Roger Ebert calls Facebook group "lynch mob" in defense of Nathan Kotylak

Film critic Roger Ebert has come to the defense of the Canadian water polo star accused of trying to set two separate fires during the recent Vancouver riots, calling the Facebook group "100,000 strong to ban Nathan Kotylak from the Canada Olympic team" a lynch mob.

On Monday morning Roger Ebert, famed movie critic, tweeted that "Canadians also have lynch mobs. Facebook brings out the worst in those good people," followed with a link to the Facebook group calling on Nathan Kotylak to be barred from representing Canada at the Olympics.

Update:  New video shows possible sexual assault by Nathan Kotylak.

The Facebook group was created in response to 17-year-old Nathan Kotylak's attempt at setting a Vancouver City Police car on fire on June 15th during the riots that followed the loss of the Stanley Cup by the Vancouver Canucks to the Boston Bruins in a game seven match.

In video that arose the day after the Vancouver riots, Nathan Kotylak is seen attempting to light a police car on fire with a lighter after having stuffed the gas tank with a shirt sleeve, and in a second video released Sunday he is seen attempting to light a garbage can on fire by shifting the contents and fanning the smoking debris inside with a piece of cardboard.

Nathan Kotylak made a public apology on Saturday calling his actions "dumb" and explaining that he had become "caught up in the moment" which led to his attempt at lighting a police car on fire while thousands of cameras caught his actions.

Kotylak has been suspended from the Canadian water polo program, and has fled with his family from their home after the immense wave of backlash resulted in threats of violence againts Kotylak and his family.

The Facebook group "100,000 strong to ban Nathan Kotylak from the Canada Olympic team" sprung up Sunday night with a clear message and purpose describing itself as "A group dedicated to supporting Canadian values and to denounce the actions of Nathan Kotylak."

Shelly Comeon, the creator of the Facebook group has spoken out against both acts of public vandalism and has called Nathan Kotylak's apology on Saturday "an attempt to deceive the media and the public about his actions."

Says Comeon, "He isn't sorry for what he has done, he is sorry that he got caught - two times now - and that his place on the Canadian national water polo team and his Olympic dreams are in jeopardy."

With the inclusion of Roger Ebert into the debate, Shelly Comeon feels that national exposure will encourage a healthy discussion about what should happen with Kotylak and his future within the Canadian National Water Polo team.

"Roger Ebert is entitled to his opinion," says Shelly Comeon "but from the onset of this group I have maintained that mob like mentality, threats or even posting of private information will not be tolerated.

"As tax payers in Canada, we have a right to demand where those tax dollars are spent and we are asking they do not go to support athletes who act in defiance of Canadian values and morals," asserts Comeon.

Shelly Comeon insists that "We are not here to attack Nathan Kotylak, we are here to make sure our tax dollars are spent in the right place."

Denise Richards

Denise Richards

Denise Lee Richards (born February 17, 1971)[1] is an American actress and former fashion model. She has appeared in films including Starship Troopers, Wild Things, and The World Is Not Enough. She appeared on the reality TV show, Denise Richards: It's Complicated, which was carried by American cable channel E!.

Early life

Richards was born in Downers Grove, Illinois,[2] the daughter of Joni, a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. She has one sister, Michelle, and grew up in both Mokena and Downers Grove, Illinois. She graduated in 1989 from El Camino High School in Oceanside, California. As a child, she was the "only girl on the baseball team.

Before she was an actress, Richards was signed by the Judith Fontaine Modeling & Talent Agency as a model.

Career

In 1986, Richards appeared in the music video "The Captain of Her Heart" by Double. She spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in lower-budget films and TV shows such as Saved by the Bell, television movies, and guest starring in episodes of several television shows such as Married with Children (1991), a 5 second walk through. Her first starring role in a wide theatrical release was Starship Troopers in 1997, which was followed by her role in Wild Things in 1998.[4] In 1998, she appeared in the music video for the Blues Traveler song Canadian Rose.

Richards was cast as the nuclear-physicist Christmas Jones in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999). Though she considered her role "brainy", "athletic", and having depth of character,[6] she was criticized as not credible in the role.[7][8] Her outfit, which often comprised a low-cut tank top and tight shorts, elicited comments.[9] She was ranked as one of the worst Bond girls of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008,[10] and was chosen as "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 1999 Razzie Awards for the role.

In addition to her film work, Richards has made appearances in the situation comedies Spin City, Two and a Half Men, Friends and Seinfeld. She also starred in the short-lived UPN series Sex, Love & Secrets in 2005.

Richards appeared in Valentine, Undercover Brother and Scary Movie 3. In December 2004, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine, five months after giving birth.[12] Richards also posed semi-nude for the July 2006 issue of Jane magazine to raise money for the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation. In 1999, she ranked 9th in Maxim's 50 Sexiest Women and in 2001 she was voted 2nd in FHM's USA 100 Sexiest Women, 5th in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women and 19th in AskMen.com's 50 Most Beautiful Women.

Richards appeared on the 8th season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy. She was eliminated second on March 24, 2009. Richards sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field on May 1, 2009.

Personal life

On November 8, 2006, officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were called to the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C., where Richards was making a movie. After seeing two photographers taking her picture from a nearby balcony, she confronted them, and threw their two laptop computers over the balcony. One laptop struck an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair. The other laptop grazed the arm of a 91-year-old woman. Neither woman suffered serious injury, and no charges were pressed against Richards.

On December 1, 2007, it was announced that Richards' mother, Joni, died from cancer.

In a May 18, 2008 interview with Larry King on Larry King Live, when asked about her Catholicism, Richards claimed, "I do have faith.

Marriage to Charlie Sheen

In 2002, Richards married actor Charlie Sheen, with whom she appeared in Good Advice and then Scary Movie 3, in which she played his character's wife who was pinned to a tree in a car accident. They have two daughters, Sam J. Sheen (born March 9, 2004).[18] and Lola Rose Sheen (born June 1, 2005).Of her mothers side she is of Croatian descent.

In March 2005, Richards filed for a divorce from Sheen.[21] The couple briefly reconciled and were seeking marriage counseling to mend their relationship. However, on January 4, 2006, Richards' representative announced that she was continuing with the divorce, and she later sought a restraining order against Sheen, citing his alleged death threats against her.

On April 19, 2006, Richards filed formal legal papers asking for a divorce from Sheen under the laws of the state of California.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Sheen described Richards' actions as a "smear campaign"

In 2008, Richards decided to include her two daughters with Charlie Sheen in her confessional reality program on E!, Denise Richards: It's Complicated, which premiered on May 26, 2008. He deemed her plans "greedy, vain and exploitative".[25] On January 25, 2008, Richards won a court case against Sheen so that she can include her daughters in the show.[26] When a judge rejected Sheen's request to block it,[27] Sheen urged fans to boycott it.[28]

An agreement was reached between Sheen and Richards regarding the custody of the children, with Sheen stating in April 2009 that “we had to do what’s best for the girls.”[29]

The World’s Highest-Paid Musicians

Two decades ago Jon Bon Jovi sat with the members of his eponymous band in a basement in New Jersey. Hoping to rekindle the group’s desire to make music after two grueling years on the road, he’d hung vintages posters on the wall, illuminated only by candles and blacklights. But instead of feeling inspired, Bon Jovi found himself becoming cranky and short of breath.

“I’m thinking maybe this is an issue, maybe I just don’t like them,” Bon Jovi said in a recent interview for the FORBES Celeb 100 issue. “Until I realized that all the oxygen was sucked out of the room by the candles … So I blew out the candles, cranked up the amplifiers, and said, ‘We’re going to be a rock band. If you believe in what I’m telling you, we can be the Rolling Stones.’”

Sure enough, Bon Jovi is still rocking. The group earned $125 million over the past 12 months, enough to claim the No. 2 spot on FORBES’ annual list of the world’s highest-paid musicians. U2 (pictured above) took home $195 million—and music’s money crown—thanks to an international stadium tour that grossed some $700 million over two years, surpassing the Stones’ A Bigger Bang tour as the most lucrative of all time.

Power ballad rockers aren’t the only artists raking in the cash this year. Elton John ranks third with $100 million, fueled by a 102-show tour; Lady Gaga, godmother to Sir Elton’s new son, clocks in at No. 4 with $90 million; Canadian crooner Michael Bublé rounds out the top five with $70 million, also on the strength of a lucrative tour.

Our numbers encompass all pretax income earned from May 2010 to May 2011, before subtracting agent and manager fees. The totals were compiled with the help of data from Pollstar, RIAA and others, as well as extensive interviews with industry insiders including lawyers, managers, concert promoters, agents and, in some cases, the musicians themselves.

Full List: The World’s 25 Highest-Paid Musicians

For most artists, touring was the largest source of income this past year–but some were more efficient than others. Lady Gaga grossed nearly as much in 12 months of touring ($168 million) as Elton John ($204 million), but the costs of her elaborate production (dozens of backup dancers, pyrotechnic undergarments, etc.) ate into her take significantly. Gaga did grab plenty of additional cash from recorded music, publishing and endorsements. And regardless of the margins on her tour, drawing some 2 million fans over the past 12 months is no small feat—for Gaga, or for any of the big touring acts.

“It’s one thing to cut a song and get airplay, it’s another thing to convert listeners into a loyal fan base that goes through the trials and tribulations of buying tickets, paying for dinner, hiring a baby sitter,” says Randy Phillips, chief of concert promoter AEG. “To motivate a fan base to go through all those hurdles, there are very few artists who can do that consistently.”

The musicians on our list run quite a gamut. Justin Bieber, who raked in $53 million, is the youngest at age 17. Paul McCartney, who took home $66 million, is the oldest at 68. One couple even made the list–Jay-Z and Beyoncé took home $37 million and $35 million, respectively, marking the first time since their nuptials that the hip-hop mogul earned more than his wife.

Beyoncé is one of only five female solo acts on the list, compared to 13 males. What the list lacks in gender equality, it makes up for in geographical diversity—over one-third of the artists hail from outside the U.S., from countries including the U.K., Barbados, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and Australia.

As for the Rolling Stones, they’re widely expected to hit the road again to celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2012. But don’t expect a Bon Jovi reunion tour in 2030.

“I don’t know if I want to be 68 years old and doing 140 shows in a year,” admits Jon Bon Jovi. “Where I’m going, I don’t know. And that’s the beauty of it.”

Firefighting nightshift poses unseen dangers

Firefighter Jay Walter knows the sounds of danger in the pitch black of night -- the crackling of burning embers, the whoosh of flames whipped by wind, the hair-raising thump of a burned tree hammering down on the forest floor.

The 32-year-old from the Phoenix area is a division crew supervisor overseeing hundreds of firefighters working the night shift on a huge eastern Arizona wildfire that's been burning since May. Vigilance on the blaze is around the clock.

It's dangerous during the day, but at night, things get even more dicey for crews protecting towns, putting out hot spots and beating back the blaze to keep it from advancing.

"It's really dark out there," Walter said. "You don't have the ability to see all the land and property around you."

Large trees weakened by fire pepper the forest floor. It only takes one gust to bring them down, sometimes too close for comfort.

"You could be standing out there one minute and all of a sudden you have a tree come down and it can kill us," Walter said, adding that the only warning moments before it falls is the cracking of the trunk. "You want to talk about a sound that will send shivers up your spine."

Scouts fan out into the dark woods ahead of the main crews to spot the fire and report back hot spots to attack. But they don't venture far off the roads because it's too easy to get lost in the dark. They have to stay together.

"We can't see the terrain," Walter said. "You just have to know where you are at all times

"And when the fire's making a run, its putting out good heat and you have to watch the embers," he added, noting that each time one falls behind their line, it must be immediately extinguished or it could light a blaze that traps them.

As the day and night battle to control the blaze continued, firefighters on Sunday expressed the first real sense of hope that they were making progress. Officials allowed roughly 7,000 residents to return to two mountain towns that had been threatened for days by the blaze.

"We've been praying every day to come home," Springerville resident Valarina Walker, 49, said Sunday while chatting with other returning locals outside a convenience store in town.

The bed of her red pickup truck was overflowing with boxes of photo albums and family heirlooms.

"Just took what couldn't be replaced, left the rest behind," Walker said crying. "I'm just so happy and excited to be home. We thank God for those firefighters."

Authorities still cautioned the elderly and those with health problems or very young children to stay away because of lingering smoke causing hazardous air quality, but they said the threat from the fire to the communities was past. Air quality warnings were also issued as far away as Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

About 2,700 other people who live in several Arizona resort communities in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest remained under an evacuation order.

"It's so good to be home and see all the people we missed," said Jane Finch, 51, who had just returned to nearby Eagar and had a tearful reunion with her husband, who stayed behind to keep the Circle K open for firefighters.

Meanwhile, firefighters stopped short of jubilation Sunday but said they were finally gaining ground against the entire 693-square-mile inferno that was running along the New Mexico state line.

"Everything is holding," Fire Operations Chief Jerome Macdonald said. "Compared to what we've been dealing with just two days ago ... we're feeling a lot more confident. We turned a corner."

Macdonald said strong winds have actually helped firefighters as the gusts burned off fuel in the central part of the blaze before it reached their fire lines. Fire containment was at 10 percent by Sunday night.

Just across the border in New Mexico, hundreds of firefighters worked to keep the flames at bay, burning off fuel that could feed the inferno.

Thirty-five homes and cabins have been destroyed since the fire began May 29.

While the blaze remained perilously close -- about four miles away -- to two major power lines that bring electricity from Arizona to West Texas, Macdonald said firefighters were able to burn off most of the fuel in between, lessening the risk of disruption. The fire still threatened the picturesque Arizona mountain towns of Alpine, Nutrioso and Greer, where officials said residents would likely not be allowed back in for up to five more days.

The small New Mexico town of Luna, just across the state line, also remained under threat. About 150 New Mexico National Guard soldiers were assisting crews with evacuations and security.

Officials said about 4,300 people were working to bring the fire under control, and the blaze had so far cost about $27 million to fight.

It is the second-largest in state history, and Macdonald said he didn't it expect it would surpass the state's largest -- the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire that burned 732 square miles (1,895 sq. kilometers) and destroyed 491 buildings.

Protesters burn police vehicles in southern China

Protesters in southern China's manufacturing hub torched emergency vehicles in an outburst of anger against police abuse of migrant workers, eyewitnesses said Monday.

Sunday night's rioting followed three days of steadily growing unrest in the town of Xintang in Guangdong province, the linchpin of China's crucial export industry. Accounts of the violence in state-controlled media have been sparse, but the official Xinhua News Agency says a government team has been sent to the area to quell rumors surrounding the unrest.

While violent protests in China have become frequent over the past decade, recent weeks have seemed particularly turbulent. The vast region of Inner Mongolia last month saw its biggest street demonstrations in two decades, while a man angry over land seizures set off three homemade bombs at government buildings in a southern city, killing three people and wounding at least nine others.

Thousands of protesters attacked government offices in the central city of Lichuan last week following the alleged beating death of a local city council member while in police custody.

Though the triggers for the events are different, most are driven by common resentments over social inequality, abuse of power and suppression of legitimate grievances.

The Chinese leadership has reacted nervously to the turmoil, especially after popular uprisings began sweeping the Middle East and North Africa this year. In recent months, hundreds of government critics have been questioned, arrested or simply disappeared.

The violence in Xintang broke out Friday evening after a pregnant woman was pushed to the ground in a sweep against street vendors, most of whom are migrants from the southwestern province of Sichuan. Such disputes are common and bystanders often side with the vendors and accuse police of heavy-handed tactics.

Crowds soon gathered, blocking traffic and attacking government offices with bottles and bricks, Xinhua said. Police arrested 25 people accused of inciting the unrest, Xinhua said, adding that no deaths or injuries had been reported.

Violence continued to brew and tens of thousands of people gathered Sunday night at a major highway interchange, setting fire to more than two dozen emergency vehicles and fighting with police and paramilitary forces, said a salesman at the Xintang Ruilong clothing factory located close to the scene of the clash.

"It was such a horrifyingly spectacular scene," said the salesman, who gave only his surname, Wang. "You can never imagine what it looked like if you were not there."

Wang said the violence began after police adjuncts known as municipal management officers began beating migrants working as sidewalk vendors, ostensibly on orders from local government officials. Vendors then contacted relatives and friends who arrived in groups and began smashing vehicles and fighting with security forces, he said.

A female worker from the nearby Fengcai clothing factory, also surnamed Wang, said managers barred the 400 migrant workers from leaving the plant Sunday night.

"There were many people out on the streets late last night, shouting and trying to create chaos. Some of them even smashed police vehicles," Wang said.

Video of the protests posted online showed crowds blocking traffic, attacking cars and setting aflame buses, possibly dispatched to transport security forces.

Lack of tornadoes uncommon but not unheard of

It's not unheard of, this idea of much of tornado alley without tornadoes.

But it is uncommon.

Prior to Tuesday, both the Dodge City and Goodland National Weather Service forecast areas had gone without a single tornado being reported. The same would have been true for the rest of northwest Kansas, but a storm swept through Russell County about 10 days ago with tornadoes dipping from the sky as the system moved northeast.

"Not this year," said Dodge City NWS warning coordination meteorologist Jeff Hutton. "We haven't had one yet."

The next day, tornadoes dipped down in Rush County, breaking that pattern.

Dave Floyd, who serves in the same spot at Goodland, maintains a clean slate.

Doing without tornadoes is odd enough Floyd took it upon himself to take a look at past records for tornadoes. What he found was in 1976, the first tornado of the year was Sept. 12.

Confident there will be something before September this year, Floyd delved back into the records to look at the current time period and found it's not common, but not unheard of either, for the Goodland forecast area to remain tornado-free in much of May.

"May is definitely our peak month," Floyd said.

That's also true in the Dodge City forecast area, where Hutton said he is quick to point out, "We could make up for the year being average in just one event."

Both Floyd and Hutton agree the lack of severe storms is a result of a strong weather pattern that has pushed moisture-laden air to the southeast. That means it hasn't been able to make its way into northwest Kansas.

"It dries off," Hutton said of the moisture needed to form tornadoes.

What forecasters have been expecting, however, is as the weather changes, the moist air could make it's way back into western Kansas, setting off a series of events that could mean storms.

Floyd said it's not the result of La Nina, the cooler-than-normal water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean responsible for a lack of moisture last fall and through the winter.

The La Nina, he said, has all but dissolved, with near-neutral conditions in the ocean.

"We had a very cool late April and early May," Floyd said, adding weather systems would sweep through but remain south of Kansas. "We had a couple opportunities, but those things didn't come together."