- The Anthony Bennett Story is that depressing tale that keeps on getting extended with new and even more pathetic chapters. Bennett, who was taken with the first pick in the 2013 NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers as a 20-year-old out of UNLV, has quite literally been the worst top draft pick in league history, a status he cemented when he was waived by the Brooklyn Nets to kick off the week. He played one wholly uninspired season for the Cavs before being traded with 2014 No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins to the Timberwolves in the three-team deal that brought Kevin Love to Cleveland, a season marked largely by poor conditioning and lackluster effort on the court. He didn’t last long in Minnesota before being waived by the Timberwolves in September 2015, but at that point it seemed that he might have landed in the one place he could succeed as a native Canadian, signing with Toronto and playing some in the NBA Development League and 19 games with the Raptors. But even being a native son and losing a few pounds couldn’t save Bennett from the waiver wire and he was released by Toronto in March 2016. His fourth stop in as many NBA season came with the league’s unofficial Island of Misfit Toys, the Brooklyn Nets, but once again, sticking with a team for an entire season proved to be too much and he was waved by Brooklyn after appearing in 23 games this season for the Nets, averaging 5.0 points and 3.4 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per game. Worse still, the Nets released him to sign journeyman power forward Quincy Acy to replace him, leaving Bennett without a team and the dubious status of being the lowest-scoring No. 1 overall pick in the shot clock era, with a career average of 4.4 points per game………
- Score one for clearing the way for officially sanctioned
electoral fraud. Technically, it’s being billed as Kenya's president signing
into law an amendment to the electoral law to allow manual voting and counting
in elections as a backup, but opposition groups have smartly decried the move
as an official back door to rigging this year's presidential vote. That’s not
the story being sold by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who said the Independent
Electoral and Boundaries Commissions can install a backup system if the
electronic voting fails. In a stunning coincidence, President Kenyatta is
running again in the August election and wouldn’t you know it, his good friends
in Kenya's Senate approved the changes so he could sign that bill into law and
ensure that no matter what, he’ll be declared the winner when citizens go to the
ballot box later this year, er, that there is a fair system in place to
determine the true winner of the election should more modern means fail. That
didn’t sit well with the country’s opposition coalition, led by former Prime
Minister Raila Odinga and former Vice Presidents Musalia Mudavadi and Kalonzo
Musyoka, which said in response that the legislators of the ruling coalition in
the Senate have "committed a great betrayal on the people of Kenya."
In a fitting twist, the coalition even went so far as to accuse the ruling
coalition of casting fraudulent votes in the same session where the bill was passed.
It had all the makings of those not in power being railroaded into a wholly
unfair deal………
- It couldn’t be a better fit: On one hand, there’s one of
the longtime darlings of the indie rock scene, a man who makes music embraced
to the core by hipsters and entire albums full of soaring, instrumental music.
On the other side is a new indie film by an Italian director, based on a
successful novel. Yes, it’s the melding of Sufjan Stevens and a new film titled
‘Call Me By Your Name.’ The movie, based on Andre Aciman’s novel of the same
name, is directed by Luca Guadagnino and it’s a love story set in Northern
Italy, starring Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, and Michael Stuhlbarg. Stevens
has soundtracked the movie and it’s set to debut at Sundance Film Festival on
Jan. 22. Unlike some of the presently unknown fare appearing at the festival,
it already has a U.S. distributor, as its rights were recently acquired by Sony
Pictures Classics. Stevens has been largely off the grid since releasing his
most recent album, 2015’s ‘Carrie and Lowell.” The album was teeming with
emotion and deep in theme, with critics praising its harmonies and polished
guitar tones. Having achieved a fair amount of pop culture recognition, Stevens
has earned regular references on ESPN and last March, reigning Egomaniac of
Music Kanye West gave a nod to Sufjan Stevens as he recorded his new album,
posting a screenshot of himself listening to the singer-songwriter’s track
‘Death With Dignity’ on YouTube. There hasn’t been any additional word on whether
Stevens’ style will have any actual, palpable influence on the album or whether
the duo might collaborate, but it’s clear that obscure Italian directors and
publicity-whoring, wildly overrated rappers alike enjoy his style………
- There are plenty of reasons to close down a Dairy Queen -
health code violations committed by its teenage employees, the dubious meat
content of its sandwiches among them - but this is a new one. A Zion, Illinois
DQ franchise has been shuttered and the company’s relationship with the store’s
owner terminated after police say he used racial slurs in an angry
confrontation with a customer. According to a police report, now-former franchise
owner Jim Crichton told a responding officer he called Deianeira Ford and her
children a racial slur. A defiant Crichton then informed officers that he was
"fed up with black people" and would go to jail over the issue. According
to Ford, Crichton hurled the racial slur at she and her children after she
asked for a refund for a mixed-up food order in the drive through. "It was
really just upsetting especially with having my children in the car," Ford
said. While her 2-year-old daughter and 5-month-old son obviously didn’t understand
the scope of the ugliness, hate and bigotry on display, Ford rightly noted
that, "I mean, no one deserves to be treated like that." Because
social media makes it so easy for word about situations like this to spread,
the entire community got to hear about this incident and the following day,
protestors gathered outside the store as Ford proclaimed her readiness to
consider legal action after hiring an attorney. Crichton tried to save face by
issuing a carefully worded apology statement. "My actions were inexcusable
and unacceptable," Crichton said. "I can only ask for forgiveness and
try to make it up to all involved." For its part, Dairy Queen called
Crichton's statements "reprehensible" and said his behavior doesn't
represent the company’s values…….
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