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Ted Nugent pleads guilty in illegal kill

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Rocker and wildlife hunter Ted Nugent has agreed to plead guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed in southeast Alaska.

Nugent made the admission in signing a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that was filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

The plea agreement says Nugent illegally shot and killed the bear in May 2009 on Sukkwan Island days after wounding a bear in a bow hunt, which counted toward a state seasonal limit of one bear.

According to the agreement, first reported by the Anchorage Daily News, the six-day hunt was filmed for his Outdoor Channel television show, “Spirit of the Wild.” In the hunt, Nugent used a number of bear-baiting sites on U.S. Forest Service property, according to the agreement.

The document says Nugent knowingly possessed and transported the bear in misdemeanor violation of the federal Lacey Act.

Nugent agreed to pay a $10,000 fine, according to the agreement, which says he also agreed with a two-year probation, including a special condition that he not hunt or fish in Alaska or Forest Service properties for one year. He also agreed to create a public- service announcement that would be broadcast on his show every second week for one year, the document states.

Biography spills Simon Cowell secrets

LONDON

He gets colonic irrigations, Botox injections and vitamin drips and insists on black toilet paper in his home.

A revealing new biography offers intimate — some might say too intimate — details about Simon Cowell, along with a portrait of the entertainment mogul’s savvy business side.

“Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell” is written by British journalist and biographer Tom Bower, whose previous subjects include former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, jailed media mogul Conrad Black and former Harrods owner Mohammad al-Fayed.

His latest portrait of power centers on the tanned and brush-cut Cowell, 52, who has gained fame in both Britain and North America as producer and an acerbic judge on TV talent shows including “The X Factor” and “America’s Got Talent.”

Bower says he became fascinated by the story of a middle-aged music producer who struck gold by turning the old-fashioned talent contest into a slick 21st-century phenomenon — and in the process earned a fortune estimated at $320 million by the Sunday Times Rich List.

“Sweet Revenge,” published in the U.S. by Ballantine Books on Tuesday, is billed as the first book about Cowell written with the mogul’s participation — though not his authorization. He says Cowell told some friends and associates not to talk to him.

Associated Press