- I’m picking up on a disturbing trend involving Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. And no, it’s not a trend of panicking under the heat of an intense corner blitz or an inability to hit one of his receivers in stride on a deep “go” route in the fourth quarter of a close game. The trend I’m zoning in on is of women accusing Big Ben of sexual assault, something that has now happened for a second time. After Roethlisberger spent a night bar-hopping in the central Georgia college town of Milledgeville, a college student told police he sexually assaulted her in a nightclub. You might recall that a civil lawsuit was brought against Roethlisberger last year by a former emplyee at Harrah’s Resort and Casino in Lake Tahoe who claimed that she was raped by Roethlisberger and that her superiors pressued her to keep quiet. No criminal charges were ever filed in that case, but now that another woman has come forward to accuse him of such a crime, it does make you think twice. The first lawsuit is still pending, but the latest accusation came early Friday in downtown Milledgeville, about 85 miles southeast of Atlanta. Roethlisberger was in Milledgeville because it’s just 30 miles south of the home he owns in Lake Oconee. Roethlisberger and several friends went to Buffington's bar earlier Thursday night to watch the University of Pittsburgh men's college basketball game and witness Paul Kurcikevicus said the group was friendly at first. Kurcikevicus even claimed that Roethlisberger bought shots for him and some other people in the bar -- "O-Bombs," a mixture of energy drink and flavored rum. The group later moved on to the nearby The Brick restaurant where Roethlisberger reportedly signed autographs and posed for pictures. From there, it was on to Capital City, a popular nightclub for students at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville. Sadly, it was country music night at the bar and that alone would be enough to ruin anyone’s evening. But somehow, Roethlisberger muscled up and overcame the menace of country music, paying the $20 cover charge. Witnesses said he was led to a VIP area in the back of the club and a few women were let into the area as well. From there, what happened depends on whose story you believe. Deputy Police Chief Richard Malone said Roethlisberger had been with three other people who were mingling with another group that included the alleged victim. The woman and her friends spoke to a nearby police officer following the alleged assault. "He's been identified as being at the scene and there are allegations naming him as the perpetrator," Malone said. The nature of the assault was not described, but Malone did say it was being termed a sexual assault, not a rape. That’s good news in one sense because rape is about the most heinous non-murder crime one can commit and at least things didn’t progress that far in the alleged crime. The regional Georgia Bureau of Investigation in Milledgeville and Milledgeville police are still investigating the case and will continue to do so into next week. The GBI has not spoken with Roethlisberger or any of the men who were with him on the night in question, but plan to do so soon. Their findings will be turned over to the Baldwin County district attorney, who will decide whether or not to file any charges. For his part, Roethlisberger denies the alleged assault and says he is innocent. I don’t know who’s telling the truth here, but I do know that this needs to be the last time a woman accuses Roethlisberger of this kind of crap because if the pattern continues, it’s going to become a stigma he won’t be able to shake………..
- Ah, the good ol’ days of the "summer of the shark"? Back in the summer of 2001, one shark attack after another occurred and the news media covered the rash of attacks ad nauseum after an 8-year-old boy lost his arm in a shark attack off Pensacola, Florida. But in the years after that summer of excitement, the number of shark attacks in the United States mostly declined, going from 53 in the 2000 to 28 last year. There was an exception in 2007, when the number of attacks surged to 50, but the overall indication is that shark attacks are on the way down. "We may have a bit of a trend, but only time will tell," said George Burgess with the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File, which released the data showing the overall decline in attacks. Burgess also has an interesting theory about the decline: our faltering economy. In his opinion, a piss-poor economy means less tourism, which means fewer people in the water. "I am not doing a economic analysis, I'm just saying there could be a correlation," Burgess said. Okay, how about you keep your crack un-economic economic analysis to yourself and leave that stuff to the pros? Fact is, surf shops all around the state of Florida are seeing a decline in business an undoubtedly that is due in part to the terrible state of the economy. However, the most common victims of shark bites are surfers and people hitting the beach to surf in Florida tend to be locals and not tourists, so that doesn’t fit with Burgess’ ill-advised theory. Even with the steady decline in shark attacks, central Florida's east coast, is still considered the shark bite capital of the world. A 200-yard stretch of New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County remains a hotspot for attacks because the area draws both sharks and surfers because of the constant waves. On a positive note, the data in this report showed a 50 percent drop in shark attacks in Volusia County last year. "New Smyrna, where most of the bites happen, I think we had eight last year and the year before that, 24," said Capt. Scott Petersohn with the Volusia County Beach Patrol. In other words, don’t expect another “summer of the shark” any time soon………..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! It’s time for a trip to Bogotá, Colombia, where a four-day transit strike that created a traffic nightmare in the Colombian capital and funneled hundreds of protestors out into the streets has created enough chaos to accomplish its purpose and summarily come to an end. The strike was resolved Thursday after making life miserable for some 8 million passengers. Sadly, the strike ended once transportation workers reached an agreement with the city government. As much as I love the good people of Bogotá having their public transportation to help them get where they need to go, I love riots, protests and strikes more. Owners of small- and medium-sized bus companies were protesting because they said a new integrated transportation plan would have driven them out of business. That plan would be the scheme of Bogota's mayor to implement a new transport system, a system that would reduce from 66 to 13 the number of companies that perform public transport duties in the city. As part of the plan, the city attempted to lure drivers to work for the new transport system was not generous enough. Seeing a chance to bilk some more money out of The Man, the workers went on strike. They claimed that they would not receive a big enough cut of the new operation. In response, the city offered to buy some buses from smaller companies to add to the new fleet. Those offers were too small, the strikers said. Apparently the two sides were able to hammer out an agreement that both of them could live with and now the strike is over, meaning no more scenes of angry protestors clashing with police and people hoisting anti-government signs and taking it to the streets. In other words, a sad return to life as normal……….
- Right about this time in every television season, verdicts come in for shows in terms of being back for the next season or not. It’s an especially tense time for new shows, as being canceled after a single season is both embarrassing and stigmatizing for all involved. Other networks aren’t exactly rushing to give chances to actors, writers and producers whose previous attempts at TV series weren’t good enough to merit more than a one-year run. One show that falls squarely into that category is ABC's sci-fi drama "FlashForward," which returns with new episodes on March 18 but will need those episodes to do extremely well to avoid cancellation. From its debut in the fall, the show lost 43 percent of its viewers, narrowly edging out fellow ABC sci-fi’er "V" (35 percent decline over four airings) for the mantle of show that viewers lost interest in most quickly. Making matters worse for "FlashForward" is the fact that co-creator/executive producer David Goyer is leaving the show to focus on his film career, meaning it is now on its freaking third EP in under a year. With these two potent examples in mind, none of the four major over-air networks have a sci-fi show in development for the 2010-11 season. The only place sci-fi shows seem to work, at least in the case of "FlashForward," is internationally. Strong international numbers could convince the network to pick up the series for another season, but the network could hold off on a decision until right before its upfront presentation in New York this May. Some ABC series, including "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice" and "Brothers and Sisters," will definitely be back. Others, including "Better Off Ted," "The Deep End," "Scrubs" and "The Forgotten," are very, very long shots to come back for another season. As always, expect a litany of crap-tacular, unoriginal and uninspired replacement shows in place of any that are canceled. That, by the way, is a phenomenon that is not exclusive to ABC; every network’s offering of new shows is invariably terrible and that’s just an indictment of the industry as a whole and not of any one network on its own……….
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