- When people speak of the American dream, of making something out of nothing and creating a life for oneself……this is not what they mean. While creating a fake U.S. Army unit and convincing immigrants that joining the squad was a path to citizenship is certainly original and innovative, charging more than 100 Chinese nationals a fee of between $300 and $450 to join the fake Army unit has to rank fairly high on the list of outright scum-baggery. The man behind this visionary effort is Yupeng Deng, a Chinese man who created the fake military unit, gave his recruits military uniforms, had them parade in a Los Angeles suburb and took them to the decommissioned USS Midway aircraft carrier, which is a museum in San Diego. He called his bogus squad the U.S. Army/Military Special Forces Reserve unit, or MSFR for short, and bestowed upon himself the impressive title of supreme commander, prosecutors said. Perhaps it should have been a tip-off that they were being charged to join a military unit or maybe these were simply not the best and brightest China had to offer, but the 100 people who were suckered in by this scam should have figured out that the operation wasn’t legitimate right around the time Supreme Commander Deng dropped that title on himself. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office claimed that in addition to promising that service in his unit was a path to citizenship, Deng also urged recruits to pay him cash for higher military rank and allegedly provided them with fake documents and phony military identification cards. Honestly, if it weren’t so offensive that Deng was taking advantage of so many poor, ignorant fools and disrespecting those who actually do serve in the military, the lengths he went to in order to make his operation seem legitimate would be impressive. Either way, the resident of the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte was arrested on Tuesday by sheriff's deputies and charged with theft by false pretenses, manufacturing deceptive government documents and counterfeit of an official government seal. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday and faces up to eight years in prison if convicted. Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, refused to comment on how Deng was caught. "All the details and evidence will come out in a preliminary hearing," she said. And some uplifting details I’m sure they will be…………
- Switch one family film out for another and you essentially have the story at the top of the box office earnings race for this weekend. Hop, ironically enough, was bounced after two weeks at the top even though it is a movie about the Easter bunny’s son and Easter is just a week away. In its place was newcomer Rio (what is it with animated movies whose names are just three letters long being the top-earning movie of late), which opened strong with $40 million to more than double up its nearest competitor. That competitor would be a movie whose premise could not be more diametrically opposed to Rio, the latest installment of Scream, a series that should have died after one movie because of how tacky, predictable and clichéd it is. Yet Scream 4 (clearly not sophisticated enough to use Roman numerals in its title) made a decent $19.3 million in its debut weekend to finish in second place. Third went to Hop, dropping two spots but adding another $11.2 million to its coffers for a cumulative total of $82.6 million after three weeks. In fourth was Soul Surfer, a movie profiling the real-life tale of teenage surfer Bethany Hamilton losing her arm to a shark attack. Surfer scared up $7.4 million and after two weeks has made $20 million, an amount that seems better when stacked up against a scant $18 million budget. Last among the top five was Hanna, an action thriller that hasn’t thrilled moviegoers yet and fell off 41 percent in its second weekend, earning $7.3 million for a two-week total of $23.3 million. The remainder of the top 10 was: Arthur (No. 6 after dropping off 43 percent and making $6.9 million in its second weekend for a cumulative total of $22.3 million), Insidious (No. 7 with $6.8 million and a three-week tally of $36 million), Source Code (No. 8 with $6.3 million in its third weekend to raise its total earnings to $37 million), newcomer The Conspirator (No. 9 despite opening narrowly in a mere 707 theaters, yet making $3.9 million in its first weekend) and Your Highness (No. 10 to chase an über-disappointing opening weekend by falling from No. 6 with a scant $3.9 million and $15.9 million for its first two weeks). Two movies falling out of the top 10 from last weekend were Limitless (No. 11) and The Lincoln Lawyer (No. 12)…………
- Honestly, is anyone stunned to find something unsanitary and unsavory floating in the water of the Playboy mansion’s hot tub? Not to get graphic, but it seems safe to say that, well, a lot of activity that would produce certain unclean and not at all savory substances takes place in that hot tub on a fairly regular basis. But those substances are not the ones being blamed for more than 100 people becoming ill after a fundraising party at the mansion in February, reporting pneumonia and flu-like symptoms. Health inspectors contacted 439 people who attended the event and found 123 had fallen sick with symptoms including fever, headache, cough, shortness of breath and aches. The Los Angeles health department scoured every potential area of contamination partygoers were exposed to and ultimately focused their attention on the hot tub, from which they took water samples and identified legionella bacterium, which can cause the potentially fatal legionnaires' disease. Of the 123 guests who were sickened, 96 of them fell ill the day of the party, which was a fundraiser for DomainFest, a conference for internet investors from 30 countries. However, officials are not ready to confirm the bacteria in the pool as the cause of the outbreak. In a statement the Los Angeles County department of public health said: "Though legionella bacteria was identified in a water sample taken from the Playboy Mansion, this bacteria has not been determined as the source of the respiratory outbreak. Other potential causes under investigation include influenza, as three individuals who attended the conference tested later positive for the flu." Regardless of the culprit, Hefner can’t be happy with the timing of the situation. He is busy preparing for his June wedding to Crystal Harris, Playboy Playmate of the month in December 2009. Also, as great as hanging at the Playboy mansion is and being around playmates all night long in the grotto and the pool, not being able to hop in the hot tub for fear of coming out with a potentially life-threatening illness will put something of a damper on the night…………
- The single biggest (literally and figuratively) No. 1 overall draft pick bust in NFL history is only getting worse. JaMarcus Russell is now out of the league and his quest to find his way back to the game that handed him more than $25 million in guaranteed money isn't going any better than his career went on the field. Russell, who was released by the Oakland Raiders in May, had been with former NBA coach and patron saint of lost souls in the sports world John Lucas to get his life back on track. Lucas has taken on numerous troubled athletes over the years and helped them rebuild their lives and careers, but as of Thursday, he has resigned his post as Russell's "life coach,” which he had worked in since September in an attempt to get the quarterback into shape to return to the NFL. Initially, Russell worked hard after he and Lucas linked up but as with so many other endeavors of his life, he lost interest and laziness won out over the drive to succeed. Russell began slacking (and returned to the horrendous dietary and workout habits that led to him eating his way out of the NFL in the first place) and Lucas became tired of trying to motivate him. Even NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley tried to motivate Russell, without success. Sources close to Russell say there is no motivation on his part whatsoever and even before the owners locked players out to star the NFL’s first work stoppage in decades, there was non interest in signing him. His most recent workouts were in November, when he showed up at a workout for the Washington Redskins on Nov. 2 weighing a beefy 288 pounds and managed to pack on four more pounds before a Nov. 16 workout with the Dolphins, tipping the scales at 292 pounds. Needless to say, that weight is significantly more than Russell’s playing weight of 260 and not conducive to a quarterback looking to evade pass rushers, move in the pocket and make athletic plays to keep drives going for his team. The most damning evidence of how far Russell had fallen may well have come in November when Baltimore Ravens president Ozzie Newsome, who was in Mobile for the Senior Bowl, refused to meet with Russell, a Mobile native who was there at the time. Adding up all of the aforementioned carnage and the bleak future ahead for Russell, saying he has edged ahead of fellow draft bust Ryan Leaf as the single worst No. 1 pick in league history. Amazing doesn’t begin to describe the fact that the top overall draft pick in 2007 lost his starting job, was released, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and seems highly unlikely to ever play another down in the NFL…………
- Welcome to the revolution trend, Burkina Faso. The small, landlocked nation in west Africa has become the latest embroiled in a power struggle focused on ousting the current powers that be. The revolt is being led by the military and mutinous soldiers are reported to have taken control of a southern town in Burkina Faso as the revolt against Blaise Compaore, the West African nation's ruler, entered its fourth day. Soldiers at a military garrison in Po, near the Ghana border, took a much-needed break from soldierly duties such as protecting and serving and used the respite to fire their weapons into the air, terrorize the populace, loot shops and seize private vehicles. Two citizens were injured by the gunfire in Po, located about 87 miles from Ouagadougou, the capital. Po houses a training school for Burkinabe military officers, making it a logical place for the military to launch part of its revolt. According to the government, the soldiers are protesting over payment of housing and daily food allowances. The uprising began Thursday with the ever-bold move of soldiers opening fire on the presidential compound late in the day, followed by two nights of looting. The soldiers’ actions led to a reprisal by hundreds of traders who rioted and set fire to the headquarters of Burkina Faso's ruling party on Saturday, in protest against the soldiers looting their shops. As a result of the unrest, the defense ministry imposed a curfew in Ouagadougou from 7 p.m. on Saturday to 6 a.m. on Sunday. In response to the mutiny, Compaore has already fired much of his administration, including the army chief and his head of presidential security. Fittingly, Compaore came to power in a 1987 military coup and could leave office the same way he entered. He has been the target of a series of protests since February, staged first by students and then by soldiers. Given enough time, the odds are that another offended group will emerge to join in the unrest. In spite of the high number of pissed-off segments of the citizenry, Compaore somehow won a new five-year term in office after taking 80 percent of the votes in November elections. The cost of living has risen significantly since then, otherwise tens of thousands of people would not have taken to the streets last week in Ouagadougou to speak out against the high cost of living. The cost of living is just one of many issues of concern to citizens of Burkina Faso, which ranks 161 out of 169 countries on the UN Human Development Index, a composite measure of the quality of life. Life is unlikely to get better with shops, banks and petrol stations having remained shut since Thursday. On the positive side, everyone wins when they can enjoy a good riot…………
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