The Complete List: 'Dancing with the Stars' Winners
On Tuesday night, TV personality and former Bachelor contestant Melissa Rycroft became the latest Dancing with the Stars victor! Click through the gallery for a look back at all the previous mirror ball winners.
The teen star of “Two and a Half Men” spoke out for the first time last night since a video of his religious rant against the show went viral.
Angus T. Jones, 19, released a statement apologizing “if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed.”
“I am grateful to and have the highest regard and respect for all of the wonderful people on ‘Two and Half Men’ with whom I have worked over the past 10 years and who have become an extension of my family.”
CBS/Warner Bros.
OUT OF TUNE: Angus T. Jones (left), with his “Two and a Half Men” co-stars Ashton Kutcher (center) and Jon Cryer, last night released a statement insisting he respects them — even if does think their sitcom is “filth.”
Jones shocked his colleagues by blasting as “filth” the CBS sitcom, which is making him nearly $8 million per season — and urging viewers to turn it off before they go to hell.
Now, his fate is in the hands of producer Chuck Lorre after other executives headed for the hills.
“This is going to be up to Lorre, what to do,” said a Hollywood insider. “[Jones] works for Chuck.”
Another source told The Post, “There are two problems with this. First, he’s still a kid. No one wants to ruin his life.
“And two, this about religion. It’s not like Lindsay Lohan or something . . . No one questions the sincerity of his beliefs.
“Everyone wants to stay quiet and just hope it goes away.”
Another source said simply, “There’s just no way to win here.’’
Last year, Lorre had to deal with the crazed behavior of Charlie Sheen, whose diatribes and show-bashing got him fired.
Sheen yesterday sympathized with his former co-star, and blamed more mysterious forces.
“With Anguss Hale-Bopp-like meltdown, it is radically clear to me that the show is cursed,” Sheen told People magazine.
Jones’ 20-minute rant, posted on YouTube by Internet preacher Christopher Hudson, took his colleagues by surprise.
Jones had never spoken to them about religion or his sudden distaste for the raunchy show.
“I’ve been talking to people all day and, from what I can tell, they were all like me — not a clue this was coming,” said an insider.
Most are trying to downplay the controversy.
“He’s not the first actor to say, ‘My show stinks,’ ” said one executive, who added that Jones is not in violation of his contract.
Lorre had nothing to say.
Jones was hiding at his father Kelly’s LA home yesterday. Nobody answered the door, although people could be seen inside.
Jones’ mother, Carey, said she fears that her son’s new congregation, the Valley Crossroads church, which says it’s associated with the Seventh-Day Adventist denomination, is really a cult.
“I’m concerned he’s being exploited by the church,” she told the Daily Mail.
Hudson, the teen’s spiritual mentor, has made bizarre claims, saying President Obama’s health- care policy “embodies the policies that were found within Adolf Hitler’s health-care plan.”
Hudson also said that Jay Z released his latest album on 9/11 because of the number 11, which “represents . . . the eternal kingdom of the anti-Christ.”
Jones’ family has a troubled history. His mom, Carey, 42, had his dad, Kelly, arrested in 1997 after he allegedly pushed her out of a car. And she herself was busted in 1992 for allegedly ripping the meter out of a taxi and punching a cop.
Kelly, 50, also has been arrested for gun and pot possession.
“Two and a Half Men’’ has shot about half its episodes for this season. Jones won’t be on set for the next two weeks of filming before the holiday break because he’s not featured in the episodes.
If a decision is made to get rid of him, it won’t be hard, because his character, Jake Harper, has already enlisted in the military and can easily be shipped out.
m.shain@nypost.com
Two Miami men shot Sunday by Miami-Dade police outside a flea market were identified Monday, and the survivor was charged with battery.
Michael Nathaniel Parks, 21, faces charges of battery on a law-enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence. The second man, who had been driving the van the pair had been in, and who died at the scene, was identified as LeBron Warren, 23.
The shooting took place shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday at Flea Market USA, near Northwest 79th Street and 30th Avenue. Police said the victim of a nearby home-invasion robbery followed the robbers’ vehicle to the flea market and told police about it.
Officers found a van matching the description there, with Parks and Warren inside.
When officers approached, Warren put the van in reverse and accelerated toward them, hitting a police vehicle. Officers fired, and the van tried to get away, hitting other parked cars before it came to a stop, police said.
No officers were hurt.
Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow reteams with her Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty, a chronicling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and the two opened up to Nightline about how they recreated bin Laden's compound.
VIDEO: Zero Dark Thirty Trailer
The filmmakers built a full-scale version of the compound in Jordan, and Bigelow says that everything from the carpet to the marks on the walls were taken from ABC News footage that she studied frame by frame.
"Everything we could find from that video we replicated," Bigelow said. "Every conceivable piece of information that we could find we replicated."
As to the controversy over whether or not the filmmakers received classified information to make the movie, Mark Boal says, "I certainly did a lot of homework, but I never asked for classified materials. To my knowledge I never received any."
Zero Dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain, Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Ehle, hits theaters January 11.
The city’s public high schools earned higher marks from the Department of Education compared with last year — with 7 percent more earning “A’s” or “B’s” and 4 percent fewer earning “D” or “F” grades, officials said yesterday.
This includes prestigious Stuyvesant HS in Battery Park City — which held onto its “A” despite widespread test cheating uncovered in June that involved more than 70 students.
Hs Grades 2012
“We basically saw folks who are on the edges between ‘D’ and ‘C’ and ‘C’ and ‘B’ moving a little bit, and you can get 5 or 6 percent shift [upward] like that,” said DOE Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky. “I would characterize it as a modest increase in terms of the overall scores.”
He credited much of the gains to roughly 5,000 more students graduating with Regents diplomas in 2012 than in 2011, based on preliminary city calculations.
The DOE could not provide the total number of grads in each of those years who earned Regents diplomas — which this year for the first time required scores of at least 65 out of 100 on five exams.
Just 10 schools earned an “F” this year, down from 14 last year, and 21 earned a “D” grade. In 2011, 32 schools got “D’s.”
Schools with “D’s” or “F’s” are automatically considered for closure or overhauls, as are those that get “C’s” for three straight years.
Among those, DOE officials identified two dozen they are considering closing or overhauling — based largely on the grades they earned yesterday and in recent years.
Among the schools facing possible closure are the last two remaining large high schools in The Bronx — DeWitt Clinton and Herbert Lehman — as well as four schools the city gave “C” grades this year.
Of the remainder of the 420 rated schools, 142 got an “A,” 159 got a “B” and 88 received a “C.”
For the first time this year, measures of whether schools are preparing kids to succeed after graduation counted toward 10 percent of a school’s mark.
Shoppers swooped into stores in droves on Thanksgiving weekend, topping last year’s sales, as more retailers opened their doors earlier than ever on Thursday, luring bargain hunters away from eating another plate of turkey.
And now Cyber Monday is expected to set a record for online shopping this year, for those who prefer the Internet to the mall.
Spending per shopper nationwide averaged $423 — $25 more than last year — from Thursday to Sunday, while total spending increased nearly 13 percent, to an estimated $59.1 billion, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.
“I think the only way to describe the Thanksgiving openings is to call it a huge win,” said Matthew Shay, the trade group’s president and chief executive. Shopping, he said, “has really become an extension of the day’s festivities.”
South Florida was no exception, as a flurry of stores, as well as several malls, opened on Thanksgiving. Thursday has seemingly become the new Black Thursday, taking a bite out of the old-fashioned kickoff day of the holiday, Black Friday.
“We had an excellent weekend,” said Humberto Maldonado, director of marketing for Dadeland Mall, which opened at midnight on Thursday. Sales figures are not yet in, but the overall trend was up from last year, he said Monday.
“It was really busy from midnight to 5 a.m., then it slowed, and picked up again at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., and stayed busy all day on Friday,” Maldonado said.
Nationwide, about 35 million people visited stores and shopping websites Thursday, up from 29 million last year. More than double that number — 89 million, up from 86 million — shopped on Black Friday.
“There were more people shopping every single day of the weekend,” Shay said.
Topping off the weekend, Cyber Monday’s early results, tabulated at 3 p.m. Monday, showed that online shopping was up a whopping 25.6 percent compared with the same time period a year ago, according to figures by IBM Benchmark.
Nationwide, most of the weekend’s shoppers — roughly 58 percent — bought clothing and accessories. Another 38 percent bought electronics and 35 percent shelled out for toys, National Retail Federation figures show.
Retailers made an effort to lure people in, with updated mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanded shipping and layaway options.
Still, it remains to be seen whether increased sales over the Thanksgiving weekend will translate to higher sales throughout the holiday shopping season. Analysts have been predicting mediocre sales this year, nationwide, as shoppers remain uncertain about the broader economy. Overall holiday sales are expected to increase 4.1 percent from 2011, compared with sales growth of 5.6 percent last year, the National Retail Federation said.
However, Florida is expected to beat those figures. Buoyed in large part by tourists and snowbirds, the Florida Retail Federation is forecasting a 5.3 percent gain this year over last, to $58 billion, marking the highest percentage growth predicted since the recession. Pre-recession, retail sales peaked at $54.3 billion in 2006.
Christian Cutillo, 26, of Weston, hit Walmart, then Sears, Target and Old Navy after eating Thanksgiving dinner.
She began at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and by 3 a.m. Friday she had finished shopping for all 15 people on her list, mostly buying clothing and toys.
TALLAHASSEE --
Florida lawmakers have filed their first bills of the season.
Most are familiar: a ban on texting while driving, a requirement that parasailing operators carry insurance and a “foreign law” bill criticized by opponents as anti-Islamic.
Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, says she will keep sponsoring the texting while driving measure until it passes. It nearly survived the Senate last year. But former House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, blocked the measure in his chamber, calling it a potential infringement on personal liberty that would be difficult to enforce.
Under Detert’s latest proposal, SB 52, law enforcement officers could tack a $30 texting fine on a driver stopped for another violation. The penalty would not apply to drivers reading a navigational device or traffic safety information, the proposal states.
Detert pitched the measure as “common sense” middle ground. Some lawmakers oppose all new government oversight while others think the rules should go further — banning the use of all electronic devices while driving, Detert said.
“We should put it before members and let them vote on it. And whatever they decide, so be it,” said Detert, adding that she thinks the bill stands a better chance with Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, now speaker.
Weatherford has been publicly impartial on the issue, saying the state needs to balance driver protection with individual rights. He plans to allow lawmakers to hash it out in committee, spokesman Ryan Duffy said. Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, is sponsoring the proposal in the House.
None of the bills filed so far address unemployment, foreclosures or healthcare, which lawmakers often tout as the most important issues facing the state.
A “foreign law” bill is bound to stir controversy in 2013, as it did it 2012.
SB 58, sponsored by Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, would make sure Florida law trumps foreign law in marriage, divorce and custody cases. Hays says the proposal doesn’t target a particular group, although he spurred protests from clergy of several faiths in 2012 by delivering anti-Islamic brochures to fellow senators days before a scheduled vote.
The proposal passed the House but stalled in the Senate.
A bill to regulate parasailing companies is also on the horizon after languishing last year under pressure from lobbyists.
Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Boca Raton, filed SB 64, to require parasailing businesses to use sturdy equipment, carry insurance, offer a safety briefing to passengers and not operate in bad weather. The bill is named the White-Miskell Act after Amber White and Kathleen Miskell, who died parasailing in South Florida.
“We need to encourage the industry, to promote it and protect it, and these operators know the best way to do that is protect the people,” Sachs said.
Parasailing is virtually unregulated in Florida (and almost everywhere else), with the state’s 120 companies required only to have a boat license. Parasailing accidents have caused at least four deaths in Florida within the past two years, something most beachgoers don’t realize as they’re strapped into a harness to dangle hundreds of feet over the water.
Lawmakers have filed bills to make sure citizens have the opportunity to testify before government boards or committees take action (SB 50) and to ensure that men and women have equal rights (SB 54). Lawmakers also have filed 19 claims bills, in which victims or their families are seeking damages for an injury or death caused by government employees.
House and Senate committees will begin meeting next month . The 60-day lawmaking session is scheduled to convene March 5.
LONDON (Reuters) – Online gambling exchange Betfair said it would withdraw from the Greek market until there was greater clarity on gaming regulation in the country.
Betfair, which has not yet applied for a permit to operate in Greece, questioned the cost and conditions attached to permits required by gaming firms to trade in the country.
“According to legal advice received, the value of these permits is unclear and we consider the gambling legislation in the country to be inconsistent with European law,” Betfair said on Monday.
“The associated fiscal conditions attached to these permits, which may include payment of taxes on historical revenues, make the market economically unattractive.”
Earlier this month the Greek Gaming Commission said gambling firms operating in Greece without a permit would face financial penalties and criminal sanctions.
Betfair said it believes there are “significant issues with the legality of this decision” by the Greek Gaming Commission.
It added that it was disappointed the European Commission had not moved to prevent what Betfair calls “protectionist behavior.”
Earlier this month Betfair, which launched 12 years ago and operates an exchange system that allows gamblers to bet against each other rather than the bookmaker, withdrew its online sports betting exchange in Germany because of a tax levied on stakes on sports events from July 2012.
The European Commission last month said it was not proposing EU-wide legislation to regulate online gambling.
Prior to Betfair’s decision to withdraw from the market, it had been expected to generate 13 million pounds ($ 20.81 million) of revenue from the Greek market in the current financial year.
($ 1 = 0.6246 British pounds)
(Reporting by Rhys Jones; editing by James Davey)
Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News
After catching a bit of flack for meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister in a decidedly casual pair of overalls, Justin Bieber took to Instagram Sunday to explain himself.
Related: Justin Bieber on Selena, His Favorite Things
"The pic of me and the Prime Minister was taken in a room in the arena where I was performing at that day," Bieber wrote in response to a journalist who criticized the move as "white trash."
"I walked straight from my meet and greet to him," he explained further. "It wasn't like it was like I was going into his environment we were at a hockey arena. Wow am I ever white trash."
The superstar (seen above) was snapped in Canada this week to accept a Diamond Jubilee Medal from the leader of his home country, Stephen Harper.
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