- Good luck finding him, Argentina. When your country’s
best-known spy flees the country due to threats on his life and is
not complying with a summons ordering him to testify in connection with the
investigation into a 1994 terror bombing, you begin to realize that maybe you
should have paid closer attention to his whereabouts. Antonio Stiuso fears for
his safety, his lawyer, Santiago Blanco Bermudez, said in explaining why Stiuso
is on the run. Not only is this dude a well-trained spy, but he’s also of the
belief that the government is trying to ruin his reputation following the
mysterious death of a prosecutor who accused Argentine leaders of protecting
the masterminds of the bombing. "We believe (Stiuso) will continue to be a
government target," Blanco Bermudez said. The idea of being a government
target and having unidentified people trying to take you out is serious sh*t
and even if Stiuso and his attorney refuse to specify the threats or disclose
his whereabouts, no one can deny where Stiuso wasn’t on Thursday and that’s in
court testifying about allegations he hid information related to the bombing,
which killed 85 people at Argentina's main Jewish center. Stiuso also has been
accused of running a contraband operation and tax evasion and in a shocking twist,
he and his attorney also say that all of those allegations are bogus. What is
widely accepted is that Stiuso oversaw a vast wire-tapping operation before
being removed from his post in December and that he assisted prosecutor Alberto
Nisman in his investigation of the unsolved bombing. Then Nisman was found shot
dead in his bathroom on Jan. 18, days after accusing President Cristina
Fernandez of reaching a secret deal with Iran to cover up its alleged
responsibility for the bombing. If this doesn’t end up as a movie script some
day, the world will be worse off because of it………..
- Give singer Shamir credit for a fun gimmick to promote his
latest single, even if he’s not likely to race past Lil Wayne and Drake to the
top of the rap game based on creating what he’s billing as a relationship
hotline to dish out romantic advice to his lovelorn fans in their time of need.
The hotline is to promote “Call It Off” and if fans feel like Shamir – or
whichever lackeys from his crew or record label get stuck with sitting by the
phone and waiting for calls to come in – can help them out, then they can dial
him up. "Call
1-844-4SHAMIR (UK dial 0800 1933266) for free round-the-clock advice for all
your relationship needs. No question is too big or too small for the Shamir
Call It Off Relationship Hotline!" screams a press release. Shamir, for
those who don’t know, is a Las Vegas-based singer who recently announced the
release of his first full-length album “Ratchet.” The album drops next month
and in order to make it happen, Shamir temporarily relocated to Brooklyn, where
he lived in the artist space Silent Barn and recorded 'Ratchet' with producer
Nick Sylvester. Their effort produced 10 tracks and according to sources close
to the project, it is based on Shamir’s experiences growing up in Las Vegas. He
also released an EP titled “Northtown” last year and the project was mostly
well-received. Stretching out from an EP to a full-length release is a
transition not every artist can make or make well, but if it allows you to
spend your time talking to relationally challenged fans who want to know why
their girlfriend broke up with them again, then it has to be considered a
success for all involved………..
- When Hollywood presents you with a chance to cash in, you
take it and up your asking price by 10 percent, b’otches. Enter Grantville, Georgia — where hit television drama “The Walking
Dead” was filmed — and nine buildings in this tiny Southern town that are now
conveniently up for sale. According to Grantville's former mayor, the
structures — virtually the entire downtown — were put on the digital auction
block known as eBay in the hopes of finding a buyer interested in revitalizing
a town that the rose-tinted-glass wearers among us view as a potential hotbed
of activity and life on the southern fringes of metro Atlanta. Former mayor Jim
Sells is leading the charge on this one and says the asking price for the
buildings is for a measly and very affordable $680,000. As his last name
implies, he’s pimping this one hard and claims there has been plenty of
interest even though no serious buyers have emerged. No serious buyers when you’re
attempting to sell property on a site where vintage Pez dispensers and old
Superman dolls still in their original packaging are the big finds on an
average day? No effing way. Sells admitted that the auction's end on Friday
might not result in an immediate sale, but he’s optimistic that he will find a
way to do some real estate CPR and breathe life back into his downtrodden town.
Grantville was featured prominently in the AMC show's third season and is
clearly banking on any residual zombie cred lingering on its streets to bring
in someone who believes that there is a real-life, non-scripted appeal to a
largely forgettable place……..
- Somebody isn't telling the truth in Birmingham. University of
Alabama-Birmingham officials shut down their football program several months
back, claiming the move was purely financial and that the school could not afford
to keep the team alive. That’s not what you find in a study released Thursday
by an independent economic analysis firm hired to assess the fiscal state of
UAB athletics. The study challenges the claim by that the football program had
to be dropped for financial reasons and not only that, claims , the sport makes
money for the university -- and that surpluses would grow in the coming years.
Hiding behind claims that the school could no longer afford to financially
support football, especially with schools moving to cover the full cost of
attendance with athletic scholarships, seemed sketchy at the time the decision
was made and it’s even more suspect now. "We find that the three sports in
question did not cost the university anywhere near the $3.75 million indicated
on UAB's accounting statements," Dan Rascher and Andy Schwarz, partners of
Bay Area firm OSKR, wrote in their findings. "Instead, after making the
sort of adjustments suggested by the economics literature, we conclude that the
three sports were effectively break-even to slightly positive.” Hmm, that’s
interesting. When these two say that football and bowling showed a modest
positive return for 2013-14, the last year for which complete data was
available, they don’t really have much of a reason to lie. You might
know them from their critically acclaimed appearance as consultants for the plaintiffs in the Ed
O'Bannon v. NCAA trial, which produced a favorable ruling for college athletes
and opened the door for schools to offer cost-of-attendance scholarships. Now,
you’ll know them as the dudes who used alternative methods of analysis to
conclude that UAB is overstating expenses and understating revenues. According
to the report, athletic scholarships cost UAB 65 percent less than their listed
prices. Oh, and there’s also the fact that being a member of Conference USA are
"far superior" to any alternate affiliation with a non-football
conference because of media revenues that are valuable and growing. All in all,
it sounds like the powers that be at UAB have some ‘splainin to do………
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