People in the News

NEW YORK - Jay-Z took the job as president of Def Jam Recordings for a couple of reasons: He needed a challenge and he wanted to prove he's more than just a rapper.

"I'd been in my comfort zone for a while," the rapper and mogul told The New York Times for its Sunday editions. "I was bored. I didn't want to be doing rap just to do it: Oh, it's November again. Time to put out another record."

Jay-Z, who's real name is Shawn Carter, said the limited number of black executives in the music industry was also a concern.

"I know people think that this is a vanity job or that I'm the guy that just brings in talent and I'm out of the office three months a year and I only come in once in a while," he said. "But yes, I'm really there."

Jay-Z, 35, released 10 albums in less than a decade that have sold more than 33 million copies. He also won four Grammy Awards.

---

On the Net:

Def Jam Recordings: http://www.defjam.com/

---

LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) - Former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton spent a vacation on Kauai Island with their daughter Chelsea doing what most tourists do - shopping, eating out and golfing, albeit with a movie star.

The Clintons have been spotted hiking the Kalalau Trail on the Na Pali Coast and golfing at Princeville with "James Bond" actor and Hanalei resident Pierce Brosnan. The Clintons also shopped and dined in local restaurants.

The Clintons stayed at a private luxury home on Kauai's lush North Shore. They've also been accompanied by a team of Secret Service agents.

"They've been doing the things most vacationers do," said Al Joaquin, special agent in charge at the Secret Service office in Honolulu.

Hanalei Gourmet owner Tim Kerlin said the former president picked up a deli sandwich, while his wife and their daughter enjoyed a restaurant appetizer specialty: deep-fried crispy artichoke hearts.

Clinton last visited Kauai in 1992, when he spent a day campaigning on four islands for Hawaii Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mazie Hirono, who lost to Gov. Linda Lingle.

---

DANA, Ind. (AP) - The Indiana farmhouse where World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle grew up has been demolished, shocking preservationists who had worked for years to keep Pyle's legacy alive.

The home's demolition in mid-August came after the owners had offered it to the Ernie Pyle museum in Dana, the state or anyone who would take it.

"All we asked was that they move the house from where it stood, because we could not afford to fix it up, and vandals were breaking into it. It became a liability issue with us," owner Gene Goforth said.

The hilltop farmhouse outside of Dana, about 20 miles north of Terre Haute, was where Pyle lived from roughly age 2 to 18.

"It's the place where he grew up and wrote about so many times when he recounted his childhood," said Evelyn Hobson, retired curator of the Ernie Pyle State Historic Site in Dana.

Laura Minzes, a deputy director at the Department of Natural Resources, said money was the primary reason the state passed on the opportunity to acquire the farmhouse.

"Moving the house would have eliminated its eligibility for any sort of National Register nomination," she said.

Pyle, who was killed by a Japanese sniper on the tiny Pacific island of Ie Shima in April 1945, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944. Decades later, he was awarded a posthumous Purple Heart.