Julio Jones scorches Eagles as Falcons win Dan Quinn's debut

ATLANTA (AP) — In his first game with that big contract, Julio Jones was worth every penny.

Jones hauled in nine passes for 141 yards, including a pair of touchdowns, and the Atlanta Falcons came back after squandering a 17-point halftime lead to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 26-24 Monday night in the coaching debut of Dan Quinn.

“You just trust the preparation, let it rip and have fun,” Quinn said. “That’s what we did.”

He sure enjoyed watching Jones, who was rewarded for the best season of his career with a new $71.25 million contract during the preseason. Showing no signs of complacency, Jones dominated the Eagles’ revamped secondary as the Falcons raced to a 20-3 halftime lead.

The Eagles rallied behind new quarterback Sam Bradford, taking the lead for the first time at 24-23 on Ryan Mathews’ 1-yard run with 8:37 remaining.

Atlanta bounced back, driving into position for Matt Bryant’s fourth field goal of the game, a 47-yarder with 6:27 to go that turned out to be the winner.

Cody Parkey was wide right on a 44-yard field goal that could have restored Philadelphia’s lead. The Eagles had one more chance, but cornerback-turned-safety Ricardo Allen intercepted a pass that went through the hands of Jordan Matthews, sealing the victory with 1:11 left.

“They didn’t want to throw it at my corners so they threw it in the middle of the field,” Allen said. “They tipped the ball and it landed in my lap.”

Matt Ryan shook off a pair of interceptions, including one on the first possession of the second half that turned the momentum in Philadelphia’s favor. He was 23 of 34 for 298 yards.

Bradford, in his first regular-season game in nearly two years and making his debut for the Eagles, was 36 of 52 for 336 yards. But Philadelphia’s much-hyped running game, led by newcomer DeMarco Murray, was largely a bust.

After leading the NFL with more than 1,800 yards rushing in Dallas last season, Murray was held to 9 yards on eight carries. Ryan Mathews had only 4 yards, while Darren Sproles led the way with 50 yards on the ground.

Coach Chip Kelly’s up-tempo offense looked unstoppable in the preseason but bogged down in the first half against the fired-up Falcons, who hope the energetic Quinn can turn things around from a 10-22 showing the last two seasons under Mike Smith.

Other than a 69-yard drive that led to a field goal, the Eagles generated just 56 yards on their other seven first-half possessions — three of which went three-and-out, and another ended quickly when Bradford was intercepted. The deficit would have been even bigger if not for Kiko Alonso’s dazzling one-handed interception while falling backward in the end zone.

“We couldn’t get anything going in the first half,” Bradford said.

Jones was unstoppable in the early going, repeatedly burning new Eagles cornerback Byron Maxwell. The Falcons receiver hauled in eight passes for 97 yards over the first two quarters, including touchdowns of 4 and 22 yards.

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Take This Job And Shove It' author owes IRS $466

CINCINNATI — Country music singer-songwriterDavid Allan Coe pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Cincinnati to income tax evasion and owes the IRS more than $466,000, officials said.

Coe, 76, who wrote the song, Take This Job And Shove It, has owed the Internal Revenue Service for outstanding taxes since at least 1993, court documents say.

Between 2008 and 2013, officials said, he either failed to file his individual income tax returns — or when he did, he failed to pay the taxes due. Coe faces up to three years in prison. The nearly a half-million dollars owed includes taxes, interest and penalties.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, instead of paying the taxes in full, Coe spent the money earned from live concert performances "on other debts and gambling."

The case is in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. Court documents say Coe received multiple MoneyGram transfers of income in Cincinnati in 2011 and 2012. He also used a Cincinnati-based accounting firm to prepare his taxes, and in 2009 filed his taxes from Cincinnati.

His Memphis-based attorney, Michael Stengel, could not be reached for comment.

Coe, who performs at least 100 times a year, arranged to be paid primarily in cash, the news release said. Coe didn't allow $50 bills, the news release said, because "he believed they were bad luck and would not gamble with them."

He stopped using a personal bank account in 2009.

"Coe's arrangement to be paid primarily in cash was also in an effort to impede the ability of the IRS to collect on the taxes owed," the news release said.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office and special agents with the IRS's criminal investigations unit.

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VF all-male comedy cover sparks outrage

Talk about a stark image.

Vanity Fair released its October 2015 feature on the titans of late-night television, and something was missing: a single woman.

Instead, there sat a boys' club of Stephen Colbert,Conan O'Brien, Trevor Noah, James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Larry Wilmore, Jimmy Fallon and Bill Maher.

The headline the magazine chose was "Why Late-Night Television Is Better than Ever." But Twitter had a different take on it, quickly noting how not one woman had been able to crack her way into that glossy image, despite the fact that Samantha Bee's new TBS late night show Full Frontal will debut in January and Chelsea Handler recently departed her long-running Chelsea Lately for an upcoming Netflix talk show.

Also, only two persons of color, Trevor Noah, who takes over for Jon Stewart on Sept. 28, and Larry Wilmore, host of The Nightly Show, were present.

The accompanying profile, written by David Kamp, did acknowledge the dearth of women in late-night comedy.

"What's conspicuously missing from late-night, still, is women," Kamp wrote, pointing to talents like Chelsea Peretti, Megan Amram and Jen Kirkman. "How gobsmackingly insane is it that no TV network has had the common sense — and that's all we're talking about in 2015, not courage, bravery, or even decency — to hand over the reins of an existing late-night comedy program to a female person?"

Cue Bee's quick fix.

The Vanity Fair image brought to mind the magazine's 2007 piece titled "Why Women Aren't Funny" by Christopher Hitchens. "For some reason," he wrote, "women do not find their own physical decay and absurdity to be so riotously amusing, which is why we admire Lucille Ball and Helen Fielding, who do see the funny side of it."

It didn't die there. In 2012, Adam Carolla told the New York Post, "The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks."

And just this summer, Michael Eisner dusted off the sentiment at the Aspen Ideas Festival, telling a crowd that beautiful women aren't funny. "From my position, the hardest artist to find is a beautiful, funny woman," he said. "By far. They usually — boy am I going to get in trouble, I know this goes online — but usually, unbelievably beautiful women, you (Goldie Hawn, his panel-mate) being an exception, are not funny."

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Bond denied for S.C. cop charged with murder in black man's death

A former South Carolina police officer charged with murder in the April shooting an unarmed black man in the back will remain jailed, according to a court order.

Former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager, 33, has been denied bond. He is charged with killing Walter Scott, 50, following an April traffic stop for a broken taillight.

Circuit Judge Clifton Newman issued an order Monday afternoon saying that evidence presented Thursday from 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson concerning whether Slager would pose a flight risk was "persuasive," The Post and Courier reported.

"The court finds that release of Defendant would constitute an unreasonable danger to the community, and the request for release on bond should be denied," the news organization reported the order read.

Contributing: Associated Press

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REO Speedwagon guitarist Gary Richrath dies

Reo Speedwagon guitarist Gary Richrath has died, the band announced on its website andFacebook page Sunday. He was 65.

Band frontman Kevin Cronin said in a message that "my longtime friend and collaborator Gary Richrath passed away earlier (Sunday)." He did not disclose a cause of death.

"I feel so sad," Cronin wrote. "Gary was both a unique guitarist and songwriter, and the embodiment of the tough guy with a heart of gold."

He said he learned most of what he knows about being in a rock band from Richrath.

"The entire REO Family mourns his death and shares in the grief of his family, friends, and fans," he added.

"These words do not come close to expressing the depth of emotions I am feeling at this time."

He added that a photo of the two on stage performing "has been on my music-room table for as long as I can remember, and will stay there."

Richrath joined Speedwagon, known for its 1980s ballad, Can't Fight This Feeling, in 1970, three years after the band was formed in Illinois. Based in Peoria, he was known as a songwriter as well as a guitarist, and helped grow the band's popularity beyond its original Midwestern stronghold.

Richrath also brought new songs to the band, including Ridin' the Storm Out. He recorded 12 albums with the band and also wrote another song, Take It On The Run. 

He sang lead vocals on Find My Fortune and Only A Summer Love. The last album he recorded with the band was 1987's Life As We Know It. He  left the band in 1989.

According to UltimateClassicRock.com, Richrath released one solo album, in 1992,Only the Strong Survive, but reunited briefly with the band in 2013 when they staged a benefit concert for residents of central Illinois displaced by a series of powerful storms in the area.

“Gary was in great spirits when he walked into the dressing room. We hugged one another, I told him how happy I was that he came, and he expressed his gratitude for the invitation,” wrote Cronin at the time. “When I introduced ‘the guy who this band wouldn’t be here without’ and Richrath came up for ‘Ridin’ the Storm Out,’ 7,000 people went crazy. The response was arm-hair raising … We all felt it. It was fun to look over to my left and see Richrath digging in and playing like only he can. It was a night for the ages.”

Read More: Gary Richrath, Former REO Speedwagon Guitarist, Dies at 65 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gary-richrath-dies/?trackback=tsmclip

He reunited with the group briefly in 2013, joining his former bandmates for a concert staged to aid residents of central Illinois who were displaced or had their homes damaged by a series of powerful storms in the area.

“Gary was in great spirits when he walked into the dressing room. We hugged one another, I told him how happy I was that he came, and he expressed his gratitude for the invitation,” wrote Cronin at the time. “When I introduced ‘the guy who this band wouldn’t be here without’ and Richrath came up for ‘Ridin’ the Storm Out,’ 7,000 people went crazy. The response was arm-hair raising … We all felt it. It was fun to look over to my left and see Richrath digging in and playing like only he can. It was a night for the ages.”

Read More: Gary Richrath, Former REO Speedwagon Guitarist, Dies at 65 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/gary-richrath-dies/?trackback=tsmclip

Tribute tweets for Richrath started posting almost immediately.

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For EU, the strains of a humanitarian crisis

WASHINGTON — European Union interior ministers holding an emergency meeting in Brussels agreed Monday to resettle an initial group of 40,000 Syrian refugees, the EU ambassador to the United States says. But they'll need more time to resolve conflicts over a proposal to deal with 120,000 more and then with a flood of migrants that have followed.

"The war in Syria has created the greatest humanitarian tragedy probably of our generation," Ambassador David O'Sullivan said on Capital Download. "This is putting the European system under unprecedented pressure. It's not surprising that we've struggled a little to find what's the best response, and we'll probably need a little bit more time to find a way forward."

The fiercest debate involves a proposal unveiled last week by EU President Jean-Claude Juncker to impose mandatory quotas on all 28 EU members to take a specified number of another 120,000 Syrian asylum-seekers, an idea embraced by Germany but rejected by Hungary and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

O'Sullivan told USA TODAY's weekly video newsmaker series that "the good side of the European character" has been demonstrated in Greece, Italy, Germany and elsewhere by providing safe haven for migrants who have made a dangerous journey from war-torn Syria. He adds, "We also have to acknowledge that many people are frightened. Many people are worried that somehow this situation (will be) getting out of control."

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Donald Trump's Great Wall — it didn't work for the Ming Dynasty either

Donald Trump is vowing to build a wall along the U.S. Southern border with Mexico, likening it to the Great Wall of China and even dubbing his proposed border barrier "The Great Wall of Trump."

It's a key part of a tough-on-immigration stance that has powered him to front-runner status in Republican polls and will likely be touted again by the billionaire real estate developer at Wednesday's debate.

Yet, just as the Ming Dynasty’s 13,000-mile wall failed to keep out the Manchurians, Trump's barricade would likely be an ineffective way of addressing the nation’s immigration challenges, border experts say.

"The consensus is, it didn’t work very well,’’ said Edward Alden, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, of the wall that dates back to the 14th century, which the Manchurians repeatedly broke through.

The idea of walling off a nation, either to stop immigration flows or foreign invaders, has broad historical appeal — from Roman Emperor Hadrian’s stone wall to Israel’s West Bank wall and Northern Ireland’s divide between its Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. However, walls are often more symbolic barriers than practical ones. The Germans just marched around the French Maginot Line to invade Belgium, and the Manchurians repeatedly broke through the Great Wall of China.

Even the most ardent critics of U.S. immigration policy are not clamoring for a wall. The emphasis, they say, should be on cracking down on those who overstay their visas and the companies that employ them.

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7 dead, 6 missing as Utah flood sweeps away cars

ST. GEORGE, Utah — Seven people were confirmed dead and six more were missing late Monday after two cars were caught in a flash flood in Hildale.

Several vehicles were reportedly swept into waterways after heavy rains hit at approximately 5 p.m. MT, including two vehicles that had been carrying 16 people in Maxwell Canyon north of the city, said Kevin Barlow, assistant fire chief. The victims included women and small children, all from the Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, area. The towns are adjacent to each other across the state line.

Barlow said witnesses described a massive flash flood in Maxwell Canyon that pushed the two vehicles into a flood channel, washing them several hundred yards downstream.

"This wall of water just way out of the channel came up behind them and pushed them in," he said. The water was "far beyond its banks" and the flooding was "far more significant that we're seen for a long time," Barlow said.

As of 11 p.m. there were seven confirmed deceased, three surviving victims and one transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George for treatment. Six people were still missing.

Multiple agencies were on scene trying to assist, including swiftwater search and rescue team members. Barlow said they were likely to stop operations for the night and resume searching in the morning because of the dark and increased danger.

The National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning for the area at the time, indicating that heavy storm clouds were moving into the area from the south.

Pete Wilensky, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, said radar estimates indicated a pocket west of Hildale saw about 2.5 inches of rain over the course of two separate storm cells, one which passed through at about 3 p.m. and the other after 5 p.m.

The second storm was the stronger of the two, and with rivers already on the rise from the previous storm it exacerbated the flooding issues, Wilensky said.

“You put an inch or so of rain on top of that in a short period of time and everything went nuts,” he said.

Estimates across the area indicated between 1 inch and 1.5 inches fell, raising water levels in Zion National Park and other areas.

Park service officials reported issues with rock slides, mud and other issues on the roads as the storm moved across the park.

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Carlos Hyde, 49ers overshadow Adrian Peterson's return in 20-3 victory

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Adrian Peterson showed flashes of his former MVP self in Monday night's opener. But there weren't nearly enough to save the Minnesota Vikings.

The San Francisco 49ers spoiled Peterson's return with a 20-3 triumph in which Carlos Hyde, not Peterson, was by far the most productive running back on the field at Levi's Stadium.

Peterson left an impression. Just look at the short pass he caught around his own 40-yard line in the second quarter before juking one Niners defender and then carrying three more for about 8 yards before another jumped on his back to bring him down after a gain of 17.

But Peterson's final stat line — 10 carries for 31 yards, plus three catches for 21 yards, no scores — reflected how badly he and the Vikings struggled to get anything going offensively behind an injury-depleted line.

Meanwhile, Hyde ran wild, scoring both San Francisco touchdowns and finishing with 168 yards on 26 carries (plus two catches for 14 yards). After one game, that puts the second-year pro from Ohio State on pace for almost 2,700 rushing yards — beyond the record-shattering goal of 2,500 that Peterson has set for himself publicly.

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Trump tells Dallas crowd he'll reduce taxes

DALLAS — Republican front-runner Donald Trump told thousands gathered at the American Airlines Center Monday evening that if elected president he would reduce taxes.

"Corporations are paying far too much, far too much," he said. "Middle-income people are being decimated."

Trump said he would reveal details of his plan "over the next three or so weeks," a plan that was "going to be really pro-growth."

Wearing a blue suit and a red striped tie (but without his trademark "Make America Great Again" baseball cap), Trump paused for photos and autographs before taking the podium at 6:38 p.m. CT.

"Wow! Wow! Amazing, amazing," he said to the crowd estimated at 17,000. "Do you notice what's missing tonight? Teleprompters. We don't want Teleprompters."

The lower level of the arena was packed, but there were some empty seats in the upper levels, even though Ticketmaster distributed some 20,000 free tickets, which were snatched up days ago.

Outside the arena hundreds of protesters critical of Trump's immigration stance marched from the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin Guadalupe to the arena.

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Gone, absolutely gone' is refrain of California wildfire

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — Corie Barloggi looked across a charred field in this once scenic Northern California town, best known for hot springs and its proximity to Napa Valley, and was struck by what she didn't see: her neighbors' homes.

"They're gone, absolutely gone," the third-grade teacher said as firefighting airplanes circled above and the wind whipped ashes across charred trees and smoldering power lines.

These gray and lifeless images, more reminiscent of war than the mellow gold hills that draw retirees, are the remains of the huge and largely unchecked Valley Fire that swept through California's Lake County this weekend, destroying at least 400 homes in the town and nearby area about 90 miles north of San Francisco.

The fire, intensified by the state's extreme drought conditions, resulted in the death of one person and displaced 13,000 people. At 61,000 acres, it was only 5% contained late Monday. About 200 miles away, southeast of Sacramento, the Butte wildfire, about 30% contained, has destroyed about 80 homes and burned 71,000 acres.

Barloggi and her husband, Ken, were at a barbecue Saturday when the fire broke out. They rushed home to collect their puppy, Miss Belle, and Ken's heart medication, but they found their evacuation blocked by downed power lines.

Their single-family ranch home survived, perhaps helped by Ken's decision to plow the fields around their house. "We got extremely lucky," said Corie, 48.

Other parts of Middletown were far worse.  As the fire hopscotched across town, one apartment building was reduced to rubble. Some power lines were still burning, throwing up orange flames across the gray haze. The silence was broken by roosters crowing near the shells of burned-out cars and houses.

Power officials worked to restore power, but they fought a losing battle. Flames licked at many poles, several of which appeared ready to snap, nearly burned through.  Around the corner flapped a metal street sign, melted and bent from the intense fire's heat.

Most homeowners and residents were kept out of the area, which is filled with sheriff's deputies and highway patrol officers monitoring the evacuation zone for looters.

Many evacuees from Middletown and the surrounding areas in Lake County have had to pick up quickly and leave many of their belongings. The American Red Crossopened two shelters in neighboring town Calistoga, Calif., at the Napa Fairgrounds and a high school.

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Voices: Dreamforce conference is tech's hot event

SAN FRANCISCO — It's the city's most richly anticipated tech event.

No, not Apple's glitzy — and largely panned — iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus introduction last  Wednesday. The two-hour-plus show, staged at the fabled Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, was short on dramatics and long on time. Nearly everything announced, from new iPhone to iPad Pro and Apple TV upgrades, had been leaked or rumored. About the only suspense involved the identity of the closing act, which turned out to be OneRepublic.

The show that has the San Francisco Bay Area buzzing is Dreamforce, a creation of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff that begins Tuesday. It's chock full of top-billed bands, executive keynote speakers, celebrities and, this year, a celebrity cruise ship. (The Dreamboat's 1,073 cabins are sold out.)

Some 150,000 are expected to attend the four-day conference this week, which contributed $226 million to the city's economy last year, according to San Francisco Travel.

"If you have to choose one (tech) show a year, it's this one (Dreamforce)," says Esteban Kolsky, founder of thinkJar, an advisory and research think tank focused on customer strategies. "Over the last four to five years, it's become the place to be."

Dreamforce and Apple's annual product unveil in September headline a packed month of activities in Silicon Valley, where companies jockey for the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of consumers and businesses. Several notable events, such as the first-ever Tech Inclusion conference, also tackle social issues.

The shifting fortunes of the top two September shows illustrate how cloud computing pioneer Salesforce, not Apple, has captured the zeitgeist of the tech masses when it comes to tech happenings. Think of Dreamforce, now in its 13th year, as a mini-Davos meets Woodstock, as my colleague Marco della Cava gracefully puts it in his curtain raiser on the event.

A sampling of this year's schedule shows why: Executives from the defending champions of baseball (San Francisco Giants) and basketball (Golden State Warriors); a fireside chat between Benioff and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick; a keynote speech from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; and a panel featuring YouTube CEO Susan Wojcickiand actress Jessica Alba. The 2015 edition of the annual Dreamforce concert? The Killers opening for Foo Fighters.

While Dreamforce increasingly resonates with consumers and corporations, Apple seems to be a victim of its own success, and the heightened expectations of others. How, for instance, can Apple top the runaway success of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the world's most popular smartphone? What is its next big thing — reinventing cars, the Internet of Things, virtual reality?

For now, it seems to be in stasis, riding the iPhone phenomenon for all it's worth while chasing enterprise sales with a quilt of partnerships with Cisco Systems and IBM, and the introduction of the new iPad Pro.

Part of the problem may also be perception.

Salesforce is on a revenue roll: Its market cap has tripled to $45 billion since 2010, gaining the attention of several software behemoths, a number of which (Microsoft? Oracle?) might be interested in acquiring the company that Benioff built.

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Roll back the tape! We've ranked the routines from the premiere of 'DWTS'

Welcome back to the ballroom. The pseudo-celebs were movin’ and groovin’ Monday evening when Dancing with the Stars kicked off its 21st season.

Although Len Goodman wasn’t sitting at the judge’s table, he was there in spirit and Tom Bergeron’s pocket square which he borrowed.

13 couples competed, and heck yes, that is a whole lotta dancing, but don’t worry. If you missed a moment, that’s what we’re here for. So let’s foxtrot, quickstep, jive, and cha cha now y’all.

1. BINDI IRWIN AND DEREK HOUGH

At first dance, Bindi appears to be this season’s Sadie Robertson. Her smile lights up a room like that coveted mirror ball trophy. And, it turns out when Bindi would dance around as a little girl at the zoo, her moves would make her dad, Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, cry. Awwwww! And no, we don’t think they were crocodile tears.

Bindi danced a jive to Crocodile Rock because she is awesome. And before performing hummed her personal theme song Eye of the Tiger because of course she did. Bindi danced an hour and half into the show, and judge Julianne Hough said that it was the best performance of the night.

2. CARLOS PENAVEGA AND WITNEY CARSON

Carlos is fellow DWTS contestant Alexa PenaVega’s hubby which we think could make things really interesting. His jive kicked off the top of the second hour, and Julianne said he was the most natural performer that she’d seen thus far.

3. NICK CARTER AND SHARNA BURGESS

Backstreet’s back! Well at least the one that we thought was the cutest anyway. Yeah, Brian’s aight, but we were always a Nick fan, swoon! Even though he’s been in a boy band far beyond puberty, Nick said he was always insecure about his dancing. Let’s see if his fangirling partner can change that with a cha cha.

4. ALEK SKARLATOS AND LINDSAY ARNOLD

Alek is one of the brave men that saved passengers on a train headed to Paris back in August. And, before the American hero even started dancing, the audience was already on their feet. Alek danced an absolutely beautiful foxtrot, and it goes without saying we had the chills.

5. ALEXA PENAVEGA AND MARK BALLAS

Alexa and Mark danced a pretty lively and sexy jive. Though her husband, Carlos, joked about being jealous of her immediate closeness with her partner, he was incredibly proud of her performance. He cheered her on once her dance was finished and booed Carrie Ann when she delivered some criticism.

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Wolff: Ad blockers impair digital media

Ad blocking, traversing through the denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance stages of Internet grief, has come. Software can strip out tiresome search, banner, pop-up and video ads — and, hence, the lion’s share of digital media revenue.

There have been various ways of seeing this as someone else’s problem: a European problem, where much of the software has been developed; an ad industry problem for not making ads more engaging; and even a software problem in which blocking software itself needed to be blocked. But with Apple’s move to supply ad blockers with iPhones and Safari, it now has become everybody’s problem or, most specifically Google’s problem, or, simply, an idea whose time has come. Technology disrupts technology.

The fundamental premise of consumer advertising, and of the traditional media business, is of course that ads are unavoidable. As fundamental a premise is that if people can avoid advertising, they do. And further: As soon as they do figure out how to circumvent advertising, they don’t go back to it.

Before the Internet was a threat to television advertising, the DVR already was. Or, as soon as home video gave everybody a taste of TV without ads, then there was only going forward to a world without them. Now, in a once-unimaginable development, you can watch as much television as you want without seeing any advertising ever. There is a new television audience that would not know what to do with the discordant interruptions of ads (except pay more to get rid of them). And this non-ad audience, an audience that can afford to pay for not seeing ads, is the one, precisely because they can pay, most sought after by advertisers.

In a peculiar parallel universe, there has recently been enormous digital merriment about the steep fall in traditional television stocks, and the description by a well-known analyst of the television industry as “structurally impaired.”

In part this impairment is the result of viewers theoretically leaving traditional television, thereby cutting the value of television advertising, in a flight to digital, which is expected in total dollars to surpass television ad spending by 2016.

But, curiously, the television industry, seeing the threat to its advertising bread and butter, began a long conversion from being wholly ad supported to now deriving 50% of its revenues from subscription and licensing fees.

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Punchlines: Is Kim Davis a hero?

Is the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples a hero? It depends on who you ask.

Mike Huckabee and other GOP politicians who greeted Kim Davis (she spent five days locked up after refusing to follow the law) by playing "Eye of the Tiger" as she walked out of jail last week say she is.  Gay rights activists and couples who want to get married call her a bigot.

And the late-night comics? Well Bill Maher called her hypocrite. Why? It turns out Davis, who has been fighting so hard for traditional marriage, has had some marriage problems of her own.  Maher analyzes Davis' history, and gives a more practical explanation for her inability to issues licenses in today's Punchlines.

Take a look at our favorite jokes in the video above, then vote for yours in the quick poll to the right.  Watching from your smartphone or tablet? Then visitopinion.usatoday.com to cast your ballot.

Listen to the podcast!

On the go today? No time to stop and watch the video? No problem.  We've got you covered.  Click or download below for the audio version!

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A decade before filmmakers migrated to Hollywood, they'd already figured out that the Caribbean was a nice place to get away from the dreary winter and gray skies that afflicted their studios in New York and New Jersey.

Thomas Edison patented and popularized the motion-picture camera in 1891, though, as with the light bulb, he didn't actually invent it. His company did produce what may be the first motion-picture set in the Caribbean, West Indian Girls in Native Dance, filmed on St. Thomas in the winter of 1903. It features a bevy of West Indian beauties doing the shay-shay in a garden in Charlotte Amalie. That same year, the company issued another epic filmed in the Bahamas titled Native Woman Washing a Negro Baby in Nassau, B.I.. The Caribbean had been "discovered" all over again, and they've been making movies here ever since.

The following highlights are far from inclusive and ignore the many direct-to-video and television productions shot in the region.

DR NO

1962 | Sean Connery, Ursula Andress

The first James Bond film finds Ian Fleming's hero on a mission to Jamaica to investigate the mysterious death of a British intelligence agent. Along the way he meets CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jack Lord) and the glamorous Honey Rider (Andress). It was the Swedish bombshell's entrance — she appears from the ocean at Laughing Waters Beach in front of Dunn's River Falls wearing a white bikini — that set the standard for all of the "Bond Girls" who followed. Andress reportedly auctioned off the bikini for more than $60,000.

TRAVEL AGENT 007: Experience James Bond's Caribbean

HELP!

1965 | John, Paul, George and Ringo

The beach scenes for the follow-up to the Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, were filmed on Paradise Island off of Nassau. The movie was under-appreciated for years, even by the Beatles themselves, who attributed their manic performances to "smoking a lot of marijuana" during the production. Nonetheless, "Help!" did feature some of their best early tracks including Ticket To Ride, Another Girl and, of course, Help!

SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

1994 | Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

The grim prison movie adapted from horrormeister Stephen King's novel ends on an up note, when ex-cons Andy (Robbins) and Red (Freeman) are reunited on a paradise-worthy beach in Zihuatanejo, Mexico — or not. The scene was actually shot at Sandy Point on the southwest end ofSt. Croix, USVI.

DR. DOOLITTLE

1967 | Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar, Richard Attenborough

If your familiarity with the Dr. Doolittle story is confined to the 1998 Eddie Murphy remake, pull up your Netflix account and take a look at the original. Predictably, it's more naive but also much more charming. The scene where the good doctor (Rex Harrison) talks to the giant pink snail was filmed in Marigot Bay, St. Lucia.

TRADING PLACES

1983 | Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy

In Murphy's Doolittle remake, he never made it any farther from Hollywood than San Bernardino and San Francisco. However, he definitely made up for it when he and Dan Aykroyd filmed "Trading Places." The final scenes that show the two enjoying their new-found wealth — fleeced from "brothers" Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy — were filmed in St. Croix.

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