Here is Playboy's Holly Madison, bikini…

Here is Carmen Electra, hitting the Moorea Beach Club in Vegas the other day…

From the Times-Union's Tallahassee reporter:

It wasn't always this difficult for Charlie Crist.

In July 2007, the first-term governor's approval rating hit a sky-high 73 percent, tied for the highest in his tenure, according to Quinnipiac University. As recently as February 2009 it stood at 67 percent, with just 22 percent of the public disapproving.

Now, those numbers have changed, potentially altering the dynamics of Crist's unaffiliated bid for the U.S. Senate. 

(Story here.)

 

Photos/Video Photos: 

Lauryn Hill, what exactly is it going to take to get this girl back to making music again. In this cover put together by Ron Isley featuring Lauryn Hill, it makes you want to yell at her and say “GET YO A$$ets BACK IN THE STUDIO AND BREAK US OFF AN ALBUM!!!” but until we get that chance…

Take a Listen:
“Close to You” by Ron Islye ft. Lauryn Hill

Rev Run was seen doing his thing at the AXE Lounge in the Hamptons. During a quickie interview, he was asked who he thinks is the hottest MC in the game right now. Of course he names his son, Diggy, but low and behold, Rev Run is feeling Mz. Nicki Minaj’s Steez…

In case you've been spending the last few months under a rock, Gossip Girl takes us to Paris when it returns to our screens very shortly. In the meantime, think you can remember all the salacious happenings and hot hookups from the first

Keyshia Cole is back in the studio after having a baby and mom dukes going to rehab. Either Keyshia Cole was under a rock that entire time she was taking care of her personal life or she has just decided not to give a damn… Either way, we are confused about what’s going on !!!

Tell Us What You Think… Are You Feeling This Get Up?!??

First Matt Barnes was arguing with the chickens from VH1′s Basketball Housewives and then got in trouble for smacking up a coach… Guess he was just practicing for the real day!!! Matt Barnes was arrested in Sacramento County for laying hands on his “live in” chicken girlfriend.

Los Angeles Lakers player Matt Barnes was arrested and booked into Sacramento County Main Jail on Wednesday night on a felony domestic violence charge.

Sacramento County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said deputies responded to an incomplete 911 call from the 8100 block of Sunset Avenue at about 4:15 p.m., where they encountered Barnes and a woman “who lived with him and with whom he had a dating relationship.”

After speaking to Barnes and the woman, deputies determined that the two had been in a physical confrontation and Barnes had prevented the woman from talking to 911 operators. Curran said dispatchers heard the sound of a struggle in the background on the brief open line until it was disconnected.

Both parties had visible injuries but Barnes was determined to be the primary aggressor, Curran said.

Barnes is also charged with maliciously obstructing the use of a telephone line, Curran said. He posted a $50,000 bond and was released shortly before 9:40 p.m.

He is scheduled to appear in court Monday.

Now, we do know that Matt Barnes and Gloria Govan called off the wedding but do you think they were still living together??? Pretty sure the rest of this story will be leaking soon so, we can get all the scrappin’ details.

By the way, Whomever she is… She f*cked his neck all the way up!!!

Source

/scriptJaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew, right, and expected temperatures in the low 90s await the Broncos in Jacksonville on Sunday. (Denver Post file photo) if(requestedWidth 0)} The Broncos have pored over hours of video this week to get ready

Rookie quarterback Tim Tebow might not even play in the Broncos' opener Sunday at Jacksonville, but that hasn't slowed ticket sales in his hometown, where fans wish the Jaguars had selected him. (John Leyba, The Denver Post ) All eyes will peek in on

is the creation of a LinkedIn group for Powered. Meanwhile, Daemon Two also been hired by Warner Bros Entertainment to run the social media campaigns to launch the home entertainment releases of The Vampire Diaries: The Complete First Season and

media campaigns. Warner Home Video has tasked the agency with running social media campaigns around the launch of entertainment releases The Vampire Diaries: The Complete First Season, and Gossip Girl: The Complete Third Season. PBL has asked the agency

As with every good chef, Jehu JeanBaptiste's life experience shines through in his cooking. Because JeanBaptiste is Haitian, that means plenty of tangy, savory spices combined with tinges of sweetness that join in a dazzling mixture as joyful as Caribbean laughter.

"Haitian cooking is very simple," JeanBaptiste, 57, said in his heavy Haitian-accented English. "Simple ingredients with just right seasoning, not too hot, not too mild; there's nothing better."

JeanBaptiste recently brought the lively tastes of his personalized Haitian cuisine to Florida State College at Jacksonville North Campus School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality as part of a Haiti buffet and earthquake relief fundraiser.

He lent his talent at the request of FSCJ culinary instructor Chef Robbert Bouman, who extended the invitation after students in Bouman's buffet catering class decided to put on the event to fulfill a required assignment.

The two met in 1990 when Bouman, then executive chef at the Marriott Southpoint, hired JeanBaptiste as a dishwasher. JeanBaptiste was 37 at the time, having arrived in the United States six years earlier from his native Haiti "in search of a better life." He had no experience in cooking, but inspired by a Haitian friend, who was a successful chef in Miami, he shared with his new boss his dream of becoming a chef.

"Don't just dream about it, do it," was Bouman's pointed advice.

JeanBaptiste embraced the challenge and worked his way up the culinary food chain under Bouman's watchful eye. He left the Marriott in 2006 to become executive chef at Avante Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Jacksonville Beach. He also has his own catering service, Family Catering Caribbean.

When Bouman's students decided on the Haiti fundraiser, he knew his former dishwasher could provide the essential ingredient of homegrown authenticity. JeanBaptiste did not disappoint.

The buffet menu featured plantains, fried red potato, grilled pork, jerk and barbecued chicken, vegetable casserole, several rice dishes, Caribbean sweet potato pie and - just in case anyone doubted the menu's claim of "authentic Haitian dishes and flavors" - calf's feet soup and a picklese hot chili pepper sauce.

The only conflict for the 85 reservation-only diners who came to the school's Mallard Room - a simulated restaurant lab - was deciding on a favorite dish.

Heather Halliday, an FSCJ culinary program office manager, and her dining partner, Shawna Austin, agreed that it was the chicken. They just couldn't concur on which was better, the barbecue or the jerk.

"The meat just melts off the bone of the jerk chicken," said Halliday, also mentioning the seasoning - which JeanBaptiste insists must be "clear and never dry."

"It had just the right degree of spice, not too hot but definitely with a nice kick," noted Halliday.

Austin preferred the barbecued chicken because it was "really juicy with a nice, fruity sauce."

A big hit among many diners was the vegetable casserole, with its layers of cabbage, eggplant, watercress and chayote (a fruit of the gourd family common throughout Latin America that is pear-shaped with coarse wrinkles, thin green skin and white, bland-tasting flesh that absorbs the flavor of other ingredients).

One happy eater described it as "spicy yet sweet with a 'meaty' flavor."

In case anyone needed more spice, there was ample picklese sauce - an essential condiment found on home and restaurant tables throughout Haiti. It's a habanera chili pepper-infused cabbage slaw made with Scotch bonnet peppers (a specific type of habanera), which are among the hottest in the world.

What looks like an innocent red coleslaw sneaks up on you with a zesty, full-flavored heat that somehow does not overwhelm but rather enhances the taste of other foods.

Several diners singled out one of the more deceptively named items on the menu - the Caribbean sweet potato pie. Though it shares the name, this is definitely not your Southern grandma's sweet potato pie.

Crust-less and looking more like carrot cake, it was moist and spongy, with a distinct fruity flavor coming from the playful mix of sweet potatoes, bananas, raisins, coconut, cinnamon and vanilla.

Then there was that calf's feet soup.

A clear broth with calf's feet, squash, red cabbage, carrots and white potatoes, it was mildly seasoned with a curry flavor. Once they got over the thought of the main ingredient, most diners declared it delicious.

"The people got real Haitian food," JeanBaptiste said. "The students did an excellent job."

The four students who suggested the fundraiser - Rachel Bradley, Joan "Queen" Green, Bryan Pequeno and Brian Wamsley - said they were thrilled with the results.

"Chef JeanBaptiste had us working from our heads," said Bradley, noting that much of the cooking during the day and a half she and her classmates worked with JeanBaptiste did not come from written recipes.

"He's got a million recipes in his head, and he talked us through them. It was very creative, different from how we normally do it."

"Not only was the cooking experience unique," added Wamsley, "but we got to help other people."

That help equaled $1,014 raised from the $9 price of the meal plus tips and a silent auction featuring items such as a night at the Alhambra Theatre & Dining.

Additionally, Sysco Foods and U.S. Foodservice donated most of the food, offsetting the buffet cost.

The money will go toward rebuilding a school in Haiti called Old St. Andrew's - Ecole le Bon Samaritain (The Good Samaritan School).

"If it wasn't for Chef Bouman, I wouldn't be a chef today," said JeanBaptiste. "He helped make my dream come true. It was an honor to help him; that we got to help Haiti too makes it even better."

One of the most memorable games of Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton's senior year at Purdue was memorable for all the wrong reasons. It was a mid-season game against Northwestern. 

Orton was a 2004 preseason Heisman trophy candidate, he had a spectacular start to the season, but bothered  by hip injuries and a very windy day, Orton fell apart. His 17th-ranked Boilermakers lost that day and didn't recover.

Jaguars guard Uche Nwaneri was a sophomore on that Purdue team.

"The collapse!" he said, groaning, when I reminded him. "I still have nightmares about that."

But when Orton was good, he was very, very good. Nwaneri remembers that, too.

"He made great choices with the ball," Nwaneri said. "We had built a corps of receivers there and he was just making all of the right plays. It was almost like we expected him to throw a touchdown on every single play. That's how good he was playing."

Orton's NFL career has been spotty at times.

He started 15 of the 15 games in which he played his rookie year with the Chicago Bears. That season, 2005, Orton threw nine touchdowns, 13 interceptions and the team went 10-5 when he played. Orton didn't play in 2006, played in three games in 2007 and went back to starting 15 games in 2008.

Now in his second year with the Broncos, Orton got a one-year contract extension in August and is unquestionably the team's starter.

"It really doesn't do a whole lot to be honest with you," Orton said about his contract on a conference call today. "We're real happy here and would love to be here but really your security is only based on how you play on the field and I'm excited to go out there and have a great year."

I asked Nwaneri how good he thought Orton could be in the NFL.

"Quarterbacks, there's so much pressure on the quarterback position in this league that you never want to say a guy's going to do something or a guy's not going to do something," he said. "Just have to see how it unfolds.

"He's doing pretty good right now. Started in Chicago, started in Denver. He's doing pretty well for himself. I'm glad to see him. We're both alumni from Purdue. At the end of the day we've got some gold and black in our blood. Definitely proud he's out here."

Sept. 8. For weeks now, rumors of Sarah jumping ship to TV5 have been making its round. The gossip seemed to hold some semblance of truth when TV5 announced the airing of Sarah’s past concerts. More, Sarah's singing champion friends and Viva co-talents

A 22-year-old New York man was killed Tuesday night minutes after leaving jail as he was walking down U.S. 1 near Lewis Speedway in St. Augustine.

Dominic P. Amodeo of Huntington Station was walking south on the roadway shoulder about 9:15 p.m. when a Ford Five Hundred driven by Nicole C. Jonas, 21, of Palm Coast, left the lane and hit him, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Amodeo was dead at the scene.

Jonas had initially told the Highway Patrol she thought she hit a deer. No charges had been filed Tuesday night, according to the Highway Patrol report.

Amodeo was charged with grand theft July 29 and put in a pre-trial diversion program Tuesday that can give first-time offenders a second chance at having a clean criminal history, according to St. Johns County jail and court records. The arrest report said a deputy had responded to a possible traffic crash involving Amodeo losing control of a scooter. A computer check on the tag showed the moped had been stolen, so Amodeo was taken into custody.

Sgt. Chuck Mulligan, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said Amodeo was released at 9:10 p.m.

He is the second First Coast pedestrian killed shortly after getting out of jail this week. About 27 hours after getting released from the Duval County jail on prescription drug charges, 35-year-old Sonya Cook of Jacksonville was found lying on the road by a motorist and then struck by another motorist early Monday.

Scott Butler

DUVAL COUNTY

Testimony begins in strangulation trial

A Duval County jury has started hearing evidence in a murder case in which prosecutors say a man tied up a woman with her pajamas before strangling her with a pair of sweatpants.

The trial opened Wednesday for Jimmy Hackley, 61. He is accused of killing 29-year-old Patricia Ann McCollum in April 2006 at the Ravenwood Apartments on Old Kings Road.

Prosecutors described a twisted scene in which Hackley bound McCollum with silk pajamas, a blanket and a T-shirt before choking her so vigorously with a pair of sweatpants that the blood vessels in her eyes burst as she struggled to breathe.

Defense lawyers argued that the apartment where McCollum's body was found was used as a drug house. Several men could have gotten inside and DNA evidence does not fully exclude other men from the case, they argued.

Proceedings will continue today before Circuit Judge David M. Gooding.

David Hunt

Weekend burglars hit Baptist Credit Union

Jacksonville's Florida Baptist Credit Union was burglarized Labor Day weekend with thieves cutting telephone and computer lines to get into the Hendricks Avenue building without setting off any alarms.

Police said the break-in was between 4:30 p.m. Friday and 7:30 a.m. Monday when employees discovered the burglary. A front window was broken out to get in. An office shredder, copy machine and 14 pieces of office computer equipment also were damaged. A total of $21,600 in damage was reported.

The credit union has almost 3,000 members. Credit union officials called the burglary a professional job, and the first since the institution opened in 1986, according to the Florida Baptist Witness. The credit union's website (www.fbcu.org) reported that the Hendricks Avenue branch is open but is experiencing a telephone and e-mail outage.

Dan Scanlan

A former Coffee County pastor has been arrested and charged with four counts of child molestation and two counts of aggravated child molestation.

Investigators said Steven Rowe, 50, was pastor at First Community Church and headmaster at Faith Christian Academy in Douglas from 2002 until 2008. He is accused of molesting at least four children from 2005 to 2008, said Guy Wolfe, a Coffee County Sheriff's Office detective.

Rowe was questioned Friday after Wolfe said a complaint was filed with the Department of Family and Children Services. Rowe was held after questioning and charged Saturday. He remains in the Coffee County Jail after bail was denied.

Wolfe said the investigation is ongoing and he can't release many details, but he did say the victims were females. Investigators are asking parents to talk with their children if they were between the ages of 12 and 15 and attended the church or school while Rowe worked there.

"There's potentially other victims out there, so it's really sensitive," Wolfe said.

The church's interim pastor and headmaster at the academy, Ben Warren, said Rowe's arrest was briefly mentioned during Sunday's church services but the issue was not discussed in detail until parents gathered at the church Tuesday night.

"I've known Pastor Rowe for years. It's a shock to everybody," Warren said. "We tend to elevate the pastor. It's a major breach of trust."

Warren said parents were united in their support of the church and academy. He said Rowe's involvement with the church and academy had diminished the past 14 months because he was working at another school in Brunswick. Wolfe identified the school as Paxen Learning Corp.

Richard Semancik, executive vice president at Paxen, said Rowe is no longer an employee because of his arrest. Both Wolfe and Semancik said they don't believe Rowe had inappropriate contact with students at the center because they are all at least 16 years old, which is the age of consent in Georgia.

Warren said the issue will also be discussed with the 75 students enrolled at the academy.

"Most of our students did not know him that well," Warren said. "We're going to do some teaching with our girls and boys on how to react when something inappropriate happens."

gordon.jackson@jacksonville.com, (912) 729-3672

Lateef Majeed wouldn't dream of taking a Magic Marker to his Quran, even if it made a favorite passage easier to find.

In fact, the Jacksonville imam said, "We have to perform an ablution before we even pick up the Quran."

Christian Tammy Moses, on the other hand, has no qualms about marking up her Bible with every color of the rainbow - verses dealing with heaven get blue, those about money with green and passages she really needs to live by get pink or yellow.

"I definitely highlight passages in Scripture that mean a lot to me," said Moses, of Jacksonville Beach. "I also write interpretations in the margins."

Majeed's and Moses' differing views on the handling of their holy books illuminate why Muslims around the world are becoming agitated about a Gainesville pastor's plan to burn a Quran on Saturday.

On Wednesday, the Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center reiterated his determination to go ahead with the burning on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite mounting national and international pressure to cancel the event.

It may also shed light on why many in the West, even some Christians, have been surprised by the intensity of the reaction.

Muslims view the Quran - including ink, pages and cover - as sacred because it's believed to contain God's revealed word to humankind, said David Bryan Cook, a religion scholar and expert on Islam at Rice University in Houston.

One should never put his or her feet on a table or desk that holds the Quran, Jones said. A Quran is always stored on top shelves and is never wedged between other books.

Even other products containing quotations from the Quran are treated with deference. Cook said he was in Kashmir over the summer and purchased a railway ticket that had a Quranic verse printed on it. As he started to slide the ticket into his wallet, he was stopped by the station attendant.

"He said to put it in my breast pocket," Cook said, because putting it "close to my rear end" would be inappropriate.

Ashraf Shaikh, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida, said Muslims are taught from a very early age to remember that there is but one God and that the Quran "is the actual word of God as given to the prophet Muhammad."

"Muslims, due to their affection for the Quran, take these things very seriously," said Shaikh.

Cook said that reverence is missing in most Christian traditions.

Many "Christians don't put a high degree of premium on how people actually treat the text of the Bible."

A simple Google search confirms that.

Type "highlighters and Bible" into a search engine and scores of products will appear on the screen, including the "Bible Highlighting Kit" and the Pentel Eight-Color Bible Highlighter.

Use the word "Quran" instead, and no similar products appear. Instead, there are ads for more Bible highlighters and links to articles about why the Muslim holy book should never be marked with pen, pencil or anything else.

It's not that Christians don't revere the Bible, Cook said, but that they place less importance in the actual thing itself.

"I don't know whether a Christian would necessarily disrespect the Bible, but I don't think the dominant view in Christianity, even among fundamentalists, is that there is some sort of innate sacrality to the very text."

Moses agreed.

While she expressed a love for her Bible, she said if it were lost or damaged, she could easily purchase another one.

"I don't think it's as much the pages and the ink as it is the teachings and applying the teachings to our lives," she said.

jeff.brumley@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4310

TALLAHASSEE - It wasn't always this difficult for Charlie Crist.

In July 2007, the first-term governor's approval rating hit a sky-high 73 percent, tied for the highest in his tenure, according to Quinnipiac University. As recently as February 2009 it stood at 67 percent, with just 22 percent of the public disapproving.

Now, those numbers have changed, potentially altering the dynamics of Crist's unaffiliated bid for the U.S. Senate. Polls vary on the extent of the erosion, but all of them show a drop in recent months. Quinnipiac pegged his approval rate at 56 percent and disapproval at 35 percent in mid-August; Rasmussen Reports showed 52 percent approve and 46 percent disapprove of Crist in late August; and Public Policy Polling, which was closest to the actual results of the primary election, reported 42 percent approve and 44 percent disapprove.

The numbers might be a reflection of the anti-incumbent mood brewing in the electorate, something that has dragged down gubernatorial numbers across the country.

"I'm surprised they weren't lower sooner," said Matthew Corrigan, a political science professor at the University of North Florida.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, called Crist's approval rating "an impressive figure at a time when voters in many states seem to be taking out their economic frustrations on their governors."

Others were less sanguine about the damage.

"The days of 60 [percent] approval ratings for Crist are long gone and that loss of popularity is the biggest thing he's going to have to find a way to overcome in the final two months of the campaign," wrote Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling, in a blog post shortly after his firm's survey was released.

Analysts say there are several reasons Crist's numbers are slipping. Key among those issues is the economic downturn driving the disillusionment with elected officials. Florida, in particular, has been hit hard by the slowdown in the housing market.

"It finally caught up with him," Corrigan said. "Almost every executive is going to feel the heat over the economy."

Election-year politics could also be taking a toll as Republicans begin to swing behind former House Speaker Marco Rubio of Miami and Democrats consider backing U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, also of Miami, instead of throwing their support to Crist.

The governor has also faced criticism from some of his election-year pronouncements, including one day last month when Crist seemed to reverse a prior statement in which he said he would not have voted for the federal health-care reform plan. Later, he released a statement suggesting he might have misspoken and still opposed the measure, reinforcing opponents' efforts to paint Crist as a political opportunist.

"In his pursuit of the Senate office, he's just - even for him - zigzagging all over the place with policies," said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida.

Jewett also noted that Crist has been largely overshadowed in recent months by bitter primaries for the Republican nomination to succeed him and the Democratic race to face Crist and Rubio in November.

"He just has not been in the news as much," Jewett said.

The question is whether Crist's dip in approval rating will undermine his Senate campaign?

"It really depends on who's doing the disapproving," said Corrigan, noting that Crist is counting heavily on independents and some Democrats to win the race.

Barring a natural disaster, which can boost an incumbent's ratings if handled correctly, Crist's main chance to turn around his numbers is through the advertising for his Senate campaign, Jewett said. Crist has released a new ad that shows him shuffling the letters in "Democrat" and "Republican" to spell "American."

"This may be the trough of his approval ratings," Jewett said, "and maybe he resurges enough to win this Senate race."

brandon.larrabee@jacksonville.com, (678) 977-3709