Monday, October 06, 2014

Peruvian drug politics, Olympic corruption and movie news


- Two newcomers fought it out and in a high-priced battle, “Gone Girl” eked out a win in its debut with $38 million. That was just enough to edge past fellow newbie “Annabelle,” which banked $37.2 million in a solid outing but landed in second place, one spot ahead of last weekend’s box office earnings champion. That would be “The Equalizer,” which tumbled two spots to third place with $19 million and officially passed the break-even point with $64.5 million domestically in its first two weeks of release. The same cannot be said for fourth-place finisher “The Boxtrolls,” which added $12.4 million to its coffers but has cranked out a mere $32.5 million in two weeks, well shy of its $60 million budget. Fifth place went to “The Maze Runner,” which brought in $12 million and has now earned $73.9 million in three weeks. The third newcomer of the top 10 was “Left Behind,” which bowed to $6.8 million in somewhat limited release. “This is Where I Leave You” was also left behind, dropping three spots to seventh with its $4 million weekend that boosted its total bankroll to $19.8 million after three weeks in theaters. Next on the list was “Dolphin Tale 2,” the eighth-place movie for the weekend with its $3.5 million in income and $37.9 total earnings in four weeks. “Guardians of the Galaxy” slotted ninth with $3 million and has blockbuster-ed its way to $323.4 million in 10 productive weeks. The top 10’s final spot went to “No Good Deed” with $2.5 million, giving the horror flick $50.1 million and counting domestically. “A Walk Among the Tombstones” (No. 11), “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (No. 14) and “Let's Be Cops” (No. 15) all lost their top 10 spots from last weekend……….


- There are few jobs as overtly terrifying on a daily basis while simultaneously paying very little as that of a window washer in a major city. Having that job go horribly wrong as it did in a busy city such as Oakland, California during the middle of a work day is not what most employees sign up for, but it was what happened to two window washers. As office workers, pedestrians hundreds of feet below and motorists passing through the city looked on, the two window washers did their job high above the ground at 11th and Broadway. They stopped doing their job when they became stranded on a platform hundreds of feet in the air outside a high-rise. According to police, the duo became stuck when their platform became lodged in place, leaving them hanging 19 stories above the ground with no way to get down. The two men waited it out while emergency crews were called to the scene, but even then it wasn’t clear how to best save the workers. Oakland Fire Capt. Marshall McKee said emergency workers had to decide whether to approach the men from above or through a window near where they were working. “It was a half-hour to get a guy up there to cut the glass, so the determination was to bring them up to the roof,” McKee said. To rescue the men, a firefighter channeled his inner Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible” and rappelled to the platform, where he hooked the men up to harnesses. The workers were then lifted to the roof one at a time and the crowd below broke out in loud applause. Once the second man was safely on the roof, the firefighter strolled up the side of the building and into Oakland city lore. “We train for it all the time,” said McKee. “Just having the ability to put it to use and have it come out successful — we’re really proud of that.” As are we all………


- Does corruption know its limits? Of course not, at least not as far as the International Olympic Committee is concerned. But even the bribe-loving leaders of the IOC know they can only coax so many cash-strapped cities around the globe into forking over the perks and benefits in the slow crawl that is the march to choose the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Describing the process as a race would be as much a misnomer as calling the IOC a legit organization with integrity, so let’s not go there. At this point, there are only two cities left thanks to Oslo deciding it had better things to spend its money on than bringing the red-headed stepchild of the Olympic world to town in eight years. The only two remaining cities aren’t exactly winter sports paradises, unless one considers Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, as places to shred on the slopes or glide across the ice. Yet even with two unappealing options on the table, the IOC says it has no plans to reopen the bidding process. "The IOC is sticking to its commitments," IOC president Thomas Bach told. "We have issued the invitation for bidding. There is a clear and transparent procedure. We will follow this procedure with two candidates." The idea of clarity and transparency in anything the IOC does is humorous, but this time the committee might not have a choice. Norway’s government smartly declined to provide financial support, citing concerns over the cost of hosting the games and proving that the allure of having the eyes of the world on you doesn’t outweigh the stupidity of spending tens of billions of kroners to make it happen. Whichever cities remain by the time the final selection is made on July 31, 2015, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the world can only hope that IOC members get some great perks and bennies from this one……..


- Running for governor of a rough Peruvian jungle state is a tough road to travel. Doing so without being totally and irrevocably corrupt is even more difficult, as is being proven by one Manuel Gambini. On the one hand, Gambini has earned praise for promoting the cultivation of cocoa beans over coca leaves in a cocaine-producing hotspot, but these days he’s looking a lot less like the supposed new partner for the world in its fight against the Bolivian marching powder and a lot more like the stereotypical corrupt politician under investigation for money laundering. That will happen when you’ve amassed a mini-fortune on a small mayoral salary. The good news for the childish Gambini is that he’s merely one of hundreds of candidates in Peru’s local and state elections suspected of being bankrolled by drug trafficking. There is little question that drug money polluting politics is a major issue in a country that became the world's top cocaine producer two years ago and when you reach the point that you’re being compared to Mexico and Colombia in their heyday, it might be time to focus on the problem a bit more. . "We are now a despicable reflection of what Colombia was — and what Mexico is today," said Sonia Medina, Peru's public prosecutor for drug enforcement. Gambini’s ties to the Colombian nose candy are well-known; he’s a former coca farmer who just happens to be one of at least seven gubernatorial candidates — in a quarter of Peru's 24 states — under investigation for drug trafficking or related crimes. Peru’s good news is that its drug scene is less violent than Colombia or Mexico even though one of every three Peruvian voters lives in a region with candidates under investigation, on trial or previously convicted of drug-related crimes. Gambini opportunistically entered the governor's race in adjacent Ucayali state after a money laundering probe made national headlines, sidelining the incumbent. His bonafides include being a two-term mayor of Irazola where he was able to turn a gig running a poor farming district ‘twixt the mountains and the jungle into a luxurious lifestyle (allegedly) fueled by drug money. Sounds like a wonderful candidate……….

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