Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- It's 6:30 a.m., and Paul Barlow is chatting with his friends over a breakfast buffet of eggs, bacon and fresh fruit.

Dressed in a dark gray blazer, Barlow waits to take his seat in the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center's auditorium for a special concert by the Dekalb Symphony Orchestra. But the musicians aren't playing for Barlow and his friends. They're playing for Billy Crystal, Bette Midler and the rest of the "Parental Guidance" cast.

Once the violins sound and the cameras start rolling, Barlow will merely fade into the background, along with the other 300 movie extras on set.

The 55-year-old first started working as an extra in November 2010 to provide for his family amid the downturn of his ad sales career. Since losing his job in April, he's become a staple on movie and TV sets around Georgia -- and he's not the only one.

Paul Barlow shows off one of his signature expressions while waiting to play a concertgoer in "Parental Guidance."

Many of the "concertgoers" present at the shoot for "Parental Guidance," due out in November 2012, were between jobs, or looking for a fun way to make extra (pun intended) cash.

The recession definitely pushed some people into extra work, said Linda Burns, a commercial and independent film producer who leads a workshop called "How To Be an Extra and On Set Protocol." Burns said half the class is usually made up of recent graduates with a passion for acting, while the other 50% are "people who lost their jobs and love movies and TV."

"If you're not working at all," she said, "and if you don't qualify for unemployment ... you're going to make more money on set than you are in your house filling out job applications. There's so much downtime on set. It allows you time to read or look for those jobs online with your smartphone."

And while extra work makes a great supplemental income, Burns said treating it like a full time job -- as Barlow has for the past year -- might be financially challenging.

Movie extras in Georgia typically make between $58 and $101.50 for an 8- to 12-hour day. Compare that to the $140 an extra makes in Los Angeles or New York for the same 8 hours. Screen Actors Guild rates are higher than the non-union wages extras are entitled to in Georgia, casting director Bill Marinella said.

"If you're hiring somebody at minimum wage ... they might not show," he added. Extras are asked to drive to set, bring different outfits, and then pay to have those outfits dry-cleaned -- it would end up costing them money to be there, he said.

But beyond the commitment, Marinella said there's "little skill involved in being a movie extra. ... It's all based on a look, and then whatever skills you may have."

And Barlow certainly has a look.

(PEOPLE.com) -- A day of joyful anticipation has turned to anguish for Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.

At a routine check-up Thursday to find out the sex of their 20th child, their doctor was unable to find a heartbeat and told the couple they had miscarried in the second trimester.

"After the appointment, we came back home and told the children," says Michelle, 45.

"We had just been talking about baby names last night and they were getting excited about naming a boy or a girl. It has been a real sad disappointment."

She says the family will select a name after they know if the baby was a boy or girl, and then plan to have a funeral service.

"I feel like my heart broke telling my children," says Michelle. "They have all been so excited about this baby and looking forward to April coming around and having a new little one in our arms. That was the most difficult. The Lord is the giver of life and he can choose when that life is ready to go on and be with Him."

The stars of TLC's "19 Kids and Counting" previously weathered a medical ordeal with their youngest daughter, Josie, who was born in December 2009.

Washington (CNN) -- On Wednesday, the Senate and House homeland security committees held their first-ever joint hearing, on the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, to address what has become a familiar theme for both committees -- the threat from "homegrown" terrorists.

The hearing, chaired jointly by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut, and Rep. Peter King, R-New York, examined the threat to "military communities" posed by domestic terrorism, a threat that Lieberman said last week "has increased dramatically" since 2006, when he held his first hearing on the subject.

Lieberman cited the attack, allegedly by U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, that killed 13 soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009; the shooting death of a soldier outside an army recruiting station in Arkansas the same year; and a purported plot by Army Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo to attack soldiers near Fort Hood with explosives and firearms this year.

Peter Bergen

So what is the actual threat to America's military from homegrown terrorists? The New America Foundation and the Maxwell School of Public Policy examined 192 cases of apparent homegrown terrorism by Islamist militants since 9/11. We found that the American military at home and abroad is indeed a target for Islamist extremist plots. In a third of the cases we studied, the individuals who were charged had targeted the U.S. military. Of those, a little under half targeted military facilities or personnel in the United States, while 55% were targeting American bases and troops overseas.

Andrew Lebovich

Additionally, attacks against military personnel have accounted for 14 of the 17 deaths attributed to jihadist terrorists in the United States since 9/11 (though all but one happened during the 2009 Fort Hood shooting). These deaths were all caused by gunfire, presumably because explosives are more difficult to acquire and build and often draw the attention of law enforcement.

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico (CNN) -- Authorities in this violence-plagued border city Thursday were investigating a series of attacks the day before that left 14 people dead, including four people who were slain aboard an ambulance.

Among the attacks Wednesday, gunmen ambushed an ambulance that was transporting two dialysis patients to a hospital in Juarez, police said. The driver of the ambulance and another person traveling with the group also died in the attack.

Photos from the scene showed a dusty white ambulance with the passenger-side window shot out, blood smeared across the car door and bullet marks on the windshield.

The ambulance traveled to Juarez from the city of Nuevo Casas Grandes, about 170 miles away, police said.

Juarez, one of Mexico's most violent cities, shares a border with El Paso, Texas.

The baseball world was shocked by reports of Ryan Braun testing positive under the terms of MLB's anti-doping policy. Since I began covering the connections between baseball and performance-enhancing drugs in 2004, which led to my book The Juice, I've continued to follow the issue closely. The unique situation of an MVP-caliber player testing positive demands that we understand the process which has led to this report.

The testing process is very clear. The MLB policy is continually monitored and is considered the most strict among professional sports. The addition of blood testing that will begin in 2012 makes it even more so. Each player in baseball on a 40-man roster is subject to at least two random drug tests during each season. They can also get additional random tests, a number which will again increase in 2012. As well, there are additional random tests that occur during the playoffs. That means that players that have never tested positive for any banned substance are subject to as many as four tests in a league year. (Players that have tested positive previously are subject to an accelerated testing program with significantly more tests.)

Each test is monitored closely, from the collection phase to the final administration of testing. When a player is selected for random testing, he is taken to a "clean area" designated in each clubhouse. He is observed urinating in a provided sample cup, which is sealed and initialled. (Observed? Yes, that means what you think. The "full stream" must be visible from player to cup.) That sample is prepared and sent to MLB's designated lab.

Once at the lab, which is usually the WADA-certified lab in Montreal, the sample would be separated into "A" and B" samples. The "A" sample would undergo a full spectrum of tests, which would include one that looks at the ratio of two substances, testosterone and epitestosterone. The "T/E" ratio in most men is 1:1, but it has been shown that this ratio fluctuates wildly. Controlled studies have been shown that the ratio can go as high as 10:1 in men that have taken no exogenous (non-natural) testosterone. Any test above 4:1 triggers a second, more comprehensive test. At this stage, it is not considered a positive result. The ratio test is merely a trigger.

(CNN) -- The wife of a retired FBI agent who disappeared in Iran nearly five years ago said Friday that the family received a video of her husband being held hostage a "little more than a year ago" and has only now released it publicly in an attempt to prompt his release.

The video features nearly a minute of Robert Levinson, appearing gaunt and pleading for help. His family has posted the video on its website, www.helpboblevinson.com, along with two minutes of video of his wife, Christine, and his son, David, asking his captors for guidance on how they can help bring about his release.

"We feel that this is a way to try and reach them with our plea and the video to them to let us know what the family needs to do to get Bob home, alive and quickly," Christine Levinson told CNN.

She said it was "very sad to see him looking the way he does."

She said the family had tried to communicate with the captors when they received the video, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton alluded to in March, when she said the United States had received "recent indications" that the 63-year-old Coral Gables, Florida, man was being held in southwest Asia.

Also in March, a U.S. government official and a senior diplomatic official said the United States had received proof that Levinson was alive.

At least one e-mail sent to Levinson's relatives by his captors is believed to have originated from an Internet cafe in Pakistan or Afghanistan, a U.S. government official told CNN on Friday.

At least two meetings involving Iran and the United States took place, said the official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivities surrounding the case. It was unclear who may have attended the meetings, or how or when they may have occurred. Such meetings would be unusual, given that the two countries have no diplomatic relations.

The discussions, not equivalent to negotiations, were described as "working-level," meaning they were not conducted by senior administration officials, the official said.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Friday that the U.S. government was doing what it could. "We have worked on his case since he disappeared and we will continue to do so until he is reunited with his family," he told reporters.

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, D-Florida, said the U.S. government "has pulled out all stops to help," he told CNN.

Since Levinson disappeared, the U.S. government has said repeatedly that it hopes Iran would provide help to find out what happened to Levinson who was last seen on Iran's Kish island in 2007. Levinson's wife and son also travelled to Iran seeking information about him.

Levinson was last reported seen on Iran's Kish Island in March 2007. In the video, he said he had been held for three-and-a-half years.

His appearance marked the first publicly known evidence that he was alive. He wore a white shirt and spoke seated in front of a gray wall. Middle Eastern-style music played in the background.

(CNN) -- An update rolling out Tuesday for the Xbox Live network aims to do what Microsoft has been teasing for a while -- turn a platform designed primarily for video games into one that will be the major hub for all television viewing.

Microsoft promises the update, which it calls "the future of TV," can "transform every Xbox 360 into an all-in-one device to enjoy your entertainment."

"The update is another huge step toward realizing our vision of bringing you all your entertainment, shared with the people you care about, in an easy way," Marc Whitten, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Xbox Live, wrote on the official Microsoft blog.

The Xbox was the first gaming console to include Netflix and has since added entertainment partners such as ESPN, Hulu Plus, AT&T U-verse and last.fm. But Microsoft, hoping a bevy of new apps will up the ante, is adding content from 40 new partners while making existing content easier to view.

One of the free update's key new features will be a voice-control interface that will let users retrieve videos, television channels, games or other content simply by asking for it.

The feature combines the Xbox 360's hands-free Kinect system with technology from Microsoft's Bing search engine to hunt down the content. Primarily billed as a gaming tool, Kinect uses a 3-D video camera and voice recognition to let the user interact with the TV screen without a controller.

The new partners, or updated apps, to be unveiled Tuesday include content from ESPN, Hulu, Netflix and MSNBC in the United States. In the coming weeks and months, Xbox will add YouTube, Best Buy's CinemaNow, HBO Go, Major League Baseball and Comcast's Xfinity On Demand. Time Warner, HBO's parent company, also owns CNN.

Microsoft said the update will also add social features, from voting on who you think will win the big game to tools letting you notify friends when you're tackling a multiplayer game they can join.

At a time when technology heavyweights such as Apple and Google are trying to gain footholds in the interactive TV market, some analysts are saying Microsoft has become the player to beat.

(CNN) -- PayPal has backed off an online spat with humor blog Regretsy after getting withering Web feedback for shutting down a drive to buy holiday gifts for children in need.

And the online payments service is even chipping in to help buy a few more gifts after temporarily shutting down the Secret Santa fund because the for-profit site was running it.

"(W)e can confirm that the funds have been released and we are working directly with the account holder on this matter," a PayPal representative said via e-mail. "We are also making a donation to Regretsy to help families in need this holiday season. We're very sorry this occurred."

Run by actress-comedian April Winchell, Regretsy is a snarky blog created primarily to mock what it considers awkward, ugly or otherwise head-turning offerings on the arts-and-crafts site Etsy.

But, perhaps in a bid for some good karma, the site maintains a charity fund that has given money to causes from breast-cancer research to Etsy community members in need.

Last month, Winchell, who uses the pen name "Helen Killer" on the blog, put out a call for community members who knew of children at risk of not getting gifts this Christmas. On December 1, she announced that 200 children had been approved and put out a call for donations -- one that she wrote raised thousands of dollars in a few hours.

"You people make me sick," she wrote, mocking, as she frequently does, the tone some Etsy users take when they find their work has been featured on Regretsy. "Funded. Overfunded, in fact. In just a few hours. We now have enough money to make gifts to the families, as well as these kids. Good job a--holes."

Then came the trouble.

On Monday, Winchell wrote that PayPal, which was processing the donations, shut down the drive because she had used a "Donate" button that she learned is only for nonprofit groups. She said she had a "very long and jaw-dropping conversation with an incredibly condescending representative," who told her she had to refund donations.

She wrote she hatched a plan to return the donations, then "sell" the toys that had already been purchased to the donors, only to be told that, too, violated PayPal rules.

PayPal said it has clear guidelines for any business that uses the service to collect donations. (The statement did not directly address whether Regretsy had violated those guidelines, saying it can't comment directly on accounts due to privacy policies). The representative said such guidelines are required by law.

"We appreciate that this can be an inconvenience, but we have a responsibility to all our customers -- both donors and recipients; or buyers and sellers," the PayPal rep said. "In this instance, we recognized our error and moved as swiftly as possible to fix it."

(CNN) -- Provocative flight attendants' uniforms used to raise eyebrows in the 1970s "Fly Me" era of aviation, but these days it's the passengers who are under scrutiny for their attire.

Saggy pants, exposed underwear and flashes of skin are getting some fliers in trouble and prompting questions about what's acceptable to wear when you're stuck in a metal tube with hundreds of strangers.

Consider these recent examples.

On September 1, Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong tweeted, "Just got kicked off a Southwest flight because my pants sagged too low!"

A local television producer who was on the same flight from Oakland, California, to Burbank, California, said a flight attendant approached Armstrong as he was trying to find his seat and asked him to pull his pants up. When he dismissed the request, she repeated it, the witness said. Armstrong was then removed from the flight.

Southwest Airlines said it was sorry about the incident.

"As soon as we became aware of what had happened, we reached out to apologize for this customer's experience," said spokesman Chris Mainz in a statement.

"He elected to take the next flight. We followed up with this customer and involved employees to get more details and, in our latest conversations, understand from the customer the situation was resolved to his satisfaction."

Oprah.com: What not to wear to airports

A tale of two incidents

In June, Deshon Marman -- a football player at the University of New Mexico -- was arrested on board a US Airways flight at San Francisco International Airport following an incident that started at the gate, when agents asked Marman to pull up his pants to cover his underwear, police said.

After repeated refusals from Marman, the crew alerted the captain to the disruption and police were called in to assist, authorities said.

The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office declined to file charges against Marman in the case.

US Airways did not reply to requests for an interview for this story, but spokeswoman Valerie Wunder said at the time that although the carrier does not have a specific dress code, it asks "passengers to dress in an appropriate manner to ensure the safety and comfort of all our passengers."

But the airline came under fire when it was revealed that just days earlier, it allowed a man dressed only in blue women's underwear, black thigh-high stockings and a blue tank top covered by a see-through cardigan to fly from Florida to Arizona.

(Matador Network) -- The chance to give something back, an opportunity to share your skills and knowledge, to meet other travelers or simply to meet the locals...

There are many reasons to volunteer while you're traveling and there are literally thousands of charities and organizations that look for help from passing travelers.

Matador Network: How to travel for free

Many ask for donations or fees to cover costs and others operate as for-profit businesses, but the list below includes only those that cost little or nothing to get involved with and help out:

1. WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms)

Board and lodging is offered in exchange for a day's work on the farm. Stays available from one week to many years, and with thousands of hosts available in 53 countries there's an opportunity suitable for everyone.

For more information, check out A First-Timer's Guide to WWOOF-ing.

Matador Network: Four questions to ask before WWOOF-ing

2. Turtle Teams, Worldwide

A generic name for the thousands of small groups that help threatened sea turtles. Most groups are based at one or two nesting beaches — which are typically at risk from over-exploitation — and appreciate help for even just one night.

Search for groups at the local tourist office close to any tropical beach and help a species come off the endangered list. More information can be found at these larger organizations: www.seaturtles.org and www.cccturtle.org.

3. Conservation Volunteers, Australia and New Zealand

Through various short-term projects in Australia, New Zealand, and a few international locations, you'll work in teams to protect habitats and promote ecotourism.

A small fee (usually around AUS$100 for a week) is usually required to participate, but covers all food and lodging. UK-based BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) has similar opportunities.

4. Sudan Volunteer Programme, Sudan

Teach English in one of the world's most impoverished countries. Placements are at schools or universities, but many volunteers help with community projects in additional to their teaching.