ARRINGTON, Tenn. – Justin Moore is riding high with his first No. 1 song, "Small Town USA," and early next year, he'll have another first to celebrate.
His wife, Kate, is expecting their first child — a girl — in February.
The couple plans to name the baby Ella Cole. Moore explains that his middle name is Cole and his wife likes the name Ella.
Kate appears as Moore's love interest in the "Small Town USA" video.
Moore has just released his third single, "Backwoods," off his self-titled debut album. He will join Brad Paisley and Miranda Lambert on the road starting in January for the second leg of Paisley's "American Saturday Night tour."
___
On the Net:
http://www.moorejustinmusic.com

WASHINGTON – Stung by a jury that deadlocked on charges against a former lobbyist, federal prosecutors in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal are returning to court in an attempt to make sure one of their biggest catches is sent to prison.
David Safavian, the former top procurement official in the George W. Bush administration, says his life is in ruins because of his convictions for lying to investigators about his relationship with Abramoff. Now Safavian wants to be spared a prison term. He was scheduled to appear Friday before U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman for sentencing.
Federal prosecutors are seeking 15 months to 21 months behind bars for Safavian.
On Thursday at the same federal courthouse, prosecutors were dealt a setback in another Abramoff-related trial, that of ex-lobbyist Kevin Ring, which ended in a mistrial.
Ring was accused of lavishing tickets and meals on employees of then-Republican Reps. John Doolittle of California and Ernest Istook of Oklahoma and on Justice Department officials in return for congressional appropriations and other assistance for Abramoff's clients.
The prosecution said the government intended to seek a date for a retrial. A status conference with the judge was set for Monday.
Ring is only the second person implicated in the Abramoff scandal to fight the criminal charges at trial rather than pleading guilty and cutting a deal to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for the possibility of a reduced sentence. The other was Safavian, whose convictions were overturned following a trial in 2006. Safavian was convicted again in a retrial.
As chief of staff at the General Services Administration, Safavian supplied Abramoff information about two pieces of GSA-controlled property the now-imprisoned lobbyist wanted. Questioned later by investigators, Safavian said Abramoff had no business before GSA.
Around the time he was giving information to Abramoff, Safavian paid Abramoff $3,100 for a weeklong golfing junket to Scotland in August 2002. Prosecutors said the amount was far short of the cost of a chartered jet, $400- and $500-a-night hotel rooms, $400 rounds of golf at the famed St. Andrews golf course and $100 rounds of drinks.
Abramoff wanted Safavian's help with property in the Maryland suburbs of Washington for a Jewish school Abramoff established and wanted to give an Indian tribe client a leg up on obtaining a contract to redevelop the historic Old Post Office in downtown Washington as a luxury hotel. Safavian subsequently moved from GSA to the Bush White House, where he became the top procurement official in the government.
In court papers this week, prosecutors said Safavian has failed to show any remorse.
Safavian committed the crimes he was convicted of "simply because he thought he could get away with it," prosecutors declared in court papers filed this week. "The defendant's abuse of his position of trust counsels against awarding him the breathtakingly lenient sentence of probation or home detention that he requests."
In pleading for leniency, Safavian's lawyers said sending him to prison would punish his pregnant wife and their 6-year-old daughter. He said he has lost his job, lost his law license and cannot perform government contracting work.
Safavian was convicted of obstructing an investigation by the inspector general at the GSA and of lying to the FBI and a GSA ethics officer and of making a false statement on his financial disclosure form.

CHICAGO – No one else stepped forward with a bid for the bankrupt Chicago Sun-Times before a Monday evening deadline, leaving just one offer for the storied newspaper that's rapidly running out of the cash it needs to stay in business.
The standing offer for the parent company, the Sun-Times Media Group Inc., is from hometown investor Jim Tyree, who has insisted that workers agree to concessions before he'll seal the deal that could be the paper's last chance of survival.
Tyree has said he will walk away if all of the more than dozen unions at the newspaper do not accept concessions, including locking in 15 percent pay cuts that were meant to be temporary.
In a brief memo Monday evening, Sun-Times Media Group Chairman Jeremy Halbreich informed company employees that no other potential buyers came forward. He said he hopes a Delaware bankruptcy court can now approve a sale to Tyree on Thursday.
In his memo, Halbreich struck an upbeat note, saying he continued "to be confident that all of the conditions to the completion of that transaction, including the approval of all of the required union contract amendments, will be in hand before we appear before the Court."
As of Monday, five of the Sun-Times unions had said they wouldn't agree to the concessions, nine had agree and two hadn't yet voted, according to Sun-Times spokeswoman Tammy Chase.
A message left Monday evening for Tom Thibeault, executive director of the Chicago Newspaper Guild, which represents editorial workers at the Sun-Times newspapers, was not immediately returned.
Tyree, 51, grew up on Chicago's South Side and now heads Mesirow Financial, a financial services firm. He leads a group that has offered to pay $5 million for assets of the Sun-Times Media Group, which also runs more than 50 suburban publications. The investors also would assume about $22 million in liabilities.
A judge said last month that the parties should have until December to agree, but media group executives have said they don't have the cash to hold out until then. They've said the company could shut down for good, jeopardizing more than 1,800 jobs.
If the Sun-Times goes under, that would leave this city of 3 million with one major daily, the Chicago Tribune, whose parent company is also operating under bankruptcy protection.
Sun-Times Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, citing $479 million in assets and $801 million in debt.
The Sun-Times has shed more than 400 jobs since late last year through layoffs and attrition.
Tyree has said that if he does take over the Sun-Times, he doesn't foresee additional job cuts. He said money would be spent on improving content, but he has declined to provide details.

Snow skiing is a group of sports using skis as primary equipment. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding. Skiing can be grouped into two general categories. Nordic skiing is the oldest and includes sport that evolved from skiing as done in Scandinavia. Nordic style bindings attach at the toes of the skier's boots but not at the heels. Alpine skiing includes sports that evolved from skiing as done in the Alps.

Alpine bindings attach at both the toe and the heel of the skier's boots. As with many disciplines, such as Telemark skiing, there is some crossover. However, binding style and history tend to dictate whether a style is considered Nordic or Alpine. Therefore, in view of its lack of a locking heel, and its roots in Telemark, Norway, Telemark is generally considered a Nordic discipline. To use common known sports as examples, since examples make the concept, cross country skiing is Nordic whereas downhill skiing is Alpine.

Ski Racing