National Spotlight

* According to a release on Martha Stewart’s martatalks.com Web site, she’s requested that the stay on her five-month jail sentence be lifted.

“Although my lawyers remain very confident in the strength of my appeal — and will continue to pursue it on my behalf — I have decided to serve my sentence now because I want to put this nightmare behind me and get on with my life as soon as possible,” Stewart wrote.

Stewart was convicted of lying and obstructing justice in an insider trading trial earlier this year.

* According to the Associated Press, more than 30 Texas high school football players and coaches were injured, two critically, when lightning struck near their practice field in Grapeland Tuesday evening.

All injured players and coaches complained of headaches and pain throughout their bodies.

* According to the Associated Press, Prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant case spent nearly $75,00 for expert witnesses and travel, more than $78,000 for investigators and more than $35,000 broadcast news clipping service, a total of nearly $400,000.

Bryant was charged with raping a woman in a Vail-area resort last summer.

* The nominees for the 2004 American Music Awards were announced last Tuesday.

Usher leads the nominations with four. Other nominees include OutKast and Kayne West with three nods each.

Jessica Simpson, Prince and Sherly Crow are among ten artists who grabbed two nominations each.

Winners will be announced Nov. 14 during a ceremony to be broadcast from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

* According to Reuters, a recent study published last Wednesday shows college students may be drinking more than previously thought.

The study was conducted by the Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.

Most research defines “binge drinking” as
having five or more drinks in a row, without counting how far past five the drinkers go.

The Berkeley, California-based nonprofit health research institute found that many of the 1,000 male college drinkers surveyed said they had 24 or more drinks in a row.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, one of the National Institutes of Health. Women were not included in the study.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 17 2004. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry