- 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……….
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