- Lawrence (Mass.) may not be the first place that comes to mind when looking for a good political corruption scandal to sink your teeth into, but perhaps the time has come to shift that paradigm. Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua is the man to thank for that, as he is at the center of a growing investigation by state and federal officials. According to multiple sources, the FBI and Essex District Attorney’s Office are looking into whether the mayor is exhibiting favoritism in handing out contracts to tow truck companies in the city. Other issues include whether Lantigua has any financial ties with the nightclubs he patronizes, which would be a major conflict of interest because his wife is on the board that approves liquor licenses. Asked about the allegations against him, Lantigua was adamant that the claims have no factual basis. “If you check background, the same companies that were here when I was elected are the same companies that are here today,” Lantigua stated of the charges of bias in contracts for towing. “I do not have any deals with them today.” As for his wife’s position on the liquor board, the mayor pointed out that his wife has been on the board for several years and has never been accused of anything untoward. “There is no corruption,” Lantigua fumed. “At the end of the day I’m not breaking any law and I will be standing tall when everything is said and done.” The FBI is reportedly leaning largely on Lawrence Police as a source of information in the case, but Lantigua claimed that he is currently unaware of any sort of investigation against him. In truth, such an investigation would not be that out of the ordinary for Lantigua, who has been the source of controversy for much of his term, including heavy criticism for trying to hold on to his job as state representative while he was mayor. He has also fought bitter battles with the fire department and police department over layoffs as a result of budget cuts, but has maintained that he is proud of the job his administration has done thus far while denouncing the claims against him as “lies” and promising to cooperate fully with any investigation. Add all of the parts up and the situation has every necessary ingredient for a major scandal that could drag on for months, so get a comfortable seat and get your popcorn ready…………
- Two weekends, two wins and a very healthy start for Fox’s animated bird flick Rio. Last weekend’s top film was this weekend’s top film as well, with a $26.8 million haul boosting the movie’s total take to $81.2 million despite a 32-percent dropoff from its opening weekend. Second place went to the latest remake of the exact same damn movie Tyler Perry has been making and pawning off as new each time for a decade or so, Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family. The latest “new” version of this cinematic stink bomb made $25.7 million in its debut weekend and nearly did enough to unseat Rio. Another newcomer to the box office landed in third place, with feel-good drama Water for Elephants finding its way to $17.5 million, a solid start against the backdrop of a $38 million budget. Hop hung around the top of the earnings race as well, chasing two first-place finishes and a third place result in its first three weeks with a fourth-place result on Easter weekend, collecting $12.5 million to raise its cumulative total over the $100 million mark at $100.5 million for one month’s work. Last among the top five was Scream 4, which continued to remind one and all that the Scream franchise should have died after one installment (and possibly sooner) by making a meager $7.1 million for a two-week tally of $31.2 million. The rest of the top 10 was comprised of: African Cats (No. 6 in its debut weekend despite a narrow release in just 1,220 theaters, making $6.4 million), Soul Surfer (No. 7 with $5.6 million in its third weekend of release to bring its running total to $28.6 million and rising), Insidious (No. 8 with $5.4 million and $44.2 million in one month in theaters), Hanna (No. 9 as its disappointing run continues with $31.7 million in earnings after three weeks) and Source Code (No. 10 and even more disappointing, having made a paltry $44.6 million in four weeks). Two films dropping out of the top 10 from last weekend were the abysmal Arthur - thanks for another awful and disappointing movie, Russell Brand - (No. 11) and Limitless (No. 12)……………
- When is a horse not just a horse, of course? When that horse lives in Turkmenistan, of course. For the geographically ignorant, Turkmenistan is a mainly Muslim and energy-rich Central Asian nation of 5 million people. Most people around the world know nothing about the country and might guess that it’s a made-up nation if quizzed on the spot. Not knowing much about Turkmenistan is one thing, but don’t you dare sleep on the slim and graceful Akhal-Teke horse breed, which is a source of pride for Turkmenistan. President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov has embraced the tradition and this weekend, the country was swept into an equine frenzy to celebrate Akhal-Teke horses, complete with a grand horse show and an academic conference on the animal. The weekend was capped by Sunday’s opening of the four new lavish race tracks. Festivities from the event were broadcast across Turkmenistan all weekend long and also shown on a giant screen in the capital of Ashbagat. Following the opening ceremonies, Berdymukhamedov delivered an address broadcast to the new hippodromes. Even for Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic, the sheer size and pageantry of the weekend was over-the-top. Akhal-Teke horses have always been popular in the country, but their popularity took on a whole new dimension when late eccentric President Saparmurat Niyazov banned the export of the horses in an effort to preserve the breed. Berdymukhamedov came to power after Niyazov's death in late 2006 and kept the ban in place. He has also taken a slightly difference tact when it comes to raising the horse's cultural status. His strategy has been heavily reliant on his own action hero-type reputation and Saturday’s performance before hundreds of cheering and flag-waving spectators at the presidential equestrian complex only furthered that approach. He topped the performance off by having a dove land on his shoulder to finish the show. Teaming his reputation with Akhal-Teke horses could be a brilliant idea. Similar breeds have been used by Central Asian peoples for thousands of years and are legendarily rumored to have been ridden by the armies of Alexander the Great. Keeping the breed pure has been a source of pride in Turkmenistan since long before there was a Turkmenistan, back when nomadic tribes that occupied the desert lands the country is consists of. Honoring that tradition with four modern horse racing tracks - and a fifth new race track set to open later this year - and a lavish celebration including international experts from countries including the U.S., France, China and Russia to discuss the future of the Akhal-Teke breed might seem frivolous to outsiders, but not to Turkmens. According to the state-run Turkmen Atlary equine association 3,000 Akhal-Teke horses call the country home, of which 500 are owned by the president. Berdymukhamedov also penned an epigraph for a newly issued book about the Akhal-Teke called "The Flight of the Heavenly Horses" in which he wrote, “We shall not allow attention toward our horses to falter by one iota, for they are our pride and glory, the source of our inspiration.” That sounds like a man who knows his country’s strength and is playing to it…………
- All of that talk about the NFL being confident it won’t miss any regular season games due to the ongoing lockout and labor unrest……not so much, not if you take a closer look at the recently released schedule for the upcoming season. That schedule leaves open the possibility that the first three weeks of scheduled games could be missed and all 16 regular-season games could still be played. All 16 schedule games for Week 3 of the season feature teams with the same bye week later in the season. That means those teams could make up missed games on what was originally scheduled to be their bye and with the league having built on an extra (and unnecessary) week between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl and the possibility that the Super Bowl could be played a week later than its originally scheduled date of Feb. 5, 2012 you have a nice built-in buffer to weather a prolonged lockout. Presently, the season is scheduled to begin on Sept. 8, with a full slate of games on Sept. 11-12. With the buffer, the league could start the season as late as Oct. 2, 2011 and still finish the Super Bowl by Feb. 12, 2012. "While the uncertainty remains, it is impossible to plan for every eventuality in terms of the playing schedule," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "If and when it becomes clear that we cannot play the schedule as it was announced, we will make the appropriate adjustments with an eye toward minimizing changes." McCarthy also pointed out the adaptability provided by flexible scheduling for the Sunday night games late in the season and the league’s ability to switch games from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on a given Sunday afternoon. To keep its buffer in place, the league has also asked clubs not to book their stadiums during their bye weeks. A cynic might look at these preparations and wonder if the league isn’t take a much more cynical approach of its own to the labor battle, but McCarthy insisted that is not so. "Our goal is to play this schedule as it is announced. We are working as hard
as possible to eliminate the labor uncertainty and proceed with the 2011 season as scheduled," he added. Working hard must be a relative term, as four court-ordered mediation sessions between the NFL and its locked-out players ended Wednesday after a federal judge in Minneapolis decided to give both parties an extended break that is expected to last until the two sides reconvene on May 16. In the interim, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson is expected to decide well before then on the players' request to immediately lift the lockout, which is now in its sixth week. But hey, with two sides working so hard and clearly this close to a deal, it’s only a matter of time, right? Never mind…………
- If that special gamer in your life has been even more surly and socially handicapped than usual the past few days, you might want to cut them some slack. Odds are, they are one of the millions of PlayStation users dealing with a four-day (and counting) PlayStation Network outage that has even the suits at Sony scratching their heads. Users around the world have been greeted with an error message reading "80710A06" whenever they try to connect up to play some online Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, or SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs. The problem surfaced Wednesday with Sony’s admission that, "We're aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down." Senior director of corporate communications and social media Patrick Seybold addressed the problem, but did not provide any information as to when the problem might be resolved. The situation took a turn for the worse Thursday with the network still down and Sony stating it would be another day or two before the online component of the PlayStation system would be functional again. Other gaming consoles have experienced similar outages, but gamers became increasingly impatient throughout the day Thursday and when Friday dawned and the network was still down, impatience began turning towards an angry mob mentality. The one silver lining Friday was the revelation of a few clues about why the network was down, with Seybold claiming Sony purposefully shut the network down to address an "external intrusion" that hit the PlayStation Network and the company's Qriocity service. Once again, no details were given on what the "external intrusion" might have been, but unconfirmed rumors suggested that a denial-of-service attack targeted the primary PlayStation Network server. Additional denial-of-service attacks allegedly went after PlayStation Network servers that house user account information and the attack even affected administrator developer accounts. The No. 1 suspect in the early part of the investigation? None other than Anonymous–the hactivist group that previously targeted Sony with alleged denial-of-service attacks. Anonymous, which has hacked sites and accounts of anyone opposing it or who violates any of its core values, has been at odds with Sony over the company's legal pursuit against alleged PS3 jailbreaker George Hotz. A glimmer of hope for PlayStation users came Saturday, when Seybold posted an update saying Sony is using the situation as an opportunity to fortify its infrastructure even better than before, leading to the longer delay. "Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security," Seybold wrote. No timeline has been given for the network returning the functionality, but it certainly cannot come soon enough for gamers now forced to endure the insufferable pains of playing video games by themselves, in their living rooms and basements, without being connected to the rest of the world……….
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