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BOP Daily NewsMarch 10, 2006The spirit of BOP News lives on in
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| Michael Jackson's legal bills must have finally caught up with him. California authorities have ordered the pop singer and aspiring theme park mogul to close his Neverland Valley Ranch for failing to pay employees and maintain insurance coverage. A fine of $169,000 accompanied the order, though it is unclear whether the shut-down will be temporary or permanent. Thousands of screaming, sign-waving fans immediately descended on the ranch (many desperately clutching copies of "Off the Wall" to their chests) and prostrated themselves before the gates to Neverland, vowing they'd rather die than see sprawling entertainment and residence complex closed. Okay ... maybe not "thousands," but we bet at least a few showed up. Jackson was fined $100,000 fine for over $300,000 in unpaid wages plus $1000 for each of the ranch's 69 employees for allowing insurance coverage to lapse. Authorities learned of the insurance issue after a ranch employee filed an unpaid-wage claim with the state and, in the process, mentioned that an injured co-was uncertain about filing a workers compensation claim due to the lapsed insurance. Jackson was not at the ranch when the authorities arrived -- he was in Bahrain. |
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Note to President Bush: When country music stars begin bashing you, you're doing something wrong. Unless their names involve "Willie" and "Nelson," or they are affiliated with The Dixie Chicks. Normally, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw stay out of politics. While Toby Keith was raging around with country with "American Soldier," they stuck with the more traditional and heartachy "Like We Never Loved at All." While Ricky Skaggs was organizing voting drives to support the Bush-Cheney campaign two years ago, they were on concert tours. But the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has pushed them both right over the edge into political activism, and man, are they pissed off! The two held a press conference in Nashville to promote their upcoming national concert tour, but when reporters asked them about the Katrina recovery effort (McGraw is a Louisiana native and Hill grew up in Mississippi), they let loose with angry words and at least one expletive. Clearly emotional, the pair called the slow progress of recovery "embarrassing" and "humiliating." McGraw singled out President Bush himself: "There's no reason why someone can't go down there who's supposed to be the leader of the free world … and say, 'I'm giving you a job to do and I'm not leaving here until it's done. And you're held accountable, and you're held accountable, and you're held accountable,'" he said. Hill said "I fear for the country," and labeled the President's recent one-day trip to New Orleans "bulls**t." McGraw lashed out at finger-pointing that has occupied much of the debate over Hurricane Katrina. "To me, there's a lot of politics being played and a lot of people trying to put people in bad positions in order to further their agendas," he said, later adding that "When you have people dying because they're poor and black or poor and white, or because of whatever they are — if that's a number on a political scale — then that is the most wrong thing. That erases everything that's great about our country." Hill and McGraw were still nominated for the 41st Annual Acadamy of Country Music Awards in the Vocal Event of the Year Category for "Like We Never Loved at All." We'll be rooting for them and Brad Paisley. |
| Some of you regular readers think that we make most of this stuff up. We don't. We may "embellish" for "dramatic effect," but we know we couldn't possibly compete with The Daily Show in the fake news department. However, these story needs no embellishment. At all. Just go to the official website for the planet Hoth's petition and bid for the 22nd Winter Olympics scheduled for 2014. No, seriously, point your browser to http://hoth2014.com/ if you don't believe us. The website's founder and owner, Shane Igoe, admittedly is not lobbying for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to find a suitably Hoth-like planet, but he does have a serious intent -- he wants Americans to care about the Winter Olympics again. Overall, prime-time television ratings for the 2006 games in Torino were down 37 percent from 2002, and Igoe wants to bring back the glory days of Eric Heiden and begging your parents to stay up past your bedtime to watch the bobsledding competitions. Unfortunately, even if Hoth actually existed (and George Lucas could probably create his own planet out of sheer ego and force of will), Igoe has already missed the deadline for submitting his bid. Cities faced a deadline of July 2005 for submitting their bids to host the 2014 Olympics. But don't give up hope yet -- the 2018 Olympics are still a possibility. Igoe also forgot to get permission from Lucasfilm before setting up the website, but in an uncharacteristic nod to the joys of fan appreciation, Lucasfilm spokesperson Lynne Hale said the company thought the site "was very fun." No word yet on whether the IOC will threaten Igoe with a trademark infringement suit, however. |
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"I thought they smelled bad on the outside"
Previous edition's quote: The West Wing
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