‘Homeland’ actor James Rebhorn dies of melanoma: reports

James Rebhorn, the tall, lanky character actor who appeared in dozens of movies and television shows, including the Showtime political thriller “Homeland,” has died at 65, according to media reports on Sunday.

Rebhorn died on Friday of melanoma at his home in New Jersey, the New York Times reported. The newspaper cited his agent, Dianne Busch, who was not immediately available to comment.

The actor worked regularly in film, television and on stage and appeared in more than 50 films, including “Independence Day,” “My Cousin Vinny,” “Basic Instinct” and “Cold Mountain.”

He also was known for his role in “Scent of A Woman” in 1992, according to the Internet Movie Database.

As a stage actor, he appeared in a revival of “Twelve Angry Men” in 2004. He had numerous roles on television, including a memorable part as the assistant district attorney who sent the “Seinfeld” cast to jail in the series’ finale.

He had most recently appeared in “Homeland” as Frank Mathison, the father of Carrie Mathison, the CIA officer played by Claire Danes. The show has featured how both daughter and father have grappled with bipolar disorder.

Rebhorn was born on September 1, 1948, in Philadelphia, the Times said. He leaves two daughters, Hannah and Emma, and his wife, Rebecca Linn.

source: interaksyon.com

Governor in US storm state still has no power at home

NEW YORK - New Jersey state governor Chris Christie, who is touted as a possible future Republican presidential contender, said Sunday he still has no electricity at home nearly one week after superstorm Sandy.

"I still don't have power in my house," Christie told a news conference about his efforts to get his northeast state moving again. "I am not happy, my wife is not happy."

Almost one million people in the state are still without power but Christie appealed for patience, highlighting how 1.8 million had been brought back on line since the storm last Monday.

He said that New Jersey will allow votes by email in Tuesday's presidential, congressional, and local elections for some people.

"I am allowing them to vote by email and fax," he said. "But this is only for people displaced by the storm."

Christie said he did not expect major problems on voting day.

source: interaksyon.com

AT&T, T-Mobile share networks to help Sandy victims

(CNN) -- Getting cell phone reception in waterlogged New York and New Jersey could get a bit easier.

In a rare moment of collaboration, wireless providers AT&T and T-Mobile have agreed to share networks in the challenging days following Superstorm Sandy, allowing customers to use whichever network gets coverage in their areas.

The combining of networks will happen entirely behind the scenes, so all customers need to do is dial out. They'll automatically be routed over whatever network is currently the strongest in their location.

There will be no roaming charges for customers of either company, and no need to change any settings, rate plan or service agreements.

Making calls across the Northeast has been difficult following Sandy, and New York and New Jersey seem to be the hardest hit. According to the Federal Communication Commission, about a quarter of cell phone towers in the 10 states were knocked out by the storm.

Repairing these towers will take several days or longer, and continued inclement weather could cause additional issues and repair delays. Some transmission sites that are still working are currently running on backup generators, which carriers hope will last until power is restored.

"Our assumption is that communications outages could get worse before they get better, particularly for mobile," FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said on a call with reporters Tuesday.

Only a very small number of 911 call centers had lost power, and those calls were being rerouted to working centers, according to the FCC.

The major cellphone carriers have shared varying amounts of information on their service outages following Sandy. Sprint said it was experiencing "service impacts," but that it could not provide a specific number for the amount of people without service. T-Mobile said that in New York CIty, 20% of its network was down. In Washington that number was 10%.

Verizon's New York City facilities were severely flooded, and the damages were still being assessed. The carrier said its networks were mostly doing well, but there were serious problems in lower Manhattan and general problems throughout New York City. The company did not give exact numbers for outages.

Verizon officials also cautioned that some customers in the Northeast might receive "all circuits are busy" messages when trying to make calls because of an unusually large volume of post-Sandy demand on the network.

AT&T was the most vague, only saying that it was monitoring its land line and wireless networks and working to restore service.

T-Mobile and AT&T did not give a timeline for how long this cross-company cooperation would last.

In a related act of corporate generosity, Comcast said it will offer free Wi-Fi to users in areas affected by Sandy, according to CNET.

source: CNN

Eastern U.S. Storms Leave 2 Dead, 2 Million Without Power

Violent evening storms following a day of triple-digit temperatures wiped out power to more than 2 million people across the eastern United States and caused two fatalities in Virginia — including a 90-year-old woman asleep in bed when a tree slammed into her home, a police spokeswoman said Saturday.

Widespread power outages were reported from Indiana to New Jersey, with the bulk of the service interruptions concentrated on Washington, D.C., and the surrounding areas. Earlier Friday, the nation's capital reached 104 degrees — topping a record of 101 set in 1934.

More than 20 elderly residents at an apartment home in Indianapolis were displaced when the facility lost power due to a downed tree. Most were bused to a Red Cross facility to spend the night, and others who depend on oxygen assistance were given other accommodations, the fire department said.

The storms, sometimes packing 70 mph winds, toppled three tractor trailers on Interstate 75 near Findlay, Ohio. Fallen trees were blamed on both deaths in Springfield, Va. — the 90-year-old woman in her home and a man driving a car, Fairfax County police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings said.

In addition, a park police officer was injured by an uprooted tree in the northern Virginia county, and an 18-year-old man was struck by a power line, Jennings said. He was in stable condition after receiving CPR, she said.

"Our officers and firefighters are out there with power saws, trying to clear the streets," Jennings said.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency after more than 500,000 customers in 27 counties were left without electricity.

At least four utility poles fell on a road in Columbus, Ohio, making it too dangerous for people in four cars to get out, police said. One person was taken to a hospital.

As of 1 a.m. Saturday, Pepco was reporting 406,000 outages in the District of Columbia and Montgomery and Prince George's counties, Md.

"We have more than half our system down," said Pepco spokeswoman Myra Oppel. "This is definitely going to be a multi-day outage."

In the Washington, D.C., area, the Metrorail subway trains were returned to their endpoints due to the storms and related damage, officials said.

"It has had a widespread effect on the region," Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said early Saturday. He said about 17 train stations were operating on backup power due to local power outages, but that he didn't anticipate service being disrupted on Saturday.

source: nytimes.com

US student in gay webcam spying gets 30 days jail

NEW YORK - An Indian immigrant college student convicted of illegally filming his gay roommate on a webcam received a big break Monday when a judge sentenced him to just 30 days behind bars, not the possible 10 years.

Dharun Ravi, who shared the webcam footage with friends in his dormitory at Rutgers University in New Jersey, had also faced possible deportation, but the judge said he would not recommend this.

The case sparked a national debate over cyber bullying and gay bashing when the 18-year-old roommate, apparently distraught in part over the embarrassment of the broadcasting of his gay sexual encounter, committed suicide days later. Ravi, now 20, was not charged, E with the death.

Ahead of the light sentence, Judge Glenn Berman in New Brunswick, New Jersey, gave Ravi a severe dressing down.

Ravi showed "colossal insensitivity" when he filmed Tyler Clementi in September 2010, Berman said in comments carried live on TruTV.

"I heard this jury say ‘guilty' 288 times -- 24 questions, 12 jurors," Berman said. "I haven't heard you apologize once."

Berman said Ravi would never "expunge the conduct or the pain you caused."

The jury found Ravi guilty of invading privacy, on some charges of anti-gay bias, and trying to impede investigators by deleting or doctoring text messages and tweets that he'd sent.

His lawyer had argued that Ravi was guilty only of a prank gone wrong when he filmed roommate Clementi in a kiss with a man, then Tweeted friends about what he'd seen and invited them to watch a live webcam video.

Although prosecutors painted Ravi as a mean-spirited bully, Berman noted several times that the young immigrant was not accused of causing Clementi's death -- a tragedy that brought huge attention to what might otherwise have been a little-noticed case.

In a heart wrenching speech before sentencing on Monday, Ravi's mother recalled how they had arrived in the United States with just two suitcases and "a lot of hopes." Her son, she said, had been a dedicated student who "doesn't have any... or harbor hatred in his heart to anybody."

"What my son Dharun is going through there is no word for me to explain. The smile and the bright eyes are gone from his face," she said.

Addressing Clementi's family, she said, "It is so sad he chose to end his life early. My heart goes to his family."

When the unexpected sentence was passed, Ravi appeared not to react immediately, looking as stunned and near tears as he had throughout the hearing.

A New Jersey gay rights group, Garden State Equality, welcomed the judge's lenient approach, saying that the maximum sentence would "have been vengeance beyond punishment and beyond sending a message to the rest of society."

The month in jail and probation was correct, the group said, but added: "This was not a childhood prank gone awry. This was not a crime without bias."

article source: interaksyon.com

Whitney Houston's journey 'home' ends

Newark, New Jersey (CNN) -- Whitney Houston's journey "home" ended with a private burial in New Jersey on Sunday as questions persist about what caused the superstar's death.

A crowd gathered at the entrance to Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, south of Newark, where Houston's body arrived late Sunday morning. She was laid to rest next to her father in the cemetery.


Her burial brings an end to her "coming home," as her family dubbed the invitation-only memorial service held a day earlier at her childhood church in Newark.

The family-only burial is in contrast to the emotionally charged, star-studded memorial service held at New Hope Baptist Church, where Houston, nicknamed "Nippy," was soloing in the junior choir by age 11.



"Jesus Loves Me" was the last song Houston sang in public before her death on February 11 in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 48.

So it was fitting that the mourners -- comforted and encouraged by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys and R. Kelly -- heard the simple, but powerful, "Jesus Loves Me," this time performed by CeCe Winans.

The mourners inside the church represented an amalgamation of Houston's life, from childhood friends to gospel singers, from music stars to movie stars.

"You literally felt like this was just a girl from New Jersey who had a few famous friends, and it was such a celebration of life," CNN producer Raelyn Johnson, who attended the funeral, said Sunday.

"It is the same church service that will go on in so many churches across the country this morning ... and it was celebration, it was singing, it was praise for three hours." Johnson said. "And it wasn't until the very end that you remembered that this was a funeral and a very sad day for a lot of people."

Kevin Costner, who cast Houston in her first role alongside him in "The Bodyguard," recalled how she questioned whether she was good enough, beautiful enough to be cast in the film.

"It was the burden that made her great and the part that caused her to stumble in the end," he said.

For her closest friends inside the church, and strangers who continue to draw inspiration from her voice, Costner's words hit a painfully honest note about human frailty.

Years after "The Bodyguard" hit theaters, reports of Houston's struggles with drug addiction and a rocky marriage with Bobby Brown surfaced and her album sales declined.

"The inexplicable burden that comes with fame," Costner said. "Call it doubt. Call it fear. I've had mine. I know the famous in the room have had theirs."

Costner said Houston's own story could help a new generation of young girls who dream big.

"Maybe they're thinking they aren't good enough," he said. "I think Whitney would tell you: Guard your bodies. Guard the precious miracle of your life. Then sing your hearts out, knowing that there's a lady in heaven who's making God himself wonder how He created something so perfect."

One of the most emotional moments in the service came when Keys recalled how Houston helped her and others achieve success.

"She reached back to so many people; she reached back to me, to Monica and Brandy ... and just made us feel strong and capable and loved," she said.

Keys ended her tribute to Houston by singing "Send Me an Angel," her voice soaring into the rafters of the sanctuary.

Oprah Winfrey, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Spike Lee were among those who attended.

"It wasn't until the very last moment that you pinched yourself and said, 'There's Oprah Winfrey with a face full of tears, there's Tyler Perry with a face full of tears," said Johnson, recalling the moment that Houston's casket was carried out of the church. "It all really sunk in and got really, really heavy."

Houston's former husband, Bobby Brown, also arrived at the service but left soon after. Brown walked by Houston's casket with his head down before the service began and then left. Brown accused security of treating his family badly and barring him from visiting with his daughter, an account that Houston's family denied.

Brown was expected to attend with two guests but showed up with 10 people and sat in a section reserved for family, a close friend of the Houston family told CNN on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

When Brown refused to reseat his entourage to make room for Houston's mother, the family asked police to intervene, the family member said.

Mourners heard only a few indirect references to her personal battles.

A close family friend told CNN recently that Houston had not used "hard drugs" for several years. Investigators are examining prescription drugs found in her hotel room.

At the time of her death, Houston was in the Los Angeles area for the annual Grammy Awards and was to attend a party hosted by her longtime mentor and record producer, Clive Davis. She was discovered dead in her hotel suite at the upscale Beverly Hilton.

Investigators are contacting doctors and pharmacies across the country, seeking answers about prescriptions found in Houston's hotel room and whether they played a role in her death, a source with knowledge of the investigation recently told CNN. The source spoke on condition of anonymity citing the ongoing investigation.

Houston's death certificate is only fueling speculation after coroners deferred making a determination as to the cause of death pending the outcome of toxicology tests.

The investigation also sparked questions on her behavior during her final days, with authorities examining video from her television appearances as well as other reports to determine her physical state leading up to her death on the eve of the Grammy Awards, the source said.


Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/19/showbiz/whitney-houston/index.html