Nationalplatforms.com is one of the latest in political websites that functions as a centralized location to get the platform positions of all the current presidential candidates. While it is still a work in process, you may want to keep this in your bookmarks as we get closer to the election season.
NEW YORK (AP) — The ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Fashion designer Marc Ecko, who bought the ball in an online auction, set up a Web site for fans to vote on the ball’s fate, and Wednesday announced the decision to brand it won out over the other options — sending it to Cooperstown unblemished or launching it into space.
Ecko said he believed the vote to brand the ball showed people thought “this was shrouded in a chapter of baseball history that wasn’t necessarily the clearest it could be.”
Ecko, whom Bonds called “an idiot” last week, had the winning bid Sept. 15 in the online auction for the ball that Bonds hit Aug. 7 to break Hank Aaron’s record of 755 home runs. The final selling price was $752,467, well above most predictions that assumed Bonds’ status as a lightning rod for the steroids debate in baseball would depress the value.
The asterisk suggests that Bonds’ record is tainted by alleged steroid use. The slugger has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs. Fans brought signs with asterisks on them to ballparks as he neared Aaron’s hallowed mark. (more…)
(ballerstatus.com) The wrongful death suit of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. just got a little more complicated recently, when a prison inmate who had implicated a former Los Angeles Police Department officer in the shooting of the rapper renounced his story, making the unsolved case even that more of a mystery.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Waymond Anderson, who is serving a life term for murder, said in a recent deposition that he lied about LAPD involvement in the Notorious B.I.G. murder as part of a “scam” to benefit from large monetary settlement out of the city.
That’s not all either. He also accused the rapper’s family and its lawyer of participating in the scheme and offering to pay him for false testimony implicating the LAPD.(more…)
Bottom line–somebody knows something. And they are paying a lot of money to keep it in the dark.
(AllAfrica.com/ipsnews.net) Every night besides the town hall of Athens, next to Omonia square, where the narrow streets of the popular entertainment hub district Psirris begin, black girls from Nigeria gather to work.
Dressed provocatively, they approach people who pass by and offer their services. “Come on baby I know you want me”, you hear one say playfully with a big smile on her face. Or is it a mask she wears?
The beautiful young Nigerians, between 20 and 25 years old, are victims of trafficking, forced to prostitute themselves for little money.
“Everyone knows that. The young Athenians who gather in Psirris to have fun; the policemen who casually drive through the area to keep an eye on things; the mayor of Athens; most of all the ‘customers’,” says resident Miltiadis Papathomopoulos, as he stares at the girls, and the people walking by. (more…)
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(SI.com) Most recently, of course, Donovan McNabb, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, declared that African-American quarterbacks suffer much more scrutiny than their white brethren. It was a particularly interesting observation coming from McNabb, because, if you recall, Rush Limbaugh resigned from ESPN four years ago for saying that the very same McNabb was overrated, inasmuch as the oh-so-sweet white media desperately wanted a black quarterback to succeed.
All this, though, comes on the heels of the following:
About three times as many black fans as white fans rooted for Barry Bonds to pass Henry Aaron’s record. Of course, Aaron is African-American too, but so many blacks believed that whites were singling out Bonds to demonize him alone as a steroid-user that it became a race issue.
Likewise, black supporters of Michael Vick claimed that white critics were piling on Vick for running dog fights and killing and torturing dogs simply because he was a black star.
Gary Sheffield of the Detroit Tigers alleged that the reason there were so many more Hispanics in baseball than African-Americans was because baseball executives thought Latinos were more malleable.
If you will excuse me, of all the overblown racial issues in this country, the sturm and drang wasted on the declining numbers of African-Americans playing baseball is surely No. 1. We are supposed to get exercised because black kids now choose basketball and football over baseball? This is baseball’s fault? As long as children are playing sports, instead of playing video games — fine. Whether they prefer soccer, skateboarding or sprinting — who cares?
As for McNabb, he has not found a lot of support for his contentions — including a couple of other African-American quarterbacks, who have said, essentially, hey, Donovan, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the huddle. Listen, quarterback is the most scrutinized position in American sport. There’s even a truism that the best job in football is back-up quarterback, because everybody thinks you must be great … until you become the starting quarterback and then you’re a bum. (more…)
Again, I believe that this whole issue is being carried largely by mainstream media and not by your average sports fan. However I do how his comments are a bit insulting to a fan base that only cares if you win or loose games. Trust me, it will be the press, not fans that will remind him of his quote sometime later in the season.
I remember back in the day when back up quarterback Doug Williams for the Washington Redskins had to take over for the injured Jay Schroeder, folks were unsure about him and the team’s chances of going to the Super Bowl. After he led the team to win over the Broncos in the ‘88 Superbowl, he became the hero.
Anybody remember someone in the press asking him “How long have you been a black quarterback?”
Todd Lewan of the Associated Press the other day did a story on the Jena situation that clarified some of the misinformation surrounding the case. I first heard about some of this information by way of a fellow blogger pointing me to a piece written by Jason Whitlock who mentioned some of these findings in his latest piece. I had no way of confirming it, so I thought best to wait for a minute to see if any of this was being disputed. So far I have heard nothing. I even did a search for Todd Lewan’s name in Technorati (a site that keeps track of various subjects within the blogosphere) and found not one mention of his name or the article on any of the same websites that had been tracking this case from day one (as of 11:10pm PST on 9/24).
Here is a portion of Lewan’s article. I would advise readers to read the whole article by following the link at the end of this excerpt below as he also does confirm with locals that there has been some racial problems within the Jena justice system.
Black and white, they say that in its repeated retelling — enhanced by omissions and alterations of fact — the story has taken on a life of its own. It has transformed a school-yard stomping into an international cause celebre, and those accused of participating in it into what one major Southern daily came to describe as “latter-day Scottsboro Boys.”
And they say that while their town’s race relations are not unblemished, this is not the cauldron of bigotry that has been depicted.
To Ben Reid, 61, who set down roots in Jena in 1957 and lived here throughout the civil rights era, “this whole thing ain’t no downright, racial affair.”
Reid, who is black, presently serves on the LaSalle Parish council. He reads the papers. He hears the talk outside of church on Sundays about how the Jena Six business is dividing his hometown down racial lines.
He doesn’t buy it.
“You have good people here and bad people here, on both sides. This thing has been blown out of proportion. What we ought to do is sit down and talk this thing out, ’cause once all is said and done and you media folks leave, we’re the ones who’re going to have to live here.”
[...]
There is, however, a more nuanced rendition of events — one that can be found in court testimony, in interviews with teachers, officials and students at Jena High, and in public statements from a U.S. attorney who reviewed the case for possible federal intervention.
Consider:
_The so-called “white tree” at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.
_Two nooses — not three — were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students “were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them,” according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.
_There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.
_The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days — they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.
_The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish is African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, NONE SHOWED UP.
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YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Jorge Castaneda knelt on a rocky ledge with a map of the Sierra Nevada spread before him.
“There aren’t street names,” the 18-year-old city kid said only half-jokingly just before his first backpacking trip. “How are we supposed to read these maps?”
Castaneda was with a group of young men from inner-city Oakland and Los Angeles heading into the Yosemite backcountry for a five-day, 20-mile excursion sponsored by an outdoor education program called WildLink.
The group’s aim is to help them forge a connection with public lands that will keep them coming back, and hopefully beef up the ranks of those who spend their free time hiking, climbing, fishing or otherwise enjoying open spaces.
The goal is especially important because national parks face twin concerns: Lack of diversity among visitors and fewer of them overall.
A 2004 survey by the U.S. Forest Service showed that 92.7 percent of those who visited national forests over a three-year period were white.
At the same time, the number of people visiting public lands is dwindling. The National Park Service found in 2006 it had nearly a million fewer visitors than the year before, and 14.5 million fewer than in 1999.
Experts say a range of factors are contributing to the drop in visitor numbers, from gas prices to shorter vacations. But “it may be that a certain portion of our decline is because population growth is being driven by people who are not traditional national park users,” said Jim Gramann, a social scientist with the park service.
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A National Park Service survey in 2003 showed Americans of all backgrounds gave the same reasons for staying away from public lands — cost, distance, not knowing what to do there and lack of interest. But some differences emerged, giving a sense how cultural perceptions of the outdoors might vary among groups.
Blacks were significantly more likely to say they received poor service from park employees or that they felt uncomfortable while visiting parks. Hispanics expressed greater concern than others about having to make reservations too far in advance and about personal safety while outdoors. (more…)
A really interesting topic.
For me, camping is one of those activities that has never caught on on either side of my family. It was always seen as “something White folks do”. Plus, there was always that thought in the back of your mind that you would wake up one night in your tent surrounded by the klan (lol). Breaking that mindset can be such a challenge.
I think for me that has really change since living out here in the West. Most of my perceptions of camping and hiking were formulated by what I saw on television. However after making the drive from Colorado to California, I knew I just had to get out there in the great outdoors (Man, what a beautiful drive!!!).
On our recent trip from Monterey, CA we drove part of the way back by taking the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). Now THAT is another trip worth taking.
On one side of the highway is all mountains. On the other side, nothing but blue ocean and forest. There were camping grounds all along the road which gave me some ideas for a possible future camping trip with just my son or the entire family.
Our house is located right at the foot of the Cleveland national forest and just recently someone showed me the location of the hiking trails. I am planning on hiking it in a few weeks as the trail leads to the top of a mountain range with a awesome view of both Riverside and Orange counties (I heard that you could even see the ocean).
This is one of those things I am really pushing myself to do because I know my children will thank me for it later. Plus, knowing me I will get hooked once we make the plunge.
Anybody out there with camping experience?
(smallbiztrends.com) Generation Y (25 and under) has grown up watching their parents go off to work every day, 40 - 60 hours per week, with fierce loyalty only to be downsized, outsourced, or laid off in their 40’s and 50’s.
This reality has the 20-somethings with a different mindset from previous generations. We do not want to merely work our time away, but to live a life of significance and fulfillment. That means being and doing more than just having.
In order to be the things you want to be and do the things you want to do, you must have time AND money. Yeah, we want the big tv and the fast car, but more than that, we want quality of life, and those of us who have a nice car know that it does not necessarily translate into quality of life. (more…)
This article also contains links to bloggers that show you how to make money online.
(radioink.com) Urban radio remains the best way to reach black consumers, according to a new presentation by ROI Media Solutions based on Arbitron Portable People Meter data. In Philadelphia, more than 91 percent of black listeners 12 and older listened to at least one of the market’s five Urban-oriented stations over the course of a typical week.
ROI’s “Urban Radio in the PPM World,” introduced at the Interep Power of Urban Radio Summit in New York last week, is designed to be used by Urban broadcasters to sell the value of their radio stations to advertisers and marketers.
The presentation also points to the importance of the black community to the local economy in Philadelphia, where African-Americans make up 20 percent to 30 percent of the customer base for major retailers and financial institutions. (more…)
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It is amazing how a little knowledge can actually change the course of a generation. Do you realize how many diseases our kids could avoid just by learning how to understand food labels?
The ball is now in your court.
