Mayoral support for cop killers, defending Jake Arrieta and paranoia in Kashmir

- Never stop Scott Boras-ing, noted Major League Baseball über-agent Scott Boras. Boras has been known for years for demanding, fighting to the death for and sometimes getting insane, over-the-top contracts for his clients, whether their on-field performance warrants it or not. One of his current clients is Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta, who just two years ago was averaging 94.6 mph on his fastball, won 20 games and also captured the National League Cy Young award. Arrietta has been much less successful the past two years and has seen his velocity dip 2.5 mph on his fastball, which might be one of the reasons he’s surrendered 10 home runs this year and is rocking a 4.92 ERA. But ask Boras, clearly with an eye on Arrieta’s next big deal, and a loss of heat on his fastball doesn’t mean the right-hander isn’t an elite pitcher. "The question becomes what's [Clayton] Kershaw averaging?" Boras said. "He's throwing 92.5 mph. [Zack] Greinke is throwing 91.8 mph. [Max] Scherzer, when he was a free agent, was throwing 92 mph. We're going to sit here and evaluate a player on a 60-day moment or a 10-start moment when he has three years of history. Don't do it. That's not fair. That's not an evaluation." Sure, but Kershaw's fastball velocity has dropped just 0.6 mph since 2015, and Greinke has lost 1.4 mph since then and both Kershaw (2.01 ERA) and Greinke (3.24 ERA) are performing much better than Arrieta this season and after allowing two home runs in his start in L.A. this weekend, his trajectory is heading the same direction as his velocity………

- Tensions between the public, politicians and police are high these days and while there have been mistakes made on all sides in recent years, perhaps none was as needless and embarrassing as the one made by Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley and his staff - which is currently in serious need of a fact checker and proof reader. Cranley had to rush out a hurried apology after his office inadvertently issued a proclamation naming a day in honor of a cop killer instead of saluting the lives and remembering the sacrifices of fallen officers. Trying his best to unring that bell, the mayor issued the apology, saying that the proclamation never should have been approved. “I am sorry that my office, that we mistakenly issued a proclamation on behalf of a man that killed-- murdered-- Sonny Kim,” Cranley said, announcing the proclamation’s retraction. What the mayor’s office did was to declare June 1 “Tre Day” in Cincinnati, which is a problem because prosecutors say Trepierre Hummons ambushed officer Sonny Kim, a 48-year-old father of three, on a Cincinnati street on June 19, 2015. Despite being shot, Kim was able to wrestle away Hummons’ gun and a second officer who responded to the scene shot and killed Hummons. Last week, Cincinnati honored Kim and other fallen officers, though the initial proclamation said in part that the sacrifice of Hummons “will save lives of children for generations to come,” a blunder that didn’t sit well with officers who posted messages on the Facebook page of Cincinnati’s police union wondering what was going on and demanding an explanation……

- They may not seem like a likely group, but Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson, Dwayne Johnson and Lin-Manuel Miranda are (allegedly considering) teaming up for a project that seems more up Miranda’s alley, but could be an interesting cinematic proposition. The quarter is set to tackle a potential Simon and Garfunkel movie universe, which makes sense for a strong musical and theatric performer like Miranda, not a chiseled action star like Dwayne Johnson or a central cast member for the most recent round of Star Wars films like Rian Johnson, but building on the model of taking the lead with shared universes across Marvel and Star Wars, DC is trying to do the same by making a sort of universe out of the discography of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Superheroes and aliens it ain’t, but a Twitter joke from “Hot Fuzz” director Edgar Wright spurred Johnson, Johnson, Wright and Miranda to respond.  “I have ‘Baby Driver’ out in June & @MarcW has ‘The Only Living Boy In New York’ in August. Where is the ‘So Long Frank Lloyd Wright’ movie?” Wright said, nudging fellow filmmaker Marc Webb with a digital elbow in the side because Wright’s new driver-action movie takes its title from a Simon and Garfunkel track. Hollywood does love franchises and universes these days, so don’t be stunned if this one actually gains some traction in the near future……

- Paranoid much, Indian government? You seem awfully on edge, what with government forces enforcing a strict curfew in parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Sunday. Sure, you provoked any outrage that might be percolating with the killing of a prominent rebel commander by Indian soldiers, sparking massive protests in the disputed region. Knowing the reaction that could precipitate, the government dispatched armed police and paramilitary soldiers to patrol deserted streets and ordered residents indoors in the region's main city of Srinagar and other towns to stop their anti-India demonstrations. Giving a symbolic middle finger to that order, thousands of people assembled in the southern Tral area to take part in the funeral of the rebel leader, Sabzar Ahmed Bhat, chanting slogans calling for Kashmir's freedom from Indian rule. It was an unusual scene, coming on a day marking the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Bhat and another militant were killed in a gun battle with soldiers on Saturday, resulting in massive  protests and clashes across the region, leaving one civilian dead and dozens of others injured. Still, there’s no question that anti-India sentiment runs deep among Kashmir's mostly Muslim population. That means most residents support the rebels' cause against Indian rule despite a decades-long military crackdown to fight the armed rebellion and often rally behind efforts like the one in which separatist leaders who challenge India's sovereignty over Kashmir called for a general strike on Sunday and Monday. This fight of rebels seeking independence against the government has been raging since 1989, not as long as Led Zeppelin’s iconic track named after the region has been rocking the world, but long enough for nearly 70,000 people (and counting) to be killed in the fighting…….

Riot Watch! Myanmar conference edition, UFC games of title belt chicken and Linkin Park claps back

- Haven’t we reached a point where no one can rightfully claim to have been duped by a fortune teller? It’s 2017, after all, and anyone not savvy enough to know that the modern day versions of old ladies in tall hats staring into crystal balls and foretelling their future are scammers looking to pocket their cash while making it up as they go probably deserves to be parted from their cash. Therefore, a Florida man who claims he was hosed out of thousands of dollars and spurred a sprawling case that grew to include suckers who say the Tarpon Springs woman claiming to be a psychic scammed them out of $155,353 should be entitled to nothing, logic would say. Sure, authorities are asking that any additional victims come forward, but anyone with a shred of self-respect would ignore than invitation, although going to a psychic in the first place would suggest that a person is entirely devoid of self-respect in any form. The first victim approached detectives during a fraud awareness seminar hosted by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and after hearing what fraud is and how it happens, he apparently realized he had been scammed by Gina Wilson. According to the man, he began seeing her in 2015 to help with “emotional distress,” which is a bit like going to see a circus carney if you’re having medical issues. This sap was dumb enough to listen when Wilson instructed him to stop taking his prescribed medications, alter his bank accounts and stop seeing his therapist and doctor. For that advice, he paid Wilson approximately $92,000 before it began to sink in that maybe, just maybe, he was being scammed………

- Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington - the one who screams, not the one who raps - is realizing that it’s a bad look for a band’s frontman to verbally excoriate fans and threaten to assault and/or kill them for not liking said band’s new direction. Bennington is one half of LP’s frontman duo in which he and Mike Shinoda alternate screams (Bennington) and rapping (Shinoda) in virtually every song and he recently said in the wake of widespread criticism of the band’s pop-leaning new album ‘One More Light’ that fans pining for the band to return to their more metal sound heard on their debut album ‘Hybrid Theory’ needed to “move the fuck on.” Not only that, but the screamer said that he wants to “kill” anyone who calls his band “sell-outs” and will “punch them in the fucking mouth.” That prompted Slipknot‘s Corey Taylor to urge Bennington to “be grateful for what he has” and it seems that those wise words may have found their mark because Bennington took to Twitter to respond and (sort of) apologize. “Just heard Corey Taylor’s response to something I said in an interview and I agree with him. I do appreciate our fans… I’m human and sometimes take things too personally,” Bennington said. “Most of our fans have been very positive lately. Some… not so much. Either way… there is a lot of passion on both sides and I am grateful to all of our fans. Corey is a good dude and I appreciate him too… Time to recalibrate my perspective. So I say to all of our fans… Thank you and I love you all. Peace, love and happiness.” Great, now stop making electro-pop sh*t and get back to music that at least rocks a little bit and we’ll all be fine, C……..

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! … at an annual Buddhist conference on the outskirts of Myanmar's biggest city? Nothing says uprising quite like thousands of Buddhist monks, nuns and supporters of an ultranationalist Buddhist group gathering despite being banned by the government. Ma Ba Tha, which might be phonetically funny to say, is no joke for the State Sangha Maha Nayaka, the country's highest Buddhist institution, which officially banned the group for motivating riots largely targeting Myanmar's Muslim minority. Furthermore, Ma Ba Tha was ordered to stop its activities and to take down its signboards nationwide by July 15, but the group isn't backing down and believes that despite the government deeming it an unlawful association, it refuses to be silenced or shut down. "According to their terms, our group is called an unlawful association, but we want you to know that our group will not be abolished," a senior monk from the group proclaimed at the conference. This is a crew rallying hard and rolling deep behind its high-profile leading monk, Wirathu, a man who rocks one name but many sides to his rage and under his leadership, Ma Ba Tha have been accused of summoning anti-Islamic preaching and stirring up mob violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, causing deaths of Muslims and destruction of their property. Though most of the victims are from the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state, Ma Ba Tha insists it’s simply misunderstood. "We just wanted to save our people, but maybe many people just want to die like dogs and pigs in the hands of the enemy," the monk said. The government threw down its ban after Buddhist hard-liners forced local authorities to shut down two Muslim schools in April and later confronted Muslim neighborhoods claiming to search for illegal Rohingya hiding in the area, but this fight has been going on for years and doesn’t appear to be ready to be put to rest any time soon……..

- The featherweight championship bout between the division’s first-ever and only champion, Germaine de Randamie, and Cris "Cyborg" Justino is now going to be that much better. Sure, Randamie (7-3) has stated, through her management, that she refuses to face Justino in the Octagon because Justino is a confirmed cheater who tested positive for the steroid stanozolol following a fight under the Strikeforce banner, and was suspended for one year in 2011, then tested positive for a banned substance again in 2016, but received a retroactive therapeutic-use exemption from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and was cleared of any wrongdoing. Randamie's manager Brian Butler is pushing the message that Randamie's first title defense will not come against Justino, noting along the way that despite added scrutiny following her first failed test, she still (allegedly) tried to cheat again and therefore, will always be someone looking to find ways around the rules in search of an unfair advantage inside a pill or needle. As Butler tells it, Randamie is willing to play a game of title belt chicken with UFC president Dana White and his crew, waiting them out to see if the UFC will strip her belt for refusing to fight Justino. All in all, it seems like a position someone might stake out if they were angling for more money in negotiations for a fight, or perhaps if they wanted to position themselves as some sort of upright crusader in defense of clean, un-drugged sports. Either way, the idea that Randamie is going forfeit her belt, a massive payday and the spotlight that comes with it in some sort of power play is laughable at best and outright lame at its worst…….

Freeing the Juice, guns and Georgia football and HBO brings back its "Veep"

- Andy Dufresne would be so disappointed. The real-life Mexican city where Tim Robbins’ character fled with $350,000 worth of the ill-gotten gains of Shawshank Prison Warden Samuel Norton following an escape from prison is now the home of Mexico’s latest über-corrupt police force. That’s one of the effects when you have the detention of the entire municipal police force in Zihuatanejo, a popular U.S. expat hotspot on the Pacific coast. There, 20 alleged drug traffickers were found to have been masquerading as cops before they were busted by state and federal police, along with the Marine Corps. All told, that crew acted on mounting evidence of corruption in the precinct and detained all 246 officers and officials until they could provide official credentials. When the dust/cocaine residue settled, 51 arrests were made, including three high-ranking officers, but 31 were later released on charges of operating without full accreditation. Left behind were 20 men and women “Many of them are real police officers, but who we believe have strong ties to organized crime in the region,” Zihuatanejo Public Security Chief Carlos Cruz said. “The cartels are very powerful in the state of Guerrero, and we are working to purge our public bodies of links to drug trafficking.” It’s been an odd scene in the Pacific resort city since last week’s operation, with the municipal force taken off duty, leaving state police and Mexican military to patrol the streets. Nothing reaffirms public confidence in the government quite like benching the whole police force…….

- She may have spurned a reported plea from Democratic Party leaders to run for public office, but Selina Meyer will remain in power for at least one more year on the airwaves of HBO. That’s because HBO has announced that it has renewed “Veep for another season,” bringing back the highly rated political satire that premiered in April 2012 and recently began its sixth season. The network will bring back one of its most popular shows for a seventh season, continuing the long-running tradition of American networks hijacking popular British shows and turning them into a slightly new version, as NBC did with “The Office” and HBO has done with “Veep,” which was created by Armando Iannucci as an adaptation of the British sitcom “The Thick Of It.” The series is set in the office of Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a fictional vice president and later, President of the United States. The sixth season runs through June 25, following Meyer and her team as they try to navigate the dangerous political waters of the capital and make their mark on the country while avoiding the daily political shenanigans and tomfoolery that are the hallmarks of Washington, D.C. In announcing the renewal for “Veep,” the network also commissioned a fifth season of “Silicon Valley,” which would have been especially helpful if Louis-Dreyfus had said yes when approached by “top Democrats” about potentially running for office………

- You’ve probably forgotten about him, America, but just know that the Juice is still lurking. Yes, (alleged) double murderer/Hall of Famer/seeker of the real killers/convicted robber of memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas O.J. Simpson could get released on parole as early as this year from his home at Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada. He’s nearly 70 years old and has reportedly exhibited good behavior in jail - aside from senseless and consistent assaults on chocolate chip cookies in the cafeteria - and as a result he’s thought to be a good candidate for parole. The board will consider his disciplinary history at the jail, his age and in conjunction, the likelihood that he’ll return to a life of crime. Sure, the rate of recidivism is usually lower for those past retirement age, but that may not be the case with Simpson. Technically, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners can’t consider that the Juice almost certainly attempted to decapitate his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her new boyfriend Ron Goldman two decades ago, but it should cross the minds of the rest of society if he is indeed freed after the board holds his hearing, expected to take place next month, on a 33-year sentence for a 2007 robbery at a Las Vegas hotel. For that, he was convicted of first-degree kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit a violent crime despite arguing that he was trying to retrieve memorabilia and some personal items belonging to him. Now, the board will have to decide if the time has finally come for him to resume his search for the real killers………

- Be careful who you confront about the volume of music or the amount of smoke wafting from their grill into your party area the next time you tailgate at a University of Georgia football game. Now that Georgia's new "campus carry" legislation is in place, anyone who is properly licensed in the state of Georgia to carry a handgun in a concealed manner will be allowed to do so while partaking in on-campus tailgating activities and that means bullets could be flying right alongside footballs as fans party it up in the parking lot before heading inside Sanford Stadium. University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley announced that while concealed weapons are prohibited from being taken into on-campus stadiums and arenas, concealed handguns will be allowed at tailgates because clearly, someone asking to borrow your mustard or poaching one of your bratwursts from the grill is something against which you must defend. In one category of House Bill 280, which will go into effect on July 1, one category includes "buildings and property used for athletic sporting events." "This exception includes stadiums, gymnasiums and similar facilities in which intercollegiate games are staged (but does not extend to so-called 'tailgating' areas where fans may congregate outside the gates of the sports facility)," Wrigley noted. Currently, licensed carriers are allowed to keep weapons secured in motor vehicles, but beginning July 1, House Bill 280 will allow "anyone who is properly licensed in the state of Georgia to carry a handgun in a concealed manner on property owned or leased by public colleges and universities." In other words, step lightly when you tell Kevin in the tailgate next to you that his Lynyrd Skynyrd is cranked a little too loud………

A criminal Cranston in Australia, another terrible movie with ABBA music and Fight Club goes back to school

- The John Lynch experiment is going well for the San Francisco 49ers. How well? Well enough that the standout former player-turned-general-manager-with-no-previous-executive-experience pulled off some impressive draft day moves and has teams in other professional sports following the Niners’ lead. The Atlanta Hawks may soon do the same, as they are slated to interview former NBA player and current ESPN analyst Chauncey Billups this week for their general manager opening. With Billups set to sit down with team management in Los Angeles early in the week, it could be the fulfillment of a goal he’s been working toward for some time, having made it clear throughout his 17-year professional career that he would be interested in  the possibility of running his own team. The 2004 NBA Finals MVP could be in a unique position, having been a high draft pick only to bounce from team to team early in his career as one organization after another overlooked his talent before he finally found a home with the Detroit Pistons, won an NBA title and became a five-time All-Star. He’s largely viewed as one of the top young front-office prospects and despite his dearth of front office experience, he’s well-known as a student of the game with the knowledge of how to operate within the collective bargaining agreement. Whoever takes this job could be walking into a contentious situation, as the gig is open only after head coach Mike Budenholzer was stripped of his responsibility as president of basketball operations and Wes Wilcox, the former GM, was reassigned as special adviser to ownership earlier this month. Oh, and the new GM has to find a way through LeBron James in the Eastern Conference to chase any real championship aspirations………

- The first rule of fight club is that you turn in your homework before showing up to fight club. Oh, and make sure that no one is passing notes about it in Mrs. Arnold’s fifth-period algebra class, because that could be a problem too. Such is life for the members of a now-defunct "Fight Club" created by seventh-grade boys at a Las Vegas middle school. The fight club is taking a bit of hiatus due to the fuzz bringing some serious heat, with police launching an investigation last week after learning about the bouts at Tarkanian Middle School. According to authorities, the fight club has been around for a while, and the boys who participated used it to stage bouts that were wagered on and recorded. However, the school district’s claims that it only discovered the club’s existence recently are being questioned by parents who wonder how, with the volume and raucous atmosphere the fights created, no adults were aware of its operations. One way fight club members tried to conceal their activities was reportedly avoiding striking each other in the face so as to keep from leaving visible bruises after bouts. Several students have been suspended and the Clark County School District Police Department is investigating the fight club, which held its clashes in a restroom during school hours, with the fights circulated on social media on Instagram or Snapchat and the bets on the outcomes weighing in at $5 or $10 in most cases. Someone get Brad Pitt and Edward Norton on the phone because this sounds like a sequel in the offing…….

- It’s been nearly nine years since the forgettable cinematic debut of 'Mamma Mia!' and that means it’s time for a movie that was universally panned and yet somehow able to bank $609 million worldwide to get its very own (totally unnecessary) sequel. Sure enough, with the bulk of the cast from the first movie back, Universal Studios have announced that ‘Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!” is on its way as the sequel to the 2008 original. Of course, the first movie was filled with gawd-awful, ear-assaulting disco music from Swedish musical manglers ABBA and seeing as ABBA hung around far too long, they left behind plenty more terrible songs that weren’t used in that first film and can now provide fodder for the many song-and-dance numbers that will populate the sequel. That sequel is set for release next July and the original cast is expected back, including Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. For many, the only surprise about the sequel is that it didn’t happen sooner given Hollywood’s growing obsession/love affair with building onto existing films and franchises rather than ever trying to explore any new cinematic ground. ‘Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!’ follows up on a movie that actually managed to outearn a James Bond film, “Quantum of Solace,” that came out the same year and coincidentally starred a 007 who more than made everyone forget how über-awful Brosnan was when playing the iconic special agent. The sequel will be written and directed by Ol Parker with Streep and Brosnan joined by returning cast members Colin Firth and Amanda Seyfried……..

- What good is it to have a highly placed, elected position in your country’s government if you don’t abuse the hell out of said position in the name of massive profits? Australian Taxation Office Deputy Commissioner Michael Cranston (allegedly) knows what’s up and that’s why this senior Australian tax bureaucrat and two of his children are among 10 people charged in connection with a sophisticated tax fraud that police say netted $123 million) in less than a year. Cranston - proving than long-lost, distant cousin Brian playing money-making machine/meth dealer on TV Walter White isn't the only one in the family who can turn a quick, highly illegal buck - faces up to five years in prison if convicted of abusing his position as a public servant by passing information to his son. Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Leanne Close laid out the allegations that Cranston’s son, Adam Cranston, used his position as managing director of a Sydney-based financial services company to allegedly serve as the hub for this scam involving payroll taxes. Police took down Adam Cranston and his sister Lauren Cranston and seven others in raids that were punctuated by them being charged with crimes ranging from conspiracy to defraud the government to dealing in the proceeds of crime to demanding money with menaces. At the apex, their 58-year-old bureaucrat father, who isn’t believed to be part of the alleged criminal syndicate, but provided the valuable information that made it run and allowed his progeny to spend unpaid taxes on luxury homes, racing cars, airplanes, motorbikes, jewelry, art and vintage wine. The core of the criminal enterprise was a legitimate payroll company contracted to pay staff on behalf of their employers, which the accused began scamming they introduced subcontractors to pay the salaries, using those people as "a front" that only paid part of the taxes that the employees owed. These masterminds believed they were exploiting a loophole in which each individual tax underpayment was too small to trigger a tax office response. Since last June, they churned out $10 million a month, at least until it came to a crashing halt……..

Alabama hearts slavery reminders, Tom Hardy changes his mind and Enes Kanter goes "Terminal"

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- All of a sudden, Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter has become the star of a real-life version of the movie “Terminal.” Kanter, who is being detained in Romania after his passport was "canceled" by the Turkish embassy on Saturday morning, now has too much in common with the film’s main character, who was stuck in an American airport terminal after his troubled Eastern European nation collapses in a fiery coup, rendering his passport unusable. Kanter, who arrived in Bucharest from Jakarta, Indonesia, as part of his 2017 Enes Kanter Light Foundation global tour, would seem to be the sort of person you wouldn’t want to attack with such diplomatic pettiness. He’s doing charitable work, he’s a famous professional athlete and oh wait, he’s one of the most famous, outspoken critics of despotic Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. When his security goons aren’t beating down American citizens on American soil, Erdogan is busy harassing Turks living abroad, according to a video Kanter posted on Twitter from the airport in Romania in which he said police officers have "been holding us here for hours." "The reason behind it is just, of course, my political views," Kanter said. Just because  you labeled him as “a dictator, and he's the Hitler of our century” and are a known supporter of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic leader and the face of the "Gulen Movement, you think an upstanding leader like Erdogan, who just rammed through a referendum essentially making him the country’s elected dictator for another  decade-plus, would go international ass-hat by canceling your passport? This is the latest blow for Kanter, who said last summer he had been disowned by his family because of his political views……..

- It takes some major juevos to assault and rob an entire bus full of passengers who also happen to be your country’s federal police. It also takes fair amount of laziness/indifference/steadiness on the part of said federal police to cooperate with said robbers, letting them take what they want in order to avoid a potential shootout and loss of life. According to authorities in Mexico, that’s precisely what went down when gunmen have assaulted and robbed a bus full of federal police who were unarmed, dressed in civilian clothes and headed to Mexico City, where they were to be on leave after 25 straight days on duty in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco. Maybe those 29 cops were still in vacation mode when the driver pulled over to check a mechanical problem near a toll booth in the state of Morelos, sitting back and going along with orders when armed men boarded the bus, threatened the drivers and passengers and proceeded to liberate everyone’s personal belongings. A statement by the National Security Commission, the officers did not resist in order to avoid injuries or loss of life and a search is now on for the robbers, who might not exactly have an immense amount of fear for the men and women trying to apprehend them after the way their most recent encounter with the law went down……..

- Because #massivepaydays and #lovingthespotlight, Tom Hardy will superhero movie once more. Despite saying previously that action-hero roles in films because they restrict an actor’s ability to bring more of themselves to the role, Hardy is going to anchor Sony's latest foray into the Marvel Comics cinematic universe, the forthcoming Spider-Man spin-off, “Venom.” Hardy, fresh off the fiscal letdown that was the first season of “Taboo,” will play the leading role in the Venom and become part of a new Spider-Man cinematic universe that was briefly hinted at in Captain America: Civil War,” in which current Spider-Man Tom Holland stepped into the role. In the spin-off, Hardy will play Eddie Brock, a freelance photographer who becomes infected by an alien lifeform and turns into a half-human, half-alien villain and views Spider-Man as his arch nemesis. You might remember Topher Grace playing Brock/Venom in a perfectly decent Spider-Man movie starring Tobey Maguire, or you may not because Grace was eminently forgettable in the role. Either way, the project will be helmed by “Zombieland” director Ruben Fleischer, working from a script penned by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner (“The Amazing Spider-Man 2”). This one is being set on a breakneck pace, as filming is scheduled to begin in the fall and the project is slated to hit theaters next August, by which point a massive payday and the reality that he capably played Bane in “The Dark Knight” will probably have absolved Hardy of his disdain for action-hero movies…….

- You can have our tributes to arguably the darkest and ugliest era in American history when you pry them from our cold, dead (and very white) hands. So say lawmakers in Alabama who have  approved sweeping protections for Confederate monuments, names and other historic memorials even as their friends in other southern states either remove or consider removing such monuments to a racist, hateful era in this nation’s history. If passed into law, the measure "would prohibit the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or other disturbance of any architecturally significant building, memorial building, memorial street, or monument" that has stood on public property for 40 or more years.” That’s a pretty subjective description and allows for a wide berth when determining what’s “architecturally significant,” and the bill would also mandate that changes to names or memorials installed between 20 and 40 years ago would need permission from a new state commission. Sadly, the many African-American lawmakers who opposed the bill at every step of the legislative process didn’t have the votes to shot this sh*t down even though they rightly argued that the bill fortifies a contemptible legacy of slavery. "You say we are protecting history. We are not protecting history. We are protecting monuments that represent oppression to a large part of the people in the state of Alabama," said Sen. Hank Sanders, an African-American Democrat from Selma. That wasn’t enough to slow the roll of Sen. Gerald Allen, the bill's Republican sponsor, who denounced what he called a "wave of political correctness" moving these monuments to hate from public places into storage or museums. The only tweak came when  Gov. Kay Ivey added an amendment, which lawmakers approved, to clarify that schools could change locations and do renovations, but not change names. Still, this is a misguided attempt to keep alive a completely bogus notion that the era of slavery and secession in America is anything to be honored, remembered or memorialized in any way……..

The pope goes Hollywood, celebrities feed the social media pigeons and reviving "Scarface"

- His last try at a big-budget movie may have sucked and vastly underwhelmed and been a critical flop at the box office, but that doesn’t mean a studio won't hand director David Ayer the reins to another major project. In fact, Ayer is reportedly in negotiations to take the helm of what else, a massive recycling of an iconic, existing film that was released more than three decades ago and therefore must be remade immediately using better visual effects, bigger guns and better resolution for those vital murder scenes. Yes, the “Suicide Squad” is closing in on the director’s chair for the forthcoming remake of classic gangster film “Scarface,” a movie that came out in 1983 and is itself a remake of a 1932 film that was loosely about Al Capone. The 1983 version saw Al Pacino in one of his most iconic efforts, portraying Cuban drug lord Tony Montana in 1980s Miami. The movie was a massive box office success, but that production may be dwarfed by its cultural staying power over the years, as its most memorable lines have been requited, recycled and reused by so many different folks across movies, music and television that it’s almost as if Montana never died in a hale of bullets, machine gun in hand, and he’s still walking among the living. The recycled idea is the work of Universal, which originally had “The Magnificent Seven” director Antoine Fuqua lined up to helm the film, only to have him tell them to Fuqua off due to scheduling conflicts. Whoever directs will do so from a script penned by the Coen brothers, with the movie slated to drop next August with “Star Wars: Rogue One” actor Diego Luna reportedly taking the Montana mantle from Pacino…….

- Pope Frank, Pontiff of the People and star of the silver screen? Though he may be staunchly in favor of the common man and an avid advocate for the poor, it appears that Pope Francis is readying to make his movie debut by participating in a documentary that producers tout as "a historic nonfiction film." It’s a first for the Vatican, a development Focus Features announced at the Cannes Film Festival, revealing that it has acquired worldwide rights to "Pope Francis - A Man of His Word." Only once before has the Vatican collaborated with outside filmmakers and the first to grant direct access to a pope and this one is noteworthy because the film, directed by Wim Wenders, is a co-production with the Vatican. According to producers, Wenders' film features Pope Francis responding to questions from around the globe and discussing ecology, immigration, consumerism and social justice, which means it could be a tough sell given its lack of explosions, car chases, CGI, attractive women and being a sequel to an established movie franchise, but maybe there’s still time to add in scenes of Vin Diesel and his crew souping up the Pope Mobile for a chase through Rome. As for Wenders, the German filmmaker of the angels-on-Earth classic "Wings of Desire," he had several chances to sit down with the pontiff for the project and though his film doesn’t yet have a release date, a summer blockbuster it ain’t……..

- Do not feed the pigeons, professional athletes. That’s what you’re doing when you commit the seemingly helpful, harmless act of showing social media support for students looking to escape their final exams by getting their teacher’s favorite sports star to retweet or respond to one of their messages. First, a high school senior in Indiana convinced former Los Angeles Lakers star and future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant to retweet a message that, if it were retweeted, would win a wager for the students and his classmate with their teacher, leading to them being allowed to skip their final exam. Social media being what it is, it took student Peyton Meyer of Janesville, Iowa, about five seconds to hear about it and try to find a way to turn the concept around in his favor. He and his class made a deal with their teacher, Laura Roberts, who is a massive fan of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Roberts agreed that if Meyer could convince the Super Bowl-winning signal caller to retweet one of his messages, she would cancel the final in a sports literature class made up of high school juniors and seniors in the Janesville Consolidated School District. Clearly not realizing that acceding to the request would mean hordes of other students would make the same requests of him and other athletes, Rodgers obliged. “I'm sure a sports lit final is very important, but here you go....#PayItForwardFriday,” Rodgers tweeted. The act meant no final for Roberts’ class and made Rodgers the latest future Hall of Famer to essentially be the old guy sitting on a park bench, pigeons blanketing him and his surroundings, crapping all over the place and seeking their bread crumb………

- Lots of news involving the Catholic Church today and it’s not all posh trailers on movie sets and trips to the craft services table for the pope and his underlings. Life is decidedly less rosy right now for Pittsburgh's Roman Catholic bishop, who claims he received hate mail for allowing church members to eat meat on St. Patrick's Day, which this year fell on a Friday during Lent. Bishop David Zubik shared that sad revelation as he took part in the church’s World Communications Day, detailing how some Catholics sent him correspondence that should theoretically send them directly to confession without passing go or collecting $200. "You're sending us to hell. Who do you think you are to be able to tell us we can eat meat?," Zubik recalled reading in some of the letters he received. Given the ire in those messages, it’s not all that surprising that the bishop went on to say that he sees a significant need for less hatred and fear in the world. Wait, threatening someone you’ve likely never met because they said it was OK for other people you’ve never met to enjoy a burger or a grilled chicken breast during Lent means you’re too angry and have hate in your heart. Way to grasp the concepts of love and understanding, anonymous Catholics who took a few minutes out of kicking puppies and shoving nuns into mud puddles to bang out an angry manifesto to mail to the local leader of the Steel City’s Catholics. Pittsburgh is a hard city with a definite edge to it, so being the bishop there necessitates a lot of toughness, but that doesn’t mean Zubik should have to put up with this deluge of holy sh*t………

Sticking it to The Man in Russia, NFL squatters sidetracked on the road to L.A. and "T-Wanye" finally drops

- It never rains in Southern California, so when the freak rain storm blows through town, the whole world comes crashing down. People start driving their cars into one another, many Los Angelinos are afraid to go outside and even the billions and billions of dollars the NFL is pouring into the City of Angels to bring two teams to the city can’t overcome nature. That means the highly anticipated, $2.6 billion stadium in Inglewood, California, destined to be the home of the Rams and Chargers won't open in 2019 and will now open in 2020 instead. Uncommonly heavy rainfall in Los Angeles means the new facility will take longer to complete and as a result, the Rams will remain squatters at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for an additional year and the Chargers will do the same in a soccer stadium, the 30,000-seat StubHub Center in Carson, California. Come 2020, the Chargers can then crash on the couch at the Rams’ new stadium, which it will be because the new venue is funded by Rams owner Stan Kroenke. Assuming that 2020 date stands, the new stadium will still be able to host Super Bowl LV in February 2021 - as long as the NFL waives its rule that a team cannot host a Super Bowl at the end of a stadium's inaugural season. Waiving rules in the name of big paydays is something the league has done before, including when commissioner Roger Goodell previously waived the NFL's rule on minimum temperatures at the Super Bowl so that MetLife Stadium in New Jersey could host Super Bowl XLVIII. Thus, even though the Rams and Chargers’ stadium developers "lost the better part of two months from early January into the beginning of March," this show will go on……

- Nothing says classy, wealthy business magnate quite like a YouTube attack on one of your rivals. Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov knows that and it’s why he launched a video  attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny just days before the trial in a Usmanov vs. Navalny defamation case was to begin. If it seems like you’d want to root for Navalny here, it’s because a) he’s not a billionaire asshole in the Kremlin’s pocket and b) he’s the driving force behind massive anti-corruption protests that swept through Russia in March and has released a documentary about the alleged secret wealth of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. In other words, he’s looking to stick it to The Man and Usmanov is the über-wealthy prick you’d hate unless he gave you one of his spare billions. He was embarrassed after Navalny published legal documents showing that Usmanov along with several other Russian billionaires transferred lucrative assets to a charity foundation run by Medvedev's former classmate. Medvedev insists he has no ties to the property, while Usmanov claimed that the transfer of the ownership of the mansion to the charity foundation was a legit business deal. In his YouTube assault, Usmanov denounced Navalny as a "loser" and a "failed businessman,” which is the most lame an unimaginative insult possible. "I spit on you. You will have to answer to me for this anyway, Lyosha," Usmanov said, using the short form of Navalny's first name, in the video. "You should have apologized and lived in peace because someone like you would never ever be able to prove that I'm a criminal, that I'm a thief." Not exactly helping your case, A. Saying he couldn’t prove that you’re a criminal and a thief isn't exactly denying that you’re either……..

- Rap’s “Chinese Democracy” it ain’t. After teasing the not-really-awaited collaboration between the Overly Auto-Tuned One, a.k.a. T-Pain, and Lil Wayne nearly a decade ago, the rap buddies have finally dropped “T-Wayne,” a long-awaited and probably forgotten mixtape that could be amazing … or an unmitigated disaster. Unlike Guns N’ Roses oft-postponed dumpster fire of a project, “Chinese Democracy,” was pushed back for a decade and finally released, this one wasn’t delayed because its asshole frontman (hey there, Axl Rose!) couldn’t find anyone willing to work with him long enough to make the album happen. This one has drifted along aimlessly since T-Pain actually recorded and teased it back in 2009. He didn’t really go into detail about how they’d just lingered on the scrap heap for the better part of a decade, but tweeted out an announcement about the project. “These the lost files from ’09 and I’m tired of em just sitting on my hard drive,” he wrote. Shortly after that post, the mixtape popped up on Soundcloud, serving as something of a sonic time capsule of a bygone era, one that brings more of two popular artists to the masses but doesn’t offer fans any hope that either of them will be releasing any new material any time soon. Even so, this is a rap rarity because it’s lost, forgotten or never-released music from rappers who were still alive when their unknown recordings went public, so that’s certainly a nice change of pace…….

- And the daredevils are getting exactly what they want: views and likes. When a video shot by a pair of thrill seekers who want out on the Golden Gate Bridge, doing flips and walking hundreds of feet in the air on walkways, went online two weeks ago, it was bound to get some attention, but not nearly the eyeballs it’s not drawing after the video became the source of a large-scale security review at the iconic structure by officials who want to know how Peter Teatime and his partner, Tommy Rector, were so easily able to sprint up the bridge at night and find both time and unfettered space to do a backflip and somersault atop the main towers of the span. The video started on YouTube and is now licensed to Caters Clips and it shows the dynamic duo dangling their bodies over the edge of one of the bridge's towers, putting them in a position where a fall would almost certainly mean death. The hilarious part of all of this is that according to Golden Gate Bridge general manager Dennis Mulligan, officials were not aware of the incident until it was posted online and someone shot them a link. "The Golden Gate Bridge is not an amusement park ride," Mulligan dryly noted, adding that the two men climbed the structure's vertical suspender ropes without any harnesses or fall protection. To those two, it clearly was, taking advantage of the fact that the hundreds of security cameras set up around the bridge are largely to protect against terrorist attacks and vandalism. That means no alarms go off for what Mulligan deemed “reckless behavior,” but he promised officials will “be taking steps to make sure they will not be able to do that again.” That’s what the uptight squares always say, Denny……..

Joel Embiid always entertains, Microsoft needs a sense of humor upgrade and Nazis defeated in New York

- Score one for removing what remains of the hideous Nazi philosophy of hate, discrimination and evil from the world. In a result that should displease exactly no one with a soul, a Long Island organization that was historically known to only allow people of German descent to live on its land will be forced to open the proverbial doors of its properties to individuals of all races and nationalities.  The German American Settlement League (GASL) was put on notice by New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that it will have to change its policies that discriminated against certain races, altering the core of a nonprofit organization founded in the 1930s for the verrrrrry noble purpose of operating as a summer camp that supported the Nazi regime. Y’know, some kids go to basketball camp, others go to performing arts camps and others go to Nazi camps, the usual. Previously, the GASL’s followed laws that would allow individuals "primarily of German extraction and of good character and reputation" from living on its land in Yaphank.  "The GASL’s discriminatory practices were a remnant of a disgraceful past that has no place in New York or anywhere," Schneiderman said. It’s a decision that’s about 80 years overdue, but it was put in motion when the attorney general's office began investigating the organization in 2015 after it violated federal, state and local laws. Investigators determined that homeowners were only allowed to announce property listings at meetings or through internal flyers, so the organization was ordered to revise its by-laws and policies after a 2016 settlement, only to make no changes of consequence, prompting the AG’s office to compel those changes……..

- Any publicity for one of the most forgotten, ignored and failed gadgets of this century is good publicity, maker of the world’s worst operating system. Microsoft may not relish having its much-maligned (and rightly so) Zune portable music player clowned in “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2,” but director James Gunn claims the tech company got rather pissy about the scene in which Sean Gunn’s Kraglin gives Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill a Zune to replace his broken Walkman, joking that it’s what everyone on earth is now using to listen to music. According to Gunn, Microsoft objected to the reference because it highlights what a flop the Zune was, failing to ever become widely accepted or any sort of rival to the iPod or now, smartphones as a means of hearing music. Gunn’s defense is that the Zune was an important part in the scene, which occurs near the end of the movie, because it creates a bonding moment between Peter Grill and Baby Groot. “As [Peter Quill] starts to listen to the music… Baby Groot crawls into his lap,” Gunn explained. “And as we see Peter Quill looking down at Baby Groot, we see a father’s love for his son. And it is a very unselfish moment on the part of Peter Quill,” Gunn said. “That’s why that moment is so important to me in the movie, and why it is so important to the development of Peter Quill.” See there, Microsoft, the Zune finally did some good for someone, even if it’s a fictional character talking to a walking, talking infant tree root in a space movie……..

- Throw open those rain forest doors in the name of saving your faltering economy, eh Brazil? With a country teetering on the fiscal brink in the wake of years of poor leadership, horrible decisions to spend billions of dollars to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, the South American nation’s lower house of Congress has approved a measure significantly reducing the size of a fully protected national park in the Amazon rain forest and opening a big chunk of land for agriculture and other activities. The Chamber of Deputies approved the measure, agreeing to convert 1.2 million acres of the 3.2 million-acre Jamanxim National Park in Para state into what is called an Environmental Protection Area, which is a bit of misnomer because this change will allow the land to be used for the extraction of lumber, agriculture and mining — activities not allowed in a fully protected national park. Nothing screams protection quite like allowing logging companies to pillage the rain forest and not surprisingly, this move is being hailed as a major win for Congress' rural lobby representing agribusiness. The good news is that it isn’t law quite yet, as the bill must still get approved by the Senate and ratified by President Michel Temer. Still, it’s hard not to see this as a major step back when it comes to protecting the environment…….

- Joel Embiid is the best. Not the best player or even the best young prospect in the NBA, though some day he may achieve both on account of his diverse and immense talents. No, he’s simply the best show in the Association off the court, whether he’s dancing on stage at a Meek Mill concert while also not playing for his team due to injury, tweeting at world-famous pop stars or in this case, speaking directly out of his ass. Embiid held it down for the Philadelphia 76ers on stage at the NBA draft lottery this week and after his team scored the No. 3 pick in the upcoming draft, the perpetually injured young center was busy bumping his gums about things well above his team’s skill level. "We're gearing up at the right time. When we start getting good, that's when Cleveland and LeBron will start going down," Embiid said. Embiid is apparently playing NBA meteorologist and forecasting when Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James will fade from his status as the best basketball player in the world, which will (theoretically) happen at some point unless James truly is a basketball cyborg, but it’s probably not something that needs to be flying out of the pie hole of a guy who has played in 31 games in his three seasons in the Association even though he averaged 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game in those 31 games he played this season before his long-awaited rookie campaign was cut short by a torn left meniscus. "When I say we are going to be ready to win when the Cavs are going down, that doesn't mean, like, five years," Embiid said. "Next year I think we are going to be ready to win." Right, but LBJ won't be on the decline next year or the year after, J., and your team finished 28-54 this season. Its top draft pick from last year, guard Ben Simmons, didn’t play at all this season due to a foot injury and while both he and Embiid could start in the Sixers’ opener next season, there’s just as much of a chance that both are injured and unable to join whoever the team selects third overall this year, assuming that player doesn’t get bitten by the Philly injury bug as well…….

Confederate camel attacks, Frank Ocean's Beatles inspiration and (lazy) protesting in Venezuela

- Sit ins: The laziest, least aerobically demanding form of protest. But it was the demonstration of choice for thousands of Venezuelans who turned out Monday in several cities around the country to stage a "Big National Sit-in," heeding the opposition movement’s call on supporters to peacefully protest against the government of Nicolas Maduro, against the "fraud" of the recently-convened constitutional assembly and in defense of the prevailing constitution. The day was perfect to show the mettle of those opposing Maduro

s totalitarian regime, with rainy conditions as opposition supporters enmassed at the spots designated by the opposition MUD alliance. The 12-hour sit-in was proclaimed by two-time presidential candidate and current Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles on Twitter, as he wrote, "We're already deployed in many cities. Remember that it's national!" Images of citizens sitting on their asses in protests spread quickly on social media, but it felt more like a class field trip than a protest as there were reminders for those gathered to wear comfortable clothing, bring water, food and sun protection, along with something to pass the time and enable them to entertain themselves with some kind of activity. What happened to pain, suffering and discomfort in the name of a cause? Not only that, there were totally lame requests by organizers for people not to block the streets that were not included in the planning for the various sit-ins. There was one in the capital, Caracas, where thousands of opposition members assembled along the Francisco Fajardo Highway, the city's most important traffic artery, and on Victoria Avenue, setting up chairs, flags and refreshments. All in all, not the way to take 45 days of protests and riots to the next level, y’all………

- Bad timing, accused robbers who held up former Texas Tech QB and Kansas City Chiefs draft pick Patrick Mahomes II at gunpoint in Texas. Mahomes and three other victims called police and reported being the victims of an aggravated robbery in which a male believed to have a handgun in his waistband approached the four men as they were getting out of their vehicle. Police responded to the residence and were told that the suspect demanded property from the four men, then fled in his own vehicle. Demanding property from  the son of the former major league baseball pitcher, Pat Mahomes, is a potentially lucrative endeavor, but if the would-be robber had waited a while longer until Mahomes signed his rookie contract (with signing bonus) as the 10th overall pick in this year’s draft, robbing the young signal caller may have offered some nicer potential fruits. As is, two suspects — Michael Blake Pinkerton and Billy Ray Johnson — who were in the car in question when police tracked it down were taken into custody, arrested and taken to Smith County Jail. Ironically, some may argue that the Chiefs got robbed with all they gave away to trade up in the first round to select Mahomes as their quarterback of the future, but at least he was able to keep all of his belongings and walk away unharmed when a couple of kooks tried to jack him of his money and goods……..

- Lots of bad sh*t went on during the 1800s on the lands of Southern property owners in the United States. One of them, at least not according to the historical retellings from either side in the Civil War, was attacks on civilians by camels. Those attacks, allegedly are reserved for the 21st century, where a Florida woman claims a camel at the last home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis attacked her at the Mississippi tourist attraction in 2015. Sylvia June Abbott is suing the United Sons of Confederate Veterans Inc., identified as the operator of Beauvoir plantation in Biloxi, for the alleged malicious misdeeds of Sir Camelot, the beast she claims injured her mentally and physically. Attorney Charles M. Thomas lays out a terrifying scenario in which Abbott and her husband were walking to a cemetery behind Beauvoir when the camel stampeded her and bit her, leaving her with a fractured wrist and vertebrae. Side note, were this a ghost camel attacking near a cemetery, then it would be a truly epic story. As is, Abbott's suit says Beauvoir's operators should have known the camel had "behaved dangerously" in the past, yet neglected to fill in the details of any prior incidents. For now, the powers that be at Beauvoir are staying quiet and this legal charade is marching on……..

- They don’t exactly occupy the same musical wavelength, but apparently British rock icons The Beatles lent a hand to R&B singer Frank Ocean’s last two albums. According to Ocean, listening to the Fab Four “almost single-handedly got me out of writer’s block” during writing sessions for his last two albums, “Endless’ and ‘Blonde.” He did sample the Beatles song ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ on ‘White Ferrari,’ which was one of the tracks on “Blonde,” leading to John Lennon and Paul McCartney being awarded songwriters’ credits on the track. Oh, and Kanye West also contributed, so it was a true musical free-for-all. During a recent appearance to promote his recent work, Ocean laid out how The Beatles moved his recording efforts forward.  “I want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer’s block,” Ocean said. “Do you hear this?” Ocean also recently premiered a new version of his track ‘Biking’, which originally featured guest verses from Jay Z and Tyler, the Creator, though the new version only features Ocean, who adds a new verse to the mix. Maybe next time around, McCartney and Ringo Starr can find their way into the studio and play an even more active role in Ocean’s new album, seeing as they have such an ability to inspire and motivate him. Rappers always sample from older music to make new beats, but in this case, the endeavor went beyond sampling, all the way to driving the creative process when it had come to an unwanted standstill……

Goose v. plastic bat, Deadpool 2 v. excess and Browns-ness vs. NFL draftees

- You can draft a dozen new players, but you can not un-Browns the Cleveland Browns. No matter what school you draft players, no matter what round you draft them in or what position they play, eventually those players must set foot in the team’s training facility in Berea or First Energy Stadium and when they do, the aura of all things Browns is waiting to sniper them and imperil their career. The latest victim of this interminable phenomenon is cornerback Howard Wilson, the team’s fourth-round pick in last month’s draft, who fractured his kneecap late in the team's first rookie minicamp practice and will miss "significant time," coach Hue Jackson said. Jackson expressed hope that Wilson wouldn’t miss the entire season, but these are the Browns, so there’s at least a decent chance Wilson will not only miss the season, but never play football again and possibly have his leg amputated.  "It's disappointing, but this a part of playing football," Wilson said in a written statement, which is probably best because releasing your words on a sheet of paper or in an email might be the safest way to handle any situation when you’re connected to the Browns. “I'm a positive person, so I will have the surgery, work hard in my rehab, and look forward to getting back to out there and helping this team win some games." Ah, that rookie delusion, believing that anyone, regardless of their football talent, can help the Browns win games. Sure, the Browns drafted Wilson because they needed depth in their defensive backfield behind Joe Haden and Jamar Taylor, but ultimately it doesn’t matter who suits up for them because in the end, the Browns-ness of it all will triumph……..

- Must be nice, Egypt. Every other day or so, someone in your country seems to stumble across some amazing historical site or artifact that further underscores just how much of the world’s ancient history is housed within your borders. The finds keep piling up, creating more reasons for travelers to brave the Middle East turmoil and visit a country where history is the present, and the latest discovery was announced by Egypt's antiquities ministry, which says it has found a necropolis with at least 17 mummies near the southern city of Minya, the first such find in the area. It was a big day in the village of Tuna al-Gabal, a vast archaeological site on the edge of the western desert, an area that hosts necropolises mainly for animals and birds and was the site of this big news. Minister Khaled al-Anani, who has a lot of practice organizing and speaking as such events and probably has a standard, pre-written announcement handy for them in a pinch, said in an address at the site that the necropolis dates back to the pharaonic Late Kingdom and Greco-Roman periods. He noted that the find is still in a preliminary stage, but said more mummies are expected to be discovered in the area. It’s a conveniently timed discovery given that Egypt is struggling to revive its tourism sector, partially driven by antiquities sightseeing, in the wake of the 2011 uprising that sparked years of turmoil that is only just beginning to subside. Toss in a few more “new” finds and there just might be enough incentive to head to Africa’s northeast corner……..

- There’s nothing about “Deadpool 2” that doesn’t seem wholly excessive. The number of trailers, promotional videos, guest appearances in the opening credits of other Marvel movies and general hype for the sequel have been over the top, so let’s keep that theme going with three more X-Force character, Sunspot, Feral, and Shatterstar, set to appear in the film alongside Ryan Reynolds’ titular character. The pre-production process is well underway and with Reynolds locked in as the leading man and Josh Brolin cast as Cable, the rest of the cast is still shaping up. One X-Force character set to join the cast is Domino, with both Janelle Monae and Kerry Washington linked to the role. In a teaser for the movie, released on Reynolds’ YouTube page and titled “No Good Deed,” Reynolds’ character Wade Wilson is seen at the start of the short film listening to John Parr’s ‘St. Elmo Fire’ and responding to a street robbery in progress in his typical, snarky, meta way - with a  cameo from former Marvel President Stan Lee. There aren't too many clues in the teaser, even when parsed to the most minute degree by devoted fanboys, not even when fans can expect the sequel, with the final message reading: ‘Deadpool… coming … not soon enough.’ In between now and whenever that is, expect a dozen or so more trailers, maybe another guest spot or five in the opening or closing credits of other Marvel movies and every other promotional opportunity the studio can find to shove the star of one of last year’s most commercially successful movies down everyone’s throats……..

- No one likes wild geese. They’re filthy, imposing nuisances who crap on your lawn and are belligerent any time you roll up on them, even if they’re on your property. The idea of taking a blunt object to once of these wildlife menaces is an appealing one, but just make sure that you aren't too mean to the poor, winged intruder coming after you or your child, lest the city of Indianapolis lay the legal smackdown on you. Enter  James McDaniel, an Indianapolis man who was cited by police for using a PLASTIC bat to protect his 4-year-old son from an overly aggressive Canada goose. According to McDaniel, the goose came charging across a field and began chasing his son, prompting dear ol’ dad to step to the goose and take a plastic bat to its feathered ass. He said afterward that the goose was "clearly attacking" the boy and he was only doing what he could to protect him, but rather than earn praise as a responsible dad, Marion County animal services ticketed McDaniel for animal cruelty. In an incident report, officers noted that witnesses reported that McDaniel hit the bird three times and he’ll have his day in court this week. When he does, he’ll have to convince the court that he stayed within Indiana Department of Natural Resources guidelines, which state that people are allowed to protect themselves or others from wildlife, but may only use a reasonable amount of force. In this case, the use of force is being prosecuted in a way that makes the entire situation seem like a colossal farce……..

Danish prison currency, shoot old rock stars into space and Air Force v. NFL careers

- Now THAT is how you convince more people to go to church. Yes, it’s technically less of a church and more of what the city of Nashville has labeled an illegal sex club, but let’s not trip on the semantics here. Let’s focus on the fact that some forward thinkers looking to reject the usual rules and strictures that making following any organized religion such a grind decided to take a building registered as a church and turn it into a sex club that may have technically been illegal for several reasons, including violating a state law banning sex clubs from operating within 1,000 feet of a school. This looks to be a handy mix of opportunity and necessity, as the longtime downtown swingers club underwent a conversion in 2015 when it relocated to a run-down office park in the community of Madison. Seeing a chance to perhaps mix its particular brand of illicit activity with the benefits that come from being labeled a place of worship, the club’s owners took to calling their establishment a church because the new location is near the back of the private Goodpasture Christian School. Yes, a place you can go and get your freak on while a few hundred feet away, young children learn Bible lessons and how to read, there’s nothing unsavory about that. The club’s downfall began in March, when two code inspectors paid $40 to enter the facility and filed affidavits detailing sex acts they witnessed within. Now, the city is seeking to close the club, but that just seems like a sin……

- Maybe this can be a modern day, rock-and-roll take on the Eskimo tribe that straps its elderly to an ice floe, gives them a few day’s food and pushes them out to sea to die when they can no longer hunt and effectively contribute to society. That might not be the underlying thinking when Metallica ruminates about being the first band to play in space after setting a world record by playing all seven continents in a year, but motivation isn't everything. Drummer Lars Ulrich admitted that the band have ambitions to play in space, piggybacking on their seven-continent effort back in 2013 and given that Metallica is now a glorified metal novelty act looking to set cheesy, Guinness Book of World Records marks at a time when it should maybe thinking about hanging up its instruments and going out to pasture, shooting Lars, James Hetfield and crew out into space and letting them slowly drift out of our collective consciousness doesn’t seem like a terrible plan. “Living in San Francisco which is the gateway to the future, obviously all those things are being planned around San Francisco to a degree so I feel that we are close to that [playing in space] as we can be,” Ulrich said. “There’s a few feelers out to a few people – nothing worth giving away yet.” Ulrich went on to say that if there is any chance of the space gig happening, he and his bandmates “will happily be at the very front of that line.” Here’s hoping there is a line and then, every aged-out rock band that doesn’t know it’s outlived its usefulness (eyeing you, The Who and Rolling Stones) can board a space shuttle and become our musical Eskimo elders………

- Since when did cigarettes cease to become the currency of cell block C? Times have clearly changed when it comes to purchasing toothpaste, an ice cream bar or a deck of playing cards in prison and maybe nowhere more so than Denmark, a country whose government says it will ban cash in the country's largest prisons and require inmates to pay electronically, to make it "easier to follow the money flow in and out." According to Danish Justice Minister Soeren Pape Poulsen, "there is a risk that people in criminal circles exploit their friends' incarceration to hide money." Wait….shady people with criminal records try to hide cash with their incarcerated friends? Apparently that’s a thing now. According to Poulsen, the change will be implemented before summer, but right now, it’s unclear how many of Denmark's prisons would be affected. In a sense, this won’t be a major change for inmates in closed Danish prisons, as they already pay electronically for food and other items they buy behind bars. Of course, in an age when everything worth hacking - and many things that aren't - are in danger of cyberattacks on a daily basis, the idea of making an entire internal prison economy dependent on chips, cards and hard drives seems like it could be an open invitation for cyber-creative criminals and their friends to manipulate and abuse the system for their benefit…….

- It’s rare to hear anyone, especially someone in a prominent position of authority in professional sports, take a blatant run at the armed forces. But when the football world learned of a rule implemented by the Air Force on the day of the first round of the NFL draft that prevents Academy cadets from postponing their two-year active-duty military commitment so they can play in the NFL, feathers were bound to be ruffled. Many Air Force players/potential draftees were reportedly unaware of the rule until after the draft started and Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians is not a fan of it. His team invited Air Force linebacker Ryan Watson to its three-day rookie minicamp this weekend, knowing they wouldn't be able to sign him to a contract and afterward, Arians ripped the new rule. "I think it's dumb," Arians said, adding that he wanted to give Watson a "good look and give him the opportunity." The veteran coach noted that Watson could impress enough that the Cardinals could to bring him back in two years, while Watson criticized the rule without openly criticizing it, saying it was "above his pay grade." Under the rule, the Air Force mandated that all players who compete for the Air Force Academy serve their two years of active duty before receiving "ready reserve" status, which would allow them to join a professional sports team. Other branches of the military have recently waived their rules for players who made the NFL, figuring the chance to have a prominent face representing the armed forces and doing non-active duty activities such as public appearances on behalf of the Army or Navy on the side while excelling on the field was valuable enough to let a player avoid active military duty. Clearly, the Air Force thinks it’s about all of that……..

Twitter soccer sleights, Pink Floyd's cred takes a hit and when to stop calling yourself a princess

- There’s always something rich about a person who works in law enforcement and makes their living on the investigation, arrest and incarceration of criminals being found to be just like those his of her employees spend their days policing. When someone like New York City Department of Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte hurriedly resigns in the wake of rampant criticism for using his city-owned SUV to repeatedly drive to vacations in Maine, it’s hard to muster an ounce of sympathy for him. Abusing your position of authority and misappropriating resources may not land you in jail - unless you’re outright stealing money from your employer - but it’s such a bad look for Ponte, who led Maine's state prison system for three years before he was hired to reform New York's Rikers Island jail in 2014. For weeks now, Ponte has been getting heat for alleged ethical lapses. He’s been in the crosshairs of New York's Department of Investigation, an anticorruption agency, which released a report last month saying Ponte spent 90 days out of state last year in his department SUV. Approximately one-third of those days came during the work week and according to the report, city officials generally aren't allowed to use their taxpayer-funded vehicles for personal trips out of the region. At least Ponte wasn’t alone, as the report said other officials at the agency used their vehicles for trips to Cape Cod, the Hamptons and other destinations. Even after Ponte promised to repay the city, his promise was soon drowned out by a subsequent report accusing corrections officials of using internal affairs officers to eavesdrop on conversations between Department of Investigation investigators and inmate informants at the jail. Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to defend Ponte, but those efforts have clearly failed and now, the end is here………

- If you’re still calling yourself a princess when you’re old enough to retire, that’s probably a red flag on your life as a whole. Keep that in mind as the story of a 64-year-old princess from Abu Dhabi, Sheikha Hamda Al-Nahyan, who are on trial before a Belgian court on charges that she and her seven daughters mistreated around 20 servants forced to work for them in a plush Brussels hotel. Al-Nahyan and her crew rented out the entire fourth floor of the hotel for several months in 2008 and according to workers, they were treated abusively by the royals, which is both sad and humorous because, one again, you have a woman who’s still rocking the princess title when she’s nearly 60 years old at the time of the alleged mistreatment. Shouldn’t there be a rule that if you haven't ascended to a throne of some kind by the time you turn 50, you cede that title to someone else? This case has been lurching forward since 2008, when police raided the Conrad Hotel where this entire saga is set. Fifteen plaintiffs claim that some of the servants were forced to sleep on the floor and tend to the princesses around the clock for little or no money, which sounds about right when it comes to how snotty, spoiled royals and their children would act when taking over an entire floor of a posh, luxury hotel for months at a time…….

- Oh, the indignity of it all. International soccer sleights via Twitter are just such an ugly, heartbreaking aspect of this world of ours and no one knows it better than Karim Benzema, who is very much a part of Champions League finalist Real Madrid and very much still hated in France, for whose national team he has not played since October 2015 after his alleged involvement in the attempted extortion of Mathieu Valbuena emerged during an ongoing police investigation. He’s been a man in soccer exile since, which is why the French national team's official Twitter account chose to snub him, but congratulate his Real Madrid teammate and fellow Frenchman Raphael Varane on reaching the Champions League final. It’s clearly not on account of Benzema’s play, as he was front and center for the reigning European champions as they clinched their place in the final berth at the expense of neighbors Atletico. After the game, Varane received a congratulatory message from Les Bleus' official Twitter account, but fans took notice of the Benzema sleight. When they did, the terse reply from the national team’s Twitter account noted that, "we only talk about the sports news of players who have been called up by the French national team in the last year." Oh, OK. That seems like a new, hastily crafted and totally made-up rule conveniently used here, especially given that Alexandre Lacazette, whose last appearance for his country came just three days after Benzema's, received a congratulatory message for Lyon's Europa League win over Roma earlier this season………

- Your rock icon credibility has its limits, Nick Mason, and you’re pushing them severely right now. Mason may be the drummer for one of the biggest rock bands ever, but hitting the high hats for Pink Floyd doesn’t mean you can do some ridiculous sh*t like openly pine about playing drums for former man-bander and newly minted solo act Harry Styles and not have it taint your image a bit. Styles, taking time away from man-band outfit One Direction, dropped his debut solo album today and made an appearance to promote the project with Mason also on hand. Mason reflected on the first time he heard one of Styles’ songs, “Sign of the Times,” and went full-on fanboy with it. “I happened to be driving along and I heard Harry’s single. I listened to it and the DJ said afterwards, ‘It sounds a bit like Pink Floyd to me,’ and I thought, ‘Yeah, I could play that’. I listen to music on the radio in a particular way, which is [in terms of the] drums and bass,” Mason said. “My belief is that bands are made up of bass, drums and a bunch of novelty acts. Anyway, I heard [Style’s single] and I thought I’d ask Harry if I could play drums on a track on his next album.” Styles quickly jumped in, saying that he would be open not only to Mason being part of his next album, but that Mason could play on his tour to promote the album. “My drummer Sarah [Jones, former New York Pony Club and Hot Chip drummer] is actually a major fan of yours,” Styles added. All in all, not the proudest moment for an iconic rock band like Pink Floyd………