Some doctors really mean it when they say they do not take health insurance. For others, it is more of a nuanced statement.

Consumers trying to decipher the difference have to ask a lot of questions to figure out how to manage their bills.

Here are the three key scenarios facing consumers:

1. “I do not take your insurance, but I will work with you on the price.”

A growing number of doctors simply are not taking contracts with insurance companies, although the concentration varies by region and by specialty. That leaves patients to pay the market rate the doctor charges, and then submit a receipt to get reimbursement for out-of-network coverage, if they have it.

In some cases, the pickings can be slim for in-network docs. For example, 45% of psychiatrists do not participate in insurance networks, according to JAMA Psychiatry.

“The burden of getting the forms right and getting all the paperwork is placed on the physician,” says Dinah Miller, a psychiatrist who practices in Baltimore and co-authors a blog called Shrink Rap. “If you’re seeing eight or nine patients a day, and several bounce, it’s a lot of uncompensated time.”

Primary care physicians are opting out, too. Some are moving to a concierge model, in which patients pay a subscription fee like $150 a month to see their doctor.

Membership in the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a conservative-libertarian group of private-pay doctors, increases by about 10% a year, says Jane Orient, executive director of the organization, which has 5,000 members.

Many doctors who say they don’t take insurance will make deals with patients on an individual basis. One key negotiating tip is to know what your in-network rate would be, typically a discount of about 40%, suggests Joe Mondy, a spokesman for insurer Cigna.

You can get this information through your provider’s online tools or by calling the customer service line. But Mondy says to be aware that the private provider is not bound to accept that price.

2. “I will submit the receipt for you, see what I get from the insurance company and work with you on the difference.”

This process is typically referred to as balance billing. It is largely frowned upon for in-network charges, and even restricted in some states. But it still goes on in the private-pay world, and often results in a confusing morass of paperwork.

Even insurance executives find themselves negotiating the fray. Chris Reidl, director of product for national accounts at insurer Aetna, paid an up-front fee to one doctor and then submitted the bill to the insurance company. When the insurance company reimbursed the doctor for the visit, the office refunded the fee she had paid.

Consumers need to be on top of this process and pour over their benefits statements to track the various payments. They also need to keep after their doctors’ offices to get their money back.

3. “I will try to negotiate a better rate with your insurance company.”

Some providers have back-channel communications with insurance companies, trying to get a better reimbursement so their patients end up paying less out of pocket.

Amy Gordon, a lawyer focusing on benefits issues at McDermott, Will & Emery in Chicago, facilitates some of these discussions, trying to get everyone on the same page.

Gordon gives the example of a chiropractor who has a number of patients on one employer’s plan. The going rate for a visit is $200, and the out-of-network reimbursement offered is $50. The provider has to choose whether to charge the patients the remainder or discount it.

“Being out $150 for one person is bad, but being out that much for 10 people is worse,” she says. So the provider tries to get more from the insurance company, and the insurance company tries to get the provider to join its network. The insurer and the doctor may end up settling on an $80 reimbursement, and the patients only have to pay the equivalent of a $20 co-pay.

“A lot of this can be avoided with planning, and finding if there is an acceptable in-network provider,” Gordon says. “If you still want to go out of network, you can ask the insurance company to give you an estimate of what they would pay, and then you can at least make a more informed decision.”

Summary: A denial may not be as straightforward as it seems. Here's what your doctor's policy could be—and what that could mean for your medical bills.


Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said Thursday he would “most likely” replace Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen if elected.

“She is not a Republican,” he said in an interview with CNBC. “When her time is up, I would most likely replace her because of the fact that I think it would be appropriate.” Ms....

Summary: Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said on CNBC he would “most likely” replace Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen if elected.


Rescuers at the scene near the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps. (AFP)

Dozens of tourists who were trapped in cable cars dangling above the Alps overnight, including a 10-year-old child, have all been safely rescued.

The mountain rescue service in the French city of Chamonix says the travellers were brought Friday morning to Chamonix and the Italian town of Courmayeur.

A series of cable cars got stuck after cables tangled at 3,600 metres altitude over the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps on Thursday, prompting a major rescue operation.

The interior minister said 65 people were rescued, but 45 had to be left there overnight after rescue operations were halted because of rough flight conditions for helicopters.

Rescuers provided blankets, food and water to help weather the chilly mountain night-time conditions.

Summary: Food and blankets have been delivered to dozens of people that will spend thousands of metres above the ground in French cable cars.


British warplanes attacking the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria have reported coming under attack from surface-to-air missiles, a senior commander says.

Lieutenant General Mark Carleton-Smith said the superior defensive equipment deployed by the military coalition meant that the militants - also referred to as Daesh - had so far failed to bring down a coalition aircraft.

"We have always made the operational assumption that the Daesh inventory might at some juncture include surface-to-air missiles," he told reporters in London.

"There have been reports of engagements - several are of United Kingdom aircraft - but to no material effect as a result of the defensive aids suites that they are carrying and the tactics the coalition employs. They detect the missile as it is launched."

Summary: British warplanes have reported coming under attack from surface-to-air missiles in Iraq and Syria, the army says.


Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas

09/25/2016 AT 05:05 PM EDT

don't just share a wedding date – they have the same birthday, too. The actress took to Instagram on Sunday to share a sweet photo with her husband. She turned 47 and Douglas turned 72.

"A birthday kiss for my hubby. Happy Birthday to you and me," Zeta-Jones captioned a photo of herself kissing Douglas on the cheek.

Zeta-Jones and Douglas have been married since 2000. They share two kids, Dylan, 16, and Carys, 13. The couple

in 2013, but appear to be stronger than ever.

of their engagement by returning to the scenic Aspen, Colorado, location where Douglas proposed.

"I think love, without getting too corny, nourishing each other, working at relationships, good sustenance, good food, good kids, all kind of a combination," he said at an AARP Movie Awards earlier this year.

Summary: The couple will also celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary this year


Addressing the economic issues facing Main Street, Obama said he is "always bullish on America over the long term," but that there are some things holding the country back. Citing stagnant median family incomes, the president reiterated his calls to increase the minimum wage and invest in infrastructure.

When asked about the surging U.S. stock markets, Obama said he avoids "commenting on day-to-day trends," but that he recognizes that the Federal Reserve's focus on bringing down unemployment levels by keeping interest rates low means "there's a lot of money looking for returns."

"You've got a lot of savvy investors out there. You've got people who recognize that what goes up can come down as well," he said. "I'll leave it up to them to make determinations about whether valuations and stock prices are too high."

Obama also reflected on the conflict in Ukraine, saying that the apparent shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 "may stiffen the spine of our European partners moving forward" with sanctions against Russia.

More Coverage: Corporate 'inversions' are the latest ploy to upend the US tax code CEOs to Obama: Tax reform, not an inversion Band-Aid Opinion: Economic patriotism? That doesn't quite fly Obama presses to close corporate tax loophole 'inversions'

Despite Obama's focus on tax inversions, the economic significance of the practice is not clear: Michael Feroli, JPMorgan Chase's chief U.S. economist, said he did not see inversions as a macroeconomic issue, but Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, said the practice could hurt small businesses.

"There's no such thing as a free tax break," Naroff said, explaining that these large corporations have exploited a loophole in the tax code to the same effect as a legislature-granted break. "If someone doesn't pay what their fair share of taxes should be, someone else will have to."

Obama's other economic push, to address the U.S. unemployment rate, is a major concern for many in the country. A Gallup poll from July found that 14 percent said they think unemployment and jobs issues are the most important problems facing the country, although they were less worried than in previous months.

Despite these concerns, Feroli said he sees a promising employment picture. Jobs growth "seems to be doing as well as one could hope," he said. Last week's initial unemployment benefits claims fell to the lowest level in 8-1/2 years—a seasonally adjusted 284,000—the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Read MoreUS jobs data glitter may not be gold

Some worry, however, that strong jobs numbers—U.S. companies gained 288,000 nonfarm payrolls as the unemployment rate dropped to 6.1 percent in June—are masking less rosy economic trends. Not only are marginally attached workers still a significant part of the "regular" employment figure, but many Americans have become discouraged and disappeared from the workforce altogether.

But as employment figures continue positive trends, wages have remained stagnant, and this is "the missing link in this whole economic recovery," said Naroff. He predicted that the economy will begin to reach full employment in about nine months, and this will force employers to increase pay to attract the best workers.

If this turning point comes, the Obama administration may see some alleviation of one of its major economic concerns: income inequality causing weak economic growth. As companies are forced to increase compensation, Naroff said, middle- and lower-class workers should begin to drive consumption growth.

Read MoreWages rise and skilled workers now easier to find

Summary: In an exclusive CNBC interview, President Obama took aim at tax inversions. Watch the interview here.


There you are, at the end of a long workday, standing in front of an open refrigerator, wondering, “What in the world am I going to make for dinner?”

For a growing number of Americans, meal kit delivery services provide the answer. Every week, you pick several meals from an ever-changing list of offerings on a company’s website, and a few days later a box packed with chilled, premeasured ingredients and detailed cooking instructions arrives on your doorstep.

It’s a trend that began in 2012, then took off. Today there are more than 100 meal kit companies in the country, and new ones are springing up all the time.

But do the kits deliver on the easy, healthy, and fresh fronts? Consumer Reports’ food and nutrition experts, admittedly experienced cooks, ordered from five popular services to try them. They also asked 57 meal kit users (some of whom describe themselves as beginners in the kitchen) to report on their experience.

The ingredients were indeed fresh, but not all of the services provided enough nutrition info for their meals. HelloFresh listed the most categories — calories, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, sodium, and sugars — on their recipe cards. Others provided only calories.

Most of the meals included a generous amount of vegetables. For example, Green Chef’s recipes had 2 ½ to 4 ½ cups (before cooking) per serving. But that wasn’t a given. Blue Apron’s Pork Tteokbokki Asparagus with Spicy Black Bean Sauce had just five spears of asparagus for two people.

Consumer Reports’ biggest concern was the high sodium content of many of the meals. Almost every recipe that was tested called for seasoning the ingredients with salt several times — as many as five times for one recipe.

Yes! Twenty-four of the 27 recipes Consumer Reports tested received an Excellent or a Very Good score for taste. What’s more, they might be a smart way to broaden your family’s palate.

Some consumers, especially Gen Xers and baby boomers, are driven to use the kits to escape a cuisine comfort zone, said Michael Joseph, founder and chief executive of Green Chef, one of two services with an Excellent Rating in the testing. Practically every person on the user panel said they liked being able to explore different flavors.

What’s the cost of convenience?

All things being equal, you’ll usually pay much more per portion for a meal from one of these services than you would if you cooked the same meal with ingredients you bought yourself at a supermarket.

But all things might not be equal. For example, if you have a cabinet full of spices you’ve used only once or you often throw away most of a bunch of parsley because a recipe calls for only ¼ cup, these kits might actually be a good financial deal because you aren’t buying more of an ingredient than you need.

Summary: They are a hot trend. But is the food easy, healthy, and fresh?


To reach the fabled land of opportunity, you may have to move. The odds of a low-income kid clawing his way up are better in Seattle than they are in Boston.

Crossing an ocean might help even more, since the make-your-own-success promise of the American dream turns out to be more true in Denmark than the United States.

But if you really want to find a place of equal opportunity, where hard work brings real rewards and your life prospects aren’t constrained by the size of your parents’ paychecks, leaving home may not be enough. You might have to find a time machine. Research suggests that your chance of success isn’t just determined by your parents, but by the long-forgotten fortunes of your distant ancestors.

Pick yourself up by your bootstraps? Only if your parents, grandparents, and great-great-great-grandparents already did.

Let’s be clear what we’re talking about, because there are several definitions of mobility. I’m talking about relative mobility, or how common it is for people to climb to a higher rung on the income ladder than their parents did (or, less glamorously, fall to a lower one).

Foundational myths aside, there really isn’t a lot of mobility in the United States — at least judging from the work of Stanford University professor Raj Chetty and his team at the Equality of Opportunity project.

Children born into the poorest 20 percent of households have about 33 percent chance of staying there, they calculate, and only a 7.5 percent chance of cracking the top 20 percent.

Among the rich, it’s reversed. In a perfectly mobile world, it wouldn’t matter where you started on the income ladder; even if your parents were among the top 1 percent, you’d still have a 1 in 100 chance of ending up in that rarefied group, just like everyone else. But in reality, Chetty’s research found, your odds are 10 times better than that.

Even within the United States there are some big differences. For instance, kids across the West have a much better shot at improving their lot than those in the South.

Scan the globe and you can do even better. Compared to their US peers, poor kids in Canada are nearly twice as likely to find their way to the top. In Denmark, the numbers aren’t quite so good, but Danish kids still enjoy more upward mobility than ours do.

What accounts for these differences? Chetty and his colleagues isolated a number of factors, though they’re careful to insist they don’t yet understand the full causal picture. Among other things, it seems that good schools help to develop essential skills, strong families provide valuable support, low inequality levels the field, and low rates of segregation aid both whites and blacks.

Put a few of these together and you can turn cities and countries into superior engines of opportunity.

Don’t get too excited, though. While some regions and countries certainly do better than others, none do particularly well when it comes to opening paths to success.

And reality may be even worse than these first figures suggest. Because sometimes, even when kids do better than their parents, the grandchildren snap back.

Imagine a wealthy banker with a beloved son. Slaked by his father’s economic success, the son might well pursue a different kind of life — in the arts, as a scholar, maybe in journalism. That would make him look quite the failure, judged from income alone, but the wealth would still be there, as would the worldly connections and a new cultural sophistication. So when a granddaughter comes along, she’d have every advantage and a better-than-average shot at returning to the land of top earners.

From a reasonable distance, this is a story of persistence — a family keeping itself on top across three generations. But the standard mobility numbers would suggest two big moves: a son who falls, and a granddaughter who rises.

This isn’t merely hypothetical. When scholars from Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, and the Census Bureau added a third generation to their measure of economic mobility, they found that the US economy was even less fluid than presumed. Studies that focus narrowly on parents and children, without attending to grandparents, underestimate social rigidity by a substantial amount.

Pause over that for a second, because it constitutes a huge challenge to our whole conception of economic mobility — more specifically, the idea that ours is not a rigidly hierarchical society because even small changes add up over time.

The argument usually goes something like this: Sure, the children of low-income parents have a reduced chance of moving up the income ladder, but they have some chance. And the ones who don’t make it will have their own children, with a new opportunity to move up. So after a few generations, virtually all scions of those once-poor families should have escaped.

But this won’t happen if grandchildren have a tendency to snap back.

One generation goes up, the next falls back down, and the whole system ends up in the same position as before.

In his book “The Son Also Rises,” economist Gregory Clark argues that success today is often linked to how your distant relatives fared hundreds of years ago. He gives the example of Samuel Pepys, a 17th British member of Parliament and famous diarist with an unusual last name. It turns out that through all the intervening years, Pepys’s family members have had an uncanny ability to attend Oxbridge colleges, hold prestigious professions, and amass large estates. And this long tail of success holds not just for the Pepys but for notable families in England, Sweden, Florence, and beyond.

What’s more, Clark finds that the mirror image is true, as well. Families that were struggling centuries ago have continued to struggle through the years. So much for mobility.

The very fact that mobility rates vary from place to place suggests we can probably do something to expand opportunity. By following the example of higher-mobility regions like the Pacific Northwest or Northern Europe, we might be able to widen the avenues for poorer kids. And the better news is that the required changes are already high political priorities, things like improving schools and reducing inequality.

But if Clark is right, and family success persists across centuries, perhaps policy is beside the point. There seems to be a broader law at work, something that keeps the successful on top and the poor close to the bottom — regardless of school funding levels or divorce rates.

Clark raises a genetic argument, suggesting that families like the Pepys have some traits essential for success — grit, ambition, high IQ — that get passed down and provide each generation a substantial advantage.

But even if you don’t accept that claim, it doesn’t change the puzzle. In a world where 21st-century success is bound up with 17th-century happenings, the idea of economic opportunity starts to sound like a farce.

Perhaps the only thing to do is rewrite our economic rules so that everyone can find some real well-being, even if opportunity was mostly closed to them hundreds of years ago.

Summary: Research suggests there isn’t much income mobility in the United States.


The federal government will lend NBN Co $19.5 billion on commercial terms to complete the rollout of the national broadband network.

The government's equity contribution of $29.5 billion is due to be used up this financial year.

"To help ensure that NBN can fully focus on the remaining rollout as it significantly ramps up, the government has decided to provide the remaining funding required to complete that rollout through a government loan to NBN Co Ltd on commercial terms," Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said in a statement on Friday.

NBN chief executive Bill Morrow said the company had been advised of the $19.5 billion loan.

"This allows the NBN executive to fully focus on building and operating the network, to bring fast broadband to all Australians by 2020," he said in a statement.

"NBN welcomes the decision, which is in the best interest of the Australian taxpayer."

Summary: Completing the rollout of the national broadband network will require the government tipping in a $19.5 billion loan to the company behind it.


The Turnbull government is keeping tight lipped about a potential deal with Malaysia to resettle refugees on Nauru and Manus.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declined to comment on speculation an agreement is close between the two countries after holding bilateral talks with Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in Lima.

"When an agreement is reached we make an announcement," he told reporters on Saturday (Peru time).

Back in Australia, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the government was not going to public comment on any negotiations it might be having with countries.

"We have been desperate to get people off Nauru and Manus to third countries ... we have always said ideally we want a multi-lateral arrangement," told Sky News on Sunday.

In opposition, the coalition refused to support the Gillard government's attempts to pass legislation for its Malaysia people swap deal, after the High Court scuttled the plan in 2011, citing concerns about human rights violations in Malaysia at the time.

Tony Abbott has since retrospectively expressed some regret that as opposition leader he hadn't allowed the Labor government to pursue its mandate.

Asked about the hypocrisy of the coalition potentially pursuing a deal with Malaysia, Mr Turnbull said it was important to achieve "durable resettlement options" for refugees on Nauru and Manus Island rather than make political points.

Labor is already seeking an apology if the deal gets up.

Australia has recently reached a deal with the Obama administration to send some refugees to the US for resettlement.

So far the numbers and time frames are yet to be finalised and it's unclear whether President-elect Donald Trump will honour the deal.

US Homeland Security department officers are already in Australia and will be going to Nauru shortly to start assessments.

The government is expected to put legislation before parliament before the end of the year that would impose a life-time ban on asylum seekers attempting arrive in Australia by boat.

Labor has flagged it will oppose the bill, leaving the government having to draw support from the Senate cross bench.

Senate powerbroker Nick Xenophon said it is a morally vexed issue which will be a conscience vote among his NXT colleagues.

He wants an increase in the humanitarian intake as part of offering support.

"If we can do more to help refugees in camps around the world but also increase our humanitarian intake further here in Australia, then that would be, from my point of view, something that needs to be considered in the context of what the government is proposing," he told ABC television..

Summary: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull won't confirm whether Australia is in negotiations for a refugee resettlement deal with Malaysia.


People loved Samantha in the 1960s-’70s TV show “Bewitched” because, although she was seemingly omnipotent, she was totally subservient to her man. Whenever her husband seemed to lose interest or go astray, she could magically and coyly manipulate people, objects, and events to maintain her hold on him. She had the power, but she used it to maintain her proper role in a man’s world.

In the real world, and certainly in the delightfully crafted cinematic pastiche of Anna Biller’s “The Love Witch,” such witches have limited power to maintain their submissive-aggressive powers over the men they adore. Elaine (Samantha Robinson), the witch of the title, employs love spells but is not above drugging the object of her desire with hallucinogenics and other “potions” (which include a “witch bottle” made up of startling ingredients). Taking on the persona of a Stepford Wife (as one character describes her), with exaggerated makeup and a formidable raven wig, she embodies the passive-possessive sex object of men’s fantasies, and then transforms them into needy infants. And then they bore her. Unfortunately, at that point the movie becomes a little boring, too.

No matter. Biller dazzles the eye with her intricately hued, immersive décor. It is both ironic and hypnotic, allusive and unique. She combines unlikely cinematic sources with unsettling aptness. A long drive with rear projection evokes both Alfred Hitchcock and the endless beginning of “Deep Throat.” At times it seems like Frank Tashlin directing “Emmanuelle,” or a Dario Argento collaboration with Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Visually, it has the intense intimacy of a dream. Samantha’s apartment combines the uncanniness of tarot imagery with the psychedelia of Peter Max posters of the 1960s, all imbued with a sinister sexuality. She frequents a tea room of assaultive pinkness, complete with harpist, lace, delicate china, and colorfully frosted goodies. The set design is apparently the work of Biller herself, who, in addition to writing, producing, and directing the film, composed songs for the soundtrack and even wove some of the rugs. It is a true auteur creation that is absurd and exhilarating, a fun-house mirror reflecting our times and the folly of women who seek to control a patriarchal system by submitting to it.

Directed and written by Anna Biller. Starring Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell. At Kendall Square. 120 minutes. Unrated (smoking, sexual situation, provocative portrayal of gender roles, unpleasant use of bodily fluids).

Summary: “The Love Witch” offers a campy, subtly powerful analysis of the poisonous state of gender roles and sexuality.


A Victorian business has been hit with almost $30,000 in fines and legal costs after a worker's right hand was skinned by a machine.

The man was working with a machine that printed on, glued, cut and folded cardboard boxes alongside a manager at packing and supply business JT Dixon Pty Ltd in early February.

The machine required three people to operate it and could run through 100 boxes in a minute.

Both men climbed onto the machine while it was running to investigate an issue with the print quality on the boxes.

After the manager climbed off the machine to speak with a colleague, the worker reached down to touch the ink to see whether it was wet or dry.

His right hand became caught in rollers and was degloved as he pulled it free.

The worker also lost his little finger and the top of his middle finger.

JT Dixon pleaded guilty in the Geelong Magistrates' Court and was fined on Wednesday for failing to provide a safe workplace and plant, WorkSafe Victoria said in a statement on Friday.

Summary: A Victorian packing company has been fined $26,000 after a worker's hand was "degloved" when it got caught in a packaging machine.


Trump adviser Flynn met with leader of...

The NY Times reports that Trump's National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, met with the leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party, founded by Nazis in the 1950s. Lawrence discusses the fallout of the meeting with David Frum, Joe Cirinicione, and...

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell

Summary: It wasn't a press conference. He hasn't done one of those for 146 days. But that doesn't mean it wasn't illuminating.


This may be heresy, but some of us always loved Carrie Fisher more than Princess Leia.

Princess Leia was fine. But Princess Leia wouldn’t have existed without the woman who played her and who had to live a life after the hair buns came off. In the three films in which Fisher first inhabited the character — the original “Star Wars” (1977), “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), and “Return of the Jedi” (1983) — she took an archetype that for decades had clung timidly behind the likes of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers and gave her a spine and a blaster. Leia kicked ass, even in the skimpy galactic harem outfit from “Jedi” that probably marked the character’s nadir.

But Carrie Fisher? She was a great, funny, flawed, human human being who just happened to be celebrated for playing a sovereign of outer space in our culture’s most foundational shared fantasy. She was a survivor; she lived to tell, and tell she did, in memoirs and novels and one-woman shows and delicious interviews and talk-show appearances. Maybe Leia served as a role model for billions of little girls (and fueled the fantasies of billion of adolescent boys), but once you were all grown up, you just wanted her as your friend.

Another difference: Fisher was mortal, and in one last brutal kick in the teeth courtesy of the year 2016, she died Tuesday of complications of a heart attack suffered four days earlier during a flight from London to Los Angeles. She was 60. Princess Leia, of course, will be with us for as long as there are screens. It’s hardly the same. As enduring as the character is, was, and will be, the woman who played her was the more complicated and therefore the more interesting figure. Perhaps the shadows we cast are always thinner than the people who cast them. Or maybe Carrie Fisher was more wised-up than anything in George Lucas’s wonderful science fiction playground.

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She had to be: She was Hollywood royalty before she ever ruled Alderaan. Fisher belonged to a very special tribe, the children of the Dream Factory. Her mother is Debbie Reynolds, who as Kathy Selden in “Singin’ in the Rain” belted “Good morning, good mawning, it’s great to stay up late!” as if she’d never seen the bad side of a hangover. Her father was Eddie Fisher, who dumped Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor when Carrie was 2 and kicked off the signal celebrity scandal of the era.

The daughter of Hollywood royalty, Fisher turned her experiences with addiction and mental illness into bestselling books, a hit film and popular stage performances.

Fisher, in other words, was privileged to grow up witnessing stardom from the other side of the screen, and she had no illusions. “You can’t find any true closeness in Hollywood,” she famously said, “because everybody does the fake closeness so well.” It says a lot that the role that first brought her to greater notice was the sexually precocious Hollywood teenager who jumps Warren Beatty’s bones in “Shampoo” (1975), one of the key films of the New Hollywood. It says even more that the role that made her globally famous — Leia Organa — was in the film that spelled the end of the New Hollywood’s moody, broody realism and inaugurated the era of big-budget fantasy that now rules the culture.

One wonders with regret what sort of movies Fisher might have made had she been born earlier. Maybe she would have been a young film-noir troublemaker. Or maybe she would have had the running start that let Jane Fonda — another second-generation star but two decades older — find room to set her own destiny. In some parallel universe, there’s a Hollywood history more deserving of Carrie Fisher, where she got the roles worthy of her acrid, sorrowful, smart outlook on life. Maybe the awards, too.

Instead, she struggled, and then mined humor and insight and battle scars from that struggle. The not-so-secret secret about Fisher is that, while she had major talent as an actress, her greater gift was for writing. She made sense of her troubles every time she put words to paper: the bi-polar disorder that turned her upside down from adolescence on, the taste for drugs and booze that was colorful in youth and got ugly fast, the hard-won recoveries and steps backward. Her books are delightful to read, from 1987’s sorta-fictional “Postcards from the Edge” (“[My mother told me] that I was only interested in instant gratification. . . . I said, ‘Instant gratification takes too long.’ ”) to this year’s juicy “Star Wars” tell-all “The Princess Diarist.” There she is in your ear — that grainy, lived-in voice acknowledging what we all knew all along, that real life was always more messed up and somehow more worthwhile than anything in that galaxy far, far away.

What we saw — the movie roles, the talk-show appearances — was just the tip of the iceberg. Fisher was an in-demand but rarely credited script doctor throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and some of your favorite movies (“Sister Act,” “The Wedding Singer,” “Hook”) bear the stamp of her sense and sensibility. If you followed her on Twitter, it was like having a friend in your pocket. When the idiot fan-boys complained that her General Leia Organa looked unattractively old in last year’s “The Force Awakens,” Fisher tweeted, “Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well. Unfortunately it hurts all three of my feelings.”

I could spend the rest of this column just quoting Fisher, and we’d all be better off. (OK, just this one, from a 2014 interview with The Guardian: “I had a lot of fun killing Jabba the Hutt. They asked me on the day if I wanted to have a stunt double kill Jabba. No! That’s the best time I ever had as an actor. And the only reason to go into acting is if you can kill a giant monster.”) And you could always just go dig out the first “Star Wars” trilogy again and your children would thank you.

But better than quoting Fisher is to go to the library, take out one of her books (like the drily titled “Wishful Drinking,” from 2008), and simply read her. The actual secret about Carrie Fisher is that she may yet turn out to have been the Dorothy Parker of her time and place, writing with rueful hilarity about how hard it is to live up to the dream-factory fantasies that simultaneously sustain us and let us down. She fought the real star wars, and she won.

Summary: The real Princess Leia was a great, funny, flawed, human human being who just happened to be celebrated for playing a sovereign of outer space.


Monica Sykes was last seen on October 28, 2016.

Cecilia Cabrera disappeared the night of June 9, 2016.

The last time anyone saw Danielle Stislicki was Friday, December 2.

Elizabeth Sullivan was last seen on October 13, 2014.

Kristy Porter was located by detectives Tuesday, according to the Sparks Police Department.

A night out for Paul and Kristy Porter has turned into a haunting mystery.

Read, and share, their stories. Someone, somewhere, saw something.

The remains were found Friday outside Palmer, Alaska.

Shadow McClaine was last heard from on September 2, 2016.

The last time family members spoke to Brandon Herring was on Tuesday, November 22.

Whitney Copley disappeared in September 29, 2015

David Grunwald, 16, was last seen the night of November 13, 2016.

Cecilia Cabrera disappeared in the early hours of June 9, 2016.

Friends, family and neighbors united over the weekend in a desperate effort to find missing California woman Sherri Papini.

Kala Brown told authorities she witnessed her captor shoot her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, officials said.

Sheriff Chuck Wright said deputies discovered Kala Brown, 30, 'chained inside the container like a dog.'

Authorities in Georgia have confirmed remains discovered earlier this week by hunters are those of missing mother Heather McDonald, who vanished in September.

A person of interest had been named in connection with the disappearance of Georgia mother Heather McDonald, who vanished more than six weeks ago.&nbs

The remains were found Tuesday in a wooded area on the rural property of the Messer family.

Heather McDonald has been missing since September 18, 2016.

Autumn Sanville was reported missing on October 6, 2016.

Zuzu Verk was last seen the night of October 11 in Alpine, Texas.

Two Fort Campbell soldiers are being held as persons of interest in the disappearance of Shadow McClaine.

Zuzu Verk has been missing since October 12 from Alpine, Texas.

Summary: Go to NBCNews.com for the latest Missing In America news, photos and video.


A NEW e-book tells a "sordid story" of business fraud, according to one reviewer. The book's author says it is "the largest fraud case in American history."

Enron? WorldCom? No. It's much, much larger than either of those, though the use of the word "fraud" in this case is more a literary device than a legal definition. The book is "The $200 Billion Broadband Scandal" (newnetworks.com). The author is Bruce Kushnick, a longtime irritant to the telecommunications industry.

His targets are the Baby Bells, which he contends owe every American household about $2,000 because they reneged on their collective promise to deploy ultra-high-speed broadband Internet access via optical fiber to millions of homes.

By now, according to Mr. Kushnick, 86 million homes should be wired at 45 Mbps  at least 15 times as fast as the best commonly available D.S.L. service. The count of homes wired at that speed so far is zero.

The phone companies made this promise as Congress was getting ready to pass the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act, he points out. In return, they received benefits  including tax breaks and changes in state laws lifting limits on their profits  amounting to more than $200 billion, Mr. Kushnick writes. But instead of building the infrastructure, they spent money on more immediately profitable services like plain old copper-wire D.S.L. and hoary long-distance networks, according to the 406-page e-book.

"It's like ordering a Ferrari and getting a bicycle," Mr. Kushnick writes in his introduction.

Meanwhile, countries like South Korea and Japan were building out their infrastructure and making 100 Mbps service their national standard.

And here at home, "this 'bait and switch' caused a ripple effect," writes Steve Stroh, a research analyst, in a blog at bwianews.com.

"While one can argue about the dimensions of that ripple effect," he writes, "some effects are obvious  the cable companies only had to offer a modest speed increase above D.S.L. to be competitive. It seems reasonable to think that cable-modem speeds would be much higher in trying to compete with fiber, or the prices much lower."

ELSEWHERE IN TELCOLAND For years, David Lazarus, a business columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, has been nipping at the heels of SBC (now called AT&T), offering a steady stream of caustic criticism, often from a consumer point of view. John Battelle, journalist and proprietor of Seachblog (battellemedia.com), reports that AT&T has had enough, and has pulled its $5 million annual ad purchase from the newspaper.

The move, Mr. Battelle writes, is "misguided."

"After all, negative press is still press, and it's an opportunity to respond, to learn, to grow, to do better. Even if you disagree with the press, at least take the time to engage in a conversation."

A company representative told him, "our marketing strategy and media buying plans are proprietary," and declined to comment further.

And why is this in a blog about search engines? Mr. Battelle writes: "Because this is your new competitor, Google. Get to know them. As you offer free Wi-Fi to all of San Francisco (and, one might argue, the rest of the country/world), and undermine AT&T/SBC's broadband business, hardball players like SBC are going to go after you.' "

ONLINE SITCOM "Powerloafing With Cubicle Carl" (powerloafing.com) probably won't make NBC's prime-time lineup, but the online sitcom does, appropriately enough, make for an amusing workday diversion. The show  more silly than biting  is recorded in the living room of a North Hollywood apartment. All the action in each episode (they run about 5 minutes) takes place in Carl's cubicle. It's the creation of Mike Upchurch, who has written and produced for "The Chris Rock Show" and "MadTV." The latest episode, which imagines the Starship Enterprise as a typical office environment, may elicit no more than a chuckle or two, but that alone puts it way ahead of, say, "The War at Home."

Complete links are at nytimes.com/business. E-mail: whatsonline@nytimes.com

Summary: A new e-book takes on the Baby Bells, saying they reneged on their collective promise to deploy ultra-high-speed broadband Internet access to millions of homes.


Rosedene Rescue Centre in Rushall, Walsall has rescued and re-homed thousands of stray dogs over the last 35 years.

In April 2008 the police authorities called time on their animal rescue service, meaning that dog catchers and the public would bring strays directly to rescue centres rather than police stations.

Now in the run-up to Christmas, traditionally the centre's most hectic period, Rosedene is already full and is urgent need of help.

"We have about 60 strays on site now – our limit," says Vivienne who has worked at Rosedene for the last 12 months.

"We're extremely busy and our policy is to never put a dog down unless its seriously ill, old or a threat. The Credit Crunch may well be contributing to this.

"You see a pattern emerging. Every year in November and December time we get older dogs being handed in. People it seems have had enough of them. Come January and February, it's puppies; unwanted Christmas gifts. We're absolutely full now and it's a strain to cope."

Rosedene is privately owned and therefore does not benefit from charity funding. Instead, the centre relies solely on donations and help from volunteers in the public.

"We are absolutely desperate for dog walkers," says Vivienne. "We do have more on weekends naturally but overall we walkers at all times. We welcome anything people are kind enough to give – blankets, dog food, toys. It really does help so much."

Rosedene accepts stray dogs from the Dudley and Sandwell boroughs and the majority are bought in courtesy of dog catchers.

The worst part of her job though, says Vivienne, is dealing with the conditions some of the animals are in when they arrive:

"Some of the dogs of course arrive in a terrible state. The most common one really is malnourishment; dogs looking incredibly thin. We had one brought in who couldn't walk properly due to what were cigarette burns on his feet. Another with no teeth – he'd been hit in the face with a shovel. It's the worst part of the job – people's neglect.

"It's the excuses people make that really anger you too. I had a call just last week from a woman saying she was bringing her dog to us because she was allergic to it. Yet she'd had the dog for ten years.

"Sometimes too people just don't want to find their stray. We had a dog bought in that was micro-chipped so we managed to trace the owner. We phoned him to say we'd found his dog and he said he'd come to pick it up. He didn't. After repeated calls back we were told that we'd got the wrong number and the dog stayed with us."

All dogs brought in are examined by vets and given treatment if necessary. If no-one has come forward to claim them within two weeks they are available for rehousing.

"With Christmas approaching we know it's going to be really busy – but we are already full. We are desperate for volunteers and for help. Please come and see us if you're interested."

Rosedene Animal Rescue Centre is located on Radley Road off Winterley Lane, Walsall and is open between 11am and 4pm Monday - Saturday and 11.30am and 3pm on Sunday.

Summary: An over-stretched Walsall dogs home is full - six weeks before Christmas 2008. Vivienne Brunger explains why the centre is in urgent need of your help.


BY REBECCA LOUIE SUZANNE ROZDEBA ZOE ALEXANDER BEN WIDDICOMBE

Sunday, June 15th 2003, 7:27AM

Don't call Patti LaBelle a diva - even if she wants to look like one.

At the Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards on Thursday, we shared an elevator with Rod Stewart, his girlfriend Penny Lancaster and LaBelle. After Stewart complimented Patti's look, she said: "I'm trying to be a diva in this gorgeous dress!"

"You, know, we were just talking about this the other day," said Stewart. "What exactly is a diva? Does it have a negative connotation?"

Patti, taking a moment to think of a precise definition, finally said: "A diva is like a child in training."

Just then the doors swung open, and the enlightened stars stepped out into the company of Jerry Seinfeld, Pink, Phil Collins, Tony Bennett, Wynonna Judd and Van Morrison.

Prodding Patti on the issue a few minutes later, she told us: "I don't like the word, 'diva.' I'm a queen! There are many people who take the word 'diva' negatively."

As if to underline the point, Her Majesty swept off - followed by a helper holding up the train to her gown.

Anna Nicole Smith's fey decorator, Bobby Trendy, is heading for his own reality show this fall. But he doesn't have anything nice to say about Anna Nicole's on-camera sidekick, Howard K. Stern, or his other "Anna Nicole Show" co-stars.

"Howard has no manners and no decorum," he told us at the after-party for Cher's concert on Thursday.

And what other dish can we expect from a show about Hollywood's

"Carmen Electra had my whole fabric ceiling and wall treatment done on her bedroom," he said. "She dropped $100,000 on that room at the age of 20."

It isn't every woman's dream to have her fiancÃ© crash her hens' night. But that's just what Geraldo Rivera did on Wednesday when Erica Levy, 28, went out with a gaggle of girlfriends to celebrate her impending nuptials.

Rivera, 59, turned up unannounced with his brother Craig and nephew Aaron to Global 33 in the East Village. The soon-to-be fifth Mrs. Rivera, complete with tiara, was enjoying cocktails with a table full of her friends when the boys arrived.

The party, men included, then carried on to Lot 61 in Chelsea before the couple returned to their home in New Jersey. And how did Levy, who displayed a large diamond engagement ring on her left hand, react to the invasion?

"She was excited," said a rep for the couple. "She thought it was great."

Swimsuit sweetheart May Andersen, who just scored a $2 million court judgement over the broken pelvis and ankle she suffered in a 2001 car crash, was recently spotted with "FearDotCom"-er Stephen Dorff at Alphabet City haunt Joey's.

"They were playing some card game called Phoenix and they looked friendly, like they liked each other," says our spy, who was at the bar co-owned by model Haylynn Cohen and boyfriend Joey Gossett.

Could this be the start of runway love? Andersen had her mom in tow and Dorff brought his dad. Or maybe the kids were chaperoning their parents.

You would have thought Robert De Niro had made some friends throughout his career. But the Friars Club-like roasting he got while picking up his American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in Hollywood the other night has us wondering.

Robin Williams began his tribute to the actor by talking up De Niro's shaggy "new Saddam Hussein mission look." (Williams also thanked Jodie Foster, dressed in a slinky, see-through number, for wearing "two napkins.")

In front of an audience that included BeyoncÃ© Knowles, Martin Scorsese and Sony honcho Sir Howard Stringer, De Niro's "Once Upon a Time in America" co-star James Woods said, "Everyone is saying how brilliant an actor he is. I don't see it. Let's talk about 'Rocky and Bullwinkle.' It's not even out on DVD. Thank God they saved the plastic. There are his comedies, his dramas and his alimony movies."

Billy Crystal then added, "Not all his films are gems." (Crystal was probably referring to "Analyze That.")

Knowles made a surprise appearance on stage. Kicking up her legs like a young Liza Minnelli, she delivered a rousing rendition of "New York, New York," a song DeNiro introduced, sort of (his sax-playing was dubbed), in Scorsese's film of the same name.

Sean Penn, still smarting from his failed trip to Iraq, said: "I got nervous before I came out here. I was afraid someone was going to say something political."

De Niro, always unpredictable at the podium, raised eyebrows with his final remarks.

"I thank all of you for coming," he said. "Goodnight, and goodnight Gregory Peck."

Harrison Ford was in New York taking questions about his role in

"Hollywood Homicide" this week, but he snapped when one reporter asked if he was in love with his girlfriend, Calista Flockhart. "I'm living with Calista. Did you think it was a plan to cut down on rent?" he snarled. "No, obviously we're in love."

Another red-carpet ruckus broke out between Juliette Binoche and E! correspondent Giuliana (who, like Madonna, is sans surname) at the L.A. debut of "Jet Lag." Visibly annoyed by Giuliana's questions, the usually composed Binoche snapped: "Have you seen the film?" The reporter admitted she hadn't. She growled, "You really should watch a movie before doing an interview with someone promoting the movie."

Summary: Don't call Patti LaBelle a diva - even if she wants to look like one. At the Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards on Thursday, we shared an elevator with Rod Stewart, his girlfriend Penny Lancaster and LaBelle. After Stewart complimented Patti's look, she said: "I'm trying to be a diva in this gorgeous dress!""You, know, we were just talking about this the other day,"said


Name: Belfazaar Ashantison, New Orleans Vampire Association

Place of Residence: New Orleans, La.

Type of Vampire: Sanguinarian (Blood Drinker) and Psychic (Energy Feeder)

Quote: "I am a vampire. I was born with a physiological condition that prohibits me from creating enough of the essential daily energies to get through even the basic tasks."

Summary: Self-described vampires say they feed on human energy and blood to stay alive.


Arnold Schwarzenegger has hired the attorney who represented Jennifer Aniston in her split from Brad Pitt to handle his divorce from Maria Shriver.

The Hollywood actor-turned-governor has officially engaged the services of Robert Kaufman, who specializes in keeping star splits low-profile, TMZ reported Wednesday.

Kaufman, whose other famous divorce clients include Reese Witherspoon and Jessica Simpson, has already been in touch with Shriver's attorney, Laura Wasser, to "move forward" with negotiations, according to TMZ sources.

Schwarzenegger, 63, announced his separation from former NBC journalist Shriver after 25 years of marriage on May 10.

A week later, reportedly at Shriver's insistence, he acknowledged that he had fathered a child with a longtime household employee over a decade ago.

The couple is believed to have a prenuptial agreement, but it may not stand in light of their long marriage and Schwarzenegger's infidelity.

Their net worth is estimated to be between $200 million and $400 million, meaning their divorce could be one of the most expensive celebrity splits ever.

Summary: Arnold Schwarzenegger Hires Jennifer Aniston's Divorce Lawyer


ATLANTA -- A southwest Atlanta man has won his second $1 million Georgia Lottery prize.

Delma Kinney, who will celebrate his 51st birthday Dec. 5, recently won a $1 million prize playing the instant game Super Millions.

In 2008, Kinney won $1 million playing another instant game. The single father of three set aside a portion of his winnings to save for their college education.

With his recent win, Kinney says he plans to donate a portion to charity.

Kinney says he bought the ticket at a Chevron Food Mart when he went out to buy cold medicine.

Summary: Associated Press ATLANTA -- A southwest Atlanta man has won his second $1 million Georgia Lottery prize.


In the immortal words of the vice president, this could be a big $%^ing deal: House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is throwing what one Republican calls “a legal and political hot potato at the President.” In a resolution to be voted on in the House tomorrow, Boehner is giving the president two weeks – until the Pentagon Appropriations bill comes up – to either: a) Ask for authorization for the military intervention in Libya, or b) Figure out how to disengage the US from the NATO operation in Libya. The resolution states: “The President has not sought, and Congress has not provided, authorization for the introduction or continued involvement of the United States Armed Forces in Libya. Congress has the constitutional prerogative to withhold funding for any unauthorized use of the United States Armed Forces, including for unauthorized activities regarding Libya.” Boehner is explicitly and formally stating that the president did not check the box on the War Powers Act before sending the US military to intervene in Libya. The White House had no immediate comment, though earlier today White House press secretary Jay Carney said “we believe that the policy is working, we believe that the goal the president has is shared by a vast majority of members of Congress, and we have consulted with Congress every step of the way since we have initiated this policy.” Carney went on to reiterate that “our involvement militarily is limited, as the president promised, and will continue to be so, and he has made very clear, for example, that we will not be sending ground troops to Libya; that is off the table.” Last week we noted that two bipartisan actions in the House of Representatives related to Libya seemed to bode ill for congressional support for the U.S. role in military intervention there. Last month in a letter to congressional leaders, the president suggested that the US mission in Libya is now so limited he didn’t think congressional authorization necessary, House Republican leaders believe that if the resolution being offered by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio — requiring the president to withdraw U.S. Armed Forces from participation in the NATO mission in Libya within 15 days - had come up yesterday it would have passed. Instead the Kucinich bill comes up tomorrow. With the Boehner bill an alternative. According to a House Republican aide, in the House GOP conference this afternoon, Speaker Boehner said: “The Kucinich measure will express our constituents’ angst, but it will also have long-term consequences I believe are unacceptable. If Kucinich passes, it will have an impact on Afghanistan. From a NATO perspective, we're trying to hold the alliance together and advance a common agenda in Afghanistan. We will have turned our backs against our NATO partners who have stuck by us for the last 10 years.” Boehner then quoted from a Heritage Foundation paper on the possibility of congressional action on Libya: “‘Any action by Congress must have due regard for U.S. responsibilities to its allies. It would be completely irresponsible of the U.S. to presumptively withdraw support from allies that are in harm’s way. Many NATO nations stood, fought, and died with American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing should be done to suggest that America would precipitously abandon its allies.’” Boehner used the attached PowerPoint slide to make his case against the Kucinich resolution (click for larger version): -Jake Tapper (@jaketapper)

Summary: In the immortal words of the vice president, this could be a big $%^ing deal: House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is throwing what one Republican calls “a legal and political hot potato at the President.” In a resolution to be voted on in the House tomorrow, Boehner is giving the president two weeks – until the Pentagon Appropriations bill comes up – to either: a)  Ask for authorization for the military intervention in Libya, or b)  Figure out how to disengage the US from the NATO operation in Libya. The resolution states: “The President has not sought, and Congress has not…


The Federal Reserve announced today that it expects to keep interest rates near zero percent at least through late 2014. The rate has remained at this record low since the financial crisis took hold in 2008.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy-making group, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), said it is keeping the target range for the federal funds rate at zero to 1/4 percent and said that economic conditions “are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.”

The committee said the economy has been “expanding moderately, notwithstanding some slowing in global growth.”

“While indicators point to some further improvement in overall labor market conditions, the unemployment rate remains elevated,” the committee said in its statement.

Household spending has improved, but growth in business fixed investment has slowed, and the housing sector remains depressed, the committee said.

Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist with Janney Capital Markets, said the extension of low interest rates were anticipated. Though the effects may be minimal, he said car loan rates will likely decline and mortgage rates will decline a bit further than their already record low levels.

“That’s such a modest stimulus to the consumer wallet,” he said. “Mortgage rates have fallen so much since 2006. The majority of rate stimulus has already taken place.”

The weekly average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) edged down slightly to 3.88 percent to a new all-time record low marking the seventh consecutive week below 4 percent, Freddie Mac said on Jan. 19. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.74 percent. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.17 percent up from the previous week when it averaged 3.16 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.05 percent.

The committee said inflation has been “subdued in recent months, and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.”

“It’s dovish in the sense that it’s designed to boost economic growth without concern of inflation,” LeBas said, describing the committee’s announcement. ”I think it reinforces the Fed’s philosophy of providing economic support at any cost.”

The committee finished its two- day meeting on Wednesday, the first meeting of the year. The FOMC, which holds eight regularly scheduled meetings a year, buys and sells securities as its “open market” operations to set monetary policy.

The FOMC consists of twelve members: the seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and four of the remaining eleven Reserve Bank presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis.

Summary: The Federal Reserve announced today that it expects to keep interest rates near zero percent at least through late 2014. The rate has remained at this record low since the financial crisis took hold in 2008. In a statement on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy-making group, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), said it is keeping the target range for the federal funds rate at zero to 1/4 percent and said that economic conditions “are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.” The committee said the economy has been “expanding moderately, notwithstanding…


UST across the border from the cocktail nation is Red Hook Bait and Tackle, a new bar on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Last gas for cosmos is probably Carroll Gardens, a mile or two mile away.

Despite the lineup of flavored vodkas and premium gins at the bar, Red Hook Bait and Tackle is, as Barry O'Meara, the bartender and one of four owners, described it, a "beer and shots" bar.

Mr. O'Meara's knowledge of his clientele - he knew everyone at the bar by name on Monday night - seems secure. The man next to me, part of a tugboat crew, ordered a Jägermeister and a Bud Light. The man next to him was his captain.

"Kind of funny," Mr. O'Meara said. "His name is Hook. Ronald Hook."

Because I asked after a drink in a bronchial basso voice, Mr. O'Meara, 34, an Irishman from Galway who described himself as a fourth-generation bartender, fixed me a toddy, with cloves and Irish whiskey. He sent a patron to a bodega across the street to buy the cloves.

The two tugboat men drank up, then asked the bar at large for tips on local strip clubs, a discussion that involved some at the bar and not others.

"I used to be a bookmaker," a blond man said to the blond woman next to him, which sounded like more waterfront talk until he moved on to art bindings and handmade paper.

After years of spotty pioneering, Red Hook is gentrifying quickly. The bakeries and the bistros go in first, then the would-be dive bars and then, if you're lucky, a place to meet and drink like Red Hook Bait and Tackle. Mr. O'Meara and his partners are sincere antiquarians of the neighborhood where they live and work, and it shows. The Bait and Tackle's bar is an irregular plank of wood from a tree that fell 20 years ago in a local churchyard, which John McGill, a friend of the house, provided. In most lights, Mr. McGill looks like Mr. O'Meara's twin, and he told me, with the air of a young priest who has no regret for his decision, that they could be having a lot of fun "with the girls" if they were still single.

Their dogs, Wispa and Dolce, fought over a bone on a divan at the back of the bar, like a detail in a Rowlandson drawing, then settled in to share it, muzzle to muzzle - close as family. They were rescued from a litter of "sugar refinery dogs," Mr. O'Meara said, speaking of a ghost factory on Beard Street where the strays were going on 15 generations.

"The last of the Red Hook specials," he called them, with the warmth of a toddy. Someday someone might say that of Mr. O'Meara, and I think he will not be displeased.

Summary: At Red Hook Bait and Tackle, fourth-generation bartender Barry O'Meara whips up a toddy, with cloves and Irish whiskey.


Death and taxes. According to our ever-insightful forefather Benjamin Franklin, these are life's only guarantees, and while I respect a man who can rock a good pair of bifocals, I think ol' Ben left an important certainty off the list -- a threat that comes each and every year and instills terror in the hearts of millions of Americans, causing them to scream, sweat, and run (literally) for their lives.

I'm talking about swimsuit season! Every spring, as the summer months loom, America's parks and gyms are flooded with masses of sweaty bodies, all with a single motivation in mind: Look good enough by Memorial Day to feel comfortable getting half-naked in front of complete strangers.

And all this exercise is certainly a good thing for our country's health: A recent American Journal of Preventive Medicine study predicted that 42 percent (!) of Americans will be obese by the year 2030, and research shows that physical activity is one of the best ways to keep the pounds at bay.

So with fitness in the air, now is the perfect time to dig up the facts on the best and worst drinks for your workout. There are tons of sports beverages on the market promising to help you lose weight, run faster, and jump higher, but many of these claims are nothing but bogus marketing ploys. And not only are some of those bottles and cans filled with empty promises, but they're also brimming with empty calories that could undermine your hard-earned workout gains. Read on for five exercise-enhancing beverages that can help quench your thirst, boost your performance, and support you on your journey to swimsuit six-pack-dom.

(Want must-have nutrition info, food swaps, and breaking health findings delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the Eat This, Not That! newsletter.)

90 calories, 0 g fat, 22 g sugars (Vita Coco 100% Pure Coconut Water (1 bottle, 17 fl oz). A 2012 study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that compared to a commercial sports drink, coconut water -- a natural source of electrolytes -- was equally as effective in hydrating participants after an intense workout. So why choose the coconut water over the sports drink? For one, coconut water is low on the glycemic index, so it won't dramatically affect your blood sugar, while fluid-replacement beverages like Powerade are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, a high-glycemic-index sweetener that can spike blood sugar levels and promote body-fat storage. Second, a 2010 study in the Journal of Cell & Tissue Research found that coconut water helped reduce blood pressure and cholesterol in rats, suggesting that the drink may also promote heart health. Not That! Powerade Lemon-Lime Liquid Hydration (1 bottle, 20 fl oz) 150 calories, 0 g fat 37.5 g sugars. (For more smart sports nutrition tips, check out 26 Ways to Feed Your Body for Results.)

2 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g sugars. A 2008 study published in the International Journal of Sports Physiology & Performance found that during a 1-hour time trial, cyclists who took a caffeine supplement were able to ride about a mile farther than those who took a placebo. What's more, other scientific research has linked caffeine consumption with increased endurance and reaction times. The problem is, most caffeine-enhanced energy drinks are loaded with added sugars (what's the point of an exercise-boosting drink that makes you fat?). The Starbucks Doubleshot, for example, has more sugar than a Twix bar! A much more waistline-friendly way to reap the benefits of caffeine: black coffee. It's sugar-free, packed with antioxidants, and has a negligable 2 calories per cup. Not That! Starbucks Mocha Double Shot Energy + Coffee (1 can, 16 fl oz) 200 calories, 2.5 g fat (1.5 g saturated) 26 g sugars. Don't let your coffee craving destroy your diet! Stay away from the 6 Worst Coffee Drinks in America.

5 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g sugars (1 packet). Green tea is another smart source of energy-enhancing caffeine. Like coffee, it's packed with antioxidants, and a 2011 research review published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that the herbal drink may also promote weight loss. A great way to get green tea on the go: EBoost. Unlike most green-tea based energy beverages, it's sweetened with natural, zero-calorie Stevia, and it boasts an impressive antioxidant profile. Compare it to the SoBe sugar concoction below -- which packs nearly as much sugar as three whole Kit Kat bars! -- and the winner is clear.

Not That! SoBe Green Tea (1 bottle, 20 fl oz), 240 calories, 0 g fat, 61 g sugars.

(Want more must-have hydration tips? Read Your Guide to Sports Drinks.)

158 calories, 2.5 g fat (1.5 g saturated), 25 g sugars, 8 g protein. Drinking a combination of carbohydrates and protein after a hard workout can help restore your energy and aid in building lean, metabolism-boosting muscle, but it turns out that you don't need a fancy recovery beverage to reap these benefits. A 2009 article in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism found that after participating in a vigorous cyclying session, cyclists who drank chocolate milk were able to ride 51 percent longer in a subsequent workout than those who drank a standard recovery beverage. Plus, chocolate milk is cheaper (and tastier) than anything you'll find in a sports nutrition store.

So should you pick a sports drink with protein? Read up on the science: The Truth about Protein.

Not That! Endurox R4 Chocolate Recovery Drink (2 Scoops), 270 calories, 1.5 g fat, 44 g sugars, 13 g protein.

0 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g sugars You may feel trendy with a bottle of vitamin-enhanced water in your hand, but that brightly hued liquid probably isn't improving your health. Most vitamin-infused H20 is just colored sugar water with some vitamins tossed in -- bad news when you consider that Americans take in about 355 calories of added sugar every day. (Much of this sugar comes from sources like sodas, which is why you should avoid washing your burger down with any of the 20 Worst Drinks in America.) If you want vitamins, get them from vitamin supplements or, better yet, from whole foods (salmon, for example, is loaded with energy-boosting vitamin B-12). And if you want water, get it from, well, water. Nature's beverage is calorie-free, cost-free, and unless you're an elite athlete who does high-intensity exercise for more than an hour at a time, it'll take care of all your workout hydration needs. Not That! Vitamin Water Energy (1 bottle, 20 fl oz), 120 calories, 0 g fat, 32 g sugars.

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Summary: Death and taxes. According to our ever-insightful forefather Benjamin Franklin, these are life's only guarantees, and while I respect a man who can ro...


The Bulfinch Hotel near TD Garden is unveiling a new, more upscale identity on Monday when the recently renovated property officially becomes the Boxer.

The hotel, located in a triangular 1904 building on Merrimac Street, has a vintage feel, with an old-time room key rack behind the front desk, a circa 1860 map of Boston on the lobby ceiling, and industrial-era accordion lamps in the guest rooms. The restaurant, formerly Flat Iron Tapas Bar, is now called Finch, and has wingback chairs, a weathered wood floor, and a newly exposed glass wall bringing in more light.

“The renovations went right down to the sheetrock,” said general manager Emily Antonelli, who has been at the hotel for three months.

Hersha Hospitality Trust of Philadelphia bought the nine-story, 80-room hotel from Palm Beach-based Innkeepers USA Trust a year ago and invested almost $3 million in the property. Room prices have gone up accordingly, from $99-$299 to $149-$409 a night.

Hersha owns 64 hotels around the country, including eight branded properties in Massachusetts such as a Courtyard by Marriott in Brookline, Residence Inn by Marriott in Framingham, and Holiday Inn Express in Cambridge. The Boxer is part of Hersha Hospitality Management’s Independent Collection, a group of seven boutique hotels in New York, Washington, Philadelphia, and Boston that emphasize the culture, landmarks, and dining of each neighborhood on its website.

A rack in the Boxer’s lobby holds decorative room keys.

More guests are looking to connect to the cities they visit, said Andrea Foster, vice president at the hospitality consultancy PKF Consulting USA, particularly in a historic place like Boston. Even the Boxer’s small gym in the basement has a local feel, with a photo mural of the 1963 Boston Marathon.

Hersha’s “focus on authentic, local design and flavors is consistent with current trends in travel experiences today,” Foster said.

The rebranding will also allow the Boxer to “ride the wave of increased hotel rates that we’ve seen in the Boston market,” she added.

The Boxer’s historic building has bending hallways and uniquely shaped rooms, including some with large structural columns in unexpected places, such as in the middle of the bathroom, and several with bunk beds.

The process of rebranding the hotel started about a month ago, said Antonelli, with details ranging from designing new stationery to updating the website’s pictures. The sign in front will be changed overnight on Sunday. To spread the word about the new name, hotel staff will be reaching out to vendors, guests, GPS services, and other business partners.

Boston cab drivers have been invited to the hotel for a free lunch Monday so that they will know where to go when a passenger says, “Take me to the Boxer.”

Summary: The Bulfinch Hotel near TD Garden is unveiling a new, more upscale identity on Monday when the recently renovated property officially becomes the Boxer. The nine-story, 80-room hotel, located in a triangular 1904 building on Merrimac Street, has a vintage feel, with an old-timen old-fashioned room key rack behind the front desk, a circa 1860 map of Boston on the lobby ceiling, and industrial-era accordion lamps in the guest rooms. The restaurant is now called Finch, with wingback chairs and a weathered wood floor, and a newly exposed glass wall bringing in more light. Hersha Hospitality Trust of Philadelphia bought the hotel a year ago and invested almost $3 million in the property. Room prices have gone up accordingly, from $99-$299 to $149-$409 a night.


Eleven months after Jim Harbaugh complained that the Seahawks cornerbacks illegally manhandled his wide receivers, the 49ers will counter with their own bully Sunday night in Seattle: Anquan Boldin.

Long regarded as one of the NFL's most physical wideouts, Boldin, 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, didn't just make noise with his pass-catching in a 13-catch, 208-yard debut in San Francisco last week.

He also made noise with his blocking.

Fullback Bruce Miller, who knows something about big collisions, said Boldin's hits on Green Bay defenders had a signature sound: "Boom!"

Boldin's Week 1 de-cleaters - he was fined $7,875 for an unpenalized wallop on Packers cornerback Jarrett Bush - only added to a tough-guy reputation cemented in 2008: Boldin missed only two games after his facial fractures were surgically secured by seven titanium plates and more than 40 screws.

So, no, Boldin doesn't figure to shrink Sunday night when matched against All-Pro Richard Sherman, Seattle's long-armed 6-3, 195-pound cornerback who specializes in in-your-face coverage.

In anticipation of the meeting, Boldin was asked about his approach to facing knock-you-around cornerbacks.

"Just coming at them matching their intensity," he said. "Being physical yourself. But I think you have to do what you do best. If you're a smaller guy, use your quickness. If you're a bigger guy, use your physicality."

The 49ers hope Boldin's rugged style can help jump-start an offense that stalled when it met Seattle in 2012.

The 49ers managed just two touchdowns in two meetings, and the failures of their passing attack were a primary reason. In a 13-6 win in October, Alex Smith had his second-lowest passer rating of the season (74.5). In a 42-13 loss in December, Colin Kaepernick had his lowest rating (72.0).

In each contest, Seattle's secondary suffocated San Francisco's wideouts. When targeting wide receivers, Smith and Kaepernick combined for an unsightly stat line: 14-of-33, 172 yards, two interceptions and a 33.9 rating.

After the 49ers' win in October, Harbaugh said Sherman and big-bodied Brandon Browner, a Pro Bowl pick in 2011, played too rough-and-tumble against his wide receivers.

The good news for the 49ers: Browner is listed as doubtful for Sunday night's game because of a hamstring injury. The bad news: Browner also missed Seattle's 29-point romp in December.

The constant in each game was Sherman, who is ready to slug it out with Boldin.

"He's going to be pushing you and grabbing you. It's going to be a physical battle so you have to prepare your mind and your body for that type of game," Sherman said to the Seattle media. "Because if you're not prepared for that, then he'll dominate like he did last game."

In his last game against the 49ers, Sherman dominated. He returned a blocked field goal 90 yards for a touchdown, had an interception and added a season-high four passes defensed. He also had some words for Harbaugh, his coach at Stanford whom he termed a "bully" after the teams' October meeting.

Sherman was joined by another Stanford alum, Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin, in celebrating their success in December by yapping at Harbaugh. Baldwin had two touchdown catches in the game.

"Definitely feel the tension between them and coach Harbaugh," said 49ers practice-squad safety Michael Thomas, who played with Sherman and Baldwin at Stanford. "It's definitely been amplified because the 49ers-Seahawks game, I feel, is like the closest thing to a college rivalry in the NFL. It became more intense. I hope it settles down. I just see the way they jaw during the game at coach Harbaugh. It's not good. It's not good. I definitely hope it settles down."

Sherman had the last word against Harbaugh in December. And he had a similarly satisfying performance in his only meeting against Boldin.

On Nov. 13, 2011, Boldin had two catches for 22 yards on nine targets in Baltimore's 22-17 loss at Seattle. Against Sherman, then a rookie, Boldin had one catch for 17 yards on six targets, according to Pro Football Focus.

Who will win their next meeting Sunday night? The one certainty: It will be quite a fight.

"(Boldin) brings an attitude, he brings a competitiveness that's unlike anybody that I've ever played with," said NFL Network analyst Kurt Warner, his teammate in Arizona from 2005 to '09. "He brings a toughness. He physically tries to let the people on the other side know they're in for a long day."

When: 5:30 p.m. TV/radio: Channel: 11 Channel: 3 Channel: 8 (810, 107.7)

Spotlight on: DT Justin Smith and NG Ian Williams. On Seattle's second offensive play in its 42-13 win over the 49ers last year, RB Marshawn Lynch ran through a hole that typically would have been occupied by Smith and dashed off to a 24-yard TD. Message sent. Rout on. With Smith absent because of a torn Achilles tendon, Seattle had 176 rushing yards, the most against the 49ers since Sept. 26, 2010. Nine months later, Smith appears to be back in All-Pro form after offseason surgery. Last week, Smith drew three penalties against Packers left guard Josh Sitton (two holding, one illegal hands to face). Meanwhile, Williams will make his first career start after logging just 10 snaps against Green Bay. The 49ers primarily stayed in their nickel defense against the pass-happy Packers.

Injury notes: 49ers - RB LaMichael James (knee) is listed as questionable, but won't play after not practicing during the week. Seahawks - CB Brandon Browner (hamstring) is doubtful and will be replaced by three-year veteran Walter Thurmond (six career starts) if he is unable to play; DE Chris Clemons (knee) is questionable after undergoing offseason surgery for a torn ACL; DE Cliff Avril (hamstring) is expected to make his Seahawks debut after collecting 9 1/2 sacks for Detroit in 2012. Avril is probable.

Defending kickoff returns: After ranking 31st in the NFL in kickoff coverage last year, the 49ers limited Green Bay's Jeremy Ross to 13.3 yards on three returns in Week 1. Phil Dawson had four touchbacks, and the Packers' average drive started on their 19.5-yard line, thanks in part to the exemplary play of a unit that includes seven players who weren't with the 49ers last year. Seattle kickoff returner Jermaine Kearse had a 107-yard score in the preseason.

Stopping Wilson: In last year's win over the 49ers in Seattle, then-rookie Seahawks QB Russell Wilson threw for four TDs, had a 115.3 passer rating and completed 15 of 21 passes. Of his six incompletions, three were drops and two were throwaways, according to Pro Football Focus.

Ground game: The Seahawks have rushed for at least 100 yards in 21 of their past 26 games. The 49ers have surrendered fewer than 100 rushing yards in 27 of their past 35 games.

Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: ebranch@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Eric_Branch

Summary: Eleven months after Jim Harbaugh complained that the Seahawks cornerbacks illegally manhandled his wide receivers, the 49ers will counter with their own bully Sunday night in Seattle:  Long regarded as one of the NFL's most physical wideouts, Boldin, 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, didn't just make noise with his pass-catching in a 13-catch, 208-yard debut in San Francisco last week.  Boldin's Week 1 de-cleaters - he was fined $7,875 for an unpenalized wallop on Packers cornerback Jarrett Bush - only added to a tough-guy reputation cemented in 2008:  [...] no, Boldin doesn't figure to shrink Sunday night when matched against All-Pro Richard Sherman, Seattle's long-armed 6-3, 195-pound cornerback who specializes in in-your-face coverage.  When targeting wide receivers, Smith and Kaepernick combined for an unsightly stat line: 14-of-33, 172 yards, two interceptions and a 33.9 rating.  After the 49ers' win in October, Harbaugh said Sherman and big-bodied Brandon Browner, a Pro Bowl pick in 2011, played too rough-and-tumble against his wide receivers.  Because if you're not prepared for that, then he'll dominate like he did last game.  "(Boldin) brings an attitude, he brings a competitiveness that's unlike anybody that I've ever played with," said NFL Network analyst Kurt Warner, his teammate in Arizona from 2005 to '09.  On Seattle's second offensive play in its 42-13 win over the 49ers last year, RB Marshawn Lynch ran through a hole that typically would have been occupied by Smith and dashed off to a 24-yard TD.  With Smith absent because of a torn Achilles tendon, Seattle had 176 rushing yards, the most against the 49ers since Sept. 26, 2010.  Seahawks - CB Brandon Browner (hamstring) is doubtful and will be replaced by three-year veteran Walter Thurmond (six career starts) if he is unable to play; DE Chris Clemons (knee) is questionable after undergoing offseason surgery for a torn ACL; DE Cliff Avril (hamstring) is expected to make his Seahawks debut after collecting 9 1/2 sacks for Detroit in 2012.  After ranking 31st in the NFL in kickoff coverage last year, the 49ers limited Green Bay's Jeremy Ross to 13.3 yards on three returns in Week 1.  In last year's win over the 49ers in Seattle, then-rookie Seahawks QB Russell Wilson threw for four TDs, had a 115.3 passer rating and completed 15 of 21 passes.


The United Nations sounded alarm bells on Friday over human rights violations in eastern Ukraine as well as the harassment and persecution of ethnic Tatars in Crimea.

In a report released simultaneously in Kiev and Geneva, the U.N. denounced the actions and impunity enjoyed by those armed groups—including the kidnapping, beating, detention and killing of locals, politicians and journalists—and stated the problems “remain the major factor in causing a worsening situation for the protection of human rights.”

The information was compiled by 34 human rights monitors in Kiev and four other cities, the New York Times reports.

Russia immediately condemned the report. Moscow said it ignores abuses committed by Ukraine’s government, despite the monitors having credible reports that Ukraine’s state security service detained pro-Russia activists and moved them to Kiev. Russia said those transfers amount to forced abductions.

Tension grew again on Thursday, when thousands of steelworkers and miners took control of the eastern city of Mariupol, prompting the pro-Russia insurgents to retreat. The workers are employed by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who urged his employees to take over the city on the grounds their jobs would be put at risk by autonomy.

Summary: A new U.N. report found that actions by armed groups in the restive east have led to an 'alarming deterioration' of the human rights of local populations


Kurt Melcher was surfing the Internet one day when he decided to search for an old favorite: Starcraft. Melcher, 45, played the computer game during and shortly after college, and he wanted to see if he could find any news on it. He discovered the original 1998 game evolved into Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty in 2010. Melcher was surprised to find the sequel is played competitively. He also discovered League of Legends, another Microsoft Windows and OS X video game with a competitive following.

"I was just shocked at the size and scope and scale and the passion of the community," Melcher tells ThePostGame. "It's played at the high school level and the collegiate level and even professionally."

Melcher also happens to be associate athletic director at Robert Morris University-Illinois in Chicago. Rather than a hobby, he saw League of Legends as an opportunity to broaden the athletic department. Melcher brought the idea of giving out video game scholarships to Athletic Director Megan Smith Eggert, and the duo pitched the idea to RMU President Michael P. Viollt.

"To his credit, he's forward thinking," Melcher says. "He looked at it and he thought it made a lot of sense."

Robert Morris announced it is now offering gaming scholarships as part of its athletic program, specifically for the game League of Legends. The university is offering recruits money to study at the university and represent its colors in intercollegiate competitions.

"At our school, we offer scholarships for a wide variety of the traditional sports and obviously the untraditional things like bowling, color guard and band," Melcher says. "It just seemed like a natural progression for students that have a skill set outside traditional sports. Maybe they couldn't make their high school team or didn't want to, but they have a different skill set. It's still operating in a team environment."

The scholarships will not exceed 50 percent of tuition and 50 percent room and board. For reference, RMU costs $7,900 and housing with meals is $3,600 per quarter.

RMU would like to get its newest student-athletes in front of monitors as soon as this September. The team will participate in the Collegiate Star League, a gaming conference of 103 institutions of higher education. Many of the schools are Division I institutions and feature opponents other Robert Morris athletic teams do not get to face in NAIA competition.

RMU will be the only U.S. team offering substantial scholarships to its gamers. Melcher says colleges in Korea have already done this.

RMU Becomes First University to Offer Gaming Scholarships With the Addition of eSports to Varsity Lineup - http://t.co/YVn2Y1H4KM

— RMU Eagles Athletics (@RMUEagles) June 11, 2014

The athletic department's first step was getting the word out. Now, the school needs to find a coach. With the help of Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends, the coaching search is off to a fast start in the first two weeks.

"[Riot] has been providing a couple ideas and we've had a couple people contact us," Melcher says. "We've been going through that applicant base and we'll hopefully start interviewing next week."

A few upperclassmen have embraced the team and announced their credentials in League of Legends. Melcher says students are also trying to recruit friends for the team. He is confident there will be enough demand for the first season this September, with the new coach making the necessary cuts.

The players, or the coach for that matter, can be male or female. He says he has not personally crunched the numbers, but the administration is not worried about breaking any guidelines of Title IX.

League of Legends now has its own page on the Robert Morris Eagles' Athletics website.

WLS-TV in Chicago interviewed one of the scholarship candidates:

As for League of Legends, it is one of the most popular video games in the world on Windows and OS X. In January, The Wall Street Journal reported about 27 million people play the game each day. Riot Games' annual North American Collegiate Championship provides a $100,000 scholarship prize to the winning team.

Parents, if you are worried about your children's video game obsession hindered their abilities to get accepted into college, well, this may be your way out. If they get good enough, you may even save money.

Somewhere, Madden Nation stars are sulking this news did not come a decade ago.

-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.

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VIDEO OF THE DAY:How UFC Added Bruce Lee To Video Game

Summary: Kurt Melcher was surfing the Internet one day when he decided to search for an old favorite: Starcraft. Melcher, 45, played the computer game during a...


06/26/2014 at 07:00 AM EDT

Glen Campbell and his wife, Kim Woolen, in 2011

into a full-time care facility in April, Kim Woolen faced criticism from the public, to say nothing of the singer's eldest daughter, Debby.

Now, the star's wife of 32 years is defending her actions, saying she was told by doctors the move was "the best thing for Glen,"

In a statement to the Associated Press, Woolen, 55, explained that she had a team of six people caring for the "Rhinestone Cowboy" singer, 78, around the clock at home, but Campbell's current doctor advised her in February about the need for 24-hour access to medical care.

"The doctors and my team know what care he needs, and they were an integral part of this family decision," Woolen said in the statement. "Our children, all of Glen's brothers and sisters and extended family support me as well as his daughter Kelli. It is very â¦ hurtful to have people who are very far removed from our situation to be scrutinizing and judging our private family decision."

the memory-care facility near their Nashville home was "a very nurturing place" where Campbell feels secure.

"I sit with him through his meals â¦ we hug each other and cuddle. I savor every day," she said.

At the facility, Campbell is able to participate in stimulating activities and therapy. "His life is filled with love and laughter, and he is being cared for 'round the clock by people who specialize in Alzheimer's care and happen to adore him," she said.

Summary: "This is the best thing for Glen," Kim Woolen says about Campbell's care in a Nashville facility


The house of waste built from recycled materials at the University of Brighton. Photograph: Jamie Smith

Duncan Baker-Brown has seen the future of housing – and it's rubbish. "It's a depressing fact," the architect says, "that for every five houses we build in the UK, the equivalent of one house in waste materials gets put into landfill." What makes that even worse is that much of it is still perfectly usable.

To prove the point, Baker-Brown and his students at the University of Brighton have just spent a year building a house almost entirely out of garbage. But is it the kind of place you might want to live in, or more like a strange hobbyist's trash-cave worthy of Stig of the Dump?

Curling in the midday sun, a scaly surface of rubbery black shingles covers the walls of the two-storey building in the university grounds, like the ruffled plumage of some mysterious fowl. It turns out these are carpet tiles, 2,000 of them, salvaged from a nearby office building and hung with their waterproof underside facing outwards. "We had to blowtorch them on site to satisfy the building control officer," grins Baker-Brown, who runs Brighton's undergraduate structures course. "But they just wouldn't ignite – they're already fire-retarded for use as flooring." Chopped up and repurposed, they make an intriguing feathery facade that thankfully looks more Wallpaper* than Scrapheap Challenge.

Stepping inside, you find a series of rooms that could pass as a normal home. There are white-painted plasterboard walls – leftover paint on "damaged and returned" sheets of plasterboard that look brand new – and a fine timber staircase, finished with a decorative flourish of offcuts by carpentry students at City College Brighton and Hove.

The same students also made the structural frame of the house, crafting columns and beams from sheets of plywood discarded from site hoardings and concrete shuttering. Cross-braced with more offcuts, they are oversized at almost half a metre thick. "When you don't know the provenance of the material, calculations have to be based on the worst-case scenario," says Baker-Brown. The frame was originally going to support a roof of concrete paving slabs, until a source of lightweight clay tiles appeared in the nick of time – sourced on the Freegle website (similar to Freecycle), like most of the materials in the project.

"It's a process of designing where you have to be agile, and maybe change your plans according to what becomes available," Baker-Brown says. Conceived as an educational tool more than an actual home, the building is pierced by little peephole windows that show what's going on inside the walls – and, strangely, they reveal piles of toothbrushes and stacks of video cases.

"All the video rental shops seemed to be closing down while we were on site," he explains. "So we took all the DVD cases and VHS tapes to use as insulation." The 20,000 toothbrushes, meanwhile, came from a company that cleans planes after long-haul flights. This vast quantity represents the harvest of just four days, which would otherwise end up in landfill, or the sea, joining the islands of plastic that are swirling around our oceans, some the size of Texas. Upstairs, the peepholes reveal stacks of denim, sourced from a local firm that imports jeans from China and slices off the legs to make cut-off shorts.

How these odd new forms of insulation (which are supplementary to conventional recycled sheets of polyurethane foam) perform will be monitored throughout the year by a PhD student at Brighton's department of science and engineering, who has fitted sensors throughout the house to measure temperature and humidity. The aim is to achieve something close to Passivhaus standards – aided by triple-glazed windows, the only brand-new element in the building, along with the wiring and plumbing.

So are any of these lessons scalable, or is this just a novelty exercise?

"It's more of a provocation, to say we need to see a step-change in how we use materials," says Baker-Brown. "The current ethos in the industry is to throw loads of material at the building site, rather than risk having people hanging around if anything runs out. There has to be a way of storing and reusing all the surplus, rather than throwing it in landfill."

Dutch architects Superuse have established an online Harvest Map for people to advertise such supplies, but it will take something far bigger to have any impact. "It needs a company like Amazon, with great big sheds and an online network," says Baker-Brown, describing a future where all materials in new buildings will be tagged , so you know exactly what's in them and how it can be reused when they come to be demolished. "Builders can avoid landfill charges, and the materials can find a new home – it's a culture of ReIY, rather than DIY."

Summary: Who needs boring bricks? The house of the future will be made of trouser legs, VHS tapes and blowtorched carpet tiles. Oliver Wainwright visits the home in Brighton made almost entirely of rubbish