Television Planning to Cover Michael Jackson

NBC executives have changed their minds Sunday and decided to join other networks that will televise Michael's memorial's service live this week. NBC has offered to show the ceremony live along with other stations such as, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and E! Entertainment. It's set for 10 am Tuesday at the Los Angeles Staples Center.

NBC had planned to have a one hour prime time special on Tuesday night but decided Sunday to cover the event. It is not said who will anchor the event. Charles Gibson on the other hand is anchoring the event for ABC which is setting aside typical daytime programming. CBS anchor, Katie Couric, will be at the Staples Center. The network has not said yet if they will cover the memorial.

CNN has seen their rating soar with the Jackson story, and it will show the memorial on the main network as well as HLN. CNN International will are the ceremony to the rest of the world. For CNN's anchors, there is Anderson Cooper, Larry King, and Don Lemon. Robin Meade, A.J. Hammer and Jane Velez-Mitchell will anchor HLN. CNN en Espanol will also cover the event. I guess this is going to be a big deal.

Chris Jansing will anchor live coverage of the memorial for MSNBC. Fox News Channel has yet to release their plans yet. E! Entertainment will be covering the memorial on their station and web site as well.

- Yahoo

Disney World Monorail Crash Kill an Employee

Two trains had crashed earlier on a Sunday morning in Disney World. The crash had killed one train's operator according to emergency officials. Disney said it was the first fatal crash in the monorail's 38th history in the park. The transit system that serves thousands of visitors around the resort was shut down while authorities investigated the wreck.

The operator died at the scene of the crash around 2 am according to Bo Jones, deputy chief for Ready Creek Fire Department. The other train operator was uninjured which was lucky but he was taken to a hospital because he was emotionally shaken and who wouldn't be? Bo says that five people were treated at the scene even though the Orange County Sheriff's office said six were treated.

Bo Jones has responded by saying, "To see the accident, to see the scene of what had happened and the fact that there was a life that was lost, it was very sad. It was very somber." Disney's senior spokesman Micheal Griffin identified the driver as 21-year-old Austin Wueenenburg. Micheal Griffin will not discuss how long Austin had been working with Disney or the circumstances of the crash as well not talk about how the Disney monorail operates.

Griffin responds the accident as something that is extremely rarely to happen at the park and that the safety of their guests is at the top of priorities above everything else. While the Orange County Sheriff's officials investigating the crash, Bo Jones is saying that is unclear on how the crash happens.

A spokeswoman for Stetson University in nearby DeLand confirmed that Austin Wueenenburg was a student at the school. A woman standing in front of Wueenenburg's home declined to comment on the incident because she wanted to give the family some private time to grieve which I have a huge amount of respect for.

Brandon Ross said that Austin had scheduled his classes around his Disney job and took precautions while working the night shift. Ross had included that Wueenenburg would make an hour-long drive from DeLand to Orlando the day before his shift so he wouldn't be tired when driving the monorail.

22 year-old Ross had added that Austin had seemed to be a pretty safe person and wasn't reckless at all. Austin Wueenenburg had studies computer science. Ross had used to ask him for help on school projects while saying he was smart and talented. According to Ross, he was very good with computers.

Jones said that the accident had happened at the park's ticket and transportation center. About a dozen gaurds wearing blue Disney security uniforms gaurded the monorail that Sunday morning and kept visitors from approaching. Micheal Griffin hasn't commented on the video posted on the on the Web site of Orlando TV station WKMG. The clip was shot by a guest at the park which was showing a man pounding on the door to the driver's compartment after the crash.

Griffin does add, "This is such a close-knit community. Our heart's go to Austin's family. It's a sad day here." 45-year-old Catherine McKenna and her family were visiting the theme park from Ireland. The family had planned to use the monorail for traveling the park last Friday but said they were told the train was broken. They took a ferry and returned to the monorail later that day.

McKenna says, "It's very sad. You would be very afraid to use it again." I couldn't agree with you more there. Disney's spokeswoman, Zoraya Suarez said that the park had boosted other types of transportations such as ferries, buses, and boats for visitors on Sunday. She also adds that the visitors are still getting around fine.

17-year-old Ethan Meus, visiting from Dubuque, Iowa said that he and his family took the monorail to a dinner at a resort hotel Saturday night. Ethan had watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the monorail at the way back to his hotel and said he didn't notice any problems with the train.

Meus also adds that it was a shock that the driver was killed. Lauren Shoebottom who was visiting the park from London says, "You would think it would be so safe. You don't expect it on holiday do you?" Griffin had issues a statement giving his condolences to Wueenenburg's family and saying the monorail was closed.

22-year-old Danielle Williams from London says, "It's a bit shocking. Disney seems so perfect." Well unfortunately it isn't. Accidents and tragedies happen everywhere and my heart does go out to Austin Wueenenburg's family. I can't imagine what they're going through. I know it's hard for them to lose a man who seemed to be great person who had more to look forward to in life. I do hope they can get past this extremely hard burden.

- Associated Press

Palin Goes to The Net for Political Future

Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, didn't wait long to put out some hints for what she's going to do with her political life and what it might look like after leaves office at the end of the month. After staying out of the public eye for the most of Saturday, after she announced how she was leaving her job as governor, Palin indicated on a social network site that she would be taking on a larger, more national, and high calling role to unite the country along conservative lines. Oh God.

Palin wrote on her Facebook, "I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint." Sarah's spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, confirmed that Sarah Palin did right this entry.

Sarah even shocked her most personal friend's on Friday when she told them about resigning on July 26 which is more than a year before her first term ends. The hockey mom has not revealed many details of any bigger plans or national agenda. Sarah Palin has cast herself as a victim and blasted the media. She should that the responses she had recieven were predictable and out of touch.

She had also released a statement saying, "How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country. And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing the term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make."

The abruptness about her announcement and the mystery surrounding her future plans have made a widespread speculation. But Sarah Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein on Saturday warned legal action may be taken against bloggers and publications that reprint what he calls fraudelint claims. Well fellow bloggers, be careful what you post. I guess there'll be a lot of sueing going on considering that the internet is always posting lies!

I guess maybe not everyone has gotten this mesage since notobly liberal Alaskan blogger, Shannyn Moore, are not claiming that the fact is Sarah Palin resigned because she is under federal investigation for embezzlement and other wrongdoing according to Thomas Van Flein. He also added, "This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law." I do hope they know that the web and the media tend to propagate a lot of things, shit happens.

He also told the Anchorage Daily News that Sarah Palin wasn't in any criminal jeopardy.... unfortunately because that would have made a good story. Flein also I guess wants to stress more that she is not under any criminal investigation whatever. I repeat, it is a zero percent change. Even the FBI claimed Saturday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is not investigating Sarah Palin as a governor, a mayor or anything to the Los Angeles Times for a story that was printed today.

Agent Eric Gonzalaz, the bureau spokesman continued to stress that the rumors to Palin being investigated is not true at all. I guess they really want us to know. Sarah Palin has kept a low profile since her sudden announcement on Friday at a hastily called news conference at her home in surburban Wasilla, outside Anchorage. All her public communications have been through Facebook and Twitter or through statements released by her office.

Palin had also informed her spokesman, David Murrow, early Saturday that someone was using her name, "exgovsarahpalin," on Twitter and was spreading a false rumor that there was to be a party at her suburban home in Wasilla, outside Anchorage. Sarah was afraid her home would be mobbed and security was dispatched, says David Murrow. I wonder who wanted to pull that prank on her.

A few weeks before Palin steps down, Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, takes her place, the governer spent the 4th of July weekend at the state capital, Juneau, but was only spotted briefly on the sidelines of the city's parade. Like last year, she had been invited to a ride in a convertible but she never told organizers weither she was attending or not.

Juneau parade director, Jean Sztuk, said officials drew up banners in case Sarah Palin showed and was willing to take part. As the last of the parade's clowns and marching bands headed past her, Sztuk gave up on Sarah showing up. She had added, "What governor wants to be at the end of a parade?"

Her low profile and keep em coming internet messages left a bunch of questions about her plans for the future which she for some reason is keeping a mystery. I'm scared of the surprise but still very curious. Will she lay on the groundwork for the 2010 presidential bid? Will she find a high-profile place in the private sector, maybe on the speech circuit? Or will she hopefully drop out of the limelight and focus on her kids? But then again she does entertain me. Without her what will I blog about?

Well anyways, her constituents, for one, wanted to know, especially in Jeneau, wanted to know how did she win over residents. State Senator Dennis Egan said that he thinks Palin should at least owe it to Alaskans to explain her reasoning. Dennis Egan is the son of Alaska's first governor, Bill Egan.

Egan who was hosting a 50th anniversary statehood ceremony, said he was dissapointed that Palin didn't finish her term which wasn't supposed to end till 2010. He also added that it was sad she abondaned Alaskans at such a critical time. He was also appointed a Sarah Palin to an open seat on the last day of the legislation session in April, after a protacted battle with Senate Democrats.

Sarah Palin's departure can't come soon enough for Laurel Carlton, a waitress at the Capital Cafe in the Baranof Hotel, where the city's political movers and shakers meet every morning before walking the blocks on the Capitol. Laurel feels like Sarah Palin's had a game plan that didn't involve Alaska and hasn't for a long time.

Carlton has also noted that Sarah Palin has a book deal. She seems to be heading for the national stage. Laurel Carlton is a girl I can like especially since she added, "If you're not going to stay and do your job every day, you should leave anyway, and so the sooner the better so somebody can step in and actually do the job. We don't care. We just want her gone." I think I love this woman.

Sarah Palin, who's popularity in Alaska has warned amid ongoing ethics investigations, gave many reasons for stepping down. She didn't want to be a lame-duck governor, she was tired of tasteless jokes aimed at her five children, including her son Trig, who has down syndrome (I'm sorry but joking about shit like that is pretty low), and she felt she could do more in another, still-to-be-defined role.

John McCain didn't rule out a return to politics for his former running mate. On Saturday he said he believes Sarah Palin will continue to play an important leadership role in the Republician Party and our nation. He didn't dish out any more details. Even Parnell who plans to run for re-election after finishing out Palin's term, said he was shocked at first when he learned about his boss' decision.

He adds, "But then as she begins to articulate her reasons, I begin to understand better. And nobody unless they've been in her position and understood what she has gone through and dealt with and who she is as a person really understands."

- Associated Press

Micheal's Ex-Wife Deciding If She Should Take Custody

Micheal Jackson's ex-wife and mother of his two children, Deborah Rowe, is debating whether she should take custody of the kids according to attorney, Eric M. George, on Thursday. He made this disclosure on a telephone conference call but he refused to take questions. He says, "The truth is that Debbie has not reach a final decision concerning the pending custody proceedings. When Debbie does take the position in the public forum of the court, those positions of course be conveyed to all interested persons."

Earlier in the day, Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff rescheduled a hearing guardianship hearing on July 13. This was for the requests Rowe and Micheal's mother Katherine Jackson, who at the moment has guardianship for all three children. Deborah is the mother of Micheal's two oldest children, Micheal Joseph Jr. known as Prince Micheal, 12, and daughter Paris Micheal Katherine, 11.

The mother of the youngest child, Prince Micheal II who is age 7, has never been revealed. Another hearing is going to be on Monday for who will take temporarily custody of Micheal's estate. Micheal's memorial service will be held Tuesday at Staples Center in Downtown, Los Angeles. That's if it's what his mother wants it.

Chief Executive for AEG Live, Randy Phillips, who owns the Staples Center and was Jackson's performer, said that he met with Micheal's brother, Randy, on Thursday. Randy said that he was hoping Katherine Jackson would make her decision later in the day. Randy Phillips also added that AEG already had been discussing logistics with city officials.

A Jackson memorial would attract tens of thousands. AEG planned to issue tickets to Staples and provide a simulcast on big screens at the arena, says Randy Phillips. Entry into Staples would be free but Phillips hasn't decided how the tickets will be distributed. The discussions were held as the federal Drug Enforcement Administration joined in to investigate Micheal's death. Jermaine Jackson says that he would be hurt if the toxicology reports that his brother had been abusing prescription drugs. I know I could definitely feel the pain if I found out a loved one of mine was abusing prescription drugs as well.

Jermaine also said something on the Today Show that I agree with 110% as well especially with the type of media attention Micheal has had in the past few years. He says that, "In this business, the pressure and things you go through, you never know what one turns too." The attention around Micheal's death has became a federal issue and the DEA has asked to help police look at the pop star's dockers and the possible drug use. There has been a lot of rumors about Micheal Jackson using painkillers, sedatives, and antideppressants.

Jermaine Jackson had been asked if he would be shocked or surprised if Micheal had been involved with drug use and he answered that he would be hurt. He also added that he heard about prescription drug use in the '80's when his brother was hurt in an accident filming a commercial. He didn't know drug use was a possibility more recently.

Jermaine also says, "I don't know about these things, because I hate anything with drugs." He also adds that it hurts his family for people to say things about his possible drug use because none of them know. You hear that the media and others? Quit running your mouth about stuff you don't know so much.

The LA Police Department asked the DEA to help in the probe, a law enforcement official in Washington told the AP on condition of anonymity because of the investigations sensitivity. On the legal front, a person familiar with the details of Micheal Jackson Family Trust said it would be shared between his mother who gets 40 percent, his three children who get 40 percent, and charities for children who will get 20 percent. The charities will later be determined by the trust.

The person who was not authorized speak publicly and requested anonymity said there were no competing wills. Since Michael's death, Sony Music has been duluged with requests for record rereleases while fans have also been clamoring for copies of "Moon Walk," Micheal's 1988 autobiography.

New copies of the out-of-print book were being offered on Amazon for as much as $2,100 for a signed copy. Michael's 7-year-old son was filed in a Los Angeles court, giving his entire estate to the trust and naming his 79-year-old mother and his three kids as beneficiaries. This will also make his estate at more than $500 million.

The will doesn't name Joe Jackson any position of authority in administering the estate which for me I guess is not that big of a surprise. It also rules out Deborah Rowe. Jackson had owned a 50 percent stake in the massive Sony-ATV Music Publishing Catalog which includes music by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Lady GaGa, and the Jonas Brothers.

Also an add, why are we concerned about Michael using prescription drugs and why is the media asking his family. Us knowing won't bring him back and I feel like asking his family is insulting. They should be able to grieve without the media down their throats. That's all I really had to say.

-Yahoo

Kevin Jonas is Engaged

Even though it was his brother who was dancing to Beyonce's, "Single Ladies" single on Youtube, it is Kevin Jonas who is getting married. The oldest Jonas Brother is getting married to his longtime girlfriend, Danielle Deleasa, People reported. According to the magazine, the 21-year-old suprised his girlfriend at her home in New Jersey with a cushion-cut diamond ring that he designed himself.

According to Kevin, she had said yes 500 times super fast in a row. The couple met in 2007 while vacationing with their family in the Bahamas. Danielle who is 22, is still reeling from the proposal. She says that is still feels like a dream. Now isn't that the sweetest thing ever? Kevin Jonas's parents have weighed in on the upcoming union as well.

"Our hearts are filled with joy today and we are happy to share with you that our son Kevin has asked for Danielle's hand in marriage," said Deniese and Kevin Jonas Sr. on the JoBros facebook page. His parents also continue on how it's a blessing that she's joining their family and that they haven't set a date yet. They continue on how family is very dear to them and how they hoped to raise Kevin to be a wonderful man and husband. I personally find raising your son to be a wonderful husband is a mix of sweet and wierd.

Well sorry Kevin Jonas fans. I guess he won't be putting a ring on you.

- OMG Yahoo

Cryptologist Cracks a Presidential Code

For more than 200 years, buried deep down in Thomas Jefferson's correspondence and papers, there has been a mysterious cipher. It has been a coded message that has been remained unsolved until now. The cryptic message was sent to President Jefferson in 1801 by correspondent, Robert Patterson. Robert Patterson was a mathematics professor in at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas Jefferson and Robert Patterson were both officials at the American Philosophical Society. This was a group promoted scholarly research in the sciences and humanities. They were also enthusiasts of ciphers and other codes and was usually exchanging letters about them.

In this message, Mr. Patterson set out to show the president and primary author of the Declaration of Independence what was deemed to be a flawless cipher. Mr. Patterson had wrote, "The art of secret writing engaged the attention both of the states-man & philosopher for many ages." He also added, "most ciphers fall far short of perfection.

To Robert Patterson's view, a perfect code had four properties. It should be adaptable to all languages. It should be simple to learn and memorize and it should be easy to write and read. The most important was that it should be absolutely inscrutable to all unacquainted with the particular key or secret of decyphering.

Robert Patterson then included in the letter an example of a message in his cipher. From what he wrote, the cipher was one that was so difficult to decode that it would defy the united ingenuity of the whole human race. There is no evidence that Thomas Jefferson, or anyone else for that matter, ever solved the code. But President Jefferson did believe the cipher was so inscrutable that he considered having the State Department use it, and passed it on to the ambassador to France, Robert Livingston.

The cipher finally met it's match with Lawren Smithline who is a 36-year-old mathematician. Dr. Smithline has a Ph.D in mathematics and he now works professionally with cryptology or code-breaking at the Center for Communications Research in Princeton, NJ. It is a division of the Insitute for Defense Analyses.

A couple years ago, Lawren Smithline's neighbor, who was working on a Jefferson project at Princeton University, told Smithline of Robert Patterson's mysterious cipher. Smithline who was intrigued, decided to take a look. "A problem like this cipher can keep me up all night," he says. After unlocking it's hidden message in 2007, Smithline articulated his problem-solving techniques in a recent paper in the magazine American Scientist in a profile in Harvard Magazine, his alma mater's alumni journal.

The code, Rober Patterson, made clear in his letter was not a simple subsitition cipher. That's when you replace one letter from the alphabet with another. The problem with substition ciphers is that they can be cracked by using what's termed frequently anaylsis, or you can study the number of times that a particular letter occurs in a message. For example, the letter "e" is the most common letter used in the English language. So if a code is long, whatever letter is appears the most is most likely to be the letter "e."

Because frequency anaylsis was already known in the 19th century, cryptographers of this time turned to other techniques. One was called a nomenclater. That is a catalog of numbers, each standing for a word, syllable, phrase or letter. President Jefferson's correspondence shows that he used several code books of nomenclaters. According to Rober Patterson's criteria, is that a nomenclator is too tough to memorize.

Thomas Jefferson even wrote about his own ingenious code. It's a model of which is at his home in Monticello, which is located in Charlottesville, Va., called the wheel cipher. The device consists of cylindrical pieces threaded onto an iron spindle, with letters inscribed in each wheel in a random order. Users can scramble or unscramble words simply by turning the wheels.

Mr. Patterson still had a few tricks up his sleeves. He wrote the message text vertically, in columns in left to right and he used no capital letters or spaces. The writing formed a grid, in this case about 40 lines to some 60 letters each. Then Rober Patterson broke the grid into sections of up to nine lines, numbering each line in the section from one to nine. In the next step, Patterson transcribed each numbering line to form a new grid, scrambling the order of numbered lines within each section. Every section however repeated the same jumbled order of lines.

According to Patterson, the trick to solving this puzzle meant you had to know the following which is knowing the number of lines in each section, the order in which those lines were transcribed and number of random letters added to each line. The key to the code consisted of a series of two-digit pairs. The first digit indicated the line of number within each section, while the second was the number of letters added to the beginning of rows. For instance, if the key was 58, 71, 33, that meant Patterson moved row five to the first line of a section and added eight random letters. Then he moved row seven to the second line and added one letter. Then he moved row three to third line and added three random letters. Robert Patterson estimated that the potential combinations to solve this puzzle was "upwards of ninety millions of millions."

After explaining this in the letter, Patterson wrote, "I presume the utter impossibility of decyphering will be readily acknowledged." Undaunted, Dr. Smithline, decided to tackle the cipher by analyzing the probability of digraphs or pairs of letters. Certain pairs of letters, such of "dx," don't exist in English, while some letters almost always appear next to a certain other letter such as "u" after "q."

To get a sense of language of patterns of the era, Dr. Smithline studied 80,000 letter-characters contained in Jefferson's State of Union addresses. He also counted the frequency of occurances of "aa," "ac," through "zz." Lawren Smithline then made a series of educated guesses, such as the number of rows per section. He also made guesses such as which two rows belong to each other, and the number of random letters inserted into a line.

To help vet his guesses, he turned to a tool that was not available in the 19th century, a computer algorithm. He used what was called, "dynamic programming," which solves large problems by breaking puzzles down into smaller pieces and linking together the solutions. The overall calculations that was necessary to solve this puzzle were fewer than 100,000 which Smithline says would be tedious to the 19th century, but doable.

After about a week of working on the puzzle, the numerical key to Rober Patterson's cipher emerged, 13, 34, 57, 65, 22, 78, 49. Using the digital key, he was able to unfurl the cipher's text which was, "In Congress, July Fourth, one thousand seven hundred and seventy six. A declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. When in course of the human events...."

That of course is the beginning, with a few liberties taken, to the Declaration of Independence which was written at least in part by Jefferson himself. "Patterson played this little joke on Thomas Jefferson and nobody knew until know," says Dr. Smithline. Now why can't they talk about stuff like this in history class?

- WSJ

Virginia Man Lives to 107 and Finds Blessings and Burdens in Life

Larry Haubner is a man who has lived to see age 107. How you may ask, it's nutrition that made him live this long. Not to mention exercise. Larry Haubner shows off his biceps and tells us how we all should exercise more often then we do. Even though I'll sound like a hypocrite when I say this (and yes I don't work out that often), I do agree.

This health nut has also outlived his savings twice. Two years ago, supporters raised $56,000 to help Haubner stay in Greenfield, the assisted living center he calls home. Carol Ewing of Bridging Senior Care Solutions says she was sure the money was going to be sufficient. Carol Ewing holds power of attorney to manage Haubner's affairs.

Today, Larry seems just as vigorous as ever. He doesn't take medication and he can life his walked over his head. But his funds are expected to run out again in November. Without more help, he will have to apply to Medicaid and move into a nursing home. So friends are pulling togehter again to for a second campaign. They've raised more than $7,000 which is enough to pay his bills for three months.

Greenfield's director, Connie Miller says, "he doesn't have anyone. So we'v become his family." In Virginia, they do not allow Medicaid, which is a program to help low-income people obtain health care, to be used for assisted living services says the Assisted Living Federation of America.

Cindi Jones of the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services, said in most cases assisted living residents who run out of money and qualify for Medicaid move to nursing homes or move in with family. In Maryland and the District, they allow Medicaid payments for assisted living services but there is a waiting list in Maryland.

For most people, worrying about life after 100 is theoretical. The Social Security Administrative estimated that in a study that 1 out of every 25,000 men who are born in 1900, would live to see 107. Larry Haubner was born in 1902 and is blue-eyed and bald but answers to his nickname, "Curly." He lived alone in a Fredricksburg apartment up until he was 102. Locals knew him as the man who was often seen cycling around town. In 2004, he had fallen off his bike and was sent to the hospital.

Social workers had determined that he wasn't able to safely go back to his apartment. That's when they found him a place in Greenfield, a private pay facility. The 36 residents there personalize their rooms with pictures, pets, and furniture. Haubner's room is spare and furnished with mostly donations. A recliner chair is flanked by acient excercise equitment and includes a homemade weight which is a eight-kilogram lead ball inside a basket. He lifts his lead ball at least 20 times a day. Larry suggests that if you want to do the same as him, you should start with just five a day.

Robert Phrase, a physician who treats Haubner for free, says that he's in good health and there's nothing that's going to take him from us anytime soon. Haubner never was married and doesn't have any surviving family or friends. Other residents' families have adopted as part of their family and gives him presents for Christmas as well as birthday gifts.

In the first two years at Greenfield, Larry Haubner covered the $3,500 monthly bill with savings and $1,200 in monthly pension as well as Social Sercutrity payments, according to Ewing. It was clear in 2007 that Haubner's bank account was shriveling away even though he showed no signs of slowing down. Supporters of Larry Haubner made a site called www.savelarry.org in order to raise money and the media attention had brung in 375 contributers.

Ewing has not told Larry about the possibility of moving because she doesn't want to worry him. Greenfield and eight other assisted living facilitators are run by Greenfield Senior Living, based in Falls Church. Company spokeswoman, Olga Soehngen, says that Greenfield charges Haubner a reduced fee and cannot promise that he will not be able to live his life there.

Moving to a nursing home would go hard on Haubner says his supporters. It's not that nursing home are bad. But at 107, Haubner has earned his right to stay there says Ewing. Details on Larry Haubner's past is sketchy, gleaned from the stories he's told. He was born in Dubuque, Iowa and grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where his father worked on the railroad. "You might say we never had any money, " says Haubner.

He worked at the Tacoma lumbayard before enlisting in the Army in his late 30's. Then he moved to New York to work as a doorman and to pursue a dream of singing opera. He did have a teacher who believed in him. According to Larry Haubner, his teacher believed he had a voice that could make it even though he never sung professionally.

Haubner then moved to Virginia to live with his sister after her husband died. Fredericksburg resident Dianne Bachman said he often saw Haubner cycle to Rappahannock, dismount and croon to the river. "He didn't have to have an audience," she says. Haubner still breaks into song every now and then with a warbly voice. He's fond on sitting on the front porch at Greenfield. And he remains vigilant about exercise and diet. "Well I ate the cake but I don't believe cake is good food," he says at his last birthday celebration.

- Washington Post