- This may not have been what the defending world champions had in mind as they prepare to open training camp. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger finds himself in the crosshairs of a nasty lawsuit by a woman who claims he raped her at a Lake Tahoe hotel-casino a year ago. Although the woman never filed a criminal complaint, she’s suing Big Ben after he supposedly assaulted her during a celebrity golf tournament last July while she was working as an executive VIP casino host. The alleged incident took place at Harrah's Lake Tahoe, where the woman claims the Super Bowl winning quarterback raped her in a hotel penthouse across the street from the golf course. To be fair to Roethlisberger, his attorney maintains that he has never sexually assaulted anyone. Additionally, law enforcement officials in Nevada have no intention of opening a criminal investigation into the allegations because the victim is the only one who can initiate that by filing a criminal complaint. What she has done is file this lawsuit that alleges Harrah's officials, including the casino's chief of security, staged a cover-up of the incident after she reported it to him the next day. The woman, unidentified for obvious reasons, is a native of Canada who had worked at Harrah's Lake Tahoe hotel-casino since 2003. Roethlisberger’s attorney questioned why she would wait nearly a year to file a lawsuit and it’s a fair question, but her contention, at least as far as not filing a criminal complaint, is that she feared the casino would side with Roethlisberger because of his friendship with the hotel-casino's regional president John Koster and she’d be fired. Furthermore, she claims that Harrah’s security chief, Guy Hyder, told her she was "overreacting," that "most girls would feel lucky to get to have sex with someone like Ben Roethlisberger" and that "Koster would love you even more if he knew about this.” I certainly hope that’s not true, because if it is then it’s one of the most reprehensible things anyone has ever said. Also included in the lawsuit are claims that this woman was treated for depression and anxiety stemming from the alleged assault at five different hospitals between last August and December. A trigger for the suit may have been this woman’s claim that Harrah's officials told her Roethlisberger was invited to play in the 2009 celebrity golf tournament and ordered her to take a paid two-week leave during the event, the lawsuit said, "to accommodate her assailant." None of the involved parties will comment on the lawsuit for obvious reasons, but what is known is that it seeks a minimum of $440,000 in damages from Roethlisberger, at least $50,000 in damages from eight Harrah's officials and an unspecified amount of punitive damages "sufficient to deter" Roethlisberger and the others "from engaging in such conduct in the future.” At this point it’s not clear how much truth are in these allegations, but at this point I’m rooting for there to be none because at least it’s better than the alternative, that Roethlisberger is another scumbag athlete who assaults women………
- Depending where you fall on the political spectrum, news that Mexican immigration to the United States has dropped sharply since 2005 is either the best news ever or not-so-great news. But according to a study released Wednesday by mis amigos at the Pew Hispanic Center, immigration from Mexico to the United States slowed at least 40 percent between 2005 and 2008. The study is based on national population surveys in the United States and Mexico, as well as Border Patrol apprehension figures. According to data from the Mexican side of the border, some 1 million Mexicans left for the United States in a 12-month period beginning in 2006. A mere three years later, that number decreased to 636,000. “The size of the drop has been quite remarkable in such a small span of time,” Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center and author of the study, declared. And why are less people looking to crash the border these days? Well, as with all happenings in this day and age in this country, it’s like because of the economy. Yes, the economy here is so bad that even poor-ass Mexicans don’t want to come to the United States. Increased border patrols could also be a factor, but I kinda doubt it. With the decreasing numbers of Mexicans entering the U.S. and the number exiting remaining relatively steady, dropping to only 433,000 between 2008 and 2009, a small drop from the 479,000 who returned three years earlier. Personally I’ve always found our Mexican visitors to be affable, hard-working and a welcome addition to this country, but I realize that not everyone feels that way. Some of you are small-minded, anti-immigration cultural imperialists who would like nothing better than to erect that 100-foot-tall security fence around the entire country that our last president, that ass hat W., was all for. Decide for yourself whether this trend of Mexicans crossing our border in smaller numbers is good or bad, but ponder carefully………
- All hail, all hail! Microsoft has finished off the code for the latest version of its subpar operating system and all is good to go for the October 22 launch of Windows 7. With the final hurdle cleared, Windows 7 will hit retail shelves and new PCs on time, which is good news for exactly no one. For some odd reason Microsoft is hoping that this latest incarnation of its troubled OS will miraculously not suck and give users a never-ending supply of infuriating problems as they try to use it. The last installment of Windows, Windows Vista, bombed out so quickly that users rushed to downgrade back to whichever other crappy version of windows they were using before Vista hit the market in January 2007. Microsoft is claiming that Windows 7 has been receiving positive feedback along the way and hitting all of its deadlines too. “That is our final engineering milestone in what has been a three-year journey,” said Mike Angiulo, general manager for planning in the Windows unit. What should concern users is that Windows 7 relies on most of the same basic platforms as Vista and simply adds features to it. Beta testing has allegedly shown that Windows 7 is much more appealing visually than Vista and that the new taskbar is much more user-friendly. Perhaps the most dubious claim is that it boots up and shuts down faster and is less prone to freeze and crash - uh huh, sure. All in all, Windows 7 hasn’t changed much since it was presented in October at a developer’s conference. Microsoft plans to offer Windows 7 in several different shades of crappy, from low-end "starter edition" to an ultra-high-end "ultimate version." In what has been a rough, rugged year for the economy and specifically for the technology market, Microsoft and retailers are hoping that Windows 7 will provide a needed boost to the system. To put it differently, they are building their house on a foundation of sand with walls made of toilet paper as a hurricane, earthquake and tsunami bear down on it. "Our customers are very excited about Windows 7," Dell's Jim Ginger said. "We know because they tell us." In other words, don’t believe a word anyone from Dell says, because they are either liars, morons or both. I look forward to hearing stories of how you are grossly disappointing everyone very soon, Windows 7……….
- If you’re looking to see the best rapper in the game make his 2009 U.S. festival debut, this is for you. Jay-Z will make his first U.S. festival appearance at the 2009 All Points West Music & Arts Festival, to be held July 31-Aug. 2 at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. He’ll be taking the spot vacated by the festival’s previous opening night headliner, the Beastie Boys, who had to pull out because member Adam "MCA" Yauch was recently diagnosed with cancer and will undergo surgery. It’s definitely a sad story for a group that has been a hip-hop pioneer for so long and I definitely want to send out thoughts and prayers to Yauch for a successful surgery and full recovery. Beastie Boys were also forced to cancel other summer tour dates and delayed the release of its forthcoming album, "Hot Sauce Committee Part 1." In a classy move, All Points West organizers are offering refunds at point of purchase for July 31 single-day tickets for anyone who was going mainly to see Beastie Boys. However, I can't imagine how anyone would want a refund when they had a chance to see a legendary artist like Jay-Z live. Last year, he appeared as a headliner at the Pemberton Festival in Pemberton, British Columbia. This year, he’ll be leading off a pretty solid festival lineup that will include personal favorites like Coldplay, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, Echo & The Bunnymen, MGMT, , the Black Keys, Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, the Ting Tings, the National, Silversun Pickups and Arctic Monkeys. The festival takes place just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan. so you can attend and not be that far from all the action and excitement of NYC. With the lineup I just mentioned, I’d definitely recommend it………
- Now this is what I like to see: cities telling people to stop doing annoying, useless things like trying to help the homeless. No one wants, needs or appreciates people trying to do nice things for the down and out, I feel confident in saying. So props to the city of Phoenix for telling a local church they are no longer allowed to hold a Saturday service on their lawn during which they feed the homeless. What the congregation and leadership of Crossroads United Methodist Church was thinking when they began holding the Saturday events in January, I’ll never know. Seriously, having homeless people come for a worship service on your lawn and feeding them breakfast is pretty reprehensible. Seeing these poor vagrants walk, bike or take the bus all the way across town just for a free meal and some love from the CUMC congregation is a sign of what’s wrong with our society, no doubt. “We have been feeding the homeless since (the church) began. It’s part of the mission of the church. It’s part of who we are,” said Dottie Escobedo-Frank, pastor at the church. “This is our mission. This is who we are. This is what we do.” Not anymore, it’s not. The city of Phoenix has stepped in and told the church to cease and desist after residents from a neighborhood across the street complained about the event, specifically the noise and the trash that result from it. Because the church is in a residential zone, it cannot operate and sort of charity dining hall. To operate such a facility, a group or organization must be in a commercial or industrial zone. But the city did give the church a nice two-week grace period, allowing them to feed the homeless for the next two Saturdays before shutting it down. The church isn’t laying down and giving up, though; Escobedo-Frank maintains that CUMC is a church first, not a charity dining hall, so the ordinance does not apply to them. “You can’t tell us we’re something that we’re not,” Escobedo-Frank said. “Our argument is that we are not a charity dining hall, so they are defining us incorrectly.” Led by their pastor, the church has appealed the city’s decision. Should the city deny that appeal, the church may also attempt to have the ordinance amended to allow their service/breakfast or move the event to a different location. Personally I’m applauding the city for shutting down this offensive effort, because no one needs to see a church or any other group trying to help downtrodden, oft-overlooked people by feeding them……
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