Kesha Loses Court Battle With Dr. Luke

Pop star Kesha and record producer Dr. Luke have been involved in an ongoing court battle over the last few years.  Back in 2005, Dr. Luke of Sony Records discovered up and coming pop star Kesha and signed her to his record label.  He gave Kesha her big break after using her vocals on Flo Rida’s song “Right Round,” though he never credited her on the song.  In 2010, she released her album “Animal” under Dr. Luke’s label and then in 2012 released “Warrior” under Dr. Luke’s label as well.  As 2014 rolled around, Kesha had to check into rehab in January for an eating disorder that her mother says that she almost died from low blood pressure and sodium.  Kesha and her mother both claim that the eating disorder was partially caused by Dr. Luke after he made many rude comments about her size and weight.  In October, Kesha filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke, claiming that he had been abusing her for the last 10 years.  The lawsuit states: “Dr. Luke abused Ms. Sebert in order to destroy her self-confidence, self-image and self-worth so that he could maintain complete control over her life and career.”

The lawsuit accusations were extremely shocking and inappropriate.  Kesha claims that he once forced her to “snort an illicit drug” before a flight and then raped her while she was intoxicated and drugged.  She said that he forced Kesha to drink with him and then gave her what he called “sober pills.”  Another accusation was that Dr. Luke told Kesha “that if she ever mentioned the rape to anyone, he would shut her career down and otherwise destroy not only her life but her entire family’s lives as well.”

Dr. Luke came back with a countersuit, claiming Kesha and her mother made up the allegations to get out of an exclusive contract with him.  He claimed that Kesha and her mother are trying to extort him into releasing her from their contract.  Last week the battle came into the courtroom and Justice Shirley Kornreich denied Kesha’s request to be released from her contract, nothing that Kesha had been permitted to record without Dr. Luke.  The judge said, “It’s not in Sony’s best interest to make no money.  I will not decimate a contract that was heavily negotiated.”

Kesha as well as her fans were deeply hurt after the ruling was released but Kesha has been very thankful that her fans have been there for her in this devastating time.  I personally don’t think that she should have to fulfill her contract after the pain that she’s been through with this record company.  Regardless if they will allow her to record with someone else, Sony has had to undergo a lawsuit with her and there is no way they will be fully committed to promoting her music after what they’ve been through.

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The Most Exciting Race In Nascar The Daytona 500

The biggest most anticipated race of the year is Sunday, The Daytona 500. It will be the 58th running of this historic race. Drivers dream all year about racing in it with hopes of being the first one to cross the finish line.

Fan favorites like Jeff Gordon and tony Stewart will not be participating in this year’s race, which leaves an opening for a new star to emerge. Jeff Gordon announced his retirement last season and will be watching from the sidelines this year. Tony Stewart was supposed to be racing Sunday but an injury to his back from an ATV accident with keep him from participating, Brian Vickers will replace Tony Stewart in the number 14 car.

Joey Logano looks to repeat this year after winning last years Daytona 500 which hasten been done since Sterling Marlin in 1994-1995. At only 25 he has really come in to his own as a driver and new fan favorite. He is favored to win not only the fans hearts but also the Daytona 500. Newcomer Chase Elliot who takes over the 24 car previously drove by Jeff Gordon looks to make a strong push as he is starting on the pole.

Engines will start at 1:19 by Gerald Butler shortly followed by the green flag and start of the race at 1:31. The race is 200 laps around the 2.5-mile speedway. So who will be this years champion? Tune in to FOX and watch as the most historic race in racing is set to take place for the 58th time this Sunday.

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Violence is Taking Over Many Schools But What’s It Causing It To Happen? – Click Here To Find Out!

School can change your life dramatically, hopefully in good way, but not everyone is so lucky. I, myself used to be bullied around middle school so I know; from experience what it feels like not to even want to go to class since you know, there is always someone who is going to make fun of you in front of everyone so they can feel “the power of being cool” since they don’t have anything better to do with themselves. They like to make people feel inferior. That pain makes bullies feel empowered.

One of the main causes of school violence is verbal abuse, which is when people use words to bully a person around; for example, someone might be short so people take advantage of that and exaggerate the fact and might call them “midget, dwarf, baby.”

Drugs seem to be the “escape” for many students. They feel like no one understands them, so they think drugs are the solution since it makes them relax and forget about it. Some but not all of these issues might come from the lack of guidance and the kind of environment they have at home.

Also peer-pressure is one cause that affects us all. We think since people are doing it, why not me? Well that’s where the media comes with such misleading opinions, like girls fighting over some guy, or people calling fat someone innocent. This can lead the victims to such big and unfortunate results such as depression, which the effects could be suicide, health problems like bulimia, anorexia, drugs and a lot more.

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Places to Visit During Spring Break

Spring Break is coming around the corner, and it is never too early to start planning. However, if no plans have been made yet, here is a short guide of places to visit during this sun-kissed and bikini season.

  • Miami Beach: This location is very popular for its beautiful beaches and energized nightlife. South Beach has everything anyone can be looking for in a vacation like museums, strips of bars and restaurants, great weather, boat tours and an amazing ambience. This is the perfect getaway for locals and foreigners.
  • Punta Cana: This Caribbean treasure is found in the Dominican Republic. It is well known for its all-inclusive resorts and pristine beaches. It offers so many different activities like golfing,  parasailing, jet skiing, scuba diving, swimming with dolphins, and the best part is that food and drinks (alcoholic drinks) are all included with your reservation. Some resorts even have casinos and a nightclub on site, so leaving the property is unnecessary at times.
  • Cancun: This stunning location found in Mexico is also known for its beautiful beaches and its historical value. In Cancun, there are also all-inclusive resorts anyone can enjoy without worrying about overspending. One of its most alluring places is the Chichén Itzá, which is a Mayan archeological site that is considered as one of the seven wonders of the world.
  • Clearwater Beach: Clearwater offers beautiful beaches, a live nightlife and an expansive list of restaurants and places worth visiting like the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and the Capitol Theater. It is also a great place for activities like kayaking and canoeing, a romantic beach walk, air tours, wine tasting and dolphin and whale watching.

These are some of the best places to visit for spring breakers in Central Florida and good reasons to take a vacation.

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18 YEAR OLD GETS ARRESTED FOR PRETENDING TO BE A DOCTOR IN WEST PALM BEACH

Ladies can you imagine going to a OBGYN and weeks later finding out that the person “doctor” who gave you an examination was a fraud? Well in West Palm Beach Florida a 18 year old boy has been pretending to be a doctor, that is not even the scary thing he even opened up his own office with a staff as well. Malachi Love-Robinson who police say posed as a doctor said he has been posing as a medical doctor and he has been treating patients we do not know how many people he has already seen or examined because this is a still ongoing investigation. There are so many questions that need to be answered how long has this Malachi been doing this? It is also clear that he has had some help with this operation; opening up a clinic by yourself is work that requires a partnership. Which raises the question, who else was a part of this grand scheme.

Malachi was arrested after a undercover female cop visited and had an appointment with him he was then busted. From that day of his arrest the media and people have been asking question after question searching for answers. Malachi had an interview with ABC GOODMORNING AMERICA and they asked him why is posing as a doctor and his reply was “I’m not portraying as an M.D. I never said I’ve gone to school to be an M.D. In his office under a sticker it shows that he calls himself an M.D which he later denies. In the interview he says that he has shadowed doctors which is an easy process to get involved in, he also sounds very intelligent, I see why people believed him but the interview was cut short because the question the interviewer  asked about him being a fraud. Malachi has not been arraigned but he is facing 7 counts of felonies such as grand thief, fraud, practicing medicine without a license and so much more.

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Game Developers Releasing “Broken” Games and Expecting Gamers to Just Accept it

In the past 3-5 years, there has been an increase in the amount of games that, on launch day, are considered “broken” by much of the gaming community. “Broken” doesn’t mean necessarily that the game doesn’t work (though that has happened in the past for certain operating systems such as Mac or Linux), but more often means that the game is so littered with bugs and glitches that it becomes an impediment to actually playing the game.

The most infamous title for this category would most likely be Batman: Arkham Knight. Released on June 23, 2015, the Windows version of the game was so terribly optimized and buggy that Warner Bros, the publisher, actually pulled it from the website and Steam, the largest online retailer of games in the world. The game did eventually return about a month later, but the damage had already been done to it’s sales and reputation, which put Warner Bros. in a bad spot for their next Windows release.

Most recently, Firaxis released XCOM 2 for Windows to a large amount of backlash revolving around the inconsistent frame rates and accounts of the game simply stalling for a minute or so before resuming. While these are not game-breaking, the game was only released on Windows and therefore every player suffers these bugs. It is often much simpler to optimize games for consoles such as the Xbox One and Playstation 4 because of the uniformity, in that every single console of the same name has the same specifications. When it comes to Windows or Mac however, the specifications often differ greatly depending on things such as system memory, graphics cards, and processors.

The question most people have is why are games being released in such a ” broken” state? Are these games simply pushed forward so much by publishers that the developer didn’t have enough time to work out all the bugs? Is the developer simply lazy and doesn’t wish to delay their game? Do developers and publishers now realize that consumers will purchase these products anyway, despite all the backlash, and know that everybody that pre-ordered the game is already a guaranteed buy? Despite the massive failings of Batman: Arkham Knight, it still became the highest selling Batman game in Warner Bros. history, and XCOM 2 is also selling better and has been, more often than not, more favorably reviewed than the first in the series due to the amount of content that has been added since XCOM 1.

It seems as if the gaming community has a vocal minority when it comes to boycotting pre-orders and complaining about the state of PC games, while many console gamers, which make up the majority of the gaming community, seem to complain at a much lower rate. Indeed, it seems as if developers are more okay with simply releasing a buggy game and then patching it later, simply because the PC players have learned to put up with these practices. However, this sets a dangerous precedent, a very slippery slope. How far can it get before even console gamers can stand and say that this isn’t acceptable? Will it take an Xbox One game to release and be almost utterly unplayable before more people voice their opinion? I’m not sure, but I do know that developers need to be more accountable for their products on day 1.

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Hollywood Hospital Extorted by Cyber Terrorists

So, something seemingly crazy happened last week, the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital on Wednesday February 17th announced that it paid nearly $17,000 to resume normal operations after digital extortionists knocked its computer systems offline for a period of time. Thats right, a cyber attack occurred on a hospital and resulted in a ransom being paid to resume normal operation.

The Los Angeles hospital discovered its computer network was completely infected with ransom malware earlier in the month. This form of malware (also known as ransomware) scrambles data and key files on a system and demands a ransom be paid for a digital key to unscramble that data. After paying a ransom of 40 bitcoins, or $17,000USD in total to the extortionists, the hospital was able to bring its electronic medical record system back online. Bitcoins for the uninitiated, are a digital currency favored by cybercriminals because they can be extremely difficult to trace.

Overall, the scale of the attack was relatively minor. Thankfully there were no real injuries or mishaps involved in the mess. What makes this attack especially notable is the fact that the attack affected systems involved in clinical care, which usually is not the target of these sorts of cyber terrorists. The incident may also change the thinking of healthcare security pros about their systems.

As we progress into a fully digital era, these sorts of attacks may unfortunately become more and more prevalent. And to match the avenues in which criminals take advantage of the innocent, our ability to enforce security has to evolve as well. Hopefully preventative technologies can continue to evolve, so as to keep these incidents to a minimum.

 

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Orlando and the abundance of things to do!

Shawn Presley

Growing up in central Florida I believe it’s easy to take for granted the multitude of things that are available. After going on a date night with my girlfriend I understand this is a feature of the city that I have so long overlooked. Tonight I enjoyed a hhilarious Improve show at Point Orlando of the famous Comedian Michael Blackson. Later we took a trip and enjoyed the scenery of CityWalk after contemplating Downtown and it’s abundance of Bars.

Before you conclude that I have gone completely mad, if you examine the theme parks, sites, bars andrestaurants, Orlando is a premier metropolitan in the nation. Although the commercial notoriety is not as popular or prevalent as a New York or Hollywood, our city Holds it’s own.

The construction of Interstate 4 gives testament that the city isexperiencing significant growth, not just in population but also infrastructure. I predict in the next 50 years Central Florida will be a premier site of tourism, sporting both collegiate and professional, and business with out ever growing commerce. Orlando, FL is my home and I am more than proud to be a resident of this vibrant busseling metropolitan.

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Drinking More Coffee Can Reduce the Risk of Developing Liver Cirrhosis

After reviewing data from nine published studies, researchers have come to the conclusion that drinking more coffee may help reduce liver cirrhosis, a type of liver damage associated with overeating and an overindulgence in alcohol consumption. Cirrhosis can be fatal and to date, there is a not a cure for it. The studies, which featured more then 430,000 participants, show that consuming two more cups of coffee a day can reduce the risk of developing cirrhosis by 44 percent.

Dr. Oliver Kennedy, the lead study author who works at Southampton University in the United Kingdom, says that this is a significant finding, especially since coffee is a “cheap, ubiquitous, and well tolerated beverage.” Kennedy and the rest of his research team conducted an analysis on average coffee consumption to observe how much adding two more cups of coffee a day may influence the chance of liver cirrhosis. This pooled analysis was based on the nine studies.

In eight of the total nine studies they analyzed, it was shown that increasing consumption of coffee reduced the risk of cirrhosis. Researchers estimate that people who only drink one cup of coffee a day reduce their liver cirrhosis risk by 22 percent. Each added cup of coffee a day reduces the risk by a greater percentage.

It is important to note that all nine studies accounted for cirrhosis caused by alcohol consumption, but not for other risk factors that cause liver cirrhosis. Cirrhosis, which is the hardening and killing of liver tissue, is caused by excessive alcohol consumption, hepatitis infections, immune disorders, obesity, diabetes and fatty liver disease.

It is also important that people do not take these findings to mean that by drinking more coffee a day, they can continue to consume a lot of alcohol and food and never risk getting liver cirrhosis. According to Kennedy, it is not clear how coffee may lead to a healthy liver because it is “a complex mixture containing hundreds of chemical compounds, and it is unknown which of these is responsible for protecting the liver.”

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Uber driver arrested after seven-hour killing spree in Michigan

Six are dead and more than two are critically injured after an Uber driver allegedly went on a shooting rampage in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Jason Brian Dalton is believed to have been the Uber driver who went on the killing rampage. During the several hours, he still proceeded to take payment for driving people around.

He allegedly started his rampage at 5:42 p.m. The first victim was a woman who was shot multipke times in an apartment complex parking lot. She is currently in serious condition. She was with her children prior to the shooting, however the children weren’t harmed.

Four hours later, two were shot and killed at a car dealership. The father and son, who have been identified as Tyler and Richard Smith, were looking at a vehicle at the time of the shooting. Tyler Smith was 17 and Richard Smith was 53.

Soon after, he pulled into a Cracker Barrel parking lot and shot at a passing Chevrolet Cruze and an Oldmobile minivan. Mary Lou Nye, 62; Mary Jo Nye, 60; Dorothy Brown, 74; and Barbara Hawthorne, 68; were killed in the process. A 14-year-old girl was in the Chevrolet as well, but she has been listed in critical condition. She was initially thought dead.

Police took Dalton into custody at approximately 12:40 a.m. Police describe his demeanor as “even-tempered.” They confiscated his semimautomatic handgun at the time of his arrest. A witness stated his experience with the Uber driver, who he had been riding with prior to the shootings.

“He got a telephone call. After that call, he started driving erratically, running stop signs, driving through medians, driving through the lawn speeding along and then finally, once he came to a stop, I jumped out of the car and ran away.”

His attitude prior to the shootings was described as “surprisingly calm.”

It is unclear what Dalton’s motives could have been, but police say he didn’t have any direct connection to any of the victims. Police say he didn’t have a record and wasn’t on their radar for this sort of act of violence.

Dalton is expected to be charged with six counts of murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, six counts of felony firearm, and possibly more.

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