They call their home Silicone City – and for good reason. Chantal Marshall and four of her daughters have had NINE boob jobs between them.
That makes them the British family to have had the most breast surgery – bra, er, bar none.
While most mums and their daughters enjoy shopping trips together, Chantal, 50, and her daughters have spent nearly £40,000 on visits to cosmetic surgeons to have their breasts enlarged.
Ripley, 18, Tara, 22, Terri, 25, Emma, 28, and mum-of-nine Chantal, of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Notts, now boast chest sizes ranging from 34DD to 32GG.
On one occasion, Emma and Ripley even ended up having breast enhancement surgery on the same day and at the same clinic as their mum.
Tara had booked her consultation aged 17 so she could have the op as soon as she reached the age of 18.
The sisters – all with matching blonde hair just like their mum – say that like most siblings they have always copied each other.
But they insist that when it comes their chest sizes, they aren’t at all competitive.
They reckon their desire for bigger boobs was inspired by Chantal – who is often mistaken by strangers for their sister.
Here they share their stories...
Mum Chantal
Age: 50; No of ops: 3; Spent: £13,500
CARER and mum-of-nine Chantal is a petite Size 10 and was 34B before her first op. She is now a 34DD.
She says: “Having nine children left my boobs looking like milk bottles. In 1996, after I had my seventh child, I had my first set of implants but I ended up even more unhappy.
“They looked like balls in socks rather than the pert, round breasts I had imagined. I was quite traumatised. So when Emma said she was going to have a boob job I was terrified. But when I saw how great they looked it made me brave enough to consider having mine done again and in February 2004 I had them enlarged to 34DD.
“Two years down the line I wanted to perk them up. So when Emma and my second youngest daughter Ripley said they were going to get theirs done I suggested we all went together.
“My daughters say I inspired them to have boob jobs but I’ve got them to thank for encouraging me to get mine done again. There’s no mistaking the family resemblance – but now we’ve got the boobs to match too!”
EMMA
Age: 28; No of ops: 2; Spent: £9,500
Emma is a beauty therapist and is a Size 12. Before her first enlargement she was a 34B. She is now a 34F.
She says: “We all laugh it’s Silicone City round our house. It’s amazing we’re the family with the most boob jobs in Britain – and we’re all really happy with the results.
“I first got my boobs done 10 years ago when I was just 18. I had a good figure but longed for more curves.
“I’d look at Baywatch on TV and think ‘they look stunning’. Then I’d look in the mirror and imagine myself with a bigger pair.
“I knew it would give me more confidence. So I got a loan and got my 34B cup enlarged to a D cup. I felt so much happier as they suited my curvy frame.
“I didn’t have any problems but they say you should have implants replaced after 10 years, which is why I went under the knife again.
I went for my second op with my mum and sister Ripley. “One of the first things we said when we came round from the anaesthetic was, ‘Let’s have a look at yours!’”
Advertisement - article continues below »
RIPLEY
Age: 18; No of ops: 1; Spent: £4,500
Ripley, 18, fashion and design student and trained nail technician. She is a Size 8. Before surgery in March she was a 34C. She went up to a 34DD.
She says: “I’m the youngest in our family to have a boob job. Some sisters are competitive – but I’m as delighted by my sisters’ and mum’s boob jobs as I am my own.
“It’s brought us closer together – I couldn’t wait to get mine done.
“Although I’m a Size 8 I don’t like the ironing board figure like Keira Knightley’s. I prefer the womanly curves of J-Lo. I’d buy bigger bras and then pad them out with chicken fillets and padding.
“After seeing my sisters and the way they felt about having theirs done, I wanted to do the same.
“I managed to save up half the money I needed and then got a loan.
“Emma and I investigated on the internet and found surgeon Dr Hicham Mouallem at The Wimpole Clinic in London. He was brilliant.”
TERRI
Age: 25; No of ops: 1; Spent: £4,500
Terri, 25, is a dancer and lives in Papplewick, Notts. She is a Size 10. Before her boob job she was a 32DD. She is now a 32GG.
She says: “I once had a jokey argument with my sister Emma about who had the biggest boobs. But it was all friendly – there’s never been sibling rivalry as we’re very close.
“I had my boob job after my sister Emma. When I saw hers I knew I had to go and get mine done. They looked amazing and I was so jealous.
“I’ve always had quite big boobs but I wanted to go bigger. So I booked myself in with the same surgeon just one month later.
“Some people might think I’m crazy but it’s what I wanted. I saved up and luckily my boyfriend Paul helped towards the cost.
“I had no trepidations about going – I’d rather get my boobs done than go to the dentist. I’d hate to be flat-chested. Put it this way, if I was, I’d be putting 10 chicken fillets in my boobs and be wearing a jelly-bra.”
TARA
Age: 22; No of ops: 2; Spent: £8,000
Tara, a receptionist, is a Size 10. Before her first boob job she was a 34A. She is now a 34E.
She says: “Looks-wise my sisters and I share nearly everything. We’ve all got similar hair and facial features but when it came to boobs I was no way near as blessed.
“I never got any bigger than an A-cup and my boobs looked like two little eggs. Everyone said I looked fine but I felt I looked pear-shaped.
“I knew bigger boobs would make me happy but rather than getting upset about it, I decided that as soon as I was old enough I’d save up and have breast implants.
“I managed to save up the money I needed and as soon as I was 17 I booked a consultation.
“I had the op when I turned 18 and I was so excited that I almost fell off the hospital bed beforehand.
“After I had my daughter in 2005 I decided to have them done again. I love the fake look so I decided to go for a 34E. I feel amazing.”
Source : TheMirror.Co.UKRead more…
New York Daily News Reports
Jeffrey Alba's Bronx heroin mills had air circulators because the odor was so strong and there was a white dust fog. The windows were sealed up and lists of orders to be filled were taped to the walls.
The workers used tiny spoons to allot a half a grain of heroin for each glassine envelope - that's nearly 30,000 times for every kilo - working in shifts around the clock.
When authorities raided a fancy Riverdale building over the Fourth of July weekend, they expected to make a good-sized bust.
What they found stunned them - a half-million glassine envelopes of heroin and a drug mill the size of which no one has seen since the days of Leroy (Nicky) Barnes in the 1970s.
The find was a blunt testament to local and federal drug cops' growing concern: Heroin is back, with a vengeance.
Jeffrey Alba
The heroin is pure - as much as 90% when imported, and 50% to 60% at street level - and cheap. Snorting a $10 glassine envelope gives the same euphoria as an $80 OxyContin pill.
That has widened its appeal to younger, working-class and middle-class adults with no memory of the drug's havoc on a generation that injected it by needle in the late 1960s and early '70s.
"Everyone starts with the pills in the beginning," said a 22-year-old Suffolk County man in treatment at Phoenix House for a $600-a-day habit.
He started out as a high school dealer, pushing prescription painkillers and then heroin because "all the little rich kids were doing it." He started snorting it when he was 19 because he thought he could easily quit.
Heroin has gained cachet from trendy young users in the city. Downtown artist Dash Snow, whose Polaroids captured sex-and-drug scenes, died last week, apparently of a heroin overdose. He was just 27.
The demand has led to huge amounts of the white powder blanketing the city. Most of it is packaged here for sale in the suburbs, as far away as Boston and even cities near the Canadian border.
Thirty pounds - about 15 kilos - were seized in the Bronx mill, said the city's special narcotics prosecutor, Bridget Brennan. Her office grabbed 270 pounds of heroin in 2008, more than twice the 116 pounds confiscated in 2007.
"Everybody's alarmed," said Brennan.
"There is more heroin throughout New York State, from New York City all the way up to Buffalo," said Chauncey Parker, director of the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program for New York and New Jersey.
"It is a growing threat ... the purity level is alarmingly high, so people are sniffing it," Parker said.
"There's an increased demand in suburbia, because this is not your heroin of old," said Joseph Evans, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York office. "It's intertwined with prescription drugs. People turn to heroin after using OxyContin."
"Prescription narcotics like Vicodin and Percocet are the gateway drugs to heroin," said Dr. Joseph Cannavo, unit chief and medical director of the chemical dependency unit at Flushing Hospital Medical Center.
Over the past 10 years, he said, the numbers of heroin addicts at his unit have quadrupled.
"They're decidedly younger, 18 to 22, middle-class, computer-savvy kids," Cannavo said.
Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal, founder of Phoenix House, said there's been a 10% rise in admissions for heroin addicts - to 33% of admissions - in the last few weeks.
"It certainly got our attention, but we have to look at it for a couple of months," he said.
He said snorting heroin does not lessen the devastation.
"Half the people go from snorting it to the needle," Rosenthal said.
The Suffolk County addict said he began shooting up a year into his habit. He was 6-feet-1 and weighed barely 130 pounds when he landed in an ICU.
In the heroin epidemic of the 1970s, 85% of Phoenix House admissions were for smack.
That was when the notorious Barnes formed a murderous syndicate of the seven largest drug rings who controlled heroin and other drug sales in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn.
They employed hundreds of mill workers, distributors and street dealers, and "inflicted incalculable damage on this city," prosecutors said at the time.
"Even in the Barnes era, they just cut out territories in the city," said a senior narcotics investigator in Brennan's office.
"But this [Riverdale] group was like a corporation, supplying the whole metropolitan area, Long Island, New Jersey."
The three Bronx mills in Riverdale and Pelham Parkway allegedly run by Jeffrey Alba were supplying dealers as far away as Boston, Evans said.
"The Northeast corridor has the most predominant heroin use, and 14% of all heroin seized in the U.S. is seized in New York City," Evans added.
The smack that turns up here is South American, exclusively, when as recently as 14 years ago, Asia supplied two-thirds of it. Authorities say the intricate, well-oiled Colombian cocaine networks handle heroin smuggled in via Mexico.
Investigators say a kilo costs $50,000 to $60,000 wholesale, a steep drop from when high-quality heroin would sell for $150,000 to $200,000.
"I think I became addicted the first time I took a bump, because it made me feel so good," the Suffolk addict said. "By the time I went into detox, I was up to 60 bags [glassines] a day."
Read more…
LATIMES Reports
A 15-year-old Los Angeles girl who navigated a single-engine Cessna through thunderstorms in Texas and took in breathtaking aerial views of Arizona’s sunsets — landed her plane to cheering crowds at Compton Woodley Airport today, becoming the youngest African American female pilot to fly solo across country.
Kimberly Anyadike took off from Compton 13 days ago with an adult safety pilot and Levi Thornhill, an 87-year-old who served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. They flew to Newport News, Va., making about a dozen stops along the way.
Anyadike learned to fly a plane and helicopter when she was 12 with the Compton-based Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum, an after-school program that offers aviation lessons to at-risk youth and economically disadvantaged students. The organization owns the small plane.
She loved the feeling of streaking across the sky. She told her mom that it was like a wild ride at Magic Mountain.
Always up for a challenge, she came up with the idea to fly across the country a few months after learning to fly. Robin Petgrave, the aeronautical museum’s founder, warned that it would take a lot of preparation. “I told her it was going to be a daunting task,” he said, “but she just said, ‘Put it on. I got big shoulders.’ ”
Anyadike said she didn’t want to make the trip to set a record or become some kind of celebrity. “I wanted to inspire other kids to really believe in themselves,” she said. She also wanted to honor the Tuskegee Airmen, the U.S. Army Air Corps’ all-black combat unit who served during World War II.
“They left such a great legacy. I had big shoes to fill,” she said. “All they wanted to do was to be patriots for this country. They were told no, that they were stupid, that they didn’t have cognitive development to fly planes. They didn’t listen. They just did what they wanted to do.”
Anyadike’s Cessna and the other planes at Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum are painted with red tails, similar to the Tuskegee Airmen planes.
During her cross-country trip, Anyadike met about 50 Tuskegee Airmen who autographed the Cessna. “That way they can fly with us forever,” Petgrave said.
How will the young pilot celebrate? “By sleeping,” she said with a giggle.
Read more…
The recent spate of violence was sparked by the arrest of high-ranking drug cartel member Arnoldo Rueda Medina.
CNN Reports
A federal judge ordered 10 municipal police officers arrested Saturday in connection with the slayings of 12 off-duty federal agents in southwestern Mexico, the attorney general's office said.
The federal officers' bodies were found Tuesday on a remote highway in Michoacan state, where at least 18 federal agents and two soldiers have been killed since July 11 due to drug-related violence.
Video from the scene showed three signs, known as narcomensajes, or narcomessages, left by the killers. They all stated the same thing: "So that you come for another. We will be waiting for you here."
The officers arrested Saturday are on the police force in the city of Arteaga.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose home state is Michoacan, responded to the violence by dispatching 1,000 federal police officers to the area. The infusion, which more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling Michoacan, angered Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy Rangel. He called it an occupation and said he had not been consulted.
Authorities said Wednesday they were searching for the governor's half-brother, who they say is a top-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. The cartel is blamed for most of the recent violence in the state. The governor's brother, Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano, was elected July 5 to the lower house of Congress.
The governor has publicly urged his brother to surrender. There were no reports of his apprehension as of late Saturday.
The sudden spike in violence followed the arrest July 11 of Arnoldo Rueda Medina, described as a high-ranking member of La Familia.
La Familia members attacked the federal police station in Morelia to try to gain freedom for Rueda shortly after his arrest, authorities said. When that failed, cartel members attacked federal police installations in at least a half-dozen Michoacan cities.
Under Mexican law, the officers arrested Saturday will be held for 40 days while officials determine whether to formally charge them.
Read more…
AllHipHop Reports
Rapper Foxy Brown and R&B singer Toni Braxton are the latest celebrities to run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service.
Of the two, Brown owes the most, as the IRS is seeking $641,558 in federal taxes due to the state of New York.
A tax lien was filed against Brown in June for taxes owed as far back as May of 2003.
A tax lien was issued against the Brooklyn emcee for missing tax payments in the years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
The lien is the latest issue for Foxy Brown, who was accused of receiving favorable treatment while incarcerated on Rikers Island as part of a scandal currently dogging the New York Corrections Department.
Several top officials, including Correction Chief Peter Curico and prison Rabbi Leib Glanz have resigned due to allegations that Brown, Orthodox Jews and were treated better than other inmates.
In related news, this past March, the state of California issued a lien against R&B singer Toni Braxton and her husband Keirston Lewis as well, claiming the couple owes $79,315 in back taxes.
Braxton has faced financial hardships before, as she filed for bankruptcy protection in 1998 with over $1 million dollars of debt.
Read more…
CNN Reports
A former California police officer accused of sexually assaulting a motorist during a traffic stop pleaded guilty in federal court, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Feliciano Sanchez, 34, admitted in court Thursday that while on duty on May 16, 2007, he pulled over a female driver in a traffic stop and forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien, who heads the office for the Central District.
Sanchez, then of Los Angeles County's Bell Police Department, stopped the woman for speeding or weaving down the road, said central California U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek, citing court documents.
After learning the woman, identified as R.H. in court documents, did not have a driver's license with her, Sanchez told her he suspected her of drinking and her car would be towed, Mrozek said.
Sanchez offered to drive R.H. to her job, but instead drove her to the parking lot of an auto repair outlet in Bell, Mrozek said.
Sanchez placed his hand on his gun and forced her to perform sex on him in his patrol car, Mrozek said. Afterward, Sanchez drove R.H. to her work place, Mrozek said.
"Officer Sanchez brutalized a person he had sworn to serve," O'Brien said in the release. "As a result of his criminal conduct, Mr. Sanchez now faces a substantial amount of time in federal prison. His conduct eroded public confidence in law enforcement and cast a pall over his former colleagues who obey the law, proudly working to preserve public safety."
Federal prosecutors charged Sanchez with a civil rights violation, according to the release.
The crime carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison upon sentencing. Sanchez has been held without bond since his arrest in May 2007, Mrozek said. Sanchez's sentencing is scheduled for November 18.
Sanchez resigned as an officer after his indictment, Bell Police Department Capt. Anthony Miranda said. Miranda said Sanchez's case was a first for the department.
"We were in shock, and actually, disbelief," he said.
Read more…
Rap-Up.Com Reports
Ne-Yo has some words for his fans and the critics who won’t give him a break.
In an entry titled “THIS IS MY LIFE…” posted on Global Grind, Ne-Yo responded to an incident during his concert in Manchester, England on Thursday where he started to cry, prompting him to end the show early. He says the emotional outburst was caused by his non-stop schedule, which left him with a sinus infection. Watch The Video Here.
I’m currently on tour in the UK. This tour began right after a 4 month stint in Prague shooting a world war 2 movie. We’re in a different city in a different part of the UK every night, moving non stop. Since my first album, roughly 5 years ago, I’ve taken 1 vacation, and even that was about 2 years ago.
Basically, I have an issue with not knowing when to say enough is enough, so last night in Manchester, my body said it for me.
I got on stage energized and ready to go, even tho for the last 5 days I’ve been dealing with a sinus infection. I paid it no real mind, and kept on going, like I always do. My voice couldn’t take it. From the first song I knew something was wrong. I shoulda stopped there, but I come from a school where no matter what, the show must go on. It wasn’t until about 4 songs in that I came to the painful realization that my voice was done, literally nothing left, and that I would have to stop the show.
Now let me explain something to you:
When I say this music, that stage, my fans, THIS is my life, I’m not saying it cause it sounds good in a sound bite. THIS IS MY LIFE!! Not much else matters to me, honestly.
My music, my family and the people that appreciate my music…..the fans. THAT’S ABOUT IT!!
I’ve never had to stop a show, never dreamed I’d ever have to. So when I had to walk out on that stage and tell 12,000 of the people responsible for making me who I am that I could not perform for them, it literally broke my heart.
I cried harder than I have in a very long time with no shame whatsoever.
To anyone out there that would like to question my manhood because of this I’ll say this to you:
If the one thing you cared about more than anything else in the world was threatened or even taken from you, if you knew that the people you cared for the most you had to disappoint and it was your fault… and this didn’t spark some kind of emotional outbreak within you…then with no shame I’ll say you are truly a stronger man than I.
To the people of Manchester, know that I love you and I thank you for being so understanding and supportive. And I promise you that you will receive the show deserved.
Thanks to the fans for the love and concern.
And to the bloggers….go to hell.
Sincerely, Ne*Yo!!
Read more…
AllHipHop And NashvillePost.Com Report
Relatives of a local Nashville rapper have denied a rap song about a man prepared to commit murder had anything to do with the death of NFL Quarterback Steve McNair.
A song by Keith Norfleet, the ex-boyfriend of Sahel Kazemi was posted on Soundclick, a popular website used by upcoming musicians to share their music.
Norfleet, who goes by the stage name 'Kane Antiochs Finest' wrote the song “Closed Casket,” was questioned by police over the lyrics in the song, but was eventually allowed to leave with no charges filed.
Closed Casket -
"I don’t wanna be like this
I don’t really wanna hurt no feelings
But I’m only being real when I say
Nobody wanna see an old man collapse
And old men have heart attacks
I don’t wanna be responsible for that
So let the s**t go and walk away
You can still have a little bit of dignity”
[snip]
Try to stunt and front and fronting in front of somebody else
Til you’re surrounded by 20 people With nobody’s help
IF you try to go incredible hulk it won’t work
Put so many holes in you your nerves won’t even jerk
Lurking in the shadows thinking and scheming of work
Got a little cocky so you decided to flirt
Now you’re flirting with death”
[snip]
“If you ever do it again b***h I’m not rapping
I’m getting a clip and clapping and I’m not laughing
They’re wrapping you up for your little trip to the morgue
While I’m preparing for my trip to the shore,
Don’t ignore me, I’m not lying, I couldn’t be more honest
If you ever do it again, you’ll die, I promise.”
Norfleet uploaded the track to SoundClick in February, just one month after McNair and Kazemi started dating.
Norfleet’s sister Crystal told The Tennessean that the track was not about McNair, or Kazemi.
It was about her husband, who had cheated on her with a younger woman.
"He puts his emotions on pen and paper, and that's where they stay. he never wrote that with Steve and Jenny (Sahel Kazemi) in mind," Crystal told the paper.
State medical examiners have ruled McNair’s death a murder-suicide, although conspiracy theories about another person executing the killings have already started to surface due to the positions of the bodies and allegedly, the blood stains found in the room.
Sahel Kazemi's family has also maintained that she was not suicidal at the time of the shootings.
Listen To Song HereRead more…
ESPN Reports
NBA scoring champion Dwyane Wade is changing shoes, making the switch from Converse to Nike's Jordan Brand.
Nike announced Friday that the star Miami Heat guard will now represent the Jumpman label, joining Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Derek Jeter and others.
Wade had three years left on his deal with Converse, which made him the centerpiece of its attempt to reinvigorate a once-thriving basketball business. That relationship seemed rocky when the 2006 NBA Finals MVP wore his most recently released signature shoe, the "Wade 4," only once last season and favoring an older model instead.
But Wade said the partnership ends on good terms.
"When I came into the NBA, I didn't have a lot of exposure and Converse gave me an opportunity to head a brand and be the face of a brand," Wade told The Associated Press. "I'm really thankful for six long, good years. I've gotten five shoes out of the deal and my dream came true at the Converse brand, because they put my name on a pair of sneakers."
Still, the lure of the Jordan brand -- a 12-year-old division of Nike, which also owns Converse -- was too much for Wade to ignore.
Wade told The AP he inquired about switching allegiances from Converse to Jordan's brand before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, doing so in part about concern over Converse's long-term viability in the basketball marketplace.
The 2008 request was declined, but earlier this month, Wade said he was "almost positive" a switch would happen sometime before the season. Less than two weeks later, the deal was done.
"It did come sort of fast. It wasn't anything we planned," Wade said. "But it's a good thing. Now we can plan for the season."
Coming off a year where the Heat went from 15 to 43 wins and Wade won his first scoring title, Nike apparently agreed that the switch now made sense.
"I'm thrilled to have Dwyane Wade join the Team Jordan family," Michael Jordan said in a statement.
The deal was finalized Thursday. Terms were not released, although it's believed the new deal, at minimum, matches the remaining three years on the Converse contract.
It's a significant add to Wade's endorsement resume, which already includes deals with T-Mobile and Gatorade.
"I want to go global," said Wade, who is planning a business trip to China later this summer. "It's something I feel like I have to do. I want to continue to build my brand."
Wade made a cryptic reference to the move on his Twitter feed late Thursday night, saying he had "good news coming.....stay tuned." Dozens of people quickly starting pleading for more information, even Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick, who inquired via Twitter if that was Wade's way of saying he had agreed to a contract extension with the Heat.
"Not only did Andy Roddick hit me on Tweet, he hit me on my phone immediately, right after that," Wade said. "That's when I knew I sparked a little interest."
Wade offered another Tweet on Friday: "I'm finally home with brand Jordan," he wrote.
The move wasn't totally unexpected: As recently as last week, Wade was at a charity event with children in Miami wearing apparel featuring the Jumpman logo, prompting one of the kids he was meeting with to ask if he still was aligned with Converse.
Wade donned a blue pair of Converse sneakers at the Zo's Summer Groove game he co-hosted Sunday with Alonzo Mourning.
That'll likely be his last appearance in that brand. A "Wade 5" shoe was to be released by Converse in the coming weeks, although it now seems likely that orders from retailers for that model will be canceled.
Read more…
ESPN Reports
Former NBA All-Star Antoine Walker has been arrested on criminal charges stemming from $822,500 in gambling debts in Las Vegas.
Douglas County sheriff's Sgt. Jim Halsey says Walker was arrested Thursday at a Harrah's Tahoe cabaret bar on Lake Tahoe's south shore.
Deputies were notified of his presence by an employee who had seen a television report about an arrest warrant issued for Walker two days before.
Walker is accused of three felony counts of writing bad checks. Clark County prosecutors say he failed to make good on 10 checks totaling $1 million to Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood and the Red Rock Resort.
Walker has repaid $178,000 of the debts that were incurred from last July to January.
Walker was released from jail after posting $135,000 cash bail.
Read more…
ESPN Reports
Federal agents have arrested a convicted felon for allegedly providing the gun later used to kill ex-NFL quarterback Steve McNair, The Associated Press learned Friday.
Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said the suspect was arrested by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives agents.
Federal prosecutors in Nashville planned to announce the charges at a press conference Friday afternoon.
McNair was shot to death on July 4 at his condo by his 20-year-old mistress Sahel Kazemi, who then turned the gun on herself. Police have said Kazemi bought the gun in a private sale from a person they haven't identified.
Police announced in a news conference last week that Kazemi purchased "a fully loaded nine millimeter pistol from a private individual" who met her in the parking lot of the mall where she worked at a Dave & Busters restaurant.
Kazemi met the person when she was trying to sell her car. She mentioned to him that she was looking to buy a gun and he told her he had one for sale, police said. The sale took place two days before McNair's shooting.
Authorities believe McNair was asleep when Kazemi put the pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. She put two more slugs into his chest and a fourth bullet into the other side of his head before shooting herself.
McNair, a married father of four, walked away from the NFL last year. "Air McNair" was known as a gutsy quarterback who played through serious injuries and led his Tennessee Titans to a Super Bowl.
Though the gun sale in question did not involve a licensed gun dealer, the ATF recently warned all gun dealers in Tennessee that they must still comply with federal gun laws despite a new state law aimed at easing such requirements for weapons manufactured and sold in-state.
Read more…
ESPN Reports
Never-before-released court documents and amateur video help provide the clearest picture yet of what happened inside a Las Vegas strip club on Feb. 19, 2007, when Adam "Pacman" Jones showered scantily clad dancers with money. Just minutes after "making it rain," Jones was involved in a fight inside the club. A short time later, three people were shot outside the club.
Jones initially was charged with felony coercion for his role in the melee. The charge later was reduced, but the incident ultimately helped push his NFL career to the brink.
The video and documents, including witness statements, search warrants and internal police memos, were obtained by "Outside the Lines" and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The documents include differing statements Jones provided to Las Vegas police -- one made the day of the shooting and one from seven months later.
The amateur video, held as evidence in the shooting case, could be played when Arvin Edwards stands trial in February. Edwards is charged with three counts of attempted murder in connection with the shooting.
Jones was in Las Vegas for NBA All-Star Weekend. After losing $50,000 or $60,000 gambling at Caesars Palace, according to statements, Jones went on a hot streak, winning $120,000 at the Palms hotel and casino.
Shortly after 2 a.m. on Feb. 19, Jones and an entourage of about seven people -- a group that included his stylist; his business manager, Chris Horvath; and Robert Reid, Jones' massive bodyguard for the evening -- arrived at the Minxx Gentlemen's Club & Lounge. Celebrity sightings at the club increased as the evening progressed. Rapper Nelly and rapper/producer Jermaine Dupri, both Grammy-winning artists, arrived at the club not long after Jones. Professional boxer Zab Judah and Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson were also in the crowd.
Jones told police he arrived at the club with "close to $100,000." He took $40,000 out of his Louis Vuitton bag and exchanged it for several stacks of $1 bills, which he put in a black trash bag, according to his statement. So much money was thrown onto the main stage that dancers, after their sets, started filling buckets with the loose bills covering the stage.
At one point, Jones told police, Dupri called him to the stage. Jones climbed the short steps while cradling "probably about $12,000 to $14,000," according to one of his statements.
Jones, with his bodyguard present in the background, can be seen on the video repeatedly throwing money to a dancer off stage at his feet and then over his shoulder to several dancers on stage. When several dancers bent over to collect the cash, Dupri took over the DJ's microphone and said: "We gonna show y'all how to make it rain."
"Don't start getting the money until I tell y'all to get off the stage," Dupri said. "… Just keep f---ing dancing! Don't bend down and try to get your money."
Moments after Dupri made those comments, the video recording ended. It was after 4:30 a.m. when trouble inside Minxx began.
According to court documents, Jones became angry when a dancer and a club promoter continued sweeping up the money he had thrown on the stage.
Two Minxx bouncers interviewed by "Outside the Lines" said Jones approached the dancer who was collecting the money, grabbed her by the hair and hit her in the face with a closed fist. Jones has denied attacking the entertainer. No charges have been filed.
According to witness statements in court documents, when Minxx bouncer Aaron Cudworth grabbed Jones in an effort to forcibly remove him from the club, Jones said, "I'm gonna kill ya. Matter of fact, all youse are gonna get it." During the struggle, according to witnesses, Jones bit Cudworth near his left ankle.
In his second statement to police, when asked by a detective whether he had made any threats, Jones said: "No sir. Not one threat." Jones told police that while he was "making it rain," several dancers started fighting over the money.
While trying to break up a fight between two of the dancers, Jones said, he noticed a club promoter snatch the black trash bag, which contained the remainder of the $40,000 Jones had received in $1 bills upon entering the club. Jones told police that when he and Reid, his bodyguard, confronted the man who took the bag of cash, they were both attacked by Minxx security.
According to Jones, the bouncers put Reid in a choke hold, pulled out expandable batons like the kind carried by riot police, and hurled racial epithets at Jones and Reid.
"I'll crack your f---ing knees, n-----," threatened one bouncer, according to a statement Jones provided.
Jones and his entourage were thrown out of the club. Moments later, prosecutors say, a lone gunman -- a man they say was Edwards -- stepped from behind a palm tree at the front of the club and opened fire.
Three people were shot. Cudworth, the bouncer who fought with Jones, was shot in the chest and left forearm. Shift manager Tom Urbanski was shot in the chest. A bullet remains lodged in Urbanski's spine, and he is paralyzed from the waist down. A patron, Natalie Jones, was grazed by a bullet on the left side of her head. The three shooting victims have filed separate civil lawsuits against Jones.
When Las Vegas Police arrived at Jones' suite in Caesars Palace several hours later to take his statement, he provided sketchy details about the alleged shooter.
"I didn't actually see him, uh, shoot the gun, but I seen a guy in a black shirt run off when I heard shots," Jones told police that night. He described the man as a slightly built, lighter-skinned black male. "It had to be him," Jones told police. But Jones acknowledged that the unidentified man might have simply been running from the gunfire.
The documents, recently obtained by "Outside the Lines," reveal the degree to which Las Vegas Police initially treated Jones as a suspect in the weeks and months after the shooting.
Detectives filed applications for search warrants to obtain Jones' cell phone records. They also traveled to Atlanta to interview his associates and sought cellular-site information that would help them place Jones and his associates in specific locations the night of the shooting based on their proximity to the nearest cell phone towers.
"I think they knew Adam Jones was not the perpetrator but they felt like he could help them in their investigation," said Worrick Robinson, Jones' Nashville-based player agent and attorney.
In March 2007, Las Vegas Police interviewed Minxx valet David Devine, who, according to witness statements, was the only person to clearly see the gunman open fire outside the strip club. Devine spent roughly 2½ hours reviewing surveillance video and still photos, according to a log of the investigation compiled by Las Vegas Det. Kirk Jordan.
"Devine cannot determine … if suspect was inside club prior to shooting," Det. Jordan wrote in his notes. "Without this information, Detectives cannot prove if shooter had/has any intimate knowledge of Jones or his entourage."
Robinson said Jones has fully cooperated with Las Vegas Police. In April 2007, detectives obtained a search warrant to take a sample of Jones' DNA; he provided an oral swab that same month in Atlanta. Robinson said police obtained the DNA sample because of the allegation that Jones bit a bouncer the night of the strip club fight. Prosecutors have declined to comment about the case before trial.
That same month, while waiting to hear whether there would be formal charges from the Minxx incident, Jones was suspended for the 2007 season by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Two months later, Jones and Reid were charged with felony coercion for their alleged roles in the strip club melee.
Jones' later statement
Jones' life as a suspect was short-lived, and the felony charge against him was later reduced, in large part because of the second statement Jones provided to Las Vegas Police -- in September 2007, nearly seven months after the shooting.
After the fight inside the strip club, Jones told police, he was approached in the parking lot by a light-skinned black male who asked simply, "What's wrong?"
When Jones explained that he'd had his money taken away from him inside the club, the man replied: "Don't worry about it. … I'm going to take care of it." Moments later, Jones said, that same man opened fire on the front of the strip club.
At one point in Jones' second statement, one of the detectives asked Jones why he waited nearly seven months to reveal his contact with the shooting suspect. An excerpt reads as follows:
Detective: "When you gave us an interview [in February 2007], why didn't you give us this information about the guy comin' up to you at that time?"
Jones: "Cause I was so nervous. And at, at the point I was thinkin' everybody was tryin' to put everything on me. I was just nervous."
Detective: "Cause that's gonna be a question. Why, if you weren't involved in the shooting or any relationship with anybody, why didn't you just tell us that up front?"
Jones: "I was just nervous."
In December 2007, Jones pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct for his role in the fight inside the strip club and agreed to assist police in their investigation.
In April 2008, 14 months after the Minxx shooting and with a trade to the Dallas Cowboys in the works, Jones picked Edwards out of a police lineup in Yakima County, Wash., identifying him as the man who had approached him briefly outside the club that night. Edwards had been arrested in Washington on an unrelated offense. In a jailhouse interview with "Outside the Lines," Edwards denied involvement in the Minxx shooting. Edwards' attorney, Dan Silverstein, said Jones changed his story to get a deal.
"In February, Pacman says he didn't see the shooting and he can't identify the shooter," Silverstein said. "In September, after getting a sweetheart deal from the prosecutor, Pacman becomes the key eyewitness identifying somebody else. Pacman learned a lot playing defense in the NFL."
Robinson maintains that Jones has been truthful throughout the course of the police investigation.
Edwards was scheduled to stand trial this week, but his trial date has been moved to February.
Jones, who is expected to testify against Edwards as a key prosecution witness, has kept a low profile in recent months and remains hopeful he can make another comeback in the NFL.
"He [Jones] has been trying to stay out of the news," Robinson said. "He's got a child. He's got other family he supports. He's trying to get back into the only career he knows: playing football."
Read more…
Telegraph.Co.UK Reports
Eleven of the 1009 people surveyed thought Buzz Lightyear was the first person on the Moon.
The Toy Story film character was named alongside Louis Armstrong. Eight of those taking part thought the late jazz musician made the first moon walk.
Not quite three quarters correctly answered that Neil Armstrong took the first step onto the Moon.
Eleven per cent of people polled thought the Apollo programme was a recent as the 1980s, with just 68 per cent knowing that the first moon landing took place in 1969.
A total of 44 per cent considered the missions to be a waste of money.
The survey was conducted for E&T magazine, published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Editor in chief Dickon Ross said: "The Apollo moon landing is mankind's most outstanding engineering event so it's deeply worrying that such a large number of people should think the first moon walk never happened and that the public's belief in the legitimacy of science and technology seems to be declining over time."
Conspiracy theorists have pointed to a number of flaws in the pictures and footage from the Apollo missions as proof that the moon landings were staged.
For instance, the US flag planted by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was said to be waving in a breeze, which should not have been possible on the airless moon.
Nasa's response was that the flag waved a little when deployed due to residual momentum from contact with the astronauts, not because of windy weather.
Alleged light and shadow anomalies were the result of the highly reflective surface of the Moon and the wide-angle cameras used by the astronauts, said the space agency.
Another question mark over the lack of dust kicked up by the lunar module was explained by the fact that the craft's rocket exhaust fired out sideways rather than straight down.
Leading space scientist Professor John Zarnecki, from the Open University, said: "I think it would have been a far greater achievement to have mocked the whole thing up AND to have kept it quiet for four decades.
"If one in four Britons today don't believe the moon landings ever happened, then I'm afraid that says a lot about one in four Britons. And what it says isn't very complimentary."
He pointed out that moon rocks brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts were very similar to those returned by a series of unmanned Soviet probes.
Veteran astronomer Sir Patrick Moore said about those who believe the moon landings were a hoax: "If ignorance is bliss they must be very happy.
Read more…