- Times are as tough as ever in Detroit, but at least some
of the men who are trying to keep the smoldering hell hole of a city from
burning to the ground (which would probably net more in insurance money than
the D is worth at this point) are getting the help they so badly need. Detroit
firefighters have suffered a lack of toilet paper at one station house, used a stove for heat
at another and were featured in a documentary about the 30 fires they face in
the city on an average day and their plight have caught the attention of many
across the nation. The National Firefighters Endowment, a charity focused on
supporting fire departments that lack necessary resources, is spearheading the
drive to provide assistance to the Detroit Fire Department. The Detroit Fire
Mutual Aid project is a nationwide call for individuals, fire departments,
organizations and corporations to provide necessary support for the
firefighters in the Motor City as they try to do their jobs in über-difficult
circumstances. Best of all, the crux of the campaign is selling T-shirts that read
“Detroit Fire mutual aid.” Yes, it has come down the world of T-shirt sales,
car washes, bake sales and 50/50 raffles in order to keep firehouses stocked
with basic supplies and firefighters equipped with proper safety gear. The
shirts are priced at $19.98 and all proceeds will go toward purchasing
equipment for Detroit firefighters. Shane Parkins, president of the
firefighters’ endowment, said his organization hopes to raise $100,000 with the
T-shirts and are attempting to secure equipment donations and reduced prices
from vendors to make the money go as far as possible. Maybe the effort really
will make a difference, as the NFE is a collaboration between 200 members of
fire departments across 34 states. “We got an email from a friend of a friend
that Ladder 22 (in Detroit) had a couple of saws stolen off their truck and the
department wasn’t in a position to replace them,” Parkins said. “We bought them
two brand-new saws (about $5,500). Those saws have seen a lot of work, it’s
important to have the right equipment for the safety of everyone on scene.”
So far, more than 1,700 shirts have been sold……..
- Lorde is riding high as pop music’s current flavor of the
month and the
17-year-old New Zealand singer is cashing in while she can. The singer, whose
real name is Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O'Connor, has signed a
publishing deal with Songs Music Publishing worth $2.5 million. The contract
goes beyond merely cranking out album after album of mainstream pop, as the
label also plans to have O’Connor collaborate with its other artists, including
Diplo and The Weeknd, and write songs for them. "She's going to be a
really big songwriter outside of Lorde. She's going to have a lot of big songs
out there as Ella Yellich O’Connor. She’s a once-in-a-generation type artist,” Songs
Music Publishing president Ron Perry said. So far, O’Connor’s biggest hit is
“Royals,” which topped the pop music charts in the United States for the sixth
straight week this week. In so doing, she has become the youngest female
chart-topper in 25 years and also the first person from New Zealand to score No.
1 song un the U.S. Her album, “Pure Heroine,” has occupied a spot in the top 10
for the past five weeks and she’s also become a favorite of the rich and
famous, performing a few days ago at Tilda Swinton's birthday party for guests
such as Karl Lagerfeld, David Bowie, Anna Wintour, Princess Eugenie and Sofia
Coppola. Ever the busy bee/person trying to extend her 15 minutes for as long
as possible, O’Connor also recently unveiled a preview of her cover for Tears
For Fears' “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” which will appear on the
forthcoming “The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire” soundtrack……..
- Facebook will need to put more money on the table if it
wants to procure Snapchat, the popular photo-messaging used by younger audiences. As
teenagers abandon Facebook in increasing numbers, Mark Zuckerberg and his crew
need to find way to cash in on the disposable income of one of their target
demographics. Facebook’s latest offer of $3 billion was not enough to win over
Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, who rejected the deal as he continues to hear pitches
from multiple investors. Snapchat is just two years old, but it has already
received substantial offers, including an investment from China's Tencent
Holdings that would value the start-up at $4 billion. Those over the age of 40
may not know much about Snapchat, but its mobile app allows users to send text
and photos that disappear in what has been hyped as the next wave of private
social sharing. Facebook declined comment on the reported rejection of its
offer and Snapchat likewise remained silent. Although it is not identical to
Twitter, Snapchat is likely looking to break the bank after the
140-characters-or-less microblogging site went public last week and registered
a market capitalization of nearly $25 billion. Facebook CFO David Ebersman
addressed the issue of declining teen interest in his company’s sire last month
in the company's earnings call. Acquiring other popular social networking sites
has become protocol for Facebook, including its $1 billion acquisition of
Instagram last year. Snapchat is similar in size to Instagram and both are part
of a messaging service boom that is only picking up momentum. China's messaging
service WeChat has ballooned to 400 million users in less than two years, but
the commercial value of such services remains largely untapped. Snapchat has
raised about $73 million in funding to date from investors and its future seems
brighter than ever…….
- Pope Francis has won plenty of admirers within and without the Catholic
Church since his selection as the next man to lead the church earlier this
year, but not everyone is a fan of the pontiff. According to a leading Italian
anti-mob prosecutor, Pope Francis is making the Italian mafia “very nervous”
and could be a target for mob goons looking to take him out. Nicola Gratteri, a
state prosecutor in the southern Italian region of Calabria, said the
‘Ndrangheta is not happy with the pope’s proposed reforms to combat corruption
in the Church. Rumors of collusion between the papacy and the southern Italian
crime family have existed for years and according to Gratteri, no one – not even
the pope – gets to walk away from that. “I cannot say if the organization is in
a position to do something like this, but they are dangerous and it is worth
reflecting on,” Gratteri said. “If the godfathers can find a way to stop him,
they will seriously consider it.” The ‘Nhdrangheta is an organized crime family
akin to the Sicilian mafia and operates out of the Calabria region of Italy.
The organization earns an estimated $30-50 billion annually from a criminal
enterprise that includes drug trafficking and pirated merchandise. Its
hierarchy consists of small, individual groups instead of the mafia’s pyramid
structure and that setup has made it a vital cog in Europe’s booming drug
trade. Italian officials estimate that as 80 percent of the cocaine entering
the continent’s market come through docks in Calabria, so ‘Nhdrangheta is doing
quite well for itself. Over the years, its ties to the church have included laundering
money and making investments with the complicity of the church. If Pope Francis
won't play ball with them and is demolishing the economic power structure
within the Vatican, the mob is going to have a problem with that. Just last
week, the pontiff denounced parents who feed their children the "unclean
bread" earned through bribes and corruption, saying dishonest work
deprives parents and their children of dignity. Gratteri's comments must be digested with the knowledge that he’s likely
making them to promote his new book, "Holy Water,” which details the alliance
between the Italian Catholic Church and the 'Ndrangheta. Of course, that doesn’t
mean he’s lying……..
- Florida
Gators coach Will Muschamp is not having a good season and it just got much
worse. The Gators have lost four straight games and fallen below .500. They
have three games remaining, two against top-15 teams, and must win two of those
three games to become eligible for even a bottom-tier bowl game. As if all of
that wasn’t enough, Muschamp has also received the dreaded vote of confidence
from university president Bernie Machen and athletic director Jeremy Foley.
Votes of confidence inevitably precede firings, so hearing Foley say nice
things about him has to make Muschamp feel uneasy. "As athletic director,
I'm a thousand percent convinced that Will Muschamp is the guy to lead this
football program," Foley said in a statement. "Nothing has changed in
what we feel about Will Muschamp from the day we hired him. Everyone around
here wants the same thing. We understand that this football season has not gone
the way any of us wanted it to go, certainly not the way our fans wanted it to
go and, most of all, not the way Will Muschamp wanted it to go." The
latest punch to the groin for the program came when Vanderbilt marched into
Gainesville on Saturday and curb-stomped the Gators 34-17 on homecoming
weekend. It was Vandy's first win at Florida since 1945 and it came at the
expense of a coach who has five years remaining on his contract at an average
salary of $2,928,791. "We have a history of being successful. We have a
history of fixing things when they need to be fixed, and that is what is going
to happen here," Foley said. "And Coach Muschamp is the one that will
fix it." Foley’s statement is ironic because the mess he believes Muschamp
can fix is one the coach created. Yes, Florida has lost 10 players for the
season, including seven starters, but the Gators weren't exactly national
championship contenders before those injuries. It will be interesting to see
how strong the support for Muschamp is if his team gets pummeled by No. 10
South Carolina on Saturday or No. 2 Florida State on Nov. 30 and end their
season at 5-7, watching all of the bowl games from home instead of playing in
one……
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