(Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

The long awaited new single from Carrie Underwood “Good Girl” is set to be released nest week. Underwood is also planning to perform during the Nordstrom Symphony Fashion Show in Nashville on February 28th.

Carrie says the process of recording her new album has been a thrill.   Carrie says “It feels like it’s been forever, but I’ve really had a blast writing the songs, making the music…it’s very exciting for me to just have new stuff to sing.”

Carrie gives us a sneak peek at her new song “Good Girl.” Check out the video here -

(source:CMT)

Hulu/ABC

Jake Owen brought some serious twang to the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ indoor stage on Tuesday (Feb. 21). He performed the customary pair of songs, ripping through ‘Alone With You’ and ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night.’ The performance was a good enough reason to stay up late, but in case you missed it, you can watch footage of each song below.

For his late night TV appearance, Owen looked quite the part of a rocker, with his bright red guitar and his Steel Panther t-shirt. In case you’re not immediately familiar, Steel Panther are a throwback, glam rock, ’80s-style band. Perhaps the band will see that Owen sported their shirt and approach him about a duet? Stranger things have happened.

We love that Owen was able to start off his performance on a slow note and then turn up the rowdy factor when he closed out the show. It demonstrated his musical dynamics, which has garnered him many fans in his career.

When Owen stripped off the guitar to perform ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night,’ the Kimmel lobby was transformed into a country bar. The audience was clapping and singing along, and Owen even gave a shout out to Jimmy Kimmel himself mid-song. He certainly upped the country ante on the stage.

Watch Jake Owen Perform ‘Alone With You’

Watch Jake Owen Perform ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night’

Source: TasteofCountry.com

Kevin Winter

Anytime you have two superstar musical or celebrity acts dating — or married, in this case (think Brad and Angelina or Faith and Tim) — it’s only a matter of time before that couple realizes the freedoms they have given up by being in the spotlight. While Miranda Lambert and her country hitmaker husband Blake Shelton have been well known for a couple of years now, Lambert admits that her husband’s standing appearance on ‘The Voice‘ has begun to change how normal their lives can be.

Now, because of the smash television show that has millions of viewers glued to the TV in their living rooms, Shelton has become a household name even with families that never turn their radio to the country station.

“I understand now why sometimes people that get largely famous and sort of become a little bit weird — it’s not because — you get trapped in your own world just a little bit, you know?” Lambert said, according to Country Music Is Love. “And I’m lucky I’m in country, so it’s not as bad, but some of these big stars, you can’t walk down the street. You can’t. And I’ve learned that with even Blake, with the last time we were in New York City.”

Lambert says the couple couldn’t get five feet — even in such a big city — because people kept noticing them. “And that’s New York City, and that’s not a country mecca,” she said. “Now that he’s this big network television star, things have changed, and we are exactly the same people we always were. We are, like, so down to earth and do not care about ‘the scene’ or havin’ this certain famous image, but then there’s this part that you are a star and that’s how people perceive you, so you have to always carry yourself that way.”

Lambert will be joining Team Blake on ‘The Voice’ as an advisor this season during the Battle Rounds, so she may start to experience the exact same reaction that fans are giving her husband right now. Catch the couple on NBC’s ‘The Voice,’ which airs Mondays at 8PM ET.

Source: TasteofCountry.com

Fox 17

The market for sports collectibles pretty much collapsed about 15 years ago which is why all the sports cards you bought when you were a kid are sitting in a box in your parents’ basement. If you wait about 100 years those cards might be worth something again.

A Michigan family cleaning out an old farmhouse after a family death uncovered a notebook full of football and boxing cards.  They almost threw them all away, however, after doing some research they realized they had in their possession a rare card of former Harvard University football star John Dunlop.

The card was issued by the Mayo Tobacco Works of Richmond, Virginia in 1894. The series is considered the rarest football-only card set ever produced. So how much does such a find go for? Ten thousand dollars according to Lou Brown, President of Legends Sports & Games in Kentwood, Michigan. The family brought the card into Brown to get his opinion.

A nice haul, sure but really not that impressive for what Brown called “The Holy Grail of football cards.”

Jesus on his high school football team. Now THAT is the holy grail of football cards. That dude could really throw a ‘Hail Mary.’

[via Fox 17]

Source: 1

So far, he’s pulled off stunts at the Toronto International Film Festival and the MTV Music Awards and now he’s apparently planning one at the Academy Awards coming up on February 26th.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, he’s informed Paramont, the studio behind his last two movies, he intends to show up at the awards show as his character in The Dictator. No telling what he’s planning to do to promote this movie, which comes out in May.

Yes, this guy is annoying. Yes, we in Texarkana don’t care much for him (remember 2008 when he showed up at Shooters as some stupid comic making all sorts of crude jokes (I was there, he was lucky to get out the door.), then pulled the stunt at the fairgrounds which angered quite a few locals), but… I think I’ll watch the Academy Awards now just to see what he does. I have to give him credit, he knows how to get people to talk about him (and pay to watch his movies… as dumb as they might be.. although the trailer to The Dictator looks pretty funny.).

The campus community has been contacted and encouraged to take appropriate steps. A&M-Texarkana officials are maintaining ongoing  communications with the family on the case and to ensure timely ipdates are made available to the university faculty, staff and students.

Anyone experiencing symptoms that include fever, chills , lethargy, a rash of fine red freckles or purple splotches, severe headaches, and/or neck pain and stiffness should contact their health care provider.

Some of the things I found interesting reading the article about this:

The agency said one area it will focus on is whether banks at the end of each day are processing large transactions first so that they can then charge a customer more overdraft fees for each subsequent smaller bill payment, check or ATM withdrawal.

Having experienced this before, yes they absolutely do (at least my bank does). A few years ago I was suddenly faced with keeping up with my checking account. Something I had not had to do since my late teens since my wife had always handled it. (I quickly learned accounting isn’t my strong suite). It didn’t take long before I went to withdraw some cash and realized I was hundreds of dollars in the hole due to a small error which turned into multiple items being over-drafted due to this practice.  I will never understand this practice. It’s only purpose seems to be so they can charge more fees. Maybe they have a good explanation for why they do this though.

 

Overdraft practices have the capacity to inflict serious economic harm on the people who can least afford it,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. “We want to learn how consumers are affected, and how well they are able to anticipate and avoid paying penalty fees.

Yes, they most certainly do. Luckily, I was able to make up for the large hole I found myself in pretty quickly, others may not be able to do so. When you’re living on limited income and make a mistake I’m sure it’s devastating.  As for being able to anticipate fees, the best way to do this is to properly keep up with your ledger in the first place, but the banks do share some of the blame. It’s almost impossible to keep up with your account using only the bank’s online or smartphone apps. Sometimes it will take days for a debit to show up and I never can figure out if the balance I’m looking at is what’s actually in there, or what’s in there minus the stuff that’s pending (it seems to vary. I think I might need to find a more reliable bank).

While there’s no doubt the best way to avoid over-draft fees is to keep an accurate ledger of your debits and deposits (and I realize some people intentionally overdraft their accounts when they’re in a pinch), it would be nice if the banks didn’t completely rake their customers over the coals when they over-draft their accounts by a few cents. The practice of deducting debits from largest to smallest at the end of the day is, in my humble opinion, completely unethical. How hard is it to deduct our debits as they are received? In this day and age when just about every transaction we make is time stamped, doesn’t seem like that would be too difficult. Or maybe we should start keeping up with our ledgers that way. Each day sit down and write down our debits from largest to smallest. Doesn’t seem very practical to me.

What do you think??

'Ellen'

Taylor Swift was on Ellen yesterday and of course the subject of rumors came up. Taylor has been linked to her “The Lorax” co-star Zac Efron, he was on the show as well and both set the rumors to rest, well kinda, when Taylor said “We are not a couple.”

Ellen wasn’t too sure about that, as she constantly referred to them as a “couple”.

Zac would just smile but Taylor kept trying to set the record straight. Hmm, can’t help but wonder if maybe they are a couple!

O.K. Taylor, ya’ll aren’t a couple….but you do make a cute couple

If you missed the show, no worries we got the interview right here!

Watch Taylor Swift + Zac Efron on ‘Ellen’ Part 1

Watch Taylor Swift + Zac Efron on ‘Ellen’ Part 2

Watch Taylor Swift and Zac Efron Perform on ‘Ellen’

Don’t try this at home, these guys are professional idiots… or sure, go ahead and try it, but be sure to send us the video first.

Follow these crazy guys on both YouTube and Twitter if you want to see some more insanity.

CBS

I love the show “Undercover Boss”, mainly because you see just how much these big shot business people DON’T KNOW about their business.  This season one of the “bosses” is Rick Silva, the head of Checkers and Rally’s drive-in restaurants and he was featured on the latest episode. Like other sneaky bosses before him, the CEO disguised himself, and pretended he was just a lowly employee, but this was the first case of a boss breaking his cover, and shutting down the workplace on the spot. 

During his undercover stint, Silva became bothered by the restaurant’s managers treatment of a fry cook named Todd. Not only did the manager, known only as “Stevens,” berate Todd harshly, but he threatened to take the employee outside and beat him if he didn’t work harder.

Shocked by Stevens’ tone, Silva asked to speak with him outside. First, Stevens explained that he had to scream at his staff or they wouldn’t listen. Then he began to question why Silva had the right to question him on how he handles his workers.

Silva tried to remain in character, but when Stevens continued to press him on his credentials he finally snapped

Silva said,

I have been in the restaurant business for over 20 years. And I’ve been in the fast food business for over 20 years. I’m CEO for this company.

Stevens was understandably crestfallen by this revelation. Silva was so angry about what he had seen that he shut the restaurant down on the spot. But don’t worry, it was reopened the next day with a new manager, so nobody lost their job. In fact, Silva even retained Stevens, who was ordered to undergo more job training. You can watch this entire ‘Undercover Boss’ episode for free on CBS’s website.

Source: TheFW.com

(Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

According to People magazine thanks to some new ads for Givenchy, Liv Tyler will finally get to take a stab at singing professionally, something she has always wanted to do.

In the video ad, Tyler performs a cover of the INXS hit “Need You Tonight”. Liv, who has been the face of Givenchy for 8 years,  As for her famous dad Steven Tyler, Liv says she didn’t discuss the project with her family, until after it was completed.

SEE THE VIDEO HERE:

What do you think of Liv Tyler’s singing?
(source:CMT)
 

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Thought you might like to see a video on what the Big Green Egg is capable of doing courtesy of YouTube.

Here’s some photos of the Autographed Guitar from The Country Music Store Texarkana

Photo by:KKYR

Photo by:KKYR

Learn why Kicker 102.5 joined Country Cares in support of St. Jude Kids

Last night on MSNBC, Representative Judy Chu of California was on MSNBC blasting the “racial slur” saying:

“I think that the use of the term is appalling and offensive,” she said on MSNBC. “The ‘c’ word is for Asian Americans like the ‘n’ word is for African Americans.”

She made it clear she believes the editor used the term intentionally to demean Jeremy Lin (something the editor denies and I tend to believe him). She then went on to attack boxer Floyd Mayweather, saying he was the “heavyweight champion of insensitive remarks” for his tweet saying “Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.”

My first reaction was “PLEASE SHUT UP!”, but after doing a little research this morning I can halfway see Mrs Chu’s point of view. My problem is how she presents it, choosing to play victim rather than explaining why it is indeed offensive and attempting to educate people, while at the same time recognizing the FACT that not all people are aware that this term is offensive.

The truth is, Asian Americans has been picked on quite abit over the years. According to a report put out last October, they are the most bullied group in our nations schools. So, I definitely can see why she would want to raise awareness of this offensive term and work to educate people about its use and how Asian-Americans have been treated in this country.

However, I think there’s a better way to educate people without labeling everyone who’s ever used the phrase as racists (no, Mrs Chu, not all of us go around documenting every single offensive term for every single racial group. We don’t have large Asian-American populations in this part of the south. We are, for all intents and purposes, ignorant when it comes to what phrases offend Asian-Americans and which ones don’t).

——————————–

Here’s kind of what I think Mrs Chu SHOULD have said:

“As harmless as the phrase used in this case sounds to many Americans, and I realize it’s a phrase many people have used for many generations and most people have probably never even dreamed it would be offensive, but to Asian-Americans, it’s not something we enjoy hearing. Since the 1800′s this word has been used to demean Asian-Americans, and specifically Chinese-Americans, and deprive them of their rights and it’s still used on America’s playgrounds today. So, we definitely want to raise awareness that this term definitely is offensive to many Asian-Americans.

However, I do want to point out that, in spite of the hard-ships our people have endured and the ignorance of some, and in many cases I think a touch of jealousy is involved, I am so proud of our people because they have persevered and will continue to persevere and thrive in America.  Without Asian-Americans we would not enjoy the convenience of USB hard drives and accessories, our kids would never experience the joy of playing with play-doh and many Americans would have died without the invention of artifical livers. Asian-Americans continue to excel in the classroom and have the highest proportion of college graduates of any race or ethnic group in the country. Over 85% of Asian-American students graduate high school with over 50% going on and achieving at least a bachelor’s degree.

So, while I definitely encourage all Americans to think before they speak, or type out a headline as is the case here, and to try and be respectful of each other and to each others cultures, I realize there will always be a small percentage of people who refuse to give up their hatred and the rest of us cannot use that as an excuse not to succeed in life.”

—————————————–

My whole point in this is that I firmly believe if racism was battled more with love and a positive message, and not reverse hatred and using the victim card, the haters would find a rock to hide under at some point due to their own shame and some real progress might be made to severely limit racism in this country.

During the regular session Texarkana Water Utilities Executive Director Bill King will offer the board a presentation regarding water and sewer infrastructure. The board will also consider appointments to various boards and commissions.

There will also be an executive session. The public is invited to attend the open portion of tonight’s meeting.

The move to cut baseball, softball, and golf will save the college a half million dollars annually and mean the loss of coaching jobs . Also the board voted to eliminate the counseling department in the Enrollment Management Division.. Those cuts should save over $178,000 annually as well.

The Texarkana College Foundation Board President Dr. Andrew Curry reported that the foundations pledge of $1 million for the college to use as needed for the current year operating budget is available. Those funds will not be used until the time the chief financial officer of the college recommends to the President James Henry Russell that a need exists.

Texarkana College Seal

Ethan Miller, Getty Images

We all remember how John Mayer broke Taylor Swift’s heart back in 2010. She even wrote a song about the breakup “Dear John”. Then we heard John Mayer was seriously thinking of writing reply in a song. Now it looks like Taylor might have had a bit more influence on the heart breaker than we thought!  John Mayer’s upcoming single ‘Shadow Days’ sounds a little country.

No word on if Mayer is going really going country, but I have a feeling that if Taylor hears this one, she just might give a sly smile, a smirk and giggle!

What do you think of the song? Do you think John Mayer has a shot at a career in country music?

Listen to a Clip of John Mayer’s ‘Shadow Days’

The new edition is set for release on March 22 and will join the original version, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Facebook in Rovio’s Angry Birds’ franchise. If all games and platforms are included, Angry Birds has been downloaded over 700 million times since first launching in 2009.

While the trailer doesn’t give anything away about the game play, it is reported that Angry Birds Space will feature zero gravity levels, slow motion puzzles and some completly new birds. Rovio will also be partnering with two familiar names on the project.

“Science and education are very important to us, and we’re very excited to have NASA and National Geographic as launch partners on Angry Birds Space,” Andrew Stalbow, GM of Rovio North America, told Yahoo Games.

According to Stalbow, more details about the latest of their highly addictive bird-flinging game will be released in early March.

[via Yahoo]

Source: TheFW.com

from KSLA News Video

The TC Board of Directors voted to cut portions of the college’s athletic and counseling programs. Texarkana College President James Henry Russell met with the Board of Directors to discuss cutting or changing programs including Athletics, Counseling, and TC programs provided to convicts at FCI Texarkana.

Russell says all athletic programs will be cut at the end of the spring 2012 season and all contracts of personnel employed by the baseball, golf and softball programs will be terminated effective June 30, 2012.  The savings for the college with the elimination of these programs will be almost $500,000 per year.

KSLA12 posted this to their website.

Do you think that the Texarkana College Board is taking enough responsibility for their contributions to the current financial crisis of the institution?

There are many in our community calling for each and every member of the current board to be replaced in the next election…

Albert E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Entertainment

Who doesn’t love a good buddy flick? Maybe it’s because even when we’re down on our luck, our current romance has gone to hell, and our list of old flames looks like it came from America’s Most Wanted, most of us can usually take some comfort in the company of a good friend. Our pals know how to pick us up, cheer us on, and keep us from popping one too many Ambien.

My appreciation for the camaraderie I share with my own amigos is one of the reasons I really looked forward to the release of “This Means War,” the newest film to join the buddy flick category. FDR (Chris Pine, “Star Trek” and “Unstoppable“) and Tuck (Tom Hardy, “Warrior” and “Inception“) play two spies who also happen to be best friends. They’ve survived plenty of perilous moments throughout the course of their friendship and their careers, from dodging bullets to hanging off the edge of skyscrapers. But when they both fall for Lauren (Academy Award-winner Reese Witherspoon, “Water for Elephants” and “Walk the Line”), their friendship may not survive.

Check Out the Art of Manliness’ Choices for the 15 Best Buddy Movies

The film starts out great, with the spies chasing down the bad guys via James Bond or Jason Bourne. FDR is suave, debonair and worldly-wise while Tuck is a sweet single dad with a license to kill. Both have awesome moves and their banter is lighthearted and fun. These guys take care of one another, on the job and off, and their relationship rings authentic throughout the film.

Find Out why Chris Pine is Famous According to AskMen.com

Unfortunately, when Lauren comes on the scene, FDR and Tuck lose all semblance of self. Suddenly, they become predictable Lotharios determined to get the girl, if for no other obvious reason than to stroke their egos. But as Lauren dates both men, egged on by Trish (Chelsea Handler), the obnoxious best friend who wants to live vicariously through her pal, the relationship between girlfriends muddies the waters in this movie.

How Did Tom Hardy Get in Such Great Shape? Learn His Secrets at Men’s Health

For whatever reason, director McG (“Terminator Salvation”) can’t seem to decide if he wants this movie to be a buddy flick, a romantic comedy or a debate about women’s rights. Sure, there are films that successfully cross genres and even tackle serious topics with a comic twist. But that doesn’t happen here.

In the end, this was one critic who went to the cinema with great expectations, eager to enjoy a fun night at the movies. But sadly, I left feeling cheated because such a marvelous cast could have been put to better use if the story weren’t so predictable, the characters one-dimensional and the director so confused. I give “This Means War” three out of five stars.

This film is rated PG-13 for sexual content including references, some violence and action, and for language.

Here’s the amazing video.