Jerry Curl

Etta James has been battling health issues, but the singer's manager and friend Lupe De Leon tells CNN that she's now terminally ill. “Etta James is at the last stages of her terminal illness," De Leon says. The singer, 73, was diagnosed with leukemia along with hepatitis C over a year ago, and with Alzheimer's disease in 2009. The singer is currently residing at her home in Riverside, California, under the care of her doctor and husband. According to De Leon, who was at James' home on December 10, she's on oxygen and resting, mostly. Her sons do live close by and visit often, De Leon says. James was previously hospitalized in January of 2010 as she battled a serious infection, and was hospitalized in May of this year due to a urinary tract infection that led to sepsis.

Christopher Hitchens, a slashing polemicist in the tradition of Thomas Paine and George Orwell who trained his sights on targets as various as Henry Kissinger, the British monarchy and Mother Teresa, wrote a best-seller attacking religious belief, and dismayed his former comrades on the left by enthusiastically supporting the American-led war in Iraq, died on Thursday in Houston. He was 62. The full New York Times obit can be read here . On his manner of living: “I always knew that there’s a risk in the bohemian lifestyle, and I decided to take it because, whether it’s an illusion or not – I don’t think it is – it helped my concentration, it stopped me [from] being bored, [and] stopped other people being boring, to some extent. It would keep me awake. It would make me want the evening to go on longer, to prolong the conversation, to enhance the moment. If I was asked, would I do it again, the answer is probably yes.”

ArtsBeat reports : Fifty years after they first played together, the Beach Boys announced today that they would release a new studio album and go on a 50-date tour in 2012, beginning with a reunion concert at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival in April. The line-up for the reunion tour will include the group’s original leaders Brian Wilson and Mike Love, along with one of the first members, Al Jardine. Those three were part of the original quintet that formed in Hawthorne, Calif., in 1961, and fused Chuck Berry guitar parts with smooth harmonies to celebrate surf culture. Two other early members will join them: David Marks, who joined the group in 1962 for their first album Surfin’ Safari on Capitol Records; and Bruce Johnston, who joined the band in 1965 after Brian Wilson quit touring to focus on writing songs. The Beach Boys said they have already recorded some songs for a new album that they plan to release on Capitol/EMI next year, though more tracks need to be recorded b...

Imagine being a lover of animation who grew up without access to most of the movies made by Pixar — who still has Toy Story and The Incredibles to look forward to. Or who has been kept from seeing classic Disney: no Fantasia , no Bambi . For many Americans that’s the situation with Studio Ghibli, the Japanese company best known for the work of the great director and animator Hayao Miyazaki. Despite Ghibli’s standing over the last quarter-century as one of the world’s foremost producers of animated films — perhaps the best [ Ed. note : agreed!], depending on how you feel about Pixar — only five of its features have received a commercial theatrical release in the United States in something approaching their original form. To this day, some of its lesser-known movies are available only as Region 2 DVDs, encoded so that they are not viewable on most American players. So it can be considered a genuine public service that 15 Studio Ghibli features, representing nearly all of its output, ar...

The tsunami-devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has reached a "cold shutdown" and is no longer leaking substantial amounts of radiation, Japan's prime minister said today. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's announcement marks a milestone nine months after the March 11 tsunami sent three reactors at the plant into meltdowns in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. It is a crucial step toward lifting evacuation orders and closing the plant. "Even if unforeseeable incidents happen, the situation is such that radiation levels on the boundary of the plant can now be maintained at a low level," Noda said. "Now that we have achieved stability in the reactors, a major concern for the nation has been resolved." However, experts noted that the plant remains vulnerable. Its surroundings are contaminated by radiation and closing the plant safely will take 30 or more years. More at MSNBC .

CNN Money reports : Turns out there's billions to be made from FarmVille cows and crops. Zynga priced its initial public offering at $10 a share late Thursday, a mark that values the gamemaker at about $7 billion. Zynga is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker "ZNGA." In a filing earlier this month, Zynga said it planned to sell directly 100 million shares in its IPO to raise up to $1 billion. That edges out Groupon and makes Zynga's the largest U.S. Internet IPO since Google's 2004 debut. Zynga's $7 billion valuation is impressive, but $10 a share is significantly below the $17.20 per share valuation the company used for a recent round of stock grants. As of August 2011, Zynga's outside consultants estimated the company's worth at $14 billion. Zynga is entering the market at a turbulent time for this year's batch of tech IPOs. Shares of Groupon, Pandora, Zillow, LinkedIn and Angie's List all suffered steep double-digit ...