As expected, the NFL has suspended New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and imposed team sanctions for “deflategate.” As we discussed this week, the NFL investigation found rejected the claims of innocence in all of the balls being deflated after inspection in the New England’s AFC title game against Indianapolis in January. The NFL report stated “We found these claims not plausible and contradicted by other evidence.” The report found that Brady “was at least generally aware” of all the plans to prepare the balls to his liking and that it was “more probable than not” that two Patriots employees – officials’ locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski – carried out the plan. McNally is accused of demanding expensive shoes and signed footballs, jerseys and cash. Now, Don Yee, the agent for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, has lashed out at the NFL and suggested a bizarre pre-game collusion between the NFL and the Colts.
Month: May 2015
Boston University has been widely criticized for its response to racially-charged comments of its newest professor, Saida Grundy, an incoming assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies. Various news outlets are reporting that BU alums have threatened to withdraw support from the school over hiring a professor who has denounced “white men as a “problem population” and called “white masculinity . . . THE problem for america’s (sic) colleges.” Grundy has made her Twitter account private and refused to make any comments to the media about her past comments that have been denounced as both racist and sexist.
The National Security Agency is still struggling to explain what many denounced as the uncharged act of perjury by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in denying the existence of the secret NSA surveillance program targeting the communications of all Americans. If you recall, the first explanation by Clapper was that his denial was an intentional act to pick the “the least untruthful” statement to answer the question. Then, National Intelligence general counsel Robert Litt (left) insisted that Clapper “misunderstood” the question. Now, Litt is changing spins and saying that Clapper merely forgot about the massive surveillance system. It was not only massive but recently declared illegal, as some of us have long maintained. It is the latest chapter in America’s Animal Farm as average citizens are criminally charged with small discrepancies in statements to investigators while people like Clapper and David Petraeus and Sandy Berger are protected from serious repercussions for alleged criminal acts.
While Professor Saida Grundy has not actually started teaching at Boston University, she is already facing calls for her removal from the faculty. After being hired by BU, Grundy let loose with a series of tweets that are denounced as racist and sexist. Grundy tweeted, for example, “White masculinity isn’t a problem for america’s colleges, white masculinity is THE problem for america’s colleges.” The tweets have triggered a debate over whether there is a double standard for such comments and whether such comments should be treated as protected speech.
Spanish police were a bit surprised when they checked out the luggage of an Ivory Coast woman trying to come into the country from North Africa at a border crossing between Morocco and Spain. They were suspicious because the 19-year-old woman appeared nervous and decided to x-ray her bag. The 8-year-old boy, Abou, was described as in a “terrible state” when he was let out of the bag. It brings a chilling meaning to the old Samonsite slogan: “If you traveled the way your luggage does, would you look as good as Samsonite?”
Continue reading “Spanish Authorities Find Eight Year Old Boy In Luggage At Border”
Egypt continues to descend toward a Sharia-based system with a new prosecution of four teenagers accused of “insulting Islam.” The insult came in a video that the boys shot while on a trip with their teacher Gad Younan, 42 – a film that mocked ISIS. While the boys were accused of insulting Islam, the brief video only showed them mocking ISIS beheadings. One of the boys apparently mumbled an Islam prayer as part of the execution and that was enough to cause riots and demands for their executions. The four teens and teacher are from the ancient Coptic community, a community targeted by Muslim extremists for harassment and killings.
By Cara L. Gallagher, weekend contributor
Who has two thumbs, a lame but accommodating social life, and listened to 150 minutes of oral arguments about same-sex marriage this weekend? This girl.
By now, you’ve likely read or seen a lot of coverage recapping this term’s same-sex marriage cases bundled into Obergefell v. Hodges. Certainly if you have the time and inclination to listen to the oral arguments, do it. The link to both recordings – two separate recordings uploaded to the Court’s website because the traditional time of 60 minutes for oral arguments was extended since five cases were consolidated into one – is here. But if you’re a functioning human being with a life and no time to listen to oral arguments, here’s what I learned after listening to the oral arguments, a couple podcasts, and a few articles. Continue reading “Three Favorites from Two+ Hours of Same-Sex Marriage Oral Arguments”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
This mother’s day, we can all express our gratitude and love for Mitochondrial Eve—the mother from whom we all descend. While we all cannot remember her from long ago we carry with us her lessons passed from her to each mother, who then did so to their children through all mothers of yesterday to all mothers today. Her words live in our Mitochondrial DNA; a part of our genetics that we all share.
Let us all toast this day the mothers of all our families and our common mom!
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
A Seattle news medium saw it fitting to send a news team out to investigate a report of a child leaving school early and walking home. No, it was not The Onion but KOMO News. It does show a sense of the zeitgeist and the culture of fear that is sadly inherent in many today.
A five year old boy wanted to walk home after having first been driving to school by his father. He then left school early and walked home to see his mother. He reportedly walked a mile to reach home.
Continue reading “Child Walks Home From School—Panic Ensues”
I recently posted a blog column about the increasing appearance of graffiti in national and state parks — and the need to ramp up punishments to deter this defacing of our natural wonders and wilderness. The last story concerned Andre Saraiva, an internationally known graffiti artist, who “tagged” and bragged about his own defacing of nature. He spray painted a boulder at the Joshua Tree National Park. Now authorities are looking for a teen who spray painted a rock face in Idaho to impress a girl and get her to go with him to the school prom. It should not be too different to investigate this particular crime, but the question remains the punishment that should be meted out.
There is an interesting case developing in the Dover Police Department where a video has been released that has resulted in the indictment of Officer Tom Webster for his actions during an arrest on August 24, 2013. The suspect appears to be obeying his commands. What is interesting is that a prior grand jury declined to indict Webster, but prosecutors then tried again with another grand jury and secured an indictment.
Continue reading “Delaware Police Officer Indicted In Assault On Suspect Captured on Videotape”
Yesterday I celebrated my birthday on the 6th with a birthday hike on one of my favorite trails: Old Rag in the Shenandoah. Since it was raining the day before (the reason for the the belated hike), there was a deep fog blanketing the mountain. It produced a truly enchanting look in the forest as I climbed to the summit. At the summit, the sun suddenly appeared and burned away the fog — exposing the signature vista of the Old Rag.
The report is in on “Deflategate” and it does not look good for either the Patriots or Tom Brady. As we discussed earlier, Coach Bill Belichick insisted at the earlier press conference that he not only had no idea how the balls were deflated in New England’s AFC title game against Indianapolis in January. He claimed utter ignorance about virtually anything to do with the subject of air pressure and footballs. He was followed by quarterback Tom Brady who, despite previously saying that he preferred underinflated balls, said that he could not tell that the balls were deflated (even when a Colts employee could immediately feel the difference and report it). It is the immaculate deflation. It just happened by some cosmic coincidence over(1) and over(2) and over(3) and over(4) and over(5) and over(6) and over(7) and over(8) and over(9) and over(10) and over(11) again. Ted Wells does not appear to buy it though absent a confession, he could not conclusively say that the team or Brady was guilty. Instead, he concludes in this 243 page report that “We believe it is unlikely that an equipment assistant and a locker room attendant would deflate game balls without Brady’s knowledge and approval.”
Continue reading “The Brady Bunch: Report Implicates Patriots and Brady”
There is an interesting case developing in California where police have arrested three people, including Brandon Kiel, 31 (left), an aide to California Attorney General (and Senate candidate) Kamala Harris. Kiel and Tonette Hayes, 56, and David Henry, 46, were arrested for allegedly operating an illegitimate “police department” that traces its origins to the Knights Templar. They claimed to be running a 3000 year old police organization founded by the Templar Knights with jurisdiction in 33 states and Mexico.
A Minneapolis police officer has been relieved of duty while his department investigates a profanity-laced video in an encounter with a man at a car stop. During the abusive confrontation, the officer threatens to break the legs of a suspect if he attempts to escape.