How a Tropical Storm Arthur Forms Off Florida

Tropical Storm

Today News In USA - With a holiday weekend on the horizon, the National Hurricane Center says the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season is gradually becoming more organized off Florida. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says a tropical storm watch is in effect for the state's east coast, from Fort Pierce to Flagler Beach. As of early Tuesday afternoon, the storm was located 80 miles east-southeast of Cape Canaveral, reports CBS Miami. It was moving to the northwest at near 5 mph with maximum sustained winds of near 40 miles per hour. The National Hurricane Center says Arthur is expected to strengthen in the next 48 hours. The storm is forecast to produce rainfall accumulations of 1 to 3 inches, mainly across the eastern Florida peninsula. A tropical storm watch was in effect for a swath of Florida's east coast, and the National Hurricane Center in Miami urged those as far north as parts of Virginia to monitor Arthur's path. Off Florida's Space Coast beaches - the closest to Arthur - the sky was cloudy and winds fairly normal, said Eisen Witcher, assistant chief of Brevard County Ocean Rescue. Red flags warned of rough surf, and beachgoers were advised to get into the water only in areas with manned lifeguard stands. But overall, Witcher said, "it's business as usual." Red flags also flew at Daytona Beach. By mid-day, a dozen swimmers had been aided by lifeguards when they got caught in a rip current. On any given day, 15 to 20 swimmers need help, said Tammy Marris, spokeswoman for the Volusia County Beach Patrol. There were no official warnings for other states, but forecasters started to warn of rain, heavy surf and swells, and potential rip tides. The hurricane arthur center urged those all the way north to parts of Virginia to monitor Arthur's progress. 

On North Carolina's Outer Banks, the motel Shutters on the Banks is completely booked for the holiday weekend, general manager John Zeller said, despite National Weather Service forecasts for potentially heavy rain, gusty winds and isolated tornadoes late Thursday and Friday. "We have received some cancellations but not too many," he said. "Basically we are telling people to kind of wait and see what happens. We're a little too far out at this point. I think everybody is kind of watching the weather." He said the motel has a 72-hour advance notice on cancellations but will waive it if the storm's track head toward the area or warnings are issued. In Folly Beach, South Carolina, dozens of people fished from the pier under sunny skies Tuesday. Others surfed on the gentle swells, sunbathed and looked for shells. In Savannah, rooms in the downtown historic district were expected to be at least 80 percent full for the Fourth of July weekend, when crowds back the beach on neighboring Tybee Island. Hotel managers and vacation rental owners were watching forecasts, hoping the storm will stay off Georgia's 100-mile coastline. Cancellations aren't when storms approach, but those calls weren't coming in Tuesday afternoon, Marinelli said. Tropical Storm Arthur was expected to begin a northwestward motion on Tuesday followed by a turn to the north on Wednesday, CBS Miami reports. On the forecast track it will remain offshore and move east of the Florida coastline during the next day or so.

Serena Venus Williams Leaves Wimbledon After Illness

Serena Venus Williams

Today News In USA - Serena Venus Williams is having a rough time at this year’s Wimbledon. Something is VERY wrong with five-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams, 32. During a doubles game with her sister Venus Williams on July 1, Serena looked disoriented and weak. That game was called off. And now, Serena has had to retire from the ENTIRE tournament! Serena Williams Pulls out Of Wimbledon: Tennis Player’s Sudden Viral Illness Poor Serena. After the game began, the umpire noticed Serena’s odd behavior and talked with she and her sister. The tennis star has been diagnosed with a viral illness. How devastating for Serena. Serena Williams Defeated In Shocking Upset By Alize Cornet Serena opened the June 28 game strong, but Alize ended up defeating her 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. “I think everyone in general plays the match of their lives against me …” Serena said after the game, according to ESPN. What do YOU think about Serena pulling out of Wimbledon due to illness, HollywoodLifers? Just days after an unceremonious singles defeat in the third round at Wimbledon, Serena Williams was suffering from a "viral illness" and had to withdraw from her doubles match with sister Venus. The sisters played through the third game (they lost all three) before walking off the court hand-in-hand.

Orange is the New Black New Season

Orange is the New Black

Spoiler alert: if the following questions intrigue you, you are caught up on Netflix's Orange is the New Black and you're probably as excited as I am that season two has finally arrived. Did Piper kill Pennsatucky? If Piper really did kill Pennsatucky, will the time added to her sentence mean we'll soon be looking forward to a season three? Reality alert: the United States female prison population has increased 800% in the last three decades. For now, prison may be our best available option to deal with these kinds of criminals. The Women's Prison Association is a New York-based advocacy group that recently developed an incarceration alternative called "Justice Home", which is designed to help female offenders address the underlying issues that led them to commit their crimes, instead of simply packing them off to prison. In New York alone, one-third of women released each year are back in prison within three years. Just take the case of Bridgette Gibbs, a veteran of the US criminal justice system whose story would work neatly as background for many of the characters in Orange is the New Black. Desperate to get her children back, Gibbs managed to kick her habit. "I like this life better," she told me. Real prisons weren't designed to accommodate white, upper middle-class ladies with college degrees like Kerman. A new report out last week found that 59% of the US prison population is black or hispanic, despite those ethnic groups making up 29% of the population. And while Kerman's very middle class-ness may have made her prison experience that much more challenging, it provided her with a support system that made her post-prison life a whole lot easier. 

Hoisting an entire 13-episode season of a compulsively watchable twist of comedy and drama is something of a sentence, and the cast of "Orange is the New Black" are the perfect crowd with which to be locked away. Piper Chapman (played by Taylor Schilling) Shining moment: Look no further than episode one: "Thirsty Bird." For those who did not have time to re-watch season one before the weekend, Taylor Schilling communicates Chapman's entire experience in prison in a single ugly cry that makes for one of her finest moments on screen. Runner-up: Chapman gets a breakthrough with her ex-fiancee Larry (Jason Biggs) in episode 9, the rollicking "40 OZ. of Furlough," when she gets the white whale of prison privileges. Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson (Danielle Brooks) Shining moment: Episode two, "Looks Blue, Tastes Red," emerges as the key chapter on Taystee. Runner-up: It is difficult not to steer viewers toward "A Whole Other Hole," in which Taystee and the other African American inmates (Litchfield inmates group themselves by race) inspire a prison-wide "Vagina Monologues." Daya Diaz (Dascha Polanco) Shining moment: Daya does not get the screen time she got in season one, but the narrative seeds of her sweet relationship with CO Bennett (Matt McGorry) and her effort to frame wild, outrageous CO Mendez (Pablo Schreiber) last season are sown to explosive, surprising effects in episode 10, "Little Mustachioed S***." 

Lorna Morello (Yael Stone) Shining moment: In almost every episode of "Orange is the New Black," the backstory of one of Litchfield's inmates is explored. Almost without exception, the stories posit the characters as victims of circumstance, but without giving too much away, the story of Morello is not just a move in another direction, but it makes episode four, "A Whole Other Hole," one of the best episodes in the whole life of the show. Runner-up: "A Whole Other Hole" seems to unpack revelations that should need their own season's worth of action to resolve, but in episode 10, "Little Mustachioed S***," the phenomenon of Morello levels up economically and movingly. Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren (Uzo Aduba) Of course, these are not the only reasons to watch "Orange is the New Black" season two. Orange is the New Black has always been a bit of a head fake. Creator Jenji Kohan has admitted she uses the story of WASPy prison inmate Piper Chapman to draw TV audiences into stories about the types of women who rarely take centerstage in more mainstream fare: a transgender woman, an older Russian woman, poor and undereducated black and Hispanic women and the mentally ill. That process continues to wonderful effect in the show's second season, as we learn more about the history behind a wonderful collection of characters stuffed into a federal women's prison. In particular, character actress extraordinaire Lorraine Toussaint cuts a blazing swath through this year's batch of episodes, as an O.G. who lands in the prison and has serious history with Danielle Brooks' longtime inmate Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson. On one level, Orange is a tragicomedy about society's fallen, from the poor and mentally disturbed folks filling up the prison to the working class schlubs who have to guard and care for them. As Vee returns to the prison, she has dreams of uniting the black inmates into a gang who will control everything, threatening the odd sense of harmony in this fictional prison. Tough as prison life is depicted here, Orange does avoid the harshest tones. The show's abusive guard, George Mendez (played by Pablo Schreiber with a gloriously bad porn star-style moustache), was put on leave last season; there seems to be little threat of rape or harsh violence among the inmates in the second season's early episodes.

The Fault In Our Stars Movie

Stars is a love story of two witty and engaging teenagers, Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), who have cancer. Tweets from local cinemagoers suggest there were few dry eyes when the film was released in Australia on Thursday. Stars took $US26.1 million at the US box office on Friday, and is projected to exceed $50 million for its opening weekend. Critics are divided but users on film website Rotten Tomatoes have given Stars a big tick, with an approval rating of 82 per cent. Green's book, his fourth young adult fiction novel, was a New York Times bestseller and he himself has been placed among Time's 100 'most influential people'. 

The year is shaping up nicely for both of the film's young stars. Five films to make you cry The Notebook - Nick Cassavetes' 2004 drama is a slow-burn tearjerker. Watch with ice cream; lover. Watch with the family, maybe. Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky star in this 1991 drama from director Howard Zieff. The movie adaptation of a heartwrenching love story is already winning in theaters The film, which earlier this week broke pre-sales records for a romantic drama, could make over $40 million in ticket sales this weekend and has a strong shot at edging out its main competitor, Edge of  Tomorrow, according to Deadline. The Fault in Our Stars is based on a best-selling novel by John Green, who probably contributed to the box office earnings when he quietly watched the film at an Indianapolis theater. 

The Fault in Our Stars author John Green is used to hordes of young-adult fiction fans clamoring for his novels. Now, the highly anticipated movie adaptation of his latest novel, The Fault in our Stars, starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, is rocking the box office as it hurtles toward a whopping $60 million opening weekend, according to early estimates. Paper Towns was picked up by Fox 2000 studio and will star TFIOS' Nat Wolff. Four months before Green's daughter Alice was born last year, Google+ hosted a "Fire-side Hangout" session to discuss President Obama's most recent State of the Union address. During the chat, Green's wife, Sarah, asked the president if he preferred the name Eleanor or Alice.

Kate Middleton Butt Photo Exposed

Kate Middleton

Kate Middleton - Sky News presenter Kay Burley has told the Duchess of Cambridge to buy a six-pack of big pants, after a photograph of the Duchess's bottom was printed in German daily newspaper Bild. While UK newspapers opted not to print the photo of Kate's butt bottom, the German newspaper has since followed up Monday's editorial with a cheeky piece entitled: “Look, dear Brits… These 10 bums are our Royal moments,” alongside a selection of 10 pert German backsides. The initial publication of the picture of Kate's behind prompted an international outcry and has rekindled the debate about how to protect the privacy of the Royal couple. In 2012, the Prince and Duchess launched a legal case against French magazine Closer that published topless shots of the Duchess taken while she was on holiday in Provence Chateaux. Kate Middleton’s exposed bum has come to Australia. 

German newspaper Bild has posted a shot of Kate’s skirt blowing in the wind, revealing her “bare bottom” in Australia. The photos sparked criticisms, with some blaming Kate for her seemingly lack of care for her modesty, while others questioning the paper’s decision to run the photos. The UK media decided not to publish the photos; hence, they were sold overseas. Australian newspapers and magazines also avoided the photos, but one newspaper refused to follow the media’s “antiquated code of etiquette.” The Daily Telegraph, a local paper owned by Rupert Murdoch, posted the photo in a piece titled, “Why should the media stick to an antiquated code of etiquette when Kate doesn’t bother to protect her own modesty?” The topless photos were discreetly shot from a private estate by Closer magazine.