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As thousands of little ghouls and goblins and pirates and princesses head to the streets tonight for Halloween, authorities are asking parents and drivers to be extra cautious to prevent the night having a tragic ending.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office reminds parents to be prepared and consider safety when planning trick-or-treating routes and costumes.
Sheriff Jack Strain offered these guidelines:
- Walk with your kids up to the door.
- Stay in neighborhoods that are familiar to you.
- Be very aware of loose, flowing costumes. Many homes will have candles on the porch.
He said to keep the child-to-adult ratio low to ensure all children are being properly monitored at all time for safety.
“Don’t have one adult trying to manage large group of kids” – Capt. George Bonnett, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office said.
Kevin Foltz, spokesman for Slidell Police, said to make sure costumes are flame-retardant and light or bright in color. Dark costumes should have reflective or glow in the dark tape. Costumes should also be short enough to prevent tripping.
He advises use face paints rather than a mask that can obstruct both breathing and vision, and to make sure every child has a nametag complete with their address and telephone numbers and a flashlight.

Happy Halloween.

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Google and LG confirmed today the long leaked Nexus 4 smartphone, which will run on Android 4.2.
The Nexus 4 marks the first Nexus device built by LG, with Google looking to expand its partnerships and keep some of its partners thriving in the brutally competitive smartphone business.
“This is the first time we collaborated with LG to build a Nexus device” – Andy Rubin, who runs Android at Google, said in a statement. “They brought an extraordinary amount of talent to the project, and the result is a feature-packed device that feels great in your hand and blazingly fast under the hood.”
“LG is proud and excited to play this role in helping build the latest Nexus smartphone” – said Jong-Seok Park, CEO of LG Electronics’s mobile arm.
The Nexus 4, as previously reported by CNET, is an altered version of LG’s flagship Optimus G smartphone. The phone is one of the first with Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon processor, and features a 3G connection using GSM and HSPA+ technology. Unfortunately, a 4G LTE model isn’t yet available.

Nexus 4.

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As mammoth storm system Hurricane Sandy conspired to assault the most populous part of the United States, hundreds of thousands of people moved to higher ground and cities announced shutdowns that typically occur after several feet of snow.
The Washington region’s entire public transit system (Metro, Virginia Railway Express and the Maryland Transportation System) ceased operations. Schools, colleges and universities closed Monday, and some have already announced they’ll close Tuesday and Wednesday as well.
Cities north along the Eastern Seaboard took similar action. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) ordered the evacuation of Coney Island and Lower Manhattan, and authorities shut down the city’s schools and its subway system, effectively bringing the nation’s largest city to a near halt. More than 60 miles inland, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D) urged people to leave low-lying neighborhoods.
Even the New York Stock Exchange will close floor trading on Monday and move to an electronic-only system.

Hurricane Sandy.

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Oops. The internet pranksters at the 4chan message boards schemed up an elaborate hoax to fool Justin Bieber fans into thinking that their idol has cancer, which he certainly doesn’t. Not cool, 4chan.
The tricksters faked a tweet from Entertainment Tonight’s official account, reading “Pop star Justin Bieber was diagnosed with cancer earlier this morning. Bieber fans are shaving their heads to show their support.”
They doctored a few photos of young girls with shaved heads to make it appear that they were holding signs reading “Bald for Bieber.” They then created false images of more tweets – one from Justin, thanking ET for their support, and tweets from Kanye West and Chris Brown offering Justin words of encouragement.

Justin Bieber.

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Emanuel Steward (owner of Detroit’s legendary Kronk Gym and a standout trainer for boxers including Thomas Hearns, Evander Holyfield and Oscar De La Hoya) died Thursday. He was 68.
Victoria Kirton (Mr. Steward’s executive assistant) said Mr. Steward died at a Chicago hospital. She did not disclose the cause of death.
Mr. Steward trained, helped train or managed some of the greatest fighters of the past 40 years out of the Kronk, a dingy, overheated basement gym that produced world champions like Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard and Lennox Lewis.
Mr. Steward, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, worked closely with current heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko as recently as July.
Mr. Steward also worked since 2001 as a boxing analyst for HBO.

Emanuel Steward.

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dActor/singer Justin Timberlake and new bride Jessica Biel wrote their own wedding vows to keep the ceremony light and personal.
The couple was married by Hollywood director Bill Purple on Friday in Savelletri di Fasano, Italy, in front of family and friends including: Jimmy Fallon, music producer Timbaland and Biel’s former “7th Heaven” co-star Beverley Mitchell.
But despite being surrounded by their celebrity pals, the singer and the actress kept the nuptials as intimate as possible by exchanging handwritten vows by candlelight.
Timberlake tells People magazine: “(It was) very personal. (They were) filled with our love for each other and what this means for us. I can’t let more than 10 minutes go by without some moments of comedy so they were funny and heartwarming.”

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel.

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Apple’s move to price the iPad Mini at a starting price of $329 may preserve profit margins, but ultimately may cede some of the tablet market to the likes of Amazon and Google’s Android army.
The $329 price tag was viewed as a negative development among a few analysts and tech observers on Twitter. Indeed – the $329 price for the iPad Mini is tricky and appears to be designed to ensure iPad 2 sales are cannibalized instead of the latest version of the popular tablet.
Analysts were mixed on the iPad Mini pricing. The general theme is that the iPad Mini expands the total addressable market for Apple and strengthens its hammerlock on the tablet category. However – Apple could have delivered a death blow with a $299 price. Despite all the bluster about Google’s Nexus 7, the price difference between the Android tablet and iPad Mini makes the comparisons tricky.

iPad Mini.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers have gotten really good at making people who count them out look really bad in recent seasons.
If Sunday night is any indication, they’re getting ready to do it again.
Behind a smothering defense and revitalized running game, the Steelers overpowered the Cincinnati Bengals in a 24:17 win at Paul Brown Stadium.
The Steelers (3:3) entered Week 7 ranked 31st in the NFL in rushing, but they gashed the Bengals for 167 yards on the ground. They managed that despite missing both Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac Redman, not to mention Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey.

Pittsburgh Steelers.

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Sylvia Kristel, the actress who brought erotica into the mainstream as the star of Emmanuelle but found herself unable to escape its tawdry associations, has died of cancer at the age of 60.
Kristel became a global sensation in 1974 when, as a convent-educated ingenue, she appeared in the French film about a diplomat’s wife who embarks upon a series of sexual adventures.
The Dutch actress hoped that the film would be a springboard to Hollywood success, but she could not escape being typecast. “I was dressed but people preferred me naked” – she lamented in her 2007 memoir, Undressing Emmanuelle.
She craved fame but ended up with notoriety. As she told The Daily Telegraph in one of her final interviews – “I was on a train and I couldn’t jump off. What is it they say? Be careful what you wish for.”
Twice divorced and with her money gone – lost to alcohol and cocaine addiction, and to paying off her second husband’s debts – Kristel spent her final years in a small apartment above an Amsterdam cafe.

Sylvia Kristel.

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Megan Fox has become a mother to son Noah Shannon Green.
“The Transformers” actress and her husband Brian Austin Green became parents last month, but have waited until Wednesday to reveal their first son together to the world.
The 26-year-old star and her husband (whom she married in Hawaii in 2010) have kept the happy news to themselves since then.
Megan has been similarly private throughout her pregnancy, ending one interview when asked indirectly if she was to have a baby. She only later confirmed she was pregnant by posing for photographers with her bump.

Megan Fox.

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