Are you Team Duckie, or Team Blane?

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

Children of the 1980s, you may well remember how Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer) and?Blane McDonough (Andrew McCarthy) fought it out for the love of Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) in the 1986 John Hughes hit "Pretty in Pink." And at the time, viewers pretty much knew where they stood -- Team Duckie or Team Blane.

Paramount Pictures, NBC News

Jon Cryer is shown at left in "Pretty in Pink" and at right as he looks today.

Pros for Duckie: He honestly cared about Andie and would do anything to make her laugh. He cared so much that he even graciously gave her up to the richie Blane in the film's ending scenes. (In the film's original ending, Duckie and Andie end up together, but focus groups reportedly voted that down.)

Cons for Duckie: He was a leeetle bit needy, shall we say? And couldn't read a room to save his life.

Pros for Blane: He was pretty cute, by 1980s standards. And Andie seemed enraptured.

Cons for Blane: All together, now: "That's a major appliance, that's not a name!" His friends were awful. And he asked Andie to the prom, then changed his mind due to rich-friend pressures.

Paramount Pictures, NBC News

Andrew McCarthy is shown at left in "Pretty in Pink" and at right as he looks today.

But their 1986 characters aside, actors Cryer and McCarthy both popped back into the public eye this week with major talk-show appearances.

Since his Duckie days, Cryer found himself a major television hit with his role as chiropractor Alan Harper in "Two and a Half Men," and is up for an Emmy.

On "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" Tuesday, host Jimmy Fallon commented on Duckie's lasting charm. "He's such a beloved character," said Fallon. "Can't there be a Duckie Holiday Special?"

Cryer wasn't so sure. "People forget that Duckie wore lederhosen," he reminded Fallon. "Come on!"

Meanwhile, Andrew McCarthy took a seat next to Savannah Guthrie on TODAY on Tuesday, and joined Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford on TODAY Wednesday morning. He's now a successful travel writer and the author of a travel-as-a-cure-for-relationship-issues memoir that some are calling a male version of uber-popular "Eat Pray Love."

Guthrie did her duty talking about the book, but at the end of the interview, flat-out asked McCarthy if he thought Duckie was better for Andie than Blane. "This is an outrageous theory," he joked.

Kathie Lee and Hoda ran two "Pretty in Pink" scenes as well as other clips from McCarthy's movie career. But when?Kathie Lee asked McCarthy if he was embarrassed to see the old clips, he denied it, saying "No, those movies hold up."

He then told a story of riding the New York subway recently, noticing a woman recognizing him and bracing himself for a typical fan encounter. But his cynicism broke down when the woman said to him, "You know, my husband died two months ago and this is the first time I've smiled." The two then hugged.

Pros for Cryer: He's mostly stayed above the fray in the whole "Two and a Half Men"-Charlie Sheen drama, and his Fallon experience shows he can still laugh at himself.

Pros for McCarthy: It's nice to see an actor branch out, see the world, and write thoughtfully about it. And that subway story is heart-wrenching.

Who's your pick? Are you Team Duckie/Jon Cryer, or Team Blane/Andrew McCarthy? Vote in our poll, and tell us on Facebook.

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2012/09/19/13965395-andrew-mccarthy-vs-jon-cryer-are-you-team-duckie-or-team-blane?lite

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Chicago students returning to class as strike ends

Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union smiles as she talks with reporters after the union's House of Delegates voted to suspend the strike Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union smiles as she talks with reporters after the union's House of Delegates voted to suspend the strike Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, center, is flanked by Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claud Brizard, left, and school board president David Vitale during a news conference after the teachers union House of Delegates voted to suspend their strike Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, in Chicago. The city's teachers agreed to return to the classroom after more than a week on the picket lines, ending a spiteful stalemate with Emanuel that put teacher evaluations and job security at the center of a national debate about the future of public education. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Teacher Patty Westcott pickets outside Clissold Elementary School in Chicago, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, as a strike by the Chicago Teachers Union continues into its second week. CTU members in the nation's third-largest city will pore over the details of a contract settlement Tuesday as the clock ticks down to an afternoon meeting in which they are expected to vote on ending a seven-day strike that has kept 350,000 students out of class. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Teachers picket outside Morgan Park High School in Chicago, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, as a strike by the Chicago Teachers Union continues into its second week. CTU members in the nation's third-largest city will pore over the details of a contract settlement Tuesday as the clock ticks down to an afternoon meeting in which they are expected to vote on ending a seven-day strike that has kept 350,000 students out of class. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, right, stands with Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claud Brizard during a news conference after the teachers union House of Delegates voted to suspend their strike Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, in Chicago. The city's teachers agreed to return to the classroom after more than a week on the picket lines, ending a spiteful stalemate with Emanuel that put teacher evaluations and job security at the center of a national debate about the future of public education. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

CHICAGO (AP) ? Students prepared to return to class Wednesday after Chicago teachers voted to suspend their first strike in a quarter century, shutting 350,000 children out of school, disrupting the daily routines of thousands of families and making the city's schoolyards a flashpoint for union rights and public school reforms across the country.

Union delegates voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to suspend the walkout after discussing a proposed contract settlement with the nation's third largest school district. They said the contract wasn't perfect but included enough concessions ? including on new teacher evaluations, recall rights for laid-off teachers and classroom conditions ? to go back to work while they prepare to put it to a vote by more than 26,000 teachers and support staff in coming weeks.

"I miss the kids," said Symantha Lancaster, a delegate who works in career services, based at an elementary school. "I know we're fighting for a cause (but) I want to go back."

Parents say they are relieved the strike was over and are looking forward to finding teachers behind desks instead of on the picket lines outside schools. It meant the end of hassles trying to find alternative activities for their children, or dropping them at one of more than 140 schools the district kept open for several hours a day so they could be safe and eat breakfast and lunch.

"I am elated. I couldn't be happier," said Erica Weiss, who had to leave work in the middle of the day to pick up her 6-year-old daughter. "I have no one else to watch her. ... I can't even imagine the people who could have possibly even lost their jobs over having to stay home with their kids because they have no alternate care. It just put everyone in a pickle."

Wilonda Cannon, a single mother raising her four children in North Lawndale, a West Side neighborhood beset by gang shootings and poverty, said she was relieved that her two youngest kids would be returning to class after spending the last seven school days with their grandfather.

She said she hoped the agreement was the beginning of something new for Chicago's public school system, which has long struggled with high drop-out rates and low test scores. It will take months if not years before parents and teachers will see whether the changes and contract provisions pay off for students.

"I don't know all the ins and outs (of the contract negotiations) ... but it does seem as though it's a step in the right direction," Cannon said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel ? who filed a lawsuit this week to try to force teachers back to work ? called the settlement "an honest compromise."

Union leaders pointed to concessions by the city on how closely teacher evaluations will be tied to student test scores and to better opportunities for teachers to retain their jobs if schools are closed by budget cuts.

"We said that we couldn't solve all the problems of the world with one contract, and it was time to end the strike," said Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.

With an average salary of $76,000, Chicago teachers are already among the highest-paid in the nation. The district's final proposal included an average 7 percent raise over three years, with additional raises for experience and education.

But the evaluations and job security measures stirred the most intense debate. The union said the evaluation system relied too heavily on test scores and did not take into account outside factors that affect student performance such as poverty, violence and homelessness.

The union also pushed to give laid-off teachers first dibs on open jobs anywhere in the district. The district said that could prevent principals from hiring the teachers they thought most appropriate for the position. The tentative settlement proposed giving laid-off teachers first shot at schools that absorbed their former students and filling half of district openings from a pool of laid-off teachers.

Susan Hickey, a school social worker, said she is eager to learn how the students she counsels fared over the summer.

"How are they? Are they OK?" she said. "I'm glad to be back for all kinds of reasons."

___

Associated Press writer Jason Keyser contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-09-19-Chicago%20Schools-Strike/id-202481ed028b49dcbb50abad66333ea8

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EU-Iran nuclear talks 'useful and constructive'

BRUSSELS (AP) ? The European Union says a meeting between its foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili aimed at restarting formal talks over Tehran's nuclear program was "useful and constructive."

A brief EU statement said the meeting in Istanbul, which ended early Wednesday, was "an important opportunity to stress once again to Iran the urgent need to make progress." It did not elaborate further.

The statement says Ashton will brief representatives of the U.S. and five other world powers next week in New York about her efforts to restart negotiations that fizzled in June.

Those governments fear the failure of negotiations could prompt Israel to make good on its threat to attack Tehran's nuclear installations. Tehran denies it is making nuclear weapons.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-09-19-Iran-Nuclear/id-57a7df6a88564b0f96599af908ed8aee

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Shaun White charged with public intox, vandalism

FILE - In this file photo taken April 18, 2012, Olympic athlete Shaun White is photographed in New York. A Nashville, Tenn., police report says the two-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder was charged with vandalism after an employee at a Nashville hotel saw him break a phone there. He is charged with vandalism of $500 or less. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

FILE - In this file photo taken April 18, 2012, Olympic athlete Shaun White is photographed in New York. A Nashville, Tenn., police report says the two-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder was charged with vandalism after an employee at a Nashville hotel saw him break a phone there. He is charged with vandalism of $500 or less. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? Authorities say two-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White has been charged with public intoxication and vandalism after an incident at a Nashville hotel.

According to a police affidavit, White tried to attack a hotel guest who had followed him out of the hotel early Sunday morning. When the guest told White he had called the police, the skateboarder "attempted to attack the man and fell and hit his head."

The report says White appeared to be drunk.

A separate affidavit states that White deliberately broke a phone belonging to the hotel.

Police say he was given the opportunity to sign misdemeanor citations and refused.

A spokeswoman for Baptist Hospital said White was treated there and released on Monday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-09-17-Shaun%20White-Vandalism/id-f766468d825943d3a8bee7da0ae24b4c

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Gina Bianchini?s Mightybell Evolves Into A Collaborative Online Space For Creative Projects

When Ning co-founder and former CEO Gina Bianchini launched Mightybell a year ago, a startup aimed at helping you accomplish things in small, incremental steps and show others how to do the same, it essentially allowed you to create step-by-step private guides for anything. But the startup is shifting its focus slightly away from the private, step-by-step product into a more collaborative, open public platform for people to share their ideas in groups. Now Mightybell is focused on offering sleek, design-focused collaborative online spaces for creative projects. The step-by-step product is still available, but is located here?under the product name "Steps."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ypYafwbHpNs/

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Striking Chicago teachers rally to wrap labor deal

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis speaks to supporters Saturday during a rally at Union Park in Chicago, Ill.

By NBC News and wire services

CHICAGO -- Thousands of striking Chicago teachers rallied on Saturday to keep the pressure on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to wrap up an agreement with their union to end a strike that has closed the nation's third-largest school district for a week.

The rally brought labor leaders, community activists and teachers to Chicago's Union Park for one of the largest demonstrations against Emanuel's education reforms since the strike began Monday.

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"You have proven to the world that you're not going to take it anymore," Lorretta Johnson, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, told demonstrators the day after the two sides reached a tentative labor deal.

See strike coverage and more Chicago news at NBCChicago.com

Kids may be back in school Monday if the Chicago Teachers Union is able to reach an agreement about salary increases, teacher evaluations and rehiring policy for laid-off teachers. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.

?We are on strike,? CTU President Karen Lewis told the crowd estimated to be about 25,000 decked out in red. ?We have a framework; we do not have an agreement.?

Lewis was one of 20 speakers who spoke at the event, which lasted more than two hours.

Led by Lewis, a former high school chemistry teacher, 29,000 unionized teachers, counselors, nurses and other support staff staged their first strike in 25 years, leaving 350,000 Chicago students with no school this week.

Emanuel angered the Chicago teachers by trying to push through proposals to radically reform teacher performance evaluations and weaken job protection for teachers whose schools are closed or perform poorly academically.

Related:

Emanuel retreated from some of his proposed reforms, although details of what he has agreed to with the union have not been made public. Negotiators for the mayor and the union announced a tentative agreement on Friday that could lead to an end to the strike.

The confrontation has left many Democratic mayors and politicians supporting Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff for President Barack Obama. Other Democrats have sided with the unions, which are major financial supporters of the party and are needed to help Obama win re-election in November.

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Emanuel denied Saturday there had been any pressure from the White House to settle the strike.

"The short answer is no," Emanuel's spokeswoman, Sarah Hamilton, said. "There was no pressure, and no pressure would have worked, because they know that the mayor firmly believes that what we are doing to reform and improve our schools is the right thing."

The union is wary of Emanuel, who has been called a "bully" and a "liar" by Lewis.

Organizers hoped Saturday's rally would rival some of the huge demonstrations last year that protested the efforts of Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to curb the power of unions. The Wisconsin protests were unsuccessful but drew tens of thousands of government workers, including teachers.

Activists and supporters from other unions joined the sea of strikers wearing red T-shirts at Saturday's rally.

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"This is not just a Chicago struggle; this is a struggle for workers everywhere," civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said. "You've led a new struggle for courage."

If all goes well in the negotiations between the Chicago School Board and the union this weekend, Lewis said she would ask some 800 union activists on Sunday to suspend the strike and teachers would return to classrooms Monday morning.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/15/13887145-striking-chicago-teachers-rally-to-wrap-labor-deal?lite

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Nancy Pelosi: Republicans Will Continue Obstruction If Obama Is Reelected

WASHINGTON -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the partisan gridlock in Washington won't change if President Barack Obama gets reelected and the House and Senate retain their current party majorities.

"You'll see more of the same," Pelosi said during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union." "It's really important for the public to know that the Republican obstruction of President Obama's jobs bills and whatever he was advancing, is their -- obstruction is their agenda."

Pressed again on whether anything would be different if the current power balance in Washington stays the same after November, she said, "No. It doesn't change."

Pelosi's comments contradict what Obama has predicted things would be like in a second term, should Republicans retain control of the House. As it stands, either party could win the Senate and Republicans appear poised to retain control in the House.

?I believe that if we're successful in this election, when we?re successful in this election, that the fever may break, because there?s a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that," Obama said at a June campaign event in Minneapolis, Minn.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/16/nancy-pelosi-republicans_n_1888014.html

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