Anderson Cooper called out President Obama and Vice President Biden on his Monday show over the White House's recent twists and turns on gay marriage.
The White House came under increased pressure to clarify its position on gay marriage after Biden's candid and apparently "off-the-cuff" remarks on the topic during Sunday's "Meet The Press."
When asked if he was now comfortable with same-sex marriage, Biden told host David Gregory, "I am vice president of the United States of America. The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties."
The comments sent the White House scrambling as Biden's comments seemed to indicate his support of same-sex marriage. A spokesperson for the vice president stated in part that Biden's remarks were consistent with President Obama's stance, and that he had not fully endorsed same-sex marriage.
In his "Keeping Them Honest" segment, Cooper called out the White House for saying that Biden's remarks were consistent with Obama's stance on same-sex marriage. He quoted Senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod's tweet, in which he stressed that Biden's remarks, "that all married couples should have exactly the same legal rights," was consistent with Obama's position on same-sex marriage.
Cooper disagreed. "The president's position on gay marriage is anything but precise," he said. "Mr. Biden said he's comfortable with the fact same-sex couples are entitled to all the same exact rights, all of the civil rights, all the civil liberties."
He added, "But that's not currently the case, even in states where same-sex marriage is allowed, and it's certainly not President Obama's position. There's no federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Therefore, same-sex couples don't share all the rights heterosexual couples do."
If Vice President Biden continues to make public appearances during this campaign, White House press secretary Jay Carney should be offered a membership in the janitors' union.
As things stand, the spokesman does not have the supplies necessary to clean up the mess Biden made in his appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." Biden gave his full support to same-sex marriage -- a position conspicuously at odds with the public stance of his boss, President Obama, who is widely assumed to share Biden's views but who says that his own thinking is "evolving."
The vice president said he is "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex marriage, committing the classic Washington gaffe of accidentally speaking the truth. This bit of straight talk made Obama's position -- neither for nor against such unions but in an evolutionary state, not unlike the Galapagos finch -- all the more untenable. On Monday, Biden took off for a campaign event in Tennessee, leaving Carney on cleanup duty. But the more Carney swabbed the mess, the more it spread.
CNN's Jessica Yellin asked whether Obama was trying to "have it both ways before an election" and whether he should "stop dancing around the issue."
ABC's Jake Tapper said that "it seems cynical to hide this prior to the election" and that "I don't want to hear the same talking points 15 times in a row."
NBC's Chuck Todd said with a grin, "So help me out here. He opposes bans on gay marriage, but he doesn't yet support gay marriage?"
The pounding was so intense that radio personality Les Kinsolving, a gadfly who tries to ask the most outrageous question at briefings, was being overlooked. Midway through the briefing, he appeared to pass out, sliding to the floor. As he was being helped to a seat, Kinsolving called out, "I just have one question!"
Carney tried to parry the same-sex-marriage questions, gamely at first and then testily as reporters began to laugh at his answers. He grew uncharacteristically flustered. When an unrelated question came about whether Obama would support the reelection of scandal-plagued Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), Carney answered: "I mean -- well, yes, sure. I just don't -- I haven't -- I haven't been asked it before so I. . . . The president -- I'll have to -- I'll have to get back to you."
Biden hadn't planned to make news about same-sex marriage or to endorse a position on the issue. The gaffe-prone vice president had been relatively on message for months. But on Sunday, he referred to the likely Republican presidential nominee as "President Romney" and to his own boss as "President Clinton." And he inadvertently set off a frenzy on same-sex marriage, not because his position was surprising but because it made Obama's look all the more absurd.
By Monday morning, even Education Secretary Arne Duncan was being asked for his position on such unions (he supports them). HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan had already taken that stance. Next up: Energy Secretary Steven Chu?
Whatever Obama's public position, there was little doubt in the briefing room Monday that the president supports gay marriage and that he would go public with this position after Election Day, when he no longer need fear losing independent voters. Carney, who had the unenviable position of trying to convince the press corps otherwise, arrived 35 minutes late for the job and found a feisty audience.
Lecrae's Church Clothes mixtape track list leaked today. I'm sure you already knew there would be tracks with Thi'sl and Tedashii, but you can also look for No Malice ( Malice from the Clipse) and production from Symbolyc One aka S-1( Produced Power for Kanye and the Cloudninteen album with Braille), Wit, Boi-1da, and 9th Wonder.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) listens as China's Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang (L) introduces a cooking stove at an exhibition at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on May 3, 2012 in Beijing. (Pool/Getty Images AsiaPac)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday she has no desire to make another run for the White House but hopes to see an American woman president in her lifetime.
Politely turning aside questions about her political intentions at a town hall event in Kolkata, Clinton said she really wanted to see "that final glass ceiling" broken.
Clinton, who sought the Democratic nomination four years ago and barely lost to Barack Obama, noted that the American political process is difficult and heavily dependent on fund raising, which makes it hard for any candidate to succeed.
Still, she told her audience, "I think that there will be an election that will elect a woman."
As for herself, she says she is done with the political high wire and looks forward to life as a private citizen.
"I would like to come back to India and just wander around without the streets being closed," she said. "I just want to get back to taking some deep breaths, feeling that there are other ways i can continue to serve."
Great news for "Avatar" fans, but not for those hoping to see director James Cameron's take on romantic comedies. The Oscar-winning King of the World told the New York Timesthat he's only in "the 'Avatar' business" now.
While Cameron admitted that the all-"Avatar," all-the-time career arc might seem a "bit restricted," he says the films allow him to say "everything" he needs to say about "the state of the world." He'll also continue to produce documentaries.
While the comments might seem surprising, looking at Cameron's resume tells you they aren't. The director has released just two feature films since 1997 ("Titanic" and "Avatar"), and a handful documentaries ("Aliens of the Deep," "Ghosts of the Abyss," "Expedition: Bismark," "Titanic: The Final World with James Cameron"). As a producer, Cameron has been slightly more active; beyond his own films, he's also handled Steven Soderbergh's "Solaris" in 2002 and the underwater cave dive adventure "Sanctum" in 2011. (Additionally, his tireless work extolling the virtues of 3D filmmaking has convinced some heavyweight Hollywood directors like Martin Scorsese and Michael Bay to use the format in new and exciting ways.)
In a video released Sunday by al-Qaeda, American hostage Warren Weinstein said he will be killed unless President Obama agrees to the militant group's demands.
"My life is in your hands, Mr. President," Weinstein said in the video. "If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die."
Weinstein was abducted last August in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen tricked his guards and broke into his home. The 70-year-old from Rockville, Md., is the country director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a Virginia-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.
In a video message posted on militant websites in December, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Weinstein would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world.
The White House had no comment Monday on al-Qaeda's demands or Weinstein's plea.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages, said Al-Sahab, al-Qaeda's media arm, posted the Weinstein video on jihadist forums Sunday.
"It's important you accept the demands and act quickly and don't delay," Weinstein said in the video, addressing Obama. "There'll be no benefit in delaying, it will just make things more difficult for me."
He also appealed to Obama as a father. If the president responds to the militants' demands, Weinstein said, "then I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters."
After his kidnapping, Weinstein's company said he was in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, many of them for heart problems, that it implored the kidnappers to give him.
In the video released Sunday, Weinstein said he would like his wife, Elaine, to know "I'm fine, I'm well, I'm getting all my medications, I'm being taken care of."
(EXPLICIT CONTENT: This report contains graphic details of sexual abuse of children as it has appeared in numerous locations on Facebook. WND immediately reported images of child pornography and child sexual abuse to the FBI. Censored screenshots published are among the mildest of those found.)
She's a tiny brunette with brown eyes, barely 10, and she's naked - posing for the man who raped her and traded her photo like currency with thousands of insatiable predators on Facebook.
The girl doesn't smile, because she knows what comes next. Her abuser will share photos and earn bragging rights from thousands of others just like him who will exchange their own titillating snapshots - often images uploaded from cell phones - of boys and girls they molest.
She's beautiful. In fact, she could be your own daughter, or little sister. Her little curls dangle over her youthful skin. Her bare body is clearly underdeveloped. But she has become a tool for sex, an X-rated trading card, a means to arouse the world's sexual deviants.
Discover who is behind the fall of Americans' traditional sexual morality - and sanity! - with "Sexual Sabotage" from WND Books!
There are many more young girls and boys like her - not in some sleazy magazine from the back of an adult bookshop, not from some homemade videos in the red light district, not in the back alleys of Bangladesh, but on the pages of one of the most successful new Internet companies in the world.
Meet the dark underbelly of Facebook, an ubiquitous U.S.-based company making an initial public offering expected to value the company as high as $100 billion.
Plunging into his campaign for a new term, President Barack Obama tore into Mitt Romney on Saturday as eager to "rubber stamp" a conservative Republican congressional agenda to cut taxes for the rich, reduce spending on education and Medicare and enhance power that big banks and insurers hold over consumers.
Romney and his "friends in Congress think the same bad ideas will lead to a different result, or they're just hoping you won't remember what happened the last time you tried it their way," the president told thousands of cheering partisans at what aides insisted was his first full-fledged political rally of the election year.
Six months before Election Day, the polls point to a close race between Obama and Romney, with the economy the overriding issue as the nation struggles to recover from the worst recession since the 1930s. Unemployment remains stubbornly high at 8.1 percent nationally, although it has receded slowly and unevenly since peaking several months into the president's term. The most recent dip was due to discouraged jobless giving up their search for work.
Romney has staked his candidacy on his ability to create jobs, but Obama said his rival was merely doing the bidding of the conservative powerbrokers in Congress and has little understanding of the struggles of average Americans.
"Why else would he want to cut his own taxes while raising them for 18 million Americans," Obama said of his multimillionaire opponent.
The president's campaign chose Ohio State University, the biggest college campus in a perennial swing state, and Virginia Commonwealth University for the back-to-back rallies. In 2008, Obama won Ohio while reversing decades of Republican dominance in Virginia. Since then, Virginia has swung back toward the GOP in statewide elections.
Obama has attended numerous fundraisers this election year, but over the escalating protests of Republicans, the White House has categorized all of his other appearances so far as part of his official duties.
He was introduced in Columbus by first lady Michelle Obama, and walked in to the cheers of thousands. While the president is notably grayer than he was four years ago, he and his campaign worked to rekindle the energy and excitement among students and other voters who propelled him to the presidency in 2008.
"When people ask you what this election is about, you tell them it is still about hope. You tell them it is still about change," he said. It was a rebuttal to Romney's campaign, which has lately taken to mocking Obama's 2008 campaign mantra as "hype and blame."
If the economy is a potential ally for Romney, Obama holds other assets six months before the vote.
Unlike Romney, who struggled through a highly competitive primary season before recently wrapping up the nomination, Obama was unchallenged within his own party. As a result, his campaign's most recent filing showed cash on hand of $104 million, compared with a little over $10 million for Romney, and has worked to build organizations in several states for months.
But in the aftermath of recent Supreme Court rulings, modern presidential campaigns are more than ever waged on several fronts, and the effect of super political action committees and other outside groups able to raise donations in unlimited amounts is yet to be felt.
Already, while Romney pauses to refill his coffers, the super PAC Restore Our Future has spent more than $4 million on television advertising to introduce the Republican to the voters.
Romney had no public events Saturday after spending much of the week campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania.
A campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, responding to Obama's speech in Ohio, said, "While President Obama all but ignored his record over 3 1/2 years in office, the American people won't. This November, they will hold him accountable for his broken promises and ineffective leadership."
With his rhetoric, Obama belittled Romney and signaled he intends to campaign both against his challenger and the congressional Republicans who have opposed most of his signature legislation overwhelmingly, if not unanimously.
After a spirited campaign for the Republican nomination, Obama said, the GOP leadership picked someone "who has promised to rubber stamp" their agenda if he gets a chance.
Romney is a "patriotic American who has raised a wonderful family," and has been a successful businessman and governor, the president said. "But I think he has drawn the wrong lessons from that experience. He sincerely believes that if CEOs and investors like him make money the rest of us will automatically do well as well."
Scarcely more than a dozen states figure to be seriously contested in the fall, including the two where Obama was campaigning Saturday.
They include much of the nation's industrial belt, from Wisconsin to Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Nevada, Colorado and, the president's campaign insists, Arizona; the latter three all have large Hispanic populations. Both campaigns also are focusing on Iowa, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and New Hampshire. Together, those states account for 157 electoral votes.
Barring a sudden crisis, foreign policy is expected to account for less voter interest than any presidential campaign since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Since taking office, Obama has made good on his pledge to end the war in Iraq, announced a timetable to phase out the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan by 2014 and given the order for a risky mission by special forces in which Osama bin Laden was killed in his hideout in Pakistan.
One recent poll showed the public trusts Obama over Romney by a margin of 53-36 on international affairs.
While the battleground states tend to be clustered geographically, the state-by-state impact of the recession and economic recovery varies.
In Ohio, for example unemployment was most recently measured at 7.6 percent, below the national average. It was higher, 9.1 percent and rising, when Obama took office, reaching 10.6 percent in the fall of 2009 before it began receding.
In Virginia, it was 5.6 percent in March, well below the national average. It was 6.6 percent in February 2009 and peaked in June of that year at 7.2.
In a measurement that shows an economy recovering, yet far from recovered, the Labor Department reported this month that 54 metropolitan areas had double-digit unemployment in March, down from 116 a year ago. By contrast, joblessness was below 7.0 percent in 109 areas, up from 62 a year earlier.
No matter the change, Romney attacks Obama's handling of the economy at every turn.
"If the last 3 1/2 years are his definition of forward, I'd have to see what backward looks like," he said late last week in Virginia.
The first lady, who accompanied the president during the day, has attended more than 50 fundraisers since his campaign filed formal candidacy papers with the Federal Election Commission 13 months ago.
George Lindsey, who spent nearly 30 years as the grinning Goober on "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Hee Haw," has died. He was 83.
FILE - This June 30, 1977 photo shows television actor George Lindsey posing for a picture. Lindsey, who portrayed Goober in the television series "The Andy Griffith Show", has died, Sunday, May 6, 2012. He was 83. (AP Photo/JLR, file)
A press release from Marshall-Donnelly-Combs Funeral Home in Nashville said Lindsay died early Sunday morning after a brief illness. Funeral arrangements were still being made.
Lindsey was the beanie-wearing Goober on "The Andy Griffith Show" from 1964 to 1968 and its successor, "Mayberry RFD," from 1968 to 1971. He played the same jovial character -- a service station attendant -- on "Hee Haw" from 1971 until it went out of production in 1993.
"America has grown up with me," Lindsey said in an Associated Press interview in 1985. "Goober is every man; everyone finds something to like about ol' Goober."
He joined "The Andy Griffith Show" in 1964 when Jim Nabors, portraying Gomer Pyle, left the program. Goober Pyle, who had been mentioned on the show as Gomer's cousin, thus replaced him.
"At that time, we were the best acting ensemble on TV. The scripts were terrific. Andy is the best script constructionist I've ever been involved with. And you have to lift your acting level up to his; he's awfully good."
Although he was best known as Goober, Lindsey had other roles during a long TV career. Earlier, he often was a "heavy" and once shot Matt Dillon on "Gunsmoke."
His other TV credits included roles on "M(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H," "The Wonderful World of Disney," "CHIPs," "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour," "The Real McCoys," "Rifleman," "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," "Twilight Zone" and "Love American Style."
Reflecting on his career, he said in 1985: "There's a residual effect of knowing I've made America laugh. I'm not the only one, but I've contributed something."
He had movie roles, too, appearing in "Cannonball Run II" and "Take This Job and Shove It." His voice was used in animated Walt Disney features including "The Aristocats," "The Rescuers" and "Robin Hood."
Lindsey was born in Jasper, Ala., the son of a butcher. He received a bachelor of science degree from Florence State Teachers College (now the University of North Alabama) in 1952 after majoring in physical education and biology and playing quarterback on the football team.
After spending three years in the Air Force, he worked one year as a high school baseball and basketball coach and history teacher near Huntsville, Ala.
In 1956, he attended the American Theatre Wing in New York City and began his professional career on Broadway, appearing in the musicals "All American" and "Wonderful Town."
He moved to Hollywood in the early 1960s and then to Nashville in the early 1990s.
"There's no place in the United States I can go that they don't know me. They may not know me, but they know the character," he told The Tennessean in 1980.
At that time, he said the Griffith show "was the first soft rural comedy with a moral."
"We physically and mentally became those people when we got to the set."
He did some standup comedy -- ending the show by tap and break dancing.
One of his jokes:
"A football coach, holding a football, asks his quarterback, `Son, can you pass this?' The player says, `Coach, I don't even think I can swallow it."'
Lindsey devoted much of his spare time to raising funds for the Alabama Special Olympics. For 17 years, he sponsored a celebrity golf tournament in Montgomery, Ala., that raised money for the mentally disabled.
The University of North Alabama awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1992, and he was affectionately called "Doctor Goober" by acquaintances after that.
Stephanie Montgomery said she voted for John McCain in 2008 for his conservative views. (Michael McElroy for The New York Times)
This is the land of die-hard Democrats -- mill workers, coal miners and union members. They have voted party line for generations, forming a reliable constituency for just about any Democrat who decides to run for office.
But when it comes to President Obama, a small part of this constituency balks.
"Certain precincts in this county are not going to vote for Obama," said John Corrigan, clerk of courts for Jefferson County, who was drinking coffee in a furniture shop downtown one morning last week with a small group of friends, retired judges and civil servants. "I don't want to say it, but we all know why."
A retired state employee, Jason Foreman, interjected, "I'll say it: it's because he's black."
For nearly three and a half years, a black family has occupied the White House, and much of the time what has been most remarkable about that fact is how unremarkable it has become to the country. While Mr. Obama will always be known to the history books as the country's first black president, his mixed-race heritage has only rarely surfaced in visible and explicit ways amid the tumult of a deep recession, two wars and shifting political currents.
But as Mr. Obama braces for what most signs suggest will be a close re-election battle, race remains a powerful factor among a small minority of voters -- especially, research suggests, those in economically distressed regions with high proportions of white working-class residents, like this one.
Mr. Obama barely won this county in 2008 -- 48.9 percent to John McCain's 48.7 percent. Four years earlier, John Kerry had an easier time here, winning 52.3 percent to 47.2 percent over George W. Bush. Given Ohio's critical importance as a swing state that will most likely be won or lost by the narrowest of margins, the fact that Mr. Obama's race is a deal-breaker for even a small number of otherwise loyal Democrats could have implications for the final results.
Obama advisers acknowledged that some areas of the state presented more political challenges than others, but said that the racial sentiment was not a major source of worry. The campaign's strategy relies in large part on a strong performance in cities and suburban areas to make up for any falloff elsewhere among Democrats in this or other corners of Ohio.
The Obama campaign aggressively monitors any racial remarks made against the president, but officials rarely openly discuss Mr. Obama's race. The president released his birth certificate last year in an effort to quell a growing controversy about whether he is a United States citizen. He said last month that race in America was still "complicated."
"I never bought into the notion that by electing me, somehow we were entering into a post-racial period," Mr. Obama said in an interview with Rolling Stone.
"I've seen in my own lifetime how racial attitudes have changed and improved, and anybody who suggests that they haven't isn't paying attention or is trying to make a rhetorical point," he said. "Because we all see it every day, and me being in this Oval Office is a testimony to changes that have been taking place."
Researchers have long struggled to quantify racial bias in electoral politics, in part because of the reliance on surveys, a forum in which respondents rarely admit to prejudice. In 50 interviews in this county over three days last week, 5 people raised race directly as a reason they would not vote for Mr. Obama. In those conversations, voters were not asked specifically about race, but about their views on the candidates generally. Those who raised the issue did so of their own accord.
"I'll just come right out and say it: he was elected because of his race," said Sara Reese, a bank employee who said she voted for Ralph Nader in 2008, even though she usually votes Democrat.
Did her father, a staunch Democrat and retired mill worker, vote for Mr. Obama? "I'd have to say no. I don't think he could do it," she said.
Adam Yauch, the gravelly voiced rapper who made the Beastie Boys one of the seminal groups in hip-hop, has died. He was 47.
Yauch, also known as MCA, died Friday morning in New York after a nearly three-year battle with cancer, his representatives confirmed Friday. He had been diagnosed with a cancerous salivary gland in 2009.
At the time, Yauch expressed hope that it was "very treatable," but his illness forced the group to cancel shows and delayed the release of their 2011 album, "Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2."
He hadn't performed in public since 2009 and was absent when the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.
Yauch was an integral, founding member to the ever-weaving trio: three Jewish kids from New York who found widespread respect in a hip-hop world with few credible white performers.
In a 25-year span that covered four no. 1 albums and more than 40 million records sold, the Beastie Boys played both prankster and pioneer, a groundbreaking act that helped bring hip-hop to the mainstream.
"The group's music crossed genres and color lines, and helped bring rap to a wider audience," said Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy. "Yauch was an immense talent and creative visionary."
The demure, gray-haired Yauch wasn't the most boastful B-Boy; he was the thoughtful one and a steady source of the trio's innovative spirit. A devoted Buddhist, he led the group in performing concerts to benefit Tibet and, as a filmmaker, he helped grow their imagery.
The rapper Q-Tip, a member of another major `90s New York hip-hop group, recalled that the Beastie Boys "showed us the ropes." Sean "Diddy" Combs called Yauch "a true pioneer and a creative force who paved the way for so many of us." The rapper Nas lamented the loss of a "brother."
"I think it's obvious to anyone how big an influence the Beastie Boys were on me and so many others," said Eminem. "They are trailblazers and pioneers and Adam will be sorely missed."
The Brooklyn-born Yauch formed the Beastie Boys with high school friend Michael "Mike D" Diamond. Originally conceived as a hardcore punk group, they played their first show on Yauch's 17th birthday.
The group became a hip-hop trio soon after Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz joined and coalesced after Yauch dropped out of Bard College two years into his studies. They released their chart-topping debut "Licensed to Ill" in 1986, a raucous album led by the anthem "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)".
"Adam was incredibly sweet and the most sensitive artist, who I loved dearly," Russell Simmons, whose Def Jam label released "Licensed to Ill," said on his website.
In the seven studio albums that followed, the Beastie Boys expanded sonically and grew more musically ambitious.
Their follow-up, 1989's "Paul's Boutique," ended any suggestion that the group was a one-hit wonder. Extensive in its sampling and thoroughly layered, the album was ranked the 156th greatest album ever by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003.
The Beastie Boys would later take up their own instruments - a rarity in hip-hop - on the album "Check Your Head" and subsequent releases. Yauch played bass.
On "Pass the Mic," he rapped: "If you can feel what I'm feeling then it's a musical masterpiece / If you can hear what I'm dealing with then that's cool at least / What's running through my mind comes through in my walk / True feelings are shown from the way that I talk."
For many, the Beastie Boys' lyrics - overflowing torrents of wit, humor and rhyme - were always the main draw. While other forms of hip-hop celebrated individualism, the Beastie Boys were a verbal tag team. Yauch once rapped, "on the tough guy style I'm not too keen."
Their popularity perhaps peaked with 1994's "Ill Communication," which spawned several of their most famous music videos, including "Sure Shot" and the Spike Jonze-directed "Sabotage"
Yauch used the group's growing fame to attract awareness for Tibetan Buddists. He founded the Milarepa Fund to promote activism for Tibet in defense of what the nonprofit considered China's occupational government.
In 1996, Yauch and Milarepa produced a hugely popular benefit concert for Tibet in San Francisco, which was followed by more concerts over the next decade.
"He was a goofball and behind a lot of their prankiness, but if you wanted to talk to him about what was going on in the world and social issues and everything, you got a totally different guy," said Rick Krim, executive vice president of music and talent relations at Vh1.
Introducing the group at the Rock Hall, Public Enemy rapper Chuck D said the Beastie Boys "broke the mold."
"The Beastie Boys are indeed three bad brothers who made history," Chuck D said. "They brought a whole new look to rap and hip-hop. They proved that rap could come from any street - not just a few."
Ben Stiller on Twitter said Yauch "stood for integrity as an artist."
Yauch also went under the pseudonym Nathanial Hornblower when working as a filmmaker. He directed numerous videos for the group, as well as the 2006 concert film "Awesome: I F-----' Shot That!" and the basketball documentary, "Gunnin' for that (No.) 1 Spot."
In 2008, he co-founded the noted independent film distribution company Osciolloscope Laboratories, named after his New York studio.
Yauch is survived by his wife, Dechen Wangdu, and his daughter, Tenzin Losel Yauch.
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AP Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody and AP writer Mesfin Fekadu contributed to this report.
Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the eight, who turned themselves in Thursday, face felony charges in the death last November of 26-year-old Robert Champion, CNN reported Friday.
Three others, two in Georgia and one in Delaware, face the same felony count, Plessinger said.
"We're in contact with their attorneys or their families and are expecting them to turn themselves in," Plessinger said.
Two others among the 13 each face a misdemeanor hazing charge.
Champion, a FAMU Marching 100 drum major, collapsed on a bus after a November 2011 football game in Orlando. Medical examiners said he died within an hour of being beaten during a hazing incident.
Prosecutors announced charges in Champion's death Wednesday.
Champion's mother, Pam Champion, has said her family was disappointed the suspects weren't charged with more serious crimes. She said she thought authorities improperly processed the bus for evidence and failed to immediately question students who were on the bus.
The family's lawyer, Chris Chestnut, said the family also thinks the Tallahassee school's alumni prepped the students on how to answer questions from police, CNN reported.
Deputy Ginette Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, said the department conducted a thorough investigation.
"I know our deputies questioned everyone available," Rodriguez said. "I can assure you our detectives conducted a thorough and complete investigation, as we do in every case."
Eight of 13 people facing hazing charges in the death of a Florida A&M University band member have surrendered to authorities, police said.
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Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the eight, who turned themselves in Thursday, face felony charges in the death last November of 26-year-old Robert Champion, CNN reported Friday.
Three others, two in Georgia and one in Delaware, face the same felony count, Plessinger said.
"We're in contact with their attorneys or their families and are expecting them to turn themselves in," Plessinger said.
Two others among the 13 each face a misdemeanor hazing charge.
Champion, a FAMU Marching 100 drum major, collapsed on a bus after a November 2011 football game in Orlando. Medical examiners said he died within an hour of being beaten during a hazing incident.
Prosecutors announced charges in Champion's death Wednesday.
Champion's mother, Pam Champion, has said her family was disappointed the suspects weren't charged with more serious crimes. She said she thought authorities improperly processed the bus for evidence and failed to immediately question students who were on the bus.
The family's lawyer, Chris Chestnut, said the family also thinks the Tallahassee school's alumni prepped the students on how to answer questions from police, CNN reported.
Deputy Ginette Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, said the department conducted a thorough investigation.
"I know our deputies questioned everyone available," Rodriguez said. "I can assure you our detectives conducted a thorough and complete investigation, as we do in every case."
Ebony Magazine Deals with the Problem of Sex Outside of Marriage in the Church
Yolanda Jordan* remembers the moment she decided to have sex for the first time. She was 27, fresh out of grad school, in a committed relationship--and horny. She was also raised in the Baptist church and had taken a vow of abstinence. "I was curious," says Jordan, now 34, a graphic designer in Columbus, Ohio. "My mind was telling me one thing, my body another. I was grown [and] longing to be touched. I am not perfect; I struggle with sin. I strive to live a righteous life. Just because I have a Bible on my nightstand and condoms in the drawer doesn't mean I love God any less or that He doesn't love me."
Many Christian youths who signed abstinence pledges or wore purity rings reach a crossroad as young adults. They are faced with upholding Biblical principles against sex outside of marriage during an era when the average age of first marriage creeps toward 30. Celibacy may be even tougher for singles who have splashed around in the pool of fornication long before dedicating their lives to Christ. More are asking, "Am I really condemning my soul to eternal damnation by getting my freak on Saturday night and praising the Lord on Sunday morning?" As many as 80 percent of young unmarried Christians have had sex, according to Relevant, a magazine for Christians aged 18 to 30.
Even as they uphold abstinence as ideal, religious leaders can no longer ignore the elephant in the sanctuary. From a newsletter published by pastor Creflo Dollar: "There was a time when ... marriage was honored and respected ... and sexual relationships outside of marriage were certainly not accepted as the norm. However, times have changed ... values have moved away from the standard of God's Word because of selfishness." Last year's Jumping the Broom, produced by Bishop T.D. Jakes, opened with Paula Patton's character regretting her decision to have casual sex the night before. The romcom portrays her finding true love and deciding with her fiancé to abstain until their wedding day. It was Jakes' decision to include the morning-after scene, Patton told The Christian Post. "We make mistakes, but the goal is to become better [people]."
But finding a Christian man who is actually willing to wait may be easier onscreen. Single father John Fitzgerald, 29, acknowledges the difficulty in putting faith before flesh and has even ended relationships because of the woman's decision to remain abstinent. "Yes, it's wrong, [but] I'm still doing it," he says. "It's something I struggle with in my personal relationship with God. People say, 'Don't make sex such a big deal,' but for a lot of people, it's a deal breaker."
"The Bible is clear that you should not have sex outside of marriage, but that is not the reality of what's going on," says Sophia Nelson, award-winning author of Black Woman Redefined: Dispelling Myths and Discovering Fulfillment in the Age of Michelle Obama (BenBella Books). She cites the finding that more than 50 percent of single, churchgoing women admit to having sex. With U.S. Census data showing that nearly 40 percent of Black women do not marry until age 35 and more than 45 percent of African-Americans older than 14 have never been married, Black Christians face a long road of chastity.
The shoulder of that road is cluttered with breakdowns and those who have run out of gas: Almost three quarters of Black children are born out of wedlock. "It is unrealistic in the 21st century to expect celibacy until marriage. We live in a sexualized society and [during] a time [when] people marry much later," says Nelson. She points to a double standard among Christian men--who face little judgment for indulging in pleasure and promiscuity--as a reason some sisters "pray for a husband," but find themselves over 40, celibate and bitter.
WATCH: President Obama's Proclamation for the National Day of Prayer
May 3, 2012 5:03 AM
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, 2012
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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Prayer has always been a part of the American story, and today countless Americans rely on prayer for comfort, direction, and strength, praying not only for themselves, but for their communities, their country, and the world.
On this National Day of Prayer, we give thanks for our democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience. Let us pray for all the citizens of our great Nation, particularly those who are sick, mourning, or without hope, and ask God for the sustenance to meet the challenges we face as a Nation. May we embrace the responsibility we have to each other, and rely on the better angels of our nature in service to one another. Let us be humble in our convictions, and courageous in our virtue. Let us pray for those who are suffering around the world, and let us be open to opportunities to ease that suffering.
Let us also pay tribute to the men and women of our Armed Forces who have answered our country's call to serve with honor in the pursuit of peace. Our grateful Nation is humbled by the sacrifices made to protect and defend our security and freedom. Let us pray for the continued strength and safety of our service members and their families. While we pause to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending liberty, let us remember and lend our voices to the principles for which they fought -- unity, human dignity, and the pursuit of justice.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 3, 2012, as a National Day of Prayer. I invite all citizens of our Nation, as their own faith directs them, to join me in giving thanks for the many blessings we enjoy, and I call upon individuals of all faiths to pray for guidance, grace, and protection for our great Nation as we address the challenges of our time.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.
Hundreds of Texans are expected to come to downtown Dallas Thursday for an eight-hour string of faith-based celebrations that will include Sikh drummers, Islamic prayers, Hindu singers, a Jewish cantor and Methodist and Baptist congregations.
It may sound like a standard interfaith event, another of the many that have become popular in increasingly diverse American cities, but the revelry at the the city's Thanks-Giving Square in observance of the National Day of Prayer is unique in how far it's departed from its Protestant roots.
The National Day of Prayer, which has been observed on the first Thursday in May for 24 years, is still a largely Christian event, in which millions of Americans from thousands of churches across the country will participate, bowing their heads to God in prayer on the day that traces its history to the nation's earliest years. There will be Bible read-a-thons in front of city halls, police officers will pay tribute to the nation's first-responders at churches, and the devout will descend upon courthouse steps across American cities to grace the buildings with prayer.
But the event, designated via presidential proclamation, has increasingly faced accusations of encouraging an uncomfortable mingling of church and state and being too narrowly focused in practice on Christianity.
On one side, secular humanists and atheists have responded by promoting their own event, Thursday's National Day of Reason. Now in its ninth year, the nonreligious celebration has expanded to more than a dozen cities, where it's observed with blood drives, training on pro-secular policy lobbying and voter registration drives, as well as social events.
On the other hand, believers such as those in Dallas have tried to change the day's legacy by broadening its appeal. The Thanks-Giving Foundation, which typically observes the National Day of Prayer with an interfaith breakfast or luncheon, has made this year's event into a day-long festival, where more than half the events are purposefully devoted to non-Christians.
"We believe in the idea that gratitude is something that all faith traditions and all cultures value," said Chris Slaughter, a Christian Scientist who is president of the Thanks-Giving Foundation, which will be celebrating its 30th National Day of Prayer. "It can be used as a beginning point of conversation to learn about each other to gain respect and understanding."
A divorce attorney for the estranged wife of Deion Sanders has called her recent arrest following accusations that she attacked the Hall of Fame cornerback "a complete setup."
Pilar Sanders was arrested April 23 at the couple's home in Prosper, north of Dallas. Deion Sanders filed for divorce in December, but the pair still shared the home until the woman's arrest.
The former NFL star and Pilar Sanders were in a Collin County court Thursday for a hearing in the divorce case. Both want custody of their three children.
Larry Friedman, an attorney for Pilar Sanders, accused her husband of repeatedly calling Prosper police until they arrested her.
Rick Robertson, Deion Sanders' attorney, said Pilar Sanders wasn't fit to have custody of the children.
Sarah Henson is the type of woman who makes you feel like you really can do it all and still end the day with a big smile on your face. By day she leads the Women's Ministry at The Potter's House of Dallas, her parents' Bishop T.D. Jakes and Serita Jakes famous mega church with over 30,000 members. In the evenings she's a devoted wife to NFL linebacker Robert Henson, a proud mother of two and an inspirational blogger. Henson became a mom at 14, and despite what many expected back then, has since turned her story into one of success and triumph.
"You learn so much about marriage once you're married, and it's just about applying it," says Henson, who sat down with us to talk about share her secrets to balancing faith, marriage and motherhood.
ESSENCE.COM: How do you and your husband juggle your careers and parenting duties?
HENSON: It's important that we always have someone that's at home creating that foundation and consistency for the children. My son is 9 and my daughter is 2. The twos haven't been "terrible," but she has way too much to say -- way too much. (Laughs)
ESSENCE.COM: What are some of the strengths within your marriage?
HENSON: I think one of our biggest strengths is really being able to laugh and play with one another, because life is so hard and you have to. My husband is in the football world, which is so cutthroat and serious. There are so many injuries. And in ministry, especially on this scale, there's a lot of criticism and a lot of people who won't always be happy for you. Sometimes you just need to be able to laugh with one another. So, whether it's him tickling me, or me making fun of his socks not matching -- whatever -- we find something to laugh about every day and that translates with our children. I'm proud to say that my children are happy children and that means a lot to me. They still have their innocence. At the end of the day, we're all just little girls and little boys trying to make it in this world. Sometimes we just need to be able to look at someone and say, "I love you, and I want to laugh with you. I see that little person in you and I'm committed to bringing out all of the great things inside of you."
Anderson Cooper called out President Obama and Vice President Biden on his Monday show over the White House's recent twists and turns on gay marriage.
If Vice President Biden continues to make public appearances during this campaign, White House press secretary Jay Carney should be offered a membership in the janitors' union. 
In a video released Sunday by al-Qaeda, American hostage Warren Weinstein said he will be killed unless President Obama agrees to the militant group's demands. 
(EXPLICIT CONTENT: This report contains graphic details of sexual abuse of children as it has appeared in numerous locations on Facebook. WND immediately reported images of child pornography and child sexual abuse to the FBI. Censored screenshots published are among the mildest of those found.) 
George Lindsey, who spent nearly 30 years as the grinning Goober on "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Hee Haw," has died. He was 83.
Yolanda Jordan* remembers the moment she decided to have sex for the first time. She was 27, fresh out of grad school, in a committed relationship--and horny. She was also raised in the Baptist church and had taken a vow of abstinence. "I was curious," says Jordan, now 34, a graphic designer in Columbus, Ohio. "My mind was telling me one thing, my body another. I was grown [and] longing to be touched. I am not perfect; I struggle with sin. I strive to live a righteous life. Just because I have a Bible on my nightstand and condoms in the drawer doesn't mean I love God any less or that He doesn't love me." 
