Phoenix filmmaker jailed for rocket launcher hoax
1 hour ago
PHOENIX — Phoenix police say they've arrested a man after he reportedly dressed a teenage relative in a sheet and sent him into a street to aim a fake rocket-propelled grenade launcher at passing cars.
Police spokesman officer James Holmes says 39-year-old Michael Turley was arrested Monday on charges of knowingly giving a false impression of a terrorist act, endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Holmes tells KTVK-TV ( http://bit.ly/PmtGRg) Turley filmed the teen pointing the fake grenade launcher at passing cars on July 28.
Responding police didn't make any arrests after Turley told them he was making a movie.
Police made the arrest after the self-described filmmaker reportedly posted a video on You Tube that said he was testing how fast Phoenix police responded to the mock terrorist.
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Texas executes ex-Army recruiter after 3 reprieves
By MICHAEL GRACZYK, AP
VILLE, Texas — A former Army recruiter failed to win a fourth reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court and was executed Tuesday evening in Texas for participating in the shooting death of a woman he and a buddy met 10 years ago at a bar.
Cleve Foster was pronounced dead at 6:43 p.m. CDT, 25 minutes after his lethal injection began and two hours after the high court refused to postpone his punishment. Three times last year the justices stopped his scheduled punishment, once when he was moments from being led to the death chamber.
His attorneys argued he was innocent of the 2002 slaying of Nyaneur Pal, a 30-year-old immigrant from Sudan. They also said he had deficient legal help at his trial and in early stages of his appeals and argued his case deserved a closer look.
Foster, 48, also was charged but never tried for the rape-slaying a few months earlier of another woman in Fort Worth, Rachel Urnosky.
In the seconds before the single lethal dose of pentobarbital began, Foster expressed love to his family and to God.
"When I close my eyes, I'll be with the father," he said. "God is everything. He's my life. Tonight I'll be with him."
He did not proclaim innocence or admit guilt. He did turn to relatives of his two victims, saying, "I don't know what you're going to be feeling tonight. I pray we'll all meet in heaven."
As the drugs began taking effect and while he was repeatedly saying he loved his family, he began snoring, then he stopped breathing.
Three of the nine Supreme Court justices — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — would have stopped the punishment, the court indicated in its brief ruling.
Last year — in January, April and September — the justices did intervene and halted his execution, once only moments before he could have been led to the death chamber.
"It's offensive to us the frivolous appeals that were thrown up at the Supreme Court last minute," said Terry Urnosky, whose 22-year-old daughter's death was blamed on Foster and a partner, Sheldon Ward. "One stay after another, just delaying the closure our families sought."
Urnosky, his wife, and Pal's uncle and aunt stood a few feet away from Foster and watched the execution through a window.
"It's like ripping off a deep scab each time, preventing the wound from being able to start healing," Urnosky said. "Now the wound can start closing."
Maurie Levin, a University of Texas law professor representing Foster, argued the Supreme Court needed to block it again in light of their ruling earlier this year in an Arizona case that said an inmate who received poor legal assistance should have his case reviewed.
Foster and Ward were sentenced to die for killing Pal, who was known as Mary Pal and was seen talking with the men at a Fort Worth bar hours before her body was found in a ditch off a Tarrant County road.
"I am as certain of Foster's guilt as I can be without having seen him do it," Ben Leonard, who prosecuted Foster in 2004, said last week.
A gun in the motel room where Foster and Ward lived was identified as the murder weapon and was matched to Rachel Urnosky's fatal shooting at her apartment.
"It wasn't the violent death that both Mary and my daughter experienced," Urnosky's father said. "I feel it was way too easy, but it is what it is."
Foster blamed Pal's slaying on Ward, one of his recruits who became a close friend. Prosecutors said evidence showed Foster actively participated in her death, offered no credible explanations, lied and gave contradictory stories about his sexual activities with her.
The two were convicted separately, Ward as the triggerman and Foster under Texas' law of parties, which makes participants equally culpable. Pal's blood and tissue were found on the weapon and DNA evidence showed both men had sex with her.
At his trial, prosecutors presented evidence Pal wasn't shot where she was found; that Ward alone couldn't have carried her body to where it was dumped; and that since he and Foster were nearly inseparable and DNA showed both had sex with her, it was clear Foster was involved. A Tarrant County jury agreed, and both received the death sentence. Ward died in 2010 of cancer while on death row.
Foster grew up in Henderson, Ky., and spent nearly two decades in the Army. Records showed court martial proceedings were started against the sergeant first class and he was denied re-enlistment after allegations he gave alcohol to underage students as a recruiter in Fort Worth and had sex with an underage potential recruit. He'd been a civilian only a short time when the slayings occurred.
Anti-Muslim filmmaker's probation case creeps on
By GILLIAN FLACCUS and GREG RISLING, AP
CERRITOS, Calif. — The federal probation violation investigation targeting the man behind the anti-Muslim video inflaming the Middle East is proceeding slowly and privately, reflecting the explosiveness of the case.
Federal officials have said nothing publicly about the case, and neither has Nakoula Basseley Nakoula's attorney. Nakoula has put his home up for sale and gone into hiding since violence erupted over the 14-minute YouTube trailer for "Innocence of Muslims," a crudely made film that portrays the Muhammad as a religious fraud, womanizer and pedophile.
Enraged Muslims have demanded punishment for Nakoula, and dozens have died in violent protests linked to the movie. A Pakistani cabinet minister on Monday offered a $100,000 bounty to anyone who kills Nakoula.
Meantime, First Amendment advocates have defended Nakoula's right to make the film even while condemning its content. President Barack Obama echoed those sentiments Tuesday in a speech at the United Nations.
"We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them. I know there are some who ask, `Why don't we just ban such a video?'" he said. "The answer is enshrined in our laws. Our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech."
Against that backdrop, federal officials are looking into whether Nakoula, 55, violated probation for a 2010 check fraud conviction by uploading the trailer to YouTube. Nakoula was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered not to use computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.
If he's found in violation, he could be returned to prison. If not, he'll remain free. Either way, federal officials will face criticism, either from those who say Nakoula's free speech rights were trampled or from those who believe he should have been punished for inciting violence with the video.
"This case breaks the mold," said Mark Werksman, a defense attorney in Los Angeles and a former federal prosecutor. "If the video hadn't gone viral, and caused the Arabic world to blow up, who would care if this guy is using YouTube? It's all about politics with this guy."
Because of the international complexity, probation officials handling the case are taking plenty of time to make a decision and likely are getting input from throughout the federal government, said Lawrence Rosenthal, a professor at Chapman University's School of Law in Orange.
"My best guess is decisions about this case are going to be made at very high levels," Rosenthal said, surmising federal prosecutors, Justice Department headquarters and even the State Department may be weighing in.
Steven Seiden, a defense attorney representing Nakoula in the probation matter, did not reply to questions by email Tuesday and has not replied to several written requests for an interview with him or his client. The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment.
In most federal cases, a probation officer who decides someone has committed a serious violation submits a confidential report to the sentencing judge, who then can pursue a probation revocation hearing — a mini-trial of sorts — where probation officials must prove the violation.
If the judge finds the individual in violation, the court can return the defendant to probation, send him to prison or impose additional terms of probation without prison time.
Normal cases can move very quickly — sometimes taking days — once a probation officer has prepared a report, Werksman said. In this instance, however, the political and diplomatic ramifications likely have officials scrutinizing every step.
Probation officials first must be able to prove there was a violation, and that could mean a lengthy investigation into whether Nakoula or someone else posted the video on YouTube, said Heidi Rummel, a former federal prosecutor and criminal law professor at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law.
In addition, the terms of Nakoula's supervised release indicate he was allowed to use computers with prior approval from his probation officer. It's possible he received approval to post the trailer for "Innocence of Muslims."
"Usually the probation officer will be most interested in preventing him from engaging in any kind of activity related to the original crime, so another factor would be what kind of permission did the probation officer give him?" she said. "Why would (the film) be of concern in a bank fraud case? That's a whole nother wrinkle."
If federal probation officials — or those above them — decide not to proceed against Nakoula, the public likely will never know what went into the decision or who was involved without a court proceeding, Rosenthal said.
If the case does go before a judge, Nakoula could argue he was singled out on a probation technicality for exercising his right to free speech, Rosenthal said.
Either way, the outcome to the investigation could take a long time and isn't as straightforward as it may seem, said Rummel, the former prosecutor.
The issues are unusual for the probation revocation context and the allegations may be difficult to prove," she said.
"It's not like they have a couple dirty drug tests and two weeks later they're in court."
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Risling reported from Los Angeles.
What's missing from pro-gay marriage TV ads? Gays
(give the people what they wants, this just stands as more proof that people are a lot more squeamish in practice than they are in theory. as in "sure,sure we want them to have rights we just don't wanna have to actually see any of them." )
By PATRICK CONDON, AP
MINNEAPOLIS — In one TV ad, a husband and wife talk fondly of a lesbian couple who moved into their neighborhood. In another, a married couple speaks of wanting fair treatment for their lesbian daughter. A third features a pastor talking supportively about gay unions.
Each of these ads ran recently in states with gay marriage issues on the November ballot. What's missing? Gay people speaking for themselves.
Four states are voting on gay marriage this fall, and gay rights groups are pouring tens of millions of dollars into key TV markets in hopes of breaking a 32-state losing streak on the issue. But even as gay people and same-sex relationships gain acceptance through pop culture staples such as "Modern Family" and "Glee," the idea is still seen as dicey by media strategists involved in the ballot campaigns, resulting in ads that usually involve only straight people talking about the issue.
The decision to keep gays in the background has been widely noticed in the gay community and debated on gay-oriented blogs, with some activists complaining that the move contradicts the central message of the gay rights movement for a number of years.
"If we don't show ourselves, people aren't going to get comfortable with who we are," said Wayne Besen, director of Vermont-based gay rights group "Truth Wins Out," one of many that presses gays to live openly with pride in who they are.
But others counsel deference for the complexities of public messaging, pointing out that the ads are designed to speak to the fears and values of the heterosexual majority, whose vote will decide the issue.
"The moderate tough guys we need to flip to win a couple of these races are still the ones who say that gays are gross," said Andy Szekeres, a Denver-based fundraising consultant who has worked on several state campaigns and had access to focus group data. "Pushing people to an uncomfortable place, it's something you can't do in a TV ad," said Szekeres, who is gay.
The definition of marriage is on the ballot this fall in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. Beyond those, according to the Human Rights Campaign, 37 states prohibit gay marriage while six and the District of Columbia permit it. Gay activists and their allies are hoping that any wins in November would throw new momentum their way at a time when polls nationwide have shown growing acceptance for gay marriage.
Six of the seven ads broadcast in the contested states this year have featured only straight people talking about the issue. One ad, which played only in Maine, included a firefighter who talked of being accepted by his colleagues. The ads, along with most that ran in the 2008 campaign in California and in other past statewide races, rely on heterosexual family members and friends of gays talking about how the inability to marry has deprived their loved ones of rights and opportunities they should have.
Gay marriage opponents, who also have well-funded campaigns in the four states, plan to begin airing ads soon. In recent interviews, an organizer said the key message is aimed at parents, suggesting legal recognition could result in their kids being told in school and in society that it's OK to be gay.
Gay activists who have worked on the marketing campaigns say that in this battle for public opinion, it's better for gays to stay in the background.
"The simple truth is that we are trying to win over the people that are not yet with us," said Matt McTighe, campaign manager of Mainers United for Marriage, which is pushing the ballot measure to legalize gay marriage in that state. "I'm a gay man, and the general rule of thumb for me is that an ad that meets my emotional needs is not necessarily the thing that's going to change a typical voter's mind about gay or lesbian people."
A May 2011 poll by the Pew Research Center found growing acceptance of gay people on a number of fronts, but still plenty of doubts. Fifty-eight percent of poll respondents said gays should be accepted in society compared to 33 percent who said they shouldn't. More people thought gays raising children was bad for society rather than good, though the largest number of respondents were neutral on the question. The same poll found 45 percent support for gay marriage rights, up from 35 percent just two years earlier.
The first ad broadcast by Minnesotans United for All Families, which is trying to defeat the state's proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage, is aimed at parents. It features Kim and John Canny — two straight Catholics, Republicans and parents of three daughters from a Minneapolis suburb who discuss coming around to support gay marriage after a lesbian couple with an adopted son moved into their neighborhood.
The lesbian couple is briefly glimpsed in the ad, but not heard from.
Alexander Zachary, a gay man from Minneapolis, complained that the ads he's seen reflect an "antiquated mindset."
"This isn't San Francisco in 1973, where all the gay people live in one neighborhood and all the straight people live everywhere else," he said. "We're not this hidden culture anymore, so why act like it?"
Richard Carlbom, manager of the Minnesota campaign, declined to say if future Minnesota United ads would feature gay people. Upcoming ads will "articulate why gay people want to get married," he said.
Many straight people "are on a journey on this issue, and the most effective way to encourage them is to show them other people who have taken the same journey," and come to accept gay marriage, Carlbom said.
Bil Browning, a Washington, D.C., gay activist and writer, recently called a straights-only ad that ran in Washington state "a heterosexual snoozefest" on his blog. He pointed out that gay activists seem to be using the strategy even though they've yet to win a campaign. In the 32 states where the issue has been on a statewide ballot, gay marriage advocates have lost every time.
"Maybe it's time to reevaluate these strategies and include our families, actual LGBT people," Browning said. "We're never going to win if we can't show our faces. It looks like we have something to hide, and we don't."
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Associated Press reporter Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Wash., contributed to this report. Follow Patrick Condon on Twitter: http://twitter.com/pcondonap
Chemist told Mass. police she 'messed up bad'
By BRIDGET MURPHY, AP
BOSTON — A chemist at the center of a scandal at a Massachusetts drug lab admitted to investigators that she faked test results for two to three years, forged signatures and bypassed proper procedures, according to a state police report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
The report indicates that Annie Dookhan told police several times that she knew what she had done was wrong.
"I screwed up big time," she said, according to the report by investigators for Attorney General Martha Coakley's office. "I messed up bad, it's my fault. I don't want the lab to get in trouble."
Dookhan's alleged mishandling of drug samples at the lab has thrown thousands of criminal cases into question, and a handful of defendants already have been freed or had their sentences suspended.
Dookhan has not been charged and investigators have not said what her motive was. She has not responded to repeated requests for comments from the AP and no one answered the door at her home in Franklin on Tuesday.
State police say Dookhan tested more than 60,000 drug samples submitted in the cases of about 34,000 defendants during her nine years at the lab. She resigned in March amid an internal investigation by the Department of Public Health.
After state police took over the lab in July as part of a state budget directive, they said they discovered her alleged violations were much more extensive than previously believed and went beyond sloppiness into malfeasance and deliberate mishandling of drug samples.
In an interview with investigators in August, Dookhan first denied doing anything wrong when analyzing drug samples, then changed her story when they confronted her with a cocaine sample that tested positive in her analysis but came back negative when retested by the Boston Police Department.
She admitted doing something called dry labbing, where she tested some samples properly but just looked at others and guessed that they were the same drug as the properly tested ones. If a second test called the results into question, she would tamper with the drugs by concentrating them or contaminating them with other drugs so it did not look like she had improperly labeled them.
"Dookhan explained that this was what she did to get more work done," investigators wrote in their report.
Dookhan also told investigators she routinely skirted proper procedures by looking up data for assistant district attorneys who called her directly rather than going through the evidence department. She says none ever asked her to do anything improper in her analysis or findings.
The report, first obtained by The Boston Globe, says Dookhan told an investigator she was going through a long divorce and had no money for an attorney.
2 Tenn. children missing, not killed in fire
By KRISTIN M. HALL, AP
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Two children initially believed to have perished in a Tennessee farmhouse fire along with their step-grandparents are now considered missing and perhaps in danger, investigators said on Wednesday.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said the remains of 9-year-old Chloie Leverette and 7-year-old Gage Daniel were not found and the agency issued an endangered child alert for them on Wednesday afternoon. Investigators said neighbors last saw the children Sunday evening, hours before a fire destroyed the home in Bedford County about 40 miles southeast of Nashville.
TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm said the district attorney asked the agency to investigate the fatal fire and the whereabouts of the children. She said there is no evidence yet that the children were not in the house, but investigators are speaking with family members, friends and people at the children's school.
"Under an abundance of caution we decided to issue an endangered child alert for the two children if they are not in fact found in the fire," Helm said.
The State Fire Marshal's Office said in a statement that it has concluded "that there are no remains of the two children in the structure. The children's location at this time is unknown."
Helm said the TBI issued the endangered alert because, "as time moves on, we don't want to miss our opportunity to locate them if they were not in the house."
The Bedford County sheriff said investigators did find the remains of 72-year-old Leon "Bubba" McClaran and his 70-year-old wife, Molli McClaran.
Helm confirmed that the remains of two people and an animal were recovered in the house, but she said the medical examiner would have to positively identify those remains.
Sheriff Randall Boyce originally said Monday that investigators thought they found three bodies in the home, but one of the remains turned out to be those of a dog.
Family members told The Associated Press that the McClarans were raising their step-grandchildren because they needed a home and described them as generous people who loved their family. Relatives of the McClarans said the girl also used the last name Pope.
Someone passing by the farm saw the home enveloped in flames and called for help.
Law enforcement agents used cadaver dogs to search through the rubble for the remaining bodies. Family members drew a layout of the home for authorities to show the bedrooms.
The fire was very intense and quickly collapsed the walls of the house. Firefighters spent hours battling the blaze and it was still smoldering Monday morning as they searched for the bodies.
Helm said TBI is not investigating the cause of the fire because that is the responsibility of the state fire marshal's office.
Greek riots, Spanish marches shatter market calm
By ELENA BECATOROS, AP
ATHENS, Greece — Europe's fragile financial calm was shattered Wednesday as investors worried that violent anti-austerity protests in Greece and Spain's debt troubles showed that the continent still cannot contain its financial crisis.
Police fired tear gas Wednesday at rioters hurling gasoline bombs and chunks of marble during Greece's largest anti-austerity demonstration in six months. The protests were part of a 24-hour general strike, the latest test for Greece's nearly four-month-old coalition government and the new spending cuts it plans to push through.
The brief but intense clashes by several hundred rioters among the 60,000 people protesting in Athens came a day after anti-austerity protests rocked the Spanish capital.
In Madrid, thousands of angry protesters again swarmed as close as they could get Wednesday night to Parliament, watched by a heavy contingent of riot police. There was no fresh violence, but the demonstrators cut off traffic on one of the city's major thoroughfares at the height of the evening commute.
The protesters chanted for the release of 34 people detained Tuesday night in clashes that injured 64 others. They also demanded new elections to oust Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his conservative government, which has imposed cutbacks and tax hikes, deepening the gloom in a country struggling with recession and unemployment of nearly 25 percent, the highest among the 17 nations using the common euro currency.
Spain's central bank warned Wednesday the country's economy continues to shrink "significantly," sending the Spanish stock index tumbling and its borrowing costs rising.
Across Europe, stock markets fell as well. Germany's DAX dropped 2 percent while the CAC-40 in France fell 2.4 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 slid 1.4 percent. The euro was also hit, down a further 0.3 percent at $1.2840.
The turmoil Wednesday ended weeks of relative calm and optimism among investors that Europe and eurozone might have turned a corner. Markets have been breathing easier since the European Central Bank said earlier this month it would buy unlimited amounts of government bonds to help countries with their debts.
The move by the ECB helped lower borrowing costs for indebted governments from levels that only two months ago threatened to bankrupt Spain and Italy. Stocks also rose. Media speculation about the timing and cost of a eurozone breakup or a departure by troubled Greece faded.
However, the economic reality in Europe remained dire. Several countries have had to impose harsh new spending cuts, tax rises and economic reforms to meet European deficit targets and, in Greece's case, to continue getting vital aid. The austerity has hit citizens with wage cuts and fewer services, and left their economies struggling through recessions as reduced government spending has undermined growth.
"Yesterday's anti-austerity protests in Madrid, together with today's 24-hour strike in Greece, are both reminders that rampant unemployment and a general collapse in living standards make people desperate and angry," said David Morrison, senior market strategist at GFT Markets.
"There are growing concerns that the situation across the eurozone is set to take a turn for the worse," he said.
Spain has struggled for months to convince investors that it can handle its debts. The government is to unveil an austere 2013 draft budget and new economic reforms Thursday. Many believe they could be a precursor to a request for financial help from the ECB. The government has already introduced (EURO)65 billion ($83.5 billion) in austerity measures designed to bring down its deficit.
The country is suffering its second recession in three years, with a predicted 1.5 percent economic contraction in 2012. The Bank of Spain warned Wednesday the recession could be deeper.
Spain has come under pressure to tap the ECB bond-buying program that has been partly designed to keep a lid on the country's borrowing costs. So far, the government has been reluctant to ask for help for fear of the conditions that may be attached.
Spain's IBEX stock exchange fell in 4 percent on Wednesday while the interest rate on its 10-year bonds rose 0.26 percentage points to 5.99 percent on concerns about the country's economy and that it is taking too long to make up its mind about applying for ECB assistance.
"The demonstrations remind us that central bankers cannot solve the crisis alone. The ECB's plan to intervene in sovereign bond markets can only succeed if governments in crisis countries can convince their electorates that ongoing austerity and reform are necessary to avoid bankruptcy," said Martin Koehring of the Economist Intelligence Unit.
"This, however, is increasingly challenging without the return of economic growth."
Greece, meanwhile, has been dependent since May 2010 on billions of euros in two rescue loan packages from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. In return, it slashed salaries and pensions and hiked taxes in an effort to reform an economy derailed by decades of overspending and corruption.
Although Greece accounts for only about 2 percent of the eurozone's total economy, its crisis has shaken the euro and led to concern it could destabilize other, much larger economies in the 17-nation bloc. Greece is in its fifth year of recession, with unemployment above 24 percent.
Shortly before Greece's strike got under way, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras hammered out a (EURO)11.5 billion ($14.9 billion) package of spending cuts for 2013-14 demanded by the country's international lenders, along with another (EURO)2 billion in improved tax collection.
The government has struggled to come up with austerity measures acceptable to the country's creditors, with disagreements arising between the three coalition parties. The next payment of (EURO)31 billion hinges on the further cuts.
Stournaras was briefing the other two party leaders Wednesday, and Samaras was to meet with them Thursday morning. If they agree, the package will be presented to Greece's debt inspectors.
Wednesday's strike shut down Greece's famed Acropolis and halted flights for hours. Ferry services were suspended, schools, shops and gas stations were closed and hospitals functioned on emergency staff.
Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said the limited violence and what he called a smaller turnout than opposition parties had hoped for showed that "Greek society understands what the government is doing is the only possible solution."
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Pan Pylas in London, Nicholas Paphitis and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report.
McDonald's asks, TV with that? New channel on menu
(this story fills me with childlike glee! TV and McDonalds? what could be more American than that? this is brilliant! )
By LYNN ELBER, AP
LOS ANGELES — The question of the moment at 700 pioneering McDonald's restaurants: You want TV with those fries?
Not just any television, but the custom-made M Channel, formulated and tested with the same attention to detail that made Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets cultural icons.
The channel's aim is to offer exclusive content to entertain customers. More ambitiously, it also intends to create promotional and sales opportunities for record companies and others who want to dive into McDonald's vast customer pool.
Lee Edmondson, who has spent more than eight years developing the concept for McDonald's and years beforehand pondering it, said the fast-food chain is thinking way outside the TV box.
"It is a vision that is more than television," more than the "passive relationship" that viewers have with gas station or supermarket TV feeds, said Edmondson, who comes from a venture-capital background.
The M channel is akin to a broadcast network with its own news, entertainment and sportscasts localized for cities and even neighborhoods, he said. But there's more: It will supersize the experience by directing viewers online for shopping or other opportunities.
Get details on a featured electronic toy or be among the first to download a music video discovered via M Channel. Want to get close to artists you heard on your coffee break? Enter to win backstage concert passes or maybe lunch with them (just a guess, but the location may not be optional).
M Channel's goal is to target different audiences at different times of day and be so area-specific that a restaurant could show high school football game highlights to hometown fans, Edmondson said. News reports are taped by local station anchors for the channel.
Among those who have enlisted as content providers are producer Mark Burnett ("Survivor," "The Voice"), ReelzChannel and broadcast stations. A range of advertisers, minus other restaurants and perhaps alcoholic beverages, will be welcome, Edmondson said.
For now, the programming is in its infancy. At a McDonald's in Costa Mesa, south of Los Angeles, a flat-screen TV tucked in a corner showed an hour-long loop that included weather; a trivia quiz that promoted "Jeopardy!"; features on windsurfing in Maui and auto racing, and a Hollywood movie report packaged by ReelzChannel.
A mom grabbing a meal with her two children briefly glanced at a tech segment on back-to-school products including computers and smartphones before exiting.
Other diners sitting close to the TV were buried in their laptops, phones or magazines, the screen showing the distinctive arched "M" logo merely providing wallpaper.
Ruby Lua of Santa Ana, who works at a nearby supermarket, took a break from texting to say she preferred the satellite feed the restaurant used to show. How about if the channel offered music and related downloads?
"That would be more interesting," said the 18-year-old Lua, perking up.
That opening is just what Edmondson wants to exploit.
"If you see a piece of content that connects with you immediately, we've provided you a value," he said. "If we can do it consistently, we become a trusted source of information ... and a great way for content providers to engage with consumers."
Major music companies are intrigued.
"Interscope values a new way of communicating to customers where our content is positioned front and center to a massive audience," said Jennifer Frommer, the company's head of brand partnerships. "The channel provides a platform to market music in ways that have never been done before."
The pilot project, which began testing in scattered Western outlets two years ago, recently completed expansion to all McDonald's California outlets from San Diego north to Bakersfield. All told, the eateries get nearly 15 million monthly visits from adult customers alone.
M Channel could expand to the roughly 14,000 McDonald's nationwide within 18 months of getting the "go" from the company and franchisees, Edmondson said. He declined to predict when the green light could come for the project that has advanced with caution, the giant chain's approach to making changes.
The end game Edmonson foresees: Versions of the channel in McDonald's worldwide, and perhaps the birth of a template for other industries. So far, the investor-funded Channel M has consumed tens of millions of dollars and it "will be that again to pull it off," he said, declining to give an exact figure.
The M channel is "a smart thing to do," said Valerie Folkes, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.
TV sets, which originally sprouted in auto service shops and elsewhere to keep customers distracted while cooling their heels, have new potential in a splintered media market.
"Advertisers face difficulties not only in reaching the right people but also in capturing their attention," Folkes said. "Here they have people who they know are customers and who are more inclined to listen to their message."
How will McDonald's Corp. judge M Channel's value?
"Ad revenues are important, but the channel must be positively received by our customers in order to be viewed as a success," said Brad Hunter, senior marketing director for McDonald's USA.
Philip Palumbo, who owns 11 McDonald's in San Diego County and is the marketing co-op head for the county's outlets, has seen an immediate benefit from the pilot project: No more complaints to workers about the network fare his customers saw via satellite.
"The content was not necessarily appropriate," Palumbo said. "The big things were politics. Others were violence, usually on the news, or medical stuff like showing surgery."
As Folkes of USC put it, "You can imagine a news story about `pink slime' is not going to make a McDonald's customer eager to eat that Big Mac."
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EDITOR'S NOTE — Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org.
Michelle Obama to appear on 'Steve Harvey' show
CHICAGO — First lady Michelle Obama will appear on Steve Harvey's new daytime talk show.
The show's producers say she will tape her appearance on Thursday. It's scheduled for broadcast on Oct. 3. "Steve Harvey" is taped before an audience at NBC's studios in Obama's hometown of Chicago.
The 55-year-old veteran comic's show debuted earlier this month.
Harvey said in a statement that he's honored to have Mrs. Obama as a guest.
The first lady's appearance on Harvey's program will be her latest on the daytime talk-show circuit as the presidential election enters its final weeks.
Earlier this week, Mrs. Obama joined her husband, President Barack Obama, for a pre-taped, joint interview on ABC's "The View."
Greek schoolchildren stumble on big grenade stash
THESSALONIKI, Greece — Greek authorities say schoolchildren playing on a road construction site have stumbled on hundreds of hand grenades stashed away during the civil war.
Army officials in the northern town of Serres say explosives disposal experts had removed and safely defused more than 400 Russian-made grenades by Wednesday.
It was unclear how many more were in the cache. The weapons were found over the weekend by children after heavy rains eroded the road, which is being resurfaced.
The Greek civil war was fought between 1946-49 by nationalist government forces and Communist former partisans from the anti-Nazi resistance. The Communists were defeated but the particularly savage conflict and ensuing repression of the Left haunted Greek society and politics for decades.
NYC schools dispensing morning-after pill to girls
(an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure or in this case several pounds of unplanned baby)
By LINDSEY TANNER and KAREN MATTHEWS, AP
NEW YORK — It's a campaign believed to be unprecedented in its size and aggressiveness: New York City is dispensing the morning-after pill to girls as young as 14 at more than 50 public high schools, sometimes even before they have had sex.
The effort to combat teen pregnancy in the nation's largest city contrasts sharply with the views of politicians and school systems in more conservative parts of the country.
Valerie Huber, president of the National Abstinence Education Association in Washington, calls it "a terrible case once again of bigotry of low expectations" — presuming that teen girls will have sex anyway, and effectively endorsing that.
But some doctors say more schools should follow New York's lead.
Emergency contraception is safe and effective "if you use it in a timely fashion. It provides relief or solace to a young woman or man who has made a mistake but doesn't want to have to live with that mistake for the rest of their lives," said Dr. Cora Breuner, a Seattle physician and member of an American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on teen health.
Plan B emergency contraception is about 90 percent effective at preventing pregnancy if taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex.
New York's program was phased in at health clinics at about 40 schools in the 1-million-student school system starting about four years ago. Since January 2011, it has expanded to 13 additional schools that don't have clinics. The little-known program was reported on Sunday by the New York Post.
Nurse practitioners or physicians dispense the pills, and parents can sign an opt-out form preventing their daughters from taking part. Only about 1 to 2 percent of parents have opted out, according to the city Health Department.
The program is seen as a way to reduce a startling number: More than 7,000 New York City girls ages 15 to 17 get pregnant each year. More than two-thirds of those pregnancies end in abortions.
"We are committed to trying new approaches ... to improve a situation that can have lifelong consequences," the Health Department said in a statement.
In the 2011-12 school year, 576 girls got the pills at the 13 added schools, said Deborah Kaplan, an assistant health commissioner.
Felicia Regina, Parent Association president at Port Richmond High on Staten Island, has two teens at the school, a junior and a senior, and said she has never heard any parents voice objections.
"I do think it's a good idea," she said. "The children nowadays are not going to abstain from sexual intercourse. How many unwed mothers do we need?"
But Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union, a volunteer group, opposes the program. She has a daughter who attends Laguardia High, not among the schools where Plan B is available.
She said parents should have to sign an "opt-in" form granting permission for Plan B instead. "When your daughter has gone on a trip, didn't you have to sign that it's OK for her to go on a trip?" she said.
Davids said emergency contraceptive is too serious a drug to give without parents' permission: "They can't even give our kids aspirin or Motrin without informed consent. This is a chemical hormonal drug cocktail."
Anne Leary, a conservative blogger in Chicago whose children are in their 20s, also said the idea is ill-advised and undermines parents' authority. Her own children attended high school in a Chicago suburb and were not offered emergency contraception at school.
"These kids are under 16, which is the age for statutory rape in most states. I just think it's subsidizing and encouraging behavior that's probably not healthy for kids that age," Leary said.
New York City's schools already offer regular birth control pills and condoms, just as many other schools around the country do. But emergency contraception is especially controversial.
Many scientists say Plan B works by blocking ovulation or fertilization. But Plan B's label says it may also prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus, and conservative activists who believe life begins at conception contend it amounts to an abortion pill.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says Plan B does not cause abortion or encourage risky sex, and it has called for the sale of the morning-after pill over the counter to help prevent teen pregnancies.
Last year, however, the Obama administration blocked plans to put the pills on drugstore shelves, keeping them behind the pharmacy counter. The contraceptive requires a prescription for those under 17 but is available to older women without a prescription if they show pharmacists proof of age.
Opposition to making Plan B available over the counter came mostly from conservatives and religious groups who said such a step would promote underage sex.
At least one high school in a Los Angeles neighborhood with a high teen pregnancy rate also offers emergency contraception in a partnership with Planned Parenthood.
Teen pregnancies have declined in recent years nationwide, a trend attributed partly to increased use of birth control.
The most recent government figures show the rate was about 70 pregnancies per 1,000 girls ages 15 through 19 in 2008. New York City's rate was 82 per 1,000 girls that year, and dropped to 73 per 1,000 in 2010. Nationwide, about 43 percent of girls ages 15 to 19 have had sex.
Some students on their way Tuesday to New York's Fashion Industries High School said they knew emergency contraception was available there, while others did not.
Glenesha Fernandez, a ninth-grader, said her mother opted out. "I said `OK, I don't care,'" Glenesha said.
Yerenia Aybar, another ninth-grader, said girls her age shouldn't get the pill. "It might make students think it's OK to have sex," she said.
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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner reported from Chicago.
Space station may move to avoid passing junk
HOUSTON — The International Space Station may have to move to avoid some space junk.
NASA said debris from an old Russian satellite and a fragment from an Indian rocket could come too close to the station on Thursday. The station would be moved Thursday morning if necessary, NASA said Wednesday.
There are three astronauts living at the orbiting outpost.
Space junk moves so fast that it can puncture the station. Engineers try to give debris a wide berth whenever something comes close. NASA said it didn't know the size of the Russian debris.
The engines of a European cargo ship docked at the station would be used to push it out of the way. A communications glitch prevented the craft from leaving the station earlier this week.
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