Coroner’s officials say Don Cornelius’ death is being ruled a suicide.

The agency writes in a press release issued Tuesday that the “Soul Train” founder died early Feb. 1 after shooting himself in the head. The determination was made after an autopsy Friday.

The 75-year-old Cornelius started “Soul Train” in 1970 and it became one of the longest-running syndicated shows in history, introducing audiences to many top music acts and providing a never-before-seen TV platform for black culture.

Police quickly ruled out foul play, but the official cause of death was not determined until after an autopsy.

Coroner’s officials are awaiting toxicology results before issuing a full report.

The State Labor Department says the company that built the stage ahead of last summer’s deadly Indiana State Fair collapse showed “plain indifference” to safety standards.

Commissioner Lori Torres said Wednesday that Mid-America Sound Corp. has been cited with three major safety violations in connection with the collapse of outdoor stage rigging in high winds that killed seven people Aug. 13. A crowd has gathered at the stage to see the country duo Sugarland perform.

The department issued a $63,000 fine against the company.

It is also citing the Indiana State Fair Commission and a stagehands union for safety regulation violations.

Officials say the commission failed to conduct proper safety evaluations of its concert venues. Smaller fines were issued against the fair and the union.

Valentine’s Day practically screams for a chocolate dessert. And this mousse is an easy way to incorporate chocolate without being overly indulgent.

Because this is a chilled dessert, you can make it ahead of time and not worry about things coming out of the oven at the right time when you’re busy trying to impress your sweetheart with dinner.

For a restaurant-worthy dish, spoon the mousse into parfait glasses and top with fresh berries.

Milk Chocolate Mango Mousse

Serves: 4

Preparation: 30 minutes, plus chilling

1 cup frozen mango chunks, thawed

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup whole milk

1 whole egg, plus 1 yolk

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

2/3 cup milk chocolate bits

1 cup heavy cream

Fill a medium bowl with ice.

In a blender, combine the mango chunks, sugar, milk, whole egg and yolk, and the cornstarch. Puree until completely smooth.

Pour the mixture into a small sauce pan over medium heat. Whisking constantly, heat the mixture until it thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the milk chocolate bits. Stir until the chocolate is melted and thoroughly incorporated.

Place the saucepan in the bowl of ice; ensure that none of the ice gets into the saucepan. Whisk the mixture until completely cooled and smooth.

Place the cream in a large bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat it until medium peaks form, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add half of the beaten cream to the milk chocolate mango mixture and fold together to incorporate. Add the remaining cream and fold again to incorporate. Transfer the mousse to 4 individual serving dishes and refrigerate.

Per serving: 500 calories; 310 calories from fat ; 34 g fat; 195 mg cholesterol; 44 g carbohydrate; 6 g protein; 2 g fiber; 80 mg sodium

By ROCCO DiSPIRITO

It’s Valentine’s Day again, and I just want to remind people there are alternatives to chocolate when it comes to showing your love.

Because let’s face it, at any given time many of us are on diets or at least watching what we’re eating. And a box of chocolates isn’t exactly helping out.

So if you’re looking for a romantic Valentine’s Day gift that’s truly from the heart, why not give the best gift of all – a mouth-watering, healthy meal you make yourself?

This week’s recipe is my version of a trendy dish served in restaurants across the country – lobster pot pie. A typical pot pie like this will cost you around 680 calories and 46 grams of fat per serving. But I’ve downsized that to just 330 calories and 6 grams of fat.

I did this by turning the pie into a cobbler, which means the crust is only on top.

And my crust is made from a lower calorie pancake mix that gives you the taste of a pot pie, but without all the fattening richness of typical crusts. I’ve also added in lean beef tenderloin, making this a true surf and turf delight.

I saved you plenty of fat by thickening this dish with a delicious and pleasantly sweet puree of beets, instead of the usual butter, cream and flour.

Tip: Save yourself some trouble and ask to have your lobster steamed for you while you shop. The seafood department at most grocers will do this for free. Some will even remove the meat from the shell for you.

Valentine’s Day Surf and Turf Cobbler

Serves: 2

Preparation: 45 minutes (30 minutes active)

1 1/4-pound live lobster

4 ounces fresh asparagus spears (12 to 16 spears, depending on thickness), trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

3 ounces beef tenderloin, cut into 8 cubes

Salt and ground black pepper

14 1/2-ounce can red beets with liquid

16 pumps butter spray

1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, chopped

2/3 cup Bisquick Heart Smart Pancake and Baking Mix

1/4 cup water

2 teaspoons prepared horseradish

In a large stockpot, bring 6 quarts of water to a boil. Set a bowl of ice water nearby.

Submerge the lobster in the boiling water, then return the water to a boil. Cook the lobster for 4 minutes, adding the asparagus to the water for the last 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the asparagus to the ice water to cool for 2 minutes, then transfer to a kitchen towel to dry. Remove the lobster from the water and place on a sheet pan. Let cool until easy to handle.

Heat a medium nonstick skillet over high.

Season the beef with salt and pepper, then spritz the pan with cooking spray and add the beef to the pan. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the outsides are well browned and the centers are rare, turning once. Transfer the beef to a small plate and set aside.

Drain the beets, reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid. Cut two-thirds of the drained beets (about 1 cup) into bite-size pieces (save the remaining beets for another use). Add half of the beet pieces to a blender along with the 1/4 cup of reserved liquid. Cover and blend until smooth.

Add the 16 pumps of butter spray and cover and blend again just until combined. Pour the pureed beets into a medium bowl and add the remaining chopped beets. Add the asparagus to the beet mixture along with the cooked beef cubes and fresh tarragon.

Heat the oven to 400º.

Remove the meat from the lobster and cut into bite-size pieces. Add to the beet mixture and stir until well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture evenly into a 1-quart oven-safe glass bowl or souffle dish.

In a medium bowl, mix the pancake mix and water. Drop the dough into 6 small mounds over the lobster mixture. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the top is browned and the filling is heated through. Remove and top with horseradish.

Per serving: 330 calories; 6 g fat; 80 mg cholesterol; 40 g carbohydrate; 29 g protein; 5 g fiber; 1,356 mg sodium

Grammy show producer Ken Ehrlich had considered putting dancing/electronica music into the ceremony in the past, but could never quite figure out how to incorporate the high-energy club feel in front of a sometimes staid audience.

He thinks he’s figured it out this year. For the first time, the Grammy show will put the spotlight on the genre with a segment featuring Grammy nominees Deadmau5, the Foo Fighters, Chris Brown, David Guetta and Lil Wayne, all performing in a tent space amid 1,000 fans.

“We decided to go all out this year,” Ehrlich said of the performance taking place outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where Sunday’s ceremony will be held. “All we’re going to try and do next week is to try and put the home audience in the middle of it. … It is more than just sitting there and watching it.”

Dance music did not receive its own category until 2003 with the best dance recording/dance field, and the music had not been featured with its own segment in the show.

“I don’t know that I figured out a way to do it that felt right until now,” Ehrlich said in an interview Monday. “My feeling about dance is it’s such an immersive experience for the participant, that to put it on stage … where the audience is not a part of it … I don’t know, honestly, until we came up with the idea of doing it this way, I don’t know if it ever would have worked.” Read the full story

Image via Wikipedia

The Minnesota Twins are cutting ties with the Kardashians, too.

Well, sort of.

The team announced Tuesday it will auction off a baseball autographed by reality starlet Kim Kardashian and her ex-husband Kris Humphries. They signed the ball before a Twins game last July, when the Minnesota native and NBA player Humphries threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

After a highly publicized wedding last August, the celebrity couple’s marriage ended 72 days later when Kardashian filed for divorce. Humphries played basketball at Hopkins High School and the University of Minnesota before turning pro. He’s currently with the New Jersey Nets.

The auction proceeds will go to the team’s charity arm, the Minnesota Twins Community Fund.

Online bidding ends on Valentine’s Day.

By DERRIK J. LANG

After what feels like an eternity, but is actually just a few minutes, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt emerges from a white door into the foyer of the old-fashioned Bel-Air mansion that he shares with his wife of 25 years, former glamour queen Zsa Zsa Gabor.

The self-proclaimed German prince is holding up a chocolate birthday cake he says was a gift from celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Smoke from the expunged candles jabbed into the small cake is still drifting in the air.

Surrounded by paintings and photographs depicting Gabor when she was an infamously sassy Hungarian actress, a few dozen guests quietly sip champagne and mingle in the common areas of the home overlooking the twinkling lights of Los Angeles.

But Gabor is nowhere to be seen — apparently celebrating her 95th birthday behind closed doors on this chilly Monday evening. Von Anhalt presented the cake to his bedridden beloved out of sight from the partygoers who had gathered for the occasion. He parades it around the room as he greets his guests.

Read the full story

Image via Wikipedia

Roseanne Barr’s name is on California’s primary ballot as a Green Party candidate for president.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Monday that Barr is among 24 candidates she intends to place on the June 5 ballot. An officially certified list will be released on March 29.

A news release says Barr is among three candidates for the Green Party presidential nomination.

The actress-comedian released a statement last week saying she’s a longtime supporter of the Green Party and she looks forward to working with people who share her values. She says the two major parties aren’t serving the American people.

The Green Party will select a presidential nominee at a convention in Baltimore in July.

Image via CrunchBase

NBC hoped the Super Bowl would prompt viewers to sample a couple of its promising new shows and, at least initially, the network is getting its wish.

The network premiered the second season of “The Voice” directly after Sunday’s Super Bowl, which attracted a record-setting audience of 111.3 million viewers. The Nielsen company said that 37.6 million people hung around for its music competition series on Sunday.

Perhaps more importantly, an estimated 17.7 million people watched “The Voice” the next night. That’s up 49 percent from the show’s first season average of 11.9 million last year. It’s also a larger audience than “American Idol” gathered for its second episode of the week last Thursday.

The premiere of “Smash,” NBC’s highly-publicized drama about life backstage at Broadway play rehearsals, had 11.5 million viewers on Monday. Those are the best ratings in the Monday 10 p.m. time slot for NBC since 2008.

Thanks to the Super Bowl, NBC’s weekly average in prime-time was 21.4 million viewers (9.9 rating, 16 share). CBS had 8.4 million viewers (5.3, 9), Fox had 6.8 million (4.0, 6), ABC had 5.1 million (3.3, 5), the CW had 1.6 million (1.0, 2) and ION Television had 1.1 million (0.7, 1).

Read the full story

Johnny Cash is still cool.

Like Elvis or Hank Williams, Cash retains a certain cachet in current popular culture even in death. More proof of his enduring legend is on the way as plans to celebrate what would have been the American icon’s 80th birthday unfold later this month and year.

There will be a groundbreaking on the project to preserve Cash’s childhood home in Dyess, Ark., on Feb. 26, his birthday. A new Cash museum will open in Nashville later this year and several music releases are expected to commemorate the anniversary of his birth. There are three documentaries in the works as well.

Interest remains as high as ever more than eight years after his death in 2003 at 71 of complications from diabetes.

“He appealed to people and still appeals to people who have a small CD collection and live in middle America just as much as the punk on the streets of Germany,” Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, said. “And that’s sort of magical the way he’s been able to do that still, that his image still draws people from all walks of life.”

The Cash family is most excited about the project in Dyess. Many of Cash’s children and grandchildren will attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Project, an undertaking led by Arkansas State University.

Read the full story