NEWSMAKERS | Valley man misses mark for $100,000

NEWSMAKERS

Valley man misses mark for $100,000

POLAND

A Mahoning Valley man’s marksmanship just missed his $100,000 target.

Brian “Gunny” Zins of Poland lost the grand prize on The History Channel’s “Top Shot” reality show.

Zins, 41, began season two of the show in February along with 15 other marksmen. Contestants were eliminated each week until four remained.

Zins, along with finalists Chris Reed, George Reinas and Joe Serafini, competed for the $100,000 grand prize on Tuesday night’s season finale.

“Top Shot” pits contestants against each other in a variety of competitions that test shooting skills.

In the finale, Zins faced off against Reed, a hunter and outdoorsman from Franklin, Tenn. The two men competed in a series of events, testing their skills with a tomahawk, a crossbow and various firearms.

Reed was the victor.

Zins, who grew up in Canfield, is a 10-time National Rifle Association pistol champion.

He was in the Marines for 20 years, where he was a rifle instructor. That’s where he became acquainted with a wide variety of guns.

Phoebe Snow dies; sang ‘Poetry Man’

NEW YORK

Phoebe Snow, a singer, guitarist and songwriter whose song “Poetry Man” was a defining hit of the 1970s, has died.

Rick Miramontez, her longtime friend and public-relations representative, says Snow died Tuesday morning. He says she died of complications from a brain hemorrhage she suffered in January 2010.

Shortly after Snow’s “Poetry Man” reached No. 5 on the pop singles chart in 1975, her daughter was born with severe brain damage. Snow decided to care for her at home rather than place her in an institution and largely dropped from the music scene.

Snow’s subsequent albums found smaller audiences. Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, Snow sang commercial jingles and occasionally performed live. Her daughter died in 2007 at age 31.

Vince Neil finishes DUI requirements

LAS VEGAS

M ∂tley Cr ºe singer Vince Neil has completed requirements of his Las Vegas drunken-driving sentence. Court officials and Neil’s lawyer, David Chesnoff, say a Las Vegas judge declared the DUI case closed Tuesday. The 50-year-old rocker didn’t appear at the hearing in person.

Neil served 10 days of a 15-day jail sentence in February, another 15 days of house arrest, paid a fine and completed drunken- driving and victim-impact counseling. Court spokeswoman Mary Ann Price says Neil also made a $500 donation to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Neil pleaded guilty in January to driving drunk last summer near the Las Vegas Strip.

Oscars will stick with late-Feb. date

LOS ANGELES

The Academy Awards are sticking to the last weekend in February rather than moving to an earlier date. Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, announced Tuesday that next year’s ceremony will take place Feb. 26, the same Sunday as most other recent Oscar shows. Nominations for the 84th Oscars will be announced Jan. 24.

Olbermann returns to TV on June 20

NEW YORK

Cable network Current TV says Keith Olbermann will return to the air June 20. Current said Tuesday the title of the weeknight news- commentary hour will be “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” “Countdown” was the name of the program Olbermann hosted on MSNBC until his heated departure from that network in January. Less than a month later, he signed with Current TV, the public-affairs channel launched in 2005 by former Vice President Al Gore and Joel Hyatt.

Vindicator staff and wire reports