- Concussions are serious business at all levels of sports nowadays, but perhaps no story illustrates this point better than the ongoing saga of Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau. Morneau missed virtually the entire second half of the season after colliding with Toronto Blue Jays second baseman John McDonald's knee while sliding into second base in a July 7 game and began feeling woozy after the contest. He was diagnosed with a concussion and sat out the next several weeks with the expectation that he would return to the lineups once his symptoms subsided. The team never pushed him to rush back and was patient with the recovery process, but Morneau was predictably antsy about coming back and engaged in as many baseball activities as he could, taking batting practice when his health permitted. Yet as the season wore on, the whispers about whether he would return at all this season began to grow louder and louder. Potential return dates were pushed back time and again, but with the Twins contending for baseball’s best record and clinching the American League Central earlier than any other division winner, there was the possibility that an extended season would allow for Morneau’s return. From there, a postseason return became a possible return if the Twins won their divisional round series and advanced to the American League Championship Series. Yet as those two mile markers crept closer, Morneau continued to suffer setbacks and aftereffects from the concussion, including symptoms as recently as the middle of September. With all of that evidence in front of them, the team’s front office sat down with Morneau, their doctors and his agent and discussed what to do with the remainder of his season. That powwow led to the decision that Morneau has not recovered enough from a concussion to return to the field and has been ruled out for the entire 2010 playoffs. It would seem like a devastating blow for a team with designs on returning to the World Series for the first time since 1991, but the Twins were 45-39 and in third place at the time they lost the 2006 AL MVP and they finished 94-68 and in first place. In other words, a 49-29 record sans Morneau would indicate that they can win without him. "In talks with Justin and our doctors and everybody, we have made the decision that to try to get him ready to play in the ALCS or the World Series in the matter of two weeks is accelerating the process too quickly," general manager Bill Smith said. For the sake of getting to see a November World Series game outdoors in Minneapolis and the possible sight of players’ spit turning into ice before hitting the ground, here’s hoping the Twins are world-title good without their All-Star first baseman………..
- I loves me a massive legislative fraud conspiracy and the good people of the state of Alabama have come up with a whopper of a scheme. A massive federal indictment came down Monday as officials announced charges Monday against 11 people in Alabama as part of a 39-count indictment alleging corruption related to the state legislature. This group of schemers and scammers includes four Alabama state legislators; three lobbyists; two business owners and one of their employees; and an employee of the Alabama legislature. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and Assistant FBI Director Kevin Perkins announced the indictment following a months-long investigation into a conspiracy to bribe and offer to bribe legislators for their votes and influence on proposed legislation. "The alleged criminal scheme was astonishing in scope," Breuer said. "Indeed, as alleged in the indictment, the defendants' corrupt conduct infiltrated every layer of the legislative process in the state of Alabama." Of the 11 individuals charged in the case, seven have already been arrested and three others were negotiating their surrender at the time of the announcement. In laying out the indictment, federal officials spelled out the corruption and how the process worked. Essentially, two businessmen were the ones who benefitted from the alleged crimes in the form of legislation more favorable to their companies. "We allege that from February 2009 through August 2010, two owners of gaming and entertainment establishments and one of their employees; three registered lobbyists working on their behalf; four Alabama state senators; and one state-employed legislative analyst all participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to buy and sell votes on legislation in Alabama that would directly benefit the business interests of two of the defendants, Milton McGregor and Ronald Gilley," Breuer said. All of that led to a massive laundry list of charges that include conspiracy, federal program bribery, extortion, money laundering, honest services mail and wire fraud, obstruction of justice and making a false statement. That’s like hitting for the cycle in baseball…..and then doing it again in the same game. In other words, impressive beyond belief. The suspects who have either been arrested or surrendered to authorities were scheduled to make initial appearances Monday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama before U.S. Magistrate Judge Terry F. Moorer. One of the scheme’s ringleaders, Milton E. McGregor, owned a controlling interest in Macon County Greyhound Park Inc., also known as Victoryland, in Macon County, Alabama, and Jefferson Country Racing Association in Jefferson County, Alabama, as well as ownership interest in other entertainment and gambling facilities in Alabama that offered electronic bingo gambling machines to the public. Ronald E. Gilley owned a controlling interest in the Country Crossing real estate, entertainment and gambling development in Houston County, Alabama, which also sought to offer electronic bingo gambling machines to the public. These two clowns then employed three of their fellow indictees - Thomas Coker, Robert Geddie and Jarrod Massey - as lobbyists as part of a “full-scale campaign to bribe and coerce state legislators and others into supporting pro-gambling legislation that they favored.” For the legalese-dumb, that means they attempted to buy votes. The legislators charged in the case stand accused of "accepting or agreeing to accept -- and, in some cases, demanding -- these bribes, in the form of campaign contributions, campaign appearances by country music stars, fundraising assistance and other things of value." For those among the defendants facing conspiracy charges, the maximum penalty is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the federal program bribery charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, each count of extortion, honest services mail and wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine and the false statement charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Who knew that making laws was such an expensive process……….
- Oh, this is a great idea. That kook Hugo Chavez is at it again and this time, he may have come up with one of his five dumbest plans yet. This time, the Venezuelan dictator wants to issue weapons to members of the country's civilian militia so they can be armed and ready at all times to carry out his oppressive wishes, er, um, respond to potential crises. So who exactly does this despot want to arm? The Bolivarian Militia is a force of volunteers comprised of members ranging from students to retirees. It has taken shape in the past few years at - shockingly - the behest of Chavez, who says it is a crucial component of the nation's defenses. Up to now, this ragtag band of Chavez sycophants have regularly trained at weekend boot camps but left their guns locked up at military depots once training ended. Now, Chavez wants the practice of locking up the guns to be the thing that ends. "Who has seen a militia without weapons?" Chavez said during his Sunday television and radio program. "The militias are the people with weapons in hand. We need to break old paradigms because we're still seeing the militias as if they were a complementary force, some battalions that get together once a month over there, or go and march somewhere.” His words were inspired by a recent face-to-face with some unarmed militiamen standing guard. When he learned they had no guns, Chavez got to thinking and this new plan is what he came up with. Additionally, he suggested that the country should accelerate the formation of militia units. The militia derives its name from Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar, who is something of an idol for Chavez. The militia bearing his name is made up of housewives, engineers, farmers and government employees. They learn to fire cannons, mortars and machine guns and currently number in the vicinity of 120,000. Now, the cynic (non-Chavez-sycophant) would suggest that the militia’s purpose is to serve as a personal army for Chavez for the purpose of fending off any coup attempts like the one the dictator survived in 2002 and helping Chavez intimidate his enemies. I’m in the latter group………
- Every time I hear news relating to fat and the human body, I instinctively cringe. Too often, FAT people seize upon new scientific findings as justification for their being FAT and that only perpetuates the problem. We’ll have to see how that pertains to a new study by researchers from the Mayo Clinic Endocrine Research Unit that found fat in different parts of the body grows differently and that the number of fat cells in the lower body actually increases in number with weight gain, while weight gain in the abdomen causes fat cells to grow in size. This contradicts the previously held belief that the number of fat cells in the body remains constant in adults. Lead study author Dr. Michael D. Jensen of the MCER called the findings "a breakthrough" in understanding how our bodies produce fat. For the study, 28 adults without any serious health problems and of normal weight had their body fat and fat cell size measured prior to the beginning of the research and again after eight weeks of overeating. The 15 men and 13 women underwent fat biopsies in order to determine the effects of a diet that included giant candy bars, ice cream shakes and high-calorie nutritional drinks - i.e. the Kirstie Alley/Rosie O’Donnell diet. Researchers found that participants gained an average of about 5.5 pounds of upper body fat and 3.3 pounds of lower body fat. "The dogma had been that the number of fat cells in the body remained constant, although some of my colleagues believed that wasn't true, " said Jensen. "The accumulation of abdominal fat happens largely by individual cells expanding in size, while with fat gain in the femoral or lower body, it's the number of fat cells that increases. So, different mechanism, different impact." Additionally, Jensen and his team found a number of factors influencing how our bodies gain fat. "A large part of fat gain is genetic and hormonal but environmental factors such as alcohol intake, smoking, and being inactive” can increase the amount of belly fat that accumulates on our bodies, Jensen explained. The findings bear a large amount of importance for obese people because Increased abdominal fat is one of the risk factors for metabolic syndrome, according to the American Heart Association, and metabolic system brings increased risks for heart disease risk, stroke, and type two diabetes. Worse still, the AHA estimates that over 50 million Americans have metabolic syndrome. Given that we’re the FAT-test nation in the world, that’s no surprise. Jensen and his team now plan to conduct further studies to better understand the genetics of how fat cells in two different areas behave so differently. Let me know when you conduct a study that helps America extricate itself from the top of the “FAT countries” list……….
- Good news and bad news, Jason Bourne fans. The fourth installment of one of the most kickass action movie franchises in years now has a director, but that decision may have cost the franchise its most valuable and recognizable piece: star Matt Damon. Tony Gilroy, the screenwriter behind all of the Bourne movies, has been selected as the director for Bourne Identity 4 and is in final negotiations with the studio to make the decision official. Why is this such a problem as it relates to Damon? Because Jason Bourne himself has made it clear that he will not sign on for another movie in the series without his preferred director Paul Greengrass. Gilroy’s selection, while keeping the director’s chair in the family, so to speak, means that Greengrass won't be in that chair and thus Damon becomes that much harder to get. Gilroy isn’t an accomplished director and just made his directorial debut with last summer’s Duplicity. He has been working on the script for the fourth Bourne movie and at this point, Gilroy must be doing so with the knowledge that he is going to have to sell fans on someone other than Damon playing Bourne, the government-trained killing machine who is equally capable of offing someone with a rolled-up magazine as he is with a gun or knife. If he doesn’t feel that anyone can fill Damon’s shoes or that audiences won't embrace another actor in the role, Gilroy could always introduce a new main character. Debuting a new leading man could open the door for future sequels, but the studio would likely want to see how the franchise does under Gilroy’s leadership and with a potential new leading man before making that decision………
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