Clinton 3-day fundraiser starts at $60K a ticket

New York – Celebrating your birthday on the day of your birth is common. Celebrating it by getting your wealthy friends to donate to your charitable foundation is presidential.

Former President Bill Clinton was celebrating his 60th birthday this weekend, with deep-pocketed donors forking over sizable checks to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation for the chance to dine, play golf and attend a Rolling Stones concert with him.

Clinton, who turned 60 in August, has already observed the occasion at parties on Martha’s Vineyard and in Toronto.

This weekend’s bash, a fundraiser, is being co-hosted by Chelsea Clinton and by Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton friend and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Sen. Hillary Clinton is expected to attend at least some of the events.

The festivities were to include a series of cocktail parties and dinners across New York, and golf in New Jersey. The centerpiece events were a dinner Saturday night at the Museum of Natural History, and a private Rolling Stones concert at New York’s historic Beacon Theater today.

Tickets to the three-day affair started at $60,000, with a VIP package – which includes special seating at the concert and dinner and a photo with Clinton – running $500,000.

The Clinton Foundation operates programs to combat AIDS in Africa, as well as global poverty and ethnic strife.

Obama gets rock-star welcome in heart of Texas

Austin, Tex. – U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, promoting his latest book, got a rock star’s reception Saturday at a venue that’s usually much less welcoming of Democrats: the Texas Capitol.

Several hundred people filled the House chamber to hear the possible presidential candidate speak at the 11th annual Texas Book Festival, an event begun by first lady Laura Bush when her husband was governor.

Much of the crowd shrieked and jumped to its feet when Obama walked in through a side door. Outside, another couple hundred people waited up to five hours to get his autograph.

The junior senator from Illinois is promoting “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.”

Obama, the nation’s only black senator, created a stir last Sunday when he acknowledged he was considering a run for president in 2008. Several people waiting in line for his autograph said they wanted to see for themselves what kind of candidate he would be.

About 35,000 people and about 180 writers – including children’s author Louis Sachar and novelist, playwright and political pundit Gore Vidal – are expected to attend the free weekend festival, which raises money for public libraries.

Jimi Hendrix catalog sold

New York – An unidentified bidder spent $15 million to purchase guitar legend Jimi Hendrix’s entire song catalog, but the rock star’s family said the music, including classics like “Purple Haze” and “Voodoo Chile,” still belongs to them.

The rights to the rock legend’s songs were auctioned off Thursday by the estate of former Hendrix manager Michael Frank Jeffrey, said Wendy Chou, spokeswoman for Ocean Tomo Auctions, LLC. She declined to identify the winning bidder.

A Hendrix family spokesman said Friday the term “winner” was relative.

“You may buy the right to become a defendant in a lawsuit,” said Bob Merlis, a spokesman for Experience Hendrix, a Seattle-based company owned by the family.