- What a truly bizarre story involving University of Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino. The genesis of the story is six years ago, when Pitino and a woman named Karen Cunagin Sypher had a bizarre sexual encounter in a Louisville-area restaurant after closing time. I don’t know if they hid out somewhere, say in a restroom, or if Pitino knew the restaurant’s owner and they worked something out. What I do know is that these two got after it and an administrative assistant for Pitino allegedly heard (but didn’t see) the encounter. That assistant claimed that what she heard sounded like two people having consensual sex and enjoying themselves. Two weeks later, Sypher came to Pitino and told him that she was pregnant, needed an abortion and didn’t have health insurance. He gave her $3,000 and that appeared to be the end of things - until last year. That’s when Sypher allegedly began trying to extort Pitino. She began pressing him for payoffs and gifts for herself and her children before ultimately settling on asking for a $10 million payoff. In an ironic twist, she had ended up married to Tom Sypher, an assistant coach under Pitino at Louisville and a good friend of the coach. She had her husband deliver her list of extortion demands in an unmarked envelope to Pitino, adding another weird twist to the tale. Oddly enough, Pitino elected not to pay the outrageous extortion demands and instead went to the police. Sure, that meant he had to face up to the affair and admit his mistakes to his wife, five children, the administration at UL, his team and fans, but compared to what Karen Sypher stood to lose, it wasn’t so bad. This week, Pitino faced the music publicly by holding a press conference and admitting his mistake. The university’s athletic director, Tom Jurich, and its president both expressed disappointment in Pitino’s actions but don’t appear to have any plans to discipline the coach. His toughest battle will likely be repairing his relationship with his family, which is a battle that will take a lot of time. Ultimately both Pitino and Karen Sypher made multiple mistakes, big mistakes, and neither one comes out of this looking anything other than dishonest, lacking in integrity and short on character. However, Sypher is the only one facing a federal extortion case and the likelihood of prison time. There are definitely no winners here and this is nothing other than a sad, bizarre story of adultery, lies and extortion…….
- Seaside Heights, N.J., you are my new favorite city. And no, this has nothing to do with the town’s party image that is so well-known that Seaside Heights has been the backdrop for setting from MTV's True Life to the 2006 film Beer League. No one loves a good party more than me, but it’s something that the town is banning that has me pumped up. In attempting to clean up their town’s image, borough officials last week approved an ordinance that bans smoking from nearly all of Seaside Heights’ beaches. The ordinance requires smokers to remain within 20 feet of the boards if they want to choke down their cancer sticks, but the rest of the beach has been designated as smoke-free. Thankfully the town listened to the non-losers, a.k.a. nonsmokers, when they complained that smokers on the beach were making life miserable for everyone. This new law has me pumped in a way that other new laws, including the ones Seaside Heights has enacted of late involving noise, illegal parking, and trash disposal, could not. One concern I have about this new law is that borough officials don’t seem to have much intention to strongly enforce the law. Borough Administrator John Camera said that although the smoking ban took effect immediately, it was unlikely police would do more than warn violators as the season winds down. All the town has done so far is to throw up some poles and signs to delineate where the smoking area ends and set up large receptacles for collecting spent cigarette and cigar butts. "We'll use the remaining weeks of this summer to figure out how we should proceed next year. This year, we're just going to educate the public about the new rule," Camera said. Next year is when the law will really begin to have some teeth. At that point, judges e could fine violators if they ventured outside the designated area. The exact amount of the fine would be up to the judge, but current beach fines range up to $1,250. This is a very good story, but as with all stories, it needs a villain and we have a great one here. Believe it or not, there are actually groups out there that are looking to fight for the “rights” of smoker losers. . "There are so many other, bigger issues in places like Seaside that politicians and town officials should be concerned about - like drinking on the beach and lewdness," said Audrey Silk, founder of the group Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, based in New York. "Smokers are an easy target." Wrong, Audrey. There is no bigger menace on the beach or anywhere else than smokers. For example, you referenced drinking on the beach. Last time I checked, the guy on the next blanket downing a beer or even a fifth of Jack Daniels isn’t going to up my chances for lung cancer, but inhaling secondhand smoke will. Get your facts straight for one, and secondly you need to stop defending an indefensible, heinous group like smokers. Hopefully other towns considering a similar smoking ban - including Beach Haven, Ocean City, and Cape May - will follow Seaside Heights’ example and we can slowly but surely stamp out any remaining public places where smoking is allowed…….
- No one is more deserving of respect than the men and women who serve in the military and defend a country against all manner of threats and danger. However, not every single soldier who dons a uniform represents the ideals of integrity, bravery and honor. I can say that with confidence because of men like Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, a U.S. soldier arrested in connection with the killing of a Mexican drug cartel member in El Paso, Texas. Apodaca allegedly worked as a hit man, according to court records, and he was one of three men arrested Monday in connection with the shooting death of the mid-level drug cartel member who also worked as an informant for the United States. Along with cohorts Ruben Rodriguez Dorado and Christopher Andrew Duran, Apodaca faces one count of capital murder in the death of Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana, who was shot multiple times in front of his home on May 15. Unfortunately for Apodaca, Duran and Rodriguez have already rolled on him and told police that Apodaca was paid to be the shooter. From there, detectives were able to use cell phone records and witness statements to corroborate those allegations. Basically, orders came down the chain of command within the cartel Gonzalez worked for because the cartel believed he was leaking information to authorities. Apodaca himself is not believed to be a member of the cartel, but that seems secondary here. What does matter is that the victim and one of the suspects, Rodriguez, were in the Juarez cartel. The organization is based across the border from El Paso, close enough to taunt American law enforcement but also just out of their reach. A review of the three suspects’ phone records showed their approximate locations on the night of the killing. Working from that pattern, detectives found that the suspects were tracking Gonzalez and followed him to the scene of the crime. While being interrogated, Rodriguez admitted to ordering Gonzalez's execution and paying his two co-conspirators for their roles in the killing. As for Apodaca….I know he hadn’t been in the Army that long - only since September 2008 - but clearly none of the messages he was given by his superiors in the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Fort Bliss in El Paso sunk in. Not only did he allegedly pull the trigger and kill a man, but court records show that Apodaca was arrested 10 days after Gonzalez's killing and charged with attempted theft of property, a second-degree felony. I’ve never been in the military and so I can't say for sure what new enlistees and soldiers are told, but I feel confident in saying that multiple felonies and murder-for-hire are things that go against what the U.S. Army stands for…..
- How do I know that America is way, way too FAT? When an inmate is able to smuggle a gun into prison by hiding it under one of his many rolls of FAT, then this country needs to lose some weight. That prisoner would be George Veras, a 500 lbs. inmate at the Harris County correctional facility who was able to sneak a gun past guards after tucking it under his flab. Veras was able to carry the unloaded 9mm pistol past several frisks and searches by wedging the gun between his fat folds after being arrested on August 2 for selling bootleg CD's out of the trunk of his SUV. Officers frisked him at the scene when he was apprehended, when he arrived at jail and then again when he was transferred to a different jail. The only way police discovered the gun was when Veras had finally had enough of making a mockery of them and showed prison guards the gun during a shower break. If you’re like me, you’re probably asking why a metal detector or wand didn’t pick up the gun on Veras’ person at some point. That would be because inmates in Harris County are not required to pass through metal detectors or submit to wand searches. Why that is, I don’t know. Perhaps the county doesn’t have the money to purchase the technology to conduct such searches, but maybe this story should convince them to bite the bullet and make those purchases. Either that or you need to establish a FAT squad among officers wherein those officers put on those latex gloves and carefully sort through every single roll of FAT on obese prisoners to ensure that they’re not smuggling anything illegal - guns, knives, incendiary devices, drugs - into prison. It surely wouldn’t be a glamorous job, but at least it would ensure that men like Veras could not enter the joint packing heat. As for Veras, he is being charged with possession of unlabeled recordings and possession of a firearm in a correctional facility, both third degree felonies, punishable by up to 10 years in jail. Not sure what sort of jail time he was looking at for selling those bootleg CD’s, but adding two felony charges to the ledger can’t be helpful to his cause…….
- Thank God, a disaster has been averted. No, no lives were in danger and no nuclear weapons were involved. What was involved were the bloated egos of Hollywood celebrities who would have been livid if the Television Academy had followed through with its plan to time-shift several awards at next month's Emmy Awards. Had the plan remained in place, eight of the 28 awards at this year’s Emmys would have been pre-recorded in an effort to save time and then reinserted as edited versions throughout the actual live, prime-time Emmys ceremony. As you all know, I love nothing more than these pompous, self-aggrandizing, self-congratulatory, pat-ourselves-on-the-back awards shows and the celebrities who are a part of them - just as long as by love, you mean hate with a burning passion. But thanks to an outpouring of rage from numerous writers and showrunners against the TV Academy, the plan has been scrapped and now all 28 awards will air live in what should be an excruciatingly and interminably long broadcast. The eight categories that were going to be "cut" were miniseries, made for television movie, TV movie/miniseries supporting actor and actress, TV movie/miniseries directing, TV movie/miniseries writing, drama series writing, and variety directing. “This decision was made to mend relationships within the television community and to allow executive producer Don Mischer to focus his full attention on producing the creative elements in the telecast," Academy Chairman-CEO John Shaffner said in a statement. "Our goal is to celebrate the year in television, honor excellence and this year's great achievements with the support of our industry colleagues and our telecast partner, CBS.” Way to wuss out, TV Academy. Don’t want to inadvertently wound anyone’s ego in Hollywood, right? For those of you looking to flush away 3+ hours of your life watching this self-serving lovefest, the 61st Primetime Emmys, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, airs Sunday, Sept. 20 at 8/7c on CBS……tune in and watch all 28 awards live, woo-hoo………
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