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Patients suffer as Jackson media circus hits hospital One woman's husband needed a doctor. Another woman needed X-rays. And although caring and capable staff at Marian Medical Center eventually took care of business for both, delay and distraction dominated the day. Two days, actually. "Because of him," Cheryle Aguirre said with a sneering emphasis on the word "him." Michael Jackson's overnight stay last week at Santa Maria's only hospital only added to the pressure already experienced by an overworked staff of doctors, nurses and other front-line healers who treat a growing number of the sick and dying. "Everything was in...

Michael Jackson. Go ahead, crack a joke, sigh or shake your head. Michael's lifestyle and his current predicament inexorably lead to those reactions. There seem to be only two main schools of thought concerning the one-time "King of Pop": he's either guilty of molesting a young boy and ought to be tried, convicted and put in a cell deep under a prison or he's innocent. These groups also seem to be split into two other categories: black and other. A couple of white friends have asked me why this should be. I chalk it up to history and love. Our...

Alaskans to Vote on Pot Legalization in '04 Election Registered voters will get a chance to decide next year whether to legalize private use of marijuana for Alaskans 21 and older. Lt. Gov. Loren Leman notified initiative sponsors in late November that the petition has the 28,782 signatures necessary to get the question on the 2004 ballot. Sponsors must collect signatures equal to 10 percent of those who voted in the most recent general election. Since the marijuana initiative was filed prior to the 2002 election, it is based on 10 percent of the voters in the 2000 general election....

I don't know if it's true, but last week I read, like many of you, that Michael Jackson had converted to "Nation of Islam." Some people even wrote to me asking if the Jewish community will now be upset, given that he was once very close to me. Firstly, not only did I never try and make Michael Jewish, I strongly and incessantly encouraged him to go back to his Christian roots and find Jesus. To be sure, I did take Michael to synagogue. But that was in order to witness the beauty of Jewish prayer and the moving tunes...

I would be lying if I didn't admit that the past few weeks have seen my old affection for Michael Jackson return in fair measure. This has little to do with the eroding credibility of his accuser and everything to do with my having gone back and reviewed mementos of our relationship and our public work together in trying to get the world's parents to prioritize their children. I went back at looked at these things to try and remind myself what it was that so endeared Michael to me in the first place, amid what are undeniable and serious...

I urge you to read this story from TheSmokingGun.com, which is a Court TV website. Quote: "December 9th - A confidential investigation by Los Angeles police and child welfare officials concluded earlier this year that allegations Michael Jackson sexually abused a cancer-stricken boy were 'unfounded,' according to an internal government memo obtained by The Smoking Gun. The probe's findings were based, in large part, on interviews with the alleged victim, his two siblings, and the boy's mother." Folks, I've reminded all of you that everyone has a presumption of innocence - and not to fall for this media feeding frenzy...

BERLIN, Nov 21 (AFP) - Michael Jackson's mother hinted at a racist motive behind the pop icon's arrest on multiple child molestation charges, a German magazine Friday quoted her as telling it. According to the online edition of Bunte magazine, Catherine Jackson told it that there were two interpretations of the law in the United States -- "one for whites and one for blacks." She suggested he had been tricked. "I wonder whether somebody could have set a trap for him and hidden false evidence in his house." But she said he was doing fine and was optimistic. "He's not...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charges against Michael Jackson won't be derailed by a settlement, a prosecutor says, and the reason is a law passed in response to the last time the pop singer was accused of molestation, when the accuser refused to testify. "It is an irony," Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon said in an interview with The Associated Press. "The history of the law is that the L.A. district attorney's office carried the legislation as a direct result of the civil settlement in the first investigation." Sneddon baffled legal experts when he seemed to imply in a nationally...

Dozens protest Preble County police shooting Slain man’s roommates say he was unarmedEATON | Preble County law-enforcement officials declined to talk publicly Monday as they turned information about Friday's fatal shooting by a police officer of a 23-year-old man over to detectives from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. Montgomery County investigators, called in by Preble County Sheriff Tom Hayes, also said they would not talk about their review of the shooting by a member of a Preble County's emergency services group — officers from a number of police departments who are trained to handle drownings and hostage and other situations....