Gay and lesbian media portal PlanetOut Inc. agreed to sell its magazine and book publishing business to Here Networks for $6 million in cash.
San Francisco-based PlanetOut signed a letter of intent with Regent Releasing, an affiliate of New York-based Here, which is a gay and lesbian television network. A formal agreement should be done by April 30 and the deal should close by August 31. The price in the letter of agreement is $6 million, with $1 million coming on April 30 or sooner, if the agreement is finished earlier. Other $1 million payments will be made on the 15th of the month from May through September. The letter, signed by PlanetOut CEO Karen Magee and Regent CEO Paul Colichman states: "The funds shall be treated as prepaid advertising, to be applied as the marketing occurs." The ads must run by March 31, 2009.
Regent also agreed to pay $500,000 in cash as a put/call payment when the deal closes. PlanetOut publishes magazines like Out and Advocate, but wants to return its focus to its web sites gay.com and planetout.com, which have been contributing a smaller percentage of its revenue recently.
Former rap star Vanilla Ice, real name Robert Van Winkle, was arrested tonight at his home after an alleged altercation with his wife. Ice was booked by Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies at 10:43 PM ET on a charge of domestic battery. Sources tell TMZ he got into an argument with his wife, Laura, and he pushed her.Vanilla Ice is still in custody at Palm Beach County Jail. Palm Beach County Sheriff's tell TMZ that in most cases, people arrested for domestic violence are usually held over to see a judge. Looks like Mr. Van Winkle will spend a night in the pokey. Source>>>
I just learned about this from reading one of my favorite blogs rod2.o.
According to the blog TruthWinsOut.org, Portland Fellowship, an Exodus affiliate program in Portland, Oregon, has launched a web site to recruit churches to the ex-gay cause. Supporters are asked to pick a church, write a recruitment letter, and send $25 per church. The $25 apparently buys each church an ex-gay CD-ROM and a Starbucks $5 gift card. One critic noted that Starbucks is among the top gay-inclusive companies, according to Human Rights Campaign. Obvious question: Were the cards purchased by the Fellowship or donated by Starbucks?
SAN FRANCISCO -- A couple sought in the December bludgeoning death of their San Francisco housemate, whose body lay undiscovered in an impounded van for more than a week, have been arrested in Mexico and are being extradited to California, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said today.
Richard Carelli and his girlfriend Michelle Pinkerton, both 38, are wanted in the slaying of Leonard Milo Hoskins, 49, whose body languished for eight days in Carelli's van at a police impound yard after officers towed it from the Mission Terrace house where all three lived. Mexican authorities arrested the couple Monday night in El Rosario, Mexico, a town on the Baja peninsula, San Francisco police said.
The two are likely to be returned to San Francisco today, said Chris Hanson, a supervisory deputy for the U.S. Marshals Service, which assisted in the investigation. The couple's 6-year-old daughter, Viana Carelli, and their infant child were with the pair and are safe in protective custody, Hanson said.
Authorities did not immediately release further details of the arrest. San Francisco police seized Carelli's van Jan. 24, after a neighbor told police he had seen Carelli hit Hoskins over the head with a piece of lumber outside their home on Lamartine Street, then drag him inside and emerge later smeared with blood. The man said the attack happened the night of Dec. 22, but he didn't talk to police until weeks later.
Police towed the van after cadaver dogs showed interest in it, but officers did not detain Carelli and Pinkerton at the time. Police put the van in an impound yard but did not search it until Feb. 1. They found Hoskins' decomposed body in the back, then learned that Carelli and Pinkerton had fled.
Their disappearance was the culmination of a series of apparent police missteps. Hoskins' sister, Ureena Hoskins, initially reported him missing to police in Oakland, where she thought he had vanished. Oakland police officials conceded after Hoskins' body was found that they had failed to contact police in San Francisco immediately after learning that Hoskins had last been seen there.
Ureena Hoskins started checking on her own, spoke with the neighbor who saw the Dec. 22 incident and called San Francisco police Jan. 23. Inspector Angela Martin of the missing persons unit later said she sent two officers to the house on Lamartine Street, where they reported seeing blood on a door.
The next day, Martin and other San Francisco investigators went to the house with cadaver dogs borrowed from the Alameda County Sheriff's Department. Martin wrote in a court affidavit that she saw more smears of blood on the top of the door. As dogs searched the outside, Carelli came out of his unit and Martin told him why police were there, she said.
"He told me that he'd heard others ... saying that he had been involved in a fight with (Hoskins)," in which he supposedly hit Hoskins with a piece of wood, Martin wrote in her affidavit. After the dogs showed interest in the van, police called for a tow truck. "As officers were leaving the scene, Mr. Carelli and Ms. Pinkerton left together (in another car)," Martin wrote. Police made no effort to stop them. Source here>>>
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A roommate-finding site cannot require users to disclose their sexual orientation, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday, in the latest skirmish over whether anti-discrimination rules apply to the Web.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Roommates.com, which obliges users to list their sexual orientation, was different than Internet sites where people can volunteer or withhold personal information.
To inquire electronically about sexual orientation would not be different from asking people in person or by telephone if they were black or Jewish before conducting business, the panel said in an 8-3 ruling that partly overturns a lower federal court decision.
"If such screening is prohibited when practiced in person or by telephone, we see no reason why Congress would have wanted to make it lawful to profit from it online," 9th Circuit chief judge Alex Kozinski wrote. "Not only does Roommate ask these questions, Roommate makes answering the discriminatory questions a condition of doing business." Roommates.com says it offers more than 100,000 rental listings on its site across the United States and is owned by Roommate.com LLC.
DALLAS - American Airlines said it was canceling up to 500 flights Tuesday, potentially more than one-fifth of its schedule, to check the bundling of wires in some planes, the same issue that caused the airline to scrap more than 400 flights last month.
American, the nation's largest carrier, said the cancellations could spill into Wednesday and beyond. The airline said the Federal Aviation Administration raised more concerns about the recent inspections of the wiring in its approximately 300 MD-80 aircraft. The inspections will focus on issues including the spacing and direction of cords used to secure bundles of wires in the planes' auxiliary hydraulic systems. The company said they were not safety-of-flight issues.
Tim Wagner, a spokesman for the airline, said an FAA inspector checked several planes Monday and found that some of the work performed last month didn't meet the agency's standards. American operates about 2,300 daily flights. Wagner said 185 flights had already been canceled by late afternoon at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where American often uses MD-80s.
The FAA has tightened inspections of planes at all U.S. carriers since the agency came under fire for letting Southwest Airlines Co. fly planes that had missed safety inspections. American and Delta Air Lines Inc. both canceled flights in late March to perform wiring-related inspections and repairs. Complete story at source here>>>
Legendary actor Charlton Heston died on Saturday at the age of 83. The iconic actor of such films as Ben Hur and Soylent Green died at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife, Lydia Clarke Heston, by his side. Heston is survived by son Fraser Clarke Heston, daughter Holly Ann Heston, and three grandchildren.
Heston's family released a statement on Saturday confirming the actor's death. "We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather, with an infectious sense of humor," the statement said, according to CNN.com. "He served these far greater roles with tremendous faith, courage and dignity. He loved deeply, and he was deeply loved." Known for playing some of the most notable figures in history, Heston starred in over 100 movies, including such landmark films as The Ten Commandments, Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes and The Big Country. Heston won an Academy Award in 1960 for his starring role in Ben Hur. He was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1972.
Off the screen, Heston was known as a champion for civil rights and often spoke out against the evils of racism. In a radical move for the time in 1961, Heston joined a picket line outside of a movie theater premiering one of his films because the theater segregated its audiences. He also accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights march held in Washington, D.C. in 1963."Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiselled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played," Heston's family said, according to The Press Association. "No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country."
In the 80's and 90's, Heston's political views shifted more to the right and he openly opposed affirmative action and abortion. In 1998, Heston was elected President of the National Rifle Association and was a strong proponent of gun rights. In a speech at the 1998 NRA Convention, Republican Heston criticized President Bill Clinton over his policies regarding gun rights, saying, "Mr. Clinton, sir, America didn't trust you with our health-care system. America didn't trust you with gays in the military. America doesn't trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don't trust you with our guns."
Although Heston talked about and praised the "brilliantly taleted homosexuals" he worked with during his career, he was often accused of being homophobic, especially later in his life. In a 1997 speech at the Free Congress Foundation's 20th Anniversary Gala, Heston was criticized by gay rights groups, including GLAAD, for derogatory remarks made toward the gay community. In the speech, Heston demonstrated both tolerance and discrimination against gays in almost equal measure. "Many homosexuals are hugely talented artists and executives... also dear friends. I don't despise their lifestyle, though I don't share it," Heston stated. "As long as gay and lesbian Americans are as productive, law-abiding and private as the rest of us, I think America owes them absolute tolerance. It's the right thing to do." "But on the other hand," Heston continued. "I find my blood pressure rising when Clinton's cultural shock troops participate in homosexual-rights fund-raisers but boycott gun-rights fund-raisers... and then claim it's time to place homosexual men in tents with Boy Scouts, and suggest that sperm donor babis born into lesbian relationships are somehow better served and more loved." Complete story at source>>>
WASHINGTON -- Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and singer-actress Beyonce Knowles married Friday in New York, People magazine reported on its Web site, citing an unidentified friend of the couple.
The report quoted the friend as saying, "It happened earlier this evening. Jay wanted it to be a really private affair -- close friends and family."
Representatives for the couple were unavailable to confirm the report, which added that the ceremony was followed by a party at the rapper's TriBeCa apartment.
Guests included Beyonce's mother Tina Knowles, her father and manager Mathew, her sister Solange, Destiny's Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, and friend Gwyneth Paltrow, it said.
The report followed widespread speculation that drew swarms of media to the street outside Jay-Z's penthouse Friday.
A parade of sport utility vehicles with tinted windows was seen coming and going from the garage late in the afternoon, one of them carrying two people dressed in chef's uniforms carrying large, square, white boxes on their laps. And men dressed in tuxedos were spotted on the roof of the building, where a white tent was erected.
People touched off the celebrity wedding watch this week when it reported the couple, who have been dating for several years, had taken out a wedding license in Scarsdale Village, New York, valid for 60 days.
Gossip blogger Perez Hilton fanned the flames when he reported the wedding would take place Friday, then followed up by posting the address of Jay-Z's apartment as the location.
Matrimonial union between Jay-Z, 37, whose real name is Shawn Carter, and Beyonce, 26, also known by her full name Beyonce Knowles, would mark one of the highest-profile celebrity unions in recent years.
Sorry that I didn't post anything about the party/fundraiser that we promoted in San Francisco with Demarco Majors and the SF Rockdogs sooner. The party was packed, very diverse, and sexy as hell. I was eating jello shots like they were candy and ended up having to leave after the fashion show because I was ripped.
The swimwear/underwear competition included members of the SF Rockdogs baskeball team with each team member competing for the crowds screams and...my boy Demarco won! The pictures here were taken that night.
You guys will get to see the competition once the show airs and I will also be making a cameo appearance. One of the many things that I noticed about Demarco that night is that he is a completely different person when the spotlight is on him. Normally, he is cool, chill, laid back. But once it was his turn to compete, I didn't recognize him and let me tell you...that boy will give a stripper a run for their money cause his ass can dance!
The team is wrapping up taping and San Francisco and off to Chicago for the championship game.
We have numerous pictures from this event, however, I will not post them here until after the reality show airs on MTV-Logo this summer. All I have to say is the guys were sexy as hell.
I can't wait to see what Demarco will be wearing (or not wearing) at Blatino Oasis in Palm Springs next month....YUMMY!
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Sorry that I didn't post anything about the 
