Hollywood Hillbillies: The rise of redneck TV

Hollywood Hillbillies: A new reality TV show features a Georgia 'hillbilly' family that moves to Hollywood.

By Associated Press / July 30, 2013

Michael Kittrell responds to a South Park episode that claimed 'red heads' or 'Gingers' don't have souls. His sometimes profane YouTube video has now spawned a reality TV show: 'Hollywood Hillbillies.'

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Honey Boo Boo is getting some competition.

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Another family from rural Georgia is coming to reality television, with "Hollywood Hillbillies" set to debut in January on cable TV's ReelzChannel.

The show follows Michael Kittrell and his grandmother Delores Hughes, known as "Mema," as the family moves from Grayson, Georgia, to Hollywood. Along for the ride are Kittrell's aunt, Dee Dee Peters, her boyfriend Paul Conlon, and Kittrell's uncle John Cox.

Kittrell is known as "The Angry Ginger" on YouTube, where a video he made to protest a "South Park" episode that claimed redheads have no soul gained attention.

"I made a lot of money on my YouTube channel, and I saved it all from the past four years," Kittrell said. "I got my family with me to support me and help me while we all look for our place out here."

Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, her mother and their rural Georgia family are the subjects of a hit TLC cable TV show that focuses on their lives in a small town.

As The Christian Science Monitor reported, redneck TV is on the rise.

As the popular ?Duck Dynasty? (A&E) wrapped up its third season it boasted an average of 8.5 million viewers an episode. A quick review of program lineups reveals the appetite for self-described reality ?redneck? shows is only growing: ?Buckwild? (MTV), ?American Hoggers? (A&E), ?Moonshiners? (Discovery), and ?Hillbilly Handfishin? ? and ?Call of the Wildman? (Animal Planet) are just a sampling of programs reveling in the adventures to be had in rural, southern America.
Why are these shows captivating TV audiences? It could have something to do with the Southern tradition of good storytelling, or the invitation to gawk at a culture vastly different from one?s own.

Eric Deggans, television and media critic for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, says there are two types of audiences drawn to these kinds of shows: one group that ?feels like they?re from that world, and another that likes to mock them.?

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/2D1SLCmonf8/Hollywood-Hillbillies-The-rise-of-redneck-TV

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Fake Blackberrys, Dr Dre's seized in US-China raids

4 hours ago

HANDOUT / Reuters

A seized counterfeit pair of Beats headphones are pictured in this handout photo courtesy of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection taken in Los Angeles and received by Reuters July 31, 2013. The United States and China joined forces for their first combined operation cracking down on counterfeited goods, seizing more than 243,000 fake electronics products including popular products made by Apple, Samsung, Dr Dre and Blackberry.

The United States and China have joined forces in a combined operation to crack down on counterfeit goods, seizing more than 243,000 fake electronics products, including popular consumer items made by Apple, Samsung, Dr Dre and Blackberry.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the month-long operation was the biggest bilateral customs enforcement effort ever conducted by the United States. It focused on seizures of goods in ports as they were exported from China or imported into the United States.

While the operation resulted in only one arrest, U.S. officials said they see it as a sign that the Beijing government is finally acting on their complaints of Chinese theft of intellectual property.

The two countries agreed in recent high-level talks that they would work together to try to stem the large quantities of fake goods flowing between China and the United States.

"The theft of intellectual property is a global problem and cross-border efforts are needed to fight it," said Thomas Winkowski, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

"Robust enforcement of intellectual property rights allows innovators and creators - whether in a small start-up or an international corporation - to profit from their efforts and gives consumers confidence in the reputations of the products they buy."

HANDOUT / Reuters

Seized counterfeit Blackberry phones are pictured in this handout photo courtesy of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection taken in Los Angeles and received by Reuters July 31, 2013.

China is the primary source of counterfeit and pirated goods in the United States and accounts for 72 percent of all seizures relating to intellectual property rights, according to the U.S. agency's fiscal 2012 statistics.

Theft of intellectual property rights costs U.S. businesses $320 billion a year, equivalent to the annual value of U.S. exports to Asia, according to a report by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, a group of former U.S. officials.

China's Vice Minister of the General Administration of China Customs, Zou Zhiwu, said both countries need to work together to effectively curb the movement of counterfeit products.

"IPR infringement is a global issue involving not only the process of production and export, but also that of import and circulation," he said. "Enforcement agencies around the world should work more closely to crack down (on) these illegal activities."

The operation took place at ports in the United States and China. The main U.S. ports involved were Anchorage, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Newark. In China the primary ports were Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Chinese and American customs officials did not work together physically, but acted on shared information and tips, officials said.

The single arrest was that of an American who imported counterfeit Dr Dre headphones and sold them on Craigslist. He was arrested in the New Orleans area after Chinese customs passed on a tip to U.S. officials.

"The fight against criminal counterfeiters overseas presents a great deal of challenges to U.S. law enforcement," said Daniel Ragsdale, deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "But it is a fight we are committed to and through the international partnerships we forge with foreign customs and law enforcement agencies, we are making an impact."

The largest previous bilateral operation conducted by the United States was with French Customs over a six-month period. In that operation, officials made 470 seizures of electronic components like semiconductors, memory cards and computer storage devices.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2f66a874/sc/23/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cfake0Eblackberrys0Edr0Edres0Eseized0Eus0Echina0Eraids0E6C10A810A434/story01.htm

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Fed stays on track with bond buying, for now

By Alister Bull and Pedro da Costa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday the economy continues to recover but is still in need of support, offering no indication that it is planning to reduce its bond-buying stimulus at its next meeting in September.

The central bank said after a two-day meeting that it would keep buying $85 billion in mortgage and Treasury securities per month in its effort to strengthen an economy that it said was still challenged by federal budget-tightening. It also pointed to a recent run up in mortgage rates.

In a post-meeting statement, policymakers described economic activity as having expanded at a "modest" pace in the first half of the year. They had called the recovery "moderate" after their last meeting in June.

In another departure, the Fed's policy-setting committee signaled some concern about the low level of inflation.

"The committee recognizes that inflation persistently below its 2 percent objective could pose risks to economic performance, but it anticipates that inflation will move back toward its objective over the medium term," the Fed said.

Financial markets saw the Fed's statement as having a slightly dovish tilt. U.S. stocks added slightly to gains, while prices for U.S. government bonds pared losses and the dollar briefly slipped against the euro and the yen.

"The Fed bought itself some time in terms of when they need to begin to taper" bond purchases, said Brian Jacobsen, a chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. "They were painting themselves into a corner with previous statements."

EYE ON PRICES

The Fed's reference to the low level of inflation was enough to prevent St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard, who last month expressed concern about falling price pressures, from dissenting for a second straight time.

Esther George of the Kansas City Fed, however, once again voted against the bond-buying decision due to concerns about potential harm to financial stability from the central bank's prolonged easy monetary policy, as she has at every meeting this year.

The Fed cut interest rates to almost zero in late 2008 and has since more than tripled the size of its balance sheet to around $3.6 trillion via three massive rounds of bond buying aimed at holding down longer-term borrowing costs.

At a news conference on June 19, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank likely would start to curtail its current bond-buying round later this year, with an eye toward bringing it to a close by the middle of 2014. Financial market participants have widely anticipated a reduction in purchases at the Fed's next meeting on September 17-18.

A government report on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy expanded at a faster-than-expected 1.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter, but the growth figure for the first quarter was revised down to 1.1 percent from 1.8 percent.

Further, the report showed consumer prices held steady in the quarter, with so-called core prices advancing at a 0.8 percent pace, well below the Fed's 2 percent target.

Officials, however, expect the economy will soon pull out of its soft patch.

Even as it tip toes toward a curtailing of its bond purchases, the Fed has gone out of its way to stress that any pull-back would not mean it was anywhere near jacking up interest rates.

It reiterated on Wednesday that it will hold rates near zero for as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6.5 percent, provided that the outlook for inflation between one and two years ahead is not projected to rise above 2.5 percent.

The jobless rate stood at 7.6 percent in June, and economists expect a report on Friday to show it ticked down to 7.5 percent in July.

Despite the Fed's best efforts to use its forward guidance on rates to hold down longer-term borrowing costs, markets have responded to talk of a likely reduction in the central bank's asset purchases by selling bonds.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note stands about a full percentage point above where it was in early May. Mortgage rates have risen a similar amount, posing a potential risk to the housing recovery.

"Household spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has been strengthening, but mortgage rates have risen somewhat and fiscal policy is restraining economic growth," the Fed said.

(Editing by Andrea Ricci and Tim Ahmann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fed-keep-buying-bonds-may-point-plans-taper-040405715.html

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