(Wednesday, 15 July 2009)  Joe Jackson says his grandchildren could follow in his son's famous footsteps; a New Hampshire man bought the most expensive cigarettes in history; a south Georgia man is jailed for not paying enough child support for someone who's not his biological son.  Details are on today's KISS News Now!

• Michael Jackson's dad suspects foul play in the death of his son.  Joe Jackson tells ABC News that Michael died in his sleep, and was getting drugs to help him rest because he was working so hard.  (Here, Joe and Michael are shown arriving at the Santa Monica, CA courthouse during Michael's 2005 molestation trial.) Who does he think should raise Michael's children?
  
  "Their grandmother Katherine and I," he said.  "Yes, there's no one else to do what we can do for them.  We should keep them all together and then make them happy, feed 'em like they're supposed to be fed, and let them get rest, plenty of sleep and grow up to be strong Jacksons."
  
  Joe Jackson, the famous stage dad of the Jackson 5, says there may be signs his grandkids may someday follow in their father's fast-moving footsteps.
  
  "I keep watching Paris," Joe Jackson said. "She maybe wants to do something...And as far as I can see, well, they say Blanket, he can really dance," he added.
  
  A custody hearing for the children was rescheduled for next week so that grandmother Katherine and Debbie Rowe, the biological mother of Prince Michael I (Michael Joseph Jr.), 12, and Paris-Michael Katherine, 11, can work out a private deal.  Prince Michael II, 7, is also known as Blanket; his biological mother's identity has been kept secret but Michael Jackson said the child was his biological son.
  
  
• A deepening economic crisis is how Georgia's Labor Commissioner describes the jump to double digits in the state's jobless tally: 10.1% for June, up half a percent.  More than 200-thousand people are looking for jobs in Georgia.  Occupations with openings are health care and education.
  
  
• A New Hampshire man got the mother of all debit card charges when he bought a pack of smokes at a gas station--and got charged over $23 quadrillion dollars on the Visa debit card.  Yes, that's 23 with 15 digits behind it.  The exact amount was $23,148,855,308,184,500 for the cigarettes.  Josh Musinski spent two hours on the phone with Bank of America sorting it out--oh, plus the $15 overdraft fee.  They reversed the charge the next day.
  
  
• For years, Marietta's Wildwood and Burruss Parks have gained a rep as secret meeting places for gay men seeking quick hot sex.  Now, the city plans to set up video cameras to try and stop the public hookups. They're also stepping up undercover work.  Police say often, those arrested are married men in the closet; even ministers have been arrested there.
  
  
• President Barack Obama will continue to press Congress to pass health care reform legislation before the August break. House Democratic leaders are offering a $1.5 trillion plan to make health care a right for all Americans.
  
  
• Sonia Sotomayor faces more questioning today in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings.  She's putting her 17-year-long record on display when Republicans challenge the judge's fairness amid repeated questionings about her "wise Latina" remark.  One Republican equating Sotomayor's supposed empathy with racial bias was himself accused of bias two decades ago.  Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was blocked from the federal bench for making what were considered insensitive remarks about the Ku Klux Klan and the NAACP.
  
  
• Records show the Southwest Airlines 737 which developed a hold in-flight had been inspected in January, when eight frame cracks were patched and the jet put back in service.  The flight from Nashville to Baltimore had to make an emergency landing in West Virginia when the 12-inch hole opened in the ceiling.  No one was injured, and Southwest says the rest of its 737s have been inspected and are safe.
  
  
• Fulton County Police identify a truck driver as a serial rapist.  Marvin Martin of Lithia Springs is accused of preying on at least seven prostitutes by pretending he wanted to hire them, then pulling a gun or knife and assaulting them.  Martin has a prison rap for kidnapping and armed robbery.
  
  
• There's a hearing today in Cook County, GA for a man who's been jailed for  more than a year, accused of not repaying the state for all the public assistance his son's gotten over the past 20 years.  Thing is, it's not Frank Hatley's biological son--but he's paid thousands in child support anyway, even taking money from his unemployment benefits when he lost his job and had to live out of his car.  Still, he was jailed for contempt--apparently for not paying enough.  The attorney general now says if he proves he's indigent, they won't oppose his release.
  
  Hatley's girlfriend in 1987 had a baby boy and told him the child was his; the couple split up shortly after.  Essie Lee Morrison was getting public assistance and the state moved to get Hatley to reimburse the funds, which he agreed to because he thought Travon was his.  But 13 years later, a DNA test showed they were unrelated.  The state still pressed Hatley to pay. 
  
  
• How many times have you seen this?  Someone at a traffic intersection, or outside a store with a shoddy copy of a sign-up sheet, asking you for cash and claiming they're raising money for this sporting event or some such.  When can you tell it's true?  Dunwoody Police say they are now cracking down after two 15-year-olds claimed to be raising money for Carver High School's basketball team.  They were approaching people in the parking lot of the Macy's on Ashford-Dunwoody at Perimeter Mall.  An officer who was on the scene did some investigating and quickly found out that the story was not legit.  The teens now face felony charges.  Two weeks ago, a 24-year-old man got $100, claiming he was raising money for a South Atlanta AAU basketball team attending an all-star game in Florida.
  
  
• A tractor-trailer hauling $8.8 million worth of pharmaceuticals is stolen from a truck stop off I-20 in Temple when the driver stops to take a shower.  The drugs included blood thinners and cold medicines.  It was the second such theft of a rig while a driver was in the shower at that Pilot truck stop since May.
  
  
• The KISS 104.1 weather forecast:  a mix of clouds and sun; highs around 91 or above.  Tonight, lows in the low 70s with more clouds.  Scattered thundershowers Thursday and Friday, with highs around the mid to upper 80s.