Tour Bus

Musicians, time for some real talk. We do not advocate for any illicit narcotic use here at Pop & Hiss, but if you know you're riding dirty in your tour bus, route your travels far away from Sierra Blanca, Texas. Following in the company of Fiona Apple, Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson, the pop-rapper Nelly is the latest artist whose crew had a drug-based run-in with cops in the small Texas town, which is quickly becoming known as America's capital for tour inconveniences. The MC himself was not arrested, but his staffer Brian Keith Jones claimed responsibiity for a haul including marijuana, 36 baggies of heroin and a loaded pistol.

A Yosemite National Park tour bus crashed Saturday evening after it went off the road and over an embankment, leaving 16 people hurt. None of the injuries are life-threatening. The victims were recovering at local hospitals, the Fresno Bee said. According to Associated Press, the bus was about 40 miles south of the park when it went off Highway 41 and over an embankment about 6 p.m. Saturday. The patrol's Merced dispatch office described it as a minor injury crash, and said the 16 people were taken to local hospitals.

Behind the wheel of his tour bus, Don Baisa prays. Please. Give me George Clooney today, he thinks as tourists scramble aboard the 12-seat, open-top van marked "City Tours!" Or Charlize Theron. Or Jennifer Aniston. Will Ferrell. He'd take Will Ferrell. Baisa, a 61-year-old veteran of the tour bus scene with a neatly groomed, salt-and-pepper mustache, knows what his passengers want during their two-hour journey through Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Spotting stars means big tips.

Scapadas Magicas LLC, the company that owns the tour bus involved in the deadly crash Sunday on California 38 that killed eight people and left dozens injured, is "an imminent hazard to public safety" and must close immediately, federal officials said Friday. "After the tragic crash earlier this week ... investigators quickly inspected this carrier's other two buses which had been operated on U.S. roads, and immediately shut them down," Anne S. Ferro of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said in a news release.

Los Angeles survived "Carmageddon," but now come the bus wars of Hollywood. One of New York's largest tour bus companies has launched a West Coast operation on Hollywood Boulevard, pitting itself against Southern California's oldest and biggest tour bus company. CitySights LA, a subsidiary of a New York bus company, has deployed a fleet of 14 double-decker buses to escort tourists around Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Venice and Santa Monica beaches. The move makes CitySights one of the largest of more than a dozen tour companies in Hollywood and puts it in direct competition with Starline Tours, which was launched in 1968 and now runs 20 double-decker buses as part of a fleet of 80 tour buses around Los Angeles.

Attention groupies: You may still be able to board the tour bus. Just don't expect ample legroom. In yet another example of downsized American dreams in the struggling economy, many rock 'n' roll bands are finding that touring the country in a tricked-out, old-school tour bus is just too punishing for their bottom line. For some, the solution has been to pack it all into a van -- specifically, the custom Sprinter models by a Tallahassee company called Rock-It Ships. The Tallahassee Democrat reports that the Rock-It Ship company outfits the smaller rides with satellite television equipment, a fridge and Blu-ray DVD player, and sleeping arrangements for up to seven people -- all while getting up to 22 mpg on the freeway.

Nelly and his entourage are the latest famous folks to fall victim to That Checkpoint -- the one on I-10 in Texas where it seems as if everyone and his brother gets busted for having something shady on the tour bus. The rapper and six other people who were on Nelly's bus were detained during a search Wednesday night in which the Border Patrol found about 10 pounds of weed, some heroin and a loaded gun on board, TMZ reported . Ultimately one...

Federal inspectors over the last year found faulty axles and brakes and other safety violations on the tour bus that careened out of control on a winding mountain road near Yucaipa on Sunday evening, killing seven passengers, records show. Maintenance citations of the tour buses owned by Scapadas Magicas of National City were numerous and serious enough that the company was placed on a federal watch list that flagged its buses for increased roadside inspections. Bald tires, defective or missing axle parts, and insufficient brake linings were among 59 maintenance violations inspectors found on the firm's buses in the last two years, U.S. Department of Transportation safety records show.

Fourteen people died early Saturday morning in the Bronx when a tour bus flipped on its side on a highway and slid into a pole, the New York City Fire Department said. The metal pole for an overhanging sign ripped through the windshield and sheared off most of the top of the bus, according to media reports. About 20 passengers were taken to hospitals; at least six were listed in critical condition, the Fire Department said. Firefighters said they had to cut out parts of the bus to rescue several passengers trapped in the mangled vehicle, which was carrying about 33 passengers.

A tour bus overturned on a highway near Hoover Dam on Friday, killing seven Chinese nationals and injuring at least 15 others, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said. Six fatalities were confirmed at the scene, about 190 miles northwest of Phoenix; a seventh person died at a Las Vegas hospital, said police Cmdr. Dean Nyhart. Nyhart said the bus was traveling north on U.S. 93 when it veered left and then right across the median. It rolled at least once before stopping.

MOUNTAIN HOME VILLAGE - Smoke from the warm fire inside Fred Richardson's home hung in the mountain air outside his house Wednesday, masking the heartbreak inside and throughout the tiny creekside town where he lived for seven decades. His son, Steve, grieved silently on the front porch. Along with the wind sifting through the pines and sycamores, the only other sound came from traffic winding down the mountain highway just a few blocks away - the same highway that took his father's life.

Victor Cabrera Garcia had never seen snow, so his mother and grandparents decided that Sunday was as good a time as any to take the 13-year-old boy on a bus trip to the white-capped San Bernardino Mountains. But after night fell Sunday, tragedy followed. On the way down the winding mountain road from Big Bear, the passenger bus picked up speed - and then more speed. "We just lost our brakes!" the bus driver reportedly yelled. Gabriel Olivas, the boy's step-grandfather, grabbed his wife and gripped the seat in front of him. The bus flipped.

JERUSALEM - Bulgarian investigators said Tuesday that the Lebanese group Hezbollah was responsible for a July bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver in the Black Sea resort of Burgas, as Israel had asserted. The announcement was certain to heighten pressure on the European Union to join Israel and the United States in labeling Hezbollah a terrorist group, allowing law enforcement agents in Europe to seize assets, restrict travel and arrest members.

At least eight people were killed Sunday night and more than 30 injured when a tour bus crashed on a narrow mountain road near Yucaipa, authorities said. The collision, which involved the bus, a truck and a sedan, took place about 6:30 p.m. on California 38 on a route leading from the Big Bear area, authorities said. Some people were ejected from the bus; others were trapped inside. Because of the severity of the carnage, it was difficult for rescue workers to immediately identify exactly how many people were killed.

Federal inspectors over the last year found faulty axles and brakes and other safety violations on the tour bus that careened out of control on a winding mountain road near Yucaipa on Sunday evening, killing seven passengers, records show. Maintenance citations of the tour buses owned by Scapadas Magicas of National City were numerous and serious enough that the company was placed on a federal watch list that flagged its buses for increased roadside inspections. Bald tires, defective or missing axle parts, and insufficient brake linings were among 59 maintenance violations inspectors found on the firm's buses in the last two years, U.S. Department of Transportation safety records show.

Authorities on Wednesday released the names of two more victims in the tour bus crash in eastern Oregon over the weekend that killed nine people and injured 38 others. Oun Hong Jung, 67, and his wife Joong Wha Kim, 63, who were visiting from South Korea, were among the dead, Oregon authorities confirmed. The couple reportedly had been staying with family in Bothell, Wash., Oregon State Police said. A day earlier, authorities identified Dale William Osborn, 57, of Washington state as another of the crash victims; his wife, Darlene, was still being treated for her injuries at St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton, Ore. The identities of the remaining six victims, all of Asian descent, were still not confirmed.

MOUNTAIN HOME VILLAGE - Smoke from the warm fire inside Fred Richardson's home hung in the mountain air outside his house Wednesday, masking the heartbreak inside and throughout the tiny creekside town where he lived for seven decades. His son, Steve, grieved silently on the front porch. Along with the wind sifting through the pines and sycamores, the only other sound came from traffic winding down the mountain highway just a few blocks away - the same highway that took his father's life.

JERUSALEM - An Israeli tour bus ferrying dozens of vacationers in the Bulgarian resort city of Burgas exploded Wednesday in an apparent terrorist attack, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 30. Most of the victims were Israelis, including many young people who were preparing to spend their summer break in the Black Sea coastal town, a leading vacation destination for Israelis. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Israeli and Bulgarian security officials suspected that a bomb was either hidden on the bus or in a piece of luggage.

NEW YORK — Jurors on Friday acquitted a driver of manslaughter in the deaths of 15 people killed when their tour bus smashed into a guardrail, tipped over and skidded hundreds of feet down an expressway — a crash prosecutors blamed on the unlicensed driver's fatigue. After eight days of deliberations and several weeks of testimony, including accounts from victims who had lost limbs in the horrific crash, the jury rejected the prosecution's argument and found the driver, Ophadell Williams, guilty of only one count: a misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle without a license.

Aimee Mann makes smart, funny, well-crafted pop albums with such professional consistency that it can be hard to get excited about a new one. Think of her as CBS and her records as police procedurals. So you'd be forgiven if you let "Charmer," her latest, slip by you like "NYC 22" when it came out last month. Go back, though: Working with a top-flight support crew that includes guitarist Chris Bruce and James Mercer of the Shins, Mann on "Charmer" exchanges the sometimes-airless chamber-folk vibe of her recent stuff for a bright neo-New Wave sound that might remind fans with long memories of her mid-'80s work with 'Til Tuesday.