As the race for the White House enters its final months and both the candidates look to make their case directly to the American people, ABC News will provide comprehensive cross-platform coverage of the Republican National Convention in Tampa (August 27-30) and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte (September 4-6).

Coverage, led by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos along with ABC’s powerhouse team of political correspondents and contributors, will span ABC News’ broadcasts and platforms — including more than 14 hours of coverage on the ABC Television Network, 30-plus hours of live-streamed coverage on ABC News Digital platforms and Yahoo!, and extensive reporting and analysis on ABC News Radio. In addition, ABC News will be co-hosting a total of four newsmaker events with its partners at the conventions.

During the back-to-back conventions Sawyer and Stephanopoulos will be joined by ABC News’ powerhouse political team including:

• Senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl reporting from the convention floor
• Senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper covering the President’s re-election campaign
• “World News” weekend anchor David Muir covering the Romney campaign
• ABC News correspondent Cecilia Vega reporting from both conventions cities
• Senior political analyst Matthew Dowd, George Will, Cokie Roberts and Donna Brazile will be among ABC’s contributors providing analysis
• ABC News political director Amy Walter and Yahoo! News Washington bureau chief David Chalian anchoring special live-streamed coverage every night
• Senior Washington editor Rick Klein contributing reporting and analysis

The booming U.S. Hispanic population is challenging the conventional political wisdom in new and unexpected ways. ABC News will tap into the expertise and insights of Univision News as it explores the impact the Latino vote will have on November’s elections and beyond. Jorge Ramos will contribute to ABC News coverage in Tampa, and Maria Elena Salinas will contribute in Charlotte. In May ABC News and Univision News announced a joint venture that will launch a 24/7 news, information and lifestyle network primarily in English to serve the youngest and fastest-growing demographic in the country: U.S. Hispanics.

ABC News will be partnering with Univision and the National Journal for “Next America” events in each city focused on the Hispanic community and American politics. The events will be live streamed on the digital platforms of ABC News.

Convention coverage kicks off with a special edition of “World News with Diane Sawyer” originating from Tampa on Monday, August 27. Coverage will continue throughout the following weeks with all of ABC’s daily newscasts – “Good Morning America,” “World News with Diane Sawyer” and “Nightline” – broadcasting from the convention sites. George Stephanopoulos, who also serves as chief political correspondent and anchor of “This Week,” will co-anchor “GMA” from the conventions.

Terry Moran will anchor special editions of “Nightline” from throughout the conventions in Tampa and Charlotte, making ABC the only broadcast network providing viewers with convention coverage in late-night. “Nightline,” the most-watched broadcast in late-night, will dedicate the entire newscast to coverage of all the key moments of the day with analysis from ABC’s powerhouse political team.

Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor live primetime coverage of the Republican National Convention (#abcRNC) in Tampa for the ABC Television Network on:

• Tuesday, August 28 from 10:00-11:00 p.m., ET
• Wednesday, August 29 from 10:00-11:00 p.m., ET
• Thursday, August 30 from 10:00 -11:00 p.m., ET

Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor live primetime coverage of the Democratic National Convention (#abcDNC) in Charlotte for the ABC Television Network on:

• Tuesday, September 4, from 10:00 -11:00 p.m., ET
• Wednesday, September 5, from 10:00 -11:00 p.m., ET
• Thursday, September 6, from 10:00 -11:00 p.m., ET

Note: Outlined above are the confirmed primetime hours set to be broadcast on the ABC Television Network. ABC will finalize its coverage plans once the final convention schedules are announced.

ABC News Digital platforms will provide live coverage on each night of the conventions from 7:00-11:30 p.m., ET on ABCNews.com, Yahoo!, Yahoo! News, GoodMorningAmerica.com on Yahoo!, ABC News’ iPad & iPhone apps, as well as on ABC affiliate websites.

Live-streamed coverage will be anchored by ABC News political director Amy Walter and Yahoo! News Washington bureau chief David Chalian. They will be joined throughout the night by Diane Sawyer, George Stephanopoulos, “World News” weekend anchor David Muir, senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper, senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl, senior Washington editor Rick Klein, political contributor Matthew Dowd, and Yahoo! News’ White House correspondent Olivier Knox, senior political reporter Holly Bailey, and political reporter Chris Moody.

In addition, ABC News and Yahoo! News will host “Newsmakers Live” events in each city. ABC News and Yahoo! News will host a discussion with the architects of the Romney and Obama campaigns before a live audience of political influencers. The events will be live-streamed on the platforms of ABC News Digital and Yahoo!. Details to be announced.

ABC NewsOne, the network’s affiliate news service, will have correspondents Karen Travers and Brandi Hitt reporting live from the RNC in Tampa starting on Sunday, August 26, continuing through Friday, August 31. Travers and Hitt will also report live from the DNC in Charlotte starting on Sunday, September 2 and continuing through Friday, September 7.

ABC’s Cokie Roberts will provide analysis for ABC’s station, affiliates and clients throughout the convention weeks. ABC NewsOne will provide production support for over 50 stations and clients, including the ABC Owned Television Stations, ABC affiliates, BBC, NHK Japan, Univision, Al Jazeera, and Nine Network Australia.

ABC News Radio will provide extensive coverage of the Republican National Convention beginning Monday, August 27 through Thursday, August 30, and the Democratic National Convention from Tuesday, September 4 through Thursday, September 6. ABC News Radio correspondent Aaron Katersky will anchor live coverage each evening from 8:00-11:00pm, ET from both Tampa and Charlotte.

ABC News Radio’s team of correspondents – Vic Ratner, Ann Compton, Steven Portnoy and Alex Stone – will contribute reporting and analysis, as will Sam Donaldson and political analysts Steve Roberts and Trey Hardin. ABC News Radio will also provide digital coverage to over 400 affiliated radio station websites.

In addition, ABC News Radio also will provide coverage of both conventions to its digital partners at Slacker Radio and AOL Radio. Specially designed studio facilities will host ABC Talk Radio Row for more than 25 ABC News Radio affiliates from across the country.

Image Courtesy of  kellydelay

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Greed is a sin, especially when it comes to power, status, and above all: money. But since 35-year-old Guma Aguiar disappeared, last seen on June 19 in Fort Lauderdale, nasty and heated court battles have arose regarding who will acquire Aguiar’s $100 million fortune.

For those who knew Aguiar best, a successful business man that held a good reputation as a devoted husband and loving father, find it very difficult—almost impossible—that he would do what the media is considered Aguiar to have done: engineering his own disappearance.

Aguiar’s good friend Jerry Levine finds it very difficult to believe that he would just disappear, leaving his fortune and family. Levine told ABC News that Aguiar “was a very at ease guy, very comfortable in his own skin,” and that “he was funny, personable, charismatic.” Levine, who was also Aguiar’s filmmaker, finds it hard to believe that Aguiar would disappear in the middle of making a biographical documentary regarding Aguiar’s views on the Middle East, as well as his dedicated involvement with Israel’s sports teams.

The day after Aguiar was last seen, the early morning of June 20, his 31-foot fishing boat was found washed up on the shore with the engine still running and all of the lights still on. However, there was no sign of Aguiar himself.

So why would such a loving father with so much to live for just fake his own death or disappear? According to Levine, Aguiar also suffered from bi-polar disorder and depression, and seemed to be acting oddly during days leading up to his disappearance. Extremely stressed at the time of his disappearance, Aguiar was in a legal battle with former business partner, his billionaire uncle, Thomas Kaplan. In fact, the legal battle was over how to divide the $2.5 billion sale of the company that the two used to run together.

Levine describes Aguiar as either being extremely successful or nearly falling apart, just those two extremes and nothing in between.

“When he was at the top of his game, he could juggle like a juggler with, like, 12 balls. You’d see so many balls in the air. He really could do it, but when this disease would kick in, he’d lose grasp of that edge and all those balls would start falling down.”

But still as a close friend, Levine is positive that Aguiar did not commit suicide, despite rumors.

“I don’t think for a second he killed himself. It never even crossed my mind. A person like that was episodic, but still had his kind of capability and wasn’t all of a sudden going to take his life, certainly without leaving a note or doing something pretty obvious. The guy had a lot of guns that were accounted for. I mean, come on. You don’t want to die in the cauldron of a storm.”

Since no body has been found, one would think that those closest to him would be busy looking for him instead of fighting over his financial assets. Levine claims that both Aguiar’s mother, Ellen Aguiar, and wife, Jamie Aguiar, are known as gold-diggers.

According to ABC, “just a week after Aguiar’s disappearance, his wife and mother filed a flurry of legal documents seeking control of his assets and fortune.”

Now the two women are in a blow-out legal fight, making accusations against one another. Jamie claims that his mother was always just after his money, while Ellen is claiming that her son took off because his wife filed for divorce the very same day he disappeared.

Yet with no leads or evidence found regarding what has happened to Aguiar, the assets will not be granted to either of the women. A Florida court judge decided no woman will have control over his money and is giving control to attorneys that have represented neither of the women, until Aguiar is found—whether dead or alive.

Levine, as well as those who cared about Aguiar, is still holding onto a hope that is fading daily. “I still hope for the best, but the more time goes by, we’re expecting the worst,” he said.

The article Millionaire Missing: What Really Happened to Guma Aguiar? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

While zombie enthusiasts may cry foul, the rest of the world can rest assured that the Apocalypse is not yet upon us, after a man had his face literally chewed off in Miami over the weekend. It seemed like the perfect set up for any classic horror film – from ‘28 Days Later‘ to the tongue-in-cheek ‘Shaun of the Dead‘ – a homeless man attacked by a naked assailant in broad daylight, the creature gnawing at the flesh of his skull and seemingly impervious to bullets as Miami-Dade police tried to end the grisly scene.

Almost immediately after news hit the World Wide Web, millions of individuals on the internet, from real conspiracy theorists to those just enjoying the fun, accused the culprit of being the first sign of a long-awaited “Zombie Apocalypse”.

The actual truth is likely much more anti-climactic, though just as indicative of a rising problem: Investigators in South Florida have pointed in the direction of a designer drug being sold legally in stores under the guise of synthetic “bath salts”.

While nothing stands as official, Armando Aguilar, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of police, has suggested that the symptoms exhibited by the attacker, Rudy Eugene, 31, are exceedingly similar to past cases Aguilar has seen with individuals high on the same drug. And those symptoms? Perhaps not as far removed from that of classic zombies than one would anticipate.

“The cases are similar minus a man eating another,” Aguilar told ABC News.

“People taking off their clothes. People suddenly have super human strength. They become violent and they are burning up from the inside. Their organs are reaching a level that most would die. By the time police approach them they are a walking dead person.”

Though Aguilar is careful to exclude the potential side-effect of cannibalism as a usual symptom, he does admit to ABC News that in the recent waves of incidents spawned from the drug, there has been at least one previous case of an intoxicated individual attempting to bite another human. Fortunately, police intervention was successful that time around.

With other, more common, side-effects including paranoia, hallucination, agitation and an increased risk of suicidal behavior, one has to wonder what the allure of these “bath salts” is. Sold under names such as “Ivory Wave” and “Vanilla Sky”, the drug has managed to avoid status as an illegal substance on a technicality – though that hasn’t prevented the majority of states from taking legislative action to ban it.

Whatever the case may be, it stands currently that the increase in use of this new party drug may be the closest the world will ever get to that fabled “Zombie Apocalypse.”

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Washington, U.S.A. – Family Research Council (FRC) said that President Barrack Obama’s endorsement of same-sex “marriage” is disappointing but not surprising.

In an interview with ABC News, Obama announced that he now supports legalizing same-sex marriage. It was the second time in his career that Obama has appeared to reverse course on the issue. In 1996, as a candidate for the Illinois State Senate, Obama endorsed same-sex marriage. But since winning national office – first as a U.S. Senator, and then as President Obama had said that such couples should have access to all the legal rights and benefits of marriage through “civil unions,” but that “marriage” should remain defined as the union of a man and a woman.

“The President’s announcement that he supports legalizing same-sex marriage finally brings his words in sync with his actions.  From opposing state marriage amendments to refusing to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) to giving taxpayer funded marriage benefits to same-sex couples, the President has undermined the spirit if not the letter of the law,” FRC President Tony Perkins stated.

“As demonstrated by yesterday’s overwhelming vote in North Carolina, redefining marriage remains outside the mainstream of American politics, especially in the critical battleground states and among minority voters. In North Carolina, the amendment received more than 60% of the vote in majority-black counties.

“Considering that ten of the sixteen battleground states have marriage amendments that could be overturned by the President’s new policy position on marriage, the announcement almost ensures that marriage will again be a major issue in the presidential election.

“The President has provided a clear contrast between him and his challenger Mitt Romney.  Romney, who has signed a pledge to support a marriage protection amendment to the U.S. Constitution, may have been handed the key to social conservative support by President Obama.”

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Stone Phillips, former Dateline NBC and ABC News 20/20 reporter, returns to the field with ”Hard Hits, Hard Numbers: The First Study of Head Impacts in Youth Football.”

This exclusive story, released on StonePhillipsReports.com January 27th, reveals the findings of a groundbreaking Virginia Tech study, which placed instrumented helmets on 7- and 8-year-old football players.  Data was collected on more than 750 hits to the head over the course of a season.  With some impacts reaching magnitudes considered high even for college players, the findings provide the first quantitative assessment of the acceleration that young brains are exposed to in youth football.

Lead researcher Stefan Duma, who has been gathering data on head impacts among college players at Virginia Tech for nine seasons, describes the results of the youth study as “surprising.”  ”The highest impact we measured was 100g, which puts you right in the middle average of a concussion,” Duma tells Phillips.

Dr. Gunnar Brolinson, head of Virginia Tech’s Sports Medicine Department, remarks, “With the kids, when you start seeing 50, 60, 70, 80g blows, you’re just going ‘Wow!’ That is really impressive in terms of the load that’s occurring.  And again, you’ve got a young athlete and a developing brain subject to those kinds of loads. So it’s concerning.”

Significantly, 29 of the top 38 hits and all impacts over 80gs occurred during practices.  ”This shows how important our research is.  Without the sensors, we would never have known this. We can change the practices like we’ve done at college and dramatically minimize risk,” says Professor Duma.

The study, expected to be published this spring, was funded through a grant from NHTSA and conducted through the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest Center for Injury Biomechanics.

“Hard Hits, Hard Numbers” features interviews with Stefan Duma, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Gunnar Brolinson, team doctor and head of Virginia Tech Sports Medicine, John Clark, coach of the participating youth football team, and team parents.

Stone Phillips, who suffered two sports-related concussions during his high school and college years, says, “We all know how fierce the hitting is in professional, college and even high school football.  For the first time, this study gives hard, sobering numbers on head impacts among the youngest players.”

Image Courtesy of  Richard Paul Kane / Shutterstock.com

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