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American Idol Underground winner Bettina is performing in Phoenix at today’s March of Dimes walk.
She’s been appearing at March of Dimes events on the One Dime at a Time tour, having pledged to give the charity a dime for every download of her second single, Cradle to the Grave. (Her debut single, She Is, peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles sales chart.)
The goal is to make it a platinum single, which would raise $100,000.
“I’m doing that because my goddaughter was born a whole trimester premature, and if it wasn’t for the work the March of Dimes has done, she wouldn’t be the happy, healthy kid she is today,” says Bettina, who has been working in the entertainment business since the ’80s.
“When I was little, I was a really good reader for my age, and I started doing some voiceover work. I was the voice of Rainbow Brite (when she was 6), My Little Pony and the Littles.”
She’s also the voice of McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It ads.
The success of She Is began with her posting the single online, where American Idol Underground heard it and asked her to enter the contest.
“It was funny,” Bettina says, “because they started contacting to tell me I’d won, and I thought it was spam. So I wasn’t responding. I finally got a phone call from somebody in an office in New York saying ‘You won American Idol Underground.’ “So my dad checked it out, and sure enough, I ended up going down that day to Culver City and shooting some press.”
It was after the single turned up on Ten Perfect Love Songs, a compilation American Idol Underground assembled, that the song began its run on Billboard’s sales chart.

azcentral.com

From 1994-1997, I drew daily cartoons for Laugh Lines, the L.A. Times' humor page. I also wrote topical jokes every day. Even though the WGA strike has been settled, the strike was the inspiration for Early Morning Jokes, like the Iran hostage crisis was for "Nightline" but with better hair. Yes, even though the late-night writers are back, there's plenty of room to stake out a different time of day to call my own.
Welcome to …
Early Morning Jokes
by Tony Peyser
Two contract employees at the State Department were fired and a third disciplined for improperly accessing Barack Obama's passport records. Spokesman Sean McCormack characterized the incidents as "imprudent curiosity." In related news, McCormack called J. Edgar Hoover's vast enemies lists "playful inquisitiveness."
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was disbarred from practicing law in the nation's capital on Thursday. Libby took the news well — although before leaving the courtroom, he stumbled getting off of his booster seat.
New York Rep. Tom Reynolds, up to his neck in the Mark Foley sex scandal, will not seek re-election. You may recall how Reynolds once held a press conference surrounded by children, a shameless ploy to try and stop questions of an adult nature. Those same kids will be invited back when Reynolds holds his final press conference. If they're unavailable, Scooter Libby will just sit on Reynolds lap.
When John McCain made a foreign policy gaffe in Jordan, Joe Lieberman quietly pointed out the mistake, giving McCain an opportunity to correct himself in front of the international press corps. Later in Israel, Lieberman gently intervened when McCain made an incorrect reference about the Jewish holiday of Purim. This is the best dummy-ventriloquist routine since the heyday of Willie Tyler & Lester.
The movie about Lieberman's life finally has a title: "The McCain Whisperer."

buzzflash.com

2008 NCAA March Madness Basketball Contest
And an opportunity to win tickets to the Final Four
2008 NCAA March Madness Basketball contest offerings are aplenty and you certainly increase your chances of winning by joining as many as possible.Gambling911.com endorses a number of top NCAA March Madness Basketball Contests.
David Tarrant of the Dallas Morning News puts it best:
Beginning today, much of America will become absorbed in a high-stakes game. Millions of dollars will change hands, workplace productivity will take a hit, morale will bounce around, and some people will wonder whether the whole country has gone bonkers.
Welcome to March Madness.
While betting on the games is a national (and dare we say WORLD pasttime), office pools and cash contests have always helped fuel the popularity of March Madness over the years.
"March Madness Brackets contests are among the most sought after between Selection Sunday and the first game played of the tournament," Payton O’Brien, Senior Editor of Gambling911.com, stated. Ms. O’Brien is forecasting this year’s March Madness traffic between that period of time to be double that of last year. "For sites like ours that cover the 2008 March Madness betting season, it’s all about capturing the biggest chunk of the market."

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Meg Whitman’s 10th Anniversary as CEO of eBay
When Whitman signed on as CEO in 1998, eBay had a staff of 29 and $47.4 million in annual revenue; now it’s at 11,000 and $7 billion plus. But as she marks 10 years of proving there’s a market for fragrantly well-worn size-12 Air Jordans, the "time left" on her tenure is ticking down. Whitman’s impending departure from the top job at eBay is stirring analysts’ hopes that new leadership will bring new growth. After all, as Whitman said herself early in her eBay days, no CEO should serve more than 10 years. –Ellen Gibson
Russian Presidential Election
Mitt Romney must be a bit jealous. In the other big 2008 presidential race, the leader, Dmitry Medvedev, has wealth, corporate bona fides, the blessing of an incumbent that most of the country still likes, and poll numbers around 80%. But the incumbent is Vladimir Putin, who’s expected to become Medvedev’s premier/puppet master and shows every sign of taking the power of the presidency with him. Medvedev, now chair of energy giant Gazprom, says he’ll quit his corporate gig if he wins. His primary goal as president will be to maintain "stability." His chief strategy: "To maintain the capable team of the current president." –Jeff Chu

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And if it wasn’t for her father’s prodding, the diminutive Filipino-American singer with the big voice probably wouldn’t have auditioned a second time for “American Idol” — which means she wouldn’t be standing among the final 12 contestants on the top-rated Fox TV show. She was rejected in the initial stage last year and balked at going back.
“I think she was lacking a bit of that confidence and didn’t want the people close to her expect too much from her,” neighbor Isidra Yokose said Tuesday night at the lobby of Hilton Garden Inn in Miramar, where family and friends have been meeting every week to watch the show, cheer for Malubay — and furiously text in votes on their cell phones, of course.
“She is so incredibly special to us and to the rest of the Filipino community,” added family friend Geny Panaligan-Ke, who organizes the “Watch ‘N Vote 4 Ramiele” gatherings.
“I don’t know where she gets it, but she definitely has the talent, the potential and the confidence to make it,” Yokose said. “We are so proud of her, and we have all the faith in the world that she will make it big.”
Before her good looks, tiny stature — she’s 4-foot-11 — and big voice made her a fan favorite, Malubay worked part-time as a waitress at a sushi restaurant in suburban Fort Lauderdale, where she grew up with her younger sister and her Filipino parents. The family moved to the United States from Saudi Arabia when she was 5.

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