Article:

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy addresses the European Parliament, on the conclusions of last week's European Union leaders summit, in Brussels June 28, 2011.

 BRUSSELS European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called an emergency meeting of top officials dealing with the euro zone debt crisis for Monday morning, reflecting concern that the crisis could spread to Italy, the region's third largest economy.

 European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will attend the meeting along with Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the region's finance ministers, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Olli Rehn, the economic and monetary affairs commissioner, three official sources told Reuters.

 Van Rompuy's spokesman Dirk De Backer said: "It's a coordination, not a crisis meeting." He added that Italy would not be on the agenda and declined to say what would be discussed.

 However, two official sources told Reuters that the situation in Italy would be discussed. The talks were organized after a sharp sell-off in Italian assets on Friday, which has increased fears that Italy, with the highest sovereign debt ratio relative to its economy in the euro zone after Greece, could be next to suffer in the crisis. A second international bailout of Greece will also be discussed, the sources said.

 The spread of the Italian 10-year government bond yield over benchmark German Bunds hit euro lifetime highs around 2.45 percentage points on Friday, raising the Italian yield to 5.28 percent, close to the 5.5-5.7 percent area which some bankers think could start putting heavy pressure on Italy's finances.

 Shares in Italy's biggest bank, Unicredit Spa, fell 7.9 percent on Friday, partly because of worries about the results of stress tests of the health of European banks that will be released on July 15. The leading Italian stock index sank 3.5 percent.

 The market pressure is due partly to Italy's high sovereign debt and sluggish economy, but also to concern that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may be trying to undermine and even push out Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, who has promoted deep spending cuts to control the budget deficit.

 "We can't go on for many more days like Friday," a senior ECB official said. "We're very worried about Italy."

 Monday's emergency meeting will precede a previously scheduled gathering of the euro zone's 17 finance ministers to discuss how to secure a contribution of private sector investors to the second bailout of Greece, as well as the results of the stress tests of 91 European banks.

 GREECE

 Greece is already receiving 110 billion euros ($157 billion) of international loans under a rescue scheme launched in May last year but this has failed to change market expectations that it will eventually default on its debt.

 Senior euro zone officials worry that progress toward a second Greek bailout, which would also total around 110 billion euros and aim to fund the country into late 2014, is not being made quickly enough and that the delay is poisoning investors' confidence in weak economies around the region.

 "We need to move on this in the next couple of weeks. It's not a case of waiting until late August or early September as Germany is saying. That's too late and markets will make us pay for it," a top euro zone official told Reuters on Saturday.

 German officials insist they too want to put together the second Greek bailout as quickly as possible, but the private sector's contribution is proving to be a major sticking point.

 Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland are determined that banks, insurers and other private holders of Greek government bonds should bear some of the costs of helping Athens. But more than two weeks of negotiations with bankers represented by the Institute of International Finance (IIF), a lobby group, have made next to no progress on agreeing a formula acceptable to all sides.

 Initially talks focused on a complex French plan for private creditors to roll over up to 30 billion euros of Greek debt, buying new bonds as their existing ones matured. Around half of proceeds from Greek bonds maturing before the end of 2014 would be rolled over into very long-term debt while 20 percent would be put into a "guarantee fund" of AAA-rated securities.

 But as that plan has floundered, Berlin has revived a proposal to swap Greek bonds for longer-dated debt that would extend maturities by seven years. Proposals to buy back Greek bonds and retire them have also been floated.

 In a buy-back, the euro zone's bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, might buy Greek bonds from the market, or the EFSF might lend Greece money to buy bonds. However, these schemes would require further changes to the EFSF's rules and would therefore have to go through national parliaments, an official source said.

 SQUARE ONE

 A senior euro zone official told Reuters on Friday that rather than progress being made in the talks with the IIF, as IIF managing director Charles Dallara has said, all sides were close to being "back to square one."

 Dallara will attend the meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday.

 Since the euro zone's debt crisis erupted last year, the region's rich governments have aimed to limit it to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, which have so far signed up to bailouts totaling 273 billion euros -- a sum that is small compared to the financial resources of the zone as a whole.

 Spain, traditionally seen as the next potential domino in the crisis, has managed to retain its access to market funding through fiscal reforms. But because of the large sizes of the Spanish and Italian economies, pressure on the euro zone would increase dramatically if those countries eventually needed financial assistance.

 Private analysts have estimated a three-year bailout of Spain, based on its projected gross issuance of medium- and long-term debt in 2011, might cost some 300 billion euros -- excluding any additional money for cleaning up Spain's banks. A three-year rescue of Italy could cost twice that.

 German newspaper Die Welt quoted an unnamed ECB source as saying on Sunday that the EFSF, which has a nominal size of 440 billion euros, was not large enough to protect Italy because it had not been designed to do that.

 In Italy on Sunday, politicians and government officials scrambled to present a united front and defend Tremonti. Umberto Bossi, the powerful leader of Berlusconi's Northern League coalition allies, praised Tremonti for "listening to the markets."

 "From tomorrow, we have the job of showing we are united and blocking the effort of speculators," said Paolo Bonaiuti, a government undersecretary and senior aide to Berlusconi.

 "In the coming months we have 120-130 billion euros of bond issues to deal with, so we need cohesion and united intent; it'll take effort to show that the markets are overdoing it."

 However, Berlusconi himself was silent over the weekend and canceled two appointments to speak, and it was not clear how long the appearance of consensus in the government over austerity plans would last.

 One factor behind bond markets' growing instability is a sense that the euro zone's basic strategy for dealing with debt problems -- keeping countries afloat with emergency loans in the hope they can grow their way out of their debts within a few years -- is flawed. More radical action to cut the countries' debts or boost economic growth may be needed.

 In Germany on Sunday, President Christian Wulff said Greece would need a lot longer to resolve its debt problems than many people in Europe were now acknowledging.

 Wulff, a former leader in Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats and now Germany's ceremonial head of state, told ZDF television there was a need for "an overall concept" for resolving Europe's debt crisis.

 "It can't be something that will suffice for a three-month period but rather has to offer solutions to the problem that will cover the next 10 to 15 years," Wulff said.

 (Additional reporting by Francesca Landini in Milan and Gernot Heller in Berlin; Editing by Andrew Torchia) ||||| Investors were unnerved in part by evidence of a growing divide between the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and the finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, who has been praised for his handling of the economy during the financial crisis and for maintaining control of the budget deficit.

 The euro zone has been shaken by the fiscal troubles of Greece, Portugal and Ireland, though their economies are relatively small. The Italian economy is more than twice the size of the combined economies of those three countries. If investors were to drive Italy’s borrowing costs to unsustainable levels, it could imperil the entire European monetary union.

 Even without Italy, European officials have a big task in the coming days. They have reached an impasse of sorts on whether to include the private sector in a second Greek bailout, which is considered essential to controlling the crisis that has so far been limited to the smaller economies on the Continent.

 Some officials now believe that any bailout plan involving a substantial but voluntary contribution from private investors in Greek debt would be declared a selective default by the bond rating agencies Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch. The officials’ objectives of achieving a private sector contribution that is voluntary and substantial — but which is not judged a selective default — may not be possible.

 If voluntary steps would cause such an event, these officials say, then more radical options may as well be considered, including requiring banks and other private investors to take part.

 Speaking on Sunday at a conference in Aix-en-Provence, France, the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, said Europe was at the “epicenter” of a debt crisis that had to be of concern to the entire developed world. He urged euro zone officials to do the “maximum” in terms of governance reforms, Bloomberg News reported. He has also been adamant about keeping debt reduction by private investors out of any bailout plan.

 The special session of top European officials is to start about 8:30 a.m. Monday, when a scheduled meeting between Mr. Van Rompuy and the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, will be expanded to include Mr. Trichet; the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn; and Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, who presides over meetings of the so-called Eurogroup of finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro as their official currency.

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 Vittorio Grilli, the director general of the Italian treasury, is also scheduled to attend. But Dirk De Backer, a spokesman for Mr. Van Rompuy, said Mr. Grilli would be there in his capacity as head of the euro zone’s Economic and Financial Committee and not to discuss his country’s economy.

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 “There is absolutely no crisis meeting,” Mr. De Backer said. “This is a coordination meeting to prepare for the Eurogroup. It is not the aim or purpose to talk about Italy.”

 Some officials played down the meeting, pointing out that Germany, which has the biggest economy in the European Union, would not be on hand and that Mr. Van Rompuy and Mr. Barroso would not take part in the later gathering of euro zone finance ministers.

 Italy has a debt equal to 120 percent of annual gross domestic product, one of the highest in the euro zone. The market sell-off last week was spurred by tensions between Mr. Berlusconi and Mr. Tremonti, the long-serving finance minister whose tough-minded deficit approach has helped keep Italy from succumbing to the problems of Europe’s peripheral economies.

 Last winter, investors drove Italy’s borrowing costs higher amid concerns about its high debt, but the attack was short-lived. Fighting to keep the deficit under control, Mr. Tremonti has been reluctant to endorse some of the tax cuts that Mr. Berlusconi and other politicians desire.

 Now, with few signs of economic improvement, the government is stumbling in its effort to approve a new budget that includes some austerity measures, and investors have once again turned their attention to the country.

 If Mr. Berlusconi continues to foster an uncertain political environment, and if Mr. Tremonti winds up a political casualty, Italy could be swept up in the debt crisis that began in Greece.

 Financial markets remain alarmed about European officials’ failure to come to grips with the crisis in Greece, which represents about 2 percent of the euro zone economy.

 Despite some insistence that investors should bear some of the pain, the European Central Bank has been very skeptical about involving private sector holders of Greeks bonds in the second bailout, an aid package estimated at 85 billion euros ($121 billion).

 Germany, the Netherlands and Austria remain wedded to the idea, however. A French proposal to roll over Greek debt was derailed when Standard & Poor’s said that would probably constitute a selective default. After the statement, Germany appeared to push for its original idea that investors swap the Greek bonds they hold for new debt with longer maturities. |||||
What is a summary?

– Top European officials scheduled a last-minute meeting today amid fears Italy would be the next country hit hard by the euro zone debt crisis. Though a rep for the European Council president says Italy isn’t on the agenda, other officials privately contradict him. Last Friday saw a 2.45% gap between the yields of Italian and German 10-year bonds—the biggest since the euro began. The Italian yield has hit some 5.27%, just below the 5.5% bankers fear could prompt a widening crisis. Meanwhile, the country’s blue-chip stock market index dropped 3.5%. Investors are worried Silvio Berlusconi may be trying to squeeze out the country’s finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, who has been considered highly effective during the financial crisis and in managing debt. The threat to Italy hasn’t approached the severity of the Greek crisis, but its economy is more than double the size of Greece, Portugal, and Ireland combined, notes the New York Times. “We can't go on for many more days like Friday," a European official tells Reuters. "We're very worried about Italy."


QVC is the latest company to part ways with Paula Deen since the popular TV chef, restaurateur and cookbook author acknowledged using a racial slur in the past.

 The company joins a growing list of other corporate entities - including Target, Home Depot and Wal-Mart - that have severed ties with the 66-year-old Deen since it was revealed that she said she had used the N-word.

 On Thursday, Dean announced the news about the status of her relationship with QVC. In a statement addressed "to my customers at QVC," Deen wrote, "I want to let you know how much I value my relationship with all of you and with QVC … As you know, I have some important things to work on right now, both personally and professionally. And so we've agreed that it's best for me to step back from QVC and focus on setting things right. I am truly sorry and assure you I will work hard to earn your forgiveness."

 MORE: How Much Will Paula Deen's Words Cost Her Empire?

 QVC issued its own statement, in which Mike George, the president and CEO, said the company was "troubled" by Deen's statement and the allegations laid out against her in the lawsuit.

 After extensive discussions with Deen and her team, the company "decided to take a pause," George's statement said. "Paula won't be appearing on any upcoming broadcasts and we will phase out her product assortment on our online sales channels over the next few months. We all think it's important, at this moment, for Paula to concentrate on responding to the allegations against her and on her path forward.

 "Some of you may wonder whether this is a 'forever' decision - whether we are simply ending our association with Paula. We don't think that's how relationships work. People deserve second chances. And we always strive to do the right thing … ."

 Deen herself has made several public appeals for understanding and forgiveness.

 She has apologized for using the N-word -a highly offensive slur referring to blacks - and categorically denied allegations she is a racist.

 Deen made the damaging admission during a deposition last month for a racial and sexual discrimination lawsuit filed against her by Lisa Jackson, a former employee of Deen's Savannah, Ga., restaurants. Her attorney has denied the allegations in the suit.

 RELATED: Paula Deen Used a Slur Because 'She Was Born 60 Years Ago'

 The Food Network was first to announce last week that it would not renew its contract with the folksy, self-proclaimed queen of Southern cooking. She landed her first show there in 2002. ||||| The bad news seems to never end for Paula Deen.

 In the latest defection following her admission last week that she had used the N-word in the past and once planned a slavery-themed wedding, the country cooking queen's book publisher has jumped ship.

 Ballantine Books canceled a deal with her for multiple books, including an upcoming cookbook that was the No.1 seller on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

 The publisher said Friday it would not release "Paula Deen's New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Lightened Up," which was scheduled for October and was the first of a five-book deal announced early last year.

 Interest in it had surged as Deen, who grew up in Albany, Ga., and specializes in Southern comfort food, came under increasing attack.

 Ballantine, an imprint of Random House Inc., said it decided to cancel the book's publication after "careful consideration." It had no comment beyond what was in its brief statement, spokesman Stuart Applebaum said.

 Sears and KMart announced earlier Friday that they would no longer carry Paula Deen cookware or any other of her products. Target announced Thursday it was severing ties with the former TV chef, while shopping network QVC announced it was "taking a pause" in its relationship with Deen.

 "After careful consideration of all available information, we have made the decision to phase out all products tied to the brand," a rep for Sears Holdings, which owns both Sears and KMart stores, told FOX411.

 A Target rep said Thursday they had "made a decision to phase out the Paula Deen merchandise in our stores as well as on Target.com."

 Diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk also said on Thursday the company and Deen had "mutually agreed to suspend our patient education activities for now."

 These companies join Walmart and Caesars Entertainment (Wednesday), Smithfield Foods (Monday), and the Food Network (last Friday) in the list of companies no longer doing business with Deen.

 But not everyone is running fast in the other direction.

 The fate of her magazine “Cooking with Paula Deen” remains unknown. Its Alabama-based publisher Hoffman Media told a local news outlet that it “does not condone discrimination of any kind,” adding "we are not in a position to discuss her magazine and contract right now.” Hoffman Media did not respond to a request for further comment.;

 And Deen's annual “Paula Deen Cruise” on board the “Mariner of the Seas” has been flooded with so many calls, the cruise is adding an extra departure in 2014.;

 "Due to so many requests from Paula’s fans in the past we are actually planning two cruises for 2014 and look forward to both," a rep for the cruise told FOX411's Pop Tarts column. "It’s always an amazing time with Paula, her family and fans.;If she goes – we go."

 Deen, 66, is also still scheduled to make appearances at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show in Houston and Dallas in September, and in Washington, DC in November. She remains a key personality on the website with tickets to see her specifically ranging from $95 to $500.

 “Paula Deen has been a friend of The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show for many years. She has apologized and we are taking her apology at her word and moving forward accordingly,” the show's rep told us. “The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show does not condone or believe in the use of derogatory slurs by anyone. This is a nation of forgiveness and second chances. In that spirit we intend to go forward with the MetroCooking Shows in Houston, Dallas and Washington, DC as planned with Paula as a presenter.”;

 The Associated Press contributed to this report

 ; |||||

Write a summary.

– QVC is apparently finished "reviewing" its relationship with Paula Deen in the wake of her n-word controversy, and not surprisingly, that review did not end with good news for Deen. Deen revealed in a statement yesterday that she and QVC have "agreed that it's best for me to step back ... and focus on setting things right," ABC News reports. In its own statement, the company's CEO says QVC is "troubled" by the controversy and has "decided to take a pause" and phase out her products. But could she be back? The statement hints at as much: "People deserve second chances." Sears and Kmart are no longer carrying her products either, they announced today, according to Fox News. Click to see who else has dumped her so far.


Article:

Yahoo is releasing inactive Yahoo IDs so that users can score a better email address. This means you can finally have albert@yahoo.com instead of albert9330399@yahoo.com, for example. Sounds great, right? It’s actually a spectacularly bad idea.

 In a Tumblr post, the company announced that on July 15, it will be “freeing up” Yahoo email addresses that have been inactive for a year or more. But it’s not just deactivating these accounts, it’s going to offer them to other people.

 In mid July, anyone can have a shot at scoring the Yahoo! ID they want. In mid August, users who staked a claim on certain IDs can come to Yahoo! to discover which one they got.

 This may have seemed like a good way to get people to log in again, or to try to convert new users to a groovy Yahoo address. But it’s a terrible idea. It means that people will be able to claim Yahoo IDs and use them to take over other people’s identities via password resets and other methods.

 For example, someone who uses a Yahoo email address solely as a backup for Gmail, and thus hasn’t logged into it for a long time, would be vulnerable to having that address taken over by a malicious individual who only wanted to ultimately get into the active Gmail address. You can see a chain of events where that could lead to taking over online banking accounts, social media accounts and the like.

 Nor would it be hard to discover some of these inactive addresses. You could, for example, find a dormant Flickr account, which previously required a Yahoo email address.

 The bottom line is that unless it rethinks this policy, this is going to lead to a social engineering gold rush come mid-July. Wired has reached out to Yahoo for comment.

 Update 9:49 PM: Yahoo released a statement saying it has confidence it can make this transition securely. We’ve included it below. ||||| By Jay Rossiter, SVP, Platforms

 Over the last few months, we’ve made exciting changes to some of your favorite Yahoo! products, like Flickr, Mail, Weather, the Homepage and Search. Today, I’m excited to share with you our next big push: we want to give our loyal users and new folks the opportunity to sign up for the Yahoo! ID they’ve always wanted.

 If you’re like me, you want a Yahoo! ID that’s short, sweet, and memorable like albert@yahoo.com instead of albert9330399@yahoo.com. A Yahoo! ID is not only your email address, it also gives you access to content tailored to your interests – like sports scores for your favorite teams, weather in your hometown, and news that matters to you.

 So, how are we making these Yahoo! IDs available? We’re freeing up IDs, that have been inactive for at least 12 months, by resetting them and giving them a fresh start. In mid July, anyone can have a shot at scoring the Yahoo! ID they want. In mid August, users who staked a claim on certain IDs can come to Yahoo! to discover which one they got.

 What if you haven’t logged into Yahoo! for over a year, but want to keep your Yahoo! ID? It’s easy. All you have to do is log on to any Yahoo! product before July 15th.

 We’ve got a lot more in store that will make your everyday routines even more inspiring. We’re happy to have you as a part of the Yahoo! community! |||||
What is a summary?

– Got an old Yahoo email address kicking around that you haven't checked in a year or so? Better log in over the next few weeks if you'd like to keep it. Otherwise, Yahoo is going to free it up for someone else. The example it uses is letting someone claim an address of "albert@yahoo.com" rather than "albert9330399@yahoo.com." It may sound like some harmless house-cleaning, but this is a "spectacularly bad idea," writes Mat Honan at Wired. "It means that people will be able to claim Yahoo IDs and use them to take over other people’s identities via password resets and other methods," he writes. If someone has a seldom-used Yahoo account as a backup to Gmail, for example, this raises the possibility that the new owner of the Yahoo address will figure out a way into the Gmail account. Yahoo insists it will take pains to make sure that any recycled ID is safe and secure, but Honan wants the company to rethink this one. Otherwise, "this is going to lead to a social engineering gold rush come mid-July." Click for his full post.


Write an article based on this summary:

– Things aren't going as well as it might seem for "clock kid" Ahmed Mohamed, according to lawyers his family has hired to investigate the Texas teen's treatment by police. "There’s a problem when you have a 14-year-old child arrested in school and basically humiliated in front of his classmates, his teachers, his friends, and basically the whole world," attorney Thomas Bowers tells the Dallas Morning News. "He may be smiling on the outside, but he's having some issues." Ahmed's father says he won't be returning to the high school that suspended him after a teacher thought his homemade clock was a bomb. The family's lawyers initially said they were looking at ways to get the clock back from authorities in Irving, but police say they decided to return it to him last week and the family can pick it up anytime, BuzzFeed reports. The lawyers tell the Morning News that they aren't sure yet what legal action the family will take, but they feel that authorities, including Irving's mayor, have tried to "blame the victim," and now that they've been hired, "they'll probably cease comments like that." It's not clear when the family will get a chance to pick up the now-famous clock: Ahmed will meet with UN dignitaries in New York today and his father plans on a trip to Mecca, as well as a White House visit.

Two little-known lawyers announced Wednesday that they’ve been hired to investigate police treatment of Irving’s most famous teenager.

 Ahmed Mohamed’s family has retained Thomas Bowers, the attorney told reporters Wednesday in the top-floor office of a North Dallas advertising firm.

 “There’s a problem when you have a 14-year-old child arrested in school and basically humiliated in front of his classmates, his teachers, his friends and basically the whole world,” said Bowers. “He may be smiling on the outside, but he’s having some issues.”

 Ahmed’s family said the now-famous boy has lost sleep since his teacher reported his homemade clock to police, who put him in handcuffs on a quickly dropped “hoax bomb” charge. The lawyers plan to have a medical professional examine the boy while they look into the city and school district’s actions.

 Bowers previously represented a former stripper who sued Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He’ll work on Ahmed’s case with Reggie London, whose Dallas firm typically deals with drunken-driving charges, traffic tickets and other criminal defense cases.

 “I take the cases no one else will take,” Bowers said.

 “I just want justice for him,” London added.

 The lawyers said they contracted with Ahmed’s father Tuesday and didn’t know what, if any, legal action the family might take. In fact, they still knew little about the case — including where the boy was this week. (His family had planned a trip to New York to meet United Nations dignitaries.)

 “I just got hired and I haven’t officially seen the responses or the mayor talking on TV,” Bowers said. “But I feel they made some inappropriate statements or remarks — trying to blame the victim, basically.

 “With us being hired, I imagine they’ll probably cease comments like that.”

 City officials did not respond when asked if they were consulting attorneys about possible legal action. The school district said it would have no statement about whether it is talking to an attorney.

 Irving police announced Wednesday that they had notified Ahmed’s family Friday that the clock could be picked up any weekday at police headquarters. Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, has told The Dallas Morning News that he planned to retrieve the item but wasn’t sure when. ||||| After attorneys for the family of Ahmed Mohamed said Wednesday that they were considering legal options to retrieve the teen's homemade clock, police in Irving, Texas, responded it was available to be picked up during business hours — and had been since last week.

 The 14-year-old was handcuffed at his North Texas high school and taken into custody after bringing the homemade digital clock to class. A teacher contacted authorities after fearing the clock looked like a bomb. Irving police seized the project as part of their investigation into whether Ahemd had tried to use it as a fake bomb to intimidate others.

 "The follow-up investigation revealed the device apparently was a homemade experiment, and there is no evidence to support the perception he intended to create alarm," Irving police said in a statement on Sept. 16. "No charges will be filed and the case is considered closed."

 Though police had closed their case, conversation was just beginning about whether the arrest was a sign of local bias against Muslims. The Mohamed family received an outpouring of support — including from President Obama and Mark Zuckerberg — as well as intense criticism.

 On Wednesday, representatives for the family announced that the high school freshman and his siblings were no longer enrolled in the Irving school district — citing "religious persecution" — and would instead be homeschooled. The announcement also said that the teen's family had retained attorneys "to pursue Ahmed’s legal rights and regain his science project from the Irving Police Department."

 The Irving Police Department then released its own statement in an effort to quell reports that the clock was being held hostage.

 Police approved the clock to be returned to the family on Sept. 16, the day they announced the case was closed.

 "A family representative was notified on Friday, Sept. 18, that the items were ready to be picked-up," police said.

 To get his clock back, police said Ahmed's father or another representative could stop by the department any weekday between 6 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. |||||


Article:

Gil Scott-Heron, Poet And Musician, Has Died

 itoggle caption Anthony Barboza/Getty Images

 Gil Scott-Heron died Friday afternoon in New York, his book publisher reported. He was 62. The influential poet and musician is often credited with being one of the progenitors of hip-hop, and is best known for the spoken-word piece "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

 Scott-Heron was born in Chicago in 1949. He spent his early years in Jackson, Tenn., attended high school in The Bronx, and spent time at Pennsylvania's Lincoln University before settling in Manhattan. His recording career began in 1970 with the album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, which featured the first version of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." The track has since been referenced and parodied extensively in pop culture.

 Scott-Heron continued to record through the 1970s and early '80s, before taking a lengthy hiatus. He briefly returned to the studio for 1994's Spirits. That album featured the track "Message to the Messengers," in which Scott-Heron cautions the hip-hop generation that arose in his absence to use its newfound power responsibly. He has been cited as a key influence by many in the hip-hop community — such as rapper-producer Kanye West, who closed his platinum-selling 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with a track built around a sample of Scott-Heron's voice.

 Scott-Heron struggled publicly with substance abuse in the 2000s, and spent the early part of the decade in and out of jail on drug possession charges. He began performing again after his release in 2007, and in 2010 released a new album, I'm New Here, to widespread critical acclaim.

  ||||| Gil Scott-Heron is frequently called the “godfather of rap,” which is an epithet he doesn’t really care for. In 1968, when he was nineteen, he wrote a satirical spoken-word piece called “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” It was released on a very small label in 1970 and was probably heard of more than heard, but it had a following. It is the species of classic that sounds as subversive and intelligent now as it did when it was new, even though some of the references—Spiro Agnew, Natalie Wood, Roy Wilkins, Hooterville—have become dated. By the time Scott-Heron was twenty-three, he had published two novels and a book of poems and recorded three albums, each of which prospered modestly, but “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” made him famous.

 Scott-Heron calls himself a bluesologist. He is sixty-one, tall and scrawny, and he lives in Harlem, in a ground-floor apartment that he doesn’t often leave. It is long and narrow, and there’s a bedspread covering a sliding glass door to a patio, so no light enters, making the place seem like a monk’s cell or a cave. Once, when I thought he was away, I called to convey a message, and he answered and said, “I’m here. Where else would a caveman be but in his cave?”

 Recently, I arrived at his apartment while he was watching fight films with Mimi Little, whom he calls Miss Mimi. Miss Mimi helps run his affairs and those of his company, Brouhaha Music; the living room of his apartment is the company’s office. They were watching Muhammad Ali knock down George Foreman in the eighth round of the Rumble in the Jungle, in Zaire, in 1974. Scott-Heron was wearing baggy gray sweatpants, a red-and-white-striped polo shirt, and white socks, and he stood in front of the television, lifting one foot, then the other, as if the floor were hot. When Foreman collapsed, Scott-Heron pretended to be Ali chastising him as he lay on his back. “That’s the best you can do?” he said. “I had about enough of you.”

 “It’s done now,” Little said.

 “I thought you could hit,” Scott-Heron said. “You hit like a baby.”

 A crowd flooded the ring. “Look at these silly people,” Scott-Heron said. A large black man in a blue blazer wrapped his arms around Ali from behind and lifted him, and Ali waved his arms like a cranky baby. “Brother try to pick up Ali here. He says, ‘Put me down.’ ”

 All you could see then of Ali in the blending swarm was his head and shoulders, so he looked like a bust. “Ali’s thirty-two, having been exiled to nowhere,” Scott-Heron said. “Unbelievable odds. I like to see unbelievable odds, because that’s what I’ve been facing all these years. When I feel like giving up, I like to watch this.”

 The phone rang, and Little answered. She said it was Kim Jordan, his piano player. Little covered the phone and said, “She wants to know what to practice.” Scott-Heron had a performance that week in Washington, D.C. He kept his eyes on the screen. “ ‘Lady Day and John Coltrane,’ key of A,” he said. “ ‘I Call It Morning,’ ‘Give Her a Call.’ ”

 “He’ll give you a call,” Little said.

 “No, that’s the name of the song, ‘Give Her a Call,’ ” Scott-Heron said.

 Little hung up, and Scott-Heron sat down on the couch, facing the screen. The couch was brown, with so many little black burn circles that they seemed worked into the fabric’s design. A few extension cords crossed a rug on the floor, and lying at his feet among them was a propane torch. Taped to the wall facing him was a piece of paper on which he had written, in capital letters, with a Sharpie, “NOTHING NICE TO TALK ABOUT? NOTHING GOOD TO SAY? NO YUKS? NO SMILES? THEN SHUT UP. THE MNGMT.” On the shelf of a cabinet were some books, and some DVDs, which he buys at a video store next door to the Apollo Theatre, on 125th Street. He especially likes shows and movies and cartoons from his childhood, such as “Top Cat” and “Rocky and Bullwinkle” and “Underdog.” “Your life has to consist of more than ‘Black people should unite,’ ” he said. “You hope they do, but not twenty-four hours a day. If you aren’t having no fun, die, because you’re running a worthless program, far as I’m concerned.”

 Little said that she was leaving to run errands. Staples was having a two-to-a-customer sale of something she needed a quantity of. “I’m going back two or three times,” she said. “I have a disguise, and I know where four Staples are.”

 When she left, Scott-Heron seemed briefly at a loss, then he said, “We should listen to some music.” He put on a song of his from years ago called “Racetrack in France,” which is about a festival he played in the seventies. “I don’t feel as comfortable playing something of somebody else’s,” he said shyly. “I can’t say how the good parts got put together.”

 Sometimes when I spoke to people who used to know Scott-Heron, they told me that they preferred to remember him as he had been. They meant before he had begun avidly smoking crack, which is a withering drug. As a young man, he had a long, narrow, slightly curved face, which seemed framed by hair that bloomed above his forehead like a hedge. The expression in his eyes was baleful, aloof, and slightly suspicious. He was thin then, but now he seems strung together from wires and sinews—he looks like bones wearing clothes. He is bald on top, and his hair, which is like cotton candy, sticks out in several directions. His cheeks are sunken and deeply lined. Dismayed by his appearance, he doesn’t like to look in mirrors. He likes to sit on the floor, with his legs crossed and his propane torch within reach, his cigarettes and something to drink or eat beside him. Nearly his entire diet consists of fruit and juice. Crack makes a user anxious and uncomfortable and, trying to relieve the tension, Scott-Heron would sometimes lean to one side or reach one hand across himself to grab his opposite ankle, then perhaps lean an elbow on one knee, then maybe press the soles of his feet together, so that he looked like a swami. |||||
What is a summary?

– Gil Scott-Heron, the spoken-word artist and musician often hailed as the godfather of hip-hop and made famous by "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," has died at age 62, reports NPR. Scott-Heron was held up as a major influence by many in the hip-hop community, including Kanye West, who closed his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with an homage to Scott-Heron. "You can go into the beat poets and [Allen] Ginsberg and [Bob] Dylan, but Gil Scott-Heron is the manifestation of the modern world," rapper Chuck D. once said. "He and the Last Poets set the stage for everyone else." Scott-Heron rose to prominence in 1970 with the album, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, and continued to record into the early '80s. He resurfaced in 1994 with Spirits, but the LA Times notes that he spent much of the 2000s wrestling with drug addiction. A New Yorker profile published last year found him openly smoking crack. "He wasn't a great singer, but with that voice, if he had whispered it would have been dynamic," bassist Ron Carter told the New Yorker. "It was a voice like you would have for Shakespeare."


– While some fret about the government coming to take their guns, an increasing number of musicians and comedians are coming for your cellphones. The Washington Post reports Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, the Lumineers, Alicia Keys, Chris Rock, and Guns N' Roses are among the artists using a new device called Yondr to separate fans from their phones during performances. Yondr is a small pouch for your phone that is locked by venue staff. You can carry it with you, but your phone is unusable for the duration of the show. “If you haven’t been to a phone-free show, you just don’t know what you’re missing,” Yondr founder Graham Dugoni says. “There’s something about living in real life that can’t be replicated.” At least one California high school is even using the pouches, according to CBS News. Artists are not only worried about phones ruining the experience—Chappelle tells CBS people are "vastly more fun" to perform for when they aren't on their phones—but about their work being immediately posted to YouTube and Instagram. “We don’t want the first time you ever hear a song to be some [lousy] MP3 somebody captured on their phone,” Keys’ manager tells the Post. While many fans are understanding, not everyone is willing to go without their phone for a few hours. "My phone is how I keep my memory," one man waiting in line to see Keys says. "If you don’t want your music heard, then don’t perform it.” Today reports that others worry—in the wake of mass shootings—about the risk if fans don't have immediate access to their phones in an emergency. (This Paris attack survivor credits his phone with saving his life.)

Expand this summary.

In their attachment to their smartphones, the students at Mercy High in Burlingame, California are typical teenagers. But when they enter Mr. Offield's English class, the phones get locked into little bags, which can't be opened until class is over.

 "By separating something that's primarily for their social life, I'm hoping that it brings them more in the moment," Offield said.

 Graham Dugoni is the founder of the startup company, Yondr, that makes the bags. He's attempting to break cellphone addiction and "help people engage with each other in a real way."

 "What it symbolizes is a movement, and the bag is just the tool," Dugoni said.

 The Yondr pouch locks much like a security tag in a clothing store. If someone needs to access their phone, they can choose to leave the phone-free zone, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.

 Dugoni first introduced the bags at nightclubs in tech-centric San Francisco. "Sometimes you see someone come in and their shoulders are uptight, they're clutching their phone like it's a baby," Dugoni said. "You can read it on their face - they're saying, 'don't take my phone away.'"

 It's a new movement challenging the pervasive habit of viewing the world through the screen of a smartphone.

 The Yondr bags are now mandatory for everyone attending a performance by comedian Dave Chappelle.

 "We've had a strict 'no cellphone' rule for years. Obviously, if you look on YouTube, you'll see very few people adhere to it," Chapelle said.

 Before the bags, Chappelle often found himself telling jokes to people distracted by their devices.

 "It would be very hard for you to talk to anybody if he was doing this the whole time you're talking," he said, pulling a phone out of his pocket.

 Dugoni hopes to see the bags used in arenas that seat as many as 20,000.

 "After the first five minutes, there's twitchy hands and looking for their phones, then they seem to forget about it and slip into that natural mode of interaction. And that's kind of the golden moment," Dugoni said.

 Back at Mercy High, administrator Summer Dittmer admits to having phone separation anxiety.

 "I walked into a club, they asked for my phone, I said no. They said, 'you need to put your phone in here or you're not going to see anything happening in the venue.' So they gave me the thing, put my phone in, put it in my purse," Dittmer recalled. "It was almost like being separated from your own limb, but in the end, I remembered more than I typically do at a concert."

 Drivers blame "addiction" for phone use while driving

 That experience prompted her to lease the bags for her school. For senior Ally Ick, locking her phone up was a mental adjustment.

 "Maybe if there's something going on on social media, I could be really tempted to want to check my phone every second, but then with the Yonder pouches, it takes away that feeling and you don't have to worry about it so much," Ick said.

 Junior Daniela Clinton had to bag her phone for three days on a school retreat.

 "I could hear it vibrating, but I couldn't grab it and use it. I hated it so much," Clinton said. But she adjusted. "It was a break from reality. I completely forgot about everything - even school - and that was nice."

 But not everyone is ready to let go of their electronic addictions. One Dave Chappelle audience member was caught red-handed.

 "Just to be clear, you're no longer welcome in the venue while Dave's performing here," security told him.

 "I understand why everybody uses their phones and why people are addicted to this technology. I'm not any different from them," Chappelle said. "But people actually watch the show, they're in the moment and they're vastly more fun to speak to." |||||

 We’ll need to see your phone, please: An audience member places her cellphone into a Yondr pouch before entering the Aztec Theatre in San Antonio for a June 14 Dave Chappelle show where a phone-free policy was enforced. (Bahram Mark Sobhani/For The Washington Post)

 On a cool Manhattan night, DJ Walton, who helps manage Alicia Keys, steps outside the Highline Ballroom to tell the guy at the door who, exactly, he may allow to bring a cellphone into the singer’s sold-out gig. The list is very short.

 “Like, Queen Latifah,” says Walton.

 Benji Spanier nods and spreads the news to everybody else. This is a “phone-free event,” he tells fans waiting in line. And that doesn’t mean airplane mode. Spanier holds a gray, rubbery pouch in his hand. Your phone goes in here, he says, and then we lock it.

 “What?” one fan grumbles.

 Quickly, Spanier adds an important addendum.

 You keep that locked pouch with you. Spanier also explains that if you need to use your phone, you can just come outside and he can quickly unlock it by tapping it on a metal disk slightly larger than a bagel. The tension breaks.

 “If you had told me you were going to put it in a locker, I’d have been pissed off,” Kevin Schmidt, 37, tells him. “This is okay.”

 Yonder CEO and founder Graham Dugoni discusses how the company is able to disable cell phone usage during live events, helping make venues cell phone free events for stars like Dave Chapelle and Alicia Keys. (Sami Jarroush/Consequence of Sound)

 The pouch might not look like the latest techno-bling out of Silicon Valley, but it’s become the go-to tool for a slew of artists — including Dave Chappelle, the Lumineers and Louis C.K. — trying to reclaim their live performances without going all Adele on their fans. Created by the San Francisco-based Yondr, it has been brought in for special moments: Chris Rock’s warm-up shows before he hosted the Oscars; April’s “surprise” Guns N’ Roses reunion gig at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. The pouch has also been used for regular shows by those tired of seeing every note and punch-line churned into a series of blurry, streamable insta-clips.

 A box of Yondr phone pouches awaiting concertgoers at the Chappelle show. (Bahram Mark Sobhani/For The Washington Post)

 Benji Spanier of Yondr shows theater staff how to use the pouches. (Bahram Mark Sobhani/For The Washington Post)

 “I tried all sorts of things,” says Wesley Schultz, the Lumineers singer and guitarist. “If you yell at the audience or treat them like kids, they’re going to act like kids. You want to give people the responsibility and put the onus on them, but how do you do that?”

 The pouch, he says, is the best option he’s seen yet.

 “Because people still feel they still have their baby in their arm,” Schultz says. “It’s a little bit clunky but it’s better than telling them to leave their phones in their cars or forbidding it.”

 [Why allowing texting in movie theaters might have been a brilliant idea]

 Graham Dugoni, 29, Yondr’s founder, is a former college soccer star who, after graduating from Duke University with a political science degree, tried his hand at finance but found himself increasingly drawn to music. He had an epiphany while watching a guy dancing at a festival.

 “He was pretty drunk, and two strangers were videotaping the guy, and I watched them, over their shoulder, posting on YouTube,” says Dugoni. “If a guy can’t go to a concert and just kind of let loose, what does that do to all interactions in the social sphere?”

 Dugoni started Yondr two years ago. He tested prototypes of the pouch at a cabaret show in Oakland, Calif., and also at a school in Portland, Ore. Eventually, Dugoni cashed out his IRA, sold his Jeep and found his first real investor, raising about $100,000 in total.

 Electronic artist ZHU signed on for a series of shows. Comedian Hannibal Buress, whose YouTube’d comments about Bill Cosby in 2014 made him famous — a fact that came to annoy him — hired Yondr for a gig in 2015. During Oscar weekend, Rock and C.K. used the neoprene pouch for shows at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. Dave Chappelle, an early booster, brought in Yondr for shows this month.

 Alicia Keys is one of an increasing number of stars attempting to declare their shows phone-free zones. (Luca Bruno/AP)

 Wesley Schultz of the Lumineers think the pouch system works. “It’s better than telling them to leave their phones in their cars.” (Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

 Dugoni says the pouch serves two purposes. The artist can try out new material without worrying about it being leaked. Fans will also realize that they actually enjoy a show more without constantly filming, texting and Tweeting.

 “If you haven’t been to a phone-free show, you just don’t know what you’re missing,” he says. “There’s something about living in real life that can’t be replicated.”

 [When it is and isn’t okay to be on your smartphone: The conclusive guide]

 In the line outside the Keys show, not everybody was so grateful.

 “In this day and age, my phone is how I keep my memory,” said Gerard Little, 24. “Chris Brown. Jason Derulo. I have their footage on my phone. If you don’t want your music heard, then don’t perform it.”

 Andrea Ostolaza, 29, said she wanted to share the concert with her friends who couldn’t get in.

 “If it doesn’t have a flash or light, I don’t feel like it’s disrupting,” she said.

 Others embraced the phone-free zone.

 “Nobody values people’s music, nobody values release dates, and when music gets leaked, it destroys the mystery,” said Ahtivah Lawton, 22.

 “It’s annoying when people have their phones out, lights blaring,” said Jackie Coward, 53. “They can’t stop texting. It’s disrespectful, and I like Alicia Keys. I don’t need to put out her stuff early. They should do this in more places.”

 For DJ Walton, the manager, the only real issue is that Keys planned to premiere songs from her planned follow-up to 2012’s “Girl on Fire.”

 “We don’t want the first time you ever hear a song to be some [lousy] MP3 somebody captured on their phone,” said Walton. “We have a 30-foot stage and you’re looking at it through a four-inch iPhone. We want people to come and almost forget about their phones for a moment.” ||||| Get the latest from TODAY Sign up for our newsletter

 The lights dim, the music starts and the phones and cameras come out — that's what live shows are like these days. Filming the event has become as much a part of the concert-going experience as swaying to the music.

 However, some artists are no fans of that habit. Adele recently — and bluntly — told a fan to pack up her pro recording equipment during a performance in Italy. But Alicia Keys and others are taking it a step further and banning phones altogether.

 They're not actually preventing attendees from entering the arena with the devices. But they are preventing them from using them, with the help of a small case that makes it impossible to access the phones during a show.

 RELATED: 'Honestly beautiful': Alicia Keys opens up about makeup-free photos in new essay

 If you bring your phone to an Alicia Keys concert, prepare to have it locked up in a small pouch. John Salangsang/Invision/AP

 As fans file into the venue, security guards place their phones in a Yondr case, and that's where the devices remain until they leave the concert (or just step away from the performance area for a quick call or text, should the need arise).

 "We think smartphones have incredible utility, but not in every setting," Yondr explained on their website. "In some situations, they have become a distraction and a crutch — cutting people off from each other and their immediate surroundings."

 RELATED: Adele tells fan to put the video camera away: 'I'm really here in real life'

 People taking photographs with touch smart phone during a music concert live on stage for the Ace of Heart tour at Sports arena in Thessaloniki Shutterstock

 Keys and other music stars aren't the only ones using the technology. Comedians Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K. are also on-board with the phone ban.

 But audiences are torn.

 “In this day and age, my phone is how I keep my memory,” one Keys concertgoer told the Washington Post. “Chris Brown. Jason Derulo. I have their footage on my phone. If you don’t want your music heard, then don’t perform it.”

 Another told the Post, "It’s annoying when people have their phones out, lights blaring. They can’t stop texting. It’s disrespectful, and I like Alicia Keys."

 Still others simply worry about the potential security risk that comes with denying people fast access to their phones should a real emergency arise.

 Follow Ree Hines on Twitter. ||||| "The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived."

 – Søren Kierkegaard |||||


So I bought The 50th Law. Like most non-musical projects involving 50 Cent, his co-authored book of Machiavellian strategy stood a good chance at being mindlessly entertaining, and fuck-- I wouldn't mind being as rich as he is. Surely, I'd learn some sort of hustling tactic that would allow me to make back my $20 and then some. It held up its end of the bargain on the first part, but amidst the surprisingly practical advice and hilariously revisionist history (a staged thrashing of an Interscope office is remembered as a PR coup for Curtis. Kanye West isn't mentioned once in the book), there was little insight to 50's music-making process. The "50th law" essentially lionizes fearlessness and a deep connection with the public, qualities almost entirely absent from his last two albums-- Curtis sounded a hell of a lot like a rap record made by a guy who lives in a Connecticut mansion, while the profoundly bored War Angel LP only served as proof of how the mixtape game he revolutionized had completely passed him by.

 But 50's nothing if not calculating, and while Before I Self Destruct might not be designed to reach the pretty impressive first week sales of Curtis, it may be a wiser move making it to appeal to listener who still might be rooting for the guy. In other words, the sort of guy who thought "Blood Hound" and "Back Down" were by far the best tracks from Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It's transparent pandering on the level of "Amusement Park", but the difference is that 50 still can rap convincingly about his financial power moves whereas every bit of sexual pursuit simply bores him to death-- he can't even really make a love song about his guns these days (see "Hold Me Down").

 He's still got that voice, and when he wants, it can still intoxicate and overwhelm with sheer menace. "The Invitation" and "Death to My Enemies" snarl with a ferocity that's refreshing in the context of 50's recent output as well as the current hip-pop landscape where meat'n'potatoes gangsta is actually kinda novel. He disarmingly sings along with the Jackson 5 sample that begins "Then Days Went By" before reshaping his "Hate It or Love It" verse into a squalid blaxploitation that makes you think he'd view Precious as a comedy. There's the part where a trip to the South turns into a murder spree and he pistol-whips his drug-addled uncle, but it's his staggering anti-romance that provides the most creepy shock: "she was 20, I was 12/ Nana said she raped me/ I just smiled ear to ear saying 'take it, baby, take it.'"

 As good as the ruffneck stuff generally is, he's way more entertaining when he's fucking around with people. On that note, "So Disrespectful" is the most successful track, in that it'll be the one that gets talked about. We can argue about the moral implications of using other people's serious problems as comic fodder, but 50 has no such use for that. He starts off using the Game's claims of sexual molestation against him and just goes from there, railing on anonymous hangers-on and, most comprehensively, former ally Young Buck: "tell momma he done smoked the TV/ I ain't know he fucked with more dope than B.G." * *

 A production team including Dr. Dre, Rick Rock, and Polow Da Don ensure that the cold and clinical Aftermath sonic architecture constantly allows Before to reek of amorality and fuck-you money. It's apt since you could make the argument that Before is something of a concept album portraying human relations in purely transactional terms-- it's not called a "social contract" for nothing. There's genuine hurt residing deep within a lot of the tracks here, but nearly every time, it's rendered financially and finds 50 going from playful to extremely bitter as the album goes on. Regarding the dissolution of G-Unit, he jokes "keeping these motherfuckers rich ain't easy," but later, "Strong Enough" becomes one of the angriest tracks he's done in years. On "So Disrespectful", even his absentee father is seen as a drain on his bank account: "I don't even know him/ So now the fuck I owe him?" If there's any line that could serve as Before's thesis statement, it's this song's closer: "Enemies stay enemies/ But friends they change/ Niggas go crazy over money."

 But the fun of talking about the record overstates its actual quality. After initially promising a return to form, 50 doesn't have the ability or initiative to hold the listener's interest over the long run. The middle bogs down in post-2001 Aftermath muddle and by the second half, he's back trying to make would-be hits again without the inevitability. It's almost like even he's unsure of his hitmaking abilities, and in a weird way, that sorta softens him. But who really wants that? The eyeball-scorching Terminator cover becomes apt-- its creators wanted to have it seen as humanizing allegory, but the consumer just wants to see a remorseless killing machine in action. ||||| Enlarge By Lionel Deluy, Interscope Records Before I Self Destruct is rapper 50 Cent's first album since 2007's Curtis. Interactive Calendar Interactive Calendar

 What's 50 Cent 's value in today's hip-hop market? Returning after a backlash over his pop-rap crossover hits, the once-bulletproof Eminem protégé is banking on the familiar tropes and narratives of '90s gangsta rap to hike interest in his stagnating career. Before I Self Destruct (* * ½ out of four), in stores Monday, isn't likely to renew 50 Cent's currency. Though packed with tough beats, dense production and 50's most ferocious delivery in years, the gloats about shootings, drugs and bloody 'hoods feel about as fresh as a Saw sequel. With the release of 2003's Get Rich or Die Tryin', which sold 1.7 million copies in its first 11 days, 50 Cent joined Eminem and Dr. Dre at rap's summit, solidifying his position with 2005's The Massacre, which moved 1.14 million copies in four days. In 2007, Curtis opened with first-week sales of 691,000, behind chart-topper Kanye West's Graduation with 957,000. In an era of declining CD sales, those numbers showed clout, but 50 Cent, the target of tepid reviews and waning radio attention, clearly was losing ground. The Massacre's lighter, radio-friendly fare, plus 50's mainstream hawking of branded vitamin water, condoms and Power fragrance, had fans doubting his street cred. Enter this fourth solo effort, which comes bundled with a DVD of the same-named movie, which 50 wrote, directed and stars in. The album is a throwback to gangbanger glory days, where kindness is a weakness and body counts are badges of honor. Guns, dope, cash and booty demarcate success. If some of Self Destruct's thug themes sound tired, Fitty doesn't. He comes across as tough and determined to re-establish himself as gangsta rap's kingpin, even if that genre has receded from hip-hop's bling-encrusted hub. Reminding listeners of his first entrepreneurial rise as a crack dealer, he slings boastful, stinging rhymes with a careless brutality, slugging away in 50-Centric rants at enemies, peers, former allies, ex-girlfriends. He's rap's Grinch: a grouchy, resentful loner. While he stumbles on Gangsta's Delight, a meek retooling of Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight, he's sharp on the fierce So Disrespectful, hurling venom at rivals Young Buck and The Game. Amplifying this Scarface paranoia are the darker production textures, courtesy of Dr. Dre, Tha Bizness, Scott Storch and others. While 50's street tales are hardly wholesome, they seldom stoop to the noxiousness of the clumsy soft porn peddled in such comically oafish tunes as Could've Been You with R. Kelly. Fitty's slurry flow fares better against foil Eminem on Psycho, as they merrily one-up each other in a brilliant verbal pas de deux of escalating depravity. It shows what 50 Cent is capable of when he's taking cues from a pro instead of taking shots at a foe. Download: Psycho, Crime Wave, So Disrespectful

 Consider: Stretch

 Skip: Do You Think About Me, Hold Me Down, Could've Been You Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more |||||

Write a summary.

– 50 Cent, once at the forefront of rap music, returns with Before I Self Destruct—but his fourth solo effort isn’t impressing the critics. “Though packed with tough beats, dense production and 50's most ferocious delivery in years, the gloats about shootings, drugs and bloody 'hoods feel about as fresh as a Saw sequel,” writes Edna Gundersen in USA Today. The album “isn't likely to renew 50 Cent's currency.” Fitty’s ferocity is refreshing when you consider “the current hip-pop landscape where meat'n'potatoes gangsta is actually kinda novel,” writes Ian Cohen for Pitchfork, “but the fun of talking about the record overstates its actual quality. After initially promising a return to form, 50 doesn't have the ability or initiative to hold the listener's interest over the long run.”


Here is a news article: PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Authorities say an argument over a break room light led to a deadly stabbing involving three workers at Philadelphia International airport.

 The stabbing occurred around 11:30 a.m. Thursday near Gate E6 in what city police say was a "secure area." They say the three men work for a company that cleans planes for Frontier Airlines, but their names weren't released.

 Police say one worker turned off a break room light, angering another worker. The third worker soon pulled out a knife, cutting one of the men across the abdomen.

 The 28-year-old stabbing victim was pronounced dead at a hospital.

 Authorities say the two other workers ran off but were soon confronted by police. It wasn't clear what charges they may face.

 Frontier Airlines referred all questions to the cleaning company.

 ___

 This story has been corrected to show the men were not employed by Frontier Airlines, but worked for a company that cleans the airline's planes, as per police. ||||| Bloodshed inside Philadelphia International Airport. What started as a fight between airport workers ends with one of them stabbed to death.

 An argument over a light switch escalated into a deadly stabbing Thursday morning at Philadelphia International Airport, police said.

 The stabbing happened around 11 a.m. in a break room for Worldwide Flight Services, an airplane cleaning contractor for Frontier Airlines, in Terminal E.

 Philadelphia Police Lt. John Walker said one man turned out a light in the break room, upsetting another man sitting there. The two then got into an argument over the lights.

 Walker said a third man then got involved and after some shoves, he pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the man in the thigh. Police initially said he was slashed in the stomach.

 The stabbing left the victim, 28-year-old Aaron Jenkins, seriously injured. He was rushed by paramedics to Penn Presbyterian Trauma Center in University City where he later died, Walker said.

 Both the alleged doer — identified by police Friday as 35-year-old Kevin Emanuel — and the other man involved in the fight ran from the break room, part of a secure area on the tarmac, to the departures hall. They surrendered when police confronted them.

 All three men work for Worldwide Flight Services. Initial information provided by police said they were Frontier employees.

 Police have not yet recovered the weapon, but investigators believe it may be a box cutter used as part of the their jobs.

 "Obviously, it was a pretty sharp object to get through his stomach and obviously hit some vital organs," Walker said.

 The incident never disrupted service at the airport or endangered travelers.

 Emanuel is charged with murder and possession of an instrument of a crime. It's not clear if he's retained legal counsel.

  |||||
A summary of this is?

– Authorities say an argument over a break room light led to a deadly stabbing involving three workers at Philadelphia International airport, the AP reports. The stabbing occurred around 11:30am Thursday near Gate E6 in what city police say was a "secure area"; NBC Philadelphia says it was a break room for Worldwide Flight Services, an airplane cleaning contractor for Frontier Airlines, that is located on the tarmac. The men's names weren't released. Police say one worker turned off a break room light, angering another worker. The third worker soon pulled out a knife, cutting one of the men across the abdomen. The 28-year-old stabbing victim was pronounced dead at a hospital. Authorities say the two other workers ran off but were soon confronted by police. It wasn't clear what charges they may face.


News article:

From today’s decision by the Court of Appeals of Virginia in Bruce v. Boardwine:

 [Joyce] Bruce wanted to conceive a child she could raise on her own, without the involvement of a father. Bruce apparently believed that if she became pregnant in a way that did not involve sexual intercourse, the biological father would not have a claim to any parental rights. To accomplish this goal, Bruce approached [Robert] Boardwine, a longtime friend, and asked him to be a sperm donor. After some hesitation, Boardwine agreed. Although the parties discussed a written contract regarding any resulting pregnancy, none was ever signed.

 Boardwine explained [in the court proceeding that ultimately resulted] that he intended “to always be involved” with the child. According to Boardwine, the two agreed that Bruce would be the sole parent and that he would be able to see the child as little or as much as he wanted. He stated that he expected to be a part of the child’s life, including attending the child’s sporting activities and being involved in the child’s educational and health decisions. Bruce and Boardwine’s relationship deteriorated around October 2010, when Bruce would not agree to Boardwine’s suggested name for the child. After this argument, they did not speak until shortly after the child’s birth, a period of about five months. Bruce did not inform Boardwine of the birth and did not list Boardwine on the birth certificate. Boardwine, however, learned about the birth and went to the hospital with friends and family. Bruce said that she never asked Boardwine for money or supplies and never asked him to visit or to care for the child. After she returned home from the hospital, Boardwine would come over to her home to visit. She characterized the visits as “[s]ort of strained.” Boardwine was never alone with the child. Eventually, Bruce told Boardwine to “[s]top coming by.” … Boardwine initiated proceedings in the Roanoke City Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court to establish his rights regarding the child, whom we will refer to as J.E.

 Now Virginia law does have a statute under which men can donate sperm and no parental rights — or obligations — arise as a result. But that statute provides that a “donor is not the parent of a child conceived through assisted conception, unless the donor is the husband of the gestational mother,” defines “donor” as “an individual, other than a surrogate, who contributes the sperm or egg used in assisted conception,” and in turn defines “assisted conception” as

 a pregnancy resulting from any intervening medical technology, whether in vivo or in vitro, which completely or partially replaces sexual intercourse as the means of conception. Such intervening medical technology includes, but is not limited to, conventional medical and surgical treatment as well as noncoital reproductive technology such as artificial insemination by donor, cryopreservation of gametes and embryos, in vitro fertilization, uterine embryo lavage, embryo transfer, gamete intrafallopian tube transfer, and low tubal ovum transfer [emphasis added].

 And “medical technology,” the court concludes, requires something more than a turkey baster:

 The word “medical,” in its ordinary use, means “of, relating to, or concerned with physicians or with the practice of medicine” and “requiring or devoted to medical treatment.” The statute does not encompass all technology. Instead, its language is limited to “medical technology.” The plain meaning of the term “medical technology” does not encompass a kitchen implement such as a turkey baster. The examples listed in Code § 20-156 shed further light on the General Assembly’s intent in crafting this statute…. “When general words and specific words are grouped together, the general words are limited and qualified by the specific words and will be construed to embrace only objects similar in nature to those objects identified by the specific words.” … Bruce did not become pregnant through “conventional medical and surgical treatment.” Furthermore, the examples of “noncoital reproductive technology” listed in Code § 20-156 involve procedures performed with the assistance of medical personnel. An ordinary kitchen implement used at home is simply not analogous to the medical technologies that are listed in Code § 20-156, nor does it constitute a “reproductive” technology under the plain meaning of the term….

 A sound reading of the statute, it seems to me, even if I think that as a policy matter there’s little reason to distinguish sperm donation where a doctor is involved from turkey baster donation without a doctor. And, as a result, Boardwine did indeed end up having some parental rights:

 Boardwine’s test established his paternity by a probability greater than 99.999%. The path to fatherhood may have been unconventional, but as the father of J.E., Boardwine was entitled to seek (and, as the trial court found, receive), visitation with his son.

 Thanks to How Appealing for the pointer. ||||| Story highlights In July 2010, Joyce Bruce got pregnant in an unusual way -- with repeated attempts using a turkey baster

 The man who gave her his sperm wanted to have a role in his son's life

 They ended up in court, and he has won joint custody and visitation rights

 (CNN) Robert Boardwine's path to fatherhood was unconventional, but Virginia's appeals court said Tuesday he is legally entitled to be a part of his son's life.

 Boardwine's friend, Joyce Bruce, had used his sperm and a turkey baster to get pregnant. She thought after she learned she was with child that they should just be friends.

 She also thought that because they never had sex, she was entitled to be the boy's sole parent, according to court documents.

 The Court of Appeals of Virginia decided differently in weighing the commonwealth's assisted conception statute and denying Bruce's appeal to deny Boardwine visitation.

 It agreed with a circuit court ruling that method of insemination didn't come from medical technology.

 Read More |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– In Joyce Bruce's mind, Robert Boardwine was just an old friend who helpfully agreed to donate sperm so she could have a child—no parental rights attached. To Boardwine, however, and now according to a Virginia court, he's entitled to see his young son, CNN reports. The Virginia Court of Appeals' decision yesterday came down to semantics: In its judgment, the use of a turkey baster, which how Bruce inseminated herself with Boardwine's sperm in 2010, isn't enough to keep him out of the picture as the dad, per a Virginia reproduction statute, the Washington Post reports. Bruce contended that because the couple never had sex and instead used "noncoital reproductive technology," she was entitled to sole parenthood, per CNN. The court disagreed, writing in its decision: "The plain meaning of the term 'medical technology' does not encompass a kitchen implement such as a turkey baster." After making the conception plan, the couple's friendship started going south in October 2010 (a few months into the pregnancy) when they disagreed over baby names. She didn't call him when the baby was born, but when he found out, he started visiting. Bruce says those visits were "strained," however, and she asked him to stop coming, which is when he sued for parental rights. Boardwine concedes the two agreed Bruce would be the main parent, but he says they also agreed he could see the child as he pleased—all conditions they never agreed to in writing. The court awarded him joint legal custody and visitation. (A twist in a similar case: A Kansas sperm donor was forced to pay child support.)


Summarize this article:

The Dallas Morning News broke with more than 75 years of tradition on Wednesday morning to endorse a Democrat for president, choosing Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump.

 And in doing so, they got right to the point: "There is only one serious candidate on the presidential ballot in November," the editorial began. "We recommend Hillary Clinton."

 The Dallas Morning News’ editorial page is very, very conservative. It hasn’t endorsed a Democrat for president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. (Its unbroken streak of Republicans has one exception: In 1964, the newspaper declined to choose between Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Baines Johnson.) And the editorial included a critique of the Democratic Party’s "over-reliance on government and regulation."

 But the editorial went on to savage Trump:

 He plays on fear — exploiting base instincts of xenophobia, racism and misogyny — to bring out the worst in all of us, rather than the best. His serial shifts on fundamental issues reveal an astounding absence of preparedness. And his improvisational insults and midnight tweets exhibit a dangerous lack of judgment and impulse control.

 Clinton, the editorial board wrote, is a "known quantity."

 The endorsement is a sign of how much Trump’s campaign has shaken even staunch bastions of Republicanism. But will it matter to anybody else? Given how polarized American politics have become — not to mention the waning influence of newspapers — it’s reasonable to be skeptical that any Republicans were sitting around waiting to hear what the Dallas Morning News had to think before making up their mind on Trump.

 A surprising newspaper endorsement could actually make a difference

 According to a study published in 2011, though, an unusual endorsement like this might matter precisely because it’s not what readers expected to hear. Newspaper endorsements change the most minds when they break with the usual pattern to endorse a candidate of the other party.

 Two political scientists, Chun-Fang Chiang, of National Taiwan University, and Brian Knight, of Brown University, studied the effect of newspaper endorsements in 2000 and 2004, using a survey that asked voters in the days leading up to the election about which newspapers they read and which candidates they preferred.

 The researchers sorted newspapers on a spectrum based on how likely they were to endorse Democrats for president. The Dallas Morning News was the most predictably conservative of the group — endorsing Democrats just 17 percent of the time. At the other end of the spectrum, the New York Times endorsed Democrats 90 percent of the time.

 They found that when Democratic-leaning newspapers endorsed Republicans for president, or vice versa, readers were slightly more likely to support the candidate the newspaper endorsed. If newspapers endorsed the candidates that typically lined up with the editorial page’s ideology, though, they didn’t really convince anyone. The effects were greatest among people who had seen the endorsement, as you might expect, and among older readers, who were more likely to read the editorial page.

 The study’s findings might not be as true today. Newspaper circulation has fallen 20 percent since 2004, the last election the researchers studied, and more and more Americans are getting their news online or other ways. Pew found that 81 percent of the public gets at least some of its news online. Meanwhile, the American public has become even more polarized.

 Still, given the Dallas Morning News’ strict conservative bent, its choice to endorse Clinton isn’t just making headlines — research suggests it could make a real difference.

 What the media gets wrong about Trump voters ||||| The Dallas Morning News has not endorsed a Democrat for president since before World War II. Nearly 20 elections have come and gone since then and the paper has stuck with the Republican nominee in every one of them, its editorial board notes, saying the party more closely shares its values of free markets and strong national defense.

 This election, it is going in another direction. The Texas paper has endorsed Hillary Clinton.

 Donald “Trump's values are hostile to conservatism,” the editorial board wrote. “He plays on fear — exploiting base instincts of xenophobia, racism and misogyny — to bring out the worst in all of us, rather than the best. His serial shifts on fundamental issues reveal an astounding absence of preparedness. And his improvisational insults and midnight tweets exhibit a dangerous lack of judgment and impulse control.”

 Texas has long been a stronghold for Republicans, and it is a must-win state for Trump. Most polls show him leading there – but not as comfortably as Republicans have in the past, suggesting Democrats are gaining ground in their years-long push to at least turn the state purple.

 They are getting a boost from a population that is growing increasingly diverse. The uneasiness that many Latinos have with Trump is hampering his efforts to lock down Texas in this cycle, and Democrats are confident that growing share of the electorate will stick with them.

 In an extensive 50-state poll released this week by the Washington Post and SurveyMonkey, Clinton and Trump were in a dead heat in Texas, a finding that surprised strategists who anticipated the state would not be in play this cycle. The poll surveyed more than 5,000 Texans. ||||| Lea en español

 There is only one serious candidate on the presidential ballot in November. We recommend Hillary Clinton.

 We don't come to this decision easily. This newspaper has not recommended a Democrat for the nation's highest office since before World War II — if you're counting, that's more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections. The party's over-reliance on government and regulation to remedy the country's ills is at odds with our belief in private-sector ingenuity and innovation. Our values are more about individual liberty, free markets and a strong national defense.

 We've been critical of Clinton's handling of certain issues in the past. But unlike Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has experience in actual governance, a record of service and a willingness to delve into real policy.

 PART ONE Donald Trump is no Republican His name may be at the top of the GOP ticket, but Trump doesn’t reflect Republican ideals of the past; we are certain he shouldn’t reflect the GOP of the future.

 Resume vs. resume, judgment vs. judgment, this election is no contest.

 In Clinton's eight years in the U.S. Senate, she displayed reach and influence in foreign affairs. Though conservatives like to paint her as nakedly partisan, on Capitol Hill she gained respect from Republicans for working across the aisle: Two-thirds of her bills had GOP co-sponsors and included common ground with some of Congress' most conservative lawmakers.

 As President Barack Obama's first secretary of state, she helped make tough calls on the Middle East and the complex struggle against radical Islamic terrorism. It's no accident that hundreds of Republican foreign policy hands back Clinton. She also has the support of dozens of top advisers from previous Republican administrations, including Henry Paulson, John Negroponte, Richard Armitage and Brent Scowcroft. Also on this list is Jim Glassman, the founding executive director of the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas.

 Clinton has remained dogged by questions about her honesty, her willingness to shade the truth. Her use of a private email server while secretary of state is a clear example of poor judgment. She should take additional steps to divorce allegations of influence peddling from the Clinton Foundation. And she must be more forthright with the public by holding news conferences, as opposed to relying on a shield of carefully scripted appearances and speeches.

 Those are real shortcomings. But they pale in comparison to the litany of evils some opponents accuse her of. Treason? Murder? Her being cleared of crimes by investigation after investigation has no effect on these political hyenas; they refuse to see anything but conspiracies and cover-ups.

 We reject the politics of personal destruction. Clinton has made mistakes and displayed bad judgment, but her errors are plainly in a different universe than her opponent's.

 Trump's values are hostile to conservatism. He plays on fear — exploiting base instincts of xenophobia, racism and misogyny — to bring out the worst in all of us, rather than the best. His serial shifts on fundamental issues reveal an astounding absence of preparedness. And his improvisational insults and midnight tweets exhibit a dangerous lack of judgment and impulse control.

 After nearly four decades in the public spotlight, 25 of them on the national stage, Clinton is a known quantity. For all her warts, she is the candidate more likely to keep our nation safe, to protect American ideals and to work across the aisle to uphold the vital domestic institutions that rely on a competent, experienced president.

 Hillary Clinton has spent years in the trenches doing the hard work needed to prepare herself to lead our nation. In this race, at this time, she deserves your vote. |||||

– A Texas newspaper just did something it hasn't done since before World War II: recommended a Democrat for president, the Los Angeles Times reports, noting the Lone Star State is a "must-win" for Donald Trump. In a Wednesday editorial, the Dallas Morning News says it had no choice but to throw its support behind Hillary Clinton, calling her the only "serious candidate" on the ballot. "If you're counting, that's more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections," the paper notes about the end of its streak (it endorsed FDR in 1940, per Vox). The paper adds it still has beefs with the Democratic Party and a wariness regarding Clinton, but that its endorsement comes because "unlike Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has experience in actual governance, a record of service, and a willingness to delve into real policy." The paper cites how Clinton reached across the aisle in the Senate and wielded her authority as secretary of state to make "tough calls" about the Middle East and in the "complex struggle against radical Islamic terrorism." The paper acknowledges Clinton is still dealing with controversy regarding her emails, the Clinton Foundation, and a general perception by many that she's not honest and trustworthy. But it says those who are lobbing charges of "treason" and "murder" are just "political hyenas" bent on seeing nothing but "conspiracies and cover-ups" and that her mistakes "are plainly in a different universe than [Trump's]." Meanwhile, the GOP nominee is labeled as unprepared, lacking in judgment and impulse control (as evidenced by his often-ranting "midnight tweets"), and someone who "[exploits] base instincts of xenophobia, racism, and misogyny." Clinton "has spent years in the trenches doing the hard work needed to prepare herself to lead our nation. In this race, at this time, she deserves your vote." (Trump's latest endorsement came from 88 retired military officials.)


– Demi Lovato is coming clean about just how bad things got during her drug abusing days. "With my drug use I could hide it to where I would sneak drugs. I couldn’t go 30 minutes to an hour without cocaine and I would bring it on airplanes," the 21-year-old tells Access Hollywood. "I would smuggle it basically and just wait until everyone in first class would go to sleep and I would do it right there. I'd sneak to the bathroom and I'd do it"—even though she had a "sober companion" who was supposed to be "watching me 24/7," she says. Lovato's new memoir came out last month. Click for more from the interview, including Lovato's "rock bottom" moment, which happened at age 19.

Expand this summary.

Demi Lovato is opening up about her battle with cocaine, admitting that she needed the illicit drug so badly that she would smuggle it onto airplanes and sneak to the bathroom to use it.

 During an interview with Access Hollywood, the X Factor coach revealed that she hit rock bottom at 19 — after she had checked into and completed a stint at an Illinois rehab facility in 2010 for “emotional and physical issues.”

 “Something I’ve never talked about before, but with my drug use I could hide it to where I would sneak drugs. I couldn’t go without 30 minutes to an hour without cocaine and I would bring it on airplanes,” Lovato, 21, conceded.

 “I would smuggle it basically and just wait until everyone in first class would go to sleep and I would do it right there. I’d sneak to the bathroom and I’d do it. That’s how difficult it got and that was even with somebody [with me], I had a sober companion, somebody who was watching me 24/7 and living with me [and] I was able to hide it from them as well.”

 PHOTOS: Stars Who Have Been Photographed Naked — With Or Without Their Permission!

 Lovato says the disease of addiction made her a manipulative and sneaky person.

 “I’m very, very good at manipulating people and that was something that I did in my disease, I would manipulate everyone around me,” she said.

 “There were times I would just continue to lie, so that everything looked OK on the outside.”

 And it wasn’t just cocaine — Lovato also admits to abusing alcohol in the past.

 PHOTOS: Child Star Survivors

 “I was going to the airport and I had a Sprite bottle just filled with vodka and it was just nine in the morning and I was throwing up in the car and this was just to get on a plane to go back to LA to the sober living house that I was staying at…I had all the help in the world, but I didn’t want it,” she told the outlet.

 “When I hit that moment I was like, it’s no longer fun when you’re doing it alone.

 “I think at 19-years-old, I had a moment where I was like, ‘Oh my God… that is alcoholic behavior. [It’s] no longer,I’m young and rebellious and out having fun, it was, wow, I’m one of those people…I gotta get my sh*t together.”

 Lovato’s mother, Dianna, also weighed in during the interview admitting, “I suspected [she was using drugs]. It’s like any other parent, when you see things, when you see signs you don’t want to believe that’s what actually going on. So when they’re telling you that’s not what is going on… you want too badly to believe them and I think for a long time I was in denial.”

 PHOTOS: Secret Sex Tapes — The Skin Flicks That Shocked The World

 Like Lovato, her mother Dianna also had an eating disorder and once the two sought help they grew closer as a family.

 “I had a terrible eating disorder that I had for many, many years and I didn’t realize it and I had to face up to the fact that I was suffering as well. And a lot of what [Demi] went through with an eating disorder had to do with what she had seen growing up and I also had severe depression and I ended up asking for help actually they did an intervention with me and said, ‘Mom, you need to get help,’” Dianna admitted.

 “The issue I had was definitely a mental health issue and I also had to get help for my struggles as well as she did and then once I did, we became closer as mother and daughter, [and] we also became well as a family.”

 “I’m so… proud of her it makes me so happy,” Lovato said. “I love her so much.” ||||| Demi Lovato is speaking out about her past drug use in a very candid new interview with Access Hollywood’s Kit Hoover.

 The 21-year-old star, who wrote her memoir “Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year,” opened up to Kit from the set of “The X Factor” on Monday.

 “I’m very, very good at manipulating people and that was something that I did in my disease, I would manipulate everyone around me. There were times I would just continue to lie, so that everything looked OK on the outside,” she told Kit.

 PHOTOS: Demi Lovato: From Disney To The X Factor

 In fact, Demi said she went to great lengths when it came to ensuring she could use drugs wherever she was.

 “Something I’ve never talked about before, but with my drug use I could hide it to where I would sneak drugs. I couldn’t go without 30 minutes to an hour without cocaine and I would bring it on airplanes,” she revealed. “I would smuggle it basically and just wait until everyone in first class would go to sleep and I would do it right there. I’d sneak to the bathroom and I’d do it. That’s how difficult it got and that was even with somebody [with me], I had a sober companion, somebody who was watching me 24/7 and living with me [and] I was able to hide it from them as well.”

 Demi’s rock bottom – at just 19 years old – was found at the bottom of a soda bottle.

 WATCH: Demi Lovato Admits: I Would ‘Smuggle’ Cocaine On Airplanes (Exclusive)

 “I was going to the airport and I had a Sprite bottle just filled with vodka and it was just nine in the morning and I was throwing up in the car and this was just to get on a plane to go back to LA to the sober living house that I was staying at…I had all the help in the world, but I didn’t want it,” she said looking back. “When I hit that moment I was like, it’s no longer fun when you’re doing it alone. I’ve really never talked about this stuff before… I don’t know if I should be sharing this.

 “I think at 19 years old, I had a moment where I was like, ‘Oh my God… that is alcoholic behavior. [It’s] no longer, I’m young and rebellious and out having fun, it was, wow, I’m one of those people…I gotta get my s*** together,’” she explained.

 Demi’s mom, Dianna, also sat down with Kit for the interview, where she recounted dealing with her daughter’s addiction battles.

 WATCH: Demi Lovato Opens Up On Eating Disorder & Her Bond With Her Mother

 “I suspected [she was using drugs]. It’s like any other parent, when you see things, when you see signs you don’t want to believe that’s what actually going on. So when they’re telling you that’s not what is going on… you want too badly to believe them and I think for a long time I was in denial,” she told Kit.

 “I didn’t know. I didn’t actually see her, so when she said, ‘Oh no, There’s nothing going on. I’m not using, I’m not drinking, I wasn’t doing any of these things,’ Why was I not to believe her?” Dianna continued.

 Demi also opened up about her eating disorder, telling Kit it began well before her teen years.

 “It was always there, but then I just acted on it at around 8 or 9 years old. I started overeating, compulsively overeating. I would bake cookies and then eat the whole pan. I went from doing that to being unhappy with my body. I went to just completely starving myself and that turned into throwing up and starving myself and it was just this crazy battle going on inside of me,” she said looking back. “It got really difficult [and] I would throw up and it would just be blood and it was something that I realized if I don’t stop this, I am going to die.”

 WATCH: Demi Lovato Dishes On The X Factor Eliminations & Holiday Plans

 Following Demi’s 2010 inpatient rehab stint, the young star left with a greater understanding of the challenges her mom was also facing.

 “I had issues I needed to work on as well because I wasn’t setting a good example for her,” Dianna revealed to Kit. “I had a terrible eating disorder that I had for many, many years and I didn’t realize it and I had to face up to the fact that I was suffering as well. And a lot of what [Demi] went through with an eating disorder had to do with what she had seen growing up and I also had severe depression and I ended up asking for help actually they did an intervention with me and said, ‘Mom, you need to get help.’”

 After both Demi and her mother sought help, they grew closer and stronger as a family.

 PHOTOS: Former Child Stars Then & Now

 “The issue I had was definitely a mental health issue and I also had to get help for my struggles as well as she did and then once I did, we became closer as mother and daughter, [and] we also became well as a family,” Dianna said.

 “I’m so… proud of her it makes me so happy,” Demi said of her mother. “I love her so much.”

 -- Jesse Spero

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