Spring Grove, IN – New Spring Grove High School basketball coach Vinny Del Negro is ecstatic about his upcoming opportunity to get fired by the Indiana school. Meeting with reporters on Wednesday, Del Negro said, “I’m expecting big things out of this program. We’re going to put forth nearly maximum effort for the next 2 to 3 years before everyone realizes I’m in over my head and I move on to the next opening.”
The school officially hired Del Negro on Tuesday, hours after the Los Angeles Clippers declined to renew his contact. Del Negro replaces former head coach Teddy Blake, who retired after 20 years and over 300 wins with the Blazers.
Coming off of an 18-8 season, SGHS returns 4 starters who should languish in Del Negro’s system that deemphasizes offensive movement and defensive discipline.
“To take over a successful team with strong community support is very exciting,” Del Negro said. ”I expect Spring Grove to stand behind this team until the second time I burn our last time out with seven minutes left.”
Spring Grove Athletic Director Ben Simpson spoke to the press about the hire. “Well, it’ll be great for these kids to learn from a coach who has failed so spectacularly at such a high level. By consistently getting so little out of talented players, he’ll be a great example to these kids not only on the court, but off the court as well.”
Added Simpson, “If a guy like Vinny can get to the big time, that’s a great confidence boost for these kids as they move forward in their academic and athletic pursuits.”
The Blazers open the season with 4A Champion Carmel on November 17th. Del Negro promises to play all 12 players and at least 57 different lineup combinations in the opener.
April 29th marked the 30th anniversary of former Cubs’ Manager Lee Elia’s epic locker room rant. It seems like an opportune time to reflect on an excruciating character flaw – my Chicago Cubs’ fandom.
Of the minor missteps my mom took, influencing me to be a Cubs’ fan might be the most egregious. In general, red wine has treated me better and fostered slightly smarter decision-making. Let me take you back.
It didn’t have to be this way. Having recently moved from Kansas City where I was a four-year old George Brett fanatic, pictures from Halloween 1983 show a child in a Carlton Fisk White Sox jersey, complete with a Big League Chew habit that was the gateway to junior high escalations. But a tacit White Sox endorsement from my city-raised Pops was not long for this youngster, whose farm-raised mother was ready to pull the South Side weed and plant the seed of pain and broken dreams. A Cubs fan was born.
To put it into context, my mom is from central Illinois, where the accents are thick and they use the word ”feed” as a noun. I can sense conflict in her upbringing as well. Mom talks about her grandfather taking her to Cardinals’ games. My Uncle and her cousins are psychotic, plan-vacations-around-baseball type Cardinals fans. Yet due to my grandfather, and for what it’s worth, Mom evolved as a Cubs’ fan, but without the passive-aggressive racism that was standard issue for populist farmers of my grandpa’s ilk. (He used to call Lee Smith “Big Ugly,” which isn’t necessarily racist on its face, but…)
Mom loves baseball (and college basketball), so Dad conceded and that was that. But it was so close. I could’ve been a Cardinals’ fan – which would’ve meant timely hitting and championships (the reason why sports nerds love sports). But, still – Cardinals’ fans. I could’ve been a White Sox fan and been bred to be a low rent, excuse-making fusspot. But fusspots with a ring. Still…Sox fans.
But enough about me.
Back in 1983 then manger Lee Elia ripped into Cubs fans following a loss that dropped the team to 5-14. It is an epic rant. Elia demonstrates the moxie of Earl Weaver without any of the managerial chops. Take a listen.
1983 was a shitshow. That’s a theme. 1984 was heartbreak. That’s another theme. For all the grief heaped upon Bill Buckner for his infamous 1986 error, Leon Durham was the original Buckner. The Cubs’ had the NLCS. Had it. Then right through the Bull’s wickets went the season and Steve Garvey celebrated by impregnating a stranger.
I remember Game 5. Remember it well. Holding onto my initial Royals’ fandom, I was able to celebrate their ’85 title. I remember both these postseasons vividly – which is weird considering I was 6 years old and I can’t remember the last time I got the oil changed in my car.
On and on it has gone. Years of spectacular ineptitude interspersed with heartbreak (2003) and disappointment (1989, 2008).
However, is it possible that the eternal optimism of Cubs’ fans may finally be warranted? We’ve entered a new era – new ownership, and more importantly, 21st Century Management.
Full disclosure: I’ve been to maybe 2 game in the last 4 years (down fr. a height of about 20/yr). I can’t bring myself to watch them on television. So how can I finally be optimistic? It seems like grownups are in charge and the organization is evolving. Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer are astute and have a track record of building champions. Tom Ricketts, though he has made some missteps, is interested in updating the garbage ballpark and bringing in new revenue so that, pending a new tv deal, the Cubs will be able to financially sustain success without having to throw huge money and no-trade clauses at overrated free agents.
Here’s the problem. As Wrigley renovations creep forward, some of my fellow Cubs fans are bucking, reluctant to give up a “tradition” that has ruthlessly and repeatedly stomped on them before annually kicking them to the curb. Honestly, forget tradition. The Cubs’ laughable and losing tradition is so ubiquitous that it’s the butt of jokes for late night talk shows and people who don’t even know how many innings are in a game.
They don’t want the electronic scoreboard. No elevated seating. No more night games. Don’t build a hotel. Please don’t block the rooftop leeches! They want to retain all the urine-soaked mystique of 1983, the ”playground for the cocksuckers.”
These people – who include the grown men who wait on Waveland Ave. for a home run to exit the park 81 days a year so they can run after it with their gloves like the stupidest chickens in the henhouse – these people are who Lee Elia is talking about (“the motherfuckers don’t even work!”) and they persist to this day.
They talk about how it can be done without change. How it can be done without touching one men’s room trough. They talk about how the Red Sox won championships in Fenway Park. You know what? Fuck Fenway Park. Fenway is one of the most overrated venues I’ve ever attended, but it’s great if you want your seat to face the right fielder instead of home plate.
When I read op-eds like this one bemoaning the addition of a video scoreboard and increased signage (revenue streams), I get pissed. When I hear about the “poor roof top owners,” I boil with rage. Have you ever watched a game from up there? Trick question. You can’t. And they’re already a ripoff so seriously fuck them and fuck the homeowners. Quite frankly, I like having the stadium in the middle of Doucheville, but you can knock it down and build it next door (like the Yankees) or move it to another part of town. Wrigley is a shithole with shitty facilities, shitty scoreboards, and garbage food. US Cellular is a better place to watch baseball. I’ve always maintained that people who argue “the Cell” is in a bad neighborhood are more likely to get in an altercation with some drunk meathead around Wrigley. But that’s a red herring. Sox fans will look for any excuse not to come out to the ballpark.
The point is: forget tradition. The Cubs’ tradition is losing, and doing it in spectacular fashion.
From a baseball perspective, Theo and Jed have already turned one of the worst farm systems in baseball into an average one. That’s no small feat. Savvy signings like Pat Maholm and Travis Wood are not the future of your rotation. They’re trade bait to build internally. Rizzo and Castro signed long term deals that are extremely beneficial to the organization. I’m not sure people understand the extent of the damage that the Tribune Co. and Jim Hendry and his No-Trade-Clause dispenser did to the organization. Piece by piece, build from within and then you have money to timely throw at free agents when you’re ready to contend.
In conclusion: Burn. It. Down. As it rises from the ashes, Theo and Jed will cultivate the most overdue of championships. Print it!
Happy anniversary, Mr. Elia. Hit the ball. catch the ball. and get the fucking job done.
SAGINAW, MI – As he approached a grown man dressed as the Statue of Liberty early Tuesday afternoon, local man David Briggs crossed to the other side of the street. “I’m not sure if he’s there for the pawn shop or the car wash, but I didn’t really want to find out,” said Briggs, who had planned on having lunch at the strip mall’s Subway. Citing the awkwardness of making eye contact with a costumed man holding onto his last shred of dignity as well as a “1/2 OFF!” placard, Briggs added, “I know times are tough, but man. What’s that guy, like 35? That’s harsh.” Following the incident, Briggs proceeded to eat lunch at the Wendy’s across the street despite really craving a turkey sub.
The above graph relates to private sector job growth during Bush + Obama terms. Obviously, Obama took office shortly after the ’08 economic collapse – the worst in 3 generations. To be fair, Bush took office during a period of tepid growth following the burst of the stock market bubble.
At the end of Mr. Bush’s second term, private employment was collapsing, and there were net 665,000 jobs lost during Mr. Bush’s two terms.
The recovery has been sluggish under Mr. Obama’s presidency too, and there were only 1,933,000 more private sector jobs at the end of Mr. Obama’s first term. A couple of months into Mr. Obama’s second term, there are now 2,282,000 more private sector jobs than when he took office.
But what about Big Government Obama? Stimulus. Obamacare. Basketball.
A big difference between Mr. Bush’s tenure in office and Mr. Obama’s presidency has been public sector employment. The public sector grew during Mr. Bush’s term (up 1,748,000 jobs), but the public sector has declined since Obama took office (down 718,000 jobs). These job losses have mostly been at the state and local level, but they are still a significant drag on overall employment.
Dozens of election cycles focused on Obama’s middling job numbers without drawing this distinction. Obviously many of these jobs were at the state and local level – governments similarly hit by crippling financial crisis (for some) of ’08 and the subsequent loss in revenue.
Austerity measures are hurting job growth (and worse) in all corners of the globe. As the economy strengthens, maybe a little reinvestment will help job numbers match other economic growth numbers and we can all capture a sliver more than the 7% the top-1% is leaving for us…
” ’5′ is the number of scandals I promise in 2013!”
Despite courageous union-busting and fundraising efforts, Governor Scott Walker is having a rough time turning America’s Dairyland into Galt’s Gulch. (Of course, Galt’s Gulch isn’t real, but not everyone knows this.)
The good news is that Walker created a taxpayer-funded pseudo-private agency to address this specific issue. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is just the shot-in-the-arm the state needs to aid in job creation and create a ”business friendly” environment. We’re looking forward to a new future starting in July, 2011. Whoops.
In effect for 2 years, the WEDC is running pretty smoothly except for the job creation part, right?
the WEDC has not done a good job of that since it became operational in July 2011 under its former CEO, Paul Jadin. The former Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce president left the position after 16 months amid reports of a lack of oversight of $56 million in loans.
Ok, but other than the job creation and the initial growing pains and mismanagement, the WEDC is doing a great job, eh?
[2013] Auditors said employees of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., a quasi-private entity, made a number of questionable and unexplained purchases, including season tickets to UW-Madison football games and iTunes gift cards, [alcohol], and contracted for services without conducting open and competitive selection processes.
But still – Badger games are irresistible and these suits need to learn words to recent urban hit “Jump Around,” which is played between the 3rd and 4th Quarters. Hence the booze and iTunes gift cards.
So maybe there’s a little bit of waste in the agency, but other than the job creation, and the mismanagement, and the ethics considerations, and the monetary waste, Walker has maintained a pretty clean record through his first term. Correct?
In all, Milwaukee County prosecutors brought charges against six individuals as a result of the probe, which was opened in May 2010. Of those, three were former Walker aides, one was an appointee and another a major campaign contributor.
Walker’s total legal tab due to the John Doe probe: $650,000. Prosecutors closed the case without bringing charges against the governor or anyone in his current administration.
What about John Doe? This happened before he took office – doesn’t count. (Just like when he got busted for dirty campaign tricks at that college he never graduated from.)
Walker’s deputy chief of staff, Tim Russell, was sentenced in January to two years in prison for stealing from a charity meant for military combat veterans and their families.
That’s essentially the same as the last one. No double-dipping.
Computers and cellphones seized from the home shared by former Walker aide Timothy Russell and his domestic partner [& GOP Operative] Brian Pierick revealed a series of text messages that Pierick exchanged with a 17 year old boy from Waukesha, Wisc. in 2010. As a result, Pierick was charged on Thursday with child enticement and causing a child to expose his genitals.
First of all, what about the liberal media? Second, we can’t all surround ourselves with Albert Einstein’s and Bob Loblaw’s.
Folks. No one is better equipped to take Wisconsin from 11th to 44th and back to 39th better than Scott Walker. That’s exactly why he’s the guy national Republicans want to lead them into the future via the past!
Some New Zealand parents were getting so creative devising unique names for their newborns that the country’s Department of Internal Affairs has stepped in to stop the shenanigans.
New Zealand released an official list of rejected names on Wednesday that includes “4Real,” “Mafia No Fear” and “Anal.” Other gems — like “.” and “*” — didn’t even bother with the alphabet. All of the names on the list were at some point proposed by parents, soon to be rejected by the government, which deemed the names too offensive.
“Henry testified about his own health problems, including five heart attacks.” 6th one is on the house.
The EEOC is the primary government agency enforcing labor laws that deal with discrimination. While still understaffed from the Bush years, in my experience the EEOC can investigate workplace issues with the best of them. I can’t imagine some of the details they uncovered in this case.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A jury on Wednesday awarded $240 million to 32 mentally disabled men for what government lawyers say was years of abuse by a Texas company that arranged for them to work at an Iowa turkey processing plant and oversaw their care, work and lodging.
The award handed out by a federal jury in Davenport was the largest ever given in the 48-year history of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit against Henry’s Turkey Service.
The jury determined that the now-defunct Goldthwaite, Texas, company had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by creating a hostile environment and imposing discriminatory conditions of employment on the men. It found that Henry’s acted with “malice or reckless indifference” to their civil rights, and awarded each man $7.5 million in damages.
These men worked there since the 1970s and received $65/month (or .41 cents/hour). No raise. Because capitalism. During this time, no one from the company developed a conscience and alerted authorities. Maybe because the perks were so awesome?
The abuse was uncovered in 2009 after one of the men’s sisters tipped off Iowa officials to the unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the rural bunkhouse where the men were housed. State inspectors found the building, which is a several miles from the West Liberty plant where the men worked, to be falling apart, infested with rodents and full of fire hazards, so they shut it down and placed the men with new caretakers. The EEOC later sued.
Social workers testified that the men described a life of constant abuse by their Henry’s handlers. They said they had been forced to work through illness and injuries, denied bathroom breaks, locked in their rooms, kicked in the groin and, in one case, handcuffed to a bed. [...]
Rain entered their bedrooms through failing windows and made their beds wet. Supervisors forced them to walk in circles carrying heavy weights as punishment. Supervisors picked on a man who had a brace on his leg, often pushing him down. Another man had been kicked in the groin and was found with “testicles that were quite swollen.” Others were often locked in their bedrooms at night, said [Sue Gant, a developmental psychologist who interviewed the men.]
So how does something like this happen?
Henry’s began employing mentally disabled men in the 1960s and 1970s who had been released from Texas mental institutions. Hundreds of them were sent to labor camps in Iowa and elsewhere in the coming decades, where they were supplied on contract as workers to local employers. Company officials argued the arrangement was a benefit to the men, and that they were once praised for giving them employment opportunities.
Huzzah Henry’s! So don’t worry guys, criminal charges won’t be filed. Just ask company president Kenneth Henry (that’s the company’s name!). The defense’s only witness testified that he didn’t know anything for 40 years except for the terrible things he knew about.
Kenneth Henry, 72, of Proctor, Texas, also denied allegations that the workers — whom he repeatedly referred to as “the boys,” although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s — were routinely abused or neglected.
But when asked whether he had exercised good judgment by allowing one of his supervisors to continue working with the men after others said they had witnessed the supervisor physically abusing workers, Henry replied, “Probably not.”
The company president also revealed that a worker who lived in the Iowa bunkhouse froze to death in the 1980s.
I see. You “didn’t know about it” just like Joe Paterno “didn’t know about it.” Well maybe you can get cancer and die soon too!
“I never had any complaints from the boys,” he testified. “If something was going on, I feel they most definitely would have said something to me.”
It’s their fault for being mentally disabled and their fault for not speaking up in a timely manner and their fault for not knowing how to report abuse to authorities. Rot.
Well at least the silver lining is that this company will be soaked, the victims compensated and future corporate abuse and malfeasance will be deterred.
The defunct company isn’t expected to be able to pay anywhere near the full amount of damages. The EEOC will work with the U.S. Department of Justice to examine company assets that could be seized to pay toward the judgment, including more than 1,000 acres of land in Texas worth up to $4 million, [EEOC attorney Robert] Canino said.
Last year, Philadelphia cop Jonathan Josey was charged with simple assault following the incident below:
We’ve all experienced Puerto Rican Day parades – they’re a huge inconvenience for errand-runners and a traumatic day for the flag-phobic. But this could be a little excessive.
On the witness stand earlier this month, Josey was near tears while telling the judge he swung at Guzman to knock a beer bottle out of her hand, and he wasn’t trying to hurt her. He said he and other officers were hit with beer from behind and, each time he turned to see who did it, he saw Guzman jumping up and down.
Josey conceded he never saw Guzman throw beer. Guzman was arrested that day but charges against her were later dropped.
“Woman-jumping-in threatening-manner-as-self-defense.” Well-asserted Officer Josey. I’m sure the Judge will see right through that.
Judge Patrick Dugan (who is married to a philly cop) agreed that Josey was just protecting his delicate fist from the victim’s crazy woman’s dangerous spanish-speaking mouth.
Following the acquittal, Josey wiped away the tears and logged into facebook to celebrate his resiliency and muscles.
Josey even took to Facebook to celebrate. He posted a picture of himself striking a triumphant pose and changed his name on the page to “Jonathan ManofSteel Josey.”
And for that, a charge of Douchebaggery in the second degree is upheld.
Teachers in the Congo peacefully protested amidst ongoing contract negotiations and concerns about working conditions. So of many of them have been arrested, detained and denied access to an attorney.
Hilaire Eyima, head of the French department at the school Lycée de la Révolution, was arrested by plainclothes police officers at his home on 18 April. He is still being held at the headquarters of the General Directorate for the Surveillance of the Territory (DGST).
Claude Nzingoula, a teacher at the medical school in the capital Brazzaville, was arrested on Friday 19 April at his school and was also taken to the DGST headquarters, where he has been detained since.
The strike began on February 25.
Other CPRE members have been harassed and intimidated and some have gone into hiding after their houses were searched without a warrant.
“Instead of punishing them for standing up for their rights, the Congolese authorities should ensure teachers are able to protest without fear of reprisals and engage in a constructive dialogue with them,” said Paule Rigaud.
There might not be a place on earth with more mineral wealth than the Congo. So of course it’s a violently corrupt hellscape where government assists warlords and corporate raiders in exploiting everyone because there’s a ton of wealth to be extracted and it’s Sub-Saharan Africa.
Meridian, Mississippi was the home of James Chaney, one of the 3 Civil Rights workers killed in the notorious 1964 murders in neighboring Neshoba County. 50 years later…
MERIDIAN: Someone hung a noose with a stuffed animal outside the office a Meridian mayoral candidate.
Meridian police tell WTOK-TV they found a hooded baby blanket with a stuffed dog’s head hanging by a noose Thursday morning. It was outside the insurance office of Percy Bland, a Democratic candidate for mayor. Bland is black.
Bland says he refuses to be intimidated and will continue his campaign. He faces Rod Amos in the May 7 Democratic primary.
At the end of the Clarion Ledger’s article was a lone comment so of course I had to take a look because I don’t like myself. Commenter Sam Harrell wonders the following: Why wasn’t the article headlined like “Someone hung a stuffed animal on the candidate’s office”?
Oh hey – great question. It’s almost like the paper is implying a noose has some sort of historical symbolism. Where do they pull this stuff from? I don’t know. I’m just a Yankee with a Netflix subscription.
But what kind of stuffed dog was it and where did it come from?! (A: ?/China)
I guess when someone looks at the Clarion Ledger’s comment section, he gets what he deserves. Don’t look at comment sections, kids.
Spring Grove, IN – New Spring Grove High School basketball coach Vinny Del Negro is ecstatic about his upcoming opportunity to get fired by the Indiana school. Meeting with reporters on Wednesday, Del Negro said, “I’m expecting big things out of this program. We’re going to put forth nearly maximum effort for the next 2 [...]
April 29th marked the 30th anniversary of former Cubs’ Manager Lee Elia’s epic locker room rant. It seems like an opportune time to reflect on an excruciating character flaw – my Chicago Cubs’ fandom. Of the minor missteps my mom took, influencing me to be a Cubs’ fan might be the most egregious. In general, [...]
SAGINAW, MI – As he approached a grown man dressed as the Statue of Liberty early Tuesday afternoon, local man David Briggs crossed to the other side of the street. “I’m not sure if he’s there for the pawn shop or the car wash, but I didn’t really want to find out,” said Briggs, who had [...]
