It's a new version of family feud, called 'catty women's stuff'

There has been an unfortunate donnybrook between two women in the life of former Twins player and coach Al Newman.

Deborah Jean Newman, 47, was arrested and booked Sunday by the Scott County Sheriff's Office for alleged fifth-degree assault on Taylor Elizabeth Newman, 18, according to documents.

"Taylor Elizabeth Newman said her stepmom punched her in the face and threw bleach cleaning solution at her," states the incident report. Taylor "called her mother in Canada," and her mom, Al's first wife, Sophie Newman, called authorities.

When reached Wednesday night, Al Newman said he thought the charges against his wife, Deborah, were in the process of being dropped. "Catty women's stuff," Al said. "I don't know, it's just amazing to me." Newman said he knew no particulars in the matter. He said he was working the sports section of the Home & Garden Show over the weekend. He's working on Newmie Rewards, "a business I started, a fundraiser for youth athletics."

When told that it sounds as if he has women trouble, Newman said, "Yeah, yeah. You got that right."

The alleged incident occurred at a home on E. Sioux Vista Drive in Jordan, according to the documents, which also indicate sheriff's deputies met the victim at a McDonald's in Jordan, where an ambulance was called because the bleach burned the victim's skin.

Al Newman was an infielder on the Twins' 1987 and 1991 World Series-winning teams and later was a team coach. He briefly worked as a scout for the Diamondbacks before entering the business world.

"I thought you had something better to tell me," he said before guffawing, a laugh we've all heard before. He sounded exceedingly amused to hear there was a mug shot of Deborah on the Scott County website, so I forwarded him the link.

"You're not going to put that in the headline, are you?" he asked. "Come on now! Put that somewhere down in the middle. Ain't going to be the big bold letters? All right, girl."

Tea for Tiegs "Fox 9 Morning Show" producer Matt Haugen was only too happy to make a Caribou tea run for Cheryl Tiegs.

The supermodel was at the station last week to talk about how all of us can live greener, as part of her new role as Cambria spokester.

"She wanted tea with lemon," Haugen said. "I went over to Caribou and they didn't have lemon, so she settled for green tea. She was just fine with it. It was a fun five-minute break. I can now say I bought a drink for Cheryl Tiegs."

She's still got IT Tiegs is living proof that you never lose IT.

When she made appearances for Cambria at the Home & Garden Show, many men could be observed with transfixed expressions on their faces.

For the women, there was the eye candy known as Randy Meier, former Twin Cities and network anchor, now hosting "Blueprint for Green," which airs on KARE11.

Interviewed by Meier at the Cambria Cooking Stage, Tiegs talked about her July adventure to the Arctic Circle, where she lived with an Inuit tribe for two weeks. She said she found the arctic char "inedible," which is how she also feels about another a new item in the Inuits' diet. "Unfortunately, they are being introduced to some of our food. Their favorite food is a pile of French fries with gravy and melted cheese. Really sad," she said.

Tiegs is not at all sad about having the Italian tile in her home replaced by Cambria products. When on HGTV's "Living with Ed," Tiegs admitted to spending $3,000 every six months to remove stains from Italian tile.

Classy Carlson In a way, fans of Bill Carlson demonstrated how much he meant to them in 2003.

Viewers were very angry about Carlson being yanked off WCCO-TV's noon anchor desk, so they stopped watching. About 10 months later Carlson, who also did movie reviews and was a regular interviewing celebrities on the red carpet of the Oscars, was returned to the noon spot. By then the managers who made that and other monumentally poor decisions were outta there.

Always a gracious man, Carlson and his cordialness caught the noon desk successor off guard. One WCCO-TV insider reported at the time that when Carlson went over to congratulate his successor, the guy looked nervous until he realized that Bill's hand was extended not to deliver a punch.

Too often we wait until someone's dead to say how much he or she is appreciated. This 2003 act of revolt by WCCO viewers spoke as loudly as most of the kind words that will be heard at Carlson's memorial service, 3 p.m. today at the State Theatre. My thoughts are with his wife, Nancy Nelson, and their daughter, Susie. KARE11 offered photographers to cover the service so that WCCO photogs can attend.