http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/595290/Young-mum-issues-sunbed-warningskin-cancer-age-33

Mum-of-two Lisa Guthrie, 33, was devastated when she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma.

She is now in remission after surgery but warned teenagers not to make her mistake and stay clear of sunbeds.



Lisa, who has more than 100 moles on her body, would use the sunbed – bought by her parents – every night as a teenager. She sometimes would set the timer for an hour and fall asleep.

Later she went to a tanning salon four times a week

At a hearing last week first reported on by Oklahoma Watch, reform advocates highlighted abuses of the policy that raise broader questions about accountability and potential conflicts of interest in the state's justice system. In one particularly brazen example, an unnamed Oklahoma assistant district attorney used $5,000 from a forfeiture fund to pay off their student loan debt, according to a state audit of local forfeiture programs published in 2013.

This violated existing law, because the fund can only be used "for enforcement of controlled dangerous substances laws, drug abuse prevention and drug abuse education," the auditor noted.

Law enforcement groups didn't appear bothered by this discovery, however, and countered that any change to forfeiture policies would constitute an unnecessary attack on drug interdiction efforts.

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Furthermore, the unnamed Oklahoma prosecutor's use of forfeiture funds for personal purposes suggests that this problem may not be limited to police. The incident raises concerns that some prosecutors could be swayed on civil forfeiture cases since they could benefit -- sometimes personally -- from their outcome. Effectively, they could be prosecuting for profit.

But the district attorney's office didn't see the Oklahoma prosecutor's actions as a conflict, and actually argued that the expenditure was appropriate because the assistant DA was in charge of prosecuting many misdemeanor drug cases and juvenile delinquent drug cases. The assistant DA eventually returned the $5,000.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/civil-asset-forfeiture-student-loans_55b12f37e4b07af29d57cc12

A lifeguard whose attack by three people in Venice was captured on video had simply asked his assailants to stop smoking on the pier, one of the lifeguard’s supervisors said Friday.



The full-time lifeguard, who has been with the department for 10 years, was jumped by two men and a woman as soon as he hopped off the ladder at his tower at the Venice Pier on Thursday evening, authorities said.
See the most-read stories this hour >>

The LAPD identified the two men as Harutiun Balyan, 30, and Ara Sarkisyan, 28. The woman was identified as Arusiak Gekchyan, 28. All three were arrested on suspicion of battery on an executive officer, a felony. They have been freed on bail, LAPD officials said.

Video of Thursday night’s confrontation was captured by pier visitors and posted on social media.

“This is the first time something like this has happened that I can recall,” said county lifeguard Capt. Kenichi Haskett. “We don’t get into physical altercations.”


The video shows two men swinging wildly at the lifeguard the moment he was off the ladder. Haskett said the lifeguard got down from the tower so he could have a clear conversation with the group. There’s a no smoking sign when you walk on the pier and lifeguards routinely ask people to not break the rules, Haskett said.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lifeguard-attack-venice-20150731-story.html

Lynn Anderson, whose version of the song "I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden" was one of the biggest country hits of the 1970s, has died. She was 67.



Anderson died Thursday of a heart attack at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville after being admitted for pneumonia, publicist Mark Logsdon told CNN.

Anderson was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 1947, and grew up in Sacramento, California. Born to the music business -- both her parents were songwriters -- she got her start as a professional singer while still in her teens, releasing her first record, "For Better or for Worse," when she was 19.

Soon Anderson was having major success, with such hits as 1967's "If I Kiss You (Will You Go Away)" and 1969's "That's a No-No" and appearances on "The Lawrence Welk Show."

She had her biggest hit, the Joe South-penned "Rose Garden," in late 1970 and early 1971. The song was No. 1 on the country charts for five weeks and topped out at No. 3 on Billboard's pop charts.



Am I the only one who remembers that song?

For the 1994 documentary “Hoop Dreams,” filmmaker Steve James had to pay $5,000 to Warner/Chappell for the privilege of using a very brief rendition of “Happy Birthday To You."


For a low-budget movie such as “Hoop Dreams,” that’s a lot of money. The fees for using the song can go much higher for big-budget productions. It’s one of the reasons why you’ll often hear people singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” at birthday parties in movies and TV shows, because that song is in the public domain and can be used for free.

Now, a new class-action lawsuit filed by documentary filmmaker Jenn Nelson argues that “Happy Birthday to You” should also be public domain. (Don’t worry, you can always sing it for no charge at your kids’ party.) The case, being argued before a federal judge in Los Angeles, puts New York-based Good Morning to You Productions against Warner Music Group publishing.

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"In the film industry it's a bit of a joke to have to pay for the song," Nelson said on The Frame. "People think it's ridiculous, but they do it anyway because the fee ... doesn't hinder you from doing it. It's just sort of inconvenient and annoying. I took it to my lawyer, Randall Newman, and we decided that we actually had a good case and we decided to file."

Evidence submitted by the prosecution argues that the song really entered the public domain as early as the 1920s, and that music publisher Warner/Chappell's 1935 copyright is not valid. The firm currently collects an estimated $2 million a year in licensing fees for the song.

http://www.scpr.org/programs/the-frame/2015/07/31/43922/lawsuit-claims-happy-birthday-song-should-be-in-th/