| The rights of the sugar shack musician
The judgment is the latest twist in a five-year legal battle between the sugar shack and the guild. For the shack owners, who operate in a tourism-driven business, it was a matter of keeping an accordion player who wouldn't be eligible for employment insurance during the low season if he was declared an independent worker. But the battle involves broader stakes about who is accredited as a professional freelance artist. As a result, the case has led showbiz powerhouses - such as the associations representing the Montreal Jazz and Just for Laughs festivals and the Oscar-winning producers of the movie The Barbarian Invasions - to get intervenor status in court alongside the owners of the sugar shack. Under Quebec law, independent artists, while freelancing for several producers, are nonetheless represented by professional associations that negotiate working conditions on their behalf, ensuring that they get benefits and pensions.
Bicyclist injured in Cooper City crash
A woman injured while riding a bicycle in Cooper City Monday night is recovering in the hospital, the Broward Sheriff's Office said. Rui Qi Ge, 60, suffered head injuries after a Ford F-150 pickup truck hit her at the intersection of Stirling Road and Southwest 106th Avenue. The driver of the pickup, Patricia Heng, 44, was making a left turn when she hit the bicyclist at 8:34 p.m. Heng remained at the scene of the crash. She was not injured. Ge was flown to Memorial Regional Hospital, where she remains, BSO spokeswoman Alesia Russell said. She is expected to recover. No charges will be filed. -- JENNIFER MOONEY PIEDRA .
More: Angelina Jolie , Brad Pitt , James Haven
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were spotted on the red carpet of the Ocean's 13 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival Thursday. Angelina looked like her usual self, but Brad showed up looking like that kid in elementary school I used to take lunch money from and give wedgies. Although to be fair, I basically did that to every single person at my school, including the teachers and principal. Being 6'2" at the age of 12 and having tree trunks for arms sort of helped. Drink your milk, kids. .
Movie Review DB: search results
Darned if the whole house of painted cards didn't come tumbling down on her and her family, all before her 6th birthday. And that's not the whole story. My Kid Could Paint That is a documentary that brings to the fore questions of youth exploitation, celebrity culture, the "con game" that is modern art and media's role in the whole tangled mess. Filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev followed the Olmsteads through their child's rise to fame and into the infamy that followed. The story began in Binghamton, N.Y., when a local newspaper wrote up the precocious little blond whose work was being hung by an attention-happy gallery owner. The New York Times picked up on it. All of a sudden, everybody had to have "a Marla." She was compared to Jackson Pollock. And from the very start, some folks recognized her arrival on "the scene" as the ultimate art-world irony.
Flush with big win, they hit every two-ply shot
Let them do a little bit of celebrating. ... It was worth it." The tooth hurts Saturday, in case you missed it, was "Canada's hockey holiday," as decreed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Noted Garth Woolsey of the Toronto Star: "Feb. 9 also happens to be the feast day of Apollonia, the patron saint of dentistry. Coincidence?" No brew in Brewer Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman isn't worried about long-and-lean rookie Corey Brewer losing any effectiveness as his body fills out. "No matter how much weight he gains, he's going to be 7 percent body fat. He's made that way," Wittman told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "When he's 65, old and gray, he's not going to be on some porch with a beer belly." Just call 'em mashcots Ridgefield High School in southwest Washington boasts one of sports' better team nicknames.
Public needs a voice, not a county manager
Imagine that a city department head (Police Chief, Public Works Director, etc.) consistently flouts the will of the people. Unless the manager agrees, in the current environment you need to identify and elect four councilors (which takes three years at a minimum), who will then fire the manager, and hire a new manager who will tell the department head what to do. Whew! That is an exhaustive process, which is unlikely to ever occur. Appointed managers create an obstacle that prevents the public from getting action. More importantly, information equals power. Managers control the majority of the information; therefore they hold the power. Part-time councilors are not compensated well enough to spend the time required to do public business; they need to work other jobs. So part-time councilors come to meetings and place their trust in the non-elected manager.
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