Barbara Harris, a triple threat actress who made her mark in films like Family Plot, Nashville, and Freaky Friday, has died. She was 83.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Harris died Tuesday of lung cancer in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Harris made a name for herself as an actress in the 1960s and 70s, earning a 1967 Tony award for her performance in Broadway’s The Apple Tree and an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her work opposite Dustin Hoffman in 1971’s Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
She made a name for herself on Broadway and in sketch comedy, noted as a co-founder of Chicago’s legendary Second City improv troupe and starring in numerous Broadway shows including 1966’s On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.
Harris was best known to audiences for her work onscreen in films like Nashville, Family Plot, Freaky Friday, and The Seduction of Joe Tynan. In Robert Altman’s Nashville, she charmed audiences with as a ditzy country singer performing “It Don’t Worry Me” and played against type as a philandering psychic dating Bruce Dern in Alfred Hitchcock’s final feature film, Family Plot. Families adored her for role as Jodie Foster’s body-swapping mother in the original 1976 Freaky Friday, while she an impression as Alan Alda’s wife in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979).
The actress left Hollywood for good in 1997 following her final two on-screen performances, nearly a decade apart, in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Grosse Pointe Blank.
Barbara Harris was born on July 25, 1935 in Evanston, Illinois. She graduated from Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago and promptly joined the Playwrights Theatre Club, a repertory theatre company there. After a sojourn in England with then-husband Paul Sills, Harris returned to Chicago, where she and Stills founded The Second City in 1959, which included Alan Arkin, Paul Sand, and more as original members.
Finding success onstage, Harris also began to guest star on television shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Naked City. She made her film debut in 1965’s A Thousand Clowns opposite Jason Robards. Other notable films included Mixed Company, Plaza Suite, and Peggy Sue Got Married.
She relocated to Scottsdale in 2000 and taught acting for a time before retiring from the profession entirely. She was married to Sills from 1955-58, but never remarried.
The defense in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s tax and fraud trial has rested its case without calling any witnesses. AP’s Chad Day explains. (Aug. 14) AP
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal jury has found Paul Manafort guilty on eight of 18 counts in the financial fraud trial of a man who just two years ago helped President Donald Trump secure the Republican nomination for the White House.
Manafort was found guilty on five counts of submitting false tax returns, one count of failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts, and two counts of bank fraud.
He faces a maximum of 80 years in prison.
U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III declared a mistrial on the other 10 counts. The judge gave prosecutors a week to decide whether they would seek a retrial on those counts.
During the reading of the verdicts, Manafort faced the jury expressionless as some of the jurors looked directly at him. Manafort’s wife, Kathleen Manafort, sat directly behind him in the gallery, grim-faced.
Ellis called Manafort to the podium briefly where he told the former political operative that he would not set an immediate sentencing date.
Ellis then turned to prosecutors and defense attorneys, complimenting them for their efforts. “I think the government and Mr. Manafort received very effective and zealous reputation from both sides,” Ellis said, standing at the bench. “Unfortunately, I can’t make that statement all of the time.”
Before he excused the jurors, Ellis said he would keep their identities under seal after jurors unanimously requested he take the action.
After the jury was dismissed, Ellis talked about the criticism he has received during the trial. He said he had spoken with one of his family members who referred to the “brickbats” that have been hurled in his direction for Ellis’ management of the case.
Ellis has been ridiculed by some for his open questioning of prosecutors’ tactics during the case.
He then chuckled and said, “In my Rome, I am far less superior than Caesar.”
Kathleen Manafort left the courthouse without commenting, shielded by two of her husband’s attorneys.
The verdict marked a victoryfor special counsel Robert Mueller, whose case against Manafort represented the first contested prosecution brought from the ongoing investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Though the Manafort prosecution is not related to Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling, the case has been seen as an important initial test for Mueller, whose legitimacy has been repeatedly questioned by Trump and his Republican allies.
Over the course of the trial, prosecutors painted Manafort as a liar in pursuit of a lavish lifestyle that was fueled by millions of dollars in unreported income stashed in foreign bank accounts and fraudulently obtained bank loans.
More than two dozen witnesses were called to testify and nearly 400 government exhibits were submitted by prosecutors during 10 days of testimony.
In their final appeal to the jury of six men and six women on Wednesday, prosecutors guided panelists through hours of government testimony, highlighting the alleged tax and loan fraud, the foundation of 18 criminal counts lodged against Manafort.
“Mr. Manafort lied to keep more money when he had it,” prosecutor Greg Andres said in the government’s closing argument Wednesday. “And he lied to get more money when he didn’t.”
Manafort’s attorneys, meanwhile, took direct aim at the government’s star witness, Rick Gates, who served as a trusted business partner to Manafort for a decade.
Gates, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy and lying to the FBI as part of a deal to offer evidence against his former associate, acknowledged during hours of testimony that he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort.
Defense attorneys also told jurors that it was Gates – not Manafort – who had complete access to his to the foreign bank accounts, which took in $60 million from their political consulting work for Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine.
Last Tuesday, Manfort declined to testify on his own behalf and his lawyers told a federal judge that they would offer no witnesses for the defense. Manafort attorney Kevin Downing later told reporters that the defense made the move because the government had “not met its burden of proof” in the financial fraud case.
Early in the case, prosecutors elicited testimony from custom clothiers, construction contractors, landscape designers, a realtor and a luxury car dealer who outlined Manafort’s prodigious spending habits, much of it supported by more than $15 million in unreported income that allegedly moved to the U.S. through offshore accounts in Cyprus, the Grenadines and the United Kingdom.
When they submitted bills to Manafort, the vendors said that cash – routed to them on wire transfers from unfamiliar international entities – ultimately landed in their accounts.
Bills for suits, sport jackets, shirts, an ostrich jacket and other attire amounted to about $1 million.
The trial attracted packed galleries to the federal courthouse each day, including for closing arguments, where a line to get inside wrapped around the block.
Those crowds and the rows of cameras outside the Albert V. Bryan Courthouse were the result of the looming shadow of both Trump’s connection to Manafort and his harsh criticism of the Russia investigation.
The fate of the case will no doubt have meaning for Trump, who has long sought to undermine the legitimacy of Mueller’s inquiry.
“This case is incredibly important to the integrity of the special counsel’s investigation going forward,” said Jimmy Gurule, a University of Notre Dame law professor and former federal prosecutor. “The focus of the Manafort trial may not be about Trump or whether the president sought to obstruct Mueller’s Russia investigation, but it speaks to the overall credibility of the Russia investigation.”
The verdict here does not mark the end of Manafort’s legal troubles.
The 69-year-old longtime Republican operative faces a second trial next month in the District of Columbia on related charges of money laundering.
A 12-year-old girl is recovering from severe burns after taking the viral “fire challenge” popular on YouTube and social media.
Timiyah Landers of Detroit poured rubbing alcohol on herself and the lit it on fire. She was rushed to the hospital, where she will require multiple surgeries after suffering burns on 49 percent of her body, Fox 2 Detroit said.
Brandi Owens, Landers’ mother, told Fox 2 Detroit that she had made pancakes for Timiyah and two friends and taken a short nap. She woke up to the sound of an explosion and saw her daughter running down the hall, on fire. Owens’ fianceé rushed Timiyah to the bathtub and sprayed her down with water, according to Fox 2.
Owens said in a statement for an online fundraiser for Timiyah that the incident “has shocked and shaken our entire family to the core.”
The fire challenge has been around since at least 2012. It involves pouring rubbing alcohol on yourself and then lighting it on fire before rushing to a bathtub or other body of water to extinguish it, all while filming. Because rubbing alcohol is a thin liquid, it usually burns quickly and sometimes does no harm.
Timiyah and the Georgia boy are not the only children who have been injured in the challenge. Two incidents in 2014 made headlines when boys in Kentucky and California were hospitalized in the span of a few days after setting themselves on fire.
As with Timiyah, most kids appear to encounter the challenge through YouTube.
Owens told the Free Press that “I don’t want to see another parent in my situation at all. It’s not good and its devastating.” She warned parents to “look a little bit more at what (their kids) are watching on social media.”
She said that she wants YouTube to ban all videos of the fire challenge. A YouTube spokesperson said in an email that “YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit content that’s intended to encourage dangerous activities that have an inherent risk of physical harm or death. We remove flagged videos that violate our policies.”
A search on YouTube on Tuesday morning revealed at least one dozen “fire challenge” videos remained on the site.
Owens told the Free Press, “If they’re not willing to do anything about it, then I’m just going to sue them.”
An online fundraiser for Landers was started on Monday and has raised $2,330 so far. Owens said she was blown away by the response but that it was sorely needed. “I don’t have the money for the future” recovery efforts, she said.
Landers is currently on a ventilator and can’t speak, but Owens said “she’s very calm, she’s very strong.”
England are on the verge of a huge defeat by India in the third Test despite the defiance of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes on day four at Trent Bridge. Read More
Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, has been found guilty of eight financial crimes in the first trial victory of the special counsel investigation into the president’s associates.
A judge declared a mistrial on 10 other counts the jury could not agree on.
The jury returned the decision on Tuesday after deliberating four days on the charges of tax evasion and bank fraud against the former Trump campaign chairman.
The outcome almost certainly guarantees years of prison for Manafort and established the ability of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team to persuade a jury of average citizens despite months of partisan attacks – including from Trump – on the investigation’s integrity.
The charges against Manafort were among the first resulting from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Tuesday’s verdict raised immediate questions of whether the president would seek to pardon Manafort, the lone American charged by Mueller to opt for trial instead of cooperate. The president has not revealed his thinking but spoke sympathetically throughout the trial of his onetime aide.
But Trump and his campaign were only a small part of Manafort’s trial, as jurors instead heard days of testimony about Manafort’s finances and what prosecutors say was a years-long tax-evasion and fraud scheme.
Manafort decided not to put on any witnesses or testify himself in the trial. His attorneys said he made the decision because he didn’t believe the government had met its burden of proof.
The classic Thunder Road race scene from Grease shows us that racing for pinks is risky business. But rerecording the sound effects with shitty mouth noises shows us not only how sound is an important aspect in visual storytelling, but also how easily it can ruin everything.
Riverdale is once again bringing in an ’80s icon for a major casting.
Anthony Michael Hall (The Breakfast Club) will guest-star in the highly anticipated flashback episode of The CW series playing the high school’s Principal Featherhead, who’s drawn into a game played by his students.
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
The episode, titled “The Midnight Club” and airing Nov. 7 at 8 p.m., finds Riverdale‘s cast, like KJ Apa and Lili Reinhart, playing younger versions of their parents on the series, like Luke Perry and Madchen Amick.
To celebrate the episode, The CW released actual high school photographs of its adult stars, including Perry, Amick, Mark Consuelos, and Hall’s BreakfastClub costar Molly Ringwald.
Apple has become the world’s first publicly traded company to be valued at $1 trillion, the financial fruit of stylish technology that has redefined what we expect from our gadgets. (Aug. 2) AP
Wall Street got fresh proof that stock market bull markets don’t die of old age.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, a broad gauge of the U.S. stock market, hit a fresh all-time high Tuesday, topping its prior January 26 peak of 2872.87. Stocks have been in recovery mode ever since the early-year price run-up gave way to a major bout of market turbulence that pushed the market down more than 10% from a high for the first time in two years.
The latest record extends a period of rising stock prices that began more than nine years ago and which puts the large-company stock index on track Wednesday to eclipse the 1990’s bull market as the longest in history at 3,453 days.
It’s not uncommon for investors to fear a market top the longer a stock market advance extends. But, more often than not, bull markets end when a recession hits or some kind of financial shock strikes.
But right now stock investors are in a buying mood as they focus on positives, such as a strong U.S. economy and corporate America’s robust profitability, and shrug off worries related to rising interest rates, trade disputes and recent economic turbulence in places like Turkey.
“As along as the U.S. economy is strong and growing, the job market is stable and growing, and corporate earnings are strong and growing, the market should be and will continue to be strong,” says Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial in Richmond, Virginia.
401(k) investors that have investments in index funds that track the S&P 500 have been rewarded handsomely both in 2018 and during the bull market. A person that invested $100,000 in the broad market index at the market low on March 9, 2009, would now be sitting on a paper profit of more than $320,000. A $100,000 investment in the S&P 500 at the start of this year would now be worth $107,500.
Here are three trends driving the greying bull:
Companies are making a lot of money
Corporate profits in the first two quarters of 2018 are growing at the fastest pace in nearly eight years. Second-quarter profits are on pace for 24.6 percent growth with eight of 10 companies topping analyst forecasts, following nearly 27 percent earnings growth in the first three months of the year, according to earnings-tracker Thomson Reuters.
“The principal driver of the stock market now is strong profit growth and the perception it will continue as the economy expands at a 3 percent clip in 2018,” says Nick Sargen, senior investment advisor for Fort Washington Investment Advisors in Cincinnati.
Despite the tit-for-tat tariff fight between the U.S. and China and other trading partners, the levies placed on imports of steel, aluminum and other products, has yet to cause widespread harm to the U.S. economy, which grew at a 4.1 percent pace in the second quarter, its fastest growth since the third quarter of 2014.
“For the time being, this has caused investors to shrug off the threat of trade wars,” says Sargen.
Lindsey Bell, investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York, says many investors still view the Trump administration’s approach to tariffs as a “negotiating tactic.”
For now, the main impact of protectionism is being felt abroad, in places like Europe, China and emerging markets. Still, it’s premature to declare the U.S. won’t feel the effect, as the bull run last year was fueled by strong global growth, Sargen warns. The market is vulnerable, he says, if the U.S. and China conflict worsens, but a rally could ensue if the conflict lessens.
Stock buybacks provide lift
U.S. companies continue to buy back their own stock at a rapid clip, which boosts their earnings-per-share growth figures because it takes shares out of circulation. Corporate buyback activity also represents a major source of fresh demand for stocks. After a record $189 billion spent on share repurchases in the first quarter, S&P 500 companies are buying at a brisk pace just slightly below the record level in the second quarter, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
“Stock buybacks have really juiced returns of those companies with the biggest buyback programs,” says Paul Schatz, president of Heritage Capital in Woodbridge, Connecticut.
So what’s an investor to do?
For now, hold tight, Sargen says, until there is more evidence that overseas economies are at risk due to tariffs.
It’s not uncommon for investors to move into the market when major stock indexes like the S&P 500 hit a new record, says Alec Young, managing director of global markets research at FTSE Russell. “New highs,” he says, “often beget more new highs.” He recommends investors with a long time horizon “stay the course with diversified portfolios.”
Cox recommends investors wean themselves off high fliers, such as tech stocks and small-company shares, and move into parts of the market that have not gone up as much, such as companies that sell everyday staples to consumers.
Schatz says going all in now doesn’t make financial sense.
“Now certainly is not the time to throw caution to the wind and invest aggressively,” he says.
Noah, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon on the latest tech-related news. Watch, then vote for your favorite joke at usatoday.com/opinion. Eileen Rivers, USA TODAY Opinion
An Apple car? Melania Trump shuts down cyberbullying? Amish Uber? A look at tech-related news.
You trust your phone to give you directions, but would you trust it to drive your car?
If the rumors about Apple are true, you may be able to drive a car that looks like an iPhone on wheels (late-night comic Trevor Noah’s description) by 2025. But the experience might not be as tech forward as it sounds. Noah reveals why he’s skeptical in today’s Best of Late Night. Take a look above.
And in other tech-related news, the first lady is trying to encourage kids to be good citizens online by avoiding cyberbullying. But there’s a kink in Melania Trump’s plan. Conan O’Brien reveals what it is.
After you watch our favorite jokes on all things tech in today’s roundup, vote for your favorite in the poll below.
England are on the verge of a huge defeat by India in the third Test despite the defiance of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes on day four at Trent Bridge.
Buttler made his maiden Test century and Stokes 62 in a fifth-wicket partnership of 169 that hauled England from 62-4.
But when Buttler was lbw for 106, playing no shot to Jasprit Bumrah, it began a slide that saw England lose four wickets for 10 runs to the second new ball.
The swiping of Adil Rashid and Stuart Broad took play into an extra half hour and, even though Broad became paceman Bumrah’s fifth victim, last man James Anderson helped Rashid survive for another 5.4 overs.
England eventually closed on 311-9, leaving India needing one wicket on the final day to complete victory and cut their series deficit to 2-1.
England shown the way
That England are staring at defeat is thanks mainly to an awful collapse on the second day, when they lost all 10 wickets between lunch and tea to be dismissed for 161 in their first innings.
Another capitulation looked on the cards on Tuesday when their top order again succumbed to poor technique and reckless shots.
Keaton Jennings and Alastair Cook both edged Ishant Sharma in familiar fashion inside the first three overs of the day, while Joe Root and Ollie Pope inexplicably flashed at Bumrah and Mohammed Shami respectively.
‘Outstanding!’ – Kohli removes Pope with ‘beautiful’ catch
Once again, England found themselves four wickets down with less than 100 on the board, the 31st occasion in 62 innings since the beginning of 2016.
Still, the straight-batted, dogged and patient resistance shown by Buttler and Stokes proved that at least two of England’s batsmen have the ability to rein in their attacking instincts and play proper Test innings.
Even when England do go down to defeat, the rest of their batsmen would do well to follow their example for the rest of this series and beyond.
Buttler and Stokes defy India
Buttler and Stokes were not only battling for their team, but also for their own individual causes – Buttler to show that his two half-centuries against Pakistan were not merely on the wave of stellar white-ball form, Stokes to justify his recall after being cleared of affray.
Buttler reaches ‘brilliant’ maiden Test century
They were magnificent in a compelling afternoon and early evening, leaving with good judgement, defending stoutly and scoring with sweet timing when the opportunity arose.
Buttler needed some fortune. He was dropped by diving wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant when on only one and edged through the slips on a number of occasions.
However, he also played glorious cover drives and raced through the 90s with three leg-side boundaries in one Shami over, the third of which took the Lancashire man to three figures and earned him a huge hug from Stokes.
Stokes was more solid, but also more circumspect. His 147-ball half-century is his slowest in Test cricket and only occasionally featured sweeps or clips off the pads.
As stoic as they were, the second new ball was always likely to present a huge challenge and when Buttler shouldered arms to Bumrah’s inswinger a review could not save him.
India made to wait
What made the efforts of Buttler and Stokes all the more impressive was the incisiveness shown by India’s four-man pace attack throughout the day.
The hosts were also helped by an injury to off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin that restricted his effectiveness.
Just as the tourists were beginning to tire, they were able to take the second new ball and Bumrah launched their surge for victory.
The delivery after Buttler’s misjudgement, Jonny Bairstow, batting with a broken finger, had his off stump removed with a beauty that held its line.
Then, in Bumrah’s following over, Chris Woakes could only glove a vicious bouncer.
‘Great’ Bumrah bouncer sees off Woakes
When Stokes edged Pandya to second slip the game seemed certain to end on Tuesday evening, but the hitting of Rashid and Broad added 50 for the ninth wicket, even if Rashid was caught off a Bumrah no-ball and dropped at third slip by Virat Kohli.
When eight extra overs were added to the end of the day, Broad finally edged Bumrah to second slip, yet Anderson bravely stood firm in the evening sunshine to massive cheers from the home fans.
In all, England’s last two wickets have eaten up an hour and 17 minutes.
‘Buttler’s innings was incredible’ – what they said
Ex-England captain Michael Vaughan: “Buttler and Stokes played the Test match way with great patience and skill when the ball was doing plenty.
“As they batted more and more time I thought it was a partnership which I hope the team was studying.
“I hope Pope, in particular, was watching Buttler. The England team all like to play their strokes but when they play at their best they give themselves a chance.
“It’s not being negative, you just don’t have to go to high-risk shots in Test cricket.
“I’m pleased they have got into tomorrow.”
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar: “It was an incredible innings from Buttler. He curbed his natural instincts and then played some brilliant shots.”
Stuart Broad has been fined 15% of his match fee and given one demerit point for this send-off to India’s Risabh Pant on Sunday
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