Whether it's champagne on New Year's or port on a long winter's night, wine in the winter just kind of makes sense. It warms you from the outside in and is a positively splendid companion to nurse by the crackling fireplace. Hey, what else are you going to do when your door is blocked by a two-foot snowdrift?

Rest be assured such frigid temperatures require more than your average cream puff varietals - save that full-of-fruit rosé for the summer.

Here to assist in stocking your cold weather cellar is Richard Betts. Betts is the co-founder of Betts & Scholl wines and the founder of cc: Wines, which just launched in October 2010. The former wine director at The Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado, passed his Court of Master Sommeliers exam on his first try, becoming only the ninth person to do so at the time - let's just say, we trust this man's palate.

My Five Favorite Winter Wines (at least right now): Richard Betts

1. Bring on the bubbles
"Be it New Year's or just winter blues, nothing turns a frown upside-down more quickly than a really lovely glass of Champagne. Recently we have seen many interesting new wines coming from small growers which are certainly fun, but truly great Champagne is created by a process of blending and this is where the venerable old houses really excel. They have all of the ingredients to make the most luxurious and lovely elixirs each and every year. Amongst them all, I consider Champagne Krug to be very pinnacle. Their entry-level Krug M.V. Cuvée is rich, round, complex and a great partner to food, family and friends."

2. California dreamin'
"I am a big fan of white wine every day. Even if it is just a glass as preamble to the reds, white wine serves an important purpose of wetting the palate and getting your juices flowing before the more well-endowed wines follow. That said, I often reach for a richer white in the colder months and one of my very favorites right now is actually a California chardonnay. There is an ocean of labels and a multitude of styles these days but I single out Lewis Cellars in Napa as real masters of the varietal. Their 2009 Napa Chardonnay is amongst the very best from California and unlike some of the more trendy names; you won’t have to mortgage the house to enjoy it."

3. La vie française
"So, while we were learning about dinosaurs in second grade, French kids were learning that White Burgundy meant Chardonnay, Bordeaux meant Cabernet and Merlot, and Hermitage is the place where the Syrah grape reaches its apogee. It is the last of these that I’m totally taken with. On the steep hillside that is Hermitage (about an hour south of Lyon), the J. L. Chave family has been making wine since 1481. One might imagine that over the past six-hundred years they would have learned a thing or two about making great wine. In my opinion, their Hermitage is truly one of the great wines of the world. Considering the sums that first growth Bordeaux and Grand Cru Burgundy are fetching, it is also an amazing deal. 2007 is the current release and you can enjoy it now or forget it in the cellar for years to come."

4. Don't cry for me Argentina, but do bring me a glass
"Argentina remains red-hot as we’re all discovering the charm of the exuberant and affordable Malbec grape. My current favorite is The Show 2009 Malbec from Mendoza. It is everything you want in a big red - loads of rich red and black fruits accompanied by vanilla and spice and a totally appealing structure that make it a great partner to just about anything. Best of all, it is super affordable so it makes for a fantastic wine for those occasions when it is more than just a few friends."

5. More bang for your buck
"Ok, ok, I know, Cabernet is king. Everyone loves it and it is always the most popular red grape in the room. It is also one of the most over-hyped wines out there and it is easy to over-pay for just so-so wine. That said, I am super excited about my new “CC:” project. The debut 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet is one of the great values from California today. It is a blend of wines made at some very fancy addresses that are blended and bottled and can be had in most cases for less than twenty bucks, which makes it one of the most delicious deals going. Cheers!"

What are you drinking this winter? Pour a glass in the comments.

Is there someone you'd like to see in the hot seat? Let us know in the comments below and if we agree, we'll do our best to chase 'em down.

Posted by: Eatocracy Editors
Filed under: 5@5 • HolidayShopping • Sip • Think • Wine

Paris Hilton has got her own clothing lines, fragrances, records, books, legions of fans and much, much more. And now she can count a motorcycle racing team among them.

That's right, the celebrity heiress has launched her very own MotoGP 125cc team. The venture is called SuperMartxé VIP by Paris Hilton, and takes its name from the dance party series of the same name in Ibiza. The event organizers are sponsoring the team, and when they approached Hilton with an endorsement deal, she was apparently so excited that she bought into the team as a part owner as well.

The starlet won't be riding the bikes in the races, but is contracted to appear at five of the races on the calendar for the upcoming season, which will feature eighteen races from Qatar to Indianapolis, England to Japan and everywhere in between.
Tags: moto gp, motogp, motorcycle racing, paris hilton, SuperMartxé VIP, SuperMartxé VIP by Paris Hilton

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping, Sports

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From Luxist
Porsche’s Latest Customer Racing Car: the 2011 911 GT3 RSR

(CNN) -- A California woman stabbed repeatedly by her then-boyfriend, a comedic Hollywood actor, on Friday described his courtroom antics explaining his violence as "very surreal and bizarre" -- and, above all, insincere.

"In his testimony, he stated that it was the knife that did it, and he stated this repeatedly," Kendra Beebe told HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell. "In fact it wasn't the knife that stabbed me 23 times. It was Shelley Malil."

One day earlier, San Diego, California, County Superior Court Judge Harry Elias sentenced Malil to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Five years ago, the actor was cracking up audiences as an electronics store clerk in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." But in August 2008, he was arrested in North County, California and charged with stabbing Beebe.

Earlier this fall, a California jury found him guilty of premeditated attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. He was found not guilty of burglary.

Malil received near the maximum sentence for his convictions. But his former girlfriend said that, while she was pleased with the jury's verdict, she still doesn't think the punishment was severe enough.

"I feel like I did get justice in our system. But is the system fair and just? I don't think so," Beebe said.

Beebe survived the attack, despite having her chin severely cut, two collapsed lungs and losing about half the blood in her body, her attorney Gloria Allred told HLN on Friday.
In September, she testified that she'd initially thought that Malil was going to hug her when he approached her in her home, as her young children slept upstairs, that summer night. But instead, he began cutting her repeatedly with a knife -- a fact that Malil did not deny.

"I saw this flashing silver, and he goes bang, bang, bang," Beebe said in court.

The Indian-born actor -- who, according to the Internet Movie Database, has appeared in at least 54 movies and television projects, from Budweiser commercials, to guest appearances on "Scrubs" and "Reba," to his break-out performance as Steve Carell's co-worker Haziz in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" -- testified that he stabbed his girlfriend by mistake, thinking he was defending her.

On Thursday, he apologized in court.

"For what I did to Kendra, I don't even have the words to express my remorse or my feeling sorry. Kendra Beebe did not deserve anything that happened to her," Malil said.

Malil's 19-year-old niece, Anjali Varghese, testified at the sentencing hearing that her uncle's "crime was not a result of any kind of ingrained malice, because that's not his nature."

Yet Beebe said that the actor's testimony left her unconvinced, feeling "so frustrated and angry."

"It was horrible," she said. "He sure lied and lied and lied on the stand."

By the CNN Wire Staff
December 17, 2010 9:05 p.m. EST

Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter," published by Times Books, and editor of a book assessing former President George W. Bush's administration, published by Princeton University Press.

Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) -- Somewhere in Texas, former President George W. Bush must be smiling. When President Obama and the Republican leadership reached a deal on extending all of the Bush tax cuts, including a generous exemption for estate taxes, the current president ratified a key policy from the former administration.

While Obama ran as the candidate who would fight to overturn Bush's record, a huge number of his policies remain in place.

This says a lot about President Bush. One of the key measures that we have to evaluate the success of a president is not simply how many of his proposals pass through Congress but also how many of his policies outlast his time in office. Many of Franklin D. Roosevelt's programs, including Social Security and the Wagner Act, survive into our time.

Though Harry Truman ended his term with his approval ratings in the tank, most of his key national security programs would define America's Cold War policies through the fall of the Soviet Union decades later. Lyndon Johnson pushed a host of policies such as Medicare and federal aid to education that survived the conservative revolution.

Thus far, President Bush has been doing well on that score.

Most of his counterterrorism policies have survived. Although Obama has begun to draw down the troops in Iraq, he has acknowledged that a substantial number will remain in place, and he has expanded the war in Afghanistan. Until the disastrous Gulf Oil spill, the administration supported expanded offshore drilling and did little to fix the regulatory bodies responsible for monitoring these operations.

Congress is deliberating an extension of President Bush's biggest domestic policy of across-the-board tax reductions. President Bush pushed through Congress a massive tax cut in 2001, and another in 2003, both of which severely undercut the fiscal strength of the Treasury.

The tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 provided relief for middle- and upper-income Americas with much of the benefits going toward wealthier citizens, which they argued would accelerate economic growth. The tax cuts reduced rates cross the board on income, dividends and capital gains. They also slashed the estate tax while lowering the tax obligations of married and working poor Americans.

Even though the nation was at war, Republican Rep. Tom DeLay said, "nothing is more important in the face of war than cutting taxes" -- a far cry from the themes of sacrifice that shaped World War I and World War II.

As the historian James Patterson wrote, "Well before George W. Bush left office in 2009, he had succeeded in securing major cuts in federal taxes that contributed over time to mounting deficits and rising income inequality. This dramatic turn in fiscal policy was the most significant domestic legacy of his presidency."

The tax cuts grew out of the supply-side tradition that has been central to conservatism since the 1980s. From the time of his campaign in 2000, Bush enthusiastically embraced supply-side economics, based on the argument that the wealthy would invest the money from their tax cuts into the economy.

"The crucial question in a capitalist country," wrote George Gilder, a leading voice of supply-side economics, in 1981, "is the quality and quantity of investment by the rich."

Conservatives also pushed for massive tax cuts based on the belief that it would make it difficult for liberals to build new programs and open up existing programs to attack under the guise of deficit reduction.

In 1978, while testifying to the Senate Finance Committee, the economist Alan Greenspan said, "Let us remember that the basic purpose of any tax cut program in today's environment is to reduce the momentum of expenditure growth by restraining the amount of revenue available ..." Or as George W. Bush liked to say, "I've learned that if you leave cookies out on a plate, they always get eaten."

Democrats railed against Bush's tax cuts. They became symbols of the policies of the era that, in their minds, worsened inequality. The tax cuts, Democrats said, were also hugely damaging to the fiscal strength of the federal government since they fueled large deficits.

Barack Obama made his attacks on the tax cuts a pillar of his campaign in 2008 and continued to oppose extending the reductions for the wealthiest Americans. As late as September 2010, the president attacked Minority Leader John Boehner during a speech in the Republican's home state of Ohio by criticizing Republicans for supporting the "same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: cut more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations."

But in the end, Obama reversed himself, and he did so in dramatic fashion. House Democrats were caught off guard as the negotiations excluded the Democratic Caucus. Obama justified his decision by telling his supporters that he had no choice.

Since he was going to lose anyway on extending the tax cuts, he said that he should just accept this outcome and get the best deal possible, which included an extension of unemployment benefits.

Now that the tax cuts have received bipartisan support from the leader of the Democratic Party, they would be doubly difficult to eliminate in two years when the debate occurs once again.

Even though Obama did gain provisions to stimulate the economy, the cuts for the wealthy, in addition to the middle class, will continue to place a fiscal strait-jacket around government intervention. They will also increase the size of the deficit and give Republicans even more fodder after 2010 to pressure the administration to make spending cuts and to characterize Obama as a big-spending liberal.

The political victory is not simply one for Republicans but also for former President Bush, whose policies continue to demonstrate their strength and durability.

A president once dismissed as a lightweight, as an accidental president, clearly left his imprint on Washington. The Democrat who replaced him, a politician who won amidst the anger and frustration with Bush, has ended up accepting many of the policies his Republican predecessor put into place.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian E. Zelizer.

(CNN) -- The FBI is warning law agencies that the new Barbie "Video Girl" doll could be used as a tool by pedophiles to make child pornography.

In an alert entitled "Barbie 'Video Girl' a Possible Child Pornography Production Method," the FBI said the doll has a built-in hidden camera in the chest and a small LCD screen for video display in her back.

The FBI "cyber crime alert" doesn't cite any misuse of the doll, which has been on the market since July, but talks about the possibility.

"FBI investigation has revealed instances where an individual convicted of distributing child pornography had given a Barbie doll to a 6 year old girl," the alert said.

The document went on to cite the findings of another investigation that found "examples where a concealed video camera had recorded child pornography." That camera didn't involve a doll, FBI special agent Frederick Gutt in Seattle, Washington, said Friday.

"The possibility of the combination of these two in a single device presents a concern for investigators," said the alert, dated November 30.

"Law enforcement is encouraged to be aware of unconventional avenues for possible production and possession of child pornography, such as the Barbie Video Girl," the document said
The FBI regularly distributes such alerts to help investigators improve policing. No incidents involving the new doll have been reported, according to Gutt and another FBI special agent, Steve Dupre.

The doll's camera can capture 30 minutes of footage, and the video can be downloaded and streamed live to a computer, but there is no indication it can be streamed directly to the Internet, the FBI alert said.

The notice is written for law agencies only, but someone at the FBI mistakenly sent it to media outlets in Seattle, said Dupre of the FBI's Sacramento, California, office, which distributed the notice.

"It was an inadvertent dissemination of the document," Dupre said. "There have been no reported incidents of this doll being used as anything other than as intended."

Seattle media accounts of the FBI alert prompted some parents to express concerns about the doll.

"That plays into these people who prey upon our children's ideals. It frightens me," William Porres, a Tacoma, Washington, grandfather, told CNN affiliate KING. He said he will not buy the doll for his 6-year-old granddaughter.

"Oh, she would love it, but she's more important to me than a giggle on Christmas morning," Porres said.

A Mattel Inc. spokesman could not be reached for comment, but the toymaker issued a statement to KING:

"The FBI is not reporting that anything has happened. Steve Dupre from the FBI Sacramento field office has confirmed there have been no incidents of this doll being used as anything other than its intent. Mattel products are designed with children and their best interests in mind. Many of Mattel's employees are parents themselves and we understand the importance of child safety -- it is our number one priority," the statement said.

FBI special agent Gutt said the alert apprised other agencies about how the new doll's videotaping capabilities could contain evidence.

"The cyber alert was meant for law enforcement only and was taken out of context," Gutt said. "The intent was to aid law enforcement in evidence gathering."

The Mattel website says the $49.99 doll, for kids ages 6 and up, has been nominated for the 2011 Toy of the Year Award.

"Budding filmmakers, take note: Barbie doll now doubles as a video camera!" the website says. "Girls can record and play back clips with this multi-tasking doll, which has a video camera built right in. Capture everything from a doll's-eye-view, then watch it instantly or upload to your computer. There's an LCD screen on Barbie doll's back, and a camera lens hidden discreetly in her necklace. Talk about making movies in style!"

It would seem that seeing Kim Kardashian in public without makeup would be as likely as seeing Lady Gaga perform in "normal" clothes.

However, the reality star, who is usually dressed to the nines and super-glammed up, was out and about in Los Angeles on Wednesday, sporting an uncharacteristically "laid back" look: seemingly no makeup and hair pulled back en route to a manicure.

Don't hate me because I'm "naturally" beautiful

Kim has long denied any "upkeep" on her famous face. She told ABC news back in May, "I'm totally not against plastic surgery. I've tried Botox before. That's the only thing I've done."

Some have speculated that she's had a nose job, but she emphatically denies it. Says Kim, "I've never had my nose done."

Probably best known for her curvaceous bum, surprisingly, it's her nose that makes the "Keeping up with the Kardashians" star feel the most insecure...

"What's funny about my nose, it's my biggest insecurity. I've always wanted to get my nose done...I went to the doctor, I had them take the pictures, he showed me what it would look like and it just didn't - I wouldn't look the same."

"I think her nose is perfect," said Sue G of Cincinnati. "I'm surprised that her nose makes her insecure. I think she's beautiful...even without makeup."

The Kardashian sisters (Kim, Khloe and Kourtney) have been doing the talk show circuit lately to promote their co-authored book, Kardashian Konfidential, in bookstores now.

Do Tell: How do you think Kim looks without makeup? Do you believe she's had no work done?

Source: US Magazine Online

This is not hard to write; it's cathartic. Shooting the story though was anything but: raw emotions accumulated - anger, sorrow, revulsion, and anger again, jumbled in some subconscious store to be sifted and sorted later.
It was a story about Afghan women, their oppression and their desperation.
For a few moments, some of these oppressed voices surface, enter our conscience, before sinking back into the social morass. They are absorbed and returned to the bosom of inhumanity, disappearing without trace, beyond reach, back to the isolated hell whence they came.
Afghan society is closed to outsiders. Even to neighbors. But if you are a woman here you risk entrapment, sealed off more completely inside the home than out.
No one will know your pain, few will hear your screams, and if they did, it's unlikely they'd dare care.
In Afghanistan, Herat has a reputation for self-immolation, a regional trend, according to doctors, picked up by Afghan refugees in Iran. It may be an unfair label but the figures speak for themselves. In the next largest city there are six beds for burns victims; in Herat it's 54, and they often have so many patients they are forced to double up
The last time I had come to the hospital here it was early 2002. My report back then talked of shortages of everything: doctors, nurses, medicine, bandages. Six years of Taliban oppression had rendered the sprawling regional health center barely operable.
I was coming back now in part because it was up and running and doing a good job. So good, it was drawing burns victims from all over the region including women who were not there by accident. They had set fire to themselves, so oppressed and desperate were they to escape abusive bad marriages.
On the steps outside I met Dr. Ghafar Khan Bawar, a warm, friendly Afghan who'd spent years in Canada practicing reconstructive surgery. He'd come home three years ago to run the burns clinic. Female self-immolation cases had doubled in the past year, he told me.
We swapped our shoes for cheap plastic sandals, donned clean but crumpled surgical gowns, face masks and hair covers. Stepping inside the hard, white tiled corridors, the smell was overpowering, medicinal, antibacterial, heavy with overtones of disease barely kept at bay. It inspires confidence and revulsion in equal measure.
I had an idea of what we'd see. I've talked to burns victims in other Afghan hospitals before. Young women often too afraid to tell the truth, fearful of their husbands lurking not far away.
Sad Gul was 18; Zara, in the bed next to her, 17. Both swathed in bandages covering the arms, chest, belly and thighs. Tip a bowl of water from your neck on down, what's wet is what was burned. It was a kerosene burn, although Zara and her mother insisted it was an accident.
Sad Gul was an orphan, married at 11 to an older man. She told me as she burned she finally felt relaxed, at ease, her stresses lifting. She told me she was so poor she could not afford bread. Her husband was older than her, a drug addict. She wanted him to stop but he couldn't. Feeling hopeless, she set fire to herself.
As Dr. Bawar and a nurse prepared to treat her wounds, I could see her eyeing them with utter horror. Her eyes wide open, then wincing before they even got close. She'd been in bed number 25 for almost two weeks, and she knew too well what to expect.
Tears welled up as they cut away the old dressings, and then her muted cries as they swabbed her raw chest, the open wounds on her neck and breasts running with blood. Better to have your husband kill you than live like this, she told me.
She has two children, one three, the other one-and-a-half. That's what keeps her going. Her husband tells her he has quit drugs, wants her to come home. She has no choice, no family to turn to. She says she loves him.
Dr. Bawar told me he'll give her skin grafts on the worst burns, but unless she wears an ugly, large neck brace when she's goes back to her village her muscles will contract. If she ignores his advice, as he fears, she'll need more surgery and the next time she won't be able to get a general anesthetic. But on reflection that may be the least of her worries.
There is a new law protecting women. Herat even has the first female chief prosecutor in the country who is pushing to bring abusive husbands to court. But she is bucking tradition. Custom, practice and culture ingrained over centuries block her every move, not to mention attacks on her life.
It's not that there are no enlightened minds, it's just they are a minority. Dr. Bawar is among them. He's spreading his message of medical care: Outreach clinics in remote areas teaching life- and limb-saving techniques to keep burns victims alive.
He is a smart fellow, offering the country's only training in plastic surgery to young doctors willing to study burns and reconstructive surgery together. Burns alone is an unpopular discipline in Afghanistan.
He's drawing in bright young minds to the hospital. And the country's health minister, a woman, wants him to take his program nationwide.
Dr. Bawar's own life is instructive. He learned his skills during the era of Soviet influence in Afghanistan. The country had no burns doctors and an American specialist from Wisconsin working for a Non-Governmental Organization took it upon himself to teach Dr Bawar.
It was a five-year course crammed into three. But the seed was planted. One man's goodwill, transformed decades later into a generation of new hope.
And in Afghanistan's awfulness, individuals can make a difference.
Post by: CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson

These shoppers have it down to a science lol
Tara O'Brien says she'll never forget my first Black Friday sale, buying those pillows at 75% off, the thrill of it all. I bought four! Within an hour of that trip I had spent all my cash and moved onto credit cards.
These days, I've learned to pace myself with careful research ahead of time. From the end of October forward, 'spreadsheets' are developed outlining stores, opening times, items, sale prices and if/when coupons apply. This helps with critical decisions in the moment, such as deciding between two stores that open at the same time.
Secret strategy: Leave your coat in the car. While you may be cold for that time leading to the store opening up, it gives you much needed freedom to run faster than others. You will thank me when you make it to the jewelry counter first.
Ultimate score: A regularly priced $250 Coach purse for $75! And I even talked them into throwing in a dust bag.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay $25 million to the government to settle an investigation of the "mystery fees" it improperly charged millions of customers for data sessions they never intended to launch, the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday.
The "voluntary payment," which the FCC said is its largest on record, comes on top of the refunds Verizon plans to issue to around 15 million customers, as it announced earlier this month. Those refunds will total at least $52.8 million, the FCC said.
"Mystery solved: today's settlement with Verizon Wireless is about making things right and putting consumers back in the driver's seat," Michele Ellison, chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau said in a prepared statement.
"I am gratified by the cooperation of the Verizon Wireless team in the face of these issues, and pleased they are taking the high road," Ellison added.
The FCC began investigating Verizon Wireless in January after years of customer complaints about unexplained data charges showing up on their bills. Customers without data plans were assessed "pay as you go" fees of $1.99 per megabyte for data they accidentally or unknowingly downloaded.
Games and other applications sometimes initiated the transfer, and Verizon's own mobile webpage occasionally invoked data charges when customers followed links that were intended to be free.
Verizon plans to reimburse current customers who were improperly charged through credits on their upcoming bills. In most cases, the credits will run between $2 and $6, though some customers will receive larger refunds.
Former customers can expect to receive a refund check in the mail. Customers who do not receive a refund but think they were overcharged will be able to appeal, and the FCC says each case will be reviewed and resolved within 30 days.
Verizon's $25 million payment to the U.S. Treasury is part of a settlement that ends the FCC's 10-month investigation.
"Today's consent decree sends a clear message to American consumers: The FCC has got your back," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a written statement. "People shouldn't find mystery fees when they open their phone bills -- and they certainly shouldn't have to pay for services they didn't want and didn't use."
In addition to issuing refunds, Verizon has agreed to make several changes intended to protect consumers. It promised to take steps to prevent future unauthorized data charges, offer plainly worded explanations of its "pay as you go" data plans, and create a Data Charge Task Force of customer-service workers trained to monitor and respond to data-charge complaints. That task force will issue regular reports to the FCC.
Verizon also said it is changing the software it installs on its phones to prevent it from launching accidental data sessions.
"Internal billing processes can be complex and, in this case, we made inadvertent billing mistakes," Verizon Wireless said in a statement responding to the FCC settlement. "We accept responsibility for those errors, and apologize to our customers who received accidental data charges on their bills. "
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) and British telecom Vodafone (VOD).
"We will continue to monitor the company's compliance going forward," the FCC's Ellison said. "We salute the consumers who had the tenacity to call attention to this problem."

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The U.S. government is trying to bring the 911 emergency service "into the 21st century" by looking into allowing text, photo and video reports from mobile phones.
The Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday that 70% of 911 calls come from mobile phones. It also said some situations -- such as a home intruder -- don't allow the victim to make a voice call safely.
"Today's 911 system [launched in 1968] doesn't support the communication tools of tomorrow," FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. "We primarily use our phones to text, [but] right now, you can't text 911. It's time [for] the digital age."
The proposed "Next Generation 911" would allow emergency call centers to receive text messages and use mobile photo or video for information about the situation in progress.
The FCC also wants to introduce automatic reports coming from medical devices, car electronics, security cameras and more.
The commission admitted that today's 911 call centers are not well equipped technologically, with some even lacking access to broadband. It also said 911 texting would have been valuable during the shooting at the Virginia Tech campus in 2007.
"Students and witnesses desperately tried to send texts to 911 that dispatchers never received," the FCC said. "If these messages had gone through, first responders may have arrived on the scene faster with first-hand intelligence."
Genachowski, the FCC chairman, said he will launch a program in Decemeber to get public input on the changes to 911 services

There God, What is this worl becoming??
A Catholic priest, facing criminal charges and a lawsuit alleging that he sexually abused a teenage boy, is now charged with attempting to hire someone to kill the youth, authorities said Tuesday.
The Rev. John M. Fiala was in the Dallas County, Texas, jail on Tuesday, charged with one count of criminal solicitation to commit capital murder, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the jail's website. He also is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. His bail totals $700,000.
He was arrested last week after he offered an undercover agent with the Texas Department of Public Safety $5,000 to kill the teen, according to department spokeswoman Lisa Block.
The youth met Fiala in 2007, according to Rhodes. The attorney said the priest started "grooming him," buying him gifts including a computer and a car. In early 2008, when the boy was 16, under the guise of providing private catechism lessons, Fiala "gained access to him and began to sexually abuse him once or twice a month, including on church grounds," Rhodes said.
At the time, Fiala was administrator of Sacred Heart of Mary in Rocksprings, Texas, which is in Edwards County. The alleged abuse occurred in two counties -- Edwards and Howard -- and included the youth's rape at gunpoint, the attorney said.
Fiala allegedly threatened to kill the youth if he told anyone -- threats he repeated in daily text messages, Rhodes said, and Fiala also threatened to kill himself, telling the teen they would "go to heaven together."
The teen, after struggling with the abuse, told a school counselor, who notified authorities, Rhodes said. He filed suit in April against Fiala, as well as the archdioceses of San Antonio, Texas, and Omaha, Nebraska -- where Fiala was before Texas -- and Fiala's religious order, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, the attorney said.
The suit claims that all three covered up Fiala's record of abuse. All three have denied doing so, according to the San Antonio, Texas, Express-News. When former San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez and the religious order learned of the police investigation into Fiala's relationship with the teen, he was removed from active ministry in October 2008, the newspaper reported.

For more Info, visit: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/11/23/texas.priest.arrested/index.html?hpt=P1&iref=NS1

The shocked looks on everyone’s faces was priceless! Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron announced Brandy was going home and Bristol Palin had made it to the finals — and the studio audience booed! The crowd at home, however, cheered. These are the most exciting final three contestants in Dancing with the Stars history: we have the talented kid, Kyle Massey; the old school diva, Jennifer Grey and America’s unexpected sweetheart, “Bristol The Pistol” Palin!
“I don’t think anyone in 11 seasons has had such a journey,” judge Len Goodman told the 20-year-old teen activist before the results were announced.
Judging from Maks’ and Brandy’s expressions when they found out they had be ousted by an under-qualified team, Len isn’t representative of everyone. Even the audience booed when Bristallion made the finals!
Do you think Bristol will be able to make it all the way to #1 — or will Jennifer’s talent or Kyle’s personality pull them to the top?

After his wife Scarlett Johansson secured her new title as GQ's Babe of the Year, Ryan Reynolds landed his own too. The George Lutz of "The Amityville Horror" has been crowned as People's Sexiest Man Alive, joining the ranks of Sexiest Man Alive title-holders like Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Matthew McConaughey and Brad Pitt.
"Well, there was a little moment of disbelief, and then you kind of settle into it. Really, you just have to go with the flow," Reynolds said of his Sexiest Man Alive title. "This gives my family entree into teasing me for the rest of my life. Now it's going to be, 'Sexiest man, take out the garbage.' That does sound better. The most difficult part is going to be organically working this title into a conversation with random strangers."
A one-hour TV special, "25 Years of Sexy: People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive!", which is hosted by Kim Kardashian is aired on ABC at 10 P.M. ET on Wednesday, November 17, featuring an exclusive on-camera interview with Reynolds and behind-the-scenes look at making the issue as well as interviews with other former sexiest men alive winners.