Thursday, November 12, 2015

The hot mess of UAB athletics, Serbia throws $$$ at mass murder victims and Snoop Dogg's keef corporation


- Whoever finds a missing white 2015 Lamborghini Aventador Convertible last seen on the streets of New York City on October 28 is going to have a difficult decision to make. On one hand, that person could cash in on the $100,000 reward the legendary private detective agency is offering for information leading to the recovery of the vehicle. That seems like a sweet deal, right up to the point where you realize that this is a badass whip worth $450,000. The car was spotted in Flushing, Queens, before it disappeared and authorities believe could be parked hidden in some sort of shipping container, headed to an overseas buyer. Further thickening the plot, NYPD officials said they have no report of a stolen Lamborghini fitting the description. Whoever stole it either wanted to add it to their collection or plans to send it overseas because rolling that sort of heat on American streets would be far too conspicuous. The owner of the car hasn’t been identified, but the vehicle was parked near the Al Oerter Recreation Complex, a facility named for the legendary Olympic discus thrower. One possible place to look for suspects is a luxury car theft ring known to have been operating in the New York and New Jersey area in recent months, stealing Bentleys, Land Rovers and Maseratis. A total of 21 suspects have been charged in conjunction with that ring, according to the New Jersey State Police and Attorney General's office. Cars like this brand-new Lamborghini are extremely distinctive and owning it is almost a bigger deal than driving it for the rich, pompous pricks who tend to own such vehicles……..


- The inevitable has happened. Snoop Dogg has been deep in a giant pile of ganja for most of his life and has bought/been given/passed along so much of the hippie lettuce that he’s practically been running his own pot business for years. If anyone can be called a sticky icky aficionado, it’s Snoop. It’s a mere formality that the rapper and television personality has launched his own cannabis brand he has dubbed Leafs By Snoop. Because pot is legal in Colorado, that’s where the company will sell "the finest quality cannabis one could imagine," according to a release. "Wherever my musical journey has taken me around the world, it’s beautiful to see how chronic leafs are a common source of peace, love and soul that connects us all," Snoop wrote on the company’s website. "Since I’ve been at the forefront of this movement for over 20 years now, I’m a master of marijuana. Leafs By Snoop is truly the first mainstream cannabis brand in the world and proud to be a pioneer." What’s amazing here - aside from the fact that Snoop can't actually own the company because he is not a resident of Colorado - is the fact that he’s willing to get rid of any dank instead of keeping it all for himself. In the end, there are only so many bowls one can pack and so many bongs to fill, so when the state of Colorado legalized both medical and recreational use of marijuana in 2012, this day was inevitable. Hopefully CEO Dogg will be the chief keef product tester, bringing his vast expertise to the process of selecting only the best weed for his customers……….


- Hey residents of Srebrenica, remember those 8,000 Muslim men and boys of yours who wartime Serbs slaughtered 20 years ago and have shown far too little contrition for over the years? How about the Serbian government chips you off a paltry sum of money as a far-too-late, far-too-little apology for that massacre? The number is $5.4 million, money the government will to rejuvenate the Bosnian town. That amount of money may seem like a lot when you see it at first glance, but when you consider the prevalence of government waste and how quickly 5 million euros can go from an impressive sum to, “Where the hell did all of that money go and how did we only get a couple of new sidewalks and a park bench out of it?” that number is much less impressive. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced the blood money payment at an investment conference in the eastern town, promising that the first 2 million euros will arrive by Monday and that Srebrenica should become a bridge of cooperation between Serbia and Bosnia. However, that bridge has been (allegedly) in the process of being built with hollow gesture after hollow gesture. If any of those gestures meant anything, they wouldn’t keep coming and coming. Anyone who thinks these gestures men anything clearly wasn’t paying attention back in July, when Vucic had to flee events in Srebrenica marking the killings' 20th anniversary because enraged demonstrators blasted he and his entourage with rocks during the funeral of 136 massacre victims found in nearby mass graves. One inalienable truth the whole world ‘round is that when all else fails, you throw a massive pile of money at the problem and hope it goes away……….


- The University of Alabama-Birmingham is a hot fiscal mess right now. The school best known for shuttering its football program last year with its administration claiming it lacked the finances to keep the team alive only to face a massive backlash and an investigation that revealed its fiscal claims were bogus, then have to double back and revive the program when a grassroots campaign raised money to bring football back. Now, UAB is an the awkward position of not being able to cover the full cost of attendance for its student-athletes this year and if not for men’s basketball coach Jerod Haase, this situation could have taken an ugly turn. Haase stepped in to donate $46,000, or $23,000 to the men's and women's basketball teams, to make sure athletes on both squads had their tuition covered. The coach decided to pay the bulk of players' stipends out of his own pocket and did so while drawing no attention to himself and being reticent to even talk about it. He later addressed it and while a guy who makes $1 million annually, $46,000 is a relatively minor sum, but he explained that for the goals the university has for its programs, covering the full cost of attendance was vital. "Jerod's generosity is appreciated. To make that type of commitment shows what type of person he is,” women's coach Randy Norton said. UAB athletic director Mark Ingram said that the school will pay for the cost of attendance for all student-athletes beginning in the next budget cycle, but came up short  because the budget already had been determined when the NCAA passed the cost of attendance -- money given to players to help pay for college attendance, travel and other expenses. Given the way the university treated the football team and its issues financing scholarships for basketball - its two biggest sports - its other, lower-profile teams should probably keep their eyes peeled for a giant ax being swung at their budgets going forward……….

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