Allie’s story grabbed the public’s attention when she was only an infant. She was infected with the virus by a mosquito when she was only 3 months old and she was not immediately diagnosed. The bite changed her life forever.
“She has a hard time controlling her muscles and she gets frustrated that she can’t. It lets us know that her body’s not, her mind’s not letting her body do what it needs to do,” her mother Tina said.
Triple E caused severe brain damage. Allie can’t speak and there’s little she can do on her own. With constant therapy, however, she has improved. She’s off her feeding tube and is finally seizure free.
Her family is taking her to China where stem cell treatment is legal and provides some promise for Allie. Her mother Tina says the treatment is experimental and the stem cells are from the umbilical cord of healthy babies.
To help pay for the $25,000 trip, Allie’s family started a fund at Citizens Bank for donations. But after seeing NewsCenter 5’s story on Allie, local philanthropist Ray Tye said he knew what he had to do.
“When I watched that story, I realized there was an opportunity to save a life of a child and that the family was doing all they could but just didn’t have enough money to do it,” Tye said.
The mission of the Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation is to “facilitate access to medical treatments for financially vulnerable individuals in our society.”
“It was just amazing and wonderful. My husband and I stared at the ceiling for a couple of hours as if we had won the lottery, a new lease on life,” said Tina.
“She is just a beautiful girl. She deserved that opportunity to live a life that is long and comfortable and natural. What I feel is that money can save lives, and that is why I am doing it,” said Tye, whose foundation helps about 100 people and their families each year.

thebostonchannel.com

If you’re going to watch a man fly passed you with a rocket on his back, you might want to go to a mountain top about 2,000 meters high. You’ll probably need a helicopter to get there. Dozens of journalists were there, Ives Rossy’s sponsors, even his mother. Everyone waited with anticipation, Rossy an Airbus airline pilot who had been working on a jet pack prototype was making his official debut as Fusionman.
He jumps from a plane at about 8,000 meters then kicks on his four engines and flies. He made three passes at about 300 km/h and even included a roll.
IVES ROSSY: It was really great fun and a great success.
That’s Rossy after the flight. He landed safely and was elated, much like his sponsor, Jean-Claude Biver. He’s the CEO of watchmaker HUBLOT.
JEAN-CLAUDE BIVER: I felt proud about him. I felt proud for him. I felt proud for his mother because  Iwas next to his mother. It is such an emotion.
This is real action and it goes in the direction of the dream. I love flying so it goes in the right direction of the dream.
Biver says he’s set to spend more than a million francs on the project. The wing itself cost about 80,000 francs. A one day demonstration on a mountaintop for all those journalists cost about 60,000 francs and how does Rossy pay the bills? Biver’s taken care of that. Rossy’s on the Hublot payroll.
So what’s next?
ROSSY: I would be happy that it becomes a sport. As I said before, like air jet ski. You see at the beginning the jet ski didn’t exist. Now around the planet there ar so many. I think it is for everybody…
ROSSY: …even my grandmother.
HELMICK: You say your grandmother? At 300 km/h? 3,000 meters high? On one of these, come on.

worldradio.ch

Vanity! Vanity! All is vanity! So begins the book of Ecclesiastes about the futility of all human endeavors doomed to rust and dust. My reaction? Get over it, Ecclesiastes. You’re whining and I don’t believe it, at least the part that suggests that all human accomplishments are futile since they are destined to be forgotten. What the prophets leave out is the joy of our work; the time spent doing what we most love to do if we’re lucky, work that is often the greatest reward we will ever know in life, aside from love, for the pleasure of work is worth all our time and effort, despite its inevitably dusty outcome. Our work may not last but what does last? The Mona Lisa and some Gershwin tunes? After that, who can say? Reader alert: What follows is no biblical discussion, but a plug for a concert I am involved in next Tuesday.
On Tuesday, April 29th, at 6PM, some amazing actor/singers will be performing some twenty songs that I wrote for two musicals with the late composer Wally Harper. This is one of the Songbook series at the Donnell Library theatre in New York City under the direction of John Zndisarc. It’s a free concert, open to the public on a first come first seated basis, and the performers are among the finest of our New York theatre including Penny Fuller, Malcolm Gets, Marcus Neville, Christianne Tisdale, Terry Burrell, Lorna Hampson, Natalie Veneita Balcon, and Kendrick Jones.It promises to be the best time I’ve had in awhile, short of my taking orders from my bossy, brilliant, musical, soon to be three year old grand-daughter.
Most of the singers at this concert are performing as a tribute to Wally Harper, a much loved man of the musical theatre and little known outside of it; one who was remarkable for the generosity of his talents and his life. Wally’s surviving life partner, Allan Gruet will be there to represent him although I know that Wally’s ghost will be haunting that theatre Tuesday evening, puffing on a Lucky Strike, sprinkling ash where he shouldn’t, and giggling at some lewd and irreverent thought that just crossed his capacious mind, a thought that he can’t wait to share with me.

huffingtonpost.com

By Carl DiOrio
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The first big release of the lucrative summer moviegoing season will actually come out in the final four hours of the spring.
“Iron Man,” a superhero movie starring Robert Downey Jr., will open in more than 2,000 theaters at 8 p.m. Thursday.
That may lower the comic-book action picture’s weekend gross just a tad, but it is still looking likely to ring up an impressive $70 million or more Friday through Sunday.
This is the season when the studios are anxious to manage overly exuberant expectations for their big summer releases. Yet executives at Paramount Pictures, which is distributing the Marvel-produced movie, say “Iron Man” is all but guaranteed to open with more than $60 million over its first weekend.
Pre-release buzz for “Iron Man” is so strong that only one studio has scheduled a rival wide release for this weekend, when Sony will hope its Patrick Dempsey romantic comedy “Made of Honor” can attract a few women.
So Paramount and Marvel have the weekend to themselves.
“Iron Man” totes perhaps $150 million in production costs and a $75 million tab for prints and advertising (P&A). Marvel paid for the production, its first wholly financed project, while Paramount put up all of the P&A, which it will recoup along with an unspecified distribution fee.
“Iron Man” is also set for 2,000-plus midnight Thursday showtimes, but those grosses will be included in Friday tallies. Continued…

reuters.com

About two years ago, I came up with a brilliant idea.
My wife worked at home as a journalist, but her home office was in a cramped little room at the back of our house. It was cold in the winter, hot in the summer and too close to kids, distractions and, as she pointed out, me.
We had an old detached garage, however, at the back of our property. The garage was built somewhere around 1920 to hold a Model T, and while we could get our modern, full-sized family car inside if we inched forward with care, we couldn’t open the doors once we did so. Unless we were willing to go out and get a Model T, it was useless as a garage.
I spent the next year-and-a-half ripping apart the garage and rebuilding it as an office studio, with French doors, heated floors, even a minibar alcove in the back. I put in high-speed Internet, two phone lines and cable TV.
Whenever we’d have guests over, they’d peer out the windows and ask for a tour of the little place out back. It was more comfortable, and more impressive, than our actual house.
It was just about the moment that I was putting the last nail in place on a piece of trim, after 18 months of plodding, sometimes discouraging labor, that my wife announced that she’d be working full time, at an actual office with real co-workers, and that she wouldn’t need the home office anymore.
At first I stared in disbelief, then shock, then anger, then tears. I went through all 12 stages of grief over pointless home renovation in about 60 seconds.
Then it hit me. For months, every guy I’d shown the garage to had remarked what a perfect male getaway it would make. You know, a “Man Cave.”

post-gazette.com

JASPER AIR SHOW, April 5 and 6 at Jasper County Bell Field Airport, U.S. 290 west of Jasper. The show features displays of modern and vintage military and civilian aircraft, an aerial fly by from Barksdale Air Force Base, aerial shows, stunt flying, a radio-controlled aircraft demonstration, stock car racing, parachute jump and free airplane rides for children. Food will be available for purchase. Lawn chairs welcome. Ice chests, large bags, backpacks or animals are not permitted. Gates open at 8 a.m. both days, show at noon April 5; and 1 p.m. April 6. Adults $10, free for children 12 and younger. (409) 384-2626 or www.jasperairshow.com
ROUND TOP ANTIQUES FAIR, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. April 4; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. April 5 at the Carmine Dance Hall, U.S. 290, and the Big Red Barn and the tent at the Big Red Barn, U.S. 237 North in Round Top. (512) 237-4747.
“EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY,” an art exhibition by San Antonio folk painter, M.F. Creese, continues through April 6 at the Art Gallery and Museum, 343 Texas 87 in Crystal Beach. (409) 684-6468. The Bolivar Peninsula Cultural Arts Foundation sponsors the event. Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, and noon-4 p.m. Sundays. (409) 684-6468, (409) 286-2288 or www.bolivarfoundation.com
“THE ART GUYS: CLOUD CUCKOO LAND,” an exhibition by Houston artists Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing, continues through April 6 in the Steinhagen Gallery at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, 500 Main St. The exhibition features selections from 25 years of the team’s “drawings, proposals, failed schemes and pipe dreams. Also on view, “Defining Moments: An Exhibition of Works by Bryan Collier,” featuring 47 original works in watercolor and collage by the award-wining children’s book illustrator, continues through April 27. The exhibition focuses on people who have greatly affected American culture and influenced the world, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. One of the highlights of the exhibit will display Collier’s newest book, “Rosa - A Tribute to Rosa Parks.” Visitors may board a replica of the bus on which Parks made history. There will be a video focusing on the act that changed a nation, and information about other heroes featured in the exhibit. In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum will have a series of free “Read and Draw” programs, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. April 5 and 12. Children will listen to age-appropriate stories and create their own illustration for the story. Librarians from City of Beaumont Libraries and the Vidor Public Library will select books, one for ages 4-7, and one for ages 8-12. Hours: noon-5 p.m. Sunday; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Free. (409) 832-3432 or www.amset.org.

southeasttexaslive.com

By JENNIFER DOBNER – 25 minutes ago
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — Texas law enforcers met Saturday in Arizona with the man accused of abusing the 16-year-old girl whose call for help triggered a raid on the West Texas compound of a secretive polygamous sect.
Dale Barlow, 50, of Colorado City, Ariz., has denied allegations of physical and sexual assault made in a whispered March 29 telephone call to a Texas domestic violence hot line.
Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed the meeting but offered few details of the interview between Barlow and Texas Rangers.
“We have not made an arrest in this case and may not necessarily make one today,” she said.
A telephone message left at Barlow’s home by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.
Barlow has said he doesn’t know the girl, whom Texas child welfare officials have not yet located.
In her phone call, the girl said that she was pregnant with her second child and that her husband beat her about the head and chest when angry. She said she was trapped and not allowed to leave the Yearn for Zion Ranch in Eldorado.
The ranch is owned by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members believe practicing polygamy will bring exaltation in heaven.
The faith’s members have traditionally made their homes along the Arizona-Utah border, but in 2003 purchased the 1,700-acre former game preserve about 40 miles south of San Angelo.
Barlow spent 45 days in the Mohave County, Ariz., jail last year after pleading no contest to a charge of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He is a registered sex offender on probation and can’t leave the state without permission. Bill Loader, his probation officer, has said he saw Barlow in Arizona a day after the Texas raid.

ap.google.com

February 20, 2008 (KFSN) — The “Blue Man” of Madera County is back home in the Valley after appearing on several national T.V. shows.
The “Blue Man” of Madera County is home in the Valley Tuesday night after appearing on several national T.V. shows. Action News introduced you to Paul Karason in December. His use of a home medical remedy turned his skin blue. Since then he’s become an internet sensation and his latest national T.V. appearance came today on “Oprah”.
Paul calls his rise to fame “blue madness.” He doesn’t understand it, but he’s riding the wave, and learning that lots of people like him.
“Someplace I never thought I would be, Oprah Winfrey Show,” said Karason.
In addition to all the network and cable news channels have done stories, hundreds of thousands have seen Paul on you tube and he’s been featured in people magazine. “Blue madness. I can understand a certain amount of curiosity but this has just gotten way out of hand,” said Karason.
Karason’s story went nationwide shortly after Action News interviewed him back in December. The video has been watched over half a million times on YouTube.
“Everything went crazy,” Karason exclaimed, “People wanting phone interviews or, you name it, the phone never quit ringing, never quit ringing, people from all over the place, UK, Germany, Chile, Korea.”
Paul says because of his condition, he used to avoid people, but because of all this exposure, things have changed. “It was amazing, every place I’d go I’d draw a crowd, everybody was friendly, everybody was friendly.”
Local folks also seem to be accepting Paul, as he is. “They’re pretty cool, I’m not getting any astonished looks.” I’m getting looks of recognition; I get a lot of people come up and compliment me.”
Paul’s fiancée Jackie Northup has accompanied Paul on all his trips. “I enjoy when they come up to him and start going yeah Paul, c’mon blue man. And, they’ll come up and hug him and want pictures of him. The enthusiasm and the acceptance is what’s wonderful,” she said.
Acceptance is important to Paul. He moved to California, from Oregon because folks there thought he was just too weird. Now, he’s getting ready for even more exposure. “Jimmy Kimmell Live, Maury Povich, David Letterman, Leno.”
He’s not sure which show’s he will do. But TV crews from Germany and England are heading his way. And while Paul is enjoying his moment of fame, he’s not making any money on it, though a book deal and other options may be in the works. “I’ve sort of got a little faith that something good will come out of it. So, I’ll go along with it.”
Paul turned blue because he drinks a substance called colloidal silver, an old anti-bacterial medication, and rubbed it on his skin. The resulting medical condition is called Agyria, and while Paul is permanently blue, on the inside and out, so far, there’ve been no medical complications, just lots of attention.
“I should start selling instructions, how to turn blue,” joked Karason.
Karason claims that while he’s trying to make the most of his fame, he says he didn’t plan to turn blue, it happened gradually over 14 years. If he knew what he knows know, it to, he wouldn’t have turned blue.

abclocal.go.com