- As long as you say you’re innocent, that’s all that
matters, eh Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala? Sala, the embattled mayor of one of
Italy’s largest cities, voluntarily suspended himself from the job last week
after media reported he was a suspect in an investigation around the Expo 2015
World Fair, which Milan hosted. Yet after sitting down with prosecutors, Sala
concluded he could properly do his job and after boldly, self-servingly and
meaninglessly declaring his innocence over that probe of construction
contracts, he’s back at work as if nothing is wrong. Not only that, he declared
his innocence via no less a venue than social meda, posting on Facebook that he
was going back to the job "certain about my innocence." Nothing slams
the door on suspicion quite like a bold Facebook page, topped off with a
thank-you message for some 400 Italian mayors and fellow Milanese citizens who
urged his return. All of this heated up when Sala's name was added to a list of
suspects after a judge rebuffed a prosecutor's request to shelve the case.
Despite that effort to duck the assigned job of dishing out justice, this case
will move forward, although Sala is trying to move on, including a visit to the
German consulate in Milan to express solidarity following the attack on a
Berlin Christmas market. While the mayor tries to pretend all is well with the
world, he does so with this massive black cloud hanging over his head……..
- Cincinnati Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert is merely saying
what everyone else is already thinking. Eiffert, who could be selected for the
Pro Bowl for the second straight season, wants voters to know that he’d love to
be selected for a second Pro Bowl, but he has zero interest in actually playing
in the game. Like all of his peers, he’d love the recognition of being tabbed
as one of the best players at his position in the NFL - and the salary bonus
that comes with it as per his contract - but he doesn’t want to put his healthy
in jeopardy by actually stepping onto the field during the week between the
conference championship games and the Super Bowl. "I'd like to make it, but I'm not going
to go if I got asked," Eifert said. For a guy who suffered an ankle injury
in last season's Pro Bowl that required surgery and put him out of commission
for the entire offseason, skipping the Pro Bowl going forward just makes sense.
Ironically, he’s saying all of this even though he’s played in a mere eight
games this season, catching 24 passes for 394 yards and five touchdowns. Those
numbers pale in comparison to last year, when he enjoyed the best season of his
career, catching 52 passes for 615 yards and 13 touchdowns. Saying this now could
merely be an effort to gain attention, win votes and earn bonus money for being
selected, yet Eifert said even prior to the season that he would never go back.
He’s sticking to it. "It was one of
the best experiences I've ever had," he said of last season's Pro Bowl.
"But it's just not worth it." Oddly enough, he could be speaking not
only for himself, but all of his peers and fans……..
- Every year, there is no shortage of scumbags around the
holiday season. This year, one of the biggest among them is Tammy Strickland,
an Eagle Lake, Florida woman who is staring down a mountain of criminal charges
after sheriff’s deputies said she
illegally attempted to collect more than 100 toys from Toys for Tots. According
to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, this scam involved Strickland using 140
fictitious children’s names and 28 fictitious adult names on falsified Toys for
Tots applications. She carried out the scam by picking up said toys, loading
them into a trailer at the Toys for Tots warehouse and hauling them away. For
that, she faces charges of grand theft, 28 counts of providing false statement
to obtain property, obtaining property by fraud and 164 counts of possessing
counterfeit /fictitious identification.
"Children in need. Toys for Tots. These things are synonymous with
Christmas," Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said. "Sadly, in this case, so is
The Grinch. Tammy Strickland spent a long time filling out fraudulent
applications for nonexistent children to receive toys. Now she’ll be spending a
lot of time in jail." Ah, a wannabe wordsmith sheriff trying to invoke
children’s literature references and sound like he’s auditioning for his own
reality series in the process. Police received a tip that Strickland had
submitted a large number of applications requesting assistance from Toys for
Tots on behalf of dozens of children and was listed as the contact person on
each of them. A deputy called her posing as a Toys for Tots volunteer, setting
up a meeting at the Toys for Tots warehouse in the Eagle Lake area. Strickland
and her idiot posse of family members arrived, loaded the trailer and she soon
recorded her fourth arrest since 2006. All in all, proof that scumbags and a-holes
are one of the holiday season’s most abundant commodities……
- They’re two irreverent entities, willing to use their word
skills to slice and dice their enemies…and now, they’re going to unite. Run The
Jewels, a pair of hard-edged hip-hop rebels, will guest star in the next season
of “Portlandia,” the cult favorite IFC comedy starring Sleater-Kinney‘s Carrie
Brownstein and Saturday Night Live alumnus Fred Armisen. The show debuted in
2011 and has chugged along with vast appreciation for those who admire a good,
cheeky comedy with a quirky point of view. It’s sixth season is set to debut on
Jan. 5, with a guest spot from RTJ. “Portlandia” uses the wide variety of
alternative lifestyles in the notoriously liberal northwestern city of
Portland, Oregon as the base for its laughs and its unique style has drawn in a
wide range of guest stars from the world of music including Jack White, Aimee
Mann, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and No
Doubt. The star power will keep flowing in Season 6, as rockers The B-52’s have also been announced
as guest stars for this season. The end is in sight for the show, as Brownstein
and Armisen have said it will end with its eighth season in 2018. The guest
appearance comes at a wonderfully conveneit time for RTJ, who announced earlier
this month that they will return in January with third album ‘RTJ3.’ To mark
the “Portlandia” announcement, the rap duo shared a new song, “Legend Has It,”
so maybe they’ll perform it on the show……..
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