Chris Brown Asks Judge To Remove Restraining Order In Rihanna Beating Case

(Radar) Chris Brown appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom Friday afternoon for a progress report in the Rihanna beating case where his attorney requested to remove the restraining order against his client. The singer, along with his legal ace attorney Mark Geragos arrived to the courthouse in downtown Los Angeles and appeared calm and collected before the judge. Geragos told Judge Patricia Schnegg that his client has completed his 52 week domestic violence counseling and requested she remove the existing restraining order against Brown. “It makes it difficult at award shows and such,” Geragos said. Judge Schnegg did not immediately grant his request but did suggest a modification with the approval of Rihanna’s attorney, David Etra. The…

PA School Segregates School To Improve Academics

Lancaster, PA– A high school has defended its decision to segregate students by race and gender. The scheme, at McCaskey East High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, separates black students from the rest of the school pupils, and then further breaks it down into black females and black males. The separation is only for a short period – six minutes each day and 20 minutes twice a month – but it has drawn criticism for raising the spectre of racial segregation. Bill Jimenez said the school noticed that black students were not performing as well as other students, and that research had shown that same-race classes with strong same-race role models led to better academic results….

Feds: Eat Less Salt

(CNN) — The federal government plans to unveil new dietary guidelines Monday that urge people to eat less salt, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman said Monday. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius plan to formally unveil the guidelines at 10 a.m. The guidelines, which are updated every five years, recommended that those over age 51, African-Americans and people with a history of hypertension, diabetes or kidney problems limit their salt intake to a little over a half-teaspoon. For everyone else, the daily recommendation remains at 2,300 milligrams — about one teaspoon of salt. The guidelines form the basis for the food pyramid, which guides Americans in their daily…

Can Txt Msgs Really Help Kidz 2 Spell?

(ABC) OMG but TXTs help me spel L8R. For many teachers and parents, those text abbreviations may spell the end of literacy as we know it, but a growing body of research indicates that text messages can actually help students’ ability to spell. It may seem counterintuitive to those who wonder how hours spent slinging digital slang can’t help but translate into “lol”-peppered formal correspondence. But language experts say that no matter how dumbed down the techno shorthand looks, the wordplay has a positive impact on students’ spelling smarts. “Sometimes, there’s an assumption that kids are more stupid than they actually are, to be quite blunt, and it’s just not the case,” said Clare Wood, a senior…

REPORT: MLK III Looking To Buy New York Mets

Mets owners expected no shortage of interested investors upon announcing Friday they are looking for a cash infusion due to “uncertainty” over their involvement in ongoing Bernie Madoff litigation. Potential investors already are lining up, and some are making their intentions public, some probably more legitimate than others. Fred Wilpon indicated Friday the Mets are looking to sell approximately 20% to 25% of the team, which was valued at $858 million by Forbes in 2010. Fred Wilpon is expected to meet with baseball commissioner Bud Selig in New York Tuesday to discuss the financial issues the Wilpons are facing. One interested party is Mike Repole, a multimillionaire Queens native whose race horse Uncle Mo is considered among the early favorites…

Chris Brown Completes Domestic Violence Program

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Chris Brown has completed a domestic violence counseling program required as part of the singer’s guilty plea to assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna nearly two years ago. On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg congratulated the 21-year-old R&B performer for finishing the yearlong program. As a result of completing the required counseling, Brown will no longer have to appear in court every three months for progress report hearings. Brown is serving five years of probation after pleading guilty last year to assaulting pop star Rihanna in a rented sports car after a pre-Grammy Awards party. City News Service reports the judge said she would consider lifting the protective order against Brown at a later…

Elderly NY Couple Beaten, Mugged For Measly $18

(NYDailyNews) A Staten Island grandma beaten by two heartless muggers recounted Wednesday the vicious blows that left her with a fractured skull and a bloodied, swollen face. Nursing two black eyes, a broken nose and a 2-inch gash on her forehead, Linda Naimo, 75, described how she and her husband were set upon while entering the foyer of their apartment building Sunday night. “I remember the beating,” she told the Daily News in an exclusive interview from her room at Richmond University Medical Center. “It was going so fast. It was: Boom! Boom! Boom!” The robbers – a man and a woman – saw the elderly couple as easy marks, cops said. But the brutal attack netted a…

Airline Fee Horror Stories

(ABC) I’m not sure Jeff Hart will ever trust a travel agent again. The Dallas-based businessman put himself in the hands of a professional for a big family trip to Australia — and when I say big, this was for four weeks, and each person had two bags. Upon arrival in the Land Down Under, the group began traveling on discount airline JetStar. And that’s when the horror began. “You only get one bag per person,” the JetStar agent told the horrified Hart as he and his brood presented themselves at the counter, But there was a silver lining. “She felt sorry for us,” he said, “so she only charged us a fraction of the…

Jet Fires Back: ‘I will smash ur face in’

Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie fires back at Matt Hasselbeck criticism: ‘I will smash ur face in’ (NYDailyNews) Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck became the latest NFL player to take exception to Antonio Cromartie‘s belief that the union head has been “acting like an ass—-.” On Monday, the Jets’ cornerback criticized the NFL and the Players Association for the labor strife and said both sides “need to get their s— together” to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement. His harsh words for union leadership, including executive director DeMaurice Smith, have certainly irked several players. Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and Cardinals lineman Darnell Dockett disagreed with Cromartie’s stance on Wednesday. So, the Jets cornerback responded on Twitter that day, saying that a lockout would…

Want Verizon’s iPhone? Tips for Cutting the Termination Fee

(ABC) The Verizon iPhone is due in stores soon, but AT&T customers aching to switch face one nasty hurdle: the early-termination fee. Many AT&T customers who bought an iPhone are still stuck in two-year contracts, and they’d have to pay a hefty price to get out. AT&T increased the early-termination fee last June from $175 to $325. (The ETF is reduced by $10 for each month you’re on contract. WATCH: So that means switching to a Verizon iPhone would require buying a new phone and paying the termination fee, which would set you back at least $500. Yeowch. Pre-orders for the Verizon iPhone 4 begin Feb. 3, and if you just can’t stand the thought…