Robin Roberts Takes Time Off Ahead Of Medical Leave: 'I'm Not Feeling Too Well'

Robin Roberts will be taking more time off from "Good Morning America" than expected, she told viewers on Tuesday.

She announced that she will be leaving for one or two weeks before her medical leave, noting that she was not feeling well. Roberts was recently diagnosed with MDS, a rare blood and bone marrow disorder, as a side effect of her battle with breast cancer.

"Well, a full disclosure here, I’m not feeling too well," Roberts told viewers, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "In fact I’m going to leave and let you all do the rest of the program on your own. I’m going to take a little time off, just to get some vacay… I'll see you in a couple of weeks."

Cuba Gooding Jr. Wanted for Arrest After Alleged New Orleans Bar Battery

The Oscar winner is on the receiving end of an arrest warrant from New Orleans police for allegedly pushing a bartender twice in a French Quarter watering hole early Tuesday morning, E! News has learned.
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Per the New Orleans Police Department, the incident took place at Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street at about 3 a.m. and involved a female bartender. Gooding entered the bar with a group of friends, and after a few minutes, other patrons recognized him and asked him to take photos with them, at which point he became aggravated, police say.

The bartender approached him and asked him to calm down and that's when the 44-year-old thesp allegedly shoved her. As one of her coworkers called 911, Gooding and pals decided to leave—but not before allegedly pushing the bartender again on his way out.

Patients warned of potential exposure to fatal brain disease

CHARLESTON, S.C., July 31 (Reuters) - A South Carolina hospital said it has notified 11 brain surgery patients that they could have been exposed to a rare brain disease through surgical instruments used on a patient who was later diagnosed with the fatal condition.

Greenville Hospital System officials said the patient was found to suffer from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a degenerative brain illness that affects one to two people per million worldwide each year and is always fatal, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Death usually results within one year of diagnosis.

The CDC recommends that instruments that have come into contact with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease undergo additional sterilization procedures prescribed by the World Health Organization.

In this case, because the Creutzfeldt-Jakob diagnosis wasn't known at the time of the patient's surgery, the instruments were "sterilized according to rigorous U.S. protocols" but did not undergo any extra disinfecting, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Officials said they believe there was a low chance that the disease was transmitted to the other patients, who underwent neurological surgeries after the infected patient in February.

For More Pianos, Last Note Is Thud in the Dump

A Requiem for Pianos: O’Mara Meehan Piano Movers has been in the business since 1874. The vice president, Bryan O’Mara, laments the fact that he has to dispose of 5 to 10 pianos a month

SOUTHAMPTON, Pa. — The Knabe baby grand did a cartwheel and landed on its back, legs poking into the air. A Lester upright thudded onto its side with a final groan of strings, a death-rattling chord. After 10 pianos were dumped, a small yellow loader with a claw in front scuttled in like a vicious beetle, crushing keyboards, soundboards and cases into a pile.

The site, a trash-transfer station in this town 20 miles north of Philadelphia, is just one place where pianos go to die. This kind of scene has become increasingly common. 

The value of used pianos, especially uprights, has plummeted in recent years. So instead of selling them to a neighbor, donating them to a church or just passing them along to a relative, owners are far more likely to discard them, technicians, movers and dealers say. Piano movers are making regular runs to the dump, becoming adept at dismantling instruments, selling parts to artists, even burning them for firewood.

“We bust them up with a sledgehammer,” said Jeffrey Harrington, the owner of Harrington Moving & Storage in Maplewood, N.J.

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New York City to mothers: You should breast-feed

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a message for new mothers: Breast-feed your baby, if possible.

Starting in September, dozens of city hospitals will ask mothers of newborns to listen to talks about why their breast milk is better than the sample formulas many hospitals offer for free. Then the women can decide for themselves, says the mayor.

Bloomberg has been ribbed as the city's "nanny" for pushing programs aimed at making New Yorkers healthier — from clamping down on big sugar-loaded drinks to creating no-smoking zones in public places.

Now, under the "Latch On NYC" initiative, 27 of 40 hospitals in the city that deliver babies will no longer hand out promotional formula unless it's for medical reasons, or at a mother's request.

"Most public health officials around the country think this is a great idea," Bloomberg said at a City Hall briefing earlier this week. "The immunities that a mother has built up get passed on to the child, so the child is healthier."

He says formulas remain an acceptable solution if a mother cannot breastfeed, whether for health reasons or because her schedule does not allow it.