CLEAR CHANNEL PLANS REVAMP

The new owners of radio giant Clear Channel Communications will next week begin implementing a massive restructuring plan that seeks to cut $400 million in costs at the company, The Post has learned.
According to three sources with knowledge of the plan, the restructuring will include layoffs across the company's radio, outdoor advertising and international divisions as well as cuts to programming budgets and consolidation of back-office operations.
A precise headcount for the layoffs could not be obtained. Clear Channel has about 30,000 employees worldwide.
The company is also likely to move toward a "national programming" model that would require less local-level staffing, despite being criticized in the past for a similar action using centralized disc jockeys that made it appear as though they were broadcasting from local stations.
Sources said an initial round of layoffs is expected to commence next Tuesday - not coincidentally the same day President-elect Barack Obama is to be sworn into office. Clear Channel managers are hoping they can slip in the layoffs while the press is preoccupied with Inauguration Day festivities, sources said.
A Clear Channel spokeswoman declined to comment.
"Clear Channel was built through a series of acquisitions that generally weren't consolidated very well," said one source, alluding to the late '90s buying spree that put more than 1,000 stations under the Clear Channel umbrella, making it the nation's largest radio company. more

Man charged with threatening Obama on website

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Authorities on Friday arrested a U.S. man on suspicion of threatening to kill President-elect Barack Obama based on statements he posted on a website about UFOs and aliens, the Justice Department said.
Steven Joseph Christopher, in three postings to www.alien-earth.org, said he planned to assassinate Obama in Washington "as a sacrificial lamb," the department said in a statement.
"It's really nothing personal about the man. He speaks well ... . But I know it's for the country's own good that I do this," Christopher reportedly wrote.
"It's not because I'm racist that I will kill Barack, it's because I can no longer allow the Jewish parasites to bully their way into making the American people submit to their evil ways."
Christopher added that he needed money to get to Washington and that he did not own a gun, the department said.
Unprecedented security surrounds Obama, who will be sworn into office on Tuesday and become the nation's first black president.
Christopher, who is from Wisconsin but was arrested in Brookhaven, Mississippi, could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if found guilty.

Hertz to cut more than 4,000 jobs

DETROIT (Reuters) - Hertz Global Holdings Inc said on Friday that it would cut more than 4,000 jobs in a worldwide restructuring through the first quarter due to falling demand, and the car rental company's shares fell nearly 9 percent.
Hertz expects annualized savings of $150 million to $170 million in 2009 from the job cuts, it said. It expects to take a fourth-quarter charge of $20 million to $25 million for the cuts.
The cuts are in the car and equipment rental businesses as well as in corporate and support areas in all regions focused on positions that do not have direct contact with customers, Hertz said in a statement.
Hertz will have cut its workforce by 32 percent since August 2006 with the latest round of reductions, it said.
Hertz said it could not predict when its markets would improve. The declines pressured the volume of rentals, the pricing on rentals and the residual values of vehicles in its fleets during the fourth quarter.
The company estimated fourth-quarter net cash flow at about $1.75 billion and said it had ended 2008 with liquidity of about $4.9 billion.
Shares of Hertz were down 47 cents, or 8.7 percent, at $4.92 in midday New York Stock Exchange trade.

Chineese woman sentenced to death for hiring someone to strangle her son

SHANGHAI, China — A court in central China has sentenced a woman to death for hiring someone to strangle her 9-year-old son so she could have another child with her new husband without violating population laws, a court official and reports said Friday.
The case stems in part from Chinese policies - in effect for more than three decades - that limit most couples to only one child.
The Higher People's Court in Shaanxi province ordered the death penalty for former bank clerk Li Yingfang, overturning a lower court decision that might have allowed her a life sentence, said a court official.
The official at the lower court in Weinan, a city in Shaanxi, said he was familiar with the case and confirmed that the death sentence had been ordered. As is common with Chinese officials not authorized to speak to media, he gave only his surname, Liu.
Calls to the Shaanxi Higher Court rang unanswered Friday.
Liu also confirmed reports by Shaanxi Television that said Li, 36, gave custody of her son from her first marriage to the boy's grandmother after her first husband died.
She remarried, but her second husband also had a daughter from his first marriage, so the couple could not legally have another child, it said.


The report said Li first paid about $10,000 to have a man named Wang Ruijie kill her second husband's daughter, but the girl resisted and escaped. Li then took her son to a meeting with Wang, who strangled the boy and left him by a rural road. more

The 6 Most Common Sex Myths

There’s nothing like being sexually misinformed.
It can foil your sexual response. It can leave you pregnant or fielding an infection. And it can make you feel pretty silly, especially when you realize you have been wrong all along.
So to make sure you don’t go another day in the dark, here’s the real deal on some of the most important sex facts:

1. Myth: Viagra is 100 Percent Effective
When it comes to taking Viagra, or other sildenafil medications, which treat erectile dysfunction, men tend to think that it’s 100 percent effective. All you need to do is pop a pill, sit back and enjoy, right?

Fact: A desire component is needed for males to become sexually aroused and attain erection. Unless that's there, you're headed for disappointment.
The consequence: Half of the men who try using these drugs end up discontinuing them by the end of the year. This is partly due to inadequate communication with their partner and inadequate education on what to expect.


2. Myth: A Virgin's Hymen Always Breaks

Many people think that a female’s hymen is broken the first time she has intercourse.

Fact: This is not necessarily so for every gal. Depending on the female, this thin skin that stretches across the vaginal opening may be anywhere from nearly nonexistent to covering everything. It is not always torn during intercourse. Actually, 19 percent of sexually active females have no visible tearing.
This is important to know, since many cultures think the presence of a hymen is an indicator that a female is a virgin. Girls are born with hymens of various sizes and openings. Some may appear to have no hymen at all. Others have their hymen stretched from activities like bicycling or horseback riding.

3. Myth: Withdrawal = Good Birth Control

Couples have relied on the withdrawal method as a form of birth control for centuries.

Fact: Pregnancy can occur any time unprotected sex is had, whether or not a male has climaxed. Withdrawal is therefore not recommended as a form of birth control, especially for males who are sexually inexperienced.
The consequence: About half of the 6.4 million pregnancies that occurred in the United States in 2001 (the most recent year for which good data was available) were unplanned. Definitely something to think about before relying on this method.

4. Myth: Oral Sex is Safe Sex

Plenty of people engage in oral sex because they think it does not put them at risk for sexually transmitted diseases.

Fact: Unprotected oral sex puts both partners — whether giver or receiver — at risk for a number of STDs.
The consequence: While the risk of transmission from oral sex is generally lower than unprotected intercourse, lovers still have to worry about STDs like herpes and HIV.

5. Myth: You Can't Get Pregnant if You Aren't Ovulating

She’s not ovulating so she can’t get pregnant — Not!
Fact: While pregnancy is likeliest to occur during the six days leading up to, and including, ovulation, a female can get pregnant at any point in her menstrual cycle. This includes the week of her period.
Even if couples want to take a chance and avoid unprotected sex around day 14 of her menstrual cycle (when she is most fertile), the fact that many women have irregular cycles makes this a dicey decision. Even women who have regular menstrual cycles may not ovulate on the same day each month.

6. Myth: The Pill Protects Against STDs

Many females, especially young women, believe using a contraceptive pill will protect them not only from pregnancy, but also from sexually transmitted diseases.

Fact: All hormonal birth control methods, including the pill, provide protection only against pregnancy. They do not protect either lover from the transmission of infections. A male or female condom is the only way to protect against STDs when sexually active. more
Dr. Yvonne K. Fulbright is a sex educator, relationship expert, columnist and founder.

Kendra Wilkinson said that she had to sneak away from Hef to get sex

Who knew you had to sneak sex at the Playboy Mansion?
Kendra Wilkinson, one of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends on "The Girls Next Door," told US Weekly magazine that "I had to have sex every now and then, so I had to kind of sneak it."
While Wilkinson, 23, said she and Hefner were intimate at times, mostly she just saw him once a day in passing.

Kendra Wilkinson (far right) with Holly Madison, Bridget Marquandt, and Hugh Hefner.

Bridget Marquardt, on the other hand, stayed true to her (much older) man, according to Wilkinson.
"Bridget told me that she's been faithful all these years, and I was like, 'How the hell can you do that?' I had to have [sex] so I could feel my age, like a healthy human being."
Wilkinson described Hefner as more of a "sugar daddy" who kept close tabs on the girls, which made her "insane."
Wilkinson is now engaged to Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Hank Baskett, and plans to marry him at the Playboy Mansion this summer.

After 'Miracle on the Hudson,' Pilot Who Became Instant Hero Is Honored

NEW YORK — After guiding a crippled US Airways jet into the Hudson River and saving all 155 people aboard — a feat many were calling a miracle — the pilot at the helm became an instant hero.

Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, 57, the pilot of Flight 1549, was honored by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with a key to the city on Friday. Bloomberg also honored the rest of the crew, rescue workers and civilians who helped avert a disaster.

Sullenberger, of Danville, Calif., is a former fighter pilot who runs a safety consulting firm in addition to flying commercial aircraft.

He has flown for US Airways since 1980 and flew F-4 fighter jets with the Air Force in the 1970s. He then served on a board that investigated aircraft accidents and participated later in several National Transportation Safety Board investigations.



The Airbus 320 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport about 3:26 p.m. Thursday en route to Charlotte, N.C. Less than a minute later, a flock of birds apparently flew into the plane, disabling both its engines.

Sullenberger was going to make an emergency landing in New Jersey, but decided to turn around. He reported a "double bird strike" and said he needed to return to LaGuardia, said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Passengers quickly realized something was terrifyingly wrong.

"I heard an explosion, and I saw flames coming from the left wing, and I thought, `This isn't good,'" said Dave Sanderson, 47, who was heading home to Charlotte from a business trip. "Then it was just controlled chaos. People started running up the aisle. People were getting shoved out of the way."

On the way back, Sullenberger realized he was going to have to land in the river. He told passengers to "brace for impact" and brought the plane down safely in the icy water.

One passenger described the impact as about the same as a rear-end collision. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured and everyone onboard survived. They exited onto the jet's wings and were rescued by boats.

How Birds Can Down a Jet Airplane

Click here to read more about the water landing.

Sullenberger had been studying the psychology of keeping airline crews functioning even in the face of crisis, said Robert Bea, a civil engineer who co-founded UC Berkeley's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.

Bea said he could think of few pilots as well-situated to bring the plane down safely than Sullenberger.

"When a plane is getting ready to crash with a lot of people who trust you, it is a test.. Sulley proved the end of the road for that test. He had studied it, he had rehearsed it, he had taken it to his heart."

Sullenberger is president of Safety Reliability Methods, a California firm that uses "the ultra-safe world of commercial aviation" as a basis for safety consulting in other fields, according to the firm's Web site.

Sullenberger's mailbox at the firm was full on Thursday. A group of fans sprang up on Facebook within hours of the emergency landing.

"OMG, I am terrified of flying but I would be happy to be a passenger on one of your aircraft!!" Melanie Wills in Bristol wrote on the wall of "Fans of Sully Sullenberger." "You have saved a lot of peoples lives and are a true hero!!"

The pilot "did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river and then making sure that everybody got out," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "He walked the plane twice after everybody else was off, and tried to verify that there was nobody else on board, and he assures us there was not."

"He was the last one up the aisle and he made sure that there was nobody behind him."

Gov. David Paterson pronounced it a "miracle on the Hudson." more