Justin Timberlakes William Rast Clothing

Justin Timberlakes William Rast ClothingMaking music and acting have been Justin Timberlake's passions for decades. Now, he can add a new accomplishment to his résumé—fashion designer. In 2005, Justin co-founded the William Rast clothing line with his childhood friend and business partner, Trace Ayala.

"We've always wanted to get into it," Justin says. "I think there was more actual apprehension for me because, in this day [and] age, you do something, you want it to come across genuine."

The name of the fashion line, which is known for its premium denim, is a tribute to two important men in their lives—their grandfathers. "Trace and I are huge fans of our grandfathers," Justin says. "William is my grandfather's first name, and Rast is his grandfather's last name. So we took the names, and put them together."

Today, Justin is wearing William Rast "Ben" jeans with a New America T-shirt, utilitarian shirt and a dark gray wool blazer.

Want to see more? Justin brought along a few of his favorite items from the spring 2009 collection!Justin says he loves to see women wear a mix of sexy and tomboy looks…a style his girlfriend, actress Jessica Biel, is known for. "She's obviously a huge muse for me and with the designers too," he says.

In keeping with this style, the first model is wearing William Rast's black leather jacket with studs and "Jerri" skinny jeans in Rosewood wash.

Every woman should have a good pair of jeans and a leather jacket in her wardrobe, Justin says.

Over the years, Justin has become known for his unique sense of style. "I like mixing sort of a cleanup top with the rugged jeans and like a flannel with a blazer," he says. "Try it, guys. See what happens."

To illustrate his point, a male model pairs the William Rast "Ben" jeans with a flannel shirt and optical wave wool blazer.

Original Source : http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20090327-tows-justin-timberlake-william-rast

Billy Donovan

Billy DonovanDonovan not a UK candidate; recruits react to news.



Once again, Billy Donovan won't be accepting the vacant head coaching position at the University of Kentucky.

University of Florida spokesperson Fred Demerest told Florida Today, "Billy (Donovan) will not be a candidate for any job that comes open, I can confirm.”

The school is scheduled to release a statement later Friday.

In a statement from coach Billy Donovan, he said, “In response to the rumors circulating about my interest in other jobs, I wanted to address this as quickly as possible," Donovan said. "I am committed to the University of Florida and look forward to continuing to build our program here."

- In other news, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports that top Kentucky recruit Jon Hood is "heartbroken" over the news of Billy Gillispie's firing, but would wait to see who the school brings in before deciding whether to opt out of his national letter of intent.

- The Courier-Journal also talked to the father of G.J. Vilarino, a point guard from McKinney (Texas) and the first recruit that Gillispie signed with Kentucky.

Gerry Vilarino told the newspaper, “It’s a tough day for us because we have known those guys (the staff) for years and they’re like family. We’re hurting today and we feel for them. It’s a difficult day on that side of it.

“But from a basketball perspective – solely – G.J. has had his mind set for a long time. Based on our conversations, it’s going to be pretty hard for him to turn it off now and say he’s not going to Kentucky. He has everything ready to go.”

- Kooner Tucker, the Wildcats' most-recent signee, says he's still committed to Kentucky, but will also wait and see who the school brings in as their next coach.

“(Gillispie) is a great coach and I felt like he was someone I could play for,” Tucker told the Courier-Journal. “I don’t know now. I will have to see who they bring in and what he wants and everything like that."

- Meanwhile, one of Kentucky's most prized recruits, Dominique Ferguson, might re-open his recruiting process, his father said.

Deon Ferguson said his son had a great relationship with Billy Gillispie and his staff.

“He has a lot on his mind right now," Deon Ferguson said. "He’s just trying to figure things out.

Original Source : http://blogs.usatoday.com/bracketracket/2009/03/donovan-wont-be.html

Oakland Police Funeral

Oakland Police Funeral
Oakland police funeral set for today.

Thousands of police officers from across the country and Bay Area residents are expected to fill Oracle Arena today for the funeral of four Oakland police officers shot and killed in the line of duty.

Officers from throughout California and from as far away as New York and Florida will attend the 11 a.m. service in the arena, which holds more than 19,000 people. A contingent of officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is also planning to be there.

People who can't get into the arena will be able to watch the service on big screens in the adjacent Oakland Coliseum.

The funeral will also be televised live on several television stations, an unprecedented action that police officials said was commensurate with the outpouring of grief over the single deadliest loss of life in Oakland Police Department history.

"It is very overwhelming and touching," police spokesman Officer Jeff Thomason said.

The funeral will be unprecedented in at least one other respect - all 815 members of the Oakland Police Department are being allowed to attend, meaning the city's streets will be patrolled most of the day by officers from 15 law-enforcement agencies in Alameda County, including the sheriff's office, the California Highway Patrol and city and regional police departments.

"Any time an event like this happens, it's up to the other agencies to step up and do the right thing," sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson said Thursday. "Tomorrow, we'll be helping the city of Oakland and Saturday, the city of Oakland might be helping us."

Officers and several hundred other police employees will be bused to the arena from Oakland police headquarters and the Eastmont substation in East Oakland. The substation is just a block from where Sgts. Mark Dunakin, Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai and Officer John Hege were shot and killed Saturday by 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon, a wanted parolee.

Dunakin, 40, and Hege, 41, were killed after they pulled Mixon over for a traffic stop at 74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. Their motorcycles were on display this week in the Eastmont substation, surrounded by flowers.

Romans, 43, and Sakai, 35, died when their SWAT team stormed the apartment where Mixon was hiding. Mixon, armed with an assault rifle, was also shot to death.

Dispatchers from police agencies across the state reported for duty Thursday at the Oakland dispatch center at a building on Edgewater Drive, located across Interstate 880 from the arena. They will help answer calls today.

"There will be no decrease in police service during the funeral," Thomason said.

Speakers at the service will include acting Police Chief Howard Jordan, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and state Attorney General Jerry Brown. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will attend and meet privately with the officers' families, but will not address those attending the funeral.

Attendees are being urged to arrive early and to take public transportation. BART, Amtrak's Capitol Corridor train line and AC Transit have stops or stations adjacent to the Coliseum complex.

The gates to the parking lot will open at 7 a.m., and the doors of the arena will open at 9 a.m. Video cameras will not be allowed inside the arena.

Long processions to and from the arena will result in the closure of many East Bay freeways in the hours before and after the funeral. "It will affect every major freeway," Thomason said.

Processions from mortuaries in Tracy, Danville, Oakland and Hayward will make their way to the arena on Interstates 580, 680, 880 and 980 and Highway 238. Families of the slain officers will begin arriving about 10:15 a.m.

The funeral will be followed by a number of rituals, including the playing of bagpipes, a 21-gun salute with a military cannon, and flyovers involving 20 law-enforcement helicopters from across the nation.

Police Capt. Paul Figueroa has been overseeing planning for the funeral. The families of the slain officers embraced during an emotional meeting Tuesday night, Figueroa said.

Asked to describe the challenges in putting together such a service, Figueroa said, "What I'm doing is nothing compared to ..." His voice trailed off, and he abruptly left a media briefing.

In the first-floor lobby of the police headquarters on Seventh Street, a worker was busy sandblasting four new names Thursday onto a memorial wall, joining those of 47 other Oakland officers killed in the line of duty.

Original Source : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/26/MNJ116NGD7.DTL

Foxy Knoxy

Foxy Knoxy
Murder case brings 'Foxy Knoxy' infamy in Italy.

The Italian media call her "Foxy Knoxy" and portray her as a "devil with an angel's face," and there are 11 Facebook pages dedicated to her, all in Italian.

Amanda Knox, 21, is an American college student from Seattle, Washington, who is on trial for murder in Perugia, Italy. The case has given Knox almost pop star status there.

She was voted the top woman in an online "person of the year" poll by an Italian TV channel in December, beating out Carla Bruni, the Italian-born French first lady.

Seven of the 11 Facebook pages champion her innocence; four seem convinced that Knox is pure evil. A sampling of comments: "No to Amanda. No to her superstardom" ... "She's a sociopath" ..."Everyone is not sure if she is guilty or not and that she will lead us to a new existential awareness. Please shout with me your anger. ... Let's say no. Let's say Knox."

Knox and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, are charged with murdering and sexually assaulting one of Knox's roommates, British exchange student Meredith Kercher, on November 1, 2007. They have pleaded not guilty.

Knox and Sollecito are due back in court today. The last time Knox appeared before the panel of eight judges, she wore a T-shirt quoting The Beatles: "All you need is love."

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini alleges that Kercher, 21, was killed because she refused to participate in a drug-fueled sex game played by Knox, Sollecito, and a third man, Ivory Coast native Rudy Hermann Guede. In court papers, prosecutors stated that Sollecito held Kercher by her wrists while Knox poked at her with a knife and Guede sexually assaulted her.

The case is being tried in Perugia, a university town about 115 miles north of Rome that is better known for its chocolate than for its scandalous murder trials.

According to the prosecutor's office, Kercher had been in Italy for two months as part of a year-long course with Leeds University, where she was working toward a degree in European Studies. She shared a house with Knox, a University of Washington student in the same exchange program, and two Italian housemates.

The crime scene, which has become a tourist attraction, has been broken into twice, police say.

Knox and Sollecito were arrested November 6, 2007, and were kept in prison while an investigation continued. The judge overseeing the investigation found both were capable of committing the crime again, fleeing the country or tampering with the evidence.

Police sought charges in July 2008, and they were ordered to trial in October. The trial began January 16 and has been held mostly on weekends.

Italian newspapers assigned their top crime reporters, and the case has received unprecedented international coverage. Knox has appeared on the cover of People magazine, which shares a corporate parent with CNN.

A random sampling of women on the streets of Rome showed that all of them had heard of the case and most believed Knox and Sollecito were at the very least implicated in the slaying.

The superheated publicity surrounding the case helped make Knox a household name in Italy. She is usually portrayed as a femme fatale. Consider these headlines:

• "Sex, lies and stabbings"
• "Lovers without any inhibitions"
• "And in prison, she even tries to sun tan"

Italian journalists also have plastered their newspapers with photos they found of Knox on the Internet, especially images that showed her as a "wild girl." They pounced on the "Foxy Knoxy" they found on her MySpace page, even though her parents later explained the high school moniker came from the way Knox played soccer, quick like a fox.

Although Italian law limits the publication of court and police records, the media ban is less strict than in many European countries. While it is not exactly legal to publish police investigative reports, no journalist has gone to jail in Italy for doing it.

Among the items leaked: Knox's diary, various police interrogations, photos of Kercher's body, video of Kercher's body (which wound up on YouTube but has been pulled), and video of the Italian forensic police carrying out their investigation. Eventually, even the leaks made headlines, leading to more speculation.

Knox can do no right in the Italian media. If she appears reserved and timid in court, she is portrayed as someone with plenty to hide. If she smiles or laughs in court, she's called disrespectful. As far as the Italian media is concerned, Knox is the mastermind who manipulated those around her and seduced her Italian boyfriend and led him astray.

While Knox and Sollecito's preliminary hearings were being held in October, Guede was convicted of murder after a fast-track trial. His lawyers had hoped that the speedy resolution of the case would give him a break at sentencing. He got 30 years in prison.

According to testimony at Guede's trial, his fingerprints were found in the house, and his DNA was linked to Kercher's body. He has never denied being in the house the night of the slaying but insists he didn't kill her. He says he had an "appointment" with her that night and was in the bathroom when she was killed.

Sollecito and Knox say they weren't at the house the night of the slaying. They say they both were at Sollecito's house. But the alibi has been contradicted by witnesses at the trial.

Eighty-six media outlets sent 140 journalists to cover the opening of the trial in January, but publicity has waned since then. The Italian 24-hour news channel TG24 no longer breaks into its programming with multiple updates. Knox, for now, has been relegated to the pages preceding the sports or weather report.

But Italians love their murder cases, and attention has shifted to other crime news. A mother is accused of killing her toddler son, a husband and wife are accused of multiple killings. Their courtrooms are now filled with spectators who wait in line an hour or more.

The Perugia courtroom still is packed, but the long line is gone. That is likely to change, however, as testimony draws to a close next month.

Original Source : http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/27/amanda.knox.italy/

Whitestone Bridge Accident

Whitestone Bridge Accident2 Hurt on Bronx-Whitestone Bridge.

An M.T.A. construction truck struck an overhead road sign on the Queens-bound plaza of the Whitestone Bridge at 1:10 p.m. on Friday, causing the steel sign structure to come crashing down on all six lanes and injuring two people who were on the truck, according to M.T.A. Bridges and Tunnels. The accident, which did not injure other passengers, the agency said, forced the immediate closure of the bridge. Cars were being rerouted to the Throgs Neck or Robert F. Kennedy Bridges just before the onslaught of Friday afternoon traffic.

The boom truck was driven by Alpha Painting and Construction Company, a contractor for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hired to paint the bridge’s Queens and Bronx towers, according to Judie Glave, a spokeswoman for the authority. Two men sustained minor injuries, one had a head injury and another had a fracture leg, and both were taken to New York Queens Hospital.

“Right now we have our maintenance crews out there, they have to cut the metal part of the sign and remove it,” Ms. Glave said. “The hope is to get it open by rush hour.” She admitted that might be difficult.

George Attwal, a witness who said he was driving his Volkswagen Passat two cars behind the truck, described it as a pickup truck, with a cranelike operator in its bed, perhaps used like a cherry-picker to fix things, he said.

“I guess he forgot to lower it and it hit the roadway sign,” Mr. Attwal, 23, of Flushing, Queens, said in a telephone interview. “It collapsed right in front of us and two people fell off. They were standing in the back of the pickup. On person fell off and he rolled onto the road itself.”

Mr. Attwal, who was returning from a business call in New Jersey and headed to Long Island, said the accident “all happened within two seconds.” The car in front of him slammed on its brakes, and he hit his brakes hard to avoid a collision.

He estimated that the truck was going 15 to 20 miles an hour, but questioned why the two people would be outside on the bed of the truck.

Ms. Glave said she had no information about where the passengers of the truck were at the time. As soon as officials arrived on the scene, they directed Mr. Attwal to turn around and take the Throgs Neck Bridge.

The bridge was most recently closed in February during high winds when a tractor trailer overturned, Ms. Glave said.

Original Source : http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/2-hurt-on-bronx-whitestone-bridge/