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West, Winehouse top Grammy nominations

(CNN) — Kanye West earned eight nominations Thursday, including album of the year and rap album of the year for his Graduation, leading the competition for the 50th annual Grammy Awards.

British retro soul singer Amy Winehouse also made out well, earning six nods, including nominations for album of the year (Back to Black), song of the year, record of the year and best new artist.

In a surprise, Bruce Springsteen — whose critically praised Magic was expected to do well — didn’t get an album of the year nomination. The competition in that category, besides West and Winehouse, includes the Foo Fighters (Echoes, Silence, Patience Grace), Vince Gill (the four-disc set These Days) and Herbie Hancock (River: The Joni Letters).

Two members of the Foo Fighters — Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins — as well as Gill and Hancock were on hand at Thursday’s announcement to hear their names read. Watch Grohl’s reaction to the nominations

This feels amazing. The older you get, the more you figure someone is going to come and turn the faucet off, Gill said later, according to The Associated Press. (Blog: How did the Grammys do?)

Springsteen, who earned four nods, was nominated for best solo rock vocal and best rock album, among other awards. Gallery: Nominees in top categories

Aside from Winehouse’s Rehab, the nominees for song of the year — a songwriting honor — are Before He Cheats (performed by Carrie Underwood), Hey There Delilah (Plain White T’s), Like a Star (Corinne Bailey Rae) and Umbrella (Rihanna).

Record of the year nominations went to Rehab, Beyonce’s Irreplaceable, the Foo Fighters’ The Pretender, Rihanna’s Umbrella and Justin Timberlake’s What Goes Around … Comes Around.

In addition to Winehouse, best new artist nominees are Feist, Ledisi, Paramore and Taylor Swift.

Winehouse has struggled personally since breaking into the big time in the U.S. this year. Rehab was no joke; the singer has coped with drug abuse allegations and ended up canceling weeks of concert dates because of intense emotional strain, according to a statement from her promoter.

She makes Lindsay Lohan look cool, comedian George Lopez cracked as he helped announce the nominations.

West also had great success in 2007 — Graduation sold almost 1 million copies its first week out — but he has also faced difficulty. In November, his mother died suddenly after plastic surgery at age 58.

Common (Finding Forever), Jay-Z (Kingdom Come), Nas (Hip Hop Is Dead), T.I. (T.I. vs. T.I.P) and West all earned nominations for best rap album.

Peripatetic producer Timbaland, who received five nominations total, was among those receiving producer of the year (nonclassical) nominations.

Paul McCartney, whose album Memory Almost Full received good reviews, earned nominations for best pop vocal and best solo rock vocal.

At one point, the announcement turned into a festival of hugs, with an emotional Swift embracing many of her colleagues after hearing her name called. Grohl had fun with the idea, grabbing producer Jimmy Jam after Jam announced the Foo Fighters’ album had made the album of the year list.

The 50th annual Grammys are scheduled for February 10 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, and the show will air on CBS.
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Malls debate how to protect shoppers from violence

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Some experts are skeptical that anything could have stopped Robert Hawkins from going on a murderous rampage at an Omaha, Nebraska, shopping mall on Wednesday.

This is not something that anybody can reasonably anticipate, said Don Greene, a former FBI agent who has written a book on mall security.

If the people closest to him didn’t see any indicators or signs that he was going to go off so drastically … how is some public safety officer supposed to recognize this person? Greene asked.

In fact, security at Omaha’s Westroads Mall did find Hawkins’ behavior suspicious before the shooting, Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said Thursday.

Mall surveillance initially flagged Hawkins based on his actions when he entered the mall through the Von Maur store’s main entrance on the second floor, Warren said. He said Hawkins exited quickly after entering, then re-entered within six minutes and appeared to be concealing something in a balled-up sweatshirt.

He then went up the elevator to the third floor, and when he got there, he immediately began firing, Warren said. It doesn’t appear as though there was an opportunity for intervention, he said.

Shopping malls around the country were expected to review their emergency plans and consider additional security measures in light of Wednesday’s shooting, which killed eight.

There is always a fear of copycats when something like this happens, said Malachy Kavanaugh, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers. He said malls would be considering whether to close some entrances, bring in additional officers, and make security more visible.

There are 1,200 enclosed malls in the United States and about 50,000 shopping centers. Although some include police substations, most are patrolled by unarmed private mall and store security guards.

Should these private security guards be armed? Absolutely not, said Greene. Greene said if a security officer were to pull a gun on an armed individual in a mall, it could result in the gunfight at the ‘OK corral,’ and then we might have 23 people killed instead of eight.

These random events are very challenging to prevent and difficult to deal with when they occur. Law enforcement and security prevention measures, no matter how good, cannot forestall a tragedy such as this from happening, said a statement issued Wednesday night by the Simon Property Group, which operates regional and outlet malls across the United States.

We do not disclose or discuss our enhanced security measures and/or procedures that we have in place or may institute at any given time, some of which are visible to the public, with others intentionally less noticeable, the statement said. Disclosure of such information could potentially compromise our efforts to provide a safe and secure environment.

Security expert Lou Palumbo told CNN one useful strategy was having trained law enforcement personnel watching people as they enter the mall.

You start to observe the people coming into the mall area, he said. To let them in your door and then try to figure out what they’re doing, you know, it’s not as effective as catching them as they’re coming in the door.

The International Council of Shopping Centers has conducted focus groups with shoppers to test how they would react to even tighter airport style security measures, including bag checks and magnetometers.

According to Kavanaugh, the results have shown that shoppers would accept the measures only if the national threat advisory system was raised to its highest level, red. Such extreme measures are in the mall industry playbook … but it is something no one wants to do, said Kavanaugh.

While some mall owners have increased training of security personnel and have upgraded their emergency systems, many security experts believe more should and can be done. Those experts suggest it’s a matter of money. They say until shoppers start staying away, mall owners will not make significant changes.

There are no national standards for security guards, and according to a 2006 study by the Police Foundation, only a few states require background checks, minimum hiring standards, or training.

The study also notes that drills to test security staffs’ knowledge of what to do in an emergency, when done at all, are seldom rigorous, seldom done with first responders, and are usually done without clear standards to measure their success. The report goes on to say that many malls do not even have plans to limit access to sensitive areas in times of heightened alert.

Since that report was written, the International Council of Shopping Centers, in conjunction with George Washington University, has developed a DVD to train mall security guards. According to Kavanaugh, about 6,000 of the nation’s estimated 20,000 mall security guards have participated in the course, including 10 at Westroads Mall, where Wednesday’s shootings took place.

The FBI and other federal agencies have reached out to private security firms to share information on best practices. The FBI also sends out alerts regarding possible threats to the private sector — but warnings of possible terrorist plans are clearly of no help in anticipating an attacker like Hawkins.
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Jamaica calls on army to stem soaring murder rate

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Jamaican soldiers will join police on patrols on the Caribbean island in a new strategy to fight rising violence, the prime minister said.

Nearly 60 homicides over the last week have pushed the number of victims this year beyond 1,430, police spokesman Karl Angell said.

Most of the violence has been linked to gangs in the capital, Kingston, and the rural parishes of St. Catherine, Clarendon and St. James.

We are going to use every resource to deal with this monster, Prime Minister Bruce Golding told a news conference late Wednesday.

Soldiers have been mobilized in the past to help quell violence on a temporary basis, but Golding said he would assign troops to crime patrols as a long-term strategy.

Jamaica, a country that is slightly smaller than Connecticut, had a population of 2,780,132 in July, 2007, according to the C.I.A.’s World Factbook.
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I-Reporter recalls horror of Nebraska mall shootings

(CNN) — Though tears, Kristy Wright said she’s not doing well Thursday morning, the day after a shooter took the lives of nine people, including himself, at an Omaha, Nebraska, mall.

We were steps away from walking in there, Omaha-area resident Wright says of the Von Maur department store at the Westroads Mall where Robert A. Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Nebraska, opened fire.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the people who were in there.

Wright and a friend went out shopping together, and were headed to Von Maur, but the two stopped short because Wright’s friend had to use the restroom. Two minutes passed, or we would have been in there, Wright says.

Hawkins shot some of his victims in the children’s department. I always go straight to that department, Wright said, because I have a 9-year-old.

Instead, she and her friend heard shots as they were standing inside the mall, just outside the doors to Von Maur. Wright described a sound unlike any other she had heard before despite growing up near hunting grounds in Minnesota. Watch an I-Reporter’s footage of chaos at the mall

The gunshots were so consistent, Wright said, her voice tinged with horror.

I heard what seemed like the first four or five, then there was a bigger round. What we didn’t realize, what we found out later that night, was that we had heard someone being shot.

A hide-out in nearby store

Wright said she realized what was happening and yelled, There’s a shooter. She tried to turn and run, but her legs wouldn’t move fast enough, she said. She said her friend was frozen in fear. Wright guided them both to a nearby jewelry store, she recalled.

Wright told the jewelry store employees what she had heard and asked if they would take the two of them in, she said. A manager showed Wright, her friend and four employees to a room in the back of the store.

Wright said she sat in the small room wondering if a shooter would walk in the door any minute.

Now I know what it felt like at Virginia Tech, she said. Just waiting for your turn. Waiting for the door to fly open and for him to come in there, and it’s your turn.

The ride home alone The shooter didn’t barge in, but the police arrived. They gathered everyone in the mall together to walk them outside. Wright said she didn’t want to leave her small, enclosed hide-out. See I-Reporters’ photos of police roaming the mall

In the meantime, Wright’s 16-year-old daughter was at home, watching reports of the shootings on TV. She knew that her mother had gone out shopping. Terrified, she called her mother, who reassured her that she was safe. Wright’s family also called from Minnesota. She spoke to her husband at work before her cell phone battery died.

Everybody was borrowing phones, people were giving phones to each other. Teenagers that you wouldn’t expect to be so compassionate at that age — everyone was offering rides to people who were parked at a distance from JC Penney, where police escorted people out of the mall.

Once outside, Wright had to make the 15-minute drive home to her family alone. As soon as I got past the reporters and on to the road, I started shaking. It was a long 15 minutes. I just called my mother and talked to her the whole way home, she recalled. I had to talk to someone.

Questions left unanswered

Wright said that she didn’t sleep much Wednesday night and neither did the friend who had accompanied her. I called her this morning, Wright said. She said she kept waking up, trying to catch her breath throughout the night.

Wright said her friend is not the kind of person who shows emotion, but you can hear it in her voice, and you can see it on her face.

Wright said she plans to go to the University of Nebraska at Omaha on Thursday for counseling. Wright has to drive past the mall to get to the school, a task she said she is dreading.

Mulling over the events of the day, Wright said there are many questions left unanswered.

There was a woman in front of me in the checkout line at another store in the mall. She turned to her companion and said, ‘Let’s go to Von Maur now.’

This exchange was just before Wright and her friend stopped off at the restrooms. I wonder what happened to her, Wright said.
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List of major Grammy nominations

(AP) — Nominees announced Thursday in top categories for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards:

Record of the Year: Irreplaceable, Beyonce; The Pretender, Foo Fighters; Umbrella, Rihanna featuring Jay-Z; What Goes Around … Comes Around, Justin Timberlake; Rehab, Amy Winehouse.

Album of the Year: Echoes, Silence, Patience Grace, Foo Fighters; These Days, Vince Gill; River: The Joni Letters, Herbie Hancock; Graduation, Kanye West; Back to Black, Amy Winehouse.

Song of the Year: Before He Cheats, Josh Kear Chris Tompkins (Carrie Underwood); Hey There Delilah, Tom Higgenson (Plain White T’s); Like a Star, Corinne Bailey Rae (Corinne Bailey Rae); Rehab, Amy Winehouse (Amy Winehouse); Umbrella, Shawn Carter, Kuk Harrell, Terius Dream Nash Christopher Stewart (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z).

New Artist: Feist; Ledisi; Paramore; Taylor Swift; Amy Winehouse.

Pop Vocal Album: Lost Highway, Bon Jovi; The Reminder, Feist; It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5; Memory Almost Full, Paul McCartney; Back to Black, Amy Winehouse.

Rock Album: Daughtry, Daughtry; Revival, John Fogerty; Echoes, Silence, Patience Grace, Foo Fighters; Magic, Bruce Springsteen; Sky Blue Sky, Wilco.

RB Album: Funk This, Chaka Khan; Lost Found, Ledisi; Luvanmusiq, Musiq Soulchild; The Real Thing, Jill Scott; Sex, Love Pain, Tank.

Rap Album: Finding Forever, Common; Kingdom Come, Jay-Z, Hip Hop Is Dead, Nas; T.I. vs T.I.P., T.I.; Graduation, Kanye West.

Country Album: Long Trip Alone, Dierks Bentley; These Days, Vince Gill; Let It Go, Tim McGraw; 5th Gear, Brad Paisley; It Just Comes Natural, George Strait.

Latin Pop Album: Papito, Miguel Bose Varios Artistas; 12 Segundos De Oscuridad, Jorge Drexler; Navidades Luis Miguel, Luis Miguel; Dicen Que El Tiempo, Jennifer Pena; El Tren De Los Momentos, Alejandro Sanz.

Contemporary Jazz Album: Party Hats, Will Bernard; Downright Upright, Brian Bromberg; Re-imagination, Eldar; River: The Joni Letters, Herbie Hancock; He Had a Hat, Jeff Lorber.

Classical Album: Cherubini: Missa Solemnis in E, Riccardo Muti, conductor, Wilhelm Meister, producer (Ildar Abdrazakov, Herbert Lippert, Marianna Pizzolato Ruth Ziesak (Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks); Grechaninov: Passion Week, Charles Bruffy, conductor, Blanton Alspaugh, producer (Kansas City Chorale Phoenix Bach Choir); Homage: The Age of the Diva, Renee Fleming, David Frost, producer (Valery Gergiev, Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre); Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Sings Peter Lieberson: Neruda Songs, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Dirk Sobotka, producer (James Levine; Boston Symphony Orchestra); Tower: Made in America, Leonard Slatkin, conductor, Tim Handley, producer (Nashville Symphony). E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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