Whitney Houston

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY

Whitney Houston died from drowning in a hotel bathtub, but coroner’s officials said Thursday that heart disease and chronic cocaine use were contributing factors to the singer’s death.

The release of autopsy findings Thursday ends weeks of speculation about what killed the Grammy-winning singer on Feb. 11 on the eve of the Grammy Awards.

Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and her death has been ruled as accidental. Several bottles of prescription medications were found in her hotel room, but coroner’s officials said they weren’t in excessive quantities.

Beverly Hills police said in a statement there was no evidence of wrongdoing in connection with Houston’s death.

“We are saddened to learn of the toxicology results, although we are glad to now have closure,’ said Patricia Houston, the singer’s sister-in-law and manager.

Whitney Houston, superstar of records, films, dead at 48 | Photos: Her voice will never be forgotten | Share your condolences: Online guestbook |
Photos: 2012 notable deaths

Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey says cocaine and its byproducts were found in Houston’s system, and it was listed as a contributing factor in her death. He says the results indicated Houston was a chronic cocaine user.
Read the full story

When it comes to rock spectacle, few do it like Kiss and Motley Crue. This summer, they’re doing it together.

And this tour is coming to Cruzan Amphitheatre on July 27.

Between the two bands, they have sold more than 200 million albums, and both are known for their incredible stage shows. Kiss raised the bar so high for rock showmanship during the 1970s that bands are still trying to catch up — flashpots, light shows, lasers, platforms, blood, fireworks, Kiss has pretty much done it all.

And Crue has been right there trying to top it. They’ve taken a full-on circus on tour with them, and of course, there’s drummer Tommy Lee’s well-known 360-degree spinning drum platform.

Tickets for all shows, including the show at Cruzan, go on sale Friday at TicketMaster outlets and LiveNation.com. Fan clubs for both bands have a pre-sale beginning today.

Music fans around here are getting that antsy feeling again.

When’s the SunFest lineup coming out?

Well, while we may not know the “who” yet, at least we’ll know the “when” — Thursday.

SunFest announced it will be releasing its lineup Thursday, first to its fans on Facebook, then to the general public. To get the lineup first, head to SunFest’s Facebook page and click the “like” button.

Tickets for the event are currently on sale at the SunFest site, by calling 800-SUNFEST (786-3378), or by visiting the SunFest store at 525 Clematis St. in West Palm Beach. In addition, from now through March 31, you can purchase a “March Moneysaver” five-day pass for $55 at participating TD Bank locations, which saves you 69 percent on the $35 single-day ticket price on concert days.

Public services for Davy Jones are being planned for New York and England. (Mark Cornelison / Lexington Herald-Leader / MCT)

By KEORA GARDNER

The family of former Monkees lead singer Davy Jones is planning a private funeral in Florida for the rocker, who died Wednesday morning from a heart attack, his publicist Helen Kensick said in an email statement on Friday.

A date and a location for the funeral has not been planned, Kensick wrote in an email to Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers.

Public services are being planned for New York and England, she wrote in an email.

The family asks that contributions be sent to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society or the local chapter in honor of Jones’ niece, Deborah Jane Wilkinson, who in 1995 died from the disorder, Kensick wrote in an email.

More Davy Jones coverage | Davy Jones dies at age 66

Read the full story

Davy Jones sang with the Monkees from the 1960s through several of the band's comebacks.

Davy Jones, lead singer of the Monkees, has died, the Martin County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed this afternoon.

"The district 19 Medical Examiner’s Office has been notified of the death of Mr. Davy Jones. We are currently evaluating whether or not the Medical Examiner’s Office will take jurisdiction," according to a statement read by spokeswoman Rebecca Shortridge.

“It is quite a shock,” said Helen Kensick, Jones’ publicist of 50 years.

Kensick said he died of a heart attack this morning in Indiantown, where Jones keeps horses.

In his last conversation with The Palm Beach Post in mid-February, Davy Jones was upbeat, chatting animatedly about his three 2-year-old racehorses and his wife Jessica Pacheco, a flamenco dancer who performed in Stuart on Feb. 23.

Online guestbook: Share your condolence | Stories about Davy Jones

The couple was in the middle of remodeling their beachfront condo in Hollywood.

Read the full story

By AUGUSTUS MAYHEW

Music icon Kid Rock has bought an oceanfront house in Jupiter Inlet Beach Colony for $3.225 million, according to the personal representative’s Feb. 9 deed, recorded Feb. 24.

Colette K. Meyer, as a personal representative for the estate of Elke H. Kwapinski, sold 11 Ocean Drive to Robert J. Ritchie, as trustee for the RJR Trust of Clarkston, Mich.

A resident of Clarkston, a suburb of Detroit, Ritchie’s stage name is Kid Rock.

To read more about this story, see the Palm Beach Daily News’ site.

Family and friends will say goodbye to Whitney Houston at her childhood church in Newark, N.J., where she wowed audiences with her powerful voice even as a young girl.

Besides daughter Bobbi Kristina and Houston’s ex-husband Bobby Brown, others expected to attend the private funeral Saturday include close family friend Aretha Franklin, music mogul Clive Davis, and Houston’s “Bodyguard” co-star Kevin Costner. Franklin, Stevie Wonder and gospel star CeCe Winans are expected to sing.

The service at New Hope Baptist Church comes one week after Houston was found dead at a Beverly Hills hotel in California. A cause of death has not been determined.

The 48-year-old pop icon is to be buried next to her father, John Houston, in nearby Westfield, N.J.

Adele won song and record of the year for 'Rolling in the Deep' on a night when Whitney Houston was mourned. (AP)

By RANDY LEWIS

On an evening overshadowed by the shocking death of a singer who was once one of pop music’s most radiant young stars, the pop stratosphere’s latest bright light, 23-year-old British R&B-soul singer Adele, was showered Sunday night with six Grammy Awards for cathartic music she channeled out of her own pain and despair.

See photos from the Grammys.
Whitney Houston autopsy completed; results could take weeks

Adele delivered the biggest album of 2011 with “21,” her sophomore outing that explored various facets of a painful romantic breakup, and scored the year’s biggest single, “Rolling in the Deep,” in which the singer reaches to the depths of heartache to find solace and hope. She won in all six categories in which she was nominated, including the marquee triple crown of album, record and song.

But solace and hope ultimately eluded Whitney Houston, who died Saturday at age 48 on the eve of the Grammy show, after struggling for more than two decades with drug abuse and other issues. She died just hours before she had been scheduled to attend the annual pre-Grammy party hosted by Clive Davis, the veteran music executive who had discovered Houston and signed her to her first record contract nearly three decades ago and guided her to superstardom with soaring hits including “I Will Always Love You,” “Saving All My Love for You” and “Greatest Love of All.”

List of major winners

Read the full story

A reality television producer charged with killing his wife while on vacation in Mexico is being sent from California to Cancun to await trial, a spokesman for his attorneys said Wednesday.

The attorneys were notified Wednesday that former “Survivor” producer Bruce Beresford-Redman was being extradited, spokesman Stephen Jaffe said.

The producer has been charged in Mexico in the death of his wife, Monica Beresford-Redman, whose body was found in a sewer cistern at a swank resort following an April 2010 family vacation.

Bruce Beresford-Redman opted in December not to appeal a U.S. court ruling upholding his extradition. Mexican authorities later said they had reached an agreement for his return.

Beresford-Redman has denied that he killed his wife and his attorneys have attacked evidence in the case.

The U.S. Marshals Service would not comment on Beresford-Redman’s extradition, citing a policy against discussing prisoner movements.

Read the full story

Former 'X Factor' cast members: Steve Jones, Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul. (Jones/Scherzinger photo by AP; Abdul photo courtesy Fox)

There will definitely be changes on Fox’ The X Factor next season.

Judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger and host Steve Jones have all left the show, which had consistently good ratings in its first season, but never reached the popularity of American Idol.

USA Today is among those reporting that Abdul and Scherzinger have followed Jones out the door. Jones reported his exit on Twitter on Monday.

Abdul was initially asked to join the show by X Factor executive producer and fellow judge and Idol cast mate Simon Cowell. Scherzinger replaced Cheryl Cole, who was brought over by Cowell from the British version of X Factor but left early on.

Read the full story