Bristol Palin's 'Life's a Tripp': Worth Watching?

Ten months back, you may have seen a Youtube clip of Bristol Palin arguing with an angry man in a bar. He came off as mean-spirited. She appeared calm but ill-equipped to shut him down. The whole experience was awkward to watch. Sadly, that pretty much describes Palin's reality show, Life's a Tripp, which premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. on Lifetime. The fight in L.A.'s Saddle Ranch bar took place during the filming of the show, which is a documentary-style chronicling of Palin's move from Alaska to L.A. with her toddler son Tripp and teenaged sister Willow in tow. Watch a 60-second sneak peek here:  

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Many workers don't look forward to retiring

According to The Wall Street Journal, aging parents are now living longer, which means baby boomers' inheritances will likely be smaller than previous generations'. TODAY financial editor Jean Chatzky offers advice on how to be ready.

By Allison Linn

Forget sandy beaches, long cruises and plenty of time for the garden and the grandkids.

About half of Americans aren?t looking forward to retirement, at least in part because they fear they?won?t have enough money, a new survey finds.

The survey, conducted in March on behalf of TD Ameritrade, found that only 52 percent of working?adults?agreed with the statement, ?I am looking forward to retirement.?

The remaining 48 percent were either neutral or disagreed.

TD Ameritrade then asked the people who had disagreed with the statement why they weren?t looking forward to retirement.

The most common reason was that they didn?t have enough money saved, although a similar number of people said they were too young or retirement was too far away.

Other popular responses included that they like their work or?feared being?bored.

Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, were most likely to be looking forward to retirement. Older workers born from?1930 to?1945 were?most likely to feel negatively about retirement, perhaps because at their age it seems they might never retire.

The responses were from a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults.

The recession has had a varied effect on workers? retirement plans. Some older people are working longer than they expected because they can no longer afford to retire. Others have been forced into early retirement because they lost a job and couldn?t find a new one.

The average age at which Americans expect to retire has been gradually creeping up. A recent Gallup poll found that it has risen to? 67.

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Are you looking forward to retirement?

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Portugal beats Netherlands 2-1 at Euro 2012

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates his second goal during the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group B match between Portugal and the Netherlands in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, June 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates his second goal during the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group B match between Portugal and the Netherlands in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, June 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Portuguese players celebrate the second goal during the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group B match between Portugal and the Netherlands in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, June 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo reacts after he scored during the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group B match between Portugal and the Netherlands in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, June 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, left, and Miguel Veloso celebrate a goal during the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group B match between Portugal and the Netherlands in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, June 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Miguel Veloso celebrate their second goal during the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group B match between Portugal and the Netherlands in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, June 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) ? Cristiano Ronaldo's smile and swagger were back, and so was his scoring touch.

The Real Madrid forward finally found the form he was lacking at the European Championship, scoring twice in a sparkling performance Sunday to give Portugal a 2-1 win over the Netherlands and a spot in the quarterfinals.

Poised to be written off as one of the tournament's flops, Ronaldo put a miserable two-game goalless run at Euro 2012 behind him.

"Now everything is possible," said Ronaldo, who went a long way toward silencing the critics who accused him of failing to reproduce the form he showed in a sensational 60-goal club season.

Ronaldo failed to shine in Portugal's 1-0 loss to Germany and 3-2 win over Denmark, but he was devastating against the Dutch. He produced an equalizer with his first goal of the tournament in the 28th minute and scored the winner in the 74th. He had a half dozen other attempts at goal, including a low drive that clipped the post in the 16th, and he set up two clear chances for teammates.

"Ronaldo got so much criticism in the last game and he is back now," Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk said. "That is how fast things can change."

On Sunday, Ronaldo upstaged Schalke's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Arsenal's Robin van Persie, the leading scorers in the Bundesliga and Premier League. Neither was able to find the net at the Metalist Stadium, although midfielder Rafael van der Vaart gave the Dutch an early lead.

After that, Ronaldo stole the show.

As Portugal cranked up the pressure, Ronaldo probed the Dutch back line and tied it off of Joao Pereira's pass. It was the kind of chance he took so often at Real Madrid last season but wasted in Portugal's opening matches.

For his second, Ronaldo received a pass from former Manchester United teammate Nani, coolly wrong-footed his marker and tapped the ball past the goalkeeper.

"This was our best game so far," Portugal coach Paulo Bento said, declining to single out Ronaldo. "What is most important is that we kept fighting after we lost our opening game."

After his goals, and at the final whistle, Ronaldo beckoned his teammates to celebrate, and they mobbed him. He pulled on a shirt with "Junior" printed on it, and explained later it was for his son's second birthday.

Up next for Ronaldo and his teammates is a quarterfinal match against the Czech Republic on Thursday in Warsaw.

"We really deserved to qualify for the quarterfinals," Ronaldo said.

Euro 2012 was expected to provide a showcase for Ronaldo, but his explosive Real Madrid form had deserted him. And when he's not on form, Portugal often looks tame and ordinary.

Opposition fans mocked him whenever he put a foot wrong or failed to pull off one of his ball tricks. He was taunted with chants of "Messi" ? his Barcelona and Argentina rival. And against Germany and Denmark, Ronaldo was often short-tempered with his team when he didn't get the ball supply he's used to at Real Madrid.

But against the Netherlands, he was the consummate captain.

Needing a win to have a chance at staying in the tournament, the disappointing Dutch fielded an impressive attacking lineup that needed to score at least two goals. It produced one.

"We started quite well but we were playing against one of the better teams today," Van der Vaart said. "We lost three times. We were bad and we don't deserve to go through."

___

Lineups:

Portugal: Rui Patricio, Bruno Alves, Fabio Coentrao, Joao Pereira, Pepe, Joao Moutinho, Raul Meireles (Carlos Custodio, 72), Nani (Rolaldo, 87), Miguel Veloso, Helder Postiga (Nelson Oliveira, 64), Cristiano Ronaldo.

Netherlands: Maarten Stekelenburg, Joris Mathijsen, Gregory Van der Wiel, Ron Vlaar, Jetro Willems (Ibrahim Afellay, 67), Nigel De Jong, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael Van der Vaart, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Arjen Robben, Robin Van Persie.

Associated Press

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Simpson beats tested champions for US Open title

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The U.S. Open yields few birdies or big celebrations.

At Olympic Club, they always come in strange places.

Webb Simpson walked off the 18th green on a fog-filled Sunday evening with his face red and his legs limp, settling into a corner of the locker room to recover with his worried wife and watch Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell chase his 1-over par 281 on the course.

After a week that restored the toughest test in golf, this was not the look or score of a mediocre man.

This was the 112th U.S. Open champion.

Simpson saved par from the collar around the 18th green and sweated out a pair of past champions three groups behind, becoming the latest to claim his first major title at a club that always crowns the guy nobody expects to win.

"To be honest," Simpson said, "I never thought about, and I never really wrapped my mind around winning."

With the history here, he should have known better.

Olympic Club is called the "graveyard of champions" for a reason. Proven major winners who were poised to win the U.S. Open ? Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Payne Stewart ? all lost out to the underdog. And all in a painful finish.

Perhaps it was only fitting that the 26-year-old Simpson went to Wake Forest on a Palmer scholarship.

"Arnold has been so good to me," Simpson said. "Just the other day, I read that story and thought about it. He's meant so much to me and Wake Forest. Hopefully, I can get a little back for him and make him smile."

Simpson did his part in the latest familiar chapter at a club that dates to 1860.

The North Carolina native emerged from the famous fog that blanketed the undulating Lake Course to make four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn on the final day, and convert a tough par from the thick grass around the tiny 18th green. He shot a 2-under 68 that created more pressure than two tested champions and a 14-time major winner wearing red could handle.

Furyk was flawless for much of the week until he snap-hooked his tee shot on the par-5 16th hole to fall out of the lead for the first time all day. He never got it back. Needing a birdie on the final hole, his approach landed in the bunker. He crouched and clamped his teeth onto the shaft of his wedge.

Furyk made bogey on the final hole and closed with a 74.

"I don't know how to put that one into words," said Furyk, the 2003 U.S. Open champion at Olympia Fields outside Chicago, "but I had my opportunities and my chances and it was right there. It was, on that back nine, it was my tournament to win and I felt like if I went out there and shot even par, 1 under, I would have distanced myself from the field. And I wasn't able to do so."

Neither was his playing partner.

McDowell, the champion two years ago down the California coast at Pebble Beach, made four bogeys on the front nine. The Northern Irishman at least gave himself a chance with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th and a shot into the 18th that had him sprinting up the hill to see what kind of chance he had.

The putt from about 25 feet stayed left of the hole the entire way. He settled for a 73 and shared second place with Michael Thompson, who closed with a 67 and waited two hours to see if it would be good enough.

Tiger Woods, starting five shots behind, played the first six holes in 6-over par and was never a factor. He shot 73 and finished six strokes back.

"There's a mixture of emotions inside me," McDowell said. "Disappointment, deflation, pride. But mostly, just frustration."

That was the kind of week the U.S. Golf Association delivered.

After Rory McIlroy shattered championship records last year at rain-softened Congressional, dry conditions at the Lake Course in San Francisco restored "golf's toughest test" and then some.

McIlroy, Masters winner Bubba Watson and top-ranked Luke Donald all missed the cut. So did last week's winner at Memphis, Dustin Johnson, and 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen.

Of the last 18 players to tee off in the final round, Simpson was the only one to break par. He also was the lone player to shoot two rounds in the 60s on the weekend, closing with a pair of 68s.

That didn't seem likely when Simpson was six shots behind as he headed to the sixth hole, which played the toughest at Olympic. That's where he started his big run.

Simpson's 7-iron shot landed in the rough and rolled 5 feet away for birdie. He birdied the next two holes, including a 15-footer on the par-3 eighth. And his wedge shot into the 10th settled 3 feet away, putting him in the mix for the rest of the day.

"It was a cool day," Simpson said. "I had a peace all day. I knew it was a tough golf course. I probably prayed more the last three holes than I ever did in my life."

Simpson's approach from the fairway rough on No. 18 went just right of the green and disappeared into a hole, a circle of dirt about the size of a sprinkler cap. With a clump of grass behind the ball, he had a bold stroke for such a nervy shot and it came out perfectly, rolling 3 feet by the hole for his much-needed par.

Then, it was time to wait.

It was the third time in the last seven years that no one broke par in the U.S. Open. On all three occasions, the winner was in the locker room when the tournament ended.

The best bit of drama from the winner came from a chair. He seemed somewhat calm but his blonde-haired wife, Dowd, had her eyes wide open, squeezing his arm and covering her mouth watching Furyk and McDowell play the last three holes.

After McDowell's putt to force an 18-hole playoff was off, they shared a hug and a kiss. Simpson whispered a few words in his wife's ear ? "I don't think you'll be able to sleep now," he said ? and stayed sitting for several seconds.

"When Graeme missed on 18 and I realized I had won, I just kind of shook my head in disbelief," Simpson said. "I couldn't believe it actually happened."

___

Follow Antonio Gonzalez at: www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP

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Automotive Repairs | My Own Views

Keeping our autos in tiptop shape is critical as brakes clutch and other mechanical repairs could cost us much if we aren?t careful. Except for the dear concern, the most vital consideration is for our own safety. Careful driving is only half part of the preparations of safe traveling. The other half calls for a safe automobile. The right way to ensure we maintain our autos in its top condition is by running it through a brake inspection on a regular basis and other auto electrical service and repair. Relentless and regular checks on cars braking, clutch and other mechanical repairs can forestall minor damages from getting worst and so the multiplied costs of repairs and auto part replacements do not get out of hand. Checks should be done occasionally or right after long travelling. Minor mechanical repairs like fluid flush should also be done during these checks. All automotive repairs and its related electrical work such as the radiator and cooling systems and break down servicing should only be done by pro auto electrical specialist. Fixing and tinkering into our own autos can be perilous. Plenty of accidents could occur and you might get hurt while doing the repairs. Not to mention the work or damage that you are doing to your auto. Doing the braking, clutch and other mechanical repairs on our own can cause more damage than good, and the ultimate risk is to your life on the road. Let the experienced technicians handle the major and minor servicing to our autos. They do not only know what they are doing, they can also

Automotive Repairs

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Penn has 17 Teams Recognized in NCAA Academic Progress Report

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Political misses: Colin Powell belts out 'Call Me Maybe'

Politically Foul

Politics: it's not a game, exactly. But there are rules, and when you?break them you are running?.Politically Foul!

Colin Powell: retired 4-star General, Secretary of State, suggested?Presidential Candidate and....future pop star? Appearing on CBS This?Morning with Gayle King, the former Cabinet Secretary used a?commercial break to drop his rendition of Carly Rae Jepsen's hit "Call?Me Maybe." Powell even went so far as to break out some signature?dance moves showing that while the Retired General may have given up?the march, he will never lose his need to boogie.

Speaking of kicking it old school, Ragin' Cajun James Carville had?some advice for President Obama this week warning that when the White?House talks, "people take that as a signal that [the Obama?administration] thinks things are fine." Hold on?flashback to 1994?when then-aide David Axelrod had this advice for President Clinton:?"When you stand up and claim great progress, you are only alienating?this frustrated middle class." If only he had a Mr. Fusion and a way?to reach 88 MPH, he could fire up a DeLorean and we might not be in?this mess!

Campaigns are doing all they can to woo the all-important Hispanic?vote. Consider Exhibit A: the RNC's Spanish language website?RNCLatino.com. Only one problem?the kids featured in that photo on top?of the site? They're Asian. Despite the potential of chalking this one?up to color-blindness, the RNC put the blame on an outside vendor and?quickly took the picture down.

From the outside, Presidential campaigns look glamorous?they travel to?foreign capitals, ride in motorcades with lots of guys with?earpieces?but at the end of the day it's the regular people, yes those?darn voters who live in the unglamorous towns, that make or break a?campaigns. During a campaign stop at a small-town Iowa caf? this week,?Republican nominee Mitt Romney and his staff were not exactly the most?gracious of guests at Diane Bauer's Main Street caf?. Ms. Bauer says?the Romney campaign threw the tablecloths out the back door in?addition to damaging other items in the diner and she didn't even get?to meet the Presidential hopeful.? Although he apologized, maybe next?time Romney will be better off with carry out.

Those are the political blunders we flagged this week. Tell us your?best and worst moments and we'll survey the field again next week.

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