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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Dec 13, 2006 12:23:19 GMT -5
NEW YORK (AP) -- Peter Boyle, the actor known for playing everything from a tap-dancing monster in "Young Frankenstein" to the curmudgeonly father in the long-running TV sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71. Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante. Boyle was beginning to gain notice playing hard-bitten, angry types when he took on the role of the hulking, lab-created monster in Mel Brooks' 1974 send-up of horror films. The movie's defining moment came when Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his creation to an upscale audience. Boyle, decked out in tails, performed a song-and-dance routine to the Irving Berlin classic "Puttin' On the Ritz." It showed another side of the Emmy-winning actor, one that would be exploited in countless other films and perhaps best in "Everybody Loves Raymond," in which he played incorrigible paterfamilias Frank Barone for 10 years. "He's just obnoxious in a nice way, just for laughs," he said of the character in a 2001 interview. "It's a very sweet experience having this happen at a time when you basically go back over your life and see every mistake you ever made." Hot and angry' When Boyle tried out for the role opposite series star Ray Romano's Ray Barone, however, he was kept waiting for his audition -- and he was not happy. "He came in all hot and angry," recalled the show's creator, Phil Rosenthal, "and I hired him because I was afraid of him." But Rosenthal also noted: "I knew right away that he had a comic presence." Boyle first came to the public's attention more than a quarter century before. "Joe" was a sleeper hit in which he portrayed the title role, an angry, murderous bigot at odds with the era's emerging hippie youth culture. Although critically acclaimed, he faced being categorized as someone who played tough, angry types. He broke free of that to some degree as Robert Redford's campaign manager in "The Candidate," and shed it entirely in "Young Frankenstein." The latter film also led to the actor meeting his wife, Loraine Alterman, who visited the set as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. Boyle, still in his monster makeup, quickly asked her for a date.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Dec 13, 2006 2:33:04 GMT -5
Evel Knievel Sues Kanye West Over Video Dec 12, 1:45 PM EST
The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. -- Evel Knievel has sued Kanye West, taking issue with a music video in which the rapper takes on the persona of "Evel Kanyevel" and tries to jump a rocket-powered motorcycle over a canyon.
Knievel, whose real name is Robert Craig Knievel, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Tampa on Monday claiming infringement on his trademark name and likeness. He also claims the "vulgar and offensive" images depicted in the video damage his reputation.
"That video that Kanye West put out is the most worthless piece of crap I've ever seen in my life, and he uses my image to catapult himself on the public," the 68-year-old daredevil said Tuesday.
A spokesman for West said the 28-year-old rapper no comment. The lawsuit seeks damages and to halt distribution of the video.
In the video for "Touch the Sky," released earlier this year, West dons the familiar Knievel star-studded jumpsuit and jumps a canyon in a vehicle "visually indistinguishable" from the one used by Knievel in his failed attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in 1974, the lawsuit said.
The video, which features Pamela Anderson as West's girlfriend, contains "vulgar and offensive sexual images, language and conduct involving `Evel Kanyevel' and women apparently trying to gain his sexual interest," according to the lawsuit.
"The guy just went too far using me to promote his filth to the world," said Knievel, who lives in Clearwater and has been in poor health in recent years. "I'm not in any way that kind of a person."
The lawsuit also names Roc-A-Fella Records, video director Chris Milk and AOL for distributing it.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Dec 12, 2006 10:18:40 GMT -5
Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records and architect of the careers of LED ZEPPELIN and ABBA, among many others, died Thursday at 83, his spokesman said.
According to The Associated Press, Ertegun remained connected to the music scene until his last days — it was at an Oct. 29 concert by THE ROLLING STONES at the Beacon Theatre in New York where Ertegun fell, suffered a head injury and was hospitalized. He later slipped into a coma.
"He was in a coma and expired today with his family at his bedside," said Dr. Howard A. Riina, Ertegun's neurosurgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Ertegun will be buried in a private ceremony in his native Turkey, said Bob Kaus, a spokesman for Ertegun and Atlantic Records. A memorial service will be conducted in New York after New Year's.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Dec 6, 2006 9:39:50 GMT -5
ST. LOUIS - A St. Louis woman shot her husband to death after he gave her a can of warm beer, police said.
The shooting happened Sunday. Names have not been released. The woman was taken into custody.
The wife allegedly admitted shooting her husband, who was about 70 years old, in the kitchen of their home. The man was shot four or five times in the chest after giving his wife a can of warm Stag beer.
The house was among thousands in the St. Louis area that lost power after a winter storm hit the region Thursday.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Dec 2, 2006 22:30:55 GMT -5
SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. - A grandmother found with a trunkful of marijuana was convicted of drug running in what prosecutors said was an attempt to earn cash for a bingo habit.
State troopers found 10 bundles of pot totaling 214 pounds hidden in Leticia Villareal Garcia’s car trunk last year when they stopped her outside Bisbee, in far southeastern Arizona.
Villareal, 61, told jurors before they convicted her Thursday that her only regular income was a $275 monthly welfare check, but she frequently played bingo and occasionally won thousands of dollars.
Prosecutor Doyle Johnstun said the game was Villareal’s undoing.
‘She’s got a bingo problem’ “People who play bingo almost every night of the week end up losing in the long run,” Johnstun told jurors. “The underlying issue is that she’s got a bingo problem, which explains why an otherwise nice person might get sucked into something like this.”
Jurors rejected Villareal’s argument that she’d been tricked into carrying the drugs.
Villareal faces three to 12 years in state prison when she is sentenced Dec. 18.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 27, 2006 11:24:06 GMT -5
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Dec 1, 2006 17:30:13 GMT -5
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 28, 2006 1:24:58 GMT -5
That boy is done. O.J. hasn't a job. Tanya Harding either. Axl, barely. They're known for the wreckage of their careers. Now joining them, Michael Richards. Have fun, L, L, L, LOSERS. Funny though isn't it, that somehow all these people that don't have jobs, and who have wrecked their careers, still make more money each year than most people in this country? Somehow, that doesn't seem right does it?
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 25, 2006 1:09:07 GMT -5
If you're wanting to know whether or not this incident has finished his career, I'd have to say, "What career?" It's not like he's done anything noteworthy since Seinfeld anyway. What, a few movies hardly anybody went to go and see? He's only a celebrity because of what he DID, not what he's currently doing. If he did he wouldn't be attempting to start a career in stand up comedy. Michael Richards has been doing stand-up for 25 years. He's never really made any type of name for himself at it. He was great in Seinfeld and UHF, which are really his only claims to fame (unless you count his funny work on the short-running ABC show Friday which was ABC's answer to SNL). Richarda act has always been a kind of weird thing that doesn't get tons of big laughs because he's more about being weird than funny. He's more like Andy Kaufman (another comedian I didn't like or get).[/quote Shows how good he is as a stand up comedian if he's been doing it for 25 years and never got successful. He WAS great on Fridays though
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 24, 2006 13:26:32 GMT -5
If you're wanting to know whether or not this incident has finished his career, I'd have to say, "What career?" It's not like he's done anything noteworthy since Seinfeld anyway. What, a few movies hardly anybody went to go and see? He's only a celebrity because of what he DID, not what he's currently doing. If he did he wouldn't be attempting to start a career in stand up comedy. As for what he said, that was definitely not cool. Is he a racist? Obviously somewhere inside he is, otherwise he wouldn't have said those things, but I don't think he's going to go lynching people either. The one thing he's guilty of is not being able to burn those people who were heckling him better. Maybe "Hey, I don't come into your work and bother YOU while you're making up Happy Meals, do I?" or something along those lines would've worked a bit better. Should he have said the things he did, no he shouldn't, but at the same token, have you ever seen anything on HBO's Def Comedy Jam? Not that I watch it myself, but when I've been flipping through the channels I've caught bits and pieces here and there, and what I hear some of the "comedians" on there saying about whites is almost as bad, but that's okay I suppose. When really it isn't. There's a double standard going on there. Should I be outraged about what they say? I really don't care actually. But if one isn't okay then shouldn't the same apply no matter what race or color? I don't think this is going to end his career. It's the most publicity he's gotten since Seinfeld ended, and there's an old adage that's true, and that's "There is no bad publicity". If Mike Tyson can bite someone's ear off, Tonya Harding can hire someone to take someone's kneecap out, or even O.J. Simpson can get someone to offer him a book deal/tv interview, this won't end his career. Hell, that tv preacher Jim Bakker, who took millions of people's money, then went to prison has a new tv show now. These people are still able to get work. Axl Rose can act like a total ass and still people will pay to see him. Anybody remember the big controversy that went on when GNR put out "One In A Million?", which branded Axl as a racist and a homophope? Doesn't seem to have hurt his career any. I'm sure he'll be able to find work on VH1's "Surreal Life" or some other reality show with no problem. It's not like there were all kinds of offers to star in his own tv show coming in or anything anyway.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 17, 2006 11:33:50 GMT -5
PUTNAM, Conn. (AP) - Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new Playstation 3 game system to go on sale early Friday and shot a man who refused to give up his money, authorities said.
In other states, customers pushed and shoved their way to the shelves to get at the limited supply, and in Kentucky, four people were grazed by BBs fired from a passing vehicle as they waited for a Best Buy store to open.
The two gunman in Putnam confronted 15 to 20 people standing outside a Wal-Mart store shortly after 3 a.m. and demanded money, said State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance.
"One of the patrons resisted. That patron was shot," Vance said.
He said the two gunmen fled after shooting a 21-year-old Massachusetts man in the chest and shoulder. The victim was taken to University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester. There was no immediate word on his condition.
Vance said police were searching for the suspects, both believed to be in their teens. He said one was wearing a ski mask and brandishing a handgun, and the other had what appeared to be a shotgun.
Aside from the police tape, things had returned to normal by midmorning at the Wal-Mart store in rural Putnam, a town of about 9,000 residents near the Massachusetts and Rhode Island borders.
Short supplies of the PS3 and strong demand led to lines of buyers, some waiting for days, outside stores across the country.
In Palmdale, Calif., authorities shut down a Super Wal-Mart after some shoppers got rowdy late Wednesday. In West Bend, Wis., a 19-year-old man was injured when he ran into a pole racing with 50 others for one of 10 spots outside a Wal-Mart.
In Lexington, Ky., someone fired BB pellets from a passing vehicle at people waiting outside a Best Buy store, according to WKYT, whose own reporter said she was among four people grazed while she interviewed buyers in line.
A Best Buy in Boston, aware it had only 140 of the consoles, got smart about the big sale _ its employees gave out tickets to the first 140 people in line so everyone could go home until the store opened.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 12, 2006 23:33:21 GMT -5
You have to wonder just what mentality a person has to have to think "Gee, it would be a good idea to stick this firecracker up my ass, light it, and see what happens". I can honestly say that I've never had that urge, no matter how fucked up I am so just "What the fuck?" Of course, he's probably on the commitee who induct bands/artists into the RRHOF, so it's a big surprise that he didn't have head injuries as well
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 12, 2006 20:10:23 GMT -5
LONDON - A 22-year-old man suffered internal injuries after lighting a small firecracker he had inserted into his buttocks, paramedics said Thursday.
The incident took place Sunday, when Britain celebrated Bonfire Night, traditionally marked with fireworks to celebrate the Guy Fawkes’ gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament in the 17th century.
The man suffered burns and other unspecified internal injuries in the incident in Sunderland, 275 miles north of London.
Katherine Shenton, a spokeswoman for the North East Ambulance Service, said a caller had phoned in that the victim was bleeding after the firecracker exploded.
Several of the man’s friends recorded the incident on a mobile phone. The blurry images show a man bent over with his pants down and a white flash as the firecracker explodes.
The Times newspaper reported the man is a soldier who recently returned from Iraq.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 12, 2006 12:59:25 GMT -5
SAO PAULO, Brazil - A woman was released from the hospital a day after she was shot in the head six times in an attack police blamed on her ex-husband, Brazilian media reported Saturday.
Patricia Goncalves Pereira, a 21-year-old housewife, was shot Friday after an altercation with her ex-husband, who was upset because she refused to get back together with him, Globo TV reported.
“I know this was a miracle,” Pereira told the TV network. “Now I just want to extract the bullets and live my life.”
Doctors could not explain how Pereira survived the attack. The .32-caliber bullets didn’t break through her skull and didn’t even need to be immediately extracted, doctors said. Pereira also was shot once in the hand.
Police said the ex-husband was still at large, Globo TV reported.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 10, 2006 23:36:16 GMT -5
LOS ANGELES -- Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in "Shane," "Sudden Fear" and other films who turned to comedy at 70 with his Oscar-winning self-parody in "City Slickers," died Friday.
Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. Palance was 85 according to Associated Press records, but his family gave his age as 87.
When Palance accepted his Oscar for best supporting actor he delighted viewers of the 1992 Academy Awards by dropping to the stage and performing one-armed push-ups to demonstrate his physical prowess.
"That's nothing, really," he said slyly. "As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not."
That year's Oscar host, Billy Crystal, turned the moment into a running joke, making increasingly outlandish remarks about Palance's accomplishments throughout the night's awards presentations.
It was a magic moment that epitomized the actor's 40 years in films. Always the iconoclast, Palance had scorned most of his movie roles.
"Most of the stuff I do is garbage," he once told a reporter, adding that most of the directors he worked with were incompetent, too.
"Most of them shouldn't even be directing traffic," he said.
Movie audiences, though, were electrified by the actor's chiseled face, hulking presence and the calm, low voice that made his screen presence all the more intimidating.
His film debut came in 1950, playing a murderer named Blackie in "Panic in the Streets."
After a war picture, "Halls of Montezuma," he portrayed the ardent lover who stalks the terrified Joan Crawford in 1952's "Sudden Fear." The role earned him his first Academy Award nomination for supporting actor.
The following year brought his second nomination when he portrayed Jack Wilson, the swaggering gunslinger who bullies peace-loving Alan Ladd into a barroom duel in the Western classic "Shane."
That role cemented Palance's reputation as Hollywood's favorite menace, and he went on to appear in such films as "Arrowhead" (as a renegade Apache), "Man in the Attic" (as Jack the Ripper), "Sign of the Pagan" (as Attila the Hun) and "The Silver Chalice" (as a fictional challenger to Jesus).
Other prominent films included "Kiss of Fire," "The Big Knife," "I Died a Thousand Deaths," "Attack!" "The Lonely Man" and "House of Numbers."
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 4, 2006 14:31:08 GMT -5
EL CERRITO, Calif. - A man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after police found him outdoors — naked — and he told them he had a tool in his rectum, authorities said.
The man was lying on a tree stump, masturbating beside a nature path, near a Bay Area Rapid Transit station Thursday, police said.
John Sheehan, 33, of Pittsburg, was initially arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure. But when asked whether he was carrying anything police should know about, Sheehan mentioned the tool, said El Cerrito Detective Cpl. Don Horgan.
“You can’t get much more concealed than that,” Horgan said.
Officers drew their weapons and firefighters were called to the scene. Sheehan removed a 6-inch metal awl wrapped in black electrical tape without incident.
Sheehan, who was paroled from state prison last week, was then booked into jail on suspicion of parole violations, indecent exposure and one felony count of possessing a concealed weapon.
“When you’re talking about an awl or an ice pick and you’re dealing with somebody who’s fresh out of prison, it’s a weapon. That’s a stabbing instrument,” Horgan said.
It was not immediately clear what Sheehan was on parole for. A person answering the phone at the jail Friday night did not know whether Sheehan had a lawyer.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Nov 11, 2006 0:00:03 GMT -5
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 25, 2006 17:03:52 GMT -5
A hacker known for cracking the copy-protection technology in DVDs claims to have unlocked the playback restrictions of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod and iTunes music products and plans to license his code to others.
The move by Jon Lech Johansen, also known as "DVD Jon," could pit the 22-year-old against Apple's lawyers, experts say, but if successful could free users from some restrictions Apple and its rivals place on digital music.
Today, songs purchased from Apple's online iTunes Music Store can't be played on portable devices made by other companies. Songs purchased from many other online music stores also won't work on iPods because they similarly use a form of copy-protection that Apple doesn't support.
Johansen said he has developed a way to get around those restrictions by creating code that mimics Apple's copy-protection system. But unlike his previous work, which he usually posts for free, the Norway native plans to capitalize on his efforts through his Redwood Shores-based DoubleTwist Ventures, said the company's only other employee, managing director Monique Farantzos.
An unnamed client will soon use the technology so its copy-protected content will be playable on iPods, she said, declining to give any specifics.
"There's a certain amount of trouble that Apple can give us, but not enough to stop this," Farantzos said Tuesday. "We believe we're on good legal ground, and our attorneys have given us the green light on this."
Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said the company was declining to comment.
A few others, including RealNetworks Inc.'s RealPlayer Music Store, have also tried to circumvent Apple's copy-protection technology, called FairPlay, but haven't gained much traction.
Fred von Lohmann, a staff attorney at the privacy-advocacy group, Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Johansen is treading carefully this time, consulting with lawyers, but isn't necessarily cleared from a legal fight over copy-protection laws.
"There is a lot of untested legal ground surrounding reverse engineering," he said.
Johansen became a hero to hackers at age 15, when he posted software called DeCSS to unlock the Content Scrambling System, or CSS, the film industry used on DVD movies to prevent illegal copying. The act made Johansen, who was then living in Norway, a folk hero among hackers.
After the film industry complained, Norwegian authorities charged him with data break-in, but Johansen was acquitted.
He has since become a strong advocate of the open-source philosophy of making software code freely available for inspection and sharing.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 25, 2006 16:54:45 GMT -5
ANTIGO, Wis. (Oct. 25) - Three-year-old Robert Moore went fishing for a stuffed replica of SpongeBob SquarePants and ended up trapped in a vending machine. The toddler's adventure began with a Saturday evening shopping trip with his grandmother, Fredricka Bierdemann, and three siblings.
Bierdemann ended the trip by giving each child a dollar and telling them to have fun in a retailer's game room.
A stuffed SpongeBob in a vending machine's bin caught Robert's eye. He tried without success to fish it out with a plastic crane.
"I told him I could get it for him," his grandmother said. "He's a character. He said, 'Oh no, I can get it."'
When she turned her back to get another dollar for a second try, Robert took off his coat and squeezed through an opening in the machine. He landed in the stuffed animal cube.
"I turned around and looked for him, and he said, 'Oma, I'm in here," Bierdemann said. "I thought I would have a heart attack."
Store employees couldn't find a key to the machine, so Robert waited while the Antigo Fire Department was called.
"He was having a ball in there, hugging all the stuffed animals," Bierdemann said. "He was so good-natured, but I was shaking like a leaf."
Firefighters broke one lock but then spotted two latches inside the plastic cube. They passed a screwdriver to Robert.
"He stacked up all the stuffed animals and used that screwdriver to open the latch," his grandmother said. "You should have seen him go."
Eventually, Robert freed himself. But his mother, Marie Moore, and grandmother said they were lucky that he remained calm when another child might not have. He went home safe - but without a stuffed SpongeBob.
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Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Oct 25, 2006 11:19:00 GMT -5
What's in a name? Plenty, if you're the angry parent of a revved-up teenager hooked on a substance called … Cocaine.
Convenience-store operator 7-Eleven is now telling its franchise stores to pull a high-caffeine drink named Cocaine from their shelves, because the product's name and branding suggest another habit altogether.
The company acted after getting complaints from parents of teens, who are a big part of the drink's target audience.
"Our merchandising team believes the product's name promotes an image which we didn't want to be associated with," said Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven.
Cocaine comes in red cans, with the name spelled out in what are meant to resemble lines of white powder.
According to the label, each 8.4-fluid ounce can contains 280 milligrams of caffeine -- more jolt than a cup of coffee, a can of Coca-Cola or the leading energy drink, Red Bull -- but no actual cocaine.
The drink is made by Redux Beverages of Las Vegas, which markets it as "The legal alternative."
Hannah Kirby, the company's managing partner, said 7-Eleven stores didn't account for many sales of the drink. It hit shelves in New York and California in August and is now available in more than a half-dozen states, mostly in mom-and-pop convenience and liquor stores.
This isn't the first time Cocaine has been yanked. Some stores in the New York area pulled the drink after local politicians complained. It's all part of the company's plan to stand out in the fast-growing energy drink market.
"We knew the name was going to be provocative," said Kirby, whose husband, James, created the drink.
Kirby said the company wasn't glorifying an illegal drug in the eyes of its young consumers. "Kids understand the difference between a controlled substance and an energy drink," she said. 7-Eleven to its stores: Just say no Chabris, the 7-Eleven spokeswoman, said the Dallas-based chain is recommending that franchisees not stock the drink.
Chabris said a vendor that isn't recommended by 7-Eleven "dropped the product off at some stores in Northern California." She said she didn't know how many stores carried it.
7-Eleven stores sell other energy drinks, which nutritionists warn can cause caffeine and sugar highs followed by crashing lows among kids who consume them -- sometimes several in a row.
Researchers in Chicago reported this month that they saw a surprisingly high number of cases of caffeine abuse over the past three years, including 12 percent that required hospital treatment. The average age of the victims was 21.
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