Followers

For MGM Resorts International, a return to New Jersey could make its entry into other emerging U.S. gaming markets easier and expand its online operations, Wall Street analysts say. The company is currently an applicant for casino licenses in Maryland and Massachusetts. It was the first U.S. casino company to venture into online gambling when it established a website on the Isle of Man more than a decade ago. Last week, MGM said it had filed a petition with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission requesting that the agency and the state Division of Gaming Enforcement initiate a review process under which MGM could seek to be permitted to return to Atlantic City as a fully qualified casino licensee and regain a 50 percent stake in the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa. "Essentially, we believe MGM wants to be back in Atlantic City to help put the company in good standing for pursuing new development opportunities, especially in Maryland and Massachusetts," John Kempf, gaming analyst with RBC Capital Markets L.L.C., said Monday.

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai announced Saturday that he intends to ban Afghan ground forces from calling in NATO air strikes on residential areas - even though his country's fighters have had to rely on such air power in operations against the Taliban. "Our forces ask for air support from foreigners, and children get killed in an air strike," Karzai said in a speech at a military academy here, reinforcing his often truculent posture toward the U.S.-backed international coalition that has long supported his government.

JIM COOPER JR., a 6-1, 205-pound senior from Mainland Regional High in Linwood, N.J., has gracefully followed in his father's footsteps by committing to Temple as the Owls' next kicker. Coincidence? Cooper Jr. says it is. "My dad had a big impact on me getting into football in general, but as far as actually committing to Temple, no. He was fine with me going anywhere," Cooper said. "Wherever I wanted to go, he would have supported me. " Jim Cooper Sr. also attended Mainland Regional and was Temple's kicker from 1984 to '87 under then-coach Bruce Arians.

WHEN MATT Donoghue was in middle school, he wasn't trying to become the next Jason Peters. At that point in his athletic development, he wanted to be more like Ryan Howard. Donoghue didn't even play football yet. His sport was baseball, and he played first base. But things change. At some point, baseball just wasn't getting it done for him anymore. It happens. Instead, he tried something different. At first he was a defensive lineman and tight end. As a sophomore at Garnet Valley High he switched to the offensive line.

CAIRO - Clashes broke out in the Egyptian coastal city of Port Said on Saturday, leaving at least 30 dead and several hundred injured, following a court verdict imposing death sentences on 21 people for killings during a soccer riot in the city last year. It was the second day of violence in Egypt after tens of thousands of protesters marking the two-year anniversary of their revolution clashed with police in cities across the country Friday, leaving at least nine people dead in the city of Suez and more than 260 others injured nationwide, according to state officials.

PASADENA, Calif. - Kevin Bacon has followed characters into some dark places, most harrowingly, perhaps, as a convicted (and conflicted) child molester in the 2004 film "The Woodsman. " But when it came to "The Following," the Fox drama premiering Monday night about a charismatic serial killer who's made apprentices of his admirers, the Philadelphia-born actor wanted to be the hunter, not the predator. "When I was trying to find something to do on TV, I knew that I wanted to do the hero," said Bacon after a Television Critics Association news conference earlier this month.

* THE FOLLOWING. 9 p.m. Monday, Fox 29.   EDGAR ALLAN POE has some 'splainin' to do. Women (and not a few men) will be dying on Fox starting Monday, and Poe will be there - in spirit, at least - to put a literary gloss on the horror. Not that you have to know much more than the refrain of Poe's "The Raven" to keep up with "The Following," the blood-spattered thriller that marks Kevin Bacon's entry into prime-time TV. Bacon stars as former FBI agent Ryan Hardy, who in Monday's premiere is called in to help the agency track a death row escapee whom Ryan brought to justice 10 years earlier.

The season's most gripping new series, The Following , debuts Monday night (9 p.m. on Fox29). I'd advise you not to watch. The show stars Kevin Bacon as the hunter - and foil - of a terrifying serial killer. It marks the first time a network series has attained sustained cinematic quality. But that accomplishment is a nasty double-edged sword. The pilot rivals anything you'll see at the cineplex in terms of acting, surprise, and suspense. You will go into each commercial break with your heart in your throat.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, one of the law enforcement authorities asked to advise the White House on ways to stem gun violence, says President Obama adopted virtually all of the recommendations that he and his counterparts made to Vice President Biden. The exception, possibly still under White House consideration, is a proposal for a national commission to take a broad look at crime in the 21st century, Ramsey said Thursday in an interview with reporters from The Inquirer and KYW NewsRadio.

I really need to keep up with my recommended dosages. Still haven't gotten my flu shot for the virus that is ravaging the country. And I never drank the Kool-Aid that has made every TV critic in America fall madly, deeply in love with HBO's Girls . Time's James Poniewozik hailed the series as "raw, audacious, nuanced and richly, often excruciatingly funny. " As I read one accolade after another about Girls , I honestly found myself wondering whether we were watching the same show.