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FLASH: West Virginia University Leaves the Sinking Ship Known as the Big East to Go to Big 12
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University and the Big East Conference have reached a conditional agreement to settle their legal battles against one another, a source told the Charleston Daily Mail Thursday evening.
A formal announcement could be made as early as Friday. That is also when the Big 12 is set to release its 2012 conference football schedule, media outlets reported Thursday.
The Big East will make about $20 million from the resolution, with WVU paying $11 million.
The source said the Big 12 would handle the remaining amount and the Mountaineers will enjoy full membership in that conference beginning July 1.
The source said WVU’s early exit from the Big East is no longer conditional upon Boise State joining the Big East as a replacement in 2012.
That had been an obstacle standing in the way of a conclusion, but the Big East will now take the money WVU was offering to find a replacement and use it however it chooses.
Boise State’s president said last week it was too late for his school to join.
The Broncos may still join in time for 2012, or it may indeed be too late. Either way, the source said that decision is no longer attached to the Mountaineers.
Comments »INMATES RIOT AT SAN QUENTIN PRISON
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SHOCK: Ex-Red Sox Pitcher “Oil Can” Boyd was High on Cocaine 2/3 of the Time on Mound
BOSTON (CBS) – Former Red Sox pitcher Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd admitted on Wednesday that two-thirds of the time he was on the mound, he was under the influence of cocaine.
“Oh yeah, at every ballpark. There wasn’t one ballpark that I probably didn’t stay up all night, until four or five in the morning, and the same thing is still in your system,” Boyd told WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Jonny Miller in Fort Myers, Fla. “It’s not like you have time to go do it while in the game, which I had done that.
“Some of the best games I’ve ever, ever pitched in the major leagues I stayed up all night; I’d say two-thirds of them,” said Boyd, who spent eight of his 10 major league seasons with the Red Sox. “If I had went to bed, I would have won 150 ballgames in the time span that I played. I feel like my career was cut short for a lot of reasons, but I wasn’t doing anything that hundreds of ball players weren’t doing at the time; because that’s how I learned it.”
Despite that, Boyd said he has no regrets in his career that spanned from 1982 t0 1991.
“It was something that I had to deal with personally and I succumbed,” he said. “I lived through my life and I feel good about myself. I have no regrets about what I did or said about anything that I said or did. I’m a stand-up person and I came from a quality background of people.”
Boyd, who went 78-77 with 799 career strikeouts with the Red Sox, Expos and Rangers, said he received support from some teammates, but not all.
“All of them didn’t rally around me,” he explained. “All of them knew and the ones that cared came to me. The Dwight Evans and Bill Buckners… It was the veteran ball players. Some guys lived it… They knew what you were doing, and the only way they knew was they had to have tried it too.”
Boyd explained why he believes he got a worse reputation than some others.
“The reason I caught the deep end to it is because I’m black. The bottom line is the game carries a lot of bigotry, and that was an easy way for them to do it,” Boyd said. “If I wasn’t outspoken and a so-called a ‘proud black man,’ maybe I would have gotten the empathy and sympathy like other ballplayers got that I didn’t get; like Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Steve Howe. I can name 50 people that got third and fourth chances all because they weren’t outspoken black individuals.”
Boyd said he was never asked to take a drug test during his playing days.
“I never had a drug test as long as I played baseball,” he said. “I was told that, yeah, if you don’t stop doing this we’re going to put you into rehab, and I told them (expletive) that (expletive). I’m going to do what I have to do, I have to win ball games. We’ll talk about that in the offseason, right now I have to win ball games.”
The retired Red Sox pitcher has been busy as of late. His autobiography, “They Call Me Oil Can,” is scheduled for publication in June. In May, he will be filming his role as pitcher Satchel Paige in a major motion picture about Jackie Robinson, starring Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, Richard Gere and Chadwick Boseman as Robinson.
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PERSONAL FINANCE LESSON: GARY BUSEY Files for Bankruptcy — “I’m Really REALLY Broke”
Gary Busey — who’s starred in more than 70 movies — has less than $50,000 to his name … and more than $500,000 in various debts … this according to official documents obtained by TMZ.
67-year-old Busey filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in California yesterday. Busey checked the box showing he has less than $50,000 in assets … and somewhere between $500,000 and $1,000,000 in various debts.
In the docs, Busey indicates he might owe money to everyone from the IRS … to various lawyers … UCLA Medical Center … Wells Fargo … L.A. County Waterworks Districts … and a storage company.
He also notes that he might owe money to a woman named Carla Loeffler, who sued Busey for allegedly attacking her at a Tulsa airport back in May.
We called Gary for comment — so far, no response.
Comments »Minimum Thought Put into Minimum Wage
by David Asman at FoxBusiness.com
Mitt Romney panicked the other day. The press was raking him over the coals for saying that he worried more about the middle class than he did about the poor. So he panicked and threw a bone to liberals, some of whom he hopes will vote for him in November.
The bone he threw was a promise to index minimum wage to inflation — an idea that’s not only an insult to those who believe in free markets, but also an insult to the millions of young folks who are out of work because of minimum wage laws.
As the brilliant economist Thomas Sowell pointed out in a column this week, a minimum wage is one of the worst things you can do to young folks out of work.
“When you set minimum-wage levels higher than many inexperienced young people are worth, they don’t get hired. It is not rocket science.”
The minimum wage is particularly tough on black teens, whose unemployment rate is now over 39%. But it hasn’t always been that way. Sowell reminds us that black teen unemployment in the late 1940s was under 10%. Why? Because there really wasn’t a minimum wage back then; high inflation had made it meaningless.
So young black men were able to get entry level positions. Sowell was one of them. His first job was delivering telegrams in New York — not a great job, but for a black, high school drop out in the late 1940s, it was a great start. And he wouldn’t have gotten that start if there had been a real minimum wage.
Minimum wage laws prevent that first leg up. And if we index minimum wage to inflation, we’ll see teenage unemployment go even higher.
Read more: http://trade.cc/ajegixzz1loAvTB89
AIR MARSHALS GONE WILD! Tales Of Sexism, Suicide and Bigotry
Managers at the Federal Air Marshal Service regularly made fun of blacks, Latinos and gays, took taxpayer-paid trips to visit families and vacation spots, and acted like a “bunch of school kid punks,” current and former air marshals tell ABC News.
One supervisor was even photographed in 2006 asleep on a flight, carrying a loaded pistol, the air marshals said.
In interviews to be broadcast tonight on “World News with Diane Sawyer” and “Nightline,” the air marshals describe a culture of incompetence, bigotry and sexism on the part of senior managers at some offices that has endured for the last decade and raises questions about the professionalism and performance of the force entrusted with preventing acts of in-flight terrorism.
“Sooner or later, if you do not have people operating at their peak efficiency, then you take the risk that a terrorist is going to get away with his dirty deed,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D.-Florida, who asked for an inspector general’s investigation of the allegations made by current and former air marshals two years ago.
“The culture is, hate African Americans, hate females, go after gays and lesbians cause we don’t like the way they think,” said former air marshal Steve Theodoropoulos.
It was Theodoropoulos, working in the Orlando air marshal office, who provided a photograph to reporters in 2010 of a “distorted air marshal Jeopardy game board” with classifications that were racial slurs aimed at minority and gay air marshals.
“Category pickle smokers was directly aimed at gay males,” he said of the board, which he discovered in a training room at the air marshal office in Orlando. The air marshals say it was removed in 2009.
Other categories included “Our Gang” for African-Americans, “Geraldo Rivera” for Latinos, and “Ellen DeGeneres” for gay female air marshals.
One of the five women listed on the board later tried to commit suicide, according to Theodoropoulos and other air marshals familiar with the case.
Air marshals who were military veterans were listed as “Operators” because they were often called away for training and perceived to be shirking their flight assignments.
“Anybody that’s not like them, they’re against,” said Theodoropoulos. “I mean, how do you operate under those conditions?”
Sen. Nelson says the attitude calls into question the judgments and training of air marshals involved in the incident.
“This behavior went well over the line,” said Sen. Nelson. “This is unprofessional, this is unacceptable and it should have been corrected two years ago when I first reported it to the Inspector General.”
The Inspector General’s report is scheduled to be made public on Thursday, but according to an advance copy obtained by ABC News, the investigation found “a great deal of tension, mistrust and dislike between non-supervisory and supervisory personnel in field offices around the country.”
READ: Excerpts From DHS Inspector General’s Investigation Into Air Marshal Allegations (PDF)
The report, which was triggered by a CNN broadcast about the Jeopardy board in 2010, concludes that the allegations, perceived and real, “posed a difficult challenge for the agency” but, according to a survey of air marshals, “do not appear to have compromised the service’s mission.”
The survey found that 76 per cent of air marshals asked said “people they work with cooperate to get the job done.”
But the Inspector General also warned that”these allegations add unnecessary distraction at all levels at a time when mission tempo is high and many in the agency are becoming increasingly concerned about workforce burnout and fatigue.”
Security ‘Not Compromised’ By Air Marshals
John Pistole, who oversees the air marshals as head of the Transportation Security Administration, said security had not been compromised by the behavior of some air marshals. “Absolutely not,” Pistole told ABC News Tuesday. “The national security mission is always paramount.”
“TSA took a proactive approach to the issues raised and has developed and implemented solutions ahead of the conclusion of the investigation,” said the TSA in a statement to ABC News.
But some members of Congress questioned the report’s conclusion that the mission was not compromised. The Inspector General’s report also failed to fully investigate many of the more damning allegations made against air marshal manager.
“Our review does not support a finding of widespread discrimination and retaliation” within the Federal Air Marshal Service, the report said.
Other air marshals, still working undercover on flights and unable to reveal their names publicly, alleged that managers regularly scheduled themselves on flights so they could visit family or vacation spots.
In one example, the air marshals provided a photograph of a manager who arranged to fly to Brussels at Christmas time, and then jumped a fence to sit next to the Baby Jesus in a nativity crèche in the city’s main square.
Former federal air marshal Theodoropoulos has had his own issues, stemming from an altercation with a bartender that led to his dismissal from the air marshals after a 20-year career in law enforcement.
He and his union say the government used a relatively minor incident as a way to get rid of a whistleblower and send a message to other air marshals to keep quiet.
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Comments »18 Tax Credits for Your Consideration
Foreclosures Shrink by 8.3% in 2011
Sowell: Minimum Wage a ‘Major Social Disaster for Young and Poor Blacks’
It is not written in the stars that young black males must have astronomical rates of unemployment. It is written implicitly in the minimum wage laws.
We have gotten so used to seeing unemployment rates of 30 or 40 percent for black teenage males that it might come as a shock to many people to learn that the unemployment rate for sixteen- and seventeen-year-old black males was just under 10 percent back in 1948. Moreover, it was slightly lower than the unemployment rate for white males of the same age.
How could this be?
Read the rest here.
Comments »Consumer Credit Rises More Than Expected in December
Federal Appeals Court Rules Prop. 8 Ban On Gay Marriage Unconstitutional
via SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional because it violates the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.
But backers of the controversial, voter-approved law quickly signaled that they planned to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court ruled 2-1 to uphold the decision of a lower court judge, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco, who determined in Aug. 2010 that Prop. 8 was a violation of the civil rights of gays and lesbians. The panel also rejected claims that Walker, now retired, was biased in his ruling because he is gay and in a long-term relationship with another man.
“Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently. There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted,” the ruling stated.
Judge Stephen Reinhardt, the author of the majority opinion, went on to write: “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for laws of this sort.”
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Download The Complete Court Ruling (.pdf)
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Reihardt, who was appointed to the appeals court by President Jimmy Carter, was joined in the majority opinion by Judge Michael Hawkins, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.
Judge Randy Smith, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, dissented, saying he disagreed that Prop. 8 served no purpose other than to treat gays and lesbians as second-class citizens.
KCBS’ Doug Sovern Reports:
Prop. 8 Ruled Unconstitutional
Tuesday’s ruling did not mean, however, that gay marriages would resume in California anytime soon as the decision of the three judges appeared to pave the way for a likely Supreme Court showdown over the issue.
“No court should presume to redefine marriage. No court should undercut the democratic process by taking the power to preserve marriage out of the hands of the people,” Brian Raum, one of the lawyers hired to defend Prop. 8, said in an e-mail sent to CBS San Francisco.
“We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way. But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court,” Raum added.
Margaret Russell, a professor of constitutional law at Santa Clara University School of Law, told CBS San Francisco that the Supreme Court did not need a conflicting circuit-court decision in order to take up the case, but rather just four justices who deem it worthy of review.
Prop. 8 passed with 52 percent of the vote in 2008 and outlawed same-sex marriages just five months after they became legal in California. Two same-sex couples then brought a lawsuit in 2009 seeking to overturn the measure.
PHOTO GALLERY: The Proposition 8 Court Battle
American Foundation for Equal Rights President Chad Griffin, who formed the legal team that waged the court battle on behalf of the two couples, called the three-judge panel’s ruling “a historic victory.”
More than 150 people who gathered outside the federal courthouse at Mission and Seventh streets in downtown San Francisco also greeted ruling with cheers. They held signs and waved rainbow flags.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris hailed the decision too. In a statement sent to CBS San Francisco, she called it “a victory for fairness, a victory for equality and a victory for justice.”
The Attorney General’s Office had declined to defend Prop. 8 in court, leaving it in the hands of proponents of the measure to mount a defense, after concluding that the law could not be defended on constitutional grounds.
Gov. Jerry Brown, who also refused to defend the measure, issued a statement in which he said, “The court has rendered a powerful affirmation of the right of same-sex couples to marry. I applaud the wisdom and courage of this decision.”
Comments »Obama Flip-Flops and Now Supports Super PAC
In a change of position, Barack Obama’s reelection campaign will begin using administration and campaign aides to fundraise for Priorities USA Action, a super PAC backing the president.
Obama has been an outspoken critic of current campaign financing laws, in particular a Supreme Court ruling that allowed the creation of super PACs. Until now he has kept his distance from Priorities USA Action.
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But in the wake of the group’s anemic fundraising, made public last week, the campaign decided to change its position, and announced the new stance to members of its national finance committee Monday evening.
Two Obama campaign aides confirmed that senior campaign and administration officials who participate at fundraising events for the president’s campaign will also appear at events for Priorities USA Action, the PAC supporting Obama.
“This decision was not made overnight,” one campaign official said. “ The money raised and spent by Republican super PACs is very telling. We will not unilaterally disarm.”
The president, first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden will not appear at super PAC events, the aides said.
In an e-mail to supporters, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said the decision was a reaction to massive fundraising posted by super PACs supporting GOP presidential candidates.
“The campaign has decided to do what we can, consistent with the law, to support Priorities USA in its effort to counter the weight of the GOP Super PACs,” Messina wrote.
“We will do so only in the knowledge and with the expectation that all of its donations will be fully disclosed as required by law to the Federal Election Commission.”
Messina was careful to point out the president’s opposition to a Supreme Court ruling that sparked the onset of super PACs, noting the administration was still looking for ways to put limits on campaign spending.
“The President opposed the Citizens United decision,” Messina wrote. “He understood that with the dramatic growth in opportunities to raise and spend unlimited special-interest money, we would see new strategies to hide it from public view.
“He continues to support a law to force full disclosure of all funding intended to influence our elections, a reform that was blocked in 2010 by a unanimous Republican filibuster in the U.S. Senate. And the President favors action – by constitutional amendment, if necessary – to place reasonable limits on all such spending.”
Priorities USA Action posted receipts of $4.4 million through December 31, 2011, compared to the more than $30 million reported by Restore our Future, a super PAC supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
In an e-mail blast, Jonathan Collegio, spokesman for the conservative groups American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, called the Obama campaign’s move a “brazenly cynical” reversal for a president who just two years ago called spending by these outside groups a threat to democracy.
Collegio highlighted a quote from an October 2010 rally in Philadelphia, when the New York Times quoted Obama as saying, “You don’t know, it could be the oil industry, it could be the insurance industry, it could even be foreign-owned corporations. You don’t know because they don’t have to disclose. Now that’s not just a threat to Democrats, that’s a threat to our democracy.”
American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS plan to raise $300 million to help defeat Obama and his agenda in November.
Mitt Romney’s super PAC reported raising $30 million in 2011, the vast majority of which was spent on negative advertising.
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