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March 18, 2012 | | EXCLUSIVE Rosie O’Donnell signed a multimillion-dollar deal with OWN for a talk show that was supposed to save Oprah's failing network. Instead, it tanked, and Winfrey canned the program on Friday. Before the last taping, The Daily Beast’s Ramin Setoodeh talks to staffers about what went wrong—from Rosie’s alleged outbursts to a disastrous revamp of the set. PROFILE Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the U.S. soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians in a shooting rampage a week ago, reportedly had an excellent record as an upbeat soldier—at least in Iraq, according to friends and fellow servicemen. He “always kind of had a smile on his face,” Capt. Chris Alexander tells NPR. Alexander was Bales’s platoon leader in Iraq, where Bales served from 2003 to 2010 before being deployed in Afghanistan. Alexander also recounted that Bales saved lives and was decorated for good conduct. His neighbors and friends said he was a dedicated husband and father and mentioned his “sunny” disposition. RALLY The Syrian opposition is marking the one-year anniversary of its uprising Sunday with mass protests in the capital, Damascus, and elsewhere. On March 18, 2011, thousands took to the streets in cities across Syria—the first nationwide demonstrations that many consider the beginning of the opposition against President Bashar al-Assad. Security forces killed protesters in the southern city of Daraa that day, characterizing the brutality with which the Assad regime has since answered the people’s demands. The United Nations says more than 8,000 people have been killed so far. VOTE Puerto Rico residents can’t vote in the general presidential election, but they’re still tasked with awarding 20 delegates in Sunday’s GOP primary as voting begins in the island territory. The candidates are elsewhere—Mitt Romney is in Illinois ahead of Tuesday’s primary, and Rick Santorum is in Louisiana, which will vote Saturday. On Friday Romney was in Puerto Rico, where he encouraged residents to speak English and also criticized Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent. “My view was her philosophy is quite different than my own,” Romney told reporters. “And that's the reason why I would not support her as a justice for the Supreme Court.” ARRESTS Occupy Wall Street protesters were hoping to celebrate the six-month anniversary of the movement Saturday night at its birthplace in New York’s Zuccotti Park, but it wasn’t much of a celebration. Dozens of protesters were arrested just before midnight as the police evicted them from the downtown space—again. About 300 people were gathered there at the time. “It’s just a reminder that we’re here,” said Brendan Burke, one of the protesters. “It’s an opportunity to remind Wall Street that we aren’t going anywhere.” | | 
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