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'The View' & Obama: President Says He Won't Attend Chelsea Clinton's Wedding (VIDEO)

2010-07-29T17:37:10Z

President Obama chatted with the ladies of "The View" on Thursday morning and he said that he isn't going to Chelsea Clinton's wedding. He remarked, "It would be tough enough having one president at a wedding, you don't want two presidents at a wedding." Also, he wasn't actually invited, he explained, because, "I think that Hillary and Bill, properly, want to keep this as a thing for Chelsea and her soon-to-be husband." See what he had to say about Malia's and Sasha's weddings.

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The Most Successful Business Power Couples (PHOTOS)

2010-07-29T17:30:39Z

These days successful celebrity marriages are rare gems. But throw in a thriving multimillion-dollar company and add a hefty dose of public scrutiny and things become even more complicated.

The tales of power couple splits are legion. In June, Al and Tipper Gore, a brand in their own right, announced that they were separating after 40 years together, reported the Daily News. In October, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt fired his estranged wife (now ex-wife) Jamie McCourt from her position as team CEO of the Dodgers. According to ESPN, Jamie and Frank McCourt took almost 30 years to build a billion-dollar empire together.

But the successful power couples have found their own ways to make it work. From Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell, who bonded over a dry economic text on their first date, to Ben Trott and Mena Trott, the high school sweethearts who created the blog software empire of Six Apart Media, there's no one way to make a power couple last.

Gary Shteyngart On Being James Franco's Teacher And Lindsay Lohan's Soul Mate (VIDEO)

2010-07-29T17:28:26Z

Earlier this month, Gary Shteyngart made a hilarious, irreverent book trailer for his new novel, "Super Sad True Love Story," where he played an illiterate hack whose success in the literary community was largely accidental.

The trailer starred James Franco, who is a student in Shteyngart's writing seminar at Columbia (in real life). We asked Gary what it was like being James Franco's teacher. But first he needed to explain why he and Lindsay Lohan are soul mates. (Hint: he claims he once painted "F**k U" on HIS fingernails--in Hebrew school.)

WATCH:

Shteyngart on Being LiLo's Soul-mate:

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Shteyngart on Being James Franco's Teacher:

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First Daughters' Weddings: A Look Back At Other White House Nuptials (VIDEO)

2010-07-29T17:24:21Z

In its daily Chelsea Clinton wedding update, "Good Morning America" took a look at other First Daughters' (and Sons') weddings. James Monroe's daughter was the first to get married in the White House, Teddy Roosevelt's daughter had 700 guests at her nuptials, both of Lyndon Johnson's girls were White House brides and Tricia Nixon appeared twice on the cover of Life magazine. Reminisce about the good times below.

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Baby Landina Reunited With Mother, Marie Miracle Seignon, Six Months After Haitian Earthquake

2010-07-29T17:19:24Z

LONDON -- A mother broke down in tears as she was reunited with her baby girl six months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti.

"I had thought Landina was dead and when I heard she was alive I was in shock," the eight-month-old infant's mother, Marie Miracle Seignon, told Britain's Channel 4 News. "This is very emotional for me."

Midterm Elections 2010: 5 Of The Harshest Negative Campaign Ads So Far (VIDEO)

2010-07-29T17:15:02Z

Across the country, midterm election candidates are infusing the airwaves with negative ads at a rapid rate and the pace could lead the 2010 cycle to produce a record setting number of fiery campaign attacks.

The Washington Post reports:

[A] 2010 calendar front-loaded with contested primaries, combined with scores of vulnerable incumbents and both sides playing underdog, means there's an extra dash of hot sauce this year.

"We always say this is the most negative cycle, but 2010 probably will be it," said Evan Tracey, who tracks campaign ads for the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which is based in Northern Virginia. "The national issues are huge, and both parties hold the view that you have to blow up your opponent."

Aggressive advertising initiatives are surely a landmark feature of any election season; however, it seems that the nature of the negative-style spots may be reaching a fever pitch this year.

Here are some of the more memorable attack ads that have already hit the airwaves.

Robert O'Connell On Jon Stewart: Hannibal's Bloody Battle In Rome (VIDEO)

2010-07-29T17:14:24Z

Author Robert O'Connell spoke to Jon Stewart last night about his new book, "Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic." In his book, O'Connell covers the bloody battle at Cannae, where Hannibal (no, not the guy from "The A-Team") defeated the Roman army. The losses at this battle were devastating; the Roman army lost more men in one battle than the United States lost in the entire Vietnam War, O'Connell said. Included in those losses were members of the Roman senate, who essentially watched -- or, as Stewart accused them, "snacked" -- on the sidelines of the battle. Stewart asked the question on everyone's mind: "What kind of idiocy was that?" But, O'Connell explained, everyone in Rome was part of the military, and it was common for political leaders to attend, or lose their lives, in battle.

As it turns out, the Romans' defeat at Cannae actually lead to the start the Roman empire, because the defeat caused Rome to focus on becoming a militaristic regime, rather than a republic. As Stewart put it, "the parallels to modern warfare society" are fascinating in this novel, so pick up "Ghosts of Cannae" if you want proof that history tends to repeat itself.

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Most Polluted Beaches In California

2010-07-29T17:14:15Z

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released their fifth annual U.S. beaches report card today. Their round up of 2009 beach closings and water samples reveal that 9% of the total beachwater samples taken in California violate the state's health and safety standards. Accidental sewage spills and stormwater runoff are the biggest contributors to the pollution, which can include human and animal waste.

The samples are collected multiple times during 2009 in ankle-deep water near areas of probable contamination, like where storm drains enter the ocean. The samples are then compared to the state's "daily maximum bacterial standards." The NRDC warns that bacteria in polluted ocean water can cause "stomach flu, skin rashes, pinkeye, ear, nose, and throat problems, dysentery, hepatitis, respiratory ailments, neurological disorders, and other serious health problems." Not a good way to be spending the summer.

Still, David Beckman of the NRDC notes the complexities of sample-collecting and warns beachgoers against making assumptions. He uses Southern California as an example:

Many of us assume that beach water quality must be more or less the same within the same region or community, but that is not true. In Southern California, for example, we have some of the very best beaches in the country--and some of the worst. Most of the time, you can't tell which is which just by standing on the sand and looking. That is why testing the water is so important.

Here's a round up of the 10 most polluted beaches in California.

Poll Finds California Voters Support Arizona-Style Immigration Law

2010-07-29T17:10:44Z

This story comes courtesy of California Watch.

Louis Freedberg

Could an anti-illegal immigration initiative along the lines of the Arizona law, now partially blocked from going into effect, ever become law in California?

A recent Field Poll suggests that were such an initiative to make it onto the ballot, it would get strong support from California's electorate, just as Proposition 187, the initiative stripping illegal immigrants of a range of benefits, did in 1994. An earlier Field Poll found that Californians were more likely to vote for candidates who supported the Arizona law.

The conventional thinking has been that because of the large proportion of Latinos in the electorate, and because of the devastating impact passage of Prop. 187 had on the Republican Party in alienating it from Latino voters, such an outcome would be impossible to contemplate today.

It's true that the state Legislature, with Latinos in high leadership positions, and Democrats solidly in the majority, is unlikely to pass anything resembling either the Arizona law (SB 1070) or Prop. 187.

But should someone with deep pockets be willing to bankroll a voter initiative that circumvented constitutional concerns, it might well win at the ballot box.

According to the most recent Field Poll (conducted between June 22 and July 5), there is clear-cut support for the Arizona law among likely voters in California. Forty-one percent are strongly in favor and 13 percent are somewhat in favor of the law. That's compared to 32 percent who are strongly opposed and 11 percent somewhat opposed.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, said the same dynamic was at work during the battle around Prop. 187 in the early 1990s. "Likely voters took a harsher view than all adults in California, and I see that on this survey as well," he said.

DiCamillo pointed out that even though attitudes of Californians toward illegal immigrants have become more moderate since the passage of Prop. 187, 56 percent of voters still believe that illegal immigrants have an unfavorable impact on the state, compared to only 34 percent who say they have a favorable effect.

Immigrant advocates are hopeful that a new generation of Californians would reject a new Prop. 187-type initiative. "We've learned things that maybe other states haven't about how interdependent we are on immigrants who live here," said Tanya Broder, an Oakland-based senior attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, one of several groups that has filed a suit challenging the constitutionality of the Arizona law.

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said that rather than mounting a statewide campaign, anti-illegal immigration groups like Save Our State have organized in smaller Southern California communities like Costa Mesa, Hemet, Yorba Linda, Santa Clarita and Lancaster which have declared their support of the Arizona law or approved "rule-of-law" ordinances directed at illegal immigrants.

The Save Our State website carries a bright red, scrolling headline that reads "Go Arizona! ... California Supports You ... Save Your State!"

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has worked nationwide to support a range of similar measures, is working in California but declined to comment on its plans for the state.

The likelihood of a new version of Prop. 187 making it back onto the California ballot will be shaped by whether the Arizona law is found to be unconstitutional (as Prop. 187 was by a lower court). But Salas said she is hopeful that if they were asked to vote on it, California's disproportionately younger population would reject it.

"Some of the electorate is very anti-immigrant, but especially younger Californians have a very different perspective on immigrants and the rights they should have," she said. "My hope is that this new generation will be more aligned with a vision of California that is united and growing together."

At the moment, however, older voters easily outnumber younger ones.

One thing is certain: Another initiative modeled after Prop. 187 would rock California politics, as it did in 1994.

"It would be as divisive an initiative as I can imagine, and it is in the realm of possibility that one will appear again," DiCamillo said.

Alemany Farm: Reducing San Francisco's Crime By Growing Organic Food (VIDEO)

2010-07-29T17:04:58Z

Alemany Farm is a four acre organic paradise amidst the urban sprawl of one of San Francisco's worst crime areas.

Executive Director Alice Carruthers says her vision with the non-profit "was to slow the crime down." Since the farm began in 1991, families have been able to put fresh organic food on their tables and find a safe haven from the hostile environment where their children play and learn about the environment.

Bianca Armstrong, a seventeen year old mother, says that before she became a volunteer at Alemany Farm she ate a lot of junk food. She talks about how the experience has helped her change and grow into a better person, and how she hopes to pass on what she has learned to her daughter.

WATCH how an organic farm is changing a community:

Hundreds Of Neb. Education Dept Workers Won't Take Furloughs

2010-07-29T17:01:36Z

LINCOLN, Neb. â Nebraska government workers won't all be forced to stay home, unpaid, to help ease budget pressures that threaten to cause layoffs and reductions in state services.

While roughly 11,000 union workers who earlier declined a pay freeze requested by Gov. Dave Heineman will be forced to take two furlough days under orders he issued about two weeks ago, two state departments he doesn't directly control recently decided against furloughs for their union employees.

Those more than 900 employees, who are in the Department of Education and State College System, will also get raises, unlike most nonunion employees across all sectors of state government.

Heineman couldn't order employees in the two agencies to take furlough days like he could in other departments because the two agencies have some autonomy under the state Constitution.

While not explicitly criticizing the decisions by the two departments, Heineman suggested that the decision by the Department of Education – which employs more than 400 of the workers not being required to take furlough days – be reconsidered.

Department management decided not to order furloughs; Heineman wants the department's board, the State Board of Education, to vote on the matter.

"The governor's opinion is that this is an issue of equity and fairness that deserves to be reviewed and acted upon by the elected board at their next meeting," Jen Rae Hein, Heineman's spokeswoman, said about the Department of Education. "The governor hopes the state board ... will follow his lead."

Nebraska Education Commissioner Roger Breed, who heads the education department, said the board might discuss the furlough issue at its next meeting in August, but that any vote to reverse or oppose the decision wouldn't happen until September.

Breed said one of the main reasons the department decided against furloughs was because it wouldn't save much state money – about $40,000 – because the department gets most of its money from the federal government.

"We're mostly federally funded, well over 70 percent, so the impact would be minimal," Breed said.

Union members will get a 2.5 percent raise this fiscal year, which began July 1, as will nonunion members.

The cost of those raises, he said, will be offset by savings such as not giving raises to top administrators, including himself.

Heineman declined to comment through his spokeswoman on the decision by the State College System, which oversees Chadron, Peru and Wayne State Colleges, to not order furloughs.

College support staff who belong to the large state union that represents most of the 11,000 employees who will have to take furlough days will receive a pay increase of about 3 percent this year.

Another union that represents professional staff will get a 3.5 percent raise, and nonunion administrators will get the same percentage bump in pay. The faculty union's request for a combined, 11 percent pay hike for last fiscal year and the current fiscal year that began July 1 is tied up in the courts.

Kristin Petersen, vice chancellor for employee relations, said furloughs aren't necessary because layoffs and other steps will help the college system trim its budget. She added that furloughs aren't an attractive way to decrease spending because the impact is temporary.

Heineman ordered furloughs earlier this month after an end-of-fiscal year revenue report showed the state brought in $76 million less than what was officially projected. He also worried revenues may fall short again this year.

He said at the time furloughs of about 11,000 state employees would save the state about $3.5 million.

The actual amount could be less, however, because an undetermined number of employees probably will not be furloughed. That will be necessary to keep round-the-clock facilities like prisons running without paying overtime costs that would exceed savings realized through furloughs.

___

Online:

http://napeafscme.org/

Family Travel Deals: Summer Isn't Over Yet (VIDEO)

2010-07-29T17:01:14Z

Summer isn't over just yet. But with August just around the corner, it's time to finally get it together and go somewhere with the family. That said, so many places are already booked up! "The Early Show" ran a segment about last-minute deals just right for any budget. Check out your options below.

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Climate Change Art Contest: Submit Your Creative Vision To Help Fight Global Warming

2010-07-29T16:56:40Z

300 Scientists recently agreed, "Global warming is undeniable," and 2010 is on track to become the hottest year on record, so why do 48% of Americans believe that the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated?

Art has a unique way of propelling societies toward change by raising awareness of pertinent issues through aesthetically-pleasing and compelling imagery. That's why the CoolClimate Art Contest needs YOU to submit your most creative and iconic work to bring focus to the very real dangers of climate change, whether through shocking imagery of a planet devastated by global warming or emphasizing the clean energy solutions we need to embrace to get on the right track.

Submit your original artwork to CoolClimate, on DeviantArt, by August 23rd. 20 finalists will be chosen by an esteemed panel of diverse judges, a group of 10 notable individuals that includes the likes of Chevy Chase, Jackson Browne, Van Jones, and Philippe Cousteau. The 20 finalists will then be revealed right here on HuffPost Green, where the public can vote on their favorite!

The top five climate artists of 2010 will be featured on PlanetGreen.com's show 'Planet100', showcased at global warming events on 10/10/10, and sent out to non-profits and press organizations. There will additionally be a monetary reward of $600, $350, and $150 for the top three artists, respectively.

Check out the full rules and regulations at the CoolClimate website, and get to work on your most imaginative and impressive artwork to help fight the very real problems of climate change!

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR ART

Denver DA: Officer Fired Unauthorized Military 'Penetrator' Bullets, Injuring Bystander

2010-07-29T16:54:43Z

DENVER -- The Denver district attorney said a police officer used unauthorized military ammunition when he fired his weapon at an armed man near Club Vinyl four weeks ago, injuring an innocent bystander.

Janie Bryant's 'Mad Men' Nail Polish Collection To Hit CVS, Duane Reade This Fall

2010-07-29T16:53:14Z

"Mad Men" costume designer Janie Bryant is collaborating with Nailtini on four limited edition nail polishes for fall, WWD reports:

Bryant said she was inspired by fabrics used in cocktail dresses during the "Mad Men" era--velvets, satins and lamÃ©s--when creating the colors, which are a brown, gold, platinum and iridescent shade called Bourbon Satin, French 75, Deauville and Stinger, respectively.

Each bottle will go for $14 at CVS and Duane Reade. And you can pair them with pieces from Bryant's new fashion collection Mod.