Disgraced district attorneys, free Public Enemy tunes and

- You can put the mom on a golf course where her son is competing to win hundreds of thousands of dollars, but you can’t take the “waste not, want not” out of the mom. Enter the mother of golfer Haotong Li, who didn’t give a damn that her son was playing before the golf world at the French Open and when Li threw his putter into the muddy water on the Golf National course during the first round, mom sprang into action. She rolled up her shorts and waded through the water to recover the putter, only to pick it up and quickly realize why her son threw it away. The club was broken and a video posted by the European Tour showed golfers Tyrrell Hatton and Thomas Pieters laughing on the nearby 11th green as Li's mother realized the club was useless. She got back to dry land and replicated her son’s effort by tossing the club into the water. Li initially hurled his club into the water out of frustration after bogeying the par-3 11th hole. He was playing two groups ahead of Hatton and Pieters at the tournament, taking place on the outskirts of Paris. Maybe Li should have lost his mind and thrown his putter away sooner because he then played the final seven holes in level par using a sand wedge as a putter, including birdieing the 14th hole and finishing the first round at even-par 71. Maybe for the rest of the tournament, Li can simply have his mother caddy for him so she can oversee his clubs directly…….

- Nothing screams capable future leader of a country quite like the rest of the royal family locking you down and essentially putting you on house arrest at the palace. Welcome to the life of rolling ball of controversy Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a 57-year-old man who has apparently been banned from leaving the grounds of his Jiddah palace and the kingdom overall for fear that he’ll embarrass the country again. Yes, there was a lot of drama in the kingdom last week over the line of succession and that week ended with bin Nayef as a deposed crown prince, but it appears Saudi leaders don’t believe they can take any chances when it comes to their royal family’s resident loose cannon. Not only is bin Nayef reportedly under palace arrest, one of his married daughters was reportedly confined to home , though her spouse and child could leave. This lockdown was imposed immediately after bin Nayef lost his royal standing to his younger cousin, Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman's son. Most around the situation believe the king is acting to stifle any possible opposition or additional drama and in that spirit, Saudi state media has been trying to depict a smooth transition, going so far as to loop a video showing the king kissing the hand of his older cousin, who then offers him well wishes. It’s all a bit bizarre, but in a country where free speech and dissent are stifled swiftly and severely, it’s no surprise……

- Free music is always welcome. Free music from one of the most iconic hip-hop outfits of all time is most definitely welcome, especially if that free music comes as a total surprise on a random weekday in the middle of the summer. World, enjoy ‘Nothing Is Quick In The Desert,’ a new joint from Public Enemy, who announced the album’s release on social media as a free download to celebrate the group’s 30th year. It’s the groups’ first release since 2015’s ‘Man Plans God Laughs’ and as news of the record spread across various social media platforms, the group’s Chuck D tweeted, “We thank you & THIS is on US.” Reaction to the album is beginning to pour in and aside from simply loving the free tunes, many have locked in on the album’s final track, ‘Rest In Beats (Part 1 & 2),’ which pays tribute to a large collection of deceased hip-hop and R&B artists, including Notorious B.I.G., Heavy D, Eazy E, Lisa Left Eye Lopes and a litany in others from a musical genre that has certainly see a lot of its best talents and most famous faces die way too soon. It’s nice to see that 30 years in, Public Enemy is still cranking out quality efforts and willing to share them freely with the masses……..

- Congratulations, Philadelphia. You have the distinct honor of having your city's top prosecutor go directly from the prosecutor’s office to jail after District Attorney Seth Williams pleaded guilty to a single count of accepting a bribe from a businessman. It took two weeks of his federal trial, but Williams eventually broke and stunned the world as he pleaded guilty to a corruption charge, resigned from office and was sent immediately to jail by a judge who said he couldn't be trusted. "I'm very sorry," a teary-eyed Williams told the court as he acknowledged he would resign. U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond didn’t exactly show a lot of trust for Williams, saying he didn’t believe the disgraced district attorney’s assurances that he would show up for sentencing set for Oct. 24. Instead, he ordered him immediately jailed and Williams was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. A disgusted Diamond said he was appalled by the evidence he heard during the jury trial and declared that Williams "sold" his office, foe which Williams faces up to five years in prison. Maybe this was a merciful ending to what had become weeks of damaging testimony against Williams, a two-term Democrat who didn't run for re-election this year. Why he didn’t run for re-election is a total mystery, but when a guy is accused of illegally accepting gifts from two businessmen in exchange for legal favors, you never know what he might do next. He might even fraudulently use thousands of dollars from his campaign fund for personal expenses, misuse city vehicles and misappropriate money intended to fund his mother's nursing home care - all of which Williams has admitted to doing after being charged with 29 counts of bribery, extortion and fraud. He dodged several bullets when 28 counts were dismissed, but a prosecutor said in court that Williams admits he committed all the conduct. Not exactly what you’d hope for from the city's first black district attorney when it comes to upholding the dignity and integrity of the office. It was a colossal clustef*ck over the past year as Williams remained in office after being indicted, with his law license suspended and a deputy put in charge. Williams even tried to cover his own ass last year before he was indicted by belatedly filing financial disclosure reports showing he had accepted about $175,000 in cash, gift and trips from friends as he struggled to maintain his family's lifestyle after a divorce. Now, his fall is complete and his future is extremely dim………

Cubs imploding, OutKast plus Tribe Called Quest and new cars for strangers

- Come to South Africa, hire a bodyguard and have a fun trip. It sounds over the top - until you hear that South African authorities are investigating whether any workers at Johannesburg's main international airport have helped robbers who follow arriving travelers and mug them at their final destination in the capital city. This probe comes on the heels of multiple reports of people who were attacked after leaving O.R. Tambo International Airport, a major regional hub, including a couple from Congo who took a taxi from the airport earlier this month and were shot and wounded after resisting a robbery attempt outside their hotel. Now, the airport is looking to identify alleged "airport spotters" who provide information about potential victims to waiting criminals, the airport's management said, warning that it will take action against any corrupt insiders, whether they are employed by the airport or its many service providers. This could take awhile, as airport management noted that some 35,000 people are employed "airport-wide," making it hard to figure out who might be involved in the criminal process when thieves rob people who have driven from the airport. Recent stories laid out nearly two dozen such incidents already this year in which authorities believe cohorts in the airport who are working with thieves on the outside identify potential targets by assessing travelers' clothes, jewelry, luggage and where they came from. Oddly enough, it’s people arriving from other African countries are often singled out because they are believed to be carrying cash and electronics. Not exactly the way to boost tourism, South Africa……..

- The latest OutKast album has teased fans for a while now, so why not add another layer to the mystery? According to one half of Outkast, Big Boi, he and bandmate Andre 3000 nearly teamed up with one of the most iconic acts in hip-hop history for an album that would have moved a lot of units and quite possibly produced some results that would have reverberated across the rap world. According Big Boi, the album was a work in progress, but hit a massive speed bump as the tragic loss of Tribe’s Phife Dawg changed the plans. “Q-Tip flew to Atlanta with Ali Shaheed Muhammad, we all met at Dre’s (Andre 3000) house,” he said. “We got to the point of picking out beats for the album. Then, some kind of way, everybody started doing stuff, and then Phife… you know. It definitely was happening, though.” It was definitely happening, but then it all went to hell and there was no way to bring it back. that album isn’t happening, but as a possible consolation prize, Big Boi did reveal that there are some tracks he recorded with Phife in his recording studio, Stankonia, which may be released at some time in the future. This is, after all, hip-hop, where there is always long-lost music to be found and released at the most opportune moment to make a lot of money and generate headlines for all involved………

- Walking to work is a grind. Sometimes, a stranger takes notice and helps out a person who is trudging several miles uphill, both ways to work five days a week. Such was life for Rockwall, Texas resident Justin korva, who was walking three miles to work every day to a low-paying job at the local Taco Casa and was spotted by Andy Mitchell, who noticed Korva’s daily trek and started raising money to buy a car for a man he hardly knew. He offered Korva a ride one day and heard Korva’s story about how he was trying to better himself and had been saving up for a car of his own. That tale spurred Mithcell to action as he thought about how much he relied on his car and realized how difficult it would be to save up for a decent car on the salary a person working at a fast food restaurant, Mitchell and his friends teamed up to start secretly collecting fund by setting up a donation box at a local restaurant. It took them a while to save up enough money to meet their goal, but it all came together late last week and with their pooled resources, Korva’s secret benefactors were able to purchase a brand new Toyota Camry. With their plan complete, Mitchell was able to present the new car to his new friend and Mitchell’s wife recorded Korva’s reaction, which soon became a social media sensation. His enthusiasm on getting the car is hard to see without smiling broadly and maybe soon, his new ride will drive him to a bright future……….

- Man, that championship honeymoon has come to a crashing halt for the Chicago Cubs. Less than eight months after winning their first World Series title in more than a century, the Cubs are leaking oil, have blown out three of their four tires and have smoke billowing from their radiator as they near the halfway point of the season. Yes, they’re just a couple games out of first place in the National League Central and have a great chance at making the playoffs, but at this point they appear to be no threat to do any damage if they do reach the postseason. The latest black eye came after the Washington Nationals stole seven bases on the Cubs in the second of a three-game series, winning 6-1 and leaving the Cubs just one game over .500. In the aftermath of the Nats stealing seven basis in four innings, Chicago catcher Miguel Montero did what any good teammate would do - he found a bus, threw pitcher Jake Arrieta under it, backed that bus over his embattled hurler and ran him over again. "That's the reason they were running left and right today, because they [Arrieta] were slow to the plate," Montero said after the game. "Simple as that. It's a shame it's my fault because I didn't throw anyone out. "It really sucked, because the stolen bases go on me. But when you really look at it, the pitcher doesn't give me any time, so yeah, 'Miggy can't throw anyone out,' but my pitchers don't hold anyone on." Yes, Montero, against whom opposing baserunners are 31 for 31 in steal attempts this season, really cares about the guys who go to battle with him. The good news for the rest of the Cubs is that they don’t have to worry about Montero’s act any longer; the team designated him for assignment about 12 hours after his blindside attack on Arrieta. Given that Montero also b*tched about a lack of playing time in last year’s postseason despite getting the winning hit in the deciding seventh game of the team’s World Series win, the Cubs clearly decided his me-first approach to baseball wasn’t something they wanted to build their team around……..

Aliens riding shotgun, "Better Call Saul" gets extended and Taco finds his Bueno

- Future NFL draft picks, take notice: Taco Charlton is your new role model. His given name is Vidauntae Charlton and if he was content rolling through life with that clunky moniker, he would not now be the owner of a nice, new endorsement deal with the purveyors of quasi-Mexican food known as Taco Bueno. Taco Charlton was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys earlier this year and given the area of the country to which he was headed, it was a virtual surety that a Mexican restaurant was going to make a deal with the former University of Michigan defensive end. "We had meetings with a bunch of restaurants that sell tacos and we were looking for a long-term relationship," said Joel Segal, Charlton's agent and president of Lagardere team sports. After weeks of intense negotiations (presumably over free chips and salsa), Taco Bueno won out. The 3,000-employee company has more than 180 stores in seven states, nearly half of them within the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. "I actually fell asleep towards the back end of the first round of the draft," Taco Bueno CEO Mike Roper said. "But when I woke up in the morning, my phone lit up with the news that the Cowboys had drafted a Taco. We had to do something." And do something they did, signing a man who admitted that he does love him a good taco and who, as part of this deal, will have the chance to come up with some new offers for customers. Future draftees, find a popular product whose name you can rock, make sure it catches on before you turn pro and you too can watch the dollar, dollar bills roll in……

- No proof is not proof of innocence, Brazilian president Michel Temer. Temer is facing a new round of corruption charges against him and he’s choosing to respond with a very, very clichéd and predictable response, one in which he denounces the charges against him as fiction on the grounds that there is no proof that he took bribes. Nothing screams innocence quite like insisting that your opponents can’t prove your guilt and sadly, that was the foundation of Temer’s first comments since the attorney general formally accused him of corruption earlier this week. In an address clearly meant to rally his supporters, Temer spoke to reporters and allies in the capital Brasilia, proclaiming that his career and life had been "productive" and "clean." Given that he’s following a president who was dogged by our own similar allegations, Temer knows that the heat on him is intense. He’s also a career attorney, which means he’s no stranger to such allegations being thrown around, but he believes that his legal background merely qualifies him to know when accusations have a legitimate basis and when they don't. His wasn’t exactly the most rabid defense of oneself, as he ended up coming off more butt hurt than anything else when he labeled the accusations against him as  "an attack on my personal dignity." But certainly not an attack on your competent governance of Brazil, because the South American nation hasn’t seen any of that yet……

- It hasn’t been nearly explosive as the show from which it was spun off, but “Better Call Saul” is proving it has some staying power of its own, apart from “Breaking Bad.” AMC has renewed the spin-off show for a fourth season, keeping alive the “Breaking Bad” legacy after the hit show built around a teacher who becomes a meth magnate after being diagnosed with terminal cancer went off the air in 2013. “Saul” debuted two years later, following the story of lawyer James “Jimmy” McGill, a.k.a. Saul Goodman, who came to run the legal side of Walter White’s burgeoning criminal enterprise in “Breaking Bad.” Bob Odenkirk stars in “Saul,” which is set six years before the start of the original show. The renewal is for a 10-episode fourth season that will air in 2018, but the question fans want to know is whether the fourth season will also be the show’s last. Co-creator Peter Gould didn’t exactly assuage those fears when he spoke about the show’s future. “I will say I think this show has a definitely limit to it. It’s a story with a beginning and a middle and a definite end. I have to say, I would rather have it end too soon than go on too long,” Gould said. The third season began in April and aired its final episode earlier this month, with Season 3 bringing the long-awaited debut of “Breaking Bad” character Gus Fring. Season 4 will have immense hype of its own, especially since the end may be nearer than anyone knows for Saul and friends………

- Kooks are everywhere. Sometimes, they’re riding shotgun with a person who’s speeding through a small town in Georgia, oblivious to the fact that the long arm of the law is about to reach down and bring their day to an abrupt halt. Police in Alpharetta, Georgia had themselves what had to be one of their funnier traffic stops in recent memory when one of their officers pulled a man over on a suburban highway, approached the car and found a certified bag of weird sitting in the passenger seat. The driver was pulled over for driving 84 mph, which is over the limit just about anywhere in the United States, but it was the life-sized doll of a big-eyed, large-skulled alien in the passenger seat that drew the officer’s attention. Police spokesman George Gordon tried to explain the odd scene, but seemed to be at a loss for words. "He did not mention as to why he had an out of this world passenger,” the wise-cracking spokesman said. Maybe the reason he was rolling dirty with an extraterrestrial was explained by the fact that, despite being well over the speed limit, he got off with a verbal warning. Memo to all Georgia drivers and visitors: Stick some sort of artificial alien life form in your car if you plan on breaking traffic laws and you too could get off with just a warning. The officer managed to laugh off the stop and even took a few photographs of the safety-belted alien police the department later posted on social media. Of course, any traffic stop that doesn’t involve a drunk, belligerent, high or raging maniac inside the car is probably a nice break for police, so an oversized alien doll is probably not too difficult to deal with……..

St. Pete likes crude butts and it cannot lie, Netflix tackles anorexia and SEC court crashing

- The Southeastern Conference has rules about students storming the court after basketball games. Do those rules still apply in the offseason when the court-storming is done by a recent graduate who barrels onto the court in his passenger sedan as opposed to shirtless beside his frat bros after a big conference win? Maybe not, but University of Missouri police still have plenty to say after a December 2016 university graduate smashed through two gates and drove onto the court at Mizzou Arena over the weekend. This left-campus-but-still-hangin-around bro was arrested after his Volkswagen Passat was driven through a closed gate on the south side of the arena, after which this maniac drove through a garage door in the back dock area and damaged several golf carts before heading onto the court, where the car's tires left skid marks in several spots. According to Maj. Brian Weimer, the driver exited the central area of the arena through the same dock entrance, then smashing through a second gate near the stadium and fleeing. He left, but not before causing an estimated $100,000 in damage. Police arrested him a short time later on suspicion of four counts of first-degree property damage and second-degree burglary. No one told this poor guy that this is the sort of sh*t you’re supposed to do on an especially drunken Saturday night BEFORE you graduate, not after you get your diploma……..

- Dammit, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia, you all realize no one is ever going to think of you as cool if you keep doing square, lame sh*t like this. You might think you’re doing the right thing by burning an estimated $1 billion of narcotics to mark the United Nations’ International Day Against Drug Abuse, but staging such a public spectacle and sending the photos around the world is merely going to ensure that you never, ever get invited to the best parties. Everyone knows the cool kids roll up their dollar bills and snort the good stuff off bathroom mirrors, not burn an estimated $385 million worth of narcotics in three cities in Burma. The scene was even uglier in Thailand, where authorities torched around $589 million worth of mostly "yaba pills'" -- caffeine-laced methamphetamine -- and the more potent crystal methamphetamine. Somewhere, Walter White is silently weeping. Meanwhile, this drug-destroying threesome also saw Cambodian officials incinerate around $4 million worth of illegal drugs that have been seized in the past year, all three displays capping another year of record narcotic seizures from the borders of Burma, Laos, southern China and northern Thailand. Still, law enforcement agencies across the region insist that this is really just the early stage of a fight that will continue to intensify as producers ramp up production to meet high demand across Southeast Asia. Keep telling yourselves that, guys, because you’re going to need the consolation when you’re sitting at home while everyone else is having a really, really good time at the best party in town………..

- Netflix is getting plenty of attention for its latest film, but is it the kind of attention the ever-expanding streaming service wants? That can be determined in the days ahead, but right now, “To The Bone” is getting a lot of negative attention from mental health experts who say that it risks glamourizing and trivializing anorexia. The film will debut on the streaming service on July 14 and stars Lily Collins as “an unruly, 20-year-old young woman with anorexia” named Ellen and Keanu Reeves as her “non-traditional doctor.” Mental health experts are already lining up against the film because they feel the way Ellen is portrayed could slant younger, more impressionable viewers in a favorable direction when it comes to anorexia and some have asked Netflix to add a trigger warning and parental advisory to the movie. Other mental health experts have gone the other way, arguing that the film’s dark content may make it disturbing and even damaging to viewers and suggested that it might be wise to add an advisory prior to the trailer, the kind that warns people that what they’re about to see is graphic and may not be suitable for all viewers. However, there does seem to be a general, at-times grudging admission that films dealing with eating disorders in a real way is a necessary development in the film industry and at least a few of the haters are willing to concede that both the director and the lead actress have struggled with anorexia nervosa and created the production in collaboration with related organizations and therefore might be able to facilitate the conversation…….

- I like crude, hastily painted butts on public buildings and I cannot lie….or so someone in St. Petersburg, Florida says. The historic city is balls deep in butts, leaving police to figure out who has been tagging walls downtown with a drawing that looks a whole lot like a naked buttock. The graffiti butts are painted in black lines and they’ve left their mark on a series of spots throughout the city, mostly downtown - behind buildings, the bottoms of walls and the rears of restaurants. Banksy this artist ain’t, but at least this would be street Picasso offers some variety - his or her crude paintings feature between two and seven cheeks and have gotten a polarized reaction from those who have come across them or seen images of them on social media. Some are taking a more serious, uptight approach and think there is zero humor to be found in the graffiti, while others have gotten a good laugh out of it and kept on moving. So far, St. Petersburg police have documented at least 20 painted posteriors on walls, though unappreciative property owners have already removed most of them, rather than put a frame around them and use them as the drawing points they should be for their various establishments. It’s truly sad when our culture has gotten to a place where you can't enjoy a truly asinine piece of public art without viewing it as some sort of heinous crime that must be solved…….

Paris' Olympic ambitions, Norwegian penis-rock formations and bees bee-friend the Air Force

- The military is tasked with protecting so many different segments and aspects of American life…but it’s wildlife? For the men and women of one Ohio Air Force base, taking care of some of nature’s smallest and winged residents is not only important, it’s something for which they’ve been recognized. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base received the Bee City USA designation from a national program that helps strengthen ecosystems for bees, meaning that saving human lives through the military doing its job well and saving the lives of insects and bugs on the base can be done at the same time. As anyone who has taken a fifth-grade science class knows, bees are vital to pollinating many plants humans eat and that means we need them for more than just making quality honey. What’s noteworthy in this case is that Wright-Patterson is the first military base to earn the special environmental distinction, something Wright-Patterson natural resources technician Danielle Trevino traces back to when the base's conservation efforts began in 2015 with 50,000 bees in four colonies. Over the past two years, through the diligent efforts of the airmen and base personnel, the bee population has grown to about 250,000, so large that Trevino says two of the bee colonies will be relocated to a remote area on the base. Based on the base’s past efforts, those new bee dwellings will be some extremely swanky, comfortable places for these proud pollinators to call their home…….

- Who wants to direct one of Disney’s 8 billion planned spin-off projects in the Star Wars universe? How about you, former “Happy Days” star and director of “A Beautiful Mind,” “Apollo 13” and “The Da Vinci Code” Ron Howard. Yes, Howard is set to take over as director of the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars spin-off film, which began filming in February without a title, but with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller at the helm. However, the duo, who previously teamed up to make “The Lego Movie” and “21 Jump Street,” bolted from the project and left it in need of a new visionary in the director’s chair. Enter Howard, who takes over with time of the essence. “At Lucasfilm, we believe the highest goal of each film is to delight, carrying forward the spirit of the saga that George Lucas began forty years ago,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm,. “With that in mind, we’re thrilled to announce that Ron Howard will step in to direct the untitled Han Solo film. We have a wonderful script, an incredible cast and crew, and the absolute commitment to make a great movie. Filming will resume the 10th of July.” In between now and then, Howard will have to get a firm grasp on what he’s inherited and figure out where he wants to take a highly anticipated movie from here……..

- Bring back the penis rock. So say the hundreds of people chipping in on a crowdfunding site to repair a crank-shaped rock formation in southern Norway after the popular tourist attraction was found badly damaged. The apparent vandalism to the site was discovered by runners who passed by the Trollpikken rock formation and saw that it had cracked and also had drilling holes in the rock -- a development that experts say strongly suggests the rock was deliberately vandalized. News of the attack on a dick-shaped national treasure spurred to donate nearly 90,000 Norwegian kroner ($10,600) to fix the formation located south of the southern coastal city of Stavanger within a day and activist Kjetil Bentsen, one of those spearheading the effort, is convinced the Trollpikken "will be rebuilt" with donated money. In the meantime, police are seeking tips to find the person or persons who did it and lest you think this will result in nothing more than a slap on the wrist in a country where the persons who commit violent, deadly crimes can never face the death penalty, just know that the person who cranked this crank could face a one-year prison sentence for a serious environmental crime. The good news for nature lovers around the world is that there is still time to donate to this effort to fix what’s broken and if you do, a free length of reindeer sausage for you the next time you travel to Norway……..

- You can have it, Paris. The United States doesn’t really want to host the 2024 Summer Olympics even though the grandstanding organizers of Los Angeles’ bid for the Games would have you believe otherwise. If France wants the gig enough to stage an elaborate event in which high-divers plunged into the River Seine, trampoline athletes somersaulted inside the Petit Palais art museum and a bunch of C-level French sprinters raced a 100-meter dash on a temporary track floating on the Seine, then let Paris have it. Paris and L.A. are the only two cities still dueling for the right to/burden of hosting the 2024 Games and Paris’ organizers hope their wacky two-day festival of more than 30 sports will help showcase the French capital's suitability for the games. All of this is playing out ahead of a crucial International Olympic Committee meeting in July that could decide to pick the 2024 and 2028 Olympic host cities both at once -- in a final vote in September in Lima, Peru. If that happens, the bribe-loving members of the IOC will merely have to decide which city gets which Games, though Paris is sticking up its nose at that idea and claiming that it is bidding only for 2024. To punctuate its push, the French government event stopped the frenetic vehicle traffic around the iconic Arc de Triomphe for three hours so cyclists could pedal around the landmark. Mix in a climbing wall installed inside the Pavillon de l'Arsenal museum of Paris architecture and demonstrations of an array of Olympic sports, including fencing, boxing, archery and gymnastics and you have a show worthy of hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics, the 2028 edition and beyond, as long as America doesn’t have to shoulder this waste of a fiscal burden……..

Angola lacks compaasion, Jurassic World rises again and kidnapping the fam for a Target trip

- Verrrrry compassionate, Angola. When refugees from a fellow Third World nation flood your borders to escape deadly violence at home, you stop them, turn their impoverished asses around and send them right back home. That’s exactly what Angola did, according to a new United Nations report in which the organization claims Angola has expelled more than 8,000 Congolese who entered the southern African country while fleeing violence in their country. The humanitarian report also claims that more than 30,000 Congolese have fled to Angola during months of violence in Congo's central Kasai regions that began in August and cites reports from Catholic officials in Congo who estimate that more than 3,300 people have been killed in the unrest. In light of these revelations, the U.N. Human Rights Council voted to send experts to the region to investigate alleged abuses that include beheadings and to probe the story behind how more than 1 million Congolese have been displaced inside the country by the fighting blamed on militias and government forces and those militias are accused of using an estimated 500 girls and boys as fighters or human shields. At least someone is helping the refugees, as Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said his country is contributing 300,000 euros ($335,000) for U.N. refugee agency efforts to "respond to the dramatic humanitarian emergency" in the Kasai regions to help Congolese refugees in Angola. Your turn, Angola…….

- Never forget that professional athletes are just like the rest of us. Yes, they can do things on the field the rest of us can’t possibly replicate and they make a lot of money as a result, but the major issues in life hit them just like they hit the average man or woman. Take Toronto Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna as the latest example; Osuna revealed this week that he’s dealing with an anxiety issue and is unsure when he will be available to pitch again. He spoke about the issue less than 24 hours after not pitching in a save situation for the Blue Jays, raising the question of why. "I really don't know how to explain it. I just feel anxious. I feel like I'm lost a little bit right now," Osuna, who is from Mexico, said through a translator before the game. "I'm just a little bit lost right now. This has nothing to do with me being on the field. I feel great out there. It's just when I'm out of baseball, when I'm not on the field, that I feel just weird and a little bit lost." As one of a whole lot of people in these here United States dealing with mental health issues, Osuna is fighting the same battle as millions of people and if he can get the help he needs and bring more awareness to the issue, then his situation could have a positive result. It was curious when Toronto manager John Gibbons said that Osuna wasn't feeling well when asked why his closer was absent as Kansas City scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 5-4 victory the previous night, but hearing Osuna speak, it was a bit scary. "I wish I knew how to get out of this, but we're working on it, trying to find ways to see what can make me feel better," he said. "But, to be honest, I just don't know." Here’s hoping he can find the help he needs…….

- Normally, it’s difficult to get the family together for a shopping trip to Target. However, a gun is rarely necessary - except in the case of Rollin Anthony Owens Jr., a North Carolina man who was arrested for allegedly kidnapping a family and forcing them to take him shopping at Target. According to police, Owens came to the Durham home about 7 a.m. and demanded the family hand over money, at which point the family -- a man, woman and two children -- gave him cash, which should have ended the horror for them. Instead, Owens decided cash wasn’t enough and that he needed to go to the nearest superstore for a (kidnapped) family outing. He held the family at gunpoint and forced them to drive him around, with their first stop at an ATM to withdraw money. Next, they made a quick stop at a convenience store before their ultimate destination, the local Target, where Owens forced the family to shop for him inside the store, purchasing several bags of clothes and gift cards. Unfortunately for this brilliant criminal, one of the family members was able to break free and alert a Target employee who then called 911. Hearing a report that a "man with a gun" was holding people outside in the parking lot, police rushed in, arrested Owens and charged him with second-degree kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon. No word on whether he got to keep the shiny new toaster from the home appliance section……..

- It’s been on its way for a while, valid criticisms of its predecessor be damned, but we now have a name, tag line and poster for the sequel to “Jurassic World.” The new film, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” will hit theaters next June and its first poster carries the caption, “In one year, life finds a way.” Filming for the project began back in February and it will once again star Chris Pratt, who could use a rebound performance after his critically panned turn in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” sequel. Speaking about the second movie in the revival of the dinosaur-centric action franchise, Pratt said the new film is set to be “darker” and “scarier” than its predecessor. Director JA Bayona backed those comments, although he didn’t say whether the comically awesome sight of the film’s heroine running through a muddy jungle in heels for much of the movie will be scared out of the sequel. What we do know is that Jeff Goldblum is also set to return to the series, picking up his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm, and that photos leaked from the set have fanboys speculating that the sequel could include the return of two familiar dinosaurs which both featured in the original Jurassic Park film in 1993. What that would mean for Pratt’s Velociraptor trainer Owen Grady character is unclear, but the magic of CGI can do wonders for a film and if there is any way to push this project firmly over the top when it comes to believability, more fake dinosaurs should do the trick…….

Racist Mexican soccer hooligans, EDM wars need to end and a mobster turns 100 and gets freedom

- See, the United States isn't the only one still struggling with how to smooth matters over with indigenous people its ancestors f*cked over centuries ago. Chile is trying to do the same and President Michelle Bachelet ramped up those efforts when she asked for forgiveness from Chile's largest indigenous group for what she said were "errors and horrors" committed by the Chilean state over the years. She also announced plans to provide more resources to the Mapuche community, including financing for infrastructure projects, and vowed to send a bill to Congress calling for creation of a Cabinet ministry for Chile's indigenous peoples. "I want to ask for forgiveness of the Mapuche people for the errors and horrors that have been committed or tolerated by the state in our relationship with them," Bachelet said. "Since the beginning of our republic, the identity, culture, territory and livelihood of the Mapuche were not safeguarded as they should have.” In stating the blatantly obvious Bachelet noted that for more than 150 years, Chile's indigenous peoples have been scorned and discriminated against. Given that Mapuche means "people of the land" in their native Mapudungun tongue and these people resisted the Spanish conquest for 300 years, until military defeats in the late 19th century forced them into Araucania, south of the Bio Bio river, they probably haven't gotten enough respect. The fact that the government chased that forced migration with encouragement for European immigrants to colonize the area and pushed the Mapuche into a situation in which most of its 700,000 people are poor and often have no access to education, an apology seems a bit light here. A few outlaw Mapuche have occupied and burned forestry sites, farms, churches and lumber trucks to demand the return of ancestral territories, so an apology from el presidente may not soothe all lingering tensions……

- Seriously, EDM tweakers, can’t you guys just get along? You guys beefing with one another is just a waste of time when there’s so much quality Molly to ingest, so many glow sticks to wear and so many bounce houses in which to romp. That means you, The Chainsmokers and Mickey Mouse on acid and steroids deadmau5, as you senselessly continue your running feud because deadmau5 seems to feel threatened by Alex Pall and Drew Taggart’s recent run of success. He’s taken numerous runs at the Coldplay-collaborating duo on social media and his most recent run of tweets saw the masked one saying he is “100% convinced” that the EDM duo are “shit.” But since a man who wears a giant mouse mask to make a living doesn’t deserve to be taken too seriously, let’s call deadmau5 by his real name, Joel Zimmerman. The Canadian DJ and producer took a protracted run at Chainsmokers, making it clear his  rage is real. “sorry, i just made the terrible mistake of listening to a chainsmokers song. at least the first 6 seconds of it. i was trying to do something,” Zimmerman wrote. “I ALSO NEED TO LEARN HOW TO UNROLL A SUIT @thechainsmokers i used to just say you were shit for fun. now im 100% convinced you’re shit. You know what i did tho? for real. listened to the ‘top whatever songs’ just to see if i was about to be blown away. nope. just dead inside.” Someone is very lonely and bitter inside that giant rodent mask……..

- If a lifelong mob boss hits the century mark, is he still a threat to society? The answer to that appears to be a firm no for John “Sonny” Franzese, the United States federal prison’s oldest inmate, because he ended his work week by getting released from the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Mass. He’s been in and out of prison for decades, has a son who was one of the only men ever to leave the mob and live to tell about it and after being sentenced to eight years in prison in 2011 at age 93, he marked his 100th birthday by rolling out of prison in a wheelchair. His most recent stint in the clink came when he was convicted of extorting Manhattan strip clubs and a pizzeria on Long Island and yes, you can still roll like a (mob) boss 90-plus years into your life. Franzese was involved in a number of financial schemes during his prime and Mafia history has home as a major spender and a regular at the Copacabana nightclub, where he rolled with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. and even had a financial stake in the classic porn film "Deep Throat." He amassed much of his fortune through extortion and loan sharking - oh, and law enforcement officials suspect Franzese has killed or ordered the slaying of some 50 people. He’s largely the last of a fast-dying breed, having lived a quiet life on Long Island, N.Y., with his family while living a double life as a mob boss. That life derailed when he was convicted in 1967 of a bank robbery, sent to prison and paroled in the late 1970s. He eventually rose to second in command of the Colombos, one of New York's five Italian crime families, and despite seeing his son Michael walk away from the same lucrative lifestyle he lived in the mob, the elder Franzese has never managed to shake his mafia ways………

- Zero credit for stopping your racist behavior for a few hours, Mexican soccer fans in Russia for your team’s Confederations Cup appearance. Even though Mexico midfielder and captain Andres Guardado praised El Tri fans in Russia for stopping their chanting of a phrase considered an anti-gay slur by FIFA, but simply being silent as New Zealand's goalkeeper took his goal kicks in Mexico’s 2-1 win deserves no praise. The chant made a prominent appearance in Mexico’s first game of the tournament against Portugal, but in the face of FIFA heat for their words, Mexico’s homophobic fans stepped down.  "It's good that they stopped in the last game," Guardado said. "FIFA has made an effort to identify people [who shout the chant] and I think they ejected a couple of countrymen for the chant." FIFA did warn Mexican fans prior to the New Zealand game, but didn’t confirm that two Mexico fans had been thrown out of the stadium in Sochi during the Portugal game. A few non-bigoted Mexico fans held up a banner outside the stadium before kickoff against New Zealand asking their hatemongering peers to end the chant and distributed pamphlets with a similar message, while Mexican federation general secretary Guillermo Cantu added an official layer to the effort. "It was time to take a radical measure so that they stop doing it," said Guardado. "We hope they do the same at home and that people understand that it does help us a lot if they stop shouting it." Again, zero credit for ceasing to spew hate when you never should have done it at all………

More people who shouldn't be parents, taking on Dracula and Nazi relics in Argentina

- The Cleveland Browns are historically bad at drafting players - unless you count their ability to successfully draft future members of the NFL’s substance abuse program. In that pursuit, perhaps no one excels quite like the Browns, having selected the perennially suspended-for-drug-violations receiver Josh Gordon - still not allowed back onto the field by the league - and being the ones who foolishly overreached with the eighth overall selection by the Cleveland Browns in the 2014 NFL draft to nab former Oklahoma State cornerback Justin Gilbert, who played three completely forgettable seasons for the Browns, recording just 42 tackles and one interception over that time. His performance has been so lackluster that he’s now free-agent cornerback Justin Gilbert, although him being out there for any team to sign matters a lot less now that he’s been suspended without pay for at least one year for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. Teams tend to be much less enthusiastic about signing players who can't actually, you know, play a single game for them this coming season and while Gilbert was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers before the 2016 regular season, he barely saw the field, recorded three tackles in minimal action and was released in February. In other words, he’s still firmly anchored in reputation to the team that stupidly drafted him and proved that once again, it has no idea what a first-round draft pick actually looks like, but definitely knows how to find a guy who can’t pass a random offseason drug test………

- Much to the surprise of no one, police in Argentina have found the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country's history in a hidden room in a house near the capital, Buenos Aires. Argentina has long been known as one of the South American nations that was a haven for Nazis following the fall of the Third Reich, so stumbling upon relics that include a bust relief of Adolf Hitler and magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas in a collector's home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, stuns no one. All told, 75 objects were found and authorities believe they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II. "Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces," Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said, noting that some pieces were accompanied by old photographs. "This is a way to commercialize them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects." There were plenty of creepy, disturbing items Bullrich said would have been used to indoctrinate children, including toys that featured a large statue of the Nazi Eagle above a swastika, a Nazi hourglass and a box of harmonicas. Oh, and there’s a photo negative of Hitler holding a magnifying glass similar to those found in the boxes and authorities say they’ve gotten confirmation from historians that it is the very magnifying glass that Hitler was using. This find was set in motion when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires, after which Interpol began following the collector and with a judicial order raided the house on June 8, finding the items stowed away in a secret room accessed through a hidden passageway hidden behind a large bookshelf…….

- After “Sherlock” came to an unexpectedly early end following the conclusion of its fourth season back in January, the question quickly became what’s next and for at least some of those involved with the popular BBC series, that question has been answered. The writing and production team behind “Sherlock” are set to reunite to work on a new Dracula-themed miniseries. That means “Sherlock” creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss – along with producer Sue Vertue – are looking onward and upward, as Vertue’s Hartswood Films will produce the new version of Dracula, which will be structured similarly to the miniseries format “Sherlock” utilized with feature-length episodes. Moffat and Gatiss will take plenty of inspiration from (and ostensibly creative liberties with) Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic novel and their finished product will hit the airwaves of the BBC some time in the near future. What isn't clear is whether the new series will be set in the times in which its source material was written, or if Moffat and Gatiss will set the events of Dracula in the present day, as they did with their spin on “Sherlock.” The answer to that and other non-pressing questions will have to wait for a while, as Moffat and Gatiss are both working on separate projects at present and won't be able to devote their full energies to all things vampire until those solo efforts are wrapped up…….

- Because #somepeopleshouldnotbeparents. For today’s evidence that many should take a pass on procreating, meet Alabama residents Michael Trosclair and Shari Tremba, who were in an odd situation that saw them make a long trip north to Indiana for a work conference and there, their tale took an ugly turn that in all fairness could be a blessing for their child because it might shine a light on the overall incompetence of her parents without doing any irreparable damage to her - hopefully. The child was toted to an Indianapolis bar with mom and dad, who decided that an Indianapolis bar was a great place to take an infant, causing fellow drunks to look on in horror as Tremba drank and smoke while breastfeeding her child. Nothing says maternal instinct quite like feeding your child as you pour nicotine, tobacco and alcohol into your body, so it’s absolutely shocking that these amazing parents were taken into custody and charged with neglect of a dependent in a situation that endangers the dependent - on top of a public intoxication charge. "Partying was more important than their child," a detective wrote in an affidavit. What a proud moment it must have been for all involved when Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were dispatched to the Wild Beaver Saloon early in the morning following reports of a woman asking customers for beer because she had apparently run out of beer money and possibly blown right through the budget she had to feed her poor child with something other than fuel from her toxic body. Once again, read this and remember that it is perfectly OK for two people to care deeply about each other, want to be in a committed relationship….AND NOT BRING ANY CHILDREN INTO THIS WORLD FROM THAT RELATIONSHIP………

Nazi guns and Aussie fun, one-named soccer tools and Chinese brawls and #becauseyoureNickelback

- No. Why? Because you’re Chad Kroeger, that’s why. That’s why every word you say is invalid when you rip  Slipknot singer Corey Taylor, arguing that his band are a “gimmick” and denounce his side-project Stone Sour as “Nickelback Lite.” Again, you’re Chad F’ing Kroeger, frontman of the biggest poseur arena rock band ever, dude who believes that his man perm he often rocks and his bedazzled lady-style jeans and tight black t-shirt worn while singing like he’s trying to pass a kidney stone are somehow acceptable. Kroeger’s selling point here is what he somewhat unbelievably promotes as the diversity of Nickelback’s music, which may be true if you consider finding new and crass ways to say things like enjoying a woman’s pants around her knees to be diverse. “I can’t think of another band that’s as diverse as we are. I can’t. And I don’t think that’s me talking from pride or ego,” the former Mr. Avril Lavigne said. He’s correct there too, because what he appears to be speaking from is either sheer insanity or outright delusion, but definitely not pride of ego. When asked if maybe Stone Sour was as diverse as Nickelback, Kroeger replied: “Yeah, because they’re trying to be Nickelback… They’re okay, but they’re not as good as Nickelback. They sound like Nickelback Lite.” Now THAT is ego talking because NO ONE - NO ONE! - is trying to emulate Nickelhack and the ‘Hack knows it as well as anyone. Kroeger trying to put down Slipknot by saying the band “had to put on masks and jump around. How good can your music be if you’ve got to beat each other up on stage, throw up in your own masks every night?” How good? Much better than yours, but then again, so is every other rock band in the whole, wide sonic world……..

- Today’s affirmation that not everyone should be a parent comes from Minnesota, where a fatherly failure is accused of abusing his infant daughter by rubbing hot sauce in her eyes, snapping a towel and throwing fireworks in her face. According to a criminal complaint, Shawn Michael Foltz was arrested and charged with neglect of a child, malicious punishment of a child and third-degree assault after the mother of his 2-month-old daughter brought the child to the hospital with bruises throughout her face and body. According to the mother, the paternal genius with whom she was somehow dumb enough to have a child crafted an elaborate tale in which the infant received those injuries when an older sibling hit her with a toy gun. Amazingly, given the level of sophistication and genius this Mensa clearly has, his cockamamie tale quickly fell apart during questioning as he admitted to police that he would snap a towel in the baby's face and hit her bottom with a wooden spoon or vinyl flooring because he was frustrated with her crying, according to the complaint. His other parenting techniques included splashing hot water on the infant and throwing fireworks at the child’s face, causing burns on her body, along with rubbing hot sauce and cayenne pepper in the baby's eyes and blocking her airway until she turned blue. Best of all, this stooge needed to spend time plotting new torture techniques for his child while he was at work, because being a bad father wasn’t enough; being a bad employee was a logical next step………

- Welcome back, soccer. It’s been a while since your typical ridiculousness  - flopping, diving, diva-ness, faked injuries, daily riots - has risen to the level of noteworthiness, but thanks to Brazil international and Shanghai SIPG midfielder Oscar has thrust his sport back into the limelight with some extremely sketchy actions sparked a brawl that saw two men sent off during the SIOG’s Chinese Super League game against Guangzhou R&F. The one-named wonder was angrily confronted by opponents after twice appearing to deliberately kick the ball at them, but insisted that he was in no way looking down on his less-famous foes. "Disrespect the opponent? It is not true," Oscar said. "I am a very dedicated player and respect sportsmanship." Yes, because a dude who goes by one name and has the diva reputation that Oscar has would never, ever diss a bunch of Chinese Super League players who haven't achieved 1/10th what he has on the international stage. But Oscar did find a supporter in the form of SIPG manager Andre Villas-Boas, who backed him up and said he had acted in the interests of the team. "Oscar is not a dirty player," he said. "I believe he was hoping to show some passion and fighting spirit. The match was very intense, and he wanted to help the team. But of course I believe this kind of conflict should be avoided." Maybe Oscar was just pissy because the game ended in a 1-1 draw, a result that leaves Shanghai four points behind leaders Guangzhou Evergrande in the standings………

- If you’re going to commit a senseless crime involving a gun, you may as well stir the echoes of Nazi ugliness in the process, eh unidentified Australian man arrested after police found a Nazi sub-machine gun and 60 rounds of ammunition in the car he was riding in during a traffic stop? New South Wales police had a real kook on their hands, given that the country’s strict gun control laws require that all firearms be registered and that people who use them have a license to do so and this idiot was toting a World War II-era sub-machine gun in the car when he was arrested. In the aftermath of their big find, police are performing a forensic exam in order to determine whether the weapon can be linked to other incidents and in the meantime, its holder  is being denied bail on a prohibited weapons charge. "It's a very robust weapon," Shane Casey, senior curator at the Australian War Memorial. "Anyone who is interested in Germany army history or the second World War would recognize this weapon immediately." This probably isn't what the Australian government had in mind last week when it initiated a national gun amnesty in response to growing terrorism threats and the flow of illicit firearms across its borders. As the suspect in this case will soon learn, anyone found with prohibited weapons can face up to 14 years in prison or fines that exceed $200,000. A similar amnesty was laid down in 1996 and in the wake of that push, the country destroyed some 650,000 firearms and gun crimes dropped sharply. Idiocy, however, is one crime that will never fully disappear……

Long lost Beatles tunes, pastoral kooks seeking desert treasure and Vince Young's comeback derailed

- Crazy Rod Duterte isn’t the only armed maniac in the Philippines. No, the psychotic dictator isn't alone because his government is now battling communist guerrillas as they try to reach a cease-fire accord and a peace pact with New People's Army rebels. To facilitate that goal, Ragin’ Rod’s Regime announced that  it would suspend offensives against the guerrillas to reciprocate a similar plan by the insurgents and allow troops to focus on quelling a bloody siege by Islamic State group-aligned militants that has dragged on for nearly a month in a southern city. Philippine negotiator Silvestre Bello III noted that the government move is aimed at greasing the skids for talks and since troops have been battling communist and Muslim militants simultaneously in the country's south, temporarily removing one item from their plate should help. "The Philippine government hereby correspondingly reciprocates with the same declaration of not undertaking offensive operations against the New People's Army," Bello said in a statement. Terms are unclear, but there is definitely a lot of work to do given that in the face of the peace overtures, Philippine troops killed five communist rebels in separate clashes in the south while the guerrillas stormed a police station in a central town and seized a dozen assault rifles and pistols over the weekend. It was a bloody weekend in which three communist guerrillas were killed in Davao Oriental province and two others died in Compostela Valley in separate clashes with army troops. The most action occurred in the central town of Maasin in Iloilo province, where nearly 50 communist rebels stormed a police station and seized 12 rifles and pistols, two-way radios, laptop computers, jewelry and a patrol car. It was a bold move the rebels claimed as a way to punish Maasin policemen for their alleged involvement in extortion and for failing to stop the spread of illegal drugs and gambling. Oddly enough, those are aims that would seem to jive well with one Rod Duterte………

- The good news for Vince Young is that this is far from the most embarrassing moment in his football career. Sure, it’s a major setback to the former Heisman Trophy winner’s attempted comeback when he’s waived by the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders, but in no way is this the lowest of lows he’s experienced on the gridiron. Young tore a hamstring earlier this month and had missed out on the Roughriders' preseason game against Winnipeg and according to his agent, Leigh Steinberg, he’s expected to miss four to six weeks with the injury. That means he wouldn’t have been available when the Roughriders open their season June 22 and could miss several more games, which is why the team decided to let him go. Yes, he signed a two-year contract with a second-year option with the Roughriders in March and making it less than three months with a Canadian Football League team is a huge letdown, but Young would do well to remember that he announced his retirement from the NFL after being released by the Cleveland Browns in 2014 and if the Browns decide you have nothing to offer, THAT is when your football existence ceases to have meaning. Add to that sad list of un-accomplishments the fact that Young hasn't played in an NFL regular-season game since 2011 when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles and it’s safe to say that he’s not exactly a candidate for Comeback of the Year in the CFL, NFL, AFL or any other FL in the near future……..

- Idiots persist. So while search efforts go on for Paris Wallace, the lead pastor of Connection Church in Grand Junction, Colorado, just know that you may not want to root for this guy to be found the same way you would for a child lost in the wilderness. That’s because this tool was lured out into the rugged Southwest wilderness of New Mexico by urban legends of a treasure chest of gold and jewelry hidden by an eccentric octogenarian author. That myth was enough to lure a Colorado pastor to New Mexico, where said pastor is now missing after his wife - hey, people marry kooks sometimes - reported him not checking in and New Mexico State police say they have been told that the man had come to Expanola in search of the treasure of Forrest Fenn. He came to the Land of Enchantment in search of the treasure of Fenn, an eccentric author who announced that he hid a chest full of gold and jewels worth at least $1 million somewhere in the Rocky Mountains in 2010. He’s inspired legions of tools who believe that clues to the treasure’s whereabouts are hidden in his writings. Police began their search in an area where they found Wallace’s vehicle and located a backpack in the Rio Grande downstream from a tributary, where a rope was found tied to a rock on the riverbank. The rope is believed to be the one indicated on a receipt in Wallace’s vehicle, but the bad news for his survival is that raging waters have prevented divers from accessing the other side of the river where the rope was located. Here’s hoping this saga ends well and that Wallae walks away alive, having merely sacrificed his personal dignity in the desert and not his life………

- This is not the sort of long-lost song from a musical legend that leaks out too often. Typically, an artist passes away and friends, family members or bandmates amazingly “discover” a forgotten track or an entire alnum of music they can then release and thereby cash in on the name and legacy of their deceased loved one. In this case, the song was never recorded, but instead penned and left inside an old piano bench. There, it was found by Olivia Harrison, widow of Beatles guitarist George Harrison, who uncovered the lyrics for ‘Hey Ringo’ in a folder of notes stored inside the seat in the couple’s Oxfordshire home. According to Olivia Harrison, the song was intended for her husband’s guitar playing and the drumming of his former bandmate, Ringo Star. The lyrics include the lines: “Hey Ringo, now I want you to know, that without you my guitar plays far too slow” and “I’ve heard no drummer who can play it quite like you.” Accordging to Harrison’s widow, the track has been around for quite some time, long before her husband’s death more than a decade ago. “There was a folder in George’s piano bench and inside I found a typed lyric for Hey, Ringo. It think it dates from around 1970,” Olivia Harrison said. She believes her late husband recorded music for the track on a home cassette and added that  the piano bench was “the stool Billy Preston (Beatles organist) used to leap about on when he played with George.” She delivered a copy of the lyrics to Starr at a party in Los Angeles commemorating her husband’s 74th birthday in February and said Starr was totally surprised…….

Bringing a gun to a machete fight, The Simpsons gets a Yacht-y and everyone's pissed at Qatar

- Great news, football fans: NFL commissioner/Stooge for NFL Owners Roger Goodell has reviewed the case and determined that there is nothing amiss in the case of none of the league’s 32 teams signing free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick was once known for leading the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012, but now is best known because he decided to kneel during the national anthem last season -- a choice he said he made to raise awareness for social injustice and police brutality. After being relegated to backup duty most of last season and producing at a so-so level when injury to the starter returned him to the lineup, Kaepernick remains unsigned, sparking speculation that teams are not signing him due to his political stance and activism. But in a stunning twist, a man who makes nearly $50 million a year working for NFL owners has come out in defense of those owners and their decision not to sign a talented, capable quarterback. He took his stance at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum while onstage with NFL Network personnel during the "Rams All-Access" event. As the self-serving commish noted, "all want to get better. And if they see an opportunity to get better as a football team, they're going to do it. They're going to do whatever it takes to make their football team better. So those are football decisions. They're made all the time. I believe that if a football team feels that Colin Kaepernick, or any other player, is going to improve that team, they're going to do it." That’s some Grade-A corporate bullsh*t, Rog. It sounds nice on the surface - right up to the point you realize the Seattle Seahawks brought Kaepernick in and let him walk out so they could sign career third-stringer Austin Davis……..

- Nothing thrills quite like bitter border disputes between Third World African nations. There are millions of impoverished, often malnourished people whose lives and futures hang in the balance while despotic leaders with shady business practices and the armies at their beck and call wage war for aims that are never quite clear. One such skirmish is ongoing along Africa’s east coast, where Eritrea's government is pointing fingers because it claims Qatar has not yet explained why it withdrew 450 peacekeeping troops from the East African nation's contested border area with Djibouti. On one side, you have Djibouti accusing Eritrean troops of occupying the Dumeira mountain area shortly after Qatar's peacekeepers left earlier this week and on the other, Eritrea trying to figure out why the hell Qatar bailed. Maybe the Middle Eastern nation, which is caught up in its own diplomatic clash with other Arab nations, is tired of mediating a territorial dispute between Djibouti and Eritrea, but right now no one knows. In a statement, Eritrea's information ministry says Eritrea has not received any explanation from Qatar on its "hasty" withdrawal, which it claims occurred "against the backdrop of a turbulent climate." To further muddy the picture, Eritrea's top diplomat to the African Union, Araia Desta, says the country has not cut ties with Qatar and Eritrea has insisted it wants no confrontation with Djibouti, but actions on both sides say a confrontation is all but inevitable………

- The cultural appeal of “The Simpsons” has remained strong for more than two decades. It remains a favorite of fans of adult cartoons, including, it appears, hip-hop star Lil Yachty. The Lil One clearly enjoys Bart, Homer, Marga, Lisa and their wacky friends because he recently performed a special Simpsons-themed rap which name-checked 59 characters from the iconic animated show in just three minutes. After dropping his debut album, ‘Teenage Emotions,’ last month, Yachty was a special guest on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and rather than play some wacky game with the host, he teamed up with Fallon and his house band The Roots for a music-based sketch that paid homage to the long-running Fox cartoon. Backed by three members of The Roots – including drummer Questlove – Yachty tore through a fast-paced, reference-heavy rap that managed to work no less than 59 different Simpsons characters into the mix, including some bit players such as Hans Moleman, Ned Flanders and even Mr. Burns’ “hired goons,” Crusher and Lowblow, who made their appearance in the series’ classic “Last Exit to Springfield” episode. Given that the show has churned along on a steady track for more than two decades and clearly still has a strong following, it’s hard to see this lovefest ending any time soon……….

- America, your gun problem has officially been solved. It’s been solved in Florida, of all places, where a man and his beloved machete took care of three would-be robbers early in the morning and in the process, proved that you need not reach for your sidearm in order to disarm intruders. The Sarasota County man awoke just after 4:45 a.m. when several suspects targeted his home on Dodge Avenue, intending to relieve the occupants and the property of their valuables. The bad news for the robbers is that they didn’t do their homework and thus, they attempted to thieve from a home that had both a surveillance system and a rather cantankerous resident who was armed with a massive knife. Footage from the home shows the hooded men bursting onto the porch waving a shotgun, machete and crowbar, at which point one of the home’s residents rushed to find his own machete, coming back with a fury and sending the intruders scurrying. The actions of this bold homeowner inspired other residents and neighbors, who soon rallied to the scene and gave chase as the suspects fled and jumped over a fence to get away. According to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, the suspects were able to escape despite the best efforts of the knife-wielding madman, his friends and even a small dog who joined in the chase, but maybe next time, the suspects will do a bit more research before they pick a particular house to attempt to burgle in the dead of night……..

Inglewood grows fast, Maine v. raccoons and Josh Homme wrecks his rock credibility

- It’s nice that there’s a change in the waters somewhere in the world and it’s not a result of the global warming that Donald Trump can’t make up his mind on being a hoax or semi-real. Turkey is a turbulent place these days, but those around Istanbul can enjoy a colorful diversion as the waters surrounding the city have once again turned a striking shade of turquoise. It’s a regular natural phenomenon called a "phytoplankton bloom" that has turned the normally dark waters of the Bosporus and the Golden Horn into an opaque tone of light blue, all due to microscopic organisms that have inundated the Black Sea just north of Turkey's largest city. Environmental experts note that this year has brought a lot of rain to the region and that has carried nutrients from the Saharan desert to the Black Sea, which created an optimal environment for this phytoplankton to bloom. According to NASA, which released a statement containing a satellite image of the Black Sea, the milky coloration is "likely due to the growth of a particular phytoplankton called a coccolithophore." These curious microscopic organisms support fish, shellfish and other marine organisms, but in certain circumstances, they can also cause die-offs of marine life due to loss of oxygen from the water if the "blooms" are too widespread. Still, it’s a nice visual in the Bosporus, a strait that separates Europe from Asia and also connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara  for the many, many mariners who pass through its now-colorful waters…….

- Not a good reason, Josh Homme. You working with the auteur of one of the most annoyingly overplayed pop songs of the past decade isn't cool on any level, but citing said syrupy sweet mainstream pop song as the reason your (ostensibly) heavy rock band worked with the auteur of that song makes it so much worse. According to Homme, Queens of the Stone Age worked with “Uptown Funk” artist Mark Ronson on the band’s new album is because of a track that everyone with ears has heard 1,000 times more than they ever wanted. Ronson produced the album, “Villains,” and according to Homme, he connected with Ronson while the pair both worked with Lady Gaga last year. Homme played guitar on ‘Perfect Illusion,” the lead single from Gaga’s most recent album ‘Joanne,” and from there, pop music pulled him into its tangled web of crap. “Within an hour of working with him on this Lady Gaga stuff, the references – that glossary you use to talk about stuff and what was important to him, I realized there’s this grand overlap of interest and fascination and elation in making music.” That sounds like a typical shovel full of music industry bullsh*t, but it’s what came next that set that turd pile on fire. “I think one of the reasons was to act like a talisman as a reminder of listening to ‘Uptown Funk’. It’s very tight and vacuous. It sounds fucking great,” Homme said. “I knew I wanted to make something that sounded very tight, and with the air sucked out of it and very clear.”  And right there you have the moment Homme took a sledgehammer to his rock and roll credibility……..

- Bangor, Maine can be a terrifying place - and not just in Stephen King novels. It can also be scary out on the many trails around the city, as local Rachel Borch knows well after she was attacked by a rabid raccoon who tried to turn her evening run into a man versus wild battle for the ages. That run was cut short when that raccoon attacked her, latching onto her skin and refusing to let go until she drowned it in a nearby puddle. According to Borch, she was running through the woods when she saw the animal on the path and after the pair locked eyes, the raccoon rushed toward her on the narrow path, bearing its teeth and exhibiting all the characteristics of a rabid beast. At first, Borch tried to navigate around the animal, but in the process, she dropped her phone. “Imagine the Tasmanian devil,” she said, “it was terrifying. I knew it was going to bite me.” The path was simply too narrow to get away, so Borch decided her best chance to overcome would be using her hands to hold the animal down. Not one to go quietly into that good night, the raccoon sank its teeth into her thumb and “wouldn’t let go.” Then, in an epiphany, Borch saw her dropped phone fully submerged in a puddle and realized she might be able to put the raccoon in the same position. She wasn’t sure she could drown the animal with her bare hands, but decided to try. Dropping to her knees, she dragged the biting, clawing raccoon into the puddle and was eventually able to send it shuffling off this mortal coil. She then rushed home, where her mother immediately drove her to the hospital to get shots. A few days later, wildlife officials confirmed that the animal tested positive for rabies, putting an exclamation point on its untimely demise……..

- Inglewood was home to zero professional sports teams just a few short years ago. Soon, the Southern California city could have three of them. At some point, the new Los Angele Rams (with the Los Angeles Chargers as their permanent house guests) stadium will open - presumably in 2020, although it’s already been delayed - and if Microsoft corporate titan and noted courtside spaz Steve Ballmer has his way, his Long Angeles Clippers could be joining the neighborhood. After the Inglewood City Council unanimously approved an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Clippers, there could be a new arena for the NBA team across the street from the future home of the NFL's Chargers and Rams. Under the agreement, the Clippers and the city have a three-year negotiating period, including a six-month extension, with a developer to build a state-of-the-art basketball arena with 18,000 to 20,000 seats. Ballmer will have to pull the extra change from the ash tray of his Maybach for the nonrefundable $1.5 million deposit to cover costs associated with the planning, but getting a new arena on a 20-acre parcel of land located across the street from the under-construction, $2.6 billion NFL stadium slogging its way toward completion won't come easy. If the Clippers join the part, they’ll be leaving the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, where they have a lease to play through 2024. Getting a massive complex that would include team offices, parking and a practice facility should be more than enough incentive to fight that battle, even if their battle for an NBA championship appears as futile as ever……..