By Amy Gardner Tea party organizers came to Capitol Hill Tuesday night to kick off a weeklong campaign they"re calling "Take the Town Halls to Washington," an effort to block Democrats" latest push for health reform. It"s not clear how many protestors will actually travel to Washington for the campaign, which is being organized by the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition and Tea Party Nation. Leaders say busloads of local grassroots activists from around the country will visit Washington over the course of the week. Mark Skoda, leader of the Memphis Tea Party, said the goal is to visit with the 50 or so undecided members of Congress and block President Obama"s goal of passing of health-care reform by March 18. Activists hope to meet with congressional leaders every day between now and then, with a culminating rally on March 16 at the Capitol, Skoda said. The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition

Courteney Cox says UK viewers shouldn"t be "embarrassed" to watch her new show Cougar Town.

The former Friends star"s series will air on Living at the end of March and she said people shouldn"t be put off by the title, which refers to older women who like younger men.

The actress laughed: "I think guys don"t like the saying Cougar Town, but once they get past that they"re digging it! You can"t be embarrassed about the title, you"ve just got to jump in."

The entire cast came out to meet fans at a special Q and A for the comedy as part of the Paley Centre For Media"s PaleyFest 2010 in LA.

But for people in the UK who haven"t been able to tune in yet, Courteney explained: "The show is about a woman called Jules, her son and friends, and how she"s just starting back in the world after a divorce and just trying to figure it out.

"The pilot is a lot of information, it"s a fast paced pilot but it slows down and becomes more heartfelt as the show goes. We find our stride and I"d say stick with it because it"s amazing, it"s really fun."

Over in the States, the show has been recommissioned for a second season.

"It"s a huge relief but it doesn"t take off the pressure," Courteney said. "If they"re going to be so wonderful and have such faith in us then I really want to deliver. So not for my personality does it take the pressure off, for others maybe!"

Speaking on the red carpet, the actress also revealed she was set to make another Scream movie soon. "Yeah I"m doing it, it"s going to be fun," she said.

The 26-year-old Republic of Ireland international, on loan from Sunderland, has scored five goals from eight games since teaming up once again with Keane.

Murphy scored twice against Cardiff in the 2-0 win on Tuesday.

He told BBC Suffolk: "He saw that I was a striker and not a left midfielder and I just want to repay him by scoring as many as I can."

Keane has been delighted with his fellow Irishman and said: "We"ve given him a new lease of life. I spoke to him in the summer about joining and he probably regrets that that didn"t happen.

"He"s come in and had a run of games and his biggest strength is definitely playing through the middle.

"They were poacher"s goals. We haven"t scored nearly enough like that."

The former Waterford player also had words of praise for team-mate David Healy, who has struggled to find the target since his temporary switch from the Stadium of Light to Portman Road.

"He"s a real poacher around the goal and he"s always involved in things around the box. It"s only a matter of time before he starts banging in goals," he said.

"I think he needs more games and mach sharpness."

Murphy has made eight starts, while Healy has scored just once in four starts and three appearances from the bench.

YEOVIL Town manager Terry Skiverton has ruled out any prospect of him playing between now and the end of the season.

Skiverton, who last year went from being team captain to manager at Huish Park, has told the clubвs official matchday magazine, The Glovers, that he would not be able to get fit in time.

вThere is no chance of me playing this season,в he said.

вIt would take me a good month to six weeks to get anywhere near any sort of fitness to be able to join in with training.в

The injury to Stefan Stam sees Yeovil relying on Steven Caulker and Terrell Forbes as the Gloversв only recognised centre-halves в although Skiverton is looking to recruit a loan player.

But Skiverton has said that he has вno desireв to start playing again.

вItвs not really a job Iвm looking to take on now anyway,в he said. вI think itвs been eight months since I played football competitively and thereвs no desire to make a comeback.в

Yeovil Townвs matchday programme The Glovers is priced В3 and is an excellent read.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. The few remaining residents of a Pennsylvania coal town decimated by a 48-year-old underground mine fire claim in court papers that a "massive fraud" is being perpetrated by parties seeking to grab the mineral rights to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of anthracite coal.

In a filing late Monday, four property owners and the borough of Centralia asked a state appeals court to block Pennsylvania officials from seizing their homes. The state condemned the homes in the early 1990s but only recently moved to oust the remaining holdouts.

The state"s attorney on Tuesday dismissed the residents" claims as "conspiracy theories" and predicted they would be dismissed.

A fire at the town dump in 1962 ignited an exposed coal vein, and Centralia was all but wiped off the map in the 1980s as the slow-burning fire spread underneath homes and businesses. More than 1,000 people moved out and more than 500 structures were knocked down under a government relocation program. Now only a few houses remain on a mostly empty street grid.

The property owners said they have evidence that the fire is "almost out" and no longer endangers their homes, if it ever did. Data kept by the Department of Environmental Protection show that underground temperatures have gone down by "several hundred percent" since measurements began. Further, a 2008 DEP study found that emissions of toxic gases are not a problem, according to court documents.

State environmental officials, though, insist the fire remains a threat to the residents" health. The blaze has likely followed the coal seam deeper underground reducing temperatures in certain monitoring boreholes but gases from the fire can still accumulate in houses atop the fire, they say.

Property owners also claim in court documents that their town was ruined "in the face of evidence that suggests that a massive fraud may have been perpetrated" by parties "motivated primarily by interests in what is conservatively estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars of some of the best anthracite coal in the world."

Their attorney, Andrew Ostrowski, said Tuesday that the borough owns the mineral rights. Once Centralia ceases to exist, the rights go to the state, which could sell them to a coal company to operate "one of the most productive strip mine operations in the country," he said.

Steve Fishman, attorney for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, the agency carrying out eminent domain, disputed that Centralia owns the coal underneath the town, saying it"s not clear who possesses the mineral rights but that he knows of no legal document giving the borough an ownership stake.

He predicted Commonwealth Court would toss the residents" petition, noting it raises claims nearly 20 years after the fact.

"I"ve never doubted they would try this, since their pattern has always been simply to delay, hoping that at some point we"ll simply go away," Fishman said.

As far as the fire, he said, "I don"t think there"s anyone who seriously believes that the fire is out, and that it does not pose a threat."

Ostrowski"s law partner, Don Bailey, a former congressman and state auditor general, is working on a separate federal civil rights lawsuit in hopes of recovering "seed money" to rebuild the borough, Ostrowski said.

"It"s a novel and unique case, and there will have to be some novel and unique remedies to apply to it," Ostrowski said.

) turning into quite the stand-up guy.

"There"s a real friendship growing between Jules and Grayson and they"re really taking it slow and easy," said Hopkins. "As the season progresses, they"re going to get a little more romantically involved. This is a will-they-or-won"t that"s never been seen or done; it"s a lot messier."

"People are rooting for them," added Cox. "I love the thought of the love triangle and who I should be with, and having Bobby maybe become more of a viable person now that I might end up with Grayson. Ultimately, Grayson is probably someone that will be the push-pull relationship."

), he may step on a few toes. "There is definitely potential for Grayson and Bobby"s friendship to be threatened by Jules," he added.

Guess who else is causing trouble for the bromantic relationship? Sheryl Crow will join the cast as a love interest—and at one point, a duet partner—for Grayson. "In the coming episodes, we go off with different females and our bromance is threatened," said Van Holt. "Grayson starts to date her and gets taken away."

Still, she"ll be a good influence on the ladies" man. "She comes in and challenges Grayson in what he sees in these young girls, rather than be challenged intellectually by someone his own age," said Hopkins. "He rethinks things and has a breakthrough."

Who are you rooting for? Should Jules ride off into the sunset with Grayson or fall back into the arms of Bobby?

JOS, Nigeria Automatic weapons fire punctuated by screams erupted after dark Tuesday in a Nigerian city located near villages where massacres just two days ago left more than 200 people dead.

Nerves remained on edge, despite a long-standing dusk-til-dawn curfew in Jos, the capital of Plateau state. When sustained gunfire rang out for about three minutes, apparently from several automatic rifles, people ran screaming through the streets.

More than 100 people, mostly women and children, sought shelter in a hotel where journalists and military commanders were staying. They wailed in terror as they heard gunshots coming one by one from outside. A ranking police officer in Jos said the shooting happened after people gathered in the street because of a suspicious truck in their neighborhood.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the shooting with reporters, said soldiers opened fire to scare away the group.

However, human rights group say extrajudicial killings remain common in Nigeria especially in situations of civil unrest.

Evarisitus Fuanbal, a former soldier who now works at Jos" City Lodge Hotel, said the military officers staying at the hotel left Tuesday evening after receiving word of people assembling nearby.

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. government and human rights activists called for Nigeria to investigate and prosecute those responsible for Sunday"s killings.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan had promised that the fighting would stop after more than 300 people, mostly Muslims, were slain in January. Some described Sunday"s massacres, which targeted Christians, as revenge for what happened in January. Others said the bloodshed has ethnic roots, with Fulani cattlemen wanting to take over nearby land.

Human Rights Watch urged Jonathan to provide protection for villages surrounding Jos, a central Nigerian city that has become the epicenter of violence in the region.

Jonathan fired his national security adviser Monday following the weekend violence.

"After the January killings, the villages should have been properly protected," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said. "Clearly, previous efforts to tackle the underlying causes have been inadequate, and in the meantime the wounds have festered and grown deeper."

Those who survived attacks Sunday in three mostly Christian villages said security forces never provided them any guards.

Human Rights Watch researcher Corinne Dufka said authorities must protect the communities, bring the perpetrators to justice and address the root causes of violence.

The U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria"s capital, called on Nigeria"s federal government to seek justice "under the rule of law and in a transparent manner," the embassy said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the violence "tragic."

Plateau state Gov. Jonah Jang told reporters Tuesday he received a tip that villagers saw suspicious people with weapons several hours before the massacres. Jang, who leads the Christian-controlled state government, said the army ignored him when he called to warn them.

"I reported to the commander of the army and he told me that he was going to move some troops there," Jang said. "Three hours or so later, I was woken by call that they have started burning the village and people were been hacked to death and I tried to locate the commanders. I couldn"t get any of them on the telephone."

As night fell Tuesday, police and soldiers began massing on two neighborhoods in Jos one near the city"s police college and the other along the road to the city"s airport, witnesses said. Both are mixed neighborhoods of Christians and Muslims.

Jonathan said security forces would lock down the borders of Plateau state to stop weapons and potential fighters from infiltrating the region. But people could pass through checkpoints without being searched. Some posts were unmanned, while police and soldiers at others merely watched cars pass by without stopping them.

The killings Sunday add to the tally of thousands who have already perished in Africa"s most populous country in the last decade due to religious and political frictions. Rioting in September 2001 killed more than 1,000 people. Muslim-Christian battles killed up to 700 people in 2004. And more than 300 residents died during a similar uprising in 2008.

Nigeria is almost evenly split between Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south. The recent bloodshed has been happening in central Nigeria, in Nigeria"s "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. Early results show residents of a small Arizona community that serves as a gateway to the Grand Canyon"s popular South Rim have voted to incorporate.

Tuesday"s election was the second attempt to incorporate Tusayan (TOO"-say-ohn) after a September 2008 effort failed.

Tusayan is comprised of 144 acres of private land with scattered housing, hotels, restaurants and shops. Officials say 244 people were registered to vote Tuesday but only 183 cast ballots.

Unofficial results show 115 voters 63 percent backed the incorporation plan.

Supporters of incorporation say it will give residents a stake in their community and an ability to levy a sales tax on money spent by tourists headed to the Grand Canyon.

But critics say it would promote unbridled growth that would cheapen tourists" experience in an area famous for its natural beauty.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. Centralians have long believed the government"s demolition of their beloved town in the 1980s was part of a plot to swipe the mineral rights to anthracite coal worth hundreds of millions of dollars and not, as state and federal officials said, the solution to an out-of-control underground mine fire that menaced the town with toxic gases.

Now, in a last-ditch effort to save their homes from the wrecking ball, the few holdouts who remain in the Pennsylvania town are taking their claims of a conspiracy to court.

In a filing late Monday, four property owners and the borough of Centralia said a "massive fraud" forced the needless relocation of more than 1,000 residents and the destruction of more than 500 homes. The property owners asked a state appeals court to stop Pennsylvania officials from kicking them out and finishing off the town 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

"Nobody wants a penny. They just want to be left alone," said Tom Hynoski, a Centralia native whose mother and sister are among the petitioners.

The state condemned the homes in the early 1990s but only recently moved to oust those who remain. The state"s attorney on Tuesday dismissed the residents" claims as "conspiracy theories" and predicted they would be dismissed.

Centralia was all but wiped off the map as the slow-burning mine fire that began in 1962 at the town dump spread to the network of mines beneath the town, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes. A $42 million government relocation program was largely completed by 1993, when officials invoked eminent domain to get dozens of holdouts to leave.

The property owners said in court documents they have evidence that the fire is "almost out" and no longer endangers their homes, if it ever did. Data kept by the Department of Environmental Protection show that underground temperatures have gone down by "several hundred percent" since measurements began. Further, a 2008 DEP study found that emissions of toxic gases are not a problem, according to court documents.

"There is no mine fire or other related condition that justifies the taking of their property," the petition said.

State environmental officials, though, insist the fire remains a threat to the residents" health. The blaze has likely followed the coal seam deeper underground reducing temperatures in certain monitoring bore holes but gases from the fire can still accumulate in houses atop the fire, they say.

Property owners also claim in court documents that their town was ruined "in the face of evidence that suggests that a massive fraud may have been perpetrated" by parties "motivated primarily by interests in what is conservatively estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars of some of the best anthracite coal in the world."

Their attorney, Andrew Ostrowski, said Tuesday that the borough owns the mineral rights. Once Centralia ceases to exist, the rights go to the state, which could sell them to a coal company to operate "one of the most productive strip mine operations in the country," he said.

Steve Fishman, in-house counsel for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, the agency carrying out eminent domain, disputed that Centralia owns the coal underneath the town, saying that it"s not clear who possesses the mineral rights but that he knows of no legal document giving the borough an ownership stake.

He predicted Commonwealth Court would toss the residents" petition, noting it raises claims nearly 20 years after the fact.

"I"ve never doubted they would try this, since their pattern has always been simply to delay, hoping that at some point we"ll simply go away," Fishman said.

As far as the fire, he said, "I don"t think there"s anyone who seriously believes that the fire is out, and that it does not pose a threat."

Another attorney for the Centralians, Don Bailey, a former congressman and state auditor general, is working on a separate federal civil rights lawsuit in hopes of recovering "seed money" to rebuild the borough, Ostrowski said.

One key issue raised in the Commonwealth Court petition, and likely to be raised in the federal suit, is a 2006 agreement between the Department of Community and Economic Development and Centralia homeowners Robert and Mary Netchel that allowed the Netchels to keep their home.

In December, Ostrowski sent a letter to John Zelinka, an attorney working on behalf of the economic development department, seeking the same deal for his clients. He said Zelinka never responded.

Fishman, the department counsel, said the Netchels were permitted to hang on to their house because it was on the fringes of the fire impact zone, and not in any danger.

"We just want to be treated the same way the Netchels were," said Hynoski, who hopes to attract civil rights groups to his cause. "It is clear violation of the 14th Amendment, equal protection. The government cannot do for one person and not do for another person in the same circumstance."

He said none of the people who still live in Centralia have ever gotten sick from the fire.