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Show Friday, Jan. 29, 2010 Page 2 World&NatiOn Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com OarifyCorrect The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at statesmaneditor@aggiemail.usu.edu Celebs&People Grammys to be a battle ofdivas AP – In one corner – Taylor Swift, the relative newbie whose outstanding sales have made her the reigning queen of pop, despite her proud country tilt. SWIFT In the other corner – Beyonce, the fierce veteran who's already won a dozen Grammys but has yet to grasp the most prestigious Grammy honors – album and record of the year. She's up for those trophies and more, with a leading 10 nominations. CBS airs the Grammys live from Los Angeles in a show that will feature performances by Swift and Beyonce, plus a 3-D tribute to Michael Jackson. NewsBriefs No charges for sword attack BALTIMORE (AP) - Prosecutors say a Johns Hopkins University student feared for his life when he used a samurai sword to kill an unarmed intruder. Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said Thursday that John Pontolillo will not be charged in the death of career criminal Donald D. Rice. State of the Union address WASHINGTON (AP) — The man in the House chamber openly disagreeing with President Barack Obama as he spoke to Congress wasn't an over-thetop Republican or a seething Democrat. He was a Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito. Obama had taken the unusual step of scolding the high court in his State of the Union address Wednesday. "With all due deference to the separation of powers," he began, the court last week "reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections." Alito made a dismissive face, shook his head repeatedly and appeared to mouth the words "not true" or possibly "simply not true." A reliable conservative appointed to the court by Republican President George W. Bush, Alito was in the majority in the 5-4 ruling. Senate Democratic leaders sitting immediately behind Alito and other members of the high court rose and clapped loudly in their direction, with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leaning slightly forward with the most enthusiastic applause. The court did upend a 100-year trend in law to impose greater limitations on corporate political activity. Specifically, the court said corporations and unions could spend freely from their treasuries to run political ads for or against specific candidates. In a dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said the court's majority "would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans." Obama said corporations can "spend without limit in our elections." However, corporations and unions are still prohibited from contributing directly to politicians. Alito's head-shaking, though only two rows directly in front of Obama, wasn't the "You lie!" moment that brought the president's last speech to Congress to a screeching halt. In fact, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who shouted it, was stonefaced throughout Obama's latest speech, even rising a few times to applaud. While Obama spoke to a Congress dominated by Democrats, the smiles and the applause that interrupted the president dozens of times during his 69minute address belied the Democrat-vs.-Democrat anger that has been roiling the ranks of the party's PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA pauses as he delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 27. AP photo lawmakers. For most of them, no issue is more pressing than getting re-elected in November. And it's not clear that pursuing Obama's priorities will help them achieve theirs. Obama acknowledged that two unpopular initiatives, the bailout of banks and the stalled health care overhaul, put the heat on Democratic incumbents. Obama's upbeat manner, his promise to put job creation first and his challenges to the Senate to get moving on key bills elated many Democrats. The most awkward moment came during Obama's discussion of a discretionary spending freeze that is anathema to some progressives and which the Senate blocked this week. Still, Democrats applauded him more than 80 times. Mother dead and girl missing after visit LateNiteHumor Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 David Letterman's Top 10 things to be happy about 10. Still no Larry King sex tapes. 9. America has a rich surplus of Kardashians. 8. The Taco Bell drive-thru diet. 7. More aggressive friskings at our nation's airports. 6. Jets coach Rex Ryan is sort of like the funny fat guy on "Cheers." 5. Go to YouTube, type "kitties" and thank me later 4. Only three more entries on this list. 3. Renee Zellweger is proving that you can be fun and flirty at 40. 2. Snooki and "The Situation" got busy in the hot tub, while Vinnie D and Ronnie went tanning and didn't tell J-Woww. 1. For once, things are finally starting to go Jay Leno's way. "He spanked the Senate five times," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. He invoked former House Speaker Sam Rayburn to make the point: Some Democrats pose a threat to others. "Republicans are our opposition. The Senate's our enemy," Weiner said. One powerful House Democrat released a scathing statement about the White House before Obama had finished speaking. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo. said, "Instead of focusing on solutions to help America's families wade through the wreckage of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, Washington has wasted valuable time wrestling with partisan politics in an effort to rush through drastic reforms that do not directly address our most immediate needs." OKLAHOMA AUTHORITIES issued an Amber Alert on Monday Jan. 25 for Aja Daniell Johnson, whose mother,Tonya Hobbs, was found slain in her motor home Sunday. AP photo OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The father of a 7-year-old Oklahoma girl believed to have been abducted by her slain mother's estranged husband violated a court order when he let the child make an unsupervised visit with the woman, an attorney said Thursday. Aja Johnson has been miss- ing since her mother, Tonya Hobbs, 35, was found slain in Geronimo on Sunday. Police believe she was taken by Lester Hobbs, 46, after his estranged wife brought the girl for a visit Saturday. Hobbs has been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. A Dec. 4 court order prohibited Tonya Hobbs from being alone with the girl and said the child could not be near Lester Hobbs, an exconvict. But a lawyer for the girl's father, John J. Johnson of Oklahoma City, told The Associated Press that Johnson let Tonya Hobbs take Aja to a birthday party last Friday. "He's kicking himself and blaming himself for letting these bad things happen," attorney John Branch said. "He's blaming himself for not living by the terms of the temporary order." A judge granted Johnson temporary custody Nov. 6. A month later, the judge barred private visits between the girl and her mother and said the child had to avoid Lester Hobbs because Johnson feared Hobbs would not be a good influence on the girl, Branch said. Johnson had recently come to believe Aja's mother was no longer seeing Hobbs, Branch said. Johnson did not return a telephone message Thursday. Tonya Hobbs took her two daughters to Geronimo on Saturday to visit Lester Hobbs and his family, according to a court affidavit. Surveillance video from a Wal-Mart in nearby Lawton shows Tonya and Lester Hobbs, apparently holding hands, walking into the store about 5:15 p.m. After dinner, the couple and 7-year-old Aja went to Lester Hobbs' motor home for the evening, the affidavit states. Tonya Hobbs' older daughter stayed with Hobbs' relatives and is not missing. Tonya Hobbs was found beaten to death inside the trailer the next day. "At the beginning, they were together, but we don't know what's happened to the child since then," said Jessica Brown, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, who announced a $20,000 reward Thursday. "Time is not working in our favor." Tonya Hobbs' mother, Alice Dunkin, said Lester Hobbs had previously threatened the family. "He's got threats out that if anything happened to Tonya and it looked like he was going to jail, he'd come after her family," Dunkin told the AP. In a petition for a protective order filed in August, Tonya Hobbs wrote that her husband vowed to kill her if she left him. "My husband has threatened to hit my daughters in the head with a hammer and kill them," she wrote. But Branch said Thursday he and Johnson were unaware of any threats of violence or signs of physical abuse by Lester Hobbs. "It's totally amazing to me all of this that's come out about what a bad actor he was," Branch said. |