An accurate weekend riot forecast, a good liquor store-prestigious college scandal and the ongoing train wreck that is MTV's "Jersey Shore"

- There just are not enough good scams involving both prestigious colleges and liquor stores these days. Only people like former New York University staffer John Runowicz are keeping this venerable tradition alive and they cannot do it alone. Heck, Runowicz can’t do it because he was arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan District court and is facing multiple charges stemming from what authorities say was an attempt to swindle the school out of more than $400,000. What is his supposed crime? Well, apparently dude was going down to the local liquor store (approximately 4.2 of them on every block in NYC), scavenging around in the trash for discarded receipts and attaching them to NYU reimbursement request forms. Oddly enough, submitting discarded liquor store receipts and claiming they were used for departmental purchases and "other functions" is illegal. Who knew? During the time of his alleged scam, September 2003 until January 2009, Runowicz worked as an administrator for the NYU chemistry department and submitted requests for petty cash based on the receipts. District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau alleged that Runowicz's scheme involved more than 13,000 receipts over five years and ultimately scammed New York University out of $409,000."None of those receipts reflected legitimate business expenses," said the District Attorney's Office. Take a minute and drink those numbers in…..13,000 receipts. Wow. It’s quite an effort and had Runowicz quit after, say, 10,000 receipts, he may have gotten away with it. Unfortunately he got greedy and now he faces numerous criminal charges, including falsifying business records in the first degree and second degree grand larceny, which could land him in prison for 15 years if convicted. Wonder if the NYU chemistry department is regretting its choice to make Runowicz responsible for "managing lab resources." Maybe you should know a person a little bit better and have substantive evidence of their fiscal responsibility and trustworthiness before handing them supervision over the chemistry department's budgetary matters, expense reimbursements, and supply requests. What also baffles me is that this scam has been going on since 2003, but it wasn’t until an internal audit this past summer that Runwicz’s alleged scheme was discovered. You don’t do audits every year? NYU spokesman John Beckman said in a statement that "the university is deeply disappointed that one of its employees would abuse the trust of our students, faculty, administrators and staff in this way." You might be disappointed, but since this scam doesn’t affect me directly, I’m going to sit back and enjoy it for as long as I can…..liquor stores and colleges, back together again…………

- Did you enjoy the slate of five NBA games on Christmas? If Orlando Magic coach Stan “Ron Jeremy” Van Gundy, a.k.a. The Master of Panic, has his way, you won't see a similar schedule in the Association ever again. "I actually feel sorry for people who have nothing to do on Christmas Day other than watch an NBA game," Van Jeremy said. The Magic were one of ten teams playing on Christmas, hosting the Boston Celtics for a 2:30 p.m. tip time. That clearly irked their coach, who said he understands the high-priced TV contracts generate money for the league and it would be difficult to stop such games. However, Van Jeremy wishes the NBA would bite the bullet and stop Christmas Day games, or at least have fewer games on the holidays. His point of view is undoubtedly influenced by the fact that the Magic play games on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day this season. "I think we get a little carried away with ourselves with sports thinking we're more important than everything else," Van Gundy said before the game. "But that's the way it is. There's nothing more important than the NBA on Christmas Day." Personal concerns also appear to be steering SVJ’s thoughts, as he talked about waking up early but managing to spend only about 15 minutes with his wife and four children and not having a chance to open his family's gifts before the game. Apparently he’s not a fan of Christmas Day NBA games no matter who is playing. SVJ said that the only time he could recall watching a Christmas Day game was when his brother, Jeff, was coaching one of them. He also showed how truly un-American he is by blasphemously saying that he doesn't watch NFL games on Thanksgiving. "Christmas to me, obviously basketball is very important to me, but there are some days of the year where it's got to take a back seat to something," he said. A sympathetic ear could be found on the opposing sideline during Friday’s game, as Celtics coach Doc Rivers backed up his rival’s comments. "As a kid, you wanted to be on [Christmas]," Rivers said. "Then when you get to the league, you don't want to be on any more. You're like, 'No, I changed my mind.' But it's going to happen, so why try to fight it? I tend to look at it as a reward," Rivers explained. I can honestly see where these guys are coming from and while I can't back their ideas, I would agree that no NBA team should play on more than one of the three major holidays (Christmas, New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving) that occur during the season. But before we finish, how’s about one more absurd idea from The Master of Panic? “If I had my way, we'd take a five-day break at Christmas. I mean it," SVJ postulated. How nice. Would you also like milk and cookies after games, a 20-minute rest break between quarters and games no more frequently than once every three days during the rest of the season? Get real, SVJ……….

- Depending on who you are, MTV’s new reality train wreck Jersey Shore is either the best thing ever or the most offensive thing ever. The show is basically The Real World, only if it were populated by eight overly groomed, self-absorbed, muscle-bound Italian Americans with no sense of dignity or self-respect. The show, as the title would imply, is set at a Seaside Heights, New Jersey beach house and centers on eight self-proclaimed "guidos" and "guidettes" as they do their thing. There is, from what I know, a cast member who refers to his pectoral muscles as “The Situation.” There is another cast member, a girl named Snookie, who was punched in the face by a man at a club during the show, although the punch didn’t air in any episode. It was used in a teaser for the show, but was pulled from the actual episode when an uproar resulted. With a show this spectacularly ridiculous, the effects on viewers and observers have been predictably polarizing. On the on hand, Jersey Shore's controversy has driven ratings from 1.3 million viewers for its debut to 2.5 million viewers for the show's most recent episode. That should be great news for MTV, as higher ratings should theoretically mean the network can charge advertisers more for commercial time. However, it’s difficult to charge more for commercial time when advertisers are fleeing the show like L.A. Dodgers fan streaming out of Dodger Stadium in the seventh inning to avoid traffic. In just a few short weeks, Jersey Shore — has already lost three advertisers Domino's Pizza, American Family Insurance and Dell. On top of that, state legislators in New Jersey are calling on MTV to pull the plug on the series. . The New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus says the show is "wildly offensive" and promotes derogatory ethnic stereotypes. New Jersey state Sen. Joseph Vitale, a Woodbridge Democrat and the caucus' chairman, sent a letter Tuesday to Viacom, MTV's parent company, requesting that Jersey Shore be taken off the air immediately. Vitale and his fellow state legislature members have also called on advertisers to boycott the show. They are joined by UNICO, the largest Italian American service organization in the U.S., in asking MTV to cancel the series since before its Dec. 3 premiere because of its negative portrayal of Italian Americans. So far, the network has shown no inclination to accede to these demands and with the ratings going up instead of down, don’t expect it to happen any time soon………

- I love it when a forecast is accurate. Of course, I’m not referring to weather forecasts, because those are never, ever accurate. Bearing that in mind, I’ve turned my focus toward other, more reliable forecasts, such as the forecast for riots in the Middle East. Heading into this weekend, a nice cocktail of events and occurrences had set up the very likely possibility that there would be protests, riots and general unrest in Iran. Some riot forecasts I saw put the chances of social dissidence at nearly 87 percent, which is astonishingly high. But that’s what happens when a day of mourning for the most prominent cleric to oppose the country’s totalitarian regime coincides with the major Shiite holy day of Ashura. Sunday marks a week to the day since the death of Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, a key figure in the 1979 Iranian revolution, and when stacked on top of Ashura, it was basically a mortal lock that there would be riots. And so it was on the tense, uneasy streets in Tehran on Saturday. Clashes erupted between riot police and opposition protesters as hundreds of people solemnly took part in Ashura observance. There were hundreds of riot police deployed at every major intersection along a six-mile route through the city and they came face to face with demonstrators who showed up in Imam Hussein Square and Azadi Square/Freedom Square in central Tehran. Witnesses said that there were more riot police than demonstrators, but any good rioter doesn’t give a rat’s ass about those ratios. A good rioter isn't scared off by security forces on motorcycles making a beeline for them any time they chant anti-government slogans. Ironically, it was security forces who were spotted engaging in most of the violence. Eyewitness testimony had police wielding batons, clubbing protestors, smashing car windows and making forceful arrests. Best of all, Saturday was merely the opening act. The holy period of Ashura reaches its climax Sunday and that’s when widespread protests are expected. These demonstrations are merely the latest in a series of outbursts that have erupted in Iran since June, when fascist dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole a second term in office via a rigged election. Protesters were out in the streets en masse all during the election process and the scene was violent, chaotic and bloody. Saturday’s protests weren’t merely confined to downtown Tehran; one witness reported clashes between security forces and protesters in the Nivaran area of northern Tehran, with dozens of security forces riding in tandem on motorcycles charging and attacking about 500 protesters. The scene was accentuated by bumper-to-bumper traffic, car horns honking, anti-government chants and at least one canister of tear gas fired to disperse crowds. In response, rioters lit piles of street-side debris on fire, a practice occasionally used to diminish the effects of tear gas. The bottom line here is that a riot forecast painted a positive picture for the weekend and for once, the action on the streets backed up those promises. In my book, that makes the weekend a tremendous success………

- Wi-Fi is nearly everywhere these days, so why not in affordable passenger vehicles? Ford is looking to bring wireless Internet to its customers by turning its cars into mobile Wi-Fi hot spots. Using its Sync in-car entertainment and information system, Ford will make Wi-Fi available to drivers by incorporating a USB mobile broadband modem to establish a secure wireless connection capable of supporting several devices simultaneously. The feature will be available in the next generation of Sync, which will be offered next year on selected models -- no word yet which ones. What we do know is that you won't need a subscription or hardware beyond the modem. "While you're driving to grandma's house, your spouse can be finishing the holiday shopping and the kids can be chatting with friends and updating their Facebook profiles," said Mark Fields, Ford president of the Americas. "And you're not paying for yet another mobile subscription or piece of hardware because Ford will let you use technology you already have." Ford is not the first auto maker to offer Wi-Fi in its vehicles and Japanese drivers have been using it since 1997, but it is not nearly as common as might be expected. BMW features an Internet-connected iDrive system in its whips and Chrysler's Uconnect Web in-vehicle mobile hotspot is also available. Oh, and the luxury-car drivers among you can look forward to in-vehicle Internet applications -- including web browsing, vehicle software updates and VOIP -- on a prototype 4G network that Mercedes recently revealed it has tested successfully. Ford’s system is different because it allows allow consumers to plug in their own USB modem to get connected. General Motors promised last week to make in-car connectivity available in seven models of trucks and SUVs, but its a dealer-installed system called Chevrolet Wi-Fi by Autonet Mobile creates a Wi-Fi hot spot 300 feet in diameter around the vehicle, and GM claims the 3G network achieves speeds of up to 1.5 mbps. It costs $199 after the $200 mail-in rebate, and the service costs $29 a month. Ford’s system will obviously cost much less and will theoretically be much more user-friendly. Now it’s a matter of seeing it Ford can actually deliver on its promises………