by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

Whoops: citing an ongoing investigation focused on his state’s potentially shady dealings with a California company, CDR Financial Products, Gov. Bill Richardson has withdrawn his name for the cabinet position of Secretary of Commerce. “Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” Richardson says, “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.” Obama has not yet nominated a replacement, though he did put out this statement: “Governor Richardson is an outstanding public servant and would have brought to the job of Commerce Secretary and our economic team great insights accumulated through an extraordinary career in federal and state office.” [ MSNBC ]
by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

[Los Angeles, CA. January 3. Image via INF .]
by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

A few months ago, an item in my Facebook news feed sent a weird, sick feeling through my system: my kid sister had just become Facebook friends with someone I knew very well: our mother. My mother loves the computer. She is obsessed with emails, particularly forwards telling me about the dangers of lemons, the truth about credit card scams, and how we can all find hope in the poetry of a dying child. She and I communicate mainly through AOL Instant Messenger, as both of us are somewhat phone phobic and prefer the safety of keyboards and emoticons
by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

[Beverly Hills, CA. January 3. Image via INF .]
by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

To offset this morning’s depressing Erin Caffey news, here’s a story about a 15 year old girl who risked her own life to save her younger sister, who was trapped in the family’s burning home. Chantal McGowan was watching television at her home when she heard smoke alarms going off upstairs, where her 3-year-old sister, Savanha, was sleeping. “I couldn’t smell anything, but when I went into the kitchen smoke was billowing out of the top oven. It was so strong that I almost threw up,” McGowan says of the smoke, “but all I could think about was my sister
by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

[New York City, January 3. Image via Filmmagic .]
by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

Good news for romantics: scientists claim that true love does, in fact, exist. A study of brain scans showed that certain couples can maintain their early sparks of romance and excitement over 20 years. According to John Harlow and Brendan Montague of the Times Online , scientists studied the brain scans of couples who had been together for 20 years vs.
by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

[Beverly Hills, CA. January 3. Image via Bauer-Griffin .]
by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

17-year old Erin Caffey of Emory, Texas was sentenced to two life terms , with the possibility of parole in 2051, after striking a plea deal in the murders of her mother and two brothers. Caffey, her 19 year old boyfriend, Charlie James Wilkinson, and two others were charged with the planning and execution of a crime that left Caffey’s mother, Penny, and her two brothers, Matthew, 13 and Tyler, 8, dead of multiple stab and gunshot wounds. Caffey’s father, Terry, was shot five times, but somehow managed to escape, even as Wilkinson and company set fire to the family home. Caffey was not present during the actual murder; she and a friend, Bobbi Gale Johnson (who received 40 years for her role), waited in a car parked nearby while her boyfriend and two others went on their gruesome rampage. Caffey was upset with her parents because they didn’t like Wilkinson, and the group plotted the murders as a result.
by Gossip Daddy on January 4, 2009

[Los Angeles, CA. January 3. Image via INF .]