Miami police and unions expected to take wage cuts, $125 million for Marlins stadium not affected

8/30, "The city of Miami is so broke it's forcing employees to take pay cuts, even though they're under contract.

• Mayor Tomas Regalado said he's never seen a financial mess like this before, and his options are grim....

The city is operating under a state of "fiscal urgency," declared earlier this summer. The budget deficit for next fiscal year is about $110 million. The proposed cuts in salary, pension contributions and health insurance costs amounts to about $86 million in savings for the city.

• That fiscal urgency declaration allows city commissioners to impose salary cuts on employees, despite their contracts....

Miami's police officers, firefighters and other union workers are all expected to choke down cuts. One police union official said the Fraternal Order of Police will sue the city if the cuts are imposed

• And what really stirs some is that this is happening while the city contributes about

• $125 million in tourism tax dollars to the construction of the new
• Marlins baseball stadium.

Yes, operating expenses and tourism tax dollars are different pots of money, but it's the principle and the wisdom of the spending that's being questioned during the city's most difficult financial time ever.

• The city is expected to meet on the issue Tuesday at 1 p.m."

"Broke City Breaking Employee Contracts," NBCMiami.com, S. Litz via Drudge Report

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Report 'La Barbie' arrested in Mexico, good news for Sinaloa

• BBC: "Mexican police have arrested top drug trafficker Edgar Valdez, a US citizen also known
• as Barbie, (for his blue eyes and fair complexion) Mexico's attorney general says. "...

Reuters: "(Edgar) Valdez was once close to top drug fugitive Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa alliance based in northwest Mexico, after growing up selling marijuana in the United States and developing a taste for luxury cars, nightclubs and designer clothes....

"It's a good score for the government but it's

• also good news for the Sinaloa cartel," Mexican drug trade expert and columnist Jose Reveles said of Valdez's arrest....

U.S. authorities put a $2 million bounty on his head but Poire did not say if Valdez would be sent to the United States."...

• photo Mexican Federal Police via BBC

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'The crowd, however, was overwhelmingly white' Journo-judges select color of skin over content of character.

"A relatively dense and overwhelmingly white crowd stretched from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial out past the Washington Monument. Thousands strained to hear Beck and his most prominent guest, Sarah Palin, because they couldn’t get in range of the massive TV screens and speakers surrounding the Reflecting Pool.

• A friend of mine walked the whole stretch of the rally and
• counted 27 African-Americans -- three of them were onstage giving speeches.
• I could count the number I saw on my fingers." Salon.com, M. Benjamin, 8/28

"appealed Saturday to a vast, predominantly white crowd on the National Mall"...AP, 8/28

• "the ‘Restoring Honor’ rally exhorted a vast and overwhelmingly white crowd"...Washington Post, Rucker and Morello, 8/29

• "The New Journolist Password: 'Overwhelmingly White'," Chicago Daily Observer, Bowman, 8/29

• "The crowd, however, was overwhelmingly white. "...Cleveland.com, Washington bureau, 8/28

• "The crowd, however, was overwhelmingly white.” — LA Times, Michael A. Memoli and Kim Geiger, 8/29

• “Though the audience at the event was overwhelmingly white...” — Brian Montopoli, CBS, 8/28

"Meanwhile, many in the predominantly white crowd bent over backward

• to insist that they are not racists"...Politico, Hohmann, 8/28

UPDATE: "Carlos in DC": "Shocking video evidence of rampant Tea Party racism and violence,"

as reported by RedState.com diarist PatriciaC

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Global warming activist training at West Islip library!

8/28, "The workshop will include a deeper look at the science of climate change, tools for

• influencing elected officials (e.g. letter writing)

and a how-to on imparting this knowledge to others. Learn how to become a more effective advocate for the earth's climate!

• Date: Monday, August 30, 2010
• Time: 7 pm - 9 pm *
• Location: West Islip Public Library"...

via About.com Long Island and Sierra Club,

• via Tom Nelson

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Frank Thomas' number 35 retired in Chicago

Frank Thomas' number 35 retired in Chicago, top with Carlton Fisk, 8/29/10. ap, getty

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Bloomberg in clover, Obama invites him for golf in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard

"And I don’t think that most of these people who are yelling and screaming really care one way or another." Mayor Bloomberg about Americans who oppose the Ground Zero mosque.

• Bloomberg is able to have opinions (about which he even weeps) but that privilege doesn't extend to ordinary Americans, many whose votes he begged for.

If they do express a view (or 'yell and scream') it's because they've been goaded into it by someone seeking publicity

• for an upcoming election, says Bloomberg.

Buddies NYC Mayor Bloomberg and Obama in golf cart, 8/27/10, ap. Bloomberg's company in Dubai promotes virtues of Islamic financing as an answer to a 'meltdown of western capitalism.' Both he and President Obama have spoken in favor of the Ground Zero mosque, which it is hoped NY taxpayers will subsidize. Why not?

• On Jon Stewart's show 8/26, Bloomberg wrote off Americans as brainless saying people who don't agree with him about the mosque are just being stirred up by politicians, and

• the whole issue will go away after the upcoming elections. Spoken like the average thug used to making deals in back rooms against citizens whose trust
• he begged for, and whom he now scorns.

• 3/21/04, Sydney Morning Herald, (Ground Zero mosque) Imam Rauf: "The US and the West must

• acknowledge the

• harm they have done to Muslims

• before terrorism can end, says an Islamic cleric invited to Sydney by Premier Bob Carr.

New York-based Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (the Ground Zero mosque leader, ed.) who impressed Mr Carr at an international conference last year, arrives in Sydney today for two weeks of meetings and public talks.

Speaking from his New York mosque, Imam Feisal said

• the West had to understand
• the terrorists' point of view....

Imam Feisal said it was

• Christians who started mass attacks on civilians.

"The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians. But it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets."...

He said there was

• an endless supply of angry young Muslim rebels prepared to die for their cause

and there was no sign of the attacks ending

• unless there was a fundamental change in the world."...

• 8/18/10, "Europe's Mosque Wars"

top and above photos ap, 2nd and 3rd photos from 9/11/01 Bloomberg chose the Statue of Liberty as a sales aid to promote the Ground Zero mosque. During which time he got choked up-but not for dead Americans. 8/3/10, getty

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Fans at Cards-Pirates game think it was a foul ball

Fans at Cardinals-Pirates game after a hit was called a home run, indicate that it was foul. 8/25/10 getty

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University of Colorado plans to close journalism school

8/25, Daily Camera, "The University of Colorado is considering closing its traditional journalism school and dramatically remodeling the way it trains students for the profession....The earliest a school of information could emerge is 2012....

• More than 30 schools of information, existing under various names, have been created at universities across the country...

News and communications transmission as well as the role of the press and journalism in a democratic society are changing at a tremendous pace," Chancellor DiStefano said in a news release. "We must change with it.""...via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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Failure of Mexican government cited by Amnesty International in slaughter of 72 immigrants to Mexico including children

Ecuadorean survivor among 72 murdered by Mexicans about 100 miles from Texas border Update 8/26: Top 2 photos of scenes from mass murder from El blog del Narco. Same source also notes 'minors' were among those murdered. And, that Mexican military at first did not believe the story of the one Ecuadorean immigrant who survived (above).

• 8/25/10, CNN: "One of the vehicles had been disguised to look like a truck from the Ministry of National Defense, officials said.

"This discovery once again demonstrates the extreme danger and violence that Central Americans face on their treacherous journey north, as well as

• Mexican authorities' abject failure to protect them," Amnesty International said.

"Mexico must immediately investigate this massacre, bring the perpetrators to justice and establish the identities of those killed so that their families can be informed."

• Wednesday's gruesome discovery came about a month after authorities in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon discovered 51 bodies in nine mass graves.

In that instance, investigators found charred remains...where bodies were presumably burned in steel drums, the state-run Notimex news agency said."...

• Of the 72 were 58 men and 14 women. Many local killings are not reported for fear that police are in league with criminals.

8/26, MSNBC: "The Zetas so brutally control some parts of Tamaulipas that even

• many Mexicans do not dare to travel on the highways in the state.

Many residents in the state tell of loved ones or friends who have disappeared traveling from one town to the next.

• Many of these kidnappings are never reported for fear
• that police are in league with the criminals."...

Telegraph reports Calderon's methods will not work as corruption is endemic throughout

• judicial, police, and prison systems, investors now holding back:

8/26, Telegraph UK, "Some foreign investors have put investment plans in (US-Mexican) border factories on hold....Drug trade analysts say the army alone cannot defeat the cartels and that Calderon risks serious lawlessness if he does not follow through with

• reforms to the justice,

• police and

• prison systems,

• where corruption is endemic."

4/29/10, "Amnesty International cites abuse of migrants in Mexico," Arizona Daily Star

cnn
top photo ap
UPDATE, 9/2, BBC, 2nd survivor of massacre revealed, a Honduran, "Ecuador and Honduras in row over migrant massacre"

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Fishermen protest 12N Thursday at Martha's Vineyard v Obama, Lubchenco, and NOAA draconian policies

Via NOAA, the Obama administration has implemented a 'stock market' for fishermen, 'shares' of fish must be 'bought, sold, or traded.'

• Fishermen can no longer earn a living to the point that Senator Kerry proposed a bailout for them (8/5/10).

8/24/10, Boston Herald: "Leaders of recreational and commercial fishing industry are planning a boat protest against federal policies

• Thursday outside the harbor of Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama and his family are summer vacationing.

The protest is being organized after a bipartisan, bicameral coalition of federal lawmakers --

• including the core of the President’s Congressional base on banking and health care issues --

have given up hope of working productively with Obama’s top appointee for oceans and fisheries, Jane Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Boats from Gloucester and New Bedford, the hub ports of New England, Point Judith, R.I.,

• and New York and New Jersey are expected,

according to Tina Jackson, president of the American Alliance of Fishermen.

The heads of the region’s two primary seafood auctions in Gloucester and New Bedford have agreed to co-sponsor the protest, with the Ciulla family that owns and operates the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction agreeing to provide fuel to boats in need of help to make the trip. An anonymous donor has given the protesters a grant of at least $5,000 for fuel vouchers.

With elements arriving from different directions, the armada is timed to meet in Vineyard Sound at noon on Thursday. The Coast Guard was being informed of the action, Jackson said Monday.

• A co-organizer is the Recreational Fishermen’s Alliance, the lead organizing group behind the national protest outside the U.S. Capitol in February that drew as many as 5,000 demonstrating against federal policies seen as heavily tilted against the industry and unduly swayed by non-government environmental organizations.

Since her appointment to head the NOAA by President Obama, Lubchenco, who had been an officer of the Environmental Defense Fund and a leader of the Pew Oceans Commission, has

• pushed to convert the fisheries into commodities markets under a management system known as catch shares.

In a statement to the Times soon after her confirmation by the Senate, Lubchenco’s office said her goal was to see a

• "significant fraction of the vessels ... removed."

With the stocks rebuilding strongly, fishermen wonder at the need to reduce the size of the work force.

Mayors Carolyn Kirk of Gloucester and Scott Lang of New Bedford have condemned federal fisheries policies for bringing unnecessary

• social and economic hardship as a certain price for the uncertain resource management benefits of catch share regulations.

Lubchenco has argued that consolidation, which has consistently followed catch shares, produces

• fewer but better jobs while giving the government a stronger hand in conservation.

The industry sees catch shares as an invitation for market speculation that will condemn the fishing culture to the

• same fate that conglomeration brought to the family farm.

New England’s groundfishery, America’s oldest continuing industry which had harvested commonly owned resources, was converted to catch share principles on May 1 -- with a total allocation divided and

• distributed to fishermen as catching

• rights that can be bought, sold or traded.

But the minute size of the total allocation and the eccentric mixes of quota from the 15 species and 20 stocks in the groundfishery have pushed many businesses into -- or close to -- insolvency,

• a development that earlier this month brought a proposal from a bipartisan
• coalition of U.S. senators for
• a $100 million buyout.

The planned Thursday protest also comes amid growing anger over a fisheries law enforcement system that has been found by the

• U.S. Commerce Department's own Inspector General’s office to have subjected the fleet to
• vindictive treatment and excessive fines used by the agents and lawyers to finance
• foreign travel and daily operating expenses.

The longtime federal fisheries police chief, Dale Jones was put on paid administrative leave in April following the first report by Inspector General Todd Zinser,

• but Jones remains on the NOAA payroll to the tune of $150,000 a year.

"We will be lining up to protest law enforcement abuse of funds, the blatant arrogance and abuse of Dr. Lubchenco and her ENGO (environment non-government organization) driven agenda, the continued employment of Dale Jones and every other abuse our regulators have punished our industry with over 33 years of corruption and egregious behavior,"

• the organizers said of the protest in a prepared statement.

"There is a call for a protest of all fishermen, commercial, recreational, lobstermen," the statement said. "... Now is the time to show our backbone, our strength and our unity.""

• "Fishermen aim Vineyard Haven Protest at Obama" Boston Herald, by Richard Gaines of Gloucester Daily Times, 8/24/10

'Save the humans' photo from ESPNoutdoors.com article, 3/10/10.

• photo above is my father. ed.

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Astros blog fine with 'poll,' not interested in selling out for a press pass

Astros County blog will pass on alleged advice to get MLB to like them better. Report today says bloggers who want to prove themselves should attend to

• ""tracking and reporting increases in their daily site traffic and

• interacting with baseball front offices

• on Facebook and Twitter."...

(Astros County Blog continues): This is interesting. There are a few things that we at Astros County won't do. Among them:

• 1. Push for more followers on Twitter

• 2. Talk about our site traffic (except for the time we were pretty excited about reaching 100,000 visitors).

So, while we are always trying to deliver original and newsworthy content,

• we're not interested in pimping ourselves to

• achieve a press pass.

In the same regard, it would be great to make enough money (or even any money, at all) to quit our jobs and pursue Astros County full time. But The Constable is in Nashville, so he's kind of screwed - unless the Astros move the Triple-A franchise to Nashville. If that happens, Houston Chronicle, you'll be getting an email. The rest of us like what we do in real life, and just like to talk about the Astros. No, we tend to follow the Will Leitch Philosophy of blogging.

• We do this for fun, and there's a difference

• between being willing to sell,

• and being willing

• to sell out. "

P.S. Michael Cramer is mentioned in the Biz of Baseball Maury Brown article about the 'poll.' Cramer has joined a new sports marketing department at University of Texas

• which funded the 'study.'

• He is also a former president of the Texas Rangers MLB team.

From Biz of Baseball's 8/24 article, "Study finds Independent Bloggers "Least Trusted," Likely denied Press Credentials in Baseball":

• "(Cramer)""The findings in this study speak to the many cracks in the sports and media relationship that are being revealed with the rise of web-based communication networks," said Mike Cramer, executive director of the Texas Program in Sports and Media at The University of Texas at Austin, which funded the study. "The Texas Program in Sports and Media

is thrilled to be presenting this defining research for the industry. We're looking forward engaging a full spectrum of substantive issues that define the breadth and complexity of the relationship sports and media has with American culture.""...

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Local accountant reviews Pittsburgh Pirates numbers-Kovacevic

8/24, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dejan Kovacevic: "Here is some research by a local accountant, Brian Beerman of Beerman, Piper & Associates LLP, also a longtime reader, regarding the Pirates' leaked 2007-09 financials.

Here, again, are those 2007-09 financials, as published by Deadspin yesterday morning.

All the content below is Beerman's ...

_________

Review of the Pirates' audited financial statements for the year ended Oct. 31, 2008 and the year ended Oct. 31, 2007. Also reviewed were the unaudited financial statements for the nine months ended July 31, 2009.

I thought they were saving cash to spend down the road but,

• as of Oct. 31, 2008, they only had $608,000 in cash, so apparently they're running the team purely out of each year's revenues. Not sure how they can ever increase payroll without additional sources of revenue/increased attendance.

The July 31, 2009, financials show $11.7 million in cash, but that's only because

• they have been able to borrow an additional $21 million from a financial institution under a refinancing plan.

In any of the past three years,

• I don't see any paying down of debt,
• only increasing debt.

For the nine months ended July 31, 2009, the Pirates had a net loss of $3.6 million. For the same period in 2008, they had net income of $8 million. This drop in net income is due to a decrease in home gate receipts and an increase in expenses of minor-league operations and marketing expenses.

• They still owe $27 million in deferred salaries for players that are gone,
• primarily Brian Giles.

The $63 million credit facility they have with Major League Baseball is almost tapped out as of July 31, 2009. They have borrowings of $59 million against it.

• Their bank credit facility has a maximum availability of $70 million but can possibly go as high as $100 million if the Pirates meet certain conditions.
• There is $61 million outstanding as of July 31, 2009.

It looks like the Nutting family's loan to the team in 2003 was to fund operations with a stipulation of a 15 percent annual return.

• That loan was not repaid but converted into equity.

• The exact additional ownership percentage converted is not apparent.

The Nutting family received two years of interest payments but the other three years appear to have been written off.

• I’ve also reviewed the financial statements for the Rays, Marlins, and Angels. None of these teams are really making any money and appear to be running their teams based on each year’s revenues. The Marlins have a total of $61 million in losses as of Oct. 31, 2009 under current ownership and the Rays' total of accumulated losses as of Dec. 31, 2008 is $65 million.

But I continue to contend that the owners aren’t concerned about profits as long as their team can cash-flow itself each year and maybe have to borrow a little to fund operations.

• Because of the way the value of sports franchises generally appreciates each year in the marketplace, each owner is in it for the holy grail,

and that is to sell the team eventually when they realize very nice capital gains.""

• "From a local accountant," 8/24 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dejan Kovacevic

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Toronto tried to trade Bautista at the deadline--Bill Madden

• "3. Jose Bautista

In this era, when a player, who has never hit more than 16 homers in a season or driven in more than 63,

• suddenly has a dramatic spike in power as Bautista has in leading the AL with 38 homers (as of 8/21) and ranking third in RBI with 92

it is greeted with jaundiced eyes. But those who know him best insist it has been nothing more than a matter of finally being able to play regularly. Ever since the Blue Jays traded Alex Rios last season, the 29-year-old Bautista has thrived as their everyday right fielder.

• That is not to say, however, he can look forward to a long future in Toronto. They tried to
• trade him at the deadline and

will likely move him over the winter with

• one year to go until he hits free agency."...

8/21, Bill Madden, "Aces and Jokers: Breaking down the biggest surprises and disappointments of 2010 MLB season," NY Daily News column

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History of baseball scores 2005 to date

XMFan.com has a 'live channel guide' feature for baseball fans who are curious about scores. If you input for example:

• NYY2 TOR3

It gives you a list of games going back to 2005 when those exact letters and numbers appeared on an XM screen. It may show the same date a few times, such as August 5, 2009, but shows a different inning and number of outs.

• In case you wanted to know, on Sept. 20, 2006, the score was also
• NYY2 TOR3 in the 7th with 1 out.

• Here is TB3 LAA0.

• Here is TEX2 BOS3.

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Multi-billion dollar UN carbon trading deals halted on suspicion of fraud

Grabbing taxpayer billions from the UN for the alleged purpose of saving the planet has been easy until now, with some companies apparently getting paid to gas up production of noxious substances.

• A low profile environmental investigation group has forced the cocktail set at the UN to look at signs of massive fraud:

8/21. United Nations: "An obscure UN board that oversees

• a $2.7 billion market

• intended to cut heat-trapping gases has agreed to take steps that could lead to it eventually reining in what

• European and U.S. environmentalists

• are calling a huge scam.

At a meeting this week that ended Friday, the executive board of the U.N.'s Clean Development Mechanism said that

• five chemical plants in China would no longer qualify for funding as so-called carbon offset credits

until the environmentalists' claims can be further investigated.

The "CDM" credits have been widely used in the carbon trading markets of the European Union, Japan and other nations that signed onto the 1997 Kyoto Protocol requiring mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases.

Rather than cut their own carbon emissions, industrialized nations can

• buy the credits which then pay developing countries to cut their greenhouse gases instead.

But environmentalists say rich nations could be

• wasting billions of dollars on what some are calling

"perverse financial incentives," because some of the largest projects funded by the U.N.-managed CDM are a

• golden goose for chemical makers

without making meaningful cuts in emissions.

• The CDM executive board, based in Bonn, Germany,

has asked for a decades' worth of data on the gases from those five plants in China

• to study whether the system was manipulated.

The controversy revolves around the apparent

• conflict between the Kyoto climate treaty and another U.N. treaty,

the 1987 Montreal Protocol for repairing the Earth's fragile ozone layer.

The money from the CDM-authorized fund goes to pay the

• carbon offset credits claimed by more than 20 chemical makers

• mostly in China and India,

but also in nations such as South Korea, Argentina and Mexico.

The chemical makers are paid as much as $100,000 or more for every ton they destroy of a potent greenhouse gas, HFC-23. The price for destroying it is based on its being 11,700 times more powerful as a climate-warming gas than carbon dioxide.

• But that gas is a byproduct of an ozone-friendly refrigerant, HCFC-22, which those chemical makers also are paid to produce under the U.N.'s ozone treaty.

Environmentalists say there is so much money in getting rid of HFC-23

• that the chemical makers are overproducing HCFC-22 to have more of the byproduct to destroy.

"The evidence is overwhelming that manufacturers are creating excess HFC-23 simply to destroy it and earn carbon credits," said Mark Roberts of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a research and advocacy group.

• "This is the biggest environmental scandal in history and makes an absolute

• mockery of international efforts to combat climate change."

HCFC-22 is widely used in hair sprays, air conditioners and some refrigerators because it less damaging to the seasonal ozone hole over Antarctica than previous coolants. It has been promoted under the ozone treaty, often considered one of the world's most successful environmental treaties, as a replacement for chloroflourocarbons, or CFCs."

• AP, "UN board could reign in $2.7 billion carbon market" by John Heilprin

via Tom Nelson

• Reference: 11/30/09, Reuters, "China wary about reform as doubts hit CDM market"

2/8/2007, Climate Change Corp.,"Cleaning up or cashing in? CDM's in focus" by Oliver Balch. (Very cheery, excited about 'method of financing.' That is, the result of decades of corrupt politicians stealing taxpayers blind for the purpose of creating a racket. ed.)

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4 headless bodies in Mexico said to be threat to kingpin who is US citizen

4 headless bodies were found hanging from a bridge near Mexico City, 8/22. The Reuters photo below shows the hanging bodies. A BBC version of the story included a Reuters photo apparently edited so no bodies could be seen, following. Photo from BBC article below: On the other hand, the BBC told us that a US citizen is vying to be the next Mexican drug kingpin. This point wasn't made quite as clearly in other versions of the story, for example AP only described him as "US born".

• 8/22, BBC: "A message had been left with their heads warning that anyone supporting Edgar Valdez would risk a similar fate.

Edgar Valdez is reportedly fighting Hector Beltran Leyva for

• control of the influential Beltran Leyva drug cartel....

Edgar Valdez, a US citizen known as Barbie for his blonde hair, is a leading contender to take over as the head of the gang."...

• The BBC notes this particular cartel is entrenched in among other things,

• transportation, hospitality, electronics, health products.

An AP/Washington Post version describes the drug kingpin Edgar Valdez Villarreal as

• "US born" but doesn't mention citizenship.

The Reuters version of the story gave more graphic details:

• 8/22: "The bodies of the four young men were discovered early on Sunday, hung upside down by their feet from a bridge

near a wealthy area of Cuernavaca, a leafy city about an hour outside Mexico City, where many of the nation's elite own homes.

• The victims' genitals, index fingers and heads had been cut off, ...

Their heads and genitals were found nearby, along with a handmade sign,"...

• The version of the story by AP in the Washington Post mentioned an American from Georgia had been found shot dead in a car in Mexico. The killing wasn't said to be related to that of the headless bodies.

AP, 8/22: "In western Mexico, police found the body of a U.S. citizen inside a car along the highway between the Pacific resorts of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo.

• A report from Guerrero state police said the man was shot to death and had identification indicating he was from Georgia.

The U.S. Embassy could not be reached to confirm the man's identity.

• Police said they had no suspects and had not determined a motive.",,,

"4 decapitated bodies hung from bridge in Mexico," AP story in Washington Post

• photos Reuters

P.S. A Mexican blog says of "Blondie" Edgar Valdez, mentioned above as a US citizen vying to be drug kingpin:

• "JOAQUIN WILL BE THE MOST POWERFUL NARCO EN MEXICO HISTORY?? EDGAR VALDEZ, is only a subordinate, is the most wanted - AND HEADS APA ...

YEAH, OUR GOVERNMENT IS BRIGHT.,, Y EN EL CALDERON Joto OVER STUPIDITY OF PRESIDENT WE'VE HAD.,.(google translation) January 11, 2010 19:47"

• 4/9/2007, "Mexican police have been slow to recognize the Internet as a font of clues, critics say, a mistake that has increased the ability of the cartels to work in the open."...
• Washington Post

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Your lawn can promote your favorite team

Popular culture invites the middle class to reduce its lifestyle, stay home (per above Time cover 8/2) not go on vacation, and be green. While sitting at home, you can now promote your favorite team

• by spray painting its logo on your lawn. Kits available August 31 on QVC and select hardware stores. You can also buy sod from some teams' fields, and at least 5 teams sell lawn seed.

Reference: 1/30/10, "Major League Baseball and Scotts team up: Rooting for the home team on back yard turf," from suite101.com

• (I've also heard them say having a lawn is selfish because it uses so much water, so whatever). ed.

Above Time Magazine cover from 8/2/10.

• Below shots of Al Gore's new estate in Montecito, California, via feedyouradhd

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Road in Texas closed due to Mexican gunfire

8/21, AP "Doug Mosier, a spokesman for the Border Patrol...said that to his knowledge, it was the first time a street in El Paso has been shut down because of a shooting in Mexico.

• Traffic was halted on a stretch running from downtown El Paso to the city's northwest, passing the University of Texas-El Paso, which overlooks the border.

The fighting occurred in the same area where a deadly shootout between gunmen and Mexican police sent seven bullets across the border and into the El Paso City Hall on June 29."...

• "One Dead in Mexico Shootout on border with El Paso"

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Good news-Clippard, Bad news-Figgins-Bill Madden

8/21, Bill Madden, "Aces and Jokers: Breaking down the biggest surprises and disappointments of 2010 MLB season," NY Daily News column

• On the minus side

"Chone Figgins Seattle Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik built his entire offseason team re-shaping around the signing of Figgins for $36 million over four years. If only Figgins had been even close to the player for the M's as he was for the Angels last year when he hit .298 with 114 runs, 54 RBI and a career-high .789 OPS. Instead, he's been an almost total bust (.248, 49 runs, 30 RBI and a paltry .632 OPS).

• In the process, he was major factor in the M's regression to a last-place team
• and the in firing of manager Don Wakamatsu,
• with whom he feuded (and fought) openly."...

• On the plus side

"Tyler Clippard The one time Yankee starting pitching prospect who proved all-too-hittable the closer he got to the big leagues, has found his niche as the Washington Nationals' primary setup reliever. His nine wins are the most of any reliever and he's coupled that with 20 holds and 83 strikeouts in 70 innings."...

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New journalist warning label, 'some people claim'

• Tom Scott has created stickers to use in risky situations, for example,

"Warning: Journalist hiding their own opinions by using phrases like "some people claim." from TomScott.com/warnings, via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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David Halberstam's "Top 25 All Time NY Sports Voices," from Neil Best

8/19/10, "Marv Albert is #1 NY Voice," Neil Best Watchdog, Top 25 all time New York sports announcers as ranked and written by David Halberstam

• Halberstam is "a prominent sports broadcasting historian and former play-by-play voice of St. John's and Miami Heat basketball."...

• Mr. Best says he wouldn't have made the same list, but that's the fun of lists. He adds,

"Halberstam strongly considered in the rankings people's pioneering roles - i.e. "Mike and the Mad Dog" for sports talk and Warner Wolf for his use of videotape.

And Vin Scully's relatively low ranking is not meant to be a slight. It simply reflects that a relatively small percentage of his career was spent working in his home town.

• 1. Marv Albert
• 2. Marty Glickman
• 3. Mel Allen
• 4. Red Barber
• 5. Mike Francesa and Chris Russo
• 6. Warner Wolf
• 7. Bob Murphy
• 8. Phil Rizzuto
• 9. LenBerman
• 10. Bill Mazer
• 11. Sal Marchiano
• 12. Stan Lomax
• 13. Ralph Kiner
• 14. Lindsey Nelson
• 15. Vin Scully
• 16. Art Rust
• 17. Sam Rosen
• 18. Russ Salzberg
• 19. Scott Clark
• 20. Walt Frazier
• 21. Jerry Girard
• 22. John Sterling
• 23. Russ Hodges
• 24. Les Keiter
• 25. Spencer Ross"

Mr. Halberstam included a paragraph on each of his choices. Mr. Best's site is subscription, which I signed up for. Right now I have enough time to copy one of the paragraphs:

• " 22) John Sterling

A talk show host in the 1970’s, Sterling fashioned amusing diatribe and tantrums. John’s evening show on WMCA was the only place to tune in sports talk. After leaving for a decade in Atlanta, Sterling was hired to do Yankees radio play-by-play in 1989. Despite a continuing avalanche of criticism in the years since and a call for his dismissal by longtime New York Post sports media critic, Phil Mushnick, Sterling has survived.

• Sterling ‘s body of baseball work, a mix of stream of consciousness, tendentious judgments and knee-jerk reactions,

• smacks of a broadcaster whose roots are in talk, not a melodically trained play-by-play announcer. While he never developed the beat and cadence that have woven radio baseball into the American summertime fabric,

there are those diehards who find him humorous and informative. Unfortunately, listeners who don’t like him and there are tons, cannot avoid him!

• Sterling is the first baseball announcer in the history of the game to do all nine innings, 162 games a year."

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Sports talk host semi-finalists on Mad Dog Radio 2pm Friday

The 5 semi-finalists will be heard on Chris Russo's show Friday, 8/20 at 2pm, XM 144/Sirius 123. Via promo on XM MLB channel 176.

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K-rod gets a call from Hugo Chavez

• Chavez made his remarks on Venezuelan television:

NY Times, 8/18: "Chávez, who views himself as a pillar of populism, told Rodriguez to tame his behavior but said that the nation was still very proud of him.

• “The day before yesterday I called El Kid Rodriguez because he got into a problem over there,” Chávez said in Spanish on Tuesday at an economic meeting at the Palacio de Miraflores, his official office. Chávez’s remarks were broadcast on Venezuelan television.

“It appears that he hit his father-in-law,” Chávez continued. “I don’t know, they were arguing, and they put him in jail for a few hours. I called him and said, ‘Kid, what happened to you?’ He said, ‘I’m here, President, heading to the stadium.’ He was entering the stadium.’

• “We love you, Kid,” Chávez continued. “Control your impulses. The Kid Rodriguez. The pride of all of us. Young man of this nation. Of course, over there in a difficult world. Difficult.”

Chávez is an avid baseball fan, and in 1999 he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Shea Stadium before a Mets game. He is close to several Venezuelan major leaguers, including Rodriguez, who appeared with Chávez at a charity event in Venezuela earlier this year."...

• Photo at top Krod and Chavez, Feb. 2010 at a charity event, AFP/Getty
• NY Times report by David Waldstein

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