Michael Phelps' new friends, stopping dumb bank robbers and living big as a wanted Italian mob boss

- Italians always have style, even when they’re wanted men hiding in an underground bunker in the countryside of southern Calabria in order to literally stay below the radar of the law. Giuseppe Crea and Giuseppe Ferraro shared not only a first name, but that aforementioned bunker in which the convicted 'ndrangheta clan bosses had a dozen firearms, including a Kalashnikov, and because you can't hide out underground without some proper Italian food, a pasta pot hanging neatly on a wall. Expecting two fugitive mobsters to go without their linguini is just cruel, so it should surprise no one that tomatoes, salad and what looked like a plate of ricotta were on the counter when police raided the bunker early in the morning. The hideout lay beneath a mass of vines and bushes, but those efforts at camouflage weren't enough to keep them free. Police are now working on taking down the mobsters’ network of accomplices they suspect helped Crea to elude capture for 10 years and Ferraro for almost 20 years. Now that they are in custody, Crea faces 22 years in prison for Mafia association, while Ferraro was sentenced to life imprisonment, including for a murder conviction. They are part of the cocaine-trafficking 'ndrangheta, which remains one of the world's most powerful criminal organizations. It’s also an organization that clearly knows how to hide out from police in style and at the same time, make sure that surrendering one’s freedom to move about and live a normal life doesn’t have to mean surrendering a quality plate of pasta……….

- British filmmaker Asif Kapadia seems to have a thing for drug-addled, demon-plagued muses. Kapadia was the cinematic mind behind last year's acclaimed Amy Winehouse documentary “Amy” and after telling the tragic tale of the troubled songstress in powerful form, he plans to dribble his way into the chaotic, colorful life of legendary Argentinian soccer star Diego Maradona, who alongside Pelé was named FIFA Player of the 20th century. Maradona’s playing career was amazing, including him captaining his country to the 1986 World Cup title in Mexico while winning the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player. Of course, his career was eventually derailed by a serious drug addiction and after he finished playing, he struggled with overeating to the point that it too landed him in the hospital. An attempt to coach Argentina to World Cup glory in 2010 fell well short of the mark, but Kapadia will have no shortage of material with which to work in his next project. "I was taken by his character, his genius, honesty, passion, humor and vulnerability,” the director said. “I was fascinated by his journey - wherever he went there were moments of incredible brilliance and drama, he was a leader, taking his teams to the very top, but [there were] also many lows in his career." Kapadia added that he views Maradona as “always the little guy fighting against the system” and a man who used “all of his cunning and intelligence to win.” After capturing a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards, Best Documentary and Outstanding British Film at the BAFTAs and Best Music Film at the Grammys, it will be interesting to see how this one ends up………

- Is stopping a bank robbery easier than we all thought? Typically the answer is no, but then you come across a story like that of a North Carolina PNC Bank branch manager and it gives you reason to pause and reconsider. According to police in Zebulon, just east of Raleigh, the manager was able to snuff out an attempted robbery by holding a door shut even as the suspect banged on the door with a small handgun. Banks typically don’t have bulletproof glass doors, yet authorities say the manager stood his ground when a person wearing a mask approached the back door of the bank shortly after it opened. The manager spotted the suspect approaching and held the door shut, continuing to do so even though the suspect flashed a small, black handgun and used it to hit the door. Proving that he or she was not exactly a seasoned, hardcore criminal with serious skills, the would-be robber ran off without getting into the bank when the manager simply help the door firmly closed and wouldn’t budge. A nearby middle school was placed on lockdown after the would-be robber escaped, but this one definitely flies in the face of the typical recommendation that bank employees not try to be heroes in the event of a robbery and instead, simply comply with the robber’s demands and allow the police to handle the business of stopping and apprehending the criminal. Maybe this manager is in line for a raise and promotion if the bank has any sense of fairness………..

- You might be asking yourself what 11-time individual Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps is up to these days, with the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro looming just a few months away. Has he put down the bong, picked up his swim cap and locked in on what will almost certainly be his last run at Olympic glory? Possibly, but that doesn’t mean there isn't still time for some shenanigans and tomfoolery, the sort of hijinks he took part in late last week with his new friends of Arizona State's "Curtain of Distraction" fan section at the school’s men’s basketball games. The disruptive student section aims to bedevil opposing free-throw shooters using a curtain it draws back to reveal all manner of nonsense right as shooters step to the line and its organizers landed themselves a real whale in the second half of the Sun Devils' 86-68 rout of the Oregon State Beavers, getting Phelps to show up, sport a swimsuit and six-pack abs with gold medals around his neck and a swim cap on his head while standing between two shirtless male students wearing bow ties, which caused the shooter to miss his first attempt. The curtain closed and when it reopened for the second shot, Phelps and his portly pals were back, except this time the Olympian was wearing only his swim cap, medals and a very small Speedo. Oregon State's Stephen Thompson Jr. missed the second free throw as well and noted drama queen/Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said Phelps "made a major contribution to the game." For the record, Phelps is in Tempe because he’s training for the 2016 Rio Games and has said he plans to work as an assistant swim coach at ASU upon his retirement after the Olympics. It’s a safe bet that if he needs to find himself a new bong - beer or otherwise - his new friends in the student section can help him out with that………..

Don't f*ck with Wisconsin cheese, Pantera ex-frontman v. Nazi stupidity and Riot Watch! Haiti

- There isn't much reason to pay attention to Georgetown men’s basketball games this season, nor to the postgame news conferences that follow those games. Well, unless the most iconic coach in the history of the program, a man who is long gone from the bench, is going to crash those news conferences and start turning them into late-night, HBO-language-riddled rage fests in support of his son, who currently coaches the Hoyas. John Thompson Jr. won 596 games coaching Georgetown from 1972-99, but it’s John Thompson III who now roams the sidelines for the team and after a recent win over Creighton in which the Hoyas were whistled for 27 fouls to Creighton's 21, the elder Thompson interrupted his son's news conference to weigh in on the game's officiating. "Last two games have been terrible,'' Thompson Sr. said. "You can tell the f*cking commissioner and everybody else in the Big East I said that.'' Those words came one game after a home contest against Villanova in which Georgetown was called for 10 more fouls than the Wildcats, loosening the tongue of the former coach who was once memorably ejected after earning three technical fouls during a Syracuse game. His son was far more diplomatic and elected not to bash officials he might see again this season. "During the course of the game we have to adjust to the officiating. You have to adjust to how they're calling the game,” Thompson III said. “Sometimes it's more difficult than others to adjust to how they're calling the game and tonight was one of those nights, for one reason or another, we couldn't quite adjust to how they were calling the game, but our guys fought and kept playing.'' The conference hasn’t weighed in on the outburst, but a team that’s just 13-8 this season is at least more watchable with these shenanigans going on………. 

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Haiti has been a cauldron of boiling dissent and disappointment for years now, fueled in recent times by the devastating aftereffects of a 2010 earthquake that ravaged the impoverished island nation which has never truly recovered from the disaster. Woven through that shattered society are the myriad issues of a contested presidential election that has been equal parts chaos and confusion. Those emotions boiled over late this week when supporters of Haiti's government held a march in the crowded capital calling for elections to be held, drawing in several thousand people to the streets of Haiti's largest city with a carnival-like atmosphere. The rage was severely and sadly lacking in the peaceful gathering as many donned new T-shirts emblazoned with the photo of Jovenel Moise, the outgoing president's chosen successor. All parties in the process are in a state of limbo because Haiti had been scheduled to hold a runoff presidential vote last weekend, but electoral authorities postponed it indefinitely amid violent opposition protests and allegations that the first round was marred by rampant fraud favoring Moise. Fraud that worked in favor of The Man’s chosen successor to the guy who’s leaving power? That NEVER happens. In the face of major electoral instability, the Organization of American States has authorized a special mission to help Haiti's polarized factions negotiate a new date for the runoff. Current President Michel Martelly is due to leave office Feb. 7 and at this rate, there’s going to be no one to take over………..

- Current and former members of Pantera are not known for being especially meek, mild or socially conscious. It’s a stereotype that may be unfair in some cases, but apparently not when it comes to former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo, who finds himself fighting off allegations of racism and support of white supremacy after a video emerged allegedly showing him making a Nazi salute at a recent gig. The offending incident occurred at this year's Dimebash, a festival held in Hollywood in tribute to deceased Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, an event in which Anselmo performed the thrash metal band's classic hit 'Walk.' After he finished the song, Anselmo reportedly made a 'Sieg Heil' gesture to the crowd while shouting, "White Power!" Even for a band known for being extremely hardcore and violent, that sort of statement is way over the line….so Anselmo didn’t really say such an offensive thing, right? Umm….let’s check out his effort to address  the controversy in a comment on the Youtube video of the incident. Ok folks, I’ll own this one, but dammit, I was joking, and the 'inside joke of the night' was because we were drinking f*cking white wine,” Anselmo wrote. “Some of y’all need to thicken up your skin. There’s plenty of f*ckers to pick on with a more realistic agenda. I f*cking love everyone, I f*cking loathe everyone, and that’s that. No apologies from me." Oh, that should clear everything up. You were making an inside joke, people are oversensitive and therefore, a Nazi salute is no big deal. If only you and your former band weren’t years past your prime and barely relevant………

- There are just some things you don’t steal or mess with in certain places. Cheese in Wisconsin is one of those combinations and that’s what makes it so offensive that the theft of $70,000 of Wisconsin cheese was stolen this week from a block surrounded by warehouses in Germantown, Wisconsin. It was a well-orchestrated cheese theft in which the stolen trailer was backed up to an empty one into which the heisted dairy product was placed and driven away. Police found the stolen container, but there was no cheddar inside. “We found that the trailer was empty,” said Lt. Todd Grenier of the Germantown Police Department. The chain of event began at D&G Transportation in Germantown, where the trailer full of locally made cheese was set to be delivered at stops around the nation. Company officials said they have surveillance footage of that trailer full of cheese being hooked up and driven away. "We found out where the tractor was and kind of mapped its progress through the city," Grenier added. Amazingly, even as the stolen cheese was being tracked, a second cheese theft had already gone down in nearby Marshfield, where $90,000 worth of parmesan cheese was missing from a storage facility. Police don’t believe there is any connection between the two thefts, but the sad truth is that even if the stolen cheese is found, it can’t be eaten because the trucks the cheese was in were sealed and when the thieves opened the truck, they broke the seal and that broke the law because federal law mandates that any cheese exposed in such a fashion becomes useless from a consumption standpoint. It’s almost as if a piece of your soul was stolen and thrown away in the process, eh Wisconsin……….

Maine drops the guillotine, Brits plus Major League Baseball and borders in a borderless Europe

- Major League Baseball sees you, NFL and NBA, and it wants a piece of the action. Both of those leagues already play regular-season games in the United Kingdom and have locked in on London as their European target for expanding their brand, so MLB commissioner Rob Manfred feels it’s only logical to try to cram another sport Brits don’t actually give a damn about down their throats for premium ticket prices. The commish said recently that his league is looking to play its first regular-season games in London in 2017.  "We are very interested in playing there, and we're working hard on that one," Manfred said. "I don't think it will be an opener because of the weather issues. It would be later in the season." MLB has already played regular-season games in Japan, Mexico and Puerto Rico, so going outside the continental United States is nothing new. Manfred, who just marked his first anniversary as baseball commissioner, suggested that while the league has been looking at the Olympic Stadium as a possible venue, there haven’t been any in-depth talks about which teams to send across the Atlantic Ocean. "We haven't really settled on teams, and I don't want to speculate about that," he said. "Obviously, we want to make as good a first impression in Europe as we possibly can." That would be a stark contrast to the NFL, which has funneled subpar and just-plain-terrible teams like the Jaguars, Bills and Lions into the British football market. Avoiding a Mariners-Marlins series in London would be wise, but assuming that Brits will fall in love with baseball is still a big leap………

- Does anyone else get the impression that Maine Gov. Paul LePage is saying insane sh*t just for the sake of saying insane sh*t? Last month, this crackpot went full-on racist when he spoke about drug dealers in his state. "These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty," he said. "They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave." LePage later claimed he meant to say Maine instead of white, but that was the biggest lie of all. Yet after the resulting firestorm, the governor didn’t study his mistake and come back smarter. No, he decided to double down on dumbass-ery by suggesting that rather than being too easy on drug crimes, Maine should bring back the guillotine for serious offenders. The Republican governor made an appearance on a local radio station and fielded a question about combating the drug epidemic in his state. "What I think we ought to do is bring the guillotine back," he replied. "We could have public executions and have, you know, we could even have (guessing) which hole it falls in." Ah, guillotine humor, that’s been sorely missing from American culture. LePage also blasted a recent proposal to establish a minimum sentence of four years for drug traffickers as too lenient and suggested injecting these people with the product they sell. The hosts of the show tried to end the interview, but the governor would not be silenced and zeroed in on his love of the guillotine for public executions, joking that the idea was part of his French ancestry. "I like French history," he said. If only you liked keeping your job and being respected as well………

- Famous people are just like the rest of us. Just as so many movie fans wish that various franchises would stop when it’s clear there is no more story left to tell and they are simply making more movies for the sake of banking more money. Few franchises have embodied this reality better in recent years than “The Hangover” trilogy, which went from raunchy, funny first film to barely passable sequel to eye-rolling abomination of a third chapter. Virtually everyone knew the first movie should have been the last one, but it’s still nice to hear star Zach Galifianakis admit that he wishes “The Hangover” hadn't been expanded into a trilogy. The first film was a surprise hit, earning more than $467 million at the global office - at the time a record for an R-rated comedy. It even won a Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and helped Galifianakis and castmates Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Long and Ken Jeong attain greater heights in their individual careers and all of them returned for 2011's “The Hangover Part II,” which was clearly a worse movie but was somehow even more successful at the box office, grossing over $586 million globally despite receiving mixed reviews. Evidence of the fact that the third movie never should have happened - aside from an asinine, hole-ridden plot and horrible writing - can be found in the fact that it was the lowest-grossing of the trio, taking in $362 million at the box office globally.  "We're contracted up to 12 [films]. I feel a real appetite out there for more," Galifianakis said jokingly. "Look, that was a good chunk of my life that I do not regret at all but I wished we had just done one. I think leave well enough alone sometimes." Slow cap, Zachary, slow clap……….

- Looking to take that epic backpacking adventure through a borderless Europe, riding the rails and crossing borders like they’re the “Do Not Cross” caution stripe at the entrance to your favorite roller coaster? Act now, world, because passport-free travel and hassle-free business in Europe have never been in more danger. As you may have seen, the continent has been besieged by 1 million people streaming into the European Union hoping for sanctuary or jobs and various countries have done everything from erect fences to upping their troop presence and clamping down on border controls. The idea of letting people flow freely from country to country isn’t sitting so well with many leaders these days, it seems.  "What we have worked for, for so many years, we are seeing it crumbling now in front of us," Roberta Metsola, a leading EU lawmaker on migration, said. In just a few months, the true chaos will begin when the legal options for countries like Germany, Austria and Sweden to impose ID checks on everyone who enters, including Europeans, begin to run out. "Our citizens have a right to feel safe," Metsola said. "If that means that we will need to keep stock of who is crossing our borders for a specific amount of time, then we will have to do it." The German government has made it clear that it doesn’t intend  to ease border controls in May, when its temporary border measures legally expire. If nothing changes before then, the EU’s existing Schengen rule book could effectively be suspended, leaving everyone to point the finger at Greece simply because some 850,000 people arrived there last year, many to the Greek islands after a short, reacherous sea journey in smugglers' boats from Turkey. With the capacity to shelter a mere 10,000 people, Greece and its coastguard are totally overwhelmed. Due to its economic crisis, most migrants don't want to stay in Greece and they typically seek sanctuary in Germany or Sweden. If Greece won't step up, other nations around those two nations will likely feel it falls on them and that would make life much harder for anyone looking to enjoy an awesome Euro adventure in the months ahead……….

NBA unicorns, sumbags v. homeless dignity and Elliott Smith's new tune

- Well, well. Look who’s having a, “Dammit, I’m Keith Hernandez” moment. Hernandez’s famously cocksure portrayal of himself on “Seinfeld” just might be in Russian despot Vladimir Putin’s Netflix queue based on the dictator’s most recent verbal hatchet job on Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin for placing a "time bomb" under the state. The “president” went on to denounce brutal repressions by the Bolshevik government, but it was his nuke dropped on Lenin, who is still revered by communists and many others in Russia, that stunned the world because Putin has typically been cautious and measured in his comments about the nation's history to avoid alienating some voters. Actually, scratch that. Putin doesn’t give a damn about voters because he’ll just rig the election in his favor or coerce the masses into voting for him because gulags are still a thing. But whatever the reason, Putin's breakdown of Lenin's role in Russian history during a meeting with pro-Kremlin activists in the southern city of Stavropol was significantly darker and more critical than it has been in the past. While it’s not clear whether his message was delivered shirtless and on horseback, it is known that he denounced Lenin and his government for brutally executing Russia's last czar along with all his family and servants, killing thousands of priests and placing a "time bomb" under the Russian state by drawing administrative borders along ethnic lines. Of course, when you can simply banish or execute anyone who doesn’t like what you have to say, that makes it significantly easier to speak your mind anytime and anywhere………

- Fans of one of the most tortured and mysterious musicians in recent years now have another obscure song that no one has ever heard to enjoy at their hipster parties. Late indie singer/songwriter Elliott Smith has long been a melancholy icon for fans of the genre, having scored “Good Will Hunting” with his haunting tunes and dying mysteriously of stab wounds in October 2003 in a case that remains controversial and the source of many conspiracy theories. His sweetly sad songs remain cult favorites for a lot of music fans and with the upcoming release of the Smith-centric documentary 'Heaven Adores You,’ there comes the release of a new version of 'Plainclothes Man' - originally recorded by Elliott Smith's band Heatmiser for their third and final album 'Mic City Sons.' The song is part of the soundtrack for the film, but it will sound much different than the version to which fans have become accustomed. That take on 'Plainclothes Man' is a full-fledged heavy-electric track on 'Mic City Sons,' but its reincarnation on the documentary soundtrack is much more in the style of Smith’s solo work, a laid-back version of the original. As for the documentary 'Heaven Adores You,' it was funded by Smith fans using Kickstarter and rather than debate the controversial fashion in which he died, it focuses on Smith's life in the three cities he lived in, Portland (Oregon), New York and Los Angeles. Given his knack for great songwriting and the poignancy of his tunes, both the film and the soundtrack are worth checking out………

- Never for a single second forget that there are scumbags and subhuman beings in every race, religion and nationality on this spinning Earth of ours. One of these d-bags is currently doing despicable things in New Jersey, treating other people like animals or objects for his amusement merely because they happen to occupy a lower socioeconomic level in life. The disenfranchised in this case is Ronald Leggatt, a homeless man who recently agreed to allow another man record him pouring coffee on himself last week in exchange for $5 cash. "Never thought I’d be in this position at 65," Leggett said after the video went viral and people started asking questions of him. "I don’t even know what Facebook is, to be honest with you." It makes sense that a homeless, elderly man with little or no money to his name doesn’t have a Facebook account, but the truly sad part of this story is that police say no charges will be filed against the stranger because Leggatt consented to this nonsense. Leggatt said he was not aware the video was posted to Facebook, but explained that he generally looks for discarded lottery tickets in the area, hoping to pocket enough cash for food and coffee. His bed each night is the dugout of a nearby baseball field and Rev. Steve Brigham, a homeless advocate who knows Leggatt, expressed dismay that anyone would do such a horrible thing to another human being. Bystander Carlos Mejia posted an account of the incident on social media after confronting the young man who paid Leggatt, claiming that the man who made the offer belonged to the local Orthodox Jewish community and said police wouldn't try to prosecute him because, "We run this town." The only possible positive from all of this is that more people in the area know who Leggatt is and hopefully will make an effort to help him in the future…………

- NBA unicorns….they do exist. That’s according to Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant, a physical freak whose arms seem to be eight feet long but who shoots and handles the ball like a point guard. Durant recognizes another freak when he sees one and he sees on in New York Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis, an athletic 7-foot-3 forward with a diverse game. "He can shoot, he can make the right plays, he can defend, he's a 7-footer that can shoot all the way out to the 3-point line," Durant said. "That's rare. And block shots -- that's like a unicorn in this league." Durant, a multi-time All-Star, recalled texting former teammate and current Knicks head coach Derek Fisher when New York drafted Porzingis and applauded the pick even though many fans and analysts panned the selection. “A lot of people were down on him, but he can play. He's a skilled guy and I think we've gotten away from enjoying skilled players in this league,” Durant said. “We get so many players that are athletic and big and strong, but he's a skilled player." In Durant’s eyes, the young Latvian’s combination of size and skill are what make him an NBA unicorn and after defeating the Knicks for the second time this season on Tuesday night, it’s unlikely that opinion has changed. It’s not an uncommon take on Porzingis, whose putback dunks and refined overall game have made him a consistent double-figure scorer and a capable second banana to Carmelo Anthony for a team with reasonable hopes of snagging one of the final playoff spots in the underwhelming Eastern Conference and getting smashed by a much better team in the first round of the postseason………..

Men's tennis pissing matches, Riot Watch! Nepal and soundtracking a comic book

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Nepal may be less than one year removed from a devastating earthquake that leveled much of the country and left an impoverished nation in shambles, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is still licking their wounds and humbly cooperating with the status quo as they all work together to get back on solid ground. Nope, that’s definitely not true for ethnic protesters in Nepal who have rejected an amendment made by the parliament in the new constitution that was hoped to end months of conflict in southern Nepal. The rage was real after Nepal's Parliament in a late night vote Saturday approved the first amendment to the constitution with overwhelming support and it didn’t take long for Laxman Lal Karna of the United Democratic Madhesi Front to proclaim that the amendment was incomplete and did not address their concerns. Of course, claims that you don’t like the new amendment are a bit hollow when members of your party boycott the vote, as Madhesi members did in this case, but rage in the streets is a nice recovery to refusing to take part in the democratic process. The mad-as-hell Madhesis in south Nepal have been protesting for months because they believe the constitution created Nepal's seven states unfairly with borders that cut through their ancestral homeland. As has been the source of so many conflicts in so many places over the years, the group is demanding a larger state, more government representation and more local autonomy. They’re going to need to amp up their rage if they’re going to get what they want, but this is a decent start……… 

- Life is getting feisty in a hurry on the ATP Tour, where some of the top names in men’s tennis are firing more than wicked backhands across the net at one another. One of the best in the game and in the history of the sport got the latest round of sniping started prior to the Australian Open when he questioned whether young Australian star Bernard Tomic would finally make good on his quest to become a top 10 player. Swiss star Roger Federer, a 17-time grand slam champion who clearly knows what it takes to be a top player, was asked about Tomic's development on his way to reaching the final of the Brisbane International. Federer was succinct in breaking down Tomic’s standing in the game prior to the Australian Open. "He's been good, but then top 10 is another story," Federer said earlier this month. "The year is not just one month long or one week long. It's 52 weeks. It's every day. That (is what) he's been struggling to show, to be quite honest. Many seasons now in a row we have seen or heard that top 10 is the goal, and he's missed out on it by a long shot.” After Tomic won in straight sets against fellow Australian John Millman in the third round, he couldn’t wait to fire a shot across Federer’s bow. "Yeah, well, he has his predictions," Tomic said. "I think he's also far away from [Novak] Djokovic as well if he wants to say that. If he believes I'm very far away from the top 10, I also believe my prediction that he's nowhere near Novak's tennis right now."  Man, that was a bit petty and yet, Tomic said Federer's criticism was providing him with inspiration. "It also motivates me. I'm working for that," Tomic said. "When I'm playing well, I'm a top-eight player in the world. My ranking has to get there.” Oh, so you have top-10 talent, but the rankings just don’t recognize how good you are….thanks for clarifying that, Bernie……….

- It’s been a long time since there was a battle over territory in New Hampshire's White Mountains. But buckle up because the fight is on over a plan to build a backcountry hut for hikers less than 2 miles into the woods. That plan has pissed off some outdoor lovers who say the mountains are already overrun by wealthy out-of-staters who ignorantly trample a fragile part of the world and run everyone else’s outdoor experience. The Appalachian Mountain Club-proposed building "Sparkling Cascade" would be a place for hikers to rest, enjoy a hot meal and even have a bunk to crash on for the night in a section of Crawford Notch. According to the club, their new structure would be close enough to the main road to draw in folks who might not ordinarily get into the mountains, including older people, inexperienced hikers and other nature newbies. It would also be conveniently located e between two existing huts that are 14 miles apart, allowing a hiker to put together a hut-to-hut experience at shorter mileage. Despite the tree-hugger objections, that would be beneficial during the winter, when the conditions in the White Mountains are especially unpredictable and the days are shorter. Part of the plan calls for the construction of a trail that would  connect to the Appalachian Trail, the 2,189-mile footpath that attracts hundreds of thru-hikers each year traveling from Georgia to Maine.  "We want to be sure that the connection to the outdoors that we know and love is available to a wide range of people," said Paul Cunha, the vice president of outdoor operations for the 140-year-old nonprofit. The Madison Spring hut was the first built in the area back in 1888 and there are now eight AMC huts in the White Mountains, but none since the 1960s. Rates range from $60 a night to well above $100. Sparkling Cascade would accommodate 50 any given night plus crew members, but that’s only if the club can push through its plans………..

- It’s the assignment every aspiring musician dreams of when they imagine themselves as a world-famous rock star. Yes, right up there with being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, headlining Coachella and winning a Grammy is the honor of writing a soundtrack for an indie comic book named 'Murder Ballads,' a task that has fallen to the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. The frontman for the two-piece garage rock outfit has been confirmed to score the comic book - yes, you read that correctly - which will be released in autumn 2016 via Z2 Comics. According to the publisher, Murder Ballads is a "rock'n'roll noir story about the music industry and redemption,” with its protagonist an edgy record label owner named Nate Theodore. In this tale, Theodore makes a long journey through wintry conditions to escape his troubles and along the way, he meets Donny and Marvell Frontweathers, who play "a raucous brand of doom-laden country blues." Ah, sounds so much like Auerbach and Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney. Auerbach will give this graphic novel its sound, while comics writer and music journalist Gabe Soria will write and Paul Reinwand will illustrate. Auerbach has already started to assemble a solid musical cast, having brought on several musician, including the Dirtbombs' Mick Collins. Asked about what the project will look like, Auerbach said it will be "shorter than a double LP and longer than eight minutes." He explained that when he talked to Soria, the writer knew he was “really big into northern Mississippi music, so I understood the reference points when he was talking to me about it.” The rocker plans to read the comic and listen to his soundtrack separately because reading and listening to music with words at the same time would be “like doing two yo-yos at once,” but plans to enjoy each separately……….

Israel v. LeBron, Saudi Arabia v. chess and judge v. 10-time DUI-er

- How many DUI convictions does it take to get to the center of a jail cell on a permanent basis? It’s not quite, “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” but it’s a query that has finally been answered by Ivy Ray Eberhardt of Weatherford, Texas. Eberhardt is six decades into his run on this planet and has run out of time as a free member of society after a judge concerned about public safety sentenced him to life in prison for his 10th drunken driving conviction since the 1980s. Judge Craig Towson decided to step up where so many of his peers have whiffed, delivering the harshest possible sentence to a man who seems to live his life with a 40-ounce can in both hands and no one willing or able to take away his keys and keep him from going on the road while hammered. "Part of my job is to protect the citizens of Parker County, and the only way that I can think of to do that from somebody that has 12 DWI arrests and 10 DWI convictions is to put you in a place that you can't drive for as long as I possibly can," Towson said as he addressed Eberhardt in court. The most recent drunk driving case - although almost certainly not the most recent time Eberhardt drove drunk - involved an April 2014 incident in which Eberhardt's blood alcohol level was almost four times the 0.08 legal limit for driving in Texas. If your BAC is nearly at the one-third mark - i.e. .32 or .33 - it’s a minor miracle that you even survive that escapade, but this lush wasn’t done. While free on bond in that DWI case, Eberhardt cut off an electronic ankle monitor and fled to Colorado, where his long run to freedom came to a familiar ending when he was again arrested for drunken driving. He’s already served three prison terms for his previous convictions, but No. 4 is the one that should stick………..

- Fans of a band or musician will go to extreme lengths to get a little bit of face time with their favorite artist. Be it trying to sneak backstage at a show, waiting outside a hotel for hours in the extreme heat or cold or trying to bum rush the stage during the encore, it’s safe to say that meeting someone you don’t even know and have no person connection with means a bit too much to certain people. Enter a Weezer fan who has paid $25,000 to go bird-watching with frontman Rivers Cuomo, a prize this person snagged as part of the 'Weezer Experience Bundle' the band made available to fans pre-ordering their new album. That anyone pre-orders an album in the digital music era is mildly amazing - because they’re going to run out of digital copies if you just wait until the day it’s actually released - but the standard copy of the album this fan bought also came with a digital download and vinyl formats of the album and the chance to pay even more money to take a trip to the Galapagos Islands with Cuomo in order to spot rare birds together. The band laid out the offer in a post on its website: “Take a Greyhound to the Galapagos with Rivers where you’ll stay only for a limited time. Once you get to the islands, you’ll go bird watching to try and find the elusive White-cheeked pintail. You’ll go on a catamaran ride to Charles Darwin Research Station. Sing 'the British are coming' with Rivers in the Galapagos but replace every lyric about “old king george” to “lonesome George.” Enjoy your complimentary signed copy of the album and a pair of tickets to see the band on their summer tour with Panic! At The Disco. Finally, you will be named King of the World for a day.” It’s quite an offer for an album that takes its name from a Beatles release, “The White Album,”  although Weezer has named three previous album solely after colors. This one drops April 1…………

- Saudi Arabia has been in more than a few showdowns in recent months, including a few with other Middle Eastern nations. The kingdom’s current battle is within its borders and its foes are knights, rooks, bishops and pawns. Yes, Saudi Arabia has declared war on chess. Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin-Abdullah al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia's grand mufti, made an appearance on a religious TV channel and fielded questions from the masses about what’s good in life, what’s not so good and what’s downright evil. The kingdom's top cleric was getting after it, doling out wisdom to the masses and then, it happened. A caller asked a seemingly innocuous question about chess, a question that seemed relatively benign until the mufti made it clear that chess and similar games are "forbidden" in Islam because they're a form of gambling. The cleric supported his statement with a verse from the Quran: "Indeed wine, gambling, idols and the divining arrows are abominations of Satan's doing, so avoid them, so that you may be felicitous." Wait….huh? Chess is typically a game played by relatively boring (old) dudes who aren’t putting big money on the game, but merely looking for the intellectual capital of outsmarting their foe. Yet al-Sheikh labeled hess "a waste of time, money and a reason for the enmity between players." Again….what? Enmity between players? Who the hell is beefing and maintaining an intense hate for someone else over that opening gambit that sprung a major upset at the chess table? A member of the Saudi Chess Association - and yes, that is a thing - said the group was surprised by the video. Still, the chess association held a two-day championship in Mecca over the weekend and another two-day tournament, the Riyadh Chess Championship, is scheduled for early June………

- NBA fans are rarely emotionally attached to their coach. They typically don’t give a damn who’s calling the plays and giving speeches in the huddle as long as their team wins and players are far more likely to have a strong bond with the fan base than the guy in an expensive suit diagramming plays on a dry erase board during timeouts. Yet the Cleveland Cavaliers suddenly have far fewer fans in Israel and it has everything to do with their head coach. After the Cavs stunned the basketball world on Friday by firing head coach David Blatt, the judgment has come flying from the Middle East, where the Boston-born Blatt had his first real head coaching success. News of his firing topped all Israeli newscasts Saturday, inexplicably bumping coverage of Middle East violence from the top of the newscasts. Maybe reporting on senseless acts of violence and unnecessary deaths gets a bit tiresome day after day because Israel went off on the Cavs, specifically star LeBron James, who was apparently judged to be the reason Blatt was axed. An Israeli news show ranked it the top story of the week and one panelist outright stated that Blatt’s tenure with the Cavs ended "because of one man: LeBron James." Never mind that a news panelist in Israel almost certainly has no direct knowledge of why Blatt was fired; dammit, blame LeBron. Others joked that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would blame the firing on President Barack Obama and on some level, it makes sense. Blatt is possibly Israel's favorite son, having called Israel home since 1981, when he first arrived to play for the U.S. at the Maccabiah Games, and posting a solid playing career in the Israeli league before winning some 700 games coaching in Europe and Israel. He married an Israeli woman and raised his four children here, with the oldest two having completed their required military service. Heck, the man speaks Hebrew and is a popular pitchman for TV ads. He has even expressed a desire to one day serve as an ambassador for the country and his crowning moment came in 2014 when he led Maccabi Tel Aviv to a dramatic Euroleague championship title. Now, he’s a man with no home and a country ready to rage in his support………

Riot Watch! Tunisia, petulant NHL stars and "Avatar 2" delayed again

- First, the next “Star Wars” film, now the sure-to-be-massively-bloated sequel to James Cameron’s walking, talking LSD trip known as “Avatar” is being pushed back? It’s almost as if you can't rely on Hollywood at all anymore. The news that James Cameron's “Avatar” sequel has been pushed back again is disappointing for those eagerly awaiting the three successors to the 2009 blockbuster - the highest-grossing film of all time - but the development has a bit of a ripple effect because Cameron is planning to release them one a year for three consecutive years. That trio of releases was supposed to begin this year, but last year the director announced that it wouldn’t happen until December 2017. That revised date lasted all of a few months, as “Avatar 2” has now been yanked from 20th Century Fox's 2017 release slate and the studio has yet to confirm when the sequel is to hit theaters. Maybe, just maybe the postponement has to do with the fact that the sequel won’t have to compete with the delayed next “Star Wars film,” which is now due to drop next December. There isn't much need to say anything new about the second push back for the next “Avatar” movie, since Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos said it so well the first time this happened. "Jim Cameron has his own pace," Gianopulos said of the first delay. Should this new date stick, it will be more than eight years between the original movie and the first sequel, making it a bit tougher to cash in on the momentum that made “Avatar” the highest-grossing film ever with nearly $2.8 billion in global earnings. Both the original and the sequels will all be shot in New Zealand thanks to a cushy tax deal with the country's government………

- Social media isn't for everyone. Some aren't fans of sharing everything about their lives, others just don’t understand technology and then there are those engaged in completely illegal activities who probably shouldn’t be shining the bright lights of Twitter, Instagram or Facebook on their endeavors. Florida resident Alton Trowell probably should have known better than to use the ‘Book as an online marketplace for his moonshine business, but as so often happens with criminals at the lower end of the intelligence spectrum, he was arrested by sheriff’s deputies in central Florida after they launched an undercover operation that began after a tipster alleged that Trowell was selling the moonshine on his Facebook page. Using what probably didn’t need to be their best investigative techniques, officers contacted Trowell through Facebook and ended up speaking to his girlfriend, Christie Comkowycz. A deal was struck and according to deputies, Comkowycz met an undercover officer in a parking lot where she sold him 12 pint-sized mason jars of the illegal liquor for $20 a jar. She informed detectives that she was selling the moonshine to bail her boyfriend out of jail following his arrest the previous day on unrelated drug charges, a truly ironic twist given where she was headed. Deputies soon searched Trowell’s home and located a five-gallon container of moonshine, leading to the arrest of both Comkowycz and a man she identified as her supplier……..

- Not showing up for work and doing so deliberately is one of the biggest eff-you moves an employee can make toward their boss. Doing so when you make millions of dollars to play a sport for a living is decidedly more d-baggish still and that’s why Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin finds himself suspended without pay. Drouin refused to report for a game between the Syracuse Crunch, the team's American Hockey League affiliate, and the Toronto Marlies, the latest step in a dispute centered on him being on the verge of being traded. According to Drouin's agent, Allan Walsh, the Lightning had told Drouin they were nearing a trade involving him. Walsh claimed that Drouin asked to sit out games to avoid an injury that could derail the trade and his mind was pretty set on not playing because when the team refused his request, so Drouin opted to not report. The team is keeping quiet about the situation outside of a statement announcing the suspension, but Walsh is not. "In light of the latest developments, it is clearly in both sides' best interests that the Tampa Bay Lightning trade Jonathan as there is no reason for Jonathan to continue with the Tampa Bay Lightning organization in any capacity," Walsh said. All of this reeks of immaturity and a deteriorating relationship for the No. 3 pick in the 2013 draft and the team that burned a high draft pick on him and received just six career goals in 89 NHL games from that high draft pick. Walsh kicked off the drama back in November when he asked for a trade and this demotion yielded the public demand by Drouin and his agent to be moved. It’s quite a mess for both sides, so here’s hoping Drouin gets shipped to some frigid place like Buffalo or Minnesota so he can realize how good he had it playing in Florida……..

- The party’s over, Tunisia. At least it’s over much earlier than normal after the Tunisian government imposed a nationwide overnight curfew in response to growing unrest as protests over unemployment across the country descended into violence in some cities. The ban on late-night fun came after a week of increasingly violent demonstrations sparked by a man who lost out on a government job, showed why perhaps he wasn’t selected for the gig by suicidally climbing a transmission tower in protest and was promptly electrocuted. The suicide came more than five years after similar unrest lit the fuse for a popular uprising that overthrew Tunisia's longtime ruler and eventually gave rise to the "Arab Spring" uprisings across North Africa. A cynic might say that the current government is a bit insecure and paranoid in enacting the ban, yet they should feel pretty good because Tunisia built the only democracy to survive that movement, which spawned chaos elsewhere in the region. The complicating factor is a faltering economy that has one in three young people without work. Rather than, you know, deal with the problem and come up with a smart solution for it, the government has declared a curfew from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. because the attacks on public and private property "represent a danger to the country and its citizens," the Interior Ministry said. The government is actually a larger threat than just about anything, so trying to send everyone home just because police stations came under attack and security officers used tear gas to repel protesters armed with stones and Molotov cocktails is simply lame. You don’t like people pillaging a bank and looting stores and warehouses in housing projects on the outskirts of the capital, Tunis, then give them a reason to stop rioting. Prime Minister Habib Essid at least cut short a visit to France to deal with the protests, but he hasn’t done much to solve the crisis yet, so rushing back across the Mediterranean Sea to tackle this latest flare-up isn’t inspiring much confidence. Here’s hoping the rioters keep on raging, lighting their own country on fire and trying to burn that mo-fo to the ground……….

Quentin Tarantino's universe, a parking bill of rights and overdue rent on Hitler's bunker

- There is literally no one who followed Cliff Robinson’s basketball career who didn’t see this coming. Robinson was affectionately knowing as Uncle Cliffy during his career, but anyone who paid attention knew that dude could just as easily have been called Uncle Spliffy because he had a definite affection for ganja. He was twice suspended for marijuana use during his NBA career and now that he’s well on the other side of his playing days, he’s chasing down his clear destiny with a new business venture under that Uncle Spliffy moniker. Yes, the former UConn star has registered the name for his upcoming career in the marijuana business. He has the domain name locked down in and in true stoner fashion, the site is almost entirely incomplete. It features a marijuana leaf and a promise that the rest of the site is "Coming Soon,” a promise that friends and family members of stoners know all too well. Robinson, along with a group of investors, will open a grow operation in Portland, Oregon, and this outfit wants to have its product on the market by the end of the year. Those who know know that Oregon legalized recreational use of marijuana in July, becoming one of four states, plus the District of Columbia, to jump into the battle for America’s official stoner haven. As of October, recreational pot could be purchased from medical marijuana dispensaries, with retail stores to come later this year. Robinson is promoting his new business by any means possible, including serving as the keynote speaker at next month's Cannabis Collaborative Conference………

- Dammit, who forgot to pay the rent on Adolf Hitler’s bunker? It’s one of those things that you always assume someone else took care of because dammit, it’s the rent, it’s due every month and it’s not like all of you can forget it. Yet it appears that’s precisely what happened and it’s why a Polish court ruled that the state was right to terminate the lease of Hitler's World War II bunker to a private company because that company  failed to pay rent or upgrade it as a tourist attraction. Forestry authorities in Gerloz, in northeastern Poland, terminated the lease of Hitler's Wolf's Lair in March, but the company that owns the site protested the decision despite the fact that it owes the state some 1.2 million zlotys ($290,000). Judge Wieslaw Kasprzyk of the provincial court in Olsztyn ruled that the termination of the agreement was justified, to which the private company immediately replied that it would appeal. In the meantime, forestry authorities will move on as if that appeal didn’t exist and seek other partners to finance their plan of maintaining the historic site and turning it into a real tourist attraction. Chief local forester Zenon Piotrowicz announced the new direction for the plan to care for the system of some 200 Nazi bunkers and military barracks hidden in deep woods. Yes, the more famous bunker was in Berlin, but the Wolf's Lair served as Hitler's chief quarters from 1941-44, when the area was in Germany. It was there that Col. Claus Stauffenberg set the stage for one of the most over-the-top Tom Cruise performances ever with his failed assassination attempt on Hitler by  on July 20, 1944, for which he was executed. Stauffenberg’s story became the 2009 Hollywood movie "Valkyrie" starring Cruise and Kenneth Branagh and turned the bunkers into a major tourist attraction visited by some 200,000 history enthusiasts annually………..

- The world has long wondered what the hell Quentin Tarantino is thinking. Not that the quirky cinema savant is ever going to make sense, but maybe this will help a bit. “The Hateful Eight” director has confirmed long-standing speculation that the characters from his films exist in the same universe. The world already knew that “Inglorious Basterds” character Donnie Donowitz was the son of “True Romance character” Lee Donowitz and “Reservoir Dogs” key man Vic Vega was the brother of “Pulp Fiction” bumbling stooge Vincent Vega. Tarantino has often used his movies to provide teasers for future projects, including the memorable scene in “Pulp Fiction in which  Mia (Uma Thurman) describes a pilot episode of a TV show which features the same plot and characters as “Kill Bill,” a movie Tarantino went on to make nine years later. “There is actually two separate universes,” the director said of the world in which his characters exist.  “There is the realer than real universe, alright, and all the characters inhabit that one. But then there's this movie universe. So From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill, they all take place in this special movie universe. So when all the characters of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, when they go to the movies, Kill Bill is what they go to see. From Dusk Till Dawn is what they see.” To further play out the tease and build some more buzz for his latest project, Tarantino also implied that a character from “The Hateful Eight” is related to one of his older characters and suggested that fans of his past work could dig in and figure out the mystery. It’s all quite a tangled web of cinematic intrigue and for fanboys who love Tarantino’s bizarre style and sense of humor, it’s another layer to enjoy………..

- In this crazy world of ours, someone needs to stand up and fight for the everyman. Sacramento Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto is that someone, at least for residents of one neighborhood in California’s capital city. Gatto knows that some shady business is going on in his ‘hood, as evidenced by city parking enforcement records showing 93 street cleaning tickets written for the three-block stretch of P street, totaling $4,882.50, for the period July 1 and Nov. 20, 2013. Knowing that people hate parking tickets and some can’t afford the fines their questionable parking tactics incur, the assemblyman is proposing a parking bill of rights that would prevent California cities and counties from writing street cleaning tickets after the streets have already been cleaned. Gatto believes drivers shouldn’t be ticketed if cities aren’t actually cleaning the streets and say his bill will also outlaw tickets at broken parking meters, keep cities from hiring private companies to act as “parking bounty hunters” and make it illegal for valets to use public parking spots. “Occasionally the state needs to step in and remind our local governments that parking a vehicle should be an efficient practice, and not another big hassle designed to separate motorists from their money,” Gatto said of his proposal. “These simple and practical policy changes will make life easier for Californians who just want to park their cars and go about their business.” Sacramento has faced this issue before, but following a 2014 investigation, the city refused to dismiss the parking tickets written when the streets weren’t being cleaned and so far hasn’t commented on Gatto’s idea……….

British candy bar wars, Mos Def v. sanity and Australian Open tennis chivalry

- Stoners are the absolute best. They offer little hassle to the world most days due to their general lack of motivation and/or energy, they’re often hilarious when high and every now and then, they do something stupidly and unintentionally helpful, such as call police to let the fuzz know that they are trafficking illegal drugs across state lines and need to be arrested. Enter Leland Ayala-Doliente and Holland Sward, who were traveling from Las Vegas to Bozeman, Montana and brought a 20-pound stash of ganja with them for their journey. That kind of herb collection should be more than enough to last two potheads on that length of journey, but as they passed through Rexburg, Idaho, something went horribly wrong for the two men. Having smoked some of their stash, these two fools called police to turn themselves in. Court documents show the men were using marijuana during their trip and when they entered Idaho, they got a bit paranoid - no way! - and believed they were being followed by undercover police officers. Even more shocking, Rexburg Police Cpt. Randy Lewis said that at the time they weren’t being followed by anyone, but it’s all about what you believe and these two were convinced they were being tailed, so when they reached Rexburg, the pair exited U.S. Highway 20, parked their car and called 911. They told the 911 operator that they simply wanted the police to stop following them and this civil servant put the pieces of the puzzle together, got actual cops on the job and the pair were arrested and charged with various drug offenses………..

- The sports world may still be getting itself back into a tennis frame of mind, but at least one member of the men’s tour is already in top form in one aspect of his game. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, seeded ninth at the Australian Open, is clearly the best in the field when it comes to chivalry and basic human decency on account of his act during his third-round match in which he absolutely throttled Omar Jasika of Australia, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4. Tsonga became a social media darling when he came to the aid of a ball girl in distress and stopped the match before he was about to serve, walking over to the ailing girl to see what was wrong. He approach the girl, gently placed his hand on her back and she handed him a ball she was holding. Tsonga them looped his arm through hers and escorted her off the court to a warm reception from the crowd. "I saw she was in trouble," Tsonga said. "It was normal to help her out of the stadium. I hope she's OK." Tournament organizers confirmed that the ball girl was fine and was merely feeling ill, but a kind gesture is always welcome in a major sporting event and social media users took notice, with many calling the Frenchman a gentleman and praising him for his kindness. He went on to a straight-set win, so maybe a little bit of good karma will follow him through the rest of the tournament and maybe his new ball girl friend will even get the chance to work another of his matches……….

- Is Yasiin Bey engaging in some sort of bizarre, Shia LeBouf-like performance art or is dude simply losing his mind? Bey was most recently heard from when he was arrested for reportedly attempting to leave South Africa using a false passport. It was a bizarre incident because he either entered the country on a bogus passport good enough to fool customs or he entered on a legal one and tried to exit on the fake one, but either way he was detained at Cape Town airport. South African Department of Home Affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said Bey was trying to depart on an unrecognized “world passport,” which is vague and makes it sound like the rapper literally had a sham passport listing his nation of citizenship as “The World.” Bey has been living in South Africa since May 2013, but had overstayed the terms of his visa by mid-2014 and was issued a court order to get the hell out. He somehow managed to squat in the country for another year and a half, but now has 14 days to leave South Africa. He’s currently being detained in Cape Town, but managed to shoot off an audio recording to his pal Kanye West, who posted it on his website. It’s a riff on West's new track 'No More Parties In LA' in which Bey freestyles that, "I have committed no crime, the state must be out of their mind,” followed by various other claims of his innocence. Oh, and Bey added that he is retiring from the music and film industry "effective immediately." It seems like a bit of a rash decision for a guy who’s in a tough spot, but an arrest on foreign soil means his street cred is flying sky-high these days……

- Everyone who enjoys making tired jokes about British people having bad teeth will enjoy this one. A battle over who owns the right to a specific shape of candy bar has been waged in Britain since 2010 and at long last, that battle for exclusive rights to corrode the chompers of Brits old and young has a decision. Nestle, which has been trying to trademark the four-finger shape of its KitKat chocolate bar in Britain for more than five years, has lost a long-running court battle to secure said trademark. The food giant first tried to register the trademark in 2010, but has been opposed every step of the way by rival chocolate maker Cadbury U.K. Ltd. Nestle, like a disciplined child rushing from one parent to another, tried and had its case dismissed by other courts including the European Court of Justice. Its quest came to a screeching halt this week when Britain's High Court upheld those decisions, ruling that the shape of a KitKat bar has not "acquired a distinctive character" enough to satisfy trademark requirements. In other words, your four-pronged chocolate wafer creation ain’t famous enough to trademark - a fact Nestle immediately disputed and said it plans to appeal the decision. The company claims the snack has been used in Britain for more than 80 years, is well-known to consumers and that its shape deserves to be protected in the U.K., a dubious claim at best, but one worth a lot of money and therefore worth fighting over to the death no matter how impossible the fight……..

No "Friends" movie, America wants a $1 billion new boat and Eddie Lacy needs to stop being FAT

- The end of the NFL season is like the end of a calendar year for NFL players. They conclude their year and head off into the offseason with all sorts of goals and resolutions to accomplish, all in the name of becoming a better player before next season begins. Like millions of Americans, Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy’s mission in his football new year is simple: Say no to General Tso, lay the smack down on the lo mein and get his fat ass on the treadmill. That edict was laid down by Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who didn’t look to spare his star running back’s feelings when discussing Lacy’s performance this season and what he needs to do to be better next year. "Eddie Lacy, he's got a lot of work to do. His offseason last year was not good enough, and he never recovered from it," McCarthy said. "He cannot play at the weight he was at this year." Calling a player out publicly is typically a last resort, but McCarthy is running out of options. He benched Lacy twice during the season and while one of those came after the portly ball carrier missed curfew the night before the team's Dec. 3 game at Detroit, it was clear based on playing time that Lacy had fallen out of favor with the coaches. The case-in-point play came in the team’s 26-20 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday in the NFC divisional playoffs, when Lacy broke off a 61-yard run against the Cardinals but gassed out and seemed on the verge of passing out as he all but stopped and begged for a defender to tackle him and end his terrifying brush with cardiovascular activity at the end of the run. He looked nothing like the bruising back who tallied 1,100-yard seasons his first two seasons in the league……..

- Polish president Andrzej Duda: desperate leader trying to push his country into a more prominent position within the European Union or bonafide prophet of doom for the loose confederation of nations? It’s tough to tell at this point, but no one can dispute the fact that it’s entertaining to hear him “warning” everyone that the European Union could face collapse if Britain decides to leave the bloc following a referendum that could come as early as this summer. His comments come as the 28-nation EU is negotiating a reform of EU rules aimed at discouraging a British exit. The EU is aiming to reduce red tape and restore some decision-making back to national capitals and rushing the changes through ahead of the referendum on continued EU membership for Britain that Prime Minister David Cameron is seeking is a crucial matter for the other member nations. That referendum could decide Britain should remain a member and the rest of the EU is reticent to see it leave with its free-market orientation, robust foreign policy and nuclear capabilities. Britain has been a reluctant member at times, keeping its own currency like Denmark, Sweden and Norway, but Duda said a departure would be devastating. His theory is that "it would lead to a big crisis and even a collapse if the U.K. left” and given the fragile state of that union and the weight of the various migrant and economic crises facing it, it’s difficult to argue that he’s wrong………

- The theme song may have promised that, “I’ll be there for you,” but the cast of “Friends” definitely won't be, not when it comes to a possible reunion movie. Rumors of the six-member cast reuniting for one reason or antoehr have arisen and dissipated over the past decade and even a possible get-together at NBC's tribute to sitcom director James Burrows on Feb. 21 has been dampened by news that cast member Matthew Perry won't attend because he is in London rehearsing for his play “The End Of Longing.” A reunion movie is something of a pipe dream for fans of most shows and almost never happen, but that hasn’t stopped “Friends” fans from dreaming that dream. We’ll see how many of them try to keep it alive now that Marta Kauffman, co-creator of the iconic sitcom, has flat-out rejected any possibility of such a movie. "There will never be a ‘Friends’ reunion movie," Kaufman said. It’s similar to a statement she made last year in which she explained that, "Friends was about that time in your life when your friends are your family and once you have a family, there's no need anymore." It wasn’t clear whose family and friends she was talking about - the characters’, the actors’ or her own - but the bottom line is that Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Perry have all moved on and having a pre-recorded video message from Perry and the other five together for a tribute show to their director is as close as anyone is going to get to bringing the series back to life…….

- Who wants a shiny, new $1 billion icebreaker ship? Well, aside from all of us because that kind of transportation is pretty badass even if your nearest body of water is a koi pond. But in this case, the leaders of the drive for a hulking new toy for the Coast Guard are Sens. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, and Angus King, a Maine independent, with support from Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft. That trio led a group calling for the advanced vessel at an event at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, with Zukunft warning that Russia was militarizing the Arctic and accusing Vlad Putin and his crew of "saber-rattling" by conducting unannounced military drills in the Arctic area involving thousands of troops. His concerns were echoed by Adm. Mark Ferguson, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe, who also pointed out that Russian submarine activity was at its highest point in 20 years. "Russia is watching what China does in the East China Sea with the 'nine-dash line' and is working to define what the continental shelf looks like, to establish a claim and declare its sovereignty," Ferguson said. For those not nautically minded, the nine-dash-line refers to China's claimed territorial waters, which extend hundreds of miles to the south and east of its island province of Hainan. With China, Russia and everyone else with more than a dinghy to their national name in the mix, supporters of spending 10 figures on an icebreaker ship to help get a tighter grip on Arctic superiority are looking to do all they can to make their expensive ship boat dreams come true………

Men's tennis match fixing, China v. Deadpool and another Nigerian financial scam

- What is it with everyone in the western United States? None of y’all seem to trust the federal government and while distrusting The Man is often a wise idea, at some point you have to believe that the feds will stumble onto something correct or honest, even if just by accident. That theory isn't flying right now in Colorado and Utah, where ranchers and officials are fiercely resisting the government’s plans to restore endangered wolves in the Southwest. Saving endangered species is typically something people can get with, but ranchers in the affected region appear to be just fine without more Mexican gray wolves. Approximately 110 of the wolves roam parts of Arizona and New Mexico and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 11 wolves there about 20 years ago after the population nearly vanished, but plans to expand that effort are being met with a fight in neighboring Colorado and Utah. The USFWS hopes to complete a recovery plan for the Mexican wolf in 2017, but officials insist they've made no decision about releasing them in Colorado or Utah. Fearing the worst, the two states are bracing for battle and their governors are slinging the insults and accusations, accusing the agency of using flawed science and biased experts. The governors have the backing of Utah and Colorado wildlife commissioners who also spoke out against releasing Mexican wolves. The Fish and Wildlife Service defended both its experts and its plan, so here’s hoping this doesn’t turn into another ugly situation of armed ass hats in Stetsons and little grasp on reality occupying government property with insane demands ……….

- The real news here isn't that back in 2007, someone tried to offer Novak Djokovic roughly $200,000 to lose a first-round match at a tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia. No, what’s shocking is that in 2007, anyone cared enough about men’s tennis to spend more than five cents trying to affect the outcome of a match. Yes, the world’s 15th-most popular sport still merits money being thrown around to impact the outcome of matches in order to allow gamblers and organized crime to benefit. This revelation came about at the Australian Open in the wake of a report suggesting that there has been widespread match-fixing in men's tennis and that authorities in the sport ignored it. Djokovic said he wasn't approached directly, but the offer eventually made its way back to him. "I was approached through people that were working with me at that time," he said, making clear that the offer was rejected. It became a moot point because Djokovic didn't even attend the tournament, but he said it bothered him that anyone would even consider approaching him with such an offer. "It made me feel terrible because I don't want to be anyhow linked to this kind of -- you know, somebody may call it an opportunity," he said. "For me, that's an act of unsportsmanship, a crime in sport honestly. I don't support it. I think there is no room for it in any sport, especially in tennis." Various players have reacted to the report publicly, but it didn’t name specific players because a direct link to betting could not be proved. Instead, its authors merely cast general aspersions on 16 suspected men who have been ranked in the top 50, including a U.S. Open champion………..

- Another Nigerian financial scam? Sweeeet. This one doesn’t involve a deposed prince emailing thousands of strangers around the world trying to scam them out of, er, get them to lend him $5,000 so he can unlock his massive inheritance and make them extremely wealthy in a show of gratitude. Hell, it doesn’t even involve people trying to smuggle millions of dollars in foreign currency into the country. Nope, this time it’s Nigeria's information minister alleging that former governors, Cabinet ministers, government workers and others stole some $9 billion from the oil-rich nation's treasury. Who is this man so boldly and sweepingly accusing so many people of thieving so much money from people who are so, so very poor? That would be Lai Mohammed, who made the allegations at a news conference to kick off a "national sensitization campaign" against corruption. Holding a publicity event to launch your fight against corruption doesn’t seem like the wisest move because, ya know, you usually want to be as covert as possible to catch people who steal massive amounts of money, but Mohammed decided to appeal to Nigerians to join in the fight against endemic graft that is crippling what should be a rich nation that has Africa's biggest economy, population and oil production. The story the minister told was one of a looted 1.35 trillion Nigerian naira allegedly stolen by just 55 people, money that could have built 36 hospitals or educated 4,000 children to university level. According to Mohammed, the money was stolen between 2006 and 2013, when the naira stood at about 150 to the dollar, half today's value. It’s quite a tale, but we haven’t yet gotten to the part where he asks for you to send him $5,000 to help crack this case………

- Hope Ryan Reynolds wasn’t hoping for a Chinese leg of his press junket for his latest film. “Deadpool,” the latest movie from the Marvel universe, stars Reynolds as the title character, former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. That alter ego won’t be showing in any Chinese cinemas on account of its nudity, bad language and violence - i.e. the very characteristics that will make people in the United States and other Western nations want to go see it. All of those aspects would usually simply be edited out in the Chinese market, but it was apparently decided that such hackneyed, heavy-handed manipulation would ruin the movie. It’s widely viewed as one of the darkest mainstream comic book adaptations to date, so that is going to keep stars Reynolds and Morena Baccarin and the rest of the cast out of one of the world’s most lucrative markets. Marvel has blasted and blanketed the U.S. with its “12 Days of Deadpool” promotional campaign and multiple trailers for the movie, but it won't need to translate those pieces of publicity into Mandarin. Chinese movie fans who do want to see the movie can probably already find a bootleg copy of the film on the nearest street corner for a few yen anyhow, so the ban may be of little effect, but it’s still a bold effort to slow down a hero armed with new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor and hell-bent on hunting down the man who nearly destroyed his life……….