Pete's Hit and Run Notes

Toni Braxton's health issues are obviously more serious than we were led to believe originally. She now will be off the stage until 6^th May for more tests in connection with her chest pains she suffered last week. In the past she has been a victim of pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the lining around the heart. Not good stuff and we wish her well.

A pretty ominous warning for California residents today from scientists who say a strong and deadly earthquake is certain to hit one of the state's seismic faults in the next 30 years.  They say the likelihood of a 6.7 or larger shaker is higher than 99% and about 50/50 it will be stronger than 7.5 on the Richter scale.  If I lived in Californian I'd be shaking in my boots a little right NOW.

JK Rowling is so upset over the fan she's suing that she's had to stop writing, she's lost her creative momentum.  She's in court this week to stop a man from publishing a Harry Potter encyclopedia companion to her amazingly popular series of books. She calls it wholesale theft of copyright.

Cops in Laguna Beach California are recommending child endangerment charges be slapped on Richie Sambora. He was stopped and charged with drunk driving while his daughter Ava was in the car. She's 10.  Drunk driving is bad enough, but endangering his own daughter's life? What the heck was he thinking?

Great news for the Oakville Ford Plant. They're hiring close to 500 new workers to keep up with demand for the Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers. The jobs will first be offered to laid off workers in Windsor, then applications will be opened to the public.  At $34 an hour, there will be plenty of those.

This won't do a lot for his popularity:  Dr. Phil's staff have bailed out a teenager involved in the well publicized Florida beating of another teenage girl.  In fact his show's producers aren't happy they helped Mercades Nicols get out of jail in exchange for participating in a show about the beating.  They say their guidelines have been compromised and won't go ahead with the episode. 

If you're a fan of the show Lost, an end of the season finale has been planned for later in May that will go 3 hours in length. The first hour will air 15^th May and the final two hours on 29^th May.  Apparently the producers have a lot to reveal and think anything less than 3 hours would cheat the fans.

CTV's Corner Gas will wrap up production after it's upcoming 6^th season. Brent Butt says it was his decision and a tough one to make however he says it's the right one.  They want to go out on top and not outstay their welcome. I'm gonna miss them all, but especially Lacy.