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The Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship baseball game wasn’t played Thursday night because Mesa Prep’s second baseman is a girl. Paige Sultzbach, a freshman, is playing baseball because her high school doesn’t offer girls softball. But the school Mesa Prep was to face in the final, Our Lady of Sorrows Academy, said its boys would not compete against a team with a girl and forfeited the game - and the state title - to Mesa Prep. ”As a Catholic school, we promote the ideal of forming and educating boys and girls separately during the adolescent years, especially in physical education,” Our Lady of Sorrows said in a statement.

The Yemeni branch of al Qaeda now has “a whole outfit designated to target the U.S. homeland,” according to a source closely working with U.S. intelligence agencies and the military. In addition, the U.S. now believes Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is working on “several types of bombs” that could get past airport x-ray screening machines. The bomb technology is aimed at targeting the U.S., according to the source. Although the group has not yet succeeded in any of their bomb plots against the U.S., there are several bomb makers and a group of would-be suicide bombers inside the group, which operates out of rudimentary training camps in southern Yemen.

Russia’s security service has foiled a plot to attack the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea city of Sochi, state media reported Thursday. Authorities arrested three men this week in Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia on charges of plotting the attack in a joint operation with Abkhazian security services, the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. The three are suspected of being ringleaders of a regional cell of the North Caucasus-based terrorist group Caucasus Emirate. Police seized weapons, including three portable surface-to-air missiles, two anti-tank guided missiles, a mortar and a flamethrower.

Adam Mayes — accused of murder and kidnapping in a case involving a Tennessee mother and her three daughters — has died, FBI spokesman Joel Siskovic said late Thursday. The two sisters he allegedly kidnapped were found alive, law enforcement sources said. There had been conflicting reports about whether Mayes was dead or alive after he reportedly shot himself in Union County, Mississippi. Daniel McMullen, FBI special agent in charge in Jackson, Mississippi, said that officers with the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol and state Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Parks rescued Alexandria and Kyliyah Bain, “alive and unharmed.”

A man from Cornwall who blinded his girlfriend by gouging her eyes has been jailed for life. Shane Jenkin, 33, of Sea Lane, Hayle, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm on Tina Nash, 31. Jenkin had watched a DVD featuring eye gouging the night before the attack on 20 April 2011, Truro Crown Court heard. Judge Christopher Clark said the attack was one of “extreme violence with catastrophic consequences” and ordered Jenkin to be detained in a secure unit. The minimum term was fixed for six years.

Rebekah Brooks, a former newspaper editor and News Corp. executive, told a UK inquiry into press ethics Friday that she had received commiserations from Prime Minister David Cameron when she resigned last summer. Brooks said the message, along the lines of “keep your head up,” was among a number of “indirect messages” of sympathy that top politicians sent to her. Brooks resigned as chief executive of News International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., in July amid public outrage over claims of widespread hacking by staff at its News of the World newspaper.

This is the final WHCS news for the Academic Year, and we at WHCS would like to thank everyone for listening to our shows, visiting our website, and complaining about our sometimes poor weather reports.  Also, WHCS would like to thank me for reading the news every Friday (I hope Caroline read that out loud), and also thanks to Kristen and everyone else who helped with the news throughout the semester.  Farewell, and come back next semester for a new version of the WHCS News Desk.

North Carolina Bans Gay Marriage; Obama, Travolta disappointed

North Carolina voters have passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, CNN projects, putting a ban that already existed in state law into the state’s charter. With more than 1.5 million votes counted from Tuesday’s referendum, supporters of the ban led opponents by a margin of 61% to 39%, according to figures from the State Board of Elections. Its backers prepared to celebrate by serving wedding cake to their supporters in a Raleigh ballroom. Tami Fitzgerald, the head of Vote for Marriage NC, said she had been confident that “the people of North Carolina would rise up and vote to keep the opposition from redefining traditional marriage.

President Barack Obama said in an interview with ABC that “it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” With his Wednesday announcement, the president reversed his longstanding position on the issue. It came on the heels of his own vice president and education secretary saying they were in favor of gay marriage. According to an ABC blog post, Obama further described his thought process as an “evolution” that progressed as he discussed the issue with staff members, gay and lesbian service members and his own family. He said he thinks Americans are growing increasingly comfortable with the concept of gay marriage and cited his own daughters’ views on the matter.

The U.S. Postal Service is backing off a previous plan to close thousands of post offices, and will instead cut hours at 13,000 rural facilities in an effort to save $500 million a year. In response to a backlash against massive closures, the Postal Service said Wednesday it will cut hours at the targeted post offices, which would remain open between two hours and six hours a day. In addition, thousands of employees will be impacted when jobs shift from full-time to part-time positions.

A California judge ordered Wednesday that two Fullerton police officers stand trial in the beating death last year of Kelly Thomas, a homeless man with a mental illness. Officer Manuel Ramos is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and Cpl. Jay Patrick Cicinelli is charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony use of excessive force. Orange County Superior Court Judge Walter Schwarm scheduled the next hearing in the case on May 22.

An attorney for Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach charged last year with more than 50 counts involving sexual acts with minors, asked Wednesday for his client’s June 5 trial to be delayed. Lawyer Joe Amendola filed a motion saying that without a postponement he “will be unable to effectively and adequately” represent the former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator, saying he needs more time to prepare and has not yet received all pertinent information about the case. The request comes one month ahead of jury selection. Amendola has made similar motions in the past.

A federal lawsuit accusing John Travolta of assault and sexual battery on two massage therapists includes lurid details of one of the alleged incidents. Travolta’s lawyer soundly rejected the claims of both plaintiffs and called the claims of the first plaintiff “complete fiction.” In the first incident, Travolta allegedly groped a male massage therapist repeatedly and finally masturbated himself during the two-hour session in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel on January 16, 2012, according to court documents filed last Friday. The first plaintiff, a Texas native who is unidentified in the court documents, “suffered severe emotional distress,” the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit is asking for $2 million in damages.

The Andy Warhol classic painting “Double Elvis (Ferus Type)” sold Wednesday at Sotheby’s in New York for more than $37 million, the auction house said. With commission, the sale price of $33 million totaled $37,042,500, short of the $50 million that Sotheby’s had predicted it might fetch. The piece (silkscreen ink and spray paint on canvas) shows Elvis Presley in a gunslinger pose. Warhol made 22 versions of the “Double Elvis,” nine of which are held in museums.

In a bad day for New York sports, the Knicks were eliminated from the playoffs, the Rangers blew an opportunity to put themselves in the Eastern Conference Finals, and the Yankees blew a save while adjusting to life post-Mariano Rivera.  However, possibly the worst news is that the Mets won, sweeping the Phillies, and providing false hopes for their fans, providing the foundation needed to crush their souls later on in the season.

Dead Baby Pills? Really, Korea?

South Korean customs officials said they are cracking down on an operation that is smuggling in pills from China made from the flesh of dead babies, according to Korean media reports. Twenty-nine smugglers of “human-flesh capsules” have been arrested after trying to smuggle 11,000 pills into South Korea from China while disguised as tourists. The pills, which are taken by people who believe they may help increase stamina, for rejuvenation or by terminal cancer patients, are made of powder made from dried fetuses or dead babies.

Rick Santorum told supporters in an e-mail Monday he was endorsing his one-time rival for the GOP presidential nomination Mitt Romney. Santorum, who met with Romney in Pittsburgh Friday, told supporters the meeting was “productive,” and that he was able to fully determine where the likely GOP nominee stood on a wide swath of issues. Santorum, who dropped his bid for the nomination in early April, explained he wanted to wait to make an endorsement until he and Romney were able to speak face-to-face.

U.S. and international intelligence agencies have broken up an attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner.A U.S. official told CNN the plot was disrupted “well before it was ever a threat to the United States.” The official added that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was the group responsible for the plot. The official added, as others have, that the device has the hallmarks of their previous bombs including the failed assassination attempt on Saudi security official Mohammed Bin Nayif as well as the failed 2009 Christmas Day bombing.

Chrysler Group is recalling about 119,000 model year 2011 and 2012 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger sedans in the United States because of a problem that could cause the anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control systems to malfunction. Anti-lock brake systems pump a car’s brakes extremely rapidly in order to prevent the wheels from “locking up” during hard braking. Locking up can lead to loss of control and longer stopping distances because it can cause a car to skid. Electronic stability control systems, which also use computerized brake controls, intervene to prevent a car from skidding during sharp turns or abrupt maneuvers. In the recalled cars a fuse for the computer controller that operates those safety systems can overheat, causing it to lose effectiveness.

Maurice Sendak, the children’s book author and illustrator who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like “Where the Wild Things Are” and “In the Night Kitchen,” died early Tuesday. He was 83 and lived in Ridgefield, Conn. Longtime friend and caretaker Lynn Caponera said she was with Sendak when he died at a hospital in Danbury, Conn. She said he had a stroke on Friday. ”Where the Wild Things Are” earned Sendak a prestigious Caldecott Medal for the best children’s book of 1964 and became a hit movie in 2009. President Bill Clinton awarded Sendak a National Medal of the Arts in 1996 for his vast portfolio of work.

With the passage of legislation containing anti-discrimination protections for transgender people through the New York State Assembly last week, it’s not up to the state Senate to finally get the law passed. It’s passed the House five times but never been taken up in the Senate. As the legislative session dies down, Empire State Pride Agenda has made the bill’s passage the main cry behind their annual rally today. Said its chief sponsor, Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Manhattan): “I believe the votes are there. The challenge is getting a vote in the Senate. Folks are going to support expanded equal rights if they’re forced to be on the record. It seems to be a core civil rights issue.” Let’s hope Democrats finally push this matter, and that Republicans cross the aisle—New York was the sixth state to legalize gay marriage but already 16 states have legalized trans-protecting measures similar to this.

Euphoria replaced pure panic at Madison Square Garden in a matter of moments.

And even the most optimistic New York Rangers fan couldn’t have seen this one coming. Brad Richards scored the unlikeliest of power-play goals with just 6.6 seconds left in regulation, and Marc Staal added another one on the second half of the advantage in overtime to lift New York to a stunning 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Monday night. Just seconds away from a 3-2 series hole — and facing the prospect of having to win two straight to survive and advance — the Rangers somehow cured their ailing power play and rode it to one of the most thrilling wins in team history.

“The Avengers,” from Walt Disney’s Marvel Studios, didn’t just break the record for the best opening weekend in Hollywood history — the film smashed through it Hulk style, grabbing up big green fistfuls of money. The Joss Wheeden-directed movie, riding stellar reviews and a tsunami of Twitter love, piled up $200.3 million at theaters in the U.S. and Canada, according to an estimate from Disney. That total, which beat the $169.2-million record set during the opening weekend of 2011’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2,” was turbocharged by pricier IMAX and 3-D tickets. About 52% of those who saw the movie opted to shell out a few extra bucks to watch it in 3-D. IMAX theaters even ran out of seats to sell to moviegoers. The North American box office total added to an already unfolding global success story; playing in 52 international markets, the movie collected $151.5 million this weekend, raising its tally abroad to $441.5 million. That means that after just two weeks in release, “The Avengers” already has sold $641.8-million worth of tickets, jumping past “The Hunger Games” on the ranking of top-grossing 2012 releases worldwide.

World markets faltered Monday after Socialist Francois Hollande defeated president Nicolas Sarkozy, leaving investors worried about the future of austerity throughout Europe. European markets clawed back from deeper losses. France’s CAC 40 was down only 0.2% after earlier sinking 1.4%, while the DAX in Germany dropped 0.6%. Britain’s FTSE 100 was closed for a public holiday.

Flash flooding in northern Afghanistan killed at least 26 people in northern Afghanistan and rescue workers fear the toll may rise, officials said Monday. Eight hours of relentless rainfall that began Sunday led to the flooding in several districts of Sar-e-Pol province, said Faizullah Sadat, provincial director of Afghanistan Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA). More than 100 people are missing, most of them members of a wedding party that was deluged.

Silence and the odd outburst from accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others turned an arraignment that could have lasted minutes into a 13-hour court session at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday. It was the first appearance in a military courtroom for Mohammed and four others since they were charged last month for their alleged role in the planning and execution of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The hearing, which wrapped just before 10:30 p.m., offered a rare glimpse of the five men who have not been seen publicly since 2008 when they were first charged by a military tribunal.

The woman at the center of the U.S. Secret Service prostitution scandal embraced her notoriety and spilled colorful details Friday about alcohol flowing like water and Secret Service agents dancing on a bar. Dania Londono Suarez is the escort who unwittingly sparked investigations that have ensnared roughly two dozen members of the Secret Service and U.S. military over reported use of prostitutes in Colombia in the days before President Barack Obama visited last month. She gave a lengthy, wide-ranging interview to Colombia’s W Radio on Friday.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed off on a bill that will prevent abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving public funds in most cases, her office said. Kansas, North Carolina and Texas have enacted similar legislation, while Indiana, New Jersey and Wisconsin have used their budget processes to bar funding for abortion providers, according to her office. Before Brewer signed the bill into law, the political arm of Planned Parenthood Arizona slammed the measure, which it says will put the health of thousands at risk.

Warren Buffett addressed his prostate cancer diagnosis head on Saturday, dismissing it as a “non-event.” In a letter to shareholders last month, Buffett, 81, disclosed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The announcement sparked discussion about who’ll take over from Buffett one day. Buffett has yet to publicly reveal the succession plan, though he says he has already informed Berkshire’s board about his preferred candidates. Upon his departure, Buffett’s job will be divided between a CEO in charge of operations and one or more executives in charge of investments.

Adam “MCA” Yauch, a founding member of the pioneering rap band the Beastie Boys, has died after a nearly three-year battle with cancer, the band’s publicist said Friday. He was 47. Yauch revealed in July 2009 that he had surgery for cancer in a salivary gland and a lymph node. Yauch’s death comes less than a month after the Beastie Boys were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Because of his fight with cancer, Yauch did not attend, Rolling Stone magazine reported.

New court documents filed by attorneys for Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach embroiled in a child sex abuse scandal, suggest that there are at least 17 accusers, a far higher number of alleged victims than the 10 detailed in the charges. In the motion filed Thursday, defense attorney Joe Amendola requested that additional information be disclosed by the court, including details about “all possible accusers who have been identified as Nos. 11 through 17 as well as those whose identification are numbered from 18 and beyond.” The 110-page filing did not identify the alleged accusers and the original 10 were not identified publicly.

Junior Seau’s family will let researchers study the former NFL linebacker’s brain for evidence of trauma, San Diego Chargers chaplain Shawn Mitchell said Friday. Since news broke that the former Chargers linebacker killed himself Wednesday with a gunshot to the chest, there has been speculation about whether repeated hits to his head over his 20-year pro career could have been a contributing factor. The family made the decision to allow the research in hopes it will help NFL players and others in the future.

More than 40,000 people were expected to attend the official opening of the Olympic Stadium for the 2012 Games in east London on Saturday. Dozens of celebrities also took part in the event, dubbed “2,012 Hours to Go,” which began at 7 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET). Two of Britain’s most celebrated Olympians, rower Sir Steve Redgrave and swimmer Mark Foster, were among those present to mark the venue’s official opening. The spectators watched the last 90 minutes of an athletics championship for British university students, a test event held at the stadium.

I’ll Have Another cut loose on the home stretch to run down Bodemeister and earn the first Kentucky Derby wins for his rider and trainer Saturday. I’ll Have Another, with a finish of 2:01:83, earned nearly $1.5 million of the $2.2 million purse. That’s quite a payoff for a horse that was purchased last year for the modest sum of $35,000. Jockey Mario Gutierrez, making his Derby debut, called I’ll Have Another a steady competitor.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. finally found himself in a real fight, complete with a bloody nose and an opponent in Miguel Cotto who never was going to quit. As usual, he found a way to win. Mayweather used his speed and accuracy Saturday night to take a unanimous decision over a game Cotto in a bruising bout to win a piece of the 154-pound title. But it wasn’t easy, as Cotto landed some hard punches and kept attacking all the way to the final bell. Mayweather dominated late, rocking Cotto in the 12th round to pull out a win and remain unbeaten in 43 fights. Unlike most of his fights, though, Mayweather got his nose bloodied and engaged in some bruising exchanges he usually likes to avoid.

Amare Stoudemire raised his hands in the air, one covered in padding, as streamers fell from the ceiling above him. Finally, New York could celebrate an NBA playoff victory again. Carmelo Anthony scored 41 points, Stoudemire had 20 points and 10 rebounds in his return from a cut hand, and the Knicks snapped an NBA-record, 13-game postseason losing streak by beating the Miami Heat 89-87 Sunday in Game 4 of their first-round series.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of one of the most iconic press conferences in the history of sports, Allen Iverson’s now infamous practice rant, which he delivered after being eliminated from the playoffs in the first round at the hands of the Boston Celtics.  The Philadelphia 76ers won a first round playoff series the next year, but soon after the Iverson era came to an end as he was traded to the Denver Nuggets.  Philadelphia has only made the playoffs three times since he left, failing to win a series since.  The 76ers currently hold a 3-1 series lead over the number one seed Chicago Bulls, after defeating them 89-82 last night in Game 4.

May the “Fourth” be with you!

It’s “Star Wars Day,” celebrated around the world by fans of the films.
While you might bump into a random Wookiee or Storm Trooper today, you’re more likely to see fans observing the Jedi holiday online. The official Star Wars website has a number of games, videos and fan gear for sale in honor of the day. Star Wars Day is held today because “May the Fourth” sounds a lot like the films’ catch phrase, “May the *Force* be with you.”

A possible breakthrough emerged on Friday in the case of Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese activist who made a daring escape from house arrest and took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing before venturing out amid U.S.-Chinese negotiations over his future. The Chinese government noted that he could apply to travel to the United States to study — a development that the United States instantly cited as an encouraging sign of progress in what has been a thorny and controversial impasse.

Eight of the 13 people facing hazing charges after the death of a Florida A&M University band member had turned themselves in by Thursday afternoon, a state police spokeswoman said. All eight who have surrendered so far face felony charges in the November death of 26-year-old Robert Champion, said Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Of the remaining three who face the same count, two are in Georgia and one is in Delaware, she said.

A trove of never-before-seen letters by Osama bin Laden portray the terrorist leader as an irritated boss chiding his underlings for mistakes yet sure that they could pull off elaborate attacks against the United States. U.S. Navy SEALs took the correspondence after they killed bin Laden in a raid on his Pakistan compound in May 2011. On Thursday, the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, released 17 letters totaling 175 pages, with more documents to be made public later. U.S. officials say that the documents recovered in the compound — about 6,000 worth — were written between September 2006 and April 2011 and were recovered from five computers, dozens of hard drives and more than 100 storage devices. The cache has been described as the single largest batch of senior terrorist material ever obtained.

The San Diego County medical examiner’s office Thursday classified the death of former NFL linebacker Junior Seau as a suicide, but the finding will probably do little to answer questions swirling since he was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. Toxicology results and the narrative that could reveal contributing factors in the death could take weeks or longer to complete, said Sarah Gordon of the medical examiner’s office. Since news broke that Seau was found Wednesday in his Oceanside, California, home with a gunshot wound to the chest, there has been speculation about whether repeated hits to his head over his 20-year pro career could be a contributing factor.

More than 100 former professional football players, including former Atlanta Falcons Jamal Anderson, Chris Doleman, and O.J. Santiago, are adding their names a growing list of players suing the NFL. They join more than 1,500 other players who claim that the National Football League hid the dangers of concussions from them. The latest lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta by attorney Mike McGlamry, states that the NFL “repeatedly refuted the connection between concussions and brain injury.”

The greatest closer of all-time, lifelong New York Yankee Mariano Rivera, tore his ACL shagging fly balls before a game against the Royals yesterday evening. He will miss the rest of the season, and the injury may mean the end of a storied career.

The United States published several documents online Thursday that it seized during the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan last year. The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point published the papers on its website. They are among the more than 6,000 documents U.S. Navy SEALs seized during their raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011. Among the revelations from that larger batch of documents is that bin Laden worked until his death to organize another massive terrorist attack in the United States, even while steering affiliated groups away from using the terror network’s name so they would not attract as many enemies. The documents were found on the five computers, dozens of hard drives and more than 100 storage devices, such as thumb drives and discs, confiscated from the compound after bin Laden was killed in the U.S. raid.

Former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann will endorse Mitt Romney on Thursday, a Romney campaign official confirmed to CNN. Bachmann is set to appear with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee at an event in Portsmouth, Virginia at 1:15 p.m. The Minnesota congresswoman has repeatedly said in recent weeks it was only a matter of time before she would officially back Romney.

The website of the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has been taken offline following a cyber-attack. Soca confirmed to the BBC that soca.gov.uk had suffered a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. A spokesman said the site was taken offline at 22:30 on Wednesday, but that the attack did not “pose a security risk to the organisation”. Soca has recently shut down 36 websites believed to be selling stolen credit card information.

Four minors accused in a videotaped gang rape of a mentally disabled teenager in South Africa were released Thursday on $67 bail, their lawyer told CNN. Four adults are also suspects in the case. Their bail hearing will be June 20. The images of the assault of the 17-year-old girl, believed to be mentally ill, swept across the Internet and touched a nerve in South Africa. The shocking footage shows the girl pleading for her attackers to stop, and it has some activists saying it is an example of the country’s problem with rape.

The mother of Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion said Wednesday she had been hoping more severe charges would be filed in her son’s death, which authorities said was the result of hazing. Pam Champion told “AC360” that hazing, which prosecutors said is a term for bullying, doesn’t amply describe what happened to her 26-year-old son. Charges were brought against 13 people after an investigation into Champion’s death.

A pastel version of “The Scream” by Edvard Munch fetched nearly $120 million from an anonymous buyer Wednesday at Sotheby’s in New York, setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction. Experts had expected the masterpiece to break new ground at the famed New York auction house; its presale estimate of at least $80 million was the highest ever listed at Sotheby’s. It sold for $119,922,500, which includes the premium paid to Sotheby’s. Previously, the most expensive artwork ever sold there was Pablo Picasso’s painting “Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust,” which brought in $106.5 million two years ago. The previous record for a Munch work of art was just over $38 million.

Junior Seau, a homegrown superstar who was the fist-pumping, emotional leader of the San Diego Chargers for 13 years, was found shot to death at his home Wednesday morning. He was 43. Police Chief Frank McCoy said Seau’s girlfriend reported finding him unconscious with a gunshot wound to the chest and lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful. A gun was found near him, McCoy said, and police were investigating the possibility that Seau’s death was a suicide. Police said no suicide note was found and they didn’t immediately know to whom the gun was registered.

 Jered Weaver pitched the second no-hitter in the majors in less than two weeks, completely overmatching Minnesota and leading the Los Angeles Angels to a 9-0 win over the Twins on Wednesday night. Weaver struck out nine and walked one. The Twins never came close to getting a hit against the All-Star right-hander.

The New York Rangers defeated the Washington Capitals in triple overtime last night, by a score of 2-1.  The Rangers now hold a two games to one lead in the series.

Lionel Messi broke Gerd Mueller’s 39-year-old record for goals in a European club season, scoring a hat trick for Barcelona in a 4-1 win over Malaga on Wednesday night to raise his total to 68. The 24-year-old converted penalty kicks in the 35th and 59th minutes, then chipped onrushing goalkeeper Carlos Kameni to score in the 64th for his ninth hat trick of the season. Mueller had held the record since scoring 67 goals for Bayern Munich in 1972-73.

Amar’e Fights Fire Extinguisher; Fire Seizes Opportunity by Going After Tyler Perry

Amar’e Stoudemire’s bout of fisticuffs with a fire extinguisher left him with a cut hand and a seat on the bench for game three of the Knicks-Heat series as it returns to Madison Square Garden.  The injury also leaves him doubtful for game four, and the Knicks as a whole look doubtful for game five. 

President Barack Obama, speaking early Wednesday in Afghanistan at the tail end of a surprise visit there, discussed how the war will end and promised a steady drawdown of U.S. troops. Obama committed to pulling 23,000 troops out of the country by the end of summer and sticking to the 2014 deadline to turn security fully over to the Afghan government. He said that NATO will set a goal this month for Afghan forces to be in the lead for combat operations next year.

One Monument Continues to Rise in NYC; Another Continues to Steadily Fall

More than a decade after a terrorist attack brought down New York’s twin towers, their under-construction replacement became the city’s tallest building on Monday. The placement of a column of the 100th floor brought the colossal new steel structure of One World Trade Center tower to a height of 1,271 feet – surpassing the frame of the Empire State Building, which is currently New York’s tallest skyscraper, by 21 feet. Built on what was referred to as ground zero in Lower Manhattan, the building is expected to reach 1,776 feet when it is finished by early 2014. The Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly known as the Sears Tower, is the country’s current record holder at 1,450 feet.

Global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is not a “fit and proper person” to run a major international company, British lawmakers investigating phone hacking at his tabloid the News of the World reported Tuesday. The ruling could prompt British regulators to force him to sell his controlling stake in British Sky Broadcasting, a significant part of his media empire. The damning report accused Murdoch and his son James of showing “willful blindness” to phone hacking at News of the World, and said the newspaper “deliberately tried to thwart the police investigation” into the illegal activity.

On May 16 last year, a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin was being questioned by police in Berlin. He had recently returned from Pakistan via Budapest, Hungary, and then traveled overland to Germany. His interrogators were surprised to find that hidden in his underpants were a digital storage device and memory cards. Buried inside them was a pornographic video called “Kick Ass” — and a file marked “Sexy Tanja.” Several weeks later, after laborious efforts to crack a password and software to make the file almost invisible, German investigators discovered encoded inside the actual video a treasure trove of intelligence — more than 100 al Qaeda documents that included an inside track on some of the terror group’s most audacious plots and a road map for future operations.

Entertainment Tonight, the popular celebrity oriented website, has released the audio recording of the 911 call from the murder of three of her close family members.  Because of that, WHCS News is no longer going to be citing Entertainment Tonight for its news.

Also, Kevin from the Backstreet Boys is back!  This should be exciting news for almost no one, and to commemorate the event we will now link you to a non-Entertainment Tonight website for the 0.000064% of you who care.

Manchester City had beaten Manchester United in a good game, and now City has beaten United in a poor game. The two Manchester derbies this season have been completely opposing in style. The first was an open, attractive game of football that saw City recording a historic 6-1 win with some fabulous goals; the second was low in quality with the only strike coming from a set piece.

Dwyane Wade scored 25 points as the Heat took a 2-0 lead on the Knicks with a 104-94 win. After the game, sources report that Amar’e Stoudemire punched the glass casing surrounding a fire extinguisher, suffering lacerations that may keep him out for the rest of the playoffs.  The amount of jokes that my trolling twitter friends and I have made already should be enough, but more will come over the next few days anyway.

Australian Billionaire wants to make Biggest Ship; Richard Simmons wants to sink Biggest Loser

An Australian mining magnate has commissioned a Chinese shipyard to build a replica of the ill-fated Titanic, complete in every detail but equipped with modern technology to prevent a repeat of the original’s fateful maiden voyage 100 years ago. Clive Palmer, a Queensland mining billionaire with strong links to China, told Australian media that he had signed a memorandum of understanding with CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the ship. He said construction of the luxury cruise ship would begin next year and the ship would be ready to sail in 2016.

Gunmen attacked Christians worshipping on a Nigerian university campus on Sunday, with witnesses reporting multiple explosions and gunfire. The number of casualties was not immediately clear. Professor A.B. Baffa said he was at home on the campus of Bayero University in the city of Kano when he heard the gunfire and explosions. When he went to see what was going on, he said he saw people fleeing and saying gunmen attacked areas where Christians were worshipping. The gunmen began their attack around 8:30 a.m., targeting a lecture hall normally used by Christians for Sunday services.

Bulls All-Star point guard Derrick Rose tore his ACL in the waning minutes of Saturday’s 101-93 win at home against the Philadelphia 76ers.  He will be out for the rest of the playoffs.  Iman Shumpert of the New York Knicks suffered a similar injury against the Miami Heat in the loss, and will not play again during these playoffs.

Richard Simmons — America’s unofficial weight loss “guru” for decades — is criticizing NBC’s popular show The Biggest Loser for using “terrible” tactics to get contestants to shed pounds.  While in an interview with MensHealth.com Simmons does admit that The Biggest Loser has “some merit,” he believes that in general it takes the wrong approach to helping people reach their weight loss goals. “I’m not into any show that makes people compete when they lose weight.”

American Economy is Bad; Cleveland Browns are Worse

The American economy grew slower than predicted in the first quarter, as government spending cuts and weaker investment in commercial real estate offset a pickup in consumer spending. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economy, grew at a 2.2% annual rate in the first three months of 2012, the Commerce Department said Friday, down from a 3% growth rate in the prior quarter. The data was also much weaker than the 2.5% rate economists had been expecting.

The tens of thousands of dollars in donations that George Zimmerman has received are expected to be discussed at a court hearing Friday in Florida, his attorney said. The hearing was originally scheduled to discuss issues about the unsealing of Zimmerman’s criminal file, but the donations could overshadow that issue. The attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family says Zimmerman should be back in jail because during a recent bond hearing he failed to tell a judge he had $204,000.

The NFL Draft happened last night, and it was fun.  If you did not listen to WHCS coverage of the event, then you missed out.  They did an awesome job.  You suck for not listening.  Andrew Luck went first as we expected, followed by Robert Griffin III.  After that, we had a ton of nonsense and surprises.

The New York Rangers defeated the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the NHL playoffs last night, by a 2-1 score at Madison Square Garden.  They will face the Washington Capitals in round two.  The Devils were also victorious in their own game 7, pulling together an overtime win over the Florida Panthers to move into round two.  Normally that would not make my news, but it is a slow day, and I thought I’d throw our program director a  bone.

The worst season in NBA history is over for the Charlotte Bobcats. Meanwhile, the New York Knicks are looking ahead to the playoffs. The Bobcats couldn’t even beat a Knicks team resting most of its starters, finishing with the lowest winning percentage in league history after a 104-84 loss on Thursday night.  Very pathetic.

NFL Draft, Politics, and the end of a Marriage

Tonight at 8p.m. is the first round of the NFL Draft.  WHCS will be hosting a live draft show, covering every single pick of the first round.  Everyone is encouraged to listen and call in, all night.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday affirmed his support for likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, after initially backing Newt Gingrich’s rival campaign following his own withdrawal from the race. Perry praised Romney’s “vision and record of private sector success.”

Rupert Murdoch admitted Thursday there had been a “cover-up” of phone hacking at his flagship British tabloid newspaper and apologized for not paying more attention to a scandal that has convulsed his media empire and rocked the British political establishment. And he said that he had shut down the best-selling News of the World out of “panic” in the face of public fury about the revelation that a murdered teenage girl had been a victim of phone hacking.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a bill into law Wednesday that abolishes the death penalty, making his state the 17th in the nation to abandon capital punishment and the fifth in five years to usher in a repeal. The law is effective immediately, though prospective in nature, meaning that it would not apply to those already sentenced to death. It replaces the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of release as the state’s highest form of punishment.

A Marine who used his Facebook page to criticize President Barack Obama has been discharged, a Marine Corps spokesman said Wednesday. Sgt. Gary Stein was given an “other-than-honorable” discharge, said Capt. Brian Block, a spokesman for the Marines. Among other comments posted to his Facebook page, Stein called Obama a liar and suggested he would not follow some orders issued by the president. An other-than-honorable discharge is given to a Marine who commits a “serious offense” that significantly differs from conduct expected of a Marine, the Corps said.

An international tribunal found former Liberian President Charles Taylor guilty Thursday of aiding and abetting rebels who raped, killed and mutilated civilians in neighboring Sierra Leone, the first verdict against an African head of state in a world court. However, prosecutors failed to prove he had command over the rebels, said Justice Richard Lussick of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

A young woman has had her child “marriage” legally annulled in northern Rajasthan state, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in India. Laxmi Sargara, 18, wed Rakesh when she was just one and he was three. She grew up with her own family, only finding out she was married when her in-laws came to claim her this month. Child marriages are illegal in India but are still common in many parts of the country, especially in rural and poorer communities.

A mother-of-eight who had an up to 10-litre a day Coca-Cola drinking habit never knew that excessive consumption of the beverage was contributing to her health problems, an inquest into her sudden death heard today. The Otago-Southland coroner David Crerar heard that Natasha Marie Harris died, aged 30, after a cardiac arrest. At the time of her death, her partner Chris Hodgkinson spoke out that it was the result of drinking too much Coca-cola and held the company responsible for her death, a claim Coca-Cola rejected but the company was sufficiently concerned that they hired a security firm to protect their Invercargill staff.

The Florida man accused of killing an unarmed black teenager is appearing in court to seek bail while awaiting trial for second-degree murder. George Zimmerman, 28, makes his second appearance since being charged over the death of Trayvon Martin, 17. His lawyer surrendered his passport and said he should be granted bail because of a previous record of good conduct.

Anders Behring Breivik, who admits killing 77 people in Norway last summer, told a court Friday that he learned from al Qaeda in planning his attacks, and was inspired by the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings. He followed al Qaeda closely from 2006 to 2011 and studied the terror network’s “media effect, what they have done wrong, what they have done right … what it takes,” Breivik said. Breivik is on trial on charges of voluntary homicide and committing acts of terror in the July 22 attacks. He admits carrying out the Oslo bombing that killed eight people and shooting 69 people dead on nearby Utoya Island.

Libyan prosecutors have gathered “great evidence” against the son of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Thursday, reopening the controversial question of where Saif al-Islam Gadhafi will be tried. Both the International Criminal Court and Libya’s new authorities want to put him on trial, and the two sides have been battling over it since his capture in November. The court demanded this month that Libya hand him over immediately to face accusations of crimes against humanity, but Libya appealed the decision.

Police and federal agents were expected to continue searching Friday in a Lower Manhattan basement for clues in the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, the boy who became the face of missing children in America more than 30 years ago. Etan disappeared May 25, 1979, a block from his home in the city’s SoHo neighborhood. It was the first time he walked to the bus stop by himself. Authorities said both new and old information led them to a carpenter and part-time handyman who met Etan the day before he disappeared and gave the boy a dollar.

 Levon Helm, the drummer, multi-instrumentalist and singer for The Band who kept the band’s heart for more than three decades, died “peacefully” Thursday afternoon, according to his record label, Vanguard Records. He was 71. Helm had a voice unlike any other in rock music: definitively Southern, soulful and gritty, an oak-barreled whiskey that sometimes went down with a fiery kick. A statement from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted Helm in 1994, called him the backbone of The Band.

After the departure of director Gary Ross, today Lionsgate will send an offer to their new choice for helming The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire, and sources say Francis Lawrence will be the lucky recipient of the production company’s offer. Lawrence has directed such films as I Am Legendand Water for Elephants along with a long list of music videos for notable stars including Britney Spears and Aerosmith. In a written statement, Ross cited the tight production schedule as a major reason for bowing out of the series, as the studio reportedly wants to start production in August. 

With the Bucks loss to the Pacers on Thursday night, the Knicks secured a spot in the 2012 NBA Playoffs. New York has four games remaining on its schedule and will face the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Friday night, Atlanta on Sunday, the Clippers at MSG on Wednesday, and the season finale in Charlotte on Thursday. If the postseason stared on Thursday, the Knicks sit in the No. 7 position and would square off against the Miami Heat in the first round. However, New York only trails Orlando by three games for the sixth spot while Philadelphia chases from No. 8, just one game behind the Knicks.