Blog Posts by ABC News

By Rachel Willen

It was round three, the dessert round of the Holiday "battle" of Food Network's "Chopped" that I was in the midst of waging against my fellow competitors. I began to believe that I had a better chance of winning than when I'd arrived that morning. A burly chef, hailing from the DC area, whose shoulder chip began to waver by this third and decisive round, decided that winning fair and square was too much of a risk. As we waited in the chef's holding area to be called back on set for the final cook-off, Chef Will asked me "what are you going to do for dessert? Do you think you'll make an ice cream?" I replied that I had practiced ice creams and if the yet unknown mystery basket ingredients lent itself to that, I might go for it. "What are you going to do?" I asked in return. "Well, whatever I do, I know it won't be ice cream. I have a pastry chef at my restaurant. I don't do ice cream. I haven't made an ice cream since culinary school, so I know I'm

Teens at a Pennsylvania library had hoped to inspire kids to read when they transformed the lyrics of Michael Jackson's 1983 hit "Beat It" into "Read It" and posted it on the Internet.

Instead, they have a fight on their hands with Sony-ATV Records, which owns the rights to Jackson's song with his estate and refused to grant them permission to post it on the Internet.

The teens at the Lansdowne Public Library say their David vs. Goliath tale began Nov. 19 when and Sony-ATV Records blocked the video from being viewed on YouTube three days after they originally posted it.

In protest, the teens and the library staff uploaded another video on YouTube titled, "Just UN Ban-It," where students who worked on the film expressed their outrage at Sony.

"If [Michael Jackson] would have seen this 'Read It' video, he would have blessed it, and I'm just ashamed at Sony," Lansdowne Public Library Director Sandra Giannella said in the video.

Sony told ABC News overnight that the

Everyone else has weighed in on the alleged feud between new "American Idol" judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj, so why not the guy who recently filled one of those seats at the table? Steven Tyler tells MTV that he's not happy with the reports of friction on the set of Idol.

"I know that they've got something going on on the judges' panel, [and] it shouldn't be that, it should be just the opposite. They should have something going on, which is called camaraderie," he said. "They should have something going on so thick and beautiful that they can lay it over the new talent that's trying to birth itself."

Tyler explained, "It needs to be birthed, not judged by entertainment factors. It needs to be judged by people that [are] honest, true, that have the 'it' factor. Not the 'it' factor because they can fight. [What] the f**k is that all about?"

Speaking about the new judges' abilities to nurture new talent, Tyler, 64, thinks he and fellow former judge Jennifer

Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick are four of the funniest women on the planet. And ever since they landed in Cleveland nearly three years ago, TV has never been hotter.

"The first day we read the script around the table, we all went, 'Oh, wow.' We all looked up and went, 'This one feels right,'" Malick told ABC News' Cameron Mathison, who joined the ladies on set for a special behind-the-scenes look at "Hot in Cleveland."

When Mathison was asked to play the role of Bill, boyfriend to Leeves' character, Joy, he jumped at the chance.

Mathison said the character he plays on the show is a bit of a "word shortener," which, according to some people, is "a little bit annoying."

"But he's 6-foot-2 and gorgeous at the same time so we can overlook the word shortening," Leeves joked.

The cast gets just a few days to rehearse before taping in front of the audience, but during one of the breaks, Mathison took the opportunity to get the scoop on what really

ABC News' Lindsey Davis, Santina Leuci and Sabina Ghebremedhin report:

Dannielynn Birkhead, the 6-year-old daughter of the late Anna Nicole Smith, is following in her model mom's footsteps, becoming the new face of Guess Kids. Her father Larry Birkhead said modeling is a way for Dannielynn to connect with the mom she never knew.

"Dannielynn has always looked up to her mom's image and … I think that this is kind of Dannielynn's way of paying tribute to her mom in her own special way," Birkhead said in an interview with " Good Morning America."

Birkhead has raised Dannielynn on his own since Smith died of a drug overdose in 2007 when their daughter was just 5 months old. Smith was 39.

"To see her mom's picture next to hers as a Guess girl and say, 'Hey, I was a Guess Kids girl, my mommy was a Guess girl,' that might be her only connection with her mom," he said.

RELATED: Dannielynn Asks Dad Larry Birkhead 'Why Did Mommy Die?'

Smith was

The Food and Drug Administration today shut down the country's largest organic peanut butter processor following a salmonella outbreak that sickened scores of people nationwide.

For the first time the FDA has utilized new power granted by the 2011 food safety law and shut down Sunland Inc.'s New Mexico processing plant.

In a statement on their website, the FDA said that the link between the company and the salmonella outbreak that sickened 41 people in 20 states along with "Sunland's history of violations led FDA to make the decision to suspend the company's registration."

Between June 2000 and September 2012 eleven product lots of nut butter tested positive for presence of Salmonella. And, according to the FDA, between March 2010 and September 2012, Sunland Inc. distributed at least a portion of eight product lots after they had tested positive.

The FDA also found the presence of Salmonella in 28 environmental samples during a September and October 2012 inspection. FDA

ABC News' Sharyn Alfonsi reports:

With a $425 million Powerball jackpot now up for grabs Wednesday night, people are lining up across the country with dreams of money, money, money.

"[I] really want that Powerball," Tony Hanson of Georgia said.

In 2006, eight meatpacking workers - called the "Nebraska 8? - struck gold in Lincoln, Neb., with a single ticket chosen by a computer. They won $365 million - the biggest lottery payout in U.S. history.

Seven of the eight winners still live in Lincoln. One person lives an hour away in Omaha.

"They really haven't changed that much at all," said Eric Zornes, one of the Nebraska 8.

Michael Terpstra took a $15 million lump sum and bought an unassuming $470,000 home.

Single lady Chastity Rutjens got married a few years ago to Rob Stewart, another one of the lucky eight. His ex-wife got half of his earnings.

Dave Gehle, a sanitation supervisor, showed up to work for three weeks after he won.

"We couldn't just leave them in a bind,"

Half a century ago, the Rolling Stones started as a blues cover band. They found their voice as a kind of anti-Beatles.

Together, they've sold 200 million albums.

Fifty years later, the Rolling Stones still rock and their fans have remained loyal.

"I've been to at least 300+ rolling stones shows. And I'm not stopping yet," said superfan Ed Lieberman.

The band will kick off their "50 and Counting" tour with a live concert tonight at The O2 Arena in London.

Tickets to the show are going for more than $18,000 online.

Lieberman first saw the Stones in his hometown of Miami in 1969.

The 300-plus shows Lieberman has seen has taken him to half a dozen countries.

"That raw energy, the power that came to me, intoxicated me, infected me. And I haven't quit. Can't stop," Lieberman said.

PHOTOS: Rolling Stones Celebrate 50th Anniversary

Photographer Gered Mankowitz was just 18 years old when he flew with the band right as they got huge.

"We had hordes of screaming