Jerry Curl

Kennen Miller as featured on Homotography .

Reuters reports : Sotheby's auctioneer, which described it as "the revolutionary song that marked the Beatles' transformation from pop icons to artists," expects the manuscript to fetch $500-700,000 when it goes under the hammer on June 18. The single sheet of paper features a rough draft of the lyrics, including crossings out and a spelling error where "film" is written as "flim." On the reverse side is a neater version written in capital letters and with fewer corrections. Apparently added later is the line: "I love to turn you on," for which the song was banned by the BBC when it first came out in 1967 because the words were deemed to be a reference to taking drugs. That did little to prevent the album on which the song appeared from becoming one of the Beatles' most successful. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band topped the U.S. and British charts, won four Grammy awards in 1968 and is ranked number 26 in Rolling Stone magaz...

Three years after the last Polaroid camera was made, it has been pulled from the brink of extinction. On Wednesday, the Polaroid Corporation launched the Polaroid 300 - the new generation of instant camera. The move defies all predictions about the future of photography and proves the enduring love for the iconic brand. The Polaroid 300 bears some resemblance to older models but it has undergone a face-lift. Lady Gaga was appointed creative director in a bid to ensure the camera's retro chic appeals to a younger generation as well as its mass army of former fans. The matt black has been ditched in favour of shiny blue, red or black and it is now sleek and compact and comes with an automatic flash and four scene settings. But like its earlier incarnations the Polaroid 300 uses self-developing film. The resurgence of the iconic brand has been greeted with delight by photographers. The Polaroid Corporation was co-founded in 1937 with the first instant camera launched in 1947. It becam...

Hawaii is a step closer to joining a small group of other states in allowing same-sex civil unions. In a move that still needs the governor's signature to become law, the House of Representatives last night approved a measure that has drawn some of the state's biggest protest rallies. Republican Gov. Linda Lingle hasn't said whether she'll reject it or sign it into law but her office said later that she will carefully review the bill. The House voted 31-20 in favor of the legislation, which had been stalled but was unexpectedly revived on the last day of this year's legislative session. The Senate passed it in January. The measure would grant gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits that the state provides to married couples. If approved, Hawaii will become one of six states — along with California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington — to grant essentially all the rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself. Five oth...

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No new offshore drilling will be authorized until authorities learn what caused the explosion of the rig Deepwater Horizon, an aide to President Barack Obama said today as oil oozed ashore in Louisiana. Senior adviser David Axelrod also defended the administration's response to the April 20 accident in the Gulf of Mexico, saying "we had the Coast Guard in almost immediately." Obama recently lifted a drilling moratorium for many offshore areas, including the Atlantic and Gulf areas. But Axelrod said "no additional drilling has been authorized and none will until we find out what has happened here." Meanwhile, migrating birds, others nesting on the shoreline, such as pelicans, and even river otters and mink living on Louisiana's fragile islands and barrier marshes were among the animals being hit first by the massive oil spill. "It is of grave concern," David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press ab...

Isac Fioravante as featured on Queer Sighted .

The New York Times lays it out for us: Marco Rubio, Republican Biggest Advantage: Mr. Rubio’s rise from long-shot to frontrunner came quickly, and he enters the race with the energetic support of Tea Party activists and the G.O.P. establishment. Republicans in Washington and Tallahassee are gunning for Mr. Crist after years of frustration with what they see has his selfish, poll-following approach – and Rubio’s campaign advisors believe that independents will either join their cause or stay away. “Current turn out intensity among GOP voters in Florida is far higher than either Democrat or Independent voters, meaning Independents could make up an even smaller percentage of the actual vote on Election Day,” two Rubio advisors wrote in a memo on Wednesday. “Secondly, it is a mistake to assume that Independent voters are politically moderate. In fact, survey after survey this year has found that voter anger about Washington spending and the growth of government is every bit as high among...

SFGN reports : The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), in partnership with Servicemembers United, Unity CoalitionCoalición Unida and SAVE Dade will visit Miami, FL, on April 29, 2010 for a Spanish language event as part of “Voices of Honor: A Generation Under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” The national tour highlights the discriminatory law that hurts military readiness and national security while putting American soldiers fighting overseas at risk. The event will include a public forum with lesbian, gay and straight veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, alongside average Americans fighting for repeal of DADT. HRC dispatched field staff to six states – Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Virginia and West Virginia, where congressional support for repeal is critical. The organization is building off the grassroots efforts of Servicemembers United to continue growing a network of supporters to repeal DADT. To learn more visit: www.hrc.org/RepealDADT. Military leaders, including Secretary...

By David Fitzsimmons

With a limited edition of 1,000 copies, the Made in Brazil blog ventures into print with a debut issue photographed by Cristiano Madureira , out May 3rd. We've been long time fans of the blog and wish them every success.

Check out the list here .

A lawyer for Gizmodo says the gadget blog could sue the sheriff's office in San Mateo County, Calif., for raiding an editor's home last Friday as part of a criminal probe into an errant iPhone prototype. The option of a lawsuit "is available because search is not the appropriate method in this situation," Thomas R. Burke, a media lawyer and partner in the San Francisco offices of Davis Wright Tremaine, told CNET. He said the search warrant violated a California journalist shield law designed to limit searches of newsrooms. Burke added, however, that he has been in discussions with the San Mateo County District Attorney's office and that he appreciated prosecutors' agreement not to search editor Jason Chen's seized computers, iPad, and iPhone while talks are in progress. "Very much to their credit, they aren't just putting their heads into the sand and saying, 'Go away,'" Burke said Tuesday afternoon. "The district attorney's ...

The Miami Herald reports : Gov. Charlie Crist will launch a risky political career today as a "people's candidate'' for the U.S. Senate. The official announcement is expected today at 5 p.m. at Straub Park in downtown St. Petersburg where Crist will be surrounded by family members, friends, local supporters and an army of media personnel. As a pariah in the Republican Party that has been vital to his success, the one-term governor who blew a 30-point lead in the Republican Senate primary is forced to run an unconventional race. "I think the people are concerned about the future, and they're interested in having people who put them first, instead of politics,'' Crist said. "I think that's where they are.'' The announcement site in Crist's hometown is in his emotional comfort zone. But it allows him to present himself as an outsider who is critical of the way his fellow Republicans are running things in Tallahassee, even though he ha...

ABC News reports : With five times more oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico than originally estimated and the price tag for last week's explosion predicted at $8 billion, questions about BP's response and level of responsibility are mounting. Doug Suttles, the energy company's chief operating officer, admitted some responsibility for the disaster "because we're the lease holder," but assigning blame, he said, should come after the cleanup. "I can tell you we're not worried about that right now," he said. "Who's ultimately responsible for what will come out over time through an investigations process." The new leak estimate is about 5,000 barrels a day, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Suttles told Good Morning America he still believes it to be between 1,000 barrels -- the company's original estimate -- and 5,000. The Deepwater Horizon rigwas reportedly not equipped with a shutoff switch that co...

Cities in California dominated the most-polluted list in the American Lung Association's "State of the Air 2010" report released Wednesday. Despite some gains, more than half of the United States' population lives in cities where pollution levels make the air unhealthy to breathe, an annual report says. The organization rates communities on three criteria: ozone, short-term particle spikes and long-term particle averages. Los Angeles, Fresno and Bakersfield, all in California, had the dubious distinction of being in the top-10 list of all three categories. The organization found that the worst places to breathe were California cities Los Angeles, Bakersfield and Visalia for ozone pollution; and Bakersfield, Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona in terms of average particulates. Bakersfield and Fresno in California, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recorded the highest number of particle pollution spikes, which are jumps in the number of particles in the air that can last for ...

Conan O’Brien will break his post-NBC silence Sunday night when he gives his first interview about his departure from The Tonight Show to CBS’s 60 Minutes . Conan O’BrienIn the deal he signed that settled his contract with NBC, Mr. OBrien agreed not to have any interviews in print or on broadcast until after May 1. The piece Sunday night, reported by the correspondent Steve Kroft, will include highlights from Mr. OBrien’s current stage tour. But it will center on the comic’s comments about the fractious events surrounding his decision to leave NBC rather than accept having his show pushed back a half-hour to make room for Jay Leno to return to late-night television. But Mr. OBrien is still under restrictions not to disparage NBC or Mr. Leno. “He flirts with the restrictions,” Mr. Kroft said in a telephone interview. Mr. O’Brien will be able to comment on his new deal with the cable channel TBS, however. The limitations imposed by NBC will mean that 60 Minutes will take some unusual s...

ArtsBeat reports : Some of the most personal correspondence that Marilyn Monroe wrote in her life, as well as the messages, both intimate and trivial, that she j otted for herself will be published for the first time in a book planned for the fall. Today, the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux said that it would release the book, called “Fragments,” in October, containing rare photographs of Monroe as well as reproductions of her typewritten and handwritten letters. Courtney Hodell, an executive editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, said Monroe’s writing covered a wide range of subjects, including notes on the roles she was working on; exhortations to herself to become a better actress and lists of resolutions on how to do so; notes from her readings about Italian Renaissance art and how to decorate her apartment; and a recipe for stuffing. There are also diary-style entries on Monroe’s relationship with Arthur Miller, as well as letters to her psychoanalysts and to Lee Strasberg, her ...

Allen Walker as featured on Nous Models .

The Washington Post provides the letter below: Twenty years ago this month, you died of AIDS. I would gladly give my fame and fortune if only I could have one more conversation with you, the friend who changed my life as well as the lives of millions living with HIV. Instead, I have written you this letter. I remember so well when we first met. A young boy with a terrible disease, you were the epitome of grace. You never blamed anyone for the illness that ravaged your body or the torment and stigma you endured. When students, parents and teachers in your community shunned you, threatened you and expelled you from school, you responded not with words of hate but with understanding beyond your years. You said they were simply afraid of what they did not know. When the media heralded you as an "innocent victim" because you had contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, you rejected that label and stood in solidarity with thousands of HIV-positive women and men. You reminded A...

Sandra Bullock is finally saying good-bye to her marriage with Jesse James and embracing a surprise role: single mother. "Yes, I have filed for divorce," the actress, 45, told People magazine, according to a story posted this morning on People.comto appear in an issue available on newsstands Friday. "I am sad and I am scared." The Oscar-winning Blind Side actress has been married to motorcycle mogul James, 41, for five years. They separated last month after reports that he cheated on her with multiple women. Bullock also revealed that she has adopted a son, 3½-month-old Louis, born in New Orleans. She and James began the adoption process four years ago but decided to keep the details under wraps until after the Oscars. Now, she plans to raise him as a single mom. "It's like he's always been a part of our lives," Bullock told People. Meanwhile, it seems everyone wants to say they're sorry to the actress. James, who has publicly apologized to Bu...

Thomas Hagan, the only man who admitted his role in the 1965 assassination of iconic black leader Malcolm X, was paroled today. Hagan was freed a day earlier than planned because his paperwork was processed more quickly than anticipated, according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services. Hagan, 69, walked out of the minimum-security Lincoln Correctional Facility at 11 a.m. The facility is located at the intersection of West 110th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard. Hagan had been in a full-time work-release program since March 1992 that allowed him to live at home with his family in Brooklyn five days a week while reporting to the prison just two days. Last month, Hagan pleaded his case for freedom: To return to his family, to become a substance abuse counselor and to make his mark on what time he has left in this world. He was dressed in prison greens as he addressed the parole board. He had been before that body 14 other times since 1984. Each time, he was rejected. Hag...

The AP reports : Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today that he is willing to bring up climate change legislation ahead of an immigration bill, the first step toward resolving a dispute with Senate Republicans that threatened to derail a bipartisan effort months in the making. Reid said the long-delayed climate bill "is much further down the road in terms of a product" than the immigration measure, which remains unwritten. "The energy bill is ready. We will move to that more quickly than a bill we don't have," Reid, D-Nev., told reporters. "I don't have an immigration bill." Reid's comments were intended to help resolve a dispute that emerged last weekend when Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., threatened to withhold support for the climate bill if Reid pushes ahead first with an immigration bill. Graham's threat led Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, the lead sponsor of the climate bill, to postpone a Monday news conference unveiling the climate bil...

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist touched ground after about 90 minutes above the Gulf of Mexico today and had no doubts about where he stood on oil drilling off his state's shore: Not now, no way. Crist was awed -- and not in a good way -- at the huge oil spill spreading from a damaged rig off the Louisiana coast and had nightmare visions of the same situation in Florida. "Clearly it could be devastating to Florida if something like that were to occur. It's the last thing in the world I would want to see happen in our beautiful state," Crist said. "Until you actually see it, I don't know how you can comprehend and appreciate the shear magnitude of that thing. It's frightening." Crist, who opposed drilling off Florida's coast until softening his stance over the past two years, said there is no question now that lawmakers should give up on the idea this year and in coming years. He has said previously he would support drilling if it was far enough from s...

The US coastguard is considering setting fire to oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico to prevent the slick from reaching shore after an explosion on a drilling rig last week. Robot submarines have so far failed to shut off the flow more than 1,500 metres below where the Deepwater Horizon was wrecked. Eleven workers are missing, presumed dead, and the cause of the explosion 50 miles off the Louisiana coast has not been determined. Coastguard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said that if the decision was made to go ahead the oil would be trapped in special containment booms and set on fire. The burn could be started today. "If we don't secure this well, this could be one of the most significant oil spills in US history," Landry said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said birds and mammals were more likely to escape a burning area of the ocean than an oil slick. Birds might be disoriented by smoke plumes, but would be at much greater risk from oil in the water. On ...

Season 3 premieres June 13 at 9, only on HBO . Here's your first look at the official poster. Ready to do bad things?

A growing fleet of air and sea craft is fighting a rapidly expanding oil spill emanating from a well at the bottom of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, as communities around the Gulf Coast brace for its likely impact on commerce and the environment. Seen from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter flying at 2,500 feet, the slick—which looks like a thin skin laid on top of the ocean—seems to extend beyond the horizon. Aircraft can be seen spraying dispersant over some denser, rainbow-colored spots, hoping to break down the molecules of crude to enable it to evaporate into thin air; and ships dragging boom lines attempt to contain the slick's expansion. As of late yesterday, the sheen, which was 36 miles offshore, measured about 80 miles by 42 miles. The crude spill, coming from a broken drilling infrastructure 5,000 feet below the surface at a rate of 1,000 barrels per day, was caused by the explosion and sinking last week of the Transocean Ltd. Deepwater Horizon, which was drilling an exploration we...

Space Monkey from Leo Burnett on Vimeo . A new clip from the World Wildlife Fund and Leo Burnett features a homesick space monkey, and a dreamlike Ben Lee soundtrack. (Via Towleroad )

Ryan Matthew White as featured on Homotography .

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is feeling the heat of the national spotlight as thousands protest across the state and some have called for a boycott of Arizona goods following the signing of a controversial immigration bill into law . In response to the criticism, Brewer has lashed out at President Obama who has called the new law "misguided" and ordered the Justice Department to see if it would violate civil rights. Brewer said it was the state's way of working to solve a crisis that it did not create and which the federal government refused to fix. "I firmly believe [the law] represents what's best for Arizona," Brewer said before signing the bill into law Friday. "Border-related violence and crime due to illegal immigration are critically important issues for the people of our state, to my administration, and to me as your governor and as a citizen." Obama wasn't alone in criticizing Arizona's new law. Critics ranged from a former Arizona gove...

DC Agenda reports : House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to hold a vote this year in her chamber of Congress for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, according to her office. “It is the Speaker’s intention that a vote will be taken this year on ['Don't Ask, Don't Tell'] in the House,” Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesperson, told DC Agenda in a statement yesterday. The announcement is promising news for repeal advocates because Pelosi has yet to put legislation to the floor that hasn’t had sufficient support for passage. Michael Cole, a Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, praised Pelosi for planning the vote. “As we’ve been saying for a long time now, the time to repeal the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law is this year, and it’s a positive sign to hear congressional leaders affirm that,” Cole said. Still, Cole said further work is necessary to make repeal happen. “We need pressure on the Congress, we need pressure on the White House, we need pressure across the board, and as we get...

Gizmodo, the technology blog that recently published details about Apple's next-generation iPhone after paying $5,000 to get its hands on the device, posted documents today showing that police raided one of its editor's homes. A search warrant posted by Gizmodo says police on Friday seized computers, cameras, hard drives, business cards and computer servers from the home of Jason Chen, the site's editor who last week published details about Apple's unreleased smartphone. The warrant, issued by a judge in California's San Mateo County, says police were able to raid Chen's home because they had reason to believe his computers were used to commit a felony. The warrant makes specific reference to the unreleased iPhone 4 and gives police the authority to look for e-mails and other documentation related to the gadget. Gawker Media, which owns Gizmodo, published a statement saying the raid was unlawful because of journalistic protections. Chen works from home, so his h...

Brazil's health minister has a remedy for the nation's high-blood-pressure problem: More sex. Minister Jose Temporão says adults should be exercising more to help keep their blood pressure down — and he says a good cardiovascular workout includes sex, "always with protection, obviously." Temporao also recommends dancing, a healthy diet and regular blood-pressure checks. The minister made the comments Monday while launching a national campaign against high blood pressure in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia. The Health Ministry says that 21.5 percent of Brazilians had high blood pressure in 2006. That jumped to 24.4 percent in 2009. (Via AP )

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has donated the final $900,000 needed to preserve 138 acres behind the film capital's most famous visual symbol on Mount Lee, just as time was running out. "It would have been a real shame after having restored it if it wound up sold," Hefner, 84, told People yesterday at the Hollywood premiere of Iron Man 2 , with the legendary 45-foot white letters looming in the background. "It's become something iconic and represents not only the town but represents Hollywood dreams, and I think that's something worth preserving." Developers have been eyeing the hillside, once owned by Howard Hughes, for luxury mansions, but a nonprofit land-conservation group was given the chance to buy the land for $12.5 million. As an April 30 deadline neared, the group was nearly $1 million short. "I was aware of the fact that they were raising the money, but I only learned about a week ago that they were running out of time," said Hefner. ...

Archie's relationship with Valerie was only the beginning of the changes coming to Riverdale, apparently. In an interview at C2E2 with gay podcast Feast of Fun, longtime Archie Comics cartoonist Dan Parent casually revealed that September's Veronica #202 will feature the introduction of a gay character named Kevin Keller. "The plotline is that Veronica's got the hots for this guy and can't understand why he's not interested in her," Parent said, "and ... he's gay." The cartoonist said that while readers shouldn't expect any of the regular characters to come out of the closet, we shouldn't look for residents of Riverdale to make a big deal about Kevin's sexuality, either. "The reaction is going to be, there isn't going to be a reaction -- it's just going to be acceptance," he said. (Via CBR )

Activist GetEQUAL is planning a rally at the White House on May 2 to demand the President exert pressure on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and get repeal language into the Defense Authorization Bill to be considered in early May. (Via Towleroad )

Jerry East as featured on DNA .

File this under month-old news: TBS has announced that Conan O’Brien will headline an 11 p.m. late-night show for the cable network in November. His program will serve as a lead-in to TBS’ fledging Lopez Tonight , which will shift to a midnight time slot. “I can’t think of anything better than doing my show with Conan as a lead-in,” Lopez said in a statement. Added O’Brien, “In three months I’ve gone from network TV to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly.” News of O’Brien’s yet-to-be-named show that will air Mondays through Thursdays came as a surprise — especially since the conventional wisdom around town was that O’Brien would end up on Fox, with which his camp had been negotiating until last week. Under the terms of his rich exit deal from NBC, in which he agreed to abdicate his role as the host of The Tonight Show in exchange for a large cash payout of more than $40 million, O’Brien was permitted to pursue other o...

CNN reports : A climate-change bill that was scheduled to be unveiled at a news conference today is now up in the air after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina walked out of talks. Graham had worked with Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, independent from Connecticut, to unveil details of their "tri-partisan" climate-change legislation. But Graham declared Saturday that he was walking out of talks because of Democratic efforts to bring up an immigration reform package. "Moving forward on immigration -- in this hurried, panicked manner -- is nothing more than a cynical political ploy," Graham wrote in a sharply-worded letter sent to business, religious and conservation leaders that he has been working with on the climate-change legislation. A senior White House official told CNN that in recent days Graham has been privately threatening to abandon the climate talks unless Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, backed off plans...

The publisher of former President George W. Bush's book Decision Points on Sunday set a Nov. 9 release date, unveiled its cover design and announced new details about it. Bush has said he is not writing a traditional memoir but an account of key decisions in his life. The cover features a photo of then-President Bush alone with his thoughts, standing in the Rose Garden Colonnade, wearing a dark suit and holding a briefing book, his head turned slightly from the camera. According to Crown Publishers, Decision Points will offer "gripping, never-before-heard detail" on such historic events as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the 2000 presidential election along with Bush's decision to quit drinking, his relationship with his family and other personal details. (Via AP )

Avatar has become the fastest-selling home entertainment release of all time in North America, shifting 6.7 million DVDs and Blu-rays in four days. James Cameron's 3D sci-fi epic, released in the US on April 22, sold 4 million DVDs and 2.7 million Blu-rays. The sales brought in $130m. The previous record holder in the US and Canada was The Dark Knight in 2008. Film studio 20th Century Fox said the movie was also the fastest-selling release on the Blu-ray format alone in North America. It was released on April 22 - "Earth Day" in the US and Canada as well as other countries - to chime with Avatar 's environmental theme, Fox said. (Via BBC )

Weekend Top Five: #1 How to Train Your Dragon ($15M) #2 The Back-up Plan ($12.2M) #3 Date Night ($10.6M) #4 The Losers ($9.61M) #5 Kick-Ass ($9.5M)

Aaaaaand we're back! After a brutal Spring semester, we've finally been released from the clutches of schoolwork. Who knew four literature classes would consume our lives so entirely? Anywho , thanks for your patience. Jerry Curl is a cherished hobby of ours because it not only affords us the chance to share the world with you, but it carves out a little piece of that world for our own enjoyment. That said, here's to a long summer of shared stories and good music.

Here's a sneak preview from Scissor Sisters' third album, Night Work , which is out on June 28 2010. More info at www.scissorsisters.com

The AP reports : In a move hailed as a step toward fairness for same-sex couples, President Barack Obama is ordering that nearly all hospitals allow patients to say who has visitation rights and who can help make medical decisions, including gay and lesbian partners. The White House yesterday released a statement by Obama instructing his Health and Human Services secretary to draft rules requiring hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid payments to grant all patients the right to designate people who can visit and consult with them at crucial moments. The designated visitors should have the same rights that immediate family members now enjoy, Obama's instructions said. It said Medicare-Medicaid hospitals, which include most of the nation's facilities, may not deny visitation and consultation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. The move was called a major step toward fairness for lesbian,...

Good news at long last! After weeks of protest and a deluge of messages, Gov. Charlie Crist today vetoed a bill that would link teacher pay to student test scores and wipe out tenure for new teachers. His decision came as little surprise. Although Crist initially voiced support for the bill, he had distanced himself over the past week as protests mounted. With just a little over two weeks left in the session, many educators and politicians have expressed doubt the Legislature can rewrite the bill and get it passed. The Florida Senate passed the bill 21-17; it got through the House of Representatives by a 64-55 vote. The bill had strong support among Republican Party leadership, but some in the GOP joined Democrats in opposition. Crist has been inundated with messages about the bill, receiving more than 109,000. Though about 49,000 were still unread, almost 58,000 of the messages that had been logged were against the bill. He had frequently said that he wanted to take his time to hear f...

Some sad news for the Jerry Curl staff : Designing Women star Dixie Carter, whose Southern charm and natural beauty won her a host of television roles, has died at age 70. Carter died Saturday morning, according to publicist Steve Rohr, who represents Carter and her husband, actor Hal Holbrook. He declined to disclose the cause of death or where she died. Carter lived with Holbrook in the Los Angeles area. "This has been a terrible blow to our family," Holbrook said in a written statement. "We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy." A native of Tennessee, Carter was most famous for playing wisecracking Southerner Julia Sugarbaker for seven years on Designing Women , the CBS sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1993. The series was the peak of a career in which she often played wealthy and self-important but independent Southern women. She was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for her seven-episode guest stint on the ABC hit Desperate Ho...