Old Port Festial

he Old Port Festival is the largest one-day festival in northern New England, hosting over 40,000 people.

The Festival kicked off at 11am with a parade starting at the top of Exchange Street featuring mascots, music, dancers, giant puppets, stilt walkers and more.

New this year at the festival is the brand new Maine Made Arts and Crafts area with over eighty artists from throughout the state displaying and selling their unique works.

From 11am - 5pm the festival hosts seven musical stages.

New this year are the Sebago Rock of All Ages Stage, MPBN's Eclectic Stage, The Pony X-Press Exotic Petting Zoo and Pony Rides and a Bungee Trampoline from the Maine Rock Gym.

There are two children's activity areas, one hosted by the Children's Museum of Maine and the other by Kid's Town Amusements. Throughout the Old Port, artists, activities, food, and other fun surprises are guaranteed.

For Parade Celebrating Israel, an Effort to Include Those Closest to It

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For years, organizers of the Salute to Israel Parade have puzzled over a little mystery. While the annual parade attracts tens or hundreds of thousands of marchers and spectators — most of them American Jews — one group that might be expected to show up and salute has almost never shown up: Israelis.

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Yana Paskova for The New York Times

As grand marshal of Sunday’s parade, one of David Borowich’s duties is to get Israelis to attend.

There are an estimated 400,000 Israelis living in the New York metropolitan area, many of them dual citizens or longtime residents with children born here. But in proportion to their numbers, their participation in the parade has been “marginal,” according to Michael S. Miller, executive vice president and chief executive of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, a parade sponsor.

Parade organizers this year, which is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, have for the first time tried to reach out to Israelis and other Jewish communities long underrepresented, including Russian immigrants. But Mr. Miller said no one would know until the parade kicked off on Sunday morning at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue whether those efforts were successful.

If the Jewish population of the New York area is an estimated 1.5 million, as recent surveys indicate, then by the equation of an old joke, there are potentially 3 million opinions about the reason for the Israel Day parade’s Israeli gap.

Mr. Miller has a couple of his own. “For a long time, we were an English-speaking group of people organizing a parade in support of a Hebrew-speaking country,” he said. “They may have felt unwelcome.”

“Or there may be cultural gaps between American Jews and Jews from other parts of the world,” he added.

Israelis interviewed last week — some of whom have attended the parade and others who have not — saw a multitude of factors in play: cultural, political, religious, existential and some too complicated to explain to anyone not Israeli.

“These are very big questions, and I don’t know if it is possible to answer without going into a very long, long conversation,” said David Borowich, 38, a Manhattan financial executive who holds dual citizenship and has served in the Israeli Army. But in one sense, he added, the answer is simple: Israelis do not hold parades.

“Israelis have rallies,” he said. “They have demonstrations. The idea of a parade is kind of an American thing.”

As any politician will tell you, the ethnic parades of New York are not just parades. They are demonstrations in the literal sense: musterings of potential voters, beauty pageants of potential contributors, inventories of the ethnic loyalties that count most in a metropolitan area of a thousand intermingled peoples.

Jonathan Leader, co-executive director of the parade with his wife, Dina Leader, said one of the motives for broadening participation this year was simply to reflect more accurately the inventory of loyalty to the existence and vibrancy of Israel.

Orthodox Jews have long been a mainstay of support, he said, as have yeshiva students, and they are expected to be so again this year. “But we are now also reaching out to the Conservative and Reform communities, the Russian immigrant community and, of course, the Israelis to come and show their identification and love for Israel,” Mr. Leader said.

Shai Feinsod, 41, of Cresskill, N.J., an Israeli who has lived in this country for 10 years as a manager of an Israeli technology firm, said he had never been to the parade and did not plan to go this year. Instead, he said, many Israeli residents he knows have celebrated the 60th anniversary in social gatherings like one he attended last month.

“About 30 or 40 of us went to Rockland State Park for the day with our kids, and we spent the day talking about politics and singing Israeli folk songs,” he said.

FANFEST FANTASTIC FOR ALL-STAR FANS

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The All-Star Game has become much more than nine innings of baseball.

The game is Tuesday night July 15 at Yankee Stadium, in the last year of the famed ballpark. But the celebration begins July 11 at the Jacob K. Javits Center on Manhattan's West Side with All-Star FanFest.

The DHL All-Star Fan Fest features more than 40 interactive exhibits and attractions, Major League Baseball clinics and seminars, free autograph sessions with Yankees New York Yankees legends and Hall of Famers, and memorabilia.

Tickets for the FanFest are available, with sales already 70 percent ahead of last year for the same event in San Francisco.

FanFest runs through July 15 and tickets can be purchased at the door. But MLB has suggested purchasing tickets in advance, as they are timestamped, which allows you to decide the day and time you want to attend.

Ticket prices are $30 for adults and $25 for seniors, military personnel and children ages 3-12. Children 2 and under are admitted free.

All the events are free with the exception of concessions and memorabilia.

Seven-time All-Star Derek Jeter Derek Jeter and Yankees legend Yogi Berra are the spokesman for the event. And, not surprisingly, they had nothing but pleasant things to say about the five-day gathering.

"DHL All-Star FanFest is a unique event that will bring excitement and enjoyment to baseball fans of all backgrounds," Jeter said. "It is the largest baseball fan event in the world, and I can't think of a better stage to hold this type of once-in-a-lifetime experience than New York City."

Here is a list of some of the events going throughout the week:

The Javits Center is devoting 450,000 square feet to the event, 150 percent more than last year in San Francisco.

Cyber Ballpark: Interactive attraction featuring the latest MLB video and computer games.

The Diamond: Located at the center of Fan Fest, this attraction features daily clinics and appearances by MLB players, managers and other experts. Past appearances have included Cal Rikpen Jr., Alex Rodriguez Alex Rodriguez and Pudge Rodriguez.

FanFest Baseball Cards: Fans step up and test their pitching skills against life-size video images of their favorite players.

Video Batting Cages: Bat against images of MLB's best hurlers.

Steal Home Challenge: Compete against other fans in a 90-foot race to home plate.

MLB Legends: Free autographs from Hall of Fame players and Major League legends.

Hall of Fame Exhibit: The largest on loan from Cooperstown.

The Negro Leagues: A visual history of the Negro Leagues.

Hometown Heroes: Stories and images of Yankees history.

World's Largest Baseball: 12 feet in diamater and signed by some of baseball's greats, including Ted Williams and Hank Aaron.

San Diego Ready To Rock 'N Run

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The race starts Sunday morning at 6:30 in Balboa Park.
The 26.2 mile long route will starts in Balboa Park, winds through downtown, north on Highway 163, around Mission Bay and finally finish at MCRD.This is the weekend elite Kenyans, about 150-guys dressed up as Elvis and your average runner all come together to make up the sixth largest marathon in the country. NBC 7/39's Vic Salazar will be among the racers this year.On Friday, runners raced to the Convention Center's Fitness Expo to pick up their bib numbers, which they'll attach to their running shirts on race day.As thousands make their way around San Diego, NBC 7/39 will be bringing you the flavor of the 26-bands on the course. We'll have a mobile camera on the course providing a live view of each band live.In addition, there will be video on the Web site of runners as they cross the finish line, courtesy of our on-demand finish-line cam.

IPL Final: Visionaries rejoice as India's Twenty20 proves a massive hit

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The inaugural Indian Premier League reaches its climax today. But it had long ago changed the face of cricket forever. Like it or loathe it (the former considerably outnumber the latter) the tournament is not only here to stay, it seems ready to grow and grow.

Its progenitors have been bowled over by the dramatic events, the sceptics apparently knocked for six. Live crowds and television audiences have both met targets, albeit with caveats.

The IPL has regularly had the biggest audience share on Indian cable television. Attendances approached capacity in almost every franchise. It has also been a hit on TV worldwide, including the UK, despite the lack of English players.

Andrew Wildblood, the senior vice-president of the International Management Group, who drove the IPL as a TV event, said: "I think it is ahead of expectation on every count. This event has held India transfixed for the last six weeks. It's been on every newspaper, front and back page, and every news programme. There has been no evidence of consumer fatigue."

IMG threw the kitchen sink at it to ensure success. It has been a logistical tour de force (47 rig moves compared to six, for instance, in the last World Cup). They spent £300,000 on a spare plane, which has sat unused in Nagpur for six weeks, in case the first broke down.

The most surprising element is that Indian crowds have taken to it. For the first time, fans have supported local teams in numbers. But it has not quite taken all before it, and ticket prices for the semi-finals and final in Bombay were slashed at the last minute – some from £118 to £11. This was officially billed as "due to huge public demand as a huge goodwill gesture". That a tournament constructed on the altar of big bucks should suddenly discover such beneficence would seem to have certain contradictions.

But supporters in Bombay, whose local team failed to progress, would have to pledge allegiance to teams from Jaipur, Mohali, Madras and Delhi. Not that this seemed to matter on Friday when Shane Warne's all-conquering Rajasthan Royals (Jaipur) barnstormed to today's final.

There is no doubting the wide appeal. Setanta, the satellite sports channel who have shown the IPL in the UK, had their expectations exceeded. "We're delighted, it has been fantastic," said the director of sport, Trevor East. "Audiences dropped a little after the start but we expect them to pick up this weekend, and when English players are part of the league, hopefully from next year, there will be additional interest. Our ratings have been every bit as good or better than other broadcasters televising cricket."

The figures are not shattering – sometimes as little as 25,000 – but Setanta recognise they have a five-year deal and have lured thousands of subscribers purely to gain access to the IPL. They will broadcast the Asia Cup from next week.

For Wildblood and the IPL's commissioner, Lalit Modi, it has been a triumph, because all cricketing countries want a slice of the action. "Even in India people who wouldn't normally come to the game are coming," said Wildblood. "That's got to be good for the game."

E! Entertainment’s “Pageant Queens Gone Wrong Kate Rees

Katie Rees.

E! Entertainment’s “Pageant Queens Gone Wrong: 15 Pageant Scandals,” premiered on May 30 at 8 p.m. It featured the ex-beauty queen, Katie Rees, who was the former Miss Nevada USA. The presenter of the program was Alicia Jacobs, the former Miss Nevada USA and Mrs. United States.

In case anyone has forgotten, here are the facts again. Katie Rees, aka Katherine Rees, was due to compete in the Miss USA 2007 beauty pageant but she was disqualified in Dec. 2006. There was an issue of her being exposed in photos that showed her in compromising positions with other women.

Katie Rees’ troubles did not stop there. On Feb. 6, 2008, she was arrested on a charge of assaulting a police officer. It was alleged that she did it at a traffic stop in Las Vegas, at 3 am. When the officer confronted her about the offense, she hit the cop. Her mug shot is pasted below.

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HALCALI to Appear at Japan Day in New York on June 1

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The Japanese pop hip-hop duo HALCALI will be performing at the second annual Japan Day event at New York City on June 1. The performances of HALCALI, another Japanese artist named Shota Shimizu, and local bands Gaijin a Go GO and HAPPYFUNSMILE will start at 3:15 p.m. at Central Park's East Meadow.

HALCALI's two members, Yucali and Halca, have released 11 singles and four albums since 2005. In anime, the two performed several theme songs including Eureka Seven's "Tip Taps Tip" ending theme and Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z's "Look" ending theme. HALCALI made their American debut at Anime Central just this past weekend.

Brett Rogers

Tonight at 10PM, CBS Sports Elite XC is going to make its debut in Newark, New Jersey. There are several anticipated MMA Elite XC fights on the scorecard. One of those being the Elite XC heavyweight match up between Brett Rogers and Jon Murphy. This without a doubt is going to be a very exciting MMA matchup with two good fighters going at each other.

Brett Rogers comes into this fight with an unbeaten record of 6-0. He is a new rising star in the MMA world and all of his wins have either come by KO or TKO. This is why the CBS Sports premiere fight will be one MMA betting matchup to watch because it will surely end with a knockout. Rogers is fairly young at 27 years old who stands 6’5” and weighs 265 pounds. He is known for his intimidating looks and also for his devastating knockout power. In his most recent fight against James Thompson he knocked him out in the first round. He is eager for this fight and looks to do the same to Murphy. Currently Oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com have Brett Rogers as a -280 favorite heading into tonight’s fight action.

John Murphy is fighting out of Minersville, Pa., and holds a MMA record of just 4-2. He is very athletic and believe it or not, a very fast heavyweight. He will try to use his quickness against Rogers and catch him off guard with one of his punches. Murphy is a former college football player so he knows how to take some punishment and has a strong chin. He is a well rounded athlete and is going to be a good match for the undefeated Rogers. I expect to see fireworks in the fight early and often as I believe both fighters will stand up and duke it out. The MMA action will be quick and intense and I like Rogers to win this fight by knockout, late in the first round.

Bare facts about Kelly Sotherton and that wobbly bum...

et this. Kelly Sotherton has just agreed to a saucy photo shoot. Apparently, it's not quite Victoria Pendleton, but she's going to get her kit off. Now for the bad news - it's not today.

Today she is continuing her gruelling fitness regime that she hopes will bring home the heptathlon gold from Beijing.

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All smiles: Kelly Sotherton admits her current photocall is a little bit 'risky'

She blushes soon after sharing her secret with this suddenly alert audience. "Wait until you see these pictures. They're risky! I'm not saying what I'm wearing in the shoot but it's not very much."

Oh, go on, tell us a bit more.

"No. They are athletic shots but, um, I haven't got many clothes on. You'll have to wait until the summer. I'm not saying any more."

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Raising the sport's profile: Cyclist Victoria Pendleton

Pendleton is the six-time world cycling champion who bared all to promote her sport.

"It's a shame that women have to do this to be taken seriously and to get some space," scolds Sotherton. "Newspapers are only interested in the men. Why is that? Women are more successful than the men, we just don't get the coverage - unless we get our clothes off. That's bad."

It's not true - well, I'm here, aren't I? - but this leading lady remains unconvinced and she'll always say what she thinks. I'm not outspoken but it would be boring otherwise.

"I don't say bad things about people but you have to say what's on your mind. It's meant to be a country of free speech. I can't stand it, it drives me crazy."

Free speech? So let's talk about her bum. One of her former coaches spoke publicly about her 'wobbly bum', comparing her shapely behind to pop star Beyonce. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but meat and medals are unlikely bedfellows at this elite level.

"Yeah, my bum - look, I watch what I eat, especially when I'm preparing for competition. I'm not big, but I've been four kilos lighter than I am now and it still wobbles. I can't get rid of it. 'Every woman has a part of their body that they can't change. I get it from my mum. Even when I'm fit, toned, strong and doing deep squats, it still wobbles."

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Rivals: Sweden's Carolina Kluft (right) and Great Britain's Sotherton first and second respectively in the Three Event Challenge in February

This is turning into a thoroughly fine chat in the sunshine at her training base in Birmingham but we're going to have to talk track and field soon. This dedicated competitor, who once accused British athletics of tolerating low standards, today says: "We had a disaster after the Sydney Olympics but we have improved since 2006 and we go to Beijing in good health.

"We can't just bang out another talent - one in, one out - like they can in Russia or America. We don't have that gene pool.

"Now we have older athletes who are ready for what is ahead in China, the challenges of being so far away from home, people who know the standard required.

"Why would anyone only want to be the best in Britain? They should want to be the best in the world. I do. 'We can come back with six medals, I reckon, maybe two gold. I'm talking individual medals, too, not relay golds.

"You sense relay golds do not carry much credibility with the Commonwealth champion of the seven-event, two-day slog that she says is a "lonely test, without team-mates - a sport of physical, mental and emotional drainage".

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Shining light: Kelly Sotherton with the Silver Medal she won in the Womens Pentathlon Event during the IAAF World Indoor Championships in March

Britain, remarkably, has two medal hungry heptathletes. "We are good friends," says Sotherton of the rapidly emerging Jessica Ennis. "I don't feel the spotlight and expectation, because that's on Jess. She's younger, she's up-andcoming and she's improving.

"She's fantastic and I am the British underdog, even though my best performances come in championships. I just want to be the one who comes home with the medal."

She says this sentence with some force.

The chances of that happening increased when the absolutely dominant Swedish powerhouse Carolina Kluft announced that she would not be defending her Olympic title to concentrate on individual events.

Ms Sotherton, bronze medallist in Sydney, is not convinced. "Yeah, right. Anyone who believes her is a bit deluded,"she grins. "She's still on the team list and if it doesn't go as well as she wants it to in the long jump or triple jump, watch what happens. She'll turn up in the hep. She's trained all winter for it.

"But that's OK. It makes no difference to me, to my preparation or my approach to the event. I won't believe she's not going to compete until we're lining up on our blocks for the first event."

'Bring it on' is the clear message from Birmingham. Sotherton has just returned from warm weather work in Los Angeles, and TeamKelly includes a coaching entourage the size of a football team - almost one for each of the seven disciplines, plus a strength and conditioning coach, an exercise physiologist, a soft tissue therapist and a psychologist.

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Well grounded: Sotherton at her Birmingham training base

Nothing is left to chance and her extensive training regime includes a programme to improve her sight. Johnson and Johnson's Achieve - Vision, endorsed by the British Olympic Association' s elite performance director Sir Clive Woodward after sight training helped England's rugby team to win the World Cup, draws this opinion from Sotherton.

"There are seven muscles in the eyes and, like any other muscle, they need exercise," she explains. "Last October, I had my eyes tested for the first time in my adult life (she's 31). I wanted to get that extra one per cent in my performance. The test showed a minor problem, so I have been working with a computer programme.

"In hurdling, for instance, barriers are coming very fast, so sighting them quickly enables me to deliver the skill better and, possibly, a faster time as a result. The work has helped my focus and concentration."

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Coming on leaps and bounds: Sotherton during the Three Event Challenge Long Jump during the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham

There's no chance that improving vision might help with Sotherton's erratic javelin performances - the agonisingly weak discipline in her impressive athletic armoury, is there?

There's a nervous giggle now. "It's like a golfer having the yips. It's not like I've never done it. I lost the feeling and nobody could find it for me but I am quietly confident. I need to relax, not to worry about it too much.

"I've gone back to my old run-up. It worked at the World Championships. It was still a crap throw, just not that crap."

Her third javelin coach, she hopes, has helped iron out technical problems.

With her netball build (she played for Hampshire as a schoolgirl), Sotherton first competed in the heptathlon aged 12 and believes she has one more year of multi-eventing before concentrating on one event, probably the 400 metres, that she hopes will take her to London 2012.

The commitment this event demands might explain why she's single and happily living with the company of her four cats - Daisy, Pickles, Clarence and Kolo, after the Arsenal defender Toure.

Spare time is spent watching Arsenal at the Emirates. The politics of Beijing aren't on her radar - and she was surprised not to have been asked to carry the Olympic torch.

"I thought I might have been asked, as I am the only individual British medallist in athletics returning to my Olympic event, but nobody did. I have nothing to say about the politics. Honest to God. I know it is something to do with Tibet but I don't like to talk about things I don't know about. 'You may think I am selfish, or ignorant, but I am not going there for the politics, I am going there as an athlete. I am going to compete."

Trust me, you won't be able to miss her. If you're a keen sportsperson and want to improve your vision, go to www.acuvue.co.uk to find out about sports-specific eye exams and to download a voucher for a free contact lens trial.

Star Wars: Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry

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Fans of the original 'Star Wars' movie will remember the Death Star as a the moon-sized space station possessed of enough firepower to blow up a planet. 'Death Star' tells the story of this space station through the lives of the people who lived and worked there. It's a tightly written novel that matches the pace of the movie and keeps the reader engaged from first page to last.

What makes this book so entertaining is the way characters and events from the first 'Star Wars' movie are carefully woven into the plot. The first two-thirds of the book takes place prior to the capture of the 'Tantive IV' above the surface of Tatooine. Readers are introduced to a variety of new characters, some soldiers of the Imperial military, while are others civilians of one sort or another. Drawn from different backgrounds, these characters end up on the Death Star as it nears completion. They are there to serve the Empire in different ways: as engineers, as stormtroopers and even as bartenders.



By following these characters, the reader gets to see inside the Death Star in a way that simply didn't happen in the film. Not all those who work for the Empire necessarily subscribe to Imperial values and this is sharply brought into focus when the Death Star weapon system is tested on the prison planet of Despayre.

Not all the characters are new creations though. In the movie, there's an important scene where Governor Tarkin address a group of Imperial officers on board the Death Star. The scene itself isn't very long, but it neatly reveals the antagonisms between these men ostensibly serving the Emperor's agenda. Admiral Motti lauds the Death Star as the ultimate weapon, but in doing so incurs the wrath of Darth Vader. Tarkin, Vader and Motti are all key characters in the book and their motives and actions become much clearer and more detailed in the novel than they ever were in the book.

The real pay-off comes about two-thirds the way through the book where the plot starts tracking the events in the film. Some scenes from the film are re-told in the novel, but this time from a different perspective. Stormtroopers, TIE fighter pilots, artillery officers and even Darth Vader himself deliver radically different takes on familiar events. This upside-down view of things is hugely entertaining, and any 'Star Wars' fan who gets to this point will find the book very difficult to put down.

The climactic scenes are tightly paced, jumping from scene to scene at an almost breakneck pace as all the different plot lines are brought to their conclusion. Readers will of course know a great deal about what will happen simply because they've already seen the film, but the authors manage to maintain the tension right to the end through cleverly juxtaposing familiar events with those involving the new characters.

'Death Star' is a highly entertaining book that will be thoroughly enjoyed by any fan of the original films. Highly recommended.

Large fire burning at Universal Studios in LA

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LOS ANGELES, June 1 (Reuters) - Hundreds of firefighters are battling a large blaze that broke out on Sunday on a back lot at Universal Studios, site of movie and television production, a spokesman for a neighboring fire department said.

Burbank firefighter David Ortiz said that about 200 firefighters and two helicopters had been deployed to assist the Los Angeles County Fire Department. No injuries were reported.

A spokesman for the L.A. County Fire Department was not immediately available, but Capt. Frank Reynoso told CNN that at least one explosion had been heard at the scene.

Universal Studios, operated by NBC Universal Inc, is a unit of General Electric Co. GE.N.

Universal Studios Hollywood spans hundreds of acres and includes a theme park and a working movie and television back lot.