“We believe it was a suicide,” Oceanside Police Lt. Leonard Mata said. “There is no indication of foul play.”

Police Chief Frank McCoy said Seau’s girlfriend reported finding him unconscious in one of the bedrooms with a gunshot wound to the chest and lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful. A gun was found near him, McCoy said. Police said no suicide note was found and they didn’t immediately know who the gun was registered to.

Further details of the shooting weren’t immediately released.

“I don’t understand … I’m shocked,” Seau’s mother, Luisa, cried as she addressed reporters gathered outside her son’s home.

Her son gave no indication of a problem when she spoke to him by phone earlier this week, she said.

“He’s joking to me, he called me a ‘homegirl,’ ” she said.

According to U-T San Diego, Seau texted his ex-wife, Gina, and their three children individual messages on Tuesday, saying: “I love you.”

“We’re all in shock,” she said. “We’re beyond sad and beyond shocked. The kids and I are just huddled together at home. There is no way to make sense of this.”

“All of us are deeply saddened about Junior Seau, a great player loved by teammates who also worked hard to serve his community,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement released by the league. “Junior and his family will remain in our thoughts.”

“I have no words to describe the passing of Junior Seau,” Chargers coach Norv Turner said in a statement released by the team. “It is a sad, sad day for not only me, but for the whole sports community. I worked with Junior here and later in Miami. I can tell you no one had more character and true leadership ability than Junior. He brought passion to the game of football that was unmatched. His commitment to charitable causes in the community was inspiring. It was an honor to know him. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

Chargers president Dean Spanos said: “I can’t put into words how I’m feeling right now. I’m shocked and devastated. Junior was my friend. We all lost a friend today. Junior was an icon in our community. He transcended the game. He wasn’t just a football player, he was so much more. He was loved by everyone in our family, our organization and throughout the NFL. This is just such a tragic loss. One of the worst things I could ever imagine. My prayers go out to Junior’s family. It’s heartbreaking.”

Miami Dolphins CEO Mike Dee praised Seau’s impact on the South Florida community during his time with the team.

“Junior was one-of-a-kind. The league will never see anyone like him again,” Dee said in a release. “He will be missed, and on behalf of the Miami Dolphins we want to extend our condolences to his family.”

“We were shocked to hear of the initial reports regarding Junior Seau earlier today and are deeply saddened by the news of his death,” the New England Patriots said in a release. “We were fortunate to have had Junior join the Patriots in 2006 and are thankful for his many contributions to the team over the next four years. He had a legendary NFL career and his unrivaled passion for the game quickly made him a fan favorite here in New England. This is a sad day for the entire Patriots organization, our coaches and his many Patriots teammates. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to his family and his many friends who will mourn this loss.”

Chargers chaplain Shawn Mitchell said he knew Seau well and that the football player hosted Bible studies at his home. He said he visited Seau in the hospital after his car accident in 2010 and he was crying, happy that he had survived.

“He was just grateful to be alive … and he said the angel of God had protected him,” Mitchell said.

“He was Superman, and Superman is no longer with us,” Mitchell told NFL Network.

Family friend Priscilla Sanga said about 50 friends and family members gathered in the garage where Seau’s body lay on a gurney, and they had the opportunity to say goodbye.

“Everybody got to see Junior before they took him away,” Sanga said. “He looked so peaceful and cold. It was disbelief. We all touched him and kissed him.”

Seau said last August after the Chargers announced he would be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame that, “to be part of this kind of fraternity, to be able to go out and play the game that you love, and all the lessons and the friends and acquaintances which you meet along the way, you can’t be in a better arena.”

In October 2010, Seau survived a 100-foot plunge down a seaside cliff in his SUV, hours after he was arrested for investigation of domestic violence at the home he shared with his girlfriend. The woman had told authorities that Seau assaulted her during an argument.

There was no evidence of drugs or alcohol involved in the crash, and Seau told authorities he fell asleep while driving. He sustained minor injuries.

Seau ended his career in 2009, after playing 20 years in the NFL — 13 in San Diego, three in Miami and four in New England. He was selected to 12 consecutive Pro Bowls while with the Chargers and was named first-team All-Pro six times. He amassed 545 tackles and 56.5 sacks in his NFL career.

Seau led the 1994 Chargers to their only Super Bowl appearance at Super Bowl XXIX.

Seau was a graduate of Oceanside High School. He was drafted fifth overall out of USC by the Chargers in 1990.

Source: www.nfl.com

If you’re a serious revolutionary, then you are not looking for an autocratic revolution, but a popular one which will move towards freedom and democracy. That can take place only if a mass of the population is implementing it, carrying it out, and solving problems. They’re not going to undertake that commitment, understandably, unless they have discovered for themselves that there are limits to reform.

A sensible revolutionary will try to push reform to the limits, for two good reasons. First, because the reforms can be valuable in themselves. People should have an eight-hour day rather than a twelve-hour day. And in general, we should want to act in accord with decent ethical values.

 
Secondly, on strategic grounds, you have to show that there are limits to reform. Perhaps sometimes the system will accommodate to needed reforms. If so, well and good. But if it won’t, then new questions arise. Perhaps that is a moment when resistance is necessary, steps to overcome the barriers to justified changes. Perhaps the time has come to resort to coercive measures in defense of rights and justice, a form of self-defense. Unless the general population recognizes such measures to be a form of self-defense, they’re not going to take part in them, at least they shouldn’t.

If you get to a point where the existing institutions will not bend to the popular will, you have to eliminate the institutions.

May Day started here, but then became an international day in support of American workers who were being subjected to brutal violence and judicial punishment.

Today, the struggle continues to celebrate May Day not as a “law day” as defined by political leaders, but as a day whose meaning is decided by the people, a day rooted in organizing and working for a better future for the whole of society.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

One of the doctors who treated Mr Mutharika said the president was “clinically dead” on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest.

State media are still reporting that he has been flown to South Africa for medical treatment.

If confirmed, his death would spark a constitutional crisis, analysts say.

According to the constitution, the vice-president takes over if the head of state is incapacitated or dies in office.

But Vice-President Joyce Banda and Mr Mutharika fell out after a row over the succession in 2010, and she was expelled from the ruling party.

Mr Mutharika’s brother, Foreign Minister Peter Mutharika, was chosen instead of Ms Banda to be the presidential candidate of the governing Democratic People’s Party in the 2014 elections.

The BBC’s Raphael Tenthani in the main city, Blantyre, says that ministers have been meeting all night to discuss the situation.

The doctors and ministers say that Mr Mutharika’s body was taken to South Africa while a decision is taken about what to do next.

Government sources have told the BBC that efforts to resuscitate President Mutharika had failed and that an official announcement is being prepared.

Mr Mutharika came to power in a 2004 election. Soon afterwards, he dramatically abandoned his United Democratic Front (UDF) party to form the DPP, after accusing leading UDF members of opposing his campaign against corruption.

Since being re-elected with a large majority in 2009, critics allege he has demonstrated an increasingly authoritarian streak.

The president has been under mounting pressure to resign, amid accusations of nepotism and economic mismanagement.

The criticism has led to a souring in relations with major foreign aid donors, especially the United Kingdom.

Last year, Mr Mutharika expelled the UK High Commissioner, Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, after a leaked embassy cable quoted the diplomat as saying that the president could not tolerate criticism.

The Malawian leader said he could not accept “insults” just because the UK was his country’s largest aid donor.

In response, the UK expelled the Malawian envoy to London and cut direct aid.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated 75% of the population living on less than $1 (60p) a day.

The country has suffered shortages of fuel and foreign currency since the UK and other donors cancelled aid.

Source:BBC

And the best thing: Not only will taxpayers not be on the hook for even one cent of the stadium cost, they will be given a stipend every month once it’s finished, courtesy of the Spanos family.

April Fool!

Indeed, April 1 means April Fools’ Day, that day of mirth, merriment, gags, practical jokes, pranks, well-timed insults and flat-out lies, is upon us once again. What many folks might forget is AFD is a BFD — it’s widely celebrated throughout the West, and even in at least one country that would be shocking to most, but more on that later.

Also unknown by many is that April Fools’ Day (aka All Fools’ Day) has a history that goes back many hundreds of years. The first mention of April 1 and silly behavior is found in Chaucer’s Cantebury Tales, written in 1392. History has it that April Fools’ Day really started gaining traction in France, circa 1582.

Under the rule of Charles X, France junked the Julian Calendar and replaced it with the Gregorian Calendar, which shifted New Year’s Day to January 1. Apparently, the old New Year’s was April 1, and some local folks continued to ring in the new year on that day, either out of ignorance or a desire to stick to tradition.

Regardless, these folks were chided by those considered more enlightened, and they were sent on “fools errands” or subjected to be convinced that something apocryphal was actually fact.

How April Fools’ Day is celebrated differs in some countries. For example, in the United States, France, Italy, South Korea, The Netherlands, Ireland and other locales, April 1 is an all-day prank-a-thon. In France and Italy, the custom calls for children to tack paper fish on each other’s back while shouting “April fish” in the local tongue. That would be “poisson d’avril” in French and “pesce d’aprile” in Italian. Kids have been known to stick the fish on adults (who are also known to participate), but only on those they know well.

This practice also exists in parts of Belgium. A Flemish tradition sees kids locking out their parents or teachers, only letting them in if they vow to bring them treats the same evening or the next day.

In Canada, New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere, the joke is on you if you pull a prank afternoon, earning an “April Fool” taunt.

Despite its European roots, April Fools’ Day probably dates back to an unlikely place — Iran, hardly a haven for fun and games. On the 13th day of the Persian new year — which is either April 1 or 2, Iranians subject each other to jokes and good-natured mischief. This practice is called “Sizdah Bedar” and goes all the way back to 536 BC, so if a dispatch comes out of Tehran saying, “Ahmadinejad to Buy Padres, Wants to Bring Back Adrian Gonzalez and Sign Tebow”, dismiss it as poppycock.

On that note, there has been a cavalcade media-led pranks tossed out on April Fools’ Day throughout the years; here are a few of them.

1957: The British Broadcasting Company television show “Panorama” ran a segment showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. Many viewers subsequently called the BBC for advice on how to do it themselves. This remains one of the most hilarious AFD pranks ever.

1965: The BBC allegedly conducted a test that showed odor could be transmitted from TV sets, making it “Smell-O-Vision.” An Australian network followed suit years later. The fact is “Smell-O-Vision replaces television” was a line uttered by Bugs Bunny in a cartoon years before either of these stunts.

1993: A San Diego radio outlet convinced many listeners that the Space Shuttle had been diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and was on the verge of making an emergency landing at a local commuter airport.

1996: Taco Bell took out a full-page ad in the otherwise staid New York Times announcing that it had bought the Liberty Bell to ease the country’s debt and renamed it the “Taco Liberty Bell.” Showing a sharp sense of humor, White House press secretary Mike McCarthy, when told of the bogus Taco Bell sale, remarked that the Lincoln Memorial had also been purchased and would be known as the “Ford Lincoln Memorial.”

1998: Truly pushing the envelope of good taste off a cliff, Boston radio shock jocks Opie and Anthony of WAAF reported that mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car accident. Menino was on a flight at the time and couldn’t be reached, giving some credence to the story. It turned out he was alive and well, and the two radio personalities were canned. However, their notoriety helped them land a syndicated show.

1998: San Francisco radio station KITS changed its call letters to KGAY for an hour, during which it played only gay-themed songs.

Finally, there have been several notables born on April 1, among them: TV political commentator Rachel Maddow; country music legend Merle Haggard; horror film star Lon Chaney; actresses Ali MacGraw and Debbie Reynolds, former long-time Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler; singer Susan Boyle of “American Idol” fame; baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro, who won 316 games during a 24-year career.

But last but not least among those of note born on April 1 would be this reporter, your favorite SanDiego.com pundit. And that’s not a joke or prank.

But you might want to be careful before you load it up. Google (jokingly) warns that, “Your system may not meet the requirements for 8-bit computations.”

Accessing 8-bit Quest Maps is easy: Just fire up your normal Google Maps web app and click on the “Try it now” button on the left-hand menu. Once you do, your default map will transform from the pretty, MapsGL-enhanced view of the world you’re used to seeing into a map more akin to something you’d find in the game Dwarf Fortress, or perhaps even SimEarth.

But, in true Google tradition, the 8-bit map isn’t just for show. You can still perform the same functions in your “oldschool” map view as you could in your normal Google Map. Driving directions are still available, for example, but it’s probably going to be a lot more difficult to discern where the 8-bit roads actually are. Zooming all the way down within 8-bit Maps brings you to the default Google Street View – no pixelated buildings there, alas.

“In our pursuit of new digital frontiers, we realized that we may have left behind a large number of users who couldn’t access Google Maps on their classic hardware. Surprisingly, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was unsupported, despite its tremendous popularity with over 60 million units sold worldwide,” wrote Google software engineer Tatsuo Nomura on the Google’s Lat Long blog.

“As the first NES cartridge to be released in nearly 18 years, we’re working hard to make Google Maps 8-bit for NES available in the Google Store as soon as possible. A mobile version for Game Boy is also under development,” Nomura added.

While nifty, the 8-Bit Maps “upgrade” isn’t going to be as celebrated by Google Maps users as the company’s most recent (official) update to the web app. Google finally slapped travel time estimates back into Maps just the other day, a feature missing from the browser-based version of the app since this past summer. Google had initially taken away its app’s ability to guesstimate a user’s travel time due to the fact that the calculation used less precise historical traffic data.

Now, however, Google Maps estimates users’ travel times in real-time based on the current traffic conditions that exist for a particular area. So long as your location is one that Google tracks for traffic, the measurements of how long it’ll take you to get from Point A to Point B should be much more accurate than before.

>>> last night, while we were on the air covering super tuesday, there was a storm on the surface of the sun . and that energy, those waves are traveling toward us at over 4million miles an hour right now, which means it could arrive as early as between 1:00 a.m . and 5:00 a.m . eastern time tonight. it could affect a lot of things. past storms like this have knocked out power grids here on earth, attacked communications and gps, and already some commercial airlines have recruit routed flights to avoid interference from hit. tom costello has a look at what we might be in for.

>> reporter: i have been on the folks with noaa. in simple terms the atmosphere around the sun has been blown away, leaving charged particles and magnetic fieldwhich are now speeding towards the earth, as you said, 4 million miles per hour. it’s been several years since we have had a storm like this. there is the potential it could interfere with power grids , but that likelihood is low. it can also interfere and affect gps systems, and it could cause communication problems affecting radio and satellite systems, especially high-frequency kinds. while it is a good dose of radiation, it’s big, not extreme, though. nasa is monitoring it but doesn’t feel the need to take any unusual precautions on the orbiting stations. but flights they’re rerouting because they want to stay in continuous communication. noaa tells me the peak of the storm could come around 5:00 a.m ., they think. 1:00 and 5:00 a.m . eastern time . but 5:00 a.m . is a good time. they also insist no danger to us on earth other than the communications. brian, it could mean some really incredible northern lights perhaps as far south as the great lakes tonight. back to you.

>> all right. tom costello with the latest from washington. we’ll keep an eye on it, obviously.

Source: msnbc

But that’s not really what I wanted to write about. In 2010, Breitbart told The Times that three events in the late 1980s and early ’90s galvanized his political consciousness, turning him from an apathetic “jocular goofball” into a right-wing activist. All three seem odd candidates for an epiphany, but one in particular has some connection to my own life, and it’s as good an indicator of any of the way Breitbart’s mind worked — or failed to work.

In 1986, while Breitbart was a student at Tulane University, his best friend, Larry Solov, was attending Stanford. When Solov mentioned that Stanford had an African American-themed dorm, Breitbart was outraged.

“He just matter of factly said there was a black dorm, and I was like, ‘What the friggin’ hell? Are you kidding me?,” Breitbart said. “And then, when I found out that it was not segregation in the sense of white people doing it, I was like, ‘What are you talking about? Why aren’t we working toward the colorblind ideal?’ ”

This is Breitbart in a nutshell — a man flying into a half-cocked fury over an explosive topic he only dimly understood. Later in life, this pattern would repeat itself frequently, with the difference that by then he was an Internet entrepreneur who could instantly post his screeds online whenever a topic arose that piqued his ire. Issues of race seemed to incense him more than anything, prompting him to provide an outlet for conservative activist James O’Keefe III’s video attacks on the inner-city advocacy group ACORN and to assassinate the character of Shirley Sherrod, an African American official with the Department of Agriculture whose comments on race and government aid were heavily edited and taken out of context to make her appear to be a racist, then posted on one of Breitbart’s websites.

I was an undergrad at Stanford in the mid-1980s and well familiar with Ujamaa, the black-themed dorm, as well as Okada, an Asian dorm, and Casa Zapata, a Latino dorm. These dorms were controversial then and remain so now, but they have survived over the years because they offer an important educational and social experience. They are not entirely segregated; no more than 50% of each dorm can house individuals fitting the “theme” ethnicity. To live in one of them, you have to agree to take on a project fitting the ethnic theme — so Ujamaa residents of any race might have to write an essay about some aspect of the black experience on campus, for example. There are also educational and cultural programs within the dorm.

To the extent that these dorms were controversial on campus during my time, it was mainly because they stimulated a tremendous amount of discussion about race — and with that discussion came tension. In a school peopled mostly by privileged white students, it was a little shocking to hear about the resentment and isolation sometimes experienced by black students, or the anger simmering under the surface in a Latino community that in the mid-80s was still arguing over whether to call themselves “Chicanos” and whether fighting for their rights was really as critical a goal as integrating with American society. But amid all the tension, something miraculous happened: learning. White students learned to put themselves in the shoes of their multicolored peers, and minority students, I think, learned that communication fosters understanding.

I understand why the idea of themed dorms outrages some people; it seems like an attempt by minority students to isolate themselves, to avoid the intermingling that is supposed to be part of the college experience. And to some white people, it seems unfair: Why do black people get to have their own dorm, when a similar white-themed college dorm would bring down liberal fury? The simple answer to both concerns is that white people aren’t minorities. We don’t have to go out of our way to be around people like us — they’re everywhere. Minority students on an overwhelmingly white campus are under constant pressure to “represent” their race; it must be a great relief to go home to a dorm where they aren’t the only black person in the room.

Maybe if Tulane had had themed dorms, Breitbart would have learned some of these lessons. But I doubt it. Learning, or trying to understand life from another person’s perspective, were never his strong suits.

For Obama, it was an emphatic plunge into the latest flare-up on social issues. Democratic officeholders and liberal advocacy groups have accused Republicans of waging a “war on women” because of GOP stances on contraception and abortion rights, and Limbaugh’s tirade on his radio talk show was seen as an escalation.

In addition to her call from the president, the third-year Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke, was backed by members of Congress, women’s groups, and the administration and faculty at her Roman Catholic university.

Demands for Limbaugh’s sponsors to pull their ads from his show rocketed through cyberspace, and at least four companies, Quicken Loans, LegalZoom online legal document service, and bedding retailers Sleep Train and Sleep Number, bowed to the pressure.

Obama considers Limbaugh’s remarks “reprehensible,” according to White House spokesman Jay Carney. He said the president called Fluke to “express his disappointment that she has been the subject of inappropriate personal attacks” and to thank her for speaking out on an issue of public policy.

“The fact that our political discourse has become debased in many ways is bad enough,” Carney said. “It is worse when it’s directed at a private citizen who was simply expressing her views.”

Obama reached Fluke by phone as she was waiting to go on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

“He’s really a very a kind man,” Fluke later told The Associated Press. “He just called to express concern for me and to make sure I was OK and to say that he supported me and to thank me for speaking out about something that’s so important to so many women.”

As for Limbaugh’s remarks, Fluke said, “I just thought that they were really outside the bounds of civil discourse.”

By calling Fluke and injecting himself into the Limbaugh controversy, Obama sent a message to more than one law student. He was reaching out to young voters and women — two groups whose support he needs in this re-election year. And he was underscoring that the White House, despite bungling its rollout of the birth control policy, sees it as a winning issue and welcomes Obama’s name next to it.

Fluke was given a chance to talk to Congress on Feb. 23, even though lawmakers were on a break and just a few Democratic allies were on hand to cheer her on. The previous week, a Republican-controlled House committee had rejected Democrats’ request that she testify on the Obama administration’s policy requiring that employees of religion-affiliated institutions have access to health insurance that covers birth control.

Republicans have faulted parts of Obama’s health care reform as unconstitutional, including an initial requirement, since withdrawn by the president, that contraceptives be covered under the insurance policies of businesses, including those with religious affiliations.

Fluke said that Georgetown, a Jesuit institution, does not provide contraception coverage in its student health plan and that contraception can cost a woman more than $3,000 during law school. She spoke of a friend who had an ovary removed because the insurance company wouldn’t cover the prescription birth control she needed to stop the growth of cysts.

On Wednesday, Limbaugh unleashed a lengthy and often savage verbal assault on Fluke.

“What does it say about the college coed … who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex?” Limbaugh said. “It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex.”

He went on to suggest that Fluke distribute sex tapes of herself.

“If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it,” he said. “We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”

The backlash began quickly and showed no signs of abating as scores of Democratic members of Congress denounced Limbaugh and urged their GOP colleagues to do likewise.

The Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner, responded through a spokesman.

“The Speaker obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation,” said Boehner aide Michael Steel.

Later, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the committee that blocked Fluke’s original testimony, issued a letter repudiating Limbaugh’s comments but also excoriating the Democrats and their supporters.

“I ask that you join me in a broader condemnation of the attacks on people of faith … and the regrettable personal attacks that have come from individuals on both sides of the issue,” Issa wrote to Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

Boehner and Issa are among the GOP leaders accused of waging the purported “war on women.” The topic has been cited often in recent fundraising pitches by many liberal advocacy groups, and they recently have shown more aggressiveness.

In early February, after a three-day furor, the Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity dropped plans to withdraw funding from Planned Parenthood, a leading abortion provider. And more recently, after incurring protests and ridicule, Republican politicians in Virginia backed away from a bill that would have required invasive vaginal ultrasounds as a pre-condition for many abortions.

Amid this controversy, polls show that Obama’s support among women has been increasing.

At Georgetown, more than 130 faculty members signed a letter praising Fluke for her “grace and strength” and condemning Limbaugh’s remarks. The university president, John J. DeGioia, did likewise.

He said Limbaugh and others responded to Fluke “with behavior that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student.”

On Thursday, aware of the firestorm he had ignited, Limbaugh was unapologetic.

“I think this is hilarious. Absolutely hilarious” he said on his show. “The left has been thrown into an outright conniption fit!”

On Friday, still defiant, Limbaugh scoffed at the concept of a conservative “war on women.”

“Amazingly, when there is the slightest bit of opposition to this new welfare entitlement being created, then all of a sudden we hate women! We want ‘em barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen,” he said. “And now, at the end of this week, I am the person that the women of America are to fear the most.”

Longtime Republican strategist Terry Holt suggested voters might see Obama’s response to an over-the-top radio host as “pure pandering” to woo women’s votes.

“This conversation seems to serve Rush Limbaugh and President Obama equally well,” Holt said.

Fluke, in Washington, issued a statement expressing gratitude for the support she’s received and resolve to continue speaking out.

“No woman deserves to be disrespected in this manner. This language is an attack on all women, and has been used throughout history to silence our voices,” she said.

“The millions of American women who have and will continue to speak out in support of women’s health care and access to contraception prove that we will not be silenced.”

Rick Santorum, one of the Republican presidential contenders seeking to oppose Obama, commented to CNN about Limbaugh’s remarks.

“He’s being absurd,” Santorum said. “But that’s, you know, an entertainer can be absurd.”

While campaigning in Ohio for the Republican presidential primary, Mitt Romney was asked about Limbaugh’s comments and steered his answer away from the uproar.

“It’s not the language I would have used,” Romney said after a campaign event in Cleveland. “But I’m focusing on the issues that I think are significant in the country today and that’s why I’m here talking about jobs in Ohio.”

___(equals)

His death shocked fans and friends like by Bruce Morrow, the veteran city radio deejay.

“I was stunned,” said Morrow. “He seemed to be in such good health.”

Morrow extended his four-hour Wednesday night show to seven hours so fans could call “to talk about how much he meant to them.”

Morrow also said that he thought Jones and his fellow Monkees Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith had over the years achieved at least some of their biggest wish: that their music be given some respect.

PHOTOS: REMEMBERING DAVY JONES’ COLORFUL CAREER

“Their music began to be taken more seriously when they took it more seriously themselves,” said Morrow. “At first they were just goofing around. But when they started to concentrate on the craft, they became much better.”

While critics have regularly dismissed the Monkees as lightweight bubblegum pop, deejay Joe Causi of WCBS-FM says, they still were important.

“They became part of the culture,” he said. “They were a big part of growing up in the late 1960s.”

Causi, who was on the air when Jones’s death was announced, said the station was inundated with phone calls and text messages. “There were hundreds,” said Causi. “People really loved this guy,” he said.

Unlike Tork, Dolenz and Nesmith, Jones didn’t play an instrument when he was hired to join NBC’s “The Monkees” in 1966. So he picked up a tambourine and became the front man.

STARS WHO DIED TOO YOUNG – A PHOTO SCRAPBOOK

Almost immediately, he also became the breakout teen idol, a stature reinforced by his lead vocals on plaintive songs like “I Wanna Be Free” and “Daydream Believer.”

As late as 2008, when he turned 63, a Yahoo poll voted him No. 1 teen idol of all time.

Built on zany sketch comedy and ending with a musical number,“The Monkees” was designed to conjure images of the Beatles and capture the fun of the Beatles’ movie “A Hard Day’s Night.”

While it only lasted two seasons, the TV show won an Emmy for best comedy series and launched the Monkees as a pop phenomenon on radio.

Their first two songs, “Last Train to Clarksville” and “I’m a Believer,” both went to No. 1, and their first two albums sold more than 5 million copies.

Their musical run pretty much ended with the TV show, and the members began to break away. But Jones, Dolenz and Tork, very occasionally joined by Nesmith, would continue performing for the next four decades in various Monkees configurations.

The TV show also became a long-running hit in syndication, making Jones a personality he would gently lampoon in guest spots on other shows like “The Brady Bunch” and “SpongeBob Squarepants.”

Morrow said Jones never took his stardom too seriously.

“He was a genuinely warm person,” said Morrow. “Too many stars today are out in la-la land. He was someone you could sit down and talk with. I enjoyed spending time with him.”

Born in Manchester, England, Jones started acting before he was a teenager.

He played The Artful Dodger in the London cast of “Oliver!” and at 18 came with the original cast to New York, where he was nominated for a Tony.

He often recalled how he and the rest of the cast were on “The Ed Sullivan Show” Feb. 9, 1964, when the Beatles first played there.

“I was in the wings,” Jones recalled, “and I said to myself, ‘I want that.’”

A couple of years later, he got it.

Jones is survived by his wife Jessica and four children from previous marriages.

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Obama Waives Controversial Military Detention Measure

WASHINGTON — The White Housereleased rules Tuesday evening waiving the most controversial piece of the new military detention law, and exempting U.S. citizens, as well as other broad categories of suspected terrorists.

Indefinite military detention of Americans and others was granted in the defense authorization bill President Barack Obama signed just before Christmas, sparking a storm of anger from civil libertarians on the left and right.

The new rules — which deal with Section 1022 of the law — are aimed at soothing many of their gravest concerns, an administration official said. Those concerns are led by the possibility that a law that grants the president authority to jail Americans without trial in Guantanamo Bay based on secret evidence could easily be abused.

“It is important to recognize that the scope of the new law is limited,” says a fact sheetreleased by the White House, focusing on that worry. “Section 1022 does not apply to U.S. citizens, and the President has decided to waive its application to lawful permanent residents arrested in the United States.”

It also addresses a concern of the White House and advocates of civil law enforcement, insisting that even if a suspect is transfered to the military, the person can be shifted back if the administration believes it is important for national security.

“An individual required to be held in military custody under Section 1022 may be returned to law enforcement custody for criminal trial,” the White House summary says. “In addition, Section 1022 does not change the FBI’s authorities to respond to terrorism threats and these procedures do not apply to any individuals held in the custody of the Department of Defense, state and local law enforcement agencies acting under their authorities, or a foreign government.”

Advocates for liberties will likely find the new rules for implementing reassuring, at least while President Obama is in office. But one of their big complaints with his signing of the law is that his policies only last so long as he is in office, and they will likely step up attempts to repeal it.

The rules also set out for the first time how they will be implemented, specifying that if local law enforcers suspect they’ve grabbed someone who would be covered under the law, they have to notify the Department of Justice. While law enforcers continue their work, the notification sets off an extensive review culminating in a decision by the attorney general, secretary of state, secretary of defense, secretary of homeland security, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the director of national intelligence.

“The procedures ensure that an individual will be transferred from civilian to military custody only after a thorough evaluation of all of the relevant facts, based on the considered judgment of the President’s senior national security team, and not a rigid statutory requirement that does not account for the unique facts and circumstances of each case,” the White House fact sheet says.

The categories of people exempted by the rules:

• When placing a foreign country’s nationals or residents in military custody will impede counterterrorism cooperation;

• When a foreign government indicates that it will not extradite or transfer suspects to the U.S. if the suspects may be placed in military custody;

• When an individual is a U.S. lawful permanent resident who is arrested in this country or arrested by a federal agency on the basis of conduct taking place in this country;

• When an individual has been arrested by a federal agency in the U.S. on charges other than terrorism offenses (unless such individual is subsequently charged with one or more terrorism offenses and held in federal custody in connection with those offenses);

• When an individual has been arrested by state or local law enforcement, pursuant to state or local authority, and is transferred to federal custody;

• When transferring an individual to military custody could interfere with efforts to secure an individual’s cooperation or confession; or

• When transferring an individual to military custody could interfere with efforts to conduct joint trials with co-defendants who are ineligible for military custody or as to whom a determination has already been made to proceed with a prosecution in a federal or state court.

Three of the bill’s lead Republican sponsons, Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), cautioned that Obama may be undercutting their intentions for the measure.

“Although we have not been able to fully examine all the details of these new regulations, they raise significant concerns that will require a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee,” they said in a joint statement. “We are particularly concerned that some of these regulations may contradict the intent of the detainee provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress last year.”

All three senators were adamant that all terrorism suspects — American citizens or otherwise — should be taken into military custody.

Source: huffingtonpost