Blog Posts by Associated Press

Don Cornelius, Getty Images, Kevin WinterLOS ANGELES (AP) — Don Cornelius, creator of the long-running TV dance show "Soul Train," shot himself to death Wednesday morning at his Los Angeles home, police said. He was 75.

Officers responding to a report of a shooting found Cornelius at his Mulholland Drive home at around 4 a.m., police said. He was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 4:56 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter.

"Soul Train" began in 1970 in Chicago on WCIU-TV as a local program and aired nationally from 1971 to 2006.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A suburban Cleveland church where the father of pop star Katy Perry delivered a sermon that drew accusations of anti-Semitism has released an apology in which he says he regrets his "hurtful and ugly language."

Pastor Paul Endrei of the Church on the Rise in Westlake said Wednesday that Perry's father, the Rev. Keith Hudson, meant to compliment Jewish people's prosperity when he said having money is what it takes to make Jews jealous. Endrei said the visiting Hudson was blessing businesspeople during the Jan. 5 sermon and "just went too far."

NEW YORK (AP) — She's not even a week old, but Blue Ivy Carter is already making music history.

Billboard says that thanks to her dad, Jay-Z, featuring her on his new song, "Glory," Blue becomes the youngest person to ever appear on its chart.

Photo by AP

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) — By the time Arkansas authorities took country singer Mindy McCready's 5-year-old son from her and into custody on Friday evening, one thing had already become apparent to much of America: McCready's life has come to resemble a bad country song.

Since her emergence in the mid-1990s as a honey-voiced success story out of Nashville, McCready has been increasingly known for her personal foibles instead of her music.

This week's custody battle was the latest in a long saga of personal heartache and brushes with the law.

Florida Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Terri Durdaller said in an email Friday night that her agency was working with Arkansas state officials to bring McCready's son, Zander, back to his maternal grandmother in Florida. His grandmother has been his guardian since 2007.

Officials say he's safe and in good health.

Gayle Inge, Zander's grandmother and McCready's mother, was tearful when she talked about the news by

Photo by APST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Country singer Mindy McCready is in Nashville and says she will probably not be able to bring her 5-year-old son back to Florida to fulfill a judge's order — because she is nearly 7 months pregnant with twins.

Mindy McCready, APTAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Country singer Mindy McCready, who had been reported missing, spoke with Florida authorities Wednesday and is aware of a court order to return her 5-year-old son by Thursday afternoon, police said.

Cape Coral Police Lt. Tony Sizemore said McCready and her son are not in the Lee County, Fla., area, and that she is "currently outside of the terms of her family court stipulation." She knows that she is supposed to bring her son back to Lee County by 5 p.m. Thursday, he said. McCready, who has had drug and alcohol problems, lost custody of her son in 2007 after a fight with her mother and resisting arrest.

Mindy McCready, APCAPE CORAL, Florida (AP) — Florida authorities say country singer Mindy McCready is missing with her 5-year-old son, and a judge has given her until Thursday to return the boy.

The Department of Children and Families says a missing persons report was filed Tuesday night with Cape Coral police after McCready took her son Zander from her father's home. McCready doesn't have custody; her mother does. The singer was allowed to visit Zander at her father's home.