Danny Puff

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) Residents of the southern Vermont town that was once the home-in-exile of former Soviet dissident and writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn are considering whether to convert an historic church into an exhibit to honor the Nobel laureate's 18 years in Cavendish.

At Town Meeting the locals' annual decision-making gathering and the venue where Solzhenitsyn once addressed his neighbors when he arrived in 1977 voters will be asked whether they should take ownership of a small stone Universalist Church and use it to honor him.

Solzhenitsyn, who spent eight years in prison and labor camps for criticizing Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, said he chose Cavendish for its resemblance to his homeland and its small-town personality.

"I dislike very much large cities with their empty and fussy lives," he told his new neighbors. "I like very much the simple way of life and the population here, the simplicity and the human relationship. I like the countryside, and I like the climate with the long winter and the snow, which reminds me of Russia."

Solzhenitsyn wrote his best known works, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and "The Gulag Archipelago," based on his years imprisoned, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970.

If the town decides at the meeting Monday to take over the deed to the church, plans call for some repairs and later an exhibit that would include videos of Solzhenitsyn, talking about his years in Cavendish where he lived until 1994 and where his son, Ignat, a pianist and conductor, still lives with his family.

The town, which prided itself on protecting Solzhenitsyn's privacy, hopes to find the sign that once sat in a store window warning that the proprietors offered no directions to his home.

Visitors still ask, and townspeople still decline.

"That's been our legacy is to let people do what they need to do, and let people be as best we can. I love our town's history of being a place of refuge, and I love the fact that when Solzhenitsyn was here he extended that to other people ...," said Margo Caulfield, coordinator of the Cavendish Historical Society.

The impetus for the project came when the town had little to offer a group of Russian tourists last summer who expected a monument in their countryman's honor, Caulfield said.

Built in 1844 under the leadership of renowned abolitionist Rev. Warren Skinner, the church was decommissioned in the 1960s. Caulfield said church leaders last year offered to donate the building to the town.

"He just did an incredible job of showing that a person can sustain unbelievable horrors and go on to live a remarkable life and just really thrive," Caulfield said of the town's famous resident. "Our focus is clearly we want to make sure our schoolchildren know about the work that he did and the importance that it played."

In 1994, just before he and his family moved back to Russia, Solzhenitsyn spoke again at Town Meeting, bringing tears to people's eyes. And after he died in Russia in 2008, the town held a memorial service to honor him at the elementary school.

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Online: http://cavendishhistoricalsocietynews.blogspot.com

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ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) At 37 pounds, Biscuit is about the right weight for a 4-year-old human, that is.

A St. Louis-area animal shelter is trying to find a new home for the sweet tabby with a sweet tooth.

Biscuit's salad days were spent pigging out, and now at roughly three times the weight of a healthy adult cat, he's restricted to about a cup of diet food per day.

His first owner, a disabled woman who fed him lots of treats, brought him to the St. Charles Animal Control shelter about a year ago because she could no longer care for him, Teresa Gilley, the shelter's lead animal control officer, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/15VQRvf ).

"She didn't mean the cat any harm," Gilley said. "I just think she didn't know any better."

Another woman took him in but had to return him about a week ago because her new apartment doesn't allow pets, she said.

Gilley said the tubby tabby isn't crazy about his new low-calorie diet, but he has begun adjusting to it. When he arrived, Biscuit could only take a few steps before lying down and panting, but now he's showing increased energy.

"The other day I went into the office, and he was up in the chair," Gilley said. "So he was able to jump pretty high."

Biscuit is neutered and is believed to be about 4. Gilley said he's easygoing and loves being petted.

"He's sweet and loving, and if you talk to him, he'll talk back," Gilley said.

Any prospective owner would need to keep Biscuit away from the gravy and on a strict diet.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Bonnie Franklin, best known as a single working mother in the hit CBS comedy "One Day at a Time" in an era when U.S. television was redefining families in pop culture, died on Friday at age 69.

She died at her Los Angeles home of complications from pancreatic cancer, surrounded by relatives and friends, according to a statement issued by the CBS network on behalf of her family.

Franklin, a petite redhead, had acted on Broadway before being cast as the harried divorcee Ann Romano in "One Day at a Time", which debuted in December 1975 and ran for nine seasons on CBS. It co-starred Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her two head-strong daughters.

Franklin's performance on the series garnered her an Emmy nomination in 1982. She previously earned a Theatre World Award and a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut work in the 1970 musical "Applause", in which she sang the title song.

During a career spanning six decades, she starred in more than 30 television series and made-for-TV movies while continuing her work in live theater. But she was best remembered for her work on the Norman Lear-produced sitcom "One Day at a Time".

The show was an instant ratings success and became a cultural landmark for its portrait of a family that departed from the idealized sitcom households of earlier decades, like those on "Leave It to Beaver" (1957-1963) and "Father Knows Best" (1954-1960).

By the time "One Day at a Time" premiered at the end of 1975, even the happy blended family of "The Brady Bunch" (1969-1974) had become obsolete.

PORTRAYED SINGLE WORKING MOTHER

Franklin played a divorced mother - a rarity on U.S. TV at the time - who was struggling to raise her daughters in an Indianapolis apartment with little help from their father, while striving for a fulfilling personal life of her own.

"Ms. Franklin helped define and illuminate the role of single working mothers within the cultural landscape," CBS said in its statement.

The show delved into drama as it followed their day-to-day lives, dealing with teen sex, suicide, runaways, sexual harassment and other contemporary topics that never would have come up at the Cleavers' dinner table on "Leave It to Beaver".

Adding comic relief was the meddlesome building superintendent, Dwayne Schneider - his first name was almost never mentioned - played by Pat Harrington Jr., who becomes virtually part of the family.

Unlike the character she played, Franklin had no children of her own. Born in Santa Monica, she was the fourth of five children of immigrant parents - a Romanian mother and Italian father - and made her television debut at age 9 on the Colgate Comedy Hour, an NBC variety show in the 1950s.

"To my mother, getting married and having kids were synonymous with security," Franklin said in a 1977 interview with Family Weekly. "I used to tell her that was not always so, but I couldn't convince her. Then I got married, divorced, the series came along, it was a hit, and something remarkable happened: She came around to my point of view."

"She said to me, 'It's wonderful. You can have a personal life and earn money for your old age,'" Franklin recalled.

Franklin helped hold the "One Day at a Time" cast together amid off-camera tensions. Phillips, who played older daughter Julie, battled serious drug problems during the show's run and was fired after getting arrested on cocaine charges, showing up late and incoherent, and undergoing drug rehab.

Franklin directed some episodes of the show and also later directed an episode of the sitcom "Charles in Charge".

She appeared last year on the daytime drama "The Young and the Restless" and in 2011 made a guest appearance on the TV Land cable channel's sitcom "Hot in Cleveland", co-starring Bertinelli.

Her family disclosed last September that Franklin was being treated for pancreatic cancer.

Franklin's first marriage ended in divorce. She married producer Marvin Minoff in 1980, and they remained together until his death in 2009.

(Reporting by Will Dunham and Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Trott, Cynthia Johnston and Martin Golan)

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PARIS (Reuters) - Director Steven Spielberg will preside over the 2013 Cannes film festival jury in May, organizers said on Thursday, an A-list casting that adds Hollywood firepower to the high-brow international festival.

Spielberg, whose presidential drama "Lincoln" took home two Oscars at Sunday's Academy Awards, will succeed Italian director and actor Nanni Moretti, who helmed the jury for Cannes' 65th anniversary last year.

The 12-day festival, which takes place on the Cote d'Azur in the south of France, is a major showplace for new movies from around the world that attracts top and emerging screen writers, deal-makers and hundreds of film critics.

Spielberg's blockbuster film E.T. screened as a world premiere at Cannes in 1982, and festival President Gilles Jacob called the respected director a "regular" at the prestigious film festival.

"Since then I've often asked Steven to be Jury President but he's always been shooting a film," Jacob said. "So this year, when I was told 'E.T. phone home,' I understood and immediately replied 'At last!'"

Spielberg called the festival a "platform for extraordinary films to be discovered and introduced to the world."

The 66-year-old director's four-decade career has included such varied films as "Jaws," "Schindler's List," "The Color Purple" and "Jurassic Park."

Spielberg was passed over at Sunday's Oscars for Best Director for "Lincoln," the story of the president battling to abolish slavery and end the civil war, but the film provided actor Daniel Day-Lewis with his third Best Actor award.

"Lincoln," distributed by Disney, also won for production design.

The Cannes film festival runs from May 15 to 26.

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Clothing worn by Jennifer Lawrence in her Oscar-winning role as an outspoken young widow in "Silver Linings Playbook" beat expectations by taking in about $12,000 at auction.

The wool, full-length winter coat worn by Lawrence in the Oscar-nominated comedy topped all items, selling for $4,652 in the three-day online auction, Los Angeles auction house Nate D. Sanders said on Friday.

The memorabilia dealer had expected the items to fetch between $500 and $1,500 each following the 22-year-old's Best Actress win at the Academy Awards on Sunday.

Lawrence also won awards from the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild in January for her "Silver Linings Playbook" performance.

The custom-tailored white pants Lawrence wore during the film's climactic ballroom dance scene with co-star Bradley Cooper went for $3,493, and a package of a teal sports bra and blue long-sleeved shirt sold for $3,175.

A black tank top from Lawrence's wardrobe, but not worn in the film, fetched $624.

Movie studios often hand off costumes to auction houses, where even small outfits can bring in high prices from fans and collectors.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Xavier Briand)

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SEFFNER, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida man was missing and feared dead on Friday after a large sinkhole suddenly engulfed the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home, police and fire officials said.

Jeff Bush, 36, was in his room sleeping and the other five members of the household were getting ready for bed on Thursday night when they heard a loud crash and Jeff screaming.

Jeff's brother, 35-year-old Jeremy Bush, jumped into the hole and furiously kept digging to find his brother.

"I feel in my heart he didn't make it," Jeremy told Tampa TV station WFTS. "There were six of us in the house; five got out."

Jeremy himself had to be rescued from the sinkhole by the first responder to the emergency call, Douglas Duvall of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. When Duvall entered Jeff Bush's bedroom, all he saw was a widening chasm but no sign of Jeff.

"The hole took the entire bedroom," said Duvall. "You could see the bedframe, the dresser, everything was sinking," he said.

Norman Wicker, 48, the father of Jeremy's fianc e who also lived in the house, ran to get a flashlight and shovel.

"It sounded like a car ran into the back of the house," Wicker said.

Authorities had not detected any signs of life after lowering listening devices and cameras into the hole and rescue efforts were suspended after the site was deemed too unsafe for emergency personnel to enter.

"There is a very large, very fluid mass underneath this house rendering the entire house and the entire lot dangerous and unsafe," Bill Bracken, the head of an engineering company assisting fire and rescue officials, told the news conference late on Friday.

"We are still trying to determine the extent and nature of what's down there so we can best determine how to approach it and how to extricate," Bracken said.

Several nearby homes were evacuated in case the 30-foot (9-meter) wide sinkhole got larger but officials said it only appeared to be getting deeper.

The Bush brothers worked together as landscapers, according to Leland Wicker, 48, one of the other residents of the house.

The risk of sinkholes is common in Florida due to the state's porous geological bedrock, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. As rainwater filters down into the ground, it dissolves the rock causing erosion that can lead to underground caverns, which cause sinkholes when they collapse.

Florida suffered one of its worst sinkhole accidents in 1994 when a 15-story-deep chasm opened up east of Tampa at a phosphate mine. It created a hole 185 feet deep and as much as 160 feet wide. Locals dubbed it Disney World's newest attraction - 'Journey to the Center of the Earth.'

In 1981 in Winter Park near Orlando, a sinkhole was measured as 320 feet wide and 90 feet deep, swallowing a two-story house, part of a Porsche dealership, and an Olympic-size swimming pool. The site is now an artificial lake in the city.

"Mortgage companies are more and more requiring Florida home buyers to have sinkhole coverage on their homeowners insurance policy," said K.C. Williams, a Tampa sinkhole and property damage claims lawyer who lives 2 miles away from the damaged home.

(Additional reporting by David Adams and Tom Brown; Writing by Kevin Gray; Editing by Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)

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NEW YORK (AP) Ryan Seacrest can tell you lot about the evolution of American Idol over the last twelve seasons, but the host is a bit more reluctant to discuss the evolution of his relationship with actress Julianne Hough.

When asked by The Associated Press if there was a wedding date in his future, Seacrest casually responded: "Are you getting married?"

Seacrest and Hough have been together since the spring of 2010.

After a few playful rounds of "Are you?" banter on the subject, he decided to call it a day.

Seacrest made the comments Friday while promoting "Idol Across America," a relay of the "American Idol" microphone across the country, taking a page from the Olympic torch relay.

As for the prospect of the microphone making it one piece, Seacrest says if not, "I'm sure there's one in a holster standing by if it breaks."

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Online:

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A disgruntled shareholder pressing Apple to create a new class of preferred stock has dropped a lawsuit that became a moot point after the iPhone and iPad maker changed the agenda at its annual meeting earlier this week.

Lawyers for hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital notified U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in a letter sent Thursday that they no longer plan to pursue the lawsuit . Sullivan closed the case, which began three weeks ago in New York.

Einhorn had already achieved his goal last week when Sullivan issued a preliminary ruling blocking an Apple Inc. proposal that would have required shareholder approval before preferred stock could be issued. Apple withdrew the proposal from the agenda at its annual meeting held Wednesday.

Two shareholders who attended the annual meeting said they were disappointed that they weren't able to vote in favor of a proposal, which they described as an example of sound corporate governance.

Shareholders had reason to be even more discouraged Friday as Apple's stock touched a new 52-week low, deepening a roughly six-month slide that has wiped out nearly $260 billion of the company's market value.

In another setback Friday, a federal judge in San Jose erased nearly half of the $1 billion in damages that a jury had awarded Apple last year in a patent infringement case against rival smartphone and tablet computer maker Samsung Electronics Co. The ruling lowered Samsung's bill to $599 million.

Apple might be able to ease the pain of the recent 39 percent drop in its stock price by doling out some of its $137 billion cash hoard to shareholders instead of letting the money idle at a time when interest rates at near record lows.

Einhorn, whose fund owns 1.3 million Apple shares, filed his lawsuit to preserve Apple's ability to issue dividend-paying preferred stock without having to take the extra step of gaining shareholder approval. He is pushing Apple to issue preferred stock that would guarantee a 4 percent dividend.

Apple CEO Tim Cook dismissed Einhorn's lawsuit as a "silly sideshow" at an investment conference a few weeks ago and again Wednesday at the company's annual meeting. During a question-and-answer session with shareholders Wednesday, Cook said Apple's board is in "very, very active discussions" about what do with all its cash.

Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., also has said it is considering whether to introduce another proposal that would require a shareholder vote on preferred stock. If another proposal is submitted, it probably wouldn't happen until Apple holds another annual meeting next year.

The company last year instituted a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share on its common stock in a move that returns about $10 billion annually to shareholders. Apple's cash stash has grown by about $39 billion during the past year as customers bought its products in record numbers.

Despite Apple's success, investors are worried that the company's growth will soon taper off as it contends with fiercer competition in the smartphone and tablet computer market. The company also hasn't introduced a breakthrough product since the October 2011 death of Steve Jobs, Apple's charismatic co-founder and Cook's predecessor as CEO. It's most recent creation, the iPad, came out three years ago, raising concerns that Apple's well of innovation has run dry.

Cook sought to reassure shareholders that Wednesday's annual meeting, telling them that Apple is working on some "great stuff," including some products outside its core line-up of iPods, iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

That vague promise hasn't excited Wall Street.

Apple's slumping stock fell to a new 52-week low of $429.98 on Friday before rebounding slightly to close at $430.47, down $10.93, or 2.5 percent. The shares hit a record high of $705.07 in September when the iPhone 5 went on sale.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British actor Richard Burton finally received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next to that of his two-time wife, Elizabeth Taylor, on Friday, nearly 30 years after his death.

Welsh-born Burton, who died in 1984, received the career honor as part of the 50th anniversary of ancient Egypt movie drama "Cleopatra," in which he and co-star Taylor began their storied and tumultuous love affair.

The couple's adopted daughter, Maria Burton, accepted the honor of the iconic terrazzo and brass star along Hollywood Boulevard in the historical heart of the U.S. film industry.

Burton was nominated for an Oscar seven times between 1953 and 1978 but never won the prize.

Actor and fellow Welshman Michael Sheen spoke at the unveiling and recalled the awe he felt when Burton and Taylor, one of Hollywood's most famous couples, visited the village where Sheen grew up.

"The same beach that I built my boyhood sand castles (on) and learned to failingly swim - it was that same beach, that one legendary day, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor descended from the heavens, like gods from Olympus, in a helicopter ... and landed on those sands," Sheen said.

"They stepped out swathed in luxurious fur coats - it was the '70s - and walked among us for too short a time," he added.

Burton, whose star is the 2,941th installed, starred in 11 films with Taylor, including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in 1966 and "The Taming of the Shrew" in 1967.

The couple's scandalous love affair during 1964's "Cleopatra" was made into a U.S. television movie "Liz & Dick," starring Lindsay Lohan, last year.

Burton and Taylor wed for the first time in 1964 and divorced in 1974. They remarried the following year, but that marriage lasted just nine months.

Burton, who was born Richard Jenkins, was married five times and died in 1984 from a cerebral hemorrhage at age 58. Taylor, who married eight times, died in 2011 at age 79.

(Reporting by Alan Devall; Writing by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)

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SEFFNER, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida man was missing and feared dead on Friday after a sinkhole suddenly opened up under the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home, police and fire officials said.

Rescuers responded to a 911 call late on Thursday after the family of Jeff Bush, 36, reported hearing a loud crash in the house and rushed to his bedroom.

"All they could see was a part of a mattress sticking out of the hole," said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief Ron Rogers. "Essentially the floor of that room had opened up."

A sheriff's deputy rescued Bush's brother, Jeremy, who had jumped into the sinkhole to try to find him. Three other adults and a 2-year-old child were in the house at the time the sinkhole opened up.

"I feel in my heart he didn't make it," Jeremy Bush, 35, told Tampa TV station WFTS. "There were six of us in the house, five got out."

The entire household except Jeff Bush went out to eat ice cream on Thursday night and when they got home, Jeff was in his room sleeping. They were getting ready for bed when they heard a huge crash and Jeff screaming.

"It sounded like a car ran into the back of the house," said Norman Wicker, 48, the father of Jeremy's fianc e who also lived in the house.

Jeremy jumped into the hole as Wicker ran to the shed for a shovel and flashlight. When he returned, Wicker said he yelled for Jeremy to get out but the brother furiously kept digging until a deputy arrived and pulled him out.

Authorities had not detected any signs of life after lowering listening devices and cameras into the hole and rescue efforts were suspended after the site was deemed too unsafe for emergency personnel to enter.

The evacuation of several nearby homes was ordered due to concerns the sinkhole was growing.

The Bush brothers worked together as landscapers, according to Leland Wicker, 48, one of the other residents of the house.

Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said the sinkhole appeared to be as wide as 30 feet, 30-feet deep, and an estimated 100 feet wide down below.

"It started in the bedroom and it has been expanding outward and it's taking the house with it as it opens up," said Bill Bracken, the head of an engineering company assisting rescuers.

The risk of sinkholes is common in Florida due to the state's porous geological bedrock, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. As rainwater filters down into the ground, it dissolves the rock causing erosion that can lead to underground caverns, which cause sinkholes when they collapse.

Florida suffered one of its worst sinkhole accidents in 1994 when a 15-story-deep chasm opened up east of Tampa at a phosphate mine. It created a hole 185 feet deep and as much as 160 feet wide. Locals dubbed it Disney World's newest attraction - 'Journey to the Center of the Earth.'

In 1981 in Winter Park near Orlando, a sinkhole was measured as 320 feet wide and 90 feet deep, swallowing a two-story house, part of a Porsche dealership, and an Olympic-size swimming pool. The site is now an artificial lake in the city.

"Mortgage companies are more and more requiring Florida home buyers to have sinkhole coverage on their homeowners insurance policy," said K.C. Williams a Tampa sinkhole and property damage claims lawyer who lives 2 miles away from the damaged home.

(Additional reporting by David Adams and Tom Brown; Writing by Kevin Gray; Editing by Tom Brown, Marguerita Choy and Andrew Hay)

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