CELEBRITY FEUD

'Family Guy' actress lets Sarah Palin in on joke

The actress involved in a “;Family Guy”; episode criticized by Sarah Palin says the politician is exploitive and has no sense of humor. “;In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life,”; Andrea Fay Friedman told The New York Times.

The 39-year-old actress has Down syndrome, as does Palin's son, Trig, and says the episode in question mocked Palin, not the toddler. Palin had deemed the cartoon cruel to disabled people. But Friedman, who voiced a character with Down syndrome, said it's Palin who exploits her son to win sympathy and votes.

GOOGLE IT

Check it online if don't believe us

You wouldn't think so, based on the busy computer bees at the neighborhood Starbucks, but Internet usage in Hawaii ranks 16-lowest in the nation, says a new U.S. Census Bureau report, which found that only 67.4 percent of island residents said they actually used the Internet. The report is at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/computer/2009.html. If you're among the 32.6 percent not online, well, have someone look it up for you.

GOING FOR GOLD

Tropical background doesn't hurt on the slopes

Move over Lindsey Vonn, Julia's taking the podium.

That's Julia, as in Olympics multi-medaling skier Julia Mancuso, a onetime Kauai resident who still returns to Maui for training.

Going into these 2010 Winter Olympics, Vonn got much of the golden-girl treatment as drama ebbed and flowed over her injured shin; she did rise valiantly to the occasion to snag a gold medal.

But it's been Mancuso who's turned out to be the surprise. She's already earned two 2010 Olympic silvers, which has her smiling heading into her best event: Wednesday's giant slalom, the race for which she won gold at the 2006 Winter Games.