Ferguson preps for anniversary of Michael Brown's death

FERGUSON, Mo. — Several new city leaders will beon the front lines in 10 days when the #BlackLivesMatter spotlight returns here Aug. 9, the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death.

Interim Police Chief Andre Anderson started work July 22, taking a six-month leave of absence from his job at the Glendale, Ariz., Police Department in suburban Phoenix. Interim City Manager Ed Beasley was hired June 9 after working in Glendale from 2002 to 2012.

Both are black, better reflecting the population of this St. Louis suburb of 21,000 residents, which is more than two-thirds African American. Two black City Council members were elected in April, joining one previously serving on the six-member council.

The Missouri Supreme Court also assigned Judge Roy Richter to Ferguson Municipal Court on March 9 after the U.S. Justice Department released a report describing a profit-driven municipal court system, expected to generate a quarter of the city budget through fines and fees, that heightened tensions between the city's primarily white police department and its mostly black residents.

And all of the city officials know that any missteps as protesters mark the anniversary of Brown's death will receive national attention.

"I've asked the police department to adopt four things as we start: We want to embrace professionalism, we want to embrace respect, we want to embrace community engagement and we want to make the community safer," Anderson said.

Just since the start of this year, at least 664 people have died at the hands of police, including at least 174 blacks, according to a Guardian database. The British newspaper has been gathering data through news reports to count deaths caused by law-enforcement officers across the USA.

Protesters say they plan to commemorate Brown's death all weekend.

“The racial disparities in police shootings have caused our community to take a stand for black lives,” Kayla Reed of Organization for Black Struggle said in a statement. “One year later we continue to grow and organize to transform a system that has for too long oppressed people of color.”

On Aug. 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson, who is white, saw saw two black men — Brown, 18, and his friend Dorian Johnson, 22 at the time — walking in the middle of a Ferguson street after hearing dispatchers describe suspects who stole packages of cigarillos from a convenience store several blocks away. Wilson and Brown, who was unarmed, got into an altercation a little after noon that day, and the officer fired 12 shots at Brown, fatally injuring him.

CVS, IBM partner for technology-based health care

CVS Health and IBM announced Thursday they will join forces to improve health care management services to patients with chronic diseases with the help of advanced technology.

The partnership between the health care company and software company will provide the technology behind IBM’s Watson computing systems to CVS Health practitioners and pharmacists. The technology can analyze large amounts of data, interpret and evaluate information and build knowledge over time. The Watson computing system can access health records, pharmacy information and other resources to help CVS Health employees provide guidance to patients and work with primary care doctors.

Troyen Brennan, chief medical officer for CVS Health, told USA TODAY the new technology will be able to access more research and information than the organization can do now.

“This is going to be a new tool for disease prevention,” Brennan said.

The partnership focuses on improving services for patients with chronic diseases, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The collaboration uses IBM Watson Health, an IBM business unit, which aims to better allow doctors, researchers and practitioners to use the data and technology collected by the computing system to provide better health care.

“The ultimate goal is the improvement in the outcomes, reduction of costs and an overall better experience for patients at the end of the day,” said Shahram Ebadollahi, vice president, innovation and chief science officer at IBM Watson Health.

The collaboration also uses IBM Watson Health Cloud, which gathers information on nutrition, medical history and lifestyle, among other factors, to present a personalized look at health. IBM already partners with Apple, Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic to provide access to this data.

CVS Health encompasses the CVS brands, including its pharmacy, MinuteClinic, Caremark and specialty programs.

This isn’t the first partnership for the two companies. In July 2014, CVS Caremark and IBM announced a $1.5 million grant program called “Technology Solutions for Smarter Health,” which supports the use of technology in health centers.

The use of the technology will begin at CVS at the beginning of 2016.

“Manning these two companies together, and doing it at a scale only these companies can do, will greatly affect the long term —and short term — for patients and do many of them good,” Ebadollahi said.

Court blocks release of NYPD chokehold death testimony

NEW YORK (AP) — The public can't see the testimony a grand jury weighed before declining to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man, an appeals court said Wednesday, citing longstanding reasons for grand jury confidentiality.

"The public interest in disclosure was outweighed by the dangers inherent in violating the secrecy of the grand jury proceeding," judges in the state Supreme Court Appellate Division's Second Department wrote.

Grand juries have operated for centuries behind closed doors, for reasons ranging from shielding witnesses to protecting the rights of targets who don't get charged. Transcripts are rarely disclosed — with some notable exceptions, as after an officer wasn't indicted last year in the killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Wednesday's ruling echoed a lower-court decision in the case of Eric Garner, whose fatal encounter with police was recorded on video.

But city Public Advocate Letitia James, the New York Civil Liberties Union and theLegal Aid Society said they would appeal. They're seeking the transcripts, detailed descriptions of evidence and other documentation in the Garner case, which was fueled by the online video and led to widespread protests about police treatment of minorities.

"The public deserves to know what happened with that grand jury and why what we saw with our eyes did not match the failure to indict those responsible for Eric Garner's death," James said in a statement.

Garner's relatives were disappointed in the decision, as they feel releasing the information is the only way to address their doubts about the fairness of the grand jury process, said one of their lawyers, Josh Moskovitz.

A bystander's video showed the unarmed Garner repeatedly pleading, "I can't breathe!" as Officer Daniel Pantaleo took him to the ground with an arm around his neck. Pantaleo was attempting to arrest Garner on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes on a Staten Island street.

The medical examiner ruled that Garner was killed by neck compressions from the chokehold and his positioning during police restraint. The New York Police Departmentbans chokeholds; Pantaleo said he instead used a permissible takedown maneuver.

Former Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, who took the case to the grand jury before being elected to Congress this May, successfully asked a judge last winter to release such details as the number of witnesses. But his and other prosecutors' offices have argued against releasing the transcripts, noting that grand jurors and witnesses expect confidentiality to assure them they won't be subjected to public criticism for participation.

Acting Staten Island DA Daniel Master declined to comment.

The request came amid an ongoing debate over whether lawmakers should make grand juries more transparent, particularly in police killing cases. The NYCLU and others argued that releasing the Garner case transcripts would help lawmakers decide what to do.

But appeals judges said it wasn't clear how the information "would inform legislative debate beyond the facts that are already publicly known of the case."

Thursday's forecast: More scorching heat South, West, East

Late July heat will continue unabated for much of the country Thursday, though a few showers in portions of Florida, the Northeast and the Southwest might help ease the worst of it.

West: Parts of the Southwest and Four Corners will see some afternoon thunderstorms. Temperatures will soar into the 90s and 100s in much of the Far West, except for right along the coast.

Central U.S.: Blistering heat and humidity will roast the central and southern Plains on Thursday. Some showers and storms are also possible in the central Plains.

East: Heat and humidity will be the rule for most of the East Coast and Southeast. A cold front will trigger some thunderstorms in the afternoon in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Florida's ongoing soggy pattern continues Thursday.

Weather history for July 30: In 1965, the temperature rose to 107 degrees in Portland, Ore., tying an all-time record high. In 1999, the dew point in Chicago rose to a record high of 83 degrees.

Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry starred in an old Windows 95 instructional video

In the mid ’90s, Friends was the biggest thing on TV, and Windows 95 was a breakthrough operating system that introduced millions of users to Microsoft.

And this unbelievable Microsoft video, unearthed by a brilliant YouTube user, brings the two together for “the world’s first cyber sitcom” — also known as an instructional video — starringJennifer Aniston (sporting “the Rachel”) and Matthew Perry.

The video is an amazing relic of the ’90s, a time when “personal computing” was a brand new thing, fax machines were all the rage, and saxophone interludes still punctuated every joke people made on TV.

Watch the video below — trust us, it’s worth your time.

In the mid ’90s, Friends was the biggest thing on TV, and Windows 95 was a breakthrough operating system that introduced millions of users to Microsoft.

And this unbelievable Microsoft video, unearthed by a brilliant YouTube user, brings the two together for “the world’s first cyber sitcom” — also known as an instructional video — starringJennifer Aniston (sporting “the Rachel”) and Matthew Perry.

The video is an amazing relic of the ’90s, a time when “personal computing” was a brand new thing, fax machines were all the rage, and saxophone interludes still punctuated every joke people made on TV.

Watch the video below — trust us, it’s worth your time.

Judy's sweat-stained 'Wizard' dress to sell

A sweat-stained dress worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz could become one of the world's most expensive costume dresses if it sells at auction later this year for more than an expected $1 million.

Who could ever forget Dorothy Gale's blue-and-white gingham dress? It's one the most memorable dresses in film history, one as unmistakably American as a Kansas cornfield.

Even better is the tell-tale imprint of the iconic American actress/singer who wore it in the 1939 classic.

"What is great about this is it has signs of use: There are sweat stains around the neck, but it is still in fine condition,” Catherine Williamson, director of entertainment memorabilia at Bonhams, told the SWNS news service.

Bonhams is set to auction the dress, at a starting price of $1.2 million, at its "Treasures from the Dream Factory" sale on November 23 in New York.

If the dress hits this price tag, it will become one of the most expensive dresses in history — as much thanks to Garland's star quality as its prominence in a beloved film.

"Judy Garland is in the top tier for collectability alongside Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, and this costume is in the top ten of dresses," Williamson says. "I think the market will be international."

Although Garland was a 17-year-old starlet at the time, the dress was designed to make her look closer in age to her 12-year-old orphan character. Wizard helped make her a global star, as famous for her troubles as her talent.

Williamson believes the universal appeal of Wizard will mean high levels of interest for this sale.

"The dress is one of those costumes which are instantly identifiable," she says. "You immediately know it was Judy Garland who wore it as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz. It is the costume she wears throughout the film, which is a great movie and the definition of a classic... It is a privilege to be selling it."

Demand for props and costumes from Wizard is at a high. Even a "test dress," which wasn't used on screen, sold for $245,265 last year at Bonhams, Williamson says.

The Lion costume, however, sold for a staggering $2.9 million.

And Dorothy's ruby slippers?  Researchers say four pairs of the sparkly shoes were made for the film; one pair is in the Smithsonian in Washington. In 2011, a pair used for close-up shots failed to sell at auction for $2 million, but they were acquired for an unknown price by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2012 for its planned museum.

Garland's life of celebrity and tribulation is by now well documented and contributes to the reverence with which she is held by many of her fans. As a child star she became addicted to drugs. She married five times, had three children, including eldest Liza Minnelli, but she struggled with mental health problems and addictions throughout her life.

The actress died in 1969 at age 47 after taking an accidental overdose of barbiturates in London.

'Wet Hot American Summer' goes back in time

That's three-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper, spectacularly cheesy in a pink shirt, teaching wide-eyed kids all about his passion for theater.

And yes, that's his stage partner Amy Poehler, equally giddy and every bit as exuberant, in the preposterous, eagerly anticipated Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp. 

The 2001 cult movie about counselors at a sleep-away camp, a flop that morphed into an unlikely fan darling, returns  Friday on Netflix as an eight-episode prequel set earlier in the summer of 1981.  The original cast, including Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Cooper and Poehler, is back for a hot-blooded romp at Camp Firewood, a low-rent institution in Maine. And they're joined by new additions including Jason Schwartzman,Josh Charles, Lake Bell and Jon Hamm. More than a decade later, the actors play (slightly) younger versions of their original characters, clad in standout '80s garb: cut-off denim shorts, friendship bracelets and tube socks. Some spent only a day or two on set.

"We’d been talking about it in a sort of pie-in-the-sky kind of way for a really long time," says co-creator Mike Showalter. "Around the time of the 10-year anniversary of the movie, there were some retrospectives, (and) there was some excitement around this thing that keeps on going."

Schwartzman came on board after he geeked out over the original, which earned $295,000 at the domestic box office but had a steady afterlife on DVD and Netflix.

“I saw it shortly after it came out and it instantly was something I knew I’d be referring to and drawing on from here on out. It had a profound effect on me, to say the least,” he says. “It was a feature film that felt like anything could happen at any moment. That was an exciting thing for me to watch.”

Being on set, he says, was “super-surreal. I’m looking around at these people who have had a big impact on me as these characters. You need a character like my guy, a camp counselor who is a bit of a fuss bucket. He’s the guy who’s the same age as them in theory, but he would not get invited to hang out with them very often. He plays by the book. He likes having authority.”

Like the original, the series is truly an ensemble. Some of the actors have soared professionally — Cooper starred in last year's American Sniper, and Banks directed the summer hit Pitch Perfect 2 and has a key role in the blockbuster Hunger Gamesmovies.

This time, summer kicks off at Firewood with the arrival of campers — who engage in a burp-off, among other misadventures — and an undercover reporter (Banks) set out to write an exposé. One counselor (Bell) elicits lustful looks. Another (Rudd) preens and does push-ups. Ben and Susie (Cooper and Poehler) craft the mother of all theater productions, with the help of a washed-up stage veteran (John Slattery). And across the lake, a rival preppy counselor (Charles) seethes and plots.

Charles, who also is appearing on this season’s Masters of Sex, based his character, Charles Blake, on the villains from classic ‘80s movies such as Pretty in Pink and The Karate Kid. “Doesn’t he know that caviar and corn dogs don’t mix,” snarls Charles upon spying his girlfriend being wooed by Rudd.

Charles was a "big fan" of the original film. “My friends were in it and the idea to be with them, for a couple of weeks, giggling, was too good to be true,” he says. “I didn’t bother to ask questions.”

What did he take away from the experience? “That I love to laugh. I love doing comedy. And how fun it was to have a little bit of a hair extension with Blake? That wisp of blond, that frosted hair, it was the icing on the douche cake.”

Bell was a new mom when she turned up to play a teenager, after being offered the role by her friend David Wain, who wrote (with Showalter) and directed both Wet Hotprojects and appears as an Israeli soccer coach.

“This was the first job I did after giving birth. Because I am friends with most of the people on the cast, I felt it was a safe place to re-enter the world of acting. It was like family,” she says. “I was loopy on hormones. Having to play sexy time with my friends, it was hard to keep a straight face. I was breastfeeding between takes. I was feeling like a maniac. I hid behind my hair.”

In the original film, Michael Ian Black’s McKinley was in love with Cooper’s Ben — they wound up getting hitched by the lake. For him, coming back was a no-brainer.

Does he have any insights about Wet Hot American Summer's bizarre enduring appeal?

“I have no idea because it’s so stupid in the best possible way. Maybe it’s unabashed silliness. It’s so gleefully dumb. It’s so exuberant,” Black says. “If you’re looking for anything beyond what you’re seeing in front of you that very second, you’ll be disappointed. It exists moment to moment, just like youth.”