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True crime lovers can rejoice at the reintroduction of one of the longest-running, most widely praised forensic analysis shows. Forensic Files II will premiere Sunday night with all new. half-hour stories of murder, deception and survival. Forensic Files II will air on HLN, a CNN station that often plays reruns of the classic series. There, 16 new episodes will take viewers inside new stories. Here's everything you need to know about Forensic Files II, how to watch it and what this season entails.

Gay rights activists have long pushed for closeted gays and lesbians to come out of the closet and cease hiding their sexuality from friends, family and co-workers. Owning up to one's sexual identity in public would strike a blow for mental health, advocates argue, while also helping to remove lingering social stigmas and stereotypes that have conspired to keep gays in the closet. So when a prominent gay actor advises other gay actors to remain closeted, the message probably won't be embraced warmly by the "come out" crowd. Yes, Richard Chamberlain -- perhaps best known for his role in the...

Controversy is growing over a new energy bill now on it's way to the U.S. Senate, after being approved by the House. It's a Democratic bill, with some Republican support, including that of 45th District Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack. The legislation was approved in the House on Friday. Only eight republicans supported it . Valley resident Christopher Cerillo said he voted for Bono Mack twice, but can't believe she voted yes on an energy bill that is aimed to limit pollution. "I'm just really disappointed as well as other Republicans that she didn't back up the values we stand for,"...

One perk of driving a hybrid vehicle in the city of Los Angeles — free parking — will come to an end next month, under action taken today by the Los Angeles City Council. Almost a year ago, the council approved an ordinance allowing drivers with a state Clean Air Vehicle decal on their vehicle to park at city meters at no cost. Less than a week after that approval, however, the council moved to reconsider the issue in light of the city's financial problems. The council unanimously agreed to eliminate free parking for drivers of Toyota Prius, Honda Civic...

NEW YORK - Matthew McConaughey says the birth of his son will help bring a little joy to others in the world someday. The actor kept the placenta from the July birth of his son and plans to plant it in an orchard, he tells CNN's "House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta" in interview scheduled to air in two parts Aug. 9 and Aug 16. McConaughey says he hopes it will fertilize the land, a ritual long followed in several cultures. "It's going to be in the orchards and it's going to bear some wonderful fruit," he says......

Popular culture is loaded with myths and half-truths. Most are harmless. But when doctors start believing medical myths, perhaps it's time to worry. In the British Medical Journal this week, researchers looked into several common misconceptions, from the belief that a person should drink eight glasses of water per day to the notion that reading in low light ruins your eyesight. "We got fired up about this because we knew that physicians accepted these beliefs and were passing this information along to their patients," said Dr. Aaron Carroll, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. "And...

Through thousands of military burials, Memorial Honor Detail volunteers at Riverside National Cemetery have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of every fold to survivors of those being laid to rest. The first fold, a narrator tells relatives, represents life, the second a belief in eternal life. The 11th fold celebrates Jewish war veterans and "glorifies the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." A single complaint lodged against the words for the 11th fold recently prompted the National Cemetery Administration to ban the entire recital at all 125 national cemeteries....

When "Dateline NBC" aired its first "To Catch a Predator" segment in 2004, it made for sensational television. Program host Chris Hansen on camera confronted grown men who had been lured to a house by the prospect of sex with children. The first two segments in New York and the northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., area nabbed a firefighter, a rabbi and a teacher. For the third installment, Perverted-Justice.com, the Internet watchdog group that collaborated with "Dateline" on the "Predator" stings, asked that law enforcement be added to the mix and suggested the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, which had worked with the...

Howard Gordon, executive producer of FOX's thriller "24," says actor Carlos Bernard acted "very cool about it" when Gordon called him in his car to tell him that his character, Counter Terrorist Unit operative Tony Almeida, was not dead after all and would be returning for the show's 7th season on Sunday, Jan. 13. "But I know," Gordon says, "when I hung up the phone, I'm sure he did one of those 'Jerry Maguire' screams in the car." The most frequently seen character in "24" aside from its hero, CTU super-agent Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland), Tony was introduced in season...

This year, FOX listened to the American public and just said 'no' to O.J. Simpson. The cancellation of Simpson's interview, in which he would have hypothetically detailed how he killed his wife, made enough of an impact to become one of the American Film Institutes eight moments of significance for 2006. A 13-person jury selected these moments which may include accomplishments, trends, milestones, anniversaries, movements in technology and negative/positive influences on film, television and digital media. Regarding the decision to not air the Simpson special, AFI states, "2006 marked a moment when what didn't air on television was as compelling...

LOS ANGELES -- In its quest to have unstoppable Agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) of the Los Angeles-based Counter Terrorist Unit save the world each season in 24 hours, the hit FOX melodrama "24," airing Monday, takes frequent detours from reality. One of its conceits is that its fictional presidents -- who are all on Bauer's speed-dial -- don't seem to have the huge cabal of Secret Service agents, aides and advisors that surrounds real presidents (judging by the number of former presidential aides and advisors that pop up as talking heads on cable-TV news). Instead, Presidents David Palmer (he...

Director Robert Dornhelm is painfully aware that there may be a large audience out there eagerly waiting to hate his new version of "The Ten Commandments," premiering Monday and Tuesday, April 10-11, on ABC. After all, the story of Moses leading the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt has been told before, and unforgettably, by Hollywood showman Cecil B. DeMille in his ultralavish 1956 production starring Charlton Heston as Moses. Adapted from a variety of religious novels, that earlier version introduced a number of extraneous characters and story lines to the biblical account, yet a fair number of fans today regard...

There seems to be a critical mass of fictional presidents in primetime at the moment, from Jed Bartlet on "The West Wing" to Mackenzie Allen on "Commander In Chief" to the boss of Vice President Caroline Reynolds on "Prison Break." And then there's "24," airing Monday on FOX. The breathless thriller gave America its first black fictional president, the beloved David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), then nearly killed him a few times, before actually killing him as an ex-president in a surprise assassination that kicked off this season's 24 hours of terror. Last season, Palmer's unfortunate successor, Keeler (Geoff Pierson), had...

Forget about opposites attracting. We like people who look like us, because they tend to have personalities similar to our own. And, a new study suggests, the longer we are with someone, the more similarities in appearance grow. Researchers set out to investigate why couples often tend to resemble one another. They asked 11 male and 11 female participants to judge the age, attractiveness and personality traits of 160 real-life married couples. Photographs of husbands and wives were viewed separately, so the participants didn't know who was married to whom. The test participants rated men and woman who were actual...

Years ago in his native Britain, Peter Jurgens drove a car with the license plate 13PJ -- a combination of his initials and the lowest number he could get. Jurgens, now a California resident, recently tried to recapture a piece of his early years behind the wheel and requested a personalized 13PJ California plate for his Lotus sports car. He was denied. "I told them I'd had this plate before. They said it was gang-related," said Jurgens, a San Luis Obispo car dealer who unsuccessfully tried to get the state Department of Motor Vehicles to change its mind. "I'd really...

Community activists plan to hold a protest today against KFI-AM (640) for what they contend is the local station's race-baiting in airing a popular afternoon talk radio show that has turned the execution of former gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams into entertainment. A multiracial coalition, spearheaded by the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, hopes that by staging peaceful protests and by filing a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission it can pressure the Clear Channel-owned station into canceling "The John and Ken Show's" daily 5 p.m. observance of the "Tookie Must Die/Kill Tookie" hour. The producers of the show...

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he is undecided on whether to grant clemency in the high-profile case of condemned killer Stanley Tookie Williams. Williams, co-founder of the Crips gang, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 13 for the killings of four people. Law enforcement officials have launched an unusually fierce campaign to block clemency, The Los Angeles Times said Friday. Officials are asking the governor to reject pleas from clergy, legislators and entertainers that Williams has redeemed himself by his work on death row to dissuade young people from joining gangs. Speaking to reporters...

BERKLEY, Mich. (AP) — A black parent and the NAACP are criticizing a middle school's choice to perform a song that they say glorifies slavery. The song, "Pick a Bale of Cotton," is on the folk music choir program Wednesday at predominantly white Anderson Middle School in the Berkley School District. The song's lyrics include, "Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton. Gotta jump down, turn around, Oh Lordie, pick a bale a day." Greg Montgomery said he complained to school officials, and when he was dissatisfied with their response, decided to pull his 11-year-old daughter China from...

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)- Doctors writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine say that people in Hollywood movies have too much sex, indulge in too much drinking and drug use and face too few consequences. Imagine that. An article published today (Oct. 3) by Dr. Hasantha Gunasekera, Simon Chapman and Sharon Campbell accuses the movie industry of dodging discussion of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancy and the negative effects of drug use. "The movie industry influences the perception of billions of people around the world," Dr. Gunasekera tells the Guardian newspaper. "With globalization and the growth of home-based...

LOS ANGELES -- At some of the largest and most influential Christian churches in the country, the lights dim and congregants watch a sneak preview of a new movie -- about golf. The Walt Disney Co. is marketing "The Greatest Game Ever Played" to faith-based groups even though the film, about Francis Ouimet's improbable win in the 1913 U.S. Open, isn't overtly religious.