Plus: LeAnn Rimes [ tickets ]' father responds, System of a Down, Ry Cooder [ tickets ] and Mrs. Clinton.

The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) is auctioning off two tickets to the Grammys.

The "With This Kiss -- Yahoo! Celebrity Auction'' features "smooch prints" from such people as Courtney Love, Elton John, Janet Jackson, Jon Bon Jovi and Sarah McLaughlin. Proceeds will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

QXL.com, a European "online auctioneer," is auctioning a pair of boots and a leather jacket "personally designed and signed by" Eric Clapton, as well as a pair of tickets to see Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday (2/10). Some of the proceeds, according to QXL.com, will go to the Crossroads Centre, a "non-profit recovery organization."

This year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will take place from April 27 to May 6 and will feature B.B. King, Dave Matthews Band [ tickets ], the Wallflowers and Mystikal, among others. Click here for a schedule.

Jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson killed himself last Saturday (2/3), Billboard reported. Johnson reportedly had struggled with cancer.

According to E! Online, Wilbur Rimes, LeAnn Rimes' father and former manager, responded to his daughter's statement decrying her forthcoming album. Wilbur Rimes reportedly claimed that his daughter originally "loved" the album.

System of a Down and producer Rick Rubin will enter the recording studio next Monday (2/12), according to a press release.

The Los Angeles Times printed a Baltimore Sun piece about Ry Cooder, best known for his work with the Cuban group Buena Vista Social Club. To summarize:

When Cooder went to Cuba to work with the group in 1996, he didn't have the necessary U.S. government permission. He was eventually fined $25,000 by the Treasury Department.

Last September, Cooder gave $10,000 to Hillary Rodham Clinton's senatorial campaign.

The article cites U.S. officials as saying that "then-Secretary of State [italics ours] Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger, former President Bill Clinton's national security advisor [italics still ours], weighed in on [Cooder's] behalf in the last days of the administration."

The article continues, "On Jan. 17, three days before President Clinton left office, Cooder was granted the license" to work in Cuba.

People who are paid to deny connections between such actions as Cooder's and Mrs. Clinton's did so.