Sunday, September 21, 2008
Hall of fame drummer dies
LOS ANGELES — Earl Palmer, the session drummer whose pioneering backbeats were recorded on such classics as Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” and The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” has died. He was 84.
Palmer died Friday at his Los Angeles home after fighting a lengthy illness, his spokesman Kevin Sasaki said.
His beats form the backdrop on Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High,” Fats Domino’s “The Fat Man” and “I Hear You Knockin”’ by Smiley Lewis.
Palmer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. According to the institution’s Web site, Little Richard wrote in his autobiography that Palmer “is probably the greatest session drummer of all time.”
Cheney must save records
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Saturday ordered Dick Cheney to preserve a wide range of the records from his time as vice president.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is a setback for the Bush administration in its effort to promote a narrow definition of materials that must be safeguarded under by the Presidential Records Act.
A private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is suing Cheney and the Executive Office of the President in an effort to ensure that no presidential records are destroyed or handled in a way that makes them unavailable to the public.
Muslim prayer dispute
OMAHA, Neb. — Muslim workers involved in a prayer dispute at a Grand Island meatpacking plant are scheduled to meet today to decide what to do next.
Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said Saturday that workers at the JBS Swift & Co. plant wanted to hold another protest, but that he urged them not to.
Muslim workers — most of Somali background — have been asking for accommodations with break times to allow prayer at sunset. The issue led to walkouts at the plant this week — not only from Muslims, but also from non-Muslims who protested such accommodations as preferential treatment.
The plant employs about 2,500 people, not including managers. About a fifth of them are Muslim.
Musical road to be paved
LANCASTER, Calif. — Residents of northern Los Angeles County are not grooving to this music.
Lancaster city officials said this week that they’re paving over a quarter-mile strip of asphalt grooved to play the William Tell Overture when auto tires speed over it.
The road was completed this month as part of an ad campaign for Honda. It’s engineered to play the overture — also known as the theme to “The Lone Ranger” — at perfect pitch for motorists driving Honda Civics at 55 mph.
But neighbors aren’t amused. One says the road music sounds like a high-pitched drone.
Plane crash kills 4, hurts 2
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — Hours after performing for thousands of South Carolina college students, former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity disc jockey DJ AM were critically injured in a fiery Learjet crash that killed four people, authorities said Saturday.
Barker and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, were in critical but stable condition at a burn center in Augusta, Ga., on Saturday afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits said.
Two other passengers — Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City, Calif., and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles — died, as did pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, Calif., according to the county coroner.
Food recalled in Japan
OSAKA, Japan — Marudai Food Co., a leading manufacturer of ham and sausages based in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, announced Saturday a voluntary recall of five snacks that might contain the toxin melamine.
The firm has not received any reports of people sickened by eating the five snacks subject to the recall.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will instruct firms that have imported processed foods from China to confirm the safety of products that were used as ingredients for the foods.
Iraq journalist targeted
BAGHDAD — The head of Iraq’s journalists’ union survived an assassination attempt Saturday when a bomb exploded outside the organization’s office in Baghdad, the latest in a long string of assaults on Iraqi media employees.
The target, Muaid Lami, was hospitalized with arm and chest wounds, according to police and to a colleague. The blast also wounded five other people.
Combined dispatches