about $168 million in their settlement -- share three kids: sons Jeffrey Michael, 24, and Marcus James, 22, and daughter Jasmine, 19.

North Korea threatens nuclear strike, U.N. expands sanctions

(Reuters) - North Korea threatened the United States on Thursday with a preemptive nuclear strike, raising the level of rhetoric as the U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions against the reclusive country.

The White House said North Korea's threats would only lead to Pyongyang's further international isolation and declared that the United States was "fully capable" of defending against any North Korean missile attack.

China's U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong said Beijing wanted to see "full implementation" of the new Security Council resolution, which tightens financial restrictions on Pyongyang and cracks down on its attempts to ship and receive banned cargo.

North Korea has accused the United States of using military drills in South Korea as a launch pad for a nuclear war and has scrapped the armistice with Washington that ended hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War.

A North Korean general said on Tuesday that Pyongyang was scrapping the armistice. But the two sides remain technically at war as the civil war did not end with a treaty.

North Korea threatens the United States and its "puppet," South Korea, on an almost daily basis.

"Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest," the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

North Korea conducted a third nuclear test on February 12, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, and declared it had achieved progress in securing a functioning atomic arsenal. It is widely believed that the North does not have the capacity for a nuclear strike against the mainland of the United States.

With tensions high on the Korean peninsula, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to expand its sanctions on North Korea. The new sanctions were agreed after three weeks of negotiations between the United States and China, which has a history of resisting tough measures against its ally and neighbor.

The resolution specifies some luxury items North Korea's elite is not allowed to import, such as yachts, racing cars, luxury automobiles and certain types of jewelry. This is intended to close a loophole that had allowed countries to decide for themselves what constitutes a luxury good.

"These sanctions will bite and bite hard," said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

The export of luxury goods to North Korea has been prohibited since 2006, though diplomats and analysts said the enforcement of U.N. sanctions has been uneven.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, welcomed the council's move, saying in a statement that the resolution "sent an unequivocal message to (North Korea) that the international community will not tolerate its pursuit of nuclear weapons."

The success of the new measures, council diplomats said, will depend to a large extent on the willingness of China to enforce them more strictly than it has in the past.

However, there was some praise for the new sanctions, which were designed make the punitive measures more like to those used against Iran, which Western officials say have been surprisingly successful.

Pyongyang was hit with U.N. sanctions in retaliation for its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests. Those measures were subsequently tightened and expanded after several rocket launches by the North.

In addition to the luxury goods ban, there is an arms embargo on North Korea, and it is forbidden from trading in nuclear and missile technology.

George Lopez, a professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and a former member of the U.N. panel that monitors North Korea sanctions compliance, said the new measures should have a real impact on North Korea's movement of money and constrain access to equipment for its nuclear and missile programs.

"Now, we may yet see another launch or a bomb test, but over the medium term this resolution will degrade DPRK capabilities to grow its program," Lopez said, using the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

THREATS AND WAR GAMES

Washington moved quickly after the new sanctions were approved and froze the assets of three North Korean citizens who have links to Pyongyang's main arms dealer.

North Korea's threats were the latest in an escalating war of words by both sides across the armed Korean border this week.

The North's unnamed foreign ministry spokesman said it would be entitled to take military action as of March 11 when U.S.-South Korea military drills move into a full-scale phase.

"North Korea will achieve nothing by continued threats and provocations. These will only further isolate the country and its people and undermine international efforts to promote peace and stability in northeast Asia," Rice told reporters.

President Barack Obama's administration said it had reassured South Korea and Japan "at the highest levels" of its commitment to deterrence, through the U.S. nuclear umbrella and missile defense, in the face of the new threats.

Glyn Davies, the State Department's point man for North Korea, also said in testimony prepared for a Senate hearing that Washington will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called for restraint and an end to the threats. "Let's keep our minds cool and keep focused on the need for the only possible rational course of action, and that is returning to six-party talks," he said.

North Korea, which held a mass military rally in Pyongyang on Thursday in support of its recent threats, has protested against the U.N. censures of its rocket launches. It says they are part of a peaceful space program and that the criticism is an exercise of double standards by the United States.

The North's shrill rhetoric, however, rarely goes beyond just that. Its last armed aggression against the South in 2010 came unannounced, bombing a South Korean island and killing two civilians. It was also accused of sinking a South Korean navy ship earlier in the year, killing 46 sailors.

North Korea was conducting a series of military drills and getting ready for state-wide war practice of an unusual scale, South Korea's defense ministry said earlier.

South Korea and the United States, which are conducting annual military drills until the end of April, are watching the North's activities for signs that they might turn from an exercise to an actual attack, said South Korea's defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok.

Kim declined to confirm news reports that the North has imposed no-fly zones off its coasts in a possible move to fire missiles, but he said any flight ban limited to near the coast would not be for weapons with meaningful ranges.

South Korea's military said in a rare warning on Wednesday that it would strike back at the North and target its leadership if Pyongyang launched an attack.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Paul Eckert and Anna Yukhananov in Washington; Writing by Claudia Parsons; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Tougher Sanctions on North Korea Pass in Unified U.N. Vote

The United Nations Security Council approved a new regimen of sanctions on Thursday against North Korea for its underground nuclear test last month in a unanimous vote that came just hours after North Korea threatened for the first time to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States and South Korea.

 The North Korean leadership, which had warned the Security Council not to approve the sanctions, said it was responding to threats already made against it, citing the American-South Korean military exercises currently under way as evidence the allies were preparing for “a nuclear war aimed to mount a pre-emptive strike” on North Korea.

The tougher sanctions impose penalties on North Korean banking, travel and trade and were passed in a 15-0 vote that reflected the country’s increased international isolation. China, the North’s longtime benefactor, helped the United States draft the sanctions resolution in what outside experts called a sign of Beijing’s growing annoyance with Pyongyang’s defiant behavior on the nuclear issue. The Chinese had entreated the North Koreans not to proceed with the Feb. 12 underground nuclear test, their third.

Both China and the United States presented the new constraints as adding significant pressure on North Korea. Whether it will change North Korea’s behavior is unknown.

“The strength, breadth and severity of these sanctions will raise the cost to North Korea of its illicit nuclear program and further constrain its ability to finance and source materials and technology for its ballistic missile, conventional and nuclear weapons programs,” the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, told reporters after the vote.

“Taken together, these sanctions will bite and bite hard,” she said. “They increase North Korea’s isolation and raise the cost to North Korea’s leaders of defying the international community. “The entire world stands united in our commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and in our demand that North Korea comply with its international obligations.”

Li Baodong, the ambassador from China, which angered the North Korean government by supporting the sanctions, told reporters that his country was “committed to safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula” and that the resolution also stressed the need for resumed talks.

“This resolution is a very important step, but one step cannot make a journey” he told reporters. “We need a comprehensive strategy to bring the situation back to dialogue. We need wisdom, persistence, perseverance.”

It remained unclear if China would be willing to go beyond the scope of the sanctions, cutting off fuel shipments and commercial trade that have in the past helped to keep the impoverished country functioning.

The resolution, which was drafted three weeks after the Feb. 12 underground test by North Korea, is the Security Council’s fourth against the reclusive North Korean government. It contains new restrictions that will block financial transactions, limit North Korea’s reliance on bulk transfers of cash, further empower other countries to inspect suspicious North Korean cargo, and expand a blacklist of items that the country is prohibited from importing. The sanctions also place new constraints on North Korean diplomats, raising their risk of expulsion from host countries.

Asked if she thought the sanctions would break the pattern of North Korean defiance of earlier punishments imposed by the Security Council, Ms. Rice said: “The choice lies with the decision that the North Korean leadership makes.”

She dismissed the North’s vows of a pre-emptive nuclear strike, saying “North Korea will achieve nothing by continued threats and provocations.”

American experts on North Korea said the more shrill invective was a characteristic response that should not be taken literally, but they did not dismiss it outright.

“I don’t believe they will carry through on these threats,” said Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor and presidential candidate who has been an American emissary to North Korea, having traveled there eight times, most recently in January.

“It does mean a longer or sustained period of estrangement and negativity and lack of a diplomatic dialogue,” Mr. Richardson said. “I think to show their defiance, they may take some military steps, undefined military steps. I don’t know what they’ll do.”

In recent days, with the resolution set to pass, North Korea characterized the sanctions as part of an “act of war” in its escalating invective against the United States and its allies. Earlier this week it declared the 1953 armistice that stopped the Korean War null and void as of next Monday and threatened to turn Washington and Seoul into “a sea in flames” with “lighter and smaller nukes.”

 The combative country has often warned that it has the right to launch pre-emptive military strikes against the United States, claiming that the western power wants to start a war on the Korean Peninsula. But on Thursday the North ratcheted up the hostile language by saying those strikes could be nuclear.

“Now that the U.S. is set to light a fuse for a nuclear war, the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will exercise the right to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors and to defend the supreme interests of the country,” a spokesman of the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a Korean-language statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. He used the acronym for his country’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The resolution the United Nations adopted to impose more sanctions against the North “will compel the DPRK to take at an earlier date more powerful second and third countermeasures as it had declared,” the spokesman added, without elaborating.

In the past, whenever the United Nations considered more sanctions, North Korea’s typically strident rhetoric has grown harsher with threats of war. The threats were just that, and analysts said the latest message was meant as much for its home population, with the country’s young leader Kim Jong-un seeking to inspire a sense of crisis, as it was meant to force Washington to engage it with concessions.

Photos filed by news agencies from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and carried in South Korean media on Thursday showed buses covered with military camouflage and university students rushing out of their classroom building in military uniforms in a military exercise.

Few analysts believe that North Korea would launch a military attack at the United States, a decision that would be suicidal for the regime. But officials in Seoul feared that North Korea might attempt an armed skirmish to test the military resolve of Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s first female president, who took office less than two weeks ago.

On Wednesday, in an uncharacteristically blunt response to North Korea’s threat, a South Korean Army general called a news conference and warned that if provoked, South Korea would strike back at the top North Korean military leadership. In 2010, the two Koreas’ front-line units exchanged artillery fire after North Korea launched a barrage against a South Korean border island.

In the same year, 46 South Korean sailors were killed when their navy corvette sank in an explosion the South blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack.

With the United States standing behind it, South Korea has since vowed to strike back with a deadlier force if North Korea provokes again.

Despite such warnings, however, South Korean officials feared that Mr. Kim, an inexperienced leader eager to build his credentials and gravitas as leader of his “military-first” country might have been emboldened by his nation’s recent successful tests of a long-range rocket and nuclear device to believe that he could try an armed provocation with impunity.

In North Korea, where pronouncements are carefully choreographed and timed, the threat on Tuesday to use “lighter and smaller nukes” was read on North Korean television by Gen. Kim Yong-chol. General Kim, the head of the North’s military intelligence, is one of the hard-liners that South Korean officials suspected was deeply involved in the 2010 attacks.

Friends React to Valerie Harper’s News of Terminal Cancer

Actress Valerie Harper, 73 years old, who shot to fame playing Rhoda Morgenstern on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Rhoda,” revealed she has leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare form of brain cancer that gives her as little as three months to live. The prognosis came nearly four years after the actress battled lung cancer.

Here are what some are saying about the news:

Valerie Harper on life before, during and after ‘Rhoda’

Posted by Diana Reese on March 7, 2013 at 8:26 am

Among my favorite television memories is the sight of Valerie Harper as Rhoda Morgenstern in her bridal gown running through the streets of New York on the way to her wedding.

I watched that episode again, which first aired Oct. 28, 1974 on CBS, on YouTube Wednesday after hearing the news that Harper has terminal brain cancer; her doctors say she has three months or less to live. The 73-year-old actress was diagnosed in January with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare cancer found in the fluid-filled membrane around the brain, which may be related to the lung cancer that Harper, a lifelong nonsmoker, survived in 2009.

It was also in January that Harper’s memoir, “I, Rhoda,” was published by Simon & Schuster. “I first met Rhoda Morgenstern in the spring of 1970,” Harper writes in the prologue and describes the character she would go on to play for nine television seasons as “free-spirited, funny, and from the Bronx.” She would also win four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for the role.

When “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” premiered Sept. 19, 1970, television changed. It was shows like the groundbreaking MTM and later, its spin-off, “Rhoda,” that sparked Jim McKairnes’ interest in TV as a career.

“These shows didn’t just make you laugh, they made you think and feel,” said McKairnes, a former CBS executive and now TV consultant and author who teaches courses on television for DePaul University. “These were character comedies, not sitcoms,” he told me.

McKairnes was fortunate to spend part of a day with Harper in February 2009 when he interviewed her for the American Television Academy of Arts and Sciences Foundation’s Archive of American Television, an oral history project.

Before the taping began, she asked what kind of shot it would be. “Two T’s?” she asked, and then explained to McKairnes “two T’s” meant “two tits” or from the chest up.

“Nothing was off the table,” he said about the interview. Harper was “funny and animated” and “so forthright” in discussing her life before, during and after Rhoda.

She started her career as a dancer on Broadway and then joined Chicago’s Second City Theater before moving to Hollywood where Rhoda was her first major role on television. She later had parts in a variety of movies, including “Chapter Two,” and guest-starred in shows from “Sex and the City” to “Drop Dead Divas.” She returned to Broadway in 2007, playing Golda Meir in “Golda’s Balcony” and then Tallulah Bankhead in “Looped,” for which she was nominated for a Tony Award.

Harper also talked about her lawsuit for breach of contract against Lorimar Television that occurred after she was fired from the show bearing her name in the summer of 1987; a jury returned a unanimous decision in Harper’s favor. “We’ve buried the hatchet,” she said about the people involved in the case. “It was a thing that happened, and it hasn’t harmed me.”

After the taping, McKairnes gave Harper a ride back to the shop where her car was being repaired. “She said, ‘tell me about you,’” McKairnes said. “Then she directed me to cross four lanes of traffic.” He didn’t want to wimp out, but he’d had a “massive wreck” three years earlier. “I didn’t want to be known as the guy who killed Rhoda.”

The drive turned into a tour of Los Angeles, he said, as she pointed out landmarks and memories from her past and he shared a favorite anecdote about his mother that made Harper “laugh hysterically.”

When McKairnes dropped her off, he drove to the door of the garage rather than have her get out at the curb, as she tried to insist. He explained that his mother would not approve. After she thanked him and said, “Jim McKairnes, happy St. Patrick’s Day! And to me, too, I’m part Irish,” he pulled away from the garage but waited out at the curb, unbeknownst to Harper, to make sure her car was ready.

Near the end of the almost three hours of tape shot that day, Harper talks about her philosophy of life: “Carpe diem! Seize the day,” she says to McKairnes. “Live fully in the instant.”

McKairnes then asks her, with just a minute left, how she’d like to be remembered.

“She tried her best,” Harper said with a huge laugh. She certainly has.

Republicans, Led by Rand Paul, Finally End Filibuster

1:27 a.m. | Updated WASHINGTON — A small group of Republicans, led by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, stalled the Senate on Wednesday by waging a nearly 13-hour old-school, speak-until-you-can-speak-no-more filibuster over the government’s use of lethal drone strikes — forcing the Senate to delay the expected confirmation of John O. Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

Mr. Paul, who opposes Mr. Brennan’s nomination, followed through on his plan to filibuster the confirmation of President Obama’s nominee after receiving a letter this month from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. that refused to rule out the use of drone strikes within the United States in “extraordinary circumstances” like the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

On Wednesday, Mr. Paul did exactly as promised, taking to the Senate floor shortly before noon and holding forth for 12 hours and 52 minutes.

Mr. Paul finally wound down shortly before 1 a.m. on Thursday, surrounded by a group of Republican senators and House members who had joined him on the Senate floor in a show of solidarity.

“I would go for another 12 hours to try to break Strom Thurmond’s record, but I’ve discovered that there are some limits to filibustering and I’m going to have to go take care of one of those in a few minutes here,” Mr. Paul said to knowing laughter as he referred to the legendary South Carolina senator known for his 28-hour filibuster. (Mr. Paul could not leave the floor to use the bathroom, making his filibuster at a certain point seem less a standoff between the senator from Kentucky and the administration than a battle between Mr. Paul and his own bladder.)

After almost 13 hours, Mr. Paul offered his final words: “I thank you very much for the forbearance, and I yield the floor,” he said, to loud applause.

Earlier in the evening, as the filibuster moved into its 11th and 12th hours, the mood grew increasingly punchy, with Mr. Paul’s Republican Senate colleagues — who had joined him on the Senate floor periodically throughout the event — making repeat appearances and quoting liberally from pop culture and literature.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, at one point seemed to stage a mini-filibuster of the filibuster, reading from Shakespeare (“Henry V”) and quoting from “Patton.”

Not to be outdone, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, took to the floor for his second appearance of the filibuster, quoting the rapper Wiz Khalifa, as well as “that modern-day poet by the name of Jay-Z.” Mr. Rubio also quoted from “The Godfather” three times — including, he said, a quote that never made it from the script into the movie. (“A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than 100 men with guns can steal.”)

“I don’t know how that’s relevant to this,” Mr. Rubio admitted, “but I thought I’d bring it up.”

At a certain point, as the hour edged closer to midnight, participating in the filibuster seemed to become the gold standard among Senate Republicans, with a parade of Republican senators — Jeff Flake of Arizona; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate; and Tim Scott of South Carolina — emerging for the first time to show their support for Mr. Paul’s cause, not to mention the C-SPAN cameras.

Mr. McConnell even made some news of his own Wednesday night, when he stated on the Senate floor that he planned to oppose Mr. Brennan’s nomination.

“At whatever point we get to a cloture vote to extend debate on the nomination of Brennan, it is my view that cloture should not be invoked,” Mr. McConnell said. “This is a controversial nominee. Should cloture be invoked, I intend to oppose the nomination and congratulate my colleague from Kentucky for this extraordinary effort.”

The filibuster started just before noon on Wednesday, with Mr. Paul ostensibly objecting to Mr. Brennan’s nomination. But in fact, Mr. Paul’s main concerns were those of the civil liberties and Constitutional rights, which he said are under attack by the administration’s potential use of unmanned drone strikes on American citizens on United States soil. (By Mr. Paul’s own admission, Mr. Brennan, who as the White House counterterrorism adviser was the chief architect of the largely clandestine drone program, served as a good proxy.)

“What will be the standard for how we kill Americans in America?” Mr. Paul asked at one point. “Could political dissent be part of the standard for drone strikes?”

Referring to Jane Fonda, who went to North Vietnam during the war there to publicly denounce the United States’s presence in the country, Mr. Paul added: “Now, while I’m not a great fan of Jane Fonda, I’m really not so interested in putting her on a drone kill list either.”

Repeatedly, Mr. Paul explained that his true goal was simply to get a response from the administration saying it would not use drone strikes to take out American citizens on United States soil.

Unlike some historic filibusters, in which senators have read from the phone book or recited the Declaration of Independence to kill time, Mr. Paul kept the focus squarely on drones, using most of his time to discuss questions of actual policy.

Still, as the filibuster dragged on, it began to resemble a Shakespearean drama, complete with cameos from other A-list actors (a group of more than a dozen senators who periodically joined Mr. Paul on the floor); a title all its own (the “filiblizzard,” a nickname courtesy of Twitter users); and some willing extras (eager Senate pages, purposefully striding across the stage to deliver Mr. Paul fresh glasses of water.)

Although he never yielded the floor — a move that would have effectively ended his talkathon — Mr. Paul did, with some apparent relief, yield periodically to take questions from his Republican colleagues.

Mr. Cruz, who was a repeat guest at the Rand Paul filibuster show, began his first question by making the obvious allusion, referring to Mr. Paul as a “modern-day ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ ” joking that his effort would “surely be making Jimmy Stewart smile.”

And, perhaps befitting of another public — but hopeless — stand, Mr. Cruz also took the opportunity to remind the chamber that Wednesday was the anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, noting with some pride that Mr. Paul “is originally from the great state of Texas.”

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, stopped by earlier in the day to offer some bipartisan support.

He said that while he had voted in favor of Mr. Brennan’s nomination on Tuesday at a Senate Intelligence Committee meeting and planned to vote for him again on the Senate floor, he believed that Mr. Paul “has made a number of important points” about the administration’s lethal drone program.

“The executive branch should not be allowed to conduct such a serious and far-reaching program by themselves without any scrutiny, because that’s not how American democracy works,” he said.

Other members who made cameos throughout the day — and night — included the Republican senators John Barrasso of Wyoming; Saxby Chambliss of Georgia; John Cornyn of Texas; Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois; Mike Lee of Utah; Jerry Moran of Kansas; and John Thune of South Dakota.

Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, presided over much of the filibuster, and even engaged Mr. Paul in a late-night debate over the Sept. 11 attacks.

The filibuster, which by its end had become must-watch reality television for much of the inside-the-Beltway crowd, offered its fair share of quirky moments. Mr. Paul, for instance, ate a “dinner” of a mystery candy bar, continuing his speech through mouthfuls of chocolate. And later, Mr. Kirk, who walks with considerable effort after a stroke in 2012, slowly made his way onto the floor with the help of a walker to place a thermos of green tea and an apple next to Mr. Paul’s desk.

Mr. Cruz also read from a list of Twitter messages in support of Mr. Paul’s filibuster. Though electronic devices are not allowed on the Senate floor, Mr. Cruz informed his friend that Twitter was “blowing up” over the day’s events. (“I was getting kind of tired,” Mr. Paul said, thanking Mr. Cruz for “cheering me up.”)

Shortly before 1 a.m., Mr. Paul was finally ready to yield the floor. The entire chamber erupted in applause — and Mr. Paul, presumably, headed off to find the nearest bathroom.

Rand Paul Slammed By WSJ Editorial Page Over Epic Filibuster On Drones

The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board slammed Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) Thursday for his almost 13-hour filibuster against John Brennan, the nominee for CIA director, over the fact that Attorney General Eric Holder said the U.S. government had the legal authority to kill an American citizen on U.S. soil.

"Calm down, Senator," wrote the editors. "Mr. Holder is right, even if he doesn't explain the law very well. The U.S. government cannot randomly target American citizens on U.S. soil or anywhere else. What it can do under the laws of war is target an "enemy combatant" anywhere at anytime, including on U.S. soil. This includes a U.S. citizen who is also an enemy combatant."

The Journal board is hawkish, to be sure. But Paul's move found support in unlikely conservative quarters. The Heritage Foundation, where David Addington, the architect behind many of President George W. Bush's policies in the wake of 9/11 and a former aide to Dick Cheney, is a top official, said that it supported the filibuster. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, meanwhile, tweeted her support of Paul, while not saying exactly whether she supported the drone program.

In the end, 15 senators joined the filibuster in support of Paul, including Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Dick Durbin of Illinois were the only Democrats to speak.

Paul Bearer: A Great, Entertaining Talent Who Will Be Missed

WWE.com released a statement online Tuesday evening announcing the death of William Moody, the man known as Paul Bearer.  Paul spent nearly 40 years in the business and he is a talent that will be missed by fans all over the world.

Long before he carried the urn for Undertaker in WWE, he was Percival Pringle III, a manager in World Class Championship Wrestling.  It was there that I first saw him as a kid and I remember just hating the guy, mostly because of his arrogance and his attitude.

Of course, he was a heel and I was just reacting accordingly, but there was also something about him that just made me smile.  He was so entertaining, so over the top that I just found him fascinating.

He quickly became a must-watch character for me and even though I did not necessarily like him because of the fact he was a heel, I did appreciate what he was doing.  The guy was just doing everything he could to not only get over but get the stars over that he managed.

He was doing his job and he was very good at it.

His facial expressions were so animated, his personality so spastic that he almost came off like a cartoon character during those early days.  But that was nothing compared to what he was to eventually become.

As with many other stars in the territories, Pringle went to work for Vince McMahon. However, unlike quite a few of those stars who WWE repackaged to the point that they were nearly unrecognizable, this was not the case for Pringle.

If you knew Percy Pringle, then you knew Paul Bearer.  There was just no hiding that face.

But Percy’s charisma, and his theatrical appeal was absolutely perfect for the character of Paul Bearer.  Though it was odd to see a seven-foot undead monster being led to the ring by a bizarre little man with a wild-eyed, ghost-white face and pitch-black hair, the combo just seemed to work together.

It was a brilliant pairing for WWE and in an age when many pro wrestling managers wore three-piece suits and ran stables of full of talent, Paul Bearer needed only his black funeral attire.  He also only needed one wrestler to solidify his spot as one of WWE’s all-time best managers.

Undertaker was great at allowing Paul to lead the way.  Though Taker at any time could have pushed Paul back a little to put himself out even more, I for one never got the impression that was happening. When Paul spoke, he mostly spoke for Taker and it really did feel as though he were in total control of the situation.

He was truly running the gimmick, instead of the gimmick running him.

It is a testament to Paul’s ability to get over and get the wrestlers over that he managed, before and after he arrived in WWE.  He was so good at what he did that you only noticed him when you had to and you only really saw him when he wanted you to.

Just getting out of the way as a manager is an art unto itself, and in that regard, Paul was truly one of the best.  Simply put, he got it.  He understood what his job was and he knew what he brought to the table. 

He was so good at living the Paul Bearer gimmick that fans truly could not see the man under all that makeup.

And, that man leaves behind good friends and close family who love and will miss him very much.  He also leaves behind the fans who are undoubtedly mourning his loss today along with the rest of the wrestling world.

He made us laugh.  He made us boo and he made us cheer.  William Moody gave everything he had to the business of professional wrestling and because of that, he left an indelible mark that can never be erased.  He will never be forgotten.  He will be truly missed.

May he rest in peace.  God bless, Paul Bearer.  Thank you for the memories.

'Iron Man 3' trailer: A Deep Dive

Marvel released a new trailer for Iron Man 3 today that is positively brimming with new stuff: New scenes, new mysteries, a surprisingly new tone of dark romanticism. (You can watch the trailer here.) The film marks the official beginning of Marvel’s Phase 2, which also means that it marks the official beginning of “The Phase Where Marvel Has To Prove These Solo Movies Are Just As Good As Avengers.” Let’s take a closer look at the trailer and see what we can uncover, shall we?

The trailer focuses lots of attention on Tony’s relationship to lady love Pepper Potts. The two had a nice sparkly Hepburn-Tracy chemistry in the first couple movies, but it’s clear that Iron Man 3 takes their relationship very seriously. Obviously, nothing can go wrong!

A close-up on her necklace. THEORY: At some point in Iron Man 3, Iron Man will walk through a destroyed building, discover this necklace, hold it up in the air, and say “Noooooooo!” Or maybe “Pepperrrrrr!” Or possibly “Goooooooooop!“

‘Iron Man 3′: What we’ve learned so far

The big (really big) picture of all that goes down in "Iron Man 3" is becoming clearer with the release of the new trailer, which gives us new looks at the villainous Mandarin, the army of flying (and seemingly sentient-ish) Iron Man suits and a new set of armor that looks like it would fit the Hulk just fine (if the Hulk were, you know, suddenly not into going shirtless all the time).

Drawing from the new trailer, the original teaser, the Super Bowl spot, the stills released so far and other scattered sources across the Marvel Universe, we've compiled a list of the most important "Iron Man 3" facts to keep in mind as we prepare for the film's release in less than two months.

1. There are at least three villains

One for each "Iron Man" movie released so far! The big baddie of "Iron Man 3" is, of course, the Mandarin, played by an oft-hooded and sunglasses-wearing Ben Kingsley. The Mandarin was originally considered as a character in both "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2" before both stories got too big to also accommodate so big a villain. The Mandarin is one of Tony Stark's most notorious enemies, and his wrath in "Iron Man 3" threatens to strip our hero of everything -- and everyone -- that he holds dear.

The Mandarin is Chinese in the comics, so why isn't he being played by a Chinese actor? Director Shane Black spoke with Yahoo! Movies about the film's reworking of the character for Ben Kingsley.

"His nationality is not even clear because he is shrouded in secrecy," said Black. "He has crafted himself in the manner of the Mandarin, of a warlord. And I think that's great because you get to do the comic book but you don't ... have to deal with the specifics of Fu Manchu stereotyping.

"We're not saying he's Chinese, we're saying he, in fact, draws a cloak around him of Chinese symbols and dragons because it represents his obsessions with Sun Tzu in various ancient arts of warfare that he studied."

Meanwhile, Guy Pearce will be playing Aldrich Killian, another familiar character from the "Iron Man" comics. Killian is a geneticist who teams up with Stark's old pal Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) to create a new technology known as "Extremis" ... though we'll get to that in a moment.

Finally, James Badge Dale makes three as Eric Savin, aka Coldblood. In the comics, Savin is a U.S. Army officer in charge of Killian's Project: Ultra-Tech who's reinvented as a mercenary cyborg after he steps on a mine. We doubt "Iron Man 3" will go full-throttle with that character origin, though it's probably safe to assume that he'll be some sort of heavy for Killian.

2. The plot will draw from the 'Extremis' story arc

Speaking of suits and armor and whatnot, what's with all the multiple Iron Men in the new trailer and recent posters? "Iron Man 3" is said to be based in part on "Extremis," a six-issue story arc collected in "Iron Man" (vol. 4) issues 1-6 (2005-2006). Written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Adi Granov, "Extremis" served as a sort of reboot, reinventing Tony Stark as a weapons designer (one who once stepped on a land mine of his own invention, which may be a nod to Coldblood's origin) and taking place just prior to the second Gulf War.

The main storyline follows the creation, implementation and aftermath of "Extremis," a military nanotechnology serum -- and yet another attempt to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum -- which interfaces with the brain's 'repair center' and prompts the body to rebuild itself from scratch, as if it were all wound tissue to be replaced.

The serum was developed by Aldrich Killian and Maya Hansen, though in "Iron Man 3," Killian goes rogue after the U.S. government shuts down the project. He teams up with the Mandarin to experiment on unwilling test subjects and exploit the technology for his own nefarious desires.

It looks like Tony Stark has his own upgrades going on in "Iron Man 3" as well, as he's developed the technology (perhaps with the help of Killian before he turns villainous) that allows him to remotely control his suits of armor with ... well, with his brain, apparently. We see glimpses of this in the new trailer, from the small scale (his Iron Man mask slams onto his face of his own accord at one point) to the rather large (an army of Iron Men serve as the battle backup for Stark and James 'Rhodey' Rhodes).

Really, it's all about the suits in "Iron Man 3" -- you've no doubt seen Rhodey (Don Cheadle) in his red, white and blue Iron Patriot armor. Not exactly subtle, though certainly effective in sending a message to those who would try to blow up America.

And speaking of not-exactly-subtle suits...

3. Something resembling the Heavy Duty Armor makes an appearance (and smashes things)

What the hell is that giant mega-suit thing at the very end of the new trailer? In recent comics, Tony Stark has developed a Heavy Duty Armor, an oversized, extra-fortified suit for when his regular one just won't do, though the squared-off head and massive shoulders are also reminiscent of an earlier suit known as "The Hulkbuster," designed for if and when Stark ever had to take on his favorite "giant green rage monster." It's safe to assume the new ultra-suit in "Iron Man 3" incorporates elements of both, though by the end of the film it may be known as "the Mandarinbuster."

4. Love is complicated in superhero movies ... and dangerous

Tony Stark and Pepper Potts are still together romantically, and in fact getting even closer -- the new trailer shows Stark giving her a necklace, which isn't quite an engagement ring but still makes for an impressive gesture of commitment from the notorious playboy. But as many comic book characters have discovered, having a ladylove complicates the whole superhero thing, as it gives the bad guys a weak spot to hone in on ... and gives the superhero in question second thoughts about leading so dangerous a lifestyle.

Indeed, something has been haunting our hero "since New York" (referring to the events of "The Avengers") that's been making for some sleepless nights -- does he perhaps have a feeling that some sort of mighty storm is a'comin'?

When the Mandarin conducts a series of attacks against the U.S., Stark actually first retreats to the sidelines, telling Pepper that he's determined to protect "the one thing I can't live without" while the media asks, "Where is Tony Stark?" However, Tony jumps back into action (and his suit of armor) after sneak attack by the Mandarin leaves his lady threatened, his home destroyed and himself bruised and battered.

Indeed, the Mandarin becomes Stark's most personal enemy to date -- or at least the one that riles him up the most. "I'm not afraid of you," Stark says to his foe via a press conference. "No politics here -- just good old-fashioned revenge."

Whew, that's a lot for one movie! And we're sure it will be a blast (several, actually) to see all of these characters, backstories, conflicts and awesome flying armors come together into a single (hopefully) coherent narrative. The official countdown to the May 3 release of "Iron Man 3" has commenced.

Watch the 'Iron Man 3' trailer again:

'American Idol' women's semifinal: The recap

Some girls attempt Beyonce. Some sing Whitney Houston. And some women channel Kim Burrell.

That last name may not mean much to everybody who watched American Idol's female semifinals show Tuesday, but it does to female singers with gospel and R&B in their backgrounds. And I'd lay cash money it means something to Candice Glover.

Glover, who performed last Tuesday, finished the show with the kind of performance that resets how all the ones before her were perceived. Suddenly, performances that originally had made big impressions -- like Breanna Steer's sultry but cool take on Beyonce's Flaws and All or Amber Holcomb's nearly note-perfect rendition of Whitney Houston's I Believe in You and Me -- suddenly seemed like mere attempts to measure up.

"You sang notes that people don't even understand how they could fit into a chord," said an astonished Randy Jackson

The show's producers may have put Glover last for a reason. With performances that generally ranged from strong to fantastic -- Zoanette Johnson's trainwreck on What's Love Got to Do With It excepted -- it would have been easy for nearly anyone to get lost in the middle of the show.

When the results come in Thursday, one or two women who would make a solid finalist almost surely will go home too soon. It likely won't be Glover, though. And it certainly won't be Angie Miller.

Miller's looking more and more like this season's odds-on favorite. Tuesday, she sat down behind the piano and took possession of Never Gone, the original song that Season 11 finalist Colton Dixon introduced on the American Idols Live tour last summer. "The trumpets should sound when you walk in the room," Nicki Minaj told her, as she assured her a spot in the finals.

Kree Harrison established herself as this season's country singer to beat, giving a powerful performance of Faith Hill's Stronger that overshadowed Janelle Arthur's restless rendition of Elvis Presley's If I Can Dream.

Amber Holcomb bucked conventional Idol wisdom to perform a Houston song and might have sung herself into the finals by doing so. She faced stiff competition, though, from Steer (though the judges gave her a lukewarm response) and Aubrey Cleland, who sang Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry.

Johnson and Tenna Torres, who both sang early in the show, will almost surely be eliminated Thursday. So will the season's youngest female contestant, Adriana Latonio, who had the misfortune of singing a pageant-level rendition of Destiny's Child's Stand Up for Love immediately before Glover's tour de force.

Between them on the bottom end and Glover, Miller and Harrison on the top, it's anybody's game.

Here's how I ranked Tuesday night's performances (with some of them agonizingly close):

    Ordinary People, Candice Glover
    Stronger, Kree Harrison
    Never Gone, Angie Miller
    I Believe in You and Me, Amber Holcomb
    Big Girls Don't Cry, Aubrey Cleland
    Flaws and All, Breanna Steer
    If I Can Dream, Janelle Arthur
    Stand Up for Love, Adriana Latonio
    Lost, Tenna Torres
    What's Love Got to Do With It, Zoanette Johnson

I'll be a little surprised, though, if my Top Five wind up being the five female finalists. I hope you'll put your rankings in the comments section.

‘American Idol’ Top 10 Girls Night: Zoanette In The Danger Zoan

They say anything can happen on live television, and never was that old adage more apt than it was this Tuesday—and not just because judge Nicki Minaj complimented busty contestant Tenna Torres’s cleavage on the air (a bold move that would make even flirty old man Steven Tyler blanch), or because she told the viewing public that another contestant, Kree Harrison, was her "wife." No, the most unpredictable part of “American Idol’s” first live episode of the season actually came during its first five minutes, courtesy of—who else?—zany Zoanette Johnson.

Tuesday’s top 10 girls show opened with Zoanette, the wild lion queen of Season 12, so of course it was time to expect the unexpected, no matter what. But c'mon, even with that being said, I had at least expected Zoanette to remember her lyrics.

At the start of the show, Zoanette, resplendent in a new Ronald-McDonald-red wig, strutted out singing Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” At least I think that's what she was singing. Honestly, I'm not even sure if she knew what she was singing. While the Tina classic should have been the perfect showcase for Zoanette’s natural fire and funk, she unfortunately turned the tune into “What’s Words Got To Do With It,” mangling the verses beyond recognition and sounding even less coherent than she had during her infamous Hollywood Week improv.

Wow. Just wow. I’d witnessed similarly egregious acts of lyric-flubbing during earlier phases of the competition—I still wake up with night sweats from bad dreams about the horrific performance by the Turbanator’s B Side during this season’s group rounds—but not at this crucial stage of the game. A performance like this in the TOP TWENTY live semifinals? This truly was bizarre.

Zoanette’s ridiculously mushmouthed, seemingly unrehearsed performance will most likely be her undoing, since she was polarizing to begin with and she got the “death spot” this week, singing first. You see, this is the week that America’s voters, not the judges, will finally start making the decisions, and it seems pretty improbable that viewers will be as forgiving as judges Keith Urban and Mariah Carey were this Tuesday. (Keith and Mariah oddly didn’t mention Zoanette’s lyrical memory lapses at all, and instead gently, somewhat passive-aggressively called her “interesting,” “special,” “exhibitionistic,” and, um, “a bundle of festivities.”) Randy Jackson and Nicki Minaj were more brutal—Randy told Zoanette, “That was a MESS, babe,” and Nicki, usually Zoanette’s most vocal cheerleader, told her, “You know I love you, but that wasn’t it. You gotta really be on key and stuff.” (Editor’s note: And remember lyrics and stuff, too.)

Nicki did add, “I still am rooting for you!”...but I doubt voters will be rooting for Zoanette, after this disaster.

It’s really a shame; I was actually rooting for Zoanette after her show-closing “Circle Of Life”/Lion King tour de force last week, which I believe won over many doubters (including myself), at least temporarily. Miss Z was fun, free, fearless, and on a show of blandly pretty cookie-cutter balladeers, she was EXCITING. She stood out, wig-topped head and shoulders, above everyone else. But now it seems that Zoanette's head is on the “Idol” chopping block. We’ll find out for sure this Thursday, when the votes are tallied and this season’s top 10 finalists (five girls, five boys) are announced. But I suspect this lion queen's reign will come to an end that evening.

But who else is at risk this week? That’s a much tougher prediction, since out of the 10 female contestants who performed on Tuesday, at least seven of them were strong contenders. Maybe this really is a “girls’ season to lose,” as Randy declared. (Side note: I could not believe that Randy actually claimed, with a straight face, that he “hadn’t said that in a long time.” He said that last season. He said that last week!) Really, anyone other than Zoanette—maybe even poor little Adriana Latonio, who had a rough night—has a shot of making the top 10.

Let’s run down the other nine performances, and separate the women from the girls and the maybes from the sure things:

Breanna Steer – Breanna’s cover of Beyonce’s “Flaws And All” wasn’t as fierce and swaggy as her “Bust Your Windows” triumph last week—at times it just seemed like a really good Bey impersonation, which Keith later pointed out when he told her, “There’s already a Beyonce; I want to know who Breanna is.” But Breanna was sexy, and current, and not at all “pageanty,” an unfortunate adjective that would be used to describe a couple less interesting girls later in the night. Keith praised Breanna’s “tremendous control and beautiful poise.” Mariah loved the “raw and real song choice.” Nicki and Randy, quickly shaping up to be the meaner half of the judging panel’s good cop/good cop/bad cop/bad cop act, were less impressed. “I think that song was so wrong for you. You sounded like you were straining throughout the song,” said Nicki. “I was looking for more big moments; I liked it, but I wasn’t jumping up and down. It was a little safe,” said Randy. I think Breanna is one of the on-the-fence contestants this week. If she makes it through, she needs to bust out more feisty performances like “Bust Your Windows" going forward.

Aubrey Cleland – I find Aubrey a little dull and (wait for it) pageanty myself. “I just have to show more of my personality,” she told Ryan Seacrest backstage, ironically sounding like a personality-free Stepford Child. But, the girl can sing, and she’s pretty. And that will probably be enough—at least enough to get her to the top 10. Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry” was a smart song choice that fit her sweet image, and Keith said he could hear her personality in her performance. “But I wish the song allowed you to soar more at the end,” he lamented. Nicki basically loved it, and loved Aubrey, though she advised Aubrey to hold the mic a little further away from her mouth, which didn’t sound like a compliment to me. Randy compared Aubrey to “Rihanna when she’s in her tender moments”—which also didn’t sound like a compliment, although he apparently meant it as one. Mariah was the most effusive, saying, “There’s something very current and very infectious about you that I really like. You so obviously have multiplatinum potential.” Aubrey almost seems like a lock for the top 10, but “Idol” voters have been known to shut out too-pretty, too-sweet girls before, so we shall see.

Janelle Arthur – Janelle, a three-time “Idol” hopeful, seemed to blow her third shot at TV stardom last week when her cover of Lady Antebellum’s “Just A Kiss” fell completely flat and received some of the judges’ harshest critiques of the night. If America had been voting last week, Janelle would probably already be gone. But the judges, based on Janelle’s overall impressive body of work this season, put her through anyway—at the expense of some other girls who’d performed better that night—giving her the benefit of the doubt. Thankfully, Janelle took advantage of the opportunity and really rebounded this week with her lovely performance of Elvis Presley’s “If I Can Dream,” a song that allowed her voice to go to places that “Just A Kiss” did not. “I’m so glad America gets to vote now, because you give me a very ‘America’s sweetheart’ type of thing,” said Mariah. “I love that you have this really classic country voice and you blend it with some modern vocal runs. Great song, and a really good performance,” raved Keith. “That’s my girl! You’re back! You are a little marshmallow that I wanna eat! Best vocal of the night so far. I think the sky’s the limit for you,” proclaimed Nicki in about three different accents. Randy praised Janelle’s “old throwback voice” and even compared her to the late, great Patsy Cline. (Incidentally, Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of Patsy’s tragic death. R.I.P.) I would not put Janelle in the same esteemed company as Patsy, at least not yet. But this was solid. However, it may not have been enough to get her into the top 10, unless America votes for TWO country girls, because later in the night there was another, even more amazing country performance that really upped the ante and changed the game.

Tenna Torres – Last week, I thought Tenna was the weakest link among the 10 girls who were picked for the live voting rounds, but this week she impressed me a bit more. I appreciated that she put an R&B spin on a country song (Faith Hill’s “Lost Lyrics”), and so did this season’s resident country judge, Keith, who said: “I love that you did a Faith Hill song. It’s a big thing, tackling a song like that, and I think you did a really good job.” However, Keith pointed out that the camera distracted Tenna sometimes, and warned her, “Don’t let the camera pull you off the emotion.” Nicki complimented Tenna’s hair (a big improvement over her matronly Stacy Francis ‘do last time) and her “boobs,” then told her: “I don’t know if your personality jumps out.” (But apparently something else jumps out, amirite? Heh.) Randy and Mariah were the most pleased with Tenna. Said Randy: “You took on this song, and you had to make it your own. I liked the restraint; you gave it just enough. Sometimes these songs can be oversung, and you didn’t do that." (Ironic, coming from a man who constantly craves more big runs and “moments,” but hey, consistent critiques have never been Randy’s strong suit.) “I love you, and I hope America loves you too,” gushed Mariah. I think America will like Tenna, but I doubt viewers will love her enough to keep her around for another week.

Angie Miller – Apparently it’s “Angie” now, not Angela. Okay, then. I missed that memo. But what's in a name? Whatever name she goes by, Angie sounds just as sweet. Taking on “Never Gone,” a CCM ballad by last season's seventh-place piano man Colton Dixon, Angie returned to her own piano to do what she did best, and she gave an authentic and emotionally rousing performance. It sounded like she could have written this song herself. “When you play the piano, that’s when I hear the real Angie. People know they’re watching a true artist,” said Keith. “America, a star is born on that stage, right there. She’s going places!” said Randy. “I was so happy to see you back at the piano. All of us were blown away,” said Mariah. “It’s safe to say that there’s one vote that’s already accounted for. Can I just get your album? Can [producer] Nigel [Lythgoe] just let you off ‘Idol’ so you can make an album?” said Nicki. I’m pretty sure Nigel said no. This show needs Angie. And Angie ain't going nowhere, because she really is a lock for the top 10.

Amber Holcomb – Amber once again gave viewers some J.Hud realness. Her song choice, Whitney Houston’s “I Believe In You And Me,” was disappointing in its predictability, but she managed to make it enjoyable, because she performed it with such ease and grace. Why were the judges always saying that Amber suffers from some supposed lack of confidence? I never saw any insecurity from this girl. At least now the judges were willing to admit that Amber had arrived. “Good Lord, what a perfect song for you,” said Keith, who apparently hasn’t watched “Idol” enough to know how overdone Whitney covers really are on this show. “You had no shortage of confidence, and rightfully so.” Nicki called it a “10 billion katrillion gabillion [dollar] performance.” Randy told Amber she was "in it to win it," dusting off his tired old catchphrase from Season 10. “You are one of my favorite people in this whole competition,” said Mariah. Will Amber be one of America’s favorites? Probably—she should be, at least—but I’m not sure if she’s a shoo-in for the top 10. However, Randy hinted that Wild Cards may be used this season (contrary to previous reports), and if that happens, and Amber doesn’t get through on public votes alone, then I am sure there’ll be a Wild Card with her name on it.

Kree Harrison – For me (for me for you for me), the best vocal of Tuesday night was Kree’s. Her performance—also of a Faith Hill song, “Stronger,” although a more straight-up country version—was a revelation. What a VOICE! What chops! What emotion! What passion, paired with such seeming effortlessness! Color me all shades of impressed. This girl proved once again that she is the real deal, with raw talent. Keith gave Kree a standing ovation and compared her to all the country greats, from the aforementioned Patsy Cline to “Idol's” own country queen, Carrie Underwood. Randy praised Kree’s “natural gift” and surprisingly huge range. Nicki called Kree her “wife,” and then the two adorably bantered in fake British accents, which let Kree show off her big personality behind her big voice. And then Mariah told Kree that she could get a record deal the old-fashioned way, without “Idol,” and just “make an album and call it a day.” Hey, did you notice that was the second time on this episode that a judge told a contestant she didn’t even need “Idol” (the other time being when Nicki mock-begged for Angie to be let off the show and fast-tracked to the studio)? Hmmm. Interesting.

Adriana Latonio – Adriana was a breakout of the top 40 Vegas rounds, surprising everyone with a great out-of-nowhere performance after receiving little previous screentime. But this week, the element of surprise was gone, as she delivered a deadly-dull pageant performance while dressed in a catalog prom dress. It was just so forgettable, especially up against such stellar performances by Kree, Amber, and Angie. Adriana did Destiny’s Child’s “Stand Up For Love,” but no one was giving her a standing ovation after that. “I’m a little nervous about that song choice for you, in the midst of everything we’ve been hearing,” admitted Keith. “It was just very safe. It really was pageanty. You needed to come out here and slay it, and you didn’t do that,” shrugged Randy. “I would suggest you work a little bit and come back next year,” said Nicki, obviously unaware that contestants are not allowed to compete again on “Idol” once they’ve made it to the public voting rounds. Oh well. There’s always “The X Factor,” I suppose.

Candice Glover – Thankfully, there was one more performance left, so that the episode would not end on a bummer note (no pun intended), and Candice was just the right woman to close the show. Her cover of John Legend’s “Ordinary People” was far from ordinary; it was exquisite, and it had the perfect blend of old and new that could appeal to voters of all demographics. “You have this old soul thing, but you sound so current. Tonight was superb, baby,” said Keith. “That was ridiculous, because you sang notes people don’t even understand. You’re one of the best singers in this whole competition,” said Randy. “Thank you for that performance, and for sharing your gift with us,” said Mariah. Nicki, at a very rare and possibly unprecedented loss for words, merely saluted. And she’ll be saluting next week, too, because there’s no way Candice is not making it through.



So now, it is prediction time. Although anything can happen in television, as I’ve already pointed out way back in this article's first paragraph, it seems likely that the five contestants advancing to the top 10 will be Angie Miller, Kree Harrison, Aubrey Cleland, Janelle Arthur, and Candice Glover, with Breanna Steer and (hopefully) Amber Holcomb having good chances of pulling off a minor upset. I think the only foolproof prediction I can make, for sure, is that this week will be the last week for Tenna, Adriana, and—barring any VoteForTheWorst.com shenanigans—Zoanette.

But before we find out the girls’ fate, we have to do this all over again Wednesday night with the top 10 boys. See you then, and until then...Parker out.