SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- The park bench facing Lake Washington is covered with flowers, poems, a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes and graffiti.

Fans leave flowers and mementos in honor of Kurt Cobain near his Seattle home.

"I miss your beautiful face and voice," one dedication reads.

"Thank you for inspiring me," says another.

"RIP Kurt."

Fifteen years ago Wednesday, at a house adjacent to the park, Kurt Cobain's dead body was discovered by an electrician.

The Nirvana frontman, 27, had committed suicide, police later ruled, killing himself with a shotgun while high on heroin and pills.

His death ended a battle with hard drugs and added Cobain to a long list of legendary musicians, such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, whose careers were cut short by their addictions.

Cobain's ashes were reportedly scattered in a Washington state river and a New York Buddhist temple.

Nirvana band mates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl eventually formed other bands. Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, stayed in the limelight with an acting career and legal problems surrounding her own drug problems. Frances Bean, the couple's daughter, has largely lived outside the public eye.

What was unclear when Cobain died was whether the music Nirvana created would endure or fade away like the grunge craze it helped to inspire.

"At point I thought, 15 years on, no one would really know who Kurt Cobain was outside of a group of diehard fans," said Jeff Burlingame, a Cobain biographer who grew up with the musician in Aberdeen, Washington, and knew him when he was a teenager who, without a place to sleep, crashed on mutual friends' couches.

But Nirvana's music endured, and Cobain even found fans in his hometown of Aberdeen, which he had derided as a small-minded town.

"The old-timers who were there when Kurt was around really took offense to some of the things he said about the area, so they had no real reason to honor him," said Burlingame, who co-founded the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee.

A famous son is a famous son, though. Now, visitors arriving in Aberdeen are greeted with a sign that reads "Come As You Are," after a famous Nirvana song.

Cobain Memorial Committee members, who include Cobain's paternal grandfather, hope to establish a community center in the late rocker's honor that would give area youth a place to play music and pursue artistic interests.

A concert will be held Friday in Seattle to honor Cobain and raise money for the center.

When Cobain died, he left behind a fortune that was estimated in the millions.

Even more money poured in over time from the royalties from his songs. But a lawyer hired by Love, Rhonda Holmes, says most of that money is missing.

According to Holmes, Love recently discovered that "managers, assistants, CPAs, lawyers, people like that who were supposed to be entrusted with carrying for their well-being and finances basically looted the estate."

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UNC victory may foster an unexpected moment of bipartisanship in Virginia politics

The University of North Carolina Tar Heels did not just deliver an impressive victory or provide President Obama bragging rights around the West Wing of the White House.

NCAA GOP vs. Dems

(ABC News Photo Illustration)

The NCAA men's basketball champs are also responsible for setting up what could be one of the more awkward dinner dates in American politics.

It's one from the "careful what you wish for" category. If you are a young opposition researcher in politics, you spend all your waking moments poring over video clips, quotes, and the professional record of the opposing candidate you are attempting to defeat. The oppo researcher is always digging deep into a candidate's background for that potentially embarrassing detail that could derail a candidacy.

So imagine how odd it might be when the research director for the Democratic Party of Virginia, Greg Scanlon, soon dines one-on-one with Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor.

Why would the former Virginia attorney general subject himself to a meal with a young Democrat who has been researching every nook and cranny of his life and career?

Well, because Scanlon won the NCAA March Madness bracket challenge on McDonnell's campaign Web site. For his prize, Scanlon had his choice of a one-on-one dinner or a three-on-three basketball game with McDonnell and his twin sons.

"As much as I'd like to hit the basketball court with Bob, at the end of the day I'm more of an eater than a baller," Scanlon said.

When asked if it might be awkward for McDonnell to sit across the table and share a meal with the man who spends his days trying to figure out ways to defeat him, the McDonnell campaign spokesman said it wasn't a worry.

"An hour dinner with Bob McDonnell? Greg might walk out a Republican," said McDonnell campaign spokesman Tucker Martin.

As with many political campaigns, the McDonnell for Governor campaign attempted to drum up some Web site traffic and collect potential volunteer and supporter email addresses by holding a NCAA Final Four bracket challenge.

READ MORE - UNC victory may foster an unexpected moment of bipartisanship in Virginia politics

Obama to Tackle Immigration Reform This Year

NYT: Legalizing status of millions of illegal immigrants is a possibility.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama plans to start addressing the thorny issue of immigration reform this year, including the search for a path to legalize the status of millions of illegal immigrants, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, quoting a presidential aide.

Obama will speak publicly about the matter in May and bring together working groups including Democratic and Republican lawmakers over the summer to begin discussing possible legislation for as early as the fall, administration officials told the Times.

Obama will present his drive as "policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system," the Times quoted Cecilia Munoz, deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs in the White House, as saying.

"He intends to start the debate this year," it quoted Munoz as saying.

"But with the economy seriously ailing, advocates on different sides of the debate said that immigration could become a polarizing issue for Mr. Obama in a year when he has many other major battles to fight," the Times said.

Americans are sharply divided over how to deal with 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Hard-liners say illegal immigrants are a drain on the country's resources and want them deported.
Two years ago, Obama, then a Democratic senator, backed immigration reform proposed by former President George W. Bush that sought tougher border controls and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Bush's fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress killed the proposal.

During his campaign for the White House, Obama pledged to support immigration reform. He received strong backing from Hispanics in the November election.

"Opponents, mainly Republicans, say they will seek to mobilize popular outrage against any effort to legalize unauthorized immigrant workers while so many Americans are out of jobs," the Times said.

(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; editing by Eric Beech)

READ MORE - Obama to Tackle Immigration Reform This Year

China auto sales surpass US for 3rd month

SHANGHAI (AP) - Preliminary figures show auto sales in China reached about 1.03 million in March, exceeding U.S. sales for the third month in a row, state media reports said Wednesday.

Data from 14 major auto makers, accounting for roughly 90 percent of total sales, totaled 1.026 million, the Shanghai Securities News and other state-run newspapers said, citing Chen Bin, head of the Department of Industry at China's main economic planning agency.

Full industry data due to be released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in coming days could push March auto sales in China, the world's second-largest auto market, to a monthly record, the reports said.

China's industrywide auto sales in March 2008 totaled 1.06 million, it said.

Americans bought 857,735 new vehicles in March, down 37 percent from the 1.36 million sold in the same month a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp.

But a 25 percent jump in U.S. sales from February raised hopes that the worst may be over for an industry battered by global economic malaise and financial catastrophe.

China is bound to eventually overtake the U.S. as the world's largest auto market, and recent developments have accelerated that trend, with Chinese vehicle sales in January and February exceeding U.S. monthly sales for the first time ever.

China's first-quarter sales may exceed those in the U.S., Chen told a shipbuilding conference in Beijing. Sales for the full year are forecast to exceed 10 million units for the first time ever.

With sales slumping elsewhere, China is one of the few bright spots for the ailing industry.

General Motors Corp. (GM) said Wednesday that it sold 137,004 vehicles in China in March, up 24.6 percent from a year earlier. Its minivehicle joint venture, SAIC-GM-Wuling, saw sales surge 38 percent to 90,784 vehicles.

But China's promise is also a curse for automakers facing ever intensifying competition among both domestic and foreign manufacturers.

On Wednesday Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler AG (DAI) was launching its Smart model in China - the 39th market for the two-seater minicar. Other automakers are also planning launches ahead of and during the April 20-28 Shanghai Auto Show.

"The confidence in China is back," said Klaus Maier, president and CEO of Daimler's Mercedes-Benz (China) Ltd.

While he said Mercedes expects double digit growth in China's luxury car segment, the industry focus now is mainly on smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles likely to appeal to frugal families, rather than big sedans.

To help spur auto sales, the government halved taxes on purchases of small autos and is spending 5 billion yuan (about $730 million) on subsidies for purchases of light trucks and minivans in the countryside, where most of its 1.3 billion people live.

Those policies, part of a plan to boost 10 strategically vital industries singled out for special support, helped push China's vehicle sales up 25 percent in February from a year earlier.

But Zhang Xin, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities, in Beijing, cautioned against reading too much into volatile monthly figures.

"Sales may be surpassing the U.S., but at the same time profits are being squeezed due to the lower prices of the smaller cars," Zhang said.

"It doesn't really make sense to compare our industry with the U.S. industry. We are not at the same level at all and there is no reason for arrogance."

READ MORE - China auto sales surpass US for 3rd month

AP Newsbreak: Obama looks at climate engineering

WASHINGTON (AP) - The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

"It's got to be looked at," he said. "We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."

Holdren outlined several "tipping points" involving global warming that could be fast approaching. Once such milestones are reached, such as complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic, it increases chances of "really intolerable consequences," he said.

Twice in a half-hour interview, Holdren compared global warming to being "in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog."

At first, Holdren characterized the potential need to technologically tinker with the climate as just his personal view. However, he went on to say he has raised it in administration discussions.

Holdren, a 65-year-old physicist, is far from alone in taking geoengineering more seriously. The National Academy of Science is making climate tinkering the subject of its first workshop in its new multidiscipline climate challenges program. The British parliament has also discussed the idea.

The American Meteorological Society is crafting a policy statement on geoengineering that says "it is prudent to consider geoengineering's potential, to understand its limits and to avoid rash deployment."

Last week, Princeton scientist Robert Socolow told the National Academy that geoengineering should be an available option in case climate worsens dramatically.

But Holdren noted that shooting particles into the air—making an artificial volcano as one Nobel laureate has suggested—could have grave side effects and would not completely solve all the problems from soaring greenhouse gas emissions. So such actions could not be taken lightly, he said.

Still, "we might get desperate enough to want to use it," he added.

Another geoengineering option he mentioned was the use of so-called artificial trees to suck carbon dioxide—the chief human-caused greenhouse gas—out of the air and store it. At first that seemed prohibitively expensive, but a re-examination of the approach shows it might be less costly, he said.

READ MORE - AP Newsbreak: Obama looks at climate engineering

The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London

White House: No bow to Saudi

The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets.

"It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah," said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Washington Times called the alleged bow a "shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate" and said it violated centuries of American tradition of not deferring to royalty. The Weekly Standard, meanwhile, noted that American protocol apparently rules out bowing, or at least it reportedly did on the occasion of a Clinton "near-bow" to the emperor of Japan.

Interestingly, a columnist in the Saudi-backed Arabic paper Asharq Alawsat also took the gesture as a bow and appreciated the move.

"Obama wished to demonstrate his respect and appreciation of the personality of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, who has made one of the most important calls in the modern era, namely the call for inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue to defuse the hatred, conflict and wars," wrote the columnist, Muhammah Diyab.

The video shows Obama dipping toward the king as G-20 leaders greet one another at the ExCel Centre in London.

READ MORE - The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London

Lincicome wins Kraft Nabisco crown

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (AFP) — Brittany Lincicome eagled the 72nd hole on Sunday win the Kraft Nabisco Championship, capturing the first major title of her career.

A stunning shot to within four feet on the par-five 18th at Mission Hills set up the eagle for the American, who erased a one-shot deficit to beat playing partners Kristy McPherson and Cristie Kerr.

Lincicome carded a final-round 69 for a nine-under total of 279 and the victory in the first women's major of 2009.

"I can't even describe it. It's surreal," Lincicome said. "If I had to make anything further than that, my hands were shaking so bad, I was almost crying."

Kerr, a former US Women's Open champion, closed with a 71 and McPherson posted a 72 to finish on 280.

Down by one at the 18th tee, Lincicome belted a drive that left her 210 yards to the pin.

She hit a hybrid wedge that curled back within four feet of the hole.

"Huge shot on 18," Lincicome said. "My hands are shaking and my heart is racing. I'm trying to calm myself down by breathing or singing or whatever I can possibly do, and right when I hit it, it came off on the clubface exactly where we wanted to hit it and took the slope like I wanted it to and came really close, thank God."

McPherson, seeking her first LPGA Tour victory, led by one after 17 holes and couldn't convert a 25-footer for birdie at the last.

"Going down 18, I told my caddie, 'Tees are up, we have got to make birdie,' because Brittany is one of the few people that can hit a club in there that's going to stop where it did, and so we were just - it was a very awkward yardage," McPherson said.

"It was either a baby pitching wedge or bust a gap wedge. ... I was counting on a big kick to stride to get it close. Wanted to make the putt to take it to extra holes."

Kerr, who also was a stroke back at the 18th tee, drained her birdie putt from the fringe to put the pressure on Lincicome.

"I gave it everything I had," said Kerr, whose approach slid past the hole. "I made the putt, because a four-footer to win the tournament for eagle is a little shaky, but she got a read off me, too."

McPherson went into the round with a one-stroke lead, and had a near hole-in-one at the par-three 17th, where her tee shot bounced off the flagstick.

She missed a short birdie putt, but neither Lincicome nor Kerr could make their birdie attempts.

Australian Lindsey Wright closed with a 70 to finish in sole possession of fourth place on 282 while Norway's Suzann Pettersen (66) and Meaghan Francella (69) tied for fifth.

Defending champion Lorena Ochoa of Mexico finished eight adrift on 287, chipping in for eagle at the last to complete a 69.

The harder the wind blows, the simpler the strategy, Kerr said. “You just try and survive,” she said. “Your golf swing doesn’t matter. Putting doesn’t matter. You’ve just got to play the conditions.”

Among the late-afternoon casualties was Michelle Wie, the 19-year-old fan favorite. After opening with a 71, she struggled to an 81 and was fortunate to survive the cut, making it with no strokes to spare.

Brittany Lincicome, the first-round leader, considered herself lucky to escape with a 74, which left her in fourth, at four under for the tournament.

“In those conditions I felt like anything around par is pretty good,” Lincicome said. “That 74 felt like an under-par round.”

READ MORE - Lincicome wins Kraft Nabisco crown

U.S to Lift Some Cuba Travel Curbs

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama plans to lift longstanding U.S. restrictions on Cuba, a senior administration official said, allowing Cuban-Americans to visit families there as often as they like and to send them unlimited funds.

The gesture, which could herald more openness with the Castro regime, will fulfill a campaign promise and follows more modest action in Congress this year to loosen travel rules.

The president has authority to loosen the restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba on his own. The new rules will affect an estimated 1.5 million Americans who have family members in Cuba. Other Americans are allowed to travel to Cuba but only if they qualify through certain cultural, educational and other programs.

President Obama doesn't intend to call for lifting of the trade embargo against Cuba, which would require congressional action, nor is any specific diplomatic outreach contemplated, the official said.

Advocates for greater openness with Cuba said the move is significant in itself, signaling the Obama administration's willingness to take a fresh look at Cuba policy early in the presidency. However, others argue that overtures to Cuba as long as the Castros are in charge are not likely to foster democracy on the island.

The timing of the announcement is unclear, but several Cuba experts have speculated that it could come ahead of this month's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

It will come amid a series of international gestures by President Obama recently. This week, he moved to improve relations with Russia and told an audience in France on Friday that he was there to listen. Previously, he made an outreach to the people of Iran, sending a video message calling for a "new day" of relations between Washington and Tehran.

Last May in a campaign speech in Miami, Mr. Obama said, "It's time to let Cuban-Americans see their mothers and their fathers, their sisters and their brothers. It's time to let Cuban-American money make their families less dependent on the Castro regime."

The travel and remittance restrictions stem from the embargo, put in place in 1962 after Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. President Jimmy Carter allowed the travel ban to lapse.

But President Ronald Reagan reinstituted the travel ban with some exceptions. Under President Bill Clinton, Cuban-Americans could visit family once a year. President George W. Bush's policy was at one point even looser, but in 2004, he tightened the rules, allowing family trips once every three years, and narrowing the definition of who qualified as family. Sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers and grandparents qualified, but uncles, aunts and cousins did not.

Associated Press

U.S Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Calif.) speaks with journalists along with fellow congressmen in Havana on Friday. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus traveled to Cuba in another sign of congressional interest in easing a longstanding trade embargo and travel restrictions.

This year, Congress approved legislation that had the effect of rolling back the Bush rules. As they now stand, family members -- broadly defined -- may visit once a year. The rules on how much money family members can send to Cuba, which date to 1978, have also changed with various administrations, but under Mr. Bush, funds were limited to a maximum of $300 per quarter for each household in Cuba receiving them. Remittances from the U.S. to Cuba now amount to around $700 million a year.

The expected action comes as cries grow louder in Congress to open U.S. policy toward Cuba. A bill introduced this year would allow unlimited travel for any purpose by Americans. Sen. Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote Mr. Obama this week calling for a change in U.S. posture toward Cuba and suggested that his administration open a dialogue about how to bring Cuba into the international community.

Mr. Obama has also been under pressure from Latin leaders to make a gesture toward Cuba to start rebuilding regional relations.

Reaction to the expected policy shift was mixed. "The status quo has been unnatural and immoral," said Julia Sweig, a Cuba specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations. "This will at least allow families to begin to normalize, if not the two countries."

Some Cuban-American circles have pressed to maintain U.S. restrictions because of their antipathy for Fidel Castro and his brother, Raul, who replaced him as leader after Fidel became ill. "How do you help people speak out about human rights violations if you're basically extending the dictatorship abroad?" said Mauricio Claver-Carone, director of U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC.

• 1 day ago
• Ivan del Jesus

This really happened at the worst time for my friends at the Cuban-American National Foundation and Brothers to the Rescue

With unemployment being so high, it's going to be so hard for them find jobs and now that their patron saint Jorge Mas Canosa is long gone.............their future does not look too bright

• Finally the beginning of the end to a dumb policy that has not worked. Hopefully the congress will end all restrictions on trade and travel to Cuba. We trade with China and why not Cuba? Opening travel and trade with Cuba would help the Cuban people and become a very good trading partner.

• Nicole Ashley Hamilton

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