- How was your St. Patrick’s Day? Even if you got drunk on
cheap, disgusting green beer and barfed on a stranger’s shoes on your way home
from the bar following an epic session of day drinking, it was definitely
better than the day 18-year-old Scott Benge of South Bend, Indiana
had. Benge was trying to do a good deed on the holiday by transporting a
freshly purchased keg from the local Brew Thru to an unidentified location when
sh*t went sour. Indiana State Excise Police say the newly purchased keg fell
from the bed of Benge’s pickup truck when the tailgate gave way. Failing to
test the strength of your tailgate or properly secure your new keg with a few
bungee cords is inexcusable, even for a guy who is three years shy of legal
drinking age, but Benge didn’t actually consume any of the beer inside, so he
should be in the clear, right? Sadly, no. Police retrieved the keg from the
road and cited Benge for illegally transporting an alcoholic beverage because Indiana
law bars those under 21 from transporting alcoholic beverages unless they are
with their parents or legal guardian. Had Benge merely brought mom or dad along
for the ride, he could have avoided all of this trouble instead of becoming one
of 24 people ticketed during St. Patrick's Day patrols in South Bend. Sadly, he
had to wait to get his buzz on until the law was done ruining what should have
been a memorable celebration that he wouldn’t remember because he downed a
half-dozen red solo cups worth of Keystone Light……….
- Biopics of famous recording artists are nothing new, but
using one as a means to investigate how an artist really died is something of a
new twist on the concept. Such will be the purpose of an authorized
biopic of iconic soul singer Sam Cooke that is now chugging toward production. Two
members of the late singer's family, L.C. Cooke and Eugene Jamison, will serve
as consultants on the film, with screenwriter Mary Krell-Oishi penning the
words for music and film producer Romeo Antonio, who is building the project
along with Cooke’s family. He has somehow gotten the family to grant him access
to their personal documents and records and was also able to interview the
singer's former assistant, Zelda Samuels. With all of that source material and
the assistance of Cooke biographer B.G. Rhule – lots of people being identified
by their initials here – Antonio should have plenty from which to work in
crafting a convincing portrait of Cooke, who scored 30 Top 40 hits in the
United States between 1957 and 1964, including “A Change is Gonna Come” and “Wonderful
World.” He was also very active in the civil rights movement and the latter
might have something to do with why he was shot dead on December 11, 1964 at
the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles by the establishment's manager, Bertha
Franklin. An inquest later ruled that Cooke's death was a "justifiable
homicide," but his family rejected that decision. Now, they’re teaming up
with Antonio to explore what really happened. "For years, people have been
coming at us to do a movie about Sam. But he was the first person who sounded
like he wanted what we wanted: the truth to come out about my uncle and his
death,” Cooke’s nephew Eugene Jamison said of Antonio, who has pledged
to treat the film like an actual murder investigation…….
- It’s a valid try, Senegalese President Macky Sall. Sall wants to be a pioneer in the field of African
leaders leaving power in a responsible and fair amount of time and with most of
the continent toiling under the weight of über-dictators who refuse to cede
control even when their respective constitutions say that they must, his stance
is a valiant one. Not only does this visionary of governance want to leave
office on time, but he actually wants to shorten his term in office to
"set an example" for other African countries. Flying in the face of
the example set by other African leaders who have pushed to eliminate term
limits or blown right through them like a runaway freight train barreling
through a roadblock made of toothpicks is a dangerous move. Maybe Sall doesn’t want
to end up like Burkina Faso's president, Blaise Campaore, who was forced from
power last year when he tried to change the constitution to extend his 27-year
rule. According to Sall, he will hold a referendum next year on whether to
shorten the presidential term from seven to five years. Should it pass, he
plans to apply the new limit to his current term. A politician voluntarily
leaving office before his time and without a scandal about to drop on his head
and crush him and all he stands for may have never happened before, so this may
be history. The seven-year term was set under the previous president, Abdoulaye
Wade, who blatantly ignored a two-term limit to run against Sall in 2012 but
lost. There’s nothing to stop his successor from changing the laws right back,
of course, but it’s the thought that counts………
- The Baltimore Ravens are learning. They seem to employ an
inordinate amount of criminals, but they’re learning. They (allegedly) played
an inept and irresponsible role in ignoring/covering up the Ray Rice domestic
abuse scandal in tandem with the NFL, but they eventually got around to firing
Rice once it became clear they could ignore the problem no longer. They seem to
have taken that lesson with them moving forward and showed as much by cutting
Rice’s former position mate, running back Bernard Pierce, mere hours after the backup ball carrier was
arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Pierce’s
arrest gives the Ravens three police blotter appearances this offseason and to
their credit, the Ravens have now cut all three within a day of learning of
their off-field incidents. This could be a mere coincidence, but Darren
Sanders, the team's director of security, has a May 12 trial date on assault
and sex offense charges. It’s hard to tell you players to avoid trouble when
your security director is accused of an extremely heinous crime. Pierce provided
the always-amusing variation on “Do you know who the hell I am?” when he asked
the arresting officer while en route to the precinct following his arrest:
"Do you know what happened the last time a Ravens player got a DUI? I'm
getting cut tomorrow, not like you care." He slyly inquired as to whether "the
incident could be kept off the books." He may or may not remember that because
according to police, he passed out sitting on a metal bench during the booking
process, and when the arresting officer woke him up to ask how much he weighed,
he replied in slurred speech, "530." As you might suspect, Pierce
does not in fact weight 530 pounds. To his credit, he was a mere 300 pounds off
and got two of the three numbers correct, as he weighs 230 pounds. He copped to
drinking "three shots of
Jack" when asked by the officer conducting the traffic stop if he had
consumed any alcoholic drinks after failing a field sobriety test and being pulled
over near the Baltimore beltway just before 2 a.m. He was charged with driving
while under the influence of alcohol, driving while impaired by alcohol,
exceeding maximum speed (55 mph in a posted 30 mph zone) and driving a vehicle
in excess of reasonable and prudent speed on a highway. Now that Pierce has
done his part, the Ravens only need two more arrests to match their solid total
of five from last offseason……….
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