(Photo By Christopher Polk/Getty Images)
From Mason In The Morning
Here is the latest from the Q105 Newsroom: Kim Kardashian says she married for love, but do you believe her? Plus, two more local cases of Legionnaires’ Disease have been confirmed. And, Florida has made another Top 10 list — but it’s not a good one.
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While Kim Kardashian insists that her short-lived marriage to basketball star, Kris Humphries, wasn’t simply a ploy to grab headlines and TV ratings, not many people believe her. Just ten-percent of the respondents in an ongoing AccessHollywood.com poll say they think “true love” led Kim and Kris to the altar, while 90-percent feel the relationship was “all for the cameras.” The reality TV star filed for divorce on Monday — after just 72 days of marriage. Yesterday, Kardashian took to her website blog to address the matter, saying she “married for love,” and can’t believe she’s now having to “defend” her actions.
Kardashian and Humphries exchanged vows in a lavish ceremony on August 20th after dating for about nine months. Highlights of the wedding, which reportedly cost over ten-million-dollars, aired a few weeks ago as a two-part E! special “Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event.”
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Two weeks before his scheduled execution, there are more legal filings in the case of three-time killer Oba Chandler. Lawyers for the 65-year-old say that Chandler should get a new sentencing hearing because the judge, not the jury, decided if the death penalty should be imposed. Chandler’s sentence and conviction have been held up in the past. In 1989, Chandler lured an Ohio mom and her two teenage daughters onto a boat, where he sexually assaulted them; then, tied them up and threw them into Tampa Bay, where they drowned.
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Health officials are dealing with two new cases of Legionnaire’s Disease, this time in Pasco County. Investigators were looking into an outbreak of the illness in Plant City. Now, two Port Richey residents have just been diagnosed. The health department is looking for a common link that connects both cases, because Legionnaire’s is not spread from person to person.
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The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the homicide of a 50-year-old man in Lithia, involving drugs. They’ve arrested Timothy Miller’s girlfriend, Sarah Ann Wilson and charged her with second degree murder. Miller and Wilson were supposedly arguing, because she took his pickup truck without asking him. Later, while he was sleeping, the 22-year-old allegedly shot him in the back of the head. (Bay News 9)
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It now looks like the three-year-old girl, who survived a car crash that killed her grandparents, may have suffered more serious injuries than first thought. Kaylee Farnsworth hasn’t spoken since the October 21st crash in Tampa. She also hasn’t been singing like she used to, suggesting she may have suffered some sort of brain damage. Doctors don’t know the extent of Kaylee’s injuries, but her parents remain optimistic that she can fully recover. The grandparents, Nancy and Webster Farnsworth, were with the girl, when they were hit by Dewayne McNeil’s pickup truck. He ran a red light and the case is still being investigated.
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Bank of America is abandoning its controversial plan to charge customers a monthly debit card fee. BofA had proposed tacking on a five-dollar-a-month fee beginning early next year. The proposal drew a huge backlash from customers. Other banks including Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase have dropped their plans to charge debit fees, as well.
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A new government report ranks Florida eighth in the nation when it comes to fatal drug overdoses from prescription painkillers like oxycodone. The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that prescription drug sales have jumped four times since 1999, and the death rate has soared along with it. The report also shows Florida sold more pain pills per person than any other state. A new database recently went online to track pill mills in Florida, along with the people who may be abusing the medications.
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Inflation is rearing its ugly head with the price of an American pantry staple shooting sky high. The makers of Jif, Peter Pan, and Skippy peanut butter are all raising their prices up to 40 percent this week. Analysts say the soaring prices are the result of one of the worst peanut crops in decades. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports peanut prices have nearly tripled from last year, as production has fallen.
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One of the impacts of the name change announced yesterday, by the “St. Petersburg Times,” is that the name of the St. Pete Times Forum will have to change too. Starting January 1st, the home of the Lightning will becoe the Tampa Bay Times Forum. The paper also announced that it has renewed its contract and will retain naming rights at the Forum through 2018. The name change better reflects the paper’s role as a regional publication.
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Allegations of sexual harassment aren’t hurting Herman Cain’s fundraising efforts. Campaign manager, Mark Block, says the Republican presidential hopeful and frontrunner received a quarter-million dollars in online donations on Monday. Cain has been accused of sexually harassing two women in the 1990s while heading up the National Restaurant Association. He denies the allegations. Today, Cain is scheduled to speak to the Congressional Healthcare Caucus at the Capitol.
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