Saturday, December 24, 2016

Justice League adds A-listers, a cash-smuggling pilot and Uber v. Paris


- Rage at Uber has been a common response around the world - but mostly in impoverished, underdeveloped and Third World nations. But what the hell is going on with you, Paris? Not a great look when protesting Uber drivers are disrupting access to Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport to ask the company for higher ride fares. How jamming up traffic at an airport the company doesn’t run is supposed to put immense pressure on Uber to pay drivers more is unclear, but the revolting quasi-taxi drivers later headed over to Uber's French headquarters in northern Paris to further make their voices heard. The AMT association of chauffeurs also called on drivers to "disconnect" from Uber's website as a further means of protest, continuing several days of similar protests by the drivers, who complain about low ride fares and Uber's decision to raise the commission it charges drivers from 20 percent to 25 percent. In a city teeming with life and where there will never be a shortage of both tourists and locals in need of a quick ride across town or to any of the city’s dozens of famed attractions, all of this haggling over a few euros might not seem like a huge deal, but for the men and women turning their Fiats and Smart Cars into mobile money making machines, it’s clear that allowing Uber to dominate the debate is something they’re unwilling to allow……..


- Who’d guess that after winning a fourth-tier bowl game in the ultimate flyover state, a college football player wouldn’t be in the greatest of moods? After all, Idaho quarterback Matt Linehan had just won the prestigious Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, besting Colorado State 61-50 in a thrilling, defense-free contest. Yet what was on the quarterback’s mind wasn’t the Vandals' bowl victory, but rather his school's downward move to the Football Championship Subdivision. "We belong in FBS, period. That's what I believe, that's what everyone believes," Linehan said. "We know we can compete, we belong here. No matter what anyone thinks, even our tone-deaf president. Maybe he doesn't think we belong here, but I think we belong here.” Those comments came in response to Idaho president Chuck Staben announcing Idaho's move in April from the Football Bowl Subdivision, college football’s highest level, to the second-tier FCS. "Our relevance will be complemented by our football program, not defined by it,” Staben said at the time. What’s interesting is that the Vandals will become the first school to make the drop when they return to the Big Sky Conference, where they played from 1963 to 1995, for the 2018 season. By the time Linehan took to the podium for the postgame news conference, someone from the coaching or media relations staff had gotten to him and prevailed on him to tone down his rhetoric, so he apologized to Staben and tried to redirect everyone’s focus away from his angry remarks and toward a meaningless win in a pointless bowl game……


- What good is flying international routes for a pilot if you can't use your job to pad your bank account with gains from illegal activities made possible by said job? No one needs to tell that to pilot Anthony Warner, a Dallas resident who pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark to a charge of bulk cash smuggling. Prosecutors accused Warner of smuggling more than $195,000 in cash into the U.S. through New Jersey's Newark International Airport and he later admitted to the allegations, for which he faces up to five years in federal prison when sentenced in April. The secret to his smuggling success was his participation in Global Entry, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection program designed to speed up entry into the country for certain pre-approved travelers. As a regular border jumper and someone employed to transport other safely across thousands of miles, he seemed to be a great fit for the program. Had he been able to use that service on Jan. 10, he likely would still be smuggling money into the United States. Sadly for him, on that date, the Global Entry terminal at the airport was down and he had to present his customs declaration to officials. During that encounter, officers found $195,736 in U.S. bills wrapped inside a newspaper in Warner's laptop bag. Given that haul, it’s safe to say that the odds of Warner ferrying millions of dollars in illegal cash into the country are high……..


- The big names just keep on joining the upcoming Justice League film. A movie that already has Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Ben Affleck as Batman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon could be content with its cadre of A-listers, but DC wants to continue to up its star value and thus, Jesse Eisenberg and Connie Nielson have been confirmed as additions to the cast. Eisenberg will reprise his “Batman v. Superman” role as villain Lex Luthor while Nielson, who will appear in the upcoming DC film “Wonder Woman” as Queen Hippolyta (the mother of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman) will bring her character to the Justice League world. The film, which is due out in November, is set a few months after the events of “Batman v. Superman” and follows Batman and Wonder Woman as they create a team of superheroes to face the villain Steppenwolf and the threat of Parademons. Eisenberg has orbited around the project for months and previously hinted at his involvement with the film. “I don’t know what I’m allowed to say, because I feel like there’s probably some drone following me from DC, and if I say anything wrong I get, you know, picked off. But yeah I think so, and I love it, and I love everybody who’s in it. You know, it’s a really talented group of people,” he said earlier this year. Simmons made headlines when photos of him training in the gym for his role went viral and his personal trainer later said his goal was to have “sick arms.” It appears that everyone is aiming to look their best on a set where determining the biggest star could be challenging………

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