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When I brought this subject up originally (about a year ago) I caught all sorts of "Put on your TIN HAT" grief from ...... =========================== =========================== Opponents step up `rain tax' fight By KRISTEN MACK Copyright 2003 Houston Chroniclehttp://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2214426  The final step in a plan that includes Mayor Lee Brown's new drainage fee is nearing a council vote, but opponents who call the fee a "rain tax" say they have the muscle to overturn it.  Much of their support is coming from members of area congregations who signed petitions this weekend amid concerns that the fee would amount to taxation...

Students' choice of music at graduation leads to legal scrap over 1st Amendment. Celine Dion has been banned from a high school in Virginia for being too Christian – or at least one of her songs has. Singer Celine Dion Two students who wanted to sing an inspirational song at their graduation ceremony won't be hitting any high notes following a legal scuffle that erupted when school officials said their choice of music was too religious for a public school ceremony, reports the Hampton Roads Daily Press. Anna Ashby and a friend volunteered to sing and chose ''The Prayer,'' a...

Commando Solo II: Weapons of Mass Persuasion By Gunnery Sgt. Charles Portman, U.S. Central Command Public Affairs Office CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, QATAR, March 19, 2003 -- U.S. Special Operations personnel armed with broadcasting equipment and “the truth” are preparing the Iraqi people and military for a possible U.S.-led strike against Saddam Hussein.  “We call ourselves ‘weapons of mass persuasion,’ ” said Air Force Lt. Col. “Mike,” a Commando Solo II detachment commander. U.S. Central Command officials said the Commando Solo II effort may have played a role with the surrender of 17 Iraqi soldiers earlier today near the border of...

(1) Celine Dion will launch a perfume with Coty. (2) Britney gives fans the finger. Most attractive. (3) Diane Sawyer's interview with one of the Pennsylvania coal miners for Good Morning America deeply annoyed Katie Couric (Today), who thought she was getting the interview. Come now, girls -- play nice. According to USA Today, Sawyer's team may have won the all-important interview because a producer from the show spent many hours with the worried family of the lost miner who was eventually rescued and then interviewed. Spent many hours? Lining up a talk with the potential widow, too, maybe? If...

President George W. Bush's approval ratings dropped dramatically yesterday after it was revealed that senior FBI agent Kenneth Williams had informed him as early as April, 2001 -- in a memo marked "of the highest urgency" -- that Celine Dion was planning a career comeback sometime in early 2002. In spite of having the information in his hands -- double-checked and verified by top FBI and CIA operatives -- Bush did nothing to either stop the comeback (and the subsequent flurry of insufferable media interviews with the singer), or at least warn the American people of the singer's intentions. Mr....

<p>LONDON, May 20 — Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.</p> <p>Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for deploying "hi-tech" copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit to a stationery store.</p>

The writing could be on the wall for computer buffs who copy music CDs for their friends. Sony Music has planted a "poisoned pellet" of software in Celine Dion's latest CD, A New Day Has Come, that is capable of crashing, and in cases permanently freezing, the optical drives of personal computers into which the discs are inserted. Michael Speck, of the Australian Record Industry Association, confirmed yesterday that the anti-piracy software trials were under way but said "spiked" CDs had not so far been distributed in Australia, but it was inevitable. The music companies were "simply protecting their property",...

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Celine Dion's latest release is generating heated discussions on Internet message boards. But the subject under fire is not the star's music -- it's that the CD will not play on computer CD drives. Epic/Sony released "A New Day Has Come" embedded with Key2Audio copy protection in Germany and several other European countries. According to a spokeswoman for Sony Music Entertainment, it is clearly stated on the front of the booklet and on the back of the jewel box that the CD "will not play on a PC or a Mac" in the language...

Dion's new CD crashing party for some users Wed Apr 3, 1:57 AM ETBy Chris Marlowe LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Celine Dion's latest release is generating heated discussions on Internet message boards. But the subject under fire is not the star's music -- it's that the CD will not play on computer CD drives. Epic/Sony released "A New Day Has Come" embedded with Key2Audio copy protection in Germany and several other European countries. According to a spokeswoman for Sony Music Entertainment, it is clearly stated on the front of the booklet and on the back of the jewel...

<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) --  Police are investigating a Los Angeles woman's claim that she was raped in Las Vegas two years ago by Rene Angelil, husband and manager of singer Celine Dion.</p> <p>Las Vegas police Sgt. Chris Darcy said Tuesday that the department's sex crimes unit began looking into the case after Yun Kyeong Sung Kwon filed a police report March 19 -- the two-year anniversary of the alleged attack.</p>

Celine Dion's husband was sued last week in Las Vegas by a woman who claims to have raped her two years ago at the Imperial Palace.Yun Kyeong Sung Kwon, described in the lawsuit as a Los Angeles resident and an ordained minister of the Full Gospel World Church, and her husband filed the complaint against Rene Angelil shortly before 5 P.M. Friday.