Riot Watch! Hungary, attacking obesity in Georgia and Becks back to L.A.

- Attention would-be burglars in the New Rochelle, N.Y. area: Think twice before messing with badass Tony Vanacore. He may look like your average 92-year-old senior citizen who can easily be shoved aside in order to ransack his home, but Tony V. is no pushover. In fact, Vanacore is basking in praise and adulation after driving a home invader from his domicile with a burst of rage and bravery. As a former boxer, Vanacore had the tools he needed to ward off the invader after the man entered his home through the unlocked front door. Vanacore’s caregiver, a woman named Mariana, met the intruder and struggled with him on a staircase leading up from the door to the second floor of the house. Vanacore heard the struggle and rushed (relatively speaking) to join the battle. “I pulled his hat off his head to see what the hell he looked like. He had his hat down to his eyes, and then I ran up to dial 911. He ran up after me and shut the phone off and I re-dialed and he ran away,” Vanacore recalled. In the struggle, both men threw punches and Vanacore called on his boxing background to hold his ground. “You keep your left hand out and counterpunch,” he said. “The funny thing is, I use a walker, but when all this was happening, I was running without no help and fighting with him because he was harming my caretaker. I gave him some pretty good shots. He gave me some shots too. I got bruises.” Both Vanacore and his caretaker are fine after the altercation and he credited the Almighty with giving him to strength to fight off the invader. New Rochelle Police lifted the invader’s fingerprints from the phone and believe they may be able to catch the suspect and possibly even tie him to home invasions in Pelham Manor and Mount Vernon. As for Vanacore, he said after the incident that he had finally decided to start locking his front door after 50 years living in the same house…………

- Los Angeles, never mind Chris Paul’s arrival. Forget that USC has weathered its two-year bowl ban in solid shape and will have the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy heading into next year. Bypass Albert Pujols’ arrival in nearby Anaheim. Your city’s sports future is brighter today for one reason above all others: Becks is coming back. Yes, David Beckham has spurned offers to return to Europe and will remain with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Yes, L.A. has a Major League Soccer franchise and yes, Major League Soccer still exists. Beckham, whose contract with the Galaxy expired at the end of last season, will re-sign with the team stay after turning down a chance to join Paris Saint-Germain. The French club confirmed Beckham’s decision Tuesday after weeks of negotiations with the midfielder and former England captain. Why stay in a second-tier league instead of returning to Europe, where soccer is king and people actually know and care who he is? Because Becks and his family want to be real American celebrities and L.A. gives them - in their minds - the best chance to accomplish that goal. "David Beckham is not coming," PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi said at the Qatar Open tennis tournament. "We feel a little disappointed. But both sides agreed it would be better that we not do the deal ... maybe in the future. David Beckham is (with) Los Angeles and he's going to stay there.” Beckham has not confirmed the decision, but will try to finalize a new, rolling one-year contract this week with the Galaxy. He was courted by several teams across Europe in recent weeks and speculation on his potential salary with those teams put the figure in the neighborhood of $1 million a month as opposed to the $6.5 million base salary the Galaxy paid him under his old contract. Still, what are millions of dollars when you and your former Spice Girl wife can life the SoCal celebrity lifestyle…………

- Too many people tiptoe around the issue of obesity. No one wants to offend or hurt the feelings of the FAT, so they turn a blind eye or refuse to criticize those who refuse to push away from the buffet table and do any exercise. When the obese person in question is a child, the reluctance to criticize only increases. But out of this torrent of timidity steps Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which is facing strong criticism from some soft-hearted enablers for bold advertising campaign designed to attack Georgia’s childhood obesity epidemic. The campaign features advertisements depicting overweight children with messages like an overweight young boy named Bobby asking asks his obese mother, “Mom, why am I fat?” His mother just sighs heavily and the commercial fades out. A print ad shows an obese child above the tagline, “Fat prevention begins at home. And the buffet line.” Thankfully, CHA is standing behind its message on the grounds that it is necessary to get families to recognize the widespread public health problem. Naysayers claim say the approach could be counterproductive when it comes to childhood obesity because the commercials and billboards do not give families the tools they need to attack the problem and also further stigmatize obesity. Those critics need to answer the question of how the current culture of not criticizing obesity is working for America. CHA fashioned its campaign based on research showing that 50 percent of people surveyed did not recognize childhood obesity as a problem and 75 percent of parents with overweight or obese kids did not see their children as having a weight issue. Georgia ranks second nationally for childhood obesity and with 1 million overweight or obese children in the state, it was time to do something. “We felt like we needed a very arresting, abrupt campaign that said: ‘Hey, Georgia! Wake up. This is a problem,’ ” said Linda Matzigkeit, a senior vice president at Children’s Healthcare. The Strong4Life campaign is planned as a $50 million project to be executed over five years. It is just one part of a larger program to direct connects overweight children and their families to specialists who can help them address their problem. Those who want to hate on the campaign may want to listen to the tale of Maya Walters, a teenager with high blood pressure who appeared in one of the ads. Walters says she has made significant lifestyle changes through the program, is eating healthier and exercising more and has lost weight. She supports the ads and their message. “I think it’s really brave to talk about the elephant in the room,” she said. “It’s very provocative and makes people uncomfortable, but it’s when people are uncomfortable that change comes.” As with any company or organization running controversial ads, CHA has no problem with the controversy and if the truth were told, is likely high-fiving behind closed doors because they’re getting exactly what they want. “There are people who don’t like it and people who like it,” Matzigkeit said. “In the end, I think people are saying it really is time for a wake-up call. We have to do something about this or our state is in jeopardy. It’s not good for business if your state has the second-highest obesity rate. Obese children turn into obese adults.” Well said, Linda. Now, on to the second phase of the Strong4Life campaign…………

- While it might not be an incredibly complicated or revolutionary show, there is no question Fox’s song-and-dance drama “Glee” has registered a significant cultural impact. Glee club dorks are still dorks, but having a show all about them on a major network has at least provided the requisite 15 minutes of fame - or at least not being stuffed into a locker after gym class. The show’s cult following has also provided plenty of opportunities for its cast members and made many of them flavors of the week before the requisite fade back to obscurity. Darren Criss is the latest to ride that wave of “Glee” momentum, or Glee-mentum if you will, into a three-week run on Broadway in "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying." Criss, who plays Blaine Anderson on “Glee,” will spend the next three weeks filling the role formerly occupied by “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe and his presence on stage at the Hirschfeld Theatre on W. 45th St. was enough to inspire a few dozen fans to camp out for tickets to the show. “Gleeks” came from as far away as Washington, D.C. and Toronto to sit on the cold Manhattan sidewalk outside the theater to ensure they would get tickets for opening night. With blankets wrapped around them and huddled together for warmth, fans braved the chilliest night so far this winter for tickets to see Criss do his thing. Hopping a bus and crossing state or national borders to see an actor from a flash-in-the-pan TV show perform in a solid Broadway show may sound nutty, but it’s more proof of the power of “Glee”………

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Just because your country gets a new constitution doesn’t mean you have to like it and tens of thousands of Hungarians understand that. These hostile Hungarians took to the streets of Budapest Monday night, demanding that Prime Minister Viktor Orban resign and protesting the country’s new constitution. Crowds gathered around the city's opera house and derisively called the prime minister "Viktator" -- a pun on "dictator" -- with Orban and other luminaries attending a gala event inside. Protestors displayed impressive stamina in demonstrating for five hours in opposition to their new constitution, which civil society groups and opposition parties have criticized as anti-democratic. The new constitution took effect on January 1 and among its perceived shortcomings is the omission of "republic" from Hungary's official name. Additionally, the document includes several paragraphs which Amnesty International says violate international human rights. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised similar concerns last year, urging Orban to commit to "the independence of the judiciary, a free press, and governmental transparency." Orban responded by…..doing nothing. Amnesty International has objected to language in the constitution that would likely draw rave reviews from American uber-conservatives, including sections that define life as beginning at conception and marriage as being between a man and a woman. Other controversial segments of the new constitution include the possibility of life imprisonment without parole and failure to forbid discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Monday’s uprising came on the heels of several protests in 2011 against laws introduced by Hungary's populist government. Journalists at a national television station launched a hunger strike in protest of a new media law they deemed too restrictive. Orban has rejected all challenges to the constitution, be they two recent bills related to the country's financial stability and the central bank, a law criminalizing homelessness or any of the other offensive measures…………