Sunday, November 03, 2013

The Subway Vigilante arested, Michael Jordan isn't lying and Adele: Gangsta rapper?


- How do you take some of the yellow out of SpongeBob SquarePants (macaroni and cheese)? Kraft is reluctantly answering that very question and when its SpongeBob SquarePants Kraft Macaroni & Cheese hit store shelves next year, the famed cartoon hero from Bikini Bottom will have a slightly different hue than he once rocked. Kraft has overhauled its character-shaped product line for 2014, according to company spokeswoman Lynne Galia, with an eye toward healthier eats for children. The new versions will have six additional grams of whole grains while ditching heavy doses of sodium and saturated fat and using spices instead of artificial food dyes to create the pasta's famous yellow-orange color. "Parents have told us that they would like fun Mac & Cheese varieties with the same great taste, but with improved nutrition," Galia said. To add health-ification (TM – fringecollective.com) to its pasta, Kraft will remove Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6 from boxes containing pasta shaped like SpongeBob SquarePants and those with Halloween and winter shapes. To add excitement for those under the age of 12 (or those with a maturity level under the age of 12), Kraft will also add two new shapes of the popular pasta -- Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and "How to Train Your Dragon 2" from Dreamworks. All will be free of food coloring, Galia said. A few naysayers criticized Kraft for not including all of its macaroni and cheese in the food-coloring-free family, but the company insisted it attempts to offer a wide variety of choices to consumers and simply ripping food coloring from every product isn't feasible. In Europe, foods with Yellow No. 5 are required to include a warning label about possible harmful effect for children, but in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration needs only approve them and then companies are good to use them indiscriminately………


- You show ‘em, embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Everyone’s favorite camera-ramming, crack-smoking, wisecracking mayor is in some serious hot water these days, but just as Tom Petty would urge him to do, he won't back down. Ford is currently fighting for his political life after police revealed that they had obtained a copy of the long-discussed, urban myth-level video depicting Ford smoking a crack pipe. The video has been rumored to exist for some time, but given that those repping its existence were lowlife criminals, it didn’t have much credence. That changed once Toronto police admitted that they had finally gotten their hands on the video. Predictably, the uptight squares in the city immediately called on Ford to resign because in their small minds, having a crackhead for a mayor is a bad thing. Fortunately, Ford isn't heeding their calls to step down. "I have no reason to resign," Ford proclaimed. "I'm going to be out doing what the people elected me to do and that's save taxpayers money and run a great government that we’ve been running for the last three years." When pressed on the video, he added that he could not comment further on its contents or existence because it is evidence in a criminal case before the courts. Ford is on the record as having never used crack cocaine and denying the existence of the video. Various city officials and council members seemed to believe the police more than their trouble (tweaker of a) mayor, calling for Ford to either quit or be fired based on the statement by police. The allegations initially surfaced this spring, but it wasn’t until this week that Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said the video had been recovered during an investigation dubbed "Project Brazen 2," a huge surveillance operation into a friend suspected of providing Ford with drugs……..


- Is Adele a badass, gangsta mothaf*cka with a filthy mouth and ghetto mind? According to rapper Tinie Tempah, the British songstress does indeed have a hardcore side and she does not want the proof of that fact getting out. Tempah is telling the tale of Adele recording a "filthy" rap while he was working in the studio with Labrinth a couple of years ago and he claims that she has pointedly told him that she will go on the attack if the track ever leaks. The alleged rap took place while Tempah and Labrinth were recording “Earthquake,” their hit single from 2011. "She was with me and Labrinth in the studio when he recorded 'Earthquake,’" Tempah said. "Nobody really knows this. She recorded a rap and she told us that if we ever played it to anyone she would sue us. So when you talk to her next, ask her about the rap. It is really filthy as well." Maybe there is  truth to this tall tale because Tinie Tempah also revealed that Adele "helped me pick some of the songs" for new album “Demonstration,” which drops Monday. The project is Tempah's follow-up to his 2010 debut “Disc-Overy” and features guest appearances from 2 Chainz, Big Sean, Labrinth, Laura Mvula and Emeli Sandé. Maybe he can invite Adele out on the road with him as he promotes the album with an 11-date U.K. arena tour in December, perhaps even for the tour’s big finale performance at London’s famed O2 Arena on Dec. 18……….


- The “Subway Vigilante” sounds like a comic book character, but in reality, he’s the long-wanted suspect in the shooting of four youths in 1984 who was finally arrested late last week. The true identity of this renegade is Bernhard Goetz, 65, and he was apprehended Friday for allegedly selling marijuana to an undercover officer, according to Sgt. Carlos Nieves of the New York Police Department. No word on whether Goetz, upon his arrest, quoted the famed words of former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Berry when Berry was arrested by an undcover officer for buying drugs: “Bitch set me up.” Goetz allegedly met the female undercover officer at Union Square Park on Friday and agreed to sell her marijuana, according to Nieves. Once the deal was in place, Goetz returned to his nearby apartment to pick up the drugs, Nieves added. The saddest part of the tale is that he sold a mere $30 worth of ganja and that’s what led to his demise. Once the buy was made, the undercover officer walked away and field members of the Manhattan south Narcotics Division swooped in to arrest Goetz in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Goetz is now charged with criminal possession, criminal sale and unlawful possession of marijuana, according to Nieves. That shouldn’t faze him given that he was the target of national outrage nearly three decades ago when when he shot four black teenagers on December 22, 1984, aboard a Manhattan subway car. Goetz, a white man, was later charged with four counts of attempted murder. The victims claimed they approached him to ask for $5 to play video games at an arcade, but Goetz testified at his trial that he felt threatened and believed he was being robbed when he fired several rounds into the youths. He was later acquitted of murder and assault charges in the shooting but convicted of illegal possession of a weapon, serving less than nine months behind bars………


- There is both truth and fallacy to the logic of Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan’s stance on tanking in the NBA in order to increase a team’s chances at a top draft pick. Jordan, whose franchise is arguably the worst in the league at the moment both on and off the court, is boldly proclaiming that he does not believe in the idea of intentionally losing games in order to gain a better chance to draft a potential superstar such a Andrew Wiggins of Kansas or Duke's Jabari Parker. "I don't know if some teams have thought of that. That's not something that we would do. I don't believe in that,” Jordan said of tanking. "If that was my intention, I never would have paid [free agent] Al Jefferson $13 million a year." On the surface, Jordan merely said what any owner in his position would say. Charlotte is 62-168 in his three full seasons as majority owner, but the NBA would heavily fine and discipline any team that admitted to losing games on purpose. However, the reigning philosophy in the league is that a team must first bottom out before it can get better. So how does one explain the Bobcats awfulness on an annual basis if they’re not tanking? That’s where the sad, beautiful truth lies. It isn't difficult to argue that the Bobcats aren't tanking…..b/c they are merely incompetent on an all-world level. Jordan has no clue what he’s doing as an owner, has no basketball savvy when it comes to personnel decisions and really isn't any good at any part of the game other than playing it himself. In other owrds, his team could easily be terrible (and is) without trying to be. He’s paying superstar money to a player (Jefferson) who isn't a superstar and last season, his head coach for a 21-61 team was Mike Dunlap, who had never been a head coach at the college or pro levels and yet, managed to land the job leading the Bobcats. Dunlap was fired after one sad season and Jordan replaced him with longtime NBA assistant Steve Clifford, who likewise had never been a head coach before. Yet the greatest player in league history believes that the heat he takes for his poor performance isn’t justified. "It's somewhat unfair, but you come to expect it," Jordan said,. "You set certain standards as a player that transcend whatever you do. It goes where you go. You will be wearing that around your neck so that when people see the name they expect the results. It's somewhat unfair, but it is what it is. I don't let it define me." Keep telling yourself that all the way from the bottom of the standings, MJ………

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