Harold Ramis, 'Ghostbusters' star, dead at 69

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Harold Ramis in New York in 2009.

Actor and director Harold Ramis, who delighted audiences in comedies such as "Ghostbusters" and "Stripes" and who was the first head writer on the groundbreaking "SCTV," died Monday at age 69, NBC News has confirmed.
Ramis died from complications related to auto-immune inflammatory vasculitis, a condition he had battled for the past four years, his talent agency said in a statement. United Talent Agency said that Ramis "passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by family and friends in his Chicago area home, where he and wife, Erica Mann Ramis, have lived since 1996."
The Chicago-born Ramis was as acclaimed a writer and director of comedies as he was an actor. He wrote four of the comedies listed on the American Film Institute's 100 Funniest Movies: "Ghostbusters," Groundhog Day," "National Lampoon's Animal House" and "Caddyshack." He also wrote "Meatballs," "Stripes," and "Back to School." His more recent films included Robert De Niro's "Analyze This" and its sequel "Analyze That," "The Ice Harvest," and the 2009 biblical comedy "Year One."
He joined Chicago's famed Second City improv comedy troupe in 1969 while working a day job as jokes editor at Playboy magazine. His first Hollywood hit was the 1978 blockbuster hit "National Lampoon's Animal House."

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Harold Ramis, left, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray in a scene from the 1984 film "Ghostbusters," which Ramis co-wrote.

In a 2004 profile of Ramis, Tad Friend of the New Yorker wrote, " What Elvis did for rock and Eminem did for rap, Harold Ramis did for attitude: he mass-marketed the sixties to the seventies and eighties. He took his generation’s anger and curiosity and laziness and woolly idealism and gave it a hyper-articulate voice. He wised it up."

Ramis won numerous awards for his work, including the American Comedy Award, the British Comedy Award, and the BAFTA award for screenwriting.

Kate Upton dons skimpy bikini for zero gravity shoot, covers back of 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

She is still a cover girl, just this time the 21-year-old model is featured on the back of the coveted 50th anniversary issue of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit mag.

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Kate Upton flaunts her famous assets in the Sports Illustrated behind-the-scenes video from her photo shoot.

Up, up and away.
Kate Upton has defied the laws of gravity for the 2014 50th anniversary of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

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The 21-year-old model stuns from the inside of a zero gravity plane. 

The 21-year-old model, who has been the mag's front-page gal for past two years, stripped down for the sexy shoot in a zero G plane.

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Kate Upton made the front cover of the coveted Swimsuit Issue three years in a row. 

Upton can be seen in a behind the scenes video from the glossy floating around flashing her famous assets in several skimpy ensembles.

Bengals cheerleader files lawsuit against the team

A cheerleader has filed a Class Action Complaint against the Cincinnati Bengals, claiming she is underpaid for the hours of work she puts in for the team.
Alexa Brenneman, a member of the Ben-Gals from approximately May 2013 through Jan. 2014, alleges she is compensated, at most, $90 per home game at which the Ben-Gals cheer.
Brenneman says between mandatory practices, public appearances, pregame time at the stadium and calendar posing/promotions, she works more than 300 hours a year for the Bengals' organization. Yet, she claims her pay rate comes out to less than $2.85 an hour, well under the 2013 Ohio minimum wage rate of $7.85.
Brenneman notes the Seahawks organization in her complaint, saying that their group of cheerleaders is paid "any hourly wage and any applicable overtime required by law, for all hours worked." She also cites the Cavaliers' cheerleaders as being compensated for more than just games.

PHOTOS: Bengals Cheerleaders

Her accusation is that the Bengals are in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act.
Read Brenneman's complaint
The class action claim of the lawsuit includes, "All persons who were employed by Defendant as a Cincinnati BenGal cheerleader at any time from February 10, 2011 through the present."
Raiders cheerleaders also recently sued their organization similarly claiming undercompensation.
Brenneman is not the first Ben-Gal in the news recently. Ex-Bengals cheerleader Sarah Jones won $338,000 in a lawsuit against TheDirty.com, in which she sued on claims of defamation, libel and invasion of privacy based on a story from the site alleging she slept with players and had STDs. Jones also admitted having sex with a 17-year-old former student, to whom she later became engaged.

Yellowstone Park eyes possible bison slaughter

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Yellowstone biologists have determined that between 600 and 800 bison must be culled annually over the next several years to reduce the herd.

A top Montana Department of Livestock official is pushing a proposal to allow hunting of bison inside Yellowstone National Park for the first time in its 142-year-old history to keep their numbers in check.
Marty Zaluski, Montana state veterinarian and member of a federal, state and tribal team that oversees bison in and around Yellowstone, said hunts in the park of the nation's last purebred herd of bison would lessen conflicts tied to their management.
Yellowstone is located primarily in Wyoming but also extends into Idaho and Montana.
"I don't have rose-colored glasses but I see many potential benefits to hunting in the park," he said.
Related: Wildlife managers urge lifting Yellowstone grizzly protections
Yellowstone bison, also known as buffalo, are a key attraction for the millions who visit the park each year. But the animals run into trouble in harsh winters when they flee the deep snows of Yellowstone in search of food in lower elevations in Montana.
Cattle ranchers there worry bison might infect their herds with brucellosis, a disease that can cause stillbirths in cows and lower their market value.
Yellowstone managers on Wednesday sent to slaughter 20 bison that wandered into Montana. Park officials had warned earlier this week as many as 800 bison could be shipped to slaughter if they ventured outside the park.
The herd is all that remains of ancient bands that roamed in the tens of millions west of the Mississippi until systematic hunting cut their numbers to the fewer than 50 that found refuge in Yellowstone in the early 20th century.
A management plan overseen by federal, state and tribal representatives that allows killing of wayward buffalo has been fiercely opposed by wildlife advocates and by businesses licensed to provide tours in Yellowstone.
PROTECT CATTLE
Zaluski said hunting of the animals inside the park would protect cattle that graze in Montana near Yellowstone and bring the 4,600-strong herd closer to the population target of 3,000 to 3,500. He said it would also lessen the public relations fallout tied to the slaughter of animals that leave the park.
"What I'm saying here is we have the potential to move this intractable issue forward. Hunting needs to be looked at more seriously as a possible solution," Zaluski said .
Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said the park was not averse to hunting, a tool long used to manage North American wildlife, but it conflicts with a federal law enacted in 1894 that banned hunting or killing of animals inside the park unless they were threatening injury or death to humans.
The early version of the Lacey Act was crafted in part to address a late 19th century incident in which a man shot several bison dead in Yellowstone, Nash said.
"The status and subject of hunting in Yellowstone ties back to its beginnings and its founding principles," he said.
Related: Yellowstone magma much bigger than thought
At the core of the park system's approach is to facilitate nature at work, Nash said.
Hunting and trapping are not allowed in the majority of U.S. parks although legislation that would open the roughly 400 units in the National Park System has been promoted in Congress in recent years.
Steve Braun, owner of Adventure Yellowstone Inc., which offers year-round tours of the park to vacationing Americans and international travelers, said he would fiercely oppose any measure aimed at bison hunts in Yellowstone and criticized the existing management plan that authorizes slaughter.
"Killing these animals is senseless and outrageous. In terms of tourist dollars, they are worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. In terms of the heritage of the American West, they are priceless," he said.
Nearly one in five of the Yellowstone herd was sent to slaughter for straying into Montana for food in the hard winter of 2006. Under this year's culling program, bison that migrate to winter range in Montana are to be captured and transferred to Native American tribes that would ship them to slaughter.
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Lebanese skier's topless video surfaces, ignites controversy at home

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While this photo caused a stir in Lebanon, it's what wasn't seen in Jackie Chamoun's spread that has caused the biggest controversy.

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Updated FEB 12, 2014 8:25a ET

     

Jackie Chamoun is one of only two athletes from Lebanon competing in the Olympics. Suffice to say the spotlight on her is pretty bright in her conservative homeland.
So when and if a video of the skier topless surfaces on the Internet, one would expect all hell to break loose in Lebanon.
Well, it did. And it has.
Chamoun, a 22-year-old skier, three years ago posed for a calendar which annually features male and female skiers in little or no clothing, with just strategic placement of limbs and equipment leaving something for the imagination. At the time, it was reportedly scandalous enough.

• Lebanon's sports minister, Farsal Karami, has reportedly called for an investigation into the photo shoot, fearful of its impact on the nation's reputation.
• The Lebanese Olympic Committee released a statement, saying it would not seek to have Chamoun removed from the Olympics.
• Chamoun posted an apology to her Facebook page, contending the behind-the-scenes footage was never supposed to be seen by the public.

Virginia Bill to Decriminalize Sex Outside of Marriage Stalls

Virginia isn’t for all lovers.
An antiquated state law that makes it a crime to have sex outside of marriage remains on the books after an effort to decriminalize it failed to move out of a House subcommittee Wednesday.
HB914 would repeal the state statute that classifies it as a misdemeanor for “any unmarried person to voluntarily have sexual intercourse with any other person.” Those convicted face a $250 fine but no jail time.
Lawmakers decided not to move the fornication bill forward because they had concerns over potential loopholes the change would make in relation to incest and other sex crimes, the Virginian-Pilot reported. The House Courts of Justice committee decided to table the bill.
A spokesman for Delegate Mark Sickles, a Democrat who introduced the proposal, told NBC News that members want to make sure the bill is redrafted correctly and sent to the state Crime Commission for review before it is taken up again.
Eight people were convicted of fornication last year, according to the Virginian-Pilot. Prosecutors might charge someone with it as part of a plea deal to avoid a stiffer sentence.
So-called morality laws, meanwhile, remain a hot topic in Virginia. Adultery also is a misdemeanor in the state, and carries a $250 fine. Suicide is considered a common-law crime.
“I think we generally support the idea of taking these no longer enforceable, moral laws off the books,” Anna Scholl, executive director of advocacy group ProgressVA, told the Virginian-Pilot. “Government shouldn’t be peeking through your bedroom window to see what’s going on.”