Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt finally tie the knot

The couple, together for nearly a decade and engaged since 2012, said "I do" in France this past Saturday

After nearly a decade together, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have finally tied the knot. The couple had been engaged since 2012.

The marriage announcement came succinctly in a 140-character tweet from the AP: "Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were married Saturday in France, says a spokesman for the couple." The wedding was reportedly a

private,nondenominational civil ceremony that took place at a small chapel in Correns, France's Chateau Miraval, the AP reports. Hollywood's most famous couple has been together since 2005 and are the parents of six children, each of whom took part in the wedding.

The Pitt-Jolie wedding has been a tabloid favorite since they first announced their engagement: The pair was rumored to have secretly married as far back as Christmas 2012. As the AP reports, Jolie and Pitt obtained a marriage license from a local California judge, who then also conducted the ceremony in France. Only a small number of family and friends were in attendance.

When asked about her wedding earlier this year, Jolie told E!, "We don't have a date, and we're not hiding anything, but we really don't know. We talk to the kids about it once in a while.… And one of them suggested paintball. And we thought, ‘Well, different.' So who knows? I think the important thing is that whatever we do it's that the kids do have a great time, and we all — you know, take seriously the love, and the connection between all of us. But also just get silly and do something memorable."

In what could be viewed as perfect timing, Pitt and Jolie were set to begin filming By the Sea together, their first big screen partnering since they first hooked up on 2005's Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Jolie wrote and will direct By the Sea, which the Daily Mail reports is an "intimate character-driven drama" that features "crazy sex scenes." Jolie and Pitt will play a married couple in the film as well.

Cold cash just keeps washing in from ALS challenge

In the couple of hours it took an official from the ALS Association to return a reporter's call for comment, the group's ubiquitous "ice bucket challenge" had brought in a few million more dollars.

Approaching $100 million, the viral fundraising campaign for the ailment better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease has put the ALS group into the top ranks for medical charity donations. Since the end of July, the money has been sloshing in at a rate of about $9 million a week. Last year, from July 29 to Aug. 26, the group raised just $2.6 million.

It's caught everyone off-guard, none more so than the ALS Association folks. But they know this is likely a one-off phenomenon, and the group now faces the task of spending all that money wisely. Research, care and advocacy are the group's three main missions — but officials say they don't know yet exactly how they'll use the astonishing windfall.

"I think even if I or any PR person at either a non-profit or a for-profit company had all of the PR dollars in the world to invest, no one would have come up with this idea," says Carrie Munk, the association's spokeswoman. "We realize there are responsibilities that come with being good stewards of these dollars."

Part of what's surprising is that ALS — or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — is one of those "orphan" diseases. It is a neurodegenerative disease that causes paralysis and death, and the association estimates that about 5,600 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

This campaign hasn't exactly put the charity in the same neighborhood as giants like the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association or Susan G. Komen for the Cure — which raised $889 million, $529 million and $310 million last year, respectively. But it's moving into the same ZIP code now.

"People who have been in this space for a long period of time feel like it's a dream come true," says Munk.

In case you've been under the proverbial rock, here are the basic rules: Someone issues a challenge — that you allow yourself to be doused with a bucket of ice and water, like winning coaches along the sidelines. Then, the challengee has 24 hours to make a $100 donation to the ALS Association or submit to the water torture.

In the last month, everyone from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to former President George W. Bush has been doused. The Internet and airwaves are awash in videos of people taking the challenge — even if they fully intend to write the check.

Jonah Berger, author of the book "Contagious: Why Things Catch On," says it's like a modern-day chain letter — except, in this case, everyone will know if you break the chain.

"It has a lot of the key ingredients that often make people want to share things," says Berger, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "It gives people lots of social currency to be part of it. It makes you look good. It makes you look smart and in the know; you know what's going on. And it's always hard to back down from a challenge."

And now others are co-opting the bucket challenge for their own causes.

Actor Matt Damon, for instance, dumped toilet water over his head to call attention to his passion — safe drinking water. Actor Orlando Jones of the television series "Sleepy Hollow" showered himself with bullets in the wake of black teenager Michael Brown's shooting death by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

"I'm challenging myself to listen without prejudice, to love without limits and to reverse the hate," he said. "So that's my challenge — to me. And, hopefully, you'll accept this challenge, too."

But the success for ALS is the kind of thing you can't really replicate — even if you did it first.

In late June, about a month before the ice bucket challenge exploded, University of Arizona woman's basketball coach Niya Butts took the "cold water challenge." After being doused with a 10-gallon plastic cooler, Butts gave her Pac-12 coaching rivals 48 hours to do the same or donate $250 to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund — named for the North Carolina State University coach who succumbed to the disease in 2009. That challenge — #Chillin4Charity — has raised only about $75,000 so far.

"We didn't raise millions," Butts told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "But we raised awareness of millions."

The campaign has had more than 80,000 tweets, 100,000 retweets more than 215 million Twitter reaches, said Susan Donohoe, the Yow fund's executive director.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy says the ALS Association has, in this short period of time, raised more than many of the charities included on its Philanthropy 400 list.

"Right now, we're really focused on reaching out to and acknowledging and thanking the over 2 million donors that have come to the ALS Association," said Munk, the association spokeswoman. "And also working to put a process in place to make the best decisions to spend these dollars."

The American Institute of Philanthropy's CharityWatch gave the group a B+ rating for spending about 73 percent of their cash budget on programs. Analyst Stephanie Kalivas has no reason to believe that rating will need to be downgraded.

"We will definitely be keeping an eye out for them," she says. "Hopefully, they won't be wasteful with it."

Dr. Richard Bedlack, who runs the ALS clinic at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences in Durham, North Carolina, knows how he would allocate the money. While the temptation might be to plow it all into the search for a cure, he says the biggest strides have been made in patient care and quality of life, and that would be his No. 1 priority.

"The chances of one of these research studies really finding meaningful disease-modifying therapy is very small," he says. "We're shooting in the dark. So, of course we've got to keep trying. But the bottom line is we've got to understand this disease better before we're going to be able to fix it in most people."

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Miley Cyrus' Homeless VMAs Date Has Record, Warrant Out for Arrest

The once-homeless man who was Miley Cyrus' date at the MTV VMAs on Sunday has a police record and an open warrant out for his arrest.

Jesse Helt, 22, gave a speech and accepted the award for Best Video on behalf of Cyrus on Sunday night at the MTV VMAs.

Helt spoke about youth homelessness in America and had Cyrus, 21, in tears.

However, Helt has a warrant out for his arrest in his native Oregon.

Court records obtained by ABC News showed he was arrested for "criminal mischief" and "attempted burglary" in 2010. The burglary charge was changed to "criminal trespass" later that year. The records showed that Helt admitted he tried to enter an apartment by breaking a window amid a "marijuana" dispute.

He pleaded guilty/no contest to the charges and received probation. An arrest warrant was issued in 2011 when Helt violated probation by failing to report to scheduled probation meetings and failing to complete urine tests, among other charges.

Jon Troike, a judicial services specialist, told ABC News that Helt would be arrested if the police found him, and they might find him right in Oregon.

Helt's mother, Linda Helt, said yesterday that he would be flying home later that night.

Helt grew up in Salem, Oregon, also according to his mother.

Tuesday afternoon, Cryus tweeted, saying "People who are homeless have lived very hard lives. Jesse included. I hope that this can be the start of a national conversation about youth homelessness and how to end it."

She continued, "Does looking down upon the homeless help people excuse their inaction?"

Cyrus and Helt connected through My Friend’s Place -- a Los Angeles center for homeless youth, helping them to get food and shelter.

Report: No proof veterans died because of delays

The Veterans Affairs Department says investigators have found no proof that delays in care caused any deaths at a VA hospital in Phoenix, deflating an explosive allegation that helped expose a troubled health care system in which veterans waited months for appointments while employees falsified records to cover up the delays.

Revelations that as many as 40 veterans died while awaiting care at the Phoenix VA hospital rocked the agency last spring, bringing to light scheduling problems and allegations of misconduct at other hospitals as well. The scandal led to the resignation of former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. In July, Congress approved spending an additional $16 billion to help shore up the system.

The VA's Office of Inspector General has been investigating the delays for months and shared a draft report of its findings with VA officials.

In a written memorandum about the report, VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald said, "It is important to note that while OIG's case reviews in the report document substantial delays in care, and quality-of-care concerns, OIG was unable to conclusively assert that the absence of timely quality care caused the death of these veterans."

The inspector general's final report has not yet been issued. The inspector general runs an independent office within the VA.

Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson confirmed the findings in an interview with TheAssociated Press. Gibson, however, stressed that veterans were still waiting too long for care, an issue the agency was working to fix.

"They looked to see if there was any causal relationship associated with the delay in care and the death of these veterans and they were unable to find one. But from my perspective, that don't make it OK," Gibson said. "Veterans were waiting too long for care and there were things being done, there were scheduling improprieties happening at Phoenix and frankly at other locations as well. Those are unacceptable."

In April, Dr. Samuel Foote, who had worked for the Phoenix VA for more than 20 years before retiring in December, brought the allegations to Congress.

Foote accused Arizona VA leaders of collecting bonuses for reducing patient wait times. But, he said, the purported successes resulted from data manipulation rather than improved service for veterans. He said up to 40 patients died while awaiting care.

In May, the inspector general's office found that 1,700 veterans were waiting for primary care appointments at the Phoenix VA but did not show up on the wait list. "Until that happens, the reported wait times for these veterans has not started," said a report issued in May.

Gibson said the VA reached out to all 1,700 veterans in Phoenix and scheduled care for them. However, he acknowledged there are still 1,800 veterans in Phoenix who requested appointments but will have to wait at least 90 days for care.

The VA has said it was firing three executives of the Phoenix VA hospital. The agency has also said it planned to fire two supervisors and discipline four other employees in Colorado and Wyoming accused of falsifying health care data.

Gibson said he expected the list of disciplined employees to grow. He took over as acting VA secretary when Shinseki resigned and returned to his job as deputy secretary after McDonald was confirmed.

"The fundamental point here is, we are taking bold and decisive action to fix these problems because it's unacceptable," Gibson said. "We owe veterans, we owe the American people, an apology. We've delivered that apology. We'll keep delivering that apology for our failure to meet their expectations for timely and effective health care."

To help reduce backlogs, the VA is sending more veterans to private doctors for care.

Congress approved $10 billion in emergency spending over three years to pay private doctors and other health professionals to care for veterans who can't get timely appointments at VA medical facilities, or who live more than 40 miles from one.

The new law includes $5 billion for hiring more VA doctors, nurses and other medical staff and $1.3 billion to open 27 new VA clinics across the country.

Man stricken with ALS suspected of killing 2 women

When Andrew Steele retired as a sheriff's deputy, his career cut short by the advance of ALS, he had no bigger cheerleader than his wife. Ashlee Steele spearheaded a drive to raise $75,000 for his medical care, and her Facebook feed is filled with the shrieks and laughter of the cold-water challenges the couple's family and friends were eager to accept.

Now, Andrew Steele is a suspect in the killings of his wife and her sister, Kacee Tollefsbol, at the Steeles' home in suburban Fitchburg, Wisconsin on Friday. Steele himself is being treated for an apparent suicide attempt that, police say, they never saw coming.

"Nobody closely aligned with Andy and his family expected something like this to occur," Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney told The Associated Press on Monday. "We believe his diagnosis had an impact on the family but they were moving forward."

Mahoney said Steele, 39, had been a deputy since November 1998. He had worked for the past several years in the county jail but resigned in June after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS attacks nerve cells and can lead to complete paralysis and death. The average life expectancy is two to five years after diagnosis.

Police said Ashlee Steele, 39, and Tollefsbol, 38, of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, were shot.

It was unclear when prosecutors might charge Andrew Steele. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne didn't immediately return a phone message Monday, and Fitchburg Police Lt. Todd Stetzer said he had no information to release on the case.

Before Friday, Mahoney said deputies had been talking with Steele about joining the family's "Tough as Steele" effort to raise money for his medical care and other family expenses. The Steeles have two children while Tollefsbol was the mother of four.

"We're trying to understand what could possibly have gone wrong and resulted in the death of two young women and the fact that there's now six children without a mother," Mahoney said.

Steele's family started the "Tough as Steele — Taking Down ALS" campaign via the website GiveForward.com. The site said the loss of his income had been crushing to the family. As of Saturday, supporters had raised nearly $23,000 toward their $75,000 goal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The campaign appeared to have been removed from the site over the weekend.

Ashlee Steele's Facebook page contains several videos of law enforcement colleagues and other friends taking the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in Steele's honor. They include Madison Police Chief Mike Koval offering prayers and firefighters from three departments cheering as a ladder truck hoses them down.

"I never would have expected the type of reaching out people have done," Andrew Steele told WMTV earlier this month. "People that have donated, people that I don't even know very well, I haven't seen or talked to in years. It's hard to describe that."

Ashlee Steele had taught 3-year-olds in the preschool at Christ Memorial Lutheran Church in Fitchburg, staff coordinator Elsa Gumm said.

"She was very organized, just full of joy in general," Gumm said. "She was so great at being hands-on with the kids. She just made kids and parents alike feel at ease."

Gumm said she had never met Andrew Steele and couldn't offer any insights into why he would have hurt his wife.

"That's the big question in our minds as well," she said. "What we keep turning to is we may not get answers to those questions, so we just cling to our hope in Jesus Christ."

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Ferguson Cops Were Caught in a Bloody Lie: The officers got the wrong man, but charged him anyway—with getting his blood on their uniforms after beating him to a pulp

The officers got the wrong man, but charged him anyway—with getting his blood on their uniforms. How the Ferguson PD ran the town where Michael Brown was gunned down.

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once charged a man with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him.

“On and/or about the 20th day of Sept. 20, 2009 at or near 222 S. Florissant within the corporate limits of Ferguson, Missouri, the above named defendant did then and there unlawfully commit the offense of ‘property damage’ to wit did transfer blood to the uniform,” reads the charge sheet.

The address is the headquarters of the Ferguson Police Department, where a 52-year-old welder named Henry Davis was taken in the predawn hours on that date. He had been arrested for an outstanding warrant that proved to actually be for another man of the same surname, but a different middle name and Social Security number.

“I said, ‘I told you guys it wasn’t me,’” Davis later testified.

He recalled the booking officer saying, “We have a problem.”

The booking officer had no other reason to hold Davis, who ended up in Ferguson only because he missed the exit for St. Charles and then pulled off the highway because the rain was so heavy he could not see to drive. The cop who had pulled up behind him must have run his license plate and assumed he was that other Henry Davis. Davis said the cop approached his vehicle, grabbed his cellphone from his hand, cuffed him and placed him in the back seat of the patrol car, without a word of explanation.

But the booking officer was not ready just to let Davis go, and proceeded to escort him to a one-man cell that already had a man in it asleep on the lone bunk. Davis says that he asked the officer if he could at least have one of the sleeping mats that were stacked nearby.

”He said I wasn’t getting one,” Davis said.

Davis balked at being a second man in a one-man cell.

“Because it’s 3 in the morning,” he later testified. “Who going to sleep on a cement floor?”

The booking officer summoned a number of fellow cops. One opened the cell door while another suddenly charged, propelling Davis inside and slamming him against the back wall.

“I told the police officers there that I didn’t do nothing, ‘Why is you guys doing this to me?’” Davis testified. “They said, ‘OK, just lay on the ground and put your hands behind your back.’”

Davis said he complied and that a female officer straddled and then handcuffed him. Two other officers crowded into the cell.

“They started hitting me,” he testified. “I was getting hit and I just covered up.”

The other two stepped out and the female officer allegedly lifted Davis’ head as the cop who had initially pushed him into the cell reappeared.

“He ran in and kicked me in the head,” Davis recalled. “I almost passed out at that point… Paramedics came… They said it was too much blood, I had to go to the hospital.”

A patrol car took the bleeding Davis to a nearby emergency room. He refused treatment, demanding somebody first take his picture.

“I wanted a witness and proof of what they done to me,” Davis said.

He was driven back to the jail, where he was held for several days before he posted $1,500 bond on four counts of “property damage.” Police Officer John Beaird had signed complaints swearing on pain of perjury that Davis had bled on his uniform and those of three fellow officers.

The remarkable turned inexplicable when Beaird was deposed in a civil case that Davis subsequently brought seeking redress and recompense.

“After Mr. Davis was detained, did you have any blood on you?” asked Davis’ lawyer, James Schottel.

“No, sir,” Beaird replied.

Schottel showed Beaird a copy of the “property damage” complaint.

“Is that your signature as complainant?” the lawyer asked.

“It is, sir,” the cop said.

“And what do you allege that Mr. Davis did unlawfully in this one?” the lawyer asked.

“Transferred blood to my uniform while Davis was resisting,” the cop said.

“And didn’t I ask you earlier in this deposition if Mr. Davis got blood on your uniform?”

“You did, sir.”

“And didn’t you respond no?”

“Correct. I did.”

Beaird seemed to be either admitting perjury or committing it. The depositions of other officers suggested that the “property damage” charges were not just bizarre, but trumped up.

“There was no blood on my uniform,” said Police Officer Christopher Pillarick.

And then there was Officer Michael White, the one accused of kicking Davis in the head, an allegation he denies, as his fellow officers deny striking Davis. White had reported suffering a bloody nose in the mayhem.

“Did you see Mr. Davis bleeding at all?” the lawyer, Schottel, asked.

“I did not,” White replied.

“Did Mr. Davis get any blood on you while you were in the cell?” Schottel asked.

“No,” White said.

The contradictions between the complaint and the depositions apparently are what prompted the prosecutor to drop the “property damage” allegation. The prosecutor also dropped a felony charge of assault on an officer that had been lodged more than a year after the incident and shortly after Davis filed his civil suit.

Davis suggested in his testimony that if the police really thought he had assaulted an officer he would have been charged back when he was jailed.

“They would have filed those charges right then and there, because that’s a major felony,” he noted.

Indisputable evidence of what transpired in the cell might have been provided by a surveillance camera, but it turned out that the VHS video was recorded at 32 times normal speed.

“It was like a blur,” Schottel told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “You couldn’t see anything.”

The blur proved to be from 12 hours after the incident anyway. The cops had saved the wrong footage after Schottel asked them to preserve it.

Schottel got another unpleasant surprise when he sought the use-of-force history of the officers involved. He learned that before a new chief took over in 2010 the department had a surprising protocol for non-fatal use-of-force reports.

“The officer himself could complete it and give it to the supervisor for his approval,” the prior chief, Thomas Moonier, testified in a deposition. “I would read it. It would be placed in my out basket, and my secretary would probably take it and put it with the case file.”

No copy was made for the officer’s personnel file.

“Everything involved in an incident would generally be with the police report,” Moonier said. “I don’t know what they maintain in personnel files.”

“Who was in charge of personnel files, of maintaining them?” Schottel asked.

“I have no idea,” Moonier said. “I believe City Hall, but I don’t know.”

Schottel focused on the date of the incident.

“On September 20th, 2009, was there any way to identify any officers that were subject of one or more citizens’ complaints?” he asked.

“Not to my knowledge,” Moonier said.

“Was there any way to identify any officers who had completed several use-of-force reports?”

“I don’t recall.”

But however lax the department’s system and however contradictory the officers’ testimony, a federal magistrate ruled that the apparent perjury about the “property damage” charges was too minor to constitute a violation of due process and that Davis’ injuries were de minimis—too minor to warrant a finding of excessive force. Never mind that a CAT scan taken after the incident confirmed that he had suffered a concussion.

Schottel has appealed and expects to argue the case in December. He will contend that perjury is perjury however minor the charge and note that both the NFL and Major League Baseball have learned to consider a concussion a serious injury.

Schottel figures the courts might take the problems of the Ferguson Police Department as more than de minimis as a result of the protests sparked when an officer shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown on the afternoon of Aug. 9.

“Your chances on appeal are going up,” a fellow lawyer told him.

At least one witness has said that Brown was shot in the back and then in the chest and head as he turned toward the officer with his hands raised.

“I said, ‘Well, that doesn’t surprise me,’” Schottel told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “I said I already know about Ferguson, nothing new can faze me about Ferguson.”

Schottel has also deposed the new chief, Thomas Jackson, who took over in 2010. Jackson testified that he has instituted a centralized system whereby all complaints lodged against cops by citizens or supervisors go through him and are assigned a number in an internal affairs log. Schottel views Jackson as “not a bad guy,” someone who has been trying to make positive change.

“He wants to do right, but it was such a mess,” Schottel said Wednesday.

Jackson has seemed less than progressive as he delayed identifying the officer involved in the shooting for fear it would place him and his family in danger. Jackson would only say the officer is white and has been on the job for six years. This means that for his first two and most formative years the officer might have been writing his own force reports and that none of them went into his file.

“It’s hard to get people to clean things up, especially if they’re used to doing things a certain way,” Schottel said.


On Friday, police finally identified the officer as Darren Wilson, who is said to have no disciplinary record, as such records are kept in Ferguson. We already know that he started out at a time when it was accepted for a Ferguson cop to charge somebody with property damage for bleeding on his uniform and later saying there was no blood on him at all.

The photographer who captured the iconic image of Ferguson was arrested

Chris Hayes reported on MSNBC that Scott Olson was arrested for going beyond an area where the police were trying to cordon off the media.

Scott has been released from Jail.

Iconic Image #1



Iconic Image #2

CNN reports "Broken Eye Socket" didn't happen to Ferguson officer who shot unarmed teen as reported

Earlier this week, Fox News reported that Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old unarmed Michael Brown, suffered a fractured eye socket following his confrontation with the teenager. The reporter, Hollie McKay, cited a “source close to the [police] department’s top brass” as providing that information to the network.


However, on CNN Thursday, Don Lemon reported that Wilson did not suffer a fractured or broken eye socket and was rather treated at the hospital for swelling around his face and eyes. Noting that that specific injury has not been reported by CNN, “but is making its way around other media organization,” Lemon cited a “source close to the investigation” who told CNN that Wilson’s x-rays came back negative for a fractured eye socket.

“That source says it is not true, at all, he did not have a torn eye socket,” Lemon said. “Unequivocally

US says American held in Syria has been freed

An American journalist kidnapped and held hostage for nearly two years by an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria was released Sunday, less than a week after the horrific execution of American journalist James Foley by Islamic militants.

The freed American is 45-year-old Peter Theo Curtis of Massachusetts, who wrote under the byline Theo Padnos.

White House national security adviser Susan Rice said Curtis is now safe outside of Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry said Curtis was held by Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-linked militant group fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A senior administration official said Curtis was released in the Golan Heights, where he was met by U.S. government personnel who were transporting him to Tel Aviv. The official was not authorized to speak by name and discussed the release on the condition of anonymity.

It was not known what prompted Curtis' release or if any of the captors' demands had been met.

In a video obtained by The Associated Press and dated July 18, 2014, Curtis sits cross-legged on a floor with his hands bound, and appears to read from a sheet placed in front of him on the floor. Addressing the U.S. and European governments, he pleads for them to contact a named intermediary before it is too late.

"They have given me three days to live," he says as a man holding an assault rifle and dressed in camouflage stands next to him. "If you don't do anything, I'm finished. I'm dead. They will kill me. Three days. You have had 20 days, and you've done nothing. "

He does not specify any demands, only urges Western governments to make contact with the intermediary.

His family said they believe Curtis was captured in October 2012, shortly after crossing into Syria.

"My heart is full at the extraordinary, dedicated, incredible people, too many to name individually, who have become my friends and have tirelessly helped us over these many months," Curtis' mother, Nancy Curtis, said in a statement from the family. "Please know that we will be eternally grateful."

Curtis, under the Theo Padnos byline, has written for the New Republic and in 2011 wrote a book called "Undercover Muslim: A Journey Into Yemen," which studied the radicalization of disaffected youths.

Before leaving for Yemen in 2005 to study Islam, he worked in the Vermont prison system teaching teenage inmates. That experience resulted in the book "My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun."

"He seems to be in good health," Curtis' cousin Viva Hardigg said in an interview. "We are deeply relieved and grateful for his return and the many people who have helped up secure his freedom. At the same time, we are thinking constantly of the other hostages who are still held and those working to help them be freed. We want to do everything we can to support their efforts."

In another video from June 30, 2014, a man with a beard and disheveled hair identifies himself as Peter Theo Curtis from Boston, and says he is being treated well.

"I have everything I need. Everything has been perfect — food, clothing, even friends now," he says. He appears to be reading from a script.

Curtis' release was first reported by Al Jazeera.

Kerry, a former senator from Massachusetts, voiced relief and gratitude for Curtis' release, "particularly after a week marked by unspeakable tragedy."

"Theo's mother, whom we've known from Massachusetts and with whom we've worked during this horrific period, simply refused to give up and has worked indefatigably to keep hope alive that this day could be a reality," Kerry said.

He added that over the past two years, Washington had "reached out to more than two dozen countries asking for urgent help from anyone who might have tools, influence or leverage to help secure Theo's release and the release of any Americans held hostage in Syria."

Foley was beheaded by Islamic State militants who released a video last week blaming his death on U.S. airstrikes against their fighters in Iraq. Foley's captors had demanded $132.5 million (100 million euros) from his parents and political concessions from Washington. Neither obliged, authorities say.

Officials said Curtis' captors were members of the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate. Islamic State is an al-Qaida splinter group and the two organizations have parted ways. U.S. officials say Islamic State is the far more ruthless organization.

For al-Qaida and some other militant bands, ransoms paid to free kidnapped Europeans over the past decade have surpassed donations from private supporters as a source of funding, according to the United States and Britain.

The British government, like the U.S., adheres to a longstanding policy against paying ransoms to extremists. A senior Obama administration official said last week the Islamic State had made a "range of requests" from the U.S. for Foley's release, including changes in American policy and posture in the Mideast.

Al Jazeera reported that mediators from Qatar helped secure Curtis' release. The energy-rich Gulf nation, which is a leading supporter of the Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad, has been involved in mediating hostage releases in Syria over the past year.

In March, the Qataris helped negotiate the release of more than a dozen Greek Orthodox nuns held by the Nusra Front. Late last year, Qatar also helped broker a deal that saw nine Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria by rebels go free in exchange for the release of two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon.

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Casting Southern California Teams of 2 for Competition Show

Casting So Cal Teams of 2 for Competition Show

We are searching for COMPETITIVE, ATHLETIC PEOPLE to compete in a pilot for a brand new Adventure Competition TV show for a major cable network. We're looking for teams of two who are ready for the ultimate rush that will test your wits and endurance - for the chance to WIN $$$$!!! Race against the clock in this fun and challenging miles long obstacle course. We need a variety of pairs.  So, grab your Mom/Dad, Aunt/Uncle, Cousin, Sibling, Spouse, Neighbor, Boss, Friend, Co-worker... TO SUBMIT  email ALL the information requested below to: ericahenderson.casting@gmail.com 1. Names of you and your teammate (first and last names) 2. Ages for each of you 3. Contact phone number for each of you 4. City/Zip where you live (must be SoCal) 5. What is your relationship to your teammate (friend, co-worker, sibling, etc.) 6. Recent photos of you and your teammate (jpg format please) 7. Optional - a big plus if you can - ALSO SUBMIT a 1-2 minute video telling us why you would be great for the show! This is your chance to shine! Show us your personality and why you stand out among the rest. You can shoot this with the camera on your phone, don't worry about video quality - what's most important is that we see your personality!

Nick Cannon Confirms Separation From Mariah Carey

Host admits there's "trouble in paradise" for the couple.


Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey are indeed separated, the Real Husbands of Hollywood star confirmed on Thursday. One day after reports surfaced that the couple of six years are headed for a split, Cannon tells The Insider that he and his wife have been living apart for some time.

"There is trouble in paradise," Cannon, 33, told The Insider of his marriage to the Grammy-winning pop diva. "We have been living in separate houses for a few months."

While Cannon wouldn't elaborate on the cause of their separation, he did dismiss the idea that his rumored infidelity was a factor. The actor/comedian/host also added, "my main focus is my kids."

Cannon and Carey tied the knot in a surprise ceremony in the Bahamas in 2008 after less than a month of dating. The couple have two children, twins Morroccan and Monroe.

Former Titans LB Tim Shaw 'overwhelmed' with support after revealing his ALS diagnosis

Tim Shaw knew, sooner or later, he had to go public that he had ALS.

As the Ice Bucket Challenge phenomenon to raise awareness and money to fight the disease and find a cure swept the country, the former Titans linebacker and special teams captain knew the time had come. Shaw had been living with ALS since April, and on Wednesday shed light on his decision.

"It was very difficult to go public," Shaw said. "But it was made very clear to me that the time was right. I had waited for months, and needed to process it on my own and figure out what my message was going to be. Because if I had just come out right away, I wouldn't have known much about it. I wouldn't have known what I am really going to stand for against this in my life."

Following training camp practice on Wednesday, every Titans players and the coaching staff accepted that Ice Bucket Challenge, collectively dumping ice water over their heads as Shaw smiled while watching. He was then greeted with hugs and words of encouragement by many of his former teammates.

"I am overwhelmed just by the support," said Shaw, 30, a seven-year NFL veteran who played for the Titans from 2010-12. "It has been unbelievable. I have always loved attention, but not this kind of attention. I knew it was something that I needed to do. I knew it was something that would be beneficial, not for me, but for the cause.

"So, that's why I did it. It has been amazing support, an amazing response. The human race is so powerful in what we can do when we pull ourselves together and put our minds to something. It's really amazing."

Commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. There is no cure for the debilitating disease that often leads to paralysis and/or death.

According to the ALS Association website, it has received $31.5 million in donations as of Wednesday as a result of the Ice Bucket Challenge. That compares to $1.9 million raised during the same time period last year. Donations have come from existing donors and 637,527 new donors.

"It's an important cause," Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "It's a terrible disease. I have a lot of respect for Tim. It's horrible that he has to go through this. But anything we can do to raise awareness for it, to help get a cure, that's important."

Shaw said he started feeling symptoms of the disease in late 2012 and early 2013. He was released by the Titans during training camp last year when the team made its final roster cut to 53 players. A 2007 fifth-round draft pick of the Panthers, he also played for the Jaguars (2008) and Bears (2009), before playing 48 games in three seasons with the Titans.

"It showed itself in my muscles," Shaw said of early ALS symptoms. "You could see my legs twitching, my muscles twitching. And it showed itself in weakness in my muscles, and it showed itself in loss of some athletic ability that I have always had. Those were the early signs."

Following the end of the 2012 season and leading to training camp in 2013, Shaw worked with Titans staff and doctors trying to find a cause for his ailments.

"While I was playing here, that whole 2013 offseason, the Titans' staff were analyzing me for different things and trying to figure out what sports injury I was suffering from and to just no avail," Shaw said. "I don't blame anyone. It's just something that you don't think about. There were tests done, and there were doctors seen. So, it just never crossed anyone's mind to go that direction."

Titans linebacker Derrick Morgan was Shaw's teammate all three seasons he played for the Titans. He said today it was difficult to see Shaw and what he was going through, but also expressed admiration for how Shaw is handling the disease.

"I have been praying for him ever since I found out," Morgan said. "Tim is such a good guy, so you hate to see somebody who's a good guy with a good heart going through something that harsh. It really hurts to see him, but his resolve has been very impressive.

"He is remaining positive and making the most out of his opportunity and his platforms that he has. We have to keep encouraging him, keep him in your prayers, and hopefully a miracle will happen and he will get healed."

Shaw said that he does not blame playing football and its physical nature as a factor in having ALS.

"I love the game of football," Shaw said. "From the time I first played it as a 12-year-old, this game was for me. No doubt about it in my mind, not a single regret. The game of football has given me so much. It's brought me so many different places and so many avenues and opportunities, I wouldn't take it back."

But Shaw said that the game of football at all levels needs to improve its approach when it comes to prevention, diagnosis and care for all kind of injuries, including those to the brain.

"I do think that we need to get smarter as we continue with this game," Shaw said. "I think we do need to learn more about what it is doing to our bodies and heads and things like that. I don't blame the game. I'm not a doctor. I don't know. People get this disease who never play football."

Shaw said that he is currently taking an approved drug to slow symptoms of the disease. He also meets with physicians every three months, but vows to continue to living life as he always has.

"It's the hardest thing I ever had to hear," Shaw said of learning he had ALS just a month after turning 30. "So, every thought runs through your mind. But as a man, you have a choice. What are you going to do? Are you going to stand up and fight for your life? Or are you going to accept what someone else tells you is reality and just fade away?

"And so, as staggering as that news was and as shocking as it is to hear and to say, I made that choice to stand up and live life to the fullest like I believe I always have."

US mission to rescue hostages in Syria failed

President Barack Obama sent special operations troops to Syria this summer on a secret mission to rescue American hostages, including journalist James Foley, held by Islamic State extremists, but they did not find them, the Obama administration said Wednesday

Officials said the rescue mission was authorized after intelligence agencies believed they had identified the location inside Syria where the hostages were being held. But the several dozen special operations forces dropped by aircraft into Syria did not find them at that location and engaged in a firefight with Islamic State militants before departing.

"The U.S. government had what we believed was sufficient intelligence, and when the opportunity presented itself, the president authorized the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover our citizens," said Lisa Monaco, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, in a statement. "Unfortunately, that mission was ultimately not successful because the hostages were not present."

Officials disclosed the rescue operation a day after the militants released a video showing the beheading of Foley and threatened to kill a second hostage, Steven Sotloff, if U.S. airstrikes against the militants in Iraq continued.

Despite the militants' threats, the U.S. launched a new barrage of airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria Wednesday. The Obama administration did not rule out the prospect of a military operation in Syria to bring those responsible for Foley's death to justice.

The disclosure of the rescue mission marks the first time the U.S. has revealed that American military personnel have been on the ground in Syria since a bloody civil war there broke out more than three years ago. Obama has resisted calls to insert the U.S. military in the middle of Syria's war, a cautious approach his critics say has allowed the Islamic State to strengthen there and make gains across the border in Iraq.

A number of militants but no Americans were killed in the firefight in Syria. One American sustained a minor injury when an aircraft was hit, officials said.

"As we have said repeatedly, the United States government is committed to the safety and well-being of its citizens, particularly those suffering in captivity. In this case, we put the best of the United States military in harms' way to try and bring our citizens home," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement Wednesday night. "The United States government uses the full breadth of our military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring people home whenever we can. The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will work tirelessly to secure the safety of our citizens and to hold their captors accountable."

Administration officials would not say specifically when or where the operation took place, citing the need to protect operational details in order to preserve the ability to carry out future rescue missions. They did say that nearly every branch of the military was involved and that the special forces on the ground were supported from the air by fixed wing, rotary and surveillance aircraft.