Oprah urges a ‘No Phone Zone’ today

(USA Today) Drivers in at least 30 states plan to participate Friday in Oprah Winfrey’s “No Phone Zone” campaign, when viewers pledge to refrain from using their cellphones while driving. The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety offices, sees Winfrey’s campaign as a “potential tipping point” in the fight against texting while driving. “There’s no better or more powerful ally than Oprah,” says GHSA spokesman Jonathan Adkins. “She has the potential to be the MADD (Mother Against Drunk Driving) for texting and distracted driving. When Oprah speaks, people listen. In this case, when Oprah speaks, we expect people to put down the phone while driving.” The effort is supported by the U.S….

Boy, 12, Dies Playing ‘Choking Game’

Erik Robinson Accidently Strangled Himself With a Rope to Achieve a Brief High (ABC News) A 12-year-old California boy was strangled by a rope in his family’s kitchen, apparently the latest victim of a teen fad known as “The Choking Game.” Police say Erik Robinson, a sixth grader from Santa Monica, accidently killed himself while playing the “choking game,” a deadly pastime in which children cut off the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain to experience a momentary euphoric buzz. Robinson, a popular ‘tween known at school for often wearing sunglasses, hanged himself using a rope on the evening of April 20. When paramedics arrived following a 911call, the boy was incardiac arrest. He was taken…

WING AND A PRAYER: Animals Come Up Oily As Disaster Intensifies

(ABS News) Oil from a wrecked offshore drilling platform oozed into the marshes of southern Louisiana today, coating birds and threatening to create America’s worst environmental disaster in two decades. BP Oil, operator of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded and sank last week, said it will fully compensate all those affected by the spill. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, estimated that up to 210,000 gallons of oil a day are pouring from the damaged wellhead, 5,000 feet beneath the surface of theGulf of Mexico and 50 miles from the Louisiana coast. “We are taking full responsibility for the spill and we will clean it up and where people can present legitimate claims for damages…

David Letterman says he was scared, sad, depressed after affairs news broke

(ETonline) David Letterman went on the record in his first interview since news broke last October that he had had sexual relationships with female coworkers. Letterman sat down with his old pals Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa on “Live with Regis and Kelly,” and when Philbin asked him, “How are things at home,” Letterman responded at length. “I don’t know if people know about this, but I’ve had some trouble,” Letterman said. “If you behave recklessly and it hurts your family, well then of course, it hurts you,” he continued. “And there’s just one thing you can do in that circumstance. … You take a look at the explosion and it knocks you down, and you wake…

LeBron will be ready for game 1

(Associated Press) INDEPENDENCE, Ohio – LeBron James shot left-handed layups and short jumpers at practice Thursday, but the Cavaliers superstar is not expected to miss any of Cleveland’s playoff games because of his strained right elbow and bone bruise. James was re-examined Wednesday night by team doctors, who took more X-rays and an MRI exam that revealed the strain and a bruised bone near the elbow. James was not wearing a padded sleeve over the elbow at practice Thursday but acknowledged it was more of a film session than a physical practice. He did sit out one portion of contact drills. “The best thing about it is there’s no structural damage,” he said. “The docs have given…

Tyreke Evens named NBA Rookie of the Year

(NBA.com) Tyreke Evans of the Sacramento Kings is the recipient of the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as the 2009-10 T-Mobile NBA Rookie of the Year, the NBA announced Thursday. Evans received 67 first-place votes (491 points) from a panel of 123 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Golden State’s Stephen Curry finished second with 391 points and Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings finished third with 204 points. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote. Selected with the fourth overall pick in the NBA Draft 2009, Evans averaged a rookie-and team-leading 20.1 points, as well as a team-high 5.8 assists (second…

BLOG: Lowering CD Prices, Good or Bad?

Jerrell Green , Urban News Room Blogger (Urban News Room) The sound of tumbling CD prices might be the best sound consumers have heard from the music industry in quite some time. Universal Music Group lowered their CD prices to promote better sales numbers and give the fans what they have been asking for. The reason being?  Well, over the past 3 years, there has been a 31% drop in album sales and record labels feel that if prices are lowered then fans will come back to the stores to buy records. This change of heart may have come from the recent successes of iTunes. Since the start of the file sharing company in 2001,…

Guiding a car with your eyes, not hands

(AP) BERLIN – Tired of spinning that steering wheel? Try this: German researchers have developed a new technology that lets drivers steer cars using only their eyes. Raul Rojas, an artificial intelligence researcher at Berlin’s Free University, said Friday that the technology tracks a driver’s eye movement and, in turn, steers the car in whatever direction they’re looking. Rojas and his team presented the technology-packed prototype under a clear blue sky at an airport in the German capital. The Dodge Caravan crisscrossed the tarmac at the abandoned Tempelhof Airport, its driver using his line of sight to control the car. The car’s steering wheel was turning as if guided by ghostly hands. The technology called…

BIZARRE: Boy Bumps into “TNT Shell” With Lawn Mower

(AP) A 17-year-old Utah boy mowing the lawn at his home in Hooper ran into a canister of TNT that may date back as far as World War II. Taylor Wood was mowing the pasture behind the family home on Sunday and heard a thud. He then saw a canister that said “TNT shell” on the side. His mother, Charise Wood, describes the canister as looking like a small can of tomato paste. She quickly called emergency crews. Charise Wood says the family has lived in the home seven years but had never mowed that area of pasture because they had let horses eat down the grass. Now the family has goats that aren’t interested…

Pilot error blamed for 2007 Kenya Airways crash

(CNN) — The 2007 crash of a Kenya Airways flight in Cameroon that killed all 114 people on board was caused by pilot error, a report released on Wednesday said. The flight, headed from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to Nairobi, Kenya, had made a scheduled stopover in the Cameroon city of Douala. It took off from Douala in stormy weather and crashed into a mangrove swamp shortly afterward, just after midnight on May 5, 2007. The report, from Cameroon’s Civil Aviation Authority, blamed “spatial disorientation” on the part of the pilot for the crash, saying he “reacted inappropriately in the face of the abnormal situation.” The pilot released the controls for 55 seconds as the plane…