Saved By The Bell Reunion’s 20 year class reunion

Stars included that have responded that they are “in” are Elizabeth Berkley,Mario Lopez,Mark Paul Gosselear,Lark Voorhies so far.

It’s a reunion 20 years in the making … and a story that took over a year in planning.

When the cast of Saved by the Bell assembled for this week’s PEOPLE photo shoot and cover story, everyone breathed a sigh of relief-including Mario Lopez, who nearly missed the whole thing.

“Everybody knew the 20-year anniversary was coming up,” says Lopez. “This PEOPLE story has been in the works for over a year, long before [late night host] Jimmy Fallon started talking about it. We were all excited about it.”

But Lopez’s work ethic almost prevented the reunion from coming to fruition. “I’m so busy. I was concerned about my schedule,” says Lopez, who in the past year alone has danced on Broadway in A Chorus Line, become the new host of TV’s Extra and written a fitness book, Mario Lopez’s Knockout Fitness. The night before the PEOPLE shoot in Los Angeles he was making a public appearance in Canada, across the country, and arrived on set straight from the airport after a seven-hour flight.

And now? Fans are clamoring for the next step: a reunion show. “Everybody is fired up,” he says. “People keep coming up to me saying ‘When are you guys going to do a show?’”

An actual reunion episode will have to wait, as Lopez is hardly taking time off. First up, he’s returning as host for the fourth season of America’s Best Dance Crew, which debuts this Sunday on MTV. “Expect another hot season,” Lopez promises – just don’t expect the Dancing with the Stars runner-up to hit the dance floor as well. “I wouldn’t make it past the first round!” he swears. “These kids are extremely talented and athletic.”

Lopez’s next project will be promoting his new children’s book, Mud Tacos. “It’s stories about my sister Marisa and me growing up. My grandmother was always cooking, and she never let us in the house. So in the backyard, we made taco shells out of leaves and meat out of mud,” he says. “The book encourages kids to use their imagination … plus you learn a little Spanish. I think kids are going to dig it.”

Bow ow! Dog that got BBQ fork in head is OK Impaled in freak accident, Smokey survived for days before it was removed

They stuck a fork in little Smokey. It wasn’t on purpose.

The July 4 barbecue out in London, Ky., was over and they were just trying to feed the Chihuahua pup a few scraps when the prongs popped off the barbecue fork and hit the poor little fellow in the head.

One of the prongs found a soft spot and sank right in — three inches deep. A one-in-a-million shot, said the vet; maybe one-in-a-trillion.

As Hughie Wagers, Smokey’s lanky owner, explained it on TODAY Friday, it was all because of the bigger dogs that were also eager for some juicy scraps. Wagers apparently wasn’t on the scene at the time, but his sister told him what happened.

Dog gone
“My sister was raking off food for the bigger dogs,” Wagers told Matt Lauer as Smokey, oblivious to all the fuss, slept on his lap, a little scar on his head the only sign of his status as a miracle pooch. “She was raking it off a plate to ’em. Smokey, he came out of the house — she was shooing the big dogs off. She had the fork in her hand, and somehow, it just popped right off the handle, and she looked around and it hit Smokey in the head. And when it hit him, he run off.”

Other accounts of the incident say that Smokey also yelped, which would be an understandable thing for a dog — or any other critter — to do. And then he headed for the hills, the fork sticking out of his head like a weird antenna. Everybody at the barbecue called and looked for him, but the 12-week-old pup’s instincts took him deep into the brush where nobody could find him.

Michelle Duncum / Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital Staff at Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital had never seen anything like the fork stuck in Smokey’s head.

They kept looking for two more days, and by then, with that fork stuck in him, they thought he was done.

“They thought he was dead,” Wagers confirmed in an easy country drawl. “Then I happened to pop up and they told me about it. It so happened we walked on the porch and Smokey was coming out of the hills up the driveway.”

Remarkable return
Smokey seemed to be in reasonably good shape, considering the fork in his head and all — although he did tend to walk in circles. He even had something to eat while Wagers and his family were trying to figure out what to do.

“I got him and took him in the house,” Wagers said, picking up the narrative. “They didn’t know what to do with him, so I thought may as well take him to Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital.”

The veterinary clinic is run by Dr. Keaton Smith, who started working for a vet 25 years ago when he was 15. When his staff saw the pup, they called him to take a look.

“They told me there was a dog with a fork in his head,” said Smith, who joined Wagers and Smokey for the interview with Lauer.

Though one eyelid still droops, Smokey, seen here on TODAY, is expected to make a full recovery.

“When I came in I about passed out,” Smith continued. “This is not real. They come in a panic, as you can imagine, and we were closing for the day.”

The vet explained that puppies, like human infants, have soft spots in their heads. Had Smokey been an adult dog, the fork probably would have bounced off with no more damage than a cut. But the sharp tine found the soft spot and sank right in. The second tine ended up snug against the right side of Smokey’s sad-eyed little head.

Unforking Smokey
Smith’s first thought was to euthanize the poor little guy. But then he thought about how he already had survived two days with the fork in his head. Dogs’ circulatory systems are very good at sealing off cuts and minimizing bleeding, and he decided there might be a chance of saving Smokey.

“I said, ‘He survived two days. Let’s take some X-rays anyway.’ We started there,” he said.

A bit more to the right, and the tine would have caused serious brain damage. But it happened to hit a less vital part of the Chihuahua’s little brain.

Cumberland Valley Animal Hospital This X-ray shows the barbecue fork lodged several inches into Smokey’s brain.

Smith anesthetized Smokey, shaved around the fork, and pulled. The tine came out easily and cleanly, with just a drop or two of blood. Smith stitched up the wound, and brought Smokey out of anesthesia.

“He did wake up weird,” Smith told Lauer. At first, the pup walked in circles to its right and was disoriented. But in a couple of days, the dog reset its internal compass and, other than a droopy right eyelid, seems to be doing as well as a forked Chihuahua could possibly do. In fact, because Smokey’s still a pup, Smith expects that his brain will totally recover.

Smokey stretched a little and rearranged himself more comfortably on Wagers’ lap, but never did wake up during his three minutes of TODAY fame.

Quipped Smith: “He’s definitely a lap potato.”

Dale Neumann describes his rebirth

8:55 a.m.Testimony is scheduled to get underway at about 9 a.m. in Dale Neumann’s trial. He is expected to testify in his own defense.

9:10 a.m. The second defense witness to testify in this case, Earl Schmidt, has taken the stand. Schmidt is Dale Neumann’s uncle.

9:20 a.m. Schmidt went to the Neumanns’ coffee shop on March 20, 2008 — three days before of Madeline Kara Neumann’s death. Schmidt testified that Kara appeared to be normal at the time.

“I was impressed to see a young gal energetic and busy at a job there,” Schmidt said.

9:25 a.m. A man who first met the Neumanns 20 years ago and rekindled their friendship about two years ago, is now on the stand. Defense attorney Jay Kronenwetter did not ask the man, James, to spell his last name and I have no clue how to spell it.

James had an interest in the Bible and attended the Neumann family Bible study sessions. James said he saw Kara about a week before her death and it appeared that the area under her eyes was dark.

9:33 a.m. Just got the spelling — it is James Neuens.Lynn Wilde, who met the Neumanns nearly four years ago, is testifying. She participated in the Neumann family Bible study sessions with the Peaslees, Wormgoors, and Neuens.

9:37 a.m. It appears the Neumann children are all in the courtroom. Seeing how witnesess have been sequestered throughout the trial, I’m guessing that they will not testify. One child testified at Leilani Neumann’s trial in May.

9:44 a.m. Wilde said that Leilani called her the day before Kara died and asked for prayers. The next day, Wilde said felt she should go to the Neumann home. Once there, Wilde said she saw Kara on a couch and prayed with the family for Kara to get well with worship music being played in the background.“I sensed from the Holy Spirit I needed to go there,” Wilde said.

10:20 a.m. Wilde said the Neumanns, herself and the Peaslees had communion at Kara’s side the day of her death. The purpose of communion was to make sure they had no sin, issues of unforgiveness or sins against each other, Wilde said.Kronenwetter asked if there were any signs that Dale was planning or thinking of taking Kara to a doctor. Wilde said “no

11:20 a.m. Sorry for the delay. After a brief break, it was decided that the attorneys will use the next couple of hours to prepare jury instructions.David Ells, who has an Internet ministry, is expected to fly to the Wausau area this afternoon. He will begin to testify around 1:45 p.m. and Dale Neumann is expected to be the final witness after that.

1:53 p.m. Eells flight was delayed in Chicago and might not make it here until 4 p.m., Kronenwetter just said. Dale will testify next.

2:08 p.m. The courtroom is filling up in anticipation of Dale’s testimony. More than 30 people are observing, including members of the Neumann family and employees of the district attorney’s office. Leilani’s testimony on Tuesday and Dale’s upcoming testimony has drawn the largest crowds this week.

2:10 p.m. Dale is now on the witness stand.

Dale said giving a video-tapped statement to police in the hours after his daughter’s death was one of the most difficult things he’s done.

“It was a difficult time. I don’t know if I was completely in the right state all the time,” Dale said.

2:19 p.m. Kronenwetter asked Dale about his religion …

“I am born again from above. Jesus Christ is my Lord. My savior, he has set me free. I am his, I am not my own,” Dale Neumann said.

Later Dale said, “Dale R. Neumann is dead, but Jesus Christ is within me.”

2:36 p.m. Dale said he attended Wausau West High School in the 1970s when drinking was acceptable, even when underage. Dale said he drank frequently, but even then, he felt uncomfortable with that lifestyle.

It wasn’t until he was in his 20s laying drunk on a hotel floor in Stevens Point hotel room that he called out to God in desperation to show him a better life.

The next day he went to a presentation by an Evangelist who was speaking at a local school and was invited to a church assembly. That same evangelist was there and spoke. Dale said he was captivated by the singing, clapping and the joy at the assembly.

Dale said he repented his sins that day and remembered yelling out loud, “God we are so blind!” He demonstrated that from the witness stand, causing the microphones to make a buzzing noise, when he yelled.

2:45 p.m. Dale appears to be very casual on the witness stand. He speaks excitedly about his rebirth after his baptism as a 20-something man In April 1982. His voice speeds up at times, and as I already noted, he will yell or speak softly as he sees fit.

2:55 p.m. Dale said he attend a Bible college in Stockton, Calif., from the fall of 1983 to June 1987 and graduated with degrees in theology and missions.The day after graduation, Dale married Leilani. They then returned to Wausau.

2:59 p.m. I forgot to mention Dale’s training was in the Pentecostal church.

3:08 p.m. Kronenwetter asked Dale why he no longer was a minister. Dale said he felt as if he was being disobedient to the word of God.

Dale responded reading from the Bible he carries with him — Matthew Ch. 7, verse 13-27.

Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it.

¹⁴But the gate is narrow (contracted ^[a]by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it.^(A)

¹⁵Beware of false prophets, who come to you dressed as sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves.^(B)

¹⁶You will ^[b]fully recognize them by their fruits. Do people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?

¹⁷Even so, every healthy (sound) tree bears good fruit [^[c]worthy of admiration], but the sickly (decaying, worthless) tree bears bad (worthless) fruit.

¹⁸A good (healthy) tree cannot bear bad (worthless) fruit, nor can a bad (diseased) tree bear ^[d]excellent fruit [worthy of admiration].

¹⁹Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.

²⁰Therefore, you will ^[e]fully know them by their fruits.

²¹Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.

²²Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?

²³And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].^(C)

²⁴So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a ^[f]sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock.

²⁵And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

²⁶And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand.

²⁷And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell–and great and complete was the fall of it.

“For me I was discontented… I was a hypocrite,” Dale said.

3:15 p.m. Dale testified that he was lacking a key ingredient in serving God by putting false idols before him. Dale said that religion, ministry, employment and his self ambitions were his idols.

Dale also told jurors that he has seen “cancers fall off in meetings,” women who couldn’t have children, have children after being healed by God, and women healed of breast cancer.

“I’ve seen physical healings in meetings I have attended and been part of,” Dale said.

3:25 p.m. Kronenwetter asked Dale how scripture commanded him not to seek medical attention. Dale replied by reading 1 Peter, Ch. 2, verse 21.

This is the second passage Dale has cited and read, but he has quoted other passages from memory.

“We have to learn to submit ourselves to (God’s) works,” Dale said. “That is obedience. That is faith in action.”

3:40 p.m. Dale just told the jurors a story how 10 years of back pain disappeared after he listened to the Holy Spirit in 2005 or early 2006. The Holy Spirit told him to destroy some books and figurines he had, and Dale said once he did that, the pain went away. That was a spiritual cause of a physical ailment, he said.“What ever it is Lord, I’ll do it. You set me free,” Dale Neumann said.

4:10 p.m. We’re back after a recess. Kronenwetter said during the break that Eells’ flight was delayed again. I’m not sure if he will be able to testify today or wait until tomorrow.

4:30 p.m. Dale is now answering questions about Kara’s final days.

Dale said that when Leilani came home from work on Saturday, the day before Kara died, the girl’s legs had a bluish color. They began praying for her and massaging her feet, which helped the blue color disappear, Dale said.

Later that night, Dale sent an E-mail to the Unleavened Bread Ministries in an attempt to ask David Eells for prayers to help Kara feel better.

Dale said the Neummans prayed continuously that evening before going to bed after midnight.

“It could have been flu, it could have been fever, but whatever it was, she was very sleepy,” Dale Neumann said. “It needed attention so we prayed for our faith.”

4:45 p.m. On Sunday, Kara was still limp and was asleep, said Dale, who was confident that Kara would get better.“Whatever it is will burn out of her body and we will rejoice with Kara after the fact,” Dale Neumann said

4:55 p.m. Kronenwetter: “At any point did you think Kara would die if you didn’t take her to a doctor?”
Dale Neumann: “No. Death wasn’t even in my mind.”

4:59 p.m. Dale tells the story of Lazarus rising from the dead and says that he believes in resurrection.“If we don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead, then we actually have no hope. No hope at all,” Dale said.

5:15 p.m. Dale said he was trying to make Randy Wormgoor feel better when he made a comment about thinking about a doctor as Kara neared death.

“I was trying to comfort him,” Dale Neumann said. “It is OK to have a thought like that. It is not detrimental to your faith.”

Kronenwetter asked Dale if he had anything else to the jury. Dale read from the Bible, Job, Ch. 1, beginning at verse 6.

Dale becomes emotional while reading about Job losing his 10 children.

“If I in a moment of crises and a moment of time I went to anyone else but the Lord, it would not have been favorable to God,” Neumann said. “It would have been idolatry and sin because it is disobedience.”

5:17 p.m. LaMont Jacobson has now begun his cross examination.

Throughout his more than three hours of testimony, Dale has spoken to the jury. He makes frequent eye contact and appears to engage them in his testimony. When he was discussing his faith, Dale told them how he was trying to do this to help them better understand his religious background.

Often on the witness stand, people look straight forward, down at the microphone or only at the attorneys.

5:44 p.m. LaMont Jacobson questioned Dale’s memory of Kara’s condition in her final days and the accuracy of the statement he gave to police hours after her death. Kronenwetter is now asking Dale a few questions as it appears his testimony is wrapping up after 3.5 hours.
// <![CDATA[// 5:59 p.m. Dale is off the stand. We are still waiting to find out if Eells will testify today or not.

6:10 p.m. Eells will not testify and the defense has rested. There will be no additional witnesses to testify. Closing arguments will be made Friday morning.

Candace Cameron Bure Sees the World Through Young Eyes

Although she was married at 20 and a mom at 22, Candace Cameron Bure has no regrets. “I feel like I lived a whole lot of life before that,” the 33-year-old former Full House star tells Cookie magazine. “Both my husband [former NHL player Valeri Bure] and I were ready to have a family right away.” Mission accomplished! Together, the two are parents to Natasha Valerievna, turning 11 next month, Lev Valerievich, 9, and Maksim Valerievich, 7 ½. Candace says,

“I love being a young mom and taking my kids everywhere with me. I’m blessed to say my kids have traveled all over the world, and we’ve never brought someone along to help with them. It puts my obsession with etiquette books to good use! I also get to see the world through young eyes and do things I might not otherwise because of it.”

Her relative youth also means that Candace has lots of energy, and from the sound of things she needs it! A typical Saturday for the family of five involves 9 a.m. hockey practice for the boys or a 40-minute family workout session. “They do everything my husband and I do,” she notes. “Then it’s all about the kids — tennis, swimming, lunch, more sports, and dinner. It’s basically about how we can tire them out!”

While she clearly has things under control, Candace isn’t immune to the occasional frazzled mom moment — and one stands out in particular. “Boarding an airplane on my own when I was 6 months pregnant, trying to keep track of my 1 ½-year-old and my 3-year-old, and carrying car seats, luggage, and pushing a stroller,” she recalls. “No one offered to help, and the airline was no use. I was crying by the time I sat in my seat.”

The couple “mostly agree” on how to raise Natasha, Lev and Maksim and Candace says she views her own parenting style as a mixture of both good and bad cop. “I love to have fun with my kids, but I don’t put up with disobedience,” she explains. When asked by the magazine what her own mom was most right about, Candace replies: “Showing an attitude of gratitude throughout your day that is reflected by the little things you do.” She adds,

“My mom brought cookies to every taping of every show I did to say thank you for having us. It sometimes felt silly at the time, but now I understand. My mom always taught us to never take anything for granted even if you earned it, and to show your gratitude toward others for it. I’m trying to continue that legacy in my own life and teach my children.”

Americans spend $34B for alternative medicine

– Americans spend more than a 10th of their out-of-pocket health care dollars on alternative medicine, according to the first national estimate of such spending in more than a decade.

Chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists and herbal remedies are commanding significant consumer dollars as people seek high-touch care in a high-tech society, the report released Thursday by the government shows.

Altogether, consumers spent an estimated $34 billion on those and other alternative remedies in 2007, the report found.

“We are talking about a very wide range of health practices that range from promising and sensible to potentially harmful,” said Dr. Josephine Briggs, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the federal agency that leads research in this field.

More research into which therapies work is critically needed, because the spending on them is “substantial,” she said.

The data, gathered in 2007 mostly before the recession was evident, don’t clearly reflect whether the economy played a role in spending on these therapies. But Briggs noted there has been “speculation that as the number of uninsured grows, there may be increased utilization of some of these approaches, which tend to be relatively inexpensive.”

Nearly half of those who use alternative medicine say they cannot afford conventional care, according to government data published in a separate report.

Some consumer advocates say people are wasting money on some products that rigorous studies have shown don’t work. Dr. Sidney Wolfe, who leads Public Citizen’s health research, has long criticized the government for what he considers lax regulation of prescription drugs and mainstream medicine. Yet, he also sees problems with the widespread use of dietary supplements.

“People think they are cleared” by the Food and Drug Administration, he said, when in fact they do not need proof of safety or effectiveness to go on the market.

“Mainly, they’re ineffective,” he said.

The report is based on a 2007 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of more than 23,000 adults nationwide. An earlier report from this survey, released in December, found that more than one-third of adults use alternative medicine.

That includes a wide range of services from meditation and yoga to herbal supplements, such as echinacea and ginseng. Vitamins and minerals are not included in this report but will be addressed in a future one.

Pain was the main reason people tried massage, chiropractic care and other alternative therapies. Among supplement users, most popular were glucosamine for joint pain and fish oil to cut the risk of heart disease.

The new survey results focus on how often Americans use these things, and how much they pay for them. The numbers show that alternative medicine accounts for more than 11 percent of out-of-pocket spending on health care in the United States.

The study found that about 44 cents out of every dollar spent on alternative medicine was for products like fish oil, glucosamine and echinacea. Spending on these products was nearly $15 billion, or about a third of what Americans spend out-of-pocket for prescription drugs.

“I personally am pretty conservative about supplement use,” Briggs said. She believes that research her center has sponsored has affected consumer use. After widely publicized studies showed the ineffectiveness of echinacea for colds and St. John’s wort for major depression, their use fell; fish oil use has risen following some research suggesting it might help lower risk of heart problems.

The survey shows about 35 cents of each alternative therapy dollar was for visits to acupuncturists, chiropractors, massage therapists and other practitioners. That totals nearly $12 billion, or about one-quarter of what Americans spend on visits to mainstream physicians.

“Some of the useful things chiropractors are doing amounts to physical therapy,” Wolfe said. “Medicine is beginning to realize how important physical therapy is.”

The last government estimate for out-of-pocket spending on alternative medicine came from a 1997 survey. That research suggested $27 billion was being spent.

The new report concludes that 38 million adults visited alternative medicine practitioners in 2007. They paid less than $50 per visit on average, but many paid $75 or more for services such as acupuncture, homeopathy and hypnosis therapy.

The average annual spending per person to see practitioners was about $122, and the average spending on products was $177.

A whopping $3 billion was spent on homeopathy, a form of treatment that uses highly diluted drugs made from natural ingredients and based on a theory unverified by mainstream science.

Private insurance paid for about 43 percent of all alternative medicine in 2007, public insurance paid for 31 percent and patients paid for the rest, according to a separate government report.

Dianne Shaw, a media relations worker at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, sees value in at least one form of alternative medicine — acupuncture. She says acupuncture helped her recover from a stroke-like facial nerve paralysis that standard drugs didn’t remedy. During an exam, one of her doctors commented on her progress, and she revealed that she was getting acupuncture.

“They said, ‘Well I’m glad it worked,’” Shaw said.

Abortion measure passes, then fails, in House

An anti-abortion amendment to a sweeping health overhaul bill was voted down in a House committee late Thursday — a dramatic reversal just hours after the measure initially was approved.

The amendment said health care legislation moving through Congress may not impose requirements for coverage of abortion, except in limited cases. It was approved in the Energy and Commerce Committee after conservative Democrats joined Republicans to support it.

But committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., invoked House rules that allowed him to bring up the amendment for a second vote, despite Republican objections.

This time, one conservative Democrat — Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee — changed his vote from “yes” to “no.” And a second conservative Democrat who hadn’t voted the first time — Rep. Zack Space of Ohio — voted “no.”

It was enough to take down the amendment on a 30-29 vote.

U r pwned: text messaging paves way for hacking

Getting a text message is akin to someone sliding a piece of mail under your door: You may not have asked for it, you can’t stop its delivery and you have to deal with it whether you want to or not.

The fact that text messages appear on mobile phones without any interaction from the user, and sometimes with limited interference from the cellular network operators, can give criminals an opening to break into those devices, as three teams of researchers showed Thursday at the Black Hat security conference here.

Their targets ran the gamut.

Apple Inc.’s iPhones and phones running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile and Google Inc.’s Android operating systems were all shown to be vulnerable. In some cases, the problems weren’t with software, but the way cellular networks process messages.

The findings are troubling as people increasingly use their phones for handling sensitive data, like e-mail and online banking.

Phones are morphing into mini-computers, which means they’re going to start getting attacked like PCs.

In some respects, phones are relatively safer. Cellular carriers control their networks more tightly than anyone controls the Internet, so they’re in a better position to stop new types of attacks that crop up.

Telling the difference between harmful and legitimate traffic can be tricky, though. And anonymity still is possible given the proliferation of prepaid plans that don’t require long-term contracts; a carrier can trace an attack to a particular phone but not necessarily to a particular person.

The techniques demonstrated Thursday show that even disciplined and safety-conscious users could have their phones hacked because they can’t totally control what’s coming into them.

Innocent people could have their smart phones knocked offline, commanded to visit sites hosting pornography or viruses, or even turned into remote-controlled subordinates of a criminal gang behind an attack.

Take this example about the iPhone, from Charlie Miller, a well-known hacker of Apple Inc. and other products, and his co-presenter Collin Mulliner, a Ph.D. student in telecommunications security at the Technical University of Berlin.

They showed how they can disconnect an iPhone from the cellular network by sending it a single, maliciously crafted text message — a message the victim never sees. The messages exploit bugs in the way iPhones handle certain messages and are used to crash parts of the software.

They even said it’s possible to remotely control an iPhone by sending 500 messages to a single victim’s phone. Those messages contain the necessary commands for the attack and would get executed automatically by exploiting a weakness in the way the iPhone’s memory responds to that volume of traffic.

Miller said messaging attacks are so attractive, and are going to become more common, because the underlying technology is a core phone feature that can’t be turned off.

“It’s such a powerful attack vector,” Miller said. “All I need to know is your phone number. As long as their phone’s on, I can send this and their phone’s going to do something with this. … It’s always on, it’s always there, the user doesn’t have to do anything — it’s the perfect attack vector.”

Miller and Mulliner also found problems in phones running Android (that problem has been fixed) and Windows Mobile (they say that problem hasn’t been fixed yet).

Apple said it couldn’t immediately comment. Microsoft said it is investigating the matter. Google confirmed that its vulnerability was fixed.

Sometimes the culprit isn’t a software flaw but the way the phones were configured at the factory to handle messaging traffic. Hackers can break in if the phones are too permissive in what types of traffic they accept.

John Hering and Kevin Mahaffey, co-founders of Flexilis Inc., and Anthony Lineberry, a senior software engineer with the Los Angeles-based mobile security firm, made browser screens pop up and direct victims to any page of their choosing by sending specially crafted messages to phones made by Taiwan-based HTC Corp. and sold under major carriers’ brand names.

The user never sees a text message pop up; the mobile Web browser suddenly springs to life and navigates to a page the user didn’t ask for.

The researchers said spammers have latched onto this type of attack in Europe and Asia.

They said the problem they found wasn’t in the Windows Mobile software on the devices, but rather in the way the manufacturer configured software settings on some phones, allowing anyone to send certain messaging commands to them.

A call to HTC’s North American headquarters wasn’t returned Thursday.

The carriers play a critical role in stopping these types of attacks.

Because they have a stranglehold on what comes in and out of their networks, they can stop malicious traffic from ever hitting a user’s cell phone by filtering out types of traffic that attackers shouldn’t be able to send. Hackers are able to game the system when they’re allowed to push commands that only the carrier should be allowed to send.

That was the theme of a talk by Zane Lackey, senior security consultant with San Francisco-based iSEC Partners Inc., and Luis Miras, an independent security researcher.

They showed how they can trick a cell phone into pulling in content from a computer under their control. The content never passes through the cellular carrier’s security gauntlet as it’s supposed to.

The hack works because Lackey and Miras figured out how to attach a “notification” alert — something they said only the carrier should be allowed to send — to administrative messages they sent through an unidentified carrier’s network.

The alert tells victims they have a message, such as one instructing them to update settings. To the recipient’s phone, it looks the same as a notice sent by the carrier.

If the user chooses to update the device, the phone then reaches out for the content — on computers under a hacker’s control.

“The way carriers built their networks, there were a lot of security assumptions based on the idea that only the carrier would be able to send certain messages,” Lackey said. “Those assumptions are invalid.”

The flip side to the dangers the researchers have uncovered in mobile devices is that they’re often able to write programs to help companies and individual users look for vulnerabilities in their devices. That could protect against future attacks.

Josh and Anna Duggar announces daughter’s name

Josh and Anna Duggar have decided to name their daughter Mackynzie Renèe Duggar!Mackynzie is Josh’s cousin’s name and Renee is Anna’s middle name.

Paris Hilton Dishes on Her Swanky Pup Mansion

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It’s hard work being one of Paris Hilton’s pups. Photo op fittings with stylists and play dates sure can keep a canine’s calendar packed! But luckily, the heiress’s brood of tiny pooches – which includes Tinkerbell, Marilyn Monroe, Prince Baby Bear, Harajuku, Dolce and Prada – have a relaxing place to kick back, thanks to the star of Paris Hilton’s My New BFF, who designed a posh pad for her family of pooches.

The heiress – who recently shared pictures of her pets and their California home on Twitter – tells PEOPLE Pets her pups are “mini-fashionistas,” and that they adore their luxe doghouse. “There are two floors. Downstairs is the living room and upstairs is the closet and bedroom,” Hilton says. “They love to run up and down the stairs and chill on their balcony.”

The “mini-doggie mansion,” as Hilton calls it, was designed by the heiress in collaboration with interior decorator Faye Resnick. It’s built to resemble Hilton’s own home, and is decorated with “comfy beds and miniature Phillipe Starck furniture. I even made sure to put a heater and air conditioner in there for them for the different seasons,” she says. “I wanted it to be elegant, girly, comfortable, pink and beautiful. I even had a black crystal chandelier installed, as well as gorgeous black ceiling moldings.”

Though the pups have their fair share of time outside – there’s even a front lawn where they could BBQ (if they had thumbs!) – Hilton says they most enjoy hanging out on their “Chewy Vuitton” bed and in their black “Furcedes.” So are any more renovations planned? “I’m thinking of installing a mini-flat screen too,” Hilton says. “Just kidding!”

Study: Texting while driving more dangerous than dialing

Texting while driving increases the risk of a crash much more than previous studies have concluded with motorists taking their eyes off the road longer than they do when talking or listening on their cellphones, a safety research institute said Monday.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute used cameras to continuously observe light vehicle drivers and truckers for more than 6 million miles. It found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting.

Dialing a cellphone and using or reaching for an electronic device increased risk of collision about 6 times in cars and trucks.

Recent research using driving simulators suggested that talking and listening were as dangerous as texting, but the “naturalistic driving studies clearly indicate that this is not the case,” a news release from the institute said. The risks of texting generally applied to all drivers, not just truckers, the researchers said. Complete results were expected to be released Tuesday.

Right before a crash or near collision, drivers spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices, which was enough time at 55 mph to cover more than the length of a football field.

“Talking/listening to a cellphone allowed drivers to maintain eyes on the road and were not associated with an increased safety risk to nearly the same degree,” the institute said. “These results show conclusively that a real key to significantly improving safety is keeping your eyes on the road.”

The institute recommended that texting should be banned for all drivers and all cellphone use should be prohibited for newly licensed teen drivers. Fourteen states do ban texting while driving.

The study also concluded that headset cellphone use is not substantially safer than handheld because the primary risks associated with both are answering, dialing, and other tasks that take drivers’ eyes off the road.

Voice activated systems are less risky if they are designed well enough so drivers do not have to take their eyes off the road often or for long periods.

A call to the institute was not immediately returned Monday night for more details.