November 5, 1999
Web posted at: 5:11 p.m. EST (2211 GMT)

• Rodman, Electra arrested
• 'MADtv' marks 100th show
• NPR's 'Morning Edition' celebrates 20 years on the dial
• Kenny Rogers sells the farm
• Rosa Parks sues OutKast

Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman

MIAMI (CNN) -- Miami-Dade County jail officials say former basketball star Dennis Rodman and his wife, Carmen Electra, were arrested on domestic violence charges Friday, after police received reports of a screaming fight in the couple's hotel room.

Sources told CNN that Rodman and Electra were booked on simple battery charges stemming from an alleged incident Friday morning at the Bentley Luxury Suite Hotel in South Beach. "They have very minor facial scratching, very minor," said Miami Beach Police spokesman Al Boza.

They were released from Miami-Dade County Jail Friday afternoon, after they each posted a $2,500 bond, according to a county spokeswoman.

Rodman, a seven-time NBA rebounding champion, is in Miami to film the movie "Cut Away." Electra has been allowed to leave the country for Ireland, where she was scheduled to work on a film. Said Rodman's attorney, Roy Black, "Charging them with this is an overreaction. Both of them are upset that they've been charged, and Dennis is more upset that she's been charged."

Rodman and Electra, a former "Baywatch" lifeguard, got married last November in Las Vegas. Nine days after they exchanged vows, Rodman said he was going to seek an annulment, arguing he was of unsound mind at the time of their marriage. Less than two weeks later, Rodman requested an annulment, saying he hadn't been thinking clearly at the time of the wedding ceremony. Electra filed for divorce in April.

The cast of MADtv

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- "MADtv" has survived a head-to-head battle with "Saturday Night Live" for the late-night comedy audience for four years. Now, it's about to celebrate its 100th episode Saturday night on FOX.

"MADtv," based on the MAD comic books, prides itself on skits that push the raunchy envelope. Some of the recurring characters have developed a cultlike following, including Michael McDonald's "Stuart," a character whose mother rules his life.

Despite the show's success, comedian Phil LaMarr is leaving and taking his hyperactive package deliverer, "UBS guy," with him. LaMarr says he knows why that character resonates so much with people: "Short pants. Tight, short pants. It's the reason I made this guy up as a character to start with."

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Celebrating 20 years of National Public Radio Windows Media 28K 80K

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Twenty years ago Friday, National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" went on the air, providing listeners hungry for news with alternative programming. Hosts Bob Edwards and Carl Kasell were at the microphones when the show debuted, the day after the Iran hostage crisis began.

"It was like lobbing a grenade into the proceedings there," Edwards says. "Holy moly, what are we doing now? So much for planning."

Hampered in the beginning by a small staff and slim budget, NPR has grown to establish 17 U.S. bureaus, 15 overseas bureaus and a cadre of well-regarded correspondents and commentators.

Though "Morning Edition" has sometimes been accused of having a liberal slant, it has won an armful of awards and a daily audience of around 5 million. Marc Fisher, former radio columnist for the Washington Post, says the show has reports you can't get anywhere else on the dial.

"Whether it's a National Geographic series they've done or some of the other more experimental kinds of things ... it's that kind of piece that really defines a 'Morning Edition' kind of story and keeps that apart from what the rest of the press does," he says.

Rogers

ATHENS, Georgia (CNN) -- Country singer Kenny Rogers knows when to fold 'em. He has auctioned off his Beaver Dam Farms estate in Athens, Georgia for more than $6.3 million.

James and Thomas Threatt, two brothers who own a sand and gravel business in Atlanta, beat out 17 other bidders for the 360-acre estate in Oglethorpe County on Thursday with their $5.9 million bid; including the real estate commission, they'll pay more than $6.3 million for the property.

Rogers, 61, says he was selling the place because he and his wife want to live closer to Atlanta; he bought the property as undeveloped land about 20 years ago, he says, with the intention of building a log cabin on it, maybe a little more. But then things got a little out of hand. The estate wound up with a 32-room mansion, an 18-hole golf course, two horse barns, a private lake and a guest house.

The auction was somewhat of a gamble for Rogers because it was an "absolute auction," which meant there was no minimum asking price and whatever was bid he'd have to accept. Rogers has said that he hoped to get at least $11 million for Beaver Dam Farms. But after the auction, a spokesman said Rogers was pleased with the sale.

Parks

DETROIT (CNN) -- When the rap group OutKast named a hit song after civil rights icon Rosa Parks, she filed suit, claiming she held property rights to her name. But band members say the Constitution is on their side.

At a court proceeding on Thursday in Ann Arbor, Michigan, an attorney for the Atlanta-based rappers said Parks' claim is invalid because music is protected by the "freedom of speech" clause in the First Amendment. Thus, says Joseph Beck, the group didn't need Parks' permission to name a song after her.

OutKast says it only wanted to honor the civil rights pioneer with its Grammy-nominated song, "Rosa Parks." Her refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 5, 1955, triggered a black boycott of the city's bus system that lasted more than a year and eventually led to laws that ended legalized segregation.

But Parks, upset over the group's "vulgarity and profanity," is suing for $25,000 and has asked that her name be removed from all OutKast products.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Hackett is expected to rule within a week.

Reuters, Correspondent Jeanne Meserve and Entertainment News Correspondent Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.