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I mean you would think that if you were going to sue, that would be the time to sue as opposed to now, when it appears for some reason that you won‘t discuss, there was some sort of family versus family problem.
MESISCA: Well you have to realize that all this of has taken place since March 27 of this year.
On March 27, that's when the program aired and here we are in August, a period of about four or five months and in that period of time, the Higgins children, all of them have left the Leomiti's home.
ABRAMS: But why is that ABC‘s fault?
That's what I do not understand.
If they want to sue the family and say, look, this was the deal.
You knew what the deal was.
You effectively suckered ABC into coming in here because our family was the one that made a great story.
I get that.
What I don‘t get is how ABC or the production company is responsible for these problems.
MESISCA: I can approach this on a number of levels.
First, the Higgins have experienced a nightmare.
This has been a very difficult time for them, loosing both of their parents last year.
The home would have never been provided for the Leomitis in the absence of circumstances that the Higgins were involved... ABRAMS: So you sue the Leomitis.
MESISCA: It was the Higgins who were told that a home would be provided for them, that a place would be constructed for them to live in.
I think what happened was ABC and the production companies involved steered this into a joint enterprise, if you will, between the Leomitis and the Higgins', instead of just going forward and providing the Higgins with a place for them to live.
There was never a disclosure made to the Higgins concerning the fact.
ABRAMS: Why is ABC obligated to build houses?
I mean, they get to choose who they want to build a home for and the Higgins have this very compelling story and they're very deserving of it.
But again, it seems to me that you're focusing on the wrong defendant.
MESISCA: We could argue this all day long.
In California, and I think most jurisdictions, if a person responds to a need, a person is drowning in the middle of a river and you send a lifeboat out to get them, you can't turn the lifeboat around and not pick them up once you've reached the destination or worse, you can‘t just travel right past them and let them drown.
ABC undertook here to provide a residence for the Higgins family.
I believe that the way this was done, the failure to give proper advice to the Higgins, as to what options were available to them, how their interest might most properly be protected.
ABRAMS: Very quickly, I got to read ABC‘s statement, “We‘re extremely proud of ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ and the positive impact the show has had on people‘s lives.
While we don‘t comment on litigation, it's important to note the episode is about the rebuilding of the Leomiti family's existing home to accommodate the inclusion of the five Higgins siblings, whom the Leomitis had invited into their lives following the death of their parents.” It sounds to me like you‘re going to have a real lawsuit against the Leomitis here.
I predict that the lawsuit against ABC and the production company will be thrown out, but I am wrong in the past and more importantly, Mr. Higgins, look it sounds like you‘re a guy with a good head on his shoulders and I wish you the best of luck.
You don‘t deserve any of this regardless of how the lawsuit comes out, so good luck to you.
Watch the 'Abrams Report' for more analysis and interviews on the top legal stories each weeknight at 6 p.m.
ET on MSNBC TV.
US-led coalition air strikes on a jail run by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria killed at least 57 people, monitors said on Tuesday.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strike took place on Monday at dawn, hitting a building in the town of Mayadin, south of Raqqa, that was being used as a prison.
"The strikes hit an IS jail in Mayadin at dawn on Monday, killing 42 prisoners and 15 jihadists," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Many of the dead are thought to be civilians, as well as captured rebel fighters from the Free Syrian Army.
If the toll is confirmed, it would make it one of the deadliest single incidents since the US intervened in the Syrian war in 2014.
Islamic State is believed to have moved most of its leaders to Mayadin in Syria's Euphrates Valley, southeast of the group's besieged capital Raqqa, two U.S. intelligence officials have said.
Among the operations moved to Mayadin, about 50 miles west of the Iraqi border, were its online propaganda operation and its limited command and control of attacks in Europe and elsewhere, they said.
"The Coalition conducted strikes on known ISIS command and control facilities and other ISIS infrastructure in (Mayadin), Syria, June 25 and 26," Colonel Joe Scrocca, coalition director of public affairs, said in an email.
Whenever something momentous happens in superhero comics history, mysterious figures always seem to appear and observe proceedings.
In the Marvel Universe, it's the Watcher (we still have no idea why he was at the Black Panther/Storm wedding.
I'm betting it was for the hors d'oeuvres).
In the DC Comics Universe of the 1980s, the Monitor observed the actions of heroes and villains.
In the new DC Universe ushered in by the publisher's New 52 initiative, the latest arcane observer -- and the record holder for the most appearances of a single comic book character within one month ( 53 to be precise) -- goes to the enigmatic and sensational character find of 2011, The Woman in the Red Hood.
We don't know her true name or powers yet, which definitely cuts down on her potential to become a DC Direct action figure, but she does give the attentive comics reader a seek-and-find game in the style of Where's Waldo?
I've read the New 52 comics and found the Woman in the Red Hood hidden in each and every comic, with varying degrees of difficulty.
To paraphrase those Scrubbing Bubbles: I found her, so you don't have to.
Red-Hooded Woman appears at the end of Flash's odyssey in Flashpoint #5 in the double-page spread on page 24-25 (all page references in this article are based on the story pages, not comic pages) and tells Barry Allen he's instrumental to weaving three earths together.
Barry's able to put his universe back into place...but not quite .
Fittingly for the first hero of the Silver Age, Barry's created this new DC Universe, a home of heroes and villains we're still exploring.
But, with Barry's usual luck, he's not only created a world in which his mother was fated to die, but in which he hasn't (yet?)
become romantically involved with wife Iris.
Good job, Flash...and tough breaks.
The Woman in the Red Hood won't speak again throughout the first month of the New 52, but she appears in one panel in each of DC's 52 relaunch comics , from Justice League to Voodoo .
New 52, Week Zero - Justice League : She's in the bleachers at the Ford Titans football game starring Vic Stone (page 18, panel 2).
No word on whether she was at the pre-game tailgate party.
Why here rather than at the historic Batman/Green Lantern/Superman meeting?
We'll find she doesn't always show up at what we think are the most "important events."
New 52, Week One: Action Comics : She's the only calm passenger on the crashing Metropolis train (page 23, bottom panel) turned into a bullet targeting Superman.
And, could this be her in the crowd at the bottom of page 17?
If so, it's the only double appearance in a single book that I've spotted in the 52 books.
Animal Man : She's present at the San Diego hospital where Animal Man defuses a hostage crisis, watching as Buddy's eyes start bleeding (page 12, bottom panel).
He gets better, but that's gotta hurt.
Batgirl : Speaking of hospital rooms, she's reflected in the window as Batgirl fights Mirror (page 19, bottom panel).
Is she standing on a window ledge outside?
Or floating ?
Needless to say, everybody's a little too busy to notice her.
Batwing : Standing alongside Batwing's Tinasha police car (page 17, panel 1).
He gets into the car in the next panel and doesn't notice her.
Is she invisible to those around her, or has she vanished quickly?
And also, that's a rotten parking job.
How's that red truck going to get out?
Detective Comics : The Woman in the Red Hood is outside Roscoe's Pharmacy when the Joker's bomb explodes (page 15, bottom left panel).
Batman spies a figure with a purple overcoat and umbrella entering an elevated rail station, but he doesn't seem to notice her , at the front of the crowd.
Is she beyond the perception of the World's Greatest Detective?
Green Arrow : While Oliver Queen quotes David Byrne, she's present in the crowd on a leisure boat cruising the Seine in Paris (page 8, first panel).
She's a little overdressed for a high society party.
Hawk & Dove : She's alongside the Capitol Reflecting Pool in the Washington, D.C. National Mall (page 19, first panel).
Perhaps not unusually for a comic drawn by Rob Liefeld, we don't see her feet.
Justice League International : Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice...she's glowing among the protestors behind Booster Gold (page 7, panel 1).
Men of War : The Red-Hooded Woman is in the crowd as Rock's company fights a destructive superhuman (page 17, bottom panel) in an unnamed foreign country.
You know, when armed men and jeeps with mounted guns are storming right in front of you, it's time to get out of the way.
OMAC : She's present in the crowd of employees evacuated from Cadmus Industries during OMAC's attack (page 6, lower left panel).
Appropriately for a comic created by Jack Kirby, she's surrounded by a subtle red Kirby Krackle energy signature.
Static Shock : Peeping Woman in the Red Hood!
She's outside the Hawkins home in New York City, looking in as Virgil talks to his Dad (page 15, top panel)... Stormwatch : ...and she's spying on Apollo in a Moscow alley (page 15, panel 1).
Swamp Thing : The Woman in the Red Hood is unseen by Dr. Alec Holland and friend Paul on a construction site in Louisiana (page 5, panel 3).
At this point it's worth noticing that she appears at what seem to be random moments of widely varying importance.
She's at a vital emergency which will result in Superman's capture, and she's at a football game watching a future hero score touchdowns.
She's present at a major explosion in Gotham City, but she's also hanging about a parking lot.
Are these seminal or random moments to her?
They aren't by any means the most vital and significant incidents in the story.
Further, we can now tell she can either travel through time or has been appearing for many years.
The Red-Hooded Woman is present prior to the formation of the Justice League, and during the early career of Superman.
Both events occur before the current "now" time of most of the New DC 52 books.
New 52, Week Two: Batman and Robin : The second week of the New DC begins and she's really getting around: she's standing alongside the pool Batman uses to extinguish a fire at Gotham University's Miller Building (page 17, panel 4).
Why they built a swimming pool above an atomic research reactor, no one can say.
Did you design this building, Frank Miller?
Batwoman : Look for her in crowd behind Commissioner Gordon, in the upper right-hand corner of page 17, one of J.H.
Williams' impressive double-page spreads.
Since Batwoman was scheduled nearly a year ago and then postponed for the September launch of the New 52, it's probable this figure was added to the artwork well after the page was created.