Heeding a sudden furor, John Pistole, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, said in a Sunday afternoon statement to POLITICO that airport screening procedures “will be adapted as conditions warrant,” in an effort to make them “as minimally invasive as possible, while still providing the security that the American people want and deserve.”

 TSA's new flexibility comes as the government gears up for a flood of travel over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Administration officials say any changes are more likely to be in the implementation of the security procedures than in the security measures themselves.

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 reset VIDEO: TSA chief on rules VIDEO: Echo Chamber POLITICO 44

 Pistole’s statement to POLITICO modified his vow a few hours earlier on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the procedures were "not going to change." Both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said over the weekend that the administration was continually looking for ways to refine the screening to make it less intrusive and frustrating.

 Here is the full text of the statement from Pistole, a former deputy director of the FBI:

 "We welcome feedback and comments on the screening procedures from the traveling public, and we will work to make them as minimally invasive as possible, while still providing the security that the American people want and deserve. We are constantly evaluating and adapting our security measures, and as we have said from the beginning, we are seeking to strike the right balance between privacy and security.

 “In all such security programs, especially those that are applied nationwide, there is a continual process of refinement and adjustment to ensure that best practices are applied and that feedback and comment from the traveling public is taken into account. This has always been viewed as an evolving program that will be adapted as conditions warrant, and we greatly appreciate the cooperation and understanding of the American people.

 “We cannot forget that less than one year ago a suicide bomber with explosives in his underwear tried to bring down a plane over Detroit. The terrorists allegedly behind the thwarted cargo attempt last month are out there bragging about how they will strike again.

 “We all wish we lived in a world where security procedures at airports weren't necessary, but that just isn't the case." ||||| Washington (CNN) -- Enhanced security pat-downs that have been vilified by travelers as legal groping are here to stay, at least for now, the federal official in charge of transportation security told CNN on Sunday.

 John Pistole, the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, said he understood public discomfort over having a stranger touch the buttocks, breasts and genitals in trying to find possible hidden explosives, but he called the extra screening necessary.

 "We're not changing the policies, because of... the risks that have been identified," Pistole said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We know through intelligence that there are determined people, terrorists who are trying to kill not only Americans but innocent people around the world."

 Travelers who set off metal detectors at airport security are asked to undergo extra screening. If they refuse to go through an enhanced visual device that shows the body through clothing, they are required to submit to the thorough pat-down in order to fly.

 Incidents such as last December's failed bombing of a U.S.-bound flight by a man with explosives in his underwear and the recent detection of explosives in air cargo packages from Yemen prompted the enhanced screening.

 But the more thorough pat-down process has generated alarm and anger, with some travelers complaining they were given little warning of the procedure and that they felt violated by the touching of private parts.

 Critics, including conservative Republicans who generally oppose government regulation, say the enhanced screening is a knee-jerk and excessive reaction.

 "I don't think the roll-out was good and the application is even worse," Rep. John Mica, R-Florida, said Sunday on "State of the Union." "This does need to be refined. But he's saying it's the only tool and I believe that's wrong."

 Democrats also acknowledged the difficulty of the issue. Asked if she would submit to an enhanced pat-down, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the CBS program "Face the Nation": "Not if I could avoid it. No, I mean, who would?"

 On the same program, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking House Democrat, said, "I don't think any of us would want to undergo that," but added that "most people understand that we've got to keep airplanes safe."

 Clinton called for continuing study of the security situation to come up with the proper balance between protecting the public from terrorists and avoiding excessive screening.

 "If there is a way to limit the number of people who are going to be put through surveillance, that's something that I'm sure can be considered," she said.

 Pistole also spoke of seeking a balance between safety and public comfort.

 "I think it is situational, frankly," he said on CNN. "So for you, you may say, 'I want this level of security because I want to know that everybody else on that plane has been screened thoroughly.' Somebody else may say, 'Well, I would rather manage some risk and say I don't want that thorough of screening, so I would rather take a higher risk.' "

 For the TSA, he said, "it comes down to how do we give the highest level of confidence to everybody on that flight that everybody else has been properly screened, including you and me?"

 Pistole noted that few passengers face the enhanced pat-down -- only those who trigger an initial safety alarm in the metal detector or document-screening, and then refuse to go through the advanced visual screening.

 "The advanced imaging technology is designed to detect non-metallics," Pistole said. "So you just have to make sure you take everything out of your pockets. So if there's no alarm, there's no pat-down."

 He also complained of "horror stories" about the enhanced pat-down that he said are "frankly inaccurate, either misinformation or whatever."

 At the same time, Pistole acknowledged that travelers received little warning of the enhanced screening procedures, and therefore those who faced the more thorough pat-down were likely caught by surprise.

 "That's my responsibility, because I did not advertise this, if you will, and say we are going to do this new type of pat-down, because I did not want to provide a blueprint or a road map to the terrorists to say, 'here's our new security procedure, so here's all you have to do to,' " Pistole said.

 Mica and other conservatives call for easing the use of enhanced screening for travelers who clearly pose no security risk. Mica cited Israel's use of passenger profiling based on travel history, age and other factors to determine more likely security risks.

 Pistole, however, said the United States doesn't use the same kind of profiling, and he also noted that travelers who trigger a security question in Israel also undergo a rigorous pat-down.

 "That is top-notch security," Pistole said. "The question is, do we profile here in the U.S.? No, we don't. So how then do we use intelligence that informs the decisions and judgements? And given what we saw from last night in terms of this new Web publication that describes in detail how the cargo bombs were done, how the design concealed, and how they are using technology to disguise and defeat the screening mechanisms we have in place; look, it's a difficult question."

Summary: – Enhanced pat-down policies are “not changing” due to “the risks that have been identified,” the TSA chief told CNN yesterday—before quickly amending his words in a statement to Politico. Airport security screenings “will be adapted as conditions warrant,” John Pistole wrote, making them “as minimally invasive as possible, while still providing the security that the American people want and deserve.” "We know through intelligence that there are determined people, terrorists who are trying to kill not only Americans but innocent people around the world," he had said earlier on CNN. As for why the more intense pat-downs were sprung on the traveling public without much warning, "I did not want to provide a blueprint or a road map to the terrorists to say, 'Here's our new security procedure, so here's all you have to do.'" (Click here for the latest pat-down outrage.)


Plans for a Christian theme park in Northern Kentucky featuring a 510-foot-long replica of Noah's Ark are likely to sink unless the project raises millions of dollars from investors in the coming weeks.

 The Courier-Journal reports that the project, undertaken by the Christian non-profit Answers in Genesis, has sold unrated municipal bonds worth $26.5 million, but needs to sell another $29 million by Feb. 6 to avoid triggering redemption of what's already been sold.

 "We still need those Ark supporters who weren't able to purchase the Ark bonds at closing to prayerfully consider participating in a secondary bond delivery at the level they had indicated to us," Answers in Genesis President Ken Ham wrote in an email to supporters on Thursday, according to the newspaper.

 "The associated complications and struggles have been beyond our control," Ham wrote, citing impediments such as atheists registering for the offering and disrupting it, according to the newspaper.

 The $150 million project has been plagued by delays since it was unveiled in 2011. It was originally slated for completion this spring, when $37 million worth of tax breaks offered by the state are set to expire. Now, with construction still not started on Ark Encounter, the earliest it could be finished is 2016, AIG says.

 The Courier-Journal writes:

 "The project has drawn comparisons to tourist attractions from Alabama to Nebraska that have defaulted, and comes with the added risk of legal challenges because its religious theme may violate the Constitution. The Washington-based group Americans United for Separation of Church and State said it is monitoring the project." "Industrial-development bonds are considered the riskiest municipal debt because they account for the largest proportion of defaults in the $3.7 trillion municipal market. Williamstown issued the bonds without a rating, making the prospect of repayment even less clear." "The first phase is estimated to cost $73 million, offering documents show. About $14 million had been raised before the bond sale, which was supposed to make up the difference."

 In 2007, Answers in Genesis opened the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, which offers museum-goers a so-called "young Earth creationist" perspective, teaching that the Earth is only about 6,000 years old with exhibits that depict humans and dinosaurs living together. Attendance at the museum reached more than 400,000 in its first year, but has steadily declined since then.

 ||||| A Kentucky theme park to be built around a full-scale replica of Noah’s Ark may sink unless investors purchase about $29 million in unrated municipal bonds by Feb. 6.

 The northern Kentucky city of Williamstown in December issued taxable debt for affiliates of Answers in Genesis, a Christian nonprofit, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

 Even though $26.5 million of securities have been sold, the project needs to sell at least $55 million in total to avoid triggering a redemption of all the bonds, Ken Ham, the nonprofit’s president, said in an e-mail to supporters yesterday. Without the proceeds, construction funding will fall short, he said.

 “We still need those Ark supporters who weren’t able to purchase the Ark bonds at closing to prayerfully consider participating in a secondary bond delivery at the level they had indicated to us,” Ham said. “Will you please step out in faith with us?”

 Proceeds are intended to help build a 510-foot (155.4-meter, or 300 cubit) wooden ship, the centerpiece of a planned biblical theme park called Ark Encounter. The project has drawn comparisons to tourist attractions from Alabama to Nebraska that have defaulted, and comes with the added risk of legal challenges because its religious theme may violate the Constitution. The Washington-based group Americans United for Separation of Church and State said it is monitoring the project.

 Atheist Disruptions

 Industrial-development bonds are considered the riskiest municipal debt because they account for the largest proportion of defaults in the $3.7 trillion municipal market. Williamstown issued the bonds without a rating, making the prospect of repayment even less clear.

 The first phase is estimated to cost $73 million, offering documents show. About $14 million had been raised before the bond sale, which was supposed to make up the difference.

 Instead, Ark Encounter has had no institutional investors buy its bonds, Ham said.

 “The associated complications and struggles have been beyond our control,” said Ham, who cited impediments such as atheists registering for the offering and disrupting it. “I urge you to please prayerfully consider the options and help us get this bond offering completed.”

 The documents cite at least 39 risks to buyers, including that Answers in Genesis has no obligation to back the debt. Bondholders’ sole revenue stream would come from money spent by visitors.

 February Deadline

 The debt can be obtained in the form of a physical certificate from Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, the bond trustee, or through an individual retirement account at a company that will accept such a certificate, according to the e-mail. The IRA deadline is two days earlier, Feb. 4.

 Construction is supposed to begin in March, with Ark Encounter slated to open in April 2016. It would be built on about 200 acres, with 800 acres reserved for ventures such as hotels and restaurants, offering documents show.

 Dan Blank and Zach Logan at Ross Sinclaire & Associates, the underwriter, didn’t immediately respond to voicemails seeking comment. Joe Boone, vice president of advancement at Answers in Genesis, didn’t return calls to his office and mobile phone.

 To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Chappatta in New York at bchappatta1@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net

Summary: – A Noah's Ark theme park set to break ground in Kentucky in March could soon be crushed—not by a mountain of water, but by a lack of investor interest, Bloomberg reports. Building a full-scale ark replica at the biblical Ark Encounter park—set to open in April 2016—is no cheap feat, and though $26.5 million in unrated municipal bonds have been sold, investors need to buy up $29 million more by next month or the project will sink. And with numerous risks—the nonprofit behind the park is not required to pay back the debt, for instance—recruiting buyers has been a tough job. "We still need those Ark supporters who weren't able to purchase the Ark bonds at closing to prayerfully consider participating in a secondary bond delivery at the level they had indicated to us," said the president of the Christian group, Answers in Genesis, adding, "The associated complications and struggles have been beyond our control." WBAA notes that the bond issue isn't its first struggle: Delays have dogged the project, which was originally supposed to be up and running in early 2014 (which would allow it to access $37 million in tax incentives); current estimates have that opening date now set at 2016.


 Now-ousted Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe kisses his wife, Grace Mugabe, during the country’s Independence Day celebrations in Harare on April 18. (Getty Images)

 Panashe Chigumadzi is an essayist and novelist who was born in Zimbabwe and is based in South Africa.

 As former president Robert Mugabe and his second wife, Grace Mugabe, prepare to make their exit from Zimbabwe’s State House, Zimbabweans have hankered for “Amai” (Mother) Sally, his late first wife, who is fondly remembered as a “very sensitive and intelligent woman” who may have been a ““restraining influence” on her husband.

 On the day of the military intervention earlier this month, the veteran South Africa-based Zimbabwean journalist Peter Ndoro tweeted the following:

 “As developments continue to unfold in #Zimbabwe #RobertMugabe might be looking back and wondering if … his rule wasn’t a tale of two wives. One that died too soon and the other that ended up being his Achilles heel. #ThisFlag #SaveZim”

 With almost 2,000 retweets, it is the kind of misogynist narrative that has found an easy resonance in many quarters of a country that has been ruled by the heavy hand of a patriarchal nationalist tradition for nearly four decades. Across the many rallies and marches in Zimbabwe, many people sang “Hatidi kutongwa nehure” [We do not want to be ruled by a whore]. Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association Chairman Chris Mutsvangwa described Grace Mugabe as “clinically mad,” and Temba Mliswa, a member of parliament from the ruling Zanu-PF party, has claimed that “Robert Mugabe’s legacy has been destroyed by his wife. He’s old, he’s aging, and they’ve taken advantage of him.”

 As Mugabe’s party rebrands itself, it is using a simplistic narrative that absolves both Mugabe and Zanu-PF of their political blunders, sweeping all that went wrong into a Grace Mugabe-sized hole.

 Is it really “a tale of two wives”? Let’s start with “Amai” Sally Mugabe and whether she was a “restraining force” on her husband. Having met Mugabe at a teacher training college in her native Ghana, Sally Mugabe, nee Hayfron, married Mugabe in 1961. She became increasingly involved in nationalist political trenches in the ’60s, leading campaigns for the release of Zimbabwean political prisoners, including her husband, while in exile in London. Once her husband was released, she campaigned for the safety and well-being of refugees of the Second Chimurenga (liberation war) while in Mozambique. In 1980, she joined her husband, Zimbabwe’s first black prime minister, at the helm of the country and officially became first lady seven years later, when he assumed the presidency. By 1989, she was elected secretary general of the Zanu-PF Women’s League. Outside of politics, Sally continued to be popular for her involvement in welfare programs through organizations such as the Zimbabwe Child Survival Movement and Zimbabwe Women’s Co-operative.

 A popular leader at home and abroad at the time, Mugabe was meanwhile consolidating and centralizing his post-independence power through constitutional and forceful means. In 1984, Zanu-PF’s congress gave Mugabe extensive powers to appoint the executive members of the party and passed constitutional amendments that created the executive presidency. Most importantly the early ’80s, Sally was by his side during the “Gukurahundi” (Shona for “the first rains, which wash away the chaff before the spring rains”), the genocide of more than 20,000 Ndebele people. The violent campaign was aimed at quelling the threat of political dissidents; incoming President Emmerson Mnangagwa was a key figure in the massacres.

 As Sally Mugabe became increasingly ill with kidney failure in the late ’80s, Robert Mugabe began his affair with Grace Ntombizodwa Marufu, a young married mother and a typist in the president’s office at the time. In 1992, Sally Mugabe died in Harare at the age of 60. As Zimbabwean academic Alex Magaisa points out, for Mugabe, the loss of Sally represented a loss of a close companion and, importantly, a peer. Mugabe married Grace in a spectacular ceremony four years later.

 Compared with Sally, who was loved for her apparent sense of modesty and public work, Grace Mugabe became increasingly unpopular for her lavish lifestyle in the midst the economic fallout of the 2000s. She largely stayed out of politics. This changed by 2014, when she began her foray into politics through her election as president of Zanu-PF’s Women’s League. Though unpopular, Grace Mugabe continued to consolidate power through the support of the “G40 faction,” made up mostly of a younger generation of Zanu-PF members who did not participate in the Second Chimurenga.

 Invoking the fist often associated with her husband, Grace Mugabe included in her acceptance speech for the Zanu-PF post threats to those who opposed her: “I might have a small fist, but when it comes to fighting I will put stones inside to enlarge it, or even put on gloves to make it bigger. Do not doubt my capabilities.” Grace Mugabe’s unpopularity has only kept pace with the kind of hostile language she has increasingly used in her fiery speeches, rhetoric she clearly learned from the man who mentored her over the years.

 If we were to hazard that it was “a tale of two Mugabes” instead of “two wives,” that still would be misleading. As Percy Zvomuya points out, Mugabe has been fairly consistent, famously stating in 1976 that “Our votes must go together with our guns. After all, any vote we shall have shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should remain its security officer, its guarantor. The people’s votes and the people’s guns are always inseparable twins.”

 However popular or unpopular Mugabe may have been with general populace, the real guarantor of his power has always been the gun, as represented by the military and the war veterans. Over the past 37 years, the relationship between Mugabe and his “guns” has not been entirely smooth, but the relationship has largely remained intact as he gave in to their various demands and safeguarded their interests. In turn, he has relied on their force to guard him against dissent from organized labor and civic groups. What has been Mugabe’s undoing over the past few years is that at the height of popular dissent with his rule, he increasingly undermined the interests of his “guns” in favor of Grace Mugabe’s G40 faction. The final straw was to remove his longtime ally (and now successor) Mnangagwa.

 Grace Mugabe is no saint. But she has also done nothing without Robert Mugabe’s endorsement (and indeed that of many others in the party). The political fallout cannot be put down to an aging leader’s being led astray by an overbearing or too ambitious wife. Given the evidence of Mugabe’s career trajectory, the extent to which first ladies Grace or “Amai” Sally could have restrained their husband is unclear, but even more importantly, it is neither here nor there.

 The common denominator in both marriages has been Robert Mugabe, a man who has more than proved himself a skilled and shrewd politician. It was his political mistake to undermine the “guns” that guaranteed his power for so long. It is at best simplistic and at worst misogynistic to hold Sally or Grace Mugabe accountable for their husband’s political missteps. |||||

 Now-ousted Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe kisses his wife, Grace Mugabe, during the country’s Independence Day celebrations in Harare on April 18. (Getty Images)

 Panashe Chigumadzi is an essayist and novelist who was born in Zimbabwe and is based in South Africa.

 As former president Robert Mugabe and his second wife, Grace Mugabe, prepare to make their exit from Zimbabwe’s State House, Zimbabweans have hankered for “Amai” (Mother) Sally, his late first wife, who is fondly remembered as a “very sensitive and intelligent woman” who may have been a ““restraining influence” on her husband.

 On the day of the military intervention earlier this month, the veteran South Africa-based Zimbabwean journalist Peter Ndoro tweeted the following:

 “As developments continue to unfold in #Zimbabwe #RobertMugabe might be looking back and wondering if … his rule wasn’t a tale of two wives. One that died too soon and the other that ended up being his Achilles heel. #ThisFlag #SaveZim”

 With almost 2,000 retweets, it is the kind of misogynist narrative that has found an easy resonance in many quarters of a country that has been ruled by the heavy hand of a patriarchal nationalist tradition for nearly four decades. Across the many rallies and marches in Zimbabwe, many people sang “Hatidi kutongwa nehure” [We do not want to be ruled by a whore]. Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association Chairman Chris Mutsvangwa described Grace Mugabe as “clinically mad,” and Temba Mliswa, a member of parliament from the ruling Zanu-PF party, has claimed that “Robert Mugabe’s legacy has been destroyed by his wife. He’s old, he’s aging, and they’ve taken advantage of him.”

 As Mugabe’s party rebrands itself, it is using a simplistic narrative that absolves both Mugabe and Zanu-PF of their political blunders, sweeping all that went wrong into a Grace Mugabe-sized hole.

 Is it really “a tale of two wives”? Let’s start with “Amai” Sally Mugabe and whether she was a “restraining force” on her husband. Having met Mugabe at a teacher training college in her native Ghana, Sally Mugabe, nee Hayfron, married Mugabe in 1961. She became increasingly involved in nationalist political trenches in the ’60s, leading campaigns for the release of Zimbabwean political prisoners, including her husband, while in exile in London. Once her husband was released, she campaigned for the safety and well-being of refugees of the Second Chimurenga (liberation war) while in Mozambique. In 1980, she joined her husband, Zimbabwe’s first black prime minister, at the helm of the country and officially became first lady seven years later, when he assumed the presidency. By 1989, she was elected secretary general of the Zanu-PF Women’s League. Outside of politics, Sally continued to be popular for her involvement in welfare programs through organizations such as the Zimbabwe Child Survival Movement and Zimbabwe Women’s Co-operative.

 A popular leader at home and abroad at the time, Mugabe was meanwhile consolidating and centralizing his post-independence power through constitutional and forceful means. In 1984, Zanu-PF’s congress gave Mugabe extensive powers to appoint the executive members of the party and passed constitutional amendments that created the executive presidency. Most importantly the early ’80s, Sally was by his side during the “Gukurahundi” (Shona for “the first rains, which wash away the chaff before the spring rains”), the genocide of more than 20,000 Ndebele people. The violent campaign was aimed at quelling the threat of political dissidents; incoming President Emmerson Mnangagwa was a key figure in the massacres.

 As Sally Mugabe became increasingly ill with kidney failure in the late ’80s, Robert Mugabe began his affair with Grace Ntombizodwa Marufu, a young married mother and a typist in the president’s office at the time. In 1992, Sally Mugabe died in Harare at the age of 60. As Zimbabwean academic Alex Magaisa points out, for Mugabe, the loss of Sally represented a loss of a close companion and, importantly, a peer. Mugabe married Grace in a spectacular ceremony four years later.

 Compared with Sally, who was loved for her apparent sense of modesty and public work, Grace Mugabe became increasingly unpopular for her lavish lifestyle in the midst the economic fallout of the 2000s. She largely stayed out of politics. This changed by 2014, when she began her foray into politics through her election as president of Zanu-PF’s Women’s League. Though unpopular, Grace Mugabe continued to consolidate power through the support of the “G40 faction,” made up mostly of a younger generation of Zanu-PF members who did not participate in the Second Chimurenga.

 Invoking the fist often associated with her husband, Grace Mugabe included in her acceptance speech for the Zanu-PF post threats to those who opposed her: “I might have a small fist, but when it comes to fighting I will put stones inside to enlarge it, or even put on gloves to make it bigger. Do not doubt my capabilities.” Grace Mugabe’s unpopularity has only kept pace with the kind of hostile language she has increasingly used in her fiery speeches, rhetoric she clearly learned from the man who mentored her over the years.

 If we were to hazard that it was “a tale of two Mugabes” instead of “two wives,” that still would be misleading. As Percy Zvomuya points out, Mugabe has been fairly consistent, famously stating in 1976 that “Our votes must go together with our guns. After all, any vote we shall have shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should remain its security officer, its guarantor. The people’s votes and the people’s guns are always inseparable twins.”

 However popular or unpopular Mugabe may have been with general populace, the real guarantor of his power has always been the gun, as represented by the military and the war veterans. Over the past 37 years, the relationship between Mugabe and his “guns” has not been entirely smooth, but the relationship has largely remained intact as he gave in to their various demands and safeguarded their interests. In turn, he has relied on their force to guard him against dissent from organized labor and civic groups. What has been Mugabe’s undoing over the past few years is that at the height of popular dissent with his rule, he increasingly undermined the interests of his “guns” in favor of Grace Mugabe’s G40 faction. The final straw was to remove his longtime ally (and now successor) Mnangagwa.

 Grace Mugabe is no saint. But she has also done nothing without Robert Mugabe’s endorsement (and indeed that of many others in the party). The political fallout cannot be put down to an aging leader’s being led astray by an overbearing or too ambitious wife. Given the evidence of Mugabe’s career trajectory, the extent to which first ladies Grace or “Amai” Sally could have restrained their husband is unclear, but even more importantly, it is neither here nor there.

 The common denominator in both marriages has been Robert Mugabe, a man who has more than proved himself a skilled and shrewd politician. It was his political mistake to undermine the “guns” that guaranteed his power for so long. It is at best simplistic and at worst misogynistic to hold Sally or Grace Mugabe accountable for their husband’s political missteps.

Summary: – A common narrative has emerged in the wake of Robert Mugabe's ouster in Zimbabwe: His undoing can be blamed on wife Grace's greedy grab for power. Actually, this narrative is being cast as a "tale of two wives," writes Zimbabwe-born novelist Panashe Chigumadzi in a Washington Post op-ed. The idea is that if Mugabe's first wife, Sally, hadn't died in 1992, she would have kept Robert Mugabe's abuses in check. Instead, the narrative goes, Sally was replaced by Grace, who has been manipulating the now 93-year-old Mugabe for decades toward her own ends. It's a convenient tale for Mugabe's own Zanu-PF party as it seeks to rebrand itself while "sweeping all that went wrong into a Grace Mugabe-sized hole." For one thing, the idea that Sally would have restrained her husband is a stretch. She was by his side, after all, during some horrible abuses in the 1980s, writes Chigumadzi. As for Grace, she is clearly "no saint. But she has also done nothing without Robert Mugabe’s endorsement (and indeed that of many others in the party)." If she went too far in trying to solidify herself as her husband's successor, that's more on him than her. No, the one true villain in Zimbabwe's tale is Robert Mugabe, who ruled by the gun and was ultimately ousted by it. To say otherwise "is at best simplistic and at worst misogynistic," writes Chigumadzi. Click for the full column.


OAKLAND -- Sex. Suicide. Murder? A sex scandal involving Oakland police officers and a young woman who touts her law enforcement liaisons on Facebook has all the makings of a TV thriller, full of twists and turns.

 Three officers were placed on paid leave this week, months after Officer Brendan O'Brien committed suicide and left a note spilling the details -- including names.

 Adding to the intrigue, O'Brien's wife, 29-year-old Irma Huerta Lopez, also committed suicide, on June 16, 2014, by shooting herself in the head with her husband's gun.

 Lopez's death was briefly investigated as suspicious but then ruled a suicide, according to the Alameda County coroner. Not that it convinced her sister or her family, who blamed O'Brien.

 Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf speaks during a press conference at Oakland City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, May 13, 2016. To the left is Oakland police Lt. Roland Holmgren, and to the right are Oakland police Chief Sean Whent and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth. An internal investigation has been launched and three Oakland police officers were placed on paid leave due to allegations of sexual misconduct. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) ( JANE TYSKA )

 "I always knew it," Paulina Huerta said Friday. "It was not possible for my sister to kill herself. But we didn't have proof."

 Top city officials on Friday confirmed the gun that killed Huerta Lopez was fired twice -- one bullet hit the floor, the other struck her head -- and both O'Brien and his wife tested positive for gunshot residue on their hands. According to the coroner's report, the two had argued the night of the suicide, before he left the home and returned to find her dead.

 Although police Chief Sean Whent and Lt. Roland Holmgren of the homicide unit said it is not uncommon for both of those things to happen, the city announced Friday that the Alameda County District Attorney's Office has been called in to review both suicide investigations and the ongoing sexual misconduct investigation.

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 Whent said the investigations into the deaths were thorough, and evidence supports the suicide rulings in the case of O'Brien and his wife.

 Mayor Libby Schaaf called for the district attorney investigations and said no DA employees who used to work for the police department will be a part of it.

 "We as Oaklanders can expect to hold officers to the highest standards of conduct -- again, both while they wear a uniform and when they do not. And that is a standard that we intend to enforce in the city of Oakland," Schaaf said Friday, clearly angry.

 Oakland police Chief Sean Whent, right, listens as Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf speaks during a press conference at Oakland City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, May 13, 2016. An internal investigation has been launched and three Oakland police officers were placed on paid leave due to allegations of sexual misconduct. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) ( JANE TYSKA )

 Whent and Schaaf declined to discuss the sexual misconduct investigation. The exact allegations have not been released.

 But a source said O'Brien in his suicide note confessed to exchanging messages with a young woman who goes by the name Celeste Guap but did not have sexual contact with her. In the note, O'Brien named the officers, including one sergeant, involved in the alleged sexual misconduct with Guap, who is the daughter of a Oakland police dispatcher. The police investigation will look at whether Guap was under age during some of the encounters with officers.

 Attempts to reach the woman at the center of the scandal through a relative were not successful, but she has been posting about the allegations on Facebook, the same place sources said she has met multiple officers.

 Brendon O'Brien is part of a group photo at the 166th Basic Academy graduation at the Scottish Rite Temple in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, March 22, 2013. (Laura A. Oda/Staff) ( Laura A. Oda )

 This week, she wrote, "the only officer I ever messed with underage is sadly gone now, so I don't know why this is still being brought up." In another of her posts in late April, there was a picture of an Oakland patrol car parked at gas station with a message: "took me back to Richmond in style #saucy."

 Sources and a coroner's report said O'Brien's life went into a downward spiral after his wife's death. A U.S. Marine who served in Afghanistan, O'Brien was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was distraught over his wife's suicide before shooting himself, according to the report. He admitted in the suicide note that was drinking heavily and suffered from lingering suspicion that he might be involved in his wife's death, despite being cleared, a source said.

 "O'Brien did not have a history of suicide attempts, but according to the note of intent he left at the scene, he was suicidal and a series of events regarding his wife and work prompted him to commit suicide," the coroner's report said.

 Calls and messages to the O'Brien family were not returned.

 U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who oversees the department's court-mandated reforms stemming from the 1999 Riders police-brutality scandal, issued an order in March saying there were "irregularities" and "violations" of procedure in the handling of the sex allegations by police. The judge wrote that it raises concerns about the department's "commitment to accountability and sustainability."

 Schaaf has asked the department to report to the DA's office each time an officer is suspected of criminal misconduct. Whent, citing recent arrests of two officers while off-duty, said the department will review misconduct cases in recent years to look for patterns and see if leaders can prevent future cases.

 "We want to ensure that all of our employees are of the highest moral character and conduct themselves professionally, not only while they're on duty but off duty as well," the chief said.

 Staff writer Katrina Cameron contributed to this report. David DeBolt covers Oakland. Contact him at 510-208-6453. Follow him at Twitter.com/daviddebolt. ||||| click to enlarge Deceased Oakland Police Officer Brendan O'Brien outside Oracle Arena.

 click to enlarge Facebook.

 Celeste Guap's Tuesday Facebook post.

 On Monday, the Oakland Police Department placed three of its officers on leave while investigating them for alleged sexual relations with an underage girl, the daughter of an Oakland Police Department dispatcher.But the Express has learned that the investigation also involves a potential homicide, one committed by a Oakland cop, according to interviews and records.Sources inside the department say that the allegations of sexual misconduct stem from the suicide of Oakland Police Officer Brendan O’Brien in September of last year.O’Brien’s wife, Irma Huerta Lopez, died June 16, 2014. Her death was ruled a suicide, but was briefly classified by homicide detectives as a potential criminal investigation.Her family believes that O’Brien shot her. “He killed her," Paulina Huerta, Irma’s sister, said in an interview today. Huerta said the police ignored her family. "Nobody’s listening."Huerta Lopez’s coroner’s report — which was released for the first time earlier today after the Express requested it — called her death suspicious. The coroner’s report on O’Brien’s suicide also noted that his wife’s death the year before was suspicious. And Alameda County sheriff’s department investigator Solomon Unubun wrote that “O’Brien’s wife committed suicide in the same apartment on 6/16/14 and her family thought her death was suspicious.”Police sources say various OPD officers failed to report the allegations of sexual misconduct, and OPD internal-affairs investigators may have failed to thoroughly look into both the sex crime allegations and also the suspicious death of Huerta Lopez. An investigation of sexual misconduct was opened only after O’Brien’s death.According to several sources inside the police department, the sexual misconduct was ongoing in 2014, involving several police officers and a possibly underage girl named Celeste Guap. O’Brien reportedly had a relationship with Guap. Guap was previously identified in television news reports that aired Thursday.It’s unclear when OPD officers and supervisors first learned of the sexual misconduct, but an internal affairs investigation was not opened into the sex crime allegations until after September 25, 2015, the date that O’Brien shot and killed himself in his apartment.Police sources say O’Brien, a 30-year-old who joined OPD in 2013, left a suicide note that included information about the alleged sex crimes. On Tuesday, Guap wrote on her Facebook profile timeline that “the only officer I messed with underage is sadly gone now, so I don’t know why this is still being brought up.”O’Brien was previously investigated by homicide detectives after his wife was found dead of a gunshot wound in his apartment. At the time, O’Brien was living in a four-unit building on Greenridge Drive in the Oakland hills, a property owned by Oakland police veteran Eric Karsseboom. Other cops lived in the building.According to a coroner’s report, Huerta Lopez died of a gunshot wound to the head. Two bullets had been fired from the gun, and one lodged in the wall in the apartment. The gun — O’Brien’s off-duty Glock 45 caliber pistol — and two casings were found near her feet. An Oakland police detective told a sheriff’s department investigator that an upstairs neighbor heard a loud thud around the time she was shot.“Why were there two shots if she killed herself?” asked her sister Huerta, who did not know O’Brien was dead until informed by Express reporters today.A sheriff’s department detective covered Huerta Lopez’s hands with paper bags and ordered an OPD crime scene technician to gather evidence to test for gunshot residue, which would indicate she fired the pistol that killed her. It’s unclear if OPD conducted the gunshot residue test.Huerta Lopez’s coroner’s report, however, noted that there was no visible gunshot residue on her hands. There is no mention of whether O’Brien’s hands were ever swabbed or tested for traces of gunshot residue in the report.According to Huerta Lopez’s coroner’s report, O’Brien and his wife had been shopping earlier in the evening. They returned home, but got into an argument. O’Brien told responding officers that he had last seen his wife alive fifteen minutes prior to going to a local gas station near the residence, and that, when he returned to his apartment at 10:52 p.m., he “found his wife unresponsive on the bed” with a gunshot wound to the head.Oakland police officers who arrived at O’Brien’s apartment initially treated Huerta Lopez’s death as suspicious. They took him to a police station, where he was interviewed for a potential criminal investigation.Huerta Lopez’s autopsy report stated that the gunshot wound that killed her was in the right side of her head, and that “the basic direction [of the shot] is towards the left of the body, down towards the feet at a 5-degree angle and toward the back of the body at a 10-degree angle.”Huerta Lopez’s sister told the Express she believes that O’Brien killed her sister, and that members of the Oakland police department did not conduct a thorough investigation into her sister’s death.According to Huerta, O’Brien and her sister met online and dated very briefly. They broke up, got back together in January 2014, and then married. But the marriage was rocky, with frequent arguments, Huerta said.The sister explained that OPD never released Huerta Lopez’s property, including her cell phone that she was carrying the night she died at O’Brien’s apartment.She also said the Sheriff-Coroner never provided her family with a copy of her sister’s autopsy report, despite requests. According to Huerta, OPD officers showed her family a surveillance photograph of O’Brien at a gas station on the night of Huerta Lopez's death, which the officers said proved O’Brien was not present when she allegedly shot herself. Huerta said the police officers’ appeared to be downplaying the possibility of a homicide.Although Huerta Lopez’s death was investigated by Sergeants Caesar Basa and Randy Brandwood, O’Brien was cleared of suspicion after her death was ruled a suicide. He was allowed to return to his duties patrolling a high-crime beat in deep East Oakland. On December 2, 2014, a sheriff’s detective reviewed OPD’s case file and determined that Huerta Lopez’s death was a suicide.According to sources who viewed his suicide note, O’Brien claimed he had been struggling with post-traumatic-stress disorder from his time as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Reserve Corps, as well as the strain of being under suspicion from OPD, Huerta Lopez’s family and his own relatives. He wrote that he had been drinking heavily, both off-duty and while in uniform and on patrol.These sex allegations, and the possibly botched internal-affairs and criminal investigations, only became public after US District Judge Thelton Henderson issued an unprecedented order on March 23. The judge cited “irregularities” and “violations” of procedures by Oakland police detectives in charge of the sexual-misconduct inquiry, and he called into question the department’s commitment to accountability and reform.Henderson directed court-appointed independent monitor Robert Warshaw to take over the sexual-misconduct case from OPD to ensure it was properly conducted.Henderson’s order did not detail the alleged sexual misconduct. A KRON 4 story that aired on Monday unearthed those allegations.“There is no question that there are credibility issues with the internal-affairs investigations here,” said Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris about Henderson’s court order. “To the extent these allegations are true this could impact the length of the NSA.”Following a string of officer suicides three years ago, there was pressure for OPD to increase mental health services, including counseling and mental health therapy, for officers. It is unclear what sort of assistance or outreach was made to O’Brien after the death of his wife.The Oakland Police Department did not respond to a request for comment for this report. ||||| OAKLAND (CBS SF) — An angry Mayor Libby Schaaf on Friday night promised to hold Oakland police officers accountable in the wake of an underage sex scandal involving multiple members of the department.

 As KPIX 5 reported Thursday, internal affairs and criminal investigations are underway focusing on several Oakland police officers who allegedly had sex with an underage girl.

 Sources said the internal affairs investigation centers around a young woman who calls herself Celeste Guap, who was underage at the time. She recently began revealing details of her relationships with officers on her Facebook page.

 Schaaf, along with Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent spoke Oakland police headquarters on the scandal.

 “We value and respect the public’s right to know what is going on with this investigation, as well as how our officers conduct themselves both off and on duty” said Schaaf.

 Schaaf also said that residents should be able to expect officers to be held to the highest standards. In addition to the internal investigation, Schaaf said that as of Friday, the Alameda County District Attorney is conducting an “independent and parallel investigation.”

 Whent admitted that there had been “an unfortunate series of off-duty incidents” for Oakland police officers.

 “We want to ensure that our employees are of the highest moral character,” said Whent.

 “Going forward, we are committed to putting additional safeguards in place to avoid any questions about the standards with which we hold our employees to,” said Schaaf.

 The scandal started to unfold in the fall of 2015 when officers walked into an Oakland apartment and found fellow Officer Brendan O’Brien dead.

 There, they found the suicide note.

 A source close to the investigation said O’Brien wrote he had sent inappropriate texts with a woman and that — even though he claimed he never slept with her — the woman was blackmailing him and had caused trouble with his wife.

 Sources say he named Guap as the woman, but he also used her given name, Jasmine.

 Guap posted on Facebook that the only officer she messed with while underage is sadly gone and that she had “harmless friendships” within the police department.

 But sources say that O’Brien’s suicide note also named three fellow officers, including a sergeant that O’Brien said did have sex with her.

 A federal court monitor is investigating multiple officers and their relationship with Guap, who sources say have admitted to lying during an initial internal affairs investigation.

 One of those officers admitted to knowing she was underage at the time.

 Guap’s mother works with the police officers as a dispatcher with the Oakland Police Department.

 In addition to the internal investigation, there is an ongoing criminal investigation happening in connection with the activities of the officers.

 PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OFFICE OF MAYOR LIBBY SCHAAF (Released May 13, 2016):

Summary: – A scandal involving alleged underage sex, suicide, and possible murder is exploding within the Oakland Police Department. The San Jose Mercury News reports it all started when Irma Huerta Lopez killed herself with a gun belonging to her husband, officer Brendan O'Brien, in 2014. Huerta Lopez's family believes O'Brien, who was suffering from PTSD and drinking heavily, killed her. The coroner's office found her death suspicious, but it was ultimately ruled a suicide, according to the East Bay Express. Then last September, O'Brien killed himself. In a suicide note, he reportedly admitted to exchanging inappropriate messages with the underage daughter of a police dispatcher, which damaged his marriage, CBS SF Bay Area reports. He also named three other officers involved with the woman, including a sergeant he claimed had sex with her. An internal investigation into the note's allegations—what the police chief calls "an unfortunate series of off-duty incidents"—went nowhere. But in March, a judge ordered a new investigation over "irregularities." Sources tell CBS multiple officers admitted to lying during that first investigation. And the woman, no longer underage, has recently been posting details of the alleged affairs on Facebook under the name Celeste Guap. "The only officer I ever messed with underage is sadly gone now, so I don't know why this is still being brought up," the Mercury News quotes a post from Wednesday as saying. Three officers were put on leave this week in connection with the alleged sexual misconduct. And Oakland's mayor called for the district attorney's office to open its own investigation into the alleged misconduct, as well as both O'Brien's and Huerta Lopez's suicides.


Despite its title, "Elysium" is no promised land.

 Expectations were high that the film starring Matt Damon would carry the flag for thoughtful, big-budget films that care about more than profits. But it has ended up as something of a disappointment, an epic that has gone over to the dark side without realizing it.

 That anticipation came courtesy of "District 9" — the 2009 science fiction film by Neill Blomkamp, "Elysium's" South African writer-director — which came out of nowhere to be nominated for four Oscars, including best picture and adapted screenplay.

 PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments

 "District 9" succeeded in part because of the strength of its unexpected core idea: that aliens coming to Earth were not necessarily a dominant species but instead were rounded up and segregated in their own parts of town the way blacks had been in South Africa.

 "Elysium" makes a similar attempt to graft socio-political concerns onto a sci-fi framework, but the idea is less electric here and the combining of genre and theme not as adroitly done.

 Initially, however, things do seem promising in "Elysium," in large part because of how its subject matter is compellingly visualized on screen (Philip Ivey is the production designer).

 PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times

 The year is 2154, and Earth, thanks to the destructive effects of pollution, overpopulation and related ills, is in horrific shape. Blighted, devastated slums cover the planet, and they are home to the poorest people (a Mexico City garbage dump stands in for Los Angeles).

 Anyone of wealth and status now lives on Elysium, a circular space station whose shape is reminiscent of the much smaller one in Stanley Kubrick's "2001." The air is pure, robots do the work, and everywhere there are healing machines that cure what ails you. Think of a flesh-and-blood version of the disparities in Disney's "Wall-E" and you'll get the general idea.

 Making the best of things on the planet is Max, played by a bulked-up, head-shaved, tattooed Damon. Max is a former car thief, once a legend in his Los Angeles neighborhood, who is working on a factory assembly line hoping to better his lot and maybe even get to Elysium someday.

 PHOTOS: Summer Sneaks 2013

 Clearly, social inequality is very much on Blomkamp's mind, and when you add in illegal, clandestine space flights from Earth to Elysium by people desperate for medical attention, it's clear that hot-button issues like illegal immigration and universal access to healthcare are on the table as well.

 This is all well and good, but, paradoxically, once the actual plot of "Elysium" kicks in, these issues fade from the film's consciousness and the traditional, less involving tropes of good-guy-versus-bad-guy action take center stage. Although the pulp energy that Blomkamp brings to this material makes it consistently watchable, the film doesn't feel as singular as we would have hoped.

 Max, given a hard time by the humorless droids who police Earth, has to go to the local hospital where he gets reacquainted with nurse Frey (Alice Braga), his childhood soul mate from, no kidding, the orphanage where they both grew up.

 Back at the plant where Max works, things get worse. Our hero is put in a dangerous situation and ends up with a lethal dose of radiation that will kill him in five days. His only hope is to somehow get to Elysium and make use of one of those miraculous cure-all machines.

 PHOTOS: Billion-dollar movie club

 Not averse to helping Max are his neighborhood pal Julio (Mexico's Diego Luna) and Spider (Brazil's Wagner Moura), who runs illegal shuttles to Elysium. But the price is steep: Max, fortified by an exoskeleton that gives him added strength, will have to capture one of Elysium's top dogs, evil plutocrat John Carlyle (William Fichtner) and download information from the man's brain, a situation riskier than anyone imagines. And more pedestrian.

 For one thing, the villains in "Elysium" are very conventional. Aside from Carlyle, Jodie Foster — displaying excellent French and a stern visage — is one-dimensional as the Armani-clad Dragon Lady villainess determined to protect Elysium no matter the cost. Kruger, her thuggish enforcer ("District 9" star Sharlto Copley) is even more of a cliché.

 Countering all this is Damon, who is a big plus as always, instinctively humanizing thankless roles like Max and making them look easy.

 But once Max faces off with Kruger and his gang, as they inevitably must, all thoughts of anything besides hand-to-hand combat fade into insignificance. The plot gets unnecessarily confusing, and violent images, including a particularly grotesque blown-away face, push everything else away. "Elysium" may think it is about issues, but at times like these, that's very hard to see.

 kenneth.turan@latimes.com

 'Elysium'

 MPAA Rating: R, for strong bloody violence and language throughout

 Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

 In general release

 ||||| Jodie Foster plays Secretary of Defense Delacourt, protector of Elysium, a refuge in space for the rich and elite, from Earth's undesirables.

 Jodie Foster plays Secretary of Defense Delacourt, protector of Elysium, a refuge in space for the rich and elite, from Earth's undesirables.

 If his directing career ever dries up (not likely), Neill Blomkamp could make a killing in the merchandise biz: Dystopia R Us, featuring rusted toaster ovens, custom graffitied bathroom fixtures, tattered T-shirts, and temporary tattoos.

 In Elysium, Blomkamp's rabble-rousing sci-fi allegory, Earth is a wasteland. It's the mid-22d century, and the whole world is the Third World: shantytown sprawl; high-rise ruins; a planet that is, we're told, "diseased, polluted, and vastly overpopulated."

 It's as if the squalid precincts of Johannesburg depicted in the South African filmmaker's 2009 debut, District 9, had spread everywhere. Blomkamp, handed a bigger budget and a big movie star to go with it - Matt Damon, shaven-headed and angry - paints a canvas of epic decay.

 Among the slew of recent futuristic hell-in-a-handbasket spectacles, Elysium takes the cake.

 And while the teeming and miserable masses eke it out on terra firma, orbiting up there in the sky is the giant, gleaming hubcap known as Elysium, where the elite live in elegant McMansions, swim in endless-horizon pools, partake of gourmet feasts, and, of course, speak French. This is the ultimate gated community: Wealthy expats from Earth stroll their sumptuous grounds and strike their supermodel poses, and if a shuttle ship crammed with illegals breaches the perimeter, Secretary of Defense Delacourt (a suitably officious Jodie Foster) orders it blasted beyond what's left of the ozone layer.

 And if, by chance, a band of dirty immigrants makes it onto Elysium's surface, deportation is immediate. An army of droids makes sure of that.

 There's nothing subtle about Blomkamp's message in Elysium, which finds our hero, Damon's Max, outfitted with an "exo-suit" that turns him into the combat equal of the droids. He's got a hard drive screwed to the back of his skull, and he's got five days to make it from Earth to Elysium. Thanks to a mishap at work - he's on the assembly line at a droid plant, and he's been exposed to a lethal dose of radiation - that's all the time he has.

 Unless, that is, he can get himself onto one of those Elysium medical bays: They look like tanning pods and can re-atomize your body, curing you of cancer, warts, and bad breath. No one is sick on Elysium.

 There are plot complications: Frey (Alice Braga), a hospital nurse Max has known since they were children, has a child of her own, a daughter with leukemia. And Secretary Delacourt has Kruger (Sharlto Copley, District 9's Afrikaner eviction officer), a madman enforcer with a posse of mercenaries, chasing Max down. Delacourt has a plan, too, in cahoots with snooty industrialist John Carlyle (William Fichtner), to usurp the presidency. A program that would reboot Elysium's computer systems - a coup d'etat in cybercode - is the movie's MacGuffin.

 Thumping and thrilling, Elysium takes its Haves vs. Have Nots parable seriously. There's not much in the way of comic diversion here, although Blomkamp pokes fun at the weary indifference of government bureaucrats by turning them into funhouse automatons - literally.

 Yes, the inevitable climactic square off between Max and Kruger slips into the Hollywood generic - haven't we just seen all this head-bashing, hanging-from-catwalks, mixed-martial-arts mayhem in The Wolverine and Iron Man 3? But as summer movie sci-fi extravaganzas go, Elysium is easily the best thing out there right now.

 And the bleakest, too.

 Elysium *** (Out of four stars)

 Directed by Neill Blomkamp. With Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copely, Alice Braga, and Diego Luna. Distributed by Sony Pictures.

 Running time: 1 hour, 49 mins.

 Parent's guide: R (intense action, violence, profanity, adult themes)

 Playing at: area theaters

 Contact Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @Steven_Rea. Read his blog, "On Movies Online," at www.inquirer.com/onmovies.

Summary: – Much like in real life, Matt Damon's character in the sci-fi thriller Elysium isn't too fond of government bureaucrats. Set in royally screwed-up Los Angeles (home to the masses) and an idyllic space station in the clouds (home to the rich) circa 2154, this flick from Neill Blomkamp (District 9) has both the compelling themes and action-packed fight scenes to make it a summer blockbuster. So is it one? Critics are split. The action sequences, complete with "futuristic CGI flying machines" are impressive, but it's "Blomkamp's critique of a society riven by class and racial differences" that sets it apart, Soren Anderson writes for the Seattle Times. "Few mainstream moviemakers have painted as sprawling and densely detailed a portrait of humanity in extremis as Blomkamp does here." But at the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan's high hopes were dashed. "Elysium is no promised land." Though Matt Damon is great as always and the visuals are equally as impressive, "the film doesn't feel as singular as we would have hoped." District 9 did a much better job of connecting genre (sci-fi) and theme ("socio-political concerns"). Even with the talented Damon along for the ride, Dana Stephens at Slate writes Elysium "does a little, sometimes shockingly little, with a lot ... Blomkamp proceeds to spend the last two-thirds of his film crashing spaceships into lawns, or staging high-tech fistfights. It’s a waste of a perfectly good dystopia." But over at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Steven Rea sees things differently. "Among the slew of recent futuristic hell-in-a-hand-basket spectacles, Elysium takes the cake." Sure, it can be a little generic at times—"haven't we just seen all this head-bashing, hanging-from-catwalks, mixed-martial-arts mayhem in The Wolverine and Iron Man 3?—but "as summer movie sci-fi extravaganzas go, Elysium is easily the best thing out there right now."


The peculiarly timed tweet is a plea for attention from a highly talented, unique artist – and just the craziest thing he could think of at the time

 Maybe Kanye West was feeling left out. Cam Newton, Donald Trump and Beyoncé are squeezing him out of the public consciousness one news cycle at a time. Even the things he’s done that have merited attention from the media in the past month have been rather mundane, considering his reputation for behaving like a puppy that just ate a bowl of candy corn laced with PCP. “Oh, Kanye says he’s releasing some more shoes no one can afford.” Snore. “Did you hear Kanye changed the name of his album? No, again.” Boring. “Kanye got into a Twitter fight with Wiz Khalifa over Amber Rose!” I’m listening … “Yeah, it’s over already. They made up.” Oh.

 So, with this peculiarly timed tweet that read “BILL COSBY INNOCENT!!!!!!!!!!” (I hope I got the number of exclamation points correct) we all have to pay attention again. Well, I guess we don’t have to, but we will anyway. I mean, I get paid to do this, so I have to. That’s right – I’m getting paid right now. Every minute I type about Kanye West is billable. I’m so glad I majored in blogging in college.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘BILL COSBY INNOCENT!!!!!!!!!!’ Photograph: Twitter

 But what does this all mean? Nothing, obviously. It’s a plea for attention from a highly talented, unique artist. It’s not like Kanye has some sort of evidence we aren’t aware of or knows a guy who knows a guy who can offer Cosby 37 alibis over the course of decades. It’s just the craziest thing he could think of at the time. After all, someone already beat him to a “the Earth is flat” tweet. He can’t tell us all he likes a finger in his bum. Again, someone beat him to it. Muslims should be prevented from entering the country? Taken. We should bomb Denmark? Swiped. A fluke monster lives inside our toilets? That was an episode of The X-Files.

 I have a sneaking suspicion Kanye West has a box full of note cards, and on those note cards there are transgressive statements written on them. Proclaiming Bill Cosby is innocent of raping 37 women is probably just one of them. I’m not sure he’s going to get off easily with this one. After all, if there’s one thing women don’t like (and women are, as you know, half the population of the planet) it’s Bill Cosby.

 Opinion vs facts: why do celebrities so often get it wrong? Read more

 For obvious reasons. I just hope that during his retraction, he offers some convoluted, nonsensical explanation for why he said what he said. Maybe “BILL COSBY INNOCENT!!!!!!!!!!” is the name of his new record? That’d be a hell of a concept album. Maybe his iPhone autocorrected “IS A MONSTER” to “INNOCENT” and he just hit send too fast. Or he might just actually believe what he said and has some intricate conspiracy theory that will make us all feel crazier than we already do. Whatever form his mea culpa takes, it’s bound to keep him firmly ensconced in the media crosshairs for the next couple weeks. The question I have is this: What must Kanye West say to remain in the news cycle long enough to get through the release of his album? I’ll leave you with a few guesses:

 “EATING HUMAN FLESH GIVES YOU SUPERPOWERS!!!!!!!!!!”

 “THE BIG BANG THEORY IS FILMED INSIDE A TURKISH PRISON!!!!!!!!!!”

 “GIRL SCOUT COOKIES CONTAIN TRACE AMOUNTS OF COCAINE!!!!!!!!!!”

 “THE GOVERNMENT OWNS THE PATENT FOR CLEAN-BURNING FUEL AND FLYING CARS AND HAS BEEN KEEPING THE TECHNOLOGY FROM THE PUBLIC FOR DECADES BECAUSE IT WOULD CRIPPLE THE OIL INDUSTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (This one would probably have to wait until Twitter switches to a 10,000 character limit)

 “LOOK WHO’S TALKING TOO IS BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

 “KID ROCK DESERVES YOUR RESPECT!!!!!!!!!!!!” ||||| Kanye West Get Off Cosby's Back ... He's NO Rapist!

 Kanye West: Get Off Bill Cosby's Back ... He's NO Rapist!

 Breaking News

 Kanye West thinks Bill Cosby is getting railroaded ... if Kanye's Twitter feed can be trusted, that is.

 Honestly, Kanye's been on one over the last few hours -- ranting about a bunch of things, but he just topped them all with ... "BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!"

 It's unclear if 'Ye's been hacked, or if he's just getting stuff off his chest.

 What is 100% clear is his album drops on Thursday -- which makes this the perfect time to get as much attention as possible.

 We're sure Cosby is not complaining. ||||| Without sacrificing our journalistic objectivity or making direct claims as to whether Bill Cosby sexually assaulted the dozens of women who have accused him of such over the past few decades, we can safely report that it was extremely stupid of Kanye West to tweet the following:

 @kanyewest/Twitter

 A new album title? Maybe! But at this stage of West’s meltdown over the creative process and allegedly getting his booty fingered, survey says… he’s done.

 (Sorry, this embed was not found.)

 Kanye: BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!! Me: pic.twitter.com/XaPaeQ0H25 — Drew Schnoebelen (@Dschnoeb) February 9, 2016

 “Actually I didn’t even see the Kanye thing. I was too concerned with the Supreme Court order on carbon emissions.” pic.twitter.com/oPYVCEILMd — Mike Tunison (@xmasape) February 10, 2016

 Huge week, and really a huge year, for finding out the terrible the things famous people believe. — David Roth (@david_j_roth) February 10, 2016

 (Sorry, this embed was not found.)

 i wish i could refute this, but the argument is too strong pic.twitter.com/91gJwew5KR — Solipsist Snake (@alex_navarro) February 10, 2016

 So much for Kanye 2020 — Zoe Camp (@jzcamp) February 10, 2016

 (Sorry, this embed was not found.)

 (Sorry, this embed was not found.)

 Live footage of Kanye’s @ mentions pic.twitter.com/H38Kj011lT — Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) February 9, 2016

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 Man, why did we ever follow this dude? Should’ve listened to 50 Cent.

 I just looked at kanye page what the fuck kind a spaced out tweets are those. fuck that I aint never looking at that shit again — 50cent (@50cent) August 28, 2010

 Photo via Jason Persse/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Summary: – Kanye West weighed in on the Bill Cosby sex case on Tuesday in his usual understated manner. "BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!" tweeted the star, with no further explanation. Observers weren't entirely sure what to make of the declaration, though many suspect that Kanye is saying outrageous things to keep his name in the news before his new album comes out on Thursday, TMZ reports. It certainly got a reaction; the Daily Dot rounds up the 16 best responses to the tweet. The tweet appears to be "a plea for attention from a highly talented, unique artist," writes Dave Schilling at the Guardian. It's not as if Kanye has new evidence or "knows a guy who knows a guy who can offer Cosby 37 alibis over the course of decades," he writes. "It's just the craziest thing he could think of at the time." (That new album has had at least four different titles.)


HAGERSTOWN, Md. (WJLA) -- A 9-year old boy in Hagerstown, Maryland was allegedly handcuffed and beaten near death for taking a piece of birthday cake.

 Continue reading

 Where child abuse is alleged to have happened in Hagerstown (Photo: WJLA/ Brad Bell)

 Officers with the Hagerstown Police Department were called to a home in the 500 block of Lynne Haven Drive on Tuesday for a report of possible child abuse.

 Upon arriving on scene, officers found a 9-year-old "unresponsive and not breathing."

 In court Thursday afternoon, the prosecutor said the little boy is not expected to live.

 The boy was transported to the Emergency Department of Meritus Medical Center where he was immediately admitted in critical condition with head trauma and pulmonary contusions.

 The boy suffered multiple bruises and contusions on his face, ears, neck, spinal column, abdomen and buttocks, some of which were in “varying stages of healing,” according to charging documents, indicating past abuse.

 Police say 31-year-old Robert Leroy Wilson, the boyfriend of the child's mother, was watching the 9-year-old at the time of the incident along with her brother. Wilson has been charged with first-and-second-degree assault, child abuse with severe physical injury and reckless endangerment. He was scheduled for a 1 p.m. bond review Thursday.

 The mother, according to police, said Wilson apologized for hitting the boy in the stomach for stealing a piece of birthday cake.

 The woman's brother told police that Wilson was upset with the boy for stealing the cake and handcuffed the 9-year-old in his bedroom in order to teach him not to steal. Wilson reportedly tripped and shoved the boy onto the ground while asking him questions, according to the brother.

 Further police investigation revealed that an ambulance was previously requested at the same residence for a report of a child having difficult breathing. When EMS arrived, a woman approached them and said they were no longer needed.

 The woman, later identified as the boy’s mother, told EMS that she had just arrived from work and her son was just “congested” and declined to allow EMS to check on the boy. ||||| Close Get email notifications on Don Aines daily!

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 Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. ||||| HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Hagerstown police say a 9-year-old boy is in critical condition after he was handcuffed and beaten for eating a piece of birthday cake without permission.

 The boyfriend of the mother, 30-year-old Robert Wilson, was being held on $1 million bail after a hearing Thursday. He's charged with offenses including first-degree assault and child abuse.

 The Herald-Mail reports that a public defender represented Wilson at the hearing. The attorney didn't immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press. Wilson's arrest was first reported by Washington television station WJLA.

 The boy is at Children's Memorial Hospital in Washington.

 The mother's brother told police that the boy was handcuffed Tuesday as punishment for stealing the cake and was hit after the handcuffs were removed. The alleged incident occurred at home.

Summary: – A young boy in Hagerstown, Md., was beaten almost to death for taking—or, as family members put it, "stealing"—a piece of birthday cake without permission, police say. Prosecutors say the 9-year-old was handcuffed and severely beaten by his mother's boyfriend, 30-year-old Robert Leroy Wilson, and is not expected to survive, the Herald-Mail reports. According to police, another adult in the home called 911 after the boy was beaten unconscious on Tuesday afternoon but when paramedics arrived, the boy's mother told them he was just "congested." She didn't let them see the boy, but they were called back hours later when he stopped breathing, WJLA reports. The boy was hospitalized in critical condition with head trauma and pulmonary contusions, according to charging documents, and was found to have bruises and contusions on his face, ears, neck, spinal column, abdomen, and buttocks. Some of these were in "varying stages of healing," the documents state, which WJLA notes indicates past abuse. He has not regained consciousness and prosecutors say he will have permanent injuries if he survives, per the Herald-Mail. Wilson faces charges including first-degree assault and child abuse and bail was set at $1 million after a hearing yesterday, the AP reports.


Kinston, North Carolina, is a “great small town” according to 16-year-old Chris Suggs. It has been that way as long as he can remember.

 Interested in Young and Gifted? Add Young and Gifted as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Young and Gifted news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest

 “Everybody knows everybody. Everybody loves and supports each other,” he said.

 But in 2014, the city was on edge. A spree of gun violence played out on the streets, at times involving local youth. Organized gang activity was a major factor and residents were afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.

 Tired of the seemingly relentless shootings, Suggs wanted to figure out how to curb the violence.

 We Are Family Foundation, 2016

 “Since young people are affected by these issues, we also need to be at the table when it comes to developing solutions,” Suggs said. That’s when he came up with the idea of starting Kinston Teens. “I've always been passionate about my community and trying to make a difference. So when it came to trying to start an organization focused around those things it was really easy for me.”

 In Oct. 2014, Suggs held a press conference at the local library and invited community officials, young people and the school administrators to hear a clear message: Kinston youth has a voice, too.

 “Immediately young people started getting on board and adults started supporting us,” said Suggs. “We started making the news and to make a difference.”

 From street cleaning to creating mentor programs and a youth leadership summit, Kinston Teens is focusing on short-term goals with immediate visible impact while planting the seeds for Kinston’s younger generation to be inspired and reach their potential.

 Jason Kurtis/ABC News

 Since it began, the organization has had more than 1,000 youths participate and get involved in the Kinston community.

 “One thing I've learned is that a lot of people don't volunteer because they've really never been asked to,” said Suggs. “But once I ask them, that lights a spark in their head and they want to join the movement.”

 Suggs has also developed strong relationships with Kinston leaders and the Kinston Police Department.

 “Chris came to us as a young boy. He wasn't even a teenager then. But he had unbelievable outside-thinking strategies. As a police chief, you want that connection with the youth.” said Chief Greg Thompson.

 Jason Kurtis/ABC News

 “One lesson that I have learned working with Chris,” said Kinston Mayor BJ Murphy, “is that in most communities the young people probably aren't getting heard. And it's taught me not to discount the youth in this community.”

 ABC News' Jason Kurtis, Ben Brown and Angel Canales contributed to this report.

 For more stories from our "Young and Gifted" series, tap the bell icon on this story in ABC News’ phone app. Download ABC News for iPhone here or ABC News for Android here. ||||| A Kinston teen will now be helping on a state level when it comes to fighting crime.

 Chris Suggs --the founder of Kinston Teens -- was appointed Wednesday by Governor Pat McCrory to the Governor's Crime Commission.

 The 16-year-old Suggs is now the youngest member on the board.

 He hopes to make a positive impact on his hometown of Kinston as well as on the board itself.

 Suggs says, "Many people are aware of some of the crime issues here in Kinston so by me serving on this board and learning about different opportunities and grants and I'm learning new skills and strategies we can possibly implement here in Kinston will be just wonderful and I hope to be able to provide a really unique young person's standpoint and I'm most excited about that, a different perspective on the board and offering some fresh ideas.

 The Crime Commission advises the governor on things relating to crime, law enforcement and justice, and grants for organizations.

 Kinston Teens says it's mission "Is to serve and improve the Kinston community by promoting youth community service, leadership, and civic engagement; forming and strengthening relationships between our city’s youth and our local government, schools, and other established institutions; and providing young people with the educational tools and resources needed to succeed in their schools, communities and beyond."

 ||||| Copyright by WNCT - All rights reserved

 KINSTON, NC (WNCT)- Kinston High School student Christopher J. Suggs, founder and president of the youth leadership group Kinston Teens, has been recognized as a 2016 Global Teen Leader by the Three Dot Dash initiative.

 Three Dot Dash is an initiative of the We Are Family Foundation that recognizes and supports 25-35 young people each year who are making positive contributions to their community and the world.

 Suggs is a sophomore at Kinston High School, where he is dual-enrolled in online courses offered through Lenoir Community College. He is an officer of the school's student government association and a member of several student clubs. He also serves as a member of the Lenoir 2020 Committee, the N.C. Center for Safer Schools Student Advisory Committee and several community boards and civic groups.

 Earlier this year, Chris was recognized as "one of 15 superkids who are going to change the world" by TheRoot.com.

 "Chris is an outstanding young man and an excellent representative not only for Kinston High School but for the entire Kinston community," Kinston High principal Tina Letchworth said. "We are so proud of all that Chris and his organization has accomplished, and we're thrilled that his leadership is being recognized on a global level."

 "This global recognition will be very beneficial to Kinston Teens and the entire Kinston community," Suggs said.

 In March, he will attend the all-expense paid "Just Peace Summit" in New York City focused on leadership building, learning skills to communicate "his story" on global platforms and promoting peace and conflict resolution.

 Following the summit, Suggs will be provided with a mentor and a stipend to assist in growing Kinston Teens over the next year.

 For more information about Chris Suggs and this recognition, visit http://www.chrisjsuggs.com and http://www.threedotdash.org

Summary: – As gun violence spirals out of control in one American city, a 16-year-old a few states away is doing his best to make a difference in his small town. ABC News reports that Kinston, North Carolina, was plagued by a rash of gun violence in 2014, largely involving gangs. Chris Suggs didn't like what was happening to the town he loved, so he decided to do something about it. The teen called a press conference at the library in October 2014 and announced the formation of Kinston Teens. “Since young people are affected by these issues, we also need to be at the table when it comes to developing solutions,” Chris says. Since its founding, more than 1,000 young people have participated in the mentoring programs, street cleanings, and more held by Kinston Teens. “One thing I've learned is that a lot of people don't volunteer because they've really never been asked to,” Chris says. Last December, Chris received a national award given to teen leaders, WNCT reports. And on Wednesday, he was appointed to North Carolina's Crime Commission, according to WITN. As the youngest member of the commission, which advises Gov. Pat McCrory on issues of crime and law enforcement, Chris says he hopes to bring "some fresh ideas" while learning a few things he can take back to Kinston. Kinston's mayor tells ABC Chris has "taught me not to discount the youth in this community.”


CLOSE 2-year-old Eden Carlson's road to recovery has defied the odds and is possibly the first medical case of its kind. USA TODAY

 Eden Carlson's parents were told she wouldn't ever walk or talk again. Thanks to oxygen and hyperbaric therapies, she's doing both. (Photo: Eden Carlson Miracles, YouTube)

 A 2-year-old from Arkansas who nearly drowned in her family's swimming pool is on the mend thanks to a type of oxygen therapy.

 In February 2016, Eden Carlson broke through her baby gate and headed into the family pool. Her mother, who believed the child was safe playing with older siblings, was in the shower, WDSU News reports. Eden was found after struggling in cold water for at least 10 minutes, without a heartbeat, the station reports. She was not expected to survive, but she did.

 Eden was left with severe brain damage. She couldn't speak or walk. Her parents were told she would never talk, walk, eat on her own or react to her surroundings. They couldn't accept that, and looked at other options.

 Fifty-five days after Eden's near drowning, Paul Harch of Hyperbaric Medicine at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine started hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Oxygen administered at sea-level pressure filled Eden's nose for 45 minutes, twice a day. Eden started hyperbaric oxygen therapy about a month later, breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber, five days a week. The treatment isn't new, but it is experimental and not approved by the FDA.

 In May, the miraculous happened: Eden laughed. She moved her arms, hands and eyes. She could speak. Today, she's able to climb up stairs on a play set by herself. The new responses happened gradually, but to much surprise.

 Her brain damage started to reverse — what could be a first in medical history.

 “The startling regrowth of tissue in this case occurred because we were able to intervene early in a growing child, before long-term tissue degeneration,” Harch said in a statement.

 Eden's mom, Kristal Carlson, says the treatments saved her daughter, and could help others suffering from brain injuries.

 "She’s getting so much better all the time," Carlson told USA TODAY. "In a couple of years, it’s going to be like she never had an accident."

 Harch and Edward Fogarty, at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine, documented her progress in a report published in Medical Gas Research.

 To learn more about Eden's journey, visit Eden's Miracles on Facebook.

 Related:

 Follow Ashley May on Twitter: @AshleyMayTweets

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2uNcbIc ||||| In what is believed to be a world first, scientists have reversed brain damage in a toddler that drowned in a swimming pool. Using oxygen therapy, scientists were able to restore her ability to walk and talk just months after the accident, in which she spent 15 minutes submerged in a swimming pool and two hours where her heart did not beat on its own.

 The accident took place in February 2016. Two-year-old Eden Carlson had managed to get through a baby gate and fall into the family swimming pool and was in the 5 degree Celsius water for up to 15 minutes before being discovered.

 Read more: First Double-Hand Transplant Allows Child to Eat, Dress and Write

 After being resuscitated and treated in hospital for just over a month, she was unresponsive to all stimuli. She was immobile and constantly squirmed and shook her head. MRI scans showed deep injury to the brain’s gray matter, as well as loss of white and gray matter.

 In a bid to reverse the brain damage, researchers at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and the University of North Dakota School of Medicine began treating her with two types of oxygen therapy.

 This includes normobaric oxygen therapy, where levels of oxygen given are the same as at sea level, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), where they are given pure oxygen at pressures higher than that of the atmosphere within a special chamber.

 Fifty five days after the drowning accident, doctors started giving Eden normobaric oxygen for 45 minutes twice per day. This appeared to make her more alert and awake, and she stopped squirming. She started laughing more and was able to move her arms and hands, and grasp with her left. Scientists also noted eye-tracking movements and some speech.

 Read more: A New Theory on Cancer—What We Know About How It Starts Could All Be Wrong

 After 78 days, Eden began HBOT therapy, with 45 minute sessions five days per week for four weeks. After 10 sessions, her mother said she was almost back to normal other than motor function. After 39 sessions—coupled with physical therapy—Eden was able to walk and her speech had returned to normal. Her cognitive abilities had improved and motor function was almost restored to pre-drowning levels.

 An MRI scan a month after the 40th HBOT session showed almost complete reversal of the brain damage initially recorded. Researchers believe the oxygen therapy, coupled with Eden having the developing brain of a child, had activated genes that promote cell survival and reduce inflammation—allowing the brain to recover. The case report is published in the journal Medical Gas Research.

 Paul Harch, who treated Eden, said in a statement: “The startling regrowth of tissue in this case occurred because we were able to intervene early in a growing child, before long-term tissue degeneration. Although it’s impossible to conclude from this single case if the sequential application of normobaric oxygen then HBOT would be more effective than HBOT alone, in the absence of HBOT therapy, short duration, repetitive normobaric oxygen therapy may be an option until HBOT is available."

 Concluding, the researchers say that to their knowledge, this is the first reported case of gray matter loss and white matter atrophy (types of brain damage) reversal with any therapy and that treatment with oxygen should be considered in similar cases. “Such low-risk medical treatment may have a profound effect on recovery of function in similar patients who are neurologically devastated by drowning."

Summary: – When a 2-year-old girl in Arkansas managed to make her way through a baby gate and fall into the family swimming pool, she was submerged in 41-degree water for as many as 15 minutes before she was found. Having technically drowned and suffered a heart attack, Eden Carlson was resuscitated after the February 2016 accident but completely unresponsive to stimuli for a month. Now, in what appears to be a world first, per Newsweek, researchers at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and the University of North Dakota School of Medicine report in Medical Gas Research that they have managed to reverse much of her white and gray matter brain damage using two types of non-invasive oxygen therapy. "The startling regrowth of tissue ... occurred because we were able to intervene early in a growing child, before long-term tissue degeneration," says Paul Harch, who treated her, in an LSU release. MRI showed deep gray matter injury and both gray and white matter loss, and Eden was unresponsive, couldn't walk or talk, and constantly squirmed. Since researchers started giving her normobaric oxygen therapy (sea-level amounts of oxygen) and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (pure oxygen at higher pressure) for 45 minutes twice a day, she stopped squirming, appeared more alert, began to laugh, and can now talk, climb stairs, and play, reports USA Today. An MRI after her 40th HBOT session showed "near-complete reversal of cortical and white matter atrophy." "She’s getting so much better all the time," her mother says. (Drowning doesn't always involve dying.)


The ink wasn’t even dry on Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise’s divorce agreement before she’d registered with a local NYC Catholic Church as their newest parishioner. Now that she’s free of the Church of Scientology, Katie can worship where she pleases! There are other activities Katie is free to do now that Cruise, David Miscavige, the ghost of L. Ron Hubbard, and the threat of disconnection don’t have their hooks in her any longer. See a smiling Holmes enjoying herself in our newly created Katie Fancy & Freed meme in the slideshow above… ||||| Who did Katie Holmes turn to for advice before filing to divorce Tom Cruise?

 None other than Victoria Beckham, if you believe British tabloid Now.

 "Victoria's been a real tower of strength," an unnamed source told the magazine. "She and Victoria have been talking a lot."

 Though the report seems like a stretch, Cruise and Holmes were first in line to welcome the Beckhams to Los Angeles when David joined the Los Angeles Galaxy back in 2007, throwing a star-studded party in the Brits' honor. Still, the friendship has seemingly cooled off since then.

 Meanwhile, Us Weekly is reporting that Holmes has sought out support from another famous source, and someone familiar with the ins and outs of divorcing Cruise -- Nicole Kidman.

 The jury is still out on whether either of these reports are true, but Holmes certainly wouldn't be the first celeb to lean on a famous friend during divorce. Click through the trivia slideshow below to test your knowledge of famous, divorce-withstanding friendships -- from the real-life "Friends" who have taken on breakups together, to the long-time friend who stood beside Kidman on the red carpet when she divorced Tom. ||||| How much does it cost to be Suri Cruise? What might Tom Cruise's child support payments look like?

 —Emmy TZK, via the inbox

 Well, hold on to your lower jaws, kids, because I'm about to whip out numbers so huge that you just might end up gawping for weeks in disbelief.

 It's not cheap to be Suri Cruise. How not-cheap? We're talking six figures a month not-cheap, and here's why: ||||| Katie Holmes has friends in high places — and that includes Nicole Kidman.

 As Holmes, 33, struggled and secretly plotted to end her marriage to Tom Cruise, she found a pillar of support in her husband's second ex-wife, who divorced the actor in 2001.

 PHOTOS: Tom and Nicole's marriage

 "They've spoken over the last few weeks," a confidante tells the new Us Weekly of Holmes and Kidman, 45. "Nicole has been supportive, saying she's been through it too and to hang in there." (One way Holmes may have made those secret calls to Kidman? The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the Romantics actress used a disposable cell phone provided by a pal to plot her divorce without the detection of Cruise and his team.)

 It's not a brand-new friendship either, the confidante says, telling Us that the women have been speaking since Holmes' 2006 marriage to Cruise, 50. Kidman shares kids Isabella, 19, and Connor, 17, with Cruise, although much has been made of her estrangement from their kids.

 PHOTOS: Tom and Katie, the way they were

 "She has been a private friend not many people know about," the source continues.

 As Holmes reached the breaking point in her marriage to Cruise — and with mounting fears about daughter Suri — she reached out again to Kidman for advice. "Nicole offered her support and help," the insider adds.

 VIDEO: Katie's first week of freedom

 Find out much more about Holmes and Kidman's secret friendship and all the details on the biggest divorce of the year in the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands Friday!

 Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!

 Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! ||||| So I know people don't really do the whole "team" thing anymore (as in Team Jolie/Team Aniston), but since we haven't really come up with a comparably catchy fan-identifying term yet: Just to be clear, I am 100% Team Holmes. Obviously. But as crazy and scary and scary and scary and scary as I find Tom Cruise to be, I'm still not sure how I feel about the latest TomKat divorce rumor. See, "sources" say that Katie Holmes is considering changing Suri's middle name to "Cruise" and her last name to "Holmes." Not only that -- "sources" also say that Katie hates the name "Suri" and has been calling her daughter "Scout" (after the To Kill a Mockingbird character, of course).

 Look, I get it. I don't blame Holmes for wanting to wash that man right out of her hair in every way possible. But Suri is already dealing with enough change. Does she really need a new legal moniker?

 Again, this is of course JUST A RUMOR. Katie Holmes probably isn't planning any sort of name change whatsoever for her 5-year-old daughter. But just supposin' she maybe IS contemplating switching the order of Suri's middle and surnames ... well, Suri is very young yet. Like most kids of divorced parents, she'll probably spend her entire adolescence and young adulthood going back and forth between parents, siding first with one, then the other, over and over again. First mom's version of the story will ring true, then she'll re-connect with dad and give mom the cold shoulder, then she'll feel guilty and stop talking to dad ... if your parents were divorced, you know the drill.

 If Katie changes Suri's name now, she's setting her kid up for years of flipping and flopping and getting her driver's license changed and making people switch her contact info in their phones and it's just gonna suck. She'll be like Suri Cougar Mellencamp/The Artist Formerly Known as Cruise-Holmes! Or something.

 Do you think Katie Holmes should change Suri's last name?

Summary: – As Katie Holmes was secretively preparing to divorce Tom Cruise, she turned to none other than one of his ex-wives for "support and help," a source says. Katie and Nicole Kidman have "spoken over the last few weeks," the source tells Us. "Nicole has been supportive, saying she's been through it too and to hang in there." Apparently the two have been "private friends" ever since Holmes married Cruise and became stepmother to Kidman's children, the source notes. (Another interesting apparent source of moral support for Katie: Victoria Beckham, fellow Scientologist and good friend to Tom.) As for Suri, if you were wondering where Cruise's rumored $40 million settlement is going, an expert tells E! that he estimates the 6-year-old's upkeep could cost $80,000 to $100,000 per month (think nannies, schooling, security, and of course, clothes). A rumored additional expense? A name change Katie is considering to Suri Cruise Holmes. Can't get enough of the TomKat divorce? Click to see seven places Katie can visit now that she's free of Scientology.


Kate Middleton marked another milestone in her new life as a royal today, delivering her first public address as the Duchess of Cambridge.

 Middleton, 30, spoke at the opening of The Treehouse, a hospice run by East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices in Ipswich, England. The hospice is one of the carefully selected group of charitable organizations that Middleton said in January she would be contributing her time to as a patron.

 In her brief, nearly three-minute speech, Middleton called the work of the hospice “inspirational” and a “shining example.”

 She also apologized for the absence of her husband, Prince William.

 “I am only sorry that William can’t be here today; he would love it here,” she said. “A view of his – that I share – is that through teamwork, so much can be achieved. What you have all achieved here is extraordinary.”

 Middleton is stepping out in a series of solo appearances while William is deployed on a six-week Royal Air Force deployment in the Falkland Islands.

 She made her first solo military appearance over the weekend at an event with the Irish Guards on St. Patrick’s Day. The event made headlines after one guard passed out while the Duchess was handing out shamrocks.

 Middleton jumped on the field last week with members of the British Olympic women’s field hockey team during a surprise visit to the site of this summer’s London Olympics, for which Middleton and William have been named ambassadors. The duchess marked another major milestone March 1 by making her first solo appearance with the queen, stepping out for tea to mark the monarch’s 60 years on the throne.

 While at the hospice, Middleton also met with children receiving care and their families, toured the center’s facilities and planted a tree in the grounds.

 As is the case with everything Middleton does, the reviews of her speech focused as much on her fashion as what she had to say.

 The duchess wore a blue dress by one of her favored retailers, Reiss, accessorized by a thick black belt, black heels and a matching clutch.

 British fashion watchers were quick to note that the dress is the same one her mother, Carole Middleton, wore to the Royal Ascot horsing event nearly two years ago.

 In addition to the hospice, Middleton is also a patron of an addiction charity, the National Portrait Gallery and the Scout Association, the British equivalent of the Girl Scouts.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Kate Middleton Wears Mom's Blue Dress For Her First Speech!

 Like mother, like daughter.

 When Kate Middleton arrived at the East Anglia Children's Hospice (EACH) at the Treehouse center in Ipswich on Monday morning for her first ever public address, royal fashion fans were shocked at the Duchess' fashion choice. See more photos of Kate Middleton giving her first speech as a royal.

 VIDEO: Watch Kate Middleton's first public speech

 The 30-year-old's cobalt blue Reiss dress (from the label's 2008 collection) came straight from her mother's closet, and Kate even styled it the same way: with black pumps, a thick belt and matching clutch.

 PHOTOS: Kate's most stunning looks

 Carole Middleton wore the look to Ascot back in 2010, pairing the outfit with a feathered fascinator.

 Credit: RETNA

 It's not the first time the Duchess has recycled an ensemble. The white Reiss dress she wore in her official engagement portrait made an appearance on Canada Day and she often swaps clothing with her sister Pippa.

Summary: – Members of the adoring public who didn't get quite enough of Kate Middleton's perfectly British voice while watching her exchange vows with Prince William had a chance for another fix today: The Duchess of Cambridge gave her first public address as royalty, speaking at the opening of a children's hospice in England. Middleton, a patron of the hospice, called it "inspirational" and apologized that her husband, who is deployed, could not be in attendance, ABC News reports. (Us points out that Middleton apparently wore her mom's dress for the occasion.)