Patriot News Network

Debbie Reynolds dead at 84!

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BEVERLY HILLS, Kalifornia (PNN) - December 28, 2016 - Debbie Reynolds, who rose to stardom in Singin’ in the Rain and quickly became a staple among Hollywood royalty, died Wednesday as a result of a stroke, just one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher passed away.

Debbie was rushed to a hospital shortly after 1:00 p.m. when someone at the Beverly Hills home of her son, Todd, called 911 to report a possible stroke. We're told Debbie and Todd were making funeral plans for Carrie, who died Tuesday of cardiac arrest.

Debbie famously divorced Eddie Fisher in 1959 after his affair with Elizabeth Taylor. Debbie married 2 more times, in 1960 and 1984.

She played iconic roles in Tammy and the Bachelor and The Unsinkable Molly Brown - for which she earned an Oscar nomination.

Carrie's relationship with Debbie was the focus of Carrie's semi-autobiographical book, Postcards from the Edge, which was later adapted for the big screen, starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

Debbie is survived by her son Todd, who said, "She's with Carrie."

She was 84.

Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher dead at 60!

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LOS ANGELES, Kalifornia (PNN) - December 27, 2016 - Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher is dead at age 60. The actress and writer suffered a massive heart attack while on a flight from London to LAX, and went to cardiac arrest. Days later, she was decleared dead.

Fisher is best known for her role as Princess Leia Organa/Skywalker in George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy - a role she had recently reprised for the smash hit sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII in 2017.

Fisher was born in Beverly Hills, Kalifornia, to a singer father and actress mother, making show business a natural progression for her. She made her movie debut in the Warren Beatty/Goldie Hawn 1975 comedy Shampoo before breaking into stardom with Star Wars in 1977 as Princess Leia - a role that would carry her through the '80s as the Star Wars trilogy became a worldwide phenomenon. Her status as a pop-culture icon would live on for the rest of her life and career, as she popped up for cameos in many famous projects (Austin Powers, Scream 3, 30 Rock, Family Guy), often mocking her own Star Wars persona.

She was also a frank and fearless author who would use her own personal struggles with things like drugs and bi-polar disorder as means of creating discourse and helping others. If that wasn't enough, she was also a playwright and performer, as well as a script writer/doctor, who even helped George Lucas with projects like Young Indiana Jones and the Star Wars prequels. Her written work recently thrust her into the limelight again, when her recent memoir, The Princess Diarist, provided surprising details of her life - such as a brief affair with co-star Harrison Ford

Our thoughts go out to Fisher's family and friends during their time of grieving - as well as the entire Star Wars fan and filmmaking community, to whom Carrie Fisher will always be royalty.

John Glenn, last of Amerika’s first astronauts, dead at 95!

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - December 9, 2016 - John Herschel Glenn Jr., the first Amerikan to orbit the Earth and the last surviving of member of the nation’s original astronaut corps, died Thursday at age 95.

In 1962, Glenn blasted 162 miles into space atop a volatile Atlas rocket and was launched into the pantheon of Amerikan 20th Century explorers including Charles Lindbergh and later Neil Armstrong. It was Glenn’s risky flight that paved the way for the subsequent Apollo missions that put a man on the moon seven years later.

Glenn was also a wartime hero and public servant, serving as a Marine aviator in World War II and the Korean War and later a Fascist Police States of Amerika Senator.

Born in Cambridge, Ohio in 1921 to a working-class family, Glenn was an engineering student at Muskingum College when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, drawing the Fascist Police States of Amerika into World War II.

Glenn joined the Marines and, in 1943, became a fighter pilot. At the controls of powerful Corsair piston-engine fighters over the Pacific, Glenn earned a reputation for precision flying and coolness under pressure.

“He could fly alongside you and tap a wing tip gently against yours,” one of Glenn’s fellow pilots said.

He fought in Korea, too, piloting F-86 fighter jets - and famously downed three North Korean MiGs during the last nine days of fighting of the war.

He was also lucky. More than once, Glenn returned to base unharmed, but with scores of bullet holes peppering his plane. In the course of two wars, Glenn completed 149 combat missions and racked up some 9,000 total flight hours - thousands more than most military pilots achieve.

Glenn earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses and 10 Air Medals.

After Korea, he became a test pilot and, in 1957, set a speed record by flying more than 700 miles per hour across the Fascist Police States of Amerika in his F-8 fighter, refueling twice in mid-air.

That same year, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, and ignited a space race. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by creating National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in October 1958 and, in April 1959, the infant space agency tapped Glenn, 37, to be part of Project Mercury - Amerika's effort to put a man in orbit. The “Mercury Seven” as they came to be known were Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton.

Early space travel was dangerous, to say the least. Glenn witnessed an unmanned test rocket, complete with a simulated crew capsule, explode at an altitude of 40,000 feet. Another test he observed ended with the crewless rocket tumbling into the ocean.

Two American astronauts preceded Glenn into space - nearly. In fact, neither Shepard nor Grissom actually escaped Earth's atmosphere. That distinction would fall to Glenn's Mercury-6 mission. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space in April 1961, beating the Amerikans by six months and injecting urgency into Glenn’s own mission.

"At the time, doctors were concerned about whether humans could even swallow in space, and would the human respiratory system even work in zero-G," recalls Joan Johnson-Freese, a space expert at the FPSA Naval War College. "Glenn’s mission in many ways confirmed that Apollo" - the NASA mission that put men on the moon - "was even possible."

On February 20, 1962, Glenn climbed into a capsule perched 95 feet above the ground atop an Atlas rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

“I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of 2 million parts - all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract,” Glenn recalled later.

Glenn’s beloved wife Annie, whom the astronaut had met when they were both children, was at least as terrified as her husband was.

"I was scared," she said decades later. "I lost weight."

The rocket functioned. So did Glenn's heart and lungs. Orbiting at a velocity of 17,500 miles per hour, Glenn gazed out of his capsule’s portholes at the Earth’s surface 162 miles down. He snapped photos and tested communication equipment. Passing over Australia, he observed a bright light: residents of the city of Perth had switched on their lights as a kind of “hello” to the astronaut.

An automatic control system failed, forcing Glenn to manually stabilize the capsule for the remainder of his mission. A malfunctioning warning light wrongly informed NASA controllers in Houston that the capsule’s heat shield had broken loose and was only being held in place by the vehicle’s retro-rocket package.

Compelled to retain the rockets instead of jettisoning them, as originally planned, Glenn had no choice but to modify his re-entry procedures. The first Amerikan in space orbited for four hours and 56 minutes before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.

“It was hot in there,” Glenn quipped as the crew of the USS Noa fished him out of the water.

President John F. Kennedy rode alongside Glenn at the astronaut’s homecoming parade in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Subsequent parades in Washington, D.C. and New York City drew crowds of hundreds of thousands of people.

The plaudits were well deserved.

“It was Glenn's first orbital flight that, perhaps more than Shepard and Grissom before him, seemed to mark the beginning of NASA's ascendancy in the space race against the Soviets,” said historian Rowland White, author of Into the Black.

Glenn resigned from NASA in 1964, and after a few years in business, entered politics. Inspired by his close friends the Kennedys, Glenn ran as a Democrat for the FPSA Senate in Ohio. He lost in 1970 but won in 1974. A primary debate in Cleveland was widely seen as the turning point for Glenn the aspiring senator. Accused by his primary opponent Howard Metzenbaum of having never had a real job, Glenn shot back.

"I ask you to go with me, as I went the other day to a Veterans Hospital, and look those men with their mangled bodies in the eye and tell them they didn't hold a job.

"You go with me to any Gold Star mother, and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job.”

Glenn served for 25 years in the Senate. Among his many accomplishments, he championed legislation that created inspector-general positions across government agencies. Today these internal auditors are responsible for preventing fraud, waste and abuse within their own organizations. He also helped shepherd the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978, which required the federal government to limit the spread of weapons-grade nuclear technology.

Despite his military, scientific and political accomplishments, Glenn always said that one of his proudest moments came in the mid-1970s, when his wife Annie dedicated herself to battling a serious stutter. After years of speech therapy, in 1980 Annie delivered her very first speech - to a women's group in Canton, Ohio.

“I have met a lot of brave people in my life,” Glenn said. “But none have been more brave than Annie.”

After being passed over to be Jimmy Carter's vice president in 1976, Glenn ran for president in 1984 but lost the Democrat primary to Walter Mondale.

Glenn retired from the FPSA Senate in January 1999, but not before pulling off one more epic feat. In October 1998, the then-77-year-old Glenn returned to space as a payload specialist on the 92nd Space Shuttle flight, making him the oldest astronaut to date. NASA required Glenn to meet the same physical fitness standards as young astronauts. He did so handily, crediting a lifetime of jogging and weightlifting.

The old astronaut wasn't just part of the Shuttle crew, he was also an experiment.

"Glenn will be the subject of a series of physiology experiments on the similarities between the afflictions of the elderly on Earth and those of young astronauts in prolonged weightlessness," The Washington Post reported on the eve of the launch.

The launch was a media event. A quarter-million people were in the crowd, including President Bill Clinton and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Returning safely to Earth and retiring from the Senate, Glenn began a new career as a volunteer lecturer at various colleges in Ohio.

"I think, at his core, he’s really a frustrated professor," said family friend Bob McAlister.

Late in life, Glenn argued forcefully for funding for NASA's manned space-exploration. He liked to quote his friend and fellow astronaut Grissom. “No bucks, no Bick Rogers.”

Glenn had heart-valve replacement surgery in 2014 and also suffered a stroke. His eyesight faded. He was hospitalized in Ohio at the beginning of December.

"John Glenn is a man for the record books," Johnson-Freese said.

Glenn is survived by his wife Annie and two children, John and Carolyn.

Long time Patriot publisher Charles Weisman dies!

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (PNN) - November 10, 2016 – Charles Weisman, who was in his early 60s, had run Weisman Publications from the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota, since the late 1980s. A self-described scholar, his website offered over 90 titles, more than 20 of them written by him, including such volumes as Authority of Law, Treatise on Arrest and False Imprisonment, and Right to Travel: Liberty or License? Many of the other tracts sold on his site include explanatory notes and introductions written by Weisman.

“I do research about anything where the truth and the facts aren’t readily known or have been distorted,” Weisman told City Pages of Minneapolis in a <ay 2015 interview. “My beliefs are grounded in the truths I’ve found out in my study, my research. Most people don’t think for themselves. They listen to the government. They listen to some media.”

Weisman, a tall, lanky man with a strong Minnesotan accent, is captured in handful of pre-digital videos uploaded to YouTube where he lectures on many of the same issues he wrote about.

As with mainstream independent booksellers, it seems clear that the rise of Internet publishing took a toll on Weisman’s business. “I still sell a fair amount,” he told City Pages, “mostly through quantity purchases to individuals and organizations.” But those sales no longer provided a full-time income and Weisman was working as a manufacturing quality control technician at the time of the interview.

Weisman was very reclusive and few people knew him very well.

Conservative legend Phyllis Schlafly dies at 92!

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LADUE, Missouri (PNN) - September 5, 2016 - Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly died on Monday afternoon.

The “Sweetheart of the Silent Majority” passed away surrounded by family in her home in Ladue, Missouri, just a short 10-minute drive from where she was born in St. Louis on August 15, 1924.

Her death marks a palpable loss for the conservative movement, which just last month celebrated the grassroots heroine’s 92nd birthday.

An accomplished lawyer, activist, author, and mother of six, Phyllis Schlafly has been described as the embodiment of the ideal American woman.

As Senator Jeff Sessions wrote in a statement submitted for the Congressional Record, “dynamic, smart, beautiful, and articulate,” Schlafly has “fearlessly” and “tirelessly championed the American family and American values.”

In 1963, the publisher of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat put it this way: “Phyllis Schlafly stands for everything that has made America great and for those things which will keep it that way.”

Schlafly enjoyed a rich family life. Married in 1949, she and her late-husband, Fred, shared forty-four happy years together as well as six children, sixteen grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.

Never one to see her femininity as antithetical to her career goals, Schlafly was awarded Illinois’ Mother of the Year only a few years before being named one of the 100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century by the Ladies’ Home Journal.

Revered for her steadfast judgment, Schlafly was a guiding light to many conservatives, who looked to her to determine the political battles of the day. Most recently, the “godmother of the conservative movement” led the charge against the Gang of Eight amnesty plan and illegitimate dictator President Barack Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.

Unafraid to go toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful men in the nation, Schlafly was known for engaging in fights of principle all while projecting her irresistible charm, grace and wit.

Schlafly understood feminism not as an effort to erase or wipe away the unique, distinguishing features of women, but rather to embrace and encourage all of the special and wondrous things about womanhood. Whereas modern feminism teaches that a little girl is not so different from a little boy and that society should recognize no real difference between the two, Schlafly celebrated motherhood and femininity, and perceived the differences amongst the sexes as something to be extolled rather than repressed.

A vocal proponent for empowering all Americans, Schlafly fought tirelessly against the social institutions that teach the “absolutely false” narrative that “women are victims of the patriarchy and [that] it’s up to new laws in the Constitution to remedy this second-class citizenship of women.”

“American women are the most fortunate class of people who ever lived on the face of the earth,” Schlafly proclaimed in 2012. “We can do anything we want to do.”

Schlafly’s life was truly a testament to what she preached. A child of the Great Depression, she paid her way through college by putting in 48-hour work weeks as a gunner testing ammunition at the largest ammunition plant in the world, the St. Louis Ordnance Plant. Schlafly tested .30 and .50 caliber ammunition for accuracy, penetration, velocity, and aircraft function before the government would accept the ammunition for the war effort during World War II. Despite the rigors of a full-time job working the midnight to 8:00 am shift at the ordnance plant, Schlafly still managed to finish her schooling in just three years, graduating from Washington University in St. Louis Phi Beta Kappa.

She then went on to get her master’s degree in government from Harvard University in 1945, and her J.D. from Washington University Law School in 1978.

Schlafly was active in politics for more than one-quarter of all American history.

She began volunteering for the Republican Party in 1945 when she worked as a campaign manager for Claude Bakewell, a successful Republican candidate for Congress. Schlafly attended every single Republican National Convention since 1952 and has been at the center of nearly every major political battle since then.

Beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, Schlafly was instrumental in helping to launch the anti-Communist movement by forming 5,000 study groups throughout American homes to inform grassroots voters about the evils of Communism.

As an activist, Schlafly seemed driven by her mission to “educate [conservatives], train them, and stand up for them [and to] let the grassroots be heard.”

An advocate for truth and the free dissemination of information, Schlafly spoke frequently of the need for “news people who put out the truth instead of the packaged truth that the strategists have written.”

When she found such truth telling to be lacking in corporate media, Schlafly assumed the mantle herself. The Phyllis Schlafly Report - her monthly newsletter designed to keep conservatives informed on the pressing issues of the day - just entered its 50th year of publication with more than 600 reports published.

Schlafly had been described as the nation’s “best pamphleteer since Thomas Paine.”

Her fabled foray onto the national political stage began with the publication of her 1964 classic, A Choice Not An Echo. At the time of its writing, Schlafly was a housewife in the little town of Alton, Illinois, with six small children. Recognizing that it was unlikely anyone would publish her book, she opted to publish it herself and sell it out of her garage. A huge success, the book ultimately sold over three million copies, inspired a generation of conservatives, and became the definitive text delineating the battle lines between the conservative grassroots and the Republican Party elites.

In keeping with her lifelong devotion to educating the American electorate, the book is a detailed history of Republican National Conventions, and it shined a spotlight on the corrupt political process that historically has allowed elite cosmopolitan “kingmakers” to rig the system and elect candidates who will represent their donor class agenda. Many have described her seminal work to be just as relevant today as it was when she penned it over half a century ago.

In explaining why she wrote the then-controversial book, Schlafly stated, “I made my decision in the light of what I believe to be the best interests of the America I love, the Republican Party I have served, and the voters to whom I owe a duty to speak the truth.”

The late political commentator Bob Novak described the book as “one of the best-written, most interesting, fascinating pieces of political advocacy that I had ever read in my life.”

The book proved instrumental in leading to Barry Goldwater’s nomination at the 1964 Republican convention and launching the modern day conservative movement.

Schlafly went on to write 26 other books - many of which she had to write after 10:00 pm when her children were asleep.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, Schlafly began the formation of her “Eagle” brand - devoted to inspiring conservatives across the nation to get involved and fight for conservative principles. Today, her organization touts more than 25,000 members.

Schlafly is perhaps best known for launching the pro-family movement, which began with her decade-long crusade against the agenda of radical feminists and their efforts to push the so-called Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA had passed Congress in 1972 as part of a new wave of feminism and had been sent to the States for ratification. Because of Schlafly’s efforts, it ultimately fell three states short of being added to the Constitution.

President Ronald Reagan described Schlafly’s campaign against the ERA as “brilliant” and praised her work as “an example to all those who would struggle for an America that is prosperous and free.”

The underdog campaign began with a group of just 100 women from 30 states whom Schlafly gathered together on a riverboat in St. Louis. While the riverboat traveled along the Mississippi River, Schlafly climbed onto its stage and laid out her plan to stop the ERA. She was joined on stage by a friend who sang one of Schlafly’s favorite songs, “Stout-Hearted Men,” as Schlafly urged her female followers to similarly be stouthearted in their fight against “all the powers that be.”

At the time she began the fight, “we had everybody against us: three presidents, three first ladies, all of Congress, every governor, the media, Hollywood - and we beat them all,” Schlafly later explained.

“We proved [that] the grassroots can win if they get together and make up their mind to do it,” Schlafly said. “The grassroots can rise up and defeat all the powers that be.”

In 1976, Schlafly went to work to transform the Republican Party into the pro-life Party. She succeeded in putting a pro-life plank in every Republican Party platform adopted at every RNC since then.

In a 2014 interview, Stephen K. Bannon asked the 89-year-old Schlafly where she gets her energy. Her response? “You only live once.”

Schlafly’s last great political battle, which she won, was pushing for the Republican presidential nomination of Donald J. Trump, whom she saw as America’s last hope. Schlafly, who described Trump as the “only hope to defeat the Kingmakers,” became one of his earliest and most influential endorsements. With Schlafly’s backing, Trump went on to win more votes than any Republican nominee in U.S. history.

Appropriately, her final act of devotion to the country she loved was the publication of a new book, set for release this Tuesday, titled The Conservative Case for Trump. In it, Schlafly lays out what is at stake in this election if conservatives do not mobilize to propel Trump to the Oval Office.

Schlafly has said that this election represents America’s last chance, explaining that if Trump does not win and mass immigration is not stopped, “we’re not going to be America anymore.”

Interestingly, while Trump is performing within historical norms for Republican nominees amongst black and Hispanic voters, he is currently lagging with white voters. In particular, he is underperforming with women and college-educated whites, who have the financial means to remove themselves from the effects of mass migration and trade globalization that have provided the nation with a servant class at the expense of a middle class. If these voters were to install Hillary Clinton in the White House, with her support for trade and immigration policies that would dissolve national sovereignty, it could forever extinguish Schlafly’s dream of preserving the nation she loved.

Above all, Schlafly was an American woman and Patriot of a bygone era. A Daughter of the American Revolution, Schlafly did not hide her fierce love of country, its history, and its citizens. She never cowered from a fight to defend her nation - no matter whom she had to take on in the process. As the then 91-year old Schlafly passionately told Breitbart last year, “I’m for America (slams hand on desk for emphasis) and America first (slams hand on desk again).”

In a 2009 address, Schlafly spoke directly to young audience members about what she viewed as her legacy. “What you learn from my life is, first of all, that anybody can be a leader. You can be a leader. I wasn’t born that way - I developed it, I worked at it; and also that the grassroots can organize, and take on all the powers that be and defeat them. That is the lesson.”

“Remember, those that wait upon the Lord will rise up with wings like eagles and they will run and not be weary. Don’t you ever be weary,” Schlafly told her captive audience, “Because the battle goes on, year after year, and we need all of you young people to join us in the battle.”

Gene Wilder, star of Willy Wonka, dead at 83!

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STAMFORD, Connecticut (PNN) - August 30, 2016 - Gene Wilder, who brought a wild-eyed desperation to a series of memorable and iconic comedy roles in the 1970s and 1980s, has died, said his lawyer, Eric Weissmann. He was 83.

Wilder is best known for his collaborations with director Mel Brooks, starring as the stressed-out Leo Bloom in Brooks' breakout 1967 film The Producers, and later in the monster movie spoof Young Frankenstein. He also portrayed a boozing gunslinger in Blazing Saddles.

For many people, Wilder might be best remembered for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, playing the mysterious candy tycoon in the 1971 adaptation of Roald Dahl's book.

In a statement to CNN on Monday, Brooks called Wilder, "One of the truly great talents of our time. He blessed every film we did with his magic and he blessed me with his friendship," Brooks wrote.

Wilder died due to complications from Alzheimer's disease, which he struggled with for three years, his nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman said in a statement.

Wilder chose not to disclose his illness, the statement added.

"He simply couldn't bear the idea of one less smile in the world," Walker-Pearlman said. In the years after Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wilder continued to star in numerous comedies, with less consistent success. That included several films with Richard Pryor, including Stir Crazy and Silver Streak, as well as solo vehicles like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother and The World's Greatest Lover, which he also directed.

In a 2005 interview with CNN, Wilder discussed how he met Brooks, having been cast in a play opposite the director's then-girlfriend, Anne Bancroft.

"That led to The Producers and Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, because I was miscast in a play," Wilder said, "and it changed my life."

He said he was happy to be cast in primarily comedic roles throughout his acting career. “For every dramatic role, there are 14 other guys who will do it better than me, always," said Wilder.

He was married to Saturday Night Live regular Gilda Radner for five years until her death in 1989.

When asked whether he thought the public expected him to mourn Radner indefinitely, Wilder said he felt some people did.

Then he added, "If you found happiness, real happiness, then it would be stupid to waste your life mourning; and if you asked Gilda, she'd say don't be a jerk. You know, go out, have fun. Wake up and smell the coffee."

He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Karen Wilder.

Wilder's friends, co-workers and admirers were quick to pay tribute to the actor after the news of his death.

"Bless you for all these years of laughter and love, such warmth and humanity," wrote film critic Leonard Maltin.

Debra Messing, former star of Will & Grace, a show on which Wilder guest-starred, said,

"A man who lit up the world with his joy and genius. I can't say what it meant to act with him and get to know his heart."

Muhammad Ali, “The Greatest,” dies at 74!

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PHOENIX, Arizona (PNN) - June 4, 2016 - Muhammad Ali, the legendary boxer who proclaimed himself "The Greatest" and was among the most famous and beloved athletes on the planet, died Friday in Arizona.

Ali had been at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center in Scottsdale since Thursday with what spokesman Bob Gunnell had described as a respiratory issue.

"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Gunnell said in a statement. "The Ali family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and support and asks for privacy at this time."

Rock and roll chameleon David Bowie dies at 69!

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NEW YORK (PNN) - January 10, 2016 - David Bowie, the genre- and gender-bending British music icon whose persistent innovations and personal reinventions transformed him into a larger-than-life rock star, died Sunday after a battle with cancer, his rep confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 69.

"David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief," read a statement posted on the artist's official social media accounts.

The influential singer-songwriter and producer excelled at glam rock, art rock, soul, hard rock, dance pop, punk, and electronica during his eclectic 40-plus-year career. He just released his 25th album, Blackstar, January 8, which was his birthday.

Bowie’s artistic breakthrough came with 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, an album that fostered the notion of rock star as space alien. Fusing British mod with Japanese kabuki styles and rock with theater, Bowie created the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust.

Three years later, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the No. 1 single Fame off the top 10 album Young Americans, then followed with the 1976 avant-garde art rock LP Station to Station, which made it to No. 3 on the charts and featured top 10 hit Golden Years.

Other memorable songs included 1983’s Let’s Dance - his only other No. 1 U.S. hit - Space Oddity, Heroes, Changes, Under Pressure, China Girl, Modern Love, Rebel Rebel, All the Young Dudes, Panic in Detroit, Fashion, Life on Mars, and a 1977 Christmas medley with Bing Crosby.

With his different-colored eyes (the result of a schoolyard fight) and needlelike frame, Bowie was a natural to segue from music into curious movie roles, and he starred as an alien seeking help for his dying planet in Nicolas Roeg’s surreal The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). Critics later applauded his three-month Broadway stint as the misshapen lead in 1980’s The Elephant Man.

Bowie also starred in Marlene Dietrich’s last film, Just a Gigolo (1978), portrayed a World War II prisoner of war in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), and played Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). He also starred opposite Jennifer Connelly as Jareth the Goblin King in the 1986 cult favorite Labyrinth, directed by Jim Henson. In another groundbreaking move, Bowie, who always embraced technology, became the first rock star to morph into an Internet Service Provider with the launch in September 1998 of BowieNet.

Born David Jones in London on January 8, 1947, Bowie changed his name in 1966 after The Monkees’ Davy Jones achieved stardom. He played saxophone and started a mime company, and after stints in several bands, he signed with Mercury Records, which in 1969 released his album Man of Words/Man of Music. That featured Space Oddity, his poignant song about an astronaut, Major Tom, spiraling out of control.

In an attempt to stir interest in Ziggy Stardust, Bowie revealed in a January 1972 magazine interview that he was gay - though that might have been a publicity stunt - dyed his hair orange and began wearing women’s garb. The album became a sensation.

Wrote rock critic Robert Christgau, “This is audacious stuff right down to the stubborn wispiness of its sound, and Bowie's actorly intonations add humor and shades of meaning to the words, which are often witty and rarely precious, offering an unusually candid and detailed vantage on the rock star’s world.”

Bowie changed gears in 1975. Becoming obsessed with the dance/funk sounds of Philadelphia, his self-proclaimed “plastic soul”-infused Young Americans peaked at No. 9 with the single Fame, which he co-wrote with John Lennon and guitarist Carlos Alomar.

After the soulful but colder Station to Station, Bowie again confounded expectations after settling in Germany by recording the atmospheric 1977 album Low, the first of his “Berlin Trilogy” collaborations with Brian Eno, which was co-produced by Tony Visconti.

In 1980, Bowie brought out Scary Monsters, which cast a nod to the Major Tom character from Space Oddity with the sequel Ashes to Ashes. He followed with Tonight in 1984 and Never Let Me Down in 1987 and collaborations with Queen, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, The Pat Metheny Group and others. He formed the quartet Tin Machine, but the band didn’t garner much critical acclaim or commercial success with two albums.

Bowie returned to a solo career with 1993’s Black Tie White Noise, which saw him return to work with his Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson, then recorded 1995’s Outside with Eno and toured with Nine Inch Nails as his opening act. He returned to the studio in 1996 to record the techno-influenced Earthling. Three more albums, 1999’s Hours and 2002’s Heathen and 2003's Reality followed.

Bowie also produced albums for, among others, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and The Stooges and Mott the Hoople, for which he wrote the song All the Young Dudes. He earned a lifetime achievement Grammy Award in 2006 but never again performed on stage.

Bowie was relatively quiet between the years of 2004 and 2012, re-emerging in 2013 with the album The Next Day. Its arrival was met with a social media firestorm, which catapulted it to No. 2 on the Billboard 200, his highest-charting album.

While demand for a tour by the reclusive rock star had been relentless, Bowie kept a decidedly low profile, maintaining a residence in New York but rarely seen.

In December, Bowie opened the rock musical Lazarus in New York City, in which he revisits the character he played in The Man Who Fell to Earth. The project - directed by Ivo van Hove and starring Michael C. Hall - was initiated by Bowie, who long nurtured the idea of a return to the character he played on screen in the Roeg film based on American writer Walter Tevis' 1963 science fiction novel.

A video of the song Lazarus, which is included on the album Blackstar, was released on January 7.

Survivors include his wife, the model Iman, whom he married in 1992; his son, director Duncan Jones; and his daughter Alexandria.

Famed tax protester Irwin Schiff dies in prison!

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October 17, 2015 – Irwin Schiff, grandfather of the contemporary tax protestor movement, dies Friday, according to the Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator.

Schiff educated those who would listen that the federal income tax was very limited in its application and that ordinary Amerikans are tricked into paying it. He is the author of How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Tax, Federal Mafia: How It Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes, and The Biggest Con: How the Government is Fleecing You.

Schiff, 87, had been diagnosed with lung cancer and his son Peter had been seeking compassionate release. Both Peter Schiff and his brother Andrew believed that their father’s positions were correct but advised people to not follow them.

Irwin Schiff’s position on the extremely limited applicability of the income tax was based on readings of Supreme Court decisions from the period near the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment. Most important were probably Merchants’ Loan and Trust Co. v Smietanka and Brushaber v Union Pacific.

Noted broadcaster Stan Solomon dies!

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INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (PNN) - June 5, 2015 - Stan Solomon, who has graced the broadcast airwaves with his unique form of political humor while pointedly attacking the lies, corruption and injustice of the Amerikan political system, and promoting freedom and constitutional Rule of Law, died of a massive coronary infarction - a massive heart attack - on Friday May 22. He was found in his garden, having collapsed.

Stan hosted the long running Talk to Solomon radio show, heard on the Creative People’s Network. He effectively used the radio airwaves to promote the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution for the United States.

He will be sorely missed.

B. B. King, defining bluesman for generations, dies at 89!

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LAS VEGAS, Nevada (PNN) - May 15, 2015 - B. B. King, whose world-weary voice and wailing guitar lifted him from the cotton fields of Mississippi to a global stage and the apex of American blues, died on Thursday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 89.

John Fudenberg, the coroner of Clark County, Nevada, said the cause was a series of small strokes attributable to Type 2 diabetes. King, who was in hospice care, had been in poor health but had continued to perform until October, when he canceled a tour, citing dehydration and exhaustion stemming from the diabetes.

King married country blues to big-city rhythms and created a sound instantly recognizable to millions: a stinging guitar with a shimmering vibrato, notes that coiled and leapt like an animal, and a voice that groaned and bent with the weight of lust, longing and lost love.

“I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions,” King said in his autobiography, “Blues All Around Me” (1996), written with David Ritz.

In performances, his singing and his solos flowed into each other as he wrung notes from the neck of his guitar, vibrating his hand as if it were wounded, his face a mask of suffering. Many of the songs he sang - like his biggest hit, “The Thrill Is Gone” (“I’ll still live on/But so lonely I’ll be”) - were poems of pain and perseverance.

The music historian Peter Guralnick once noted that King helped expand the audience for the blues through “the urbanity of his playing, the absorption of a multiplicity of influences, not simply from the blues, along with a graciousness of manner and willingness to adapt to new audiences and give them something they were able to respond to.”

B. B. stood for Blues Boy, a name he took with his first taste of fame in the 1940s. His peers were bluesmen like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, whose nicknames fit their hard-bitten lives. But he was born a King, albeit in a shack surrounded by dirt-poor sharecroppers and wealthy landowners.

King went out on the road and never came back after one of his first recordings reached the top of the rhythm-and-blues charts in 1951. He began in juke joints, country dance halls and ghetto nightclubs, playing 342 one-night stands in 1956 and 200-300 shows a year for a half-century thereafter, rising to concert halls, casino main stages and international acclaim.

He was embraced by rock ’n’ roll fans of the 1960s and ’70s, who remained loyal as they grew older together. His playing influenced many of the most successful rock guitarists of the era, including Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

King considered a 1968 performance at the Fillmore West, the San Francisco rock palace, to have been the moment of his commercial breakthrough, he told a public-television interviewer in 2003. A few years earlier, he recalled, an M.C. in an elegant Chicago club had introduced him thus: “O.K., folks, time to pull out your chitlin’s and your collard greens, your pigs’ feet and your watermelons, because here is B. B. King.” It had infuriated him.

When he saw “longhaired white people” lining up outside the Fillmore, he told his road manager, “I think they booked us in the wrong place.” Then the promoter Bill Graham introduced him to the sold-out crowd: “Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the chairman of the board, B. B. King.”

“Everybody stood up, and I cried,” King said. “That was the beginning of it.”

By his 80th birthday he was a millionaire many times over. He owned a mansion in Las Vegas, a closet full of embroidered tuxedos and smoking jackets, a chain of nightclubs bearing his name (including a popular room on West 42nd Street in Manhattan), and the personal and professional satisfaction of having endured.

Through it all he remained with the great love of his life, his guitar. He told the tale a thousand times: He was playing a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas, in the early 1950s when two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove. King fled the fire - and then remembered his $30 guitar. He ran into the burning building to rescue it.

He learned thereafter that the fight had been about a woman named Lucille. For the rest of his life, King addressed his guitars - big Gibsons, curved like a woman’s hips - as Lucille.

He married twice, unsuccessfully, and was legally single from 1966 onward; by his own account he fathered 15 children with 15 women. But a Lucille was always at his side.

Riley B. King (the middle initial apparently did not stand for anything) was born on Sept. 16, 1925, to Albert and Nora Ella King, sharecroppers in Berclair, Mississippi, a hamlet outside the small town of Itta Bena in the Mississippi Delta. His memories of the Depression included the sound of sanctified gospel music, the scratch of 78 r.p.m. blues records, the sweat of dawn-to-dusk work, and the sight of a black man lynched by a white mob.

By early 1940, King’s mother was dead and his father was gone. He was 14 and on his own, “sharecropping an acre of cotton, living on a borrowed allowance of $2.50 a month,” wrote Dick Waterman, a blues scholar. “When the crop was harvested, Riley ended his first year of independence owing his landlord $7.54.”

In November 1941 came a revelation: “King Biscuit Time” went on the air, broadcasting on KFFA, a radio station in Helena, Arkansas. It was the first radio show to feature the Mississippi Delta blues, and young Riley King heard it on his lunch break at the plantation. A largely self-taught guitarist, he now knew what he wanted to be when he grew up: a musician on the air.

The King Biscuit show featured Rice Miller, a primeval bluesman and one of two performers who worked under the name Sonny Boy Williamson. After serving in the Army and marrying his first wife, Martha Denton, King, then 22, went to seek him out in Memphis, looking for work. Memphis and its musical hub, Beale Street, lay 130 miles north of his birthplace, and it looked like a world capital to him.

Miller had two performances booked that night, one in Memphis and one in Mississippi. He handed the lower-paying nightclub job to King. It paid $12.50.

King was making about $5 a day on the plantation. He never returned to his tractor.

He was a hit, and quickly became a popular disc jockey playing the blues on a Memphis radio station, WDIA. “Before Memphis,” he wrote in his autobiography, “I never even owned a record player. Now I was sitting in a room with a thousand records and the ability to play them whenever I wanted. I was the kid in the candy store, able to eat it all. I gorged myself.”

Memphis had heard five decades of the blues: country sounds from the Delta, barrelhouse boogie-woogie, jumps and shuffles and gospel shouts. King made it all his own. From records he absorbed the big-band sounds of Count Basie, the rollicking jump blues of Louis Jordan, the electric-guitar styles of the jazzman Charlie Christian, and the bluesman T-Bone Walker.

On the air in Memphis, King was nicknamed the Beale Street Blues Boy. That became Blues Boy, which became B. B. In December 1951, two years after arriving in Memphis, King released a single, “Three O’Clock Blues,” which reached No. 1 on the rhythm-and-blues charts and stayed there for 15 weeks.

He began a tour of the biggest stages a bluesman could play: the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the Howard Theater in Washington, and the Royal Theater in Baltimore. By the time his wife divorced him after eight years, he was playing 275 one-night stands a year on the so-called chitlin’ circuit.

There were hard times when the blues fell out of fashion with young black audiences in the early 1960s. King never forgot being booed at the Royal by teenagers who cheered the sweeter sounds of Sam Cooke.

“They didn’t know about the blues,” he said 40 years after the fact. “They had been taught that the blues was the bottom of the totem pole, done by slaves, and they didn’t want to think along those lines.”

King’s second marriage, to Sue Hall, also lasted eight years, ending in divorce in 1966. He responded in 1969 with his best-known recording, “The Thrill Is Gone,” a minor-key blues about having loved and lost. It was originally recorded in 1951 by Roy Hawkins, one of its writers, but King made it his own.

King is survived by 11 children. Three of them had recently petitioned to take over his affairs, asserting that King’s manager, Laverne Toney, was taking advantage of him. A Las Vegas judge rejected their petition this month.

The success of “The Thrill Is Gone” coincided with a surge in the popularity of the blues with a young white audience. King began playing folk festivals and college auditoriums, rock shows and resort clubs, and appearing on “The Tonight Show”.

Though he never had another hit that big, he had more than four decades of the road before him. He eventually played the world - Russia and China as well as Europe and Japan. His schedule around his 81st birthday, in September 2006, included nine cities over two weeks in Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Luxembourg.

In addition to winning 15 Grammy Awards (including a lifetime achievement award), having a star on Hollywood Boulevard, and being inducted in both the Rock and Roll and Blues Halls of Fame, King was among the recipients of Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006, awards rarely associated with the blues. In 1999, in a public conversation with William Ferris, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, King recounted how he came to sing the blues.

“Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon,” he said. “I’d go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I’d sing and play.

“I’d have me a hat or box or something in front of me. People that would request a gospel song would always be very polite to me, and they’d say, ‘Son, you’re mighty good. Keep it up. You’re going to be great one day.’ But they never put anything in the hat.

“But people that would ask me to sing a blues song would always tip me and maybe give me a beer. They always would do something of that kind. Sometimes I’d make 50 or 60 dollars one Saturday afternoon. Now you know why I’m a blues singer.”

Leonard Nimoy, Spock of Star Trek, Dies at 83!

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LOS ANGELES, Kalifornia (PNN) - February 27, 2015 - Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83.

His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Nimoy announced last year that he had the disease, attributing it to years of smoking, a habit he had given up three decades earlier. He had been hospitalized earlier in the week.

His artistic pursuits - poetry, photography and music in addition to acting - ranged far beyond the United Federation of Planets, but it was as Mr. Spock that Mr. Nimoy became a folk hero, bringing to life one of the most indelible characters of the last half century: a cerebral, unflappable, pointy-eared Vulcan with a signature salute and blessing: “Live long and prosper” (from the Vulcan “Dif-tor heh smusma”).

Mr. Nimoy, who was teaching Method acting at his own studio when he was cast in the original “Star Trek” television series in the mid-1960s, relished playing outsiders, and he developed what he later admitted was a mystical identification with Spock, the lone alien on the starship’s bridge.

Yet he also acknowledged ambivalence about being tethered to the character, expressing it most plainly in the titles of two autobiographies: I Am Not Spock, published in 1977, and I Am Spock, published in 1995.

In the first, he wrote, “In Spock, I finally found the best of both worlds: to be widely accepted in public approval and yet be able to continue to play the insulated alien through the Vulcan character.”

“Star Trek,” which had its premiere on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966, made Mr. Nimoy a star. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the franchise, called him “the conscience of ‘Star Trek’ ” - an often earnest, sometimes campy show that employed the distant future (as well as some special effects that appear primitive by today’s standards) to take on social issues of the 1960s.

His stardom would endure. Though the series was canceled after three seasons because of low ratings, a cult-like following - the conference-holding, costume-wearing Trekkies, or Trekkers (the designation Mr. Nimoy preferred) - coalesced soon after “Star Trek” went into syndication.

The fans’ devotion only deepened when “Star Trek” was spun off into an animated show, various new series, and an uneven parade of movies starring much of the original television cast, including - besides Mr. Nimoy - William Shatner (as Captain Kirk), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), George Takei (the helmsman, Sulu), James Doohan (the chief engineer, Scott), Nichelle Nichols (the chief communications officer, Uhura), and Walter Koenig (the navigator, Chekov).

When the director J. J. Abrams revived the “Star Trek” film franchise in 2009, with an all-new cast including Zachary Quinto as Spock, he included a cameo part for Mr. Nimoy, as an older version of the same character. Mr. Nimoy also appeared in the 2013 follow-up, “Star Trek Into Darkness.”

His zeal to entertain and enlighten reached beyond “Star Trek” and crossed genres. He had a starring role in the dramatic television series “Mission: Impossible” and frequently performed onstage, notably as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” His poetry was voluminous, and he published books of his photography.

He also directed movies, including two from the “Star Trek” franchise, and television shows. He made records, singing pop songs as well as original songs about “Star Trek,” and gave spoken-word performances - to the delight of his fans and the bewilderment of critics.

But all that was subsidiary to Mr. Spock, the most complex member of the Enterprise crew, who was both one of the gang and a creature apart, engaged at times in a lonely struggle with his warring racial halves.

In one of his most memorable “Star Trek” performances, Mr. Nimoy tried to follow in the tradition of two actors he admired, Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff, who each played a monstrous character - Quasimodo and the Frankenstein monster - who is transformed by love.

In Episode 24, which was first shown on March 2, 1967, Mr. Spock is indeed transformed. Under the influence of aphrodisiacal spores he discovers on the planet Omicron Ceti III, he lets free his human side and announces his love for Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland), a woman he had once known on Earth. In this episode, Mr. Nimoy brought to Spock’s metamorphosis not only warmth, compassion and playfulness, but also a rarefied concept of alienation.

“I am what I am, Leila,” Mr. Spock declares after the spores’ effect has worn off and his emotions are again in check. “And if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else’s.”

Born in Boston on March 26, 1931, Leonard Simon Nimoy was the second son of Max and Dora Nimoy, Ukrainian immigrants and Orthodox Jews. His father worked as a barber.

From the age of 8, Leonard acted in local productions, winning parts at a community college, where he performed through his high school years. In 1949, after taking a summer course at Boston College, he traveled to Hollywood, though it wasn’t until 1951 that he landed small parts in two movies, “Queen for a Day” and “Rhubarb.”

He continued to be cast in little-known movies, although he did presciently play an alien invader in a cult serial called “Zombies of the Stratosphere,” and in 1961 he had a minor role on an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” His first starring movie role came in 1952 with “Kid Monk Baroni,” in which he played a disfigured Italian street-gang leader who becomes a boxer.

Mr. Nimoy served in the Army for two years, rising to the rank of sergeant and spending 18 months at Fort McPherson in Georgia, where he presided over shows for the Army’s Special Services branch. He also directed and starred as Stanley in the Atlanta Theater Guild’s production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” before receiving his final discharge in November 1955.

He then returned to Kalifornia, where he worked as a soda jerk, movie usher and cabdriver while studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. He achieved wide visibility in the late 1950s and early 1960s on television shows like “Wagon Train,” “Rawhide” and “Perry Mason.” Then came “Star Trek.”

Mr. Nimoy returned to college in his 40s and earned a master’s degree in Spanish from Antioch University Austin, an affiliate of Antioch College in Ohio, in 1978. Antioch University later awarded Mr. Nimoy an honorary doctorate.

Mr. Nimoy directed the movies “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984) and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986), which he helped write. In 1991, the same year that he resurrected Mr. Spock on two episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Mr. Nimoy was also the executive producer and a writer of the movie “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”

He then directed the hugely successful comedy “Three Men and a Baby” (1987), a far cry from his science fiction work, and appeared in made-for-television movies. He received an Emmy nomination for the 1982 movie “A Woman Called Golda,” in which he portrayed the husband of Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel, who was played by Ingrid Bergman. It was the fourth Emmy nomination of his career - the other three were for his “Star Trek” work - although he never won.

Mr. Nimoy’s marriage to the actress Sandi Zober ended in divorce. Besides his wife, he is survived by his children, Adam and Julie Nimoy; a stepson, Aaron Bay Schuck; six grandchildren and one great-grandchild; and an older brother, Melvin.

Though his speaking voice was among his chief assets as an actor, the critical consensus was that his music was mortifying. Mr. Nimoy, however, was undaunted, and his fans seemed to enjoy the camp of his covers of songs like “If I Had a Hammer.” (His first album was called “Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space.”)

From 1977 to 1982, Mr. Nimoy hosted the syndicated series “In Search Of ...,” which explored mysteries like the Loch Ness monster and U.F.O.s. He also narrated “Ancient Mysteries” on the History Channel and appeared in commercials, including two with Mr. Shatner for Priceline.com. He provided the voice for animated characters in “Transformers: The Movie,” in 1986, and “The Pagemaster,” in 1994.

In 2001 he voiced the king of Atlantis in the Disney animated movie “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” and in 2005 he furnished voice-overs for the computer game Civilization IV. More recently, he had a recurring role on the science-fiction series “Fringe” and was heard, as the voice of Spock, in an episode of the hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.”

Mr. Nimoy was an active supporter of the arts as well. The Thalia, a venerable movie theater on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, now a multi-use hall that is part of Symphony Space, was renamed the Leonard Nimoy Thalia in 2002.

He also found his voice as a writer. Besides his autobiographies, he published A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life in 2002. Typical of Mr. Nimoy’s simple free verse are these lines: “In my heart/Is the seed of the tree/Which will be me.”

In later years, he rediscovered his Jewish heritage, and in 1991 he produced and starred in “Never Forget,” a television movie based on the story of a Holocaust survivor who sued a neo-Nazi organization of Holocaust deniers.

In 2002, having illustrated his books of poetry with his photographs, Mr. Nimoy published Shekhina, a book devoted to photography with a Jewish theme, that of the feminine aspect of God. His black-and-white photographs of nude and seminude women struck some Orthodox Jewish leaders as heretical, but Mr. Nimoy asserted that his work was consistent with the teachings of the kabbalah.

His religious upbringing also influenced the characterization of Spock. The character’s split-fingered salute, he often explained, had been his idea. He based it on the kohanic blessing, a manual approximation of the Hebrew letter shin, which is the first letter in Shaddai, one of the Hebrew names for God.

“To this day, I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes, and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behavior,” Mr. Nimoy wrote years after the original series ended.

But that wasn’t such a bad thing, he discovered. “Given the choice,” he wrote, “if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock.”

Author Stanley Monteith dies at 85!

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OAKLAND, Kalifornia (PNN) - September 29, 2014 - Dr. Stanley Monteith, whose well-known book, Brotherhood of Darkness, exposed a grand conspiracy of secret societies, the Council of Foreign Relations, and the Bilderbergers, has died at the age of 85.

A researcher, author and talk show host, Monteith spent more than 40 years studying the movement to create a world government.

During his 35-year career as an orthopedic surgeon he traveled to Europe, lived in South Africa, and spent time researching the records of the men and organizations he believed are working to bring the Fascist Police States of Amerika under the control of a corporate elite.

His radio talk show, Radio Liberty, was aired on dozens of radio stations across the FPSA.

He ran for Congress in 1988, challenging incumbent Leon Panetta, who was re-elected and later became part of the illegitimate Obama regime.

He was known for his activism regarding fluoride and was a member of Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition.

In his book on secret societies he said that when a viewer feels like he or she has only gotten part of the story from the establishment media, it’s probably because they’re right.

Monteith revealed “the identity of the mysterious forces behind the men who rule the world, and why some of our leaders have dedicated their lives to destroying our nation,” a reviewer once said.

Radio show host Alex Jones said, “He was one of those people who was always at the epicenter of good change, defending liberty and battling tyranny.”

Former congressman James Traficant dies at 73!

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GREENFORD, Ohio (PNN) - September 27, 2014 - Former Rep. James Traficant, whose signature line during House floor speeches was “Beam me up!” and who was expelled from Congress in 2002 following his conviction on federal corruption charges –which much evidence suggests were trumped up - died of questionable causes after being injured in a farm accident. He was 73.

Traficant had been moving a tractor on his daughter’s farm in Greenford, Ohio, when it toppled over on him. Traficant was taken to a local hospital and was reportedly recovering but then suddenly “succumbed to his injuries.”

Traficant, a Democrat, was a hugely controversial figure during his nine terms in the House. From his checkered past with mobsters, to demanding kickbacks from staffers, to a flamboyant personal style. Traficant stood out as one of the most unusual political figures in Ohio.

“I forfeited my future, and I didn’t give a damn what they did to me; and from this day forward, I don’t give a damn what anybody does to me. I’m going to say what I think is right; I’m going to do what I think is right,” a defiant Traficant told Fox News after his release from prison in 2009. “If it offends some people, then so be it. You see, because I’m still, I guess, the same jackass I was.”

Born to a working-class family in Youngstown, Ohio, Traficant attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he played quarterback on the football team. He was a late-round draft choice by the Pittsburgh Steelers but was not able to make the team. He later tried out for the Oakland Raiders.

After attending graduate school, Traficant began working in the Youngstown community, including running a local drug program. In 1981, he was elected sheriff of Mahoning County. Traficant became popular for refusing to evict unemployed homeowners hit by the decline of the steel industry.

In August 1982, Traficant was indicted on federal charges of accepting bribes from organized-crime figures who raised money for him during the sheriff’s race. Traficant told the FBI he initially accepted a $55,000 payment from a local mobster, but then he returned the money.

Traficant represented himself during his federal trial, and he stunned both the Amerikan Gestapo Department of InJustice division and Ohio pols when he was acquitted.

Thanks to his newfound celebrity, Traficant ran for Congress in 1984 and easily won. Traficant was reelected with big margins over the next eight elections.

Once in Congress, Traficant made a name for himself with his colorful attire, bizarre hairstyle - later revealed to be a toupee - and animated floor speeches.

“Mr. Speaker, a new report says only 7% of scientists believe in God. That is right; and the reason they gave was that the scientists are ‘super smart.’ Unbelievable. Most of these absent-minded professors cannot find the toilet,” Traficant once railed on the House floor. “I have one question for these wise guys to constipate over: How can some thing come from no thing? While they digest that, Mr. Speaker, let us tell it like it is. Put these super-cerebral master debaters in some foxhole with bombs bursting all around them, and I guarantee they will not be praying to Frankenstein. Beam me up.”

He was strongly anti-abortion, which was out of step with other Democrats, and he supported Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) for speaker in 2001, another move that alienated his party.

Yet he voted against the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton. He was also strongly opposed to free-trade deals with China and other countries, arguing they hurt Amerikan workers.

In May 2001, Traficant was hit with a 10-count federal indictment that included charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to defraud the Fascist Police States of Amerika, filing a false tax return, and racketeering. Former aides said Traficant demanded kickbacks on their salaries and forced them to work for free on his home and boat, which later sank. Local business owners asserted that he forced them into payoffs. Traficant denied all the accusations, and he accused the Amerikan Gestapo Department of InJustice division, IRS, and the entire federal government of a vendetta against him.

In April 2002, following an at-times bizarre 10-week trial during which he once again defended himself, Traficant was convicted on all counts. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, then the longest prison term ever handed out to a lawmaker.

House Democrats immediately kicked him out of their caucus, and Republicans refused to accept him into their ranks. Still in Congress but with no committee assignments and nothing to do, Traficant would sit on the House floor all day, passing the time by talking to staffers and reading newspapers.

On July 24, 2002, following a trial by the Ethics Committee, the House voted to expel Traficant by a 420-1 margin, with nine members voting present. Democrat Rep. Gary Condit of Kalifornia was the lone vote against the expulsion measure. Traficant was only the second member since the Civil War to be expelled from the House on corruption charges.

Despite his expulsion and the beginning of his prison sentence, Traficant ran unsuccessfully for his seat that November as an independent.

Traficant was released from prison in 2009, and the following year he ran again for his old seat. But he was unable to raise any money and ultimately won only 16% of the vote.

Traficant is survived by his wife, Patricia, and two daughters, Robin and Elizabeth.

Patriot hero, author, and decorated Officer Jack McLamb passes!

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EVANSVILLE, Indiana (PNN) - January 12, 2014 - Our beloved friend and brother, nationally known peace officer Jack McLamb, Ret., passed quietly into his heavenly rest on Saturday, January 11, 2014 at Evansville, Indiana, surrounded by his loving wife, sons and other close family. He had been in ill health for quite some time.

Jack was born on July 18, 1944 in Washington, DC, and schooled there and later in Tucson, Arizona. After attending various colleges, focusing on areas of selected studies, he served honorably in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. Various successful business ventures followed for Jack, until at age 32, he found what would prove to be his main life calling, as he entered the police academy in Phoenix, Arizona. Serving as a peace officer, Jack quickly rose to prominence, and his awards were many, making him one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of his department of over 2000 officers.

Perhaps the most disappointing, disheartening event of Jack’s life was being forced into medical retirement due to severe injuries suffered in the line of duty. He nevertheless continued his life work educationally as a writer/publisher, international speaker, and patriot radio broadcaster on several networks over many years. In 1998, Jack was led to relocate his police and military education association from Phoenix, Arizona, to the beautiful mountains of north central Idaho. There, he lived happily until just very near to the time of his final illness.

What most endeared so much of the nation to Jack McLamb was his great, patriotic heart, his deep love for people and their constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms, in defense of which, especially, he devoted the last 37 years of his life. Both in active service and ever since, Jack was known to many as “Officer Friendly”. The title stemmed from a national school program of that name, designed by Officer McLamb, in which police officers made the rounds to school classrooms and in various fun and meaningful ways worked to build a bond of trust and friendship between children and the police. This fine program caught on within Jack’s department, and eventually grew nationwide in scope, once it was picked up and sponsored by the Sears Corporation. But in general, all who knew “Officer Friendly” saw him as a living example and demonstration of all that it means to be a Peace Officer - a true friend of the people and protector of God-given rights and liberties, in distinct contrast to being a mere enforcer of manmade laws.

In life, Jack married and was the father of three sons: Matt (Ginger) and Jeff (Lee) of Phoenix, and Augie (Francis) of San Antonio, and the grandfather of nine: Miles, Kelly, Grace, Nate, Nick, Natalie, Josue, Rebekah and Emily.

He was of a deeply sensitive nature. His artistic talents showed up early, in paintings dating back to his youth. He excelled in sports such as track, pole-vaulting and tennis. He enjoyed singing, and especially loved the ocean and adventures like scuba diving and snorkeling.

In addition to his children and grandchildren, Jack is survived also by his wife, Angela, of Poseyville, Indiana, his sister, Sandra Murray, of Show Low, Arizona, and his Aunt Betty and cousins, Bob and Dudley Hasbrouck, all of Vancouver, Washington. He was preceded in death by his parents, his sister Margaret Frazier of Ashburn, Virginia, Uncle Bob Hasbrouck, cousin George Thompson of Phoenix and others.

Funeral services for Jack were held at Werry’s Funeral Home in Poseyville, Indiana, with a viewing on Wednesday evening, January 15, and the memorial service at 11:00 a.m. the following day. The services were conducted by Jack’s very dear friend, Pastor Butch Paugh of Nettie, West Virginia. Internment was in nearby Stuartville. Additional memorial services in celebration of Jack’s life will be held soon in Phoenix, Arizona, and in Kamiah, Idaho.

Looking back sometimes on his own life work, Jack used to smile and say, “It’s been good duty.” Indeed it has, Officer Jack. Thank you for all you did to make the world a better place. Though you’ll be sorely missed by all who knew and loved you, we can only commend and offer our hearty thanks, as you go on your way now to a well-earned, happy rest!

Folk singer Richie Havens dies at 72!

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NEW YORK (PNN) - April 23, 2013 - Famed folk singer Richie Havens, the opening act at the 1969 Woodstock music festival, died Monday of a sudden heart attack, his publicist said. He was 72.

Havens, who retired three years ago, toured for more than 30 years and recorded 30 albums.

Havens told Billboard that his breakthrough at Woodstock came after another artist's equipment got stuck in traffic. He was supposed to be the fifth act.

"It was 5 o'clock and nothing was happening yet," said Havens. "I had the least instruments (to set up on stage) and the least people (in his band)."

So Havens went on and performed for 40 minutes, as planned. Organizers asked him to do four more songs.

"I went back and did that, then it was, 'Four more songs,’ and that kept happening 'til two hours and 45 minutes later, I had sung every song I know," he said.

Havens, a Brooklyn, New York, native, told CNN in 1999 that music enabled him to leave his rough neighborhood to head to Greenwich Village and the music scene there.

Music was always a part of his life.

"I believe I inherited my sense of music from my father. My father was an ear piano player; he could just hear something and play it," he recalls. "I came up in Brooklyn singing doo-wop music from the time I was 13 to the time I was 20. That music served a purpose, keeping a lot of people out of trouble, and also it was a passport from one neighborhood to another."

His inspiration for songs about social change and protest came when he heard artists like Fred Neil, Dino Valenti and Tom Paxton. That's when he knew what he wanted to do with his life.

"It was the songs that actually changed my life," he says. "The songs that I heard were so different than the doo-wop kind of thing. They were just so powerful. Finally I decided, 'I've got to do this.'"

Before Woodstock, his nights were filled with playing as often as possible to make a few dollars.

"We played three coffee houses a night, 14 sets a night, 20-minute sets, pass the basket, stay alive," he said. "I was there seven and a half years, every day. It was the most incredibly magical, magical time."

After Havens gained attention at Woodstock, he recorded a soulful-voiced cover of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun," which rose on the pop charts in 1970.

Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills and Nash said Havens was an inspiration for the natural gravel in his singing voice. He called Havens a passionate performer.

"He lit fire when he started playing within the first song and burned exactly the same way throughout his set; and it never stopped, it never changed," Stills said.

He added that he thought Havens' style was probably a little too arcane to appeal to a mass audience.

"But he sure knew what to do when they were begging for someone to go on first, when all those people showed up at Woodstock," said Stills.

Havens returned to Woodstock for the 40th anniversary festival in 2009.

"While his family greatly appreciates that Richie's many fans are also mourning this loss, they do ask for privacy during this difficult time," said a statement from his publicist, Carrie Lombardi.

Billboard reported Havens died in New Jersey, leaving behind four daughters and five grandchildren.

Margaret Thatcher, Britain's Iron Lady, dead at 87!

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LONDON, England (PNN) - April 8, 2013 - Margaret Thatcher, the first woman ever to serve as prime minister of Great Britain and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, has died at age 87.

"It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning," Lord Timothy Bell, her former adviser, said today.

Thatcher had significant health problems in her later years, suffering several small strokes and, according to her daughter, struggling with dementia.

During her long career on the political stage, Thatcher was known as the Iron Lady. She led Great Britain as prime minister from 1979 to 1990, a champion of free-market policies and adversary of the Soviet Union.

Many considered her Britain’s Ronald Reagan. Indeed, Reagan and Thatcher were political soul mates. Reagan called her the "best man in England" and she called him "the second most important man in my life."

The two shared a hatred of communism and a passion for small government. What Amerika knew as "Reaganomics" is still called "Thatcherism" in Britain.

Like Reagan, Thatcher was an outsider in the old boys' club. Just as it was unlikely for an actor to lead the Republicans, the party of Lincoln, it was unthinkable that a grocer's daughter could lead the Conservatives, the party of Churchill and William Pitt - that is, until Thatcher. She led the Conservatives from 1975 to 1990, the only woman ever to do so.

Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts on Oct. 13, 1925 in Grantham, England. She attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied chemistry and, later, in 1953, qualified as a barrister, specializing in tax issues.

She married Denis Thatcher on Dec. 13, 1951, and their marriage lasted for nearly 52 years until his death in June 2003. The couple had twins, Mark and Carol, in 1953.

When Thatcher was elected to Britain's House of Commons in 1959, she was its youngest female member. In 1970, when the Conservatives took power, she was made Britain's Secretary of State for Education and Science. In 1975, she was chosen to lead the Conservatives, and she became the prime minister in 1979.

Her policies were controversial. She took on the nation's labor unions, forcing coal miners to return to work after a year on strike.

"We should back the workers and not the shirkers," she said in May 1978.

She pushed for privatization, lower taxes and deregulation. She sought to keep Britain from surrendering any of its sovereignty to the European Union.

She had courage in abundance. In 1982, when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, she took Britain to war - and won.

In 1984, she narrowly escaped being killed when the IRA bombed her hotel during a party conference. The morning after, she convened the conference on schedule - undaunted.

She recognized Mikhail Gorbachev as a man who could help to end the Cold War, commenting famously, "I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together."

Ronald Reagan thought so, too. Together, Thatcher and Reagan savored victory in the Cold War as their proudest achievement. But while Alzheimer's forced Reagan to retire from public life, Thatcher kept on long after leaving Downing Street.

She became Baroness Thatcher, a symbolic leader for a party that struggled to find a worthy successor.

By the time of President Reagan's funeral in 2004, Lady Thatcher had already suffered several strokes. She was a silent witness at her friend's farewell, but she had the foresight to record a eulogy for Reagan several months earlier.

"As the last journey of this faithful pilgrim took him beyond the sunset, and as heaven's morning broke, I like to think - in the words of Bunyan - that 'all the trumpets sounded on the other side,'" she said.

Girl next door Annette Funicello dies at 70!

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NEW YORK (PNN) - April 8, 2013 - She was the first crush for a generation of boys, the perfect playmate for a generation of girls.

Annette Funicello, who became a child star as a cute-as-a-button Mouseketeer on The Mickey Mouse Club in the 1950s, ruled among baby boomers, who tuned in every weekday afternoon to watch her on their flickering black-and-white television sets.

Then they shed their mouse ears, as Annette did when she teamed up with Frankie Avalon during the 1960s in a string of frothy, fun-in-the-sun movies with titles like Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.

Decades later, she endeared herself to baby boomers all over again after she announced in 1992 that she had multiple sclerosis and began grappling with the slow, degenerative effects with remarkably good cheer and faith.

Funicello died on Monday at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, Kalifornia, of complications from MS. She was 70 and had dropped from public view years ago.

“She really had a tough existence,” said Avalon. “It’s like losing a family member. I'm devastated but I'm not surprised.”

Avalon said that when they were working together, she never realized how beloved she was. “She would say, ‘Really?’ She was so bashful about it. She was an amazing girl,” he recalled.

The pretty, dark-haired Funicello was 13 when she gained fame on The Mickey Mouse Club, a children’s variety show that consisted of stories, songs and dance routines. It ran on ABC from 1955 to 1959.

Cast after Walt Disney saw her at a dance recital, she appeared in the Mouseketeer uniform of mouse ears, a pleated skirt and a turtleneck sweater emblazoned with her first name, and captivated young viewers with her wholesome, girl-next-door appeal.

She became the most popular Mouseketeer, receiving 8,000 fan letters a month, 10 times more than any of the 23 other young performers.

“It was a happy time. They were wonderful times,” she recalled in a TV interview as an adult - and she might just as well have been speaking for her Mickey Mouse Club audience.

Singer and composer Paul Anka, the one-time teen idol who briefly dated Funicello when they were on the concert circuit in the late 1950s, said that like seemingly every young Amerikan male of the time, he was in love with her.

“She was just the girl next door and they were drawn just to her,” said Anka. “She had that thing. She had the it, and there was just no stopping it.”

When The Mickey Mouse Club ended, Funicello was the only cast member to remain under contract to the studio. She appeared in such Disney movies as Johnny Tremain, The Shaggy Dog, The Horsemasters, Babes in Toyland, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, and The Monkey’s Uncle.

She also became a recording star, singing on 15 albums and hit singles such as “Tall Paul” and “Pineapple Princess.”

Outgrowing the kid roles by the early ‘60s, Annette teamed with Avalon in a series of movies for American-International, the first film company to exploit the burgeoning teen market.

The films had songs, cameos by older stars and some laughs. The 1965 Beach Blanket Bingo, for example, featured subplots involving a mermaid, a motorcycle gang and a skydiving school run by Don Rickles, and comic touches by silent film star Buster Keaton.

Among the other titles: Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine.

The beach films featured ample youthful skin. But not Funicello's.

She remembered in 1987: “Mr. Disney said to me one day, ‘Annette, I have a favor to ask of you. I know all the girls are wearing bikinis, but you have an image to uphold. I would appreciate it if you would wear a one-piece suit.’ I did, and I never regretted it.”

The shift in teen tastes begun by the Beatles in 1964 and Funicello’s first marriage the following year pretty much killed off the beach-movie genre.

In the 1970s, she made commercials for Skippy peanut butter, appearing with her real-life children.

She and Avalon reunited in the 1987 movie Back to the Beach, in which Lori Loughlin played their daughter.

Funicello was born Oct. 22, 1942, in Utica, New York, and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 4. She began taking dance lessons, and she won a beauty contest at 9. Then came her discovery by Disney.

Funicello’s devotion to Walt Disney remained throughout her life.

“He was the dearest, kindest person, and truly was like a second father to me,” she said. “He was a kid at heart.”

In 1965, Funicello married her agent, Jack Gilardi, and they had three children, Gina, Jack and Jason. The couple divorced 18 years later, and in 1986 she married Glen Holt, a harness racehorse trainer.

After her film career ended, she devoted herself to her family.

“We are so sorry to lose Mother,” her children said in a statement. “She is no longer suffering anymore and is now dancing in heaven.”

Brian Chapman dies at 37!

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Brian James Chapman, 37, beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend, went to be with our Lord, Sept. 26, 2012 after a brief illness.

Brian was born June 27, 1975 to James Edward and Terese "Terry" Mesh Chapman in Hutchinson, Kansas. Brian attended Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School, Class of 1994 in Wichita and three years at WSU. He was a member of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Wichita, and attended Holy Cross Catholic Church and Grade School, Hutchinson, when he was younger.

He worked at CRU-Dataport for seven years as a computer programmer. Brian created and maintained the web site at www.revolutionnow.us. He was a dedicated American Patriot and believed each of us has the God-given right to live free.

Survivors include; mother Terese "Terry" Chapman, Wichita; sister, Kristyn Chapman, Wichita; uncles, Paul Mesh and wife Mari, Hutchinson; John Mesh, Enid, OK; aunt, Janet Cooper, Hutchinson; cousins, Bill Cooper, Matthew Cooper, Robyn Kelly, Ryan Mesh, Michael Mesh and Kayla Mesh.

He was preceded in death by grandparents, William and Marie Mesh.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Holy Cross Catholic School Education Fund in care of Elliott Mortuary, 1219 N. Main, Hutchinson, Kansas 67501. Friends may visit www.elliottmortuary.com to leave a message for Brian's family.

Groundbreaking comedian Phyllis Diller is dead at 95!

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BRENTWOOD, Kalifornia (PNN) - August 20, 2012 - Pioneering funny-woman Phyllis Diller, who was famed for her contagious cackle and for bravely paving the way for female comedians, has died in Los Angeles.

According to reports, the 95-year-old passed away under hospice care at home after a recent fall that saw her hurt her wrist and hip.

She was surrounded by her family at her Brentwood home.

Famed for her legendary cackle, Diller remained a force in the showbiz world even after she suffered a heart attack in 1999 and was later fitted with a pacemaker.

She began her career in 1952 and was catapulted to fame in TV specials alongside Bob Hope in the 1960s.

Diller paved the way for generations of female comedians and broke down the image of the Stepford-style American housewife.

Born Phyllis Ada Driver on July 17, 1917, in Lima, Ohio, she became an accomplished pianist before eloping with her first husband and moving to San Francisco.

There she worked as a copywriter and journalist by day, and refined her stand-up act every night in the city's comedy clubs.

She was the first of a new breed; deconstructing the suburban housewife and drawing in laughs on the subject of childbearing and her fictional husband, Fang.

Eccentric in her appearance, it was balanced by a self-deprecating tone that endeared her to all she met.

She got her first big break on Groucho Marx's game show, You Bet Your Life, after rolling off zippy one-liners like bullets from a semi-automatic.

That led to a two-year residence at the Purple Onion Comedy Club in San Francisco and more TV work on shows like I've Got A Secret, Hollywood Squares, and The Gong Show.

She also had her own cult programs, The Pruitts of Southampton and The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show.

Diller was also refreshingly honest about her plastic surgeries, pioneering a confessional approach widely copied ever since.

“It's a good thing that beauty is only skin deep, or I'd be rotten to the core,” Diller once said.

Still going strong in the 1990s, Diller could be seen in 7th Heaven and the CBS soap, The Bold And The Beautiful.

She also voiced the Queen in Disney's A Bug's Life.

Her memoir, Like A Lampshade In A Whorehouse, was released in 2004, after she left the popular soap opera.

This year she filmed what would be her swan song, returning as Gladys Pope for two episodes in March for The Bold and the Beautiful's 25th anniversary.

She had three children and after her marriage to entertainer Ward Donovan ended in divorce, found love with lawyer Rob Hastings until he passed away in 1996.

Andy Griffith dies of heart attack!

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ROANOKE ISLAND, North Carolina - July 3, 2012 - Andy Griffith, whose homespun mix of humor and wisdom made The Andy Griffith Show an enduring TV favorite, dies Tuesday morning of a heart attack. He was 86.

Griffith died around 7:00 a.m. in his Roanoke Island, North Carolina home.

Griffith is most famous for his portrayal of Mayberry town sheriff Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show and as the titular defense lawyer on the legal drama Matlock.

In Memory of Tommy Cryer!

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By Devvy Kidd

June 9, 2012 - On the evening of June 4, 2012, I checked into my hotel in Sacramento, Kalifornia. After doing the usual fussing around with luggage, I turned on the computer to check email. One of the first I saw was: Tommy Cryer, R.I.P.

I guess you could say I was literally struck dumb. I kept looking at the screen, but couldn't process what I was reading. I was that shocked. I finally opened the email; read it several times. Just stared at the screen.

After sitting there a while, I made a phone call. Tommy did pass away in the early morning hours, Monday, June 4th. Then I sat and cried. Due to travel delays, I was unable to get to Shreveport by Thursday, June 7, 2012, for Tommy's funeral. I still can't bring myself to delete his email address from my email box. It is a small comfort to know he slipped away peacefully in his sleep.

When a loved one or dear friend has a long illness and passes away or reaches the end of a long life, you expect it. It is part of life that we all accept. Not that we don’t grieve just as much, because we do, but when a loved one or dear friend dies suddenly without warning, you don't get to say good-bye. You wonder if you told your loved one or dear friend how much they meant to you and how you value their friendship. I spoke with Tommy less than a week before he died. Now I will never hear his voice again. But I know Tommy knew there is one true God and I believe he is now with Our Father in heaven.

For those who didn't know Tommy, he lived a rich and vibrant life. Tommy graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor from LSU Law School in 1973 and was inducted into the Order of the Coif, the world's most prestigious honorary society for legal scholars and practitioners. He served in the U.S. Army in the Adjutant General Corps, honorably discharged as a Captain.

He served as a Special Advisor and Draftsman at the Louisiana Constitutional Convention in 1973 and that he has argued cases before the Louisiana Supreme Court. Tommy made new law by winning a number of landmark cases and was inducted into the LSU Law School's Hall of Fame after only 14 years of practice. Tommy had been a trial and appellate lawyer for 36 years.

Tommy and Larry Becraft, in addition to being lawyers with full plates, did their radio shows during the week and on Saturdays, bringing their decades of experience to listeners as well as analyzing court decisions and current events.

Tommy was an endless source of history whenever I saw him. Having lived in the south for most of his life, Tommy filled my ears with things I never knew. When we spoke on the phone and even in emails, Tommy told me all about his decades of experience in the madness called politics in America. There was never just a “quick phone call” with him.

Tommy was active most of his adult life in the Republican Party and I know he tried to bring his knowledge of the founding of this republic and the proper role of government to the troops at the local level.

I was also blessed by that dear man in that, like Dr. Edwin Vieira and Larry Becraft, just to name two, Tommy gave me so much regarding the law. A major topic of discussion was our judicial system and corruption in the courts. Of course, Tommy would know, since the federal mafia indicted him back in 2007 for failing to file tax returns. Thankfully, the jury unanimously acquitted him.

However, that didn't stop the criminals in the IRS in their persecution of Tommy. He has spent the past few years fighting them because even though he was acquitted, the IRS will go after you in civil court. All that stress was not good for a man who had two very serious heart attacks over the years.

Regular readers of my columns know Tommy was also representing me, my husband and 190 petitioners in our fight against the “smart” meter out here in Texas. It has been rough going, fighting the lies and deception.

In late March through most of April, Tommy fought a very bad bout of pneumonia. Bless his heart, he hung in there for our case even though most of the time he was very sick. I am addressing our situation now that Tommy has left us way too soon.

Tommy had a brilliant legal mind; like a steel trap ready to snap against his opponents. He loved the law. Tommy also loved this country and like tens of millions of us, was sickened by what we've seen going on for the past couple of decades, as the rotting corpse of a once great nation struggles to stay alive.

Most people don't know that Tommy sacrificed a great deal in both time and money with his Truth Attack project. He had several things going regarding Truth Attack at the time of his passing. Tommy also left this nation with a great gift, his Memorandum, which I will address in my next column. There is much work to be done.

But more than anything, Tommy Cryer was genuinely a wonderful human being. He represented individuals without charge when he could, simply because he hated injustice. He hated thugs who work for the General Government's alphabet soup agencies who have no regard for the U.S. Constitution; only their paychecks and power.

Tommy Cryer was a kind soul. So easygoing and oh, my, was he ever funny. While sitting at lunch this past February in Austin (we filed our first petition with the Texas PUC), even discussing his latest rounds with the IRS, Tommy would throw in some zingers. The food severs must have thought we were nuts with all the laughing.

We will miss Tommy, but we will never forget him and all his hard work in bringing the truth to light.

Tommy is survived by his dear wife, Dee Dee and one brother.

Noted economic forecaster and American Patriot Bob Chapman dies!

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June 4, 2012 - It is with a heavy heart I bring you the news of Bob Chapman’s passing. He passed away on June 4, 2012. Bob was a true legend and has undoubtedly left his mark on history. He will be sorely missed.

Robert “Bob” John Chapman, age 76, of Winter Haven, Florida (formally of Mexico) died Monday, June 4, 2012 due to pancreatic cancer. He was born October 16, 1935 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of John Chapman and Ruth Donley Chapman.

Bob was a veteran of the U.S. Army, a writer of a newsletter discussing finances and economics, and a regular radio commentator discussing politics as well as economics and finances. Most of his working life he served as a stockbroker.

Bob is survived by his wife of 47 years, Judith “Judy” Dabrowski Chapman, son, Robert Michael Chapman, daughter, Jenifer Gillotti and her husband Matt, sisters, Dorothy Trecker and Joan Lotz, and 4 grandchildren.


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Science Ficton author Ray Bradbury dies!

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June 7, 2012 - Ray Douglas Bradbury, who was born Aug. 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois, died June 5 in Los Angeles. He was 91.

Ray Bradbury was a boundlessly imaginative novelist who wrote some of the most popular science-fiction books of all time, including “Fahrenheit 451” and “The Martian Chronicles,” and who transformed the genre of flying saucers and little green men into literature exploring childhood terrors, colonialism, and the erosion of individual thought.

Mr. Bradbury, who began his career in the 1930s contributing stories to pulp-fiction magazines, received a special Pulitzer Prize citation in 2007 “for his distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy.”

His body of works, which continued to appear through recent years to terrific reviews, encompassed more than 500 titles, including novels, plays, children’s books, and short stories. His tales were often made into films, including the futuristic story of a book-burning society (director Francois Truffaut’s “Fahrenheit 451” in 1966), a suspense story about childhood fears (“Something Wicked This Way Comes” in 1983) and the more straightforward alien-attack story (“It Came From Outer Space” in 1953).

He helped write filmmaker John Huston’s 1956 movie adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel “Moby-Dick” and contributed scripts to the TV anthology programs “The Twilight Zone” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”. Mr. Bradbury hosted his own science-fiction anthology program, “The Ray Bradbury Theater,” from 1985 to 1992 on the HBO and USA cable networks.

“The Martian Chronicles,” released to wide acclaim in 1950, used the guide of science fiction to explore colonialism, nuclear war, and the transformative power of one’s environment.

The book sealed his reputation as a science-fiction writer, but Mr. Bradbury frequently eschewed the label.

“People say, ‘Are you a fantasy writer?’ No,” Mr. Bradbury told the Charlotte Observer in 1997. “ ‘Are you a science-fiction writer?’ No. I’m a magician.”

He explained, “Science fiction is the art of the possible, not the art of the impossible. As soon as you deal with things that can’t happen, you are writing fantasy.”

Mr. Bradbury said “Fahrenheit 451,” based on a novella he called “The Fireman,” was his only work of science fiction.

The 1953 book centers on Guy Montag, a fireman of the future charged with burning books. Montag joins a rogue group seeking to save the great writings of civilization through memorization. Mr. Bradbury said the story was inspired by the Nazi book bonfires of the 1930s that he saw in movie newsreels as a young man.

Many observers linked the anti-book-burning message and that “Fahrenheit 451” was published at a peak moment of Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade. Mr. Bradbury said “Fahrenheit 451” was not necessarily about top-down censorship.

The real threat is not from Big Brother, but from little sister [and] all those groups, men and women, who want to impose their views from below,” he told the Times of London in 1993. “If you allow every minority to grab one book off the shelf you’ll have nothing in the library.”

He developed a love of books at an early age, with favorite authors including Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and spent many nights at the local library. In a 1985 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he recalled that he was “fairly poor” - his father was a lineman who had trouble finding work - and that he used the scraps of paper provided by the library for reference notes to write down bits of short stories.

He was inspired to write his first story at age 12 by Mr. Electrico, a performer at a traveling carnival. The performer sent an electric current through the boy’s body, proclaiming, “Live forever!” and later said they’d known each other in one of Mr. Bradbury’s previous lives. The experience evolved into the novel “Something Wicked This Way Comes” (1962), the basis for a film of the same name starring Jonathan Pryce as a diabolical circus owner.

He scripted the 1962 animated history of flight, “Icarus Montgolfier Wright,” which received an Academy Award nomination for best short film, and won a Daytime Emmy in 1993 for writing the animated children’s program, “The Halloween Tree.”

In 2004, President George W. Bush presented Mr. Bradbury with the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest award given to artists.

“I can’t name a writer who’s had a more perfect life,” Mr. Bradbury told the New York Times in 1983. “My books are all in print, I’m in all the school libraries, and when I go places I get the applause at the start of my speech.”

Revista Nueva Theme

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This is the Master theme of the our fast and slick Warp theme framework! It takes full advantage of all the latest Warp6 features like semantic HTML5 markup, a nice and clean administration UI and much more.

It is an optimized and streamlined framework theme and serves as blueprint to build your own custom themes.

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1952-2017

Carl Miller

HARLAN ELLISON
1934-2018

Harlan Ellison

STAN LEE
1922-2018

stan lee

CARL REINER
1922-2020

Carl Reiner

SEAN CONNERY
1930-2020

dwight clark

L. NEIL SMITH
1946-2021

L Neil Smith

JOHN STADTMILLER
1946-2021

L Neil Smith