Tuesday 9 April 2013
Wednesday 3 April 2013
Rutgers Leaders Are Faulted on Abusive Coach
With the business of college sports becoming more crucial to a university s prominence not to mention its bottom line the choice of Mr. Pernetti seemed to pay off. Sports at Rutgers were on the rise and in November the university received a coveted invitation to join the Big Ten an athletic conference that guaranteed vast exposure and huge television revenue.
But now with outrage growing over the abusive behavior of Mike Rice the university s men s basketball coach Mr. Pernetti and the university s president Robert L. Barchi find themselves under scrutiny for their handling of the case. Their jobs may be in jeopardy and their university is once again attracting unflattering attention just two years after Tyler Clementi an 18 year old gay student killed himself after a bullying incident.
On Wednesday morning Rutgers fired Mr. Rice a day after video surfaced of him berating players during practice throwing basketballs at them kicking them and taunting them with vulgar language including homophobic slurs. The firing came four months after Rutgers learned of the abuse allegation and punished Mr. Rice by suspending him for three games fining him $50 000 and ordering him to take anger management counseling.
College sports analysts noted that the video of Mr. Rice first surfaced just as Rutgers was engaged in sensitive negotiations with the Big Ten when the university would have been especially wary of attracting negative attention of any kind.
They had a lot of things going on said Tyrone Thomas a Washington lawyer who advises universities on N.C.A.A. matters. Any type of controversy would have been poorly timed for them.
They had to be sensitive to anything that could rock the boat publicly in any way at that point he added.
In a statement Wednesday Mr. Pernetti said he regretted how the initial disciplining of Mr. Rice was handled.
I thought it was in the best interest of everyone to rehabilitate but I was wrong Mr. Pernetti said. Moving forward I will work to regain the trust of the Rutgers community.
That was not good enough for state officials in Trenton who said they would hold hearings into how Mr. Pernetti and other Rutgers officials responded to initial reports of the abuse after a video was provided to Mr. Pernetti by the former team assistant Eric Murdock. Stephen M. Sweeney a Democrat and the president of the State Senate said officials should strongly consider firing Mr. Pernetti.
Sheila Y. Oliver a Democrat and the speaker of the State Assembly said I want to know what role everybody took in the whole fiasco.
Gov. Chris Christie a Republican said he supported Mr. Rice s dismissal adding The way these young men were treated by the head coach was completely unacceptable and violates the trust those parents put in Rutgers University.
At least 10 faculty members including the dean of the Graduate School at Rutgers in Newark signed a letter calling for Dr. Barchi just seven months into his term to resign for his inexcusable handling of Coach Mike Rice s homophobic and misogynist abuse of our students.
The faculty members accused Dr. Barchi of covering up the coach s behavior by neglecting to tell them and the student body about the extent of it in the fall. In the meantime in December President Barchi reviewed Coach Rice s $700 000 contract and renewed it the letter said.
Top Rutgers officials held an emergency meeting Wednesday afternoon on the university s New Brunswick campus.
Last year under pressure from Mr. Christie the Legislature passed a law reorganizing Rutgers and its three campuses. The plan bitterly debated among students faculty lawmakers and university trustees gave Rutgers control of the medical schools of the long troubled University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey which officials believed would attract more research money and therefore more prestige to Rutgers.
Ariel Kaminer contributed reporting.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction
Correction April 3 2013
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the day Mike Rice was fired. It was Wednesday not Monday.
Finding Dory Will It Create an Ecological Disaster
A Dory like blue tang (Photo ThinkStock) Finding Nemo didn't exactly find lots of fans among animal lovers eco activists and scientists. After all ill equipped fans raced to acquire Nemo esque clownfish as pets others sought to liberate their existing fish by flushing them down the loo or dumping them in the ocean.
But this time around as its sequel has been announced everything seems honky Dory for the most part.
PETA believes that Ellen DeGeneres a vegan and an animal protector will serve as a positive example for children and families as the star of 'Finding Dory ' the organization told Yahoo Movies in a statement. (It's worth noting that DeGeneres was named PETA's Woman of the Year in 2009.)
The animal loving nonprofit organization put a positive spin on their cautionary message to the public In the film Dory will be reunited with her loved ones and we hope that theme will inspire the film's fans to view fish as friends not food and remind everyone that fish like Dory should be permitted to live in peace with their families rather than being captured and forced to live in a microcosm of their natural world a tank or an aquarium separated from everyone and almost everything that is a part of who they are.
PETA did praise Disney when Nemo first came out in 2003 for relaying the friends not food message back then as well.
But it's clear that experts don't want everyone rushing out to buy Dory like blue tang for their at home tanks especially if they wind up having a change of heart and try to flush or dump their finny friends in an effort to help them.
Dory in 'Finding Dory' (Photo Walt Disney/Pixar) A recent U.C. Davis report found that aquarium fish like the ones depicted in Nemo (and hence Dory ) are being thrust upon the open ocean in droves disrupting marine ecosystems. A significant portion of the 11 million plus non native aquarium fish and plants that are imported yearly through California ports are being introduced into the ocean and they're considered invasive species. The results of this study are thought to be indicative of the rest of the world too. And these invasive aquarium fish can be expensive to eradicate. If people were just aware that they shouldn't dump their aquariums in any natural waters that goes a long way to averting this problem Susan Williams told NBC News.
Separately last year the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to expand protection of tropical aquarium fish such as the blue tang and clownfish. The reason the harvesting of such creatures could reduce populations and potentially accelerate the already imperiled health of coral reefs which are jeopardized by such other human spawned bugaboos as climate change and ocean acidification.
Having said that the blue tang is not an endangered species.
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach California seemed as hopeful as PETA that Finding Dory would inspire moviegoers to treat the ocean well. It is our hope that this animated feature inspires people to care for the ocean and its inhabitants Perry Hampton the aquarium's vice president of animal husbandry told Yahoo Movies. Blue tangs can be found around coral reefs which are the living rainforests of the ocean. By reducing pollution greenhouse gas emissions and overfishing we can help protect these important ecosystems and the diversity of life that depends on them.
The Humane Society of the United States is warning future blue tang fans from purchasing fish from their natural habitat. Since kids will likely be fascinated with the blue tang and other fish featured in the film we also hope Disney Pixar will make a point of deterring consumers from buying wild caught fish which is harmful to fragile coral reef ecosystems the organization told Yahoo Movies.
Finding Dory featuring Ellen DeGeneres swims into theaters November 25 2015.
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Two thumbs up for Roger Eberts memorable quotes
Movie critic Roger Ebert says he's taking a leave of presence from his film reviews because of a recurrence of cancer.
In his blog Ebert says he's written 306 movie reviews a blog post or two a week and assorted other articles over the past year the most of his career and he must slow down now.
Ebert says a painful fracture in his hip that made it difficult for him to walk was revealed to be cancer but he's taking the news in stride.
So on bad days I may write about the vulnerability that accompanies illness. On good days I may wax ecstatic about a movie so good it transports me beyond illness he says.
In honor of his nearly 50 year career we also wax ecstatic about Ebert's most memorable quotes
Every great film should seem new every time you see it.
No matter what they're charging to get in it's worth more to get out.
No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.
If he's going to persist in making bad movies he's going to have to grow accustomed to reading bad reviews. referring to Rob Schneider in Deuce Bigelow European Gigolo.
To say that George Lucas cannot write a love scene is an understatement greeting cards have expressed more passion.
Your intellect may be confused but your emotions will never lie to you.
I ve seen audits that were more thrilling. referring to Crocodile Dundee II.
If you have to ask what it symbolizes it didn't.
I stopped taking notes on my Palm Pilot and started playing the little chess game. referring to Masterminds.
Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly.
Exonerated Brian Banks signs with Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta (CNN) Brian Banks wore the uniform of a prison inmate for more than five years serving time for a rape he didn't commit.
This week he learned he'll be wearing an Atlanta Falcons jersey.
Ten months after a California judge tossed out his conviction the 27 year old former high school football standout signed a deal Wednesday to play for the NFL team.
Aside from getting my life back and my freedom back this is the biggest accomplishment of my life he told reporters during a conference call.
As he signed the contract he wore a sweatshirt that showed a California license plate that said XONR8.
We are pleased to have Brian join our team said Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff. We had a chance to work him out last year and have been monitoring his progress since then. He has worked extremely hard for this chance over the last year and he has shown us that he is prepared for this opportunity. We are happy that Brian will have a chance to live out his dream of playing in the NFL and we look forward to seeing him on the field.
Banks who is 6 foot 2 and 250 pounds is a linebacker.
A year ago he was out of prison on parole wearing an ankle monitor as a registered sex offender. The contrast with this week's events is surreal Banks said.
Talk about coming from the bottom he told reporters. I know all too well what that is and what it looks like and what it feels like.
While serving time in prison Banks said he was forced to abandon his hopes of playing in the NFL someday.
I had to watch my class go on and receive scholarships and play collegiate football on a high level he said. For me I had to let those dreams go for me to focus on what was ahead of me and that was five years in prison. That was a completely different life of violence and being away from your family. ... Football was the last thing on my mind and it wasn't until a few months before I was actually being released from prison that I thought about possibly trying to play football again.
At age 17 fearing a potentially long sentence the college football prospect followed the advice of his attorney and pleaded no contest to assaulting a Long Beach California high school classmate in 2002.
Banks was faced with an impossible decision at the time either fight the charges and risk spending 41 years to life in prison or take a plea deal and spend a little over five years of actual prison confinement the California Innocence Project says on its website. Although it would mean destroying his chance to go to college and play football a lengthy probationary period and a lifetime of registration as a sex offender Banks chose the lesser of two evils when he pleaded no contest to the charges.
Such situations are not uncommon the group's director Justin Brooks told CNN last year.
Plea bargains have become the 95% solution he said.
Banks maintained his innocence throughout his imprisonment subsequent probation and registration as a sex offender.
His fortunes began to change in 2011 when the woman who once accused him of rape sent him a Facebook friend request.
According to the California Innocence Project the woman later admitted that Banks had not kidnapped or raped her during a consensual encounter at Long Beach Polytechnic High School where Banks was a middle linebacker with a scholarship offer from the University of Southern California.
In court last year an emotional Banks lowered his head and fought back tears when prosecutors said they were moving to have the conviction dismissed.
We do not believe Mr. Banks did the crime he pled guilty to Deputy District Attorney Brentford Ferreira said. Justice has been served.
Since his exoneration Banks has spent months in intensive training attending San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks minicamps last year.
It's been a long road. It's been a lot of hard work. It is 10 years missing in my football career he said but there has been a lot of work put in to making up for it.
After signing his contract with the Falcons on Wednesday Banks thanked the team's players and personnel from his Twitter account BrianBanksFREE.
CNN's Phil Gast and Chandler Friedman contributed to this report.
Lollapalooza Single Day Passes Sell Out
CHICAGO (CBS) Single day tickets for Lollapalooza sold out in less than two hours on Wednesday.
The single day passes for the music festival in Grant Park went on sale at 10 a.m. and by 11 45 a.m. the promoters announced tickets had sold out.
Three day passes also sold out last month in less than three hours VIP passes sold out on Tuesday.
The only tickets left for Lollapalooza are through pricey Travel Packages which include three night stays at Chicago hotels plus general admission or VIP tickets for the festival. Prices for Travel Packages begin at $1 599 for general admission tickets for two people and run as high as $9 299 for VIP platinum packages for two people.
Running from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4 Lollapalooza is being headlined this year by Nine Inch Nails The Killers Mumford Sons The Cure Phoenix Postal Service Vampire Weekend New Order the Lumineers and Queens of the Stone Age.
Brittney Griner responds to Mark Cubans offer
Kevin Jairaj USA TODAY Sports
Mark Cuban might have to keep a spot open on the Dallas Mavericks' Summer League squad. After the Mavs owner made waves Tuesday night by hinting that he might consider drafting Brittney Griner the former Baylor star responded to his offer over Twitter.
mcuban so when do I show up for try outs
Brittney Griner ( Brittney4Griner) April 3 2013This is looking like more than just a publicity stunt. Griner is clearly just as open to the idea as Cuban. Questions about whether a woman could cut it in the NBA have been brought up including doubts expressed by University of Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma. And while it's unlikely that Griner would actually make an NBA roster it sounds like she would be more than motivated to prove herself. There doesn't appear to be any kind of downside to an owner like Cuban at least giving her an invite to Summer League or training camp invite.
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