- Is it spring time already? It must be if Division I
college football players are getting rides downtown in the back of a squad car
for various criminal offenses. Enter Arizona
State linebacker Davon Durant, who has been suspended indefinitely after he was
arrested on charges of smacking around his lady inside his SUV. The highly regarded
junior college transfer has been accused of aggravated assault and domestic
violence, the school confirmed Monday, putting the No. 1-ranked junior college
outside linebacker in the Class of 2015 out of action for the foreseeable
future. This all went down March 7 after police were called by "a witness
who reported observing a male hit a female while each were seated in a black
Chevrolet SUV," according to the arrest report from the Tempe Police
Department. Durant’s girlfriend was identified as the victim and she told
police Durant hit her once in the face and grabbed her around the neck,
impairing her ability to breathe. She sustained visible injuries, including a
"small contusion and red mark beneath her left eye, and several abrasions
and bruising around her neck consistent with finger marks from being grabbed
around the neck," but refused medical treatment. The police report lays
out a scene in which Durant allegedly had an argument with his lady inside the
vehicle because he wanted to go back to her apartment to retrieve items he left
there. When his girlfriend refused, things went sour and as always, at least
there was a good reason for a dude doing the indefensible and putting his hands
on a woman. Arizona State officials moved quickly to suspend Durant once they
found out about the incident, but he remains enrolled at Arizona State and is
expected to continue attending classes while the legal process plays out. Given
the current culture of domestic violence in the football world, this one isn't
going to end well for anyone involved………
- Say it ain’t so, France. You’re known for being at the
forefront of style and in the fashion world, thin is always in. Why then is
France’s government supporting a bill banning
excessively thin fashion models as well as potentially fining the modeling
agency or fashion house that hires them and sending the agents to jail? All of
this seems extreme merely for having rail-thin ladies clad in absurd,
unrealistic and unrealistically expensive outfits the average person can
neither afford nor would wear strut down the runway with a pouty expression on
their faces. Yet there was Health Minister Marisol Touraine, saying that France
and its fashion and luxury industries worth tens of billions of euros would
join Italy, Spain and Israel in adopting laws against too-thin models on
catwalks or in advertising campaigns. Those countries put their measures in
place two years ago, but France has lagged behind until now. "It's
important for fashion models to say that they need to eat well and take care of
their health, especially for young women who look to the models as an aesthetic
ideal," Touraine said. Coincidentally, France has some major health legislation
coming up for debate in parliament and Touraine said the Socialist government
was likely to back not one, but two amendments relating to models' weight. If
passed, they would implement regular weight checks for models and fines of up
to $79,000 for any violations, with a possible six months in jail for staff
involved. Socialist lawmaker Olivier Veran, who doesn’t seem to appreciate the
beauty of not being overweight, wrote the legislation and wants to force models
to present a medical certificate showing a Body Mass Index (BMI) of at least
18, about 121 pounds for a height of about 5-foot-8. Yes, Veran is a doctor and
might know something about health, but maybe he was spurned by a smoking hot
model or two in his life……….
- Yes, reality karaoke shows still suck no matter where in
the world they’re based. Thanks to someone called British pop star Natalia Kills and her husband, Willy Moon, for reminding us all that it’s not just the aspiring
reality karaoke-ers who are abysmal on these musical-whore-yourself-out-houses.
These two wedded misfits were judges on the New Zealand version of “The X
Factor,” with the key word in that sentence being “were.” They are arbiters of
the aspiring hack masses no more, having been fired following verbal abuse of a
contestant that bordered on bullying and spread like wildfire across social
media. Kills and Moon were removed from the show by Mediaworks, the owners of
broadcaster TV3, over the weekend when they tag-teamed contestant Joe Irvine
following his performance. Kills led off by ripping Irvine for allegedly
copying her pop hack husband’s style and it went downhill quickly from there. "You're
a laughingstock. It's cheesy, it's disgusting. I personally found it absolutely
artistically atrocious,” Kills deadpanned. “I am embarrassed to be sitting here
in your presence having to even dignify you with an answer of my opinion... You
make me sick." Harsh words from a talent-deprived hack scraping the bottom
of the musical barrel as a reality karaoke judge, but sadly Kills was the
kinder of the two in this exchange. Moon, who is originally from New Zealand
and married Kills in 2014, went full-on “Psycho” on poor Irvine and showed no
mercy. “It's like Norman Bates dressing up in his mother's clothing. It's just
a little bit creepy," Moon barked. “I feel like you're going to stitch
someone's skin to your face and then kill everyone in the audience."
Double ouch, W. Moon. What’s ironic is that if more reality karaoke contestants
were treated harshly, maybe this whole television genre could have ended much
sooner and the world wouldn’t have been subjected to more than a decade of
these spotlight-craving ass hats. TV3 heard the heat being hurled at Moon and
Kills and deciding that there was such a thing as bad publicity, the network decided
to fire both judges and bring in someone capable of at least feigning kindness
to the miserable……….
- What does it cost to bring the Ghost back to life? In
Philadelphia, the price tag could be as steep as $26 million. That’s the amount
it’s estimated to take to reopen a closed train stop commonly
referred to as Ghost Station, according to the fine folks at the Delaware River
Port Authority. The agency is about to get a nice, thick report examining the
feasibility of reopening the Port Authority Transit Corporation's Franklin
Square Station in the Old City section of Philadelphia and here’s hoping these
people aren't susceptible to the seriousness of sticker shock. An eight-figure
estimate is a virtual guarantee that you’re going to end up spending twice that
much by the time the project is done and for a state that isn't exactly flush
with cash, that could be a problem. The Delaware River Port Authority oversees
the PATCO, the commuter rail that shuffles passengers between southern New
Jersey and downtown Philadelphia, and while it does a fine job in general, this
could be a bit over its head. The station was abandoned back in 1979 and as
with most properties that are neglected for three and a half decades, it has
crept gradually into a state of disrepair, with poor lighting and a decidedly
spooky, get-jumped-and-mugged-in-an-HBO-drama feel to it. According to the
report, it would cost $18.5 million to resurrect it and another $8 million to
install escalators and reopen additional entrances. Yet for that low, low
price, the station could serve a whopping 1,3000 passengers a day. Oh, and
there’s also the report’s note that most of those people already use another
station in downtown Philadelphia. But hey, it’s not like commuters are
creatures of habit who hate giving up the familiar for something new and
unproven……….
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