'AGT' judge Stern taking Klum 'under my wing'

By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

"America's Got Talent" may not be back on the NBC airwaves until this summer, but the roundup of talent has already begun -- and judges Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, Mel B and Howie Mandel (along with host Nick Cannon) are already hard at work. They took a break from sifting through the talent on Monday morning to join TODAY's Matt Lauer on the plaza to talk about the newly-configured judging panel, whether last year's winners were the right ones, and what kind of bikini top to wear during a water rescue.

Fortunately, the group seems to be getting along famously. "The female energy is there!" crowed Mel B.

"Literally from this television show I'm getting 10 new wrinkles," said Klum, who also sits in judgement on Lifetime's "Project Runway," because I'm laughing all day, because they're all so funny."

"I've taken Heidi under my wing, Matt, and I'm teaching her about judging -- that's why she'll be excellent," declared Stern.?

There is tension, admitted Mandel, but it's a "respectful tension. I don't agree a lot with some of the other judges." He also doesn't always agree with America, saying that last season's winners (the Olate Dogs) were not the best act. "I would have picked another act to win," he said. "But America chose them. ... America is buying the tickets."

As for that water rescue -- ?Klum raced into the ocean while vacationing in Hawaii when her son and one of his nannies were caught in a riptide at the end of March, and she talked about it during the visit. "It just shows you in your life you never know what's going to happen," she said. "In one second, everything and then all of a sudden the next second your son is smooshed by a wave in the ocean." But her kids have been swimming since they were 2 years old, she added, so her son was able to help save himself.

Stern, naturally, learned a different lesson than to teach your children how to swim. "And your top fell off," he noted. "In a rescue, make sure to wear a tight top."

"America's Got Talent" returns this summer on NBC.

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/04/08/17653449-howard-stern-taking-fellow-americas-got-talent-judge-heidi-klum-under-my-wing?lite

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Nick Cannon Takes March Madness Overseas on a USO Star-Studded Basketball and Concert Tour

Cannon will be joined by USO tour veterans Baby Bash and Power 106 radio personalities Big Boy and DJ E-Man along with USO first-timers Arlen Escarpeta, NaNa, Airdogg, DJ Thirty Two, Kristinia DeBarge, 4Count and PWD

Arlington, VA (PRWEB) April 08, 2013

Twitter Pitch: @NcredibleLife & @Power106LA team up with @the_USO for all star games and concerts for troops in Middle East and Germany

WHAT:????USO All-Star basketball game and concert tour featuring Nick Cannon, Baby Bash, Big Boy, DJ E-Man, NaNa, Arlen Escarpeta, AirDogg, DJ Thirty Two, Kristinia DeBarge, 4 Count and PWD

WHEN:????Spring 2013

WHERE:????Middle East and Germany

WHY:????As college basketball fans are studying their March Madness brackets, hoping their top picks make it to the Final Four, U.S. troops in the Middle East and Germany will be taking their game to the courts and challenging some of today?s top entertainers to a friendly game of hoops. Lead by multi-faceted entertainer Nick Cannon, the USO/Armed Forces Entertainment tour will be a welcome distraction from the day-to-day activities of deployment and will help to keep troops, serving far from home, connected to home ? by delivering a taste of March Madness to them.

Joining Cannon for the all-star games are Power 106 radio personalities Big Boy and DJ E-man, platinum recording artist Baby Bash, actors Arlen Escarpeta and NaNa, professional athlete and dunk specialist AirDogg as well as music mixologist DJ Thirty Two. And the fun won?t stop there. Courtside entertainment will include a halftime show with performances from N?Credible - Cannon?s record label - artists R&B singer Kristinia DeBarge, up-and-coming boy band 4Count and members from the newly signed hip-hop band PWD, delivering a halftime show that?s sure to have something for everyone.

This trip will mark the third USO tour for DJ?s Big Boy and E-man, both of who have previously traveled to Kuwait and Iraq in 2008 and 2010. In total, Big Boy and E-Man have lifted the spirits of more than 6,800 troops stationed abroad. This will be the second USO experience for Baby Bash, who visited more than 5,000 troops on his first USO tour in 2008 to Kuwait and Iraq with current tour mates Big Boy and E-Man. This will be the first USO tour for Cannon, NaNa, Escarpeta, AirDogg, DeBarge, 4Count, DJ Thirty Two and PWD.

QUOTES:????

Attributed to Nick Cannon:

?This is an amazing opportunity for us to show our love and support for the men and women who serve our country and their families. It?s going to be a good time for everyone and I can?t wait, I?m really excited to kick-off my first USO tour. ?

Attributed to Baby Bash:

?As a recording artist, performing is something that I love to do and this time I get to combine it with my love of basketball. I am looking forward to hitting the courts in the spirit of sportsmanship but what I?m most excited about is being able to tell our servicemen and women how much they are appreciated.?

Attributed to DJ E-Man:

?Here in Los Angeles, we do the Power 106 All-Star Charity Basketball games with various high schools to help them with their needs. Teaming up with the USO and Nick Cannon to bring these games and concerts to our troops will be an amazing experience. It?s truly an honor to go out and ?bring a piece of home? to the troops and their families abroad. This will be my third USO tour with Big Boy and we are looking forward to it. We?re going to give them a very memorable experience!?

Entertainment tours are one of the many ways the USO helps to lift the spirits of our troops and military families. In 2012, the USO deployed 91 celebrity entertainers on 87 tours to 24 countries and 13 states, entertaining more than 324,000 troops and military families. Fifteen of these tours were to a combat zone. To find out more about the USO and how you can help, visit us online at http://www.uso.org

About the USO

The USO lifts the spirits of America?s troops and their families millions of times each year at hundreds of places worldwide. We provide a touch of home through centers at airports and military bases in the U.S. and abroad, top quality entertainment and innovative programs and services. We also provide critical support to those who need us most, including forward-deployed troops, military families, wounded warriors and families of the fallen. The USO is a private, non-profit organization, not a government agency. Our programs and services are made possible by the American people, support of our corporate partners and the dedication of our volunteers and staff.

In addition to individual donors and corporate sponsors, the USO is supported by President?s Circle Partners: American Airlines, AT&T, Clear Channel, The Coca-Cola Company, jcpenney, Jeep, Kangaroo Express, Kroger, Lowe?s, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Procter & Gamble, and TriWest Healthcare Alliance and Worldwide Strategic Partners: BAE Systems, The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft Corporation and TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern GmbH & Co. KG. We are also supported through the United Way and Combined Federal Campaign (CFC-11381). To join us in this patriotic mission, and to learn more about the USO, please visit uso.org.

###

Sharee Posey
United Service Organizations
703-740-4980
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nick-cannon-takes-march-madness-overseas-uso-star-214214973.html

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Lilly Pulitzer, fashion designer known for floral prints, dies

News

The Associated Press

2 hours ago

AP, file

Designer Lilly Pulitzer is pictured in this April 2004 image. She passed away Sunday at the age of 81.

Lilly Pulitzer, a Palm Beach socialite turned designer whose tropical print dresses became a sensation in the 1960s and later a fashion classic, died Sunday. She was 81.

Pulitzer, who married into the famous newspaper family, got her start in fashion by spilling orange juice on her clothes. A rich housewife with time to spare and a husband who owned orange groves, she opened a juice stand in 1959, and asked her seamstress to make dresses in colorful prints that would camouflage fruit stains.

The dresses hung on a pipe behind her juice stand and soon outsold her drinks. The company's dresses, developed with the help of partner Laura Robbins, a former fashion editor, soon caught on.

"Lilly has been a true inspiration to us and we will miss her," according to a statement on the Lilly Pulitzer brand Facebook page. "In the days and weeks ahead we will celebrate all that Lilly meant to us. Lilly was a true original who has brought together generations through her bright and happy mark on the world."

Her death was confirmed by Gale Schiffman of Quattlebaum Funeral and Cremation Services in West Palm Beach. She did not know Pulitzer's cause of death.

Getty Images

Designer Lilly Pulitzer prepares a model backstage at the Lilly Pulitzer Couture Spring 2005 fashion show in September 2004 in New York City.

Jacqueline Kennedy, who attended boarding school with Pulitzer, even wore one of the sleeveless shifts in a Life magazine photo spread, and matriarch Rose Kennedy and one of her teenage granddaughters were once reported to have bought nearly identical versions together.

The signature Lilly palette features tongue-in-cheek jungle and floral prints in blues, pinks, light greens, yellow and orange ? the colors of a Florida vacation.

"I designed collections around whatever struck my fancy ... fruits, vegetables, politics, or peacocks! I entered in with no business sense. It was a total change of life for me, but it made people happy," Pulitzer told the The Associated Press in March 2009.

The line of dresses that bore her name was later expanded to swimsuits, country club attire, children's clothing, a home collection and a limited selection of menswear.

"Style isn't just about what you wear, it's about how you live," Pulitzer said in 2004.

"We focus on the best, fun and happy things, and people want that. Being happy never goes out of style," she said.

In 1966, The Washington Post reported that the dresses were "so popular that at the Southampton Lilly shop on Job's Lane they are proudly put in clear plastic bags tied gaily with ribbons so that all the world may see the Lilly of your choice. It's like carrying your own racing colors or flying a yacht flag for identification."

But changing taste brought trouble. Pulitzer closed her original company in the mid-1980s after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The label was revived about a decade later after being acquired by Pennsylvania-based Sugartown Worldwide Inc.; Pulitzer was only marginally involved in the new business but continued reviewing new prints from Florida.

"When Lilly started the business back in the '60s, she targeted a young customer because she was young," the company's president, Jim Bradbeer, told the AP in 2003. "What we have done is target the daughter and granddaughter of that original customer."

Sugartown Worldwide was bought by Atlanta-based Oxford Industries in 2010.

AP

In this March 1965 file photo, Palm Beach fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer, wears her own design and creation of the Lilly shift.

Pulitzer herself retired from day-to-day operations in 1993, although remained a consultant for the brand.

Pulitzer was born Lilly McKim on Nov. 10, 1931, to a wealthy family in Roslyn, N.Y.

In 1952, she married Pete Pulitzer, the grandson of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, whose bequest to Columbia University established the Pulitzer Prize. They divorced in 1969. Her second husband, Enrique Rousseau, died in 1993.

"I don't know how to explain what it was like to run my business, the joy of every day," she told Vanity Fair magazine in a story in 2003. "I got a kick every time I went into the shipping department. ... I loved seeing (the dresses) going out the door. I loved them selling in the shop. I liked them on the body. Everything. There's no explaining the fun I had."

Pulitzer, who was known for hosting parties barefoot at her Palm Beach home, also published two guides to entertaining.

"That's what life is all about: Let's have a party. Let's have it tonight," she said.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a6f7401/l/0L0Stoday0N0Cstyle0Clilly0Epulitzer0Efashion0Edesigner0Eknown0Efloral0Eprints0Edies0E1B9252290A/story01.htm

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Dutchman arrested after British woman stabbed to death on houseboat hotel in India

The woman, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, was 24 years old and had been staying on the New Beauty houseboat, one of hundreds of old British floating hotels on the side of Srinagar's celebrated Dal Lake, for 25 days.

The owner, G.M Shoda, said he and the victim had become friends and she was "like a daughter" to him.

The woman and the Dutch tourist were the only guests staying on the houseboat and had been sitting on the deck until midnight when she went to bed. Later, at around 2.30 in the morning, the owner's sons heard an argument and screams, and went to investigate. They said they saw the Dutch tourist leaving the houseboat in a traditional shikara rowing boat and that he capsized and swam to the shore. They then found the victim lying dead in a pool of blood in her room with multiple stab wounds.

Kashmir's Deputy Inspector-General, Afad ul-Mujtaba, told the Telegraph that a Dutch national, Richard De Wit, was arrested for the murder after police stopped a taxi in Qazi Gund, just under 50 miles from Srinagar, at around 4 am this morning.

Mr Mujtaba said reports that the victim had been raped were unconfirmed and that detectives would not know more until a post-mortem had been carried out. People convicted of rape and murder in India can face the death penalty. Last month India passed new tougher laws and sentences for sexual offences following the national outcry over the gang rape and murder of a 23 year old student in Delhi.

Since then two foreign tourists have been attacked, a Swiss woman who was gang-raped as she and her husband camped overnight during a cycling holiday in central India, and a British woman who jumped two floors from her Agra hotel room to flee an alleged sexual assault by the manager.

The police said the British victim and the Dutch suspect had not been friendly with each other and although they were both sitting on the houseboat deck last night [SAT], they had not spoken to each other. "The girl went to sleep at about 12 o'clock and the Dutch man was outside until 12.30am," Mr Mujtaba said. "After that everyone, including the houseboat owner and staff went to sleep. At around 2.30am, they [the owner and his son] heard some cries, possibly some quarrelling."

A knife was found near the victim's body and there was evidence that her room door had been forced open, police added.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568301/s/2a65998a/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cworldnews0Casia0Cindia0C997580A60CDutchman0Earrested0Eafter0EBritish0Ewoman0Estabbed0Eto0Edeath0Eon0Ehouseboat0Ehotel0Ein0EIndia0Bhtml/story01.htm

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Kansas Senate passes new abortion restrictions

By Kevin Murphy

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Reuters) - The Kansas state Senate passed a measure on Friday that would ban Planned Parenthood from providing sex education in schools and require women to get more information about fetal development before having an abortion.

The measure was approved by a 28-10 vote and was expected to pass easily in the House of Representatives, which backed the 70-page bill in largely similar form earlier this week. Republicans have large majorities in both chambers. Republican Governor Sam Brownback, who opposes abortion, is expected to sign it.

Opponents of the measure say it contains 40 provisions that affect a woman's health and intrude on her right to an abortion. Advocates said it mainly codifies existing practices, while helping women make more informed choices.

"This fulfills the legislative intent to create a pro-life state," said Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director of Kansans for Life.

The Kansas bill is the latest development in a national fight over abortion that has seen lawmakers in several states pass new restrictions on abortion in the past two years.

Those have included laws approved in the past month in North Dakota and Arkansas that are seen as direct challenges to the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973 that legalized abortion.

The Kansas bill prohibits use of public funds, tax preferences or tax credits for abortion services.

The bill also requires abortion clinics to provide printed material about the fetus' stages of development, a link to websites, material and organizations that help pregnant women, and an explanation of legal responsibilities for an unborn child.

The bill bars school districts from letting abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood offer, sponsor or furnish course materials or instruction on human sexuality or on sexually transmitted diseases.

The bill defines life as beginning at fertilization, but does not ban abortion from that point.

(Reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Mary Wisniewski, Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kansas-senate-passes-abortion-restrictions-014146445.html

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The Entire Fisker PR Team And Other Fisker Employees Will Be ...

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Source: http://jalopnik.com/the-entire-fisker-pr-team-and-other-fisker-employees-wi-470848149

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NY County Uses Recycled Building Materials to Address Aging ...

Recycled plastic and plastic composite building composites are being used to repair and restore bridge decking on a bridge in Clare, New York, a move which will result in 30,ooo pounds of plastic being taken out of the landfill stream, says Axion International Holdings, the maker of the products used in the bridge repairs.

Axion says a second order for 6? x 24? tongue & groove Struxure boards from the St. Lawrence County Department of Highways has been made for the Dean Road Bridge, and that the company is working with the county on two more bridge projects also using Axion products. Struxure products are made from 100% recycled materials, and are long-lasting, durable, and outperform traditional materials because they won?t rust, splinter, crumble, rot, absorb moisture or leach toxic chemicals into the environment, the company says.

The American Society of Civil Engineers? 2009 report states that while $10.5 billion is spent annually on the construction and maintenance of bridges, a $17 billion annual investment is needed to substantially improve current bridge conditions. According to the Federal Highway Administration, 143,899 bridges were either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete in 2011. County and municipal highway departments are faced with the challenge of prolonging the useful life of these bridges and maintaining their safety, and are looking for building products that last and require no maintenance.

St. Lawrence County Superintendent of Highways Toby Bogart says the Struxure boards used as an alternative to stay-in-place concrete forms on a culvert project last year were easy to install and durable through New York?s harsh weather conditions. He also said that the recycled products are a good investment because they are impervious to water and salt and don?t get the wear and tear that traditional materials do over time.

Another project using Axion?s recycled building materials is the railroad tracks used by the Trinity Railway Express between Dallas and Fort Worth. Those tracks include sections using Axion?s Ecotrax railway ties, which are made from a composite of recycled polyethylene plastic and fiberglass, writes the Dallas Business Journal. The ties include millions of pounds of plastic, such as milk jugs, shampoo bottles, and detergent bottles, that would otherwise have gone into a landfill, says Axion president and CEO Steve Silverman. Using these ties, which are lighter than concrete, means the project requires less ballast, says Tim McKay, executive vice president of growth and regional development for Dallas Area Rapid Transit. That means they reduce the overall cost of the railroad.

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Source: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/04/03/ny-county-uses-recycled-building-materials-to-address-aging-bridges/

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