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– Former President George HW Bush has been hospitalized in Houston but the 92-year-old is "fine" and is expected to go home in a few days, his chief of staff says. Bush chief of staff Jean Becker tells the Houston Chronicle that the 41st president was recently admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital after becoming ill. "He's there. He's fine and he's doing really well," Becker says. Becker did not specify the reason the oldest living US president was hospitalized, the AP reports. Bush has a form of Parkinson's disease and uses a motorized scooter or a wheelchair for mobility. His office announced earlier this month that Bush and his wife, Barbara, would not attend Donald Trump's inauguration this week due to the former president's age and health.

George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, hospitalized in Houston President Obama: 'They are as fine a couple as we know'

 Former President George H.W. Bush, 92, is in the intensive care unit at Houston Methodist Hospital for an acute respiratory problem stemming from pneumonia.

 Also, Barbara Bush, 91, was admitted to Methodist Wednesday morning as a precaution after she began experiencing fatigue and coughing.

 Methodist released a statement Wednesday that doctors performed a procedure on the former president, which it did not specify, to protect and clear his airway. The procedure required sedation.

 "President Bush is stable and resting comfortably," according to the statement, but he will remain in ICU for observation.

 DEVELOPING STORY: A week before being hospitalized, Bush 41 sent letter telling Trump he couldn't attend inauguration

 President Barack Obama referenced the Bushes' hospitalization in his final news conference Wednesday.

 "We have been in touch with the Bush family today after hearing about President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush being admitted to the hospital this morning," said Obama. "They have not only dedicated their lives to this country, they have been a constant source of friendship and support and good counsel for Michelle and me over the years. They are as fine a couple as we know. And so we want to send our prayers and our love to them."

 Bush's chief of staff, Jean Becker, had confirmed late Tuesday night that he was admitted to Methodist over the weekend. She said: "He's there. He's fine and he's doing really well."

 As is the case with most people his age, the nation's 41st president has had his share of health issues in recent years.

 Former President George H.W. Bush is shown with Hannah McNair and Texans owner Bob McNair before a Texans playoff game at NRG Stadium on Jan. 7. Former President George H.W. Bush is shown with Hannah McNair and Texans owner Bob McNair before a Texans playoff game at NRG Stadium on Jan. 7. Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle

 George H. W. Bush: His political career in photos

 George Bush, 1964, Republican candidate for U. S. Senator from Texas.

 Keep clicking to see more images. George H. W. Bush: His political career in photos

 George Bush, 1964, Republican candidate for U. S. Senator from Texas.

 Keep clicking to see more images. Photo: Tom Colburn, © Houston Chronicle

 04/05/1964 - Dorothy Bush, 4, shows her support for her father, George Bush, who is a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, at a rally near Richmond, Texas.

 04/05/1964 - Dorothy Bush, 4, shows her support for her father, George Bush, who is a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, at a rally near Richmond, Texas. Photo: Dell Van Dusen, Houston Chronicle

 George Bush, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination, arrives at his headquarters in Houston, Texas, June 6, 1964. Bush will meet Democratic Senator Yarborough in the November general election. George Bush, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination, arrives at his headquarters in Houston, Texas, June 6, 1964. Bush will meet Democratic Senator Yarborough in the November general election. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

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 less George Bush, candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, gets returns by phone at his headquarters in Houston, Saturday, June 6, 1964 as his wife Barbara, beams her pleasure at the news. Bush was leading his opponent Jack Cox in the run-off primary. Bush will face Sen. Ralph Yarborough (D-Tex) in the November general election if his lead holds and he is the winner. George Bush, candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, gets returns by phone at his headquarters in Houston, Saturday, June 6, 1964 as his wife Barbara, beams her pleasure at the news. Bush ... more Photo: Ed Kolenovsky, ASSOCIATED PRESS

 GEORGE H.W. BUSH-GROUP. 06/07/1964 - Republican Senatorial candidate George Bush and his supporters look for a victory in November.

 GEORGE H.W. BUSH-GROUP. 06/07/1964 - Republican Senatorial candidate George Bush and his supporters look for a victory in November. Photo: Richard Pipes, Houston Chronicle

 06/08/1964 - U.S. Senate candidate George Bush with three of his sons, from left, Neil, Jeb and Marvin (seated); his wife, Barbara, and daughter, Dorothy. Bush's eldest son George is not in the photo.

 06/08/1964 - U.S. Senate candidate George Bush with three of his sons, from left, Neil, Jeb and Marvin (seated); his wife, Barbara, and daughter, Dorothy. Bush's eldest son George is not in the photo. Photo: Dave Farmer, © Houston Chronicle

 09/17/1964 - U.S. Senate candidate George Bush officially opens his state-wide campaign at a rally held in the Music Hall. 09/17/1964 - U.S. Senate candidate George Bush officially opens his state-wide campaign at a rally held in the Music Hall. Photo: Houston Chronicle

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 Republican Senatorial candidate George Bush shows a victory sign as he and his wife Barbara stand in front of a vote machine November 3, 1964 in Houston,Tex., before casting their ballot. The candidate waited an hour and a half in a long line of voters that circled the Pilgrim Elementary School. less Republican Senatorial candidate George Bush shows a victory sign as he and his wife Barbara stand in front of a vote machine November 3, 1964 in Houston,Tex., before casting their ballot. The candidate waited ... more Photo: Anonymous, ASSOCIATED PRESS

 11/03/1964 - U.S. Senate candidate George Bush with his father, former U.S. Sen. Prescott Bush, realize it's bad news when the election results come in Tuesday night. Bush lost to Democrat Ralph Yarborough.

 11/03/1964 - U.S. Senate candidate George Bush with his father, former U.S. Sen. Prescott Bush, realize it's bad news when the election results come in Tuesday night. Bush lost to Democrat Ralph Yarborough. Photo: Jim Cox, Houston Chronicle

 GEORGE H.W. BUSH-GROUP. 11/08/1966 - George and Barbara Bush celebrate his election to a seat in the U.S. Congress from the 7th district in Texas.

 GEORGE H.W. BUSH-GROUP. 11/08/1966 - George and Barbara Bush celebrate his election to a seat in the U.S. Congress from the 7th district in Texas. Photo: Bill Cooksey, Houston Chronicle

 11/08/1966 - Newly-elected Congressman George Bush flashes a winner's smile as his wife, Barbara, gives him a victory kiss following his election to a seat in the U.S. Congress from the 7th district in Texas.

 11/08/1966 - Newly-elected Congressman George Bush flashes a winner's smile as his wife, Barbara, gives him a victory kiss following his election to a seat in the U.S. Congress from the 7th district in Texas. Photo: Jerry Click, Houston Chronicle

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 George and Barbara Bush in Houston, Texas on the night which George Bush was elected to Congress, ca. 11/1966

 George and Barbara Bush in Houston, Texas on the night which George Bush was elected to Congress, ca. 11/1966

 Republican George Bush, left, has his hand raised in victory by newly elected Democrat Bob Eckhardt of the 8th Congressional District of Harris County. Bush, winner of the newly created 7th Congressional District of Harris County, won the election over Democrat Frank Briscoe, Eckhardt defeated W.D. Spayne of the Constitutional Party. The victory celebration took place in Bush's campaign headquarters late Tuesday night, Nov. 9, 1966. less Republican George Bush, left, has his hand raised in victory by newly elected Democrat Bob Eckhardt of the 8th Congressional District of Harris County. Bush, winner of the newly created 7th Congressional ... more Photo: Ed Kolenovsky, AP

 less 12/26/1967 - Congressman George Bush left Houston Tuesday for a 16-day tour to look at "the other war" in Vietnam. Bush said he wanted to determine if the Vietnamese government and people are committed to the war effort. 12/26/1967 - Congressman George Bush left Houston Tuesday for a 16-day tour to look at "the other war" in Vietnam. Bush said he wanted to determine if the Vietnamese government and people are committed to the ... more Photo: Dan Hardy, Houston Chronicle

 U.S. Rep. George Bush, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks at the opening of his Harris County campaign headquarters at 5005 Fannin Thursday, April 2, 1970. U.S. Rep. George Bush, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks at the opening of his Harris County campaign headquarters at 5005 Fannin Thursday, April 2, 1970. Photo: Sam C. Pierson Jr., © Houston Chronicle

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 04/02/1970 - U.S. Rep. George Bush, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, opens his Harris County campaign headquarters at 5005 Fannin Thursday, April 2, 1970.

 04/02/1970 - U.S. Rep. George Bush, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, opens his Harris County campaign headquarters at 5005 Fannin Thursday, April 2, 1970. Photo: Jim Cox, Houston Chronicle

 U.S. Rep. George Bush, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, opens his Harris County campaign headquarters at 5005 Fannin Thursday, April 2, 1970. U.S. Rep. George Bush, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, opens his Harris County campaign headquarters at 5005 Fannin Thursday, April 2, 1970. Photo: Jim Cox, © Houston Chronicle

 05/02/1970 - U.S. Senate candidate George Bush votes in the Texas Republican Primary election.

 05/02/1970 - U.S. Senate candidate George Bush votes in the Texas Republican Primary election. Photo: Ray Covey, Houston Chronicle

 U.S. Senate candidate George Bush and his wife, Barbara, rummage in her bag at their voting precinct in the Texas Republican Primary election 05/02/1970 . U.S. Senate candidate George Bush and his wife, Barbara, rummage in her bag at their voting precinct in the Texas Republican Primary election 05/02/1970 . Photo: Ray Covey, © Houston Chronicle

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 05/30/1970 - George W. Bush (2nd from left) and his father, U.S. Rep. George H.W. Bush (far right, white shirt) participate in the 20-mile charity, "Walk for Mankind." Funds were raised for three volunteer service groups. Sponsors were solicited to pay for each mile walked by the participant. less 05/30/1970 - George W. Bush (2nd from left) and his father, U.S. Rep. George H.W. Bush (far right, white shirt) participate in the 20-mile charity, "Walk for Mankind." Funds were raised for three volunteer ... more Photo: Jim Cox, Houston Chronicle

 less Rep. George H.W. Bush, R-Texas., who is seeking a seat in U.S. Senate, talks with a group of young people at a rally in Houston, Texas., on Oct. 9, 1970. Bush is opposed by Lloyd Bentsen, wealthy Houston businessman, who defeated Sen. Ralph Yarborough in the State Democratic Primary. Rep. George H.W. Bush, R-Texas., who is seeking a seat in U.S. Senate, talks with a group of young people at a rally in Houston, Texas., on Oct. 9, 1970. Bush is opposed by Lloyd Bentsen, wealthy Houston ... more Photo: Anonymous, ASSOCIATED PRESS

 11/02/1970 - George Bush, candidate for U.S. Senate from Texas, thanks his supporters at downtown rally to wrap up his campaign.

 11/02/1970 - George Bush, candidate for U.S. Senate from Texas, thanks his supporters at downtown rally to wrap up his campaign. Photo: Bill Thompson, Houston Chronicle

 11/03/1970 - Barbara Bush and husband, George Bush, watch election returns at the Shamrock Hilton Hotel. U.S. Senate candidate George Bush lost to Lloyd Bentsen later in the evening. 11/03/1970 - Barbara Bush and husband, George Bush, watch election returns at the Shamrock Hilton Hotel. U.S. Senate candidate George Bush lost to Lloyd Bentsen later in the evening. Photo: Dan Hardy, Houston Chronicle

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 less George W. Bush, center, joins his mother, Barbara Bush, and brother, Jeb Bush, rear, in Houston as father George Bush acknowledges defeat in Texas' 1970 U.S. Senate race. The younger Bush campaigned vigorously for his father in the race against Democrat Lloyd Bentsen Jr. George W. Bush, center, joins his mother, Barbara Bush, and brother, Jeb Bush, rear, in Houston as father George Bush acknowledges defeat in Texas' 1970 U.S. Senate race. The younger Bush campaigned vigorously ... more Photo: Sam C. Pierson Jr., Houston Chronicle

 George Bush, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations is shown at U.N. headquarters in New York in 1971.

 George Bush, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations is shown at U.N. headquarters in New York in 1971. Photo: Anonymous, ASSOCIATED PRESS

 George Bush, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations is shown at U.N. headquarters in New York in 1971. George Bush, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations is shown at U.N. headquarters in New York in 1971. Photo: Anonymous, AP

 Ambassador George Bush, chief U.S. delegate to United Nations, sits at General Assembly session in New York October 26, 1971, the day after he lost his battle to keep Nationalist China in the world body. Ambassador George Bush, chief U.S. delegate to United Nations, sits at General Assembly session in New York October 26, 1971, the day after he lost his battle to keep Nationalist China in the world body. Photo: John Rooney, AP

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 Ambassador George Bush, left, permanent representative of the U.S. to the United Nations, confers with aides October 26, 1971 as the U.N. Assembly voted to admit the people's Republic of China. Ambassador George Bush, left, permanent representative of the U.S. to the United Nations, confers with aides October 26, 1971 as the U.N. Assembly voted to admit the people's Republic of China. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

 George Bush, right, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, shakes hands with Indonesian Foreign Minister Adam Malik before the opening of the 26th General Assembly of the United Nations at the headquarters in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 1971. less George Bush, right, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, shakes hands with Indonesian Foreign Minister Adam Malik before the opening of the 26th General Assembly of the United Nations at the headquarters in ... more Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

 12/23/1971 - Son George W. Bush looks on as his father, US ambassador to the United Nations George H.W. Bush, speaks to the news media. 12/23/1971 - Son George W. Bush looks on as his father, US ambassador to the United Nations George H.W. Bush, speaks to the news media. Photo: Fred Bunch, © Houston Chronicle

 less George Bush is sworn in as new director of the Central Intelligence Agency by Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart, left, as Mrs Barbara Bush and President Gerald Ford, at right, look on at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., January 30, 1976. Bush succeeds William Colby who retired. George Bush is sworn in as new director of the Central Intelligence Agency by Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart, left, as Mrs Barbara Bush and President Gerald Ford, at right, look on at CIA ... more Photo: Anonymous, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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 William Colby, center, applauds as George Bush finishes remarks after being sworn in as director of the Central Intelligence Agency on Jan. 30, 1976, in Washington. William Colby, center, applauds as George Bush finishes remarks after being sworn in as director of the Central Intelligence Agency on Jan. 30, 1976, in Washington. Photo: AP

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 Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 42 Caption Close George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, hospitalized in Houston 1 / 42 Back to Gallery

 In July 2015, he was taken to a hospital in Portland, Maine, after he fractured a bone in his neck in a fall at the family's summer home in Kennebunkport. He was "up and talking and out of bed" within a day after the fall.

 The fall happened about six months after he was taken by ambulance to Houston Methodist for what his spokesman called "shortness of breath." He was released from the hospital about a week later.

 In late 2012, Bush was admitted to the hospital for a bronchitis-related cough. He was later released, but returned the day after Thanksgiving because of a persistent cough. Bush was later admitted to intensive care and spent nearly two months at the hospital until his release in mid-January 2013.

 Check back later for updates on this developing report. ||||| FILE - In this April 2, 2016, file photo, former President George H. W. Bush waves as he arrives at NRG Stadium before the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game between Villanova... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this April 2, 2016, file photo, former President George H. W. Bush waves as he arrives at NRG Stadium before the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game between Villanova... (Associated Press)

 HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized but the 92-year-old is "fine" and expected to go home in a few days, his chief of staff told area media early Wednesday.

 Bush chief of staff Jean Becker tells the Houston Chronicle and KHOU-TV that the 41st president was recently admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital after becoming ill.

 "He's there. He's fine and he's doing really well," Becker told the Chronicle.

 Becker did not specify the reason the oldest living U.S. president was hospitalized. Both media outlets said his office expects him to go home in a couple of days.

 Becker did not immediately return email or telephone calls to her office from The Associated Press.

 Bush, who served as U.S. president from 1989 to 1993, has a form of Parkinson's disease and uses a motorized scooter or a wheelchair for mobility. He was hospitalized in Maine in 2015 after falling at his summer home and breaking a bone in his neck, and was hospitalized in Houston the previous December for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

 Despite the loss of mobility, he celebrated his 90th birthday by making a tandem parachute jump in Kennebunkport. Last summer, Bush led a group of 40 wounded warriors on a fishing trip at the helm of his speedboat, three days after his 92nd birthday celebration.

 His office announced earlier this month that Bush and his wife, Barbara, would not attend Donald Trump's inauguration this week due to the former president's age and health. |||||


– The Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris has long been rumored to be getting tired of its most famous American resident—and the tributes his fans leave behind—but a fan in Jim Morrison's Florida birthplace says he has a new home for the the Doors singer. John Tice, a city councilman in Melbourne, Brevard County, operates the Brevard Hall of Fame and he tells Florida Today that he plans to talk to officials in Paris about bringing Morrison's remains back to the US. Morrison "was the most popular public figure from this area, in my opinion," Tice says, adding that he "can see the Morrison display morphing into something much bigger." Tice plans to hold a fundraising drive if he gets permission to move the remains from the city where Morrison died in 1971. Tice tells WKMG that he's waiting to hear from officials that he contacted after hearing that the lease on Morrison's Paris grave may be up soon. He says he expects controversy if the singer, who was born in Brevard Hospital 72 years ago, is moved to Melbourne. "I think it's going to be mixed reviews," he says. "I think some people will say, 'I can't wait.' I think other people will say, 'Shame on you.'" Florida Today notes that Morrison didn't linger in Melbourne for long: Baby Jim and his mother moved elsewhere in Florida after six months when his father, a Navy pilot who later became an admiral, graduated flight training and left to serve in the Pacific theater of World War II. (In 2010, Florida pardoned Morrison for a 1969 indecent exposure conviction.)

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CLOSE Brevard Hall of Fame wants the remains of Jim Morrison in Melbourne. Video by Craig Rubadoux. Posted Dec. 30, 2015.

 Jim Morrison of The Doors died in July 1971 of an alleged heroin overdose in Paris. (Photo: Pensacola News Journal)

 MELBOURNE — The president of the Brevard Hall of Fame wants to move Jim Morrison's remains from his Paris gravesite to Melbourne, the birthplace of the controversial, magnetic "Lizard King" lead singer of The Doors.

 One of the most iconic frontmen in rock history, Morrison was born Dec. 8, 1943, at the former Brevard Hospital on U.S. 1. His parents, Steve and Clara, moved to town when Steve was transferred to Naval Air Station Melbourne for flight training during World War II, and they lived in a downtown home on Vernon Place.

 Though Morrison's resting place is a heavily visited pop-culture shrine listed among TIME's Top 10 Celebrity Grave Sites — alongside the likes of Princess Diana, Elvis Presley and Bruce Lee — scant evidence exists in Melbourne of his local ties.

 John Tice wants to change that. In August 2012, he founded the Brevard Hall of Fame, a nonprofit organization that occupies a back room inside the Liberty Bell Memorial Museum and honors more than 30 famous people with Space Coast residential ties. A modest Morrison display features posters, two record albums by The Doors ("13" and "Strange Days"), and a framed copy of his last will and testament.

 "Jim Morrison was the most popular public figure from this area, in my opinion," Tice said, seated at a table inside the hall of fame. "He and Kate Upton are the two biggest draws here."

 "I can see the Morrison display morphing into something much bigger," he said.

 Tice, who is a West Melbourne city councilman, hopes to contact authorities at the sprawling Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where Morrison was interred after his 1971 death. If cemetery officials agree, and any potential legal issues are ironed out, Tice plans to organize a fundraising drive to move Morrison's remains to Melbourne for display at the Brevard Hall of Fame.

 A couple of years ago, Tice said he heard that French cemetery officials offered to move Morrison’s remains to Melbourne to his Vernon Place birth home. However, the homeowner declined the offer.

 Today, Jim Morrison's display serves as the centerpiece of the Brevard Hall of Fame main wall, near a football autographed by NFL quarterback Doug Flutie of Melbourne Beach, a surfboard autographed by 11-time world champion Kelly Slater of Cocoa Beach, and both of Upton's Sports Illustrated swimsuit-issue covers. The supermodel, who was crowned People's Sexiest Woman Alive last year, attended Melbourne's Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy.

 Two Morrison posters and a "Jim Morrison Way" replica street sign were donated by Applebee’s at Wickham Road and Eau Gallie Boulevard, where they had been displayed in the dining room. Last year, an Ohio fan of The Doors donated both records and the poetry book “Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison.”

 The newest Brevard Hall of Fame inductee is pro wrestler "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, a former Titusville resident and member of the WWE Hall of Fame. Two weeks ago, the hall added an autographed photo and commemorative football from retired Miami Dolphins fullback and Super Bowl VIII MVP Larry Csonka, who owns a home north of Scottsmoor.

 Tice said he still hears the decades-old rumor that Morrison graduated from Melbourne High — which is false. Six months after Morrison was born, his father was assigned to the Pacific theater. Clara and Jim moved to Clearwater and lived with Steve's parents for the next three years, according to the Jim Morrison biography "No One Here Gets Out Alive" by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman.

 Contact Neale at 321-242-3638, rneale@floridatoday.com or follow @RickNeale1 on Twitter

 Read or Share this story: http://on.flatoday.com/1YT6zjv ||||| MELBOURNE, Fla. - The president of the Brevard County Hall of Fame is spearheading an effort to have legendary rock star Jim Morrison's remains brought back to Florida from Paris.

 Born James Douglas Morrison on Dec. 8, 1943, at the former Brevard Hospital, the lead singer of The Doors is no stranger to controversy.

 "The fact that he was born here -- I mean, seems like everybody knows that. Everybody knows that Jim Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida," said John Tice, Brevard Hall of Fame President.

 Tice said that he received word that officials in Paris were interested in returning Morrison's remains to the states after contacting the owner of Morrison's childhood home.

 "The officials that own the cemetery in Paris offered his remains according to the owner of the house on Vernon street to bring him there," said Tice. "I talked to him real recent because I heard he reconsidered and he said no he's not going to do it. So I said well give me the contact information and I'd like to see what I can do."

 Morrison left the United States for Paris after an arrest warrant was issued for him out of Miami for indecent exposure during a concert.

 Tice said not everyone in Brevard County would support Morrison's possible return.

 "I think it's going to be mixed reviews. I think some people will say, 'I can't wait.' I think other people will say, 'Shame on you,'" said Tice.

 Tice said that it is his understanding that the lease for Morrison's grave site is almost up, and officials in Paris are concerned about vandalism near his memorial.

 "If he can't be where he's at which is where he passed away, then I think he ought to be where he was born because where else would be better than that?"

 Tice is still waiting to hear back from officials in Paris.

 Copyright 2015 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved. |||||


– A Michigan conference called to discuss a possible "honor killing" and women in Islam has triggered an uproar from local Muslims and civil rights groups who say it's an excuse to bash Islam. The "Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference on Honor Killings" in Dearborn—home to a thriving American Muslim community—was immediately countered with a "Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate" town hall meeting in Detroit, notes MSNBC. Both meetings took place yesterday. Mokdad, 20, was killed last year by her Muslim stepdad, according to police. Though initially reported as a suspected honor killing, investigators now believe Mokdad was killed because she was about to tell police her stepfather was sexually abusing her, according to the Detroit Free Press. "The evidence shows the motive really was not a cultural issue," said a lead investigator. "It's about power, control, and rape." The honor killing conference immediately raised suspicions because it was organized by Pam Geller, critic of Islam and nationally known foe of the proposed Ground Zero Mosque. Geller insists Mokdad's death was an honor killing, and one more example of "stealth enforcement" of Islamic shariah law. Geller's group Stop the Islamization of America has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Organizers of the rival meeting said in a statement it's time for "our community to take a stand, along with those who value America's commitment to diversity and freedom of religion." Said a female speaker at the town hall meeting: "As a Muslim woman, I stand with pride in my faith."

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 Watch Live: Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate

 Community town hall will be held in Dearborn, Michigan

 Today, April 29th at 1PM

 Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate

 It’s not news to anyone in our community that anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias remains a problem. Arab Americans have mobilized to combat this trend both because it is wrong and because it undermines core American values, including religious freedom. We work against it in Washington when it takes the form of bad policies, and we responded to it when policymakers joined in the media circus around the manufactured crisis of Park 51 in lower Manhattan. Since then, we have seen the threat of Quran burnings, mosque protests, and anti-Sharia bills in multiple states across the country.

 The Arab American community in Michigan is perhaps more familiar with these challenges than anyone else. From the politicizing of a fun, family-oriented Arab community festival to Terry Jones' visits to Dearborn, the community has faced these challenges with dignity and courage. With Terry Jones in particular, Dearborn’s Arab Americans did the right thing by keeping him marginalized and organizing an interfaith response that affirmed our values.

 This week, we’re faced with the latest challenge when Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer bring their so-called “Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference” to Dearborn on Sunday. By presumptuously donning Ms. Mokdad's name on their conference, they are exploiting the tragedy of a young Arab American girl to promote a bigoted agenda. It is shameful. Unlike the irrelevant Jones, Geller and Spencer have thousands of followers, and are given airtime to spew their hate on major American news networks, as if they are respected analysts with just another viewpoint. This group, we cannot ignore. This is the time for our community to take a stand, along with all those who value America’s commitment to diversity and freedom of religion, against the politics of division and bigotry promoted by the Islamophobes.

 Along with a tremendous group of local organizations, AAI has organized a community town hall on Islamophobia on the same day as their conference this Sunday, April 29 at 1pm at the Doubletree Hotel in Dearborn (5801 Southfield Road). AAI President Jim Zogby and Executive Director Maya Berry will be there, along with Eli Clifton, the co-author of a groundbreaking report on Geller and friends called Fear Inc., and prominent journalist and blogger Sarah Posner. The town hall will also feature community, interfaith, and religious leaders as well as Michigan public officials. We will directly challenge the narrative that will be presented by their conference and, more importantly, we will have a community conversation about how to respond to these continued attacks. This community will not leave bigotry and Islamophobia unchallenged.

 Tagged as Issues, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Islamophobia, Profiling, Park 51, State Specific, Michigan

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 You must log in to continue. ||||| Anti-Islam activists from across the U.S. are in Dearborn today for a conference they say is needed to rescue Muslim women. Called the Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference on Honor Killings, it's named after a 20-year-old Muslim woman killed in Warren last year.

 But Muslim women in metro Detroit are rejecting the conference's message, saying it promotes hatred of Islam and Arab Americans. And Mokdad's family also strongly objects to the conference, saying they don't want her name being used to promote hate.

 On Friday, Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo, who is chief of ... ||||| Best Places For Ice Fishing In The USAs much a skill as it is a sport, ice fishing isn't for the faint of heart. Face the chilly challenge prepared with all the essential clothing, equipment, and gear and go to the right places to be rewarded with plenty of fish.

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Retired Army Gen. Alexander Haig, who held influential positions in the U.S. military and government and who as White House chief of staff shepherded Richard M. Nixon toward peacefully resigning the presidency, died Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore of complications from an infection. He was 85.

 Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter sent the four-star general to Europe as supreme commander of NATO. Ronald Reagan made him secretary of state, a brief and stormy appointment in which he famously tried to assert command after the attempted assassination of the president. And Gen. Haig himself, a tall man with blue eyes who kept his chin-up military bearing long after he left the service, ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988.

 In a statement, President Obama said Gen. Haig "exemplified our finest warrior-diplomat tradition of those who dedicate their lives to public service."

 Gen. Haig's influence peaked in his late 40s, during Nixon's last 16 months in office, when brewing developments in the Watergate scandal damaged and increasingly distracted the president. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger famously told Gen. Haig to keep the country together while he held the world together during one of the greatest constitutional crises in the nation's history. Special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, and many others, called Gen. Haig the "37 1/2 president."

 Gen. Haig, untainted by the botched break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, took over as chief of staff in May 1973 from H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, who would spend 18 months in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. When the public learned about the secret Oval Office taping system, which would eventually implicate Nixon in the coverup, Gen. Haig, as he acknowledged later, urged the president to destroy the tapes.

 When Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, Jaworski's predecessor, pursued his investigation too aggressively for Nixon's comfort, the president dispatched Gen. Haig in October 1973 to instruct the acting attorney general, William D. Ruckelshaus, to fire Cox. "Your commander in chief has given you an order," Gen. Haig told him.

 Ruckelshaus refused, quitting instead in what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre.

 Although Gen. Haig vigorously defended the president, he realized the direness of the mounting evidence and arranged a series of meetings between Nixon, his attorneys and leading members of Congress to make Nixon understand that his position had become untenable in the summer of 1974.

 Gen. Haig said he thought Nixon needed to make the final decision, but he "smoothed the way" by presenting resignation as the only serious option, according to the account of this period in journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's 1976 book "The Final Days." After the president broached the possibility of suicide, the authors noted, Gen. Haig ordered doctors to take away Nixon's tranquilizers and deny his requests for pills.

 Then, on Aug. 1, 1974, Gen. Haig told Vice President Ford that he should prepare to assume the presidency. Critics said later that he brokered a deal that got Nixon a pardon in exchange for stepping down. Gen. Haig maintained that he never implicitly or explicitly made such an offer.

 Gen. Haig stood on the White House lawn eight days later, on Aug. 9, when Nixon left town. The chief of staff had his arms folded, but he discreetly gave a thumbs-up to his disgraced boss.

 Powerful mentors

 Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. was born on Dec. 2, 1924, in the Philadelphia suburb of Bala Cynwyd, Pa. He was 10 when his father, a lawyer, died of cancer and left the family $5,000 in life insurance money. Gen. Haig was the second of three children, but he assumed an important role in family matters as the oldest male. ||||| Seven years before, Mr. Haig really had been in control. He was widely perceived as the acting president during the final months of the Nixon administration.

 He kept the White House running as the distraught and despondent commander in chief was driven from power by the threat of impeachment in 1974. “He was the president toward the end,” William B. Saxbe, the United States attorney general in 1974, was quoted as saying in “Nixon: An Oral History of His Presidency” (HarperCollins, 1994). “He held that office together.”

 Henry A. Kissinger , his mentor and master in the Nixon White House, also said the nation owed Mr. Haig its gratitude for steering the ship of state through dangerous waters in the final days of the Nixon era. “By sheer willpower, dedication and self-discipline, he held the government together,” Mr. Kissinger wrote in the memoir “Years of Upheaval.”

 Mr. Haig took pride in his cool handling of a constitutional crisis without precedent.

 “There were no tanks,” he said during a hearing on his nomination as secretary of state in 1981. “There were not any sandbags outside the White House.”

 Serving the Nixon White House from 1969 to 1974, Mr. Haig went from colonel to four-star general without holding a major battlefield command, an extraordinary rise with few if any precedents in American military history.

 But the White House was its own battlefield in those years. He won his stars through his tireless service to President Richard M. Nixon and Mr. Nixon’s national security adviser, Mr. Kissinger.

 Mr. Haig never lost his will. But he frequently lost his composure as Mr. Reagan’s secretary of state. As a consequence, he lost both his job and his standing in the American government.

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 Mr. Nixon had privately suggested to the Reagan transition team that Mr. Haig would make a great secretary of state. Upon his appointment, Mr. Haig declared himself “the vicar of foreign policy” — in the Roman Catholic Church , to which he belonged, the pope is the “vicar of Christ” — but he soon became an apostate in the new administration.

 He alienated his affable commander in chief and the vice president, George H. W. Bush , whose national security aide, Donald P. Gregg, described Mr. Haig as “a cobra among garter snakes.”

 Mr. Haig served for 17 months before Mr. Reagan dismissed him with a one-page letter on June 24, 1982.

 Those months were marked by a largely covert paramilitary campaign against Central American leftists, a heightening of nuclear tensions with the Soviet Union, and dismay among American allies about the lurching course of American foreign policy.

 Sixteen months after his departure came the deaths of 241 American Marines , sailors and soldiers in a terrorist bombing in Beirut and, two days later, the American invasion of the Caribbean nation of Grenada .

 “His tenure as secretary of state was very traumatic,” John M. Poindexter , later Mr. Reagan’s national security adviser, recalled in the oral history “Reagan: The Man and His Presidency” (Houghton Mifflin, 1998). “As a result of this constant tension that existed between the White House and the State Department about who was going to be responsible for national security and foreign policy, we got very little done.”

 Mr. Haig said the president had assured him that he “would be the spokesman for the U.S. government.” But he came to believe — with reason — that the White House staff had banded together against him.

 He blamed in particular the so-called troika of James A. Baker III , Edwin Meese III and Michael K. Deaver.

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 “Reagan was a cipher,” Mr. Haig said with evident bitterness. “These men were running the government.”

 He reflected: “Having been a White House chief of staff, and having lived in the White House under great tension, you know that the White House attracts extremely ambitious people. Those who get to the top are usually prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to get there.”

 Mr. Haig briefly considered running for president in 1980 and became a candidate in 1988, but his campaign attracted virtually no popular support.

 A spokesman for Johns Hopkins, Gary Stephenson, said Mr. Haig’s death was caused by staphylococcal infection that he had before his admission to the hospital. Mr. Haig is survived by his wife, the former Patricia Fox, 81; their three children, Alexander Patrick Haig Sr. and Barbara Haig, both of Washington, and Brian Haig of Hopewell, N.J.; and eight grandchildren, according to the Rev. Frank Haig, 81, his brother and a professor emeritus of physics at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore.

 Photo

 Father Haig said the Army was coordinating a Mass at Fort Myer in Washington and an interment at Arlington National Cemetery, but both would be delayed by about two weeks due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq .

 In a statement issued Saturday, President Obama said: “Today we mourn the loss of Alexander Haig, a great American who served our country with distinction. General Haig exemplified our finest warrior-diplomat tradition of those who dedicate their lives to public service.”

 Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. was born in Philadelphia on Dec. 2, 1924, the son of a lawyer and a homemaker. At 22, he graduated from West Point , ranking 214th of 310 members of the class of 1947.

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 As a young lieutenant, he went to Japan to serve as an aide to Gen. Alonzo P. Fox, deputy chief of staff to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the supreme allied commander and American viceroy of the Far East.

 In 1950, Mr. Haig married the general’s daughter.

 Introduction to War

 Mr. Haig’s first taste of war was brutal. In the first months of the Korean War, he served on the staff of Maj. Gen. Edward M. Almond, chief of staff of the Far Eastern Command. Official Army histories depict General Almond as a terror to his underlings and as one of General MacArthur’s most uncompromising disciples.

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 Following orders, General Almond sent thousands of American soldiers north toward the Chinese border in November 1950. They met a ferocious surprise counterattack from a far larger Chinese force.

 General Almond and Lieutenant Haig flew to the forward outpost of an American task force on Nov. 28, where the general pinned a medal on a lieutenant colonel’s parka, told him the Chinese were only stragglers, and then flew off. Of that task force, once 2,500 strong, some 1,000 were killed, wounded, captured or left to die. In all, within two weeks, American forces in Korea took 12,975 casualties, in one of the worst routs in American military history.

 After the Korean War, the young officer served at the Pentagon and eventually become a deputy special assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara . He served in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967 as a battalion and brigade commander of the First Infantry Division, and received the Distinguished Service Cross.

 In 1969, Colonel Haig became a military assistant on the staff of Mr. Kissinger’s National Security Council . He distinguished himself as the hardest worker in an ambitious and talented cohort. Soon he was a brigadier general and Mr. Kissinger’s deputy.

 Vietnam consumed General Haig. He made 14 trips to Southeast Asia from 1970 to 1973. He later said that Mr. Kissinger “got snookered” in negotiations with the enemy, and that he would have chosen to be more forceful. “That is how Eisenhower settled Korea,” Mr. Haig said. “He told them he was going to nuke them. In Vietnam, we didn’t have to use nuclear weapons; all we had to do was to act like a nation.”

 Then Watergate consumed the White House. In 1973, after a brief stint as the Army’s vice chief of staff, General Haig was summoned back as chief of staff, replacing H. R. Haldeman, who later went to prison.

 All this, in the course of a few weeks in the fall of 1973, fell on Mr. Haig’s head:

 Vice President Spiro T. Agnew pleaded no contest to taking bribes. The next man in line under the Constitution, House Speaker Carl Albert, was being treated for alcoholism . The president himself, by some accounts, was drinking heavily. War broke out in the Middle East . When the president tried to fire the Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox , rather than surrender his secret White House tapes, the attorney general, Elliot L. Richardson, and his deputy, William D. Ruckelshaus, resigned. Impeachment loomed.

 What began with the arrest of several men breaking into Democratic headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington in June 1972 had poisoned the presidency. Days after the break-in, the president and his closest aides had discussed how to cover up their role and how to obtain hush money for the burglars. The discussions, secretly taped by the president, were evidence of obstruction of justice.

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 General Haig was one of the first people, if not the very first person, to read transcripts of the tapes the president had withheld from the special prosecutor. “When I finished reading it,” he says in “Nixon: An Oral History,” “I knew that Nixon would never survive — no way.”

 On Aug. 1, 1974, the general went to Vice President Gerald R. Ford and discussed the possibility of a pardon for the president. Mr. Nixon left office a week later; the pardon came the next month. Public outrage was deep. Mr. Haig soon departed.

 After leaving the White House in October 1974, he became supreme allied commander in Europe , the overseer of NATO . In 1979, he resigned and retired from the Army. He served for a year as president of United Technologies .

 A “Haig for President” committee was formed but dissolved in 1980. Mr. Haig made a full-fledged run for the Republican nomination in 1988. But he placed last among the six Republican candidates in Iowa , where he barely campaigned, and he withdrew before the New Hampshire primary. He had been, he said, “the darkest of the dark horses.”

 In his 80s, Mr. Haig ran Worldwide Associates, a firm offering “strategic advice” on global commerce. He also appeared on Fox News as a military and political analyst.

 His Way With Words

 He had a unique way with words. In a 1981 “On Language” column, William Safire of The New York Times , a veteran of the Nixon White House, called it “haigravation.”

 Nouns became verbs or adverbs: “I’ll have to caveat my response, Senator.” (Caveat is Latin for “let him beware.” In English, it means “warning.” In Mr. Haig’s lexicon, it meant to say something with a warning that it might or might not be so.)

 Haigspeak could be subtle: “There are nuance-al differences between Henry Kissinger and me on that.” It could be dramatic: “Some sinister force” had erased one of Mr. Nixon’s subpoenaed Watergate tapes, creating an 18 1/2- minute gap. Sometimes it was an emblem of the never-ending battle between politics and the English language: “careful caution,” “epistemologically-wise,” “saddle myself with a statistical fence.”

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 But he could also speak with clarity and conviction about the presidents he served, and about his own role in government. Mr. Nixon would always be remembered for Watergate, he said, “because the event had such major historic consequences for the country: a fundamental discrediting of respect for the office; a new skepticism about politics in general, which every American feels.”

 Mr. Reagan, he said, would be remembered for having had “the good fortune of having been president when the Evil Empire began to unravel.” But, he went on, “to consider that standing tall in Grenada, or building Star Wars, brought the Russians to their knees is a distortion of historic reality. The internal contradictions of Marxism brought it to its knees.”

 He was brutally candid about his own run for office and his subsequent distaste for political life. “Not being a politician, I think I can say this: The life of a politician in America is sleaze,” he told the authors of “Nixon: An Oral History.”

 “I didn’t realize it until I started to run for office,” he said. “But there is hardly a straight guy in the business. As Nixon always said to me — and he took great pride in it — ‘Al, I never took a dollar. I had somebody else do it.’ ” |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Alexander Haig died this morning at age 85. The former four-star general served as White House chief of staff during the tumultuous final months of the Nixon administration—he kept the place running and guided Nixon toward a peaceful resignation, reports the Washington Post—and he ran for the top office himself in 1988. But he's perhaps best known to Americans as Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, who incorrectly told the nation "I am in control here" after Reagan got shot. Another former Reagan aide, Lyn Nofgizer, said Haig knew that despite all his accomplishments, the third paragraph of his obituary would harp on that, notes the New York Times—in the third paragraph of its obituary. Prior to the news conference in which he made the declaration, Haig told fellow Cabinet members that the "helm is right here, and that means in this chair for now, constitutionally, until the vice president gets here." The Constitution, of course, disagrees, and Haig's words forever earned him the reputation as being hungry for power.