• She’s fantastic on this album. She sings better than anyone else could have! I trusted her with my life and songs and production—because she’s that good.
• Jailed songbird Phil Spector • Regarding the album he produced for his wife, Rachelle Spector, while in prison for the murder of Lana Clarkson. The crazy sounding “Out of My Chelle,” with its equally-crazy name, is due for a June release. It’s his first production in over 30 years, though we’re sure he didn’t expect it to happen under these circumstances. If you want to produce our next album, Phil, we’ll give you a pack of smokes. source

• First question: Why were they even covering this particular topic on the local news in the first place? Second question: Is this funnier than “Keep ducking that chicken” or not? (Note: The above clip features kind of “adult” humor. Don’t show it to kids.)

• good You’re going to prom, and you rent a super-expensive limo.
• bad The limo company had financial issues you didn’t know about.
• worse The limos get repossessed while you’re inside. Gah! source

• cute Kids across the country are hunting for wonderfully-colored Easter Eggs. It’s a fun alternative to iPad unboxing for non-nerds.
• not cute Some of those kids, in Des Moines, Iowa, happened to find a body during their hunt. We’ll save the dark humor for later. source

• In terms of dumb tech moves, this ranks up there with Palm releasing the Pre the same week as the latest iPhone revision. The CrunchPad JooJoo hit Engadget’s desk today like a lump of coal, and while they want to review it and stuff, they also kinda hit on one of the busiest tech weeks of the year. Something about a tablet computer backed by a Silicon Valley guy with more cred than Michael Arrington. source

• Hope he knows as much about diapers as he does about crooning. Self-made teen idol Justin Bieber, 16, plans to take a break from his busy promotional schedule after recently learning that he got a young fan pregnant late last year. Classy guy he is, he plans to take care of her, and has already asked for her hand in marriage. He plans to hold a press conference later today, which TMZ plans to stream live. All of this came at an awkward time for the superstar, whose album “My World 2.0” just hit the top of the charts and whose throng of teen fans may not approve. source

• We blame Lee Abrams, right. Our friends at the Newport News, Va. Daily Press got some awful news this week, when they found out that much of their paper’s copy-editing and design facilities would be outsourced to the Tribune Corp. mothership in Chicago. 10 percent of their newsroom staff will get laid off as a result of this. Lee Abrams, above, is responsible for starting something similar with the radio industry. So, here’s a brief explanation of what’s up with the Daily Press:

• Tribune is bankrupt The iconic media company, which owns the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant and a ton of other major regional newspapers, is trying to cut costs whereever they can. So as a result, they’re trying to outsource where they can.
• slippery slope Tribune has already been down this road with many of their papers – they started doing a modular system for many of the inside pages of their papers last year. The result of what’s happening to the Daily Press is something of an extreme case of the process.
• Abrams is the point guy As the Chief Innovation Officer of Tribune, many of these changes happened due to his influence. He’s done this before. He invented the tools used to eventually turn radio into a soulless wasteland. Sure, he has XM under his belt, but his story’s already been written.

Turning news into Clear Channel

• This is a model that, particularly in smaller markets, although I can see it in larger markets as well, can change the economics of the newspaper business the same way Clear Channel changed the economics of … the radio business.
• Daily Press President and Chief Executive Digby Solomon • Regarding the changes, which are in the midst of taking hold. Many of the employees who followed Sam Zell to Tribune used to work for Clear Channel, which should give you an idea of what the company is trying to do. It’s everything you hate about radio, in newspaper form. Great. Hope you guys don’t succeed at sucking the life out of news. source

• That’s some hard-hitting questioning on abortion right there, Alisyn Camerota of Fox News. Some would argue that it’s racist or disrespectful to the poor. We’d argue that it just makes you an awful human being. Our favorite part of the clip is the obvious disbelief about the line of questioning by Kate Obenshain, her guest. source

• This video has been everywhere today, and we’re only posting it here to make sure the most unfortunate twelve seconds of Paula Deen’s life gets its due.