New Year's Diversity

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Revelers come from far and wide for New Year's celebration

Posted: December 31st, 2010 -- 03:50 PM ET

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Jim Spellman
CNN All Platform Journalist

Times Square, New York (CNN) — There really is no place like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. People come from all over the country, even all over the world, to be part of the celebration. With the midnight ball drop still many hours away, tens of thousands of revelers have already filled Times Square.

Jennifer Dudley drove overnight from Detroit with four of her friends to get a front row seat.

“Why? Because we love the guys. We support them. They give us love so we love them back.”

“The guys” in question are New Kids on the Block. The Kids may not be so new anymore, and at 30 years old neither is Jennifer, but they are performing in Times Square tonight along with their one time boy-band rivals The Backstreet Boys.

Dudley has been obsessed with NKOTB since she was 8 years old. She is partial to Donnie Wahlberg. Her homemade sign reads “Donnie-Kiss me at Midnight please!”

Their group calls themselves Team Betty. None of the five women have been to Times Square for New Year’s Eve before, but they often travel to see “the guys.” Earlier this year they even went on a New Kids on the Block Caribbean cruise.

Her teammate, Christy Sims, 35, is hoping to make a New Year’s Eve love connection.

“My husband is New Kid Jonathan Knight, he just doesn’t know it yet.”

Not everyone here is a NKOTB fan. Victoria D’amico, 35, came all the way from Vancouver to be a part of the big celebration. She took a red-eye flight and arrived at 3 am.

“Vancouver is like snoozeville compared to Times Square. Now I know what all the excitement is about.”

She is even making a love connection of her own, strolling arm-in-arm with Terry Manning, a man she call’s her “redneck boyfriend.” He is sporting a camouflage Harley Davidson baseball cap. She’s wearing an elegant red top coat and high heels.

In another environment they may seem an odd couple, but not in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

“I’ve been watching it on TV since I was a little girl. Now I’m finally here. This is a memory in the making.”

Polly Isran is strolling through the crowd with a group of friends. She came from Chicago to watch the ball drop, but won’t actually be watching it along with crowd.

“My friend has an apartment at Times Square right at 47th and Broadway. Were going to watch it on TV.”

She eyes my CNN ID badge before saying that there are two things that make watching it on TV better than watching in person.

“The bathroom is key, plus we can watch Anderson Cooper.”

Memories Of New Year's 2009 - 2010

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Memories Of New Year's 2008 - 2009

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Memories Of New Year's 2007 - 2008

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No News Is Good News...

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...But it leaves me with not much to post... So here is a pretty picture of our pretty guy doing one of his pretty smiles or giggles. Enjoy!

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KG On Sarah Palin & New Year's Eve

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Kathy Griffin on Sarah Palin - No Love Lost!

December 29, 2010 -- 06:50 PM EST


by Brenda Daverin


Kathy Griffin loves Sarah Palin... as a target for her caustic humor. Hard to blame Griffin, really. When someone provides her so much material to work with, expecting her to avoid it is asking a bee to ignore a field of flowers.

CNN decided to reunite Griffin with Anderson Cooper for its New Year's Eve show which airs Friday. Mind you, she was told she'd not be welcome back after she kept dropping the F-bomb. Looks like something changed.

Kathy Griffin's remarks on Sarah Palin were made during an interview she gave Popeater last week. She first cleared up the New Year's Eve show re-hiring, though, saying "the world's Anderson Cooper" told her there'd been a change in management. Explains that.

Popeater asked Kathy Griffin if she's watched "Sarah Palin's Alaska." She responded that she watched the first one, "...then I had to have someone hold my hair because I was vomiting the whole time." Never said she was tactful, did she?

But Sarah Palin interviews are something Kathy Griffin refuses to miss, because "...they have such thinly veiled contempt." As opposed to Griffin who wears as many veils over her contempt as a stripper at the end of her act.

It should be noted that Griffin has a sort of admiration for Palin, if only as material. Palin's apparent bitterness despite her supporters and tendency to paint herself as a victim in the face of making so much money off of being herself is candy to a comedian like Kathy Griffin.

It's doubtful Sarah Palin will watch CNN's New Year's Eve, regardless of who's on it. But you know if Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin could talk her into showing up, it'd be a ratings spike for the show and a source of talk for days.

Four Valium For N Y's Eve!!?

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Anderson Cooper Continues to Be Adorable With His New Glasses
12/29/10 at 5:45 PM
Kathy Griffin says that it's in her contract that CNN can pull her off stage if she swears during the New Year's Eve special she's hosting with Anderson Cooper. So she's trying to be on her best behavior, or at least she was during the preview clips that she taped with Manderson earlier this week. And yet even she can barely restrain herself when he starts playing goofily with his (oft-maligned) new glasses and admits that he's on a couple of Valium after a back injury. "That is my DREAM COME TRUE," she tells him. "Can you take four on New Year's?"


By: Chris Rovzar

A Useless Virtual Fence

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KTH: Virtual border fence a virtual disaster

Posted: December 30th, 2010 -- 03:00 PM ET

2 Comments

Anderson Cooper reports

Anderson = Peter = Lucy

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Thursday, 30 December 2010
Posted at 02:20

Like Anderson Cooper's New Look? Kathy Griffin Does!




We actually like Anderson's new look. It reminds us of another look we kinda like:

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Or as another blog would put it...



The greatest on screen duo since Lucy And Ethel, Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin are set to once again host CNN's New Years Eve countdown special.

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New Look, New Year

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DECEMBER 30, 2010
Anderson Cooper Debuts New New Glasses, Talks Valium (VIDEO)

First Posted: 12-30-10 08:42 AM | Updated: 12-30-10 10:13 AM

Anderson Cooper's transformation into serious newsman to newsman/daytime personality hybrid continues.

The face of CNN and future syndicated daytime talk show host, who will co-host CNN's New Year's Eve special with Kathy Griffin, previewed Friday's broadcast and showed off his new glasses while also admitting that he was on prescription drugs.

"Yes, I know, I look like Rachel Maddow," Cooper said as he showed off his new glasses (a follow-up from when he debuted an earlier pair of glasses this spring).

Griffin joked that Cooper's glasses were nerdy, and that their New Year's Eve competition "Ryan Seacrest would not be caught dead with those glasses on."

Cooper admitted that he was on prescription drugs for the interview.

"I threw out my back, and so I've taken two Valium for this interview, so I'm actually a little loopy," he said.

"That's my dream come true! Can you take four on New Year's?" Griffin responded.

WATCH:

The Witch Is Baaaack!

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O'Donnell slams criminal investigation as 'thug tactics'

Posted: December 30th, 2010 -- 11:13 AM ET

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Kevin Bohn
CNN Senior Producer

Washington (CNN) -- Republican Christine O'Donnell, who lost her bid for U.S. Senate from Delaware, is lashing out at reports the Justice Department and FBI have launched a criminal investigation into possible misuse of campaign funds for personal expenses, calling any such probe "thug tactics."

Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents have started the investigation, a source with knowledge of the probe confirmed to CNN. The source could not speak on the record because of the investigation is deemed sensitive. The source would not provide any further details and the FBI and Justice Department had no comment.

When O'Donnell ran in the Republican primary and in the general election campaign, she faced repeated questions about her finances, including the use of her home that doubled for a time as her campaign headquarters. She acknowledged using some campaign funds to help pay the rent but is adamant she did not nothing wrong.

The advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed complaints with the Federal Elections Commission and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware regarding her finances, asking for investigations of her alleged use of campaign funds for personal expenses.

"We've been warned by multiple high-ranking Democrat insiders that the Delaware Democrat and Republican political establishment is jointly planning to pull out all the stops to ensure I would never again upset the apple cart," O'Donnell said Wednesday in a statement after the Associated Press first reported the FBI and Justice Department were in the early phases of an investigation.

"Specifically they told me the plan was to crush me with investigations, lawsuits and false accusations so that my political reputation would become so toxic no one would ever get behind me. I was warned by numerous sources that the (Delaware) political establishment is going to use every resource available to them," she said in the statement.

Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney acknowledged to CNN that the U.S. Attorney's office in Delaware had agreed to review the initial complaint filed by CREW. However, Sweeney declined to say whether federal prosecutors and FBI agents had gone beyond the initial review.

O'Donnell's statement continued: "I have faith that our supporters and the general public will see right through these thug tactics. This is simply an Establishment trick to stop the anti-establishment Tea Party movement in its tracks. Heck, the Presidency is at stake in 2012."

O'Donnell's campaign manager, Matt Moran, said he and other staff members "have heard absolutely nothing" about any investigation beyond "unsubstantiated allegations and rumors that have been circulating in the press for months." He said the campaign will fully cooperate to make sure it is in compliance with all rules and regulations.

CNN Justice Producer Terry Frieden contributed to this report.

Airport In Peril

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Video: Passengers stuck days after blizzard

Posted: December 30th, 2010 -- 11:36 AM ET

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Randi Kaye reports


Weather may be better, but the travel situation at many airports remains an issue.

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Video: Airport misery lingers

Posted: December 30th, 2010 -- 10:38 AM ET

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Randi Kaye reports


Who or what's to blame?

Of Course There Was No Voodoo Involved

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Video: Aid worker freed from Haitian jail

Posted: December 30th, 2010 -- 11:00 AM ET

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Randi Kaye reports


Aid worker accused of voodoo is now free

The Youngest Everestist

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Video: Meet youngest person to scale Everest

Posted: December 30th, 2010 -- 10:45 AM ET

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Dr Sanjay Gupta reports


CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us why this teen, who scaled Mount Everest, climbs so high

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JORDAN ROMERO


Cute & Cutest


Dr SANJAY GUPTA