Doug Fister has watched the Seattle Mariners pull together over the past month. He's happy to finally contribute. Fister picked up his first victory since April 30th yesterday with a 4-3 decision over the Baltimore Orioles. Fister went 7 1-3 innings, allowing three runs and seven hits, walked one and struck out a career-high nine. The Mariners, who lost 11 of their first 15 games to open the season, have won 10 of their past 12 and are 19-11 over their last 30 games to go one game over .500 at 27-and-26. They’re guaranteed just their second winning May since 2004. The Mariners and Orioles matchup again tonight at 7 at Safeco.

The Tacoma Rainiers wrapped up their stay in Las Vegas with an 8-to-5 win over the 51s yesterday. They are now back home hosting Reno for four games. Game one tonight at 7.

Coming up Saturday, the Sounders are at Chicago, and the Seattle Storm gets their regular season underway as they host Phoenix at the Key, Saturday at noon.

Not only did The Hangover II score the best opening of all time for a comedy, it grossed the most of any R-rated film in its first five days. Hangover, debuting last Thursday, earned $137.4 million through yesterday.

Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry have split. The couple's manager confirms that Peter Brady and the America's Next Top Model winner have decided to separate. They made the announcement on their fifth wedding anniversary.

The pizza industry is out with a deep-dish helping of facts about their food. One of them: Saturday night is the biggest night of the week for eating pizza.

A not-so-groundbreaking new study suggests that sports and energy drinks aren't really good for kids.

Word today that Adele has postponed five dates on her current sold-out tour of North America because of laryngitis. The shows include Vancouver, BC tonight, at Seattle's Paramount tomorrow night, and in Portland on Friday night. The tour is set to resume on Saturday in San Francisco. No word on rescheduled dates.

Meanwhile, Adele has been named the most powerful person in English music. The Guardian’s Music Power 100 list shows the singer-songwriter and her team at the top, followed by the chairman of Universal Music at number two, and Simon Cowell at number three. Other familiar names making the list include will.i.am at 11, Radiohead at 14 and Lady Gaga at 18.

The Recording Academy recently announced that they would be eliminating more than 30 categories from the Grammy Awards and now, a coalition of musicians including Paul Simon and Carlos Santana are upset about the change. Since many of the categories that were eliminated were for ethnic music, the musicians feel the decision unfairly targets those musicians and want the categories reinstated. Grammy President Neil Portnow has responded, telling the Associated Press that many mainstream categories have been cut as well.

Trivia Answer: Corey Mitchell Hart who turns 49 today. That debut album was First Offense. Sunglasses at Night made it to No. 7 on the US Charts. The album went platinum in both Canada and the United States. His follow-up album was the chart-topping Boy in the Box. Boy in the Box reached diamond status in Canada (one million copies sold) in 1986, becoming only the second Canadian album to do so, after Bryan Adams' Reckless the previous year. Corey was considered, though not seriously, for the role of Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy. Fellow Canadian Michael J Fox eventually starred in the movies. Hart recorded songs even after his commercial success in the United States began to wane. However, he continued to be successful in Canada throughout the 1990s. He amassed 26 Top 30 hits in his native country. Hart relocated to Nassau in the Bahamas, and lives with his second wife, French-Canadian singer Julie Masse and their four children. Hart currently works primarily as a songwriter, writing music for his wife and other artists, including Celine Dion. Hart's song Sunglasses at Night was recently featured in a Miller Lite Beer commercial, showing a guy wearing sunglasses in a bar.

You gotta say this for the Seattle Mariners: at least it's actually frustrating now when they get blown out. You couldn't say that last season, when their 101 losses eventually just blended together. You have to take it as a sign of improvement the fact that games like yesterday's 7-1 loss to the New York Yankees are no longer commonplace at Safeco Field. Alas, the sweep wasn't meant to be … but the Ms took two of three from the Bronx Villains … and won their fourth series in a row … and are back at .500. The Mariner homestand continues as they host Baltimore for three. The first game is at 1:00 this afternoon.

Bill Russell, an 11-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer, the man that coached the Seattle Sonics to their first appearance in the NBA playoffs, threw out the first pitch at Friday night's Mariners game. After his four-year Sonics coaching career, Russell kept his home on Mercer Island, where he slowly faded from public view, and has been a Northwest resident for the past 40 years. That's Bill and Mariner 3rd baseman Chone Figgins to the right.

Patrick Ianni and Lamar Neagle each scored in the second half and the Seattle Sounders ended Real Salt Lake's unbeaten streak against MLS opponents at 29 games with a 2-1 victory Saturday night. RSL last lost an MLS home game on May 16, 2009 -- a 2-0 loss to Kansas City. Saturday, the Sounders are at Chicago.

The Seattle Storm concluded preseason play yesterday with a 76-71 win over the Tulsa Shock at KeyArena. Coming up Saturday at noon, the Storm launch the regular season as they host Phoenix.

JR Hildebrand was one turn away from winning the Indianapolis 500 and within sight of the checkered flag when the 23-year-old rookie made the ultimate mistake. Leading by almost 4 seconds with a lap to go, Hildebrand skidded high into the wall on the final turn, and Dan Wheldon drove past to claim an improbable second Indy 500 win yesterday in his first race of the year. Wheldon, the 2005 winner but without a full-time ride this season, appeared headed for his third straight runner-up finish when Hildebrand took the white flag needing only to make it through the last of 200 laps around the 2½-mile speedway. The first three turns went smoothly. Then Hildebrand came up on another rookie, Charlie Kimball, in the fourth turn. Instead of backing off, Hildebrand moved to the outside to make the pass and lost control, slamming the wall to a collective gasp from the crowd of 250,000. Surprisingly, Hildebrand's crumpled machine slid across the finish line, still hugging the wall, in second place.

Washington has officially entered the 2011 tornado season record books. The National Weather Service confirmed Sunday that a small tornado touched down about a mile east of Napavine on Friday afternoon. A team from the Seattle office determined the tornado had wind speeds estimated at 75 mph, rating it an EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita tornado scale. The tornado was said to be about 30 yards wide with a damage path about 100 yards long. It was on the ground for under two minutes. There was light to moderate damage to metal roofs on out buildings and light damage to two houses, such as missing shingles and siding damage. We average about two tornadoes somewhere in the state per year. I can't help but think that had Dorothy grown up in here Washington, the Wizard of Oz would have been an awfully boring film and would have been and much, much shorter.

Memorial Day upon us. Don't forget the National Moment of Remembrance. It's a time that all Americans are encouraged to pause wherever they are and observe a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to the nation. The National Moment of Remembrance occurs at 3 this afternoon local time.

Regarding Memorial Day: 

• It is believed that the holiday was chosen to be in May because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
• In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, New York, the birthplace of Memorial Day.
• It wasn't until after World War I that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars.
• Many Southern states also have their own days for honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth Monday of April and Georgia on April 26th. North and South Carolina observe it on May 10th, Louisiana on June 3rd and Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19th and Virginia calls the last Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day.
• The crowd attending the first Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery was approximately the same size as those who attend today's observance, about five-thousand people.

Trivia Answer: According to the History Channel, Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day and it was a time set aside to honor the nation's Civil War dead by decorating their graves. It was first widely observed on May 30th, 1868 to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers. During the first celebration of Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which five-thousand participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20-thousand Union and Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery. By the late 1800's, many communities across the country had begun to celebrate Memorial Day and, after World War I, observances also began to honor those who had died in all of America's wars. In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Monday in May. Today, Memorial Day is celebrated at Arlington National Cemetery with a ceremony in which a small American flag is placed on each grave. Also, it is customary for the president or vice-president to give a speech honoring the contributions of the dead and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

An off day for the Mariners yesterday. Tonight they open a 3-game set with the New York Yankees at Safeco. Michael Pineda gets the 10th start of his career tonight against the Yanksters. Following Prince Pineda, tomorrow King Felix gets the start. Sunday, it's Jason Vargas.

The Tacoma Rainiers and Nashville Sounds played two seven-inning games last night. The double-header was to make up for Wednesday night's rainout. Last night, Tacoma won the first game 4-1. The Sounds took the nightcap, 3-2. The Rainiers are now in Las Vegas for the weekend. The first game is tonight at 7:00.

The Seattle Sounders are in Utah to face Real Salt Lake tomorrow night at 6.

The Seattle Storm wraps up pre-season play Sunday afternoon at 2 as they host Tulsa. The regular season starts on Saturday the 4th as they host Phoenix.

New American Idol champion Scotty McCreery hit No.1 on the iTunes single charts yesterday, as Fox television reported a 21 percent surge in viewers for the all country music finale of the long-running singing contest. The 17-year-old McCreery became the first country musician to win the Idol title and a recording contract since Carrie Underwood in 2005. The poised teen with the distinctive deep voice beat 16 year-old Lauren Alaina in the youngest Top 2 match-up in the show's 10 year history. McCreery's newly-released single I Love You This Big went straight to the top of the iTunes singles charts, while Alaina's emotional ballad Like My Mother Does was at No.3 yesterday. Some 29.3 million Americans tuned in see McCreery crowned at the end of a star-studded finale on Wednesday that included performances from Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Bono and Idol judges Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. According to preliminary estimates from Fox, the audience in the coveted 18-49 age group rose 12 percent compared to last year. That was the first time in five years that American Idol had grown its 18-49 year old audience for the finale. Last year, 24.2 million overall viewers watched the finale.

Jeff Conaway passed away today in Encino, California after his family requested he be taken him off of life support. The actor, known for his role in Grease and his work on Taxi, was medically induced into a coma following a drug overdose. Conaway was scheduled to appear in a new movie about the Chilean miners called Miracle Underground. Jeff Conaway was 60.

In 1971, an article ran in the New York Times, accusing white bands like The Beatles of ripping off black music without even a nod to the original artists, many of whom were struggling. When John Lennon read the piece, he got mad and went on to pen an angry letter while he was on a plane. The mid-flight missive, written on American Airlines stationary, recently sold at auction for nearly 20-thousand dollars and you can now read it online. In the note, Lennon defends his band and says they always promoted blues and R&B artists. You can see the handwritten letter at LettersOfNote.com.

Yesterday was Lenny Kravitz's 47th birthday and it's just been announced that Lenny's new album, Black and White America, is being released on August 30th. Lenny is opening for U2 at Qwest Field one week from tomorrow.

Bruno Mars' Doo-Wops & Hooligans recently reached platinum status.

Could Lady Gaga be getting ready to team up with Google in a deal that could be worth ten-million bucks? (I hear she needs the money. Yeah, right.) According to Billboard, rumors are flying that Gaga is in talks to become the "face" of the forthcoming line of Google Chrome laptops.

Trivia Answer: Colbie Marie Caillat who turns 26 on Sunday. As an infant, her parents gave her the nickname Coco. Later, in 2007, she used that name for her debut album. Her debut single -- the song Bubbly -- was the song she used for her second American Idol audition. The single Bubbly peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Pop 100. In 2008, she recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, Lucky, which won a Grammy. Caillat released her second album, Breakthrough, in August of 2009. The album was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Her new album is reportedly titled All of You. It features her song I Do and is schedule to be released on July 12th.

Erik Bedard threw six shutout innings and Franklin Gutierrez hit his first home run of the season, sending the Seattle Mariners past the slump-ridden Minnesota Twins 3 to nuttin' yesterday. David Pauley tossed two scoreless innings in relief, Brandon League pitched a perfect ninth for his 12th save in 15 attempts. The Twins managed only seven singles on their way to their fifth shutout this season. They have the worst record in the majors at 16-and-32 and the fewest runs with 164. Bedard has now stretched his scoreless innings streak to 14. After missing last year with a bad shoulder, the Canadian left-hander has bounced back in a big way on his $1 million, one-year contract. He allowed six hits and one walk while striking out four. An off day for the Mariners today. They host the New York Yankees for the weekend starting tomorrow night.

The Tacoma Rainiers-Nashville Sounds game last night was a rainout. The two teams are set to play a pair of seven-inning games tonight to close out their four-game series at Cheney Stadium. Tomorrow the Rainiers head to Las Vegas for the weekend.

The Seattle Sounders fell to FC Dallas 1-0 on another rainy and wet night in Seattle. The rain, however, didn't keep away 36,026 dedicated fans. Dallas extended its unbeaten streak to seven with 5 wins and 2 ties. The Sounders had a four-game unbeaten streak snapped. Saturday, the Sounders are in Utah to face Real Salt Lake.

Don't expect the 2010 WNBA champion Seattle Storm to make any excuses for their 71-66 preseason opening loss to the Los Angeles Sparks - that's not what championship teams do and they're no different. But it's also by no means indicative of their chances to repeat as WNBA champions in 2011. The Storm played without Sue Bird (back spams), Lauren Jackson and Katie Smith (left Achilles tendinitis), who all sat out. The pre-season continues Sunday afternoon at 2 as the Storm hosts Tulsa.

The new American Idol is …. Scotty McCreery. He won the tenth season last night defeating Lauren Alaina who had been dubbed the front-runner by the show's judges heading into the night. The 17-year-old McCreery said backstage afterward that with the win under his belt he'd like to spend some time "on the couch watching some SportsCenter and eating some chips." The 16-year-old Alaina, also backstage afterward, said, "I told him at the beginning of the episode, 'Scotty are you ready to win? He's my best friend and I love him and I couldn't be happier for him." A record 122 million votes were cast after McCreery and Alaina -- both country singers -- each gave their final performances on Tuesday. The results were announced following a two-hour star-studded live broadcast that included performances from Tony Bennett, Bono & The Edge, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Tim Magraw, TLC, Jack Black, Judas Priest, and even new Idol judges Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. McCreery's win marks the fourth straight year that a male contestant has won the competition. As the new American Idol, Scotty wins a record contract with a Universal Music Group record label. An album of songs McCreery performed during the season was released Tuesday, exclusively on the iTunes music store. Alaina's songs from the season are also being sold as an album on iTunes. Now in its 10th year, American Idol has been a ratings juggernaut for Fox and the nation's most-watched TV show for the last seven years.

After 25 seasons, The Oprah Winfrey Show concluded yesterday. The final episode began with vintage footage of the talk show with Oprah saying that the message of the program is "You are not alone." While the second-to-last show took place at Chicago's United Center, Oprah returned to Harpo Studios, dressed all in pink, to finish up her run as the most successful daytime talk show host of all time. She opened by saying, "There are no words to match this moment." There were "no guests or no surprises" for her final hour. Oprah said, "This is about ‘Thank You.' This is my love letter to you." Oprah never missed a day in 25 years. Her fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Duncan, was in the audience and Oprah thanked her for what she's done for her. She asked that fans jot down her new email address: Oprah@Oprah.com.

Today is National Blueberry Cheesecake Day.

YouTube said yesterday that 48 hours of video are being uploaded to the video-sharing site every minute ... and the site has three billion views a day.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has just hit $400 million in worldwide box office sales.

A series of unsealed 1960s audio recordings of Jacqueline Kennedy talking about her life with husband and revered President John F. Kennedy is going to be broadcast on television. ABC News made the announcement yesterday. In 1964, the former first lady did seven interviews totaling eight and a half hours with late historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. that were recorded for posterity but have never been made public before. They have now been unsealed and are being condensed and aired in several ABC television and radio shows beginning in September. They cover events of the day, including early political campaigns, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and John F. Kennedy's last days in the White House.

Arnold Schwarzenegger could be in pretty big trouble. Reports are surfaciing that the office of the Attorney General is launching an "inquiry" into the double life of the former Governor of California, as it is being alleged that he used tax payer funds to cover up "sexual liaisons" with different women. All this is coming to light after Schwarzenegger recently admitted to fathering a child with his former housekeeper.

In a surprising statistic, with the death of Macho Man Randy Savage last week, more than one quarter of the performers at 1991's Wrestlemania VII have now passed away. According to The Wrestling Observer, 14 of the 51 wrestlers have died, many from heart attacks, which presumably can be attributed to steroid use.

Is another Facebook movie in the works? According to TheNextWeb.com, Warner Bros. has picked up the rights to a novel titled The Future of Us, which is set to be published this year. The book is "a story of tech fiction, in which two young people in 1996 log onto their AOL email accounts only to find their 2011 Facebook profiles flash up in front of them instead."

An Australian man is staging a peaceful and shirtless protest for the safe return of his parrot, Angus. Angus was taken from the man after he posted a video of the parrot clinging to a windshield wiper as the man drove down a busy road. Angry viewers made a "Save Angus the Parrot" Facebook page, and following a seven-week investigation by officials, authorities took Angus from his odd owner. The man called Angus his best friend and promised to protest every day until the parrot was returned home.

Schools in Middlesbrough, England, have asked that moms and dads show decency and respect when attending school premises. Apparently it's become common for parents in pajamas to turn up at schools during the morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up. Some parents have even attended meetings with teachers in their pajamas.

Trivia Answer: Stephanie Lynn Nicks -- Stevie Nicks -- who turns 63 today. Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac on December 31st of 1974, along with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. Fleetwood Mac's second album after the incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, 1977's Rumours, produced four US Top 10 singles (including Nicks' song Dreams, which was the band's first and only US number one) and remained at #1 on the American albums chart for 31 weeks, as well as reaching the top spot in various countries around the world. To date the album has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the ninth highest selling album of all time. Nicks began her solo career in 1981 with the 8 million selling album Bella Donna, and she has produced six more solo studio albums to date. Her seventh solo studio album entitled In Your Dreams, and her first in ten years, was completed production with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame at the helm, and was released on just a few weeks ago, on May 3rd.

Doug Fister cruised through the first six innings against Minnesota. It all unraveled in the seventh when a balk forced home the go-ahead run, and Fister was still shaking his head about the call after the game. Nick Blackburn outdueled Fister by delivering a complete game the Twins desperately needed and the Mariners watched their six-game winning streak come to an end in a 4-2 loss last night. The Mariners, who lost for just the second time in nine games. Afterward, they weren't about to let one loss diminish what they've done in the past two weeks. They lost 11 of their first 15 games this season, but have rebounded of late. They had won seven of their past eight games and entered the game just one victory shy of .500 at 23-24. The Ms and Twins wrap up the series at 10 this morning. Seattle has an off day at home tomorrow before hosting the New York Yankees for the weekend. UPDATE: Ms win 3-0 today.

Meanwhile, In Tacoma yesterday, the Rainiers handed the Nashville Sounds their third straight loss winning 15-4 in the second of a four-game set. It was Nashville's largest margin of defeat this season. Seven of the 15 runs were unearned, as the Sounds committed a season-high four errors. The teams are back at it tonight at Cheney Stadium at 7:00.

Also tonight at 7:00, the Sounders host FC Dallas.

But first, this afternoon the Seattle Storm is back in action at Los Angeles in the first of two pre-season games. The Storm's regular season starts Saturday the 4th as they host Phoenix.

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron played ping pong yesterday and we learned our president should stick to basketball.

The final Oprah Show airs today. Over the course of the program's 25 seasons, Oprah's show has received over 20-million letters from fans, has had five US Presidents as guests and has had nearly 1.3-million audience members. The show was broadcast in 145 countries and since 1986, has had 28-thousand guests come on.

Hines Ward added a disco-ball trophy to his Super Bowl shelf last night after he samba-ed his way to the Dancing With the Stars championship. The Steelers wide receiver and former Super Bowl MVP won the title, besting actresses Kirstie Alley and Chelsea Kane to become the season 12 champ.

It's all come down to two Tonight, the season finale of American Idol takes place on FOX. The two-hour season finale of American Idol airs tonight at 8. U2 is back in the States this week. In fact, The Edge and Bono are performing on the American Idol finale tonight.

A federal judge has denied a tattoo artist's request for an injunction barring The Hangover 2 from opening because the studio didn't ask him for the rights to use Mike Tyson's face tattoo, which the artist designed and copyrighted.

According to E! Online, in their first royal duties since the wedding, Prince William and Kate Middleton met President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at Buckingham Palace on Monday. They all talked for about 15 minutes after Queen Elizabeth formally welcomed the Obamas to her home. After their brief chat, the Obamas joined the monarch in the garden terrace, where the American National Anthem played. The President and First Lady were set to spend two nights at Buckingham Palace before continuing their trip of Europe.

Phil Spector has lived quite an interesting life, going from producing for The Beatles to serving 19 years to life for murder, and now, a film is being made about him. According to Variety, HBO is creating the movie, with Al Pacino set to star as Spector. Bette Midler and Jeffrey Tambor have signed on to portray Spector's defense attorneys. No word yet on when the movie will air but it focuses on Phil's relationship with his lawyers during his first trial, which ended in a mistrial in 2007. Following his second trial in 2009, Spector was convicted of the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson. By the way, Pacino recently won various awards for his portrayal of Jack Kevorkian in an HBO movie.

Apple has reportedly purchased hundreds of glass cutting machines. The move is likely connected to its next-gen iPhone, which is rumored to feature a curved cover for its touchscreen display.

INXS has officially announced the first set of tour dates for their forthcoming Original Sin North American trek. It kicks off July 3rd in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, and goes until at least August 14th in Atlanta, Georgia. The tour is in support of their recently released album, Original Sin, an album that features collaborations with Pat Monahan, Rob Thomas and many others. INXS is at the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville with Berlin on July 17th.

When asked once if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world, John Lennon jokingly replied, "He's not even the best drummer in The Beatles." In a new interview though, Ringo tells England's Daily Mail that the band was "lucky" to have him since he was more famous than the group before he joined them because of his band, Rory and the Hurricanes. Ringo stated, "It wasn't just that I was a big shot, I was a cool drummer."

Trivia Answer: Demetri Martin who turns 38 today. Martin graduated from Yale University in 1995. Despite objections from his family, he dropped out a year before graduating NYU School of Law to pursue a career in comedy. In addition to his work on The Daily Show, he hosted his own show called Important Things With Demetri Martin on Comedy Central. He has cited comedian Steven Wright as an important influence. A couple of my favorite Demetri Martin lines: I used to play sports. Then I realized you can buy trophies. Now I'm good at everything. ‘Sort of' is such a harmless thing to say. Sort of. It's just a filler. Sort of -- it doesn't really mean anything. But after certain things, sort of means everything. Like after ‘I love you' or ‘You're going to live' or ‘It's a boy.'

Luis Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning and Seattle rallied to win its sixth straight game, beating Jim Thome and the Minnesota Twins 8-7 last night. Carlos Peguero's single in the ninth scored pinch-runner Michael Saunders with the tying run, helping the Mariners overcome Thome's powerful return to the lineup. In his first game off the disabled list, Thome homered twice -- including a 465-foot shot that bounced high in the air after landing on the Target Field pavilion in the fourth inning. Seattle and Minnesota are the two weakest hitting teams in the American League, but combined for 15 runs and 25 hits last night. Ms and Twins again tonight at 5:00.

The Tacoma Rainiers belted three home runs en route to a 5-3 victory over the Nashville Sounds last night at Cheney Stadium in the opener of a four-game series. Game two is today.

Tomorrow night at 7:00, the Sounders host FC Dallas.

Also tomorrow, the Seattle Storm is back in action. Pre-season play down in Los Angeles.

Longtime Seattle weathercaster Ray Ramsey died Sunday. For 20 years starting in 1965, Ramsey talked the Northwest through every storm and every sunny day. He was zany, irrepressible, full of wit and whimsy, full of compassion and always ready to fracture the English language during his forecast --- that was the essence of Ray Ramsey. He is survived by his wife, Jo. Ray Ramsey was 87.

No big surprise here as Lady Gaga's new album, Born This Way, is doing quite well on the charts already. Yesterday -- on the first day of its release -- the record hit number one on the iTunes chart in 22 different countries, including the US, Spain, Japan, and Australia, amongst others. Gaga even managed to disrupt Amazon.com. Amazon offered the new album for the promotional price of $.99. The news about the deal spread quickly as fans rushed to buy and download the album. The Amazon servers buckled under the load and many buyers were unable to download the full album. Amazon has released a statement apologizing for the problem and assured all buyers they will receive the album in full. Amazon meant to use this promotion to introduce music lovers to Amazon's digital music service and new cloud storage. If Amazon was hoping to lure customers away from iTunes, this performance probably won't win them many converts.

The season finale of Glee is tonight on Fox and the season finale of Dancing with the Stars is tonight on ABC. Tonight on American Idol, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, the youngest pair of finalists in Idol history, perform for the title. It's the first of a two-night finale on Idol. Meanwhile, Simon Fuller, the British creator of Idol, got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday.

The world didn't end Saturday, but let's not forget about December 21, 2012 -- a date of doom predicted on the ancient Mayan "long calendar."

Adele is still on top of the charts in the UK. It's 21's 16th week at the summit.

Mentioned yesterday that Mick Jagger had formed a supergroup called Super Heavy featuring Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Damian Marley and Indian film composer A.R. Rahman. Mick's people were saying it was all just for fun. Well, now Mick is talking about it. He tells Rolling Stone magazine that "It's different from anything else I've ever been involved in. The music is very wide-ranging – from reggae to ballads to Indian songs." Their debut LP is due out in September.

On June 7th, Sheryl Crow is releasing a DVD from her her Miles From Memphis tour. According to a press release, the disc features 18 songs including All I Wanna Do and Soak Up The Sun.

Former Friends star David Schwimmer and his wife Zoe Buckman are officially first time parents. Their daughter Cleo Buckman Schwimmer was born in New York on May 8th according to People magazine. Yesterday, Schwimmer posted a photo of himself and Buckman with Cleo on Twitter, saying "Hey everyone. Please welcome my daughter, Cleo, to this crazy but wonderful world." The 44-year-old Schwimmer, and the 25-year-old London-born Buckman began dating in 2007. They wed quietly last June.

The late Elizabeth Taylor's home is being put up for sale. According to People.com, the actress lived in the 1960's ranch-style home for the last 30 years of her life before passing away in March. The asking price for the seven-thousand square-foot home? 8.6-million bucks.

Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger is being forced to pay his former common-law partner, Marianna Goriuk, some big bucks. According to TheProvince.com, Chad has been ordered to pay 25-thousand dollars a month in spousal support after the two split up. That's a nice bump up from the 10-thousand bucks she was receiving, but not quite the 95-thousand that she was asking for because she apparently got used to living a "lavish lifestyle."

Over the weekend, boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya reportedly entered a rehab facility in California to seek help for an undisclosed addiction. Now according to TMZ comes word that the Golden Boy's drug of choice was cocaine and he also became dependent on alcohol. A source revealed to the site that Oscar is also struggled with fidelity issues and voluntarily checked himself in to rehab to recover from all of the above.

It was a flash-fried getaway that scalded the fate of a Nebraska couple suspected of stealing leftover cooking grease from a local restaurant. Police in Lincoln stopped the man and wife driving a red pickup with a big, black tank in the bed, believing it contained grease siphoned from a bin outside a Lincoln restaurant. After catching a whiff of what resembled "old, stale French fries," police arrested the two on suspicion of larceny, and say they believe the caper couple may be related to a string of cooking grease thefts in the area that robbed two Pizza Huts, a Taco Bell and a Dairy Queen of about four-thousand pounds of used cooking grease.

Trivia Answer: Thomas Richard Martin -- Dick Martin -- of Rowan & Martin ... of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (he was the taller one without the moustache). The comedy show was an immediate hit, becoming the #1 American television program within two months of its debut. It was the top-rated show in each of its first two seasons. Laugh-In had a kaleidoscopic format, with what was then a uniquely fast-paced stream-of-consciousness style of blackout gags, double entendre, topical satire and catch phrases, much of it delivered by a cast of then-unknowns such as Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin, and Arte Johnson. At the center of it all stood the veterans Rowan and Martin, who bemusedly made no effort to slow down the program. Martin later said "We designed it so that we are two relatively normal guys wandering through a sea of madness," and described his comic persona as "a kind of inept lech," who could be laughed at as well s laughed with. In real life, Martin spent the 1960s enjoying his high-flying lifestyle of women and parties. His partner Rowan was a quiet family man. Martin married Playboy Playmate and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls star Dolly Read in August of 1971. They divorced in 1975, but remarried in 1978 and remained married until his death. Martin died on this date in 2008 of breathing complications. He lost the use of a lung as a teenager and suffered respiratory problems late in life.

The Mariners had a good weekend in San Diego. Felix Hernandez put a giant exclamation point on it. Felix tied his career high with 13 strikeouts and the Mariners completed a three-game sweep with a 6-1 win over the San Diego Padres yesterday. Hernandez allowed one run and six hits without a walk as the Mariners won their fifth straight. The Mariners have allowed two runs or less in their last seven games. They held the Padres to six hits or fewer in each of the three games. Hernandez became the fourth pitcher in Mariners history to strike out at least 13 without issuing a walk. The last to do it was Randy Johnson in 1997. The Ms are now off to Minnesota to face the Twins. Game one is tonight at 5:00.

The Tacoma Rainiers rounded out their weekend with a win at over Memphis yesterday knocking off the Red Birds 5-2. The homestand continues as the Rainiers host the Nashville Sounds for four starting tonight at 7:05.

Jeff Parke scored on a header off Tyson Wahl's corner kick in the third minute of second-half stoppage time to give the Seattle Sounders a 1-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night. Sounders goalkeeper Kasey Keller made three saves for his third shutout of the season. The victory helped the Sounders (4-3-5) extend their unbeaten streak to four games and climb into a tie with FC Dallas for second place in the Western Conference. Speaking of FC Dallas, they're in Seattle to face the Sounders Wednesday night.

The man alleged to be the "primary aggressor" in the brutal beating of a San Francisco Giants fan at Dodgers Stadium was arrested yesterday and ordered held on $1 million bail. Police said 31-year-old Giovanni Ramirez was taken into custody shortly after 7 yesterday morning after police served warrants at a home and an apartment building in connection with the assault that put Bryan Stow, a 42-year-old father of two from Santa Cruz, California, into a coma. Stow was attacked in the stadium parking lot following the first game of the Dodgers' and Giants' seasons on March 31st. Police Chief Charlie Beck said yesterday afternoon, "This investigation is in its very early stages. There are at least two other suspects who we are actively looking for." Stow's assault galvanized law enforcement and other authorities in Los Angeles, and security was clamped down at the park. More than 300 billboards -- advertising "Wanted" and "Attempted Murder at Dodger Stadium" -- sprung up around the Southern California city, featuring composite sketches of the suspects. Meanwhile, a $250,000 reward including money from the Dodgers, Giants' ace pitcher Tim Lincecum, and others was offered for information that led to the beating suspects' arrest. Stow, a paramedic by training, had gone to the game with friends in celebration of the Giants' World Series victory last season, a relative said. After the game, the two men came up to him in the parking lot and -- unprovoked -- began kicking and punching him while yelling profanities about the Giants, police said. Stow was taken out of a medically induced coma over a week ago, and has since shown signs of some cognitive function. His mother says, "I don't think it's a matter of him surviving. It's just a matter of what he'll be, if and when he wakes up."

The man who said the world was going to end Saturday appeared at his front door in Alameda yesterday, very much alive but not so well. Harold Camping is the 89-year-old fundamentalist radio preacher who convinced hundreds of his followers that the rapture would occur on Saturday night at 6. He said, "It has been a really tough weekend," He had said massive earthquakes would strike. Believers would ascend to heaven and the rest would be left to wander a godforsaken planet until October 21st, when he promised a fiery end to the world. Yesterday, hours after he thought he'd be in Heaven, there was Camping, "flabbergasted" in Alameda, wearing tan slacks, a tucked-in polo shirt and a light jacket. Birds chirped. A gentle breeze blew. Across the street, neighbors focused on their yard work and the latest neighborhood gossip. Camping said, "I'm looking for answers," adding that meant frequent prayer and consultations with friends. "But now I have nothing else to say," he said, closing the door to his home. "I'll be back to work Monday and will say more then." Camping, who was trained as a civil engineer at the University of California at Berkeley, had built media operation that had assets of more than $100 million and $18 million in donations in 2009, the most recent year available. He had previously written a book saying the Rapture would occur in 1994 but, when that did not happen, revised his calculation to May 21st of 2011. His method was a combination of Biblical analysis and numerology.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides weighed anchor with $346.4 million in ticket sales from its first week in worldwide release and set a record as the biggest film debut ever outside North America. The fourth installment in the blockbuster series -- its first in 3-D -- dug up $90.1 million of its box office treasure from Friday through Sunday in the United States and Canada alone, a figure at the lower end of projections. By comparison, two previous Pirates sequels each grossed well over $100 million in their first three days domestically. But the latest Pirates adventure plundered an additional $256.3 million in overseas receipts to surpass 2009's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as the highest-grossing international movie opening of all time. The comedy Bridesmaids ranked a distant No. 2 in its second weekend. Rounding out the top five were Marvel's superhero drama Thor, Fast Five, and the 3-D animated Rio.

Today's the day that millions of Little Monsters all over the world have been waiting for. Lady Gaga's latest album, Born This Way, has finally hit stores.

The final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show airs this Wednesday.

Today is National Taffy Day.

Russell Brand was deported from Japan over the weekend for past crimes. Apparently Japanese officials just saw the remake of Arthur.

Mick Jagger has reportedly created a supergroup. According to the New York Post, it's comprised of Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Damian Marley and Indian musician A.R. Rahman. They're currently called Super Heavy and the paper reports they've already finished an album and their first video, and are currently in discussions for a major record deal. A rep for Mick denied the reports, saying the group has just been having "fun" together.

The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority has granted approval to spend $40 million in tax rebates to build a biblical theme park called The Ark Encounter. The project will actually cost $172 million and will include the ark, a replica of the Tower of Babel, lecture halls, shops, theaters and, of course, a petting zoo.

Ashley Hebert, who competed for Brad Womack's affection, gets a second chance at love beginning tonight when The Bachelorette returns on ABC.

Kirstie Alley almost turned down Dancing With The Stars on the advice of close friend John Travolta. She revealed to Access Hollywood that Travolta told her, "Don't do it…Just act." Alley also said that several other friends warned her to stick with acting and not do the show. She explained she decided to do it because she was in a "bad place" and "complacent." Kirstie and her professional Dancing partner, "Maks" Chmerkovskiy, are one of the top three finalists on this season of the ABC show.

A new American Idol gets crowned this week. The first night of the two-night finale coming up tomorrow night. Will it be Scotty or Lauren?

A Michigan woman's leisurely afternoon on Facebook was cut short when a large turkey barreled through her basement window. Not only did the gobbler send glass and debris flying 15 feet into her home, she also reports the fowl intruder "flung poo and papers" as he settled into her computer room. Not to leave the incident unreported, the woman immediately took to her Facebook page with a few ruffled feathers of her own, posting, "911. What do I do? I have a turkey in my basement." She continued to cruise Facebook until her husband arrived home and removed the turkey from the premises with a fishing net.

Four wannabe singers have each been charged with a felony count of riot after a birthday brawl broke out in a Murray, Utah karaoke bar. What began as a simple celebration in song quickly turned to heckling and insult-hurling, as two of the men performing began shouting at another patron. Before long, fists and beer mugs were flying along with the high notes. If convicted, the karaoke kings could face up to five years in prison, where it's safe to say, karaoke will not be a lawful way to pass the time.

US Customs and Border Protection recently seized 35 rolls of bologna from a Ciudad Juarez resident, estimated to be enough for four-thousand sandwiches. Though it's difficult to think of bologna as "contraband lunchmeat," it is prohibited to bring the pork product into the country, as it has the potential to introduce foreign animal disease to the U-S pork industry. And though 385-pounds of pork seems like a lot, that's nothing compared to the whopping 756-pounds seized in El Paso back in 2003.

Trivia Answer: Jewel Kilcher -- known professionally simply as Jewel -- who turns 37 today. She was born in Payson, Utah. Shortly after her birth, however, her family moved to Homer, Alaska, where her grandfather had settled after immigrating from Switzerland. That debut album, Pieces of You, produced the singles Who Will Save Your Soul (which reached #11 on Billboard's Hot 100), You Were Meant for Me (which made it to #2), and Foolish Games (which hit #7). Jewel married nine-time world champion pro rodeo cowboy Ty Murray on August 7th of 2008 in the Bahamas after 10 years together. The couple lives in Stephenville, Texas on a 2,200-acre ranch. In January, they announced that they are expecting their first child, later confirmed to be a boy. The due date is early July.

For eight innings yesterday, the Seattle Mariners followed script. But the ninth was more like scripture. And perhaps evidence that the end may indeed be near. Before the bizarre final frame, there was more outstanding starting pitching, this time by Doug Fister, who held the Los Angeles Angels to one run on six hits in eight innings. There was more poor offense, so much of it, in fact, that Fister's effort wasn't good enough to earn him a victory. So of course it figures that the Mariners took this 2-1 win after their designated hitter led off the ninth with an infield single, and one of the greatest defensive center fielders of all time lost a ball in the sun to hand Seattle its third win in four games. Jack Cust legging out an infield hit before scoring the game-winning run? Torii Hunter, a nine-time Gold Glove award winner, losing Carlos Peguero's easy fly ball in the blinding sun with two outs and a runner on third in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth? Maybe the apocalypse really is coming tomorrow. The Mariners are now down in San Diego for three, the fist tonight at 7:05.

An auspicious beginning to the Tacoma Rainiers homestrand. They're hosting the Memphis Redbirds through Sunday. They dropped the opener last night at Cheney Stadium 8-2. The same two teams tonight. A Friday night home game means post-game fireworks.

Saturday Night Live this weekend. Justin Timberlake hosts and Lady Gaga performs. Lady Gaga's album, Born This Way, comes out on Monday, so be prepared to see her just about everywhere promoting it over the next few days. She's not only performing on SNL this weekend, but she's appearing in a sketch on the show. Also, Gaga is on both The View and The Late Show with David Letterman on Monday.

American Idol fans opted for an all-teenage, all southern, mostly country season 10 finale, sending Haley Reinhart home last night after a record 95 million votes. The finale now has deep voiced 17-year-old country singer Scotty McCreery battling it out with 16-year-old pop/country singer Lauren Alaina, for the 2011 American Idol title next week. Fox television said the week's vote total of 95 million was the highest in the show's history for a non-finale. For all the controversy earlier this season about audience bias toward male contestants, viewers sent a slew of male singers home over the past five weeks, leaving the finale a battle of the sexes -- in addition to both being teens from the south. The 2011 American Idol two-part finale airs starting next Tuesday, when viewers choose the winner and he or she lands a recording contract, enviable bragging rights, and incalculable media exposure.

Kelly Clarkson is releasing the first single off of her forthcoming album in July. The original American Idol wrote on her Facebook page that recording for the still-untitled album is "all done."

While it has already been reported that NBC's music competition, The Voice, was renewed for a second season, now we're hearing that it's probable that all four judges will be back for another season as well. Cee Lo Green told Billboard.com that he, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine will likely return for a second season. He said that having all four judges back was a "safe assumption" and that he would be returning "for sure." The Voice airs Tuesdays on NBC. Meanwhile, Cee-Lo performed songs from his catalog for VH1 Storytellers last month. Cee-Lo brought out Goodie Mob for two songs and performed Gnarls Barkley tracks as well as a few solo tunes including his latest hit, Forget You. VH1 Storytellers: Cee-Lo Green premieres tonight on VH1.

Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday put his Hollywood projects on hold following the scandal over a secret child he fathered 13 years ago with his housekeeper. Arnold told his agents to halt plans to resume his movie career so that he can deal with "personal matters", according to a statement. Schwarzenegger has been scorned and ridiculed since revealing on Monday that he had a child out of wedlock which he kept secret from his wife, Maria Shriver, and their four children. Schwarzenegger had been due to star in a proposed new "Terminator" movie and was to start shooting the drama "Cry Macho" in late August. He had also announced plans to voice the central character in an animated TV series called "The Governator". The comic book style series had Schwarzenegger starring as a devoted family man who lives a double life as a superhero and has a lair under his home that not even his wife and children are aware of. Producers decided late on Thursday to stop work on that project. "In light of recent events, A Squared Entertainment, POW, Stan Lee Comics, and Archie Comics, have halted production" on the 'Governator', they said in a statement. Schwarzenegger and Shriver announced last week that they had separated earlier this year after 25 years of marriage. Shriver has hired a divorce attorney. People magazine reports that Maria is still debating whether to file for divorce but she has an lawyer at the ready if she decides to.

The first woman in the nation to serve as solo network evening news anchor, Katie Couric, ended her stint on CBS Evening News last night, saying it had been "an incredible journey" and "an extraordinary privilege." The broadcast included Couric's interview with another history-making woman, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who became the first former first lady to win elected office when she joined the Senate in 2001. Couric ended the broadcast after the montage, thanking viewers "for coming along with me on this incredible journey," and concluding with "That's the CBS Evening News for tonight. I'm Katie Couric. Good night." Couric moved to CBS News after 15 years as co-host of NBC's top-rated morning show, "Today," and at the time spoke of plans to revamp and update the nightly network news format. She recently said that was overly ambitious, and it might have proven more successful to do a traditional broadcast format and introduce changes only gradually. Couric won a number of prestigious awards during her relatively brief tenure and scored journalistic coups, but never managed to lift "CBS Evening News" out of third place behind "NBC Nightly News" and "ABC World News." 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley will succeed Couric, whose contract is up in June, on June 6th. Couric is reported to be in talks to develop a daytime talk show.

McDonald's CEO says the company isn't going to stop marketing to kids anytime soon... and it has no plans to fire Ronald McDonald.

Amazon.com says it's now selling more Kindle books than printed books.

Trivia Answer: Ronald Prescott Reagan -- usually known as Ron Reagan and sometimes as Ronald Reagan, Jr. -- who turns 53 today. He was a talk host and chief political analyst for KIRO radio in Seattle until his show was canceled in August of 2007. He is notable for his liberal or progressive views, despite being the son of a conservative icon – late United States President Ronald Reagan. Reagan lives in Seattle with his wife, Doria, a clinical psychologist whom he married in 1980.

Jason Vargas went seven innings and denied Jered Weaver another chance at becoming the first pitcher in the majors to reach seven wins. The Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-0 last night. The first of 19 meetings this season between the AL West rivals went the way of the Ms, thanks in part to Vargas running his streak of scoreless innings to 16. The Angels have lost six of seven. Ms and Angels do it again this afternoon.

The Tacoma Rainiers were off yesterday. They're back at home hosting Memphis tonight.

Saturday, the Sounders host Sporting KC

Next Wednesday, the Seattle Storm is back. They're in Los Angeles for pre-season action.

The pirates are about to set sail again. The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz opens tomorrow. Keith Richards is also back for a brief appearance as Jack Sparrow's father.

Jeff Conaway's manager says the former star of Taxi is in a coma following a drug overdose, possibly from pain pills. Manager Phil Brock says the 60-year-old actor was found unconscious a week ago and is hospitalized in critical condition. Brock says Conaway is in a coma in an Encino, California hospital and his recovery is uncertain.

Sorry Oprah -- you're been replaced by Lady Gaga. Forbes has released their Celebrity 100 List, and while the talk-show queen is usually at the top, this time, Gaga is reigning supreme. Gaga was named Forbes' most powerful celeb because of the money she earned on her tour, her many endorsements and because of her following on Facebook and Twitter.

Cee-Lo Green and Christina Aguilera have recorded a tune together. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon on his late-night talk show, Cee-Lo said that The Voice co-stars 'did a song' that was supposed to be on the Burlesque soundtrack but didn't make the cut. He said that he guessed it might be released sometime in the near future.

A 37-year-old mother of three was arrested after going out for drinks with a most inappropriate drinking buddy: her four-year-old child. The toddler managed to remain alcohol-free during the evening, and the mom was booked on charges of child neglect after police found her passed out drunk at a bar with the four-year-old in her lap. But one child in danger was simply not enough. A phone call to the woman's mother revealed she had two other children, ages seven and nine, who were left home alone while she partied. The children are now enjoying a vacation at their grandmother's home, while mom is enjoying a trip to the pokey.

John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to The Beatles' 1967 classic "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" recently went up for auction in L-A and they sold for more than 237-thousand dollars. According to Spinner.com, the lyrics are on a single sheet and also feature a doodle of four people in a room plus the opening words to the Fab Four's song "She's Leaving Home." No word on who the buyer is.

People magazine is reporting that the identity of Arnold Schwarzenegger's lover has been revealed. Sources point to 50-year-old Mildred Baena as the woman who had a child with Arnold. She worked as a housekeeper and assistant in Maria Shriver and Arnold's home for over 20 years. The identity of their child is not known. It's also being reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger only came forward about his affair because the woman threatened to publicly reveal things.

Deadline.com is reporting that Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is in charge of a new Flintstones reboot. We get to yabba-dabba-do it again on Fox in 2013.

I really like the newly crowned Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. They seem like pretty level-headed royalty who probably care more about the average Joe than most rich people. Which is why I hope like heck the estimated cost of their honeymoon is either a joke or just bad math. Reportedly the royal couple spent $720,000 on their honeymoon.

Trivia Answer: Peter Mayhew -- best known for playing the Wookie Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies -- who turns 67 today. Mayhew didn't provide the voice of Chewbacca; that was created by the film's sound designer, Ben Burtt, by mixing together the growls of different animals. Mayhew now lives in Granbury, Texas, and is the owner of his own business. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States on October 17, 2005. In an interview with the Fort Worth Star Telegram, he jokingly noted that he didn't get a medal at that ceremony either, a reference to the Star Wars scene in which Luke and Han get medals but Chewbacca gets none.

The Mariners host the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in a quick two-game set tonight and tomorrow night.

Entering with momentum from Monday night's come-from-behind victory didn't help the New Orleans Zephyrs. The Tacoma Rainiers chalked up a win in the final game of their four-game series against the Zephyrs in New Orleans. The Rainiers won 7-2 yesterday. The Rainiers are off today before hosting Memphis starting tomorrow.

Saturday, the Sounders host Sporting KC.

May 18th, 1980 is a big day here in the Northwest. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens killed 57 people and caused $3 billion in damage.

It was just announced that Lady Gaga is celebrating the release of her new album, Born This Way, on Monday by performing on The Late Show with David Letterman that night. Meanwhile, Hits Daily Double reports that also on Monday, Gaga is shipping two-million copies of her album to different retail outlets, something that's almost unheard of in this age of digital downloads.

Could Madonna be appearing on Oprah Winfrey's last show? Well according to PerezHilton.com, Madge, as well as Beyonce, were both seen in Chicago on yesterday and sources say that it's because they are taking part in the talk show legend's final episode. No word on if they're being interviewed, performing, or both. Oprah's last show is set to air one week from today.

It couldn't possibly be true, right? According to gossip paper The Globe, John Mayer and Renee Zellweger have been quietly going out on a number of dates in both New York and Los Angeles. But apparently, the two aren't getting into anything serious, as a source told the paper that Renee is just 'looking for a good time with a hot guy.'

Paul McCartney probably won't be soon forgetting 2011. He got engaged to longtime girlfriend Nancy Shevell, he's touring more, he's reissuing solo albums and now, he's announced that he's started to record an album of covers of pop standards from the pre-rock years. Paul tells Rolling Stone, "It's my dad's style of music" and revealed he already recorded a dozen tracks with an orchestra. As for the songs, McCartney isn't revealing them, only saying, "They're songs I admire. I'm trying to steer away from the obvious ones." No word on when it will be out but the Beatle also said he's writing material for a "heavier rock" album.

Steven Tyler's autobiography, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, has debuted at number two on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best Seller List. In the book, which came out on May 3rd, Steven talks candidly about his drug addiction and his time in the band. It's on shelves now. The number one book on the list? Tina Fey's Bossypants.

According to a contract TMZ has obtained, Charlie Sheen borrowed ten-million dollars from Warner Bros. when he signed the contract for the seventh season of Two and a Half Men. Sheen paid the money back to the studio, but in the eighth season he was on the show, he made of total of 152-million dollars, so why he needed the ten mil is a mystery. On his last year of the show, Sheen was paid a total of almost two-million bucks a week. Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher and Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre had their first public meeting, if you can call it that. They met at a coffee shop in Glendale, California. Ashton, of course, is taking over for Charlie Sheen on the series.

American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe said he was sad to see James Durbin go home on American Idol last week. Nigel says he thought James would be in the finale. You can watch Haley, Scottie and Lauren compete on tonight. Meanwhile, James says that now that he's off the show, he's going to start planning his marriage to his longtime girlfriend, Heidi. The pair has a toddler son together.

A drunken Russian motorist gave cops a chuckle when he pulled out a pack of Marlboro Lights and attempted to make a phone call with them after being pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving. The frustrated driver was videotaped yelling into the pack of cigarettes as if they were a cell phone while desperately trying to call friends to bail him out of trouble. The cops all the while were desperately trying to keep straight faces as the young man continued to shout. His frustration soon gave way to exhaustion and he passed out on a policeman's shoulder.

A 51-year-old Florida man reportedly fell prey to the wiles of a bearded lady, who made off with 28-hundred dollars of the man's cash in addition to his credit cards and driver's license. According to the victim, the facial hair-sporting female flagged him down in the street and asked for a ride home, only to snatch his wallet at a traffic light and then make a break for it. Though the cash is long gone, the victim's wallet with his credits cards and his driver's license was later recovered. His dignity for the most part is still at large.

Hours after "America's Most Wanted" was canceled, a small, passionate campaign emerged online to save the Saturday night staple that allowed anyone with a television set to become part of a nationwide manhunt. The show has been rescued before. In 1996, an outpouring of support from fans, politicians and law enforcement compelled Fox executives to reconsider after they announced they were taking the show off the air, and a handful of Facebook pages aim to recapture that groundswell of support. Monday was the day of the announcement that the show was being canceled. Fox dropped the show in 1996. At that point, the program had assisted in the capture of more than 430 fugitives. The success prompted thousands of fans, law enforcement agencies and the governors of 37 states to bombard the network with letters urging executives to keep the series alive. The FBI even weighed in with a statement saying the show "empowered millions of Americans to safely and constructively combat crime." This time, though, the FBI's statement sounded more like a heartfelt goodbye. "Few television shows have aired for so long. Even fewer have provided such a worthy public service, or have made such a lasting impact on the American public," said Michael P. Kortan, an FBI spokesman. "John and his team have always understood the power of the people in helping to bring criminals to justice. Their tenacity, their unwavering dedication to victims of crime and violence, and their commitment to law enforcement will be missed." The network says it will replace the weekly shows with four, two-hour specials throughout the year.

Trivia Answer: Elizabeth Stamatina Fey -- Tina Fey -- who turns 41 today. Her mother's name is Zenovia, so she comes by Stamatina honestly. Tina has received seven Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and four Writers Guild of America Awards. She was singled out as the performer who had the greatest impact on culture and entertainment in 2008 by the Associated Press, which gave her its AP Entertainer of the Year award for her satirical portrayal of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a guest appearance on SNL. Last year, Fey was the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and the youngest-ever winner of the award.

Michael Pineda -- the 22-year-old right-handed rookie pitcher -- allowed three hits over seven innings to help the Seattle Mariners break a six-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins last night. Ms and Twins wrap up the 2-game set tonight.

Minnesota Twins great Harmon Killebrew died today at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. That word coming in a joint announcement from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the team. Killebrew had esophageal He announced recently that the cancer had been deemed incurable by his doctors and he was entering hospice care. Killebrew is 11th on baseball's all-time home run list with 573. Harmon Killebrew was 74.

The Tacoma Rainiers are in New Orleans with the Zephyrs. The Rainiers were up 8-5 entering the bottom of the ninth. But the Z's rallied, scoring four runs with two outs, including a walk-off three-run double lifting New Orleans to a 9-8 win over Tacoma last night. They conclude the series today

Arnold Schwarzenegger has acknowledged that he fathered a child more than ten years ago with a member of his household staff. The report was in today's Los Angeles Times. In a statement made in response to questions from the newspaper, Schwarzenegger said: "After leaving the governor's office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago." Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, last week announced they had separated earlier this year. They have been married 25 years and have four children.

Cee-Lo Green knew he liked Forget You when he recorded it, but wasn't sure that the label or the masses would be on board. During the taping of his Storytellers episode, he said the song was born out of frustration at his label, who was not happy with the songs he was recording for his Lady Killer album. Cee-Lo told says the success of Forget You has far exceeded his expectations. Forget You scored Cee-Lo a Grammy for Best Urban Alternative Performance back in February. See the Vh1 Storytellers episode with Cee-Lo Green Friday.

Jerry Lewis is retiring after 45 years as host of the annual Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day weekend telethon. He'll make a final appearance on this year's show.

Jennifer Aniston has lost a friend. Her Welsh corgi-terrier mix, Norman, died at age 15. Aniston's rep confirms Norman died a few weeks ago.

A new survey shows 46% of voters say they feel worse off than they did a year ago. Around one-third of voters -- 36% -- say their economic situation has remained essentially unchanged from 12 months ago.

According to a a new poll by Playboy, roughly a quarter of Americans say they have been photographed or filmed nude. And men apparently do it more often. The survey discovered that 27% of men and 23% of women have been photographed or filmed nude.

Trivia Answer: SpaghettiOs. More than 150 million cans of SpaghettiOs are sold each year. In addition to the original variety, variations have included SpaghettiOs Meatballs (with miniature meatballs), SpaghettiOs Sliced Franks (with pieces of processed meat resembling hot dog slices), SpaghettiOs RavioliOs (with round, beef-filled ravioli), SpaghettiOs with Calcium -- and other theme-shaped varieties. Introduced in 1965 by the Campbell Soup Company, the pasta was created by Donald Goerke (1926-2010), "the Daddy-O of SpaghettiOs", after a year-long internal study of the appropriate shape for a kid-friendly spaghetti. Rejected shapes included cowboys, Indians, spacemen, stars, and sports shapes. During the development of SpaghettiOs, Georke was a marketing manager with Franco-American, then a division of Campbell. Over the period of his 35 years with Campbell, Goerke created over 100 products including the Chunky line of soups. In 1995, Goerke participated in the 30th anniversary of SpaghettiOs, appearing on What's My Line? and attending a celebration at a SpaghettiOs plant in Ohio. SpaghettiOs were introduced nationally without test marketing — with television advertising using tag line The neat new spaghetti you can eat with a spoon and the jingle Uh-Oh! SpaghettiOs, sung by pop singer Jimmie Rodgers.

The Seattle Mariners' game in Cleveland was postponed by rain yesterday, the second straight day a contest between the teams was called off because of inclement weather. Unlike Saturday's game, which was halted in the bottom of the first inning, yesterday's game never even got started No makeup dates have been announced. The Mariners return to Cleveland for a three-game series Aug. 22-24. Both teams have an off day on Aug. 25. The Ms are back home for a 4-game set: two with Minnesota and two with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Game one tonight at 7.

Mike Carp smacked three home runs, powering the Tacoma Rainiers to an 18-6 rout of New Orleans in PCL play yesterday afternoon. Carp had a chance at a fourth home run in the ninth, hitting a line drive over the head of the center fielder for a double. Dustin Ackley also had four hits for Tacoma, which had its largest margin of victory in the 14-year history of the series. The series continues in Louisiana tonight at 5.

The opening match of the much-anticipated Major League Soccer rivalry between the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders ended Saturday night in a 1-1 tie. Fittingly for the Pacific Northwest, the nationally televised match was played in pouring rain. The Timbers' independent supporters' group, the Timbers Army, took 10 buses the three hour's drive up Interstate 5 to the match. The announced crowd was 36,593, a record for an MLS game at Qwest Field. It was the first match of the Cascadia Cup competition between Portland, Seattle and the Vancouver Whitecaps. The cup is unique because it was created by fans, the award takes on greater significance this season now that all three teams are part of MLS. The rivalry between Portland and Seattle dates to 1975, when both teams were part of the North American Soccer League. Seattle is 3-3-5, and Portland is 4-3-2. Seattle visits Portland on July 10th. Vancouver travels to Seattle on June 11th, with the Sounders going north on September. 24th. The Whitecaps play at Portland on August 20th and the Timbers become Vancouver's first opponent at remodeled B.C. Place stadium on October 2nd.

Three shows have allegedly been canceled by CBS, including (Blank) My Dad Says. Meanwhile, at NBC, It hadn't even aired yet but the network has reportedly axed Wonder Woman after the pilot tested poorly with audiences.

It was rumor on Friday and a done deal today. Ashton Kutcher has signed on to replace Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men and both actors are now commenting on the move. Sheen told TMZ, "Kutcher is a sweetheart and a brilliant comedic performer ... Oh wait, so am I" Ashton said, "I can't replace Charlie Sheen but I'm going to work my ass off to entertain the hell out of people."

Ashrita Furman's latest Guinness World Record was verified on Friday. The Queens, New York, man officially holds the record for the most lemons caught blindfolded in one minute by a team of two. He currently holds 121 records.

Lloyd Scott, though, now holds the record for the longest time to complete a marathon. The 49-year-old finished the London Marathon in 26 days dressed as a kids' TV show character for charity.

Still holding out for the rumored iPhone 5 before dumping your current phone? A rumor says the next iPhone will be called '4S'. The new features of the next iPhone are still an unknown, though sources claim it will have more power and a larger screen.

Goo Goo Dolls singer John Rzeznik has teamed with legendary Hall & Oates frontman Daryl Hall for an episode of his award-winning web series, Live From Daryl's House. The pair performs some essential Goo Goo's songs, including Iris and Slide, and some classic Hall & Oates tunes as well. Check out the episode now at LFDH.com. About John, Daryl said, "I love John! He's a great singer with a quick sense of humor and to my surprise, a really professional cook. He can come over anytime and rattle those pots and pans."

Fleetwood Mac is touring again next year. Stevie Nicks broke the news to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, explaining that once she and fellow Fleetwood Mac member Lindsey Buckingham finish promoting their new solo albums, the band will "gather again." She went on to say the group will "either make another record or we won't and we'll just go on tour." The last time Fleetwood Mac toured was in 2009. Their most recent record was 2003's Say You Will.

Adele has never tried to hide that her debut album, 19, was inspired by a particular ex-boyfriend, and apparently now he's ready to cash in. In an interview with British paper The Sun, the singer said that he called her and was "serious" about asking for some money, and that she told him that he made her "life hell," so she deserves everything that she's making now and he should get none. She added that "he really thought he'd had some input into the creative process by being a prick."

It's not the most obvious pairing, but it's certainly interesting. Chris Daughtry wrote on Twitter that he and Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo have been working on writing songs together.

And this could explain a lot. Turns out Lady Gaga and Madonna are distant cousins.

A Japanese lingerie maker recently unveiled a bra aiming to lift the "goods" and spirits of women in Japan in the aftermath of the devastating quake and tsunami that struck the country two months ago. The white, bustier-style garment and its matching skirt are covered with flags and messages received from 36 different countries, like France's "Japan, with you 100%." This is not the first innovative and expressive design from the company. Previous efforts have also included a solar-powered bra and a "Welcome to Japan" bra, which featured greetings in three different languages.

A 44-year-old Michigan woman was arrested and held in contempt of court for being drunk during her jury trial for assault and battery. Though a court official reportedly smelled alcohol on the woman's breath and a Breathalyzer test revealed she was intoxicated, her attorney said he didn't notice anything wrong with his client. The jury later returned a guilty verdict against the woman for misdemeanor assault and battery. She is scheduled to return to court-sober-for sentencing in two weeks.

After 200 years missing, what was presumably the world's most overdue library book has been returned to its original library in Camden, Maine. First published in 1790, History of England Volume 1, was discovered in a collection of family heirlooms thousands of miles away in Thousand Oaks, California, and hand-delivered to Camden by the lucky finder, who is crossing his fingers he won't have to pay a late fee. The book goes on display at the history center beginning in two weeks and becomes part of the story of Camden's history.

Trivia Answer: Mary Debra Winger who turns 56 today. Winger was cast in the lead role in A League of their Own but dropped out and was replaced by Geena Davis.Over the years Winger acquired a reputation for being outspoken and sometimes difficult to work with. She has expressed her dislike of An Officer and a Gentleman, for which she refused to do any publicity, and several other of her films, and has been dismissive of some of her co-stars and directors. Commenting on her past attitudes, Winger said in 2009, "Most bad behaviour comes from insecurity. Even though I loved what I was doing, I didn't always know I could pull it off. I took [my insecurities out] on everybody. But in my defence, I never fought about the size of my trailer or things like that; it was always about the work." In 1986, she married to actor Timothy Hutton with whom she had a son, Noah Hutton, a documentary filmmaker born in 1987. They divorced three years later. In 1996, Winger married actor/director Arliss Howard, whom she met on the set of the film Wilder Napalm. Their son, Gideon Babe Ruth Howard (known as Babe), was born in 1997. She is stepmother to Sam Howard.

The Mariners found a new way to lose last night. The game had gone 11 scoreless innings when Seattle scored the game's first run in the top half of the 12th. Then Brandon League came in to close it. Baltimore's Derrek Lee hit a leadoff single, and shortly after that, League hit Vladimir Guerrero and Adam Jones with pitches to load the bases with no outs. J.J. Hardy then singled in two runs in the 12th inning and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners 2-1 for a three-game sweep. Mariners manager Eric Wedge returns to Cleveland tonight to face the Indians for the first time since his seven-year run there ended after the 2009 season.

While the Mariners and Orioles struggled to put up runs, the Tacoma Rainiers had no problem. The had 15 hits on their way to a 13-3 win over the Red Hawks in Oklahoma City last night. Tacoma wraps up the series in Oklahoma tonight before moving on to New Orleans for the weekend.

The first match of the Pacific Northwest trivalry between the Seattle Sounders, the Portland Timbers, and the Vancouver Whitecaps is 8 o'clock tomorrow night. That's when the Sounders host the Timbers.

It wasn't Friday the 13th but rather Thursday the 12th that was the unlucky day for James Durbin. Fighting tears of disbelief, James was thrown off American Idol last night as viewers chose their Top Three. The 22-year-old Durbin, who was widely seen as a sure bet for going all the way to the finals, got the least number of votes despite universal praise from the judges during the week of inspirational songs. By the way, 72-million votes were cast this week. Durbin's departure leaves 17-year-old Scotty McCreery, 16-year-old Lauren Alaina, and 20-year-old Haley Reinhart, to compete for a place in the finale. For all the controversy earlier this season about audience bias toward male contestants, the final three now includes two women. Next week one more contestant gets eliminated setting the stage for the finale the week after.

Paul Simon performs on Saturday Night Live tomorrow night.

The latest Two and a Half Men casting rumor has Ashton Kutcher taking over the role previously held by Charlie Sheen.

It was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds when a young man walking outside a Tufts University classroom was suddenly attacked for no reason by two very angry birds. The hawks were perched in nearby trees, not far from a nest they built on the building's fire escape. Tufts police believe the badly-behaved birds were protecting their babies. The poor victim is okay, but needed 15 stitches to fix the damage. Tufts has since put up a fence and a warning sign to passers-by.

A man dressed as Batman was arrested Wednesday in Petoskey, Michigan, after he was seen hanging from the wall of a downtown business. He had on him a baton type striking weapon, a can of chemical irritant spray, and a pair of lead lined gloves.

And more Batman news (what?) A New Zealand war veteran calling himself a modern-day Batman is on the lookout for a new Robin after being banned from going out and fighting crime alone at night. Armed only with a spotlight and cell phone, he cruises the streets in true Batman-style, reporting any suspicious activity to the police. The guy is 91-years-old. He served in a raiding unit in World War II. He enlisted himself as a member of the local community patrol. The crime-fighting vet started out with a Robin-like partner, but decided to ditch him after he kept falling asleep on duty.

On average, we consume over nine pounds of coffee per person each year.

What's the unhealthiest drink in America? Men's Health says it's Cold Stone Creamery's PB&C milkshake. It has 2,010 calories.

Adele keeps reaching new heights. Not only does she have the number one album in both America and the UK with her latest effort, 21, but she just notched her first ever number one single, as Rolling in the Deep is at the top of this week's Billboard Hot 100 chart.

George Michael is heading out on tour. In a post on his official website, the former Wham! singer revealed that he's performing 47 shows in 15 countries in Europe from August through December.

Paul McCartney is now engaged to Nancy Shevell and the future Mrs. McCartney is talking about their upcoming nuptials. She told the New York Post that the wedding will be "soon" and will only include families. As for what she'll wear, she doesn't know, explaining, "How dressy do you get to stand before a Justice of the Peace in his chambers?"

Mary Tyler Moore underwent brain surgery yesterday to remove a benign tumor. ABC News reports that the elective procedure is fairly routine and the 74-year-old actress is expected to make a full recovery.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to leave some non-perishable food items near your mailbox before your mail pickup time tomorrow. Your Letter Carrier will pick them up and make sure they get where they need to go. It's the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

Oooh!  It's Friday the 13th. On the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year. Note that any month's 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday. The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom Friday is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen). According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a Friday the 13th superstition before the 19th century. Consequently, several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition. One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day. In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners. Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday. The actual origin of the superstition, though, appears also to be a tale in Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil -- a gathering of thirteen -- and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches' Sabbath." According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by a fear of this day. Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their normal routines in doing business, taking flights or even getting out of bed. "It's been estimated that $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day". Despite this, representatives for both Delta and Continental Airlines say that their airlines do not suffer from any noticeable drop in travel on those Fridays. There are conflicting studies about the risk of accidents on Friday the 13th. The Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics (CVS) on June 12, 2008, stated that "fewer accidents and reports of fire and theft occur when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday than on other Fridays, because people are preventatively more careful or just stay home. Statistically speaking, driving is slightly safer on Friday the 13th, at least in the Netherlands; in the last two years, Dutch insurers received reports of an average 7,800 traffic accidents each Friday; but the average figure when the 13th fell on a Friday was just 7,500. However, a 1993 study in the British Medical Journal that compared the ratio of traffic accidents between Friday the 6th and Friday the 13th stated that there is a significant increase in traffic-related accidents on Friday the 13th. There are indications that there are more accidents on Fridays than average weekdays (irrespective of the date) probably because of alcohol consumption.

Trivia Answer: Mark Elliot Zuckerberg who turns 27 tomorrow. The website in question is the social networking site Facebook. Mark's personal wealth is estimated to be $13.5 billion.

The ghosts of Mariners past keep coming back to haunt us. Case in point, last night former Mariner Chris Tillman pitched six innings of three-hit ball, and former Mariner Adam Jones went 4 for 4 with two RBIs, and the Baltimore Orioles beat Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners 4-2. Tillman and Jones were both traded from Seattle to Baltimore in 2008 as part of that five-player deal that brought pitcher Erik Bedard to Seattle (we all know how well that's worked out). Felix had an off night. After working a perfect first inning, he struggled the rest of the way. He allowed four runs and seven hits in five innings. It was only the second time in eight starts this season that he yielded more than two earned runs. The Ms and Os wrap up the series this afternoon. Tomorrow, Seattle is in Cleveland.

Outfielder Ryan Langerhans has cleared waivers and accepted an assignment to the Tacoma Rainiers. That word from the Mariners yesterday. Langerhans was designated for assignment Monday -- the same day the team cut Milton Bradley. The Mariners had 10 days trade, release, or send Langerhans to the minors.

Speaking of the Rainiers, like the Mariners, they've lost the first two games of their road trip. The Rainiers are in Okahoma City. They lost to the Red Hawks last night 3-1. The same two teams match up again this afternoon.

The Cascadia Cup. The silver trophy is the icon of the long-standing rivalry between the Portland Timbers, the Seattle Sounders, and the Vancouver Whitecaps. Unique because it was created by fans, the award takes on greater significance this season now that all three teams are part of MLS. The first match in the Pacific Northwest tri-valry is set for Saturday night at 8. That's when the Seattle Sounders host the Portland Timbers.

Starting today sketches of two men are appearing on 300 billboards in and around Los Angeles. The men are wanted in connection with the beating of Bryan Stow in the parking lot after a Dodger-Giants game.

The San Francisco Giants, by the way, have adopted Train's new tune Save Me, San Francisco as their anthem.

Last week, Steven Tyler released his new solo single, (It) Feels So Good, and he's been talking about it since. The Aerosmith singer says that he actually wrote the song a few years ago and took it to the band but they "didn't like it." Tyler seems confident in the track though and expects to "hear it coming out of people's cars this summer." Steven unveils the video on tonight's results edition of American Idol.

Earlier this week, Steven was quoted as saying that he and Johnny Depp had spent some time writing songs together. Now, the Pirates of the Caribbean star is talking more about it. Depp tells Extra that he and the Steven have been "hanging out," adding, "He's someone I've admired greatly for such a long time. The idea of writing songs with him is a dream come true." No word yet on if any songs Depp helped pen will appear on Steven's upcoming solo album.

The Social Security Administration this week announced the most popular baby names in Washington for 2010. And the winners are:

According to a new study, the average British citizen will break the law around 21 times a year. Not sure how many times we're breaking the law here in the States but 21 sounds about right. The top way the British break the law is speeding.

Did someone say lawbreaker? Lindsay Lohan has copped a plea in the necklace theft case and now gets to serve her 120 day jail sentence under house arrest. Her lawyer, Shawn Chapman, appeared in court to accept the plea deal. The original judge who saw Lohan's felony theft case had stated that if Lindsay accepted a plea, jail time would be involved. The case was recently switched to the judge she has in her probation violation case.

At an event this week, Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke about his split from wife Maria Shriver. During a speech he was making, Arnold stated that they "both love each other very much" and are "taking it one day at a time." Shriver recently moved out of the California estate she shared with Schwarzenegger, but the couple did celebrate Mother's Day together with their children this past Sunday.

During an interview this week, Hugh Laurie said that the eighth season of House may be his last. Laurie explained that his current contract ends after season eight and seemed to hint that he's tired of filming a weekly television show.

Trivia Answer: Lawrence Peter Berra -- Yogi Berra -- who turns 86 today. He picked up his famous nickname from a friend, Bobby Hofman, who said he resembled a Hindu holy man (yogi) they had seen in a movie, whenever Berra sat around with arms and legs crossed waiting to bat, or while looking sad after a losing game. Years later, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear was presumably named after Berra (the cartoon bear's creators denied it), something Berra did not appreciate after he started being periodically addressed as "Yogi Bear." Berra quit school in the eighth grade and has a tendency toward malapropism and fracturing the English language in highly provocative, interesting ways. Simultaneously denying and confirming his reputation, Berra once stated, "I didn't really say everything I said."

Some other Yogiisms:

• Berra was excellent at hitting poor pitches. When asked about swinging at "bad pitches", Berra said, "If I can hit it, it's a good pitch."
• As a general comment on baseball: "Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."
• On why he no longer went to a popular St. Louis restaurant: "Nobody goes there no more; it's too crowded!"
• When giving directions to his New Jersey home, which was equally accessible via two different routes: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
• On being the guest of honor at an awards banquet: "I'd like to thank all those who made this night necessary."
• "You can observe a lot by just watching."
• "Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they won't come to yours."

Based on his style of speaking, Yogi was named "Wisest Fool of the Past 50 Years" by The Economist magazine in January 2005.

It was an up and down night for the Mariners and in the end it was down … and long. It was a 13-inning affair at Camden Yards that the Mariners lost 7-6. It was the second consecutive extra-inning loss for Seattle comong on the heels of Sunday's 10-inning 5-2 loss to the White Sox. The Ms and the Os do it again tonight.

The Tacoma Rainiers didn't begin their road trip any better. They're in Oklahoma City where they dropped the opener of the 4-game set with the Red Hawks, 10-5. Game two is tonight.

Come back with me now to Sunday. In a statistical oddity, all seven American League games Sunday included a team that scored exactly five runs. Detroit and Oakland won by 5-2 scores and Tampa Bay prevailed 5-3. The lucky number didn't turn out so well for Minnesota (they lost 9-5), Cleveland (6-5 losers) and Texas (which lost 12-5). The Chicago White Sox as previously mentioned broke loose in the 10th on Sunday and beat Seattle 5-2. It was the first time in 18 years that such a quirky thing happened with a full schedule. On August 10th of 1993, all seven NL games featured one team scoring precisely two runs. The last time it occurred with five or more runs was July 20th, of 1955, when all four AL games had at least one team score exactly six.

The American League scoreboard at Citizens Bank Park Sunday, May 8th, 2011.

Today is National Receptionist Day AND Eat What You Want Day

By now you've heard that after 25 years of marriage, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have separated and are living apart. Well, TMZ is reporting that Maria has been contemplating divorce for almost two years. The tabloid site points to Arnold's infidelity as the main reason the couple has split. None of this has been confirmed.

Romeo is saying goodbye to the Dancing With the Stars ballroom. The actor and rapper (once known as Lil' Romeo) was dismissed last night from the ABC dance contest. Romeo's exit was somewhat of a surprise for those who expected rival Ralph Macchio to get the hook after a leg injury hurt his performances on Monday's edition. The remaining contestants -- Macchio, along with Kirstie Alley, Chelsea Kane and Hines Ward -- battle it out in next week's semifinals.

Al Pacino is going gangster. The actor has signed on to play mobster Neil Dellacroce in the new Gotti: Three Generations flick. Al joins John Travolta and Lindsay Lohan, who have already signed on to the flick. Pacino was going to make a rare appearance in Seattle on June 11th as part of the 37th Seattle International Film Festival. That appearance however has been cancelled. The cancellation is due to this week's announcement that Pacino has been nominated for the 2011 Tony Award for Best Actor for his critically acclaimed performance on Broadway in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Due to the conflict with the Tony Award Ceremony, Pacino announced the cancellation of his appearance at The Paramount Theatre on June 11th. Says Al, "I hope to make it back to Seattle. It's a city I've always enjoyed."

Ethan Hawke is making a cameo appearance in the remake of Total Recall. Colin Farrell is starring.

Shirtless photos, topless photos -- what's next for the family of Pippa Middleton. Sources say the Middleton family's fighting back and plans to use a "considerable chunk" of its fortune to make sure existing and future photos don't make it to the Internet.

One year after Facebook overhauled its privacy controls to make them easier to use, roughly one in five active US Facebook users still hadn't used the controls.

The Library of Congress took the shrink-wrap off the National Jukebox, making tens of thousands of historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge.

Sometimes to help make a point, a judge will quote someone wise. Well when it comes to judges quoting musicians, more choose the words of Bob Dylan than anyone else.

It was a case of mistaken house identity gone wrong, when over the weekend, a Tampa Bay couple woke up to find a drunk intruder passed out on their couch next to a plate of food he apparently cooked for himself. When the homeowners confronted the 51-year-old man, he insisted he lived there and proceeded to pass out yet again. A deputy arrived at the home to find the man still asleep and charged him with trespassing in an occupied structure and criminal mischief as he apparently entered the residence through an unlocked door by scaling a backyard fence.

Then there's the woman in Breckenridge, Colorado. She was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. The arrest came after she was unable to successfully roll down her window or open her car doors.

In the above two cases, at least the folks involved could blame alcohol. These next stories, however, point to the fact that we must do more to cure stupidity in our lifetime.

A young New Jersey couple has apparently added "in jail" to that part of the wedding vows dealing with "for better or worse." They robbed a bank last year to pay for their Las Vegas wedding. The woman charged with the crime told authorities she entered the bank with a concealed knife while the man claimed to have a bomb. They soon fled with an undisclosed amount of cash and began driving to Vegas but were captured in Oklahoma five days later. This week, both received seven-years in state prison and must serve eighty-five percent of their time behind bars before becoming eligible for parole. They also were ordered to pay 76-hundred dollars back to the bank.

A Florida man suspected of robbing a convenience store at gunpoint returned the following day. He stopped in to buy a pack of cigarettes. The clerks recognized him.

Trivia Answer: The original VeeJays were Martha, with her petite, girl next door personality, along with Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and J. J. Jackson.

Changes in Mariner Nation. Slumping Milton Bradley was cut by Seattle yesterday. The Mariners designated Bradley for assignment, giving them 10 days to trade, release or send him to the minors. He was making $12 million this season. Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik summed it up when he said, "The situation with Milton is that we determined he's not part of our future and not part of our present." The Mariners also cut utilityman Ryan Langerhans. He hit .171 with three home runs and six RBIs in 19 games. Seattle called up outfielders Carlos Peguero and Mike Wilson from Triple-A Tacoma to fill the roster spots. Peguero played five games for the Mariners last month -- he was on the roster while Justin Smoak was on the bereavement list -- and Wilson is making his big league debut. They're joining the team in Baltimore this afternoon.

Yesterday, for the second day in a row, the Tacoma Rainiers fell to the Las Vegas 51s. They even lost by the same score, 6-4. They're now off on an eight-game road trip: four in Oklahoma City then four in New Orleans. Game one in Oklahoma.

Coming up Saturday, the Sounders host Portland

Today is Clean up Your Room Day

No Strings Attached with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher is out on DVD today. Also out today is the Home Improvement: 20th Anniversary Complete Collection.  Justin Bieber: Never Say Never comes out on the 13th. 

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, have announced that they're separating. The surprise statement came four months after Schwarzenegger left office in January after serving two terms as governor. In a statement issued jointly, the 63-year-old Schwarzenegger, and 55-year-old Shriver said "This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us. After a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion, and prayer, we came to this decision together."

Meanwhile, Britain's Prince William and his new wife Kate have set off for a delayed honeymoon following their wedding last month. The couple flew out yesterday, a royal source said, but no details were given of their destination, other than that it was outside Britain. Press speculation about where the newly-weds would go has been rife, with Kenya and the Caribbean seen as possible destinations. The Daily Mirror is reporting that the couple had arrived in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Their April 29th wedding attracted about a million well-wishers onto the streets of London and a global TV audience estimated to be as high as 2.4 billion. The couple, now officially known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, caused a surprise the day after their marriage when they said they were not leaving immediately on honeymoon.

The official album of the Royal Wedding is out today. The Royal Wedding: The Official Album includes a special collector's booklet featuring the complete order of service, the readings, vows, hymns and blessings, and all the music.

Coca-Cola is 125 years old.

Republican Newt Gingrich is expected to announce tomorrow plans to run for president in 2012. We're told to anticipate the announcement via Twitter and Facebook.

People have twice as many friends online as they do in real life, says new research. The study found that that typical users of social networking sites have 121 friends online versus 55 physical pals.

Meredith Vieira has officially stated that she is leaving Today and that Ann Curry is replacing her. On yesterday's show, Meredith said that she's leaving program in June and that she hopes to spend more time with her husband and their three children. First, Katie Couric is leaving the CBS Evening News and now Meredith Viera is leaving Today. What's a kid to do?  Interesting to note that Meredith replaced Katie as the co-host of NBC's Today five years ago.

Mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Cee-Lo re-recording Forget You and changing the title and lyrics to Thank You, as a tribute to America's volunteer firefighters. According to NME.com, it's been released and you can download the track now at the Duracell Facebook page.

According to FameCount.com, Shakira scored the largest growth on social media this week. The Colombian superstar has over 30-million fans on Facebook, more than five-million followers on Twitter and more than a billion views on YouTube. Shakira is followed by Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga.

Just over half a century ago, a little boy was born in Dublin, Ireland - a little boy who would not only change music, but change the world. Today is Bono's 51st birthday. Of course, he wasn't born Bono, he was born Paul Hewson. Paul and his band kick off the final leg of their tour in Mexico City tomorrow night. They're at Qwest Field in July.

A 56-year-old American woman went to the dentist for surgery and awakened from sedation speaking in a British accent. A lifelong resident of Oregon, the woman now speaks with what she deems, "an odd mixture of Irish, Scottish and northern British, with perhaps a dash of Australian and South African for good measure." Many believe the woman is suffering from Foreign Accent Syndrome, a rare but real disorder most often caused by a stroke. Not all cases are considered unfortunate. In 1990, a man from Baltimore developed a Scandinavian accent after a stroke and was disappointed when the accent faded after three and a half months, admitting he'd hoped it would help him attract women.

Trivia Answer: Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets. Rock Around the Clock is a 12-bar-blues-based song written in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954. It was not the first rock and roll record, nor was it the first successful record of the genre but it was the first to top the Billboard chart and became an anthem for rebellious Fifties youth. It's widely considered to be the song that, more than any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture around the world. The song is ranked #158 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Things seemed to be going so well for the Mariners. They had won three consecutive series and were close to being at .500. Then they lost to the lowly Chicago White Sox not once but twice over the weekend including yesterday's 10-inning affair which the Sox won, 5-2. The Ms are off today and open a 3-game set at Baltimore tomorrow.

The Tacoma Rainiers beat the Las Vegas 51s Saturday night 4-3 but came up short yesterday at Cheney Stadium losing to the 51s 6-4. The series finale is  today then the Rainiers head to Oklahoma City.

The Columbus Crew ran its unbeaten streak to seven by tying Seattle 1-1 on Saturday night in Major League Soccer. Seattle is now 3-3-4. Coming up Saturday, the Sounders host Portland.

Animal Kingdom sped past the leaders in the turn at Churchill Downs on Saturday and roared down the middle of the stretch to win the Kentucky Derby. Animal Kingdom went off as a 20-to-1 longshot in the lightly regarded field.

In the NBA, there shall be no three-peat for the Los Angeles Lakers. Yesterday, Phil Jackson walked off the court with a tight smile, shaking hands and accepting congratulations like he has after so many series-ending playoff games. Never like this, though. His team didn't win ... they were crushed ... and Swept, too. And he wasn't just heading to the offseason -- he's calling it a career, ending the most successful run by any coach in NBA history. The Dallas Mavericks ended Jackson's tenure, and the Lakers' reign as two-time champions, with a 122-86 victory. At game's end, Dallas coaches, players and team owner Mark Cuban lined up to bid farewell to the Zen Master. The 65-year-old Jackson has retired before, but he insists it's for good this time. While he goes out with the sour taste of his first sweep in 21 postseasons, and his second-widest margin of defeat, it can't override all the sweet days. A Hall of Famer since 2007, he leaves with a record 11 titles, and only 10 series losses. Take away Red Auerbach, who won nine championships, and Jackson won more titles than any two coaches combined. He won six championships with Michael Jordan, three with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, and the last two with Bryant leading the way.

Congrats are in order to Darren and the crew of the Roxy sponsored Unlimited Light Hydroplane. The Roxy boat participated in the first race of the season at the Apple Blossom Festival in Wenatchee over the weekend and won. The Roxy hydro finished first in its qualifying heat and in the Finals accumulating a season leading 800 points.

There were recent reports that Lindsay Lohan would play Stevie Nicks in a movie about Fleetwood Mac, but the singer put the kibosh on the casting plans and is sticking with her guns. She told CNN that Lohan will "never" play her "unless she cleans up her life and becomes the great actress [Stevie feels] she can be." Nicks explained people think she hates Lindsay but stated, "It's not that at all." Stevie knows about Lindsay's troubles, having been to rehab twice herself for cocaine and pill addiction. Nicks added, "I just want her to get it together. I was completely messed up for a long time and I got it together."

Johnny Depp is playing Captain Jack Sparrow once again in the new flick Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Depp says he wants to keep playing Jack for a long time. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides also stars Penélope Cruz and Geoffrey Rush and hits theaters May 20th. Johnny will be happy to hear that the rumor is there will be a fifth and sixth Pirates film.

Madonna has reportedly collaborated with her daughter Lourdes on a song. According to British paper The Sun, the two worked on a track titled It's So Cool.  The tune will either be featured on Madge's next album or on the soundtrack to her forthcoming film, W.E. A source told the paper that "Lourdes has a great voice and plenty of character, like her mother."  By the way, Lourdes is now 14 years old.

Paul McCartney is reportedly engaged to his girlfriend of four years, 51-year-old Nancy Shevell. Sir Paul met Shevell in the Hamptons in the summer of 2007. A source tells People.com that the two "have the right chemistry.  They're both cool, chilled out, and optimistic." This will be Paul's third marriage, following his 2002 nuptials with Heather Mills (and we all know how that worked out) and his 1969 marriage to Linda McCartney.

Over the weekend 282 Canadians set the Guinness World Record for the most number of people carrying water jugs on their heads. It sounds silly but they had a serious purpose for the stunt. They did it to draw attention to the fact that thousands of women and girls in many countries must walk miles each day to fetch water.

In Florida some sheriff's deputies spotted several pot plants being grown on a man's back porch. His girlfriend allowed deputies to search their place. That turned out to be a bad move. Deputies found a cigar box with several bags of cocaine, a bag of rock cocaine, a bag of pot, some pills and an additional 33 pot plants.

Paula Abdul has closed a deal to be the fourth and final judge on The X Factor. Paula and Simon are getting back together again. Simon Cowell blames lawyers for dragging out the process and delaying the announcement.

Lady Gaga is the guest mentor on American Idol this week. She joins the likes of will.i.am and Sheryl Crow, who have also appeared on the show this season, giving advice to the contestants.

Idol judge Steven Tyler definitely has interesting taste in fashion and now, his daughter is shedding some light on the inspiration behind his wardrobe. Actress Liv Tyler tells New York Magazine, "My dad wears girls' clothes -- it's so funny." She added, "Sometimes I see him and I'm like, 'Nice shirt,' because it's from my closet."

An Ohio man is in police custody after he allegedly ran nude on State Route 43 before stealing a white pickup truck in Jefferson County. According to witnesses, the suspect drove the truck at high speeds through a construction zone, crashed, and then tried to escape from state troopers on foot and in the buff. The highway patrol said he was uncooperative when officers caught him and didn't want to give his name to police. No cause for his wild naked romp is known and he was taken to a local hospital to undergo a mental health evaluation.

A man unwittingly arranged a date with his girlfriend after meeting a woman on the Internet. Yup. The girlfriend and the woman online were the same person. The pair had planned to see each other at a coffee shop in Barrie, Ontario. However, on the date last Saturday evening, the man was surprised to learn that the person he was supposed to be courting was his angry partner. Upon confronting him, the 49-year-old woman threw coffee at his face and slapped him, according to police reports. An off-duty local officer then intervened and arrested her.

Trivia Answer: William Martin Joel -- Billy Joel -- who turns 62 today. His most recent #1 song came in 1989 and from the album Storm Front. That song was We Didn't Start the Fire, and it spent two weeks at the top. It was also Billboard's second-last #1 single of the 1980s (Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins was the last). On July 16th and July 18th of 2008, Joel played the final concerts at Shea Stadium before its demolition. His guests included Tony Bennett, Don Henley, John Mayer, John Mellencamp, Steven Tyler, Roger Daltrey, Garth Brooks, and Paul McCartney. McCartney ended the show with a reference to his own performance there with the Beatles in 1965, the first major stadium concert of the rock and roll industry. The concerts were featured in the 2010 documentary film Last Play at Shea. The film was released on DVD in February of this year. The CD from the show was released in March. Beginning in 1994, Joel toured extensively with Elton John on a series of Face to Face tours, making them the longest running and most successful concert tandem in pop music history. During these shows, the two have played their own songs, each other's songs, and performed duets. They grossed over $46 million in just 24 dates in their sold out 2003 tour. Joel and John resumed the Face to Face tour in March 2009 and it ended again, at least for the time being, in March 2010. Joel denied rumors in the trade press that he canceled a summer 2010 leg of the tour, claiming there were never any dates booked and that he intended to take the year off. Joel told Rolling Stone magazine: "We'll probably pick it up again. It's always fun playing with him."

How 'bout those Mariners? Jason Vargas pitched a solid 7 2/3 innings and Justin Smoak went 3-for-4 with a homer and a double to lead the Mariners to their third consecutive series victory, this one over their division rivals, the Texas Rangers. The Ms win last night 3-1. The win moves Seattle back within two games of the AL West lead -- an entirely inconsequential number as far as the playoff race is concerned, but more evidence of just how drastic this team's turnaround has been over the past two weeks. The Mariners are now 15-and-17 and have won seven of their last nine. They kick off a 3-game set with the Chicago White Sox tonight.

Meanwhile in Tacoma, early runs and shutout pitching from the bullpen over the final four innings gave the Rainiers something they hadn't had all season -- a series victory and back-to-back wins at Cheney Stadium. Four first-inning runs set the tone, and the Rainiers kept going to beat the Tucson Padres, 8-4, last night. Tacoma is hosting the Las Vegas 51s tonight through Monday.

The Seattle Sounders are in Ohio to face the Columbus Crew tomorrow afternoon at 4:30.

Today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day.

Don't forget Moms' Day on Sunday.

American Idol's final four was set at two guys and two girls last night when Jacob Lusk was given the boot. A pack of women singers went home in the finals' early weeks, but with four men going home in the last four weeks, the final four was down to two men and two women. The four remaining finalists are Scotty McCreery, James Durbin, Lauren Alaina, and Haley Reinhart. The finale airs May 24th and 25th, when viewers choose the next winner and he or she lands a recording contract.

The actress who played Elly May Clampett on the The Beverly Hillbillies is suing Mattel claiming the company used her name and likeness for a Barbie doll without her authorization. The federal suit filed Wednesday in Baton Rouge, La., says packaging for the Elly May Barbie doll features a photo of Donna Douglas portraying the character. Douglas says she never endorsed the doll or gave Mattel permission to use her name to promote its sale before the toy maker introduced the doll in December 2010. From 1962 to 1971, Douglas appeared in all 274 episodes of the CBS program, The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a court order barring Mattel from using her "name, likeness, image and distinctive attributes."

With "birthers" mostly silent, "deathers" are now pushing a new conspiracy theory. The release of President Obama's birth certificate last week apparently tamped down -- to a large degree -- skeptics who questioned whether he could legally serve as president because they said he wasn't a natural-born citizen. Now, a surprisingly diverse crop of people are questioning whether Osama bin Laden is actually dead. Some media outlets and bloggers are calling them "deathers." Their claims follow a wide range: Some believe that the world's most-wanted terrorist was not the man killed Sunday, others think bin Laden is dead but was killed many years ago, and still others believe that the September 11th mastermind is alive -- and secretly being interrogated. And so it goes . . .

Donald Trump says he won't be the celebrity pace-car driver for the Indy 500 later this month. He says it would be "inappropriate" since "he may be announcing shortly his intention" to run for president. Insiders say Trump was asked to drop out since there were a growing number of people asking why a TV personality and President-basher was going behind the wheel on the great race's 100th anniversary.

Last weekend, New Hampshire's Rachel Gilbert celebrated her 100th birthday by taking a spin around the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Speedway officials say that satisfying her need for speed was a dream come true for the elderly driver. The speedway's executive vice president was Gilbert's driving instructor and got to sit shotgun as she whipped around the racetrack.

Prince William and his new wife, Duchess Catherine, are heading to America this summer for an official visit. No word yet on what the royals will be doing. The couple is first going to Canada from June 30th to July 7th, and then to California from July 8th to 10th. It's Catherine's first trip to the United States.

If you thought the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels Dead Man's Chest and At World's End were confusing, you're not alone -- even star Johnny Depp didn't get them. The first film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was meant to be a stand-alone film, but producers decided to make a trilogy out of it and Johnny's as confused as the rest of us.

Bryan Adams has become a father for the first time at the age of 51. The singer's personal assistant gave birth to a daughter, Mirabella Bunny, on April 22nd. That word on People magazine's website. Adams' spokeswoman did not respond to messages seeking confirmation. The mother, Alicia Grimaldi, is a long-time employee who helps run Adams' charitable efforts. She and the baby were both "well and happy," Adams was quoted as saying in the report. Adams maintains strict secrecy about his private life, and the nature of his personal relationship with Grimaldi has not been disclosed.

Jerry Seinfeld launches his new website today. It's an online home for video of nearly every recorded comedy performance delivered by the entertainer.

A report issued earlier this week reveals that a record-low one-in-four teens will be able to get a summer job this year. Experts say this could mean a rise in street violence for some cities as teenagers end up with more free time on their hands during the summer off. Northeastern University in Boston conducted the study and they say this would be a post-World War II low. According to the report, the high teen unemployment rate is due to a poor job market all around and lost federal funding.

As if some baby names weren't weird enough, one Egyptian man took weird baby names to a completely different level. In honor of the protests in Egypt which were largely orchestrated on social media sites, the man has named his new born daughter Facebook. WikiNews reports that family and friends are overjoyed at the little girl's arrival and Facebook has received lots of presents.

A fourth grade class in a town south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin convinced one of their state senators to introduce a bill that would make the cream puff the official dessert of Wisconsin. The students started a Facebook page to generate support. According to the office of Republican Senator Mary Lazich, more than 3.6-million cream puffs have been eaten at the state fair alone. However, it's tough to get things passed as state symbols. Attempts to make Harley Davidson the official motorcycle and to recognize a microbe that gets turned into cheese recently failed to pass.

This is actually rather sad. A teen in Canada asked to be sentenced to more than the six months recommended by his lawyer. Why? So he could spend extra time with his stepfather in jail. The 18-year-old told a judge he had nowhere to stay until his stepfather gets out of jail. The judge granted the teen's wish.

Trivia Answer: Seattle Slew. This is Kentucky Derby weekend. Nine years ago tomorrow -- twenty-five years to the day that he won the Kentucky Derby -- Seattle Slew died in his sleep at age 28. Not expected to be a great racehorse, he was sold to Karen and Mickey Taylor of White Swan, Washington. They named him for the city of Seattle and the sloughs which loggers once used to transport heavy logs. Karen, however, felt that the spelling of slough would be too hard for people to remember, so the spelling was changed to Slew.

Hard to decide which was more impressive last night -- the 77 strikes thrown to Texas Rangers batters by Seattle Mariners pitcher Michael Pineda, or the two pitches thrown by the 22-year-old rookie that wound up in the bleachers behind him. The pair of long, majestic solo home runs hit in the fifth and seventh innings, proved the young Pineda hittable as Texas beat Seattle 5-2 at Safeco Field, despite another sterling performance by the American League Rookie of the Month for April. They wrap up the series tonight.

Meanwhile in Tacoma, the Tucson Padres were trailing by three runs entering the ninth inning. A couple of home runs put them ahead by a run in the top of the frame. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Padres made two crucial errors, and the Rainiers celebrated a walk-off victory winning 7-6. The Rainiers and Padres do it again tonight.

DC United put an end to a two-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the Seattle Sounders in at RFK Stadium last night. The Sounders next face the Columbus Crew Saturday afternoon at 4:30.

President Obama is visiting New York's ground zero today. Obama's visit includes a wreath-laying ceremony, according to the White House. He does not plan to deliver a speech. He is also visiting Engine Company 54, which lost 15 firefighters in the 9/11 attacks.

That photo of President Obama and his national security team in the White House situation room during the Osama bin Laden raid is well on its way to destroying all of Flickr's viewing records. The image went up on Flickr Monday and had 1.6 million views after its first 38 hours. No photo has gotten that many hits that quickly, according to Flickr. Meanwhile, there are a number of Photoshopped versions floating around the worldwide interweb. One of them has the team all wearing hats from the Royal Wedding. There's another that has the president holding a game controller.

President Obama has announced that photos of a dead Osama bin Laden will not be released. He said that the "risks of release outweigh the benefits" and that dispelling conspiracy theorists that bin Laden is not dead is less important than trying not to "inflame public opinion in the Middle East."

The prez sits down with Steve Croft on 60 Minutes Sunday night.

Actor Jackie Cooper, who survived a tumultuous childhood as an Oscar-nominated star to enjoy a varied career as a TV executive, director and Superman sidekick, has died near Los Angeles. He starred in more than 100 movies and TV shows before retiring from Hollywood more than 20 years ago. He never really shed the pug nose and firm chin that endeared him to millions of Americans during the Great Depression, when he starred as a prominent cast member of Hal Roach's Our Gang short comedy films. At the twilight of his career, Cooper played grizzled Daily Planet editor Perry White in the 1978 Superman movie and its three sequels. Cooper succumbed to complications of old age at a convalescent home in the coastal city of Santa Monica. Jackie Cooper was 88.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's still got it. The bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-governor-turned-actor has signed at $12.5 million deal to star in a movie called Cry Macho. He'll also get a cut a percentage of the profits.

Coming up on American Idol tonight, Lady Antebellum performs. I believe J-Lo is also performing on tonight's results show.

Steven Tyler recently revealed that he'll debut the video to his first-ever solo single, (It) Feels So Good, next week on Idol. Now he tells Billboard that Aerosmith is also set to perform on the show. Steven says the band is playing the last show of the season. As for how things are going with the new album, Steven said he and guitarist Joe Perry have been emailing songs and licks back and forth and they'll be getting together this month to "settle a lot of the tumult that's been going on in the last year between lawyers and managers."

This week, Steven released his autobiography, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?. So if the book is ever made into a movie, who would Mr. Tyler want to play him? He tells Billboard magazine, it'd be Johnny Depp, adding, "I've been hanging out with him lately, we're planning on writing a song together." Incidentally, Johnny is a guitar player and has recorded a solo album. He also played slide guitar on the Oasis song "Fade In-Out" and was in Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers's video for "Into the Great Wide Open."

The X Factor and former American Idol judge Simon Cowell jumped to number 6 in the British music rich list in 2011 after his fortune hit 200 million pounds ($330 million), according to Britain's Sunday Times yesterday. That was a 35 million pound rise on 2010, when he was 11th in the annual rankings published by the newspaper, and took him above Elton John and Mick Jagger. British-based record executive Clive Calder, who sold Zomba Records in 2002, took over at the top of the music rich list with 1.3 billion pounds. Musical composer and theater owner Andrew Lloyd Webber was second with a fortune of 680 million pounds, musical producer Cameron Mackintosh was third at 675 million and Paul McCartney was fourth at 495 million. Simon Cowell's arch-rival Simon Fuller, creator of the Idol franchise, ranked 5th with personal wealth of 375 million pounds. Next comes Simon Cowell at 6, followed by Elton John at 7, Mick Jagger at 8, Sting at 9, and Keith Richards (with a paltry 175 million pounds) at 10.

Today, Adele has multiple reasons to celebrate. Not only is it her birthday -- she's turning 23 -- but she has the number one album in the country for yet another week, with her most recent effort, 21. It sold another 120-thousand copies, and she's now moved 1.4-million total units in the US alone. Not a bad way to celebrate your birthday. By the way, her album is called 21 because that's how old she was when she wrote it.

Apparently, a lot of famous people Google themselves. (I know, I was shocked!) However, there's one out there who doesn't anymore. Katy Perry told Britain's The Sunday Times Magazine that she's stopped doing it after finding out from Google about now-husband Russell Brand's plan to propose to her. She said that she's now "Google-free."

CNN is reporting that Oksana Grigorieva dropped her domestic violence accusations against Mel Gibson while in court on Wednesday. A source told the outlet that Oksana also says she wants the restraining order she filed against Mel dropped. There is no word on what caused this sudden change.

Marie Osmond married her first husband for the second time yesterday. The couple, who first got married back in 1982, tied the knot once again at the Las Vegas Mormon Temple. The couple married on May 4th, saying it was a symbolic date as both Marie's late son, Michael, and her late mother, Olive, were born on that day. People.com has more. Marie wore the same wedding dress on Wednesday that she wore at the couple's first wedding (I can hear certain women yelling, "That was 29 years ago! Shut up!).

INXS has announced that they're heading out on a North American summer tour. According to a press release, all the dates are being announced shortly, but the trek kicks off July 17th at the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville. INXS is there with Berlin.

Trivia Answer: Kristina Louise Yothers -- Tina Yothers -- who turns 38 today. Her father was a television producer. She has three brothers, Jeffrey, Randy and Cory, who all acted in commercials as children. Tina began her acting career in television advertisements at age three. Her first cinema role was in the 1981 television movie The Cherokee Trail. She also appeared in the 1982 feature film Shoot the Moon. Her most famous role was as Jennifer Keaton, the youngest daughter in the television comedy Family Ties from 1982 to 1989. After a nine year absence from acting, Yothers was given the lead role in Lovelace the Musical, a 2004 stage show based on the life of former pornographic movie star Linda Lovelace. She followed that up with a stint as a stock player in the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater in Boca Raton, Florida from 2005 to 2007. In 2002, Tina married an electrician, Robert Kaiser, who had twin sons from a previous marriage. Yothers has two children, daughter Lillian Grace 'Lilly', born October 2005, and a son, Robert Jake born September 24, 2007. The family resides in Ontario, California.

Just so we're clear: yes, that was Erik Bedard taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning last night, despite a 33-pitch first inning that threatened to prevent him from a second consecutive venture into the seventh inning. And yes, that was the Seattle Mariners offense bailing out its bullpen with a string of clutch hits in the bottom of the eighth inning, Jack Cust pouncing on a first-pitch curveball from Rangers reliever Darren Oliver to drive home the game's winning run.It just didn't look like them. Or, maybe now that the Mariners have won six of their last seven games, taking a 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field last night, we should treat these occurrences as signs that Seattle plans to actually compete in the American League West this season. Don't look now but the Mariners are 14-and-16 and just two games out in the AL West. Ms and Rangers tee it up again tonight. Pineda is throwing for Seattle.

Seattle Mariners outfielder Milton Bradley took the night off last night. He was suspended for one game and fined following his ejection against the Boston Red Sox last weekend. Saturday night Milton was standing at second base when the problem started. After teammate Miguel Olivo was called out on a close play at first base, Bradley began arguing with second base umpire Gerry Davis and was ejected. MLB also fined Bradely an undisclosed amount.

The Tacoma Rainiers lost to the Tucson Padres 5-4 in PCL play last night at Cheney Stadium. They meet again tonight.

The Seattle Sounders are back in action tonight. They're on the road to face DC United.

Pakistan yesterday shared with the United States that it wasn't happy that our special forces didn't knock before entering their country. Pakistan says the "unauthorized unilateral" action could threaten international peace. Many are saying this is just posturing on the part of Pakistan.

The news of Osama bin Laden's death on Sunday night prompted an average of three-thousand tweets per second on the subject from 10:45 PM to 2:20 AM Eastern. Twitter announced that that was their highest sustained rate of tweets ever. The fastest rate of tweets per second ever happened on New Year's Eve in Japan when users posted 6,939 tweets per second.

President Barack Obama sits down with 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft on Sunday for his first and only interview since the death of Osama bin Laden. Meanwhile, President Obama is attending an observance at New York's ground zero. Obama plans to visit the site of the destroyed World Trade Center towers tomorrow.

Charlie Sheen's Violent Torpedo of Truth tour landed at Comcast Arena last night. How'd it go? Said one fan, "It could be worse, but I'm not sure how." The grand finale to Sheen's 21-city tour started with a standing ovation. Then Sheen went on to reprimand the media, nominate himself for president, praise marijuana, boo Detroit, and rally his fans into a frenzy. Not all thought it was so bad, Another fan said, "I thought the show was pretty fun. I actually did." Those who enjoyed themselves were in the minority, however.

Aerosmith singer and American Idol judge Steven Tyler is working on solo music and on May 12th's episode of Idol, he'll premiere the video to his first-ever solo single, (It) Feels So Good. The clip was shot last month in Los Angeles and was described by an observer as "everything you would expect to get from a classic Aerosmith video ... pure, classic Steven Tyler in all of his rock star glory."

Colbie Caillat's new album, All of You, is coming out July 12th. It had been listed in some places as coming out earlier than that, but it seems that right around mid-July is when we'll be getting to hear all the brand new material.

The Plain White T's Rhythm of Love, has been officially certified Platinum. According to a press release, the tune has now been downloaded more than one-million times. The song is off of their most recent album, The Wonders of the Youngers.

Katy Perry is on the cover of the forthcoming issue of Vanity Fair. In the interview inside, she opens up about a number of subjects, including her religious upbringing, her marriage to Russell Brand and much more. Pick it up at newsstands beginning tomorrow, and check out the cover now at VanityFair.com.

Bruno Mars is officially a worldwide hit. The singer's 2010 debut album, Doo-Wops &9 Hooligans, has now been certified platinum for sales over one-million units in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere. He's also now sold 14-million singles worldwide.

Gibson.com has compiled a list of the best albums of the '90s and topping it is none other than Nirvana's Nevermind. The site's editors, writers, and readers all voted and the 1991 record topped the list, followed by Radiohead's OK Computer, U2's Achtung Baby, Definitely Maybe by Oasis and R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People. Rounding out the top ten are Pearl Jam's Ten, Metallica's Metallica, Time out of Mind by Bob Dylan, Jeff Buckley's Grace, and Radiohead's The Bends. You can see the top 50 albums at Gibson.com. By the way, Nevermind has gone ten-times platinum for sales in excess of ten-million units.

She starred in the movie, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. 1950s and 60s actress Yvette Vickers apparently has been found dead. At least a mummified body has been found in her apartment. Last week, out of concern, a neighbor climbed in Vickers window to check on her and found the corpse there. Apparently, the body may have been dead for up to a year and had been lying on the floor in one of the rooms in the house since then. All indications are that it is Vickers but officials are conducting tests for confirmation.

A group of New York senators are pushing to make doctors dump their neckties and other accessories in an effort to curb the spread of bacteria.

A couple of butcher brothers in Scotland are selling the world's hottest sausage. The "Devil's Sausage" is 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce.

Last week, a German woman managed to escape a dog attack with only minor injuries. Unfortunately, she can't say the same about her encounter with the police who arrived on the scene. Reuters reports that in an attempt to distract the animal, police shot the door behind which the victim was hiding. The bullet went through the wood and hit the woman in the arm.

Trivia Answer: Dominick DeLuise -- Dom DeLuise -- who died on this date two years ago. He's the father of actor, writer, pianist, director Peter DeLuise, actor David DeLuise, and actor Michael DeLuise. In All Dogs Go to Heaven, Burt Reynolds's voice was featured as Charlie B. Barken -- the at first reluctant hero and DeLuise voiced Itchy Itchaford -- Charlie's best friend, side-kick and later partner in business. Unlike DeLuise however, Reynolds did not voice Charlie in any of the sequels or in any of the TV episodes. DeLuise was probably best known as a regular in Mel Brooks' films. He appeared in The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World, Part I, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. DeLuise died at age 75. He was hospitalized at the time, suffering from kidney failure and respiratory problems due to complications from diabetes and high blood pressure. He had been suffering from cancer for more than a year. His family was by his side at the time of his death. Mel Brooks made a statement at the time telling the Los Angeles Times that Dom "created so much joy and laughter on the set that you couldn't get your work done. So every time I made a movie with Dom, I would plan another two days on the schedule just for laughter."

Here's hoping the Mariners can be at least as successful on their homestand as they were on their recent road trip. They won 5 of 6 on the road. They open a six-game stretch at home tonight. They've got three with the Texas Rangers then three with the Chicago White Sox.

The Tacoma Rainiers scored five runs in the first inning and four in the second and proceeded to cruise to a 12-6 victory over the Tucson Padres last night at Cheney Stadium. The Rainiers are hosting Tucson through Thursday.

The Seattle Sounders coming off their 3-nil thumping of Toronto FC are on the road tomorrow night at DC United.

An East Wenatchee man who vowed after the September 11th attacks not to shave until Osama bin Laden was captured or killed, finally cut off his beard when he heard the news the al Qaeda leader was dead. Gary Weddle is a 50-year-old middle school teacher. His beard had reached some 15 inches long. He said he began cutting his facial hair for the first time in nearly a decade on Sunday night. Weddle was honored yesterday by Jill Palmquist, principal of the middle school where he teaches, who announced to students over the loudspeaker that Weddle had kept his promise to honor the lives lost. Palmquist told students, "For 3,454 days, Mr. Weddle kept his word, faithful and true. He endured ridicule, jokes and no doubt people telling him that his was a lost cause."

It took them about -- snap -- that long. On the streets of New York and online yesterday, for $22 you could buy a t-shirt that shows a photo of President Barack Obama and under it the words: "Sorry it took so long to get you a copy of my birth certificate. I was too busy killing Osama bin Laden."

Osama bin Laden is dead. But word is Donald Trump won't be satisfied until President Obama releases the long-form death certificate.

Rick Springfield was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk through Malibu in his vintage Corvette over the weekend. The 61-year-old was taken into custody Sunday night after failing a field sobriety test, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman. Rick was stopped by sheriff's deputies after rapidly accelerating his 1963 Corvette along Pacific Coast Highway in the celebrity enclave of Malibu. A breath analysis showed that he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 percent, above California's legal limit of 0.08 percent, according to police. Springfield faces a court appearance on July 5th.

Lady Gaga premieres her video for Judas on American Idol this week. Also this week, Sheryl Crow hops on board to help record producer Jimmy Iovine mentor the remaining five contestants on Idol. Crow will sit alongside the head of Interscope Records as the finalists prepare for their performances on Wednesday night. On Thursday night, another Idol hopeful gets sent home.

A tanning bed can save your life -- but only if you're taking shelter from a tornado. That's exactly what one Georgia woman and her two daughters did when riding out a recent storm. Reportedly, while while the women were huddled together in the tanning bed, a fierce tornado took surrounding buildings. When the storm was over, the ladies emerged to find the back brick wall of their tanning salon had been swept away by the twister.

Bob Murray is not only looking for love online -- he's willing to travel across the nation to find the woman of his dreams. The 34-year-old from Milwaukee is spending 17 days on the road, visiting eight cities to go on dates with women he met on the Internet. Reports are that Murray is planning to film the experience for a documentary. Some of his stops include Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas and an undetermined city somewhere in Oklahoma.

A new study indicates that left-handers are more likely to be affected by fear.

A Florida thief was trying to run with cases of shoplifted beer when he tripped and fell in the parking lot -- and lost his pants. Video shows him getting back up and fleeing in a car.

A St. Petersburg, Florida, attorney says Facebook and social media are used in 90 percent of her divorce cases. Doing dumb things you don't want your soon-to-be ex to know about? Don't think that simply closing a Facebook account is all it takes to wipe away your stupidity. Because websites like Google cache images as soon as they're put online, pictures from Facebook accounts that have been deactivated can stick around for years.

Sarah McLachlan has announced additional summer shows, including special performances at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and at Red Rocks outside of Denver with the Colorado Symphony. She's also added more Sarah and Friends dates throughout the United States and Canada including at the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville on Tuesday, July 19th.

Kid Rock was honored by the NAACP of Detroit over the weekend, despite protesters outside the event who accused him of being a racist for flying the Confederate flag on stage during his concerts. After receiving the award for advocating his hometown of Detroit, he told attendees at the dinner, "I love America. I love Detroit, and I love black people." According to the Associated Press, Kid said his use of the Confederate flag was a throwback to Lynyrd Skynyrd, not a reflection of his thoughts on race. At the event, Kid announced he would be making a 50-thousand dollar donation to several Detroit-based charities and another 50-thousand for tornado relief in states that were hit hardest by the recent storms.

It might have been gorgeous in the Northwest over the weekend, but it was too little too late. Seattle officially set its record for having the coldest average high temperature for the month of April. The average high for the month this year was 52.23 degrees, well below the record of 52.6 degrees set in 1970. Put another way, it was cumulatively 11 degrees colder this April than it had ever been before.

Out on DVD today: The Dilemma with Vince Vaughn and Kevin James; and The Green Hornet with Seth Rogen.

Will Ferrell says there's still hope for an Anchorman sequel. The 43-year-old comedian told Entertainment Weekly that there is still a chance Anchorman 2 could come out, even though Paramount has passed on all their sequel ideas and their sequel budget projections so far. Ferrell said they are negotiating with the movie company right now and all hope is not lost.

Trivia Answer: Harry Lillis Crosby -- Bing Crosby -- who was born on this date in 1903. The Crosby House in Tumwater was Bing Crosby's grandfather's house. A multimedia star, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses. Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way, and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary's the next year, becoming the first of four actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award. Crosby is one of the 22 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The biggest hit of Crosby's career was his recording of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", which he introduced through a radio broadcast during the 1942 Christmas season, and the movie Holiday Inn. Crosby's recording hit the charts on October 3, 1942, and rose to #1 on October 31, where it stayed for 11 weeks. A holiday perennial, the song was repeatedly re-released by Decca, charting another 16 times. It topped the charts again in 1945, and for a third time in January 1947. The song remains the best-selling single of all time. According to Guinness World Records, Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" has "sold over 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles." Crosby's recording was so popular that he was obliged to re-record it in 1947 using the same musicians and backup singers; the original 1942 master had become damaged due to its frequent use in pressing additional singles. Though the two versions are very similar, it is the 1947 recording which is most familiar today.

After playing nine holes of morning golf, President Obama joined his senior aides in the White House Situation Room at 1:00 yesterday afternoon to go over final preparations for that day's top-secret raid on a complex 35 miles outside Islamabad that those in the room believed was built to hide Osama bin Laden. Few beyond that room had any inkling that the government had been planning this raid for months and had worked to find the sprawling complex for years -- all based on a tip from a detainee who gave authorities a nom-de-guerre for a man he said could be hiding the world's most notorious terrorist. At 3:32, Obama rejoined his aides as a small team of Navy SEALs boarded helicopters in the dark and headed toward the affluent suburb of Abbottabad in their quest to capture or kill the man responsible for 9/11. A photo of the scene released by the White House illustrates the stress. Obama, Vice President Biden, and a dozen top aides are huddled on one side of the room, staring at something on the other side. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is holding her hand over her mouth. The entire raid, during which bin Laden and those hiding him were killed, passed in 40 minutes. The commandos knew how the complex was laid out and even where bin Laden and his family likely could be found on the second and third floors of the largest building on site. According to the National Journal, they had been practicing at a mock complex, a replica of bin Laden's home, built at a secret base in nearby Afghanistan. White House counter-terrorism czar John Brennan said, "You can imagine that for something as important as this, and something as risky as this, every effort would be made to do the practice runs, understand the complexities and the layout of the compound. There were multiple opportunities to do that in terms of going through the exercises to prepare for it." But the SEALs could not know for sure what would happen once they dropped in to the complex. They didn't know whether they could get in and out before the Pakistani government -- which had not been informed about the raid before it was launched -- would be able to scramble fighter jets and get them to the scene to respond to what to Pakistan was a threat from a mysterious source. There were "a lot of people holding their breath," Brennan said. It went like clockwork -- almost. Bin Laden and the courier hiding him, along with the courier's brother, put up a fight -- as expected. Brennan said U.S. forces were prepared to take bin Laden alive but knew he would probably not go down easy. It was unclear today whether he "got off any rounds," Brennan said, but he reached for a weapon as a firefight broke out, and the SEALs shot him in the head. In doing so, they also killed his young wife, who was placed in front of him as a shield -- an example, Brennan said, along with bin Laden's comfortable existence in a fortified $1 million compound, of how the "al-Qaeda narrative is becoming bankrupt." After the US forces secured the area, collected bin Laden's body and sent word to the White House that he had been tentatively identified, it became clear that one of their helicopters, which had stalled on its way into the compound, could not be restarted. Reinforcements came in, the broken aircraft was destroyed so it wouldn't fall into hostile hands and the SEALs got out before Pakistani jets got to the scene. The commandos were able to make off with a cache of information that could help the government root out more al Qaeda leaders, Brennan said, and no Americans were injured in the raid. Analysts say it was one of the most successful raids they can recall. "This is probably the most historic raid in U.S. history," said Rick Nelson, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It had its roots in a tip, years ago. According to the Associated Press, it came from al Qaeda's No. 3 leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who gave authorities the nicknames of several of bin Laden's couriers -- men who could be hiding the al Qaeda leader. The CIA homed in on one man when another detainee, Abu Faraj al-Libi, provided interrogators with more information. Two years ago, the CIA figured out where the man might be living, and in August of 2010, identified the complex. It was a house eight times bigger than any other in the affluent neighborhood of mostly Pakistani military retirees. Located near a military training academy, it had 12- to 18-foot walls topped with barbed wire, security gates and guards -- and no phone or Internet service. The CIA knew for months that the complex, which was built in 2005 at the end of a dirt road, was being used to hide someone important. It took a while to become certain that someone was bin Laden. Friday morning, before he boarded a plane for Alabama to view tornado damage, Obama gave the go-ahead for the weekend raid. It was scrapped Saturday because of bad weather. That night, the president attended the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner. He gave no hint of what was happening behind the scenes.

Now, it is far too soon to judge the long-term significance of America's successful operation to kill bin Laden. Will al Qaeda begin to crumble now that its charismatic leader is dead, or will we endure new terrorist attacks, perhaps on U.S. soil? Will the poisonous relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan now heal, or will there be new strains, especially if it turns out that elements of the Pakistani government were harboring bin Laden? Questions abound. Yet it is already clear that assuming the facts hold as we know them now, President Obama and his national security team have been enormously strengthened in the near term. The outpouring of joyous crowds on the streets of New York and Washington -- where people were chanting "USA! USA!" -- show that the news not only electrified Americans but brought us together as a people in a way we haven't seen since 9/11. With good reason. Bin Laden was not only the most hated man since Hitler but he was also the most hunted man in the world. His killing was unabashedly good news. And Americans have desperately needed some good news: After all, the past decade since 9/11 has not only seen us drawn into wars that drag on and on -- without victory -- but we feel the sting of terrorists every time we enter an airport. Since our economy nearly collapsed, the inability of our leaders to restore jobs and prosperity has also left us feeling increasingly helpless as a a great nation. Finding and killing bin Laden was a huge tonic.

Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com, and global managing editor for The Crescent Post in Washington, D.C.. He writes at CNN.com, "Although there has not been much cause for celebration for our global village over the past decade, the world was able to breathe a sigh of relief at the announcement by President Barack Obama of the killing of Osama bin Laden by US special operations forces at a mansion on the outskirts of Abbottabad, Pakistan. In addition to the vast majority of Americans who are relieved by his death, there are more than one billion Muslims around the world who salute the fact that bin Laden's ungodly terrorist mischief has finally come to an end. Simply put, there has been no single person in nearly a millennium and a half of Muslim history who has ever hijacked our beloved religion of Islam more than bin Laden."

Declaring the killing of bin Laden "a good day for America," President Obama said today the world is safer without the al-Qaida terrorist and mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The compound where it's believed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan

Even a 10-time Gold Glove winner can lose the ball in the sun. That's exactly what happened yesterday in Boston and with Ichiro's error, gone was the Seattle Mariners' chance at a perfect road trip. Jed Lowrie hit a ninth-inning fly that turned into a triple, then scored on Carl Crawford's two-out single to give the Boston Red Sox a 3-2 victory. But it was a good run. The Mariners had won six straight on the road -- including a sweep at Detroit before they won the first two games against the Red Sox. This from a team that opened the season 4-and-11. Boston has never been swept at home by the Mariners in a three-game series. The Ms are off today before opening six-game homestand tomorrow. They've got three with the Texas Rangers then three with the Chicago White Sox.

The Tacoma Rainiers also lost the last game of their road trip yesterday, falling to the Aces in Reno, 10-8. The Rainiers are hosting Tucson tonight through Thursday.

Brad Evans scored two goals and assisted on a third as the Seattle Sounders FC sprang back to life Saturday at Qwest Field with a 3-nil thumping of the continually woeful Reds of Toronto FC. Wednesday, the Sounders are at DC United.

Almost 23 million American TV viewers tuned in to watch live coverage of Prince William's marriage to Kate Middleton on Friday despite the wedding taking place before dawn in much of the States. However, according to Nielsen ratings data released Saturday, US TV viewing interest in the British royal nuptials in London was far below that of Princess Diana's funeral in 1997. Nielsen said 22.7 million Americans watched live coverage of the royal wedding on 11 US networks. The US population is about 310 million people. In comparison, 33.2 million tuned in to watch the funeral of Princess Diana in London in September 1997. Worldwide, other estimates put the global television and online audience for the wedding at 2.4 billion people -- more than one in three of the global population if the figure is accurate.

Steven Tyler is everywhere these days. The Aerosmith singer is not just on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone but also on the cover of the May 9th issue of People magazine. In it, he speaks about his job as a judge on American Idol, saying that when he appears on the show, he is "high on adrenaline. I'm stoned when that curtain drops. I just don't snort the curtain dropping. I don't snort J. Lo either, though I do breathe her in." In the article, Steven also states, "Left up to my own devices, I probably would have been dead several times over." Steven's autobiography, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You, hits shelves tomorrow

Wal-Mart shoppers in Stafford, Virginia were caught off-guard when a shop-lifter crawled right through the exit with 26 gallons of milk. Not only was the thief on all fours, he was dressed like a cow. After handing out jugs of stolen milk to passersby, the man reportedly skipped down the sidewalk in the cow costume before leaving the area.

Trivia Answer: The band is Foreigner. The singer is Lou Gramm, and he turns 61 today. Gramm began his musical career in his mid-teens, playing in local Rochester bands. Gramm went on to sing and play drums, and to eventually become front man for the band Black Sheep. Black Sheep had the distinction of being the first American band signed to the Chrysalis label. They were the opening act for KISS when an icy accident with their equipment truck on the New York State Thruway suddenly ended the band's tour on Christmas Eve of 1975. Unable to support its albums with live performances, Black Sheep came prematurely to a screeching halt. A year earlier, Lou Gramm had the opportunity to meet his future bandmate Mick Jones. Jones was in Rochester performing with the band Spooky Tooth, and Gramm had given Jones a copy of Black Sheep's first album. It was early in 1976, not long after Black Sheep's truck accident, when Jones, in search of a lead vocalist for a new band he was assembling, expressed his interest in Gramm and invited him in a phone call to audition for the job of lead singer. With the blessings of his Black Sheep bandmates, Gramm flew down to New York to audition for the still-unnamed band. With his powerful vocals, he easily got the job. The band was initially known as "Trigger," and was later renamed Foreigner. Gramm became one of the most successful rock vocalists of the late 1970s and 1980s.