Calls in Sudan for execution of Briton

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."

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In response to the demonstration, teacher Gillian Gibbons was moved from the women's prison near Khartoum to a secret location for her safety, her lawyer said.

The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pickup trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gibbons, who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more serious punishment of 40 lashes.

They massed in central Martyrs Square outside the presidential palace, where hundreds of riot police were deployed. They did not try to stop the rally, which lasted about an hour.

"Shame, shame on the U.K.," protesters chanted.

They called for Gibbons' execution, saying, "No tolerance: Execution," and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad."

Gibbons' chief lawyer, Kamal al-Gizouli, said she was moved from the prison for her safety for the final nine days of her sentence.

"They moved this lady from the prison department to put her in other hands and in other places to cover her and wait until she completes her imprisonment period," he said, adding that she was in good health.

"They want, by hook or by crook, to complete these nine days without any difficulties, which would have an impact on their foreign relationship," he said.

Several hundred protesters, not openly carrying weapons, marched from the square to Unity High School, about a mile away, where Gibbons worked. They chanted slogans outside the school, which is closed and under heavy security, then headed toward the nearby British Embassy. They were stopped by security forces two blocks away from the embassy.

The protest arose despite vows by Sudanese security officials the day before, during Gibbons' trial, that threatened demonstrations after Friday prayers would not take place. Some of the protesters carried green banners with the name of the Society for Support of the Prophet Muhammad, a previously unknown group.

Many protesters carried clubs, knives and axes ― but not automatic weapons, which some have brandished at past government-condoned demonstrations. That suggested Friday's rally was not organized by the government.

A Muslim cleric at Khartoum's main Martyrs Mosque denounced Gibbons during one sermon, saying she intentionally insulted Islam. He did not call for protests, however.

"Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan. But we welcome imprisonment and expulsion," the cleric, Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri, a well-known hard-liner, told worshippers.

"This an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of our Prophet Muhammad," he said.

Britain, meanwhile, pursued diplomatic moves to free Gibbons. Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke with a member of her family to convey his regret, his spokeswoman said.

"He set out his concern and the fact that we were doing all we could to secure her release," spokeswoman Emily Hands told reporters.

Most Britons expressed shock at the verdict by a court in Khartoum, alongside hope it would not raise tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain.

"One of the good things is the U.K. Muslims who've condemned the charge as completely out of proportion," said Paul Wishart, 37, a student in London.

"In the past, people have been a bit upset when different atrocities have happened and there hasn't been much voice in the U.K. Islamic population, whereas with this, they've quickly condemned it."

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, accused the Sudanese authorities of "gross overreaction."

"This case should have required only simple common sense to resolve. It is unfortunate that the Sudanese authorities were found wanting in this most basic of qualities," he said.

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a political advocacy group, said the prosecution was "abominable and defies common sense."

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies, which represents 90,000 Muslim students in Britain and Ireland, called on Sudan's government to free Gibbons, saying she had not meant to cause offense.

"We are deeply concerned that the verdict to jail a schoolteacher due to what's likely to be an innocent mistake is gravely disproportionate," said the group's president, Ali Alhadithi.

The Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim youth organization, said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir should pardon the teacher.

"The Ramadhan Foundation is disappointed and horrified by the conviction of Gillian Gibbons in Sudan," said spokesman Mohammed Shafiq.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, said Gibbons' prosecution and conviction was "an absurdly disproportionate response to what is at worst a cultural faux pas."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband summoned the Sudanese ambassador late Thursday to express Britain's disappointment with the verdict. The Foreign Office said Britain would continue diplomatic efforts to achieve "a swift resolution" to the crisis.

Gibbons was arrested Sunday after another staff member at the school complained that she had allowed her 7-year-old students to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Giving the name of the Muslim prophet to an animal or a toy could be considered insulting.

The case put Sudan's government in an embarrassing position ― facing the anger of Britain on one side and potential trouble from powerful Islamic hard-liners on the other. Many saw the 15-day sentence as an attempt to appease both sides.

In The Times, columnist Bronwen Maddox said the verdict was "something of a fudge ... designed to give a nod to British reproof but also to appease the street."

Britain's response ― applying diplomatic pressure while extolling ties with Sudan and affirming respect for Islam ― had produced mixed results, British commentators concluded.

In an editorial, The Daily Telegraph said Miliband "has tiptoed around the case, avoiding a threat to cut aid and asserting that respect for Islam runs deep in Britain. Given that much of the government's financial support goes to the wretched refugees in Darfur and neighboring Chad, Mr. Miliband's caution is understandable."

Now, however, the newspaper said, Britain should recall its ambassador in Khartoum and impose sanctions on the Sudanese regime.

___

More Young Americans Are Contracting HIV

FRIDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) -- In the 26 years since scientists first spotted AIDS in America, millions of dollars have been poured into outreach efforts aimed at keeping young people clear of HIV, the virus that causes the disease.

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But on the eve of World AIDS Day, a disturbing statistical fact has emerged in this country: The number of newly infected teens and young adults is suddenly on the rise.

And the question is, why?

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2001 to 2005 (the latest years available), the number of new cases of HIV infection diagnosed among 15-to-19-year-olds in the United States rose from 1,010 in 2001, held steady for the next three years, then jumped 20 percent in 2005, to 1,213 cases.

For young people aged 20 to 24, cases of new infection have climbed steadily, from 3,184 in 2001 to 3,876 in 2005.

Experts say a number of factors may be at play, including the fact that many HIV-infected patients are now being kept healthy with powerful drugs -- making AIDS seem like less of a threat to young people than it did in the past.

"Certainly the 'scare factor' isn't there anymore," said Rowena Johnston, vice president of research at the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) in New York City.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, the ravages of AIDS were apparent to most Americans -- either on their TV screens as high-profile celebrities succumbed to the disease, or as individuals lost friends or family members to HIV.

"To see people looking gaunt, skinny and skeletal, and to know that they were going to be dead soon," Johnston said. "It had a sobering effect."

The advent of antiretroviral drugs in the mid-1990s changed all that, however. "These days, for the most part, you can look at a person and not know that they even have AIDS," Johnston said.

That's making HIV seem like less of a threat to young people, said Martha Chono-Helsley. She's executive director of REACH LA, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that helps disadvantaged youth understand and defend against threats like poverty, drug abuse and HIV.

"They're in this age group that feels they are invincible -- that it's never going to happen to them," she said. "Yes, they're getting all these messages from public schools on HIV and AIDS, but they've never actually seen what HIV has done, up close and personal."

Chris Blades, one of REACH LA's young, black "peer educators," said he's seen a kind of nonchalance towards HIV among the gay or bisexual men of color that he counsels.

"On a daily basis, they don't see their friends suffering from it, so it's not a major threat to them," said Blades, 21. "They're in that whole mindset of 'Oh, it can't happen to me, it will never happen to me.'"

But there has been a recent, troubling spike in new infections among gay men, young and old alike. According to the CDC, the rate of new cases of HIV infection linked to male-male sex held steady at around 16,000 cases between 2001-2004, then suddenly jumped to 18,296 in 2005.

Johnston and Chono-Helsley both point to advertisements for HIV-suppressing medicines as one possible contributing factor.

"In gay magazines, you now see [ads with] buff, handsome men climbing mountains, with some kind of quote about how 'I'm not letting HIV get in my way,'" Johnston said. "It sends the message that you, too, can be hot, buff and handsome, even with HIV."

Chono-Helsley agreed. "It's always these bright, healthy vibrant young men in these ads," she said. That could spur young gay men to relax their guard and take more risks, thinking that if they do contract HIV, "I only have to take a pill," she said.

The reality of living with HIV in America is much different, however, even when medication is working. According to Johnston, the side effects of powerful HIV-suppressing drug cocktails include fat redistribution (including unsightly "humps"), insulin resistance, higher cholesterol, increased risks for heart disease, and dangerous liver toxicities.

There's also the fear that, someday, HIV will develop mutations that render these drugs useless, triggering the re-emergence of AIDS, she said.

HIV continues to cut a wide swath through young men and women in the black community, too. According to the CDC, the number of new infections actually dipped slightly for black Americans between 2001 (20,868 cases) and 2005 (18,121 cases). However, black men are still six times more likely than white men to contract HIV, and black women are 20 times more likely to acquire the virus compared to white women.

The answers to that disparity lie mainly in economics, experts say.

"The young men that we work with are predominantly African-American, and HIV is not their No. 1 priority," said Chono-Helsley. "Often survival is their main priority -- where they are going to sleep tonight. They're kicked out of the house; they have substance abuse issues, they're in recovery."

Young black women can easily get caught up in similar problems, or are coerced into unsafe sex by their partners, she added.

Another trend -- soaring rates of methamphetamine use over the past five years -- may also be fueling HIV infection rates for both blacks and young gay men, the experts noted.

Too often, marginalized young people develop "a 'whatever' attitude -- whatever happens, happens," Chono-Helsey said.

Outreach aimed at HIV prevention remains important, of course. But one expert believes too much state and federal money is being funneled away from community outreach programs and toward "HIV Stops With Me" campaigns that focus on individuals already living with the virus.

"The message there is that, if I don't have HIV right now, then all I have got to do is avoid those people who have got it," said Carrie Davis, director of adult services at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Community Center in New York City.

She believes those types of messages allow uninfected people to shift the burden of responsibility from themselves to the HIV-positive, or to people they deem at high risk, such as gay men or drug abusers.

"I think it affects straight people, too, in that they absorb this 'magical thinking' -- that this is someone else's problem," Davis said.

So what doeswork to change attitudes and behaviors? That's a tough question, Chono-Helsley said, and the answer usually depends on particular contexts and communities.

"You really have to evaluate what methods you're using and think about the person as a whole, not just the infection," she said. "Because they've all heard 'use a condom, use a condom.'"

The right approach is key, Blades added. "If you deliver the message to them in a way that's not preachy or looking down on them, I think that's more effective," he said. "That's what we try to do - deliver HIV information in a way that will click in with them, so that they'll take home something that they didn't know the night before."

"One thing is for sure, we can't just shake our finger at young people and say, 'You're bad,'" Chono-Helsley said. "We have to be supportive. They're young, we've all been there, remember. You can save some, but you can't save them all."

Duke scientists map 'silenced genes'

WASHINGTON - Remember biology class where you learned that children inherit one copy of a gene from mom and a second from dad? There's a twist: Some of those genes arrive switched off, so there is no backup if the other copy goes bad, making you more vulnerable to disorders from obesity to cancer.

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Duke University scientists now have identified these "silenced genes," creating the first map of this unique group of about 200 genes believed to play a profound role in people's health.

More intriguing, the work marks an important step in studying how our environment ― food, stress, pollution ― interacts with genes to help determine why some people get sick and others do not.

"What we have is a bag of gold nuggets," lead researcher Dr. Randy Jirtle said about the collection of "imprinted" genes. The team's findings were published online Friday by the journal Genome Research.

Next comes work to prove exactly what role these genes play. "Some will be real gold and some will be fool's gold," Jirtle added.

Usually, people inherit a copy of each gene from each parent and both copies are active, programmed to do their jobs whenever needed. If one copy of a gene becomes mutated and quits working properly, often the other copy can compensate.

Genetic imprinting knocks out that backup. It means that for some genes, people inherit an active copy only from the mother or only from the father. Molecular signals tell, or "imprint," the copy from the other parent to be silent.

Jirtle compared it to flying a two-engine airplane with one engine cut off. If the other engine quits, the plane crashes. In genetic terms, if one tumor-suppressing gene is silenced and the active one breaks down, a person is more susceptible to cancer.

Only animals that have live births have imprinted genes. It was not until 1991 that it was proved that humans had them. Until now, only about 40 human imprinted genes had been identified.

The Duke map verified those 40 and identified 156 more. Researchers fed DNA sequences into a computer program that decoded patterns pointing to the presence of imprinted genes instead of active ones.

Many of the newly found imprinted genes are in regions of chromosomes already linked to the development of obesity, diabetes, cancer and some other major diseases, the researchers reported. One, for example, appears to prevent bladder cancer. A second appears to play a role in causing various cancers and may affect epilepsy and bipolar disorder.

Scientists had thought imprinted genes would account for about 1 percent of the human genome. While scientists must double-check that the newly identified ones are truly silenced, the new map matches that tally.

"It's a fascinating paper," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Volkow praised the new mapping method for speeding the slow discovery of these genes.

She said finding which genes are imprinted is important for a bigger question: How do behavioral or environmental factors tip the balance for someone who is genetically predisposed to a health problem?

Previous work by Jirtle and others shows the environment can reprogram how some genes operate, making them speed up or slow down or work at the wrong time. In a groundbreaking 2003 experiment, Jirtle fed pregnant mice different nutrients to alter the coat color of their babies. The feed affected chemical signals that control how hard a certain gene worked, determining when the babies had yellow coats like mom or brown ones.

"It's not just about the sequence of your genes, but how that sequence is turned on and off by environmental exposures that is likely to determine whether you will be healthy," Volkow said. Imprinted genes "are likely to be particularly susceptible to environmental factors."

Sometimes imprinting goes awry before birth, leaving a normally silenced gene "on" or silencing one that should not be. Faulty gene imprinting leads to some devastating developmental disorders, such as Angelman syndrome, which causes mental retardation.

Now a question is how imprinting may be changed to reactivate an imprinted gene after birth.

Men Talk More Than Women

Women may have a reputation as the chattier gender, but research into the matter shows that men may actually be a little more talkative than women―though it all depends on the situation.

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Psychologist Campbell Leaper of the University of California Santa Cruz conducted a review of research into the topic spanning from the 1960s to today and which is detailed in the November issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review. The studies Leaper examined looked at talkativeness and different types of speech under a range of social situations and comparing mixed-gender and same-gender conversations.


One clear point that emerged from all the studies was that the type of activity people were engaged in influenced how much they talked.


"So even though on the average we're finding a slight trend toward men being more talkative than women, we found larger differences when you looked at particular situations," Leaper said.


During decision-making tasks, men were more talkative than women, the studies showed, but when talking about themselves or working with children, women were more talkative than men.


Leaper said that these gender differences could have to do with differences in gender socialization; typically, women are socialized to be more comfortable talking about their feelings, while men are socialized to be dominant and take charge.


"One gender isn't inherently more talkative than the other, it's just that a lot of times it depends on the situation and gender role influences," Leaper said.


A recent study in the journal Science that recorded conversations of university students supports Leaper's idea, finding that on average, men and women used about the same number of words per day. (Leaper said that studies that used this measure of talkativeness tended to find less difference between men and women than studies that looked at how much time people spent talking. In these latter studies, men used up more time in the conversation than women, Leaper said.)


Talkativeness was also influenced by whether a person was talking to someone of their same gender or the opposite gender.


"Men tend to be more talkative than women, but particularly when they're interacting in mixed-gender settings," Leaper said, explaining that this could also be a result of men traditionally being socialized to dominate.


The situation was reversed when looking at different types of speech, specifically assertive (used to achieve dominance and goals) and affiliative (used to connect to others): differences emerged in how much these types of speech were used when comparing two men talking to each other to two women conversing than when a man and a woman were talking.


These differences have actually declined with time though.


"In terms of styles of communication, gender differences are decreasing," Leaper said. "My interpretation is that it reflects the historical changes in gender roles," with women coming into the workplace more and men being more open about their feelings.

jeff gerstmann

When deciding what game to spend their hard earned dollars on, players often turn to review sites for information if playable demos are not available. Naturally, one would hope that the writers for these review sites are remaining unbiased in their views of a game -- if it's wonderful, say as much, if it's flawed, point it out, and if it's absolute rubbish, leave it at the side of the curb for pickup.

Unfortunately, when the game in question is the same one that the front page of the website is devoting a banner ad and a full-background splash to, problems can arise. What began as a rumor across gaming forums worldwide last night has been all but confirmed early this morning -- GameSpot's editorial director, Jeff Gerstmann, has been fired for writing a negative review.

While the text-based review for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men certainly doesn't paint a sparkling picture of the game, it makes it seem like a AAA title compared to the brutally scathing video review. When many of the same written words are spoken, the context and inflection of "Kane & Lynch is an ugly, ugly game" and "if you have a chance to see it, take a look - but it's probably not worth the purchase" takes it down to a whole new (lower) level of garbage.

In a bit of prophetic cartooning, Penny Arcade posted a comic outside of their usual schedule (language may offend some) up last night, showing poor Mr. Gerstmann being asked if he understands the connection between the torrent of Kane & Lynch advertisements and the box of his possessions outside his locked office.

While Jeff has responded to Joystiq confirming his termination, he stated that he was "not really able to comment on the specifics of (his) termination" at this time. Joystiq has promised to continue digging, but already the Eidos forums have come under attack from legions of angry fans, which required them to be taken offline and restored to a snapshot from Thursday -- currently, some members are reporting that they are completely unable to post.

The Kane & Lynch user review score on GameSpot has also rapidly plummeted -- currently sitting at 3.9 -- as reviews of "1.0 - Abysmal" flood in from disgruntled users
Jeff Gerstmann
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Jeff Gerstmann
Born August 1, 1975 (1975-08-01) (age 32)
Los Angeles, California
Occupation Video Game Journalist
Nationality American
Website www.gamespot.com

Jeff Gerstmann (born August 1 1975) is the former editorial director of the popular gaming website GameSpot. He began working at GameSpot in the fall of 1996, around the launch of VideoGameSpot (back when GameSpot separated PC and console games into completely separate entities). He shared his thoughts on a variety of other subjects every Monday on his GameSpot blog. He has also been quoted by the New York Times as a video game expert,[1] and says that he owns over 2000 games [2].

Founding member of the bands Headboard, The Suburban All-Stars, and Midnight Brown, Gerstmann has an extensive musical career that has earned him a fair amount of musical fame.

Jeff was largely part of the audio section of GameSpot. Most of the background music or intro music for shows is provided by instrumental tracks from Midnight Brown. In older video reviews at the end of the video the numerical score would be announced, Jeff also provided the voice for these scores. Additionally, Gerstmann's vocal stylings can be heard on the theme songs for Time Trotters (A single episode live-action series that was later revived in animated form), GameSpot's game show, Button Mashing, and Indievelopment: a video documentary following Echelon Software's progress on their game Black Powder Red Earth.

Gerstmann also appeared on ABC's T.V. show, Good Morning America as a guest in September 1999 to discuss the launch of Sega's Dreamcast gaming console.

The first game system Gerstmann owned was a Fairchild Channel F which his parents, who own an auto-repair and tire business, bought opposed to the Atari 2600 as there were some educational games available for it. After being ruined in a flood, he then purchased an Atari home computer.[3]

He replaced Rich Gallup as the host of On the Spot.

Jeff Gerstmann is no longer an employee of GameSpot as of November 29, 2007. His email address with the site has been confirmed by moderators with GameSpot to be deactivated. The details of his departure are yet unknown.

Trivia
He enjoys the music of hard rock band Van Halen, as evidenced by "The Bad" section of his review of Guitar Hero[4] stating that it has no songs from the band. He also stated in the "Greatest Games of All Time" section covering Lode Runner that when he first played the game when at age nine, all he did that summer was listen to Van Halen while playing his Atari 800.[5].
Purchased Garou: Mark of the Wolves on the Neo-Geo for about $1200.[6]
Two films he enjoys are Heat (1995) and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), of which he bought an HD-DVD version before an HD-DVD player.
His favorite The Legend of Zelda game is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
In the credits of Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360, he is listed in the "Special Thanks" section as a beta tester.

zoe cruz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile , Research) Co-President Zoe Cruz is retiring, the investment bank said on Thursday, as the subprime mortgage crisis ends a 25-year tenure for a woman who had been seen as the front-runner to succeed Chief Executive John Mack.

The resignation was part of a broad management shake-up at the second-largest U.S. investment bank. Walid Chammah and James Gorman were named co-presidents. Robert Scully, co-president with Cruz, is joining a new Office of the Chairman. Morgan Stanley's co-trading head, Neal Shear, is now chairman of the company's commodities business.

Cruz resigned three weeks after Morgan Stanley said it suffered $3.7 billion of subprime mortgage-related losses in September and October.


"Zoe clearly is accepting responsibility for the trading disappointment in the fourth quarter," said Brad Hintz, analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Morgan Stanley's shares are down 23 percent this year, a worse performance than its peers.

Cruz, 52, joined Morgan Stanley in 1982 as a foreign exchange trader and rose to become head of fixed income trading by 2000.

A source said on Nov. 9 that Mack had tapped Cruz as the leading candidate to succeed him, despite the write-downs that had been disclosed two days before.

Mack, 63, has a five-year contract that extends to 2010. He is not expected to leave Morgan Stanley any time soon, but his close links to Hillary Clinton, front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, have fueled speculation that he could become the next U.S. Treasury Secretary
Zoe Cruz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Zoe Cruz (born February 2, 1955) was appointed Co-President of Morgan Stanley on February 9, 2006. The announcement was made by John J. Mack, the chairman and chief executive of Morgan Stanley.

Cruz has a 24-year history with Morgan Stanley. She graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in Literature in 1977. She received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1982. She began her career at Morgan Stanley in 1982, becoming a Vice President in 1986, a Principal in 1988 and a Managing Director in 1990. From 2000 to 2005, she held the position of global Head of Fixed Income, Commodities and Foreign Exchange.

Cruz was a long time supporter of former CEO, Phil Purcell. She became an integral part of the leadership controversy at Morgan Stanley on March 29, 2005 when Purcell replaced then President Stephan Newhouse. Zoe Cruz and Stephen S. Crawford were named Co-Presidents. This controversial move led to a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal on March 31, 2005. The advertisement featured opposition to the company leadership by a group of dissidents known as the "Group of Eight". Several distinguished executives later left the firm amid speculation that they disagreed with the new management structure.

Phil Purcell announced his retirement on June 13, 2005 and John J. Mack was named successor. On July 11, 2005, Stephen S. Crawford resigned his position of Co-President "to pursue other interests". Cruz was subsequently appointed acting president. Her lengthy position as acting president led to much speculation about the future direction of the company. This appointment may silence rumors that the position was left open as a potential merger negotiation item.

Cruz is married to Ernesto Cruz, head of equity capital markets at the investment banking unit of Credit Suisse Group (CSR). Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) were principal underwriters of the 2004 Google IPO.

On November 29, 2007 Morgan Stanley announced that Zoe Cruz was resignig as co-president of the firm and that she would retire immediately.[1]

farmington new mexico

Two truckers report being shot at on highway in New Mexico The U.S. Postal Service is offering a $50,000 reward for information on the shooting of a trucker in New Mexico on Friday, Nov. 23.

Police say 53-year-old William Bamfield was southbound on U.S. Highway 550 about 60 miles north of Albuquerque around 7 p.m. Friday. Bamfield, who works for R&L Stageline, was pulling an unmarked mail trailer when he spotted a dark sedan parked on the northbound shoulder.

State police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Tingwall described what the trucker told him.

"As he passed the vehicle, the vehicle turned around and followed behind him. The truck driver stated that the vehicle drove to the right side of the truck as if he was going to pass and then someone from the vehicle shot what we believe to be four rounds, pistol rounds, medium caliber … into the truck cab," Tingwall told "Land Line Now."

"Apparently, 30 minutes earlier that day another semi truck around the same area on U.S. 550 was traveling northbound. ... The operator of that truck said somebody shot at his truck, but he continued driving up to Farmington where he reported the incident."

Officials reported that Bamfield was hit once in the thigh and was in the hospital in stable condition.

No one's in custody in relation to the shooting incidents, and police said they haven't had any other reports of shootings in that area.
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) - A car belonging to an 83-year-old man who was found shot to death in his home in Farmington, New Mexico, has been found in northern Arizona.

Sheriff's investigators in Farmington say the victim, Thomas Powell, had been shot once in the back of the head.

Powell's body was found yesterday by sheriff's deputies who were checking on him after receiving calls from friends who said they hadn't seen him recently.

Powell's car was found abandoned Wednesday along U.S. 89, some 30 miles north of Flagstaff.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

blumenthal

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - There's an agreement in principle between the state and the troubled Haven Healthcare nursing home chain to have a restructuring officer temporarily oversee some of the company's finances until a court hearing is held next month.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says the agreement was reached after a day of hearings and negotiations. A document outlining the details of the agreement must be submitted to a federal bankruptcy court judge by Friday.

The restructuring officer would have the power to co-sign checks, co-approve financial transactions and approve any employee firings. The officer would also work with a new patient ombudsman, who is expected to be selected by Friday.




Blumenthal says the state still wants the court to appoint a trustee with broader powers to oversee operations at the nursing home chain. A hearing is scheduled for December 17.

Haven Healthcare has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and faces state investigations into allegations it misused millions of dollars in Medicaid funding. The company denies the claims.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will argue in U.S. Bankruptcy Court today that a trustee should be appointed to immediately take over the operation of all Haven Healthcare nursing homes to enhance patient care and prevent top managers from further misappropriating funds.

After the nursing home chain filed for bankruptcy protection last week, Blumenthal announced he would seek to have a trustee appointed and alleged Haven Healthcare had diverted nursing home funds to invest in unrelated entities, such as a Nashville recording company.

"I have said and I will say again that the mismanagement and misuse of government funds could well have criminal ramifications," Blumenthal said Monday.



Video
Related links
A Courant Special Report: Haven Healthcare
No Haven For The Elderly
State Soft On Nursing Levels
Haven Debt Woes
Haven Healthcare: State Takes Action, Legislators Weigh In
Nursing Home Takeover Sought
Haven Healthcare: Violations By Location Multimedia
READER REACTION
Hundreds of readers have reacted to our Haven Healthcare series on the Topix message boards that appear at the end of each story.

To view those comments and leave some of your own, here are some short-cut links:

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
RESOURCES
To research a nursing home's health care deficiencies, according to the most recent federal data, visit www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/home.asp

To research nursing homes in Connecticut that have faced major sanctions by the state Department of Public Health: www.ct.gov/dph/site/default.asp

Haven Healthcare Photos Photos
Consequences Of Understaffing Graphic
Fox 61 Video
>> State To Investigate
Haven Healthcare
Gov. M. Jodi Rell's letter to the to the commissioners of the departments of social services and public health

Statement of Haven Healthcare CEO Ray Termini Regarding Nov. 19 Comments By Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell & Attorney General Richard Blumenthal
Haven Healthcare Management Bankruptcy Filing
Blumenthal speaks to reporters Photo
'Attorney General's Press Conference On Haven Healthcare Video
Haven Sent Staff South
Blumenthal said in court documents that Haven Eldercare, the flagship of the many Haven Healthcare entities, loaned $8.9 million to Nashville-based Category 5 Records between November 2005 and July 2007. Ray Termini, chief executive officer of Haven Healthcare, launched the record label in 2005 and is also CEO of Category 5.

"The Haven entities have grossly mismanaged millions of dollars of governmental funds intended for patient care, including the diversion of federal and state money intended for patient care services to improper investments in a record company and personal real estate," Blumenthal stated in his motion for a trustee.

The intricate web of Haven entities is $46 million in debt, not including long-term loans and mortgages.

Haven Healthcare Management's chief financial officer, Michael Lipnicki, asserted in court documents that Haven Healthcare operates profitably, with pretax earnings for 2007 estimated to come in at $17 million.

Lipnicki said most of the company's financial problems stem largely from its goal of acquiring financially distressed nursing homes that are in bankruptcy or receivership and renovating and turning around those homes. In the interim, during renovations, those homes had negative cash flow, he said. Haven officials argue that a trustee is not necessary.

Haven Healthcare, in court documents, said the bankruptcy filing was precipitated by a combination of defaulting on a major pharmaceutical debt, the settlement of a negligence lawsuit, strong indications the state was considering placing some or all of its homes into receivership, and negative publicity from a three-day Courant investigative series on the firm.

The Courant reported that Haven Healthcare, which operates 15 homes serving about 2,000 patients in Connecticut, has been mired in spiraling debt and negligence lawsuits alleging egregious patient-care failures. The company also has been fined more than 45 times in the past three years for serious patient-care deficiencies ― at least 30 times by the state health department and 15 by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Failure by Haven Healthcare to make an agreed upon payment of $7 million to the pharmaceutical company, Omnicare, prompted Omnicare to serve a demand notice on Termini last week. Haven had agreed to pay Omnicare a total of $14 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the pharmaceutical supplier in December 2006.

"Finally, on Nov. 19, following the unfortunate timing of the Courant articles, Haven had a meeting with the [state] Office of Quality Assurance that left Haven with the concern the state might be contemplating the appointment of a receiver for Haven due to the recent publicity and to its perception that the dispute with Omnicare threatened Haven's viability," Lipnicki's affidavit states.

Filing for reorganization under Chapter 11 will allow Haven to hold certain creditors at bay and negotiate settlements with others.

Haven plans to stop making monthly payments totaling $84,000 to the Rev. Edward Doherty, founder of the Roncalli Institute and the nursing home chain that later became Haven Eldercare and Haven Healthcare. Attorney William McGrath Jr., who represents Doherty, Monday said he had no comment on Haven's intent to halt payments to Doherty, but would be in court today.

Doherty this month sought a court order that Termini turn over to him financial records of Haven entities in which Doherty still maintains an interest, in some cases up to a 40 percent interest. Doherty claims Termini used Haven assets for personal gain and committed "dishonest acts" in managing the corporation and its subsidiaries. A hearing on Doherty's petition is scheduled for Dec. 10.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell Monday asked Blumenthal to also seek the appointment of an ombudsman to monitor patient care at the homes.

"I want to be sure that all steps are being taken to prevent placing even a single patient in potential jeopardy," Rell said.

Blumenthal assured Rell such appointments are mandatory in bankruptcy matters involving long-term care facilities, and that Nancy Shaffer, the state's Long Term Care Ombudsman, has said she is willing to be appointed to monitor the 15 Connecticut homes. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Albert S. Dabrowski is expected to take up that issue in court today as well.

"Our priorities are patient care first, and preserving assets," Blumenthal said.

Haven officials also are asking Dabrowski to permit them to retain the Manhattan law firm of Moses and Singer to be their primary counsel in the bankruptcy proceedings. They list nine members of the firm, from partners to paralegals, who would be involved and their respective hourly rates. Collectively, the nine bill at $3,945 per hour, with hourly rates ranging from $200 to $750.

Read the Courant's special report on Haven Heathcare at www.courant

bobby knight

Robert Montgomery (Bob or Bobby) Knight (born October 25, 1940, in Massillon, Ohio, U.S.), also known as The General, is the head men's basketball coach at Texas Tech. He was previously head coach at Indiana and at Army.

Knight has won more NCAA Division I men's basketball games than any other head coach. As of the 2007 NCAA tournament (March 27, 2007), that number stood at 890.

Knight has won three NCAA championships (1976, 1981, 1987), one National Invitation Tournament championship (1979), and led the U.S. Olympic basketball team to a gold medal (1984). This is considered collegiate basketball's Triple Crown.[1] Knight also led Indiana to 11 Big Ten Conference championships, and is a 4-time National Coach of the Year (1975, 1976, 1987, 1989).

Knight is one of NCAA Division I college basketball's most controversial coaches because of his behavior. He has thrown a chair across the court during a game, been arrested for physical assault, and has repeatedly displayed a combative nature during his encounters with members of the press. However, he is simultaneously commended for running clean programs (no Knight program has ever been sanctioned by the NCAA for recruiting violations) and his high percentage of graduating players.

Contents
1 Playing career
2 Coaching career
2.1 Army
2.2 Indiana
2.2.1 "Zero Tolerance"
2.2.2 Termination from Indiana
2.3 Texas Tech
3 Knight's basketball philosophy
4 Coaching victories and awards
5 Knight students
6 Controversies
7 Books about Bob Knight
8 Film and television
8.1 Knight School
9 Notes
10 References
11 External links



[edit] Playing career
Bob Knight began his career as a player at Orrville High School where he played football and basketball. He continued under Hall of Fame coach Fred Taylor at Ohio State University in 1958. He was a reserve on the Buckeyes' 1960 NCAA Division I national championship team, which featured future Hall of Fame players John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas. In addition to lettering in basketball at Ohio State, it has been claimed that Knight also lettered in football and baseball;[2] however, the official list of Ohio State football letter earners does not include Knight.[3] Knight graduated with a degree in history and government in 1962.


[edit] Coaching career

[edit] Army
After graduation in 1962, Bob Knight coached junior varsity basketball at Cuyahoga Falls High School in Ohio. After that, he accepted an assistant coaching position at Army in 1963, where, two years later, he was named the head coach at the relatively young age of 24. In six seasons at West Point, Knight won 102 games, with his first as a head coach coming against Worcester Polytechnic Institute. One of his players was Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski.

While at Army, Knight knew Bill Parcells, the future coach of the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants, the New England Patriots and the New York Jets. Knight is regularly seen wearing Cowboys apparel at Texas Tech.


[edit] Indiana
Knight was noticed as a rising star, and when Indiana University was seeking a new coach in 1971, they turned to Knight. Knight immediately endeared himself to the basketball-mad state of Indiana with his disciplined approach to the game[citation needed]. Educated in military history, Knight was given the nickname "The General" by former University of Detroit and Detroit Pistons coach-turned-broadcaster Dick Vitale.

Indiana reached the Final Four in 1973, losing to UCLA. In 1975, the Hoosiers were undefeated and the number one team in the nation, when leading scorer Scott May suffered a broken arm in a win over arch-rival Purdue. Indiana subsequently lost 92-90 to Kentucky in the regional finals of the NCAA tournament, with May playing with a heavily-braced arm.

In 1976, the Hoosiers were undefeated at 32-0 and won the championship, beating conference rivals Michigan 86-68. Immediately after the game, Knight lamented that "it should have been two." No Division I men's team has had an undefeated season since.

Knight's Hoosiers also won championships in 1981, with future NBA and Hall of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas, beating North Carolina 63-50; and in 1987 with guard Steve Alford, beating Syracuse 74-73 on a last-second shot by Keith Smart.

Indiana won the 1979 NIT championship, and Knight led the U.S. national team to a gold medal in the Olympic Games as coach of the Michael Jordan-led 1984 team (coaches do not receive medals in the Olympics). He also won eleven Big Ten Conference titles. Knight is one of only four coaches to win NCAA, NIT, and Olympic championships, joining Dean Smith of North Carolina, Adolph Rupp of Kentucky, and Pete Newell of California. Knight is the only coach to win the NCAA, the NIT, the Olympic Gold and the Pan-Am Gold.

The Indiana Hoosiers were undefeated in Big Ten Conference play from 1974 to 1976, and lost only one game during the period (the aforementioned regional final against Kentucky).

Knight failed to convince future NBA legend Larry Bird to stay at Indiana University.[citation needed] Bird, who was raised in the small southern Indiana town of French Lick, did not like the massive IU campus. He left Indiana University never having attended a single practice and returned home before later enrolling at the far smaller Indiana State University, where he would lead the Sycamores to the national championship game in the 1979 NCAA tournament, losing to Magic Johnson's Michigan State team.

In 1991, Bob Knight was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his second year of eligibility. After Knight wasn't elected in his first year of eligibility, Knight told the committee to take his name off the list, but they denied his request. Knight has consistently had among the highest graduation rates among college coaches.[citation needed]


[edit] "Zero Tolerance"
On March 14, 2000, just before Indiana was to begin play in the NCAA tournament, the CNN/SI network ran a piece on Knight in which former player Neil Reed claimed he was choked by Knight in a 1997 practice. Knight denied the claims in the story.

On April 11, CNN/SI aired a tape of an IU practice from 1997 that showed Knight with his hand around the neck of Neil Reed.[1]

In May of that year, Indiana University president Myles Brand (currently executive director of the NCAA) announced that he had adopted a "zero tolerance" policy with regard to Bob Knight's behavior.


[edit] Termination from Indiana

Knight's dismissal led to a media storm of publicity including the cover of Sports Illustrated.
In September 2000, an IU freshman named Kent Harvey reportedly said, "Hey, Knight, what's up?" to Knight. According to Harvey, Knight grabbed him by the arm and berated him for not showing him proper respect. According to Knight, Harvey was exaggerating the incident[citation needed]; he only grabbed his arm and lectured him about manners and respect. Assistant coach Mike Davis supported Knight's statement. The Indianapolis Star published photos of Harvey with marks on his arm. No charges were filed against Knight for the incident.[citation needed]

Brand stated that this incident was only one of numerous complaints that occurred after the zero-tolerance policy had been placed on Knight. He asked Knight to resign on September 10. When Knight refused, however, he then relieved Knight of his duties immediately. That evening, a crowd of thousands of students swarmed Bloomington in protest.[4]

Harvey was supported by some and vilified by many who claim he intentionally set up Knight. Knight's supporters contend he was the victim of a media smear campaign organized by enemies in the IU administration and that the majority of Brand's reasons for firing Knight were not credible. However, Knight said he didn't think he was set up.

The following day, September 11, Knight said goodbye to a crowd of some 6,000 supporters at Indiana University. He asked that they not hold a grudge against Harvey and that they let Harvey get on with his education and his life.[5] Knight's firing made national headlines including the cover of Sports Illustrated and around the clock coverage on ESPN. It was also mentioned on major news programs such as CBS News and CNN.

Two years later, Knight sued Indiana University, claiming the university violated his employment contract. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.[citation needed]

BoBobby goes hunting with his buddy Bubba, and in a wild episode caught on video, his outbursts aren￯﾿ﾽt limited to a few stray pellets

November 30, 2007
BY GREG COUCH Sun-Times Columnist
Bobby Knight. Holding a hunting gun. Leaning against a pickup truck.

And a hillbilly comes up to him, yelling at him to move.

» Click to enlarge image

Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight.
(AP file)

RELATED STORIES
• Video: Knight's gun-wielding confrontation
I mean, really, where am I supposed to go with this? There is no punch line. It really happened. You need to see the video. It's on the Sun-Times site now, suntimes.com, and making the rounds.

Knight and a friend apparently were hunting doves, the symbols of peace, last month and got a little too close to some guy's house. The guy came out with his camcorder, and said:

''Pellets fell on m' house. I don't want no pellets landing on my house while I'm playin' in my swimmin' pool.''

Now, I probably shouldn't have called the guy a hillbilly. For all I know, he might be the CEO of IBM. But he sounds exactly like Larry, who had a brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl, on the old Newhart show. To hear him talk is to know that that swimmin' pool is more of a cee-ment pond.

Would you confront a gun-wielding Bobby Knight?

''I DIDN'T SHOOT ONCE IN THAT DIRECTION!'' Knight yelled back.

The guy's name is James Simpson of Lubbock, Texas, and he told police he had been struck in the neck and back by pellets after yelling at Knight. Unfortunately, he didn't get that on tape, if it really happened.

But Mary Ann Chumley, Simpson's neighbor, told the Associated Press that she had been struck on the foot by a stray pellet a day earlier, and that Knight had apologized for hunting too close to her barn.

Knight apparently was hunting with a buddy named Bubba.

Bob ''Bubba'' Curtis of Bob's Woodworks.

I'm not making any of this up.

''I asked you to move down. I don't call the police on nobody,'' Simpson said in the video.

''YOU DIDN'T ASK US TO MOVE DOWN,'' Knight yelled. ''YOU SWORE AND CUSSED AND ...''

''That's exactly what I said,'' Simpson yelled back. ''I'm asking you now to move down so the pellets don't land on my house again.''

''YOU ASK US POLITELY,'' Knight said. ''I'LL BE GLAD TO DO IT.''

Laugh if you can
I'm not making any of this up. Bobby Knight was lecturing someone on manners and on using bad language.

The guy was in the pool and pellets were falling. To me, that's reason enough to get uppity.

I'm supposed to offer perspective on events in the sports world. It's true that Knight can't stay out of trouble, even after being exiled to Texas Tech, where he now coaches. And a few years ago, he accidentally shot a man in the shoulder with pellets while hunting, and then apparently tried to cover it up.

The moral? I don't have one. Don't give Bobby Knight or Dick Cheney guns?

Face it, there is no lesson to be learned here. Knight is a spectacle. Just watch. Listen. Laugh.

I'll keep putting Knight's quotes in all capital letters.

''Just move down.''

''WE'LL DO THAT IF YOU DO IT POLITELY.''

''I already did politely.''

''NO, YOU DIDN'T. YOU'RE SWEARING AND CUSSING AND YELLING. I DON'T NEED THAT.''

The guy mentioned that he was taping, and Knight told him he didn't care. During the argument, the guy told Knight to quit moving his gun toward him. Knight said he wasn't moving the gun toward him. The guy told him it was on tape, but unfortunately the gun was out of the frame by then.

Knight dumped the gun in his truck and continued to argue.

''I DIDN'T SHOOT THAT. I CAN'T HELP THAT.''

''I'm askin' you to move down further. Go down to them trees down there. That's far enough away from my house.''

''WELL, WHY DO I HAVE TO MOVE WHEN I DIDN'T SHOOT AT YOUR HOUSE?''

It just gets sillier
Did you know I once called a psychiatrist to ask what's wrong with Bobby Knight's brain? The guy gave me some lengthy clinical term about the chemical composition of lobes, and then broke it down.

Put two decks of cards on a table. With one deck, you make a small amount of money or lose a small amount with each card you turn. In the end, you win out. With the other deck, you win big or lose big. In the end, you lose big. After a while, the subject figures out what's happening. But Knight would continue with the win big/lose big deck anyway.

''How 'bout if I come to your house and shoot and have pellets land in your backyard? You wouldn't like it.''

''I DIDN'T DO THAT.''

''You two are the only people out here shootin'.''

''WELL, MAYBE BOB DID IT.''

Now, this was interesting. Knight was blaming Bubba, his friend. Simpson said he wanted both of them to move.

''WELL, BASICALLY, WE DON'T HAVE TO.''

Knight argues like a fourth-grader. A fourth-grader with a gun.

I don't know where this fits in with chair-throwing, player-choking, assistant-coach punching and all the other stuff Knight has done. But guns, hillbillies, camcorders -- and all over shooting the symbol of peace.

I've always thought one thing for sure about Knight: It won't end well.

''And I caught ya stealin' catfish out of my pond.''

I'm not making this up. Not one word.


[edit] Texas Tech
After taking the next season off, all the while on the lookout for vacancies, Knight accepted the head coaching job at Texas Tech. At the press conference introducing him, Knight quipped, "This is the most comfortable red sweater I've had on in six years."

Knight quickly improved the program, which had not been to an NCAA tournament since 1996. He led the Red Raiders to postseason appearances in each of his first four years at the school (three NCAA Championship tournaments and one NIT). After a rough 2006 season, the team improved in 2007, finishing 21-13 and again making it to the NCAA Championship tournament, where it lost to Boston College in the first round. The best performance by the Red Raiders under Knight came in 2005 when they advanced as far as the Sweet Sixteen. In both 2006 and 2007 under Knight, Texas Tech defeated two Top 10-ranked teams in consecutive weeks. During Knight's first six years at Texas Tech, the Red Raiders have won 126 games, an average of 21 wins per season.


[edit] Knight's basketball philosophy
Bob Knight's motion offense emphasizes post players setting screens and perimeter players passing the ball until a teammate becomes open for an uncontested jump shot or lay-up. This requires players to be unselfish, disciplined, and effective in the setting and use of screens to get open. On defense, players are required both to tenaciously guard opponents man-to-man and to help teammates when needed, although Knight has also incorporated using a zone defense periodically after eschewing playing a zone for the first two decades of his coaching career. When the three-point line was instituted in 1986-87, Knight indicated "There are only three players in the Big Ten who can hit it, and I have two of them."


[edit] Coaching victories and awards
On January 1, 2007, at Texas Tech, Knight achieved his 880th career win, passing retired North Carolina coach Dean Smith for the most career NCAA Division I men's college basketball victories. The game was a 70-68 victory by the Red Raiders over the New Mexico Lobos. Knight trails both Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith in win differential, which is the difference between wins and losses and reflects Knight's lower lifetime winning percentage, as it took Knight 41 seasons and 100 extra games to achieve the record, compared with Smith's 36. However, Knight overtook Smith at a younger age. (He was also one of the youngest or the youngest to reach milestones 200 (age 35), 300 (age 40), 400 (age 44), 500 (age 48) and 600 (age 52).) Knight is also the only coach to win the NCAA, the NIT, the Olympic Gold, and the Pan-Am Gold.[6]

The Red Raiders' participation in the 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament marked another record. With their inclusion as the #10 seed in the East Regional, Knight became the coach to lead his team to more NCAA Tournaments than any other.[6] However, the team lost to Boston College in the first round by a score of 84-75.

In 1987, Knight was the first person to be honored with the Naismith Men's College Coach of the Year Award. Five years later, he received the Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award. And, in 2007, he was the recipient of the Naismith Award for Men's Outstanding Contribution to Basketball.[7] Knight was nominated to receive a 2007 ESPY Award in the category of Best Record Breaking Performance but was not chosen as the winner.[6]


[edit] Knight students
A number of assistant coaches, players, and managers of Knight have gone on to be successful coaches. One of these is current Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Main article: Coaching legacy of Bob Knight

[edit] Controversies
In 1979, Knight was arrested for assaulting a police officer during the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico. Knight was angry that a practice gymnasium was not opened to his team, which went on to a 9-0 record in the tournament. Knight was later convicted in absentia in a Puerto Rican court. However, the charges were later dropped when Indiana Governor Otis R. Bowen refused to cooperate in extraditing Knight to the island commonwealth.[8]
In 1985, Knight threw a chair across the court to protest a referee's call during a game against the rival Purdue Boilermakers.[9] Knight was suspended for one game and received two years' probation from the Big Ten Conference.
Women's groups nationwide were outraged by Knight's comments during an April, 1988 interview with Connie Chung in which he said, "I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it."[10] Knight's comment was in reference to an Indiana basketball game in which he felt the referees were making poor calls against the Hoosiers.
In a 1991 practice at Indiana, Knight lashed out at his team with the following tirade: "You don't wanna play, then I'm getting the fuck out of here. I mean, if you're not gonna cover Greg Graham; if you're just gonna let him drive by you; if the rest of you are gonna let him catch the ball outside the three second lane and drive all the way in here without one guy challenging him, then I'm leaving and you fucking guys will run 'til you can't eat supper. Now I'm tired of this shit! I'm sick and fucking tired of an 8-10 record! I'm fucking tired of losing to Purdue! I'm not here to fuck around this week! Now you may be, but I'm not! Now I'm gonna fucking guarantee ya, that if we don't play up there Monday night, you aren't gonna believe the next four fucking days! Now I am not here to get my ass beat on Monday. Now you better fuckin' understand that right now. This is absolute fucking bullshit! Now I'll fucking run your ass right into the ground! I mean I'll fucking run you, you'll think last night was a fucking picnic! I had to sit around for a fucking year with an 8-10 record in this fucking league! And I mean you will not put me in that fucking position again, or you will goddamn pay for it like you can't fucking believe! Now you better get your head out of your ass!"[11]
Knight allegedly kicked his own son, Patrick Knight, during a 1993 game (Knight claims he actually kicked a chair).[8]
Knight was shown berating an NCAA university volunteer at a 1998 news conference. The volunteer informed the press that Knight would not be attending the press conference, when he was actually only running a few minutes late and had planned on attending per NCAA rules. Knight was shown saying: "You've only got two people that are going to tell you I'm not going to be here. One is our SID, and the other is me. Who the hell told you I wasn't going to be here? I'd like to know. Do you have any idea who it was?...Who?...They were from Indiana, right?...No, they weren't from Indiana, and you didn't get it from anybody from Indiana, did you?...No, I -- I'll handle this the way I want to handle it now that I'm here. You (EXPLETIVE) it up to begin with. Now just sit there or leave. I don't give (EXPLETIVE) what you do. Now back to the game."[12]
In February 2004, Knight again made national headlines for a "verbal dustup" with then Texas Tech University Chancellor David Smith at a Lubbock supermarket. [13]
In March 2006, a student's heckling at Baylor University resulted in Knight having to be restrained by a police officer. The incident was not severe enough to warrant any action from the Big 12 Conference.[14]
On November 13, 2006, Knight was shown allegedly hitting player Michael Prince under the chin to get him to make eye contact. Although Knight didn't comment on the incident afterwards and as of yet hasn't done so, Prince, his parents, and Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers insisted that Knight did nothing wrong and that he merely lifted Prince's chin and told him "Hold your head up and don't worry about mistakes. Just play the game." Prince commented, "He was trying to teach me and I had my head down so he raised my chin up. He was telling me to go out there and don't be afraid to make mistakes. He said I was being too hard on myself."[8]
On October 21, 2007, James Simpson of Lubbock, Texas, accused Knight of firing a shotgun in his direction after he yelled at Knight and another man for hunting too close to his home.[15] Knight denied the allegations. An argument between the two men was recorded via camera phone and aired later on television.[16]

[edit] Books about Bob Knight
Books about Knight include "A Season on the Brink" (ISBN 0-02-537230-0) by John Feinstein, "Bob Knight: His Own Man" by Joan Mellen (ISBN 0-380-70809-4), and "Playing for Knight: My Six Seasons with Bobby Knight" (ISBN 0-671-72441-X) by former player and current New Mexico head basketball coach Steve Alford.

In 2002, Knight and longtime friend and sports journalist Bob Hammel wrote his biography, "Knight: My Story" (ISBN 0-312-31117-6.)

In Bob Knight, His Own Man, Mellen characterized Feinstein's book as being banal (21).

In 2006, an "unauthorized" biography on Knight, written by Steve Delsohn and Mark Heisler, was released. (ISBN 0-7432-4348-X)


[edit] Film and television
Blue Chips is a 1994 feature film about Pete Bell, a volatile, but honest college basketball coach under pressure to win who decides to blatantly violate NCAA rules to field a competitive team after several sub-par seasons. It starred Nick Nolte as Bell and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal as Neon Bordeaux, a dominating once-in-a-lifetime player Bell woos to his school with gifts and other perks. Several incidents in the film are clearly inspired by Knight's history. Current NBA guard Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway co-stars as another "blue chipper" recruited by Bell. NBA legend Bob Cousy plays the school's president. Knight himself has a cameo alongside other collegiate and NBA legends such as Larry Bird and Rick Pitino. ESPN writer Bill Simmons once wrote about the film, and stated that while the Bell character cheated, Knight would never have done so.

gary hoey

Grammy-nominated Godsmack frontman Sully Erna and a guitar hero pal partied with a Tyngsboro woman just days before she was allegedly slashed to death by her jealous husband, and both rockers have been questioned as part of the murder probe, the Herald has learned.

Erna, lead singer of the multi-platinum Bay State metal band, recently met Christine McGee and hung out with her and others on at least three occasions in the days leading up to her savage murder last week, according to Erna's manager, Paul Geary.

"She was pretty enamored with the whole thing. She was at his house and couldn't believe she was hanging around Sully," Geary said. "She was kind of like star-struck."

But Geary said Erna was not romantically involved with the 31-year-old McGee, and that the rocker met her through his musician pal Gary Hoey.

Hoey, a world-renowned guitar virtuoso with 13 albums under his belt, and Erna have both been questioned by police investigating the slaying, Geary and Hoey's lawyer, Andrew LaCourse, said.

Neither man is a suspect in the case. A spokesman for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone declined comment.

Prosecutors say Jeffrey McGee, a wannabe rock singer, slashed his estranged wife's throat in front of their 3-year-old son in a Chelmsford apartment Nov. 20. McGee, 36, fled the scene with the toddler and intentionally drove into oncoming traffic, injuring himself and the boy, police say.

McGee, who is being held without bail on murder charges, had a turbulent history with his wife that included a 2003 domestic violence charge, court records show. He also filed for bankruptcy in 2005 after he racked up more than $48,000 in credit card debt and loans, according to filings.

His attorney, Thomas J. Ford, said he had no information on the couple's relationship. Jeffrey McGee's mother hung up on a reporter and Christine McGee's family could not be reached.

According to Geary, Hoey brought McGee to a party at Erna's New Hampshire house just days before the murder. Erna, 39, also met her at a club and a concert.

"He met her a couple of times but Sully didn't have that kind (romantic) of a relationship with her," he said.

Hoey, 47, grew up in Lowell and has toured with fellow guitar heroes Ted Nugent, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Peter Frampton. He's also a music producer and once played the national anthem at a Red Sox [team stats] game.

Erna, a Lawrence native whose band has sold more than 12 million albums, released an autobiography this year that details his legal scrapes, failed relationships, drug use and meteoric rise to fame.

He was also involved in a terrifying three-car pile-up in Chelmsford in April in which his Hummer rear-ended a woman's vehicle, leaving her seriously injured.

Geary said Erna was "freaked out" when he learned of the murder.

"Sully's got his own life, his own girlfriend and his own career," he said. "He doesn't want anyone to believe he was involved in this thing."

Gary Hoey

Fender Stratocaster
Massachusetts born and bred guitarist Gary Hoey often lingered outside Boston's renowned Berklee College of Music when he was fourteen years old, making friends and offering to pay for lessons. Realizing he should devote all of his time to music, Hoey dropped out of high school and began playing Boston's local clubs, teaching guitar to other budding young players as well. He auditioned for the infamous Ozzy Osbourne in 1988, when Osbourne was searching for a replacement for Jake E. Lee. Although the job went to Zakk Wylde, Hoey earned Osbourne's respect and admiration with his guitar playing ability and all-around professional manner

In 1990 he teamed up with singer Joel Ellis, bassist Rex Tennyson, and drummer Frankie Banali to form Heavy Bones. The band released their debut album in 1992 but broke up shortly thereafter.[1]

In 1993, he recorded the successful Animal Instinct album, which included a cover of the Focus hit Hocus Pocus. Not only did the hit rocket into the Billboard Top 5, outpacing all other singles as the most frequently played rock song of the year, but the album went on to reach classic rock notoriety. The successful Endless Summer II soundtrack soon followed. He went on to record an estimated twelve diverse instrumental albums, all electric guitar oriented. His 1996 release, 'Bug Alley', displayed added vocal ability that he has expanded on more recent albums. In the midst of this ride, Hoey undertook long radio station tours, during which he visited over 400 stations coast to coast. He has created music for ESPN's Summer X Games, No Fear, Disney, The San Diego Padres and many others. Hoey continues to tour extensively.

rickrolled

Rick Astley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Rick Astley
Birth name Richard Paul Astley
Born February 06, 1966 (1966-02-06) (age 41)
Origin Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Lancashire, England
Genre(s) Pop
Blue-eyed soul
Dance
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Years active 1987�present
Richard Paul Astley (born February 6, 1966) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He was born in Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Lancashire, England. Astley currently resides in Richmond in Surrey with his Danish girlfriend, Lene Bausager, and their daughter, Emilie.[1]

Contents
1 Career
2 Discography
2.1 Albums
2.2 Singles
2.3 Compilations
3 See also
4 "Rick Roll"
5 References
6 External links



[edit] Career
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

In 1985, Astley was playing the club circuit as a singer with a soul band named FBI, when he was seen by the record producer Pete Waterman and persuaded to come to London to work at the PWL recording studio. Under the tutelage of production trio Stock Aitken Waterman, Astley was taught about the recording process and groomed for his future career, supposedly starting off as the recording studio 'tea boy'. During much of his career prior to the proliferation of music videos, many listeners assumed he was black. In one instance, the comedic entertainer, Sinbad, discussed him with a talk-show host, expressing his surprise that Astley was not "one of the brothers."[citation needed] Even after his visual appearance, it was still popular belief that he was miming for a black American singer.[citation needed] His brother Mike Astley helped to refute this assertion.[citation needed]

His first single was the little-known "When You Gonna" credited to Rick & Lisa, but his first solo outing was "Never Gonna Give You Up," released in 1987. It became an immediate success, spending five weeks at the top of the British charts and becoming the year's highest-selling single. It was the first of 13 (world-wide) Top 30 hit singles for him. In that year he also made the single "Mi Amor", together with the Vanden Dungen band but this was not a great success, only about 10000 copies where sold mainly in Germany.

The album Whenever You Need Somebody also reached Number One in the UK, and the hit singles continued, including the title track and a cover of Nat King Cole's "When I Fall In Love."

On 12 March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" had also topped the U.S. singles chart and was followed by a second U.S. #1 on 18 June with his second U.S. single release "Together Forever."

By the end of the decade, Astley had parted company with Stock Aitken Waterman. He achieved one more major success with the 1991 ballad "Cry For Help," which reached the Top 10 in both the UK and the U.S. It featured a gospel choir arranged by Andraé Crouch, who'd also been involved with Madonna's 1989 hit "Like A Prayer."

His next album Body & Soul was released in 1993. The album did not chart in the U.K. and managed to make The Billboard 200 peaking at a lowly #182. The two singles, The Ones You Love and Hopelessly performed very well on the adult contemporary chart, peaking at #19 and #4 respectively. Hopelessly also crossed over and peaked at #31 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart. For much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Astley remained largely out of the spotlight.

In 1991 the RIAA certified that two million copies of Whenever You Need Somebody had been sold. Total world sales of Astley's records (inclusive of singles, albums and compilation inclusions) have reached 40 million.

Almost 10 years after "Body & Soul", Rick finally returned to the music world and released "Keep It Turned On" in 2002. The album featured the single "Sleeping", which became a minor club hit, thanks to a set of remixes from U.S. house producer Todd Terry.

In 2005 Astley released the album Portrait in which he covered many classic soul standards such as "Vincent", "Nature Boy" and "Close To You".

In early 2006, Astley withdrew unexpectedly at the eleventh hour from appearing on the BBC TV celebrity/pro duets show Just the Two of Us after committing to the series. This led to criticism from those in the entertainment industry and media. His place was filled by opera singer Russell Watson, who eventually won the competition. The BBC failed to explain that Astley's withdrawal was due to his partner Lene Bausager being nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for her produced/directed film "Cashback". Astley would have missed a crucial part of the show by attending the awards ceremony and so withdrew before the show started its run.

Based on various music charts in the UK, U.S. and Canada, Astley has charted a grand total of 14 (different) hit singles and 6 (different) hit albums as of March 2006.

Astley is currently working as an auditor in the south east of England.


[edit] Discography

earl fatha

Happy Birthday" doesn't usually shoot electricity through an audience.

But then it isn't usually played - at least not in Dowagiac - with a New Orleans jazz flair by horn players parting the Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center crowd like Saints Marching In.

Eighteen guest artists from all over the country converged in Dowagiac Nov. 4 to sit in with jazz legend Franz Jackson at the middle school Performing Arts Center.
Chicago jazz legend and Dowagiac resident Franz Jackson, Still Swingin' at 95, opened Sunday evening with "What a Wonderful World," then was joined by vocalist Judi K ("eight years with Franz were heaven for me"), trumpeter George Bean, trombonist Ed Bagatini, Tad Calcara, the principal clarinetist for the Utah Symphony in Salt Lake City, Hugh Leal on banjo, Jim Pickley on piano, Chris Carani on bass (his father also played with Jackson) and Hank Tausend, who played with Woody Allen's jazz band, on drums for Fats Waller's "This Joint is Jumpin'."

Master of Ceremonies Neal Tesser, Playboy's jazz critic from 1991 to 2002 and the first jazz critic for USA Today, played "traffic cop" for the constant shuffling of the "cast of characters" from 18 guest artists, such as flamboyant trumpeter Yves Francois Smierczak.

"Franz was instrumental in me playing jazz music," Smierczak told the Daily News. "One Christmas my father gave me a Roy Eldridge record. I went not only nuts over Roy, but over the tenor player. 'Who is that?' He encouraged me to play the plunger mute and growl, everything.

"We recorded a record together," said the musician who doffed his fedora to acknowledge applause or hung it from the bell of his horn.

"This is the most important thing I've done in the last three to four years of my life, maybe six or seven," said Smierczak, who has been on the Chicago jazz and blues scenes since the 1970s. He's French, but grew up in Africa.

"Certainly my favorite thing. Dowagiac probably doesn't realize that this is probably not only the oldest, but the greatest. It's a blessing that he's here and still doing it well. He's truly one of a kind, right up there with Webster, Young and Hawkins as the greatest tenor players who ever lived. I'm having a great time tonight."

Tesser offered the imagery of a slot machine jukebox. Pull the arm and it plays nothing but jackpots, with Jackson's tenor the calm eye of a sonic hurricane around which everything blew.

The opening lineup gave way to trumpeter Art Hoyle, trombonist Larry Dwyer on piano and Robert Cousins, 77, on drums for "(Take the) 'A' Train," Duke Ellington's theme song and now the official song of the New York City subway system.

So it went all night, through Jimmy Noone's "Apex Blues" and "Sweet Lorraine," "Honeysuckle Rose" sung by Crystal Ristow, "Lester Leaps In," Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz," "Exactly Like You" sung by Lisa Roti, Tishimongo Blues" (like the Elmore Leonard novel), "Perdido" (written by the Ellington musician who also penned "Caravan"), Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" and "Bill Bailey (Won'tcha Please Come Home)."

And that was just the first half.

After Mayor Donald Lyons presented Jackson with a key to the city, the pace picked up with "When the Saints Go Marchin' In," 1928's "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" sung by Ristow, "St. Louis Blues" (regarded as the first jazz composition for its New Orleans mixture of blues and Spanish tango), "Bourbon Street Parade," "S Wonderful," "Sweet Georgia Brown," "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)" sung by Roti and the finale, "Chicago."

Eric Schneider, alto saxophone and clarinet, said the musicians were not flashing gang signs on stage, but trying to get New York and Chicago musicians in the same key. Holding up four fingers, or "grapes," means the number of flats - or the key of A flat.

A prodigy who started playing piano at 3, Schneider toured the world for four years with Earl "Fatha" Hines, who insisted on second billing on their album, "Eric and Earl." Schneider also toured two years with Count Basie and recorded three albums, including the Grammy Award-winning "88 Basie Street."

Schneider also played with Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Benny Goodman, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Rosemary Clooney.

"It's always a privilege and a pleasure to be able to share the stage with someone who has contributed so much to Dowagiac," Mayor Lyons said. "But Mr. Franz Jackson, still swingin' at 95, contributed way more than just making our community a better place. He has made the world a better place."

The concert, a benefit for the Jazz Institute of Chicago, Dowagiac Dogwood Fine Arts Festival, Union High School Jazz Band and Encore Dance Company, lasted 3 1/2 hours even without an anticipated closing jam session.

"My dad got to see how much he means to musicians who are here appearing today - and to all of you, and I thank you," said Jackson's daughter and manager, Michelle Jewell of Niles, who organized the event sponsored by the Dogwood and Wood Fire Italian Trattoria, where Jackson plays.

"I can't tell you how thrilled I am that this all came together as beautifully as it did," she said.

Jewell narrated a slideshow, "A Short Version of a Long Life" about his remarkable eight-decade career which began at 16 in 1929 with stride pianist Albert Ammons and continued in the 1930s and '40s with Carroll Dickerson, Jimmy Noone, Walter Barnes, Roy Eldridge, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway and James P. Johnson. Jackson replaced Ben Webster in Henderson's and Eldridge's bands and won attention for big band composing and arranging for Benny Goodman, Calloway and Jack Teagarden for CBS.

Between tenures in Chicago, Jackson lived in New York and Sweden, performing, composing, arranging and directing bands.

Beginning in the late 1940s, he embarked on tours entertaining U.S. troops abroad with his USO band.

In 1957, he formed his own band, the Original Jazz All-Stars, which enjoyed a 10-year run at the Red Arrow Nightclub in Stickney, Ill. Jackson recorded seven albums during this period on his own label, Pinnacle Recordings.

Jackson, who was 76 when he earned a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, was interviewed by Dowagiac visitor Studs Terkel in 1997.

In 2002, he appeared on the "Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor.

The man who learned Chicago jazz from its originators was featured on the cover of Chicago Jazz Magazine in 2004 and in 2005 was honored as one of the five world's greatest living jazz saxophonists by the Jazz Institute of Chicago, which awarded him the Walter Dyett Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

Jackson was nominated for the 2007 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship and was featured at the 2007 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Bagatini, the trombonist, performs with the Dynabones and operates a music store in St. Joseph with his wife, Adrienne. Besides helping set the foundations for the band departments at Lake Michigan College and Lake Michigan Catholic Schools, he also performed with Benny Goodman, Patti Page and Vic Damone.

Bean played trumpet with the big bands of Stan Kenton, Harry James and Count Basie in the 1950s and performed with Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Nat "King" Cole, Tony Bennett and Mel Torme in the '60s.

Dwyer is assistant director of bands and director of jazz studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Hoyle performed with U.S. Air Force Bands from 1951-1955, appears on the "Super Fly" soundtrack and toured with Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Burt Bacharach, Peggy Lee and Henry Mancini, recorded with Quincy Jones, Woody Herman, Ramsey Lewis and Natalie Cole and performed with Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick, Billy Eckstine, Dean Martin and Milton Berle.

Leal recorded a CD with Jackson at the 1998 Montreaux Detroit Jazz Festival.

Drummer Billy "Stix" Nicks, who used to sit in with Jackson at Fun Fest in downtown Dowagiac, played with Junior Walker and the All-Stars, including the hit "How Sweet It Is to be Loved by You."

Nicks has played the Apollo Theater and performed with Wilson Pickett, The Staples Singers, Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis Jr., The Fifth Dimension, Marvin Gaye, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Four Tops, the Isley Brothers, The Spinners, The Temptations, Jerry Butler and Adam West and Frank Gorshen (TV's Batman and the Riddler). Nicks was also a member of Dick Clark's national Band Stand TV show.

Pianist Jim Pickley, a regular with his trio at Wood Fire, led bands for five years on cruise ships and has performed with Clark Terry, Wynton Marsalis, Bill Watrous and Ed Shaughnessy. He is music director at our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Edwardsburg.

Jackson played on Roti's album. She sings in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese and has performed in Europe, Asia and North, Central and South America.

Bassist Darrel Tidaback is from San Antonio, Texas, and now lives in South Bend, Ind., where he teaches at Indiana University South Bend, Saint Mary's College and Notre Dame. He has performed with Lionel Hampton, Rosemary Clooney, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Carol Channing and Mitzi Gaynor.

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biddleville nc

Biddleville
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Biddleville is the oldest surviving predominantly African-American neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is located two miles west of Uptown and Interstate 77 along Beatties Ford Road. Biddleville is home to Johnson C. Smith University, a historically black college once called the Biddle Institute, that was formed shortly after the Civil War to educate aspiring black preachers and teachers[1]. Biddleville arose as a supporting community of the Institute and was distinctly separate from Charlotte until it was annexed by the city in the early 1900s[2].

[edit] References
Nov 13, 2007 (The Charlotte Observer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- BVDRF | charts | news | PowerRating -- Neighbors of Belvedere Homes always envisioned more for their westside community than the business park planned on the site of the former public housing project.

Now, so do the developers.

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Development Corp. has purchased three old buildings on Rozzelles Ferry Road in front of the Stewart Creek Business Park tract to renovate for commercial and retail businesses.

Initially, the developers expected to demolish the buildings, said CMDC President Bob Sweeney. "But after talking to the neighborhood folks and Neighboring Concepts (an architectural, community planning and development firm), we determined they are very useable buildings."

The project got fresh support recently from the Urban Land Institute, an influential education and research organization.

Its Charlotte arm worked with CMDC through an internal group called the Partnership Forum to craft development recommendations, including The Next Big Thing idea of reusing the old structures as part of a commercial and retail services center.

CMDC believes it has space to add about 19,300 square feet of new buildings to the 19,800 square feet of existing structures, which include the landmark Belvedere Theater.

In addition, the planning collaborative envisions saving all the old oak trees on the 23-acre Belvedere Homes site -- another key wish of neighbors -- and creating a greenway on the flood plain along Stewart Creek.

That would give business park workers and neighborhood residents a walking and biking route to uptown or nearby Martin Luther King Park, Sweeney said.

Copier services, phone stores, storage facilities, shipping services and similar business likely would be attracted to the center to primarily serve tenants in the business park, he said.

Neighborhood services most likely would be provided nearby at West Trade Street and Bruns Avenue, where Neighboring Concepts plans a mixed-use project that could include residences, offices and shops, said partner Chris Ogunrinde.

The developers are doing a marketing study to determine the best combination of uses to serve the neighborhood, he said.

People in the nearby Smallwood, Biddleville and Seversville seem pleased with the direction of the planned redevelopment.

Lawyer and neighborhood leader Charles Jones calls it "a positive evolution of the community we invested in."

Jones, who has lived on West Trade Street for 60 years, said, "You couldn't drag me out with a team of Clydesdale horses."

Revitalization already is taking hold there. Several homes are being renovated, and developers are planning infill projects.

Belvedere Homes was so dilapidated and crime ridden that the housing authority won a grant in 2004 to demolish it.

Neighbors were delighted to see it go, Jones said, but they wanted to make sure they were included in discussions about the site's future.

As it turned out, "I was impressed with the collaborative process we were able to set up though the city, the chamber and the CMDC," he said. "We have assurances they will come back to the neighborhood to share and update us on progress."

Sweeney said CMDC will spend slightly more than budgeted to renovate the buildings in Stewart Creek Business Park, but it has arranged additional debt with Wachovia Corp. to cover the expense.

CMDC is a public-private partnership that includes the Charlotte Chamber, the city and the county. The governments are investing $950,000 each to help cover redevelopment costs of about $3.8 million.

The business park tentatively would have 14 tracts available for roughly 135,500 square feet of light industrial buildings.

Sweeney said the actual number of sites could be more or less depending on how purchasers want to develop the property. CMDC is asking $100,000 an acre. NAI Southern Real Estate is handling sales and marketing.

The city's economic development staff helped with a rezoning that was approved last month and is working with CMDC to complete purchased of land from the housing authority, which has agreed to sell it for the appraised price of just over $1 million.

A.C. Shull, program manager for special projects in the city economic development department, said the City Council is expected to take the final step to approve the city's investment Nov. 26.

The city then would purchase the land from the housing authority and transfer it to CMDC by the end of this month.

Sweeney said the developers plan to start rehabilitating the old buildings and begin work on the business park early next year.

It would resemble an earlier, slightly larger CMDC project: Wilkinson Boulevard Business Center on Wilkinson Boulevard between Steele Creek Road and Morris Field Drive.

But with an average size of about 12,500 square feet, buildings would be about half the size of those on Wilkinson Boulevard.

They also would be less industrial looking and include more brick to blend with the neighborhood and buffer it from heavy industrial development, Sweeney said.

When completed, planners estimate Stewart Creek Business Park could generate more than 125 jobs for the neighborhood.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Development Corp.

The Charlotte Chamber, the city and the county formed this nonprofit community development partnership in 1997 to change the environment in blighted corridors through real estate development.Officials believe it's unique in the nation in using low overhead, a volunteer board and chamber guidance to create a catalyst for commercial development.

The partnership finances its activities through the sale of properties, private donations, city/county grants and loans, private bank loans and federal funds leveraging.

Its projects include Wilkinson Park Business Center and City West Commons, a shopping center at West Boulevard and Remount Road in west Charlotte. The Belvedere Homes site redevelopment will be its third project.

Partnership Forum

Crosland LLC Chairman and CEO Todd Mansfield, also national Urban Land Institute chairman, mentored a ULI Charlotte Partnership Forum that examined the Belvedere Homes redevelopment plan, interviewed stakeholders and made recommendations on how developers might proceed.

Members of the team were selected from the Charlotte District Council's 200-member Young Leaders Group.

The Partnership Forum said in its project report that "the collective input" from the neighborhood and other participants inspired it to recommend a commercial/retail center and industrial services on the former 23-acre site of the Belvedere Homes public housing project.

"The site's boundaries are purposefully integrated into the surrounding neighborhoods, pulling people in whether on foot, bicycle or in automobiles, while respectfully diverting heavier traffic elsewhere," the report said. Doug Smith

tommy tuberville

Tommy Tuberville
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Tommy Tuberville
Auburn Head Coach Tommy H. Tuberville
Title Head coach
College Auburn University
Sport Football
Conference SEC
Team record 79-33
Born September 18, 1954 (1954-09-18) (age 53)
Place of birth Camden, AR
Annual salary $2.6 million/year[1]
Career highlights
Overall 104-53
Coaching stats
College Football DataWarehouse
Championships
1 SEC Championship (2004)
Awards
2004 Paul "Bear" Bryant Award
2004 Walter Camp Coach of the Year
Playing career
1972-1976 Southern Arkansas
Position S
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1980-1984
1986-1993
1994
1995-1998
1999-present Arkansas St (DE/LB)
Miami (Assist.)
Texas A&M (DC)
Ole Miss
Auburn
Thomas Hawley Tuberville (born September 18, 1954) is an American college football coach and current head coach of the Auburn Tigers football team. Tuberville was the 2004 recipient of the Walter Camp and Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year awards for Auburn's 13�0 perfect season. He earned his 100th career win on October 6, 2007 in a 35�7 victory over Vanderbilt. He is also the only coach in Auburn history to beat Alabama six consecutive times.

Contents
1 Playing career
2 Coaching career
2.1 Early career
2.2 Ole Miss
2.3 Auburn
3 Head coaching record
4 Personal and community
5 References
6 External links



[edit] Playing career
A native of Camden, Arkansas, Tommy Tuberville played football in high school and lettered as a free safety at Southern Arkansas University where he played from 1972-1976.


[edit] Coaching career

[edit] Early career
Tuberville was an assistant coach at Arkansas State University. He then went through the ranks at the University of Miami, beginning as graduate assistant and ending as defensive coordinator in 1993. In 1994, Tuberville replaced Bob Davie as defensive coordinator under R. C. Slocum at Texas A&M University. The Aggies went 10-0-1 that season.


[edit] Ole Miss
Tuberville got his first collegiate head coaching job at the University of Mississippi. He took over a Rebel team under severe NCAA scholarship sanctions and was named the AP SEC Coach of the Year in 1997.


[edit] Auburn
He left Ole Miss following the 1998 regular season to take the head coaching job at Auburn University. In his tenure at Auburn, Tuberville has guided the Tigers to the top of the SEC standings, leading the Tigers to an SEC Championship and five Western Division titles (including outright championships in 2000 and 2004 and co-championships in 2001, 2002 and 2005). Under his direction, the Tigers have made seven consecutive bowl appearances including five New Year's Day bowl berths, and 1 SEC championship.


The Auburn Tigers were a perfect 13-0 in 2004 including the SEC title and a win over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. Coach Tuberville received Coach of the Year awards from the AP, the American Football Coaches Association, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and the Walter Camp Football Foundation.

In 2005, despite losing the entire starting backfield from the unbeaten 2004 team to the first round of the NFL draft, Coach Tuberville led Auburn to a 9-3 record, finishing the regular season with victories over rivals Georgia and Alabama.

Under Tuberville, Auburn has a winning record against its three biggest rivals, LSU (5-4), Georgia (5-4), and Alabama (7-2). He has led Auburn to 6 straight victories over in-state rival Alabama, the longest win streak in this rivalry since 1982, which was the year Auburn broke Alabama's 9 year streak.

Tuberville has also established himself as one of the best big game coaches in college football, winning 9 of their last 11 games against Top 10 opponents (since the start of the 2004 season). In 2006, his Tigers recorded victories over two Top 5 teams who later played in BCS bowls, including eventual BCS Champion Florida. Tuberville has a 5-1 career record versus Top 5 teams, including 3 wins versus Florida.

Tuberville has coached 19 players who were selected in the NFL draft, including four first round picks in 2004, with several others signing as free agents. He has coached 8 All-Americans and a Thorpe Award winner (Carlos Rogers). Thirty-four players under Tuberville have been named to All-SEC (First Team). Eighteen players have been named All-SEC freshman. His players have been named SEC player of the week 46 times. He has also had 2 SEC players of the year and one SEC Championship
Tuberville?
By Tony Barnhart | Thursday, November 29, 2007, 07:42 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Five burning questions as we head into the last weekend of the regular season:

1. Is Auburn going to get a deal done with Tuberville? After beating Alabama for the sixth straight year and with an opening for a head coach at Arkansas and perhaps another one at LSU, you could say that Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville is dealing from a position of strength. But negotiations haven't gone all that smoothly. Tuberville wants more money for his assistants, who are underpaid compared to those at Alabama. He also wants an indoor practice facility, which is something Alabama has as well. If he is expected to compete with Alabama, Tuberville needs to be close to an equal footing with the Crimson Tide in these areas. Auburn's new proposal is supposed to come by Saturday. Tuberville will have until Dec. 31 to accept it.

2. Can a two-loss team get to the BCS championship? Probably not but the argument would sure be fun to watch. The only way to open that door would be for both No. 1 Missouri and No. 2 West Virginia to lose on Saturday. Missouri might lose to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game, but West Virginia is a 28-point favorite over Pittsburgh at home. But if it happens, and everybody else who plays on Saturday wins, you will see the mother of all PR campaigns late Saturday night among Georgia, Virginia Tech, LSU, Southern Cal, and Oklahoma. And what about 11-1 Kansas?

3. How bad is Matt Flynn's shoulder? The LSU quarterback reportedly took some snaps in Wednesday's practice but I hear that backup Ryan Perrilloux is getting a lot of work because, even if Flynn can go, he may not last long against the Tennessee defense on the artificial turf of the Georgia Dome. Perrilloux is an incredible talent but for every great play he makes, he usually makes at least one that will put the LSU defense in bad field position.

4. When does Arkansas play Ole Miss in 2008? Glad you asked. The game will be on Oct. 25 in Fayetteville, where I'm sure new Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt will be welcomed with open arms. It will be as much fun as the first time Auburn's Tommy Tuberville went back to Ole Miss. He won, by the way.

5. Does Hawaii still get a BCS bid if it loses? The No. 12 Warriors (11-0) won't be done with Washington (11:30 p.m. start) until the wee hours of Sunday morning. If Hawaii wins, it's a no-brainer. It will go to the Sugar Bowl. But if the Warriors lose will one of the BCS bowls take them just to keep peace