Some winning bidder will soon be cruising life’s winding road in a 1959 Mercedes-Benz 190SL Roadster owned by Sheryl Crow (photo). The Grammy award-winning singer said Monday she’s auctioning off the classic car next month and the proceeds will go toward helping rebuild the tornado-ravaged city of Joplin in her native state of Missouri. Crow says she loves the car and has had it for six years, but doesn’t drive it anymore. The Springfield News-Leader reports that Crow hopes the car will fetch up to $500,000 at the Aug. 21 auction in Pebble Beach, Calif. But she says she’d be happy if it raises $100,000. Crow was a schoolteacher before launching her singing career, and the money will go to the Joplin Schools Recovery Fund. … Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., announced Tuesday he will resign from Congress, after allegations of sexual misconduct with a teenager. Last week, the Oregonian newspaper reported that the teenage daughter of a Wu associate called the congressman’s office earlier this year to accuse him of an “unwanted sexual encounter” over Thanksgiving. Wu, 56, acknowledged the incident but said it was consensual, the paper reported. After the story broke, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called for a formal ethics investigation. On Tuesday, Wu, a seven-term Democrat, said his resignation would be effective “upon the resolution of the debt-ceiling crisis” that has gripped Washington. … Heather Matarazzo, who played Dawn Weiner in “Welcome to the Dollhouse” and Sadie Atkins in the upcoming “Manson Girls,” plans to wed longtime girlfriend Caroline Murphy now that New York has become the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Murphy, a recording artist working on her first album, says she’ll likely wear a white pants suit, “but a sexy one,” when she walks down the aisle.
An Afghan woman carries an oil tin donated by the World Food Program at the Afghanistan’s Children and New Approach center in Kabul on Tuesday. An Afghan aid agency, ASCHIANA and the World Food Program have been involved in a joint venture to provide education and food to the families of thousands of Afghan street children, who go there for food and education in the afternoons.
AP Photo by Ahmad Nazar