Mansion

The doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death has asked a judge to sequester jurors in the physician's upcoming involuntary manslaughter trial, citing coverage of the Casey Anthony case and the threat of information leaks on social media. The filing Thursday by attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray said information from those sources could interfere with the right of Dr. Conrad Murray to receive a fair trial. It cited the increased ratings for HLN and commentator Nancy Grace, who featured the Anthony case on her show on a nightly basis and believed Anthony was guilty.

Seats are selling quickly for the three Victorian teas at the Daniel Webster Estate and Heritage Center. Although Sunday's tea is sold out, about 20 seats are still available for the summer tea on June 24, according to Mickey Carr, a board member of the Daniel Webster Preservation Trust. The teas consist of three courses – bread and scones, small sandwiches, and sweets – served in the 1880 mansion on land once owned by Daniel Webster. A third tea will take place Oct. 14. Each runs from 2 to 4 p.m. at the estate, 238 Webster St., Marshfield.

AUSTIN - Arson is suspected in a fire that swept through the historic Texas governor's mansion early yesterday, leaving much of the 152-year-old building charred and severely damaged, the state fire marshal said. No one was believed to be inside when the fire started at the home, whose roof buckled because of the flames and the massive amount of water used to put them out. Officials said there is no evidence any direct threat was intended to Governor Rick Perry, who is out of the country with his wife, Anita.

Lil Wayne has been told to cut his grass. The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/yxftea ) reports the rapper was cited for high grass and weeds at his 10,000-square-foot mansion in a gated subdivision in Kenner, La., a suburb of New Orleans. The Code Enforcement Department issued the ticket to Dwayne Carter, the New Orleans-born singer's given name, sometime between Feb. 26 and March 2, according to a list released by the city. The home is on sale for $1.7 million. Listed as a "celebrity" mansion, the house has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, two half baths and a "beautiful, spacious...

NEWPORT, R.I. -- For all its opulence, The Breakers mansion in Newport was never known to be immune to the laws of nature. That's why conservators could never explain why eight silver leaf wall panels there hadn't tarnished even slightly in more than 100 years. That mystery was solved with the help of museum officials and a Delaware lab that discovered the silver leaf panels weren't silver at all, but rather the far more precious platinum leaf. The discovery, announced this week, stunned chief Breakers conservator Jeff Moore, The Providence Journal reported.

JACKSON, Miss. - Amid controversy over pardons issued by former governor Haley Barbour, inmate trusties will no longer work at Mississippi's Governor's Mansion. Governor Phil Bryant, who had already stopped the practice of inmate trusties living at the Governor's Mansion, ended a decades-old program Thursday of allowing trusties to work there. The announcement comes after criticism of Barbour's decision Jan. 6 to pardon four murderers and one robber who were mansion trusties during his second term.

The massive Los Angeles mansion built by the late television magnate Aaron Spelling is under contract to be sold to a British heiress. Beverly Hills real estate brokerage firm Hilton & Hyland on Wednesday confirmed the sale to 22-year-old Petra Ecclestone. The home had been listed for two years at $150 million. The brokerage firm wouldn’t confirm the sale price until after it closes in July. But the firm did say the sale will earn the highest price ever achieved in California.

A Paraguayan senator has put his re-election campaign headquarters into a mansion modeled on the antebellum home of Scarlett O'Hara in the U.S. civil war movie "Gone With the Wind. " Juan Carlos Galaverna of the opposition Colorado Party says the building modeled on the Tara mansion has been lent to his campaign for the next years by owner Nufro Arias. The mansion was ordered built in 1969 by its first owner, the late millionaire Manuel Battilana. He got the plans for the building during a visit to Hollywood.

San Diego authorities have released new details about the death of a woman found hanging naked and bound at a historic California mansion. Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Lucas says Tuesday that a handful of minor injuries were found, but adds in a statement that Rebecca Zahau's death is still being ruled a suicide. Among the injuries to the 32-year-old were relatively minor bruises on the right side of Zahau's scalp. Also, a T-shirt wrapped around her neck had been stuffed in her mouth.

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine -- Better known as the coastal town where the Bush family has a summer home, Kennebunkport is also home to the mansion once owned by Kenneth Roberts, one of America's best-known historical fiction writers in the early 20th century. A stone, fortress-like mansion and 96 acres surrounding it, which were bought last year by three partners, may remain intact as a standing tribute to the author, who's largely forgotten in the town where he lived. John Mills, Steve Bowley, and Leon Blood, who bought the 6,000-square-foot house and property, had planned to subdivide the tract of...

A Paraguayan senator has put his re-election campaign headquarters into a mansion modeled on the antebellum home of Scarlett O'Hara in the U.S. civil war movie "Gone With the Wind. " Juan Carlos Galaverna of the opposition Colorado Party says the building modeled on the Tara mansion has been lent to his campaign for the next years by owner Nufro Arias. The mansion was ordered built in 1969 by its first owner, the late millionaire Manuel Battilana. He got the plans for the building during a visit to Hollywood.

WENHAM - At various times throughout its 83-year existence, Penguin Hall has served as a private residence, a novitiate for the Archdiocese of Boston, a corporate training center, home to an insurance agency, and - most recently - the offices of Mullen Advertising. But the stately mansion has been vacant since 2009, when the advertising agency moved to downtown Boston. The building got its name from the two bronze penguins that stand sentry at the property's courtyard. They were a gift from Admiral Richard Byrd, the famed Antarctic explorer who was a friend of the property's original...

Bet the owners of that $10 million Truro mansion are having some big regrets now as town officials ready the demolition crews. If you haven't already, check out this Globe story on that spanking new Truro mansion that now faces the wrecking ball after infuriating neighbors and allegedly violating town building rules. At least from the photos, the 8,333 square foot sprawling, two- story structure looks several cuts above the typical ugly McMansion. But its location may be its undoing - perched on a dune overlooking the Atlantic on a landscape made...

TRURO - The largest single-family house in this singular sliver of Cape Cod is a sleek, glassy, contemporary concoction whose 8,333 square feet, spread and stacked on top of a dune, offer a $10 million view of the shimmering bay. Construction ended only months ago, and the owner, a woman from Boca Raton, Fla., has not moved in. If the town has its way, she never will. In a recent decision that has delighted or dumbfounded residents, Truro officials have ordered the dream house demolished by mid-April.

JACKSON, Miss. - Amid controversy over pardons issued by former governor Haley Barbour, inmate trusties will no longer work at Mississippi's Governor's Mansion. Governor Phil Bryant, who had already stopped the practice of inmate trusties living at the Governor's Mansion, ended a decades-old program Thursday of allowing trusties to work there. The announcement comes after criticism of Barbour's decision Jan. 6 to pardon four murderers and one robber who were mansion trusties during his second term.

A seaside mansion in San Diego that was used in TV commercials but never occupied has sold for $14.1 million — a third of the original asking price. The San Diego Union-Tribune ( http://bit.ly/rC8eCp) says "The Razor" — an 11,000-square-foot estate built by noted architect Wallace E. Cunningham — was purchased by an East Coast buyer and is in escrow. The La Jolla home took six years to build and was completed in 2008 at a cost of about $34 million. Public records show it's the bankruptcy estate of Jimmy Cooksey Jr. It was once featured in ads for Calvin Klein and Visa...

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican federal officials said yesterday that an alleged drug trafficker linked to the country's largest seizure of drug cash has been arrested in Maryland. Authorities found more than $205 million hidden at Zhenli Ye Gon's Mexico City mansion in March. In a news release, the Federal Attorney General's Office said that US officials had detained Ye Gon in the town of Rockville. Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said the money was connected to one of the hemisphere's largest networks for trafficking pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamines.

Lil Wayne has been told to cut his grass. The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/yxftea ) reports the rapper was cited for high grass and weeds at his 10,000-square-foot mansion in a gated subdivision in Kenner, La., a suburb of New Orleans. The Code Enforcement Department issued the ticket to Dwayne Carter, the New Orleans-born singer's given name, sometime between Feb. 26 and March 2, according to a list released by the city. The home is on sale for $1.7 million. Listed as a "celebrity" mansion, the house has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, two half baths and a...

AUGUSTA, Maine - Eight people were arrested following an Occupy Maine demonstration yesterday that spilled from the sidewalk over a waist-high, wooden fence to the grounds of the governor's mansion, State Police said. Spokesman Steve McCausland of the state Public Safety Department said protesters were charged with criminal trespass and criminal mischief. No names were immediately available and at least six people had made bail by the evening, McCausland said. The arrests came the same day protesters in the Occupy encampment in Capitol Park in Augusta took down...